Inspiration and Motivation

I wanted to let all of you know that my blog is under review by Pay Per Post. If approved, I can accept opportunities to post items on my blog and receive money for it. It seems pretty simple so I thought I'd give it a try. Let's hope that my blog gets approved! I plan to save up the money I make to help pay for car repairs so I don't have to ask my parents for money all of the time.

As I've posted before, I'm on the Medifast diet program and I have 18 more pounds to lose to reach my initial goal of 125. I happened to get a Victoria's Secret holiday catalog in the mail last night and I decided to use some of the pictures as motivation and inspiration to help me reach my goal. I know that sounds gross but I only have one picture posted in my closet that is a woman in underwear. The remainder are all women wearing jeans, cords, or dress clothes. These slender, beautiful women remind me of what my husband as well as husbands every where are looking for in their wives. The idea is that seeing these pictures will help me keep focused as I work toward my goal.

The other night at Adoration, I placed a prayer in the book not only for our financial concerns put for strength during my weight loss journey. That sounds hokey, I know, but I wanted GOD to know that I value his help and that I need him. I've been taking some surveys in my spare time to help earn some money and I hope to be approved by Pay Per Post. Neither of these should take as much time as previous endeavors that I tried to make money. Ideally, my husband could help me but we keep our finances separate so I have no control over what he does which is why he's always buying electronics and firearms.

I should get back to my day job. Have a wonderful day!

Online Cancer Informaton

Like many others, I have had my life touched by friends and family who were stricken with cancer. I can remember my Uncle Cop laying in his hospital bed on a respirator during his battle with lung cancer. That is why I am growing my hair to donate it to charities that specialize in making wigs for cancer patients.

There is information available online at Online Cancer Information where you can learn about cancer treatments, types of cancer, and even alternative treatments to chemo and radiation. You owe it to yourself and to your loved ones to visit this website to learn more about this deadly disease.

Go away! I don't like you!

Now that I have your attention or that I've offended you and you have gone away. :-(

Several times a week, my son often tells me "go away! I don't like you!" when I try to get him out of bed to get him dressed for school in the morning. This morning he told me that Daddy was his friend but that he didn't like me. Ouch, that hurts my feelings just like my arm is a bit sore from my flu shot yesterday.

Obviously this was on my mind as a drove into work and I came to realize something.

If we don't take time to stop, reflect, and pray even for a few minutes each day, we are basically telling GOD the same thing my son tells me. We tell GOD to "go away" and "I don't like you" when we won't give him even five minutes of our time. I know there are some days where you feel like you barely have time to breathe but these are the days when it's even more critical that one stops for even just five minutes for a quiet prayer. By taking this time, we reach out to GOD and say "I need you" and "I Love You" or "You are important to me". Taking just five minutes for prayer will help you recharge your batteries and repay you more than whatever else you did not do in that time.

I know that maybe tonight or another day this week that Jonnie will say "Mama, I Love You" and that will erase the pain I feel in my heart when he tells me otherwise.

What is "Status Quo"?

My mind has been wandering and racing today. Part of it is that I'm nervous about my flu shot that I'm getting later today. I've never had one before and I'm scared of needles. Jon was supposed to go with me to get one, too, but said he didn't need one.

I've been thinking this morning about "what is status quo"? I have thought back all the way to my childhood. Back then, you kept something or used something until it broke and had to be replaced. We used the same plates day and in day out because they were not broken and they were what we had in the cupboard. We only had one TV in our house and it had a dial to change the channels. Back then, you used to call a repairman to come and fix your TV and only replace the TV when it was beyond repair. Hmmm. Status quo now seems to be "this TV isn't large enough, let's replace it with one that is larger". Cars were purchased with the intent of driving them until they were falling apart back when I was a kid. Now you can get 2 year leases so you have a pretty new car every two years. My husband and I argued over my car this weekend. I have to have more work done on my car this coming weekend and he said "get a new car". I do not want to get a different car and, realistically, I cannot afford a new car. Whatever happened to repairing something when it's broken instead of just replacing it?

We live in such a disposable society. We are wasteful when it comes to our possessions and when it comes to our time. Our thinking is if we work countless hours of overtime, we have more disposable income to spend on bigger TVs, bigger and better firearms, cell phones that do everything under the sun except have the owner answer when you really need them to answer. When we gain a few pounds, it's easier to go and buy new clothes than to lose weight.

We don't appreciate what we have. When a man and a woman married years and years ago, they were in it for the long haul. They loved each other through weight gain, gray hair, wrinkles, glasses, and tattered clothes. Today, men gawk, stare, ogle, and fantize about women other than their wives. The wives, longing for their husband's love diet themselves into starvation trying to lose weight, color their hair as soon as one gray hair appears, get shots in their wrinkles to puff them up all trying to win back their husband's love. Trust me....I'm living this very life right now because my husband has what I nick-named the "Jennifer-scope" over the weekend. It's a telescope that can be used for shooting but dear hubby uses it to check out Jennifer. Jennifer is a our beautiful blonde neighbor who after 3 children has a body that looks like it was carved by angels without an ounce of body fat. Despite her small size, she can drive a mini-van and drive her husband's truck with ease. It's easy to see why she has my husband's undivided attention.

I cannot color my white hairs right now because color damages the hair and cancer charities only accept healthy hair to make wigs. It's been a sacrifice to see the white hairs when I look in the mirror but next year when I get my hair cut and sent off, I'm going blonde like Jennifer.

Since I'm scared of needles and afraid of a flu shot, Botox or collagen injections are not in my future but I do have a wide variety of Olay products to fight wrinkles so I have beautiful skin like Jennifer has.

Finally, I'm struggling with the diet right now. I have 18 pounds to lose until I hit my goal of 125. Jon and I were working outside while Jonnie napped yesterday and Jennifer was outside. I don't think 125 is going to get me where I need to be in order to look like Jennifer but I don't know. It's been so long since I've weighed 125 that I need to see what 125 looks like before I decide to go lower. Will 115, 110, or 100 be the ticket to looking like Jennifer? I can only hope to find the answer so that my husband turns his telescope toward me and I can rename it the "Jodi-scope".

What is Status Quo? When you figure it out, let me know!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

For us, the excitement of the day is already over. We ate our big meal at noon today. My parents came down to visit. I had the turkey in the oven by 7:30 AM covered in a nice spice rub and his cavity filled with onion, garlic, celery, and lemon. The stubborn bird ideally would have been done at 11 but I guess being an OSU turkey he kept fighting so he went back in the oven and we finally ate around noon. My Mom brought mashed potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. I made green bean casserole, sweet potatoes topped with praline pecans, turkey gravy, rolls, and sausage stuffing.

Jonnie ate a few bites of turkey but his diet today has been brown sugar pop tarts. My Dad ate two plates of turkey and mashed potatoes but said he should not have had the second plate. We all were too full but that is typical of Thanksgiving. As suspected, my hubby disliked the Pinot Gris that I served so on top of turkey coma, I had a wine buzz after drinking my wine and his. My parents do not drive after dark so they left a while ago and all were too full to eat pie so we split the pie up. After a nap, I had a piece of pie and it was really good.

I am thankful for my family. Of course, I am thankful for my husband, son, and all of my in-laws (yes, I said thankful for my in-laws) but I am most thankful for my Mom & Dad. We do not see each other much because we're too busy with church activities, work, school, and shooting matches. If it weren't for Mom & Dad, I would not be here. Although they were quite overprotective and I was raised strictly, they encouraged me. Mom shuttled me to swimming lessons which I quit. Mom shuttled me to ballet where I was a laughing stock because my hair was too short to wear in a bun like the other girls plus I wore navy blue instead of black and pink along with the soft ballet shoes instead of the expensive leather ones. I quit that, too. Dad took me to Saturday morning basketball camps which I quit. I played violin and was the best in my class but I quit that, too, but that was because Dad bribed me with $20 to quit. I know that sounds horrible but I had violin class on Mondays so I wanted to get in extra practice on the weekends. Apparently I had quite a knack of setting up my music stand and pretending that I was part of a famous symphony at kickoff for both the Buckeyes and the Browns.

I also learned the value of hard work from my parents which has lead me to be successful in my career. As I sit here in my tattered Heidelberg sweatshirt, I think back to when I wanted to quit college the first day. My parents both drove to Tiffin and I remember my Dad was ticked. My peer facilitator and kids from my peer group along with my parents convinced me to stay. Although the degrees I graduated with are not entirely related to my career, I know the hard work paid off. I know my parents worked hard to help put me through college so I had a little student loan debt as possible when I graduated. Even then, if I defaulted on my loan payments, they were there to take over. I never did default and I paid off my loans in 5 years instead of 10.

I look at my son and wonder what he will want to do when he's ready to join clubs, sports, and other activities. Jon and I have said we will not force him into anything. I do admit last weekend, I was trying to convince him that being the drum major for OSU's marching band was what he wanted to do when he grows up. I just read an article in my email from NASCAR about Jimmie Johnson who won the Nextel Cup Championship and how he was encouraged by his family and grew up modestly. I know the money in racing is good but I'm not sure my heart could take sitting there if Jonnie's car hit the wall and caught on fire. Regardless of what Jonnie wants to do, we will be there with love and encouragement. I suppose an open checkbook will be required, too, if preschool is already a sign of things to come!

Happy Thanksgiving and many blessings to you and yours for a wonderful day!

A little time to kill

As odd as it might sound based on how busy my life tends to be, I find myself sitting here with time to kill! It's 12:55 AM and I'm at work. We started our big server move project with everyone meeting here at 9:45 PM to review the action plan. I made a pot of coffee and I seem to be the only one drinking it so I brought the lonely carafe into my office so it's no longer lonely. I meant to grab the library book I started reading last week so I could read during downtime but the book is sitting at home. We had to log out of email a half hour ago and out of our ticketing system over an hour and a half ago. I can't even work on my monthly reports since I need to use the ticketing system to look at each ticket.

Jonnie has been a bit of a bear (or is that terror?) this week. He doesn't want to go to bed and then he doesn't want to get up and get dressed in the morning. It's taken Jon and I both to hold him down and dress him the past 2 days. Sometimes he'll run in and use the potty perfectly yet he'll either pee his pants or pee in front of the toilet through his pants. I have so much laundry piled up at this point that you cannot even tell that I washed a load on Wednesday!

Jon's starting to recover from his cold/cough issues. Earlier this week he starting coughing around 1:30 AM and he was coughing so hard that he was shaking the bed. Tiger and I both woke up and ended up going down and sleeping across my recliner. Jon cannot see a surgeon until December so we have no idea when his operation might be until that time.

I've officially been on the Medifast program for one week as of today. I weigh-in tomorrow so I hope for good results! It's been a lot easier than I thought. Yesterday was challenging with all of the donuts and pizza in the office as sort of a "tailgate" thing. Today has been a bit weird because I'm up when I am normally sleeping so I did have to nibble a chunk off a bar to help with some hunger pangs I was having. I will space the bar throughout the morning while I'm at the office so I should be able to go home and go to bed and worry about eating my mid-morning oatmeal later.

It's time for me to start pestering people for updates so I'd better sign off. Take care!

Weekend updates

This is a three-day weekend for Jon and I but I don't think it involves too much R&R.

Yesterday we saw Jon's doctor and the next step is to meet with a surgeon to schedule surgery in January. The cats went to the vet and then we stopped by the library so I could pick up a book I'd requested. As time permitted between I did laundry. We went to lunch at Jason's in Dublin which was quite tasty although my burger probably had more calories alone than I am allowed to have in my current phase of the Medifast program.

After lunch, we went to Lowe's and we are seriously considering buying an outdoor Christmas decoration for the yard. Normally, we're lucky if we put out a wreath but this year we found an inflatible #48 car with Santa driving and elves as the pit crew. We didn't buy it yesterday but we did get stockings to decorate our offices. I got Dale Jr and Jon got Jimmie Johnson. We went over to Tuttle Mall so I could get my free panty from Victoria's secret. Why I went through 20 minutes of hell for a $7 panty is beyond me. I can buy underwear in 5 packs at Sam's for $10! We ended our errands at Kroger. Jon did some basement clean up while I picked up Jonnie's mess. Of course, Jonnie has since created his mess all over again so it looks like I've done nothing.

Today is the first day of the Medifast program. I've had 4 out of 5 Medifast meals today. For diet food, they aren't bad. Dinner is the one meal per day that is normal grocery store food at this point on the program. My calorie range for the first phase is 950 to 1050. I have today planned out at 983. I've been concious of drinking more water and other calorie free beverages like plain tea and plain coffee. I could not live without the online food diary to calculate everything for me.

I'd better go. Jonnie is requesting more Goldfish in his bowl.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Off to the Races!

I feel like we've been "off to the races" all this week. I'm not saying that because we watched the Nextel Cup Race on Sunday nor am I saying it because I've lost track of how many times we've watched Cars since Jon picked up our reserved copy last night. It's been a very busy week.

We had the Bishop's event on Monday after work. Bishop Campbell seemed quite impressed with Jonnie, dirty clothes and all. Jonnie babbled to the Bishop and Father Pat about ducks sitting in a cornfield. My friend Sarah has some toys at the office for her daughter Beth and Jonnie took off with the shopping car. The nice thing about it was that it saved me from carrying the diaper bag, his duck, and his cup. The blessing ceremony was very nice. I got to see Father Sill and Deacon Dan from London whom I met at a RCIA retreat last spring. We also saw Father Eilerman from our former parish in Columbus. The food seemed to go over very well and there wasn't much left when it was time for me to go.

Thankfully, we both voted by absentee ballot so that was one thing we did not have to mess with on Tuesday. I went to the dentist and was hoping that Jon would be ready to by and get Jonnie but his training class went haywire so he hadn't even left work yet. When everyone finally did get home, we enjoyed multiple showings of Cars. I especially like the cameo appearances by Dale Jr. Please note that Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, nor Jeff Gordon had cameo appearances but Dale Jr. did. :-)

Tonight I'm the one who got out of work late but Jon had dinner ready when Jonnie and I got home. I ran a couple of errands and Jon had a Knights meeting. Tomorrow is class night so I won't be home until late.

Jon and I both have Friday off as an OSU Holiday. We're taking Jonnie to school and then going to Jon's doctor's appointment to find out about his possible surgery. The cats are seeing the vet later that morning and I've made lunch reservations for Jon and I at Jason's in Dublin. I have studying to do plus I have a ton of stuff to do for the homeowner's association. I'll deal with that once my rattan file box arrives from Staples tomorrow.

My 4-week food plan from Medifast should arrive on Friday. I'll be starting the plan on Saturday. I eat 5 Medifast meals a day and then a regular dinner. My goal is to lose 25 pounds.

In the words of Lighting McQueen: "Float like a Cadillac and sting like a Beemer!"