Pictures and more...

I got back in town on Tuesday night from a seriously fun trip to Gatlinburg, TN with (almost) all the women on my Dad's side of the family. There were 13 of us, ranging in age from one-and-a-half to 53. It was A BLAST.

The view from our chalet in Pigeon Forge.

We had a huge, 7 bedroom chalet with a great view of the mountains. We were right up the mountain from Dollywood, so we got treated to a free fireworks show every night at 9:30 pm. Not too shabby! 

The first night there, we all went to dinner at Calhoun's, which is a restaurant in downtown Gatlinburg. Then we walked a bit and checked one of my GB must do's off the list, the Sky Lift. 

Downtown Gatlinburg

That picture is basically half of all there is to see of The Parkway. Gatlinburg is only about 3 miles long, but it's jam packed with restaurants, stores, and super kitschy attractions. 

The second day we were there, everyone basically split up and did things they were interested in. Some people went back to The Parkway, some people went to the chalet's pool, some people just hung out. My Bonus Mom and I decided to drive through the Arts & Crafts trail, which is outside of The Parkway. It's an 8 mile long loop of sporadic stores that house mostly locally made artisan crafts, pottery, jewelry, etc. It's always my goal on a vacation to buy something that is locally made and unique. And boy, did I find it there. 

Buy all the things! 

I found a woodworking shop with all handmade wooden things and bought two ornaments and a bowl. Then I bought two dip mixes (Strawberry Fruit Dip and Onion & Garlic Dip) at "Santa's Claus-et", which is just as kitschy as it sounds. I found a handmade small mixing bowl with mini whisk at Alewine Pottery, and had to have it. Then, I found a pair of turquoise and sterling silver earrings handmade by a Cherokee. 

Later that night, we headed to dinner at The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, which also has a cute shopping area. I got two more pairs of earrings - one gold filigree style, and the other black filigree wooden earrings. I also got Logan a magic t-shirt that turns colors in the sunlight. I bought myself a small white and gold bracelet and then picked out some taffy and fudge. And oh, holy hell. If you are ever in PF, go to the candy shop at The Old Mill and buy them out of Tiger Butter fudge. Vanilla, peanut butter and chocolate swirled together. Mouthgasms all around. 

After dinner, we headed back to the chalet for games. I brought my all-time favorite, Catch Phrase, and we had a blast! We also played Truth or Dare Jenga, which was fun, if not slightly awkward to play truth or dare with family that I haven't spent a lot of time with. 

So. Much. Fun

The above picture is of two of my cousins and an aunt. I just think it shows how much fun we were all having. (And, hi, Amber!) 

The next day was our last full day in town, so my Bonus Mom and I did the last couple of must do's on the list: lunch at The Apple Barn and a trip to The Incredible Christmas Place. I bought two more ornaments at the Christmas Place. Four ornaments. One trip. Worth it. 

A small group of us had dinner at The Park Grill, which is also usually a must do for me, and then my Bonus Mom, my cousin Sarah and I went to Old Smoky Moonshine in Gatlinburg. Remember on my last trip how The Hubs and I sampled the White Lightning? This time, we stuck with the flavored moonshines - all eight of them! 

Bottoms up! 

The Apple Pie moonshine was SO GOOD. Both Julie and Sarah bought a mason jar full. I bought a jar of the Blackberry because The Hubs' boss requested it, but didn't buy any for myself. I did get The Hubs a t-shirt there, though. At this point, I think I was just feeling guilty for all the money I had spent! 

We got home and watched the free fireworks show, then played a couple rounds of Scattergories and Catch Phrase, but everyone was pretty beat. The next morning, it was back to Cincinnati with my Bonus Mom. 

That night, though. Woo, buddy. It was NKOTB time. Boys II Men, 98 Degrees, and New Kids on the Block with My Friend Natalie at US Bank Arena. Second-to-last row, but I TOTALLY DON'T CARE. 

90's kid and proud. 

Seriously, so much fun. The next day, I talked the BFF into getting tickets to the show when it comes to Columbus in August. Can't wait to see it again! 

So that was the last week of my life. Other quick notes: I got a 2cc fill on Wednesday. Pokey McPokerson only had to stick me twice this time! Woot! And also, I have an in-person interview for a job I really hope I get next Tuesday, so cross appendages, please! 

Wanna Know a Secret?

I have absolutely NO IDEA what I weigh right now.

I told y'all I was going to avoid the scale while I am mostly unfilled. It was pretty hard in the beginning because I still had my bathroom scale staring me in the face every single morning. Plus the big ol' doctor's scale in the fitness room at work.

Turns out, not weighing yourself is much, much easier when you have no access to scales. Who woulda thunk?

Apparently I work with a bunch of imbeciles who can't be trusted to act like adults, so the fitness center went on lock down shortly after I got my unfill. Only people who sign in to work out are allowed to go in there now, and they check the electronic door logs (you have to swipe your access card to get in), so I couldn't just sneak in to check my weight.

And then the Packing of the Things happened and my bathroom scale went into a box. Which is currently at the bottom of a pile of boxes in the in laws' garage.

No scale for me.

For a while, it was so nice to not think about it. It was so nice to not have to be accountable. But now, things are feeling snugger, and I can tell my body shape is changing in some areas, and I'm starting to wig out a little bit.

I want to know, but I don't want to know, you know? I don't want to step on that scale and find out I've gained a ton of weight back. I expect to have gained back some, since I have no restriction whatsoever, but it terrifies me to think I could step on that scale and see ANYTHING over 250.

I was able to schedule a fill for next Wednesday, so I guess I'll find out then. It's a double-edged sword, though, because a gain will suck personally, but will up my chances of getting a fill. Blargh.

I'm excited to get back in the fill/restriction game, though. Slow and steady, nothing too big. I think I'm going to ask for 1 cc, which I think would only put me in the area of 5 cc total. One bummer, though: when I called and requested Kristina instead of Kim, they told me that Kristina took another job in the office and doesn't do fills anymore. My only option for fills is poke-poke-pokerson Kim. Oh. Dear. Jeebus. Help me now! We did take photos of the "successful" stick from the last time, so hopefully that will help a little bit.

So anyway, that's what's up.

(Oh, and I've had two phone interviews and scheduled an in-person interview for a job! Fingers crossed!)

TTT

Thanks, Laura Belle for Ten Things Thursday. A lovely way for me to ease my toesies back into the big blogging pool.

1} I hate my job. i HATE my job. i hate MY job. i hate my JOB. (Really, I could make this all 10, but I'll spare you.)

2} I had a lovely girls-get-together with my fabulous friends Heather and Sarah. I know Sarah through knowing Heather, and I know Heather through working closely with her at the job that I hate. Heather is the friend I've mentioned previously who is a sort of consultant for the company I work for. Anyway, we ate at Franco's, which is a family-owned Eye-talian place near downtown Dayton. Dinner was good, but conversation was even better.

3} The job market is RE-DONK-ULOUS right now. I've put in well over 40 resumes in the past two months and nada. Dying here.

4} I leave in 9 days for a sort-of-impromptu weekender to Gatlinburg with the females on my Dad's side of the family. They've been planning the trip for a year - it's the fact that I'm joining them that is impromptu. My Bonus Mom is amazing and offered to share her room in the chalet with me for free, and we're driving down together. I get back in the afternoon on the 26th, just in time for...

5} Unashamedly loving the 80's and 90's and rocking out at the New Kids On The Block/Boys II Men/98 Degrees concert. Can. Not. Wait. SRSLY.

6} While I'm down near the City (City with a capital C = Cincinnati. I'm not really ready to call Dayton a city just yet. Hrumph.) I'm going to try to schedule my first fill since the unfilling happened. Hopefully they'll have some time for me. I'm going to ask for Christina because I just don't think I can handle anymore of Kim's poke-poke-poke-ing. It's a shame, since I like Kim's personality so much better.

7} The worst part about living with my in-laws so far is that The Kiddo absolutely refuses to let anybody but Grandma do ANYTHING for him. I know he's not doing it to hurt me, and I know she can't do anything to stop it, but still - the feelings are hurt. Especially when he gets a boo boo and screams bloody murder if I try to hold him or make him feel better. Dammit.

8} I have eaten out so much since packing/moving/having everything in boxes that I'm seriously craving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There is not a restaurant in the area that sounds even remotely good to me right now.

9} I'm obsessed with a silly little game on my phone called Bakery Story. So not good for my sweet tooth.

10} I'm super excited to be back in the land of the bloggers. I really have missed you all!

The Move

Hey y'all...I'm back! (Although I was never really gone...I've been lurking and commenting when I can.)

So, we're moved, but only in the simplest definition of the word, wherein all my stuff went from one place to another. Very few things have made it into their rightful spots as of yet, and the entire house looks like a storage unit. But things are indoors, which is an improvement over moving day.

This is the view from about 8 pm that evening. We had brought everything from our apartment up to the house and our helpers had taken everything out of the truck and staged it into two areas - one for what was going into the storage area (basement) and one for what needed to go somewhere else in the house. This picture really doesn't do it justice. Literally everything I owned was on my in-laws' back patio. (Those 70's-tastic brown and orange folding chairs aren't mine, btw.)

Now, the obvious question is: why did we unload everything on the patio instead of just taking it into the house where it was supposed to go? And the incredibly frustrating answer is: we had no stairs. 

When we first decided to move, we knew that there was a bunch of stuff that would have to get done to the in-laws' house for it to work. Namely, they needed to gut the basement storage area in order to have a place to store our apartment full of stuff. Somewhere along the line, the guys decided that the stairs to the storage area were unsafe and needed rebuilt. And both of those guys are handy. They're able to build a lot of things. But stairs was never something either of them had attempted. Suffice it to say that the stairs gave them a run for their money. 

And thus, all my belongings sat in patio purgatory. Luckily, we had pretty good weather that day and there wasn't much of a rain threat, or I definitely wouldn't have been able to handle this as well as I (think I) did. The stairs were finally finished around midnight (!) and the four of us moved ALL of that furniture either into the storage area or into a nook/cranny of the house. I got to bed around 2:30 am. 

And by "bed", I mean that I slept in a spare bedroom and The Hubs slept on a couch. Because the room that we were supposed to be moving all of our stuff into looked like this:

This is The Hubs' old bedroom. After he moved out to live with me, his mom turned it into a "scrapbooking room", which I guess is code for "the place we put all the stuff we have no other room for." And because she had been helping us by watching our kiddo a lot, I guess she didn't have time to clean it out by moving day. To her credit, though, she had it cleaned out within about three days of us moving in, so we were able to set up our bed and such. 

The Budweiser neon (a leftover from when this was The Hubs' "bachelor pad" lol) is coming down, along with a giant American flag that you can't see on the other side of the window. And we're going to paint the room from the institutional bright white that it currently is. I'd go even crazier if I had to stare at those crazy white walls for the whole time we live here. Ugh. 

As far as everything else, it's still in boxes. Stacked to the ceiling in the garage, the living room, the dining room, and the hallway. Furniture landed where ever there was room for it, and it hasn't been touched. The Kid is still sleeping in a guest room because his bedroom still has a giant bed and dresser in it that need to go down to storage. 

But all our stuff is indoors and we all have a place to sleep. I guess that'll have to do for now.