January recap and goals for February

It's time to recap those January goals and make some new goals for February!

1. Read at least three books. NAILED IT! I actually read 8. These are the books I read this month:

For The Right Reasons by Sean Lowe. You know I am a Bachelor fan, so I had to read Sean's book! I liked it... He's not perfect, he made mistakes, but he's learning and he loves Catherine. This was an easy read and an entertaining story, especially if you're a Bachelor fan.

The Home Series by Megan Nugen Isbell. There are five books in this series (and more are coming), and I read them ALL this month. The series is centered around Riley Rivas, who moved to a tiny town in Kansas her senior year of high school, after living in Boston her entire childhood. The series follows her love life as she grows up (and later focuses on other characters).  I was really sucked in from the first book! It's a love story, but it's not dirty at all. It's romantic.

Country Heaven by Ava Miles. This was free on my Kindle, so I gave it a shot. This is another romance, about a country mega star who (spoiler alert!) falls in love with his cook while they're on tour together.  It was OK. Good enough to keep me entertained, but not quite good enough to make me want to run out and buy the next book.... although there is a loose end that still needs to be dealt with, so I may spend the $4 after I read a few more books that I already own!

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. This is the 3rd book of hers that I read, and they've all been great. Lots of plot twists and turns. This book was a STEAL at 1.99 for kindle (most of her books at $10+). Although this book was still quite good, it was my least favorite of Liane Moriarty's (there's one huge plot hole that I can't get past.... perhaps the reason why this book is so much cheaper than the rest.

2. Lose 5+ pounds. Well, I didn't lose 5 pounds. On January 1st, I was the heaviest I've ever been: 243. As of this morning, I am 239.9.  That's progress! Every little bit helps!

3. Make 2 new recipes. I almost didn't make this goal. It's just so much easier to make the same things every night. But I made crock pot chicken parmesan from a recipe I found here, and I made deep fried zucchini chips from a recipe I found here. I may or may not be posting about these next week. To be determined.


4. Limit Candy Crush to one night a week. Success! I actually didn't play Candy Crush AT ALL in January. Hence the reason I read so much!

It was a successful month! Now here are some goals for February:

1. Lose 5 pounds. I need to keep the momentum going! I'd love to lose 50 pounds this year, but it's one step at a time!

2. Read 3 more books. Any suggestions?

3. Design and make cute Valentines for the kids to pass out. I actually need to get on this ASAP. I am leaving for a business trip on the 9th and won't be back before Valentine's Day, and I doubt that The Agent would be able to recreate whatever cuteness I have in my head.

4. Throw a fabulous party for Bug. She originally wanted to have it a laser tag place. Sounds easy enough! But then she sprung on me that she'd rather have a slumber party. Oh Mylanta! I'm not sure that I'm ready to take that on!

What do you have planned for this short month of love? Anything special?

(ETA-- Linking up with Angie and Karen, so we can all share in our successes and challenges!)

Weekend update-- I'm a sports mom

I cannot fathom how it’s February already. Nor can I comprehend that my February is already booked pretty solid.

BK’s baseball draft was on Saturday. He did…. OK. First he was thrown three balls, like pop ups. He was supposed to catch the ball from the outfield, and then throw it to first base. He caught one of the three balls, but was able to throw them all back with ease. Then three grounders were hit to him, which he again needed to stop and throw back. He missed one completely and had to run to catch it, but was able to throw it back from the outfield. He stopped the other two and threw them back, although one throw completely missed his mark. Finally, he had to hit the ball from a pitching machine. He was given 5 pitches, and he hit three of them.

We only took video, so this is a still shot from the video. Ready to play!

Overall, I thought he did well. He wasn’t the best kid there, but he was by no means the worse. And BK was just happy to be out there playing ball. He said, “I think I’m going to get drafted to the A’s!” We’ll see!

I actually missed the tail end of the baseball draft because Bug and I had to go to her basketball game. She gets better every game, and you can tell that she’s really enjoying herself! She still hasn’t scored during a game, but she is clearly better on defense than offense. She had some awesome blocks: DENIED!

I need to get a phone with a better camera. This would have been an awesome shot! 

After the game, I worked on Bug’s birthday invitation. She has convinced me to let her have a slumber party for her 10^th birthday. I’m such a sucker!

I would love to take credit for the cuteness of this design, but I can’t. The original design came from Note-able Chic. She has a totally cute etsy shop, check it out here! 

On Sunday, I went grocery shopping while The Agent worked on my fireplace. The process is painfully slow, but it’s coming together, one step at a time!

Bug spent Sunday afternoon working on a project for her girl scout troop. She had to read the news, find an issue that’s important to the community, write a letter to a politician giving her opinion about the subject, and then give a presentation to the rest of the troop. She decided to write about the water contamination in our city (something that Erin Brockovich has decided to get her nosy butt involved in). The subject was a little over her head, but she did a good job. She also made a poster as a visual aid.

TTHM stands for Total Trihalomethane-- a yucky bacteria that's growing in our water pipes

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Friday Favorites

I've been reading several Friday Favorite posts for months now, so I decided to join in. This is a link up hosted by Andrea, Erika, and Narci. These are my favorites for the week!

{ONE}

I'm all about basketball this week. One of Bug's besties was on the opposing team last week and they were matched up to defend against each other. It was a great game! Bug didn't score, and her team lost, but she is an AWESOME defender! Every game, she gets a little better. She was awarded a star at her last game for best defense!

{TWO}

Girl Scouts are a favorite this week! Bug is new to the troop so she's still learning the ins and outs of the whole system. But the best part is that it's girl Scout Cookie time!

I LOVE me some girl scout cookies! Bug's goal is to sell 165 boxes. At first, I thought that was crazy. She's not going door to door, and I'm not one to push sales at work, so how is she supposed to sell that many? I really didn't want to put any pressure on her. But good Lord, people love those cookies. I've just kept the order form at my desk and I've sold 70 boxes. And the troop got some pretty good booth locations (one at Target, one at Bass Pro, and one at a fancy overpriced grocery store) that Bug will be working at, so I think she might make her goal.

If you don't know a girl scout and are craving some thin mints, you can click here and order them online! I love that they offer a sample pack-- one box each of all 8 flavors.

{THREE}

The rain is a favorite this week! You probably know that California has been in a drought for the last three years. Well, El Nino is here! It's been raining at least a couple days a week for the last several weeks. Our snow pack's at 115%! We're not out of the woods yet, we need a few more heavy winter storms, but it's a step in the right direction! And the forecast for today is.... MORE RAIN!

The only bummer is that the grass has been too wet, so they keep postponing BK's baseball draft for Little League. Fingers crossed that it will happen next week.

What are some of your favorites this week?

what i wore wednesday from a real girl

I thought I looked pretty cute in this outfit. The Agent even commented on my cuteness when I walked out the door on my way to work. I had Bug snap a picture of me and then I was on my merry way.

The outfit still looks ok, but I need to rethink my make up choices.

The cardigan came from Target, here. It's from their new Ava & Viv plus size line. This sweater is super comfortable, but it sheds and pills like nobody's business. My office chair was polka dotted by the time I left for the day.  The color is sour cream.

The shirt is from Forever 21, about 100 years ago. It's just a basic scoop neck top. You could buy one of 60 black shirt  options here.

The slacks are also from about a million years ago. They were my purchase ever from New York and Company, back when you could get a nice pair of work pants for $7.00. Those days are long over. Lots of similar options are here, ranging from $25 to $50. New York and Company still makes my favorite wear-to-work clothes. Thank goodness the closest one is 30 minutes away, or else I'd be even broker than I am now.

The shoes were a Christmas present. You can find them here. The color is blush, which I thought was nude when I saw them online, but they're more pink than nude. Just a little slight POC.

You can't really see the shoes in the picture, so here's a close up:

someone once told me toe cleavage is sexy.... I think that's kinda gross

That's it! See you next week!


~The Lovely One

Let's Talk!

I decided to do a new link up with Andrea and Erika.

This month's topic is New Years. I already wrote about some of my goals for the month back here.

I'm doing great on half of these goals, the jury's still out on the other half. Stay tuned for a recap next week.

Instead, I think I'll talk about a few things that I'm excited about in 2016.

I'm excited about going on a vacation! Where should we go? Should we bring the kids, or make it an adults only getaway? If we take the kids, we may go to Disneyland, or the Grand Canyon, or The Agent has a desire to see Wisconsin (side note-- is Wisconsin a vacation getaway? Where should we go and what should we do when we get there?). If we do an adult only getaway, I'm thinking Seattle, Boston, or Mexico. But then who will watch my babies? Do YOU want to watch them? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I'm excited about my career. I have been really liking my job since I've been promoted. I'm learning a lot and I'm excited about where I'm heading. I don't know how long this will last, but I am happy for now. I'm also excited that raises come out in March!

I'm excited for milestone birthdays! My Baby Bug will be turning TEN in March! Double digits-- where does the time go? She's already been planning her party-- she wants to have it at a laser tag place. I am totally ok with that-- I don't need a bunch of crazies at my house! In addition to Bug, my brother will be 30 and one of my best friends will be 40, both in October. My brother has already decided he wants to go to Reno for his birthday, but my girlfriend hasn't decided where  she wants to go, although she mentioned a long girls weekend in Nashville. I would be down for that!

I'm excited for a busy sporting season with the kids! Bug just started basketball season. Right when that gets over, BK will be starting baseball, and then when THAT'S over, we'll be doing swimming (maybe. I might be exhausted by then). BK is super sporty, but this is the first interest Bug has ever shown in sports. So far, she's doing great!

What are you excited for this year? Join in the kink up and let's talk!

The Price of Education

Have you read this article? It says, in a nutshell, that if your family makes less that $125,000 a year and you are lucky enough to get in to Stanford, your tuition is free. If you make less than $65,000, you don't even have to pay the room and dorm fees.

If you get in to Harvard and your family makes less than $65,000, tuition is free. If you make less than $150,000, you only have to pay 10% of the tuition.

Harvard's tuition is currently just under $65,000 a year, including room and board fees. Stanford, by comparison, is a deal at only $60,000 a year.  Since these schools' tuition have increased by 13% in the last 5 years, we can assume that tuition will be $78,650 by the time Bug goes to college, and $81,900 when BK goes. That's for just one year.

That's a whole lot of money.

Stanford is the number one ranked business school in America. Harvard is #2. Bug wants to open a bakery when she grows up. She will need a business degree in order to do this.

I'm going to need The Agent to lose his job, just so she can get in to Stanford for free.

Or she can go to UC Berkeley, currently the 8th ranked business school, and only $28,000 a year. That sounds much more feasible. And she only has to be in the top 9% of her class (there is not an academic requirement to get in to Stanford, but it goes without saying that you have to be amazingly smart).

Much to The Agent's dismay, neither child is interested in following in his footsteps and going into engineering

BK, meanwhile, still has dreams of being a firefighter, and a professional baseball player. Not or. AND.

Logic in the world of BK

I hope they both reach they're goals. And I hope I win the lottery.

I'm Popping over you

I was searching Pinterest for Valentine ideas the other day. I am going to be out of town the week before Valentine's Day, so I will not be able to help the kids make cute Valentine's to give to all their classmates. I need to plan ahead so the babies can have their Valentines ready before I go on my trip.

BK's Valentines from two years ago

"But why are you planning so early?" The Agent asked as I searched.  "It's still a month away. You have plenty of time."

last year's treats that I gave to my coworkers

"No," I insisted.  "First I need to figure out what we're going to make, and it has to be cute, but something the kids can make without much help from me. Then I have to buy the supplies and stuff. Then the kids have to make them. And this all has to happen before I leave. Unless.... well, do YOU want to make them?"

Bug's Valentines from three years ago

"When I was a kid, you could buy a pack of 30 cards for like $2. Why can't Bug and BK pass those out? Their classmates will look at them with just as much excitement. But if you think I'm going to make 50 pink popcorn balls with a hand-calligraphy card that says 'I'm POP POP POPPING over you!'... Yeah, that's not going to happen."

Too bad. That's a really cute idea.

Bug informed me as I was writing this that 4th graders are entirely too old to give out Valentines. I disagree. I'm 42 and I still wouldn't mind getting a Valentine!