Sites I ADORE

As I'm getting into the spirit of all things Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to share the websites and blogs I absolutely ADORE!

Absolute Favorite - Vitalic Photo Blog.  I first stumbled upon Vitalic Photo girls when I was living in Sebastian, FL where they reside.  A mutual friend introduced me to their work and Chrissy, one of the two fabulously creative photographers.  I've been stalking their site every week since!  I just LOVE the feel of their photos and shoots.  Their editing is creative and unique without being overdone.  I am obsessed with all things Vitalic!

Site which I can spend HOURS on - Pinterest!!   Most of you are very familiar with Pinterest, pinning and boards but for those who are not, I will give you a brief overview.  It's a big, giant, web-based cork board where you can grab and pin anything and everything you like, want, desire, see or NEED from anywhere on the web!   You can even upload your own pictures to "pin".  Each pin goes on a "board" which is basically a way to categorize your pins.  Think of it as your own personal sticky note board!  Love to pin!

Most creative website I follow: Living Locurto  This is a website full of free printables, PSD downloads and overall creativity abounds from Living Locurto.  I also heart their sister-site iheartfaces.com  These gals have got their creative genes flowing and I'm proud to say I usually love all of their posts!

Health & fitness website best: My Plate Livestrong  I use this website to track my weight and calorie intake.  I'm currently using it to help me watch my caloric intake and hopefully shed a few pounds I gained over the last few weeks (months/years).  Love, love, love Livestrong!

Favorite friend website: Britta's Banter   Britta - author of self-titled Britta's Banter - is a dear friend of mine from my childhood.  I have known Britta since I was four or five so almost 100% of my life.  She is a wonderful writer, a fantastic mom to Mr. Lance and a very good friend!   I always crack up at her various topics and banter (get it? Britta's Banter).  She is one talented chick and I'm so glad to be able to call her my friend!

Industry website I frequent most:  Being in the produce industry, I rely on The Packer for my daily and weekly produce news.  I can count on The Packer for the most recent industry related news, updates on my friends and colleagues in the business and great updates on new commodities and trends.

Favorite Food website:  Skinny Taste  The name says it all - it tastes good and is good for you!  I love most everything I try from Skinny Taste and I especially appreciate that you don't need 40 unheard of ingredients to complete these recipes.  Once I make them, I can check the calorie count of each dish and log it in Livestrong.  If I really like it, I may pin it on Pinterest too!


Of course there are many more, including the very popular Facebook, LinkedIn and my Hotmail account.  Polyvore is growing on my top favorites list and with Cooper in 1st grade we are constantly on IXL, RazKidz and other education sites.   The world wide web is a very infinite wealth of knowledge, entertainment, and expression.  Let's hope the government allows it to continue to be an outlet for our constitutional right to Freedom of Speech!

What are your top sites?  Please leave me feedback and let me know!   Happy surfing!

Christmas Review

It seems Christmas has come and gone so quickly this year.  It could be because we were traveling so much over the last five weeks and haven't really had a chance to slow down yet.  So here is a brief review of our FIVE Christmas celebrations (there may have been more - I lost track)

Dec 1 - 4: Coudersport Christmas (#1)

 Dec 9 -11:  Boston visit to meet baby Lucas

Dec 17 - 18:  Only weekend home turned into a cookie production line

And Christmas #2 - gifts from Mommy

Dec 22 - 28:  Florida vacation

Christmas #3 - Christmas morning at Grandma & Grandpa's

Christmas #4 - Christmas night with Grammy & Poppy

Dec 28th return to New Jersey and Santa came while we were away!

And December 29th - we got a new member of the family (could be Christmas #6!)

WHEW!!!!  I'm exhausted!  And broke!   Cooper is overly spoiled and I realize this I promise!

*Now on to Coop's birthday celebration*

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, as always, I am most Thankful for my little mini-me Cooper.  He is my rock and my whole world.  I've told him since he was born that he is my everything and it couldn't be more accurate.  My whole world exists and is because of him!  I really don't know what I would do or who I would be without my baby!  At six years, ten months and 20 days I am sure he will argue that he's not my "baby" but that, he will always be!  I love you, baby!  

Days of December

Can you believe December is almost upon us?  This year has literally flown by!  With the holidays right around the corner, I was starting to get a little anxiety about our plans for Christmas.  We have been in New Jersey for a year now.  Last year we spent Christmas Eve with my sister and brother-in-law and his family.  On Christmas day we spent the whole day just having fun with Cooper's new toys and each other. I made a nice dinner and we both had a very relaxing, nice day.  But something was missing.

It was the first year in my thirty years that I had not spent with my parents on Christmas day.  We called and spoke to everyone over the phone, but it wasn't the same.  When we lived in Florida, my parents and grandparents would all brave the early hour and come to our house (coffee in hand) to see Cooper open his presents.  We would have breakfast there and then all gather at my parents for dinner later in the day. Even the presence of their crazy neighbor Kate became a Christmas tradition.

So spending the day alone - or just the two of us I should say - was somewhat sobering to me.  And after speaking to my mom and hearing the tears in her voice, I knew she didn't particularly like it either!  When I thought about the impending holidays this year, I became a little depressed.  I did not want a repeat of last season's air of sadness on a day that, in my childhood, was always one of the best days of the year!   (Insert "mom guilt" here!)

After speaking to my mom and grandma this week it was unanimously decided that we would fly "home" for Christmas this year.  The irony of that sentence is amazing.  I moved back to the Northeast to be closer to home, only to discover that home really is where your heart (family) is!

December is going to be a busy but fun month for us this year!   The first weekend we will be venturing back to Coudersport for our annual family Christmas celebration that just happens to revolve around the opening days of hunting season!  The second weekend we will be traveling to the Boston area to meet and cuddle the newest, cutest and most miraculous little Lucas!  And finally, from the 22nd through the 29th will be back in Sebastian, FL for a wonderful Christmas with our family!

Like I said, we will be busy, but it will be fun!  Did I mention I will be in Seattle November 29 - 31st?  Lots of traveling in my near future!


*In other news: Cooper is reading the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book and can get through most of it without even asking me what the words mean.  He just showed me a page of his self-assigned homework where he wrote out a summary of what he had read so far.  He then asked me if he could do his "homework" in YzKidz instead of playing on Monday.  I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor.  He continues to impress and amaze me on a daily basis!  

Happy Fall

On Saturday Cooper and I took a little drive down to Parvin State Park in Pittsgrove, NJ to shoot our annual photo session.  Last year we chose an abandoned farm for our photo shoot which provided a very unique and almost dark backdrop to our holiday cards.  This year, I decided we would shoot a picturesque "Fall" photo shoot.  Truth be told, I had an appointment with a local photographer last week that we ended up canceling.  I knew I had made an expensive choice in photographers but I love her work and wanted to see our portraits through her vision.  In the end, the cost overruled the potential art and we were back to square one.

So, off we went, on yet another road trip!  Complete with tripod, lenses, ideas for poses and the most handsome subject ever I set out to "capture the moment".  The leaves at Parvin were perfect!  They have been gorgeous the last two weeks and lucky for us they have not completely fallen yet!

I knew I wanted some candid shots, some posed pictures and just some cute Cooper shots too.  Mission - accomplished.  After downloading the 140+ pictures we took, I was more than pleased with the "raw" pictures.  I have been indulging in editing them ever since and hope to have some to share soon.  And I know our Christmas cards will be amazing this year.  I may even replace the large portrait in the living room of Cooper and I from our photo session when he was two!!!!

The unfortunate part of the day was that, at the end of it, I was unable to walk!  I have been battling a hip, leg, thigh, muscle, pain for over three months now.  It started in July and hasn't let up yet!  So after standing, walking and exploring for more than six hours Saturday, I was disabled!  It was very upsetting because we wanted to go for a hike Sunday and I could barely stand!  Luckily, I had come to the conclusion last week that it was time to get this issue resolved and finally scheduled an appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon for today.

Long story short, the doctor thinks I have "internal snapping hip" syndrome.  A dynamic ultrasound should confirm his theory and physical therapy has been set up to begin next week.  Let's hope this is the solution I'm so desperately needing right now!  Please!

In other news: Cooper has made his Christmas list on Amazon.com!   I cannot believe we are already planning for Christmas!   November is going fast and December is going to be BUSY.  The first weekend we are in Coudersport for a family Christmas celebration.  The next weekend we are going to Boston to meet baby Lucas and visit Allison and Ruyter!   I can't wait!  

Holiday traditions

One of our family traditions growing up involved baking.  We made tons of cookies for Christmas of course but we also made sugar cookies for every other holiday that isn't necessarily associated with cookies.  Whether it was St. Patrick's Day or Halloween, we were baking and decorating sugar cookies.  They were always made from scratch - no cookie "rolls" of dough here!  The frosting was also homemade which made it even better for licking off of  your sticky fingers!

The fun started with rolling out the dough and using some of Mom's hundreds of cookie cutters to pierce the dough in fun shapes and sizes.  Every once in awhile, if you were lucky, you could sneak a yummy taste of the raw dough from the scraps left behind.  With spatula in one hand and cookie sheet in the other, either Kelly or I would scoop the dough to the sheet inevitably getting flour all over the floor.  Once they were cooled properly on the wire rack, the real fun began.

Most decorating days involved friends or neighborhood kids.  I can honestly say I every single time I decorate a cookie now I think of our neighborhood friend "Nega". If I remember correctly "Nega" means "little niece" in Brazilian.  Her real name is Luciana.  Nega's family was not as country or home-grown as ours and we always felt Nega longed for the family life we provided.  I think that's why, more often than not, she was at our house!    And you could bet, if we were making cookies, Nega was right there in the middle of all the craziness!

Complete with homemade frosting, sprinkles, chocolate chips and usually some other random supplies we would begin!  The frosting was always divided up into different bowls with various shades of that holiday's colors.  Mixing the frosting into interesting shades of purple or blue was always a challenge!  Usually Kelly, Nega, Mom and I would sit around our round wooden kitchen table and start decorating. For week's later, frosting and sprinkles could be found in the crack of that table!  Sweet little reminders of the fun we had around that table!

As the years passed the tradition began to lose ground some as we grew "too old" to be decorating cookies in high school.  We would still make cookies for Christmas and school parties but the smaller holidays began to pass by cookie-less.  Once Kelly went off to college and Tyler remained home with us, the tradition was revived.  Tyler's decorating skills so closely resembled Nega's - the more sprinkles, the better!  And oh boy the mess a two year old can make while decorating cookies!  Whew!

As I went off to college, I would occassionally introduce various roommates to our holiday tradition.  One year I had a little helper from the four year old girl I was babysitting in college.  Even as I graduated and moved on to start my career, I would still make cookies for some holidays.  I figured out really fast that my colleagues and friends had not grown up with the same tradition and absolutely marveled over the detail of the cookies!

Cooper and I have continued the tradition (as has my sister and her kids).  We don't bake sugar cookies for every holiday but we certainly don't miss many.  And this weekend was no exception.  With Halloween tomorrow and cookies needed for school, I reverted back to my roots.  Out came the flour and rolling pin, cookie sheets and sprinkles.  Coop is usually willing to help for the first 5-10 minutes and then he abandons me with the 80+ undecorated cookies.  Today though, he was my "sprinkle master".  He probably helped for a good 25 minutes before getting bored this time.

The end result - a sea of beautiful and some overly sprinkled Halloween cookies.  Perfect for little fingers to devour at the Halloween party tomorrow.  Also good for my colleagues who are trying so desperately to lose weight!  (hehe!  I'm trying to sabotage their weight loss efforts so I can win the contest!)

Here are a few pictures of our Halloween cookies:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Weight Watchers.......again

Yep, you heard me.  I'm back on Weight Watchers.  Ironically it took a weekend of complete binging to push me over the top (of the scale).  So let me just start with this.........

STARTING WEIGHT:  137.6

Urgh!  My ideal weight would be 124-125 so as you can see I have a lot of work to do!  To add insult to fat injury - literally - I have a pulled/torn muscle to contend with while exercising too.  So it's not going to be easy!

Why Weight Watchers?  I'll tell you why!  My mom and grandma both lost enough to become lifetime members using Weight Watchers about 10-12 years ago.  Throughout the years I have tried almost every single diet fad that is out there.  Just to name a few: Flat Belly Diet, Atkins, Durkan Diet, Low Calorie, tracking everything on Livestrong and I'm sure many others I cannot remember!  Not one of these diets can compare to the easy and obvious results that Weight Watchers provides.

In 2003, my girfriend {D} and I joined the meetings in New Jersey and we loved it!  I lost 12lbs in 7 weeks and I was so happy with the results and the flexibility.  Then after having Cooper in 2005, I re-joined the new online Weight Watchers program.  The online tools and tracking were ideal for me since I couldn't really get to meetings with an infant in tow.  With the help of Weight Watchers (and to be honest a heaping pile of new mommy stress), I lost the 25lbs I gained during pregnancy AND 27lbs of pure fat!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the program, it is very simplistic.  You track every bite that goes into your mouth.  Each food has a "point" value.  The program has recently changed from calculating points based on calories, fat and fiber to using the fat, carbs, fiber and protein amounts in any given food.  This new plan encourages followers to eat more "clean" foods - fruits, vegetables, lean protein, etc - rather than 100 calorie snacks!

The main factor that I LOVE about Weight Watchers is the flexibility.  Since I began the program I have always been allowed "flex points" or bonus points for the week.  I think the flexibility allows me to know I can have a cheat night if I need to or enjoy a business dinner out when necessary.  You simply have to track what you eat and account for every single bite.

In addition, you can earn more points by exercising.  So a 45 minute workout can earn you enough points for a cupcake for example.  I try not to use the activity points, but let's be honest, I love chocolate!

So I am back on the weight loss band wagon.  Again!   It is frustrating and it is difficult but as Kate Moss said (and I repeat daily) "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

Please encourage me on my journey to find the skinny Casey within!  I need all the support I can get!

____________________________________________
Update 10-13-11
Week #1 Weigh In:
134.8
Net loss: 2.8lbs