things I will not discuss with a parishioner (ever again)

1. When telling said parishioner that I saw him driving down Main Street, I will not suggest that I was stalking him. This will completely prevent the statement, "Good! I love it when hot little things stalk me!" and thus preventing the lobster like flush that followed.
2. I will never in any circumstance whatsoever allude to, suggest, hint, or in other way allow the idea that my husband (his pastor) and I are trying to conceive, avoiding the wise advice to "stand on my head".
3. Once saying that standing on my head was not a viable option for me, I will not delve that I had 13 casts before 6th grade, making me the biggest freak of nature ever to become a preacher's wife.
4. I will not suggest that said member talks way too much and that I really pray for his wife. Then I will not try to smooth things over by saying that I too talk way too much and that he should be praying for my husband.
5. When it is said that I am favored over dear sweet Jeremy I will not agree whole heartedly and then try to console them by saying that I thought it was the general consensus of the congregation, but as I can not be the preacher's wife without the preacher suggest that we keep him.
6. And as I will never have such a conversation again, I will not enjoy it to its fullest extent. I will not allow myself to be goaded into saying more and more outrageous things only to hear the side splitting laughter on the other side. And I will not be forced to think about said conversation over and over, cringing at the inappropriateness of it all, knowing that I will surely be teased by all the private information released.

Oh well. At least we'll be moving four hours away in a few weeks! :o)

it's a technicolor Christmas

So, I'm finally calmed down a little. There's probably about 10 more boxes that have to be packed by Thursday night, and I can so handle that. I want to get my house picked up before then, too, because Jeremy's nosey uncle is coming over to help him load everything while I'm at work on Friday. I know he'll go in every single room possible and I'm not about to let him find dirty underwear. (Did I just admit that there's dirty underwear on my floor?) But I'm just so grateful that he's helping I'm not even going to complain about it.

Okay. It's time for another confession from Mandy. Are you ready for this?

I absolutely love tacky Christmas sweaters. (not that all Christmas sweaters are tacky, I just love the tacky ones...) I can't explain it. I know that they're tacky. I know that Stacy and Clinton would fry me at the steak for wearing it. I know that my husband is slightly embarrassed by it. But I don't care. I love them. Last year I had found the absolute perfect tacky Christmas sweater. It was pink and had this cute collar and it said "Merry Christmas" in funky colors. Shear tacky Christmas sweater perfection. And now it's too big for me. So I've been searching frantically for a replacement to wear this weekend to the Christmas pageant at our new church and I can't find anything to fit the bill. My favorite so far was heavy on the leopard print, and it was a little too tacky for this occasion. I have to find something that meets me half way. Like one that's not your typical Christmas colors but doesn't have all the bells and whistles. (although a sweater with bells and whistles would be really cool...) I might have to settle for a tacky Christmas vest. At least that way it can come off if needed... (but vests are even tackier than sweaters, no?)

Okay. So now you know. I hope it doesn't make you hate me. I'm just being real, yo.

Hope you all have wonderfully OP days!!

oh no you did'ent!

Oh my. It's such a relief that I'm a natural kind of girl. I don't wear much makeup, and everything else on me is what God gave me. It's a relief because right now I'd be pulling out my hair plugs and snapping off my fake nails if I had 'em. And then I'd just be left with a cold bottom and damaged nail beds...

Our plumbing messed up again last night. My dear sweet long suffering heroic hub called last night before I got off work and told me that the toilet was suddenly overflowing, and he hadn't flushed it in over an hour. Luckily I wasn't there to deal with the carnage (although I did have to hear about it) and I told him to call a plumber. And this time he listened to me right away and called Mr. Rooter. So, he didn't get to go with me last night to the charity Christmas party we were planning on attending. And while he was knee deep in last week I was enjoying my mother's boss impersonating Elvis. I should have felt guilty, but all I felt was relief that I didn't have to deal with it. And it's fixed now. :o)

I'm looking forward to Saturday when I'll be packing boxes and avoiding anyone I won't allow to see me in my pj's from 40 pounds ago. (which excludes everyone but my husband and my cats) Maybe I can get enough done that I'll stop waking at 2:27 every morning, hyperventilating from the shear lack of things not crossed off my to do list. (I haven't been doing this, but it makes me smile to think that it's something that I would do if I didn't sleep like a bear in winter when I do eventually slip into slumber)

And it makes me feel so much better about myself to know that there's other Wrappers Anonymous here in this world. And MMalloy, I totally scope out the other rival presents to make sure mine's the best wrapped, too. If God had not blessed me with these wonderfully magical talents I would not have to struggle so with my pride. :o) (how cocky was that statement?)

It's taken me about an hour to write this blog because I've been interrupted a few times (and I'm at WORK! Don't these people have any sense of decency?) and by now I'm laughing at myself. My faith in my ability to accomplish something at the last minute (although it is what I hate most in this world) is kicking in (or maybe it's the Xanax...) and I'm thinking I can handle it. Now if I can only remember that at 2:27 tomorrow morning.

I hope you all have wonderfully OP weekends!!

Smooches!

obsession confession

Whew! It's been one of those mornings. For some reason I just could not get my booty in gear and I ended up running late. I'm sure the forty billion different outfit changes didn't help matters either. See, I was roped into attending 2 separate Christmas functions yesterday. One is tonight and one is tomorrow night, so I had to totally reassess the wardrobe situation. I still don't have a lot of clothes in this size (like 3 pairs of dress pants with various tops...) so I have to really navigate through. So, needless to say I didn't make it to the scale this morning. It's probably just as well - we ate Mexican food last night. (And I thought of my favorite pregnant cyber friend!!) I got the fajita taco salad, so I made a descent choice, but the chips I munched on probably caused some water retention.

I'm doing my best to not freak out about the lack of stuff not accomplished, but everyone seems to be doing their best the steal my time. I was planning on packing all tonight, tomorrow night and all weekend, but it looks like that's not happening. I have to have a 10 ft UHaul's worth of boxes in a week, and I'm no where there. But the up side is that I'm caught up on Christmas stuff. (I just remembered the church Santa Party I'm supposed to plan - so, well, I'm ALMOST caught up!) I just have a few more presents to buy, and everything that I have bought is wrapped.

I have this sick love of wrapping presents and it can take me 30 minutes easy to wrap just one. I try not to take that long, but I'm such a perfectionist with that sort of thing. And I've learned how to make a new style of bow this year, too. The hub made fun of me last night when I showed him our nephew's present. I had wrapped it with this gorgeous olive drab green foil paper and used a sort of rusty gold ribbon for his bow. And Jeremy said, "honey, you just spent no telling how long on that pretty pretty package just for him to rip it open". Oh well. It makes me happy. (and besides, my mom is a freak about wrapping, too, and with this new bow I'm totally kickin her little arse this year!) :o)

So there's just one more sick thing that you probably wished you didn't know about me!

Have a wonderfully OP day!

just checking in...

I just wanted to post a quickie (hee!) this morning. We're interviewing replacements for me all day today and tomorrow, so I have a ton to do. I just wanted to say, "Yay! The scale is going down!!" It was somewhere around 191.4 this morning. The only thing that I've successfully changed is my breakfast and lunch routine (and no 3 pm cocoa...), and I'm not doing the best that I can in the evenings, but for now it's enough of a change to help.

Last night I was daydreaming about taking morning walks when I no longer have to slap on trousers and heels every day. That right - me wanting to exercise. It was a disturbing thought! :o)

Have a Wonderful OP Day!!

14 days and counting

That's how many business days I have left as a working girl! The time is flying by and I still have sooo much left to accomplish. That's okay. I can handle it.

Now for the diet blah stuff: YesterDAY was wonderfully OP, but the evening proved to be a problem. Jeremy wanted pizza, and since he had an almost migraine all day I caved and picked up a Little Ceasar's then remembered that my nephew's birthday party started at 6:00. So I ate pizza thinking that I wouldn't eat anything else, then went to the party and ate roast, mac & cheese, and baked beans. Oh, and cake and ice cream. Then I came home and ate some fig nutens. (or however they're spelled) WHY? I have no idea why. Because it was THERE. It's all so shameful and sad. I'm really going to mull over it today and try to figure out what my deal is. I mean, I want to at least be at my smallest pronto, and I want my new denim trousers to fit me well again, and I don't want for these pants that I'm wearing to fit so well, but after 5 pm I'm not doing anything about it. I think I'm going to set up some sort of time law. Like after 7 I can't eat anything, period. That seems a little tough, though. I'm just frustrated with myself this morning.

However, one good thing about the party was that I got to see the ultrasounds of the peanut that I call Mandy, Jr. It made me so happy, and I totally faked that I could tell what every thing was. :o) Her new due date is July 15, so at least she'll have him/her before it gets too hot. Hopefully I won't be that lucky! :o)

I would like to ask for ya'll to pray for her, though. This baby was a total miracle to begin with because she had been told for years that she probably wouldn't be able to have children. She only has one functioning ovary and she has endometriosis. The OBGYN himself said that God must have just wanted her to have a baby. (It was finding all this out that made me snap out of my selfish fit and get excited for them...) But yesterday during the ultrasound they found a big cyst on her ovary. The doctor said that they usually go away on their own, so I'm not super worried about it. I just don't want Cyrena worried. I know I would be if it were me and my baby. I just know that God is going to protect this child, and my prayer is that He gives them peace. They're so young, and they have so many things going against them.

So, thank-you for your prayers. I know in my heart of hearts that it changes things!

I hope you have a wonderfully OP day!!

warm fuzzies

Well, the good news is that the previous posting of 197.6 was some sort of water retention fluke. I weighed myself Sunday morning and it was closer to 193. It's not great, but it's better. I had a great OP day on Friday - lots of water and healthy foods, but the rest of the weekend wasn't as healthy. And I drank next to no water. I feel so dry that I could crumble up and blow away. I don't know why it's so hard to drink my water while at home. It's something I've gotta figure out before the move - there won't be any water coolers for this future house wife. (That's still blowing my mind.)



Thanks so much for all of the sweet & encouraging comments. Unfortunately my hub is a little weird about the crock pot. It's all good unless I want to leave the house with it on. (I know - that's the point, right?) I think he's afraid that it'll burn the house down. He's going to have to get over that, but until then it's not an option. The salads and Lean Cuisines are, though. I'll figure it out. At least during the work week I can have super healthy meals. My skinny coworker and I have taken to eating lunch together and we hold each other accountable. (Which means I don't pig out in front of her!) :o)



I have to tell you the sweetest thing. Jeremy has gotten bitten by the baby bug. There's this little girl at our church who is 6 months now, and he is absolutely crazy about her. He's constantly holding her and kissing her fuzzy little head. And then every time we come home from church he asks, "Can we have a baby NOW?" and I'm like, "umm, honey, that's what we're trying to accomplish here" and he says "No, NOW." lol. It's so cute and makes me so glad that we decided to wait until we knew that we could handle a baby. It makes my heart melt to see him so excited about it.

I don't think I've told ya'll yet that my little brother and his wife are expecting a baby in July. Yep. The one that was just married in September. It totally freaked me out and upset me that my brother who is five years younger than I am would have a child older than mine, but I'm okay with it all now. I know it's incredibly selfish sounding but I had a hard time with it for a while there. Now I'm pushing for them to name my new niece or nephew after me. :o)

Well, I hope you all have fabulous OP days!!