Oh Kim

I think I may be carried away with the packing. Tomorrow is February 1. We move on February 25. I have probably packed 30 boxes in the last 48 hours. It's not a bad thing, but if I keep up this pace, I am going to have to unpack before we even move because everything we need will be in boxes! Or I could just keep packing and buy some paper plates. Hmm.

We have some winter weather headed our way this evening. There is a chance of schools closing one of the next two days. I can't begin to tell you how an unexpected day off would feel. I would pack the entire second closet. That would rock my world. The temperature is currently 49º, but it is dropping and is going to continue dropping until 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday when it hits a low of 15º. The high for Wednesday is 21º. Precipitation most of that time. But this is Texas. We could wake up to sunshine...

I guess I should head to bed since I'm sure I will be getting up for work. I'm just not lucky enough for winter weather that is wintry enough to keep me home in my warm bed. Sigh.

Thinking About Friends

I had dinner at my parent's house tonight. We were celebrating my niece's 8th birthday. I can't believe she is 8 years old!!! I remember when Madilyn was 8 days old and we weren't sure she was going to survive. She was born three months early and spent the first three months of her life in a hospital learning to breath on her own. Those were dark days. I can't imagine my life without her and I am thankful for every moment I have with her. And it's funny to be around her. Her mom and I are a lot alike, so I can see a lot of myself in Madilyn. Some of the faces she makes, and her reactions. And we cry JUST alike. It's weird!

I always feel good when I leave a family hangout. Ya know, everyone has different sides to their personality. And I think that different people bring out different sides in us. Showing your different sides to different people doesn't make you false. If anything, I think it makes us more genuine. Because not all personality traits are appropriate in every situation...

I love my college friends because they make me laugh as much as they let me laugh. I am the lightest side of myself with my college friends.

I love Jennifer because she lets me get angry. Anger is not an emotion that I always know how to deal with. It is FAR from my go-to emotion. But sometimes it is an appropriate reaction. And Jennifer never judges me for showing my anger. She always understands it and helps me deal with it.

I love Jenina because she lets me dream. Jenina is someone who I can speak my hypotheticals out-loud to, and she never makes me feel stupid about my hopes and plans. She is a dreamer herself, who has made lots of her dreams come true. Sometimes it is inspiring just to be with her.

Jeff lets me be sincere. We are both people who recognize and are touched by people's kindness. It is always uplifting to spend time with Jeff because we spend our time lifting up other people.

My family lets me be dumb. I'm sure there is a prettier way to say that, but that's the best word coming to mind right now. There is no pressure to be learned or eloquent when I am with them. They understand me in a way that no one else can. And of course, like all families, they don't understand all of me. That seems to be just how families work.

And of course, my sweet husband. He lets me be silly, when I need to be. He lets me cry when the stress is too much. He lets me be sexy. We are still newlyweds, and he doesn't know what to do with some sides of me. But he is determined to love them all.

I hope everyone has a good week! I packed about 20 boxes this weekend. The stack of boxes is rapidly growing, but the apartment doesn't look any different yet. What's up with that??? haha. I don't care. I love to pack =-) I am looking forward to the move. Work isn't going to be easy this month. Spring Open-House is a big deal, and there are some tensions in the office that I'm not sure what to do about. I hope there's no drama... so not interested in drama.

Peace out playas!

Closing A Chapter...

I know I've been a bad blogger, but SOOO much has been going on. I can barely find time to think, much less blog these days. After weeks of searching, hours of prayer, too many emails, and one or two tears (of course), we have found a house to rent.

Moving is rarely easy. These days there are tons of houses on the market for sale, but few for rent. Rentals are going fast. And it's a great time to buy. But Brett and I aren't ready to buy. We just aren't. We want to rent before we buy. We went back and forth weighing pros and cons, but we could never get away from the feeling that we should rent first. Learn how to live in a house before we pay thousands of dollars for one.

I'm not going to recount all of the details, but I will say it's been interesting. Lots of ups and downs. I am really happy with the house that we ended up in though. It is a three bedroom, one bathroom with TONS of storage and lots of funky little features that have come to be thought of as awesome by little ole me. Just quirky weird things, like 24 shelves going down the hall that we are going to use to display comic books. You heard me. And a little wood burning stove in the living room that is all kinds of cute. It has a deck and an AWESOME pantry. An island in the kitchen and lots of drawers. I wrote a blog a loooong time ago about how having enough drawers in your kitchen to have a "junk drawer" makes you officially a grown up. Dude. We've got drawers! We could each have our OWN junk drawer if we wanted to! I think the biggest challenge about this house will be the one bathroom. We have been very spoiled newlyweds up to this point with two bathrooms and walk in closets. But we will be a different kind of spoiled now with our three bedrooms. Brett and I will each have a playroom =-) A "man-cave" and "craft room" if you will.

Anyway, I'm VERY ready to sign the papers tomorrow morning. We are going to celebrate tomorrow evening by going to the drive-in. A double feature for $6 per person, and a concession stand that is like all of the best parts of a high school cafeteria. haha. We are going to stay up late, sleep late on Saturday and then start packing. SO ready for that.

I'm off to read a few blogs before I go to bed. I need to quiet my head. Sleep is a must tonight. I have to be in Dallas at 8:00. =-)

I Tried To Watch Some Glee...

But I accidentally hit the channel button on our tv remote and I can't get it to back to where it should be! I tried putting in on 3, on 0, and just scrolling through... nothing! What the heck! Ugh. That's okay... I should be blogging anyway... Brett will fix it when he wakes up.

There was a great quote on the board in my WW meeting yesterday. It said "No one can go back and create a new beginning, but everyone can start today and create a new ending." I like it! I had a loss at weigh in yesterday but just barely. I'm thankful for the loss, but it should have been more. I had a great food week. My problem was the weekend, as usual. I eat too much over the weekend, so on Monday morning I am up a few pounds from where I was when I weighed in on Saturday morning. I know it's just the sodium and extra food in my system, but it takes most of the week to get that out of me and then there's not much time for an actual loss.

But guess what. Yesterday, Saturday, I decided to buckle down and really pay attention to my food and... IT WORKED! The number on the scale was lower today than it was yesterday. Today has been tougher. I had a 4 point breakfast, but then a 16 point lunch that didn't keep me full for very long. I have already had 3 snacks this afternoon, so I know I will be using some flex points for dinner. But it's a new recipe, pork tacos, and it is pretty healthy. I may make rice to go with it, but I may just do a salad instead. Not bad, ay?

I'm struggling with some self doubt. It's time to start applying at schools again, and I'm having flash backs to the difficult moments from last year. Sigh... I would love your prayers on this matter.

Well, I'm off to file some bills before I head to Jenina's 30th birthday party! We have been friends for 23 years. How 'bout them apples!!! Happy birthday sweet girl!

I'm A Bad Blogger

What can I say? I'm so tired. I just read 4 posts and they are the first four I have read all week. I really truly enjoy the blogs that I follow. Some I skip more often than others, but some I never want to miss. They make me smile, encourage me, lead to laughter, and often make me feel better about who I am because I am reminded that there are others like me out there. I want that in my life. I don't encounter it in my day to day life often enough. I don't see my best friends as much as any of us would like, and the people who I do see all of the time are wonderful, but not in a soul-nourishing kind of way. Does it sound like I'm saying that I am lonely? Maybe I am.

The first week of the new year was kind of up and down. Food was great. I didn't get strictly on track until Monday, but Monday through Friday were full of good choices. I still had a gain at Weight Watchers this morning, but it was small, and despite what my little print out said, I did lose weight this week. Just not all of the holiday weight that I allowed to creep in. I plan on having another good week, and I am close enough to hitting 25 pounds lost, that I might make that next Saturday. That would be great.

Since joining Weight Watchers in August, I have always had plan in mind, even when I wasn't following it perfectly. But there is a big difference between going over points knowingly and ignoring the plan entirely. I haven't been ignoring it at all. I could probably find a healthier balance, but this has been manageable, and I could do this 25 pound pattern 3 more times. I'm fairly certain of that. To lose 100 pounds would be wonderful. I will never have a "nice" body. I will forever have loose skin (unless we get rich and I have surgery to get rid of it) and the stretch marks will fade, but never disappear. But maybe I could get to a point where I look "nice" in the right outfit. I wish I were prettier for my husband. I haven't been feeling very attractive this week. But probably more for mental reasons than physical. I made a couple of stupid mistakes. Eh... ya live and ya learn. But Satan loves my stumbles. He is throwing them in my face every chance he gets.

Our lease is up at the end of February. We thought it was up at the end of March. We got our renewal letter yesterday, and our complex no longer offers a 7 month lease, which is what we had decided to plan because the next month and a half are going to be very busy for us as Brett teaches a rather inventive Bible study at church. But when we got our renewal letter, we found that our choices are a 15 month lease for the price we are currently paying, a 13 month lease for $50 more than what we currently pay, or a 10 month lease for $100 more than we are paying. If we signed a 10 month lease, that would have us moving New Year's weekend. Not gonna happen. And $100 more a month on rent would make things incredibly tight for us. So tomorrow we will be driving around looking for rental properties. We hope to find something fast and start packing right away. If we don't choose to renew, but also don't find a new place, paying month to month would cost us an extra $200 a month. I know that God will provide, but we are back to Kim not liking change. I need more time!!! I need time to process and plan. This will definitely be a test for our marriage. How much I can trust in the Lord, and how much my husband can stand me when I don't. Pray for us!

I hope everyone had a great first week of the new year. It's only 8:10, but I'm actually feeling a little feverish. I think I'm going to lay down.

Peace out my lovelies.

New Year's 2010

We had a wonderful weekend in Houston visiting our friend's for New Year's Eve. I may or may not post a "resolutions" post this week, but I do want to say that I am happy right now. It was a good weekend with good friends and Brett and I had some good conversations on the road. I have no idea what 2011 will bring, but I have the absolute best person in the world for me to share it with.

I don't want my first day of work in 2011 to be a sleepy day, so I'm off to bed, but I wanted to post a few pics first. Hope you had a happy new year! We did =-)