Friday, March 13, 2009

Extreme Makeover, Baby!




Extreme Makeover in Jamesville, NC. Hard to believe, huh? I won't get into the whole spill here, but if you want some background information on the family, house, progress, etc. visit www.edentonbuilders.com. They are the ones in charge and do a great job of showcasing the event. Anyway, Gary was able to volunteer Thursday, and here are some behind the scenes pictures. He had a great time and said he thinks he got some camera time in during the day. We will all be watching for that, along with Kelly, Udee, Mika and Laurie as well. It was a family afair! The show airs Sunday, May 3rd so everyone mark it on your calendars!

Weigh day


No, the scale was not hiding from me today! I am so happy to report a current weight of 185.8!!! That is 2.6 less from that last Friday's weight of 188.4. Finally I feel back on track. I told myself when I hit the 185 mark I would switch up my exercise routine and add some weight training. So, we'll see how that goes. Now that the extra weight is coming off, it's time to start toning up. This is a great way to start the weekend, unlike last week that left me frustrated and disappointed. Maybe I will even splurge on something yummy tonight! After all it is pizza night at our house.....

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Down by the River









I have been meaning to post these pictures-just kept forgetting to do it at home. We feed the birds all the time (me, my mom, and Gabe), and I finally remembered to bring my camera this past weekend. Of course the birds were not cooperating this day, and only a few turtles were sticking their heads out of the water. Still, I got a few good shots of Gabe being his typical silly self. He is becoming quite the poser. He really gets into this-it is so cute. Except today he was holding the cereal my mom brougt and eating more than he was feeding the birds. Mybe next time I can catch some more action. We are so lucky to have this awesome boardwalk at our disposal!

Luck of the.....Polish/German?

This is a totally random thought in early observance of St. Patty's Day. While sitting at work this morning, a wave of luck came over me that I hadn't fully understood until today. In fact, I am so lucky right now I can't even believe it! Two reasons:

1. I have received a full tuition scholarship to pursue a Masters Degree of my choice
2. I can sit at work and do my school work so that I don't have to work on it at home

So in summary, I am getting a free Master's level education, and getting paid to complete the required work! People would kill for this opportunity, so I am making a vow to never take this for granted. Work is slow for me right now, so things will change in the summer. But until they do.....I'm in luck!

A closet full of clothes and nothing to wear...sound familiar?


First I must report that I added an extra weigh-in this morning just to see what's what. Great news finally. Another 1.6 lb loss bringing my current weight to 186.8. This is especially great because I made a pact with myself that I could get my much needed pedicure when I hit 187. So yay......I'm there. I will still weigh Friday, so stay tuned.

Now the real reason for this blog: nothing to wear!!! Like most of my new mom friends, my closet is filled with pre-baby size 8's and 10's (yeah right!), maternity clothes (summer and winter), fat clothes (size 16's), and a handful of new items I have bought as the pounds have been coming off. Basically this amounts to a whole lot of nothing. I do have one pair of black pants and one pair of jeans that fit well, but nothing to pair them with on top. This last week really opened my eyes to this when I went to try and get dressed in the 80 degree weather. Plus to make things more complicated, not knowing what might happen with my surgery in the next few months, I hate to buy too many shirts and blouses. I was fortunate to get a 30% off coupon for Kohls this week, so I think I am going to head there this afternoon to see what I can buy for these transitional days. As long as I can get through the spring I will be ok...summer is a whole other story. If I would just lose all of this baby weight I would be in good shape since I have a complete spring and summer wardrobe just waiting and colelcting dust. Maybe one day, but for now I must face the truth and buy clothes to fit my current body-just like Stacy and Clinton always say!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Help!


Well, it's not good news for the day. It all started this morning when I went to weigh after an excellent week of working out and eating well. However, the results show that I lost 0 pounds. Yes, some of you optimists can say at least I didn't gain, and that it is definitely true. But, I worked my a__ off this week, and now I am bitter and disappointed. It's amazing how a simple digital number can shape my mood for the day. I was mean to Gary, and not overly affectionate to Gabe, so now I feel bad about that, too. Had the numbers been any lower and I would feel on top of the world. This is what really gets me, too. What if the scale is wrong and I am in this terrible mood for nothing? I did step back on the scale a second time just to make sure it was going to be the same again, and this time it gave me a number 3 pounds heavier! (of course I stuck with the first number). So my point is, I am an idiot to let this scale dictate my day and life for that matter especially when the results may not be 100% accurate. But that is what we do as women, and what we will always do. I am trying to focus on the fact that my clothes fit better, and I feel thinner, but that is still not enough for me!! I wanted to be able to see a weight loss this week!!!! Anyway, enough about this- there is another reason for this terrible mood I am in.

As you read before, I have been working with a group this month for my class. I absolutely hate working with groups, but I thought this time it will be different as we are all grown women now with the same ultimate goal: to do well in school. Apparently not. After our meeting Sunday, we had assigned each member a topic and assignment to complete. Everything had to be due by Thursday(yesterday), but we agreed to have it done Tuesday. So Tuesday comes and I have mine finished, while no one else does. No big deal. Wednesday comes and goes, still no work. Thursday I figure they will have it turned in, but I got online to check last night after Idol, and a section was still not turned in. I know some people literally wait until the last minute, so I went to bed thinking they would come through at some point. Uh...No!! I get to work, check my school email, and see an email from my professor asking where section 2.3 is?????? He had everything else but that section (another girl in the groups responsibility) and needed it turned in ASAP. I don't know where it is, but I do know this. Everyday it is late we lose 10 points, so now we are already at a ten point loss. Not to mention we have had 6 weeks total to work on this particular assignment. I am totally pissed off about this. Once you reach a certain age, I thought you were immune from this kind of stuff, but I guess not. I will be so glad to go back to the normal individual work for the next two assignments.

On a completely different note, Allison just informed me our health insurance premiums are going to go up 20%, along with co-pays, prescriptions, etc. And the rumor is we are going to be taking a 20% pay cut or get paid for a 32 hour work week vs a 40 hour week. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And it is Friday-normally the best day of the week!! I hate days like this, but hopefully I will get out of this rut by lunch time. The only silver lining to this day so far is today is the day I volunteer at the elementary school library. My new favorite thing. If those kids can't put a smile on my face by then, I am in serious trouble!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Mr. Mom


Today I had to meet with my school group at Barnes and Noble to work on our discussion topics. It was pouring down rain, and I had tons of cleaning to do (as always on a Sunday) but knew I was committed to this meeting today. On the way home from our meeting I was thinking about how much I was dreading tackling all the chores I needed to do, plus spend a few hours working on my school work that will be due by tomorrow. I walk through the door and am pleasantly surprised to see that Gabe is still taking his nap. Time to get to work, or so I thought!
Gary had taken care of EVERYTHING for me! This is a list of what he did in the 3 hours I was gone: take the sheets of the bed and put them in the washer, put new clean sheets on the bed, finished washing/drying the sheets then starting a new load, unloaded the dishwasher/filled with dirty dishes, cleaned the garage, finished the second load and started the third, scrubbed the toilets, and vaccuumed the WHOLE house (including the bedroom closets!). There was nothing left for me to do! How did I get so lucky today? Also, I have leftover soup for dinner from last night, so I don't even have to cook dinner tonight! So that leaves me time for this blog entry and fun time to mess around with facebook. However, I do need to start my schoolwork, but when I am done with that I am done for the night. What a wonderful unexpected gift! See husbands-we don't want jewelry and flowers! We just want some good old-fashioned help around the house!