a little get-together

Tonight we had some people over from Brian's work. It was really really fun! It was the first time we've had a group of people over since we've lived here. We had a cookout and I made my famous crockpot macaroni and cheese (I thought of you, JASE!), thanks to Brian's mom for the recipe! All in all, I believe it was a success. This little group has been hanging out together a lot lately - we've been going to movies and such. They are all such fun people! We're so thankful for good friends!

Last night was movie night with this same group - we went to Downtown Disney and had a blast. :-) The guys do a podcast every week and review whatever movie we saw on Wednesday. I'll have to remember to link up to it at some point.

Tomorrow I'm going to church to SCRAPBOOK! It's so cool - my church has a crop once a month and I've never gone. I'm very excited! Brian is headed to Jacksonville to visit his friend Glenn and I'm just going to stay in Winter Haven for the weekend and hang out with my friends from church. It's going to be a lot of fun! Brian and I will meet back at home on Sunday afternoon for some quiet time together before the work week begins again. It's gonna be a great weekend!

six more pounds!

I weighed in today at the doctor's office (they think I'm crazy because I come in just to use their scale) and I have lost six more pounds! That makes a grand total of 29 pounds lost in almost 4 months. I can't even believe it! I've slacked a bit on the exercise over the last month because it's so horribly hot, so I didn't really expect to lose any. In fact, I was afraid I'd gained! But now I'm right around the same weight I was when I got married. That's a good feeling. To be in the weight range for my height, I need to lose another 29 pounds. It seems like this is the year it's going to happen, finally, once and for all!

Now I can get back into my capri overalls, which is my favorite piece of clothing. :-) The skirt I wore to church yesterday I can pull on and off without unzipping it. It's about time to make a trip to the Goodwill to donate my "fat" clothes, and maybe have some of my skirts taken in. That's a good feeling, too! I guess I'll need to go shopping before too long!

i'm a night owl

It's 12:43 am and I'm raring to go! I swear, around 10:30 at night, I just come alive! I told Brian I need to get a job somewhere working midnights. I'd be great at it!

Anyway, here's a page of Braden I scrapped tonight, just finished it. How CUTE is he??!! I called Brad tonight to wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yes, folks, my little brother is 28 today) and he told me that Braden's latest word is "okay" - but he pronounces it, "doh-tay!" So adorable.

I guess I should try to go to bed. My husband's eyes are closing, LOL. Click on the picture to see it bigger. :-)

a new exercise program (and other stuff)

Sometimes I'll be driving along and think, "I need to put THIS in my blog!" But then I'll forget what it was. Therefore, days go by with no posts from me! (Sorry, Leslie!) haha!

Although, my aunt Linda and uncle Gene and cousin Kay came to visit this past weekend. We had a ball. (My cousin Chris came too, but he's here often.) We ate out, lounged around, told funny stories, discussed books, and laughed and laughed. Then they sang in the first service at church on Sunday morning. They are always so much fun to be around!

We've been hanging out with Tim and Christi some more. They are a lot of fun too, and we have a LOT in common! Tim has a podcast on which he reviews movies, and Brian is on there, too. He says about 4 words each time, haha! Someday I'll remember to link up to Tim's podcast on here.

As it's gotten continually hotter, I've been walking continually less. I really love walking every day, but it was getting so horribly hot, I couldn't get my breath! Then my neighbor told me I should come and exercise at the rehab center at the hospital (she works there). Since my doctor smiles on exercise, he signed the release papers and off I went. It's great! I get to chat with her and the people there and exercise away in the air conditioning! It feels wonderful to get back into it a little more again. P.S. - I got into 3 more old pairs of pants! Now I'm having to wear my belt on the third hole, and not long ago I could barely get it fastened into the FIRST hole! :-) I'll weigh in again tomorrow or Monday.

My writing career seems to be coming to an end at the end of August. The project we were working on (www.beginnersguide.com) ended at the end of June, but there was another project lined up. So we jumped right into that one, but it only lasts for July and August. And there's nothing lined up after that. :-( This project has rewards, though! When you get to a certain number, you get gift cards to various places. I'm going to try for 150 articles in August, so I can get the grand prize of a basket full of gift cards!

BUT - Brian's company got a new building that's really nice and new, and it's literally across the parking lot from the old building. They had an open house last Friday night and I met some potential piano students! I've been missing teaching, so I'm ready to get back into it! I also got to meet more of Brian's coworkers and their wives and families. It was really fun! And since then, we've gotten together with some of them! Yay, more friends!!!!

I guess that's about it! Not too much happening around here, just trying to stay cool! Y'all come and visit, we LOVE having people over! But you might want to wait till summer is over - maybe around the middle of November or so??!!

pirates and other stuff

Well, there's not much to report around here. Life is just progressing as usual, which I guess is good. Brian's company paid for everyone to go see Pirates of the Caribbean on Friday, and I thought it was great! Afterward, we hung out and talked to a couple from Brian's work, Tim and Christi. Brian and Tim are good friends and Christi and I just met last week, but we hit it off. We ended up having dinner with them and it was a great time! It's good to have new friends.

I've noticed lately that there are TONS of weeds in my garden. This does not make me happy. I keep going out there and trying to weed, but we have fire ants and they're EVERYWHERE! You can't even stand on the sidewalk without some swarming around your feet. So Brian went to the trusty Home Depot this afternoon and got some fire ant killer. He spread it this evening and we both watched in amazement as millions of ants picked up the little yellow pellets and carried them back to the ant hills. They should be dead by tomorrow night, and then I can weed. FINALLY! Plus, they ate one of my pentas!!!! >:-(

This weekend, my aunt and uncle and cousin are coming! They're going to stay with us on Friday night and then we're all headed down to Winter Haven on Saturday, then they're singing in the first service at church on Sunday. I can't wait to see them! It'll definitely be a good time.

We watched "The Family Stone" this evening - I thought it was great. Heart-wrenching. Loved it! That's my review. :-) Hope everyone had a great weekend, feel free to leave some comments!!!!

back to life

Well, Brian's back at work. I really loved having him home with me for four days in a row!!!! I've been scrapping all weekend. From Saturday to Tuesday, I did 20 layouts and 8 cards!! I might share a few of them over the next few days.

On Monday night we played cosmic mini golf with some friends and it was a ton of fun! (Cosmic mini golf is when the course is black with a bunch of stuff all around painted in fluorescent paint, and there are black lights only.) I got 2 holes in one! (For me, that's unheard of!) Then last night we went downtown and watched some fireworks with more friends - from where we were we could see the Seaworld, Disney, and Universal fireworks. Universal had the coolest and prettiest ones.

Mostly, B and I just spent a lot of time together over the holiday. It was great. It was especially great because I was gone to Vegas, and when I came back he was on deadline at work, so I didn't see him much for a week!

On Friday night, we went to Chili's for my birthday dinner and I had chips and salsa for the first time in months. Yum! Chili's has the best salsa in the world, in my opinion. Then we went to Bruster's for ice cream - haven't had ice cream in months, either! I got birthday cake ice cream and it had icing in it and it was delish! But it was pretty sweet - I couldn't eat it all at once. :-)

Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday when I was getting dressed to go to the fireworks, I put on a pair of shorts that had been pretty tight before. They were so loose that I could easily pull them on and off while they were buttoned and zipped!! :-D I think I'm done with plus sizes - hopefully FOREVER!!!!

Here's one of my favorite pages I did yesterday. It's me and Sammy taking our Nazarene nap on a Sunday afternoon when we still lived in NY. (You can tell it's NY from all the blankets!)
And here's one I did on Saturday of Braden on his first Halloween!