No More Plus Size … eventually

I don’t ever want to move again. Ever! Well ok, that’s not entirely true. Some day when I get married I want to move into a house with my husband (Of course you kind of need to be dating to even think about marriage & dating is non-existent in my life…don’t remember the last time I’ve been on a date to be honest!)

Anyways. Moving sucks. The final outcome (being in the new place) is great but the moving process itself isn’t so great! I have no idea what I was thinking when I took an upstairs apartment! Apparently I wasn’t! lol The steps to my apartment are brutal. They are super steep, at least the back entrance ones are. The front ones aren’t bad but the back ones are more private…if that makes sense.

Not only are there a gazillion steps (13 to be exact) to get to my apartment but where I was moving from (mom & step dad’s house) had a gazillion steps too (don’t remember how many there were but the house was 3 levels so that should tell you something!). So, I’ve had quite the workout the last several days. And it’s been HOT. So, it hasn’t been the most pleasant moving experience but I’m happy to say that tonight is my first night in the new pad. So, with all the up/down steps, lugging stuff, plus sweating plus not eating very much because being too busy & not thinking about it I had to of lost some weight…I know I have because some of my clothes are feeling lose on me! So, I guess I won’t complain

I couldn’t stand the purple/maroon living room so I painted (my landlady is pretty cool!). Now, I love the living room way more! Because it’s small I decided to go with a futon because that will take up less space than a regular couch (plus I needed somewhere my kiddo could sleep when he stays with me). Hopefully the futon gets here soon!

Before & After Pic of Living Room (thank the Lord for paint – amazing the difference a coat of paint can make!):

(click on image to make larger)

It’s starting to look like home Next room I’m working on – the sun-room/office. I’m going with a total cheesy/fun look for this room Can’t wait to get it done & share pics!

Funny how quickly bumps in the road can appear when you’re least expecting them. And it’s funny how just as quickly the road can go back to being ‘smooth’ (not that roads are really super smooth all the time but you get my drift!)

Things are happening so insanely fast I seriously feel like my head is spinning around and around and around. I decided to check out Craigslist again today to see if there were any new apartments listed. I was shocked to see that a new one appeared (after days of checking I was getting frustrated only seeing all the same ones that had been there for awhile – the ones that I was hitting ‘roadblocks’ with).

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It would be so nice if I could continue along a nice straight, non-bumpy road in this so called crazy life of mine. Of course, that’s not how roads (or life) are.

I recently posted about the next chapter of my life. I was excited to have the money I needed to make a huge transition in my life – a big move so I could be with my son. Suddenly, things aren’t going so smooth I’m hitting a road block every time I find an apartment/duplex/etc. Charlevoix is a really busy tourist town so I’m hoping that once summer is over there will be some more places available to rent.

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Wow. I’m sitting here feeling overwhelmed, crazy, emotional, excited, scared, in awe, can’t believe it’s happening – yeah, you name it I’m feeling it right now!

Last month I shared about my son moving in with his dad, step mom and baby brother. If you’ve followed me here or on Twitter you know I’ve been having a really hard time adjusting to this. I don’t know why I thought it would be easier to adjust. It’s not. I have to admit, the first couple weeks I was ok (kind of). It was nice having a break. And honestly the last couple summers my son has ‘lived’ with his dad so it kind of didn’t feel any different. But once I started realizing that this was different, that he wasn’t coming back home once summer was over I started getting the blues.

I started to freak out with thoughts about how I was going to see him regularly once winter hit (in Northern Michigan the winters are harsh and from where I am to where he is – the winter roads are not fun to travel…sometimes you can’t even travel because of the weather!). Or what if my car broke down?

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I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Did you know that there was such a thing as National Ice Cream Day? Not only is today (always the 3rd Sunday of July) such an important day (come on you know ice cream is important! lol) but the entire month of July is dedicated to ice cream! All thanks to President Regan.

How did National Ice Cream Day Come About?

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month. He also declared that the third Sunday in July would be National Ice Cream Day. ~Wikipedia

So, Happy National Ice Cream Day everyone!

My son’s dad dropped him off to me a little after noon yesterday…the minute he walked through the door and saw me, my heart melted. He had the biggest smile on his face and ran over to me to give me the biggest, longest bear hug ever (at 12 getting a hug from him can sometimes be like pulling teeth so I savored every minute he hugged harder & didn’t’ let go!). I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment. It had been 3 weeks since he moved in with his dad & step mom. Not a super long time, but when you’re used to having your kiddo around 24/7, 3 weeks feels like eternity! We had an amazing day together. Vegged out for awhile watching silly shows (that normally used to bug me but suddenly they didn’t bother me…it was all about just being with my kiddo not what was on TV), hung out with family (my mom & step dad) and then went to my best friend’s parents house for a cookout and then to the local 4th of July fireworks. It was a long day but it was a lot of fun. Caleb is with me until Friday so I plan on enjoying every minute with him this week (he’s showering right now or else I would be hanging out with him and not on my computer, although I do have to finish a little bit of Virtual Assistant work over the course of the week).

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I haven’t been blogging much. I haven’t been on Twitter much. I haven’t been on Facebook much. I haven’t been feeling very social lately. I’m really missing my son and having a hard time with him being gone and living with his dad now. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be easier to handle this than it has been. Not that I want him to dislike being at his dad’s but every time I talk to him and hear how happy he is, how much he loves it there…it breaks my heart more and more. I guess I was thinking to myself that he would get there and realize that the ‘grass isn’t greener’ on the other side and want to come back home.

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Sitting here and writing is my attempt to not go eat everything in sight. It’s my attempt to not let my son see me having an emotional breakdown again. It’s my attempt to work through my emotions when I feel like there’s no one I can talk to.

Recently I shared that my 12 year old (he’ll be 13 in September) son was going to be moving in with his dad, step mom & baby brother soon. Well soon has come…at 7:30 Saturday night I’ll be dropping him off knowing he won’t be coming back home except for 4 days a month. 4 days. 4 freaking days a month. How the he** am I supposed to do this?

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I’m from a really small town in Northern Michigan. Let me try to give you a better example of just how small of a town this is. My graduating class had 21 people – the average is between 19-21 students. The entire K-12th grade are all in one building. That’s how small of a town this is! The closest shopping mall, Sams club, etc is 1.5 hours away. A lot of people like the ‘country-ish’ small town feel. I don’t. I’m a city girl stuck in a country girl’s body! I grew up in Northern Michigan so I’m still trying to figure out how you can “hate” something so much – ok dislike is probably a better word than hate – when that’s pretty much all you’ve known your entire life. I think the couple years that I broke free of the small town living and enjoyed city life gave me enough of a glimpse into city living to make me realize just how much I despise Northern Michigan.

Ok…enough about my ramblings about hating Northern Michigan and where I live. What does any of this have to do with anything?

The other day I had my Weight Watchers 2011 Walk It challenge t-shirt on (side note – the entire state of Michigan had no walk-it challenges for this! I’m used to my neck of the woods not having an event but usually somewhere down in the city there’s always something). On the back I had ‘because I am worth it‘ printed on it. You know, meaning ‘because I am worth it‘ that’s why I’m walking, etc. It made sense to me when I had that printed on there.

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Hello World! Finally after 11 days of being overdue Caleb graced us with his presence

I don’t generally write about stuff non-related to weight loss, exercising, etc on this blog but I wanted to share this. I think I may have mentioned it briefly in a post or two before but honestly I don’t remember.

I have 16 more days to spend with my kiddo. 16! That’s not that long.

He’s 12 and has been talking about wanting to move in with his dad for several years now. I’ve always told him I would support him with whatever decision he made, even if that decision was to live with his dad. (Note – obviously the picture above is from his when he was a baby. lol)

Even though he’s been talking about it, I don’t think I was prepared for it to actually happen!

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