So much to tell....

I cannot even believe all that has happened in the last few months. Sorry I have been so absent but Mr Mine and I bought a condo! And Mrs Bokeh had her baby! So it's been a couple months of chaos, flurries of paperwork, inspections, moving trucks, and many many car trips back and forth. I am happy to say that we are finally completely moved in to our new home. Settled in? Not quite, but it is slowly getting done. I'm hoping just a few more weeks and everything will have found a home. I plan on bringing you the full story soon. Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you!

all the best,
Jess

Not just the hair

For the past few weeks it seems as if everyone and their mother has commented on my haircut. Which by the way is the same haircut I have had since November. Only it grew out a bit and I just had it reshaped. 

No, no people, it's not just the haircut that you are reacting to. You're also reacting to the fact that I have lost 17.8 lbs since Martin Luther King Day. My face is thinner, I'm overall a lot leaner and THAT is why you currently are amazed at how awesome I look! Nope, definitely not just the haircut. 

But thanks for all the compliments just the same :) They really do make a girl's day! 

Curvily Yours: Secret Class

I took a secret dance class the other day. Just to see how my body would take it. The result? My body felt fantastic. My back groaned a little through all of the stretching but has felt absolutely fabulous since class. My biggest complaint once I stopped PT was that my back was always tight. It's amazing how much one class loosened me up. Ok, well MOST of my body felt fantastic after class. There was a little bit of a groin strain incident. But that was my own fault for just not acknowledging mentally how inflexible I have become. Thou shalt not try dropping into a split from a standing position if one has not done the splits in over 9 months.

So I survived class with flying colors. I mostly just warmed up and danced. No pole tricks at this time. I'm not planning on pushing my luck. I have an MRI scheduled for next wednesday to officially clear me ( I hope) to start taking classes again.  I know that my family is going to throw a fit about this, and I don't blame them. But I want to dance, need to dance and if I can completely bounce back from this injury I am damn well going to do it. It makes me happy and it keeps me fit both mentally and physically.

How do I know that my family is going to throw a fit? Well because they have already made their position quite clear on the issue of me being back to playing soccer. Yes soccer, I know I am probably crazy, but I'm not ready to stop playing yet. Although I know there will come a day when I decide, enough is enough when it comes to this sport. Dancing for the rest of my life is one thing, soccer, well, we'll see.

In the meantime I am enjoying the ability to move freely. To run and jump, to bend and twist all things that I definitely missed. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks to my Mom and Dad for my awesome V-Day Socks! Wish we were all together too! xo

Sloppy Joe Firsts

Today Mr Mine tried his first ever sloppy joes. I didn't realize this when I pulled this specific recipe out of our new light meals in a slow cooker book. But I was very excited for him once I found out. I loved sloppy joes as a kid. And probably haven't had one in years. Although he wasn't getting your everyday average Joes. He was getting a much healthier version, Turkey Joes. These were incredibly easy to make and once I pointed out the correct way to eat them (not with a fork and knife) he was in love.

Turkey Joes!

When in doubt find inspiration!

And just because we are on an inspirational track at the moment this also seems appropriate to share:



We CAN do it. And by it, I mean ANYTHING. I was having a really rough couple of weeks and when a friend shared this video it really hit home. Inspiration found! I hope this inspires you as much as it inspired me. People are pretty amazing. 

Heart's Desire

One of my cousin's shared this video on facebook today. I love the message. It speaks to my heart and what it has been trying to tell me the last few years. Or maybe even the last decade. Enjoy:



No matter what your job is this video tends to speak to your life. One of the commenters on the post wrote the following which also rang true to me:

"There is no happiness in pursuing a quest that matters not to ones true desires."

What are your desires? What would I do if money were no object? I'm still working on figuring my answers out. On initial response and much I am sure to my parents chagrin I would say. I want to be an artist, a photographer, a dancer. I do love designing, but it is definitely not something that comes easy to me.

So I have been working towards a few things. I signed up for an online photography course and I also signed up for a painting course. The photography course is all year, but the painting class starts this Saturday. I'm a little nervous. Last year Mrs Bokeh and I took a 3 hour painting class and while it was fun, I found that I was berating myself over technique and lack of abilities most of the class. Which made it a lot less enjoyable for me. I think that my expectations are way to high so I am also trying to work on that. Since talent takes time and patience to grow.

I also signed up for online photoshop, flash, and dreamweaver courses. I know photoshop pretty well, but there are always different ways to do things and so much to continually learn.

The other thing that I want to do this year are workshops and possibly conferences. I've found that my local camera store has a lot of workshops that happen pretty regularly and are not too pricey. And I was thinking about trying to attend the annual Adobe MAX Creativity Conference.

Chaos

One word today...Overwhelmed.

My mind and heart are whirling with the sheer gravity of the amount of stuff to DO. From the big stuff like finding property to buy and figuring out this whole trying to get pregnant thing to the little things like cleaning out my email inbox which has well over 6.8 gb in it. The apartment is completely trashed from having people over for the Superbowl (and there were only 2!), the cats puked on the new rug in the living room, the bedroom and hobby room are turning into chaos jungles, and I have a mountain of work to do.

I know that I should just take one step at a time and it will all eventually get done. But the chaos is driving me to madness. All my organization gets destroyed in minutes. Even when I think I have finally gotten the perfect solution, created the perfect tetris formation, thrown out enough of the excess junk. I just can't seem to do it all fast enough. It takes 24 hours for all my careful work to turn back into chaos. Ergo, Madness. Mounting frustration that just makes me want to kick and hit things. It's so hard to sit at my desk and tune all of it out so that I may actually get my work done. One of the reason I suppose why working from home is not always a blessing. I can't escape from all of this. And I can't take a break and do something about it all right now. Even though I know that doing so would improve my work efficiency. Since I would no longer be regularly distracted by the piles of clothes, miscellaneous boxes, stacks of books, and the massive amounts of odds and ends strewn helter-skelter everywhere.

I may just have to call a halt to all activities that do not include apartment rehab. My husband and I continually got tangled up in our own lives and ignore the place we are living. We both hate the chaos and it only makes us even more disagreeable the longer we let it go on. Lucky for him, he gets to leave the chaos and go to work.

I know there is a solution to this. I just don't seem to have the strength and energy that I know it will take to implement. Ok, now that I have take too much time to write about chaos, back to the work at hand. More work done = less stress. Hope you are having a less overwhelming day!

Burning Bowl Ceremony

My KTG girls and I have been talking for the past month or so about doing a ceremony or ritual to bring in the new year for our first gathering of the year. Something that would signify that we were ready to start anew. Since my apartment was already decorated for just such an occaission I volunteered to host our NewYears Gathering. I appreciate these women on so many levels. They never give up on me, are always there to lend support, and they are enabling me to become a better person.  A more complete and well rounded person. So I wanted to make sure that our new year cleansing meant something for all of us. I scoured the web searching for ceremonies and rituals and finally decided that a Burning Bowl Ceremony was the best choice for us.

The Ceremony consists of writing down regrets from the previous year. Things that you want to let go of and purge from your soul. Once written you can either tear up the paper and add it to a burning pyre or you can burn the full paper which is what we chose to do.

While you are burning your woes you read the following:

Ready! I release and let go, ready to make the most of this present moment.

As I reflect on the events of the past year, I recognize successes and failures, gains and losses. Each event has taught me something and made me wiser. Knowing this, I acknowledge and release the past year in gratitude.

In contemplation of the coming year, whether I am excited or apprehensive, I know [the spirit of God/the spirit of the universe/my spirit] will empower me to meet every situation with confidence and strength. With this in mind, I release any concerns I may have about the future.

Today I am ready to stand tall in this present moment. I appreciate the now, perfectly balanced between the blessings of the past and the promise of the future. This is the moment of power and action. I am ready!

I placed a glass contained candle inside a large beverage tub for the burning portion and had a glass of water on hand in case we had any incidents. But all went according to plan. As an added touch to close the ceremony we read the declaration together and then jointly blew out the candle. Short sweet and definitely to the point. Ready or not 2013 watch out here we come!

As per usual life got in the way for a good percentage of the girls, but the few of us that made it made the most of it. I can't wait to see what this year brings. I can feel it in my bones it's going to be a great one.

It Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Thursday, Oct 4, 2012
Fantasy Football, it makes the heart grow fonder. Mr Mine joined his first NFL Fantasy League at work this year. So to curb my jealousy at not being invited to join a league with him I decided to join my own league. It's been a little bit of a learning curve but I've been enjoying it. We've watched all of the games together this season so far so it's been some additional bonding time. Talking about players potential, who we have, who we wished we had. Where we are in our leagues, who we're playing against.

Now I was a fan before this, but I wasn't an avid watcher. I was more of a love my Steelers from afar kind of girl. I have my Terrible Towel, my Hines Ward jersey, and if I ever managed to catch a game I always cheered for them. I used to text my girls in Pittsburgh and OH/NC all the time during games. We'd moan about bad calls, cheer for the great plays, and groan over fumbles or turnovers. The texts for the most part have stopped. My gals now have babies, and one of them has brand new twins. So you can imagine that their plates are pretty full. I miss the days of Hines, Bettis, Parker, even Randle El. I don't know a lot about the new Steelers, but it's been an interesting season so far.

It took me a few weeks, but I moved from 9th out of 10 to 3rd out of 10. Wish me luck this week it's projected that I am going to get my butt kicked. I'm hoping that I still come out on top! I'm the only girl in my league and I plan on representing well :)

Honey Walks

Monday, Oct 1, 2012
Yay for evening walks with the Honey. I love that Mr Mine is home again. Although it has taken some getting used to for both of us. We got in a 3.1 mile walk tonight after dinner. Which is alot for us these days! I managed to get in a total of 8,202 steps today which is a record since I have been injured. I've been trying to strive for 5,000 steps for the past month but I only reached that goal six times in 30 days. Most days I got in only 2,500. So it was a good way to start off the month of October. I'm going to try to hit at least my 5,000 step goal every day this month. Which will be nice if it means that every night I get to walk with Mr Mine. I use a pedometer app called Accupedo Pro on my phone which counts my steps and then I also use the Runtastic app to double check how far I have gone. And then because I am a little crazy I triple check it by using the Gmap-Pedometer.

I Love Dress Fittings

Saturday, July 28, 2012

My dear friends Mr and Ms Verve are getting married. And I am so unbeliebably excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr and Ms Verve and I having breakfast on their back patio.

I love their story. You see, I inadvertently introduced them both at my Engagement Bonfire three years ago. They got engaged on August 20, 2011 which you can read more about here. I can't wait for them to start their Happily Ever After together!

Several months ago, Ms Verve asked me to be one of her bridesmaids and I was ecstatic to accept. I'm so proud to get to play an intimate part in such a special occassion for two of my fav people on the planet. As one of her maids it is my duty to help make sure that this wedding goes off without a hitch and the best way to start with that is, The Dress!

So today Ms Verve, Ms Zest (another one of the bridesmaids and my new partner in crime), Mrs Charm ( Ms Verve's darling of a mother) and I all headed to Bloomingdale's for Ms Verve's first dress fitting. It was the first time I was getting to see her dress and she looked lovely. It's a beautiful, elegant, totally made for her dress. I can't wait to see her on her wedding day when all the carefully, lovingly chosen pieces will come together. She is going to be exquisite.

Why such a small picture?
 It's all about the Tease :)

After the fitting we were all famished so we headed over to True Food Kitchen. I have been frequenting this place more and more often. You can't really go wrong with their menu. I ordered a set of the Edamame Dumplings for the table to share. The Roasted Corn pizza for my main meal and The Natural to wash it all down smooth.

The pizza was delicious and I don't think I will ever tire of the dumplings although I have learned the hard way that you should not keep them for a long time in a small enclosed space. (They may be delicious but they give off quite an overwhelming aroma!)

Catching Up

One of the people that I wanted to make sure that I saw while I was in MI was Mr Galley. My mother and Mr Galley used to work together teaching at a Special Education school. I used to go into work with my mom frequently and I'd always stop by to visit his room. In fact most of my teenage summers were spent at that school. I had a lot of good times helping my mom out with her gym and swim classes. Nothing like spending the summer in the pool, even if it was indoors.

Mr Galley and I

Mr Mine and I asked Mr Galley to officiate our wedding last year and he did an absolutely fantastic job. I wanted to let him know how much we appreciated him doing that. So Friday afternoon I headed over and had a lovely visit. It was extremely nice to sit and chat. Catching up on our traveling stories and comparing trip tickets. Thank you so much Mr Galley! We love you!

Unexpected Sister Time

Ms Bliss and I. Cheers!

I found myself with a fairly free evening on Thursday night. Mr Timbre was out for the evening and I was waiting on a lot of people to get back to me. When enexpectedly my Sis, Ms Bliss, called. She wanted to know how I was doing and when I told her of my waiting pattern she invited me over for dinner. Ms Bliss was also in MI this weekend. Her best friend Ms Carolina was getting married and my sister just happened to be her MOH.

So I headed over to join the bride and bridesmaids for a drink and some girl chat. It was fun hearing Ms Carolina's mother and mother-in-law tell the stories about how they heard of their daughter/son relationship. Too soon I needed to be on my way to my next engagment. Time to see The Pentagons!

Tickling the Ivories

I miss having a piano. When I was younger I took lessons for several years. I wasn't a very technical player, but I loved to figure out songs by ear. And most of the songs that I played were from memory. Now, it seems that everywhere I turn someone new is taking lessons and I am envious. So when staying at Mr Timbre’s house I took advantage of the chance to play his beautiful piano. I was chagrinned to realize that I have almost completely lost all of the pieces that I used to have memorized. I wonder if I can talk Mr Mine into us getting a piano....

Breakfast Reunion

My trip has yield just one botched things after another. First the Enterprise debacle and then I woke up this morning at 6:15 only to try to go back to sleep, and then was woken up again at 7 by my sister calling me because she wanted to read me her MOH speech. Exhausted as I was I ended up falling back asleep and either slept through my alarm or it just didn't go off. So I found myself staring at the time at 9:17am and thinking "oh f%#$" I was supposed to be at my good friends Mr & Mrs Green's at 9am! A flurry of text msgs and an hour later I finally found myself meeting their littlest, Brady, in his adorable rainbow skull pajamas.

Brady in his adorable skull pajamas.

It had been about three years since I last saw Mrs Green. She and I have been close friends since High school. We met at a mutual friend's birthday party and bonded over throwing popcorn in a theater at some rather inappropriate older men. Our friendship really solidified our freshman year in college where we were completely inseparable. To the point where we could have whole conversations without speaking and it drove our guy friends nuts.

Mrs Green and I on Spring Break 1998

We even took our Spring Break trip together in Florida. Where we actually froze our butts off because it was freezing the entire time we were there. We share a love of dance, superheros and fantasy novels. In college we used to rush home from class so that we were in time to watch Spiderman together. Of course it didn't hurt that we watched it with several cute boys from our "Brother" floor as well. Oh the memories. All of which were rehashed on our trip down memory lane portion of our conversation. Deciding it would be fun to go out and have some adult conversation as well as breakfast Mrs Green and I headed out to the nearest Coney Island. Where I learned about her participation in the 48 Hour Movie Challenge and more about the novel she just finished writing.

Mrs Green and I July, 2012

Yummy Breakfast! We split Blueberry Pancakes :)

Since we were reminiscing about the "old" days I mentioned looking at pictures and she whipped out her high school/college years photo album and I was surprised to find there were quite a few pictures in it that I had never seen before! I think I will be completing a whole post with just those in the next day or so. I hope that some day she gets around to scanning them because there were some priceless moments captured. When we got back to her house I had a surprise waiting for me. Her oldest, Caiden, had created a gift bag for me. What a clever boy, it was full of stickers, pirate accessories, a bookmark, and even a brand new pencil.

My Delightful Gift Bag :)

We rounded my visit off with me finally getting to see her wedding photos. Now she has been married since 2006 and I was actually IN her wedding party so it's pretty bad that I am just now getting to see these photos. But as I remembered she made a beautiful bride. I love this couple they are so much fun and both sweet, warm, considerate, caring people. I was sad to leave. But we left off vowing that we will stay in better touch than we have in the last few years. I look forward to my monthly update calls!! Thank you for my breakfast Mrs Green, your a peach! xoxo

Mrs Green and Brady

Mrs Green and Caiden

Mr Green and Brady

Mr & Mrs Green and Caiden

Memory Central

I was born and raised in Shelby Township, MI for the first 19 years of my life. Driving down the streets of my hometown after so many years has been both confusing (because a vast majority of my landmarks are gone) and emotional. I can't help but be flooded with memories. From silly ones like passing the McDonald's where I laugh snorted my first Shamrock Shake to my old neighborhood where my old house is now owned by complete strangers (which just feels..weird). Everywhere I turn there is some sort of memory, or there is something missing. The old Donut shop that used to make Hamburger and hotdog shaped donuts. I wish I had pictures, those things were amazing. The little white bridge in the sidewalk that I used to ride my bike over all the time. Even my elementary, junior high, and highschool all look different. So many changes have been wrought over the decade and a half that I have been gone. Fortunately a few things remain the same, the people I grew up with are mostly still here. It's been wonderful getting to see them and catching up on all that I have missed.

My first day here was a complete whirlwind with the little amount of sleep and the three hour time difference. Once out of the airport my friend Mr Timbre drove me to Enterprise to pick up my rental car. Or Not. Did you know that you can't rent a rental car from Enterprise with an out-of-state driver's license without using a major credit card? Neither did I. And since they failed to mention that was necessary when I booked the rental I failed to bring one with me. They also failed to rent me the car. Fortunately my friend Mr Timbre likes to live on the edge and offered to allow me to borrow his car, and he ended up renting the car for himself. Well since I plan on paying for it I guess I technically rented the car for him. :) It's all a bit complicated and the bottomline is my friends are awesome, and Enterprise at least in this instance, is not.

Ms Tink and I @ the Rochester Mills Beer Co.

We made dinner plans with our mutual friend Ms Tink and her new boyfriend Mr Auto. We ended up all running late but met up at the Rochester Mills Beer Co. Where we ate, drank, and played several games of pool. The food was pretty decent. I got the pulled pork sandwich with sweet potatoe fries. Yum and Yum! After our pool games we weren't quite ready for the evening to end so we walked up to the neighborhood Dairy Queen and enjoyed some old school Blizzards. I didn't realize they came in a mini size or I probably would have gotten a smaller size!

We rounded our evening off with stopping at the Paint Creek Tavern where our group enjoyed a last round of drinks before quitting time.

During our walk he couldn't help but notice the plethora of sheep statues in the downtown Rochester Hills area. It reminded me of the Parade of Cows that went on in Pittsburgh while I was still living there. In fact since Ms Tink liked how's so much I actually got her collectible replicas of the cows over several years for her birthdays.

TOP: Superhero Sheep, one of my favs  |  BOTTOM: DQ Blizzard!!

Ms Tink and I met in high school in a most random way. She was a sophomore and I was a Junior so we really hadn't had any classes together. Then one morning we were both at school early and the Seniors had release a bunch of mice into the commons area at school.  Seeing that they were obviously store bought I swooped one up and walked over to the nearest teacher with it. Once I got up close I realized that the girl the teacher was currently talking to was also holding a mouse. We both looked at the mouse the other was holding and just burst out laughing. I don't remember what happened to the mice, but our friendship was born in that moment.

Oddly enough even though Mr Timbre and I went to school together I never really knew him. I knew of him as he was dating a girl at the time that I took my Orchestra class with, but it wasn't until college when Ms Tink, Mrs Green and I were all suitemates that Mr Timbre came officially into my life. He and Ms Tink had become fast friends and as he's a very friendly and easy going guy he ended up extending that friendship to me. We've been friends ever since.

Once home we actually still had enough energy to watch an episode of Coupling and then headed to bed. Mr Mine was online so I got to stay up chatting with him for a while as well. All in all, a very long, but enjoyable first day :)

Happy Birthday Mr Mine!!

I absolutely adore this man! I love you Mr. Mine. Happy Happy Birthday!!! You are the light in my life, and keep me from the dark when all others go out! xoxo

Family Day P3: Picnic in the Park

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to pick up the cat food and then some Chili from one of our fav places, Tubs Chili. We then headed to one of our favorite little parks in Culver City for a picnic. There is nothing better than an afternoon reading in the park. I was looking forward to cracking open my latest acquired Diana Wynne Jones novel.

When we reached the park I was delighted to see that there was a vintage yard sale going on. We perused through their goodies and enjoyed some delicious tea. We even managed to find some great items for my Sis's new place! Including some great candlesticks which I chose to give her as a housewarming gift :)

Lean for Life: Weight Loss Phase Round 2

So today was my first day of Round 2. So far it is going well and I have been eating my meals on time. The first four days consist of all protein. This is to help jumpstart your metabolism. So starting at 8am and every 2 hours until 8pm I have a serving of protein. This can really be rough your first time around and I really don't recommend leaving the house on the first day if you can help it. So if you work all week then I would start on a weekend. If you do leave the house make sure that you pack several emergency snacks just in case you end up being out longer than you thought. I cannot tell you how many times this happened and I was grateful that I was prepared.

THE STATS
Current Weight: 173.9 lbs
Goal Weight: 145 lbs (They always tell you to dream big :)

Current Measurements:
Chest - 40.5"
Waist - 34.5"
Abdomen - 38.25"
Hips - 39"
Thigh - 25.5"
Total Inches: 177.75

And just to give you an idea of just how far I have come:
Chest - 41.5
Waist - 36.5
Abdomen - 41
Hips - 42
Thigh -27.25
Total Inches: 188.25

I've lost a total of 10.5" overall even with my accident. Sadly I was actually down another 6" before my accident, but I am determined that I will soon lose that again.

If you don't want visual scarring don't scroll down.....
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Here is what I look like on Day 1! Let's DO This!

Because it keeps me honest. Please notice my trusty shadow, always by my side.