Un. Cool.

I feel like garbage. I slept for ten hours last night and I'm so sleepy I could pass out right here at my desk. I believe I have another cold, Cripes, it's only been 6 weeks since the last one. This one is different though. the last one brought tons of congestion and snottiness. This one just hurts. My chest, head, throat, and stomach hurts from the constant sneezing and coughing. I've been short of breath for about two days and breathing very shallowly to keep the hacking to a minimum. I'm typically a yoga breather, I breathe deeply, comes from years of choir and yoga I guess, but it's making me dizzy to be breathing so differently now. I've almost passed out twice today.

I'm actually kind of miffed by this version of the plague-y non-sense that is being passed around. I'm not feverish, and my blood pressure and pulse are pretty normal consiering how short of breath I am. I don't have a ton of sinus pressure, I can breathe through my nose, but I do have a migraine-ish headache with pain radiating all through my scalp, but nowhere near my sinuses. I am sneezing and coughing and my throat feels like I've been swallowing glass...wierd.

I am going to go to the gym today and try out the elliptical, hopefully I can still do my typial 45 mintues even with the shortness of breath, but I'm going to take it a little slower than usual. Maybe the feel good stuff will help me get through the chaos I get at home. am I alone or is it really hard to be mommy when you are sick?

Today I Love...

Anna Nalick


This song is on my "Going Home" playlist. The list of songs I listen to when I'm dealing with something hard, even if I'm not driving this song describes the mood on a weary journey back to life as usual. Anna plays a huge part in that list. She's the artist I wish I could be, alas it was not to be.

Lets Talk Candy

I love candy.

I always have and will love candy. But I love it in small doses. I don't buy it often and typically I throw some of it away because I don't eat it all before it becomes stale/inedible. I don't buy regular sized candy bars, I prefer bags of minis and a bag can sometimes last me two or three months, because all I really want is a taste of the candy, not to be full from it.

Chocolate was never my true love, its yummy, but I don't need it, not the way some people do. I love fruity candies, sour patch kids, mike & ike's, gummy bears, skittles, and laughy-taffy. Before I started eating differently I would buy bags of these candies and they had Tupperware containers in my kitchen devoted just to holding my candy. A bag of sour patch kids could last two weeks, because I would grab a few and that was enough. When I changed the way I ate I stopped buying candy, I wanted to avoid temptation, since I figured being on the "diet" would be a shock to my system and I didn't want Jeeves to come home and find me in a sugar coma on a pile of wrappers.

Last week I got a box of Mike and Ike's in my stocking, Santa apparently remembered that they are one of my favorites. I looked at the calorie listing on the back and discovered that a portion (23 pieces of candy) was about 140 calories. I decided to do an experiment. I opened the box and put a serving into 4 little baggies. I put one baggie in my purse and put the rest in the cabinet. I brought one of the baggies to work yesterday and set it on my desk. I worked out my food for the day and worked in those 140 calories, for a total of less than 1700 for the day. I gave myself permission to eat an entire serving of my favorite candy. It was lovely, sweet, fruity, tart, and enough. It was enough to have that one serving. I didn't want anymore when I was done. Today I did not want any so I didn't bring any to work.

I look forward to the day when I don't have to plan candy, when I trust myself enough to eat intuitively all the time. That day may be a long way off, but I feel like I'm on the right track.

My food today is going to be light and warm. I've got a can of progresso light soup. I've already downed my slim fast latte and then I'll have a protein bar before I go to the gym. I brought an apple and a banana in case I need to munch, but even if I eat both of them I'll still be under 700 calories for the day, then tonight I'm making chicken stir fry with veggies and brown rice for dinner. Very low cal, around 500 for a serving, which is light on the rice and chicken and heavy on the veggies.

Hope everyone is feeling energized for the coming year and all the weight loss possibilities we will be presented with. I'm ready for it. I will be 28 in 22 days, and I have some wicked goals set for myself in the next two years. Watch out 30! here I come.

MONDAY!!!!!

and the holiday insanity is officially over.

I am going to admit two things today.

1.) I over ate this weekend, I think Allan might be the only one who didn't. But that is sort of not important.  My holiday was lovely. I saw people I don't get to see often, made up with people that I've been feuding with, and spent almost the entire day on Saturday in my pajamas. We didn't go out and visit people on Christmas Day, we let the munches stay home and play. My In-laws came over for breakfast and then Mutti cam eand had dinner with us. I made our favorites, with a healthier twist for me, and I didn't feel sick or guilty once. I think that means I've made it through the holiday successfully.

2.) I have already worked out my list of gifts to begin making for next year, each year I intend on having gifts finished and ready to go well before the week of Christmas. Yet, every year I end up sewing until the wee hours of the morning and wrapping gifts as we are running out the door. Well, not next year, no sir. In fact I am going to make that my resolution. I am going to be done making Christmas gifts by Thanksgiving next year. There, I have made my first New Years Resolution ever.

Many of my family members commented on the change in my figure since last year. I was pleased, it felt good to have people notice. They all asked me what diet I was on. I couldn't help but laugh, I answered one Aunt by saying that I was on the ELCSYA diet, she seemed confused so I elaborated, Eat Less Crap and Shrink Your Ass. That got a huge laugh. I'm not on a diet, I have changed the way I live.

Ha! last night one of my cousins told me I was shrinking into nothing (this was after the chocolate peanut butter ice cream pie slice that I savored with glee), then he yelled at me to eat something as I got in my car; thanks, Adam :0)

My weight this morning 188 - again, but hey, that's better than what, 240-ish last year.I have photos, but since I'm typically the photographer, I have no good one's of me. I wish I had known I was going to be doing this, I would have made Jeeves take better photos last year and then gotten some better one's this year. Anyway, here's me on Christmas Eve, not a great pic, but I was excited to see how thin my arm looked.


And then just some random cute - courtesy of the munches.


Here's them playing on saturday


Inside of this!


Here's Pumpkin and Booger with Mutti


We call this the "Booger Dance"

Again with the busy-ness

I'll be back after Christmas, I have much to do and not enough time to get it done. I'm bugging out of work early today, to go buy some fabric to make the munches each a turtle rag blanket. This is after going to lunch with the co-workers and then going to the gym, yeah, really productive day right?

I hope everyone has a lovely holiday and I'll have lots of pictures to share next week. I love my Christmas outfit this year, nothing festive about it, but it's a whole lot of really cute.

Frohe Weinachten Everyone.

I had to share this picture of Booger, this is her irritated face :0)

Who you calling easy?

Tom came for a visit this week,(joy) and brought with her a wicked craving for chocolate. Thus far I have been able to resist the urge to gnaw my way through a box of truffles, but it's been close a time or two. In the spirit of changing my habits and way of eating my response to a craving has been to get busy and do something. When I finish a task, cleaning, gift, whatever: I re-evaluate and if I still want something sweet I indulge in a small protein bar. (larabar makes great minis and at about 80 calories the price is right) At least then I'm getting good stuff too.

In related news: my closet is clean, I have no dishes in my sink and I am very close to finishing all my Christmas gifts.  I've kept the calories low every day this week and with my workouts, my deficit has been pretty high. Amazing considering this time last year I ate cookies as a meal a few times.

Speaking of which, I've been doing some evaluating of my habits prior to making this change. I didn't gain fast, I gained steady, about 2 pounds a month for 2 years. I did eat a lot of junk, but I'm not a binge-er. When I cut out regular soda, candy, cookies and chips from my everyday diet, what I eat now doesn't look all that different portion wise to what I was eating before, granted I make better choices now, but the amounts are very similar(probably the reason I don't feel all that deprived) I now know calories basically off the top of my head, the math I do while eating looks a lot like what the real totals are at the end of my day. I don't have trigger foods, I don't have issues with self control, I even like healthy foods.

My only excuse for becoming fat is distraction. I didn't pay attention. I'm not going to lie and say that there was no stress in my life, but basically I'm a laid back chick, I take the path of least resistance.  I believe I let my habits get bad because it was easy. I have a full time job, and it was easier to grab 2 packs of ramen noodles for lunch everyday(800 calories in that meal by the way) I wanted to spend time with my kids when I got home and it was easier to eat peanut butter and jelly and chips for dinner every night. I enjoy candy and beer and it was easier to just consume until it was gone than figure out what a serving was and how it fit into my day. I've started to think now about the things that have become easier since I've lost weight.

It's easier to walk up stairs
It's easier to feel pretty
It's easier to walk down the street alone
It's easier to wake up in the morning
It's easier to meet people's eyes
It's easier to climb in the back seat
It's easier to run and play with my babies

That's the path of least resistance, make living easier.

Mutti

Since my girls were first born we have been readers. My mother began the tradition when I was a child. We got books every birthday and holiday. When I began having little one's she continued the tradition with a priceless addition. Each Christmas and birthday the munches get a storybook from Grannie. The book always has a handwritten note from her talking about her favorite things to do with the one who receives the book and how much she loves them.

The inscription always make me cry, happy tears of course, and they are precious to both me and the girls. We keep them put away from the other books, and take them down to read them but put them up to keep them safe (booger is a book destroyer right now)

I have started doing the same for my girls, I look all year to find books that speak to me and remind me of my girls. This year I got one for Booger called "I love you Stinky Face"

This is funny because my current nickname for her is stinky girl, not because she stinks, but because she's spoiled rotten. The book is great, it kind of reminds me of "The Runaway Bunny." I loved the Margaret Wise books when I was a kid. Pumpkin's book is called, "Mama, will you hold my hand?"

Pumpkin is hand holder, she enjoys the freedom of walking with me instead of riding in the cart at the store and I guess we taught her well because as soon as she pops out of her car seat, she puts up her little hand and says, " Hand please!"
These books, like the one's from Grannie, will sport notes from me to my little one's and when they get older, it will be hard, but I will let them take them when they move away, so they can read the things I wrote about them when they were tiny, and be reminded of how much I love them and how much fun we had.

Well this week I got an unexpected surprise, I got a book. I am not going to talk about the note on the inside of the book, but it's called  "If I could Keep you Little"

The story talks about the unique joy of watching your children grow and explore the world, and realizing that even if you could keep them little forever, you really wouldn't want to. I don't usually get books, but this one seemed like it had been written for Mom and I. The poem talked about doing airplane feet, writing, singing, camping, crafts...It was uncanny really, I sort of wanted to look over my shoulder and see if the woman who wrote the book had been stalking me.

Anyway I love my book, I read it to the munches last night and bawled, they thought I was sad, kept kissing me and saying, "It's okay Mommy, I promise" (they think "I promise" is a comfort term, not an actual pledge) they are such lovely children. a blessing in my life, as much as my mother is. I am so fortunate to be so close to and loved by such an incredible woman. She taught me to be a Mommy, not a mother, a mommy. A toy-playing, loud-singing, airplane foot-flying, cookie-baking, Jungle-gym-climbing, baby-snuggling mommy.  I am so proud to be both her daughter and their mother. It's nice to be reminded, at this time of year specifically, what a blessed life I lead.

Thank you and I love you, Mutti

Awwww, Come On?

Really, really...yesterday I weighed in at 188, rocking right? then this morning I'm back to 191, what the frack!!! I didn't sit in front of the TV downing Doritos or anything so what the hell is going on here???
I sort of want to go get an egg nog milkshake and just say screw the diet this week...

Did I fool you? yeah me neither, I am up again this morning, pretty sure its all water (cause my food was sodium city yesterday) and I'm going to flush it in the next few days. I am going ahead with a second week of 1200 calories, and have very ambitious gym plans this week. Work is kind of dead for the next two weeks so I am going to hit the gym hard, everyday if possible. Holidays wear me out I need the energy rush from a good run and I need the happy hormones that workouts give me.  In light of my less than frantic week I have decided to up my elliptical time from a 30 minute workout to 45 and add a few more sets to my weight training routine.

I am behind on gifts, I had a wonky week last week and got almost no presents done. But I have re-prioritized and have been granted an extension on a few families because of traveling. I still have a few things to do for Jeeves and the munches, and a particularly time consuming gift for mutti to put final touches on, but I think I will make it. I have made a puppet show for my girls, it's a curtain that hangs in a doorway to make the stage and puppets go in little pockets along the back of the curtain. I really can't talk about the stuff for Mutti or Jeeves, cause they both glance at the blog every once in while.

Alright, I'm off the flush out some sodium and water, I've got about 30 ounces in already, it's going well today with calories too, I brought a Mojo bar for breakfast and carrots with yogurt dip for lunch, I will have another protein bar pre-workout and I have some grapes for afterward. Then I'm making tilapia and green beans for dinner tonight. If all goes according to plan, Meals will be less than a thousand calories for the day, then I'll have some air popped popcorn tossed with a small amount of olive oil and Mrs. Dash for a snack tonight with the munches, they love the stuff. Looks like a good start to the week.

Keep breathing folks the holidays will be over very soon.

P.S. I just got my blood test results back and my thyroid levels are completely normal, I have been symptom free for over three years now! That's pretty amazing.

So Much Fiber!!!!

I had a Christmas party at work today. It was a potluck and there were plenty of temptations. In the end I picked a plate full of veggies with fat free yogurt dip (the dish I contributed) and about a quarter of a cup of pasta. Pretty good considering there were caramel brownies there, yeah, I resisted, but i did smell them, and pine...

Then I came home and ate more veggies, some grapes, a small plate of midwest white girl tai style cucumbers with red chili paste and about a cup of brown rice. I am now suffering from fiber overload. My tummmy is bloated and no more water will fit. sheesh.

Now I am baking cupcakes, a friend turned 36 this week and we have a party planned tomorrow night. This party is annual blowout, lots of friends and coworkers get together and a good time is had by all. So I offered to bring the baked awesome this year. I do not plan on eating any of them. All 24 will make it to the party tomorrow, iced with pecan coconut fosting. So tomorrow when I arrive at the party I'll not only be 24 cupcakes heavy, I'll be 41 pounds lighter than last year when I went to the same shindig.

Stupid Busy

This has been the week from hell. I have been at work for at least 10 hours everyday, it is frickin freezing and I have not been able to get to the gym. I need some exertion and since it's 487 degrees below zero and I have munch duty as soon as I'm off work I can't go for a neighborhood run/jog. Also I have a birthday party this Friday so I have to miss zumba. I have responded to this sluggishness by taking Allan's few day 1200 calorie challenge. I originally intended on keeping my own minimum calorie for life amount but felt like the lack of actual intentional workout necessitated some new diet action.

Yesterday was just alright, I needed something to keep me awake while I was working from home so a protein bar at about 8pm put me at 1280 calories for the day. I love protein bars, a few of them taste good enough that they satisfy my candy-crave, plus I am getting some good stuff too. I believe they are going to remain part of my forever diet, like the slim fast lattes.  I didn't feel deprived yesterday which was mostly because I ate about three bowls of skinny soup during the day; warm, full of veggies, and spicy = just what I needed. I also drank like it was going out of style, I must have had 7 cups of hot tea on top of my water and breakfast shake. Peed like a lunatic all day.

I am going to try like hell to make it to the gym today, I need to run, my legs are getting restless, and I want to get my new shoes this weekend.

Dieting While Crazy

This should be a ticket-able offense.

I'm the final stages of the slog toward christmas. I have lists, and lists of lists, and lists to tell me when to use what list. It seems that I an having some significant focus issues and while this is by no means a new problem for me it is compunded by the holiday season. Yesterday I stayed under 1600 calories by the skin of my teeth. I hardly ate anything all day long but then Mutti took me out for Wendy's and a Bacon cheeseburger was calling my name.

It's been months since I've had a cheese burger, and now I know why. My stomach was sitting on the side of the bed this morning when I woke up. She smacked me in the face and said I deserve everything that is going to happen to me today. The rumbling coming from my midsection is intense to say the least and I have indigestion like nobodies business. Ick!

I have discovered that I don't digest beef well. Chicken and fish are just fine, lamb is okay and pork I have no issues with, beef however, causes me issues. So Where's the Beef?

Not on my plate anymore.

Lady Bits Doctor

I had my yearly appointment today and it was...un-eventful. Everything is normal provided my blood tests come back normal as well. I'm glad that's over with. I hate that appointment.

My head feels much better today. Thanks for the well wishes Stephanie! A diet energy drink helped me get through the little bit of leftover pain this morning and now I'm doing much better. I typically avoid energy drinks, I used to have a 2-4 a day habit, which I broke when I went cold turkey for 6 months in 2009. My morning coffee is usually enough to keep the headaches at bay, but yesterday I forgot coffee, suck!

My weigh in today was still 191, I know I have been under 1500 calories all week, because I've had no appetite, and I've been working out regularly. So, I'm not sure why I haven't lost more. Maybe what I did eat was just too full of salt that I'm still retaining water, even though I'm guzzling like a gallon a minute.  Whatever, I'm still losing and my clothes keep fitting better so I must be doing something right. I got  new cup, it's a 52 ounce behemoth and two of them make up my fluid intake for the day, but today I've been through three of them, and I don't even feel water-logged anymore. It feels normal.

I spoke with the MD today about my weight loss, she said that what I'm doing is exactly what I should be doing. I even asked if 100 plus ounces of fluids a day was too much and she said no, in fact your body needs fluid to work properly. It felt nice to be validated by a medical professional. She also said I'm good to go to have baby #3, I asked about dieting while preggers and she said I'd have to increase my calories to 1800, but at that amount I can still lose. She also said I can keep working out, I've been doing it long enough that it's part of my routine and not doing it would cause more harm.

I have lost 41 pounds, and I am never going to see them again, because I have changed my life, and even though yesterday was questionable; I feel amazing.

Ninja and the terrible, horrible, no good, really bad day

Rundown:
8am-12pm: sewing christmas gifts, and downing water, no food
12pm-2pm: Made skinny soup, had the annual holiday "I'm too damned busy for my own freaking life" meltdown, and cleaned the kitchen.
2pm-4pm:Light snack of popcorn and crystal light, followed by vacuuming up the giant bag of popcorn the munches had strewn about the living room.
4pm: realized I'd had no caffeine for the day when the first wave of dizziness hit
4:15 till now, ridiculous, nausea inducing, pass out when i get upright pain that has spread to the point that it hurts to swallow. That, and a big salad for dinner.

I sort of want to die now, but instead I'm going to down some naproxen and go to sleep, and hope to Jesus this breaks before tomorrow.

I'm a Liar

I'm also a huge scatterbrain. My driver's license went missing and I had to get a new one, which sucked, a lot. But when I got my new license with the new skinnier ninja picture I was happy as hell. Then I realized that I still had 170 as the weight listed on my license. I'm such a liar, I never changed it from when I first got my license in high school. How many of you have really wrong weights listed on your license, and how many upon gaining a bunch would go in and sit in the tiny uncomfortable chair and announce, becuase there is no privacy at the DMV, that you had gained 20,30,50 pounds??? Not many would be my guess. I weighed in yesterday and it was 191. another pound down, hopefully my weigh in tomorrow shows even more gone, who knows.

Someday soon I am going to be the weight my license says I am and then I will be lower, It'll happen, at which point I am going to go in and demand a new copy with the lower weight listed on it

Booger's Day Out

Booger, my youngest.

I feel like such a mommy failure. I had to take my two year old, Booger, to get immunizations yesterday and because we were overdue she had to get 4!!!! two in each arm, her poor little skinny arms are covered in band-aids and I cried the whole time. (I am, in fact, crying right now, thinking about how awful it was for her) I hate having to hold my girl down so someone can hurt her. She held on to me so tight afterwards and I just kept apologizing to her because I felt so mean. It was very stressful.

(This was not last night, but you get the idea.)

But then she and I went to the store and she got to pick out some cookies for her and her sister to share. She picked oreos and they made a huge mess (crumbs -everywhere-) but she felt much better by the time she was done with her cookies. I see myself subconsciously doing portion control with them. I used to just let them tear into the cookies but last night I gave them each two (a serving) and them put them away. When they asked for more I gave them each a half of a banana and they were just as happy with that. I hope I am teaching them good eating habits, I don't want them to feel like I'm "Crazy Diet Mom" but I also don't want to be to lax and let them develop unhealthy habits.

I couldn't eat all day yesterday partly from being so upset about having to take her to the evil clinic and partly because I'm still feeling bloaty and gross. I had a glass of milk and a bowl of grapes last night, and even that made me feel too full. maybe my stomach shrunk or something. Not sure what the issue is, but I'm feeling kind of blech. Not really nauseous or ill or in pain, just yucky. I'm heading to the gym today, with great music for my half hour on the elliptical. The crunches have started hurting less so I'm going to add another set or two. Maybe the gym will fix the yucky, I hope so.

Roast Beast

Yesterday was my first day of the SSDDDLMNOP challenge. I feel as though I have done pretty well. I came in under on calories and over on liquids, but at the end of the day I felt bloated and uncomfortable. I blame the brocolli. Then I stayed up late working on laudry and holiday projects. aside from the Munches dresses none of them are really "done" yet, because I have this tendency to start 12 things at once, really gotta work on that, hopefully I'll get some done tonight.

I was watching glee last night and the kids sang the song from "How the grinch stole christmas." I have always loved this movie, and the munches and I have watched it at least 12 times already this month, really. This is a great version of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". As I watched them singing the very pretty song, I wondered what the hell they were saying. It's easy to let it pass when cartoons are singing and you can't really see their mouths moving, but when people are singing it's a little more obvious that its mostly gibberish. So I looked up they lyrics. I really gotta hand it to the folks who wrote the music, turns out pretty music can cover for a song made up entirely of baby-babble.

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Come this way!

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Christmas Day.
Welcome, Welcome

Fah who rah-moose
Welcome, Welcome
Dah who dah-moose
Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome, welcome Christmas
Welcome, welcome Christmas Day

Thanks Dr. Suess, you never fail to create words that make me feel both nostalgic and confused at the same time. By the way, is that wocket in your pocket...or are you just happy to see me?

Ravenous

empty, starving, famished....freaking hungry!!!!

After seven and a half months of my new diet plan I am hungry. I have never felt hungry like this before and not given in to the urge to chow(probably the reason I got so heavy in the first place) , and since I started dieting I have not had a day where I felt as empty as I do today. I am snacking on veggies at 10am because I am not going over my calories today. I have a plan, and it's to be 185 by christmas and that will not happen if I blow this today. I have already taken in about 30 ounces of water plus a 44 oz slimfast latte. I should be full but I'm not, what the french?!?!

I have developed a daytime meal plan to get me through the next 4 weeks on the Aqua Guru's Challenge. This is something I can maintain because I have a much easier time controlling my food at work, I have a slimfast latte for breakfast its under 200 calories and is 44 ounces of fluid. I wasn't counting this toward my water intake for the day, but Allan says it counts...so, groovy I guess that means I'm extra hydrated. Then I have a  light soup for lunch and a protien bar before the gym. It works out to about 560 calories for the morning, which then leaves me open to either have a great dinner on days when I do workout, or a smart dinner on days when I don't. I typically make the soup, its a skinny soup with tons of veggies, but it doesn't photo well and I forgot it in the fridge this morning so my backup can of progresso light is on today's menu. I plan on keeping this up, even after the challenge, in the summer I'll have salads instead of soup for lunch. Skinny people don't eat ramen noodles or cheeseburgers for lunch everyday, so I won't either.


I also bought some new clothes this week, a pair of size 12 pants that don't fit and a few shirts that do fit, I have officially sold my apartment in frump-town. I bought some boots for 5 dollars at the Salvation Army and they are brand new, still had tags!!! This is me in my office this morning. I have been in this ffice for over a year and have yet to decorate my side of the room, I'm going to change that. After the holidays when I can craft for myself without feeling guilty I am going to make some decorations.

Blah Humblog

I really don't have anything witty or exiting to say today. It's Monday and I'm at work, which is a drag. I worked hard on Christmas stuff this weekend including putting up my tree




I am in the midst of completing about four hundred projects for gift and as soon as they are complete I will be posting some photos. Feeling a bit frazzled today, much to do and very little will to complete it. I had a high salt weekend, calorically not bad, but the water I am retaining could probably fill a baby pool. So I'm guzzling today and have taken a water pill because I'm uncomfortable. I sort of had a final drinking hurrah on saturday. I have decided that booze is bad for this diet, so until I get to my goal I am going to limit myself to one drink if I'm at a party or something, and no drinks otherwise. Why ask for trouble right?
I'll leave you all with this really cool shot of the tree, I -love- my new camera.

Who's That?

I dressed for work today and took a little more time than usual with my hair and makeup. More than usual being that I actually did my hair, and am wearing makeup. I left the house and three times today I have freaked myself out because I didn't recognize myself in the mirror. My face looks so much thinner compared to the pictures I have of me this time last year.


This is me today, 12-3-2010
This was me last year in the begining of december.


The satisfaction from these pictures is astounding, worth way more to me than cookies or doritos, or donuts.  "mmmmmmm....donuts....."
(sorry, had a Homer Simpson moment there.)

Since Christmas is a time when a ton of photos typically happen, and as a way of keeping the season bright, does anyone else have a before and after they'd like to share?

Stop the World!

I need to get off...

Cripes it's been a busy day and this ten mintues to post is about the only sitting I get to do for the rest for the day. I am off to the gym for a workout, then home to cook dinner, clean house, do laundry, make munch christmas dresses and put up the tree. Phew that looks like even more now that I've written it all down. But Jeeves is going to help and workouts always make me feel like I can take on the world  a little.

I found a great red sweater at the goodwill today and I am going to frankenstien convert it into a great embellished cardigan for the Ninja Family Christmas Debacle, otherwise known as the day we try to get a family picture done.  I'll post some before and afters when I get it done. 

Alright, I'm out, the elliptical and great music is calling me, as is the cookie dough protien bar I've promised myself post workout. Hope everyone had a less hectic thursday than I did.

PS I looked awesome today, and I found two pairs of size 14 pants and the salvation army last night for 2 dollars a peice!!! yesssssssss....

Emma Pillsbury, Eat your heart out.

Allan commented yesterday asking if the book he asked for from the other branch had arrived yet. I examined my wardrobe last night when I got home from the day the fashion died and realized I have a serious sweater addiction. But not in a cool, hip sort of way...no, not like that at all...

So I am going to turn my tendency toward cardigans into something positive and make it a style I can rock, hot librarian style. And this lady is going to help me. I want to live in her basement and collect the bits of fabulous that fall through the cracks in the floor. She is awesome and someday I am going to have that kind of cool style.


In hopes that I can rock this new look, I am going to make this tomorrow.

Swagger: Party of One

Yeah, feeling less frumpy today, thanks to Allan for giving me a push in the right direction. I need a style and sexy librarian is one I'm going to try out. HA! I bet I can pull it off; the right mix of quirky and prude, I'm going to need my sister in law for this one, she has way more style than me...
Here's me Today

Yeah, I shouldn't do that thing with my chin, but it just sort of happens sometimes.
Well, I am off to the Salvation Army to find some new duds and bring the sexy back (yes, I just made a JT reference, so sue me)