Say Yes To Carrots

On Thursday I made a little comment on facebook about my morning snack:

On Friday, my neighbor greeted me with these:

Too funny! {They're actually good!}

Speaking of food: I'm gearing up for six more weeks of weight watchers, starting tomorrow. I lost six pounds the last time I committed to six weeks, and I've kept it off. I'm ready to do that again! I know it's going to be rough to get back on the diet train, but once the scale starts dropping again, I'm sure I'll be motivated. The scale has stayed pretty much the same for the past month or so, and I know the numbers aren't going to magically get lower on their own. {If only!}

I've been attending Zumba & weight-training classes pretty faithfully, but I haven't been running. It's too cold, and I just don't like the track. {At the Seminary, twelve laps = a mile. Twelve. It's terrible.} I can't wait for warmer weather so I can hit the pavement at least once a week in between classes. It's been too long!

Did you make exercise an official 2012 resolution? I suppose I did -- I didn't really create set-in-stone resolutions, but I did have some goals in mind, and that was on the list. Here's to hoping I {we?} keep it up!

PS: My post title comes from a product line I saw at Target today. Have you tried anything from it? It looks fun!

Six Months & Done!

Over the weekend I finally finished a project I started... oh, I don't know... a few months ago. I posted about my little gallery project in August & gave a sneak peak in September. Soo... six months ago. Wow, that's embarrassing! I'm s l o w.

So yes, I'm terrible about taking before pictures, but here's what one of my living room walls now looks like:

I'm so pleased with how it turned out! {Oh, and pay attention to that pillow with the Eames chair on it. More on that in a later post.}

I made a little change to the other side of the room, too... can you tell?

The frames are just a little closer together. Three inches closer, if you're dying to know. I liked the wide spacing before, but with the closely-spaced gallery on the opposite wall, it looked strange. Oh, and if you're one of those people who is good at the "Can you spot the difference?" pictures, you probably noticed that I forgot to put the remotes in their little box for the "after" picture. Oops!

And there's one more difference, but it's very hard to see in the above pictures -- I got a new print from my dear MIL for Christmas!

The one on the left is one I wished for and received from a kind {anonymous} friend three years ago. [It still bothers me that I don't know who was so thoughtful!] The one on the right I wished for & received from my dear MIL for Christmas this year. It's from the same company & is the same quote, just with a fresh new look. I love them both, but I am especially loving the pink & the cursive of the new print. One day I hope to hang them side by side, but for now, I just have room for one.

Funny story {you know, because this post isn't long enough}: my MIL ordered the print & had it shipped to my FIL's office, but apparently she forgot to tell him it was coming. It didn't arrive in time for Christmas, so I was told she would be bringing a belated Christmas present with her when they came to Louisville for Wes's birthday. The night they came, Brad {FIL} was standing in the living room looking at our frames when his face lit up. And this is the conversation that ensued:

FIL: Oh! I have something I think you'd love! I forgot it at the office. It looks like something you'd like, though.

Me: Really? What is it?

FIL: It's art, I think. It has words on it. A quote.

MIL: WHAT?

FIL: Yeah. I have no idea where it came from. I almost threw it away. And then I thought about giving it to my secretary. But I think Beth would really like it.

MIL: WHAT? {Frantically looking for her computer, pulling up the print on a website} Is this it???

FIL: Yeah! That's it. What is it?

MIL: DID YOU BRING IT?

FIL: No... what is it?

MIL: It's her Christmas present!

Haha! I love that story. It's so fantastic. So now I think of my dear MIL and FIL when I look at it... and I think about my kind anonymous friend, too... and I smile. :)

So yeah. Just a few little changes around here... nothing too crazy. I wish I had finished all of this like five months ago! But now that it's done I can plan another project, right? The only question is: will I finish it before we {if we} move?!

Memories

Perhaps He Smiles

I was driving down the road this afternoon, on my way back to my office after a marketing training, and two things happened.

1. I saw the most beautiful sky. It was juxtaposed against images swirling in my mind of sound and fury, as a tornado had just passed through the area. And I thought, there's something more. More than you, more than me. I may lack the ability to precisely define what that means, but I can't deny it. It's beautiful.

{That's not the sky I saw, it's just a beautiful photo I found on flickr. You can click through for the source.}

2. I was listening to klove as I drove, and a song came on with these lyrics:

But you love me anyway

It's like nothing in life that I've ever known

Yes, you love me anyway

The song was talking about the love that God has for people even though they're broken and flawed. But in my heart, at that moment? It resonated as the love of my precious Grammy. She loved me anyway. Despite my failures, despite my many flaws, despite the times that I didn't deserve to be loved. I don't know how to explain the feeling of being loved that way by another human. It's truly unreal: not real, not explainable, definable, understandable.

I say that I miss her; I say that I love her. I do. But the void that's left in my soul by her absence is so much more real than I can evoke. Most of the time I'm okay. Sometimes I think I'll never be okay. Yet the void is there because the real thing once was, and is, and how incredible is that? To be loved that way... I cry at the thought of it. I don't understand.

Does it sound sacrilegious to make a song about the love of God about the love of a human? If so, I suppose that's okay. It's real to me. Her love makes the idea of unconditional love real to me. And I think God knows that.

And perhaps he smiles.

{West Elm} Bed & Bath Sale

I stumbled upon West Elm's site tonight and immediately found two super-cute things in their bed/bath sale... I had to share.

Chevron Bath Mat - only $19. Pricey for a bath mat, I agree, but super cute! And we all know how I feel about chevrons {looove them}.

Stripe Shower Curtain - $31. I love it in gray and yellow!

If we move, I will get to redecorate. That's a plus, right? {Well, a minus, actually, if you think about our checkbook ledger...!}

Also of note: my affinity for sales. I just love it when things are on sale. In fact, when we were dating, Wesley used to walk into a room & proclaim, "Kisses on clearance!" Worked every time. True story. :)

Wednesday Five

Five things for you on a Wednesday:

1. Hubs made this for dinner tonight, and it is so good! He said it was easy to make, too. Even better.

{Photo credit: Gina at Skinnytaste, one of my favorite recipe blogs!}

2. The outlaws are coming to the 'ville this weekend for hubs's birthday. It's hard to believe it's been a year since they've been to Louisville to visit! We are looking forward to it. I may gain five pounds while they're here {gotta take them to all the good spots!}, but it should be worth it! Speaking of good spots, we're planning to go to Le Gallo Rosso for Wes's birthday dinner -- a cute little Italian restaurant on Bardstown Road. We stumbled upon it by purchasing a random LivingSocial deal several months ago & really enjoyed it!

3. I really do love Zumba. And no, we don't use shake weights. {My friend Stephen loves Crossfit, so he shared that video on my facebook wall recently. I have to admit, it's pretty funny.} I love that it's FUN, and I love the diversity of the people who attend my studio. I wish I would've found Charizya sooner!

4. Hopefully by the end of this week I will finally be able to show you pictures of my new little gallery wall in our living room. And by little I mean, you know, like six picture frames. That's ok; it's super cute. And yes, it's the same area I blogged about four months ago. I've struggled with motivation, clearly!

5. Speaking of motivation -- I'm just in that weird stage of life where I don't know what's going to happen next. There are things I want to do {read: things I want to reorganize/redecorate}, but I just don't know if they're worth doing if we're moving in six months... you know? But at the same time, isn't that a terrible way to live? Not doing things because you can't predict tomorrow {who can!}? Sigh. The uncertainty just may be the death of me.

Ok, ok. That's not true. But it kind of feels that way sometimes!

What will my life be like in six months? Where will we be living? Who will our friends be? Where will I be working? Does a PhD have to spell financial ruin? Will I still be able to afford pedicures?! Will I have a puppy? Will we be happy? Where will we end up next?

{Wordy!} Health & Fitness Update

Okay, so I think I'm done with weight watchers -- officially, that is. I did it hard core for six weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I lost five pounds. Somehow, even in the midst of abandoning it and eating horribly over the holidays, I've kept those five pounds off. I still want to lose more {five to ten more} but I think I may have lost the motivation to precisely measure every bite I take. Sad, but true.

That said, I think I'm going to purchase a WW points calculator on eBay instead of continuing to pay $18/month for a service I'm not dedicated to using. I'm going to continue to weigh myself every Wednesday & chart it in excel -- and also chart in excel most of what I'm eating. I know that I get 26 points per day, and most meals I'll be able to track without a problem. I'll still {have Wes} make WW recipes [there are so many great WW recipe blogs out there!] and snack frequently on healthy things. And if all else fails, I can always admit defeat and rejoin, right?

I really am trying to get back in the habit of eating healthier now that the holidays are over, and so far, it's going pretty well. But for fun {and to show you that I completely fail some days}, would you like to know what I had to eat on Saturday? Oh dear. I started off okay at breakfast, but then? FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. All day long.

Breakfast:

-Banana

-1/2 a protein bar

{starting off well...}

Lunch:

-1/2 of my chicken parmigana leftovers from our dinner out on Friday night

{fried chicken, cheese, and pasta in alfredo sauce}

-The rest of my peanut-butter-ice-cream pie

{um, yes -- self explanatory, really}

Snack:

-Auntie Anne's pretzel bites

{these are soaked in butter}

-Small McDonald's french fries

{again with the self explanatory...}

Dinner:

-The other 1/2 of my chicken parmigana leftovers

{right}

-Another banana

{heyy! something mildly healthy!}

Snack:

-Low-fat microwavable kettle corn

{could be worse, I suppose}

Not doing so hot, huh?! Oh well. We all have days like this, right? The good news is that I felt pretty crappy -- way too many carbs & way too much butter/grease. Yuck. {I say "good news," because hopefully feeling that way will keep me from having days like that too often!}

As far as exercise goes, I'm proud of myself for maintaining a 3x/week exercise schedule, even during the holidays! I was primarily running for quite a while, but recently I've started going to a Zumba studio near my house: Charizya Fitness. I bought a "punch card" for twenty classes in December for only $70 -- $3.50 per class. Such a great deal, yes? Jessica, one of the leaders, is my favorite. She has so much energy! She makes me laugh the entire time. There's a decent amount of diversity in the people who attend, too, which makes it even more fun. The classes are 45 minutes & they fly by.

Tentatively, I think I'm going to do Zumba on Wednesdays and Saturdays and their Total Body Blast class on Mondays and Saturdays. I'm still going to run on Fridays. I ran this past Friday at Seneca park when it was a very random 60+ degrees in Louisville, and it was so great. But really -- that just makes me think there's something very wrong with the world -- sixty in January in Kentucky?! Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't loving the warmer weather. I hate running on a track/treadmill, so I can't wait for spring!

So yes, four days/week for exercise is my goal. Fingers crossed that I keep it up!

I bought a size six jeans from Target a few months ago as a goal {I wear a size eight, typically}. I tried them on tonight -- they fit, but they're a good bit tighter than I typically wear jeans. However, my eights are pretty baggy. I think after five more pounds the sixes should fit great! Motivation....

I never, ever thought I'd be one to be even slightly focused on health/fitness. It's kind of crazy that this is happening to me. But I enjoy how I feel after I exercise, and I know I'm doing something good for my body besides just losing weight. And never fear -- I still totally enjoy being lazy & eating terrible foods, so I haven't changed that much. :) Now I just don't have to feel quite as guilty when I have those days!

Ok, before I quit talking {wow, wordy post!}, I'll share a funny story from Zumba on Saturday. My friend Maggie came with me, and before class Jessica was talking with us & chatting about the Zumba moves, etc. This conversation ensued:

Jessica: You know, it's basically a lot of moves you use in the club all the time anyway.

Maggie: Um, I actually don't make it out to the club all that often.

Maybe you had to be there... but it was pretty awesome.