Mish Mash

Randompants post ahead. You've been warned.

1) The scale is being nice to me right now. Let's hope it sticks around for Wed-nes-day Weigh-In time. I'm pretty sure it's mostly because I've been drinking TONS of ice cold water while at work. Like, TONS. Did you know that drinking very cold things helps you burn more calories? Your body has to work harder to regulate your internal temperature when you do, thus, calorie burn! I don't know exactly how many more calories it burns, but I can totally attest to the temperature regulation thing. I have been FREEZING at work since I've been drinking all this ice water. And like I said, the scale likes me right this very second, so I'm gonna go with it.

2) Easter weekend was weird, but in a good-ish way. For literally the first time EVER, we didn't spend the holiday rushing between families and worried about whose feeling were getting hurt by us not being there. We spent the weekend with just the three of us, doing whatever we wanted to do. It was so nice. We gave The Kid his basket Sunday morning, then enjoyed the breakfast bar at Frisch's Big Boy, then had an in-home egg hunt. Nice and relaxed, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

3) That's a lie. Most of the weekend was nice and relaxed. Except for the part where we decided that since the whole family was home and we had no plans, this would be the weekend we finally broke The Kid of his pacifier ("passer" or "nuk nuk" to him) habit. A long time ago, we restricted his passer use to what we call "night night and naps", so he knew that unless he was sleeping in his crib, he couldn't have them. And I've known for a while that we need to kick the habit completely at some point, but I haven't wanted to do it.

Well, since we put in our 60 day notice to our apartment complex and will be moving in with my in-laws soon, and I knew that every weekend after this would be me and The Kid alone while The Hubs is working on getting the in-laws house ready, and I wanted to have the habit kicked before we moved, this was the time. (Nice run-on sentence, Anna.) So I cut small holes in his nuk nuks and left them out for him to find. He realized they were "broken" and I asked him if he wanted to throw them away. (That kid LOVES throwing things away.) So all was well and good until it was actually time to take a nap or go to bed.

OH the pity. "Mama? A new nuk nuk? Pwwwweeeeeeeeeease?!" It's a good thing we had thrown them all in the trash or I would have totally given in several times this weekend. It has been a challenge, to say the least, but he has taken naps without his passer both days, and fell asleep (after a long bout of crying) both nights. It helps that we gave him Buzz Lightyear and Woody action figures instead. LOL

4) It's Opening Day!!!

Born and raised a Cincinnati girl, today is the second best day of the year. I didn't realize until recently, though, that other cities with major baseball teams don't go crazy for opening day like we do. We love our Redlegs. Did you know that we're the oldest baseball team in America? And did you know that because of that, we ALWAYS get to play at home on opening day? It's a BFD. (Big effing Deal, if you're not down with the language. LOL)

It is really depressing to me to not be a "true" Cincinnatian anymore. Even though it will always be my home town and I will always love that city, I (very unfortunately) keep moving farther and farther north to be with my husband. I'm from Cincinnati, he's from a town north of Dayton, so when we moved in together before we got married, we chose a town in the middle. Now that we're moving in with his parents, I'm going all the way up to his hometown. And for people there, Dayton is the closest "city", so they consider themselves Daytonians. I don't want to be a Daytonian. I am a Cincinnatian. Ugh.

Anyhoo, Go Reds!

New Year, New Choices...and a Wednesday Weigh In

Last Week: 254.2
This Week: 252.6
Loss: 1.6 lb

Well, Happy New Year to me! I wasn't expecting a good number today, what with all the holiday mumbo jumbo going on. 1.6 pounds is awesome, and I'm super happy with it. I finally hit my first mini goal of 10 pounds down since starting the pre-surgery diet. (Which would have been at 253.8, so I kind of just blew through that one!) But I didn't quite make it to my goal of losing 30 pounds in my 30th year - just 28.4.

Wait.

Just 28.4? JUST TWENTY EIGHT FRACKING POUNDS?! Anna! Get your head out of your ass! You lost more than 28 pounds last year! That is amazing! And way better than gaining weight every. single. year. of your life like you HAD been doing.

(Okay, okay, voices in my head...28.4 pounds is A LOT and I'm freaking awesome. Better?)

Ahem...anyway...

And so, for the first time I can literally ever remember, I'm starting this year weighing significantly less than the last. And it feels awesome. And I can't wait to see what is to come. Here are my commitments for 2013:

• I have a fill on Saturday, and I'm committing to fills every two weeks until I get to where I need to be. No more wasting this tool (and my money!)
• I'm committing to bringing my lunch more to work. I'm not going to say a specific number of times or anything, but that I will bring it more. Which shouldn't be hard, because I can probably count on both hands the number of times I brought lunch to work last year. 
• I'm committing to at least one 5k. Even if I have to train and run it by myself, I'm doing one. 
• I'm committing to moving more. My Mom bought me Just Dance 4 for the Wii, and I've busted a few moves and busted out some sweat, so that will be one of my options. As a tiny little side commitment attached to this one, I'm committing to stop ignoring the fact that my workplace has a fitness center that I walk right past several times a day.
• I'm committing to following the bandster rules. Even the ones I hate. *cough*Nodrinkingwhileeating*cough*
• I'm committing to focusing more on school. Gotta get that done in order to leave my crappy current job. 

My favorite commitment this year is that I'm committing to have more fun. Because as Ferris Bueller said,

 "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."

Post Holiday Jumble (and a "Wednesday" Weigh In)

Today's weigh in is a day late because I was nowhere near a scale yesterday. Which is probably a good thing.

Last Week: 255.0
This Week: 254.2
Loss: 0.8 lb

I am actually AMAZED at the loss. I can (and have) eaten pretty much anything I want, so I am totally going to take that 0.8 lbs and run with it. That's 9.6 pounds in 9 weeks, which doesn't sound like a lot, but averages out to a little more than a pound per week. And, hell, it's a loss! Anything is better than what I have been doing up until this point, which is gaining weight every single year. Even if it's slow, and even if it jumps around and I (temporarily) gain some back, it averages out to a loss. In the end that's all that matters to me.

And dear Jeebus, I need a fill. I had one scheduled for 12/22, but we couldn't part with the money so close to Christmas. It's rescheduled for 01/05, so only a week and a half away.

Other things: Christmas was good. We've technically had 5 Christmases so far, with one more to come on Saturday. Plus, Logan is getting birthday gifts mixed in with the Christmas ones, so the kid is making out like a bandit. He's having a ton of fun this year being Santa's helper and handing out gifts to each person, then once he delivers the gift, he starts opening it for them. Handler's fee, I suppose.

This is my Bonus Mom's Christmas tree. It is gorgeous every single year, and it takes her an entire weekend to do. Every single ornament is perfectly placed, and she even "hides" ornaments inside the tree toward the center to add dimension and a little surprise while you're looking. There are so many ornaments - every year I see new ones I didn't know she had.

Oh, and see that highly fragile, ceramic nativity on the floor? Thanks to my two year old, one of the shepherds is now decapitated (the piece second from the left, behind the laying ox). Logan accidentally knocked the shepherd over and he hit the ox right between the horns, and seriously, it was like a slow motion nativity guillotine...the shepherd's head just made a clean break and rolled across the floor. There was a gasp through the room and then a huge roar of laughter, and poor Bubbers had no idea what had happened! Julie (my bonus mom) says the break was clean and that she can glue it back on, and that the 25 year old nativity has had many repairs throughout the years, so I guess it's no harm no foul, unless you're an unlucky shepherd whose ox turns on you.

The Hubs' big Christmas gift this year was tickets to see Jeff Dunham. I bought the tickets back in October and have been itching to tell him since. It was priceless to see him take them out of the bottom of his stocking on Christmas morning and realize that we were going to see him the next day! It worked out really well that Jeff was doing a show close to us, and so close to Christmas, so I didn't have to give him a Christmas present he couldn't use until June or something.

Of course, we got a "blizzard" yesterday, too. So there was a whole anxiety thing about whether or not they were going to cancel the show, and if they didn't, whether the roads would be good enough for us to get there. In the end, we decided that we didn't want to waste our 7th row tickets and would brave the roads. We left 3 hours early for a trip that would normally take 40 minutes. The roads were fine, and we ended up where we needed to be early enough to enjoy a yummy steak dinner at Longhorn.

7th row, baby!

Breakin' the law and sneaking a pic.

The show was great. The Hubs told me later that he hasn't laughed that hard in a long time and that it was totally worth the expense. One thousand Awesome Wife Points for me! Huzzah!

We had such a good time and laughed so hard, and then when we were walking back to our car last night, I saw that I had two missed calls from The Hubs' mom. The mood instantly changed and we both knew it wasn't good that his mom had called twice after 10 pm. Jack's Great Grandma (Bubbers' Great, Great Grandma) had recently been sent home from the hospital after doctors told her there wasn't anything else they could do to treat her Stage 4 cancer. We knew she didn't have long, and on Christmas Eve, the doctors said she had about 48 hours to live. I guess they knew what they were talking about, because she passed sometime in the evening yesterday.

We're all very sad since we had just seen her this summer at her 90th birthday party looking sharp as ever. She was doing well at that point and responding to therapy. And we were able to get one more Five Generations picture with her then:

Five Generations: Logan, The Hubs, Grandma, Great Grandpa, and Great Great Grandma

Rest in peace, Grandma Mays. We love you.

Wednesday Weigh-In

Last Week: 256.6 lb
This Week: 255.0 lb
Total Loss: 1.6 lb

Now that's more like it!

You should have seen the comedy in my bathroom this morning as I was weighing, though. Normally, I'm a "one and done" weigher. Whatever I see on the scale the first time is what I take. But this morning, when I stepped up, the first reading was 253.8. Now, while that's a totally awesome number and I would TOTALLY take it, I just had a feeling that it wasn't right, so I hopped back on. This is how that process went:

Step on. 255.0. Hmmm, I think I preferred the first one. Step off. Step on. 255.0, Okay, at least we got a double confirmation, guess we'll go with that. Let's brush our teeth and get on with the day. Step off. Teeth and hair brushed, and the scale is RIGHT THERE. Let's just check one more time. Step on. 253.0. WHAT THE CRAP?! Step off. Ok, last time, and then we're hopping off this crazy roller coaster, dude. Step on. 253.0. *facepalm*

Since I know that I didn't do two pounds worth of teeth and hair brushing exercise, I decided just to go with the 255. And this morning when I got to work, I hopped on the doctor scale in our fitness center and weighed 256 with light clothes on, so I'm thinking the 255 was the closest. Whatevs, a loss is a loss is a loss, and I'll so take it. I am accutely aware of my desperate need for a fill, and that is scheduled for bright and early Saturday morning. Hopefully we'll really start seeing those numbers move after that.

In other news:

We finally received our Thomas Kinkade last night. To refresh your memory, we bought it along with another painting back during our anniversary trip to Gatlinburg in October, but it stayed in Tennessee so that we could have it professionally highlighted at the gallery. Our gallery rep sent us pictures of our painting getting highlighted at the event, which I think is really kind of cool to have photo proof and to see it happening.

She did a great job with the highlighting, and it was fun for The Hubs and I to look over the painting last night and try to spot all the areas she did. It really adds some dimension to the canvas, not to mention value, too.

The only bummer is that our frame has 3 pretty noticeable dings on the left side. I have to email our rep the pictures today and see what she says. It's a bummer to have your pretty (and expensive) painting finally home, but not be able to hang it and enjoy! Blargh.

Also in other news: I hate dish cloths with a passion. I have seven more to make, and no time to make them. I have resorted to eating lunch at my desk and then using my full lunch hour to crochet like a madwoman in the break area. Which happens to be directly across from the glass doors to our fitness center, so I'm pretty sure people think I'm some crazy crocheting stalker lady with a fitness fetish. Fun times.

In true Grinchy spirit, I abandoned ship on Christmas cards this year, too. I just had to give SOMETHING up, and cards got the ax. I haven't wrapped a single thing. The Hubs hasn't shopped for me, and can't until we get paid on Friday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I have to make birthday cupcakes for Sunday (Logan turns the big TWO!), and a pumpkin pie with whipped cream for Tuesday. I have to pack and ship Grandparents gifts, like, yesterday. And we haven't even started the thirty-something ornaments that we're making as part of our gifts this year. Oh, and did I mention that Bubbers got the flu last week and has been miserably and pitifully sick since Thursday? And my MIL, who is our daycare provider, got the flu too, and has not been able to watch the kiddo, so The Hubs has had to take two days off work without pay this week?

I don't know why people keep complaining that the holidays are so stressful.  Pffft.

But we will survive. We will put on happy faces. We will be those parents who are up until 4 am on Christmas Eve putting together the comically large train table for the kiddo. And we will enjoy every. single. minute. of it. Because I have the luxury and gift of being able to watch my child wake up on Christmas morning. And that is a gift that I am so much more aware of and thankful for this year.

Roller Coaster

Last week: 256.4
This week: 256.6
Gain: 0.2


Blah. I know it's only a small gain, but it's totally disheartening after getting a fill. For the first couple days, I could feel some restriction. I guess it's restriction, anyway - I started feeling that pressure in my chest after eating a bit. But now, it's completely gone. Blah. Blah, blah, blah.

The Hubs and I agreed that since I have to pay for my fills, I can't go back for another one until I get paid again (which is every two weeks), so I'm going to call and try to get a fill appointment for next Saturday. Let's get this baby jacked up!

On another note, and an NSV at that, I've had two people notice and comment on my weight loss this past week. Both were co-workers who don't see me that often, so I guess my almost 30 pounds lost is more noticeable to them. I was super happy to FINALLY have someone notice something.

I've been concerned about going to all the family Christmases in the next couple of weeks. They all know that I've had the band and I'm worried that they're all expecting me to show up looking like a supermodel or something. The one side of the family hasn't seen me in several months, so maybe they will notice something, but the other side sees me pretty frequently and the loss has been so slow...

Oh well. It's my journey and I'm holding steady in the hope that in a couple more months (and with the right fills) they won't have any choice but to notice! Right? Right.

Goal Oriented and other things.

Hello all!

This past weekend was fun - we had our first Christmas party of the season on Saturday. Fun (and dish cloths) was/were had by all. Sunday was our second Christmas party, wherein Logan met Santa for the first time since he could actually acknowledge who he is. He was enthralled by the man in the big red suit! Lots of fun.

I can definitely tell a difference since having my fill on Friday. I don't think that I'm where I need to be, but things are moving in the right direction. I am learning first-hand about how fickle Tim Gunn is, though. At times, I feel full on practically nothing, and at other times, I could (theoretically, of course, because there's no way that this actually happened, *ahem*) eat two whole hot dogs with buns and a couple cookies, and still feel like going back for more. It's a balancing act, and it will take a while to get everything there, I know.

I was thinking earlier today about my goals with this whole weight loss thingy. I really didn't have a set weight goal in mind when I started out. That's mostly because I have steadily gained weight every year of my existence, and it feels impossible for me to say, "Oh, yeah, I'll look and feel great at XXX number." How the heck do I know? I've never been one of those people who dieted and lost a huge amount and was really happy there, but then gained it all back. My yo-yo doesn't yo, yo. So it was really difficult for me to just pick a number out of thin air as a real goal. I mean, I have all these little obvious goals in my head, like, to get to Onederland, and such, but a something-to-strive-to number was rough.

I have since ended up sitting on 175 as a strive-to goal. It's a nice, pretty number, and it's well under 200. We'll see how it feels when we get there, I guess.

I also have a bunch of teeny tiny little mini goals coming up soon (hopefully). The first one I'll hit is at 253.8, which will be 10 pounds down from the start of my pre-op diet. Then 251.0 will be 30 pounds down for the year. Then 249 will be a victory that I can't wait to write a post about, but am keeping it a secret for now. And finally, 246.3 will be the start of all brand new territory for me, as earlier in my weight loss blogging journey, I hit 246.4, and that's as low as she goes went.

I think focusing on these little mini goals that are soclose will hopefully help me stay motivated and feel less bogged down by the impossible-ness that 81.4 pounds to "goal" sounds like. Bit by bit, we'll get there.

What about you? Any mini goals coming up? Or do you stay laser focused on the "big one"?

TTT

It's time for Laura Belle's Ten Things Thursday, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I was staring at a blank Blogger screen until I remembered that it's Thursday, so my blogging is basically done for me!

{1} My weigh in yesterday was 257.2. If you'll recall, that was also my exact weight on 11/07 (Surgery Day), and last week on 11/21. 257.2 likes me and I'm not sure why. The feeling is certainly not mutual.

{2} My very first fill is only 8 days away! I am super excited for this, and only a teensy bit nervous. I gave myself 3-4 insulin shots daily for several months of my pregnancy, and I give myself my Bydureon injection every week, so the needle part isn't totally freaking me out, but I'm not exactly thrilled about the prospect, either. I just want to get on the path to restriction and feel like I'm starting to get my money's worth out of Tim Gunn.

{3} Mission: Christmas Dish Cloths has slowed down a bit. I've lost my motivation at the most unhelpful time. I still have about six sets (12 dish cloths) to go. Blargh.

{4} I bought some Powerball tickets yesterday but refuse to find out if we've won or not. I wanted to go to bed thinking there was still a chance that I could be a bagillionaire. Still to now, I know nothing about the drawing and if anyone won. I'm holding on to the dream a little bit longer - getting the most out of my 12 bucks.

{5} If I won the lottery, the very first thing I'd do (after putting it in an account under a business or different name) would be to build a big ol' custom home. We live in a comically small apartment that is busting at the seams with our junk. Not to mention the fact that there is an entire ROOM full of our junk stored at The Hubs' parents' house. I literally feel like our walls are closing in on us.

{6} Today is my "official" day of starting Phase 4 foods, which in non-surgeon speak, means I'm back to all normal foods. Woo. I pretty much had been eating normal foods (choosing more soft/mushy items when they were available) for about a week now.

{7} My focus this week has been trying not to drink with my meals. I knew going into this that this one bandster rule would be the hardest for me to follow. I have always been a HUGE drinker with meals - I just hate the feeling of leftover food particles in my mouth. I've been focusing on it this week and pushing myself out of my comfort zone to try to get over the mental yuckiness of not being able to "wash" my food down. It's a work in progress, and one which I will really need to get under control once I've got my fills in.

{8} I have been kind of ignoring school for the past month or so. My second term started in October, which means I have until the end of March to finish the 5 classes I'm scheduled. Because it's all online, I don't have to actually attend classes on any sort of schedule, which means that I can just pretend it doesn't exist if I want to. Not good. Finally this week, I got tired of feeling guilty during my weekly mentor call and finished two assignments for my math class. (Math - patooey!). I turned them in on Tuesday and they still haven't been graded, which annoys me. If they pass, I have two more assignments for that class and then it's OVAH. And I will be done with math FOREVAH! (Except for studying for the math portion of the Praxis 1, blargh.)

{9} December's calendar is filling up fast. For us, October and December are the two busiest months of the year, and I almost dread them. As of right now, we have eight events on our calendar and still need to find time to get/decorate our Christmas tree and go see the trains at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Busy busy busy!

{10} My kid is the cutest thing on the planet. He's so much more into Christmas this year since he understands more of it. I don't think he understands the concept that Santa brings gifts on one special day, but he knows what Santa and Rudolph and elves and presents and Christmas trees are. He even "sings" Jingle Bells, which comes out something like "bumble bells, bumble bells, bumble bells, bumble bells, bumble bells..." on repeat. I'll have to try to post some video for y'all.

Aaaand, that's all folks. It was easier to come up with 10 things today! Hope everyone is doing well.

It's been...

One week since you looked at me,
Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry...

(Barenaked Ladies, "One Week")

One week since the start of my pre-op diet. One week of emotional ups and downs. One week of good days and not-so-good days. One week and almost 5 pounds.

Start of Pre-Op Diet (10/24): 263.8 lb
One Week In (10/31): 259.2 lb
Loss: 4.6 lb

So I super duper hate the pre-op diet. It sucks. It's not sustainable for me, but then again, I don't guess it was meant to be sustainable anyway. I have had days with "fuck it" moments where I've cheated a bit, (not entire "fuck it" days, mind you) and then days like yesterday, where it was nothing but protein shakes and stick-to-it-iveness. Obviously I need to work on channeling the latter for this last week before surgery.

My goal is to get down to 255 by surgery day, so that's another 5-ish pounds in this last week.  I would appreciate any extra "you can do it" vibes that you've got just laying around. Send them my way, sisters!

As far as THE LIST goes, tomorrow I stop all medications and replace ibuprofen with Tylenol. I still need to get to a drug store to purchase the Hibiclens, but I don't have to start that until Sunday, so there's still a little time there.

In other news...

If the weather isn't too horribly crappy (they're calling for cold and rain, fun!) we're going to take Bubbers to MFN's (My Friend Natalie if you're new 'round these parts) neighborhood to hand out candy. We live in an apartment and haven't gotten one single trick-or-treater in the 5 years we've been here, so I thought it would be fun to go to her house.

The kiddo is not a huge fan of his costume, but I think he's monkeylicious!

"Haven't you always wanted a monkey?!" Oh, BNL...

And also in other news...

Hugs to you if you've been affected by that bitch, Sandy. We have just had some rain and light snow here in Cincinnati/Dayton, so nothing near what has happened in other areas. Hope you're all doing okay if you're in those parts!

Too Good To Be True?

Hi all!

I'm going to breeze right over the fact that it has been, oh, a zillion-and-a-half years since I blogged, and jump right in to the reason for my post...

I just discovered that band surgery is tax deductible. According to IRS Publication 502, you can deduct any medical or dental expenses over and above 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income. For us, this would mean that we would be able to "claim" about $8000 of the cost of my surgery.

Did any of you bandsters out there take advantage of this? Is it too good to be true? (Please tell me it's not, because I'm super excited about my new discovery...)

And in other news, Bubbster turned one last Friday, which I totally can't believe and am in denial about. He's still my little bubby baby boy, right? (Say that one three times fast.) We had one small family birthday party for him and his GiGi (great grandma on my step-mom's side), and he'll have his big birthday party on the 7th. It's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed, y'all. Oh, Toodles!

He also had seven (yes, onetwothreefourfivesixSEVEN) Christmases, and not by choice or by my doing. I would have been happy with one, but darn it for family and friends! The kid received NO duplicate toys, either, which has to be some sort of Black (Christmas) Magic or something. We're going to put some of the toys in a closet and pull them out throughout the year for him.

I've missed you all and have been a bad blogger. Sorry, y'all. Life's been a royal bitch for the past six months or so, so I've been doing pretty well to not climb in a hole or drive my car off a cliff or something. But I'm here. I'm alive. I'm doing.

So anyway, let me know about the tax deduction thingamajig, because that's so flipping awesome if it's true!

Hugs to you and yours, and Happy New Year, too!

BYOC

It's Friday! I guess you know what that means...

BYOC – Bring Your Own Crazy….5 little questions we ask to get to know each other better and to give our blogging brains a break. Copy and paste to your own blog and enjoy!

1. If you have a camera and have the time – take the contents of your purse out – and take a picture of said contents and explain them. If you don’t have time or a camera – please describe the contents of your purse.

I usually keep my purse pretty empty, much to the delight of my MIL. There's little in life that she likes more than to feed her superiority complex when I don't have something completely random in my purse that no normal person could ever foresee needing, and yet, somehow, we need. What ever it is, she's got it. It's like Mary Freakin' Poppins in there. Need a coat rack? I'm pretty sure she'd have it in her purse just incase you need it and her daughter-in-law didn't come prepared for just such an occasion. 

But I digress. 

In my purse currently, there is:

• a pink wallet (with a debit card sticking out)
• my phone (had I not used it to take the picture)
• loose change
• 8 used fake fingernails (don't ask)
• my keys
• a leopard print pair of tweezers in a plastic tube
• 4 hair ties
• 3 earrings (one and a half sets, lol)
• a bobby pin
• a tiny plastic baby from a Mardi Gras King Cake 3 years ago (which I put in my purse when I left my old job and have forgotten to take out)  
• two pens
• miscellaneous receipts
• a bottle of this
• business cards
• a container of Sensa
• a notepad that I got from St. Jude Children's Research Center

Random. And note the complete lack of essentials like tissues, medicines, bandaids, Tide to Go, etc. that my MIL likes to remind me I don't have. What can I say, lady? I like to live on the edge. Neener neener with my tongue stuck out.

2. Repeat question: I’m going to pick a person not knowing if you have a relationship with this person or if the person even exists and you try to describe the person in 5 words or short sentences. Your kindergarten teacher.

Seriously, how do you remember that person?! I have no recolection of kindergarden, except for making way too many art projects out of uncooked macaroni (some of which still get hung on my mama's Christmas tree, thankyouverymuch).

I'm sure my kindergarden teacher was a very nice person.

3. What’s your favorite guilty pleasure / trashy TV show you like to watch?

Much to my chagrin, I do not have cable. However, I do enjoy trashy reality shows. I loved "Love In The Wild", and still love The Amazing Race, even though I wouldn't really consider it trashy. I heart pretty much any reality show you'd find on TLC, plus any of the documentaries on addicts, prisoners, and serial killers.

What does that say about me? Eeek.

4. A lot of you told me about your first day of school experiences when I posted about how my 5 year old going to kindergarten wasn’t causing me too much heartache. So now I’m officially asking – tell me about one of your first day of school experiences that sticks out in your mind the most. Who put you on the bus? Did you ride the bus? Did your parents take pics? Did they walk you into school? Drive you there? Cook you breakfast?

I can't remember any of my personal first days of school and I haven't had the pleasure(?) of sending Bubbers off yet. I'm sure it will be filled with pictures and tears.

5. Repeat question: Summarize your week in real life and in blog land.

In real life, I made the decision to get banded, which I posted in blog life here. I'm also going through a work/life/husband crisis where I just can't be happy with anything in any situation. (It's a fun time over here in BatShitCrazyLand, won't you join me? My husband sure would appreciate it.) I'm looking forward to the 3 day weekend, and to starting it a little early - I'm leaving work at 12:30 to go pick up Bubbers and take him to his 8 month check-up. Yay!

In blog life, we finished the remodel! Yay! Thanks, Tricia! For some reason, the post fonts aren't working on IE9, but I think she's working on that. I've been catching up on banded bloggers' stories, usually starting from the beginning of their blogs or band journeys. It takes a lot of time, but the information is incredibly helpful. I hope that my blog will be a source of information for possible bandsters one day, too. And also, in Blogland, I'm growing insanely jealous of those BOOBs who are going to Chicago. Hopefully I'll be an attendee in 2012, ladies, so save some fun for me!

Guess that's it, lovelies. Have a wonderful 3 day weekend if you get one!

I want YOU!

To have a safe and happy 4th of July!

2009...

Sure was an interesting year for me...

I started a blog and maintained it much more and longer than I thought I would.
I started and stopped (and started and stopped, and started and stopped) eating right and working out.
I lost (and kept off) 10 pounds for the first time ever.
I participated in FIVE 5k races.
I learned how to deal with a husband who is a full-time college student and a full-time third-shift employee.
I made a ton of new internet friends. (Hi y'all!)
I had a minor breakdown when I learned what it really meant to have Diabetes and want to get pregnant.

The BFF spent the year dealing with the big, honkin' tumor in her uterus. She also got engaged on Christmas Eve!

Tonja got married and is expecting her first baby (a girl, to be named Brianne Marie) in April.

MFN has somehow survived almost an entire year with a deployed husband. (Who will be home for two weeks at the end of this month! Yay!)

The Hubs and I came thisclose to buying a house. And then we didn't. We did buy a Wii, though. :)

I didn't do everything I set out to do when I wrote my first post. But I did lose weight, and I did do five 5ks, and most importantly, I learned A LOT. 2010 is just going to have to be the year I put all that learnin' to use. I have more tools at my disposal than I ever have, and I will never have a better reason than getting pregnant to motivate myself.

This is the year that it all happens. It has to be.

October 18, 2009

So, I should have written this post yesterday, but I was a little preoccupied with my husband and my anniversary and all...

Better late than never, right? So without further ado:

The Hubs was incredibly sweet and sent 18 amazing roses to me at work on Friday. As most women will agree, there's little better in this world than getting flowers at work. It's pretty much the best - and even better when they're absolutely gorgeous, as these were:

It just so happens that we got married on Sweetest Day, which I realize is not a "real" holiday, and isn't even celebrated throughout the whole country. Alas, it is celebrated here in the mid-west, and we now get to take full advantage of the fact that our anniversary will fall on or near Sweetest Day every year.

How did we take advantage of it this year? The Ohio Renaissance Festival's Romance Weekend. One, we love RenFest, and two, what's better than a little medieval romance on your anniversary?

We started out the day with our favorite show: Guido Crescendo (left) and Dirk Perfect (right) as The Swordsmen:

We walked around and meandered through the tons and tons of artisan shops until it was time for the big event: a medieval mass vow renewal. We met at the chapel and renewed our vows in a renaissance ceremony with about 2o other couples.

During our wedding, I somehow managed to hold myself together and made it through the whole ceremony while only shedding a couple dainty tears. For some reason, I couldn't hold it together in front of 20 other couples at the Renaissance Festival! What's up with that?! While I was saying my vows, the tears just started flowing and wouldn't stop. It was very touching.

Here we are with the pastor who performed the ceremony:

And here we are with our ceremonial certificate:

After the vow renewal, we were both starting to get hungry, and you know what that means...

A giant turkey leg for The Hubs! (I personally think it's grosser than gross, but whatever floats his boat...)

For me, heaven is:

Funnel Cake! (Although, this one was waaaaaay too crispy.)

After the good eats, it was time for one of the crowd favorites:

The Joust! This was our side's knight, Sir Marcus. He kind of sucked, as the other guy beat him in all the games of skill and kicked his butt in the actual joust. Oh well, the horses were beautiful, and - bonus - they're rescue horses! Yay!

We had both decided that we would get each other's anniversary presents at the festival, and The Hubs picked out this amazing, hand-made walking stick. As a bonus, the artisan hand-carved his initials in it for us while we waited!

The gift I picked was this beautiful ceramic ring/jewelry bowl:
I love it!

One of my favorite parts of the Renaissance Festival is the fact that they always have amazing artisans there performing their crafts. We watched this glassblower make a beautiful mug:

And then we couldn't resist bringing two home for ourselves:

I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but they are HUGE! They probably hold about 20 ounces, and they probably weigh more than a pound a piece! Incredibly heavy and beautiful. (And ex-pen-SIVE, at $40 each, but we couldn't resist!)

There were so many beautiful bowls and ornaments and vases in his shop, we could have easily spent another $200 there, but instead, we managed to just keep it to those mugs and a $20 ornament:

We walked around some more and decided on a whim to stop and watch the belly dancers. OH. MY. GOD. if I could do that, my husband would be a very happy man. I have video that I hope to post sometime soon, but for now, you'll just have to take these pictures and use your imagination...

First, she stole someone's beer and did an entire routine with it on her head:

And then, she moved on to something a little more *ahem* dangerous...

They were amazing, and made a chilly day awfully H-O-T.

When we got home, The Hubs took his pre-work nap, and it wasn't until he had been at work for a half an hour that we remembered that we hadn't done any of the other anniversary things we were supposed to do yesterday.

Oh well, that means two days of anniversary! LOL

So, tonight when we got home, The Hubs made dinner, and we had some dessert...

Two layers of saran wrap and three layers of aluminum foil later, and voila! Year old cake! Yummm...
We were both a wee bit apprehensive to actually try it, but once we did, we were pleasantly surprised at how well it held up. It was a little soggy from the strawberry filling, but tasted and smelled like fresh, yummy cake. Thanks to The BFF one year later for making our delish wedding cake!

After the cake, it was time for us to reaffirm our wedding vows, which we read from a copy of our wedding ceremony. Then it was time for the part I was most excited about...

I'm not sure if I ever told you about our unity ceremony. Our mothers each brought up a piece of ribbon and our pastor held it while we "tied the knot". We made the ribbons long enough so that we could tie a new knot every year on our anniversary...
And that, my dear friends, was my very first wedding anniversary. It was a great day, and I'm definitely looking forward to many more.

"And I've made up my mind, I ain't waistin' no more time. Here I go again..."

("Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake).

Yesterday I made a deal with The Devil my husband.

Seeing as how I've been a total bum with the whole diet and exercise thing, and also seeing as how I'm completely, hopelessly, 100% obsessed with getting pregnant, I decided to take matters into my own hands. And it went something like this:

Mrs. B.: Honey, I've decided something.
Mr. B.: (looks scared) You have? What?
Mrs. B.: When I get to 195 pounds, we're having a baby.
Mr. B.: (turning pale and pastey) We are?! How about 175 pounds?
Mrs. B.: No! I'll be happy under 200, so 195.
Mr. B.: Where are you now?
Mrs. B.: Right around 250.
Mr. B.: (calculating in his head) How about 190?
Mrs. B.: Seriously?! What's the difference between 195 and 190?!
Mr. B.: ....190?
Mrs. B.: Fine. When I get to 190 pounds, we're going to get me pregnant. Deal?
Mr. B.: Uhhhhhh....ehhhhhh.....weeeell....
(Mrs. B. gives Mr. B. "the look")
Mr. B.: Okay...deal.

And then, partly in the interest of full-disclosure, and partly because I'm an evil wife who sometimes might just get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of seeing her husband break out into an instant sweat, I added this little bit:

"You know, honey, if I really kick it into gear, I could be at 190 by the end of this year..."

...and I swear to you, I think his heart just might have stopped beating for a second. He recovered, though, and now I'm back in the game. I've got new purpose, and I'm ready to go. You know, sometimes I think you just have to procrastinate on something so much until you just can't possibly take it anymore, to really kick it into gear and make a difference. Table for one?! Because that's pretty much where I am.

My weigh-in this morning said 249.6. Today's the day that I start working on my "baby wait". I'm pretty darn excited!

My goals for this week are:

1. Take all meds daily.
2. Test blood sugar twice daily.
3. Stay under 1,600 calories daily.
4. C25k Week 3 Mon, Weds, Fri at 1% incline.
5. T5k Tues, Thurs, Sat at 1% incline.

Here I go again...

And in other news...(I think I missed my calling as a news anchor, don't you?)

The Hubs and I took The In-Laws to Bd's Mongolian Grill on Friday. I was seriously concerned about this, seeing as I'm one of the pickiest eaters on the planet. I barely eat "Chinese" food, sticking mainly to Sweet & Sour Chicken and fortune cookies. But, seriously, it was so good! The place was absolutely packed so I did feel a little rushed. I didn't get time to sample as many sauces as I would have liked, but in the end I was not at all disappointed by my choices. Next time, I'll add more veggies, since using a small amount of sauce is a great way to 'hide' them in the dish. The website has a handy dandy tool where you can create a bowl and it will automatically calculate your nutrition facts for you.

I talked MFN into going there for lunch today. Yay veggies! (Wait... what's that I hear? The flapping of tiny pig wings? The crackling of icicles in Hades? Did she just say, "yay veggies!"? I think she did!) Yep. "Yay veggies..." I'm not the person I used to be. And that's a totally awesome thing.

Saturday, I grocery shopped. I also just happened to cook the most awesomest meal I've ever cooked in the history of my wifedom. I made steak, corn on the cob, and baked potatoes, and didn't ruin anything! (Where's The MIL when I need her?!) It was so freaking good! I mean, yes, I understand that there isn't much skill in boiling corn or in putting a potato in the oven, but the steaks were awesome! My George Foreman grill is officially my favorite kitchen gadget. (After the Kitchen Aid mixer, of course!)

Sunday, we hung out at my Step-Grandparents' house for Father's Day, and then lounged around the apartment for some quality spouse time. The Hubs starts his first full week of the quarter this week, and now we've got to find him a new job as well. Needless to say, he's a busy guy. He's a busy guy who's going to have a pregnant wife to deal with as soon as I get my ass in gear.

:-)

And where have you been, young lady?!

Sorry, Mom...

I've been out of it, and I apologize. On the downside, that means you haven't been graced with any hilarious, witty and entertaining posts from yours truly. (Apparently I think pretty highly of myself.) On the upside, now you get to be bombarded with them! Yay!

Without further ado, Post #1, or "What I've Been Doing for the Past Twelve Days," by Mrs. B.

When we last spoke, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of the warp in the space/time continuum that made my shoes perfectly comfortable in-store, and unbearable at home. Yes, groundbreaking, earth-shattering news, I know.

Friday:

I ended up wearing those shoes (with a back up pair, of course) to work and was surprised to find that I made it through most of the day with only two band-aids. And as all of you ladies know, you can determine the comfort level of a pair of shoes by how many band-aids you have to wrap your feet in to keep the blistering/rubbing at bay. In the end, I decided to pack them to wear to the wedding with no back up plan. You'll find out how that went in a little bit.

I put on my back up shoes when I left work because I had to hurry to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy whatever I could scrounge together from my cousins' registry on the night before the wedding. Ugh. Yes, I know, it's my fault for waiting until the last minute, but I couldn't help it. I walked in, armed with a handful of BBB coupons, printed off their registry, and started rummaging through my choices. Of course, the $300 Kitchen Aid Mixer and the $300 vacuum were still available, but I could only afford about $30 worth of gifts. Guess what they got. Go ahead, I dare you. Give up?

They got spoons. I got them all of the random, individual serving spoons on their registry and called it a day. It's quite possibly the worst/strangest gift I've ever given someone, but in my defense, they registered for them, so they must have wanted them. And those things are freaking expensive individually - between $7-$10 a piece! (That's expensive to me, but maybe I'm cheap...) I'm sure they'll think of us every time they have a need to scoop, dip or stir.

Anyway, I bought their gift, went back to the house, packed for the wedding and the weekend, and we went up to The Hubs' parents' house. We finally got to hang out with The Kids, and had a really fun night at the bar with them. I drank a lot, but never really got drunk. (Which seems to be how it goes since the gallbladder left town...) At any rate, we got to hang with them, which should buy us another month or two of crazy schedules that interrupt friend time. Bah, I hate that!

Saturday (we're up to May 23rd in my 12 days of abandonment):

The Hubs and his dad changed some belts on my car and then it was off to the wedding. But first, we had to make a stop at the prom:

The MIL wouldn't let us leave until she got pictures of us in the front yard. It's endearing, I guess. The Hubs went to his senior prom with a bunch of friends, so she never got to take these pictures 10 years ago. It's a little fun to indulge her. (Btw, I'm wearing the shoes in this pic.)

The wedding was nice. It was the first time I had ever been to a Catholic wedding with a full mass. Other than the awkwardness of the whole stand up, sit down routine, and not knowing the songs or the responses, it was very nice.

Here's the happy couple, my Step Cousin, Steve, and his new wife, Jen.

I'm sure they'll look just as happy when they open up their spoons...

The reception was good. I had the most amazing roast beef I think I've ever had, and I did The Booty Call, The Cha Cha Slide, and The Cupid Shuffle - in my shoes! They actually ended up being one of the more comfortable pairs of high heels I own. I'm really glad I gave them a second chance.

Sunday:
I went out to lunch with The BFF and Tonja, and then we had shopping to do! We hit up Wal Mart and Target for camping supplies, and then I went home and did grocery shopping with The Hubs. Lots of shopping that day, nothing really exciting to report.

Monday:
Memorial Day. Instead of going out to my Mom's house, we lounged around all day and enjoyed the first day in a very long time that we had absolutely nowhere to be. The Hubs did homework most of the day, and I enjoyed an all-day John & Kate Plus 8 marathon while cleaning out my closet. (Yes, it took almost a whole day to clean out my closet. Don't judge.) I filled 3 trash bags full of Goodwill goodness, and sorted and organized all my junk. What a fun and exciting life I lead.

Wednesday:
I went with MFN andThe BFF to see "A Chorus Line". Can you say "booo-riiing"? OMG, I thought it was never going to end! Luckily, I'm not crazy, and MFN and The BFF felt the same way. Maybe we're Theater Snobs, maybe we've been spoiled by Les Mis and the other amazing shows we've seen, but man, was that a rough two hours to sit through. Oh well, at least I can add another show to my list.

I got the 2009-2010 schedule the other day, and I'm pretty much going to have to get a second job to pay for my theater habit. "Mama Mia!", "The Color Purple", "Rent", "Chicago", "Legally Blonde: The Musical", "Dreamgirls", and I'm super excited about this one: "Mary Poppins"! I HAVE to see all of them, or I'm pretty sure I'll die. (What? I'm being overly dramatic? You think so? Okay, fine. I'd really, really, really like to see these shows, and if I don't, I'll be really sad. Better? Good.)

Thursday:
I realized on Wednesday that there was no way I was going to be able to get all of our camping stuff organized and packed, and clean up our apartment in time for the trip on Friday, so I took Thursday off. I spent the first 4 hours of my day reformatting my iPod and adding/organizing songs. Ugh, what a P.I.T.A.! Then I spent the rest of the day cleaning, organizing, and packing. When The Hubs got back to the house around 11pm, we only had a few things left to do on our list. It never would have gotten finished if I had worked that day.

Friday - Sunday:
Camping. I'll give it it's own post.

Monday (today!):
Back to civilization, back to work, back to the diet and exercise. I'll give the whole diet and exercise thing it's own post, too. (Aren't you lucky?!)

So you may have had to live without me for 12 days, but as you can see, I had a lot going on.

Do you forgive me? I sure hope so.

Anything but the diet...

Lots of little stuff going on that I want to share, and I need to take a break from talking about that ever frustrating topic of diet and exercise. Therefore, my challenge today is to talk about anything but the diet.

1. Work sucks. I need to win the lottery with the quickness. Also, randomly, I absolutely hate it when I have to choose a new password for my computer at work. We have to do it every couple of months, and today was the day. Inevitably, I sit there, staring at my computer screen for minutes, trying desperately to think of something that fits the two million requirements and is something I will remember/not hate having to type in every day. Run-on sentence over. You may breathe.
2. The Hubs is about to have a serious breakdown. I think he has finally hit his limit with the whole full-time job/full-time student thing. It took about 5 weeks, which is probably about 3 weeks longer than it would have taken me. Now we are at an impass...he either has to get a new job that pays better so he can work less hours, figure out a way that we can afford for him to work less hours at the poorly-paying job he has, or suck it up. And I either have to find a way to spend less money or get a second job. Both of those options are equally hard/sucky for me.
3. My mom is the awesomest. I hung out at her house yesterday and we spent the afternoon looking at old photos of her and our family. She gave me the two baby blankets that were made for me when I was born. She made one of them, and my Aunt Nadie made the other. She made sure to emphasize the fact that it was really special that Aunt Nadie made me a blanket because she didn't make blankets for any of the other babies. Did I mention that my mom is the awesomest?
4. The BFF is one of the strongest women I know. You can't imagine the life she's had, and some of the things she's gone through, or how it always seems like god/the devil/allah/whoever has it out for her. As of right now, there's a whole lot of drama with trying to evict Tulula the Toomah from her uterus, but I think it will all get figured out. She hasn't given up hope yet, and at the very latest, Tulula will get her walking papers in January. And, I realize that the image of a larger-than-a-softball-sized tumor getting up and walking out of her uterus is something I'm sure you could all have done without.
5. I can't wait to have Memorial Day off! And it just so happens that I will be camping with 5 of my favorite people the weekend after that, so I only have to work 3 days that week! I'm super excited about camping, and I can't wait to go. I think we all could really use some time away from life!
6. I really need to spend a day (or a week!) organizing the music on my iPod. What a flippin' mess! There are so many songs that got imported as Unknown Artists even though I know full well who the artists are. And playlists? Don't even get me started. I really have to work on getting a great playlist together for that big event of mine that's coming up on June 7th, but that I'm not allowing myself to talk about in this post. Get it? Got it? Good. Moving on.
7. The Hubs and I are totally sucking with working out a way to find time to hang out with friends and family during this crazy time in our life. Candice and Harby have tried to hang with us several times in the past couple of months (in fact, I think the last time we saw them may have been The Hubs' 30th at the beginning of February. Damn, we suck!) and we have either bailed on them, or flat out had to say no. And now Candice is trying to get something together for Harby's birthday, which is awesome, but... it's the weekend of that big event of mine that I'm not allowing myself to blog about. (Dude, this is harder than I thought!)
8. I hate internet direction sites. When trying to get directions to my mom's new house this weekend, Google maps took me some strange way that said it was going to take over an hour and a half, so I used Mapquest, whose route looked much more sensible. While it took me only a little over an hour, I soon (after missing the very first turn I was supposed to take) realized that all of the distances were off. If it said I was supposed to go 5.8 miles down a certain road, it really ended up being closer to 5 miles. Sometimes even less. And then, I get to my mom's, and my 80-year-old Grandpa is incredulous that I don't own a GPS. "I used my Tom-Tom and it brought me right here", he says. Seriously?
9. I can not win a contest on Pioneer Woman's blog to save my life. At least I'm in good company with the other 15,000 or so people who try every time. If you haven't checked her out, especially Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, what ever you do - don't do it at work. At least not with any big deadlines looming, because you will not be able to pull yourself away.
10. That, ye lads and lasses, is all.

Part 1: The Early Years of Us (Continued)

(Labor Day fireworks one year after the proposal.)

(MFN's and my 26th birthday cake. Made by The BFF.)


(Cornhole game The Hubs and I made for my dad's birthday.)

(Where the infamous proposal happened. Yes, we had a wedding date before we had an engagement.)

("I Hate War" monument in Washington, DC.)

(The Wienermobile! How cool is that?!)

(A baby gorilla about to get in trouble by big daddy.)

(My most recent -and fourth- tattoo. As a tribute to my mamma.)

Pictures. Lots and lots of pictures! (Part 1: The Early Years of Us)

Just thought I'd share some of my favorites. These are all pictures from either before or during the time The Hubs and I were dating. (July, '06 - October '08)

(A pretty day on the way to see The Hubs race.)

(A park in Dayton, Ohio.)

(The Hubs getting ready to race.)

(Us at the track.)

(Halloween '06: Racecar Driver and Checkered Flag.)

(Gatlinburg trip exactly two years before our honeymoon.)

(Florida trip, December '07)

(Downtown Disney)

(The BFF at the Jimmy Buffett concert.)

(Candice at the Cincinnati Zoo.)

(Me and Harby aka The Hubs' best man.)

More in a minute!