Jumbo July Update

I don't really know where to start. April 2nd was a surprisingly long time ago. So much has happened I'm almost as overwhelmed trying to recap it as live it. To be honest I'm not really sure what happened in May. Maybe I was boring that month. In June things started to pick up. Since then I have...

1. moved to Riverside in Wichita with Jason
2. gone to Osage Beach for a vacation with Mollie
3. got a new job
4. got a new haircut
5. upgraded to an awesome smart phone
6. started getting allergy shots
7. still not sold the car seat
8. started a low carb cooking plan

1. I don't know how many times I've moved in the summer, but everytime I say it's going to be the last time. How miserable to move box after box up and down a flight of stairs in June? Let me tell you. It was the most terrible horrible miserable awful feeling in the world. It was so humid the week I moved that my clothes were soaked with sweat for several days straight. I would get dressed in the morning, pack the first box, take it to the car, and be instantly soaked in sweat. I have never felt so unsexy in my life. I'm pretty sure women are not suppose to sweat at the rate I did. But after almost 14 days and some help from a few very nice guys it was a done deal. Jason and I were overwhelmed by the amount of shared stuff we had. We currently have two sets of living room furniture. So when you walk into the house there are his and her living rooms on either side of the front door. Once we recovered from the exhaustion and stress of moving things started going really well. Things I love are - getting to see Jason when I come home from work, having someone to eat dinner with most nights, having a washer and dryer in my home, not having to walk half a mile to pick up my mail.

This is our messy dining room, looking into Jason's half of the living room.
I'll try to get some more photos up eventually.

2. Two weekends ago Jason and I travelled to Osage Beach, MO. We got to rent a condo with Mollie and Chris for a long weekend. It was a long and interesting 5 hours on Highway 54. We took the 350Z so that made it a little more fun on some of the multiple car passing moments. On they way there we got to stop and have dinner with most of my Ft. Scott family. It was awesome to get to see them since I've missed so many family events this last year. The vacation was pretty awesome. It was great to spend time with Mollie and Chris. It'd been almost a year since I'd last seen them. We did a lot of hanging around. Spent one day out on the lake in the 100 degree heat. It was pretty entertaining watching everyone try to tube. Poor Chris, he is not a water inclined person and was very concerned that no other black people would be in a 100 mile radius. He managed to overcome both of those fears and we all ended up having a great time.

taking pictures with my new phone on the way there
-also RIP my favorite sunglasses, so sad-

the view from our condo

3. Other big exciting news. I got a new job!!! After struggling to make things work here at Sheplers, I finally decided to start looking for another job. I got discouraged after 3 months of looking with the lack of options out there and had pretty much resigned myself to being stuck in the Sheplers chaos for awhile longer. And then the day I get back from vacation I had two job interviews scheduled. Two days after that I had two job offers. And now I'm finishing out my notice here at Sheplers and will start my new job August 16th. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited and relieved. Hopefully it all works out great.

4. New hair - always a risk. I'd been putting off doing my hair until August so that I could justify the expense as a birthday present to myself. I was out this weekend buying some clothes to wear for the new job and I realized that now was the time. The next few weekends looked pretty busy and there wouldn't be the option of using vacation time to take off early on day. So I went for it. I have a lot of hair and that makes anything I do turn into a long process. So in the middle of my 2.5 hour appointment I'm playing with my new phone updating my facebook status. And Jason sees me announce on facebook that I've cut off most of my hair. I get a text message soon after saying that my stuff is on the lawn. LOL. Much to my relief and Jason's the hair style was a success.




5. Got a motorola backflip phone. You may blame it for the annoying amount of facebook status updates.

6. Been struggling with allergies and allergy induced asthma for last two years. I finally broke down and paid for allergy testing. I passed with an A+. I am allergic to 32 out of 34 midwest regional inhalant allergients. So I have started getting shots each week that will hopefully help me manage that. They say it takes awhile for the immunity to build up so no real results yet. Hopefully soon, I'd love to be able to breathe again.

7. Car seat still sitting in my parents garage. I'm honestly a little afraid to deal with it. With my luck I will either save it and never need to use it for myself, or sell it and then immediately need it. Neither option is exactly what I want right now. Maybe if I ignore it will disappear and then money will magically appear in my wallet.

8. The new low carb meal plan. It's been challenging. I wanted a cooking plan that we would both enjoy, that also wouldn't stress me out from the meal planning and calorie counting perspective. I started reading the George Stella cookbooks and got really inspired to start paying attention to the hidden carbs in everything. It is crazy how carbs show up in foods you wouldn't think would have carbs in them. So I'm really focusing on getting away from most processed foods that are crammed with carb fillers or perservatives. I'm also really trying to force us to reconsider all the foods we thought were 'good' and 'bad' and really understand what we should and shouldn't eat and why. Overall I'm enjoying it. I've made some awesome dinners with ingredients I would have never thought to try before. Most everything has been really tasty. I would say my real challenge at the moment is finding side dishes that will help us not overeat the main dish. It is so difficult to think of side dishes that aren't bread or potato based. Also, finding a breakfast that isn't scrambled eggs. I'm not an egg person and there are only so many egg breakfasts in a row that I can handle.


And I think that wraps up the massive update. Hopefully, I will continue to have good or at least amusing news to post.