For The Record....

It doesn't seem like I have too many people reading my blog...lol, or at least commenting, but I still want to keep track of certain things for my own benefit. Today was day #7 at the gym....last week, I went M-Thurs., skipped Friday, went Saturday and rested Sunday. This week, I skipped Monday because my allergies were KILLING me! I was SUPER stuffy AND runny at the same time....don't know how that happens, but I figured I would do no good running if I had to breathe through my mouth. By Tuesday, I was feeling a little better and went because I don't want to skip alot of days and get off track. I went today and God willing, will go tomorrow and Friday and rest for the weekend. I know that's three days off this week, but I don't think I should go 5 consecutive days. Today, not sure why, my knees were hurting while I was running. Maybe because I didn't stretch today? Possibly. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to start off on the Elliptical and do maybe 10 mins on there and then try to do my 20 minutes of running 1/walking1 on the treadmill. So far, that is all I have done at the gym...walking/running on the treadmill. I haven't been able to move up to level 2 yet which is running 2 mins/walking 2 mins. Not sure why...maybe I just need more time. On the up side, I haven't weighed myself since I started eating better and exercising a couple of weeks back, but I have noticed and felt a definite change in my body. My middle doesn't feel so "blah" as I like to call it or bloated I guess....I think I feel "leaner" if that makes any sense. I have a pair of jeans that I had already started fitting into the last time I had gone on a gym kick (back in August when the kids started school up until about mid November). They had been fitting me a TEENY bit snug around the waist back then, but not anymore!! I am just waiting for them to fit baggy on me...can't wait! Oh, and this morning while looking in my drawer for some unmentionables...lol I dared to grab a size 7 which had NOT been fitting me comfortably for a while and they FIT!! YAY!! So, I went down from a size 8 undie to a size 7!! Small steps....I WILL get there. I already have a new pair of pants that I am going to try to fit into....those pants are my GOAL!
Aside from exercising which is kind of sucking all my energy right now. Only because I guess I go so early (and I HATE. HAAATE waking up early!) to get it out of the way. Then I come home and get all my "chores" done and then I feel so physically tired that I don't feel like doing anything creative. But I have created 8 pages so far this new year and worked on some Valentine's Day cards for a swap I'm hosting on my Facebook scrappy group. I have some orders coming in soon so hopefully it will inspire me to create more :)

I'm BAAACCKKK.....

with a confession.....GASP!! Yes, I know I've been MIA for quite a while.....stuff going on....nothing going on....just "life" happening. But I'm not going to update or try to remember everything that happened since I last blogged...nope, my brain can't remember that far back. Let's just move on shall we? SOOO, I have once again started going to the gym. Here's my confession......I. HATE. IT. Every single morning, I try to talk myself out of going: I'm too tired, I'm sore, I have SOOO much to do, I just want to relax, I'll go tomorrow, I need a break...ect, ect...you get the picture. I hate everything about it. I hate sweating, I hate the pain (OH, the pain...lol), I hate walking back from the gym (and sometimes to the gym). I lied, there are SOME things that I like about going to the gym, but I think I could do these things just as well in the comfort of my home. I like listening to my music on my Ipod, I like de-stressing and having some "me" alone time where no one is asking me for anything. I like to be alone with my thoughts and clear my head. THAT I do like. BUUUUUT after all the procrastinating and complaining and dragging, once I get there....I'm kind of glad I'm there and when I'm done and walking home, I feel GOOD, I really feel good and I'm glad I went and I wonder why I tried so hard to get out of it. It's only an hour out of my morning and I go early, right after we drop the kids off at school. So I can still come home and get my stuff done and have the rest of the day free to do whatever I want until the kids come home. I've heard people talk about going to the gym and REALLY like it, LOVE it even. I wonder if I'll ever be one of those people.....maybe, but for right now I'm doing it because I NEED to. I need to get back in shape. Not just to fit back into some of my smaller clothes, but to just feel better about myself. Which I do already. I've been cutting back, watching what I eat and drinking TONS of water for two weeks now. This is only my 4th day back at the gym, but already I feel a HUGE difference in my body. I don't feel "yucky" in my middle, my clothes are already starting to fit better. Yesterday while running on the treadmill, I noticed that I had to keep picking up my pants because they were falling down! YAY!! I haven't weighed myself and I don't really want to or plan to because I don't want to be a slave to the numbers. I want to let my body speak for itself. I'll know what progress I've made by the way my clothes fit and the way my body feels and looks and really that matters more to me than a number on the scale. Since I've been back to the gym, I've been using a technique that my friend Kim from church told me about that's used I think for training for a 5K. I'm not planning on running a marathon or anything any time soon, but running is something I've always wanted to be able to do. Don't ask me why, I just do. So I've been doing this thing for 20 mins (some days a bit more) where I run 1 min/walk 1 min. The first day I was able to do 45 mins of that. The next day...not so much...lol I was SUPER sore...so that day I stuck to the 20 mins. Yesterday, I did 35 I think as well as today. It's getting a little easier and I am nowhere near as sore today as I was that first day....thank you God! But I'm not sure if I will be ready to move on to the next level next week which is running 2 mins and walking 1 minute ( I think) for 21 mins. I still kind of have a hard time towards the middle of it all with my breathing or feeling like I didn't catch my breath enough before it's time to start running again. I wonder if my allergies have anything to do with that? Mountain Cedar and other stuff has been blowing around and I've been blowing my nose like crazy! Anyway, I'll be taking the weekend off since the kids will be home and it's harder for me to get to the gym and to let my body rest for a couple of days. God willing, I'll be back at it on Monday. I'll try it out and see if I can handle going to the next level, if not, I might just stick to the first level for another week until I feel more comfortable with increasing the running time. Sooo, that's about it here on my end. Oh, tried brown rice per a friend's recommendation and it is YUMMY.....nice to not have to cut out everything yummy :)

Pictures Of My Grandmother

My grandmother just passed away two days ago at 89 years old. I'm uploading these pictures here for my sister because she is making a slide show for the funeral home.

Swissgirl Designs 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway

Check out the sweet giveaway that Rahel is having over on her blog!

http://swissgirldesigns.com/2011/12/01/12-days-of-christmas-day-1/

http://swissgirldesigns.com/

Our Love Story

Tomorrow will mark one year from the day we said "I do". But when I think about it, I said "I do" to you long before that. I'll admit that I didn't expect anything to come from that Halloween night when we met almost 8 years ago. I spent the next few hours in your company and you made me laugh. By the end of the night when we parted ways, I knew that I wanted to persue you and see where things might lead. The next few months moved very fast. Our relationship was a whirlwind to say the least. Within a month, you were staying at my apartment, three months after that we were getting our own place together, and three months after that we were expecting Mikey. Fast forward about 7 years and here we are....husband and wife. I never thought that day would come...lol, but I see now that everything happened just as it should...in God's time and not mine. I think that in this last year, our marriage has slowly grown into what God has intended for us. Things are not always perfect, but we are learning every day how to deal with our differences and how to communicate better with one another...I feel closer to you every day. I pray that God continues to work in our marriage and that He provides us with the tools we need to grow stronger, closer to Him and closer to each other until we are so close that we don't know where one of us ends and the other begins. I love you so much, baby. After all these years, you are still the person I'd rather spend my time with. You are my rock, my best friend, and my happy place :) And I pray that we have many, many more years together and that God grants us the blessing of growing old with each other. Happy First Anniversary, Shmoopy.

the shopping continues.....

I couldn't help myself! I am admittedly a patterned paper junkie! It's just SOOOO pretty!! And at half off...how can I not indulge myself? I know, I know....I've purged my paper stash at least 3 times in the last year. And all three times has been anywhere between 1'-3' of paper. Which is good and bad I guess. Good because I'm getting rid of it and passing it along to someone who will use it...hopefully! And bad because well, it's money wasted. But in my defense, I am totally becoming pickier about what I buy and do NOT buy papers solely on the basis of it being "cute" or because it's a "really good deal". I know what I like, what I will use and that's what I buy. In saying that..lol...I hung out with my sister on Saturday and we stopped in at the Crossroads Hobby Lobby and we were lucky enough to find the October Afternoon 5 & Dime! We could NOT believe it! They only had it in the 8x8 pad. And they only had TWO pads left so both my sis and I were able to snag one...YAY! If you can believe it, that was all I bought there. Over by her house, we hit up the Hobby Lobby on Bandera and I was lucky enough to find the Crate Emma's Shoppe collection pack!! WOOHOO!! It was hiding under a bunch of other paper pads waiting just for me :) I also picked up the Echo Park Be Mine collection pack. I really love the colors...not necessarily Valentine "theme". I think I can incorporate it into any kind of "love" layout or maybe other stuff too. I had debated getting the Fancy Pants "It's The Little Things" paper pad. I really wanted it, but seeing as how I've spent a little more than I'd like to spend on scrapbook stuff in a week, I put it back. Hopefully the next time paper goes half off, it will still be there. Or who knows...maybe there will be even MORE new stuff?? :) :)

What else? Oh, Lij had auditioned for this Glee Club group at NYA which is where we take him for his guitar and vocals lessons and he made it! YAY!! We got an email last week and his practices started yesterday. Because they will be performing now, they were advised to begin attending the Advanced Vocals at NYA and Glee Club practices follow that. So on Mondays, he is at NYA from 6:30-8:45. I'm really hoping this doesn't interfere too much with his school work or his bedtime schedule. We will see how it goes. I know this is something that is very important to him (his music), so we want to be supportive so I hope everything goes well. He was really excited about it when he came home last night and Miguel said the parents who happened to be there last night were invited to watch them do a bit of the song they practiced, Proud Mary, and he said it was really neat! Wish I had gone!

So, school starts next Monday. Good thing: the kids are back to school, I have more free time, ect. Bad thing: waking up so darn early! I HATE waking up early! lol But it's a good thing because I'm going to get back into my gym routine. I have been feeling super blah...my clothes are fitting tighter...not good. So back to the gym for me!

Um, can't think of anything else to write for now, so here's a pic of my new papers. Oh, I've been doing alot of scrapping too...lifting of this woman who's blog I visit. Her link is in my sidebar "mugsyboo". I just love her pages! And speaking of inspiration, I love to watch scrappy vids on You Tube and one particular woman whose vids I like to watch is kraftinkate. She does alot of haul vids, but she also shows alot of her pages and she makes the cutest cards! She recently started up a blog, so go on over and check her out http://www.kraftwithkate.blogspot.com/ I think my new pages are uploaded to my scrapbook.com gallery...not too sure. I'm a bit lazy about uploading them here, then there, then facebook...so sometimes I just don't want to do it! lol Okay, that's all for now...bye!!

Women be shopping....

lol...I remember the comedian on the first Nutty Professor movie where Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett go to that comedy club and Dave Chapelle is doing his act and he's talking about how "women be shopping..." lol Anywho! lol I had seen at one of our Hobby Lobbys last week that they were putting out new paper pads. TONS of new stuff...lots of new Paper Studio pads, new MME 180 sheet pads, Crate collections, Basic Grey 6x6 pads, 7 Gypsies 8x8 pads, Glitz 8x8 pads, Jenni Bowlin pads, lots of Graphic 45 pads. I was in awe of all the new stuff. And I lucked out today because they had already put up the signs for next week's ad so I was able to get the pads at half off today when the sale doesn't really start until tomorrow...bonus! I picked up one of those 180 sheet paper pads of MME Lost and Found! O-M-G! They papers are BEAUTIFUL! And I especially love it because it's the flat paper as opposed to the glittery ones they have in the open stock. I'm not too crazy about glitter on my paper. I also got the Glitz Afternoon Muse 8x8 paper pad which is also LOVERLY (BTW, I say loveRly with an R on purpose..lol), and a 7 Gysies 8x8 paper pad from the Lille collection. I cannot wait to do some scrapping with my new papers! And I know the LAST thing I should be buying is paper especially after all the times I've purged FEET and FEET of paper. I can't help it...it's my weakness!! I think I want to get the Crate Portrait collection which they also had, but I think that is all. Even though everything new they have put out is just YUMMY...I think I've learned what I will use and what I won't and I'm just wiser about my paper choices. I think stamps were on sale too...including acrylic and I did notice alot of new cute stamp sets, but nothing that I wanted or "needed"...lol..to buy.
I've also been doing alot of scrapping lately. I actually did a page today and I can't remember which day this past week my sis came over, but I managed to make 3 pages that day. I'm too lazy to upload them here, but if anyone wants to check them out, they are posted up in my scrapbook.com gallery. Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Oh, last night after I had gotten out of the shower, I heard Max barking up a storm so I went outside to check on him because I saw him pawing at something on the ground. It was a baby possum! And I think he injured it because when I was coming up on him to see what he was doing, he grabbed it with his mouth and ran. I'm pretty sure he punctured some part of it. It was kind of sad seeing the poor thing struggling to breathe. So, now we are thinking of having Max leashed up overnight to keep him from going into the darker parts of the yard where who knows what can be lurking there!
Well, it's late and we have church in the morning...so good night :)