Five on Friday

Time for my favorite link-up day: Five on Friday.
I read these everyweek and FINALLY decided I need to join in!
You ladies are awesome and entertaining every week and I only hope I can live up to the challenge!!
If you want to join in, follow April,  Darci, Natasha, and Christina ... playing along is simple!  Just write a blog about five things on your mind today, anything goes really, post the logo above on your blog, and then enter your post address in the link-up section on April's blog today.

Here goes...

{one}
I got to have two date nights this week!! Normally with work and the gym me and my baby only get one date night a week but this week I was blessed with two!!! On Tuesday we had tickets to a Pirates Game at PNC Park and then on Wednesday we went on a river cruise down the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers in Pittsburgh! This picture below is us in our Pirates gear!!

{two}
I am obsessed with lipgloss I found in Sephora called Buxom. It is amazing! It tingles and shines and plumps your lips. It is a little pricey at $19 a tube but is soooo worth it!  I love it soooo much. Each week I run out and buy a new color! Truly obsessed...have any of you ever used this? AWESOME!

{three}
I have been stalled out on my weight loss and hit a huge plateau so yesterday I started the Atkins diet for a little kick start into more weight loss. I work out a lot and just eat the wrong things I guess and this always has jump-started me in the right direction in the past.  I know a lot of people say it unhealthy but so is being overweight :-)  I have stocked up on bacon, pork rinds and cheese.  I love meat!!! Only doing it for a short period to start that Ketosis again!

{four}
Will be spending my Labor Day holiday weekend with a few of these adorable children that I cannot get enough of (my nieces and nephew) and also with my sweetie and his youngest boy!! It will be a weekend filled with skiing and tubing and fun fun fun!!!! What an awesome weekend this is going to be!

{five}
Next week is ANOTHER vacation!! WHOOPIE!!! I am off to Ocean City, MD with my best friend on this planet!! We are hitting a conference in OC for four days (and living in the Hilton on the boardwalk) and I figured with the holiday I may as well go all out on the vacation days so I do not have to return to work until Sept 9th!!! Can I get a whoop!!?!?!?!?

I hope you all play along!!!! Have a great weekend and HOLIDAY!

Jump Starting Weight Loss

I have decided to go on Atkins again. After months of maintenance I decided to need to switch things up and get this weight loss jump started!

It worked the last time I did it years ago and then I just let myself go again.

Time to get serious!

What do you all think? Have any of you tried low carb and what are your thoughts?

I love that I can now eat bacon, pepperoni, beef jerky, pork rinds, and cheese without feeling guilty!

I also bought these so that I can tell when I start in the fat burning mode!! Apparently you are in Ketosis when your body starts burning it's own fat for fuel and it will register on these test strips. Very interesting!

Pittsburgh River Cruise

Beware:  Lots of pics to follow!!

My sweetie and I went on a river cruise in Pittsburgh last night.  The ship docks at Lock One Marina and we had to be there at 7PM to leave. The cruise lasted until 8:30PM - can you say awesome!!!?

We got there a little early and were able to shop around in Marty's Market. In all the times I have gone to the strip I have never gone in and it was great. It was like everything awesome about the strip all in one place.  PS - Jenna - they have nom nom cookies there for sale!!! Sadly, I did not get a picture of them.

I did, however, get a picture of the jeni's ice cream in the freezer! This is my sister's favorite ice cream on the planet! This is salted caramel. Yummo! (That's my sweeties hand-HA)

 Then we walked around and browsed Marty's Market some more - love this place!!

This is the view from the dock area where the cruise started. This is the old plant owned by Heinz and now owned by Del Monte. They used to make all Heinz products there but now they only make mustard packets and baby food from this location. Interesting facts! LOL

A rowing crew flying past our boat - crappy blurry picture!

This is the view under the walkway at the Pittsburgh Convention Center. Soooo cool!!!

This is an awesome picture that illustrates exactly how many bridges we have in this city! Sooooo awesome!

 Another view down the river

And another...that is PNC park (where the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball team plays) at the front of the picture to the right...

This is the Andy Warhol bridge. It was covered in handmade quilts and handmade knot blankets for his birthday and all the blankets will be donated to the homeless once they come down...pretty cool!

PNC Park -home of the Pirates!

 The city from the river!

One of our two inclines...

A view up the river...

And another...

And another...

Approaching "The Point"...where the three rivers come together. In this picture we are on the Ohio River...forward to the left is the Allegheny and to the right is the Monongahela River (those two flow together to form the Ohio so we are driving backwards - ha!)

Down the river...

Fountain at the point...

 Sooooooo pretty!!!

 Closer still...

 Me and my sweetie...crappy picture but great location!

 This shows how the tree rivers come together at "The Point".

Whether you live in Pittsburgh or are just visiting, you should try this tour. It was awesome and so fun and I learned so many exciting things about my city!!! 

I love you Pittsburgh!!!

Pittsburgh Rules!

I REALLY love my city! It is so pretty and there is so much to do here! i Love Pittsburgh!

 I had an early date night last night this week (We normally make date night on Wednesday) since my sweetie got tickets to the Pittsburgh Pirates Game (baseball). Here is my ticket...we had pretty awesome seats and it was a pretty awesome game (even though in the end we lost - great game though!!!) Any Milwaukee bloggers out there?? You guys won last night!!!!! CONGRATS

This is a view of my beautiful city from PNC Park. It is from my cell phone so it is pretty crappy picture quality. Just one of our many bridges!

Another view from PNC Park. The building with the big blue stick on top (HA HA) is the Highmark Building and the one to the right of that with the four light on top is the glass building of PPG. Beautiful buildings!!! Again, sorry for the crappy quality picture.

This is the pierogi race. They do this every home game. YUMMO. Chester Cheese won last night.

 This is a selfie of me and my sweetie! Love this guy lots!

Never ceases to make me smile!

And, yes, I have officially agreed that it is fall and have switched over to my favorite fall handbag! Makes me sad but with this lovely rainy and chilly weather; it is hard to deny it! Fall is here in Pittsburgh!

Hope you all have an awesome hump day! I get another date night tonight and we are going on a river cruise. I promise to take my real camera so I can actually get some nice and clear pictures of my beautiful city - HA HA!

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Useful Information

Nothing exciting to report so I will just spew a bunch of useful (and useless) knowledge I gained at lunch.

1.  Never be friends with your ex-husbands mother...it can only come back to harm you in the end.

2. The cork factory in Pittsburgh was turned into a Marina and loft housing.

3. Female mosquito are the only ones that bite you.  Never knew this! Here are the facts about it....I googled it after lunch.   http://topics.info.com/Do-all-mosquitoes-bite

4. Red Robin now has sweet potato fries...never knew this substitution existed however, their regular fries are the BOMB and I have no need to substitute! Red Robin....YUM!!!! http://www.redrobin.com/  PS - They have the sweetest and cutest waitresses ever (my niece is a waitress there when she is home from college - ha!)

5. It feels GREAT to cheat on your healthy eating every now and then. Just really WANTED a burger today-got a turkey burger so it was not a TOTAL cheat!!!!!! YUMMO

6. Friends at work are sooo important!! My friends at work anchor me throughout the day...make it so much more enjoyable to have to work for a living.....thanks guys! You know who you are~~~~~~~

That's it....YOU ARE WELCOME!  HA

Tonight is date night with my baby! He is taking me to a Pirates Game (pray for no rain) and I am sooo excited!!! I feel like I have not seen him in weeks...it really have been about a week....our schedules are not meshing at the present time.

Oh well, just makes tonight even better! I promise to post pics of our exciting evening at the ballpark! Go Pirates!!!!!!

Hope everyone has a great day!

My weekend consisted of a little visit to the Midvale Speedway in Ohio. I went with just my mother on Saturday night - Dad was not interested in attending and we met my Aunt Kathy there.  Every Saturday in the Summer they have car races. It is soo much fun! There are lots of little wrecks and even fights in the stands sometimes - HA HA!  Here is the sign at the entrance!

Here is a little selfie from the stands rocking my nieces Alma Mater sweatshirt!!!

This was intermission. The fancy cars from a car cruise at McDonald's in Uhrichsville, OH drove up and paraded around a few times to keep us entertained at intermission.

And this was my Sunday! All day taking advantage of the awesome weather (since Mr. Winter is quickly on it's way) and tubing at my parent's house on the lake!! They just got this new tube that is like a big couch...ha ha! Just chill and ride!

 This is a quick pic from today...ran out for an early lunch and got a haircut....went wayyyy short in the back and I love it!!!!!

 Another awesome weekend with family! Hope yours was just as good!!!
Anything exciting happen to you this weekend?!?!?

FMM

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Questions and Answers

1.  What is a typical weekday like for you?  Up at 6; at work by 7AM.Work until 4PM. Then home and off to the gym about four nights during the week (either to do Zumba, HipHop or running). On Wednesdays, I take off from the gym and have date night with my boyfriend....now, that night is fun!

2.  Name one song that never fails to make you happy and one song that you always listen to when you’re sad.  Hmm….The happy one is brown eyed girl - love that song!!! And the sad one; not really sure. I dont think I have one....

3.  Did you watch the VMA’s last night?  Nope! Did not even understand I was missing them until I started seeing a bunch of posts on Facebook about Miley - LOL!!!

4.  Share at least two skills that you possess. Hmmm, I am a great baton twirler and a really good listener!

5.  Share one thing that you wish you had the confidence to do.  Sky diving!

6. Tell us about one insecurity that people might be surprised that you have.  I gotta go with Kenlie on this one; definitely my weight!!!

7.  If you could be the CEO of any company, which one would you choose to lead?  I would definitely pick my current company I work at; why reinvent the wheel - I already know everyone!! HA

8. List at least three hobbies that make you happy.  I love to Cardio HipHop, ride my bike and jet ski at my parents house!

9.  Is there someone in your life that you wish you could say “I love you” to?  Nope- I tell everyone when I feel it...no holding back here!

10.  Share one cool thing that happened over the weekend.  I got to go to the car races with my mom and hang out with my family on the lake all weekend!!! Can't beat that!!!!!!!

Can not wait to read everyone elses answers!!

5 on Friday

Today I decided to join in on 5 on Friday

Five random things on Friday...If there is anything I am, it is random!

ONE: TGIF!!!! This Friday could not have come quickly enough! Ever have one of those weeks when you DREAD every day you have to walk into work...this qualified as one of those for me!

TWO:  I get to see my brothers two kids this weekend....they just happen to be my niece and nephew!! Cannot wait to see their adorable little faces! Maybe this weekend I can convince Madeline to ride the tube with me and her LITTLE brother! HA

THREE: Next weekend I will get to see my sisters THREE kids!!! They just happen to also be my nieces and nephew! It will be another weekend of lake fun!!!!!!! Swimming, tubing, floating, etc.!!!

FOUR: This is longest I have ever waited in between pedi's in a loooooong time! I have really spoiled myself lately and I am trying to cut back so that I have so money in the bank - ha ha!  PS - This is not really my feet...just thought the picture was frightening!!! LOL

 FIVE: I am looking forward to two weekend trips coming up very soon (but not soon enough)....one to Ocean City, MD and one to Jackson's Mill, WVa! I promise to blog about each trip....get me outta here!!!!!!!!

Thanks so letting me join in 5 on Friday!!! I can't wait to read everyone elses's and meet new friends!