Monday, January 25, 2010

These Hands...

Approximately 1200 hands at a time every hour last weekend....



...will help change the lives of 1.5 million homeless Haitian earthquake victims.



These hands:



...will help these children have hope in their future.

 

These hands:



...will help people like Baby Esther's mom have the chance to raise their babies.

These hands...

 

...will help people like these, rebuild their church buildings.

 

These hands...



 ...will bring comfort to a woman like this who has lost her family.

 

These hands...



 ...will help people like her live to see another day.

 

 These hands...



...will help people like these gain strength so their bodies will heal.

 

 These hands...



...will help a country that literally has fallen apart, rebuild.

 

Hand pictures taken at the Numana Million Meal Packaging Event January 23rd and 24th, 2010.
Haiti pictures taken from Fox News and Mail Online

Meltaway Monday

Week 1: 0
Total: 0

Basically this means that I lost nothing, but I gained nothing as well...which is good. I was worried about today's weigh in because I had a bit of a weird week/weekend. I was out at the Colliseum packing meals for Haiti most of the weekend so this kinda through off my normal eating habits and involved quite a bit of eating out. So gaining nothing was more of a goal than anything else! I hit the gym pretty hard today and hopefully will be able to make it again tomorrow. Doug and I are going to start P90x when he gets back...I sure hope I see results after that considering the pain that I have a feeling I will be in.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mall Observations

First of all, sorry about my template change. I'm having some issues and am about ready to throw my computer out the window...or write Blogger and really nasty hate note. Hopefully I'll get it changed soon.

I went to the mall today to burn some time since I'm not getting any sub jobs and I have some gift cards to use. What better way to spend money than when you don't have to spend your own?!? I made some observations while I was there.

1. Why is it when I observe two women kissing I'm completely repulsed yet feel like I have to look again? Gross.

2. Eighty-plus-year-old married couples are way cute...especially when they are curiously trying to figure out what a spray tan is that you can buy at Dillards.

Husband: I think it's a tan in a box, dear.
Wife: How can you get a tan if there is no sun?

3. How come every time I see a 50% off sign at Dillards I get all excited? I know that 50% still means, "I'm marked down to $100! You still can't have me!!!"

4. Little Chinese ladies that wear shorts with compromising tights, pastel pink and purple leg warmers, paired with old lady shoes are also oddly cute. Especially when they walk really fast. It's like a blurry rainbow.

5. Why is when I walk into Express I automatically start my runway model walk?

6. While we're on the subject of Express why do all of their mannequins stand with their pelvises jutted out and hands on their wanna be hips? Does anyone really stand like that? And if they do, do they think it's attractive? Cuz it's not. Trust me I tested it in the mirror when I got home. Not. Attractive. At. All.

7. I think I remember liking Claire's at one point in my life because they had lots of cute, cheap jewelry. Is this true or has it always been a store full of Hannah Montanaesque stuff for 10-year-olds? It was awkward in there...like I should have been shopping for my non-existent prepubescent daughter.

8. Having conversations on the escalator in Von Maur can also be awkward.

Girl in Front of Me: Do he be sittin' there all day?
Me: Excuse me?
GIFOM: Do he be sittin' at that piano all day?
Me: Oh...yes, I think so.
GIFOM: I wanna be sittin' there all day.
Me: That would be nice if I could play the piano. (Dear Jesus, make this escalator go faster!)
GIFOM: I can't believe he be sittin' there all day.

9. In Maurice's, if you are the only customer there, the workers (all of them) will run to you like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. You will then want to run away crying and rock in the corner.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Starting Next Week

A little over a year ago we got married:

And I fit perfectly into that there dress. I'm not so sure that dress would fit anymore if I even tried to squeeze into it. Since this picture was taken I have gained a lovely 10 lbs...I'm sure it isn't because I'm cooking things like this for my fantastic husband:

And it definitely couldn't be because of this gloriousness:

Or who could ever forget this:

I prefer to forget this:


I only made that stuff once...that just might be the culprit...as a matter of fact I bet it is. Curses to you, SPAM.

A culmination of all of this food plus trying to figure out how to find the time to cook this food and go to the gym has resulted in a slight bit of the weight gain. I thought it would stay away if I just willed it to do so...this method does not work in case you were all wondering. Because it doesn't work I'm gonna have to go about it the old fashioned way.

All of this rambling is bringing me to this point. I will be reporting in every Monday to all 4 of my readers as to my progress starting next Monday. We shall forevermore refer to Mondays as Meltaway and/or Meltdown Mondays...depending upon the results...Okay, we'll be positive and just stick with Meltaway Mondays. I'm not quite sure how it will turn out, but we're gonna give it a shot. My goal is 10 lbs and I'm not so sure on a timeframe at this point. Ideally by May would be great, but I'd be happy to have it off by October. We shall see.

So, here's to a week (or half week at this point) of working out and eating foods of small portion!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

ay 7 - Apparently We Hiked This Day and Saw Some Animals, But I'm Gonna Have to Try and Remember Because I've Slept Since Then

This was the last day of our vacation. I really struggled with remembering what we did on this day, but after much grunting and thinking (I don't usually grunt when I think...just when I try to think of detailed things I did 6 months ago) I think I remembered...either that or I dreamed it.

We moved yet again to another hotel...this time back to the one we started at. Let me refresh your memory...and by your memory I mean my memory.
This room will be my inspiration for our next bedroom. I love me some pink walls, rugs and 90's floral print comforters. Don't tell Doug...it's gonna be a special surprise from me to him. He's gonna be so excited! There may be a happy dance involved.

Anyway, back to our last day of vacation. I'm sad to report that there were no microbears involved at this hotel.

So, at some point on this leg of the trip we took a little boat road across a lake. The lady told us lots of cool stories about this lake, but I don't remember them. I do remember thinking, "This is awesome! I need to remember these stories for my blog!" Fail.

I do remember I took some pictures.

We got off the boat on the other side of the lake and took a short hike to this waterfall.


After a boat ride back to where we started, and more stories that I can't remember, we took another hike...our last of the trip. It was amazing and we got to see the most amazing waterfall ever...it's a good thing I forgot my camera in the car. So, because I forgot my camera in the car I will now steal a picture from the internet:

Thank you:
http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/StMaryFallscd2109.jpg

Seriously, this picture does no justice to the color of these falls...never seen anything like it.

We spent quite a bit of time here and watched crazy high school girls take pics of themselves hanging over the edge of the rocks precariously...I kinda felt bad that I wasn't gonna jump in after them if they plunged. Good thing they didn't.

Well, we went back to the hotel and left the next day for the airport. There won't be a story for the next day of our trip because for once in our married lives we actually made every flight we were supposed to catch. Miracles do happen.

Thanks for coming on our Glacier National Park trip with us. It was a great 6 months.

Now to start scrapbooking our honeymoon.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Day 6 - To Ride Horses with the Drunk Indians or Not to Ride Horses with the Drunk Indians? That is the Question.

Well, something like 6ish months later we are picking up our story from the vacation to Montana. Thanks to my trusty, dusty iPhone I can remember what happened on this day...vaguely. Not blogging about a trip for 6 months is kinda like a challenge, it makes my brain hurt.

So where were we? Oh yes, in the most amazing cabin of our lives...except that they had made that slight mistake and overbooked us so we were getting kicked out. Oh yea, also I woke up that morning to another microbear in the wall. I think it needed to snuggle cuz it was trying to scratch its way into my bedroom and this time my husband was not there to protect me...he was out being an adventure man taking pictures like this:


Don't worry, I like looking at pictures and not risking my life by getting charged by rams (yep, he almost did) so I'm okay that he got up at who knows what time and went here while I snoozed away with the microbear clawing at the wall.

Anyway, on this day we moved to our next home:


I must have really been slacking because I don't have a picture of the outside of this place. We were worried, because they didn't look so hot from the outside, but they weren't bad actually, just exceptionally tiny for 4 people and luggage. They were definitely better than our other option...the tepees.

This day we were on a hunt for horseback riding. Lucky for us there was a horseback riding place right across the street! So we pull right in and we were all about horseback riding...until we walked into the little shack where the horseback riding professionals (I think I refer to them as Indians in the title, but I'm probably really supposed to say Native Americans...from here on out I will refer to them as "the people who ran this joint") were hiding out. Our first hint that this wasn't a good idea might have been that there were no other cars here, but we are adventurous...to an extent. The fact that the people who ran this joint were downing their beers like no tomorrow and we had just filled up on a breakfast of French toast should have been our first red flag. Then I remembered a little story I overheard from someone at the last place we were at and that went something like this.

Lady: We were in St. Mary's and wanted to take the kids horseback riding and we found this little place off the road that did just that.
Man: Oh that's fantastic news! I'm sure the kiddos loved it.
Lady: Well, not so fast. This place was run by a couple drunk guys and there were only 2 riding helmets...except they were actually bike helmets.
Man: That's not so bad....except for the drunk part.
Lady: We asked the inebriated fellows what the age limit was and they responded by showing us with their hands a height of about 3 feet and said, "About this old." That's not an age! We decided not to risk the future generations of our family with those nuts and we came here.

By "here" this lady meant the last place we stayed at...Many Glacier Hotel. So, the four of us decided to not risk the future generations of our families either and we drove back to Many Glacier. Sad to say there were no cameras allowed on this trip. Or jackets for that matter, unless you were wearing them. It was too warm for that.

We signed our souls away to those horses. Thankfully we didn't get in a situation where we were tempted to sue one of them. We got lectured by the horse riding man...and he was serious...he almost ripped a lady's head off when she was fussing with her helmet instead of paying full attention to him. It got ugly when she talked back to him, but I held in my laughter quite well, but I think I might have hid my face in embarrassment for her. Nothing like two grown adults talking back at each other like one's a parent and the other is the 6-year-old child.

Anyway, Doug rode Gus and I got to ride Bart. Or was the other way around? My iPhone isn't clear. I'll stick with Doug and Gus and me and Bart.

Oh, I just remembered! I'm short as most of you know so the stirrups were quite high on my horse so the horsegirl had to help me into the saddle. In process of me attempting to look like I knew what I was doing I managed to kick her in the face on the way up. There was no blood and she laughed at me. I'm super smooth.

Two things stand out to me on this trip that I remember on my own:
1. Gus was a tailgater. I really wish I would have had the bumper sticker "Stay off my tail (although the bumper sticker is not that nice) unless you're a hemorrhoid." Seriously, horse, there is such a thing as personal space.

2. Bart tried to murder me. My first warning might have been when they put a muzzle on him before we even started the trip. I'm the only one with a muzzled horse, something is wrong. Apparently he was an eater and I was supposed to show him who was boss. Hello, have you met me?! I've never ridden a horse alone for the most part and we are going on clifflike structures...I'm pretty sure I was tense the whole time. Especially the time we tried to crush my leg between his belly and a tree and most especially when he decided to take his own path...I tried to direct him back to the straight and narrow, but he was having none of that. That was my cue to panic. I think I hid it well while I was saying bad words in my head. Forgive me.

I also learned on this day that after you ride a horse for a couple hours you really do walk bow legged. It's weird and kinda embarrassing.

That night we went back to our itty-bitty cabin and played some dominoes cuz we're cool like that. Doug made an amazing domino structure cuz he has a genius engineer brain and played with Legos as a child. Jessica and I watched in amazement:

Impressive, eh? Well, just wait til' you see what I built! I totally showed him up.

I played with Legos as a child too.

Then we went to bed.

Tune in for the next installment (hopefully in less than 6 months): "Day 7 - Apparently We Hiked This Day and Saw Some Animals, But I'm Gonna Have to Try and Remember Because I've Slept Since Then"

Sounds intriguing, huh?