What no blogging?

Sorry.....been a small delay in the blogging lately.

I have lots of subject matter.  Lots of pictures to download.  Just haven't found the time to do it.

Life is busy.....I'm sure it's that way for all of us. 

I've been doing a great job of walking every morning -- yay me!

Stay tuned.....keep checking in.  I've gots lots of things I want to share with you!

Today's forecast:

According to the Weather Channel it's:  Abundant Sunshine.  High 70.

Wow....sounds like a gorgeous day to me.  Glad we're not in the path of the hurricane.  Which reminds us of another story.

In February in the year of Hurricane Katrina....we went to New Orleans.  In September of that year....they got destroyed by a hurricane.

In March of this year we went to New York City....in October they are about to get hit with a huge hurricane.

Don't want to alarm anyone....I wanted to take Paul to Miami for his birthday in December....maybe Miami better be on alert about June of next year.

My forecast for today:  Pay bills.  New customer packets.  First of the month stuff.  Miscellaneous catch up stuff. 

A proud achievement

It's great when you actually get something accomplished that you've been planning for a long time.  The boys have only been gone for 2 years now and we've finally finished their makeovers!
Aaron's room was turned into Paul's new office.  He loves it.

Cris' room was just magically transformed into our new guest room (and Paul or Debbie's room when one person wants to watch TV in bed and when one person doesn't OR when one person snores and the other person just really is trying to get some sleep).

The walls have been painted, the furniture painted, a new bed, carpets shampooed, new ceiling fan, new window treatments.....and it's finally done!  (Well, not exactly......it's walls are still a little naked and we still need to put a chair or something in there.....but hey.....it's done enough that we can start using it).

Here is the final product.....

The entertainment center looks beautiful since I painted it.  It looks a little empty with that tiny TV, but we are planning on buying a new HUGE screen TV for the living room and moving that one upstairs and it will fit perfectly into it's new home. 

Well now we have a beautiful new guestroom ready for guests.  But don't get too excited yet -- no invitations to visit are being sent out yet.  The rest of the house IS NOT guest ready.  But we're working on it.....one small step at a time!

A bed in a box?

We needed a new bed for our brand new guest room.  We looked a couple of places, but one of our biggest problems is we don't have a vehicle to move things in.  I can only get so much in the convertible with the top down -- and I don't think a bed would fit.

So our next option was to start looking at what could be shipped to us and we found a "bed in a box" at Sam's Club.  All the reviewer's were raving at what a great bed it was and how comfortable it was and yada...yada.....yada.  So what the heck.....we ordered it.

It came in two boxes.  One for the frame and one for the mattress.  Believe it or not....here's the mattress in the box.

So we carried it upstairs and began working on it.  It literally took less than 15 minutes to get it all set up.  The frame was like two cot frames that we just unfolded and hooked together.

We then took the mattress out of it's box.

Laid it on the frames -- it was only about 2 inches think.  We cut the plastic wrapper off of it and it started to expand. 

And voila`.......we magically had a brand new double bed.

We have to be totally honest......it was fast, it was easy, it was very reasonably priced, and it's COMFORTABLE!

Setting goals

I've been very jealous for the last couple of months watching my husband get up every single morning (except for maybe 2 of them) and going out walking the neighborhood for an hour.  Well.....I'm not jealous actually -- I am very proud of him for making the decision and sticking to it and he's really starting to drop some extra weight and looking good (you've always looked good to me honey).

So for the past 4 days, I've religiously gotten up and started my morning workouts.  I am finally determined to get rid of all this fat I have (and been embarrassed about) and I'm setting my goals.  I've been on the treadmill 3 mornings and went out walking with Paul this morning.

Remember that blog post awhile back about the exercise room?  Well the room got all trashed again, but we do have a treadmill in there.  I seriously am going to go out and get a bike for that room sometime this next week.  We need to get our excercise room finished and decorated just like we envisioned.  It's nice to have the equipment in there to use -- especially since the mornings are getting a little nippy.

So I figured I would publish my goals here for all the world to see....and to also hold myself accountable IN WRITING.

Goal:  By December 24th:  130 lbs. -- size 10 clothes
(I'm not going to say how many pounds that is to lose because I don't want to embarrass myself any further).

To achieve this goal:

1. I will be exercising every day for at least 1 hour. 
2. I will not drink alcoholic beverages until my birthday (I might actually give myself 2 free days in here -- just to be able to reward myself on this long and difficult journey).
3. I will be a better eater (not doing too bad here already.  Just need a minor tweak or two)

I can't wait to see what I'm going to look like all skinny in all those new clothes I get to buy!

Yay....a reason to get excited!

A vacation is coming!

Well......it's not really a vacation.  It's just kinda like a night off.

But we are getting away for a teeny tiny little bit (that's if all the stars in the universe all form a conga line and sparkle in red, white, and blue!).

The plan:  Austin, Saturday, November 3 through Sunday, November 4th

Well actually, it will probably be very dark when we get to Austin on the 3rd......but that is the day we are arriving.

We'll be driving up after Paul gets off work and heading to Austin....Woo Hoo!  Love going to Austin.  We have a room reserved at the Omni and most of our plans are for Sunday.

Sunday 9am: Staci's Edge is performing at the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure race in Austin.  We've been listening to her for about a year now in other bands and this will be the first time we see her band peform. 

Of course, ya'll remember Paul's favorite picture from when she autographed her CD for him!

After the concert, we have plans to meet up with one of our favorite ex PZ managers for lunch.  He's been in Austin for about 4 years now and we've tried on several occasions to meet up.....and it never seems to work out.  So, we'll try again.

After lunch, we plan on spending time at a restaurant equipment store (of course), but I am also making plans to visit the Austin Antique Mall.  We went there once a couple of years ago and it is a gigantic warehouse FILLED with tons of old stuff.  After striking out in Brenham on that mission, I'm hoping to make some purchases for home decor items.

After that fun filled short weekend.....it will probably be time to head on back home.  Can't leave the natives running the village for very long or we might have problems.

Looking forward to our mini-vacation and some fun time with the husband!

Taking a day off

We were able to take a day off this week.  So the plan was to get out of town.  The safest distance we felt we could go and still be able to keep a check on things was to drive about an hour out of town.

Our destination:  Brenham, Texas

Our plan was to find items to decorate our new guest room with.  We also have a few empty walls here and there that need stuff.  Brenham is known for it's historic downtown and great antique shops. 

I love antique shops!  Not the kind filled with stuffy furniture.  The yard sale kind that's filled with 100's of treasures.  No two stores are alike and you never know what you'll find.

So first stop was a yummy lunch at a little eclectic cafe in downtown Brenham, the Funky Art Cafe.  Paul had a Pumpkin Burger.  It was a veggie burger made out of Pumpkin, Cilantro, Wild Rice, Jalapenos, and Corn.  It was quite delicious.

My choice:  Chicken and Spinach Enchilada Pie.  It was a little casserole with Tortilla Chips, Chicken, Spinach, Sour Cream Sauce, and Monterrey Jack cheese.  My oh my......that was some yummy stuff! 

We both walked out of there full and eager to begin our shopping adventure!

We spent a couple of hours hunting through old books, old dishes, old furniture, and seeing "old" things that sparked memories of childhood.  We didn't really end up with what we originally came for......but we did come with a couple of other unique items.

Paul wanted this stack of old Reader's Digest from the 70's.

He found some really hot and spicy salsa.

And of course, no trip anywhere in the world is ever complete without stopping in a bookstore and picking out a few books (why do we keep buying books??????).

Some of the best paintings are not found on canvas......but on the side of a building.

We met up with our friend who owns the Domino's in Brenham and a quick stop to our most favorite dollar store in the world (that just happens to be in Brenham) and we were ready to head back home. 

The evening was spent with a steak dinner and a movie.  The movie location changed from going to the theater to stopping at Blockbuster and laying in bed watching (much better idea).

Oh how great it was to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of our life.  We had a great day and look so forward to the next!