2012 Goals Are Coming Along

So far of my 2012 goals I am learning hip hop dance, learning digital art journaling and paper art journaling.  I am having fun in my hip hop class it is a lot of work. I have been doing the class for 3 weeks.  The first week I was really sore.  The class is getting a little easier.  The teacher warms us up with isolation's, stomach crunches, push ups and leg exercises.  After the first class my legs and ribs were so sore the second day but sore in a good way. I feel good after class. I am taking an online Digital Art Journal class that is fun.  I am learning lots of cool techniques.  There are techniques and journal prompts.  I bought an art journal so I could journal in the book.  The next thing on my list is to get some paints for my art journal.  I've done a little bit in my journal but I really want to try painting in it.  I have been doing some other creative things making homemade cards, digital scrapbook pages.  My creative is slowly starting to come back. I think next I will pull out my ukulele and learn to play it.

Milestone Birthday Weekend!

My birthday was over the weekend on the 14th.  It is a milestone birthday so hubby and I went away for the weekend to Los Gatos.  Our friend offered to watch our son so he spent the day and slept over their house. After dropping him off at his friend's house, we left around 11:00am.  It took us about an hour to drive down to Los Gatos.  The weather is sunny and mild.  A nice day for a drive.  We got their around 1:00pm. We walked around downtown because check in time is 3:00pm.  There are a lot of cute shops along Main Street.  Los Gatos is a very quaint tourist town.  There were quite a few people walking around and lots of people jogging, riding bikes and walking their dogs along the street.  We stopped for lunch at the Purple Onion.  This place is popular so it gets really busy during lunchtime but around 1:30 it is not so busy.  We are going to have a nice dinner later so Hubby and I shared a turkey sandwich on a baguette. It was really good.  We continued walking around.  When 3:00pm came around we checked into our hotel.  The room was really nice with a fireplace and soaking tub. It was an end unit with 6 windows and 2 french doors with balconies.  One balcony face the courtyard with the pool and the other faced the main building.  After we were settled we went to Sierra-Azul Open Space for a walk.  It was late so we went for an half hour walk.  We didn't want to be walking in the dark.  It is a very nice area for walking with nice views.  We heard some domestic geese honking.  We saw them from the trail in some one's backyard.

We went to Testarossa Winery which is near the hotel for some wine tasting.  Our friend suggested we go there because she said it was a good place to wine taste.  They have a nice tasting room. It was crowded so they suggested we go outside to the wine bar out on their patio.  It was very nice out there with the gas lamps and lots of tables.
After the walk we went back to the hotel to relax before heading out for dinner.  We made reservations for iGatti for dinner but they didn't have anything until 8:30 so we hung out in hotel until it was time to go to dinner. The restaurant was within walking distance so we walked to the restaurant. This time there was hardly anybody out on the street like earlier. It was really busy at the restaurant and even though we had a reservation, we still had to wait for a table.  I guess they had several large groups come in before us.  We started off the meal with the Pear Carpaccio salad which was so good then the entrees of Lamb Shank with portobello/shitake mushrooms, risotto and spinach and spaghetti and meatballs. For dessert I had the molten chocolate bundt cake with vanilla gelato and hubby had the caramel basket with vanilla gelato and fruit.  The whole meal was so good.  We really loved the Pear Carpaccio salad now we want to make it at home.

We walked back to the hotel after dinner and relaxed with the fireplace before going to bed.  We were tired so we went to bed around 11:00pm we heard the people in the next room being intimate.  That is the first time in all of the years staying at hotels that we have heard anyone doing the wild thing.  Umm interesting to hear it through the walls.

The next morning they were at it again.  We walked to breakfast.  I had a ham and cheese egg scramble that came with hash browns and hubby and eggs with ham and hash browns.  After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and drove to Saratoga to look around.  There weren't as many people walking around there as in Los Gatos.  There were also a lot of empty store fronts so I guess they aren't doing as well.  They are also a tourist town but you wouldn't know it.  We went to Hakone Gardens which is a lovely Japanese garden.  We had been there about 13 years ago when we were looking for a place to get married.  Then we headed back home to go catch the second half of our son's basketball game. Unfortunately they lost the game.  The team they played is the number one team in the league so they played really and our boys gave it their best shot but..

I had a very nice birthday.  Hubby and I had so much fun.  We don't get to do that too often.  It was an awesome birthday and weekend. Here's to a great year!

Adult Hip Hop Class

I had my first adult hip hop class tonight. It is taught by my son's teacher.  He has taken 2 classes with her and she is his teacher for the dance company he is in.  I actually talked to her about it then I talked to the director of the school and they added the class this semester.  There were 6 of us in the class.  The teacher was excited about teaching because she has been wanting to teach an adult class.  It was fun but I think I am going to be sore tomorrow.  I haven't done any sort of group exercise class in years.  My sister-in-law is taking the class with me.

52 lbs in 52 Weeks

I have a few things I am working on for 2012 and one of them is to lose 52 lbs in 52 weeks.  I am off to a good start.  I am down 2.2 lbs this week.  I tracked everything I ate last week.   I do better if I track and weigh everything I eat. I was hungry though.  I just couldn't seem to get to the point where I wasn't feeling ravenous. I went past my daily totals a few of the days and I still managed to lose weight. I guess after not tracking during the holidays my body went into starvation mode. Luckily I didn't gain that much weight during the holidays. I only gained 2 lbs. My body has been in a maintenance pattern for a while. I can't seem to get past 10 lbs weight lost.  I lose the 10 then I go up a little and into maintenance.  My body thinks it wants to be at this weight but I don't think so.  I need to show it who is boss.

Resolutions

 I usually don’t make New Years resolutions but this year I am going to work on some things.

So some of things I want to work on are:

Eat more fruits and vegetables
I need to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. I feel better when I am eating more fruits and vegetables along with watching my portion sizes.

Exercise more
The last few months I have stopped exercising all together so I need to get back into moving more. I want to get healthy and feel better.  I want to be able to enjoy doing things with my son that involved physical activity.

Start digital scrapbooking again
I haven’t done any digital scrapbooking in a few years.  I need to get my creativity back.  First I have to find a way to retrieve my pictures and kits from my computer that died and another that the usb connection broke on.
I have lost my creative Mojo and I need to get it back.  I haven’t done things I enjoy like digital scrapbooking, knitting, quilting.

Learn to play the Ukulele
I bought an Ukulele because I want to learn how to play it.  I only tried a couple of times and got frustrated so I am going to make an effort to try and stick it out until I learn how to play it.

Relearn to play my flute
I played the flute in elementary and high school.  I want to start playing again.  My son is learning how to play the trumpet and he wants me to play with him.

Start knitting again
I haven’t knitted in a few years.  I need to get back to it.  I am part of SNB but I haven’t been to the knitting meeting in a very long time.  Another thing to get my creativity back.

Declutter my house
I have a bedroom and garage that I want to declutter.  I sort of have the rest of the house under control.

Get more sleep
I am not getting enough sleep so I am constantly tired.  It makes it hard when my son wants to play ball or basketball with me.

A New Year!

Happy New Year!

Let this coming year be better than all the others.  Vow to do some of the things you've always wanted to do but couldn't find the time.  Call up a forgotten friend.  Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories.  Vow not to make a promise you don't think you can keep.  Walk tall, and smile more. You'll look ten years younger. Don't be afraid to say, 'I love you'. Say it again. They are the sweetest words in the world.
Ann Landers

Goodbye 2011 hello 2012! I hope this year is a good year filled with luck and prosperity. We spent a lazy day yesterday.  We walked to Taco Bell for lunch and then to the store to get groceries for New Years Eve and day.  I made homemade french onion dip. When it got closer to midnight we had pigs in a blanket, toasted mochi and onion dip. The dip was yummy.  We toasted the New Year with some Martinelli's.

Today we are having Good Luck soup and Hoppin' John to bring us a prosperous year filled with luck. It is a beautiful and the ocean is gorgeous today. We are going for a walk later. It is a bit windy but you can see for miles.

Have a great year everyone!

Dicken's Fair

Over the weekend we went to the Dickens Fair.  This is the first time we have been to the Dickens Fair.  My sister-in-law went with us.
It is an adventure into 19th Century Victorian London.  There are lots of costumed players in the music halls, pubs, dance parties and Christmas shops.  There are Dickens characters roaming the streets like Ebenezer Scrooge, Ghost of Marley, Father Christmas, Mrs. Claus, Ghost of Christmas Past and Present, chimney sweeps and more.  There are  lots of good food like roasted chestnuts, meat pies, pasties, bangers and mash.  The meat pies were really good.  We had steak and mushroom meat pies.  There were a lot of really cool shops lining the different streets.  There were lots of fair goers dressed up in Victorian clothes and some of them were dressed as Steam Punks which is interesting.
We had a good time.  Will definitely go again next year and I may even dress up.  Although I should have bought some clothes at the fair.

Job Interview

I have been working as a classified sub for the school district since 2005.  So a couple of months ago I took the school district test for School Assistant and Paraprofessional.  I passed and now I am on the wait list for the jobs.  I took the test way back in 2005 and didn't pass.  I passed the test this time. I think it is easier to take the tests when you have been working at  the jobs.  Anyway I digress a few weeks ago the district sent me 2 flyer's about job openings one was a School Assistant job and the other was a Paraprofessional job so I told the districts HR person that I wanted to apply for the School Assistant job.  I hadn't heard anything so I assumed that they had already hired someone for the position.  Beginning of last week I got a call from the HR person letting me know that I had a job interview on Wednesday for the position.
 
Wednesday comes and I go to the interview with the principal and the school secretary.  The school assistant yells to the principal "she's here"! The principal asks me the first question and I got all nervous.  I told them that I hadn't interviewed in 11 years so the principal says maybe what my father told me will help you.  He told me to picture them in their underwear so I got all discombobulated and red in the face.  My son goes to that school and I know the principal and secretary and I didn't want to picture them in their underwear. LOL!  The secretary said she didn't want me to picture her in her underwear.  So when the interview was finished and as I was leaving I said "you can put on your clothes".
 
The next day I got a call from the principal saying that he kept thinking about the advice he gave me that he thought would help and that my interview had gone badly and he wanted to give me a fair chance for the job so he asked me if I could come in that morning for a second interview.  He kept apologizing to me.  He felt really bad about it.  If it had been any other principal, I wouldn't have gotten a second chance so I am grateful to him for giving me another chance to interview.  The second interview went much better and I was able to give more coherent and detailed answers so now I am waiting to hear if I got the job.  It was funny afterwards when I was telling my hubby about it.

Halloween Party

One of our friends, whose daughter is in the same grade as our son, invited hubby and I to her adult  only Halloween party.  She invited us  a couple of days before the party so we didn't have any costumes on hand. We went to House of Humor to find a last minute costume.  My son was invited to a friends Halloween party so that was perfect. There were tons of people looking for last minute costumes there.  It was too crowded.  I was surprised that there were any costumes left at all.  Of course, all of the good costumes were gone. We went up and down the isles looking for a costume but nothing struck our fantasy.  We didn't have any idea what we wanted to dress up as.  We weren't even thinking about it.  It just wasn't on our radar.  I tried on several costumes but none of them looked good on me so I ended up not getting a one.  Hubby found a pirate costume that looked on him so he got that.  I decided to wear my disco costume from my friend's 50th birthday party last year.  I just got a few more jewelry pieces to add to the costume.  I had on leggings, hippy top with some 60's jewelry and earrings.  I got a lot of compliments on the costume.  I have lost 10lbs since last year so the top fitted and the sandals I wore fitted better.  My friend invited her neighbors and a few parents from my sons school.  The food was yummy.  She made 4 huge salmons, asparagus, hummus with naan, cheese and fruit.  It was a very nice spread.  Another friend made some yummy cupcakes.  I brought the hostess a bottle of Black Cat Riesling which was in a black cat bottle.  So cute.  We had a good time even though we didn't know that many people.  We got to meet some new people.  Hubby left early to go pick up our son from his party so I was at the party by myself.  Everyone kept asking if he was coming back.  LOL!  We were going to have him stay at home but our friend said it was alright if hubby brought him back with him to the party.  My son hung out with our friends daughter so that worked out.  He hasn't seen her in a while because she is going to the middle school now.

Happy Halloween!
Have a frightfully spooky halloween.