My Four Day Fall Break Weekend of 2012

I had Friday and Monday off, so last weekend was a four day weekend. I was much busier than I thought that I would be, but it was still a lot of fun.

Friday I went out to eat at Olive Garden with some friends from work. I didn't know about taking pictures for the blog in front of them, so I didn't. I got the soup, salad, and bread sticks which was a mostly healthy and very filling meal. Afterwards we went to the mall and did some shopping. Well everyone in the group except me bought something. It was fun to hang out and see them buy stuff, but I just don't have the money to buy frivolous stuff right now. It really shocked me to see how much money people are willing to pay for things. I would rather have savings and investments. I guess that makes me a "weird girl" which I kinda already knew that I was!

What I wore out with my friends on Friday.

The black painted stripes are starting to wear off, but I love these earrings!

Saturday was spent running some errands, doing a little cleaning around the house, and having fun with my St. Joe friends at a Halloween party that night. One of my friends has a house in Rensselaer (which is were St. Joe is and that makes a halfway point from my house and Lafayette) with the perfect yard to throw a party. In the back yard there is a small "shack" or "shed" with a kitchen in it and an an open space on the other side which has a booth, tables, chairs, and just enough room for a TV and karaoke machine. There was tons of tasty foods and drinks such as chili, sandwiches with apple butter, chips, dips, desserts, a punch with a "brain" in it, and mixed drinks with fun names such as purple people eater.

Our entertainment was a scavenger hunt, a costume contest, and karaoke. My costume didn't turn out like I planned, because my pink flared jeans were too tight to wear and I couldn't get my pink feathers to stay in my hair. That would've made my hippie costume be more costume-y and less like a modern day hippie wannabe. Oh well, I've already got an idea for next year as long as I lose some weight!

Sunday I spent getting some organization and cleaning done around the house. I went through all the stuff I took out of the linen closet in the bathroom and either reorganized back into the linen closet or tossed it because I didn't need/want it anymore.

I finally picked up the guest bedroom and reorganized my "motivation" closet.

I also got rid of clothes in my "everyday" closet that didn't make me feel or look good. I don't have much left that fits now, so I really need to get back on track this week now that my stress is lightening up.

Monday was spent running errands, doing more cleaning around the house, and getting ready for the workweek. I first went out to Wanatah to my parents house to pick up some of my old "bigger" pants from my sister that she didn't need right now. How embarrassing to gain back enough weight to ask for your bigger clothes you gave away back. Now if that isn't motivation, I don't know what is! Anyway, I felt like taking pictures so here are some pictures from my drive out there:

There are lots of farm and country pictures. I grew up in the country and am kinda starting to feel like more like a "town person." I still miss the country though.

This picture and the one below are the Porter County Fairgrounds. I was a nine year 4-Her and am kinda missing it. I think it would be fun to be a group leader.

This is a doggie spa I passed on the way to Valpo. I bet my dogs would love to run free in there!

I stopped to see if there was anything interesting, but I took a picture and included it to share a little fact. I used to work at this Wal-Mart for about six months after I graduated college.

This isn't a good picture, but that car in the distance is awesome!

That afternoon I had a dentist appointment for a check-up and cleaning. Everything is okay this time which is nice.

Clean teeth before I eat and ruin it. They used key lime flavor to clean my teeth which was tasty yet kinda weird.

I spent the evening cooking some food for healthy lunches, watching The Voice, and typing up lesson plans. Here is to a fresh start on eating well this week!

BC Osaka

I did want to post about everyday, but I guess I got a little busy and didn't post. That doesn't mean that I've slipped up though. I've lost a little more weight and am down to 193.4. I'm still being diligent about following my eating plan and doing C25K. Here is the recap of the past couple of days:

Tuesday

Tuesday started with my normal breakfast:

and a jog. My stats for Tuesday's jog were:

• 5,787 steps
• 41 minutes
• 2.39 miles

I took a picture, because I had a small accomplishment. I usually wear shorter, but bigger shorts over these black ones. Today I put the black ones on and they looked okay by themselves. I didn't have to cover up like usual which was nice.

I usually make a new play list for each week, but got a little lazy and didn't make one for this week. I took last week's play list and jogged for two minutes of what was supposed to be my cool down walk song (I needed to add two more minutes to my jog.). I just put my iPod on shuffle and picked a random song to add those two more minutes I needed for my cool down walk.
I had these snacks in the morning:

I spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon at work decorating my hallway bulletin board. I was almost done, then my hubby called. He had to take his car to CarX again to get more exhaust system work done. He needed a ride home, so I picked him up. On the way there I had this as my afternoon snack:

I love the Oatmeal Raisin Walnut flavor!

At home I picked up the house a bit, did some dishes, and dusted. I also took Lilly (my doxie) to the vet to get a distemper shot. After the vet was dinner:

I enjoyed my evening with a snack and What Not to Wear.

Wednesday

I spent Wednesday morning doing some more cleaning (as you can see in the pictures below) and watching Lilly since she wasn't feeling well after her shot.

Those wet spots on the futon are from the dogs licking it. I don't know why they love to do that so much.

I also found some more veggies in my garden. I love green bell peppers, so I was happy to see these bad boys this morning.

One of the hub's and my friends from out of town was here and wanted to get lunch. We went to a restaurant called BC Osaka. None of us have been there before, so it was a nice to go somewhere new. We sat at a Hibachi grill table and got to see our food made before us. The food was delicious and healthy. I had the Hibachi chicken which came with soup, salad, chicken, veggies, white rice, and ice cream.

After lunch we all headed back to our house and talked for a while outside in the nice weather (and without barky dogs- they don't do well on being quiet when company is over). I spent the rest of my afternoon mowing the yard and picking up my husband's car which was done getting fixed. The evening was spent watching the guys of Wednesday night on HGTV. That is three shows: Income Property, Kitchen Cousins, and Property Brothers. This time I had a different snack with my TV watching:

I pretty much ate the same thing as yesterday except for what you see pictured in this part of the post, so I won't bore you with the same pictures again.

Some Saturday Fun

Saturday was a pretty fun day. I began the morning with running a few errands and ended up finding a great deal on some clothes from the Dollar General. I know it sounds weird to buy clothes from there, but they do sometimes have some cute items. I had a coupon for $5 off of $25 or more and all yellow dot clothes were 70% off! I got a few things that fit now and a few slightly smaller items for the future. I paid between $2-$5 per item of clothing.

Some items for now (plus the pink shirt you see me wearing in the picture below)...

and some items that should fit by the time I get to 185ish.

I had a baby shower to go to in the afternoon for a friend from work. This is the one that I made the cute letter M for earlier this week.

After the baby shower I decided to get a few more things done around the house. Did some dishes again, picked up the great room a bit, cleaned out a "junk" drawer, and made lots of jello products. I don't know how this happened, but all the jello gelatin and jello pudding mixes I found in the back of my kitchen cabinets were due to expire either July 1st or 2nd. I decided to go for it and make them all. At least I'll have some semi-healthy sweet treats around for a while!

I ended up with 8 vanilla pudding cups,

8 orange jello cups, and

4 strawberry jello cups!

A Productive Friday

Friday was quite the productive day all in all. I started with my C25K wog. I was able to jog the whole 90 second intervals with very minimal shin pain. I'm guessing shoes that fit right might play a role in that along with taking it a little slower than I was before.

I know this probably looks a little crazy, but I do enjoy my athletic toe socks. I only paid $0.50 a pair at Bailey's, so I might be the only one that likes them!

Today's C25K stats:

• 3,839 aerobic steps
• 32 minutes
• 1.62 miles

After wogging, I decided to hurry up and finishing weeding the flower/rock bed in front of the house while the sun was in the right place in the sky to have some shade since it was only going to get hotter. It looks so much better, but I still have a lot of weeding to go in other places in the yard.

The yucky, weedy mess I let happen...

Looking much better!

I did take some down time in the afternoon to watch some TV and finish up most of the picture frames in my little great room project.

My big picture project is finally completed!

Part of my "dog" wall.

Some more dog pics and the letters are the first initals of the dog's name.

When I went to check on the dogs in my front room, I found Lilly had pooped and puked all over the place. I decided now was as good as time as ever to start cleaning house. I was able to dust all the rooms, sweep and mop the front room, bathroom, and all bedroom floors, do some dishes, and pick up in most rooms of the house before calling it a night.

As for eating recently, it has been a toss up. I'm giving myself a few days to eat sometimes good and sometimes not so good. On Monday July 2nd, it is back to trying really hard though so I can meet my summer break goals.