Vision Boards

On the IPOD "Breakable" by: Ingrid Michaelson

I spent NYE with two of my best girlfriends Lisa and Erica and with Lisa's mom Ellen, one of her close friends Lisa and of course Asher. I was a little hesitant mainly because it was my first NYE without Mike in 12 years but I have to admit it might have been one of the best NYE ever... The three of us made dinner together...

Dips and Veggies and Chips

The Most Amazing Salad "The Julie Traub"

Sauteed Crab Claws

Broiled Lobster Tails

Filet Mignon

Roasted New Potatoes

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

And Brownies....

Everything was amazing!!! After dinner, Lisa had arranged for us to do a project... we decoupaged a vision board. It really made me think about what was important to me. Where do I see myself a year from now...

I took a picture of mine and posted it to the blog... my favorite words that I found were "beauty not perfect", "two hearts. one love", "create your beautiful", "unexpectedly sexy" and "mother".

I'm going to touch a little bit on the last one..."mother." What does that word mean to me and why is it important in the next year? In the next year I would like to be a mother...I am not trying to put any undo stress on anyone but I do hear my ovaries ticking away at the time every morning. The ticking started when I was about 26...that was my year, at 26 I was supposed to be married and by 27 I would push twice and out whould pop a beautiful child who slept through the night and carried a wallet of 100 dollar bills...We would all live in a beautiful house and we would summer in Italy. It was all planned!! Yet here I sit at 31 explaining to God that I would be happy to live in this apartment forever if I could just have a healthy baby who would at least sleep through the night by 18 years old. It is funny how our vision changes the older we get...

"Create your beautiful", In the next year I want to "create my beautiful." I don't want to be bound by size. I want to walk into a room and instead of worrying about impressing the crowd I want to impress myself. I want to feel confident and sexy. I know the word sounds silly but I want to be FIERCE! I want to dig deeper and I want to let it go!

And is it too much to ask to rule the scale???

The absolute best thing about NYE was that my amazing husband showed up just in time for the ball to drop! YAY!!

I started the year off great...I went to Nia this morning along with about 25 other women including one of my favorites, Susie. I had a great girls brunch with Jamie, Lauren, and Bari and discussed of all things turtles and make out sessions, sorry girls had to throw that in there. Then I took the most glorious nap ever...and I woke up to a husband who got off work early! Tomorrow morning I leave to visit my Grandmother for her 95th birthday, incredible...

I hope everyone had an amazing New Years and I hope you will all continue to share this wonderful journey with me.

Happy New Years!!!

Happy Birthday Granny!!

xoxo chef a