Beginning the Christmas holidays with a bang!

Update: 12/9/08 8:10pm

Don't have much time these days; work is EXTRA, EXTRA busy. That 2 week vacation is going to be more special and necessary than EVER!

Just a posting tonight to note that I made it through the official week 1 of health and fitness swimmingly!! I only cheated 1 day which was Thursday right before my son's Christmas play. I didn't even get home from work until after 6pm and had to have him at his school by 6:45pm. He left 6 ketchup-drenched fries on his plate from dinner so I ate them. But the rest of the week went WONDERFULLY! Chris and I are competing in a fitness competition middle of next year so we're on a pretty structured plan for our health and fitness. We give ourselves 1 cheat meal per week. Not cheat-day like most people, but cheat meal only. I know better; people with my personality can't be given so much as an inch. :-)

Progress Report: Back on November 14 I weighed myself on one of those scales in the convenience store restrooms where you put in a quarter and it tells you your weight. I weighed myself again today and I was 10 lbs less!! It's been almost a month so that's good progress! Or maybe that scale was busted; I don't trust electronic scales so much. Either way, I'm fitting back into my jeans again. About 3 weeks ago I couldn't fit into ANY of my winter pants from last year, so that's a relief. By New Year's Eve, I'll be back into my skinny jeans which is a RELIEF.

Also, I normally can't exercise with my iPod. I accidentally left it at home today and I STILL exercised...did sprints, even!! That's how I roll now. :-) Good Night!

Smooth sailing for Week 2.

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Notable items since Thanksgiving:

My friend Kelly started a new Facebook group called "Facebook's Biggest Loser". It's SO helpful because it keeps us all accountable to one another. Not to mention the fact that I'm ultra-competitive about stuff like this. We all have our gifts or specialties, and one of mine is the fact that I'm so used to being the among the "fit ones" in my social circles. It's something I had grown to take pride in until, like most other women I know, the babies arrived! LOL They have been MORE than worth it, and now it's time to get this body back into shape for good. Let's do it sisters!! :-)

Speaking of Thanksgiving, it was WONDERFUL! We visited with my mom and dad, and my sister and her family came as well. It's ALWAYS a blast when the 10 of us get together. Not to mention that my potato salad was the BIG HIT this year. This makes the 3rd year in a row that one of my dishes was the star of the show. My macaroni and cheese was just a tad too seasoned. I need to use less salt in the water in which I boil the noodles next time. But it was still a cheesy delight! The following we prepared the remaining dishes (potato souffle, dressing, turkey smoked greens and honey fried chicken) and let me just say that we spent Fri, Sat and Sun eating, eating, eating!! The food was DIVINE!!!!

I did get to do some things on my vacation list, and a few others went neglected. But I'm glad that I made an effort to "plan" some vacationy things to do. It kept me from focusing on un-important things that could be left to the regular routine work days (of which there are less than 3 weeks before my 2-WEEK Christmas vacation starts - HALLELUJAH!!)

LOL moment of the day (and possibly week) - My Gmail Chat status says "I'm around...so leave me a message". My friend Neal sent me this in Gmail chat while I was away from my browser earlier today: "i must point out that your status is truncated on my chat window...so all i see is 'im around..so leave' and somehow i can see you saying that in certain situations". He was logged off by the time I saw that, and that made me LOL, literally. :-)

And finally, the best news to report. For the first time in over a year, I have been able to stick to a healthy fitness/meal plan for more than 24 hours!! The best thing about this is that I haven't even had any cravings! That may not mean a lot to most of you, but those of you that know me VERY well know that I am borderline OBSESSED with food. Consuming yummy delights determines my mood in most cases. But this past Monday and Tuesday I only consumed the healthiest fat-free, low-carb, low-fat, protein packed meals. And I exercised both days; I'm SO proud of myself!! I'm on a roll!!

Holiday Break

Work is somewhat dampening my feelings of rest and relaxation this week. Huge release soon, and I was up ALL night finishing up some stuff because I REFUSE to work during this break with my family. So what WILL I be doing during this glorious five-day weekend?



Cooking dinner. I LOVE Thanksgiving dinner. My husband and I anticipate this wonderful meal months in advance! My specialties are baked macaroni & cheese (no one makes it as good as I do), turkey dressing, and potato salad. Chris makes the best turkey smoked greens. We also usually prepare corn, potato souffle, cranberry sauce, and cornbread. I'm about to get started shortly.

Reading. I, like most people who are married with kids, NEVER find time to just sit down and leisurely read. For someone who loves books so much, it's a shame that I don't get this opportunity much. Maybe I'll get back into this great programming book I love or possibly even FINALLY pick back up on Book 6 of Harry Potter.

Putting up the Christmas tree. This will mark the earliest that we will have done this! Every year I dream of decorating the tree on Thanksgiving evening after dinner. Christmas has definitely come earlier this year than most others and I'm excited about that! Best time of year FOR SURE!

Resting, resting, resting. I hope that what I do more than anything else is just lay around and relax. Whenever I get a break from work, I always feel this guilt about resting. I was raised that way though...a day off meant time to get chores done and go visit people you haven't seen in a long time. There's no resting! Well my hubby and I don't share this philosophy on life, so I'm more than happy to lay around in my pj's all day!



Dinner with family. We are going to my parents' house this year, as we do every year. Last year, we actually met at a restaurant not far from the hospital my grandmother was staying in at the time. My mom was with her 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so getting mom to leave for a little while for dinner was a task. But with things turning out the way they did, this year will be really special at my parents' house. We'll be sure not to take anything or anyone for granted anymore.

Try some new hairstyles and makeup. I used to be really good at styling my hair really pretty. After becoming a mom, that just took such a low priority. If I have a little time, I may play around with it this weekend. I also have a TON of makeup that I've bought over time that's accumulating. Might play around with that too; I used to be a glamour girl, and now it's like I don't even care anymore. It happens to many of us though...I just don't want to completely neglect my looks full time...I'm already going down that path now with my lack of exercise and my bad eating habits. I don't want to become a complete hag, if I can help it.

Starting a new blog. I used to post to this blog almost every single day. That was before all of my worlds began to collide. Before my family, church family, co-workers, and friends were all accessible to my thoughts and a recount of my actions via the same medium. It's made it difficult for me to be completely transparent. There are now repercussions for being honest and true to who you are online. So I'm going to do the same thing a good friend of mine has done. I'm creating a "private" blog where I can just be Tami and talk about the things that are a deep part of me and I that I may sometimes want trusted feedback on. I'll continue to post to this blog about the cool, funny and superficial things that are current. But I'm guarding my heart and not exposing every part of me to the public anymore.

That should be enough for 5 days. Next week is going to be ridiculously busy so I better enjoy every moment I can! Have a great Thanksgiving Day and remember to show and/or tell those around you how important they are to you!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I'm in a pretty bouncy mood right now. In an hour or so, the hubby and I are meeting at Atlanta Fish Market in Buckhead for yummy din din! Afterward, we plan to catch a movie. You see, today is our Friday. :-)

We're both off beginning tomorrow through next Monday, and we are beside ourselves with joy! My mom is keeping the kids tonight, so that means we will have some alone time together. YES! In the morning, we will scoop up the kids and probably head up north to the outlets or something fun like that. Haven't decided yet. If it's as cooled down outside as the past few days have been, we might actually brave Stone Mountain or Grant Park. We'll see! The original plan was to visit the family in Alabama, but we ended up spending WAY too much money over the past two weeks. We're nervous about blowing all of our money on gas and food over the next couple of days, so we're going to keep our little hind parts right here in good ole GA this time.

Either way, I'm really feeling good right now. To top things off, this may have been the most productive week that I've ever had. No, seriously. Everything that I set out to do at the beginning of the week has been done. That leaves me with a satiated feeling that I can't describe.

I wish you joy and happiness, contentment at the very least, for this holiday weekend. Stay safe and get some rest...next stop, Thanksgiving!! :-)

And I'll gladly stand up...

Most of the people that I spent time around while growing up would cringe to hear me utter anything closely resembling pride at being an American. When you are a young person and around the same ideas and conversations 98% of the time, you don't generally question anything you hear. You just accept it. I never thought to question why the people making the dissentious remarks about this country didn't fly off to, I don't know, say England, for example and take up residence there. When everyone around you is saying the same thing all of the time, it tends to become a part of you.

That is, until you are able to expand your horizons and hear different things. After I got married and began to build my own life as an adult, my perspective was broadened and I discovered that the mindset I had was completely unfounded. And based on the current state of my life, I would be a complete hypocrite to pretend that I was not completely ecstatic to be living in the US of A instead of some place else. I am only one person, and I can only speak for myself. I have been an American for 32 years. I have been afforded the same opportunities as all others of my age, gender, and lifestyle. I have always lived in a home, and grew up with two parents who have been happily married for almost 36 years now. I was able to take piano, ballet, and swim lessons throughout childhood. I was able to participate in every extra-curricular activity that I desired. I made excellent grades in high school and thus, was given the opportunity to go off to college. I chose to only attend 3 full years of college...just long enough to get all of the knowledge I needed to jump start my career goals. According to the State Census Bureau, my income alone is twice that of the average household. I waited to get married before moving in with my husband and having children. I have a job that I like very much, and a family that I absolutely love. They're called CHOICES. Most of the people that I know and hang around can say the same. Don't get me wrong, I've made a heck of a lot of bad choices as we all have, but the result of these bad choices are my own fault, and have nothing to do with this country or any oppressive tactics put forth.

What other country could I live in and be given such opportunities? Where else could I live in this world and not only pursue happiness, but with a little extra effort and elbow grease, actually be happy most of the time? I know that many people do not feel that they were given these opportunities, and for me to venture a guess as to why this is the case would be judgmental and out of line, I think. But I don't think that there is anything so special about me that gives me the opportunity to live the American dream. Again, they're called "choices" and making the rights ones most of the time will get you very far. So yes, I'm very proud to be an American and gives thanks and honor to God for all of the men and women that defend and protect our freedom everyday.

And there go the fireworks outside, almost on cue! There ain't no doubt I love this land...God Bless the USA.