Plenty of good stuff going on around here this week. Noah is on Fall break already. Cole loves having him around all day again. Monday was my sister-friend Vicki's & my best friend Kelly's birthday. I'm celebrating with Vicki this weekend at The Scrapper's Lounge with a bucket of frozen maragritas. YAY! Kelly & I will have a tea party to celebrate her birthday the weekend after. Andrea & Mike (owners of Scrapper's Bliss) are in town for a Disney vacation with their family. Drew & I had dinner with them at Fleming's in Newport Beach last night. It was so great to sit and visit! Andrea looks gorgeous!! I starved all day so I could splurge on filet mignon & Fleming's potatoes. Andrea & I even shared a chocolate mousse cake for dessert. YUM! It was heaven. Too bad I had to get up and be at bootcamp at 5:30 this morning. I am NOT a morning person but I certainly worked off that dinner, so it was worth it. Later today, the boys and I are going to have lunch with Daddy near his office. Tonight and tomorrow I really need to get my bags packed. Friday I have bootcamp again and then I am off for a weekend with the girls!! BLISS!

Speaking of Bliss.... wait until you see the big unveiling at Scrapper's Bliss on October 1st. All of our Bliss Girls will be showing off their assignments and trust me... you don't want to miss it!

Tomorrow, September 28th would have been my parents' 49th wedding anniversary. They loved each other every moment of their life together. Here are a few of their wedding photos from 1957.

Well, I did it! I survived my first day of boot camp! Surprisingly, I really like the 5:30 am schedule. I am a night owl by nature, but I really enjoy working out in the cool morning air even if it is totally dark for half the session. It was a lot harder than I had even expected. I was kind of surprised to find out that I can not complete even one push-up! How pathetic am I? I promised myself that I will be able to do ten in four weeks. I think that is a reasonable goal. I refuse to give up and I am looking forward to the end results. I am very tired and a little sore today. I imagine tomorrow will be worse... but still worth it!

In other news, this afternoon is our first ever parent/teacher meeting. I think that is really exciting! We will be trying out a new sitter with Cole while we are there. I really hope all goes well. We need a reliable babysitter so badly.

I joined the Shrinking Peas weight loss support group over in the Pub and now I have a fabulous accountability partner! Leslie Ashe is someone I adore and I am thrilled to have her as my partner. I told her that I picked her because I heard belly laughs are a great ab workout. She's such a funny lady and I know we are going to be a great team!

On Monday, the 18th I begin boot camp for women. I will go three days a week for 4 weeks. Did I mention that it's at 5:30 am? What was I thinking? ugh! I am terrified of what they are going to put my body through, but I am also really excited to get started. I need this so bad. I need the energy, the strength and the weight loss. Most of all, I need the confidence of knowing that I can do it!

Look out world, Karen's gettin' skinny again!!

It's true! I am just drawn to the colorful little gems. I bought a ton of the new Foof-a-la buttons at Scrapper's Bliss last night and I am really excited about them! The colors just make me happy happy happy! I can't wait to go to The Scrapper's Lounge at the end of the month for a full weekend of scrappin' and button fun!

**ETA** I forgot to mention that ScrappersBliss.com just got in a ton of super cool Autumn Leaves clear stamps yesterday! They have Tia's, Rhonna's, Katie's & Maryann's!