The Long Blog

I had a great holiday!  I spent Christmas morning at my sister's house where I gave my sister and my niece's their gifts.  They loved them!  I just love making things for people and seeing them enjoy them; it gives me great pleasure.

Izzy's Blanket

Nicky's Scarf

Addy's "Olivia Sweater"

Next we went to my parent's house.  I gave my mom her gift and my dad the hat I made for him.  It was a fun hat to make.  (Yes it is modeled on a woman's head).

Dad's hat

Dad's hat

I spent that evening at work with my great coworkers.  I was a great day.

I got some great gifts as well.  I got this wonderful bracelet from my mom:

It's from the Etsy shop TheZenMuse

I got these great wall plaques from my sisters:
I love these.  They came from the etsy shop Nesedecor

I also got my Buddha I wanted.  He's wonderful.

I have also finished my February Lady Sweater.  It only took 20 months.  I'd work on it, work on something else, then work on it again.  So, my plan to get my unfinished projects finished seems to be working out well so far.  Now I'm working on my Central Park Hoodie that I started last October or November.  I thought I had the right gauge but I didn't, so it's about 10 inches too small.  I'm going to give it to one of my coworkers since she's thin enough to fit into it.

It's snowing today, finally.  Almost the end of the year and we finally get some snow.  I'm afraid it's really going to dump on us.  Oh well, at least I'm off this weekend.

Today I had my 4th weigh-in and I lost 1.2 pounds for a total weight loss of 5.2 pounds so far.  I'm feeling great, too.   In general I just feel good.  Now I need to get back to walking so I can get ready for the 5K's, but not today.

I'm so sad for my friend Cheri.  She and her family have been through a lot lately.  They are in my thoughts.

"The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realize a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person's suffering and bring that person joy."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Week 3

I'm confused.  I guess it's week 3 because it's my 3rd weigh in (if you count my first one) and I'm starting my 3rd week on the plan.  Whatever.  But since my last post was week 2 I guess this is week 3.  Enough of that.  Down 2 more pounds for a total of 4.  Nice and steady.  I would be happy for that to continue and to see some physical results.  I need to get to the store because I'm running out of fruit.

Last night I woke up after having a bad dream.  I hate having these dreams where my husband is cheating on me, leaving me or is in love with someone else.  Is this a sign of insecurity?

I have finished all of my christmas knitting so now I need to start finishing all of my unfinished projects, and I have plenty of them.  I'm close to being done with my February Lady Sweater that I started close to 2 years ago.  If I sat down with one thing at a time I'd have a good chance at finishing something in a good amount of time but I can't seem to do that.  Now that I'm done with my gift knitting I want to start spinning again too.  anything to not finish projects.

"Our own life has to be our message."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Week 2

I lost 2 pounds last week.  I'm not so sure about the new program.  With this new program I can eat many more points than I could with the old one plus fruits are zero points.  That makes me think that I'm eating twice as much as I was when I did it before.  You also get so many extra points for the week.  I just don't understand how I'm going to lose weight with this.  I definitely need to vamp up my exercise.  I haven't been walking lately because it's been cold in the morning and I've just been lazy.  I need to get off my ass.  I also got the Zumba for Wii.  It's pretty fun but I haven't gotten through a whole program yet.

I'm finishing up Christmas presents.  Weaving in ends is a pain in the ass!  I'll post pictures after so I don't spoil any surprises.  Also, I have a friend who flies hot air balloons.  She will probably have her pilot's license in January.  It is my niece's dream to fly in a hot air balloon and my friend needs the flight hours, so for Christmas I am also giving my niece a hot air balloon ride.  I love Christmas because I love giving gifts!  So, I can't wait till it gets here!

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

updates, updates, updates

I'm up late and unable to fall asleep, as usual, so I thought I'd make an update.  A lot has happened in the last year.  I'll skip a lot of the details.

Tom changed jobs and I was really sick missing a lot of work over the summer.  Our house was already on the market.  With all of the medical bills and the missed work, after a while we couldn't make ends meet.  We are now in the process of a short sale and hope that will be done soon.  The up side is we no longer have a 50-mile round trip commute for work and that saves us about $400 a month in gas.

We moved and downsized to a 2 bedroom apartment and really like it here.  We had to get rid of one of our dogs when we moved in because of problems we had the first day.  He was my baby.  After that Sam was having separation anxiety and would bark the whole time we were gone at work - which wasn't too long.  We talked to the vet and got him a citronella color and some antidepressants.  He only had to wear the collar for a couple weeks and after several weeks on the medication he is being weaned off of it.  He's doing great.

I've been taking Sam for walks (although I've slacked the last couple weeks) and recently walked a 5K with my sister.  It was so much fun that I plan on doing more.  We are going to do one in March, hopefully another in April.  May 1 is the Colorado Marathon.  I'm hoping to be ready to do a 10K by then, and maybe be running by then as well.  It was so rewarding to just do it and finish.  We came in 185 and 186 out of approximately 400 (or less) walkers.

I also started Weight Watchers (again) last week.  I am confident that with my activity I will stay motivated to stick with the plan and get to and stay at my goal.  Hopefully blogging will help, too.

Of course I'm still knitting and I'm knitting furiously to get gifts finished in the next 2 weeks.  After that my goal will be to finish all of the projects I've started.  No starting new projects.  I'll keep you up to date.

"Because you are alive, everything is possible."

~Thich Nhat Hanh