Meet Me on Monday!

Welcome to another week of Meet Me on Monday!




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1. What are you wearing right now?
Pretty much my normal everyday attire, it just vaires by shirt type and color.  Today I'm wearing a maroon silky shirt, a black cotton long sleeve sweater type thing, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes.
 
2. Do you have any freckles?
A couple on my shoulders.
 
3. What is your favorite lifesave flavor?
I don't eat hard candy much because I always crunch on it and then it gets stuck in my teeth.  I'm not patient enough for it to dissolve.  BUT my favorite flavor is either cherry or grape.
 
4. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
Saturday we saw Unknown (with Laim Neeson).  It was really good.  Not in my favorites but still worth the $ to see it in theaters.
 
5. Would you rather live without tv or without music?
HARD ONE! I would rather live without tv I suppose.  I don't think I could live one day without some type of music.  Nothing cheers you up faster than a good beat.
 

Picture Post

So I have nothing for my planned Friday post about weight loss.  Today has been a busy crazy day at work and I've been studying a tutorial for a cake that I'm going to try to make for class tomorrow.  Hardly any time left over for blogging.  So here are some pictures I've taken recently.

These are some close-ups of the cupcakes I made last week.  There were a couple that I wanted to make sure I save pics of here to look back at.  These were on my actual camera and the others were on my phone.  It takes me forever to get photos off my camera because I have to bring it and my cord to work and I usually forget one or the other.

 My Lexi girl perched on the very edge of the couch because her Daddy was home and she was so excited!

 On Twitter & Facebook I've mentioned the Neutra that lives in the pond behind our office.  Today I got some good pictures of Mommy & baby!

Baby



Tomorrow I'm FINALLY getting an iphone! Woo Hoo!  Maybe I'll even blog on it this weekend if I can get it figured out!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Need Some Accountability

I have an idea for a weekly blog post that I would like to do.  I don't have any plans yet or any specifics but these are my thoughts so far.

I really MUST lose weight.  I have gained back any weight that I have ever lost and I'm almost back to my heaviest.  Not a goal I ever wanted to achieve.  These past couple of months (Dec - present) I've been eating whatever I want and not paying attention to portions or any type of restriction.  I've been sampling all the cakes and cupcakes I've made and that's really not good.

I don't FEEL good.  I'm uncomfortable in my own skin.  My clothes are too tight and I don't feel confident in the way I look.  I don't want to diet.  I don't want to drink water all day long.  But I also don't want to be fat and unhealthy anymore.  I'm sick of it.

So I'm putting this all out here for some accountability.

My plan is to post something every Friday related to this issue.  Maybe accomplishments for the week, current weight, goals for the next week. Anybody care to join me?  It would be great to have someone to keep me accountable and motivated and I would love to do the same for you.  Maybe we could do one of those Linky things ... if they are still free anyways.

Anybody interested?  My first post getting started will be this Friday.

Birthday Weekend

I have a ton of blogs to get read and commented today (plus 21 phone messages from yesterday to call back)!  I really can't wait until I get my iPhone so maybe I can be a weekend blogger too!  My little Nokia just can't handle that kind of work load. (4 days and counting!!)

I had a really GREAT (99.9%) birthday weekend!  I made cupcakes for class on Saturday.  They turned out amazing!  We learned how to fill them and next time I will do WAY more filling.  We also learned some really awesome new techniques that I can't wait to use again.

This is an overview of the cupcakes I made in class.

Closer up on some of my favorites!! The mini roses are so pretty!!

 Hydrangea flower!  Hard to see from this angle but very pretty as well.

After class we went home (Adam drove me to/from class) to change and get ready to go out to eat.  We met up with his family and my boss to eat at a Hibachi grill that is soooo amazingly awesome.  I do not usually like Chinese or Japanese food but this place rocks!  Afterwards we went to my sister-in-law's house for some You Tube craziness.

All was going great until I got home.  That's when I somehow slammed my ring finger of my right hand in my car door. I don't know how I do it but if there is a weird way to get hurt I will find a way to accomplish it.  I didn't think it was going to be that bad but it was some serious pain.  Once when got in the house and I could see it in the light I knew I was in trouble.  Under my nail was full of blood and throbbing.  I knew immediately that it was gonna have to punctured.  It wasn't actually bleeding out, just under the nail.  I've seen enough of Adam's smashed fingers from work to know what was gonna happen.  I'm not gonna go into all the gory details but after three attempts he got a hole in my nail to drain all the blood.  I was a little woozy and a little queasy so I made sure I was sitting down on the couch.  Then I looked at it.  I didn't see any of the blood but when I looked down and saw a hole in my fingernail it was my undoing. The room went sideways then black.  Adam says that I didn't pass out though.  He said my eyes were open, I was making gargling noises, and it looked like I was having a seizure.  He layed me down on the couch and I finally came around.  I FELT like I had passed out so I'm not sure what actually happened.  He was pretty freaked out to say the least.  Once I recovered I was really ok.  The pressure and throbbing were gone.  Just some pain now whenever my nail touches anything (especially this keyboard).  He says I'll probably lose the nail because only half of the underside looks to be attached.  I'm praying it will grow out quickly with no lasting effects. 

Other than that one little hic-up the rest of the weekend was great.  We did some shopping in Terrell and Canton Sunday and then shared cake & cupcakes with Adam's parents.  Adam had to work Monday and I was off so I mostly watched tv, ate cupcakes, took an hour long bath worked around the house.  This is how the girls spent Monday:

Sweet sunshine!

Goodbye 27 ... Hello 28

Today I'm saying goodbye to year 27 and tomorrow I will be saying HELLO 28!  I really can't believe I'm gonna be 28.  I feel like I'm still a kid and that 28 is way to old to actually be my age.

Birthdays are a big deal around our office.  Well any holiday is actually.  We use any excuse to eat food we shouldn't and not work HAHA!  Yesterday my boss took me and a former co-worker out to lunch.  We are still friends with a girl that used to work here and she and I share a birthday.  We had some yummy food and it was great to catch up with her!

Today my boss brought me some balloons (tradition for whoever's birthday it is), and cake (Red Velvet!!!).   We each brought fixings for mini sandwiches, chips, and dips and had our own little party.  Cake will be cut at 2, as soon as our part time girl gets here (Hurry hurry!).

Tomorrow I have cake dec. class during the day and then for dinner Adam is taking me to a Hibachi grill with our family and friends.  Can't wait!!

I asked Adam not to get me anything for my birthday this year because I would like to continue taking my cake classes and each course has a fee plus supplies.  My big present to myself though will be my iphone next weekend.  I've been saving bonus money and birthday money so that I can get it!!

Hopefully it will just be a great weekend full of laughs and fun times.  That's all I ask for!

New Plan

I didn't get nearly as much accomplished at work yesterday like I planned.  It was just a busy day and I only had time to put out the fires that were new.  So today is a new day right?  Right!

Our evening after I got home from work didn't go as planned either.  Adam texted me when I was almost home to let me know our electricity was off.  Great ... no dinner.  I don't really stock cold things like lunch meat because we don't eat it.  If I do buy some it's usually from the deli so I can get a 1/2 lb or even 1/4lb but I still end up throwing some away, so I don't waste the money on it.  Then nights like last night happen and it would be great to just make a sandwich.  We had nothing what so ever to eat that didn't require heat so after waiting around for 30 minutes we hopped in the car and headed to Mickey Ds.  We don't normally eat fast food but it's the only thing we had that didn't require a 30 minute trip to town.  One benefit to living next to an interstate hwy is there is at least one fast food joint near by. 

So by the time we got home of course we had lights.  Always happens that way right? I did my normal clean up of the kitchen area (that I didn't use but it's habit) and it was bed time.  Yep, we go to bed around 7:30pm most nights.  Adam has been working a lot of overtime that requires him to be there way earlier than humans should be up but it's good money I guess.  Even on a normal night though we are in bed by 8:30 or 9:00.  On the weekends I can usually make it to midnight but that's about it.  I could probably stay up later if I wanted to, but the best time of the day to me is laying in bed with him, cracking jokes, and just being us.  No tvs, no cell phones.  Just us laughing or talking about our day.  I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

So even though all my plans for the day were derailed it was still a good day.  If everything went according to plan life would be pretty boring wouldn't it? Thankfully I'm a flexible person and usually go with the flow!  One of my favorite lines from a song says "Gotta bend when the wind blows". That's me!

Reset

Not sure what happened to my Linky on the previous post.  I think they are having issues or something ... weird.

Anywho ... I made something completely random for dinner Sunday night and Adam loved it.  Yesterday when he had leftovers for lunch he sent me a text saying "Lunch was great".  That is something!  All I did was take a seasoning packet of Ranch dressing mix and add in some chili powder, salt, pepper, and little bit of seasoning salt (because I only had a tiny bit of chili powder and for some reason it just sounded good).  I mixed all that together in a bowl and then sprinkled it on one side of 3 chicken breasts.  I cooked that (season side down) in a big skillet with a little bit of EVOO and before I flipped it I put the rest of the seasoning on the other side.  When I put seasoning like this on chicken I always take a fork and stab it several times to push some of that seasoning down into the chicken, gives it a little more flavor.

I just searved it with some whole kernal corn and green beans.  It was SOO yummy and simple.  Definately gonna add this to my list of meals I make.

Today my mission is to organize my desk at work.  It has completely overwhelmed me so I'm going to take every single thing off of it (beside my computer), put it on the floor, and then just enjoy 5 minutes of a perfect desk. (Maybe play some solitaire or something).  Then I'll go through all the stuff on the floor piece by piece and prioritize what needs to be done and maybe rearrange some of my systems.

I usually have to do something like this when things get too much for me.  It's like pushing a giant reset button in my brain.  Once I get everything off it's very hard to just chunk it back on there without going through it.  Also, once I get started with this I usually end up organizing drawers and other stuff too.

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

Meet Me On Monday

"Blogging is a funny thing...we tell our most intimate thoughts for all to read and yet most of the time I find myself sitting and wondering, "who is this person!?" I know them...but yet I don't know them! I want to know who the person is behind all those words so I thought of a great way for all of us to "meet" each other! "

"Every Sunday Never Growing Old will post five get to know you questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we can all learn a little more about each and every one of us!!"





Questions:
1. Did you get any Valentine's Gifts?
2. What is your favorite topping on something toasted?
3. Do you pick out your outfit the night before?
4. What food item do you absolutely despise?
5. Righty or lefty?

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1. Did you get any Valentine's Gifts?
Adam got me a beautiful bouquet of our favorite flowers.  He is one of those guys that loves to surprise me and puts a lot of effort into his gifts.  He picked my favorite flowers (Roses, Gerber Daisies, & Star Gazer Lillies) and put in his favorite flower, which neither he nor I can remember the name of at this time. (It's the little pink bunches)

The florist told Adam that this was the most beautiful rose she had ever seen. Isn't it gorgeous!? 

He gave me my flowers yesterday, since he wouldn't be able to deliver them in person to me today.  This morning when I woke up I found the most beautiful card that made me cry.  It's not the THINGS that touch me so much but the effort and thought that he always puts into anything he does. It really makes me feel so loved.

2. What is your favorite topping on something toasted?
The only thing I really toast is bread for breakfast and I usually just like a little butter on it.  Maybe a little grape jelly ever once in a while.

3. Do you pick out your outfit the night before?
Nope.  I make sure the laundry is done and that's about it.  I don't wear much variety to work. Jeans and a nice shirt.

4. What food item do you absolutely despise?
BANANAS! I'm gagging just thinking about how they smell. Moving on...

5. Righty or Lefty?
I'm a righty. Some days I like the way I write and some days I don't. Depends on my mood.

No Snow On My Snow Day

My snow day yesterday turned into pretty much nothing.  Not even a flake of snow!  We did leave work around 10am because the temps were dropping like 10 degrees per hour and it was getting really icy from all the rain that morning. They weatherman was saying it's on it's way so I wanted to beat it home. On the way home my windshield completely frosted over and no amount of heat from the defroster or fastness (is that a word?) of the wiper blades would stop it.  It was nuts!  My car doors were frozen shut by the time that I got home.

At home I kept thinking ... Any minute now the snow will start ... any minute.  No such luck.  It got windy the roads dried up and it just got really cold.  Oh well!  I had a paid day off at home so I guess that was nice.

Every time I have a day off like this I look back and wish I had been more productive but at the time I'm always content with whatever it is that I'm doing.  I got my house cleaned up, did a few loads of laundry, and made dinner.  I even got to practice a little with frosting for my next class.  I could have done more but, oh well.

Today we are still FREEZING but starting tomorrow it's gonna warm up and be in the 60s by next week. SUPPOSEDLY this is the last cold blast for us, but being Texas it could change in the blink of an eye.

I'm getting caught up on office stuff today.  I had 15 messages waiting on me this morning and thankfully about 6 or 7 were hang ups.  I'm pretty much caught up on all of that but I'm waiting to hear back from three people I had to leave messages for. (I hate phone tag!)

Happy Friday Eve :)

Snow's Coming!

Well I did end up making it to work today (bummer) but will probably be back home by 1pm.  The front is coming through later than expected but temps will be below freezing in a couple of hours and all the rain from this morning is supposed to freeze.  The we are SUPPOSED to get a few inches of snow on top of that.  I do not want to make my 45 minute drive any more hazardous that it already is so as soon as the roads start freezing I'm outta here!

I really could use a few extra hours today at home to make a yummy dinner, clean my house, and practice some of my new cake decorating skills (on wax paper).

Hope everyone is staying warm and safe today!

Doctor Visit, Snow, & Cakes

It seems like forever since I've done a "real" post! Let's start with my Dr. appt last Thursday.

The full story (now that things are resolved) is that I missed my period last month.  I had taken several pregnancy tests and all were negative but I was still freaking out that maybe I was pregnant.  Then I thought that something horrible was wrong with me and the doctor was going to tell me I had like 3 months to live or something (Yes I overreact sometimes!).  I called the doctor and they said said since I was only a week late (yes just one week) just to wait a few days and if nothing happened to come in on Thursday.  Well nothing happened so I went it.  He thought everything was fine but that I had just missed my period for some reason.  He drew blood to test my thyroid and whatever else.  (No phone call so I'm assuming all that is normal).  I have a slight weight gain and he said that could be a contributor (Thanks doc!).  Also he said something about my age and my ovaries which I pretty much interpreted to mean I have old dried up ovaries but I don't think that is what he meant.  So now of course after all that freaking out, I have now started my period.  I just hope and pray that this isn't something that will continue because 2 years ago I started having two periods a month (sometimes one period for a whole month!) and that all ended with me having a D&C last year.  But I have NEVER missed a period in my whole life. Praying that this is a one time thing.

On to other stuff now ...

Friday morning I woke up to find 2" of snow outside that quickly turned into 4" before I had to leave for work.  Adam had a hard time driving to work, 10 miles away, and told me I absolutely wasn't allowed to drive the 25 miles to my work.  I called my boss and we both decided to just stay home for the day.  The snow really wasn't that big of a deal but the roads were literally frozen sheets of ice and with the snow on top of that it was a disaster.  Our city police issued an alert asking everyone to stay home.  By saturday though we were back to 50 degrees and it was all melted.  Crazy Texas weather.

Saturday I had my first decorating class and I can say I'm so hooked! I plan on taking the next two classes as well.  It was so much fun!  Here is what I learned in my first day:

We decorated cookies the first day but next week we start real cakes.
Sunday was my mother-in-law's birthday so I decided to try and make a cake for her using some of the techniques and recipes I learned.  (We learned how to make buttercream like the professionals ... So easy & yummy!).  This is my "first" cake:

From this angle you can't see how bad the writing is (pretty bad) but I was overall satisfied.  I learned the border just by looking in our class book and I was so happy with my new cake leveler I bought! It made all the difference.

For class this next week I plan to make a white cake with Lemon filling and buttercream frosting.  I did get a recipe for a White Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting that I want to try next. 

Tomorrow we are expecting another 2" - 4" of snow so I may or may not be at work again.  Hopefully it won't be as bad since the temps have been warm since Saturday.

I'll leave you with a few cakes I'm dreaming of making one day (All are fondent)

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Meet Me On Monday

Welcome to the 34th edition of

"Meet Me On Monday!"

Blogging is a funny thing...we tell our most intimate thoughts for all to read and yet most of the time I find myself sitting and wondering, "who is this person!?" I know them...but yet I don't know them! I want to know who the person is behind all those words so I thought of a great way for all of us to "meet" each other!

Every Sunday Never Growing Old will post five get to know you questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we can all learn a little more about each and every one of us!!

Questions:

1. Did you watch the Superbowl?

2. What is the last book that you read?
3. What is your favorite kind of cake?
4. Do you snore?
5. Do you play an instrument?

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1. Did you watch the Superbowl?
 
The actual game? No. We were at my in-law's house for my MIL's b-day and had it on in the background while we were there.  We would watch a few of the commercials and I did catch the half time show.  I thought the half time show was pretty lame.  I mean they sounded really bad and I was just not that entertained.  Just my opinion though.
 
2. What is the last book that you read?
 
Well actually the last book I read was Twilight (finished this morning) but I don't really count that because I'm reading it for the 5th time and I just needed something mindless to read.  Before that though was a book called "Couples Who Pray".  I should have a review up soon for booksneeze.com.
 
3. What is your favorite kind of cake?
 
Cake is my weakness.  I LOVE cake!  My absolute favorite though is Red Velvet and it MUST have the Cream Cheese Frosting.  Next in line would have to be Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. YUM!
 
4. Do you snore?
 
Sometimes.  If I'm sick or really really tired I do.  (Well Adam says I do anyways)
 
5. Do you play an instrument?
 

No, not regularly but I do know how to play basic stuff on a piano.  I played Clarinet in school and loved it.  I had every intention of getting a scholorship to go to college and play in a symphony one day.  But then life and love happened and I decided that wasn't for me.  I really regret selling it though.

 

Another Round of Doctor Visits

I'm a little scatter brained this week. I have some personal issues going on and work is completely nuts.  I don't really have anything to talk about yet because I don't have answers yet.  Last year I had some issues with my period and thought that everything was all taken care of.  This month I'm having a whole new set of issues so I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to see what's going on.

I just hope and pray that this isn't the beginning of something new.  Maybe it's a one time thing that will resolve itself.  I would appreciate any prayers.

Thanks.

(No, I'm not pregnant)

February Goals

January Review:

1. Start cleaning out my 3 inboxes  My main e-mail account is totally revamped. Starting on one of the others in February.


2. Start putting papers in my filing cabinet as they come in and not worry about sorting the past two years worth of stuff before I set up my filing cabinet. NOT DONE

3. Make the cake and help host a friends bridal shower on the 22nd.  DONE

4. Attend a gig for my brother-in-law's band (Also the 22nd I think). (cancelled)

5. Order my calendar for this year from Flylady.net! Done but I found a different one at Wal-Mart for a third of the price that will work just as good.

6. Work out as much as possible before the 31st as this is my last month of membership at the gym. Look into another month or set of months.  Didn't get much working out done but I did extend my membership for another month.

7. Think about journaling my food.  Decided to wait on this

I think I did fairly well for this month.  Nothing too challenging but I made decision on wether or not to do each one of these things rather than just forgetting about them until the 31st.  Baby steps!

February Goals:

1. Organize my junk e-mail account (or cancel it and work on my work email)

2. Set up a system for a new project that I'm working on at work.

3. Purging magazines and taking out articles that I want to save.  Set up filing system for these articles.

4. Attend Cake Decorating class each Saturday this month with my mom (SUPER EXCITED)

5. FINALLY get an iPhone 4 on the 26th!!

6. Celebrate a TON of birthdays this month - My MIL, step-sister, a friend, a friend's daughter, another friend, my baby girl Lexi turns 3, and MY BIRTHDAY!