Weekend Goals

I have some goals this weekend!

#1 - there will be house cleaning
...well, to be fair, I'm not gonna clean the whole house.  It could all use a good scrubbing, mind you, but there are only so many hours I'm willing to commit to this undertaking in one weekend.  I've gotten really lazy on my household chores since I started working so many hours unfortunately.  =/  BUT...no sense dwelling.  The rooms that will be cleaned/scrubbed are:  the kitchen, the dining room, the family room, the guest bathroom, my bedroom, and my bathroom.  My grand plan is to get this all done before family lunch on Saturday.  Fingers crossed, y'all!

#2 - there will be half marathon training (hopefully in my new shoes).
...I will do 4 miles on Friday night and 8 miles on Sunday morning.  Goal pace = 15:30 (walking)

#3 - there will be biking
...no, no...still not ready or able to mentally get out on a road bike (scared), but I will ride my new recumbent bike which is strategically placed in my family room for 1 hour Saturday morning and 1 hour Saturday evening.

#4 - there will be calorie counting
...love the myfitnesspal application on my phone and will be using it to track my food, water, and exercise beginning tomorrow.  My goal net calories is 1400 per day.  We will see how I do!  On a side note, did you know that the application has a UPC code scanner you can use which will upload the nutritional info to your profile?!  how awesome is that?!?!

#5 - there will be "pamper me" time
...European facial scheduled for 2:30pm on Saturday (thank you, Groupon).  Deep Tissue massage scheduled for 11:00am on Sunday (thank you, Tamu - my new massage therapist).  I may even try to work in a MUCH needed pedi.

#6 - there will be sleep!
...7-8 hours per night - NO EXCUSES!  yep...been a bit bad about going to bed at a decent hour this whole week.  Bad Kim!

#7 - there will be TV watching.
...I have Sesson 4 of Dexter and Season 3 of Big Love just waiting to be watched.  They were Christmas presents, y'all, and I still haven't watched them yet!  What gives?! 

So...there you have my goals.  What are yours?

random stuff

I got my new recumbent bike on Tuesday afternoon at work.  My dad convinced me I should let one of the guys at work put it together instead of trying to do it myself.  Turns out this was a smart idea as my dad had to help the dude put it together...it was a bit complex.  My dad was then soooo soooo nice and brought it over to my house for me.  He kept trying to help me out further by placing it, but I couldn't have him do that since I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to make the room work.

As a kid, I LOVED moving furniture around in my bedroom.  I thought it such an adventure to have a different room design.  Unfortunately for me, I have a small home and a fondness for furniture.  This means there is very little room for my creativity.  =/

I had a vision, however, and carried it through.  I was afraid, you see, of having to get rid of my coffee table ottoman that I absolutely adore.  I managed to make it work without going to such extremes.  I just moved things around a bit to give my bike a great view of the TV.  I do, however, feel a bit guilty.  In case you haven't caught on, my one true love Penelope went blind over a year ago.  She is 10 years old and was raised in my house, so she knows it forward and backward.  It's kind of mean to move things around at this stage in the game, but I think she will figure it out.

Another issue I've been having lately is with my WiFi.  I apparently forgot my passkey.  So, I've been all old school connected through what seemed like an endless supply of wires.  I had no clue how to create a new password or reset my router, so I did some Google-searching, learned how, and managed to do it ALL BY MYSELF.  Mind you...I'm not very computer savvy, so this was a BIG deal to me!

In other news...found out today that my Galveston Seawall Half scheduled for November 19th has been canceled.  This makes me sad as it seemed like a really cool race.  Ah well...maybe they will do it again next year!

and then there is...training.

Training is going...okay.  Since I made the decision to walk The Hottest Half (not a decision I'm proud of, but one that is necessary for survival), I've determined that the new shoes I bought aren't going to make the grade.  They are a really great motion control shoe for "the heavier runner".

New Balance 1012

I like them as far as comfort and feel go, BUT it's a heavy shoe.  The weight is 12 oz.  Yikes!  I did some shopping on Amazon last night and found a lighter (7 oz) shoe (a cross-trainer) that I think will be better for the walk.  With training wearing the heavier shoe, though, I should be super speedy once I get to lighten the load!  ha!

New Balance Women's WX20 NB Minimus Training Shoe

Last, but not least...I got the biggest craving EVER for green bean casserole.  I decided to feed the beast and make me some.  I forgot to take a picture (bad blogger), but trust me when I tell you it turned out delish and it was oh so simple to make.  I just took one can of 98% fat free cream of mushroom and whisked in 3/4 of a cup of skim milk.  I added salt and pepper to taste and then a 19 oz bag of frozen green beans that had been thawed out.  Next, I took a small can of French's fried onion and put all but the last 1/4 in the mixture.  I poured the mix into a casserole dish, topped it with the remaining onions, and baked it on 350 for 45 minutes.  I've determined that 1 cup is about 200 calories.  That's a lot of green bean casserole happiness!

So, that's about it in a nutshell.  I guess I've been kind of boring the last few months with my posts.  Welcome to my world - haha!

Hope y'all are having a lovely week!

Happy July!

I hated June.  I think I hate June every year come to think of it.  Oh well...it's neither here nor there cuz a new month is upon us.

One little cool thing about June though is that mi casa turned 11.  Ye gads, can you believe it?!  11!!!  How am I old enough to have bought and lived in my very own home for 11 years???  I can tell it's 11, though.  Ruben is needing some work.  My second garbage disposal blew out and needs replacement.  The whole interior of the house could use a fresh coat of paint.  The master bathtub/shower is needing some retiling.  Pretty sure two new toilets would be lovely!  Once I open up the can of worms called home-improvement, there will be no turning back.  The cool thing is that in less than 7 years, Ruben is 100% mine...all mine thanks to some refinancing I did several years back.  Now that is a good feeling!  =)

Let's look at July...

The parentals are abandoning ship AGAIN.  My father is heading out to Scotland on a golf trip with two of his brothers and my mother is going out to Los Angeles to visit with my brother and sister-in-law and then continuing her jaunt out to Vegas for some R&R.  This means I head to their house for Oliver-sitting.  I thought to ask Linda and Craig (and Coco) to join me and my monsters for a long-weekend staycation. We plan to eat, watch movies, and soak up the sun poolside.

I also plan to get some mad mileage in.  We need not mention how The Hottest Half is *gulp* six weeks away and how this chickadee isn't nearly where she should be training-wise.  I blame work for zapping the life out of me, by the way....well and a stupid blister on the back of my heel, but whatever....

Since I'm gonna be at the parental's house for about a week, I figure it reaps a couple of advantages.  It saves on my electric bill at home (thank God) and they have a home gym.  I can cross train my heart out on the bike when I'm not walking, running, skipping, crawling out my mileage on the pavement in this AWFUL heat. 

So happy July to you all!  May you have a wonderful much needed holiday weekend filled with fun, family, and friends!

and then sickness happened...

I was supposed to run the Tomball Bunny Run 5K on Saturday.  I was hoping to get a new PR with this race since I PR'd this 5K last year.  Then sickness happened.

As I last posted, I had some weird side pains going on and went to my doctor on Monday.  She determined it was muscle strain and prescribed muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatory pills.  Then Tuesday evening I just started feeling blah...all chest congestion-y and whatnot, so I went to the store and bought some Mucinex and prayed that would kill it dead.  By Thursday, I still felt crappy and my cough sounded similar to a dog barking, so I decided I needed to go back to the doctor.  I didn't want to go all the way back to my doctor because it takes so long to see her with drive time and waiting time and all that jazz, so I went with Plan B.

With the parentals being on vacation, I had to go home during lunch to let their beloved Oliver out midway through the day, I decided to go to the Ready-Clinic outside the H.E.B. near my house.  Let's hear it for the rent-a-doctor who basically diagnosed me by asking me a series of questions on his computer and checking the boxes when I replied "yes".  Um...I'm pretty sure I could have done this on WebMD.  He concluded that he didn't think I had the flu.  I knew I didn't have the flu.  Once you have it as an adult, you remember it too well.  I explained to him that I needed to be better by Saturday for my race.  He told me to stick with the Mucinex and then to add Flonase.  Why he didn't give me a cough syrup, I have no idea.  Why he didn't give me some kind of antibiotic (especially considering I was running a slight fever), I have no idea.  All I know is that come Saturday, I was not better.

I was not able to run my Bunny Run.  I was not able to meet MayRay in the City as she ran her first 5K or be there when Lauren PR'd (again).  I was not able to attempt a PR of my own.  I am sad.

This also puts me behind in my own training for my two half marathons I have coming up in rapid succession.  Le Sigh.  I'm still forming my game plan, though, don't you worry.  I'm gonna kick this sickness to the curb.  I am.

In other news, I am dating the sweetest guy EVER.  He knew that my Delilah kept escaping from my yard because the back gate was cut on an angle, so he built me a new back gate over the weekend.  He also replaced some broken fence slats and put down some stuff to make my grass green (once I promised to water it).  =D  I'm not used to such niceness.  I like it.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you stay allergy/illness free!

Day 02 - In 10 Years...

In case you are not in the know, I've decided to do a 30 Day Challenge, only it won't be completed in 30 days cuz I roll down a path less traveled, yo.

I am currently on Day 02 - Where you'd like to be in 10 years.

Do you think this question would be easier answered if you were already married and/or if you had all the children you planned on having?  yes? no? maybe so?

I remember back about 9 years ago or so one of my employees asked me where I saw myself in 10 years.  I told him it was impossible to answer as I had no way of knowing if I would be single or married, if I would be childless or a mother.  He said it shouldn't matter and I begged to differ.  Hindsight being 20/20, he was right.  It shouldn't have mattered.  One can come up with a 10 year dream-self regardless of one's circumstances.  I was just a kid then and didn't know better.

The only fair way to answer this is to break up the idea of 10 years into different categories.

Love Life - Please God let me be happily married in 10 years time.

source here

Children - Assuming I am married, please let me be a mother to at least one child (but preferably three)

source here

Home - In 7 years, my first and only house will be paid off.  I kinda hope to be in a new home in 10 years time.  It doesn't have to be new-new, just new to me (the custom built one I've been designing in my head for years would be AMAZING, though...).  Of course, if I'm not married, it wouldn't make sense and I would be perfectly content staying in my then paid-off home.

source here

Work - Let's face it, if you know me at all and my work situation, you know that I'm not going anywhere.  I would just hope to have even more responsibility and to continue to grow in my skills/confidence/leadership and to better tame the beast that sometimes rears her ugly head.

source here

Health - I will still be on the right path of living a healthy life in mind, body, and spirit.  My diet will still follow the guidelines of The South Beach diet.  I will still maintain an active lifestyle - focusing on cross training and running.  Hopefully I will have multiple marathons under my belt.  I better be maintaining my goal weight!!!!

source here

Friendship - I will have maintained my supremely fantastical friendships while hopefully making some new lasting ones.

source here

The outlook is good for a happy, healthy 10 years into the future, y'all.

How's yours?

Second day SUCCESS!

I promise you that my intention was never really to go day by day to report to you my successes and/or failures. not really anyway.  I prolly won't.  maybe.

We know Monday was a fail.  kinda.  I mean I ended up getting a really yummy quiche and great asparagus soup out of the night, so that's something.  I just didn't nail my list.

Tuesday, on the other hand...well that was a success!  Redemption is mine (um...at least for the moment).

Tuesday's goals were as follows:  up at 5:45am, play my games for 1 hour, clean the floors and guest bathroom, watch two TV shows from my DVR, do kettlebell DVD, read one chapter from my book while taking an Epsom Salt Bath, in bed by 9:30

Since I went to bed at 10:15 last night and woke up at 5:45 this morning, I actually got 7 1/2 hours of sleep.  This is a rarity!  After work, I came home and dealt with my beasts dogs.  I then reheated some quiche.  I didn't end up eating my soup because I ate half a bag of steamed brussell sprouts for a late lunch so I was kind of all green-veggied out.  I then played my games for an hour and watched one more episode of Modern Family from my DVR.  Oh then guess what?  It was time for Glee - yay!  So I watched that and then changed into my running gear and headed out the door after taking some glamour pics.  There was to be no kettle bell workout for me since I had a make-up run to take care of.  The plan was 3, but secretly I knew my route would give me about 3.5 miles.  I was not feeling intervals for whatever reason, so I decided to just run my mileage outright and see what happened.  Up until this run, the most I had run outright since my injury was 2 miles.  I did 3.5 last night - no intervals - no walk breaks!  Can I get a "whoa"?  I consider that to be a win!  The best part was that I maintained the same pace I had been running at the 2 mile mark without intervals and the 5 mile mark with intervals.  weird.  So...I don't know what I'm going to do with regard to my 5K coming up in a week and a half.  I guess I will wing it for the time being.  Either way it doesn't look like a PR is possible, but then again...my game face hasn't been on either.  A race + spectators + competitive Kim = all kinds of crazy!

I came home from my run and cooled off.  I then cleaned my floors.  Didn't get to the guest bathroom, but I'm not gonna beat myself up over that one.  Next up was my Epsom salt bath.  It was awfully nice to soak in that puppy while catching up on my book - I managed 3 whole chapters in my book - "Such a Pretty Fat" by Jen Lancaster.  I may or may not have gone to bed a bit on the late side, but hey...I ain't perfect....I'm me.

This morning I registered for The Woodlands Half Marathon which isn't until NEXT March 3rd (you know...2012).  I'm sure you must be thinking I'm a little premature (which is better than immature,  so I'll take it).  I'm just sure they will fill up their 7500 slots fast, so I'm not taking any chances.  Part of me soooo badly wanted to sign up for the full, BUT without running my first full until January 2012 (Houston Chevron), I just can't commit to another one. 

In other news, I've been working on coming up with my outfit for my brother-in-law's 80s-themed birthday party at the end of this month.  I finalized my masterpiece, y'all.  Wait until you see.  It's gonna be RAD!  That will be such a fun blog post!!!

That's all I have for you for now.  Have a good day, party peeps!

out with the old, in with the new

It started with me buying and using my very first Groupon.  I needed a new mattress so badly.  I blamed a lot of my upper back and shoulder issues on running, BUT I'm sure my mattress had something to do with it.  It was given to me from the parentals.  They purchased it for me following our house fire (lightening) back in the summer of '93, I believe.  I took it with me my junior year in college once I had the apartment.  It moved with me into my Houston apartment, and then it moved again into my house 10 1/2 years ago.  So, if you have mad math skillz like I do, that means my mattress was 17 1/2 years old.  Uh...yeah...that's bad. 

My $50 Groupon purchase got me $200 off a mattress / box spring set from Mattress Firm.  I went there on Sunday, 1/2, and got tested in their test bed for what kind of bed would be best for me...one with mild firmness.  All I knew is that I did NOT want too firm.  My parents have ridiculously firm beds in their house and I hate them (the beds, not my parents).  So, then I had to test out all kinds of beds in the store that the print out said would be just right for me.  I flopped around on my side and stomach on 6 different beds until I found mine.  It's a pillow top plush bed with memory foam and a certain level of firmness.  It's all mumbo jumbo to me, honestly.  I just liked the way it felt. 

The dudes delivered it on Tuesday, 1/4, and dragged my old set away.  This bed is much higher, so I worry about my poor Penelope (the blind one) getting on and off the bed.  We had to forego the puppy staircase and now we use the ottoman instead.  The memory foam is cool and weird, but it's a lovely bed and I've had such pleasant nights of sleep in it.  Ahhh...

just showing off my new area rug

Younger sister Linda decided she and her husband, Craig, are having a garage sale.  She asked if any of us wanted to sell anything.  I was thinking that since I got the new area rug for my living room and the new entrance way rug for Christmas that I could sell my old ones.  I'm not expecting to make big money or anything, but a few bucks never hurt anyone.  Then I got to thinking about how I really hate my couch.  I loved it when I bought it.  It is still comfy.  It's just that it has a tear in the leather (thanks, Delilah) and it's old and now I no longer like the color.  I had looked a few months ago at some couches...  Anyway, I got the idea in my head to sell my couch and love seat at the garage sale.  I have a big chair that sort of matches the set, but it's a couple of years newer and is hardly ever sat in, so I'm keeping it for the time being.  This meant...FURNITURE SHOPPING...one of my favorite things to do!

I started on-line just to get an idea.  Man, things are really expensive!  I just really didn't want to spend a whole lot, you know?!  I knew what style I was looking for and I knew kind of what color I wanted.  I mean I would love to have a dark brown leather, BUT I can't do that because I have dark wood floors and a dark entertainment center and dark tables, so I need to bring a little light into the picture.  After work on Monday, I went to Lifetime Furniture - a little corner store located near my office.  I had been in there before and was interested in a couple of things they had.  I walked in and told the saleswoman what I wanted.  She took me to the set I would come to purchase.  The color was right.  The price was right.  So, out with the old, in with the new...here are some pictures!

old sofa and love seat (beige)

new sofa and love seat (nutmeg) with the added bonus of Delilah

Oh and in case you are wondering what's next...I'm just fixing up my master bathroom.  I got most of the stuff for Christmas.  I will have to purchase a few items myself and get to work on that.  I have some other stuff in the house that needs to be hung up - decorations and whatnot, but I won't do that until I finally paint.  Oh how painting haunts me.  I've been meaning to do it for years now.  Someday...

Christmas 2010

We were slightly delayed leaving Houston on Thursday to go to Chicago.  Continental played the role of little tricksters, though, letting us believe we were leaving on time and then having us sit on the plane for nearly an hour before taking off.  =/  We still managed to land on-time since they like to build in that cushion into the schedule.  I had lied to my cousin earlier and said not to worry about us being hungry.  I was glad to see my aunt didn't listen to this nonsense as she had a tray of sandwiches and some soup for us (and perhaps some Christmas cookies).

Friday, Christmas Eve, before we left to hang out with some cousins, we decided to give each our parents a little gift.  Keep in mind that they are both obsessed with Oliver, their English Bulldog.  They love him more than they love us kids.  For my mother, we had a long sleeved tshirt made up that had a picture of Oliver made up to look like an ornament and it said "Deck the Halls with Balls of Ollie".  She loved it!  For our father, we had a tie made up that had little pictures of Oliver wearing a Santa hat all over it.  My dad wore it with  pride that evening - it was so cute!  

Normally we have a big bowling game filled with trash talking, food, and laughs, but Christmas falling on the weekend made for a short trip this year (and next year, too, for that matter).  Instead, we drove out about an hour away to their house for brunch.  We stayed out there for a few hours or so and then headed back to my aunt and uncle's house to help do a bit of chopping, slicing, and dicing in preparation for the Christmas feast the next day.  We also finished wrapping presents for that evening and then got ready to go to my other aunt's house.

Christmas was a little extra special this year because my aunt, uncle, two cousins, and one cousin-in-law from Arizona came out to celebrate with us.  It has been many a year since they have joined us.

We all gathered at my aunt's house.  Food was eaten, champagne was sipped, presents were opened.  Then we went back to our house.  My mother unveiled the "surprise".  She decided to resume last year's pajama party by now making it a tradition for all the ladies to wear matching pajamas, so my mom, two sisters, aunt, two double cousins, and I all wore matching pajamas.  After we all changed into them, we gathered in the family room with a nice warm fire and began exchanging all our gifts.  The Secret Santa this year wasn't so secret.  Next year we will need to have a refresher of the rules apparently!  Brother-in-law Craig picked me and he bought me Season 3 of the HBO Series Big Love, Season 4 of the Showtime Series Dexter, a 15-lb Kettlebell, and a Kettlebell DVD.  From the parentals, I got a new area rug for my family room, a matching entranceway rug, a Texas A&M garden gnome (I named him Augustus), some bathroom accessories I picked out to redecorate my master bathroom, and then the piece de resistance....my mother knew that I wrote in my These are a Few of my Favorite Christmas Things blog about my stocking and how much I miss it being filled, so she broke into my house (with her key) while I was at work on Thursday, stole my stocking, smuggled it in her suitcase, and filled it with these goodies above!  Honestly, this is one of my favorite gifts of all time!  Oh...we also had one more gag gift for our father.  Cathy and Jay came up with the idea of using the picture of him in the golf themed Mickey Mouse ears from our Disney trip and having it made into a t-shirt.  Then, because he kept mispronouncing Komodo (of Komodo dragons fame) and it became such a joke on our trip, they spelled it out phonetically as my dad pronounces it below.  Here is a picture of him holding his gift.

After all presents were opened, we went to bed.  It had been a long day.

Christmas morning, I woke up to the wonderful smells of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc....being baked above (I sleep in the basement).  I showered, dressed, and then went upstairs for some breakfast.  Everyone started arriving around 12 noon and it was a day full of food, fun, and family.  We even fit in some game time with Scrabble, Boggle, and a mega Snow Ball Fight (which I did not participate in for lack of proper gear and a stress fractured pelvis)!  After another long day, bed was quite welcomed.

Sunday, I awoke to work issues - two of my dudes backing out of their trips and the need to find replacements.  =/  We all got ready to go to Walker Bros. Pancake House for breakfast.  This is a staple for us every time we go to Chicago.  I had the apple pancake - pure gluttony on my behalf.  I wasn't able to finish it, at least!  =D  We went back to the house for a bit more of the Boggle, and then headed to the airport.  We were slightly delayed, but made up the time in the air.

And voila - another Christmas in the books - a fabulous time with family!

these are a few of my favorite Christmas things...

Day 1 of 3 off and what did I accomplish?

1 doctor appointment down, 2 more to go.

cleaned the kitchen

cleaned the dining room

cleaned the family room (and decorated it for Christmas)

saw Love and Other Drugs

went to Old Navy to get a couple of sweaters (buy one, get one free) and some long sleeve t-shirts

cleaned the guest bathroom

cleaned my bedroom

Not too shabby, I think considering this girl is a major procrastinator!

Curious to see what I can get done tomorrow!!!

Here are a few of my favorite Christmas things...

My Great Grandmother made Christmas stockings for all her great grandchildren.  When we were younger, "Santa" made sure they were filled to the gills - which made the fact that our stockings were HUGE extra specially awesome!  My mom made it clear a few years back that "Santa" was no longer interested in filling our stockings.  Boo on that!

My Grandma buys all her grandchildren the Swarvoski crystal snowflake ornament of the year.  So far, I have 11 of these beauties.  2010 will make snowflake #12.  I always strategically place each snowflake on my tree so that the lights hit them just right!  Here is the ornament from 2001!

Many moons ago before I was old enough to gamble, younger sister Linda, my brother Eddie, and I would use up my parent's generous cash donation in Vegas to play the Midway games over our Thanksgiving vacation.  On our first day there, we saw "the Christmas rats" (or so we called them) and knew we had to have them.  They were "expensive" in the way that midway games often are - in other words, they cost a lot of tickets, so we knew we had to work hard to get them.  We did just that and on our last day, we accumulated all our tickets and had enough to buy each of us our Christmas rats.  Linda and I got the girl one and Eddie bought the boy one.  Technically, we had enough tickets to buy older sister Cathy (she was of gambling age) a Christmas rat, too, BUT we got greedy and started getting all kinds of junk.  My college peeps will remember "Club Kim" which came from this greed!  ha!  In the end, we bought Cathy a lopsided ugly little dog.  She said, "oh thanks, it's so cute" and then threw it away before we left for the airport.  I still have my Christmas rat and love it (probably more for the story than the rat itself).

Last, but not least, I bought this snowman family from Sam's Club several years back.  I love snowmen and I just think this little family is so cute!  I always change where I display it - this year, it's on the dining room table!

What are some of your favorite Christmas decorations?

a very Merry weekend - EXTENDED

Yay!  It's Friday night!  Am I normally this excited about Friday nights?  Nope!  Why is this one so different?  Well, my friends, I am embarking upon a 5-day weekend!  Woot!  Turns out that I've been uber healthy (um...when it comes to sickness, not injury) this year which means I have all 6 of my personal days left.  My company allows us to carry over our days until the end of February, so I've decided to use 3 of my days Monday thru Wednesday and then save the other 3 for the first couple of months of 2011!

Tonight I decided to put up my Christmas tree, but then I got lazy when it took me an hour and a half just to get it standing.  Yikes!  Truth be told, it was really the first strand of "tree" that gave me a bit o' struggle.  It appears the branches got all kinds of twisted and by the time I got them untwisted, I was about ready to go buy either a new fake tree or a freakin' fresh tree.  Needless to say, I decided it best to get back into the Christmas spirit and actually enjoy decorating it by waiting until tomorrow.  =/

What's on the agenda for the rest of my little siesta?  First and foremost, I decided to take the opportunity to get some doctor appointments out of the way - 3, to be exact.  One of these is a follow-up on  my pelvic stress fracture.  As I mentioned on Wednesday, I'm still wishin' and hopin' that my doctor will say I can power walk the RunGirl 13.1 on 12/12.  If he says no, though, I will abide by his ruling, but I will pout.  Secondly, I plan on getting my Christmas shopping done.  Thirdly, I want to catch up on a few movies.  I've been eying Burlesque, Love and Other Drugs, and Morning Glory.  Finally...and this is the doozy...I want to declutter, organize, and deep clean my house room by room.  I have a small home, but I've lived in it for almost 10 1/2 years, so it's accumulated quite the non-essentials.  I'm not going to be so silly as to think I'm going to get rid of all non-essentials, but I can definitely cut back.  Let's just say I would love to be able to proudly display my 2 spare bedrooms with their doors open.

I'm looking forward to having some me time at home - no stress, no pressure, just a general outline of "things to do" and the time to do it!

May you all have a very Merry weekend!

uh oh A/C

Normally when I go to work, I set my A/C at 80 degrees.  I must not have been paying attention on Tuesday morning, as I accidentally set it at 81 degrees - my poor puppies! 

Normally when I get home from work, I reset my A/C to 76 or 77 degrees.  A couple of hours later, I lower it to 74 - it's final resting place until I go to work when it gets put back up to 80 degrees.  I must have been HOT when I got home from work on Tuesday night, as I moved it straight to 74.

An hour later, I noticed the thermostat was still reading 81 degrees.  Uh oh - this can't be good.  I turned the unit off, waited a minute or so, then turned it back on.  It was running, but just not blowing cool air.  I waited an hour to see if it would cool the house down and nope...still 81.  UGH!  I turned the unit off, went outside with my trusty flashlight in hand to the breaker box and flipped the A/C breaker in hopes this would give it the jump start it needed to function properly.  No such luck. 

I got a work call around 9:00pm.  Called my dad afterwards to discuss it and to whine about my A/C.  He said I could come over, but honestly...it's obnoxious to pack a bag and deal with the two dogs at that time of night, so I told him if it didn't fix itself, the invasion would happen the next night.  He said he considered himself warned. 

When I went to bed around 9:30pm (with the hopes of getting up at 4:30am to work out), I just turned the whole thing off because what was the point of running up the electricity bill for nothing?  I put Bio-Freeze on my one knee that is still bothering me (which also had a cooling effect on my body - yay) and then I filled up the ice bag I use for my sore muscles after my runs and headed to bed hoping that would cool me off while I slept (or tried to sleep).

I twisted and turned for a bit...wasn't sure if it was a direct result of the heat or because I had just started reading The Other Boleyn Girl and didn't want to put it down, so I picked my book back up (that had been discarded after my bubble bath) and read a few more chapters.  I then tried to sleep again.  I twisted and turned for a bit - thoroughly annoying my beasts - and then I finally fell asleep. 

At 12:30am, I woke up to the dogs panting...or maybe I was panting...or maybe we were all panting.  Regardless, I figured we all needed water STAT, so I got us all out of bed and we headed towards the kitchen.  On my way, I thought to turn back on the A/C, setting it at 77 degrees.  Boy am I glad I did.  When I woke up an hour later to go to the bathroom, I was delighted to discover that the house was now reading at 77 degrees.  Oh thank God!!!  I lowered it to 74 degrees, gave my little pups loving pats on their cute little heads, and we all went back to bed.  I woke up at 4am because my knee was bothering me - yeah...it was basically a restless night, so I put some more Bio-Freeze on it and then decided it was probably not a good idea given my lack of sleep and my bad-attitude knee to hit the gym, so I reset my alarm for 5:55am and went back to bed.

When I left for work on Wednesday morning, I double checked to make sure I turned the unit up to 80 degrees.

When I came home, the house was reading 81.  I hoped this wasn't a sign of things to come.  I turned the unit down to 77 and waited.  About 40 minutes later I checked and it was at 80 degrees.  Oh brother.  I mean I guess that's improvement, but not much.  I turned the whole thing off for an hour, though I guess more out of frustration than anything else because when I think about it now I probably just did it more harm than good forcing it to work even harder when I did put it back on.  An hour later, it read 84 degrees - YIKES!  I switched it back on setting it only to 78 and hoped it would work it's magic.  An hour later it read 79 - it was working.  I turned it down to 74.  Before I went to bed it was reading 77.  When I woke up, it read 74.  My honest opinion is that it is just too hot outside for my poor little unit to properly cool this house.  I mean even when I was coming home from work last after 6pm, my car was reading 100 degrees and that was AFTER it had been operating for quite some time (as in that wasn't its resting in the sun temperature).

Please can we get a nice cool front through here or please can it just rain and release some of this humidity from the air?  It's been awful!  I feel so terrible for anyone that has an outdoor labor job - my employees included - I just don't know how they do it!

Bye Bye Junebug

This is a picture of Cliff - he is one of my garden gnomes.  Norm is on the other side of the walkway leading up to my front door, in case you were wondering.

I'm kinda glad to see June go.  I'm going to welcome July with open arms and a flirty wink! So, let's talk about why I wasn't a raving fan of June's.

1.  My mileage sucked.
2.  My anxiety/stress levels were sky high.
3.  Didn't get my friend fix
4.  Allergies
5.  Heat & Humidity
6.  Didn't blog as much as I would have liked.

The anxiety and stress are work related.  I have been working longer hours.  The work has been draining which leaves me burnt out - mentally.  I used to get together with friends a couple times a week for dinners or tv shows, but there doesn't seem to be time to do that right now.  The heat and humidity are huge energy suckers, too.  Really, if you look at my list it is quite obvious that they are all interconnected.

As soon as midnight hits tonight, June is gone for good and I get a fresh start with July.  What a way to begin a month - a 3-day weekend and a 9 day retreat at my parent's house!  I am going to focus on that list I created on Monday to help me find some balance in this cRaZy life.

Guess what I totally forgot to celebrate?  My 10 year anniversary in my house!  When I decided to work for my dad, we both decided I needed to move out of his house (I had moved in after graduating from Texas A&M in May '99).  I moved into my very own apartment on July 31, 1999.  On Easter Sunday of 2000, my parents and I were looking at houses.  We found what was to be my home...it was a new build, but it was all locked up.  My mom said we would just have to come back another day.  My dad noticed there was a broken window and insisted on climbing through it to open the door for my mom and I.  My mother was disgusted with our "breaking and entering" but was eventually persuaded to partake in our "criminal activities."  We walked through the house and I knew it was perfect.  The next day, I made some phone calls.   I closed on Reuben (yes, I name everything) on June 23, 2000.  I was 23 years old.  My home is my sanctuary - it is beautiful, it is peaceful, and I'm so thankful to have it to come home to.

So, saddle up my little ponies...let's get ready to charge into July with some big cheesy grins and nothin' but good times ahead!

Procrastination Pays Off...right?

I don't want to embarrass myself by telling you how long there has been a problem with my home security system.  Let's just say it's been a while and carry on from there.  There has been a red angry light staring me down from the key pad.  There has been a beeping sound that starts at a specific time and then continues every so many seconds until I press the "cancel" button.  It reoccurs every 24 hours.  At first, it was no big thing because it was happening at like 6pm, so I would be eating dinner and I would just have to press "cancel" and all would be well again (minus the angry red light) until 24 hours later.  Then, something would happen...like maybe I wouldn't be home at 6pm because I went home at lunch time to let my dogs go potty so that I could meet a friend for dinner.  This meant I got home around 8pm or so.  No big deal...I would just turn off the awful beeping sound then.  BUT then something would happen like I'd be out late on a weekend and next thing you know, I have the alarm sounding off at 3am.  Do you have any idea how obnoxious it is to have to drag yourself out of bed every night at 3am to press "cancel" and then go back to bed WITH 2 DOGS, no less?!  Apparently not obnoxious enough that I ever called to get the problem fixed.  ;P

This brings us to Wednesday night...er...Thursday morning.  I have been soooo stressed out from work.  I have been just drained like the life has been sucked out of me.  Normally I'm a super light sleeper.  Not lately.  I sleep like the dead, y'all.    So, apparently, I slept through 45 minutes of beeping or something dramatic like that and finally got up at 4:17am to shut up the beeps.  I then went back to bed.  On Thursday night...er....Friday morning, around the same time, my dogs decided they had to go potty.  I looked at my cell phone (cuz I don't have a clock in my room - it would ruin my decor) and noticed that any minute now the evil beeps would be starting, so I couldn't even get mad at the dogs because I would have had to get up anyway.  I got them both outside and went into the laundry room in preparation of cancellation when I took note that the red angry light was magically green serene.  WHAT?!  Whatever, dude, I'm going back to bed.  I collected my pups and we headed back to bed.  When I woke up for real to my designated wake-up song (Brad Paisley's She's Everything), I checked out the key pad again and sure enough...green serene.  I don't get it.  Did the alarm system magically fix itself?  Was I in a chicken fight with Broadview and they wimped out?  This is soooo reminiscent of my trickster hipster and how it decided to mend itself.

Lesson learned:  If you hold out long enough, a problem will fix itself (I think).   Yeah right.

The dawning of decorum

I love to decorate. It's one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately, it's an expensive undertaking. Over 5 years ago, I redecorated most of my house. It all started with the changing out of 75% of the flooring. I had hard wood put down in the entranceway, family room, dining room, hallway, and my bedroom (it replaced the forest green carpet that I thought was such a good idea when I purchased my brand new home 4 years before that). Additionally, I replaced the linoleum floors in the kitchen, laundry room, my bathroom, and the guest bathroom with a large beautiful rustic looking tile. Then I couldn't be stopped.

I love what painting does to a room. It adds such dimension...such warmth. I just hate painting. 9 1/2 years into my house and I've only painted my bedroom and bathroom (twice). Honestly, the whole house needs painting. I had dabbled with the idea of having a painting party this past Fall. I figured if you feed them, they will come. I lacked the true ambition to see it through though.

For Christmas, I asked my parents for a new shower curtain and the accessories for my guest bathroom. A few weeks before Christmas, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked it out. I guess I really hadn't thought too much past the gift and then the actuality of the situation slapped me once I actually had the gift in my possession. I couldn't possibly display this new shower curtain and the accompanying accessories without painting the bathroom to bring the color scheme all together. Project #1 for The New Year: 2010 had wormed its way into my life. I went to WalMart and bought all kinds of painting supplies - brushes, etc. I then went to Home Depot with the toothbrush holder in hand to help me pick out a color. I found a selection of paints that were primer/paint combos (perfect for those of us who really really hate painting) PLUS they really had pretty colors. I found 3 that would work and took all 3 up to the girl who worked there and made her choose the one I would take home with me. She chose "dragonfly" which is totally the one I was hoping she would pick! Yay! My next stop was Kirklands to find artwork for the walls. I did not have a vision before me as to what I wanted to do, so I wandered around the store for a good 45 minutes with different ideas popping into my head until I saw it. It was one picture and it was perfect. I built my plan in my head and found the rest of the pictures (all on sale) to help to create my masterpiece. I then went home to do the taping.

The next day, I did the painting with full anticipation of putting everything into place the following day. Here's where things got rough. Old Kim would have noticed the few splotchy areas and said "oh well, that sucks" and put up all the stuff anyway. New and improved Kim (read: anal retentive) needed to fix it. There went another day. So the next day (which was yesterday, by the way), I was so excited to get home and put everything in its rightful place. All was going well until I couldn't find one of my two hammers to put up my pictures. RAR! The pictures had to wait until today. This ended up being okay because I decided on a couple more items to buy from Bed, Bath, & Beyond to finish the look. Even though I still have one more thing to add (a chocolate brown valance which I have yet to buy), I wanted to go ahead and post the pics to display my beauty.

Of course, the pictures can't possibly do the bathroom justice, but it will serve its purpose. My only regret was not taking BEFORE pictures for those of you who never saw the bathroom in its former state.

I'm going to take a short break from painting to focus on decluttering my home, but rest assured that the kitchen it my next undertaking. Choosing a color for that one is going to be a bit trickier.