Footprints on the Moon

As I look back through my blog over the last several months, I think I’m more disappointed by the lack of Self Portrait Sunday posts than lack of any other content… So, no promises, but I’m going to try and get back into the habit of posting these pictures every week. Especially since I’ve been losing weight, it would be nice to have those pictures to go back and look at. At least I did post one the week I started Weight Watchers! The problem is that in July we started Sunday morning practices for roller derby. I don’t bother showering before practice because I’m going to go get sweaty and smelly anyways. Then I come home and try and clean around the apartment so I usually wait to shower until just before bed. (Excuses, I has them!) In any case… I need to get better about taking a picture over the weekend when I HAVE showered. Which is what I did on Saturday

Now as I’m sitting here (unshowered from this morning lol), I’m trying to do some cleaning around the apartment and watch everything on my TiVo so I can install a new one! That’s right, I upgraded my TiVo. I decided to go ahead and buy the TiVo premeire, which is supposed to be able to record from an antenna for over-the-air digital channels, and also works with Netflix on demand. Between those and possibly Hulu Plus in the future, I could cancel the cable television entirely. At a savings of $60 a month or so, the new TiVo will pay for itself in just a couple of months. (Justifications, I has them!)

Of course, all this TV watching means I’m not getting much cleaning done… Not that that’s anything new. I did manage to get the trash and recycling taken out, scooped litterboxes, and swept the bathroom floor. If I clear up a little more of the clutter in the living room (which honestly, is what is actually making my apartment feel so dirty), and wash the dishes, I’ll be satisfied with my productivity for the weekend. Which is good because I’ll probably be spending a lot of time playing with my new toy and tv reception.

You know you have been too big of a slacker at updating your blog when your own blog doesn’t recognize you. Do you still remember me? Maybe we should all wear name tags? Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I used to write on this blog. I also use pictures that I took last week (some time after practice, if you can’t tell by the crazy braids) and try to pass them off as current because I NEVER BLOGGED IT. Oops?

I’m trying to decide whether my lack of blogging is out laziness or because I’m boring lol I’m going to go with laziness because it’s not like I don’t have anything to say. I’m constantly drafting blog posts in my head… about that crazy thing I just saw, about how my weight loss is going, about roller derby… etc. Sometimes I even come over here and open up my blog. And then half an hour later, I’ll switch back from whatever I chose to do instead and close it with nothing written here.

It’s a vicious cycle… the less I write, the less people comment. The less people comment, the less I write. I know some people in my family read my blog, but a lot of times I feel like I’m just out here talking to myself. I miss the days where we all commented on each others’ blogs… Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of this too. I certainly comment far less than I used to myself. I know the mantra is “I blog for myself,” and I know some day I’m going to wish these months weren’t so sparsely populated on my blog… but gosh darnit, I miss you guys!

Okay, so I know today is not Sunday but the picture WAS taken on Sunday, and I would have posted it if I hadn’t been too tired/busy to get around to downloading the memory card from my camera!

Yeah… remember that roller derby cookout I mentioned yesterday? Well this is what I looked like at 9:45 the next morning, getting ready to head out for our very first Sunday morning practice. Don’t I just look so excited about life? lol

Don’t worry, I survived what was probably my smallest practice to date, but almost one of the most fun! I had every intention of coming home, pulling down the roller blinds and spending the rest of the day doing nothing. However, the state of my apartment really got to me, so I spent the afternoon cleaning up the kitchen and the bathroom, carrying out trash and getting started on the tornado that hit the living room. Then, of course, I remembered I had to be at work at 3am the next morning and I might want to grab a shower and hit the sack. I was in bed before I even remembered I hadn’t done anything about this picture. Isn’t that a lovely story? haha

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! I spent the morning being lazy around the house, and then making some cookie dough dip to take to the cookout we had this afternoon. And then of course, I went to said cookout.

I wore my league t-shirt, so there was some conversation about roller derby. I tried to talk Elena into joining with us, but since she broke her arm the last time she was roller skating, I didn’t get too far. (Hmm… maybe this is why people keep asking me about insurance quotes when I talk about joining a roller derby league?)

Anyway, it was a nice afternoon. I got to see some family members that I don’t see very often. Now I’m at home, watching Remember the Titans on ABC Family and thinking about getting myself to bed early.

Edit to add: I almost forgot to add my weight loss update. I lost .8 this week, for a total of 18.2. I need to take my measurements again because I feel like the weight loss has slowed down (the garbage I’ve been eating may have something to do with that), but I also feel like there have been some other changes in my body just from skating 2-4 times a week!

Sunday again already? Wow… I really did mean to post something else during the week, but I just never managed to do it! The biggest problem is that I’ve been meaning to compose a post about this whole roller derby thing but I’m having a hard time putting everything into words.

Anyways, life has been busy, between work and derby and just life in general. I was definitely ready for the weekend to decompress. (I didn’t have much of choice– my thigh muscles hurt so bad from our league practice on Thursday night that I could hardly move until Saturday night!) Friday, Sarah came over and we had a very good, very needed vent fest.

Saturday, as I posted on Facebook, was a little bit of cleaning, a little bit of relaxing, and a lot of blowing my diet. Not too bad, but I definitely used all my daily points, the rest of my weekly points and half of my activity points. All on Saturday afternoon. Whoops LOL But I also got the dishes washed and the bathroom mostly cleaned.

Today I have been cleaning and purging in my bedroom. I have two big garbage bags of clothes to pass along to goodwill, and a whole stack of clothes on the shelf in my closet that I can’t wait to get skinny enough to get back into! One more size down and I’ll have some really cute pants to wear lol

I was going to go to the open skate at the roller rink this afternoon, but when I got there the parking lot was completely empty. So I figured either they canceled the skate, or else it was full of teenagers who had been dropped off. Either way, I knew I didn’t want to bother going inside! Instead I came back on and continued on the clean and purge. I still have piles of clutter, and boxes from ordering all my skate stuff, in the living room… I just need to clear all that stuff out and then I can vacuum the floors and I’ll have a pretty clean apartment! Feels good, it was out of hand for awhile!

And to keep you posted on the Weight Watchers thing… I’m down .6 this week, for a total of 16 pounds in 8 weeks. If it hadn’t been for the last 2 days, it would have been more than that, but I’ll take it. Mom saw some pictures on Facebook of me at one of the derby events and said that she can see that I’m losing weight, so that was awesome! It’s always encouraging when other people can start to see the difference rather than always being like, no really, I’m less fat, I promise!

As always, ignore those spots that require adult acne treatment… picture taken earlier this evening before I ran out to Kroger to buy some eggs so that I could make banana bread. Of course, after I got home I discovered that my bananas were too far gone to use. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Man this weekend has seemed short! I picked up an extra shift at work last night which is probably why. Today Sarah came over and hung out for a couple hours, and then tried to do a bit of cleaning around the house, shaved my legs, and finally, took a shower.

Now I’m writing this! And as soon as I press publish I’m going to go dry my hair and go to bed. I was woken up at 6:30 this morning with a phone call from work, so I’m really tired! Plus, I have to work in the morning too. Will be very boring since it will just be me and one of my coworkers– the rest of the plant has the holiday off!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of me in my new helmet. And pigtails. The helmet, of course, is a part of the equipment that is going to keep me from needing social security disability from playing roller derby. Yep, you heard that right, I’m trying to join a roller derby team. There is actually a new league starting up in the area. Since it had been 10 years since I’d skated prior to joining up with roller girl conditioning two weeks ago, it will be awhile before I can do all of the things required for actually playing the game. But it’s fun in the meantime! And a bit expensive.

In other news, I made up for last week’s .2 gain with a 3.6 pound loss this week. That puts me at 15.2 pounds lost in six weeks! Woohoo! Of course I celebrated by getting Long John Silver’s for dinner. *eyeroll at myself* Either way, doing well! I can’t wait until other people can tell that I’m losing weight.

(Wow, I really look like I need some best acne treatments… my face has been breaking out like CRAZY lately!)

Anyway… Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there! I hope you are ending your day feeling loved and appreciated! Of course, my furry little ingrates got me nothing, for the 3rd year running.

I spent the day grocery shopping, baking a cake, and then hanging out with my mom and her husband, my brother and my nephew at my grandma’s house! Totally blew my diet today, that’s for sure! Oh well, start again tomorrow, right?

Speaking of my diet, for those playing along, I was down 2 lbs at this morning’s weigh in for a total of 11.8 pounds lost in 4 weeks.

Boy, Sunday sure came around fast! I got off to a productive start this morning, but it didn’t exactly last… I did a load of laundry at 7 this morning, and I did finally wash the dishes, but other than that, it’s just been a bunch of putzing around the house. Oh, I did also get a bunch of dishes put away so my kitchen no longer looks like counter displays for pots and pans lol I tried to watch movies, but my DVD player kept skipping, so I gave up on that. I read for awhile… so mostly lazy? But my apartment is cleaner than when I got up this morning so I guess I win!

Also in the win category is this week’s weigh-in. I lost another 2.8 pounds for a total of 9.8 lbs in 3 weeks. And that’s with some fast food during the last half of this week. Woohoo!

I chose this particular picture and angle because now you can’t see the huge zit on my chin LOL Too bad my smile looks a little fake, but that was true of all the pictures I took today. Apparently I just wasn’t feeling it this afternoon!

I had a pretty good weekend though! Friday night, Erica and I went shopping, Saturday was my cousin Alex’s first birthday party, and then today I went to my friend Amy’s Pampered Chef party and then stopped off at the grocery store for some fresh veggies.

I had my second weigh-in this morning, and lost 2.2 pounds. That makes a total of 7lbs lost in two weeks. Yay!