Living in and around fabulous fifty!

Don't miss out on the little moments! As many of you know raising teens is not easy. We have been through our own trials for certain. In fact our daughter turned 18, wrecked the car and moved out all within a couple of weeks. We were shocked! That was a teary eyed day for sure. My heart broke as she walked down the drive way carrying a load of her belongings and she looked up at me and said, "I love you mom and hope you will be at my graduation". My goodness I hadn't even gotten that far, I was still reeling from the moment. Since then my husband and I have worked and prayed hard to keep our relationship alive with our daughter. While we feel it is very important to stick to our convictions, we also do our best to let our baby girl know she can come home and we love her very much. I reach out to her regularly with invites to come over or go to lunch. So when she mentioned she wanted to take pictures for her announcements, I was on it!     Each moment we have to ...

Wylee Wylee has many stories and our favorite for this on the go pup happened while we were living in Texas. We had just moved into a small subdivision called, “Royal Forest”. It was literally a forest of very high thick trees that had roads carved out with little patches carved out just wide enough to place a small home. You could not see beyond the trees unless you were looking straight down a neighborhood street or straight up in the air. This took awhile for us to get used to. The nights were so muggy and hot because the breeze could not get past the trees. Many residents would take walks or golf cart rides after dark and there was an intense smell of the woods, BBQ and bug spray all around. Steve and I decided to take walks in the evenings too with Wylee right along side of us. Now this is when it gets interesting. While taking one of our walks several people passing by waved hi, to Wylee! LOL! We did not know them but, apparently our mischievous pup did. See, Wylee...

"My baby is gone!" "I don't care how old you are or that you are a Marine your still my baby and I worry". Yep, I said those words to my 6'1 Marine who is 21 years old. I know he is not a baby obviously but, I worry about him as if he is. Now having said these words to my baby girl of 5.3 and 18 years old was when I got the reality check. My little 100 lb baby girl turned around and looked up at me and said, "mom, I know you worry about me but, if you hadn't done such a good job I wouldn't be able to be out on my own". Wow! A compliment and a slap at the same time. I did such a good job she is gone. I cried, yep just like a baby a big ugly cry.       When your children leave either for good or just for college or military training its not easy. In fact it sucks big time. On the bright side you can keep an open communication with them and LEARN to appreciate the good side. Like when you see them succeed! Or when they come to you for adv...

"Go easy on me coach" These words came out of my mouth! I can't believe this. As a former fitness trainer (a long time ago) I do have a little pride and couldn't believe I had said this as I was entering the UFC cage area to take a Jui Jitsu class. I wanted to yell out my age as an excuse. I was excited and nervous at the same time. Oh my goodness, what did I get my self into? I was looking at all these other people in the class and then I spotted a woman who looked close to my age and felt a sense of comfort. I told myself if she can be here I can too. The coach could tell I was nervous and he smiled at me and grabbed a very young girl with a blue belt and paired her with me after the instruction. I thought yeah right a 20 year old with a blue belt and a 48 year old with nothing this is going to work out. I laughed to myself and got down on my back in guard position, she sat over me between my knees and grabbed my gi. Then she said, "Its okay sweetheart le...

Hello everyone! So the hubby and I are in week three of the Paleo diet. I was recently asked what the Paleo diet is? To start, the Paleo diet is also known as Primal eating and The Caveman diet. Many believe it is similar to the Keto diet. I am not as familiar with Keto. I have been digging deep into Paleo since I heard about it. Paleo just made sense and clicked with my fitness back ground. Paleo is based on how our ancestors would have been eating int he Paleolithic era. Paleo eating is basically low carb (no starchy carbs or grains) no processed foods, cutting out legumes, vegetable oils and sugars. What do you eat? High fat, lots of veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, pickled foods for gut health and bone broth for joints and gut health. I am finally starting to come out of the, "low Carb flu". The low carb flu is basically what happens when you stop eating all those starchy carbs and go from a sugar burner to a fat burner. Your body still wants those carbs and you ma...

Hey there! What a beautiful day today. Finally stopped raining for a minute. I love the sun! I have found if I do not get enough sunlight I feel a bit down. How about you? So yesterday I was talking about Paleo and my husband and I starting our venture into the Paleo lifestyle and eating. We decided in the beginning about 4 weeks ago to try out some of the meals we found on line mostly from a show called The Paleo Way by Pete Evens. After we tried several recipes and how it felt to replace traditional carb filled meals with these healthy high fat and low carb meals we decided it was something we wanted to take to the next level. Actually one night my husband a drive through junkie started reading all the labels while helping put the groceries away. he said,"I can't believe sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is in everything." Then he said, "Well I guess if we are going to do this we need to get rid of everything, right?" I was in total disbelieve. It...