mary

Micheal leaves in the morning for North Carolina so it’s just a few more days til all our stuff is here.  He should be home Saturday evening, and we finally found a couple of guys to help him unload Sunday.  I called a local mission and they found a couple of guys for us.

For those who suggested Craig’s List, thanks, but it didn’t get me anywhere.  I even advertised that we’d pay them $10.00 an hour, cash and that it would be at least 4 hours work, but no takers.  Can’t believe there was nobody that would want an extra $40 cash in their pocket, but there wasn’t.  I’m gonna check with the mission again next week for somebody to come in and help me unpack boxes and organize…or shall I say somebody to come in and unpack boxes and organize while I supervise.  I think I’m due for a rest.

Still drinking my water.  Been doing ok on the food, but not counting points.  But I don’t think I’ve gone over too much, and I’ve gotten in a lot of extra activity.

Well, I’m off here.  Gotta get to bed.  Micheal’s flight leaves at 7:30. He has to be there an hour early, and it takes half an hour to get there, so we have to get up early.  It takes a little while to get him moving.

It’s only 7:30 in the morning (eastern time) but I’m already tired.  We had an awful lot of cleaning to do, but it’s finally done.  The fridge and stove are gleaming like new (and sanitized!!) We finally got most of the stuff we brought from the hotel unpacked.  And we’ve gotten most of our running around done.

I got the utilities all transferred to our name yesterday.  Cable is coming to hook us up today and Internet is coming tomorrow.  Micheal is in heaven and going nuts with anticipation.  He’s getting fiberoptic for our internet connection and he’s about to bust at the seams.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with such things, Micheal compared dial-up speed to the fiberoptic speed as comparing a 1965 VW bug to a 2007 Lambourghini.  In other words it’s fast!!!!!!!!!  I’m going to have fun getting him off the internet.

Now I’m just working on getting things organized…and finding somebody to help Micheal unload the truck Sunday.  That is proving to be a very daunting task.  We’ve put the word out that we need help, but haven’t had any luck.  I’m afraid the holiday weekend is going to be a problem.  We’re willing to pay very well, but people would rather play.  Guess I don’t blame them.

Anyway, I’m not worrying too much about diet and such til after Labor Day.  I want to concentrate on getting everything here and organized, then I’ll get back to business.

We’re finally moved in!  Micheal still has to go to North Carolina this weekend to get our stuff out of storage, but we have everything else moved in here in Fort Wayne.  And oh, how we’ve been enjoying it!  We’re not in a hotel anymore, no neighbors on the other side of the wall!  We have a lot of empty area around us and we’re loving it.  We’ve been turning the radio up, and laughing, and yelling at each other from one end of the trailer to the other, and not having to worry about disturbing the neighbors.  And we’ve been spending a lot of time sitting out on the patio…something we’ve not been able to do in a long time.

We’ve been doing a lot of running around getting things settled, picking up things we need, and trying to find our way around.  And we’ve been doing a lot of cleaning.  The landlady took the former tenants word that they cleaned the place.  They didn’t.  The stove and fridge were so nasty it defies description.  It took 2 hours to scrub and disinfect the fridge.  And it took 3 to clean all the grease off the stove.  We haven’t even gotten to the oven yet!  So, needless to say, we’ve both been very busy working our tails off.

I haven’t been able to keep totally OP since we got down here.  Since everything was in such a mess, we’ve been eating out.  But, we’re only eating one meal a day for the most part, so it hasn’t been too bad.  And we’re both guzzling water!

Well, gotta go do some more unpacking and organizing.  I haven’t had a chance to read everybody’s blogs yet, but I’ll get to it.  I just wanted to let everybody know I’m still alive…tired but alive.

Micheal went in to work this morning and ended up with the rest of the day off as well as tomorrow so we’re getting ready to load the truck up and head to Fort Wayne for the weekend.

Don’t know if I’ll get back online before we get back here (probably will), but if I don’t….

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been busy packing things today.  We’re going to go ahead and take some of our stuff down this weekend so we won’t have to next week.  Unless Micheal gets away from this job early, we’ll have to load the truck and drive to Fort Wayne next Thursday afternoon, unload the truck, and then Micheal will fly to North Carolina early Friday morning.  So the less we have to take care of Thursday, the better.

It’s been thundering and raining here off and on all afternoon.  It’s gloomy outside.  I hate gloomy, even if I’m not getting out.

I was so busy today I forgot to eat lunch!!  I had a slim fast type shake for breakfast then got started dragging stuff out of cabinets and out of the closet and lost track of time.  Between that and messing around on the computer while I rested, I just lost track of time until I looked at the clock and realized it was after 5:00!  Guess I’ll eat a good dinner tonight!  But I did manage to get 3 bottles of water in already.  Just one more and I’ll have my minimum.

And no, I’m not overdoing it.  I am taking things a little at a time and resting!

It’s been another slow day.  Didn’t do much of anything.  Micheal had to work late so I was here by my lonesome.  Isn’t it funny…I really miss him when he’s not here, but sometimes I’m glad he’s not.  Anyway, we took the rental car back Friday so he had the truck.  He’s working about 30-45 minutes from here (depending on the traffic) this week so I haven’t been taking him to work.  So, I’ve been staying right here, in this little hotel room, entertaining myself.  Boy I sure will be glad when we get moved!!  We’ll only be living about 5 miles from where he’ll be working, and besides, we’ll go to Arkansas sometime in the next month or so and getting Micheal’s car, so I’ll be able to get out and go whenever I want.

I’ve mentioned that Micheal’s new job is Senior Systems Analyst for Parkview Hospital System in Fort Wayne.  That will be to my advantage.  They have a rather extensive nutrition and fitness program there that I will be able to take advantage of.  And I’m gonna.

And as for my slow day…I did ok eating.  Didn’t have breakfast, but had a sandwich for lunch.  And for dinner I had baked fish & broccoli.  Right now I’m having a class of white merlot.  And I’ve had more than enough water.  We buy it in 16.9 oz. bottles and I’ve had 5 of them.  So I’m swimming!

Hope everybody has a great night!!!!!

Micheal went back to work today…YEAH!!!!!!!!!  I love having him home, but not when he’s sick, and having a tooth pulled didn’t help at all!

I spent part of the day packing stuff.  You’d be surprised how much stuff you can get into one of these hotel rooms over a period of time…clothes, dishes, cookware, and all kinds of personal stuff.  Plus we have a desk top computer, desk and chair, two laptops, a camcorder, a 35mm camera, a digicam, books…that’s just some of it.  And it all has to be packed to move to Indiana.  And everything is always packed very carefully.  So far, in 5 years of moving and traveling, we’ve never arrived at our next destination with anything broken.  I think that must be some kind of record.  I just hope it holds til we get all our stuff from the storage unit in North Carolina!

I sat here and did a lot of thinking.  I read Nikki’s blog and Dan’s comment earlier today and it set my mind in motion.  I wrote a rather long article that I posted on the forum…called “changing our diets…changing our lifestyles”.  Yeah, I had a lot on my mind and decided to get it off.  I weigh enough already without having that weighing on my mind!!

All in all I had a good day.  I had a cereal bar for breakfast and a large salad for lunch.  I’m gonna cook steaks, broccoli and mashed potatoes for dinner (Micheal loves his mashed potatoes).  I haven’t done any walking, but I have been busy.  Oh and water…we’ve both been drinking tons of it!

Well, Micheal just walked in (with two more cases of water!) so I guess I better get off here and pay a little attention to him.

I’m having a fun day today.  Micheal stayed home from work and went to the dentist to have a tooth (molar) pulled.  I’m sure most of you ladies will agree that a sick man, or one in pain is almost like having a baby to take care of!!  You know, if men had to have every other baby, no family would have more than three kids, with the exception of multiple births.

One good thing is that I won’t have to worry about what I cook tonight.  He won’t be eating anything unless it’s soft so I can fix my fish and have a nice salad to go with it and fix him a bowl of soup.  As a matter of fact, I had a salad for lunch…mixed greens with snow peas, baby salad shrimp, fat-free croutons and fat-free dressing.  I discovered the mixed greens make a much more interesting salad than plain lettuce, which is what I’ve been using.  And I don’t think I’ll get so tired of eating these salads.

And I got some walking in today.  I had to go get meds for Micheal so I walked around the store while they were filling the scripts.  You know how long that can take!!

We changed our plans.  When we got up this morning it was raining and quite foggy so we decided not to make the trip to Fort Wayne.  It’s only 12 days (or less) til we move anyway, so that will be soon enough.

Because of the time of year, rain is kinda unpredictible so we decided we’d just rent a van to load everything in so we won’t have to worry about tarping the truck to keep our stuff dry.  And we might end up with more to move anyway.  My chiropractor told Micheal he has a couple of massaging tables he wants to sell.  They’re the kind that you lay on your back and these wheels or bars or whatever under the padding move up and down your back.  He wants to get rid of them and Micheal is thinking about buying them.  So if he does, we’ll have to have a lot more than my truck to haul them.  We’ll have to have a small U-Haul (and a couple of good strong men to help load and unload them).  But it would be nice to have one to use any time we want to.  And at $40 a trip to the chiropractor, they’d pay for themselves in no time.  But that means we’ll definitely have to get a big house (just another excuse).  Those things are more than half the size of a twin sized bed so they’ll probably have to go into the storage building for a while (or at least one of them will).

I’ve done pretty good eating today.  We went to the store and stocked up on more goodies.  I got some grapes, broccoli and salad fixins.  And I got some baby shrimp (they’ll go good on the salads) and some fish.  I also got some low-fat cheddar and fat-free croutons to give my salads a little extra umph.  Micheal got his favorites - steaks and pork chops.  He doesn’t like seafood.  But I can cook steaks or chops on the stove top for him and cook my fish in the toaster oven at the same time.

I got some boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I like to put them in a ziplock, pour in some fat-free Italian dressing and let them sit for 2 or 3 hours.  That sure gives them a little extra zing.  It also works pretty good for fish.

I drank all my water today and even got in a little bit of walking, what with going shopping and all.

Guess that’s it for today.  Yeah, I know, ya’ll are probably saying “shut up, already”!  But you know me…I just don’t know what “shut up” means!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and one more thing (go ahead and groan!!)…I just wanted to say thanks to all my buddies who stood behind me and gave me a little boost when I got a bit down this past week.  That’s not an easy task considering, and I really do appreciate it.  You guys are what keeps me going…and going and going.

We’re gonna load up and take a few things down to Fort Wayne this weekend.  Micheal got out of working so we thought it would be a good time to go down.  We’ll take some of the stuff we have here at the hotel so we won’t have as much to load up when we move and I’ll have a bit less to unpack that weekend.  As a matter of fact, it looks like we might get to move down a little bit earlier than we thought.  We won’t be able to get our stuff out of storage earlier cuz Micheal has already made airline and truck reservations for Labor Day weekend, but that’s ok.  We can go spend $100 on a futon to sleep on (or even less for an air mattress) if we want to stay at the trailer or we can stay at an extended stay down there.  But, we’ll have some extra time to get used to our new town.

One little obstacle with the trailer…there are about 6 steps to climb to get into the trailer, which will make it difficult when I’m having mobility issues.  But the plus side is that the front steps are only about 3 inches deep.  And there are hand rails on each side with a platform at the top.  That will make them much easier to navigate.

Well, on to the subject that we’re here for.  I’ve been doing good with staying on track.  I’ve had plenty of water today.  I didn’t eat much during the day.  We went out to dinner and I had plain grilled salmon with just a bit of pepper and lemon juice, a baked potato, mixed veggies (broccoli, carrots and cauliflower) and a salad.  Oh, I did have dessert.  I had what they call a Golf Ball Hot Fudge Sunday.  It’s a golfball sized scoop of ice cream with about a teaspoon of hot fudge drizzled over it.  They put a maraschino cherry on a skewer and stuck it in the top.  The skewer was a plastic golf tee!

I’m gonna take plenty of bottled water with me tomorrow.  No wait.  I’ll just take a couple of bottles then pick up a case to put in the fridge after we get there!!  And I’m gonna try to be good.  It’s had when you have to eat out a lot, but I’m still gonna try to make wise choices.  But all I can do is try.