I am so VERY lacking in the motivation department this week! And this is a week I REALLY need to be productive! I mean, it’s a short week, it’s the end/beginning of the month so we have lots of changes going on for the new month and lots to wrap up from the previous month, I’ve got a plan due next week when I also will be leaving for vacation so I have to get things together for while I’ll be gone… This is a very BAD time to be lacking motivation. What can I do? It’s these little side things that keep getting me off track. If only I could just work on my big projects it wouldn’t be so bad, but I have to get these other little piddly things done and I really don’t want to do them so I just don’t do anything. Definitely not illustrating the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People over here…umm…yeah…we’re reading and discussing this book in our weekly book club staff meeting. Bet you sure wish you worked here, too, huh?? Oohhh…that reminds me…need to let the boss know I’ll be late Thursday so I can go get my new contacts…
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Help!
Monday, June 29, 2009
What day is it?
Oh yeah…Monday. I tell you what, this single lady business is hard work! Sorry I haven’t posted much lately. I’ve been so busy! With John still away, I’m trying to take care of myself, my 2 dogs, my house, preparing for vacation to the DR next week, and planning another vacation in August all by myself! I’m exhausted! And to top it all off, John said, in the 6 days he’ll be back before we leave for the DR, he might have to fly to the UK for a meeting!! Seriously?? So, he would be getting back the day before we leave and he’s already been gone for 2 weeks. I know it’s very important to his career and I’m trying to be super supportive, but how will I manage when he’s gone for a month at a time?? It’s going to be ROUGH.
Bailey and I went to Barnes&Noble on Friday. I wanted to try to find some kind of “preparing for pregnancy” book. I was sorely disappointed in their selection! I knew books were out there since I had seen them on Amazon.com, but wanting to flip through before I bought I figured I’d have luck at B&N. No, not really. We both did end up buying two books: Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy and Baby 411. Neither are really “preparing” books, but they both looked mighty useful so I went ahead and bought them anyway. I’ve been reading the Girlfriend’s book all weekend. Very informative. Gives you all the nitty gritty details about pregnancy no one else will tell you about. Odd as it is (learning all the BAD points about pregnancy), it’s actually making me look forward to it even more.
There was a pregnancy planner book at B&N that I liked, but didn’t buy, but I think I might go back and get it…or see if it’s cheaper off Amazon…but I think it was only $20 at B&N. It actually did have a good “preparing” section to it, along with sections by trimester…with information and places to write notes/information/questions. Pretty neat little organizer. I didn’t think I wanted it at first because I didn’t think I was quite “there” yet to buy an organizer, but after this weekend, I think I am. I even talked to my mom about all the medical history on our side of the family. Learned about what her pregnancies were like…all that…which there are places to write all this info in this organizer. So now I want it.
Okay, now, how should I take this. I told John Friday about the books I bought and it really didn’t seem to phase him one bit. Then I talked to him on Saturday night and I was reading the Girlfriend’s book at the time. He asked what I was doing and I said, reading. He said, “you’re pregnancy books?” “Yeah.” “Okay.” Like nothing! I even told him about another book I ordered off Amazon..Working Girls Guide to Pregnancy…still didn’t seem to mind at all. This is the man, who up until this year, every time a person asked when we were having kids, his automatic answer was ALWAYS, “about five years…” Guess he’s finally warmed up to the idea.
BTW, my mom told me that she never once got morning sickness with either pregnancy. God, I hope I follow that trait!! But she also said she didn’t really have much trouble getting pregnant and she’s always had the same irregular periods just like me. So maybe we’ll get lucky and not have to rely on Clomid.
I think I’ll try to stop at Lowe’s on the way home today. I need to buy a new sprinkler to replace the one that keeps getting stuck in one spot. I tried to get one at Wal-Mart, but they were completely sold out. It’s soooooo dry around here, guess there’s been a run on sprinklers lately! Yet another thing I have to manage on my own…watering the lawn. At least it’s been so dry that it hasn’t grown much…though I probably still should have mowed this weekend. I might need to do that this week before John gets home though. Agh! So much to think about taking care of by myself! John needs to get a raise so I can hire a lawn guy!! But I guess since we don’t have workout class this week, that can count as my exercise!
Oh yeah, no menu plan this week. Mainly because I’m making spaghetti tonight and plan on that lasting me the rest of the week. And John gets back Friday and we usually go out when he gets home and my mom’s birthday is Saturday AND it’s 4th of July so we always do something then, too. I’m so happy for a 4 day week!!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Randomness
I mostly just had some random thoughts that couldn’t each have their own post, so I’ll just throw them all together here.
· I forgot to do my Menu Plan Monday post AGAIN. But really, I don’t have a plan this week…again. With John in Brazil, I kind of fend for myself. We went out to dinner last night for Bailey’s birthday. I have lots of leftovers yet to eat from Bunco last week. My mom sent some food with me, too, when we were down there Sunday. So I’m pretty set. And I still have makings for spaghetti if I run out of all the other stuff (which probably won’t be until next week) so I can make that and eat on it for a few days, too.
· I probably won’t do my Progress Report Tuesday posts anymore. Just for the fact that I’m not trying to lose any more weight. I did, however, lose some this week. (I’ll still be weighing myself, so I’ll still know) I was running late this morning so I didn’t remember to look and see where I was last week, but I think I’m down another pound. Not sure how seeing as we went out to dinner last night, but whatever. Probably just a fluke since I have not been weighing that amount until this morning.
· I definitely think that I will watch a girly movie every single night while John is away. I NEVER get to watch girly movies. So here’s my chance to watch 12 girly movies that I either have not seen and really want to or ones that I have seen and love so much I need to watch again. Such is the case with last night’s feature, Twilight. I didn’t finish it though. Didn’t start watching it until about 9:30pm and then John called about half an hour later so I paused the movie to talk to him for about 20min. About 10:30pm, I took the movie upstairs to finish in bed, but I just got too tired by 11pm so I stopped it. I’ll finish it tonight…along with a new movie, too, I hope.
· I didn’t get to talk to John until 10pm because his new iPhone with international service apparently did not have international service! The whole reason he got switched was for AT&T’s international service and they screwed up his phone plan. So it took awhile to get it fixed. Then when he did try to call my cell phone, I couldn’t hear anything! He finally called the house and I could hear just fine, and he could hear me on his end from my cell, but I couldn’t hear him. So annoying. Hopefully it’s not like that the entire trip. I need to get switched to AT&T! At least he was able to email me and let me know the situation so I at least knew he was alive!!
· So John’s down in Brazil with their company’s Operations Manager. They went out to dinner last night and talked a lot about the project and plans for the project and plans for some new joint venture they’ve got going on with some other company. They knew they were going to start doing some rotation schedule with a couple guys for going to Brazil, but they’ve never done anything like that for a project so they’re still working out the details. But, seems the Operations Manager would like it to be a 30 day rotation. And John is one of the 2 guys in the rotation. So he’ll be here 30 days, in Brazil 30 days…and so on until they feel the project is going smoothly enough that they can shorten the rotation. So sometime in the near future my husband will start to go to Brazil for a month at a time. Yes, it sucks that he’ll be gone so much. But I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s very good for his career to be doing this and it will benefit us in the long run. Maybe he’ll even get promoted faster and I can quit working here sooner!! (Or, that’s at least what I’m hoping which is helping me to take this all more in stride. :o))
· I desperately cannot wait until my new trial pair of contacts comes in. These are just not cutting it. They get so dry and blurry all the time! That’s not normal, is it?
· I’m going to go to Wal-Mart on my way home tonight and see about getting some more of these super cute and comfy summer dresses like I got last year.
· I’m going to start walking the dogs every night. Then maybe they’ll quit waking up in the middle of the night and waking me up. I’ve been so tired lately. I need my sleep! I wish I could rollerblade with them, but there is NO WAY I can rollerblade with both dogs. They’d kill me! And I would feel bad if I only took one at a time and left the other at home by themselves. So just walking it is. Maybe I’ll try to start jogging a bit with them. I want to enter that 5k at the Sweet Corn Festival and while I know I can walk it, it would be nice to know I could run it if I wanted. I doubt I can as I don’t think I’ve ever been able to jog that long, but I can try, I guess. We’ll see. I might need to get some new tennis shoes. I’ve had mine for over a year now and I wear them all the time. They might be getting too worn out for lots of walking/jogging. What’s the rule for how long to keep tennis shoes?
Hmm…I guess that’s enough rambling. Our meeting this morning was almost 2 hours long so I have a lot to get done now before lunch. Maybe I’ll ramble some more later. John’s in Brazil so I don’t have anyone to ramble to every night...I need an outlet for my rambles!!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Weekend Recap
Fore-warning, this will probably be long. It was a very busy weekend! Lots to talk about!
Friday: I stopped by Target on the way home to get a baby shower gift. After I got home and started wrapping it, I realized I bought 2 wrong things…wrong size on the outfit and wrong type of pacifier. Well, we ended up going to Olive Garden for dinner so we went back to Target after dinner to exchange them. And that’s about as exciting as our night got.
Saturday: Went back to the eye doctor first thing in the morning. Told her I had a few issues with my contacts so she wanted to try a new kind. But they didn’t have any in stock in the office so they had to order me a trial pair so I’ll have to go back sometime this week to get them. I tanned on the way home. John called after I left the tanning place to say he ordered a load of dirt to spread in the back yard to even it out. Got home and cleaned up so I could run errands. John got the yard ready for the dirt to be dropped and his brother was bringing up the tractor with the box blade to spread it all out. I went and ran all my errands then helped out in the yard the rest of the afternoon. I raked up grass clumps so the dirt would smooth out better and then got to work painting the dog house. We worked all day long. I was painting the dog house until it got too dark to see what I was painting anymore. We got Whataburger for dinner and ran to the Redbox and rented Gran Torino and Bride Wars. While John’s brother was still over, we watched Gran Torino while we had dinner. That was a good movie, but kind of sad. So our yard is finally not covered in holes and weeds, but now it’s covered in dirt!! But I think I’m going to see about having someone come out and lay some sod while John’s gone. And I need to water the lawn and hopefully that will help the dirt settle in. Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures. But it was very productive day in the backyard.
Sunday: It was Father’s Day, of course, so we had to go make our rounds. But we still had to go to JCPenny to get John some new pants to take on his trip and since he was leaving that night, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to visit. We went to my parents for lunch, stopped by John’s mom’s to drop off a new drip pan for her A/C, then stopped at John’s dad’s for a bit to visit with him. We got back just in time to throw all John’s new pants in the washer so they could be done by the time he needed to leave. I started watching Bride Wars while he packed. Then when all he was waiting on was the clothes in the dryer, he finished watching Bride Wars with me. That was a really cute movie. I liked it a lot. About 6:30pm, John headed to the airport and I ran to Walgreens to return the movies and go to the grocery store. One nice thing about being alone for 2 weeks, there were 4 things on my grocery list and I ended up deciding I didn’t really NEED more Fresca, so I only had to buy 3 things!! And that will probably last me for the next 2 weeks, too! Haha! Had some vegetable soup my mom made for dinner and got Devil Wears Prada on OnDemand (it was in the Free Movies!). Laid on the couch and watched that movie which I also really liked…I hadn’t ever seen it. (Another perk of being home alone…all the chick flicks I want to watch!) It wasn’t even 10pm yet, so I went and got on the computer. I had picked out some new bedding for the guest room at jcpenny.com that I really liked and it was on sale so John said I could go ahead and buy it. So I got that. I got a new comforter set and drapes for only $166 including shipping! It was great. I saved like $140!! There wasn’t much interesting on Twitter so I decided to go ahead and go to bed. Well, by this time I remembered that I had turned on the sprinkler when I got home from the store…3 hours earlier!! So I ran out to turn it off where I realized that it had gotten stuck and had just been spraying in one area the whole time!! And it was stuck to where it was spraying right where I needed to go to get to the faucet so I got soaked trying to turn it off. I was definitely ready to get in bed after that…only to have Cocoa’s barking wake me up at 2am…so I let them out and went back to sleep. Then Major woke me up scratching at the door 3 minutes before my alarm was going to go off! Ugh…
I do remember having a super weird dream about our vacation though last night. I dreamt that we had to crawl through some tent to get to the hotel…and had to go through a kitchen where there were these guys trying to give us hamburgers before we even got into the hotel which ended up looking more like a BandB since we had to SHARE a bathroom. But the room was gorgeous with this beautiful view of the water. For some reason we ended up not all being on the same flight so while we waited for everyone else to get there we went on some tour of the area where everywhere we walked there were all these holes in the dirt where wasps apparently lived so you had to walk very carefully around them so as not to disturb the wasps so they wouldn’t come flying out. Weird, I tell you.
Overall, a good weekend…minus the fact that John left for Brazil. We got a lot accomplished. Oh, we also decided we’re going to go to the Sweet Corn Festival in Iowa this year, too. So I’m really excited about that. I haven’t been in about 15 years and John’s never been so it will be really fun. We’re going to enter the 5K so our family can win “Most Family Participants” again. We win a lot. My grandma collects the trophies. :o) We’ll need to book our flights here pretty soon since it’s in mid August. Yep, lots and lots going on around here!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Duh!! Still forgot!
So I still forgot to tell my other story I was going to tell! Geez… “Attention! Attention! Julie’s brain has left the building…” Yeah, that sounds about right.
Okay, so my story. Well, I guess it’s more of a rant. Or something. I don’t know. You decide.
Yesterday I had to stop by the liquor store on my way home to pick up some vodka for my Nantucket Lemonade I’m making for Bunco. Well, lucky me, they just opened a Spec’s directly on my way home. Good deal…I’m too short on time these days for an extra trip somewhere. Well, I had heard from a friend of my husband’s, that he went in there to buy whatever he was buying and they carded him like 4 times just while he was walking around the store! And this guy is about 2 years older than I am and doesn’t look like he’s too young to be walking around a liquor store, mind you. So as I’m planning on stopping in there, I’m prepared to get carded. I mean, it’s a liquor store, don’t they HAVE to card? I walk in, go to the vodka aisle, decide on how big a bottle I need and walk to the front. I have to wait for an open cashier, but when one is free, I walk up to the counter and set down my vodka and open my wallet all prepared to slide my ID out of its pocket while I’m also pulling out my debit card. What does the cashier ask? “Is that debit?” “Yes.” “Okay, you can slide it now.” I slide my card, punch my pin. “Okay, here’s your receipt. Have a good day!” What? She didn’t even ask to see my ID! How many 26 year olds do you know that DON’T get carded when trying to buy liquor?!? Huh. Feel like I should be insulted by that.
One of THOSE weeks
Ugh. Yes, it has been one of those weeks. Work has been crazy busy. I’ve had no time to play on blogger or catch up on my Google reader. :o( I mean, I should be working on something right now, but I knew if I didn’t start this post, I would forget what I was going to say later when I (might actually) have time!
But not only has work been crazy busy, I’ve been working my butt off at home too, trying to get the house in presentable shape to host Bunco tomorrow. Lots of food to prep, lots of rooms to clean, lots of clutter to be put away…lots, lots, lots! But my preparations all week should pay off. I made the dessert last night. I cut up celery and made lemonade this morning. I’ll be putting together the kabobs and making the pasta salad tonight. And everything else is more or less, throw on a plate and serve ready. Phew! Good thing, too since I’ll only get home about 30min. before people start showing up and I’ll have to feed the dogs and change in that time, too! And cleaning-wise, I only have to sweep and mop tonight so that shouldn’t take long. I wanted to wait as long as I could to do that so there’s a little less chance the dogs will track in more dirt and hair.
With all that, I realized today that I did not post my Progress Report Tuesday post yesterday. Oops. Not too much to report though. I haven’t been actively trying to lose any more weight. I’m pretty happy where I am and just want to keep working out to keep up my toned-ness. But I’m still tracking my weight almost every day just to make sure I don’t slack too much in the “watch what I eat” department and start slowly gaining some back. Since I was up 1 pound last week, I kept a more watchful eye on what I put in my mouth and am happy to say that I got that pound back off. :o) Go me! So I am still hovering right around 10 total pounds lost which is amazing. I’m very proud of myself and definitely want to keep up this body because I’m finally liking the way it looks!!
Oh oh! I have to tell y’all this funny story! So John got his iPhone on Monday, right? Well, since then he’s been trying to find fun apps to put on it. Last night he downloaded some drink recipe app where you put in an ingredient and it will tell you all the cocktails that have that ingredient and how to make them. So what was he doing last night at 11pm while we’re getting into bed? Asking me to give him ingredients so he can look up drinks! He’s so funny. It’s like, he gets this cool new phone and he can’t put it down! He was checking his work email in BED last night! Crazy. He LOVES this phone. He thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. So, of course, I keep asking, “When am I getting mine??” Last night he says, “I don’t know…if I’M on it this much, I don’t even WANT to know how much YOU’LL be on it!!” Haha! But he did say sometime after he gets back from Brazil we’ll go get me one. Not sure if we’ll make it in the week before we leave on OUR vacation, but sometime in July. Thank goodness he got switched over when he did. Just in time for me to get the new iPhone 3Gs! :o)
Okay, okay, okay. I HAVE to get back to work now before they realize I’m not doing anything productive!! :o)
Thank you, thank you!
Ohmygosh!! I’ve gotten like 3 different awards in the past week from some of my wonderful bloggy friends!! You guys are awesome! I really wish that I had enough time to do a post for each award and then send out my own awards, but it has been one heck of a week over here! I actually have a post in draft for an award I got like a month ago that I haven’t been able to finish yet! Yikes! But I did want to let you all know that I graciously accept your awards and if I do finally get to post each of them, I will award you all back! Thank you so much! You guys are wonderful!
Speaking of awards, did anyone watch the CMT Awards last night? I’m probably the only nerd like that. I mean, I only knew about it because one of my most favorite-ist bands, Eli Young Band (I’d link it, but each member has their own Twitter account…), was playing on the show and I only knew that because I follow them on Twitter and they’ve been tweeting about it! Along with some of my other faves like Dierks Bentley and Taylor Swift. It was a good show. Some of the commentary was pretty lamely written, but overall it was pretty good. Good shows put on by some of the artists. I missed the beginning though where Taylor Swift apparently rapped with T-Payne (sp??), but I heard it was pretty funny. I’ll have to find the video of that. She also sang with Def Leopard (again with the sp??) and that was cool. John was excited about that. I was upset though that some of the ones that won were definitely NOT my faves. Like Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long”. Won like a video of the year or something. I HATE that song. And Alan Jackson’s “Country Boy” won for like Best Performance, I think. I’m not a big fan of Alan Jackson or that song. Poo. Well, either way, it was nice to have the TV on listening to the show and the performances while I was running around the house cleaning for Bunco tomorrow.
I hear the Teen Choice Awards are coming soon? Anybody want to bet that it will be another sweep by Twilight just like the MTV Movie Awards?? :o) Not sure when that airs, though. I’ll keep watching my Twitter for news!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Oh yeah, it's Monday...
So lots of random-ness to blog about today. And I forgot, again, to post my Menu Plan Monday. But really, I don’t have a set plan this week. I have food I can make, but we’re just flying by the seat of our pants this week, I think. I host Bunco on Thursday so we’ll be doing lots of cleaning around the house before then, but John also leaves for Brazil on Sunday so there’s lots for him to get ready for that as well. We’ll be real busy this week!
· In case you’re interested, here’s the list of things I have that I could cook this week: leftover Taco Soup, chili cheese dogs, fish and beets, and spaghetti. I’ll be making kabobs for Bunco (steak, potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini) along with some pasta salad, Caeser salad, and a mint chocolate chip ice cream dessert, chips and veggies and dips for appetizers and my “drink of the month” is called Nantucket Lemonade. If it tastes good, I’ll post the recipe. It looks like it would be yummy.
· I got my contacts on Saturday. I have this trial pair until next Saturday when I go back to see how they’re working out. They’ve been okay so far. Today is the first day I’m wearing them all day at work. And they’ve actually been bothering me quite a bit. They feel dry, but drops only help for a few minutes. I sometimes feel like I still can’t focus right. So I don’t know. It almost seems like my astigmatism is bad enough that it’s bothering me, but not bad enough I can get contacts to correct it. Maybe I just HAVE to keep my glasses if that’s the case. Unless there’s a better contact out there for me. What I have now are the Baush & Lombe (sp?) PureVision. I don’t know. We’ll see I guess.
· John went and got his iPhone today. I’m so jealous. I looked up info on wireless plans with AT&T. It’s much more expensive than my Verizon plan which is a real bummer. For MORE money, I get LESS features than on my current plan so I’m not too thrilled about that. But they do have rollover which is kind of nice. I mean, it would be way better if after a certain point of banking minutes you could like cash them in for something. That would be SWEET. But if I stay with Verizon there’s a lot more risk of going over my allotted minutes if John’s going to be gone as much as he thinks he is, which will cost even MORE if we start paying by the minute! Think AT&T will cut me a deal based on the features I get on my Verizon plan??
· I had my “micro-management” meeting with Austin this morning. Made me nervous because he made it a closed door meeting. Apparently, me not getting back with him Wednesday or Thursday like we had discussed did not make him too happy. Well, at least he admitted to the fact that he was micro-managing. Turns out, though I think he went about it in the wrong way, he’s having these meetings with me in an attempt to make me more efficient at my “daily duties” so that I have more time to work on bigger and better things that the other estimators don’t get to be involved in. He wants me to be more than I am and is trying to help me grow to continue to move back up. But really, it just seemed like he hadn’t been happy with my performance and was “watching” me more closely. At least, that’s how I saw it. But we talked it out and I better understand now. It’s just so hard now still being in the position I’m in. I know he values my work and really wishes that I could be doing more than I’m doing, but the market just won’t allow for it right now. Which sucks for me. But it’s still making it that much harder to keep the right frame of mind. It’s a vicious cycle. I can definitely tell that I’m slipping lately. But if I were to move back up, I’d perk up in no time. But if I continue to slip, I’ll be less likely to move back up. I wonder if would be this hard right now if I hadn’t ever been moved up in the first place. Ugh…
· We’ve got Cardio Salsa tonight, thank God. John and I went out for Blizzards last night. Shame on us, I know. At least we both got smalls!
· If you’ve been following my tweets, you already know about the freaking chirping smoke detectors. STILL chirping. I think it’s even starting to bother the dogs. I slept with earplugs in last night! I just don’t understand. The one in our bedroom is the one that was chirping every minute a few weeks ago which prompted us to change out the batteries. Then they all started chirping, so we changed out all 5 batteries. To no avail. We ended up just taking them all down. We tried to put them back up yesterday and they’re all still chirping EXCEPT the one in our bedroom!! AGGGHHH!!!! WHY!!??? I sent in a warranty request on it. I’m sure they’re not under warranty anymore, but I told them they, at the very least, need to provide us with some advice on what to do. It just does not make any sense.
· Didn’t I say I had lots to blog about?
· I had a pretty productive weekend. We did a bunch of shopping on Friday. Got John a bunch of new clothes for vacation. I worked on some organizing Saturday and John worked on the lawn. We went to dinner with friends and then to see The Hangover. Ohmygosh, it was sooooo funny!!! What a great night! John went in to work yesterday so I did more around the house and ran some errands. My parents came over to bring me my old desk that they didn’t want anymore. So we switched it out with the little writing table I was using as my “hobby” desk. It worked out great since this desk has drawers so I was able to put all my bead stuff and other “hobby” things IN the desk and out of sight when not in use!! My mom also helped me decide on paint colors for the rest of the upstairs rooms. I had bought all these samples of colors and never got around to painting any of them. So we figured out, of those colors, which ones should go in which rooms. And it worked out perfectly. I wish I could take off work for an entire week just to stay home and finish all the painting we have to do. We’re going to hire someone to do the entry and upstairs hallway and ceiling, but I still have to do (by myself) three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the ceilings in all those rooms. Fun, huh? Wanna come help?? :o)
· Umm…okay, I should probably stop talking. This got REALLY long. But I had 3 days to catch up on! And I had to give myself a MUCH needed break from work for a bit. My brain hurts!! **sigh** Only 1 ½ more hours…
Friday, June 12, 2009
Phone update!
Need Opinions!
When I first got this phone, I was upgrading from just a regular old phone, no bells or whistles. We also had just a regular plan…all texts, email, web was all pay per so I didn’t use it at all. Well, when upgrading my phone, I also upgraded my plan to an all inclusive. I know have unlimited texts, email, navigator and web. And I use it now. A LOT. I about kill my battery every day now with how much I’m on the web on my phone. And that is because we’re blocked from like EVERYTHING here at work so anytime I want to browse the web, on my phone I get. Now that I use my phone for all that so much, I’m realizing that the phone I have just isn’t cutting it. What I have right now is the Samsung Glyde. Good things about it: full slide out keyboard, ability to browse just about any website, doesn’t have to be a specifically “mobile” version of a website. Drawbacks: small screen, touchscreen isn’t very responsive, randomly turns off.
In my new phone I would like to still keep the touchscreen. I do like it, I would just like one that actually responds when I touch it! I also need a much larger screen with how much I’m on the web. And it still has to have at least all the same features as I have right now, but maybe the ability to add applications might be nice. So I’m sure that you are all thinking, why not get the iPhone? Well, I’m with Verizon, so I can’t get the iPhone. And I like Verizon so I don’t necessarily want to switch just for that. So I have to find a phone with Verizon that meets all my criteria. They’ve recently come out with a lot of good phones, so here’s a few that I’m looking at. Granted, I have not actually gone into the store to check out these phones in person, but from the website, they appear to have the features I’m in search of.
Phone #1 – LG Versa – Got a customer review of 4 out of 5 stars; I like the fact that you can customize the home screen; has the HTML browsing I’m looking for; has the automatic rotating of the screen
The new LG Versa™ is the runaway favorite for MVP – Most Versatile Phone. Thanks to next–generation technology, the home screen is transformed into a sizzling, animated 3D user interface. Quickly customize up to 3 different home screens with your favorite features, apps, or contacts. Make your move…the built–in accelerometer rotates screens automatically from portrait to landscape or controls games using rotation movements. The slim, sleek bar design with an elegant chrome border stands out from the crowd. Also at your fingertips: a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash and camcorder, integrated music player optimized with Bluetooth® stereo capability, microSD™ memory port, visual voicemail & HTML web browsing. If you’re looking for smart technology, sophisticated style and the ultimate in versatility, take a good look at the new LG Versa.
Phone #2 – LG en-v Touch – Got a customer review of 5 out of 5 stars; this phone flips open to a full keyboard which I’m not sure I’ll like; has a higher megapixel camera; has the HTML browsing; has a document viewer to be able to read .xls, .doc, .pdf which is a plus
Designed for your most discriminating customers, the new LG enV® TOUCH combines undeniable style with an unrivaled multimedia experience. The exceptional range of leading–edge features puts the enV TOUCH in the company of the world’s finest handsets. Its bright, external touch screen measures an impressive three inches and features state–of–the–art tactile feedback. The full–size QWERTY keyboard, with widely spaced keys, accommodates the texting needs of the most demanding executives.
Phone #3 – Blackberry Storm – Got a rating of 3 out of 5 stars; I LOVE the push screen (I tested it out at the store a while back when getting my phone serviced); higher megapixel camera; global ready for all those out of the country trips I might someday go on with John; pre-loaded Facebook…nice; MS Office doc support; basically all the great things about a Blackberry
Introducing the world's first touch screen BlackBerry only from America's largest 3G network, Verizon Wireless. At work or at play, the BlackBerry® Storm™ keeps you connected to both sides of life. The breakthrough SurePress™ touch screen with a tactile click response allows you to accurately navigate within every advanced feature that's packed in the Storm including a music player, 3.2 megapixel camera and a true Internet web browser. Plus, enhance your productivity with email, MS Office document support and advanced global capabilities, and keep connected with social tools like Instant Messaging and pre–loaded Facebook and Flickr applications.Okay, so with what you know about what I use my phone for, which of these would YOU pick? And in case I didn’t specify well enough, I do: texts, email, web browsing, online purchases, facebook, twitter, blog…I basically do it all!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Woo! Accomplished!
After that, we ate dinner. Then I went to tan. Got home and showered. Then got on the computer again. John was downstairs watching some stupid 80's movie, so I figured it was okay. Played some more on Twitter, then got up to date on all my blogs again. Go me!
I'm also feeling accomplished because I made it through the day without having to meet with my boss to update him on my progress from our "micro-management" meeting we had Monday. I'm sure he noticed. Though I really don't care. He told me Monday to "come find him" yesterday or today to update him and I didn't. I didn't even try. I mean, really, if he's so freaking worried about me keeping up with my work, why in the world would I want to take valuable time out of my work day just to meet with him and tell him what I've been doing?? I could be getting more done! Which is exactly what I did.
And that, folks, is why I'm feeling accomplished on this fine Thursday evening. Nighty night!
How nice of them!
I got a surprising phone call earlier. Well, it was an 888 number, so of course I didn’t answer, but they left a voicemail, which I listened to. It was Best Buy (or a recording for Best Buy, rather) letting me know that my $25 rewards card was about to expire and I hadn’t used it yet. I was quite surprised by that. A lot of times, you’ll get reward cards, or coupons in the mail and, if you’re like me, they go in a pile to be forgotten about until after they expire, and then you can’t use them anymore. Well, I haven’t actually forgotten about this Best Buy rewards card, I just haven’t made it over to Best Buy to use it yet. But isn’t that nice of them to call and remind me that I have it in case I had forgotten about it? I’ve been planning on spending it on an iTunes gift card for some new music. Think I might just use it when we go shopping tomorrow. We’ll be over that way.
Anyway, just thought it was nice of them to call about it. Never had anything like that happen before!
Have I mentioned?
Have I mentioned the fact that my husband will be going to Brazil in a week? Hmm…can’t see how it could have possibly slipped my mind. Oh yeah, maybe because I just found out on Sunday! He gets back from his fishing trip and proceeds to inform me that he’s off to Brazil for 12 days in 2 weeks. Well, drat. I guess, at least he’ll be back for 4th of July…barely. He’s scheduled to come back the 2nd. But then thankfully we both have the 3rd off so we’ll get a nice 3 day weekend in after he gets home. And then…guess what!! We leave for vacation just 7 days later!!! Ohmygosh I can’t wait!! If you haven’t noticed my counter there at the bottom of the page, we’re now under 30 days! And check out Val’s lovely description of what our life will be like for 6 glorious days!
What’s that? Are you sure we can’t leave tomorrow??
Okay, well, back to the topic at hand. Brazil. Yes. Another funny (is it really?) story about that. So John finds out he’ll be going to Brazil for some project he’s working on. The next day, his boss comes up and asks, “So, did you ask your wife?” “Ask about what?” “About living in Brazil!” “What??” And his boss just walks away laughing. Excuse me? Back up one step there. Huh? Obviously his boss was joking about the whole living in Brazil, BUT the guys down in Brazil actually do want someone down there for an extended period to oversee some manufacturing. So, uh, yeah…joking? Not joking? Really, I have no idea. They definitely do NOT pay him enough for me to quit my job to move to Brazil for awhile…and I don’t know if I could manage living without him if just he went. So let’s just not think about that right now. Probably won’t happen anyway, right?
I am definitely jealous of him flitting around all over the world lately. I want to go to the beaches in Brazil. I want to explore castles in Germany. I want to go to the Louvre in Paris. Yeah, they really should pay him a lot more so that I can quit my job to go globe-trotting with him! What an adventure that would be!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Oh my good grief
OH yeah...
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Progress Report Tuesday!
This will probably be a pretty short progress report post. Too much to do at work!!
So, without further ado…this week resulted in a gain of 1 pound. And I’m not too concerned about it. Up until yesterday morning I was down almost a whole nother pound, but we ordered pizza for dinner Sunday and then had leftovers of that last night. So not the healthiest, or lightest of dinners before weigh-in, but oh well.
We started CardioSalsa last night and it was fan-tabulous! I was a sweating machine! Such a fun class! Another reason for the heavier weight today…class is from 7-8pm, so I didn’t eat (too much of) my pizza until almost 8:30pm. Pretty late for such a heavy meal. ANYWAY…I’m super pumped about the class and definitely think it will help in my progress. And it couldn’t hurt to learn some nice Salsa moves before we get to the Dominican Republic in 29 DAYS!!! Woohoo!!!
Monday, June 8, 2009
I've been domesticated.
I’ve been feeling quite domestic lately. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been the one to cook and clean and do laundry and all that, but they’ve always been “chores”. Things I had to do. But lately, it’s more a need, a want, even. I want to cook a nice dinner every night with my husband. I want to do all the laundry so we can walk in the bathroom. I want to make the bed so it’s look nice and pretty when I get ready to go back to sleep. I want to sweep the floor instead of continuing to ignore the crackle of dirt against the tile under my shoes. I want to vacuum the carpet instead of refusing to believe that it’s covered in dog hair that I can’t see. I want to put things away where the go so the house is always tidy.
What’s happened to me?
John was gone Thursday-Saturday at a fishing tournament so I thought, great! I’ll have all this time to clean and read and the house will be spotless when he returns on Sunday. Saturday rolls around and I realized there really wasn’t that much for me to do! I did have lots of laundry, so I worked on that. I hadn’t vacuumed our room in a while, so I did that. I changed the sheets. I swept the floors downstairs. But other than that, which obviously didn’t take too much time since I was still able to read about 1200 pages in two books over the weekend, I didn’t have much else to do around the house. I had picked up and straightened a lot last weekend and I realized that I had kept the house tidy like that all week! That usually never happens!! But I was quite pleased with myself. That’s how I want to live! I want to keep the house straightened all week so I have less work to do on the weekends.
Could this have to do with the fact that we want to start expanding our family sometime soon? Preparing myself for baby, when I’ll have even less time for all my housely duties? Well, whatever the reason, I like it. I like knowing that if someone randomly stopped by to say hello, I wouldn’t be completely embarrassed for them to come in! And I sure as heck plan to keep it that way!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Canopy replacement
John FINALLY called about our gazebo canopy this morning! We'll be getting a new canopy frame in 3-4 weeks. For FREE. Apparently the lady said they don't normally cover acts of nature, but since we had only had it one week when it happened, she'll go ahead and send it out.
Woo hoo! I can't wait to use the patio again!
I'm still alive!
No, this week I have been much busier at work. Well, more like I've been making myself do more work instead of play on blogger and Twitter all day! I actually kind of got in trouble for being behind on some work so I figured I'd better step it up and actually get work done at work so I can continue to have a job to come to!! I guess I didn't get in "trouble", per say, but my boss did call me in to talk about what's "on my plate" lately and he was concerned that I was further behind than other people. He wanted me to make sure to let him know when new projects come up that I will be spending time on so that he knows when he can give me more work and when to give some of my work to less busy people. But of course, in my mind, I was thinking, "No more Twitter/Blog reading marathons at work. Check." So now I'm only giving myself short, sporatic breaks to catch up on one or the other. And since I had to use my lunch break yesterday to run to the bank, I haven't been able to post until today's lunch break!
Really, I've been super behind on reading all my blogs lately. I joined Twitter, like I told you guys, and have been all over that lately! It's much quicker to read 50 new tweets than it is to read 50 new blog posts! And the past two days, Val and I have been totally engrossed in a Twilight Saga discussion of our own. She's on the third book, Eclipse, now and she's as obsessed with it as I was when I was reading it. So much so, that we've been talking about the books, the movies, the movie stars...reading movie news, movie star news, movie pictures, movie star pictures. I know, we are so sad and lame! Here we are, in our mid-twenties, and we can't get enough of it!! It's been really fun though. And with her new enthusiasm, it's making me re-read the series again. I believe I mentioned I re-read Twilight a couple weeks ago. Well, after seeing the New Moon trailer I HAD to start re-reading New Moon again even though I was planning on waiting longer to start over again. Now I'm a little over halfway through and Val's been talking about how good Eclipse has been, so I'll have to start re-reading that one as soon as I finish New Moon. And then you can't finish Eclipse without starting Breaking Dawn. There is just no way. Those two go together way too much! Luckily, I guess, my husband is out of town, starting today, through Sunday at a fishing tournament, so I have 4 days to myself to just read!! :o)
So that's my story of my week thus far. I really want it to be Friday afternoon right now instead of Thursday. It has been a VERY long week for me this week.
Oh, and something else I can thank Val for...this cute new signature I added to my posts. Seriously, where do you find all this cool stuff??
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Progress Report Tuesday
Either way, it’s time for Progress Report Tuesday! The results this week, a loss of 1 pound! Not quite sure how that happened. Wait. Scratch that. I do know how. I don’t think we went out to eat once in the past week. Hmm…what a difference cooking one’s own dinner makes! Oh, and more than one meal this weekend consisted entirely of popcorn. And while I did not track any points again this week, I still kept my afternoon snacks and dinners low to no carb. I’m telling you, it works!! I mean, how else could I lose a whole pound, not tracking my points, writing down what I ate, OR doing any exercise??
Yes, workout class was cancelled both Tuesday and Thursday and lazy me didn’t do anything else instead. It was a busy week this past week. With no good shows on TV, we were actually doing things in the evenings. Working in the yard, cleaning the house, cooking.
That’s like last night, I felt like I had such a productive evening! Having watched no TV, I updated our budget spreadsheet for the month of May (which took a long time, actually), I played on Twitter a bit, posted some recipes to my blog here, cooked dinner, washed, dried, and put away all the dirty dishes from all my cooking Sunday and last night. By 10:30pm, I was exhausted! I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to get ready for bed!
Alright, I've been working at my weight loss for just over 2 months now. My total loss so far has been 9.6 pounds! That's crazy! A lot of my work pants are actually getting really loose. And these are pants I've had for years! Some since I first started working 3 years ago. Was I really that much bigger 3 years ago when they fit when I bought them? Man, doesn't seem like it. I do think I'm a lot more fit and toned now though than I used to be. So I think I'm weighing more than I used to but I'm still smaller since I've gotten more muscle. Such a great feeling. I always told myself I wanted to be in super great shape before I ever got pregnant and it looks like I've finally made it! Just about. There's still a few jigglies that I'd like to trim down still. But CardioSalsa starts next week! Woohoo! Can't wait!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Banana Nut Bread Recipe
Mmmm...
Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas
MTV Movie Awards...and movies
Let me say, if you missed it, wow, it was H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!! So funny.
Also got to preview Transformers 2, which I also cannot wait to see! That comes out June 24!
Okay, as soon as I heard they were getting a new director for New Moon, plus the fact that Twilight did so well, I KNEW that New Moon would be a MUCH better movie than Twilight. And the measly 1-minute trailer they showed at the awards was more than enough to prove that! OH-MY-GOSH!!!!! It looks AWESOME. Don’t get me wrong, I did love Twilight. I mean, heck, I’ve seen it like 6 times now! BUT, you can tell it’s a low budget movie. No big time special effects or super exciting stuff. New Moon, on the other hand…I think will ROCK! No. Doubt. About. It. I can’t believe I have to wait until NOVEMBER for it to come out. Guess I’ll just have to appease myself by continuing searching for news and gossip about filming/the stars/pictures/trailers. :o)
I’m all about the Hollywood gossip these days. I’m so silly.
Oh oh oh!! Before I forget! Went and saw Star Trek on Friday. That movie was GREAT! I didn’t really want to see it. Actually, I never saw much about it. No commercials, or previews, so I didn’t have much idea what it would be like. But hubby really wanted to see it. So us and some friends went Friday night. I was REALLY glad I decided to go after we watched it. Good enough movie, we’ll be buying it when it comes out on DVD. I did watch the old Star Trek TV shows, so I got some of the funny lines they threw in from the old shows/movies, but even someone who never saw ANY Star Trek loved it as well. Chris Pine (plays Capt. Kirk) is gorgeous! And hilarious! I totally recommend seeing it!!
Whoa.
Okay, so back to the movie awards. Now, (obviously) I am a HUGE fan of Twilight. Loved the books, love the movie, can’t wait for the rest of the movies. All that. BUT I am a bit disappointed they won so many awards. They definitely should NOT have won Best Fight, or Best Actress, or Best Picture. I’d say Dark Knight should have totally won Best Picture. That movie was awesome. John thought Pineapple Express should have won Best Fight. (I did NOT see that movie) I didn’t see many other of the nominees for Best Actress, but I’m sure Kate Winslet in The Reader totally could have won for Best Actress. I love her, even though I haven’t actually seen The Reader.
What I WAS glad they won, was Best Breakout Male Performance and Best Kiss. I definitely thought Rob Pattinson deserved Best Breakout. And the total fake out of them going to reenact the kiss for Best Kiss was priceless!! Loved it!
But really…what do you expect? It’s a fan voted award show. Twilight has a HUGE fan base, and it’s the kind of fan base that WILL vote. I know a ton of people who thought Dark Knight was the greatest movie ever, but they’re not the type of people who’ll go vote for it for an awards show. The fact they won so much only proves that Twilight had the most vocal fans. And that, we all know, was already painfully obvious! 
One other side note. Us girls got together and watched Twilight yesterday afternoon since Val finally read the book (and became completely obsessed like we told her she would!!) so she had to see the movie. Well, coincidently, after we watched it, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire happened to be playing on ABC Family, where Rob Pattinson plays Cedric Diggory, one of the players in the wizard tournament. So, double feature of the dreamy RPattz…just to see him AGAIN watching the movie awards. **sigh** :o)
Menu Plan Monday!
Monday – grilled fish and corn on the cob
Tuesday – grilled steak and broccoli
Wednesday – Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas (leftovers from last night)
Thursday – Enchiladas if there’s still some left, Taco Soup, if not
Friday – Same as Thursday
Saturday – Same again (it made A LOT of enchiladas)
Sunday – Should be finished with the enchiladas, so Taco Soup if I haven’t made it already