Friday, December 30, 2011

2011 - Year in Review

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Rode a Mechanical Bull in Dallas, TX (BUCKET LIST item!!!)
I didn't get bucked off...I was awesome

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I was pretty diligent at the weight loss for the first few months, I've managed to keep it off all year, so I guess that's an accomplishment.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Kennedy

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Great Uncle Jim died, on Christmas Eve.

5. What countries did you visit?
USA

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
More memories with my kids, more patience, more laughter, and more energy.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Jan 2 - was the day I started the amazing South Beach Diet...and Succeeded!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Taking care of my family.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not keeping in touch better with my family.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Sprained ankle, Scarlet Fever. Fun times

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Well, I didn't buy it, but I got snowshoes for Christmas, and I'm super excited to try them.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Those who chose the right.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Those who cannot forgive.

14. Where did most of your money go?
car payments, mortgage, re-paying debt, taking responsibility for my kids.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
A new job!

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Avril Lavigne - What the Hell?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? same
iii. richer or poorer? Richer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gone camping, hiking, spending time outside, running, planning

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Waiting

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Christmas in the country.

22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
....I'm Separated.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Survivor, Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser,

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope

26. What was the best book you read?
I didn't read at all this year.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Adele, Bruno Mars, LMFAO (wiggle wiggle)

28. What did you want and get?
Strength
Wonderful Chilren


29. What did you want and not get?
win the lottery

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Did I go to the movies this year?

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
My Birthday I hung with my friends, and enjoyed the Hockey Game (Canucks didn't bring me my Birthday Present and we lost) I turned 33.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Spending more time with the people I love.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Good Ol' Jeans and whatev.

34. What kept you sane?
My boys, and watching them grow up. My sisters. Good support from friends.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Kim Kardashian - jk

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Occupy Wall street movement.

37. Who did you miss?
My friend Lori

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Dan

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Stand up for yourself and for what you believe in.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Someone like you - Adele

Friday, December 16, 2011

What made me the worst sister in the world...and memories

So I've been thinking lately about my wonderful childhood memories. And I had a real good belly laugh over the silly things we used to do!!

1) I was the worst sister in the world!
- I convinced my younger sister that she didn't belong to our family, and that she was an alien from outter space. I went as far as painting a picture of the spaceship she came from.
- I always spied on my sisters playing pretend in the back yard (mostly acting out scenes from Jurrasic Park - HIGHLY entertaining)
- I read my sister's diaries and them made fun of what they wrote later.
- I colored brown streaks into their underwear and declared to the neighborhood that my sister has skid marks!
- I cut my sisters barbies hair, every time she got a new one, and made matching sharpee nipples for Barbie's amazing new haircut.



I don't have any idea why they still love me...srsly, I was evil. And I have an evil laugh to boot. Don't cross me.

Trust me - Karma is a you-know-what. I got it 10-fold when my brother was put in charge of us when my parents went out on a date. I was chased with knives, and coat hangers....and forced to smell the stench of 14 yr old farts in my face as I was held down by my brother. Oh and not to mention, the boogers that were flung my way to top it all off....

2) My older brother and I are only 14 months apart, so we sort of had the same friends there for a time being. During this awkward period, where we shared friends, we got into a bunch of mischief!
- Making napalm in the basement, and "testing it"
- loading my father's .22 rifle with low-velocity bullets and shooting targets in the garage.
- Driving as fast as we could around corners just to see if we'd tip the car over.

3) I spent my summers in Cardston and Southern Alberta from birth, and every summer we'd pack our bags from BC and head East to God's Country (I know I know....I came from the most Beautiful provincde ever!!! - I consider both BC and Alberta heaven to me)
- Since I was 14, I'd come home with a new crush of the summer. Oh Stake Dances in Cardston were amazing!!! OUTDOOR DANCES!!! And the boys were so much more FUN, and actually took you on creative dates (when I turned 16 of course)
- I remember my grandmother would send us and my siblings away with a towel and a toonie to make ourselves oocupied at the local swimming pool. HA - why didn't we just invest it in the candy store, and hang out at Lee's Creek in the mud Hole?! That would have been smarter...oh well.
- I remember the smells of silage, hay, and cows whenever I came into town...there's something amazing about those smells combined.
- I remember spending at least a day to a week at the Olsen's ranch, and horseback ride....taking the buggies into the creek with the horses, bonfires, long horseback rides into Beazer and Leavitt. I love that family! Like my own!
- When I was real young, and my grandmother lived in her old place that had an indoor pool, her house was filled with creepy things. I remember my parents would put me down in the spare room filled with manninquins and creepy wigs. yeah...try and sleep with about 14 pairs of glass eyes staring at you....HA! Impossible! No wonder I have creepy dreams. oh - and it smelled funny. *shudder* moving on...

4)My mom would never drive us to school unless she was FORCED to. We didn't have bus to take us, but walking was horrible. We lived a good 2km from the school, and on those cold, misty days in the lower mainland, it made for a miserable walk to school. I normally had a bad hair day to start, but you mix it with walking in a fine mist for an hour, you get the most horrible hair-do ever. Little strangs would curl up and only the first layer of hair would look frizzy and curly. Ugg...no wonder I didn't have any dates! Mom - it didn't make me a stronger person...it ruined my self esteem. Shame shame. JK mom - I love ya.

I'm sure I'll conjur more memories up over the next little while. So enjoy what you have for now.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Its Christmas time bab-ay!!!

I love the feeling, the smells, the acts of Christmas.

I love walking through a crowded Walmart and smile at people as they tear past me in panick mode. HAHA - ok well maybe not, but I do love to smile.

I've been smiling a whole lot more these days.

One reason - is that my last child is now potty trained! yes! Its true - and in one day too!!! How the heck? Just a week ago, he was saying he didn't want anything to do with underwear and the toilet...but now he's all about being in the "Underwear club" and "squirting in the potty" Hahaha! Oh how crazy that sounds. And a bit creepy. Oh whatever people, I'm happy to not change a dirty diaper anymore! FREEDOM

Another reason that I'm smiling is that I'm going to be joining a weightloss challenge and I will be sporting an amazing body just in time for summer. So my plan is to drink a "shakeology" shake in the morning, and do P90X for the full 90 Days. Oh my heck. I might be brave enough to post before and after pics on my blog. Once upon a time, I have made before and after pics...but those are lost in the web somewhere I'm sure. Please stalkers, do not try and resurrect them. They remain lost on purpose.

I'm also smiling because its Christmas! I love having the chance to celebrate Christ's birth. I love the story. I love the truth. I love having a testimony.

For the commercial sider of Christmas, I love seeing the look on my kids face as they know that Someone loves them enough to leave a few awesome presents under the tree.

I really want to take on Snowshoeing. Since I live in Calgary, and winter lasts 6 months of the year, I might as well take up a sport that I will enjoy that won't cost me an arm and a leg to take part in (Ie. snowboarding, skiing, snowmobiling)
Costco snowshoes - here I come!!!!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Well Hello there my Blog Friends

Ok ok ok ok ok so I've sucked, and mean ROYAL suck lately at posting to my blog. What can I say? Busy? Trying to keep myself busy, and financially afloat to even think about it? Ha! Perhaps.

Anyway.

I've been immensely busy with work during the day, picking up kids, running home, making dinner, and other commitments I might have that day. Then try and have the patience and understanding to have some snuggle time with my boys before I lay them down to bed. oh the sweet times when they go to bed. I just love my kids. really they are just my pride and joy.

Recently, our family took a family trip to Powell River to see my little nephew be baptized. What an epic event! The WHOLE family, I'm talking, my mom and dad (both of which are divorced and remarried to other spouses), DJ, Kennedy, Katherine and all our children.

Pics to follow - among all the other fun stuff you've, I'm sure missed. ha!









Deep fried Pickle - never had one before, so this was pretty good



Deep Fried Mars Bar....Heaven





so with that...enjoy a bit of nothing with a bunch of pictures

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Quite the Change

So, some of you know that there have been a few changes in the Willard home.

1) its Summer, yes it finally came!

2) Anthony is starting to lose his second tooth. Shoot me now, I can't handle the wiggling!!! PULL IT OUT! Unfortunately, Anthony is just like me and terrified of teeth, and would rather let it fall out in his sleep like the last one.

3) It gets lonely around here.

4) as in...Jos and I are separated. He moved out last month, and me and the kids are remaining here in the house. Jos gets to see them on the weekends, and they love to spend time with their daddy. We have remained friends, and speak to each other quite often. I can't really get into much detail, but some people aren't meant to be.

5) I'm learning NOT to trust people. I have always managed to give people 100% trust when I first meet them. Not sure why. Not smart, really.

yeah. so. that's it.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Its time for a break. How about a nice 10-day road trip to Vegas? Yes? OK!

Once upon a time, there was a severely stressed out working mother. This mother was in dire need of a vacation and SUN. Ok ok, so its me. My cousin Kelly, who is staying with me for the moment, was going back home to Vegas to visit his hot hot wife. We left at 3am from Calgary.



4 hours from Vegas, and this is what we get on the road. Thank you Fillmore!



Oh tell me its going to warm up soon....!!!!


We arrived in Vegas at 10pm THAT VERY SAME DAY! Woooot!



So I ate healthy - at the ELEPHANT BAR....oh my heavens...this place is awesome. Because the road trip was filled with fast food, and munchies, I had a sincere desire to eat healthy right away.



I ask you not to judge my dessert of choice...I shared it. lol every calorie-free bite!



My cousins, Bob and Vonda at Claim Jumpers...or as I call it "Clam Diggers" I can never get the name right, so its now Clam Diggers to me. lol everyone knows what I'm talking about anyway. Crazy talk.



***warning***

Cleavage....be ye warned of the cleavage in the next photo. Its Vegas for heavens sake.


I'm hot. And. I'm awesome. Ok?




Can you blame them? They haven't seen each other in a month and a half...oy.





This was a close to Vegas Buffet as I could get. This picture does not do it justice...the portions were massive. All I wanted was a grilled cheese sandwich, and they brought me Paul Bunyon's portions. WOW. All for $8.95



Freemont Street - for me Starts at the Golden Nugget...and here's its namesake. THE GOLDEN NUGGET. WOW in all its golden glory.




Me, enjoying the night life! Ahhhh...Warm at night Vegas.



We are not blood related cousins...but dang we have the same tongue!



*glee* Happy to be out and about, enjoying my own Freemont Experience.



The lightshow featured Queen as its musical feature...and I love love love Queen. See the love?



Ahhhh now that kind of temperature, I can deal with! mmmmm oh the heat, oh the sun...I miss my tan already!



It was 91degrees at night....and I loved loved LOVED the sunsets.




This little piece of magic was my LUCKY machine. Its a rare machine, only found in certain casinos...and it LOVED me! Like...it MADE me money EVERY TIME!! Eeeek!



This is my "Winning" face. You know you love it too.



This is my "Yes, I Di-id" face. With attitude.




Aaaand, here is the Famous Vegas Sign. This was about 4:45am...I was tired!

The next day - was a relaxing day, we did a little bit of shopping, and I got the kids some more gifts to bring home to them. It was so sad to leave this place, and yet, I was SO excited to see my kids again. Our morning started at 7am, and we were on the road back to Calgary. We did not stop unless it was for gas. We made it to the Coutts border by midnight. Not bad timing eh? We drove over to Cardston to crash at my moms. It was a goooood sleep. In the morning, she had breakfast waiting for us, and then we did a quick trip to Waterton. Gosh, I love this little nook. Its Gods country for sure!







*giggles*




Gorgeous!

After our trip to Waterton, we started our last leg of our trip to Calgary. My kids were so happy to see me! Of course, they were delighted that I had shopping bags and bags full of goodies for them.

It was a relaxing trip, and I am so glad I had the opportunity to go!

Thanks Jos and Kell for making this happen.

Kalispell...Cowsbell, whatever.

So, blog friends, stalkers, my fellow peeps. Sorry I've been gone for so long. I was lost in the Blogosphere. With work, callings, Scentsy stuff, I've been run off my feet busy. So now I've got to play catch up.

Every so often my sisters, and mother and I get together for our "Girls Weekend Getaways" Our last trip was to Vegas, and it was a super-duper awesome blast. We figured that it was time again for some sister time!

Mom planned a weekend in Kalispell, and we had SO MUCH FUN. The drive down there is worth the trip alone! Its so much fun to be with my crazy family.

2.5 hrs later, we found ourselves in a warm, quiet city, filled with good times and good shopping.

Here is what we did....




Mooses Saloon....good eats in Kalispell.




My sister, Katherine and I enjoying ourselves at the Mooses Saloon




My other sister, Kenndy, who was 7 months pregnant here.



And thanks to my mother, who make these wonderful girls trip memories happen!



Ahh, Famous Daves. It doesn't get any better, for BBQ. Accept, if you are Jensen girls AT Famous Daves...then its just the best. Each time we head out to dinner together, we always make up a game while we wait for our food to come up. We are now compiling a list of games we've already come up with, and we're thinking of making a book called "Games to play while you are waiting for your food" LOL So this game we played was with coasters...each player had 2 coasters hidden on their laps, and on the count of 3, they had to reveal which colors they chose to show...and it was just fun to see the color combinations we came up with.




We saw a lot of this kind of result...when we figured it would take a million tries to actually get all the same color...well...



We love to make up new games to keep us occupied as we wait for our food to come.
This is played by using your coasters.



Then there was another game we made up...in one blow - how close can you get the coaster to 'coast' to the other side of the table without it going over the edge. Oodles of fun here.





Aaaand, now you've seen my blow face.



And the last game we played, was getting the salt shaker to balance on one grain of salt.




I got my spa face on.

We did a lot of shopping, and we stayed at a fun hotel, and just had a blast. In the hotel pool, we played a game called "keep the beach ball up in the air" game. I had a few wardrobe malfuntions...the teen volleyball team that was staying there was surely enteratained.

The end.

enjoy that last visual.

HAHA!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

New Start - new year

So this year I've started the South Beach Diet. I started January 4th, and so far I've lost 15 lbs.



It was so easy, and the weight came flying off! I love quick results. It really didn't require too much effort on my part. I just had to make sure I had the ingredients for the day, and the money to buy the groceries. ToTALLY doable!

One thing that I have discovered - I have gotten so sick of salad dressing. With all the salad you consume with this diet, its quick to start dry-heaving at the very thought of any dressing. So I have replaced my dressing with a fresh avocado!



So creamy and yummy!

So I'm totally inspired to not only eat better, but actually workout and feel better too!

Its a long long long long road back to healthy body weight, and hotness. But lets face it folks - I'm awesome fat or not.

Now I'll just feel awesome in the end.

P.S. This is my new trainer - Jackie Warner....she kicks my butt