Luna Tail

Okay I guess I’ve been doing pretty crappy.  =P  Friday we went to a New Year party and I ate like a piggie, of course.  So even though I eat well most of the time, when I over eat at parties it ruins most everything.  So no more parties for a while! I am going to try hard to avoid any bad food for the whole month of January. It will be hard when I’m at the flyball tournament at the end of January.  Maybe Christy will help me! I am still following Eat To Live and plan on doing so to drop this weight!

I may, also, have to exercise, but we’ll see about that. I’m not too good about committing to an exercise program.  Ugh.  Well, I’ll think on it some. I’m thinking of Yoga or a home program I can commit to.

My Stats:

* Height: 5′7″
* All time high: 170 pounds
* This week: 167.4 pounds
* Last weigh in: 165 pounds
* Current Change: + 2.4 pounds
* Overall change: -2.6 pounds
*Goal Weight: 147 pounds
* To go: 20.4 pounds

One Weight At A Time Week #1

Snowy Mountains

Yeah.. well, stress isn’t a good thing, is it? Not really. I guess some stress is good, or so I have read. Stress can push us to grow and learn and experience a full life.  Me, however, most of my life seems to have been filled with stress. When I was younger and I chose a man, he was usually emotionally distant or depressed or whatever. And me, since I had no life, no self, I would submerge myself into trying to ‘fix’ him, instead of concentrating on my own life and my own well being.

But now, for some years, I’ve been happily married and I am so very glad about that.  In the summer, though, usually I get really wrapped up in dog sports and every weekend, almost, is filled with agility or flyball or obedience.  But now, in the winter, dog sports have slowed down and I’m just training, which I love better anyway, and I’m having days off where I can relax.

So what do I do?  I actually end up overspending my money, because that gives me some stress. Or I get into more foster dogs, which is also more stress. But right now, money is okay, and we don’t have a foster (though we might get one next week) and I’m fairly stress free, and, actually, it’s quite odd and something I’m not really used to. I’ve even been finishing up a project at work which is also a good thing.

Now I get to learn how to relax and be stress free. I hope no more shoes will drop… I can’t control death or disease or anything like that. But I can appreciate what I have, the people and the stability and security, and just love my house and my family and learn to relax and take it easy.  So wherever the stress went, it can stay there!

I love having a peaceful, relaxing home. Someday, though… someday not too far off, maybe about five years from now, I hope my husband and I can build a home of our own, on five acres of property, in a remote location. A house that’ll be just what we want, how exciting! We can get personalized molding, tile or wood floors, and have it designed just for our dogs.

And since I like to window shop… or web shop, as it were (what is window shopping on the web called anyway? Wendow shopping? lol) and look around at things that I would love to have in our new home, I love it when I find a place that looks really nice!

And so I’ve found InvitingHome.com. They have an amazing website and they have people who will help you design your home with their products.  They have  Corbels and doors and fireplace accessories and a lot more. If you send them a picture of what your house looks like, they can help you with your design and give you advice and help about what would look the best. I always need help, dangit, as I have very little decorating sense!

They also have their own blog too, where they post updates and information about the happenings in their business and information about products and how to decorate a home.  I’m going to check out their blog more to see what they have to say.

Anyway, just a fun place to check out for my new house! Ooo I want a new house!

And so here we are. The very last day of 2008. Wow, time sure flies doesn’t it?  I remember when it was still the year 2000 scare… and that was eight freakin’ years ago now. wow.

Do you have any resolutions for 2009? I don’t do New Years Resolutions. I don’t seem to keep them when I do, so I gave them up as a bad job years and years ago. When I decide to make a change or a commitment, I don’t base it on the new year.  To me, the New Year is just another day the Earth orbits around the sun, but it is pretty cool that the Earth was around this area one year ago.

We will probably even be in bed before Midnight tonight. I guess I could celebrate now… since it’s midnight somewhere in the world now. 

The last year has been fun. We got Muffit in February.  Levi got some more legs in agility. So did Chase.  We did some rescue but not too much this year, as we’ve kinda been burned out a little bit.

What will 2009 bring? I dunno, maybe someone will need engagement rings, which would be fun! And hopefully all our dogs and cats and human family members will still be alive and healthy through 2009 and beyond.

So anyway, Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope you have a good evening and please don’t drink and drive! 

Well, of the six Hermit Crabs I have at home, two of them died.  I put them in a zip loc and out in the freezing cold as a burial.  Bummer. On a good note, though, three of them seem to be doing well. They have all come out of their molt just fine.  I have two tanks at home, the upstairs tank is shown below, and has all three of the healthy crabs in it.

Hermit Crab Tank

Downstairs there is only one crab left, and he is still molting. Hopefully he hasn’t died during his molt. I haven’t smelled anything bad yet, but then I didn’t smell anything bad from the two that didn’t make it, either.  As they come up from molting in the downstairs tank, I move them upstairs.

So of the three crabs pictured in my previous crabbie post on November 16th, only two survived. The guy in the lone picture didn’t, unfortunately.  Hopefully the last guy will come out of his molt soon. But he’s been down for over a month now, so I’m not sure if that means he didn’t make it or not. I’ll wait a while longer before I dig for him.  Once that tank is empty, I’ll tear it down, I think, and just keep the upstairs 20 gallon long. Maybe I need a tv stand for the tank… hrm. It’s on the entertainment center now.

Here is a picture of the latest guy I moved from the downstairs tank to the upstairs.  He was also pictured in the post from November 16th.  I think he’s a good healthy guy! *Crosses Fingers*

Hermit Crab

So that’s the Hermit Crab update for today! 

Well, I hope everyone had a good Christmas.  I sure did. :)  It has been snowing the last few days around here and it’s very beautiful outside now. I got some pictures of the icicles hanging off our house.

icicles

I don’t think icicles are really good things to have, but we don’t have many rain gutters and so we have icicles. They really are pretty though! I tried to get a couple of pictures, playing with the dept of field… the first one the tree in the background is in focus. The second one the icicles are in focus.  I’m not sure which one I like better, I kinda like them both.

I want to change my copyright symbol though… I keep adjusting it, lol. I just barely set it up and I like it. Though I wish I could get that transparent copyright image, and the boarder, to be produced by Picasa. I really like using Picasa it’s a very easy to use photo organization software.  And I love how easily I can see all the pictures on my screen.

icicles

We got some nice fun things for Christmas… now maybe I have to rearrange the house and put some in self storage dangit, we don’t have much room in our house! I keep dreaming of moving to Richfield and building our own house. With a nice sized shed out back, too, to keep all our stuff in, and our agilty stuff… LOL which I’m not sure we’ll have or not. And a three car garage too.  Since we have the three cars now. Oh, I don’t think I’ve said… we are keeping the Outback. The economy seems so bad now, that I can’t sell my Subaru Outback for what it’s worth, so we are just going to keep it. It’s all reparied and it sure is nice to have an All Wheel Drive vehicle on this super snowy days.

Christmas Eve

I will be the first to admit about myself… I don’t really believe in the Christian God. And so celebrating Christmas, per se, isn’t really what I’m doing this time of year. But I love Christmas time, and I’ve been thinking, lately, what it is I actually am celebrating anymore.

I consider myself agnostic, which basically means I don’t think a god can be proven or disproven. And I know I know, God and proof are mutually exclusive, right? Faith and God are what go together. However, when I think of proof, I don’t really mean physical proof.. I just mean proof that I, personally, can believe.

Me and Hubby

So anyway, what do I celebrate? I celebrate my family and the wonderful life I have. I love spending the day with my family, having dinner, opening gifts… and the gift part isn’t really even that big of a deal. It’s just a fun thing we do and if there were no gifts, and no food, if there was only just our family, then that would still be a wonderful day.

Me and My Family

What do you celebrate? Do you celebrate Christmas, the winter solstice, or anything at all this time of year?  I like having a bit celebration at this time of year because it’s cold out, and it can be dreary, so having a big day to celebrate is nice and fun. After the new year, we head into the really dreary part of the winter… January and February are the worst! Cold and not much to look forward to except the spring. And here in Utah spring doesn’t usually come until well into May!

So I’ll just enjoy the long dark nights, which I love. My sister got me some way cool candles, I put them on my bookshelves, and they are flameless! I love them! They look great and are no danger to the dogs and cats. And I had to dust and vacuum too because the house was a mess and the candles didn’t look good with all the icky dust. LOL.

Today, Christmas day, our family doesn’t do much… we celebrate Christmas Eve.  My parents are european and so that is our big day.  We had a great dinner and rice pudding and hot spiced wine and egg nog.  I kinda wish we didn’t need Christmas to celebrate! Maybe we should have another holiday, sometime the beginning of Februray, or middle of February, to break the dreariness of winter.

Festivus anyone?  LOL

Guilty

So what is the deal with guilt?  I’ve been sick for a while now… probably a week. Yesterday (Sunday) I slept until noon and then I laid around the rest of the day. I watched some TV… Stephen King’s The Langoliers (Yup it’s a four hour mini series) a couple of episodes of Legend of the Seekers online, and then sat and stared at some super dumb TV shows until I got enough gumption to get off the couch and go to bed.

Through all this, of course, I’m feeling awfully guilty about being home and being sick. Actually, I love to sleep.  I love to sleep all day sometimes. It does get old after a while, for sure.  But sometimes, in the winter, I don’t mind being a bum and laying around. And my husband tells me I really should make for more idle time, because usually I’m just so busy busy busy running around with the dogs all the time.  And I need to clean the house, clean the faucets, put away clothes… ugh!

So I’m trying not to feel guilty about being sick and sleeping a lot this last week. Of course I have not done enough Holiday shopping, though. UGH. And that is bothering me.  But maybe tomorrow night after work I’ll go out and brave the crowds (I HATE shopping in crowds) and buy some things. Might just be a lot of gift certificates this year! Oh well!

I don’t like guilt. My house is fine. My job is fine. My dogs are fine and the husband is taking care of everything. But I still feel guilty when I sit and do nothing and take it easy. Today I am better, working too, but still, that darn guilt tickles up and down the back of my spine.

This may not seem like anything cool to most people… LOL but my nose is running, and I’m glad of it!  I swear my nose has been packed solid for over a year. I went into the doctor last year this time for help.. she gave me the Nasacort and Allegra and told me to call her if it didn’t work. Well, it never really worked.  But I started doing the Nasal Flush, Cleanse, whatever you want to call it, and that works!

It’s really gross at first, it kinda feels like going swimming and having my nose fill up with water. But after I do it a while, it feels actually very good! I’ve been trying to do it about four times a day, three times in each nostril when I do it. It’s pretty gross to have the water come out the other nostril and my mouth too, but I do think it’s clearing me up.

Muffit and his Tongue

I’m still a bit sick, and taking it easy.. training the dogs a little bit.  And reading. Yeap, I’m reading an actual book. I haven’t read a book in years. I love to read, mostly I’ve been listening to books on CD now. But I like Legend of the Seeker on our channel 30 here in Utah, and I got the books from Paper Back Swap so I’m reading the first one, Wizard’s First Rule. And I rather like it! I’ll have to see if my sister wants it after I’m done. It’s a huge book. I’m liking both the TV show and the books, though they are pretty different. I don’t mind, I can actually enjoy them both even if they are different!

(This is just a cute random picture of Muffit… gotta love that tongue! He’s a border collie boy.)

And I’m not eating very well being sick… I downed almost an entire chocolate orange yesterday. Ugh. Maybe diet pills would help me eat better when I’m sick. I need to get back to salad today. I ate oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast (yum!) and an apple just now.

I hope to go visit Sasha, our foster collie we had for a few days, later this afternoon. I’ll take Tatum with as she needs to get out, she’s been bored lately.  But for now, I’m going to sit and read for an hour or so and relax.  I do like to relax!

Yuck.. I’ve been home in bed the last couple of day because I’m sick. Not sure what I have… but I wake up and I just want to go back to sleep again. Been sleeping a lot. Reading a little. Been on the computer not at all. It seems like too much effort. My husband actually turned my laptop on for me because he wanted to see if I’d gotten an email about Sasha, as I placed her in a new foster home on Monday evening. I did get some information… and she seems to be doing well. Though we all miss her.

Anyway, since I don’t have any coffee franchises and could really use a cup of coffee… I better go make one. Or maybe I’ll make a pot of tea. I love tea, especially Chamomile when I’m sick, it always helps me to feel better. And I think I’m going to go and do a nasal rinse. UGH. Been reading up a bit on the Sinus Rinse and although it does sound pretty gross and wierd, I’m really tired of my nose being packed so solid and unable to breathe. And I don’t like using the nasal sprays so much.

And I’m tired… been on the computer too long and it’s draining my energy. I think I’m going to get something to eat too, maybe, or read, or take a nap… the nap is sounding like the best bet though.