Socks & Health

#1: Socks! I'm wearing a new pair of socks today that I got at 50% off after Christmas sale. Aren't they cute?

#2: Health. In January 2007 I became a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. It took all of 2006 but I lost 50 lbs following their program. I never had a weight problem until I met Joe so I contribute my weight gain to him, wooing me with dinner out all the time. So I am proud to say I have kept those 50 lbs off for almost 2 years and have a personal goal of 10 less than my WW goal. When Halloween came, I ate and ate chocolate. Then Thanksgiving came, then Christmas goodies and now tomorrow is New Years Eve. All those yummy sweets have been just calling me to me "eat me! eat me!" And I listen so well.
I read that the average person gains 9 lbs from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I am not average. I am unique. I do not follow. I am my own. I'm ashamed to say according to my weight gain of 6 lbs from Thanksgiving to now, I am almost average. I just want to cry!! So before it gets worse and I bust out of my jeans I'm hopping back on my WW program to lose those dang 6 lbs and another 5 to reach my personal goal. I'm giving myself to lose a total of 11 lbs by March 30, 2009 which I think I will do way before then but at least it is a realistic, reachable goal. I've also started posting more regularly on my health blog. I've been told by many friends and family what an inspiration I am so I want to continue to do that. I'm here to help myself and I'm here to support you! So if you are struggling with your weight/health, check out my health blog for some tips.

Christmas

I had a great long Christmas weekend. Christmas Eve we went to Nana's house, had dinner and opened presents with them. Here is Heather and Nana opening her gift:

Kathryn, her boyfriend and her cat:
Sara, Heather & Nick eating:
Nick with her gift:

Christmas morning I enjoyed with Sara, Joe and the dogs. I was Joey-free as he went to his mama's. (Yippee!) Sara put me on a scavenger hunt to find my present. To find clues I was instructed to go in my closet, go to the air vent in Sara's room, go outside to the secret hose compartment then I finally found my gift behind the couch. The same room we started in. She got me a Precious Moments which I collect. It brought tears to my eyes how much thought she put into the gift and the hunt. hehe so cute! I also go satelite radio for my car, which I had to install myself and I did ALL BY MYSELF! It took me 2 hours but I did get a compliment from Joey saying it looked like a professional install how I hid all the wires. Yay me!


Joe got a GPS so he can stop calling me at work asking me to look up an address and tell him how to get there. He also got a few golf books. Sara got a jacket and beanie hat she's been wanting and wore it ALL day, even with it being 80 degrees outside. See:
She also got some earrings, PJs, PS2 game--OH! Speaking of PS2 games! Santa brought us the Dance Revolution game with the dance pad. I am so excited to hook it up and dance! In fact I think I will when I'm done blogging. Here's a few more pictures:

The dogs enjoyed Christmas too:



After our morning we went to my parents' house and enjoyed Christmas with them, my sister & bro-in-law and my nephew:
Isn't my nephew the cutest?
The boys and Sara played some after Christmas dinner pool:

I saved the best for last (well maybe not the best since it's about someone is always on my poo-poo list): Joe got Joey golf knickers. This outfit fits his personality so perfect and he wore them to play golf Saturday. OMG everyone laughed! It's just so funny looking!!


I hope everyone has a great Christmas. And I wish you the best for the new year! Be safe on New Years Eve!!

Saving the World One Animal at a Time

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Yesterday Sara and I took our weekly visit to the Humane Society. We brought a special friend with us. A lady I came in contact with thru my local freecycle group had a kitty that adopted her several months ago that she can no longer care for. I offered to take the kitty to the Humane Society so she can find her forever home. Sara rode in the back seat with her and kept her hand inside the carrier to comfort her. Well she ended up busted out of the carrier (so Sara said) and she wondered around the car then she sat on the seat next to Sara and rode the whole way to the shelter like that. She rode in the car like a dog! When we arrived to the shelter we were told there is a waiting list of over 200 cats (which I was not aware of) and that she would be transported to the county shelter (which is not a no-kill shelter.) We were very concerned but with Sara's sad eyes and the help of the office lady she pulled some strings and was able to keep her there. Yay! So now she's in a good place where someone will pick her and take her home.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas! This weekend stop by your local humane society and just visit with the animals. They love the attention and don't forget to throw them a treat! They love those too!! And if you're in a situation you can care for one or two, adopt! Fostering can be a temporary option as well. Animals need love too.

I have a brother (in-law)!!

Saturday my sister finally tied the knot with her other half. It's official: I have a brother-in-law! And Sara has an uncle which he is making her call him 'Uncle.' She had a very nice small ceremony/reception at my parents' house that my mom and I planned. Snowflake theme, kinda wintery wonderland although with the 80 degree weather we had it wasn't too wintery. The Christmas music was a nice touch. Why is Christmas music so "catchy?" Like we'll just be sitting there doing nothing but then you hear "Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Clause, right down Santa Claus lane." and you just want to start dancing! Sara caught me and Jenn doing that prior to the festivities. Here is a lovely picture of my sister, her new hubby and my nephew (my niece is still baking!)
Me and Joe:
Sara and Joe:
Jenn & me (I officiated the marriage!!)
Joe & Jayden:
The rings (and I am THRILLED to say that I took this picture. Who know I had photography skills in me?!)
The bride & groom (another picture I took!)

Congratulations to my sister and her new husband! Love you guys!!

Just Another Big Time Animal Lover

The other day, my fellow animal lover blogger friend blogged about euthanasia. (See it here.) Today I was browsing MSN articles (I'm so busy at work, can you tell? :-) and I find this article:

Crazy dog lady? Woman adopts 27 hounds

A Spanish Springs woman who went to a California dog pound looking for pet to replace her own dog that was hit by a car admits she went overboard when she brought home 27 dogs that were facing euthanasia. But she didn't expect to run afoul of the law.

"I didn't realize I was going to be in so much trouble or that so many people would be so angry at what I did," Colleen Spalioni told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Monday. "But after I lost my dog who gave me so much unconditional love, I couldn't leave these dogs to die."

Spalioni said she was trying to find another dog who looked like Barney, her 2-year-old pointer that was struck and killed by a car in November.

Browsing DogsinDanger.com, a Web site that posts photos of dogs in shelters and the number of days until they are euthanized, she found what she was looking for at shelter in Delano, Calif., outside Bakersfield.

But when she arrived, her heart took over, and she ended up bringing home 27 dogs that were about to be killed, including 10 Chihuahua mixes, one purebred Chihuahua, a Jack Russell, a poodle, two shepherd mixes, two miniature pinschers and an Australian cattle dog mix.

"I didn't realize so many animals were dying every day until I saw it with my own eyes," she said.

She said animal control officers helped her and her traveling companion load the dogs in her pickup. Some fit in the cab, the others rode in the truck bed with a down blanket and a tarp over the top.

But once home, neighbors complained of the barking, and she was told local ordinance prohibits more than three dogs per household.

After her story was posted on a newspaper blog, Spalioni said she had found homes for all but four of the dogs as of Monday.

She's hopes to find homes for the remaining dogs before her husband, who is out of town, returns home Wednesday.

"I learned my lesson. I promise I won't do this again," Spalioni said.


Last night my sister and I were just talking about euthanasia and how if we could save them all we would. How ironic I find this article. It's so nice to know there are other crazy animal lovers out there.

Snowmen in Florida?

Yup it's true! There are snowmen in Florida....on my feet! LOL! Here are my newest socks. I won these from a game of Christmas Bingo at my best bud's Cookie Exchange Party. I almost forget how fun bingo can be! Check out the link to see a pic of us serious bingo players! (4 of us on the couch; I'm the one with the antlers one!)

I am loved!

I am thrilled to announce that I received a blogger award! Thank you to Lisa who awarded this to me.

“These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I now must nominate 8 other blogs to receive this award.
My nominations are:
Confessions of Me
The Land of Foo
Life with Frenchie
Crafty Patti's Thoughts
Soccer Mom Says
(ok, I'm sad, I only have 5 to send this award out to. I need more blogging buddies! lol)

Here Comes the Bride

No not me! My sister! The past few weeks my mom and I have been running around pulling our hair out trying to plan a nice affordable wedding for my sister. Well, my hair is back in place and we are no longer running we are walking. ha ha, I know dumb. Sorry. Anyways, this Saturday is the big day and I have the pleasure of marrying her. I am a notary so I can do that. I'm excited although I'm worried I will start crying in the middle of it. My mom says I can't because it will just start a train where she'll start, Jenn will probably start as well as all other women at the wedding. So I'm trying to stay strong.

Good luck to me! I mean, good luck to the bride & groom!

The Wreath

When we were putting our Christmas stuff up a few weeks ago, our wreath seemed to be MIA along with the hanger. So this weekend Sara and I were at Michael's and decided to check out what they had. We ended up buying a plain wreath and some glittery pinecones and gifts with a string of beads and designed our own wreath. Isn't it lovely?

The best part of this is everything was on sale! The wreath was like $6 and each little pinecone and gift was $0.17! Then Sara threw in her creativity and voila! A new pretty wreath! We got a new hanger too which was also on sale. I feel like I got an awesome deal. And what's even cooler than that is the wreath that is MIA was a left over I inherited from Joe's ex so now we have a wreath that is really all ours!

Christmas with the Animals

Went to the Humane Society yesterday. It's always so much fun! We brought toys in for all the dogs for Christmas and also donated to get paw prints for JayJay and Polly to hang on the wall around the shelter. Here is a poem I received from JayJay's friend on Dogster:


CHRISTMAS AT THE SHELTER
author unknown

'Tis the night before Christmas and all through the town,
every shelter is full - we are lost but not found,
Our numbers are hung on our kennels so bare,
we hope every minute that someone will care.

They'll come to adopt us and give us the call,
Come here, Max and Sparkie - come fetch your new ball!
But now we sit here and think of the days..
we were treated so fondly - we had cute, baby ways.

Once we were little, then we grew and we grew -
now we're no longer young and we're no longer new.
So out the back door we were thrown like the trash,
they reacted so quickly - why were they so rash?

We jump on the children, don't come when they call,
we bark when they leave us, climb over the wall.
We should have been neutered, we should have been spayed,
now we suffer the consequence of the errors THEY made.

If only they'd trained us, if only we knew...
we'd have done what they asked us and worshiped them too.
We were left in the backyard, or worse -left to roam-
now we're tired and lonely and out of a home

They dropped us off here and they kissed us good-bye...
"Maybe someone else will give you a try."
So now here we are, all confused and alone...
in a shelter with others who long for a home.

The kind workers come through with a meal and a pat,
with so many to care for, they can't stay to chat,
They move to the next kennel, giving each of us cheer...
we know that they wonder how long we'll be here.

We lay down to sleep and sweet dreams fill our heads..
of a home filled with love and our own cozy beds.
Then we wake to see sad eyes, brimming with tears --
our friends filled with emptiness, worry, and fear.

If you can't adopt us and there's no room at the Inn --
could you help with the bills and fill our food bin?
We count on your kindness each day of the year --
can you give more than hope to everyone here?

Please make a donation to pay for the heat...
and help get us something special to eat.
The shelter that cares for us wants us to live,
and more of us will, if more people will give.

Christmas Socks

I'm proudly wearing my newest Christmas socks today: candy canes! And yes my shoes are off and I'm at work. I love my job (to a point ;-)

And see the dangling candy canes on the ankle? Too cute!!


Happy Holidays!

Deck the Halls....fa la la la la

I am happy to say that my Christmas tree was angel-less for only 2 days. (See prior post.) We finally got the house decorations up and my home looks so Christmas-y. See:




And every house is not complete at Christmas time without a nativity scene:

Some more of my snowmen:

And the stockings were hung by the fireplace...er...videos?

Yes we do not have a fireplace and we do not have a mantle so I have to get creative with my stocking location. There is one for Joe, Sara, Joey and me and of course I can't forget the furry kids, JayJay & Polly. They are worse than a 4yo searching for Christmas gifts. I've had to hide their gifts way, way up high off the ground because they are already snooping around.

Merry Christmas!

My Office Christmas Party

Friday night was my office Christmas party. It was held at Gameworks in Ybor City. It was a true success (I planned it!) and everyone had a great time. See:




Once we used up all our game time and drink tickets, one of my bosses decided it was clubbing time. For those of you not in the Tampa area, Ybor City is a strip full of bars and clubs and lots of cops. So Joe and I went along for the ride. We had so much fun and boss made sure everyone was not drinkless. We danced and shook our behinds until 2:45am. We closed the club down! I cannot remember the last time I did that. I don't know if I even ever have! Joe didn't drink too much so he drove us home. But a few of my co-workers were quite wasted so the bosses got them a hotel room so they wouldn't have to drive home drunk. Then the bosses took a cab home. At least that was the story when Joe and I left. I guess I'll get the details Monday at work. See how much fun we had dancing?




I have not partied like this in years! I didn't get up and going Saturday until 1pm. We've got office party pictures that will be office talk for years to come!

Merry Christmas!!