We Made It!

Well, here we are!  I've been majorly neglecting this blog as the last few months have been a crazy blur of preparing to move!  But here's a summary of what we've been up to:

• I went on a diet.  I made a big change and did a Ketogenic diet for two months.  It was hard but it was so good too.  I kicked the sugar habit and lost a decent amount of weight but then moving stuff really kicked into high gear and the stress of moving plus eating out more means I've likely gained most of it back.
• We went to Awesome Con.  I may write a separate post about this but the most important thing to know about that day is that I MET DAVID TENNANT and got his autograph.
• We got ready to move.  This was (obviously) a big part of what we've been doing.  This involved finishing work on the house and yard, getting rid of a bunch of stuff (clothes that no longer fit, furniture we didn't want anymore, etc.), packing our luggage, and separating the rest of our belongings into either storage, quick shipment, or regular household goods shipment.  This was no small task and we spent months working on all of this.
• We had a few days of last minute fun.  After the last of our stuff was packed out, we were able to take about a week and a half to visit my sister in Richmond, play for a few days at Great Wolf Lodge, hang out with some friends (and say goodbye) back in Odenton, and visit my parents.  It was a little rough living out of suitcases and sharing a hotel room with the kids but we also had a lot of fun and got to see some people before we left.
• Flying out! Our flight left on Thursday night and arrived in England on Friday morning.  The kids slept for quite a while on the flight (Andrew fell asleep around 11:15pm and Brandon finally fell asleep around 12:30am, Maryland time) but Aaron and I didn't really sleep more than 3 hours between the two of us.  We arrived at Heathrow by 10:30am local time and then had to go through immigration and baggage claim before driving to our new town.  We arrived at our temporary apartment in Cheltenham around 2:30pm.

We're still getting adjusted but things have generally been going well.  Aaron started work today and we are hoping to start house hunting later this week.  It's been quite a whirlwind so far!

Not much to tell...

So you would think that being home all day would give me lots of time to write on the blog.  This is true.  However, it is also true that being home all day doesn't really give me anything interesting to blog about.  Hence the lack of posts.

We hired a new cashier at work.  He started this week and we discovered almost immediately that he's my downstairs neighbor!  I mean, he and his wife just moved in to the apartment EXACTLY below us!  What are the odds?

Aaron's been busy with school and work, as well as interviews and stuff for a big boy job.

I've been working out most days, and I'm rather proud of myself for sticking to it.  But really, I couldn't do it without my Wii.  And I've finally started to lose a few pounds!  Finally!

Aaron and I have both been anxiously awaiting the arrival of a baby!  No, not our own- my friend Johanna (and her husband of course) is expecting and the baby should be here any time now!  The due date was January 31st, so now it's a waiting game.  Johanna and I have known each other since middle school in Virginia and now she lives in my apartment complex here in Utah.  We hang out a lot so I plan on hanging out with this baby a lot too!

So that's life these days, in case you wondered.

Have a happy Groundhog Day- it sound like we're going to have an early spring!  (By the way, Phil only predicts correctly about 40% of the time...  Maybe we should be using hedgehogs instead?)

New Job! (and some other things)

I got a job last week! I had the interview on Monday, and I started on Tuesday.  It's actually a pretty cool job- I'm working at the Covey Center for the Arts on Center St. in Provo as a house manager.  I just work when there are shows in the evenings, which means that I worked 5 evenings my first week, and then I had this past week completely off because there were no shows.  It's nice because I still have my days free to work on projects, work out, and run errands, even on days when I have to work.

Other than that, life is still good!  I just bought fabric for a new winter table runner so I'll be starting that soon, and I made a baby present for my good friend Johanna, who just found out this week that she's having a girl!  She knows about it, but I haven't given it to her so I won't post a picture yet.

As for my exercise plan... it's going pretty well.  I went to the gym with Aaron twice last week and I'm still a little sore from Wednesday's workout.  As long as I keep it up, I'm thinking I'll get the results I want.

Right now I feel like this guy:

When I want to look like this girl:

We'll see what happens!

Family, Jullian Michaels, and counting down

It was so fun to have Doug and Cassie (and Archer) here for a few days last weekend!  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures the whole time they were here- LAME.  At least I'll see them again at Christmas time in Virginia.

And my little sister is getting married in June!  Crazy!  I'm so excited for her.  (And I'm happy for an excuse to visit the family again...)  Nat's super design-y so I'm sure her wedding will be amazing.

So among job searching and sleeping in, I've decided that I need to work on losing weight again.  I've gained a good amount of weight since Aaron and I got married and enough is enough.  So I've started using my Jillian Michaels DVD again and I'm working my way up to doing the whole DVD workout at once.  There are 7 circuts (plus a warm up and cool down at either end) and it really is a kick-butt workout.  I get sore whenever I do at least 3 circuts- that's a good thing right?  And Aaron's allowed to bring me with him to his weight lifting class so I'm going to start going with him to that twice a week as well, and do Jillian Michaels on the days I don't go to the gym.  We've already started eating better, but that doesn't seem to be doing anything on its own.  Ugh.  I would just LOVE to start looking and feeling good in my clothes again.

I put up a countdown to Aaron's graduation.  But now I'm regretting it a little because it seems too far away!  Can't I just get a time machine?  A delorian? Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait it out the old fashioned way.

My countdowns:

House Season Premiere: 8 days

Glee Season Premiere: 9 days

The Office Season Premiere: 11 days

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- part 1: 68 days

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: 89 days

Christmas: 103 days

That's all for now!

Summer, Summer

So I've been working on that summer reading list...  I finished the Twilight Saga last night.  What a ridiculous ending.  (I'm sure I could write a lot about this series... so I'll try to restrain myself so I don't bore everyone.)  First of all, there was so much buildup for a fight at the end, and they ended up just talking it out.  Lame.  Also, Jacob isn't even a werewolf?  And the reason Stephenie Meyer didn't mention it until the last 4 pages is because "it never came up?"  Wow.  Also, the whole series was from Bella's perspective.  Except for the hundred or so pages in Breaking Dawn that Jacob narrates.  A few problems with that: her writing style didn't change, so I still felt like Bella was talking; there was absolutely no set-up for the switch-- if she had wanted to do sections from different perspectives, she should have done it throughout the series; and lastly, the majority of the things Jacob covers in his section are completely irrelevant to the story lines the readers actually care about (like Leah... everything about Leah...).

Anyway, I'm back to rereading Wicked.  I really want to see the musical again :(

And I have plenty of time to read these days, since Aaron works on homework in the evenings on campus during the week, leaving me at home alone to occupy myself until I go pick him up.  It's not bad, but I need to go to the fabric store or something to get another project going.

Aaron's spending lots of hours at school and work these days, which is good, because I really don't want to be stuck in a college town for too much longer now that I'm not a student anymore.  Well, actually, I don't have a problem with college towns, since I've lived in college towns most of my life, but the Provo bubble is getting old.

Aaron and I were doing so well at working out a few times a week together until Summer Term started.  We bought a workout video by Jillian Michaels and it's pretty good and tough, but I just can't bring myself to do it by myself in the evenings now that I'm used to doing it with Aaron.  Lame.  So I'm still as out of shape as ever, despite spending Saturday mornings running around, playing Ultimate.

So I've started my job search, since my hours as an OC are running out in just barely over a month. *Sigh*  I hate this.  One of the jobs I thought I was perfect for already emailed me a no without even an interview.  I hope I won't get too many of those.  I just hate job searching.  I wish I could just stay with OACL until we leave Provo.  Too bad I can't.

Success!

Well, the diet ended, and now that we've been back on solid foods for about a week, we have our final results!

Aaron's down 7 pounds! I'm so impressed with him (and a little jealous too).

I'm down about 5 pounds (give or take one, depending on the day and when I weigh myself) from where I was at the beginning of the diet!

Pretty good results, considering we were only doing the lemonade only diet for 5 days, which is actually a lot shorter than most people recommend for a successful cleanse diet. Most people do it for a MINIMUM of 10 days and tack on a 3 day ease-in and ease-out on the beginning and end, making the whole process over 2 weeks long. We did a 2 day ease out, so the whole thing lasted a week. 5 pounds in one week? Yes please!

I'm thinking about doing it again after I graduate. I would do it again during the semester, but it's just too hard when I'm taking the classes that I am. Like cooking class- I had to miss out on eating for one of my cooking labs, which was SO hard since I had just spent 2 hours cooking and smelling it all. So I can't do the diet again until I'm out of that class.

On another note, we got our taxes done yesterday, and according to the volunteers who filed them for us, we should have our money in about 1 1/2 weeks! We're debating now what we should do with the money... It would be great to save it all, but my laptop is struggling these days, and my camera isn't that great anymore either. I got both the camera and the computer my senior year of high school, and while I've loved both of them dearly, they're just falling behind the current technology. And I would love a desktop computer, since I don't really have much need of something as portable as a laptop or netbook. And, if we get a computer while Aaron is still in school, we can put it as an educational expense on next year's taxes, since I'm sure Aaron will be doing all kinds of school stuff with it, being an IT major and all. I don't know, we still need to figure out what would be best. Any suggestions are welcome!

Christmas, New Year, and Lemonade

I know it’s a bit late, but Christmas was wonderful! Aaron and I took a roadtrip to California to spend the holiday with his brother’s family in Ridgecrest. We did all kinds of things while we were there, including a day in LA, sandboarding, exploring Fossil Falls, and playing with the kids. It was a really fun Christmas! Rachel even made us a wonderful blanket and marshmallow shooters!

While we were in LA, we went to the beach to see a west coast sunset. It was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun wading in the cool ocean water. We even got some fun pictures out of it!

We were back in Provo for the new year, and my old roommate and her husband came over to party with us. We had a most excellent game of Apples to Apples and drank some bubbly to celebrate.

School started back up on January 4^th. Neither of us were too excited to get back to the routine of school, work, and homework, but unfortunately school started whether we liked it or not. I’m actually really having fun this semester! It’s my last one—I graduate in April—so I’m taking some fun classes to fill up my schedule. I’m taking ballet, cooking, and gymnastics, and I’m loving all three! I’ve never done any dance before, so ballet is a completely new experience. I wish I could cook as well as my mom, but since I didn’t pay enough attention while I was living at home, I can’t, so hopefully this class will help (plus I get to taste all the foods we cook in class!). And I took gymnastics when I was less than 8 years old, so I’m a little out of practice, and it’s really forcing me to get in shape!

Speaking of getting in shape, Aaron and I are both weighing in at numbers higher than we like to see on the scale, so we’re starting a “cleanse” diet… TODAY! It’s basically homemade lemonade for every meal! I’m worried that I’ll be sick of it within a day or two, but thankfully I’m not doing it alone so I have some support. I’m really hoping this works—I’ve read stories about people who have lost a lot of weight doing this. I mean, I’m not trying to lose 50 pounds or anything; I just want to be a little happier when I look in the mirror and when I stand on the scale. And the lemonade isn’t too bad, though it has a definite kick to it. It’s basically fresh lemon juice, real maple syrup, and water, with a bit of cayenne pepper.

Hopefully we can tell a success story at the end of this!