There's no failure...

....only feedback.

^ That's what my WW leader says. 

I haven't failed to follow through, I am just figuring out what DOESN'T work.  Based on this feedback, I am finding areas for change.  I'm formulating plans to make my journey towards goal easier.

What I'm NOT doing is beating myself up.  At least I'm not any more.  All the poor attitude and bad self-talk did was make me feel even worse about myself.  It was beginning to make me not trust myself anymore.  Not trust that I could make good choices.  Not trust that I really wanted the final outcome of re-attaining my goal weight.  Not trust that I could do this.

That's the beauty of following WW.  I get to go to weekly meetings and wipe my slate clean.  All those poor choices?  Don't matter.  All the bad self-image and belief that I can't do it?  Gone.  My fellow WW members are an integral part of this journey.  They help me pull myself back up if/when I need it.

Rough Patch

Y'all -- I'm having a tough time lately. 

I can't put my finger on what it is that is making me feel off.  I just know that I'm not right.  And I'm hating every second of this. 

I'm grumpy with everyone.  I'm anxious about everything.  I feel like I'm one stubbed toe away from an ugly cry.  

God bless Gordon, he's bearing the brunt of everything.  He picks up the pieces for me when I can't.  He maintains a calm demeanor and stresses over practically nothing.

I'll get through this.  I know I will.  I just hope everyone can bear with me as I navigate my way through this.

Karate Tournament

 Here are a few pictures I took on Saturday, at Dianna's Karate Tournament.  I was trying to upload a video clip or two, but am having technical difficulties with that.  Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out so I can share them with you later. 

Lexi

Hey, World.  I'm sorry it's been so quiet over in my little corner.  Quite honestly, it's been a rough week for me.  :(

To start off, over the weekend, we made the decision as a family that it was time to put Lexi down.  I made the call first thing Monday morning.  Nora and I took Lexi for a final walk along the trail early Monday afternoon.  Monday night we all said goodbye to her.

Since Monday, I've been feeling so down.  I've known for a while that our time with Lexi was coming to the end.  I still wasn't prepared for the onslaught of emotions I'd feel.

NOW I understand exactly why my mother emphatically announced "no more pets!" when I was a child.  It can be so heartbreaking as a pet owner to deal with the end of a pet's life.  To know weigh the pet's comfort and quality of life against our own desire to hold close the pet we adore and have loved for so many years.

post-Weekend Update

Coming off this past weekend, I'm in desperate need of a weekend.  Wait.  That doesn't make sense.  Let's just leave it that we were busy all weekend long. 

I hate when we have weekends like this.  Though there was some down time here and there, I feel like I didn't really accomplish much.  The state of the house this morning proves that I definitely didn't get to many chores.

Here's what I DID do. 

I took Dianna to her second ever karate tournament on Saturday.  It was her first year as an actual competitor.  (Last year she did some non-competitive participation) 

Yesterday morning was church.  I taught Sunday School (I teach the third Sunday of every month).  I got off easy there -- we made cards to send to victims of the recent tornadoes in Indiana.

Last night I was at the community center with my scout troop.  They were leading a meeting for two of the local Brownie troops.  My troop have earned their Leader In Action (LIA) badge from all of the planning and execution of this meeting.

The Brownie meeting lasted until 7:30pm, but it was almost 8pm by the time we were done cleaning up.  Still, my day was not yet over!  I had to run out to my old hometown to deliver an order of GS cookies.  It was almost 10pm by the time I returned home for the night.

So, for once, I'm happy that today is Monday.

Monday Morning Reset

Good Monday Morning, readers!

I'm sitting here at my computer desk, trying to think of SOMEthing to blog about.  SOMEthing noteworthy.  SOMEthing maybe a little funny.

I got nothing.

What I DO have is a counter full of dishes.  A front hall cluttered with items to be brought upstairs and put away.  Two laundry baskets full of clean clothes that need to be folded.  LOTS more laundry that still needs to be washed and dried.  And a kid-sized table cluttered with playdoh and playdoh paraphernalia.

I hate that all of this STUFF got left as is.  I hate that it wasn't taken care of yesterday, before everyone was tucked into bed.  Quite honestly, I was too tired.  We had such a busy weekend that I immediately changed into jammies when I returned home from the GS Sunday service at church yesterday afternoon.  I laid down to watch the race with Gordon and that's all there was.  I fell asleep almost immediately.

I did wake long enough to eat dinner.  But my "nap" wasn't enough to recharge my batteries.  I was still pretty beat.

So now I'm faced with taking care of all of these tasks this morning.  It's a good thing I don't have any commitments outside of the house this morning.  Without a reset button, all of this should take some time to fix.

Finally! The NEW Master Bedroom!

Gordon and I FINALLY got around to clearing the last little bits of clutter from the Master Bedroom today.  I've been very anxious to share with y'all the final look.  I'm very pleased with it.  I think the only thing I would change right now, if I could, would be the upholstery on our arm chair.  Pink/Rose simply is NOT my color of choice! 

Perhaps one day I'll teach myself how to reupholster furniture....

Anyway, here are pictures of our Master....

This is looking from the doorway:

Turning slightly to the right (Sorry for the darkness -- the sun wouldn't stay put behind clouds long enough for me to get this shot):

Standing in front of my dresser:

Turning slightly to the right:

Again, turning slightly more to the right:



The pictures behind the arm chair are matted 8X10's of some pictures I have taken. You've seen them before -- they're from my Project 365 files!  I'm very proud and happy to finally be displaying some of those shots. 

Calling All Shoppers!

HELP!  I need help finding a new hair clip that looks like this:

Now that I have shorter hair, I can use this style clip again.  It is one of my favorite clips of all time, but this particular one has four broken tines on it.  Out of six tines total. 

The thing I love the most about this particular clip is that it doesn't dig in to my head.  It holds my hair tight without pulling it so hard that I end up with a headache.  Headache inducing clips are no fun.

If you have some free time, and are willing to help, would you please help me search for a new one?  I'll probably buy at least three of them this time!

Lexi

Poor Lexi.

Her eyesight has diminished drastically in the last 6-9 months.  She now can barely see.  Because of this, she is having a hard time navigating around the house.  She's bumping into things left and right.  It's not just wayward toys that she's bumping into, either.  She walks into walls.  Seriously.

Just earlier this morning, Lexi apparently went upstairs.  I was playing with Nora, so I was unaware.  Until I heard her come tumbling down both half-flights of stairs.  Of course, I went running to the front hall to check her over.  She looked quite stunned as she struggled to stand.  She had a limp in her step as she walked over to her kennel to lay down.

I now have one of our old baby gates stationed at the bottom of the stairs.  My poor heart would not be able to handle it if Lexi were to have another similar accident.  Preventive measures will make sure it doesn't happen again.  Right?

Friday Fun with Eleanor

Nora and I have spent a lot of quality time together today.  (It's amazing how much we can accomplish when I'm feeling motivated!)

First, Nora painted a masterpiece.

 Second, Nora worked on writing the letters of her name (I wrote it in black marker once, in dotted pen-lines twice, which she traced, and then she made the letters to the best of her ability on her own).

And then, finally, we baked one of Gordon's favorite sweet treats.  Magic Cookie Bars!  Since then, we've been puttering around the house, cleaning up game pieces and random toys that have been left out for far too long.  Rachel and crew will be coming over tonight for another game night.  Although she's my sister, I can't like having my house look like a disaster zone when they visit.

New Dining Room Furniture

Back in December, just before Christmas, Gordon was awarded the company's Employee of the Year award.  Along with a nice plaque, Gordon was also given a gift certificate for the Lazy Boy store (owned by his company) good for any living room set we chose.  Great, but not the best timing for us.  We'd just bought new couches in October!

We debated what to do for a couple of days.  We could get a new set to put downstairs in the basement (our 'rec room').  We could get a new set for the living room and place the not-quite-as-new couches in the basement.  Either way would have been nice, but really unnecessary.  The furniture we have in the basement is more than adequate for the use it gets.  Perhaps if we spent more time in the basement as a family, it'd be nice to upgrade.  But we don't.  Right now, the kids practically have free reign down there.  And it shows.

I finally had an epiphany!  Would we be able to get a dining set instead?  We've been using a mis-matched set for almost our entire marriage.  It was a used set that Gordon was given when he first bought our old house.  It has served us well, but has definitely seen better days.

Gordon talked to the owner of his company.  He agreed that we could do that.  It would mean we'd have to order it from the company's other furniture store, not their Lazy Boy gallery, but he decided it would be ok anyway.

I stopped by the furniture store right around the first of the year.  I found a great set, but wasn't 100% sure it was what I was looking for.  I talked with the manager about it.  She gave me some information on the company and the set in particular.  Gordon and I mulled it over for well over a week.  Finally, I decided it was just what we needed.  

Today it got delivered!

This is a picture of our old dining set:

And now the new set:  (please excuse the poor color quality....the image was dark, so I tried to lighten it...)

Our old table and four of the chairs have been moved into the kitchen.  I removed the old, counter-height table and stools.  (They've been placed in the basement until I can decide what to do with them)  I'm really liking how well our old table fits in the kitchen!

(again, please excuse the wonky colors in this photo...I had to mess with the lightness in this one too...my camera wasn't wanting to take nice pics today...must check my automatic settings)