Last week

Well I continued the 2 workouts a day trend and exercised off over 3300 calories!!! However I had several days of bad eating so I kind of sabotaged myself LOL. I did my Monday weigh in at 188 which is up 3 calories but I weighed in today at 182.5 so I am going to say the lower amount is more accurate due to the bad eating on Friday and Saturday.

I must say I like going to the gym to exercise better than going to the apartment gym. I get to see other people and I get to watch my own tv w/o other people's music disrupting me. It's cool that the elipticals and treads have their own tv's attached with cable. Yesterday I watched Underworld while walking. TOO COOL!!

I found a new website having to do with healthy eating with tons of cool stuff to learn and an email weekly. It is called Hungry Girl. Check it out for some cool stuff!

Hey!

Well I have been working out like crazy this past week. I burned at total of 3000+ calories for the week! I did 2 workouts a day like I had planned and I even attended some kickboxing classes at the gym and burned about 600 calories at each! I guess I need to work harder when I do it at home. LOL. My weight this week is 185.5 and I am sooooo excited!!!!


I had to attend a funeral for a custodian that passed away last week. I was so sorry to hear he had lost his fight against cancer. While there I did get a couple of complements from several coworkers about how thin I looked. I was so proud of myself and told them I would hopefully lose more by the time we started up at the end of August.

I also saw the latest Harry Potter movie. I liked it but not as much as the Goblet of Fire. I really liked how Rowling really started giving Harry some really depth and he seemed like a real teenager. I also got the scoop on the last book from a coworker who is a Harry Potter addict and read every book unlike me who stopped on the third and just watches the movies LOL. From what she told me it really sounded like Rowling wrapped everything up pretty good and left herself some room to start a new series if she wanted.

Well that's it for now!

Movies

Well I recently went to see Transformers and BOY it was great!!! If you haven't seen it yet I would strongely recommend it even though there is some highly suggestive stuff for the younger crowd. I can't believe that they did this to a movie that is geared to kids.


Some other movies I rented:

Shooter-(Mark Walhburg) LOVED it. I am an action movie nut and he is just sooo cute!
Black Snake Moan- Hmmm not sure if I liked it. It was really STRANGE. Kind of a redemption type movie. Christina Ricci is a major slut but by the end you understand why and see how such different people can help each other. Justin Timberlake was WHOA in this movie. First scene is of him and Ricci going at it and boy it was smoking hot! He plays a really out of character person to me.

Sweet Land- This movie I really liked but most people I think will think it was boring and their is not naked parts for a romance. This was a movie based on a short story (which I put on my tbr list). It is an historical piece and the romance is very slow but I liked it because it seemed to go with the time period and the two people who where falling in love. I just wished they showed more of the romance because there really was a spark between the two main characters.

Well that's it for now!

Disappointing Week

Well it has been my TOM and I really blew it food and exercise wise. First time since January that I haven't exercised for 5 days. I also went out to eat too much this week which i attribut to my TOM since I get a lot of cravings during this time. However I am proud of myself for not eating like I use to for the cravings. I did splurge but it was with healthier foods and then I stopped when I was full.

I have been doing the eliptical and treadmill at the gym at apartment/Spectrum. I must say I am really liking it to be able to get in and out quickly while being able to relax and listen to my music. I have found I like the eliptical better than the treadmill for my feet and for calorie burning.

I have bought the biggest loser book and am going to try and do the cardio/strength training they suggest. It is a 12 week program so I kind of am my own little challenge LOL.

I plan to go see Harry Potter tonight with my nephew who is celebrating his birthday. I will comment on whether I like it or not.

Busy weekend

Ok I again have had some slip ups this week. Not bad but I have to buckle down on the eating. I always have severe cravings around that time of the month and boy I am not showing much willpower.

I was suppose to start the Beck diet thingy Monday but.....I procrastinated and didn't do it. I will start tomorrow and stick with it. I did read the first chapters leading up to the start and the first 3 days. It did say I can go slower but I think this is giving myself an excuse to procrastinate which I am veeerrryyy good at. I was also suppose to start the Ab challenge but put it off. I felt yucky on Monday and had to go to the doctor for a check up for my meds. I had planned on getting up at 8:00 am to exercise but forgot they closed the apartment gym to remodel for Monday and Tuesday. My plan is to do treadmill/eliptical in morning and DVD in afternoon.

Hmmm I keep saying that but again no go. I have been exercising but not to what I want. I also had some issues with numb feet which only started up again since the treadmill/eliptical. I talked w/the Doc about this and some other things I have been putting off (colonostophy) due to fear of what I am not exactly sure but I have to do this to make sure I don't get the colon cancer my mom and brother both had.

Anyway back to what Doc said. She said that it could be water retention but thinks it is only that I am not stretching enough. I agree with her since I don't have this problem doing Turbo Jam or other exercise DVD's (except the Leslie Sansone walking ones). When I do the Leslie ones I am standing in place alot as I am on the treadmill and eliptical so I think the repeated pressure on my feet without the moving around is bothering them too. The Doc said that the muscles in my quads are too tight and even though higher than my feet that is were I would feel it the most. Sounds good to me. Stretch more easy solution if I can follow it which I think I can.

I am really missing the Biggest Loser Challenge and the daily repoire (sp?) I had with some of my team mates/competitors. I don't want to continue that regime but I still need that checking in with someone to make sure there is some one there who is working with me. I am going to keep at it on my own and not be too upset and think positive (my motto this year). I know I can do this and it may take me longer but I am at least doing more than I was a year ago and maybe even 6 months ago.

Which Star Wars Character are You?

Ok saw this on a site and here is what I am...
Your results:
You are Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker 75% Yoda 74% Obi-Wan Kenobi 70% R2-D2 70% C-3PO 66% Princess Leia 64% Han Solo 63% An Ewok 60% Qui-Gon Jinn 59% Chewbacca 57%

You value your friends and loved ones, but can sometimes act recklessly because of your emotions. Occasionally you resort to whining. You look ahead to great things for yourself.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)

Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character are you?" quiz...

Starting the Beck Diet book

Ok here is my day one assignment of creating my list of reasons why I want to lose weight. I am to look at this 2 times a day or more to help me with motivation.
Well my weigh in today wasn't good but it was better than I thought it would be. I really think I was being very lazy the last week and I am determined to step it up since I will be on my own.




Credits:
green paper by ksharonk
flowers by Misty Cato
quote is by Mandabean which I modified
paint splotches by Megan Leeson
Notebook paper by Lewanda Desjardin

Sigh

I can feel the end of the BL challenge weighing on me. The last 2 days I have eaten horrible LOL. One day is fine since I have a day off but the other one was just like off the scale munching. Since I have been back on my meds I have noticed a slow increase in weight and cravings. It could be due to my TOM coming soon. I hope it is the second. I also have been kind of slack in the exercise department this week. Last week I exercised in the morning and afternoon 3 times and this week I didn't exercise twice at all. So the exercise amount may not be enough and that is why I lost so much last week.

Right now I weighed in this morning at 191 which is a gain of 3.5 pounds since last week. I was hoping to maintain at least for the last weigh in but doesn't look like it.

Since my goal is to be positive I am going to keep trying to improve and begin again the rest of the day and tomorrow.

~see ya

Blah!

Well I finally worked out my medication situation but it is still effecting (or affecting? I always get confused.) me. My goal was to exercise 2 times a day 5 days a week. For this week I have barely been able to do the 1 exercise a day. It is pretty light going too. I feel good that I was able to just get up and get going rather than just sit on the couch.

**************************************************************
My favorite tv reality show is going on right now: So You thing you can dance! My one wish is that I could learn to ballroom dance or modern dance. They have classes you can take through the district but they require a partner. Sigh. Maybe if I get a boyfriend I could drag him to this??

Anyway back to SYTYCD. My favorite dancer was kicked off the show (BIG controversy on the SYTYCD boards.) due to Cedric. Well last week they kicked off another contemporary dancer that was superb, Jimmy, for again Cedric. What the real kicker was that after him and his partner Faina danced for their life (and Jimmy's partner Shawna too) they kicked Faina off and kept Cedric!!!! This was a problem because it was a superb performance by Faina but it was Cedric who put them in the bottom causing them to DFTL. Then the stupid Nigel said he would take a chance on Cedric and hope not to regret it!!! Well last night he said he thinks he made a mistake. YA THINK!!!!! Now Shawna will be pulled down again due to being paired with Cedric. Arg!

My favorite pair right now is Dominic (D-trix) and Sabra with Jesse and Jaime behind them. A far third would be Danny and Anya. I am not liking Lacey and Cameron but they dance good but no fire for me. So I would put them in 4th.

Golden Compass a MOVIE!!

I went to see Fantastic 4 Rise of Silver Surfer on Saturday (pretty good movie, much better than the first) and I saw a trailer for the Golden Compass!!!! I can hardly wait for this to come out, such a good series by Phillip Pullman.

Here is the trailer.


~later

Weight Loss Success

Ok I haven't updated in a while LOL. I will from now on since my Biggest Loser Digistyle Challenge is ending. I hope to use this blog more often to keep myself accountable since I won't have my team with me!

I plan to post pics of my progress as well. I have added a lot of links to my fav blogs I read. Most are scrapbook related but as the year progresses I hope to add other blogs or links for teaching.


Weight Loss:

Well after about 2 years of being over 200 lbs I made it below that about 3 months ago. I am know at 187lbs!!! The lowest I have been since I think college. I am so excited that I am getting close to my 2nd goal weight of 180 lbs. My 3rd goal weight is 175. From there I will decide what my next goal will be.

Here are some links of places I have used to help me lose weight.

Spark People
Beachbody/Turbo Jam Boards
3 Fat Chicks
and of course
Biggest Loser Digistyle which you can't view so I won't put up the link

Update in ohhhhh 3 months!

Well everything is VERY hectic right now. School has started and I have so far been keeping up with grading and planning. I only have 16 kids this year (WOW!) and hope that the small numbers will allow me to do more with the kids than ever.


Movies seen:


The Night Listener-Very interesting movie. Makes you think about what people will do to just get someone to pay attention to them. Not a movie to see with younger or elementary age kids. Robin Williams was pretty good and WOW! loved Tony Collette she was so creepy. I am so used to seeing her in other kinds of roles.

Hollywoodland- Excellent movie about the first Superman George Reeves. Ben Afflick plays this actor turned gigilo (in my opinion) and it is pretty wierd seeing him like this. Loved Adrian Brody as the reporter and boy did he get alot of stuff dumped on him. If you don't like movies that leave you hanging or don't have endings this movie isn't for you. They never really tell you if Reeves was murdered or committed suicide. It is left up to you. I personally think he committed suicide.


The Covenant- Basically a teen movie. Pretty good plot and acting but reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lots of gorgeous young actors never heard of. The blond I thought for a long time was the actor who played Malfoy in Harry Potter but I don't think it is. I like these kind of movies but it basically mindless entertainment.

Books/Books on Cd:

Well I have a lot of books waiting to be read but not alot in progress right now.

I finished A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels by Libba Bray on Cd. Excellent teen (there is mature subject matter) fantasy. Takes place in the Victorian times and was interesting to hear some of the comments coming out of the girls mouth's since things were so different back then. I consider this more a historical novel than fantasy since the fantasy is really only the "Realm" which they don't go to very often and is talked about alot. Still a good book with action and mystery. I figured out who Circe was before they told me though.

I am in the process of listening to The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman (a fantasy for children/adults)and so far I love it! Usually the books on CD are read by one person but this one the author narrates and all the different characters are read by a different person. Kind of like Rebel Angels in that it deals with Altered History.

Well that's it for now!

~see ya

Donna

Well i got an email from my friend Donna who's son has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. I have really been feeling guilty because I have not been in contact with her since she told me this. I understand what she is going through because my mom and brother both died from cancer. I am feeling guilty because my way of dealing with difficult things is to avoid them so I have not talked with her at all. I really don't know what to say to her. It makes me think of my mom and brother which brings back the horrible times. I went to the site she set up for her son to communicate with everyone and seeing the pictures of him getting treatment made me soo sad and made me think of the times I went with Shawn to get his treatments at the Cancer Center. It was very difficult to see my brother this way, I can't imagine how it feels for your son who is still a child.

I am going to try my best to send emails at least once a week and maybe do some pictures for her scrapbooking.

~later

Books and Movies

Well I haven't read much lately.

I just finished Twilight by Stephanie Myers which is a teen book. It is about...wait...vampires LOL. Very different take on the vampire though and they don't even bite or kill in this book. Basically a misunderstood teen angsty book. She meets this family of vamps who go to her new school and she falls in love with Edward the one not paired up. There will be another by this author soon and I don't know if it will be a sequel. I think it will due to the ending.

I am currently listening to Lyrael by Garth Nix which is the sequel to Sabrial. I listened to that one too and LOVED IT!!! It was read and Lyrael is read by Tim Curry. Not alot of romance but the action is great and he really knows how to give cliff hangers at the end of each chapter. Lyrael I am having a harder time following because it jumps between two stories, Lyreal and Prince Sam. However it is just as good and action packed. Plus you get to see some more of Sabrial and Touchstone.

I finally was able to pick up the sequel to the Last Dragonlord, The Dragon and the Phoenix by Joanne Bertin. I have read oh about a fifth of it. It is very long and the words are small so it will take me awhile.

I went to see Cars and Click with my nephew Sage. I LOVED Cars! It was reeeaaaalllly long for a cartoon movie though. The story had a message and the characters where great. Click I didn't like at all. I thought it was just slapped together and the jokes where not funny or were juvenile. Like the same joke about the dog doing the stuffed animal which appeared at least 5 times in the movie. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!! It was funny the first time (a little) but after that, no way.

Well I have a ton of other books I need to read so I will update my list.
~see ya

WOOHOO!!!

I have been accepted by Digiscrap Central to be on their Element Team and I am soo excited I can hardly stand it. I am in the process of making some kits to sell either there or somewhere else. My career as a designer is off and running! Hopefully I won't stall and will get some kits sold. Stay tuned!

Summer has been kind of boring so far. Just working on my computer making kits and doing scrapbook pages. I have also recommitted to my weight loss goal of getting down to 190 then 175. I usually go somewhere during the summer (two years ago London, last year Alaska) but only my dad went to New Jersey to see my brother. It was for his and my new stepmom Lillie's unofficial honeymoon even though they have been married for 2 years.

~see ya

My elements for my Girly Girl kit. 

These are the papers for my other new kit.  

This is my new kit!! I am sooo stoked by how many people are downloading it!!!!! 

Summer is Here!

Well the last few weeks have been very busy. School ended with a bang. Everyone had to move stuff around last minute due to our portables being moved. I also applied to about 6 jobs for Computer Instructional Technologist at my District. This person is basically the techie on campus to help teacher intergrate technology. I have heard NOTHING about interviews. I am little bummed.

I went to a workshop and a person there from a campus I applied at was there and made some nasty comments about needing a person who is more adept than I was for thier campus after I said I had applied at her campus. Talk about being a tech snob. She didn't know anything about me and said this. I am glad I didn't get an interview there needless to say.


I have a new kit coming out today called Iced Cocoa. I also decided to track how many people were downloading my stuff.

Well that's it for now!

Books and Moview

Been very busy with reading lately.

Wolf who Rules by Wen Spencer. WOW!!!! I can say that this was as good as if not better than the first one. I really like the complex characters in this series. And a male elf? Yummm!

Hammered by Elizabeth Bear. Well I have to say I got half way through this book and gave up on it. It was too techie/science/military for me.

Megan's Mark by Lora Leigh. HOT!!! HOT!!! HOT!! If you like your stories with sizzle and good characters Lora is one of the best. Love the Breed Series and was very worried about transitioning from ebooks to mass market paperback but she has done it well. I have to say that Ellora's Cave has some of the best writers in the romance field writing for them and most people don't even know about this ebook company! Although now they are moving to print. These stories are not for the faint of heart. Very graphic.

Heart Thief by Robin T. Owens. Fantasy Romance. The hero is a theif/outcast because he doesn't have any psi powers so he was ousted from being leader of his house by his uncle. The heroine is a judge that must help decide his fate and has empathy psi that he blocks so she feels at peace. I must say I thought this wasn't bad. I have Heart Choice and Heart Mate on it's way from paperback swap so I will read some more of this series to see if these are as good or better. One thing I was irritated about tho was the names with the first initial and an apostrophe like T'Ash.


A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole. First book by her that I have read. Another werewolf book lol. Different take again with the girl being a Valkie wolf hybrid. She was a little mousey but got more kick butt as the story progress. The hero was great as well. I will definitely read more by this author!

Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter. I had a hard time finding this at discounted price but finally got it!!! I must say I liked it alot even though a lot of reviewers didn't. The character is alot like Anita Blake but I liked that. The twist being about Aliens living in world. Her romance was a little weak but it was fine with me since I knew that about her from the other book I read by her (something about a Dragon). I will definitely keep reading this series but not the one about the dragon (the newest in that one in that series is something with Atlantis in the title)

I saw Flight 93 which I didn't really want to see but my Dad was treating so I went. It was very tense through the whole movie because I knew what was going to happen. I must say it really made me understand better why/how this could have happened. I thought the movie was very good and took into account the survivor's families feelings about this tragedy.

Also saw Ice Age 2 with my nephew. I liked it alot but it wasn't as good as the first I don't think. That's it for now!

Talk to ya later!