The Karri

Checkin in

2008-04-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, with a trip to LA and a week sick I'm still down about 3lbs. I have a bad asthma cough right now which makes it so I need a few more days before working out but I'll still try to eat a little better ;)

I'll be back on track by the end of this week. I owe you an LA post and a new Pumped up about Weightloss post.

Catch ya later.

Party weekend, slacking, but right back to it

2008-03-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a blast this weekend with beer, cake and fast food but now thats over and done with. I knew that would happen but normally, when I would give up by now, I got right back on and did a very hefty 45 min's on the elliptical last night. It felt great! So I'm still down 4lbs from the start but I'm working my way back to the 8lbs I initially lost which I'm sure won't take too long since I was just there.

Tonight, I'm on my own with my home equipment and tomorrow its back in the gym with friends. So, I WILL do this! :) And it feels so good to keep going!

Woohooo!

2008-03-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

I obsessively did an hour and a half of working out last night. Watching the Biggest Loser is a real motivator. Problem is, its someone's birthday today so there will be temptations. But, I'll do what I can to control ;). Scale was good this morning, better than yesterday but that was before a piece of cake for breakfast :0 This is why I won't do any more recording on here until next week.

:)

Not giving up!

2008-03-04T06:14:00.001-08:00

Keeping it up!

2008-02-25T06:05:00.001-08:00

Yay for me :)

2008-02-12T05:29:00.001-08:00

I worked out last night and it felt great. I am very fortunate to have a great husband and friend already into working out so they helped push me to get there.

I did the elliptical for a half an hour then a few arm weights. I worked out for about a total of 40 mins. The good thing about the elliptical is that it burns about 400-500 cals in a half an hour because you're using your arms and legs.

So, I work my 2nd job today but will be back at the gym tomorrow with Mike and have decided to actually join Fitness first again by March.

Its all exciting. I think the push that helped this time was the fact that mom found my old prom dress I never wore. She's having it cleaned so I can someday get back into it and have it as a goal. Its all black with white lace on the top. Its very exciting to have that goal. :)

The little things that make you smile

2008-02-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to take a minute to reflect on the little things that make me laugh and smile. Aside from the happiness of having loved ones around there are little everyday things like specific songs or a greeting card that just make you smile or even laugh.

I picked up a greeting card for Grandma and the minute I saw it I thought of Dan. So, obviously, I had to get it for him too. It makes me think of us being kids again and enjoying the simple sugars in life that is candy! Oh how I remember Dan loving his candy. Dan, here's to you and making you laugh! It's coming to ya soon! :) Love ya! Greg can tell you, everytime I opened the card I cracked up.

On that note, there are a few songs I just love to hear and they make me smile when I hear them:

Beautiful Day - U2
Calling You - Blue October
Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
Just like Heaven - The Cure
Brown eyed Girl - Van Morrison

I know there's more but thats all I got in my head right now. Do some homework and make sure to listen to a few of these. At least one of them is bound to put a smile on your face!

Saying goodbye to my 20's

2008-01-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

I've done so much in past 10 years! Lets take a quick look! -I may have some years a bit off but you get the picture ;)

1998 (20) - Just got out of my teen rut I was in and worked at Partymart and started dating Greg in May.

1999 (21) - Turned 21! Moved into my own basement apartment.

2000 (22) - Graduated with an Assosicate's and started full time work at Harmon Homes

2001 (23) - Bought my first place with Greg and got Emmi :)

2002 (24) - Got engaged that Christmas!! Laid off and started work with a contractor for the Government

2003 (25) - Took a job with NIH in January!

2004 (26) - Engagement/Graduation party received a Bachelors from UMUC!

2005 (27) - GOT MARRIED! Moved into our 2nd house, Mikey passed away :(, Got Maverick!, lost Uncle John :(

I know I'm missing quite a bit. Hm, we did a lot and other people had a lot going on but those were our major milestones through my last 10 years! Both parents retired, Grandma and Aunt Patty got sick, Dad had major heart surgery, Dan is off to LA, Jim got engaged, and everyone has changed and evolved in 10 years! I've also lost quite a few wonderful pets and miss them dearly.

But all in all I loved my 20's and can say I've lived them to my fullest! :) I sure partied a lot and met a lot of wonderful people also!

Now onto my 30's and looking forward to everything they have to offer! More money, bigger family, traveling, going back to school maybe, who knows! :) I'm just glad I can share it all with my friends and family!

Not giving up

2008-01-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

Still struggling with the Res but not giving up. I haven't been eating that great because I haven't really been focused on it but I need to! We've been considering the whole refi thing with our mortgage and thats been a bit hectic with working both jobs to pay some things off. But I know my health comes first!

I am happy to say we painted our main level bathroom and it looks beautiful! I do love when we can do things here and there to make our house look better. :)

Now, back to work!

New Years Resolution

2008-01-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

Yes we all secretly make at least one. My one and only is to focus on getting my weight down. I have already told a lot of people that so they can yell at me if I don't follow through and now I'm putting it on here for the same reason. So if you catch me not blogging for a while that means I fell off once again so yell at me PLEASE!

Initial goal is to lose 25lbs which will be a great deal for me. Thats 5 big sacks of potatoes, a small child, 2/3rd of a Maverick (my dog), his huge bag of dog food, a little over 3 human heads....you get the picture.

I'm not putting specific goals here other than to lose the weight. I know what I need to work on and I need to just do it. Here's the ticker!

Vote Now!! Do it!

2007-12-17T09:27:00.001-08:00

My brother created a very cool something and needs your help!

Go Here

Thank you!

Yes

2007-11-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

My journey needs a new beginning, a fresh start, and I need to put down the damn halloween candy for crying out loud!

Currently for some god-for-saken reason my boss decided to bring in not one but TWO cakes along with this massive bowl of candy and a bowl of apples when our office only consists of 5 individuals. Do I choose the apples when the candy and cake are surrounding it! I can't even get to the damn apples!

Ughh....right now I feel heavy from eating bad again. It's time to clean out this ugly feeling by eating better.

I had some fun times recently though :). My favorite was the halloween fun on Saturday at Growlers with my hubby, bro, his girlfriend, and a wonderful group of friends.

I love these people!!!

Still hanging in there

2007-09-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well the scale has pretty much stayed the same but I did lose an inch in my waste :).

We went away this weekend and didn't eat too great but not terrible. We got back into exercising last night and I just know if I keep it up, I'll see the number fall. I've heard it takes time for the number to fall then all of a sudden you see a big drop. Thats what I'm looking forward to?

We saw our property in W.VA again and it is soooo much bigger than I thought! It's huge! I can't wait to one day put a house on it. It backs to a beautiful farm where no houses will be built. Its on fairly flat land with no trees to clear. I love it!

I'm well into the end of the government FY as a purchasing agent so needless to say, things have been hell here; but it happens every year so I should expect it by now right? It's always new and different and hellish every year.

Back to work!

Goals and frogs

2007-08-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, new goal!!!

Well, first small goal is to get to 215 but this is my first big goal!!

I will cry when I get below that 200 mark. I haven't been there in years and I know I'm going to. Don't ask why, I just know!

Exercise goal: 30 mins 7 days a week

Proud

2007-08-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

I am definitely proud of myself with my choices. Subway for instance...I got a sandwich and instead of asking for it plain, like I usually do, I asked them to add lettuce, cucumbers and green peppers.....two different times.

Also, we went to Ruby Tuesdays today and instead of 2 mini burgers with fries and a salad bar I had them change the burgers to Turkey burgers, ate it with only one of the buns instead of both, and asked for green beans instead of fries.

We're still not eating out anywhere near as much and we're trying to chose better. I do understand that the way things are cooked at restaurants are loaded in oils and butters to taste better but the start is to chose better if we do eat out.

Just some pluses for the day.

Work and car shit suck but other than that I can still wear a smile and pat myself on the back for the heath change. :)

The word health has been in every sentence I speak lately

2007-08-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

I'm just trying to get myself in check while I'm young thats all. I look at other family members and am going in the same path as them if I continue to eat the way I did and not exercise.

So yeah...its been on my mind.

But yesterday we restocked on good food only and I did a huge spring cleaning in my pantry. Tonight the fridge gets it. If there aren't bad choices in our house then we won't eat bad things.

You're in need of a snack while watching a movie and craving something chocolate...what do you do..you go scrounging for food, open the fridge, open the pantry...all there is is wheat crackers, fruit, carrots, or celery, maybe a sugar free, low fat pudding...you have no choice but to grab one of those items because the fattening chocolate just ain't there. Hah! Tricked ya!

Thats the idea.

Not much else going on right now other than this. I'm a government employee in purchasing and the end of the Fiscal Year is here. That means, stress, overtime, and crazy people. But it goes by fast.

Thats it. I have nothing else to talk about :)

Number still the same

2007-08-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

So yeah....its frustrating. I did a complete 180 in my eating and nothing changes on the scale. Bummer....I get frustrated easily though. I walked for a half an hour yesterday with my two overweight puppies. They are so cute. Emmi walked around the lake all happy the first time around then by the second she was slowing down. Instead of pulling on the leash to get ahead, she walked right by my side dragging her little feet. I dropped the leash and she stayed there. She's so cute. There were geese in the water and we use to play this game with Mikey where we would run with him on the leash so he could at least pretend to chase them. We've done that with Emmi too and she loves it. Even when she was tired yesterday her ears went up and she was ready to charge so I ran with her for a bit.

She couldn't wait to lay down next to that bowl of water when we got home. We're working on it together.

Maverick, on the other hand, could have kept going and going. He slowed down a bit too but was ready for more.

We're going to try to exercise 4-5 days a week with them. They need it too.

The exercising should help that number decrease. I hope.

:)

New Day

2007-08-02T06:36:00.001-07:00

Well my eating was a success again yesterday (in my book)

Slim fast shake for breakfast
Oatmeal (mid morning snack/lunch time main course)
handfull of carrots
handfull of grapes
~8 animal crackers
1 pack of sugar free wafer cookies
Steak caesar salad
1 roll
iced tea with sweet and low
36oz of water
2 sugar free puddings
1 slice of cheese

Ok...going by a food pyramid chart I have, here is what I should be eating for a well balanced diet and here is what I ate yesterday:

Sweets
up to 75 cals (I had about 250)

Protein/Dairy
4 servings (I had about 3)

Fruit
4 servings (I had 1)

Carbs
5 servings (I had 3)

Veggies
4 servings (I had 2)

Fats
3 servings (I had 1)

So obviously I need to work on this but it also has to do with what foods I have available at home and what I'll need to get at the store. It also depends on what I like to eat and what I can cook up.

It's going...

Today's weight 224 (I need to snack on more veggies than sweets obviously)

Let's try this eating good thing shale we?

2007-08-01T06:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm starting a new leaf and eating better. Yesterday my food consisted of:

Slim fast shake
2 small egg salad sandwhiches on rolls
1 Pudding (sugar free)
1 chicken breast
1 cup mixed veggies (corn, green beans, carrots)
crackers and herb cheese dip
~25oz of water

My goal is to mainly get a more well-rounded menu while trying to lose weight at the same time. It's a start...

Today I had a slim fast shake for breakfast and will have a Weight Control Oatmeal around 11ish.

I brought carrots and grapes to snack on, a pudding, and animal crackers to snack on throughout the day and dinner will be something along the lines of a grilled chicken breast marinated in a barbeque mix with mixed veggies (also marinated for flavor). I bought yellow, red, and green bell peppers also, I may grill some of those too. I bought some low cal, 0 sugar crystal light things to put in my water to make me drink more water. So far I'm already down 15oz of water and its only 9:30, so maybe I'll get a good amount in for the day.

I need more menu ideas. I may have to actually pick up and look at some of the cookbooks I have in the cabinet :). This cooking thing can actually be fun.

Who knew?

Starting weight 225. Yesterday's ending weight 223.

Me Simpsonized

2007-07-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

Be afraid of the Tiger, be very afraid...

2007-07-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

Greg and I decided a vacation was in our future so we booked a place in Luray, VA. We decided on Luray mostly because of the Zoo down there. We drove down with the pups on Sunday and found our room that was literally a few feet from the pool. I mean, we could walk right out the door and open a gate and jump in. How cool is that! So....we did. We dropped the dogs off, changed and dove in. The weather was beautiful and Emmi barked her head off the entire time. We didn't know what to do with her but weren't about to have her ruin our vacation so we had to sort of ignore her. She gets that way when we leave her and then she settles down. Surprisingly...Maverick was a saint...go figure!

We showered and drove to a nearby mom and pop type restaurant just minutes from Skyline drive (which we didn't get a chance to go to) and had a good meal then drove back to the place. Monday we went to the Caverns (I think) and it was awesome! It was a one hour tour of these:

The caverns once formed from a river that went through it. The stalag tights and stalag mights are still forming from water dripping down. These pictures show a pool of water that's still in there. Most of the caverns aren't forming any longer. You can even have wedding ceremony down there. They have a organ that is connected to some of the stalag tights and it plays beautifully.

So anyway, we went to the Lury Zoo next (without the pups). We walked in and went through a little maze of reptiles. Snakes, a really huge 300-400lb turtle and other things. When you go through that part, you walk out into the open with all of these beautifl and exotic rescue animals. It's a small rescue zoo not anything like the regular zoo you would see here in Washington D.C. There were vultures, owls, a Lynx, a Bobcat, a huge porcupine, Lemurs, monkeys, a tiger, a camel, more birds I had never seen before and a little petting zoo area with goats (that's where the camel was but you couldn't pet it.

The tiger loved Greg :). We walked over to her and stood at a fence to watch her. She was in a cage and looked right at Greg and started growling. She was pacing back and forth and we stood there still watching her. She came back over a few times and growled even more and louder. She even jumped up on the cage like she wanted him for lunch. The owner told him to step back so we just walked away. He later found us and told us that Greg intimidated her because he was a big guy standing close. When she growled the first time he should have stepped back to show her SHE was boss and all would have been fine. Since he stood his ground, he now looked like a piece of juicy steak to her (or more just like someone she wanted to fight). We sort of ran by her cage each time instead of walking naturally. But all was well. This was the best thing we did. I would love to go again!

The next day we lathered up in sunblock in places that were exposed, beyond our bathing suits and t-shirts, and went to the Shenandoah River for some R&R, tubing style. The river was a bit slower than I would have liked it but it was a nice 3hr drift. We saw turtles and birds and even cows all along the river...many of them! I didn't realize until later but I burnt my legs pretty bad and Greg lost his shirt in the river and ended up burning his stomach. Ouch!

We were ready to come home when we did. It was a really nice break from reality for a while though.

We drove home on the 4th, took a nap and went out to dinner. We saw a few fireworks over some trees and shot off a few spinner ones in a parking lot but the night was old so we went home.

We spent the rest of the time tiling our bathroom. It looks great! We would get up, tile, take a mid day nap, tile a bit more and break. So it took us like 4 days to do a 2 day job. But whatever, we were on vacation.

Mom brought Grandma over on Sunday where she played with Greg the whole time. She asked him his name about 50 times (not joking) and when he would repeat it she would say...Emanuel? Victor? No speaka de English? She had me laughing so hard. Poor mom though, she was a bit much for her but she was such a trip since we didn't normally get to see her.

Now it's back to work and back to reality where I'm still a bit slow getting into things. I feel I need a nap....

19 Ways..

2007-06-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

to Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds".

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don t use any punctuation.

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat...use a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme.

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance , Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Coworkers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling, "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

2 Years!

2007-06-21T06:03:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been awhile since I've updated. I'll try to be better :).

Greg and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on June 19th. We haven't been following the traditional things (first year paper, 2nd year cotton..) but I would kinda like to. I might just go out and get a first year gift so we can have it as a keep sake. (Happy Birthday Jim!)

I took on a second job recently to help pay some things down. It's at Bed Bath and Beyond and the pay is pretty good for a part time job. I miss having nights where I had nothing to do but ill get them back soon enough when this class I'm taking is over.

I have two possible opportunities to move up at work but nothing is set in stone at all and who knows what will happen. I'll just keep my fingers crossed. :)

Unfortunately I'm tired today but wanted to just jump on for a minute. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping this up!

Ice cream ice cream, we all scream for ice cream!

2007-05-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

We had an "Ice Cream Social" at work yesterday and a very happy customer of ours took this picture below.

These are wonderful people. On the left is George who has 37 years in and served in Vietnam. Me (I only have 4 years). Pam, my boss (who has 25 years in). She's great. She loves to look out for me. Renee, our newest administrative assistant (who also has 25 years in). She is a ball of energy and fun. She put a picture of Mikey D. up on her desk :). And there's Dotti who has 40 years in and will be retiring later this year. She's very sweet and has a big family. Pam's boss (really our office boss) resides in another building. He's awesome too. He's about early 40's and is so overwhelmed he can't enjoy things like this. Poor guy.

I love this crew. Renee got mad at me when I told her I want to go into nursing. She said she was mad because she doesn't want me to leave. Pam sort of gave me a cold shoulder when I asked for her to pay for my training but I know its because she doesn't want me to even consider leaving either.

About the nursing thing...I started filling out the application to submit for the program and it didn't have a place for me to say I wanted nights and weekends and not days; so I called them and they said...um no, there aren't any nights and weekends courses. I started to whine. I said I was told at the information session they would start nights and weekends soon. She said no. I confirmed it with another lady in the program as well. She even said they're not even considering in the future at this time.

I went back to the drawing board and found that Howard Community College has a nights and weekends program. It's a drive but its something I really want to do. I'm so frustrated with MC right now. It's really disappointing. But as Greg says, if it's something I want, I'll get it.

Things always work out eventually right?

: /

2007-05-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

I found my first grey hair yesterday. My hair is blonde so I thought I wouldn't find one for awhile and I wasn't even looking for it!

Grey on one end blonde on the other. I yanked that sucker right how. Finding your first grey hair is a bit emotional. I can't pinpoint exactly why but I was a bit upset about it.

But I knew it was going to happen at some point.

IT'S DONE!

2007-04-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

We have been working full force and non-stop on a new fence for about a month and a half now (which isn't bad at all). Dad couldn't come up much and would help get us started on it and teach us a few things then we would do the rest ourselves. We did a "good neighbor" board on board fence in pressure treated wood. One word.....beautiful!!!

I love new structures. This fence makes it look like we have a whole new backyard and it looks so much bigger. I only have before pics right now but will put up a few of the new ones soon. These pics were ones Greg took when we first moved in over 2 years ago.

Awwww, look how cute she is! She was only 4.

You can see here how shady it was back there. Our neighbor cut down the one huge tree in the back now and it gets just enough sun through to really open it up back there now.

Now we can't wait to put a really nice deck back there. We're in awe of Jim's size deck but we'll see how our tax return does next year. That's how we were able to put up the fence.

:) I do love our house.

One more thing...Mikey loved this yard too. It was heaven for them. :)

Emmi still loves to walk the perimeter when she goes outside.

Work!

2007-03-26T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty excited about this work though. Greg and I decided to use our tax money to put up a new fence either by paying a company to do it or getting help from Dad. Dad said he would love to do it so we penciled him in for the job. It was a bit hectic at first because Greg and I really had no idea what was involved and it was cold and rainy when Dad came up to start.

He taught us how to concrete posts in exactly straight and we continued with that. This weekend we tore down the rest of our fence with the help of Greg's mom and a neighbor. Because the fence was down, we got to meet our neighbor behind us, who offered to help also.

It's really coming along and once we can get Dad back up here to help measure holes out and dig them up we can finish the rest of the posts. I can't wait to see the final product and we would love to now build a deck some day. That will most likely be years from now though.

My weight has been staying down but stuck. I need to get back on it. My doc wants me to work out 30 minutes a day and start off small.

I'm happy and can't wait for the warmer weather!!

:)

: )

2007-03-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

According to the Dr's scale I've lost 12 lbs!!

My home scale is a bit harder to tell. It's about 1-2 lbs off from the dr's scale.

I went the dr's because my left chest was hurting a lot. I let it go for a bit thinking it was asthma related and finally went in today. Dr. diagnosed it as Costochondritis.

It's basically an inflamation of the cartiledge that attaches your ribs to your breast bone or sternum. I asked her if thats the case then why is the pain all over my left side. She said its because it can effect all over the rib cage. She basically said the cause of something like is either stress or a viral infection or bacteria from an operation. I think on me it was the viral infection.

Interesting huh? Well, I'm glad I finally know what it is and can move on from worrying. I tend to worry too much but its better than letting things go right?

Fun filled weekend

2007-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

Well Greg's birthday was Monday so we celebrated Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday! It was a lot of fun. We went to dinner with Mom, Jim and Lia on Friday to Benihana which was a great time!

Saturday I had a test in the morning at school then came home to some prepping for the party, a nice nap, then friends galore for the night. We had the UFC fight on and Jim played some great songs! I tried drinking light beer and only had one piece of pizza. But we had a pretty big delicious cake in which I had two pieces.

Sunday we went to BJ's Mongolian Grill with his mom and that was fun and good. I had only one bowl with a salad. Monday we ate some more cake, Potbelly's deli style sandwhiches and I forget what we did for dinner.

I weighed myself after all this and was back up a few but now I'm back down a few. I'm still about 2 lbs above my lowest recent weight but I'm still a total of 8 lbs down which is awesome!

Now its time to get back into the swing of things and get closer to my first goal!

: )

2007-03-05T05:39:00.000-08:00

: )

2007-02-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

My first goal is to get below 200. 8lbs isn't a bad start at all!

Goings on

2007-02-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a fun filled party x 2 weekend. We had people over for the UFC fight Saturday night with beer and pizza then we went to Fur for a Superbowl party in which we left at half time. It was fun but we had to work the next day and Greg and I aren't into football much anyway.

By Monday night I was tired and dizzy feeling. I layed down and felt like I couldn't breathe. Tuesday I called the Dr. and they got me in that day. They checked my oxygen levels and my peak flow thing and they were great. So she said I had a regular cold and that on top of being outside at all over the weekend triggered my asthma to flare up a bit. I feel a lot better now and I think some of the dizziness and trembling are due to new doses of meds.

So yeah, that was scarey but its ok now.

This past weekend I got to see the fam. I love seeing everyone and I'm glad I'm close to enough to all of them that its not much of a trip to get there.

Since then I've had a tummy ache which triggered me to eat less of my food and drink more water. I'm actually averaging about 30oz a day of water and eating deli type sandwhiches and carrots to snack on. My weight was down a bit but we'll see how that goes. I'm also drinking milk and trying to eat normally from home instead of out too much.

The exercising is stopped until I can get a new inhaler. I have exercise induced asthma. I think that would go away if I built up my lungs more.

So we'll see how things go. I'm still not giving up!

Birthday Weekend was a blast!

2007-01-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful dinner Friday night as well with Mom, Jim, Lia and Greg. We went to Longhorn where I had this humungous beer that I had to drink using a straw. I managed to fling the straw out of the drink while talking with my hands and some of it flung right on mom.....TWICE. But it was so much fun. I got some very lovely bath and smelly stuff from Jim and Lia along with Season 4 of Scrubs (I'm really looking forward to this show). Mom gave me some money and an exercise outfit that I plan on using tomorrow. It was a wonderful time!

Saturday I woke up at 7:30 to get ready and head off to my first class. I was a bit nervous about not knowing where to go but I found it pretty quickly and made it with a few minutes to spare. It opens up with a lecture from 8:30-10:10 then we have a 20 minute break before the lab starts just a few doors down from 10:30-2:30pm. I really like the teacher. He's a Dr. and has been working for the Departement of Agriculture for over 40 years. He loves it to much to retire. Very knowlegdeable and he makes it interesting. He did start the class off by saying that today was a very special day because it is the most depressing day of the year. The day when there are suicides and sadness. I almost raised my hand to say today was my birthday but thought twice. Oh well. It was a happy day for me! I immediately befriended a girl who said she worked for NIH as well so I knew going into the next class I had a good lab parter. Another guy joined us and I think it will be a fun semester with a good group.

No dissections, thank God. But I've heard there could be a cat dissection when I get to my anatomy class. I'm begging that it will be another animal that has not been a pet of mine. If it is a cat, I've told myself, I'll have to get tears, anger, and any other emotion out of the way and deal with it. I have to be strong and get a good grade because when I'm in the job as a nurse, I'm sure I'll see things and feel emotions that I'll have to learn to put aside.

Anyway, I went straight from class to shopping for a few new things and then home for a nap. When I got home Greg surprised me with a beautiful and yummy birhday cake with my name on it. We went out to Rock Bottom right at 6pm and friends started rolling right in. I'll tell you it was one of my best parties ever. Everyone was there for me and I felt so special. Just the thought of everyone making it out and trecking up there was the best feeling in the world. We drank, laughed, joked, and just had a wonderful time. A few of us that stayed until midnight decided to go to a friend's house to continue the party. We stayed for a bit then at about 2:00am headed out to IHOP. I just really had fun and enjoyed everyone's company. :)

My eating and exercising have slacked even through till today but tomorrow its back on that treadmill in the morning, no excuses! I've been averaging about a two day a week workout but i'm not giving up.

The celebrations have begun!

2007-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

I had a nice dinner with Cindy and Greg yesterday, then I get a beautiful array of roses from Greg this morning delivered right to my office :) then a balloon with a stuffed animal from a coworker (who had the 1st ballooon blow away on her so she had to go back and get another one), then I have dinner tonight with Mom, Jim, Lia and Greg, then Dinner tomorrow and drinks with friends.

Of course in the midst of all this I have my first class starting tomorrow too. Mixed emotions about that but getting nervous. The mixed emotions are the fact that its biology. I hope I like it.

I'm so spoiled! :) :) :) :)

29 tomorrow!

Break today

2007-01-26T05:34:00.000-08:00

Today is a break because I feel like I'm coming down with something and liked the extra sleeping in this morning.

Monday-Thursday next week are as follows:

Monday - Treadmill
Tuesday - Elliptical
Wed. - Treadmill
Thursday Elliptical
Friday-Sunday Off

Not a bad schedule. :)

Did it again!

2007-01-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

32.5 minutes on the Elliptical (tried to do 35 but ran out of energy and time).

:)

Back to it

2007-01-24T05:38:00.000-08:00

When January 1st rolls around every year I get all excited about starting it off right with the eating good and exercising. Then by the time my birthday hits, there are other birthdays in the mix and I end up eating out and not doing so great then giving up altogether by February.

This started to happen but I'm not letting it. We went on our trip where we ate bad, I went to Dad's for his birthday party where we ate bad, and I want to eat bad on my birthday this weekend! But today I started the exercising back up. Just because I have some tough times with the food doesn't mean I can't exercise!

And I did a jog/walk today too!! I also pushed myself a bit more to see what I could do. For the first 15 minutes I did walk 2 jog 1 instead of walk 2 jog 30 sec. After the first 15 I did walk 3 jog 1.

I'm very proud of myself for this. I pushed a little more and it felt good. I'll stick with this for a while. Tomorrow I'm taking a day break from the treadmill and I'll work on the elliptical for 30. Then Friday I'll do the treadmill again.

:)

Fun Weekend!

2007-01-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

Well, this past Sunday Greg and I trecked out to West Virginia with dogs in tow. We were hoping for some skiing but all in all just hoping for a nice quiet couple of days....we had the quiet couple of days. We went in search of a new bar with gambling every night we were there. WV has poker/slot machines in almost every bar and its a lot of fun. We had a beer or two at each and just tried to check out whats around there.

Our favorite hot spot was the shopping in Oakland and my favorite store was Cato which is a newer plus and regular size clothing store with awesome prices.

I was glad to get back home but glad we went. Our little princess, Emmi managed to scratch wood off the frame of the door and tear some blinds right in half a while we were out but it wasn't anything Greg couldn't fix.

Needless to say, from now on, she'll be in a crate when we go out while on vacation.

Diet and Exercise:

Diet was very bad but my other favorite thing about the trip was a good 2 mile hike in the woods to get to Shallow Falls. It was beautiful and either downhill or flat going to the falls but all uphill coming back. The pups got to swim a bit in a flat and more calm area of the falls and it was overall, just beautiful to look at.

I weighed myself when I got back home and I was back up but today I'm back down to my lowest so its a fresh start.

I have a busy weekend so the exercise in the mornings will pick back up fresh on Teusday but I will still try to chose healtier options while out and about if I can.

:)

Tumbling down

2007-01-11T04:47:00.000-08:00

So at 4 in the morning Greg and I wake up to this awfully loud bang. We thought, maybe the pots and pans rack fell or maybe our wine rack fell.....nope.

To my surprise, the entire cabinet next the fridge fell right off the wall shattering about 70% of our stuff into tiny glass and ceramic pieces.

We were able to salvage some things such as the Dom Perignon from our Wedding we haven't opened and a dish we got from Grandma for the wedding but we lost a few nice things also. :(

Needless to say, we didn't sleep good after that and I'm tired this morning. I think today is a break. I'll be back at that treadmill tomorrow. I've been doing some exercising everyday so today's break is needed. :)

Food has been great so far but not as great as it needs to be. I'm working on it...

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1st morning workout

2007-01-10T05:03:00.000-08:00

I did a jog/walk this morning on the treadmill! I walked for 2 minutes, jogged for 30 seconds and repeated for 30 minutes. It said I only went 1.5 miles which was a slow pace but jogging at all is very hard for me and I was feeling some tension in my calves. I stopped once to stretch them again but they are going from nothing to a lot right off the bat. I think I'll do treadmill every other day and on the other days I'll do the eliptical or bike. I don't want to push it too hard where I get an injury right away.

Of course, the last time I jogged I was about 80lbs smaller too so I am not expecting to be able to run right away.

Weight was down but it fluctuates so I'll wait to write any kind of success post about that until I see it staying down.

Now...work here I come..

Crockpotness Monster

2007-01-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hahahahaha I crack myself up.

Yes, I have rediscovered my never-used Crockpot Grandma bought for me a few years ago. What a better way to start getting use to eating at home. Cindy told me about these ready made bags you can just throw into a Crockpot from the frozen foods isle. I bought 2; Pot roast, veggies and potatotes and Chicken, veggies and potatoes.

Once I turn it on a few times for these kinds of meals I'll start looking up different recipes to make some new and exciting soups, side dishes and full meals on my own! I would like to cut up veggies and have more veggies than the potatoes and meat (like you're suppose to) but first things first.

Tomorrow I start down the road to running....er...no, walking and jogging for now.. but running in the future. I really enjoyed it when I ran with Dad (something I thought I would never say); and I was able to run for 30 minutes then nonstop. I would love to take Emmi on runs but she is so out of shape she needs to build up as well. I'll try to take her when it's not cold (I don't want to drag her into too much right away) and will try to use the treadmill in the mornings at first.

Go me!

Successful Weekend!

2007-01-08T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I exercised quite a bit this weekend. I worked on the townhouse for 4 hours Saturday then took a half our 2 mile walk with the pups, then walked around Chinatown for a bit on Saturday before the hockey game.

Sunday I worked on the townhouse for an hour and called it a day.

Today, its a half hour on the exercise bike for me then dinner with a friend.

Food wasn't terrible. I chose to get a salad and soup at an all you can eat buffet Sunday afternoon. Thats a major plus since I love buffets.

Water, I need to work on it.

But I'm pretty proud of myself for this weekend. My weight goes way up then back down to my starting point but it isn't going down yet. We'll see how that goes. I may have to become more strict soon with my eating out.

Still in the first week

2007-01-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was so tired I scratched the exercise for the day. No biggy. I still ate ok (lets just say, it wasn't terrible). For breakfast I had a banana and 1 poptart. I had Quiznos for lunch with low fat chips and a sprite (sprite doesn't have as many calories as a regular coke). And for dinner I had chicken, broccoli and mashes potatoes (much better than the huge burger I wanted). I also drank 20oz of water.

So my calories were probably high for the day (since nothing was made from home) and I didn't exercise but I don't think it was a dud kind of day. I slept pretty good and have more energy to workout today.

My boss ok'd my new schedule. Instead of 7:30-5 with a 1 hr lunch break, she is letting me do 8-5 with a 1/2 hr lunch break so I have time to workout. I get here at 6:45 so that leaves me with 1 hr 15 minutes to workout and shower in the morning. Perfect for me.

I also signed up for the Discovery Health challenge so I could get a free 8 week pass to Ballys. So I'll try to use Bally's up then start doing mornings after that. I still would like to do the 10k with Jim and Kieran so I need to start working on that soon. I have a long way to go to be able to make a 10k but I can do it!!

On a roll!!

Day 1

2007-01-04T04:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a success to me! I did have a starbucks Venti Mocha in the morning (first day back to work after a break...it was needed) but for lunch I had a ceasar salad at Bennigans. Then for dinner we met our friend Moe at Red Robin where I had a chicken sandwhich and veggies with iced tea. I also drank 21oz of water for the day and no soda.

I went home and did a vigorous workout on the stationary bike for a half hour and was done for the day. I felt good that I did it afterwards and slept great.

Today, down the 2lbs of New Years eating and drinking.

Goals for today 24oz of water and 30 mins of the stationary bike.

:)

Wow

2007-01-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Feeling a bit stressed but all in good fun. My calendar is booked up through the end of March now. Lots to do but if you have nothing to do, life gets boring right?

I officially start the exercise today. My goal is to bike for 30 minutes at home tonight. Once I talk to my boss about altering my schedule a bit I'll start working out in the mornings next week alternating from the treadmill to the elliptical. The Federal program I signed up for might allow me an extra 30 minutes in the morning to be able to do this without having to get up any earlier than normal..yippee!

The food, I'll work on gradually. I'm going to try to drink a little more water each day and try to eat better but if I don't thats ok for now. My current goal is to just get some activity everyday and build that up.

I'll keep this blog updated on my activities and weight loss through all of this. For now, its just going to be a normal routine for me like brushing my teeth. It has to be!

Festive Days

2006-12-28T07:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a fun filled, busy and exciting week!

We visited and had a wonderful time with Mom last Thursday exchanging gifts, showing her our home, and going out to a steak dinner at Outback. I could tell she enjoyed it and I loved showing her our new coffee table which she helped us buy for christmas.

Saturday consisted of a fun filled night with the fam and Holly and John. We started off with the best sparkling wine I've ever tasted and ended it with a great two games of bowling in Frederick. I had a blast with everyone and really enjoyed everyone's company. We exchanged gifts with Holly and John and I could just see the smiles and joy on everyone's face!

Sunday was a day with the Mother-in-Law which was a lot of fun! We started our time off with a bottle of White Zinfandel, playing Greg's new arcarde game then exchanged gifts and went out to a Japanese Hibachi dinner. We drove to Damascus where we saw a house that went crazy with lights and even had 60" TV screen that displayed christmas pictures.

Monday was Christmas which was a nice quiet (and rainy) day at home where Greg and I exchanged gifts and played with our toys while we watched the puppys open gifts (yes Emmi can open them with her teeth but then she gets bored after the first few tears).

Tuesday, Dad came in to town. I had a great time with him. We met up with the bros exchanged gifts, went out to dinner and had some more shopping fun on Wed. We saw some more fam and had a great dinner with him before sending him on his way today.

Today its back to work with the thought of desperately wanting to lose weight on my mind.

Needless to say I ate terrible but I came back to work with an email from the Department for a Presidential Health challenge to Federal employees. I'm so there! I already signed up. The challege is for different levels of individuals (mine being complete beginner) where they want me to exercise 30 mintes a day 5 days a week and for 5 full weeks out of the next 8 weeks.

I can do this! Awards will be sent out to those that do well!

New Year new me

2006-12-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

I haven't been on in awhile because, well...I haven't wanted to face the fact that I didn't do well on my so called "eating better" past 3 days worth. My weight went down then went back up. It fluctuates. I've been around the same 3lb mark for at least 6 months which, in a way, is good because I've been eating terrible.

With Mom's suggestion, I'm going to join the Germantown Rec center gym 5 minutes from my house for a low low price of $135 a year. Not bad at all!!! With this membership, I can go to any Montgomery County Rec Center gym.

It's very hard to start this now so it's a new years resolution for me. I'm sure I'll see a crowd of new years people in there as well. With Dad's surgery after surgery to repair genetics and years of damage, I see it as things to come for me when I turn 55. Thats not good. I can correct or at least hold back these problems my genetics have given me. I already have high bad cholesterol and have been yelled at by my doc before but am only borderline. I am not bad enough to need medication but its bad enough to be concerned.

So....New Year new me! Starting weight..........*hesitation*............2....3....0. : (

Another Day

2006-11-30T04:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I felt the urge to make something at home for dinner so I stopped at the store, went home and told Greg, "We're having baked potatoes with broccoli and cheddar cheese tonight." He was like..."Um.....ok." He's not used to that. :)

It was good and very filling and I felt good about eating healthier. I had a glass of skim milk with it too.

I hopped on the scale this morning and was 2 lbs down but it's not official until next Wed.

I gotta keep this up! I feel pretty good about doing the right thing!

Day 1

2006-11-29T04:43:00.000-08:00

Last night, after deciding to eat better, Greg asks if I want to go out to Famous Daves with a few friends. I said sure! Then immediately started pondering what to get thats a healthier choice from there. Hmm, healthy at a barbeque place? We get there and are immediately rushed to order since they had to leave for an appointment. That rush almost had me chosing my normal there....pulled pork on toast, mashed potatoes, corn bread, green beans...but I chose quickly to order the salad with honey barbeque dressing.

I had that with corn bread and a coke. Not the best choices but better than what I would have chosen if I had a few more minutes to decide.

Thats a check in the box of good thinking for me.

Today, its lunch out again and I will chose wisely there as well. Hmmm maybe even water instead of coke..is that pushing it for the 2nd day in?

We'll see...

Is it that time for me again?

2006-11-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

I think it is.....

Time to get this weight off!! I've pushed it aside long enough. I should have been utilizing this time I've had putting my body to work on the townhouse to eat better. If I did eat better, I would've certainly taken a few pounds off.

I do have a goal. That is to lose 50lbs. Thats it. No time frame. 50lbs is a lot of weight off my back, legs, and heart. Those parts of my body will thank me for it, trust me. Not to mention those lungs of mine. Whew..they will really thank me. So for them...and them alone! I'm doing it!

Ticker....where are you ticker....

Oh there you are..

First things first

2006-11-22T05:23:00.000-08:00

My amazing husband fell apon a job for us from one of his regular computer clients. This being christmas, birthdays, car insurance and car maintenance time, I needed it bad. Plus I will officially sign up for my first class towards my nursing degree (otherwise known as an R.N.) and thats another high expense for me.

A couple we know is in need of selling thier townhouse bad. Its in Germantown and was built in the late 70's. It was very well taken care of until a family of about 10 moved in (renters of the current owners) and literally destroyed the place. The owner's knew it would eventually need work and offered to paint and reparpet the place for the renters but since they had a lot of kids they decided to have them do the work when they left.

I can't wait to show before and after pictures of this place. We have put in quite a few hours of painting so far and it has made a world of difference. We have a friend helping us with tile work, drywall repair and electrical work and I plan on watching and/or helping to learn how to do some of that myself.

Nursing

I have officially decided to go towards the nursing degree at MC. In the Fall of '07 they are going to start night and weekend classes and clinicals which will be perfect for me. It'll take some time to get in to the program but in the meantime I plan on taking some regular core courses to get me going on it. Those courses areBiology, Anatamy, Physiology, Microbiology and Physcology.

Definatley a different area than I've been into before so we'll have to see how it goes.

Now off to work for me I go!

11/6

2006-11-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of a great man's death. He was my Uncle John and I loved him very much. I'm so glad he made it out to my wedding where that was the last time many of us saw him alive.

He had a very warm and caring personality and I just loved his smile! Holly has that same smile and I see him in her when she laughs.

I will always remember and love him and hold him very dear to my heart.

___________________

His anniversary also comes a week after an old co-worker of Greg's was found dead in or around the Monocacy river in Frederick. Please see Greg's blog for more information.

I took it harder than I thought even though I didn't know him that well. We did go to a craft show with him, his wife and kids a few years ago and I did work with them at Circuit City for a short while but I didn't know him even like Greg did. Its still hard to know he's gone just like that and that his death is all over the local papers. He really was a great person and my thoughts are with his family right now as the investigation into his death continues.

The show must go on and our lives must go on. Never ever forget those we've loved and lost but keep your chin up and keep on moving.

News

2006-11-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

While I was peeking around the Frederick Post website after reading a particular article I found this:

100 years ago
NOVEMBER 2, 1906

Persons who have examined the plans for the Y.M.C.A. building are aware that they include billiard rooms. In some quarters there has been found to exist a prejudice against these games because of their usual connection, in the past, with saloons, but this prejudice is fast dying out, and it is now almost universally recognized that there is absolutely nothing harmful in the games themselves, but that they are, on the contrary, not only interesting, but beneficial to those who play them.

Mr. John Mumford, a well-known huckster residing near Braddock Heights, had quite a mishap one evening recently. While driving up the west side of Catoctin Mountain, his horses became frightened and ran the wagon down a steep embankment, smashing 75 dozen eggs and wrecking the wagon top, two wheels and the tongue.

The hunting season opened in Frederick county yesterday, and hundreds of sportsmen were out with guns and dogs, after partridges. Birds are rather scarce, but many were shot yesterday. Rabbits are more plentiful and hundreds were killed.

This is rather interesting. Look at the news from back then compared to the news of today. I can't wait to read what tomorrows news from 100 years ago says. Frederick and surrounding Maryland History is quite interesting to me. Germantown has quite a bit of history I would love to read up on as well. Such as.....355 use to be a dirt road at one point. There's a Germantown Historic Socieity I would love to go to sometime.

Neato!

The Daddy

2006-10-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

Dad was so excited to see me. I rarely see him but I think of him all the time. I made plans to visit about a month ago and we both penciled the date in our calendars since we're always busy. The week leading up to my visit, he wrote me twice about how he was looking up orchards and things for us to do. He was so happy.

I drove down there Friday and got there by about 9pm. I actually like the quiet drive up even if there was traffic. It's nice to blast good music and relax after a full day of work and a full week of work. I was exhausted by the time I got there and only chatted for about an hour before going to bed.

He had plans for me to get up early the next day and get going. Thats dad. But it was a good idea because we didn't even have time to hit everything before nightfall.

We drove up towards Dover where we stopped at a nice Pumpkin patch and took a few pics. We had a nice lunch at Olive Garden and drove around tons more where we found a country store that was right next door to the pumpkin patch we were at an hour and a half before that. Kinda funny. I love those funny moments with dad where we just look at each other and start laughing.

Anyway, we drove a bit further and decided we were done for the day. Sunday we got up to shop some more but we didn't have much luck and I almost got us into a bad accident. We decided to turn around and go home where I took a nap kissed dad goodbye and left to visit Aunt Patty before going home.

I do worry about Dad's health but it's not too often I can dedicate a weekend to going up there. It was nice seeing him and I cant wait to see him again.

Reunion continued...

2006-10-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

So...We sat there at the table until these two girls I sort of knew came in. They were twins and they came and chatted with us for a bit until more people got there. By that time, I didn't feel so bad but I still felt extremely awkward being there.

The people who walked through after that were people I wasn't really friends with in high school. If they wanted to chat I would've but I just sat there and kinda watched. I started off with a couple of beers then switched over to red wine. The girls you see in the pic below came in and I also saw Jen, Maria, Jenny, Heather, and Cindy. It was great seeing them but the rest of the crowd was not my crowd.

These were all the popular people I didn't know in high school but I recognized a lot them and wondered if they even knew who I was. I walked to the bathroom at one point where I had to walk by a couple of the popular guys and saw them all staring at me probably trying to wonder who I was or thinking I looked different. I mean I gained about 85lbs and had my hair straight so I'll bet I looked different.

Greg was bored but by the time the bar was closing down, I was having a good time with my good friends at our table and a couple others that were still out and about visiting with other classmates.

I don't regret going at all and I'll be glad to go to the 20 year but it did feel a bit like I was back in high school for a night. So thats my reunion, nothing specatular but it was definately mind boggling for me up until the big night.

Other stuff...

We had a party on Sunday just because. I can always count on our friends to come and make it a blast everytime. We provided the beer and food and a place to hang and they made it fun. You know you're getting older when the drinking games aren't as much, friends are bringing thier kids over (which was quite fun actually and entertaining) and people sit around chatting for the most part instead of dancing or doing keg stands.

But I guess you got to grow up a bit eventually. I still love parties and am usually up for them when they come about though.

I had all week off and ended up getting sick from our party on Monday. It carried through till the following Sunday until I had to go back to work so I was in bed the whole time almost.

But we did manage to go to SPX where I finally got to see Monica work her comic magic! She looked beautiful and she looked very confident. I've always wanted to buy something of hers to have and we spotted a gorgeous model/assassin pic. Greg found one of hers that has cute Panda's representing different months or holidays throughout the year. Some day I'll pick up her actual comics.

I was very proud of her though and we had a good time looking at all the other great artists with our friend Joe.

Now its back to work but I am going to Rehoboth this weekend to see my dear 'ol dad. I'm looking forward to going down memory lane with him to an orchard or two and to an Amish shopping area nearby.

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Update..for real this time.

2006-10-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

Lets start off with the biggest event.

Reunion...Part 1.

I got up Saturday morning (Oct. 7th) and helped Greg with a thing or two before going to get my hair done. I was pretty excited about doing that but tired from the week still. I went to a salon that Greg works at part time. No he doesn't do hair...he's the computer guy.

The lady was like...yeah no problem, I'll match your roots good. I spent 3.5 hours there and she did a fantastic job making me look pretty. The color matched really well, although within a week it's already washing out. The years of lightening my hair are coming back through to haunt me. I was very tempted to go darker but the whole point of me having her match my roots was so I didn't have to go back in that often to have my hair done. It gets expensive.

So....I went home and basically twiddled my thumbs until it was time to get make up and nice clothes on. The clothes are another story. I hate my body...plain and simple. So the shopping experience is never fun for me. Mom and I tired ourselves out before finally going to a store I always find stuff at, Lane Bryant. I found a top, nice pants, and heels. I found jewelry at a different store another day (which I love).

So anyway, I'm stressing...like crazy and even yelling at poor Greg. Meanwhile, he's scaring me by saying he wants to go to my reunion in his normal t-shirt, baggy pants atire. Yes...he got yelled at once again.

I was so worried about the damn thing that we actually got there early! We were the first ones. I felt like an idiot but there was an open bar there so thats ok......

..............more to come. I'm at work so I can't be on here too long.

Update...NOT

2006-10-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have tons to say but no energy to say it. I've been sick.

I'll update soon. Its on the lines of 10 year reunion, nursing, and SPX.

:)

School?

2006-09-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

As I read Dan's exciting new travel and school stories I am more than contemplating going back myself. Sure I've talked (I always talk..I love to talk) about going back but I'm serious and I think this time its to be a nurse. Yes...I said nurse.

After helping with both of my parents through their surgeries then my husband through his, I like it. So much so...that I would like to be an operating room or operating recovery room nurse. I've seen a minor surgery in front of me in real life and I get pretty fascinated to watch the full on surgeries on TV so I'm pretty sure I could handle it in the stomach category.

I've already taken the first step and scheduled myself to attend an info session for a BSN in Nursing at Shady Grove. They offer classes at Shady Grove but its all part of the School of Nursing at the Baltimore campus. I have two great friends that are nurses as well as a cousin who is going for his BSN right now (even though he's already a registered Nurse) as well. Thats more than enough enthusiasm right there. Plus my Aunt was a nurse and I'm sure I could ask her all kinds of questions if I wanted. I started to before and she lit up with excitement that I was even interested.

Let just see. I think this could be a great and exciting move for me.

Travels

2006-09-20T05:46:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of Dan today as he travels to a new place, ready to explore the wonders of the world! He's going to Cali! That's just totally awesome to me! I'm so proud of him. Yes it is sad to see him go and know that he isn't just 40 minutes away but its cool that he'll have tons to write about and tons to tell all of us back home about as he makes his way through the next 5 years.

It's a decision I hope he doesn't ever regret because if he didn't make this decision, he will have regreted not doing it.

Dan, good luck with everything! Know that all of us are rooting for you and can't wait to hear of your adventures.

We love you!

Hey you might be passing Greg in another plane come back home from Colorado today. Wave hi.

Life and death

2006-09-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

It's strange, I didn't think Elizabethtown would have an impact on me.

Imagine a man who loses his extravagant job as an artist because the world doesn't agree with his views. He goes home, he tries to kill himself and in that moment the phone rings. He doesn't want to answer it but he does and its his sister telling him his father died. Here's a man at the worst of his being.

Of course it all is based around a love story but thats just a side story compared to the life he sees and the joy he gets out of life around him throughout the movie.

Within this movie, there are the classic rock hits. The kind of hits that make you smile when you hear them and sing along to them. As thier playing, he stops at all the joys and sites of the United States and takes in the beauty and history before him. Through all this, he has his father in an urn with him. There is death right before him as life shines brighter than it ever has.

You gotta love a movie that makes you truly think about things and celebrate the life of those that have died and not drown in sorrows of thier loss.

I didn't go into too much detail because I want everyone to see it. Parts of it were slow and predictable but the parts that aren't predictable are the ones you need to take in and enjoy.

Patriot Day....

2006-09-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to put a quick post about where I was and what I remember 5 years ago today. We all do that. We all think about where we were when we heard the news and how we felt when we saw the towers fall on tv.

I heard it on DC101. I heard Elliot talking about a plane that had crashed into the first tower. I remember thinking, how sad, but didn't think on it a whole lot. Then before I got to work (at Harmon Homes) I heard the 2nd plane had hit. I remember walking into the building and looking up at the beautiful clear skies for a plane. I got to work and my coworkers were talking about it. The more we talked about it the more we worked ourselves up. Then someone heard from someone else about the Pentagon being hit. I remember, we were sent home and we watched everything on tv from there. I do remember hearing about the first tower falling but I saw the 2nd tower fall on TV when we got home. I remember watching people jump out of the windows on tv and thats when it finally hit me. I didn't actually break down until I decided to go feed Chelsea. I had to feed her because I didn't the day before and I had promised mom I would check on her a few times while mom was at Grandmas. I had called mom from Harmon homes and she hadn't heard anything about it yet.

I cried in the car and I think I cried more when I finally got back home. I was afraid to leave my house but had to.

It was such a horrible day. I'll never forget some of those moments or how I felt.

I don't think anyone will forget that day.

Emmi Update

2006-09-11T07:13:00.000-07:00

I had to take our little girl to an emergency clinic for the weekend. She stopped vomiting on Friday but didn't want to eat anything. So the doc wanted to see her, took some blood and did an X-Ray and decided she needed to be on an IV Catheter for the weekend. He said I could leave her there where no one would watch her or I can take her to a 24- hour vet clinic where they would monitor her progress. I thought that was the best option and so did he.

I called Saturday for an update and she was doing very well. By Sunday morning she had food and was extremely hungry. She held that down so we brought her home. She did so well yesterday I was the happiest girl alive. She's on a special canned food diet and was getting just a 1/4 can 3 times yesterday. Today she was suppose to start on 1/2 a can 4 times but she decided to vomit up her medicine right after I gave it to her.

I consider that a freeby. Yes I'm worried but she just got home from a stressful vet visit and I just stuck my finger down her throat to give her a pill.

Greg stayed home with her and said she's just laying around and hasn't gotten sick again. I decided to skip the breakfast and have him give her some food later in the morning or early afternoon.

We'll just have to see how she does. I'm hoping and praying the diagnosis is right.

Here's the deal. She was just at the vet 2 weeks ago for surgery. Whenever she goes to the vet, she gets overly excited and starts gulping air. The vet explained this to me when she was a puppy because she did the same thing then. So, when he took an X-ray Friday he saw that her little intestines were filled with gas (air..same thing). I honestly think this is what happened. So she may still be filled up a bit which could be why she vomited this morning.

Well....Greg and Mom are right, I need to calm down because there's nothing I can do but wait until she rests. The vet has her on bed rest for the next 2 weeks so she doesn't excite herself too much. I'm hoping by the end of the week she'll be back on reg. food and doing good.

Can you tell I love her sooo much. She's my baby. I just want her to be ok.

Whew...

2006-09-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

Yes my little girl had to go in for a hospital stay today. She had me up all night worrying. Doc said if she got sick any more throughout the night he wanted her back in today and she did. Poor thing. She had blood in her bowel movement. I was worried out of my mind. Could hardly work today. Doc called me after lunch and I found out this little trickster ate something she shouldn't have. He said it looks like its moving through her body now which is why she's bloody down there.

I have no clue what she ate but I'm sure we'll find out soon. She's on medicine now and a different special diet and I get to pick her up and bring her home tonight.

You know, there is such a special bond between pet and owner. I just knew by the look she gave me all night that she was trying to tell me she wasn't feeling good and it wasn't getting better. I would walk into the kitchen and she had the most somber look on her face while keeping her head down. Greg said when he was petting her she was still trying to look at me to help her. I got so frustrated that I couldn't help her this morning I just started crying. And of course, I kept thinking it was worse.

I'm so glad its almost over and she'll be back to her good old sweet Emmi self.

Yay!

My Special One.

2006-09-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying F*CK I BROKE A NAIL!!! AND I JUST GOT THEM DONE ON SATURDAY...GRRRRRRRR!!!

Ok...now that that's over with.....

I just got back from yet another appointment for Emmi. Shall I start at the beginning? First of all, she's a seizure dog, that alone classifies her as a special needs dog in my eyes. Next, I don't brush her teeth so she needed a $500 teeth cleaning about a month ago (I know, I know). THEN, she gets a tumor like bump behind her left ear which means surgery, a whopping $550. THEN, she gets sick this weekend and throws up continuously from Sunday till tonight. She felt hot yesterday too. I was so worried it was something bad but the doc thinks its a reaction to her antibotic. She gets fluids through an IV, special canned food for the next few meals, and a shot to help her upset tummy......$83 bucks. If she gets sick again tonight, her day tomorrow will be spent at the vet for a hospital stay with more fluids and a close eye from the doc (and me worrying to death all day).

I feel so bad for her. And trust me, this money is worth it, she is such a great dog and she is the love of my life, I'll spend as much as I need to, it's just shocking when it keeps adding up like this and I don't have it to begin with. But thats what being a dog owner is all about. Jim, look forward to the future.

I can never ever get mad at her. If she does something wrong and I start to yell at her, she gives me those eyes, that look, that just makes it all go away. I know, she's spoiled but one look into those eyes and you'll know why. She really is an amazing little girl.

I just hope she can be healthy long enough to live another 6 years at least. I worry about that. I'll spend whatever it takes.

Thats my Emmi news. When she's all better I'll take her to get groomed. They looove her there. They even put little bows on her ears. Its soo cute! :)

Crikey!

2006-09-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

It's so sad that Steve Irwin, know as the Crocodile Hunter, died from a sting ray. Apparently, its so rare to die from their sting but it also happened to sting him right in the heart.

The saddest part to me is that he was only 44 and has two kids. He was also a TV icon.

RIP Steve Irwin. :(

Busy Weekends

2006-08-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, last weekend (before the one we just had) we took a trip to look at some property in W.Va and decided to buy it. It will make bills tight for awhile but it was worth the investment. Check out Greg's blog to see the pics and more info on it.

I'm really excited about it even though I know we won't be able to build a vacation home on it for a long time. I'll just be glad if the land doubles in value for us. I was watching a show called Flip That House last night and I wish we had money to invest in real estate, fix up a house and resell it. Like what Jim did on his house (even though he's not reselling it). Its now worth a lot more than he paid for it because of the updates he's done. I'm sure if you do that on one home, you can make a good profit then use that money to put into a different home to make more of a profit. It's a great business. This one guy bought a home built in 1910 in S. Carolina for about $310k, spent $45k to redo the roof, floors, put new appliances in and paint the whole thing (among other things) and put it back up for sale for about $450k. Thats almost a $100k in profit.
Too bad the market's not great right now. If we were to do that around here, it still could take a while to sell at home.

Went to dan's going away party on Saturday. I'm so going to miss him. We had a funeral for our beloved Chelsea and Watson and, as Matt said, It was closure. I hated doing it because I hated saying goodbye but it was good to do it. Mom had them both creamated and was a bit upset when I didn't want to touch the boxes at first. I just didn't want to imagine 60lb Watson and 10lb Chelsea in tiny boxes. Dan said a wonderful speach, which he's so good at, and as he cried during his speach I wanted to give him a hug but didn't for some reason. That was the first time I saw him break down over it and he gave me the biggest hug when I cried. I don't know why I didn't hug him. We shared our love for those two together. They were, as he said, our emotional support for our parent's divorce. We helped each other through it also but it helped us both to focus on this wonderful kitten and wonderful puppy. They made us so happy growing up. Just thinking about things they did and the way they were brings a huge smile to my face. They will always be in our hearts.

Dan seemed so happy that family and friends came together for a nice crab feast Jim put together. Jim and Lia did a fantastic job!! Holly and John came up which was so nice to see them and Dad was happy and healthy looking which I love to see him like that. I loved seeing Lauren, Monica and thier sig. others too!

Dan we're all gonna miss you so much and we love you and hope you really make the best of your adventures out there!

I hope you keep up your blog and let us all know what you've been up to! I'm sure you'll be very busy too.

Love ya!!

Now onto a new workweek (which is always eventful lately). Is it wrong to say I wish it were Friday?

New Leaf?

2006-08-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

I debated on whether or not I should post about my new try at weight loss but it does sort of help. I also think it can jinx me but we'll see. Weight loss really shouldn't be said...I should say eating better and walking, because, really, thats all it is right now.

One thing I'm trying is eating breakfast. I've had a bagel almost every morning for breakfast instead of sleeping in. It does help me to wake up and energize me for the day. A cup of coffee helps too but my tummy doesn't like it all the time. My meals havent been perfect but I'm trying. Today I did go to the salad bar and I got rice, broccoli, carrots, peas, corn, hb egg and some mac and cheese. That m&c helped with the dry broccoli. I also grabbed baked lays for later. I have whole wheat spaghetti with sauce for dinner too. I know its a lot of starches for now but its the idea of trying to grab better things that I'm trying to work on.

I've had fun and have been looking forward to our half hour walks. The pups love it too. We found a new path around the Germantown Rec center that is about a mile long with lots of hills. By the time I'm done with the hills and I get back to the car, I'm beat. Thats how out of shape I am. I would like to work up to increasing speed and distance but I gotta start somewhere.

Go me! (again)

Moving on

2006-08-10T05:05:00.000-07:00

It's been tougher than you think to move on from the loss of Chelsea. I've cried or teared up thinking about it every day so far. I'll never get over it really. I have the picture mom gave me that says "Best Cat Ever" on it and it has cartoon type cats on the frame. It plays music too. The pic I have of Chelsea in it was when I took her outside at the Olney house and put her near some flowers. She was too scared to go anywhere which made it perfect for me to get a "professional" looking shot. It's a great picture actually. She was probably only 2 or 3 when it was taken. I keep wanting to hold her one more time but to tell you the truth, there could never be one more time with me, I would want to keep holding her. But, I do need to move on and keep going. She'll always be in my heart.

Yesterday, I watched a show on the Discovery Channel called XXXtreme Weight loss or something like that. It had to do with people finding odd ways to lose the weight in a healthy way without diet pills or surgery and these were all people who lost at least 100lbs if not more.

One guy trecked across the US on a one man bike tour. He called it "Fat Man biking." Another woman who couldn't walk a half a mile joined a race to walk 7 miles and made herself train for it. She can now jog 20 miles. Another lady broke her leg and had to help herself eat in the morning so she made a big meal at night and put it in the fridge and started eating big for breakfast. She listened to her body and it told her to eat heavy in the morning and at lunch but don't eat after 3pm. She started snacking on veggies and fruits too. It just sort of formed a habit to her and without much exercise (other than some walks here or there) she lost over 100lbs. Another lady started taking belly dancing classes for fun and stuck with it.

These stories were great. It just shows that people can find their own motivation and ways of losing weight and keeping it off. It shows that everyone is different. I know it definately helps to motivate me.

Now I plan on eating something for breakfast and a big lunch with snacks inbetween and nothing after 3pm. Lets see how that goes.

Chelsea, the love of my life

2006-08-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

I was just told she was put to sleep yesterday. I really can't believe she's gone. We went through alot together. When I needed someone growing up, she was right there with me. I use to bunch up the covers and she would crawl under them and lay next to me while I slept.

I use to love to treat her like a doll and I would prop her up in funny poses and take pictures when she was a kitten. I still have those.

She was afraid of everything and I remember when Dad and I went to pick her up from the breeder she ran from us but the breeder said "Oh she'll get over it she's not normally like that." But it turns out, that became a personality trait of hers. When I brought her home to Dad's they gave me her litterbox and she layed in it because it had the familiar smell of home. She ran and hid under the bed and I layed there dangling a feather toy for her for at least an hour before she came out to play. That was our first bonding experience.

She adored Watson and they became fast buddies. She would rub up against him as if he could pet her and I remember him looking at her like "Stop that!" She also use to love to crawl on top of his cage or walk right next to it as if to taunt him. She was good at that.

She use to find the funniest places to sleep. She crawled into a mini basket that barely fit her 4 paws and slept there once and she slept in the bathroom sink a few times. I remember she once found rolled up dollar bills to play with and she would carry them down to the basement (which was her favorite place). She use to hide up in the boards in the laundry room.

And of course, how can we forget her recent adventure out of the house and hiding under a shed for 2 weeks. They may have been the beginning of her downfall but she was a survivor and the love of my life. I hated that I couldn't take her with me because of my allergies and everytime I wanted to pick her up and hug her I would sneeze and get sick for the next 24 hours but it was so worth it. Just to snuggle with her and hold her.

Please post your favorite memory of her. It truly helps.

I love you Chelsea and thank you for giving all of us almost 15 wonderful years!

Happy

2006-07-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

It's good to hang out with friends. We've been pretty busy lately seeing a few here and there and I always leave feeling happy that we have such a close group of friends who always want to see us.

Busy Busy Busy

2006-07-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend was packed! Friday we got home from work and worked around the house. Saturday we went shopping (which is always an experience for me) but I actually found a few things and that made Greg happy. He and mom know how hard it is for me to find things I actually like on me. I did shop around and try things on for awhile before getting frustrated when a guy who worked there looked at me and said "you have an unhappy look on your face, how is everything?" I had to tell him I just have a hard time finding things that I like on me and he said "Well, if you don't think you'll like it, try it anyway."

That's how I found the few things I found. We drove from there to a comic store (Greg's heaven) and then back home to quickly get ready for our friend's wedding.

Joe and Allison's Wedding!

We got there early to help Sita set up his DJ mambo jambo and saw a few of thier friend's there. Before we knew it, it was time to sit down for the wedding and it was set up outside next to the Kentland's Mansion. Kurt apparently brought the arch and Tim did all the flowers (beautiful). The music starts and Joe's brothers are escorting people out. I see Alison's mom and gasp at how beautiful she looked. Then I see Joe come out in his white tux (very nice, he looked great) then the girls walk out in a very cute green summery dress, then Allison walks out. I about fell over. She looked amazing! I, of course, start to tear up.

I snapped as many pics as I could get in between crying. I ended up getting some great ones. Joe and Allison had black diamond rings that are gorgeous and they exchanged vows. We all went inside where I met more people and was welcomed to an open bar. Turns out they had some help with that from their brother who just wanted everyone to have a great time.

I had a blast and loved meeting new people and seeing Allison, Joe, Shannon, Kurt and Kaitlyn.

When it was all over we drove the gifts back to their condo where they had a bit of a run in with the limo driver but we left as soon as all the gifts were in and went home and crashed.

Sunday, I saw Grandma.

She was so cute but looked very different to me. I actually didn't really know what to say to her. That was mostly due to the fact that she couldn't hear me at all. She ate all her food and even made a funny comment here and there. She knew my name and knew mom was my mother. She looked at Dan like she knew who he was too but didn't say his name. I still don't know if I feel comfertable enough to visit her on my own. I think the place just freaks me out but I would like to go with Dan again and then maybe with Jim. I would like to give mom those days off when I can go so it's nice that my bros are here.

I peaked in at Aunt Patty and saw her bald head. She's not feeling too well but I must say that shocked me. I wanted to give her a hug but she was on the phone and didn't see me. It's hard to see her like that. I truly hope she can get better enough to live a while longer with no pain.

Now its onto Monday and onto a new week.

Lily and Sean are next to marry on Thursday and I can't wait to be there for that. Tuesday is drink night ($1 beers) at Hard times in Rockville and I'm really looking forward to that too!

Maybe I can relax next weekend....sounds like a plan to me. But I do want to know when Jim is playing so I can come cheer him on!

Events

2006-07-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

4th of July was a lot of fun this year. Sitting around with Greg, Lee, Mike, Moe, Kathleen and Rob at Famous Dave's watching a great band (Eddie Stone), drinking, and watching some fireworks over tree tops was a great way for me to get out and celebrate. I thought Eddie Stone was awesome and would definately see them again.

Two days of work inbetween then Blue October Concert with Jim, Lia and Moe. Greg gave a great review in his blog but I did have to say I really enjoyed all three bands but Blue was the best. Justin''s very theatrical and the entire band got the audience pumped the whole time. They were really good. I can't wait, already, to see them again! I had a lot of fun with Jim, Lia, and Moe too. I can't wait to see them again also!

Now onto Joe and Allison's wedding. I'm very happy for them!

:)

Health is a wonderful thing

2006-06-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well this is day 3 of eating better and exercising. I exercised for 40 minutes again last night and did some more arm weights. Tonight I'll either walk or bike again for another 40 total minutes and do some leg weight exercises. Funny thing is, I'm not obsessing quite as much as I was the last time. It is on my mind constantly but I'm not thinking about it as much. I had cooked veggies for dinner last night and a salad for lunch today with chicken chili soup. I'm actually liking the salads. Someone once told me she lost a ton of weight on salads alone for lunches and dinners. I only like Caesar or barbeque dressing so I would get sick of that fast but it's going good so far.

I'm glad I'm not stopping this time even if I have a bad eating day. I'll pick up and keep going.

Wish me luck!

Changes

2006-06-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

Well...I just tried changing my template so, hopefully, it will find it's way to the internet world. I don't know why I can't see it right away.

But I do have some great news! That is, I am working on this whole issue I call weight again. I know...some of you are probably sick of the stop and start but I gotta keep trying until I accomplish this amazing feat.

I haven't krept all the way back up to my starting weight from before but I'm close. It's hard to look around me and see hereditary problem after hereditary problem eat away at most of my family and they're sneaking my way any year now. If I can get myself to do the healthy things a person should do, I might be able to fight off those demons longer than I would if I continued on the way I have been.

That said, if I eat out, I eat salads or chicken and veggies. If I eat in I eat grilled veggies (the way Dan made them for me...yes I actually went out and bought zucchini, squash and red pepper), salad, or sandwiches on whole wheat with orange juice. I actually exercised on the recumbant bike for 40 min's and did about 10 minutes of arm and leg exercise with 2-3lb weights last night while watching Monster-in-Law.

This is the beginning....again....lets make it happen!

Rest

2006-06-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend was packed with me working Friday and Saturday (when I was supposed to be off) and going to a bridal shower Sunday so I stayed home yesterday. It was nice to sleep in and relax. I just needed it.

I stopped by John's to pick Greg up Sunday and met some very cool, very nice people so I'm looking forward to hanging out with them hopefully soon.

I'm also very excited to see two of our friends get married in 2 weeks. They are very cute together and I'm very happy for them. It's funny how a year ago she caught the bouquet and he caught the garter at my wedding. It would be a perfect story if thats how they met but they've been together a while so I can't say that...

Off to another week and looking forward to the 4th of July holiday next week.

1 year down

2006-06-19T05:55:00.000-07:00

Today is our 1 year wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe a year has gone by since then and its also hard to believe we've been together for 8 years now (that anniversary was May 19th). We are still very much in love and still act just like newlyweds! Its funny because when we're apart at all (like we were this past weekend) I can't stop thinking about him and look at my phone to see if he's called. I was just looking at some of the wedding pictures last night. I will say, even though it was stressful coming up to our wedding day, it turned out beautiful and I wouldn't change a thing from that day, except maybe making sure the DJ was on time and not forgetting the rings but it turned out great! Everyone looked amazing and we have wonderful pictures to capture all of that. I was just thinking how nice it would be to frame some of my favorites and put them up on some of our bare walls going up the stairs. We really did get some great family shots as well!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GREG!

And, today marks another very special occassion and that is my brother's birthday! We had dinner with Jim, mom, Aunt Patty, Dan, Greg and Lia yesterday but today is the official day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIM!

Also, yesterday was father's day and Dan and I drove up to Delaware Friday night and came back Sunday. We had such a great weekend and Saturday couldn't have been more perfect. We went out to brunch on Saturday and Vanilla Ice happened to walk right by us and sat about 2 tables over. So funny. I know I know, he doesn't go by that anymore but how funny is that! Lia and Jim confirmed that he was playing up that way this past weekend because they had seen signs for him while they were up there last weekend.

Then, we went to the beach at about 2:30 where we laid out a bit and swam in the ocean. I had such a great time with Dan! We left the beach and went to Giant where Dan ran into his boss and I started bashing Loretta Lynn's facelift in line at the cash register, when a man behind us said.."You don't mean that do you? That's my mom's cousin!" He didnt' seem to take too much offense to it but proceeded to tell us how he went to school and was close with Ashley Judd and is fairly close with his mom's cousin, Loretta Lynn. So strange! But I did feel like shit for bashing her.

Then, we swam in the pool for a bit where I showed Dan how to swim and do twirls under the water. Then we had dinner with Dad (so good) and went out for a few drinks at a local gay bar right off the boardwalk. It was a great time!

Sunday, however, I woke up with such a puffy face, I didn't recogize myself and could hardly see right away. So embarrasing. It's still a little puffy today but no where near as bad. I have no clue how I got that but Mom suggested I could be allergic to the sun or something. I've always had problems where I blister up easily but I don't ever remember puffing up like that. I went to church like that where I met a lot of dad's friends, then went out to a brunch buffet, gave dad his gifts, and drove home.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!

I hope you had a great time too!

I'll miss Dan and I hope we have some more time together before he goes. At least one more little visit together before his going away party would be nice. I know he's busy.

Now it's back to work and I really don't wanna.

2006-06-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

It's finally and actually happening. Just when I thought my high school class wouldn't have a reunion, low and behold a website is born. I think it's October 7th. Damn!! I only have 4 months to try to drop some of this weight. I actually lost weight right out of high school and packed it on from then.

I've gotten in touch with some great old friends from school on myspace and they know what I look like now but it's all the people I never knew that will see me and think, "man she's huge!" I am who I am, and they may not give a shit about what I look like I just know that if I saw someone who use to be pretty and then balloon 90lbs since high school, I'd be thinkin something too. It's quite natural actually. We all size each other up at reunions but I just imagined me walking in skinny and prettier than I was in high school. Oh well....I need to move on from that image.

I think it is time for me to start worring about my weight again though. Not for some stupid reunion but for myself. You know all the reasons from past posts, I won't get into that now.I do want to go back to my Dr. and see if I can get some medicated help. I have no energy, want to sleep all the time and have anxiety issues that make it so I can't sleep well. I need 10 hours of sleep just to get a healthy 8 hours in. On top of that, I feel tired all day like I want to go back to sleep at any moment. I think I'm on a low dose of the meds I need and need to either increase them or change them. Chemical depression is a family trait and its just something I'll probably need forever. I just need to find the right balance for me. Plus, being on a good ADD med. can help increase my motivation and give me a little push. I really need that push, especially when it comes to the exercising and eating better.

I am really happy with work lately even though it can get overwhelming. I had a review of my files (an audit actually) and the lady said she was very impressed with them. My boss, blushing, turned to her and said.."Can you believe she's still new to this? She's doing very well!" She even nominated me for a "Rookie" administrative award. I didn't get it but it shows how proud she is of me and I really need that sometimes.

Summer is officially here and that means the heat is fully underway. It's been so hot outside, and humid. I can't wait to get to a pool at some point!

Running to stand Still

2006-05-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time at Jim's Memorial Day/Renovated house celebration! 2 kegs of beer and tons of food. Aunt Patty even came for a few minutes and I was so glad to see her!

Holly, John and Jacob came (I love this pshyco baby picture of Jacob moving around...its pretty funny).

The Host and Hostess (thanks for the grub, beer, and music!):

Wonderful friends whom I loved seeing; and I really enjoyed spending time with Lauren and Suzanne. I've never spoken to Suzanne before but she's very sweet! Unfortunately, I didn't get a good pic of her though...

The party was loads of fun with Kieran and Jim singing away, family present and re-bonding, and friends gathering around on the grassy area in, like Jim said,..."The cheap seats."

We must do more of these parties!

Summer is officially underway!!

Move along move along like you always do

2006-05-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

I had a great time on vacation last week! We drove up with a dog in each car and it took about 4 hours to get to Tera Alta, WV. Emmi was unpleasant to ride with for some reason. The place was very impressive at first but we did notice some small things wrong with it after staying there for a week. The washing machine exploded and overflowed splashing water on the floor. I couldn't figure out how to work the gas oven, and the toilet started to spurt out septic tank ickiness which also started coming out of the tub at like midnight Thursday night. But otherwise, it was a nice place!!

We drove around alot! I got reaquainted with the cast of Six Feet Under Season's 1-4 and am almost done 5. It was a very enjoyable week to relax and do almost nothing.

We did go horseback riding!!

And did some off roading!

And we both drove a speed boat, putting our boating licenses to good use!!

And, even though these guys didn't do much, they were tired at the end of the day cause we kept them up so late.

We also got a bit of gambling in and lost about $15 on nickel machines. We checked out some resteraunts and some vacant lots for sale in the area, dreaming of one day retiring to a place like that. I fell deeply in love with Deep Creek Lake and wanted one of those $500k houses right on the lake for my very own. I was sad to come home but glad in a way too.

We have these beautiful flowers growing and came home to some cool looking ones blooming next to our stairs!It's fun to plant then fine out what comes up each year! These are more beautiful this year than when we planted them last year!

Aaah now, I think Jim's party pics deserve a post of their own! I chose my favorites!

Can't we go back on vacation?!?!

Not sure what to think

2006-05-17T06:48:00.000-07:00

Things are tough right now.

There's all kinds of things racing through my head. Things like, she'll be ok, she'll pull through; then there's things like, what will it be like without her.

I don't know. Its tough for everyone right now and I think sitting at my desk with tons to do is the best thing I can do to help. There really isn't anything I can do personally other than visit and let her know she's loved.

I'm very glad I'm going on vacation next week. I feel selfish taking a vacation right now but I really need it. I need to get away from everything and into the fresh air with no cares in the world.

Work has been sooooo busy I feel like I can't take a break but I must!

I think I need to start worrying about my health again. I'm at risk for all kinds of things being heavy and it ain't helping my future. I'm glad I don't smoke anymore but I'm doing just as much harm to my body in other ways by keeping this weight on. I do want to live a long life! There's no reason why I can't!

Lets get back on track shall we?!

Get the ball rolling...

2006-05-09T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after asking 3-4 people from my work who to contact to find Patty a Dr. I recieved a call from our Associate Director at the National Cancer Institute. This guy is in his eighties and just won't retire because he truly loves to help people. He said he wants to look at her Clinical Summary and has already refered her to a Dr. for her to see up here. Said this guy is a good friend of his and one of the best there is.

I'm really happy that she's got a great Dr. who is aware of the clinical trials NCI offers and can get her into the best treatment around.

I'm so happy about that!

I made her a bracelet with healing stones. Red Jasper (Cancer healing stone - among other things), Carnelian (also Cancer healing stone - among other things), and Jade (more of an all healing/calming stone). Shhhh don't tell her. I'm giving it to her on Sunday. I also made Grandma an everyday necklace with stone chips.

I truly do feel proud to work for NCI right now. And now that it's hit close to home, I can see the impact every person has and the roll each person here plays. I purchase for labs. If they didn't have the supplies they needed on time, they couldn't do the research they need to one day find a cure.

Pondering

2006-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Dad and I talked last night and I realized that even if I don't Pray often or practice, prayer still gives us that hope that things will be ok. Funny how I only pray when I need something and usually I get what I ask for. I hope I do this time.

I feel like I might be able to help more since I work for the National Cancer Institute. I can get phone numbers to call to get her up here and in to see a Dr. at one of the biggest Cancer treatment centers in the world. It's worth a try. My boss told me they really try hard to help families of their employees. I know they try hard all the time and I've heard may survivor stories.

Pray, keep your finger's crossed or wish on a star. Whatever your preference is, hope is what we all need right now to help her out.

Sad

2006-05-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Just found out my friend's ex died on Saturday. He was very sick and his heart just stopped. He had kidney failure but was doing better overall so it's kind of a shocker that he went. I feel bad for her and am very sad about him going but he wasn't very nice to her.

Its still hard for her since she did share something with him at one point. He use to come into the store alot after they broke up and follow her around and call her non stop even though it was over between them.

I feel bad because he seemed to have a tough, short life. I only wish he could've let her go a long time ago.

I guess now he's at peace.

Not much to say..

2006-05-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

I had a quiet but busy weekend. It was nice though. We did some yard work on Friday which I was sort of dreading but once I was out there I wanted to plant more flowers and do more things to the yard. We decided to stop at the weeding and mowing (the boring stuff). Then Greg fixed the hammock out back that sunk to the ground when you layed in it. It's his new obsession now. Sooo compfy.

Picture this:

With a nicer door and that god aweful red screen door taken out. And also with a few bushes (that flower later in the summer) growing on the left and tons of different flowers growing on the right. Tall ones too. We've already seen purple, red, and yellow in there, now we're waiting on other flowers to grow later in the summer. We also planted some cuties around the tree you see there. Red, yellow, white, orange, and pink. I can't wait till they expand. Our house is cute. I would maybe like to paint the garage white one day to match the windows and door but we'll see. That may look weird with the top windws still beige. I don't know.....

We had a lot of fun out for Sita's birthday. I thought everyone looked smashing and there were a few very very cute couples there ;). We stayed at D&B for a bit then headed over to Champions (which is now called Winstons Billiards but everyone still wore Champions on their outfits). Greg and I dont normally do an all nighter like that but it was fun! Got home around 2am. Good times.
Then I worked Saturday and went to see Joe and Allison's place. Love it! Hardwood floors throughout, loft upstairs with an adorable winding staircase to take you there, interior decorator student's touch in the painting techniques they had, and granite counter-tops. They had two cats with eyes that are bigger than their heads, but that was the most adorable part about them. I can never help myself. I have to play with them and pet them and love them then I sneeze the rest of the night. It's like that whenever I go home too.

Sunday consisted of running around. We went to one mother's house so Greg could have her look at a paper of his and helped her with a few things in return, went home to vaccum then back out to take another mother to dinner. Poor mom. Wasn't very happy with losing her job after just getting it last week. But I'll call her today.

And thats that!

Today we have an "Ice Cream Social" at work for our customers. Love it! Can't go wrong with ice cream!

Ahhh I love the summer and it aint even all the way here yet!

Another one

2006-04-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Another obessesion of mine that deserves it's own entry is death. And I dont meant this in a satanic cult kind of way. I mean it scares me and fascinates me at the same time. Hence the Death and Dying course I took in college.

My parents seem to think I'm morbid but I am truly afraid of it. I think everyone is afraid of their own deaths but its the death of others that really scares me. I don't take it well (as is to be expected) and I contstantly think of and am afraid of the people closest to me dying. Like the death clock mom and Jim found. I don't want to know when a program says my mother is going to die or when it says my brother will die because I'll believe it and be afraid of it.

I work in a place that trys to save life but hasn't found a cure yet and in this very job, my boss is at a funeral today for someone who just died Friday. This was someone I worked with but didn't know. He died of Cancer (ironically) and in life, he didn't want people to know he had it until he was given only a few days to live.

I'm rambling but what I mean is, I can talk about it and I can see it, but I can't handle it.

The Bodies museum. Now thats something that really truly fascinated me. I wasn't thinking about how the body works the whole time I was there, I was thinking about what faces use to be on those bodies, who were they in life, what did they accomplish while alive, how do thier families feel about them up on display like this, what were thier names?

I guess I'm only human and a curious one at that. Most things fly right by me and I could care less but this is something that has my attention all the time.

Obsessions....a "Me" trait

2006-04-25T05:16:00.000-07:00

I have little obessions here and there.

Before I start work I absolutely have to check the following sites:

Pink is the New Blog
My Blog for comments
Greg's Blog
Jim's Blog
Mom's blog
Monica's Blog
Lauren's Blog
Matt's Blog
Gmail
Myspace
(Can't check Dan's at work)

and sometimes

People
CNN

I also obsess about sleep and will be very cranky if I dont get that extra 30 minutes of sleep every morning (just ask Greg).

I have to have make-up on before going out with friends but I'm not as obsessed with this as I was in high school. I would throw eyeliner on to go to the grocery store then, now I don't care about that.

I'm beginning to obesses over my face. I don't want wrinkles so I need to get stuff to prevent that. Like anti-aging lotions or something. I don't know...haven't done that yet. I'm just scared of wrinkles.

I listen to CD's I like over and over and over. Right now my favorite obessesion is Faith Hill "Fireflies." I also just adore her cause she's so cute and pretty and has a beautiful voice.

My TV obsession has been Grey's Anatomy but we stopped watching that for some reason. It's still on the top of my list.

I obesses over my nails because I always want them to look good but I don't get them done because it costs money to keep them up. I'm always looking at them though and wondering what I need to do to fix one here and there and how I need to file them down or something.

Of course I obesses over my house and weight problem and of course my husband but these are all ones I that don't change. The other, smaller, obessesions usually do change or at least they become different over time.

Just a Karri side note.

Dad....(that's all I have to say)

2006-04-24T05:07:00.000-07:00

I love my father very much but he has been irritable lately. I told him I would call and since I'm so bad at calling people he wasn't happy when I didn't. I tried calling yesterday and he didn't answer so I left a message. Then when I called last night he answers "KARRI YOU CALLED ME!" Then he proceeds to tell me how much I call my mother but never call him. If he only knew why I don't like to call him.....no....he'd still complain.

Talked for about an hour and everything I said wasn't good enough. All those years of him telling me to increase my TSP (401K) to 15%....well...this is how the converstion went:

me: "Hey dad I have my TSP up to 15%!"
dad: "Well, you should increase it to the max"
me: "The max is 18%, this is pretty good dad."
dad: "Well, you need to increase it, thats the only way you'll have money when you retire"
me: "I have $12,000 after only 3 years here so far in there."
dad: "Hm."

WTF!!! This was how the majority of our conversations went. As if he's very bitter about something. Or maybe he was just moody yesterday. Here's another one.

me: "Hey dad I'm taking a tiling class!" (thought he'd be proud of this one)
dad: "Greg should be taking that class."
me: "Well, he signed up for it but couldn't because of school, it's fun to learn."
dad: "good."
me: "He took an electrical wiring class."
dad: "He has no business messing with wiring until he knows what he's doing. Y'all told me how he felt a shock when messing with it before. It could kill him!"
me: "Well...thats why he took this class so he knows what to do and what not to do."
dad: "That's something I wouldn't touch unless I had the knowledge. It's dangerous!"

*frustrated!*

He was sooooo pissy. Not proud of anything I told him. And he wonders why I don't call often. The only times he ever says nice things is when I'm sad about something, like when I called crying about Uncle John or crying about the cats dying. He's turning grumpy.

Like I said I love him very much but I don't know why he can't be supportive of my decisions even when I eventually do what he says (like the TSP thing).

The only fun part of the conversation was when I was talking about the Bodies museum. He seemed kinda interested and I talked for awhile about that.

I guess I'll give it another try and call him in a few weeks if we don't go down to see him soon. Maybe he'll be in a better mood then.

GRRRRR

Back in action

2006-04-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

I need to get back into the weight loss this week before I gain any more. I was doing so well. This goes to show you that you can't stop once you've started something or else you'll be back to where you were before you started.

That being said, I did eat 2 bagels and cream cheese today and a few chocolates laying around. I am definately going to exercise after cleaning house. It's a grubby day but I've got the bike and absolutely no excuse not to do it.

This week's goals:

1. Choose better. That doesn't mean eat completely clean because that's just hard for me to do but I need to at least get back to choosing wisely.

2. Exercise 4 days this week. I'll most likely bike for 20-30 to get back into it. I have my tile class two days this week which take me till 10pm those nights so I can't make myself do too much. That class is part of the reason I stopped. It's tiring and hard to catch up on sleep after a long night like that.

3. Drink 16 oz of water a day. Haven't started yet today but will when I get home. I'm sure I'll be thirsty from exercising.

This is my start. Greg was pretty upset about the scale too so I know he's getting back into it with me. We CAN do this.

Why does it have to be so damn hard to do!?!

BTW

2006-04-19T13:59:00.000-07:00

Georgia

2006-04-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

We went down to George this weekend. What an event!

Started the 10+ hour trek down on Thursday evening and hit a 4 hour delay on 95. It ended up being a fatal accident that shut down all but one lane and there was really no way around it. But we were able to squeeze by and drive another 2 hours or so until we both were too tired to drive any further. We thought about stopping at a hotel and sleeping but decided to stop at a rest stop and sleep. We woke up, drove a bit more, and stopped somewhere else to sleep again. After a full day's worth of work we thought we had it down...one would sleep while the other drove and vice versa. No....this didn't happen. We were both just too tired. We finally got to our hotel around 1pm Friday. It was fun seeing Nano. I fell in love with Georgia but Greg seemed to dislike it very much because of the heat.

We drove around, ate a bunch, and swam a bit, but the two biggest events were hockey game playoffs. They have an amature team down there and they are in their final games of the season. There's nothing like seeing the home team score a tie in the final 24 seconds of a game that throws it into overtime then watching them score the winning goal. I mean the crowd was in an uproar and the guys had tears in their eyes. It really does get emotional. Dan, I know what you mean now about wanting to get into sports. It really is alot of fun. Especially when your husband and his friend decide to wear mohawks like the players did for the 2nd game of the playoffs. :)

Scratch that.

2006-04-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

So the number on the scale has gone up but not by much. That means today starts a new day of my journey to a lower weight.

But onto other news...

Bodies:

We went to Georgia this weekend (I'll get more in this in a bit) and Greg saw a poster for this Bodies exhibit. These bodies were real. They have been preserved in a way to show the insides clearly. You went from room to room going through the skeleton, then the muscles, then the central nervous system, then it went into cancers and obesity. Even though this seems to be a gross subject, I thought it was tastefully done and they had facts about our bodies as you walk along from one room to the next. I saw parents expaining things to thier kids and teaching them as they went. This was done in China by medical students and all of the "patients" had died within the last 10 years. They obviously donated thier bodies to this or to science in general.

Seeing how things truly affect the body (such as fat deposits on an obese person or lung cancer from cigarette smoke) really makes you think twice about what you decide to put into it or do with it. I told mom that it did make me want to keep trying to lose weight. It was definately a motivation of sorts.

I will say that if you're sensitive about a certain topic it may not be for you. But its a great educational exhibit and reaches you more than a plastic skeleton or plastic organs would in a doctors office. Something like this would do very well here where I work (at NIH). I think many people here would appreciate something like this as we are all working and supporting a place filled with scientists who are helping to find cures and heal the sick.

There are a few pictures on the website. Click here
if your interested. Maybe it will come up here.

Lucky Duck!

2006-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

I just had a week of eating whatever I want and not exercising and the scale still says 225. Granted, it did go up then back down once but I'm freakin lucky as shit! So, I'm back on track. I only walked about a half a mile yesterday which is nothing but at least I did something. I had a good salad today and plan on eating good for dinner. Then I might go biking later or walking. This weekend will be a test too cause we'll be driving 10 hours to Atlanta and back and hanging with Nano. I'm looking forward to it!

I was so so so so (did I say so) happy to see Jim and Dan Saturday! I love those two! We had fun and I want to do that again!

I slept a bit too much this weekend but felt like I needed it. Now onto a new week (and hopefully another lb down on the scale so I can finally hit that 10lb mark)!

Busy Busy

2006-04-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

We went up to DC, Union Station to be exact, to meet with Greg's Aunt who was flying in for work but her plane was rerouted to Pennsylvania for some reason. I had called Dan to see if we could stop over but low and behold, it started pouring! Sorry Dan, we'll have to come up another time. You sounded excited to see us and I felt bad but we didn't have a car. Can we meet up with you and Matt sometime soon?

I started a class that Greg signed up for but couldn't go to. Its a Ceramic Tiling Workshop and I thought I'd hate it. I love it! We demolished these old cubby holes that we're going to use to put up drywall on the walls and plywood on the floor to retile. We had to take out the old plywood (with the tile attached) using a crowbar and hammer. Then we had to take out screws and the drywall on the walls. Needless to say, I came home a mess. Tonight we're probably going to delve right into the prep work. We would like to eventually tile the kitchen and bath in the middle level so I think this will really help.

I was very very excited about a program at FCPS in association with Hood College to become a teacher. It would only have required 4 days off work and two tests before I could begin teaching with the program. There is (or was) a teacher shortage in Business areas for high school students and that would have been a perfect "in" but it didn't happen. I'm too late for this school year and they are now saying criteria is changing. My whole problem with not being able to teach in Montgomery county is the time off needed to intern and student teach with no pay. I just can't do it with a mortgage. Greg keeps saying I'll figure something out but it is frustrating and brings me down when things like that happen after I was so excited about it thinking, "This is it! This is my in!"

The weight thing has been put on hold only for this week. We haven't been eating the best and the weather has been bad for biking and I have been so busy with this new class. I'm still at 227 in the morning though meaning, I need to get back on track before it increases!

Now onto another day here at the government!

See it for yourself!

2006-04-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Determined!

2006-04-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am now going to use the weekend afternoon weigh in each week. It has stayed at 225 and I'm very happy about that. I realized that the morning weight is food build up in my system and water retention probably from too much sodium in the foods I ate the day before.

I biked for 40 minutes yesterday and did uphill and downhill stuff. My legs are still feeling it. There is a path that is measured at 2.5 miles and I went around it twice with two stops for water. We're thinking of doing the 8 mile path at some point but are still building up on the smaller path. I love the Germantown Soccerplex and rec center because there are all kinds of beautiful and open paths. Very safe with lots of people and some areas with no people. Peaceful. And, its a 5 minute drive from our house. (We haven't built up courage and energy to bike there and back yet. That would probably take us 2 hours and the traffic can suck going that way.

Grey's Anatomy. That's all I have to say. It's sooooo good! We are finally almost caught up to the end of the season and I think we might finish in time to watch the end of the season when it airs. Greg and I both tear up at times and crack up at others. I love this show.

We bought frisbees for the pups and they are sooo funny playing with them. Greg throws it up in the air and it hits the trees but Maverick stands there looking in the air for a good while when it had already hit the ground about an hour ago. And Emmi! HAHAHAHA, we have to throw it lightly and closer to us because she just won't run and chase it but she loves to play with it. Sort of like a handicap. Greg throws it right next to her on the brick patio and we watch laughing and laughing as she tries anything and everything to bite at it and flip it over. She even tries to pick it up while standing on it. She's so funny. But she has a blast. That trick is starting to get old to her though. She's running out of patience.

I can't wait to take them to Tera Alta where they can fun around and play in more open territory.

I love those little mutts.

I have a counseling appt. today to talk about possibly going back for my Masters. Haven't really decided yet but I do want to do it. I'm thinking of either going towards financial management at UMUC or Education at Johns Hopkins. Decisions Decisiona!

At a standstill

2006-03-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hopped on the scale at 6am yesterday and it read 228.7, hoppped on it at 9:30am and it said 226. ARRRGHHH! Hopped on it again today, 228. What the hell is going on? I guess I'm expecting too much. Poor Greg is having trouble too but he did very good excerising and eating good. I, on the other hand, exercised for only 20 mins last night and ate grilled cheese and fries for lunch out of frustration. Good 'ol Greg told me..."Well, that was your cheat for the weekend." He's right. I can't lose weight if I eat bad when I'm frustrated.

Well, I got a strange but happy call from Aunt Mary. The conversation went something like this:

Aunt M: "Hi Karri, do you get the Gazette?"
Me: "Yes, I think so but I haven't look at it."
Aunt M: "Well you might want to."
Me: "Oh really?"
Aunt M: "There's an Unclaimed Property section and it has your name in there."
Me: "What! Wow!"
Aunt M: "Go check it out and call the number, maybe you have a million dollars waiting for you."

I was all smiles and ran downstairs to grab the paper. I had to call her back cause I couldn't find it so she told me the number, case number, and web address to go to. Sure enough, there it was! It had some strange Owings Mill address so I was like, "What property do I own in Owings Mill?" Told mom and she said it must be another Karri Williford. HAHAHA. My name is so unique, how could there be?

Brought a form and copies of my proof of being in and called. They said it was a Giant account. I did recently found 2 old old checks I never cashed from '99 and '00 that totaled just under $100. It's gotta be that or there could be something else I never cashed that I didn't find. Fun though!!

I suggest all of you go to the website NOW! You just never know!

We'll see!

I hear Jim's back!! I hope you had a safe trip Jim and I can't wait to hear all about it!

Hmmmm

2006-03-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

I exercised outside on some hilly areas and some flat areas on my bike. I loved it. We were out there for 33 minutes but that was more than enough. My legs got a great workout. It was beautiful but I was very shakey on the bike so I was looking ahead or at my handle bars most of the time. Tonight I biked indoors and did that for 60 minutes going back and forth between easier and hard while watching the Pelican Brief.

Greg discovered Blue October and now I'm in love with the band. I went to thier site www.blueoctoberfan.com where you can hear a bunch of songs form old CD's and have been listening non stop. We grew attached to thier radio hit thats out, "Hate me" and it's such a powerful song about a guy who is trying to let his mother live her own life after years of trying to help him through alcohol addiction. The video shows this as well. It's so powerful it actually makes me tear up and I balled during the video. It's sad in a cute way. I never had to go through this but I know if I did, mom would be right by my side helping me through it. It's a mom appreciation song...sort of.

We saw Jason at the Westside Cafe Sat. He is awesome! I didn't know he doesn't sing and that it would be guitar only but it was great! He has a blues feel to it and what I thought was, I could play this in the background and create some nice artwork because it allows room for thoughts. Loved it! He seems to appreciate that we were there with our posse.

I'm excited for two vacations coming up. We're going to attempt to drive 10 hours on a Friday to Atlanta WITH our dogs and drive back Monday so we can visit Nano. It's cheaper than flying and I'm excited to see what Atlanta's like. We're also going up to Tera Alta, WV with the dogs for a week in May. Gotta bring the dogs because of the runt Maverick and his biting. But we're fine with that. We deal with it as we go.

No more weight loss yet. But I think I might be gaining muscle with all this exercise I'm doing. I'm trying not to let it get me down. We'll see!

So Close!!

2006-03-26T15:52:00.000-08:00

Unbelieveable - Dad was right!

2006-03-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

It's been hard eating better and not eating the things we've been use to so I allowed for a Sat. cheat day. Last week we had something bad on Friday but I want this to be a weekly thing and eventually we may not want it as much. But, we went shopping yesterday and got a steak and cheese sub with fries. Then we bought girl scout cookies (bad idea because they last more than a day) and snacked on those for dinner pretty much. That might have been a bit too much of a cheat but I got up today to see the damage and I'm still down to 227!! I did have a few cookies today but I'm bringing the rest to work so I don't finish them.

I biked for 33 mins and we went for a 22 min. mile walk with the pups. Today starts the week fresh. Dad always use to tell me when he lost his 70lbs, the reason why it worked is because he allowed for a day to eat what he's been craving (as long as it isn't too overboard). It tricks your body when you do that. If you eat less for a while, you're body will plateau but if you trick it and eat high calories every so often, it continues to do it's magic.

I do feel guilty but I'm glad the weight didn't all come back.

Spacey

2006-03-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't recorded weight because, well, it went down then back up a lb. You know what...F it..my starting weight is 234 and I'm now down to 228. From now on I'm going to put the numbers here. I'll be proud of the numbers once I hit those major milestones. Right now I want to get to 224 as my first goal but when I get to 199 it will be a huge feat for me. I haven't been below 200 in at least 5 years. Shoot, I haven't been 224 for a year.

There! *sigh* I said it.

I exercised for 45 minutes last night on the bike and have been doing really well with my foods. I mean Greg and I have done a complete 360. No eating burgers or fries or taco bell or anything like that. We snack on pretzels, apple sauce, canned pineapples, and peanut butter crackers. We eat subs, sandwiches and salads for lunches and dinners. This isn't great but its a hell of lot better than the greesy foods we were eating constantly. We need to focus on food later but for now I'm trying to get more water in each day and focus on exercising just about every night. I've done some exercise every day this week.

It may not help me much to look at the scale everyday cause when it goes up a lb I get sad. But it just makes me want to work at it more.

Tonight's plan is to bike for 30 mins and do crunches and arm exercises with weights. I want to start working on muscles too. I've heard muscle helps burn calories faster and that's my goal!