Newlywed Bliss (Random Photo of the Week)

It's once again Payday, and it has been a fairly busy and stressful day (for a recap on why I hate Payday, please refer to this). For one thing, I had to come in a little earlier than normal, because people expect the checks to be ready at 9:00. When I came in at 7:00 a.m. this wasn't a problem. Now that I'm working 9:30 to 6:00, I have to come in a bit earlier for Payday (luckily it's only every other Thursday). I set my alarm for 15 minutes earlier, and vowed to hit the snooze button a little less so that I could make it on time. Well, I was still running about 10 minutes behind, and when I walked in the door, I could see clear back at my desk, there was already a line of people!! Aye Carumba!

Anyway, once the morning rush died down, things were better. But I'm working on the Sept and Oct schedules for all of the supervisors (there are 30 of them), so I have to track everyone down in descending order of seniority to have them pick their weekends. It's such a pain in my butt, and I have the privilege of doing this project every two months- yippee for me.

Now for the "entertainment". I mentioned earlier that I would post a picture to show what my abs looked like when I was 15 lbs lighter. I was thinking that this picture showed it more, but I guess you can still see some definition (mostly on my left side). However, it does show how small my upper body gets when I lose weight. Notice that I was still so ashamed of my thighs  that I had to cover them with shorts- and they were about 2 inches smaller than they are now!! Crazy, I know. Looking back, I see the folly of my ways. But I love how small my arms were (don't love how small my chest was/is- see Robin, it's all about good bras, even now the girls aren't much bigger than in the picture).

My brother says that when I got married I was "scary skinny". My husband begs to differ (his preference is skinny-skinny-skinny, but that's an entire post in itself). I can understand how if you look at my chest/neck/collarbone area, you might think that I was underweight. When I lost weight at that time, I wasn't trying to get "skinnier", I was just trying to firm up my legs (which never seemed to get any smaller). Too bad I wasn't more diligent with my running, or it might have been an easier task. Right now, I think I'm on the right track, because I'm exercising regularly (running has been great for my legs!), and I'm slowly fitting back into pants that had become too tight (one of the best Non-Scale Victories).

Okay, that train of thought totally jumped the tracks- back to the picture! The picture is from my honeymoon to Disney World. It's at the Typhoon Lagoon waterpark (if you haven't noticed by now, the Hubs and I love to go to amusement and waterparks). We had so much fun and the weather was great while we were there. For anyone familiar with September in Florida, usually it's very hot and humid, and generally rains in the afternoon- it's also right in the middle of prime hurricane season. We were worried about Hurricane Ophelia, but somehow we were extremely lucky, and it turned toward North Carolina, drawing most of the normal moisture with it. So it was basically upper-90's and 95% humidity every day (but no rain!!). I almost always had my hair pulled back in a ponytail or braid (which is why my hair looks a little weird in most of my pictures- not just the honeymoon ones).

Anyway, I think Typhoon Lagoon was our favorite of the two waterparks, because they have a better lazy river (it's a ship-wrecked island theme, instead of winter wonderland), and they have a shark reef where you can snorkel with actual sharks, manta rays and tropical fish! The sharks are really small, and basically harmless, but it's salt water, and it's really cold. It was my first snorkeling experience, and it was a little scary the first time. I'm not a very good swimmer (I can stay afloat, but my technique is non-existent), and with the cold water and having to submerge my face, I almost had a panic/asthma attack the first time. But I got over it, and decided it was really fun.

So, I guess that's all I have to say about the picture. This morning I did a workout on the elliptical machine. I pushed it a little harder, and went for 39 minutes (trying to work my way back to 45). Afterward I did some upper-body strength training, and threw in some squats for good measure (2 sets of 25). My quads are kind of sore, and I'm wondering if they're already hurting from the squats. I don't think it would be from the elliptical, but you never know. Tomorrow I'll probably do more elliptical (while watching Olympics), then do my ab workout. We're going to another baseball game tomorrow night, and hopefully it's better than on Monday. Saturday, I might go for a long walk. Then at some point, I'll have to go shopping for running shoes. I'm trying to talk the Hubs into going to the waterpark, since it won't be open for too much longer. I'm just glad the weekend is almost here!