Friday, December 18, 2015

Santa's Early This Year

I cannot even explain my excitement for this weekend!

Tonight I get to celebrate my 19 years in recovery with my homegroup! We will have cake and it get to make a little speech about "how I did it".

I am so excited!!!

Then first thing in the AM I will head to Ohio for my families early Christmas celebration! 

No worries...I got a house and cat sitter for the weekend! Yippee! No worries for me!

The only time everyone could be together was if we did Christmas a week early at my Moms house!  This works great for my sister and brothers because now their kids can get up on Christmas at their own houses next week and enjoy the day at home. I will also be stopping by on Christmas Day to see what everyone got!!

I only had one thing I wanted this year and I think my parents hooked me up!!!! I am the last house in America to have a HUGE box TV- LOL - so they are getting me a big screen! I am so totally excited to watch Survivor and Grimm on a real HUGE TV!

I hope you all have an awesome weekend!

Anyone else get together and celebrate early? Anyone else with old technology! HA HA


It will be strange since I am so used to being at my parents on the actual Christmas holiday but I think it will be okay anyway. The most important thing is that everyone can be together!!!!

Happy weekend!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Missing 9.8 pounds

Hi everyone!

I went on a cookie walk on December 3rd and as of December 4th I have been on a diet!

LOL! But, totally not joking!

From the beginning of January I slowly but on over 20 pounds that I worked so hard to lose the few months before and I swore I would watch and not gain them back.

Well, after spending three hours going from store to store and sampling cookies, I could not wait to step on the scale as I felt horrible!

So, I reflected about how much I want to be in shape and look and FEEL good and I have been watching everything I eat and staying within 1200 - 1400 calories a day.

When I jumped on the scale this am - I am officially down 9.8 pounds since the cookie walk!

That's 9.8 pounds in 14 days (5 pounds a week!)!


I am so happy and I already feel so much better! I will be back to feeling awesome by New Years if I keep pushing away the desserts! YEA!!!!


Monday, December 14, 2015

Oh What a weekend!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had an amazing weekend! Is it just me or is life getting crazier with each weekend we get closer to Christmas?!

I had a marvelous weekend starting with a tour of homes in the Allegheny West area of Pittsburgh on Friday night!  It's called Old Allegheny Victorian Christmas House Tour.  It is a tour of one church and seven homes that are all decorated for the holidays. It was spectacular!

It helps that I went with these two lovely girls below!!!


This is the pastor at the Calvary United Methodist Church where you meet to head out on the tour.  He gave us history of the church and we have a lot of amazing photos from inside!


Just look at these stained glass windows! This church has the largest Tiffany glass windows in the world! It is unfortunate that my pictures do not do it justice! If you are in the area, go to church here...it is worth it if even just once!


Then onto the tour! We saw Mansion homes that had ballrooms and dining rooms bigger than my whole house! This is an example of one of the homes that now houses a business. This is a view from the second floor balcony down onto the ballroom! It was spectacular!



And we also saw many simple and quaint row homes which were very popular in the era these homes were built. They were all magnificent and decorated so beautiful!


Some random trees on the tour in one of the mansions.


And at the end of the tour, we arrived at the home of John DeSantis. He is an avid train collector and has the largest private owned collection anywhere! The photo below is the first Lionel train demo that was used to sell the idea of making trains to investors, It is the one and only prototype and John DeSantis outbid the Smithsonian for ownership!  Simply amazing to see!



The third and fourth floor of his mansion looks like the photo below. Every room and wall on both floors is filled with rows and rows of trains! Unbelievable!


This is the fifth floor of the mansion. He has tracks set up and some of the trains running.
 

If you are looking for a great holiday idea and you are in the Pittsburgh area - I HIGHLY recommend the tour! You will love it!

Saturday, my Mom came in from Ohio to shop for Steelers items for Christmas presents and run down to the Strip District for a little browsing and shopping. We had a great day together although we forgot to get a selfie!

Then it was off to the BF's house. He has a huge burn pile in the backyard and wanted to get it started burning Saturday since we have had such dry weather in Pittsburgh. Well, he burned it from 10AM until 3PM (which is the cutoff time for burning) and then it would not go out. We sprayed it with water and that caused massive smoking so the Police and Fire were called by concerned people that saw the smoke. We had it under control but it was better that they had called anyway. Then firemen did a much better job of putting most of it out although it was still smoking Sunday - LOL.


Here is our local firefighting team hard at work.


So my weekend included fun and excitement! LOL! I hope you all have a great week! 

Are you ready for Christmas? Any of you ever had police or fire called for any reason? Can you say...embarrasing? HA


Happy Monday!





Thursday, December 10, 2015

Thinking Out Loud Thursday

Hi everyone!

Today I will be joining in with Penny at Penny's Passion and Vanessa over at X-tremely V for their Thinking Out Loud Thursday and also joining Kristin for Stuff and Things! I am always looking to make new friends!!!




The main random thought on my mind is that yesterday I celebrated 19 years of being clean and sober and it felt absolutely amazing! I got sober when I was 28 and I felt so very young back then! So many years have passed and I still feel young although I am apparently not anymore - LOL! The changes in my life are very dramatic since then and I am no longer that person at all thanks for an EVER VIGILANT program of recovery and the mindset that I will never be "cured".

I know a lot of people that bash programs of abstinence but I can tell you it is totally what worked for me.I wanted it and I took suggestions and did the footwork to attain it. I see a lot of young people coming through our doors today and they do not want to work for anything...at all. Their entire lives have been handed to them on a silver platter by parents that never made them work for anything.  Then when they are asked to do simple things to recover, they are not willing to put in the work.

I am so very grateful I was finally ready to do whatever it took to recovery! Also I am forever grateful to that program and those Friends of Bill for everything that I have in my life today!! I am a very blessed woman!

Second thought: after reading Penny's blog today...I agree! I would love to win Ellen's giveaway so year! I have tried for years and never won anything! Also, this year I am completely confused how to find out if I won. They used to email the winners but now you have to see your name on the screen in a split second
...needless to say...I enter everyday in multiple ways and I have yet to see any names on the screen during the show....LOL! So, please Ellen, if I win email me...otherwise my prizes will go unclaimed. UGH!


And my final thought...I have been so on track this week with my eating!! Yeah me! Day 4/4 and I have not cheated yet!!! Yippee!



I hope everyone has a great week!!!

What are your random thoughts today? Please share with me!!! :-)

Are you avoiding treats this holiday or will you be digging in full force!?!?

How do you maintain your sanity and balance in your life?


Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Wednesday Hodgepodge



Hop on over and join in with Joyce for Wednesday Hodgepodge!!! You will meet many, many cool new friends!

1.  Many families have a story they love to tell every year around a holiday. Does your family have one? Are you the star of that story, or does another family member take center stage? Share your story if you want.
I think our favorite family story is in regards to Thanksgiving.  Absolutely! After years of hosting Thanksgiving for all of their adult children for many, many years; my parents decided to take a trip to Hawaii during Thanksgiving and my sisters and I were on our own to make a Turkey for our first time. We were so excited... everything was on track and the beautiful bird was in the oven. We left the house to go for a pre-Thanksgiving binge walk and came home to an oven full of fire! Apparently all the butter we shoved under his skin made him very flammable. The turkey was due to come out so we waited for the flames to go out and took the bird out of the oven. After letting it sit as directly we carved it and EVERYONE thought it was the juiciest turkey ever!!! Yea!! One for the win!


2. Are you afraid to speak your own opinion?

Never! 

3. Pantone has announced the color of the year for 2016, and for the first time have chosen two shades-rose quartz and serenity. Hmmm...did you know serenity was a color? You can read the thought behind their selection here, but essentially it's blending the warmth of rose quartz with the tranquility of a very soft shade of blue. So what do you think? Are these colors I'd find in your home or wardrobe? Will you add something in these shades to either place in the new year?

Not a fan of rose AT ALL and have no clue what serenity LOOKS like. I have fleeting moments of serenity so I know what it feels like sometimes but truly no clue what color it is! HA

4. If you could be in a Christmas carol, which one would you choose? Why?

Jingle Bells all the way!!!!!!!!!! I truly miss "visiting Grandma's house" and Grandma!!!!

5. December 9th is National Pastry Day. Will you celebrate? When did you last purchase something from a bakery? What's your favorite treat that falls under the heading of pastry? Do you make it yourself or buy from the professionals?

I am celebrating my 19 years in recovery today so I guess I should just tie them both in together....problem is this is Day 3 of HONESTLY watching my food intake so I am going to go with no! HA! My wonderful boyfriend is taking me to dinner at my favorite restaurant tonight so that should be pretty amazing in the place of pastries!

6. When it comes to holiday decorating_____________________________.

I am always the first on done! I had to wait on my REAL tree until after Thanksgiving this year (which is late for me). I always get a real tree and I buy so early that it is dead as a doornail by Christmas week! HA HA

7. When did you last laugh so much it hurt? Explain.

Yesterday! I watched the SNL clip about alien abduction! If you did not see it yet...do yourself a favor an click HERE! Seriously, you will die laughing!


8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I hope everyone has an extremely blessed and grateful day!

19 Years Baby!

Hi everyone!
It's been a few days since I was able to make it here!
I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving!
Mine was crazy, hectic and filled with family - just the way I like it! I cannot wait to read about yours!

Today is an amazing day for me!
Today marks 19 years sober and clean IN recovery! 

I am grateful and amazed daily that this is even possible!

I woke up this morning, started thinking back to the way it used to be and was overcome with emotions! I can hardly think about it at work because I start to cry with gratitude.

Thank you to all the Friends of Bill have have guided, led, and suggested to me along the way!

I love each and every one of you!! This would not be possible without all of you!

I am soooooo very grateful for the life that has been made possible by the 12 steps and those that have gone before me!

Thank you for my saving my life and giving me a life that is now WORTH living!

ICU Nurse it is

 Hi everyone!! I am just here checking in quickly. I almost feel bad checking in as it has been an eternity since I posted!!! UGH! Life has ...