VACATIONS FROM THE PAST

We are about to take another wonderful family vacation. I will fill you in on the details of our trip when we return.

As a tribute to the past I thought I would go back in time and share some of our past vacations. So here is my Friday Photo Flashback:

Play along with Friday Photo Flashback.


1995 - Hawaii
This was one of the first vacations that Eric and I ever went on together.

1997 - Mackinac (Mackinaw) Island
If you have never been here it is a really fun place to go.

This is a picture of Eric and I on the fairy over to the island. Oh to be in my early 20's again!

1998 - Cruise in the Caribbean
This was also our Wedding in St. Thomas and honey moon.

2005 - Naples Florida

Luke was two and this trip was the first time he had ever flown on an airplane. It was exciting. The photo was of a boat cruise we took and he hated it! He was one grumpy kid this whole cruise, the good part was it was just us and one other couple on the boat. We have a video recording of this somewhere.

2006 - Mackinaw Island (again) This really is one of our favorite vacation spots. It is such a fun family type place.

Here is a photo of Luke after we took an island tour by horse. On this island their are no cars allowed. You either travel by walking, riding a bike or by horse. What I love about this photo is to this day you can ask Luke about this trip and he will tell you that the horses in this photo are named Molly and Sam.
2008 - Destin Florida


This was last summers vacation and Thomas's first vacation with us. Every afternoon he took a nap under the big umbrella on the beach. It was so cute to see. Don't you just love those chunky legs.

For Aloha Friday, my question this week is:
Where is your favorite vacation destination?
Obviously you can tell we really like the water and going to the beach.

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

All Banged Up

I am in vacation mode this week and I was all set to post about some of our past vacation trips.

Then last night Thomas was standing on the toilet playing in the sink (something he is not supposed to do) and he falls off the toilet and hits his eye on the space heater under the sink. Leaving behind this horrible looking scratched up and bruised eye. The good news is he only cried for a moment after it happened. The bad news he did not learn anything from it because 5 minutes later he was standing on the toilet playing in the water again.

His little eye looked much worse last night and this was left behind this morning when I took the picture.

Go visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

Happily Sitting On The Potty

Thomas is finally becoming compliant to sitting on the potty. For the longest time he would yell, “No, No” when I would ask him to sit on the potty. Something has finally changed and here recently every time he pees in his diaper he tells me “die-er, die-er, (diaper) and then he goes and grabs his little potty. I take off the still warm wet diaper and sit him on the potty. The fact that he identifies one action with another is a great start.

He rarely pees in the potty, most of the time he sits happily and if I am not watching closely he will stand up and pee all over my floor. Personally I think he likes to pee standing up just because he will sit forever and do nothing and moments later he will stand up and it flows like a river onto the floor.

I am always happy to see his smiling face sitting on the potty clapping because he thinks he is pleasing me. Of course we do have a new problem, he finds it hysterical to lean forward and tip over while on the potty. He laughs and laughs as he says “whoopsie”. This is fine and cute while the potty is empty but when he starts peeing in it, it is going to be quite the mess and not nearly as entertaining to mom.

Motivate Me Monday

It’s Motivate Me Monday and I have no clue how I am going to get any exercising in this week. Friday we are leaving for vacation and I have a million things I must do before we go. Hopefully I can ad a few work outs into my week but I am not going to hold my breath.

I would like to say I have been doing really well the past few weeks. I have been working out extra hard and I bought myself something new to work out with. I bought the EA Active Sports for the Wii. I really like this because it creates custom work outs (something new everyday) or you can go in and create your own workout. It counts the calories that you burn as you go and does a variety of different exercises from cardio, to sports, weight training. I like to put in a good hour work out each time so I do one of the work outs it creates and then I have put together a few of my own that are all cardio based. So I burn about 200 calories, work out for an hour and have a really nice sweat going before it is all said and done. Oh and I have lots of fun in the process.

The one thing I don’t like about it, it expects you to do certain weight training move exactly, with out moving or wiggling, etc. The trainer will stop, and make you repeat and sometimes I get mad because I repeat something over and over and it doesn’t recognize that I have done it again. I would like to say I am not wiggling because I don’t know how to do the exercises correctly or that I am not strong enough, I am wiggling because I have a toddler, going under my legs, tugging on my legs etc. It is impossible to hold still when he is working out with me.

So for the next two weeks I will drink lots of water. Work out a little this week, between packing, shopping and cleaning, next week I hope to get to go for a couple runs on the beach with my husband and enjoy our vacation.

So what motivates you this week? What are you doing for your health? Just remember support is everything and don’t ever give up. We are all stronger than we think.

Skin Care

Aloha Friday # 33

Recently I went to a skin care party held by a friend of mine. She showed us all these really nice but really expensive exfoliation products, skin rejuvenation products and cleansing products. Very nice stuff but also very, very expensive products, I am not talking $50 but in the $100+ dollar range for very tiny bottles of stuff. By nature I am a very cheap person and this type of stuff is so out of my league.

As she is going through her sales pitch she keeps pointing out how many people are resorting to plastic surgery and how these are better alternatives. This seems like the wrong sales pitch for me because I have never considered plastic surgery of any type. I am fine with my skin and my looks. I am not a vain person, I except what God has given me as it is.

At the end of the session she had everyone do a UV light test to show the damage to our skins from the sun etc. Of course I have sun damage, I am 34 years old and rarely, if ever do I where sun screen. Plus I have noticed sun spots starting to appear around my nose that didn’t use to be their. OK so the UV light showed me I really do need to start wearing sun screen.

Here is where it got fun when my friend starts in on her individual sale after evaluating my skin. First question, what type of skin care products do you use? Uh… Dove soap. Now I would like to say this, I have extremely oily skin and the Dove soap came recommended from a dermatologist. For years I tried many different skin cleansers and always broke out. I stopped using these facial cleansers, switched to soap and guess what, I have very clear skin with the exception of my once a month pimple. Sorry nothing is stopping that one. The only time I didn’t have that once a month pimple was when I was not having a period during pregnancy and breastfeeding. My skin glowed then. One of the plusses of pregnancy and nursing I guess.

Anyway, my friend totally appalled at my skin care choices tried to convince me that I need to get through a cleansing phase in order to properly clean out my skin and then I will stop breaking outs from using those products. Explain to me why I would buy expensive cleansers so that I can break out when I can buy a $2 bar of soap that I use in the shower and it keeps my skin clear. I didn’t get it.

So my question(s) for you today are:
What type of skin care regiment do you do for your skin?
Do you cleans, tone, lotions, sunscreen, etc.?
Do you buy expensive stuff or do you keep it simple?
Have you tried a skin rejuvenator?

Sorry for so many questions, I am just curious to know if I am the only one that really doesn’t do much for my skin. I am considering trying a rejuvenator but I really am not sure I need it or if it is worth it. Oh and I am going to find something that provides regular sun screen care for my face as well. I can’t keep letting the sun do its damage.

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.