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Blogoversary
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Twitter Stuff
December
Hi! It’s December!
Our Thanksgiving trip was good, although it was a long drive both ways. It took 14 hours down and back, which is about 2-3 hours longer than it should have been each way. We hit a lot of traffic and it slowed us down so much that we were all tired of the car by the time we arrived. In fact, we’re never driving over a holiday again. It was just too long in the car.
Violet however did great on the trip. She’s a real trooper and really played more than slept, in a good mood the entire time in the car. Now when she is in the car just driving to the store and wants to get out of her car seat, no one will believe her! *LOL*
Besides the long drive, it was great to see everyone! We arrived late on Wednesday night and then saw Jess on Thursday morning. We all rode over to my brother’s house for food, laughs and a good visit. Jess and my brother along with my nephew went bowling after dinner. Friday found us back at Dave’s house for a while, then we went to a park so Violet could have some fun. Look for Flickr photos! We went to Tina’s ( my SIL ) for a while and some food. Saturday we all went to the aquarium. My brother and Greg’s sister haven’t seen each other since our wedding, even though they live less than an hour away from each other. They really don’t have anything in common except for Greg and I. Anyhow, the aquarium was interesting. I was a little disappointed in not seeing everything that we thought we were going to see. The dolphins are going to be put in 2010 and they took out the penguins and seals until the dolphins come in. The 4-D movie was pretty good, Violet liked it too! Sat through the entire thing, mesmerized. I just thought there would be more. I guess I’m always thinking about the other places I’ve been when I go somewhere and compare it. The prices for the food at lunch is something that’s incomparable though. I’ve never paid that much anywhere, even WDW or Busch Gardens. After the aquarium we went to Tina’s and were surprised that her hubby was back from hunting! 
It was great to see him, he’s my age, I’m one day older than he is, so we get along pretty well. We had dinner and visited. Got some photos too!
We had a good time all in all. Despite the rain, traffic and lack of sleep, we still are glad we went.
Since I had a weigh in this morning, I was kind of apprehensive but, I didn’t gain or lose! I’m eating all Jenny food this week and as of tomorrow I’m back to working out 4 days a week as well. I lost the first 15 pounds this way, so that’s what I’m going back to. Running in my new Nike’s will help break them in.
Greg and I took Violet to Lowe’s this morning to buy some Christmas lights. He put them up this afternoon. they look really good. We bought the fat multi-colored ones for the house. They don’t do anything, just are on. I bought some green garland and some white blinking lights for the porch. I’m going to put those up tomorrow. Greg bought a remote for the lights, it’s pretty nifty that we can just click them on and off again easily. He did the upper and lower roof line and across the garage. I will take some photos tomorrow during the day as well as at night.
The cookie exchange is set for the 14th of December, looks like around 6-8 people. I have this site in my favorites and have for a while. Just in case you want to steal some of the ideas for your cookie exchange. I think I’ve used those guidelines for the past few years.
Have a good night! 
Halfway
It used to be military cruise related when I would type something about halfway. But now, it’s about weight loss.
I’m now officially at my 1/2 way point! 
I’ve lost 14″ and 15 pounds. I get measured again next week, they do it monthly, so we’ll see if the inches have changed. I do feel lighter and I have more energy!
I’m so excited about the fact that this Christmas is the one that I will see the difference. 2009 is the start of a new year for me 30 pounds lighter and a lot of inches smaller! My next chapter will be a new me body wise. I’ve already started on the spirit.
One thing I have noticed is that I can sit with my legs pulled up to my chest. I never could do that before.I also can get up easier from the floor if I’m down there with Violet playing. I can carry her up the stairs and I’m not winded. She weighs about 24 or 25 pounds now! We have about 15 stairs to get up to the top level.
I recently had to buy a new coat! I just went out on Saturday and bought one. My first nice coat, it’s a pea coat, black, size petite medium. I was going to get the small, but it was too tight and well I do wear sweaters, so I need a little room. BUT, the fact that I had to get one is what blows me away. I tried on the coat that I bought last October for the trip I took with Lisa to NYC. It looked like a clown coat, which is how all my clothes fit as well. I don’t see it as it’s so gradual, but, the proof is in the fact that I dropped from a size 12 pants to a 6 and even those are getting a little loose on me. I will have to buy new stuff when we are down in Atlanta! 
Greg, Jess and Jac have been so supportive! Jac is actually kinda jealous sometimes with the food as it’s cooking, she wants it! Greg told me last week that there’s less of me to hug! *LOL* He’s so cute! Jess saw me around my bday, so when she sees me at Thanksgiving, it will be more of an impact on her than with Jac and Greg who see me daily.
It’s so weird to look in the mirror after putting on my clothes and seeing things that are smaller fitting. My mind is still trying to wrap around the inches and pounds that I’ve lost.
I’ve been eating the JC food 5 days a week, Jello and fruit as well as salads in between. Exercising on Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri. Running each day except for Wed, I’m doing the arc trainer that day. Usually the bike after running, and then abs. Takes about 1 hour or so, depending on what I’m doing that day. Totally is worth it to me!
Thank you to everyone for being so supportive with comments, I really appreciate it and I appreciate you! :pinkgrin:
Stuff
Catching up with everything around me. Did you vote? I did this morning, yay!
Work: Doing well, booked and did a session one day apart on Sat/Sun. Went and picked up stuff for auction photos on Thursday. Delivering auction photos, this Friday. Delivering family session this coming Sunday. Booked another family session with our Realtor on the 21st! Have to get with his wife for confirmation. I had to re shoot all the auction photos, I hope he likes them at delivery!
Work II: I just became an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay! I have my training materials in the house, been looking at them when I can. Tomorrow is a phone call from my director. I joined under my SIL in Atlanta, so I’m out of state, but she gets me on her team. If you would like some samples, let me know. I have a few to give out to people that have never tried MK or haven’t in a while. I really like how it makes my skin glow and it’s all soft and healthy. I posted about it back in September and in August. If you decide to purchase after trying the samples, let me know! I ship for free! Everything can be ordered online and there’s a secure server for payment. I have to get all that set up tomorrow, so look for a post with the URL in it!
I’ve just been busy working out at the gym and I’m THISCLOSE to being at my 1/2 way weight! I think I will hit it next week. I lost over 3 pounds last week, my weigh in was awesome! I’m wearing a size 6 jeans now and I just had to return some shirts that were too big. I’m in a petite small now vs. a misses small. There’s a HUGE difference with that! I ran and did the bike + abs today and I do the arc trainer + abs tomorrow. Thursday I will run again, then Friday I’m off to get the 5K under my belt for the week. I didn’t get to run it last week as I was at the doc, so it’s been a while.The doc gave me a three month holiday from taking the Zocor. I’ve been taking that for 10 years for my high cholesterol. This is the first check since joining Jenny Craig, so we’ll see. I go back in January. I really think that the weight is coming off easier because I stopped taking it.
Friday I’m off to Tyson’s to shop for a while, then delivering the DVD on the way back through to the auction guy. A WHOLE DAY OF SHOPPING! No kids, no grand-daughter, I’m terrible, oh well. 
I can’t wait to spend a little bit of money on some nice stuff.
I went to a Pampered Chef party last weekend, was right next door to the family session, didn’t know it till I looked at the address. *LOL* Was a good party, met some more people. I’ve been invited to a Slipada jewelry party on the 16th! MORE people! And there’s a meetup group meeting on the 14th and the 22nd. I can’t wait for this, they are all over 35+ and women, which is exactly what I wanted. I have friends, Greg’s co-workers are married, those are my friends. I want my own friends, weird huh?
We changed our hotel for our Thanksgiving trip - November 26th through the 30th. We found one that can offer us separate rooms for just a little more than one room divided would be. After travelling for 3 weeks with everyone in one room and NO Violet, we don’t mind spending a little more for two rooms. It’s always worth it. It’s a long drive, 10 hours, so hopefully it will be okay. First long trip for Violet. I remember the girls being 6 months and going on long trips. She’s so antsy all the time, it’s like tying her down or something. Part of it she’ll sleep through, which is a blessing. Turkey at my brother’s house, then visiting with Jess on Friday. Also, we’ll have a porta-crib for Vi, so that’s one less thing we need to pack. Tina (my SIL) has one we can borrow while there she’s borrowing from a friend. I’m so excited to go already! We’re planning on going to the aquarium on Saturday. I think that my brother and his family along with my SIL and her girls + Jess are going to join us! Wow, what a group!
Time to go and watch election stuff. TTFN!
Catching Up
I’m finally catching up a little!
Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday emails, messages, comments, posts, it means a lot to me!
Greg is the BEST husband ever! He bought me this and I love it! I ran with it on the treadmill for my 5K run on Friday, I think it needs calibration! We’re off to do that this morning. I just have to run once around the 1/4 mile track so it gets a feel for my pace and length of my stride. There’s no way in HELL that I’m running a 9 minute mile. That was a great gift and he bought me a cute fuchsia colored pouch to hold my Nano and headphones. That was something I talked to him about after getting my purse from Jess. There’s not enough pockets for everything and then the headphones get everywhere. I do wrap them up, but, this is better still! He brought me 2 bunches of flowers and I did take photos. I’m waiting patiently for the UPS man to deliver our new video cards. My current monitor is a widescreen and as my computer is 6 years old, the video card makes every photo and graphic look WIDE. Not good when you want to crop photos! I’ve been dropping them on my laptop and editing them there. PITA! So, tomorrow is my final gift.
Jacqueline, Violet and I went to Arby’s for lunch on Thursday. I cut the regular RB sandwich in half and ate that and had one fry. I’m lucky that I can just do a taste of something. I used to just steal one chip from Greg’s plate! *LOL* I really didn’t like the Arby’s though. It’s changed a lot since we were there in June. It’s not as clean and even though it was lunchtime they weren’t really staffed for it. There wasn’t anyone at the register, just running back and forth from the drive-through and the register. We had to wait a while for our order to be taken. I totally understand lunchtime, but, if you have a busy drive-thru, have another person inside as well. There was a line of about 5 people at any given time inside, just waiting. Maybe they are under new management or something. Then, this guy hit on Jac! He said that he would give her his number if she wanted it! Oh wow…that was terribly funny. Obviously she’s in a relationship, although he didn’t know that as we’ve only been there with Vi, never with Storm as well! *LOL*
Jacqueline, Storm and Violet gave me a wonderful card that Jac made down in the craft room. She used chalk and put a faery on the front. I will scan it in and post it. And I also got some yummy goodies from Bath and Body Works via his mom, Emma. Warm Vanilla Sugar is SO yummy! Shower gel, lotion, sprays…I’m so spoiled!
Friday was a good day, Greg was home and we spent some time together both before and after my tattoo session. I actually have photos of them and of Keith as I took Jacqueline with me. They turned out great. I discussed with Keith exactly what I did and didn’t want and he drew everything on my back. During the discussion he was saying that he wanted to “finish” the rose that he did back in June. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, until he told me exactly what he was going to do. You can click here and see the photos from my latest tattoos.
Dinner on Friday night was most excellent! We went to Joe’s Crab Shack! Alisa I know through the military forum board we used to go to and everyone else I know through Greg’s work.
Photos and more of the weekend under the “more”! Read more
Monday
Hi all new readers from Twitter Mom’s! I’m glad you are here! Thanks for visiting and please comment, I love comments. I will be working down the links throughout the week. I hope to comment more often on blogs now that I have a schedule down with the family. Feel free to add me as a friend on Twitter Mom’s and join my group Tattooed Mom’s if you would like. If you aren’t on Twitter Mom’s, just click any of the links to get you there, then add me! 
It’s definitely a Monday. I haven’t really had a bad day, just a long one.
I went and weighed in today, down 2.8 more pounds for a loss of 10 pounds in 10 weeks! Go me! In 10 days it’s my bday and maybe I will keep my goal of 12 pounds by then, but if not, no biggie. I ran a 12:19 mile on the treadmill this morning! A new pace for me, I’ve been at 4.7 for a while on the speed, cranked it up to 5.0 so I can get more and more speed and get this weight off of me! I started working on my abs as well, I’ve been putting that off for a while. I’m going to take my own personal yoga mat to the gym and put it in my locker. I cannot stand using a mat with a towel. I have no idea who or how many people have been on the gym mat before me and I’m a germophobe that way! EW! Anyhow, I plan on working on them each time I’m at the gym, so by Christmas I should see some sort of improvement. I’ve been working out each weekday for the past two months! I just realized that today. I only skipped last Friday because there were a lot of things going on and it was Greg’s day off.
The weekend was good, we went to the race on Saturday. Jen and Matt went with us and we even got a photo taken of us there. I took one of them as well, you can see that on my Facebook and our Flickr account. There was a really bad accident early on Saturday morning, during qualifying. The girl riding the bike in the tower lane near us, wiped out so badly that we were all stunned and just sat there. (We later found out that she was fine, moving, talking, no injuries, thank God for that!) I thought I had gotten photos of it happening, but, didn’t know that I hadn’t until Rich Christensen asked me to let him see. Since I didn’t and there was a camera…I asked if it was okay to have a photo taken with him. Hubby took it and did a pretty good job I think. We had a good day, I took a lot of photos and got some great bikes speeding along at over 150 MPH in some cases. Jen and I walked around and saw all the bikes, went to the top of the track where everyone was lined up waiting and took some photos of some bikes and some of the guys and their kids too. Greg and I each bought at least one shirt. I think that was a great way to spend the day. It was sunny and in the low 70’s, not very humid either.
Sunday we got some stuff done around the house, then went and delivered the DVD in our old town to the “wedding” couple. I don’t do weddings. ‘Nuff said. We also went and shopped for some baby things for people we know having babies. I just have to wrap them up and send them off this week. Theresa has gotten her gifties by now, how about you Cheryl? It was SO weird to see our old town, really weird. I haven’t been back there since we moved I don’t think.
Jess is going to be visiting this weekend, I’m so excited!! She flies in on Friday night, so I’m off to meet Greg at Pentagon City Mall for dinner, then we’re picking her up! She flies out on Sunday evening. I know it will go SO quickly. We’re taking our Christmas family photo on Saturday and probably doing lunch somewhere as well. She hasn’t been here since the end of May for Violet’s birthday! We saw her for a brunch in mid-June and Greg and I saw her in August. But, Jac and Vi haven’t since June. Hopefully she will remember Violet.
We finally hung the photos on the wall in Violet’s room. She loves them. I took a bunch of photos that one day a few weeks ago and had them all printed up in 5 x 7’s. She can see Jac and Storm as well as Jess and Greg and I any time she wants. We just change them out as the family photos are done. There’s a little gallery on each wall and we put one right next to her line of sight on her changing table. Target had a HUGE sale on frames for college students and I ended up getting like 30 or 40 of them for about .50 each. I have a bunch to hang in my office as well.
Gotta run and get some food, then, time for laundry and then hopefully watching Prison Break tonight. TTFN!
Running Girl
I guess I’m officially a runner now. I just ran the 5K loop on the treadmill at the gym this morning. I finished in 44 minutes. It’s not great, but it’s not bad considering I just started to run about a month ago. I’m very proud of myself. I think I will keep running a mile on Mondays, time doesn’t let me run that loop on that day, but once a week I’m going to run the 5K loop.
Greg’s been so supportive, he’s talking about entering into a 5K with me in the Spring. Oh wow. I know that I can finish it. I won’t be first that’s for sure and I know that I won’t be last. I’ve never done anything like that before, it’s a goal I guess. I’m going to try to get my time down a little, just so I know that I will be in the middle of the pack vs. the end!
I really liked running in high school, I was on the track team for one semester. I think I liked it, I can’t remember a lot about high school, those bad memories!*LOL*
Week 7
I had a good weigh in, even though it was a sweaty one…down another pound! 7 pounds in 6 weeks and 8″ also! I’m right on track for a 10 pounds in 10 weeks loss! Yay!! I’ve been running at least 3 days a week on the treadmill as well as doing the bike on some days and the arc trainer on others.
The sweaty part is because when I finished my workout, I went to my locker and my lock wouldn’t open! ACK! I had to be at JC in a matter of minutes, it’s right across the road from my gym. I had them cut the lock and now I have a key lock vs. a set your own combo lock. Really weird though, used that lock for a couple of weeks with no problems before that another set your own combo lock that I used for years.
My counselor didn’t mind though.
Oh, I did find that the Mott’s (I think) little applesauces, the ones with Granny Smith apples are only 50 calories a pop. Violet loves those and I share my Jello’s with her as well.
Week 6
I totally forgot to post on Monday, it’s been crazy here I guess!
I lost 1.8 pounds for a total of 6 pounds! I’ve lost more though, I just weighed myself and I’m down another pound. So, that’s 7 pounds and 8″ since the end of July!
I’ve been working out on the arc trainer for 20 minutes and then I run M, W and Fri. I do weights and the bike on T and Th. I cut 30 seconds off of my mile run time on Wednesday, let’s see how I do today.
I have a lot more energy for things, even with the cold that’s running through the household this week. I actually just have to clean the bathrooms and I’m done with everything else. Maybe the exercise and eating right is working in my favor as I just have the sniffles. *knock on wood*
Week 3
All the hard work at the gym and eating right is showing, finally! I’m down 3.6 pounds lost since 7/28. I’m so excited! I’m short, 4′ 10″ so all the weight shows on me. Everything shows.
I took out my tape measure yesterday morning and I’ve lost 2″ from my waist and from my abs. WOW! No wonder those pants were too big!
I went to the gym all of last week and I have plans to do that again this week. I cannot next week as we’ll be traveling on Wednesday, but, I the hotel we’re staying at has a gym in it, for Thursday and Friday and probably Saturday.
I bought some JC food yesterday, but, with the blessing of my counselor, I’m now eating multi-grain Cheerios some mornings this week. I also bought the Nabisco packs for snacks (100 calorie) from the store, that cut down a lot of the money I spent @ JC for food, almost half!
I started running again, in 10-15 minute runs. I don’t have to run, but some days I actually want to, weird! *LOL*
Day 13
I had to switch to a lower size pair of pants yesterday for the wedding and reception I was photographing! This is a MAJOR wow to me. I happened to have this pair of pants in my closet, the pair I had bought at the beginning of August were too big! The pair I did wear I bought and wore in October 2007, they were a little tight then, but not this time. It was the first time I wore a shirt tucked into my pants in a long, long time.
I’ve lost some inches I think. All my shirts are getting really big and some of the medium sized tanks I wear to the gym are getting loose. I’ve been working out every day, either using the bike and then running for a span of time on the treadmill. Some days I’m doing some light weights and then doing the arc trainer . Other days I’m doing the arc trainer, bike and treadmill. I can only do 20 minute spurts on each, otherwise I’m there for too long and I get too tired and bored.
I go in tomorrow morning for another weigh in. I think I’ve lost about 6 pounds total, so far. I know I’ve lost inches and I will get those measured at the end of August.
I actually tried on a bathing suit the other day. Greg and I are going to Kings Dominion at the end of August for the day. It’s a Navy Chief thing, since there’s a water park in the park, I thought I would need a suit. I haven’t worn one in a while, so I need a new one. I think I want a tank-ini, it will fit now and in the near future. JC Penney’s has a bunch of things on sale, so this week that’s my goal, to get a new bathing suit.
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Feed Burner
Netflix Movies at Home- Next in the Netflix Queue
- 001- The Backyardigans: Into the Deep
- 002- Balls of Fury
- 003- The Backyardigans: Mission to Mars
- 004- The Backyardigans: Polka Palace Party
- 005- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 2: Earth: Vol. 2
- 006- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 2: Earth: Vol. 3
- 007- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 2: Earth: Vol. 4
- 008- The Backyardigans: Movers & Shakers
- 009- The Backyardigans: The Snow Fort
- 010- The Backyardigans: The Legend of the Volcano Sisters