Monday, April 28, 2008

Round two. Delicious!

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Sunday, April 27, 2008

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Vacation is awesome!

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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Uh oh - here we go again!

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Another b-day dead and gone...

And now I'm 29...yippee! The day itself was pretty nice - my coworkers did a little number on my door, I went shopping for myself (and bought some super hot jeans), turned in my final paper for one of my classes, played golf, tennis, bowling, and guitar hero on our new Wii whilst drinking wine and beer, and admired my new oars from Josh. Nothing huge to report. Just thought I'd check in!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

I'm....graduating?

Not yet. Don't get ahead of yourself.

Anyway, I had a run-of-the-mill meeting today with our graduate coordinator about the things I need to do to get my graduate project underway. After a little discussion and me proving information about my topic and what I would like to look at for my project, I received the information I needed. Not only that, I walked away from the meeting with a committee chair set in place, names of two other people to contact to be on my committee, and an expected graduation date of December 2008. Holy crap! I expected it to take a lot longer than that, but my "chair" told me he firmly believes that I can complete everything by October, to defend my project in November, and graduate in December. Not only that, he told me he would love to see my project published and that he is confident that my project will get that far.

It's funny because I remember starting grad school in the fall of 2006 thinking this whole thing is a popularity contest and it would not be fun, in the slightest. But now that things are starting to come together and I'm starting to see the end, it's kind of fun to see that the graduate faculty are looking at my ideas and projects as something worthwhile, worth pursuing, and worthy of publishing....even without seeing any sort of outline for my topic. It's honestly nice to know that my "chair" is confident enough in me to tell me these things with minimal information.

That's all, really. I'm just really excited to have a start on things and to know that I am fully supported.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Cute

I was supposed to read all day and finish this stupid book for my Management class. Brooke even went to her great-grandma's so I could get some stuff done (Josh went rafting again). I read quite a bit but eventually pulled out my guitar and jammed out a little bit. I picked up Brooke and brought her home to chill. Josh came home for a brief second and then we took him to an awards thing for work. Eventually, it came time for Brooke to go to bed. I still had my guitar out and I asked her if she wanted me to sing her a song. Of course, she said "yes" and plopped down cross-legged onto the floor to listen. She told me I could make a lot of money if I wanted to. Then, she asked if I wanted her to massage my back. Of course, I said "YES!" and she sat behind me on the couch while I played guitar and she rubbed my back. I started making up a stupid song about how I like it when Brooke massages my back. I stopped and said, "your turn!" and we took turns singing made up lines about each other. It went something like this:

M: "Man, I love it when Brooke rubs my back. It feels pretty awesome like that."
B: "Yeah, Miranda is the coolest."
M: "Brooke is a pretty cool kid"
B: "Miranda likes to sing."
M: "Brooke has some shoes that are a little bit too small."
B: "No they aren't."
M: "I think it's time for Brooke to go to bed!"

It was pretty much the funniest/cutest moment we've had in awhile. That and the time last week when we were eating dinner and she said, "Miranda, you know, over the past couple of days, you've been really acting like a mom." I kindly said, "Well, I'm not your real mom but I take care of you like a real mom should." She quietly responded with "ohh."

Anyway, our impromptu songwriting session was sooooo cute.

Monday, April 07, 2008

The girl won't eat anything I make but she'll make a mayo, mustard, ketchup, and peanut butter sandwich and eat the whole damn thing! I'm getting played!

Saturday, April 05, 2008

I am paranoid...

...because I work with offenders. Granted, people should be cautious when someone knocks on the front door at 11pm, but I think I am overly cautious because of my job. Case in point: I was sitting around posting an ad on Craigslist (I need to get rid of these gargantuan dresses in my closet!) and watching World Poker Tour on TV when there was a knock on the door. Silly me freaked out! I wasn't sure if I should actually open the door or not so I took a peek through the blinds. Silly me couldn't see anything but a silhouette, yet I opened the door anyway. WTF? If I was that freaked out, I shouldn't have opened the door! Thankfully, it was just our neighbor, Jordan, wondering if Josh was home because he needed something only Josh can provide. Wait, that sounded dirty and gay and that's not what I meant. He needed something that I would not have in my possession. Anyway, I am safe, but still a little concerned that I am so paranoid.

Losing that "fat girl" mentality

I was watching "What Not to Wear" last night (a guilty pleasure of mine) and there was a girl on there who had lost 120 pounds and she had a hard time shopping because she still saw herself as the "fat girl." Anyway, I have come to realize that I still see myself that way sometimes and I get irritated when I gain even the slightest amount of weight when I weigh in every week. I love the fact that I am not limited by only shopping at Lane Bryant or Torrid (i.e. the "big girls stores") and that I can step into the GAP and buy size 10 or 12 pants (oh my gawd, did I actually wear an 18 before???) and have them fit. I love the fact that I've lost nearly 50 pounds (I am SO damn close to that award at Weight Watchers!). I love the fact that I can walk up the stairs to my third floor class and not be out of breath. But I can't seem to get out of the mindset that my thighs are big and I still have a pouch of a belly. There's something about me that strives to still fit into Lane Bryant bras even though soon I will have to settle for some other place the next time I have to buy bras. And what will I do without my "buy one, get one 1/2 off" standard?! I guess I don't really have a point to this, other than the fact that I've become obsessed with losing weight and I'm a little bit scared that once I hit my "goal" (that's in about 6 pounds) I'm still going to thrive on losing weight instead of maintaining simply because I won't see myself like everyone else probably does. Does this make sense? Has anyone else felt like this?

With all that being said, I want desperately to post before and after pictures for you - maybe I'll edit this later and add pics for people who haven't seen me in awhile....


(Ok, it didn't take me too long to add pics...)

Spring 2003?


January-ish 2007

February 2008


Spring 2003?


February 2008


January-ish 2008

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

it's been awhile...

...and I don't really have anything interesting to say.

I went to POST Academy for work and graduated last Friday, so that was nice. It suuuuuuuuucks to have to stay in dorms, with a roommate, without the ability to leave campus (except for the weekend) when you only live 15 minutes away. Oh well, like I said, it's over and I got an "awesome" sweat suit with my name on it for future use.

The semester is coming to a close, but is sooooooo busy, yet again. And this time, I really didn't procrastinate. I really just haven't had enough time to get everything done, especially since I had to be gone at POST for 2 weeks.

Josh is taking his first rafting trip this weekend and I'm jealous. I'm staying home with Brooke and will be going crazy reading research for my presentation on Tuesday.

Wow, this is such a boring post. I'm really, really sorry that I have nothing better to write about. Maybe something exciting will happen soon and I can tell you about it. For now, I'll just head back to watching Idol and studying for my test tomorrow.