Camera Dump: SeaWorld, Mini Golf, and more

Even though summer is over, I'm glad the weather here doesn't reflect it yet. I like being able to still dress 'summery.' Although I like fall clothes, my legs always seem to become dry and eventually itchy when I wear pants (except for my stretchy/leggings type of pants) so I'm still digging the shorts weather.

Anyway, we had such a busy and fun-filled summer that I figured it was time to unload my camera phone. I really am going to work on actually taking my camera around with us more often. Initially we were researching a DSLR to buy but I think I'm going to start using what I have and gradually work my way up to a camera with more capabilities.

We vacationed with some friends who also have boys ranging in ages of 2.5 and newly-turned 5 and 6 year olds but I didn't feel like including the one picture we all took together. I didn't like my pose.

Shamu was absolutely AWESOME!



 

After being splashed by Shamu and looking like we had jumped in the pool fully clothed, we moved pretty far back, as seen in the bottom picture. It was still an awesome show! I highly recommend!

The middle picture on the right: How did that squirrel get up there and how is he going to get down?!?

Not included are pictures of me having fun in SeaWorld or any of our go-carting pictures.
We had soooooo much fun racing go-carts with our boys coaching as passengers but unfortunately my husband's phone slipped out of his pocket while we were racing and it was stolen.
He went back to look for it literally 5 minutes after we had gotten finished with our round. Hundreds of pictures and videos gone. He hadn't saved anything to the cloud and hadn't yet downloaded the "Find My Phone" app.
Don't make the same mistake!!!!!

We, of course had to visit San Antonio's downtown Riverwalk in the evening and it was beautiful. My husband had some really nice pictures on his phone. {sad face} The top picture is of our boat ride on the Riverwalk. We had dinner at a restaurant called Mi Tierra. I am a really picky eater when it comes to tacos. (My husband thinks tacos from anywhere are good.) But MI TIERRA has the best tacos in the world! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. In the entryway of the restaurant, where normally a seating area is, there was a bakery that sold authentic Mexican desserts. And that huge space was packed. I almost thought it was a bakery, but the ambiance definitely said restaurant. Its a local favorite, even for the San Antonio Spurs players.
The bottom picture is of the State Capitol in Austin, TX. We love stopping through Austin! It's such a cute, artsy town. We had some yummy burgers and shakes at a local favorite called, Hopdoddy Burger Bar. We were too busy enjoying the ambiance, décor and food for pictures, but the next time you're in San Antonio or Austin, check out those restaurants.

Miniature golf is always all about the celebration dance.
Miniature bowling is fun too but doesn't get a celebration dance.

Me and my mom. A red lip always does the trick for me.

This year was my sorority's 100-year celebration, and my line sisters and I were also celebrating our 10-year anniversary since first pledging. I love these girls so much and being in DC was pretty awesome! (DC is great in general too). I wish I were more active in my community like I used to be but I'm still navigating my life as a wife AND mom. During my blog break, I self-reflected on my hobbies and my passion and it does involve helping my community in some way. Now I just have to figure out how to do that with my current day job as a SAHM.
Some of these ladies have lived in Japan, Brazil, gotten master's in the UK, are successful fundraisers for non-profits and more. I'm so proud to know them!
Ten years after I pledged, my mom pledged. It was pretty random and I'm so happy for her. She'll be retiring this year but with our sorority, she'll still be doing plenty of work. She loves to mentor youth living in at-risk environments and she's pretty well-known in that particular demographic where she lives. I'm sure she'll continue that form of work within our sorority. So we all were are part of 'painting the town red' that weekend!
Now if only she would've pledged 10 years ago or more, so I could've asked for money during those college days, haha. {straight face}


Have you done a camera dump lately?

My New 'Do

Its about that time of year again, where I notice that my hair is growing at a snail's pace, so I chop it off!
 

I'm not really feeling, or should I say wasn't really feeling, the length in which my hair was and I have been seeing the short natural hair tapered look for months now and of course I got that 'itch.'

You know that 'itch' you get when you need a change in your look?
 

My itch usually comes every 2-3 years but sometimes it comes sooner when I'm feeling lost or stagnant in an area of my life.

Right now, I'm tired of living in an area with such a lack of diversity and I'm tired of my hair not growing.

Not to mention, I'm waiting until the end of the year to really put some money into and further develop one of my special interests. And that is definitely keeping me mentally anxious.

(By the end of he end year, I'll be able to pay for it in cash as opposed to doing any payments.)
 

Anyway, I checked out Pinterest for some inspiration and showed the picture to my stylist and voila. I'm in love.

 

Now I'm trying to convince myself not to put some highlights in there....but then again, just give me a few weeks.

 

 

 



Staying On the Move

I've had an extremely long hiatus. I did a lot of soul-searching about who I am and who I want to be and what I want to do as a mom and more. I felt like I was starting pick up too many random hobbies which was making me feel lost.....because, although I adore my boys more than I can ever say, I was not only meant to be a mom. And I don't want to twiddle my [intellectual] thumbs until they reach kindergarten.

Needless to say, I have figured out the direction I want to go in, but I will be waiting until I implement it before sharing because that just makes good sense. Oh, but I did realize that all of my random hobbies will probably be of good use in the future because I was meant to stumble into them. I just will have to devote time to them differently than I initially was; which is basically just not all at once.

In the meantime, I've been enjoying a structure-less summer, but I'm definitely ready for their preschool program to begin next week. Keeping these little dudes entertained and busy tends to burn me out. And I've been pretty burned out for the past couple of weeks. We stayed on the move this summer, traveling to SeaWorld in San Antonio, Kansas City and DC. On the weekends we weren't traveling to somewhere, someone was traveling to us. I'zzzz tired.

On another note, I have TWO potty-trained boys! Woo hoo! We had a thousand accidents and a whole lot of nudity....some occasional bribery but my youngest did it!
Unfortunately, they both had a shitty accident (pun-intended) at a park playdate. My youngest had on a pull-up but my oldest had on regular underwear. Sigh.
He went to the bathroom, which happened to be pretty gross, and I guess he was so grossed out about it that he just said, "screw it" and went on himself. I was shocked. Normally he would've cried due to feeling embarrassed or ashamed but I think he didn't that time because he just didn't want to have to go back to that nasty bathroom.
Oh, the life of a mom. 

Now....if I could only get them to flush the toilet and wash their hands after each use without reminding them!

*By the way, what picture editors are you all using nowadays? Before my hiatus, I had been using PicMonkey but it started to freeze up on me too much. Have you had any problems with it?

Feeling Lost

Sometimes I feel so lost.

Have you ever just felt lost and like you didn't know the direction your life was headed?

That's how I've felt, off and on, since college up until now. It hasn't been a consistent feeling, but the fact that this feeling has been ever-present in my mind for a prolonged amount of times is "no bueno" (not good), "tres mal" (very bad) and just the pits.

Well I finally am done with feeling lost.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

I am ready to do what it takes to have assurance about the direction that my life is headed.

This doesn't mean that I am going to know exactly what I will be doing with my life (besides taking care of my precious boys), but it does mean that I will have comfort in knowing that whichever direction, industry and/or purpose I take on, it will fulfill me.

I have finally put my trust and faith in God, and that means I will not be "searching" for my next career field, but letting God reveal it to me. So when an idea spontaneously pops into my head or when I have a strong urging towards an idea, that's when I'll follow it because those are the ideas from God, and after all that's the whole point of my renewed introspection.

Have you ever felt lost about a certain area of your life? If so, what did you do to navigate your way through? Did you try to organize the clutter of your mind by making lists of desires and goals, by meditation or what?

The Post Partum Pooch = Diastasis

I've missed blogging a lot. I took quite the break, huh?
Well, I've been kind of overwhelmed emotionally regarding my career or life's purpose. I just couldn't find time for blogging in the midst of those emotions.
Plus, I'm still slooooowwwwwly unpacking boxes at our new place. I'd like to get every single box unpacked and have all the miscellaneous items that we haven't seen in 2 years.

I replaced my blogging time with nothing other than the gym. LA Fitness to be exact. I'm so ashamed to admit that I still am not at a place in which I can wear a two-piece bathing suit but the rest of me is looking pretty darn good! I only do about 10 minutes of running cardio a week and spend the rest of my time LIFTING WEIGHTS. And I'm in total love with it.
I'd like to think that I moved into beast-mode this past week. I do 4 sets with 30-45 seconds of rest in between each set. Supposedly this higher intensity burns the same amount of fat that our usual forms of cardio. I'm pretty sure I need to do both high intensity lifting and regular cardio. Now that the weather is more consistent, I'll probably do early morning runs. I detest treadmill running.

Regarding my post-pregnancy tummy: I did tons of research and realized that I had a slight abdominal tear, otherwise known as diastasis. This is where your abdominal muscles were spread so much that the tissues didn't come back together after birth. I wish it didn't take me 2 years to realize it. Oh and regular ab exercises actually prevent the muscles from coming together and tightening. [No wonder I still had a mini pooch.]

I visited a couple of body-building gyms, and one gym rep said that she thought I would need to have a tummy tuck and the other gym rep said I wouldn't. Of course I started obsessing and after googling and you-tubing tons of research on proper exercises, I'm finally starting to make some headway. I also bought a diastasis splint associated with the Tupler Technique. I'm hoping I'll be where I want to be or at least closer to my goal by the end of the summer. Hey, the end of the summer is better than never.

If you have an questions about the Tupler Technique or diastasis, let me know. You're not alone!!!

New House, New Workout Shoes and A New Snack

We're finally, officially Texas residents!

 We packed up the rental house ourselves; rented a UHaul and moved all of our shit household items ourselves (with the assistance of one very helpful friend) and then unpacked...okay well almost unpacked all of our boxes.
Mother Nature, who is obviously having an identity crisis, decided to rain on our 'moving day parade.' But like NeNe from Housewives of Atlanta says, "One monkey don't stop no show." We moved in the rain, with our tiny humans getting in and out of the way.
And of course, daylight saving's time was the next day. I'm tired just thinking about it right now. Especially since I'm sitting across from 5 different-sized boxes. Sigh. Life goes on....unpacked or in boxes.

The sellers left us a bottle of champagne in the fridge!

The seller(s) also left us a very nice note filling us in on the neighbors and their families and all of the upgrades that were made to the house since its construction.
We were able to keep the refrigerator since he didn't want to ruin the hardwood floors moving it out. So now we have 2 refrigerators! Which works out perfectly since we need but never bought a deep freezer. Anyway, our congratulatory champagne was a nice surprise.
Something we can do when we sell!

Even though my life was in boxes, my work out gear wasn't. #KeepItTight

I like my shoes. :-) They're the Pegasus' and really comfortable.
Orange laces. Yellow swoosh. #TeamNeon
 

Gotta stay colorful. #KeepItTight

 

We got our new mattress!!!!!!!

Goodbye back pain and hello peaceful night's sleep.
We had to get splurge-y and buy a memory foam. Our old mattress really messed us, well me up in the head. Death to spring-loaded mattresses!!!
I gained 40-lbs with each pregnancy and our old spring-loaded mattress was my support.
"You ain't got to go home, but you got to get the hell up outta here!"
{That's how I feel towards my old mattress}

My new snack addiction. $2.98 at Walmart.

Better than popcorn and pringles! Once you pop, you can't stop!

 

 

Its Been A Long Time..... + Cash Giveaway!

"Its been a long time...
...I shouldn'ta left you...
.....Without a dope beat to step to...."

You all know how life gets in the way....so please excuse my absence. I've missed updating and staying up to date in your lives but I'll catch up really soon.

This post is really about a GIVEAWAY!!! I'm so happy that I am apart of a cool giveaway like this.
The prize? $100 cash 'mahhhhney' for 2 participants! Cool right? Yeah, I agree.

You don't have to follow tons of people that you may not have similar interests with if you don't want to....but it certainly increases your chances of winning.



KimberlyLuxe // Maybe Baby // A Lovely Day BR // GG Renee
Mackensie G // Femmes With Benefits // Love, Darbie // Elle To Elle
RC // The Urban Umbrella // Aphrodite Kinks // Call Her Courtnee
Never Jaded // Work It Out Girl // Fendi Bag & A Bad Attitude // Carmen Vogue
ThinkFeminist // Memoirs Of The Chic // Mylah


We're hosting a giveaway! And 2 Lucky Girls will win $100 each! This giveaway requires a couple of simple mandatory tasks:
[1] comment below with what you'd do with the money
[2] then enter the rafflecopter using your facebook login or your email address to submit your entry!

If you have a few extra minutes to spare, you can submit multiple entries by completing these super simple tasks on the participating bloggers' sites! And you're not limited to one entry, you can submit up to 27 entries! The giveaway closes on the 1st of April and the two winners will be announced and contacted on the 7th! Who knows, in two weeks you may just be $100 richer. You have nothing to lose, and $100 to gain!

1 Mandatory Easy Submission | Simply comment on this post with what you'd do with the money & then enter into RaffleCopter!

Quick Way To Follow Blogs | Log into blogger > Go to your blogger dashboard (blogger home page) > Click "ADD" under "Reading List" > Paste link to blog you wish to follow > Click Follow!

a Rafflecopter giveaway