The Day in Review - January 6, 2014

After last night, I'm thinking that showering right before bed isn't such a bad idea.  Of course, I'm getting to bed later tonight so no time for that pre-bed shower - but I slept well enough last night to consider making it part of my routine.  The wind right now is crazy.  It feels like the house is in a fighting match and it's losing the wind is beating against it so strongly.  The weather is going to get bitter, bitter, bitter tomorrow.  The low tonight is lower than I remember seeing a temperature drop in a long time.  I'm glad I don't have to go out in it and say to everyone that does to bundle up.  I don't want to see any frostbitten body parts.  

I was supposed to drive to North Jersey today, but after discussing my visit with the site, it was decided that it would be better to reschedule.  I got a lot of work accomplished this morning, but didn't adhere to my schedule at all.  In fact, all of the goals I set for the year went out the window today.  Sometimes I'm so on target and then other days, I'm so far off I'm not sure I remember where the target is.  I don't know what makes one day so much different from the rest.  I suppose one day I'll figure it out.  

We had our first electrician come out today to give estimates on the work we want done in the garage.  He's going to email us his quote.  We had another one scheduled to come out at 6AM tomorrow, but Stew rescheduled because of the weather.  He admits that he's being a weenie about it, but hey, I think this cold even is getting to him - I mean, he's talking about wearing gloves tomorrow.  Who is this man?

Polar Vortex - nothing about that sounds good to me.

More exciting stuff happened tonight, too.  Stew got home and went to move our cars - his car wouldn't start which just pisses me off considering we had his battery replaced not too long ago.  We tried to jump it with both the battery pack his parents got us for Christmas a few years ago and with my car, neither worked.  He called AAA and they were out within an hour and a half or so - they jumped it, started right up.  Hopefully, it will start in the morning.  Fingers crossed.  

Another night of bad food for dinner.  Like I said, when I'm feeling motivated, I'm all in, when I'm not, I'm an unmovable stone.  What gives?

We watched the season premier of Downton Abbey.  Still liking this show a lot - wasn't expecting it to be two hours.  I won't describe any of it in case it's on someone's DVR, but I like the way the story line is developing.  Maggie Smith's character is the best part of the show if you ask me.  She's how I envision I'll be in old age.

Then as we were turning that off and preparing to head to bed, we noticed that curling was on.  I don't understand anything about this sport, but it's damn addicting.  The US beat the Czech Republic.  It was the eighth end that did it.  They scored five points in that one end and had the hammer in the tenth.  

Leaving the eighth up 7-3 with the hammer going into the tenth, time to play defense.  It's pretty exciting.  Stew couldn't believe that they have replay and from multiple angles, too.  LOL.  It is a real sport afterall.  I'm getting excited for the winter olympics.

Now, it's off to bed for me.  Hopefully, I'll sleep even better tonight.

The Day in Review, January 5, 2013

Today consisted of work, Dexter, and icy roads that killed my plans.

I woke up this morning around 7:30 - still not a great night of sleep, but somewhat better.  I wanted to get up at 5, but the alarm on my phone isn't working for some reason.  I'm sure I messed up a setting somewhere.  I'll have to look into that, but I started my day much later than I wanted to and read a weather report that wasn't at all friendly to my plans.  Tonight was supposed to be my first meet up with the book club that I joined.  I've even read the book.  Unfortunately, getting out of our cul-de-sac is a bit treacherous and I didn't want to chance it, so I changed my RSVP to no.  The gang is going out for trivia night on Thursday and I may go out and meet them then.  I have a three day business trip this week to Northern Jersey, so we'll see how I'm feeling after I'm back from that.

I started my day in my office working on my paperwork that I've put off forever.  Gotta love my procrastinating self.  I did that until about 2:30 and during that time Stew made French Toast for breakfast from the fresh bread I made yesterday.  It was very good and the last time I'm going to see a carb laden breakfast for awhile.  I enjoyed every bite.  Tomorrow it's new weigh ins, new measurements and the start of our get fit year.  No screwing around with this anymore - we're both determined to do it and the fact that it's both of us will help.  Let's not mention that tonight we ordered Pat's for dinner.  I really wanted chicken tenders - I'm on a kick lately - but I also had a salad.  Stew got mozzarella sticks and meatballs, two different dishes.

I did some laundry today.  We watched the episode of Bones that was missing from our DVR and we ended our night with a Dexter marathon.  It's the last season.  The bitch is back, Deb's a whiny pain in the ass and Dexter isn't killing enough people for me.  Also, not enough Masuka - he is the comic relief after all.  Stew did enjoy his comment about a breasteraunt.

Half productive, half lazy day.  Now I'm going to take a shower per the insomnia beating guidelines and hopefully get a good night's sleep to start the work week.  Rest time is over and work will be back with a vengeance tomorrow.  I hope I'm ready.

The Day In Review, January 4, 2014

It's been nine months since I posted anything here.  I thought maybe with the New Year, it might be time to get back on track.  I know, I know, today's the fourth, but I did journal on paper for the last three days and I will get caught up.  Unfortunately, I'm doing my first entry on a day that wasn't that exciting.

It was another bad night of sleep.  Went to bed right around 9 (I was in bed around 8, lights out at 9).  Woke up at 1:30 after getting up off and on during that time.  Decided to head out to the living room so maybe one of us would have some chance of sleeping.  I read for awhile and then around 3:30 went back to sleep and woke up around 7:30.  I'm over this messed up sleep schedule now.  Just completely over it.  I read some articles this morning about it.  One said to make sure that you're sticking to a schedule, no eating within 2 hours of bed time, no caffeine after dark (not a problem), and no compensating - mean no naps, sleeping in, or going to bed early.  Well, boohoo.  So most of today, I've been struggling to keep my eyes open and Stew has been a tyrant about not allowing me to go to sleep.  He's such a meanie sometimes.

When I got up this morning, my plan was to clean the house.  You know, we were expecting company so I needed to get my Merry Maid on and get this disaster I call a house cleaned up.  Then I gave up on that thinking altogether when I looked around my house and decided that it wasn't so much a disaster as it was lived in.  Stew's shoes were on the landing - the horror.  We had mail sitting on the living room table - such devastation.  It's things like that that I look at and think, ahhhh, the house is horrible and Stew just shakes his head at me and is like, "whatever you say."  The fact of the matter is, the bathrooms are clean - no rings in the toilet, no gunk build up in the sink - the kitchen is spotless if you don't look at the floor - so there's some dirt down there.  Don't worry, I don't wipe my hand across it before making your food.  In fact, I wash my hands so often when I cook that my hands are dry and cracked almost all of the time.  So, I just let it go.  Believe me, this is a big step for me and honestly, but I thought, hell, it's just Matt.  I ain't cleaning for him.

So in the middle of my zen moment of letting go, Stew got up and I proceeded to make him clean out the laundry room with me after we cleaned out the kitchen cabinet down in the family room last night.  I'm kind of on this organization kick.  I want it all cleaned up.  Everything has a place, everything in its place.  So, we spent an hour or two moving a stand up freezer, going through games, sorting cleaning supplies and the like.  I have so much more room in my laundry room now.  It's like an oasis - okay, okay, even I can't pull that crap (sorry GEP, I know, it's a bad word) off.  It's no where near an oasis, it has exposed dry wall and a concrete floor.  It's on the list of things to remodel, but it is now spacious and that makes me happy.  Good enough for the day.  Side note, I still didn't get a damn bit of laundry done today, but I digress.

Come to find out, the universe was sending me some message about not spic and span cleaning the house.  Matt had to cancel.  Unfortunately, a pipe burst in his house.  Understandably, he had to stay home and take care of that.

About this time, I decided that since it was the last day of the storage sales event at Micheals, that Stew and I should go and buy me my storage cubes.  That was a complete no go.  This man actually said to me, "it's cold out there."  Ummm, hello, who are you and what have you done with my husband.  If that alone doesn't freak you out, let me inform you that this same man had two blankets - count them: 1, 2, blankets on this morning when I went back in the bedroom.  He said it was glorious sleeping in our bedroom but it was cold.  You have to understand that we keep our thermostat at 65.  Yes, you read that right and none of the heating vents in our room are open.  It was single digits this morning.  You could see your breath in my bedroom - well, you couldn't, because you're not invited in my bedroom, but we could see our breath.  Yeah, I'll say, it's cold.

So, I showered, tried to take a nap - DENIED - and off to Michael's I went.  I got my storage cubes, rubber cement for Stew so he can put my F18 fighter jet model together, and heavy duty fabric scissors - also for Stew so that he can make my other blanket with the monkeys on it.  The storage cubes will just sit for a time now because that room needs to be emptied, painted, carpet removed, a decision made on the floor, and then put back together.  This is going to hurt, LIKE A LOT.  I'm looking forward to the end product, but not the process.  Not even one little bit.  I got a bit of a reprieve because we decided to focus on Stew's garage first.  Need to get some electric mumbo jumbo done before he can start setting it up.  Don't ask me what.  I am deaf and dumb when it comes to mechanical stuff.

The rest of the day, I read, talked to Stew, and cooked.  Made a beef stew in the crockpot.  Holy cow was it good.  Go over and see the photo of the day to get a look at it and the recipe and I promise you should make it.  It's delicious.  The only thing I'm going to do differently next time is to have my own beef stock on hand.  I don't want to use stocks out of boxes anymore.  I'd like to have my own as one of my goals this year is to eat less processed food.  For this I will be using my own definition of processed - so no need to tell me in February when I eat something that it's processed.  There's a list in my head.  This is what I'm going with.  That's good enough for me.

I also made bread in the bread maker.  Combined, dinner was fantastic.

Other than that, nothing much going on in these parts.  The side roads here are still a little dicey.  I can't believe the Colts pulled out that victory and I hope Stew's team kicks the Saints' butts tonight.  I'll be in bed long before it's over and will report on that tomorrow.

That's it for tonight.  Be well!

Journal: February 17, 2013

I got up around 7:30 this morning after sleeping like the dead last night.  It's funny because even after sleeping that long, I'm still tired.  I know that when I don't eat right, I feel bad, but sometimes that's not enough to stop me.  We need to get back on the wagon.

Stew got up around 9:30, very early for him.  He's feeling pretty achy today.  He switched from Dayquil to Mucinex and Tylenol.  I hope he feels better soon.  I don't like seeing him not be himself.

After he got up, I made him breakfast.  We had french toast.  I only had 2 slices which is some kind of miracle for me.  I made sure I had my yogurt with protein powder, too - so that my breakfast wasn't too, too bad.

I'm working on getting caught up on LOAD.  I think that the prompt on Monday, along with feeling really tired from the weekend in Kansas and the lack of sleep just threw me for a loop this week, but I'm determined to do every prompt this month.  The prompt that's giving me the most trouble is to scrap about a lesson learned in adulthood.  I'm not sure what the hell to scrap about.  In fact this prompt is giving me so much trouble that I completely forgot about it.  When I was uploading the layouts I did complete this weekend, I mislabeled day 12 as day 11.  Just totally blanked that day 11 hadn't been completed yet.  Sigh.  So tomorrow morning, I'll be three layouts behind, including tomorrow's prompt.  Thankfully, I don't think I'm traveling this week so I think I'll get it done.

Stew spent the day resting and watching tv.  He's watching Starship Troopers or Battle Star gallactica or something sci-fi like that.  I'm not sure which.  Something, I'm definitely not interested in, that's for sure.  He said that in this show there are only 50,000 humans left.  Of course, my question had to be how in the hell are they going to re-populate this new world they're looking for.  He said, "well, there are 50,000 of them."  Yeah, true, I suppose.  I hope some of them are good looking.

I spent the day in the craft room.  I rebelled today and didn't go to the store like I should have.  Will have to do that tomorrow.  No more dish detergent and no more laundry detergent.  Damn, that means I can't do laundry, shucks!  Have to get it done though.  I leave for Calgary in a week and want the house, the laundry and my blog up to date by then.  Wishful thinking probably, but hey, it's good to have goals.

Stew and I watched the race from last night.  Man, if that's how Daytona's going to be - that's going to be a snore fest.  I didn't think that the racing was any better with the new car, or at least not in my limited view.  Maybe when there's more than 12 cars on the track it will be more interesting.  Kasey didn't wreck - that's good news.  Tony was a bone head and caused the wreck that took out most of the field - I hope this isn't foreshadowing what's to come next weekend.

We also watched some more episodes of White Collar - still loving this show.  Very different from the other crime shows we watch, but it's funny, so we like it.

I made tacos for dinner tonight.  Stew said the filling was more spicy than usual - hmmm, I didn't do anything differently, maybe it was the spice mix?  And we didn't have any sour cream.  I'm not sure how I forgot that at the store - but I did.  That makes a world of difference in how those tacos taste.  I won't forget again, though it was probably better for us that it wasn't there!

And with that, the day is in the books.  Not a very exciting weekend around here, but with Stew sick - there's not much we can do.  Hopefully, he's feeling better soon and we can go do some stuff.

Off to bed now.  Back to work in the AM - all you who are off tomorrow, grrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Like Stew!  He's off tomorrow, too - good for ya'll.  I'll be slaving it at work - which is laughable if you consider what a day of working from my home office looks like.

Laters....

Journal: February 15, 2013

Well, today was a day....that's really all there is to say about it.

I'm up way into Saturday and I'm praying for a blizzard but by the looks of things outside, doesn't appear that that is going to happen.  I'm pouting, damn it.

Stew woke up this morning for work after having a bad night sleeping.  He had such a bad night, I finished up my night on the couch.  He wasn't feeling well so he decided to stay home today and rest.  He slept until almost 1.

After work, I headed out to the grocery store to pick up some food for us to eat and lots of liquidy stuff for him so that he can combat whatever he has going on.  Lots and lots of gatorade.

When I was putting the groceries in the trunk of Stew's car, I found the second part of my Valentine's Day gift.  I've been wanting one of these for years.  We do a lot of entertaining at our house and I thought this would be perfect for keeping things warm throughout the gatherings.  Stew and I saw one of these while we were in Kansas and he gave me one for Valentine's Day.  He also bought me a real knife protection sleeve (kind of sounds like a condom, doesn't it?  LOL) for my fancy dancy knife he bought me for Christmas.  Still need to sign up for that knife skills class.  Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

We had pizzas for lunch/dinner.  It amazes me how different the pizzas we eat are - there's no such thing for me as too much sauce.  On Stew's pizza you can barely see the sauce let alone taste it.  We don't eat pizza often and by that I mean, we together don't eat pizza often.  I eat pizza a lot, it has to be one of my favorite foods, but normally when I order it, Stew gets something else.  Since we couldn't eat meat today, pizza was an easy choice.  It was yummy.

I finished the scrap room re-organization (probably will be more on this on the craft blog sometime this weekend).  Loving it much better this way.  Everything is so accessible and I hooked up my Wacom tablet - looking forward to playing with that this weekend.

We watched some tv.  Top Chef didn't record...AGAIN.  I'm not loving the new season of Project Runway - I hate the whole team concept thing.  Blue Bloods - still loving it.  Finally catching up with this season of Bones.  I really love the country bumpkin squint.  I wish they would have him on every show.  I mean how can you not love a character who comes out with lines like, "it's as smooth as a frog's fart."  That's genius, right there.  They just better get rid of this new agent chick that was partnered with Sweets - Not loving her. Still loving Elementary.  Loving Jonny Lee Miller but I still can't believe that dude was married to Angelina.  Just had to grab a picture of this look...

Awwwww....Sherlock sad.


I played in the scrap room, Stew watched some tv and then he went to bed and I'm still up at quarter till 3.  Hmmmm.  That's no good.  I think I'll head to bed now and see if I can get some sleep.  *fingers crossed*

Bad news of the day - Stew's cold means that we won't be heading to Jersey tomorrow for little Ms. CEH's birthday.  How can that child be almost 1?  The time just slips away.  We will have to celebrate with her later.

Steve went to the Salisbury Zoo today - sent me a picture of a Bald Eagle - gotta love when my guys think of me...especially when one that's full on into his bratty 20s stage.  Loved the picture, love the kid.

And a final picture for the night.  After I gave Stew his Valentine's day present - he just had to have Stitch play with it.  Look at Stitch - he's eating some part of the world.

Night, ya'll.

Journal: February 5, 2013

(Typed February 7, 2013)

All the time I tell myself I'm going to keep up with this and all the time, I don't.  The whole night time routine thing is definitely not working out.  I don't know what it is.  We've got our morning routine down, but going to bed when we're supposed to and doing the things before bed that we want to get done - yeah, that's not happening.  Guess we'll give it a go again tomorrow.

Eating hasn't been going as well this week as last.  Tonight for dinner I had nutella on an English muffin with bananas.  Now, probably not as bad for me as say, that doughnut from 7-11 that I really wanted, but still, not exactly what I should be having for dinner.  And there's perfectly good pot roast that I made on Sunday in the fridge waiting to be warmed up.  I just really want a doughnut.  After the english muffin, I had pretzels with nutella.  We're not buying anymore of that stuff until SMP and EAP come to visit again - it's a dangerous thing to have in the house.

Work is still going well.  Though someone, and I'm not naming any names, is sometimes a complete idiot when it comes to all things computer.  They've recently changed how we access our VPN.  They now use a number generator that issues you a passcode and it refreshes every I don't know how long.  Well, I entered that, and it told me to enter token code (of course I didn't read the whole thing), so I entered the passcode again.  Over and over and over.  Until finally one of our IT guys realized what I was doing and said, you have to get a token code when this happens.  So much for all those lessons I got from Sister Mary in the second grade about reading.  Darn it.

So, that's the exciting life of today.  I'm still going strong with LOAD.  Really hope I can finish this time.

Completely bailed on the picture of the day thing today.  Just nothing happened that was all that picture worthy.  Maybe tomorrow.

I copied this from my sister-in-law Kelly's facebook page.  Her older daughter, GDH, had some interesting words to share about her younger sister.

GDH: "When are you retuning CEH back to her mommy and daddy?" 
Kelly:"who is her mommy and daddy?" 
GDH: "I think it's Aunt Gina and Uncle Stew... they can come take her back any time."

As Mike put it, don't tempt me little one, don't tempt me.

Man if SMP and GDH ever got together they could totally share war stories about having a younger sibling.  Next time I see MTP, I'm going to have to ask her how she feels about her younger brother. 

Journal: February 4, 2013

Let me start by saying Congratulations to the Ravens.  I'm glad that Ray is going out on that high.  I think with all the work he's put in with that team, he deserves it.  He is THE original Raven afterall.  Let me also say thank you to the Ravens - due to their win over the 49ers, the Steelers remain the only NFL team with 6 rings.  (thank you James Harrison for pointing that out)

Now that that's over, can I please ask what the hell that half time show was all about?  The light show was cool, but my God, a few years ago we were all up in arms about a boob and this year we have an almost nude Beyonce gyrating around the stage like I don't know what.  Please bring back the arena rock Gods.  PLEASE.  I beg of you.

Best commercial I saw during the Superbowl was the one by Dodge about the farmers.  Really touching.  Though I will say, I missed the Tide commercial with the Joe Montana stain and I heard that one was good.  I can't believe some of the commercials that are aired - you're spending so much damn money to get air time during that game.  I would think that you could hire some advertising firm to think of something original and entertaining to do with that time, or from what I saw, I guess not.

What was up with the lights going out?  The comments being posted to Twitter after that happened were hilarious.  I liked this one, in particular:

And the biggest news of the night and the biggest win of the night was announced by Matt shortly after the game ended.  I am the winner of the Kielbasa cup!  By 6 points I won.  I guess it doesn't matter that for some of the questions I had to ask Stew who the 49ers running back was or receiver.  I still won.  Whooohoooo, I get a signed football.  (Every year for the Superbowl, Stew's family has a list of questions relating to the game.  Everyone answers.  Scores are tallied.  Results are announced.  Winner receives a football signed by all those that were in attendance at the party.  This year there was no party, HOWEVER, I still want my signed football.  Make it happen, people!!!!)

I went to bed last night before the game ended.  Finished reading a book that Stew downloaded for me.  (He downloads me the free ones that Amazon offers every week.  I review them, put the ones that look interesting in a folder on my Kindle marked "May not suck" and every once in awhile when I have nothing I want to read, I start some book that is in the folder.  If I don't like it, I stop reading it right away and delete it.  No harm, no foul.)  This one wasn't so bad.  I'll probably write a review tomorrow or something.  It's on the list.

This morning got up, put on my workout clothes, made my husband breakfast, then started to work only for my work computer to go bat shit crazy.  It won't open links on the internet, it won't connect to work's VPN.  Sigh.  Since I had training all day for our new system it was no big deal, but I'm gonna have to work on getting that fixed tomorrow.

After work, I worked on my layout for the day.  Actually finished the assignment for my One Little Word class that was given out in the beginning of January.  The prompt for LOAD today was scrapbook a goal - this seemed like a good fit and good way to knock out two birds with one stone - so I made that happen.

I worked out while Stew made dinner which is quite the roll reversal, but I had an appointment with my therapist tonight.  He made baked chicken and crispy edamame.  Very good.

He also introduced me to the site, www.lamebook.com

We spent some time looking through some of those things - some of them make me not want to live on this planet anymore.  Though this one we found rather funny.

The therapist appointment went well, though it was hard.  We spent time talking about childhood and family.  It just sucks when things aren't the way you want them, yet there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.  That's life I guess.  I'll just continue to focus on the things that bring good in my life and hope that time does, in fact, heal all wounds.

In better news:

I got happy mail today - not once, or twice, but four times.  Three boxes of who the hell knows what I ordered craft supplies and the best mail of all - pictures of my adorable little nieces. 

AND Christina posted on Facebook today that she had a lot of 0-3 month baby clothes to give away.  Darn it, AGP, slow down.  You're growing up way too fast for your aunt's liking.

I think that's all for today.  (Side note: Stew worked out while I was at the doctor's - we're starting the week off right.)

Until tomorrow....

Journal: February 3, 2013

One of the things that Stew and I are trying, or I'm trying and Stew is supporting me in trying, is building one new habit a week.  Last week, our goal was to make sure we ate breakfast every day.  We did that.  We also ate dinner at the kitchen table 6 out of the 7 nights (Friday night is tv night and was pizza night which is meant to be eaten in front of the tv).  We didn't eat out once this week, which, hello - helps the budget.  All in all, it was a pretty good week in terms of making and keeping our one goal.

The goal for the coming week is our nighttime routine.  Normally, we're up doing whatever until we absolutely can't keep our eyes open anymore and we go upstairs and fall into bed.  We want to make our bedtime routine a little more systematic.  Go through and straighten up the house, journal, think about our plans for the next day, do all of the things that we should do before going to bed so the transition is easier and we get to bed earlier. 

In that vein, it's not even 9PM and I'm journaling for the day.  Doing this at night before I go to bed will sure as hell help me in all aspects of my memory keeping.  Having to go back and re-create entries from the notes I keep is pure hell, so, this is the new habit I want to incorporate while continuing to make sure we eat breakfast.  I've already baked our eggs for the week and Stew went to the store and bought English Muffins.  I have yogurt and protein powder, so we're all set.

Today was another lazy day for us.  We normally travel to Jersey for the superbowl festivities, but there's weather to contend with and people are ill, and it just wasn't meant to happen this year.  From the updates I'm getting from Stew it doesn't appear that it's much of a game at all.  I couldn't care less one way or another, but I'll be happy for Ray and I know a lot of my friends will be thrilled.

We did get some of our chores done today.  We finalized our January budget and weirdly, somehow, we were actually under-budget.  We still don't know how in the hell we did that.  Mainly, I think our cancelled trip to Savannah had something to do with it, but hey, under-budget is better than over-budget, so we'll take it.  The overage was immediately transferred into our savings account.  We planned out February's budget and put away the financial stuff for the day.

Stew's really been enjoying our subscription to NetFlix.  He's watched several movies this weekend.  It's a cool thing, too.  We can watch as many movies as we want, not have to store them and not feel guilty about not finishing them if we hate them.  I think this is going to be a good thing if it is like Stew says and the number of movies available increase once the subscription becomes paid.

I put away our laundry today and started packing for Kansas - we don't leave until Friday - who the hell am I?  It's going to feel good on Friday though when it's time to leave and I'm ready without running around the house like a crazy person.

I spent a lot of time in the scraproom, which makes me happy.  I've been successful for the first three days of LOAD, we'll see if that continues.  I've gotten a lot of great feedback on my layouts and my videos and that's awesome.

We saw Steve today.  He stopped by to pick up his wireless router and his food money for the month.  He needs the wireless at his new apartment because he's going over his amount of data on his phone because he's always on the network.  I asked him if he's met any girls while at school - he changed the subject.  Smooth, so smooth...It's funny, but I can actually understand him much better when he's in front of me than when I'm trying to read his Facebook updates.  Go figure!  He seems to be doing well but he went and tried to change his 8AM class to 10AM and ended up changing it to 7AM - that's what he gets, I suppose.

GDH had a quote for me today.  "Everybody here is really nice, except Casey, Casey is just clumsy."  Oh, the nightmare of being the older sibling.  LOL.

And Frank sent me a picture on Facebook - AWESOME!

I have to finish editing the video for day 3 of LOAD and then I think I'll have a snack and head off to bed.  Very busy day tomorrow - training all day on the new trial monitoring system they're putting in place for my new study.  Should be interesting....I hope.  It'll be important to learn, either way.

Until tomorrow....

Journal: February 2, 2013

I don't really have a whole lot to share today.  It was a pretty lazy day around the house.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I spent a lot of time in the craft room.  Worked on some layouts, did some re-organizing.  We watched some tv.  I cheated just a tad on the sugar thing and had some nutella on an English Muffin with bananas - considering that I was craving a doughnut all day and I didn't get one, that's not too bad.  We were supposed to go to the Flyers game tonight, but we both just needed a relaxing day at home.  It's been a long week for both of us as we adjust to our new routines and I've actually been busy at work - which has been great, but it's an adjustment and we just needed a pajama day.

Stew did weigh in this morning.  His weight is down since we started - that's awesome!  Next week, we'll be more consistent with working out so that should also help!

There's a lot of back and forth going on about the Super Bowl.  Matt and family has been sick so they won't be attending the party at mom and dad's and the weather is supposed to be making a turn toward the icy and snowy.  Stew and I think that we're probably just going to stay home.  Stew's made tomorrow his cheat day and let me just tell you how much he's looking forward to that.  He's been talking about Cheetos and Doritos all day.

So, that's probably what we'll do - just stay home and watch the game.  Though honestly, I have no desire to watch it, really.  I'll probably play in the scrap room.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Journal: January 15, 2013, 11:05PM

(Note, January 16, 2013:  Ahhh, the journaling.  I've been writing down things for every day on my tablet but getting them onto the blog, well, that's something that's seriously lacking.  I think maybe I should just journal here at night foregoing the pictures and such and then editing or something.  Seems like too much effort to do this in two places.  I'll need to figure that out.  I hope to get this damn thing up to date today (sorry all my FB friends that my feed will be filled with this), but we'll see.  There's always the long train rides tomorrow.)

Journal for January 15, 2013
I spent Tuesday cleaning the house.  All the rooms are done with the exception of our room and our bathroom - I always save them for last and then they never get done.  I did get our clothes put away and straightened up all the things we are forever leaving out, so really I just need to dust and do the floors in there which is a vast improvement, hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow and then the house will be completely clean.  Another task for tomorrow - LAUNDRY.  Sigh.  I don't know what's with me and laundry lately.  I just don't want to do it and the laundry room is definitely showing that.

In between cleaning, I played my picture puzzle game.  This one has been killing me for a long time - but I conquered that damn thing today.  Only to find out it was a carrot - say what???

Stew and I were talking tonight about how we both lack discipline in all areas of our life.  I would love to stay on schedule for cleaning and laundry and form good healthy routines, but it seems like he gets home from work, neither of us feel like cooking, we eat some crap for dinner and then sit in front of the television and I told myself I wasn't going to do that this year.  No more sitting in front of the tv, but I don't know what it is, I always feel guilty when I'm in the scrap room at night when Stew's home, since I feel like he and I should be spending time together and of course, he's watching tv.  We really need to change this.  We had mac and cheese for dinner tonight and a 7-11 run complete with donuts, slurpee and candy bars.  Yeah, not exactly going to reach the goal weight doing that.  This is definitely something we have to work on.

I read an article today about overcoming procrastination and the thing that resonated the most with me is that in order to combat procrastination, we have to form new habits because what we have formed is the habit of procrastination. 

And it's not like there are a million things that don't get done around our house - I mean, if you guys know me at all, you know that my definition of "a mess" is far different than say someone on hoarders, but still - I want my house company ready at all times.  Is it unrealistic expectations or is it just laziness that keeps this from happening.  Something to think about.  Stew and I are each others own worst enemies.  I don't feel like cooking, he's, "okay, dear, what do you want for dinner?"  He doesn't feel like cooking and I'm the same.  We don't urge each other to do the things that we know in our minds that we should be doing.  We need a motivating life coach or something, since we feed into each other's laziness. 

So with all of that being said, here's what happened today:

I cleaned.  We worked (Stew had like 6 meetings today).  We had macaroni and cheese for dinner (despite Stew stopping at Wegmans after work to get dinner).  We ate snacks from 7-11.  We watched Spartacus (LOVE THIS SHOW!  They killed my favorite character, though.  Those bastards.  I haven't been this affected by a characters death on a show since they killed Hammerhead on The Unit.  Booooo.)  And then I was going to go into the scraproom, but we checked the damn DVR and don't you know it, that damn Duck Dynasty was on there.  So, of course, we had to watch that.

That show is going to kill me.  Phil giving advice on dating:  You get the happy, happy, happy, then you get the crabby, crabby, crabby.  And then Willie almost getting run over by his daughter while teaching her how to drive - I've never seen a grown man run away like a little girl like that before, except maybe for Stew with spiders.

Then I straightened up our room.  Put away what clean laundry was in the hamper.  Played my game on my tablet - went to bed.

Not the most productive day - but most of the house is clean.  That's a step in the right direction.

And there's no chance of sitting around watching tv tomorrow night as Stew's parents will be here to celebrate his birthday.  Tomorrow's looking better already.

Some other notes from today:

Claude Giroux was named captain for the Flyers.  I think that's a good choice.

Justin has a new single out that's all the buzz.  It came out on Sunday and is number 1 on iTunes already.  I'm not sure if I like it or not, but that's typical the way for me with his music.

My AGP is just smiling and laughing all over the place.  Christina posted pictures of her on Facebook today and I'm going to steal them - she's just too damn precious.

I found GEP's DS game that he lost a million years ago.  Months ago, Christina called us to ask us if we had found it.  I pulled apart our cars, re-organized the kids' toys to see if it was in there, went through all of our games, even vacuumed under all the couches - couldn't find it.  Tonight I decide that since I'm going to Calgary, maybe I should wash my winter coat.  I never wear the damn thing and honestly can't tell you the last time I wore it, but as I was going through the pocket - lo and behold there's GEP's game.  I can't imagine how it got there.  Maybe it was in the car and I stuck it in my pocket?  Who knows.  I just hope he hasn't bought it again.  If he has, I'll just give this one to MNP and buy GEP a new game.  Sigh....

 (And in case I lose this - it's in the glass bowl on the bookcase in the living room.)

Journal: January 14, 2013, 11:06PM

So I got up this morning with Stew like I'm supposed to and was out of bed by 6AM, just didn't get on the treadmill when I should have.  Worked out probably around 7:30.  Glad I did it.

I worked on some scrap projects today and of course, work projects. 

I'm still not be successful with the scheduling thing.  I mean the most productive things I did today were work out, shower, and take care of work tasks.  Not really a glowing review of the day and it's not like I'm going to be able to stick to my schedule tonight since I didn't take my pills today - which leads to incredible insomnia.  Go me!

I talked to Steve tonight.  He was in a bit of a snit over some stuff going on at home.  It was funny though because he was telling about how stressed he is over his job and how inadequate people don't get fired because of all the warnings and such that the manager has to go through.  I just had to laugh.  That's the real world, folks.

He also told me that something was as contradictory as a starburst - which I completely didn't get, but that's natural for about 75% of the things he tells me, but he was saying that it's hard on the outside, soft on the inside like this candy commercial he saw.  I'm not sure what candy he was talking about.  Skittles or Tootsie Roll pops maybe - but I'm pretty sure it wasn't starburst.

He also compared his brother Shawn to Adam Sandler and those other comedians known best for "stupid" comedy.  I'm not sure if his brother would take that as a compliment or not.  I'll have to ask him next time I talk to him.

We had Chick Fil A for dinner - this is what happens when I don't eat a good breakfast (had cereal, Cocoa Puffs at that) and then skip lunch.  I end up eating crappy stuff for dinner.  C'est la vie.

Loving that Shawn's unit has a Facebook page - every now and then they share a picture of him doing his thing...Awesome!

Journal: January 7, 2013

Today was a pretty good day.  In fact, it was a day that I wish all of my days (work days, that is) would mirror.  It's a day where I go to bed thinking that I've done everything that I was supposed to do today. 

Stew and I decided that we would start our New Year today since we were traveling last weekend and then didn't have time to prepare for last week.  So, with the start of our New Year, I got up this morning, got on the scale (ACK!), then got my butt on the treadmill.  Re-started couch to to 5K.  I'm sick of restarting - I'll tell you that much.  I've lost so much since the fall. 

After that, I did my body measurements and then showered and got ready for work.

I had a good lunch of tuna and wheat thins.  I even counted out the wheat thins and put the box away, because if you give me the box, I'll eat all of them.

Stew came home with groceries and I made a recipe he found using turkey breast and a honey mustard marinade.  I've never made turkey breast this way before but it turned out really good.  This one we will definitely be having again.

I also used my Christmas present for the first time.  Oh how I love my knife.  I'm scared to death of it, but I love it!  It cuts through carrots like they're nothing.  It's fantastic.

While I cooked, Stew got on the bike and did his workout.  We took his "before" pictures, too.

After dinner, I baked our eggs for the week.  We saw this on Pinterest and thought it looked interesting.  I'll put the whole post about it in one of my Pinned It, Did It, Friday posts, but it looks like they turned out pretty good.  I hope they taste as good.

I also made some clean eating biscuits (will be another Pinned It, Did It, Friday posts).  These just turned out weird - and how can I not own a biscuit cutter.  I own every kitchen gadget known to man, but not a biscuit cutter.  So weird.

While Stew and I waited for the biscuits to "cook" - you "bake" them on the stove top, we played trivial pursuit.  He kicked ass, as usual.  I don't know why I bother playing with him.  He downloaded the game onto his iPad, we don't even have to pull the actual board game out anymore.  Just a sign of the times, I guess.

We also sat down today and planned out our week - thinking about what was going on and what we had to do.  It's a good way to think about our goals for the week.

Really good day.  I hope we can keep it up tomorrow.

Journal: January 6, 2013

I'm still typing 2012 in the title.  Wonder how long that will last.

We didn't do a whole lot today.  Stew slept late while I played in the craft room.  I spent a lot of time scheduling posts for the coming month.  I figure if I stay ahead of it then I'll be able to keep up with the schedule that I sent for my crafting blog.  I'm going to do a video about Project Life on Sunday, a wordless layout share on Wednesday, and a process video about a scrapbook layout on Friday.  Add that to the daily picture I do here, the daily journal I'm supposed to do here (forever behind) and the Friday Pinned it, Did it and it's a lot going on for the coming year, but it's good.  I want to blog on a more routine basis and if I can ever get the discipline together to write out my journal entries every night, I'd be in business.  Still working on that discipline thing.  I'm hoping that keeping my one little word for the year (NOW) in the forefront of my mind will help.

Stew and I spent some time today planning out our coming week and doing our budget.  I think it's going to be important to make this a part of our routine (routine?  what routine - another thing we're working on this year).  It helps us see the week ahead and figure out what we both have going on.

While we were planning, I almost killed Stew.  He was looking at the clock in my craft room.  The conversation went something like this:

S:  Is that clock right?
G:  No.  It's an hour fast and twenty minutes slow.

At this point, Stew about dies.  I don't see his point at first and then I realize why he finds that so funny.

S:  So you mean it's 40 minutes fast.
G:  Well, yeah but it's easier for me to figure out the time by remembering the hour fast and twenty minutes slow.  (I don't know how this happened, it's always been 20 minutes slow, but the time change somewhere along the way messed up the hours or something...I can't figure it out now that I think about it.)
S:  There's a better way to figure it out.
G:  What's that?
S: Fix the freaking time!!

Yeah, yeah - we'll see about that.

After we did our planning and Stew stopped hyperventilating, we headed down to Kobe for our last "bad" meal before we try to start eating right tomorrow.  This is the year we're going to get in shape.  I hope.

Kobe wasn't as good as I remember it being, but Stew enjoyed it and he has lunch for a few days, so that's good.

(This was a really strange issue - we haven't been to Kobe since the fire in our house last year.  It was really weird to me how much of a reaction I had to the flame.  Like I got goosebumps and chills.  I couldn't believe how much it affected me.  I guess it's going to be a long time before those types of things stop.)

We ended the night like we always do - watching tv.  Sigh....if there's one thing I want to change this year - it's that.  I waste too much damn time watching tv.

Journal: January 5, 2013

Woke up this morning at 5. Seems that this is the time the internal clock says get up. I want to sleep in and I laid in bed trying my hardest to get the eyes to shut and go back to sleep but no go. So I thought the hell with it and got up.

Grabbed a sweatshirt and some slipper socks and braved the artic to get to my scrap room. It's no secret why Stew got me another heater for Christmas. Now I have one for the two rooms in the house that I spend the most time. My office and my scrap room.

This reminds me that when we were at Laura's on Thursday she showed me her footie pajamas. I really, really want a pair of them, but couldn't find them in the size fat ass around Christmas time. Laura said she can't wear them to bed because they're a little too warm. I said, "Well, make sure you bring them to my house when you spend the night. You're going to need them." She said she was planning on it.

I worked on my journal posts from earlier in the week. I had them mostly written, but I've taken to writing them on my phone and without the pictures, so I wanted to go through them, add the pictures, and look over the spelling and stuff before posting them.  I only have to finish up the 1st and that will be up to date.  I also worked on adding all of my pictures to Smug Mug.  It got a little behind in November and December - wonder why?  Now they're all uploaded.  Haven't burned them to disc yet, but it's coming.

I ended 2012 with 54.5GB worth of picture and video files.  16,532 actual files and took pictures on 321 of the 366 days - not too bad.

Stew slept until around noon.  When he got up, I was on a teleconference for this Move More, Eat Well class I'm taking.  The teleconference is just a place for everyone in the class to get together and ask questions or just get some motivation for the coming month.  I enjoyed it.  One of the things I want to work on this year is rekindling old friendships and starting new ones.  During my first appointment with my new therapist she asked me about friends.  I told her that I mostly spend my time with Stew and my family, I really don't have any one that just falls into the "friend" category and if I do, they don't live anywhere near me.  She found this really hard to believe.  She thought that with my personality, I would make friends easily.  Is she out of her mind?  Is she the one that needs the counselor?  I've never made friends easily my entire life.  I don't know if that's a self esteem issue or what.  I know it was in high school.  Now that I'm an adult it's like, where the hell do you make friends and where in the hell do you find the time?  I have a very full and active family life and let's be honest, if I'm going to pick people to spend my time with, my kids are on the top of that list.  I didn't think I was really missing anything until the therapist brought it up and until I started talking to my old, but good friend, Shellie.  I was reminded of how much I really do miss having that person that you can just talk to about whatever you want.  Sometimes with family you have to mind your words.  With friends, you never have to do that.  They have their own family stuff they need to get out, too.  In the vein of all of that, it's a goal for this year.  I'm going to write a post later about all of the goals I have for this year.  I spent some time today really kind of fleshing them out.  Of course there's a million of them, but that's okay.  Aim high and just try to work on a few of them at a time.

After my class, I went upstairs to get ready as we were going to GEP's basketball game.  Stew was playing on his iPad.  I'm really happy with how much he loves it.  He found the game Trivial Pursuit on there, so we spent some time playing that.  He's up two pieces of pie to one.  I'm not sure why I play with him.  He always wins.  Jerk.

Then it was off to GEP's basketball game.  This kid must really love basketball - he actually runs.  I've seen him play baseball - no running.  I've watched him play soccer - no running.  Basketball, he's out there giving it all he's got.  His team is young and so they are a little inexperienced when it comes to the nuances of the game - like it took them the whole game to realize that someone has to inbound the ball, but they played with all their hearts and seemed to have fun and that's all that really counts.  Let's not mention that this is a team of 7 and 8 year olds and it was reported that the other team had fifth graders on it.  I don't know why people do that.  I agree with keeping score, let's not mistake that, but good gosh, it's peewee basketball.  There's no need to cheat.  Ass.

After the ballgame, it was Pizza Johns.  Last trip for awhile - so I needed to make it count.  The blackbottom cheesecake is no where near as good as it used to be.

Spent some time with Phill, Christina, GEP and AGP.  GEP loves his little sister even if he does call her the beast.  And AGP is smiling so much now.  It's so cute.  I didn't get any pictures of the smiling as Christina was taking them.  I'll get them if she ever uploads them to SmugMug - but I'm not holding my breath (love you, girl).

One of the funniest things that GEP did today...he was eating pistachios and he came upon one that he could not open - so he, of course, being the ingenious little fella that he is, goes and gets the nutcracker.  After he smashes the pistachio to smithereens, he looks up and says, "Yeah, no good."  This child...

Stew and I left more because I was exhausted than anything else.  We got home, I spent some time in the scrap room and then he and I ended the night with episodes of Duck Dynasty - love that show.

We hadn't planned on doing anything tomorrow, but it's looking like our last food hoorah will be Kobe Steakhouse, so we're going to go there to eat and to pick up my car from Phill's.  I have to drive to Georgetown on Tuesday.