Four

Well, I was really hoping that today I could hop online and write a really great post about how I joined a new gym a month ago, have worked out a ton and lost a bunch of weight. But, I can't.

I did join a new gym. We canceled our membership at my beloved 24 Hour Fitness because it was just too far away from home. It took probably around 30-40 minutes extra just to drive there and back. Since I'm on puppy duty because Zach works nights, I have to be home to patrol the house and really hate to coop the dogs up for too long after they've been in their rooms all day while I'm at work. So that extra 30-40 minutes is precious time! We joined Snap 24/7 Fitness, which is a really small gym located about 2 minutes down the road from me. I was pretty nervous about the smallness factor, but it hasn't proven to be an issue. They have all my cardio equipment, all the weight machines I use and plenty of room to do my abs and whatnot. It's been good.

I've been working out anywhere from 5-6 times a week now (except for last week, but I had a medical reason for not working out 2 days...perhaps I'll share more about that later). My workouts are more intense and longer now that I have more time to dedicate to them. I'm loving it!! I feel like I have more energy and I am excited to go to the gym again. I even get up at the ass crack of dawn a couple times a week to go in the morning if I have stuff to get done at night. It's been wonderful!!

I'd been putting off getting on the scale since I wanted to give myself plenty of time for everything to kick in. I just stepped off the scale.... and I've gained 4 pounds. FOUR POUNDS!! I actually had to stop myself from picking up the scale and throwing it against the wall. Now I just want to cry. I know four pounds doesn't sound like a whole heck of a lot, but when I wanted to lose 10 to begin with, that extra 4 just really makes me angry. Yes, yes, I know... lots of things could be to blame for the 4 pounds... I am a bit bloated, I had a larger lunch, muscle weighs more than fat...whatever, whatever.

I'm getting to be BEYOND frustrated with this. I guess it all comes down to diet. I feel like a broken record, but I've really been eating a LOT better than I was a year or so ago. All I can think of is genetics, getting older and my metabolism completely dropping off. I swear, I turned 27 and my body has not been the same ever since. I've been fighting this uphill battle for over a year now and I'm about at my wits end. I'll keep up the workouts, try to step them up a little bit even. Then I guess I really need to figure out what I can and cannot eat. (suggestions welcome... please and thank you)

I leave for Chicago in about 2 weeks. If I'm not at least 5 pounds lighter by then I might very well go off the deep end.

I have a feeling my weekly fitness updates are about to make their glorious return. I might even throw in some food stuff to boot.

Onward....

Next thing you know, we'll be driving a mini van

Zach and I became true grown-ups today. We signed up for a Costco membership. I have to throw a shower for a co-worker next week and of course, Costco cake was requested (it's the bees knees). At first I was like "pshaw! ya'll can eat HyVee cake!". Then I looked up exactly how much HyVee cake cost compared to Costco cake and the difference was quite amazing. After a quick look through the Costco website, I asked Zach if he thought maybe we could join. It was $50 to join and surely we could use up $50 worth of paper towels and napkins in a years time, or at least be set for the next 9, so we made the trek to Independence this afternoon and pledged our loyalty to Costco land.

That place was a zoo! We took our time and tried to go up and down every aisle, just so we are more prepared for our next excursion. It's pretty alright. Some things are pretty great (two blocks of Velveeta for $7.50?! SOLD!) and some things aren't so great (cat litter for $15?! Wal-Mart wins there). And then some things were just plain stupid (giant, and I mean GIANT can of olives anyone?). We ended up with a case of Fat Tire beer, the worlds largest package of paper towels, economy sized box of Fiber One bars for Zach(which taunt me with their deliciousness, yet I feel like death warmed over if I so much as have a single bite), large package of napkins, big ol' box of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches and of course...two blocks of Velveeta. Hey! It's football season! ROTEL ANYONE?!

I also enjoyed all the free samples! Yum! Now I'm just trying to come up with any excuse I can to buy a huge box of jumbo sized delicious looking cupcakes! Mmmmm... Cupcakes. Oooh and maybe one of those ginormous chocolate cakes! Yes! Oh and next time maybe we'll get a oversized bottle of vodka. Just because we can.

The rest of the day I spent moping around the house. I was in a bummed out mood all day. No reason, just had one of those days where I couldn't snap out of a funk. Poor Zach. He put up with a lot of poo today. Sorry Zach! I tried to cheer myself up wit a short nap, but the pooches quickly crashed that party. Hey look! We really do make our bed! And yeah, I'm totally wearing socks with shorts in August. My feet were cold!

Lake Dogs

Friday was the big lake trip. We knew it was either going to be a lot of fun, or a total catastrophe. As it turns out, we all ended up having a great time. We left early on Friday to go meet my Dad, brother Vince and his girlfriend Sheena who had been down since Thursday morning. My Mom was going to be driving down that evening after work. After some masterful car arranging we were on our way!

Most of the ride down there the dogs were up and at em. They were pretty excited, that's for sure. Ted likes to try to get in the front seat on every car trip, it's like a big contest for him or something. He tries like the dickens, but will usually settle to just rest his head on your arm over the center console. After about 2/3 of the trip down had gone by, they finally decided to lay down and enjoy the ride.

Missy made herself at home on her blue pillow in the back. I don't think she slept a single wink on the way down. She's always looking straight ahead, a perfect little navigator!


This is Ted all smooshed up against the back of my seat. He finally got tired and fell asleep with his head in the cubby hole of the door. He sleeps in the most bizarre positions. It always cracks us up.
Finally! At the lake! I kind of forgot to take pictures until the second day we were down there. We had a little too much F-U-N on Friday. I forgot that I'm no longer 21 and that laying out in the blazing sun drinking all day and eating everything in my path might not be the best way to go about a vacation. I definitely ended up paying for that one at about 2am... But we had a blast. Everyone got pretty tipsy. I will just go ahead and file all of those conversations in the back of my head for a day that I need a good laugh. Ha! Fun times with the fam!

Missy just LOVES the lake. LOVES it! This is her begging at the gate to go on a walk. There's a lot to smell and see at the lake, so we went on lots of walks! I had a little incident after one of our walks. Turns out those were NOT flecks of dirt on my legs....oh no... They were tons (TONS) of BABY SPIDERS!!! Holy freakout. It was not a fun time for anyone involved in this discovery of mine. I hope Missy enjoyed that walk. That's all I gots to say about that.

Ted was prefectly content to chill out on the deck with us for most of the time. He's a very alert dog. Always checking things out, watching over everyone. Occasionally barking at my dad. Here he is overseeing the removal of the boat from the lake.

Missy went on a morning walk/swim with Grandma on Saturday. Missy loves to swim. She'll just paddle right on out there. Of course, I'm a nervous nellie and won't let her swim without her leash on. No fun, I tell ya! She still enjoyed herself. Ted on the other hand.... Well, not so much. On Friday he decided to come see me out on the dock. As he got to me he tried to turn around to make sure Zach was close behind. You see, Ted doesn't quite know how big he is... As he turned around his two back legs missed the dock and he pretty much back flipped into the water. You think my freakout about the spiders was bad? Oh that was nothing compared to seeing my baby puppy flailing around in the lake! I made Vince jump in to rescue him, since he is a fireman and all, it's his job to save people and animals, right?! Ted put up a bit of a fight but was soon back on dry land. His little heart was racing a mile a minute, but he was alright. Something tells me he won't be the swimming type of dog after that.

Oh look, it's Missy begging for another walk.

Ted was pretty wiped out the second day. Here he is catching some Zzzz's after breakfast.

Since I wasn't feeling so hot in the morning and it looked like it was going to be a steamy/windy day, we decided to head back fairly soon on Saturday. The dogs were absolutely exhausted!! Ted fell asleep before we even turned car on. He slept like this almost the whole way home. I guess he was comfortable??

As usual, Missy tried to fight sleep and help me navigate for a lot of the ride home. She didn't do too good of a job though and eventually passed out with her head propped up on the folded down seat back. Too cute!
And finally, she decided she needed to get some real snoozing in, so she decided to up the cutenss factor and cuddle up with Ted. Everyone all together now... Awwwwww!!
So there it is. We had a great time! Can't wait to go back next year!

Puppy Tails - Ted is 19 Weeks Old!

Ted is 19 weeks old now. He'll be 20 weeks on Thursday. Time sure does fly. He's certainly not having any trouble in the growing department. He's spouting right up. However, like we always figured would happen, we hardly notice. Sure there are days where he stumbles out of his kennel in the morning and I think to myself "hum, looks a little bigger today." But mostly we have to go by other peoples reactions, which are really funny. He's quite the showstopper! I also (clearly) try to take as many pictures as possible. Here are a few!

It took him a while to figure out how to get up on the bed. Sometimes he still mis-fires and only gets his front half up there, which is hilarious, but whenever he actually heave-ho's his whole body on to the bed it's like he's discovered the worlds largest dog bed and he is happy as a clam. We always said we'd have a "no dogs on the bed" rule. Yeah. That didn't last long. We only have ourselves to blame.
That's his "woobie" by the way. It's a little cloth toy that we took up to him when he was 4 weeks old and still too young to come home. We though it would be nice for him to get it all mucked up with his fellow puppy smells and the scent of his mom and dad, then bring it with him when he came home for something familiar. He loves that thing. He only gets it in the kennel because Missy would destroy it in a second. Every time he comes out of his kennel, he grabs it quick and prances around with it like it's the best toy in the world. All I have to say is "do you gots your wooooobieeee" and he prances like he's never pranced before. I should try to get it on video. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

Look at that face. I mean, seriously! It kills me!

I got this one after getting ready on Sunday. He totally made himself at home and snuggled right up with one of Zach's t-shirts. Really, it was pretty dang cute.
This oneshows just how much bigger he is than Missy now. She can walk under him and barely skim his belly.
This is his "stop taking pictures and give me an ice cube from that there freezer" look.
Since Ted still stays in his (super large) kennel (that's in my DINING ROOM) *grumble grumble* Missy gets bed time all to herself. All I have to do is say "Missy, I'm going to bed." and she grabs her toy of the day and runs up onto the bed. Sometime she really likes to push the envelope... like this night. S-P-O-I-L-E-D. She's still my baby though. I love Ted to bits, but Missy is "My" dog. She's the best sunggle bug while Zach is working late. I love her.
Look! Its the ever elusive George! Poor George. He doesn't get near the attention that he deserves, but I think he's quite content to sleep on the kitchen chairs all day until it's time to move to under the bed. This is his "don't eff with me lady" look.
This coming weekend we are taking both dogs to the lake. It will either be crazy fun, or a total disaster. Stay tuned for that one...