April Update
Much better timing on this update, don’t you agree?
WARNING: EASTER SPOILER. NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Mistaken Identity
No mistaken identities in April, but I got one this week, and it’s a doozy! (that’s your suspense for May’s update)
Wait, maybe I have something that could fit in this category. One afternoon, a woman from the next hallway came by my office. She had heard some ladies gossiping, about me and Justin! It has been noticed that we have lunch every day, often by ourselves and sitting next to each other. And…. I’m married! GASP! My friend’s response? “You know they are married to each other, right?” Apparently they did not.
HAHAHAHAH! He’s only been working here over a year.
Post-Interview, Did I get the job?
By the end of the following week, I had not heard back about the job. I guess they hadn’t made a decision as fast as they wanted to. But wait! The hiring manager would be coming down to our plant with some other HQ persons for our Quarterly Review. Maybe he wanted to share the news, good or bad, in person. Ok, I can handle that. The day came and the meeting concluded. I took the opportunity as he left to ask him when I’d hear from him (you know what I mean?). Turns out, there was still another interview to do that week, and because it was a short week (just before Easter) I would not get an answer that week.
It wasn’t until the middle of the month that I heard back about the job I interviewed for last month. Despite being a good candidate, qualified, and assured that I would have done a good job, I was not chosen. They picked someone with more budget experience. Aw bummer. But with that opportunity closed, we could get focused on some other things. You’ll hear more about that below.
Easter
You know what Easter meant this year? 4 day weekend! I love four day weekends. We spent a good amount of time relaxing and being lazy. Friday afternoon we were in the hill country. We went to Good Friday services with Grannie, my parents, and my older brother’s family. For the evening we went to my Uncle James’ house for the annual fish fry. Matthew and Jackie made it in time for dinner. I took my delicious crapple salad, which was a hit. There was also tastey fish, shrimp and, of course, desserts. It was a nice evening compared to last year (cold!!), so we enjoyed sitting and chatting. A guitar accompanied sing-along formed around the chimnea. At one point there were three guitars! None of my immediate family was in it, but we were sitting nearby, remarking how our family has never been musical in that way. Sure, my parents produced three percussionists, but my parents don’t have any musical training themselves. We didn’t walk around the house singing or anything.
Saturday was cool and humid. My nieces were convinced that a trip to the nearby playground would be fun. MEANWHILE…..we hid eggs around grannie’s front, side and backyard. It was my first time to be on that side of the egg hunt. I had a lot of fun! The yard didn’t have many obstacles, so we were getting creative with placement. Actually, for the very large bag of individually wrapped sugar eggs, I would grab a handful and THROW THEM BEHIND ME! I figured that would be the best way to produce a random distribution.
When the girls came back, they could see that the Easter Bunny had been by! They were running all around and it was fun to watch. They were both loaded down with candy and plastic eggs…They opened and sorted candy in the dining room. There was some pretty good stuff: starburst, kitkats, JellyBelly jellybeans, mini Cadbury eggs… MMm! It was very nice of them to sort, organize, and then make baggies to share with everyone. Seriously, because I love Easter candy.
Aunts, Uncles and cousins came over for lunch. As always, it was good. Guess who can play Bananagrams? My 6-year old niece. She had a helper, but still. She is a genius child. Then my aunt gave them Easter presents, including hoola-hoops, bubbles and SILLY STRING!
We left shortly after lunch to come back to Houston so we could have dinner at Justin’s parents house. His younger brother wasn’t able to come, being in Brazil and all, but his sister and her husband came. We played Hit or Miss, which is incredibly fun to play overall, and especially so with my brother-in-law. I am so lucky to have this second family that I like so much. (I just realize that I didn't take any pictures over there. Mom has a better camera that is more reliable, so she takes them. Perhaps we just need to get a better camera that won't flake out on me. Then I'll have a more complete representation of my life.)
We went back home late that night. We ended up going to 11am mass, which was a terrible idea, but that 9 o’clock was just soooo early. They did not have an overflow mass….. but they did usher us into the chapel. I thought they may have a projector or a tv rolled in there so we could witness the mass… but it was just a nice room with pews. So we spent an hour and a half staring across the room at other church go-ers, with a quick exercise break out to the church and up the aisle for Communion.
But the rest of the day? calm. Lazy. Grocery shopping. Nice!
Little Girls’ Birthday Party
In the middle of the month, we went up to the metroplex for a joint birthday party. My nieces’ birthday are around a month apart, so they had one big party. It was mostly adorable. Once again, Justin and I were the only adults there without children. That makes it a little weird, but we still had fun. It was a pig and chick themed party that began with party games, culminated in a piñata and ended with opening presents.
Because we were so nice to stay and clean up, we stayed with my brother’s family for the evening. We went out to eat and then played Mario Party on Wii. My nieces are really fun and I wish we lived closer so we could spend more time with them. After the girls went to bed, we stayed a little while longer and checked out BoomBlocks (on Wii) with my brother and sister-in-law. It’s always a little surprising (in a nice way) when my way cooler older brother lets me hang out with him.
I would also like to take this opportunity to tell Justin that I love him. There was a lot of driving required for these weekend trips, and Justin did most (if not all) of it. I end up reading or napping and am so grateful that he does all the work. Thanks My Justin!
(again, lack of pictures because my brother has a better one)
Random Hodgepodgery
At the beginning of the month, I got a haircut. I actually went back to the same woman who did it the previous time. A first since highschool! No change, but she trimmed up my bangs and did more work with these layers that I’m trying out.
Remember when I did that almost-5k-stroll in February? It was a fundraising event for Habitat for Humanity Women’s build. The Saturday assigned to my mom-in-law’s church was rained out. The site was incredibly muddy, and they cancelled work because someone was bound to get hurt. Instead, I spent the morning chatting with my mom-in-law and sister-in-law.
Dentist appointments were due in April. The office is close enough to walk, so we did. We both had great checkups. The dental hygienist was most pleased with the condition of my teeth. Yes! I win at oral hygiene!
One day, when I was at walmart, I spotted a display of socks in fun colors and patterns. I noticed some of the socks had a special feature. THEY WERE TOE-LESS! Why? So you could wear them with flip-flops? To look ridiculous? I didn’t care. I had to have some.
House Hunt
You may remember that last month we put this on hold until I found out about the job. Well, as you read above, I didn’t get it. That meant we could start up the hunt again! We had two referrals, and after e-mailing questions and getting answers, I picked one. We met with him the last Monday of the month after work. I was more interested in him and how the house buying process would work. Justin wanted to get right into picking a house. Between us, I think we’ll be able to balance ‘doing all the right things’ with the motivation and excitement to pick! a! house! That night I learned a lot and took notes. We liked the Realtor. Actually looking at houses is next! (I can tell you we have done that. More suspense for the May update!)
QotD?
I’m loving QotD? It gave me a great opportunity to do an April Fool’s Day Prank! I posted a very abrupt message saying that there was some drama and I had to quit. I fooled about ½ of the QotD?ers (mostly ones that weren’t related to me). They were upset and really curious about this mysterious drama! Had there been inappropriateness in the comments? The next day I let them know that QotD? was not leaving. Hee hee! It was the best prank I’d ever pulled.
I fit in two theme weeks in April; Easter and The Amazing Race. I love doing themes, because it makes planning questions easy.
If you are reading this, and aren’t participating in QotD?, why not? I’d really like to get some more guys participating on the blog. They seem to have gotten very busy. I love all the ladies, but I’d like to get some more masculine variety.
Fitness Class
Still going to class. Still getting more fit and stronger. I discover a new muscle group every week, just from the new area of soreness I experience. You know how experts say that exercising gives you more energy? I don’t always feel it that night, but it’s true. I feel stronger. All those squats have made picking up stuff from the floor a trivial task that is done with such ease and grace! I need to take a picture of my giant arm muscles so you can be impressed. At some point during the month I bought myself some Capri-length workout pants. I love walking around the apartment wearing those pants and my sports bra because I feel awesome! It’s like “Check me out! I am powerful with muscle definition!” I really like having that confidence.
Healthy Eating (Weight Watchers)
Justin continues to make me delicious and healthy food. I am very fortunate that he’s supporting me in this way. We’ve borrowed a cookbook from my brother to try some new things. We are still eating lots of fruits and vegetables, which came in very handy when I donated blood. My iron count was very high! (thanks to fresh spinach on weekday lunch sammiches). And then I didn’t count any points for the juice and cookies I ate afterwards. We had dinner with my in-laws within a few days and Dad (a doctor) calculated how many Weight Watchers points a pint of blood was. Yup, totally worth cookies and juice. According to the weight watchers scale, I lost 5.8 pounds, for a total of 13.2 pounds since February.
Overall Progress
Ok, I’m still searching for those green shoes. It’s this in green:
I will keep going to Shoe Carnivals around the state until I find a size 7 squirreled away in the clearance section. I WANT THOSE SHOES!
Back to actual progress - I find that I’m fitting into some old jeans, but not the khakis. I went shopping for an Easter dress (at the Dress Barn!) and found a few lovely things. The dress I got to wear for Easter was a size 6! This is not to say that I’m fitting into all size 6 things, as my hips and thighs are still voluptuous, but it was very exciting to have a flattering dress.
Now for the numbers: April resulted in a weight loss of 5.8 pounds (13 YTD)and 3.6 inches from various measured circumferences (7.4 YTD). That’s pretty nice progress!
Crazy Brain Update
April was a worse month for headaches. I don’t know what instigated it, but for two weeks in a row I had a headache that persisted for a few days. Not enough to keep me home from work, though I really didn’t feel good. If I had been home, I would have taken naps and made frowny faces. By the last week of the month, it was bad enough that I scheduled steroid shots with my doctor. It’s a common procedure for tension headaches, getting injections in neck muscles. (Justin gets wigged-out when I talk about it, so I’ll stop.) Usually it helps right away, but not this time. For a few days the injection sites felt sore and I was still having headacheyness. BOO.
If you are reading QotD?, you heard about the lengthy wait time at the doctor’s office, but the frustration didn’t end there. When I went to the pharmacist to pick up the prescription I had dropped off the previous day, they couldn’t find it. But why? After I wandered around Target for a while, I came back and learned the answer. My doctor hadn’t written down the quantity, and the pharmacist the day before hadn’t called and asked about it. And since it was Friday, they would have to wait until Monday to call and get some answers. Again, this is frustrating. Grrr.
Tada!!!