5.26.2011

Bad Week Turned Good?

I can hope so!  This week started off sooo stressful. 
A recap: I have a class for work to go to next week, and after popping extra money for deductibles and helping my parents out with fixing some of the house, I just don't have the money.  So Monday morning I send my boss an email to see if I can possibly push it out until I'm caught back up (and I explain to him the situation).  What response to I get "I understand, but if you were serious about this, you'd go anyway." 

Really??  That really ticked me off, and I've been stressed all week.  And I have to pay for the hotel for 4 nights, food and gas (and THEY are the ones that wanted me to do this class). 

So I decided I'm going to go ahead and go and use it as a mini vacation away from work!  So I'm off all next week! 

But....In my anger (not that it isn't new) I applied for 3 jobs on Monday night.  Yesterday I got a call back from one of them and I have an interview tomorrow.  In the perfect world, or at least the picture in my mind, I'll get a nice job offer on the spot, then instead of going for a class next week I can deliver my notice.  A girl can dream, can't she? 

As far as this whole losing weight thing, I am finally admitting to myself I've been cheating bigtime.  I think I'm going to just have to set weekly goals for staying OP and getting in some APs.  I get thrown off (obviously) if I take it more than one day at a time.  Good news, I did pick a hotel for next week that has an on-site gym, and people that stay there get a free membership to a local full gym as well.  And it has a kitchen so I can cook instead of eating out all week!  Go me!!

5.19.2011

Morning Workouts

I finally made myself go to the gym this morning at....5:45!!  And I felt great!  Sure I could have went back to bed after I fed the dogs for about an hour, but I knew I'd feel horrible if I did that, so I went to the gym.  I think if I can make myself get into a routine and do it 3-4 days/week for 2 or 3 weeks, I'll stick with it.  I loved it.  Only 3 people, including me in there and it wasn't too hot and gross yet.  I'm going to go again tomorrow!

5.16.2011

Amazing Weekend

This weekend was so absolutely amazing. 

Friday was pretty uneventful.  I did spend the evening running around town with my mom.  I love when we have time together like that.  She's my best friend and I love her.

Saturday was date day with the new boyfriend.  He planned the entire day, which I loved.  He lives out in the middle of nowhere but it's so peaceful.  He gave me a tour of his little town, we went to a cute Italian place (and I proceeded to eat way too much Chicken Parm).  But it was oh so good and so worth it.  We went bowling afterwards, so at least I worked off some of it!  And it was a competitive few games.  He's in a bowling league, so naturally he was good.  Someone that worked at the bowling alley challenged me to beat him, and I tried.  I actually played good for me.  I had scores of 85, 96 and 100.  Granted that doesn't come close to his 180, 222 and 211, but we had fun.

The best thing about living in southwest VA is the blue ridge parkway.  It is beautiful and so peaceful.  So we went for a ride on the parkway, just at the NC border (a portion I had never been).  He kept telling me that he was taking me to this place where he comes to just think sometimes.  It was a gorgeous overlook and you could see for miles and miles.  The downside was that it was cloudy and foggy, but on a nice hazy-free day, it would be magnificent.  You could see Mt. Airy, NC and Pilot Mountain, NC (for the geographically inclined).  It was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen and I totally know why he likes it there.  This was the point where he also confessed to me that he was falling hard.  That in itself is a huge thing to tell someone, especially when you've been hurt like he has in the past.  But it was a relief.  I had been feeling the same thing for a little over awhile, but I didn't want to rush saying it in fear of scaring him away.  So I was pleasantly surprised and beyond happy. 

There were also some high school kids there taking prom pictures, so that was cute to watch.  The only downside to this part was that I stood with my knees locked on accident for about 10 minutes.  I didn't realize I was doing it until they started hurting.  And when I went to bend them I almost fell. Not fun. Don't ever do that, it hurts like crazy.  It took a while for the stiffness to go away, and there is still a dull ache behind both knees.

After that we went to the movies to see Thor.  Which was great, by the way.  And I didn't give in by having theater food!  But this theater was seriously cold so I was freezing the entire time.  The good side to that was that we got a little cuddle time in :)

After the movie it was about 9:30.  I had been with him since 12:30.  We went back to his house and I had every intention of leaving by 10:30 (not because I don't love being with him, but because it was dark, rainy and where he lives there are nothing but curvy roads that I'm not familiar with.  That and I had been up since about 5 that morning, so I was slowly getting tired.

Well that didn't happen.  We just started talking and time seriously got away from me.  I didn't even look at my watch all night.  The next thing I knew it was about 1:30 am!?!  So I ended up staying at his house.  A little cuddling (too early for anything else) and I was out.  I have to say it was nice falling asleep in his arms feeling safe and happy.  Am I crazy for staying, probably, but I've never felt more comfortable with anyone, ever. 

There is definitely something different about this one.  Have you ever had the feeling that someone was "the one" after just a few weeks?  If you have, then you know I'm not crazy for thinking that.  I've never been able to just sit and talk with someone for hours at a time, and even when we're quiet it isn't an awkward silence.  It's still just as comfortable.  I can say without a doubt that I have already fallen in love with him and that is scary.  I had no intention of it happening so fast, but it isn't something you can fight.  And I know that if I did try to fight it, I'd screw up and ruin something.  So I'm going to let things happen as I feel them.  And yes you can call me crazy, but he is the one. I've never even had that feeling about someone else, no matter how long we were together. 

And now that I've made everyone nauseous with my gushy story, I'll get back to work!

5.12.2011

Frustrated...

With the Dalmatian Club of America parent club. 

A little background:
Dalmatians are the only breed known to have high uric acid values.  They are born that way, nothing to do about it.  This in turn causes an incidence of urate stones to be formed in some.  No not all produce stones or have blokages, but some do. 

In the 70's a breeder figured out a way to try to eliminate the gene for high uric acid.  He chose to breed a single female Dal to a male Pointer.  This started the backcross project.  Since then breeders have continued to breed this bloodline to AKC registered Dalmatians to continue to get the normal uric acid gene.  They are averaging about 50% of the normal gene in all of the descendents thus far. 

The frustration comes in that these backcross dogs can not be registered with AKC or be shown.  They have already proved genetically they are Dalmatians, but the people against it doesn't think there is enough science/proof behind the backcross dogs to allow them to be registered.

My opinion.  Let me breed/own/show whomever I want to, backcross or not.  No one should be able to tell me that if I want to continue showing in AKC sports that I can't use them.  I want to be able to.  It is personal for me.

I've had a 5 week old puppy block from a stone.  Luckily we were able to massage it out, but it was hearbreaking!  A puppy we sold to someone has had to take out loans on their house to pay for the dogs medical bills because he has blocked from stones and had to have multiple surgeries.

And then there is Marlin.  No he didn't pass from stone disease, he passed from Kidney Failure.  But for dals with the high uric acid gene you're always told to make sure they drink tons of water, so we did.  What is one of the signs of kidney failure, drinking tons of water.  We possibly could have caught his horrible disease if I didn't have to make sure he was drinking water so much.  Then I would have noticed more that his water intake was elevated. 

I just want to be able to own/use whomever I want in my breeding program without someone telling me that I can't.  The people who are against it, well we aren't telling you that you MUST use these dogs in your pedigree.  But we want to. 

I think that if I could do it over again, I would have stayed an Animal Science major and worked with genetics more.

5.05.2011

A Successful DCA

Although I couldn't go to the Dalmatian Club of America National Specialty this year, my puppy and dogs that came from some of my breedings did amazing!  Blake, the baby puppy, made the cut in all of his classes.  Which  is really good.  He just turned 6 months and he is learning and showing so well. 

Marlin kids did great!  He was well represented in the Top 20 and Breed and had a couple of kids win big.

The big win that our breeding program got was winning Best of Breed!!   Gabe (the winner) is out of Major and Minnie.  Major is out of Marlin!  Marlin and Minnie are half siblings, both out of Marin (dog breeding is very different from people breeding!)  Mom was actually the co-breeder of Gabe.

                                                                This is Gabe

He and Blake are full brothers, and are very similar in type.  I love getting good results when I can't be at a show. 

Everyone loved Blake (so I heard).  Apparently there was a handler that wanted to take him home with her.  No! I want my puppy back home.  Which will hopefully happen Saturday or Sunday.  I can't believe he's been gone a month!  I've missed him terribly!

5.04.2011

Ugh, Water Retention...

I seriously hate the fact that I feel so bloated during my period.  Put that on top of having a little too much salt yesterday=large gain this morning.  Up 6 pounds?  I know part of it is a true gain.  I haven't done the best this past week, at all and I was expecting to be up.  But not 6 pounds worth of crap.  I know most of it is coming from being bloaty and retaining water.  And I should see a loss next week. 

The old me would have freaked out about such a large number on the scale, but the new-ish me.  I know it will even out next week.  And I know I just need to work harder to lose the part I know was a real gain this week. 

I have got to start getting better at planning my meals.  Easy if I lived alone and cooked every meal for myself.  Hard when you live with your parents where one of them loves greasy southern foods.  Granted I do too, but it definitely isn't helping the weight loss.  That is why I've been cooking more :)  At first my dad would complain when he saw that instead of full fat milk I was using fat free to cook with.  But he learned that he can't taste the difference, and that I'm helping his health too (not that he has any weight to lose, but he still has cholesterol and his heart health to think about)!

The moral of this post...
1. Gains happen, even freakishly large ones.  It is ok and you can't let it get you down.
and
2. Meal planning is key to being successful.  If you have everything planned out you're less likely to eat crap.

5.02.2011

I like the way May is starting!

It is only two days in, but I'm totally loving how this month has started! 

Yesterday I had a lunch date with a new guy from match.com.  I've gotten pretty used to not really expecting much with my luck in dating the last couple years, so I figured I'd be gone a couple hours tops.  What I didn't expect was to be at Applebees for almost 6 hours just talking!  That has never happened to me before.  We never ran out of things to talk about.  The people at applebees probably thought we were nuts just sitting there, but it was amazing to have that connection.  We have a good bit in common, so that is a plus.  I can say I haven't been this excited about a new guy in a lonnggggg time! 

If you recall I made a list of goals I wanted to acheive in April here.  Well April was pretty much a huge fail in every aspect.  I went over budget more than I was under, I didn't start C25K or exercise regularly like I wanted.  I did get Blake semi-trained for the national, which is this week and I'm not there (but he is) because of the stupid tornado.  And I've fallen off the WW wagon a few times this month.

So I'm going to try the goal thing again, and really stick with it this month!

1. Stay on plan. That's pretty self explanatory.
2. Start keeping a better budget of everything, not just groceries.
3. Don't let work stress me out!
4. Start really studying for my series 7 license.  I have a week long class the first week of June, and I need to get my ass in gear!
5. Start exercising regularly again.  I felt so good when I was, then I just stopped. I've got to get back on that wagon!