Which 5% Do We Own?

A lovely weekend for all...and a Thursday morning from the depths of hell...

2009-06-07T22:23:00.004-04:00

Brian, Gatsby, and I had a really nice, relaxing weekend.

On Friday after work, Brian went out to dinner with his parents and Grandma to the Texas Roadhouse in Wake Forest (his favorite restaurant of all time), while I trekked out to Durham to go to happy hour at my boss's house. It was a casual shin dig with lots of good conversation and food!! (I love homemade guacamole!)

Saturday morning, we were all up around 9:45 a.m. and just kinda chilled around until noon when we all went back to bed and had a 2 hour nap! :-D It was fantastic!! After we woke up, we had about an hour or so until our good friends Robbie and Sara and their daughter, Katie (almost 2), came over. They were in town for a high school reunion and stopped by for a few hours. Katie is absolutely adorable! She had fun walking around our house and finding (the few) toy-like things that we had around. Brian was incredibly jealous that Katie wanted me to "help" feed her dinner!!! ;-) (Point, Laura!)

Gatsby was way-too excited about Katie being here and ended up spending a lot of time hanging out solo in our bedroom.

After the Borkas headed out, we went to Milton's for dinner and then I coerced Brian to go with me to Walmart to buy some t-shirts--my App. ones are all way to big now :-)/:-( And then we went go to see Angels & Demons, which was quite good. I had forgotten most of the book, so it was fun to not remember everything that was going to happen. We didn't get back home until way late and didn't make it to bed until probably 2 a.m. ...

... which explains why we didn't wake up until noon:15 today!!! (It was awesome!) We did some house things in the early afternoon and then went to Bonefish Grill in North Hills for an early birthday dinner for Brian's dad. Happy Birthday, Mike!

Since we've been home from dinner, we've pretty much just been hanging out playing with Gatsby and watching TV. We're quite pleased that the new seasons of "Next Food Network Star" and "Ice Road Truckers" have started!

I also have to tell y'all about my super-traumatic experience. Two Thursdays ago, I set off around 7:15 a.m. on my way to work (much like I do every Thursday). Usually, this is a very enjoyable experience because I'm happy to know that I don't have to make the drive for 3 more days! Well, on this fateful Thursday, I got on US 64 and all I could think was, "what is that putrid smell?" and then I saw it...

... a truck full of live pigs heading west to their ultimate demise.

It was horrible.

They were all squeezed in so tightly with their little pig snouts hanging out the little breathing holes.

And I immediately burst out into tears (admittedly, I was rather hormonal, but it was uncontrollable).

So, I hurried up to pass the pig truck (and hopefully stop crying) and then my lane stopped and then I played pass and get passed by the pig truck for the next 45 minutes until exit 273B on I-40. Yes, this truck went all the way from Knightdale, onto the Beltline, and then out Wade Avenue to I-40 to Durham with me.

It was horrible.

I, literally, cried for 45 straight minutes.

So, I know that in another post, I had previously mentioned the idea of going vegetarian, which I've been thinking about, and this pretty much helped me make my decision.

I contemplated becoming pescetarian (only eating fish), but I don't think I'm ready to completely cut out chicken from my diet. (I have no desire to cut fish out.) But I am going to try to completely eliminate all mammals from my diet. I'm not sure if it will be a forever-change, but it's definitely something that I want to try.

The pig truck was one of the worst things I've ever seen.

Interestingly, I was telling this story to my work friends on Friday night (three of whom are vegetarians) and my boss had almost the exact same experience a few years ago before she made a similar decision. I thought it was really fascinating that we both had a similar experience and made the same decision without ever discussing it previously...

Remember us??

2009-06-03T21:29:00.002-04:00

Things have been absolutely crazy and so busy!

ABSTRACT

Brian. Work, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, work, New Jersey, Boston, work, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey, and Callie & Clay's wedding.

Laura. Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, NutriSystem, work, work, work, work, bills, work, work, work, work, tutor, work, work, and Callie & Clay's wedding.

Yes, indeedy.

Daily Life

Now that hockey in North Carolina is over for the season (R.I.P. Canes), Brian actually has the opportunity to be at home at nights. During the playoffs, he was pretty much gone every other night and he took two weekend trips to Newark and Boston. And, during the away games, he was liveblogging the game, leading livechats, and recording post-game reports to play on the radio the next day. He was rarely in bed before 1 a.m.

I wasn't quite so busy at night, but we've been INSANELY INSANE at work for the past month or so. This is our normal busy season, but on top of that, we also are revising most of our publications because of newly issued authoritative accounting guidance (we're talking three 1000+ page looseleaf volumes that are each published in 3 different formats [online, paperback, and looseleaf]). In addition to these, we have our regular annual publications and we're short staffed. At least it's exciting, never boring, and I love doing it! :-)

The WEDDING

Callie and Clay's wedding was Memorial Day weekend and it was SO much fun. We had the best time seeing everyone and everything was perfect. The weather was really nice and Callison was GORGEOUS. She has a lot of the pictures online: http://tinyurl.com/rb775j.

We dropped Gatsby off at Suite Paws on Saturday morning and then heading down to Wilmington. The rehearsal dinner was Saturday night at a restaurant on the Intracoastal off Wrightsville Beach. It was DELICIOUS--so, so, so much yummy food.

The wedding was Sunday afternoon in downtown Wilmington and everything went off without problems. It was very casual and relaxed and gorgeous. I think the pictures tell the story best!

On Sunday night, Brian and I went to dinner with my very-best-friend Shannon and her parents. We ate at restaurant in downtown Wilmingtn and had a really fantastic time.

Monday afternoon we went back out to Wrightsville to have lunch on the waterway and then back to Raleigh pick up Gatsby.

The little pup had a great time at his doggie hotel. We were able to watch him the whole weekend in his room on the Webcam and we also were able to watch him out in the play yard with the other dogs. The staff said that he was pretty timid and shy the first day, but really came out of his shell the rest of the time and had fun playing with the other doggies. That place is SUPER NICE and all the people are fantastic. We were so impressed. Brian called at one point to ask a question and as soon as he introduced himself, the lady on the phone said, "Oh you're Gatsby's dad--he's out in the play yard." We were so impressed that they knew exactly where he was.

We're planning to relax and enjoy the rest of the summer with a few trips to the beach!

NutriSystem is going great. I'm down 35 lbs. and I'll do an update post on all that soon.

And, I promise, I'll blog more!!

30 lbs. lost!

2009-04-25T14:18:00.004-04:00

Yup, today was the day that I reached the 30 pound mark, which moved my BMI below 30 pts. (albeit very slightly at 29.9). So, now, I'm not obese--just fat! :-)

Very exciting!

To celebrate, I took all of my clothes out of the closet to filter out the ones that no longer fit. I ended up with two trash bags worth of clothes to take to Goodwill, three pieces that needed to be trashed, and three pairs of shoes that need to be thrown away. My rule was that if it fit me right now, I kept it, regardless of the season. So I kept a handful of sweaters that probably won't fit in the fall, but I didn't want to throw them away just yet. I figure that in the fall, I'll have to do all this again and then I can trash those then. (Yes, I'm probably insane.)

Three things were particularly clear to me:

1. Most of the weight I've lost has been in the lower half of my body because I pretty much threw away all of my pants save the ones I've recently bought and one pair of capris that are probably a little loose now, but are still OK.

2. The shirts I used to wear were way too tight. Some of them still fit me now, so I know they were way worse 3 months ago. Just because it looks OK in the dressing room when you suck in your stomach, doesn't mean it's acceptable for the real world. Kinda embarrassing, but oh well. Most of the shirts that I tossed were button down shirts that look like striped potato sacks! SAYONARA! :-)

3. I have a lot of App. stuff. (I had a pile of keep stuff, Goodwill stuff, and App. stuff--and the App. pile was just as big as the other piles.) I couldn't throw away any of that stuff even though I know that some of the hoodies are way too big. I will have to reevaluate those in the fall closer to football season. I'll probably end up needing all new stuff, but I'm not exactly sure yet because in the middle of football season you end up with a lot of layers. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to salvage any of that stuff--maybe I'll put them in a frame to commemorate the garb of 3 national championships.

Oh, and I did save one pair of size 18 black capris that I'll be able to use in my NutriSystem commercial along with my crappy before picture. :-)

And now that I've reached my 30 lb. goal, I can have my 30 lb. reward, which is to go to the Pennyrich Bra Patch and get fitted professionally and correctly for a new bra. I am very excited about this because I know that most women wear the wrong size bra and I want to know what it's actually like to have one that's correct:

http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/545085.html

Literacy Council of Wake County Road Rally - May 30

2009-04-20T22:44:00.001-04:00

In case any of y'all are interested. I think Brian and I will participate (and totally rock it!).

http://www.wakeliteracy.org/content.php?cid=33ad0586-2140-9380-dfa8-47bb21b91464

Want to spend a fun filled day outside in beautiful weather solving riddles and driving through Wake County? Then come to the first annual Literacy Council of Wake County Road Rally! This is a great chance to test your trivia knowledge, explore places you have never been, and support the Literacy Council. The Road Rally will begin at 1pm on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at Hendrick’s Cary Auto Mall. Road Rally participants will follow clues that take them on a 60-80 mile journey through Wake County. Each team will need to find the answers to a set of questions that will ultimately direct them to a secret end location for a victory celebration! The car closest to the actual course mileage, with the most correct answers, wins! There is a tax deductible entry fee of $100 per car. Your entry fee will go to support literacy programs helping individuals in Wake County learn to read and write, helping both the community and the individual to thrive. Fill your car with friends, family and co-workers and see if you can be the first person to navigate the course, find the answers and win the Road Rally! For additional information or to register for the event, please contact Nora Casper at 919-787-5559 or ncasper@wakeliteracy.org. Come help make our first ever Road Rally a success!

Three months later...

2009-04-20T19:58:00.008-04:00

Today is the start of week 13 for me, so it's time for my monthly photo and results:

Start

End of week 4 (-14.8 lbs. total)

End of week 8 (-21 lbs. total)

End of week 12 (-26.8 lbs. total)

Numbers

Weight: -26.8 lbs. (-13.11%)
Arms: -3.5 in. (-21.21%)
Chest: -3.25 in. (-8.23%)
Waist: -6.75 in. (-15.43%)
Hips: -4.5 in. (-10.23%)
Thighs: -3.5 in. (-13.73%)
BMI: -4.60 pts. (-13.11%)

My waist-to-hip ratio has gone from 99.43% to 93.67%. Still way too high, but definitely going in the right direction!

As you can see, things are continuing to progress nicely; however, I can definitely sense weight loss slowing down. It seems like my body will fluctuate around the same number for 4-5 days and then eventually lose ~0.8-1.2 lbs. and then repeat the cycle :-) However, I'm staying motivated and just happy that the trend is downward.

Unfortunately, I did not meet my tax day goal. I'm about 2.5 lbs. away from that goal, but that's OK. I'm still doing really, really well.

It's really pretty rare that I have bad-for-me food cravings, but for some reason today at work I really, really wanted a Milky Way. Fortunately, there aren't any in the vending machine downstairs, so I ended up with one minuscule chocolate egg, which somewhat tempered craving. :-)

This past weekend, Gatsby and I went to my parents' house because Brian went to New Jersey for the Canes/Devils game. We had a really good time. On Friday night we went to Tsunami, which is an Asian food buffet (a good one! not a freaky, scary one--I'm really pretty anti-buffet). This one has fresh-made sushi and we sat right by the sushi chefs so we were able to pillage the fresh pieces as soon as they hit the buffet! Very yummy and super cheap.

On Saturday, mom, dad, Gatsby, and I met Callie at Fort Macon and we laid on the beach for a few hours. It was Gatsby's first trip to the sand and he did really well. He let the ocean get him a little wet on his paws and he had fun eating seaweed and watching all the people and other doggies. Saturday night, we went to El Zarape in Beaufort, which is most definitely not NS friendly, but still good.

Sunday, we did some shopping and I bought a new pair of running shoes, which are awesome. I got to walk across a little machine that measured my weight distribution of my feet and also showed how I move my feet when I walk (evidently, I turn my right foot in slightly). So the friendly guy helped me find the right shoe to counteract my slight turn-in and I have a very lovely pair now. Sunday night we went to Outback and all had salmon and fresh veggies before Gatsby and I had to head back home.

A very lovely weekend with fantastic weather!

Oh yeah, and mom and dad look incredible!! (Callie and Clay too!)

Oh, I almost forgot! On Friday, many of the people in Professional Publications went to the Habitat for Humanity house that my company financed. The house is almost done and we spent the day helping out with painting and landscaping. I stayed outside with the landscaping because the weather was awesome! We planted two trees, lots of bushes, and pushed around a lot of top soil and mulch. It was SO MUCH FUN. It's very exciting that the family who will be moving in next month is going from a 2 bedroom apartment (with 4 kids!) to a 4 bedroom house. The area is Durham is not fantastic, but evidently it's become so much better since Habitat started doing work out there. It used to be one of the worst neighborhoods for crime and drugs and now it's just a quiet, low income area. Evidently the Habitat houses really motivate current residents to improve their own abodes. If you ever have an opportunity to do a build day, I highly, highly recommend it. It's hard work, but incredibly fun and fulfilling. I also wasn't nearly as sore as I would have thought--evidently strength training and losing 26.8 lbs. makes a big difference! I can't wait to do another!

Pretty colors, bp, jogging, meditation, and meat

2009-04-11T23:48:00.009-04:00

I am very excited about my fruit selections this week and my pretty fruit bowl:

3 bananas, 3 apples, 3 pears, 2 oranges, 1 grapefruit, 1 tangelo, 1 mango, and 1 horned melon (I also got some blackberries, but they don't get to go in the fruit bowl...)

I also dragged poor Brian to Kohl's so that I could get a new bathing suit. After trying on many bathing suits, I ended up with this one and a cute brown coverup:

Gatsby and I are planning to go to the beach this coming weekend and Callie and I have already set up a date at Fort Macon for some sand action. Brian will most likely not be joining us because he's planning to head north to use his press credential to attend one of the Canes away-playoff-games in Newark.

Poor guy. I'm going to the beach and he's going to New Jersey. HA!

I tried something different with my workout today. I did my normal strength training stuff upstairs and then headed outside. I want to get to the point where I'm like a super jogger because I really like doing it, but I can't do it for too long at one time because my heart rate gets too high and it's not really worth dying for...

So, I decided that I would alternate between walking for 2 minutes and jogging for 2 minutes. And I did that for about 40 minutes and then walked for about 10 minutes after I finished. I probably wouldn't have normally walked for the extra 10 minutes (usually, more like 5), but I ended up about 10 minutes from the house and I had to get back home! :-) It was a very good workout. I decided on the 2 minute intervals because 2 minutes of walking usually brings my heart rate right to 60% of my max and I don't want to go below that during my workout. I know that I went at least 2.3 miles on the road (we measured that out by car), but I'm not sure about the part on the walking trail. I think the walking trail is probably 0.5-0.75 miles one way and I did the full length twice, so I'm thinking that I was probably at about 3.5 miles for the day.

And at least something is working because this was my weekly Teeter BP check:

OK, that was check #4. The first check was 121/69 and #2 and #3 were around 113/65.

I'm also being kinda new age and funky right now. I downloaded some meditation podcasts on my ipod and the one I've listened to so far (twice) is a meditation to use right before you go to sleep and it's incredible how well it works. I've had 2 nights of the best, deepest sleeps ever! If you're interested it's online at www.themeditationpodcast.com/download.php (and also on iTunes). The guy's voice is a little hokey, but it does work!

Also, once I get to my goal weight and stop with the NS food, I'm considering eliminating mammals from my diet (i.e. beef and pork). I've found that I really don't care that much for them and I know I can get protein from other good sources. I wouldn't go full vegetarian because I don't think I could do without fish (my beloved nigiri!) and I do really like chicken. I've just pretty much figured out that I do really well with restrictions and guidelines and I want to be able to continue all I'm doing now as a lifestyle change. I'd love to start it now, but I don't want to limit my NS entrees. I still need a little bit of choice! :-)

It could also just be that I've been in publishing too long.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2009-04-10T22:20:00.005-04:00

Via text message

~~ sometime this afternoon ~~

To: Laura
From: Callie

~~ at dinner ~~

To: Callie
From: Laura

Ahhh....sisterly love! ;-)

(I think we both won!)

Gatsby's Accomodations During the Wedding

2009-04-06T23:13:00.004-04:00

So, we weren't sure what we were going to do with Gatsby while we were at Callie's wedding. We thought about finding a hotel that allows pets, but we didn't want him to be miserably bored on Saturday night and all day Sunday, so we decided that we're going to board him. (This will most likely be tougher on me and Brian than Gatsby...)

So, because we don't have any kids and pretty much love to spoil our doggie, he will be staying in a suite at Suite Paws, which is right down the road from our house. In case you were curious, for the (not too terrible) price of $36/night, young Gatsby LeBlanc will have a private room with a bed and fleece covers and a TV and DVD player that plays special features targeted to doggie interests. Brian and I will also be able to check in on him because his room will have a webcam and he'll have 2 outside play times per day.

We also can pick extra services if we'd like:

SERVICE

Pick Up & Delivery One way / round trip, charge based on distance
Bone Phone Speakerphone chat w/webcam viewing $8/each
Bottled Drinking Water $3/per day
Peanut Butter Kong $3.50/each
Frozen Dog Treats $3.50/each
Extra Outside Time 15 minutes during requested time of day $5
1-on-1 playtime w/ staff 15 minutes - Frisbee or ball chase $7
Cuddle Time 10 minutes $6
Hair Brushing 10 minutes $6
Belly Rub 10 minutes $6
Attend all day daycare Temperament test required $15
Attend half day daycare Temperament test required $10
Email Picture to Mom/Dad $1/email
Exit Bath Minimum 1 night stay $15-$40 depending on hair and dog size
Minimum 7 night stay

http://www.suitepaws.com/SP_Brochure.pdf

Brian and I will be at the Hampton Inn.

Shoes, workout, and nasty dinner

2009-04-05T21:01:00.008-04:00

I've finally found my shoes for Callie's wedding! (Thank goodness!) I've been searching online for probably 2 months and I haven't been able to find anything that I liked. We decided that they needed to be gold because the dress is "truffle." I don't think I've posted a picture of the dress, so here it is:

I didn't post a picture of me in the dress because, well, I don't want anyone other than family to see it before the wedding (yes, I know I'm not the bride!).

So, the wedding party consists of Callie and Clay (obviously), Callie's good friend Melissa, moi, Clay's good friend Jonathan (who is Melissa's boyfriend), and Brian. Well, Callie, Clay, Jonathan, and Brian are all tall. Melissa and me, not so much. So, I don't want to look like a midget and opted for heels. And, voila:

They are bangin' hot!!!!! I love them and, surprisingly, they're quite comfortable. They must fit my arch just right or something.

I have my dress alterations on Thursday, so it should be interesting to see how that goes. I (OK, mom and dad) bought my dress two days before I started NutriSystem. In hindsight, not so smart, but I honestly didn't even think about the wedding when I decided to start NS (sorry, Callie!). I tried on the dress yesterday and I'm not in horrible shape. It's definitely big, but they should be able to take it in (and up!) and because it's not strapless or anything, I don't have to worry about it falling down at the wedding--that would be bad! Also, I seem to have lost a lot of my weight in my waist, arms, and legs (my calves are pretty awesome in my new gold shoes!!!), so I'm still able to fill out the dress up top.

After the shoe-buying fun, Gatsby and I went on a walk/jog. We were gone for about 45 minutes and had a super time. We started out on the trails behind our house and then went "off road" on the other side of the neighborhood over an unpaved road and some empty lots, then we picked back up on another trail. We then went off trail again and cut through the woods back toward our house and then back home on another unpaved road. It was a lot of fun to be "cross country" and really helped keep my heart rate up during the walking parts. Gatsby had a ball! He loved jumping across creeks and diving under trees. When we came back, I was stretching and Gatsby did this:

And he's pretty much been sleeping all night. Great fun!

I had the NS Vegetarian Chili for dinner and it was horrible, so halfway through, I called an audible, trashed my dinner, and made a turkey and cheese wrap. SO much better! The bummer is that I have 2 more of this veggie chilis left--anybody want one? They're delicious!!

Brian's been volunteering at WCPE all day, so that's pretty much been it...

Happy homeowners and a pair of jeans that fit just right...(for now)

2009-04-04T22:46:00.007-04:00

So, my super-best-friend-in-the-entire-world, Shannon just realized that I had a blog. Yeah, maybe she's not such a super-best-friend-in-the-entire-world... ;-) Just kidding!

So, she was catching up on the last year of my life and I started reading back through old posts as well and came across the one where we picked our options for the house. The following is what we picked with my now-commentary in parentheses and brackets:

Gas log fireplace in the Great Room (very excellent decision; Gatsby also agrees)
Separate garden tub and shower in the Master Bath (I take at least 3 baths each week; so this was a must)
Kitchen island (I truly can't imagine not having it)
Faux-wood floors (laminate) in the dining room and front foyer (they look awesome, but they're a huge PITA to keep clean)
Garage door opener (isn't it lame that you have to pay for the opener and motor?!) What's the point of having a garage! [A definite good choice; it was nice to have it ready to go on day 1!]

Fluorescent light in the kitchen (Works very well and keeps the kitchen bright!)
Two exterior lights on each side of the garage door (Very nice for walking Lil G at night)
An elongated toilet seat in the Master Bath (Brian INSISTED!) [I notice no difference.]
Super quiet Whirlpool dishwasher (black) [If ours is quiet, then I can't imagine the "standard." Thank God for the 4 hour delay]
Whirlpool microwave hood over the stove (black) [Very nice to not have it taking up counter space.]
Smoothtop Whirlpool Stove (black) [Way hotter than old school-lame stoves.]
Side-by-side Whirlpool fridge (black) [We probably could have gotten a better deal from Best Buy with no-interest financing, but it was totally worth it not to have to worry about it when we were moving.]

We also had them put ceiling fan wiring in all four bedrooms, the great room, and the loft (We've put up fans in the master, 2 guest bedrooms, and great room and we're planning to do the loft ASAP.) and overhead lighting wires in the hall bathroom and living room (The light in the bathroom is phenomenal). We also put cable hookups in all four bedrooms, the loft, great room, and living room (which we're going to make an office) (Also a good purchase; I do wish we had added an electircal receptacle in our closet (for ironing and for our Christmas candles) and put a light hookup in over the sink].

So, in hindsight, I think we did pretty darn well. When I'm motivated, I'm going to pull out all the available options to see what we passed up and if we have any regrets on that front.

Last Monday, we went to Lowe's and bought a storm door and signed up to have them install it. So, on Thursday, Brian came home for an extended lunch and the guy installed the door. It is so fantastic. We are very excited about it. The way our house is laid out with the garage, there are only downstairs front windows in the study. So with the storm door we can have a lot more light at the front of the house. Gatsby wasn't sure about it at first, but now he likes being able to look out. It was a pretty good deal too. The door was like $189 and the installation was 15 percent off at $84; I think it looks more expensive than it cost.

While we were at Lowe's we also bought a nice pretty little plant that I put in a hanging basket on the front porch. It's very cute. I don't remember the flower names, but I'm sure they're something generic and they're purple and yellow. I'm going to try really hard not to kill them. We also made an impulse buy of a little doggie welcome statue. Serious cuteness. But Gatsby was a little freaked out by it at first.

Today, we were super homeowners and did our HOA duty and Brian mowed the lawn. While he did that, I pulled weeds out of all our plant beds. As I did that, I realized that our neighbors probably hated us because the pinestraw in our beds looked disastrous.

OK, I didn't really notice this today--I'm a copy editor, I can tell if a comma is set italic or roman; I notice things; I've actually been thinking about the pinestraw for like 4 months. So I decided that today was the day that we were going to add more pinestraw.

Eventually we want to relandscape some areas, but I don't think that's going to happen soon, so the pinestraw was an easy fix. We also wanted to get the blower attachment for the weed-eater and I wanted to find a weed spray that I could use in the plant beds.

So back to Lowe's we went. And, as a 1st time homeowner, I haven't had a lot of experience buying pinestraw, so I had no idea about the cost. So we ask this guy in lawn and garden and he says "three ninety seven" for a bale. So, I'm like "three hundred ninety seven dollars?" And the guy says "yeah"...and then laughs. But doesn't say anything else, so Brian and I walked off. As we were walking through the store, I was annoyed because I really wasn't sure if he meant $3.97 or $397. So as we were checking out, I asked the friendly cashier, who clarified $3.97 and we bought 3 bales. And when we got home, I spread out the pine straw (Brian had to go to hockey game). And then realized that I needed another bale for the area around our A/C compressors, so back to Lowe's I went (3rd time this week!) and bought my 4th bale.

The yard looks so lovely now. The grass is a nice lovely cut and the pine straw really spruced things up (pun intended)!

Oh, and we also hired a lawn service that will fertilize and do all that stuff that Brian and I know jack about. So our yard will probably look fair through this summer and then in the fall they will overseed everything, so hopefully by next spring, we'll be the best looking yard on the street.

OH! And, Brian and I are going to put in a patio. And, yes, we're going to do it ourselves. We're not sure yet when, but hopefully very soon while the weather is still lovely; basically, as soon as we find an awesome weather weekend where we'll both be free all weekend. It will be 12'x10'8" and will be behind our "great room." We are very excited about it.

I'm also reworking the design of my genealogy page on my Web site, so as soon as I get it looking decent, I'll post the link. I'm basically taking my ENG 575 research and taking out all the literature references and adding more info about any other ancestors I can find...

And, finally, I have another new pair of jeans. Vive la Walmart! My most recent pair of Walmart jeans looked really bad because the hips kept sagging down and looked silly, so I am down another size. YAY!

"Every action which has ever taken place--every thought, ...

2009-04-02T22:14:00.006-04:00

every emotion--has taken place only once, at one moment in time and place. 'I love you.' 'I rejoice.' 'I suffer,' have been said and felt billions of times, and never twice the same. Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions."
- Thornton Wilder

This is probably one of my most favorite quotations of all time. I came across it in the program for the play "Our Town," which my friend Shannon and I saw at UNC-CH a few years ago.

I love it because it's incredibly true! This past weekend, we had a fantastic bridal shower for Callie. She got lots of cool stuff and we had a great time with family and friends.

Mom, Callie, and I stayed at my nanny's (grandmother's) house and Saturday night we all stayed up until midnight looking through two boxes of my nanny's old pictures. I mean like REALLY old pictures. There were lots of my mom, Aunt Dianne, and Uncle Danny (OK, a lot more of Danny than the other two, but he was the first child and that's just how it goes!), but there were a billion more pictures of my nanny and papaw's wedding and pictures of their parents. There was one incredible picture of my great-grandmother's family portrait when my great-grandmother was probably 6-8 years old (she was born in 1908 and just passed away last April--2 months shy of her 100th birthday) and another really cool picture of my papaw and my great-grandmother when my papaw was a newborn. And so many more! My nanny gave me 3 pictures and my mom took home a folder-full, so the next time I am in Ocean, I am going to scan the ones that mom took. The three that I was given are online at

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/FamilyPhotos.

I am absolutely mesmerized by photographs. I could literally stare at them for hours on end. I just think that they are incredible. It's so amazing to think about who all the people are and that there's a snapshot of finite moment in time and what that person was doing that very specific moment and then I love to think about everything else that the person did in life. One the pictures that I was given was of my nanny and papaw when my papaw was stationed with the army in Florida (prior to going to Germany for World War II ) and my nanny was still in high school and went to visit him:

They are absolutely the cutest couple on the planet and were for their 50+ years of marriage. I know that y'all won't believe me, but if they ever had a fight, no one else on the planet knows about it.

A couple of years ago, I got really interested in genealogy and started researching my family tree. I was very lucky to find a lot of information that allowed me to trace my lineage back pretty far. In fact, on my dad's side of the family, I can trace one line back to the year 1090 in England (seriously!). Genealogy on the Internet is fascinating because once you can trace your lineage back a few generations you can usually use names to link up with other genealogists who have done other research and then piggyback on their research. Of course, there's always a chance that something could be wrong, but you do the best you can.

My online version of my family tree is at

http://www.gribblenation.com/personal/laura/eng575/Genealogy/default.htm.

Unfortunately, you can't see the actual "tree" unless you download special software, but the HTML output is pretty cool too. And when I was in grad school, I took a Southern Writers class and I was able to use my genealogy research for my final project, in which I took a few people in my lineage and did a bit more research into their lives:

http://www.gribblenation.com/personal/laura/eng575/projectindex.htm.

It's all pretty interesting. My mom's family has lived in Catawba County since sometime before 1790 and another genealogist was able to find wills and ship manifests and other primary sources, which she let me incorporate into my Web site. If you're bored, you might find it interesting--just ignore the Southern literature analyses and any typos (I did a lot of the writeup over the course of 48 hours, so there's probably some issues!)

I really need to get back into more research--it's incredible.

I think what fascinates me the most about it is that if just one of my ancestors made a different choice and married someone different or never mate his or her mate, I (and LOTS of other people) would have never existed. Pretty crazy!

In fact, so interesting that I thought about it all the way to work this morning and I was thinking so hard that I completely missed the exit for work and had to drive down to 15-501 to turn around!!! :-)

Oops.

Please don't laugh...

2009-03-25T17:58:00.007-04:00

So, this blog is all about sharing triumphs and defeats right? Well, today, I had both.

I made up my mind yesterday that today I was going to run a mile. I wanted to see what my time would be (kinda like the physical fitness tests that I used to do in elementary school).

In my life, I have never run an entire mile. I've walked many and walked/run a few, but never running (without stopping to walk) in entirety. So, after work, I made my move on the trails behind our house. I actually took the GPS from our car to measure the run (since I couldn't mark off the distance with my car beforehand...).

So, I DID IT. Very, very exciting. Didn't stop to walk. Kept running until I reached 1 mile...

18 minutes and 7 seconds later.

No, I am not kidding.

18:07.

I ran a mile in the time it takes you to watch almost an entire TV show (without commercials). I ran a mile in the time that some people can run a 5K.

It was quite possibly the slowest mile anyone has ever run. I've never even HEARD of someone running a mile that slow, but I, Laura Samuels LeBlanc, did it.

Aha.

I'm pretty sure the construction workers were laughing at me (I would have been laughing at me--they can build a house faster than I can run a mile!)

So, that's the story :-)

At least I've done it now and my time will only go down.

I hope.

(Actually, on second thought, you can laugh. It's pretty funny.)

=====================================
ADDENDUM (about 1 hour, 30 minutes later)

It would appear that I am a complete moron. Turns out, the GPS doesn't work if it's not on actual roads. So, I went running again--on actual roads (probably not the best idea ever, but I had to know...) and, it turns out, my actual mile time is 12:35.

So, yes, before, I was just running haphazardly until the GPS decided to move to 1 mile, which, as it appears, based on my second time, was actually a little under 1.5 miles.

So, yes, I've run a little under 2.5 miles today.

Well, at least I know now :-D

12:35 is pretty good, I think. I am very pleased with it. (And I didn't stop the second time either!)

But I think I want to stick with the elliptical for a little while--although I might come back to running in the near future...

Yes, I'm insane.

Interesting studies about physical and emotional health

2009-03-24T19:55:00.008-04:00

I don't usually read too much into study results because you never really know much about the study sample, but I came across three today that appear legit and seem thorough.

The first one is about the effects of eating too much red meat:

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

As far as I'm concerned, that's downright scary and makes me love my sushi obsession even more!

The second two studies were from Duke and the University of Maryland and were about having an upbeat attitude. From Shape:

Looking at the bright side can have a huge payoff for your well-being. A new study from Duke University found that people with upbeat attitudes may be more likely to have cancer-fighting habits--such as exercising, not smoking, and seeing a doctor regularly--than those with pessimistic outlooks. Meanwhile, a study from the University of Maryland revealed that laughter may fend of [sic] heart attacks by boosting blood flow by 19 percent. ...

Pretty fascinating stuff!

On a semirelated note, I was talking to my mom on the way home from work today (and YES I KNOW there are studies about talking on the cell phone when driving!) and she was looking through old pictures and commented on something I found funny. She mentioned that in some of the pictures I was so clearly in a "mood"--namely, the ones that were taken in the early morning before school or early on Christmas (I am not a morning person!) or on some of our trips as a preteen/teenager (see: Walt Disney World 1998; the entire week). And it reminded her that 97 percent of the time, I was a very happy child, but the other 3 percent I was moody and annoying. But what she thought was interesting was that I'm really not a moody person as an adult, which is pretty true. Sure there are times when I'm mad or in a bad mood about something, but those really are pretty rare.

So, hopefully, with the sushi, positive outlook, and laughter, my cancer and heart disease risks are decreased! :-)

Speaking of momma, I have to give her and my dad a shoutout about their NS progress. They sent me some pics the other night of mom's dress for Callie's wedding and HOLY MOLY they both LOOK AWESOME. So svelte! I am so proud of them!

And, I get to see them both this weekend. We're all trekking to Hickory for Callie's bridal shower, which is being given by my aunts. I am so excited to see everyone on that side of the family! It's been since football season (too long!) and even then it was only for a night at a time. I guess I should probably get Callie a gift (though, I'm waiting until the last possible minute because I'm sure she's scoping out what's still available on her registry...) ;-)

Finally, two very exciting things (probably not so much for y'all, but yes so much for me):

(1) I bought and cut up my very first cantaloupe yesterday! I was very successful at the endeavor!

(2) My team at work went to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. My plan was to just eat my salad and protein and then eat my lunch bar when I got back to work. A very good plan in theory, but very difficult in reality. So I did eat a very big salad with a fat free dressing and then I had 1 medium slice of veggie pizza, a tiny bit of their pasta (which is worse for you than the pizza), and 1 cinnamon stick. Although I would have preferred to eat my bar, I also try not to be the obnoxious diet woman. I've only talked to one of my coworkers about it and only because she saw me talking about it on Facebook. So, anyway, the pizza looked good, so I was pretty pleased that I was able to only get by on 1 slice (and SURPRISINGLY I was full--yay stomach shrinkage). So, all things said and done, I didn't get the same amount of nutrients that I normally would for lunch, but I still ended the day only 167 calories more than yesterday (when I was completely on plan). I consider that a victory and bodes well for continued success after I meet my goal.

Finally, I joined a NS challenge on the NS message boards to lose 20 lbs. by Memorial Day, which is a little under 9 weeks away--for a safe weight loss of 2.2 lbs/week. Wish me luck! (I'm also still aiming to have lost 15 lbs. from March 1 to April 15...but I'm not 100 percent sure if I will meet that goal, but, of course, I'll keep trying!)

I'm tracking my 20 lb. challenge with the following ticker:

Picture results after 2 months

2009-03-23T00:22:00.004-04:00

Because I know that's all y'all care about :-)

Start (Ugh!)

End of week 4 (less ugh!)

End of week 8 (slightly less ugh!)

I also just have to point out that the red shorts I'm wearing in the last picture are the shorts I bought for my badminton class at NCSU (fall of 2000). And they fit better now than they did in badminton (but I did get an "S" in badminton--even if I was fat).

Have a great week, y'all!

Adios 20 lbs. | Yummy Food

2009-03-21T18:24:00.006-04:00

Today I woke up (at noon--it was grand!!!) and made my morning trek to the scale. Turns out, I have lost 20 lbs. (well, 21.4 lbs. to be exact). YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very exciting.

The funny thing was that when I came downstairs, Brian told me my dad had left me a message. So I listened to it and he also crossed the 20 lb. threshold this morning! Isn't that hilarious that we both did it on the same day?? I thought so too.

Brian capitalized on my good mood and convinced me to let him make homemade biscuits. So he whipped out the Healthy Heart Bisquick and made biscuits while I cut my grapefruit half and made a cheesy, mushroomy, egg substitutey scramble. I pretty much figured that the biscuit was going to be over for carbs for breakfast, but it turned out that Brian was able to get 7 biscuits out of the recipe (instead of the 5 that it calls for), so my biscuit was a perfect stat for a NS carb! YAY. And it was AWESOME, especially smothered with 2 tbsp. of sugar-free raspberry jelly. The final result was beauty-full:

Because breakfast was so good, I decided to be chef-y with lunch too and I made a homemade chicken soup. OMG it was soooo good. I was totally winging it, but the final result was AWESOME. I dissolved a low sodium chicken bouillon cube in 1 cup of boiling water and then added in some chopped carrots, green beans, and mushrooms. I let all that simmer with 1 clove of garlic and then I added some thyme, rosemary, onion powder (totally bummed that I didn't have any real onion left), black pepper, chives, oregano, and basil. Finally, after all that was smelling so delicious, I added 2 oz. of canned white chicken meat. I really wish I had some real chicken, but I didn't so that's how I made do. I was worried about the sodium content with the bouillon and the canned chicken, so I did rinse off the chicken before I added it. I have no idea if that works or anything, but I figured any little bit helps.

I rounded out my meal with an Arnold's Sandwich Thin toasted with reduced fat Colby Jack cheese and 1 tsp. of spicy brown mustard.

I also just wanted to show y'all my pretty dinner from last night! NS Flatbread pizza with added pineapple, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and 3 slices of turkey pepperoni. I served that with a chopped lettuce salad in which I added some chopped tomatoes, 2 sundried tomato halves, and I garnished it with pickled ginger. My dressing was a reduced fat ginger and soy dressing. Aren't the colors in the salad soooo pretty? And the pizza was piled like 3 inches high. It was awesome!

Also, a major congratulations goes out to Callie who was accepted to Carteret for nursing school. I know that she and Clay are soooo excited that she'll definitely be living in Beaufort after the wedding. I'm so proud of her!!!

Walmart, Results, and Hot Tea

2009-03-20T00:26:00.008-04:00

All is well in LeBlanc land! We are both busy at work (always a good thing) and Brian has had a lot of hockey games to cover lately. He has games on Friday and Saturday night this week!

So, because he'll be busy working this weekend, we decided to head to dinner at Logan's in Garner. Yes, perhaps, a potential NutriSystem nightmare, but I think I did pretty good all things considered! I had a salad with fat free ranch dressing, 1 dinner roll, about 4 oz. of sirloin (cooked with no butter and I cut off the 2 oz. that I didn't need), and a sweet potato (I added about a teaspoon of butter to the sweet potato). It was quite delicious. I am very pleased that I'm still able to find ways to eat out occasionally. I've also been really rocking and rolling this week. My next order of NS food is supposed to be delivered tomorrow (should have been today, but that's a long story--stupid UPS!), so I've been preparing a lot of my own meals to meet the NS stats. I'm not gonna lie--I'm pretty darn good at it! I can rock out a super yummy breakfast and lunch with little-to-no thinking. Fortunately, I haven't had to face any dinners on my own yet because I had more dinners left over than breakfasts and lunches.

I was also very adventurous last night and cooked brussel sprouts! I had never had them before and I wasn't really sure what the situation would be, but they were AWESOME. They were fresh from Harris Teeter so I removed a lot of the core (leaving only enough to hold them together) and boiled them for about 7 minutes. Then, I drained the water and added tiny bit of butter and lots of black pepper and sauteed them with some fresh sugar snap peas. Oh my goodness! So yummy. I'm really pleased that I tried them!

Also, the other night, I took some fresh zucchini and sliced it up. I dipped each slice in some egg beaters and then dredged them in some Heart Smart Bisquick and then cooked them at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes. Also very delish! The "crust" made them have such a fun taste with little calorie expense. I def. couldn't eat something like that every night though because it's amazing how much my tastes have changed. I just don't have any type of cravings for fried or greasy stuff; it honestly makes my stomach turn just by smelling it!

After we went to dinner, Brian and I were planning to head to the SUPER Walmart in Clayton. However, when we got there, the power was out and the Walmart was closed. Fortunately, my fearless husband trekked onward and we drove through fun country roads in Johnston and Wake counties to arrive at the Walmart in Zebulon, which is basically the most rocking-est Walmart on the planet. They have a million flat screen TVs all over the place! One of the reasons I was there was to buy some dumbbells--the ones I have are only like 2.5 lbs. each, which is pretty pointless for strength training. So I got some fun 5 lbs. ones, a super awesome jump rope, and a fun, pretty workout shirt. Very exciting.

Of course, while we were there, I went for the blood pressure check. The very first time I took my BP, it was 125/77. Not too shabby! The next two times it was under 120/80 and the final time it was:

Pretty darn cool! My pulse is a little high, but I had also been hopping all over Walmart with Brian, so I think that is probably why.

I have been doing really well on the workout front for the last week. I had definitely slacked off from my 5K training and was not pleased with myself. So, with it being so super rainy for the past little bit, I've been working hard on the elliptical trainer. I usually warm up on the elliptical for about 5 minutes and then do 20-30 minutes of strength training, and then pop back on the elliptical for another 35 minutes for some good cardio. I can't believe how much stronger I am in 1 week. My ab muscles feel are so much stronger now. I can actually lay horizontally on an inverted bean-shaped, workout floaty thing and use my ab muscles to keep my body parallel to the floor (legs, core, and arms) for about 10 seconds! I'm also working really hard to strengthen my arms and back because my bridesmaid's dress for Cal's wedding is a halter top (and, obviously, an open back).

I've also really started paying a lot of attention to my heart rate while I've been working out. My true resting averages at 62 bpm (that is, in the morning, right after I wake up, before I even sit up) and at the ripe-old age of 26, my max HR is somewhere around 194 bpm. So I usually warm up to get to around 50%-55% of my max (or 128-135 bpm) and then it usually hangs out around 115-130 bpm while I'm doing my strength training. During the cardio, I stay between 60%-80% of my HRmax (141-167 bpm) and I usually bump it up to about 80%-90% for the very last minute (168-181 bpm). I have been absolutely amazed at how much my recovery is improving! In just a week, I've gone from having trouble getting below 130 bpm after a 5 minute cool down to being right around 115 bpm tonight. And by the time I'm done stretching it's usually back to around 90 bpm. Very, very exciting and I feel AWESOME.

Yesterday, because it was so pretty, I took Gatsby on a nice long walk and even did a bit of jogging. I can't believe how much easier it is to jog now. I actually like it! I'm excited to know that it will just continue to get easier as I lose more weight.

Speaking of which, after almost 8 weeks on the program, here are my results:

Weight: -19.2 lbs. (-9.39%)
Upper Arms: -2.5 in. (-15.15%) [Hello, weight training! I love you.]
Chest: -2.5 in. (-6.33%)
Waist: -5.25 in. (-12.00%)
Hips: -3 in. (-6.82%)
Thighs: -3.25 in. (-12.75%)

Finally, I have refallen-in-love with hot tea. I've always enjoyed it, but in the past month or so, I've been drinking it a ton. I have a cup each morning (usually caffeinated) and then a cup before I go to bed that is designed to make my sleepy. It's incredible how well it works. I love tea. It makes me happy.

I also wanted to give a shoutout to one of my favorite people on the planet, Kara, who had a little baby girl today. Yay to Kara and Jed--congratulations!

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Free Stuff, Heart Rate and Blood Pressure, and Clothes

2009-03-11T22:53:00.004-04:00

Free Stuff

NutriSystem has a deal where if you log your weight each day online, they send you a stuffed (beanie-baby-like) teddy bear celebrating each 10 lbs. that you lose. It's supposed to be automatic for people who are on auto-delivery, but evidently the system isn't that great, so if you call up (or, in my case, e-mail) to ask for one, they will send it out. I'm not really sure if I'm supposed to get it because I go through QVC, but I figured it was worth a shot and the little bear was waiting for me when I got home from my parents. He's pretty cute!

Brian and I have our insurance through BCBS and we have Blue Points with the program. So, when I exercise, I log the amount of time and then eventually get free stuff (gift cards, merchandise, etc.). Well, I also found out today that you can get 100 pts/week for eating a combination of 5 fruit and veggie servings, 5 out of the 7 days in a week. I eat 6 with NutriSystem each day, so, YAY for more points!

Heart Rate and Blood Pressure

I was doing some crack pot Internet investigative research tonight on the "average" resting heart rate and evidently it's 75 bpm for an adult woman. So, after my ellipticizing tonight, I've kept my heart rate monitor on to see where it stayed all night. Well, awesome for me, it's been around 72-76 bpm. I am very pleased with this and being "normal." (Prior to NS, I was just happy if it was under 100 bpm!)
I also checked my BP at Harris Teeter Sunday night--real scientific, I know! ;-) And, because I'm OCD, I checked it 4 times in one sitting. (I always do this.) So, the very first time it was 130/77 and I was thinking sh!t (although, 130 was pretty much the lowest I could ever get it before NS). And then times 2 and 3 it was 122ish/71ish; and then time 4, it was 117/67 (seriously!!). I was very, very excited. I'll feel very awesome when it's right at 120/80 on the first sitting...

Clothes

I was supposed to tutor on Tuesday after work, but my student had to cancel because she was sick, so I made use of the bonus time to go shopping at Kohl's. (I was 25 minutes late to work Tuesday morning because I had to try on 5 different outfits to find something that didn't look stupid on me. I'm not usually this bad, but everything looked crazy-bad before settling on a pretty dress.) So, I went to Kohl's to find a few work clothes (thank goodness I only need them 3 days/week!) and I found 4 cute tops (though Brian hated them all except for 1--go figure), 1 pair of pants, and a super-cute pair of shoes (I'm not going to lie--they're awesome). I didn't buy much because I *hope* it will be too big for me in a month, but I had to have something before HR sent me home for looking ridiculous. This trip was very exciting because I was able to find all my outfits in the Misses section, rather than the Woman's (aka, plus-size). Yay for small victories--there is a MUCH bigger (pardon the pun) selection in Misses and the clothes are WAY cuter.
On Monday, I went to David's Bridal to pick up my bridesmaid's dress for Callie's wedding. It is so super cute! It's a little big right now and I was supposed to go for alterations tomorrow, but I decided to cancel tomorrow's appointment and I rescheduled it for April 9, which gives me the most time possible (within DB's alterations guidelines) to have the dress fitted to my then-size. Very exciting!

That's pretty much it! Brian and Gatsby are rocking and rolling. Gatsby is sleeping and Brian is watching the Canes game and getting ready to put an audio package together for the sports segments on the radio stations tomorrow.

Fantastic weather, washed cars, sushi, jeans, shrimp, kitties, movie

2009-03-08T00:54:00.004-05:00

Today was an AWESOME day to be outside! It was probably 70-72 degrees down here and not one cloud in the sky! We all knew that we wanted to be outside as much as possible today so Callie and Clay came over and we had a car washing party. We washed Callie's car, dad's truck, my car, and mom's car. They're all nice and pretty inside and out now, but holy moly that's a lot of work! I think we were all a little tired and sore tonight, but it was so fantastic to be outside!

After the car washing fiesta, we went into Morehead City to California Roll--a yummy sushi restaurant--for mom's birthday. We ate A LOT of sushi. They have this unreal "house" salad, which is basically lettuce, carrots, and pieces of nori in a ginger dressing--it is incredible. For 5 people, we ended up with 9 rolls and 2 orders of nigiri!!! It took a LONG time for the poor sushi chef to get everything made, but it was absolutely worth the wait. I also had a Japanese hot green tea that was really tasty. Mom and I split a roll (and ordered a few other things separately) so they brought all of our food out on one GIANT wood tray. After we got the order, mom and I realized that everything we ordered, except for the salmon nigiri, was some type of spicy, specialty roll. Lots of yummy tuna and salmon! Callie, Clay, and dad also made excellent choices; sushi plating and presentation is so pretty! I think everyone was pretty pleased.

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart where I purchased 2 new pairs of jeans--I figured it was time since the ones I had were all falling off of me and my belts just made the waists really bumpy! So, it turns out, I've gone down 2 pant sizes (and that was AFTER all the sushi!). Very, very exciting! (And, yes, I bought clothes at Wal-Mart--no reason to spend a lot of cash on clothes that I'll only be wearing for a month or so!) The sad thing is that my jeans were $15, but my 2.5 oz. bottle of face moisturizer was $14.92. GO FIGURE!

Last night, we went to Clawson's in Beaufort and had peel-and-eat shrimp, which was DELICIOUS. Afterward, we went to Clay's apartment and played with Bama and Brewer who are incredibly cute. We also went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic, which is a really fun movie! They stayed pretty close to the book and the movie was really enjoyable and refreshing.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to enjoy a day sitting in the sun and reading until I have to head back to Raleigh--I LOVE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME!!

Beach Bound!!

2009-03-04T22:05:00.002-05:00

Hi kids! Warm weather is coming!!!!! YAY!! (And, I'm going to the beach--even more yay!!!!)

My mom's birthday is Thursday, so I'm heading down to Ocean this weekend to celebrate. Unfortunately, Brian can't go because he has a hockey game Friday night and didn't want to drive down Saturday morning to turn back around Sunday to come home. Because Fridays are my work-from-home day, I'm going to head down to Ocean right after work on Thursday and then work down there on Friday. Having a flexible work schedule is quite possibly the greatest thing in the history of the world.

The baby doggie is going to stay with Brian...

I am really excited about the weekend. Callie and Clay want to go to Clawson's on Friday night for peel-and-eat shrimp and mom wants some other type of yummy seafood on Saturday night. And I've packed up my NS breakfasts, lunches, and desserts to have for the meals that we eat at home. Since mom and dad are also doing NS, I know that it will be easy to stay on the plan.

Speaking of NS, everything is continuing to rock and roll. As of this morning, I've lost 15.8 lbs. My first mini-goal was to get down to a nice round number by March 1st (a loss of 14.4 lbs.), which I did! My next goal is to have lost a total of 30 lbs. by April 15, which seems doable, based on my past rate and progress. If that happens, my BMI will go from the "obese" range to just "overweight." Yay, for small victories! ;-) It's interesting how your brain works--when you're not doing anything, you never want to think about any of this, but, when you are being healthy, it's even more fuel to the fire for motivation. I really get excited each morning when I go to my scale. It's like an early morning adventure!!! The progress just continues to fuel the motivation.

This is going to sound so corny, but I am just so incredibly motivated and happy about life right now! Since right after we got married, we've been really on top of all our finances to have a plan to pay down all our debt and get rid of it ASAP. We've pretty much stayed on target since the summer of 2006--we had a ton of stuff paid off right before we bought our house, but after we moved in, we did spend some money on house things. Well, I'm so excited because by the end of May, we will only have some no-interest-accruing debt (save the mortgage) that we will be finishing paying off (house furniture and a computer). And by the end of October, we will only owe money on our mortgage!! I'm sure that at some point soon we will need new cars--ours are getting older, but we want to hang on to what we have for as long as possible because having no car payment is phenomenal. It's just so exciting to be in complete control. YAY PROGRESS!

And, finally, our last exciting news is that Callie and Clay are adopting 2 kitty cats!!!!! And they will be getting them tomorrow!! I cannot wait to meet them!!!! They are brother and sister and SO CUTE. So, please meet:

Bama

and

Kidd-Brewer (Brewer for short)

Those are the planned names for now, but there is a chance they could change, but I doubt it. For those of you who don't know, Clay is a HUGE Alabama fan--hence the name of the girl kitty (Bama)--and Kidd-Brewer is the name of App's football stadium. They also liked "App," but Callie was scared that she'd end up calling one of the cats "Appy," which is a big no-no for App fans. I cannot WAIT to meet them. SO CUTE!! :-D

So that's pretty much our story for now. Yay!

A day in the life of Laura and Gatsby...

2009-02-28T19:54:00.006-05:00

OK, I'm not going to lie...the weather today sucked and tomorrow isn't going to be much better--even calling for an icy mix and snow!
:-(

As you can probably guess, Gatsby and I worked really hard today. We woke up about 7 a.m. so that he could have his breakfast and go outside and then we went back to sleep until 9 a.m. After breakfast, I settled in on the couch to pay some bills and make sure every thing was in order and then played around on the computer and watched silly, trifling girl shows until lunch. My lunch was really good: NS Black Bean and Tortilla Soup and a lettuce/tomato salad with some canned albacore tuna and fat free ranch.

After lunch, Gatsby warmed up on his blanket in front of the fireplace and took a nap while I read The Great Gatsby (and, yes, we also had some classical music playing in the background). :-) It was delightful. To no one's surprise, I fell asleep for an hour and a half until Lil G jumped up on top of me to insist that I wake up and play with him. So I did. :-)

After playing and our afternoon snack, the little doggie decided that he was tired again and went back to sleep, so I went back to reading. At one point, I snuck off to the bathroom and I came back to this:

As you can see, he's pretty pleased with his seat-stealing self. (This really shouldn't surprise me because he does the same thing to me and Brian pretty much every night, but it's still funny.)

Overall, it was a glorious, rainy day.

I also had two funny dreams last night. In the first, I was at train station counter in France and I was trying to find the right train to get somewhere. I was having major issues figuring it out and the guy at the station told me that I had rush to catch the next train and then make a transfer at some stop that I couldn't pronounce (Chamonelleix, or something else...). Well, I made it onto the train, but I couldn't remember the transfer station and I couldn't find my map to figure it out. So I was just riding around trying to find where I needed to go. It was very stressful.

In the second dream, I got transferred to my company's office in New York City and Brian and I decided to move. Well, evidently, we just made the move without finding a place to live first, so we got up there and we were stuck on the Cross-Bronx and in all these different hotels trying to decide if we should live in Manhattan or New Jersey. It was also very stressful.

I know why all the components appeared in my dream, but it's always so funny to see how your brain makes connections! According to a dream analysis Web site, which is probably not really legit, I am dealing with the following:

Lost: If you dream that you are lost, you may be feeling worried and insecure about the path you are taking in life. Or, you may be trying to get accustomed to a new situation in which the rules and conditions are ever changing.

Traffic: Watching traffic in a dream suggests that you are trying to solve a problem alone when you should be requesting help or cooperation from others.

Train: To see a moving train in your dreams means you will soon have reason to make a journey. Dreams of riding a train symbolize your journey along life's path, especially in the realm of romance.

It's all very interesting.

I read a chapter of The Great Gatsby last night before I went to bed and then read the rest of it today. It's such a good book! So sad and pathetic! It was first published in 1925 and it's such an awesome criticism of the soul-less rich in the 1920s. To go literary on y'all, there are three audience time periods for every book: the time period of the author while writing, the time period of the characters in the novel, and the time period of the reader. I've read the book a couple of times, but it was particularly interesting to me right now when you consider the incredible prosperity that we've had for the past 15 years and then our current recession (an obvious parallel to the 1920s and the Great Depression). I think I could write a pretty kicking paper comparing Wall Street now and the novel.

Seriously...if you haven't read the book, just do it. It only like 170 pages, so it will only take you a lazy afternoon.

Can y'all tell that this is the only thing I'm working on?

2009-02-22T22:38:00.005-05:00

OK, so I decided I did want to post pictures of a month's worth of NutriSystem. I'm forcing poor Brian to take pictures of me each Sunday night :-)

Start--01/25/2009

1 Month Later--02/22/2009

The difference one month makes can be pretty incredible!

And, yes, I am wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants with snowflakes. I like to be comfortable! I also thought it would behoove me to make my before picture particularly bad so that my after will look especially awesome when NutriSystem invites me to a professional photo shoot to be in one of their commercials. ;-)

Pretty Princess Dress-Up

2009-02-21T21:48:00.003-05:00

Tonight, on a whim, I decided to play pretty princess dress-up and I pulled out my wedding dress to see how it fit now. Yes, I even pulled out the crazy corset bra.

Well, I'm happy to report that it was really big on me! I wasn't even remotely close to filling out the bust and Brian was able to stick his fist in the back.

Insane!

The dress is still awesome though! :-)

NutriSystem Results

2009-02-20T22:49:00.004-05:00

(I warned y'all when I started that I was probably going to annoy you with this stuff.)

I've pretty much figured out that the more vocal I am with this whole thing, the more motivated it keeps me. In other words, if I drop out and fail, then y'all will all think I'm a loser! :-)

So, Sunday will be the end of my fourth week.

These are the changes that I've measured so far (Am I a numbers nerd or what?!):

Actual Change (Percent Change)

Weight: -12.6 lbs. (-6.16%)
Arms: -1 in. (-6.06%)
Chest: -1.5 in. (-3.80%)
Waist: -3.75 in. (-8.57%)
Hips: -2 in. (-4.55%)
Thighs: -2.25 in. (-8.82%)

Maybe eventually I'll post actual numbers or pictures, but I'm not quite there yet :-)

Pictures of NS food...

2009-02-15T19:36:00.003-05:00

Y'all may have no interest in this whatsoever, but I thought I'd throw it out there nonetheless. There is a tradition on the NS message boards of people posting pictures of their meals so that other people can get ideas. I'm contributing and I have to put everything in Picasa before I put it up on those message boards, so I thought I'd send y'all the link in case you're interested:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/NutriSystemFood

(I've also saved the link in the "Photos" section on the right side of the blog.)

I'm totally bummed that I didn't take a picture of my breakfast this morning because it was so cute! NS eggs and cheese with sliced mushrooms mixed in, orange slices, and cottage cheese. BTW, does anyone have any good techniques to flip an omelet and keep it all in tact? I just can't figure out how to do it! Hence, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and not a mushroom omelet!

Lunch was NS split pea soup with garlic, onions, carrots, a turkey hot dog, and cheddar cheese. Wasn't so yummy, but it was something. Guess I'll have to try something else next time! :-)

Yesterday was, perhaps, one of the greatest food days ever!

2009-02-14T14:52:00.003-05:00

For lunch I made a chicken salad melt with NS chicken salad. I took the chicken salad and mixed it up with 1 oz. of real chicken breast, a TON of onions, and some roasted red peppers. I was planning to serve it on a whole wheat roll and add some provolone cheese and lettuce. At the last second, I decided to pop it into the toaster oven to get all melt-y [I ate the lettuce while it melted :-)] and then ate it openfaced. It was SO delicious.

It's kinda funny--I've actually become more culinary since I started NutriSystem. I actually like cooking; I think I just needed a little bit of structure. I'm learning how to become pretty creative with the NS food and add-ins. I really like figuring out new ways to cook the veggies or different ways to incorporate all the requirements into each meal. It's fun to be healthy.

For dinner, Brian and I went to Winston's for an early Valentine's Day dinner. (He has a hockey game tonight.) Brian had prime rib and mashed potatoes. Is he a meat and potatoes guy or what? ;-) I had the Sesame Tuna Salad and it was, quite possibly, the best salad that I've ever had in my life. It was seared sashimi tuna (rare, I mean, seriously, is there any other option for tuna?) over a bed of greens. The tuna was covered in a spicy wasabi sauce (it was spicy and delish, but it tasted very light). The dressing was ginger-based and there was also pickled ginger sprinkled on top. There also were some type of crispy things sprinkled about, but I pushed most of those to the side and only ate 2 or 3. The salad was unbelievable. I mean incredible. Like, oh my goodness-holy-moly! I was very pleased. Oh, I did have *gasp* a white roll too, but I skipped on the butter and didn't order any wine. (Go Laura Beth!)

I probably ate too much of the salad, but I really didn't care and neither did the scale this morning (I still lost 0.6 lbs yesterday--now down 10.6 lbs overall).

I'm waiting for my weight loss to slow down--I know it will soon--but I'm definitely enjoying it while it lasts.

Oh yeah, and I'm off work Monday. Vive la jour des presidents!