CA Girl

It is Friday...time to share some thoughts and pics and link up with my bestie! 1.  I think I need to get me some chocolate. I have been wanting some for a while now. The scary thing about chocolate is once you go there it's hard to stop. I know for a fact, I will not gain 20 pounds from a single bar of chocolate unless the bar is also 20 pounds. I just worry about the effects chocolate/candy has on us. It's very real. Sugar is a dangerous thing! Sigh. 2.  I want to write for a living. Who doesn't? I guess someone out there does not. I saw a writing opportunity that would be perfect for me. I can do the type of writing they wanted. However, they wanted a year of experience, they wanted it to be within the company itself(why advertise?) and so forth. 3.  Every day you should laugh. We need laughter. It keeps us young at heart. I laugh at myself mostly. My mental age on any given day is about 12, and sometimes I am a boy. I guess that explains my appreciati...

     I gained 1.6 pounds this week. I am not worried. It happens. The truth is, our bodies have a natural  algorithm which it follows and if you track your weight whether you are losing weight or not you will see a pattern in your weight. Mine is always the same. I lose a little, a little, a little, then I do some big ones and then a gain. Sometimes it's because I ate too many cookies, sometimes it's because I am retaining water...it happens. Then there is exercise. Yes, exercise can actually show a gain. No, muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of fat and a pound of muscle both weigh the same. Muscle just takes up less space than fat. Also, when you are exercising your muscles create tears and those tears produce glycogen that will repair any damages. You know when you feel sore after a strenuous workout? That is your body repairing itself, and don't be surprised by a gain at the scale. Once your muscles feel better the scale will go back down. Never give up...

It's not even Friday and I am linking up with my bestie, Emmy ! She does this beautiful meme once  month where we focus on the things that made us smile. It is a reminder that there is still good around us each and every day! Okay enough of the sticky stuff. Let's get on with the smiles. 1. Tying a bow tie for the first time. Plus the model is super cute. 2. We Californians get very excited about that stuff. 3. A much needed haircut. It got postponed 3 times. I was long overdue!! 4. Going to visit my bestie...it was long long overdue. 5.  Playing Guitar Hero with said Bestie and totally sucking at it. It was sad, but so hilarious!  6. Kristin and I do yoga at home for a lot of reasons...it's free, it's convenient, and to be honest we would be kicked out of public yoga classes because we are loud, pick on each other, and laugh LOUDLY. I honestly have the best time with her.  7. Speaking of Kristin, she teaches the 3 year olds at ch...

The phrase "million dollar smile" is probably not far from the truth for some people. Dental work is expensive there is no doubt about it. Some even joke that they should have taken up dentistry for the amount they are dishing out to care for their mouths. However, is it really the dentist who is making the money in the end? Some would agrue that yes indeed they are. I would venture to guess that they are not suffering terribly, however let's look at their schooling costs. " Most dental practitioners genuinely care about people but they also have to pay some hefty bills. As a pre-dental student headed into professional school, dental school alone will cost $200,00. That doesn’t include the cost of the undergrad degree which is another $100,000."( Source) They also talk about the enormous overhead that a private practice typically has (70%). The cost of the equipment and so forth. The chairs cost almost as much an economy car ranging from 10K and toppi...

It's Friday and I am linking up with my bestie Emmy for her Friday Five! 1.  Speaking of my bestie, I got to see her for the first time in months....MONTHS! I don't know how long it had been. Our kids were very excited to see each other. And then they played Minecraft. They still had fun. 2.  I made two new recipes this week. I am surprised my family didn't fall down dead. They are very conditioned. One is the loaded baked potato its good! The other is the poverty meal. Cheap, easy and tasty! 3.  I am going to create a space in my room for a desk. There is mountain of clutter. I may or may not post the clutter, but when the finished product is finally there I will definitely post that!  4.  If I had magical powers...you know like Samantha from Bewitched...I would not be nice like her. I would be more like her mother...Endora. It's why I cannot have power.  5.  Have you ever had an unidentified craving and you just look...

     I am not on a diet. I do not buy prepared meals and fix separate meals for my family. Who does that? I do not have that kind of time! Besides, I can imagine those packaged deals do not taste all that good anyway. I do have prepared foods in a sense. I make big batches of soup that are healthy and friendly to the way I eat then I preserve them into mason jars and poof! Soup for days. You can do the same with salads. I am sure you have seen these. I do not put my salad dressing in the bottom but you can. Salad dressing, meats, cheeses, veggies, and greens. Seal it and these will last 7-10 days. As for salad dressings I choose Walden Farms available at most grocery stores.  No calories and gluten free. It is thick and tasty.  This week, I lost 1.8 pounds. My body gave big, Sometimes it does. I have officially recovered the Christmas damage, which wasn't terrible. I allowed myself to gain because I wanted the goodies. I didn't gain terribly and I wa...

Photo credit      Ever since I can remember I have been planning and dreaming of the day my children will go to college. I even told them as they progressed in school how important this stage of their education in life would be. Inside two things plagued my mind deeply: I did not go to college myself and how on earth would I ever fund three children through college?      A little over three years I made a decision that would forever change my life and emphasize my point evermore the importance of furthering your education beyond high school: I started going to college online. Technology has allowed us the fantastic opportunity to learn anywhere in the world. School is now at our very fingertips! Still the aspect of college tuition times three weighed heavily on my mind. There are many options with scholarships, federal aid, grants and so on and they could always attend a state college making it cost less. As my oldest moved through high school ...