Numbers Game

3 - The number of times I weigh myself every morning to just to "make sure"
32 = Pounds I've gained since September
3.60 = Pounds of chicken purchased on sale for $1.99 per pound
3 = Times I've worked out this week
576.4 = Calories burned in my workout on Thursday
3.2 = Miles I walked in the SLC Komen Race for the Cure last Saturday
1 = Miles I've walked since then
2 = Pairs of pants that actually fit me right now.  I wear a lot of skirts...
100 = Ab crunches I can do consecutively
0 = Pull-ups I can do
104 = Ounces of water I drink a day
15 = Times per day I think about eating a loaf of warm french bread
5 = Times I've listened to Lady Antebellum's new song "Just a Kiss" so far today
8.5 = Hours of sleep I got last night
14 = Episodes of Oprah I have saved on my DVR
8 = Omaha Steaks that showed up on my doorstep yesterday (thanks, MoM!)
2 = Months until my Dad has to have chemo again
7 = Loads of laundry sitting in front of the washer waiting to be washed
1 = Load of clean laundry sitting in a basket in front of the dryer
5 = Pieces of bacon I had for dinner (mmmm, bacon)
0 = Frozen swirl yogurts consumed at Costco
2 = Showers I've taken today (working out makes me stinky)
4 = Days until I get my hair done

Consider yourself informed.

Things that are too tight

I used to think of things to write on my blog while falling asleep.  Now?  I just go to sleep.  It's not that I don't have anything to say, I just haven't.  A couple of days ago my sister said she missed my blog voice.  I'm not even sure how many people even read this besides her (and my mom and dad) but because I love her so, I'll grace the interwebs with my blogging voice once again...

Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I had to change my shirt because it was too tight.  It's amazing how much better you feel in that single moment you take off the tight thing and put on something that fits loosely.  It's kind of like when you take your bra off at the end of the day.  It just feels better - like you can breathe.

Then I started thinking about other things that are tight and how it has the same effect.  Since changing jobs, money has been tight.  Now that I'm gainfully (and permanently) employed, that tightening effective is lessening.  I hope that in another month I'll feel that "I can breathe" moment again when I look at my bank balance.

Time is tight.  My very beautiful friend Lori is moving away.  I feel like time is tight with her.  She leaving at the end of June and I wish it was, instead, the end of never.  I will miss her and her freckles.

Maybe not so much tight as it is restrictive - but I've been trying so hard to change my eating habits.  I've been trying to follow a 2:1 protein to carbohydrate diet.  If you've ever tried to do this, you know what I mean by restrictive.  I would love to feel that freeing feeling of eating whatever I want but I don't have that luxury.  I'm still trying to figure out the secret combination that will help me get the body I want.  For now, it just feels a bit like wearing a tight shirt.

Did you hear that I've been working out?  I've been doing circuit training since February.  Every day is something different and that's probably why I've stuck with it.  I think it's safe to say this is the longest I've EVER stuck with an exercise program.  Well, I think there was one other time when I would go and do the elliptical with my friend Melynie at a gym I can't remember the name of back in Missouri but clearly that didn't stick. Anyway, this new exercise program has made my muscles tight.  Underneath the padding of regret, the muscles are getting stronger and tighter.  This is one feeling of tightness I don't mind.  It feels good actually.  Plus, I love that feeling of accomplishment after the workout.  It makes me feel better later when I'm laying on the couch watching TV - no feeling of guilt.

Speaking of guilt - both guilt and regret have a tightening effect.  So does negative self-talk and being in unhealthy relationships.  It should seem like a no-brainer to avoid these things and when you do it gives you that feeling of freedom. And freedom feels good.  Like a long, deep breath.  Here's to feeling that more often...

It's been one week

It's been exactly one day since I made chocolate chip cookies - which was exactly one day after I swore I was going to get back on track with Weight Watchers.  Truthfully, I've gained back all of the weight I lost last year plus some.  Not good at all.  I'm sure the chocolate chip cookies aren't going to help.  I made them yesterday morning with the intention of taking them to a game night "thing" but then decided not to go and ended up with cookies. 

It's been one week since I quit satellite television.  This hasn't been too hard since I have Netflix and HuluPlus.  I was kinda missing it tonight though.  There just isn't any satisfaction browsing the channels when you only get 15 channels.

It's been one month since....well, I don't know what.  I'm sure something important happened one month ago but it's escaped me now.

It's been 360 days (almost one year) since I had Lasik surgery which means almost one year since ditching the glasses I wore for almost 30 years!  Well, not the same pair but you know what I mean.

I've read so many blogs with cute year in review posts with lots of pictures and then promising posts with new year resolutions.  I'm not doing either.  All of the good things that happened in 2010 have already been documented here and I'm not too confident in my ability to keep any new resolutions since I'm still trying to complete the ones I made on my birthday in 2009!

Anyway, Happy 2011!  I hope it is everything  you want it to be.

Things that make you go hmmmmm

Have you ever thought about certain things you do and wonder why you do them?  Here's a short list of things I've noticed recently about myself:

1. Change the radio from a station playing a song I don't want to listen and/or like to to a station playing commercials and stay on that station
2. Prefer to drink milk when I eat cheese and tomato sandwiches, tacos, chili or spaghetti (in my opinion, milk just goes with these foods)
3. Leave the mail in the mailbox for days, even weeks at a time and then when I do get the mail leave it unopened on the kitchen table and then get mad when I get a late notice on any bill
4. Only drink water out of plastic cups and milk out of glass glasses
5. Close the bedroom door when I go to sleep even though I am the only one in the house
6. Use the main bathroom if nature calls in the middle of the night even though there is a bathroom in my master bedroom
7. Hit the snooze at least 3 times no matter what time I set the alarm for
8. Forget I'm watching something recorded on the DVR and watch the commercials when I don't have to!
9. Leave clothes in the laundry basket instead of folding them and dump the clothes on the bed every morning looking for something to wear and then at night, dumping the clothes back into the basket just to repeat the exercise the next morning - I know I've analyzed this behavior in the past but I still haven't figured out why I do it
10. Hate talking on the phone but get me in a solo or group conversation and I can't shut up

And, since most people like looking at pictures on blogs (I know I do), here is a picture of my borrowed Christmas tree.  My dear friend Julie let her tree come and visit me this year and also provided lights and a few ornaments.  The rest of the decorations are from things I had around my place - ribbon, a few rogue ornaments that I've collected since moving here and tissue paper flowers I made.  The flowers were from the Dollar Tree.  I love how it turned out!

A few of my favorite things

My #1 favorite thing is the fact that I got a job!  At the new job, I have my own office (it's above ground with windows which is huge.  Turns out I really like the light of day) and with that I get to listen to Pandora all.day.long.  My love for music has been rejuvenated. 

In case you're not familiar, on Pandora you can create a station based on certain songs/artists/genres you like.  My stations are as different as the day is long.  Along with my Pandora stations, my iPhone/iPod keeps track of the songs I listen to most.  Turns out I'm still a HUGE country music fan but there are few surprises in the mix...and not one single Tim McGraw song!!!  I'm going to have to do something about this ASAP!

These are my top 25 faves/most played:

1. Empire State of Mind - Glee Cast (if you watched the season premiere of Glee, I still want to learn the dance to this song)
2. King of Anything - Sara Bareilles
3. Slow Dancing in a Burning Room - John Mayer
4. The House that Built Me - Miranda Lambert
5. Stuck Like Glue - Sugarland
6. New Shoes - Paolo Nutini
7. Fearless - Taylor Swift
8. Our Kind of Love - Lady Antebellum
9. American Honey - Lady Antebellum
10. Everything - Michael Buble
11. I'm Alive - Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews
12. I Run to You - Lady Antebellum
13. My Life Would Suck Without You - Glee Cast
14. Your Eyes Don't Lie - David Archuleta
15. Don't You Wanna Stay - Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson
16. Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen
17. Only Prettier - Miranda Lambert
18. My Kinda Party - Jason Aldean
19. Mine - Taylor Swift
20. Put You in a Song - Keith Urban
21. Teenage Dream - Katy Perry
22. Bad Romance - Glee Cast
23. My Stupid Mouth - John Mayer
24. Life on the Moon - David Cook
25. Something's Missing - John Mayer

Is this thing on?

I want to be witty and funny and give you a really good reason why I didn't post one single blog entry during the month of November.  Too bad for you I just don't have it in me.  I think it's because I can't think of anything but pizza and chocolate chip cookies.

Instead, you should watch this video.  Darren Criss is my new favorite crush (since my crush for the last few weeks decided that he "wasn't what I needed" - nice that he decided that for me, huh?  Turns out he was right anyway but whatevs).  He has all of the great qualities of a school-girl crush:  1) he's dreamy 2) has smooth dance moves 3) has a voice that could melt butter and 4) is singing "Teenage Dream".  Nevermind that he's singing with a boy's prep school choir to another boy.  Who cares.  I must not because I've watched it at least 20 a lot of times.

So much to do, so much time

A lot has happened since I last blogged.  I won't share most of the details but here are some of the "highlights" in no particular order:

1. A few of my mission companions/friends found me on Facebook and it made me very nostalgic and homesick for the memories I've lost to less important, everyday things.
2. I colored my hair a violet-red and it looks really pretty in the sunshine.
3. I quit my job.  It was making me very unhappy and I can only deal with happiness in my life.
4. I finally got that dang boot off my foot (two months AFTER my surgery).
5. I bought myself an iPhone and I'm in love with it and all it's fanciness.
6. My purse was stolen.  The amount of mad I am about this cannot even be expressed in mere words.  Actually, there are a lot of words I could use but I'm a lady.
7. Despite sending my resume out to the universe, I am still unemployed.
8. I canned 18 pints of pears in early September.  I can't remember if I told you about that before.  They are quite lovely.
9. I've forked close to $500 on my teeth in the past month.  A replacement crown, a root canal, cleaning, fillings and x-rays.  Not at all happy about this.
10. I've gained as many as 5 lbs. but no less than 2 lbs. - depends on the day and how much soda and or saltiness I've eaten.  I've been majorly craving the soda and the salty.
11. Despite the fact that I made a promise to myself to only have happiness in my life, there sure does seem to be quite a bit of unhappiness.
12. I signed up for internet dating again "just to see what's out there".  Turns out, there's nothing any better than the last time I checked.
13. I think I've FINALLY gotten over the whole peanut butter and chocolate chips thing.  Maybe.  Hopefully.
14. I'm thinking about writing a letter to President Obama asking him why small business aren't regulated like larger companies.  He's a little bit busy right now what with being on Mythbusters and appearing in Las Vegas.   Is he really our President or just a star in a reality show called the US Government?
15. I wish I wasn't so mad about so many things.

Lelie and LouLou Forever!

Have you seen this?

If not, then you haven't read this.  Go read it.

Thank you, Sister.  I loved spending my birthday week with you!

I hate flies

It is a well-known fact that I hate flies.  As a young girl, I threw such a fit about flies on my swing set, I insisted that the police be called.  I really, really hate flies.

I would never even dream of watching the movie, "The Fly".  Gross.

There are two flies buzzing around me tonight.  They are left over from last night when I had to open the front and back door because the smoke detector was going off because I burned my sweet potato fries.  This is not a metaphor for something else, either.  I really did burn my sweet potato fries.  And it happened because I just wanted to finish loading up the dishwasher and have the sink cleaned out before I starting frying the bacon for my tomato and bacon sandwich which I planned to accompany my sweet potato fries.  Bummer is that clearing out the sink had nothing to do with the bacon.   But for the love of OCD.

Anyway, I've tried to kill these dern flies and I keep missing them.  Maybe because I'm trying to kill them with a towel?   Problem is, I don't own a fly swatter.  Ugh.

Gosh, I hate these flies.

So Glad She Let Me Be Her Best Friend

I went back to Weight Watchers for the first time today in six weeks.  I was down 2.2 lbs. which although a loss, I really should have been down more than that.  If I had been faithfully following the program and tracking points, I could have lost 1-2 lbs. a week [insert a HUGE SIGH here].  My beautiful and eloquent best friend/cousin Tricia has been following WW too and keeps a journal of her journey here. 

I have known Tricia since the day she was born.  Funny thing though, although I'm older, she has, for most of our lives, bossed me around.  I can't even count how many times she bribed me to do something for her with the promise, "I'll let you be my best friend...".  I fell for it every time - hook, line and sinker.

Tricia and her sister Shawna have been my sister and my best friends for most of our lives (we've had our moments).  We all shared a bedroom when our parents divorced.  We spent our weekends together choreographing dances to "We are Family" and other beloved disco songs of the 1970s.  We spent a memorable summer in Hawaii together as little girls.  We saw "Grease" together for the first time as well as "Can't Buy Me Love".  We loved McDreamy when he couldn't even buy love!

Tricia was the first person to comfort me when my heart and engagement were broken oh so many years ago.

She'll tell you that my sister and I inspired her to join Weight Watchers and change her life.  Truth be told, she didn't need us to inspire her.  She is herself an inspiration.  When you read her blog, you'll quickly agree.  What I've always loved about Trish is her stick-to-it-tiveness.  When she decides to do something, she's all in.  Kinda like when she promises to let you be her best friend.

I love her and am so proud of what she has accomplished so far and look forward to following in her weight loss success.  To date, she's lost close to 30 pounds!

I'm especially looking forward to taking another picture together. 

If she does, I'll let her be my best friend.

Let's See if You're Paying Attention...

It's getting too close to the deadline for completing the 40-Before-40 list so I'm just going to start crossing off the ones I've completed without going into any detail until the big recap.  Soooo....can you tell which ones I've recently crossed off the list?

Late to the Party

Umm,  is it so wrong to love this song?  It's not a new song, but I heard it on the radio today and it's been in my head ever since...You know I'm a teenage girl in a 30-something body (yes, I'm STILL 30-something), right?  Don't judge.

Phew

The peanut butter is gone (so are the chocolate chips).

I have to have surgery on my left foot next week.  My foot is terribly sore and tonight I dropped the cooling fan for my laptop on the exact top of the sore spot and it hurt.  A lot.  And the other foot?  Ingrown toenail extraction on the big and middle toe for the second time in 6 months.  The only thing that helped make my feet feel better was ice (cream - cherry chocolate chip ice cream to be exact). 

I've kinda fallen off the wagon in so many ways.  This blog, tracking my points on Weight Watchers, exercising (not that I ever really got on that wagon), my 40-before-40 list - just to name a few.  My birthday is about 40 days away and that means that I've got a whole lot of things to do before then.  Having foot surgery was not on that list and now I'm wondering if it will make it harder or easier to finish some of the stuff on the list.  Considering how much pain my foot is in, I kinda don't care (is kinda even a word?  I've used it twice in this paragraph).

In other news...a certain Missourian and his beagle dog have been visiting.  It's a happy thing and I've loved having them here.  Also, thanks to him, I have a new bbq grill, a new cover for my dryer vent, a hook on which to hang my bicycle in the carport and a new shower head with a hand-held thingamajig (it goes great with the new hot and cold water faucet covers I finally fixed two weekends ago).

Hopefully you've been keeping up with my sister's blog...she's been updating with tales of our travels.  Speaking of which, I've just been informed that we left Florence 39 days ago (how sad is that?).

She's also got a cooking blog which she's been updating pretty regularly.  I'm a hacker guest blogger there from time to time.  Most of the recipes are pretty TDF (to-die-for).  If you're dieting AT ALL, ignore the post about the cookie dough brownies.  Trust me.  The recipe calls for 3 sticks of butter (just for the frosting)!  Angie says it is Satan's recipe.  I would like to say that my pork and black bean recipe is not.  It's really healthy (3 points per serving) but as for satisfying your need (notice I said need, not want - they are two completely different things, people) for brownies with a taste of raw cookie dough?  Not gonna happen.

Did you know that epsom salt can be used as a laxative, fertilizer and soaking agent for minor bruises and swelling?  Oh, the things you learn while soaking your toes' once twice (technically three times on the big toe) removed toenails.  It's also an excellent opportunity to floss your teeth.

Also?  This blog post goes down it's own history as "the one with the most parenthesis ever".

And can I just say how grateful I am for this blog?  If not for any other reason, it helps me remember the last time I colored my hair...

Perfectly Dangerous

An open jar of peanut butter and an open bag of chocolate chips.  Need I say more?

Just So You Know - Random Confessions

1. I get really mad when I forget to put liquid fabric softener in the laundry.  I think my clothes smell better when I remember.
2. I also get really mad when I realize that my upstairs neighbor started her dryer before I started mine.  My clothes don't dry when her dryer is running.  Also, if I leave my clothes in the dryer and then she turns on her dryer, my clothes get damp.  This usually means I do my laundry at the crack of dawn or really late at night.  This makes me doubly irritated but it's still better than going to a laundromat.
3. More than likely, my vacation recap and photo album will depend entirely on my sister.  If you want to know what shenanigans we got into, you'll probably have to read them at her blog.
4. I broke my tub faucet fixtures while cleaning them and now I'm using washers to turn the hot and cold water on.  Very redneck of me but I'm tired of going to Home Depot only to come home to find out that I bought the wrong size faucet fixtures.
5. Clinical strength deodorant works.
6. I've been wearing dresses and skirts to work everyday because all of my work pants are too baggy
7. I haven't been counting points or updating my food journal since before I went out of the country.  Consequently, I haven't gone to weigh in.  This needs to change.
8. I feel guilty about coloring my own hair last night.  It feels like I'm cheating on my hairdresser.
9. I woke up with a killer sinus headache, scratchy throat and fever this morning and called in sick.  Actually, I called in late and then never went in.  I worry that when I go to work tomorrow and my hair is a different color my co-workers will think I took the day off to get my hair done.
10. The pan of brownies I made tonight didn't help my headache the way I hoped it would.
11. Eating six of the ten brownies didn't help my waistline.
12. Twitter is addicting.
13. I still have 90 things to finish on my 40-before-40 list and 2 months to do it in.  There could be some list casualties.
14. Italy seems like a delightful place to live.
15. I'm pretty sure some caramello gelato would make my headache go away.
16. The broken faucet fixtures may or may not have happened accidentally.
17. Lifetime TV and the Hallmark channel are now in HD and it makes me inexplicably giddy.
18. The moms of Toddlers and Tiaras are ridiculous.
19. I think that Patrick Dempsey really is McDreamy.
20. Despite the fact that I've slept about 16 of the last 24 hours, I'm still tired.

Viva Italia!

I've been gone for just about all of June and I can't let the month go by without at least one post...

Me and my beautiful sister along with our Dad and seven of my closest co-workers were in Amsterdam for eight days.  Most of it was fun just because they got to be there with me!  

Then, last Saturday, we boarded a plane for Florence, Italy.  Here are a few pictures of my current escapades...

The top three pictures are of Amsterdam, the bottom three from Italy.  I promise to post more when I get home.

top: I AMsterdam sign in front of the Rijksmuseum, me and beautiful sister, a beautiful flower shop on a street called Ferdinand Bolstraat (look him up, he was famous) bottom: me and Angie at our taste of Tuscany cooking class, the Cattedral Santa Maria del Fiore, me and my Dad along the Arno River on Father's Day

#31 - CHECK!

So, I thought that I could cross a few things off my list this weekend.  Turns out, I really only got one thing done and I didn't even mean to do that one!  #31 is completed.  Had my sister not been beside me to hold my hand, I probably would have abandoned the project and called it a day.  The end product though turned out so cute!  I can't wait to wear it.  I'll probably want to wear it every day...I'm just sayin'.  We got the idea here.   The shirts were on sale for $6 at Old Navy.  So, basically I got two boutique style shirts for $24 (you use the second same shirt for the ruffles)!  I made a second, different style but I don't have a good picture of that one.  I'll have to show you that some other time.  Anyway, so very cute, no?  Ruffles (I love ruffles) are my new favorite.

Had I taken a shower today (I took one last night and then thought we would go swimming but didn't, don't judge) I would have totally modeled it for you but that will just have to wait for another day.  Be excited, be very excited.

Feast or famine

That's what you get.  Almost a whole month without a single entry and now three in a row!  Lucky you!  I've had a really awful day.  I ate chocolate towards the end and now it doesn't seem as bad as it did a couple of hours ago.  What makes me really sad though is that I missed going to the temple with my sisters in Relief Society.  I was looking forward to it all day.  Sometimes I really hate how my job disappoints me and seems to take over my life.

In other news, a certain dad and his two daughters will be traveling across the Atlantic in two weeks from tomorrow.  They are all very excited.  Except that one of the three is a little nervous about the whole thing and one of the three is only nervous about the work part.  The third person is very funny and will make the other two laugh and then there will only be laughter and no nervousness.

AND, this is my new favorite shirt.  $12.99 at Target and it makes me look skinny.  Well, at least I think it does.  I don't care if anyone else doesn't.  Actually, I take that back.  I would care - especially if they thought it made me look fat.

In case you're wondering, this is not a picture of me wearing the shirt.  If it was, it would be also be a miracle shirt because it would not only make me look skinny but it would cause weight loss and the ability to have long hair just by wearing it.

I don't think they sell that kind of shirt at Target.

What a difference five months can make

Looking through my pictures, I noticed that a few things about me have changed over the past five months...

Let me recap them for you:

1. I had Lasik surgery, goodbye ugly glasses and bad vision!  I'm now 20/15 in both eyes!
2. I cut my hair short in January.  If only I had let it keep growing.  Imagine how long it would be now...
3. I'm now down to two chins instead of three
4. I had my teeth whitened in April...you can't see how yellow they really were in this picture but trust me, they were

Stay tuned for what's to come in the next five months...

Brazilian Highlights

Finally, only a month later, here are some highlights from my time in Brazil last month....try not to notice that I wore the same sweater and jacket almost every day because I told my sister no one notices that kind of thing...

From left to right, top to bottom: at an outside market, twilight in Sao Paulo, feijoada, churrascaria Vento Haragano, Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo, Playing around outside the Mercado Municipal, catching the train into Sao Paulo, watching Capoeira, more churrascaria, another outdoor market, me and a friend - we work together but we've know each other for about 13 years!, churrascaria vento haragano (are you sensing a pattern here?), an amusement park in the mall