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When planning a family vacation, don’t get ahead of yourself and pick a tropical island like Fiji before taking a few things into consideration…Fiji might have been great when it was just our husbands and us, but now that we have kids, do you really want to sit on a plane for 12+ hours, or even 2 hours for that matter?  Probably not.  So here are my top 10 vacation ideas to have a relaxing, enjoyable and stress-free trip.

1. Plan the trip wisely. Take into consideration EVERYONE’S interests…There is no need to try to fit everything into one trip, but wherever you decide to go, make it a place where there’s a variety of things to do.  For instance, the kids might enjoy the museums, I would love the shopping and my husband would get to go on the boat or see a sports game.  A couple good places that we’ve considered are Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin, and Seattle.  So much variety and lots of kid/adult friendly activities.
2. Make a Travel List. Something we started doing a long time ago was making a travel list – we started compiling all those things we “forgot” on short trips to visit the in-laws.  This way when we take an extended trip we wouldn’t forget a staple item.  The other thing to remember is that almost ANYTHING you forgot can be replaced, so don’t worry about it after you left, it’s too late anyways.
3. Take the scenic route… I used to enjoy flying before we had kids, but now I’ve realized as long as the kids can handle a road trip, I’d much rather have my own car when we get to where we are going, and save myself the trouble of getting two children through security at the airport and onto a cramped airplane.  Not to mention taking kids to the bathroom on a plane or in an airport is NO FUN!
4. Try new things. One of the events we have planned for our next family road-trip is camping.  There are so many beautiful places around the country that I want to share with my kids that it’s impossible not to spend at least one night in the great outdoors.  What more can you ask for than some fun campfire stories and roasting hot-dogs and marshmallows like when we were kids.  However you don’t have to camp to try new things – we’ve tried to get our children to be open minded especially when it comes to food and going to seafood, barbeque and different cultural types of restaurants can be fun.  I can’t think of a better way to make memories than by trying new foods – my parents did this with us growing up and I have special memories from “the first time I ever ate…”
5. Preparation makes perfect… Well, not quite, but when it comes to work, it definitely helps.  Whenever we travel, I try to get ahead with work and take care of everything in advance so that I don’t have to be bothered on vacation.  By allocating responsibilities out to others to handle while I’m gone, even if a situation arises at work, it can be handled while I’m not there (or at least until I get back .
6. Stick to a Schedule. Now you might think that when you’re on vacation, you can sleep in and do nothing, well especially with kids, that’s not the case.  I try to make sure that we eat breakfast at about the same time (and not just fast food breakfasts – all the fat in it will end up wearing you down), lunch and dinner.  When travelling, our usual day goes (get up, work out in the hotel) shower, check e-mail (take care of any work) then make sure everything gets packed, loaded into the car and kids are ready.  Everything seems to go smoothly if we stay on track and stick to a somewhat “regular” schedule.
7. WASH YOUR HANDS! I used to think this was just for when you’re at home, but when traveling its more important than ever to wash your hands all the time.  After travelling with sick kids, you’ll know there’s no better way to ruin a vacation than by colds and flu.  Make sure your kids take their vitamins when traveling (and you too).  This is another reason why I stopped flying with the kids – every time I got onto an airplane (even worse during colder months) was that I would get sick and there is NO WAY I would risk having sick children on the trip.
8. Plan ahead. I know that I already said plan, but this one deserves two spots.  Not only should you plan where you’re traveling to, but also what you’ll be doing.  You’ll want to call ahead to find out when places are open, what the costs of each attraction are and make sure that you have a rough idea of what will be going to happen each day.  You don’t want to get bored while you’re on vacation and ask yourself – “what’s there to do?”
9. Eat Healthy. Not to ruin a vacation, but if I have to eat junk food for a week, and gain five pounds from a lack of exercising, I’ll be cranky and swear off vacations when I return home.  So, don’t throw your healthy diet by the wayside, simply choose to eat healthy and enjoy sweets and treats in moderation.  The better you eat, the better the moods will be during the trip also!
10. Pack for the weather. Even though it might be cold or warm when you leave, you might enjoy cool, cold or even hot weather and it’s always a good idea to pack accordingly.  If you have room, I always try to pack my childrens’ bedding (all year round bedding).  Not only does it keep them warm in a cool hotel room, but I found they sleep MUCH better when they have something from home.  It does sound strange to bring your own bedding and pillows, but it makes for a more enjoyable trip.

So with these 10 easy steps, you’ll have the family vacation of a lifetime and be sure to make memories just like the ones when you were a kid.  However I can assure you that my daughter and son will never know how lucky they are NOT to have 3 other siblings crowed in a suburban with no rear air for the 10 hour drives that we were so lucky to enjoy as kids!!  And as a parent, I am mighty glad that they don’t know what that’s like either!

Although I’ve never been big on New Year’s Resolutions, this year I have made an exception and set aside a true resolution to get healthy both physically and mentally.  I started this goal before the New Year started simply because there was no reason to wait a couple more weeks to get healthy AND in doing so, I got a head start on losing weight and it’s always easy when you’ve got momentum.  My goal is to get in shape, but more specifically to get toned and to lose weight.  However after saying this so many times before without getting much for results; I knew it was time to make a change.  These are the 5 key steps to reaching my goals.

1. Eat a high fiber and protein diet – cut out super fatty and high carb foods. Shoot for two good sized meals a day plus a snack or two if needed.  I talked to a doctor and he recommended fruits like blueberries and blackberries (really high in fiber) and eating fresh vegetables regularly.  I switched out beef and chicken with salmon and tuna and cut back on the amount of meats I was eating.
2. Don’t throw the diet by the wayside when going out to eat. This was a big problem before, I thought if I was going out to eat, I’d push the diet aside and resume after I had indulged.  There were 2 problems with this. First, I’d gain a pound or two and then feel like I had ruined the whole diet, why start now, it’s already a lost cause.  Two, I could still eat out AND not gain weight – simply order the salmon or fish on the menu, absolutely NO wine, and avoid the bread, vinegar, and oils.
3. Stop expecting it to happen overnight. I can be a very impatient person at times and go really, really hard at exercising and eating right for a week or two, drop a few pounds and then when it gets harder I get impatient and start to get burned out and give up.  I start to accept that I’m just the way I am and can’t change – WRONG! I’ve started to realize that it’s not an overnight thing, or even a month long thing, it’s a lifestyle change.  It might take me a year to get to where I want to be, or maybe I’ll be 30 before I get to my goal, but if I work at it every day, I WILL get there and I’ll be happier and healthier along the way.
4. Create system to keep track of daily exercises and exercising more. I work from home and spend most of the day and evening at my computer, so I created pull tabs on pieces of paper that mark how many exercises I have done.  For example, I have a running sheet, and each one mark 100 calories burned on the elliptical.  Every time I run 100 cal I can tear off a tab, I’ve set it up so that all the tabs must be torn off by a certain day, some days I can slack and other days I’ll have to work harder to catch up, but it always works best to stay right on track.  I’ve stuck to 3 key tear sheets, one for running, and one to each of the two leg exercises I have.
5. Get more sleep and make my days less stressful – take more time to relax. Often I’ll find myself getting caught in the hustle and bustle and realize that I’m always bending over backwards to accommodate other people’s schedules.  It’s easy to do, but I also find that half my day is spent overly stressed about tiny (and likely unimportant) details.  I have set aside times when I don’t work – meals times, exercise times and of course…sleep time.  I allow myself 7 hours for sleep plus a half hour for TV and internet browsing before going to sleep.  This was one of the harder changes to make so, to make it easier, I redecorated my bedroom with a new bedding set, some new artwork and lighting (which made a huge difference).  I decided to take a little time for myself and full advantage of the after Christmas bargains and make my bedroom into a place where I actually wanted to be.

So those are my 5 steps to reaching my New Year’s resolutions and the combination has worked out really well.  So far so good, down 5 lbs and on my way to a healthier and MUCH happier lifestyle and only 10 more lbs to go (plus lots of toning).  Thanks Twitter Moms for this opportunity to share with others and hopefully inspire others to get healthy as well.   It would be great to have a copy of Your Shape (http://www.yourshapegame.com) to make the rest of my resolution more enjoyable!

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my beautiful flowers

By this time I’m thinking that the first delivery person had forgotten both bouquets so they made two separate trips – no big deal…Until the clock hits 11 AM and another delivery person walks in with another flower arrangement. I keep thinking this is so unreal and SOOO not like him. At that point the notes started to create a scenario – “I love it when your hair is down”, “That black sweater is so sexy on you”, “I love it when you cook Italian food”, and so on and so forth.  From lunch break on, every hour on the hour another beautiful flower arrangement arrived with another little note.  As I am ready to leave, the last set of flowers shows up…This time it has a time and place where I’m supposed to go after work.

Hurrying to carry all the pretty flowers into my car, drive home, shower, change and then an hour back to our college town to meet up, I made sure to follow his instructions (wearing his favorite sweater and jeans, making sure my hair was down and extra pretty As I walked into the restaurant where I was told to meet at, there was a balcony table set up just for us, candlelit and a single last rose sitting on the table with a bottle of our favorite wine awaiting us.  We sat and talked for hours after enjoying an amazing Italian meal and at that point I knew he was not only the love of my life, but would always rise to the occasion and go that extra mile (or five) to show how me much he really truly cares.

BUT – it didn’t end there, as he walked me back to my apartment and kissed goodnight, he waited for me to get inside before acting like he had left.  I was tired after such a wonderful and busy day – that I barely noticed the best surprise of all – on my bed was a photo blanket with a collage of all of our best memories together – a snowboarding trip, our first date, wakeboarding together for the first time – everything was right there in front of me… Another single rose, laid on top with a note tied to it.  The note said “I will love you forever” and nothing more – as I started to cry, I reached for my phone to call him only to realize he was still sitting in his car in the parking lot waiting for me.  Now that we’re married and we have so many more memories together – I take that blanket with me everywhere, on vacation, road trips, you name it…It’s the most special gift I’ve ever been given and it reminds me of how gr8ful I am to have love like this in my life.

Thanks Target for the opportunity to share such a special memory with everyone!

The sweetest gift I've ever received

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Vivid color images and super sharp photo clarity are just two benefits of camouflage bedding.

Camouflage bedding refers to the incredibly sharp images that you can have put on bedding material. Whether it is a photo or a graphic element, such as a cartoon character or a unique design, you can spice up any room with this incredible technology.

One example of the camouflage bedding includes photo blankets, where new parents will put adorable photos of their newborn on the blanket. Another idea that parents of older children will do is put images of soccer balls, race cars, exotic beaches, movie stars, and more on the machine washer-safe bedding,

There is an incredible array of available images, depending on the camouflage bedding company you go with. One website had images of animals that included tigers, horses, and dinosaurs. Another category had sports images of basketball, football, BMX, snowboarding and surfing. Whether the camouflage bedding is for a girl or boy, a style and image category is sure to catch your interest.

And for folks with furry, four-legged children, there are pet beds that can be adorned with your favorite photos of your dog or cat. Options include a collage of 12 or four images on bedding for small, medium or large dogs.

This is where you can really get creative because you can submit your own photos. Your imagination is the only limit when it comes to the images you want to put on your pet’s bed. Check and see if you can add text and what kind of fonts are available. Also, the best kind of pet bedding is one that will not fade or tear after years of use.

Various sizes and bedding types are available for your camouflage bedding. Some companies offer the image installation on different sized pillows and throws, as well as blankets and comforters.

The secret to the long life of the image is that the photo is dyed into the fabric of the bedding material. This makes it much more durable and fade resistant than an image that has been ironed on.

Check out all the various options for borders between photos in a collage and the different materials available. You’ll also have to decide on what color you want the non-image side to be, so get creative and create your own camouflage bedding today.

I’m a huge fan of contests and the idea of winning free stuff really gets me excited, especially around the holidays…So when I found out that VisionBedding was holding their own contest, I got even more excited.  First let me explain what VisionBedding is for those of you who are new to Bedding Blog.

VisionBedding is a not only a bedding company, but they offer lots of unique home decor products such as murals, bedding and pillows, blankets, wall art, wall stickers, etc. but instead of offering generic designs, they have a gallery of over 7 million designs.  So, you choose the design and then they turn it into whatever cool product you want – and for those who want to use their own special photo/design, they can do that as well.

So when I woke up this morning and found out that they were giving away an entire bedroom makeover valued at $1000 I wanted to encourage any fellow bloggers to join the contest (to enter go here: http://www.twittermoms.com/forum/topics/all-i-want-for-christmas-is ).  My favorite part of the contest is that it’s not one of those fill-out-a-generic-form-and-hope-that-you-win type contests – it’s one that you get to write a cool story about how much you could really use that room makeover and the most compelling story wins!

Contest Inspirational Room 

I think that not only is it soooo important for women (especially moms) to have that special space that is just for them to unwind and relax.  For inspiration, I’ve posted my latest favorite room theme collage and want to wish everyone who enters VisionBedding’s “All I Want for Christmas is a Bedroom Makeover Contest” Good Luck!