80's Night! Totally Tublar!

So on Friday some friends and I had an 80's party. It was a blast! We made it into a slumber party to. It was like we were teenagers again!

We all got decked out in our 80's finest, and jammed to 80's music all night. We did those great activities from back in the day, like MASH, Pop Rocks, Dip n Sticks, made cootie catchers (remember those?!), painted our nails neon colors, and all that fun stuff :)

We of course busted out the 80's movies...my favorite Valley Girls. Oh Nicholas Cage, how I loved him in that movie. And we also watched 16 candles and Girls Just Want To Have Fun. hehe As the night went on we did a game of Truth and Dare, although not to many people would pick dares. Except Wendi of course! Once dare we gave her was to send her hubby dirty text messages. :p

We than put a twist on the I never game, by making it into a drinking game. What whores we are! LOL We found out everyones dirty little secrets. tee hee I think Ill lay off the pucker for a long time now. 15 shots of that and I felt like I might toss my cookies! LOL

6 of us turned it into a slumber party. Busted out the air mattresses and snuggled in to one last movie. A much needed girl time! And we woke up to our wonderful hostesses cooking us breakfast. Thanks Wendi :)

I got voted best 80's costume :) I was loving my leg warmers. We are going to see the Mega 80's next weekend (a cover band), and I think I might just have to bust them out again. :) (To bad Im never smiling in any pictures! I so unphotogentic)





LOL Good Times. Good Times. Heres a link to the pictures if you want to see the rest of them :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/sgtpepperette/80SSlumberParty#

HYC - Week 4 - Take the bad with the good...

This past week wasn't my greatest week. I gained 1.4lbs, which considering some of the stuff I ate isn't to bad. Im finding that when Im out at restaurants its really hard to make good choices. I think first of all there isnt that many healthy options, and also that I feel a little rushed so just make a quick decision, which is usually an unhealthy one. I also have been indulging in the fruity, ice cream alcoholic drinks, which we all know is not a smart choice!

So Im on a mission. To conquer eating out. Well maybe not conquer it just yet, but at least make some strides in being successful in my choices. I plan to research restaurants online before I get there. I will have more time to find a healthier options. I also plan to make up my own meal. I don't necessarily have to chose what they have on the menu, I can mix and match. I also am putting a stop to the fruity drinks. If I want, I can enjoy a lite beer. If you have any other suggestions on how to be successful eating out, Id love to hear them!

I mentioned before how I am doing a support group in regards to my healthy lifestyle with some friends as well. Well when you gain weight you get a pig sticker on our graph. I got one this week, and 2 other girls did to. We have made a pact that when we are out together we are to help each other make healthier choices, we were doing the complete opposite!

So Ill have good weeks, and Ill have bad weeks. Its just part of the game. Its what I do after those bad days, and bad weeks that matter. Brush myself off, and keep on moving. The bad eating went hand in hand with lack of exercise last week, so I have committed to only 2 rest days, no matter what this week. Re-focusing, its gets a little bit easier every time ;)

White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake

So tonight Im going to the Pink Ladies 1st annual Christmas Party :) Im looking forward to it! I volunteered to bring a desert. White Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake. Grant and I made this last year and it went over really well, and was so yummie. So last night I attempted to make the cheesecake. What exactly was I thinking? LOL You should of seen the kitchen when I was done. Im so baking/cooking challenged!

What You Need:

1-1/2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs

3 Tbsp. sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

4 squares BAKER'S White Chocolate, melted

4 eggs

1 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

16 miniature candy canes

Make It

HEAT oven to 325°F. Line 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends extending over sides of pan. Mix graham crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 10 min.

BEAT cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and extract in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream and chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan before cutting to serve. Top each piece with a dollop of COOL WHIP and candy cane just before serving.

So what the cheesecake should look like is posted above. Mine didnt look so great, but Im sure it will taste just as great. At least the batter did. :p When I took it out of the oven I noticed that it looked a little burnt....not sure if it was the cheesecake that was burnt or the grahm cracker layer on the bottom....I was pretty bummed. Its not the prettiest cheesecake, but its the thought that counts right?

Of course that is without the cool whip and candy canes, which is topped once its cut. I hope it tastes good. lol I seem to have come down with a really bad sore throat, and am feeling a bit under the weather. Which kind of sucks. Im letting it get me down though :)

Now time to go find my white elephant gift exchange item.....

Adopt A Family - One Way To Give Back This Holiday Season

The Pink Ladies adopted a family this Christmas Season. The family was a single mother of four children. 3 boys (ages 12, 10, 9) and a 2 year old girl. We were able to provide 6 gifts for each child. There were so many presents :)

So today we went to deliver the gifts to the family. There were 9 Pink Ladies that made the trip out. As we got to the townhouse, and we all carried in the gifts, the children's faces lit up like a Christmas tree. Seeing their faces really just made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. They were so excited, which made me excited!

Ive always wanted to get involved in helping a family, but shamefully never looked into it. Or never thought we would be able to help out an entire family. (Now I realize I could help out single kids through different programs, and it doesnt have to be an entire family). While money is still strapped this holiday season, participating as a group was the perfect way to give back. Being able to help out a family with the Pink Ladies was such an amazing feeling. I'm so glad Wendi organized this for us. It was such a great feeling to know even though this family may be having hard times, they can still experience joy on Christmas morning.

The family gave us a thank you card, and all thanked us again. I hope the kids enjoy their gifts, and the mother stress will be eased for Christmas day. I can only imagine how it must feel to not be able to give your children the Christmas you would want them to have. Im so glad that we could help this family out. This is something I defintely will be doing every year. :)

Tonight as I watched Grant wrap a gift he bought for a child that his work is helping out, I got that warm and fuzzy feeling all over again. It brings an overwhelming joy to know that we can help out where we can. Pay it forward, a motto everyone should live by..dont you think? Tis the season!

Warrior Within

So today I took a four hour self defense class with the Pink Ladies. It was so much fun, and really informative! The class was at a Innergetics, a small martial arts studio. The instructor was a retired Detroit police officer.

The first two hours was going over scenarios, and how to prevent crimes. While a lot of that stuff seems like common sense, its amazing on how much stuff you do that really does open you up to the opportunity to be a victim of a crime. The second two hours, we went over basic self defense moves, kicks, punches, and safe ways to fall. The instructor kept telling us that woman are the warriors. Everyone of us has a warrior inside just waiting to come out. And once you got in those positions, protecting yourself, and throwing those punches and kicks...I truly did feel the warrior coming out. I felt strong. I could feel the ROAR coming out. Cheesy right? Yeah I know Im a big cheeseball sometimes.

Some of things we learned were.....when someone grabs your arms or hands and wont let go..how to get out of their grasp. When your in a bar and that one guy wont leave you alone and wants to dance...we learned how to tell him no, get out of his grasp, and push him down. We learned how to get out of choke holds, stop a choke hold before it happens, and from being attacked at the throat from behind. We also practice on how to do many different kicks. My favorite part was the punches. Being a girl I always thought I had "girl punches". So it was fun to punch and feel like your really kicking some butt! Than we learned how to fall safely. Which was harder than you think! And lastly, we learned if you were jumped on and arms were held while in a bed, from front and back, how to throw the man off of you.

Id definitely be interesting in practicing more of this in a studio. While its a great workout, there is also something empowering about being able to protect yourself for what may happen to you in the real world. Having the tools to not feel fear, or to face your fears in any situation. While there is such a physical part to this, there is also a very big mental aspect to. Finding your inner peace, and building the strength inside as well as the outside. Lately Ive really been trying to work on that, inner peace.

One of my coworkers practices a form of martial arts. She just got involved with it the last few months. And to hear her stories about class, about how its helping her through a difficult time in her life is really inspiring. I can feel the excitement in her expressions and words. I can see her transforming, and its pretty exciting.

Im glad we took the class. And the instructor said he will do a 4 hour part 2 class for us. So hopefully we will get signed up for that again. Im really enjoying trying out all these new classes. Its opening up possibilities that I really never thought of before. Now to decide which ones I want to follow through with.....decisions. Decisions.

Weekend Updates

Its been an eventful weekend to say the least. I had some good quality time with friends and family. It started on Thursday. I went with the PL to see Josh Blue. He his the comedian that won last comic standing. He was hilarious. Seriously, I havent laughed that hard in a long time! Grant would of loved him, so I got him the DVD. :)

Friday was a pretty low key night. We just hung out at home getting chores done, and catching up on some tv.

Saturday I was heading over to Wendi's for a spa/game night. Crazy combo? More like fun combo! There was about 15 of us there. And we got mani/pedi's, massages, and than played some games. We played American Idol on the WII. I even got up and sang. Can you believe that?! I sang tainted love. LOL And we all were taught the cupid shuffle. Damn I have no rhythm. I am so akward looking when I dance. At least I think so. Im sure people dont even care what I look like. I like hanging with these girls, they are pulling me right out of my shell. Something that is good for me :)

Sunday was a little to heavy for me. I went over my sister, Kellys, house. And my other sister, Robin, and all my newphews and niece were over. It was my newphews birthday, and the kids were carving their pumpkins. We had a discussion about the event of spreading my dads ashes. Since I have chosen to not go due to the issues my mother and I are having, I let them in on that. They surprised me with telling me that they will not do this without me. They have already tried to talk my mom from going, but she is refusing. So they are going to talk to her again. They thought they could set boundaries with her, that she can not talk about her "new life", or try to make amends with me. But they know is she agrees with that, she wont be able to stick with it. So think its best if we go on two separate trips. Now to just get her to split up the ashes may be a difficult task. We shall see where that goes. It was nice to hear them support my decision. I just dont want this situation turn into a negative experience. Its a time to remember the memory of my dad, and I just dont think I can do that with my mom there, nor do I think she can do this without making the weekend about her.

I cant believe the things my mother is doing right now. I dont understand her, and never will.

So it was a good mixture this weekend, except trying to deal with the feelings with my mother. Spending time with the PL has really helped my moods lately though, they are a fun bunch of girls :)

Pink Ladies

So I browse meetup.com from time to time to see if there are groups maybe I could join and meet new friends. Since my dad passed, and with all the changes Ive gone through in the last few months it seems my friends have become more sporadic. Im not sure if its me sheltering myself from them, or its them not knowing how to be there for me. All in all, it just sucks. I have heard that when someone loses a parent, that a lot of friends exit, and new friends enter. Sometimes people cant handle that you've changed and want the old you back. Or simply just dont know how to be there for you, so you need to tell them. (But Im not sure how I need them to be there, at least not right now.) New friends never knew the old you, so can be there for you in ways maybe your old friends cant. Not that Im looking for friends to help me grieve so to speak. But really just missing the connection of friends. I would love to just go out and laugh. Have fun again. Not be so sad. With new friends that sometimes can be easier since they dont know everything that has happened, ya know?

So Ive decided to make a more conscious effort to find new friends. Not lock myself up in the house with my depression. And hopefully one day Ill be able to reconnect with those old friends, once I get more into the healing process and better understand how hard it was for them or that they didnt know what to do.

So I joined one group but only made it to one get together where one other person showed up. I did fall upon this other group called the Pink Ladies. Now first I love anything Pink. And second I LOVE GREASE! So of course I joined. Its a group of woman from late 20's to early 40's. This group is so active. There are meetups going on all month. From 2-4 a week sometimes. And the range of activities is fun. Stuff I like, and stuff Id love to try. When I joined it was right after the Boston 3 Day, so I didnt get a chance to get out to anything. And than I was fundraising and training for Michigan, so I didnt get out to anything in September either. But now that the 3 day season is over, I can start meeting up with these ladies. So this past Friday I went to my first meetup. Dinner, Movie, and Drinks.

I had a blast! These woman were so welcoming. They were really easy to talk to, and I felt like I had known them for years. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, than went and saw the movie, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Great movie by the way :) Than grabbed a few drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings afterwards. Im glad that I decided to step out of my comfort zone and go. Im really looking forward to getting to know these woman better. This was just the type of group I was looking for. :)