Never Miss a Monday!

1) Last week we celebrated 9 years of marriage. We went away for the weekend without G. It was only the second time we have left him over night. He did fine! He had a great time with my friend and her family. Us however.....we were lost at first. We felt like we were forgetting something all the time. It was really nice to spend some time together just the two of us. When we got back G gave us big hugs. I asked him did you miss us and he said yes. It was nice to know he had a good time and felt safe. 


2) I love BeautyCounter Charcoal Mask! I use it weekly. Or at least try to use it weekly. I usually do a mask on Sunday evenings. I have been getting 30-35 masks per bottle. It costs $48 for a bottle. There are 2 other masks available now. The Brightening Mask and the Plumping Mask. 

If you are able to get 30 masks out of a bottle and use it once a week that is about $1.60 per mask for over 6 months. The mask is very reasonable when you break it down. You are getting a mask with all safe ingredients without any harmful chemicals or toxins. You can buy other charcoal masks out there a lot cheaper, but do they have safe ingredients in the mask?  Do you know what you are putting on your face?

I also like to use the mask to spot treat breakouts. If I am getting a breakout I will put the mask on the area while I put my make up on. When I am done putting my make up on then I wash the area I have been spot treating. 

Here are some pictures of me spot treating two places on my chin. 

3) When we were away for our anniversary weekend I had the best luck out shopping. Art found a mall and suggested we go. WHAT! I was shocked, but I didn't argue. I found a super cute pair of black booties. I had been looking for a pair that were comfy for a long time. Nordstroms Rack had a cute pair for a great deal. Then I ran into Burlington Coat Factor to look for a new leather jacket. I just wanted a cheap one. I bought one from there a couple years back for $20. It was my favorite and I got my money out of that jacket. I found a new one at Burlington for a great deal! 

4) Have you joined Ibotta? If not you should! I recently joined because my sister said I needed too. I have earned over $13.00 just by scanning my receipts. The grocery store I go to doesn't participate with Ibotta or I would be rich. I scan all my receipts from Target and other participating places. When I get $20 or more I can have the money transferred to my Paypal account. 

You can download the app right on your phone. If you use the referral code djasfed you will receive $10 just for joining. It's just that easy!

Costco, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods and tons of other places participate! I didn't realize Costco participated. I am going to have to find my receipt and see what rebates I can get from them. I spent a ton of money last week at Costco. 

5) I LOVE sparkling water! It's just one of my favorite things. A couple weeks ago I went to Sonic with G and the little boy I nanny. They got some food. I wanted something to drink, so I asked if they had soda water. They did, so I ordered one. I looked at my receipt later to see they charge me $.15 for a large. I was like WHAT!?!?! The next day I went back and ordered a route 44 sparkling water....guess what I was charge $.22. I told Art it doesn't even pay to buy it at the store. I can't ever get it that cheap. I have learned I can only go during the week when my main girl is there; otherwise, it's a freaking circus. Either they have no idea what I am talking about or they charge me for a full size drink. Sorry guys I just can't justify spending $2.50 on a drink I get M-F for $.22. I even told the one lady I come here every single day and spend $.22 I am not paying $2.50. I ended up driving away that day. 

I tried to get a soda water at KFC one day when Art got something. The chick tried to give me a Sobe water. Finally I said can you please just give me a sprite? I drove next door to Sonic to get the drink I wanted for only $.22.

My girl at Sonic knows my voice now and just brings it right out to the car with a smile. I feel I should get her a Starbucks card or something just because I appreciate the fact she knows what I want. lol See it's the little cheap things in life that bring me such joy. lol 


Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post Never Miss a Monday appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant.  

Happy Anniversary to Us!

 It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since we said I Do! Crazy how time flies and how much changes over the years. There are times it feels we have been married way longer than 9 years and other times it feels it has flown by.

I wrote a blog post a little over a year ago when we celebrated 10 years together. Marriage is a lot of work. We have some non-negotiables in our marriage. Two things were if anyone cheated or if there was any type of abuse it was over. Other than that you make it work. We have both put a lot into making sure this marriage works. We aren't going to just live as roommates. We will call the other out on their ish.

I love that I have blogged about our marriage over the years. I like to read back on the old posts. The 5th anniversary blog post is one of my favorites you can read it here. Right around that time is when I felt our family would never grow. 1.5 years later we would have a little boy. That little guy has brought us closer together and has made us each pull our hair out. lol

George will go through our wedding pictures pointing everyone out, but when he gets to me he says I don't know. If you ask him where is mommy he says gone. lol

Happy Anniversary!

100 Pounds GONE!

Tomorrow we will celebrate 9 year of marriage. It was a few years into our marriage I felt I needed to do something about my weight. I was unhappy. I wanted to buy clothes in regular stores. I decided to go a drastic route with my weight loss journey. I did the HCG diet for about 5-6 months. I dropped 80 pounds. I felt that diet really taught me how to eat and that I HAD to exercise to keep the weight off. While people will talk crap about the diet it worked for me. I lost 90 pounds in a year. I felt happy and so much healthier. I could run, exercise, buy clothes in normal stores and felt good about myself. 

To me it's unhealthy to be obese. I don't think weight loss surgery is the way to go. I think over time there will be studies about how unhealthy people are etc after the surgeries. That's just my opinion. For me the HCG diet worked. It was super freakin hard!! I honestly couldn't do it now with a toddler. My husband almost buried me in he backyard with all my crankiness lol I knew it was only for a short period of time, so I could do it. I never could eat that way permanently. For me I felt it was safer to do the HCG diet then to have any type of surgery. This was something I could stop if I needed. It wasn't permanent. 

Over the past few years I've had a lot of health problems plus I've had a baby. I put on weight, but I knew I could lose it. I hate having to lose the weight again. I also have given myself grace when I'm going through crap. My goal was to get the weight off and officially lose 100 pounds from when I got married. 

My goal for 2017 was to lose the rest of the weight to reach my 100 pound weight loss goal by our anniversary. I accomplished this goal a much healthier way. I ate a paleo diet and exercised. I lost the last of the weight and reach my goal before our anniversary!!! 

Picture on left: 4-12-08

Picture on right: 4-4-17

G doesn't even know I am from our wedding pictures. He will name my parents, sister, Art's parents and Amber. When he gets to me he says I dunno. 

It was a year or so after we were married we did a 5K walk. I could barely make the last 2 miles. It was awful! A few years later I ran the same 5K. Thinking back on how I ate when we were first married to now it's like night and day. Just from May 2017 until now I have lost 40 pounds. I haven't done anything crazy. I ate a healthy paleo diet and exercised 3-5 days a week. My goal is to teach G to be active, eat healthy and enjoy life.

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post Never Miss a Monday appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant. 

Happy 8 Years!

We made it through the 7 year itch to 8 years of marriage!!! 

As I look back over the past year I am so very happy with where we are today. We have been through some crappy crappy stuff over the past year. There was a period I thought crap we aren't going to make it to 8 years. That is just the reality of how things went. We have pushed through some rough stuff to make things work. I am proud of both of us for working on ourselves this year to make us better for the other. 

When I decided to marry Art I never questions if he loved me or would be faithful to me.  Faithfulness in a spouse is priceless! I am thankful I found that in my spouse. He has loved me through some dark times in our marriage. He has seen me at my worst. I remember the first time I was sick when we were dating. I had him take me to urgent care when I had strep throat. He made me smile or laugh the whole way there. I finally had to ask him to stop making me laugh because I was so horribly sick I just didn't have the strength. 

We have spent a lot of smiling and laughing in our marriage. The pranksters in each of us have helped keep our marriage fun. Maybe next year instead of an anniversary gift I should turn it into another April's Fools Day. Oh how I love when I get him on a good prank. This reminds me I need to blog about the great ones I pulled on him this year. 

My heart is full and running over as we enter into year 8! 

A Journey of 10 Years!

I haven't ever been a big Valentines fan. I use to refer to it as Hate Day. Art asked me out on our first date on Valentines. I refused to go on Hate Day. I did go out with him, but it wasn't on February 16. It is hard to believe this all happened 10 years ago. The past 10 years have gone by quickly in some ways and long in other ways.

October 2006

September 2007

It is amazing how much has happened to us. Our first dance song was called Never Alone by Jim Brickman. What a perfect song for the journey we were about to travel.  I found an old email last week that we had sent to each other when we were dating. I wish I would have saved a lot more emails. It talks about being in love and hoping to be even more in love 10 years later. Art asked me if I love him more now. My response was it is a much different love now. It is stronger and deeper. Back then it was more of a giddy love. We've been through so much together that a love changes and I feel ours has changed for the better.

April 2008

I wish people took marriage more seriously. I wish they put as much effort into marriage as they do the games on their phone or Xboxes. Marriage is no joke. It is A LOT of work! People have the mentality when things are broke you throw it away and get a new one. Same with spouses. Trade them in for younger, richer, or just the thrill of the chase.

We have both had to put a lot of work into making our marriage work for us. We have taken the mentality with our marriage when some thing is broken in our relationship we are going to fix it. Some things we can't fix, other things we fix and some times we have to pray for the other to realize things need to be fixed. Prayer isn't instant either. When those prayers are answered the journey was worth it.

November 2015

Our journey started 10 years ago today and it has brought us along a path neither of us imagined.

December 2015

Happy Anniversary to us!

Today we celebrate 6 years of marriage! It is hard to believe it has been 6 years already. So much has happened in our lives. I couldn't imagine going through this journey with anyone else. The other night I was thinking how far we have come in our marriage. I am glad we found each other. 

Happy 6th Anniversary to my wonderful husband! Six down and 34 more to go! 

She said YES!!!

Six years ago Art got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. It was a Friday in 2007. We were enjoying a picnic at the park. He wanted to enjoy the lake. All I could think about was getting to a service area, so I could tell my family & friends the great news. Boy how some things don't change lol. 

As I look at my ring finger thinking back over the past six years it seems like a lifetime ago. I never imagined life would take us to where we are now. 

2018 Goals

Here are my goals for 2018!

• celebrate 10 years of marriage
• celebrate 5 years of cancer free
• celebrate Art turning 50
• celebrating Amber & Marcus 5th wedding anniversary
• all with our twin boys age 2-4 & a 5yr old Kaleb

Anniversary Weekend

Art and I went away for our anniversary. We found this hotel in Pacifica a couple years ago that we really like. It is right on the water and has a big jacuzzi tub! Art wanted to watch the sunset together out on the patio. Well we didn't even get to that point because I fell asleep at 630pm and slept till the next morning. lol Who does that? ME that is who! I have so may issues lately with sleeping. I have been sleeping 9-12 hours each night.

We did have a nice time for when I was awake. lol We had a nice drive to Pacifica, talked, enjoyed the scenery and went to dinner at a cute pub.

5 Years Anniversary!!!!

We Still Do - 5 Years Later!

Today we have been married a total of 1,826 days. We have spent the past eighteen hundred days learning constantly from each other. We have been through many trials in our 5 years together, but we have made it through everything together.

I never thought marriage would be hard. I don't know why, but I thought it would be just like dating. HA! Dating is easy in some ways and hard in other ways. Same with marriage. One thing I haven't worried about in the past 1800 days is Art's committment. He has proved over and over how committed he is to our marriage.

One of the few things that hasn't changed in our lives is our vehicles. I still have my mustang and Art still has his truck. I feel like almost everything else has changed in some way. We bought a house, painted all but 2 rooms, we have done many DIY items on the house. Then we decided it was time to add to my family, so we rescued a little dog. Little Sammy has been one of the best things for us. Our little furry baby! If only he could learn to talk it would make things easier. lol

We have tried to start a family, but for some reason that just hasn't worked out yet. Numerous miscarriages later we find out I have medullary thyroid cancer. I honestly believe that this is why I haven't been able to carry a baby to full term. I am hoping after everything is balanced out we will be able to have the family we want.

Amber graduated high school, then college, moved out on her own, had a baby and now is planning her wedding. Watching her grown up into an adult has been amazing over the past 5 years. She was 15 when I met her for the first time in rainy San Francisco. I was scared to death she wasn't going to like me and report back to the future inlaws Art needed to run. lol

I have changed jobs twice and Art has moved to a new location with his job. I spent 3 months unemployed during the start of the possibly the worst financial crisis.  

Our lives around us have been a constant change, but one things hasn't changed and that is our committment to our marriage. There have been times we both have felt we wouldn't make it, but we just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I have thought for a few weeks what would I kind of advice can I give Amber and Lacey as they are about to get married. The only things that come to mind is marriage is hard, it is trying at times, but there is nothing that compares to being committed to that one person. Until you are married you don't understand the bond the 2 of you will have. I remember Cindy telling me about the bond before I got married. She couldn't explain it and I didn't understand what she was talking about until I was married. I called her one day and I said I understand it now because it is just there.

A marriage should come first before EVERYTHING else work, kids, school, house...everything. If you two don't work nothing else will work successfully in your marriage. Put your marriage first and everything else will fall into place.

I think putting my marriage first was a struggled for awhile. I was use to being single and doing what I wanted. I fit Art in when one or two nights a week and then on the weekends. Then I got married and there was this constant person there all the time. He thought I going to cook, clean, laundry and wait on him. I thought he was going to handle all car issues, bills, pamper me and bring me flowers. Well reality set in and it became a compromise that we each have to do things we didn't think we would.

When we got married we said we would be lucky to spend 40 years together. Art would be 80 and I would be 67. We set a goal of 40 years together - 5 down 35 to go!

Seven Years!

Today Art and I are celebrating 7 years together. What a perfect picture for our life together than the picture below. 

Our road together has to many twists and turns. The majority of the road we had planned should have said warning sign with blinking lights - sharp turns ahead. When we went out on a first date I never imagined he would end up being my husband. I just thought he was a fabulous friend and it was nice to meet him. Art said when he met me he was thinking that is my future sexy wife. That cracked me up the other day when he told me that. 

Tonight we are going back to the Afghan restaurant where we went on our first date.  I'm glad we found each other and we have gone on this amazing journey together!

Happy Anniversary to US!

4 years ago we said "I Do"

Hard to believe we have been married for 4 years already. Although our wedding day seems like 100 years ago too. The day was filled with so much love. We had so many of our close friends and family members by our side.

and lets not forget the wedding crashers! The couple below showed up at our wedding. I had no idea who they were. I asked Art...he then asked his mom. Turns out it was a couple his mom knew that found out about the wedding and showed up.

When Art and I decided to get married we were in it for the long haul. We figured we would probably be married about 40 years. That would take us to Art being 80 and me 67. That seems like an eternity right now, but the last 4 years have flown by.  Here is to another 36 years of marital bliss!!!!

God Gave Me You!

When I started dating I always looked for someone who would one day be a great husband. If they weren't a good boyfriend there was no way he would be a good husband. When I started dating Art I felt I hit the jackpot.

I wanted a husband through the ups & downs, the good & the bad, the pretty & the ugly. I wanted a mate where we both needed each other because life was so much better with them in your life. I was lucky to find the right man for me!

I found a man who is a rock during difficult times. We have been through a lot during our journey to start a family. He has been there beside me each step of the way. Through every doctor appointment, hundreds of tests, positive pregnancy tests, and miscarriages.

My husband is most importantly my rock. He stands by my side, leads our family, loves me unconditionally, and my best friend. He is the one I run to first with news, talks me off a ledge, let's me cry on his shoulder, laughs with me, and tries to be the voice of reasons.

As his wife I still feel I hit the jackpots of husbands. God gave me just the man I needed!

Six years ago today I met Art for the first time. It was a Thursday night when we met for dinner. We talked on the phone while I drove there. When I arrive I got out of the car, gave him a hug and I felt I was seeing an old friend. I don't ever remember feeling awkward or scared. I can't believe where a dinner six years ago has led us down an amazing journey.

Reno Part 3

Day 3

We went to visit the Peppermill Casino & hung around downtown Reno.

Day 4

We got up at 6:30am to head home....oh that was the worst!  We had stayed up until 12:30 the night before.  We had a sleeper car on the way home.  Art pulled the top bunk down, climbed up & went to sleep for 2 hours.  On the way home they served us breakfast & lunch. They ran out of eggs, so we had the choice of cold cereal or french toast. The french toast was quit tasty!