Pre-Pregnancy Clothes...

Today, I took a chance and pulled out some old jeans. I have sizes 4 to 18 in my closet. Yep - that's how much my weight apparently can vary. I got all the way up to 16/18 when I was pregnant with Liam. It made me nauseous. Before that, the largest size I ever wore was 12/14. My normal size is an 8, but I'd like to be a 6. 4 is too small in my opinion. Today, I found that I can comfortably get into my 10s. I wanted to jump around the house screaming how excited I was about this, but Brian wouldn't have understood. He doesn't "get" women's sizes.

This is great motivation for me to keep at it with the zumba and walking. Starting in July, I'm going to try pilates. I'm a little scared of this from what I've heard from others, but I *need* core work, so I think I just need to suck it up and deal.

Week of Lazy....

I think I needed a rest week. I wasn't getting much sleep and exercising as much as I wanted just wasn't a good idea. There's no way it was going to give me more energy. So, I stayed home all but one day of Zumba... and if you count the Hoppin' House foam pit, then I exercised two days.

Today, however I plan to get back into the swing of things. Zumba today and tomorrow, then the rest of the week I want to walk at least 2 miles. 3 if I can get out there early enough. That is the only problem with the summers being so hot in Texas. It's hard to exercise outside after like 10am.

The good news is the weight I thought I had gained must have been some extra water weight, because it was all gone by the next morning. I'm down several pounds and down a total of 22 lbs since I started all of this.

After 6 months of switching carriers so I could find a more affordable cell plan, I gave up and went back to my old company. No one seems to give me signal INSIDE my own home. I mean, c'mon.. if you can't get through a roof, what makes you think I'll get signal inside other buildings? I also gave up on buying a tablet. We can do this with airmiles, but Brian didn't like any of the manufacturers. So, I opted to just break down and get a smart phone. Now... I'm addicted to Hanging with Friends. Wonderful. Another timesuck. LOL

I'm hoping this week isn't nearly as lazy. Most of the fun plans will happen next week. We're planning on going to the zoo, Hoppin' House and the splash pad. But, I'm thinking of maybe taking Kaylee to Mayfield park to check out the peacocks. I'm not sure what else, but I need to plan things out of the house more.

Exhasticated...

I know that's not a real word, but it should be!

I haven't slept much this week, which has led to me being pretty lazy. I didn't go to Zumba Monday, but I managed to drag myself there yesterday. Today and for the rest of the week, I don't have anything really planned for exercise other than walking... assuming I can make myself get out there. I need to. I've gained 2lbs since I stopped walking every day that I wasn't doing Zumba. I really don't want to see the scale go up any further.

Kaylee isn't sleeping well either and I'm not sure what to do. She plays for HOURS once she goes to bed. Even for naps. She goes in there at 2pm but won't fall asleep until 4pm - when she should be waking up. So, then I have to go get her, which leads to a crabby kid. I've tried pushing off naptime, but then she won't nap at all. Same thing for bedtime. She goes in there at 8pm, but we can hear her well past 11pm. WTH?! She has some stuffed animals in there that she insists on sleeping with, but that's about it. If I take them away, she notices. The kid is way too observant.

Liam doesn't really nap during the day unless he's strapped to me, which gives me a sore back. I'm lucky if I can set him down for 10 minutes to blog/check email or FB. Good thing he's cute (again). Ha!


My to do list is huge for today and I haven't been able to touch it. Bummer. I hope I can do a quick clean of the house because I have company coming over tomorrow. Eek! Here's hoping she doesn't ask for a tour..

Maybe I'll get lucky and Liam will sleep 8 hours in one stretch :) My goal is go to bed within an hour of when he does since Brian won't be home til late. Here's hoping I can get to sleep. I've had a lot of trouble with insomnia lately, which blows.

Plan!

Powder Room:
Bold, Gray stripes on a shade lighter gray... stripes will be at least 8" thick and will run horizontal. The plates will probably decoupaged so I can be creative with the design. I might even do two small plates with an abstract of the kid's ultrasound... you won't be able to really tell that's what it is though.

Foyer:
The acrylic is a go... but it won't be as big as Brian imagined. We're thinking smaller and centered in the inset. The wall behind the acrylic will be painted a blue, while the part around the acrylic will be painted a shade off from whatever blue we pick. The insets in the ceiling will also be painted blue. At this point, everything else would stay the same.

The rotunda:
I'm going to paint the inset the same as the insets in the foyer. And I need to find a cool 18" chandelier. I'll probably put a round rug in there as well.

The living room:
We're tweaking this a little. Brian wants to build an entertainment center. He has in mind of a bigger wall unit, where as I want a smaller L shaped unit that is more contemporary. It'd be painted white like the trim. I'll try and sketch something to put on the blog of what I'm thinking. Still going with the faint moorish pattern, but will probably only put it on the wall with the windows and the dining room wall.

Yesterday, I found some cool oak dining chairs... $5 for 6. Woot! So, we're looking into fabric to reupholster. I'm planning on sanding and staining them black. Brian wants to build an oval pedestal table. It should look really neat once it's all said and done.


Kaylee's room:
Her room is almost done. Brian's first project is actually her bed. It'll be a daybed with storage underneath, stained black. Hopefully this will take the echo out of her room as well. I also am thinking about building some simple frames to staple fabric around to hang as art.

Liam's room is TBD. But I have some ideas... thankfully, I have a good year before I need to worry about converting his room from a nursery to a kid's room. :)~

More designing...

Today, we're focusing on the foyer and the powder room. Granted, none of these plans will be implimented until we have a little more cash flowing, but we (myself and my friend/designer) felt it was important to come up with the overall plan before I start anyway.

So, here's where I blogged about the house: pictures!

We have a good idea for the living room. Brian is going to build a cabinet system along the long wall by the fireplace. This will hold our TV (up to 75" so we have room to grow) and have lots of storage, plus open shelves for knick knacks -- yay dusting! lol The walls will be painted with a large moorish pattern either a tone darker than the current wall color, or the same wall color, but in a glossier finish. We're going to test to see which looks better.

The ideas for the foyer include 2 really big art installations. Brian had a customer come in and want this:

 

He said it took him forever to create, but he loves it. And frankly, so do I. His idea is to make it fit into the insets in the foyer. But instead of wood, he'd cut it out of acrylic. Then we'd back light it with LEDs. To finish it out, he'd create a simple trim. 

The next room we're working on is the powder room... where my inspiration is Mannekin Pis. That's right! LOL My stepbrother got me this plate a few years ago and I love it. I think I'm going to do something like this:

with the room painted in big, bold gray stripes. I haven't figured out if I want them vertical or horizontal yet though... or which wall I'll put the plates -- behind the toilet so it reflects through the mirror, or the wall facing the door so you see it when you walk in....

I'm going to throw the ideas out to my designer and see what he says (don't worry... designer is a friend and he's working on trade... so don't go thinking I can actually hire a decorator... lol)

Modify...

I need to modify my workout schedule.. one of my zumba classes isn't working out, so I need to try a different instructor. And I forgot about Kaylee's swim lessons, which also didn't work out very well today. I'm hoping next week is better.

Current work out plan:
Mondays - Zumba
Tuesdays - Zumba
Wednesdays - walk 2-3 miles
Thursdays - walk 2-3 miles
Fridays - rest... Kaylee's swim lessons... maybe a few miles in the evening.
Saturdays - Zumba (occasionally.. when Brian is in town or I have a sitter) or walk 2-3 miles
Sundays - walk 2-3 miles

This will give me one rest day. It appears that almost every time I do Zumba, I wake up a pound lighter.. and it stays off. So, from 5-5 to 6-1, I've lost 5lbs! That was pretty cool to see on MFP. Now, if I could just keep it up... I'm having trouble drinking enough water throughout the day. The kids just seem to gooooogooooo gooo all day long. Sometimes I get lucky and both will nap at the same time, but typically Sir Piglet is up smiling and coo'ing at me. Way too cute to put down for a nap.. or to pause for a drink! :)~

The great thing about all the exercise I've been doing is all I want to drink IS water. I was trying so hard to break my addiction to soda, which in all honesty wasn't that bad. I don't buy sodas for the house, so I only get them if I'm out in about. But, recently they just don't taste good.  I just need to get into a better habit of consuming more of the good stuff.