Recurring Series – Page 104

Five for Friday

1- Today marks 30 days until I leave on my first cruise of 2012. It’s a 6-day Western Caribbean cruise and I am so stupid excited about it, I can barely focus some days. My first cruise experience was the best of my life and I just can’t wait to experience it all again. (More to come on the details!)

2 – I am still in awe by the outpouring of love and support that followed my QLC post on Wednesday. What I’m learning through my own QLC is that what I’m feeling is normal and healthy. The comments brought about some thoughts of my own, which I hope to address next week. I really do have the best readers.

3 – I’ve been having a terrible time with cravings this week. This low-sugar diet is still incredibly hard and while my body has adjusted, my mind hasn’t. My mind is telling me I need soda and chocolate and gosh darnit, today was hard, eat your emotions! But my body? My body is doing just fine being on very little sugar. I just wish my mind could hurry up and catch up with my body’s signals. I’ve been strong enough to say no when I want to say yes, but it’s been a daily battle.

4 – My mom had an MRI last Friday. She’s been falling a lot recently (one landing her in the ER), enough that her doctor was concerned enough to schedule one. She has no other symptoms, other than the falling. No headaches or dizzy spells. So while I’m not too concerned, worrying is also what I do so of course, I’m slightly worried my mom will receive terrible news. She finds out on Tuesday the results so say a prayer this weekend, if you’re so inclined. She thinks she’s just a bit clumsy and perhaps has a depth perception problem. (Edited to add: Just received news from my mom that her MRI came back normal. Happy Friday, indeed!)

5 – I don’t have many weekend plans, so I’m just excited to use the time to catch up on sleep, chores, and my Fierce Love course (I’m way behind!). This week has been long and hectic, so I’m ready for the slow pace that the weekend brings.

Categories: Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures {v.2}

**After a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week, I’m taking a break from my “Sugar Free” updates. I thought about writing about my struggles but I know it would be a blog post filled with excuses. Suffice it to say, I gained this week. It was a bad week. Today is a new day.

My weekend kicked off with a killer boot camp workout. At first, my mom and I intended on going for a 6-mile walk/run but the park we wanted to do it at was closed for a race and I really wasn’t feeling the run. So, instead, we headed on over to boot camp! My mom and I did a 45-minute walk beforehand and then stayed put for the hour-long boot camp. One of the harder classes I’ve done and we received the sad news that the leader of the boot camp, Michael Pittman, is moving to California. (But the boot camp will go on with the other trainers AND they want to have 3 classes a week. So, not terrible news after all!)

I’m sorry, but I think this is the cutest picture of the two of us EVER. My brother, future sister-in-law, and nephew came over on Saturday for some Easter fun. My nephew loves going over to our tennis court so the five of us headed over, where my brother & I played a few games. We used to play all the time with my dad so it brought back memories. I just love my big brother, if you couldn’t tell.

Egg coloring! My nephew had a blast — especially once my mom showed him an egg holder she bought him. He pretty much loved trying to grab the egg with it and then dropping it in the water, making the dye splash.

My mom and I left the house at 6AM on Sunday morning to go to a sunrise service on Treasure Island. For some reason, we wanted a different experience this Easter but I wasn’t impressed. Maybe I’m just too used to the passionate sermons from my own pastor. There was probably 10 minutes total of preaching and it was very lackluster. But whatever! Look at the above views! So gorgeous. I love Florida.

One of my favorite parts about spring: hollow chocolate bunnies! His name is Texter. That yellow thing in his hands is a cell phone. He was super yummy.

Oh, Dutch. He arranged himself like this all by himself. He kills me. He just kills me.

How was your Easter weekend, friends?

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments: March 2012

1 – A short nap after work

2 – Figuring out I only have 50 work days left until my cruise, a pedicure after work

3 – An after-shopping froyo date

4 – Finding a cute pair of shoes to wear for my brother’s wedding for only $20, reality TV

5 – Beginning the week with a tough workout

6 – Great conversations with my co-workers over lunch

7 – Finding out through a random scroll through my tweets that our March book pick for #twookclub was just 25 cents on Amazon! Normally priced at $7, I snapped that baby up with no problem!

8 – My fourth night in a row, getting to bed before 10 PM. Finally getting into a routine of shutting things down at 9 PM so I can get to bed at a decent hour!

9 – The launch of my blog on WordPress!

10 – Racing with Michael Pittman, finding the perfect mother-of-the-groom dress

11 – Two hours spent at the beach, a long nap

12 – Walk with my mom after work

13 – Starting a new Bible study series and connecting with my new group leader instantly

14 – Lunch date with my old work BFF

15 – A short nap after work

16 – Starting a new book that gripped me right from the beginning

17 – A clean bill of health for Dutch, including a routine teeth cleaning where his gums/teeth were perfect

18 – Sleeping in and lounging around until noon, seeing “This Means War”

19 – Completing my first day of being sugar-free with no real issues or cravings

20 – Bible study, a yummy and filling dinner at Panera (my favorite meal only has 3g of sugar!)

21 – A really great run that took a lot of mental energy, but I never quit!

22 – Snuggles with Dutch

23 – Texts with blog friends

24 – A great weight loss, scoring a pair of slacks (that FIT ME IN LENGTH!!) + a blouse at NY&Co for just $36, sweet time with my nephew

25 – A fun day at Busch Gardens with a friend

26 – Playtime with Dutch

27 – Being in bed by 9pm!

28 – 9 hours of sleep, a great boot camp where we did some fun exercises

29 – Finishing a great project at work, The Big Bang Theory

30 – Playing the new “Modern Family” game.

31 – Another great week for weight loss, jeans that used to not fit me easily slipping on and buttoning, a *very* fun day at Epcot!

Categories: Recurring Series

Seven Quick Takes Friday (v. 11)

Tumblr_m1c9hhri4x1rrrvzfo1_500_large

Linking up with Jennifer of Conversion Diary for today’s Quick Takes. (photo credit)

1 – I am currently on Day 5 of being (mostly) sugar-free and it’s going okay. I’m hungry all the time, which I’m guessing has to do with the fact that I’m not eating the right foods. I’m eating enough, but instead of replacing all the sugary foods I used to eat with better, more filling foods, I’ve just taken out the bad foods. This is all a learning process, though, and I imagine I’ll learn so much more in the coming weeks.

2 – I’ve been thinking of deleting all the games I play on my phone (Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, Scramble with Friends, and Draw Something). Currently, I am playing 55 games between the four games. Fifty. Five. Games. That’s pure insanity. At the very least, I’m thinking of deleting my Draw Something account since it’s become so overwhelming to keep up with. And I’m just not creative when it comes to drawing anything that it’s not fun anymore. I think it’s time to just delete it and move on. The world will not end.

3 – My mom and I are planning to take a little weekend trip to Orlando next month. I still have one day I can use on my 3-day Disney pass I bought back in January and my mom has two days. And since it’s such a drag driving all the way to Orlando, spending an entire day at a park, and then driving home, we decided we’d just spend the weekend there instead. I really can’t wait! Since I don’t count my mom’s marathon as a vacation, I don’t think we’ve been on one since July! And now we’ll have this weekend in April, our 6-day cruise in May, and then another 4-day cruise in June. Exciting, exciting!

4 – I know it’s weird, but I get a strange thrill out of paying all my bills whenever I get paid. I keep a log of what needs to go where for each paycheck and it’s fun for me to make a plan of where my money will go. Maybe living in constant financial disarray most of my life makes me so thankful I can easily pay my bills, as well as pay for extras, that doing so is fun? I’m not sure. I’m getting way too deep about money for a Friday morning. Don’t get me wrong, I still get a little bummed out when the majority of my paycheck is gone before I even see it thanks to bills, but the thrill is always there.

5 – I’m trying to decide if I want to chop my hair off again before my cruise. Sometimes, I see photos of myself with my shorter hair and get such longing to be back there. But then it’s so nice to have longer hair that I can pull up in a ponytail whenever I don’t feel like styling it. I don’t know what to do!

5 – It has been a crazy week in the NFL. First, Sean Payton gets suspended for a year (losing out on over $7 million dollars, as well!) for the bounty controversy, Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, as well as penalties for other coaches involved. Listen, I follow a host of Saints fans on Twitter so I’m not going to get involved in the mess. I’ll just say that I think this penalty is necessary and needed for change to come for any other bounty schemes happening around the league because it’s a disgusting thing to reward a player for physically injuring another player. That is not football. Also in football this week, Peyton Manning is now a Bronco (WHY, PEYTON, WHY?!?!), and Tim Tebow is now on my most-hated team, the New York Jets. So, sadly, Tebow and I have broken up. (What? You didn’t know we were dating? Funny… neither did he…)

6 – I’m so excited about my weekend! Weekends are always exciting for me, but since I’ve been doing my sugar-free thang for the past five days and Saturday is my cheat day… I am super excited! Saturday will be the first week since the beginning of February that I won’t go to boot camp (I haz a sad) but I will be going to the salon to get my hair color freshened up and my eyebrows waxed. And somehow, my mom and I managed to book the same appointments, just flip-flopped. We didn’t book our appointments together, yet somehow we managed to do just that! The rest of Saturday is up in the air but I smell a trip to the mall with my mom in our future! Sunday, I have tentative plans with a friend to spend the day at Busch Gardens. I haven’t been there in a long time (despite the fact that I have a pass to go for free!) so it should be a fun day. And Sunday night is our #twookclub chat! We’re discussing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close so anyone who has read the book is free to join in. We’ll be discussing it on Twitter at 9:00pm EST!

7 – Speaking of #twookclub, if you haven’t voted for our April book, you have just a few more days to do so! I’m closing the poll at 8:00pm EST and will announce it then. Currently, there are two books tied for first and another one close behind, so get your vote in! Head on over to the Goodreads page, scroll to the bottom, and you’ll see the poll. I can’t wait to announce the winner!

When is your next vacation? Any fun weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures

If you haven’t heard the great news, I’m over on WordPress now! You may need to resubscribe to my feed if my new posts aren’t showing up in your Reader. Go here to subscribe!

A Weekend in Pictures is a new series I’m starting, recapping the little moments of my weekend as found through the pictures I took.

My mom’s mother-of-the-groom dress. For some reason, the picture doesn’t capture how exquisite this dress looks on my mom but trust me, every time she put this dress on, I just sighed with pleasure. We went through a lot to find this dress but it is perfect. A great color on her, the perfect length, and makes her look like royalty. We found it at David’s Bridal.

Baby ducks! We have a plethora of ducks living around my apartment building and every once in a while, a hatching of baby ducks appears! Towards the right of this photo, you see mama duck. She was busy yelling at me as I took this picture. How perfect are they? They were so giddy and cute and excited. I wanted to bring one home!

Saturday night game night. Every other Saturday, my brother comes over to spend time with us. Sometimes, he brings my nephew, sometimes he doesn’t. This week, he came alone so we settled in with pizza, episodes of Last Man Standing and Modern Family, and an epic battle of Monopoly. I declared bankruptcy way too soon, thanks to landing on the income tax space my first four times around the board! Just not fair. Trash-talking ensued, and my brother was declared the victor.

A venture into lipstick. I bought myself lipstick this weekend, since I’ve noticed my lips looking kind of dull after I put on make-up. I went for a nude color because I’m just not crazy enough for anything else just yet. Not too noticeable to anyone other than me, but I like it! Adds a little somethin’-somethin’.

Sunday at the beach. My mom and I spent Sunday afternoon at Clearwater Beach for some sun, sand, and relaxation. It was crowded, but not terribly so. We spent just two hours there, but it was good to get away and lay around in the sun, reading and chatting about life. Have I mentioned how fun it is to hang out with my mom? Because it is. She’s a lot of fun. I’m so glad I have such a rock-solid relationship with her.

All in all, a great weekend. Lots of things marked off my to-do list and lots of relaxation, too. I can’t complain!

This upcoming week should be a fantastic one: I have a lunch date planned with one of my favorite gals, a new series to start in my Bible study, and the return of my after-work runs! (More time to sleep in! Yay!)

Since I can tend to get caught up in the work week and trying to keep my head above water with all the bustling around I tend to do, I think it’s important to set small intentions, or goals, for the week ahead. Nothing major, just a few things to mark off my to-do list:

Call and set up my first appointment with a regular doctor. The last time I saw a doctor for a check-up I was 15. And that was for a sports physical so I’m not really sure that counts!
Call and figure out my school loan debacle. I just found out that my Stafford loans are with two different companies. I had no idea! So while I have taken care of one loan, I have $180 in late fees for the other. Um, whoops? Must call this week and get that sorted out.
Update my resume. I’ve been lightly perusing sites like mediabistro.com for freelancing work and have found some pretty great possibilities. But I need to dust off my resume and update it before I even think about applying. I haven’t even looked at it since July and I imagine it needs some work.

How was your weekend? Do you have any intentions for the upcoming week?