The End.

The End, indeed. I finally finished the fourth book in the Twilight series. I was so frustrated I only had 10 pages left to read once work started so I had to wait 4 hours until lunch just to read the last 10 pages! Talk about suspension…right? But wow…so worth it. Man, I’ve been reading every possible minute for the past week and a half and now I’m done. What will I do with all my free time now? I guess I could find a new book to get obsessed in, but I’m sure my husband would like it if I took a little reading break for a while. He hasn’t even been home for a week and I’ve been trying to read the whole time. I think he would like to spend some non-reading time with me.

I am VERY happy with this whole series of books and how it all turned out. But yes, I could very easily start re-reading the series over again. I feel like the first time through, I was reading so fast because I just wanted to know what happened next! Like I missed so much by reading so fast. So the next time through, I can read slower and appreciate it that much more.

**sigh** It seems I must come out of my fantasy daydream now and get back to reality…and work. Is it time to go home yet??

Yes, stolen...but I liked it!

I did steal this little “questionnaire” from Someday I’ll get there…. I thought it was neat though and wanted to share with you guys. Hope you like it!

1. What is in the back of your car?
Not much…an “emergency kit” with some tools, jumper cables, a rain jacket, and a hardhat.

2. What color is your toothbrush?
I think it’s maybe blue and orange?

3. Name one person who made you smile today.
John…though I was trying to be mad…didn’t work out so well for me.

4. What were you doing at 8:00 AM?
Putting on makeup wishing I had just a few more minutes to read…so close to the end.

5. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
Sneaking in a few more pages of my book in my lap under my desk…not wanting to get to work quite yet. **SHH!** :o)

6. What is your favorite candy?
Bridge Mix

7. What is the last thing your said aloud?
“No, it just needs the bent tin shingles and brick flashing.” – to a coworker…

8. What is the best ice cream flavor?
Hands down, Marble Slabs Coconut (with chocolate chips)

9. What is the last thing you had to drink?
water

10. What are you wearing right now?
Work clothes…dress pants and short sleeve sweater

11. What is the last thing you ate?
Dinner – Sonic cheese coney meal…bad, I know…at least I didn’t finish all the tots!

12. Have you bought any new clothes this week?
Nope.

13. When was the last time you ran?
Me? Run? Umm…no…running doesn’t agree with me…I jogged a little last week though on my walk with the dogs.

14. What was the last sporting event you watched?
I probably haven’t watched a sporting event since last college football season.

15. Ever go camping?
I did when I was little…I’m not much of a “camper”.

16. Do you have a tan?
Getting there…definitely tanner than I was a month ago.

17. Do you take vitamins daily?
Yes, a whole pharmacy full it feels like.

18. Do you go to church?
Nope.

19. Do you like Chinese food more than pizza?
Probably…I love Chinese food.

20. Do you drink your soda with a straw?
As often as I can.

21. Are you someone's best friend?
I’d like to think so.

22. Where is your dad?
Work, most likely.

23. Can you say the alphabet backwards?
I don’t think so.

24. Do you have a maid service clean your home?
I wish!! I’ve hired one once and only wish I could afford it MUCH more often.

25. Do you have a favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
Do slippers count? I wear slippers at home all the time.

26. What color is your car?
Maroon.

27. How do you like your popcorn?
Lightly salted and buttered.

28. How did you get your worst scar?
Chickenpox? I don’t have many scars.

29. Look to your left. What do you see?
Cube wall…**sigh**

30. What color is your watch?
Silver…even the face.

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia?
My old pen pal.

32. Do you use chap stick?
Many times a day.

33. Do you have a dog?
Two, actually.

34. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Coworker.

35. Have you met anyone famous?
I don’t think so.

36. How many states have you lived in?
Just one. Texan born and raised.

37. Do you dye your hair?
I have before in the past…never stays real long.

38. Do you like cats?
I do like cats, but I can’t ever have one. John doesn’t like then and his mom is allergic.

Hope you guys had as much fun reading as I did answering!

So Very Careless...

If you read my last post you will notice that I said that one thing that makes me happy is passion. Now, this is actually a very recent discovery that passion makes me happy. Well, maybe I’ve always been a sucker for the passionate love stories and what not, but it’s at least recently been reignited. I owe this re-ignation to the Twilight series books. Silly, I know, but it’s so very true. Those books are nothing if not passionate. My heart flutters just thinking about it! I was a little skeptical when my friend said that the books did wonders for her and her husband’s sex life. These are young adult books, mind you. They wouldn’t be chock full of romance scenes and such like the romance novels I’ve read before, right? Well, yes, they aren’t. But they don’t have to be! It’s things like this: “Why am I covered in feathers?” “I bit a pillow. Or two.” Wow. See? Passion…enough to have to bite a pillow. **sigh** As I was finding all this out, reading the books, I was very sad that my husband didn’t come home from his business trip until I was well into book #3. But I was sure excited when he got home!! I’ve had passion building up inside me for 2 ½ books already! Let me tell you, that gives all the makings for being very careless. Not that we have to deal with being very careful in the first place (since I’m pretty hormonally challenged 10 out of the 12 months every year), but still. When you’ve got Husband, who’s been out of the country for two weeks straight, and me who’s been reading these emotionally charged books…come on! Who’s going to stop and think about being “careful”?? Which, of course, just fuels the passionate fire. **sigh**

Favorite Things

Wow! I’ve never been tagged in a blog before! Thanks Val!! I almost don’t know what to write about, I’m just so excited! Okay, right. So I was tagged in a meme by Val (Mrs. C) and I’m definitely game to try it out!
Rules:
1. Mention the person who nominated you.

Go visit Next to Heaven. A super fun, super crafty, super great friend with lots of interesting stuff to say. :o)
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.

(1) Books. I shamelessly admit that I love a good book. I am definitely one of those people that can get completely lost in a book. Take the Twilight series, for example…who else could lay on the couch for 12 hours reading and not think twice about it??

(2) Spring. I love a nice warm breeze on a cool spring day. Clear blue sky. Sun shining bright. The rest of the year seems worth it for those few glorious spring days.

(3) Email/texts/cards/notes/comments. I love little notes and such from friends. Kind of just to say, “Hey, someone was thinking about me just now.” Such a warm feeling. Though I know I should reciprocate much more often. Now I feel guilty for not giving back that feeling I get…shame on me.

(4) A clean house. Nothing makes me happier than having a clean house. NOTHING. The one time I hired a cleaning service and came home to a spotless house, I could have screamed with joy! It doesn’t get that clean very often, but boy am I happier when it is that clean!

(5) Music. All kinds. I really like music. When my husband isn’t home (because he would laugh at me) I turn up the radio really loud and dance and sing around the house. What a stress reliever! I love the emotion in lots of kinds of music.

(6) Passion. Not that I’m a completely passionate person, but I love the idea that I could be. I love when people have a passion about something. I love the passion in my books. I love the passion in my music. I love the passion in a good movie. Makes me feel like that could be MY reality…MY passion. Makes me smile. :o)

3. Tag six blogs, state the rules and notify them with a small comment on their blog.

This will be hard since I read so many blogs but only have 4 followers myself! Most of these people probably don’t know I exist, but I like reading them none-the-less.

Next to Heaven – yes, she tagged me, but I do read her blog religiously.

Bakerella

Joined at the Hipp

Perfect in our Imperfections…

The Happy Housewife

Attention Target Shoppers

Progress Report Tuesday

Wow, is it already Tuesday? Another week has gone by? Where have I been?

Status for this week? Down another 2 pounds! In four weeks I have lost 6.8 pounds. Good for me! I hardly got in ANY exercise though this last week. Our class was cancelled on Tuesday, but I did walk the dogs a bit. I didn’t work out on Wednesday as I had dinner over at Val’s and then watched Twilight after I got home. We had class on Thursday. Bailey came over Friday and we watched Twilight again…and it was raining again, so couldn’t even walk the dogs. Saturday I just did some cleaning around the house to get ready for my husband to come home. We laid on the couch ALL day long on Sunday. And then it rained again yesterday so there was no exercise to be had then either. (Plus I was too engrossed in my book). So my loss in poundage this past week comes pretty much only from my diet.

I know I ate WAY less this past week. For once, I finally stayed within my total allotted points for the week. My max is 210 and I ended the week using 173. I have a feeling this week will be pretty similar. I just started my 10-day cycle of progesterone which kind of messes with me. All day yesterday I was hungry when it was time to eat, but I just didn’t feel like eating. Food was grossing me out. I didn’t finish my shake for breakfast. My cheerios were stale so I didn’t eat much of them. I only ate half my leftover casserole for lunch. But I did finish my yogurt snack and all my steak and broccoli for dinner. *sigh* Another 8 days to endure this.

Not sure what the dinner menu will be this week. I see steak quesadillas and hamburger helper in my future though. :o) Hopefully that will get us through the rest of the week!

As it is now, I really don’t know where my goal is. Weight-wise, I was thinking another 5 pounds, but I know I’ve been gaining muscle, so I don’t know that I quite need another 5 pounds. Body-wise, I’m starting to look (in my opinion) really good. I’m happy with me right now. A few places here and there I still want to trim a bit, so I’ll keep it up just a bit longer before I start trying to maintain. I got here a lot sooner than I was expecting. Now I have to maintain for a lot longer! I just hope I can. Willpower…all I need to keep it up, keep it up, keep it up!

April Showers indeed.

April showers bring May flowers!

You know how it goes.  Well, where I live, our average rainfall for the month of April is 3.46 inches, according to weather.com.  Guess where we’re at today?  13.55 inches!!  Not that I’m complaining too much, we did need the rain.  BUT  that 13.55 inches fell over only 5 days the whole month!  By the 17^th, we’d only had barely half an inch of rain.  Then, in two days, it rained 8.5 inches.  8.5.  In TWO days.  Whoa.  Then just a week later, another 4.5 in one day.  ONE day!  Give us a break already!  And it floods here.  Bad.  Now it’s raining again, today.  Like it’s supposed to for the whole rest of the week.  I hope I can make it home.  Sheesh.  I think the rain meter on weather.com is going to overflow before the end of the month!

I hate Monday's...

Ugh…I’m so depressing, I swear!  I am really tired of Monday’s.  I wish I never had to have another Monday ever again.  Monday morning meetings are the absolute WORST idea in the history of ideas.  I’m never prepared for them.  Why on EARTH would I agree to a “Weekly Agenda” meeting with my boss on Monday mornings…only 30min. after I get to work even??  Am I crazy?  Ugh.

Can you tell how my morning has been?  Yeah, that bad.  I have WAY too much other stuff to be actually concerned about rather than some stupid meeting to go over what I (don’t remember what I) did last week and then what I will (mostly likely not) be doing this week.  Is that not retarded?  My weekly agenda changes on a daily basis.  No matter what I plan out, something ALWAYS changes.  There is no point.  And it just takes up my precious time.  I’ve sadly only had to deal with this meeting for the last few weeks, too.  I can only get worse from here.  Ugh.

Unfortunately there will not be a Menu Planning Monday post today.  I did not plan out my meals this week.  Shame on me.  And it (might possibly) be because I did absolutely NOTHING all day yesterday except read.  John got home Saturday afternoon and we went out to dinner, but since he’d been on airplanes travelling for 40 hours straight, we went to bed early.  We ended up getting up at 5:30 Sunday morning, neither of us being able to fall back asleep, so we went downstairs and I started reading while John got caught up on all the shows he missed while he was gone.  Before we knew it, it was time for lunch.  So we ate lunch, and then just didn’t feel like doing anything so John watched more TV and played on the computer while I read…until it was time for dinner!!  Then we had dinner.  Then John zonked out about 9pm, so I stayed up and read until 10pm and went to sleep.  Needless to say, I finished book #3 yesterday and started on book #4.  I’m so pitiful.  Please tell me I’m not the only one who just CAN’T get enough of the Twilight series!  I’m glad I’m on the last book so I can’t keep being obsessed like this after I’m finished with it! 

So yes, I didn’t plan a menu.  We didn’t go to the grocery store.  I didn’t do any laundry.  And John’s luggage never made it out of Africa so there wasn’t any of his to do anyway.  And now I don’t want to be at work.  I just keep counting down the minutes until I get to read a bit at lunch and then until I get to go home.  It’s going to be a very long day, I think.  Ugh.

Happy Friday!!

Oh, what a happy Friday it is! I’m in quite good spirits today! Though, what exactly is it that has me in such a good mood today?

Could it be the fact that my dear husband finally comes home tomorrow?? And after reading Type A Mommy’s post this morning, I think I too will make some cookies to welcome him home. He’s always begging for me to make cookies, but I hardly ever oblige since I try my hardest to keep sweets out of the house. But he’s been gone for 2 long weeks and I think he deserves a treat! :o)

Could it be that as of this morning, I have lost 6 pounds in 3 ½ weeks?? I am really starting to notice the difference and it makes me quite ecstatic! I am feeling so much better about myself and it couldn’t come at a better time.

Could it be that I am the biggest nerd alive and can’t stop thinking about my Twilight series books?? I went out and bought books 1 and 2 last night and started reading book 2. Again, got through 250 pages in one night. I’m so intrigued with the story that I keep trying to think up my own scenarios of how it will play out. And then as I read more, it makes me think again and change my predictions. SOOOOO good!

Could it be that I am going to watch the Twilight movie (again) tonight with my best friend?? She’s the one that finally got me to read the books in the first place and wanted to watch the movie with me. Even though I just watched it on Wednesday, I’m so in love with the story I could definitely watch it again with great company. :o)

Could it even be the fact that I’m making good progress on this project at work?? It’s almost like a puzzle I’m working on. We’re reformulating one of our Excel spreadsheets and I get to go in and figure out all the new formulas and how it all works and put the pieces together to get the right answers. I told you I was a nerd.

Or could it possibly be that it’s Pizza Day at work today?? Who wouldn’t get excited about free pizza for lunch?

Well, whatever the reason, or reasons, it’s a happy day today. :o) Happy Friday to you all!!

Financial Freedom

Yes, I think I am finding every way possible to avoid work today.  :o)   Well, it is very difficult to get anything done today as it is.  While it has cooled back down to a decent 73 degrees, I have other distractions.  First, the few things I’m trying to work on I’m stuck at a point where I need to get with other people to get past my current point…and not being able to get a hold of these other people makes it hard to keep moving forward.  Other than that, we are apparently putting some kind of addition on at the back of the building and they are pouring concrete for the slab today.  And being that the back with no access except through the side yard, I have a Bobcat running back and forth in front of my window carrying little loads of concrete to the slab, dumping them, running back for the next load, and so on.  QUITE distracting, I tell you.  So, I’m here, again.

As the title suggests, I was going to talk about financial freedom.  As I mentioned a while back, my husband and I are doing the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, or as close to it as we want to.  We did set up a monthly budget and use a cash system, we’re just not as super strict as we possibly could be, I guess.  We’re on the debt snowball right now.  Put all the “extra” money we have each month towards the smallest debt, once that is paid off, transfer everything you were putting towards that debt to the next largest, and so on until all debt is paid off, with the exception of a mortgage.  In order from smallest to largest our debts were my car, our 2^nd 15% mortgage, and Husband’s truck. 

In one short week, I will be sending in the very last payment on my car (Woohoo!).  So our original intentions were to then start paying off the 15% mortgage and have that paid off in about another year.  Well, we have revised our plans slightly.  With the economy as of late and risk of layoffs and such, we have decided to start building up our emergency fund before paying off all our (2) debts.  While we don’t really see either of us losing our jobs at this point now, it would still be much nicer to have a little more padding in the savings account, just in case. 

Our new plan consists of this.  We will now put only what our car payment used to be towards our 2^nd mortgage and then put all the rest of our “extra” money into savings.  That way we’re still paying off the 2^nd mortgage faster, just not AS fast and we’re building up our savings at the same time.  Now, you might wonder why on earth we wouldn’t put that extra money towards the truck.  Since a mortgage is way better debt than a vehicle.  Well, we were lucky enough to get 0% financing on the truck so while it is debt, it’s kind of free debt since we’re not having to pay to use the money.  Which doesn’t put us in a huge rush to pay it off early. 

With this new plan, I think it means putting off paying off the 2^nd mortgage until 2011 instead of 2010.  Oh well…we might not even be in the house that long.  And, I think (taking into account that neither John or I will probably get a raise this year) we might be able to have about $14,000 in the savings by the end of the year.  How spectacular would that be??  We have a lot of saving to do though, since we would like to save up at least a 10% down payment for our next house instead of having to solely rely on our equity in our current house as our next down payment.  Then whatever profit we make when we sell is just that, profit!  Volvo, here I come!  :o)

I know, I’m such a dreamer.  But doing this Total Money Makeover really does make things like that seem very possible!  If only we’d started just a tad sooner…  Oh well, point is we did start and it will help us out tremendously in the long run.  And I would like to think we are making some very smart decisions for people our age.  I mean, we’re just in our mid-twenties yet. 

So here is to everyone out there trying their hardest to be Financially Free!  Way to go!

Eli Young Band

Has anyone heard of the Eli Young Band?  I had heard a couple of their songs on the radio and really liked them so I wanted to download them on iTunes.  After listening to a couple of the others of the CD Jet Black and Jealous, I decided to go ahead and download the whole album.  I am SO glad I did.  It is awesome!  I love it!  I suggest to anyone to go out and take a listen and let me know if you fall in love with them like I did!

It's Thursday!

Yes, this will be a completely random post this morning.

Our chiller at work broke (again) last night. I’m hot. They said they hooked up the one for our other building, but I’m sure not feeling the air yet. Who can work when you’re sweating at your desk??

I had a wonderful dinner over at Tony and Val’s last night. Delicious chicken fried steak, mashed taters, and corn. I definitely think she should have her great hubby post the recipe. *hint hint* :o)

I did watch Twilight last night when I got home. I’m very conflicted on whether I liked it or not. The whole movie seemed a little disconnected to me. But I have already read the book so I know it’s supposed to flow. I did not like the fact that some things did not match up quite right. Lines said in one place in the movie, yet same lines said somewhere completely different in the book. Facts in the movie that did not match facts in the book. They seemed to draw out scenes that could have been much shorter, and cut scenes short that really needed more time. Additional scenes added that were not in the book, that I thought they didn’t need. I mean, if I had my way, the movie would be exactly like the book…but I know that would have made the movie like 4 hours long, I’m sure! Eh, I would watch it. I’m a nerd like that. Really, all the movie did was make just want to re-read the book. :o) That said, I will watch the rest of the movies of the saga as they come out, just like I will read the next three books. Maybe even starting book #2 tonight. I had borrowed the first book, but I’m thinking I might just go out and buy all 4 myself since I already know that I’ll want to re-read them all time and time again so I might as well just own them. I mean, (at least the first book) reading this story made me feel like I was in this fantasy world, but yet it had all the emotion of reality…I don’t know, maybe I just can’t even put it into words to accurately describe what it was like for me. I just know that I loved it and would read it again. Have you guys read the book? Watched the movie? What were your thoughts?

My husband finally comes home in 2 ½ days! I can. not. wait! I really miss him. I miss being able to talk to him for lengths longer than about 5min. once a day. Stupid Africa and bad cell service. :o( I miss having someone to curl up next to when I wake up cold in the middle of the night. And no, the dog doesn’t count! Really, I think the only thing I don’t miss is all the additional laundry! :o)

Hmm…I wish I could think of anything else to write about so that I can put off working for longer. It seriously is 77 degrees at my desk right now. Yes, I have a thermometer at my desk. It’s kind of a running joke here that it’s cold in the winter (I have worn gloves at my desk…) and hot in the summer (I had to buy my own personal desk fan)…inside the building! So I have a magnetic thermometer attached to my desk and it is currently reading 77 miserable degrees. YUCK.

New car...I wish

Not that I will be getting a new car anytime soon, but I’m pretty sure (this time, for real) about the car I would like to get whenever I do get a new one. I would like to get this, a Volvo XC90:

I saw one in the parking lot at Lowe’s this weekend and really liked it. Then I noticed you could get a 3^rd row seat, which is a MUST in my next vehicle. Awesome, I thought! Volvo is known for being a very safe, reliable vehicle so I know it would be a wise choice for a good family car. I did some brief research on it to get some better idea on it since I didn’t know much about this particular model. So far, I’ve seen that it has great customer reviews, good reliability, and great crash test ratings. Who could ask for anything more??

The Twilight phenom

Surely there isn’t a single person out there that has not at least heard of Twilight. A few months ago, I knew it was a movie that had come out, though I had no idea what it was about. I first found out it was a book series from my trainer at the gym. She went and saw the movie before she knew about the books. After she saw the movie she started reading the books and was telling me great they were. Since then I have had a few different friends also tell me how much they love these books and I definitely need to read them. Well, I do love a good story, so one friend had bought the books and loaned me the first one to start reading. I read about 30 pages on Sunday night. I didn’t get real far into it. Then last night, since I wasn’t feeling well, I thought it would be a great night to read some more. Well, let me tell you that “some more” turned into 5 hours later I had read over 250 pages!! What an awesome story!! One of those books you really get into…get completely lost in the story. I didn’t want to put it down. I probably only read until 12:45am because I was waiting for John to call to say he made it to Africa, but I probably could have read all night, it was that good. I had to force myself not to bring it to work today to read during lunch. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop after just 30 minutes! I’m about halfway through the first book and cannot WAIT to read the rest! One friend, I won’t mention names, said this was a perfect time to start reading the series since John gets back this weekend. I should be to the 2^nd or 3^rd book by then and apparently books 3 and 4 have done wonders for said friend’s sex life. :o) After what I’ve read so far, I can only imagine how much more intense it can get! SOOOO good! So, if you have wondered about reading this series, do it! I haven’t watched the movie yet, but probably will after I finish this first book. Though I really don’t see how movie actors could even begin to convey the intense emotion and passion that you get from reading the book. It’s a very powerful story. And that’s only after reading just 285 pages.

On completely unrelated news, John called this morning from Angola. They have made it to their hotel safe and sound. He actually has a view of the beach from his room and he said it’s a really nice view. He sent me a postcard from the airport in South Africa when they were passing through there so we’ll see how long it takes to get here. Okay, off to work for me now…much to do!

Weeknight Pizza Casserole

Even though I didn’t feel too good last night, I did make my Weeknight Pizza Casserole. I knew if I didn’t make it last night, I wouldn’t have time any other night this week and I would starve! When I was first looking at the recipe, I knew it would make way more than the 4 serving 8x8 pan it called for. So, I tried to put it in a 7x11 pan to make 6 servings. I hadn’t even put the sauce, cheese, or breading topping and it almost filled up that dish. So I transferred it over to a 9x13. It was a little thin in that size pan, so it seems it might work out better in like a casserole pan (like a medium sized Corningware, maybe). Even so, I’ll probably get at least 6 or 7 servings out of it as it’s very meat heavy so it fills you up pretty good. Seeing as my favorite pizza is pepperoni with black olives, I was super excited to try this recipe out. I quite enjoyed it and thought it had a great taste. Here is the recipe if you would like to try it out for yourself!

1lb ground beef

1 (3oz) pkg pepperoni (I used turkey pepperoni)

1 (2 1/4 oz) can sliced black olives (I used 2 cans since I LOVE black olives)

Optional sliced bell pepper (I omitted since I do not like bell peppers)

1 (14oz) jar pizza sauce

1 (8oz) pkg mozzarella cheese (I used an Italian blend)

3/4c. biscuit mix

1c. milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Brown ground beef and drain. Stir in pepperoni and black olives. Transfer to lightly greased 8x8 pan (I used 9x13, I swear this would overflow an 8x8). Pour sauce over mixture and spread evenly. Sprinkle cheese over. Mix biscuit mix, milk, and eggs together in separate bowl, stirring until smooth. Pour evenly over casserole. Bake 30-35min. (until golden) at 400. Let sit 5min. before serving.

My biscuit mix mixture was pretty runny, but I poured it over as it was which turned out nice because it ran in through all the cracks so it was almost like having a very thin crust on the top and the bottom which I liked. Based on the ingredients I used, this whole casserole came out to be 61 WW points, or roughly 10/svg if I end up with 6 servings. You could probably cut the ground beef and cheese in half to lower the total points, but it would probably also cut down on the amount of servings you could get too. I really like it though and it was pretty easy. I think I will make this again, but I’ll have to do a half and half since Husband does not like black olives so he might get mushrooms on his half.

Enjoy!

Progress Report Tuesday

It’s Tuesday again so it’s time for another progress report! My “official” weigh-in this morning (as official as my bathroom scale can get) showed a loss of…wait for it…2.4 lbs!! That’s the same amount in 1 week as the first two weeks put together! Wow! I think it might be hard to keep up with though. I didn’t eat much yesterday (as I didn’t feel real good last night) so that might have played a role in the big loss number. But I will try my absolute hardest to still show another loss next Tuesday.

My exercise was minimal last week. Walked the dogs Monday, workout class Tuesday, nothing Wednesday (I don’t think…), short dog walk Thursday after Bunco, nothing Friday-Sunday and then I didn’t feel good last night so I did not walk the dogs like I had originally planned. I did a lot of cleaning last week though, does that count?

Diet-wise, I was over my total max points again for the week (crazy I still lost again…). My max was 213.5 including my activity points and I ended the week with 220. So not too bad, a little better than last week, I think. But I think I’m starting to really see what I can and cannot get away with eating. I have cut out a lot of carbs, I think. Besides the remaining bit of Easter candy I have, though it’s all dark chocolate or sugar free chocolate, so it’s a little bit better. Like I mentioned before, I’m trying to not eat carbs after 3pm, which I’ve been doing pretty well. I’m definitely eating A LOT fewer than I was. We’d have some type of carb for dinner every night and carbs were my main snacks at work. Now dinners are more proteins and veggies and snacks are more yogurt, fruit, veggies, and beef jerky. I REALLY REALLY REALLY think I am losing weight like I am because I’m eating fewer carbs. I am definitely noticing a difference. I’ve suffered from hypoglycemia my entire life and now that I’m not eating so many simple sugars, I haven’t had an issue with it in weeks, and I’ve even been going longer between meals. Crazy what effects a simple little change can bring on! :o)

Now that I’m actually losing weight and I’ve been taking this weight training class for a couple months now, I am really starting to see changes in my appearance. Some of my clothes are starting to fit better (though not ALL). I’m starting to get my confidence back. It’s really a great feeling! But it sure is motivation to keep it up, keep it up, keep it up!!

Menu Plan Monday!

I am just now finishing up my Taco Soup from last week (for lunch today)! At least it’s good enough to eat for so long! :o) I forgot about Bunco last Thursday so I didn’t have to make my own dinner that night. With Husband still out of town until Saturday night, it will be another pretty boring week of dinners for me. Though I am trying out a new recipe. It says it only makes 4 servings, but with the amount of ingredients, I’m going to stretch it out for at least 6 servings. It seems like too much food for only 4 servings, so I’ll make it in a 9x13 pan instead of the 8x8 it calls for. Without further ado:

Monday: Weeknight Pizza Casserole (the new recipe)

Tuesday: Weeknight Pizza Casserole

Wednesday: Weeknight Pizza Casserole

Thursday: Weeknight Pizza Casserole

Friday: Weeknight Pizza Casserole

Saturday: so long as Husband is home for dinner I want to make something special, just haven’t found the right recipe yet…I’m thinking some kind of shrimp pasta…any suggestions??

Val generously offered to let me come for dinner one night this week since Husband is STILL out of town so I’ll have to go over and check out her menu to see what day I want to come. :o) Thanks, Val!!

P.s. Can someone post my link on orgjunkie.com for me?? It’s blocked here at work…

Loaner dogs and Resident giraffes

If you were unaware, I love animals. All kinds (okay, maybe not like snakes and scary things, but most others). I just saw this article on MSN and thought it was awesome! In Aspen, CO, you can "rent" dogs from the Aspen Animal Shelter. Take them out for walks, or hikes, or even an overnight stay. Also, at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, they waive the pet fee if you bring in one of these "rented" dogs for a stay. I would LOVE to do this! It's a win-win for all! You get to hang out with some dogs while on vacation and the dogs get to have a nice time with new people away from the shelter. I think that would be just lovely. I would also love to go to this hotel in Kenya and stay with the giraffes! I LOVE giraffes!! How awesome would that be??

The Holiday

Okay, I think I watch this movie EVERY time it comes on TV! I LOVE it! So (hint, hint) anyone is free to get it for me on DVD for my birthday! :o) Yes, I know it's MONTHS away. I really could watch it over and over and over again, though! What a great movie.

But, yes, I am here watching The Holiday on TBS instead of at the county fair watching David open up for Aaron Watson. We had a terribly stormy day. 6 inches in 3 hours!! Everything is all flooded and it's so nasty outside so we canceled. :o( Too bad. Better safe than sorry, though.

On a side note, I am missing my husband terribly by now and I still have another entire week before he is home! I talked to him earlier to day and he said him and the guy he's with are both ready to come home. And they haven't even made it to Africa yet. They head there on Monday. The past couple days they've been hanging out in Germany until the flight to Africa. They went and visited a few castles and ate plate-sized pretzals and drank liters of beer. I want to go to Germany (minus the beer part)! :o) Maybe one day...

Okay, that's all from me for today. With such a crappy day, I have done absolutely nothing, so nothing interesting to say. Have a great night everyone!

My favorite dream

I am totally loving my "Quote of the Day" today! I have found, since starting this little blog, that I LOVE to write! For some odd reason, I feel like I have a lot to say, though I'm not much different than anyone else out there. Sometimes my fingers just get to flying and words come flowing out and I can't stop! But, gosh, it makes me feel so much better sometimes (see here). So yes, I quite like today's quote:

I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)

You know who you are.

I’m sorry, but I just really have to get these thoughts out of my head.  This post is more of a rant.  A way to say everything I haven’t been able to. 

We all remember that old friend I said I “ran into” one night on Facebook, right?  After talking with “old friend” a few times, I thought we might actually become “new friends” again.  How nice!  I love making new/old friends!  Boy, was I in for a TREAT.  ß That was sarcasm, by the way.

Background: Okay, so I finally get up the nerve to call “old friend” (OF) to set up with him to get my car fixed.  I met him at the dealership and we had a little chat.  Talked to him a few times during the day to check the progress of my car.  Ended up they got a wrong part so I actually have to bring it back up there sometime (dang it).  Then I didn’t talk to him all weekend…no biggie.  It was Easter weekend, we both had a lot going on.  Well, I called him on Monday just to chat and catch up and we talked maybe 15min or so.  It was pleasant.  I emailed him a couple times (like I do all my OTHER friends when I’m bored at work).  Then, BAM!  Out of the blue Thursday morning I get an email from him.  He has decided we cannot be friends after all.

Excuse me??  Was it not HE that talked to me first?  Was it not HE that offered to fix my car?  Was it not HE that told me to call him?  And yet, HE has the audacity to now say “sorry...changed my mind.”  Oh, don’t EVEN get me started!!  Apparently (from what I got out of it), he doesn’t think he can keep it in his pants well enough to only be my friend.  What, did you think I might actually let something happen between us??  HA!  Yes, please let me throw away 9 YEARS of commitment to my wonderful husband that I love with all my heart!  Yes, according to OF, our friendship would be “disrespectful” to our now significant others.  DISRESPECTFUL??  Are you FREAKING kidding me??  Are you THAT full of yourself?  Please!

After we started talking again, a lot of warm memories of our past friendship came into my mind.  I mean, we were really good friends before and it was a great friendship.  Now, I am remembering just exactly why we AREN’T friends anymore.  What a flake.  How anyone could be suckered into staying with you for 7 years, is beyond me.  No wonder she cheated on you. 

So, you know who you are.  I hope you got my message that you’re an ASS!  And I am so much better off without a “friend” like you.

 

P.S. To everyone else, I really am a nice person!!  You just (obviously) don’t want to get on my bad side.  LOVE to everyone ELSE!  :o)  Ahh…much better.

Genius organizing idea!!

I thought up a genius idea yesterday and now only wish I had a ton of free time to implement it properly!!  Okay, so I am one of those people that holds onto all the magazines that have good articles because one day, I just might look back at it.  This causes me to have stashes of old magazines all over the house which adds to the clutter which I wish I had less of.  I have read tips on how to organize things like this which usually consist of tearing out the articles I want and putting them together in a divided binder.  Many times I have planned on doing this because it makes perfect sense.  Say I am wondering one day what is a good way to deodorize the garbage disposal.  I could go to my binder, flip to “Cleaning” and find the right article.  Well, this method still requires use of an “object” that still needs to be stored somewhere.  I would much rather have fewer “things”.  So, my idea, is to scan the articles into the computer and save them in a master “Magazine Archive” folder separated into subfolders for all the different categories, “Cleaning”, “Organizing”, “Gardening”, etc.  Brilliant, isn’t it?! 

My husband actually started doing this with all his car magazines.  Unfortunately he has less time than I do to accomplish it all.  He did do a great job though in finally going through all the magazines and tearing out all the articles he wanted to keep (which is a MUCH smaller pile than all the magazines were!).  He hasn’t gotten through scanning much of them in, but it’s a start.  Now, I desperately want to do this with all of MY magazines!  First task, I guess would be to go around the house and collect all the miscellaneous piles of magazines scattered around and put them all together in one location.  Then, each week, I can start slowly going back through them all and tearing out all the articles I would like to keep (and then recycling the magazines, of course) and keep them separated by category as I go through them.  Then once I get through all the magazines I can start scanning them.

Oh, to only be able to stay home everyday…

Attack of the candy monster!

I didn’t write down any of my points during the day yesterday as I was in the car and out in the field most of the day.  So this morning, I decided I should go ahead and write my food for yesterday so I don’t have a day skipped in my little book I’m tracking my points with.  This is my food log for yesterday:

Candy – 3

Sandwich – 6

Soup – 5

Candy – 17

Total – 31

31 total points for the day (6 over my max daily limit) and only 11 came from actual food!!  That is pretty bad.  I did okay until about 10pm.  I started getting shaky and needed to eat something right away so of course I head straight for the candy…low blood sugar…candy is full of sugar…makes sense, right?  Well, instead of eating just a couple small pieces to combat the low blood sugar, I ended up eating all the rest of my Whopper Eggs (which was a lot).  Oops.  But the way I see it is now they’re gone and I can’t eat them anymore!  That’s my problem when we have “bad” foods in the house.  I just want to eat it up real fast in too large of quantities so it’s gone and not around to tempt me any longer.  So instead of having moderate portions spaced out over a long period of time, I eat big portions in a short amount of time to get rid of it.  Bad Juju.  I vow to be better today!

Help!!

Brace yourself, this might be a long one!

I would like to start by saying I am now even more impressed with my SonicScrubber. I quit grout scrubbing last night halfway through the kitchen because the rest of the grout seemed clean enough and didn't need it. Well, after I got up this morning and saw my scrubbed areas all dry, there was a DEFINITE line where I scrubbed to where I didn't. Oh my. My scrubbed grout was SOOOO clean!! I didn't notice just how clean last night since it was still wet (and I was very tired). So right off the bat this morning, I'm back down on hands and knees scrubbing the rest so it's all sparkling clean now! (Did I mention I took the morning off since I have to go to the dentist?) Then I steam-mopped the kitchen/morning area and living room. I hadn't done that in a while so my floors are all nice and clean AND sanitized. :o) I love the steam mop!

Okay, so floors done. I wanted to start cleaning the entry way table and put away all our bags of stuff from this weekend when I remembered I had all these bills I needed to pay that I wanted to get done while I was home this morning and could focus on them. Up to the office I go with bills and checkbook in hand. I get through most of them, not including our home insurance since I have to transfer that money out of a different account, so I leave that for last. I get down to the credit card bill and realize if I write a check for that today, my checkbook will show only about $50 left. Eeek! Now, I know that it won't actually get posted to my account until after John gets paid on Friday, but still. I don't like seeing only $50 in my check register. Hmm...why then, when I ran the numbers at the beginning of the month I should have had plenty left after paying this bill? I think we might have overspent on our house projects this month. Guess all those $30 trips to Lowe's and Home Depot really add up. I guess to make me feel better, I'll just wait until Friday when John's check gets deposited and pay the bill online.

Now, onto insurance. I'm cutting it close this year. Insurance is due in 5 DAYS and I haven't paid it yet. Actually, I haven't even gotten our windstorm bill yet! Guess that's what we get for not escrowing. I just much rather like the idea of our insurance/tax money earning 2+% in our bank account rather than just sitting there with the mortgage company. Just means I have to deal with hassle of getting all this stuff paid on time.

The title of the post is "Help!!". That is because I think I need a better system for paying bills. Right now, I mostly rely on my Outlook calendar to tell me when the bills are due, then I have to remember to go find them on the entry table when I get home to pay them (which rarely happens in a timely manner). I used to take bills straight away to a holder on the bar so I would see what we have due coming up. But I have fallen down on keeping up with this. Mainly for the fact that I never actually look in the holder until it's too late to send in a check and just end up paying half of them (just in time) online. Then I forget to take the paid bill out of the holder so I end up with a couple months of the same bill in the holder and when I finally realize it, I freak out wondering if I actually got around to paying last months! Does anyone have a good system for keeping up with bills that WORKS?? This is defintely up there on my "need to reorganize" list...

What I feel like:

Scrub-a-dub-dub

So, how do I spend my lonely nights when Husband is out of the country? No, I did not take a nice long hot bath (though I was planning on it after workout class). I stay up until midnight scrubbing the grout in my tile floor!! No, I am not kidding. I honestly spent the past hour and a half on hands and knees with a spray bottle of cleaner, my SonicScrubber, and a rag scrubbing my grout clean. Can we say, obsessive compulsive?

Now, it is a fact that I have been meaning to do this for a very long time. Why I thought 10pm on a Tuesday night was the right time? **shrug** But, I do have to say, my floors haven't looked so good in ages! Well, not ages, seeing as we've only lived in the house two years, but they haven't looked so good since probably shortly after we moved in...before we got dogs.

I do have to say though, I quite enjoyed how well my SonicScrubber worked. Have you seen those infomercials for the SonicScrubber? Yeah, it suckered me in and I ordered one online (and got the second one free!), but hey, it worked great! My grout thanks you SonicScrubber!

Red Light

What a pretty picture it paints when your husband calls from Amsterdam to let you know he went hanging out in the Red Light District with everyone smoking pot around him…

On a mission.

For the next week and a half, I am completely on a mission. My mission: clean and organize! By the end of this week, my goal is to have the house clean, downstairs AND up. I did such a great job last night getting a bunch done in the living room that I should easily be able to tackle the rest of the house in the next 4 nights. Plus I’m not coming into work Wednesday morning since I have a dentist appointment, so that gives me even more time to clean. Once the cleaning is done, then I’ll have the entire weekend and all next week to work on my organizing. I think I will start in the guest room. It’s got the least amount of stuff so it should be an easy accomplishment for me. I hope to get rid of a lot of stuff. I know we have too many “things”. Though I will also need to make a list of everything I will need to buy to accomplish everything that I want done. Like I already know I need a lamp for my sewing table and some kind of divider things for my wrapping materials that are all mixed together in a big Tupperware. Since Husband has taken over the closet in the office for all his hunting gear, I need to come up with a crafty plan for organizing the guest room closet so that it can be of better use to me and my hobby things.

With Hubby out of town I don’t think I should try to tackle larger feats such as painting the kitchen ceiling or the (two story) entryway, so I’ll be satisfied if I can get the house clean, number 1, and get at least one room completely organized in the next 11 days.

Also Taco Soup

My good friend, Val posted her recipe for taco soup that they are having this week, so I figured I would also post mine, since I'll be eating it all week long (it's THAT good)!

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1 package taco seasoning
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cans tomatoes (I like the petite diced)
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can chili beans
1 can corn
1/2 package powdered ranch dip mix
1/2 can water

Brown meat, drain. Add all other ingredients. Stir. Simmer over med/low for about 30min. or until it thickens up a bit. Makes a good 8 servings. (And if you are following WW, it's about 4pts. per serving with this recipe)

Very similar recipes (and taste a lot alike, I've had hers). I just like the variety of beans in this recipe and I'll usually get the spicier chili beans, or the flavored kinds. Enjoy!

*Gasp!* What was that?

The one thing I hate about being home alone…nobody is there to protect me! I hate it, but I always get freaked out by every little noise when I’m home by myself. I think that’s why I always tend to stay up later than I normally would. If I’m awake I won’t have to worry about someone breaking into my house to kill me in my sleep!! I was FINALLY able to get to bed about 11:45pm last night, but I swore I kept hearing strange noises so I wasn’t letting myself fall asleep. After 10min. of just laying there listening, I decided I needed to have the dogs sleep with me and keep me company. They were only slightly confused since they had already been sleeping in their crates for a good hour at least. Cocoa got right up and followed me back to our room. Oddly enough, Major didn’t want to get up…the one who keeps complaining about being in his crate in the middle of the night. But he finally got up and came in there with me and Cocoa. I know I’m completely confusing them because lately I’ve been trying to not let them up on the bed so they quit getting our comforter all dirty, but I just needed some company to fall asleep and they were happy to oblige. Cocoa sprawled out at the foot of the bed and Major snuggled up next to me. Just what I needed to get a nice night’s sleep. I don’t think I’d be able to do this whole home alone thing if we didn’t have the dogs. They’re such good company.

Progress Report Tuesday!

It’s Tuesday again, which means another week of WeightWatchers has gone by. Weigh-in this morning showed a loss of .2 pounds! Yay! Why is it so exciting that I only lost .2 lbs, you ask? Seeing as I did not count any points at all Friday through Sunday and have been eating (in moderation) Easter candy since Sunday, I’d say that’s pretty darn good!

As for working out, I did not go to class Tuesday, I did a workout at home Wednesday, class Thursday, walked around the outlet mall for about 5 hours on Friday, ran around chasing the dogs at the beach for a bit Saturday, nothing Sunday, and last night did my physical challenge on MFC and took the dogs on a ½ hour walk. Not too bad.

Overall, I’d say it’s working out well so far. I am definitely feeling A LOT better about myself these days, which is always important. J

Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up!

Whoa...weirdo!

Umm, yeah, that would be me. I swear, my husband leaves town for a few (okay, like 12 this trip!) days and I'm a completely different person! What's our normal Monday evening like? Eat a decent dinner in front of the TV watching our Monday night CBS lineup and I (hopefully) get in a quick workout. What did I do tonight when I was home alone? Made a decent dinner (Taco Soup, which was delicious), did a quick workout while it was 'simmering', watched Big Bang and then recorded Ghost Whisperer from last Friday. After that I took the dogs out on a good 30min. walk because it was such a nice night out. When I got home I went crazy cleaning the living room. I did everything but vacuum the couch. I then washed all the dishes and picked up in the kitchen. What a productive night! Oh, I almost forgot...while I was doing all this crazy cleaning, I turned on the radio and danced with the dogs. :o)

Menu Plan Monday!

Yay! I'm finally getting around to starting with this Menu Plan Monday that I found at orgjunkie. I do this every week already, why not start posting! So this week is SUPER boring since Hubby is on a business trip...sorry for such a lame start!

Monday: taco soup

Tuesday: leftover taco soup

Wednesday: leftover taco soup

Thursday: leftover taco soup

Friday: might invite a friend over for steak and broccoli with cheese sauce

Saturday: whatever I still have leftover to eat before the fair!

Dog run

John finally finished the dog run this past Friday. I’ve only been waiting for it for like EVER! We can now fence up the dogs in just a portion of the yard. I am beyond ecstatic about this because since the dogs have had free run of the entire backyard for so long, it looks absolutely ATROCIOUS! There’s holes everywhere, dead grass where they chase each other around the boat and the shed and the paths they use to run back and forth from one side of the house to the other. It is BAD. So now, they have their own little area of the yard they can do whatever they want in (as long as that does NOT include digging up the phone/cable wires or eating the drain pipes off the side of the house) and I can finally start sprucing up the back yard so that I can actually ENJOY it. Today was the first day for them to spend the entire day in their new little dog run. I’m quite curious to see what I find when I get home. We made the fence a picket type fence, 4 ½ feet tall. So they can see the rest of the yard through the fence and are probably wondering why on earth they can’t get to it when they used to have a huge yard to run in and now they only have about a ¼ of it. The day John finished it, he put the dogs in there for just a bit to “test” them. What did Major do? Laid down right at the gate and shoved his nose through the 3” spacing between pickets and stretched his feet out from under the gate. It was a funny sight. Cocoa, of course, just sat there with a blank stare as though she was thoroughly confused about what was going on with this new fence. At least they figured out where the new water spigot was.

I just have all these crazy scenarios running through my head about what I will find with I get home. Hopefully the one that plays out is the one where the dogs were perfect angels all day and only played with their toys and did not eat anything they shouldn’t and they’re both still in the dog run. (Major is quite the jumper, you know) Only an hour left until I find out!

Candy for dinner.

That’s right, you heard me.  My husband and I had candy for Easter Sunday dinner. 

We had Easter lunch with my family and since Husband is flying out of the country today, we had to get home early to get things ready for him to go.  After we got home we had to mow the lawn and fertilize and then I started on the laundry as he needed some of his dirty clothes clean to take with him.  Then we started watching a movie we borrowed from his mom (it was on her Netflix so we couldn’t wait 2 weeks to watch it until Hubby gets back).  While watching the movie we ate some of our Easter candy.  The movie ended and we realized it was already almost 8pm and neither us or the dogs had had any dinner.  So I fed the dogs, but wasn’t actually feeling very hungry myself since I had so much candy already.  And I didn’t want to start cooking at 8pm just to eat dinner at 9pm…that was too late.  So we ended up not having any real dinner and went to bed at 11pm having had only candy during the course of our evening.

Nice.

What a great day!

I had a wonderful day today! I got up bright an early (even earlier than I get up for work!) and left the house by 7am. I went and picked up my good friend, Cherie. We drove up to north Houston and dropped off my car at Matt's dealership and I finally got to see him after 8 long years. It was a short meeting as he was at work and did actually have work to do, but it was nice to see him. Hadn't changed a bit. (And to this day still has the power to melt me with those baby blues...)

Anywho...we dropped off the car and headed up to the mall. It was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C! I got SOOOOO much stuff! But it was ALL on sale, and I needed it all! For only about $200, I got 2 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of shoes, a swimsuit, and a pair of capris! There was so much more I so could have gotten, but I was on a budget so when the cash ran out, I was all done. By now it was about 2pm and we both were starving. My car STILL wasn't finished so we went to McAlister's Deli for lunch. I could not believe Cherie had never been there as it's like my favorite place to eat (though we don't go too often since it's not super close by). When we finished up there I gave Matt a call to see where they were on my car. Most everything was done, but one of the parts they ordered for it, they delivered the wrong one, so I now have to go back up there one day to get the last piece finished. But turns out there was something wrong I didn't even know was wrong that they fixed, so that was great. Luckily the last piece to fix shouldn't take long to do, so I can easily run up there one day when I'm out and about and they'll do it while I wait.

I got home about 5pm and John had the gate all ready to hang on the dog fence, so that is awesome. Overall it has been a really great day. Now I'm off to get some laundry started so I have clothes to wear next week and John has clothes to take on his business trip. I just wanted to hop on here and let y'all know about my wonderful day and super productive shopping trip.

Major, I swear to God!

Despite a morning that has just been dragging on and on, I have been pretty productive.  So before we go to lunch I thought I’d give myself a little break and tell a quick story.  I’m sure it will be much more hilarious to everyone else!

We have kind of determined that Major doesn’t really like being in his crate at night anymore.  After so many hours he just won’t stop whining.  Like the other day when I thought he needed to potty again and he just went and laid on the couch instead!  Two nights ago when he started whining, I let him out to pee and then just let him come in and sleep with us the rest of the night because I was NOT going to get up 3 more times with him anymore.  It went perfectly fine the rest of the night.  He slept quite comfortably at our feet.  Last night, I decided maybe we’d just try to let him sleep with us all night as to not have to worry at all about getting up during the night to let him out so he would stop whining.  Let’s just say the night didn’t even start well.

Instead of laying at our feet like he did the other night, he decides he needs to be RIGHT between us.  So his feet are pushing against John and the rest of his body is shoving against me.  And yes, he was actually shoving.  He is also one of those dogs that if he just isn’t quite comfortable, he’ll get up, spin around 10 times, lay down, get up spin around 10 times, lay down…over and over and over.  That was him last night.  Imagine a 55lb dog trying to spin around in a tight circle between two bodies.  There was lots of getting stepped on, let me tell you.  Normally the spinning doesn’t wake me up, but when a big foot jabs down right in the middle of your thigh, it’s a different story. 

Now, the whole night wasn’t a complete disaster.  He mostly slept.  It wasn’t until about 3:30am-4:30am when he started getting restless.  By 5am he kept jumping off the bed, jumping on the bed, getting in your face, laying down…and start all over again.  I roll over onto my stomach and try to hide my face in the pillow and try to ignore him.  What does my sweet Major do?  Jumps on the bed and lays, flat out, on my back!  His nose resting ON MY FACE.  I turn my head to the other side, he moves his head, again, to rest it, again, ON MY FACE.  This went back and forth a couple more times before I gave up.  All the while having 55lbs crushing me from above.  I tried to roll over to roll him off, but he only half fell off and then I was even MORE uncomfortable.  (Why doesn’t he bother John like this???)  He settled between us again with his shoulders jutting into my stomach…ouch!  I try to move him towards the end of the bed.  He’s not having it.  So by now, I am on the furthest most edge of the bed with covers barely covering half of me.  Then he decides to get off the bed again and go walk around and sit by the door.  Finally!  Room!  I peek out at him and he’s just sitting there so I close my eyes to try to go back to sleep for another hour. 

What happened next, I think he did COMPLETELY on purpose…just so I would get up.  I’m laying there trying my hardest to ignore him and I hear him start licking his lips over and over again.  That’s odd, I think to myself.  So I (give in and decide to) get up and walk over to see what he’s doing.  Just as I’m opening the door to let him out of the room, what does he do??  Throws up!!  Then he turns around makes it over to the stairs and throws up again!!  UGH!!  Now I am painstakingly WIDE awake as I hurry him downstairs and outside.  Then I have to turn on all these lights and get the carpet cleaner and paper towels.  THANKFULLY it was only two very small areas of mostly liquid (and a couple pieces of wood from the unused fence pickets they’ve been chewing on all week) so not too bad.  Major has since gone to lay down in his crate so I finish cleaning up and just get back in bed.  I left the doors open so he could get up if he wanted and sure enough, the minute I turn out the light and lay down, he’s jumping back up on the bed with us.  At least now he’s all satisfied so he curls back up and we all fall back asleep for another 45min until it’s time to actually get up.

Oh, my dear, dear Major…you’re driving me crazy!!

SOOOOOOO slow...

Wow, this day is just DRAGGING for me.  I haven’t even been at the office for 2 hours yet and seems like an entire DAY already!  This is NOT a good sign.  Since today is our “Friday” this week, we plan on going out to lunch, which is still 2 hours away.  And if the morning is creeping by so slowly, I don’t even want to imagine what this afternoon is going to be like!

On a good note, I was able get up the nerve to call said “Ex” this morning to set up getting my car fixed tomorrow…even though my stomach was in knots as I’m dialing the number.  I literally have not talked to this guy in EIGHT years!  But after an only slightly awkward start to the conversation, we got the car stuff out of the way and then had a nice little 10min. chat.  It’s actually working out quite nice that I have to take my car to other side of Houston to get fixed…I’m getting it done under warranty, get to see an old friend, AND having another friend go with me to check out the new outlet mall up there I haven’t been to yet!  Win-win for everyone!  J

How lucky!

As everyone I'm sure knows, I am a huge fan of HGTV. I don't get to watch it too often because John apparently hates watching HGTV. He was working late tonight, so I took the opportunity to get in some of my favorite shows. One of those shows being House Hunters International. Guess where they were house hunting! Punta Cana, Domican Republic! How lucky is that, since we're going there on vacation in just a few months now! Everything they showed just made me even MORE excited (as if that was even possible!) to go on our vacation! It was so nice looking. And the lady buying the house kept talking about how much she loved it there and the people were so nice and she never wanted to leave. Sigh...

Ever had peeling ears?

I cannot recall any time before where my ears have gotten so sunburned that they peel.  Ever had peeling ears?  It’s not cool.  All these little pieces of dried skin falling off getting stuck in your hair.  Ick.  And I’m one of those crazy people that always has to “pick” at something.  So if I have peeling skin, I’ll sit there and peel at it until I’ve peeled off all I can.  Well, you can’t really do that with peeling ears.  For one, I can’t see them…but I can FEEL them which is the worst.  I’ve been sitting here all day feeling my ears, probably just making them worse, but I just can’t stop!  And it all started early this morning, too.  I got to work and went to put my hair behind my ear.  My fingers brushed over a patch of dry scaly skin on my ear.  Which in turn made me remember that I forgot to put my aloe lotion on my ears this morning.  So the entire rest of the day I’ve been trying to peel at dry skin I can’t see.  I know, I have issues…

Work? What work?

Wow…I am SOOOO not in the mood to work today.  I’m in such a fog today.  Could be from the THREE times Major woke us up last night.  First time was about 1:30am…apparently he had to pee real bad.  I told him when we went out to potty at 10pm that it was his last chance…didn’t listen.  I got up with him then.  The next time was at about 3am.  John got up with him that time.  Then he starts whining AGAIN at like 3:30am.  I get up to go let him out…he doesn’t even need to go out!!  He just went downstairs and laid on the couch!  Piece of crap.  So I grab a Nylabone and take him back up to his crate.  He shut up after that, but not before my night’s sleep was completely disturbed.  Now I can’t concentrate for anything!  I keep looking for ways to distract myself (can you tell??).  I mean, I do have lots of work to do, that needs to get done, I just can’t bring myself to start working on it!  I just want to shut my eyes…they’re so tired…

Something tells me I might get a little post happy today…

Progress Report

Alright, this past week’s official progress report. I am quite happy to say I lost 2.2lbs! Now, as they may seem like quite a lot, it really only brought me back down to where I was about 2 weeks ago. So, while I am quite happy with this week’s progress, I know I still have a lot of work to do. I ended up using 222 points, 12 over my absolute maximum allowable. I also had 3 days of structured exercise plus the entire weekend where we spent TONS of time outside doing yardwork.

Unfortunately this week is not starting off too great. I will be missing workout class tonight since we’re going out to eat for my dad’s birthday. We’re going to a seafood restaurant so hopefully I can get a fairly healthy meal…grilled fish or shrimp with lots of veggies would be ideal. So I MUST workout tomorrow, class Thursday, and hopefully another workout Friday. Saturday we’ll be at the beach, so I hope to get in some running around with the dogs.

If I lose any weight this week it will be VERY exciting. The weight I am today I haven’t been at since probably December, so losing any more will get me back to where I was around September-ish and that will make me happy!

Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up!!

Proud of myself!

I am definitely proud of myself today.  I brought cookies to work today for a co-workers birthday, and I only had 1!  AND that 1 replaced my snack I was planning on having already.  Go me!

Not that I haven’t been extremely tempted.  But I refrained.  I started this new thing this week, trying to not eat carbs after 3pm.  It was part of a diet program my mom had from her boot camp instructor.  Talks about how no carbs late in the day will help your body use your fat for fuel instead.  Makes sense to me…can’t hurt to try!  So, since I didn’t get to eat my orange before 3pm, I’ll have to save it until tomorrow.  It was a little difficult coming up with a menu for the week not being able to have carbs at dinner though.  But I think I did pretty good:

Sunday – roast with steamed carrots

Monday – pork chops, black eyed peas, and cabbage

Tuesday – grilled chicken Caesar salad

Wednesday – steak with broccoli and cheese sauce

Thursday – taco soup

Friday – leftovers!

We might be going out to dinner tomorrow night (or some other night this week) for my dad’s birthday, so I might have to get creative with that meal.  One of the other rules was to let yourself have a free day.  It will actually help your metabolism if you’re not continuously on a restrictive plan.  That day this week will be Saturday.  We are planning on going down to the beach for my sister-in-laws birthday so we will definitely be making a stop at Café Michael Burger!

I hope to find some new WW blogs to follow to get more ideas on meals and snacks.  We were outside ALL weekend this weekend, so I didn’t really get on the computer at all to look yet.  If you know of any, send them my way!

Progress Report

Today is the day I was supposed to write my progress report on my weight loss/exercising. Well, I decided this morning that I did not want to do it on Fridays after all. Since I started actually tracking my points on Tuesday, my weigh in day will be Tuesday mornings, so I should probably do my progress report on Tuesdays. Besides, my week thus far has not been stellar in the very least. I need to double check my book when I get home, but I’m pretty sure I get 18-25 points per day with a “flex” stash of 35 points for the week. Does that sound right? So in one week I could have up to 210 total points to work with. Granted, having ALL 210 probably won’t get you much progress (at least not fast progress). Since Tuesday, I have already had 108.5. From now until Monday night, I can only have another 101.5 to stay within my budget. That should be pretty doable. I have, at least, done very well with working out this week, so that’s helped since I’ve earned myself some Activity points.

Okay, so there’s a mid-week progress report. I hope to have good news come Tuesday! I must now get back to work…break over!

Worst day EVER

Oh. My. Good. Grief.  What a terrible day.  Okay, so not terrible, per say.  At least I’m not in horrible spirits like I was yesterday.  I’m in good spirits.  It’s a beautiful day outside.  I am just running around like a chicken with its head cut off here at work.  I had this MASSIVE plan revision to do before it released today.  Actually, I had TWO, but this first one was taking so long I had to get a co-worker to do my other one!  Thank goodness she had to time to do it!  Or I would be in a MAJOR pickle.  And I even started on it YESTERDAY.  Ugh.  So I got everything done for the release, but I’m not actually finished with all the revisions yet…none of the others affect today’s release so I left them for last.  I still need to get them done today, but I had to take a break.  I’ve been working on this thing non-stop since I got here early this morning.  My brain is so tired! 

To make matters worse, in the midst of getting all my revisions uploaded, my Outlook just starts spontaneously sucking all my email to a different computer!!  The errors I sent myself?  GONE!  What the heck is going on???  One minute I’m looking at the email I just sent myself…the next, I look back over and TWO MONTHS worth of email has just disappeared!  This cannot be happening TODAY.  I emailed our HelpDesk (High Importance, of course) and have yet to hear back from them.  Errg.  I seriously have the WORST luck with computers.

Two more hours to go…  Guess I will try to make the best of it.