Rainy days and Mondays

Last week Monday-Wednesday it was 95 degrees, sunny, and humid. Today is 57 degrees, rainy, and chilly. It’s like summer just left in the middle of the night. While I do enjoy fall for the changing leaves, the football, the boots and sweaters, and fall activities, I am NOT ready for what comes next.

Because I lost such a significant amount of weight back in the day, I think that when I want/need to lose weight now, it should come off at the rate that it did when I had 150 pounds to lose. That is NOT the case and I am quite irritated about it. I am praying that the 2.8 pounds I’m up from 2 weeks ago is just because I’m doing weight lifting and different muscle movements that I was before. Because I think I just might lose my mind.

I still don’t know exactly what is wrong with me in terms of hormones/weight/whatnot and I am so annoyed. I want answers!!

I did a lot of baking this weekend; banana bread, apple crisp, and two batches of chocolate chip cookies. I don’t tend to eat what I bake, not sure why, I just rarely want to eat the finished product, even though I KNOW it’s delicious. (So I know it’s not that I’m sabotaging my diet! I track and eat so well, but nada)

We went to a friend’s house for a fire Friday night. Our dogs played so hard that they both were limping and they were exhausted the next day as well. Sunday we had a little get together with friends for NFL games (I watched my Husker game without a crowd Saturday as I really don’t enjoy watching those games with non-fans) and the dogs once again played super hard. They both passed out on the couch and barely moved. They’re about 5 or 6 years old (both rescues and we honestly don’t know their exact age) but it makes me sad to see they’re getting older. I mean, look at these faces!!

This is Rio. She’s a lab/Husky mix and is just the best girl.

My sweet Charlie boy.

Ok friends, I’m heading home to workout! Have a great night!

Health Care in this Country is a Joke

I had to have an internal ultrasound and a lot of blood work two weeks ago. This morning I got my EOB’s and of the $2200 I was billed, I owe nearly $800! For some blood tests and an internal ultrasound! The bloodwork cost more than the ultrasound! I also still owe just over $1000 for the procedure I had done last September 15th. I’m so depressed.

I feel like I will never stop paying medical bills. I just got paid yesterday (my second 3rd paycheck month of this year) and I wanted to save $500-$1000 but now I’m going to use that to pay off this latest hospital bill. I am grateful that I can afford to do this, but I’m so frustrated with how crippling medical bills are.

I then checked how much how wedding trip will cost, and the price went up $200 from last night. We still have time to book, but that just frustrates me. I also talked to the resort wedding photographer and found out the prices so now we have to find another $1300-$2000 for that. ARGH! IT NEVER ENDS!!!

In other news, we’re going to the New York State Fair this weekend. I have mixed emotions about whether or not it will be fun or just sticky and expensive. I am excited to go–it’s in Syracuse so we will get out sticks where we live, but I feel like it might be a waste of money. At least we will get to go the Husker Football Watch Bar in Syracuse so I can watch the game with my fellow transplanted Husker Fans!!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Hump Day Happenings

It is 78 degrees in my office. I am melting. Last week, the air was cranked down to sub-zero temperatures and I needed a jacket. Can we please find a happy medium?
After much deliberation and a chat with @high-heel-mileage I have decided to try out The Transform App, by Chris and Heidi Powell. I’ve only used it one day, but so far I dig it. You get a week free, but if you sign up online before next week Tuesday, you can get the year for ½ off! It is actually making me EXCITED to work out again! Finding my motivation is HUGE for me right now. I will keep you posted.
I found out this week that when we’re married, the Army or VA (as my boo is medically retiring from the Army in a few months) will fully pay for me to get my Masters degree. The university I work for will also pay for it, but under some conditions–I can only take so many classes a semester, I will get taxed on the money and (of course!) it will mess up my income taxes the following year, etc. That makes me less likely to want to do it, just because if I’m going to do it, I want to get it done NOW. But I’m NOT about to take out any student loans, as I paid my undergrad loans off in 2015 and it has been amazing not to have that payment! (Living at home afforded me the luxury to pay my loans off in 9 years and 9 months!)
So, with the news that they will pay for it, I have been researching online, accelerated Masters of Communications degrees. I would NOT start that until next fall.
We are supposed to meet some friends for dinner and a concert tonight. Dinner starts at 8 and the concert at 9 (at the same place). I’ve officially hit the age where I do not want to do anything on a work night. Especially something like this that starts at 8pm! #oldladystatus

Have a great rest of the week, friends!

Thursday Things

I walked into the bathroom at work on Monday to find Paula Abdul’s face staring back at me from the cover of Ladies Home Journal. Someone had cleaned out their stockpile of magazines over the weekend and brought in some from 2008 and 2009 to give away. Coincidently, that is about the last time I even thought about Paula Abdul.
I am simultaneously struggling with wanting to write ALL THE POSTS to finding that I grapple with an intense dose of writer’s block that strikes the instant I sit down at the keyboard. Because, after all:

True story, Ernie! (Or computer, be that as it were.)

Fun fact: I want to be a published author one day. More than just news releases and stories I mean. I worry that I would go crazy being alone in my head all the time while my boo is at work, and I worry that I would have a hard time staying motivated.
I MIGHT get to go back to Washington, D.C. the week of Labor Day. One of our professors has a film documentary premiering there and it has the potential to be pretty big in the academic world (focusing on open access and the academic publishing industry). My boss told me today that I should go with him to facilitate interviews with big players in higher ed publishing. I’m crossing my fingers!
I am on the struggle bus with working out and getting into that routine. I ran a measly mile last night after work, which was something, but I am kicking myself for not being able to get up before work and getting my workout in. I just won’t do it after, but here I sit, at 3:15pm and my workout is NOT done yet. Le sigh.
I ran out of watermelon last night. I have been bringing it with my lunches for weeks now, and I miscalculated my grocery store trips and now I don’t have any and WAH!
Ok, I need to get back to work now. Enough time wasted!

Where did the summer go?

I blinked and suddenly it’s almost Labor Day. The kids (I can call college students kids because I could be their teen mom) come back this week and classes start Monday. How did that happen? What have I done over the last three months?

We had to switch back to normal hours from summer hours yesterday. I really can’t complain too much because I honestly don’t work a 40 hour week anymore, (8:00-4:30 during the school year, 8:00-4:00 during the summer, with an hour lunch) so I work what, 37.5 hours a week most of the year? Not too shabby, but those 30 minutes made a difference!
Planning a wedding is stressful. Planning a destination wedding in another country is also stressful. Planning a destination wedding while your fiance is medically retiring from the Army and job hunting in two locations while you’re both dealing with some health issues is VERY STRESSFUL. But, as he told me this morning, there’s no one we’d rather go through this with.
My health stuff is a post for another day when I have more answers for you.
In better news, a couple of girlfriends and I are going to Montreal in min-September for a mini-bachelorette party. I’m not a drinker but I love being pampered, so we’re going to a spa for the weekend. I can’t wait! The spa, Bota-Bota http://botabota.ca/en/ has been highly recommended. We’re getting an hour and a half massages, facials, and doing the water circuit. Give me ALL the pampering!!
I firmly believe in self-care and whatever form that takes for you. So in the past five months, I have been getting regular massages and it has been so good for me.
The wedding has gone back down in price again. Not quite as much as the first time, but much better than before. The question is, do I book on Expedia and pay the whole trip now, or do I pay about $300 more and use the travel agent like my boo wants?

Ok, I should get back to work now. Have a great week, friends!

Monday, Monday

The +/- edition.

+ Rio and I got up and ran this morning. It was a struggle to get out of bed when I was awake for about an hour at 2:30 this morning. I hate when that happens! But we got up and got the miles in before the heat advisory sets in today. It was already 74 degrees at 6am and very humid (for this far upstate NY) and we were both hot and sticky after that run. But it’s done and that means pool time when I get off at 4pm!

– Last week, my future MIL told me to wait to book the wedding trip because the prices might go down more (they were down $300/person) and she wanted to chat with her travel agent. So I did. Then the online deal ended and they went back up and have stayed there. So now we’re going to pay more for the trip and I’m super frustrated. I had a gut feeling to just book it, but my fiance wanted to follow his mom’s advice. I should have just done it. Lesson learned.

+ We drove the hour and a half to Ottawa, ON Saturday to go to the movies (they have the theatres with the recliners in Kanata, ON, we have crappy chairs at our theatre here) and we stopped for sushi and books. I LOVE going to Canada right now because that exchange rate favors us so much (I got 4 books for $16 CN, which ended up being just under $13 US). $3 is $3!! Also SUSHI!! (there isn’t a sushi restaurant here for miles and it makes me so sad).

-/+ I dropped my phone Saturday and cracked the screen protector pretty good. Thanks to Amazon another one is on its way.

+/- I am still reading I’ll Be Gone in the Dark at a feverish pace. On Friday I wasn’t too far in, but today, with minimal reading yesterday, I have only a few chapters to go. I am both excited and sad to reach the end. Up next are a couple of fiction books, including Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff. Should be a nice respite from the rapes and murders in the previous book!

Ok friends, I should get back to work. Have a great day!

Hump Day Happenings

You guys. This is a REALLLLLY good angle for me. I’m not even going to pretend that this doesn’t make me look about 20 pounds thinner. Smoke and mirrors man. I’ll take it.

I got this dress for a wedding 3 years ago and have worn it to another wedding last year, and that’s it. But I love it so much (it’s even one of our wedding colors!) that I decided it wasn’t too formal to wear to work. If it is, whatevs, I’m bringing style to the office today.

Rio and I went for our morning run today and it was a struggle. 74 and sticky at 6am. I felt super gross but so glad that my exercise was done before 7am!

We are just about to book our wedding trip to Mexico and I was looking at Expedia and the price has dropped about $300 in two weeks! We were planning on going for 8 days, but I decided on a whim to make it for 10 and the price only increased by $40 total sooooo….we’re going for 10 days now!!

My wedding dress arrived yesterday and despite the dreams I had that they ordered the wrong dress, it was the right one and it is perfect! It was even more beautiful than I remembered. 303 days to go!

Have a great rest of your week cats!

Never miss a Monday

3 miles with my girl. Rio and I enjoyed 63 degrees and sunshine for our run this morning. It was the perfect running weather.
I’m going walking with my friend Madison after work, and we’ll take the pups so Chalie can get his exercise in too.
My wedding dress is on its way! It was shipped to the Lincoln store, so they are sending it to me so I don’t have to fly with it twice. I only need minor alterations (the straps need to be shortened, I need cups put in, and the hips let out a skosh) so I’m going to have a seamstress here do those for me.
Tomorrow marks 10 months to go until our wedding day!! Time is flying by.
All the gray in Rio’s face is making me sad. She isn’t allowed to get older, doesn’t she know that?? There are more random gray hairs popping up on her back and head as well. I don’t like it.
Have a great week, friends!

Monday, Monday

I look like a librarian. Or a picnic table. Either or, I’m not sure.
Our Save the Dates came! I LOVE them!! *Yes, my boo spells his name the girl way. His mother claims she “didn’t know there was a difference.” Oh, Fran. Sigh.

Work has gotten quite busy lately. So much so, that we’ve hired several freelance writers to take the strain off of us. I’ve now somehow become the project manager and I don’t do much of the grunt work anymore. It feels weird to move to that stage in my career. Weird, but good.
Camping was fun this weekend; we kayaked, swam, biked, and relaxed. We are going back again this weekend for more, as his parents are staying until next Sunday.
Rio and are going running tomorrow morning. I bailed today, I was exhausted and cranky.
I’ve been doing that save $5k in a year money challenge to help pay for our wedding. I started it on May 4 and as of today, I have over $1k saved! It has made me be very disciplined, and it sucks some weeks when I have to put in $140 or more, but it is worth it! I love seeing that pot grow!

Have a great week cats!

Good Morning!! Coffee Date?

55 degrees and sunshine at 6am made for PERFECT running weather for my favorite running partner and me. Her brother was not impressed that I didn’t take him along. I could hear him barking from two blocks away when we got back. If he didn’t stop every five feet to mark something he would get to go running. Sorry not sorry, Charlie!
I MIGHT have a Kate Spade obsession. I first bought my Kate Spade wallet that matches my dress about two years ago. THEN I found the dress at the Kate Spade Outlet last spring, AFTER THAT, a friend at my church gave me the Kate Spade cup! This design just makes me so happy.
We are going camping this weekend with my future in-laws. They are coming up with their big ol’ brand new 5th wheel and camping at Wellesley Island, near Alex Bay, and we are joining them for the weekends. My boo took the week off so he can have some family time, while I go back to work.
How is it already the second half of July?? Why does summer go so fast, but winter takes its time? These are the questions I want answered!
This post has taken me all morning. Silly work responsibilities!!

Have a great day, friends!