Practice at traveling in space and time

I know, I know...I've kinda fallen off the face of the earth lately. I mean it's only been a week and a half since my last post so that's not too awful, but it feels like it's been FOREVER. 

Before tonight at the Y, it felt like it had been sooo long since we worked out too. It had been eight days since our last run, and six days since the last time we lifted weights. It was only like a week, but it felt like months! We have been busy with family and friends and really fell off the wagon. 

I've got a lot to update y'all on, so why not start with our weekend at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival? Shane's parents came to town to visit on Saturday and then Sunday we all stepped back in time to 16th century England. None of us had been to a renaissance faire before so we didn't really know what to expect. They actually have a real (replica) castle there, the family who built it lives in one of the towers full time. That would be so cool! 

They have been continuously working on the castle since the 1980s and it still isn't finished. The festival was started as a way to let people tour the castle one month out of the year (and raise money) while giving themselves some peace to enjoy their home the other eleven months. Of course they do host a lot of weddings there, and Taylor Swift even shot her "Love Story" music video there. 

We had a great time looking around at all the booths, playing games, eating festival food (I think we were the only ones without a giant turkey leg), and watching shows. It was all going so well until 4:30...we were watching the Birds of Prey show while waiting for the jousting tournament to start...then all of a sudden, drip drip drip. In under a minute, those few raindrops had turned into a torrential downpour. With no hope of the rain letting up, we made a mad dash for the car. We were all absolutely soaked through by the time we made it to the car.

I got in the mood to make a video and also to use the iMovie fairytale theme, so to see any more, you'll need to watch the video below :) We're looking forward to next year's festival, and hopefully we'll actually be able to see the jousting!

Weekly weigh in

To see all past weigh ins, click here. To see my whole weight loss journey, click here.

We've just been trucking along with the weight loss, and it's going well!

My progress: I've lost 3lbs since last week for a total of 32lbs lost...I'm now at 194lbs.

35.6% of my goal complete. 

Shane's progress: He's lost 4lbs since last week for a total of 41lbs lost...he's at 268lbs.

32.8% of his goal complete. 

Honestly I think most of my weight loss this week is water weight loss from not hydrating as much as I normally do over the weekend. We were in the car all day on Saturday so I didn't drink hardly any water so we wouldn't have to stop for a zillion rest stops. Granted, I still drank a few normal-sized bottles worth, but that's a lot less than normal. And then yesterday, we ran out of water in our big water cooler. I'm looking forward to getting back on track with my water consumption...I have not felt great being underhydrated. I can tell a difference in my skin, especially my face, and my throat feels so dried out when I wake up in the mornings. 

I am especially proud of Shane this week because in the picture above, he had just finished running six miles. You read that right, SIX MILES! He's halfway to a half marathon and I am so proud. The furthest he had run before that was four miles, which is still a crazy long distance to me. I don't see how he does it, I'm jealous! I'm still at the point where I can run max about 30 minutes/1.5 mile on a good day. He is doing a special half marathon training plan to be ready to run one sometime in the fall. If he keeps going at this pace, he'll have no trouble. 

Check back next week for another weigh in!

Weekly weigh in

To see all past weigh ins, click here. To see my whole weight loss journey, click here.

Shane and I spent the past weekend in Knoxville visiting our families for Mother's Day. We had a great time and we spent Sunday at Dollywood with both moms (post coming on that later). Of course, with any theme park comes JUNK FOOD. We tried to be strong, and we failed. A giant slice of pizza, chicken tenders, french fries, some chocolate chip cookie, and freshly baked cinnamon bread all made an appearance throughout the day. The worst part was the drive home though...after nine hours at the park, I drank a Dr. Pepper to make it through the 3+ hour drive home. All clouds do have a silver lining though, because although it was my first Dr. Pepper in months (which I used to be totally hooked on), it just tasted way sugary and not very good. Thankfully we're still doing okay weigh-in-wise, I'm thinking it must've been all the walking. 

My progress: I've lost 1lb since last week for a total of 29lbs lost...I'm now at 197lbs.

32.2% of my goal complete. 

Shane's progress: He's lost 4lbs since last week for a total of 37lbs lost...he's at 272lbs.

29.6% of his goal complete. 

Don't worry, I definitely don't plan on having another Dr. Pepper anytime soon. I don't really want any of that other junk anymore either. Eating healthier has made me notice how nice I feel when I eat healthier, and I really do feel crappy when I eat crappy food. Shane feels the same way. This just reaffirms that we're on the right path, and I really think we'll be able to stick with a lot of these changes we're making long-term. That's not to say I'll never eat a slice of pizza or a french fry again, but always in moderation. 

If you can't say anything nice...

A few days ago I had another run-in with that guy at my work. Like every afternoon, I was in the mailroom sorting the mail when guess who walks in, my absolute least favorite person. This is the conversation we had: 

Him: "Oh, you're looking very nautical today."

Me: "Well...thank you!" *astonished that he's for once not berating me for having the mail sorted before it's even arrived*

Him: "How do you know that was a complement?"

*ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!*

Me: "I choose to take it as one. Why, was it meant as something else?" *Keeping the sappiest smile I can on my face, while silently daring him to keep going*

Him: "Oh no, it was intended as a complement, I was just saying..." *fade into incoherent mumbling"

*IF IT WAS MEANT AS A COMPLEMENT, THEN WHY COME BACK AND QUESTION ME ON THANKING YOU FOR IT?!*

The outfit in question. 

Of course, after he left the room, I came up with all these great comebacks all along the lines of "well most peoples' mothers taught them better manners..." etc. etc. 

It's shit like this that drives me up the wall. And no, what he said really isn't that big of a deal. I don't give a rat's ass what he thinks of my clothes. It's just the way he says things like this, it's like he is trying intentionally to get under my skin. 

Today wasn't any better. I had an extremely busy day with lots of clients bringing in work, trying to catch up on things that hadn't been finished from the day before, and to top it off, I'm on day two of training a new person. I'd been running around like a chicken with my head cut off basically. Mail time rolls around, the new girl and I sort and start delivering. He walks into the mail room just as we're trying to walk out, and then decides to comment on the situation. 

Him: "Well, this new girl really seems to have lit a fire under you." *acting like I sit around and slack all day*

Me: "I don't know what you mean, Mr. ***, I sort the mail every day as soon as it gets in."

Him: "It doesn't get sorted as soon as it comes in, because sometimes you all are on lunches and it sits back there unsorted and you all don't sort it until everyone comes back from lunch." *Pardonné-moi for being a human being who needs to eat*

*At this point, my manager who was standing nearby jumps in*

Manager: "Mr. ****, sometimes everyone is only two people. My girls all work as hard as they can."

Me: "And you have to remember, Mr. ***, we can't leave the reception desk. Someone has to answer the phones..."  *note that some days there really are only two of us working, so that means for two hours, while the first one takes lunch and the other covers the reception desk, and then we swap, there are a two good hours where phones are all we can do. We answer for so many companies, we CAN'T leave the desk and just not answer phones. We'd miss hundreds of calls.*

Him: "It still seems like she's motivating you to work a bit harder."

*With a fake smile and a "haha", I turn and walk away because I can't take any more. As I'm waiting for the elevator, I mutter an "oh god" as I see him walking towards us*

Him: "I know you all work hard."

*Sure, sure*

Me: "Yes we do, I've been running circles around the building today."

Him: "Well, you know what they say, that idle hands are the devil's tools. All this work is just keeping you out of trouble." *chuckle*

*I let out a big sigh of relief as the elevator doors open*

I'm serious y'all, if I end up in the looney bin, you'll all know why. I try my hardest to not take his crap personally, but he MAKES it personal. We don't even have the sort of work relationship where you'd think it would just be teasing, he's been like this since day one, and you can just tell he's being serious. I know he doesn't like me, which doesn't bother me because I don't like him one bit, but I treat him as nicely as possible, and always have a smile on my face. Kill him with kindness, you know? I can just read his feelings for me on his face. And so what? Why do I deserve this sort of treatment? Because I'm too busy working to come chat with you whenever you want? Because your favorite employee quit months ago and I switched offices to take her place? Guess what, I didn't drive her away. She quit by choice. 

Pray for me, y'all. With his extra attention plus several more weeks or possibly months of new hire training (depending on if we get one or two more new people), I will be lucky to make it out the other side. 

Weekly weigh in

To see all past weigh ins, click here. To see my whole weight loss journey, click here.

Let me start off tonight's post by saying "Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!" They've been married 29 years today which is awesome!

Also, Happy Star Wars Day! Shane and I started today's celebration off with a lovely pancake breakfast, complete with delicious fruit and Nutella toppings (in moderation, of course). Next we watched Netflix for a little while so our stomachs could settle, then  we headed to the gym for a run. I watched part of Jaws 2 while I ran for a whole 30 minutes without stopping once! Woo hoo! I honestly would've never believed I could do it, and hopefully I can do it again. Since neither of us has quite mastered the Force yet, some weightlifting was next on the agenda. We've been doing an 8 week beginner weight training program and we're currently on week 4. We remembered that we didn't actually have copies of Star Wars on DVD or anything, so we then went to Target to pick up the box set and came home and watched Episode I while eating Jersey Mike's (we've been going there so much lately the workers know us now). 

My progress: I've lost 2lbs since last week for a total of 28lbs lost...I'm now at 198lbs.

31.1% of my goal complete. 

Shane's progress: He's gained 5lbs since last week for a total of 33lbs lost...he's at 276lbs.

26.4% of his goal complete. 

I am so thrilled that I ran for 30 minutes straight today, I just can't get over it! I just have one 35 minute run left and then I'm done with the Couch to 5k program, yay! Shane of course is amazing at running and is already long done with C25k and is training for a 10k. 

I must admit, Shane is a bit discouraged with his progress this week, as he gained back 5lbs. However, if you remember last week's weigh in, he had lost the unusually large amount of 7lbs. I think that must've been some sort of weird weight fluctuation going on, and I'm trying to keep reminding him that he's still made amazing progress. Plus, 7lbs in one week is way too much to lose, a person could get really sick from that, and I honestly feel a lot better to have him back at a slower, more normal pace. 

I also had quite a shock this week myself. We had some friends over and Shane decided he wanted to show them the turkey video from my 2013 Thanksgiving post where I fixed a "real" turkey for the first time. When I saw myself on the screen, I realized that I looked GIGANTIC and not just because I was on TV. I have always had a really good self-image and never saw myself as big in my head as I was and am in real life. Since I see myself every single day, I don't always notice the small changes, and it seems like progress hasn't been made. But comparing stuff like that video or photos really points out where I'm losing. I'm going to try and come up with some good progress photos this week to show y'all, and to use for motivation for myself :)

May the 4th be with you! 

Confessions of a terrible parent

When you have kids, furry or not, there are bound to be some disasters. No matter how much we try to watch them, it seems like our dogs are just looking for ways to get hurt and/or make themselves sick. Like the time Charlie ate a mystery mushroom in the backyard and had to get his stomach pump. Or the time Sheldon's tail got broken. When Sheldon was a puppy, he figured out how to open up the bathroom cabinet, climbed in and ate a whole box of caffeine pills. He got his stomach pumped that time too. 

I guess since the score was Sheldon: 2, Charlie: 1...Charlie was due for another injury. Yesterday morning he somehow managed to get a stray screw from the deck wreckage lodged in his side/back. I guess he was rolling around in the grass and it went right in? Thankfully it didn't go straight in, kinda sideways. Shane had to rush him to the vet because we were worried about dog tetanus. Turns out that's not really a thing, but he did have to get a steroid shot and lots of antibiotics.  He also has a lovely bald patch now. 

Sheldon tends to lick EVERYTHING, including Charlie, and we were worried about what would happen when Charlie got home. According to the vet, it's actually an okay thing. He said that we have to make sure the wound doesn't scab over until it starts healing inside to keep it from getting infected. Who knew? Kinda gross, but we'll just call him Nurse Sheldon. 

The picture below is the screw that stabbed Charlie. See the dark patch that goes three threads down? That's how far it went in. Poor Charlie. I'm looking into how to rent one of those gigantic junkyard magnets so we can clear the yard of any more dangerous debris.