Project #2 - Guest Bedroom (Mostly done!)

We have completed 95% of our guest room. The only thing missing is an iron piece to go above the bed. It is in Birmingham and I will get that when I am home. Other than that though it is completely done.

                                                    Before:

 

                                                       After:

 

The room cost about $190 to finish: $160 towards wall decor and $30 on paint. Again the paint is Behr Eminence. I got the bird prints from this etsy store. The frames and burlap are from Michael's. I love how the room turned out. Cheap, cozy, and it will work anywhere we live in the future.

Pinterest Recipe - Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

I have started trying to incorporate about one new pinterest recipe a week into our weekly menu. Some weeks I have more motivation to try new things. A few weeks ago I made Southwestern Stuffed Peppers and they were a hit! (Of course Dave will eat anything) The great part was I made all of the stuffing and then froze half so we didn't have to deal with left overs and can easily have it again later.

                                             Here is what the pinterest picture looked like:

 

And my version:

 

Project #1 Done! - Guest Bathroom

I have finished my first complete project in the house. I have started working on several rooms but they aren't complete yet. Hopefully I will have the guest bedroom and laundry room done in the next couple weeks. But in the mean time the guest bathroom is done! It cost about $55.

                                                                        Before:

                                                                        After:

 

 

We painted the walls Behr Eminence. Our only purchases were the shower curtain and hooks. Everything else we had laying around. I am very satisfied with the outcome. It is so much more inviting. Now we just needs some guests to come visit.

To Minnesota and Back

After unloading the cars we packed back up and headed to Minnesota for Dave's high school reunion. He is from Cloquet, MN. It's a small town close to Lake Superior and Wisconsin. We stayed at a casino. I played for about 4 hours on $20....I am a cheap gambler. :)

After leaving Cloquet, we headed north to Bluefin Bay. It's about an hour from Canada.

It was so nice and relaxing. The room didn't have air conditioning so we slept with the windows open and listened to the lake.

The water was cold!!! Dave tried to get in but it was not happening. We picked up some cheese, wine, and smoked salmon on the way to the hotel . The cheese and wine was good but smoked salmon is going on my short list of foods I don't like. Until our next adventure.....

The Mitten

Dave and I have started a new chapter in our lives. We moved to Michigan also known as "The Mitten"! At the end of July we packed up and headed north. We dropped off my car at the house and unloaded the cars. Then we went to Minnesota for the week for his high school reunion. Once home our furniture arrived.

Needless to say it was a disaster. Little by little we have gotten almost everything unpacked. There are still millions of projects to be done. I will add before and after pictures as we do projects around the house. Let the adventure begin!

Nashville Trip

I am not very creative with my post titles but they are pretty informative. :)

This past weekend Dave and I went to Nashville. In February I signed up for the Rock N Roll Half Marathon. My doctor still hadn't cleared me to run though, so Dave ran for me. We had a great weekend. Friday we got up there and went to the Expo. It was HUGE! After getting his bib, shirt, etc. we had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Saturday we were up bright and early. We parked in the middle of downtown and headed for the start line. Dave and 30,000 of his closest friends started running at 7:00am. Once he took off I headed for the finish line at LP Field. It was difficult to find him because he didn't have a cell phone and he was a little slower than he thought due to calf cramps but we finally met up in the family reunion area after he finished with a time of 2:20. I have pictures on my camera but I can't find the cord to hook it to my computer. If I ever find it, I will update this post. After the race we went back to hotel and napped. Around 1:30 we dragged ourselves out of the hotel and headed for the outlet mall and Opryland Hotel. That night we had dinner at Margaritaville and then went across the street to listen to a band and have a few beers.

On Sunday we stopped in the cute town of Franklin on the way home. We ate at 55 South. OMG. It was soooo good. We had donuts to start.

I shouldn't even tell you what was in my entree. It's called The Carlos and when the waitress brought it to the table she sat it in front of Dave because guys usually order it. :) In my defense, I didn't eat the whole thing. But it was amazing!

After brunch we roamed the cute downtown area. There was a main street festival going on. I bought a fabulous Father's Day present and a cute necklace for myself.

Weight Loss - End of week 5

My weigh in this morning was 136.5! I am down 9 pounds in the first five weeks. I really really want to be at 135 by my birthday on Tuesday and if I am really focused I can probably do it. I am very happy with this week's two pound loss especially since I ate horrible in Nashville.

Original weight: 145.5
Today's weight: 136.5
Goal weight: 120

Doing it for...myself (and the bikini)

Since I got back from Costa Rica I have been really focusing on losing weight. Yes, again. A couple years ago I got on the scale at....I can't believe I am going to type this....152. Yep. It was painful. That was the biggest I ever got. But it was a turning point for me. I signed up for Weight Watchers and dropped 17 pounds. The smallest I got was 135. I felt like a million bucks. Then the holidays came (that's my story and I am sticking to it). I used it as my excuse to fall off the weight loss bandwagon. Little by little the weight came back. At some point I actually saw 152 on the scale again. Running helped a lot but without eating right I still wasn't seeing much progress. When I got back from Costa Rica I was motivated. That Thursday, April 29th, I got on the scale at 145.5. Since then I have gotten to about 138. Weekends are hard and as I type this I know the scale will not be my friend in the morning. All I am doing this time is counting calories. It is what works for me. It's really an easy concept....burn more calories than you consume and the weight will come off. I have a slight addiction to my scale but the only day I actually record is Thursday. So my plan is to write a post every Thursday to record my weekly weight loss and comments on how the week went.

Here is my progress so far:
Starting weight: 145.5
April 5, 2012: 141.5
April 12, 2012: 140.5
April 19, 2012: 139
April 26, 2012: 138

I have this dream that I will be at 135 by my birthday. It's not looking likely at this point but you never know.

Playing Catch Up!

Yet again, I am horrible with this whole posting thing. I don't even know where I left off so I will try and do a quick recap of the year so far.

January - After the Red Nose Run 5k Dad and I headed to New Orleans for the National Championship. It was a wonderful trip. We ate, drank, shopped, and went to the best football game of my life! From the start Bama dominated the field. LSU only managed to cross the 50 yard line one time the whole game. The final score was 21-0. RTR

MLK weekend I went to Washington DC to visit Laura and Haigh. We ate in Chinatown, shopped in Alexandria and Georgetown, and went the museum of American History. I love going to visit them. Somehow we always manage to cram tons of good shopping, good eating and good times into our short weekends together. I also got to meet their new puppy, Thompson. He loves me. I like to think that I am his favorite aunt.

February - At the beginning of the month Dave and I went to Keystone, CO for a conference. We flew in on a Wednesday. That night they had a welcome reception, dinner, and casino night. The next day I sat through a small meeting where I won a Kindle. Then it was on to our activity: snowmobiling. It was actually a blast. I was a little nervous about getting my snowmobile stuck in the snow or falling of a ledge. Once I got comfortable I really did enjoy it. I would highly recommend it. We saw some beautiful scenery and froze our butts off. Friday Dave skiied and I got a pedicure. We met for lunch in the village and relaxed all afternoon. That night we took a gondola to the top of the mountain (11,000 feet) and had a Swiss fondue dinner, complete with singers and a roaring fire. It was a great experience. Saturday we both enjoyed massages and facials at the spa. I am sucker for a great spa and Keystone's is wonderful. Sunday we headed back to Birmingham.

On the 12th I participated in the relay portion of the Mercedes Marathon. There were 5 people on our team: SWATT (Sprinters, Walkers, and Trash Talkers). I ran the first leg which was a 10k. The race started at 7:00am and it was about 23 degrees. I finished in 1:06:12. I was very happy with my time. Our overall team time was 4:33. I was hoping to finish in under 4:30 but I think we did an awesome job and it was a great time.

After the Mercedes Relay I decided I was ready to try a half marathon. I signed up for the Nashville Half Marthon on April 28th. Unfortunately about a week later I hurt my ankle running 7 miles at Lakeshore park. The doctor has told me it is a stress fracture. So for the last 8+ weeks I have not been able to run. :( My next doctor's appointment is May 8th so hopefully the doctor has some very happy birthday news for me.

About the middle of the month I moved out of my townhouse. After trying to sell it for months I decided to rent it out to a friend. His plan is to buy it at the end of his year lease. I am really happy with my decision. While living with Mom and Jim has its drawbacks, saving money and having constant people around is always nice. Charlie is in heaven. He is always the center of attention, so I think if he had it his way we would never leave.

March - Dad and I went to Costa Rica from the 20th to the 28th. This trip should have its own post and at some point I will sit down and write all about it with pictures to describe just how amazing the trip was. We stayed at three beautiful resorts. We zip lined, repelled into water falls, tanned, ate, and just enjoyed all that the country had to offer.

2nd 5k

I just started this blog and already I am slacking on my posts. In my defense, life has been pretty busy lately.

On January 7th I ran in my second 5k, the Red Nose Run! It was the morning I left for New Orleans (for the national championship....more on that later), it was at 7:15am, and it was raining off and on so I wasn't expecting a wonderful time. The Red Nose Run supports the Ronald McDonald House which was my sorority philanthropy. I was excited to see lots of current ADPis running and helping with the race. Dave and I got there about 7:00. It was a fun atmosphere and I was excited to get started. At 7:15 we were off. I breezed right through the first mile. On mile two there was a pretty big hill. It slowed me down a little but I powered right on through mile 3 to the finish line. I wasn't quite sure of my official time but assumed it was around 33:15. Well it ended up being a little better!....33:09!!! Oh happy day! I beat my last race time by over 1.5 minutes.

I am really enjoying my new hobby and am already planning for future races. I am starting to work on doing a 10k. On February 12th I am going to do a marathon relay. I will be running the 10k portion. Then I am going to start training for a half! That is one of my new year's resolutions. I wasn't planning to run a half marathon quite this soon but I'll just have to see how my training goes. I am hoping to become a good blogger and begin writing about my training.

NYE Party!

I decided I wanted to do an all-inclusive New Year's Party. One where we could eat, drink, and dance the night away without having to keep up with bar tabs or an ever growing bill. Dave and I went to Destin, FL on Thursday night (December 29th). We stayed in Dad's condo (yea for a free place to stay!). It was a great, relaxing weekend. We went for a couple runs, raided the outlet mall, ate tons of seafood, and had a blast. The NYE party was at the Hilton Sandestin. It was the perfect end to a great year. I only have one picture from the night and it is from an iphone so excuse the quality....I was too busy having fun to drag out the camera.

New Year....New Blog!

I am starting one of my new year's resolutions right now....start a blog. Maybe someday I will have a huge following, maybe my sister is the only one who ever reads this. Either way, it will be a great way for me to document my life. I am looking forward to writing about my ups and downs, my dreams and ideas, and especially my adventures.


First off, here are my resolutions for 2012:

1. Sell the house.
2. Save money. (I have an amount in mind)
3. Declutter by donating and selling items I don't use anymore.
4. Run a half marathon.
5. Take a photography class.
6. Learn to knit.
7. Get to my goal weight.
8. Start a blog. Check! :)