A Bloggy Award

I've recently found Tiffany at Life As A Southern Girl & began following her. She lives in South Louisiana so she knows about the stuff I ramble on about. HA! Anyway, she gave me an award.  Thanks Tiff!

Seven things about ME:

1. We're planning a Hawaiian Cruise for my 40th birthday & 10 year anniversary which just happen to be in the same month in 2013.
2. I hate to pack. Like really hate it. I love to go on trips but you'll always find me packing at the very last minute.

3. I LOVE to play Words With Friends - If you want to play my name is TraciB. For whatever reason I don't get a lot of games that people send me so send my your names & I'll send you a game.

4. At the moment I'm thinking of having sugar free chocolate froyo for dinner. Amelia-Ann has me hooked on it. (A-A is my 12 yr old neighbor)

5. When we get back from the beach we will begin to shop for me a new car. I'm excited but I HATE car salesmen.

6. I really, really want a puppy & Dean really, really doesn't.

7. We're going to Dallas Labor Day weekend to watch LSU play Oregon. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

I'm not tagging anyone specific because it's too hard for me to choose. So, if you read consider yourself tagged & do a post!!

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

I've lost a pound. It's not as much as I'd like but it's something & I'm happy about that. Especially since I indulged Friday in Lafayette & then again Saturday at our "cruise planning party". When I say indulged that means I ate a piece of bread with my crawfish stew & had a cookie for dessert. Since I've been sick I wasn't as strict as I've been. I just didn't feel like having to fix stuff so I ate what was available.  I also haven't been to Yogalates in a week. I don't think it's a good idea to sweat profusely & risk a relapse when I'm just starting to feel better. I plan to go back Monday. I know it's going to be incredibly hard after skipping a week but I'll deal. So, for those of you keeping track, that's a total of 22.6 lbs. lost. WOO HOO!!! My goal is 30 & that will have me back at my wedding day weight.

Since I haven't been going to Yoglates I've been making the most of going straight home after work. I took Amelia-Ann to get froyo. I did get sugar free chocolate which was DELISH!!! But I admit that I did get some regular cheesecake mixed in. Next time I'll stick with chocolate. I went through my closet & I have a pile of clothes that are now too big that I'm donating.  I got some laundry done & all of the ironing is done as well. I even managed to watch this weeks RHONJ & the Kardashians. That's the only good thing about ironing, I can catch up on the DVR.

Yesterday, I got an email from Loft that they were having a sale. Being that I got rid of a pile of clothes I thought I needed to replace them. I went & lunch & found some stuff.  Excuse the pictures. They were taken in my closet with my phone because I was being lazy.

 This top is a khaki color. It was $35 on sale for $15.

This one is a slate blue color. It was $30 on sale for $15. Wow these pics are really bad, but you get the idea. 

I got this picture from Loft's website. The picture doesn't show but these have a little shimmer to them. Very cute. They were $60 & I got them for $24. I also got a cute pair of Bermuda's. I forgot to take a pic & can't find them on the website. They're white with blue pinstripes. Very cute. They were $45 & I got them for $18. Everything that was already marked down was an additional 40% off. I also got a shimmery tank. Nothing special, just a regular tank top & it was $20 on sale for $10. Anybody else been shopping lately?

Toodles!

Randoms

After taking 6 pills from my Z Pack yesterday I feel better today & my voice is coming back. I didn't go to sleep last night until 11:00 but once I was asleep I stayed asleep & there no middle of the night coughing fits like I'd been having. Thank goodness! It was also a bit of a blessing that I couldn't fall asleep because I got to stay up & watch the whole Florida/S. Carolina College World Series game. It was a great extra inning game. I'm glad I feel better but I don't like the way the steroids make me feel. I'm very nervous & jittery. Oh well, only 5 more days.....

Saturday night we had a "Cruise Planning Party" with our neighbors. Dean cooked crawfish stew which was DELISH!! 5 couples including us  booked a 7 day cruise on this ship.

It's the Norwegian Spirit. This is the same cruise we went on a couple of years ago. It was so much fun! We leave from New Orleans. We're not going until Mardi Gras but I know February will be here before we know it. I love having a trip to look forward to.

We have a friend that does custom Styrofoam cups & I ordered some last week. She brought them to me last night. I LOVE how they turned out.

Aren't they cute??? Perfect for pool parties!

Toodles!

NKOTBSB

Wow.....is all I have to say. We had sooo much fun!! We started the day at the nail salon. We all had mani's & then we were off. The concert was in Lafayette which is about an hour from Baton Rouge. We talked & laughed & talked & laughed. I stayed home from work sick Wednesday & went to the Doctor Thursday morning & I had a sinus infection. As luck would have it I started losing my voice Thursday night. By Friday, I sounded like a 2 pack a day for 20 years smoker. It was so not pretty. I was feeling pretty good though. Allison had to finish doing her makeup on the way.

She's known for fixing her hair & makeup in the car. I fully expected her to pull out the Velcro rollers.

Our first stop once we got to Lafayette was Jolie's Louisiana Bistro. Allison's birthday was last week so she chose to have this as her birthday lunch. FANTASTIC choice Allison!!! Everything was sooo good.

This was the house made Boudin Flat Bread appetizer. So good. 

This is the Jolie. It's strawberry infused vodka & champagne martini. So good. We felt like we were Housewives of somewhere having drinks at lunch during the week!! HA!

These were the roasted oysters. They were delicious. It was an appetizer that I had as my meal along with these

I LOVE crab cakes but I wanted oysters too so I got both & had leftovers that I ate before the concert. It was all soooo good.

After lunch we went to the mall & hung out in Charming Charlie's for a ridiculous amount of time. I just love that store. Next up we went to the Cajun dome to scope everything out. Tour buses were everywhere but there were no boy band sightings. It was really hot too. So we went & checked in the hotel.

This is me & Vicki 

Vicki & Wendy chillin' before we left. The rest of us were touching up makeup & teasing our hair.

The hotel was directly across the street from the Cajun dome. It was really convenient. We just walked to the concert so we didn't have to deal with traffic. Before we left we had a picture taken in the lobby. 

Allison, me, Jill, Wendy & Vicki. This picture cracks me up because Wendy looks so short. She's only like an inch shorter than me but I have on a big wedge & she has on flats. Jill looks like she's 8 ft. tall but she had on some monster heels (that she bought at Charming Charlie's).

One difference between going to a New Kids concert when you're 37 as opposed to 16 is they sell alcohol. This would be a delicious $16 pina colada. Yes, you read that right a 20 oz. $16 pina colada. Remember, I had a sinus infection & my throat was hurting. I needed something to soothe it. I did draw the line at an extra shot. I refuse to pay $20 for a drink.

Finally, it was time for the show!!! Before I go any further let me say this. I'm not happy with my pictures. I don't know if it's my camera or me. I'm thinking a combo of  the two seeing as how I don't like to read directions & have no idea how or what all the features do. This is all 9 of the guys for the opening of the show.

We had awesome seats. We weren't all sitting together. In order to buy our tickets earlier than the rest of the world we had to join the fan club but they only allowed you to buy 4 tickets at a time & we needed 5 so we split up. Wendy, Vicki & I sat together. We were the first section on the side of the stage & it was awesome. Allison & Jill were on the floor. They too had awesome seats. There was the main stage & then this runway that went down the middle of the arena with another stage at the end & that's where their seats were. At one point the guys all went into the crowd & shook hands & hugged fans. Jill was lucky enough to get to shake Jon's hand. Yes, I'm well aware of how old we are.

It's little Joey Joe!! Love him!

This is the runway part of the stage. People like to make fun of NKOTB & us for liking them but I've been to a lot of concerts from Bon Jovi to Garth Brooks & hands down New Kids puts on THE BEST show! Back Street Boys were great too. This was the first time I'd ever seen them in concert. Sadly, the show came to an end. Everytime I see them I just want it to go on & on.  Afterwards we checked out the bus area & AJ from BSB was outside playing with is remote control cars. He just recently got out of rehab. At that point Jill & I really needed to change shoes. You can only stand  in 4 inch heels for so long & 2+ hours was about our limit. We went back to the hotel & put on flip flops & headed off to Waffle House. Now this is where you could really question our age. See, Donnie really likes WH & he tends to hang out there after shows. He tweets if he's going & then hangs out & takes pics with fans. Off we went of course. Well, there were no tables available so we sat in the parking lot. In the mini van & waited. And waited. Finally, we decided that we were hungry & tired of sitting in the parking lot so we went to the other WH & were able to get a table & eat. Now, I've NEVER been to WH. I was expecting greatness. I keep hearing about it. Everyone talks about how awesome it is. Maybe if you're drunk or hungover but starving & sleepy at 2 am? Not so much. It didn't do a thing for me.  When we were going in there was a pimped out Hummer parking. The guy that was driving it & his girlfriend sat at the counter behind us. I heard him asking our waitress if they were hiring. I thought it was really funny. I mean really, if you're looking for a job at Waffle House should you be driving a Hummer?? Anyway, when Vicki loaded her pics she found this

See the freaky smiley guy??? That's Mr. Hummer himself. HAHAHAHA!!!!

Back to the hotel we went. It was 3:00 am. I cannot tell you the last time I stayed out that late. Now, I don't know how I would've felt if I wasn't sick but I am. STILL. I feel like crap. I felt like crap all day Saturday. I did manage to take a 3 hour nap before my house was full of company Saturday night for our "cruise planning party". More on that later.  I still barely have a voice. I called the Dr. this morning & he called in steroids for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to sleep tonight & feel better tomorrow. I'm not holding my breath. Wondering what I did yesterday? NOTHING. I laid on the sofa & napped & caught up on all the Housewives. Again, still feeling like crap.....

Toodles! 

And we're off....

in a mini van! Yep that's how we roll these days.


Jill, Allison & Wendy. Vicki's driving & I'm the photographer. We've all had our nails done, we got snacks & drinks & we're off to Lafayette for NKOTB!! Woooo Hoooo!!!

Toodles!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Tigerland Ave,Baton Rouge,United States

Weigh In Wednesday!

This week Weigh In Wednesday comes to you from the sofa in my sitting room. I'm home sick. UGH! This is not the week that I need to be sick. I have plans people!! Today was supposed to be my 3rd Yogalates workout this week because I can't go tomorrow because I have a long overdue hair appt. Looks like it's just going to be a 2 class week. I hate that because it makes it harder when I go back. Oh well, some things can't be helped.

Last night I was feeling a touch of a sore throat coming on. I woke up at 12:30 & my throat felt raw. Great. I got up & took a Benadryl. I knew after taking that there was no way I could go to work. I also used some Chloraseptic which is apparently past it's good by date because it numbed my throat for all of about 2 seconds. Great. How am I going to be able to scream at the NKOTB concert if I have a sore throat???? It's a quandary for sure.

So back to the point of this post. I lost 2.2 pounds this week!! Woot Woot!! I'm so excited because I did indulge in Lydia's mac & cheese & I'll admit I did have a little of it for supper last night. Not to mention the key lime pie & strawberry delight from Sunday. I guess it's true what they say about moderation. There's leftover key lime pie in my fridge & I haven't touched it since the one small slice I had Sunday. Yay me!

I'm off to finish catching up with Kardashians & napping.

Toodles!

Father's Day Weekend

Friday night Dean & I had dinner at Sammy's. This is one of our favorite places. Not exactly the healthiest, but definitely a fave. I love their fried fish. To make my meal a little bit healthy I substituted sweet potato fries for regular fries. They were amazing!!! On the way home we stopped at the store to pick up Father's Day cards. I'm not usually so last minute. Dean waited in the car while I went in. On the way home I pulled out the cards to show them to Dean & I see that the cards say "Grandpa". Yes, I got my dad & my FIL the same card. Yes, they're both grandpa's. However, they are not MY grandpa. I guess I was focusing on the fish that was on the front of the card. Oh well, it's the thought that counts right?

Sat., the girls & I went for our 4 mi. walk around the LSU lakes. It was ridiculously humid & we went at 8:00. I can't imagine what it's going to be like in August. After the walk I went home & did some work in the yard & then Dean's parents, our niece Camille & Dean's cousin Cassie & her kids Cody & Emma came over to swim. 

 Cody had a ball with Dean throwing him. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the last summer Dean can do that. Cody's a big kid for 5!

Cody & Camille had snacks.

Emma posed.

Sunday we had a pool party for Father's Day. Our parents, my brother & sis-in-law Scott & Lydia, Logan, Camille & Dean's grandma were all there. Dean cooked brisket & pork loin & his dad boiled crabs. Lydia makes the most amazing homemade mac & cheese! It was DELISH! It's going to be very hard not to eat any of the leftovers. Of course there was pie too. Key Lime, which has recently become one of my faves. Dean's mom made a great dessert, strawberry delight. It can be made with any fruit & you use angel food cake so it's not the worst dessert every if you're dieting!

Fresh crabs! Dean's dad caught them yesterday morning. They don't get much fresher.

Logan LOVES the pool! He's only 2 but he kicks those legs & moves those arms like he knows what he's doing.

He loves boats & balls. From what we can tell, anything that floats on water is a boat in Logan's eyes. It's so funny to see him point & say "da boat, da boat". It reminds me of the little guy on Fantasy Island hollering "da plane, da plane".

Camille enjoyed her time in the pool too. Logan liked to watch her jump off the side.

She posed a lot for me too. It's so much easier to take pics when the subject is interested in posing!

Logan had a snack for the road. We were in the pool all day long. I think everyone should've slept really good last night. I know I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open at 7:00!!

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!

Toodles!

Heart Failure at 37

See this?


This is what almost caused the heart failure. What's inside that could've caused such trauma you ask???


Yes, that says NKOTBSB!!! For those of you that don't know I'm a HUGE NKOTB fan. Have been since I saw them sing Please Don't Go Girl on Nickelodeon when I was 14!!

I'm talking love as in having their posters all over so that you couldn't see an inch of wall space. This will be the 8th time I've seem them in concert.

Back to the heart failure. In November Allison, Jill, Vicki, Wendy & I paid to join the fan club so we'd have the privilege of purchasing tickets before the rest of the world. We had to have good seats of course. In December we bought the tickets & all was good with the world.

Fast forward to now. For whatever reason since we ordered the tickets through the fan club they were the ones sending out the tickets....2 weeks before the concert. I wasn't very happy about this. We finally got tracking numbers last week. We had to order 2 & 3 tickets because you were limited to 4 tickets. Allison got home from work & hers were there in a small envelope. That's when I started to get nervous.

We all know that my UPS peeps show up at all hours of the night. Well, lo & behold I was in the kitchen about 6:30 & the big brown truck stopped in front of the house. WOOO HOOO! They were here. In the words of Lee Corso (yes I watch ESPN) "not so fast my friend"!! After sitting there for almost 5 minutes he drove off! WITHOUT delivering the tickets!!

This would be where the heart failure was coming in. I could just see my little envelope sticking to someone else's package.

Thankfully, about 5 minutes later he came back & delivered them. I was sooo relieved! So now we're ready for the concert!

Toodles!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Weigh In Wednesday

I'm very excited today. I lost 2 pounds this week!! Even with the bread from Little Village!!! My total loss is 19.4 pounds. We leave for the beach on July 15th & I was hoping to lose 5 pounds before we leave. This 2 really helped that goal.

Something else that helped the goal is my new found love for Italian salad dressing. Ever since I was a kid my mom would tell us to try things that we didn't like because our taste change. So true! I never ever liked Italian dressing. I always want the fattening ranch or honey mustard. My neighbor brought me some home grown tomatoes this week & I ate one with salt & pepper & Italian dressing & it was so good! Last night I had a salad & used it.  It's half the calories of the other dressings I like.

Today is our neighbor Alexandra's 18th birthday. We're all going to dinner at the Chimes tonight. I LOVE Chimes. Love, Love, Love! I'll have to make wise choices which is difficult for me when I'm somewhere I love.

That's it for now.

Toodles!

Weekend Ramble

• Saturday morning me, Allison & Jen went & walked the lakes. After the bread from Friday night I knew I had to do something. This was Jen's first time to walk with us. She claims she'll do it again.
• After the walk I worked in the yard for several hours. I pulled weeds & pulled up some day lilies & irises. That was a workout!
• I relaxed in the pool for a bit then I got ready for Mass
• After Mass we ate at TJ Ribs. This isn't my favorite restaurant but Dean likes it & we hadn't been in forever. I just got a salad & baked potato so I didn't do too much damage. 
• Sunday I did a lot of ironing. I hate to iron but it allowed me to catch up with the Housewives. Well, almost. I still have to watch last weeks NJ. I've decided the NY women drive me crazy. I'll watch the rest of the season but I'm done with them if they don't recast which I keep hearing they're going to.
• Dean & I went & saw The Hangover 2. It was funny but not as good as the first one. I liked it MUCH better than Bridesmaids though.
• After the movie we went to Charming Charlie's. I LOVE this store!! I was looking for some jewelry to go with this top. 

 I thought it was going to be really easy to match but it wasn't. There are shades of pink & red & nothing looked good with it until I found this set.

The bracelet & earrings have shades of pink & red. It's very cute together.

• I also bought this

It looks like a small glasses case but it's not. It's a contact case!

Isn't it cute??? This is perfect for me especially when we're traveling. I usually put my case in a ziploc bag in case it leaks but this is much cuter!

• Our niece Camille is in town staying with Dean's parents. They came over yesterday for a little while. This is Camille. She just turned 9 on her birthday in May.

So that was the weekend & now it's Monday again. Have I mentioned I hate Mondays??

Toodles!

What diet???

We leave for the beach in 5 weeks. I'd like to lose a few more pounds before then. I didn't do myself any favors tonight. I'm sure everyone's familiar with Groupon and Living Social. In our area we also have Bargain Bee. Lately, they've had a lot of good coupons for some of our favorite restaurants & some we've been wanting to try. Tonight was one of those nights. Little Village is an Italian restaurant. Everyone keeps telling us how good it is. They were right. This was amazing...


It's bread covered in parmesan with garlic & a side of chopped black olives. Sooo AMAZING!! I don't want to know how many calories it was. Dean got fish & I got the Seafood Fal Diavlo.


It had shrimp, crawfish & lump crabmeat. Really good. I do have leftovers too.

Needless to say I need exercise. Good thing I have a walk scheduled tomorrow morning!

Toodles!
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Weigh in Wednesday & a Pool Party

I'm not overly excited about my weight today. I lost .4. I was really hoping for a whole pound but that's ok, it's something. Moving on....

Saturday,  Dean & I invited some friends over for a pool party & he grilled burgers, hot dogs & veggies. The food was soooo good. Of course that's normal when Dean cooks. It was a beautiful, HOT day until about 4:00 when it rained for the first time in at least a month. We'd been in the pool since 11:00 so it was ok. We
were happy to have the rain. Incidentally, after not having any rain for so long, we've had it 3 of the last 4 days. My plants are loving it!

This is Bayleigh. I've known her parents, Jill & Ian for years.

This is Cael aka "Bruiser"!! I've known his mom as long as I've known Jill.  

Another shot of Cael in action. BTW, these pics are courtesy of my friend Vicki. She's got a fancy schmancy camera that takes waaayyyy better pics than my little Canon.

We put a stop to this jumping business pretty quick. After Vicki took the picture of course! This the tanning shelf & the water isn't deep at all. We were scared he was going to hurt himself & nobody felt like taking a trip to the ER.

Lane & Dean. Lane is our Godchild. I've known his mom, Vicki (the Photographer) since we were in Kindergarten.  

This is Wendy, Rich & Emily. I actually took this pic. See the difference?? I've known Wendy since high school & now we work together.

This is Preston, Bayleigh's baby brother.

 Bayleigh, Preston & Lane having snacks. You know how hungry swimming makes you!

 Another one of my shots.

More snacks. I can't begin to tell you how many Popsicles or whatever these things are called those kids ate!

All the kids get along really well. We had a really good time. Naturally, a lot of laughing went on ESPECIALLY since Allison was there. We can always count on her for a laugh or two or 12,000!!!

Toodles!

Back in Business!

At lunch today I went to AT&T & got my new phone. I was without a phone for less than 24 hours & it was awful!! I may depend on technology a little too much. Here it is....

The white iPhone 4. Soooo happy to have it. I loved my other iPhone until Dean got his 4. Then I realized just how much they'd improved & I've been jealous ever since. This thing is so awesome. It's got the 2 way camera, a flash & you can do more than one thing at a time. Like listen to Pandora & play WWF at the same time. AWESOME!!!

I ordered a nifty little case for it last night from Overstock. Hopefully, it will get here soon. BTW, if you need iPhone accessories Overstock has a great selection at great prices. I ordered screen protectors too. AT&T charges $10 per protector. I was able to order 4 for $7.50. Granted they may not be the same quality but so what!!

Toodles!