Playing Hookie

Once again, I've been "away". Although you may have noticed that I'm trying to stay caught up with my blog reading, so I've been commenting here and there.

Last Friday I spent time with my mom and sisters. I took 2 giant CD binders full of DVD's, and out of all of them, they decided to watch "Taxi" (with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon). Really? There wasn't something better? Oh well, who was I to judge, since I had never seen it. They said it was funny. I'll admit, what I watched of it was pretty funny. However, since the Hubs was able to catch an earlier flight, I had to leave early to pick him up (8:12 instead of 10:37- so much for my girls' night out). But that's okay, because I was happy to see him (and I wasn't looking forward to driving to the airport that late at night- I have poor night vision, and it was past my bedtime, so I was a little worried about drowsy driving).

Because my arm was seriously sore from my flu shot, I decided to take a Tylenol PM (make that 2) when I went to sleep. Holy cow! It knocked me out. I slept from about 10 p.m. until almost 10 a.m. Needless to say when I woke up, I was a little hungover. We went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant (where they recently just jacked up their prices). I didn't end up going for a run, because I was saving up my strength for yard work. The Hubs planned to remove the wood frames from the cement patio, and mow the lawn, so I offered to rake all the leaves and pick up the 9 million sticks on the grass. It didn't look like as many leaves as I raked up, plus it was much hotter out in the sun than I realized. So my sore arm, combined with some serious raking and bagging leaves, I was pretty worn out. (I know I promised pictures of the finished patio, and they will be coming at some point, even though we still need to fill in with dirt around the edges)

Saturday night we were supposed to go to the haunted house with the Hubs' brother and his wife, but they flaked out on us, and since neither of us really felt like going anyway, we just stayed home and watched TV (since we had lots of Tivo'd shows to catch up on from the Hubs being gone).

Sunday after church we drove up to my mom's house for dinner. We went up there early to spend time visiting with my brother, who was flying back to Denver that night. It's always loud and rowdy with my family, especially in my parents' small house, but it's always fun. Plus, it's been a while since all 5 of my siblings have been together (plus spouses and kids).

Finally we had to take off for the Hubs' brother's house for the birthday/costume party. The party was for him, and his son (whose birthday was earlier in the month), and one of the other brother's wives (got that?). We changed into pseudo-costumes at my parents' house, but when we arrived, we were the only ones wearing them. Apparently they changed their mind, but didn't bother to tell us (although for the record, my SIL said she tried to call us to let us know... there was a missed call on my phone from an hour and a half earlier). The Hubs was wearing camo pants and an army jacket, and I was wearing an "army-green" flight suit with a khaki baseball cap, so it's not like we were all decked out or anything. But we still felt kinda dumb. After they opened presents, we headed out, although we had to drop off the Hubs' brother on our way.

On the way home, there was a little drama and my feelings were hurt. I read for a while, but then went to bed. When I woke up Monday morning, I was still a little miffed, plus I was tired and felt overwhelmed about not getting any cleaning or laundry done over the weekend, so I called in to work and used a vacation day. Now that I earn 4 weeks of paid vacation a year, I have plenty of extra to use for days just like that. After I called at 5:00 a.m. I went back to bed. When the Hubs woke up and realized that I wasn't going in, he thought it would be a good idea to stay home, too. He had some work that he could do on the computer, so it worked out well. It was nice to just spend the day together, doing whatever.

After I ate breakfast, I headed up to the park to run. I really wanted to run on my regular route, but I was worried about having knee problems and being far from home (and having to walk up the hill in pain). It was warmer than I thought, so by the end, my long sleeve shirt was all sweaty in my elbows, and my forehead was dripping. But I was happy, because my total was just over 4 miles!! I finally went longer than 3.2 miles, yippee! I still had some calf pain, and a little pain in my knee, but with my walk breaks, it wasn't too bad at all. I slowed down my pace a bit, but otherwise, it was just a regular run. And it was pretty good.

I showered, and since it was so warm, I put on capris- yes, I had to dig them out of the basement! Apparently it's going to be 70 degrees every day this week! A while back I mentioned that in Utah sometimes we have all 4 season in one week. Well this week, it's only one season, and that's Indian Summer- and I'm loving it!!

I went to 2 grocery stores, did 3 loads of laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. But I ended up with a headache in the afternoon, so I laid down in the cold basement with the electric massager on my neck and watched Jon & Kate Plus 8. Then later on, the Hubs and I spread newspaper on the dining room floor and carved pumpkins with his carving kit that I gave him for his birthday- it came with Minnesota Vikings carving patterns! We carved a football and a "Go Vikings" pumpkin. They were a little tricky, but they turned out all right. Yes, I know I need to take pictures (but since the Hubs had the camera in Chicago all last week, I fell out of the habit of snapping a picture of everything, even though it's back in my purse). I'll try to post some tonight.

Yesterday back at work was a catch-up day. All the supervisors and managers were out of the office at an off-site meeting, so I was just going through all my email, and reading blogs. Well, I did some other stuff, too, but I really didn't have a lot of motivation. After work I stopped at a thrift store to look for some Halloween costume stuff (this year I am so not feeling it, and I have been a major slacker). Since the Hubs' brother is having a Halloween party tomorrow (with costumes this time), and he wants everyone to wear something late 19th/early 20th century, I had somewhat of a direction to head in. I think I found something that will work- it's a long taffeta skirt that's burgundy (it's actually part of a 2-piece prom dress, but the top so doesn't fit the theme), and I'm thinking I'll wear it with a black dress shirt that has some lace on it. It will look sort of Victorian. Then I can pull my hair back in a bun or something. If it isn't too poofy, I might even wear the slip I wore with my wedding dress under the skirt. We'll see how it goes. I really procrastinated this too long to worry about it much. Most people at my office dress up, but I'm at the point where I don't even care. I might just wear my Charlie Brown t-shirt that says "I got a rock" with a picture of the Peanuts gang in their Halloween costumes.

By the time I got home, I was getting pretty hungry, and I had to almost force myself to workout. I ate a few prunes and some carrots with hummus as a pre-workout snack (weird, I know, but it actually helped). The Hubs left a message for me asking if I would iron a shirt for him, since he has a presentation to do today (and he was having his game night with the boys). He said he would give me a back rub if I did it, so I obliged (after dinner, and while watching the Biggest Loser, of course). I didn't end up doing my strength training, though. But I'm pretty proud that I did my 45 minutes on the elliptical (cuz I almost didn't), so I'm calling it good. Speaking of Biggest Loser, there will be no episode next week (due to election day, I'm guessing) which is good, because I was worried about it being interrupted by election coverage. But it still sucks that I have to wait 2 more weeks to get my fix (and boy am I glad that they're dissolving the teams, because I am so sick of the conniving, lying and back-stabbing).

I guess that brings me to today. I have to get my oil changed after work (one of my least favorite things to do, but at least I'll have a minute to read a magazine). I also have to do some sewing for my costume tomorrow (the skirt is a size 12, so it will be major surgery to make it fit in the waist). Luckily, it's leftover pork-chops and brown rice for dinner. The rest of the week will be crazy, since I don't plan to go home after work. But I'll try to get some pictures up (of the patio and the pumpkins). I've been meaning to get some pics of the changing leaves in my neighborhood (now that they're finally changing), so if I have time, I'll add those, too.

And, although it's not much, I'm down 0.8 lbs this week (which brings me to 136.2). I'm still #13 in Viv's Challenge (how weird), so I'm thinking it's a lucky sign. I really need to get back to running (because it's a lot easier for me to lose weight/maintain), but in the meantime, I need to be extra diligent about doing other types of workouts and watching my food intake. I'm still journaling, and it's going pretty well (although the weekends are still a struggle, because my notebook just sits in my bag).

For anyone who might be wondering (you know who you are ; p), I have not made any drastic changes to my hair, although I am still contemplating- it will happen if/when I can find time.

****************PHOTO UPDATE****************

Okay, so I was a little busy and have no patio picture- yet. But wouldn't you know it, the Hubs had already taken pictures of the pumpkins when they were lit up (and yes, they were on the camera that was in my purse while I was writing this post yesterday). So here is a pumpkin pic:

I'll try to get the other pics tomorrow or this weekend. Just be patient. LOL