CAUTION: Woman In Progress

April started out well and truly strong. I felt good. I was doing good. I made progress on a couple of fronts. It was going smoothly and happily along. Until... Dun, dun, dun... Last week. Last week I completely derailed from all my goals. I spent more. I ate more. I walked less. I skipped church. Granted, I was sick most of the week and we've already covered that it was a weird week. But why is it that when you feel bad (sick) you give yourself so much permission to behave badly? Exhibit A:  I drank no less than four lattes last week . Four. I justified them because my throat was sore from all the coughing and sinus drainage junk. But honestly, I have tea bags at work. And hot tea would have been just as soothing. But because I was siiiiiicckkk (that's me whining) I needed the comfort of a sweet, hot, high calorie and expensive latte.  Justified? Nope. But it happened so I'm owning it. No sense denying it or pretending it never happened.  And if four l...

So I've had another weird week. What can I say? April has been a strange month to live through. Which, if it didn't mean that the year would be almost half over already, I'd say I'm glad then that it's almost over. But since 2012 is going by so freaking fast I hate that month four is almost done. What was so strange about this week, you ask? Well, let me tell you about it. First off, my calendar was LOADED with meetings/workshops this week. As in, every day except Friday yielded a meeting or workshop that I had to attend/stay awake during. Meetings for me are awkward not just in the sense that they are often times boring, but more so because I never seem to have anything of value to contribute. I'm not as academic/intellectual as most of the faculty I meet with so the things they are really passionate about, I am utterly clueless about. Thankfully they don't require much input from me as I'm mostly there to serve as a warm body. At least that's w...

Have the cold from hell and am not happy about it at all. Please send Puffs Plus with lotion. Thanks! ;-)

We all had a very traumatic morning at work involving a lunatic and the telephone. How does one get rid of an intentionally and verbally abusive telemarketing scammer whose number is blocked and won't give you any clue what he even really wants other than to abuse you? Granted, the scam wasn't intended for me but after the third time he called and his target refused to take his call he fell completely off his rocker and proceeded to harass, abuse and mistreat me and anyone else who dared answer one of his incessant calls. Seriously, he was so abusive that each time he called I, or whoever answered, would end up hanging up on him only to have him immediately call back. At first he'd start out each phone call with, "Hello, how are you today, ma'am," only to then go completely nuts on us. After the first hour, though, he moved onto greeting us with "I'm still here." Is that creepy or what? I was called a liar multiple times and accused of denyi...

Note: I've been working on this post since Thursday morning and just could never find the time to finish it. So the elation has somewhat faded. But I'll try to insert some of the euphoria I felt Wednesday night. ha ha Okay, ya'll. So this whole goals thing has ended up inspiring little mini-goals. None of them were formally stated but they have all been kept well and safe in my head. Mental mile markers, if you will. I think mini-goals within the broader goals is an important component to attaining goals in terms of motivation. If I say "goals" one more time do I win a prize? No. A beat down doesn't count as a "prize." Anyway, on to the big victory lap around the blog. I know I've mentioned before that on one of my Leslie Sansone DVD's she has a one mile "gentle walk" and a two mile "brisk" walk. The gentle walk has kicked my butt from day one but I've done it consistently enough that I can almost breath during...

Rumor has it that Blogger has screwed up the ease of use for posting photos and other content. I haven't been on here in a few days so I'm testing it out to see how frustrated I need to be. So, here's some random pics from my photo files. :)             Hmmm...seems the same to me...

So. Begonias. I'm not a gardener. I don't much care for the outdoors. While I enjoy the look of a well manicured and flowered yard, I'm not that interested in making one happen. Just never been of fan of the whole "dirt under my nails" phenomenon. Which is weird because Granny is all about some flower beds. She plants, maintains, weeds, etc from as early in spring as she can until as late into fall as she can. Loves. It. Even at nearly 80 (her birthday's in July!) her greatest happiness is dirt under her fingernails and the sun on her face. Me? Yeah. Not so much. But every now and then I'll get a hankering to add a little something to my front porch. The first summer in my current house I went a little all out with some potted flowers. That year I had my whole porche lined with impatiens, petunias and snapdraggons. Hanging baskets of begonias and impatiens. Gerber Daisys. I spent a good bit of money on all that junk and then hated the whole wate...

Last week was a weird week, for sure. I mean, it wasn't all that different from a normal week, but just felt weird. Does that even make any sense? For one thing, there was a lot of togetherness with my friends. While fun, these outings completely threw me off my game--emotionally, financially and foodily. (Yes. I just made that up.) Trips to Starbucks a couple times, two lunch outings, a work related shopping trip and that's not even counting our usual break time chats. And while I do love my friends, overload can be dangerous to my psyche. Being friends with E is easy. I've known her forever (we both started as student assistants) and she's just so stinkin' easy going. A, on the other hand, is very high strung and competitive. She and E have a lot in common--husbands and kids, mostly--and I think A is a little jealous whenever E spends more time with me than her. She got very snippy with me several times last week to the point where by Friday I was pretty much...

I reached a financial victory today that warrants me sharing a little mid-month check in.  Unfortunately this victory has nothing to do with scales or fitness miles. HOWEVER, being that there are other equally important goals at play here, I feel the need to celebrate those, too. Just to sort of explain things a bit first, I know I'm weird but my monthly budget actually starts on the 15th of each month because I am paid on the 15th and the 30th of each month--or if those dates fall on a weekend, we get paid on the Friday before. Meaning, of course, that today is payday and starts a new fiscal month. I know I'm weird because everyone else I know thinks of the 30th paycheck as the first of the month paycheck. For me it's easier to keep up with my bills the way I do, making THIS the first paycheck of the month. My brain just doesn't work like everyone else's, I guess. Whatever. So long as it works, right? ANYWAY, point being, yesterday finished out the March/April ...

Oy, this day! Busy, busy, busy. I started out the day sore anyway because I went crazy last night and walked TWO MILES with Leslie Sansone--one of which was a legs toning mile which included squats and lunges. I made it through the squats but there was no way in you-know-where I was going for the lunges. Hello, decrepit knees. Needless to say, I kicked my own butt last night and could hardly walk this morning. Even if I DID have some fan-freaking-tastic supper last night. I'll post about THAT tomorrow. Maybe. If I survive the night. Then today has been one evil plot after another to kill me. I've been on my feet for five out of eight hours and that's not including the fifteen minutes it took us to walk across the drill field for a milk-shake from Chic-fil-A. hehehe NOW, it's time to go home and I get to drive Daddy's redneck Ranger home because he and Mama ditched me here while they went to his doctor's appointment a half hour from here. I used to love t...

It took me thirty-three years, but I finally own something with a designer label. See Sis1's belated b-day gift: It's a Vera Bradly which is kind of a big-ish deal around here. Not sure about the rest of the world. Not that labels or designers mean all that much to me. I was thrilled to the gills last month when I found a like-new St. John's Bay (JCPenny's brand) purse at a thrift store for $6.99 and carried it quite happily. It's purple microsuede with lots of pockets and suits all the junk I carry. Plus it's cute. But, I can't say that I wasn't a little bit pleased as a peach when I pulled that there brightly colored Vera Bradley out of the gift bag. It came with a nice big matching wallet that holds all sorts of stuff and a nice big cosmetics bag that I keep all my little odds and ends (lip balm, hair clips, nail file, etc) in. It has three nice big side pockets to stow my phone, my keys and my calculator so that those things don't float ...

The funnest part of any Easter egg hunt is watching the adults who hid the eggs trying to remember WHERE they hid them all. For instance, Sunday we had four kids hunting 35 eggs. Sis2 and Emmy were in charge of hiding. I bailed on it this year because, well, I hate hiding eggs. It's the least fun task I can think of and since I don't own any kids, I leave that to the ones who do. So, Emmy and Sis2 hid the eggs and the kids started hunting. They found the first twenty fairly easily. Being that two of the four hunting are toddlers, they tried to make it fairly easy pickings. But then there were, inevitably, the ones they'd hidden a little better for the older kids and, you guessed it, the kids couldn't find them and neither Sis2 nor Emmy couldn't remember where they'd hidden them! Pretty soon the hiders were doing most of the hunting and mostly coming up empty handed. Meanwhile, I just stood around taking pictures at them looking dumbfounded as they ...

So. Total fail on the reducing the belly thing. Admittedly, it was rather ridiculous to expect much in one week but I had to try, right?  I'll keep on trying. Once this headache goes away. In the meantime, Easter did happen, belly and all. I've been pondering thoughts about Easter for a while. I hate how the true reason for celebrating gets shoved aside in favor of ham and chocolate bunnies. Where in the heck did the concept of the Easter Bunny even come from, anyway? I mean, Santa Clause at Christmas, I get. An over grown bunny with egg filled baskets? Not so much. Why I'm only questioning this now, I haven't a clue. Must research this, though. But really, how does the origin of Christianity get so lost and nobody seems to notice? At Christmas Christians are all indignant about how Jesus is the reason for the Season. And yes, that's true. But the whole reason He was born was so that He could die as the ultimate sacrifice and be resurrected to save the world f...

I can't even spell versatile without spell check but apparently, I'm it! hehehe Thanks, Jen at JenMarie's Cafe for the nomination of The Versatile Blogger Award ! This award is described as follows:  "It is a great way to introduce different bloggers to each other and to promote quality blogs that awardees and their readers may not have discovered otherwise." Seriously, Jen, thanks! I'm always sincerely thankful that this here TMI spewage web log of mine is followed by a faithful few of the most amazing friends a gal could have. ((((hugs)))) Not to get all sappy, but ya'll make getting up and facing the world a little less harrowing. :-) So, the story goes that if you've been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award , there are rules : Thank the person who gave you this award. Done. But I'll say it again. THANKS JEN!! Include a link to their blog. Visit JenMarie's Cafe where I'm constantly amazed at what this gal has come up ...

Ya'll, I have sucked SO HARD this week. Well, actually, my friends suck and they drag me along with them. But I think the suckage actually started with me Saturday morning. Either way...suckage a'hoy! After I was all, "I'm going to work my belly off to look good in my Easter 'frock'." Yeah. Right. So. Yeah. I had told myself, "Self we're not going to venture down the Easter candy aisle. NOT going to do it. NOT ALLOWED. Absolutely not." Then, well, ya'll know. Self, being as rebellious and defiant as Sis1 was in her teens was all, "Who the heck are YOU to tell ME what to do?" Actually it was more like, "Well, you know. We should probably find the kids something for Easter." So of course I caved like a pair of panties confronted with Tatum Channing. That's how CADBERRY CHOCOLATE CREAM EGGS happened. Cause you see, I'm normally a bit of a Cadberry egg girl anyway but I can resist the regular and the car...

Another month gone from 2012. Three months gone and so far for the most part, things are going well(ish). At the moment I'm still a little excited about my goals. I think this is the first time in my life that I had goals with actual plans of action. Not some lofty, "lose 30 pounds." "Save more money." Maybe that's why I've not abandoned them or gotten really discouraged yet. I have clear cut, manageable goals this time around. I do hafta keep tellin' myself that I don't have to be in a rush. I've got MONTHS to play with. MONTHS to build towards my goals. I need to pace myself. In regards to my fitness goal of walking the fast three mile belly busting walk, I am a little frustrated. I thought I'd be a little further along with this by now. I still haven't yet conquered the two mile "brisk" walk and if I can't conquer that , there's no hope for the three mile belly buster. But I hafta remind myself. It's only ...