Cause for Celebration!

Tonight, Ashley and I went out to celebrate the beginning of what will be the greatest things ever!  Moving out of the apartment!!  It will be a 60 day process, and I haven't told the apartment manager yet (doing that tomorrow), but we are SO glad to be moving! 

This day has been a long time coming for me and I know for Ashley too.  In fact, here is a list of things I will not miss about this place:
1) Children. Screaming, loud, rude, non-supervised children.
2) Neighbors.  Not that we won't have neighbors where we are going, but neighbors that share a building and the same roof line.
3) Dog poo.  Yup, dog poo.  While I am not an advocate of picking up your dog's poo, I don't appreciate stepping around and smelling large dog's poo.  I make sure to take Bentley out in the woods where I don't have to pick it up and people don't have to step around it or see it.  However, if you can explain to me, correctly, how dog poo penetrates and contaminates the aquifer, I will listen.  Otherwise, you are just repeating what the "save the environment" people tell you.
4) Baby momma drama.  Ashley and I got to witness this first hand. When your yelling is louder than my TV, inside and doors/windows shut, you are too loud.  I don't care what your situation is, but I don't care about your baby daddy bringing you any money down stairs to your car.
5) Having stairs outside my door.  Apparently, everyone who lives upstairs with us (adults included) was never taught to walk us stairs quietly.  Stomp...stomp...stomp...it's ridiculous.
6) The creepy maintenance men...who all have a key to come in and they probably come in more than they are suppose to.
7) Stray cats and the crazy cat lady who lives here that feeds them.  I have often thought about throwing the bowls away that she uses...I still have 60 days...
8) Parking Lot....mainly, sitting in my living room and seeing an ugly parking lot.


Things I will miss:
1) Mr. Bill.  The sweetest old man who lives down stairs.  He brings home a case of diet coke everyday and he's always in Publix...even my mom has ran into him in publix!

...yup, just Mr. Bill.

Anyway, once I get some pictures of the new place I will post them!

I leave for a conference on Wednesday, so no Team Lean update this week, but stay tuned!

Sunday Stroll

Today, Duane, Carolyn, their girls and I, went to ride part of the St. Marks Trail.  We ended up doing 13.2 miles and while that may not seem to be a lot, it is!  In fact, I am very tired tonight and so I will be posting mostly pictures...especially since 4:45am comes early and the treadmill can't operate itself!

Duane and Carolyn...they didn't want to take this picture, but I insisted!!

I was smiling for the picture, however, some little kid started running toward me and I was preparing for my emergency stop before I kicked her in the face.

Round 'em Up!

Today, we ventured over to the metropolis of Whigam.  This was a much bigger "to-do" than I thought!  There were lots of people there and I can see why it brings so many people...it is curiosity/stupidity at its finest.  I'll go with the curiosity portion.  I am a sucker for crafts and homemade things!  However, I refrained and only bough a jar of homemade Spiced Pear Butter. 

Anyway, I was on the hunt for some rattler earrings, per the wonderful suggestion of my cousin, Brad, but I never found any!  Have no fear though, I do have pictures!

Michelle and me

Close and I could get...

Snakes, anyone?

Rattlesnake meat anyone?

Smile!

Team Lean Thursday-Week 2

***We jumped up 30 spots this week to 93rd place!!!***

It's official.  I'm a looser again this week!  My looser sticker is in the car or else I would post a picture of it.  While all team members were not a looser, that certain individual only gained half a pound.  No biggie, it will just alter our percentage.  All together we lost 9 pounds this week.  On the plus side, my foot feels 87% better so hopefully, my number will improve over this next week! 

On a side note, if all goes well tomorrow, we (Ashley and I, since we are now a couple...well, according to the Christmas cards we received we are...and they were by our own family!!) will be moving at the beginning of April!  Stay tuned for that excitement!  Good thing I never unpacked all my boxes!!

In other news, Ashley's boyfriend, David, will be here tomorrow and we are all venturing over to Whigham to the Rattlesnake Roundup.  Why, you may ask...I'm really not sure why...just something to do.  Sunday, however, I am really pumped about!  Duane, Carolyn and I will be bike riding the St Marks Trail (click here for more information).  I'm pretty excited about that and hope that the weather is gorgeous!  I'll be sure to remember to pack my camera in my backpack!

Weekend Wonders...

Today, I started (& finished) my little project of redoing a mirror.  I had many thoughts on what my weekend project would be.  At first, I was looking for an old bakers rack to fix up and use as a make shift herb garden for this spring and keep in out on my balcony.  However, since I got this wild idea on Friday, I really did not give myself much time to get everything together!  I asked Carolyn to take me over to their church's rummage sale storage unit to see if there was one there.  No bakers rack, however, I did see this diamond in the rough...

This little beauty was hiding in the back and I had a few thoughts about.  One was to just paint it and the paint the mirror to be a chalkboard, however, it is too big to hang anywhere Ash and I could actually use it. So, then I decided to actually use it as a mirror.  How appropriate, right?

I went to Lowe's this morning and found the paint I wanted.  When I get in these moods, I envision where I will be using it and what color scheme. I envisioned deep burgundy with gold accents. Once I finally get new furniture, which is probably a still a good year or two away, I would like dark brown leather couches with deep, rich colors pillows and gold accents...I can see it in my head...don't worry!

I found my paint, but ended up having to go to Hobby Lobby for the stencil and gold accent paint I wanted.  After thinking deeply about what stencil to use, I finally left one of my favorite stores and came home to start making some progress!!

After I lightly sanded it down, I began applying two coats of paint to it.

It looks pink, but it's not!

 After letting it dry for a few hours, I finally added the stencils.  That is the biggest pain ever!!  My stencil skills are a little off and need some brushing up on but I managed to finally get them looking decent.  Not perfect, but decent.  After doing the top detail, I noticed it was tilted a little and should be shifted less than an inch to the left, but I was not doing it over again.  I also didn't take the mirror off, which I should have since it would have been easier to paint, but I don't have the tools to put it back on...Just don't look closely at it!

Well, here's the final project...

My next project is to paint the table it is on black and change the runner out to a new pattern, or leave it off completely.

Team Lean Thursday-Week 1

****UPDATE: As of today, our team is 123rd out of 147...wow....someone lost 17 pounds in one week....this competition is fierce!****


Week one is done and my team is a loser!  Collectively, we lost 17 pounds!  I'm sure that there are some teams that are kicking our butts, but at least we are all losing!
We have nine weeks to go until the finale!

How did you do this week?

"Don't treat your stomach like a garbage can" -MotiveWeight

Shoes Are Good

I have had a little setback on my exercise regime...my foot decided to sissy out on me.  I woke up last Wednesday to a bruised foot and while I "doctored" it myself and decided to wrap it and stay off of it for a few days.  Monday to be exact.  So Monday I went for a walk and it acted up some more.  I finally went to the doctor yesterday to find out I have some real fancy named tendinitis and a possible stress fracture.  On the up side, I can keep walking, under certain conditions, and I don't have to have a cast or boot.  HOWEVER...if the pain continues, the stress fracture may come through full force so I have to be careful.  Oh, by the way, I have no idea how I did it.  One of my "conditions" to keep walking is to buy new shoes.  Consider that done, doc!!  I love shoes!  I could tell the support of my old shoes were no longer in existence so I went and purchased a new pair tonight. 

Here's the kicker though.  My foot has shrunk a whole size!  I noticed this problem a few weeks ago with a certain pair of heels.  I kept tripping out of them...this confirmed it...a whole size smaller.  Now that it is completely brought to my attention, I think back and now notice how all my shoes have felt a little larger than usual lately.  I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it because of this...

 I have LOTS of shoes!  This may not end well!  And if you are wondering, yes my clothes are organized left to right, black to white (alphabetized).  It makes it easier to find a certain shirt!

Oh well...at least I have a good pair of tennis shoes now!!

Spring Gardening

Tonight, I joined a garden club here in Thomasville.  I got in through a co-worker and it consists of a group of about 15 people.  Most of which were there tonight.  It moves monthly from house to house and you have supper and/or appetizers and a small lecture about gardening.  Tonight we learned about seeds and how to correctly read the back panel of the seed packet.  I am really glad I joined because I really miss my yard and all  my plants I had back home, so now I have BIG plans for my little bitty balcony this spring!  Tonight, we also swapped seeds, if you had them, and answering questions correctly also got you a seed packet!  I answered one question correctly and received a packet of Basil and with the seed swap I snagged a Texas Star Hibiscus as well as Confederate Roses!

Whoo hoo!

...this might also just be an opprotunity to socialize with older southern women...of course, I like this reason also!!

Team Lean Thursday

....Three days later!  Sorry for the delay, I had a computer problem with my new laptop and I had to get a new one yesterday! 


This past Thursday kicked off the 10 week challenge of Team Lean. When I have something that needs to stay in the forefront of my mind, I usually end up writing it on my bathroom mirror (a dry erase or wet erase marker can easily be cleaned off your mirror, in case you didn't know!) so that I see it everyday and it stays on my mind.  Being the visual person that I am, I have to see the beginning and the end of this venture so this is what I had to do...

Of course, now it is marked off to '67' days left.  I also broke it out into weeks...don't know if you can see that or not on the right end.  It is very hard to take a picture of a mirror!

I am also going to share a little recipe with you today that is pretty low-cal, in my opinion, of course take it at your own risk...I am not a nutritionist!  I don't have a name for it...

• Take one slice of a 100 cal multi grain English muffin and toast it.
• In a small pan, crumble up one slice of bacon (turkey bacon would be best for keeping this healthy) It is your choice on cooking it in the pan or pre-cook in in the microwave and then just let it heat up in the pan.  Which ever you choose, get the access grease off especially if using regular bacon.
• Add about a tablespoon of spinach to the pan and let it and the bacon cook for about 1-2 minutes.
• Add 1/4 cup of egg substitute to the pan and begin to scramble.
• Add in a pinch of shredded cheese
• Place scramble on English muffin slice

Viola! I don't now the total cal, you can figure it up if you like, but this is filling and since it is a bad idea to eat eggs everyday, egg substitute is a great way to compensate!  By the way, if you can follow my recipe, kudos to you...I get my recipe telling from my grandmothers...just add a little, a pinch, when it looks like, just eye it...all phrases they use, so now I am using it on you, but this is what it should look like:

spinach and bacon

Final product!  Keep in mind that the bread is only 50 cals since you are only using one slice.

Since my 2nd part of my Christmas present came in from Ashley, I will have to add it to my recipe box!

Sorry, you will just have to turn your head to see it right side up!  Bonus, it has my initials...I do love my initials! Its a Lilly Pulitzer recipe box  with a place to hold the card on the lid!

However, I can't let go of my copper box that was my great grandmothers!  I may just find another use for this box since it doesn't have any index cards or anything like that...I am sure I can figure something out!

So for those of you playing along at home...I hope that Thursday brings you a few pounds lost.  If it doesn't, find a jar and add your gained poundage money to it!

 Hope you all have a great week!

Trending Now...

I know a while back I blogged about some bullet end studs. Now, Kevin's has produced bracelets and necklaces made of shotgun bullets!!  Here's a peek:

Leather bracelet for casual wear

A dressier bracelet and there is a matching necklace

Also available, there are the enamel quail belt buckles which also have a matching necklace and earrings 

The new shotgun shell stud earrings which are also available in dangle earrings too!

They are a little Southern Chic, but I love them all!!  I guess I may need to make a purchase in the upcoming weeks!  I need a new bracelet anyway! 

All these items, and more, can be found at  http://www.kevinscatalog.com 

Hope you all have a great week!

Team Lean Thursday's

In one week, the big countdown of 10, long, and grueling weeks of Team Lean will begin!  Every week, you have to go and weigh in at one of the participating locations throughout town.  If you gain, you pay your poundage, so if you gain 3 pounds you pay $3.00!  Since I am not fond of giving my money away, this is my main incentive.  I challenge all of you to follow along, or as Jeff said "play along at home," and enjoy the fun too! Overall, there will be a winner for the team that lost the most as well as the individual male and female who lost the most.

The best way to motivate yourself to achieve your goals is to focus deeply every day on the many benefits of achieving them.

SO...put down the remote, put on your running shoes and get going!

Meet Sassy

Friday was a great day at Running W Land and Cattle Company for one reason...

Meet Sassy

I am pretty sure I am the only one who finds this situation, and categorizes it as, a "Good Day!"

She's a thrirsty little thing...

...and a sweet little thing!  She followed Heath and I like a little dog.

Speaking of dog, Bentley was a "Cow Dog" on Friday.  At first he was not that great since he barked at every single cow...

But once we found Sassy, he was great.  She was his new best friend.  Here you can see him giving her a few kisses on the nose.  He went crazy when we put her in the pin.

There are many days that I dream of views like this instead of the four walls in my office...

I already miss Sassy.  I hope that she is doing great today!  Heath, take care of her! Here are a few more shots from Friday...