3...2...1...Blast off!!!

Well, it’s time. We leave at midnight heading for Disney. I’m almost totally packed, have all but one thing finished at work (waiting on someone else before I can finish), the iPhone is charged and ready, and all I’m needing now is a nap!

Wee One is totally bouncing off the walls at the moment, and has been jumping around and singing Disney songs for days. She’s also insisting that she wants to ride Expedition Everest (“I want to see the Yeti!!!”), and if she does, I promise I’ll buy the picture! She’s within an inch of being tall enough barefoot, and with her princess shoes (which I know she’ll wear) it puts her right at the height limit. I’m hoping they’ll let her on (if she still wants to after seeing it in person), but she knows it’s a possibility that they won’t.

I pulled up some ride thrus on youtube the other day, and she really enjoyed watching them with me. She doesn’t remember a whole lot from last time, and wasn’t big enough to ride most of the rides then. It will be interesting to see how she does and what she remembers after this trip. After watching the ride thrus she still wants to ride Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, is still a little iffy on Haunted Mansion, and isn’t going within 100 yards of Dinosaur. The ride through is what made her want to ride Everest, though, and she now can’t wait for Test Track.

I made a costume for the halloween party. Cecily says she’s going to have one, so I promised to have one as well. I made a tutu out of black and purple tulle, then added in silver and lime green ribbons. I also have a purple shirt with a black cat and lime green writing, and will wear them with black leggings and some black shoes. Should be different enough that you can tell I’m dressed up, but not looking like a “dirty pirate hooker” like everyone did last time. Here is the tutu, and don’t worry, there will be pictures of me in it as well. ;)



I’ll try to put up some pictures either here, facebook or twitter while we’re there, and I can promise there will be a ton when we get back. Just say a prayer that we make it there safely tonight and no one falls asleep while driving!

And as a bonus, Wee One as Queen Esther at church on Sunday. Have a great rest of the week!

First day of school

Today was her first day of school, and surprisingly I didn't cry at all. She’s classified as a kindergartener this year, even though she’s really not old enough to be in that class (stupid November birthday.) We met her teachers on Friday, and this morning I could have dropped her off at the hallway doors and she would have been fine. The only problem we had is that she knows all the teachers since she was there last year, so it took us forever to make it down the hallway since we were giving hugs to each one we passed. She (of course) wore a sparkly skirt, sparkly shoes and big ribbons in her hair, and JoJo had to “take a nap” in her bag during class, but was there, of course.

When I picked her up after class, she was just as happy and giddy as she was when I dropped her off, and one of her teachers said that they had a wonderful day. She got smiley faces on her worksheets, a sticker and a “Wonderful!!” on her letter sheet, and drew the prettiest, sparkly flower. She also told me about the Cookie Award (the award is given to one student a week for being a good citizen), and how she really wants it, and I also found out that one of her teachers (I think it’s an assistant) is “Really nice. And pretty. Really pretty.”

There are six other kids from her room last year in kindergarten this year, but all but one are in the other class. However, they’ll do parties, recess, circle and snack time, and lots of other things together, so it may be best that she’s separated from the girls in the other room. She did tell me, though, that one little girl that she played with last year (she was in a different class) is in her room, and that’s good because she’s her best friend. I was also informed that there aren’t any LITTLE girls in her room - they are all the same age as her. Excuse me! ;)

I hope she stays as excited about school as she was today, and hopefully she will continue to have good days!

Funniest commercial I've seen in awhile

I apologize in advance to anyone who has or loves ferrets, but I saw this commercial last night and thought it was hilarious.

Operation: Clean Sarah's Car

I love my sister dearly, but everyone who knows her, knows that she isn’t the neatest person in the entire world. Unfortunately, her car takes the brunt of it, and the state of it has become a running joke in the family. I hope she realizes that we all do it out of love and it’s just teasing, but let’s face it. Her car is disgusting most of the time.

She is at Disney this week, and Mike told her he would detail her car while she was gone since we’re taking it when we go to Disney over Labor Day. He told her that it has to be COMPLETELY cleaned out, and anything left in it would get tossed. He promised her that when she got back, it would be completely clean, inside and out.

Last night he started on it, and decided to tackle the dash first. He ended up completely disassembling the dash to clean all the cracks and crevices, because a 6 pack of Dr. Pepper had exploded in there, so there was Dr. Pepper in places it definitely shouldn’t have been. Between taking it apart, using the chamois, and who knows how many Armorall wipes, it looks totally different. Before he started, I wasn’t sure that I could even push any of the buttons on her dash (like for the radio, air or hazard lights), and now it looks new again!

Tonight he says he’s bringing his socket set home to remove her seats, and that he is planning on buying cheap towels we can throw away to use to get the stains out of them. He plans on taking out the front and rear seats, and working on the carpet and headliner as well. After that (probably tomorrow or Friday) he’ll attack the trunk and then wash the outside.

She’s not going to recognize her car when she gets home, and now I won’t be quite so grossed out riding in it to Florida in two weeks! My husband is a miracle worker.

What a difference 3 months, 22 days makes!

I’ve been getting a little down the last few days because of the scale not moving much and my measurements seeming to flip flop around. I knew when I started this at Easter that it wouldn’t happen overnight, and that it wouldn’t be easy. However, I guess I thought I would get there pretty quickly, and it would just be a few weeks until I was in the same shape I was when I was cheering. I forgot to factor in the fact that I haven’t worked out in 11 years, and during those 11 years I’ve almost hit 30 and had a baby. I don’t have the same body, energy or metabolism I had at 17/18, so of course it wouldn’t happen overnight.

I decided to go back and look at my Sparkpeople reports to see how much (or little) I’ve changed since I started. I didn’t start keeping up with it at Sparkpeople until April 26 (2 weeks after Easter), and I had already lost 3 lbs by then, and who know what the inches were. However, in the last 113 days (or 3 months, 22 days, or 16 weeks, however you want to count it) I have changed a lot more than I thought. Since then I’ve lost 6 more lbs (so 9 total), 3 inches in my bust, 2 inches in my thighs, 5 inches in my waist, and 5 inches in my hips. I’m still wearing the same clothes I was then, but it hit me the other day that now my clothes ACTUALLY FIT. I spent so long cramming myself into them (esp my jeans), that it’s so strange to be wearing them correctly and where they look nice. I was upset because I hadn’t lost a dress size, but I have! I was just wearing the wrong size for too long!

I’m still a little discouraged that I didn’t reach my “1 lb a week” goal, so that means I won’t be 160 lbs at Disney in 2.5 weeks. However, I’m going to be in much better shape and feel so much better than I would have if I hadn’t started at all. And eventually I’ll get down to 160, and hopefully even a little smaller. But for now, I’m just going to be happy that my clothes fit right again, and that I can see my waist again. It’s been awhile.

Geaux running!

I know I haven’t updated in awhile, so I’m here, ready to update again.

As I said in my last post, I’m still running! I find myself looking at running shoes and clothes and wanting them. And this morning, I actually went running in short shorts and a form fitting workout top! Now, I’m not saying that I looked like some athlete in it, and the people at the park probably wished I wore something else, but I wore it. And was comfortable.

I’ve discovered that I’m now looking forward to getting up and running. I wake at 6am on the days that I’m “off.” I had a short run on Friday, then didn’t do anything Sat and Sunday, and yesterday couldn’t wait to get out there. It’s the strangest thing. Now, I still can’t run more than half a mile without stopping (and most of the time don’t quite make that), but it’s definitely getting eaiser and easier.

The only major problem I’ve run into is the humidity. Now, I know I live in Mississippi, and we have like 10 months of summer a year, but I really figured July would be the worst time to run. Boy, was I wrong! Yes, it’s hot in July, even at 6:30am. But it’s a lot drier then than it is now! Most mornings I feel like I’ve been running under a damp blanket that just came out of the dryer - it’s hot, muggy and so very sticky.

And, like an idiot, I’ve decided this week to try and run every morning instead of just running 3 mornings a week. You would think by looking at my grades through school and the work I do that I’d be at least somewhat smart, but apparently I’m not. Anyhow, I went out this morning for day 2 of my “run every morning” experiment. The heat wasn’t so bad, but by the time I got to the park across the street I was already sweating. I started my warm up to Right Said Fred, and eventually started running. After running for awhile, I started to notice this strange squeaking sound. I could hear it over my headphones, and knew it wasn’t my shoes because it would stop when I was walking. Eventually it hit me what the sound was - so much sweat had gotten down in my sports bra that my boobs were squeaking as I ran. When I finally realized what it was, I didn’t know whether to be grossed out or to laugh hysterically. Hopefully when the weather gets cooler I won’t have this problem anymore. But until then, I guess I’ll just have to deal with squeaky boobs.

I’ve also recently found the greatest pair of shoes. Since “Shoes” is part of the title of this blog, and it’s been awhile since I’ve talked about them, I want to show them off. They are part of the NikeID collection and are cross trainers. I normally don’t covet workout shoes (because let’s face it, most workout shoes all look the same.) However, if you go to Nike.com you can customize these in whatever colors you want. Since we are LSU fans here, and since purple is my favorite color, and since I think yellow looks good with purple, LSU or not, it’s only fitting that my customized shoes be purple and yellow as well. They are SO cute, and if they weren't $98 (or if I was rich, or didn't have a trip to Disney in 3 weeks) I would so buy them. Along with the bag (which I really don't need) and the shirt (which I definitely would wear.) Here's all three, all going on my wish list!








Yes, I am a little obsessed with this whole "purple and gold" thing. ;)

Still trucking along...

I've now been working out since Easter. That means that I have purposefully done some form of exercise at least 3x a week for a little over 15 weeks!! I've bought actual workout clothes. I have running shoes. I have more fitness apps than game apps on my phone. It's really quite bizarre!

I still can't run more than half a mile at a time (and I've only done that once!), but I am proud that I'm still doing it. It's unbelievable to me that I've stuck with something for this long.

I have an account on nikerunning.com, and update my info every time I run. I also signed up for challenges on there yesterday, and I'm very excited. The first one starts tomorrow, so I guess I'll be running on an off day! I also started thinking about if/where/when I'm going to run when we go to Disney. That's definitely something I never thought I'd be thinking about.

My weight and measurements aren't moving much, but I can tell I'm more tone and more fit than I was 15 weeks ago. I might have only lost 6ish pounds, but I definitely feel better, think I look better, and am looking forward to getting in even better shape in the future!