Do you remember your first 4th of July?

I know someone who will this year.

This past week, I had the rare opportunity to attend a swearing-in ceremony for one of my co-workers who recently became an American citizen. It was a very exciting day - our entire department traveled to Memorial Auditorium and as we waited for the ceremony to begin, listened to the speaker go through each country represented that day and how many people from those countries were being sworn in. The countries with the most amount of people being sworn in were China, India and the biggest one we heard, Mexico, with 548 people being sworn in as citizens. The judge eventually arrived and as the ceremony progressed, all 1900 people stood and raised their right hands, vowing to stand up for this country if they were ever needed and pledging their allegiance. Once the swearing in was complete, everyone clapped and cheered, and some cried. It was quite an emotional day, but so wonderful at the same time. I never really thought about how lucky we really are, with all of our freedoms, until that day - these people came from all over the world to find a better life for themselves and their families, and this was the day that they were finally able to call themselves citizens. You couldn't help but feel happiness for every single one of them.

And we were most excited for Cam, who I'm sure will always remember this 4th of July: her first one as an American citizen.

After this week, I won't be taking my citizenship for granted anymore.

Note to self:

Don't work out after 8:00 at night.

We went to my mom's yesterday and didn't get home until around 7:45. I hadn't exercised yet, so since I was off today and wasn't planning on going to bed at my normal time, I decided to exercise at 8:30. I felt great afterwards (as I always do), but for some reason, I was more wired than usual. Maybe it was because I was excited about having another day off and getting to sleep in again - who knows? I didn't fall asleep until after midnight because I felt like I'd had 2 cups of coffee right before bed. There's nothing worse than not being able to fall asleep when you really, REALLY want to. So I flipped on the television for a little while until I got drowsy and finally fell asleep.

It might not be a bad idea for me to work out before I go to work: I could sure use that kind of energy first thing in the morning. Although in order to do that, I would have to get up at 4:45, and at this point, I'm just not that crazy/insane/demented (insert other adjective to describe crazy here).

Gettin' outta Dodge.

I guess even the sun decided to take advantage of the 3 day weekend and get out of town.








On the bright side, no need to water the plants today!

Battle at Cupcake Hill.

We celebrated a couple of events at work today (an engagement and someone passing an HR certification exam), and of course, there were cupcakes. Big, fat, delicious cupcakes from a little bakery that makes the most decadent baked goods ever. Up for the taking were triple chocolate, coconut lime, salty caramel, vanilla, and chocolate with marshmallow-y type cream on top coated with a hard chocolate shell.

And I did not eat one.

Everyone marveled at my self-discipline. But they had no idea of the battle going on inside my head. Anyone who's ever had a weight problem and conquered it knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Part of me couldn't help but think that I'm just one cupcake away from slipping right back into my old eating habits. I fear those little baked goodies because of what they do to the scale (and to me, of course). If I make an excuse every time I want to eat something like that ("Oh, it's just this one time"), then there will be no more self-discipline and I'll be back to eating everything in sight. I have to draw the line somewhere.

Then again, part of me (actually, MOST) was saying, "Oh, come on - it's ONE cupcake. It's not going to make you gain all of your weight back. Just eat it." That voice was really, REALLY loud today. Almost deafening.

I went back and forth for what seemed like forever before I finally decided that I didn't need the cupcake, no matter how delicious it smelled or looked. I wasn't going to let some flour and water tell ME what to do. Nobody and nothing can boss me around. And I walked away without looking back.

And now, 4 hours later, I'm glad I didn't eat one. I defeated my inner cupcake demon and came out victorious.

Today, when I got home, I enjoyed my little end-of-the-day piece of chocolate more than ever.

Let's dance!

I know it's just a TV show, but Scrubs just makes me so incredibly happy. This is one of my favorite clips of all time. I don't know how many of you are Scrubs fans, but I think you'll enjoy it anyway.

Whirlwind of a day.

Today was gone before I knew it. I had one of those days at work that felt like I was leaving right after I got there, but in reality, almost 9 hours had passed. And I enjoyed the time, too. Part of my job is to back up the person who conducts new hire orientation, and since she had a prior commitment today, I took over the task. I always enjoy meeting new employees and passing on my enthusiasm for the company to them. It's always fun meeting new people (remember, I'm a social butterfly now!), no matter if I'm at work or out and about, and today was no exception. Conducting orientation is kind of like my breath-of-fresh-air every now and again.

Now, let's hope the rest of the week goes like this and I'll be one happy camper.

A look back...and looking forward.

It takes a lot of courage to do what I'm about to do, but I think it's so amazing, that I have to show everyone.

This is what I looked like Christmas 2004:

I have seen this picture before, but I saw it again the other night after not seeing for awhile and stopped dead in my tracks. I could not believe that was me. I immediately felt so ashamed and disgusted with the old me: how could I do that to myself? How could I let my weight get so out of hand and not realize it? Everyone has their own mental image of how they look to the rest of the world, and this certainly was not how I pictured myself. All I kept hearing in my head was, "Who is that?"

The picture made me feel sad. I remember exactly what I was going through and how bad things were at that point in my life. All of those feelings came rushing back again, like a dam had broken in my head. After the sadness went away, pride swelled up inside me. Look at how far you've come, I told myself. Look at how much your life has changed since that picture was taken.

And it's true: my life has changed a lot. I've since disposed of 60 pounds of me that I will never see again. I've got a great job with a great company, and finally feel like I am where I'm supposed to be with my career. I'm incredibly outgoing and doing things the person in that picture never would have done. I'm pushing myself in ways I never imagined possible and excited about where I'm headed.

Old me, say hello to the new me:













At the risk of sounding cliche':
you've come a long way, baby.

I wish it were 1988.

And here's why:

R and I were watching Die Hard tonight (one of R's favorite movies), and there's a scene where one of the cops is at a gas station and the camera pans up to the price of gas, and here's the hard part:

It was 74 cents a gallon.

74 CENTS A GALLON.

I pointed at the TV with my mouth agape.

Those were the days!

I know it's wrong...

And a little weird...but I laughed and laughed when I saw these pictures:













I thought my cats were big, but Mr. Bojangles takes the cake (and the pie, and the cookies) on this one.

There's another picture that goes along with this one. Check out this link for more laughs and a little more grossness.

My black thumb is starting to turn green!

I bought some impatiens at OSH a couple of weekends ago, and so far, they look like this:




Not too bad considering I usually kill everything remotely plant-like. Hopefully I can keep them alive through the summer!


And this is a "mini" rose bush in front of our house that I need to trim back, but I won't do that until the winter:










After years and years of killing things, it's about time I figured out this whole gardening thing!

Someone's got a case of the Mondays!

What better way to start a Monday than your cat getting sick at 4am?

I'm not fond of Mondays at all. It is my least favorite day of the week, unless of course I'm on vacation, which means that the week is just getting started, and then I never want it to end.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in my dislike of Monday. But today was just yucky in general.

Which means tomorrow can only be better! And I've still got the entire evening to enjoy, which I plan on doing right now!

Happy Monday!

And I don't even like crab.

But it's sure fun watching them being caught.

We've been watching Deadliest Catch: Season 3 courtesy of Netflix, and if you've never watched it, nothing will make you appreciate your job more than watching these men out on a boat in the middle of the ocean in near freezing temperatures fishing for Alaskan king crab. These people are risking their lives just so John Doe can enjoy crab legs when he goes out to dinner. Mind you, the pay-off these men receive at the end of the season (depending on how much they've caught, of course) is staggering - we're talking a year's salary for most people in just a few days. Tempting as that sounds, I wouldn't do their jobs for any amount of money.

As awful as their jobs are, it's fascinating to watch the show. It's amazing how deadly their jobs really are - one small mistake and they could be thrown overboard. And, if you're not wearing the right clothing when that happens, there's only a few minutes standing between you and an icy death. Scary. But, the people on the show are a lot of fun to watch and make it seem so easy (sometimes). We personally favor the Northwestern over any of the other boats (go Sig!).

So if you get a chance, tune into the Discovery Channel and take a peek at this show. It'll make you look at seafood a lot differently. And, if you're me, it will make you want to watch The Perfect Storm again.

If my feet could speak, they'd be saying four letter words right now.

I wore these shoes today:












Super cute, but super PAINFUL. I'm doing a 6 mile walk tomorrow and it should be AWESOME with the blisters I now have thanks to these.

But, I got tons of compliments on them and I love them. So it was all worth it. And I will definitely be wearing them again very soon. Thank goodness I have a desk job!

Really, America?

Isn't this an oxymoron?














R said he saw this book at the bookstore the other day. I laughed like a hyena when he told me. What is this world coming to??