Behold: My New L-O-V-E-R

Ladies (and maybe one dude who reads this) I give you my new vacuum cleaner:

 It is the Lift-Off® MultiCyclonic Pet Vacuum, and it is AWESOME. I seriously love my new vacuum. Let me tell you a little bit about him (yes he is a he and no I don't really know why). He is not only a regular upright vacuum, no, he has a lift off feature so then I have a small hand held vacuum for those hard to reach areas. I love this. I can take the little part off and go behind toilets and furniture with ease. I then can attach it and suck not only the dirt out of the carpet in my home but of the home in the apartment below us. This baby sucked up so much dirt (which totally grosses me out when I think about it) that I had to empty the tray 3 times just after a basic run through the house. I can turn on and off the brush so when I am on hard floors the hair and particles I am trying to pick up does not spray everywhere. It blows my mind. I am so excited I am going to use this thing on everything when I clean the house this weekend.

I must thank my future mother in law for buying this beautiful baby for WF and I for Christmas. I am in love with it and cant thank her enough.

Ouch, ouch really ouch...

The girls kicked my butt the other day and I am still reeling from the workout. They put me on circuit training and some light cardio. It was a lot of fun though and I am hoping that this might be come a weekly meet up.

The first day after the workout I was not that bad. I could tell I was hurting but ehh I could walk it off. I felt like HA see I am not out of shape I am just not toned. So this morning I woke up and OUCH! I hurt everywhere! I tried to got pee and it hurt, and I tried to step into the tub and I hurt, I tried to hug WF and it hurt. Oh my gosh, the workout was not THAT bad. I feel so silly that I am this sore.

I am hoping that I can walk down the stairs if there is a fire later tonight. In the meantime I am keeping my fingers crossed that the next workout will not be as bad.

Terrified

(Source)

Two of my bridesmaids have decided they would like to kick my ass tonight and I am a bit scared. Kelly and Janet both work out quite a bit. Kelly is some sort of freak Olympic swimmer who on her off days lifts weights and runs. REALLY? And then there is Janet, who is like 10 feet tall, looks like a model and kicks some ass at the gym on a regular basis while still looking totally hot. REALLY? REALLY?? Then of course there is me. I have not gone to the gym in a year. Yes I know it is shameful but that is how I roll. I used to walk my dog at town lake almost 4 times a week but now nothing. I got on WW, lost almost 19 pounds and was like well this is MUCH easier than going to then gym. So I gave up on the gym totally. Well now i have gained 4 lbs back, and have totally hit a wall. I know it and so does my butt.

Well with my last post on their minds Kelly and Janet have decided to "help" me get back on track. We are meeting at my apartment's gym, that by the way is super nice and brand new. They are going to show me how to really kick some butt. We will see if I can walk tomorrow...

Confession

I am slowly falling off the Weight Watchers bandwagon. Since Thanksgiving I have gained 3 to 4 pounds from my lowest weight. I am feeling really out of control and I am terrified of being coming the "fat" girl I was a once point about a year ago.

This weekend I have done nothing to help my situation. I ate cookies, pancakes, pei wei and lots of my moms wonderful pumpkin cranberry bread. Even with me knowing my weight is slowly creeping back up I have done NOTHING to get back on the band wagon. With wedding planning, holiday parties, friends birthdays and so much else this month I am worried I wont be able to get back to a WW meeting to get me back on the wagon like I normally do before the New Year.

I am so scared.

Yankee Deep Thoughts

Source

 For years I was this hard core Yankee that would walk literally 3 miles to the subway in Philly and the walk to class in the rain, snow, sleet, heat or whatever mother nature threw at me. I had like 40 coats, jackets and sweaters. I would wear a hat that had some sort of snow ball puff on the top because it was piratical and would bust out the mittens with the fold down top so I could have easy access to my credit card while buying a cup of coffee from a street vendor in the freezing cold weather. Fast forward five years... and I am officially a Texan (at least when it comes to weather everything else I am still working on).

Last night it hit about 39 degrees here in beautiful Austin Texas. And that means freeze warnings, heat on and people panicking about the possibility of snow. I drove home Tuesday night freezing my butt off, it was 45 out, I can't believe I thought 45 was THAT COLD! Then I ran inside not wanting to let my dog out because it was so cold (I did by the way). I then ran back in and changed directly in to my flannel pajamas. Last night I turned the heat on and slipped into some seriously comfy Eagles sweatpants and my big Temple University hoodie I used to wear almost everyday and took a minute laugh as how "soft" I have become. I came to the following conclusion, its OK, because I genuinely like Texas and I have had so much fun living here. I resolved myself to the idea of never really having a white Christmas again but then again, who really likes to shovel the sidewalk anyway?

So I guess in 4 working on 5 years I have lost more and more of my Yankee tough exterior.  I don't like the idea of having to run my car 30 minutes before I can touch the steering wheel, and I am not a fan of my snot freezing in my nose the second I step outside in January, I like being able to feel my face after walking to the car in the Target parking lot. Ladies, I think I might be coming around to this whole not so cold winter thing you all have going on here.

I live in santa's workshop...

We got most of our Christmas decorating done this weekend. WF's family was in town and insisted they buy us a good grown up tree. So here is what we bought this is pre decorating:

We then laid out all of my nutcrackers and all of our other decorations here is one shot of the mantle. I have over 50 nutcrackers, thought I should spare you pictures of all of them:

 And here are some shots of us decorating our first tree together:

WF has decorated the outside porch and the windows. I will get you pictures of that soon! This really is my favorite time of year. Everything is about family, faith and togetherness. I love lots of cookies and hot coco. What are your favorite treats? Do any of you like Christmas time as much as me?

Tonight Kelly and Janet are coming over for dinner. Janet's birthday was this weekend so we are going to toast her and catch up. After all this lovey dovey family stuff I need some good old girl time. 

One Heck of a Thanksgiving

I know you all have been waiting anxiously for my Thanksgiving update. So without further ado I give you my Thanksgiving...

The day started off with cooking some corn bread and a sour cream coffee cake for breakfast. We then moved on to the pies, crusts made from scratch. Then creamed onions, mashed sweet potatoes and carrots. We bought the turkey pre-cooked, and it was super yummy. Took about an hour to reheat and it was so much less stress on me to cook the turkey. We then set the table and laid out my handmade place cards made from cloves and oranges. It was a lot of fun to see everything come together. My mother in law was so helpful and really took great care to make sure everything came out really well. WF's poppy snacked and talked with me while I cooked. All in all it was just the best way to cook my first holiday dinner.

Here is the day in photos as I am not going to be able to full go into detail of everything.

The table before dinner...

Place setting before dinner...

 The centerpiece with leaves from Crate and Barrel

Wonderful Fiance and our first turkey!

Cutting the turkey...

Dinner waiting for us...

My yummy honey cornbread muffins...

I cant wait to cook my next Thanksgiving dinner! I already have other ideas and want to try new things. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday with your family. Next up Christmas decorating!