Hi there!

Whoa! Time has once again gotten away from me! How in the world is it already mid-May the end of May? May JUST got here...and it's usually one of my favorite months, it's not too hot yet and the nights and mornings are still a little cool...it's perfect! But this month, everything is going so fast and June is upon us in just a couple short weeks days! CRAZY!

It's kind of a weird time in my life right now, I'm used to being excited about summer because I have almost a whole month and a half off work and get to do whatever I want every day. My seniors are graduating graduated and there are crawfish boils, grad parties and just plain weekend grilling parties to attend. This year, I'm still excited about summer, but it's for different reasons now. Fort Worth has a lot to offer in the summer, they have Concerts in the Botanical Gardens, Cats games are fun to go to and the evenings are just wonderful! So while I don't get the "summer off", I still plan on enjoying every second of it!

Summer nights are the best...okay well maybe not in Houston because they are still super muggy, but here in Fort Worth, nights in MY opinion are wonderful! There is usually a beautiful warm breeze that just begs for porch sitting with wine in hand! I've already had some beautiful mornings out on my porch. I take my fruit out there and enjoy the morning. It's quite lovely. Speaking of fruit...{warning, I'm going on a tangent} Honeydew. People either love it or hate it. I used to be with the haters, I am now among the lovers and boy oh boy do I love it! Like I can't get enough of it, love it!! I may or may not have bought all four containers of it at Kroger on Sunday. And before you judge, yes, I am THAT person who buys it already chopped up. One, it's easier and two, I have no clue how to pick a good Honeydew! {Any tips would be appreciated}

Okay, back to summer... If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll notice that I've been pinning a crazy amount of yummy recipes and frozen treats. Summer is a great time to try new recipes and enjoy lighter fare, because who wants to eat a meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn {I mean this might be one of my favs} when it's still 95 degrees at 8:30pm?? I'm hoping to post at least one new recipe here per week and I'll be fair and let you know if they're good or not!

What are things you like to cook in the summer, and do y'all have any fun plans for the summer? I'm gonna live vicariously through y'all!

Working out hard, or hardly working out?

Well, I wish I could say that I've been working out hard...but I've been hardly working out. HOWEVER, I have been going to the gym more than I had been! I joined 24 HR on December 09 and I've been a whooping SIX times since then...yeah I've been basically supporting them by my monthly dues...you know a donation some may say!


I have since found two classes I love! Pound and Pilates Reformer. The reformer class is FO FREE! Say what?! I've never been to a gym where the reformer classes are free, so you can find me every Saturday morning in that class! And then Pound...I'm a horrible dancer and have no rhythm to speak of, but I LOVE this class! It's on Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays. I can't go Tuesdays because that's my busy busy day at work, so I try to go the other two days. Here's the description of Pound from their website :

Pound is a full-body cardio jam session, combining light resistance with constant simulated drumming. The workout fuses cardio, Pilates, isometric movements, plyometrics and isometric poses. Burn calories, strengthen and sculpt infrequently used muscles, and drum your way to a leaner, slimmer physique – all while rocking out to your favorite music! Through continual upper body motion using lightly weighted drumsticks, called Ripstix™, you'll turn into a calorie-torching drummer. Rock, rap, pop and old school music fuse to create the Poundtrack series.

It is SO.FUN! And extremely hard and boy are you sore after! It's a mix of pilates, yoga, cardio and abs. It's awesome!!

I also belong to Revolt Now Fitness. I had seen it on a couple other blogs last year and decided that since I was moving to a smaller place and prob wouldn't get a gym membership right away I'd join! It's $50/yr and you get a meal plan and workouts. I have been seriously slacking on this...mainly because my small apartment has no room to do the workouts. So I have to go to the gym to do them...and I like to go early so that I'm not dealing with a million people watching me {I know that more than likely they're not watching me, but still}. And seeing as I've been digging this whole sleeping thing, getting up early to hit the gym isn't on my list of things I want to do. But I need to get over it and start going at 6am. Maybe even 5:30 and then I could come home and shower and grab a power nap if need be! :)

Not living near my parents{and their pool}, I need to get my butt to the gym and eat healthier because I'm going to have to be amongst people to get some sun and in the past I could be in the comfort of my parent's backyard with fencing to shield the neighbor's from going blind haha!

I've seen this on Facebook lately and crack up every time!

Are y'all gearing up for summer by working out/eating healthy? I pin a bunch of great recipes/workouts on Pinterest so maybe I should go check them back out!

Summer 2013 pt 2!

My absolute favorite part of summer was our trip to Orange Beach, Alabama!! Not only is the beach absolutely fabulous, but the company was awesome!! We get to stay at a friend's house on Ono Island for free {holla!!} and we cook most of our meals at the house and go out to eat a few times! The weather could've been better, it rained one full day and other days were cloudy but really any day the beach is a great day!

We usually park our hineys in the sand near Flora-bama as to be closer to the Bushwhackers...They make theirs with real ice cream and they are simply divine! Last year when we went, I wasn't the biggest fan...but they really do taste like a Wendy's frosty...but you can only have a couple because they will sneak up on you if you're not careful! :)
One of my best friends, Kacee went with us this year! It was nice to have a friend on the trip! There were eight of us total and not all of us could fit at the table for meals, so Kacee and I sat at the chess table, which we dubbed the kids table...it was a running joke all week. While the "adults" went golfing one day, we went on a dolphin cruise. It was AMAZING!! We found Flipper and it was so much fun and well worth the $10 {thanks to Kacee's military discount!}and two hours on the water searching for Flipper!

We definitely didn't want to come home on Sunday but alas all good things must end! Although my Daddy {who is awesome!} finally gave in and stopped at the Tiger Mart in Baton Rouge so we could take a picture with the tiger! He saw us Horned Frogs and wouldn't come out of his little home...we think he was just being a big scaredy cat! ;)

 

Enjoy the pics...sorry for so many of them!!

 

 

 We are ready to hit the road!!

 First night at the "kids" table...checkmate!

 We snuck out to the beach the first night!

 Crazy wind and clouds the first day on the beach...but it turned out beautiful!

 Happy campers!

 Mom and her two friends...too cute!

 Frogs and Aggies...best of both conferences!

 FLIPPER!!

 BUSHWHACKER!

The group at Lu-Lu's for Mom's bday!!

 

Just a few more pics... because we of course had a photo shoot on the beach! These are some of my favorites!!

 

 Helen and Ronnie

 Karen and Max

 My cute parents!!

 Our little family!

 Pretty sure this is my favorite ever!!

 Yay for besties at the beach!

 The "adults"

 The "kids"

 This picture just captures our personalities! Cracks me up every time!

The whole group!

We had a fabulous time and can't wait to go back!!

Again sorry for the photo dump!

xoxo,

SamanthaDiane



Summer 2013 pt. 1

I've been quite absent lately...I thought I'd have tons of time to blog this summer and tons of topics to blog about...I was wrong! I had tons of time, yet I felt like I had nothing to say! So here's a little catch up of my summer and then I hope to be back to posting regularly!

The first part of summer was quite boring and I took advantage of having nothing to do! I tried to sleep late(that didn't happen), I took naps and laid on the couch watching mindless TV. It was pretty good, I'm not gonna lie!

I took a trip to Fort Worth to spend some time with friends! One of my best friends is getting married in February and I was lucky enough to go dress shopping with her!! We found the most beautiful, perfect dress for her and then later on that day actually found our bridesmaid's dresses also! Check and Check! Done!! The weekend was a great, much needed little getaway to my favorite place on earth!
When I came home, my friend Julie and her two kiddos came back with me to spend the week with my family and go to the beach! Her husband was already in H-town for business so it worked out perfectly!! We went to the beach, had a pool day and spent July 4th on a bay boat! It was perfect!!
I'll leave y'all with some pictures and continue the second part of summer tomorrow! It's gonna be a lot of pictures so get ready!!

xoxo,
SamanthaDiane

Tatum and I enjoying Galveston!! Hey a beach is a beach right?

My daddy on the boat! Love him!



Mom, Julie, Cory and I playing in the bay! It was a perfect day!!



Love this family!!





Oh my word...

So I've been on summer break going on two weeks...and I thought I'd have time to blog a lot more and would have interesting things to say... surprise! I have neither! Last week, I started my break with a two day conference...remind me not to do that again next year!! Then I was lazy lazy lazy {so technically I had time to blog, but let's be real...I was lounging on the couch}. Trying to think about it, I can't even remember what I did last week after my conference was over. {How sad is that?}

I can tell you one thing I've been doing... gardening. Yep, I'm the 80 year old grandma! I planted tomatoes about a month ago maybe...maybe longer {I'm telling you, once summer hits, I lose all perception of time, I really am 80 I think!} But I am LOVING growing these 'maters! I even planted basil too so I can make homemade pesto this summer! The other day I went to Lowe's, which is becoming just as dangerous as Target and got more basil, some cilantro, rosemary and a bell pepper plant! I'm a gardening machine! :) I've gotten a bunch of cherry tomatoes and some a big tomatoes and they taste SOO much better than those in the store! Sunday evening I came home to my first tomato casualty. I'm not gonna lie, I was slightly devastated...since then I've had two more casualties...one was a BIG 'mater that was ripening {I found that one tonight!}! Needless to say I will be going to Lowe's tomorrow for some tomato cages...because I'll be darned if those birds/squirrels are going to eat my crops! My trusty Yorkie, Canton usually does a good job on 'mater duty!

 

But he's been a little lazy as of late...

 

I think next year I'm going to do a raised garden and grow all kinds of things!!

Do y'all have anything you're growing??

 

xoxo,

SamanthaDiane

 

Shh...do you hear that?

Y'all, that sound you hear is SUMMER calling my name!! She's actually shouting it!! I literally have 5 hours left of work {an hour today and 4 hours tomorrow!} and I couldn't be more excited!!

While I already have to attend a conference on Monday and Tuesday, I can tell you that my first weekend of summer break will be spend doing NOTHING!! I will have the obligatory Happy Hour drinks with friends tomorrow afternoon. Saturday will start with a workout and then a workout with my trainer in the afternoon...then as long as it's not raining, I'll be in the pool...with my sunscreen on of course! :) I know what you're thinking, "that doesn't sound like you've got nothing going on!", true that my friends, BUT it's not work! And it's all things I haven't been able to do lately! I honestly don't remember the last time I wasn't at a playoff game (baseball or softball) on a Friday/Saturday!!

Parents, kids, co-workers all ask the same thing, "What are you doing this summer?" and my reply is always NOTHING! Well...I'll make a trip to Fort Worth and my family is going to Orange Beach, Alabama in July, but other than that I'll be in the pool, maybe occasionally Galveston, working out big time because I actually will have time and I plan on doing an organizational overhaul on my house! Sounds busy I know, but it really won't be!

And I also get this a lot..."Gosh, you're so lucky to get the WHOLE summer off!"... ummm thanks, but I don't. I end up with only like 7 weeks (I know, I know, sounds like an eternity...it's not believe me it flies by)! I am so thankful that I get any time off so it's all good!

So it's always good to have goals for the Summer...here's some of mine!

• WORKOUT! If y'all follow any of my 5 for FIVEs you'll know that's been a constant theme...but I have NO excuse now that I won't have work!
• Organize my house...starting with the kitchen and working my way up!
• Plan out my menu for the week on Sunday and stick to it!
• Read...gotta find some good books to read!
• Enjoy the time off!

Do y'all have any summer goals? Also if you have any book suggestions, I'd love them because I'll be reading a lot and will definitely be reading on the BEACH in July!

xoxo,
SamanthaDiane