On a roll!

I'm on a high from getting research items finished; namely, my poster for the upcoming conference.  I think I may be goal & reward oriented, so the goal I'm setting for myself is to get 1 page of my intro written everyday after work with the weekends all to myself as a reward.  Starting Monday.  I'll let you know how it goes.  ;o)  1 page isn't much! 

Now to my bed & Into the Beautiful North.

Two beers in...

...and I'm trying to lose my buzz so I can work on my poster.  Ugh.  But I had a good time!  And the beer was Highland's 7 Sisters Abbey Style Ale.  It has my stamp of approval!

My boss sent out an invitation to all the folks working over Spring Break for dinner at her house.  It was the perfect day for it too--no rain, warm enough but not hot.  It was just fun to be able to get to know my coworkers a little bit better.  JUST IN TIME TO BE LET GO!  Haha!  Hopefully not, but there is definitely the possibility.

We played bocce, talked a little gardening (at least me & my boss did--I was supposed to take home some irises, but I forgot), ate, and drank beer.  Can't get any better than that.

Took the dogs to the vet today...over $500 later...we're about where we're started.  Except we realized the bump on the side of Capone's snout is probably a BB.  Blast!  She said we could take an xray to determine for sure.  Uh, no thanks.  Athena has been leaking urine at night so we did some bloodwork on her.  We shall see...

That's it for now.

Little rays of sunshine

See how my sunflowers are doing!:

Song of the Week

Path to 5k

I'm pretty proud of myself for doing this, hence the post.

I got up this morning (a Saturday no less!) and jogged a mile. Not at the gym; not on a treadmill; on the road. Which is kind of scary considering there's no shoulder. I'm proud that I jogged a mile on a Saturday.

My husband came with me (I don't think I would have done it without him) so I'm very thankful for that, but the mile certainly wasn't as much work for him as it was for me.

The other thing is that I looked into getting the Nike+ running thing (it's something you hook to your shoe & it 'talks' to your ipod to track your run) but all the ones I saw aren't compatible with the ipod & iphone I have. SO instead of spending lots o' moolah on getting a new ipod, I decided to try out an app (Runkeeper) on my iphone that's supposed to do the same thing. It tracks by GPS (or manually, but that's no fun) but it doesn't do a lick of good if I can't get GPS signal on my phone. That's a bummer. I'm going to try MapMyRun & see if it'll work for me. And if not, then I'll see if I can't convince someone to get me the Nike+ for my birthday or something. :o)

After we got home I made breakfast burritos (so easy & so yummy) and a smoothie made from apple juice, banana, blueberries, & raspberries.

Needless to say, I'm feeling very good today. Hope your day results in the same.

Nose to the grind

Thesis Introduction due April 26 (~10 pgs)

Results due June 9th

Discussion due June 16th (5-10 pgs)

Finished thesis June 23rd

Thesis to Committee June 30th (preferably earlier)

Defense: ~July 7th

Pray for me.

Fun at the CRC

My job position has been posted. Which means I need to reapply for my job & cross my fingers that I get it. :oP Chances are good, but one never knows. I just want benefits so I can finally go to the doctor!!

I did a cycle class today during lunch that KICKED MY BUTT. The regular instructor was out for some reason so the Associate Director of our department subbed--and she's super intense. I really did have a great workout...minus the almost passing out & throwing up part. I shall be sore tomorrow.

P.S. My stomach is so much better. Changing my diet is the best thing I've ever done. Never thought I'd get to the point where I would need to!

Women in Student Affairs

I really enjoyed my day today...and not just because I got out of work for a couple of hours.

Today there was a little get-together on campus to celebrate the women in the Student Affairs division. I get a kick out of celebrating the contribution of women. I also felt like I was part of a little family--sappy, I know. I've come to know a lot of people on this dear campus of ours and if I didn't know them, then they knew my husband. I also love being part of the fitness side of our campus. As I was talking to my husband about it I told him I felt thin just by hanging out with them--just as he was about to ask if I felt thin by association. It was a really weird feeling--two of them were arguing about who was skinnier (playfully) and instead of feeling horrible and self conscious, I felt healthy and confident.

After the celebration in our honor, we headed back over to the other side of campus to visit the tables our Wellness program set up for a "Safe Spring Break". We tried on the beer goggles and just had an all around good time. I guess the thing I'm happiest about is that I'm feeling more of a bond between my coworkers and myself. Makes me happy. :o)

An aside: I didn't eat anything at the get-together...and didn't even feel like I was missing out. I just kept thinking about how my stomach would protest afterward. How much you wanna bet I see some weight loss from this? Ha!

Bathroom re-do

But first!...I bought skyscraper sunflower seeds today. I decided that instead of spending lots o' money this year on vegetable plants that never produce anything, I'll see if I can manage sunflowers. I'm starting them inside, so hopefully they'll have a fighting chance.

Another something cool: the house below ours finally got cleaned up. Think of the typical redneck...that's who lived in this house. It was quite sad because their next door neighbors actually have a very nice house--I'd always say to C, "I'm so glad we don't live next to them." We live above them and that was bad enough. They moved a bunch of concrete bags into the back yard and then left them--their dogs tore them up & it rained on them. Strange. I saw as many as four dogs & 2 cats there. I also saw them beat their dogs. Trash EVERYWHERE. A car that never moved, with among other things, a vacuum cleaner sitting on top. I actually had the huevos to knock on their door once when my dogs got out. Not pleasant. I imagined a house full of animal urine & feces. At any rate, there'd been no activity there for quite some time...since last summer or fall maybe. And then the other day as I was driving home I saw some men cleaning all the junk up...wearing masks. I was overjoyed. I still am. I go outside just to peer down & see how clean it is now. I have no idea how the clean up happened or if it'll go up for sale now. I do know, however, that their next door neighbor's house is now up for sale.

Now on to the real reason for this post: I'm full of brilliant ideas that cost moolah. It just came to me while I was sitting on the couch today. Let's do a black & white bathroom! And ya know what? C loved the idea! Which means I get the go-ahead! (I always get the go-ahead.)

Here's what I'm thinking for the floor:



I'd like to do black & white tile, but more subdued like this kitchen, not dance floor black & white.

With the shower curtain I can go one of two ways: either a subdued black & white like this...


Or a beautiful damask like this:


It really depends on if I do a damask accent wall:


If I'm able to find that kind of wallpaper, I'll go with a simple black and white shower curtain.

And something like this (that adds a punch of color) will go on the wall above the toilet:

I'm not quite sure about the wall color as of yet. Bright white? Muted gray? Definitely not black. Our current toilet is beige, so we'll have to buy a new white toilet. :o) Dual flush?? Definitely. Maybe. White vessel sink a must. Black cabinet.

The next two pictures are pretty close to what I envision:



I hope we get some big money back on our tax return!

Fructose Malabsorption

...is what I'm diagnosing myself as having. It's a problem of the small intestine that causes a concentration of fructose in the entire intestine. Which leads to some very uncomfortable stomach somersaults.

I noticed it with apples & pb&j sandwiches a while ago but never looked into it until recently. Apples & pb&j sandwiches tear my stomach up. Which I thought was weird--especially the apples.

I was trouble shooting it with my sister & I noted that my stomach doesn't get upset after I eat a banana. When I was doing research last night on what may be going on, one website said that it's not necessarily the amount of fructose in the food item but the fructose to glucose ratio. Apples and pears have a >1 fructose to glucose ratio whereas bananas have a <1>

So who knows, I may have some degree of this condition, or I may not have it all. Personally, I'm going to change my diet with the assumption that I do to see if it helps at all. I'll try anything at this point. Today I didn't eat my generic raisin bran...high fructose corn syrup (shouldn't be eating it anyway). Nor did I put jelly on my *now* pb sandwich. No applesauce with my lunch either. And amazingly enough, I did feel better today. My stomach got a little upset, but not nearly as bad as it has been. My guess is there's high fructose corn syrup in my sandwich bread (I couldn't check because I take the loaf out of the bag).

Looking at the foods to avoid, the list goes on and on. Especially fruits--the only ones listed that were okay were cumquats, limes, lemons, & something else I can't remember right now. That said, there are varying degrees of FM & I may be able to eat some things on the 'maybe avoid & avoid' lists. And watermelons! They're on the avoid list--I was thoroughly disappointed with this because they're one of my favorite fruits. I've never noticed getting an upset stomach after eating watermelon though--I'll have to experiment.

Anyway, that's my sad story.

*picture from alternativeremediesonline.com*

The season for home improvements

I can feel Spring right around the corner.

Which is cool, but also not so cool. My brain goes into over-drive with all of the things I'd like to do around the house. With money that we don't have.

• Buy cabinet pull bars (won't do this unless I find a really good deal)

This is what I want (in brushed nickel or whatever our faucet is):

• Put up a backsplash & under cabinet lighting in the kitchen (would do this before buying cabinet pulls)

I'd love to do red, but it might be a bit much for a small kitchen & probably wouldn't be good for resale.



I may end up doing something with a red accent like this:



Who am I kidding?? I'll probably go with whatever's cheapest or not do anything if I can't find anything I like for a price I like.

• Come up with a creative way to draw people to the front door instead of the back door (our drive takes you to the back of the house instead of the front). I'm pretty sure this will involve taking out a good deal of grass and replacing with plantings. If anyone knows of any solutions, I would be thrilled to know--I've searched and searched on the internet and can't find anything specifically for this problem. The easiest thing to do would be to call the back door the front door and the front door the back door.
  
• Along those same lines (& the more permanent fix to the front-back door problem) is to convert the carport to a garage. That would conceal the door and then people would have to use the front door. Don't think that will happen any time soon. Maybe not ever.
  
• Create a patio of some sort in the back to create more entertaining space and integrate the fireplace more fully.
  

This is what I'm thinking:


I can't wait to tell C...I'm sure he'll be thrilled.

Status Update

Today I feel like dancing with these guys!

Light sleeper

Bought a new alarm clock & it's sitting in my closet because it's too bright (+ you can't pick up any radio stations here). Maybe I should try this.

The life of a married woman

1. I cut off my hair. It's chin length now. I took pictures to post, but I'm too tired lazy to post them.

2. Remember the website alice.com that I blogged about a while ago? Well, I've continued to buy my household items from them & I love it. Especially after the shipment I got today.

First, the packages arrive faster than a speeding bullet. I ordered on Saturday & it got here Wednesday. Three business days. Pretty good when you don't pay for shipping...ever.

AND...AND...get this...I got samples with this latest shipment. Sun Crystals *eh*, Boogie Wipes *uh, okay?*, and A FULL CAN OF CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY ODOR ELIMINATOR, CLEANER, & STAIN REMOVER. I'll be on this high for a while. When you have 2 dogs & a cat & get an entire can of carpet cleaner for free, it's a glorious thing. It says it's made from all natural ingredients, pet safe, & 100% biodegradable, but I never put much weight on that.

That's all for today...signing out.

I love British humour

Shopping for...workout clothes?

I went to Belk the other day to get some new workout clothes. I hate shopping for workout clothes. Really. They're either too tight or cotton. Cotton is no good for me because I tend to sweat a lot and sweat & cotton don't mix well. Or rather, they mix too well.

Turns out they were having a clearance sale and I bought a pair of workout capris, 2 work shirts, & a camisole to go under one of the shirts for $44. I saved $88. Ridiculous.

I'm still iffy on the capris. They're 100% polyester & kind of look like silk. :oP I asked C, "Okay, so if I walked into the gym wearing these, would people look and be like, 'What is she wearing??'" Yeah, I know, I'm sad.

Do you guys have favorite workout clothes? What would you suggest for me? (besides therapy)

Cohabitation pre-marriage??

I read this article and I thought, "Oh crap." Then I kept reading and thought, "Whew! There's hope for us yet!" :o)