I will remember them...

Created by me for my girls as a goodbye gift. They came to the USA about 3 months ago as work/travel students and found themselves in my home.. and my heart. And now, one by one.. they leave to return to their homes. I will remember them...

Down 0.2 lbs

Hey, I'll take it! Down is down, right?

So, I've had a very undisciplined last few weeks, my writing both my food journal and my blogging reflects that. But I'm back.. bigger n' badder than ever. Well hopefully not bigger.

I've started my week over on a Monday (usually I do this on a Tuesday) but am keeping my weigh day on Tuesdays. Do any of you do this if you've felt you've gotten off track and once you start anew you switch the start day altogether?

Yoo-lee-uh

That's how you pronounce her name.. my Russian Julia. She was one of 6 that became like a child of mine, someone I nurtured, cared for, someone that found her way into my heart. She was quiet at times, yet could get so excited about life, especially when talking about the rides at Hershey Park... Wow, I could hardly get her to breathe between sentences! She was genuinely interested in my life, this crazy American. Wanted to know where I was going, and always wanted to tag along, even if I was making a quick run to the grocery store. The day I met her we talked on the stairs outside of my bedroom for about a half hour. She made quite the impression.. She looks like she stepped out of the June Cleaver days, especially with that roller on her bangs. :) But don't let that fool ya... there's a wild streak somewhere in there.. a zest for life. You can tell just by looking at her pictures.
Julia is precious and kind. She is caring and thoughtful. She is smart and insightful. She has a sensitivity that is found in only a handful of people. This morning I woke Julia to say my goodbyes to her as she is returning home today. Even as I write, she is still in the air. Tomorrow I will blog about other things in my life but today I want to dedicate to my Julia. You're loved!

11 Days Since I Posted Last

Ok people, we really need to catch up...

Let's see the last time we talked I was heading to CT for a work convention. They really do know how to throw a party.. The first night we all went to the NBA Hall of Fame in Massachusetts. We got to hear Walter Bond and Bill Walton speak.. My hotel room was AWESOME.. I kept wondering if anyone would notice me sneaking a king sized bed through the lobby. ;)

Here are a few pictures... we were shuttled from CT to the Hall of Fame. We were the last of the riders (our group was ALWAYS the last)... This is our bunch at the Hall of Fame. My company had towels printed that said Team Basement Systems and we had Bball Mardi Gras necklaces.. Some people have TOO much money. :) The kickoff! That's Walter Bond.. And Bill Walton.. ... he said he comes up to Yao Ming's chest!!
Me holding all the awards. Our company went from number 24 dealer (out of 200+) to number 17!! The top 10 dealers get four wheelers. We're almost there.. That's our home office.. very impressive...

I was so busy that weekend.. sessions all day and parties at night.. all in all it was a great time. A lot of learning that I've brought back with me and will incorporate into the office and what I do... Oh yeah, I won Employee of the Year for my company. The joke is that the Dutch (we have many at my company) have had the monopoly on this award for year. I dethroned the Dutch! :) Oh YEAH..Saturday in the middle of the night I got very sick.. I will spare you the details. My only real relief came when one of the guys brought up some Immodium and I was finally able to rest.. I missed all of convention Saturday because of being sick but to be honest being with loved ones made me forget about how I was feeling. What a great time!! I didn't get to see my niece, long dysfunctional story but I did see pictures of her.. what a cutie. I left a bunch of clothes with my mom to give to my brother and SIL.. I left Mass Sunday night returning to MD early Monday morning.. and then back to the daily.. My boss has been away the last two weeks so that has made my life a lot busier than normal. Production was waaay up the last two weeks to that makes for a happy owner (and a happy Tina)...

How did I almost forget this... Thursday night I took all the girls out to eat at the Arundel Mills Mall.. to celebrate birthdays, goodbyes and everything else we will miss when they all return home.. Here are a few pics from the night.

This weekend I'm trying to catch up on sleep and also trying to get better.. my body always retaliates whenever I pack my schedule solid. Sorry I've slacked w/ the blogging guys.. To be honest, I've slacked w/ everything... I feel like I've been eating everything in sight!!! Arrgh! But next week is a new week for me. Gonna get back on track!

Chinese Food Strikes Back!

Hi all..

I'm crazy busy here at work with a million things as the owner is away.. Had to make a quick post though. Miss you guys!

I'm back up with a 0.4lb gain. Arrgh. I was running late this morning and trust me if I wasn't, I would have spent some quality time w/ that $@%@#$ scale. :) I'm remembering Roni's words though.. I weighed myself twice this past week and at one point was down to 167.2 so I know that this teeny gain is not a 'real' one. Whatever that means.

Oh, I did two days of gardening this past week and burned a TON of calories... I think I lost about 10 million pounds of water. Too bad the scale didn't pick up on it. Instead it decided to zero in on the 8 million pounds of Chinese I ate (that would be Chinese FOOD, not people). :)

Here are some pictures... I'm no Martha but at least my neighbors are happy with the destruction of my weed garden. :)

Hope ya'll are havin' a great one! I'll try to post again this week but I may not be able to... I'll be away on business Thursday-Saturday in CT and then Sunday I'm spending the day with the family in good ol' Taxachusetts. Can't wait!

I'm DOWN, I'm DOWN...SV!!!!!

169.0

That's MINUS 2.0 lbs.. HOLY CRAP!

I'll tell ya this has been a rough two weeks so of course I was happy to not have to kill the bloody scale. I was pissed as most of you know. But I read something on Roni's blog that gave me a little perspective on my last two HUGE gains. Here's the link if you wanna check it out: Roni's Page. You need to find the balance with the weigh-ins and see what your body is doing throughout the week. She said she gets frustrated when people get so upset about seeing a gain when a lot of times it's because of salty meal. I'm gonna try to remember that if I have another gain in this freak'n journey!

Ok, I have to start working so I'll be back later.

BTW, I talked to Olha last night!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! More posts later.

Hope ya'll have a great day.

NYC - How the heck do I calculate the AP?

Oh, it feels good to be home... Have to share my time w/ ya'll.. so here goes.

5:00 - 6:15AM Woke up to take Polly (my boxer) to Mel's house. She babysat for her on Saturday. Thanks Mel!

6:30 - 9:30AM On the road to NYC. Picture 5 girls, VERY close in the passenger seats of my Camry, singling, giggling, sleeping, laughing, pointing, questioning... ARE WE THERE YET? We had two stops (I HATE stopping) but one was for me.. just started 'flowing' and the other was for my STARVING car sick girls... Oh good God!

10:00AM - 10:00PM NYC Arrival. And I thought that the ooh's for Baltimore were something.. these kids were amazed at the city. Pointing, pictures.. We parked in the Met Life Building on Park Avenue.. which is located inside Grand Central Station. I've never been inside Grand Central before. It was pretty awesome! From there we walked and walked, stopping to take pictures of various buildings..Empire State Building included. It was our goal to start at the Statue of Liberty. Because of 9/11 we're no longer able to go up inside the statue so I figured we wouldn't spend time on the island, instead we'd take the Staten Island Ferry by it so we could get some pictures. I'm on purpose leaving out the Subway experience.. let's just say we would have been on the right one if construction hadn't been going on. :) Oh but before that we got off on Chambers Street and walked to Ground Zero. The girls wanted to experience and see it but I'm not sure what they were feeling. We didn't talk about this yet. This is the second time I've been back to Ground Zero and it's quite moving. I was watching the girls faces as they took pictures of the name memorial. One of my girls wanted to buy or light a candle... After GZ the girls were begging to stop for something to eat. I was happy to oblige as they were getting cranky. We went to a shop that I've stopped at before.. I got a burger, fries, gatorade and water... I only ate the burger and maybe 4 french fries (they were teeny tiny)... It was too hot! From there we headed off to Battery Park, home of the Statue of Liberty. We caught the Staten Island Ferry and the girls were able to get some closer picture of our Lady.. They thought she would be biggger. :) From the S.O.L. we headed to Chinatown. UGH. I have a few things on my list of "cant stands".. one of them being crowds. I've been to Chinatown before.. AGES ago.. it's just like China.. wall to wall people, barely room to walk down the sidewalk. People pushing you... NOT my cup, that's for sure. The girls didn't like it either. We headed into a few shops and they were done.. they wanted to get out. From Chinatown we took the subway to Central Park SE... OMG, it was so beautiful. We walked for about an hour, stopping at the playground and to take pictures in trees (that would be me) and on some of the largest rocks I had seen. What a place to get lost in! I was so dreamy walking thru there. From Central Park we headed to Times Square about a 15 block walk.. The girls did their shopping and I took one of my girls to meet up with a relative that lives in the city. We ended our night in Times Square Deli & Cafe at about 9:00 eating some sandwiches and guzzling our drinks. It was such a HOT day. We headed to the car which was about 4 blocks away. The girls (and I) were pooped to say the least. The ride home was fairly quiet... most were sleeping. I had one phone call which helped me for about an hour and then Paula, my faithful talkative Paula, asked me question after question to make sure I didn't fall asleep. When we got back to the house (YAY), most of the girls hugged me just inside the door and said thank you. I can't tell you what these girls have done to my heart... but it's a beautiful thing. This day I was crampy, tired, hot but in the end it didn't matter. Because these girls saw their dreams (some of them from when they were little girls)... come true.

Naked Volleyball - I'd say that was a NSV

Let me preface this with I've never skinny dipped EVER.. not because I'm a prude but because I never really thought about it or thought I had opportunity. I do remember this one time when I was a teen and there were a bunch of us at the lake and everyone was going under the water to kiss one another. I heard the term "skinny dipping" but had NO IDEA what they were talking about. I think I thought it meant that they were skinny people taking a dip in the lake or something like that. Aah, gotta love being young and naive.

So I'm with my best friend, trust her with my life, she's seen my who-haa one time or another, I've seen her boobs (I mean she has FOUR kids) AND who-haa...my point being we don't embarrass easily in front of one another. For the events that happened this evening, I blame her. She brought it up... this subject of skinny dipping. We were bumping the ball around and she was amazed (I guess because I'm a superfreak) that I had never done such a thing. She had explained how (I think the word she used was 'liberating') it was, etc. So I said, ok, I'm in. She wanted to wait until the hubby went to meet his girlfriends (not really girls.. just guys he talks to as much as girls talk w/ girls). He left and off came my bottoms first. And can I say WOW. After all my giggles subsided - I mean, come on.. I just got half naked in a big bathtub (pool) with my best friend which is not an everyday occurance for me - then I really started enjoying it. I think I mentioned wanting my top off and before you know it... I was completely naked. We BOTH were. And YES I looked. I'm only human.. and she did too. She kept hitting the volleyball onto the deck so I'd have to get out of the pool. I think she just wanted to get a glimpse of the girls. Just kidding Mel, I know you're reading. Swam around, floated some.. got some exercise in... a good night!

I'm VERY tired right now.. my eyes are burning but that may be from the chlorine. :) What an experience though and I'm on track this week... I'm already eating A LOT better than I've been and even though I've used some flex points, I'm still doing okay. Can't wait for Saturday when I'll be in NYC walking around ALL DAY long. I'm bound to earn some serious activity points! Yay!

Hope ya'll have a great day today. For those of you that commented, thanks for your well wishes. They mean a lot. You guys are the best. If I don't get back on this weekend, have a great one!