Guilted into it!

Yes, I'm really only posting here because Cheri guilted me into it! Good job Cheri, I'm not usually the guilty type ;)

Started some Christmas baking last night. One of my GMs brought me one of those cookie mixes in a jar, so I had to make it. Even though I'm going to be doing ginormous amounts of baking in the next four days, I had to do it! They are pretty tasty. Not that I've eaten 10 of them or anything *hangs head in shame.*

So my baking list:
No bake cookies (thanks Heather)
Oreo truffles
Nutter Butter truffles
Pumpkin bread
Chocolate chip cookies
Peanut butter kiss cookies
Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
Peppermint bark

I think that is all. I'm throwing a Christmas pajama party on Saturday. So far only three people are coming. I hope more do, since I'll have enough goodies for about 35 people. Anyone else want to come??? ;)

Because of this, I have given up hope on ANY kind of healthy stuff in the month of December. I have eaten out more in the last two weeks that I probably did in the two months combined before that. But January, I'm going to start again, I need to so something, my pants are getting tight again. All that hard work, down the drain. Ugh.

I'm ALIVE!

I'm horrible at this blogging thing! I know, I know. I really want to make a real post, but in the mean time I'm going to steal this off of Mindy's blog as I try to make it through the end of the day at work! I can barely keep my eyes open.

8 favorite TV shows:
1. General HOspital
2. The Office
3. Gossip Girl
4. 24
5. The Biggest Loser
6. The Amazing Race
7. ER
8. Supernatural

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Cleaned my bedroom
2. Cleaned my bathroom
3. Did laundry
4. Did dishes
5. Watched Smallville on DVD
6. Labled photos
7. Scrapped a bit
8. Made dinner for tonight in the crock pot

8 things I look forward to:
1. Going home for Thanksgiving!
2. Seeing all my friends and family
3. Christmas
4. Cool weather
5. Wearing sweaters
6. My birthday
7. The elections being over
8. My new medications working

8 favorite resteraunts:
1. On The Border
2. Panda Express
3. TGI Fridays
4. Sweet Tomatoes/Fresh Choice/Souper Salad
5. Rubios
6. Chinese place back home
7. Buttercup Kitchen
8. Bud's Burgers

8 things on my wishlist:
1. For my family to stay healthy
2. To be happy
3. To lose weight
4. To find love
5. To not worry about money
6. Get my debts paid off
7. Move back to California
8. A new car

4+4=8 Pick the 4th photo from the fourth folder in your My Pictures:
I'm at work, so this is what I've got! It's my co-workers baby at her first bday a couple weeks ago. Such a sweetie!

California here I come!

A week from tomorrow I'll be in California. I'm so excited. It's girls weekend. I'm not sure what is all planned. I know we are going to some wineries. Maybe white water rafting. I know we are going to Pluto's which is a GREAT place to eat. It's the only request I had for the weekend. We'll have our usual M&M cake. LOTS of drinks. LOTS OF DRINKS. I can't wait to see the baby either. Quinn is awesome. Love that baby. He's got such personality and such a happy baby.

I'm just so ready to be OUT of Arizona. Even if only for a few days. I miss the comfort of back. Having people I can call to have dinner with all the time. People are SO far away here. Even the closest people here are 25 minutes away. I hate it. I feel like such a hermit. I have started scrapping with some ladies from work a couple of Saturdays a month. They are very nice and it's fun, but they are all very much older than me and in different parts of their life. I don't know, I'm so conflicted on where I want to go from here. I want to save up some money, pay off some debts. I know I need to do that before I can do anything. I think it's time for a second job.

4th of July

I love that it was on a Friday :) The week before was payroll and not a good one. So it was great that it was only a 4 day week. By the time Friday came, I needed it bad!!

It is Arizona and it is July so of course it was hot! I went over to my sister's for the day. We had a good time. There were 13 of us there. We made our party punch (lots of juice, fruit and alcohol), bbq'd hot dogs & hamburgers, had chili, pizza dip, bean dip, pudding, jello, potato salad, fruit salad, just all good summer stuff! It was a lot of fun. I think I ate enough I wanted to pop! THEN we had brownies for Jordan's birthday (which was the day before) because he doesn't like cake.

We spent a lot of the day out in the pool. The water is so warm at this point in the year it's not even really refreshing. They need a cooled pool instead of a heated one! But it's still better than being outside without a pool.

Nachelle brought her kids over and they are so funny. They were there in May and we got Jordan (4) to jump off the shallow side, but not Mayah (7). Well, this time they were both all about jumping in all over the place. And EVERY TIME: Jen, watch me. GOOD LORD. That gets old really fast. But they were good and had a blast in the pool. I'll put some pics in below.

I went home before the fireworks started. By their house and by my house they put them off. If you don't get off the streets early enough they get so backed up and I didn't want to sit in that. I usually watch the fireworks from my back porch. I have a perfect view of the college that puts them off a few blocks away. But it's SO hot to stand out there because there is no air circulation. So, I realized that if I sit at my new scrap desk and open the blinds, I have a perfect view! YAY!

Photos:

1. Mayah & Jordan jumping in the pool

2. Me & Nachelle

3. Jordan, the birthday boy!

4. View of the fireworks from my house.

My summer DVD project

I decided that once all my regular shows ended this summer that I was going to start watching some of the DVDs I own. I have a million (well, not quite) TV on DVD seasons that I have bought that I've never watched. I'm feeling really stupid about that, so I picked a series and I'm going to watch all of it.

I picked Smallville. At that point I owned four seasons on DVD and hadn't opened any of them. I thought I had watched at least a couple of seasons fullying on TV, but when I started watching the DVDs I realized I've hardly seen any of them really. I figuered if I watched them at a good clip I could get though it all this summer. I started when I was staying at my sister's after the wedding and watched one whole season the week I was there. Then I didn't watch it for about a week. Today I started season 4. I think I'm going to get though it a LOT faster than I thought! I went on Amazon a couple weeks ago and bought seasons 5 & 6.

I'm trying to decide what I want to watch when I finish this, since I'll have a LOT of time when I finish it before regular TV season starts. My choices: Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek, Angel, Buffy, Roswell or The Simpsons. Now, I've seen pretty much every episode of DC, Angel & Roswell. I've seen the last few seasons of Buffy completely. I might tackle GG, becuase I think that's the one I haven't seen most of. Should fill up my summer!!

Back on the workout waggon!

I was pushing myself too much with all the prep for my sister's wedding and getting my house ready for guests, so I stopped working out in the couple weeks leading up to the wedding. Then I was housesitting, then I was sick, then I went out of town. So I haven't worked out at all in at least 5 weeks. So I told myslef now that I am feeling (a bit) better, I would get back on the waggon this week and be strong. I would be working out 4 days a week again and watching my eating.

I didn't do badly in that time. I'm up only 1 lb in that time when I am thrilled about considering I was not working out at ALL and wasn't really watching what I was eating. But I'm trying to watch the calories again. I go to California in 7 weeks and I'd like to drop 15 lbs before then. I know that is ambitious, but I'm going to try. 10 lbs would make me happy and the 15 would make me thrilled.

I've worked out on Monday and Tuesday so far this week. Today will be my errand day then I will work out Thursday and Friday. It's too hot anymore for me to go for walks outside. Maybe if I wake up early enough on the weekends I can. But this morning when I left for work at 6:30 it was already 74 degrees. It's only going to get worse. We are supposed to be at 109 this weekend. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. Why did I move here again? Ugh.

I HATE house sitting!

I'm on day 4 of my 8 days house sitting. I HATE IT. Let me list the ways!

- First off, it's so far away. My normal drive is 7 miles from work, their house is 20 miles. That's a big difference when gas is this high.

- I hate dogs. Well, I love their dogs of course, but I don't like being around dogs. Especially their dogs because they are so babied. They can't stay outside, I have to go RIGHT from work to let them out. And I think I'm slightly allergic. Laying it bed last night it was all I could do to not itch myself to death. Ugh.

- I miss my house :( Because I have to go right over after work I don't get to go to my own house. And since their house is like 20 miles from mine, it's just too far to go all the way to their house and then back to mine. I miss my bed, my computer, my scrap stuff. I haven't been alone in my own house in 7 days.

- Their computer is so virus infected it's ridiculous! You can't do anything without a million pop ups. And it delays everything. I was trying to load and look though photos and some folders take up to 10 minutes to open! I tried to fix it when I was there at Christmas, but it made the internet stop working so I'm not allowed to do anything any more.

- I've had to do 6 loads of towels, chase garbage around the backyard that was blowing everywhere and I'VE HAD TO CLEAN UP DOG POOP IN THE HOUSE THREE TIMES.

Woe is me. Yes, this is about as bad as the drama gets in my life. It's all I've got, which is a good thing. But I never get to whine, especially lately with everything being about the wedding. I just feel very dumped on and taken advantage of and I HATE it. My friends were here too and really I don't feel I got to spend quality time with them.

Might as well document this

Finished painting my scrap room today. My wrists are KILLING me. Ugh. After all the painting, I think I should have made the trim white. Oh well, I DO like the color, of both the trim and the walls. It's a ton darker that I had started out wanting. I was having a hard time getting a proper photo, but my big camera did it. I should have used that one from the start. I also finally put together the storage cube thing I got at Target like four months ago. It's just been sitting in the box. It's white, so it will fit right in with all my other stuff.

I have this nasty old dresser that I need to so something with. I picked it up two houses ago. Who ever lived there before me left it and I kept it and drug it alone. It's ugly, cheap and is only good for hiding crap in. It would be better if I could paint it, but it would need big time sanding and I'm not good and that and I don't have anywhere to do it. I'm sure I could replace it at Ikea for $60. Or I could just go though the crap in it an throw it away/organize it.

Speaking of organization, I went though a box of crap that had been collecting for a while. I divided into smaller piles: recipes, clippings for scrapping, scrapping stuff, coupons, magazines, cards. I am trying to get all of my random recipes into a binder and organized. I also finally cleared some space in my cabinets to put my cook books and recipe cards. And they all fit, even with my odd sized cabinets!

I also went though my closet right next to my front door. I threw away some boxes. I don't know why I feel the need to keep boxes of things that 1. Are a million years old and I can't possibly return; 2. I don't own anymore; 3. Are broken already. I made a lot of room in there and put my card organzier in there (with all my blank cards that had been in a different box). I'll be putting more stuff in there once I get the rest organized.

I also need to decide on what camera I want to keep. I recently bought two smaller ones, since I broke my little one at the bachelorette party. I found a Fuji FinePix Z5fd on clearence at Target for $90. It's great, except it doesn't take SD cards, which is all I own. But it got great reviews at Amazon, and that was a great price. Even if I spend $40 on getting a memory card (or two). The other one I got was on clearence at Sears. It's a Casio Exilim Ex-V8. It's a seriously awesome camera and the same brand as my old one which I LOVED. But it was $170, even on clearence. And the warrenty was way more at Sears than at Target. So I need to make the decision if the Casio is worth more than twice as much as the Fuji. I had making camera choices :(