Running along with my husband and dog...

Before I get to the house, I'll do a quick workout recap. Yes, I'm keeping up with my workouts, 45 min - 1 hr, 5 days a week. I haven't been posting them because, well, I think it would be really boring to read about. It changes everyday, but it's usually a combo of treadmill or elliptical, weights, and abs.



On the food front, I do really well Mon - Fri, but the weekend eating is pretty bad. We just finished installing some cabinets in the kitchen, so until now, the kitchen has been a disaster zone! We're also rushing to get things done/presentable by next weekend, because Dusty's parents are coming to see the house.



There are still several projects going on, so I don't have any "complete" transformation pictures yet, but for now, I'll give you a tour of the living room, followed by the screened in porch:

The hardwood area is the foyer, which goes straight into the living room, where Blakely is making her grand entrance (yes, you've seen this pic before)

This was just after the movers left. Dusty and my BFF, Kristen, putting together our new entertainment center.

Opening the brand new TV! Don't you love Blakely's face?! You can count on a 3 yr old to stick their tongue out at the camera. :-)

The final product! It actually looks darker in person, which is what we wanted. We plan to put something on the wall, just haven't decided what!

The fireplace and mantle. The clock is new, from Kirklands, on sale for $20! Please excuse the hearth... it was a "dumping ground" at the time this pic was taken.

Throwing in another random Blakely pic... she's been really good about staying out of trouble amidst the chaos... she deserved a reward!

Close-up of the painting. This is very special to me... my grandmother was an amazing artist, before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (she's now in an assisted living home). When my parents bought their first home together, she painted this for their living room. They have since moved, and their new house doesn't have a good place for it, so they gave it to me and it is perfect above the couch. I'm very blessed to have a place for this!

Now it's onto the screened in porch! The french doors that lead to the porch are in the living room, next to the fireplace. Here is what the windows looked like before (can we say U-G-L-Y yellow curtains?!):

Here is the "after"... curtains gone, plantation blinds up!

Here is one side of the screened in porch. The curtain rod will come down, but we haven't tackled that yet because it's screwed into the vinyl siding. We're not sure yet how to repair the holes? Do we have to replace the entire piece of vinyl? I know there are some home gurus that follow my blog. :-) She shelf on the left (it's pair on the other side of the room) was a garage sale find. We got two of them for $25, and they were brand new in the original packaging (originally from Target). We are going to spray paint the silver sides brown (the color of the chairs), and I haven't decided on the shelves. They'll either be painted brown, or a shade of green. The bamboo rug was a great find at Garden Ridge, originally $30, marked down to $10! Loooove end of the season sales!

This is the other side of the screened in porch. The wall sconces are held up by Command sticky things. We didn't want to put holes in the vinyl. Here you can also see the other shelf. Love seat came in a set with the chairs, end of season sale at Kohls. I have since bought end tables, but no pics yet! We got the brown pillows at Kirklands (same pillows as on our couch, different color). Sale for $9.99 each.

That completes the living room and screend in porch for now. The BIG transformation is the kitchen, but we have more hardware to put up before the blog reveal. :-) As always, I leave you with a pic of Blakely, doing what she does best when home projects are going on. Open crate + lighthouse toy = one happy dog!

Posted in: on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at at 11:05 AM 9 comments Links to this post    

OMG I don't think I've ever been "tagged" before!! This is so exciting!! (ok, yeah, I'm a dork, I know).

Kayla over at Livin the Great Life tagged me her "My Favorite Things" post, so here it goes!

The "rules" for this tag are:

1. Mention and link back to the person who tagged you.

2. List 6 little things that make you happy.

3. Tag 6 other bloggers and let them know they're "it".

Without further ado, here are my favorite things:

Dusty

my husband

Blakely

our rescue 3 year-old flat-coated retriever mix (who always deserves multiple pics)

Yes, she was grounded after this. Included in the destruction was:
health insurance paperwork
pay stubs
W-2s (it was tax time, hence these important docs being out!)
Blockbuster rental movie
2 tealight candles
Dusty's Ipod (it survived, but the earphones have bite marks)

My family

(there are LOTS of us, this is just immediate family, and there are more that couldn't make it to this dinner!)

Friends

Our freedom

(pics are from our 2009 vacation in VA and DC. both are from the Vietnam Memorial wall and the note we found there was just incredible. needless to say, we were emotional!)

Running

The Clemson Tigers

Chick-Fil-A

Our new house

teaser pic!!!!! more to come (still working on the internet)!! this is supposed to be a dining room, but our dining room furniture is too big and bulky for the room, so we turned it into a sitting room (and Blakely's room, as you can see part of her crate at the bottom left corner)

I'm tagging:

Stephanie @ Texas Girl on a Tiny Island

Carrie @ The Shannon Experience

Ginnie @ A Day in the Life of Mine

Heather @ Heather's Ramblings

Emily @ Mr. & Mrs.

Angie @ Angie Eats Peace

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at at 5:11 PM 7 comments Links to this post    

This weekend was great! We got so much done on the house, so things are coming together, slowly but surely. Dusty got the treadmill put together (pictures to come...), I got some pictures hung, and we had some good "puppy love" time with Blakely. :-)

On the food and exercise front, I ate pretty horribly this weekend. Lots of unhealthy eating out because we're still getting things settled at home, and we always seem to be out running errands at meal times. And no exercise over the weekend (aside from walking Blakely), but I don't plan on getting much exercise on weekends, since I'm getting in 1 hour/day Mon - Fri.

Good news ~ the internet at home is up and running!! Bad news ~ I need to uncover the USB cable for the camera! I think I know where it is, it's just a matter of getting to that box and finding it!!

Food

Sat:

• breakfast - pop tarts (it was a "treat" we bought when we moved and omg they are so good!)
• lunch - Chick-fil-a
• dinner - never ate it... busy doing house things, so I snacked on some fruit and crackers here and there

Sun:

• breakfast - cinnamon raisin english muffin
• lunch - McDonald's (another awful yet amazing meal!!)
• dinner - homemade (healthy) lasagna

Mon:

• breakfast - Honey Bunches of Oats, grapes, boiled egg
• snack - a few cubes of cheese (extra sharp white cheddar and pepper jack.. mmm)
• lunch - leftover lasagna, cantaloupe
• snack - peanut butter sandwich
• dinner - homemade spaghetti
• dessert - 2 peanut butter Hershey kisses

Tues is going to be an exact repeat of yesterday because we have leftovers!

Exercise

Mon (quick workout because traffic was pretty bad and I was later than usual):

• 30 min hill walking on treadmill (3.8 mph, 6% incline)
• 50 crunches on stability ball
• 25 side crunches

Tues:

• 30 min eliptical interval workout
• 15 min upper body weights (1 set 20 reps, followed by 1 set 15 reps, 7.5 lb weights), bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, hammer curls, shoulder raises, chest flies, tricep dips, military press
• 10 min abs (50 crunches on stability ball & 50 side dips*)

*side dips - stand with weight in each hand (I used 8 lb weights), lower right side and contract abs to return to center, repeat on left side

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at at 10:18 AM 4 comments Links to this post    

Now that Dusty and I have such a long commute (45 miles one way in Atlanta traffic), Fridays are SO much more exciting than they used to be, and trust me, they have always been pretty exciting. Here's my list of favorite things about THIS Friday:

1. Lighter traffic. Got to work in 50 minutes! Hopefully the afternoon will be similar!

2. Fridays are usually "lighter" at work because people are already in "weekend mode." Plus, 4:30 on Fridays are "beer:thirty," and they bust open the booze (for the record, I don't participate. I don't like beer, and I don't like drinking and driving)

3. Super Target! The remote that Dish Network gave us has horrible AAA batteries, so we hope that is why the remote barely works! At lunch, since I'm without a car, I'm walking across the street to Super Target to get some batteries, and maybe a couple other fun finds. ;-)

4. Chick-Fil-A!!! We're going to keep up our tradition of Chick-Fil-A Fridays, but it will be eaten in the car instead of in the restaurant. We looooove Chick-Fil-A, which brings me to.....

5. The official start of the weekend!! No bedtime. No work. Just working on/cleaning up/organizing the house!!

I never posted pictures of Dusty and I at Cow Appreciation Day, where we got free meals for dressing up like cows!

Internet Update

Still no internet! AT&T said they did send an emergency technician out yesterday, like they were supposed to, but when they saw no one was home, they left. WE TOLD THEM 3 TIMES THAT WE WORK!!!! They assured us that the tech would only be outside, and not need any access to the house, nor would he need to talk to us. Dusty tried working some magic (it got ugly) on the phone yesterday, so we'll find out tonight if it worked! They are supposed to send someone out AGAIN (this is the 4th time now). Assuming that happens, we will be contacting the billing dept and demanding some form of reimbursement like a free month of service or something.

You may be wondering why we haven't gone to a new company yet? We have 2 options: AT&T and Comcast. With AT&T, we will have a phone line + internet, which is the same price as Comcast for just internet. The phone line is a necessity for our alarm system monitoring. Also, with AT&T, we can access ESPN 360, which usually shows at least 2 Clemson football games that are not on TV, and Comcast does not offer this. For the few of you that know Dusty, that's VERY important! He bleeds purple and orange! :-)

Exercise

Weigh in - 162.5

Today's workout consisted of:

30 minutes elliptical (interval setting)

15 min lower body weight training

• 30 lunges with 8 lb weights


• 2 sets of 30 calf raises


• 30 leg lifts (each side)... not sure the actual name, but the ones where you lay on your side... the classic 80s move hehe


• 30 butt lifts (as I call them. lay on your back, knees at 90 degree angle, heels on stability ball. push ball out while lifting butt off the floor, and roll back, repeat. it does great things for the glutes!!)

15 min abs

• plank with 10 sets knee taps (regular plank on elbows, tap right knee to mat, then left knee, then both together... that's 1. it makes the regular plank much more challenging)


• side plank raises (20 each side)


• 20 leg lifts


• 30 bicycle crunches

STRETCH!

Food

Breakfast: Honey Bunches of Oats + skim milk, strawberries, 1 boiled egg

Lunch: salad (romaine, spinach, chicken, onions, banana peppers, homemade Italian salad dressing), cantaloupe, crackers

Snack (if I'm hungry): peanut butter sandwich

Dinner: Chick-Fil-A... mmmmm

Once again, I'll leave you with another recent picture of Blakely (at the apartment). She looooves playing football (with her Clemson football, of course) with Daddy!

Posted in: on Friday, August 7, 2009 at at 9:55 AM 5 comments Links to this post    

This week I got back to regular workouts and eating right. YAY! I started on Monday, and as of Wednesday, I had already lost 1 pound, but this morning I was back up to 163 (where I was on Monday). I'm not discouraged at all though. I know weight fluctuates like crazy, so the fact that there was some change in the beginning is VERY encouraging to me, considering I held steady at 157 for months, and no amount of running + healthy eating would make the scale budge!

**For my new readers, here's a little history so you'll be up to date:

*I'm 5'6"*

July 2008 ~ 177 lbs (the breaking point), size 14 pants
January 2009 ~ 157, size 10 pants
May 2008 ~ still 157, size 10
June 2008 - present ~ 163, size 10

My "goal" is to be a size 6 (started at size 14, now a size 10), which will probably be 135ish lbs (I'm 5'6"). Once I get to a toned size 8, I will re-evaluate and see how I feel and what I think about my body.

OK, so back to the present:

Because Dusty and I are carpooling now, I get to work extra early so I can use the gym (free for tenants) in my office building and then get ready for work. This gives me exactly 1 hour to workout. Next week I will start posting (almost) daily with my eats, workouts, progress, and probably lots of house stuff as well, but instead of bore you with every little detail from Mon - Thur, I'll do a quick recap:

FOOD:

I eat 1 bowl of cereal before leaving for work/gym, then eat 1 boiled egg and 1 cup sliced strawberries about 30 minutes after my workout.

For lunch, I've been having a salad with romaine and spinach leaves, chicken, onion, banana peppers, and homemade Italian salad dressing. I also have 1 cup cantaloupe and a serving of Special K whole wheat crackers.

I pack a peanut butter sandwich everyday. Sometimes I eat half with lunch, or I'll eat half for an afternoon snack, and the other half in late afternoon.

Dinner has been made/eaten at home, and healthy (well, except the garlic bread that we had alongside our spaghetti, but hey, 1 piece of garlic bread is better than eating out at Mexican or something, and I never claimed to be "perfect" hehe). We had grilled chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and brown rice pilaf on Monday night. Tues and Wed we had homemade spaghetti and garlic bread. Tonight we're having turkey bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches.

For dessert every night, I've had 2 oatmeal raisin cookies, BUT these are not your average cookies. My mom makes them, and she and my dad are on a diabetic type diet because my dad has heart disease. Aside from the butter (there's not a ton in them), these cookies are healthy and FULL of different grains, nuts, etc. They are delicious!

EXERCISE:

I take Blakely on a hilly 10 minute walk every morning, and a hilly 20 minute walk every evening. Here's the rest:

Mon ~ 30 min cardio (treadmill hill walking), 15 min upper body strength training, 15 min abs

Tues ~ 30 min cardio (eliptical interval setting), 15 min lower body strength training, 15 min abs

Wed ~ 30 min cardio walk/run intervals (BAD traffic = late, and I wanted a lighter mid-week workout anyway)

Thur ~ 30 min cardio (treadmill hill walking), 15 min upper body strength training, 15 min abs

So that's that for now! I've been feeling great working out, and I love the muscle soreness, because it reminds me that I'm getting healthy again, and it just makes you feel like you have nice muscles. :-)

Posted in: on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at at 2:24 PM 4 comments Links to this post    

We got all moved in last Thursday and it could not have gone better! And we were SO thankful that we hired movers! It took them 4 1/2 hours to load/move/unload 45 miles away, and it would have taken us all day, into the night. We have vowed to always hire movers!!

We have been sleeping there for a week now, and it's so nice! It's so much quieter than the apartment, much darker because it's not in the city, and Blakely is one happy pup!!!

Bad news ~ AT&T has screwed up BIG time with our internet. Needless to say, we don't have internet at home. An emergency technician is supposed to be coming out sometime today (the first 3 times this was supposed to happen, it never did, and they said it was never scheduled. WHAT?!), so IF that happens, and IF that goes well, I should be able to upload/organize pics, for a full recap early next week. Cross your fingers that AT&T will come through!!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with some pictures of Blakely in the house for the first time. These were taken (and uploaded when I still had internet!!) 3 weeks ago when we spent a day cleaning the house before move-in!

Making her grand entrance:

Waiting to go play on the screened-in porch:

Posted in: on at at 2:13 PM 1 comments Links to this post    

Posted in: on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at at 10:53 AM 7 comments Links to this post