I Draw The Line Here

I have drawn a line in the sand and reached a point of no return.  At least, I hope I don't return.  I think I mentioned last week that I have been sticking to my workout plan of Tuesday and Thursday after work workouts on a pretty regular basis for a while.  I think I also mentioned I hadn't really noticed a change in the way things were fitting and how I was feeling.  Today, for whatever reason, I decided to step on the scale in the locker room while no one was around just to see where things were at.  Holy Houston we have a problem.  I thought for sure that scale was busted, so I checked on ours at home.  I wish I could say both of them were busted, but I don't think that is the case. 

This past weekend, I started looking at some healthy smoothie recipes for some alternative snack options.  I'm still narrowing down some options, but hope to have a list of ingredients together before the weekend.  As much as I hate to say it, I also need to but my carbs down.  While I like bread, pasta, and potatoes, they like to cling to my thighs a little more than I would like.  Thank God for the Pinterest health and fitness category because I have been able to find all sorts of good things.  As much as I want to kick and scream over some of the things I know I need to do, enough is enough. 

I'm not happy where I am at with my health.  I would probably collapse if you asked me to climb anything more than a flight of stairs.  OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but only slight.  I seriously need to get moving.  Thirty minute workouts twice per week aren't cutting it anymore.  I wish I liked to run, but I don't so that goes out the window.  I probably need to get my butt back in my sculpting class I was doing on Monday's at work with the teacher that is actually a body builder. 

Lucky for me in the food department, I actually enjoy most of the foods I "should" be eating.  I love fruits and veggies, yogurt, nuts, fish, squash, etc.  I love them all!  My goal for the remainder of the week is to come up with a diet that I can actually stick to; non of this unrealistic nonsense.  I will not be eating one slice of toast as a meal, sorry dudes.  I may even investigate some kind of detox or cleanse to get started.  Do any of you know of any good ones? 

My other goal is to add another day of workout to my routine and perhaps lengthen the ones I am already doing.  Normally, on Thursday after I do cardio I throw in some weight work.  I think I'm going to keep the weight work on Thursday and expand it as well as throw in weights on Tuesday. 

So, there you have it; it has come to me drawing a line in the sand.  No more buying clothes because the ones I have don't fit.  If I get off my butt, they will fit just fine.  I'm not sure how I got to this point other than a combination of a lot of bad things: stress, bad eating habits, being a lazy butt, stress, food...  

To Chop It Or Not To Chop It

My hair that is. Tis the time of year where I have an internal battle about my hair. I tell myself I should keep growing it out because I like to be able to pull it back and I like having it longer so I can do things with it. The problem with that line of thought is that the only thing I really do with it on a day to day basis when it is long is throw it in a pony tail. While easy, it is maybe not the most stylish thing in the world. The chop is side of my always wins out and tells the other side to back off. My hair when it is long is a mop. My hair is thick; no I'm not complaining about this, and heavy. The longer it gets, the more mop like it becomes. At least when my hair is shorter, it kind of has some volume to it. When it gets long, I can just forget about any kind of volume for my hair.


I kind of have my go to styles for when I chop it off. It is pretty bad when even my stylist said to me the last time I was in there "Are we cutting it all off the next time you come in?" I responded no, but in the back of my mind thought yeah, we probably will. In the spring I like my hair to feel light and airy. Of course with the weather lately, it has probably been prolonging my urge to cut my hair off.

The last time I grew my hair out was for the wedding, and that was a little over a years worth of growing it out. I don't think I have made it to a year at this point. In fact, I know I haven't because I think I got it cut before we went to Green Bay last September, I think.


Here is the other wrench in my plan; I have been pondering highlights. I have actually never done anything to my hair, other than a perm; gasp. I have never colored or highlighted my locks. That isn't to say I haven't thought about it over the years. Everyone always told me not to start until I had to. I do have a few grey hairs now that like to show their ugly selves. Andrew, of course, loves to point them out. In turn, I point his out and also point out since getting married he has acquired a few more. Do you suppose there is any sort of connection there?


I have always loved auburn hair and been totally jealous of redheads. Yes, Julie, I'm speaking to you. My friend Julie, whom I know reads this blog, has the most gorgeous red hair that I have probably been jealous of since 8th grade. I'm thinking I might experiment with a highlight/lowlight situation this next time around. I need something different in my life; this might have to work for now. Here are some ideas I have collected:

I would kind of just like to have everything about her hair... the cut and color are amazeballs!

 

Source: google.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: statigr.am via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Natalie on Pinterest

I will of course keep you all up to date on my decision.

Half Way There

But, the only prayer I'm living on this week is that I make it through Friday without going postal. You guessed it, another not so great week this week! I'm really starting to see a pattern. I'm going to blame it on the weather. Frankly, I'm sick of rain. I know we need it, but seriously I have had enough now. I have also had enough of the dogs waking me up in the middle of the night from the thunder. Yes, we have a thundershirt. No, it does not work for Buddy. I want sun and warmth, not rain and cold. If I wanted dreary weather all the time, I would live in London or Seattle, but I don't for a reason. Silly me bought some new maxi dresses thinking spring and summer were around the corner. What a cruel joke that was. There is no way I'm busting those puppies out yet only to freeze my nay nay's off. Of course, the temperature gods at work clearly haven't figured out how to turn the heat down because every day I go into work I wonder if I should be wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

In the housing news, there really is no news. We haven't had any second showings come from the open house this past weekend. We had one showing on Tuesday this week, but that didn't result in anything. I know this house has some quirks that you either love or hate and it will sell when it is time to sell. In the mean time, I HATE uncertainty and that pretty much describes life right now. We never know if we are going to get a call for a showing, we don’t know if we are going to be moving or not, we don't know if we are going to get the house we put an offer in on, I have posts out for jobs I don’t know if I'm going to get an interview on. Yes, I know that last one was on a different subject, but along the same lines of current uncertainty. I realize life is filled with uncertainty, but some of us deal with it better than others.

Now, there are several bright spots in life right now. The Green Bay Packers season schedule is released tomorrow night with dates and times for games. Hello Green Bay! Again, I wish I knew if we were moving so we could determine the affordability of going to a game. Have you bought tickets to an NFL game lately? Those bad boys aren't cheap, let me tell you. Also, Clay Matthews just signed a new long term contract extension with the Packers ensuring he will be around for several more years. This brings joy to my life knowing I can continue to watch that eye candy on TV. More importantly, he is a great player!

So, we have a few more days left in this week and then Andrew is on vacation next week. We have talked about trying to get away for a few days. I think I need to get out of town for a few days.  In other good news, the Planned Parenthood Book Sale is this weekend!  Yay books.  Of course, I'm not sure who I'm kidding with that excitement because I can't tell you the last book I read.  Sadly, since I graduated from college my motivation in that department has been lacking.   I have finished a book here and there, but certainly haven't read the volumes of books I thought I would be reading.  People tell me about books they are reading all the time, and they sound really interesting and like something I would enjoy reading.  However, I just never get around to reading them.  Why, you ask?  Probably because I spend most night browsing Pinterest or reading blogs. 

I guess I also haven't really given you guys an update on the workout situation in a while.  I have been regularly working out two days each week after work, so I am pretty proud of myself for that.  Could I be doing more, yes.  From time to time I also catch a Zumba class at work on Friday's, but that is kind of hit or miss and should probably become more hit than miss.  I haven't even stepped on a scale lately to see if any of this working out is paying off.  I can't tell you based on how my clothes are fitting, it really hasn't.  We have our health screenings at work starting in May, I'm kind of afraid to see what they say...   

 

  

The Week In Review

This past week wasn't exactly review worthy. In fact, I would rather just forget about it to be honest. Work was a week of one thing after another last week, and I'm not sure I want to know what this week has in store for me. Hopefully, this week means some of my coworkers decide to step in and do some work so the rest of us don't have to pick up the slack for them. As you can tell, I'm not much for slackers. I especially wasn't happy this past week when I was at work hours beyond everyone else and there was still work to do. Can you tell I'm frustrated?

We had a couple of showings this past week, but neither resulted in an offer. Both potential buyers didn't like the idea of having to go through one of the bedrooms to get to the bathroom. There isn't much to do about it either. At one point, we talked about creating a hallway in that room so the bedroom and bathroom were separate, but that would cut the window out of the bedroom. I guess we just haven't found the right buyer yet. We had an open house today and had several people through the house. Here's to hoping we get a second walk through this week, and maybe an offer! We have a little over a month left on our subject to sale offer, assuming someone doesn't come in and buy it outright.

One bright spot this week; spring flowers! The peony bushes are starting to come up, our daffodils are blooming along with our hyacinth, our tulips are coming up, and today I noticed our hostas are coming up! Our house smells like spring with some hyacinth and daffodils in the house.

Last night, with Andrew's screwy sleep schedule, I decided to watch a movie while he crashed after dinner.  People have been talked about Pitch Perfect, and don't ask me what I was waiting for on this one.  I stinking loved that movie.  Of course, I don't think there is a single movie with Rebel Wilson in it that I haven't liked; that woman cracks me up.  I haven't laughed so hard since the last Medea movie I watched. 

Tonight, I will leave you with the recipe I made for dinner which was a hit!

Source: thecheesepusher.tumblr.com via Natalie on Pinterest

I added some rotisserie chicken in since no meal is complete in my mind without meat.  Andrew could live on pasta alone, but I need a good steak from time to time. 

As we head into a new week, I hope this one is better than the last.  I would like at least one piece of good news this week.  Who has something for me? 

Recipe Wednesday!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this week has been quite a week.  Every day I’m convinced there can’t be anything left, but then a new day rolls around.  Yeah, it has been one of those kinds of weeks.  There are few things that can get me out of a funk like I have been in this week: chocolate and coffee.  I have had a major sweet tooth lately, so I decided to make one of the yummy looking desserts I have been pinning on pinterest.  I don’t like to get too involved during the week with desserts or cooking in general, so I needed something that was easy and used mostly ingredients we had in the house. 

 

I set out to make some chocolate chip cookie dough truffles.  Can you say yum! 

 

 

Source: domesticdoozie.blogspot.com via Natalie on Pinterest

These were pretty quick and easy to make.  I have already had a few, so I can tell you they are delicious! 

A Not So Productive Weekend

Remember last week when I said we were going to get a lot done this weekend? Yeah, that didn't exactly happen. We still got some things done, but not everything I wanted to get done. We got some of the yard picked up and the stick pile from the snow storms shrunk quite a bit. We not have five bags of sticks to put out on the curb this week and we will probably have another five next week. We only bought five bags to start with because we didn't want to end up with a ton left, so we filled what we had and called it a day. Both our hands were starting to hurt from using the clippers to cut things up. Some of the branches are rather large and we weren't able to cut them with the tools we have at the house, so we will have to get a saw to cut them down to something more manageable. Hopefully, we can get the rest taken care of a little at a time this week before the open house next weekend.

While Andrew started cutting up the sticks, I was checking out our plants and the bulbs to see if they were showing any sign of life. I was a little worried about my peony bush out front, but when I moved some of the mulch aside, I saw it peeking up out of the ground; I was pretty excited. Today, I walked out back while the dogs were running around and saw the first flower of the season; a wonderful sign!

I think the dogs are ready for spring too; they spent a ton of time out with us today. We need to get their dog park tags so they can run around. Maya runs a little more than Buddy does when we take them to the dog park. Buddy is content to sniff everything out and mark his spots at the park and call it a day. We like to get them out and give them new things to sniff through, I think it keeps their minds stimulated.

Today was the open house at the house we have an offer in on; I'm fully preparing myself to get a phone call this week that there is another offer on the house that is not subject to sale. I remind myself daily if something happens and we don’t get this house, it wasn't supposed to be our house. I have already told Andrew, however, if we lose the house we have an offer on, I'm not looking at anything else until we have an offer on ours. No more looking at houses when we may not be able to have them.

We were out and about this morning grabbing some brunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and decided to check out a few stores while we were there. Andrew has been in need of a new pillow because he keeps complaining about his. Last night I had enough and told him the next time we had the chance, we were buying him a new pillow and I didn't want to hear any excuses. As luck would have it, Younkers was having a door buster sale today and had some Calvin Klein pillows on sale for $8.00. Now I am the proud owner of a new pillow as Andrew informed me while we were pillow shopping that he really likes broken in pillows that he knows are comfortable, so he would take my old pillow.

While we were at the mall, we also stopped in at the Coach store. There were a couple of purses I have had my eye on that are on auction on Ebay, but I really hate buying purses without being able to touch them first. I have been on the hunt for a good grey purse of fall/winter. I like black purses for winter, but they are just so..... black. I checked out one of the purses that I almost bought this week on Ebay, and boy am I glad I didn't because I would not have been happy when it arrived. The purse was way smaller than I thought it was going to be. In the back of the store, I spotted a grey purse, the only one in the store; the sales lady said they just got it in. Normally, having just bought a purse I wouldn't even think about buying another one until the fall. However, when I looked at the price on the purse, it was actually cheaper in the store than it was only. I debated while standing there and decided what the heck? When is the last time I spent this amount of money on myself? When I bought my computer in 2010; I think that is a good average. The poor lady was trying to sell me the matching wallet, and that just wasn't going to happen. After dropping as much as I did on the purse, I wasn't dropping $235 on a wallet; perhaps another day. That isn't to say I wouldn't love the matching wallet, just a hint in case anyone is thinking of birthday ideas for me :) Yes, I realize my birthday is over a month away.

Source: coach.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Source: coach.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Since we didn't get a ton done this weekend, it looks like we will be busting butt to get some things done this week. Here is a short list of what we need to get done before the open house next Sunday:

Finish picking up the sticks in the yard and cutting them up (who wants to help)

Clean the bedroom/kitchen/bathroom/living room... you get the idea

Put away the Easter decorations (yep, still haven't done this)

Clean up the front yard and make it look as inviting as possible

De-clutter as much as possible

Sort through clothes and be ruthless- not worn in a year and not for a special occasion, it is out the door. I have a habit when I am going through clothes of making deals with myself and saying I will wear something more just so I can keep it. What is the point of this, really? I never end up wearing it any more than I had before. If I haven't worn it, there is a reason; I don't like it and should get rid of it.

So, there is my short list of things to do this week. I will keep you posted on how it goes; hopefully better than the weekend did.

 

   

Finally, Spring Is Here

And it is about time too; I was starting to think we were going to stay in permanent winter mode and that wasn't cool with me. Warmer temps mean I get to bust out my maxi dresses and sandals.

After some delay, which we won’t discuss, my new Coach purse arrived on my porch yesterday! I was pretty pumped for it to come. I like the spring color of my new bag, and will probably carry it most of the summer.

I know I haven't been posting a ton lately, but there isn't much to post about. The offer we put in on the house was accepted, and now we wait for someone to buy ours. I think I mentioned we have an open house next Sunday, so we know what we will be doing this weekend. I have some Easter decorations I need to put away this weekend, we have some general de-cluttering to do, and some outdoor work to do. I'm kind of kicking myself that we didn't plant any bulbs out front last fall, which means no real color in the front of the house right now. It is still too early for the peony bush to bloom. In fact, I'm not sure it is more than about an inch tall right now. I think things are kind of delayed this year because I remember that peony bush last year at this time. I did notice this week that my bulbs I planted in the ground are peeking up, which is exciting. I love spring flowers. Sadly, with spring comes allergy season. I could feel my allergies kicking in this past weekend, so I had to start back on the allergy meds. I think I'm lucky I got this far into the year without them.

With the warm weather this weekend, this seems like a good weekend to do some major spring cleaning. I really need to start going through some stuff. I went through my clothes before, but I need to go through them again and get rid of some things. There are several things I haven't worn since we moved, and I really don't think those items need to be kept. Granted, there are a few special occasion things that I won't get rid of because I don’t wear them all that often, but some of the day to day things need to go. I went through my shoe collection recently as well, and there really isn't anything left that I'm willing to part with. I got rid of the shoes that hurt my feet, are worn out, or I just plan don't wear. There might be one or two more pairs I can get rid of though. I think of it this way; every item I get rid of is one less thing to move.

I'm a major paper hoarder as well, so I think I need to get rid of some papers this weekend. Let’s face it, paper is heavy to move. I have kept a ton of old class notes which I haven't gone back and looked at, so I'm really not sure why they have now been moved three times. There are some notes I go back and look at, but only a few. I have drawers of old bills and I really wonder why. Does anyone else keep bills like this? How long do you keep them for? On most of our bills, I only keep a record for one year. On my student loans, I keep every last piece of paper they send me.

So, there is the goal for the weekend; clean like crazy fools. I will try to post on Sunday with an update.