Working Out for the Wedding

So for the months now, as you know, I've been on a weight loss journey and during the last few months I have set mini goals for myself along the way. So far my goals have been set around the different weddings I have been attending over the summer.

My first wedding I went to was at the end of June and I set a goal to be under 180 by the time that wedding happened. I was excited because the day of the wedding I saw this number on the scale (which ended up being a low weight fluke because it was higher the next week but it still made me happy to see it)-

After that wedding I made my next goal to be under 170 by the time Joel and Casey's wedding happen on September 1st. So I needed to lose about 10 pounds in two months which seemed like a reasonable goal. However, then the summer hit and I went on trips, had grill outs, and just enjoyed my summer.

The last time I check in on August 1st, I weighed- 

So being that I was about half way to my goal (but really only down 3 pound less from the last wedding) I knew I really need to buckle down in August if I had any chance of making my goal. Here is a quick look at the progress that happen over the last month-

 

 

So between being better at logging my food, hitting the gym, and do extra house work to get get ready for our open house- I'm happy to report when I stepped on the scale on Saturday morning this is what I saw-

So needless to say I was excited to show off a little. Here is me in the same dress last August at Mike and Ashley's wedding-

And here me (and Sam) from Joel and Casey's wedding this weekend-

There definitely is a difference especially in my hips, stomach, and face. And to see pictures side by side makes me realize that losing the weight is making a difference in my looks.

However I won't lie when I did get back into the gym yesterday the scale didn't read that number anymore. I guess 3 days of non-food logging, and boozing will do that to you. So being that I have one more wedding to go to this month, my goal is to see under 170 again by my cousin wedding on the 21st. 

Wish me luck!

Happy One Year House Anniversary!

So one of the big events this weekend was our house warming party. If you been around these blog parts for a while you know that we have been living in our house for a while. This very true because we got the keys on August 30th of last year. So I decided that we would have a "One Year House Anniversary Open House" party.

I'm glad Sam agreed to this party because it has made is get our butts in gear to finally finish projects we been wanting to do since we moved in. This included finishing our yard project:

Buying curtains & blinds:

 

(Yes somehow it took us a whole year to do this. I mean who really needs privacy.)

Painting / refinishing our downstairs bathroom:

And finish hanging things on our walls:

Needless to say there were some major work that has been done the last few weeks. (Hence the lack of blogging.) So when Saturday rolled around I was excited to welcome our friends and family over to our house to celebrate. We put out a good spread of food-

And by the end of the night we had just our friends around our kitchen table enjoying each others company, with a few drinks, more food, and an always hilarious game of "Cards Against Humanity".

It was a great way to start our weekend!

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone had a great long weekend! I know I did!  More about that in a minute.

Was it just me or was last week the longest week of your life? It was for me. Thank god I made it through August in one piece. I don't know if it was because it was the first week of school, or because I had to work an extra late night, or because I've been going non-stop for the last 10 days but last week couldn't end soon enough.

However, this was an awesome weekend which made all the hard work worth it. My weekend was filled with two very exciting events- my official house warming "Open House" on Saturday.

 

 And the wedding of our good friends Casey and Joel on Sunday.

 

I will be sure to do a full recap on these events because they were to good not to share. Even with these two events this weekend- I still manged some rest and relaxation with 2 naps today! It was a great weekend and I hope yours was just as fun and exciting.

Wedding Shower for My Cousin

I hope everyone had a great weekend. My went bye in the blink of an eye.  Saturday was a blur of cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning. But then we did may some time to have a few friends over for dinner. It was a great night. However, the more exciting day of my weekend was on Sunday when I went with my mom to Michigan to go to my cousin's wedding shower!

Even though it was a 3 hour drive to get to the shower, it was great to celebrate this special occasion with this very special girl!

One of the best shower games we played involved making a wedding dress out of toilet paper on each on the bridesmaids.

 

Then Anna's job was to pick a winning team that was the most creative and looked most like her wedding dress. Needless to say our long sleeved traditional dress didn't win. Oh well.

After the shower my mom and I went to dinner with my grandma and uncle Dave. I mean a trip to Michigan can't happen without spending a little bit of time with my grandma!

 

It was a great weekend, but I have a very busy week planned being that school start next week. So if I'm not around much this week it's not that I forgot about you guys- I'm just trying to make it through week with my sanity!

Price Comparing Project

In the past few weeks I been better about meal planning, which has help with our food spending. However, I have only been going to Aldi and Jewel for my weekly food. Aldi for my main staples, and Jewel for my name brand items. In a normal week I would say I typically we spend $80-$100 on food. However, I would like to get our weekly spending down even if it's just $10-$20 a week less, because it does add up over time.

So yesterday a packet of weekly store ads had come in the mail .This is the first time in a few months that any ads have come in mail, so I figured it was time to really start price comparing and try to get my money saving plans put in action.

 

Shamrock thought he could help me with this project. 

So I started with look through all the sale ads- 6 of the ads/stores are within a 15 minute drive of my house, those were the ones I started with. Then once I started looking at what I would need or want to buy, found 3 stores that really best deals. So my plan for tomorrow is to hopefully hit all three in one shot. Here are some of the deals I'm hoping to take advantage of-

At Berkots-

• 4/ $8 boxes of Kellogg cereal (I miss my Cocoa Krispies but I don't like to spend more than $2 for my cereal)
• $.39 Dannon Yogurt (It's Sam favorite and I try not to spend more than $.50 a cup on yogurt)
•  5/ $1 Sweet Corn (My favorite summer time side dish)

At Brookhaven-

• $1.99 gallon of Milk
• $.29 per pound for Bananas
• $.69 per pound for Nectarines
• $.59 Vitamin Waters (Sam really like these and they can cost on "sale" normally $1 each- so I'll be stocking up because they don't go bad)

Then to Aldi (which also is running some good prices on things I normally buy there- bonus!) to get the rest of our typical food. I'm hoping if I can spend less then $15 at the other two stores,  and I think I should also be able to leave Aldi spending less then $40 dollars. So the goal is to spend less than $70 this week while still trying to buy health(ish) things. Wish me luck! I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Why is it so hard to be motivated to blog?

So I know I haven't blogged much over the past few months. I do think about blogging often because I read other people blogs almost everyday, but to sit down to write out my thoughts- well that is not happening as much as I would like. So the question I keep asking myself is - Why is it so hard to be motivated to blog?

Think my blog motivation has waned for a few reasons-

1. Working later hours in the summer meant less time to write blogs once I got home.
2. I've been more motivated in other parts of my life. Mostly my weight loss goals and meal planning.
3. Other then working out/ trying to lose weight- not much else is going on in my life.

However, there are other reasons why I want to get back into a better blogging habit-

1.  Because it can keep me accountable for the goals I set for myself.
2. I like being able to go back and see how much has change in my life over time.
3.  There are things going on in my life even if they don't seem that exciting. As a people we are always growing and changing, so blogging can document that. 

Over weekend I spent a good chuck of Saturday cleaning (again- the boring parts of my life) and I found an old school project from when I was in eighth grade. This is the same year I moved to Illinois and I was still struggling with adjusting to my new "life".

This project was called "All About Me!". This was an assignment to write out who you are, where you came from, and what your dreams are for the future. Here are some of the things I found really interesting about my 14 year old self...

"My favorite family member is Grandma because she picks up Karen and I to take us back to Michigan for the weekend."

"Katrina is my best friend because we like the same things and we get along."

"My TV hero is ALF because he is funny."

"If I could be anyone in the world, I would be JC from N'Sync because he has had so many great adventures in his life."

"One day I hope to be honored for finishing high school."

"Ten years from now, I will be 24 years old. My career will be a dolphin/ whale trainer at Sea World."

"This is what I would wish for... to be a good singer."

I spent about half hour just reading though all the pages and I really enjoyed getting reminded how much has changed in my life in 13 years. For this reason, I have to remind myself that blogging isn't just about how many other people read and enjoy your blog- it's about doing it for yourself and preserving your memories. And hopefully that is enough motivation to keep the blogs coming.

Budgeting for the Future

It's Monday which means back to work for me. I love that my university offers us to take Fridays off in the summer, but I did miss working my normal work hours. I know normally I have a weekend recap for you, but the truth is that I didn't taken many pictures this weekend, so I don't have much to tell you about. Here is the short of it-

• Friday- Caught up on True Blood (I love that show). When to Bloomington IN to bring my friend Alison some furniture.
• Saturday- Came home from Bloomington. When to a graduate party. Hung out with friends.

• Sunday- Went to church- twice.

Those are the highlights.

Over the weekend, I kept coming back to this idea that Sam and I really need to sit down and work on a family budget. Between talking with my friends about home improvement projects we want to do, to going to church and hearing a whole sermon on budgeting; I think it's time to do this.

I have always prided myself on being good with money, but since graduating from college I feel like I've lost control of my money sense. My living expenses have been all over the place since graduating. First was living at home, working only part-time, but saving for a wedding. Then getting a full time job, but saving for a house. Then it was buying a house, and paying for home "stuff". Now that we have been living at the house for almost a year, I really want to start to budget better. We aren't going into debt, but I feel like I want to have a better understanding of where our money is going .

So tonight we'll sit down and really start taking a hard look at our finances. My goal is to know-

•  What we could be doing better with 
•  What we can cut out
• What projects/ vacations/ events/ big ticket items do we want to save for

Wish us luck!