Fitness Friday

OK, so I'm full of excuses why I haven't posted on my weight loss journey lately. And none of them are that great.

Last week, I decided to move weigh in days from Sunday to Friday. The reason is pretty simple - I like to enjoy the weekends, so I'm bound to cheat. We usually end up drinking a few beers on Saturday and I don't think I get a true read when I weigh in the morning after.

So last week, we were on great track ... until we won the GS tickets. It was a bad weekend. I mean, really bad. We stopped at BK on the way, went to Hooters afterwards, had Denny's the next morning, frozen pizza, etc. And all weekend plus this week, we've been exhausted from missing out on so much sleep (although well worth it!) and falling asleep on the couch around 8 ... without working out. 

I weighed myself yesterday and it appears that I'm still maintaining where I was about four weeks ago. J and I have decided to take off until Sunday, then start back up again. I'm ready to get active and see results. So I promise, I'll be here next Friday. Hopefully with a big loss to report :)

Customer service FAIL

It has not been a good week for customer service dealing with us.
The first deals with our cell phone company, and it's a long story. 
Around the first of February, we received our bill - which also included a PAST DUE amount. First, I freaked thinking maybe I forgot to pay, with all the craziness of moving and the holidays. But I looked at my bank account and saw that wasn't the case. So we called and griped because we knew we paid and weren't going to pay another $112.
After two phone calls, we discovered what happened. Prior to moving, we also had Internet with this company. They don't offer it where we now live, so we terminated service. So the last bill, which was for our wireless charges minus a credit for the prorating of the Internet, went to combined billing, not wireless. The CSRs told me they would approve the transfer of funds and it should show up within three days. 
A week later, the transfer did not show up so I called before paying my bill. I was again told the transfer was just pending and to pay the amount accrued and due that month. I pay and figure it's taken care of.
Fast forward to Tuesday. Since my dinosaur phone is dying and some of the keys didn't work and I had a little change in my pocket (goin jing-a-ling-a-ling) I went to get a new phone. I pick it out and all but am told I can't upgrade because our account is past due. WHAT?!?! So I call and, of course, they can't resolve it that night because one of the departments is only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sigh. Luckily Wednesday was my day off work, and boy did they hear it!
It took one hour and eight minutes, but it got resolved. But then one of the reps tried to tell me we didn't pay a bill. I proceeded to ask how that was possible, seeing as we made a payment every month - and she tried to say that the way you're billed for wireless and internet are different - supposedly you pay wireless after its used but internet first. However, I know there was never a month I didn't pay my wireless bill and told her that. She offered to send me all the bills so I could review them and I said yes - but then added that, as a company, they should uphold their word, as I was told I didn't owe anything in previous conversations. At this point, I was on a conference call with mobility and combined, and the mobility lady wanted to press on, but the combined billing lady agreed with me and offered to just credit the account, seeing what I'd been through. I said thank you and ended the call.
Then I called back to talk about disconnecting my account and when I would no longer be under contract. The lady I talked to was very nice and arranged to give us a huge discount on the phones (they retail at $149.99 each, we got them both for a total of $157 plus we'll get a $100 rebate) plus waived the upgrade fees. So we'll be getting our new phones today. This is what we picked :

In the second fail of the week, do you remember those too cute bubblegum crocs I got for V-day? You know, where they ordered the wrong size? 

Well, when J called about the error, the manager, whom he spoke with, was really apologetic. She sent us a box and shipping label to send them back and then ordered another pair. Well, we got them yesterday. Pulling them out of the box, I knew something was wrong. And guess what - it was the wrong size, again. I WEAR A SIZE 11! Not a 9, not a 10, but an 11. How hard is it to listen, people? It's kinda like Jimmy said - once is a mistake, twice is pure negligence. 

I said he should call and demand a refund then just order them from crocs.com - that's what he gets for trying to support a local business. He's not sure what he wants to do - he's also needing some new shoes, so I think he's going to try and negotiate a discount on some shoes for himself. We'll see :)

Baby Gurl

On Saturday, we welcomed a new member to our family.
Meet Baby Gurl:

No, I didn't choose her name and yes, I hate it. It's too ghetto for such a pretty girl. But she's a registered lab, so J says it sticks. I say we come up with a nickname :)

Baby Gurl is an 8-month-old registered black lab who was GIVEN to us. You see, we love our Hank but he's 9, so we know his time with us is limited. We wanted to get a baby boy out of him, so we put up a sign at our vet's office looking for a female, and all we wanted was pick of the litter.

Well, BG's previous owners are breeders and had both American labs (what Hank is) and English. BG is a mix of the two. They decided to focus on the English and were giving away BG and a four-year-old chocolate, Buster. They saw our sign and called.

We debated taking them both ... but in the end, we couldn't make our Hank feel replaced. So, last Saturday, we brought home BG.

She and Hank LOVE each other. See:

If you know anything about labs, then you know how much they crave attention. So we let them into the basement where they fought over our love.

Of course, Hank had to remind Daddy that he was here first and, thus, deserves the most love

So far, trying to "raise" an eight-month-old has been quite trying. While I attempted to nap Saturday afternoon, she cried the entire time - and of course her pen is just below our bedroom. While we let Hank run, we don't let BG for two reasons — 1, she's young and not familiar and 2, she's not fixed. We want pups, but its not good until the female is about 2, plus we want to ensure they are Hank's pups, not any of the other dogs in our neighborhood. 

Well, the first night she escaped the pen. We put her back in on Sunday and she's been in since, but somehow lost her collar and she keeps jumping up on the fence. She also chews anything she can, including plastic buckets. So I have to go buy a metal feeding/water bowl today.

If this doesn't prepare me for children, I don't know what will!

I heart George

My first CD was a George Strait one.
For years, I've dreamt of going to one of his concerts. And last Thursday, we did.

Gosh I love him. And the concert was amazing.

The opening act was Lee Ann Womack

Then Reba McEntire took the stage

Then I died and went to heaven when my lover started singing

We didn't even know we were going to the concert until that day! I saw on facebook where the local radio station was giving away tickets at lunchtime, so I called my honey to make sure he was listening during the hour (we have no radio at my office - how crazy is that?) So he listens and ends up getting through as caller eight ... caller nine was supposed to win. J said he was pretty sure he wouldn't be called nine but tried again - and he won! So it's 12:30 and the concert is that night ... we do a lot of arranging and ended up booking a hotel and getting time off work (I had to work Saturday so I just came in late Friday) and were on our way. It's so nice to still be kid-less and able to just pick up and go like that! We had an absolute blast and can't wait to see George in concert again!

Menu Plan Monday Feb. 21-27

I'm back! Life has been absolutely CRAZY since about noon Thursday ... more on all that to come later. But I'll tease by saying it included a trip to see George Strait six hours after winning tickets and welcoming a new member to our family :)
Anyhow, here's this week's menu plans:
Sunday: Corn dogs and French Fries. I amaze myself sometimes.
Monday: Spaghetti and garlic bread.
Tuesday: Baked barbecue pork chops and Jimmy's favorite potatoes with a salad.
Potatoes are seriously good and easy: Cube them up and put them in a baking dish. Top with butter to your pleasing, then season with garlic powder, salt and pepper and parsley flakes and then bake at 350-ish for 45 minutes to an hour.
Wednesday: For years, Jimmy has been trying to get me to make fried chicken. But let's face it - I'm scared. However, there's a recipe in the Pioneer Woman cookbook I got for Christmas so i'll try it. And serve with mashed potatoes, gravy, and some biscuits.
Thursday: Leftovers. There should be plenty to choose from.
Friday: Fish sandwiches or fish tacos. We'll see.
Saturday: TBA. There should be lots of leftovers. Or we'll continue our little tradition of just having a couple of appetizer-type foods for supper.

I wonder ...

- If I sit quietly in my corner, can I disappear?
- If I roll my eyes too many times in one day, will my eyes become crossed?
- Is laughter really the best medicine?
- Why do people complain they have too much to do, yet spend who knows how much time gossiping and e-mailing back and forth?
- Why people are so quick to judge, when they need to look in the mirror and see they're doing the same thing.
- Does talking crap about others just makes people feel better?
- Am I still in junior high? Because people OLDER THAN ME sure are acting that way.

V-Day/weekend recap :)

Whew! Our offices were closed yesterday, so today definitely feels like a Monday ... a really bad one, since I was also off work on Friday.
It was a super busy weekend though! On Friday my mom came down and we ended up shopping and took advantage of a lot of the sales at Walgreens. I walked out with close to $100 worth of stuff for about $15 - plus I still have about $20 in Register Rewards. I love a good sale :)
That night, J and I ate burgers, drank beer, and watched TV.
On Saturday we just did some running around town. It's been so crazy here lately that we decided to stay in for a date night. I made mini pigs in a blanket and pizza and we watched Last House on the Left. I thought it was a horrible, much too graphic movie. We also watched the Olympics. Go Team USA!
Sunday we slept in :) We had already exchanged V-day presents ... but I got J an mp3 player and he bought me these beauties:

Which are the WRONG SIZE! I wear a size 11 shoe and J went to Journey's to buy them and of course, they weren't in stock. So he paid an extra five bucks to have them shipped. So I need an 11 womens/9 mens ... they sent a 9 mens/7 womens = UNHAPPY MICHELLE! Needless to say they got a mouthful and will be shipping a new pair ... although I'll have to wait another week for them!
We went to Wal Mart later that day and J also bought us some new weights and a resistance band for working out.
We hit up Ruby Tuesday for dinner. And raced home to park our butts in front of the TV for this:

Someday, we'll be competing on there! And of course, I was cheering for Jeff and Jordan - Team Big Brother!

Monday while J went to work, I stayed home and did some cleaning. Later in the afternoon, I was in a baking mood, so I made The Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal Crispies. A friend bought me the cookbook for Christmas and it was my first time using it. These were seriously good and pretty easy.

Now, I'm just ready for it to warm up and summer be here. I'm sick of waking up in the morning and seeing this:

Menu Plan Monday: Week of Feb. 14-20

A very basic week lies ahead :)

Sunday: V-Day dinner out <3

Monday: Leftover garlic-crusted baked porked chops, baked potatoes and a veggie

Tuesday: Chicken and rice bake, salads

Wednesday: Salmon patties with macaroni and cheese

Thursday: Spaghetti and garlic bread

Friday: Fish sandwiches, French fries

Saturday: Leftovers

For menu planning ideas and tips, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Thursday tidbits

Howdy people!

I’ve been kinda spotty the past few days. But there’s been a lot going on. And I can't even talk about some of it.

First off, I’ll recap my birthday weekend :) Friday we had a quiet night in .... we meant to watch this:

but I was tired. So we waited to watch it until Saturday morning. 

Saturday I went to a baby shower .... later that night, we went out to eat. We tried a new restaurant, Port Cape. I had yummy barbecue. We then hit a couple of bars to celebrate my last hours of being 24.

We slept in a little Sunday, then I relaxed while J and his brother hauled hay. We went out for breakfast and then went to my parents’ house (they were out of town) to pick up a cake my mom made. Oh and we ended up dropping my presents off at J’s brother and sister-in-laws, because he never got a chance to wrap them. Sweet Amy wrapped them up for me.

I got an umbrella (mine broke in October and I hadn’t replaced it), two sports bras that are really awesome (anything is when you consider I trashed two that were super stretched last week), earrings and a couple of cute T-shirts from American Eagle. 

The T-shirts:

My earrings:

Funny story with the earrings. After work on Friday, since it was my birthday weekend and all, we did a little shopping because I wanted a new shirt. I looked in Cape Girardeau on Monday for at least an hour at four or five stores and found nothing. Well, I found a couple possibilities and went to get a dressing room. While waiting I looked at accessories and thought I saw a pair of the angel wing earrings, which I’ve been wanting for at least six months now. I told J to look at the wall ... when he came to see my shirt, he said he didn’t notice anything I’d like. I looked again and didn’t see them .... but figured he’s snatched them already. Well, my birthday was actually Sunday, so when he asked, I told him that’s when I wanted to open my presents ... unless, of course, he had something I could wear on Saturday.

Saturday came around, we got dressed to go out, no present - even when I asked. So you can imagine my surprise when I opened these beauties. Good job Jimmy!

I’m off work on Friday this week - and we’re also off on Monday, so I get a four-day weekend :) My dad is at a farm show, so my mom’s coming down to spend the day with me. 

I have no idea what our weekend plans are. It’s Valentine’s Day but the last two weekends have been really busy, so I think we’re planning to lay low. 

Shapin' Up: Week Four

Cut to the chase: it was another week of maintaining for me.
Considering it was my birthday weekend — including Super Bowl junk food — and we took four days off from exercise, I'm not at all upset. I'm actually quite happy.
I'm going to have to get back into it though - and big time. I need highlights, and they are nine pounds away!

Menu Plan Monday Feb. 7-Feb. 13

Sunday: Takeout pizza for the Super Bowl!
Monday: Leftover mac and cheese lasagna, salad
Tuesday: Ham and beans in the crock pot, fried potatoes, cornbread
Wednesday: Hamburgers and refried bean dip
Thursday: Leftover ham and beans
Friday: Salmon patties, fried potatoes, macaroni and cheese
Saturday: TBA. I think we're planning to celebrate V-Day on Saturday and we've talked so far about just cooking a nice meal and staying home. We'll see :)

For menu planning ideas and tips, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Twenty five

Note: I meant to post this Sunday. So it's a day off :)

Twenty-five years ago, a 30-year-old woman came home in the afternoon after being on her feet on a concrete floor all day. She was a couple of weeks away from her due date, and had been helping her family butcher meat all day. 

She was exhausted. She told her husband this. He told her to lie down - after all, she was due in only a couple of weeks. She said OK. 

Later that afternoon, she didn't feel well and had a feeling the baby may be on the way. She called her husband again - he was out delivering meat. He told her again just to rest. 

The weather was getting bad, and her brother-in-law's birthday party was that evening. She decided to take her son, 3, to her mother-in-laws for the party and then come home. But things progressed ... and she got ready to go to the hospital. As soon as her husband got home she told him it was time ... but he insisted she wasn’t having a baby just yet. He conceded to going to the hospital — after he showered and they dropped off their son. 

They finally arrive at the hospital around 7 p.m. Of course, the hospital is being renovated so they walk to the new maternity ward. There isn’t time to check in or be hooked up on IVs ... she is that far along. 

At 8:12 p.m., a little girl was born, with dark black hair covering her head. She weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces. 

They named her Michelle Kathryn.

Bad dog!

Can you look at this face and not fall in love?
I sure can't. And apparently, some lady dog near our house can't, either.
Back up to Tuesday ... we helped J's sister move some things, so didn't get home until 7. We didn't seek Hank when we got home, but weren't too worried since we were home later than usual.
Wednesday morning neither of us saw him when we left ... but it was an early day. But when I got home Wednesday and his beautiful little face didn't pop up on the porch, I got worried.
An hour later, J got home and his first words were asking about Hank. So we got dressed in our warm clothes and searched. And searched. We got in the truck and drove down the roads in a two or so mile radius of our house, looking in the ditches (with a pit in my stomach ...)
Two hours later, we gave up. I had such mixed emotions. I love my dog. But without a body, I couldn't believe anything happened to him ... which made me really upset to think someone may have stolen my Hanky Pank.
All night, I opened the front door every half hour or so. When I went to bed at 10:30, still no Hank. Yes, I cried.
Thursday morning, woke up, and our boy was on the front porch! Yay! He was punished by being locked in the garage all day.
And then last night, he took off again. When will that boy ever learn?

Shapin' Up: Week Three

I've been pushing off writing this post. 

For one, I've been busy. My day off on Monday wasn't so much of a day off. 

And the other reason is that I'm just not thrilled with my results last week. But, when I started my weight loss journey I told myself I'd update weekly and keep track of my progress, and this is one way to keep myself accountable, regardless of how many people in the blog world actually care. 

At best guess, I held steady over the week. No loss, but no gain either — like I said, I'm not thrilled, but I'm not too upset either. 

Cutting back on the food is still so hard — especially since I had two catered work lunches last week and spent the day with my mom. 

Plus I hated that our weigh in is on Sunday — the day after our date night. I only had a couple of beers, but I also had half of this:

A 12-ounce center cut pork steak from Strawberry's Barbecue in Holcomb. 

The leftovers are quite delicious as shredded pork sandwiches!

And later, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and had another drink and shared this for dessert:

 So I can't be too surprised that I didn't lose. In fact, I should be happy I maintained!

Tuesday night was the first night since we began The Shred that we skipped. We helped his sister move some stuff and didn't get home until about 7:30 and could not tear ourselves away from the TV! Gotta love NCIS and The Good Wife :)

Which means we did it for 23 consecutive days. I like Level Three much more than Level Two. We'll get back with it tonight. 

We may be going out of town this weekend. If so, I think we're taking The Shred with us to do at the hotel. We'll see. 

We have my birthday celebration this weekend AND Super Bowl, so my goal once again is just to maintain. Then I'll kick it up again next Monday. 

I love a good deal :)

So ... last week when I spent the day with my mama, we also went to the consignment shop in town ... and I got one awesome steal!
For the past two years, I've been looking for a basic black cardigan. No ruffles or bling-bling buttons, just something basic. Easier said than done.
And finally last week, I spotted this CASHMERE beauty. On the half-price rack at that.

Now take a look at what I discovered while trying it on:

Yes, that is a store price tag for $118! And I got it for five bucks. 

Now that's what I call a steal! I'm wearing my new sweater at work today and it's oh-so-soft - I just love it!

Menu Plan Monday (on a Tuesday!): Jan. 31-Feb. 6

Yes, I'm a day late. 

And I barely cooked last week so a lot of this is repeat for that reason. (I had work lunches so just had salad while J did pizza or something a few days.) 

Here goes:

Sunday: Beef tips with seasoned rice, green beans

Monday: Barbecue sandwiches using leftover pork steaks, oven fries — seriously good but I needed to cut them thinner!

Tuesday: Chicken enchiladas, black beans

Wednesday: Macaroni and cheese lasagna, salad

Thursday: Leftover chicken enchiladas

Friday: Leftover lasagna (if we're home)

Saturday: My birthday dinner!