Sunday, February 28, 2010

Life Gets in the Way

I've been busy trying to keep all the balls in the air over the past few weeks, and blogging is one I've let drop, obviously. All is good - just no "easy" posts right now - you know, those times where there are celebratory events or fun and exciting stuff and I can just throw some pics up on here in a couple of minutes and "ta-dah!", a blog post is done! As some of my siblings have said (ahem, Annie- not letting you forget this) those are the "good" posts, the ones with pictures! Never fear, though - we'll have some social events soon, to be sure; looking forward to Easter with my family, a tentative Branson Landing weekend with friends in April, and of course the John Mayer concert in late March. But for right now, just busy, busy, busy.

Work is jam-packed full of stuff this time of year, with several special events in addition to all of our normal activities and programs. Having been in my position for almost nine years, it is sometimes hard to find the excitement for the annual events, I guess. But I do love my job, and the people I work with; I really love seeing some of the newer members in my department bring their ideas and excitement, and help keep things fresh each year. Our biggest event, the 22nd annual Baby Affair, is next weekend, and we have some great new things planned.

On a personal note, I'm excited about taking steps towards a national certification for healthcare executives; have been researching it and talking to some other professionals who have completed it. With the state of the economy, continuing education is something that has not been in the budget for a few years in our health system- only those CEUs necessary for clinical recertification. So this would be an out-of-pocket expense, but worth it in terms of future career moves and networking with peers.

I'm back to a cycling/cross training class at the gym; I had started the class before my surgery in November, and just now feeling ready to get back to it. The teacher is awesome, is one of Paige's former high school (math and PE) teachers, and she makes us WORK in her class at the Y. On Wednesday we did 20 minutes cycling, then she had us do "5 in the corners" for the next 25 minutes- running the track and stopping in each corner to do five sets of exercises. It was intense - squats-thrusts, volleyball jumps, pushups, etc; made my Jillian Michael's Biggest Loser DVD look wimpy. I got through it, but my knees were aching for three days after- they've always given me trouble, and this was more than I'm used to doing. Luckily she changes up the cross-training portion every time, because I don't think these aching joints could handle that high intensity every time.

Not much new with any of the kiddos - Jace and Neil are both getting ready to start baseball, and Paige is busy at college. She had applied for a leadership retreat in January, and was one of the students chosen, it was this weekend. Dave is busy with his new position as a VP of sales; he is awesome at it, and I think really likes the challenge. He's got some plans for bathroom renovations here at home, now, and is in the middle of figuring out how much it will cost. I don't know that it is "Dave Ramsey-approved", but it is certainly "Nancy approved", because I know Dave, and he needs a project to keep busy! As long as we can stay relatively on budget, this is one that has needed to be done for some time.

That's all for now; hitting the gym in a bit, to Lowe's for tile shopping, and then getting ready for tonight's Dave Ramsey class. Later!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

So Random

Boy, haven't been on here in a few days; actually I think this is my longest lapse between blog posts in the past year - wish I could say it was because life has been so super exciting that I haven't been able to keep up, but really, not so much. Busy, but fairly routine. I just got home from the gym tonight, and struggling not to snack - I don't NEED to eat, but I'm hungry and I want to, even though I had dinner earlier tonight.

Not much to post about... just a few random thoughts and updates.

First thing is on eating, since that's where my head is right now, anyway. I had my quarterly meeting with my wellness coach at work, as part of our employee wellness program. I'm back to weekly Weight Watchers meeting, and counting points daily. I'm at 21 points per day right now; I usually use 6 points for breakfast, and then split up the rest between lunch, dinner and snacks. Plus I get 35 "extra" points per week, for splurges, etc, although the goal is not to use all of those. During our meeting Tony was talking about WW and how the points are basic figured on 50 calories each -- which means my 20 points/day is about 1,200 calories. Ack!! That has totally messed with my head. I didn't need to KNOW that my 21 points is only 1,200 calories - it seems like so much less food than it did before, when I think about restricting myself to that daily calorie amount... Totally psychological, I know, but I wish he hadn't shared that with me!

***************************************

Just a fun fact, related to food AND money - specifically, our transition from using our debit card to using cash... On the Dave Ramsey DVD in class the other night, he said that McDonald's average purchase was at $4.73 back a few years ago when McD's only took cash. When they started taking credit/debit cards, it went up to $7.00. I can see why - it is a lot easier to supersize it, or add that apple pie or hot fudge sundae when when all you have to do is swipe that card! Using cash has been better on my wallet and my waistline, when it comes to eating out!

**********************************

I love John Mayer's music (named my blog after one of my favorite songs on his Continuum CD) and I'm so lookin' forward to a road trip to STL with friend Steph to see him in concert in March. But geez, can't the guy just keep his mouth SHUT!? He loves to talk to the media... and sometimes he's quirky and funny, but other times he just goes off and says things without thinking... He tearfully apologized about his recent remarks in Playboy in one of his concerts last week - hopefully it was a legit learning experience for him, and he's not just trying to save face. Love your music, dude, but cut the commentary, shut up and sing!

**************************************

The hubby gave me a funny card and a sweet card for Valentines Day, (both with very sweet and heartfelt written notes) and a really nice inkpen. Of course I gave him a card, AND some pj pants - his favorite NASCAR driver, Jimmie Johnson. I guess that means I'm supporting his redneck-ness, when it comes to liking NASCAR, something I can't believe I'm doing. The things you do for love. (I know I have my own quirks, honey - love you!)


One of our highlights of the past week was Sunday night's Financial Peace (Dave Ramsey) class; it is one of the best classes out of the 13 week series- all about Dumping Debt. This is one of the lessons that helped really push us into changing our outlook on expenditures/debt...
it was great to watch it again with the 40+ people taking the class, and renew our own motivation about paying down our debt. We've been doing well, but as I've said many times - this class is kind of like Weight Watchers for your finances - helps to keep you accountable and on track!

In travel news, we had planned to spend the weekend in KC visiting Paige and our friends Garry and Heather, but plans changed when their daughter Ryleigh came down with mono! So, we'll have to plan another weekend with them in the next few months. But we did still make a quick road trip up and back on Saturday to spend a little time with Paige. Here's a couple pics:





And the visit would NOT be complete without the obligatory picture of the phone booth - this time Jace wanted to be IN the phone booth when we took the picture!



We enjoyed our visit with Paige, just having a chance to sit and talk with her about all of her experiences so far this year. She's doing so well in school, and growing up in other ways too - not that I can really explain, but she is different even from this summer, just in the few short months in school. It is exciting to watch, and even though I know it makes Dave a little melancholy to know that she's growing up, he is also happy and so proud of her.

That's all for now, more soon.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Go Saints!

Ok, I really am not into it, just turned it on in the 4th quarter, and the dogs are keeping me company. Hubby has been in bed all day with a cold and fever, and I've been keeping him plied with water and cold medicine every few hours. So I didn't even have the game on for the first three quarters; watched a couple of episodes of What Not to Wear, first! But I do think it would be cool if the Saints win, since they are the underdogs. Didn't the Colts win a few years ago? I'm hopeless about football, and really don't care, if you couldn't tell. Baseball's my sport, and I'll be happy when the Cards are playing again.

Happy birthday to lake friend, Sarah, who is a year and a couple months ahead of me on the big 4-0! Her husband enlisted the help of her family and some long-time friends to throw her a surprise birthday party, and they were nice enough to invite some of us dock friends to help celebrate last night.

Loved the balloon!




Me, Sarah, her daughter Roxy, and Pam

Carl, hamming it up, as he often does - we love him!




It was fun to help Sarah celebrate, and to see some of our lake friends again. It was an early night, but we made plans to get together for a weekend at the Branson Landing in March or April. I've been down there shopping during the day, but we've never been there during the evening, AND we can use Dave's hotel points for a free night - sooo, it will be easier to have a "Dave Ramsey approved" weekend.

Looks like the Saints are going to win it; I'm going to finish up some laundry, check on Dave, and get ready for the week!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Date Night

My Friday night consisted of eating fast food (not on the Weight Watchers diet, I know) and renting a 1991 action flick, with my 11-year-old. I love that my son still wants to hang out with me, and I have to remind myself that this won't be the case forever. Oh, I know he'll always love me, and will still do stuff with me, but at some point it won't be as willingly, and I'll have to face the fact that I'm second fiddle to the call or text of a buddy. There will come a time where he'd rather be playing video games with the guys, or going to see the latest action flick with a whole group of friends, and his mom will be the last resort, if things don't pan out.

I remember, because I was there once myself. Uh, you want me to stay home? On a Friday night? With my parents and younger siblings? No way. I think I would've planned a social activity for every minute of the weekend (and weeknights, too) if my parents would have let me - football games Friday night, spending the night with my best friend... "oh, but can't I stay with her on Saturday too? Her parents don't care!". I was on the go, all the time.

Of course since there were six kids in my family by the time I was a teen (we ranged in age from 15 to newborn) I have to say -if we're being honest here- that I don't think my folks missed spending good, quality time with me when I was gone, I think it was more that perhaps I wouldn't be there if chores needed to be done! It is definitely different having an only child rather than a large family, in many ways. One thing I do miss for Jace is having other siblings around his own age. Our parents were always crazy busy keeping up with all of us, but it was great having built-in friends right there at home all the time.

Friday nights are usually my and Jace's night to hang out together. Dave likes to catch up on all of his fishing shows and other stuff, and last night he headed to a boat show with a buddy. So when I picked Jace up from his friend's house, I threw out the option of McDonald's and a movie, and it was met with an excited reply of "Sweet, Mom!". Since we had rented the latest Terminator flick with Dave and Neil last weekend, Jace wanted to see if we could rent some of the earlier movies, and watch the whole series. So we watched 1991's Terminator: Judgement Day and ate cheeseburgers and french fries for dinner. And it was, indeed, a sweet night.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I've headed to the gym the last couple of nights and put in some good interval cardio on the Arc trainer, working my way back into an exercise routine. I've gotten pretty soft in my time off after my surgery, and then over the holidays, with all the food and celebrations. So getting back in there is necessary, and really feels good. I usually don't pay much attention to what's on the televisions in the cardio area, choosing instead to listen to my Ipod or read a book while I'm doing my workout. But for whatever reason I wasn't into my music, and last night I tuned in to "The Bachelor" for 40 minutes. No offense to anyone who watches it, but geez, in my opinion it is painful. I found myself rolling my eyes more than once at all the drama, and all the b.s. between Jake the Bachelor and six or more women about true love, falling in love, soul mates, etc. - what a load of crap. Now I remember why I never got into all the reality TV, especially the stuff like that. Tonight's workout was 45+ minutes, and I have to say it was much more enjoyable to watch "Biggest Loser"; some great inspiration on there, AND Jillian kickin' butt as well.

The other change as of late is that I finally bit the bullet and asked my physician for a prescription sleep medication; it is amazing to see the difference in both my nightly sleep and my energy level during the day, over the past week and a half. I absolutely have never had any problem FALLING asleep, my issue is I have woken up at 3AM for years, and then struggle to get back to sleep for an hour or two many nights. By the time the alarm goes off at 6ish, I am just getting back into a restful sleep. Not a fun way to start the day. It finally had become so bad that I wanted to try something, so my doc put me on a very low dose of Ambien. I questioned the doc about it, and she said such a low dose will not be an issue. Anybody else take anything for sleep, and if so, what and how long have you taken it? I am very glad that it is helping me, but wonder about taking it indefinitely, even if it does help me sleep.

That's all for tonight, gotta finish up some work and then off to bed.

I'm off to bed