Haaaaaaarrrrrrryyyyyyy Potter!

This weekend Casey and I did not do much at all and loved every minute of it! On Friday afternoon we did yard work and I mowed our entire 1/4 acre front and back yard all by myself! WHOO HOO!! This is only the 3rd time I have ever mowed a lawn - so YAY! After the yard work and a much needed shower, Casey and I went out to eat at Brother's Pizza and I cheated (GASP!) on Atkins by having a delicious slice of pizza. I figured that I burned at least twice that many calories mowing the lawn so I deserved a little treat. After that we went to Wal Mart where they had all of the Harry Potter movies on sale and we bought the first one since I have never read the books or seen any of the movies. I also bought a really cute shirt from Miley Cyrus/Max Azria's new line for Wal Mart which is SO CUTE!! I was really impressed! We went home and curled up on the couch with the dogs and watched as much of the movie as we could get through before going to bed. I really loved the movie so I decided to start reading the books with all this time I have on my hands. I went to the library and luckily - they had plenty of copies for me to borrow. That's my project for this week - Book 1!


This week I only work 2 or 3 days so I am going to have a ton of time on my hands. I am hoping to get the front and back gardens weeded and the house super clean.

Also - today is the last day of my Alternative Certification Program! I have one assignment to do and then I'm done. Now I just need that job.....

Back in Black!!

Okay so maybe it's more like back in really dark brown - but you get the point. I am now a brunette again! I have been a red head since last November but decided that it's time for a change so I'm going back to my roots- literally! I just got really tired of my roots showing and the red fading after a few weeks. Besides fall is coming and I figured a really nice espresso brown would be perfect to get me in the mood for fall time, which I love. Here are the before and after pics - sorry about the no makeup!

My last picture as a redheadHoping that it doesn't turn out TOO dark... it was looking that way!

It turned out great! The exact color I wanted!

More blessings and back on the wagon

This week I decided that I absolutely had to be back on the wagon and focused on this weight loss. I luckily did not gain anything back and have lost an additional pound recently but I still have a ways to go. I want to lose an additional 5 lbs by Halloween and then the other 3-5 lbs by Christmas. I will post some more "after" pictures soon and my measurements.

Yesterday I worked at Loft (Ann Taylor Loft) from 8:30-12:00 and I just have to say that I really love working there so far. The clothes are fabulous, my bosses are wonderful, and my coworkers are very nice. Having never shopped at Loft before now I am so impressed by the quality of the material and the quality of the fit of all of the clothing. I bought three pairs of jeans yesterday as well as a dress, a cardigan, and an ADORABLE slouchy "grandpa" sweater that looks soooo cute with skinny jeans. Speaking of which I finally can fit into skinny jeans and not look like a sausage - haha- YAY! I am very excited about being back in retail and honing my love of fashion again. I will definitely have to watch my spending though- I want everything in the store!

After getting off of work I had a text from Katie (Casey's sister) and she was back from her fabulous Mexican cruise. She was downtown so I went and picked her up and we had a nice time hanging out and catching up. Last night the whole Page family went to dinner and silly me - I didn't get any pictures! What is wrong with me? I used to be a complusive picture taker and now I forget! We went to Guadalajara's and it was wonderful as usual.

This morning I have been hanging out around the house and getting some "to-do"s done. I took Riley out for a run/extended walk and we ended up being out for an hour walking and running around the neighborhood. When we got back I felt bad that Zach didn't get to go so he and I went for a leash training session around the pond and back. He did really well and I'm excited that he's finally getting better on the leash.

Now I'm off to have lunch with Andi at Chick-Fil-A and then tanning. More later!

Counting my Blessings

This past week I've been on an emotion rollercoaster going from being very sad and upset with my position in life (jobless for the most part, putting extra strain on us financially, not getting to pursue my teaching career because nobody will hire me, etc) to being happy that I have a beautiful house to live in, a wonderful family, fantastic friends, and an amazing boyfriend. I noticed on facebook that a college acquaintance of mine is doing a "tweeting/facebook update challenge" called "30 days to count your blessings" where everyday for a month she posts something that she's thankful for. Reading her posts made me think about everything that I am thankful for and even more that I should be thankful for. So for today's blog I am going to list a few things that I am thankful for and try to continue doing this at least once a week.

-I am thankful for finding a wonderful church we go to and for Pastor Espinosa. He is a wonderful Pastor and I really need to spend more time getting to know him and talking to him about my problems as he always seems to know exactly what to say.

-I am thankful for my family. Despite my family's craziness, I would have to say I have the best family a girl could ask for. I have the absolute most amazing father in the world. For those of you who don't know- I was an "oops!" baby, but my father really stepped up to the plate when he found out my mom was pregnant with me. He was a musician at the time and looked in the newspaper to find a job and noticed that all the open positions were for nurses. He decided to go back to school and become a nurse. My parents got divorced when I was 3 or 4 and Daddy worked 2-3 jobs at a time AND went to night school to support us and for that I have the utmost respect and love for my dad. He is truly an amazing man. I also have a wonderful and beautiful mother whom I love very much. We've had our ups and downs but she is a great friend to me and I cherish the time we get to spend together. My cousin Jennifer - she might as well be my sister. We are almost 2 weeks apart in age and have spent more time together than most siblings do. She is my rock and understands me better than almost anyone. I love her with all my heart and am so thankful for her. I wish she, Chris, and Abby lived closer but that's on their "To do" list and will happen soon enough. And then there's my God daughter Abby- I cannot believe how much I love that little girl- I didn't know I had that much love to give! I cannot wait for her to get older so she can spend a few weeks each summer with her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Casey. My Aunt Karen or my "2nd mom" as I call her is a wonderful woman and has always made sure that I was included in every family function and felt like a part of the famliy even when my mother wasn't around. She made sure I had a good upbringing and knew right from wrong. She'll never know how much I appreciate that.

- I am thankful for Casey. I never knew I could love someone who wasn't family as much as I love him and I never knew someone who wasn't family could put up with me the way he does. We have been together for 5 years on September 15th and while the past 5 years have been rocky at some points, I know he is my soul mate and I appreciate everything that he does for me and how much he loves me. This next year isn't going to be easy, but having a wonderful person like Casey by my side makes things so much better.

-I am thankful for my friends. I have always made friends easily, but finding friends are will be there for me and who are reliable isn't always the easiest thing. I have had "best" friends who promised to always be there for me, but who won't return calls for weeks (even months) and when push comes to shove will do whatever is best or easiest for themselves and I am so thankful that I have the group of friends I have now. They are easy to talk to, open minded, reliable, funny, beautiful women (and one guy!) and I love them so much. Thank you Sara, Kelli, Jessica, Melissa, Andi, Jennifer, Katie, Adriane, Lacy, Leigh Anne, and Patrick for always being there for me and being truly wonderful friends.

-I am thankful for Riley and Zach. Every day when I walk through the front door - even if it's just from walking to the mailbox - those two greet me with "smiling" faces and wagging tails. They are and endless supply of love and affection and I couldn't ask for two better dogs. They are well disciplined and are soooo smart! I never had dogs that I really connected with when I was growing up and I'm very thankful for those two knuckleheads!

-I am thankful that I am healthy. I may not feel 100% every day, but at least I can walk, talk, breath, sleep, etc. There are so many people out there who are less fortunate than I am and who cannot get the healthcare we have in the United States.

-I am thankful that I have a part time job right now- Ann Taylor Loft might not pay much and I might not be working there full time, but something is better than nothing and I am thankful that I walked in, applied, got interviewed 2 days later, and got the job there all within a week. The Lord works in mysterious ways and I know he puts me in the places I need to be in for a reason. Speaking of Ann Taylor - I have to go to my very first day of work right now! More blessings to come....

My Hibiscus!

As I was walking out of the house this morning I noticed that my Hibiscus plant in the front garden was blooming big time! Usually it has 1-2 blooms but this time there were 8 of them! Exciting stuff! Anyway, I just snapped a quick picture of it and uploaded it through Picasa which is an awesome photo program that Google has. It's free if you want to download it!

A new look for the blog and "off the wagon"....

So if you haven't noticed- the blog got a new look! I finally went to thecutestblogontheblock.com and sifted through hundreds of backgrounds before finding this one- which is perfect! It's supposedly a Christmas-y background, but I think it's cute for everyday. I was getting kind of bored with the 10 background offered by blogger so on to better and prettier things!

As you might have noticed, I haven't blogged about my weight loss in over a week and that's because I have kind of fallen off the wagon a bit. I still haven't had much bread per say, but I have been cheating with tortillas and tortilla chips a little. This weekend when Dad came in we were eating out so much that the temptation was just too much for me to handle and I gave in - boo! So yesterday morning I was back on the wagon and eating right again. The working out thing hasn't been what it should be and I haven't really ran or worked out since last Thursday -EEK! I am planning on going to the gym sometime today and getting my butt back in gear. I think I have worked really hard to lose the first five pounds, but it hasn't been enough and I need to work even harder to lose the 5-8 more lbs I want to lose. I keep telling myself with all of the time I am going to have that I should be doing 2-a-days (working out in the morning and again in the afternoon), but saying something and doing it are two very different things. Maybe I will work out today and then try two-a-days tomorrow? We'll see...

Today I have a lot of stuff on my agenda, but nothing really of consequence. I need to give Riley a B-A-T-H and clean around the house some more, but there's a ton of little things in between that I need to do as well. For some reason I am really missing my family right now and I'm not sure if it's that I have all of this time on my hands now or if I am not seeing them enough, but it sucks. All I want to do right now is hang out with my family, especially Jen, Chris, and Abby. I miss you guys SO much - you have no idea. I am very excited that Chris got promoted to Sergeant though and they will FINALLY be able to move in the next year or two. YAY!! Here's the little girl that I miss so much:


Okay well I'm off to do housework and run more errands!

Oh the life of a stay at home "mom"

So this week I get to pretend to be a "Trophy Wife", minus the "wife" part of course, stay at home "mom" (to two cute dogs), or just a plain ol' bum. Whatever you want to call it, as of last Thursday I was unemployed and really feeling the anxiety that comes along with it. As I left TWYLA with a tear in my eye, I got a moment of clarity when I realized that everything was going to be okay. Yeah, Casey and I might be living paycheck to paycheck (his paycheck) and eating Ramen Noodles every night for dinner, but at least we have each other and we're happy. We'll make it and we'll be fine and in 10 years this will just be another blip on the radar and we'll laugh about how "poor" we were. As far as me being a "Trophy Wife", by that I mean since I don't have a job I get to stay home and concentrate on making things run smoothly at home. Whenever I think of women that do this I always think about the women I see who drop their kids off at daycare and spend the rest of the day working out, letting their housekeepers clean their house, and then of course shopping. Unfortunately I won't be doing any shopping and I will be the housekeeper. Today I am cleaning the house, working on assignments, and running errands. I have been up since 5am and I can't believe that it's already 1:00. Time flies even faster when you're not at work. I thought the day would drag on but I've been busy since I woke up and haven't even come close to accomplishing everything I need to do today. There's always tomorrow though!

This weekend my dad came in to celebrate his birthday and spend some time with Casey and I. We had a packed weekend and had a blast. For those of you who don't know, I have the best father in the entire universe and I do mean that literally. I have been my dad's sidekick since day one and would be totally lost without him. On Friday I had substitute training for Conroe ISD and then met Daddy at the house so we could go get some lunch. We went to Guadalajara in The Woodlands for lunch and had some delicious fajitas. After that we went up to the mall to walk around and chat. I got a call from my new boss at Ann Taylor Loft so we also dropped by there to talk to her. I start on Wednesday- yay! Friday night we had plans to go to the Astros game but traffic was insane due to a bad storm coming in so we decided to go on Sunday instead. We went out to eat at Outback and then went home and fell asleep on the couches watching Monty Python - not a bad a little Friday!

On Saturday morning we got up and I made breakfast tacos (with low carb tortillas) for Daddy and I and then as we were getting ready to head out to Galveston, Casey got a call from his sister Katie. She needed a ride from IAH to Galveston because she was flying in from New York to go on a cruise with some friends and her flight was delayed almost 3 hours. So Daddy and I headed out to Galveston by ourselves. As soon as we got to Galveston we were starving so we went to grab a light lunch at The Strand. I have never been to the Strand so I had no idea what there was to do or eat down there. We asked a lady who was working a parking lot booth and she recommended some steak and seafood place or a place called Fisherman's Wharf. We decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf because it sounded like a nice, family owned, unique kind of place. We were wrong. It ended up being a super expensive Landry's owned restaurant, but the food was good so all was well in the end. After eating lunch Daddy and I went down to the Strand to do some shopping and we had plans to go to the Railroad Museum but they were closed - LAME! I was really surprised at how many stores didn't re-open after the storm and I was SUPER impressed at how high the water got in the Strand. You could see water lines that were 5-8 feet above my head- insanity. I guess I had forgotten really how bad Ike was last year, but after that I'm praying for no repeats of last year! At around 2:30 Casey finally rolled into Galveston and we went to Stewart beach for an hour or so. I didn't realize it but my dad had not been to a beach since he was 20 years old- is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard? When I was a kid I was usually with my mom during the summers so we went to the beaches in South Carolina, so Daddy and I never went to the beach together. Weird! After the beach we went to Casey's for dinner and I'll have to be honest - whatever they changed post-hurricane, the food was NOT good. I was very sad because that's where we always go! Here are some pics from our Galveston trip:






On Sunday we slept in a bit and then went to the Astros game against the Diamondbacks. We ended up getting club tickets which was nice because I haven't sat there in forever and it was nice and cool which Daddy liked. Unfortunately the pitcher that started was AWFUL and got us way behind so we ended up not being able to catch up enough to win the game, but it was a decent game to watch. Here are some pics from the game:




This week I have a lot going on despite being underemployed. I have my first day at Ann Taylor Loft on Wednesday as well as an interview at Stepping Stones Preschool on Wednesday morning. Not sure if I am going to take a full time position right now because that kind of defeats the purpose of me subbing to get a full time teaching job, but we'll see how things go. TTFN!