the good, the bad and the ugly

The Good:

Jeremy and I have been called to a church outside of Auburn, AL. It's a wonderful opportunity to serve a really sweet church, and it's totally a God thing. And it was the secret that I was hinting around a few months ago. His first Sunday will be January 6th of 2008 so we'll be moving the first week of the year.

The community is actually called Little Texas, which is about 4 hours away from here. It won't be too far away from family, but it's a little daunting to move all of my earthly possessions four hours away. We'll take a 10 ft U-Haul truck's worth of boxes down on December 15th, so I'm packing like crazy. It has been a crazy time in our lives filled with quick meals and junk. Which leads me to...

The Bad:

I haven't blogged in a month of Sundays. Mainly because I just didn't feel like putting myself out there. I'm an extrovert, but I have had so much people time that I just drew into my shell a little. Not so much that people IRL would notice, but Cyber Mandy definitely didn't want to talk. (Shocker, I know) And you know I avoid you guys when I'm not eating well, and I so totally have not been making good choices. I haven't gone grocery shopping in who knows when. We've been eating either scavenger type meals or quick fast food. Pizza and chicken fingers have been my diet for the past month, and it so totally shows. This, of course, leads me to...

The Ugly:

I woke this morning to an exercise machine infomercial blaring on the tv, and it made me feel like total crap. I knew that I had been bad bad bad, and I needed to face the music. So I nervously stepped on the scale and it read 197.6! Yep. That's about 16 pounds from my lowest weight, which was at the end of August. It was a huge wake up call. I mean, here I am trying to get pregnant and I'm treating my body like a garbage dump. I kept telling myself that once we moved I would get back on track, but I almost procrastinated myself out of Onederland!

So, here's the plan. I know I can't diet once I get knocked up, but I sure can do my best to get back down before I get the little plus sign on the stick. And then once I am pregnant I can just be sensible about it. I think I had already started eating for two. :o)

But, I still have serious time constraints on my hands. How am I suppose to do a healthy dinner on the fly with my house turned upside down? Well, if worst comes to worst I can live off of SubWay while the hub gets whatever junk it is he thinks he needs. Any suggestions would be wonderful. That's assuming, of course that I haven't made all of you horribly mad at me.

Big thanks to all of you who have checked in, even though I've been MIA.
Now I'm going to check in with all of you and see what's gone down since I've been gone. :o)

I hope all of you have Happy Fridays and wonderful OP weekends!!

at least it's Friday... :o)

Hey Ladies!

I know I've been horrible about not blogging lately. I just haven't felt like it this week. It's been a rough one. I've taken care of a flu ridden hub while having some other cold myself, dealt with a clogged sewer line and resetting our (one and only!!) toilet, had the most horrible TOM ever (a little bit of drama queen), burned my hand to the point of considering the ER, and had a deadline to deal with here at work. Tonight we're going to Atlanta again for the last part of our class, and I made brownies for a bake sale last night, just to burn them while I was freaking out over my hand. Needless to say, I'm not contributing to the bake sale. These things only happen to me. No. Really. I have the worst luck in the world. God must know that I can handle it, and it's really useful when searching for a way to give others a good laugh.

I'm over my horribly difficult week enough to laugh about it now, but when I was in the middle of it I definitely did not want to focus on it.

I hopped on the scale this morning and I knew I'd be up. And I was. I know it's TOM related, but that's not all of the weight. I'm sure some of it has to do with not caring about what was going into my body this week. And tons and tons of Orange Juice. So I'm trying my hardest to reel it back in today. And I need more water!!

I know I want to get back to where I was, but I'm not sure how I feel about trying to get out of my new clothes. I'm sure it's the cheapo in me, but if I'm going to have to buy a whole new wardrobe soon (ie: maternity clothes) I really can't see buying a size smaller just to wear them for a little while. We really can't afford that right now. And I'm really happy with myself where I am. But I don't want to bail out, either. I'm not sure. I just wish I'd hurry up and get pregnant so I don't have to make that decision. :o) Well, I know I need to lose about 7 pounds to get back to my lowest, so I guess I'll just focus on that right now. I just hate this yo-yo'ing.

I've decided not to beat myself up over it. I've dealt with this crazy week in the best way that I could, and I know that all the relapsed weight didn't just happen this week, and I'm just going to turn it around.

See why I haven't blogged? Nothing fun to talk about and a dilemma that ya'll will think is silly. :o)

Well, I'm going to get over myself and take these free minutes to check in on ya'll.

I hope you have wonderful weekends!!!

PS: Amanda, I promise that I'm not pregnant. Ugh. I thought I was, but I'm not. I would never be able to keep something like that from ya'll! :o)

long time no see

Sorry it's been forever since I've checked in. I've just been blah lately. I think I'm suffering from burn out, or something. I'll get over it soon, I think. I know it's just my state of mind.

Meanwhile I've been successfully maintaining. I don't really know how, but I know the scale isn't moving much up or down. I feel like TOM is just around the corner, but it won't go ahead and get it over with. It was supposed to be over with by Friday, but nothing yet. You know the feeling. "Come on already! I'm ready for my body back, please!" I've just been bloated and a little quick to cry, but not really a hormone monster. The unexplainable anger and frustration hasn't happened, so I guess it's all good. :o) (I'm sure you all really wanted to know about my cycle and state of mind, didn't you?)

We're having a "Harvest Party" at church on Saturday, and Jeremy and I have decided to dress up like hippies. Sadly, I already had appropriate clothes in my wardrobe. All we had to buy was wigs (he's wearing an afro and I'm wearing long blond hair) and blue eye shadow. It should be really cute. Jeremy disturbingly really likes the blond wig. Lol. I now know why Cher always flipped her hair in that weird way. Having hair past your butt is a pain! After our party we're going to my dad's for our annual bonfire. I guess I'll have to ditch the wig after everyone gets to see our costumes. I'm sure it's really flammable and as clumsy as I am...

That's about it in Mandy Land. I guess that's one reason I haven't blogged. I don't really have anything to say, if you can believe that!

Well I'm off to see what ya'll have been up to. Have Great OP Days!!

a bleah blog

Ick. I'm bloated and my tummy hurts. I thought it was TOM symptoms last night, but my poor hub woke up at 2 with intense stomach cramps, too. I guess we got a bug or something. I hope it all settles down soon. He felt better this morning, but mine's still lingering. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't HAVE to come to work today. My coworker is out of town and that only left our boss to come in and open the office and I knew it wasn't worth it. Maybe he'll have pity on me and let me leave early.

It's not that bad, really. I just don't want to be here. :o)

But it's Friday and that's reason enough to be happy, right?

I hope you all have wonderful weekends!

I love Wednesdays!

I really do love 'em. I really don't know why, I just do. So yay for Wednesday! :o)

Remember a little while back when I said that I was afraid of Mandy with out birth control? Well, she hasn't been that bad. Despite the extra stress of this week and several funerals to attend I've managed to only cry once. And that was after a sad movie. (Had I realized that it was sad I wouldn't have watched it...) And I haven't been mean to my hub, either. I called after work last night to warn him that I was feeling extra stressed and maybe a little irrational, but I didn't even have to control myself. I wasn't feeling like a hormone monster at all. So yay!

That just goes to show you that God really does answer prayers, 'cause I'm sure my sweet hubby has been doing some major praying this week! :o)

And I expected a big headache, too, because a few days off the hormones always gave me a splitting eye headache. But I'm on day six with no drugs and no headache. I'm beginning to think that I'm actually going to like not having these extra hormones I was so dependent upon. And maybe I'll lose a few extra pounds, too. Mom always said that BC made you gain weight.... (but I honestly always thought that she said that to prevent me from taking it BEFORE marriage!) lol.

Okay, sorry I'm rambling on about this. It's just fascinating to me. :o)

I got some new clothes in last night from Wal-Mart.com. I've been cruising the clearance racks from all my favorite online stores and I've managed to find a few things pretty cheap. And shipping isn't bad either. I'm wearing one of my new outfits today and the whole thing cost less than $20. I've never shopped for clothes online and actually bought anything before, but I could really get the hang of this. Since I'm such a regular size it's hard to find cute stuff on the clearance racks (I mean, really, how many woman wear large tops and 14/16 bottoms? A ton!) and this way I can find the cute stuff and just return them at the store if it doesn't fit. I found some great Dockers khaki's for the hub from Sears, too. They were only $24.99 a piece and I got free shipping. I think he's scared that I've found a way to bargain shop while at work. But how cool is it that I'm getting paid to shop? I love it! :o)

I hope you all have wonderful Wednesdays!!

Is it Friday yet?

Thanks for all of your supportive comments yesterday. The in-laws behaved marginally well, so that's a relief, and my ten hour work day flew by. Today is another busy busy day (because "we" didn't get it all done yesterday) but I can handle that.

The scale is up, and I'm thinking that it could be from an upcoming TOM. Or it could be eating too much junk. Whatever it is, it's not something that I can't handle. I'm sure if I pound the water for the next few days it'll be back down.

I've gotta figure out what I'm going to be for Halloween. Any suggestions for an easy, cheap costume? (umm... that is, one that's easy and cheap to make, not one that makes me look cheap and easy) :o)

I hope you all have wonderful Tuesdays!!

a little vent...

My weekend was non-existant. I feel horrible complaining about it, but I can because it's ya'll and I know you love me. :o)

Jeremy's great aunt died in a really bad car accident on Friday. I never got to meet her, but she was a really sweet lady. He was asked to do the funeral and so most of our weekend was spent either with the family or preparing. But that's not what I'm complaining about, really. It's part of being in the ministry.

My complaint is my FIL's family. Ya'll, they are so bad. Like, bad bad. Like, pulling weapons on each other, selling pills, cheating, cussin, mean, lying, horrible people. And I'm being nice. (okay, not really, but I'm definitely not exaggerating.) The lady who died's immediate family is really sweet, but all the rest of them are no count. (That's what my MIL calls them.) :o) We have nothing to do with them at all costs, but there was no avoiding them this weekend. And they definitely put on a show. At least the funeral is today and then I won't have to see them for a while. It sounds horrible, I know, but it's the truth.

So, needless to say, when I had to come in to work an hour early to make up for time lost at the funeral I was in a bad mood. I'm not a morning person to begin with, but I had a serious case of the grumps... and then I read ya'll's blogs and it brightened my day. So now you can spend the rest of the day knowing that you're personally responsible for me not going crazy ballistic on the in-laws that I don't claim. :o)

So, I'm off to actually work. Today's the busy deadline day that I've been mentioning and it's really not busy enough. (as in, peeps aren't getting enough work in to me and things are totally not going to get done on time - but as long as it's not my fault...)

Happy Monday!! :o)