And the winner is.....

Tim!    Tim, I gave your email address to CSN so they will be contacting you shortly to arrange shipping of your prize!   I used a state of the art system to pick a name, and it worked beautifully!   Wahoo!!    It's fun having someone pick a number for you. :-)

Thank you to everyone for participating in my first giveaway.. I already have another one planned, which I will do within the next month or so.   

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  Mine was fun, but way too short.  I had my stepdaughter this weekend for the first time in over a year, and we had a great time.  I can't believe she's 13...  It is just crazy!   We grilled some chicken, went to Dave & Busters, got a little shopping in, and slept late...  the life of a teenager! HA!   I had a lot more planned but she slept until noon one day, and until 1pm yesterday...    So needless to say, me waking up at 7 or 8 am didn't help me get a lot more done! hehe

I got to go to Whole Foods yesterday, and although it was a fun experience, going with my trusty POINTS calculator was a rude awakening for me.  So many of the foods that I thought would be good for me to eat were way too high in points for me to consider worth spending..  SIGH...  I did find a few new things, but a lot of the dishes I wanted to try were 8 points or more per serving.. NO THANKS!

Again, I apologize for the delay in drawing for the contest - I had forgotten about my half day at work when I mentioned Friday as the drawing day, and then the day just got away from me!
Hope you all have a great day and awesome week!!!

Happy Monday!

Hello to all of you out there in Blog Land!
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was excellent.. busy, but excellent!
I had a half day at work on Friday, so I only had to work until 10:45.. I picked my mom up and we went to the Farmer's Market and Costco.. I got lots of yummy fruits and veggies, and spent very little money.. Love when that happens! Afterwards, I met my friend Laurie at a place called Massage Heights. My friend and I got Laurie a gift card there for her birthday, so I met her there and got a massage too.. what a big sacrifice for me! HA! It was great.. I hadn't had a massage in about 6 months, and it was lovely! We went to Macy's afterwards and I saw the cutest skirt ever... but it was not on sale! I haven't spent more than $25 on an article of clothing for myself since surgery, but I kept thinking about this skirt!! I put it on hold, so i could go home and look for it on eBay and other sites like that to see if I could find it for less than $59.. Nope.. no luck! So, I went back on Saturday to buy it with a 20% off coupon that Jil gave me.. Thanks Jil! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new skirt! :)
On to Saturday - we had a cookout at our house on Saturday.. it was tons of fun, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I just wish I would have been able to spend more time with everyone! I made a pasta salad and Jil made a macaroni and cheese.. then John grilled burgers and hotdogs and bratwurst.. It was nice! :)
Sunday, Jil and I met up with my friend Cindy at Genghis Grill, then we went to Costco again (3 times in a weekend for me!), then off to another Asian Market and the Mediterranean Market in town. I'm going to make a pho soup this week.. it's a delicious Vietnamese soup if you haven't heard of it... I can't wait! :) Later that evening, it was off to the movies to go see Iron Man 2. I really enjoyed it. Robert Downey, Jr. is a good actor, and I'm glad he got his life put back together (or at least the appearance of it!). Glad to see he's working again, and had some great blockbusters!
Wow, I'm a rambler! :)
Well, today it's back to work, and I have another half day this Friday! Tomorrow I am going to my 2nd cooking class ever, and it's a Healthy Baking class... I'll be sure to give an update on that! :)
xoxo to you all!
Laurie

Monday..

Happy Monday to you all! I hope it was a lovely weekend for you. Mine was nice.
On Friday night, John and I went to dinner with some friends. It was delicious, yet sinful!
Saturday morning, I met one of my friends at 24 Hour Fitness and we did the Muscle Blast class together. OMG... It was a tough workout!! After the Muscle Blast, I hopped on the elliptical for 30 minutes so I'd get my cardio in as well. So, all in all, a 90 minute workout.. yay for me!! After that, two of my friends met me at my house and we went to the Farmer's Market and an Asian Market. I bought a ton of fresh produce for very little money, along with 2 lbs of fresh shrimp, a bunch of different mushrooms and some rice noodles at the Asian Market. I'm going to make a hot and sour soup recipe that I found that looks delicious! I'll let you know how it turns out, and will post the recipe if it's yummy!
Sunday, I was supposed to go to the beach with my friend, but I canceled on her. I looked in the laundry room, and it was piled high. All my gym clothes and a lot of my work clothes (and John's) were needing to be washed, and I didn't want to be up all night doing laundry. Thankfully she understood, and we can go down another weekend! :) It was a beautiful day though, and it would have been great beach weather! The only time I left the house was to go get John a cherry limeade since he was working in the yard.
My DVR is getting jammed up with shows, so I've been trying to catch up. Last week I started Vampire Diaries (until last week, I had only seen the pilot)... and now I'm only 2 episodes behind. I really like the show, and am glad that I kept taping it even though I got so far behind. I love teenage shows and movies.. I'm a sucker for them. I loved Dawson's Creek and The O.C... and this is kind of a vampire spin.. haha! Plus, I love the Twilight series... Yeah, I'm one of those! heheh
Anyway, here we are, back to Monday. I forgot my clean gym clothes at home, so if I have time to make it home and back up to the gym to meet my friend, I have a class to go to tonight, and then my elliptical afterwards.
I've noticed that I've been RAVENOUS lately... I'm sure it's all the muscles wanting fuel, but damn it, I want to not be hungry! LOL

Hope you all have a great Monday... just 4 more days till the weekend! :)

Reunion.... I went!

Yes.. I know.. It's a little late for a weekend update, but that's me... late! LOL A lot has happened in the past week of my little old life, and I have to share it with my bloggy friends.

First - The puppy. He's so freakin adorable! We took him to the vet on Friday, and he had a little bit of a runny nose. They gave him antibiotics, but come Friday evening, he was coughing a lot, and having a general rough time. Saturday morning, I took him back to the vet, and he was running a slight fever, but they said to let the antibiotics run their course. Thankfully, he's feeling better now. I almost cried at the vet because they injected him with fluids to prevent dehydration. Wow, the yelp was painful for me even! :( He's shown dramatic improvements though. It was scary for me because he's so young and not fully vaccinated yet. He gets round of shots in two weeks when he goes back. I will have pictures up soon, but my mom has my camera charger, and she's up in New York right now.

Ok, regular weekend stuff. I took a vacation day last Friday, because I still have roughly a week left, and we don't have any travel plans for the holidays as of yet. The day ended up being a day of errands and not so fun stuff though. I had to take my car in to the body shop, because I got into a small fender bender two weekends ago (not my fault!) lol! Then, we had the vet visit.. and then my head decided to start aching really bad, and I had a nasty sinus headache. We went to the Aeros game that evening and it was not so fun, just because with the cold of the arena and my head hurting, I was just feeling a little miserable. While there, though, I ran into my ex husband's first ex wife (I'm #2, and he's currently on wife #3!LOL). She came down to sit with us for the third period along with her husband. I like them both a lot! :) Super nice! I also got to get updates on Emili, my step daughter. I know she's not OFFICIALLY my stepdaughter anymore, but she always will be in my eyes, and thankfully in her eyes too! :)

Saturday, Mojo and I went to visit the vet again.. and I ended up with another long nap because of that dreaded headache still being around. Then, that evening John and I went to my 15 year makeshift high school reunion. It was just at a little dive bar, and it was really nice getting to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in 15 years. It was still quite clique-ish, but I got to visit with the people that I still consider friends all of these years later. I got lots of compliments, so that felt great! : -) The picture above is John and me at the reunion. Isn't he handsome? :-) And no, he refuses to smile in pictures... he's crazy like that!LOL

Sunday was a lovely day... one of those days where you just stay in pajamas all day! I played cafe world on facebook.. that stupid game that I love! I got some laundry done... and in general just relaxed!

Fast forward to hump day this week, and the week is almost over.. hurray! I have a half day on Friday this week, so it'll be nice to get an early start to my weekend. No hockey games this weekend, but I am looking forward to getting some more relaxing time in, and playing with the dogs!

Work is still really busy, but I am finding that I am able to breathe a little easier, and I'm not so overwhelmed... Whew!!!

Weekend Update

Good afternoon, one and all! I know this has been one of my first weekend updates in quite some time, and I am truly sorry for that. The weekends of the past few months have been basically packing, having a garage sale, moving, being in a wedding, unpacking, BBQing with friends, etc..
Last Friday, I left work at 11 am because I had so many extra hours. I took my mom on a lunch date (and dinner with leftovers) to Olive Garden, and then took her grocery shopping. I actually took a snooze in the car while she shopped because I was in a Benadryl haze.. my sinus headache was gone when I woke up, though. Woo hoo!
Friday evening was quiet and relaxing.. we didn't do much of anything. I actually went back to bed when I got home from my mom's, and slept until 8pm. Amazing how the body knows precisely when to shut down on you! LOL At least I am well rested for the moment!
Saturday morning, I woke up early and went to the grocery store. I picked up several things for breakfast and made bacon, eggs and hash browns for breakfast... John had some orange juice, and I had some Pomegranate tea.. Yum!
Saturday evening, John and I went to Jil's house.. She made some enchiladas that were tasty! I made a banana creme pie that was pretty tasty, but too sugary and made me dumpish! lol
Sunday, I started a project with my coupon clipping (organizing them! ha!), got bored with that, and started laundry and working on unpacking those last few pesky boxes. My kitchen needs help, as I have a lot of stuff, but am wanting to get rid of some more things too.. With kitchens, it's hard telling what you're going to need.. and you will likely never need it unless you get rid of it! ahh! lol
Anyways, I'm back at work... I survived my crazy weeks at work, and have roughly a week or so before life gets crazy again at work. At least I have job security, I suppose!

Hope you're all doing well!

I'm Still Alive

Hi ladies and gentlemen! :-)
I'm still unbelievably busy at work, and I'm wondering when it's going to calm down a bit. Then, I started realizing that it's officially the "busy season" where I work.. so a long explanation short, it'll slow down in December! :( At least soon I will only have MY job, not training others. Hopefully! :)

I'm doing crappily on my challenge. I'm getting lots of movement and exercise in, but it's not all at the gym, so I feel like I'm cheating. Yeah, I know, I'm dumb sometimes.. but that's just how I am! Can't help it! LOL Yesterday my "activity" was trying on every item in my closet so my friend could tell me if it looked ok on me or if it was time for retirement. I was able to pass on a large lawn bag of clothing to someone in need (Kim J, I did look for you, but didn't have anything unfortunately! :( ).. Yeah, it was a pain in the butt, but my closet is already looking so much better now. Huzzah! Next week: Purses, shoes and my dresser purging... What fun will that be!? Anyone need purses or shoes? LOL I'm a size 8 in shoes.. may have some 8.5s.

I know it's Tuesday already, but didn't give my weekend update! haha Friday, John and I went to dinner at a little Vietnamese place... sooo yum and so healthy! Then, we went and had a few drinks with some of his work friends.. lol Spoiled that healthiness, didn't I? I DID go to the gym Friday and got a good elliptical session in though.. :)

Saturday, we slept till NOON! I told you guys I've been super exhausted lately, I wasn't kidding!! Soon after we got moving, we headed to Michelle's house for a Harry Potter marathon. I told you I've been reading the series.. I'm finally on Book 7, just one chapter into it, but still! So, we watched movies 2-4.. 5 I have at my house to watch, and 6 comes out in theaters next week.

Sunday, we went to brunch at Baba Yega. It was delicious.. A total waste, but delicious. They have a bad ass buffet, that I have passed over the other two times I've been there, but this time, I wanted to try it, damn it! I didn't get ill, and didn't overeat, and it was just wonderful! They had all sorts of yummy fruit and salad, a meat bar, eggs benedict and florentine, an omelet station, etc. I tried a tiny bit of almost everything. YUM! After that, I finished my HP book 6 that I was on, and took a nap.. You've got to freakin be kidding me... i feel like an old lady with all my naptimes in lately!!! Geez!

Well, that was my weekend in a nutshell? And how was YOUR weeekend? :-)

My personal projects for the week:

• Step up my challenge and feel good about what I'm doing for activity
• Step up my water drinking (I confess, there hasn't been ONE day where I've gotten 64 oz of water in post op)
• Try to find a little more balance with my activities. I'm running myself into the ground, and I don't like feeling like that!

Till tomorrow... I'm still working on catching up on my blog reading as well!

hugs to all! :)
Happy Tuesday!

M.I.A!

Sorry all... I've been missing in action. Yesterday I was down for the count with a terrible sinus headache. I was in bed all day long... ugh!

Work is still crazy busy. We are at full staff again finally, but two are still in training, so it's still going to be crazy for the next month for me. Sigh... at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

My weekend was nice and relaxing. I got lots of walking in... We went to see Star Trek on Friday, and I am TOTALLY not a trekkie, but it was enjoyable. Back in the 80's when I was a kiddo, I went with my sister and some neighbors to see Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. There was a scene were some bug crawled out of somebody's ear.. It haunted me for weeks, and ever since I had not watched anything Star Trek because of that damn bug.. so I guess it wasn't for weeks that it haunted me... but decades!! Well, guess what made an appearance in the damn movie? LOL THE BUG, or whatever it was.. This time I closed my eyes.. Yes, I'm quite a bit older, but I still have crazy dreams.. Oompa Loompas and Smurfs will give me nightmares if I'm exposed to them too long! AHHH!! Anyways, back to the point.. With the exception of the bug, I really liked the movie.. There was humor in it, and the cast was good.

Saturday, we took my mom out for dinner at Pappasitos.. it's a really good Tex-Mex restaurant here in Houston.. It was quite tasty. Besides that on Saturday, I got a haircut, walked, napped, and read Harry Potter book 5.

Sunday, John and I went to Central Market so he could see the Wall of Beer... I added some beers to the cart for him to try, and we just walked around the store quite a bit.. It was crowded, and that's always a good place to people watch, which is one of my hobbies.. lol... After that.. I napped.. and read Harry Potter book 5. Seeing the pattern here?

Anyways... I'm still exhausted!! I failed my challenge yesterday b/c I didn't even make it in to work. I made up for last Thursday's miss, and I will make up for today's... I know overall the challenge was a bust for me, but I'm keeping up with it anyways for me! :)

I am WAY WAY WAY behind on reading blogs... I will try to catch up soon.. I miss reading and feel so out of the loop! :(