Tagged

I figure I’d better do this “tag” game right away, or else I’ll forget. But first, I want to talk about last night.

David and I went to The Grove for dinner, since he had to be at his show at 6:30 and I had to be out in New Berlin at 7. It’s kind of backwards… we save gas money on driving between Elm Grove/New Berlin and home, but then we drop $30 on dinner. But it gives us some quality time together, rather than rushing through dinner at home.  I had the most amazing salad- spinach, mandarin orange slices, slivered almonds, and a toasted sesame dressing. It was simple and delicious. I may have to try to recreate it. It was soooo good.

While at dinner I found out my Pole 2 class was cancelled, so our/my plan for the evening was shot. The whole point was to stay out west and not have to drive back and forth multiple times. But I didn’t feel like hanging out for 4 hours waiting for David. So I accepted the gas mileage.

But first, I went to the YMCA and put in a long workout. 30 minutes on the elliptical, all the weight machines (that I know how to use) and a stretching session later it was after 8:00 and I felt great. It was the longest workout I’ve had in months, and I miss it. I had planned on going to the Y after work a couple times a week for a long workout, but that hasn’t happened this summer. David and I carpool, so it’s not as simple as me just GOING. I dislike doing exercise outside when it is super hot and humid, so maybe we’ll have to try to work something out again. My lunchtime sessions are fine, but I don’t feel like I get a REAL workout.

So, onto tagging. Ginesa over at Adventures of a Family Through the Little One tagged me and it seems kind of fun, so I’ll join in.

5 things found in your bag1) Burt’s Bees Replenishing Lip Balm 
          
2) Bright pink wallet
3) Beat up cell phone
4) Random receipts, coupons, papers
5) Checkbook with this chicky cover:
       

 

5 favorite things in your bedroom
This is tough, because lately we’ve been pulling the mattress into the living room where the A/C is, so our bedroom is kind of limbo right now.
1) I’m eternally grateful for the ceiling fan
2) My pretty, large, antique-y white dresser with gold trim. It’s been my dresser since high school.
3) Random shoes strewn about
4) Kind of cool lamp from Ikea. I love lamp!!
5) Pretty wall-mounted candle holder that was a housewarming present

5 things I have always wanted to do
1) Leave the continent… but I’ve done that now! So I guess… leave the continent again!
2) Be in a movie
3) Audition for a Broadway show
4) Travel to every continent, including Antarctica!
5) Work in events/planning/PR

5 things I am currently into
1) South Beach Diet
2) Trashy TV Shows
3) Not melting into a humid puddle
4) Paying off credit cards
5) Photography

Wanna play? Then TAG, you’re it!

Shout Out To My Boy!

Could I have included this in my last entry? Sure, but it deserves it’s own mention (and I forgot between posting those picture).

David got a MENTION in the review for Damn Yankees!!! He’s really “just chorus” and this is what every “just chorus” member hopes and dreams for. Will the review mention me? I’m trying so hard, but my part is so insignificant. 

Most Journal Sentinel reviews are so short, they barely mention the leads! This one is nice because almost everyone gets their name in there. But I am sooooo proud of David for his extra special little mention. Even if it’s only one short sentence. He gives hope to all hard working chorus members toiling away out there!

Check it out here!!!

Catching Up In Photos

Saturday, I went to Rocky Horror in my best Christmas in July garb. The Virgin Mary. I’m mostly Catholic and definitely Christian, so nobody needs to tell me that I’m going to hell for this.

I took this at home:

These were taken during the costume contest. David’s baby Jesus looked more like baby Hagrid, but whatever.

Okay, and if you weren’t convinced I’m going to hell, this should do it. My virgin proof. Ridiculous homemade chastity belt. Complete with padlock.

Outrageous, I know.

Moo Cards. When I bought my Pro Flickr account I got 10 of them free. So I goofed around with them, just to see how some of my photos would look and what they were all about. They’re supposed to be like business or calling cards, but their smaller size and pictures are much more artistic and special than a normal business card.

Here’s the back. I blurred my last name, you know, because none of you know it. The font is pink, though it looks more red here:

And for the best part of my weekend… Sharing a mint chocolate chip ice cream filled crepe, covered with chocolate sauce and whipped cream while sitting on a curb at Bastille Days.

YUMMY!!!

My Miscellany

My weekend was not as super-fantastic as I had hoped, but it wasn’t half bad.

Friday I left work at 4 and had AMAAAAAZING chicken for dinner. We served it with roasted asparagus (did you know it makes everyone’s pee smell weird, but only 40% of the population has the olfactory glands to smell it?) and tomato and goat cheese salad. I’ve done this before, but added fresh herbs ala Kalyn’s Kitchen. I sliced up regular tomatoes and grape tomatoes and added crumbled goat cheese and a handful of freshly chopped parsley, basil, and oregano. I drizzled in some basil & balsamic dipping oil and it was delicious! We’re doing that chicken again tonight. TRY IT. We didn’t do it on the grill, we just pan roasted it and it turned out great.

So then I went to see David in Damn Yankees at Sunset Playhouse. I wore THE DRESS and the new shoes and I felt fabulous! The show was great. It’s funny and light hearted. I’ll be seeing it again, and I’m looking forward to “The Game” and Applegate’s song.

So… here’s the dress picture. One would think I’m talking about a wedding dress or something. Maybe I’ll wear this for my wedding. I love it that much. (PSYCH!!!) Anyway, I forgot to bring my camera (GASP!!!) so I had to take pictures after I got back from the show. This is my silly edit for my self portrait project on Flickr:

It is a tiny bit shorter than what I usually go for, as I don’t like for my chubby knees (ha!) to show at all, but the fit just feels so great.

Saturday was a day of running errands. Though we did start by going to Greek Fest at State Fair Park for lunch. We got there just as they opened at noon and YUM!! We ate a gyro, chicken shishkabob, and fried eggplant slices. We wandered for a while and then split a small loukemades, or honey puffs. You really can’t go wrong with fried balls of dough smothered in honey syrup and cinnamon. They were so sinfully delicious.

That night we went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Oriental. Their theme was Christmas in July. I went as the Virgin Mary and David went as Baby Jesus. Yes, we are so going to hell. I (well, we) won second place in the costume contest and won some fabulously crappy prizes! It was waaaay too late of a night, but I had fun.

Sunday was a day to sleep in. Though we did make it down to Bastille Days for lunch. I was very disappointed by the lack of French food and goods, though I did have a delicious crepe and cafe au lait. We listened to a cool band on the street for a while, but we couldn’t stay too long. I dropped David off at his show and went to a friend’s house to help her with some Ebay stuff. I did boring stuff like grocery shopping and washing dishes. I also collected the mail from the bottom of our stairs and found my Moo Cards from Flickr! If you don’t know what these are, I’ll post a picture when I get home. They’re cute! I also got a credit card to replace the one that is about to expire. It has the SAME design as my old one. That is LAME!

Sunday is when we had planned to go to Bacchus, but we had to cancel our reservations! Sunset Playhouse does this “Photo Call.” Basically, they stage pictures so it looks like someone took great pictures during the show. It’s nice to have a slideshow of non-blurry pictures of the show, but it takes so long! Sure enough, David found out that they were going to do it after Sunday’s show. So we cancelled. I was SAD. I don’t really want to go during the week, and now we won’t have a free weekend evening until early August. Oh well.

Instead we made taco salads which is one of my favorite meals. We also watched Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical.

OMG LOL!! Has anyone seen this? I loved it. The Warped Cast is doing this in the winter. I don’t know H(ow)TF we’re going to manage it, but I don’t care right now. It was so funny! The music is really catchy. Right now I have “Mary Lane” stuck in my head.

MondayI called in sick. Could I have gone to work? Yeaahhhh… maybe…. but it wouldn’t have been fun. I had a bad sinus headache thing. I felt good enough by the afternoon to do a buttload of laundry and dishes, so I didn’t feel like a total bum. David and I watched the movie Waitress after dinner. It was CUTE!

Tuesdayfor lunch I ate the first lettuce from my garden! I used it in a salad. It was pretty good. I also started my new stripperific classes. I’m taking a Lap/Strip class and another encore of Pole 2 from Miss Pole. I really like the teacher. She’s funny and really gives you a workout. The Lap/Strip is… interesting. I do know that it really worked my abs, so I’ll keep an open mind. In Pole 2, I am getting upside down on the pole more often than not. And… last night… I hung by just my legs! I took my arms off completely! It was only for about 2 seconds, and it hurt my poor thigh skin badly, but I did it!! My pole partner in crime also made it upside down finally! It was a good class

And with that, it’s already Wednesday!!

Countdown

I have a feeling this weekend is going to be light years better than last weekend. Tomorrow night is opening night of Damn Yankees at Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove. David has had a rough week with the rehearsals, but finally it will all pay off! I bought my ticket, and I’ll be in the fourth row, cheering for him.

This is exciting, yes, but it’s made extra exciting by the fact that this will be the first time I will wear my superfantastic new blue dress!! Tomorrow! I can hardly wait. I’m working through lunch and leaving work at 4. Then I will go home and get prettied up and rock the dress.

I bought these shoes yesterday.

I’m not positive I am keeping them. They’re a little dressy, and pretty comfortable, and I think they’ll look good with THE DRESS. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll play dress up tonight.

As if that weren’t good enough, I also have an excuse to wear the dress on Sunday night! (Will I actually wear it twice in one weekend? Maybe…) Why? Because my wonderful fiance is taking me to Bacchus! We’ve been dying to go back again, but we haven’t been since before my birthday in December. We have a couple coupons/certificates (totalling about $40) so we’ll be able to have an amazing meal and not have to put it on a credit card! I cannot wait! I love everything about this place. The food, the service, it’s just awesome.

But maybe, just maybe, what I’m most excited about are the chances to finally wear my new dress. YES!!

Garden Update

My cute little plants are plodding along. All but one of my tomato plants are sporting little green tomatoes. Strangely, that one is the tallest.

Here are some pictures I took tonight. First, one of my Better Bush plants:

And here is one of my Early Girls:

I was really excited to see the bunches of Grape Tomatoes that are springing up. They’re so cute!

  

The Rosemary is looking great. In fact, I’m going to be using some tomorrow when I start marinating chicken for this recipe from one of my other favorite food blogs, Culinary in the Desert.

If you don’t have them bookmarked, do it! They update almost daily, and I have to say it’s a little torturous now, because they make so many delicious looking treats!

The plant that has surprised me the most is the lettuce. In the past few days it has grown a lot. In fact, when I finish the lettuce in my fridge now, I don’t think I’ll buy any on my next grocery trip! It looks yummy!

And here is my still exploding basil, with more lettuce in the background:

I’m still upset that my other herbs didn’t make it. My mint was looking a little dried up, but when I checked it today, I see some new growth. So maybe I’ll have mojitos after all!

Speaking of YUM, I made myself a delicious dessert after dinner tonight. I whipped up some Sugar Free Jello Instant Pudding in the Cheesecake flavor. I added a handful of blueberries and sliced strawberries, and enjoyed. It would be yummy with Chocolate or Vanilla, but I think it would be divine with the White Chocolate pudding flavor. Whichever way I think about it, it all makes for an awesome Phase 2 dessert.

Blah

Work and consuming too many cheese curds have given me a headache.

But I’m here to report that I am soooo close to 180 pounds, I can taste it. The scale said 180.5 this morning! It briefly hit that weight over the weekend (Friday morning, I think?) but then I messed it all up by eating bad things.

I went to a family reunion on Saturday and there was hardly any South Beach approved food. Throughout the day I ended up eating three pieces of cake (well, two cake, one cheesecake) and a big bowl of chocolate chip ice cream. YUM! (I LOVE CAKE!!!!) I went into a bit of a sugar coma. I did refrain from the free beer.

Speaking of beer, I had a Summer Shandy at the fireworks on the 4th!!!! It was just as wonderful as I remembered! I might allow myself one more before the end of the summer.

Moral of the story is that by Monday morning, the scale said 184. I kicked some South Beach ass these past couple days and now I’m back at my lowest number to date. I feel confident that by the weekend I will hit a steady 180.

While I am impressed with my will power and my badass weight loss so far, I am getting mildly frustrated. I feel like I should look more different. I feel like I should be fitting into size 14 pants. I know I’m thinner, especially through the waist. My backfat rolls (you know, the stuff that gets squished by your bra) are almost completely gone. But I’m feeling anxious about getting to the weight I want. A few months ago I really never even wanted to be out in public, because I was so embarrassed of my body. I’m over that, but I’m worried that the body I’m hoping for in my mind won’t ever be seen in the mirror.

Then I remind myself that 180 (.5) pounds on a 5′7″ girl is still A LOT of weight. My goal, again, is 140-150lbs. My body will HAVE to look a lot different then, right? I have a feeling (and I’m hoping) that the next 20 to 30 pounds will be the ones that really change my body.

I’ve been on this diet for less than three months. 20-25 pounds is GREAT! I have to keep telling myself that. The weight will come off slower and it will be harder to take it off as the months progress. I figured it would take me about a year to lose all the weight. But here I am, almost halfway to my (at least) 50 pound goal. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m just soooo impatient to GET THERE!!

I Can Has More Weekend?

Please?

This three day weekend was NOT long enough. I did plenty, but David and I did not have enough time to relax and spend some quality “US” time together.

After I left work on Friday, I spend the afternoon slowly shopping at Boston Store. I didn’t really need anything, but I didn’t feel like going home, and I still had to pick David up from work at 4:00. I bought a couple of shirts and tried on several pairs of shoes, but I didn’t find THE pair that I’m looking for. Part of that is because I don’t really know what I’m looking for… but when I see them, I’ll know!

David and I wandered Mayfair Mall for a while and then walked over to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was pleasant, having time to eat dinner together and just engaging in casual conversation. Then it was off to my super-sexy pole dancing class, where I gave myself several new side bruises that still hurt today. I had planned on rushing downtown to see the US Bank Fireworks, but my drive home and the bus schedule just didn’t fit together very well. Plus I was feeling exhausted, so I called my friends and crapped out on them. I wasn’t too proud of that, but lounging on the couch felt pretty nice.

David got home from rehearsal and we sat on the couch talking for a while. We decided to go buy a scary movie, make some popcorn, and relax. That’s when our trouble began. Target and Blockbuster were closed. I talked about all the potential plans for the 4th of July. And somewhere in all of that, David got very overwhelmed. And just like that our fun night melted into frustration.

July 4th was going to be our day with no plans. Well, then my mom asked me to take my little sister to the Tosa parade. And my neighbors were having a cookout. And there were the Tosa fireworks. We worked things out and still manage to catch our own “Double Feature” at the movies (Hancock and Get Smart- both passable summer movies). But it wasn’t quite the care-free day David had hoped for.

There was a lot of tension and frustration on what should have been a very chilled-out and fun day. I feel so bad because of that. It all stems from our stress level right now. David’s show opens this Friday and his rehearsal schedule has been unbelievably crazy. He had rehearsal Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Sunday’s rehearsal was from 1pm-10pm!! And now, this whole week, rather than going from 7-10pm, they’re rehearsing from 6:30-11pm!

So he’s stressed out because that leaves almost ZERO minutes for relaxing. Usually we’re in bed before 11. I’m stressed out because I’m stuck at home every night with a house full of stuff to clean, but no energy to do so. I feel like I only have time to do the minimum… clean up from dinner, wash dishes, do laundry, shower, go to bed. And then I get sucked into TV. If I catch an addictive TV show it’s so hard to pull myself off the couch.

So I’m frustrated because I feel like I’m not doing enough. He’s frustrated because he’s doing too much. It’s not a good time in our house right now. We did manage to have a good time on Saturday night, after my family reunion. We curled up on the couch and watched Jurassic Park, one of our favorites. After that, everything seemed okay again.

We had few of long talks on Thursday and Friday about our feelings and what we were thinking and relationship problem-solving. I think we communicate very well for the most part. But sometimes even we suffer from communication breakdowns. Tears are shed and tension is high, but we have yet to leave anything unresolved. It’s been so difficult when we rarely see each other.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. His show opens on Friday and it plays Thursday-Sunday for the next few weeks. That means we’ll at least have Monday-Wednesdays to catch up on our “us” time.

When things were SO built up and we were both frustrated with everything around us and each other, I looked down at my engagement ring. I thought, is this something that could destroy our relationship, or are we going to work through this?  The answer, of course, was Duh! We can work through this. Everything will end up okay, and we’ll be stronger for figuring it out. Just having that moment of clarity helped me talk through everything.

I guess that’s why I’m writing this. I like to blog because I like to look back at the years and remember things that I’ve done and been through. It’s the lazy person’s scrapbook. Perhaps a year from now I’ll reread this entry and remember this as another step in our relationship. Or maybe I’ll look at it during another trying time and remember that there is nothing that will stop us. That’s what that ring means to me. Whenever I feel scared or stressed I look down and it reminds me that we have made this promise to each other, to help each other through tough times and work through any problems. We may not be husband and wife yet, but I am confident that once we get there, we will be ready for anything.

Score!

As of today, all my credit cards are officially below $2,000!!!

Even better, I am at about a month ahead of my pay-off plan!

Next month is a three-paycheck month for me. I hope to put a little boost into my Get-Out-of-Debt plan AND to the David’s-Golden-Birthday-Vacation Fund.

The sooner my credit cards bills go away, the sooner I can put that money into my Throw-A-Kickass-Wedding Fund. At this rate, I should be done before next summer, which is also when I’m done paying off my car. Yes!

As if that weren’t good enough, this morning the scale rested at 182!

The only thing that would cause my exclamation-point usage to rise even further would be if I’m able to get out of work a little early today. My fingers are crossed for a slightly extended 3-day weekend!

Happy 4th!!!

EDIT: Just got “the” e-mail. I’M LEAVING AT 1:00!! PEACE OUT!!

Another Recipe Recommendation

Another Kalyn’s Kitchen recipe success! This one is totally drool worthy! It was raining here, so I did these under the broiler. They still turned out great. Visit Kalyn’s original recipe to get the details.

I used Italian-seasoned turkey sausage. It wasn’t too spicy (good for me) and the flavor was great with the other ingredients. I didn’t include the onion, because David doesn’t like onions. I accidentally went a little heavy on the parsley, but it was still delicious. I also used a combo of shredded mozzarella and asiago on the top. They were almost like mini-pizzas. We each ate two medium-large mushrooms and I finished up my leftover Cucumber-Yogurt-Dill Salad. Although honestly, I would have been satisfied with the mushrooms. They’re very filling and yet feel light and fresh. They’re perfect for summer. We’ll be doing this again, for sure.

I highly recommend this, even if you’re NOT on the South Beach Diet. It’s a delicious and healthy meal.