Smiling from ear to ear

My parents absolutely love Disney World. They love it so much that they go every single year. This year was no exception. They celebrated my father's 73rd birthday there just a few weeks ago. As my Mom says "After all, you only turn 73 once!" I suppose that's her translation of any time is a good time to go to Disney!

I love how happy they look when they spend time at the happiest place on Earth.

Page credits: Template: Fiddle Dee Dee Designs, Fuss Free Dots & Bows 2 at Scrap Orchard; Papers & Embellies: Libby Pritchett's From Ear to Ear kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs; Font: American Typewriter

The grand plan is coming into play

Almost a year ago I wrote about my grand decor plan to create black and white collages for the letters in our last name to hang on a blank wall in our hallway. I actually bought the curtain rod over a month ago and today my sweet hubby & son hung it on the wall for me!

Since I've only completed three letters in our name so far, it'll be a while before I'm ready to hang our name, so for now it's holding some of my favorite layouts as placeholders. I love when a plan comes to fruition!

These are the letters I have finished so far...

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The drive thru Nazi

I went to lunch with my best friend yesterday. Throughout the course of our three hour stint at Panera, we covered a myriad of topics. Yes, that says three hours! We hadn't really seen each other much lately since our schedules have been in opposition. Other than the obvious fact that we had a good time, seeing as how we didn't bother moving for three hours, we ended up talking about writing and scrapbooking - our two very favorite things. We've been exchanging prompts recently as a follow up to me doing LOAD in February. LOAD (layout a day) is a daily scrapbooking prompt challenge by the fabulous Lain Ehmann. Once LOAD ended, I had some withdrawals, so she swooped in to help me out.

She sends me daily scrapbooking prompts, and I send her writing prompts. Her  life is a little more 'full', so the prompts I send her are not quite daily. She's working on her first Great American Novel so I'm trying to help her exercise her writing muscles as much as possible so she can see that dream come true.

So, what does all of this have to do with a "Drive Thru Nazi"? During our lunch yesterday we meandered into funny stories and I told her about how my even tempered husband turns into a different person in the drive thru line. I gave her some examples, and since she knows him well, she was stunned and her immediate response was "You have to do a page about that!". At first I chose to exercise my veto option because I thought it would come off as mean and I didn't want to insult my sweet hubby. After having it roll around in my head last night and asking my kids their opinion, I finally figured out how to tell the story and capture the humor rather than the meanness. I am absolutely in love with this page that I never would have thought to do were it not for the prompting of my dear friend, and future New York Times Best Seller, Steph!

 

Product credits:
Template: Kristin Aagard, from her Say It Template Pack
Title alphas & flair buttons: Shawna Clingerman's, A Little Bit of This Kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Papers & word strips: Everyday Moments Kit by Studio Flergs & Mari Koegelenberg at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Missing Uncle John

My Uncle John was a great man. He may not have been perfect, but who of us really is? I miss the smell of his pipe, I miss his hearty laugh and I miss the way he'd saddle up to the mic near the end of a party and belt out Jimmy Durante's Bill Bailey.

Medifast: Brownie Soft Bake Review

Think you can't have chocolate when you're on a diet? Wrong! I've been doing the Medifast Diet since March of last year and the two things that have kept me going are brownies and s'mores. How did I lose 65 pounds eating brownies and s'mores??? Luckily, this diet program includes some yummy pre-packaged foods and some smart choices with 'real' food and voila - success!

The Brownie Soft Bake is easy to make and very tasty. The batter is so good that I honestly don't think I've ever actually baked the whole thing. I usually enjoy at least a few spoonfuls of the chocolatey goodness before popping it in the microwave. You can vary the consistency of the brownie by changing the amount of water you mix in with it. A lesser amount of water will give you a denser, chewier brownie type treat while an increased amount of water will give you a more cake-like substance.

The great thing about all of the Medifast selections is that nutritionally they are all the same. So that actually means on the 5 and 1 plan I could feasibly eat 5 brownies in one day and still lose weight! There were some days where I ate as many as three and I still lost 65 pounds in 8 months!

Blast from the past

I stumbled upon this photo today from our wedding. I love how adorably young and cute my hubby looks!

I love that all these years later, we'll celebrate 23 years in June, he is still just as adorable to me.