XM seriously rules! I was skeptical of it’s worth until I got a free three month trial with my new car. Those three months got me totally hooked. So, I’ve been subscribing and listening to XM in my car for over a year now…and totally loving it.
Last weekend when John and I went to Hampton Beach, we listened to XM the whole way there and back and heard so many of our favorite songs, both old and new. I don’t know what it was about this road trip…we’ve been on plenty in my car and listened to XM…but John reignited his love for satellite radio. A few years back, when XM was relatively new, John got a portable unit for Christmas. He liked it at first, but then grew tired of it, and grew especially tired of the poor reception in his car. The signal would come in and out, in and out. As you can imagine, that got really old, really fast. It was only a matter of months before he cancelled his subscription and the radio was boxed up and stored away.
Well, last weekend inspired him to pull out the old radio and give it another go. He reactivated it and got it all set up…in the car, in the house, and on the go (like an iPod). The radio still does not work that great in the car, and we’re still unsure how it will work on the go, but…it works fantastic in the house! We have it all set up with its docking station and speakers and we have had music on all week long. It’s been so great to have some music on while doing…well…anything! On Saturday, we had some mellow music on when we had company for dinner. Yesterday, I had high energy tunes cranking while I was cleaning the house, and then we turned on some softer music when we were reading after dinner. Such a great mix of songs played…including our song! Even this morning, John put some fun music on while we were eating breakfast and getting ready. It’s such a pleasant addition to our house that we never even realized we were missing!
This is the theme of my life for the past few days. Last night, I was baking cookies for a friend’s party that we are attending tonight and I burned the entire first batch. The cookies went from looking raw to being burned in like 10 seconds! I managed to get another 27 cookies out of the batch, but John liked them so much that he had two last night, so now I’m down to 25. He’s been home all day today, so who knows how many they’ll actually be when I get home from work :-) I hope I have enough for the party!
The burning didn’t stop there, though. I got a little money for my birthday and it was burning a hole in my pocket (pun totally intended!). So, on Tuesday, I went to the mall and hit my favorite stores. I bought a fabulous new shirt from New York and Company and was saving it to wear today for the aforementioned party. This morning I was so excited to finally get to wear it. It was a little too wrinkled for my liking, so I decided that I was going to try to steam out the wrinkles with my iron. Well, I accidentally touched the hot iron to the satin for a little too long and burned a giant hole in the back of it. I almost cried when I saw the damage I had done! So upsetting! I guess my only option now is to replace it with the remainder of my birthday cash and forego the new pair of jeans I’ve been eyeing. Or, maybe I’ll just have to get both :-)
At least it’s Friday afternoon now…only 2 ½ hours of work left and then the weekend is here. And, a fun one it should be…
Tonight is the party that I’ve already written so much about…let’s hope it lives up to the hype!!! I’m sure it will be great…we’ll get to see a lot of people that we haven’t seen in a while and we’ll get to see our third bowling team member for the first time in many months! That’s right…bowling season is just around the corner and I am so excited that John is able to rejoin the team this year. He, my friend Mike and I are going to take the league by storm! We need to come up with a new team name this year and the only one that John and I could come up with (after a few cocktails) was “Shut Your Bowl Hole”. Too offensive?
Tomorrow we are going to hang out with our friends Steph and Andy. Why is this so exciting, you might ask? Well, in addition to being recently engaged, Steph and Andy are also expecting a baby and they just found out on Wednesday that it’s a boy!!! So, of course our time will be filled with conversations about every woman’s two favorite topics…weddings and babies! We’re sure to drive our men bonkers with it all!!!
Well, I did it. I signed up for my first graduate class today. I guess this means I am officially an MBA student!!! For the most part, I am really excited! I do feel a bit nervous and apprehensive as well, but I'm sure once I get used to being a student again, all of that will go away. It is a big committment to pursue my MBA, but I feel ready to take on the challenge and I am excited to begin yet another new chapter in my life. Here's to higher education!!!
Well, I am officially 27! It was seriously one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had! It was such an amazing weekend from start to finish!
On Friday, my work friends took me out for a celebratory lunch. It was so great to see them all since I get to see them so rarely these days. Then, when I got home from work, I had a fabulous gift waiting there for me from my best friend Crystal. Then, John and I had a relaxing evening at home, enjoying some take out and a movie.
On Saturday, John got up at 5:30 AM and told me it was time to get up. Of course, I thought he was insane, and I told him so as buried my head under the pillows to block out the light from the lamp that he had turned on. He walked out of the bedroom and returned a few seconds later with a sweet card for me that told me to get up and get packed, because we were headed to Hampton Beach for a weekend getaway! I couldn’t believe it! He arranged everything in secret and totally surprised me! So, we got up and got ready and hit the road. After dropping Bailey off at my mom’s, we were on our way. We spent the entire ride up there listening to great music and engaging in great conversation. Unfortunately, it was not the best beach weather, but that didn’t stop us! We spent the day reading on the beach, walking the boardwalk, browsing the shops, eating yummy food, playing LOTS of arcade games, and just enjoying each other’s company. We seriously had SO much fun!!! It was a truly incredible day with my truly incredible husband!
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday weather-wise, so we decided to just get some breakfast and hit the road. We mapped out a new route home that took us on local and back roads (versus the highway) and just cruised along, enjoyed the sights, and chatted it up the whole way home about anything and everything. We stopped at my mom’s on the way back to pick up Bailey and were surprised with a delicious BBQ (the biggest steaks I have ever seen!!!) and an ice cream cake! So yummy! Then, when we finally got home, we had some people over to hang out, have a few drinks and then enjoy our city’s fantastic fireworks display (making up for the cancelled July 4th fireworks)!
Such a busy and exciting weekend full of food, friends, family and fun!!! I was so surprised by everything and so overwhelmed by the love that so many people showed. Each wonderful birthday wish, call, text message and email meant so much to me! I am so lucky to have people in my life that will plan and plot and go out of their way to make sure that I have a great day. I feel so fortunate and so grateful for the wonderful people that make my life so great!
- According to John, my thinking that my pants felt tight is all in my head. He also told me that he, too, has “fat days” (not exactly in those words, but essentially the same meaning). Both comments made me feel a little better.
- I worked out last night and this morning and I feel great! I definitely need to keep it up. I love to work out in the mornings…it gets my day off to such a great start and makes my evenings much less rushed and much more relaxing, leaving plenty of time for a long walk with Bailey (which doubles as extra exercise!), cooking dinner and quality time with the hubby.
- In my reinvigorated efforts to be healthy, I have been drinking a lot of water the past few days, as recommended by many nutrition and fitness professionals. And I’ve now figured out why they recommend drinking water to help you lose weight…it’s not the water that makes you lose weight, it’s all the calories burned running back and forth to the bathroom a thousand times a day. Holy moly!
I am officially recommitting to my workout and healthy eating regime. Normally, I’d give myself an A- for my efforts in healthy eating and working out, but lately I think I’m performing closer to a B-/C+.
A deadly combo of summertime factors has led me down this path of mediocre performance. I’ve been way too indulgent at the many summertime BBQ’s we’ve been attending - there seems to be at least one every single weekend, if not more! Then, in addition, I’ve been letting the unpredictable weather ruin my workouts. If there’s even a chance of a thunderstorm (which there seems to be every single day), I won’t go out for a run or bike ride. I say that I’ll work out in the gym instead, but then there always seems to be a reason not to - some excuses are valid and some are, well, lame. My normal 5 – 7 days of working out each week has turned into 3 or maybe 4 (and…gulp…some weeks even less). Usually, if I let up on the healthy eating temporarily, the exercise will make up for it, and vice versa. But, with poor performance in both arenas, things are quickly going downhill. Bad, bad, bad!
I’ve been fully aware that my performance has been less than stellar lately, but the scale has been steady and my clothes have been fitting just fine…until now. I think my body is fed up with my behavior and is trying to alert me to this situation before it gets too late. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I swear that my pants are fitting a little tight today. Of course, when I felt this tightness this morning while getting dressed, I immediately ran down into the gym to weigh myself. I haven’t gained any weight thank goodness (in fact, I was down half a pound since Thursday), but as much as it pains me to admit this, the tightness in the pants is real. I’m sure I’m the only person on earth who would notice this change in my body, but that provides me with no comfort. I don’t like this one bit! But, on the positive side, I think this is just the kick in the pants (no pun intended!) that I needed to get back on track, so in a way I am thankful for it.
Here’s what I am going to do…
I am going to get back to my traditional workout regime, which usually looks something like this:
Monday – Total Body Weights and 30 minutes cardio
Tuesday – 45 - 60 minutes cardio
Wednesday – 45 - 60 minutes cardio
Thursday – Total Body Weights and 30 minutes cardio
Friday – 45 - 60 minutes cardio
Saturday – Optional weights and/or cardio
Sunday – Optional cardio
And, I am going to be very cognizant of what I am eating. I am going to watch what I eat, limit my snacking, and I am going to behave at any BBQ’s that we attend.
I am going to refocus my energy on taking the best possible care of myself and get back on track…starting today! I am in control of my life...and I choose to be healthy!
My husband proposed to me.
It hit me this morning in the shower. Sadly, my husband is away for a “Man Weekend” with his friends, so I could not share my morning revelation with him.
I remember it so clearly. Three years ago on this day (which was a Monday), I was at work when John called me to ask what time I was coming home because he was going to make dinner. This was nothing out of the ordinary, so I explained to him how I had to go to the mall after work to restock some of my beauty supplies from Aveda. He didn’t want to give anything away, so he played it cool, but he later confessed that he was dying to do it and wanted me to come home right away. But, clueless me went to the mall after work for a little shopping. After my planned trip to Aveda, I decided to pop into Express and Gap to see if there were any new must-haves. Finally, I decided that I’d better get home because I felt bad that John was waiting for me to get home.
When I got home, John was already cooking dinner and there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me on the counter. I didn’t think too much of it, as this wasn’t that out of the ordinary either. Regardless of what was going on, I couldn’t focus because it happened to be one of the hottest, most humid days of the year that day (ironically, much like the weather today!). The first words out of my mouth (after thanking him for the beautiful flowers) were about how flippin’ hot it was and how gross I felt after having walked home in it. He suggested I go change out of my work clothes and get ready for dinner, so I did.
As I was doing this, John walked into our bedroom and gave me a card. This card had a sweet note about our relationship and little clue on it that led me to another card with another clue and a rose, and then that led to another, and then that led to another, and finally that led to a ring box. At this point I still didn’t realize what was happening. I never even remotely suspected a proposal, especially considering the fact that he had just given me a ring (I guess you could call it a promise ring) a few weeks before. He later revealed that this was all part of his master plan and he had given me that ring as a decoy (still to this day he calls it the “decoy ring”). Anyway, when I found the ring box I just picked it up and then looked at him with a confused look. John took the box from me and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was one of the most wonderful and exhilarating moments of my life. And it was completely private and unexpected…just the way I wanted. It was heartfelt, honest and happened in the middle of our living room. It was so "us".
It’s hard to believe that three years has passed since that incredible day. And what a three years it has been! We got married, bought a house, moved across the state, changed careers, took up new hobbies, traveled, bought new cars…the list goes on and on. So, so, so many changes, but through all of these changes, we have only grown closer and our love for each other and connection to each other has deepened even further than I knew was possible.
So here's to you John, the love of my life. Thank you for being everything I've ever wanted and more. I've never been happier.
