Tea Time

I truly do miss this blog and all my milspouse bloggy friends!  Coming back soon with regular posts, but for now here are a few pictures my sister-in-law's baby shower today: 

I love having a reason to get pretty - especially when hubby is in a wonderful mood and takes ALL the boys shopping all day, giving me time to curl my hair, put on makeup, and even paint my fingernails.

It was a 'Ladies Tea Party' complete with HATS!  I used it as an excuse to get another wearing out of my new dress (from the Marine Corps Ball) before I shrink out of it.  It's already loose on me compared to a couple weeks ago!

The Scarlet Tea Room is beautiful, but WAY out of my own price range. I looked up their menu online ahead of time to see if there was anything 'healthy' for me to eat, and noticed that their five course afternoon tea service is normally $32 per person!  Wow.  Everything was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, though. 

I enjoyed the green tea so much, I had FOUR cups of it.  I've been drinking nothing but water for the past few months with this weight-loss challenge, so I was worried about calories.  Now I'm laughing at myself for worrying: I looked up the nutrition info on unsweetened green tea, it has all of TWO calories per 8 oz cup of tea!

I stayed away from these beautiful home-made scones......I know for a FACT they are way too high in calories AND fat for this girl.

I also skipped eating this adorable cookie:

(brought it home for hubby instead)

I tried to sip some champagne, but since I have not had ANY alcohol in three months, the first sip literally went right to my head.  Second sip was my LAST sip.

I had so much fun being GIRLY today, but I still love coming home to all my BOYS.  Life is beautiful!

music linkup week 40: Grow Old With You

I seriously hope I am not posting a duplicate song here.  Since this is one of my favorite songs of all time, from one of my favorite MOVIES of all time, it won't surprise me if it turns out I already posted this song earlier in the year.

If you have not seen The Wedding Singer yet, you are so totally missing out!  I love Adam Sandler AND Drew Barrymore, and even better, I used to live right down the street from the house that was used in the movie as the girls' house (in Sierra Madre, CA).  Awesome 80's music throughout the soundtrack, and a truly adorable story with lovable characters.

OK I'll stop gushing now, you get the point, right?

So, there's a scene where Adam Sandler's character sings this to his love, and it is AWESOME.  Like, TOTALLY, dude! ;)

I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy. Make sure you watch this clip to the end! It's short, I promise.

Have you linked up your jam yet this week?  If not, go say hello to Amber (check out her awesome giveaways and even more awesome Etsy shop while you're there) and check out what everyone else is dancing to right now.  Then POST your song so we can dance along with you!

This button will get you there:

music linkup week 39: Running To Stand Still

WHOA, almost missed my weekly music linkup with Amber! 

The reason I almost missed it is that I have been going crazy, spinning my wheels, just BUSY BUSY BUSY.  For a taste of what I've been up to, you can check out my weight loss blog http://www.thinit2winit.wordpress.com/  I feel like I am running just to stand still! 

Which brings me to this week's song choice: Running To Stand Still by U2.

I'm honestly not sure what this song is ABOUT (probably drug use/abuse?) but I always liked the sound of it, and sing along to it whenever it comes on my iPod. (which is usually while I am RUNNING, these days!  YEAH!)

Have you linked up yet?  Go say howdy to Amber over at Goodnight Moon and share YOUR song for the week.  I wanna hear what you're grooving to!

Happy 236th Birthday Marines!

This year's Marine Corps Ball was absolutely amazing!  I've lost over 30 lbs in the last 8 weeks, so I was super excited to be able to buy a SIZE 18 dress instead of a SIZE 24.  (thanks, by the way, to those of you who helped me pick a dress!  I ended up wearing the one my hubby liked best, since he was the one who actually had to be SEEN with me all night.  But the dark blue one that got the most votes will probably be my dress for the 'finale' of my Vallley's Biggest Loser competition in a couple weeks.)

My mother-in-law came out to spend the weekend so she could stay with the kids, but since Bobblehead still nurses to sleep at night & again first thing in the morning, we decided not to get a hotel room.  Our ball was about an hour away, but this is SoCal - we drive that far on a daily basis around here. 

My friend and fellow contestant in Valley's Biggest Loser (and fellow milspouse) came over and did my hair & makeup.  I mostly wanted the false eyelashes, but she also gave me a beautiful airbrushed complexion that needed NO touch-ups all night!  I re-did my lipstick a few times over the course of the evening, but that was it.  My hair really does NOT hold any curl, but after she spent three long hours on my look, she added some extra hairspray just to be sure.  Amazingly, the curls held all night.  (Thanks Shannon!!!)

hair/makeup BEFORE

hair/makeup AFTER

The food was all delicious this year, but NONE of it was OK to eat on my current diet. I had a few selective bites of chicken & veggies, and had my salad with NO DRESSING. When they set the ridiculously beautiful cheesecake in front of us, I simply passed my plate to my husband - I knew if I tasted even one bite of it, I would eat the whole piece. (Thanks, hubby, for saving me from my former favorite dessert!)

Our guest of honor this year was R. Lee Ermey, and he was seriously HILARIOUS.  He was also very nice about making sure everyone at the ball had a chance to get an autograph or a picture, so we lined up for that almost as soon as the meal was over.  We even got the professional photo done this year, but won't get that until the next drill weekend, which is in December.  I'll definitely post that as soon as we get it!

Our coodinator this year set up an adjacent ballroom with space for the photographer & a mini "casino".  They had a craps table and a handful of blackjack tables.  No actual money involved, of course, but the longer you played, the more raffle tickets you could get, and at the end of the night they drew tickets for a couple of free trips to Vegas.  We didn't win, but Jarhead really enjoyed the whole thing!  In the end, we spent so much time in the casino room, we didn't get to dance because the DJ left EARLY.....like 11 PM (because NO ONE was dancing.  WTH?).  There was a high school reunion and some kind of formal party also at the same hotel, so we briefly toyed with the idea of crashing one of those parties to get our dance on, but in the end we skipped it.

It was just as well that we skipped the dancing, since my feet were KILLING me after a few hours in these 5 inch heels:

I actually limped out to the parking garage at about 10:30 PM to change into my 'backup shoes' and was SO SO happy that I had thought to bring them!  I mostly wanted an option that would be easy for me to drive home in, since I knew hubby was planning to drink a bit.  **ha ha A BIT?  He had like 8 Vodka/Red Bulls in about 4.5 hours.  He was SHITFACED.** 

Hubby basically never drinks, but if he hadn't, we'd never have gotten a picture of him SMILING!  I love this picture, & have already ordered a print to have framed.  Yes, he looks extra goofy  but it's so dang CUTE.  LOVE, love, love seeing him smile & relax, especially after the past 11 months of tangible stress.

music linkup week 38: Paint It Black

Music linkup time again....ALREADY?!?!  Wow this week went by SO FAST.

Last Saturday was our Marine Corps Ball, and check out the guest of honor:

Yes, that's really R. Lee Ermey!  I'll blog about the ball later (SOON, I hope!)  In the meantime, enjoy the song that plays during the credits of the movie that made Gunny Ermey famous, Full Metal Jacket.  The song?  Why, "PAINT IT BLACK", of course!

**WARNING, before you click, you should know that this video contains very graphic violence.  If you are squeamish (like me) then just listen to the music and DON'T watch the screen**

Rock on, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES!

Don't forget to go visit Amber over at Goodnight Moon and link up YOUR song this week!

music linkup week 37:Money Honey

My whirlwind schedule is full of working out this week, and I desperately need to squeeze in more sleep somewhere (sleep is a KEY ingredient in weight loss!)

In the interest of stealing some more sleep, this post will have to be short and sweet.  I can't explain why this specific song always makes me push a little harder in a workout, but if it is not in your workout playlist, IT SHOULD BE!

Lady Gaga has saved more workouts than I can count!  I don't care if you love her, hate her, whatever, but just TRY not to have any extra bounce in your step with a Gaga beat in your ear.

Have you linked up yet?  If not, go see Amber over at Goodnight Moon (click the button below) and share YOUR song for this week!