More Gift Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Gal ;)

Luxury... luxury... might I be so bold to say that word again.... LUXXXXURRYYYYY.....

Those are luxurious (my current favorite word) goose down (not feather!!) pillows and a silk (inside and out!) comforter.

They can be purchased for your favorite wife, sister, and friend (I'm all of those! ;)...) at www.plumeriabay.com

Have fun shopping for me, Loved Ones! :)

hee heee :)

Paisley Rug

www.anthropologie.com

O' Cal-i-forn-i-a

Well, I must admit it.... I was quite glad to be back in our home state after a 5-day trip to the Orange County area of California. The traffic wore me out... never an open highway and little town- seems like you've got to drive quite a ways out of Los Angeles for that.

One thing, though... the weather there is AWESOME, duuuuude!

We went out for My Love's brother's wedding. He's a lawyer in Orange---or is it Santa Ana? Can't remember- one of those two spots. We stayed at an inn in Santa Ana and ended up driving around quite a bit to different spots:

THURSDAY
flew into LAX (will someone please inform me of what the X stands for???)
saw the bro-in-law's apt.
took some of th other little in-laws out with us to Laguna Beach for some great pics

FRIDAY
Disneyland here we come-- um, went!
California Adventure (right next door)
Wedding Rehearsal- hung out with some great kids- especially Ashley- great fun TALKING :)
Back to Disneyland for a fun ride on Indiana Jones

SATURDAY
Wedding in Santa Ana
Newport Beach with the sister and sis-in-law-soon-to-be-married
Roman Cucina for dinner- AWESOME... (What's there to celebrate??? "CHRISTOPHER'S NOT HEEEERE ANYMORRRE!!!! :)- it's an inside joke ;) )

SUNDAY
Six Flags Magic Kingdom with another bro-in-law who's hanging out in California for the summer thru Oct. and another friend

MONDAY
Rejoicing for My Love as we head back home on our flight
Awful head and sinus pain for me as I suffer from air pressure and that now-HORRIBLE dry air...
Houston we are HOME!
Enjoy the open roads and wide expanse of green on the sides of the roads heading out of the big city into the hilly countryside

mmm.....

Just here to say that I'm dreaming about that Aztec Hot Chocolate from MarieBelle...

Another good item from MarieBelle

Another good gift idea for me...

;)

MarieBelle Hot Chocolate

Calling all Chocolate connoisseurs...

You will love me for telling you about MarieBelle.

http://www.mariebelle.com

I found the adorable children's lunch box on sale at Anthropologie right around New Year's 2006. It proved to be one of the best purchases I ever made :). And the tin is so cute sitting atop my kitchen cabinets.

If anyone needs Christmas present ideas for me ;).... I like the Aztec Original Hot Chocolate :).

hint hint...

Avatar Frustrations

Grr...

Anyone ever dealing with avatars having to be a certain size (namely 100x100 pixels) might under the frustration of not having a resizing capability on their computer...

Grr...

So those pieces of artwork I uploaded were pics that I *wanted* to used as avatars....

Another piece of gorgeous artwork...

I love this piece of artwork...

Good Links

So I guess some might call this stealing...others might call it sharing/passing along great links :).

Found these at a blog I keep up with: www.sliceofpink.com

www.knockknock.biz
www.loftparty.com
www.mightygoods.com
www.giftedgrasshopperchildrenbooks.com
www.roomservicehome.com
www.fabulousstationery.com
www.wonderfulgraffiti.com

Have fun browsing. :)

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You? :)

This test is more appropriate for me--- I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME! :)

You Are Rudolph

Sweet and shy, you tend to be happiest when you're making someone else happy. Why You're Naughty: You sometimes stick that nose where it doesn't belong Why You're Nice: Christmas would be a sad affair without you!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

What Kind of Meat Are You? :)

You Are Duck

Exotic and unusual, you are a bit of a rare bird - literally.You're known for being soft and succulent, though at times you can be a bit greasy.

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofmeatareyouquiz/">What Kind of Meat Are You?

Impulsive?

Found this on my friend Rachel's site :).

You Are 51% Impulsive

You're quite impulsive, but you never are reckless.You qualify as a very spontaneous person, but you still know how to honor your commitments.And while responsibility doesn't come easy to you, having fun does!

Busy Days= Busy Weeks

Well, my 6 days a week of exercising has now dwindled to 4....

I was going to go to the 5:30 AM class on Tuesdays since I would miss the 8 AM class due to a 7:30 AM babysitting job... but My Love has convinced me to not go on those days since he doesn't have to leave super-early for the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I gave in :). Plus, I don't like leaving him all alone at the house for so long ;).

And what was going to be my Saturday of of two exercise classes (Pilates and Salsa) is no virtually non-existent... due to busy weekends from last Saturday all through the month of September... oh WAIT! I'll get to go exercise the Saturday of Sept. 30th :).

Here's what my schedule ends up looking like...
Monday: Exercise, Babysit/Clean House/s
Tuesday: Babysit
Wednesday: Exercise, Babysit
Thursday: Exercise, Babysit Family #1, Babysit Family #2
Friday: Exercise- maybe 2 classes if possible, Babysit
Saturday: 9/2 CR100 River Race, 9/9 San Antonio/Fiesta Texas trip, 9/16 River Race in San Marcos, 9/23 California trip for My Love's brother's wedding, 9/30 PILATES and SALSA woohoo!!!

And did you know that I even bought myself some cute, pink adult ballet slippers? I now I can't even use them until the end of next month! :( GRRR....(Think of that said in a very delicate, pilates style stance ;)...)

ta ta till I think of more to talk/rave/complain about/mention....
-magsmeaning :)

My Nigella Friends

Well, twas a sad day today when I found out that when I/we would have to limit our conversations to food, kitchen, and Nigella subjects on one of my favorite websites, nigella.com. But I understand. Things can get heated when you stray from those subjects-- I do say, what IS there to get heated about when you talk about macaroni, soup ladels or Nigella Lawson?! :)

So, I devised a plan, with permission from the the administrators, to start a thread where we can post our blog addresses, if we'd like, so that we can all keep in touch about subjects others than those listed previously. And naturally, when you have a bunch of foodies together that enjoy a certain common subject, they then find that they have other things in common which they want to talk about.

All that to say, I don't want to give up the friendships that came out of other topics besides food, kitchen, and Nigella.

Anyhowwwww :)...

Welcome to my blog, friends from nigella.com! :)
-margaret

Weight Watchers and Exercise

Coming soon... a leaner, more fit me! :)

Well, I hope so at least ;). I've started WeightWatchers back up and have been going to 5-6 classes of aerobics each week. I'm currently in my second week. I've done rather good with the WeightWatchers this last week and am quite proud of myself- in a good way :).

I had the most horrible experience with weighing in at aerobics- it's optional- but I decided to see what that nasty number was.... well it was pretty bad. And I've only agreed to write the number down in the "weight log" journal IF it has dropped at all by next Monday (the day for weigh-in each week). So even if it drops only 0.01 lbs, I'll log it.... I'm hoping for something more like a loss of 10 lbs! ;) hee hee....

I know it sounds like a lot for someone as short as me, but I'd like to lose upwards of 50-60 lbs. I can remember being at that goal weight, and I was happy then- and NOT thin, but NOT heavy. It was that perfect size :) for being toned and fit.

We'll see.... I just need to take it one step at a time. Day by day. As Elisabeth Elliott Gren says, "Just do the next thing."

Profile Picture

Just trying to figure out how to post a picture on my profile. That's all :)

I'm Going to be a Piano Teacher!

I got a call the other day from homeschooling mom/photographer in the area who asked me to teach her three oldest kids piano! :) They're just beginners- just right for me- since I'm no professional yet ;).

And then just as I was telling the aerobics instructor that I was going to be teaching piano, she asked me if I could teach her daughter- just a beginner, also! :) I'm so excited!

I've decided on $10/per 30 minute lesson :). I'll teach the homeschooling kids at their house here in town, and then I'll teach Kennedy at my parents' house- I miss that great piano since I got married!

We actually have a piano at our house- it was a gift from my mom's mom- an antique- which is severly out of tune :(.... So I'm glad my mom is willing to let us use her piano! :)

Tommorrow, I plan on going into the big city :) to go stock up on some good teaching materials for beginner pianists. Can't wait!

Exercise!

Looks like my life of exercise is starting back up! :) I'm going to be starting up with the exercise group at the exercise/dance academy :). My mom and sister both go and they really like it- and it's a great group of women, too :). From Mon-Fri, except Tues, I'll go to the 8 am class. On Tues, I'll go to the 5:30 am class- early, I know! :) I babysit at 7:30 am on Tuesdays, so that's why I'm taking that EXTREMELY early class.

While it's still Summer, Fridays have been walking/running club at the mini-park. I had a great time huffing and puffing away as I speedily walked along. There was five of us walking: me, my mom, the aerobics instructor, another woman named Julie, and then a girl from the instructor's drill team at the high school.

I think I'm really going to enjoy the variety of the exercises- and doing them together as a group. Aerobics is so much more enjoyable when you can laugh at yourself with others :).

Oh, and did I mention that really poured out that sweat today?!

Afterwards, we ate breakfast (the newly created ;) Dance Academy Special for us healthy people) at the new restaurant in town. It was great! :) Plain yogurt with sweet fruit and granola and homemade whole wheat toast. I was so self-controlled and didn't use any butter ;).

Lonely

I think I've lost my followers... by that, I mean, those that read my blog and actually comment ;).

It's kind of lonely... more like I'm really writing for myself now- which I guess is a good thing. There's not need to please anyone else or to wonder "What will others think about me?"

Now it's just me, the typing and the internet.

Feel free to comment if you really are out there...maybe I'll just comment on my own posts....