My Christmas List

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Can you believe Christmas is 24 days away? I can't! Luckily, I got 3/4 of my shopping done on Black Friday.

So, incase you wanted to know, here is what I asked for for Christmas:

Black Coach Wallet

Light Pink Cashmere Scarf

Hello Cupcake Book

Cupcake Carrier

Sports Bras

Yoga Capris

And last but not least a baby

Oh, I'm sorry, how did that last one get on my list? (Wink, Wink; Christopher)

What's on your list for this year?

Long Weekend of November 28 & 29

Tweet Wow! What a crazy long weekend. I hope everyone had a great and wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We went to see my cousin, Tara, in Canton. We ate way too much food but had such a great time. The "men" watched football

and the women chatted in the kitchen.

On Friday, Amy and I got up at 4:00 am to get to Target by 5:00 am. What a crazy scene that was. Our Target was so unorganized this year, it really bummed us out BUT we did end up getting everything on our list. Unfortunately, I won't be able to share all of my deals with you because all of my family reads my blog. (Mom & John, did you really think I would post pictures?)

On Saturday, we went to the Columbus Zoo Wildlights with Amy, Bill and Addison. The Columbus Zoo decorates the whole zoo in Christmas Lights every year.

Addison wanted to ride the "horses." Isn't she so cute?

We made video of the lights, if you want to take a look:

Click Here to View Video

Happy Black Friday!

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Yes, I'm one of those crazy people that gets up at 3 am to go stand in line for the deals on Black Friday. My Best Friend, Amy and I go every year and have so much fun. We have already scouted out the 'leaked' ads online and know exactly where we are going to go.

Happy Shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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To all of my wonderful readers:

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of food, cheers and family.

Christopher and I are headed to Canton, Ohio to my cousin Tara new house.

New Years Outfit, Help me decide!

Tweet Every year, Christopher and I with our Best Friends Amy & Bill go to New Years at the Shrine Temple. It's a suit and tie affair, so we always get dressed up.

I've ordered this simple black dress from Walmart for an amazing price of $16. Do you like either of these options I've put together?


Option #1: Sweet & Sophisticated

New Years Outfit by domesticprncs featuring Majorica jewelry

Items in this set:
Walmart.com dress, $16
Majorica bracelet
Purepearls.com earrings
Black Patent Crocodile Print..., $17
New years shrug $44.99

Option #2: Wild and Crazy

New Years Outfit 2 by domesticprncs featuring Majorica jewelry

Items in this set:
Walmart.com dress, $16
Majorica bracelet
Purepearls.com earrings
RETRO CLOTHING-50's Style..., $24
Black Zebra Pointy Toe Pump..., $22

Ode to Special K Chocolatey Pretzel

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Ode to Special K Chocolatey Pretzel

Your salt and sweetness

fills my tummy with happiness

Oh how I love your choco goodness

Special K Chocolatey Pretzel maker, can you please make these double the size for the same calories?

Weekend of November 21 & 22

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We had a great time this weekend and going back to work for three days doesn't see like such a big deal this week.

On Saturday we had a few people over to watch the OSU vs Michigan game. The Buckeyes will be going to the Rose Bowl on New Years Day. Go Buckeyes!

On Sunday, Christopher and I put up Christmas lights. There was some arguing

and some laughing

But we came together and got it done. We are very proud of our finished product.

I hope you had a a great weekend too!

New Digital Recipe Card

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Brittney over at The Coleman Chronicles was so kind to make me this adrobale recipe card for all my recipes. Since, Christopher and I are eating better, we've come up with some quick, easy, good for you recipes. I was looking for a great way to display them here. Brittney so kindly volunteered to make me one. Isn't that sweet?

What do you think?:

I love it! Thank you so much Brittney for being so sweet to volunteer your time to a self proclaimed "Photoshop Dummy"

Burn Baby Burn

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I took my first Zumba class this week and it was AMAZING! I'm addicted. I went to the class a little nervous because I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or be able to catch on to the steps but really wanted to give it a try.

I was curious how many calories I was going to burn so I took my Polar Heart Rate watch. The total calories were 543! Can you believe that? I can't wait to go back on Saturday.

Have you taken Zumba? If not, GO!

Have a great weekend!

I'm a star....Baby Star that is!

Tweet You all know my love for the company, Baby Star. I just love how their clothes have such cute contemporary patterns but are organic also. I registered for Thediaperdiaries.com contest giving away a poodle blanket from Baby Star a while ago. Welll......I won....I won! This wonderful blanket:

It came so adorbably packaged with a Baby Star ribbon wrapped around it. I'm in love with it. It's so soft. This is the exact bedding I want for future Baby P.

Can I be in your music video?

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I had an epiphany on the treadmill today....."I have checked out every women in the gym to see whether she is hotter/skinner than me". Don't lie, you do it too!

"Look at her, why would she wear those pants with those rolls" or "Wow, I wish I had her body"

We all do it, but why? Why do we size each other up against other women?

I think it all goes back to our primal need to be the most attractive to get the attention of an attractive male.

I know pretty deep thoughts while on the treadmill but set that with some Kanye as background music and I think I was staring in a music video.

Giveaway Alert

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While They Sleep is having an exciting giveaway. Go over and tell her your favorite Thanksgiving tradition and you could win two patterns from her shop.

Thanksgiving

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As Thanksgiving is fast approching I have started thinking about all that food we're going to be eating. I'm not a big Turkey off the bone person, so the sides are what I love at Thanksgiving. My favorite side, hands down, is Green Bean Casserole:

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup (Regular or 98% Fat Free)

1/2 cup milk

Dash ground black pepper

4 cups cooked cut green beans

1 1/3 cups French's® French Fried Onions

Garlic Power or Fresh Garlic to flavor

Bake at 350°F. for 25 minutes

but a second runner up has to be corn bread casserole:

1 stick butter

1 chopped onion

1 chopped green pepper

2 c. grated sharp Cheddar

1 can drained whole kernel corn

1 can undrained cream style corn1 box Jiffy cornbread mix

1 sm. carton sour cream

Mix corn and cornbread mix and pour in 9 x 13 inch dish. Saute onion and green pepper in butter. Spoon onion and green pepper mix over corn mixture. Dot sour cream over casserole and top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

Weekend of November 14 & 15

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We're going to the Rose Bowl! Wahooo! Our Buckeye's had an excellent game this weekend.

Friday night, Christopher and I went and bought our Christmas present to each other. I'll tell you about that later. Saturday we watched to the OSU game and celebrated a little too hard Saturday night at our placement into the Rose Bowl.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Calling all Crafty Ladies!

Tweet Would you like to be featured on Nickelodeon's website?

If the answer is yes, then go to http://lovethatmax.blogspot.com and contact Ellen. She is writer who is doing a Holiday Countdown for Nickelodeon's Parents Connect and she's looking for ideas. The holiday countdown will start November 18th and run through Jan. 1st. Every day they will feature crafts and recipes for Moms and kids to make. The categories they are looking for are: holiday crafts, holiday decorations, holiday cards, handmade gifts, holiday stockings, creative wrapping paper.

Also, while your at Love That Max check out Ellen's blog too. She has an amazing story to tell about her special needs son. Her blog is there to help other parents who are going through the same things.

Pushing Through

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Do you know what I'm talking about? The point in your workout when you hit the wall, you think "I can't finish", "I'm not going to make it".....but then all the sudden out of no where comes this adrenaline that pushes you and you make your goal.

I hit that today with my workout and oh it felt so good!

Have a great weekend.

I'm ovulating!

Tweet I know it's weird to show you a stick that has my pee on it but go with me here.

This weekend I was wondering around Deals (it's a dollar store) looking for a vase for our new bookshelves and found $1 ovulation tests. I thought to myself "How cool" so I picked up one (or 10).

While I was checking out, the lady rang up one of the test, looks at me and says in her old lady southern accent "Sweetie, are you sure you don't want the pregnancy tests." Why did I feel like I was 16 years old buying a pregnancy test? My face turned bright red and I said "No."

I think this getting pregnant stuff is so cool. If only we could "baby dance" today.

Baby Discussions

Tweet are happening in the 'P' household and the verdict is:

We're too broke to have kids!

Christopher and I took a hard look at our budget to see if we could comfortably bring a baby into it and the verdict is NO WAY! One reason why is the high cost of daycare around here. We've heard from many of our friends who send their kids to daycare, the cost is around $1100 a month for infants. That's almost another mortgage payment. Who can afford this? We're so worried that we're never going to be able to afford a baby.

From my calculations, we are about $400 a month short of where we want to be. Anyone want to hire me part time? lol!

Here is some ways I've come up with to get some extra money:

1. We're going to petition the city to get our property taxes lowered. Currently we're paying taxes on an appraisal from 3 years ago. We had the house reappraised when we bought it and it was appraised for $30K less than what the owners paid for it originally. So we're still paying taxes on that amount. This should give us an extra $100 a month.

2. We're going to save $9K and try to pay off one of my student loans which currently costs us about $150/month.

3. Stop eating out once a week ($25/per week), which should give us an extra $100 a month

With just those things that gives us an extra $350 per month. Which is really close to our goal of an extra $400 a month.

Now I haven't forgot that once baby comes, we can use the Dependent Pretax Expense Account that allows you to have money taken out of your paycheck before taxes come out. So if you're putting away $400 a pay for day care, it's actually only like taking about $260 out of your check. We also will be claiming 1 instead of zero on our taxes, which will give us a little bit more money in our pocket.

It's going to take a while to save that $9K, that will definitely be pushing the possible 2010 start date back.

I'm super excited to start trying to expand our family and kinda bummed it may take that long to start trying. Anyone want to donate $9K to the "make a baby" fund?

Have you and your husband/significant other had this conversation? How did you handle waiting to have a baby?

I'm gonna be skinny and healthy!

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We joined the gym! There is a YMCA right down the street from our house so we took a tour this weekend. After discussing it, Christopher and I decided to make room in the budget to join. It's $72.00 a month and this includes our membership, all classes, the pool and up to two hours of day care (for future reference).

On the left hand side you'll notice a widget I created to show my goal weight, my current weight and calories burned. I have 21 pounds I want to loose. I think that starting pregnancy at 135 pounds would be my ideal pre-pregnancy weight. I'm really excited to really get to loosing pounds and getting healthy.