Archive | April 2011

Throwback Thursdays: Honors and AP

Apr28

Throwback Thursdays are all about the good old days. Who knows how far back I’ll go. This week, I’m taking it back to my high school days. I wasn’t a picture whore until junior and senior year so that’s when most of the pics are from. As you can guess by the title, I was in Honors and AP classes – Yes, I was one of those girls. And I’m damn proud of it too. Yeah, they were tough, but I had fun. Thanks mostly to the great friends that I had. It makes me smile to look at these pics and think about the projects and tests we all had to endure. We’re all grown up now and have drifted out of each other’s lives, but there are few that will always be in my heart and will always be dear friends to me.

Getting Toned and Healthy!

Apr28

I don’t consider myself to be unhealthy, but I am prone to weakness (candy and rice). There is always room for improvement. One of the hardest things for me was getting exercise.

As a mom, it’s easy to use my kids and my busy schedule as excuses to avoid exercising. But I’ll be 30 this year and I wanted to get active! I know that it will only get harder as I get even older. I’ve been trying different exercise programs and diets over the last couple years, but nothing really worked for me. I’m not a fan of diets anyways. I want something I can incorporate into my life, not just for a few months. Plus, I’m not concerned with losing weight.

My main focus is to tone up and I finally found something that works for me: Tone It Up!Two ladies,  Katrina and Karena based out of L.A. who are trainers that focus on toning, strengthening, and living healthy.  I found them through Twitter and was instantly impressed by their YouTube channel(ToneItUpcom). Free workouts!! I decided to sign up for their Bikini Challenge Series to get 8 weeks of  workouts, tips, and motivation.

My Awesome Trainers: Katrina & Karena

I have been doing their workouts for the last 3 weeks.  They are challenging but fun. What I love about the Bikini Challenge is that there are new workouts every week – keeps it interesting. The emails are motivating and I’ve learned so much from my trainers. What stands out is that foods can claim to be “natural” or “healthy” but really aren’t.  The key is to read the Ingredients. I make sure that I can pronounce what’s on the label and keep chemicals out.

They also have a Nutrition Plan for a reasonable price.  It’s a one time fee for a Life time membership to the Tone It Up Team and there are so many amazing perks to becoming part of the team.  For details check them out: toneitup.com. I’ve tried the LarBars and ChoBani Greek yogurt as alternatives to my Fiber One Bars and Activia. It’s different, but not bad. In fact, they taste pretty good.  The biggest difference is the sweetness. You wouldn’t believe how much sugar is in a lot of  health foods. I plan on joining the Tone It Up team very soon.

My favorite tip from my awesome trainers: Get in tune with your body and listen to your body. Tone It Up works for me.  Find what works for you and get Healthy!

Healthy Hump Day: ToneItUp!

Apr27

Wednesday are going to be about being Healthy. I’ll be sharing my journey to Healthy living. I don’t consider myself to be unhealthy, but I am prone to weakness (candy and rice). There is always room for improvement. One of the hardest things for me was getting exercise.

As a mom, it’s easy to use my kids and my busy schedule as excuses to avoid exercising. But I’ll be 30 this year and I wanted to get active! I know that it will only get harder as I get even older. I’ve been trying different exercise programs and diets over the last couple years, but nothing really worked for me. I’m not a fan of diets anyways. I want something I can incorporate into my life, not just for a few months. Plus, I’m not concerned with losing weight.

My main focus is to tone up and I finally found something that works for me: Tone It Up! Two ladies. Katrina and Karena based out of L.A. who are trainers that focus on toning, strengthening, and living healthy.  I found them through Twitter and was instantly impressed by their YouTube channel(ToneItUpcom). Free workouts!! I decided to sign up for their Bikini Challenge Series to get 8 weeks of  workouts, tips, and motivation.

Karena and Katrina for Tone It Up!

I have been doing their workouts for the last 3 weeks.  They are challenging but fun. What I love about the Bikini Challenge is that there are new workouts every week – keeps it interesting. The emails are motivating and I’ve learned so much from my trainers. What stands out is that foods can claim to be “natural” or “healthy” but really aren’t.  The key is to read the Ingredients. I make sure that I can pronounce what’s on the label and keep chemicals out.

They also have a Nutrition Plan for a reasonable price.  It’s a one time fee for a Life time membership to the Tone It Up Team and there are so many amazing perks to becoming part of the team.  For details check them out: toneitup.com. I’ve tried the LarBars and ChoBan Greek yogurt as alternatives to my Fiber One Bars and Activia. It’s different, but not bad. In fact, they taste pretty good.  The biggest difference is the sweetness. You wouldn’t believe how much sugar is in a lot of  health foods. I plan on joining the Tone It Up team very soon.

My favorite tip from my awesome trainers: Get in tune with your body and listen to your body. Tone It Up works for me.  Find what works for you and get Healthy!

Tuesday Tunes: “All Eyez On Me”

Apr26

So Tuesdays are going to be dedicated to Tunes.  If you haven’t noticed, Music is big part of my life.  I love all kinds of Music. I love how a song or album can just change my mood, relax me, energize me, take me back to those carefree days, or get me on my feet and dancing.

For those of you who have read my Radio rant, you know that I’m not fond of listening to music via Radio. Love my iPhone with all my music and lately, I’ve been listening to  2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me.” It has to be my favorite Tupac album. It was one of the first CD’s me and my brothers had. We snuck it on a camping trip and fought over who got to listen to it at night. lol. Good times. It makes me laugh to remember the days when rocking baggy jeans and acting tough was the cool thing to do. No I wasn’t from the streets and No I couldn’t relate to what Tupac rapped about, but his music spoke to my rebellious teenage side. He was a true poet with his lyrics. I appreciated his talent and I still do.

Your Baby Can Read: Week 2 and 3

Apr25

We’ve done three weeks of the Your Baby Can Read Program. For the Second week of the program, I had the boys watching their videos twice a day.  Once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Both stayed on their first level.  Seppe worked with his cards and books a couple times a day.  I also had Gio go over all the cards and books for Seppe’s level once a day.  There were no cards or books that came with the Your Child Can Read set. But I figure it wouldn’t hurt to have him learn the words from Seppe’s set too.  He knows all of them.

At the beginning of Week 3, I started Gio on Level 2 of his set.  Seppe is still on Level 1 and I will keep him on that until he’s done it for a month (as suggested.) I have no idea how it works, but there is something definitely going on in their little brains.  Gio has greatly improved with his reading.  Before, it was a pain to get him to a read a very simple book.  He was very bad a correcting himself and easily forgot a word that he just read.  Now, he can correct himself and figures words out more quickly.  He remembers the words and he knows more words just from looking at them.  He is not afraid to try and read new words.  He really likes his Level 2 video.  He talks about it every time he’s done watching it.

Seppe is on a slower pace.  He has added a couple more words that he knows. The problem with him is getting him to sit still and focus.  I had him in my room watching it laying down, but he would just get up.  I have to hold him in my lap and do everything he does for him to sit still.  It’s a little more work, but it helps him.  He’s so much more interested in words.  He wants to know what Everything says. I think it’s also helping him learn other things as well.  I’ve started him on his shapes and he is doing very well.

We missed a few days during Easter but we jumped right back into it as soon as we got home. The important thing is to keep at it. The boys don’t complain about having to watch their videos. It’s now become part of our daily routine.

Movie Monday: Musicals

Apr25

I’m trying something new to help me focus on my blog: Daily Themes. Today is Movie Monday! This is when I’ll have movie reviews or talk about great movies that I’ve watched, like these:

The Wizard of Oz

The Sound of Music

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Mary Poppins

Remember these great classics?? I do! I loved watching these Movie Musicals when I was growing up.  They just don’t make them the same anymore.  The actors were all so talented and the music was great. Now a days, the focus is on those big theatrical movies with the latest and greatest special effects.  Not saying I don’t enjoy those too, but it’s hard to find Good movies that aren’t animated to take your kids to. Most of the good Movies that had singing were mainly for adults (Chicago and Nine) and most of the Musicals these days don’t really turn out that well.

But who doesn’t love Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz?” And I’m sure we all thought that “.. a spoon full of sugar…” with medicine was a great idea! And how about that awesome word: supercalafragilisticexpalidous(close enough!) There was no going wrong with a movie about candy in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” OK, granted, Johnny Depp’s version turned it from sweet to weird. Some things should just be left as it is. I learned “do re me fa so la ti do” from “Sound of Music.” Besides the great songs, it was based on a true story.

These movies remind me of simpler, happy times with my brothers and sister growing up. We’d laugh and sing along. I wanted to share that happiness with my boys.  They’ve seen all of these movies and Love them all. Willy Wonka is at the top of the list, but they watched Mary Poppins over and over again too. Their favorite characters are Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. They laugh at all the tricks the kids play in Sound of Music and love that my name is in the movie. I hope these movies will stay with them, as they’ve stayed with me.

Both Ways

Apr20

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that a Relationship is NOT a One Way Road. Anyone who’s been stuck on that road, knows it sucks! It can’t be all about one person ALL the time.  I know there are those who try to live by “As long as their happy, I’m happy.” That’s just crap!  If your happiness doesn’t matter, how can you be happy? There is only so much of yourself that you can give to the other person before there is nothing left besides resentment and bitterness.

This goes for ALL relationships – not just the one with your significant other. Families and Friendships are just as important.  Just because you’re family doesn’t mean you don’t have to try.  A happy relationship with family is not automatic! And family is probably one of the toughest relationships to maintain. Friendships are the easiest relationships to give up on. Time and distance are the common excuses. If Both people make an effort, a friendship can last for a life time and overcome any distance.

Relationships are hard.  I think most of us underestimate just how hard they are. But Anything worth having, takes work. So remember it’s a two way street. It has to be about Both people.

“Rio” Movie Review

Apr19

There have been some great Kids movies this year, and Rio is definitely one of them! My boys wanted to see this when they first saw the previews for it last year. It’s a great family movie. We all enjoyed it and Daddy even stayed awake the whole time :)

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg (as Blu), Anne Hathaway (as Jewel), Jamie Fox (as Nico), Will I Am (as Pedro), George Lopez (as Rafael), Tracy Morgan (as Luis), Leslie Mann (as Linda), and Rodrigo Santoro (as Tulio).

The movie revolves around a domesticated blue Macaw named Blu. He lives with his owner Linda in a small town in Minnesota. It turns out that he is one of the two only surviving blue macaws left in the world.  He is smart but sheltered. Tulio is a bird scientist from Rio de Janeiro who comes to Minnesota and convinces Linda to bring Blu to Rio in hopes of mating him with the last female blue macaw, Jewel.  Both Blu and Linda set off on an adventure. Blu meets some very entertaining characters.  Jewel is a very spirited bird who wants nothing more than to be free. Nico and Pedro are two colorful birds that help Blu and Jewel escape poachers. Rafael helps with their romance and Luis is the hilarious dog who drools all over the birds. Luis and Pedro are my boys’ favorite characters. The music was great. It had my youngest dancing in his seat :-) My oldest laughed the entire time.

So if you have kids, go take them to see Rio. You will all enjoy it!

Wild for Aleeka

Apr19

I was so excited when Aleeka arrived.  I immediately fell in love with them when I saw them in my boutique and I loved them even more in person.  They are absolutely Fabulous!! The Leopard print is sexy and flirty. They fit me perfectly. I got my usual size 6.5. They are going to look great with a pair of skinny jeans or a mini dress. Aleeka also comes in a grey color that will look great for an office look.  I am loving JustFabulous.com!

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Top 10: Things I say Over and Over

Apr14

We all do it.  Say the same thing over and over again with our kids. I’m sure that there’s more than 10, but these are what pop into my head. I’m thinking of making a recording and just putting it on repeat. lol

1. Stop Fighting!! – I can not count how many times I say this in a day.  Two boys = fights every day over everything.

2. Pick up your Toys! – If you’ve seen how many toys my kids, you’d know why I say this all day long.

3. Go to Your Room! – not only for time outs. Sometimes I just need them out of my sight for a few minutes.

4. Share! – trying to teach them to get along.

5. Maybe Later – I read some where saying “Maybe” instead of “No” helps diffuse situations a little quicker.  It works for me.

6. Eat Your Food – Every day, every meal I have to say this. apparently the presence of food on the table makes no difference. They always want to do something else besides eat.

7. Not Inside- Throwing balls, playing catch, riding bikes… outside not inside! They test this everyday.

8. Did you brush your teeth? Every night. I’m big on dental hygiene.

9. Wash You Hands – Gotta keep those lil hands clean.

10. Do your work – they like to think that they are going to “work” like daddy. I make cleaning and studying their “jobs.”