I have been having some extremely weird dreams lately.
So far I have dreamed of:
-The Hulk (not Bruce Brenner...think big angry green giant)
-A friend at work with a weird credit card account that kept increasing his balance even after he paid it off and didnt make any more purchases
-Caroline and my mom switching houses with Caroline working for Dressbarn (she doesn't) and how Blair is cannot make a bad photograph (this part is true) with us playing with bed linens
-Work
There are other dreams but I can't remember specifics. I used to sleep soundly with no dreams and so far each night I have had a weird dream.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The many faces of Rachel
Mom HATES this picture:
I love it because that is my mom. She doesn't like the face she is making. Someone at the table more then likely made a face at Mom and my Mom responded forgetting we had a professional photographer taking pictures. Again, I LOVE it...she HATES it.
For the longest time I have been my fathers daughter. That has been great but you also want to know that you are your mother's daughter as well. For myself, the signs that I do have my mother's genes have only come into light recently. Still very much my fathers daughter but you can see signs of my mother starting to poke through.
Like the following pictures.....I can only get these faces from my mom and her side of the family.
So there you have it. If my mom didn't show her personality in facial expressions it would be one less tie to her wonderful daughter who has inherited that trait :). Don't worry mom, I have a lot more photo's where I am making funny faces and I am sure your future grandchildren will share the same quality.
I love it because that is my mom. She doesn't like the face she is making. Someone at the table more then likely made a face at Mom and my Mom responded forgetting we had a professional photographer taking pictures. Again, I LOVE it...she HATES it.
For the longest time I have been my fathers daughter. That has been great but you also want to know that you are your mother's daughter as well. For myself, the signs that I do have my mother's genes have only come into light recently. Still very much my fathers daughter but you can see signs of my mother starting to poke through.
Like the following pictures.....I can only get these faces from my mom and her side of the family.
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| Relatively tame talking to Mac |
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| Yes, that is the face one makes dancing the First Dance with your new husband |
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| "Al ran over the mailbox??" lol! |
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| No, I am not screaming at my great nephew |
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| This is the exact face you should make when giving your officiant a thank you gift |
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| This would also be a good option.... |
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| Probably the best face you can make |
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| Not yelling at the single men table either |
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| Perfect face to make when talking a friend.. |
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| Also another good face to use while talking to your Aunts |
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Before Pregnancy
Once pregnant I plan to do monthly photo's of my belly getting bigger. Similar to what I did with the house but with me as the focus. I think it will be fun and a great way to document the pregnancy. I am also going to try and describe what it feels like. As a Type A personality I do research and while I could find out what happens to the baby each month finding out what it actually feels like to be pregnant was hard. I know you get morning sickness but does it feel like a stomach virus or more like the flu? What does it feel like when a baby kicks or moves? I have asked those that have kids and its been either so long ago that they don't remember those details or they couldn't describe it. I hope to be able to describe it.
Lots of other bloggers do the monthly photos of pregnant belly's but one thing I notice is they never do a before pregnancy. I often cant tell from the 1st month if there is a change or not because I don't know what their normal is. They say there is a change but as an outsider....sometimes I can't tell. So I decided I should do a "before pregnancy" shot so that we will know if there is a change or not :) Brian doesn't like this project as he will have to take pictures of me.
When I am actually pregnant I am going to switch pants. For this experiment I want to limit the variables as much as possible and I have other yoga pants which I will be able to wear longer then the ones above.
Also I should take the opportunity here to state why I do not agree with the BMI as a gauge of weight loss/health. Currently I am 5'5" and about 148lbs FINALLY I am within the normal range of BMI. However, I am not doing as much weight lifting so I have lost muscle mass. When I was doing more weight classes my BMI was considered obese....barely but still. I really didn't look much different then I do in the above photos, I just have less toning now. Muscle ways more then fat so when I start back with the weights I will gain weight because of the muscle. I have never ever ever been obese. Calling me obese at any point in my weight journey is just wrong and I hate how it must make people feel who are obese. If I am considered obese when I look like the above, how do you "classify" them? How do they keep the motivation to lose those lbs if they will still be labeled obese when they get down to my size? I am not a nutritionist or anyone who has any degree in this but there has to be a better system to gauge these things that will take into account not just height and weight but also how much muscle you have. There may be a better system, if so people in the health industry should use that to gauge whether someone is at the appropriate weight for their health, not the bmi. Yes we have a lot of obese people in America but I am not one of them.
Lots of other bloggers do the monthly photos of pregnant belly's but one thing I notice is they never do a before pregnancy. I often cant tell from the 1st month if there is a change or not because I don't know what their normal is. They say there is a change but as an outsider....sometimes I can't tell. So I decided I should do a "before pregnancy" shot so that we will know if there is a change or not :) Brian doesn't like this project as he will have to take pictures of me.
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| Front View |
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| Side view |
When I am actually pregnant I am going to switch pants. For this experiment I want to limit the variables as much as possible and I have other yoga pants which I will be able to wear longer then the ones above.
Also I should take the opportunity here to state why I do not agree with the BMI as a gauge of weight loss/health. Currently I am 5'5" and about 148lbs FINALLY I am within the normal range of BMI. However, I am not doing as much weight lifting so I have lost muscle mass. When I was doing more weight classes my BMI was considered obese....barely but still. I really didn't look much different then I do in the above photos, I just have less toning now. Muscle ways more then fat so when I start back with the weights I will gain weight because of the muscle. I have never ever ever been obese. Calling me obese at any point in my weight journey is just wrong and I hate how it must make people feel who are obese. If I am considered obese when I look like the above, how do you "classify" them? How do they keep the motivation to lose those lbs if they will still be labeled obese when they get down to my size? I am not a nutritionist or anyone who has any degree in this but there has to be a better system to gauge these things that will take into account not just height and weight but also how much muscle you have. There may be a better system, if so people in the health industry should use that to gauge whether someone is at the appropriate weight for their health, not the bmi. Yes we have a lot of obese people in America but I am not one of them.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Show Us Your Life: Living Rooms
I am late linking up with Kelly's Korner...I forgot this Friday was a "Show us Your Life" that I could do. I was going to show pictures of rooms after they are finished but as projects are taking longer I have decide to show the room as it is showcase within "Show Us Your Life"
If you are coming from Kelly's Korner...Welcome! My husband and I recently just bought a house and are in the process of making it our own. Suggestions are welcome!
The living room is basically finished. At some point we may paint it but that is FAR in the future if it happens.
The living room is a bit small but it definitely works for us. We recently held a wine tasting and had about 10 or so women sitting in it and worked out well! And yes it is messy! I may have grown up but not that much!
If you are coming from Kelly's Korner...Welcome! My husband and I recently just bought a house and are in the process of making it our own. Suggestions are welcome!
The living room is basically finished. At some point we may paint it but that is FAR in the future if it happens.
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| Diagonal view from kitchen, the door is to the Master Bedroom |
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| Head on to the living room from the Island in the kitchen |
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| View from when you come in from the back door, those Shutterfly packages on the chair are all of our wedding pictures! |
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| View from staircase wall |
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| View from Master Bedroom entry way |
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| Close up of the project we just finished, the trim on the blinds |
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Wedding present finished!
Brian and I received many many many wonderful wedding presents. We are very grateful to everyone who gave us them. Some of those gifts were in the form of cash. With that cash we paid off a student loan which is a huge weight off our shoulders....one less bill to pay, way less interest over time...always a good thing to pay something off.
With the rest of the money (yes, we had money left over....people were VERY generous) we decided to do a house project. We wanted that project to be something that we needed to get done rather then just wanting to get done. We wanted to put the money to the best use possible. If we were going to "waste" money it should be our own not other peoples. My mom also gave me a wonderful idea that I would send a picture of the finished product to those wonderful, overly generous people that gave us the money. So I kept a list of all who gave us money to send a picture of the finished product to. And I put it in a safe place. So safe, I cannot find it at the moment. Could have thrown it out but I have not given up looking for it yet. I may look like a feminine (I hope!) version of my dad but I am definitely my mom's daughter. So hopefully I will be able sending out old fashioned photo's soon but for now this will have to do.
So what project did we chose to do with the wedding money?
Putting blinds up with trim. We have 15 windows of various sizes and I think every house needs some kind of window treatment but you definitely do with a house in the south. We knew what we wanted but we could not afford that and frankly, I am not sure the house would be worth the investment. It took us a while to figure out what we could do. We ended up getting basic white blinds from Home Depot, had them cut to size and used trim to hide the top portion of the blinds.
I did not take very good before, during, and after but you will get the idea I am sure.
Before we had either nothing up on the walls or curtains on tension rods:
There are no during pictures. We spent a LONG time waiting for the trim to be put up. We wanted our bookcases done before we added more work to our friends "To Do" list.
And so we skip right to the end:
That is what it looks like with the blinds closed which they always are. With them open....
These are the windows in the breakfast nook you are seeing but all of our windows are like this.
The process took a LOT longer then we thought....not counting the time we were waiting for the bookcases to be done to even start the trim portion. We also started the spice rack process this weekend. The made to order doors had come in so we were going to have them painted and put on this weekend but we are still waiting on the doors. A project we thought was going to take 1 day has taken 3 but so far we are loving the results. What do you think?
Next project? Back splash in the kitchen and finishing the spice rack so stay tuned.....
With the rest of the money (yes, we had money left over....people were VERY generous) we decided to do a house project. We wanted that project to be something that we needed to get done rather then just wanting to get done. We wanted to put the money to the best use possible. If we were going to "waste" money it should be our own not other peoples. My mom also gave me a wonderful idea that I would send a picture of the finished product to those wonderful, overly generous people that gave us the money. So I kept a list of all who gave us money to send a picture of the finished product to. And I put it in a safe place. So safe, I cannot find it at the moment. Could have thrown it out but I have not given up looking for it yet. I may look like a feminine (I hope!) version of my dad but I am definitely my mom's daughter. So hopefully I will be able sending out old fashioned photo's soon but for now this will have to do.
So what project did we chose to do with the wedding money?
Putting blinds up with trim. We have 15 windows of various sizes and I think every house needs some kind of window treatment but you definitely do with a house in the south. We knew what we wanted but we could not afford that and frankly, I am not sure the house would be worth the investment. It took us a while to figure out what we could do. We ended up getting basic white blinds from Home Depot, had them cut to size and used trim to hide the top portion of the blinds.
I did not take very good before, during, and after but you will get the idea I am sure.
Before we had either nothing up on the walls or curtains on tension rods:
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| Before |
There are no during pictures. We spent a LONG time waiting for the trim to be put up. We wanted our bookcases done before we added more work to our friends "To Do" list.
And so we skip right to the end:
That is what it looks like with the blinds closed which they always are. With them open....
These are the windows in the breakfast nook you are seeing but all of our windows are like this.
The process took a LOT longer then we thought....not counting the time we were waiting for the bookcases to be done to even start the trim portion. We also started the spice rack process this weekend. The made to order doors had come in so we were going to have them painted and put on this weekend but we are still waiting on the doors. A project we thought was going to take 1 day has taken 3 but so far we are loving the results. What do you think?
Next project? Back splash in the kitchen and finishing the spice rack so stay tuned.....
Thursday, May 24, 2012
What have I been up too...
Not much I am afraid
The invisible fence is in so we are ready for Benjamin and Bailey (my parents dogs which I call mine) when they come down with the move.
This weekend we are having the trim put in above the blinds, the new doors we bought for the pantry put in and the back splash as well. I will of course post pictures of the finished product.
Work is going well. I am in production which surprised me and my manager. We both thought there would be more notice but things have changed as they typically do. It is okay though because I did very well in my first month of being in production. My manager is not worried at all. I did a little better then I was hoping for but not as well as I would have hoped. We have to meet 100% to keep our jobs (not immediately, there are steps in place to help you make production but if you ignore the suggestions and don't do what you are supposed to the quickest way to lose the job is by not making production) but if we make 120% production for the year we get a bonus. I have been hoping to get the 120% average so I can get the bonus. This month I got 125% without trying terribly hard. I have from the beginning tried to organize my time like I would if I were on production so the transition would be easier to working on production and maybe it wouldn't be too hard for me to meet production. Well it worked! I would have liked it to be a little higher then 125% because there is little wiggle room for the following months in case things slow down and I have trouble finding things to keep me occupied. But I think it is a great start for my first month and I will continue doing what I am doing and will look for more work to help boost my numbers.
Also with work, overtime is back! I am rejuvenated from my break with overtime and have been staying late doing correspondence. I am getting much faster (which will help my production) and enjoy doing it. There is overtime this Saturday which I am doing as well. Weekends have been tough because we haven't had much to do. This is the first weekend where we really have any real plans so we have been watching a lot of tv. Since I do have Monday off and I am not really necessary for the projects at home we thought it would be good if I did the overtime.
Brian and I are re-thinking what to do with the money I have saved for the extra mortgage payment. Brian is now thinking about wanting to use it to pay down one of his student loans. All the overtime I currently earn is being divided. Half of it will go towards house projects and the other half is going to his student loans. While making an extra mortgage payment each year would lower the interest on the house greatly Brian is thinking it might be better off paying off a student loan and then playing catch up on the house later. The student loan is at a higher interest rate then the house and having that paid off would free up money each month. I like our current system. Taxes/half of my overtime/bonus's/etc going towards student loans and having an extra mortgage payment for the house but I dont know if I am being type A, stubborn and not liking change or if my idea is more sound. Brian is wanting to put all the money we dont spend on house projects/bills to go towards paying off the loan. Nothing we need to make an immediate decision on, just something we are discussing.
Brian is still obsessed with the bunny in our yard. He is so cute about it!
I am back at the gym and while I am sore, I am enjoying being back. I had a nice "break" but it is nice to be back in more rigid, structured classes again.
Really the biggest thing is waiting for Mommy and Daddy to move down!
The invisible fence is in so we are ready for Benjamin and Bailey (my parents dogs which I call mine) when they come down with the move.
This weekend we are having the trim put in above the blinds, the new doors we bought for the pantry put in and the back splash as well. I will of course post pictures of the finished product.
Work is going well. I am in production which surprised me and my manager. We both thought there would be more notice but things have changed as they typically do. It is okay though because I did very well in my first month of being in production. My manager is not worried at all. I did a little better then I was hoping for but not as well as I would have hoped. We have to meet 100% to keep our jobs (not immediately, there are steps in place to help you make production but if you ignore the suggestions and don't do what you are supposed to the quickest way to lose the job is by not making production) but if we make 120% production for the year we get a bonus. I have been hoping to get the 120% average so I can get the bonus. This month I got 125% without trying terribly hard. I have from the beginning tried to organize my time like I would if I were on production so the transition would be easier to working on production and maybe it wouldn't be too hard for me to meet production. Well it worked! I would have liked it to be a little higher then 125% because there is little wiggle room for the following months in case things slow down and I have trouble finding things to keep me occupied. But I think it is a great start for my first month and I will continue doing what I am doing and will look for more work to help boost my numbers.
Also with work, overtime is back! I am rejuvenated from my break with overtime and have been staying late doing correspondence. I am getting much faster (which will help my production) and enjoy doing it. There is overtime this Saturday which I am doing as well. Weekends have been tough because we haven't had much to do. This is the first weekend where we really have any real plans so we have been watching a lot of tv. Since I do have Monday off and I am not really necessary for the projects at home we thought it would be good if I did the overtime.
Brian and I are re-thinking what to do with the money I have saved for the extra mortgage payment. Brian is now thinking about wanting to use it to pay down one of his student loans. All the overtime I currently earn is being divided. Half of it will go towards house projects and the other half is going to his student loans. While making an extra mortgage payment each year would lower the interest on the house greatly Brian is thinking it might be better off paying off a student loan and then playing catch up on the house later. The student loan is at a higher interest rate then the house and having that paid off would free up money each month. I like our current system. Taxes/half of my overtime/bonus's/etc going towards student loans and having an extra mortgage payment for the house but I dont know if I am being type A, stubborn and not liking change or if my idea is more sound. Brian is wanting to put all the money we dont spend on house projects/bills to go towards paying off the loan. Nothing we need to make an immediate decision on, just something we are discussing.
Brian is still obsessed with the bunny in our yard. He is so cute about it!
I am back at the gym and while I am sore, I am enjoying being back. I had a nice "break" but it is nice to be back in more rigid, structured classes again.
Really the biggest thing is waiting for Mommy and Daddy to move down!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Bunnies!
We have bunnies!
They hang out in the back of the house on the left hand side if you are looking directly at the house. We know there are at least two.
Brian is so excited about them! He will stop whatever he is doing to look if the bunny is in the yard. He will text me that the bunny is there and he even took pictures. Yes one with his iPhone to text me at work but with my camera. This guy will not use a camera, don't ask me why but he wont so the fact he went and got my camera and took pictures is huge.
It took me a couple days to see the bunnies and Brian tried to explain that they only come out to see nice people not mean people. I am not mean Brian is just being silly. I have seen them multiple times over the weekend and Brian just stated that was because he was there.
They are so cute! Here are the pictures Brian took...
I hope the bunny sticks around unlike the baby geese. I still can't look at all the baby geese in the area and wish ours had survived :(
They hang out in the back of the house on the left hand side if you are looking directly at the house. We know there are at least two.
Brian is so excited about them! He will stop whatever he is doing to look if the bunny is in the yard. He will text me that the bunny is there and he even took pictures. Yes one with his iPhone to text me at work but with my camera. This guy will not use a camera, don't ask me why but he wont so the fact he went and got my camera and took pictures is huge.
It took me a couple days to see the bunnies and Brian tried to explain that they only come out to see nice people not mean people. I am not mean Brian is just being silly. I have seen them multiple times over the weekend and Brian just stated that was because he was there.
They are so cute! Here are the pictures Brian took...
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