Wednesday Wishes

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my health so today’s Wednesday Wishes have to do with them.

My health tends to always be on my mind since I’m always in some sort of pain and trying to think of a solution. There are no solutions to the pain it seems.

(Quick background for all my new readers: I broke 5 ribs in July 2012 but we don’t know why or how. No accident, nothing. My blood results and bone density/scans were all good. I was in pain for a year before they figured it out. Now it seems that there is permanent nerve damage in my rib area which I am being drugged up for).

I have an appointment with my pain management doctor on the 10^th. The medicine I take requires I come in to see her every 3 months. Luckily I don’t worry too much about the medicines I take. My worries lie in the fact that I still have very painful days.

The bigger worry is that the medicines I take are not compatible with pregnancy. Which means that when Thomas and I decide to start trying (and if I get pregnant accidently) I have to stop taking the medicine. I depend on the medicine to not be crippled in pain. I’m still in pain with the medicine, without it I can’t function.

What will happen when I get pregnant and can’t get through the day? I worry about having to take time off work in order to make it through the pregnancy. I worry about the fact that it would mean that we would have less income coming in. (I have to look into getting Aflack or Colonial Life for supplemental insurance to cover this period, but that is a monthly cost).

On a different health note – for the past six months to a year, whenever something happens in my life – whether it is buying a car or now refinancing my house – I get what I think are tension headaches. For some reason I always leave my Excedrin at home and Tylenol does nothing to subdue the pain.

So my wishes for today are that my health improves. I wish that the hormones that pregnancy brings will help with the pain and I’ll be able to work and have a nice pregnancy. I wish that I can eventually wean off some of the medication. I wish that this headache side effect to life events goes away, they suck!

What are your wishes today?

To Dye or Not To Dye

I need advise guys! The hair kind - so very important life changing advise! 

Naturally my hair is straight and thin. I’ve been told I have a lot of hair but since it’s so thin and straight you’ve would be able to tell.

For a long time I wanted a perm because it was an easy way to get some body into my hair. Curling it with a curling iron didn’t work – my hair would not hold the curl. For my wedding the hair stylist had to do special pin type curls to get some body.

After I came back from my honeymoon I felt confident enough to get a perm. There was drama through it (I had to have the perm done 3 times!!).

Now, 7 months later my hair is just about ready to be permed again. My hair has grown out a good 1.5 to 2 inches and some of the hair on the lower back of my hear went straight months ago.

I have an appointment set up for that but I’m wondering if I should get my hair colored. I’ve colored my hair tons of times myself, but never professionally (okay, that’s a lie – I did it once in 2005 when I was in Argentina).

The perm I got last year lightened my hair color which now looks like an ombre type of style since my hair has grown in darker. I guess it’s a good look… but I’m thinking maybe changing it?

I don’t know – I want to do SOMETHING. I need YOUR opinions!

Grateful Heart Monday - Mika

As you may have read, I spent weekend before last in the Bay Area visiting my sister and her family. 

My sister is 15 years older than me and got married when I was 9. I would spend 2-3 weeks at a time visiting her and her husband all during my middle and high school years. Her husband is a great guy and very good with kids. They had my eldest niece Mika when I was 17 and I was able to spend the first few of months of her life with her (since I graduated high school a month after she was born).

Mika was my princess for nearly 3 years before my other nieces were born (the next two were born 3 months apart, one is Mika’s little sister, and the other my brothers’ daughter). I feel like I have  a special connection with her. She’s 12 now and she is becoming a full blown teenager. I feel like kids are much older these days. 

I love all my nieces dearly and equally, but I think that the few months I spent with Mika gave us a special bond. Now it’s grown because of our common love for the Backstreet Boys. I didn’t even do it! She, on her own, began to listen to them and began loving them just like I did when I was about a year older than she is now. It was nice to spend the weekend listening to their albums and watching videos on YouTube. 

As I boarded the plane to go home I got a text from her saying she wished I was sitting with her watching videos right that moment. On Sunday night she hugged me and called me her best friend. I felt all the feelings right then. 

We spent a big part of the weekend getting ready for my younger nieces’ birthday party. She had a few friends over and they played, watched movies, and ate ice cream. We tried to go bowling but the place was packed and didn’t have lanes available (oh well). We went to a local ice cream parlor right before our flight home to enjoy some sundaes - a tradition of theirs. 

It was a very nice trip. The girls had been coming to spend a week or two with us over their vacations and it was nice. I used to be a teacher so I had the same breaks so I could take them to do different things. Now that I don’t get extended breaks it has become harder, and now that I’m married it will be even harder than ever. As we were leaving Mika asked her dad if they could come spend spring break with us, we’ll see if that happens or not . 

I’m glad I got to spend the weekend with the girls (oh, and I guess my sister and brother-in-law as well). 

Stand Up Sunday - Weight Loss Journey - A LINK UP

The weight needs to come off. I started off well a few weeks ago, but it was a mistake to really start around the holidays. At least it was a mistake for me. 
I couldn't control myself. I ate everything that looked good. I might not have eaten a lot of it, but I ate it. I ate out and ate dessert. 
But I'm done eating. At least done eating all the crappy stuff that does the opposite of making me feel good. 
I was so happy when I saw Rebekah post about wanting to start a Link-Up about weight loss. I've seen some others out there, but they seemed to dwindle out. I need the push to keep myself accountable. 
So I'm going to start again. I'm going to try to lose the 20 to 30 pounds that would mean putting in me in the "average" BMI range instead of the overweight or obese ones. 
The link-up will consist of a series of questions (which I answered below to get us started). If you wish to participate in this link-up all you have to do is copy the questions and answer them (you may, of course, pick and choose the ones that you wish to answer for any given week).  Link back to us each Sunday and give us an update.  Feel free to share anything you want and to not share things you'd rather keep to yourself (weight for example). Check out each other blogs to see how we are doing and give some positive feedback to keep us on the right track. 
Let us go first...

1. How many pounds did you gain or lose?

I weighed myself on Tuesday, January 20th and I weighed in at: 163.8. My weigh in procedure is to use the bathroom and weigh myself right before getting dressed for the day. I feel that this is the most accurate measure and generally it has me at the lowest weight of the day.

I weighed myself on Saturday (yesterday) and I weighed in at 161 even.

So that's a difference of 2.8 pounds.

2. How many inches did you gain or lose?

So this is hard for me. At least at the moment because I don't have a measuring tape. Instead I'll stick to my pant size.

I had reached a 4/6 a year or so ago, and am wearing 8/10 right now. The 8 is a bit tight but it fits, the 10 is more comfortable. I will update how comfy each size is since I probably won't change actual pant size for a while.
.,

3. Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it?

I haven't decided if I want to have a step goal or not. Mostly because my week nights tend to be crazy and sometimes I get to walk a lot and sometimes I don't. The goal that they say we should reach is 10,000 steps a day, 70,000 a week. I'm hoping to reach half of that to start and see how that goes. Maybe setting a goal for steps will inspire me to go on longer walks with my puppy (and I'll be honest - he is the only reason I go for walks these days). 

I use my phone (Galaxy S5) for my step counting.

Apparently there is no easy way to see how many steps I took in a week so I had to add up my steps for each day. For Sunday, January 18th thru Saturday, January 24th I walked a total of 51,239 steps. I made that goal of half the steps last week when I wrote most of this post. I didn't really try to make the 35,000 step goal - but I reached 51,239 pretty easily. 

4. What was your biggest challenge this week?

This week my biggest challenge was getting back into the hang of things. Besides the holidays I went to my sisters' house last weekend were I indulged in birthday cake and ice cream and eating out for just about every meal. Getting back into a good path of eating within my calories was a struggle. 

5. What is your favorite healthy snack or meal?

Lately my favorite snacks have been clementines (Cuties) and tomatoes. I'll eat them as snacks during the day at work. They are easy to eat and low in calories so I can have 3 or 4 and not feel like I'm ruining my calorie count for the day. 

6. Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

I was able to lose 25 lbs simply by using My Fitness Pal and being an active member of the Reddit /loseit. I kept it of for over a year, but then I got married and went on a honeymoon and all was forgotten. 

My advice is to keep coming back to this link up, commenting on each others post (and we'll comment on yours) and keep each other inspired to come back and show are successes and even our downfalls (because there is no doubt that they will happen at one point or another).

Not all my posts will be this wordy, this is definitely an intro post to the link-up! I hope you will join us! 

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An InLinkz Link-up

Things That Annoy Me Thursday

I'm joining Amber at Airing My Dirty Laundry for this lovely topic today! 

I had written a post for last week, and then I re-thought it because a) it was too detailed and in case anyone in my “real” life reads this from work I may have gotten in trouble and b) I wanted to add to it.

The basic gist of what was really annoying me all of last week was a situation at work. I won’t describe the situation, however I will say this:

/start rant:

I do not understand some people. Unless they actually suffer from a mental illness, and I think this one person may, I just don’t get it. One moment this person is my best friend and she stops in my cubicle to chat and we give each other advise, etc. etc. THEN the next she wants NOTHING to do with me. This is what happened over the past month. When she gets into the hating me mood I just ignore her. She doesn’t add anything to my life to make me waste time worrying about. But then she does some things that seem aimed at me and I get annoyed.

Maybe I am overreacting and I shouldn’t let that get to me, but sometimes I can’t help it.

That same day that I wrote the post (Wednesday of last week) she decided that the hating me part of the moment was over and she was going to be my friend again – and so that helped in me wanting to hold back on the post.

I just don’t get it.

That same evening Thomas and I (in separate cars) met up with his parents for dinner. On my way home I was driving behind two exceptionally slow drivers. I was able to get around one but not the other, so I was stuck behind the car at a left turning arrow. And I mean stuck.

She didn’t pull up to the crosswalk line so it didn’t trigger the arrow to turn green. Writing about it, it doesn’t seem that big of an issue – but I wanted to be home! I honked at the car and she pulled up just half a car length, but luckily far enough that she triggered the light to change the next time.

Why do people not pull up to the line? Do they not know that there are sensors under the ground that let the lights know you are there?

Okay…. /end rant.

Blogiversary to Amanda & Anne!

These lovely ladies are celebrating their blogiversary this month and to make it a grand celebration a bunch of us got together to put together this awesome cash give away! 

The Prize: $180 PayPal Cash!

Top Row: The So-Called Homemaker  //  Kenji is Here  //  Him & Me

Left Side: That Southern Mama  //  Hey Kerri Blog  //  Love the Here and Now

Right Side: Butcher's Niche  //  All the Joys  //  Life with Mrs. G and The Artist

Bottom: Bourbon, Lipstick, and Stilettos   //  Ember Grey  //  Pink Nightmare

Middle: Knock on Wood

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hometown Dates

When I heard about this link up I knew I wanted to participate.

Thomas and I don’t have a date night set up, but I know that we should. I was talking about it with Amanda recently so I decided to start thinking about and researching things that we can do for date nights. I’ve come up with the following list and I’m hoping we can do all of these in the next year – every time we do one I’ll post about it and check it off the list!

O N E  Movies: This is an easy one. We both love to watch movies so going out for movies is an easy, no planning type of night. Of course that’s if there are any movies we want to watch. We’ll buy some popcorn (and I’ll bring the candy from the Dollar Tree).

T W O  Bowling: I hadn’t been in a long time until recently and it was so much fun! We did go with our families that day, but I think it would be fun just the two of us as well.

T H R E E  Hiking: Thomas and I haven’t done a lot of this – mostly because he is not a fan of it, but I love to go hiking. There is a trail that leads of to the Hollywood Sign that I’ve been wanting to go to, so I think we’ll be doing that one of these days.

F O U R Santa Monica: Thomas and I went here on one of our first dates but we haven’t gone back since. I’d like to and go on the famous Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. Thomas was hesitant to this (but let’s be honest about any of these – if it involves leaving the house he’ll be hesitant).

F I V E Games: Although we wouldn’t be going out for this, I know what Thomas would love more than anything is to stay in and for me to play video games with him. He just got me started on World of Warcraft with him and I’m starting to like it.

S I X Miniature Golfing: This is something else I haven’t done in a long time but I think it would be fun to do together. There is a nice one not too far away and then an indoor glow in the dark one that I would like to try as well.

S E V E N Rock Climbing: Nothing extreme, but there is a nice set of rocks a mile or so from our house and I’ve climbed many times and I think would be fun to do with him. We can bring some lunch with us and eat on a nice flat rock at the top that overlooks The Valley (yes, I capitalize both words).

I'm hoping to start on this soon! Yay for Date Nights!

Where is your favorite date night location?

Announcing Step Up Sunday Link-Up!

I am excited to announce that I am teaming up with Rebekah and Britt to bring you the Step Up Sunday Linkup!

It will be a weekly linkup where we can all share our progress in trying to lose weight while supporting one another. The linkup will also be a great way to accountable to your weight loss and health goals. It's like a Weight Watchers meeting without the actual meeting! Don't worry - no one will see or know your weight if you don't want them to! 

We will be posting our progress using "-3 lbs" or "+3 lbs" each week. Feel free to post even if you just go down an ounce or two - it all counts! The linkup will go live next Sunday January 25th and every Sunday after that, so be sure to log your current stats to track your progress for this week! 

I know for most of us, posting on Sunday is pretty foreign, but it seems like Sunday is a common weigh-in day for a lot of people and each post should be quick and easy! Below are the prompts for each week. Feel free to respond to whichever ones you like. If you don't feel comfortable sharing the number of pounds or inches lost, that is ok! And if you happen to gain, don't be embarrassed. It happens to all of us and we are here to support one another. Also, if you have a pedometer, you can set a weekly step goal for yourself and track your progress every week, or simply track your weekly exercise if you don't track your steps. 

1. How many pounds did you gain or lose? 

2. How many inches did you gain or lose? 

3. Your weekly exercise or step goal, and did you meet it? 

4. What was your biggest challenge this week? 

5. What is your favorite healthy snack or meal? 

6. Do you have any advice or tips for the rest of us?

Feel free to grab the button and link up with us next Sunday - January 25th! 

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Grateful Heart Monday - Camila's Birthday!

Today is my youngest nieces’ 10^th Birthday!

TEN?

How did the time go by so fast? I still remember her pudgy little legs wiggling around in my arms.

Camila is a very sweet girl who is always looking for a way to be helpful to anyone around her. That’s not to say that she doesn’t have an attitude sometimes (she’s 10 after all) but she will bring you something if you’re too lazy to get up, and she’ll cook you dinner if you ask nicely.

So I dedicate today’s Grateful Heart to her:

I was lucky enough to be able to fly up to spend the weekend with her, her older sister Mika, and my sister and brother in law (and my dad, he came too).

I can always count on Camila to send me sweet messages on Facebook telling me she loves me and misses me or asking when we’ll see each other again (it’s an hour flight but a 5-6 hour drive from my house to hers).

When she was younger I got to spend more time with her. I had summer vacations that allowed me to go visit. I also spent 8 of 10 Christmases with her (and the family).

I am so grateful for having her in my life. She makes me a better person by showing me her love and kindness.

Co-Hosting.... My Conversations (With Lance)

I'm SOOO excited to be co-hosting My Conversations with Amanda today! Amanda is my oldest bloggy friend (as in I've known her longer than anyone else in these parts) and I love this link-up! 

Amanda previously suggested I use this link-up to share a conversation I have with my puppy, Lance. At first I was skeptical, but she was right! My conversations with Lance are probably the most entertaining ones I have! 

My most recent conversation worth noting with Lance was during our weekly shower together (yea, maybe TMI but you’ll have to deal with it!).

Me: Come on baby! Let’s get a bath! Let’s make you smell yummy!

Lance: Mooom, really? Do we have to? I smell good now!!

Me: No. No you don’t. You smell icky and your fur isn’t soft and smooth, it’s wiry. We have to fix that. Plus, I got you a new lavender scented shampoo.

Lance: Lavender? Umm, well, okay. Maybe that’ll be fine.

I pick Lance up and place him the shower and close the door to the bathroom and the shower behind us.

Me: Okay, let’s get you wet for.

Lance: NOOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME???? He scurries to the opposite side of the shower.

Me: Come on sweetie, it’s not bad, it’ll be over quickly. Let’s get this lovely shampoo on you. Mmm! See, it smells good!

Lance: Yea, cause you’re not putting it on yourself.

Me: There we go, all nice and shampooed up! Now you stay there while I do my business.

Lance stands in the corner of the shower, his ears down, while I wash my hair, etc. Once I’m done I put my attention back on him.

Me: See! That wasn’t bad, now we just have to rinse it off and you’ll be ready to get out!

Lance: Uhuh. In the mean time I’ve been standing here like a crazy dog! As he grumbles I rinse off the shampoo. I grab the towel and wrap him in it.

Me: Okay, now you are almost dry, go on, dry yourself off! I place him with the towel on the ground and he proceeds to rub himself on it and go crazy running around and rubbing himself on the towel to dry off.

Lance: Mom! I’m wet! I don’t like being wet! But I like rubbing myself all over the place! Weee!

And that is how a typical shower time with Lance goes.

Don't forget to take the button and link up with us! 

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An InLinkz Link-up

Let's Trade Buttons!

Part of my re-vamping of my blog is not only posting more often, being part of link-ups, and having an awesome design - it's also becoming part of this blogging community. 
I would like to eventually put up a sponsor page, but I want to get my views higher before I venture into that (and also learn more about what I need and should do with sponsors). 
In the meantime I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to exchange buttons with some of you lovely ladies (and maybe gentleman?). If any of you are interested in exchanging buttons with me please let me know by commenting or send me an e-mail or even smoke signals should work! 

Grateful Heart Monday

First off.... I am so grateful that I met Amanda last spring! She has been such a great friend, mentor, and ear to vent to. She has helped me through some difficult times and I am forever grateful! 

Now she has created another amazing design for my blog and is helping to guide me further into this blogging world. I am not very bright when it comes to all the things blogging related (installing Disqus? So hard for me!) and Amanda has been an amazing help.
So today's Grateful Heart is dedicated to her. I mean, look at this layout! How amazing is it? Wouldn't you agree? 
I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to spend time with my family this weekend. It had been a while since I went bowling and so after looking up and comparing prices for a few different bowling alleys (there are about 4 or 5 within a 20 minutes drive) I got my husband, his parents, and my brother along with his wife and kids to come bowling on Saturday night. 
They had an offer of $25 for up to 5 people for 2 hours of bowling and shoe rental was included. We got 2 lanes (one for the kids, with bumpers) and another for myself, Thomas, and his mom and my brother. We ended up bowling almost 3 full games in that time. 

During the first game I did pretty well and scored 90 (only 3 points below the winner - my mother in law). I wasn't horrible in the other 2 games (I think I actually got a strike during each game!), but I never got as high as 90 and I ended up losing the last game.

Next weekend I'll be going up to my sisters' house is Northern California (any of you from that area?) for a visit along with my dad. It's my youngest nieces' 10th birthday on the 19th. I'm excited to get to see them and eat some yummy Ethiopian food (a fav of mine, but no one here likes it!).  

Happy Grateful Heart Monday!

Re-Start (Again)

I was doing pretty well with blogging and commenting for a while last summer, then came September and I was basically on the go, go, go until now. Something was happening the entire time and blogging definitely was placed on the back burner.

After participating on a video chat with some lovely bloggers on Sunday evening I am feeling like I can finally get back into the groove of keeping up my blog and also branching out a little bit.  

I felt like I needed a picture. My family on XMas Eve!

I will be looking for a couple of blogs to sponsor to start off and get my feet wet. I’m also going to look into all the fanciness of having tweets prepared.

I feel very lucky to have the readers I have now and all the comments I get. I think the increase I felt was also partly my inspiration to get this going even more.

I’ve always blamed being too busy on not putting too much into the blog, but I like blogging. While I don’t plan on making it a business I want to dedicate time to it because it makes me happy. I have to stop doing things that don’t make me happy and strive to keep me first.

My house is still not unpacked completely (I just cannot get the office organized!), but I’m hoping that me wanting to blog more will help me in achieving the organization of the office. (Although I now have a huge gaping hole in the wall – more on that later).

Anyway – I hope you stick around, I hope you tell your friends about me and I can’t wait to keep reading you all and making even more friends!

Wednesday Wishes (My First!!)

Another first ever link up! I’m on a roll this week!

Since this is the first Wednesday Wishes of the year, I thought I would sort of, kind of make this go along with resolutions.

I’m not a big resolutions type of person. I’m not going to say that this year I’m going to go to the gym! Because I won’t. I know myself well enough for that. But there are a few things that I know I will be able to do and that I want to do this year.

So these are my wishes for 2015:

O N E   I wish that 2015 includes fewer needs (although I’m already feeling the need for things and doingstuff).

T W O  I wish that in 2015 I read more. I have found so many things to do this year other than reading – which mostly included watching TV. I love to read, so I hope that I get back into it. I finished a book this year that I began late last year. I started another one already and have already found myself making time for reading over watching.

T H R E E  I wish that this year brings more healing for my family. Although last year was in part happy with my wedding, it was devastatingly sad with my sisters’ death.

F O U R  I wish that I will be better at blogging. I have been pretty consistent in blogging for the past 9 months or so, but I haven’t been able to get into sponsoring anyone or keeping too good of track of link-ups (like this one). I have a nifty Plum Paper calendar (which I won in a giveaway last spring), so I know I can do it, it’s just a matter of doing it.

F I V E   I know that not a lot of people out there (anywhere) love their jobs, but I really do. I love what I do and I also love several of my co-workers (although not all of them). I wish that this year I do better at my job. I do a good job, and I know what I have to do and I go above and beyond what is required of me. HOWEVER I do spend a lot of time chit chatting, which can bring my “available” time down (it should stay above 70% available, and it’s been falling lately). I wish that I will keep on track this year and get a good review in a couple of months!