Thursday, June 30, 2011

Weight...

So I've canceled weight watchers...I know! That's horrible. But we are still getting our finances straightened out and had to cut back on everything. So no more paying $40 a month for weight watchers. I've decided that until we are completely back up on our feet and until this wedding I'm in is over, I'm going to focus on less carbs. I'm not a huge fan of no carb diets but if you eat healthy I think it's fine.

The last few days I've eaten LOTS of veggies and tuna and fish and nuts. I'm ok with this. I'll start re-introducing fruit in a few weeks but until then, lots of meat and veggies and cheese. :)

Since starting to do this on Sunday, I've lost a little over 3 lbs. so I'm going to keep it up.

The main reason I have to do an extreme diet change is that I still have NO time to work out. Monday officially starts my half marathon training. Hopefully I can find the time then!

Until then though, I need to make this bridesmaid dress look GOOD! So diet on!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

New Jobs

Has it really been that long since I've blogged??

I guess it has. I have two blog posts written on paper that I wrote during Jury Duty and they just never made it to the computer and they are in my briefcase downstairs...I'll have to remedy that one of these days. But not tonight. This post is about my new jobs.

Yes, I said jobS.

I officially have accepted a job at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. I will be the Unit Secretary in the Antepartum unit. I'm not gonna lie, when they first offered me this position, I had no idea what antepartum was. I was just thinking of post partum and they're obviously not the same thing. But then when I got to my final interview, they gave me tours and I realized what I'd be doing and I'm thrilled. It's the unit of the hospital where women are admitted if they are hospitalized while still pregnant. Like if they are put on mandatory bed rest and must stay in the hospital for it.

The antepartum unit is literally right next to Labor and Delivery and the Pregnancy Assessment Center. I get to work in all three units to a certain extent (like if they need extra help or something). I'll be doing a lot of secretarial work but a lot of that will be directly with the patient. I'm really excited to get to be working so closely with the patients. I have my drug screening this Friday and then my Employee Sign up on Monday and then my orientation begins on July 5th. I'm so excited and can't wait to begin!

My second job is working at a company called E&B Granite Inc. My cousin works there and got me a position doing sales. They obviously sell granite but also have cabinets, flooring, hardware etc. I've been training all week there.

Monday I worked in the shop and learned how much goes into cutting granite for a kitchen. I used to think that you just cut it and install it. WRONG! A lot goes into it and that's part of the reason the price is higher than other countertops. And if you are getting granite for a really cheap price, they are probably cutting corners somewhere that you don't want cut. To do it right, a lot goes into it and it's worth it. I learned about scanning templates into the machine to cut the pieces. I learned about cutting and reinforcing sink holes. I learned about polishing and creating edges. I learned about slab layouts and determining what looks best. I learned how to make beautiful, thin seams. I learned a LOT.

Tuesday I went out on a few installs and saw how they physically install it into a kitchen. I went to two installs and it's beautiful. I got to see how they make the razor thin seams with a special machine. I got to see how sinks were installed. I got to see a whole room completely transform with the addition of beautiful granite.

Today I did two things. I went on a few sales calls, which was scary but a very good experience for me. I also got to go to the slab yard and see all the different slabs of granite we sell. They are so gorgeous that I want to cut a few of them into 16X20 foot pieces and hang them on my wall as art work. No joke. After that, I got to go out and do a template, or measure. I got to see exactly what has to be done to measure a kitchen perfectly. It was a lot of work but now we know that kitchen will be perfect.

Tomorrow will be more sales calls and I'm excited. I can't wait to present myself and hopefully get a few customers. :)

I'm really happy right now. It's good to be out of the house again during the week and feels good to be productive. I'm hoping to keep all this up until school starts on January 17th!

Oh and if you know anyone in the market for some granite in the St. Louis area, please leave me a comment and I'll email you! We have amazing prices and only a 7 day turn around from contract to completion. That's impressive!

Man, I love being back to work!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Jury Duty

So I've been doing lots of research about Jury Duty...I have to serve next week. And I'm still conflicted as to how I feel about it.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm REALLY into Law and Order. Most of the time SVU, but lately I've been getting into Criminal Intent and the original too. I also have been watching NCIS. So I'm very intrigued by our legal system. So even though every complains about Jury Duty, I'm kind of interested to see what it's all about.

Now I say that and when I actually serve, it will probably be horrible and I'll hate it and complain about it on here, but for the moment, I'm more curious than anything else. I just hope I don't get on a Grand Jury case and have to be there for 3 months! That does sound kind of awful.

We shall see! Stay tuned...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'

AJ rolled from her back to her belly today!! I didn't see it, but Nick said she did it like 6 times in a row. He had to keep moving her back to her back! I'm so sad I didn't see it. I was upstairs and Nick said he thought she'd been doing that. I had to correct him and tell him that she's been doing her belly to back but not the other way around.

Now we have a MOVING baby! :) I'm so proud of her! Pretty soon, she'll be chasing that big brother of hers! Man, time flies!

Pictures - Random




Pictures - AJ's baptism

Here are a few from the big baptism!



Our family - Mama, Dommie, Daddy, AJ



Getting baptized!



Godmother - Angela, Godfather - Jim, Daddy and AJ, and Mama



"God Bless Annabelle!"


Happy Godparents!

We were lucky to have a great day! The whole party and everything turned out beautiful.

Pictures

I've added the pictures to my computer!! And Facebook!! Now I just need to add some here...

Stay tuned! I'll add some pictures here of baptism, vacation, random-ness, my "quest" to 131 beers at Growler's and more!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Annabelle is baptized!

Annabelle had her baptism last weekend (May 29th). I was so stressed about it and am so glad it's over and everything went smoothly.

We had so much going on at the house with the renovations and we luckily got that all done. Also, we didn't have to go to the preparation classes since we went with Dom and I was kind of afraid of forgetting what to do and say. Don't worry we did fine. :)

I'll get ALL my pictures on the computer tomorrow. This time I promise promise and I'll show you some but I wanted to post that Annabelle is an official member of the Catholic church! Go Annabelle!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Wedding Photos

I'm finally scanning all my wedding proofs to have a digital copy of them...it only took 4 1/2 years. :) I'm very excited about this. It's like getting married all over again. haha

Here are a few pictures I have already scanned. I've only done about half, but I'm getting there!



Just a close up of our beautiful flowers (courtesy of Dooley's in Florissant, MO)


Walking down the aisle - we're married!


Largest Wedding Party ever. :)



Smiling in that silly forced smile pose, but I still like it.



My immediate family. :)


I'm hoping to get them all scanned within the next week or two. Maybe I'll add some more favorites on here every once in awhile. I just love all my wedding pictures.

Mini Vacation!

Nick and I took the kids on our first family vacation last week! We've been on vacations with Dom before but we've always had someone else with us. Like Nick's mom or Nick's family or just someone. But this was a vacation, just us. It was tough, but well worth it.

We went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, TN and had a BLAST. Dominick loved it. Except the extremely long car ride part. That part he hated. Actually, but the time we got there, he was screaming to go back to "Dommie's House". It was sad. But the next day made up for it.

We left on Tuesday morning and got there Tuesday night at about 11:00 eastern time. We stopped a lot. A LOT a lot. I guess that's what happens when you drive that far with two kiddos.

So we didn't do anything on Tuesday really.

Wednesday morning we took the kids to the condo pool and Dom loved it. We just signed him up for swim lessons (which he starts on Tuesday) and he loves the pool. We actually couldn't get him out of the pool. Then I hit up the local "Food City" and got some groceries and we ordered pizza from Big Daddy's Pizzeria. We laid low for the rest of the day and then took the kids to a kid's amusement park in the evening.

Holy cow, it was the coolest thing Dom had ever done. He did swings and airplanes and a train and a sizzler and the carousel and the train again. Then Nick and I wanted to do the big 3 level go cart track so we each got a ticket and were going to take turns watching the kids and riding, but Dom wouldn't let us go without him. He rode the big huge scary go cart ride with Nick once and with me once. This kid is a little dare devil.

That was enough for one night. Then on Thursday we took the kids to "Splash Country" which is Dollywood's water park. I didn't do much but sit in the shade with AJ, but Nick and Dom did some rides. They did the Mountain Twist family raft slide and a few other slides. Then Dom and I did the lazy river. Then Dom played in the kids area for like an hour. After the water park we decided to drive to Gatlinburg and check out the mountains. It was beautiful. Their strip was awesome too. Hard Rock Cafe and other bar/clubs. It would be a place to go without the kids some time. :)

Friday was time to leave. We chose a short trip on purpose but then it seemed too short and the drive too long. So we packed up and left Pigeon Forge and drove to Louisville, KY and decided to stay there for the night. We got tickets to see the "Louisville Bats" play. They are the Cincinnati Reds AAA team. It was a fun night with the kids and nice weather. After the game (well we only stayed for 6 innings...the kids got restless) we went to Joe's Crab Shack on the water. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

We got back on the road Saturday morning and was home by 4:30 pm.

I had a great time but a family vacation with two very young ones and no other help is TOUGH. I'm SO glad we did it but we might need to enlist in some help next vacation, whenever that may be!

All in all, our first family vacation was a success!