I'm BAAAACCCCKKKKK!!!

So, I have been out of touch… for a while… a long while.

But I am back, from outer space… No, that’s not right.

I am back from Florida. Last week I went to Florida because my cousin was getting married. For WEEKS before that, I was trying to eat right, I really was… but it just was not happening. Nutrisystem for breakfast and lunch, but then pizza, hamburger and fried chicken for dinner…

No More!!!

Starting Monday, 4/18/2016, hubby and I have made a pact. We will be eating right, joining the gym again and this time, we plan to stick to it! We Have To!

Okay, enough excuses and promises… lets talk about Florida.

I grew up in South Florida, and moved to Nevada about 12 years ago after going through 3 hurricanes in a month. We went back a couple of months after moving for my cousin’s daughter’s birthday. My hubby and I went back in 2010 for my best friend’s father’s memorial. (Hubby got pneumonia while there) So now, 6 years later, I went back to Florida for my cousin’s wedding.

It was beautiful. The weather was perfect, cool and breezy, not too hot. There were a few raindrops to be seen, but not a lot. We stayed at a cute little hotel on the water, Jupiter Waterfront Inn, for a couple of nights.

Jupiter Waterfront Inn

The wedding was at a beautiful venue, Old Fish House in Jupiter, Florida. The wedding was beautiful. The ceremony was perfect and we were visited by two bright orange butterflies in the middle of the vows (the spirits of my grandparents, I believe).

photo credit:917e blaze of orange via photopin (license) 

Visited all my old haunts, the condo I grew up in, my aunt and uncle’s house from later. We saw my grandparents’ mobile home and my best friend’s house (she no longer lives in Florida, moved away a couple of years ago). My high school has changed a lot. My favorite restaurant, Russo's Sub Shop, has not. Still so good.

Russo's Sub from http://russossubs.com/home/photos

All in all, it was a great trip… did I mention I don’t fly well…

I haven't been on an airplane in 6 years, I do not like it, I would rather drive. When I visit my mom, I drive 8 hours instead of flying for 1 hour... I know, I know...Stupid, right?!? I actually made my mom come get me for this trip, she came to Vegas a day early so that we could fly together to Florida. She is the flying expert with all the traveling and visiting she does. Every time the plane did any kind of, well, anything, I looked ay my mom so she could tell me it was okay. I know, I'm a baby...

5 days in Florida, spent some time with my family, my cousins all have children who are growing way too fast. I miss them and really need to make more of an effort to keep in touch. They are really the only family I have as I am an only child and don't really have any other connection. 

So, here I am, home again and really need to get back to me and my health. We are going back to Nutrisystem, hardcore, starting Monday. I will keep you updated and will start the food posts again, it seemed to help me and gave others some ideas about what to do with the food. 

Stick around for a while to see our transformation with Nutrisystem...

Willpower

I just spent 4 days on a road trip up to Carson City to visit my mother and my friends and attend a training for work. I don’t fly well, so I drove for 8 hours. Which is silly, because the flight from Las Vegas to Carson City is like 55 minutes! I planned on eating Nutrisystem food and exercising while I was there, I even brought workout clothes and food with me. Did I eat my Nutrisystem food…NO. Did I work out…NO.

I don’t think I have very good willpower.

ROAD TRIP

I’m going on a road trip!

Well, I am driving 8 hours to Carson City to attend a training that I did not want to fly to… Have I mentioned that I. DON’T. FLY.

Same Thing!

I have made this drive several times in the past couple of years. We made the drive 3 or 4 times when we moved to Las Vegas 2 years ago. We made it a couple of times before that when we visited here. I have made the drive once since I have lived here to go back to visit. But this time, I will be trying to stay on track eating and exercise wise. I can already say that this is not going to happen all the way. I have a couple of friends that I will be meeting for dinner and I will not stay on plan for those meals. The rest of the time, though, I hope to be on plan. I also hope to continue to exercise, even if it is just walking. I am staying with my mom while up there, and she is also on Nutrisystem so I am hoping that this will help. I will be bringing food with me for the meals that are not out with friends.

I am going to Texas Roadhouse with a couple of friends on Sunday for dinner. I am studying the menu to see what the best options are. I have concluded that there is not a lot of healthy options there.

I am going out for sushi with another friend on Monday night. I have looked at that menu to make my choices, but then I realized that the restaurant that she wants to go to is closed on Mondays!!! So we will have to find another restaurant to go to.

This brings back memories of moving to Carson City from Florida. We took 3 weeks to drive cross country to move to Nevada.

A to Z of Me!!

Hi there, can you tell that I get a little obsessed when I find something I like...

This is another A to Z post like the last couple I did. I found this one at The Bikini Experiment by Lauren. This one is the A to Z of me! So follow along and find out a little (more) about me.

Age: 37

Biggest Fear: Spiders!!! Flying!!! Not being in control!!!!

Current Time: 8:46pm PST

Drink You Had Last: Water, water, water

Easiest Person to Talk to: My mommy

A to Z of travel

Like Thursday's post, I am loving the A to Z lists. Another of the topics listed was the A to Z of travel and it is from MYATOZCHALLENGE.COM. I thought it was a fun post idea, so here we go!

FreeImages.com/Vasilii Shestakov

Age you started traveling: I don't really remember when I started traveling, I know that when I was little we used to travel to see family. I did not really start traveling for pleasure until recently

Best beer you’ve had and where: I am not a big beer drinker so I don't really know what the best would be.

Cuisine (favorite): I love Italian food, Mexican food and Japanese food, especially sushi! I could probably survive for a really long time if I only had any of these types of cuisine.

Destinations–favorite/least favorite, and why?: I think my favorite destination would have been DisneyLand/Napa Valley. I traveled there with my hubby and we had so much fun just being with each other. I think my least favorite destination was New Orleans. I think that this is a destination that is so overrated. We were there during the French Quarter festival and it smelled of vomit and pee!

Jealousy and Envy

I have a confession...

I am having a jealousy issue.

It all started when I started this blog. I started writing and then I joined Facebook pages for bloggers. I joined other social media outlets like Instagram and Twitter. I started following other bloggers and then other social media users on those social media outlets. Well, it turns out that most of the people that I follow are moms, dads and parents. A lot have babies. I am now JEALOUS!

I really did not start out my adulthood wanting children. Even when some of my friends were having babies, I really did not want them. Yes, they were cute and I loved them. I would take my best friend's daughter for a day or two to give her some time to herself with her husband. But I did not really want my own.

Blog Challenge - Day 28 - Last one!!

What I would do if I won the lottery...


Wow, what a dream this would be. To not have to worry about money. To quit my job. Be able to buy what I want, go where I want, do what I want.

Well, its not quite that simple...

If I won the lottery, I would buy a large piece of property, somewhere that is green and your neighbors are not on top of you. Probably somewhere like Tennessee, Kentucky or even Washington or Oregon...

I would build my dream home. Not necessarily a mansion. But one with enough space for my family. I would also have little cabins all over for family and friends to stay in when they came to visit. I may have to hire someone to come cook healthy meals for me, and a personal trainer to help me finally get healthy, and every once in a while, I would have to have someone to follow me around and slap me when I want to eat all that unhealthy stuff :)

The other thing that this property would have on it is a rescued animal sanctuary. Someplace to take all those abandoned or neglected dogs, cats, whatever... There would be a house just for them and people there 24/7 so they didn't get lonely or afraid. They would have acres to run and roam...

I would also help out my family and friends with college funds for their children (because college is really important).

I would also travel and go all of the places that I talked about on Day 9 of the challenge.

I would do good in the world, I would not be like all the rich people that you see that have to have the most expensive (fill in the blank). Or the people that spend millions of dollars on a party or on a car or anything else. I would not be selfish (okay, maybe a little). I would help those in need.

Okay, can I win the lottery now?...

Blog Challenge - Day 13

My Dream Job…


I am a social worker who works with the elderly to keep them in their homes. What I really want to be is a stay at home mom…now there are a few issues with that, continue reading to find out more…

I have been a social worker for 15 years. My first jobs were with juveniles in the juvenile detention realm. I interned at a semi residential facility for at risk youth and I also worked for a juvenile detention diversion program. Then I moved on to my “passion field,” domestic violence. I worked at a domestic violence shelter for 2 ½ years. That is a hard job. I burnt out pretty quickly. I was done by the time my family decided to move and leave the area in South Florida where we were living. When we moved to Northern Nevada I went to work for Child Protective Services, I know, the EVIL CPS!!!!! I was the one who took all the calls, I hardly ever did investigations. I was there for 4 years and then I moved to working with the elderly. I worked with this population in Northern Nevada for 4 years. Then hubby and I moved to Southern Nevada and I have worked with the same population for 2 years here. I love my job.

Blog Challenge - Day 11

My favorite foods…


Yay, one of my favorite topics!!!

So, right now, I am obsessed with SUSHI. I could eat it all day/every day! I have to have it and when I don’t I think about it (I am not sure that I have gone so far as to say I DREAM about it). The funny thing is, I resisted it for SO long. My hubby has always liked sushi and when we were first together, I tried it…I got through about 4 pieces before I actually had to spit it out and try not to puke. I did not eat it for a long time. Then, recently (2 or 3 months ago), we got California Rolls. Then I started craving it. We would go to lunch and I would try a new thing each time. This last time I actually tried a piece of sushi that had raw fish on it. I think that was the problem during the first sushi trip. It’s a texture thing. But, wonders of wonders, I was okay! It was not my favorite, but I didn’t want to throw up.

Blog Challenge - Day 9

Where do I want to visit?


Okay, I know the challenge was for 5 places, but I could not narrow it down so here are the 8 places that I want to visit...

I have always dreamed of traveling the world (the problem being that the minute I leave, all I want to do is go home). So thinking about all of the places that I want to visit, almost makes me want to pack my bags...


ANGKOR WAT

I have always wanted to go here, before it was visited by Lara Croft... It seems so magical and peaceful. The only issue that I would have is most of the toilets in this part of the world are "squat toilets" and I do not mean that they are short!!

Crazy?

I have been thinking lately... 

Would my friends and family think I was crazy if we decided to get rid of all of our stuff and travel around in the van with our pups and blog about it? I think we would be crazy…

Hubby is turning the van into an RV of sorts. He has built the bed frame and went and bought a cozy mattress for it. It will have electricity (eventually) in that there will be a solar panel on the roof attached to batteries (and whatever other magic goes in to making that work). He is planning the little kitchenette area (really just a cooler with a charcoal grill at this time, not sure if there will be running water).

We will have storage and room for our pups. He is watching lots of videos of people who do this and I am following several accounts on twitter and Instagram… It looks so freeing. I know we would have to have money. There is expense…food, gas, maintenance…cell phone bills, probably a storage bill since I know that I would not be able to get rid of everything (but, really, how LIBERATING would that be!!!)



It sounds amazing, and also scary…but life is about taking risks. RIGHT?!?!?