December 7, 2024

We drove back to Spring this morning to bring the dogs to Lori’s and pick her up to head to the Design meeting in Escondido. We were planning on telling Kristi that we needed to consider a cheaper house or change some things on the Conway. Things are getting real and this is super scary. We had her take out the flooring update in the master bedroom so it will now have carpet. I was considering going to a lower inspiration package to lower the cost but we decided we wouldn’t be happy with the selections it came with. We both have our hearts set on that deep green tile in the master bathroom and I love that quartz island that comes with the Caves inspiration. The price only came down $5000 but we decided to go for it. We’ll probably need to put more on the down payment but we’re okay with that. I’m horrible at design and color matching so picking the brick, garage door, and paint colors was painful. Ricky likes dark brick and I like light brick. He told me to pick whatever I wanted. I went with a textured brick rather than a regular flat brick and a light stone with some splashes of rust in it. I let Ricky pick the color of the garage door and paint trim. The inside of the house will all be white and we’ll probably paint some of the walls before we move in. We also intended to ask Kristi to throw in blinds throughout the house and, of course, we forgot to ask about them. We are one step closer in this process, yay! Next will be a pre-construction meeting on December 18th. We’ll meet with the builder and confirm anything that we want added. We’re going to ask about moving the clothes rod in the master closet and adding a second rod and adding a table in the laundry room to have something to fold clothes on. We’ll possibly have them do the blocking and whatever else to have the TV mounted on the wall and wires not showing. This is a very stressful process, lol. I’m thankful that David Weekley has gone to the Inspiration packages and I didn’t have to go to a design center and pick out all the individual items for the interior. That would’ve been a nightmare to me.

The stone is Cave Rock Chopped and the brick is Postrock King.

December 2, 2024

It was a long week at work. Worked 3 12-hour days, a 13-hour day, and then 6 hours on call. We did get a lunch break the first 3 days, which was a treat after so many months of not having enough staff to take one. I don’t ever go anywhere for lunch, but it is a nice break out of the office for an hour. It was nice seeing everyone after being off for a week. I’ll really miss my coworkers when I retire. Sunday working my on-call made me appreciate my team even more. My team has the same work ethic I have. We come to work to do our job, and when nothing is happening we socialize. The other team starts the day socializing and standing at each other’s desks then running when the phones are ringing off the wall. I can honestly say I’m not going to miss the feelings I have when I see the people not doing their jobs. We’re all getting paid to answer the phones, even if it’s annoying.

Advent is here and the first week symbolizes Hope. We can have hope in all of our circumstances because Jesus died to reunite us with God. God is always working everything for our good even when we face hardships. God is always faithful.

Although I no longer buy too much for Christmas, I believe I’ve completed all the shopping I’ll be doing. It’s so hard to buy for people these days. Everyone buys themselves anything they really want nowadays. The days of having to save up to buy something you’ve had your eye on are over. I miss the old days. Not to say I don’t appreciate that we don’t struggle the way we used to. Sometimes it just makes you enjoy what you buy when you’ve had to skimp and scrape to save up enough to buy something special. Hopefully, I’ve purchased items people don’t have and they’ll like what I picked out.

November 26, 2024

Today was the last day of my vacation. Back to work tomorrow for 4 days. I tried to open my sunroof on my car yesterday afternoon and it wouldn’t budge. I kept messing with the switch and it finally opened and I heard a pop. I tried to close it and it wouldn’t work. I finally managed to get it almost closed and took it to Philpott. They ended up having to order a part because it was locked up. They offered to give me a loaner but it wouldn’t be ready till today. I went back this morning when they texted the loaner was ready. Brentlie had a vet appointment so I had the dogs with me. They were working on the paperwork and came and told me they charge $200 for pets to be in the car. I told them I would come back later without the dogs. I got back about 1015 and they gave me a 2024 Tucson. It was quite different from my Palisade. I’m very spoiled with all the extras on my car. They had no idea how long they were going to have my car for. I was only home for a little over an hour when they called to say my car was ready, lol. Got my car back and everything was good. Went and got my teeth cleaned, stopped at HEB, then came home. It’s gonna be hard going back to work tomorrow morning. The countdown is on. Four more months!

November 25, 2004

Ricky and I did a thing yesterday. We’ve been house shopping for two years now, preparing for our move after my retirement. We finally made up our minds on the house and city we’ll be moving to. We decided on the David Weekley Conway model. We’ll be moving to the Escondido neighborhood in Magnolia, TX. We wanted a house with a 3-car garage due to not being able to have a building in the backyard. Turns out David Weekley sold all their 50 foot lots that were available by the time we were ready to sign a contract. Then we looked at Perry Homes and were interested in a house that had a porch across the entire back of the house. The price was pretty high for the amount of house we would get so we looked at the David Weekley’s on 60 foot lots. Turns out we could get way more house for the money compared to the Perry. The Conway model automatically comes with a 4-car garage in the 60 foot section and it also has a mother-in-law suite with a bathroom that the Perry didn’t have. We had been dealing directly with the sales women when we were looking in the beginning and I had seen some YouTube videos from realtors saying they could get good deals for people. I called Natasha Tessier who owns Dwell Realty in Montgomery, TX and set up a meeting with her. Turns out we don’t have to pay her anything as the builders have contracts to pay the realtors. Natasha is very nice and knowledgeable about the whole Houston area. We all met in Escondido and looked at Perry and DW homes. After we decided we were going to go with the Conway home we let her know so she could make a deal for us. Kristi Wells, the DW sales lady, told us they don’t make deals on new builds but they had a $15000 incentive. Natasha got her to increase that to $20000 and she said that’s all she could do. On our way home from there we decided we wanted the builder to install a whole home generator so we didn’t have to hire someone to do it later and also because it would be added to the price of the home. This all took place on Friday. We had a conference call on Sunday with Kristi and Natasha and signed the contract and then wired our earnest money. It feels so surreal. I’m beyond excited to start this adventure. Here are a few pictures of the outside, kitchen, master bathroom, and extra bathrooms! Our new address will be 1412 Florecer Lane, Magnolia, TX 77354.

Detox Followup

I finished the 7-day detox last night.  Had a total weight loss of 7 pounds.  Not too bad, I guess.  I have to say it was not easy.  Some of the drinks were really nasty.  I had one that tasted like I was drinking hot sauce straight up, others that tasted like dirt, and some there is no description for them.  I managed to choke them all down, though.  I’m glad I stuck to it.  I only had carbs (brown rice) twice during the 7 days and no sugar.  It has really taken the cravings for sweets away.  For that, I’m very thankful.  I went ahead and set up to purchase 7 days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks through For The Love of Foods to see if I can stick to the healthy eating and get the weight loss back on track.  I’m hoping that I don’t get too many meals with the tilapia because that is one dish they don’t do well.  I want to learn what a full week of healthy eating looks like and maybe I can start implementing it myself.  Not sure yet how much the weeks worth of food is going to cost.

DETOX

Angie asked me if I would be interested in doing a 7 day detox from For The Love Of Foods with her.  Seeing as how I’ve been struggling for about a year now to gain control again, I agreed.  The cost was $150.  I think the price is extravagant, but I need help desperately.  I picked up my first 2 days Wednesday night.  I was surprised that I got 2 actual meals for each day.  They were small meals, but food nonetheless.  Along with that I got 5 bottles of different concoctions to drink. I had a class from 8-5 Thursday and I woke up around 3 that morning.  This was not good since I so little to last me till I went to bed that night.  I went to Delta Life and worked out at 0515 without having anything to eat or drink.  I started the detox at 0700.   The day started with a small bottle of a lemon juice mixture.  That wasn’t too bad since I’ve been drinking a little bit of lemon water every morning for the last 2 weeks trying to detox my liver.  I’m supposed to wait 30 minutes and have drink number two.   It was a little longer than that.   This one didn’t taste bad.  It was some kind of cucumber concoction.  I’m supposed to wait 1-2 1/2 hours between each drink/meal.  Because of the class I waited longer.  My third meal was terriyaki beef and broccoli and I ate it about 1030.  It was delicious.  I was very full from the meal and really didn’t want to eat all of it.  I wanted to save some for later, lol.  Since I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to do that or not, I went ahead and ate all of it.  The fourth meal was a green drink.  I’m not sure what was in it.  This one was a little hard to get down.  We got out of class around 1630 and I ate the fifth meal when I got home.  This one was chicken and asparagus.  I don’t really like asparagus, but I ate it all.  The plan says you should have all of the day’s supply eaten by 1800, but that didn’t happen.  Meal 6 was another juice.  Tonight it was some kind of carrot juice.  This one was hard for me to swallow, also.  Then the last drink of the day is matcha tea.  It is not very tasty, but I drank it all.  Went to bed early and got up this morning to find that class was cancelled.  I made it to Delta Life for 0615 class.  We had 1/3 mile run this morning and I made it in 3:01 minutes.  I had my first drink at 0730.  Second drink was the same as yesterday, the cucumber concoction, around 0815.  Around 1100 I had meal three.  Today it was shrimp and more asparagus.  Meal four was a really sweet pineapple mixture.  Meal five was the same as meal three.  Maybe I’ll learn to like asparagus, lol.  Meal six was a beet juice mixture.  It started off not tasting so bad, but it was really hard to finish it all.  Then matcha tea to end the day.  I really hope that this gives me the push I need to get back on track and lose these extra pounds that are making me so miserable.  Other people that have completed the detox have lost 6-15 pounds.  They say that their cravings also went away.  That’s what I need.  I have a terrible sweet tooth that I have been giving in to for the last year.  Tomorrow will be a real test since I go back to work nights for 12 hours!

IS IT INSOMNIA

Lately I have had a very strange sleeping pattern.  I normally don’t stay on my midnight schedule on my days off.  I’ll take a nap on my first day off and then get up and run errands.  I’ll usually be in bed by 9 or 10 and sleep until about 4:30 when I get up to go workout.  I’ve been waking up at 12:30, 01:00 lately and not being able to go back to sleep.  It’s taking a toll on me.  I can’t seem to catch up on my sleep :(.

We had a nice family visit at Galen’s on the 3rd of July.  His house is WAY out in the boonies, lol.  It was kinda scary making it to his house.  However, we made it and had a good time.  The fish was great and is was nice to see everyone that made it.  On the way home we stopped at visited with Ryan at Corey and Jessica’s house.  They were grilling, but we didn’t stay and eat.  Ricky wasn’t feeling well so we came on home.

It was strange for me to be off on the 4th of July holiday.  Ricky and I just lounged around watching tv for most of the day and then mowed the grass in the evening.  It was scorching outside.

On the 5th I had to work from 0600 to 1200 for Trey.  I’m so glad I don’t work days regularly!  I love my nights.

This morning I made it back to Delta Life.  It is so hard working out in the heat, but at the same time it feels great when we’re done.

Today is a new beginning……again!

Trying once again to get back on the wagon.  I’m still working out regularly, but have managed to get totally off-track and out of control with the eating again.  I don’t know if I’ll get this game of life figured out!  I sabotage myself every time I get ahead.  I know it’s a mental game that I’ve got to get a hold of.  How can it be so hard to just say no to all the bad things I put in my mouth.  I do it time and time again, knowing the damage I’m doing.  I can’t seem to stay consistent on anything.  Just like saying I was going to write something on here every day.  I do it a couple of times and then forget.  Well, I’m going to try again!  Today, after having a sleepless night and finally giving up at 1:30, I got up and surfed the internet for a while, had a protein bar and waited for it to be time to go to Delta Life.  I had some pre-workout about 5:45 and went to workout for 6:15.  I love going to Delta Life. I usually feel really good about my workouts.   It was very hot this morning and we had to do the 1/3 mile for the first time in a very long time.  My time was 3:07, which is a lot slower than it was the last time we ran it.   I was still ahead of all but one other member.  We had a benchmark workout Friday and it took me a lot longer to complete it than the last time as well.  This extra weight and the heat are making a big difference in my performance.  Any way, maybe I’ll get it together.  In other news, I bought into a new line of makeup that I’m absolutely loving…..Senegence…..I have the lipsense and the foundation, both are fantastic so far.  Maybe I can do something and actually sell some!  More on that later.

Getting a Grip

I think I might’ve finally gotten a grip on things.  Last night and today have gone really well.  I’ve eaten clean and had a great workout this morning.  I had one stupid accident letting the weight bar fall on my good leg, but I worked through it.  I have a huge bruise now but I’m not gonna let it give me an excuse to fall off the wagon again.  I can’t believe that I’ve let myself gain 20 pounds in the last 6 months.  I feel like a failure.  Hopefully I will be able to keep the momentum going and lose the 20 I gained plus the last 15-20 that I had to go before.  Why does this have to be so hard?  Why couldn’t I have the metabolism that so many others have?  It’s so frustrating.  But I guess those are the cards I was dealt and I better figure out a way to deal with it.  I have so much to be thankful for that I shouldn’t complain at all.  I’m way healthier than many others my age.  My husband loves me no matter my size.  I have a very loving son and family.  I have Bevo and Boomer.  I have a Savior that shows me mercy every single day.  Okay, life is great!  Pity party over.