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 took my very first Zumba class on June 8th (2011) and I was up in the air about whether I liked it or not. There were some things I liked but the biggest part of the class – the teacher – I didn’t care for. She didn’t act like she was all that into it. Maybe she was just having an ‘off’ day and if that was the case it really stunk for me as a ‘virgin’ Zumba class attendee.

After that class, one of the things I wrote in my blog post about it was:

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Today is the sixth weigh in of the Plus Size Bloggers Bye Bye Booties 12 week challenge. I haven’t been focusing on the scale a whole lot. In fact, if it wasn’t for this challenge I wouldn’t be weighing at all. I made a promise to myself that I would stop focusing on the numbers on the scale. After all, they are just numbers! They don’t define me. They don’t make me who I am. This is a journey about getting healthy and there are so many things non-scale wise to focus on!

I wasn’t shocked to see another gain on the scale today. It was pretty small but add this week’s gain with last week’s and well suddenly the gain is a bit bigger than what I want. But even with that, I’m still not overly concerned about it. I know why it happened 2 weeks in a row. I know what I’m doing wrong – poor food choices. But, I know what I’m doing right – being active, although I could be doing more – quite a bit more to be honest. I’m still not really concerned with the scale.

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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!

Today is the fifth weigh in of the Plus Size Bloggers Bye Bye Booties 12 week challenge. I haven’t been focusing on the scale a whole lot. In fact, if it wasn’t for this challenge I wouldn’t be weighing at all. I made a promise to myself that I would stop focusing on the numbers on the scale. After all, they are just numbers! They don’t define me. They don’t make me who I am. This is a journey about getting healthy and there are so many things non-scale wise to focus on!

But with that being said, I knew there was going to be a gain this week. I didn’t do a weigh in last week because I went back home (I’m staying with a friend that lives several hours from my house and I didn’t have room to pack my scale to take it back home for a weigh in last Monday) to spend the week with my son.

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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 have no idea why but I woke up with 4 sayings in my head this morning so I figured I would write them down and start saying them every morning when I wake up. Or every time I feel un-motivated, discouraged & down.

So, repeat after me!

• I am beautiful
• I am healthy
• I am wonderful
• I CAN do anything I put my mind to!

YOU are all these things too!

What about you?Do you have a saying (or sayings) that you repeat to yourself? Please share!

Until next time…