Weigh In Wednesday and 5 for Five

I'm going to let this post kill two birds with one stone. This means I'm mixing my 5 for Five post with my Weigh In Wednesday post. Why? Because I wasn't prepared for this week at all so I'm a bit behind on all the things I want to write about. So let's quit wasting time here and get right to it.

1. Put more time and effort into blogging.
This isn't going so well. Obviously. I'm only posting about twice a week it seems. I haven't taken the time to commit to this goal. I need to plan ahead at least a day in advance or things fall to pieces. Since I'm posting this update midweek already it's going to be tough to show progress by the beginning of next week already but I will do what I can. Some progress is better than none.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7am at least three times a week.
Again, not doing so well. Going to bed at a decent time and being able to get up when the alarm goes off go hand in hand for me. I am not the type to spring out of bed when the alarm goes off every morning {obvs} but I do know it is easier for me when I get enough rest. In theory, I should be getting enough rest since I'm sleeping about 8 hours a night. But that doesn't seem to be the case since I'm still always snuggling deeper into my flannel penguin sheets when the alarm goes off. I'm going to try my hand at getting to bed earlier than 11pm the rest of this week to see if that helps my mornings. Maybe I need more than 8 hours of sleep every night?

3. Clean my bathroom and room, then keep it that way. 
I haven't touched either room yet. I still have over a week left of November to get this completed. Cleaning is never fun but it definitely needs to be done. Maybe I can try tackling one smaller project {packing summer clothes away} at a time rather than looking at the daunting task of organizing and cleaning both rooms in one session?

4. Read four books.
I'm over 60% done reading The Book Thief {November's BBC book choice} so I'm not completely failing at this goal. But I do have another three books to go. I'm hoping I can breeze through The Single Woman's Survival Guide once The Book Thief is finished. I have my third book, Serena, waiting on my Kindle as well but I don't have a fourth book even picked out yet. I guess I'm hoping when I finish the first three I'll be able to find something fairly quick and something I can dive into and finish quickly. It might be a struggle to read four books by the end of the month but I will try my best. The fact that this goal is challenging me is surprising. I love to read and thought this would be an easy one to complete.

5. Get my healthy lifestyle on track.
Failing big time at this. I even had quantifiable sub goals that would help me achieve the big goal but lack of effort to plan has lead to failure. It's true what they say, failure to plan is planning to fail. I succeed when I plan my meals and mentally plan to go to the gym at least a day in advance. I fail when I decide to wing it with my meals and go to the gym if I get up early enough. I'm even losing the mental battle to drink water and avoid my beloved Mountain Dew. Why? Because I have the poor mindset that if I'm failing at meal planning and going to the gym then why bother. But I'm not giving up. I will succeed. I can do this.

Stats

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last week's weigh in, Nov. 13: 207

Today's weigh in, Nov. 20: 207.2

Gain: 0.2

Overall loss: 0.5

And with that I'm going to blow this Popsicle stand. Enjoy your Wednesday! Be happy we're at the half way point!

Grey's Anatomy: Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

I finally sat down to watch Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy yesterday morning and was immediately sucked in to the story. This episode felt like how they used to be. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen and so thankful I recorded it so I could skip the commercials. I hope there are more episodes like this to come!

This whole episode focused on Callie, either with the lawsuit against her or with her relationship with Arizona. I have a renewed interest into the Callie and Arizona relationship after this episode so well done Shonda.

Callie ultimately won the trial but for a while there it was little shaky. The professional snowboarder Travis Reed {who was suing Callie} and his girlfriend used words Callie had said to to them or around them against her. When you hear what she said from Travis or the girlfriend you think Callie is guilty. But then they flashback to show you how it really happened. When you see what was going on when Callie says those things you realize that Callie is just a passionate surgeon and that her words in no way admit guilt. Makes you want to be extra careful with what you say around people now, doesn't it?

During the episode we see flashbacks to when Callie and Arizona were still happy together. We find out that they were trying to have another baby, they had a miscarriage, and Arizona was unsure if she wanted to try again. We also see the reappearance of Callie's dad. He's all ready to blame Arizona for leaving Callie but then Callie admits that she asked her to leave because Arizona cheated on her. Callie's dad admits that he cheated on her mother but they worked through it and because if it he has Callie. Callie softens and goes to ask Arizona to come home.

Good thing Callie didn't go inside that hotel room because guess who's standing inside all wrapped up in a sheet?  Yup, you guessed it, Murphy. But Arizona tells her to get dressed and leave. I'm sure Murphy's heart is broken!

I'm interested to see how things plays out in coming episodes. Will Callie have issues dealing with the fact that she had she not lost that envelope with information on the clinical trial for the Petersen hip she would have never gone through with the surgery? Will Callie find out about Murphy and be pissed at Arizona all over again? Guess we will have to watch and see!

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Be sure to check out what Kelley has to say about this week's episode of Grey's as well!

Weigh In Wednesday: I've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Woot Woot it's HUMP DAY!

Sadly, this hump day feels like a Tuesday since Monday I was off thanks to Veterans Day. And then Tuesday had to go and be a Monday impersonator, making me stay late at work and everything!

But I'm not going to let that bring me down. I'm going to have a positive attitude today!

The stats for Weigh In Wednesday:

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Oct. 30 Weigh In: 204.8

Nov. 6 Weigh In: 204.8

Today, Nov. 13 Weigh In: 207

Gain: 2.2

Overall Loss: 0.7

Well...

Those stats aren't pretty but they're real life.

I haven't been focused on healthy eating or working out so I knew it was going to happen.

I strongly dislike my starting weight and if I gain next week I will be so upset with myself. So the goal is to not gain any more! I'll take no change on the scale but I will not allow a gain next week.

That being said, I need to focus and start doing what needs to be done to achieve one of my November goals. It was the first goal I made, get my healthy lifestyle back on track. I can do it, that I know without a doubt. But right now things aren't looking promising unless I pull my head out of my ass and do something about it.

I didn't meal plan this week but I can still make smart choices about what I'm eating.

I haven't been to the gym yet but there is still time.

I drank water like it was going out of style yesterday and I plan to again today.

I can do this!

One thing I know that's lacking and would help me A LOT is a buddy. I know it has to be my choice to make the changes necessary but a buddy to check in on me doesn't hurt. It helps me to know that someone is going to check in with me. I don't want to tell them that I failed at going to the gym or that I ate like crap all day.

Any volunteers? :)

I'll leave you with the inspiration for my blog title today.

 

I've lost that loving feeling with the gym. Anyone want to help me find it?

Grey's Anatomy: Two Against One

First of all, thank you veterans past and present for your service and sacrifices!

Now let's talk about Grey's Anatomy.

Thursday's episode Two Against One had me all kinds of frustrated.

Bailey

Something is going on with Bailey without a doubt.  She has some obsessive behaviors; something with pulling on her fingers, not adapting to a change in what OR she'll be operating in, and being extremely thorough when closing her patient. But then at the end of the episode it was like they wanted you to doubt that there was something wrong with her when she actually found rotting apples in Tuck's soccer bag despite Ben not being able to smell it earlier in the day.  But then they hammered it home that there has to be something wrong with Bailey because she went crazy with pulling on her fingers.

Think this is something to do with Ben quitting the program he was in to come home?

Or maybe this has something to do with whatever she had when her patients were dying after she operated on them?

Either way I was like w-t-f is going on here?!

Ross & Yang

Ross aka sharky is kicking butt lately! This week he came up with a way to save a baby's life. Only problem is it requires using Meredith's 3D printer. I'm really liking Yang as a mentor to Ross but it still bugs the crap out of me that Ross hasn't come clean about what happened with Brooks!

Cristina & Meredith

This relationship is frustrating me the most out of everything going on right now! The two talk abut it's definitely not the Cristina and Meredith talk we're used to. And quite honestly I'm not a big fan of Meredith right now.

Meredith is being reckless and trying to push too hard in surgeries, which Alex figures out is because of her desire to prove that she's a great surgeon. But then we have Derek swooping in at the end and justifying her thoughts on what she wanted to do. Ugh! In this situation I think Derek needs to get the facts before blindly backing his wife.

Cristina caved to using the 3D printer without Meredith's permission after trying to do the right thing. Obviously Meredith is pissed when she finds her liver model on the table and Cristina and Ross using her 3D printer for their own thing. I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end to Cristina and Meredith...

The Rest

The rest of what's going on is filler right now in my opinion.

April & Matthew consider having sex before marriage but they decide on waiting after all.

Richard saves his neighbor after refusing to get up and walk with her the whole episode. He now has a new story to tell rather than the old ones he's been repeating.

Arizona removes her wedding ring before joining Leah in the shower.

Owen hopes his new lady Emma will take a job at the hospital.

Callie interviews Emma and the conversation gets a bit more intimate about relationships and life.

Emma decides she can't take the job because the staff would have Owen's back if anything happened between them.

So what am I all kinds of frustrated about?

This thing with Bailey came out of no where and we don't know what's going on with her. Plus how she acts is just frustrating the crap out of me. It's like she knows something is wrong but she's being defensive about it.

Cristina and Meredith should not be feuding but they are. And Meredith's attitude is just wrong. This reminds me of when she was seeing a therapist in season 4 but worse.

And Derek blindly supporting Meredith's opinion of what she could do during surgery, just ugh! While I get that as a husband you should have your wife's back, but when you're doctors you should have all the facts before doing so, in my opinion.

What do you think is wrong with Bailey?

Is this the beginning of the end for Cristina and Meredith?

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**Edit**
I just found out that the lovely founder of the Grey's Anatomy link up, Kelley from One Hot Southern Mess, had a rough technology week this last week. First her computer at work crashed and then her personal computer crashed as well. Because of this the linky is not open for collection. If you do write a post and wish to link up, leave the link to your post in the comments!

5 for Five: November Goals

Happy Sunday evening friends! I'm finally getting my blogging butt in gear and sharing with you my November goals. Go me!

Remember when I mentioned using the notebook Ricci gave me as part of the Falling Into Fall swap as a physical journal of my monthly goals and weekly updates on how I'm doing? I'm actually doing it! Again, go me!

I came up with five goals for the month of November. I tried to cover a little bit of everything in my life and I think I did I good job of it.

1.Get my healthy lifestyle on track.

• Meal plan for the week ahead.
• Hit the gym at least three times a week.
• Drink at least 64oz of water per day.
• Lose at least 3 pounds.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7am at least three times a week.
3. Put more time and effort into blogging.
4. Clean my bathroom and room, then keep it that way.
5. Read four books.

• The Book Thief {November's BBC book}
• The Single Woman's Survival Guide: Letting Go and Moving On
• Serena
• ?????

Evidently I sent a few more goals than just five since getting my healthy lifestyle on track has four sub-goals.

But besides the lengthy list I definitely think this is doable.

Sadly I was off to a bad start last week.  I think I first made this list of goals Monday morning, four days into November. But then on top of that I let working 11 hours that day get in the way of accomplishing pretty much anything besides downloading The Book Thief on my Kindle and kind of beginning to read it. Yes, that's a big fat excuse because working 11 hours one day does not mean I could not have been successful the remaining four days of the week.

That being said I will not let one week of poor decisions hold me back from making better ones these next three weeks. I'm looking forward to being successful in achieving these goals and am hopeful that one good month will turn into two and then three and so on. I need to get some good momentum going in my life!

I will see you all back here tomorrow to talk all things Grey's Anatomy with Kelley from One Hot Southern Mess!

Blogger Book Club: Olive Kitteridge

I was feeling really pumped up about blogging again last week and then this week I just sort of lost my mojo. Monday I worked 11 hours and didn't get home until almost 11pm and since then I've just been off.  My apologies to Kelley for missing the Grey's Anatomy link up on Monday. And then I didn't link up with Jenn to share my November goals {I have a plan for how I can recover that one though}. Oh yeah, and I missed linking up for Weigh In Wednesday yesterday {you'll probably see that happen tomorrow}.

Despite all of those broken plans for blogging earlier this week there was one thing I knew I didn't want to miss.  The Blogger Book Club link up to review October's book, Olive Kitteridge, went live last week and I wasn't even done with the book. I had to renew my library loan on it so I would have time to finish it. And after plowing through most of it Sunday afternoon I finally finished it last night!

I won't lie to you, this book was waaaay outside of my comfort zone. I definitely would have never picked up this book to read on my own. But I am thankful to the BBC for opening my eyes to something new.

That being said, this book was tough for me to get into. It took me a whole month to read 270 pages, which is definitely not the norm for me.  Overall I thought the book was okay but I definitely didn't love it and I won't read it a second time.

Sunday Night Football and a book = my kind of lazy Sunday

Part of my struggle to really like this book was how differently the story was written.  Each chapter was really like a new short story about someone in town.  At some point during each story Olive Kitteridge is mentioned as she is in some way part of each story.  The real kicker was the fact that all of these stories were sad and had no light at the end of the tunnel.

I also struggled with finding the overall point of the book.  I don't know that I found one but maybe I just missed it.

And because I'm all about being honest here on Living n Learning I will tell you straight up that I would not recommend this book to someone.

************************************************************************************************************

November's book has actually been on my to-read list on Goodreads for a while now.  I'm really excited to start reading and I don't foresee it taking me a month to finish it either.

Our lovely leader Kay has chosen The Book Thief by Markus Zusak as November's book because the movie version comes out November 8th. Hey! That's tomorrow!

The link up date has already been set for Tuesday November 26th.  I hope you run out and grab your copy of The Book Thief soon so you can link up and share your thoughts later this month.

And with that, I'm outta here!

5 on Friday: Brain Dump

TGIF! Despite being up early {before 8am} this morning I'm still in a pretty damn good mood because of a little something called PTO. That's right, I get to leave at 6pm tonight rather than 7pm. It's the little things in life really...

I decided to link up for 5 on Friday because I kind of have a handful of things I wanted to talk about and this seemed like the easiest way to get it done.

*ONE*

I woke up rather late Wednesday so I was going to skip my weigh in. But I changed my mind as I was starting to get ready. I just had to make it happen, regardless of if I had time or not.

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Week's Weigh In, Oct. 23: 205.9

Today's Weigh In, Oct. 30: 204.8

Loss: 1.1

Overall Loss: 2.9

*TWO*

I need to ramp up my reading time ASAP!

I still haven't finished October's Blogger Book Club book, Olive Kitteridge. The link up went live yesterday. {Check out Kay's blog for a review and to link up!}

I also have Serena on my Kindle waiting for me. {Being made into a movie with Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence, sign me right up!}

And I'm obsessed with The Single Woman right now and cannot wait until I pull the trigger and purchase her book!

*THREE*

November is here! November = Thanksgiving = Chelsea comes home!

I actually used another hour of PTO on an upcoming Friday so I can drive to Madison to pick her and the hubs up from the airport.

And then I went and used a whole day of PTO on the following Monday so I can actually spend time with my BFF rather than be at work the whole time she's home.

Having a long distance BFF sucks big time. But we're making it work.

:)

*FOUR*

I'm excited to say that I feel like I'm back in my blogging groove. I may have missed a day or two this week but overall I still feel really excited to blog and like I want to put more time and effort into posting each week.

To celebrate I purchased an ad spot on Party of One.

And speaking of Jenn and her blog, she hosts 5 for Five a weekly link up {read all about it here} that I'm looking forward to participating in during November.

*FIVE*

I'm also excited to say that I'm finding new blogs to follow almost daily. It's almost unfair how many awesome blogs there are because there is just no way that I can follow them all!
I wanted to share with you some of my most recent finds...

I actually swapped buttons with Jess from Livin' on Sweet Tea.

And then there is Autumn from The Unreal Life.

Stop over and say hi if you haven't already. :)

And that my friends about covers all that is going on in my head this Friday morning.

I'm off to get ready for work and put in my eight seven hours. Hopefully those seven hours just fly by because tonight is Fish Fry Friday around these parts. To make that even better, my grandma and grandpa will be joining my parents and I {maybe my brother?}. Yay for family time!