Right now...

• I'm eagerly anticipating the boy's homecoming (EARLY!!!!)
• I'm so over school, can't wait until this semester is over.
• I'm sick of this rain. Either sun or snow - Mother Nature, please choose one.
• I desperately want to scrapbook, yet I really don't want to clean my desk.
• I rekindled my love for shopping yesterday, but promised myself I wouldn't wear anything until I went to get the boy.
  
• I am so happy it's November finally...lots of good things happening this month - getting my boyfriend back, my dog's birthdays, my birthday, thanksgiving, etc.
• School and work are still taking over my life. I can't wait for thanksgiving break, and some bonus time when I go and get the boy.
  

Last week of freedom...

Not that I really want to call it my last week of freedom, but let's be realistic here..that's what it is. I'm gonna finish up all my fatty groceries this week (oodles and noodles, lots of other pasta foods, etc) and starting next week I'm gonna be healthy. I have fitness and food logs I need to print out. I'm going to use those to help me.

I'm going to track what I eat and see just how much I put into my body and how many calories I don't burn.

What sparked this you may ask? Well, I was cleaning my room a bit and found two Walmart gift cards. Each had $10 on it. Now if you know me, I never go to Walmart. It's not that I have anything against it, I'd just rather go to the target that's two minutes from it. This target is kept much cleaner, it's less crowded, and the I know the isles like the back of my hand. So instead of fighting the madness that is my local Walmart (trust me, parking is TERRIBLE as is just getting into and maneuvering through the store) I went online. I had been hearing about this video, 30 day shred with Jillian Michaels for a while now. It was almost like free money (I've had these giftcards since AT LEAST Christmas, maybe even Christmas of 2007) I figured why not. I bought that and another Jillian Michaels one, No More Trouble Zones. I paid less than $5 out of my pocket for those with shipping.

This then sparked a memory of the time I had picked up one of The Hungry Girl books, 200 under 200...or something like that at Barnes and Nobles. I didn't buy it (just for the simple fact that I knew I could find it online cheaper- and I was right). Basically, it's a collection of 200 recipes under 200 calories. I went on Amazon, and then Ebay, and found it a lot cheaper than Barnes and Noble. That's probably going to be my bible for a little bit. Something else that's going to be helpful, the Omron HBF-306C Fat Loss Monitor. On payday, I'm going to buy this baby:

Image from Amazon.com

It'll calculate my fat for me and show me how much fat I'm burning as opposed to me just seeing if the numbers on the scale are dropping. They say muscle weighs more than fat, so I think it'll help keep me motivated if I see the body fat percentage drop even if the numbers on the scale remains the same.

I'm going to take before pictures tonight, because I know I'll look essentially the same come Monday of next week, and I don't know if I'll have time next week.

The plan of attack - Use one of the 800 binders I have just laying around as my weight loss binder. Yes, I'm anal like that. I'm gonna make the cover all pretty probably (gotta throw in a little craftiness you know?) and keep my food diary, fitness diary, maybe a few notes in there, and some favorite low fat/low calorie recipes. That way I'll know where everything is.

Exercise plan - Hopefully, I'll do 30 day Shred every day (it's only 20 minutes) go to the gym Tuesdays and Thursdays and do the treadmill and some weights. And then do No More Trouble Zones Monday Wednesday and Fridays. Sort of confusing I know. I'll probably have to change it up a little so it works for me. But that's what I'm going to start with.

I know this is extremely long, but one more thing before I go. During my search for printable fitness logs and calorie logs, I came across this awesome site, http://sparkpeople.com . I signed up with a fake email address at first, just to get access to the logs, however once I saw all of the stuff they had, I went back right away and signed up with my real email and user name. It has this whole thing that sets you up with a goal (or you can choose to not set one). You can either do how much weight you want to lose by a certain date, or chose a date and see how much weight you should/could lose by then. I chose a date right around when the boys coming home so that I can work my butt off to reach that goal. I've only received one email from them so far, so they apparently aren't all about sending you 900 emails either. I haven't had the time to sit down and completely explore the site, but I have seen some of it. You get to virtually spin a wheel every day that you log in. Most days you'll only see points on the wheel, but some days there will be little prizes like a water bottle or a t-shirt. I have no idea what the accumulation of points does... I think it shows up as different trophies? I'm probably wrong though.

They also have message boards and groups to join. I'm in the dog lovers group, one of the 20 something groups, and a few others. I haven't posted to the message board or any of the groups yet. One thing that I didn't like, but was able to easily (really easily) rectify was that the default setting for the message boards is that the newest posting was on top. I looked around for just a minute and found the little link/setting thing to change that. There's lots of healthy recipes on there as well as other little helpful odds and ends. I'm very excited to start really using the site and seeing what else it has to offer. I guess I better enjoy eating whatever I want and how much I want while I can!

Next post I'll share my goals!

Halfway!

Finally, there is some good news coming from this deployment. We have officially hit the halfway mark! With this comes a big sigh of relief. We can say now that we've finished more days than we have left. That just feels so good to say. There's also rumours (I know I shouldn't listen to them, but they're coming straight from the boy) that he may be coming home early. That would be amazing. I just can't wait for him to be home! With jumping to the other side of the halfway mark, comes the beginning of planning. Wow. How I have waited to be able to do that. I need to start getting things in order. Kicking even more butt at the gym, getting my room together, going to the dermatologist, going to another doctor...you know, getting a lot of the little things done before I get too busy and can't. Then within the month before he comes home (probably October) comes the big planning. Taking off of work, booking the hotel, going shopping for a homecoming outfit. I can't wait until September (when I can say I can start to do all of that "next month"). I'm so glad August only has 9 days left until it's over.

I agree when everyone says summer went by pretty fast. However, they're usually saying that as if it's a negative thing. I, on the other hand, am very thankful it has flown by. Most times I'm just amazed that it's Friday and the weekend is here and the week is already over. I still have some days though that feel like weeks in themselves, and weeks that feel like months.

I start school in a little over a week (on the 31st) and I'm hoping that makes things to by even faster. I am so happy to be able to say that he should be home before I'm finished this semester.

Speaking of school, I'm hoping this semester will be relatively easy. Although I say that now, so we'll see. I think my biggest challenge will be Biology. I have that Monday and Wednesday, from 5:45-7:10pm. However, on Wednesdays, I have it's lab counterpart from 7:20 until 10:15 at night. That's going to be a long day. On top of going to school full time (although some of my classes are partly online) I'm working full time, from 7:30am until 4:30pm. So Wednesdays are going to kill me. I'll essentially be running around from 6:30am until 10:45pm. I haven't even figured out how I'm going to eat dinner those days. Hopefully I'll have a lenient teacher and she'll allow us a little snack if we so desire.

Phew, this is already long.

In crafty news, I'm SO close to being done this extremely long unmounting process. I have two stampin up stamp sets left to do. One is pretty simple, the other...not so much. It's the kind that have two stamps mounted on each block, and it's all short little words. I have all my non stampin up stamps unmounted already. My desk is even cleaned off, so I was able to make two 3x3 cards. They're not my best work, I'm a little rusty, but they'll do for now.

I've suffered from this horrible bout of insomnia recently. I finally slept really well last night (and further into the day than I would have liked) but when I did wake up, it was with a cold. I'll definitely be needing to hook up my humidifier tonight. I'm off to try and nurse myself back to health before Monday. Have a good weekend!

Busy bee

I am so exhausted. I thought summer meant more free time, less work, etc? Not the case for me apparently. There's more drama at work than ever, which already leaves me exhausted when I come home. Then, I go to the gym and work with my overly energetic puppies. By the time my head hits the pillow, I haven't had any time to just relax so I'm still all wound up with a million thoughts racing around in my head. Thus, I can't fall asleep for at least an hour or two, which makes waking up in the morning pretty difficult and so the cycle continues. I need to get more sleep. I need to eat better. I need to change something.

But enough of that. In craft related news, I haven't done anything. I haven't finished unmounting and ezmounting my stamps. I've looked at craft related blogs, and I've been so inspired to create, yet find myself with no extra time in the day. So I've convinced myself that tonight, after dinner, I will go up and I will clear off my desk and at least make more of a dent in it, if not, get it done. I need some type of release!

Well I'm off to eat dinner!

What I've been up to...

I know it seems like I've been slacking in posting..and to be honest, I have. However, I've probably looked at my blog at least everyday and for various reasons, I just didn't post.

Since the last time I posted, I've been finishing up my summer class (which I got an A in by the way), continuing to count down the days till the boy will be home, and beginning the task of unmounting, retrimming, and ez mount-ing my rubber stamps. Can I just say how much I love my hot knife?? I've been using the EZ Mount Stamp n' Store system. It looks like this:

I bought everything seperately (the stamp n' store panels, the ez mount, and I had a binder at home already) I've used less than two full ez mount sheets and have finished about half my stampin up rubber stamp collection. I have various other rubber stamps that I need to unmount as well. I finally gave into the unmounting craze based on the simple fact that I was running out of room. I will more than likely be able to store AT LEAST twice the amount of rubber stamps as I was before, and in one binder as opposed to a billion plastic cases stacked on top of eachother.

More than likely, I will be selling the stamping up clam shell cases that I have (I have all sizes), and the wood blocks since I can't figure out what to do with them (again I have all sizes). So if you or someone you know is interested, let me know!

Once I get them all unmounted and onto the stamp n store panels, my next step will be indexing them. This is probably going to be the biggest task. I'm trying to decide which is the best way to do it for me. Do I want to do it by stamp sets (with the sentiments spread out, or in some cases together with their set)? Do I want to do it by topic/theme (with all sentiments in one spot, or with what they go with)? I'm going to have to look on some of the message boards to figure this one out.

I don't know when I'll get this all done, as I'm going to at least one (possibly two) cook outs today, going grocery shopping as well as doing massive amounts of laundry and cleaning tomorrow. Although, it's going to seem like a whole different world now that I can actually enjoy summer break and just work instead of working and going to school.

I am doing something good though next week. Starting Monday, I'm joining the local gym. My friend is already a member, and I'm going to try a spin class (it burns 500-600 calories in an hour...I'm probably not going to be able to move the next day) on Monday and if I like it and the gym, then I'll join. It's not too expensive and it includes all the classes I want to take. Jen (my friend I was talking about) does kick boxing and she tried the spinning class the other day. I'm going to see what else the offer. I really wish they offered Zumba (it's essentially aerobic exercize/dancing to good music. Hopefully they'll offer it soon enough, as it seems to be the latest craze.

Well, I think this is long enough. I'm off to shower and get out of my pajamas!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Frustration.

I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated with the fact that it's raining outside. I'm frustrated with people at work who are just ridiculous. I'm frustrated with the fact that I could really use a hug and some cuddle time, but my boyfriend is on a ship a million miles away. I'm frustrated with the fact that I really need to organize my room and craft space, but have no real motivation to do so. The TV keeps turning itself off, driving me crazy. I want to just lay here and relax, watch a movie, be completely lazy...instead I can't watch TV and there is only so much I can do on the computer. I am just in no mood to get up and begin a task that will take who knows how long to complete.

Anywayyyyyyyyy.... I ended up spending two hours at the vet last night. And I came out with a $487 bill. The worst part was that it was a routine visit. No emergency what-so-ever. Both of the dogs needed three shots and a general exam. However, being that it's spring (a fresh start, so to speak) and will soon be summer, I thought it prudent to get some blood work done on them so I would be 100% certain they had no issues and no heartworms. There goes another $50 a dog. With the results for both comepletely negative, it was time to get medicine to prevent them ever having lymes disease, fleas, heartworm, etc. There goes another $100 (thankfully this was enough for both)...and there goes almost $500. Not to mention that they had 12 emergencies that day and were wayyyyyyyy behind with appointments. We waited an hour before my dogs were seen. Usually we're in and out pretty quickly, so we were patient unlike others in the waiting room. Oh well. Next year, they'll just need the exam, meds, and 2 less expensive shots. My bill will be at least $200 cheaper. Thankfully.

In happier news, Jan is giving away some great blog candy. I would love to have that machine!

I'm off to surf some blogs, and hopefully gain some motivation to get up and organize!

Organized.

Organized. It's another one of my goals to complete before the boy comes home. I will get organized and I will keep it that way. It seems like I never have enough time to get everything put together and organized the way I want.

I want free time where I have nothing to do as well, but that doesn't happen anymore either. Hopefully it will when I'm done with school for this summer semester/session. Only a little under three weeks left and I'll be finished.

Today I've been taking care of my dogs (they're long haired- a Shih-tzu mix) and I've shaved one down. Now I'm doing some laundry before shaving the other down and then giving them both a bath. They've got a vet appointment tomorrow evening that they need to look good for. Not that they were a mess before, but a bath and fresh haircut always helps.

Just for my own purpose and need to plan, let's make a to do list just for today.
1) Finish shaving Puddles (fix up a few spots and trim around his head)
2) Shave Tucker completely
3) Give both dogs a bath
4) Finish laundry and putting away clothes
5) Write up oral presentation/powerpoint for class

And my things to do in general, sometime soon:
1) Put all die cut stuff in baskets
2) Go through all VHS tapes and get rid of most, if not all of them
3) Finish organizing bookshelf
4) Organize put away all craft/scrapbook stuff that's still sitting in bags (sad, I know)
5) Get the boys carepackage put together and mailed out no later than Wednesday.

As I type the little button that's usally under the U key just fell off (my U key itself has been off for a while..it was too much hassle to keep putting it back on just to have it fall off again 5 minutes later so I just left it off) so I think that's my sign that it's time to go.

But before I do, can I just say how happy I am to FINALLY be able to say that we are officially ONE MONTH DOWN with this deployment? Woo hoo!