Friday (the 13th!) Night Photos #100

I literally don't have ANY photos that I haven't already posted this week! Since today is Friday the 13th, I thought it might be fun to look back at pictures from all the other Friday the 13th dates throughout the years. These date back to 2011...

May 13, 2011 - I'm not sure what this was about--something at Eli's kindergarten class, clearly! 

7-13-2012 - I think this may have been at Chuck E. Cheese's.

December 13, 2013 - A cold run outside!

February 13, 2015 - Jerry running on the treadmill. I think we were training for a half-marathon that fall.

March 13, 2015 - Another Friday the 13th just a month later. Jerry and I ran together before I had to head to the airport--for a visit to Portland for the first time!

March 13, 2015 - On the airplane headed to Portland, Oregon. Super excited--I'd never been to the Pacific Northwest before! Also probably drunk on wine because I couldn't fly without several drinks in me first.

March 13, 2015 - I have a trillion photos from that day, but I won't post all of them. Here is a picture of my first Voodoo Doughnut :) 

November 13, 2015 - Yet ANOTHER Friday the 13th in 2015! I have no idea what I was thinking here. I did love that onesie, though.

January 13, 2016 - This was actually really cute. Eli's friend was going to be flying and he had major anxiety about it. Since my brother is a pilot for Delta, he offered to come over and show Eli's friend all about how airplanes work and how safe they are. Eli's friend was very into physics and how things worked, so he was interested--and he felt much better afterward!

April 13, 2018 - Eli and I went to a tattoo shop and we each got ear piercings. It was such a fun thing to do together!

July 13, 2018 - Noah's birthday falls on Friday the 13th sometimes and in 2018, he decided he wanted to have a Friday the 13th themed birthday party. They had a movie marathon of the Friday the 13th movies.

And naturally, I had to do a mom-thing and make cute little snack boxes for everyone for the movies.

November 13, 2020 - Jeanie sent me this picture from work when all of the COVID things were in full-swing.

August 13, 2021 - Both of the kittens found spots to sleep on top of the cupboards.

One of the fun facts I used to share--I totally lost track of these and forgot about posting them!

The day I dug up all of the weeds in the landscaping bed. It was back-breaking labor, but totally worth it!
I was so happy to have gotten that done.

I'm kind of bummed that there weren't any more exciting pictures from Friday the 13th. I did like this meme though from lockdown times in 2020... haha!

For me, 2020 wasn't so bad. It was 2022 that was terrible--and this year isn't looking so great either, but it's still early!

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Three Things Thursday: Complete!

Having been tired and not feeling very productive over the last few days, I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today. But then I realized that I actually *did* accomplish a few things this week! They weren't small, easy projects either.

Well, maybe this first one is. My cross stitch! I've been working on this for what feels like forever, so I was excited to finish it today. THEN. When I started writing this post and editing the photos, I realized--wait a second--I forgot to do the outline around the cat and fill in the whiskers! So, technically, I did not finish it yet. But hopefully, by the time this post goes live, it will be done. Here is what it looks like anyway (just picture it with whiskers and a black outline around the cat):

 I didn't do very good with the lettering--it was harder than it looked!--but I think it's readable.

This next project was long overdue. A while ago (I think last summer?) I found a very nice solid oak bookshelf on Facebook Marketplace. It was handmade and really well-constructed. I planned to paint it at some point, but I just never got around to it--I shuffled it back and forth from bathroom to bedroom to closet.

Finally, I decided that I was going to paint the damn thing and stop using it as a catch-all in my closet. Over the course of a couple of days, I painted it white and then moved it into the living room for our board games.

We'd had board games stashed in the coffee table drawers, in the TV console, and a few other places, and I was so happy to get them into one spot on shelves that actually match the decor in the living room. (I have to move the Jerry face collage above the shelves, but I was thinking of doing that anyway.) It took me a while to Tetris everything in there, but every single one of our games fits!

And finally... I saved the best for last. MY BATHROOM CLOSET IS DONE! It took what felt like five years instead of five months, but I ran into issues here and there (like I do with every project). It's kind of hard to believe that there was a shower right there. I love how the closet turned out!

The space above the closet is a cat-cave (like a man-cave, only it's for cats! Hahaha, the cats love it.) There is an access point from the bedroom (I'll post photos once that is finished as well). The cats climb shelves up the wall in the bedroom and enter through a hole in the wall to the top of the closet. I have it lined with scratchy carpet (the kind cats love) and I have a cat bed up there. Duck likes to go up there and watch me work. Phoebe is the only one who isn't interested. I need to make a ramp for her, I think, because she's fragile!

On the left, I managed to fit two bars for clothes. I had no intention of doing that, but once I did the top one, I realized there was enough room for another. Since sweatshirts take up so much space in our bedroom closet (we have everything folded rather than hung), we used this closet for our sweatshirts. It made a TON of room in our bedroom closet.

I still have to organize the toiletries and things in the bins, but you get the idea. The bins are leftover from our sweatshirts! We could only fit a few sweatshirts in each one, so by hanging the sweatshirts, we had a lot of empty bins to use in the bathroom closet. I'm going to put towels on the top shelf--I just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. 

My one regret is that I didn't plan better for the hamper. I wanted two hampers in there (for lights and darks) but I wasn't thinking about needing the support leg in the corner of the shelves. The second hamper won't fit. So, I just put it in the bathroom for now.

Finally, I haven't decided whether to add the bifold door to the closet. I bought one, and fully planned on using it, but now that I see the closet, I'm thinking maybe I won't. On the other hand, everything looks like a mess in the bins, so maybe it'd be better to cover it up. But regardless, I love how the closet turned out--and I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with myself that I made this closet all by myself!

Here is a side-by-side of when everything was torn apart versus the finished closet :)

Now, I'm basically just left with all of the clean-up--both in the bedroom and bathroom. I have to organize everything again because it was strewn all over the house. And the dust--it will take me DAYS to get all the drywall dust out of there. Years, probably!

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 85

I wore my Bipolar AF shirt today in honor of meeting my new psychiatrist, haha.

This has been a very trying few days for me, to say the least. To recap: I ran out of my bipolar medication on Sunday. I had been trying all week to get a refill but there was miscommunication between my doctor and the pharmacy. When the script was finally ready at the pharmacy, they told me it was going to be $300-something. My co-pay is usually $30!

After some more back and forth with the doctor, the pharmacy, and the insurance company, it turns out that the insurance company no longer covers that medication so I'd have to pay out of pocket. I looked it up on all the discount sites that I could find, and the cheapest I could find it was for about $240.

I was upset, to say the least. The medication regimen I've been on for the last six years has been working really well for me and I didn't want to change that up. There isn't another medication with the same formula, so my options were to either pay the exorbitant cost out of pocket or to switch to a different medication.

Here's the kicker: my psychiatrist retired last month! So, no changes could be made to my medication until I saw a new doctor. I had an appointment scheduled with him on the 18th, but since I'd been forced to quit my medication cold turkey, I couldn't wait that long. The office had a cancellation this morning at 10:00, so I gratefully accepted that!

I really like the new doctor and we had a good getting-to-know-each-other session. He said that there isn't a medication that has the same formula as my previous one, but he could prescribe something similar and we'll see how it works out. I'll go back in a month to discuss (unless an issue comes up sooner). He said the biggest thing to look out for is if I start showing signs of hypomania.

So, if I start writing all sorts of new big, outlandish plans, and start working on a dozen new projects without finishing them, maybe give me a warning ;)

My weigh-in was NOT good today. Over the last three days, I've eaten terribly and haven't tracked my food or anything. I was super stressed out about my medication, and not taking it has made me feel kind of down. It's a medication that I notice if I miss even a single dose--I can tell within a few hours if I forgot to take it, because I get a sort of buzzing feeling in my body. I'm meticulous about taking it every single day.

So, I just haven't been feeling myself. I'm not using that as an excuse for overeating, but it definitely played a big factor in it. I'm an emotional eater, and I've been pretty emotional this week. The scale was up--AGAIN--and I'm not happy about it--AGAIN. I just really hope that this trend STOPS ALREADY.

At 144.0, I am now at the very top of my weight range in the "normal" BMI category. And 11 pounds over the top of my "comfortable" range.

I'm having a hard time not telling myself, "I told you so--of course you gained it back, you always do. Why would this time be any different?". I know that it's not productive to think that way, but I can't help the thoughts that come into my head.

Now that Jerry is going to be working diligently on losing his dad bod (see yesterday's post), I think it may help me as well. Doing it together is always easier than going at it alone.

The hardest part about this for me is that I worked SO DAMN HARD to get this weight off over the last year and a half. It would be completely ridiculous of me to let myself just gain it right back. All of my hard work will have been for nothing.

I feel like I just need a few good days under my belt to start seeing some progress (even if I don't "see" the progress, I know I will at least feel more confident when eating well). I need to catch up on my running, too--in order to reach my year-long goal of 500 miles, I'll need to run just under 10 miles a week. I've only run six miles so far this year! So I'm already behind (but it's certainly not too late to catch up).

Now that I've got a solution (at least temporarily) for my medication issue, I'm going to try really hard this week to at least lose the weight I gained since last week. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's all I can really say right now. At least I haven't lost hope yet!

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The One Where Jerry Loses His Dad Bod

Rather than having Jerry write another post today, I decided to just go for it and hope I don't say something stupid. This is my first time NOT taking my meds since my diagnosis in 2017, and I'm kind of nervous about it!

I talked to the pharmacist today and she was sympathetic but said that it was an insurance issue, so she suggested that I call the insurance company. I called when I got home, and they said that I have to pay out-of-pocket until I meet a $3500 deductible. The cheapest price I've been able to find for my medication has been $240 per month. I know people pay a lot more than that for medication, but I've always been lucky in that the most my co-pay has ever been was $30!

I called my doctor's office, and since my psychiatrist retired last month (the timing couldn't have been worse, right?!) they said they can't make changes to my medications. However, they had just gotten a cancellation for an appointment tomorrow morning with my new psychiatrist--so I jumped at the chance and said I'll be there. I'm guessing he'll prescribe me a comparable (and cheaper) medication.

But enough about that! I'm kind of excited about this new series I plan to do. I've had this idea for a little while now and Jerry decided he wants to go for it. Over the past five years or so, he's put on some weight; nowhere near his highest, but a considerable amount. The distribution of the excess weight has changed, too, maybe because he's older... but it's all gone right to his midsection. He admits that he's developed a dad bod, and he's unhappy with it.

When I asked him why he wants to lose weight, he said that while it sounds vain, he wants to look better. (Actually, his words were, "Not to look like a big sloppy bitch", haha.) He wants to feel better about himself--more confident. He also wants to lose weight for his health--he doesn't have any energy, and he feels drained all the time. He's been sleeping a lot more than he used to but he said it doesn't feel like restful sleep--he wakes up still feeling tired. I've noticed that he started snoring again, too, which he hasn't done in years.

Jerry's lost weight before (and gained weight right along with me), but we've never really publicized the process on my blog. When I suggested the idea to him, at first he thought no way--he doesn't want to fail when thousands of people are "watching". I told him it was totally up to him, but I thought that maybe making it public would help him stay accountable. It's helped me several times.

He liked that idea, so I asked him about his plans. I'll write it all out here and then once a week, I'll do a Tuesday weigh-in/check-in with him about how he's doing. I think he'll probably enjoy having people follow along!

We took his stats today: weight, BMI, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. For the record, he's 5'9" tall.

Day 1:

Starting weight: 193.6 pounds
BMI: 28.6 ("overweight")
Body fat percentage: 24.4%
Waist circumference: 37 inches

His "before" photos. Naturally, he couldn't be serious ;)

His goal weight is 180, which gives him 13.6 pounds to lose. He's not necessarily on a timeline, but he'd be happy to lose it by the end of March. His goal of 180 would still be considered overweight based on the BMI chart, but to be in the "normal" range would mean under 168--that's pretty low for him! He'd be happy at 180.

This is what he looked like at about 180 pounds:

His plan to lose the weight:

He wants to take small steps instead of making big changes all at once, which I think is a good idea. He still plans to eat a vegan diet, but he is going to reduce his portion sizes. For example, he always bring his lunch to work in the largest-sized nesting bowls we have, so he's going to switch to using the medium size ones (see pic below).

Portion control without actually measuring

He also plans to do intermittent fasting. This has worked well for him in the past, particularly when he's at work. His eating window is going to be six hours (he said if that's too hard, he'll increase it to eight hours). 

He's going to increase his water consumption. He drinks a ton of coffee all day at work, so he doesn't drink much water. His goal is to drink 64 ounces of water a day.

As far as exercise, he doesn't plan to do anything formal yet. He wants to get his eating under control first. He said he'll probably do the BeachBody workouts when he's ready (his exercise of choice is workout videos--I don't know how he can stand them!).

I think that's about it as far as the start of this new series! I hope it goes well; if Jerry is willing, I'll post his progress every Tuesday :)

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Deep Thoughts With Jerry #9

Jerry here. Katie asked me to write her blog post today because she's feeling a little off without her meds, which she wrote about on her blog yesterday. She's afraid she might say something stupid here, so she figured she better be safe than sorry. She contacted her doctor today and he's trying to work with the insurance company to get her her meds at a reasonable price.

So, lucky you! Here is a post of my deepest thoughts (i.e. icebreaker questions).

What are you most excited for this year? 

Oddly enough, it should happen this week. A couple years ago I had realized that I just didn't have a hobby to get excited about and Katie was trying to encourage me to find one. While I do play disc golf when I can, I wanted something else. 'Ghostbusters' is one of my all-time favorite movies and I thought it would be cool to have the outfit (Katie and I disagree with what is considered "cool").

I learned that there are clubs in the area that cosplay and go to charity events and comic conventions. So, I began to put together the Ghostbusters suit. There are still a couple things I need to get for it but it's almost complete. I have the neutrona wand and later this week I should be receiving my 1:1 scale movie accurate proton pack that I ordered from Hasbro in November 2021. I can't tell you how excited I am. I'm such a dork.

What is your favorite sandwich? 

Easy... PB&J. The crunchy peanut butter needs to be on both slices of bread, grape jelly is my go-to, and I like to eat it cold. I'm used to having it at work where I can just throw it in the fridge and have it later. 

Which movie made you laugh your hardest?

There are so many movies that made me laugh crazy hard but the most recent one was 'Napoleon Dynamite'. On Halloween, Noah and his girlfriend Claire agreed to watch a movie with Katie and I and they had never seen the movie before. I've seen this movie a lot in the past and I was dying from anticipation before the funny parts would come up. 

What is the best romantic comedy? 

This is hard, there are so many. (Don't tell anyone, but I am a sucker for a good rom-com.) If I had to pick just one it would be 'You've Got Mail'. 

What is the best dessert? 

German Chocolate Cake... for sure. It' my all-time favorite. This is my mom's specialty and she gave Katie the recipe and Katie has made it for me as well. It's made from scratch and truly a comfort food. 

What is your go-to show to watch at night?

'Friends' for sure. Lately I've been rewatching 'The Office'. If I'm doing some work around the house or messing around on the computer I turn it on as background noise. 

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a firefighter. My grandfather was a firefighter in Petoskey, Michigan for years and my dad actually volunteered when he was younger. When I was a kid I used to watch 'Emergency!' which followed the calls of Station 51 in LA, and the friendship between John Gage and Ray DeSoto... I can't believe I remember that!

What was the first way you made money?

My dad loves to tell this story. It's turned into a running joke between Katie and I because it somehow gets brought up at least a few times a year. I got in trouble in elementary school for charging kids a quarter to play my Tiger Electronics Football Game. Apparently, as the story goes, my teacher caught me doing this, took my game away, and called my parents. Her husband was heard laughing his ass off in the background when she was talking to my mom. What can I say, I was an entrepreneur.

What was your first online screen name?

LOL. In my teen years, my online messaging programs included AOL IM, ICQ, Hotmail/MSN IM, and Yahoo! IM. At the beginning, all my friends knew the ins and outs of instant messaging and I was too new. My friend Kris gave me his brother's old screen name that I used for all my online needs...pimpdaddyj691@hotmail.com. Now, as an adult, I had to change it but that was my email for a while and I even gave it to Katie the first time we met. (Why did she even go out with me?) I'm so lucky she was into my immaturity back then. She was helping me write a resumé a few years later and when she proofread it, she snorted and said there was no way that I could use that email address. So I had to make a new "professional" one.

Katie apologizes for not writing. She overthinks everything and she's sure that she's going to say something embarrassing or just not sound like herself. She sounds fine to me today, she's just very tired and kind of down in the dumps. Hopefully she'll feel like writing tomorrow!

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The Shelves Are Painted!

I'm in a VERY bad mood today, so I'm just going to keep this (almost) wordless. I found out that my insurance will no longer cover my medication, and to pay out of pocket is over $300 per month! Even when I shopped around on the discounted pharmacies online, it was $350+. The timing couldn't be any worse, because my psychiatrist retired last month. I have an appointment to see a new one in his office later this month, but as of today, I'm out of my medication. I'm going to call the office tomorrow and see if there is anything they can do.

Anyway, I have been stressed about that all day long. I did manage to paint the shelves in the bathroom closet, though, which is a huge relief! I just can't wait for it to dry so that I can start moving things around and get organized again. My house has still been cluttered while I waited to finish the remodel.

The shelves are as simple as can be... I had plans of making them adjustable and with dividers, but one thing after another caused problems--namely, my jointer, my planer, and my router. So, I had to come up with different solutions to get things done and it took much longer than it should have. They aren't fancy, but they're functional. 

Just ask Duck, who jumped on them when the white oil-based paint was still drying. Sigh. Anyway, here is a picture. Hopefully I'll get pictures of the full bathroom soon! (You can only see about half of the closet here; to the left of the shelves is a space for hanging clothes.)

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Friday (Saturday) Night Photos #99

I can't believe I screwed up my days AGAIN yesterday. I was so sure it was Saturday yesterday and it didn't occur to me until after I wrote and published my post that it was actually Friday. So, I'll just do my Friday Night Photos tonight instead.

I don't have much, but here goes...

I have been slowly but surely coming along on my cross stitch. Before bed, I watch a few episodes of Monk and work on my cross stitching. I really like doing it! But I have no idea what to do with it when I'm done. It's not something I'd hang on the wall or anything.

My mom asked me to help organize something things in her attic, and we found a box of these porcelain Disney figurines that my grandma bought me when I was very young. They're a limited edition collectors set, and they only produced 15,000 of each one. It's kind of cool--on the bottom of each, it shows which number it was in the production. (You can see an example in the bottom right of the first photo.) Some of these may be pictured twice, and perhaps I forgot to photograph a couple, but you get the idea.

I would love to sell them, and I thought for sure they'd be worth some money, but I looked them up and they aren't worth the hassle of selling them. (Roughly $75 each.)  I'm not sure what else to do with them, though! I'm not a Disney person, so I don't really have interest in keeping them. Still, they were fun to find. We also found some other really cool things, which I'll take pictures of later--my grandmother's wedding dress from the early 1900s, my baptismal dress that was made out of my mom's wedding dress, and some other stuff. 

This picture was taken in--I believe--2015. My friend Thomas was visiting and Jerry and I took him to a Red Wings game in Detroit. We had time to kill, so we stopped in the dive-iest of all dive bars, called The Bathtub Pub. I ordered a Stella Artois and I will never forget this beer--it was SO COLD. It couldn't have been colder if it was frozen! There was no slush in it or anything--it just gave a whole new meaning to "ice cold beer". And it was amaaaaazing. I've never tasted another beer like it.

I quit drinking February 15, 2021. I still maintain that the Stella I had in Detroit that day was the best beer I ever had. So when Jerry and I stopped at the store to get drinks to bring to our friend's house a couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to see that they had Stella Artois with 0.0% alcohol! I brought it home with me and put it in the very back of the fridge to hopefully get it as cold as it was that day in 2015. I opened one when I was working on my cross stitch... and it wasn't nearly as cold as I hoped. I didn't really expect it to be, because I've never tasted any drink so cold as that beer in Detroit! But the nostalgia was fun.

Jerry took this picture when I was sleeping. Duck was sleeping on my legs between my shins. I really don't like when the cats do that, because I feel too bad to move them, but I don't have the heart to move!

Jerry took this picture (I didn't know it at the time) when we were playing a game called Codewords. It was the "explicit" version, and there were some words I'd never heard of--I had to Google them! 😂  Some of these words take Cards Against Humanity to another level, hahaha. So, in this picture, I was googling some word that was probably a really odd fetish.

Just a meme Jerry sent me. BAHAHA! (It's a tweet, but I call all of these types of images memes)

It never fails to surprise me when I make soy curls for a recipe. This is what they look like after I soak them for about 10 minutes to rehydrate them. Don't they look just like chicken?! They're REALLY good (depending on how you flavor them, of course). The texture is as close to chicken as I've tasted. Noah even specifically requests these for dinner sometimes! (For this batch, I added barbecue sauce and heated them over the stove. They were delicious! Also, we may have piled them on top of creamy truffle pasta. Yum!

I've been super into the show Monk lately--it has seriously become one of my very favorite shows of all time. Since Duck and I are peas in a pod, he likes to watch it with me. He sits a little closer than I do, though, haha.

Eli had friends over on Christmas Eve and they wanted to hang out in the garage. That meant I had to clean up all of my recent mess from making the shelves and other stuff. Look at this pile of sawdust! I put the five-gallon bucket there for size comparison.

I was driving myself crazy on Thursday when I was writing my blog post. For some reason, I couldn't get rid of the period after the word "too". I kept deleting and retyping, I tried deleting several words and retyping, I switched to html mode and then back--it was still there! I had no idea what the deal was. Then, I scrolled up to save the post and reopen it. When I scrolled, I noticed it was still in the same spot on the screen. THEN, it hit me that it wasn't a period at all... it was a piece of dust/lint on the screen of my computer! 🙄

Jerry and I were playing a game called NOSH and we really liked it... until we started coming across the weirdest questions! This was the first one we came across:

Who is the murderer?
Crime: A wealthy woman was murdered with a knife in her bedroom at 12:00 noon, May 26, 1986 in Rye, NY. Suspects and Alibis: Husband: In library reading. Gardner: Playing gin rummy with wife. Butler: At bank cashing paycheck. Cook: In kitchen baking apple pie.

I like solving stuff like this, and my guess was that it was the gardener. It said he was playing gin rummy "with wife"--it didn't specify that it was his own wife; it could have been the woman who was murdered. And it didn't say WHERE he was playing gin rummy. So that makes sense, right? Well, I was wrong. You know what the answer was? See if you can guess, and then scroll down past the card for the answer...

ANSWER: The butler because May 26, 1986 was Memorial Day and banks are closed. 

What!! Even if it's supposed to be clever, that's just too much. Who knows off the top of their head that May 26, 1986 was Memorial Day?

This one was "Correct the expression: "French Treat"."  That could have been several different things--I said French fry. Hahaha, I was wrong--it was "Dutch Treat". What the--?

And this one: What do some people call little gray cats? I know a lot about cats! But gray cats aren't necessarily different from others, unless they are a pure breed meant to be gray. The answer? Kittens! Were they just being facetious? Who knows. Not all of the questions were like that, but we laughed whenever we came across one. 

This was just a smart ass answer...

This is my niece Shelby and my nephew Hunter, all dressed up for Christmas. Could they be any cuter?! I LOVE the look on Hunter's face in the top left picture. It's like he's thinking, "You want me to do what, now?"

Today is Eli's 17th birthday, so I'll share one of my very favorite photos of him. He was six years old and I told him he could wear whatever he wanted for picture day at school. I was so surprised this is what he chose! He was SO CUTE.

And that's all I've got. Have a great Sunday! (Since this is going to be published Saturday instead of Friday. Let's hope I get my days of the week straightened out.)

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Relationship Fun

(EDIT: I just now realized, after writing this post, that today is Friday and not Saturday, hahahaha. So, I'll do my Friday Night Photos post tomorrow. I'm losing my mind.)

This idea isn't actually mine, but when I saw it, I fell in love the idea and just had to do it myself! Noah's girlfriend, Claire, made this list for Noah. It contains a ton of little things for them to do together--most of them very simple, inexpensive, and don't take much time. It's just a fun checklist! (I removed/modified a few things that didn't apply to Jerry and me, though.) 

This is Noah and Claire. They are super cute together!

She organized the list by season... here goes:

FALL

• Go to a haunted house
• Watch scary movies
• Go on a hike
• Go to a corn maze
• Have a campfire
• Drink apple cider
• Lay under the stars
• Play in the leaves
• Celebrate Jerry's birthday

WINTER

• Drink hot chocolate
• Play in the snow
• Make snow angels
• Make a gingerbread house
• Listen to Christmas music
• Build a snowman
• Wear Christmas pajamas
• Christmas shop together
• Make (vegan) Christmas cookies
• Have a snowball fight
• Kiss on New Years
• Celebrate Katie's birthday

SPRING

• Go on a picnic
• Feed ducks at the pond
• Take Joey on a walk at a new park
• Draw with chalk on the driveway
• Blow dandelion fluff
• Blow bubbles
• Find pretty rocks/flowers
• Climb a tree
• Dance under the stars
• Jump in rain puddles
• Play in the rain
• Go on a hike

SUMMER

• Go to the beach
• Watch the sun set
• Play a card game
• Star gaze
• Make a campfire
• Go camping
• Have a water balloon fight
• Have a cookout
• Go on a road trip
• Go to the county fair
• Carve our initials into a tree
• Go to Campus Martius in Detroit on a weekend

OTHER

• Go shopping
• Do a puzzle
• Play video games
• Have a photoshoot
• Celebrate our anniversary
• Have a spa day
• Color pictures
• Workout together
• Choose each other's clothes for a night out
• Go thrift shopping
• Try a new (vegan) restaurant
• Go on a double date
• Write each other a love letter
• Have a movie marathon

I've put this into a PDF document just in case anyone else likes the idea and wants to print it for themselves--you can grab it here. This isn't something I plan on doing over the course of a year--that would be stressful! It's just a list of things we can refer to when we're feeling up to it.

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Three Things Thursday: Treadmill Running

Jerry to me: What are you going to write about?

Me: Maybe I'll write three things I like about running.

Jerry: That'll be the shortest post ever.

BAHAHA! Touché.

I went for my first run of the year on Tuesday and I chose to run on the treadmill; I just wasn't in the mood to go run outside. I hadn't run on the treadmill in a long time! And I kind of missed it, for some reason. That's why I thought for Three Things Thursday, I'll write three things I like about running on the treadmill.

1. I can read or watch TV while I run.

When I run outside, I have a hard time paying attention to podcasts or audiobooks, and music isn't distracting enough for me. I like to be distracted from the fact that I'm running; I wish I loved every second of it, but those kinds of runs are rare. The more distracted I can get, the better.

A lot of people think it's crazy that I read while running on the treadmill, but I honestly find it to be a great distraction. I set my Kindle Paperwhite in a holder that is right at eye-level, increase the font size a little, and turn on the backlight. It's not hard at all; I can even read when running very hard sprints.

If I'm not into a book on my Kindle, then I watch a show on my iPad. It's hard to follow very in-depth shows when I'm running, so I usually choose something light-hearted--American Housewife is a favorite!

2. There is less laundry.

When I run on the treadmill, regardless of the time of year, I wear capri running tights and a sports bra. The only time I wear a shirt over my sports bra is if the kids have friends over.

When I run outside in the summer, I wear capri running tights, a sports bra, and a shirt. When I run outside in the winter, I wear running tights, a sports bra, a long-sleeved shirt, and a running jacket (not to mention my Buff, which gets sweaty and needs washing).  It may not sound like it would make a big difference in laundry, but hey--multiply a running jacket and a shirt by 3-4 days a week, that's a whole load of laundry right there!

3. I have total control over the speed/incline.

It's kind of nice being able to "set it and forget it" when it comes to the speed and incline settings. When I run outside, I can't help but get distracted from my pacing. I usually wind up running too fast, and then I realize my effort feels harder, so I try to slow down... get distracted and it goes on like that for the entire run. 

Since I am a firm believer that easy runs should *actually* feel easy, running on the treadmill is a good way to do that. I haven't messed with incline settings in years, but I like that I can set the speed and then allow myself to get as distracted as I want without picking up speed.

Likewise, I really prefer to do sprints on the treadmill for that same reason. I can be overly ambitious when I set the speed and I usually find out I'm capable of more than I'd thought I was. Remember that time I was doing 60-second sprints and I thought I was running 7.0 mph for the last one, only to find out after it was over that the speed was actually set on 8.0 mph? I'd felt like was literally going to die, or at least fly off the back of the treadmill. I was really surprised that 7.0 mph felt *that* hard--even though I was out of shape, I thought 7.0 would feel hard, but doable. I *never* would have attempted 8.0, that's for sure!

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While I don't think that treadmill running is ideal for *every* run--there are benefits to running outside, too--it certainly has its perks! There are downsides to treadmill running, too, just as there are with outdoor running. I think it's all about personal preference and what our goals are. Variety is always good!

Now that I'm not racing and I want to run for health/fitness reasons, I am much more likely to utilize the treadmill. Since I'm a big baby in the cold these days, I'd rather stay inside and run than procrastinate due to the cold. And on the summer days where it's super humid? The air conditioning and fans are so nice! 

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 84

Can you see how tight my jeans are getting? 😬  Yikes!  (Also, while I love the black walls in my bathroom, I do not love all of the shadows that suddenly show up in my pictures. I guess I never noticed them before? I tried every angle I could, and the shadow of my hand always shows up on my shirt.)

Every time I write a Wednesday Weigh-In post, it gets harder and harder to keep track of the weeks. I'm not sure when I should just stop counting, but I guess I'll keep going--even if I ever manage to maintain my weight for more than a few months (ha!), I like being able to see how long I've been at this. Well, this time around, anyway ;)

Last week, I totally spaced that it was Wednesday, so I didn't do a weigh-in. My sense of time was completely screwed up because of the holidays and Jerry being off work all week, the kids being off school... I was so sure it was Tuesday. I can't say that I was disappointed not to do my weigh-in, though. I'd had a very indulgent week and I *knew* my weight would be up. I usually weigh myself at least a few times a week but I totally avoided the scale.

I took a peek on January 1st--because, well, it was January 1st--and I wasn't thrilled. I just hoped that a few days of being back to good better habits would help before my Wednesday Weigh-In.

This morning, I got on the scale and was just kind of "eh" about it:

Two weeks ago, I was at 140.4, and I was SURE I gained about a hundred pounds after the week between Christmas and New Year's, so I guess I can be happy that I'm only up 1.8 pounds in two weeks. Still, my weight has done nothing but go up for about two months now!

As cliché as it is, I vowed to really work hard at losing this weight I'm gaining back starting January 1. And I have been doing well--I've gotten back to eating a lot of fiber, drinking a ton of water and not snacking all night long. I've had a pear and some olives for a snack in the evenings (such a weird combo, I know, but I love both of those things)--sweet and salty. And I've been working on my cross stitch cat to keep my fingers busy. (I started watching the show Monk and I'm obsessed!)

I've been counting my calories, which I plan to do all month, to see what I spend the most calories on. I also want to see if I'm getting all of my micronutrients. It's too soon to really analyze anything yet, but I'm very curious to look at that data in a few weeks.

Well, there really isn't anything else to say--I didn't want to post this, because gaining this weight each week has been embarrassing, but I can't exactly hide it. And maybe, hopefully, I'll get it together enough this month that I can work on maintenance for the umpteenth time. I remember having a hard time in December 2021, too, and I gained some weight. I'd been super stressed out about Duck's surgery. However, I still managed to get through it and keep going. Let's hope that's the case here, too!

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