Weekend Shenanigans

Wow does this Monday ever suck?!  I can only imagine what you lucky ducks that had a 4 day weekend are feeling.  I only had Thursday off so my weekend was pretty normal in length.

But lets get to the good stuff, the shenanigans!

.one. My poor wrinkly fingers after processing 6 flats of strawberries Thursday morning.

.two. The carp my dad caught while we were out fishing on the beautiful day that was the 4th.

.three. Hot Fudge Sundae at 11am Saturday morning.  That was a "single" scoop.

.four. Reading The Wedding took up my Sunday when I wasn't napping.

I tried my hand at taking more pictures over the weekend and thought I was doing pretty well until I actually looked at the pictures I had.  Not very many.  But it's a start.

Some things not pictured from this weekend:

Seeing another Gordon Setter out on the water Thursday.  They're not a very common breed you see every day so of course we had to stop and say hello.

The family went up north Saturday and stopped at Maurice's and Wal-Mart, two stores we have around where we live.  We also ate a late lunch at Bucksnort Resort where I was adventurous and didn't get my usual cheeseburger.  I had a BBQ chicken wrap instead.

Saturday night I went to Homestead to celebrate a 21st birthday party.

Now it's back to work and I am really not looking forward to it but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

Hope you all enjoyed your long weekends and got to spend time with family and friends!

Guest Posting

Hey there! I hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesdays that are more like Fridays. Enjoy it because my Wednesday is all kinds of confused. It kind of feels like a Friday but then I remember that I work Friday so really it's just like a normal Wednesday. Ugh. Having one day off in the middle of the week is kind of a bummer.

Anyways....today I'm guest posting over on Ms. Kelley's blog One Hot Southern Mess. If you need some tips on what to do when you're late for work head on over there.  www.onehotsouthernmess.blogspot.com

Happy birthday to the lovely Erin over at Two Thirds Hazel. I absolutely love her blog and think you should definitely check it out if you haven't already.

And happy almost birthday to America! Hope everyone has a great 4th and enjoys time with family and friends.

Peace out for now friends!

The Notebook [Book Talk]

It's been a while since I've talked books here the ol' blog.  To be honest I've kind of slacked off on my reading lately.  But I still have a book or two I haven't reviewed yet so I figured now would be a good time to do it.

This is now my third Nicholas Sparks book in a row.  You can almost never go wrong with a Nicholas Sparks book.  Remember True Believer?  Yeah, you can skip over that one.

I have seen The Notebook multiple times and loved it.  This was my first time reading the book though.  Even though I'm sure most of us know what the book is about I'll give you the synopsis from goodreads.com.

A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories. . until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape. Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments, and fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

As always, the book is different than the movie.  I found the story focused more on the characters in the "now" and less on looking back when they we young, basically the opposite of how the movie told the story. 

I rated this book 4/5, I really liked it.  I'm glad I finally read the book.  This one definitely goes on my books to recommend list.

My next book was supposed to be A Walk to Remember, another movie I've seen many many times but I never borrowed it during the 72 hours it was on hold for me.  It's still on my to-read list but it will have to wait.  I'm currently wrapped up into the Delirium trilogy by Lauren Oliver.  I've finished Delirium (review coming soon!) and am currently reading Pandemonium, which I need to finish soon as my loan has expired.

Weekend Shenanigans

It's that time again!  Weekend Shenanigans with Sami is where we get to share our weekends and link up.

Friday I started the weekend off by going out for a fish fry with my momma.  It was while I was enjoying a drink at the bar while my food was cooking that I realized I was missing one of the new Pandora clips I had gotten from my family for my birthday.

My heart fell to my stomach when I realized it was gone.  I had no idea if it had been lost at the bar, at home before leaving, or at work earlier that day.  There is nothing worse than not know when exactly you lose something.  You have no idea where to begin to look.

The rest of the evening was a relaxing one at home with family.

Saturday was all about relaxing for me.  USA Network pulled through for me and had an NCIS marathon on.  If you follow me on Twitter (which you should @LnLbyAmy) you may notice I tweet a lot about NCIS because I absolutely LOVE the show.  I mean, I do own every season (except for 10 which just finished) on DVD.

There was supposed to be a NASCAR night race on but due to rain it got delayed until Sunday during the day.  An interesting fact I learned during pre-race that I wanted to share is that Kevin Harvick burned more calories during a race (I can't remember which one specifically right now) than a NFL player, and a marathon runner.  Keep that in mind the next time you think race car drivers aren't athletes!

I did manage to leave the house to stop by my grandparents.  I needed to take my Christmas cacti to her to be revived over the summer and to pick up some yummy chocolate cake she baked.

Good thing I left my house because it was when I went to my car that I found my Pandora clip!

Sunday was a continuation of the relaxation but I also was productive.  I did laundry before it got out of hand and I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for clean clothes to wear.  Blogging and cleaning were accomplished as well.

NCIS was on again in addition to the rain delayed NASCAR race so I was a happy woman.  Lunch at Grandma's made me pretty happy too, not gonna lie.

Overall, the weekend was exactly what I needed.  I love weekends that I don't have plans and can just do what I want when I want.

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Revisiting my weight loss goal

If you’ve been around the Living n Learning world for a while you know that losing weight is a goal of mine for this year.  More specifically, I wanted to reach my goal weight of 150lbs.

You may have also noticed that I haven’t blogged about my weight loss is over a month, which is probably the last time I worked out or thought about eating better.

It’s disappointing to say that I wasn’t doing well with my weight loss during the first five months of the year.  And now with taking over a month off of “trying” it’s even more disappointing that I won’t be achieving my goal.  The only way to do that would be to lose weight at an unhealthy rate by doing something crazy.  That’s just not me.

The worst of it is that there is absolutely nothing standing in my way to accomplish my weight loss goal except myself.  That’s a tough pill to swallow.

I am definitely unhappy with my physical appearance and feel uncomfortable with my body.  There is no doubt in my mind about that.

But yet, I give up easily when it comes to going to the gym and eating better.  This makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

How can I be so upset with what I see in the mirror and not do everything I can to change it?  It’s almost as if I’m secretly happy with the way that I am.

No.  That cannot be it.  I am not happy in any way.

What will it take for me to say enough is enough?

All I know is the next time I begin my weight loss journey it will be my last because I am not going to look back.  The next time will be the time I commit 100% to changing my life for the better.  I know I will make mistakes and have slip ups along the way but I will not let them turn into months of time off from my weight loss journey.

Maybe I need to stop thinking of it as a weight loss journey and more of a lifestyle change?  That’s what it is ultimately even though one of the main goals is to lose weight.

Now I’m looking for a little advice from you guys.  What are some must dos before starting this lifestyle change and sticking to it?  Is it coming up with short, medium, and long term goals?  Weekly and/or monthly goals?  What have you found to work for you consistently over time, that’s what I want to know.

Weekend Shenanigans

Hello friends!

Once again it's Monday so we're all sad that the weekend is over.  But thanks to the lovely Sami {Sami's Shenanigans} we get to relive the weekend by sharing our Weekend Shenanigans.

Friday
Since my birthday fell on a Tuesday this year I decided to celebrate with friends on Friday.  I started the day off with getting my hair cut and had my hair guy style it for me so I didn't need to worry about it.  And I thought ahead and did a pony so my hair was pulled back.

The Pin I showed my hair guy.

My parents took me to dinner at Homestead for a fish fry which was amaze-balls as always.

They headed home around 9pm and that's when the party started for me.  I finally had my first {and second and third} shot of Fireball whiskey.  Holy yum!

Homestead has "after 9 Friday drink specials" which included $2.50 single Captain drinks so I strayed from my usual drink of choice to take advantage of the special.  In hindsight it probably wasn't my smartest choice.  But you live and learn, right?

Thanks to some friends I found my way home around 3:30am.  After dropping a contact in my intoxicated state and a short lived search party for it I hit the hay.

Saturday

One of my cousins graduated from high school earlier this month so I went with my parents to her graduation party.

It was a rough start to the day.  My mom kept telling me I still had the Captain flowing through my bloodstream but I just told her I was feeling sassy.  Who knows which was actually true.

After chatting with family for a couple of hours and enjoying some lunch we headed home where I made an indentation in the leather recliner.  Surprisingly I didn't take a nap.

I did enjoy some reading time.  For some reason I couldn't get into Pandemonium and I started reading a book we're borrowing from my grandpa.

Being a NASCAR fan isn't just for southern rednecks.

Sunday

I spent Sunday catching up on my blog reading, looking into Erin Elizabeth Designs, and flat out relaxing when I wasn't working on laundry.

I thought about cleaning my room.

But then I think, mmm...better not.

Well I should have and I need to but yeah, just wasn't feeling it.

Kind of like I'm not feeling work right now but I guess I can't change that.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!