Romance: What it means to me!

So you already know that I am a fan of reality television. I get inspiration from many of them. Tiffany Maher and George Lawrence got me to thinking. They really portrayed the words in the song and when you have a great romantic song like that with gerat dancers magic happens. The song called "Turning Page" by the group Sleeping At Last. I remebered hearing that song somewhere, but I could not think of where or when until I did some researching. Its on Twilight's Breaking Dawn soundtrack. HUGE FAN OF TWILIGHT.  Tiffany and George really represented Bella and Edward's hot romance that they portray in the movie.

So I wanted to let you know what romance means to me. Its about showing how far you are willing to go to show the person you love how much you love them. It does not have to be big. It can be as small as coking breakfast, doing the laundry (Hello!) Don't gt me wrong...I want to be swept off my feet at least once in my lifetime. 

I watch scenes on movies and hear what men have done for their wive all the time. I am the "hopeless romantic" and I love it. I have been married for 10 years and my husband and I are a young couple. He is 34 and I am 32. My dear husband he really tries to be romantic, but I think I am to nosy for him to really be as romantic as he wants to be. I get the cards, the flowers, the dinner and a movie, but all that gets BORING. he gotta step the game up to pull off ROMANCE on me. He so obsessed with trying to please me that he wants to write a book on the true meaning of romance. He thinks he does not have a romantic bone in his body, but I think if he just does not think so literally, he could be romantic. One of the best things he did for me was take me Bok Tower for lunch. The landscape there is beautiful, so I thought it was great. He did not have the candles, blanket and wine set out for me already, but we walked around and talked then ate a salad at the cafe.He also took me to Picasso's cafe one time and we painted some pottery. Basically, I was not swept off my feet and cried, but he did his best. 

Lets just be honest...MEN DON'T GET IT. If your man does get it, let me know some of the things he has done for you. I looked up on YouTube "Romantic scenes from movies". I can't believe it, but I have watched every last movie on each part except for 2. I know, I know, some of you may say romance is not about the material things and its the thought that counts and so on and so on, but LADIES we want to be swept off out feet and not see it coming. 

1. Your man needs to really know you and what you like. 

I like music, art, the beach, great food, singing, dancing, breathe taking views, beautiful hotels with a big jacuzzi, winery's, walking up and down busy streets like International drive or Disney Downtown in Orlando. Your man can make so many things happen off the things you like. He could take you to the beach and have a dinner table already set up for you with candle light and something sweet written in the beach sand for you to read. We could even just lay there with a blanket while he reads a romantic book to you and have a radio with romantic music playing int he background that we could slow dance to. 

2. He may have to get other people involved

Setting up a beautiful romantic date takes planning and time. He may want to take you to your favorite restaurant and hotel after (if you catch my drift). Or he may want it to be a weekend thing. He may need a family of a friend to help him pull it off. Someone will need to keep you busy while he gets everything together like reserving the best table and making sure it is set up with the works, packing your overnight bag, buying the roses for the rose petals that lead to the bed, having the music playing while you walk through the door, a custom made gift basket with your favorite candy, CD, perfume, wine, etc. I mean...every second of the date should be planned out. 

3. Your man needs to know what your tastes in clothing and what size you wear

What would be so darling and daring and just off the chain would be for him to buy the dress or outfit you will wear for dinner. I mean I love dinner and a movie, but lets take it to another level. Here is the scene: you just walked in the door from work or where ever you just come from he is standing there with a rose and a gift box. You ask, "What is this?" He just says, "Today is your lucky day". I would just melt. You open the box to see a beautiful black cocktail dress. How did he know. Well, maybe you were with at the store last week and he ask you to try on some dresses because he knows you like to shop. He just says, "We can't buy anything right now, but just try on for fun." All the while he has a plan in the back of his mind to pull off the best night you will ever have. Your man can find out a lot of thing about you and what you like if he went window shopping with you more often. That is quality time together and he is finding out everything he needs to know...two birds and one stone. The movie could be shown on a DVD player at a park with just you two watching...Hubba, Hubba. 

4. Your man needs to be very sneaky

I remember my husband had me fooled so bad one day. I had not had my wedding ring for about 3 or 4 years because it was lost at the jewelry store because he lost the ticket number for my ring to get cleaned. he was going to buy me a new one. He had a conversion with me that morning that set me on edge. He pissed me of so I could have my mind on that for the whole day and he went and did his thing. Later that day he knew I was mad so he bought me some roses. Within the roses was a fake rose that was actually a jewelry box. When I opened it it was my new wedding ring. He pulled that one off.

5. You have to not be so nosy

My husband has tried so many times to surprise me, but I would always know when he was up to something.

That fact is he tried, but what happens is your man will stop trying if you get too bad. Let him do what he is gonna do. He wants to try and please you and surprise you just to make you happy. Let him work his magic sit back and relax and know that one day he is gonna sweep you off your feet. 

Losing Weight

For me this is the most dreaded subject in life period. The reason why is because it is so hard. I know for a fact I do not have as much self discipline to lose weight as much as I do to keep up with my blog. My husband and I are on a quest and as I said in my very first blog "I am rebooting my life". 

I have tried dozens of diets and each year I gain about 10 pounds still.

Diets I have tried

The cabbage diet (too much gas)

The grapefruit diet (I did not eat grapefruits for a while after that one)

The master cleanser (the die off really got to me)

No carb diet (I lost 17 pounds, but had a piece of cake one day and said "Awe the hell with it")

HCG Diet (lasted one week)

Sensa (DID NOT WORK)

No sugar, soda, or grease diet (starved myself)

21 day metabolism (how in the hell can I keep up with eating every 3 hours with my schedule)

Candida (That stuff you have to drink...Yuck!)

Colon Cleanse (Same situation...and boy you can't have a schedule with this one...heard of irritable bowel syndrome)

Fasting ( Please spare me..)

Raw food diet (hard to come up with a meal plan and eating the same thing everyday)

Well, I must say that there are probably more that I have tried and after listing them...I feel much worse than I already did. I see my  problem is dedication. Other problems are sweets, chips, and sodas. I can give up chips and I can give up sodas, but sweets is a blog by itself. I can make excuses very easy to. I keep saying "I'm going to start, but I have to have one last day to eat everything I can't eat. One last day turns into another month gone by. Then there is another very good reason, I DON'T HAVE A KITCHEN. We are in the middle of renovating. My kitchen should have been done by the end of April...it is now what month? 

Well, yesterday I proved all that wrong. I made a great meal using my toaster oven and a microwave. It turned out great! I saw a meal that looked quite easy on Pinterest. I was gonna go to my grandmothers house and cook it, but I thought that maybe I can pull it off. 

The meal I made is shown in the picture. After reading so many blogs and researching some information I stumbled across this blog that i think is really gonna help me. Its Called 100 days of real food. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/. They have everything I need and the info is FREE. I think now have the motivation to this now..finally. I have to  lose half of my body weight (170 lbs.) The best way for me to do it is to go cold turkey. That means go hard or don't go at all. My birthday is in two months. It gives me 60 days to reboot my eating habits. I also found a website called Reboot Your Life. Hundreds of people have already tried it. I am the next one. 

Wish me luck on this new journey. I am excited because when it is all over I will have a new kitchen and a new body. 

Idea for living room

I can not wait to decorate. Right now we are in the middle of construction with the walls, cabinets and floors being done, but what I am anxious for is the decorating part. I am no interior designer and never had any schooling for it. I try to mimic my sister with the boards, but it does not always work. She will eventually tell what needs to be done here and there. I figure her advice has to be good for something being that she is a floor planner and all. With all do respect...I take any advice my sissy gives me. I want to go for a relaxed, shabby and chic look. What do you think?

This is why the schools need more creative subjects

I found this on the blog Don't disturb This Groove (Shot Out to Brandi). These girls are AMAZING! The sisters Lennon and Maisy are singing "Call your Girlfriend by Robyn a Swedish pop star". Whats amazing is the hand coordination and timing of rhythm. I think its amazing because they were able to watch a cover from Erato and, at 12 and 8 years old, pick up the beat and the right notes. Great job you two!

Redo Time

I am remodeling my kitchen and living room area. It has been a very stressful last few months, but I know it is going to be great in the end. I have found so many new ideas on Pinterest and I can't wait to try them. The top left hand photo is the use to be kitchen (Awful). I use to have a peninsula come from the left and side and come out to where you see the mark in the middle of the floor. YES you see it right the counter tops were a laminate PINK. I would like to speak to the designers. The house is about 15 years old. It was passed down from my grandmother. The down fall is that it is a modular home 1183 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, no laundry room. That will be a whole other blog.
The bottom left hand photo is showing where the sliding glass door with no deck on the outside use to be. We have closed it in so far. The top right shows the division wall that was there before (we have removed it) between the kitchen and the living room and the bottom right shows my front door and fire place in the living room. We have painted since then and my new kitchen is in the middle of my floor as I blog.


Here is my plan 

Thanks to IKEA 3D PLANNER, I have mad my kitchen two times the size it was. All of my cabinets are here and ready to go, but we have had to take our time to get it done with all the changes we made to the area. We purchase our laminate floors this weekend where we caught an awesome sale for cherry wood 7mm at .59 cent per square foot.

We have painted our walls in the hallway, living and kitchen a coastal blue. We plan on adding a brown back splash (really have not seen a winner yet) and adding lighting to each glass cabinet and under each top cabinet.

Here is my inspiration! I think that this is as close to what I want that I could find. I plan on using some creative ideas for storage and decorating. I will continue to keep an update on the progress.

Hair Update

Hair Do time UPDATE


So I tried the hairstyle seen in photo and let me tell you....I AM NOT A STYLIST. Well the only cost was FREE. I had half of a relaxer left (Good thing about having short hair) and of course I used Wen shampoo and conditioner. This is what I was able to do.

From previous blog

Hair do I will try

One of the things I said I was gonna do while "reinventing my life was to keep my hair up...FOR FREE of course. I gotta stay pretty on a dime. I understand that as women we like to keep our hair done with little management. I cannot afford to go to a stylist every week. I am on a mission to find hair dos that take little management. The first thing I did was buy Wen. I'm not gonna lie it makes my hair feel very soft and well conditioned. The only thing is the first month is $29.99 the second month is over over $60.00. That equals two hair appointments for me. The second thing I did was cut my hair. My husband does not like the idea of me having short hair. So now I'm growing it back. Gotta stay pretty on a dime and please the hubby...YOW MEAN.
So what do I do to find hair product that does not dry my hair out and conditions it very well? I'm doing the research and when I find it  will let you know. In the mean time I will use the rest of my Wen and then hopefully I will have a solution to the problem. By the way I must mention that I have relaxed hair. My USE TO BE hair dresser told me that i was damaging it with the BOX PERM. My thought was "oh you just want my money honey". My past research shows that its OK for me to use box perms, but as long as it has tea tree oils and aloe vera product in it. I must also drink plenty of water and get plenty of vitamin E. I figure the box perm will cost me about $9.00.
I hope this works.

A Bouquet of Good Intentions

A Bouquet of Good Intentions

I just read this blog about the Bouquet of good intentions. I had to weep after reading it because it moved me so much. It was so close and dear to my heart. I have struggled to be a good wife and mother and I think of things to try to improve and sometimes never get around to doing them. This blog let me know that I'M NOT A BAD PERSON AFTER ALL. Thanks Macrina!

From under the Sycamore Tree Blog

http://macrina-underthesycamoretree.blogspot.com/2012/06/bouquet-of-good-intentions.html#comment-form

A Bouquet of Good Intentions

My community retreat is  now over and for some unknown reason I spent a good portion of the retreat praying about all of my GOOD INTENTIONS.  I don't know who came up with that silly saying, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  It isn't true!  Why do we so often think about things in negative terms?  We could just as easily say that the road to heaven is paved with the seeds of good intentions.  Seeds take time to germinate.   The seeds we plant in the earth require a time of waiting before they are able to blossom. Likewise, the good intentions that fall into our hearts may not blossom immediately (for many reasons).  This does not mean we should forget them

Obviously these good intentions have come from God whose name can be found in the word, good.  Just because they were given to me and yet remain unfulfilled does not mean they are dead intentions.  They are still good.  So let's ponder together some of our good intentions.  In the midst of our busy lives they visit us like guardian angels. If we have not adequately brought these good intentions to fruition today, there is always tomorrow or the next day, or even the next month or two.  They have come to us for a reason and we are the ones who can help them to blossom.

Today I am making a bouquet of my good intentions. I will print them out and put them on my bulletin board as a reminder that it is never too late to bring them to birth.  

• Write a real letter to someone in my address book.
• Go for an early morning walk at least once a week.
• Devise a regular schedule for writing..
• Visit Jackie.
• Send a card of support to our spiritual directors.
• Call Mary soon.
• Affirm someone every day.
• Work in the soup kitchen once in awhile
• Visit our Sisters in the infirmary at least once a week.
• Write on my blog at least once a week.
• Design an 'on-line' retreat experience.
• Listen to others with my very best presence.