Music of the Week: Three Days Grace

Yeah, their Canadian, but we won't fault them for that because the rock. I have been listening to these guys for years. They truly have staying power. I always hate when I first find a band and like them, and then you never hear from them after their first album. Happens a lot to stuff I love, I think, because my tastes are a little more on the outskirts of popular music. I love all types of music, but they stuff I tend to listen to most, does not suit most people. Ah, to each their own.

So, Three days grace are coming out with a new album on October 2, and I am soooo excited. Their newest song that they released is really good, can't wait to hear the rest. Its called "Chalk Outline" and it does not disappoint! You can listen to the whole album here!

Chalk Outline

"Without you!"

I absolutely think this is my favorite song from the album Life starts now. Unfortunately, I don't think it was ever played on the radio. Its is amazing and spoke to me when I need it... Music soothes the savage beast, I think that is the phrase.

"Lost in You!"

I love this song too!! So well written and the lyrics can make you melt!

Music of the Week: Halestorm

Lzzy Hale has to be one of the most awesome women of rock. I love that I can listen to her all the time on Lou Brutus's Hard drive XL radio show. He has an entire segment called "ask Lzzy." Its nice when you can hear them talk and they are normal people. She is a lot of fun and insane! I think I have a girl crush on her or maybe I'm just jealous! Anyway, Halestorm is the band, they are made of Lzzy, her brother Arejay, Joe Hottinger, and Josh Smith. When Halestorm first started, Lzzy and Arejay's dad, Roger Hale played bass for them until Josh Smith started in 2004. I think its awesome that it was a family band before they went big. Anyway, I have been listening to the latest album,The Strange Case Of..., for a while, but this week it has been stuck on repeat. Its great to work out to, scream at the top of you lungs in the car, and rock out with the kids to (Kiera's favorite song right now is "Love bites", that's my rocker daughter for you!) So, here are a few of the songs I like the most. Enjoy!!!

I miss the Misery!

I Get off!

Love Bites

(Kiera's Favorite)

ABC's of life

 I first saw this on my friend Holli's page, who stole it from Insanity rule's blog. Love the idea, so, yes, I stole it!

A} Age:  33

B} Bed Size: King, My husband is one big, heated teddy bear, and we both need our space, I HAVE to have my body pillow or I don't sleep.

C} Chore you dislike: All of them?? But mostly I HATE cleaning the kitchen. With 6 people in my household there are a lot of dishes. Can you say 2 loads a day? I thought you could!

D} Dogs:  Technically, we have a rat terrier named "angel" but she lives with my in-laws, can't have pets in my rental. But I have four kids, that's enough animals for me.
 
E} Essential start to your day: COFFEE, COFFEE, COFFEE

F} Favorite Colors: Black, maybe turquoise, maybe scarlet red, it changes weekly.

G} Gold or Silver: Silver, Always

H} Height: 5'9"

I} Instruments you play (past/present): Piano, I played for like 14 years. All through public school, and two years in college, I "thought" I wanted to be a Choral Director, Silly me...

J} Job Title: Administrative Secretary for the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (sounds way more impressive than it is)

K} Kids: four, Elena, Kiera, Gabriel and Nevin.

I never tire of this picture

L} Live: The great state of Texas!

M} Mom’s name: Neena
 
N} Nicknames: Les, Mom, Babe....

O} Overnight hospital stays: When I had my babies...

P} Pet Peeves: Slow drivers that don't know the right lane is for "passing". Same thing goes for people who see someone trying to politely go around them in the grocery store with four kids in tow and THEY DON'T MOVE!!!

Q} Quote from a Movie:  I would be considered a sick person probably in my past life but I will always love "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Hunter Thompson was an amazing writer so my quote is "There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

R} Righty or Lefty: Right

S} Siblings: Two, Older Brother, Younger Sister

T} Time you wake up: I get up at 5 to exercise every morning. It is the only peace and quiet I get all day!

U} URL favorite these days: Facebook, Blogger, TMZ (yes, I am guilty of this one indulgence!)

V} Vegetables you don’t like: Collard greens, there aren't many.

W} What makes you run late: Did I mention I had four kids under 8.

X} X-Rays: Had my shoulder x-ray'd in college when I was trying to show off and do something stupid (isn't thats what college is for?) Bad idea. My now husband, he wasn't at the time, made me go to the hospital, if I remember correctly, its kind of fuzzy. Also, wouldn't let me drive home for the weekend, he drove me, and some one followed to take him back. Hadn't thought of that till now. He was sweet to me even before we dated...

Y} Yesterday memory: My son (who has speaking issues) came up to me and without any prodding, said "I love you, mommy!"

Z} Zoo Animal Favorite: Monkey's, not that I don't have four at home already

Weight loss update: down 40 pounds peeps!!!

So, if you follow my blog, you will notice the lack of posts. Sorry about that, with school starting, it has taken us a while to get into the swing of things. My life is nothing but logistics, which I hate. My mornings consist of getting up at 5 to go for a walk/jog, get dressed, get kids up and dressed by 7, in the car by 7:15ish, get the two oldest to school, the two youngest to the babysitters, the hubby to work, then I get to work at 8. I barely have time to do anything lately, especially crafts or blogging. Which I hate. I hate logistics. I feel like a chauffeur or a maid, half the time, not a wife or a mother, or me for that matter. Thats what started my weight loss journey to begin with. I felt like I had lost "me." So I started exercising, which is definetly paying off. I have now lost 40 pounds. I will now say my actual weight. 245. Its hurts to write it but if I think that 40 pounds ago, I was 285. I can proudly say the other number. GO ME!!

Love this. Think this will become my new background on my android!

Another thing I am doing to reconnect me to myself is I am going to get a tattoo at the end of the month. I am so excited. I have been wanting to do this for years, but there was never time, money or I was pregnant (I think I was pregnant for like 5 years straight, so that kind of dampens any chance getting a tattoo!) So, I am getting it on my wrist and this is what I want...

I am going to get it put on my wrist. Not big, but big enough to read it. Whatcha think! 

Anyway, I have never been able to say this before (which is sad since I am 33!) but I am really proud of myself. I have been in a bad place in my head for too long and I realized I was tired of being miserable. Tired of being fat. Tired of disappearing into the crowd. I used to pride myself on standing out, being a bit of an odd ball, being different. I try to instill that sense of originality in my kids. I don't want them to be one of the masses. I want them to stand out because they are smart, beautiful, and one of a kind. But I have to start with myself before I can convince them of this. Luckily, they are starting to see the changes. Kiera, minion #2, tells me I am beautiful everyday, and she hasn't said that to me until the last couple of months. It makes me melt and then I tell her she is also beautiful, and smart and funny and .....the list goes on. So, I guess I am doing something right...

Music of the Week: Breaking Benjamin

Well, my music of the week is a band that I have been listening to for years. I go through phases where I listen to nothing but them. Unfortunately, they broke up and I will never have a chance to see them perform. Boo!!! But anyway, Breaking Benjamin has amazing songs, there are few of their songs that I don't like or don't know the words too for that matter. This is definitely music to turn up loud and scream/sing your head off to at the end of a long day, especially Friday. Her are a few of my favorites!!

Learning Balance

This holiday weekend was the best I have had in a long time. I spent the more time with my husband, alone, than I have in a long time. Its really tough, trying to get through daily life, deal with the four minions, keep the house in one piece, pay bills, work and find time for each other, not to mention try to take care of ourselves. We are having to learn how to balance everything and being that my life has lately been nothing but logistics, it is really hard.

My hubby works a lot. Like 50-60 hours a week, a lot. He works for us, for our family and he is doing amazing. I don't think I tell him enough how much I love him for that. We have come so far from where we were when we first had Elena. We struggled a lot those first baby years. It was a daily struggle with me at home with the babies. Now, the bills are paid, we actually have money left over for a little frivolous spending, which we never had before. Before we were always working paycheck to paycheck. The hubby becomes superman at work, I know he loves that. He always did thrive at being successful and it is really paying off. I am really proud of him.

So, What did we do this weekend? Well, for the first time, in a while, we had date night. Thank you to my niece for watching the kids!!! We went out to dinner, had drinks, did some shopping, it was wonderful. We stayed out way to late and spent way to much money, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I did feel bad for him thought, he still had to go to work the next day, I didn't. I worry sometimes that I complain to much, and that he thinks I sit around eating chocolate the next day. He would never say that, but I worry that sometimes he gets upset that I am home and he is working his butt off. So, he worked Saturday and Sunday. Sundays are one of my favorite days though, because, even if he has to go to work, its only 12 to 5 and me and the kids get all morning with him. Then he comes home and we have more time together.

I know, it sounds like a codependent relationship, but you have to understand something about us. Fred and I, have been and will always be inseparable. I know people always say they married their best friend, but in my case, I am not just saying that. Fred and I were best friends for 2 years before we even started "Dating," if you can call it dating. We were so together all the time, the relationship just kind of morphed into girlfriend/boyfriend status with ease. When we were friends, we were barely apart long enough to go to class (we meet at Sam Houston State University, we lived in the same dorm!) I think everyone around us knew the inside joke before we did. We have even confessed to each other later in life that while we were friends, other people would hint about wanting to date one of us, and oh so subtly, we made sure that didn't happen. We were protective of each other to a fault. When we finally did get together, it was forever (we had "the talk" and that was all she wrote!) Sorry, I am getting sappy but the truth is, we like each other, we don't really like other people. I get asked all the time, "how can you stand to be around Fred so much? Don't you ever just want to tell him to go away and give you some space?" To which I say, no that never happens, never even crosses my mind. We have even worked together at multiple jobs and still get along. OK, maybe we are codependent, but I don't care.

This is us back in college at a party. Don't you love my hair!! Crazy days.

So, then Monday came. Fred had decided since I had off for the holiday, that he would use his half day off on Monday morning, didn't have to go in till 2. Believe it or not, the two oldest had school (who goes to school on labor day!!!), but we decided to use it to our advantage and sent them to school and the young ones to the babysitters (Mommy guilt spread like wildfire on that one, but we needed time together.) So, we sent everyone off to their prospective places spent the rest of the morning relaxing, watching TV, which we never do, no time. It was great to be home with my husband, alone. I really miss him in this life we have now. (Man, am I confessing to much here?)  We had lunch, went grocery shopping, which if you have kids, going to the grocery store with out them in tow is a mini vacation in itself, then we went home and laid around watching more TV till it was time to take him to work.


For the first time in a long time, my three day weekend was actually a mini-vacation. I actually came out of this weekend feeling better than I have in a long time. Rested, happy and relaxed. Thanks hubby, for making this a really great weekend!!! I love you ...

More modern picture, I don't have red hair (at the moment) but I love this picture!