The dawn of a new week...

It is the dawn of a new week, as well as a new month. Here are some things that are happening this week...

My brother turns 30 tomorrow... Happy Birthday, Big Brother! Love ya!!!

My twin nephews turn 8! Happy Birthday, guys!!! Lots of love to the both of you :)

A is back in Bethel... I'll miss you honey... But not too much since you left a mess in the kitchen and my car STILL isn't clean... I love you lots, but it's probably good that you are hundreds of miles away from me at the moment.

I have a hectic week ahead of me at work. The big bosses are away at a convention, which leaves me to finalize a lot of stuff at work... I have a feeling that the two member's who haven't given us their renewal information yet (that was due on April 15th) will submit it while they are away... We'll see if that turns out... If so, that is even more on my plate, since they are two of our largest members that will each take me a day or two to complete just one... (sigh) That'll mean LONG days... VERY LONG days...

I'm getting excited about our vacation... It will be filled to the gills with stuff to do, but it will be nice to get away and see family. It is less than 2 months away now! I can't wait!!!

Yet another post of how crazy busy I am...

Yep, that's right. The return of the "crazy busy"...

I have so much to do at work today that I am hesitant to leave my house, knowing it is going to be crazy...

When I get home, I have to endure talk of how the airplane did today, then look around at all the stuff that needs to be done around my house that my husband could do, but didn't. (And even "this" reminder won't get him off his duff or out of the hanger to do it... Honestly, I don't even think it registers in his brain that things are not as they should be...)

My car is still a mess... The man was supposed to clean it last Friday BEFORE he starting working on the plane... He didn't... His excuse was that he needed the car to move stuff from one hanger to the other and that it would get dirty again... Then, yesterday it rained and the dog got muddy, so he couldn't do it then... (sigh)... I foresee me doing it after he leaves... I'll just add it to my list...

I thank whatever deity that is listening to this rant that I can now have chocolate to help get me through the day...

I'm so excited!

Today is my last day on my diet. I still plan on doing it how I have been, on restricting what I eat and when, but I plan on adding a cup of coffee to my breakfast routine tomorrow morning (mmmmm.... coffee.......). I also can have a fun size candy bar tomorrow! You have no idea how hard it is to stay away from the candy jar today... I have a nagging little voice in the back of my head that says "if you can have one tomorrow, you can have one today! What's one day matter?"... I have a pretty good support system here at work and if need be, she will hide the candy jar from me... Hopefully, my will power will succeed in this battle and she won't need to.

On another note, my lovely husband is coming home this afternoon for the rest of the month :)

I'm so glad he's home over Memorial Day. I have a 3 day weekend coming up and I plan to spend it all with him :)

Noni and the Bee...

Doesn't that sound like a good children's book title?

It's nice again, and I decided to eat my lunch on the front porch to our office and bask in the sunshine :) It was nice, but part-way through lunch, Noni spotted a bee... Granted, it was a very LARGE bee, but still... She turned right back around and sat in the office (we had the door open) and whined until I let her off her leash... Then she went and hid behind the half wall again... Then she went upstairs and stayed there until we were done outside and closed the door... Then she came back down like nothing had ever happened... LOL... Weird dog...

Spring has Sprung!!!

I vowed to not change the look of my blog until the leaves came out on the trees... Guess what! They are out now! Yay!

I hope you enjoy the new picture at the top. That is me, taking a rest under the wing of my Tri-Pacer on a dry lake bed in Utah, several years ago. We flew there for the Ibex Fly-in, where people would fly from all over the place and camp and cook... We had a blast. If I remember right, that year, some guys strapped those Swiss-horn-thingies (you know, from the Ricola commercials?) to the underside of their planes and then climbed to the top of the rock outcrop and gave us a concert. It was pretty cool...

Too Tired...

I've been working A LOT this week... So much so that I've come home, had my customary shake that I can have on my diet and gone straight to bed. This doesn't prevent me from being EXHAUSTED during the day...

I can tell I've lost some weight... How much? Can't say... I didn't weigh myself before I started this. I'm going based on how well my clothes are fitting now... Which is a lot better... Hopefully I can keep up the trend after the main restrictions come off regarding my diet next week. I still plan on having the shakes, because they are good (now that I figured out how to make them that way). They also keep me from eating too much during the day.

I just found out today that I can have herbal tea along with my water... Which is AWESOME!!! I have been wanting to drink something other than water all week, and herbal tea should be just right... It won't be coffee (which I have been craving the last couple of days), but it'll be something hot, so that'll be nice.

I am going to help support my boss's youth church group go to their summer thing this year. They are having a fundraiser dinner and auctioning off desserts at the end of it. My boss bought tickets for her son and his girlfriend to go, but they aren't now, so she invited me. It's semi-formal, so I have to dig deep in my closet to find something to wear. It should be cool though. And she was talking up the "oreo cheesecake" that she makes that they will be auctioning off, so that's what I'm going for. It'll keep in the freezer until A gets home and I am off my dietary restrictions.

Happy Mother's Day!

There are several "moms" in my life... I have my biological mother, who raised me to be who I am today, my mother-in-law, who raised my husband to be a wonderful man, my step-mom, who showed me the love that I didn't think/know was there, my "adopted" mom (my best friend's mom), who was always there, my grandmother, who I'm most like... But these are just a few...

To all:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

GROSS!!!!!!!!

We live in an area prone to garbage pickers... ie. ravens, bears, etc...

Our janitors for our building came and cleaned last night... They neglected to put our garbage into the enclosed and locked area for the dumpster that keeps these garbage pickers out... They left it outside this enclosure...

I got a lovely visit from our local garbage police telling us that we need to clean it up... Great...

You had 4 people in the office who are all dressed in business or business casual attire, outside in the wet, cleaning up 4 bags worth of garbage... It was all over the place...

It didn't take us long, but we all feel like we are dirty... We've cleaned up as best we can here at the office, and I know it is mostly psycholgical, but I still feel like I need a shower... Good thing lunch is in 30 minutes and I live close and can go home and take one...

EEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Detox Update...

I was feeling ok over the weekend. I didn't feel worse than I usually do, so I thought this would be a breeze. Then I went to the doctor...

She did some acupressure stuff to help clear out my system... Now, I am definitely feeling the effects again... No headache, but definitely more lethargic and generally crappy... I can always tell when she does "liver work" because I am nauseous afterwards... Oh well, this is all for the better...

On a side note, I have been denying my HUGE cravings for all things chocolate... I almost threw a shoe through my TV yesterday when it was advertising fresh-from-the-oven-brownies... I resisted the urge to purchase chocolate when I had to go to the store to restock my fruit options... So, on that level, I'm proud of what I've accomplished... I've even avoided the "candy jar" at work... So far, so good... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though... By the time A comes home, I will be done with the diet and we can go get something good...

I've been MIA this week...

Apart from emailing pictures from my phone to my blog, I've been a little busy...

A left this week to go back to work. It was nice to have him home the short time I was able to. It's also reassuring that with him working the hours he's working, it will be beneficial to our vacation in a few months AND temporary. After the summer, he goes back on his regular schedule.

The weather here has been so lovely... It's supposed to start raining again tomorrow, but I think that's a good thing. It's been almost a week since any rain fell here and it is starting to get dusty...

I started a detox diet as prescribed by my doctor. I'm basically only able to ingest certain food (mostly raw veggies and fruits, brown rice, bland lean meat, etc) and with the supplements that I take (along with a pretty gross shake), I should be all cleaned out and detoxed by the end of 3 weeks... So far, side effects include a headache, which could be due to the fact that I'm so used to eating sugar and drinking caffienated beverages that my system is not happy... Kinda like a druggey kicking the habit, but a mini version. So far, it's escalated to a migrane by the time I went to bed last night. Today, it's a mild "almost there" headache... Hopefully it doesn't progress too far today and I have the energy to do housework and stuff... I was warned that I would feel like CRAP for at least 1 week while I'm detoxing... Great!

Noni is afraid of the outside... She has been at work with me all week (since I'm working TONS of hours) and I put her out on her leash on our front porch at work... She FREAKED OUT! Yelping and whining to come back inside... Once inside, she went and hid behind a half-wall behind my desk until I shut the door... She may have seen a bee (which I know she's afraid of), as she freaks out like that when she does... But now she won't go outside without me... ARGGHHH!!! If I have the door open, she lays behind my desk as if it is a shield... So far, she only does this at work... I haven't tested the behavior at home...

Now I'm off to go enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.