YOLO

It is a fact that if you are a Torres, you are cool.  All cool people use the term YOLO, so it is inevitable that YOLO would work itself into our daily vocab...YOLO!

For those of you wondering what YOLO means, I"ll break it down for ya'.  It's an acronym for You Only Live Once.  YOLO was our vacation theme.

A little workout pool side and beach side...

YOLO!

Going shopping immediately after working out and not even showering...

YOLO!

Pondering life while drinking cafe con leche and wandering through a million dollar neighborhood...

YOLO!

Giving your best Sound of Music performance...

YOLO!

Babies chillaxin' in the pool...

YOLO!

As you can see we totally we YOLO-ed all week long.  

Movin' On Up

So no doubt you all know we were in Florida last week.  Destin, FL. Temps ranging from the 50's-70's.  Ahhhhh...

It was bliss.  Our whole family and extended family all together in one gigantic million dollar beach front property.  I seriously felt like the Jefferson's. Sing it with me...

Movin' on up...to the east side...we finally got a  piece of the pi-i-ie.

If you think I'm exaggerating, just take a look at the house we stayed at for the week.

{Front view}

{Back view}



{Ocean view}

Many of my facebook friends showed interest in this house.  Here are the deets to renting.  My father-in-law and his wife treated our entire family with the lodging.  I know many of you were probably thinking I got some amazing deal on this big 'ol house.  I didn't.  We are just super blessed to be on the receiving end of generosity.

Tomorrow I'll share all the shenanigans that occurred while on vacation.  When all the Torreses get together, we get a little crazy.  

Menu Monday

For the LOVE, life has changed around here.  Seriousl life changes.  Life changes I would have never ever in a million years thought would have transpired, let alone me agree to them, but it landed in my lap and I'm going to run with it.  Are you ready to know?  I jumped in with both feet in starting my own business.

The week before my family left for FL, I went to a Healthy Happy Hour to learn about safe supplements and clean eating for Stevena and myself.  Steven begins his marathon training in May and I need to put on muscle now that I have lost all the baby weight.  As I was sitting there, so many products I wanted but cost was a HUGE issue.  You all know how frugal I am, and we are right smack in the middle of Financial Peace University.  I was there to learn about health and figure out how to manage our budget to fit these products into our limited cash.

My friend, Erica, was already committed to doing the business side of it.  Totally made sense for her.  She had been using products (through Arbonne) for a long time.  She's in charge of directing people towards healthier lifestyles.  Arbonne is what she stands behind and uses.  Then she asked if would help her.

Naturally, I'm a helper.  I like to serve people through helping.  I told her I would.  By accepting the challenge of building my own business, I received everything we needed for our family AND it fit our teeny weeny health budget.

Now, don't go running and hiding from me.  I will not sell you anything.  I will never ever look at you as a dollar amount, but if you are interested in doing things like detoxing, protein shakes, weight loss (the healthy way), I will tell you about what we're doing (including our kids).

You're probably wondering, "How on Earth does this tie into Menu Monday?"  Welp, my family is beginning the 30 Day Detox/Cleanse on April 1st.  I am so thankful my mom, husband, BIL, SIL, FIL, and boot camp family are joining me on this journey.  It will be hard, but I have a great support system.  I'll need the support because for the next 30 days I will go without dairy, wheat, peanuts, caffeine, refined sugar, and soy.  YIKES!  My menu beginning April 1st will result in clean eating for the next 30 days. 

Honestly, I'm excited about this journey.  Excited to see how I can stretch my grocery budget to fit our new dietary needs for the next month and how much will power I will have towards abandoning my precious bread and desserts.

If you want to do this with me or know a bit more about what I'm doing, you can come to my house tonight at 6:45. My family will be here and so will a few neighbors who will all do the detox together.

Now for my last hurrah menu...

Monday-Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garlic Knots, Salad
Tuesday-Hot Dogs, Crispy Potatoes, Fresh Veggies
Wednesday-Key West Grilled Chicken and Veggies, Buttered Bread
Thursday-Creamy Enchilada Bake, Mexican Style Mashed Potatoes, Corn
Friday-Pork Butt Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Snap Peas
Saturday-Roasted Chicken, Green Beans, Fruit Salad
Sunday-Easter Dinner

Vacation Monster

The vacation monster attacked me! I promise to be back later today with a menu and life update. Pinky promise.

Sew Funny

I am one of those people that ponder and stew and ponder and visualize myself doing something well before I actually do it.  It's just how I am.  So when my mom offered me her 1970's sewing machine she used in high school, I said yes.  She came over, showed me how to work it, and I put the Singer Fashion 252 away.  The thing sat in a closet for almost a year.  I didn't forget it was there.  Time just had to pass for me to get it in my head that I was going to actually sew something.  I didn't know what, but I was going to do it.

A few months back my first pair of Toms bit the dust.  Apparently, I have a big protruding toe because that thing made a hole.  I tried to rock the 'Peep Toe' Toms look, but it just didn't work out.  I looked more like the girl who was trying to not buy new Toms.  Thankfully, ultra crafty people like Ashley Ann problem solve with shorty guy craft projects for the rest of us non-creative peeps.

So here I was convinced that I could pick out some cool scrap fabric, sew a hem, and recover the tops of my Toms like what she did.  That did it.  I pulled out the sewing machine, read the owner's manual with the hippie flowers all over it and sat there for 30 minutes.  Even after reading the manual, I could not figure out how to turn the darn thing on! Seriously.  I was so frustrated.  Finally, I chalked it up the outlet not working.  After all, a college educated woman should be able to get a sewing machine to work.  Just to check to see if the electricity was flowing, I turned the machine light on.  Simultaneously, my foot was on the pedal with a bit of pressure and VIOLA!  It started running.  Yeah, 30 minutes of time wasted.  All I had to do was turn the light on.  (Grandma, stop laughing.  I know this is giving you a good laugh since you are the ultimate sewer!)

I practiced sewing some hems.  They were okay, and figured they would do for the shoe recover fabric.  Only one problem.  I was practicing with black thread.  When I went to change out the thread to white, there was none.  But hey, at least I know how to turn the machine on now.  Unfortunately I'm still left with this...

 

Ultra Crunchy

As of late I have learned that granola is out and crunchy is in.  Seriously.  Just as soon as I learned granola, the cool people go and change the term.  I can't keep up with these young bucks.

Anyhoo, I am now a granola crunchy girl.  It all happened like this...

The sun hadn't even cracked over the butt of the Earth and I was running with a gal pal.  She tries to shock me since I'm ornery.  Most often it doesn't work, BUT she got me this day.  She said, "Guess what?  I'm not wearing any deoderant."

Then I exited left and discontinued our run.  After all I'm a fair weather runner.  I don't do stink.  I kid.  

Instead, I thought in my head how funky she must smell.  Then I told her that I thought she was probably funky, but she said she was fresh.  She was wearing baking soda in her pits, and it really worked.  Despite how much I admire and respect her, I wasn't about to do a sniff test.   Ewwwweeee!

We finished our run and parted ways.  I couldn't get her baking soda armpits out of my head.  After I showered I grabbed my baking soda.  Pat, pat, pat in one pit.  Pat, pat, pat in the other.  Viola!  I was done.

Hours later, I had no scent at all in my armpits.  I came to the conclusion that if baking soda can absorb the funky smells out of my fridge, it is strong enough for my crazy weird armpit scents.  

So that's Crunchy Evidence #1.  

Crunchy Evidence #2 is this...

French Lentil Soup

Because Crunchy people eat ultra healthy stuff and like it.  Guess what???  This is ultra healthy and we LOVED it.  Yeah, I'm so crunchy.

Menu Monday

Granola. Crunchy.  Two words that describe me lately.  I'll have to share more on that later.  Today is MENU MONDAY!

Monday-Hamburgers, Pineapple Salsa and Chips

Tuesday-French Lentil Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Wednesday-Southwest Chopped Chicken Salad

Thursday-Roasted Whole Chicken, Corn Casserole, Salad

Friday-Corn Tortilla Chicken Tacos (chicken used from last night's meal) and Guacamole

Saturday-???

Sunday-???

I can't tell you where I'll be Saturday and Sunday.  Complete surprise...for you, not me.  I know where I'm going.  AND, guess what?  On Friday, March 15th I will have been married to Steven Torres for 10 whole years!!!  Somehow that man has stuck around with me.  It must be my good looks.