Weekly Progress

I got my first weekly progress report from FitBit. Not bad, if I do say so myself. I've been working really hard on shedding the weight and getting my strength back. Ultimately, I'd like to be strong enough to do Christmas in NYC again. I haven't done it since before my accident, and it's one of my favorite things to do. It's all walking though.

A Spoon Full Of Sugar...

I've been doing TONS of stuff lately. I've been a busy busy girl. Great for me, not so great for my blog. By the time I actually sit I'm generally way too tired to do much of anything. I've actually been sleeping lately too. Crazy, I know!

But, I've been committed to getting this baby caught up! So at the very least I'm pumping out some little blogs before I fall-out, rather than a long catch up. If anything, I am adaptive!

I'm currently armed with coffee and a can-do attitude! I've had a really scattered morning. I got allergy testing yesterday which was terrible. I had to get the scratch test and injections, because my control didn't work on the scratch test, and then I wound up reacting to everything and my immune system freaked out. I'm allergic to pretty much everything but mold. It's pretty bad, and I'm not quite sure how it's even possible considering all the steroids and immunosuppresants I'm on. I'm going to try allergy shots since my insurance is willing to cover it in full, and there's a chance they could help calm my psycho immune system down.

It was all riled up last night from the testing and I felt super shitty all night. I hid in bed and slept. I'm still not at 100% today. I've been all over the place trying to find something that I feel well enough to do. I worked on my magnet board for a bit, but ran out of magnets. Started taking a walk, but by lap two decided I really wasn't up for that yet, and it seems I decided just in time as it's pouring now. I did my chores around the house, but that didn't take long. So now here I am working on this!

I finally got my garden going! It looks great. It started out looking like this:

But, after a ton of hard work it looks like this:

It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I'm incredibly proud of it. I never would have been able to accomplish this last year.

I have even more pepper and tomato plants in my Pop's garden out back. I ran out of room.

I saw a quote that I think really encompassed some of my feelings about gardening.

Gardening is a huge investment, and sort of ties you down to the area you're in. I think there's a sense of home attached to it, as well as future. It's a long term commitment for reward.

We have a ton of interesting plants along the woods-line of our property. I know what some of them are, but not all. I went out the other day and took pictures of a bunch of interesting ones. I want to try to identify some of them, and some I just took pictures because they're pretty. I'll put a blog up full of them in the future. I need to finish editing them.
I've been nursing a wicked sun burn. I set up a yard sale outside the other day, and it was cloudy out so I didn't bother with sunscreen. Yeah, terrible idea. I learned my lesson on that one. My skin is so sensitive from all of my medicine too which doesn't help. I had nausea and chills from it. Not my idea of a good time. I've been seeing a lot about the woman with MS who got over-heated outside a few days ago and wound up dying. Scary shit, and a brutal reminder that even though I'm feeling better I can't under estimate the heat and what it does to my diseases.

It's supposed to be cooler out the next few days which I'm looking forward to.

Our hummingbird feeder is becoming a busy place! I see a hummingbird there about once an hour now. It's pretty cool. Tuxington enjoys watching them. And by enjoys, I mean he wants to eat them.

Anyways, time to get busy again. I shall leave you all with this educational food for thought on sugar intake. I quit drinking soda awhile ago, and that alone has made a huge difference in my calorie intake. It's ridiculous how much sugar is in it!

Harmony Bear

Yeah, yeah. Save it; I know. I'm a slacker. I've been meaning to blog all week. And once you get behind on something like this every passing day makes it harder and harder to catch up. Which makes it subsequently easier and easier to procrastinate. It's a vicious cycle. Plus I've been on the move. I've been a busy girl. I haven't even been sitting enough to write this damn blog lately.

Today's been a bit of a lazy day though, so it was about damn time I do some writing. I have a wicked sunburn that I'm pouty about, and I finally slept decent for the first night in weeks. My walk was cut short by a torrential down pour, and I have yet to get back out there. I'll be amazed if I come in under my calorie goal today, especially tracking wise because I have my FitBit on the charger for awhile. Shit happens. Lazy days that are the exception to the rule won't wreck the goal.

Memorial Day

Every year there seems to be confusion about just what this holiday is all about.

Many businesses close, a number of people get the day off of work. We have picnics, parties, fireworks. Get drunk, open the pool. Light up the grill. For many it's the official start of summer.

Memorial Day is in honor of all of our troops that gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country. All of the sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives that didn't come home to their loved ones.

I can't imagine the pain of that loss.

No Rest for the Wicked

So, my FitBit is pretty damn awesome. I synced it with my FitnessPal app that I've been using off and on for a few years. I'm suddenly a calorie burning machine! But no, it's pretty awesome. It holds me accountable for burning more than I take in, and keeping moving.

I love that it tracks my heart and my sleep for my doctors, and helps motivate me with badges and bullshit. I don't see a 10k step badge in my near future yet though.

I pulled some tickers and badges from the FitnessPal app to put on my blog so all of you can see my progress on my journey as well! That should help hold me more accountable too.

I didn't take an Ambien last night, and as usual lately I didn't sleep for shit. Now you can all see just how fabulously I sleep.

Mail Timeeee!

What a day! I should have taken Ambien last night again. I didn't sleep for shit. I was up most of the night. I gave up earlier than usual and got up and got started on my chores for the day awhile. Around 9am I ran out with my grandmother to the post office and the pharmacy.

The post office was exciting! I had tons of coupons in the mail, my FitBit, and my HDMI splitter came already! I also got a giant pack of paper work to fill out for the digestive diseases doctor. Not looking forward to getting that done. Not doing it today. I'm too tired to focus. My appointment isn't until August, but I need to get it done awhile because they have me on their cancellation list and it's not anything that can get done last minute.

When I got home I cut up and sorted the new coupons, and went through and tossed some expired ones I had in my bag. 

Bloomin' Bullshit

Yesterday turned into a busy day.

My Pop's been socializing with the construction crew that rebuilt our local bridge pretty much since day one. He watches them work and bullshits with them. They've been working on black topping the past few days, and yesterday he was talking to them about how he wants to get stone for our drive way because it's getting such bad dips and holes. Didn't they bring their equipment over and fill in and tamp down all of the problem areas for free. It was really nice of them.

Fawn

I saw this this morning and I can totally relate to it:

Chris says that's giving my grace too much credit, dick.

A Different Person!

When we were in Redner's yesterday looking for sauce for our wings, a lady approached us and asked if we remembered her. My response was, 'No, but that's not saying much. I don't remember any one.' Hah! I looked to Chris for respite and he looked just as confused. It turned out she was the employee of a local dollar store we go into occasionally. She apparently quit a few weeks ago. Once she said that, I could place her. She then said when she was first approaching us she noticed Chris right away, but until she saw my face she thought he was with a different woman! Haha. Apparently I've lost that much weight. It was pretty flattering and she went on about it for awhile. No one else around me has really mentioned my weight loss at all. I'm usually the only one that brings it up. So, it was nice encouragement. I mean, sixty pounds is a lot, but sometimes it's easy to lose the sense of accomplishment when you look at how far you still have to go.

After talking about taking advantage of sales and loyalty offers last night I decided it was time to actually use my Wal-Mart app. I've been saying that I wanted to try their 'savings catcher' since this past October. Hahaha. My Aunt has saved like 100$ with it already. I'm going to try to add my Mom and grandmother's receipts too since they don't bother with technology. It's really easy to add the receipts to your account. You can either scan the QR code or you can type in the barcode number at the bottom. If anything was on sale/cheaper anywhere else they give you the difference that you can accumulate.

Iced Coffee

Our local grocery store recently started carrying a new brand of coffee in their milk section called StoK. It's a cold-brew black coffee with a slightly sweet variation as well. It seems that they make even more variations than my local store carries right now.

It's amazing.

It's everything I've been looking for in an iced coffee. Since it's black cold-brew you can make your iced coffee however you damn well want. Strong, light, add flavor, whatever. Chris and I generally like our iced coffee pretty differently so it works for both of us.

May Flowers My Ass!

According to a local newspaper it's rained 16 of the past 22 days in our area. I like the rain, but c'mon! It makes gardening tricky, shopping annoying, and yard sales damn near impossible.

And I need to have some damn yard sales. Shit, I'm still finding more stuff to sell as I keep organizing.

Chris and I went out around 1:30 to do errands today and didn't get home until around 5. The sad part is that we're home because we're broke, not because I got everything done. This has been a running trend the past few weeks fueled by spending 100$ on dry food alone for the animals. It lasts forever, but it's a bitch when we have to get it. You can get a smaller bag for less of an immediate investment, but you wind up paying over 50$ extra long-term. Plus we were totally out of litter, treats, and wet food on top of it. Daisy and Tux soon need their yearly exam and boosters too. Having pets and properly caring for them is not cheap. And yes, sometimes we go without so they can have what they need. This has been one of those times. We'll be caught up eventually. My list has grown shorter at least.

I did manage to get some supplies to work on a really cool organizing project for my make-up and beauty supplies. I'm making a magnet board! Painting some aluminum dark purple to contrast our bedroom wall, and then using magnets and what not I'm going to hang my make-up. If it's half as cool as I think it's going to be I'll be happy. And it'll open up another drawer for organizing clothes. I feel like I'm never going to be finished organizing this house.

Also, we got a hummingbird feeder! I've been wanting one for a long time and they had one really nice glass one on super-cheap clearance at the pet store. I couldn't resist. We need to find something to hang it from though. I'd really like to put it in our front yard. My Pop likes to chill on our front porch, and we sit out there too. And Tuxington likes to watch the birds out the screen door. I've seen hummingbirds buzz past out front before. I guess we need to find something like a pole for hanging flower baskets from? We don't have a tree there to hang it from. 

Split Combo

It's been a quiet week as expected. I've mainly just been doing a ton of cleaning and organizing projects. Tackled the entertainment center again last night which had me ridiculously frustrated. I hate wires, a lot. I need to get an HDMI splitter at Best Buy this weekend so I can have all the devices plugged into the TV. Finally set up Chris' PS2. Once everything is all plugged in I want to tidy up the wires. I still need to find a VHS player too. Maybe I'll see if Best Buy has one cheap. The internet is making it look like you can only get combo players, and I need another DVD player like I need a hole in the head. Plus they're way over-priced. I was expecting to find a simple VHS player somewhere for like twenty bucks, bah.

Getting a FitBit is very much on my to-do list as well, it would really help me track things for my doctors. I need to have another yard sale. It's so hard to try to pick a weekend to do it. It's so much to drag down from the attic if the weather's going to suck. We've had non-stop rain here lately.

My Mom's down for work for the weekend as usual. Scotty is here too. He looks very handsome with his haircut. My Mom sent me this pic a few days ago, but it doesn't do it justice.

He's really growing. I may have to kidnap him. He has a really adorable personality.