Flashback: The Red Nightgown

When I was little, and we went to visit my Granny and Grandpa, my favorite thing to do was play dress-up. Granny let me have an old red nightgown, some nylons, and a pair of her shoes... and in that outfit, I felt like a princess! And I put it on each and every time I went to visit.

The hat adds a little something, don't you think?

The Up's and Down's of Weight Loss

As I indicated in a post last week, I am once again fighting the battle of the buldge. It seems to be an endless battle. It's not like I expect that I'm going to look like a supermodel. I never have- but I do want to be healthy.... and summer is an easy time to eat well and exercise. And that is what I have been doing this week. I have avoided the Little Debbie Swiss Rolls that Nick purchased at the grocery store. I have not helped myself to the ice cream in the fridge. When the craving for chocolate hits, I have an Oreo 100 calorie pack. I've faithfully attended the YMCA at lunchtime and done my "Power Sculpt" DVD.
My one mistake was weighing myself too much this week. They say you shouldn't weigh in more than once a week. Now I know why. When I started out last Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers on the scale- they weren't as bad as I thought they would be, and I felt good about my starting point. Then on Tuesday, I was alarmed to find I'd gained 4 pounds. FOUR pounds! How was this possible? Yes, I'd had ranch dressing on my salad- but 4 pounds. Jeepers... I decided my scale was broken, and kept up with my routine. Then I decided I needed to weigh in again on Wednesday- you know- to confirm the scale was broken on Tuesday and had given an erroneous reading. Only it said that I'd gained 2 MORE pounds. I was now 6 pounds heavier than Saturday. Not nice words were being directed at the scale. Brittney, my co-worker, tried to make me feel better by saying "muscle weighs more than fat". She's sweet. Yep- it's all muscle. We'll go with that.
I've decided not to weigh in anymore until Saturday. Any guesses how fat I'll be by then? If it shows another gain, I'm buying a new scale!

All About Me From A to Z...

I got this nifty little idea from my friend Kelly's blog, so I thought I would play along. (Sorry, Kel, haven't figured out how to do links yet- perhaps you can show me sometime!)

A is for Age: 29

B is for Burger of Choice: CHEESEBURGER with ketchup and pickle, please!

C is for the Car You Drive: 2004 Mercury Sable with a brand new battery

D is for your Dog's Name: Pepper (aka- Doodlebug)

E is for Essential Item You Use Everyday: Underwear

F is for Favorite TV Show at the Moment: not watching much tv these days since it apparently takes a year to have the cable man come hook it up- but I do like Grey's Anatomy.

G is for your favorite game: what kind of game? Sport- volleyball computer game: wheel of fortune (Jeopardy makes me feel dumb). Board game- the National Geographic trivia game my parents have- although it's a little outdated.

H is for Hometown: Can I still claim Hampshire, IL if my parents no longer reside there?

I is for Instruments you play: oboe and trombone (sort of)

J is for favorite Juice: Cran-raspberry juice

K is for what you would like to Kick: my datebook that is filled with meetings from now until eternity.

L is for the Last Restaurant You Ate At: Ruby Tuesday on Saturday.

M is for your favorite Muppet: hmmm... haven't watched the muppets for awhile- but I agree with Kelly- I'll go with kermit.

N is for Number of Piercings: Just 2 - one in each ear. I did have them double pierced at one time, but they are closed up now.

O is for overnight hospital stays: Just one since birth, I think- December 2000- after my very bad anaphylactic reaction to the mystery food. I'm happy to say I haven't had any trouble for 4 years, I think (knocking on wood).

P is for People you were with today: Nick, Linda A., Linda F., Loretta, Brittney, Ashley, and Sharron (co-workers), Mr and Mrs. Imgram- and I really wish Mr. Imgram had been wearing more than his underwear when I arrived to look at their tomatoes. My retina's are still burning.

Q is for what you do with your Quiet time: what's that? I like to read, scrapbook, and garden in my quiet time.

R is for biggest Regret: too public of a forum to share something like that- but yet I shared that Mr. Imgram answered the door in his skivies. Hurting or disappointing the ones I love is my biggest regret.

S is for Status: Married to my sweet husband Nick.

T is for Time you woke up today: thanks to Pepper, I woke up at 5am (20 minutes before my alarm went off). But it was 6am where I work. That's what I tell myself to get out of bed that early.

U is for what you consider Unique: Each and every one of us is unique. Isn't that what they tell you in pre-school?

V is for Vegetable you love: there are several- corn, green beans, tomatoes ...

W is for Worst habbit: according to Nick- leaving my shoes in the middle of the floor and leaving the blanket in a wad on the sofa. But he loves me anyway.

X is for X-Rays you've had: none that I really remember.

Y is for Yummy food you ate today: nothing particularly memorable yet today- but I am making pasta with chicken, carrots, and broccoli for dinner. That will be pretty yummy!

Z is for Zodiac sign: Capricorn

And now you know more about me- and Mr. Imgram- that you wanted to! Seriously though, who sits around their house in their underwear at 3:00 in the afternoon?

Working in the Garden

After dinner last night, Nick and I headed over to work in the garden. Nick's parents are being very nice and letting us take up as much space in their garden as we want to, so we are taking full advantage! Nick worked up a nice new spot to plant our goodies.

While I played with the cats....

This is Trouble. She is named this because she likes to hang out in inconvienant places like under the tractor or under people's feet. She loves to be where ever the people are. She helped us in the garden for hours on Saturday- and helps Melvin with whatever he is doing whether he needs help or not.

I haven't named this one yet. She's also real sweet- but not nearly as much trouble as the other one. She will actually move if you start a tractor or vehicle. She's more of a lap kitty, and loves to be petted. Any suggestions on what might be a suitable name for such a cute kitty??

These are pretty much the only two cats that will let me pet them. Someone left them at the farm- and we are happy to claim them! I'm not giving up on the others though. I figure if I keep feeding them, they'll eventually come around!

Nick was still tilling the garden....

So I stopped over to see the steers....

"Excuse me, can anyone tell me how to get to Holiday World?"

Guess not...

When we were all done planting- the two cats had some playtime in the freshly tilled and planted garden.

Excuse me kitties- can you please wait and do this to Peter Rabbit when he gets the munchies later? Thanks so much!

Peter Rabbit

Could this be the rabbit....

That did THIS to my acorn squash???

I now understand why the farmer didn't like Peter Rabbit!!

Car Battery

Last night, when I got home from work, Nick reminded me that we needed to make a list and go to the grocery store. I'll admit it, I was annoyed. First, going to the grocery isn't really tops on my list of things to do anytime, but least of all after work. Add in the fact that I was having trouble coming up with dinner ideas, and I morphed quickly into a big grump about it. We finally got the list made and I got into my car only to find that the battery was dead. And I mean it was DEAD. This, of course, helped my mood immensely. Because Nick's car was in the garage, and my now dead and not-going-anywhere-anytime-soon car was parked behind it, we had to call his mom to bring one of their cars so we could jump mine. We got it running and parked it in the street, left it run for awhile, and I took Nick's car to the grocery store. Unfortunately, this morning, my battery was still dead- the battery fairies didn't visit last night. Nick is the one that takes care of the cars so he was going to take care of it today for me. We'd be in a heap of trouble if car maintenance was my job! My skills don't go much beyond refilling the washer fluid. So Melvin (Nick's dad) gave me his car for the day and off to work I went!
I'm sure by the time I get home my car will be back in working order!

Back on the Wagon

Sorry for the delay in updates! Nick and I are still in the process of unpacking all of the things we spent weeks putting into boxes! We are also still waiting on our cable and internet. (I'm blogging from work... shhh... don't tell!) When Nick called today, they told him they can't come until next Thursday. They are lucky he called them- because hell hath no furry like a woman without tv and internet! Actually, it doesn't really bother me that much- I can now go do things outdoors- but I still think it's ridiculous! We will have been in our new place for nearly THREE weeks by next Thursday... On second thought, maybe I should get that number from Nick.

I am disappointed to report that I have nearly gained back all the weight I lost last summer. I'd love to blame it on something or someone else, but I think it has more to do with my love of biscuits and gravy, pizza, and ice cream than with anything else. So, I'm back on the wagon- I'm going to behave myself! I have all these cute clothes I've been saving because I just know I'm going to get back into them!! So that's my goal- by summer's end I want to wear the shorts that I have kept from 5 years ago... so I can justify having moved them in a box 5 times! To get myself off to a good start- I took a late lunch after our staff meeting and went to the YMCA. After I was done huffing and puffing my way through a treadmill workout, I was changing my clothes. The little summer campers (I'd guess about age 5 or 6) were changing into their swimsuits for swim time. The little girl in the stall next to me was having some trouble getting hers on and she says "I just can't get it to work! I think it hates me!!" I couldn't help myself, I replied "Oh honey, it's ok. We all feel that way about our swimsuits."

Happy swimsuit season!