Flashback Friday- 1980

Lace up your rollerskates, crank up your speakers, because today we are going to 1980's Xanadu!
CAUTION! Lots of big hair, unflattering dresses and one particularly scary looking tightrope walker with eyeliner and legwarmers!


As a young 7 year old at the time I thought Olivia Newton John was the most beautiful girl in the world. I loved to sing along to the radio and loved this song, but could never really figure out the words to this song (after all who ever heard of the word "Zanadoo"?)
Then one Sunday I was at church and they were giving a lesson about gratitude..... Ahh Haaa!!! That was what she was singing "Graaaaatituuuuude, Graaaatituuuuuude!"(go ahead, give it a try... it works!) So I continued to sing it that way for a good year until my cousin bought the vhs tape of the movie and I realized it was called Xanadu, boy was that embarassing!
Did you see or do you remember the movie Xanadu?

Man or child?

I found this in my fridge this morning? Who do you think put it in there, man or child? Either I believe are worthy or your consideration. Does this ever happen at your house?

New "do"

Brittany, my neighbour agreed to cut Abby's hair for me on Monday. Abby hasn't had more than a trim her whole life, so this was a big, new ordeal. Abby was completely somber and silent throughout the whole haircut. Brittany was worried Abby was going to hate it and start criing. After the haircut I took Abby to the mirror to take a look and she gave the biggest grin and giggled, much to Brittany's relief.

Since her haircut she has noticed every girl who has a similar haircut and I have caught her several times primping in the mirror and flipping her hair around. She was especially excited that she didn't have to put an elastic in her hair to swim class. All through swim class I caught her smoothing out her new "do" and flipping it around.

She think she's pretty hot stuff! This isn't the greatest pic (no blow dryer or iron), but hopefully I will have her pictures done soon.

Ethan cracks me up

Ethan cracks me up all the time, and yesterday was no different. Ethan wanted to go on the "Webkinz" website, and since we have the parental controls set I am constantly cursing the stupid vista. Everytime my kids get on a site I have to type in my password so they can get on. So Ethan says to me as I am typing in my password "What's your password?" and I reply with "Well, it wouldn't be a password if I told you now, would it?" to which he responded "Well... it's a password, not a keepword" How could I argue with that??
Here is a quick clip of my boy dancing last night. He takes GREAT pride in his dancing, and even asked Brad and I last night "Should I be a dancer when I grow up?" Brad and I both looked at each other and cringed. Brad managed to come out with,"You can dance any time and any where you want, but dancers don't make very much money, so you just dance any time and anywhere you want." Another time when the girls had the radio cranked and were singing and encouraging Ethan to sing he told us "I'm not really a singer, I'm more of a dancer"
So without further adieu, I present to you our dancer... (unfortunately the card was full so this is all Brad got- but you get the idea)

Hurts so good??

With great determination yesterday morning I started "boot camp" where there were neither boots, nor any camp. Instead there were a number of strength training exercise stations set up, which we rotated through with cardio excersises in between. A more accurate name for the gym should be "bootie kick". After an hour of exercise I was tired, and a bit sore, but as the evening wore on the soreness started to settle in. "That wasn't sooo bad" I thought, until this morning... Ugh!!! I slowly rolled out of bed, concentrating on each muscle moving. As I stumbled like a zombie out of my bedroom Abby ran up to me and wanted me to pick her up. The thought of picking her up was too painful... "Sorry honey, I can't... I hurt my arm" Away she ran... each step to the kitchen was deliberate as I felt every muscle in my legs and arms ache.
"Wow isn't this great!!" I thought "I can't wait to go again on Wednesday... so I can feel this good again!!"

I have re arranged the words to the once popular song "Hurts so good" by John Mellencamp (remember when he was John Cougar?? What was that name change all about anyway??) to try and keep me going

When I was a young girl,
I could eat the young kids ways
Now that im gettin older so much older
I long for those young girl days
Need a gym like you
Now its a gym like you
We know there are things we can do, baby
Just me and you
Come on and make it- ahh

Chorus:
Hurt so good
Come on baby make it hurt so good
Sometimes exercise don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good

You don’t have to be so excruciating
Just tryin to give myself a little bit of fun, yeah
You always look so invitin
I aint as fit as when I was young
Hey baby its you
Come on gym now its you
I feel the pain right through my bones, baby
Lets see what we can do
Come on and make it ahhh

Chorus:
Hurt so good
Come on baby make it hurt so good
Sometimes the gym don’t feel like it should
You make it hurt so good
:-D

Why is getting back into an exercise routine so hard?? You know in your head it will get easier, but getting past the aches and pains... is tough!!
Have you started a new exercise routine for the new year? What gets you through?

Deceived!!

So our neighbours Brittany and Ryan come over last night to share with us their cupcakes. Now, you may recall that last weekend I took them some of "Pioneer Woman's" to DIE FOR, muffins. Now, I have had Brittany's yummy cooking before and she has posted some delicious looking food on her blog. So I am ready for some amazing cupcakes when she asks with a big grin "Can I get your opinion for my "Taste of Tuesday" recipe for my blog? Ryan doesn't like cream cheese frosting, so he won't eat it"... Here I should have guessed something was up, but hey she said cream cheese and they looked like chocolate!! Ethan immediately grabbed one before they could get in the door, he licked the icing off the top and feigned fainting as he declared "Delicious". "Now give me your honest opinion" Brittany urges on... Now the pressure is on... What if it's not so great??? Is this her great grandmas best cupcake recipe and I'm going to say it's gross? The kids have devoured theirs and are loving our unexpected treat. It must be good... Slowly I tear off the paper and timidly take a bite. Brittany and Ryan wait for the verdict. "Hmmmm, chocolaty, but a bit dense... more like a big fudge brownie than a cupcake... not what you would normally expect from a cupcake, but still good."
It was then that Brittany revealed to me the TRUTH.... AVACADO CUPCAKES WITH CAULIFLOWER ICING!!!! No way!!!
Brittany has the new Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Seinfeld's wife. The cupcakes had been made with avacado, and the icing had cauliflower in it. I have to admit that after hearing the ingredients, especially the icing, it was a little harder, mentally to eat, but it still tasted pretty good. My official verdict is: while maybe not delicious and a bit dense they were still chocolaty good. I wouldn't crave them for myself, but the kids devoured them, and isn't that what deceptively delicious is all about??
Have you tried any "Deceptively Delicious" recipes, or snuck "healthy" things into your kids food?

"Just like Family"

So, after we had been sledding again the other day, Ethan asked me if we could bring our friend Myles sledding to the hill sometime if he were to come and visit. Myles is our neighbour and friend from Attleboro. A discussion then ensued about how much they missed him and how Myles and his parents, Brenda and Glenn were "just like family" and how they couldn't believe how much they missed them. I made a little video in the video bar of a few pics I had of them together. Now I wish I had more pictures of them together, or at least better ones. We were so fortunate to have such good friends that really were and are like family to us.