Bye Y'all!

Me and The Misses 2011 @ Garden City Beach, SC

We're off to the beaches of Destin, Florida! See you on the flip side of July with lots to talk about!

                                       ~Betsy

When life gives you too much stuff...

Give life Space Bags!! This is one of my favorite vacation accessories! I know everyone has seen the infomercial, but you have to try them! They really work great, especially for packing to go on trips!

I bought the combo pack at Big Lots for $10

Before the Space Bag

As you can see, I do NOT pack light!

It's a bit disturbing that they have to put this warning on the bag! Does that mean that "somewhere, some idiot said to himself" (Inside joke, but my family will get it!)

After the Space Bag! Now I have plenty of room to pack more shoes!! 

Happy Travels!!      ~Betsy

Housework...

BORING ALERT! This week will consist of cleaning the house, getting laundry done, running errands, and packing to get ready for our vacation. I did take the kids to my favorite Krispy Kreme this morning. Oh the excitement! (sense the sarcasm) I do love a good doughnut (or 3) though! The weather has been sort of crummy, so the kids have been inside with me for the past two days. They have definitely succeeded in driving me crazy at times. Sometimes I feel less like a parent, and more like a referee. Only 78 days until school returns, but who's counting?

Yet, no matter how much my kids are driving me crazy when I have a million things to do; I look at this poor mom's picture and realize that my day is not so bad. Yikes! ;)     ~Betsy

                                                                             

Friday Loves

TGIF! We are having Park Day with Friend and her boys today! Here are few things that I am loving this week, and will be toting around all summer. :)

Here is my favorite summer tote. It's Calypso St. Barth for Target. I bought it last year, but it's cute, and the perfect size for everything I need to haul around for summer days with the kiddos. 

Iced Coffee

My Starbucks tumblers are always in use; filled with iced coffee, or Crystal Light Energy. These are two of my summertime vices. 

Summertime reading! I have a subscription of US Weekly, so it's a total guilty pleasure. We Need to Talk About Kevin is the next book I'm going to put in my bag. My mother-in-law has been telling me to read this book for a year, and vacation is the perfect time for it.

I have a little bit of a sunless tanner addiction in the summertime. This girl's skin color is definitely not on God's color wheel! Ha! What am I to do with the limited sunshine here in Oregon? I find that mixing the Jergens Natural Glow with a little Sublime Bronze gives my best color.

When the sun finally does come out, this is my favorite sunscreen! It's great for the kids, but it's also good for my face. It's not super greasy, gentle on my face, and it lasts a long time. ;) 

Have a great Father's Day weekend! 

~Betsy

Ready, Set... Summer!

It's the start of summer in our household!  R had his last day of school yesterday, and I am now officially the mother of a 4th grader. Where has time gone?  Geez!

Yesterday after school we went with friends to Fizz here in Portland's Belmont neighborhood to celebrate the end of the school year. It's a modern twist on the classic soda and candy shop. It was SO fun! We sat at the counter, ordered ice cream and milk shakes, while the kids checked out the candy displays. They have tons of unique candies to choose from. A word to the wise: Keep an eye on your kids here! It was busy yesterday, and while Gen and I were chatting, the kids were filling their candy bags. Kids should NEVER be left unsupervised around bulk candy at $7 a pound, and over-sized $20 lollipops. Learn from our mistake! Ha!  If you are local, I would totally recommend stopping in to get in touch with your inner 10 year old self though. It's delicious!

We may not live in the sunny south, but summers around these parts are really beautiful! We pack our days full of summer camps, park days, camping, vacation, and trips to Idaho, etc... Then we turn around, and it's September! It's exhausting and super fun at the same time. I LOVE summer!  Whatever the season brings, I plan to pack it full of sunshine while it lasts. Using plenty of sunscreen along the way of course!

              ~Betsy

Hello? June, Are you there? It's me Betsy.

This is getting ridiculous!  Here in Oregon we have had the wettest spring on record, and we have even officially exceeded the average yearly rainfall totals in Portland for the year. It's only JUNE!  My southern brain tells me that it's summer, and the calendar is saying the same thing. I just wish Mother Nature would cooperate! I am feeling pretty water logged these days.  I start to feel like if I get anymore rain in my flats, or if I have to unload another bag of groceries with a 3 year old in the rain, I may just totally lose it in the parking lot at Fred Meyer! I will hold it together though, because I know that summer is just around the corner. Vacation home to the sunny South is coming up soon, and that is where I will thaw out with the people I love the most in the world.  BIG smiles! It's also the last week of school for the kids this week, so Park Days and summer fun is on the horizon as well.  On the upside of crummy weather, I get to be lazy and just wear my hair curly today. :)

          ~Betsy

Friday Loves!

Here are a few things that I have been loving this week!

Stenciled Furniture

Dolce & Gabbana  Light Blue perfume  WANT!

Paige Denim- "Jimmy Jimmy Easy Fit Skinny"  I LOVE the "not so skinny" skinny!

ELLE Magazine- Rarely do I buy these magazines for myself, but I got this one last month and I have almost torn the cover off from reading it cover to cover. I'll be reading these outside all summer. :)

Black Coffee

Okay. This one is a lie, but I have been trying really hard to love it. I'm trying to cut back on my creamer intake, so I have been only having one cup of coffee in the morning with creamer. The subsequent cups during the day have been black. I'm slowly acquiring a taste for it, or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Have a great weekend!
                ~Betsy

Just for Fun

How many of you are addicted to Pinterest? I love Pinterest! I am on the website everyday looking for the next coolest thing, getting outfit ideas, home inspirations, fitness ideas, recipes, etc.... The infinite list of good ideas goes on forever! Although I am so often inspired by things I see on Pinterest, there are some really BAD ideas on there as well. Just for the fun of it, I will post just a few that I have come across this week for you. Enjoy! :)

Very stylish! I see baby gift for Sister! LOL! Do you really think the baby would just keep his head in that hole??? 

Now I LOVE bacon, and I LOVE chicken, but really? A whole chicken wrapped in bacon??

Of course!! Everyone needs a couple of crochet sperm!

I may or may not have owned one similar to this once. You decide. ;) 

There are no words. Really.

This guy should try working out his brain. 

Note:  If you are over 30, and still sitting in a beanbag chair that looks like a baked potato; you have failed.

Better'n Peanut Butter

Okay, so I'm a huge fan of peanut butter... Like huge. I eat a peanut butter & honey sandwich almost every day for lunch, I love it on bananas, toast, in protein shakes, and to the end of the earth and back.
I LOVE peanut butter! My problem with peanut butter is the fat. :(  I know, I know it's a healthy fat when you eat it in moderation. None the less, I often find myself choosing other snacks to avoid eating it for a second time during the day.

Every now and then I hear about an alternative to my creamy favorite, and I run out to try and find it. Usually this ends in disappointment. Like the time that I paid $5 for a jar of calorie free whipped "peanut" spread that tasted like what could only be described as rotting wet cardboard. Yuck!

So recently I saw an ad for Better'n Butter, and I ran out to find it. It boasts 85% less fat (2g per serving), only 100 calories, is made from peanuts, and defatted peanut flour etc... I saw that they sell it at Trader Joes and Target. My first stop was to Target, and I saw that it was $5.99 a jar. I thought Trader Joes may have it cheaper, so next stop Trader Joes, and they had it for $4.49. Score!

My thoughts on the spread is that it's pretty good!  I substituted it on my sandwich for lunch, and could taste a difference for sure, but it was still very good. It tastes enough like the natural peanut butters that I buy, and I think it's worth the money for me. I will still feed the family regular peanut butter, but I'm happy with this for now. I also think it will be great for cooking, but that's for another day. They also have a chocolate peanut spread, and if I can find that somewhere my life will be complete. ;)

PS. I have also heard really great things about PB2 for a peanut butter substitute, but they don't sell it in my area yet. I would love to know if you have tried it!

              ~Betsy

Confessions of a Coffeeholic

Hi. My name is Betsy and I am a "coffeeholic". Whew! That felt good. Ha!

Seriously though I am crazy about my coffee. The Hubs and I both are totally addicted to it. Living in a place where it's cold and rains consistently 9 months out of the year; You need a nice warm beverage to thaw out your soul after unloading groceries, or watching a soccer game in the rain for the 13th time in a row. It's essential! The Hubs and I have coffee in the mornings, and in the evenings after dinner. I would say that I drink about 7 cups on average a day. 3 or 4 cups in the AM and 3 or 4 cups in the PM. I know this is alot, yet I still somehow manage to sleep like a baby. :)

Thinking about the amount of coffee I consume has me also thinking about the amount of creamer that I consume. I usually buy the fat free liquid creamers. These creamers have 30 calories per serving and I use around the serving amount in a cup of my coffee. When added up over a year this comes to a whopping 2555 servings, or 65,700 calories per year that I consume in man made syrups and sugar!! WOW! I usually eat relatively healthy, and try to make more good decisions than bad when it comes to food. This seems like a very bad decision! So I am going to try to kick the creamer habit!  I'm not sure if I should go about this "cold turkey" or just cut back little by little. No matter how I go about it, change is a coming yall, and it's coming in the form of black coffee!

          ~Betsy

100 Push Ups Challenge!!

Have you ever heard of the 100 Push Up Challenge? Well, I had heard about it from a friend of mine, and it sounded kind of interesting! I asked my husband if he would be interested in doing the challenge with me for 12 weeks. He seemed to think that he could finish it in a shorter amount of time. He seemed smug as he suggested that if we wagered something good he could make it to 100 push ups by the time we go to the beach in only 3 weeks.  HA!

Now this is a bet that I CANNOT pass on! I know this man very well. He decided that he was going to run a marathon even though he hadn't really been running at all. 2 months of training later he finished the Portland Marathon in 4 hours 10 min.  He always says "It never pays to bet against me when all I have to do is try hard". None the less, I am taking this bet. It will be too funny!  I will be laughing for a week after watching him sweat out those 100 push ups! He just had better not injure himself before our vacation! Who is going to carry all those bags? LOL!

Did you miss me? Week in Review

Where on earth have I been?  Well , it's been a pretty busy week!  Here's the highlights...

On Wednesday The Hubs took me out to an early happy hour dinner for my birthday. It's my favorite because this girl gets up at 4:45am during the week, so I totally turn into a pumpkin at 9pm. It has nothing to do with me getting older though, so don't even think it! Ha!

Thursday morning I got up, shuffled R off to school, worked out with my mom friends at the park, ran errands and stuff during the day, picked R up from school where I was showered with cupcakes, and treats from Damaris and Genevieve. Love those girls!  Then in the evening helped my best Friend tag items for her HUGE garage sale the next day.

On Friday The Misses and I hung out at Friend's house all day helping her with her garage sale. It was super fun!  I have never (and I bet you haven't either) seen anything like it. Friend has a big garage sale every year, and she works really hard organizing, tagging, moving items, etc... to make it a success, and she definitely does.  She can sell ANYTHING! I have seen it! She usually has nice stuff, and people come out of the woodwork and buy like crazy! It's like a spell comes over them, and all of a sudden they MUST have that wooden basket, wall hanging, and sweatshirt now!! She has a total gift, and should write a book or something.  It's fun to hang out and watch it all happen.

On Saturday The Hubs took me out on a date again. Spoiled!

Sunday=  L-A-Z-Y!!  Well, I did go to Target to try on bathing suits. It was NOT pretty! Although this week of gluttony has been fun; I am back to the business of eating healthy this week. In just a few short weeks, I will be hauling my pale and jiggly Oregonian ass to the warm beaches of Florida. I'm excited!

Anyway, I'll be back to my postings this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend my Loves!

           ~Betsy