Weekly Winners (Late)

I apologize for the lateness of my Weekly Winners post. I spent the entire weekend working on the house. I got back at 7:30 pm Sunday night and did not feel like posting to the blog. Yep, that's my entire excuse -- I was lazy.

I also hurt like hell. I pulled a muscle in my leg, it runs from knee to about 10 inches up my thigh, on the inner part of my right leg. I don't know what it's called, but it's got me cursing every time I try to walk down a flight of steps or sit down on anything low, like a toliet. I pulled it working on the house Saturday, but didn't want to stop, so I just kept right going on Sunday. At least I have 5 days to recover before next week.

I finished season 3 of Lost this weekend. I must say, I'm perplexed! So that's it for my weekend, work work and more work, plus some Lost after an exhausting day. On the upside, I got a $55 pair of skechers for $25 ... I'm totally pysched about that. And for those of you wondering about Trim Up Tuesday, I'll have the new version as well as images before I go to bed tonight. So don't worry, sleep tight, and tomorrow when you wake up it will be there. Now for the pictures ...

Master Bedroom Before:



Master Bedroom after wall paper removal & a layer of paint on the wall and trim. That yellow door will be painted white, too:



Bathroom Before. Recall, last week we tore out the wall divding the sink and toliet/shower:



This week we did much more! We tore out the tub & shower tile only to discover a big water leak had pulverized our wood:



So we tore out the entire wall!



Demolition:



And the rebuild starts (that's my father-in-law, btw):



More pics of the remodel next week! For those of you who are really interested in this, you can find all my house rennovation pictures here.

Friday Fill-Ins

It seems I neglected my blogging responsibilities once again! I didn't even do my Thursday Thirteen, even though I had one all picked out. I've been really busy at work the past two days. As bad as it sounds, I only do my blogging at work because I don't want to go sit at my computer at home after spending 8 hours working on one. I'll catch up on everyone's posts. Here's my Friday Fill-Ins:





1. Some relationships are meant to fizzle.
2. American Idol Tour 2007 is the last concert I saw; it was okay, I only went because I love Blake Lewis.
3. Spring should be fertile.
4. Oh no! I forgot the bread in the oven!
5. I've recently started Trim Up Tuesday.
6. Looking at baby pictures never fails to make me smile.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to catching up on episodes of Lost, tomorrow my plans include planting flowers at my new house and Sunday, I want to work on the inside of my new house!

Trim Up Tuesday (Week One)

No image this time! I'll get this resolved by next week ...

Weight

• I lost 0.5 pound(s) this week!
  
• I am 5 pound(s) away from my ideal weight.

BMI

• My BMI is: 21.4. This is considered normal.

Diet

• I ate out 5 time(s) this week
• I ate an average of 3 snack(s) per day
• I drank an average of 2 calorie-filled drink(s) per day

Exercise

• I did 30 minutes of cardio this week
• I did 140 minutes of brisk activity this week

Goals

• My new goal is: Reduce to 1 soda/energy drink per day.

Image Problems

Blogger can be REALLY funky about images. It drives me nuts. I tripled checked that darn code in 3 browsers and it worked, but that doesn't mean a thing. It's not IE7, by the way, it's simply blogger.

If that code does not work for you, save the picture locally and add it via blogger. Here is the direct link:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCAZ8scZe20/R-cF13kkHBI/AAAAAAAAADI/ga2WhSUkn2o/s400/trimUpTuesdayLogo.jpg

Hope that helps!

Trim Up Tuesday Released!!!

It's been two weeks in the making, but Trim Up Tuesday has been released! Click the image to learn all about it. Please try it out, I put a lot of hard work into it.

That's the main thing at the moment. If you took a look at my pics yesterday then you saw the flood pics. I took those pictures on Saturday. Amazingly enough the waters have receeded, been cleared, and the highway is back open! Hopefully the flooding is over, however spring is just beginning ...

My mind really is on the Trim Up Tuesday. Please visit it!!!

Weekly Winners

Welcome to my first Weekly Winners! Over the next two months most of these pictures will be of my house rennovation. After that I'll have to find something else interesting to show :-) Please maximize these pictures for full effect (especially the flood pics I took)

Before we get to the rennovation, have you heard about the flood over here? A lot of the St. Louis area is under water. The main road to my new house has been cut off and closed due to water. These are pictures of the road I can't cross: (seriously ... maximize these pics!)





We finished up a big project in the family room today. See this big woodstove and brick backing?



We got rid of it this week:





And finally it's covered! Sorry, folks ... for some reason this is the best pic we have of finishing it up:



If you're really intersted in this stuff, here is a link to my flickr collection. All of our rennovation pictures are being broken up by week worked & room worked. This will be updated each week: House Work Pics

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Rennovating my new house is so exciting!
2. Strawberry fields puts the song "Strawberry Wine" by Deanna Carter in my head. (Thanks ... now it'll be stuck there all day!)
3. An Ultimate Mudslide sounds like it would taste delicious right about now!
4. Why does sleeping in the middle of the day in the warm sunshine make me feel so good?!
5. Okinawa, Japan is something I've always wanted to see because I was born there but left when I was 3 months old.
6. It's sad when a friend is going through something and there is no way to comfort them.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Happy Hour(s), tomorrow my plans include working on my new house and Sunday, I want to celebrate Easter with my family!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Movies I Love

I watch my all-time favorite movies about once a year (that's my equivalant of watching them over and over again). These are my top 13, in no particular order:

1.... Gone With the Wind
2.... Lord of the Rings Triology
3.... Mermaids
4.... Whole Nine Yards.
5.... Just Married
6.... Death to Smoochy
7.... Saved
8.... Clueless
9.... The Ring
10... Labyrinth
11... What Dreams May Come
12... Armageddon
13... Independence Day

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The Best Thing About Easter is the Chocolate

I've been working on our Trim Up Tuesday stuff and I must say it's coming along great! Last night I broke down and bought a scale. I usually refuse to own one because if I own one I will want to step on it every day and therefore I will judge the rest of my day based on that reading. I decided I really did need one, though, just so I can make sure I'm not going opposite of the direction I need to, and also in preparation for our Trim Up Tuesdays.

My trip to the store finished out badly -- before I left the store I went down the Easter chocolate aisle. I've been dying for some Cadburry Cream Eggs, and I didn't want to miss this year's opportunity. And of course while I was there I couldn't pass up those awesome Resse's Peanut Butter Eggs that were just the right proportion of thin, creamy chocolate and thick candied peanut butter. So yeah ... I checked out with a nice digital scale and multiple packages of Cadburry and Resse's eggs. Great combination, eh?

So I've come to the conclusion that the best commercial aspect of Easter is the chocolate, even though I really don't care too much for chocolate, except at Easter, because it's the best!

Trim Up Tuesday?

By the looks of the poll thus far, our weekly blog will be titled "Trim Up Tuesday." That could change, we'll just have to wait and see. Again, I apologize because I promised that today, before thinking of the extremely large weekend I had coming with buying a new house and all. I think we definitely need this, though. Tuesday just needs a blog of it's own anyways, and on top of that, everyone can afford to be healthier! I never got any suggestions last time I posted, so please leave a suggestion if you have one (you can even post anonymously now).

Right now I'm on a conference call for an extremely boring meeting. I've been on the call for 30 minutes, and there's another 30 to go! And this guy keeps whistling when he says an "S." It's very high pitched and beginning to really hurt my ears. Geesh ... is it lunch time yet?

Monday, So Soon?

I must say I've kept myself busy this weekend! I never thought manual labor could be so much fun. Aside from volunteering for a Habitat for Humanity build a few months ago, I've never done any kind of home improvement stuffs. I didn't even learn as much as I anticipated for the build -- I pretty much helped sod a huge yard. So if I ever needed to lay sod rolls, I'd know what I was doing there. That doesn't much help me out much at the moment.

I did what felt like a lot of stuff this weekend. Mainly I just kept myself busy scraping off wall paper. The bathroom had really thick, texture paper on the walls, and it proved a huge hassle to remove. I also took a sledgehammer to a wall in the bathroom! That was more fun than I ever imagined, even if my husband chastised me for not being more gentle and thus creating less mess. Bah! More mess == more fun, right? The rest of the bathroom was still intact, so I think I did good job with it :-)

In case you missed it, I did post pictures of the house in this blog. These pictures were taken a couple weeks before we bought the house. The house is a wreck now with all the demolition going on. I need to take some pics of the mess and post them on here. It's funny, the more I tear the house apart the better I like it. This house has so much potential and I love it already. I never knew a project so daunting could be so fun and fulfilling.

Sorry everyone, I promised to catch up on the blogs this weekend and never did. I'm in the process of that now. We have a tie for the name of our Tuesday health blog. I posted a new poll, so please vote again. We had a tie between "Trim Up Tuesday" and "Tighten Up Tuesday." If we can't get this resolved via a vote, then I'm just going to pick "Trim Up Tuesday." Please vote!

Until next time ...

Friday Fill-Ins

Ugh! The closing on my house was 9 am this morning. Now it's almost 5pm and we still haven't closed! This is driving me insane. If we don't close by 5, then we won't close until Monday! Monday!!! None of this is our fault, it's the sellers. The good news is we were given permission to take full possession of the house so we can start working on it. So, for all intensive purposes it's mine, but I want the final word. I feel like I can't celebrate until they say it's technically my house. It's just disapointing, you know? I've waited for this day for over a month now, and I'm supposed to be a happy new homeowner. Anyways, I'm just glad we have possession, because if we didn't have that I'd be royally pissed right about now. Instead I'm just slightly peeved. Anyways, here's my Friday Fill-Ins:

UPDATE: It just closed! I'm a homeowner! Sorry everyone for not catching up on your blogs today, I have lots more to do today, but I'll check them out tomorrow at the latest!





1. Contact may cause injury.
2. The parties hereto do mutually agree that Friday is the best day of the week.
3. Disney parks rule.
4. Monzarella Sticks sound really good right about now!
5. I positively adore sexy dresses.
6. Kittens always makes me smile :-)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to closing on my house and being kid-free for the weekend, tomorrow my plans include working on my new house and Sunday, I want to finish picking out paint colors for my house!

Bird In The Pants

First off, I apologize, but the "Trim/Tighten" Up Tuesday is going to have to wait just one week. I didn't even consider the fact that I AM BUYING A HOUSE tomorrow and will be extremely busy this weekend. Sorry, folks. I promise to get that before next Tuesday.

Funny Story:
We have a parakeet named Bonnie. She was a rescue, and we got her about two weeks ago. We have been working on taming her. So yesterday me and the kids were playing with Bonnie. We took her out of her cage and let her walk around the floor. This little birdie likes to hide in tight, close spaces. Before I know it, Bonnie is headed towards Amber's pant leg. I saw it coming but it was too late, I couldn't stop her. The bird crawled into Amber's pant leg!

At that moment Amber started freaking out and I'm trying to keep her calm. Amber jumps up, and I expect to see the bird fall out. Instead, I see this little lump of fabric crawling up Amber's leg. Amber is laughing like crazy, and I'm trying to explain to her that she needs to calm down and be still or she'll crush the little birdie.

I kept trying to shake the bird out of Amber's pants (I never thought I'd have to say that sentence) but it kept climbing higher! We were so busy laughing that I lost track of the bird. I asked Amber, "Where's the bird?" She says, "Right there!" I couldn't see it. "Where?" I asked again. "Right there!" she says again. "In your BUTT?" "Yes!!" At that point I was laughing so hard that Alex had to come by and see what all the fuss was about, and sure enough, he's cracking up too. Again, I couldn't shake the bird out, so I ended up pulling down Amber's pants and manually extracting the bird from the seat of her pants and (finally) getting her back into her cage.

Later that night, Alexia says: "Mom, I wish I could have a bird in MY pants." Of all the things to be jealous of!

Thursday Thirteen

Hey guys! We have a tie at the voting pole. PLEASE vote if you haven't done so already. Even if you don't plan on participating, you can still vote on which one sounds best. So please do!

Thirteen Things about me 1.... My favorite color is blue. 2.... I am shamefully addicted to the Sims 2. 3.... I write computer programs & build websites just for fun. 4.... I am obsessed with all things Tweety. 5.... I prefer small, compact cars, as long as it has 4 doors. 6.... My average driving speed coming into work this morning was 87 mph. 7.... I have 16 feet of clothes -- and those are just the ones that hang. 8.... I don't like spending time outdoors, unless I'm swimming. 9.... I am a perfectionist. 10... Miller Light is my favorite beer. 11... Buttery Nipple is my favorite shot. 12... Sex on the Beach is my favorite drink. 13... I'm buying a house ... tomorrow!!!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Opinions Please!

Lynda posted yesterday about the need to get back into shape. Unfortunantly that's a common theme with us new non-smokers. Many comments later it was decided that we should have a weekly blog about what we're doing to better our physical condition -- be it lose weight, maintain your current self, trim up, or just be healthier.

We have decided this blog will take place on Tuesday, and it will be like "Weekly Winners" or "Friday Fill-ins" or "Thursday Thirteen." I will create the logo & templates for all of us to use. Here's where we need help. We need to name this weekly blog! I have created a poll to vote on the name. You can find it on the upper left-hand corner of this page. Please take a second and vote!!!

We also need any suggestions you can give. This blog will have a diet element, a workout element, and a weight element. What else, if anything, would you like to see tracked? I can't gaurantee that I'll incorporate all suggestions, but I would like to hear them. Please leave comments on this post.

I look to launch the the template this Monday night! Until then I might have questions that need answered, so check back to see if there are more votes and/or suggestions needed.

Family Pics

Okay, it's high time I showed you peoples some pics, right?

Amber (7) Easter, Last Year



Alexia (4) 2 Months Ago



Me & Alex (July, Last Year)

Happy Hours

Wow. Why is it I can't seem to just enjoy happy hour? Somehow, happy hour always turns into happy hourS, and I wind up stumbling in the door anywhere from 10 - 12 at night. That's 6 - 8 very happy hours, when drinking begins at 4. Seriously though, most of the time I don't really enjoy drinking but somehow when I go out with my co-workers I wind up doing this every time. At least I didn't smoke! The bar we went to is a very smokey bar, and I was tempted. Heck, someone even left a pack of Marlboro Lights (my brand) on our table. I looked at them ... I picked up the pack and looked inside, even. But I did NOT smoke. I'm so very proud of myself, even if I did have way too much to drink.

I didn't do much Saturday. Alex's friend and his wife came over for dinner. Dinner turned out well -- bacon, eggs, and biscuits and gravy -- you can't really beat that! And then we played cards.

Sunday I skipped the mother in laws! I know, I'm a terrible person. I wasn't feeling real well (I had a tummy ache) and I was extra tired because of daylight savings time. I have a hard enough time making it to a local church service, let alone driving an hour to make it to service. So I got the girls ready and sent them with the hubby, and I slept. Later my father-in-law showed up to drop of a birthday card with a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. My hubby had given me one too, so I got ready and went book shopping. It's been about a year since I picked out books for myself. I came home with the beginning of the Xanth series by Pier Anthony and the complete set of Jane Austin novels. I'm pleased, those will keep me busy for a while.

I will leave you with a picture. We were taking a picture of the cat, when Alexia (my 4 year old) snatched up the cat real quick, and says "Take a picture of ME with the cat!" ... I love the glowing eyes:

Friday Fill-Ins

I saw this on Mamaflo's blog today and thought I'd give it a try. It's called "Friday Fill-Ins." A partial sentence is given, and you fill in the blank. Here goes!




1. Ahhhh, it's so nice to smell nice, instead of smelling like smoke.
2. One of my favorite things on my desk or bureau is my Ipod Nano.
3. Japanese Cherry Blossom makes a gorgeous bonsai.
4. My bed is my favorite place to sit and read.
5. Brocolli and cheese is delicious!
6. I love to watch great dancing in movies.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to happy hour, tomorrow my plans include entertaining friends and Sunday, I want to relax, but instead I have to visit my mother-in-law!

Thursday Thirteen

Because I've never done this before I'm going to start off simple. Some people are quite entertaining with these lists, like Tasina. Me, I'm just happy to have finally remembered to do one of these!

Thirteen Things about me 1.... This is my first Thursday Thirteen. 2.... I dislike most food. The foods I eat can pretty much be counted on two hands. 3.... I was born in Japan. 4.... I have moved more than 25 times. 5.... I'm a navy brat. 6.... I dropped out of high school and got my GED 7.... I was married, divorced, and had a baby before age 19 8.... I love to cook. I can make an amazing variety of dishes using only the handful of things I eat. 9.... I support my husband, who is a stay-at-home dad. 10... I am an extremely shy person. 11... I have only a couple of friends, however they are true friends. 12... I'm a nerd. I program computers for a living, and I love doing it. 13... I love to dance. If you find me out anywhere on a weekend, it will be at a club.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Nervous

My loan commitment date is tomorrow. My bank guy says that we'll have it by then, but still, I'm nervous. I've been terrified to use my credit cards over the past month, afraid that if I change and debt to credit ratio it might do something horrendous and cause my loan offer to be retracted. I know this isn't the case, but still, I'll feel SO much better after tommorrow, when I know that we for sure have our loan. Then, 1 week from tomorrow I'll be a first-time homeowner!!! So excited!

10 Weeks!

Sorry for disappearing! I took Monday & Tuesday off of work so that's why I've been M.I.A.

I had a really good long weekend & b-day. A friend of mine came up on Saturday night and stayed until early this morning. We went out dancing Saturday night and had a blast. I finally got to wear the sexy little green dress I bought the day after Christmas (and I still fit in it, even though I've packed on a few pounds). The best part was that I was not tempted in the least to smoke, even though the place was cloudy from all the smoking going on. I figured I'd have a really hard time, and might possibly cave, but no! I barely thought about it all. It's so much easier to dance without worrying about burning other people with a cigarrette!

I did LOTS of shopping this weekend. Too much! But my friend is from Kirksville and Walmart is the big place to shop up there. So I had to show her around, right? At least that's what I keep telling myself to justify the shopping spree. And it's really easy to justify buying things on your birthday -- it's like a guilt free pass... almost... until you get the credit card bill in the mail later!

We had some weather -- 10 inches of snow in just a few hours yesterday. I'm glad I wasn't at work yesterday -- none of my co-workers made it home in under 3 hours time, even though we live about the same distance -- 15 miles -- from work. Sunday was gorgeous!!! I left the house in a short sleeve shirt and no jacket.. other people were wearing shorts and flip flops! But then the next day it was pouring rain, the temperature was plummeting, and ice and sleet were falling. I'd be upset about it, but my husband's classes were cancelled that night, which worked out wonderfully -- instead of cooking dinner on my b-day, we got to go out and eat. That's always a plus, except for the part where your family members try to embarrass you by singing Happy Birthday loudly in the middle of the restaraunt .... grumble grumble.... but oh well, at least the food was good.

So that's all going on with me. It was REALLY nice to take the mini-vacation from work. And my friend being here ensured I actually did something with my break, instead of sitting around the house being lazy. So I had a REALLY good weekend!

And 10 weeks not smoking!