CAUTION: Woman In Progress

First of all, I know I probably say this each month, but...Where the fluff did July go? Seriously. Just yesterday it was still May and school had just gotten out and now it's fluffin' August? Well, tomorrow is fluffin' August, anyway. School--both K-12 and college--is about to start back up. K-12 starts next week and college a couple of weeks later. So yeah. Where the fluff did summer go? Anyway, you'll be happy to know that July has been kinder to me than June. Goals-wise, anyway. June was fun but it kicked my goals' butts. July, however, while slightly stressful, was mildly easier on my goals. Here's the breakdown: Health and Wellness : While I did not, in fact, get back to walking or exercising regularly (and how big of a bitch is it to spell "exercising"? A huge one with a capital B!) it was a step forward from June's utter abandonment. For one, I began dancing at home. I can't claim that my dancing is anything that would get me on an...

**Visiting with family on a too-hot Saturday. **Efan to Sis1 who'd been harrassing him about his eating habits: "Stop talking to me. I don't want you to talk to me." **Homemade icecream with Reese's minis. **Lyssa to Bobo who'd pulled her into his lap for a snuggle: "But I wanted to snuggle with Aunt Jana, silly Bobo." **Sis1 to me: "You burp like a man." **Lyssa to Milo: "You be nice to Libby and don't make her mad." **Emmy's still an inch shorter than me. **Lazy Sunday at home alone after church. **Finishing Jeniffer Weiner's The Next Best Thing. It was a leetle on the slowish side but good nonetheless. ** Longmire on A&E. Yummy Wyoming law men. 'Nuff said. **Slow cooked country style ribs at 10:30pm.

Highs: 1.) Got the clogged drain in my heat pump repaired last night. Finally. 2.) I was calm, cool and collected during the repairs. 3.) I had lunch with my friends I haven't seen all week. 4.) I get to see/spend time with my babies tomorrow. All three of them! 5.) I lost another pound without really trying. 6.) Yesterday I completed and turned in my unexpected ASAP project/report that gave me a super tension headache Monday. 7.) I called BFF last night and we talked for an hour. 8.) I have an extra $10 in my checking account that I wasn't expecting. 9.) I finally got all the towels unloaded and folded yesterday in time for more laundry this weekend. 10.) The walk to the post office this morning wasn't unbearably hot. Lows: 1.) The girls' night out I had planned with my sisters got cancelled last minute. I may never make plans with them again. 2.) Had a momentary fighting tears woe-is-me-fest this morning at the reference desk. 3.) HPH did not facilita...

So. Tuesday night. Yeah. He didn't show. *sad* I rushed home, swept up all the yard trash (all the junk Libs and I track in), tossed errant panties into laundry hampers, shoved messes under beds and fussed with myself about what to wear, how to have my hair (leave it up? take it down?) and then collapsed in my jean capris and a snarky t-shirt to wait. And wait. And wait some more. I tried reading. I packed up some stuff I need to ship. I played with the Devil Pup. I even cleaned up the kitchen. By six-thirty I gave up, cooked supper and finally put on my pj's to settle in with Pretty Little Liars and the rest of my Tuesday night TV line-up. He never even called which is so unlike him. Any other time he's had to reschedule, he's called. So I called him yesterday morning. His office and then his cell. Never got an answer. I finally left a voicemail but still haven't heard back from him. I don't know if I should be worried or annoyed. I'm actual...

So, a few things going on in my head/life/world these days. 1.) The drainage pipe in the heat pump is clogged and therefore leaking water everywhere. Currently have three buckets/trashcans beneath the interior unit to catch it all. 2.) I get to see heat pump hottie tonight! *squee* 3.) I'm bouncing between extreme excitement and complete  dread. Excitement because, hello. He's a smokin' hottie. Dread because well, I'm uber lame around hot guys. Seriously. Brain + Hot guy=Complete mush. It's not pretty ya'll. So yeah. Stomach in knots. 4.) Unrelated to HPH, just talked to dude at the power company again. He says apparently the work orders got mixed up and it was my NEIGHBOR who had requested a tree to be cut down. So. Yeah. They'll come next week to dispose of the limbs and cut the trunk into manageable pieces for me to dispose of. 5) Emailed Mama about it and all she read was the "for me to dispose of it" part and had a complete freak ou...

No, not those kinds of goodies. Gutterminds! No, THESE kinds of goodies. Two kinds of hazelnut spread (Crunchy and regular--Kroger's version of Nutella), Biscoff Spread (newly discovered and utterly adored), orange blossom honey (soooooo much better than clover honey) and lightly salted almonds. Yeah, there's some other stuff back there. Bread crumbs. Tomato sauce. Peanut buter. Pickles. But the stuff at the front? Well, it's at the front for a reason, yo. Think, These are a few of my favorite things. On a spoon. On a pita. IN MY MOUTH. And by the way. Why hasn't anyone ever told me about Biscoff Spread??? Trix ? Did you know about this stuff? You were, after all, the one who introduced me to Biscoff cookies.  Ya'll, that junk is expensive but ADDICTIVE. Like, I eat it straight outta the jar with a spoon, much like I do Nutella. Best part? Low cal and low fat! I die. Of course it has NO nutritional value. It is, after all, a bunch of cookies pr...

Okay, so not long after I hit publish on my previous post, I worked up the courage to do something I've been avoiding for a long while now--I called a man about a tree . ha So here's how it all went down. That stinkin' mess of a tree has been in my yard for nearly two months. You know, the one the power company cut down? Yeah. That one. It had lain in my yard so long that it's nearly entirely covered up by all the grass growing around it that Daddy can't mow. For reelz. I'll hafta take a picture and show it to you. Well, I kept praying and praying that I'd come home from work one day and it'd be gone as unexpectedly as it had been chopped down and abandoned. But. Never happened. I kept getting more and more disgusted each time I looked at it. Daddy was frustrated at having to mow around it. And everyone I know who's seen it has asked me about it. BIL even offered to call the electric company and give them an earful. But me? I don't lik...

...work started off with an hour and a half "discussion" with the other coordinator. I do not do "intelligent" at 7:30 in the morning. ...I "intelligently" talked my way into a new project. This is what happens when work conversations happen at 7:30 in the morning. ...I was so stressed by the conversation that I indulged in a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks AND a chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A. BAD JANA. ...I weighed this morning and had lost a pound. Betcha I've already gained it back. :( ...I spilled water all over the table at lunch. Soaked about four magazines and my pride. ...is moving way too slowly. I want to be at home with the Devil Pup where I'm safe from pseudo intelligent conversations, new projects, lattes and humiliation.

So I have a leetle beety secret to share with you. Up until recently, I had never conquered making biscuits! I know, right? Like, how can I make a bunch of scones but not a biscuit?? Crazy! But scones tend to have individual recipes. You know, step by steps. Biscuits, on the other hand, I've always found tricky. Mostly because all the recipes I had required buttermilk and I didn't want to hafta use buttermilk because honestly...who has the budget to buy buttermilk just for biscuits! Besides, my mama has never had to use buttermilk to make biscuits. But my mama also never had to use a recipe, either. Just toss a few things in the bowl, mix it up, cut it out, toss it in the oven and voila! Yummy biscuits. I, on the other hand, live and breathe by recipes. I don't know that I'll ever be a "toss a few things in a bowl" kind of baker. I like measurements and instructions. How much of this or that and how to know when it's mixed right. That's why f...

Ya'll, I've been putting this off because, well, June kicked my goals' butts and sent them cryin' to their mama. June was fun, but June was the month it all fell apart. Health and Wellness: While waiting for my knee to get back to pre-injury aerobic walking condition, I had taken to strolling around campus in the afternoons. In June, that habit bit the dust. It was too dang hot and just am not into sweating.  Because of this--and my stellar lack of self control--I regained every. stinking. pound. that it had taken me four months to lose. Yep, folks. I'm officially back to my January starting weight. Well, maybe three pounds away from it. I can't remember exactly what my starting weight was back in January but this is pretty close. I really let my hair down in June. I quit counting calories. I ceased all forms of exercise--I didn't even DANCE in June. What the fluff? And I basically just gave up, I think. Even though I told myself I hadn't, in rea...

I can't get enough of this boy. Really. I can't. BTW, notice who's on his shirt? Total Spiderman junkie. And he's never even watched the show/cartoon! lol We played puzzles and tickled and chased and wore him out so completely that he slept for twelve hours straight that night. Not to mention his afternoon nap. ;) I can't even believe that vacation was over two weeks ago. I need another one already! I miss this bunch o' weirdos! hehehe

Does Alyssa qualify as a toddler anymore? She's nearly five going on fifteen, after all. (Five in August. FIVE. As in, starts kindergarden on August 7th. *sob*) Nonetheless... In case you couldn't tell, it was cookie time. We have to have cookie time, doncha know. And yes she was still in pjs. Because summer is for staying in your pjs all day eating cookies and watching Tom and Jerry . Or, Thomas and Jerry, as Lyssa calls it. She refuses to call Tom, Tom. He's Thomas, ya'll. So says Alyssa, so say we all. But back to the cookies...Actually, the little lady bird thought that Aunt Jana was going to bake cookies with her. The little lady bird just failed to mention that to Aunt Jana beforehand. I felt bad, though, because the girl loves her some cookies (as does her Aunt Jana) so when I hit up WallyWorld for pizza ingredients, I coaxed a couple of packages of cookies into my buggy. M&M cookies for the kids and Keebler's caramel coconut shortbreads for th...

I recall when this girl was half my height. I remember because it was back when she was first really getting into reading and she was enamoured of Aunt Jana's bookcases so much that she was just DYING to read all the books there. Well, you all know Aunt Jana's bookcases aren't exactly filled with kid appropriate stuff. Like, at all. So I made a deal with her that when she was as tall as me she could read my books. You know, because when your kids (or your sisters' kids, as the case may be) are little you don't think they'll ever be as tall as you. As of June 28, 2012, at 5'4", the girl is exactly 1 inch shorter than me. I want to sob my eyeballs out because isn't she supposed to still be two feet tall and playing with Barbies? Not past five feet and playing games on her iPhone. Thankfully she's forgotten that deal we made about my books because, yeah. Victoria Dahl doesn't exactly write fiction fit for twelve-year-olds. ;-) Also?...

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! After a little hint and no other guesses, anyway. haha Congrats, Heather. ;-) Yep. My fluffy little Devil Pup turned six on June 26. I didn't actually celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday since Emmy and I had our big day out and about that day. But since she got cake anyway, she didn't much mind waiting until Friday. She couldn't believe she got to eat a whole cupcake by herself, though, she wasn't impressed that I set the thing on fire first. lol I didn't feel too badly about letting her have a whole cupcake since it was a lightened up carrot cake. It's practically a health food! See them chunks of carrots? One less plate to wash! haha Nothin' makes a mama's heart melt like a happy child. :-D So, Trix , lemme know if you want the Weiner book or if you'd rather have something else. ;-)

I am such a homebody that I seriously never even really want to go on vacations. For real. Like, the idea of leaving my home for more than a night or two and going somewhere AWAY from my home makes me anxious and tired. I mean, sure. I think Hawaii is probably beautiful and if I lived there I'd love to be there. If it were home. But traveling however many long hours to get there and then being stuck in a hotel room without all my stuff--not to mention my devil pup--would be soul draining. I'd come home in dire need of a good long stay in my house with my pup in order to recover. Like a vacation from my vacation kinda thing. Aren't vacations supposed to be fun? I've been on an actual vacation exactly once in my life. Well, if long weekend wedding trips count, TWO actual vacations in my life. Once in 2003 when my cousin got married up in Gatlinburg, Sis2 and I went with my uncle and his family for the weekend long trip. Stayed in a large mountain cabin with more uncles,...

I am actually still alive. I went off line last week for a "stay-cation" with Emmy, the almost 13-year-old long legged baby-cakes. I'll inundate you with all the goings on of our time together at some point, just not today. Today I am still slogging my way back into the land of the "works hard for her money" world. You would not be-LIEVE the amount of emails, research requests, questions, issues, problems, etc. that were waiting on me when I got back to work this morning. Or maybe you would. You've probably been there, done that. Anyway, I am alive. Although, gotta say, sucks to have a Monday headache on a Thursday. First world problem, though, right? ;-)