The Battle is with my Head and not my Stomach!

I'm just finishing up week 3 of the LCHF WOE (low carb, high fat, way of eating) and I feel terrific. My knees don't hurt as much, I can get up out of my chair without making those noises that my dad used to make and I have tons of energy and I'm in a better mood! Hard to believe that simply changing my diet can help that much...well that and exercising regularly. The two go hand in hand!

I was commenting on a post on Facebook to a question posed by Lynn of Low Carb Traveler (an excellent low carb blogger) in which she asks, "How often do you eat off plan? Meaning: NOT low carb? And do you do it intentionally, or is it usually just a "slip up"? 

My answer was, "I think for me it's hard when I go off the program, even just once. But a couple of weeks ago I had planned to go on a road trip with friends as a celebration for my birthday, so I did allow myself that day to have two margaritas and chips and salsa at dinner at a Mexican restaurant, but that was it and it was a calculated "cheat". I am resolved to making this a way of life and not straying from the plan. It's not always easy but I feel so much better. I may not always be satisfied with what I eat, but I'm never hungry. It's more a battle with my mind than with my stomach."

Here we are having a bracing Margarita to give us courage to get on the Glass Bottom boat, this was strictly for medicinal purposes! From L to R - Lupe, Lisa and me.

That comment made me stop and think. It's not that I eat because I'm hungry, I eat because I have cravings for certain foods and those foods aren't low-carb.

Jalapeno Infused Cucumber Margaritas, Chips and Salsa after the boat trip! 

Ok, see that picture right up there? See that basket of tortilla chips? That...that right there is my downfall, my kryptonite! I adore tortilla chips with salsa and there is no low carb alternative. You can find great recipes for low carb pancakes, brownies, fudge, cookies, cakes, cheesecake, almost anything imaginable that would satisfy a sweet tooth, but my problem is I have a Salty Tooth!

There is nothing as satisfying to me as chips and salsa. Well maybe Cheetos, but that's an addiction!

So even though I am never hungry with this WOE I am never completely satisfied! There is always something missing. I imagine it's like an alcoholic or a drug addict, you can go on with life but something is always missing and as soon as you have that first taste of it all reasoning goes out the window!

Last night Lisa came over and she made guacamole, which is only good with tortilla chips. I peeled and sliced a cucumber and ate my guacamole with slices of cucumber. Very filling, but not as satisfying as the chips. That is just something that I will have to get used to and maybe, in time, I will lose the craving...but I don't think so. I just can't let my stomach and cravings win over the knowledge in my head that I am doing the right thing for me by eating LCHF!


 

Time to Get Off My Butt! Won't You Join Me?

So I've mentioned before how I follow a low carb/high fat lifestyle aka LCHF. It's a very simple way of eating aka WOE but it does take determination, will power and the ability to plan ahead and be organized with your WOE.

In case you don't know what LCHF is, you can visit The Diet Doctor link HERE, or you can to go Atkins.com for more info. I could explain it in this post but it would go on forever and I would never be able to explain it as well as those two websites do.

I've done this WOE for several years and have had a lot of success with it. I feel wonderful when I'm LCHF! I have energy, sleep well, my digestive system works great, those aches and pains from inflammation and arthritis ease up and on the plus side I lose weight. No bloating or gassiness, no heartburn or acid re-flux!

So knowing this...why do I go back to bad habits? Why do I go back to eating sugar, wheat, flour and processed foods? I don't honestly have an answer. I think about it often and wonder why I sabotage myself when I know that on LCHF I feel awesome! I guess it's because I'm human and weak and give in to temptation and because Cheetos are SO DAMN GOOD! 

A couple of weeks ago I was finally sick of myself. I had lost 22 pounds a year or so ago and have put them all back on plus some, so I realized I had to make a change and quit thinking, "I'll start tomorrow."

So I did, for the past two weeks I have stuck religiously to LCHF and I lost 5 pounds. Now in the past when I've done LCHF I would lose 10 to 15 pounds in the first two weeks, but as you get older your metabolism changes, your body changes and nothing is as easy as it was when you were younger...am I right?

Anyway, it's been two weeks and I'm 5 pounds lighter and I know that I have to stick to this way of eating for my health, for my family and for my own self worth. So I'll be back to posting low carb food and things having to do with my WOE, hoping it may help someone and that it will help me to be accountable to myself.

I've also been trying to exercise. It's hard to go from being a couch potato whose biggest form of exercise is walking from her house to the car to the office back to the car and back home. Yeah, that's probably a whole 2 minutes of exercise per day!

So I have started slowly by using the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home Videos. I started by doing her Energy Boost 5 Minute Walk. Trust me, in the beginning I couldn't even do 2 minutes and now I'm doing 5 easily and probably should move to a different video. But because of my back and Sciatica issues I tend to be very careful so I don't end up hurting myself. 

I do the 5 minute video below when I wake up, on my 10am break at work, at lunch time, on my 3pm break and around 7pm. So all total I'm doing 25 minutes of exercise per day. If I knew that right now I had to stand up and do 25 minutes of exercise I would just make excuses, but who doesn't have 5 minutes, 5 times per day? Or even 10 minutes...it doesn't matter how much, the point is to start and get your body moving. 

This is the energy boosting video and it really does give you a boost of energy, I can feel it working already in how alert and active I am when I get home from work. Instead of just sitting and being a couch potato I'm being more active and cooking, exercising, watering my poor plants and cleaning my house!



Tonight I had time to try to find another 5 minute video and I found the next one I'm going to post. This one seemed a bit more fast paced and I'm going to mix it up and keep doing these for another week and then perhaps move up to ones that are a little longer in length.

This one seemed to give me a better workout, so it may be one I want to try early in the morning when I'm rested and have more energy because even though it's similar to the one above I believe she moves faster because I got a little winded!




I also want to share this next one even though I haven't actually done it because it's one to work the legs and with my Sciatica it couldn't hurt to strengthen my legs, so I will give this one a try tomorrow.



Can't wait to wake up tomorrow and try each of these videos. See what I mean? Moving gives you energy...so move!

   

Tales of the Bathroom...It's Been Awhile!

I'm always amazed at the things that I find in the women's bathroom in our office building. We have two - four stall bathrooms, one each for the men and one for the women. One is on the 2nd floor and one on the floor where my office is.

I've shared posts with you before about the things that I have found in the bathroom that just have me shaking my head and wondering why grown-ass adults would be such slobs! Especially grown-ass adult women!

In May of 2011 I posted about finding a peanut husk. Someone apparently finds it easier to move their bowels while munching on peanuts! You can read about and see pictures here.

Then a few months later in September of 2011 I posted another "what the heck" moment. In a stall on top of the sanitary pads stainless steel disposal box I found a plastic fork. One can only assume someone was eating a salad while making a quick "pit stop" and forgot their fork when they left...right? You can read about and see pictures of that one here. 

Things kind of slowed down then and I thought that maybe that person that liked to snack while sitting on the potty was gone, but then again on May 13 of 2014 I found a piece of wadded up foil just sitting on the floor next to the commode. I had a fun time trying to think up what was in the foil. Stories and pictures here. 

And then there was peace in the land and everyone cleaned up after themselves until today. Today was the mother of all messes! The ultimate "what the heck"!

Check this out! A sink full of something black. What it is I don't know. 

I thought about smelling it, but it grossed me out and I couldn't bring myself to do so. Plus it wasn't contained just to the sink...oh no, of course not, check out the floor.

And this was just under the sink, the whole floor and all 4 stalls had this black residue all over the place. It just makes you wonder? What is it? Was there someone this morning that decided to re-pot an office plant in the women's bathroom and then had a seizure while holding the pot and thrashed about all over the place, in and out of all the stalls scattering dirt everywhere?

If so, where is the plant? Why were there no leaves? And why would this person think that there was no need for her to clean this up? I can only assume it was a woman as it was the women's bathroom.

Just leaves me scratching my head...




 

Why you should go see Magic Mike XXL

Photo Credit - Intouch Weekly 

Went to see Magic Mike last night with a group of girlfriends to celebrate the birthday of one of their daughters who turned 24. O.M.G.!!! 

I had never seen the first one, never even had a remote interest in it, but O.M.G.!!! I can see why women are gaga for this movie. 

The story line was ridiculous, they start out on their trip to the Strippers Convention at Myrtle Beach in what is basically a glorified taco truck turned into a FroYo Mobile. (FroYo for those not in the know is frozen yogurt.) 

They end up getting to the Strippers Convention in a Rolls Royce convertible…c’mon!!! Seriously? 

The people they meet along the way are gorgeous, rich and successful and more than willing to help out a band of good looking, hunky male strippers, while getting absolutely nothing in return. 

Wait, I take that back…one of the characters played by one of my favorite actresses, Andie MacDowell, gets to spend a passionate night with one of the strippers after exclaiming that she wished that she had known them back in her day and he tells her with a smoldering look, “I’d say it’s still your day, ma’am!” We women in the audience just swooned and you could hear from the sighs that we were all imagining him saying that to us!



Channing Tatum is so physically fit. I don't know if he really performs all those dance moves but as Andie MacDowells character says in the movie "Dayyum!".

So why do I think you should go see this movie? Cause it's fun! The music was fun, the dancing is phenomenal and it's great to go with a group of girl friends and just have fun and hoot and holler and growl! 

And we all need a little more DAYYUM in our lives!

       

One Thousand White Women and Snowy Egrets

This is a rather random post but I’m reading a book entitled One Thousand White Women - The Journals of May Dodd by the author Jim Fergus. 

I’m really enjoying this book and came across a passage today that I want to share, but before I do let me give you a little background on the book. 

The story is about May Dodd and her adventures in traveling across the country from New York to the American West in the year 1875 as part of a government program to send unmarried, fertile woman to marry and mate with Cheyenne warriors in hopes of assimilating future generations of the Cheyenne people with the white man’s world. 

The U.S. government has agreed to send the Cheyenne Nation 1,000 white women in exchange for 1,000 horses, 500 hundred wild horses and 500 that are already broken. The book has not and probably won’t explain the condition and value of the horses that the Cheyenne will be sending to the U.S. government but it does explain where these women will come from. 

A few will be women that volunteer, that are of a certain age and able to bear children. The rest of them will come from prisons and insane asylums where in exchange for traveling across country and marrying heathens, they will be given their freedom. 

Now I’m not big in politics, don’t throw my political opinion around as easily and frequently as do most people, especially on Facebook, but I will say that it doesn’t seem as though our government has changed much from 1875! 

In the part of the book that I want to share, the women have already arrive at Fort Laramie and are being detained there, basically as prisoners until they are shipped off to their new spouses. The ladies are gathered at the table for dinner and are discussing the latest New York fashion in hats. 

There is one lady named Helen Flight who is the author of a book entitled Birds of Britain and is working on a new book entitled Birds of America. Ms. Flight finds herself short of funds to continue her research on the Birds of America and thinks it a grand idea to head off to marry a Cheyenne warrior for the opportunity to study the bird life of the western prairies at no expense to her! That makes perfect sense right? 

One of the ladies is wearing a new hat with feathers and they are all commenting on the hat and Ms. Flights says, “I say, Miss Bradley, were you aware that the feathers on your hat are the breeding plumes of the snowy egret?” 

“Why no I wasn’t”, answers Miss Bradley. “Isn’t that fascinating?” 

Snowy Egret - Full Breeding Plumage - Photo Credit

“Quite” says Ms. Flight, “rather a nasty business, actually, which I had occasion to witness last spring while I was in the Florida swamps studying the wading birds of the Everglades for my Birds of America portfolio. As you correctly stated, the feather-festooned hat such as the one you wear is very much the vogue in New York fashion these days. The hat makers there have commissioned the Seminole Indians who inhabit the Everglades to supply them with feathers for the trade. The Indians have devised an ingenious method of netting the birds while they are on their nests—which the birds are reluctant to leave due to their instinct to protect their young. Of course, the Indians must kill the adult birds in order to pluck the few ‘aigrettes’ or nuptial plumes as they are more commonly known. Entire rookeries are thus destroyed, the young orphaned birds left to starve in the nest. Pity… a terribly disagreeable sound that of a rookery full of nestlings crying for their parents, you can hear it across the swamp for miles…”

This made me tear up. Imagining those poor birds defending their young and being killed, simply for feathers! According to Wikipedia, the Snowy Egret is now a protected species thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 

The book also talks about the train stopping along the way on the prairie for the men on board to "hunt" the buffalo on the prairie by shooting them where they stand out of the train windows. There is no "hunting" involved, just cruelty and cowardliness at shooting defenseless animals for sport. The animals left where they fall, some dead some mortally wounded, some with newborn spring calf's, left to rot.

It just makes me sad and angers me to think of how cruel human beings can be. I'm not opposed to killing animals to supply us with food, as long as it is done humanely, but to kill them for sport or for fun or for fashion! No! Just no...


 

And the Arizona Trip Memories continue...

It was really great to be able to spend so much time in Arizona on our recent trip. Usually we head there on a Friday and come back on a Sunday. This time my sister Lisa and I took time off on Thursday, Friday and Monday. So we left on Thursday and came back on Monday which gave us Friday, Saturday and Sunday for family fun!

Here's the route we took. This estimates that it would take 9 hours and 53 minutes, but because we don't want to tire our mom out too much we stop often for her to walk around and stretch her legs. We stop often for snacks and we have a traditional stop in Needles for Dairy Queen Ice Cream!

I know this is not the fastest route, but this is the route my mom would take with my dad when they would visit Arizona and so it's the route she's familiar with and she relives memories of travelling this way with my dad...so it may take a little more time, but it's worth it to make mom happy. 

We always make a stop in Parker, Arizona to visit my cousin Mary Lou and this trip was no different. We stopped and stretched our legs. Mary Lou had made us a delicious meal and her famous homemade rolls. She's a fabulous cook and we loved spending time with her. 

We finally arrived in Eloy at around 8 pm. We had left Bakersfield around 6am even though mom wanted to leave at 4am...she was chomping at the bit to get to Arizona! It was a very long day. We grabbed a bite to eat with Tia Ninfa at Dennys and then our cousins Stella and Norrie came by Tia Ninfa's house and we drank a margarita together to unwind and then we called it a day.

The next morning mom was very anxious to go visit her sister Maria in the nursing home where she lives. We had coffee and some sweet bread and headed to Casa Grande. I can't even describe the joy in my heart to see my mom reunited with her sister. There just are no words and since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, well we will let the pictures speak.

Side by Side

or Miles Apart

We are Sisters

Connected by the Heart

 

Visiting Arizona - It's all about the family

In my last post I spoke about "mi tierra", the land where I grew up, where my heart is and also where the majority of my maternal side of the family lives. Family is the main reason we visited Arizona in May.

My mom still has a brother and a sister that live in Arizona. My moms father, mother, brother and five of her sisters are buried in Arizona cemeteries so mom of course has been wanting to go to Arizona and visit her sister Maria who lives in a nursing home and to visit her brother Tino who lives with his daughter and of course to visit relatives at the cemetery.

We went during Mothers Day weekend. The first thing we did was visit our Tia Ninfa who we stayed with. Tia Ninfa is the widow of my moms oldest brother Jesus or as we all called him Uncle Jesse. Tia Ninfa is like a real sister to my mom and she loves her dearly. We all love Tia Ninfa, she never had children of her owned so spoiled all of us her nieces and nephews endlessly. She's a wonderful, kind hearted, spirited fun lady who always has a smile on her face and only kind words about everyone she knows and a kind word for everyone she meets.

Mom with her sister in law Ninfa (Ninfa in red)

Tia Ninfa just had her home remodeled and when I say remodeled I mean they moved her and everything she owns out of the house she and my Uncle Jesse had lived in their whole married life, leveled it down to the ground and then rebuilt it. 

Here's a picture of what the house originally looked like. I have many wonderful memories in this house. I visited it often and spent the night many times with my Tio and Tia. They treated me like a princess!

Tio Jesse was sick for many years before he passed away and the house was beginning to have many problems with the plumbing and a leaking roof. One day Tia Ninfa received notification of a program in Arizona to rebuild homes for those that qualify. She called my cousin Norrie who is a realtor in Arizona as it sounded too good to be true. Norrie checked it all out and it was legit and Tia signed up and then forgot all about it.

Tia Ninfa tells us that one night after an especially heavy rainstorm the roof was leaking badly and she spent most of the night awake running around dumping out buckets of water that kept refilling from the leaks.

She said that in the morning, exhausted she sat down on her couch and started to cry and she talked to Tio Jesse. She told him, "Well Jesse, when you married me you said that you would always provide a roof over my head and you did for many years and now you're gone and the roof is falling in on my head and I don't know what to do, I need your help Jesse."

A few days later she received a phone call in response to her application to have her home rebuilt. She had qualified and they were ready to begin the process. It took a while as Tia Ninfa had stored years and years of treasures on the property but finally they began and here is her new home now. A home that she truly deserves for being the wonderful wife she was to our Uncle, for loving all of us and for just being the kindest person I know.

I had not noticed until right now that they kept the same color of her old house, a pinkish color. isn't it beautiful? The inside of the home is gorgeous. They would only rebuild it to the specifications it originally was so it's a two bedroom, one bath, but the kitchen is beautiful and modern and she's so happy with it! Thank you cousin Norrie for all you do for our beautiful Tia Ninfa!

I want all my friends and family members in California that whine about not being able to water their lawns because of the drought we are in, to notice that here is no grass on this lawn, that is all rock. Arizona learned how to live without being wasteful with water and California...we can learn too! Let's be water wise Californians!

Tia Ninfa was a great hostess and we had a wonderful time with her. She has not changed a bit, her heart is still as big as the state of Arizona.

Here's my sister Lisa with our mom and Tia Ninfa at the Picacho Peak State Park with Picacho Peak in the background.

And here's yours truly with Tia Ninfa and my mom and Picacho Peak in the background. We had just visited the gift shop where we bought souvenirs for all our loved ones back in California. Every time I go I buy a hot pink shirt with an Arizona decal. I don't know why but they always have a hot pink shirt waiting for me! It's like they know I'm coming back to "mi tierra". Love you Arizona!

 

Arizona - My Tierra

My dad used to talk wistfully about his "tierra". Translated that means his dirt, his land, but he meant Mexico, the land of his birth. My mom still talks about her "tierra" in Texas and has a picture of the old family homestead hanging in her house. What is it about the land of our birth that fills us with so many memories and peace and why do we long to go back?

For me, my "tierra" is Arizona, especially Eloy, Arizona and nothing means home to me like this site.

Picacho Peak - Picacho, Arizona

I can remember standing in front of my maternal grandparents home looking out and seeing this. It was something I saw daily. I didn't realize it was such a big part of my life until we left it and I didn't get to see it every day. I always know that I'm home when I see Picacho Peak.

My cousin Stella posted the photo below on her Facebook page and wrote, "I know they say you can't go home again, but I did this weekend...literally! Got to go thru my grandparents house....the house that built me. Everything inside was still the same. So sad and yet so blessed for all the memories that came flooding back. Thank you Norrie, Alicia and Lisa for being there as well." 

Forgive me for stealing this photo Stella, but it is perfect, just as your words above were perfect! This is the home that built me too.

The photo on the top is the home as it was back when it was first built in 1954 or so. The bottom photo is how it looks now. This is the front of the house, where as kids we would play in the front yard with the view of Picacho Peak in front of us about 13 or so miles away. While we played the view of Picacho was always  there, which is why whenever I see it I know I'm home, I've arrived at my "tierra". 

As cousin Stella mentioned she was grateful to relive this moment with her cousins Norrie, Lisa and me, Alicia. So to close a picture of us four cousins and our beautiful Tia Ninfa that was a second mother to us all growing up.

Left to Right - Cousin Stella, Aunt Ninfa, Cousin Norrie, Sister Lisa and winner of the whitest leg ever Me, Alicia

 

End of an Era - Saturn is in it's Last House

My first car was a 1975 Oldsmobile Omega SX and I did a post about it HERE. My mom and dad bought me that car as a graduation present from high school. I was allowed to keep it until I finished high school and then while I completed a 2 year junior college and then I was to give it to my sister, which I did.

My second car was sort of a gift from my paternal grandfather. He wanted to give it to me, but my dad wouldn't let him, my dad said I had to buy it from my Tata. So dad and I went down to good ol' Bank of America and dad co-signed my first auto loan and I made every single payment on time to my Tata.

From then on every car was a purchase with my husband. The last car my husband I purchased together was a red Ford Explorer. When we divorced I got custody of the Explorer and of our two kids, all in all I got the better deal, as my ex only ended up with himself! But that's another story and we won't go there!

Back in September of 2003 my poor little Explorer's transmission just decided it had given it's all for me and my little family and it died. So with a heavy heart I had to go out shopping for my own car. No dad, no husband, just me.

I remember the day like it was yesterday. September 9, 2003. I headed out that day on my own to buy a car. I had never bought a car on my own. 

I remember test driving cars at Honda and Toyota and Ford and while they all approved me, the monthly price and the down payment was way more than I was comfortable with. I didn't know what to do. I drove away dejected and defeated!

As I came around the corner I saw a salesman showing a couple a car that had these super fantastic doors. I didn't know what this car was but the doors intrigued me as they opened like this:

I thought that was the coolest thing ever and I bravely stopped to ask about this car. A salesman by the name of Ron came up to me as I stood there looking, with my mouth open, at this car. I asked about those doors and told him I wanted one just like it!

We looked at a few but by now I could do the numbers in my head and I knew that I couldn't afford the car, so I told him so. He said he was going to show me a car I could afford...and he did. 

Did it have fancy doors? A cool paint job? Great wheels? No...but guess what? It was affordable and it had dent resistant doors. I know this because Ron beat and kicked the door of the car I test drove and when I decided I wanted to go in and go over the numbers on it I remember telling him I wanted a different one, not the one he beat up (even though there wasn't a scratch on it). He said no, that car, the one I test drove, that was going to be my car. He said as long as I had it I was never going to have to worry about dents and dings because of the doors Saturn had put on it. 

Well there...I let the cat out of the bag and told you what kind of car it was. It was a brand new 2003 Saturn Ion, and 12 years later, this is that car.

See...not a scratch or a ding on those doors! This was the first car that I ever bought on my own. This car and I went through so many things together. Twelve years is a long time and I'm going to miss her. She kept on trucking like a trooper until one morning she gave her life's blood (oil) all over my driveway and my mechanic said he could fix her, but he wouldn't because I couldn't afford it and he wasn't going to do all that needed to be done because he physically wasn't able too anymore. My car and my mechanic both got old on me.

So I have a new car and I'm sure that I will make many memories and have good times and bad with the new one...but nothing will ever be as special to me as that Saturn Ion. The first car I ever bought and paid for all on my own! Goodbye Sweet Saturn, I will always miss you!


 

Don't Lose Your Loved Ones a Second Time

March 28, 2015 - I started this post on March 28th but never posted it. So sorry, but here it is.

"It's a little like Facebook meets Google Maps but for Dead People" - Pacific Coast Business Times

That's part of the advertising on the brochure for a company called tombfinder.com. And it really is like the quote above says. 

Photo taken at the Tombfinder.com Booth

This weekend my sister Lisa and I are in San Luis Obispo for 57th annual conference put on by the California Association of Public Cemeteries. We arrived on Thursday and that evening there was a "meet and greet" put on by the vendors, one of them being tombfinder.com. 

A hosted bar meant the wine flowed freely. There were sharply dressed waiters cruising the room with trays loaded with different delicacies, Pot stickers with peanut Sauce, Teriyaki Beef Sticks, Cheeseburger Sliders, Sausage and Vegetable Kabobs and Sushi. There was also a buffet table set up with assorted meats and cheeses, various fruits and veggies, a beautiful assortment of olives and guacamole and mini taquitos.

While we gorged on the delicacies so graciously provided by the vendors, we toured the room stopping at the various booths set up by the vendors with their wares. One of them was the one I've already mentioned, tombfinder.com.

What caught my attention about them was the brochure they had on a table for interested parties to take with them, and the catchy slogan that said, "you've already lost your loved ones once, don't lose them a second time."

Front cover of Brochure. Those pearly gates open up.

Inside of Brochure

Back of the Brochure with their contact info

I thought this brochure was so clever and eye catching and modern...most of all modern. Funeral Service as a whole has always been stuck in the dark ages as far as I'm concerned. Not a whole lot of technology has been applied, but that is all changing. Fresh ideas and young minds see things in a different way. Not that funerals shouldn't still be respectful, but they should be a celebration of life. 

It was great to be around people that understand that. There were those there that had been in funeral services for years and had lots to teach the young ones coming in of course, but they also learned new things from the young ones. It was a lot of fun as cemetery conventions go. (The great thing was that in this crowd Lisa and I were still considered kind of, sort of...young!)

Of course Lisa and I have fun no matter what whenever we are together. Even surrounded by a bunch of cemetery folk! After we took the picture below we had dinner and then we danced the night away! Well as much as you can dance the night away when the dance ends at 9pm, but we took advantage of it and danced every single one!

We had some great food! Wish I had taken pictures of everything, it was all so delicious, but I did take a picture of some of my favorite things.

This is my absolute favorite dessert in the whole world!

Creme Brulee - with lovely berries

Lisa invented a drink that everyone was calling "The Lisa", it was 7 and 7 with a splash of cranberry juice and a twist of lime. She loved it and so did everyone that she made try it!

And pardon me for taking a bite of this chocolate cake before taking a picture of it, but c'mon...you're lucky I didn't just inhale it with no picture!

Poor Lisa had to attend classes and seminars and I got to go shopping and wandering around.

Here we are the last night of the convention, Lisa is have "The Lisa" during the hotels happy hour and I'm having a margarita, just to switch it up from all the wine I had been drinking.

That night was a long dinner and presentation of the new officers of the board and awards presentations and by the end all we wanted was to go up to our room and go to sleep...so we did!

The last day we were invited to the Tap-It Brewery in San Luis Obispo. We sat outside on their beautiful patio enjoying the gorgeous sun and a slight breeze, sipping our craft beers and enjoying a delicious BBQ. A perfect way to end a perfect weekend! Thank you so much Lisa for taking me with you!