There’s a new post waiting over there… I hope to see you there!

Details to come!

My legs are like lead right now… and I didn’t even do cardio yesterday! Well, except a low intensity incline walk on the dreadmill.  It was forced.

This week has flown by! We are leaving for vacation on Saturday (YEE HAW!), so I figured the week would drag ass… I guess when you are busting your ass on the Arc Trainer (I’ve been making it my bitch! ), working on the deck (well, Seth has been doing most of the work… like 99% of it), and stuffing face with dinners out and washing them down with booze (yeah, my pre-vacay diet has gone to the crapper… but it’s been fun!!), the time just flies right by! (Seriously, who decides to eat a ginormous 1,000 calorie Homewrecker from Moe’s just a couple nights before leaving to don a bikini for a week? – but we had a coooouuuupon. I won’t even mention the free chips and salsa.)

I am in desperate need of a vacation. I need to rest and recharge. It’s been a stressful and eventful year… and it will be almost one year (off by a couple weeks) since my nephrectomy! AND, when we get back, I will be allowed to hit the weights again.  I have missed the gym almost HALF of the past 12 months.  It’s been strange. I will have to relearn my body, but I am definitely ready and willing! I feel like this vacation is the end of a chapter… and when I return, I will be able to start the next one with a bang! I am determined to make the end of 2011 the bomb dot com. Yeah, I said the bomb dot com. So what?

Now I have a few to-dos to take care of before my trip. I started on the packing list this morning. Please tell me that I am not the only one who likes to doodle their lists? Of course, I probably won’t do this for my toiletries and other items, but sketching out my clothes helps! It made me realize that I needed to add a few things, and I can omit others.

Six swimsuits?! Yeah… I don’t like putting on wet and cold swimwear. No thank ya!

What are some things you do to prepare for a trip?

Seth and his dad tried to pressure wash the back deck… with no success. The pressure washer was broken.

Zoey wanted to join them out back! She loves her papaw.  Like REALLY REALLY loves him. It’s hilarious.

She seriously sat looking out the patio door the entire time. Poor baby.  What a rough life.

Since the pressure washer was broken, the guys went to Wal-Mart to purchase a new one. Lucky for me, Seth stopped at Subway on the way home so that I wouldn’t have to cook.  I had a Buy One Get One Free Foot Long coupon to use! WOO HOO!

Subway Club on honey oat with ALL of the veggies and EXTRA light mayo. I am a sucker for mayo. So healthy, I know.   I owned that sandwich.

I eat like a man.

I even had dessert. Seth’s mom made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

I could not resist. I ate the cupcake first, then the frosting. It was the only logical thing to do.

I’m usually pretty good around peanut butter. It doesn’t tempt me too much, but after eating the sweet fudge-like frosting, I knew it was time to open something that had been sitting in my pantry unscathed for weeks.

Naturally Nutty Butter Toffee Peanut Butter.

This, my friends, could become an issue.  YUM!

Once I finished stuffing face, we took the party out back and enjoyed a few cold ones.

Not my favorite beer by any means, but sitting outside when the evening is starting to cool down a bit with a cold beer in my hand makes me happy. So I drank three. You know… to be more happy… or something.

We also got to watch squirrels build a nest in the back yard!

Not the greatest pic, I had to mega-zoom, but you get the idea!

… Sheesh. I really do  eat like a man. Maybe I should have titled this post “What didn’t I eat Wednesday?”

Sure. She may look innocent enough.

Those big blue eyes.

Her screeching attention-seeking meow.

Well, the bitch done broke my camera.

Yeah… take one more glance at that cute face.  Do you see a resemblance to anyone?

That ‘stache on that kitty can’t be just a coincidence.

I ordered new batteries for my old camera a few minutes ago, so hopefully I will be a pic-snapping, blog-writing fool soon enough. (Or at the very least I will have a camera for vacay.)

Happy hump day, friends!

Oh, and remember those goals I set? One of the heftier goals was to drop a lofty ten pounds.  Well, I dropped SIX from Sunday morning to Thursday morning. Dang. I guess I was more bloated (and less fat!) than I realized. Four more to go… over two weeks to do it, AND now I have aerobic activity added to my arsenal. CAKE! 15 days until vacation! EEP!

Unfortunately, I am not doing too hot on my other goals. I am being creative and have been designing and brainstorming ideas to sew, but I haven’t actually fired up the machine.  And the recipe thing? Yeah. My most exciting “recipe” right now is adding parmesan to spaghetti squash after I heat it up… OR nuking some protein powder and calling it a brownie.  I need to get to work on that.

I’m ready for the weekend to start! We might have a yard sale in the morning (if we can get our stuff in order tonight!)… and we will probably watch Harry Potty (<—typo that is too funny to fix!) at some point this weekend. And maybe I can get my ass in gear and sew the dress I sketched out on my iPad the other day…. maybe.

What are your weekend plans? Anything exciting?

Is anyone else watching Harry Potter?

I woke up Sunday. Hopped on the scale. The reading was uneventful. 128.6.  I have been holding steady around that weight for the past 2 weeks.  How that weight looks so squishy on someone my height, I may never know.  I must have the most hollow bones in the history of bones. Yep. I must.  I threw on the only bikini that sort of fits, grabbed my newspaper, headed out on the deck, set the camera timer…

*snap* (front pic)

*snap* (side pic)

*snap* (rear pic)

*snap* (side pic)

I quickly review them on the teeny tiny screen.

FML. Eff! Oops. It’s gone too far this time.  <— That was my thought process.

The night before I received a bulk email from Bodybuilding.com advertising their most current challenge.  That’s why I brought my doughy ass out there with a newspaper.  You know… just in case I wanted to join the challenge… even though I didn’t finish the last one. I have a hefty ten pound weight loss goal with July 30 as the D Day, so I planned on taking pics anyways.  I’m giving myself this evening to figure out if I am actually ballsy enough to post those pics on my BodySpace profile, which is a requirement for the challenge. Ugh.

What do you all think? Bite the bullet and join the challenge?

I’m self-motivated at the moment and don’t need a challenge. The pics scared me right into a diet of egg whites, chicken, and tilapia.  So what if I am not allowed to train yet.  I can diet.

Does she need an explanation? I didn’t think so.  Ignore the mess. This is an old pic.  She helped me clean out my closet… and in the process, I thought putting one of my shirts on her would be a brilliant idea. She loved it, too.

Zoey is doing well… great, actually! We brought her home during lunch.  She is such a happy and resilient pup.

Sushi.  Last night Seth and I had an impromptu date night. Since we didn’t have the pup, we thought it would be the perfect time to go out.

Sugar-free white chocolate almond bark.  After dinner, we hit the mall… One of our favorites is the candy shop! Yummies!

Shopping!  Even better… Killer deals!  Yep. We stopped at Old Navy while at the mall.  I got  a cardigan, two rompers, a henley tank and a t-shirt dress for $14.95 out of pocket. BOO-YAH!  I gave Seth my $10 rewards card, and he picked out three pairs of flip-flops (who does that?) and a $0.97 long sleeve collared shirt.  His total came to $10 even, so the rewards card took care of it. Pretty sweet.

I admit, I have been shopping a bit too much lately. I need to slow my roll. Mmmmm. Rolls.

My lunch.  Don’t judge.

What are you loving right now?

On to more important matters…  My baby Zoey was spayed this morning.  I am so sad for her, and I hope she isn’t in too much pain or discomfort.  Last night we took up her food at 6:00 p.m.  She cried because she was hungry.   This morning she was sad looking for her food, too. 

Seth called me before lunch to update me on her status.  She is such a happy excitable puppy! When he took her to the vet, she was stoked! Her tail was wagging so hard that her whole body was wagging. She does that any time there are new animals to play with, and even more when there are new people to play with!  She had no idea what was coming!  So please send happy healing thoughts her way!  They are keeping her overnight.

I will miss my little buddy hogging up the chaise this evening.

Although, I think Miss Kitty will enjoy some time away. She does not approve.

… not sure why all my puppy pics are so grainy! Oh well!

Happy hump day!

With a new month comes new goals. I have been SERIOUSLY SLACKING in the goal department. I’m sure you have noticed that I have been slacking in the blog department, too… Hmmm. Maybe I’m slacking in a lot of departments.  I haven’t been slacking in the puppy lovin’ department. My little monster gets almost all of my attention when I am not in the office.

Warning:  This is a complete brainstorming post.  It may not flow. It may have MANY grammatical errors. Consider yourself forewarned.

Let’s break things down into sections to make things easier…

June 2011 Goals

Blog:

1. Blog at least THREE times a week.
2. Incorporate at least ONE new recipe each week.  My food has been lazy and unexciting lately. I need to bring more pleasure to my plate and palate!

Is there anything you would like to see on the blog? Please let me know. I am always short for content.

Health/Fitness:

1. Drop 10 pounds.  I would REALLY like to drop ten pounds before vacation.  Yes, ten may seem like a lot, but I am holding on to a lot of bloat and swelling.  I am including that in the weight to drop.  I would be content with anywhere around a seven pound drop. Ten would make me ecstatic!  I’m also not cleared to get my heart rate raised for a couple weeks, so this is an extra challenging challenge.
2. Eat 2+ servings of vegetables daily.  I know that doesn’t sound like much, but veggies have not sounded appealing lately. I will force feed them to myself.

Financial: 

1. Save $300 extra cash for vacation.  I have $100 set aside, so I have to save an additional $200 of pocket money for vacation. It is an all-inclusive trip, but I would just feel better having that much cash on my person. It would be great if we didn’t dip into checking while there, too.
2. Cash only.  It is so much easier to be fiscally responsible when we have a set amount of cash to spend.

Create:

1. Stone purple suit.  I have been putting this off for freaking forever.
2. Sew two pieces.  I really want to learn to sew. I need to just do it.

So, there you have it. I haven’t been setting goals, and these seem attainable enough.

What are your goals for the month?