So Much Cooler Online

The story of Brooke and Jay begins several months before our first meeting. I had created a page on Myspace and the prompting of my friend Libby, but never really used it much till another friend (Corinn) suggested that I could use to meet guys.


Simultaneously, Jay was preparing to move down here from Ohio and began looking for people (girls) in the area that he might like to get to know. In May of 2006, I received a friends request from him as well as an email. According to him, I was one of his first Myspace friends (he signed up for MySpace on May 20th and friended me May 25th).

Apparently I had that sweet, innocent look that he seems to go for. Or else it’s the chin, he likes ‘em pointy. How else do you explain a man that thinks that two of the most beautiful women in the world are Reese Witherspoon and me?

My family had vacationed in Ohio late May, so right off the bat he and I had something to chat about. For several months he and I emailed back and forth. I knew he was different, because unlike most of the other guys on Myspace, his emails were lengthy and thoughtful and consisted of more than ‘u r hot. wanna go out?’

At one point, however, the long emails put me off. Here was this cute, or at the least photogenic, guy that spent a good deal of time talking to me. Surely there was something wrong with him, as he seemed too good to be true.

Trust me, I knew all about to good to be true. From the one that got away, who now I wish would have stayed away to the other myspace date who only smiled with his mouth closed in his pictures – for good reason.

My fears about Jay were confirmed when I posted a blog about my craving (and searching) for Planter’s CheezMania cheese balls. He took it upon himself to do a couple of pages of research about why the product was hard to find and was eventually discontinued.

Little did I know that shortly after moving down to Tennessee, he injured his leg at work. Since his Jeep was a manual transmission, he was pretty much confined to his house. Had I been stalking his comments, I would have seen that everyone was asking him how he was going and throwing around ‘get well soon’ messages.

He was hurt, bored, and so his research in response to my cheese ball ranting wasn’t all that scary or stalkerish as I first suspected, but at least for the moment it did make me question his sanity. In the years (hey its been 4, that’ qualifies as “years”) since, I’ve also learned that when he does something, he goes at it full force. This man doesn’t know how to half @$$ anything. He does it all the way, or it sits in the garage for 7 months. Moving right along…

Finally in September, he asked me out. After emailing for 5 months, just coming out and asking me to go out with him would have been a bit awkward. So instead he came up with a cheesy line.

Brooke Sept. 7th, 2006:


Sounds like you've made friends in the area fairly quickly. So are you still liking it down here pretty well?

Jay Sept. 7th, 2006:

Am I still liking it here? Yeah, its pretty good, but it would be EVEN better if you wanted to do something with me sometime?! I'm such a dork, and have wanted to see ya for a while, but thats just my shy personality coming out in me I guess!

Brooke Sept. 26, 2006:

I would love to meet up sometime. I'm sorry to say that my next couple of weekends are crazy. But we really do need to plan something!

It took several weeks for our schedules to finally work, because we both had trips planned in October. I went to a friend’s wedding the first week in October and went to Green Bay the last week of the month. The weekend before my trip to Wisconsin, he traveled back to Ohio for the OU homecoming game.

I suggested Friday, October 13th. Fortunately, he wasn’t too superstitious to accept. I emailed him my phone number and ask him to call me so that we could work out the details. Surely over the phone I could tell if he was too good to be true.

He called the Wednesday before and our conversation lasted less than 2 minutes. By the end of the call I was convinced this boy had no interest in me. Nonetheless, we would meet in person for the first time 2 days later.

To be continued at Johnny Carino’s…

If you want to read more of our love story, here are blogs about our first date and our first kiss.

True Love.

(Adopted from my twitter stream - follow me for more pearls of wisdom www.twitter.com/smartstrongsexy )

True love is...

• not having to apologize for farting at the dinner table.
• complimenting my 2nd least favorite body part and proclaiming it "the best ever" but not mentioning my least favorite so i know you're not lying.
• being the behind spoon Valentine's morning even though you know I've had diarrhea all morning.
• researching tropical vacations to take me on, even though you/we lose $$$ from business you have to give to someone else while we're away.
• trying your best to board up & mouse proof our house that's 100+ years old because you know it freaks me out.
• driving to the store to get me a Sprite to settle my tummy.
• getting more excited than me about planning my dad's 60th birthday party.
• building me a new closet because I threw a temper tantrum that would rival one from my 6 year old niece.
• buying me boxes of books because you know how much I love them.

Safe to say, my man loves me.

How are you going to practically show your love this Valentine's day?

Looooooong Weekend Update

Long referring to the fact that I had 4 days off.  Not at all related to the length of the post.  Although with 4 days to recap no promises!!

Thursday - Finally got my kitchen cleaned up and a little laundry one.  Then it was off to Sam's Club to stockpile and pick up the world's largest jug of laundry detergent.

Friday - A run, some house cleaning, and then Jay & I headed to the University town to pick out tile and fixtures for our bathroom remodel.  We came home empty handed, but I think we got a great idea what we were looking for.

After our shopping was complete, we headed to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse to enjoy our belated anniversary dinner.

We took our signature arms-length photo and headed in for one of the most expensive meals of my life.  Wanna see what $151 worth of food looks like?  (Tip not included)

Caesar salad and a glass of Guinness

T-Bone steak, shoestring fries, 2 more Guinness, a filet, mashed potatoes, and a glass of red wine.

The world's tiniest cheesecake with raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry garnish

with chocolate pecan bark on the side.

We had the waiter snap a picture of us with the river front in the background then we headed home.  I had to get up early the next morning for a long run (don't tell on me for the glass of wine 'kay?) and Jay put on a documentary that had him snoozing before 9 o'clock! 

Saturday - Woke up at 4:30 for my long run.  Jay told me that it would take 2 hours to get to Cades Cove from my house.  When I arrived in the park - this is what greeted me:

Due to the lack of traffic on the Parkway, I had arrived an hour early, before the picnic area or loop road was even open yet.  Thankfully the campground bathrooms were open, so I got to take care of business before heading out to my run.

I brought my new camera along (an anniversary gift) to see how annoying it would be in the pocket of my jacket.  I want to get pictures of Disney, but didn't want to bring it along without knowing how it would feel.

Most of the pictures were taken early on in the run, before the hills had sapped my energy.  Before I questioned if I had enough to finish 26.2 miles at Disney.  (The rest are on Facebook if you want to check them out.)

After my run I caught a quick nap then met my parents along with the Princess and Little Man to head to Dollywood.  They have their Christmas lights up now and this past week was only a $5 entrance fee for residents.

Sunday - All of my dad's  brothers and sisters met up for lunch - there are 8 of them (including my dad) still living.   As per my standard, I took a to-go plate so that I could cart off some of the best mac & cheese ever.  My cousin makes a big pot and uses a box and a half of Velveeta!  Since the Princess and LM were with us, I had a run for my money on the mac & cheese, but there was still plenty left over for me to have for leftovers this week.

Then it was time to take the kids back to my sister and BIL.  We met at a restaurant, but since we were still so full from lunch we just got salad (I boxed half up and will be eating it for lunch today) and soup.

THE END

Is it any wonder I'm still exhausted 2 days later??

The New Old Married Couple

Its official - Jay and I are no longer newlyweds.  And since I'm working a 12+ hour shift at work on our anniversary (Monday) I haven't gotten into a very romantical mood about it.  Since we were out of town for our anniversary last year, we never got around to eating the top tier of our wedding cake.  We'll be doing that, as well as enjoying a bottle of wine we bought in Napa last anniversary.

If you'd like to read the sappy account feel free to click here and here for a complete walk through the day (pictures included).  Other wise grab a can of Natty Ice or PBR out of the cooler and settle back to enjoy some random facts from my wedding day.

• I seriously considered wearing camo flip flops under my dress.
• My father yelled out the car window into traffic "If you wanna see a bear go to the d@mn zoo!"
• Dressed in my veil and full bridal makeup, I flipped off another vehicle as we sped by.
• My flower girl didn't wear shoes.
• There was no electricity in the church.
• The father/daughter dance was to a song about a homeless man.
• My tuxedo clad husband crawled under his our vehicle to bang the starter with a hammer so that we could get the honeymoon started.

All of that, and it really couldn't have been more perfect.  I suppose if you don't know our wedding story you really do have to read the sappy version.  Despite evidence to the contrary, it really was a beautiful day.

Marine Corp Mud Run 5K Race Report

Twas the night before the mud run, and all through the home two creatures were stirring trying not to aimlessly roam.  But instead they had their sites set out with a goal, they'd find clothing that was old and worn - something they could get dirtier than coal.

Okay as badly as that sucked - it was hard to write so we're switching back to my rambling style 'kay?

Jay easily found an old muscle shirt of his that he no longer cared about, and a pair of almost too short shorts that had paint stains on them (how is it men's shorts keep getting longer and longer while women's shorts keep getting shorter??)  "No draw string?" I questioned but he insisted that he had chosen the right pair.

My mother gave me a pair of her shorts that she didn't want any more.  In my house you just don't throw clothing out - she was excited to hand them over because it meant she finally got to throw them away.  Not sure why she needed a reason, but I went with it.  They had a draw string, so I didn't care that they were a couple of sizes too big.

Jay hunted out an old tee of his from the box I consider rags, and doctored it up some. There was an empty spot, so he filled in my name.

He then added a special surprise.

Notice that scratched out part?  Apparently this tee had belonged to Aaron Barone before Jay rescued it from a thrift store.  A little blue sharpie and suddenly the shirt is mine again.  Along with a sweet little message.

We had about an hour drive, so we headed out early.
And were greeted by rain showers that weren't expected until later in the day.

The race hadn't even started and we were soaked.  There were some pansies that were wearing ponchos or carrying umbrellas, but we didn't really see the point.  Isn't a mud run supposed to be wet and messy?

Due to the obstacles, the runners were divided into 9 separate waves.  Jay was a wave (or 2 minutes) behind me at the starting gate.  His speed plus my difficulty on the first obstacle made it easy to catch up with me before the 2nd obstacle.

(That's me in the green shorts.)

The first was a series of 3 barrels about 3 feet high.  Not sure why, but I had difficulty getting over the first barrel.  It was slippery from the rain and as I tried to hop over I slid right back off.

Over and over and over again.

Until the Marine Corp dude watching over the obstacle came over and gave me a hand.  The second two barrels were the exact same as the first, yet I managed to make it over each of them on the first try.

A few feet after that were some logs about 2 feet off the ground that we were supposed to hop over.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Shortly afterward I heard someone yell 'Aaron Barone' and turned to find that my darling non runner, non training husband had already caught up to me.  He asked if I wanted him to stay with me.  I told him it would be more fun together, but I would drag his time down.

I secretly suspected he wanted to use me as an excuse if he didn't get the fast time he was hoping for.

The course wound around until we had to enter the lake for about 200 feet.  Jay and I enter locked arms and trudged through the water, passing a few racers along the way.  Then it was back on land for a muddy up hill climb.

As the course leveled off, we were greeted by more logs.  These were about 2 1/2 feet high and hovered over a lovely pit of mud.  We had to keep our feet moving, even when the competitors in front of us were at a stand still.  Otherwise the mud sucked our feet down, making it more difficult to move.  We marched in place awaiting our turn, but Jay's shoe was lost in the processed - suctioned off by the mud creature below us.

The brave knight battled the monster for the shoe - we had attached our timing chips (as instructed) to our laces, and the shoe in question meant the difference between Jay having an official time.

The Marine Corp recommended crawling hands and knees style and of course they were right.  It made battling the mud creature easier, although it wasn't without its own challenges.  As we quickly discovered, there was also gravel in the mud.  I'm not a big fan of pain and this was more than slightly uncomfortable.

Once we made it through that particular challenge, we were greeted by another.  A jungle net that we had to crawl under.  It was a slick mud surface, so most of us just slid under it like a slip 'n slide.

Shortly there after (and yes it felt like we were being bombarded by obstacles one right after another) there was a 3 foot hill of mud.  We climbed up it then slide down the other side.

Then it was back in the lake for another 50 foot walk and then we were back on pavement.  One thing I'll say write is that when obstacles are added into a 5K, it becomes difficult to know how far you've gone.  With the pavement under our feet, I thought we were nearing the end of the course.  Instead they just ran us around on the other side of the park.

We ran up and down hills until Jay asked to walk up some.  Finally his lack of training was catching up with him and it was me having to slack back for him.  Sorry.  I don't mean to gloat, but that rarely happens.  And while I love my husband it does give me a sense of satisfaction when he can't just rely on his athletic nature.

Then there was the 4 foot wall. 

The wall made me very thankful that we'd stuck together.

With a boost, I was up and over the wall quickly.  Something I wouldn't have been able to do on my own.

Then he jumped over, wishing he'd listen to me about shorts with a drawstring.

More mud, more hills, more Marines.

Our two final obstacles were the high knee tires and the low crawl ropes.  Once again we had to crawl through mud/gravel but this time under ropes about a foot and a half off the ground.

The last couple hundred yards took us downhill towards the finish.  There was traffic, and I could tell Jay was tired, so I really pored it on at the end.  This was my one and only shot to cross the finish line before him.

Only I didn't. But at least it was together, not him before me.  (Remember his 2 minute later start?)

We sought out my friend/training buddy who in her current pregnant state couldn't participate as more than our photographer, and got our celebratory picture made.  We'd survived!!

We headed back to the lake to rinse off before changing clothes and heading home.

Or so we thought.  What started as a grassy parking area became the 2nd muddy mess of the day.

We stuck around for a couple hours as Jay helped push people out of the mud.  Some had managed to get themselves so stuck no amount of Marine muscle was moving them.  Of course that's when the Jeep rode in to the rescue to tow them out.

My official race time ended up being 47:49 - as predicted my worst 5K ever.  Jay's time didn't register, so he carried his shoe the entire race for nothing!  Figuring a minute per obstacle (it was more on some - having to wait for others to clear out) and walking part of it to stay with my hubby, I figure that's not a bad time at all.

Don't worry, I washed and saved Aaron Barone so I'll have my hidden note of encouragement for next year.

Checking in - From Sunny South Carolina

Morning yall!

I was hoping my first blog on vaca would be about my mud run, but alas that is not the case.  Sorry to disappoint.  If you're friends of mine on facebook then you've already seen the photos, so all you're missing out on is my witty captions between them.

I figure you're not missing much so I post at my leisure.



Today starts a new challenge over at the Sisterhood.  I'm pretty sure its too late to sign up - its all complex with official weigh in submissions and teams and stuff.  The challenge for me?  Not participating.  You see I'm at a place where I need to focus on liking me.  And I can't do that if I weigh myself every week and get disgusted at my lack of progress.

Sure I've gained some weight this summer, but I wasn't happy with myself all the way down at 122, which tells me I gots to fix my head before I can even think about shedding these extra pounds.  (Last check I was back up to 131.)

My goals for now are finding the positives of my body and getting across that Anchor Splash finish line.  Which is in less than two weeks BTW.  Any suggestions, recommendations, checklists for seeing this thing through would be appreciated.

Okay so on to the check in.  I ran once and swam once on vacation.  According to Christie O's standards that officially makes me an athlete - exercising on vacation and not just because you feel like you have to, because I wanted to.

The other part - loving my body.

*Big sigh*

A few months ago The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans did a swimsuit giveaway courtesy of Lands End.  Never one to back down from an opportunity to get something free, I entered.  As many times as possible.  And I won.

Totally cool right?  Yeah until I came time to order.  Apparently the sizing at Lands End isn't compatible with the President of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee.  Their smallest size was still too big for my girls. 

Via Twitter, the Shrinking Jeans ladies recommended I use the live chat feature to speak with a Lands End rep about my issues.  Wouldn't ya know it but my rep was a man.

Me: Hi, I've got the smallest girls in the world, what can you do for me?
Lands End dude: We're clothing makers, not miracle workers.

Okay so that's not how it went.  He was helpful and recommended their Canvas line, which is geared more toward teens.  But the Shrinking Jeans ladies weren't sure those were included in the giveaway, so I picked 3 suits that had tie backs (the only 3 they offer under their regular line).

And all of those were out of stock.

But once again the reps were incredibly helpful (and never mocked me - to my face at least) and went ahead and sent a suit from the Canvas line - very similar to one I picked out on my own.

*Big gulp* so here I am - in all my bikini glory.  I must say that my husband is a bigger fan of the suit than I am, but hey if he approves of me showing this much skin who am I to argue.  I ask if he just wanted to share in on Facebook as a taunt.

*Said in best Borat voice* "You'll never get this!"

Of course we spent the rest of the day speaking like Borat.  I love my husband - I never have to worry about looking goofy in front of him.  He thought I was hot at the mud run, he thought I was hot on the beach in my new suit.  Okay so maybe not so hot speaking like Borat but definitely amusing and lovable.

So there you have it ladies - my own personal "Survivor" style challenge.  Posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit, instead of weeping when I see it.

Hopefully yall are having an excellent week.  Check back tomorrow - I hope to have my mud run post up by then.

Happy 46th Monthiversary My Love!

Friday the 13th is a very special day in the Mutant family.  Its the day we first met.  He and met on the internet 5 months before, and exchanged emails the whole time.  (Read all about it here if you haven't already.)

Here is the blog I composed several months after we first met:

Jay & I had decided previously that we would meet on Friday the 13th of October at Johnny Carino’s. When I got home from work that day, I started getting ready. I had selected a pink corduroy blazer and a tan camisole.


Unfortunately, my good booty jeans were dirty, so I had to go with a back up pair. I proceeded to straighten my hair and leave my apartment 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet up with him.

I grabbed a book on the way out because I knew that it wouldn’t take me that long to get to the restaurant (which is about 10 minutes away), but I didn’t want to make a bad impression by being late.

Half way to the restaurant, I began to question if I had unplugged my straightening iron. The more I considered it, I was convinced that I hadn’t. With visions of my apartment going up in flames, and thinking I still had plenty of time, I turned around and went back home. Of course when I arrived at my apartment my straighter had already been turned off and unplugged prior to my departure.

As I got into the city, traffic began to back up and I realized that I had need 30 minutes to get to the restaurant, only I wasted about 15 going back home. Thankfully, he was stuck in traffic as well. At a couple of minutes to seven, he called and let me know that he was running late.

Jay: Are you there yet? I'm running a couple minutes late, I can see the Johnny Carino's sign, but traffic is ridiculous and wont be there for a few minutes.


Brooke: No, I'm running a couple minutes late myself.

A couple minutes passed and he called me back again.

Jay: I'm here, are you here yet?


Brooke: Nope, still in traffic.

Jay: That's what I figured, I didnt see any cute brunettes waiting around the parking lot!

Thankfully, I didn’t have to stress about being rudely late because he was too.

When I finally arrived at the restaurant, I found him waiting on a bench outside. I was pleasantly surprised that he was even cuter than in his pictures. He had already been there for a few minutes and had put our name down for a table. I joined him on the bench and we chatted as we waited to be seated.

The number one rule of first dates is that you never plan to extend the date until you know for sure that you want to spend more time with this person. You never arrange for post dinner festivities until you are comfortable with them.

While we were waiting for our table, he asked if I wanted to go bowling with some friends of his afterward. Then he called them to set it up. In less than 30 minutes we both knew that the other was someone we’d be interested in spending more time with. He’s since confessed that he had his friends on reserve for if the date was going well.

Thankfully I was comfortable with him, because what happened next freaked me out. Standard protocol for meeting guys on the Internet says to not give your date too much information. I never told them where I worked, my last name, or any other information that could potentially be used to stalk me in the future.

Out of the blue he asked, “Is your last name...?” I said yes, and then proceeded to ask how he knew. What if he had done the same type of scary research on me that he had done on the Cheezmania cheese balls? Turns out he was talking about this brunette named Brooke that he was going out on a date with and a family member of the couple we were going bowling with suggested it could be this girl that she knew.

Not surprisingly, I dominated the conversation. I began to worry that I wasn’t giving him an opportunity to talk and that he would be very put off by my chatty nature. I kept reassuring myself that he was encouraging me to talk, asking question about something he knew that I love—the television show Lost.

He had just recently started watching and had quite a few questions about the plot and what was happening with some of the characters. Being the geek that I am, I knew the in-depth answers to what was going on with each of them.

After we finished with the meal I broke the number 2 first date rule. I got in his car with him. I have always been super careful to not put myself in the position that a date would cart me off somewhere and hack me to bits. But from the moment I saw him, I was so comfortable with him that I knew there was no need for the caution.

We met up with his friends at the bowling alley. I quickly learned that the three of them were very good at bowling, and very competitive. We bowled 2 games and they smoked me in both of them.

My bowling highlight was a frame that I was convinced was a gutter ball. Dejected, I turned around and headed to my seat. Only to miss the ball swerve back to take out several pins. According to Jay, his bowling highlight was watching me bowl in my jeans - guess the backup pair weren't as bad as I thought!

When the bowling center closed, we figured it was about time to wrap the date up. He took me back to my car and we chatted a little before I got out of his Jeep. I was stalling, talking about random crap waiting for him to kiss me. After about 15 or 20 minutes, I gave up, settled for a hug, and headed home. Little did I know that he would make me wait even more before we had for our first kiss…

The birthday pictures

Sometimes Debbie Downer takes over my blog, but I try not to let her stay for more than a day.  She had her fun yesterday - now its time for us to have ours! 

Since I didn't get a camera for my birthday, I had to rely on a friend to be the official party photographer.  Unfortunately that means getting no pictures of her.  :(  An oversight that will be corrected next time around.

My friend from South Carolina (the one that threw the kickin LOST party) came down with her husband and the 3 of us visited the new Titanic museum in town.

Its a go-at-your-own-pace/self guided tour so we spend a good portion of the afternoon taking it all in.  Then it was back to the house to welcome guests and decorating.  The decorations had to wait until after some of the guests arrived, since guest/friend Chasity volunteered to purchase them and make my house festive.  We're not tall girls, so the actual hanging was man's work.

We started out on the front porch, but despite the shade of the roof and the outdoor ceiling fan we decided it was too warm to eat outside.

We set up camp in the keeping room/hearth room/TV room.  (Maybe I should do a "name my catch all room" blog contest?)  Thankfully Melissa had brought a card table to provide some more table space.  (If you come to a party of mine don't ask if you can help if you're not prepared to!!)

(That's the little man getting throw back and forth by Jay & my BIL).

After an excellent meal of hot dogs (thanks to my master griller hubby), mac & cheese (thanks again Chasity!), baked beans (love you mom!), and spinach strawberry salad (thanks Super Boo :P) it was time to open presents.

My friend/coworker/training buddy got me the funniest.card.ever.  Seriously.

On the front was a picture of a cake stand with only crumbs left with the words "The democrats stole your birthday cake..."

Opening it up, it continued "They gave it to people not fortunate enough to have a birthday today."

Yes, I found it that amusing.

After presents, the guys got antsy and went outside for a round of croquet while the girls stayed inside for some general chatter and story telling.

This is me, demonstrating how I pouted until Jay fixed my closet for me.

Other stories included the "wucking wan" incident.

and "Sammy will take care of that for ya"

I'd tell you the stories, but then I'd have to kill you.  Then again...Sammy could take care of that.

I'll leave you with the card that my darling love made for me.  He gave it to me two days later, on my actual birthday, along with a Renee Zellweger movie he got for $3 and LOST season 4 on DVD.

The top right hand corner says "To: The most perfect, beautiful, fun, and loving 30 year old woman a man could have.  From: A dirty, older man.

Then under the flower in the top left he wrote: This is suppose to be a flower if you couldn't tell.  Don't ask me what kind because I don't know!

The 3rd blob on the right is his version of a mountain.  He drew a stick woman on top, and a stick man rolling down the side.  It reads: "You on top of mtn.  You kicked me off and I rolled down the hill."  He also labeled the green grass under the mountain and the river below that.  Apparently he heard his mother say "tell me about the picture" enough as a child to understand that sometimes his drawings are the most obvious.

Finally in the bottom left corner of the card is a butter fly that "lost his tentacle in a horrible scissor accident".

Who needs Hallmark when you've got a man willing to do what it takes to make you smile?

Even if that means twirling his finger in his chest hair to get it caught, just to make me smile.  (Last night was the most recent - however not the first nor last time - incident).  How can I not smile at a man willing to take the time to torture himself (then be at my mercy cutting him loose) just to keep me from being sad?

Hope everyone has a great weekend planned!

Weigh-in Wednesday - Spring Fling Week 4

Good morning!  I was nervous going into today's weigh-in.  I busted my hump this past week - burning over 4,000 calories and sticking with eating only 1650 calories per day.  Add to that the bloat gain from Aunt Flow last week, and I was bound to lose.  Right?

Right?

Right??

What could it mean if I didn't lose this week?

I held my breath and stepped up on the scale.

Challenge starting weight: 125.4
Goal weight: 120
Last week: 127.0
This week: 123.6

I lost almost 3 1/2 pounds!!!  Are you freaking kidding me?

That means I lost all of my bloat and then some.  Which means my exercise is burning the fat off, and 1650 is just about right where my calories should be.  Woot!  Woot!!!

I really needed this victory.  Yesterday I got really down on myself because my running hasn't been improving the way I would like it to.  I ask my husband last night why I can't just be good at something.  Not the best in the world, but better than mediocre. 

Hell I swear I don't think I even rate mediocre when it comes to running. 

Being the sweet, thoughtful husband he is, he hugged me and told me that in his eyes, I was the best penny pincher in the world - and that was something to be proud.  Then he pulled out the cheese card and told me I was the best in the world at loving him.

*Begins passing out air sick bags.*

Then I have the loss this morning - at this stage in the game 3 1/2 pounds is certainly not a mediocre loss!!

In fact its enough to earn me this shiney thing...



I wiped the slate clean and decided I'd only post a button if the weight loss was for the year - so here I am 3 months after the year began finally earning my 5# button.  My next stop will probably be stealing Thea's "I lost it all" button, because somehow I'm not sure 119 (what it would take to earn the 10# button) would look healthy on me.

Another victory for me is that I now have not one, but 2 pair of pants that I can take on and off without unbuttoning them.  For a girl with a booty like mine, that's sure saying something!

Time for me to report in to the Weight Loss Warriors and let them know how I did - no feeling like I let them down this week.  Time for you to hit the scale and report in to the Sisterhood.

Our first fire! (and other random pictures)

Knowing I was in a crappy mood yesterday, Jay asked what he could do around the house to help me not be so stressed. I really didn't have an answer for him, but when I got home I saw that he had figured it out all on his own!

Okay so maybe it didn't look like that by the time I got home, but it was still nice to eat dinner in front of the fire.  (Our table is to the left of the fireplace, just out of the picture.)  It was also nice for the house to be 70 degrees for a change!  Scared of the electric bills, we've been keeping it on 60. 

 
Besides the new baseboards, the only change we made to this room was the yellow on the wall.  It connects to the kitchen and when I think of a farmhouse kitchen I think yellow.  Please excuse the mess just beyond the french doors.  That's our soon to be mud room.  Right now its the pile o'crap room.
 
That's all the new photos I have to share with you today of our house, but remember I said we hung out at a cabin this weekend with our Sunday school class? Lest ye picture it to be some rustic hunting lodge, when we say "cabin" around here this is what we mean:
 
 

A master bedroom on every floor, a theater room in the basement, and fireplaces in the commons areas. 

Okay that does nothing to show you the cabin, but I thought it was a cute picture of us so I wanted to share it.  Check out this bathroom - nothing rustic here.  It certainly puts my master bath at home to shame.  Mine is a two by two shower with claustrophobic glass doors.

Thou shalt not covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

Thou shalt not covet.

Jay fell in love with the theater room, so I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of it.  If we build a farm house later down the road Jay has already said he wants a theater room.  I'm not sure what kind of farm house has a $6K flat screen television and theater style seating, but if we build a house its because he's done very well in real estate and deserves whatever kind of room he wants!

Today is a short day for me.  I'm going to try and get around to everyone's blogs today but if I don't I'll get to you tomorrow I promise! (Lord willin and the creek don't rise.)

Rethinking My Shrink - Week 5

If you heard my confession yesterday, you'll know I was expecting the scale to be kind to me this morning.  To be more accurate, I was hoping the scale would be nice to me, but fearful that it wouldn't budge.   Then where would I be?

My in-laws arrive late Monday night (after I was already in bed) and certainly wasn't up when I left the house yesterday morning at 6 AM - don't blame them, you've gotta be insane to get up that early.  Um.  Did I just call myself crazy?

Any way last night was the first time I've seen them since New Years.  They worked all day at the farmhouse helping Jay out.  Since I haven't seen them in over a month, I felt bad for going to bed at my normal 9:15.  I actually made it until 10 last night.

I was definitely paying for it this morning at 5:40 when my alarm went off.  By the time I got to the gym I was still just barely awake.  I groggily stepped on the scale and held my breath.  As exhausted as I was I knew I'd have a breakdown if I'd gained, or really even if I hadn't lost.

I looked down and saw...

Challenge goal weight: 124
Last week: 128
This week: 127.6

Seriously??  So it was almost half a pound, I can't be upset with that at least in my blog. 

I was going to use this week to see if 1650 calories is still what I need to eat to lose weight, and I'm still not sure.  I guess I'm going to keep it the same for another week or two and see what happens before I  it.

I have a million things running through my head as to why it was only 0.4 pounds.  Hopes - That I'm stressed like Jillian said last week and that's what is causing it to be so small.  Fears - that my body is adjusting to all the exercise and the calorie restriction and I'll have to work harder to see more of a result.

But for now, I'm not thinking about it.  Like I said give it another couple of weeks before I analize it to death.

And now...for what you've really all been waiting on - pictures of the hooker boots!!!

This is a pair given to me by my mother.  Not sure if a pair of boots originally worn by a Sunday school teacher in a classroom of 4 year olds can be called "hooker boots" but that's what I consider them.  Crazy thing, even in a pant size 4/6 my calves are big enough that I struggle to get them zipped.  I'm not sure who they were designed to fit.

These are the more hooker-y of the two.  Higher heel, more sassy design.  Unfortunately, I've worn these to death and the fake suade is coming off these K-Mart blue light specials.  I know, if they were true hooker boots it would have been a red light special, but I was too cheap to pay for a different colored bulb.

Also, I was asked about the signs on my bathroom mirrors.  They are just further proof that my husband and I are that sappy sweet couple who requires those around them to have airsick bags.

In the rental, we have a double bowl vanity, and have the sign to us taped above our sink.  Not sure what we'll do with the signs when we move into the new house and just have a single sink in the master.

For the grande finale...

This is what a Sisterhood hooker looks like after getting up at 5:30 to work out, working out again at lunch, grocery shopping after work, then trying on/taking pictures of a stack of clothing for blogging purposes.  Try not to be too scared.