jos·i·ol·ogy

Well, yesterday didn’t quite go as planned. Christina and I had planned to go to Zumba class at the gym yesterday morning at 8:30. She called Friday night to cancel, so I had a hard time finding the motivation to go by myself. I didn’t. We did, however, go work on the float…in the FREEZING RAIN. It was frigid. My hands were like ice because I didn’t have gloves. The girls were helping to begin with, but the longer we were there, the colder it got and we just had them go sit in the car with the heat on.

I was supposed to meet with Lynne afterwards to go walking (over the bridge!) but her plans didn’t quite work out the way she’d hoped, so we decided to reschedule. By the time we got home from the float the last thing I wanted to do was go back in that weather to walk, so I decided to go buy the Biggest Loser game for the Wii. HUGE mistake. What a waste of money! For starters, I was really wanting the Biggest Loser Strength Training Kit because it has the 4 lb dumbbells, jumprope, resistance band, etc all compatible with the Wii for 34.99. On the box, it says “Compatible with the following games: Biggest Loser, EA Active, Wii Fit”. So, I figured we’d get the Biggest Loser game since it would probably be a better match. $79 later we get it home and turned on and it was NOT what I was looking for AT ALL. For starters, there’s NO interaction at all with ANY of the items that came in the strength training kit. NONE. Yeah, you can jump with the jump rope, but there’s no part of the game or anything that will monitor your jumps, reps or anything. So, they’re useless! I mean, really! So, I tried giving the actual game a try and no, no, no, just no. My opinion is that it’s a glorified workout video. I could have bought a workout video for $20 if that’s what I wanted! The interaction was just non existent and the graphics were HORRENDOUS. I thought I was back in the Nintendo 64 days! So, I’m going to return it…I was thinking of getting the EA Active because it’s around $30 vs the Wii Fit being $100, but I’ve read a lot of bad reviews about its glitchiness. I guess you get what you pay for so we will probably just invest in the Wii Fit Plus afterall.

Well, we’re headed back out to work on the float again today. At least it’s not raining today. Still cold, but the rain and wind are what killed me yesterday.

Darren pleasantly surprised me with breakfast in bed this morning before work. I’m so grateful too, because if not for that I might still be in bed sleeping! I really, really didn’t want to get up and go to work this morning. Having the last four days off was just so splendid, like a mini-vacation. But alas, it’s back to reality today…and yes, I do have a case of the Mondays.

I loaded my new gym bag up with all my goodies (dumbbells, resistance bands, sneakers) and brought it to work with me today. I’d like to get in the routine of doing something on my lunch hour, whether it be doing the resistance bands, or just walking the stairs back and forth. Anything is better than nothing and if I want to win that fitness challenge I joined, I’d better really get my butt in gear. I’m also going to the gym tonight since I didn’t go this morning before work. I’m all fired up today, can you tell?

In other news, Marisa seems to have gotten a cold. She was so pitiful last night between her sniffles, sneezing, and hoarse voice, but she got up and went to school this morning. I hope she starts to feel better soon.

I’m gonna start doing research on gardening over the next couple of weeks. It’s something I’ve never done (never even had an interest in until now), but I’ve vowed to start one this year. I really hope I can do it because how cool would it be to just walk out back and pick some cucumbers when you need them? Or strawberries?

Well, I’d better go for now,

Whew. My house is almost back to pre-Christmas status. Almost. Still have to take down the outside stuff, but at least the inside has signs of normalcy again! It’s been a fairly uneventful weekend, even with the New Years holiday.

On New Year’s Eve we did a little shopping for a new camera bag. In case you didn’t know, last week we bought a new Nikon p90 with the Christmas money we got (YAY!) and since it was much bigger than our old Kodak a new bag was definitely in order. After that we ate dinner at the Waffle House and was home well before all the drunks were unleashed on the roads because none of us have a death wish.

Friday, I met up with Lynne at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office to weigh-in for a new challenge I’ve entered! It’s the Fitness Challenge put on by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office each year and runs for 12 weeks. There are individual prizes and team prizes; our team is called “Extreme Makeover – Booty Edition” and consists of me, Lynne, her mother, her aunt, and a co-worker of hers. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this and it really has me motivated to continue with my weight loss efforts. I weighed in at 231.4 (note – I weighed a few pounds lighter on my scale at home). We’ll see how it plays out in 12 weeks!

From there we went to McDonalds where we basically talked about the challenge and gave each other ideas for healthy snacks and stuff. Don’t worry, I just had the grilled chicken wrap with no cheese or sauce, a parfait, and a bottled water.

After that I headed home because we were to be at mom’s house at 3:00 for some good luck black eyed peas! and boy they were YUMMY! That night we watched the movie “Up” and OMG nobody warned me that I would need tissues within the first five minutes! Holy cow was it sad, or what?! Good movie, just not what I was expecting at all.

Yesterday I woke up completely motivated to take all our Christmas decor down, but spent most of the day on the computer and the Wii. Yeah, totally unproductive. I did finally start taking the tree down around 5:00. Seeing all the ornaments reminded me that I wanted to go to Hallmark to see if they had any of their character ornaments on sale so that’s where we went. Me and Marisa went to the mall and to the standalone Hallmark to see what they had on clearance…boy did we make out! I love character ornaments, and Hallmark’s are the best. They’re just too damned expensive for me to buy BEFORE Christmas so every year I go after and get the leftovers. Came home and finished taking the tree down.

Well, Darren just got home for dinner, so I’m gonna cut this short and then hopefully finish getting my house in order before work tomorrow. Oh and maybe we’ll watch Inglorious Basterds tonight!

Until tomorrow…

Today is New Year’s Eve and as such it’s only fitting for me to list some of the things I’d like to accomplish in the year to come.

• Lose 93 more pounds.
• Walk 500 miles (logging it here)
• Finish the C25K program
• Start riding my bike
• Not drink ANY soda
• Participate in (12) 5k races for the year (hopefully running at least one)
• Start a garden
• Sign up for karate (or another martial art if karate not available)
• Stay within my budget every month (using YNAB)
• Organize family reunion
• Read the entire Bible using this plan.

2009 was a trying year, so I’m excited for everything the new year will bring.

Until tomorrow…

I never quite know what to say when starting a journal or blog, so I think I’ll just start with a basic introduction. My name is Josie and I am a wife and mother of two charming daughters. I work full time for an engineering firm and for the most part, love my job. Our industry has really slowed down tremendously over the past couple of years thanks to the housing market crash, but we’re hanging in there – and thankfully, they’re hanging onto me.

My interests are varied, everything from the internet to photography, but what I love the most is just spending time with my family. My oldest daughter (Marisa) is 13 and the youngest (Madelyn) is 10. Where oh where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was a pimply faced 13 year old writing in my journal about all the perils of middle school. Now it’s my daughter doing it. I may not be 13 anymore (thankfully), but to be honest I’m still pimply faced and still writing…just from a different perspective now. I just had a thought. I’m going to be blogging about our daily lives and Marisa is keeping a journal about hers as well. Wouldn’t it be interesting to read them both five years from now? If for no other reason than to just compare the different perspectives on the same occurrences. Huh!

Well, the new year is upon us (2010) and I’ve been giving serious thought to the goals I’d like to accomplish in the next year. In the past, I’ve never really accomplished any of my resolutions before, but I’m a lot more disciplined now than I have been in years prior. I think blogging will help keep me accountable as it has with my weight loss. I’ll post my goals for 2010 tomorrow.

Feel free to comment or if you’re curious about anything, just ask. I try to be an open book (well, as open book as is reasonably safe to be online).

Until tomorrow…