dieting progress

i have found the best way to lose weight fast. simply don't eat. it may seem a little hard, but i found a way to overcome the hunger. get influenza. if you feel so bad that you don't want to get out of bed, then you won't feel like getting up to fix something. it works best if your husband feels the same way so he won't be tempted to wait on you. an even quicker and more miserable way is to have a stomach bug so you throw up anything that you found the strength to eat, but i haven't done that this time. i have lost almost half an inch around my belly since sunday. this diet really works!

giant elbows and and a tiny bladder

i had too much water last night before going to bed. that doesn't usually matter though. as long as i'm asleep, i can wait til morning to empty my bladder. if i wake up though, i can't go back to sleep until i relieve myself. unfortunately, JJ kept having dreams about sticking his elbows in my face, so i kept waking up. so, i'd crawl over him, drag myself to the bathroom, do my business, crawl back over him, then attempt to roll him over to the other side of the bed. have you ever tried to roll a sleeping 300lb man over? i'd fally back asleep eventually, the a couple hours later, we'd start the process all over again. he's hunting for the rest of the afternoon, so i'm going to take up the whole bed and take a nap.

holy crap!

so in the past few weeks, 4 of mine and jj's good friends (3 of which were in our wedding) have revealed that they're pregnant. it's freaking me out. i am being super careful about the birth control, let me tell you. i am very excited for all of them.

in other good news, another two good friends have been looking for jobs for at least 6 months. they have both found one in the past month.

this is a month of blessings i guess.

the past couple days have been pretty crazy for me. not because they've been busy, because they haven't. it's actually because i've been stuck at home all day long by myself w/o my car (it's in the shop getting the squeaky ball joints replaced, praise God!). the nice thing about is that i've just been super lazy for once and have done almost nothing productive... okay, absolutely nothing productive. it's good to have those days once in a while. today i have to make up for it though and clean this house.

it hasn't all been that wonderful though. yesterday i was followed around by this giant, freaky-looking creepy crawler in my house. i've never been so freaked out by a bug before. in fact, bugs usually don't bother me at all. if they're in the way, i'll scoop them up with a piece of paper or something and take them outside to let them free. i eat bugs when it suits the occasion. when i was younger i would play with them. when i found out that the crickets with the stick coming out their butt are females and the stick is how they lay their eggs, i just had to find out what would happen if i broke the stick off. all that to say, i'm not afraid of bugs. yesterday was a different story. i found a 2 inch spider looking thing on my wall. i thought it was a spider at first, but when i got close to it, it jumped out towards me. i screamed like a little girl. then i noticed that the front legs were actually antennae and the body looked like a cricket/flea. i was terrified of this bug. it followed me around the house too. if i got up from the couch, it followed. if i went to the chair, it followed. i tried several times to trap it with a cup, but every time i got close it jumped towards me and i screamed bloody murder and jumped onto the couch. i finally decided to find out what it was. when i started searching on the internet, the bug started freaking out and jumping towards and around me and the internet stopped working. i dropped the computer on the floor and ran across the house and jumped into my bed. i finally worked up the courage to get my computer again and took it to the bed. i looked for quite a while and finally came across this.

it's called a camel cricket or a cave cricket. they are harmless. i wish i had known that about 5 hours earlier. wikipedia said this about them: Given their limited vision, cave crickets will often jump towards any perceived threat in an attempt to frighten it away. (you better believe it!) Their large hind legs allow them to jump high and far. Their long legs have caused them to be more commonly referred to as "sprickets" or "spickets", a blending of "spiders" (whose legs they resemble) and "crickets".

so, i have a spricket in my house. there is a much smaller one in the bathroom too. it's not quite as intimidating. that's what i dealt with yesterday. and I'M going to be a missionary? God's going to have so much fun with me someday.

the stork is everywhere lately!

i've been thinking about one of my dearest friends a lot lately. she lives far away, so i haven't gotten to see her in a long time, but i think about her a lot. the other day i had a feeling that i needed to call her because she might be pregnant. i thought, how silly, then i got distracted, so i never called her. well, yesterday, she called me and guess what she had to tell me... she's pregnant! i'm so excited for her. she's going to be such a great mom. she said she goes from being excited and happy to freaking out and scared a lot. gosh i miss her. i wish i could be there with her as she goes through all the exciting and not so exciting changes. i think i might have to save up so i can go visit when she has the baby. i can't wait!

Ahhh... :-)

So, we found our new vacation spot - Hot Springs. We stayed at the Arlington Hotel. This place was like stying in a History Museum. It wasn't quite as luxurious as I thought it would be, but the history of it was exciting. Several Presidents have stayed there for their spa getaways. The coolest thing for me was staying a few rooms down from where Al Capone stayed several weeks out of the year. He would come for the great spas and the gambling.

Speaking of spas... We had a wonderfully relaxing experience at the Arlington Spa. We had a Hot Springs mineral water bath, sauna, body wrap, and massage. It was beautiful. I was worried that JJ might not like it since he hates lotion and being hot. But he liked it.

There were quite a few museums that we look forward to trying out next time. We did get to go to the Mid America Science Museum. JJ was excited about that because they had a Tesla coil (it's an electrical thing).

We wanted to see some gardens, but we got there too late, so we'll be seeing that next time too. The drive to Hot Springs and around the area was gorgeous, so we weren't too disappointed that we missed it.

We did have one big disappointment though. JJ decided he wanted to go to Murfreesboro and mine for diamonds since it was only an hour away. But, we were running low on time, so we found a crystal mine that was a lot closer. Since Murfreesboro is only $7 to get in, we assumed it would be close to the same to get into the crystal mine. No, it was $20 plus the cost of gloves, digging utensils, and gloves. Ridiculous. We spent a few hours out there and found a few small crystals and one big one that was stuck in a rock that weighed as much as me, so we left it. Thankfully, the lady let us take home one of the crystals that they had found that they priced at $30 so we could get our money's worth out of the ordeal. Well, when we were picking it out, I sliced my thumb on the sharp edge of one. OUCH! Fortunately, they had some band aids (it happens pretty often).

Anyway, it was a wonderful, relaxing, rejuvenating trip. It was so good to spend so much time with JJ to just relax. I'm so glad we got to take this trip. If you haven't had some alone time with your spouse recently, I recommend taking a trip to Hot Springs soon.

Pray for this little guy!

see that picture to the right? click on his picture to find out more about him so you can pray for him. he was born very early and could use all the help he can get to grow up to be a strong and healthy little boy. thanks!

vacation!!!

in 1.5 weeks, we are going on vacation. i have been wanting to do this all summer. i can't wait!! :-) we are going to hot springs for some luxurious r&r. i found a good deal online for 2 nights at the arlington hotel and mineral bath and massage for the two of us. :-) it will be so wonderful. we're also going to the mid-america museum and the national park. we don't really have much else planned, which is great. we're just going to relax and have some fun. i'm so excited!