42 pounds

That's how much I've lost in the last year. I lost the majority of it from April to October, then maintained for several months, which I've never done before. Sometimes I still can't believe it.

But now I'm ultra-motivated since we've booked the cruise. I've been walking like crazy and doing tons of Pilates, which I really love. Today I tried on some old dresses, and every one of them fit, and a few of them were too big! I fit perfectly into my "little black dress," the dress I wore for my senior recital in college. (Yeah, that was 1995. I'm hoping little black dresses never go out of style.)

Brian found out yesterday that he has high cholesterol. It's not REALLY high, in fact, it's considered borderline high - but his LDL and HDL are flipped. So we'll be eating extra healthy to get those numbers fixed.

I've done pretty much nothing all day today - except weigh myself and try on some dresses from my closet. I feel lazy - the weather is rainy and cloudy and dark. I think I'll go do some Pilates and then take a shower. Tonight we're going to some friends' house to play games.

what's the deal?

OK, I'm about to stop watching Idol. Seriously! What's the deal? Sanjaya should have gone home AGES ago!!!! :-( It's starting to really make me mad. I mean, he's not even in the bottom three! UGH!

Brian says that Howard Stern is encouraging people to "vote for the worst," the worst being, of course, Sanjaya. That just makes me so mad! But I know he does it just to rile up people like me!

Anyway, I've had the same top three from the beginning. (Like since the very first auditions, even before Hollywood.) Usually I start changing my mind about people by now, but I haven't done that this year. Here are my top three:

Melinda
Lakisha
Blake

There are several others that I like, but those are my top three, with Melinda being my #1 pick.

I would love to stay around and discuss more, but I've gotta jump in the shower before my piano students get here! More to come.

happy birthday, brian!

Today is the 33rd birthday of my sweet love, the light of my life - Brian. I went out this morning and got donuts for him to bring in to work (and I had one, of course. First donut I've had in over a year!) B, I hope you have an awesome day!

It's also my wonderful friend Sera's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SERA! I hope you have a fabulous day, too!

I have lots of fun news to report! First of all, it was a year ago today that I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I never imagined this was where I'd be a year from then, and I'm so thankful I'm much healthier and happier. And I feel a TON better! :-D

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Ft. Myers and spent some time with Nan and Pops. Their birthdays are a week apart, so we celebrated them while we were there:



They were both 83 this month! Don't they look great?!

And my most favorite news of all: WE BOOKED A CRUISE YESTERDAY!!!! Wooooooo! We're going on a Caribbean cruise at the end of April. We've been planning this cruise for awhile, and we were gonna go for our anniversary in October. But then our wonderful friends, Jason and Alicia, called and said they were going to be in our part of the country (they live in California), and so we decided that we should ALL go on the cruise together! We are so BEYOND excited. Jason and Alicia lived near us in New York, and Jason and Brian worked together. We hung out with them quite a bit - we share a love of cats and cards, among other things! They moved to California about the same time we moved to Florida, so we haven't seen them since the summer of 2005. So we are VERY excited about this vacation!

We're going to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. Brian and I are trying to decide what fun things we want to do at each stop. So if any of you readers (as if there ARE very many readers of this blog!) have been to any of these places and have recommendations, email me! We'd love some input. We are so so so excited!

OK, well I'm going to have to go walk off that donut. Plus we're having company for dinner tomorrow night, so I need to clean up a little bit. And Sam is BEGGING for attention. Everyone have a wonderful day, and I'll try not to wait so long in between posts! See ya!

lylas, jen

I was sitting at my scrap desk on Sunday afternoon, working on this layout:



...when I received the news that Jenni's father-in-law had passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer around Christmastime, and he had been very sick. Brian and I were so sorry to hear this sad news. Eric and Jen, we're praying for you guys and we love you.

for some reason...

...I think it's absolutely hilarious to jump out and scare Brian as he comes in from work. :-) A few weeks ago, I stood inside our tiny pantry and scared the crap out of him! And for some reason, after I do it, I just dissolve into laughter! I mean, I think it's funny, but after I've scared him, it's just the funniest thing in the world! I did it tonight, but he came around the corner looking for me because Max was staring at me. Max gave me away! =^..^=

Well, this past weekend was busy busy busy, again. On Saturday I went to the Scrapbook Expo at the Orlando Convention Center. I went with my friend Tiffany (her husband works with Brian) and while we were there, we met up with Christy, a girl I know from online at Lifetime Moments. Christy lives in Tampa and is just the most adorable. We only got to hang out with Christy for about an hour, though. But Tiff and I had a ton of fun and probably spent too much money! I'll have to take a picture of my stash and post it.

After I dropped Tiffany off at her house (we stayed almost till the end of the Expo), I rushed to church for rehearsal. It was a really fun rehearsal and the guy who used to play piano with us was there, so he stayed after rehearsal and showed me a few jazz chord voicings that I wanted to know. So I got home really late. And we got up early of course, headed to church, did the rehearsal/sound check/service, then had lunch with our guitarist & drummer, then went to my cousin's for a little while, and then back to church for more rehearsals. It was revival weekend and we combined with the musicians from the first service for Sunday night's service. It was really fun and I thought pretty much everything went well.

Needless to say, Monday I was exhausted! Tuesday I went to Winter Haven for vocal rehearsal, and then I went shopping. Again. I went shopping last week too, but haven't blogged about it yet! Anyway, over the last week, I've gotten 3 pairs of capris, 2 skirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 tops, and one pair of shoes. I think I'm just about done shopping for awhile - I could still use a few more tops, though. :-) I love shopping now that I can fit into stuff! By the way, it looks like I'm down another size! I can't even believe it.

Well, it's about time for me to get dinner. It's almost done - Dream Dinners Orange Mongolian Beef with rice and veggies. I'm starved!