Well, Hello....Its Been Awhile

Hi Blog World. Yes, it has been over 2 weeks. Alot has been happening. I finished painting my living room on my time off between jobs. It looks fantastic, if I do say so myself.... Then started my new job this past Monday. So far, it is all good.

I have been slacking in making any new Spin profiles lately. For one thing, I haven't come across any great new music to inspire me, and Two, I haven't had alot of free time lately. I know, I was off for work for 8 days plus 2 weekends, but the first weekend was Labor Day and we went to visit my parents for a long weekend. The second, Jonas and I went to Houston, TX to see Dave Matthews at The Woodlands (which was AWESOME), and then to stay with his dad for a night. But the show made it completely worth the long 2-lane, backroad drive we had on the way to The Woodlands.

Anywho, that is what I have been up to lately. I hope to soon have some kind of inspiring super ride profiles to give out in the near future....

Breaking the Rule

So I'm breaking the the unwritten cardinal rule to never blog about work. It is never, ever a good idea.

But I only have 2 days left at ESF, today and tomorrow. I have to say, it is bitter sweet. I have been here for over 5 years. This is my second home, here in my little grey cubicle staring at my double monitors working on various student loan issues. These people are like family. I definitely see them more than my own family. Occasionally, we wear jeans to work, and flip flops on most days. We even have cake once in a blue moon, and today since they are sending me off with a few extra hundred calories to celebrate my contribution to this place. We all have our cell phones conveniently placed beside our keyboard in case we get a personal call. Ipods and headphones are sitting around most desks as we make sure we have some tunes to listen to throughout the day - which is where I get more of my inspirations for new Spin classes. At any point in the day, you can hear people sitting around talking, and more than likely not about anything work-related. We all talk about what we have eaten for the day, the workouts we had the day before, some talk about their kids, others talk about somebody else's kids.

Needless to say, ESF has been such a great first job, and it was an extremely easy transition from full-time college student to full-time employee working 8 - 5. I am a little reluctant to leave the familiarity and the ease of this place, but it is time to move on. I would have been stupid not to take the opportunity that presented itself.

I start my new job on September 13th, and in the meantime, I will just be here and there. I have aspirations to paint the living room while I'm on vacation, but that probably won't work out since Labor Day weekend is coming up, and a final trip to see Dave Matthews is the following weekend.

As of Tuesday afternoon at 4:00, I will no longer be reporting in at 7:30 in the mornings at ESF. :(
To all my friends there, I'll see you when I see you, and Good Luck!

Best Dressed!

My picture, along with Meg and Owenne, was one of 13 selected for the Best Dressed blog from MyScoop (picture #12)! This was taken last Saturday at the Belhaven Nights street festival. Fun Times!

Since I'm a goob, I was kind of excited about it! Here is the picture:

"These three lovely ladies looked great in their tanks and shorts. From right to left: Meg, Owenne, and Lacey Outlaw."

I would like to thank Belk for the shirt I bought......and I have no idea where my purse or shorts or shoes came from. :)

Gotta New 'Do!

So, I don't like to keep my hair the same for too long, and since I've been blond-ish for about 3 months, it was time for a change. Started my fall hair early. Maybe the fall hair will help the fall temps get here sooner.

Gotta teach Abs, Turbo, and Bootcamp all by my lonesome tonight. I hope I don't have red sweat dripping from my head.

Wednesday Morning Funny

I usually get up in the mornings around 6:00 am, then hit the snooze button for 20 minutes for Jonas to wake up around 6:20. When I get up, I usually feed Stella, fix my cereal, and sit down to watch the news for about 20 minutes before I start getting ready for work. While I was watching tv, I notice the time is 6:25 and Jonas hadn't gotten up yet. So I tell Stella to go get him, and she runs to the back, but the door was shut so she didn't go in the bedroom. At 6:30 when he is still not up, I go back to the bedroom to wake him up - and he is still snoozing while the radio-alarm is playing. I tell him hurry up! It's 6:30, you are already 10 minutes late......

So he rolls out of bed and throws on some clothes to take Stella for their morning walk. He tells me he'll be back soon and I hear him walk out of the door. So I head to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and he walks back in the door holding the kitchen scissors.

So I ask him, "what were those doing outside?" because I assumed he found them outside and was bringing them back in.

He responds, "I grabbed the scissors instead of the leash to take Stella on a walk...." and sets them on the counter next to the leash, grabs the leash, and walks out the door.

Ok, so maybe it's not that funny, but I could not stop laughing this morning. It usually does not take much at all to amuse me. At least it started my day off with a laugh. :)

New Yard

So I decided to take a few picture of my yard that I worked in all weekend. I totally wish I had before pictures so the full effect could be seen, but we'll have to do with a little after pictures.

Still not completely finished, but I've got a good start I think. First, Jonas and I pulled up 5 very old box woods from the front of the house. No, we didn't waste time digging them up. Jonas tied a tow rope around the base, and we pulled them out with the truck. I knew there was a good reason for getting it. :)

 We ended up planting 4 camellias in place of them, and put 6 pieces of ground cover in front that I hope will fill in a bit later.

Here they are together:

Just don't look at the grass. We haven't gotten that far yet.

Next we dug up and extended the bed on the left front side of the house. I planted 4 small Azaleas, and 3 Hostas in between the azaleas and a fern on either side. It looks so much better than before, but I cannot wait for it to grow in.

One of the azaleas:

One of my ferns, but you can't see them in the next picture. They are on both far sides.

Full side yard

We still have so much to do, but it's a HUGE improvement. Plus, it's my first time to ever do any landscaping, so I'm pretty proud of myself. I still want to put a boarder around the bed in the picture above, and I want to get new St. Augustine put around the rest of the yard. And the boxwoods need to be trimmed back (in the fall, I hear). And I probably need more mulch. But I think it is a huge step in the right direction. Any comments, suggestions welcome!

Don't Foget To Hit Reset

Monday morning, for me, is usually a time to hit the "reset" button, and start fresh for a new week.

Its time to make up for the Keifer's gyro, cottage fry, and pitcher of Amber Bock I had on Friday night, the large Domino's pizza Jonas and I split Saturday night, and the hamburgers we cooked on Sunday along with the beers I had after working in the yard.

Its time to get back on my workout schedule since I didn't do anything all weekend (except for work outside in my yard for Saturday and Sunday - which quantified plenty of sweat, but still not the same.)

What happens when that reset button doesn't work? OR - what if I didn't hit that reset button in my mind? What if I just told myself, "well, you've done messed it all up now and gained a few pounds back. No point in starting over again...."

Well, that would make me a quitter - and that is something I am most certainly not.

When Life throws you lemons, make lemon-flavored water! (Because lemonade has too much sugar, and sugar is off limits!)

So headed to the gym at 4:00 for my usual Monday routine: Vinyasa Flow Yoga at 4:00, followed by my Spin class at 5:30. Still doing the Tour de France rides in class, and today we did Stage 6: mostly flat roads with a few very small hills. We will keep a fast pace, trying to keep heart rate around 80%.

Whew! That ended up being a killer ride! 655 calories burned in 45 minutes! Tomorrow, Stage 7 + abs class + bootcamp. Gonna be a long day.

Calorie Count:

Breakfast cereal (+ vitamins) - 340

Lunch - BBQ chick pizza - 340

Banana - 105

Dinner - 540

Half a protein drink with skim milk - 190

Total Calories Consumed - 1515

Calories Burned -  724

Total Calories Remaining -----------791

One Hundred and One Honda Accords...

This is my car:

One of the most popular cars on the road right now - or so it seems.

So, last night when I was leaving out of the gym, I was tired and I was digging in my bag for my keys. By the time I got to my car, I still hadn't found my keys, so I sat my bag on top of the car hood and continued digging for keys. Finally, I find them and hit the unlock button.

Nothing happens.

So I hit unlock about 5 or 6 times, and still nothing. So I think, well, this is weird.... and I glance in the back and there is a suit hanging in the back hanger. I'm thinking, why in the world is a suit hanging in the back of my..........oh wait......................crap.

Not my car.

I look around and there are 2 more graphite accords in the parking lot, but I spot mine with the Hinds county tag and head toward it.....looking around to make sure nobody else sees me walking around the parking lot like an idiot because I don't know which car is mine.

In my defense, I've only been driving it for 4 months, ok?!