Christmas Earrings & St Jude's Hospital!

This year I made my Christmas earrings again! I am going to be donating all the proceeds of the Christmas Earrings to St Jude's Hospital in honor of a very special little girl who is being treated at the hospital in Memphis.  She is 3 years old and was diagnosed with Leukemia this past June.  She is doing great in treatment and hasn't lost an ounce of spunk throughout her treatment thus far!  She has a loving and supportive family that is doing a great job of taking care of her and them during all of this.
I wanted to be able to do something to give to St Jude's who is giving life back to my friend! I hope you are able to look around my etsy site (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ByAndreaLeigh) and maybe find an item or two, or maybe you want to donate directly to St. Jude and that would be wonderful too!
All of the Christmas earrings profits are going to St. Jude's Hospital, and 20% of the any other item ordered will also be donated!  Also there is a 10% discount for ordering before Dec 15, use code ANNABELLE when checking out.
Thank you for all your help and support with this!

A Few of My Favorites!

I have seen several bloggers put out posts about their favorite things or things they are loving and I have a feeling they do it because it lifts their spirits because well thinking of your favorite things seems like a mood booster.  So I thought I'd start Monday off right by doing just that, so here goes:

My favorite thing: Puppies! Well specifically my 2 dogs and almost any other dog I come across comes in a very close second.  They always cheer you up, they are sweet (well mine are at least) and cute.  If people were more like dogs life would be better!

Now in no particular order:
-Traveling- particularly around the US and to Europe.  Thanks to Brian's job we have gotten to go to a lot of cool places in the Middle East and Asia but the US and Europe travel has a special place for me, or maybe its just you can count on it to be clean (or at least find something nearby that is).  My favorite place is still the Rhine river in Germany :-) Close second has to be the top of the Mountains in Colorado.  I'm not really an outdoorsy person (as best seen when there is a bug on the door and I inform Brian that nature is trying to invade my house and make him kill it) but the hike up is just worth every minute you see that view!
-Volleyball- I came into playing this sport in 8th grade and haven't stopped.  I love the sport, the challenge, the fact that you can be the best and still have ways to improve.  You can play pick up or competitive and always have fun.  I do manage to get hurt a lot but I figure since I play a lot its just the way life is.
-Baking- while I am currently taking a break from my seemingly daily baking schedule of cakes and cupcakes and treats, I do love to bake!  Although I don't particularly like to eat it, everyone else seems to so that works for me!  I am excited to learn to make brownies from scratch and improve on the recipes like I do with cakes!
-Gift Giving- this may sound silly but I get the utmost satisfaction out of giving gifts, especially unexpected gifts (whether at an unexpected time or just something they had briefly mentioned in passing).  It makes people feel great when you spend time to pick out something that they really want, need or will love and I take great pride in doing this.  I may not always get it right though, but hopefully overall people love what they get.
-A Clean House- now I didn't say I love cleaning but I love the sense of a clean house, when all the dog hair and dust is gone and everything is put away, it gives me a great sense of relief and peace.  Its even better when someone else does it :-)
-A Great Night with Friends- some of our most memorable times with friends are just hanging out over dinner and drinks and maybe a game, you really get a chance to chat and enjoy each others company.  While a great active day or movie might be fun occasionally I love just hanging out.

It was tough to narrow down but those were the things that I was loving today and thinking about today :-)  What are your favorites?

A little bit sick...

Over the past few months I have been working on trying to get healthy.  This included going to the doctor with all my ailments in hand and figuring out what the heck is going on.  Luckily right off the bat I found a great doc who is willing to listen and work on figuring it all out!  I have had several blood work labs done and here were the conclusions.  First I have lyme's disease, this is no shock to anyone who knows my family as several of my family members have been diagnosed in the past 2 years.  The extent of the disease isn't really possible to trace besides clinical symptoms and I fall somewhere in the middle of the group there.  I will see a specialist in October to determine the best way to move forward and hopefully be Lyme's disease free by next year or so.  As for all the other symptoms, more blood work and more potential diagnosis but no conclusions yet.  The other thing I am working on is all my neglected injuries over the past few years.  I am in constant pain that has nothing to do with any "symptoms" of a disease, its more like, ya I got hurt and ignored it and now I am paying the price... So I am in physical therapy twice a week for my hip.  Its not too bad as most of what I do is get deep tissue and fascia massages and ultrasound (deep heat).  Occasionally they give me more stretches and exercises and after showing me them allow me to do them on my own.  Not a bad gig and seems to be helping quite a bit.  This isn't the first thing I have tried for this ailment but seems to be initially the most effective...
So hopefully I can keep on the path of figuring out this health stuff and start my 30's with a clean bill of health or at least answers... Hope everyone is doing well!

Things I want to do in my life before turning 30!

This year I turned 29.  I have 1 more year in my 20's and wanted to make sure that I made it a productive year.  I will actually be living and staying in one place all year and want to enter my 30's not plagued with the same issues as my 20's.  Some of those go away with simply getting older but some you have to work on.  So here are my "goals" for the year:
1. To get my health in order.  I have long feared going back to the doctor after a bad experience but have now gone twice in a month to figure out what's going on and fix it.  Luckily I found a great doctor on the first try (good recommendations always help) and we are working on it! I have also started physical therapy and yoga to alleviate some pain and once all the diagnosis come in will hopefully have an understanding on my other ailments.
2.  Finish my Event Certificate from GWU and be ready or start working in the event world.  I have 2 classes and my internship left.  I also have to compile my portfolio from an event I have already done.  I am really excited to get to work on all of this and finally be in the field that feels right for me!
3.  Take a vacation! I know this sounds silly since we have spent the better part of our marriage traveling the world but many of our vacations and trips have been dictated by that travel.  I want a completely relaxing, our choice vacation.  We are hoping to do this in November, so I am keeping my fingers crossed!
4.  Be better with money! I have been working on this for some time, but I want to get a better handle on budgeting (and sticking to it) and having our money work better for us.
5.  Lose Weight! This has been a goal all year and through my doctors visits I am learning that regardless of my efforts my health issues may be more to blame for not being able to accomplish this than I thought!  However combining that with hopefully a correct diagnosis will allow me to get this done!  I am excited to just feel better about myself when I look in the mirror instead of trying to figure out what I want to conceal, I would like to see what I want to show off!

Did anyone else make this kind of goal before they reach a certain age?  What are your goals?

Family, Classes, and Earthquakes...

I spent last week in Northern VA and DC seeing friends and family and taking a class at GWU for my event certificate.  I had a great time catching up with friends and spending the evening out having drinks, reminiscing about college and projecting the future with friends who have now been around for a decade or more.  I also found time to see my Uncle, Aunt and cousins for a short time one evening and was glad to hear about what the girls were up to and how they are prepping for school and catch up with what was new in their family.  Then I got to see my grandmother for a few hours before heading home and show her photos of our house and the many projects we have been doing.  All in all it was a great visit.
I would now normally tell you how wonderful my class was (and it was) and how informative it was (and it was) and how I can't wait to do an internship in a non-profit (I am) to see my newly found knowledge put to work, but that was not my excitement of the week.  I got to experience the earthquake while in DC at GWU.  It was quite the experience actually, at first you could see the fear racing across peoples faces, assuming a terrorist attack had happened.  Quickly however, due to a couple of people who worked for the government at the pentagon, we were told it was just an earthquake.  It struck a cord with me however, the people that experienced the terror attacks first hand, the fear they live with every day just boiling under the surface.  I will say my metro ride back to Vienna, VA where I was staying was quite the opposite of my morning ride.  In the morning you can hear a bin drop, everyone in their shells and shying away from people and trying not to disturb the silence.  On my way back, not 30 minutes after the earthquake (for fear of them shutting down I jumped on right away) the metro cars were filled with people, laughter, talking and all to the stranger across the aisle or a group of people chatting in the center of the car.  It was amazing actually, people smiled and reassured people it was ok.  I wish it didn't take a terrorist attack or natural disaster to bring people together the way they do.
The east coast got a double whammy as you know with the earthquake and then the hurricane that came through, luckily my family fared pretty well with only very minor damage (some screens blown out in the screened in porch) and only lost power for a few hours.  The power loss not being far longer was amazing since they usually lose power when the wind blows the wrong way and its off for a long time.
This is the first year in 7 years that Brian and I have not had to deal with a hurricane heading straight for our house.  Mainly because instead of living a mere 20 minutes from the ocean, its now 5 hours.  I can't say its something I am missing going in to the this fall... I hope all are safe and sound and ok after both natural disasters this week.

Our New Master Bathroom!

This project was started 30 days ago today! Our original time line was ~2 weeks give or take a few days and our only real set back was 1 1/2 weeks of no air conditioning upstairs and it was just to hot to work.
Here is what we did:
-removed builder grade mirror/fixtures
-removed wallpaper
-removed old flooring
-fixed floor, wall and ceiling problems
-prepped and tiled floors
-painted ceiling
-painted walls
-replaced mirrors
-replaced quarter round
-caulked trim, tub and shower and around vanity
-painted trim
-replaced one of the light fixtures & all other "hardware" (we had already done a lot of this before including all the towel racks, tp holder and faucets)
-add shelves on the back wall for more storage
-get bins for the back wall shelves
-get new shower curtain
-get new towels

As you can see it was quite the project, but not a complete gut, it seems every time we redo a bathroom its a little more, maybe next time we will tear it all apart.

Now here are the photos of the new bathroom before I put anything back in to it:

And here it is with everything all moved back in:

We are excited to be moved back in but we aren't quite done.  We still need to take the door off and repaint it due to it coming off its track (its a pocket door) and it got pretty scratched up and unfortunately the trim paint didn't match like we had hoped so we have to paint the window trim too.  But overall they don't affect our ability to be in the bathroom now (when we take the door off we will use the other one for a day or so).  I am also not 100% on the bins I have chosen for the shelves, a few may be changed out over the next few days!  Hope you like all that we have done!

5 Years!

Brian and I were at our rehearsal dinner 5 years ago today.  I had a ton on my mind and could not sit still, nope not worries about who I was marrying but about logistics.  For those that know me well, this is no surprise.  I constantly think about these things, how they will go, how they could go better and what I can do to improve or change them to be the best decision.  Our wedding did not go off without a hitch and it wasn't perfect but I learned a lot.  One of the main things I learned is things go wrong even with the best laid plans, and believe my psychotic planning was incredible.  You just can't control everything.  Needless to say I believe that it was the day I decided to become an event planner, even though I didn't admit it to myself for a few years.  I had a "weekend of" coordinator who totally dropped the ball and even almost burned down the church, she was awful.  I hope for those who I have helped or planned their events they did not have the same feeling I had during/afterwards about logistics.  While even a great planner wouldn't have set aside all of my obsessing, a really good one would have anticipated it and mitigated it.  Needless to say in the end we were still married and I think most everyone had a pretty decent time.
Welcome to 5 years later and we have traveled most of the globe (several places in Europe, the Carribean, the Middle East, China and several places in the USA), met some incredible people, renovated and sold our first house and moved 1/2 way across the country.  Its been an interesting but fun 5 years.  We aren't without our trials and troubles, but overall I think we have done pretty well.
So here is what I have learned:
1. Each person needs to stand on their own 2 feet and the relationship can survive and thrive.
2. Outside influences can ruin a good thing and bring you down, get rid of them or at least keep them at bay and things will improve
3. Vacations are NOT overrated.
4. In the middle of all arguments start a major home renovation (haha yeah we have a tendency to do this).
5. Learn to express your expectations without using the word expectation.

I figured I'd stop there, 5 for 5.  Of course there are basics of being kind, gracious, don't nag if possible, share the burden of the household evenly, and everything is better if you start everything by saying I love you.

I hope everyone has a great Friday as I will be spending the day with Brian doing some of our favorite things, 90 min hot stone massages, sushi, the mall (don't worry I just need to pick up some jeans that were getting hemmed, not forcing Brian to shop again), working on home projects and the melting pot! Oh and cake :-)! Happy 5th Anniversary to us!

Volleyball, Sunburn and our A/C

Life has been INCREDIBLY hectic for us this month, hence the lack of post updates but things are slowing down (somewhat) this week and next so I figured I'd write and tell you what we have been up to.

We are in the middle of remodeling our bathroom upstairs.  Our original schedule called for us to be done in 12 days, since we started it on July 16, I would say that didn't happen.  But not for our lack of trying or having days to work on it.  What it came down to was our upstairs A/C unit is broken and we can't stand being up there for very long.  Brian installed one of the 2 vanity lights and made the blanket statement that we weren't working on the bathroom anymore until there is A/C upstairs again.  The average temp. for the upstairs without A/C has been about 88 and humid, not awful, but not fun to remodel in.  The good news is the unit should be fixed this week, the bad news is its taking forever because we are having the home warranty that came with our place do it (and pay for it for the most part) and they move at ant speed.  I am very glad our realtor advised us to get a house with 2 A/C units!  Needless to say we aren't out a ton of money because of it but we are having to camp out in our living room.  We moved our guest bed mattress down and butted it up with the couch and have made basically one big bed, there is a small difference in height but it keeps the dogs from jumping back and forth between the two.  So while sleeping on the floor the dogs have decided that they are people too and are sleeping on the bed, using it for their play time and napping on it, needless to say I am cleaning the sheets every few days!  Hopefully I will get a call early this week that the part is in and we can get our A/C back!

Now on to what else we have been up to.  I played in my first volleyball tournament since college.  It was an outdoor grass 3's tournament.  My friend Tracy and I picked up another girl and played in women's BB.  We did alright, but not great.  We give ourselves a break a bit though, 1. we are indoor players, and outdoor playing is very different (setting is completely different), 2. it was over 100 that day, it was killer.  A girl from our pool even got heat stroke and had to leave, it was bad.  3. we picked up someone we didn't know, so that just didn't mesh in the end.  4. we had back to back games at the heat of the day.  Our last match we were evenly matched for the part but we had already played right before that and they had just relaxed in the shade with water... So what I learned was your first tournament back you shouldn't play in 100degree weather, you shouldn't pick a random person and the sun can be a killer even with sunscreen when you are sweating that much.  My forehead is bright pink.  I don't burn too easily but man did I get it bad on Saturday.  Luckily I am finally finding relief this evening, hopefully by tomorrow I can show my face in public without looking like Samantha on Sex and the City when she got that facial peel and went to Carrie's book launch... at least I am not peeling.  The rest of me is pretty ok, although I am feeling a bit of age coming through.  Its just not as easy to recover, now I am guessing part of that is this isn't my usual thing to do, but man those 18 year old girls were just still going after doing this all day... evil!

So hopefully I will have A/C soon so that I can finish up the bathroom and make a post of pics! It really looks great!

A Wrist Gone Wrong

Its been almost 4 months since I initially injured my wrist.  The first few weeks involved resting, compression, elevation and several (somewhat painful) injections of cortisone in to various places.  It was not fun as I ended up with every possible minor reaction to the shots possible, and they lasted for several days.  But in the end they helped, or so I thought.  It was 2 months later and I had my first real house project that involved painting walls again (the kitchen).  About 1 wall into it my arm was aching, it just hurt, my wrist was swollen, it was definitely no fun!  So basically the meds had worn off and absolutely nothing was fixed.  It hurt, but no more than before and wasn't getting any worse for the time being.  Fast forward 2 weeks and in starts the not being able to move my wrist freely, pain in the pinky and ring finger and constant aching and pain :-(!  I went back to the doctor who told me to start over again with the bracing full time and gave me another full dose of cortisone, although only on the one side of my wrist this time.  Now we are coming to the end of week one and the improvement is non-existent.  My hand still hurts constantly, its weaker than ever and I have even more limited motion.  Now I am suppose to wait until August to call her back and let her know how its going, but at this point I am ready to call today, the pain is ridiculous!
So I have been doing what any good patient who thinks their doctor needs to google more does, I google my problem.  Turns out it could be a problem with my shoulder, which I actually already knew but didn't know what to do about it.  So I am going to pursue some of these other ideas to help it along to either prove or disprove my theory that my shoulder is the one gone wrong.
Do you always believe your doctor or do you become apart of the diagnosing with google as well?

The Reorganizing Weekend!

It was a great weekend (at least for me, can't speak for Brian), we got the cabinet that I have been working on for weeks to redo in the house and spent a good amount of time reorganizing items so that the large storage piece (it was originally a buffet) has a purpose and I can stop having things fall on me while baking or entertaining or well anytime!
Here is the quick version (since the first version I wrote might as well have been a chapter in a novel).  The tv stand from the family room became the tv stand in the living room.  The living room tv stand, otherwise known as Brian's desk he made from the fence the hurricane blew down, went up to the green guest room (otherwise known as our expanded laundry room).  The tv in the family room got moved around, along with the other furniture, and now resides on the cabinet I have spent weeks refinishing.  I got the cabinet from my Grandmother as she was preparing to move, but it wasn't our style but I figured high gloss black paint would make anything look better (I was right).  I then organized all of the overflow of wine glasses, platters, and all the little odds and ends in to the new tv stand (it was originally a buffet).  I straightened up the kitchen, since I removed a few things both to the charity pile and to other places and I made the closet in the kitchen (its really a coat closet but we use it as extra storage) in to cake baking and decorating central. Lastly we put the "extra" tv tower in my office for jewelry display, its been many things but its never actually held any electronics!
Now for the good part, the photos!

The new view of my office! I gained a chair as well because Brian now has a small desk next to the sofa.

The tower all decorated with jewelry, I think it looks great there!

I had to revamp the shelves and move a few mementos over.

Well we didn't get a new dog but she insisted on being in the shot, this is the area in the living room!

View from the eat-in kitchen area in to the family room.

The other side of the family room, its much more open to walk in to.  We haven't moved the pictures yet, but we will sometime this week so they are centered on the wall.

You get the idea!

The cabinet, it was a stained cabinet in a brownish tone with brass hardware.

A closer up look of my fab new handles, they are crystals and sparkly! I took only 3 weeks to pick them out :-P!

This is for a few friends who know how nutso I am about organizing and yet I even put black and white liner down (in the drawers is green!)

this may seem like an odd picture to share, but this is my new cake decorating shelves! The closet also houses are 2 extra chairs and the table leaf (in the monkey thing I sewed for it!).

Well thats all, as you can see we have a few more things until everything is settled but its done!  What did you guys do this weekend?

YA! Success... well the start of it at least...

This morning was the first time in a long time I felt like I finally overcome some of my obstacles in the great weight loss adventure!  I have had tons of struggles with losing due to what I like to call "my stomach issues" which more or less translates to IBS.  During which I will get sick for a day or two or a week and be on the couch or in bed the majority of the time, sick as hell and feeling like crap.
I decided to try and figure out why these days (where I felt like I wasn't eating much) were stalling out my weight loss so badly, beyond the obvious lack of exercise and movement.  So I kept a food diary for a few weeks and found on the days I felt good, or at least not like total crap, I ate well, exercised beyond what I needed and got in all my fruits and veggies, took my multivitamin and drank tons of water and almost no soda.  The days I didn't feel well at all, I would eat only very small portions but VERY often.  Obviously my intake was going to be more than I was expending but I had no idea the proportion.  I was seriously over what I needed even for my workout days.  So I regrouped.
I decided to start doing something that has worked for me in the past, the Body for Life for women eating.  It works for me because I don't have to eat a lot at one meal, I can choose my own foods (within reason) and it forces me to eat every few hours (I have a propensity to forget certain meals).  So far so good, but what about those bad days?  I need to plan basically.  I have been lucky to not have a really bad day in about 2 weeks (SCORE!), but when I do, I have a plan to expend all my energy getting healthy snacks ready so they are as easy to grab as the other ones (or rather they just aren't in the house anymore so they are far more difficult to get).
My success however was not establishing all of this, it was FINALLY seeing the numbers fall on the scale AND feeling energized (not confused as some other times when the scale would drop 10lbs one week and then gain 12 the next)!
How are your goals coming along?

Fixing one of the things that just bugged me...

There is one thing in this house that has simply bugged me since day 1, the border in the kitchen.  Now I have a feeling it bugged me more than anything because I took down a border and wallpaper similar in our last house and then only had a few short months to enjoy it.  Then we buy this house with a border in the kitchen and its not far off, same colors, same type of styling.  I would say if you are looking through a book of borders these were likely to sit right next to each other and would never enter a house if I had my way.  So I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that before we headed to VA last weekend I would go ahead and make sure it was down. the walls fixed and repainted.
So I did, or shall I saw we did.  I would have been happy doing it by myself (B. serious did NOT want to do this project), but I ran in to a few small problems, the first one, I do not have go-go gadget arms and several of the locations (above the fridge corner and the corner of the main cabinets) were just a smidge (or maybe a foot) too far away, so B. had to do them (or I suppose I could have done my precarious perch on a ladder and the cabinet and hope for the best, since he didn't seem to think that was the best of ideas he pitched in).  We got the entire border off in about 2 hours, it was 2 layers but came off more or less seamlessly.  There was one large spot that had to be repaired where I could NOT get the border off without damaging the wall.
Then the unfortunate reality set in about 2 minutes in with this project, they had painted up to the border and farther.  As a matter of fact they had painted after the border was installed (there was a bit of overlap).  I was mad, but mainly only because B. was right.  Luckily for us this paint was flat enamel so it would likely blend well when retouched and they had left us almost 1/2 a gallon of it.  So over the next few days I patched the walls as I had time and then finally on Thursday evening got to sanding and then painting coat 1.  B. helped out with this as well, mainly for his long arms but also because I think he realized it meant not hearing how much I hate the border :-P!
In the end the border is gone, the walls aren't damaged and the color blended nicely.  It looks so much nicer too!  We finished the last coat Friday morning and then hit the gym while the paint dried, came back and cleaned up before birthday and fathers day celebrations in VA with my fam!  It looks SO much better!
Here are a few pictures of our project: (sorry about the bad exposure I just grabbed our point and shoot while I had a free hand...

Before hand:                                                                          

After! (a quick snap right after taking down the tape and heading out the door)

Blogs I love!

Pretty much every day I spend some time reading a few blogs and there are certain ones I am sure many of you follow but that are ones I would love to aspire too.
So here they are:
younghouselove.com- this is a young couple who DIY most of their home projects (they do this for a living now), they share every step of the way and are quite funny in their posts.

thepioneerwoman.com- this is a woman who lives on a ranch and shares everything from what they do everyday to just things she is thinking about to recipes she makes her family. Love her!

catalogliving.net- this is just funny, they take catalog pics and make captions for them!

postsecret.com- love these books and love that I get a new dose of secrets from people each week, I need/want to submit some but am terrified!

I also follow friends and families blogs but these are the ones that stood out to me today! Hope you are having a great day and enjoy some new blogs!

Shopping! ....and budgeting

I love to shop! Well I am female and its something I have always enjoyed doing with my mom and my friends.  Its a great feeling when you find that perfect piece whether its for you, your house or someone else (or their house).  Its fun to imagine what you'd buy if cost weren't an issue. My twice or three times a week at Target wasn't really doing that anymore, granted they put in groceries so most of the time it was to pick those up, but overall I was going way too much!
However recently I have found myself less inclined to shop, Target stock may be decreasing due to my now self imposed 1 trip a week to Target (yes only 1!).  I have never been good at saving or waiting patiently, for anything for that matter, but especially with shopping, so why now?
Well over the past few years while B has been working all around the world on various projects, all of the house bills and budgeting has fallen to me.  Now at first this was cause for many panic attacks and terrifying ideas of how badly this would get screwed up, and yes that was just me, I am sure B had his own attacks but well I didn't ask.  But after a few months I did manage to figure out some system that worked for me and get all the bills paid on time or on direct pay (love this!) and was able to figure out how the budget SHOULD go.  However implementing that budget has been FAR more difficult than its conception.
For a while we had months that we just threw caution to the wind and didn't watch our budget at all, now most of you gasp at this, but these were times where I was stuck in places like Kuwait and China, where either I didn't have the ability to get things back here or wasn't interested in items (or heck they were so cheap its ridiculous) or it was China and everything is REALLY inexpensive and so buying 10 of them is still cheaper than the same thing in the US.  But what it did is help us postpone working the kinks out of our budget.
We are now to the point of settled at our new location and are able to work those kinks out, and its going to be painful!  We are starting with our grocery bill, for 2 people its RIDICULOUS! Now this is mostly my fault since I do 95% of our grocery shopping and I do love really nice cheeses and fillets for dinner.  What I am realizing is that's a really expensive way to live and doesn't leave as much money for other things.  So I am working on getting a good handle on it, hopefully I can finally succeed this month!  The other big thing is our eating out, its crazy, we love to eat sushi and I have found a great place, but even for a lunch its around $60 a time.  Needless to say we are going to do our best to find some local places to try that don't break the budget and stick to sushi as a treat.  We have also re-implemented our "rule" of only 1 lunch out per week and 1 dinner out per weekend.  Hopefully this will allow us to cut back just a bit on our spending.
So I just thought I'd share whats on my mind, do you guys have budgets? If so how do you find you stick to them? Whats your trouble areas?

My Latest Killer Workouts

Lately I have been doing these killer workouts from bodybuilding.com.  They aren't meant to make you huge to be a body builder, just good hard workouts that will kick your butt.  Basically I do 4-6 exercises per day (4x per week) and I do 3 sets of 8-12, I am suppose to keep the weight at a point where that is all I can do, not a rep more.  So far so good, I have done pretty well and paid the price the next day each time with being sore and tired.  I am pretty excited about it overall, but can't help but realize that my numbers are SO much lower than what I did in college.  Now for me, I graduated college 7 years ago, its so insane to think that by the way, because I remember it so clearly.  During college I loved the gym, a lot of my friends came from hanging out the gym and I had a fabulous workout partner that would not allow me to quit, skip or anything else, it was GREAT!  My 1 rep maximum's were fantastic too, my bench was around 180 in my junior year, which was definitely my best year as far as lifting went!  Now I am struggling at around 80 pounds, now granted I am not just doing 1 rep, I am trying to do between 24 and 36 of them but still its quite the jump.  So I have decided one of my goals is to get a 1 rep max of at least 150 back.  I would like to do this by the end of the year, so hopefully these workouts that really push you hard on the weights will help.
If you want to see what I am doing here is the link: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/womans_lean_sexy_bible.htm
As of right now I am just eating healthy and not following their nutrition program.  I am also not doing their version of cardio, but mostly because I enjoy classes at my gym and playing volleyball for most of my cardio.
My other "fitness" goals are: to be able to run a half marathon, to lose weight (i'll spare you the number) and of course to get my lifting numbers up!

On a complete side note, yesterday I was lifting (calf raises to be specific) and picked up 40lb dumbbells, and the guy working out near me was like are you sure you can lift those? It's always a nice feeling to show a guy you can lift nice and heavy weights! 

Updated House Pics!

As many of you know, we LOVE to DIY house projects.  It's somewhere between a point of pride, knowing if we do it we will do it right and saving $.  So I thought I'd post some updated house photos of things we have been up to since moving in.  I have left out a few rooms that either aren't exactly straightened up or just haven't had any updates for a while.
So here it is:

The new table runner in the eat-in kitchen

The newly redone half bathroom.  We had to take down red wallpaper which was a pain to take off, damaged the walls, so we had to fix the walls and then reinstall everything.  The bathroom got a new mirror, new art work, new paper towel holder and a new bath ring, not to mention a new towel, not to be outdone by the new toilet paper storage container.

The new artwork...

We took down an "egg" shaped overgrown plant that covered our entire front porch area up.  Dad was here and he and Brian took it out, roots and all, much better view of our house now!

Here is the front garden, Brian won't let me put any color in for now, says I kill them too much... oopsy.

Here is what replaced the "egg" shaped plant.  

We got patio furniture! We love it and so do the dogs!  Of course I had to throw in a few random accents of orange from Crate and Barrel!

The couch with 2 new pillows from Target, the ones that came with the set didn't add anything to them.

Not sure if you had seen these or not, but we had gotten these 4 paintings in China and I found reasonably priced frames to finally put them in, so the set now lives in our family room.

My office has been rearranged.  We made a new desk section (another bookcase) and then I was able to get more storage out of it.  My beading desk was switched with the bookcase as well and this just looked better and was more functional in the long run.  I need to find something to go above the beading desk though!

No photo assortment would be ok without pics of my pups! She posed, its a first, usually she hides when she sees the camera!

Sarge was reluctant to get his photo taken today, but eventually posed in his favorite spot to hang out!

This room use to have mis-mashed furniture (and it still does somewhat) and it was green but had a diamond pattern that was wonky on the walls.  After painting it from top to bottom after sanding the walls, we realized I chose the same color as my office was in TX, guess I liked it (it was the only room I painted and kept the color in!)  My parents graciously gave us some twin beds (one of which is in the attic for now) and the matching bedding, luckily it fit right in!

The other half of the room, as you can see it still got the ends of the furniture we own.

This is the guest room, not sure if we had sent out pics of this since assembling everything.  We were fortunate enough to inherit a wooden trunk from my great grandmother and have used pieces from our wedding, things our family made and a few random accent pieces to bring it all together.  

This is an odd ball project, we put in a new curtain rod, well technically its the second one we put in.  We changed our minds about redoing the second bathroom (except for tiling which we plan to do this fall) and so needed to switch the dark one we had put in for the chrome which matches.

Not sure if anything is new here beyond being settled but thought I'd share.  This room went orange and grey, my 2 favorite colors!  I wasted not time hanging up a hokie flag and my hammock from Ecuador.  While we have joined a gym, I end up working out here 1-2 times a week when I just don't feel like making it all the way over there, or just want a quick workout!

lastly, we hung up this scrolled artwork I bought in Shanghai (at the airport no less).  Its a great piece and is now in a safe place in the stairway and we can enjoy it every time we pass by or go downstairs!

Well thats where we are with things to the house, we have several more projects in mind and I will keep posting as we do them! 

Are Your Weekends Getting in the Way?

I find it much easier to keep on track during the week for some reason as opposed to the weekends.  When B is home full time and we have house projects and errands and random things going on I find it much harder to make good healthy choices and get in my full workouts.  On Saturday I got in my full workout but B wanted to try a new local restaurant and I totally blew my healthy eating.  On Sunday I didn't feel well so the gym was out but I couldn't seem to leave the cookies alone.  Then by Monday I feel like I have completely blown it and have a bit of a hard time getting back on track.
So I have come up with a new idea that I think will work for me.  I am not going to try progress my fitness/workout goals on weekends, I am however going to make sure I don't contribute to going backwards.  So I am going to keep track of my calories and keep track of the calories I burn and make sure that I am burning around what I am taking in.  So basically weekends for me are now simply maintaining any progress I made throughout the week.  I was just going to give myself Saturdays, but after this weekend I will give myself both Saturday and Sunday.  I believe if I push hard during the week and maintain on weekends I will be less likely to sabotage myself and have enough gusto to get going with things on Mondays.
Now for my progress, I am down 2 lbs.  I don't say that lightly or that I woke up and just weighed myself once and was down 2 lbs, we know how deceiving 1 weigh in can be.  So this was day 3 of being down 2lbs, so I consider that a win!  I have another 4 lbs until my first goal is met.  I am hoping to be there in 2 weeks!  I am getting myself 2 new under armor t shirts when I succeed.  I have been debating getting these t shirts for a few weeks, they are new and I do have 1 and love it, but will be excited to have another few to mix in.
How are your fitness goals coming?

Finding Your Fitness Bliss

Many of us avoid working out because we don't enjoy it.  However I truly believe there is a "fitness bliss" out there for everyone, and it may change as you change or get older or modify your goals.
I use to love only lifting weights, I hated cardio with a passion.  Now I can't say that I enjoy doing cardio MORE than lifting weights these days but I found my cardio bliss finally!
I personally love at home dvds, sometimes I just don't feel like going to the gym, or like now when I am injured don't think its a good idea.  My at home workout bliss is my own personal gym and workout dvds that are fast paced and fun.  Some of my favorites are P90x, this is a hardcore workout and if you aren't in ok shape to begin with, don't start here, but work up to it.  Zumba dvds, now I am not the most coordinated person when it comes to dancing, but I'm not bad either, I catch on pretty quickly, but zumba at home, I can just make stuff up without feeling like I am messing up, its all about moving and having fun.
Then there are my fitness bliss's at the gym, my current love is the Precor AMT, its an elliptical type of machine, but allows you to change your stride in an instant.  So I can go from doing a long running stride to walking to stairstepping without hesitation, it even goes backwards.  My mother actually pointed these out to me when I was going to the gym with her in VA for a while.  Now I specifically found a gym that had them and use it 30 minutes each time at least and burn at least 300 calories.  My big gripe about cardio equipment was the monotony of it all and this helped a lot with that!
So what is your fitness bliss? Do you like classes? Gym? Weight lifting? Walking? Running? Water Aerobics? Try everything and you will find your fitness bliss and when you get bored with that one try everything again and you fill find a new one! Good Luck!

Injuries

We all end up with an injury that just seems to be a complete kink in our plans for weight loss, getting healthy or getting in shape.  Recently this has happen to me.  Last Wednesday at volleyball I re-injured my index finger on my right hand and then on top of that hurt my wrist (probably because I kept playing with the first injury).  I have tenderness, lack of strength and overall pain and swelling.  As you can imagine this puts in a kink in my 3 to 4 times a week on an elliptical machine followed by a fast pace all over circuit training workout.  Not only can I not grip things but any of those motions just sound painful.  I did end taking a break for a few days, ok the week, due to the pain and swelling and by the time I did anything else that day my arm was throbbing and my fingers aching.  But it doesn't help me reach my goal to just sit around and ice my hand and wrist all day, so I have been trying to figure out other ways to work towards my goals while not putting any pressure on my wrist.
So here is what I have come up with for now, I will walk, without the dogs (yep tried that too hurts when they pull on the leash) 2-3 days a week.  I will also try and go 3-4 days a week to the gym and ride the recumbent bike for 20-30 min, that or the treadmill if I get too bored.  None of these things will put a really bad strain on my hand or wrist and will allow me to move forward, albeit after my week long pity party.
The good news is I did actually book a doctors appointment with an orthopedic hand specialist for Friday, so hopefully I can get some answers, and maybe even the past injuries resolved.
So the point is, just because you can't do what your plan was, doesn't mean you can't meet your goal.  So take a few days to give yourself a pity party or just to make the excruciating pain go down.  Then reformulate and rethink your plan with your new constraints so that you aren't back at square one when your injury free, because its likely that then you will just hurt something else!

Whats your motivation?

What is your motivation to achieve your goal of losing weight or getting in better shape?  Mine personally is liking what I see in the mirror.  Right now I don't feel like I see me.  Instead its this faint idea of who I am, now that can be taken both figuratively and literally, and I would probably agree with that statement in both respects.  However for now we will concentrate on the literal.
Before I look in the mirror I expect to see someone who is thin, fit and has their head together.  Instead I end up seeing someone who has lost their way with their goals to stay in shape and be fit.
I can't say I spend every moment of every day believing I will achieve those goals or even working towards them.  A lot of that is my attitude and sabotaging myself with negative thinking.  So my goal for the week is to work on my negative thinking and self sabotaging.
Starting with today, I am going to put in to place an eating plan since I can't seem to make the right choices when I need to.  I tend to do well with structure and lists but not going quite to the point of planning every morsel I am going to put in my mouth for the week.  But just limiting my choices seems to help.  I personally really like the Body for Life for Women book and have always done well with their eating plan, so I am going to be using that for myself.  It also helps me eat smaller meals more often, remember to measure my food and eat all my fruits and veggies!  
The second thing I am going to do is try and check off many of my "to do" list items that I can come up with for the week so that I am not as distracted so that I can achieve my weight loss and fitness goals as well as my others with my classes.
Lastly I am going to have some fun, I am a rather serious person on the best of days and I am realizing more and more I am not having FUN, so with my new outdoor furniture put together (yep no thanks to me- B did it all) and a stack of magazines that just came in, I am going to enjoy the beautiful weather with my hubby and pups and drink a few glasses of wine and have a great evening!