Thursday Latelies

January 26, 2012 at 10:18 am (Life, Thursday Lately, Weight Loss)

I have decided to do my very first link-up with another blog. I’ve been Bex’s blog for awhile and love her Thursday Latelies posts. I’m doing a typed version, rather than the video that she does because I’m not quite “there” yet in my desire to actually show people how I talk.

Anyway, without further delay, here’s what I’m loving this week.

Shopping. So I had promised myself that I wasn’t going to buy any new clothes until I could buy them in a bigger size, but the winter clothing blues got the best of me this week. After careful consideration and consultation with my girls, I hit up Maurices yesterday at lunch. I came out with three new shirts and a blazer-type thing that I’m super excited about. It’s a little different than anything I currently have and a little more “edgy” than I would normally pick up. But it was cute. And that’s all that matters, right? Anyway, here I am (slightly blurry) in one of my new tops that I’m sporting today with dark jeans and my cowboy boots.

 

Audio Books. I’ve been listening to audio books for months now. When you spend as much time in the car as I do (approximately two hours a day) the radio begins to just not cut it anymore. Audible.com is just the ticket! I have an ipod jack on my radio which connects to my phone and I have the app on my phone. My current obsession is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evonovich. I know I’m late to this party, but they’re very entertaining and have a little of everything: love story, comedy, suspense, mystery, action, etc. I’m a fan.

Exercise? I’m not sure I can say that I’m loving exercise, but I am realllllly reallllly proud of myself that I’ve been getting up in the morning and doing my wii zumba and then doing some type of work out after work. This week I’ve done yoga, trained with my trainer and boot camp. Boot camp last night was KILLER and I can barely walk today. I’ll spare you what it’s like when I walk up or down stairs. Anyway, I’m impressed with myself that I’ve now done some type of actual workout for six days in a row.

Fitbook. This sort of goes along with the exercise thing, but on a recommendation from my trainer, I got this new Fitbook. I’ve had food journals before, both ones I’ve purchased for that purpose and just simple notebooks. I never seem to be able to keep it up. I ignore it or the thing is too big that I can’t carry it with me and then I forget and pretty soon a whole week has gone by and I haven’t written anything down. This one feels different. It’s small enough to keep in your purse, but big enough I can’t forget that it’s in there. Yes, I’ve only been using it for three days, but so far it’s been great. There’s places for you to write down your fitness things (cardio, flexibility, strength training, other) and another page for you to write down your food for the day, water intake, sleep, etc. At the beginning of each week there’s a place for you to plan out what you want to do that week for exercise and food and a spot at the end of the week to sum up how the week went. I’ll keep you updated on this but I think it really might work out.

I think that’s all for this week. Have a GREAT weekend!!

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So it Goes

January 24, 2012 at 10:35 am (House-o-Rama, Jibbety Job, Life, Weight Loss)

Where to begin? It’s been so long since I’ve posted, and, to be honest, I don’t even know if anyone is reading this anymore. Bueller?

Things are seeming as though they are falling into place and I’m trying really hard to just embrace it instead of waiting for something bad to happen.

House-wise I’m still waiting for the carpenter to come back and finish things up. Nothing is left that is really crucial to life, it’d be nice to have my storage/drying racks up in the laundry room, have my storage/hooks up in the garage entry and it’d be REALLY nice to have a mirror and linen cabinet in the master bath so I can actually get ready in there instead of the other one. BUT I can live just fine in what we have right now. I love it. It get a little big and lonely when Lucas isn’t around for extended periods of time, but I’m enjoying having people stop in and visit (a/k/a snoop) and hosting friends.

Work-wise life is the same. I’m tired of the drive but winter has really been on my side. We’ve basically had no snow whatsoever other than a couple minor snowfalls. It snowed on Sunday and that created some commute issues since some of my roads weren’t plowed yet but I made it. I did interview with an attorney closer to home, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m actually not 100 percent sold on that being the job for me. I think I’m over the whole secretary thing, but I really don’t know what it is I want to do with my life. I’m in limbo.

Health-wise I’m not sure I’ve made much physical progress, but I have made progress in that I’ve actually been exercising. Haha. I joined a program here where you pay $35 and you can go to unlimited classes between now and May. The classes are Mondays and Wednesdays after work. So far it’s been working out really nicely. I’ve gone to zumba and yoga so far and tomorrow there is a boot camp class. They have all different classes so you can try things and see what you like. I’m looking forward to trying new things (*gasp!* Was that just me that said that?!?). This week I’ve also been getting up early and doing zumba on the wii before work. I know it’s only Tuesday, but I do have four days under my belt since I did it all weekend, too. Food is still my #1 struggle and I’m forever trying to find the right “fit” for what will work and what will keep me satisfied. How I wish I was one of those people who could “take it or leave it” and just eat what I needed to get by. Sadly, I’m a food person. I love making something delicious and I’m GOOD at it. I’m not all that good at many things, so I really don’t want to lose this part of me. The balance is a work in progress.

Otherwise, Lucas is still working away, but I’m hearing now that they are working to impliment some type of schedule that will let him be home once a month for a few days. At this point I will take what I can get! I’ll be SUPER happy to have him home more so I can travel out there less. I’m kind of a freak about being able to see him every other week. It’s been a learning experience over the last year, but I think I’m figuring out what works for us. If I go any longer than that without seeing Lucas I just get crabby towards him. I don’t mean to, it just happens. I just get frustrated that I have to take care of every little thing of “our” lives and he just has to take care of himself. Which is another reason it would be fantastical if he can come home a few days every month! Less anger on my part…always a good thing.

Guess that’s all for now….and yeah, this is basically all the same stuff you’ve read a hundred times before but hey, at least I realize that, right? :)

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Results

January 18, 2012 at 1:23 pm (Health & Beauty)

I think my skin looks pretty nice for my skin. I’m not sure if I’m quite “gung ho, 100%” but it’s certainly not any worse. The breakouts aren’t exactly controlled, but the rest of my skin looks really nice.

Day 14 Side View

I now realize I look like fats mcgee in this picture…yikes. Note to self: work on that!

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One Week

January 10, 2012 at 9:54 am (Health & Beauty)

As of today it’s been one week since I’ve been washing my face with honey. It’s strange……I think it’s working?!?

Now, I can’t claim that my breakouts are clearing up exactly. They’re not, at least not yet. However, they’re most definitely not any worse. And the rest of my skin? The part that’s clear anyway? It looks great. I’m even including a no makeup picture today to show you how good the coloring is….the blotchiness is getting WAY better.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Please pay no attention to the bushes I call eyebrows…..they NEED a waxing in a REALLY bad way.)

Day 7

 
 

Day 7 Side View

 
 
 

Day 7 - Make-up Free

 
 
(Note: I do not go out in public with my straps like that, FYI
….well, they ARE like that but they’re hidden under a sweater thinger.) 

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Happy New Year!

January 5, 2012 at 1:04 pm (Uncategorized)

Okay, long time, no post I know! Sorry!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and enjoyed spending as much time with your family and friends as possible. Lucas was home for about 12 days and it was perfect. I’m now getting used to not having him around again, which is not awesome. BUT, as we all know, that’s life. It’s tough to adjust to not knowing when he’ll be home again but we’ll work it out.

So, I’ve been working on getting our house feeling more like “home” and I’ll try to get you some pictures to check out soon. It’s a VERY slow process, that’s for sure! Plus I’m kind of scared to put it all out here….not scared, really, but more nervous maybe? I had considered doing a video tour, but I’m not so sure about that…we’ll have to see how confident I feel with that! 

Speaking of confidence, one day while looking for “natural” cleaning recipes (I’m attempting to keep things as “clean” as possible in the new house), I came across a blog called Crunchy Betty. I did find some cleaning ideas there, but I also found something that interested me about skin care. As most of you probably know, I’ve struggled with my skin for, gosh, 15 or so years now. I’ve been on everything you can imagine to attempt to clear it up. Prescription face washes, spot treatments, every over-the-counter remedy you can think of, pills, diets, and even the BIG ONE, Accutane. Sadly, in my case, Accutane was the only thing that cleared me up. It worked, and it worked well and somehow I had almost none of the horrifying side effects that some people have. Although I was only on it for a few months, it helped for years. Now, though, over 10 years later it must finally be out of my system because I have been having pretty severe issues with my skin for the better part of a year. Yes, there’s been stress and poor eating habits but it’s just getting to be too much. My skin looks like I’m 15 again–too bad the rest of me doesn’t follow suit!

Anyway, back to the remedy at hand…..on this blog there are hundreds of people positively commenting on a post that says washing your face with raw honey will give you clear, radiant skin. Even to the point of not ever having to wear makeup. Now, I haven’t had clear, radiant skin since the fourth grade so this piqued my interest. I continued to read on there and decided “what the hay?” The challenge is to wash your face with only honey (or “honey combination scrub” which is honey and baking soda water to remove makeup) for two weeks and see what your skin is like.

Really, when I think of how many things I have bought, tried, thrown away and suffered through PAIN to try get my skin to look normal, it’s depressing. I bet I’ve spend thousands of dollars over my lifetime just pouring money into this one, huge problem.

Side View of Face: Day 3

I figured I’ve tried everything under the sun and at least this one doesn’t consist of me putting a bunch of scary chemicals on my skin and in my body so what do I have to lose?

Today is Day 3 of this process. I have now washed my face with honey and the combination scrub a total of five times. I have used the apple cider vinegar toner at night with the scrub when I remove my makeup. What do I think? I think it feels okay. I’ve still gotten a couple new spots, but they aren’t the really deep, cystic acne that I get sometimes. My old spots are getting slightly better. My skin feels a little more moisturized….no, moisturized is not the right word…..healthy? Maybe that’s the right word? I’m not sure. It feels different, anyway.

I failed to take true “before” pictures, but here I am today on Day 3. I AM wearing makeup in these pictures, but not much. I’ll do my best to take daily pictures and show you all what comes of this experiment!

Straight on - Day 3

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Friday Fun

November 4, 2011 at 10:23 am (Friday FUN!, Life-yay!)

This week flew by for me somehow and I can’t remember the last time a week did that!

Anyway, I’ve been busy this week with work, house stuff, seeing my trainer, house stuff, and attempting to change my line of thinking (again).

I had two really great training sessions with my trainer and it made me (finally) realize something: I’M STRONG. I did these sit up things without using my arms at all and there is no way in hell that I would have been able to do that even six months ago. I actually said to her, “You know, I bet I’d have pretty nice abs if they weren’t covered by inches of fat!” This realization has forced me to look at how far I’ve come strength wise and how little it shows on my body. I can feel it but it sure doesn’t show. Why? Because I still have an unhealthy and, really, just plain WRONG relationship with food. So, I’m working on that. My trainer and I talked about it and she (again) gave me some good tips that I’m going to do my absolute best to follow whenever humanly possible. I know different things work for different people and I think the thing that has been holding me back is commitment and consistency. Right now I’m just pissed at myself that I’ve come so far and you can’t see it AT ALL. My food goal is now this: when your food is on your plate, half of it should be vegetables. The other half should be divided in half and on one side should be lean protein and the other should be a “good” carb…brown rice, ww pasta, sweet potato, etc. This is a pretty simple way of explaining something that I already knew. We’ll see if it sinks in this time. So yeah, I’m feeling pretty good about that and I definitely have a “fire” about it right now so we’ll see. (End broken record.)

The AMAZING boots I posted about last week came and, shock of all shocks, they didn’t zip up. I had pretty much resigned myself that that was going to happen so I really wasn’t all that disappointed. I now decided to give up on the dream of being truly stylish and just going with a shorter boot. Dansko also has these:

I think they are super cute and have the same sole/toe as the other ones so I ordered them today. I think they might be the best answer even if they kill my dream of being cute and stylish with jeans tucked inside of boots.

Also today as I drove in to work I was privileged to witness the most beautiful sunrise! It got way better, but here’s the beginning (which I took from my car at a stop sign with no other cars around):

I guess that about sums it up this week!

What are you lovin’??

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Friday FUN!

October 28, 2011 at 9:51 am (Friday FUN!, Life-yay!)

Okay, so last week was pretty overwhelming and hectic and sad and scary and I just didn’t have the energy to write. Not to metion that I didn’t even THINK about it until sometime this week. Anyway, here’s a little update on the GOOD STUFF in life.

Hannah is doing much better. She is home now, and after a VERY scary few days, doing pretty well. She’s just resting for the most part and they have basically come to the conclusion that her condition was due to a concussion. That concussion caused her to have seizures and then the anti-seizure medicine they gave her ended up causing some pretty intense and scary side effects. So, I’m VERY thankful that she is doing better and, especially since her and my mother-in-law were in a car accident this week! They are both fine, nothing broken but they are very sore. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what is next for this family! Here’s a picture of Hannah and I from last weekend when I went to Rochester to the Mayo Clinic to see her. She had been discharged at this point and was in the motel with us all weekend with no incidents (thank God). We were out for a late supper here:

Moving on from the scary, traumatizing stuff, I’m very thankful for the little bit of retail therapy I’ve been entitling myself to.

First, the other day I was at Target basically just killing time and ended up in the nail polish section. I found a couple colors that I really liked and then I spotted the “crackle” stuff. I know I’m about six months late on this trend, but I figured, “what the heck?” and picked up a bottle of silver stuff. I’m loving it…somehow it makes it okay to not have perfectly painted nails! There can be little smudges and you’d never know because of the crackle. This makes me happy because I’m super special when it comes to painting my finger nails. I can’t sit still long enough, can’t manage to keep it from smudging and a day later it’s chipping off. ANYWAY, I’m really liking this stuff, see?

Fun, right? Not bad for a first attempt anyway.

I’ve been on a never-ending quest to find a tall black or gray pair of boots. This quest is never-ending because I want something with at little heel, but not a lot of heel. But, bigger than that problem is the “calf curse”. I find the perfect boot and does it zip all the way up? NOPE. This has happened at least 10 times and I was starting to get really frustrated and was about ready to give up on my goal to be at least semi-fashionable when I decided to hit up a local store here in town. I found some. They were perfect. Cute and slouchy, adorable either with pants out or in (also something I found that was hard to achieve) BUT they were too big. And they didn’t have a smaller size. Foiled again! I looked online and found that they were last year’s model or something and my size was no where to be found there, either. Then I saw that there was another model that basically looked the same ($30 more of course)….I ordered them and am now PRAYING that the calf is as big as the one I tried on! SO, if I get them and they work, they will make me smile. If they don’t work, well I might cry a little but then I’ll end up smiling because they’re a bit spendy and that would be money saved.

When I left the shoe store, I decided to hit up my favorite store on earth, Kelsey’s Jewelry. I decided awhile ago that I’m going to get a couple of really nice jewelry pieces with some money that I have left from my inheritance from my dad. Heirloom pieces if you will. In conversation, Mom and I decided that we would get a diamond ring for her (eventually for me) and probably a pair of diamond hoops for me. I figured I’d go over to Kelsey’s and look around since I knew they’d gotten in a bunch of new stuff. They cleaned and checked my ring and I had a diamond that was about to be on the loose so they’re fixing that for me. I’m supposed to get it back tomorrow. Boy am I glad I went in! I had gotten a couple of gift certificates from the store around the time of the wedding and had to get them used up. I saw these:

and decided that it was meant to be! Love the stuff they have there–very unique and fun. The owner told me they would look great with my long hair, which cracked me up a little. (NOTE: Please pay no attention to the ridiculous systic acne…I’m apparently 15 again.)

So, there ya have it–the things that are making me happy this week. Top that off with a mini-vaycay to see my husband (I’m meeting him halfway in a hotel for a night) and you’ve got yourself a pretty darn good end to a week. What are you loving this week??

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Prayers, Please.

October 18, 2011 at 7:26 pm (Life-blahhhhh, Stress)

I’m here to beg and plead that all my blog friends take a couple minutes to say a prayer, send good vibes, or do whatever you believe in, for my niece, Hannah. She has been experiencing some pretty severe siezures which come with confusion about who she is, who her parents are, etc. She has now been having multiple vision with them, telling her mom that she has two heads or something like that. Anyway, please pray for Hannah, her health and that the doctors figure out how to help her ASAP. Her siezures are coming closer and closer together and the last EEG showed that there were multiple siezures happening.

Thank you in advance….it is very much appreciated.

Here is the link for her Caring Bridge site if you’d like to check out what’s happening and up to date information: HANNAH. You’ll have to make a username and password, but it doesn’t require you to do anything else. and once you’ve done it you have it forever.

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Friday Fun

October 14, 2011 at 9:44 am (Friday FUN!, Weight Loss)

So I was a lame-o blogger this week. I was reading, just not writing. It was a bit of a tough week but we made it.

SO….on to my favorite things of the week.

Well, first and foremost, my favorite thing of the week is that my niece is getting some answers regarding her health issues. She’s 12. She’s been throwing up, having confusion, headaches, and a bunch of other strange symptoms for a 12 year old girl. She has been in the hospital all week and they’ve been doing test after test and observing her. They’re starting to get it figured out and while I’m not sure I should put it out there for all the internets at this point, I believe the worst case scenario has been pretty much ruled out.

On to some more FUN things….I lost 1.6 pounds this week…which surprised the heck out of me! Now, the key is to keep this downward trend which will be especially hard because I’m going out to see Lucas this weekend. That means six hours of car time each way, which for me usually means eating crap for six hours straight. This time I packed a yogurt, string cheese and apple so at least I can get part of the way without raiding a convenience store! I’m also planning on a “smarter” dinner stop of Subway rather than my usual McDonald’s. So that brings me to my next fun thing….seeing my husband! I’m excited to see him and with all the family stuff going on, I think he’s really looking forward to seeing me, too. I mean, usually he’s happy I’m coming out there, but this time there’s something a little different in the sound of his voice. Kinda like he needs me there.

Which reminds me of another fave of the week:

I got flowers! Not 100% sure why, but I think it had to do with the fact I was pissed at him over the weekend AND the fact that I’ve been trying to drill into his head that since we are apart ALL THE TIME a little extra effort is required. It doesn’t need to be anything huge, just something that takes a tiny bit of planning. Because sometimes I get to feeling like we’re just friends that talk every day and share a bank account and that’s not really okay with me. This is what we signed up for and yeah, it sucks, but if the effort is made it will be perfectly ‘us’.

Next…with Halloween coming up my mom forced me to buy some candy yesterday. I bought a TON. Pretty sure every single PERSON in our tiny town can come by three times and we’d still have enough candy to last until next year. Oops. :) Anyway, my favorite find was this:

Sixlets! This little pack is small but they’re so sweet they really satisfy a MUST. HAVE. CHOCOLATE. craving. And at 30 calories per sleeve, I feel like it might be one of my better bets. Not that I’m saying they’re “healthy” whatsoever, but it’s at least a lower calorie way for me to take that edge off.

Another thing I’m completely in LOVE with right now is audio books. I’ve been listening to them every day to and from work and they really make my drive fly by. I’m planning to spend a total of about 12.5 hours in the car this weekend and they’re really going to come in handy, too. I just downloaded the audible.com app on my phone and away I go!

So….I think that’s about it. What’s been fun for you this week?

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Friday Fun!

October 7, 2011 at 11:10 am (Friday FUN!, House-o-Rama)

Here we are on week 2 of my new blogging “segment”.

I’m really liking it because why NOT highlight what’s fun in life? :) It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the every day BLAHs of life that sometimes we just need to take a step back and say, “hey, what’s making me happy this week?”

Most of these are house-related so if you’re bored by home-type stuff you might as well stop reading now….

My NEW FAVORITE THING EVER for ideas for the house is Pinterest. Thank you HC for enlightening me! You’re the bestest.

This week lots of fun things have been happening in “Operation Home Building”.

First, Mom and I did a little furniture shopping on Friday. She’s getting new living room furniture and giving us the big red couches she currently has for our upstairs living room. I had a nice chunk of “free” money to spend as Luke and I got a gift certificate for the furniture store from his parents last Christmas. I got two chairs that look like this:

But covered in this cloth:

 

I’m excited. These two chairs are the only new piece of furniture that’ll be going into our house. Otherwise everything is either from my old house, hand-me-downs or bought from my sister-in-law’s shop which is all repurposed (painted) furniture.

Monday I almost cried tears of joy when I went to the house and saw this when I got there:

Up until then we’d been using a string-tied-on-a-plastic-dealy to keep the door shut. This was a giant pain in the rear and caused a person tons of frustration and injuries due to the sharp steel. Also those stupid Asian Beetles are back and they had basically completely invaded the house through that stupid hole. Now, though, we’re so much more legit!

After that I went in the house and upstairs…there I almost cried tears of joy AGAIN when I saw this:

Floors! Beautiful wonderful floors. This is a laminent. It’s “natural hickory” or something like that. I wanted hickory floors more than anything but was having a VERY difficult time finding the look I wanted in laminent. Real wood looked so much better but I wasn’t sure I could eat the cost difference for installation. Finally, at a last ditch effort I went to a local flooring/home decorating place and they had these. I was over the moon and even moreso now that they are down and I see how good they actually look. THIS makes me SOOOO happy.

Now, I’m dying to see the rest of the flooring go in. Things are getting closer and closer and I looooooove that. Mom and I are also going to be working on painting the trim in our spare time. Once the trim is on upstairs, I can start moving furniture and stuff up there. This makes me super happy, especially since I’ve been pretty much packed for over a year now.

Well, I think that’s all for now! I’d love to hear all about your FRIDAY FUN and what’s making you ladies happy this week. :)

 

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