We stumbled upon this guy while walking through The Venetian in Las Vegas. I had to snap a picture of him since it is from one of my favorite movies as a kid."I wish I were big."

We stumbled upon this guy while walking through The Venetian in Las Vegas. I had to snap a picture of him since it is from one of my favorite movies as a kid."I wish I were big."
Famous Footwear will be opening a new store in Hartford, Connecticut, its 14th location in the Hartford and New Haven market. The 5,000 square-foot store will open July 31, 2013 and will host a series of grand opening events throughout the day. The new store is located in the Charter Oak Marketplace at 55 William Shirty Cambell St. in Hartford, CT.
I had a blast at Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas! I may have done some innapropriate things to some of the wax statues, but here is a tame one of myself and Elvis.
It is that time of yea again: Back to School Shopping time! While there is definitely a fun aspect to it, back to school shopping can also be quite stressful. Especially if you have lots of kids to shop for. Ebates and a bunch of us cool bloggers want to take some of that stress away by hosting this awesome cash giveaway!
I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting sponsored by Publishers Clearing House. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.
We have all heard of "Win for Life" sweepstakes where you receive a weekly check for the rest of your life. Publishers Clearing House has taken this a step further with their Win $5,000 a Week Forever Sweepstakes. This August, one lucky winner will be awarded $5,000 a week for the rest of their life but they will also get to name an inheritor of their prize who will continue receiving that $5,000 a week. By signing up you have a chance to not only change your life, but the life of someone you love as well. So sign up for the Win $5,000 a Week Forever sweepstakes today for your chance to win!
I have lived in Connecticut for 10 years now and before that, New York for 14. Yet even though I live in New England, I've never really seen much. This area is known for its quaint charm and beautiful fall foliage and yet I've barely seen any of it. Yes, I've been to Boston multiple times and I went to Vermont once or twice for skiing (so not a fan of skiing, by the way), but there are still so many New England states I would like to visit. I was thinking how nice it would be to plan a weekend getaway for this fall and finally take in some of the New England sites. Ideally I would love for my husband and I to steal away to New Hampshire for a few days and find a lovely bed & breakfast among the lodging in Lincoln, NH to relax at.
Even though we still have over four weeks till the kids go back to school here in Connecticut, there are many regions that head back in the beginning of August. So it is about that time to start planning for supplies and school clothes and also your child's lunches. Every year I start off all gung-ho with my bento style lunches for the kids, but after a month that quickly loses steam. I'm tired of packing the same old thing and my kids are tired of eating it. I tend to mix up sending home lunches with the kids buying hot lunch, but school lunches are the complete opposite of healthy and I'd like to get back to only doing that for pizza day on Friday. Thankfully now there is a place where you can get tons of lunch ideas!
There are tons of these suckers hovering around my ginormous butterfly bush in the yard. They fascinate me for some reason, but I wish I saw more butterflies.
It has been crazy hot and humid in Connecticut lately and I've pretty much had my fill of it. Relaxing with a tasty, frozen cocktail at the end of a long, sticky day feels great. I don't know about you, but I stink at making frozen drinks and smoothies in my blender. They always come out watery with huge chunks of ice. OK and I'm a little bit lazy too. With Daily's Cocktails frozen cocktail pouches, I never have to battle with my blender again.
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It has been one week since I started my No Sugar No Grains lifestyle (I refuse to call it a diet) and I have definitely seen some positive changes. Avoiding sugars and grains hasn't been too difficult, I've been eating way more proteins and veggies which is a great thing. I have not eaten a single grain, which is challenging when you are surrounded by pasta, bread, crackers, etc. and the only sugar I have been consuming is a little bit in my coffee and sometimes in salad dressing. My next step is researching some yummy NSNG meal ideas and recipes so I don't get bored with what I'm eating. This is where my new NSNG Pinterest board will come in handy.
So without further ado, let's get to the numbers.
Date Weight (lb) Waist (in) Hips Thigh Arm | Day 1 7/9/13 149 35 42 25.25 12 | Day 8 7/16/13 145.5 34.5 41.25 24 12 | Difference -3.5 pounds -.5 inch -.75 inch -1.25 inches 0 |
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of heading out to Dearborn, Michigan for the Go Further with Ford 2013 Trend Conference. This was my second year in a row attending and I was so excited to be invited back because I love learning about what car companies are working on on the green front. Obviously making more eco-friendly cars is a trend we are all very much aware of. We were all able to attend several of the trend sessions at the conference and I want to briefly touch on some of what was discussed at the Greentopia panel, which was of course the most important one for me.
Please add both your green and non-green giveaways and contests into Mr. Linky below so we can do some giveaway hopping! Be sure to include the expiration date. Thanks!
You can also submit your green giveaways to me during the week for me to feature on Fridays.
Who is ready for an awesome summer giveaway?! My iPad is one of my favorite gadgets. It helps feed my Internet and social media addiction while making blogging on the go that much easier. Yes it is one of those things I'm not sure how I lived without. Now you have a chance to win an iPad Mini for yourself Check out the details below and good luck!
Because obviously four children and one blog do not keep me busy enough (insert sarcasm), I decided to go ahead and start a second blog. It is no secret that I love reading books on my Kindle. With the speed I am plowing through them, I thought it would be fun to blog about them. So on Monday I launched A Lust For Reading, where I will be reviewing and recommending various romance novels. So if you could head on over there and take a peek around, follow me there and all of that good stuff, I would be forever appreciative. In time I'll start having giveaways and it will all be a lot of fun.
This is our view from our room at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. My husband and I went on a 4-day weekend trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and had an amazing time!
Two weeks ago I read and reviewed the book Fitness Confidential. Now that I am back from all of my trips (which I will be blogging about soon) and the 4th of July holiday is over, I am going to start putting into practice what I learned in that book. And what exactly did I learn? That I need to completely revamp my diet. Now when I say the word diet, I don't mean a temporary change to the way I am eating. This is not a quick fix; it is a lifestyle change. What Vinnie Tortorich explained in his book is that the key to losing weight and keeping it off is eliminating sugars and grains from our diets. Our society has gotten it completely backwards. We avoid foods with fat in them and instead eat foods loaded with sugar to make up for the lack of taste. Fat is the human body's natural source of fuel. Yet we skip that and load up on sugar and carbs, which actually just turn into fat in our bodies.
Now technically, yesterday was my day one since I didn't eat any grains and just had the tiniest bit of sugar in my coffee. But I forgot to weigh myself in the morning, so I am officially starting today. I have a good 30 pounds to lose and I am anxious to get started. Now in all honesty, my piece of junk scale is off by at least 5 pounds; meaning I weigh 5 pounds more than it says. But since it is what I have daily access to, we will just go with it. So here are my numbers: