Weightloss rewards.

I might not have been very good about writing here every week but I have managed to blog at my sparkpeople.com page at least once a week so far this month. I need to start writing things down so I get everything I want to done.

Anyway, I finally remembered to print out the last couple blogs for my weight loss journal/scrapbook to chronicle the last few weeks and my thoughts etc. I am also finally writing out my rewards for each milestone:

1st 10 lbs: more whipped body soap from A Breathe of French Air, an etsy.com store that I love. I think I'll get a 3 or 4 month supply.

2nd 10 lbs: a complete new outfit (including shoes and accessories)

3rd 10 lbs: scrapbooking shopping spree of all the coolest stuff and an album/accessories for my fitness journal/scrapbook

4th 10 lbs: a day at the spa... nails, facial and maybe a massage. After all that exercise, I'm going to need to relax!

Final 10 lbs: dress from butter by nadia that I love.

Onward and upward. And off to work on my journal scrapbook.

Another lull.

Sorry... I haven't been very good about writing regularly. I'm going to be honest and say I do think about it... but it usually happens as I'm heading out the door on errands or the middle of cooking dinner or some other important activity.

I got my pictures from Shutterfly a week ago Friday and then was waiting on batch number two from Scrapbookpictures or something like that. They came in good time and the sizes (ranging from 6X4 pictures my MIL took to 12X12 panorama sheets) were fab. The price was better too than some of the others I've used in the past.

Happy Monday! (No Joke!)

Well, I had a pretty great weekend. The weather was sunny but with a chilly, which was a little surprising after all the warm days we've been having... felt more like Spring two weeks ago. Can't complain too loudly though. Still had lovely days all weekend long.

While T was helping a friend move, my MIL came down and we went to the Scrapbook Expo in Pleasanton. Neither of us had ever been, but figured it'd be fun to go once and see what it was like. MIL had a great time looking at all the varied products she's never seen before (she's not a magazine junkie like I am) and talking about the craft shows she use to do in the same building 10 years or more.

Some of the loot I managed to find. I spent about $120 or so on various products. I'm so excited to play with them. Some will have to wait though I got them for an album I've done for a friend and want to add pages too. She needs to get "officially" engaged first or for our vacation later this year.

These license plate albums I think were my favorite things that I bought. I got the PA one since that's where I'm from. I guess I could have made my own because I still have my PA license plate from my old car BUT with my knack for injuries buying one seemed safer. The HI one is for our upcoming trip to the Islands with the In Laws later this Spring. Should be an AWESOME trip. I can't wait.


Lastly, I've started to get serious about getting in shape. I'm jogging outside. Go Me! I did pretty well last week with my first solo run. This week seems to be going well too. I'm going to switch up my runs so I didn't get bored and to challenge my muscles more. I am also starting the 100 Pushups Program. I did the first day today so that will be another thing on my running days. Should be a nice challenge.

I'm hungry. Lunch Time.

Waiting.

The weekend was relaxing and a bit chilly (at least while the fog was in). I finally knuckled down and made myself apply for some design teams for a couple websites I really like. It'll be days before I hear anything one way or the other and I can't stand it. I just want to know. Patience is definitely a virtue I admire in other people. Ha!

One of the scrap pages I did this weekend:

I had a pretty good time making a mess in the living room. I moved all of my scrapbooking stuff into the dining room area of our apartment and called it good. No point in going crazy with setting stuff up if we'll be moving... (maybe).

In other news, T. has a job interview for a software firm in San Francisco and Sunnyvale. He had the phone interview last week and talked to the group manager for an hour (a long time for a weed-out phone interview). He got a "call back" via email Friday night and will be going in this coming Friday. Again, more waiting. I'm just too happy that he's still excited about this prospect and company. He's had some other phone interviews that just didn't work out. The work wasn't interesting or what-have-you. This time around seems perfect. He already knows the language and system they use (Yeah!) and he has experience with the customer base they are trying to get.

The company he works for now is publishing their quarterly earnings tomorrow. It doesn't sound good and there are rumors - as always - flying that layoffs are coming around (again!). A whole year of suspense and worry - I just want it to end... (Well, end well for us, I mean.) Hm.

Plans for this week include... going to the pumpkin patch and getting some good photos, dragging out my lighting kit and working on self-portraits and doing some housework (possibly). I don't want to over do it.

Week in the Life. (Update)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'm a firm believer I just wish I could figure something I liked that was also quick and healthy because I don't want to get up any earlier on the mornings I go into work than I already do. (I know, I know cry me a river.)

Usually I exercise every weekday morning before I do anything else (eat breakfast, whatever). I need to get it out of the way or I'd never do it. I'm getting better at that whole thing though and I'm beginning to actually enjoy it... sweating and all.

At work, I have a wonderful office that has a heavy sturdy door that locks. Unfortunately, I will be loosing the office and being moved to a cubicle in the coming weeks as the guys have hired another golf architect and little me doesn't need an office as much as he does. I will cry rivers of tears those last days - but everything must end.

After work yesterday, I read Photo Freedom again and have started the process of sorting all of my albums and photos from the last few years. I will also need to start working on my computer storage as well. I have loads of pictures but finding anything isn't always easy. I'm hoping Stacy Julian's bookStacy's Blogwill help.

If you're interested, Photo Freedom is a system for sorting, filing and managing one's photos for scrapbooking and crafting. I know too well how frustrating it can be to be working on something and spend half the day looking for an image (or five for a project). I discovered this particular joy when I was creating my friend's birthday present (an album with pictures from our entire friendship spanning more than 20 years). IF only I had had some easier way. I have the gist of Stacy's system but it was only recently - too late to save me any time for my earlier project. (Note to self - upload pictures of album).

After many readings over the past week or 10 days, I have started sorting my albums by decade (a sort of presort). Our apartment isn't equiped with loads of space so I know the next few steps will be agonizing. I am looking forward to the day when I can just flip through a drawer or an album or a computer folder and find exactly what I wanted.

While Stacy's Library of Memories (known to followers as LOM) might be time consuming in the set up, the idea of it makes it worth all the agony of sorting and organizing. If only I could hire someone to do all that for me - but I'd miss half of the point and I've already found that out.

Just doing the initial sort, I found some wonderful pictures that I had forgotten about that made me laugh or were bittersweet since my dad's passing. I know I will only ever have more photos and the longer I put off doing the grunt work the harder/longer the sorting process will be. My husband and I had some good laughs over pictures we had taken early in our relationship. It was an amazing experience.

After the sorting into years, Stacy recommends using a limited number 3-up albums to hold a collection of these photos that will be "active" scrapbooking - current events if you will. I already have a collection of albums and pages from back before I scrapbooked and everything went into 4X6 pages from centuries plastics so I will be repurposing the albums I already have since I don't care much about looking pretty in this case. While I'm rearranging these albums, I will start pulling images for the 4X6 drawers I purchased today (they should be here on Monday - Yeah!) for Stacy's category drawers where she puts photos she wants to scrap but are no longer in the active albums. These drawers have four different themes "us", "people", "places" and "things" - I'm not sure if I will keep Stacy's categories or not we'll see once I start using the system. Stacy also uses "cold storage" for images she doesn't want to get ready of but doesn't think she'll scrap when she cleans out her storage albums to move in new photos.

I'm excited about the process but dreading the actually nitty gritty work. I know the results will be worth the cost in time/money but I'm anxious to get it all out of the way and move on to my next thing.

Enough about that. I'll post more as I get going.

Before work today, I ran a bunch of errands and tried to get the cement off my car from the works going on in the apartment complex. It didn't come off in the carwash so I went into the office and talked to one of the managers. She'll be getting back to me tomorrow or Monday I guess with what the contractor has said/suggested. I hate dealing with that kind of crap but I also want my car to look as pretty as it did before the cement landed on it. It could be worse though.