Footprints on the Moon

Almost two weeks ago now, I was talking to my friend Julie on instant messenger and I mentioned how I didn’t have hardly any food in my apartment, but you couldn’t tell that by looking at my refrigerator! I said I should take before and after pictures– I’m sure she though I was joking, but here they are::

Before:

And of course, AFTER:

Huge difference, huh?? Don’t worry though, just because the conversation took place almost two weeks ago doesn’t mean I waited that long to get around to cleaning out my fridge. I did that the very next day, but I only just managed to get the “after” pictures off of my camera. Hey, my fridge didn’t get that messy from staying on top of things I’m a procrastinator in the worst way, especially when it comes to something like cleaning!

Weight Lost

This week: 1 lb
Total: 1 lb

Well, one pound is one pound, right? This week could be summed up as the good, the bad and the ugly. There were some days that went really well, and others that didn’t. I’ve always wanted to lose weight, but I’ve never seriously tried to do it before, so it’s been a lot of trial and error. I’m not getting discouraged yet!
There was one kind-of-disappointed-in-myself thing though. Before I restarted the weight watchers thing, I was really close to changing weight ranges, and therefore needing a new point goal. I didn’t realize that I had dropped to the lower point goal until about halfway through the week… the disappointed part comes from knowing that my goal had changed, but sticking with the old one because I was hungry! It will change starting tomorrow though.

Goals for next week:
- Remember to keep track of points in drinks. I usually drink water, or points-free beverages, so I forget to consider the ones that aren’t.
- Try and find some kind of exercise to do on the days that I’m not walking at work, even if it’s just the 1 mile walking exercise tape that I have.

How did you guys do this week?

I spent my days off this week cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning. My apartment was such a wreck before, but it’s all nice and clean now!! (Well, except the bedroom, but even that looks better than it did before.) I don’t mind a little clutter, but it was downright dirty, so it feels good to have a clean living space again. If I would just keep it up, it wouldn’t be such an effort to get it back into shape…
Today I’m at my dad’s doing some laundry. Of course I get here and they have next to no laundry detergent. So I had to run out to get some… and ran into people I used to work with. So my 20 minute trip to the store turned into 45+ minutes. Put me a little behind, but that’s okay. I’ve got a ton of laundry to do, and then home to bed before work.
It will be nice when everything is done. Unfortunately, all the activity has flared up the cyst in my wrist, so that’s a little painful. It’s not too bad though, so I don’t think it will stick around long this time.

The second Postie Carnival is being held today, Monday January 15 over at my friend Suni’s blog, Bucket O’ Bulletz. All participants are current members of PayPerPost. Be sure to head over there today and check out all of the wonderful entries. The theme for this week is charitable causes, and I look forward to reading about the causes that are near and dear to posties’ hearts!

The post that I’ve entered in the carnival is the five charities I think are worthy causes.

Today you get a two-fer!!

and

I was sorely tempted to take a picture of myself under a pile of blankets, since that’s where I’ve been all day. Instead, I decided to take a picture of myself in the hat and scarf I made. Cass, this is my muppet hat and scarf that I told you about!

According to a recent CNN.com article, 95% of Americans have had premarital sex. The article is from December 20, so obviously I’m a little late jumping on this bandwagon, but am I the only one to find this a little surprising?
On the same/a similar topic, the current issue of Glamour has an article about fathers and daughters taking vows of purity. To me, the article reads like the author wrote it from a completely horrified stance. On one hand, I can agree with her– there were girls as young as four years old signing contracts. There’s no way that they can even begin to comprehend what they are agreeing to. But when it comes to the older girls who are fully aware of just what they are promising, I don’t see what the problem is. The author is extremely concerned about girls who make the pledge feeling like failures if they happen to have premarital sex a couple of years down the road.
I don’t know. I would hope that most girls would have an understanding that their lives are in different places than they were when they signed the contract. I made a similar pledge when I was 12? 13? but I’m not going to fall to pieces if I end up having sex before I’m married. Did you catch that if? Yup, I’m still a virgin. I’m throwing that out there because it might color the way you read my views on premarital sex. Plus I got the *mindboggle* “You’ve never had sex” again just the other day. It’s not a fact that I advertise, but it’s not something I hide either. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only virgin left, even though that’s clearly not true.
Am I still waiting for marriage? Not necessarily, but I do still take a more serious approach to sex than it seems like most people do. Sex within marriage is probably ideal, but I also think sex outside of marriage is anything but casual. I’ve never felt strongly enough about anyone I’ve dated in the past to take that step, which is a good thing, since most of them turned out to be jerks. Just seems to me that if I’ve waited this long, there’s no good reason to go and make it something to regret now.

So I’ve been doing Weight Watchers this week, and it’s going…. decently enough I suppose. My big problem is that I’m always hungry before I go to bed, but I’m not ready to start a new day points-wise. Obviously, something’s gotta change. (That something is really me making better choices on my meal before I go to work so there’s something left, but shh…) For today though, I stumbled upon a solution– zero points food. There are a few things out there, but most of it is vegetables that I won’t eat without adding some kind of points-laden dip or topping. But lo! PICKLES! Zero points! Eaten all by their lonesomes! I’ll always eat pickles! So voila! Pickles for breakfast. My tummy is happy and so is the scale

A little before New Years, I signed up for Gamefly.com, which is pretty much Netflix for video games. I bought myself a Nintendo DS for Christmas and the games can add up pretty quickly, so I wanted to try some of them out before I plunked down such a big chunk of money on them. What if they sucked?
Now, I love Netflix. I’m on the three-at-a-time plan, although I really ought to up that again. I’m rather unimpressed with Gamefly so far. First of all, I think it’s too expensive. I can have two games at a time, and it costs more than my Netflix. They have a 10 day free trial, but I didn’t even receive my first games until day 6. With shipping like that, there’s no way I’d be able to keep up a kind of turn around that would be anywhere near cost effective. Especially if it’s a game I end up liking and would like to get a little bit of play time in before I send it back.
One thing that I do like about the site is that they have a “keep it” option that Netflix doesn’t have. Netflix will let you purchase movies from them, but so far I haven’t seen an option to keep what you already have at home. Not all games are for sale, but if you have one that is, you simply click “keep it”, they’ll charge the credit card they have on file, and ship the new case and instruction booklet to you within 3-5 days.
What I don’t like, though, is that I did choose the keep it option on one of the games I have at home. They processed the purchase, and shipped my case (to arrive in the next couple of days), but as of two days later, they still haven’t sent out my next game. I’d hate to see what kind of turn around they’d have if I got a game that didn’t work– Netflix will get my next selection ready for shipment as soon as they receive the report.
So I’m not impressed with Gamefly so far… I’m probably going to stick with it for a little while longer just to try some of the other games on my list, but then I’m going to cancel. Are there other similar sites out there that someone has experience with?

Welcome to my first Weightloss Wednesday post. Losing weight (or getting healthy, however you want to word it) is one of my New Year’s Resolutions so I’m hoping that participating in this will not only keep me on track, but also give me a little bit of accountability!!
I started this morning, and I have my starting weight and “before” picture all ready to go. (Sorry, not posting these just yet!) So far so good, though it’s not hard to stay on track for the first day. We’ll see what I’m thinking a week from today To begin with, I’m trying the weight watchers points system. I like that I can eat ANYTHING I want, so long as I budget it into my points for the day. For now, I’m not following the plan on Mondays. It’s one of my days off, and I’ll still be making better choices, but I know I’ll be stricter with the rest of my plan if I can “cheat” one day a week. I’m usually with friends or family on that day and I don’t want to have to scrutinize what they’re serving.
Right now the diet thing is going to be trial and error. If it’s not working (especially “cheat day”), I’ll change it, but since I’ve never stuck with a program before, I don’t know what works for me! All I know is that the last time I lost weight, even that fifteen pounds off made me feel so much better! Wish me luck!

The baby shower was on Sunday, and it went off pretty well despite me getting NO sleep and being cranky, and my mom having a horrible headache. Lots of people pitched in to help, especially with clean-up which was definitely appreciated!
To the left, you see a picture of the proud parents. That’s my twin brother, Ryan, and his fiancee Ash-lee.

I promised pictures of the cookie jars, so there they are!! There’s a close-up of the Munchy Crunchy cookie mix too. We made them for game prizes, and they were quite messy to make, but they turned out really cute! We got a lot of compliments on them! There were other prizes too– a couple of gift sets, cookbooks, candles, and bath and body works stuff. We had two of the Glade Trios candle sets for the door prizes. When people came in, they had to fill out their name and address on an envelope (for the thank you cards!), and then guess how many pacifier candies we’d put into a baby bottle. Those two winners got the trios, and all the rest of the winners got to pick a prize. Our other games were Baby Body Parts (ie Part of a wagon– tongue), Name the Nursery Rhyme, and Oh, Baby (name as many songs with the word “baby” in the title as you can). It was fun watching everyone struggle rather than being one of the people struggling!!

I had to snap a picture of the cake because it cracked me up. The mama-to-be designed it herself, and everyone thought it was just perfect!

And last but not least, a picture of my cousin Matt’s five month old son Benjamin. He was playing with a balloon and when I got my camera out, he stopped and made this face. It cracked me up, so I had to share!!
So the festivities are over, and now we’re waiting to meet the little guy!