Where Are You Going

this weekend?

Cause we're going to see DAVE!!

Dave Matthews Band is playing near here and we have tickets to both nights! Woohoo!

I am so incredibly excited. I love DMB, I love the city they are playing in, I love the venue they are playing at, and I love outdoor concerts, so this is awesome. Plus, I think that their new album is possibly the best they have ever released, so that makes it even better.

I have a few songs that I'm really hoping for, to the point that I've been tweeting band member Stefan Lessard basically begging for a particular song. I hope it pays off! Oh, and I know for a fact that I am not the only person doing this, lol.

Doug loves DMB too, and this post from Central Cooking kind of explains why we love them so much. Last year they played "our song" and we sang along at the top of our lungs, it was awesome.

We have better seats this year than last year (well, we had lawn last year so we didn't actually have seats). And I discovered today that our seats are better than I thought- awesome!

So, that's where I'll be this weekend..... stalking DMB. So if you hear about some crazy woman arrested in Indiana for stalking a musical group....well, send cookies, ok?

The Move

Oh where to start :)

So, Thursday night we signed all of our papers for the bank and had a final walk through of the house, where we learned that the seller still had a few things there but that they would be getting them out Friday. We were also told that we weren't closing at the same time as the seller, no big deal. So that night we raced home and tried to finish packing - it was a long night.

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Friday morning we closed, which seriously took like 5 minutes. Then we made our way to the new house to get the AC going and check it out. While we were there we realized that the seller had been there because some of the stuff was gone.... when all of the sudden the side door flies open and this man comes flying in asking if he can help me because he owns this house. I stammer that I was one of the new owners and that we had just come from our closing to get the house opened. About that time Doug came in the room and the guy backed off a bit, but then said he didn't know we'd have keys yet since we hadn't closed, apparently no one told him we weren't closing at the same time. He then tells us that the water department had just been there and turned off the water. Crap.

Doug had talked to the water dept. before and they had said that we would need closing papers to put it in our name, which we didn't have yet since the seller hadn't signed. But we were worried about what time they would close and had a major fear of having no water all weekend, so we took what few papers we had and went to the water dept to beg for service. The woman there was so nice! She went through all the papers we had and found something that would work. We started telling her about the run-in with the seller and she laughed and said he had seemed kind of high strung. They were so helpful, they had the water back on within an hour!

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Doug's dad had foot surgery two days before our move, so we were a mover short. However, the help we had so more than made up for it. My uncle and Doug's bff were total lifesavers. They carried big heavy items out of the rental (down the 6 steps) like it was nothing. They took our bed apart in the blink of an eye and had the box springs out before I even knew they had started on the bed. Those two guys were incredible, and we sooooo owe them. My dad helped too, he was awesome about stuffing a million things into their van, mainly breakable items or things we thought wouldn't travel well in the multiple trucks. My dad totally rocks.

Doug was awesome about getting everything packed up incredibly quickly and whisking it out of the way, that boy moves quick! And I suppose it's ok to toot my own horn a little. While the guys were busy getting all the big stuff ready to move I literally stuffed my SUV so full that there was barely room for me in there! I literally could not fit anything else in. And Saturday night Doug told me that he was really impressed with me because I had no problem jumping in and helping with moving the big stuff, carrying a million boxes, and crawling around on the floor unplugging and unhooking things. Go me! lol

And our moms and my grandma were awesome too. My mom and grandma went to the new house while we were all at the old one and vacuumed and cleaned everything. Then after we brought over the first load of stuff they started unpacking stuff in the kitchen, because they know how important that room is to me. Doug's mom was great too. She had a crazy job of helping us out and then running home to check on Doug's dad. She was great about bringing over a few things, helping for a little bit, and then running home - and she always brought stuff back every time - like Pledge for my incredibly dusty furniture, or DQ for the starving moving crew.

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For the most part the move went really well. We had been really worried about moving the fridge and stove out of the rental but that part didn't go too badly. The fridge rolled off the dolly halfway down the stairs and the door of the stove flew open on the stairs but the incredible moving duo saved the day both times. They had to take the feet off the couch to get it out and then it had to go partially over the railing to get outside, but they made it work.

The bad part came at the new house. When my uncle tried to unhook the stove that was already there the gas line did not want to come off. It took some WD-40 and a ton of elbow grease to come off and then our stove did not want to connect. I don't totally understand the problem but basically our line isn't the right size for the gas line and the connector my dad bought didn't want to fix on. We have a guy coming this morning to hook it in, thank goodness! I'm sick of fast food!

And the big issue: the fridge doors. We had to take them off to get the fridge out of the house. Well, the doors were held on by a couple brackets. When the doors came off one bracket got stuck back onto the fridge and the other went into a bag with all the screws and everything. Well, at one point on the way to the new house that bag spilled and came open and apparently the bracket came out. We all hunted through the truck for it, paced the yards at both houses looking for it, checked every box we thought it could have gone into, I even took every.single.item out of the trash bag that had been in the kitchen at the old house to look for it (and that was extra fun because the water had been shutoff - ick) - no bracket.... anywhere. Luckily Saturday morning my dad went up to the appliance store in town and found out that they could order it and that they had a similar bracket that could hold the door in place until the right one came in. So right now there is a backwards bracket and some packing tape holding the freezer door on so that we can use the fridge side. It's a pain, but considering how bad it could have been we aren't too upset.

The only other casualty was my dresser. It was already falling apart and the move just made it worse. So last night my dad brought over a spare dresser they had for me and took the old one away to use in his storage room. Have I mentioned that my dad rocks?

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So that's pretty much it. Saturday morning we brought over all of the boxes that we had taken to Doug's parents' house and got them stuffed into our garage until we paint. Then Doug grilled out for everybody who was still hanging around and then Doug and I decided to go clean up and empty out the rental. Two hours, 5 trash bags, 2 truck loads/trips between houses, and a ton of sweat later we were totally done with that house. Yay! I started taking out nails and screws last night and we're going to start filling holes to get the house ready to paint after our concerts this weekend. So look for some before and after picks to start popping up in the next few weeks. I'll try to get some pics taken of the house so you all can see it. And once we get settled I'll be back to blogging more, promise.

Hello World!

We survived the move! I'll have a full recap of the move soon, promise! Two teasers: I've had no stove since the move and my freezer door is currently rigged to stay closed. I'll explain later.

And this weekend is our DMB concert! So be prepared for lots of DMB awesomeness coming up.

And finally, check out Prior Fat Girl's awesome cookbook and apron giveaway. I want that apron sooooo bad!!

My Current Workout

So I've been so busy with packing that I haven't had time for a regular workout. But what I have been doing has resulted in me being a tired, sweaty, sore mess. This is my current routine:

Cardio:
Acquire multiple cardboard boxes. Pack your belongings in them, go lite on number of books per box, but really stuff everything else in. Tape closed. Repeat until you have packed everything you own, or you run out of boxes.
Move all boxes onto your front porch.
Run each box down stairs to the ground, lift and shove into vehicle. Run back up stairs. Repeat until all boxes are placed in vehicle and you are sweaty, worn out, and slightly sore.

Strength:
Fill more cardboard boxes with items you want but don't have room for upstairs. Place in basement, allow to get very dusty.
Pick a very hot day and go into basement, it's best if there is little to no airflow there.
One by one, carry each box over to stairs, lift over head and place on platform of stairs where your partner (husbands work well) can grab it and throw it outside. Continue until every last box is out. This is best if you can find many (lets say 7) boxes of books that your husband packed incredibly full and if you have some heavy and awkwardly sized camping supplies.
Drag self up stairs (oh! added cardio!) and then proceed to help carry each and every item to awaiting trucks, lift onto insanely high tailgate. Repeat until all boxes are in trucks and you are sweaty, tired, and slightly sore.
Now go to your inlaws home and help unload every single box and place in their garage. You will again be a tired, sweaty mess.

Yeah, so that's what I've been up to. What about you?

Water, Baby

Did anyone else have a Water Baby growing up? I got one for Christmas one year. I totally loved it but hardly ever put water in it, and the material it was made out of smelled funny.

Um, anyway. I have a point here, promise.

So, I've realized that I need to drink more water. Up until recently I had a major soda problem. We're talking multiple cans a day. But a few months ago I really started thinking about what I was doing.

First of all, soda is expensive! Cases of Coke are around $7 right now at Wal-Mart (we switched to the generic brand a while ago, but that's still over $2). Second, there are a lot calories in a can of Coke which would be way more enjoyable to consume in solid form, in my opinion. Third, soda can make you feel like crap. You get an energy boost from the sugar but then you slump, hard. Finally, that ingredient list? Scares me.

So, I've been trying to cut way back on the soda and drink other things. Real quick let me explain something: I can't totally quit soda. I get really bad migraines and the only things that ever help are a soda and/or Excedrin Migraine. And I'm pretty much guaranteed to not sleep for two days if I take EM, so I try the soda first.

But I've been doing really well with the water thing. I have a glass here at work that is just shy of 20 oz and I usually make it through 2.5-3 of those. So, yay me! I need to work on it at home though, I'm still way too inclined to reach for a soda or tea, but I am down to 1 soda a day, if even, on most days.

But I've gotten a little encouragement here recently. Jen, The Prior Fat Girl has been talking about water consumption lately and has a little contest going on to drink only water for the rest of the month. I'm going to try my best to do this!

Also, Amanda, Another Prior Fat Girl, is getting into this too by giving away an awesome reusable water bottle. And I could totally use this because I do not have one that is BPA free, so I'm totally entering.

So, what do you usually drink? Any tips for getting in more water?

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Also, Jen is giving away a subscription to Health magazine, so go enter that too.

I Am My Biggest Roadblock

So Doug's at work and I'm sitting here getting inspired by some of my favorite blogs when I think to myself "hmm, I want to workout but there's nothing on FitTV that I want to do..... oh, I know! I'll do one of those workout dvds I have and never use."

So I start to get up and head to the living room. And then I remember that I just packed up all of our dvds.... including my workout dvds. Into multiple, very full boxes. Crap.

Book Review: Such a Pretty Fat

Such a Pretty Fat is Jen Lancaster's third book. In it she chronicles her efforts to go from someone who "sweats when they eat" to a healthier, fitter person.

I really liked this book. It wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as Bitter is the New Black and Bright Lights, Big Ass, but Lancaster's honest wit and sarcasm come out perfectly in this. Diet and exercise are topics that are often not handled well (they are either a beat-around-the-bush or a let's-make-you-cry kind of thing quite often) but I think she handles it perfectly. And the scene where she weighs herself at home had me cracking up, mainly because of the honesty of it (read the book, you'll love this part too).

I think part of the reason I liked this so much is because it fits well with where I'm at in my life. I'm trying to really make fitness an integral part of my life and to make better food choices, so I could totally relate to what she was going through. And I absolutely love how she repeatedly mentions that food is not bad, it's not something to fear or avoid - food is what allows us to live, to run around with our loved ones, to dance around our house to our favorite crappy 90s song (I never do this, nope, never). I loved that she pointed this out, and pointed out how diet companies often push this idea and then pry on the fear that their clients have about food by pushing tons of "better" food on them, aka the food made by their company.

So, I'm really glad I read this; it's a really great book. I'm looking forward to Pretty in Plaid, but it will probably have to wait until after the move since I have to switch libraries.

The Newest Famous Monster

Move over Cookie Monster, there's a new top monster in town!

Angela at Oh She Glows started a new blog for all the green monsters she was getting emails about and she has a super easy system for submitting them. So I submitted mine and here it is!

My monster was so ready for its time in the spotlight! :)

Check out the shrine to the GM at Green Monster Movement. And I really do like it green :)

Important Packing

So I packed a few boxes while Doug was at work tonight. I boxed up some of my cds (Doug's planning to do the rest tomorrow), put aside our DMB cds because I figure we'll want to know where those are because of the concert, packed some books, and then packed this box of very important items:

My Harry Potter and Twilight books! I finished my re-read of the HP series last week so that I could be sure to pack them all together. This is the first box of books I'm planning to unpack, I've mentally had these placed on the bookcase in our new house pretty much since we got the offer approved, lol.

Oh and don't worry, this isn't very heavy. It's a fairly small box, these are the only things in it, and 2 of the Twilight books and 3 of the HP books are paperbacks. And I also rearranged a little after I took this pic, I flipped the paperback Twilight and New Moon so they were spine down so the pages wouldn't get bent. Don't want to hurt my books!

SGBC: Goal Setting

Today's focus for the Summer Glow Boot Camp (see the picture link on the side) is Goal Setting. I'm really great at setting goals but pretty crappy about reaching them. So I figured that I might do a better job if I wrote them out and posted them. So, here is my "homework" assignment for the SGBC.

A. Write down 3 accomplishments that you are proud of in your life. Beside each one write down how each of them made you feel.
- Graduating College (and high school!) in 3.5 years. This made me feel like I could do anything I set my mind to.

- Starting to write a book. This is something that I've always wanted to do (I want to be a writer!) but I could never actually bring myself to start writing. So last November I signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with some friends from my book club and I actually started writing! I'm not anywhere close to being done but actually starting it made me feel like this wasn't some crazy dream and maybe I really could do this.

- Our personal, yet not too expensive wedding. This is kind of a crazy accomplishment but I really am proud of it. We pulled off a nice, small (ish) wedding with (mostly) our good friends and family. We had everything that we wanted (a Mad hatter style wedding cake, a great photographer, big family pics) without going into debt or owing any huge bills. Whenever I watch Bridezillas or something like that I wonder how on Earth someone can spend that much on a wedding. Ours was perfect and the perfect price! (Not to mention we planned it while I was finishing up school and that was a crazy time, see accomplishment #1!).

B. Write down 3 goals that you want to achieve in the month of July. Also write how they will make you feel!
- Do yoga at least 3 times a week. Relaxed, happy, and healthy.
- Get back to writing. Happy, accomplished, and talented.
- Pack up everything in an organized fashion and then do the same when unpacking. Organized (duh), calm, and happy.

Write down ‘terminals’ for each goal. In other words, write down how you will know when the goal is completed or ended.
- When I can look back at the past weeks and see that I took the time to do something good for myself.
- When I get my page count up!
- When the last box is packed (and then unpacked) and everything is carried out of our rental (and then put away in our new house).

Now comes the planning part. Write down what you need to do to achieve these goals!
- Schedule in time to do this (both the yoga and the writing). It will be hard with packing and moving (and our trip) but worth it!
- Make sure I stick to that schedule. Write it in my planner and put it on my google to-do list.
- For packing/unpacking I need to make sure I do it right the first time! Sort and throw away/make a donate pile as I pack so I only touch things once.
- When unpacking put everything in the box away from the start, don't make new piles to get to later.

Dear Pandora,

Ok Pandora, you know I love you... usually.

But I'm slightly concerned about you tonight. Pandora dear, do you know what year it is? No, scratch that. Do you know what decade it is? No, scratch that too. Do you know what millennium it is?

How on Earth do any of the bands I've entered get me 'NSync??!? I used to love them.... when I was 13! At 23? Not so much.

Oh, and if you must insist on them, how about some of the good songs?!? The ones I used to sing at the top of my lungs with my friends. The ones where there is a good chance I may remember some of the words. Stop with the crappy filler songs, please.

So, we'll just pretend this never happened, ok? Good.

Signed,

No Longer a Teenybopper.

Getting My Glow On

Do you see the newest edition to the sidebar over there --> ? That cute badge will take you to the main page of Angela's (from Oh She Glows) Summer Glow Boot Camp (SGBC), which is her second boot camp. I started reading her blog about halfway through her first boot camp, so I didn't get to do it. So I'm super excited to do this one.
The boot camp features a handy calendar that tells you what days to do what exercises, when there is a new giveaway (and there are some awesome ones!), and what the main theme is for the week (among other cool things). This is a very cool way to spend the month of July.
Now, you might be thinking that I'm nuts for doing this during the same month I'm going to be packing and moving, but I think it's a smart idea. It will be really nice to have something to focus on other than the upcoming move, and really that will only make the last week difficult, and I figure by then I'll be so addicted to this program that I will find the time. Not to mention the added moves for SGBC aren't that time consuming.
So, click the button and check out the SGBC and Angela's site. And let me know if you're getting your glow on too!

What I Read In June

It's crazy that June is over, it seemed to fly by. I didn't read too much this month but I'm not surprised considering that we started to pack recently. Also, I had a little trouble focusing on a couple of these books, I think I was still just really wrapped up in A Breath of Snow and Ashes and just had trouble going to something other than an Outlander book.

Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster - This is her second book (after Bitter is the New Black) and I actually liked this one even more. It's really funny and I think her personality really jumps off the page at you.

Danica - Crossing the Line by Danica Patrick - Yes, that Danica - the Indy Race Car Driver. I kind of got into an IRL kick after watching the Indy 500 in May and decided to give her book a shot. I took this on the camping trip and it was a great book to read while sitting around the campsite. I thought it was really interesting to read about how she came up through the racing circuit and to read about her life. This was a nice easy and entertaining read.

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin - I actually need to review this book still, I won it through Goodreads and they ask you to review the books you read. I really liked this, I thought it was fun and pretty entertaining. However, it is one of the two books that I had trouble focusing on. About halfway through this I just got really bored and just wanted it to end. I did get back into it toward the end and really liked it. I think I just had trouble focusing on a romantic story involving someone other than Claire and Jamie.

Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne - I really liked this one too. It was actually the book for June for my online book club and I was excited to read it because I've owned it for awhile now (I got it really cheap at Borders). I thought this had a slight Bridget Jones' Diary (which I loved) and a slight Confessions of a Shopaholic (which was ok) feel to it. This is the other one where I got slightly bored in the middle, but it turned out ok.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling - This book ended my HP re-read. I had read it when it first came out (literally, like within hours) but it was kind of a blur in my mind, so I was really excited to read this again. I had forgotten just how great of a book this is. I absolutely love everything about it, even the tear-inducing moments. JKR is such an incredible author and I adore Harry's story. This also got me even more excited for the movie - not much longer now! And this re-read cemented these books as some of my favorite ever - and DH seriously rivals Pride and Prejudice as my favorite book ever.