Today shouldn't even count.

Day 6 was basically the ultimate fail.  However, Anne made delicious macaroni with veggies that I need the recipe for.  Because I also need to learn how to cook.  I hear it's the way to a man's heart.

I camped for a night, went to the beach, came home, saw Anne...and after babysitting tomorrow, I finally get to go to Misquamicut.  Is this that "social life" thing I hear people talking about?  Because I like it.

Day 4, and today makes 5.

Well, 2 more parties plus going to the fireworks did not work out well as far as diet and exercise go.  Today is babysitting followed by camping, and of course, I forgot my sneakers so I can't go running at the campground tomorrow.  I'll try to swim in the ocean a bit tomorrow, since I plan on spending the entire afternoon at the beach, (I'm not babysitting tomorrow.)  Hopefully Wednesday, I can get back on track.  My family keeps telling me I look great, but I haven't lost any weight at all.  I'm not trying hard enough, I know. 

I'm so scared to camp tonight, seeing as we're supposed to get some storms, but hopefully we can survive. 

Day 3

Short & sweet because my busy weekend continues...

I pretty much ate what I wanted to at the parties last night, but I don't think I went overboard.  I need to start paying closer attention, because in general I've been eating a lot less than usual, so what used to be "normal" for me now makes me feel kind of sick, because it's just too much.

Before I left, I swam in the pool for about half an hour.  Not of Olympic proportions...but just something to keep moving.  Since it was so nice out, with the radio on and just swimming, time went by faster than I thought it would. 

Today is two more parties-my cousin's son's Christening, then another grad party, and possibly fireworks tonight if the rain holds off.  Part of me want to just count walking to the beach for fireworks as my workout...

Dayyyyy 2...and an Epic Cake.

Today's exercising plan was a fail...but today, in general, was not.

If we're talking about the whole diet/exercise thing, I did not get around to it today, because I went to East Longmeadow, MA, to visit Jimbo!  I didn't eat much today...low fat waffles for breakfast, chicken for lunch, and pizza for dinner, but I think I stayed within my calorie limit, even if I over estimate the amount of pizza I ate...which was a lot.

The reason I ate so much...I was thoroughly exhausted and starving from an 8 hour cake making marathon.  Jim is really into the whole Cake Boss style of cake making, and it's amazing, to say the least.  I tried to document the process, maybe not as well as I could have, but here's the pictures I did take...

Since it's my Dad's 50th birthday, and Emily's 18th birthday party extravaganza tomorrow, Jim decided we should make a cake for them.  After some hemming and hawing, we decided a Mets cake with a baseball field was a good idea.  We googled the logo, Citi Field, and recipes for cake batter, fondant, and frosting.  Yes.  All home made.  Ridiculous.




There are 3 cakes total...a sheet cake for the base, and two round cakes for the Mets logo.  After we baked and iced the cakes, we put fondant over them, and constructed a baseball diamond for the base cake.  That was the easy part...

The Mets logo was pretty ridic.  Jim was pretty much all in charge of that one, him being the more creative/patient/skilled/artistic one out of the two of us.  Everything here is fondant as well, and Jim painted the skyline with blue food coloring to get the darker shades, and the shadows.

We added the Citi Field sign to the front of the cake, along with the tall arched windows.  I actually was able to help with that part, because I figured I couldn't screw it up too badly....

8 hours later, at about 9 pm, we finally finished the cake.  My parents and sister love it, and my mom wants to have Jim make my sister's graduation cake.  It is seriously once of the coolest things I have ever seen.  Now that I know how to make all of the icing and fondant, and have a pretty good home made cake recipe, maybe I'll try it myself sometime...

Tomorrow, I need to work out.  Brett's grad party, plus the birthday party, then back to Brett's.  So excited :)

Day 1.

Last night and today was Day 1 of my new attempt at eating healthier and working out.  This is a process that I've started again and again, but lately, I've been doing a bit better. 

It does not help in the least that I am incredibly lazy.  I always have been.  Since I was little, as in like, able to speak, I've complained about walking, and I've enjoyed taking naps.  I'm just trying to walk a little more, and nap a little less.

Last night I went running, legit running, for the first time in ages.  I've been doing the treadmill, elliptical, and track since getting out of school, but it's not the same as running on pavement, outside, even just around my neighborhood.  I survived, and avoided the skunks.

Today was a lazy day for me.  Even worse than usual...it's the first day that I've had nothing to do since being home, (it's been a week, and I've either babysat or gone out every single day.  It's been wonderful.)  However, I did start to plan out my little health kick.  I started by creating a SparkPeople account, thanks to KP's suggestion.  I like it mostly because I just write what I eat, and the calories either pop up, (for stuff like fruit and veggies) or I type it in, (for brand-specific stuff that they don't have automatically) and it adds it up for me, and tells me how many calories I have left for the day.  Yes, I could do this myself, but I hate math.  Even addition.  So this is nice.  I kept thinking I was going to run again today, but the heat was just too much.  I did 30 Day Shred in the A/C, which was a much better idea.

The true test is going to be this weekend.  3 parties, and that means a lot of food.  I'm going to compensate by working out in the morning before the parties start, and eat what I want, just in smaller portions.  We'll see if this works.

I'm contemplating buying a gym membership, but I really don't want to waste the $100 if I'm okay with Jillian Michaels DVD, On Demand workouts, and running around the neighborhood.  All I want to do right now is eat, because I'm so used to snacking when I'm bored, but I'm not really hungry.  I just need to teach myself that. 


My goals right now are these:
In one month, (July 24th) I would like to be down 10 pounds.  I haven't weighed myself yet...I'll save that for tomorrow morning.  (Although I hate the new scale my mom bought, it's not digital, the numbers go up in 20s, and the lines in between are so small, I can't really see what I am.)  I'm not putting a major goal up yet because once school starts, I'm going to have to really plan out my work outs, I won't be able to just up and go whenever I want, like I can now.
I should be working out at least 4 times a week.  AT LEAST.  I could probably do 6 days a week, and rest on a day that I'm really busy or tired, but we're starting small here.  I've already done Wednesday and Thursday, so I'll be fine for now.
Track my calories and stay in my limit.  Pretty easy.

I'm feeling pretty good right now.  I hope this keeps up.

This is nothing new.

If I've said it once, I've said it a THOUSAND times.  But tomorrow starts a healthier diet, and back to working out.  I've read in about a million places that you should write this stuff down...so I'm gonna blog about it.  Lucky YOU!! :)

You got me feeling like a kid.

I realized how long it's been since I went on a rant/tangent about my life.  Ya know, old school style.  It's been so long.  So what's going on?

I've been home since Thursday night, and I've already had a fantastic half a week.  Keys to the City with Dana was definitely fun...and my wallet can handle it.  I'm thinking of going every Thursday that I can.  Friday, Emily graduated, and it was a Staven reunion and a half.  After waiting in traffic since 5:20 pm, I got to the high school at 6 pm.  (I live legit 4 minutes from EHHS.)  We went to dinner with both of my grandmas, and I'm pretty sure everybody in the restaurant was probably glad we left, since we were teasing and arguing with each other the entire time.  I then proceeded to go to Ricky's house, where I saw Paul and Vinny for the first time in four years...
Anne's baby shower was adorable, and seeing the boys later on that night was fantastic.  I saw Ricky AGAIN last night, (can you say old school?) and I'm seeing Gina tonight.  I love being home.  I forgot what having a social life was like...being at Norwegian Wood and sitting in my apartment at 10 pm by myself isn't really a blast. 
Hourigan liked to point out that when I'm in East Haven, I complain that I'm not in Storrs, and when I'm there, I complain about not being home.  I think I'm finally figuring out that I can love both places, and can love being there when it's time to be there...if that makes any sense whatsoever.  Now, it's time to be home, and I definitely love being here.
It's now time for the portion of the rant that's kind of ambiguous.  I told you this was going to be old school.  And the baby is napping, so I need something to do. 
(Side note, I say baby, but Grace is 4 years old now.  FOUR.  WTF.  I've watched her every summer since she was four MONTHS.  Ridic.)
This is the first summer in two years that I have been single.  It's a little weird.  I mean...not really, seeing as I've spent every other summer of my life single.  It's just different.  My way of thinking is different, my plans are different, it's much easier to go and do whatever I want without having to check with another person to see if they want to do it too.  It's pretty fab.
The only thing is...it's so strange.  Half of me really likes this, and the other half wishes I had somebody.  Specifically...honestly, nobody specifically.  Mostly because I'm dumb.  My favorite movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, puts it perfectly..."Why do I fall in love with every (man) I see who shows me the least bit of attention?"  I don't know if anybody truly knows what an attention whore I am.  Maybe you all do.  Maybe I don't try to hide it, or do a terrible job trying to hide it.  But now it's out in the open anyway.  I think my main goal this summer is to just go out and have the most fun I can in the next two months.  Two months to be away from UConn and all of it's drama, (seriously, you think there's East Haven drama?  It can be child's play compared to a month of UConn B.S.) and just completely enjoy myself.  I think I'm doing pretty well now.  Let's just keep it going.

My goals for the next few weeks are simple:  work out, play trumpet, go to the beach, (does that count as a goal?) pay my bills for June, (if I can ever figure out how much I owe CL&P, I thought online bill paying was supposed to make things easier) and then promptly buy a ticket to see DMB at Citi Field.  Omgcan'twait.

I have the best job in the whole world :)

Hello, how are you doing today? I hope I find you feeling healthy.

Pretty much everything I need for the summer is packed and ready to go.  One more day in the office and then I'm donezo.  I could not be happier.

I want to be home, because being home means:
-Having a routine again
-Babysitting
-Beach
-Making money
-Anne, Gina, Joey, Neil, Brett, Ricky, and soon (!!), KP.
-Pool
-Perhaps regaining some sanity by not being in the music building every day.  I know you are probably thinking..."she had sanity to begin with?" but I've found that being home, I am much more relaxed.  UConn makes me stressed by being in close proximity.

I'm getting my mojo back.

Sunshine on my shoulder, makes me happy.

So it's been a month and a half since I've written anything.  Cool.

+ Saw Hourigan, Link x2, Jimbo, Will, and Cori this weekend...along with half of the UCMB.
-/+ Went out to eat like, legit 4 times. No bueno for that whole healthy eating/not spending money thing...but delicious.
+ The sun finally decided to come out today.  My tan was suffering.
+ Last few days of work in the band office.  It was fine, and I love my apartment, but I hate being away from my pool, the beach, civilization in general... (I'm completely spoiled by my suburban life style.)
+ DMB in Massachusetts.  In the pavilion.  495734x better than the lawn.
++ Had a two hour lesson last week that I did not completely fail at.  For the most part, I kind of owned it.  (We're not going to talk about the Kennan.)  Carnival of Venice, one night only on October 22nd...
- KP is still in Oregon...but I made her a mixed CD to send her!! :)

All in all, summer is okay.  If the weather would actually be warm, that would be great.  90 degree days in April, during classes, do me no good...kinda like these 65 degree rainy days in June.  What gives?

Potentially, this summer means one more night of DMB, the beach, actually making money, getting in shape, playing trumpet a lot, casino trips...let's make it happen.