Retrospect On Mondays

So why is it Mondays always manage to feel like a lion trying to chew my legs off?  Like an epic life or death battle?  Not that this one was not successful!  I set goals on Friday:
1. Complete project and post pics here.
2. Work out at least twice.
3.  Not wreck workouts with bad eating.

Okay.  Now I sort of feel like maybe it was not so successful.  I DID work out twice AND we took the dogs for a 2.5 mile walk on the day I didn't.  YAY!

I did complete a few projects though not specifically the one I referenced on Friday.  Does it count that I sculpted something to help my daughter complete a school project ? (She had to create a hedgehog habitat so I sculpted 3 hedgehogs for her to use.)  I also helped her with some design ideas, though she did all the work and decided what went where, etc.  I created a collage for my husband for his St. Patrick's Day Triathlon and framed that so he could hang it in his accomplishment display.  I made an Easter sculpt and put that and another critter in my Etsy store. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/aleciaedwards)  And I finished another critter, but forgot the pics so he did not get listed.  Overall I feel like I wrapped up two things that were dangling out there 95% complete, and created (or helped create) at least two more.  Even though the original goal was not completed, I still feel like it was a victory!

Which leaves the eating. Ugh.  Was doing well Friday.  Chik-fil-a for Saturday breakfast was probably not too great on the 'best-things-to-put-in-your-piehole' list.  Got home from the grocery store to find husband had slipped Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs in the basket.  My arch nemesis, those things are.  It was ugly.  Let's just say that with help from my family - more specifically my son and husband - that bag was gone by nightfall.  Fine.  That blew it for Saturday, Sunday would be better, right?  Uh-huh.  No.  We went out to eat with my mother-in-law and had burgers and steak fries. FAIL.

I will say that I feel like I sort of managed 2 of 3.  AND I hired a trainer.  The idea is to have this person design my workouts for the month, then I carry them out.  The first week of the next month, we meet and make any necessary adjustments.  This way I maintain some sense of responsibility.  The haha of the whole thing was that we did an analysis and decided my biggest obstacle to success was my lack of accountability.  Not that I couldn't or hadn't.  That I simply need someone to admonish me for not doing it that I had no emotional connection to.  (Someone I could dislike strongly enough to prove wrong is more like it!) :P

I give myself a B for this weekend.  It feels like a B anyway!

Keeping a promise.

Okay so I really made it to myself, but that should still count.  In fact, maybe it should count more...  I don't have anything incredulous planned for the weekend.  A glimmer of hope that the sun this weekend will not be accompanied by that awful north wind we have had lately.  No sun can warm you when that mess is blowing!  I find myself wanting to finish up a sculpture I started and left off from over 6 months ago.  Funny because about 2 weeks ago I found myself wondering if I would ever want to do that sort of project again.  I suppose that is my answer.  I absolutely must hit the gym before I am allowed to start, though.  (Yet another promise I have made to myself I must keep.)

I can't be the only one that is constantly promising myself to do better, only to figure out a way to break it and blame something outside of me.  Truth is, it is my choice, my decision, my consequence.  I have to be better about not wrecking myself.  Being my own worst enemy, of sorts.

So I will work out then sculpt.  (A little voice inside my head just said - unless your friend calls and suggests you go sit on the patio and sip fruity ANYTHING.  Then we will workout later!  And smiles coyly.)  Evil.  Truly.

Goal: 
  1.  Pictures of finally finished project on this blog come Monday.  Deal.
  2. Work out today and and least one other day this weekend. Fine.
  3.  Afterthought goal:  Don't wreck all the working out with eating bad stuff. Ugh....

Shall we see how I do?

Pardon Our Dust

I started to say pardon my dust, but really, sometimes there are more 'me's than even I care to admit.  So!  When I started out I wanted a place that I could share all of the things my cats do to make my life 'easier'.  Uh-huh.  Thing is - days go by and nothing worth noting happens.  Course there are those days when minutes can't go by without something happening....

With the encouragement of a couple of friends, I decided to actually participate in this blog and to thoroughly do that, I am widening its scope to include my ramblings on the things that generally interest, amuse or aggravate me.  We will cover the constant journey that is not only weight loss, but healthier living.  Books are a big part of my life and I have a lot to say about them apparently.... :P  Life's little mishaps and observations will undoubtedly make an appearance and you will certainly end up seeing my creations - from sculpting to decorating.  Of course I will have something to say about my zoo which includes 2 cats, 2.5 dogs, 2 kids and a spouse.  Don't tell him when I write about him.  Unless I say something nice. :P 

Come to think of it, I should have used a pseudonym....

Now we know why I don't blog.

How many months? 5. Yes 5. How many houseplants have passed. None. WHy? I don't have houseplants. I have cats. They even managed to pull down the silk ones. What is wrong with these creatures? We bought a house. And the cats have chewed on the window sill! Yep! I am sure. Sorry suckers left the puncture marks to prove it. Looks like someone took an ice pick all along the edge of my 8 foot wide window sill. The dog is too big to have done it and the cats frequent the window. You do the math.

So, I promised pics - here is what I have at present. First Cheddar. This is the 'brains' behind almost every foul cat deed in my house. He can open doors, cabinets and Sterilite plastic containers. He thinks cats should drink water only from sink faucets and humans are things that you stomp all over when they are in your way. He is flamepoint Siamese/Tabby cross. Charming isn't he?

Second, Mishu (mee-shoo). Siamese. Talkative -whiney. We say he is undecided. Why? He sort of acts like Nathan Lane from The Bird Cage. He would be positively devastated if he pierced the toast. He is also bulimic. Neurotic, bulimic, whiney, undecided cat. Oh and needy. Very needy. He is the one caught doing everything because he walks over to see what Cheddar is up to and when Cheddar walks off, Mishu stays there at the scene of the crime and looks at me like "Whut?"

Yay! Cats....

I have been bz but last nite's dream is too funny/weird not to mention!

So I woke up laughing. Physically, out loud laughing.
Why? Because I dreamed my cats had hijacked the pTouch. You know, the little label maker that fascinates everyone it comes in contact with?

Anyway they had labeled everything downstairs from 'cat perspective'. That simply means the dog had a little sticky label reading 'STUPID' and the plastic box holding their food was labeled 'TASTY'. Where one cat had previously lost his lunch so-to-speak, there was 'BARF', and strangely enough most everything else was labeled 'MINE'.

I am starting to wonder if they are performing experiments on me in my sleep. Cat Mind Control. Like little aliens....

Late last nite...

Or rather - early this morning (4 a.m. to be exact) - I decided to actually blog.

What, you ask, might inspire a person to blog at 4 a.m.? My one word response:

CATS.

Yep! I have em. Yep! I love em. I also sometimes want to strangle them. (Especially at 4 a.m.)
Two cats is really more than I need. What was I thinking? I know what it was. I was a grief stricken, irrational mess that couldn't see a silly cat tree empty after the premature death of what will forever be my favorite pet.

A few years ago I was a stay-at-home mom whose kids were in school all day. I decided to agree to the kitten my daughter wanted. As fate would have it, a family from my son's baseball team had one needing a home. Tonks came home a week later.
He was tiny! Though he was supposed to be 8 weeks and eating solid food, I quickly discovered he could not. For two weeks I bottle fed this tiny little creature, placing him in my pockets and carrying him everywhere. I had to 'teach' him how to eat cat mash (water soaked cat food) and eventually normal cat food. As he got older and would prowl about the house on his own, he would call to me when he was 'lost'. My kids laughed that their cat could say 'Mom' almost as clearly as they could. I was smitten with this insanely mean and hilarious cat that I had raised with almost as much attention as I had my kids.

As Tonks grew older we decided to have him fixed. He was not around other cats, had none of the tom behaviors such as marking, but at 8 months he had fully developed and we decided it was time. I just had no idea what that really meant.

I took him in on a Monday after Thanksgiving. By 1 o'clock, the vet called and said he had passed. No idea why. Just that he was gone. Having never had something that close to me die - it was very traumatic and I exhibited all signs of having become the crazy cat lady: 3days of crying all day, no sleep, being totally nauseous when I walked out of my room to see that 5.5 foot cat tree empty. I did improve but was miserable.

After a few weeks I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to bring home a cat from the shelter. By then I was working and didn't feel it fair to have a kitten alone so much so we needed two. Some cats do need another cat around. Some don't. Mine don't. Still don't... 3 years of still don't. Oh don't get me wrong - they coexist on an uneasy truce with at least a daily rehashing of what belongs to who when. But they would have been perfectly fine being only cats. And so might many of my things. And my husbands things... And my son's.... Okay, okay, and my daughter's.

I will recount the many stories already written here until I catch up to their current antics - if that is possible.

I will get some photos up to introduce you to the cast of characters. And I have plenty of stories to keep this blog supplied while they produce new ones. Just know that nothing - AND I MEAN NOTHING - in my house is safe.