Is the weekend nearly over already? I have no idea where it went, seriously. It’s been really nice today, windy though. It was 76°F here today!

I did some work with hubby around the house this weekend. We’ve moved the chair from the living room to our bedroom, just to see the scale of it up there. It’s an old Lazy-Boy recliner. We bought it about 15 years ago. It’s a little bigger than I thought it was! At least we have it out of the living room. We also took the bookcase down to the basement. All my books will somehow make it down there this week. I think I will just take a few stacks a day downstairs. It’s nice to have my dolls on display again. I really would rather have them there than anywhere else.

I put up a “wanted” ad on Free Cycle today and got a reply! We’re looking for cabinets for our laundry room, they are SO expensive! So, I just asked if anyone will be remodeling their kitchen this Spring and to please think of us. I got a quick reply from a gal that will be tearing out the cabinets this next month! Yay! She’s going to contact me once they are out and we’ll go and pick them all up. I cannot wait to have more cabinets in there. Even with a purge there’s still not enough room for everything I want to store in there. We also got rid of some craft things and a storage cabinet. It looks so weird in the basement without it. We’ve had it for about 10 years, so it was time. Been through a few moves!

I’ve been making copies today for the hearing thing on Tuesday. Turns out it’s just the youngest and I and the interstate person, since we live in MD and he is in VA. He will not be there. This actually starts everything rolling. Which makes me wonder what was happening for a year. I guess a subpoena and a court date will be decided sometime in the near future. I just pray it’s not while we are in Vegas. Hubby will be staying here with the little girlie as there’s not really room for him and the two of us in a 5 x 5 room. Plus she was told that the gal will be asking info. about their relationship. Ack, I don’t want to hear this either, but, he definitely doesn’t. I printed out the photo from the last time he saw her. July 2008. Really? Really. Also made copies of the two check copies that I told her to make at the time. Glad I did that now. I’m almost done, just have to copy her 2006 and 2007 tax returns and W2′s as she doesn’t have any bills.

Still no word on a job for the oldest. She may be applying for one if there’s an opening, in Ohio. Express corporate is there. Columbus is really close to his folks, so I’m sure my MIL will have fun seeing her here and there if she gets the job. She said that in a few weeks she will know something. Her last day at work is quickly approaching and she’s booked the U-Haul already. I just wonder where she will end up living. I think she’s going to try to crash at friends houses so she can keep her cat, Ziggy. I’ve been praying for her, I just don’t know what the future holds.

I’m back to the gym tomorrow after taking a few days off. I need to start running a little and doing more weights and I want to get back into yoga. I did the shred for a week. Hm. I don’t know if it changed me at all to tell you the truth. I do have awesome thigh muscles from all the lunges! I did have some sore knees though, I wonder if I was doing the lunges wrong? I would like to lose 5 more pounds before May 1st, we’ll see. I have yet to get a new bathing suit, that’s on the list for next month.

The gal canceled the Easter photo shoot on Thursday night while I was in class. They cannot afford it according to her hubby. Oh well. She isn’t rescheduling either. Wednesday morning I’m going to a breakfast mixer sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. I hope to hand out a lot of biz cards there.

TTFN!

We are leaving first thing in the morning, probably around 7 a.m. or so. It’s a 8 hour drive and we’ll be stopping every so often to use the rest areas and to stretch our legs. We are encouraged by how well the little girlie did at Thanksgiving, hopefully this trip will be the same or even better!

I picked up the tags for the new Jeep this morning. I cannot believe the place is going out of business. I’m really glad we bought the Jeep when we did.

I hope to run and workout when we are the hotel. I’m taking Jillian with me! The youngest said she would do the workout with me, so there you go. We just received it today, so, I haven’t had a chance to try it out. Greg’s bringing his running stuff too, we’ve never worked out together, isn’t that strange? He runs at work with a friend or four and uses the gym at his job and I go to the gym. He wants to run outside with me, I’m really nervous about that. He is 6′ tall and I’m almost 5′ tall. His stride is like 1 1/2 times mine! *LOL* I guess we should try it though once it warms up and stays warm.

We had SNOW this morning, so weird! Hopefully Mother Nature is done with her PMS fits and we can finally have Spring! I’m always in a better mood in the warmer months.

I will be blogging on the road. Our hotel not only has internet but, each room has a microwave and a fridge. I called today and they are setting up the porta-crib in the youngest’s room so it’s there when we check in. Hopefully they actually do that! *LOL* We can only hope! I’m glad we can do this trip, no one in his family has met the little girlie except his parents. They were here for a few days in May of last year when the oldest graduated, that’s it. They haven’t seen us since then.

We talked to the oldest the other night. She has a few leads on jobs. I hope to be able to post that she has a new job! She’s looking at one in Jacksonville right now, which is pretty far away. But, the boyfriend would be able to go to college there. Hm, I wonder if they would live together or get married. I don’t know how that all will pan out. She would be able to visit my mom and Aunt as well as my BFFOUCDP I’m sure at least a few times. And Atlanta isn’t too far away. We lived in St. Marys for 3 years, so it would be cool for her to see the area now as an adult vs. when she was a teen.

I haven’t posted anything about my weight lately. I’m still working out at least 3 days a week. I haven’t lost or gained. I’m not on the Jenny Craig food any longer. I go in on the 20th to get weighed, so we’ll see how more sleep and being happy with my hubby on vacation works out. I think that sleep deprivation really makes a difference in your weight. I hope to not wake up so early while we are out of town, having the little girl and her mom in another room will help out with that!

Only one more month before her Gold’s gym contract expires. I’m SO excited! They charged us an extra 10 bucks a month as we’re not on the auto pay thing any longer. I swear, that’s so rude!

TTFN! Have a great weekend!

I reached one of my goals with the weight loss last Monday, 20 pounds GONE forever! YAY!!! I hope to lose another pound or two this week. I worked out today and I plan on working out the rest of the week  and even working out this weekend. Friday I have to take Jac to the doc on the base, early in the morning, so maybe in the afternoon I can get a workout in. I bought some new things this weekend, skirts, polos, shoes. My wardrobe is growing! I also ordered some size 4 Levi’s, they fit, but, I don’t like them that tight, so I will wait until this time next month to try them on again. I’m in 6′s now, so I know I’m pretty close. I started in 12′s. Seriously, that’s a HUGE thing for me. I was in 00 when I was dating Greg and after I had Jess I lost all the weight pretty slowly. Once I’m at my first goal, 115, I will weigh what I did before I got pregnant with the youngest 20 years ago. I’m aiming to be 115 by her birthday at the end of March, we’ll see! 110 is around the weight I am aiming for by May 1st. It’s coming off so sloooooooooowly right now, a 1/2 pound a week. I hope by kicking up the gym workouts and really pushing myself to go to the gym, I can get past this frustrating plateau.

Hubby is leaving for a few days, he will be gone over the weekend. Which really sucks. This is our 25th Valentine’s Day and we won’t even be together until after it’s over. Valentine’s Day is really special to me, he and I first told each other “I Love You” all those years ago on Valentine’s Day. I’m not making a big deal over it, nothing I can do about it and neither can he. Although,  I would rather he go now, than say over last Christmas, which is what it was scheduled for. This deployment has been moved about 10 times. I swear. Just fix the stuff correctly the first time and you wouldn’t have to reschedule it all the time. I don’t have an eye roll smilie, or I would totally use that right now. I just finished making a Valentine’s Day card for him. He’s leaving early on Thursday morning, so we’re doing a card exchange tomorrow night. I hope to see “Confessions of a Shopaholic” over the weekend. I’m trying to find someone to go with me.

Our painter guy moved the appt. without telling us. No one called. I moved my entire day around on Wednesday of last week. So, the kitchen and family room ceiling was finally patched and painted on Thursday. It looks great too. We chose “Cool Platinum” (Duron), which is a creamy off white. That way when we paint the kitchen the yellowish orange, we won’t have stark white ceilings! It goes great with the family room too, “Peanut Butter” (Behr).

I had my first photography class on Thursday night. We moved through the topics pretty quickly, so we left at 7 p.m. vs. 8 p.m. I have homework to finish up tonight, that way it’s done.* Hey MEG! * She’s one of the gals I met, coolness! I chose hubby as my photography subject for my photo shoot. He’s not that gung – ho on getting his photo taken, so I made it easier on him and suggested him posing with his motorcycles as props. He put on his leather jacket and used a helmet here and there. I personally think they turned out great! I need to just narrow them down to 5 photos and get a contact sheet printed out. I also found a photo of my  mom back in the day to use in my photo journal. Interesting homework for sure. I can’t wait for class this week!

We showed up at H & R Block last Friday to get our taxes done. I set up the appt. back in December. The gal had called out sick. That’s okay, I hope she’s feeling better by now. BUT, we had an appt., so a phone call would have been great and very appreciated. I told the gal that too. She apologized and set us up at 9 a.m. on the 20th. The gal is the only one at that office that does business taxes. Can you believe that? There’s more than 25 tax preparers and only ONE can do business taxes. I wonder why that is.

We have a carpet estimator coming out tomorrow to measure the basement. We’re getting some berber carpet throughout and on the stairs as well. We picked out one with a diamond pattern. Hubby likes it too.

I have my towels and everything is ready for mailing tomorrow. I hope everyone on my exchange list likes what I’ve chosen for them! The suggestions I’ve gotten is for color guides for the next exchange. Since a few people have suggested this, I will implement it! So, this time you will be surprised, next time you will have a range to choose from for the exchange. I really don’t care what color they are or if they are solid or patterns, I just use them either way.

A few years ago I lost touch with some good friends I used to chat with online. They are all on Facebook now and we’re reconnecting. It’s pretty cool. I’m glad they are in one place so I can just drop them a message or post on their wall a hi or something. Email addresses get lost so easily it seems like.

I hope to blog in a few days…my blogoversary is on the 17th, that day I will write something!

TTFN!

Things here have been super busy. The little girlie had some weird stomach bug thing for three days. She’s fine now, but that on top of everything being closed because of the weather here really threw us all off of a schedule. The youngest didn’t have a class on Tuesday and almost didn’t on Thursday.

I’ve been getting weighed each Monday and I’m thisclose to having a 20 pound weight loss! I hope to get there on Monday. I’m at 19.2 right now, that’s pretty close to just 19! Anyhow, I’ve been working out M, W, F and Sundays. I bought a Polar watch (F6) and love it. It tells me how many calories I’ve burned that day and what my heart rate is on every machine I use. I’ve been doing a run, elliptical and then the bike. I rest by doing weights and then abs. I’m usually done in about 1 1/2-2 hours including a shower and warm up and cool down stretches.

We just refinanced our home yesterday. It cut our payment down by $400 a month, which is most excellent! We don’t have a payment for February which is super great!

We had a painting inspector come in this morning to tell us the fee for painting the entire kitchen and family room ceiling. It’s $100 and they provide the paint! For an extra $20 they will patch up anything that needs patched, then paint. The guy will be here on Wednesday afternoon for a few hours. I’m so excited! I picked a really neutral buttercreamy color as some day in the future we’ll have the kitchen painted as well and it needs to flow with the family room. Most rooms he said were in the $100 range, which I personally think is really a good rate. They are hurting for business right now, so we’re going to take advantage of it and probably have at least 2-4 more rooms painted this year, including the basement. It’s a pretty big area, but soon it will have carpet and will need paint.

Next Friday we go to H & R Block to get our taxes done. It’s the first year living here, so we’re not sure how to handle the house and everything I’ve done as well. And we have to file Virginia as well as Maryland taxes. I just hope we don’t owe anything!

Hubby and I went out today and bought some steel toe boots for him to take on the cruise. He’s leaving sometime in mid-February for a few days. It’s the new carrier, they have to make sure everything is running correctly before they start manning it. We also went to the thrift store and bought like 4 or 5 pairs of pants for him to wear in the engine room as he didn’t want to ruin his dress pants. And a couple of sport jackets. I think he paid with a $20 bill and got change back. We also went to Lone Star for lunch. Our waitress said that I was skinny, I didn’t want any bread. That’s the first time anyone has said that to me. Made my day! We then went to Value City Furniture to see what we want for the living room. A love seat and a few chairs will work in there, but not much else.We went to Target to get chips and stuff for the game tomorrow night. Go Steelers! I personally don’t really care who wins, I just root for hubby’s team if they are playing. *LOL*

Tomorrow I need to work on some scrapbook things. I have the photos in my h/d waiting to be printed. I’m doing an “All About Me” page.  I also framed some photos of  the little girlie and we need to hang them tomorrow. I want to wash my Jeep, it should be near 50°F so that works for me. I was going to the Chinese parade in D.C., but, it’s too much of a pain with the Metro where we live now and I would be there for about 6-7 hours total. Oh well, maybe there’s something nearby I can shoot photos of next week. I do have some photos to post on Flickr, I hope to do that tomorrow also.

It’s turning out to be a very good month so far!

• We’re going to be closing with our new mortgage sometime this month.
• I’ve been invited to not two different parties but three! Pampered Chef, Slipada and Tastefully Simple. And I  have booked a Tastefully Simple party for March 8th.
• Our kitchen lights are all installed. Now just to patch up the ceiling. They look great, photos soon!
• I have registered for the photography class, now just to wait until February 5th!
• I’ve lost a total of 19 pounds and 18″ since starting Jenny Craig nearly 6 months ago. Slow going, but steady loss. I’m currently at 124 pounds and I have 9 more pounds to go to my first goal weight!
• I’ve been working out at the gym 3-5 days a week. Running, elliptical, bike, abs, weights.
• I finally have changed our doc’s to Andrews AFB. Going for blood work next week to check liver and cholesterol levels. Hopefully they are good enough to stay off of Zocor permanently!
• Spending time with hubby this week as he’s off of work. I could get used to this!
• Spending tons of time with the little girlie as her mom is back in classes. Just twice a week, but it’s nice to have her for a little while.
• My business is starting up again. Been fielding some phone calls and questions from repeat clients. Yay!
• I found our original Pentax flash that goes on our Pentax K1000 camera the other day. Been bugging me for over a year now.
• Purged a lot of things out of the craft room. Got some great cube organizers for paper and other goodies. Now just have to get a few more for paper and I’m all set. Paper coming out of my ears! *LOL*
• Survivor starts next month, I’m so stoked!! I’ve also been watching The Bachelor and True Beauty. I’m just sucked into them.

I will check in again later this week.