Joyous News!!

Congratulations to Angie and Andrew on the birth of Evelyn Marie! I am so excited to meet her and share in your joy!

Matt left for softball camp early this morning. I half-awoke to say good-bye and then slept for a couple more hours. Berkeley and I went for a walk and then I headed out for the day. I'm at work right now and have a couple things to get done and plan to meet Sarah and mom for lunch in a little while. It is nice to have a day without too many specific plans.

I plan to spend this evening alone in my house just enjoying the solitude. Sarah is coming over tomorrow with desires to learn how to back a pie from scratch (crust and all) and scones. She also mentioned desires for chicken pot pie, but we may put that on the back burner until the weather is more appropriate. She shared with me a recipe for brownies made with Guinness that we may be trying. My co-workers will likely enjoy the fruits of our labor :)

I am out of town the next three weekends (KC, then Springfield, then STL) and August is sure to fly by with something to look forward to every weekend.

Summer Fading...

This summer is just flying by. The month of July especially. Matt and I have had guest each of the last three weekends (his parents, then his sister and family, then our friends Andrew and Amy). It seems we have spent each week looking forward to a fun weekend and the weeks just keep rolling by. This weekend I get the house to myself as Matt heads to softball camp in Wayne with his players. As of right now the only plans I have are to cook with my sister on Sunday. She sent me and email and said that she is interested in learning how to make scones and chicken pot pie (an interesting summer choice, but we can go with it) and wanted to enjoy some sister time by getting together with me to cook/bake this weekend. I have a Guinness Brownie recipe I have been wanting to try so we may throw that in also.

Saturday has left itself nicely open for me. I plan to spend the day catching up on some paperwork, getting some things done so I can start classes this fall, possibly setting up my study room in our small guest bedroom, reading (trying to finish HP and the Half-Blood Prince so I can see the movie) and working on a couple of crafting projects. I anticipate spending the entire day in solitude and plan to thoroughly enjoy every minute of it.

Matt and I will be out of town each of the next two weekends and then I will be gone the weekend after that so I plan to thoroughly enjoy a weekend of no guests, no travel, and a quite house.

We will just have to see how Matt enjoys a weekend of teenagers. He may go into hiding for a few days when he returns :)

Weekend Recovery...

My houseguests have left and I have finally recovered from the weekend and have time to update. I got up early on Friday morning and headed for some pampering and a pedicure. It was absolutely wonderful. I have extremely ticklish feet and some parts of a pedicure are torture for me, but the scrubber that the girl I go to uses is really gentle and doesn't tickle at all. So, it was an hour of pure relaxation and a great way to start my day. Then I headed to HyVee, grabbed a decaf, non-fat iced caramel macchiato, and picked up all the items I needed for my salad and dessert for Friday night. Well - everything except for a yellow pepper, which looked horrible at HyVee so I had Matt pick one up for me at Target.

I spent all of last week craving chocolate pecan pie (which is strange considering that I had never had chocolate pecan pie before) so I decided to give it a try for dessert of Friday. The recipe for the pie was fairly easy, but I wanted to try making homemade pie crust for the first time. I checked several different recipes before finding one I felt comfortable with and gave it a try. I found it to be easier than I expected and will likely never buy pie crust again. The crust turned out flaky, buttery, and really good - and the filling wasn't bad either. I also made lemon bars and Matt made homemade vanilla ice cream. I was really excited about trying a salad recipe I found with lettuce, red pepper, yellow pepper, onions, artichokes, blue cheese, and a really good viniagrette dressing. It turned out really well and I'll definitely keep it on my list to make again. The artichokes and blue cheese made a really interesting flavor combination.

My mom's birthday party was a big success. It was a fairly small party, just my family, the Hoodys and the Witters. Matt's parents decided to not attend so Matt and his brother came over for a little while, but left before we ate. Brenda got her new fridge delivered about 2.5 hours before everyone was scheduled to arrive. Her old one had slowly been losing the ability to keep cold. Brenda felt that the situation was likely aggravated by the fact that they lost power in the storm in June and the fact that their fridge was over 20 years old. I headed over early to help her set up as her afternoon was a little topsy-turvy. We enjoyed great food (including fabulous bruchetta from a local Italian take-out place that I will be visiting soon!), with great friends. I didn't arrive home until almost midnight!

We got up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Farmer's Market with Matt's folks. I don't know what they really thought of it, but I enjoyed it as always. I picked up some fresh sweet basil, fantastic tomatoes, green beans, and we picked up some of the pre-made enchiladas that we love to keep on hand because they are easy to warm up when we don't feel like cooking. We grabbed some breakfast at the Parthenon. I had an elephant ear that was perfect - flaky, sweet, wonderful. I also enjoyed a fantastic cup of homemade root beer.

The farmer's market was really our only excitement during the rest of Matt's parents visit. We cooked them dinner on Saturday night and my parents joined us for dessert. Then we took them to Summer Kitchen Cafe for a great Sunday morning breakfast. They left soon after breakfast and then my mom, Sarah, and I took my grandma to see Momma Mia! It was a cute movie and I think Grandma enjoyed it.

Work has been crazy the past two days. I've received more emails than I can keep up with and I am trying to get everything set for travel this fall. There are just not enough hours in the day. I'm hoping to get completely caught up tomorrow, but I will likely have to shut myself in my office to make that happen.

The start of the weekend...

We had Stephanie's office shower yesterday afternoon at the Twisted Fork. The decor was very eclectic - an industrial ceiling, chandeliers, and animal heads hanging on the walls. Dayo did not make it to the shower because he wasn't feeling well yesterday so Kim told him to stay home and not risk getting Stephanie sick in her final weeks of pregnancy.

We ordered drinks and appetizers to share. The menu is also very ecclectic - we shared fried dill pickel spears, a cheese plate (with goat, sheep and cow cheese, with apples, pepper jam and candied walnuts), and dippin shrimp - which were shrimp in buffalo sauce served with chunky blue cheese dressing. They were served in a martini glass - so much fun!

Kim and Mackenzie both ordered fun drinks. Mackenzie is a big fan of Bloody Marys and Kim got a passion fruit margarita.

Yes, Mackenzie's Bloody Mary was served with a dill pickle spear on top.

We gave Stephanie a Vera Bradley diaper bag. She mentioned at one time to me that she would really like one and I was fairly certain she would not spend the money to buy one for herself.

We had a small scare yesterday because Stephanie did not feel well all Thursday night, and sometimes that can be an early sign of labor. She has had some complications in her pregnancy and her labor will be complicated because she is taking blood thinners that she has to get out of her body before she goes into labor. So, if she is in labor, she needs to know ASAP. But, her sickness disappeared so hopefully it was just a bad reaction to something she ate. We are all excited to meet Alice, but I think Stephanie would like a few more weeks before she makes her appearance.

We shared dessert - a s'mores brownie - which was divine!

Matt and I enjoyed a quite night at home last night, except for a walk we took around our neighborhood once it started to cool off a little bit. We ended up heading to bed early, and I got to sleep in this morning. After heading to the gym for a bit, I took off to do some shopping for Matt's birthday. Sometimes I really struggle with knowing what to get him, and this birthday was defintely one of those times. I wandered around for awhile, managed to figure out a gift for him (a giftcard that I know he will use) and ended up finding a couple of items for our kitchen. We had received a giftcard to Pier One and I usually like to find something special to use a giftcard for and had not found anything spectacular at Pier One in awhile. However, I did today - found glass containers for my kitchen counter to hold flour, sugar, tea, etc. I plan to get them set up tomorrow and will definitely take a picture when I get them set up.

Matt and I watched the Cardinals game tonight - a 5 hour, 14 inning marathon. The Cardinals ended up on top, which is great because they had lost their last five games after sweeping the Padres starting the second half of the season. Hopefully this changes their path for awhile. Chris Carpenter is supposed to get a start this week!!!

Confessions...

My husband is out tonight and I have to admit that I am really enjoying it. Not that I don't love spending time with him, but I do enjoy being by myself sometimes. I'm somewhat jealous of him this summer because he is able to spend alot of time home alone since he isn't teaching or working this summer. I like being able to watch what I want to watch on TV - which usually means flipping channels for me as I hate commercials, and being able to have my own schedule. This evening, for example, I ate a small snack when I got home (shredded wheat with milk), ran something over to my parents, and then headed to a Pilates class. After the class I came home, made my lunch for tomorrow and then finally got around to eating dinner at about 9:15pm. I always feel guilting having a schedule like this when Matt is around because I know he likely does not want to wait to eat that late, but we like to have dinner together so their is a conflict. Matt started holding open field nights for the softball team on Monday and Thursday nights this week so I will be able to enjoy a little time alone a couple nights a week now. I'm sure I will get used to it, as Matt will be gone frequently once softball season starts in August.

I titled this blog confessions and you just got my first one. Here is the second - I'm really unhappy with myself right now. Two years ago, in preparation for fitting into a wedding dress in front of a huge group of people, I started working out, hired a trainer, and lost about 15lbs. in about 8 months, while gaining a ton of muscle. I was absolutely in the best shape of my life. Then I got married, moved in with Matt (whom I had lived apart from for over 6 months), and completely ditched working out. Needless to say, I gained all the weight back (and then some) and have been generally pretty unhappy with myself since then. I actually manage to "convince" myself most of the time when I look in the mirror that the way I look isn't that bad, and I also tend to ignore signs I get when I am easily out of breath, or feel uncomfortable in my clothing.

However, I was recently looking at photos of myself and realized that I can no longer ignore the signs. I spent hours upon hours of time working out two years ago, felt great the day I got married, and then reversed the whole process for absolutely no reason other than the fact that I always decided I had something better to do than work out.

So, I have vowed that I will begin working out again and I have also decided that I am going to completely overhaul my diet. My diet really did not change two years ago, which is likely the reason that I only lost 15lbs. I'm also holding myself accountable by making the results public via this blog. I plan to post everthing - from measurements, weight, pictures, the whole works. Last time, it was far too easy for me to forget all of the progress I had made, and this time I want proof!

I pulled out the tape measure tonight and went to town. I'll probably only be doing this monthly and I'll probably adjust to the first of the month from now on.

Right Arm: 11.75

Left Arm: 11.25

Upper Chest: 37

Chest: 41.5

Lower Chest: 34.5

Waist: 36

Hips: 42.5

Right Leg: 26.75

Left Leg: 26

Weight: 175.9

I'll probably take pictures later this week and post them. I actually find it very relaxing to pack my lunch for work and take it. I've never really done this before as I ate at the Union most of the time at Truman, I ate in downtown Lincoln most of the time when I was at UNL, and at the Student Center or out prior to now at Creighton. For the last week I have been planning out my lunch and taking every day and it is such a relief to not have to worry everyday about where I will eat lunch and what will be available. I also find I actually get to spend more time "at lunch" rather than getting lunch. All in all - a win-win situation :)

Tonight when I got ready to leave the gym after my class (a great class, btw) the car that parked to my left was parked so close to my car that I could not open the door more than a couple of inches. The parking lot at the gym is often very crowded and people tend to park everywhere, and not necessarily in the lines. However, I know the particular spot was empty when I parked and I know that the spot was plenty big enough for a car the park within the lines. I walked back inside and asked the guy at the desk to page the owner and ask them to move their car, and after waiting about 10 minutes realized that no one was going to move the car. So, I went out and climbed over the passenger seat of the car into the driver's seat - which is no easy task considering my car is a small, manual shift. I thought about leaving a note telling them to be more considerate when parking, but I didn't. I should have, because the whole situation was completely rediculous, but I didn't.

I stopped by work for awhile this afternoon for some peaceful work time before my busy week begins. This week shouldn't be too bad, but I have training for at least half a day 4 out of 5 days this week so I won't be able to get much quality work time in. I actually love working when the office is quiet - I feel so accomplished!

Anyways, my point was to mention that wall of our office is only windows, which is great for getting a great view of a beautiful day - unfortunately, those floor-to -eiling, wall-to-wall windows also face west, which means that post-noon everyday it really starts to warm up in here...especially in my cubicle because I face the windows. The last time I checked our thermostat said 85.5 degrees..I'm sure it is warmer on my side of the "wall" (the partial wall created by our cubicles). Let's hope it cools down by morning!! Oh - yeah - forgot to mention that the university practices energy efficiency and turns off our AC every weekend and evening.

I'm currently enjoying one of the movies I rented last weekend, The Holiday, with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack Black (although Jack Black has only been in on scene of the movie so far). It is interesting...it isn't one that I would be likely to watch again at this point (I'm about an hour into the movie), but it is keeping me entertained tonight. I still haven't watched The Pursuit of Happyness, but I plan to get around to that one tomorrow. There was a preview for The Pursuit of Happyness on before The Holiday and now I am really excited to watch the movie tomorrow. I would have watched it tonight, but I think Matt wants to join me and he was watching the baskeball game in the other room. I could not care less about the game so I'm in the bedroom blogging, enjoying my chick-flick, and surfing random things on the internet :) Matt and I decided to join Blockbuster Total Access, so I should be doing more movie watching in the future. Currently, Borat and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are on their way to our house. Hopefully, having the movies delivered directly to our house will motivate me to keep up with watching them... I have a bad habit of renting movies and then not getting around to watching them.

Matt decided to "fix" my computer while I was gone for awhile today. I wasn't aware there was anything wrong with it, but I leave the "techie" stuff to him. However, I arrived home to a laptop that would no longer connect to our wireless internet...even though it would without a problem when I left...hmmm...curious..huh? Luckily, he did work on it for awhile and now it will connect again, but apparently he had to re-install the wireless internet driver. I've asked him to be careful when "fixing" my non-broken computer in the future.

We leave for Oregon in less than 7 weeks now..provided we actually purchase plane tickets. I'm hoping to get that accomplished tomorrow. Pell and Bren are ready for our visit and I am certainly ready for a vacation - in fact, I would leave tomorrow if given the opportunity. We are looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and really traveling together (not just to Shelbina and back) for the first time. This will be Matt's second trip on a plane (the first being a guys trip to Las Vegas a few years ago) so that should be interesting. About 3 days after we return from Oregon I will be heading to Milwaukee for Girl's Weekend with my college roommates. I'm so excited to spend time with all of them...they were all at the wedding, but unfortunately we did not get to spend much time together. I'm looking forward to getting to see more of Milwaukee...my last trip was less than 24 hours!