Bachelorette Party: Disney Style

Hello hello!!

Wedding day is coming super soon, (like next week, eek!) so I don't have much time to blog, but I did want to get my bachelorette party written about cause it was just amazing!

My best friend works at Disneyland and I love Disneyland so it was a no brainer that's where we'd go.

Michael's sister, Sarah, and I rented a car and drove down while my bestie, Molly, was working. Sarah and I originally got a little Nissan, but after about 10 minutes we got a call from Enterprise to bring the car back because they had sold it to someone already, but they offered us any car they had available. Of course we chose this bad boy!

Yeah, we ended up getting a 2015 Ford Mustang. Holy car batman! It drove beautifully, but was so high tech Sarah and I had trouble figuring out how to turn the car on. The guy started it with the key fob, but we couldn't get it to work and the button in the car wouldn't turn it on. Eventually we figured it out, when we were stuck in traffic in LA (what a surprise).

After our first stop Sarah informed me that her mom had rented us a hotel room in one of the surrounding hotels! We were originally supposed to stay at Molly's apartment, but what a surprise! I was bummed to learn Molly wouldn't be staying there because of work, but told me she had a surprise at her apartment for me to grab before heading to the hotel.

When we got to her apartment I was greeted with this

While I was going, "aww, how sweet," she popped out from around the corner. I wish Sarah had gotten that on video, I just screamed her name and we bear hugged...and I got choked up.

We went out to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and we were just hot messes. We were loud, laughing, and just making a mess

I spilled spaghetti everywhere trying to get it into the togo box and Sarah's ice cream had a giant air bubble in it.

The next day we went to Disneyland and rather than give you a play-by-play I'm just going to throw pictures at you

 Thanks ladies for such a great weekend!

Where Have I Been?

Oh boy it's been AGES since I last blogged...a long time since I've even thought about blogging. 

Not only has work been busy busy busy, but I've started another full time job.

It's called wedding planning.

I had no clue going into this that planning a wedding A YEAR ahead of time would end up being a full time job!

Recently my sister-in-law, cousin, mother, and maid of honor put together an amazing bridal shower for me! 

 The one thing I remember from my sister-in-law's bridal shower years ago was the chocolate fountain and cream puffs, I absolutely had to have them at mine!

My maid of honor had everyone sign a teapot as a guest book

 My cousin and me

 My beautiful bridal party 

 My sister-in-law, niece, and long-time family friend

 My future family-in-law, family friend, and my best friend/maid of honor/sister from another mister

 My coworkers aka the gym beauties

 My mama and me

My soon to be mother-in-law

 Michael's cousin was kind enough to make my ribbon bouquet

 Opening my presents with the help of my niece and sister-in-law

They made me this adorable sign!

It was an AMAZING bridal shower, I was so happy to have everyone there!

The Dangers of Sitting

Hello hello everyone!

Today I wanted to talk about something we do every single day...

Sitting.

We all do it, I'm doing it right now as I write this post, and we all know it's not great for you (blah blah blah), but! rather than just write a post that says "sitting is bad for you...stop it!" I want to tell you why it's bad as well as how to stand more.

Ahem, lemme step on my soapbox here.

The average American worker sits for 12-15 hours a day, between commuting, working, watching t.v., etc....that's a lot, and it's quite dangerous.

Your blood flow slows while you're sitting because you're not doing much and it doesn't get as much of a chance to flush fatty acids through your blood vessels, causing plaque to build up easier.

Sitting can also lower the fat-burning enzymes that manage triglycerides by up to 50%!

Your body continues to secrete insulin while you sit and your muscles start to respond less to the hormone which increases your risk for Type 2 diabetes.

Because your blood flow slows down, your brain doesn't receive fresh blood as fast as it should, causing the brain to function slower.

Your body starts to lose it's proper posture and functionality. Your hip flexors lose their range of motion, your abdominal muscles weaken so your lower back has to compensate which leads to bad posture and lower back pain.

Bad posture compresses your lungs and puts unnatural pressure on your spine.

*Did you know that for every 1-inch your head hangs forward you add 10 pounds of weight onto your spine?*

Phew! Now that we're done with the sad facts, let's start talking about easy ways to change it!

First, we all have to sit at some point, so let's make sure you have correct posture while sitting!

1. Knees should be at 90 degrees and feet on the floor
2. Elbows should rest next to side at 90 degrees
3. Lower back should have a natural S-curve, no overarching or flattening
4. Upper back should rest against the back of the chair
5. Head should be looking straight ahead, not leaning forward

Now! Let's breakdown tips to stand more between work and home.

At work:

• Sit on a stability ball rather than a chair
• Drink more fluid, it forces you to get up to use the bathroom
• Set a timer and take a standing break every 20-30 minutes
• Make sure you have correct sitting posture--place a tennis ball behind your back and the back of the chair, if you slouch forward, the ball with fall
• Do these stretches while you take your standing break

 Stretch tall up through your body, taking deep breaths

 Press your heel up towards the sky, squeezing your glute muscle

Lean forward into the foot on the chair to stretch your straight leg hip flexor

At home:

• Sit on a stability ball during TV commercials
• Walk around whenever you talk on the phone
• Whenever you're waiting in the kitchen for something to heat up, do tree pose

And finally! Let's talk about the benefits of standing more!

You burn about 120-140 calories standing versus 50-70 when you're sitting.

By replacing 30 minutes of sitting with standing it can help you lose up to 5 pounds in 1 year!

Who knew it was so easy?!

Now that you've read this, go stand!

Disneyland 2015 Part Two

Welcome back everyone!

If you missed part one to my family Disneyland trip, check is out here.

The next day we did our big day at Disneyland itself.

We started off the morning with my niece getting "princess-ified" at the Bippity Boppity Boutique

Afterwards my niece and nephew got to meet some princesses, but Belle was the biggest hit with both of them

When we got outside my favorite princess, Merida, was there to take pictures and sign autographs and I immediately got in line. Unfortunately, she was at the end of her time there so they were switching her out for Rapunzel.

 And yes, I met her too

Yes, that is a Merida bow and arrow set my parents bought me...yes I really am 24 ha!

The whole day was spent running around the park for different rides and taking family pictures

 "Helping" my nephew get the sword out of the stone

 The castle was stunning for the 60th anniversary

It was the first time I've ever been on the Dumbo ride, my sister and nephew are in the elephant behind us.

Since my niece got to do the Bippity Boppity Boutique we just had to get my nephew into the Padawan training. My brother wore a Wookie hat and I held a sign in front of my nephew that said "Pick me, my daddy, the Wookie, just got back from deployment"

And they picked him!

He got to fight Darth Vader

Afterward we took him to make his own lightsaber, with the help of Uncle Michael, our resident Star Wars expert

The lightsaber is bigger than him!

My sister and I were standing with our backs to the window and suddenly heard pounding 

The stormtroopers were walking around and scared the crap out of us.

We watched the new parade and the new fireworks show. Both were extremely beautiful and when it started to "snow" during the fireworks we all got a little choked up watching the amazement on the kids faces.

It was an amazing trip to celebrate with my entire family.

Disneyland 2015 Part One

Hello hello everyone!

Thank you all for your kind words on my last post about my mental illness, everyone has been so supportive and one woman even came up to me at work to say that I'm doing good and to keep my head up. It means a lot to me.

Recently my family and I went down to Disneyland for a big get-together to celebrate my brothers, Michael, and my stepdad's birthdays (they literally share birthdays within 4 days of each other) and in a way to celebrate my oldest brother being back from war in one piece.

Of course we would go on the day the 60th anniversary celebrations started. The first day we got down there we actually couldn't get into the park. By about 5pm they closed the parks down because they were at 100% capacity whomp whomp whomp. So we all went to dinner and watched the fireworks from my parent's hotel room.

The second day we went to California Adventure and thankfully the crowds were way smaller. My niece and nephew have never been to Disneyland so this was exciting for both of them.

We rode the Cars ride first and both kids got to "drive" the cars, and they both won! (We didn't race each other thankfully)

My nephew was eerily good at "steering" in the correct direction whenever we turned.

We rode on the ferris wheel, some rode in the non-swinging ones, but Michael, my sister Nichole, my nephew, and I rode in the swinging ones and it was a blast. Gaving (my nephew) squealed like crazy and laughed, it was just adorable.

The kiddos got to meet Donald

We wandered the park for a bit and met up with my best friend, Molly, who works at Disney

We stayed to watch World of Color and I wish I could have gotten pictures of it. It was touching, funny, and beautiful. When they started playing the Star Wars theme people lost their minds. Every adult was cheering I swear. It was amazing.

By the end of the day my feet ached like I had walked in high heels all day, but it was all a blast!

Stay tuned for part 2!