¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

¹⁷ Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

¹⁸ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

¹⁹ Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

²⁰ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Yupp! Well said, Bible!

Well, let’s talk about this outfit. I am the very last person to adopt a new trend in jeans. So now that the trend is cropped jeans, I’m completely lost! I’m very curvy around my hips and butt, so anything but bootcut looks terrible on me. A few weeks ago, I stopped by the Levi’s store and tried on their sale jeans. I stumbled across this pair of black jeans and was floored! They looked…Ok? I still remember the 80s and 90s and it creeps me out to see those trends coming back. I didn’t like cropped jeans back then, and I still don’t like them now. But, I’ll go with it. It’s all about modernizing past trends and I can work with that.

After I bought the jeans at Levi’s, I remembered a puff-sleeve wrap top on sale at MAJE, a Parisian brand. So I ran over and bought it, and just as I was leaving, I saw this cute striped t-shirt on sale and bought that too. When I got home, Nick aka Mr. Hubby, said the puff-sleep wrap top looked awful…and it did. So I just kept the t-shirt to complete this cute little outfit.

This outfit goes with not 1 but 3 pairs of shoes I own….the Cole Haan heels pictured, a pair of black Puma sneakers, and a pair of Cole Haan loafers. So super easy to wear everyday.

On a photography note, I’m going to bring back my Pentax camera and try different F-stops. These photos are too flat for my liking.

People come up to us after church every Sunday and are dumbfounded that we had so many children with us in church and nobody even knew until afterwards when they stood up because they were so quiet and respectful.

Nick and I went up to Big Bear Mountain the other week for two days of skiing. I am too much of a scaredy-cat to ski, so I just sat in the lodge and enjoyed hot chocolate, apple cider, and these really great fried chicken tenders! (Yes, I am going to lose weight!) We took a few snaps, because well…That’s what we do!

The sweater I am wearing comes from Ann Taylor Loft and is available here. I was lucky enough to get it 60% off early in January. Great sweater (although I need to lose weight! Hey just gotta remind myself.)

My wedding photos from the official church wedding from this summer never made it to this blog. I had some real issues seeing a double chin in all of the church photos, even after hitting the gym hard for 3 months (not enough time!) Now…several months later…the weight is still there and getting worse.

It’s so upsetting that the first signs of ‘Middle Age Spread’ hit me right on my wedding day. Yet another reason why I tell young girls to stop fooling around and get married! That white dress is meant for a 23 year old, not a 36 year old! Still, better late than never.

But I’m not giving up…I still took vacation photos at Snow Canyon up in Utah, and I’m going to post them. A famous Japanese facialist said that as you get older you will start looking in the mirror less and less (and stop taking photos)…she said that is a bad idea. Instead, you need to look in the mirror more and tackle the signs of aging head on. So that’s what I’m doing.

I admit that my undoing has been my diet…For this I will blame Nick 🙂 as being happily married has come with a lot of romantic, wonderful dinners. I have never eaten better in my life! We were at Gatwick airport on Monday (stopover) and ate at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant where I had calamari and a caeser salad. I eat like a Queen! Our homemade meals are just as wonderful…organic lamb and horseradish sauce with mashed potatoes…then desert…

The worst part of gaining weight has been my thickening Neck. I always had a thick neck…but now I have a disgustingly awful thick Neck and Double Chin. That shit has to go.

So I wondered…why did I work hard in school all those years…sacrifice my time and happiness for good grades…yet now…I don’t put that much effort into my own health, appearance, and body?

Food was always a way to deal with the sacrifice and discipline of hard work. I never looked at Food as Hard Work. That has to change.

So I have three plans to tackle this problem and ensure that my ‘Middle Age’ is one of pride and attractiveness.

Plan 1: Hiking….I already work out but I think Hiking needs to be added

Plan 2: Grade my eating habits…Food is Like Studying…What I put in my body is a Test…I will get a grade at the end of the week based upon my hard work and discipline

Plan 3: I’m going to do something fun, and chronicle it on my blog along with a healthy dose of Vanity! (A bit of vanity will encourage you to be your best.) I’m going to pick a celebrity and eat like them for as long as I have recipes to keep me entertained. My first celebrity will be Lori Loughlin…then I want to hit up Jennifer Lopez (my fave!), Meghan Markle, Lorna Jane, Candice Cameron Bure, Kate Middleton, Princess Letizia (the royals really are in the best shape aren’t they?), and many more! It will add a bit of ‘celebrity fun’ to my diet. Furthermore, I may even have blog posts where I attempt to copy each one’s style. Stay tuned!

Nick and I have a new hobby!  Party Crashing!  Every week we are going on facebook and looking for public parties/events and we are going to crash one!  This week there was a release party for ‘Chimp Party’ a  video game, so we went to the software company and ate all their chips!  Next week we’re crashing a Language School’s Christmas Party and a Beer Release Party 🙂

It was fun because the building was key-code locked and we had to wait until someone left to get in.  Then we just walked into the company’s office and knew no one!  But the people who worked there seemed cool to have two random strangers show up to their company party.  We sat on the couch and played Chimp Party with some of the developers while drinking slushies and eating chips.

 

 

Here is a video compilation detailing our annual Fall weekend in London!

Nick and I are obsessed with Møn Is!  The best ice cream ever!  My mom discovered the dairy farm and the little ice cream parlor on site and we’ve never looked back!  Life-changing!

Today is the longest day of the year!

I was recuperating from my Migraine yesterday.  I did more research on all the things I want for the wedding.  Basically, if I want artificial boxwood on the walls of the reception room (can’t afford it for the patio) I would pay 200 dollars to have it shipped from the USA.

So instead, I’m going to buy 10 40 by 60 cm pads from Angela’s Flower Store on Aliexpress.com.

So now we have 650 for flowers and artificial boxwood, 200 for cake stands and maybe 150 leftover for coffee makers or vases.  That’s my 1000 dollar reception budget.

Nick stayed home from work but worked really really hard in his office.  I heard him talking on the phone.  He’s under a lot of stress.  I walked to Fotex and Silvan with my friend Lars to buy some flowers and get Nick lunch.  I came home and ate lunch with Nick then took a 2 hour nap which did a lot to get rid of the last of the headache.

Both Nick and I cleaned the house a bit as his parents are coming tomorrow night and will be sleeping over.

We had a lovely dinner, I went and got chocolate cake and Sparkly water from Netto.

We also sat on the couch and took photos!  Now we shall end the day by watching a horror movie about Fishes.  It’s called ‘Island Zero’ and it inspires me to make my own movie with Nick!  (Seriously)

I had a splitting migraine all day today.  For the most part today was a black hole of nothingness.

I booked and paid for a Burn & Build class but couldn’t make it.

That’s it.  That was my day!