Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year's Eve!


I hope everyone has a safe & wonderful New year celebration tonight!!!

I haven't been out somewhere on NYE since I was in the Navy.  I am perfectly content to hang out at home with my sweetie in my PJs watching the countdown in Time's Square on TV.  We haven't decided if we're going to invite Angel to stay up with us or not.  .She's perfectly able to stay up past midnight, but we're such party animals, she may just end up going to bed anyway!!

I've seen so many posts on FB saying how horrible 2011 was and how they can't wait for 2012, etc, etc.  I personally think it was OK.  Nothing incredible happened, The major tragedy we had was losing Skeeter, but that was about it.  We have our health.  We both have the same jobs 10+ years.  We can pay our bills..  We still have 2 working cars and a roof over our heads and plenty of food to eat.  I'd have to say 2011 was good to us and I'm so thankful to the Lord above for all our blessings!

2011 weight loss recap

How cool is this?  Instead of a ball drop for New Years Eve in Detroit - there's a "D" drop!  By the way - I found a new blog to follow... MichiganLifestyles.  Just tossing that out there, since that blog is where I found the picture!

Moving right along!

This is a sad, sad, eye-opening post.  However, I choose to focus on the positives. 

A.  Both my weight & inches are less than when I re-started WW back in March. 
B.  I know when the times finally comes - I should be able to maintain easily!

OK, so there isn't a really long list of positives, but there are some!

In a nutshell....since March I've lost a whopping 5.4 lbs. and a total of 5.5 inches.

Wooo. 

Hold your applause.

Sheesh.

2012 is going to be better.  A happier year. 

I am currently charging my iPod, so I can start listening to my hypnosis CDs again to hopefully find my focus and get somewhat closer to a healthy weight / BMI.  The main issue I have with these are that when I relax like they want me to, I tend to doze off so I don't know if what I'm hearing is actually working.  Heck, I'm not even sure of WHAT I'm hearing!

I'm going to get back on the FlyLady bandwagon and get my house in order.  If I'm tired of living in this mass of clutter, I'm sure Randy & Angel are, too!

I'm going to really watch unnecessary spending this year.  Randy is very concerned with his job.  I could really go on a detailed rant about the ignorant assholes in charge at that place, but that will just piss me off.  So let's just pray the worst won't happen like it has to so many people here in the Detroit area.
 
I hope that everyone will have a safe and wonderful celebration tonight and an equally great 2012!


See ya next year!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

SQUEEE!

First order of business - I have been horribly remiss in saying anything about my weigh ins.  I have actually been going to the meetings!  I'd rather missed going.  There's just something about my leader, Carol, that is highly entertaining.   She follows the topics according to the WW website, but her mannerisms & how she talks is just different.   I also like that since they changed up the program again, they give us the paper trackers with a 7 day sample meal plan.  YAY!  I was in such a food rut I was getting discouraged again.

Last week I was down 1.8 lbs, which made me very happy!  This week I'm almost afraid to get on the scale.  I didn't overeat at all on Christmas Eve - but also I didn't even make an attempt to make good choices.  And Christmas Day??   Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Leftover Chinese food for lunch.  Dinner at Zehnder's.  Oh my.  Dinner at Zehnder's....  Little crisp toast rounds with chicken liver pate (no one else ate any of that - so more for me!!) Chicken noodle soup.  Coleslaw.  Mashed squash that tasted way too good to NOT have butter in it.  Mashed potatoes.  Stuffing.  Chicken gravy.  Fried Chicken.  And ice cream for dessert.   I was full, but not to the point of pain - unlike poor Randy!  He had to unbutton his shirt for the hour drive home.


And some good news - The lovely Miss Munchberry at I'm just PUFFY nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award!  I feel so honored to receive this from someone who is so open and real in her writing and always very entertaining.  Gosh - I feel like I have high standards to maintain.....UGH!  THE PRESSURE !!!!

OK, I'm good now.

So I'm supposed to choose 15 bloggers to pass this on to, but I'm going to follow Munchberry's lead and roll dice.  FlabbyMcGee  please step forward!!  Flabby is another who has the brass to post *real* pics of herself and tells things how they are, but also is able to maintain her humor and sarcasm thru the good times & bad.

Now....7 things about me. 
1.  I have recently discovered a nutcracker addiction.  I mean literally. You know, these guys?  Yeah.


I am sort of glad Christmas is over, since I will be less likely to find them in stores & add to my army.  BTW - I started out with 5 this fall.  I now have 16.  Is there Nutcrackers Anonymous?? 

OK, this is harder than I thought!

2. I am friends with both of my ex-husbands on Facebook.  I know.  Odd.  #1 isn't on there very often and #2 is my daughter's sperm donor, so I feel obligated to be his friend.  He hasn't actually seen her since March 2000 (his choice - not mine, but no complaints!) and this gives him an opportunity to actually see what he's been missing out on, because he finally realized he is an ass.

3.  I LOVE peanut butter.  I can eat it off the spoon and even mix it in my morning oatmeal. I used to only get the reduced fat Jif.....until I mentioned to a co-worker that I was making those PB cookies with Kisses in them for Christmas.  She recommended getting the cheapest PB I could find, since Jif was too creamy.  So I grabbed a jar of Velvet.  Of course as soon as I got home, I had to try it.  OMG.  It was like heaven on a spoon.  I looked closer at this treasure.  4 lonely ingredients - all of which I could pronounce.  A smidge more fat than Jif, but fewer carbs, more protein & more fiber.  AND is made in Michigan.  And has the same Points+ as Jif.   Soooooo - goodbye Jif!
 <3 Om nom nom nom <3!!

4. I really don't know what to think of Chobani Greek Yogurt.  The texture reminds me of drywall compound.  The fruit kinds are OK.

5.  Oh crap.  I'm going to cheat.  Look about at the tab - 123 things about me - that should more than fulfill the requirements!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! 

Monday, December 26, 2011

Friend Makin' Monday - how we celebrate Christmas...

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Do you celebrate Christmas and/or Hanukkah? If so, tell us about your Holidays 2011 experience…Did you enjoy it?  Do you wish it had been different? 

I really enjoyed Christmas this year, even if I had a hard time getting into the Spirit. 

This was a stay-home year for us.  Since my family is here in Michigan and Randy's is in Arkansas, we have been alternating years between here & there.  We spent Christmas eve at my sister Laurie's house.  We just had snacky stuff like white chicken chili & shrimp cocktail & veggie pizza for dinner.  Plus desserts.  And wine.  I only had one glass this time - mainly because Laurie was emptying out her cabinets & her selection of wine consists of whatever they let her bring home after working an event at a country club.  Meh.  

Christmas Day.  I woke up, took the dog out & started the coffee while Angel & Randy were both still sleeping.  Angel wanted to wake up on her own, so I settled in on the couch with my book until she got up - before 9 which is really early for her!  Then I sent her in with a cup of coffee to get Randy. 

 We got snow on Christmas Eve morning!
But then it melted.

 My Nativity Scene
(OK, maybe not the hockey moose)

 Detroit Red Wings ornament tree.

 The Kitty Nativity.

 Jack patiently waiting to open presents.
He is so funny on Christmas morning! 
He kept looking back & forth between me & the tree!

 Maggie looking slightly stoned with her catnip toy.

 This is what a half-pound Reese's Cup looks like.

 My sister Linda gave me the Ken ornament, so he's hanging out with the girls on the tree.

 Chester getting happy with his catnip toy.

I really enjoyed this Christmas, since in the past we'd always have to rush over to Mom & Dad's to spend the day over there. This time we got to relax & play with our new stuff. Randy got me a laptop like I asked for - SQUEEEEE!! And we got handheld Garmins to go geocaching with. Angel got her sparkly black boots, 2 full sets of books, a huge pair of granny panties (LOL!) and all sorts of stuff to make her happy. Randy got his scanner antenna and anemometer for his weather station. Plus the requisite clothes, socks & underwear. As a family gift, we got Wii Pictionary & the drawing board.

Last evening we went to Zehnder's in Frankenmuth for dinner.  This restaurant is well-known around here for their amazing chicken dinners.  Frankenmuth is a quaint little German town with the World's Largest Christmas Store, Bronner's.
Angel's getting too tall!

Bronner's was closed, but their parking lot is always decorated a tons of Christmas stuff & nativities all year round.  So Angel & I had to get out to play.

















Overall, it was a nice day, but on the same token....I'm glad its over.  My house has been insanely cluttered because I have no place to put anything.  And I was also a dork and didn't take any time off work, so as soon as I get home tonight I plan to start taking stuff down.  The tree can stay up thru New Year's but everything else is slowly going back into the garage!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

And Thank the Lord it is over!!!  I really had a hard time getting into the Christmas Spirit this year.  It's only been within the last week or so that I found it!

So anyway - last night we went out to Laurie's for "dinner".  I put it in quotes because it was all snacky stuff....white chicken chili, chicken noodle soup, brownies, cream puffs, shrimp cocktail, veggie pizza - you get the point.  Then we exchanged gifts, altho I really thought we weren't going to.  I took a little something out for Mom / Laurie / Linda / Lisa.  Mom was bummed at a dance fundraiser we all went to that I won this glass block planter with bamboo in it and she didn't - so I made one for each of them. Not for Lisa - she got a gift card.


This is what I won.  The ones I made were slightly smaller.  Between a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby & the dollar store, I made each of theirs for a total of $9 each!  And they went nuts over them!
 
 Linda got me the groovy Ken ornament - so he's hanging out with the girls on our tree!

Jack patiently waiting to open presents.

 Maggie needs some munchies after getting her catnip toy!

 Chester with his 'nip.

Today was pretty nice - I enjoyed not having to rush thru opening presents to go over Mom's house to sit there all day.  We met them out in Frankenmuth this evening for dinner (an hour away) so we had most of the day to just hang out & play with our new stuff!  Randy got me an adorable little laptop.  I just wanted a basic one where I could get online & blog & stuff if he was on the desktop.  It's so tiny & cute!  His mom sent us all gift cards - Wal-Mart for Angel & Randy and Michael's for me!  Woohoo!!  Angel got her black sparkly Uggs & Michigan State pillow pet & all sorts of stuff to make her happy - including a huge pair of granny panties as a joke.


I'm still stuffed from dinner at Zehnder's.  They're known around here for their chicken dinners.  Ooof.  This is one of the few days of the year that Bronner's is closed (a crazy HUGE Christmas store) but the parking lot is always decked out in Nativity scenes & anything else you can think of by way of decorations.  So we drove around there looking at lights before we came home.  Of course Angel & I had to get out to play!
 
 Well, we almost got a decent pic!





 One of these is not like the others!


 Turning on the huge bulb.

 Changing the huge bulb!



 Trying to sleigh-jack Santa!





 I can't imagine this candy cane tasted  very good. 

LOL!

And wouldn't you know that I was a huge dork and didn't request off any time over the holidays, so I still have to work tomorrow.  That's OK.  I'm pretty sure there's going to be a lot of goofing off this week, since most of the "higher-ups" are gone til after New Year's and a lot of the plants are down so there won't be many trucks running.  I'll have paperwork trickling in, but later in the week there won't be crap. 

I"m glad Randy is at home tomorrow since we have another cat with issues.  Poor little Maggie is constipated!  A bit of TMI, but she had a hard poo hanging out of her booty tonight, so I (the things I do for my family!!!) put a baggie over my hand and massaged the area with olive oil and helped get some of it out, but it's still obviously stopped up.  So she's locked up in the bathroom for the night with a litter box, her food with more oil mixed in and a big bowl of fresh water.  For some reason they always drink more water when it's in a different bowl and in a different place.   Keeping fingers crossed!

edit:  The book we found that suggestion in was correct!  Maggie was finally able to go - and she seems fine.  I haven't seen her since I left for work this morning, but Randy said she was in snoozing with Angel in her bed.  Whew!

Anyway - since I do have to get up with the alarm way too early tomorrow, I should sign off.   Later!