the End is actually in sight now

Ahhhh yes. I'm getting closer to the end. My last bolt of fabric should arrive on Tuesday and all the other stuff I'm working on should be done before then (key word: should). Here's to a productive tomorrow, so Monday I'll have very little sewing to do and I can focus on gluing. 

Oh - I thought I'd mention that the new 'meal plan' for the daughter is going well. I made this BASIC charts for each day and she gets to put a sticker in each box as she finishes eating what ever it is she's supposed to eat. So far, she's done really well. I'm actually really excited to see how much weight she gains over the next 3 months. I'm not kidding when I say I think it'll be epic. For reals.

Photo shoot tomorrow afternoon to get the 'lifestyle shots' for the order I'm working on. The most adorable little girl EVER is going to be my model. Maybe I'll post a picture of her just so you guys can see her (and no, it's not my daughter).

Hope you all are having a good weekend... did anyone do anything fun?

Closer to the End

So my deadline is approaching and there is still a TON for me to do. I just have to say, this has been an excellent lesson in 'time management'. If I would have been more disciplined to do my 'original goal' of doing 'a little bit each day', I wouldn't be in the predicament I am now. 

Today was actually pretty productive. My morning was extremely busy with some projects that COULD NOT WAIT a moment longer. I also secured my next 'big' order. And this next one is 3 times the amount that I'm currently working on. So again... I really need to take note of the whole time management thing. Good news, is that the new order isn't due until November. So I have plenty of time. 

So with that, I'm headed to bed. Tomorrow always seems to arrive sooner than I'm ready for. If only I could sleep all day. Oh how wonderful that would be.

Super Tired

Sorry. This one is going to be WAY super short. I'm exhausted, and I have a ton to get done tomorrow. Every day has turned out to be less productive than I was counting on ... so it's all compounding ... but I'm thinking these next few days will be stellar as far as productivity goes.

Wish me luck.

I was going to write something funny ...

... but I'm just too exhausted right now and it doesn't seem as funny any more. 

Took the kids to the doctor today for their 'weight check'. The son is doing fabulously ... the daughter ... not so much. I really have to focus on getting her weight up. She's always been tiny - and her 'genetic make up' comes from some of the tiniest Vietnamese ladies I've ever seen. That being said, she's still off the charts, and not in a good way.

So guess what I have to do. I have to focus on giving her a high fat diet. Doctor's orders. This means everything needs to dipped in oil, butter, or heavy cream. Oh, and my son - yeah, he can't eat butter or heavy cream. 

Sounds like meal time is going to be interesting in our house.

blech

So today wasn't as productive as I was hoping. I was working, but I didn't get as much done as I wanted... which means I have a ton more to do... and I'm off schedule. And to make matters worse, I thought I would have a really long work day tomorrow, but I ended up getting a last minute doctor's appointment for the kiddos. The Pediatric GI Specialist is super hard to get into, and since we just have a 'weight check' appointment, I was going to have to wait until the end of September. So getting in on a cancellation ... well, I had to jump on it. But man... sticking to my work schedule is not looking good at this point.

Ugh. I'm just going to head to bed. I'm super tired.

It's going to be a 'blah' week on here

Just a heads up ...

I have a 1200 piece order that I have to get in the mail by NEXT Tuesday or Wednesday (at the latest) and I'm kind of freaking out. I have one bolt of fabric that I'm waiting on and I have no idea when it's coming. I know the distributor has 'allocated' the fabric to me as of earlier today, so hopefully they've shipped it out already... if not... well ... I'm going to have a major problem.

I'll still check in each evening, but just know it won't be interesting. This is crunch time at it's finest. 

Okay

It's a new week! The days are flying by lately and I have SO.MUCH.I.HAVE.TO.GET.DONE in the  next week. I'm not even kidding. It's like 'hard core' time. I've been busy with all sorts of things, but now I gotta really focus on getting my order done. There are many parts that I need to get finished and it has to be shipped really soon. Kinda freakishly soon. 

So with that... I'm headed to bed. My Korean lesson got canceled for tomorrow, but it got rescheduled for Tuesday. I can't say I'm too disappointed, I SO wasn't ready.

New Plan

Okay. So I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I think I came up with another new 'small goal'. I think I'm going to stop weighing myself. And instead, focus on how my clothes fit. Because honestly, that's whats important to me. I don't care about the number on the scale ... I care about the number on my pants.

It's easy for me to look at the huge number of poundage that I need to lose, and get really discouraged because it seems like SOOOOOOO much. So I figure this way it's helping me make smaller goals that are attainable. Like right now, the focus is to just get down a pant size. For some reason it's easier for me to look at that goal and think I can do it, then to be like, 'lose 15lbs'.

And here's the best part: A while back I bought my most favorite pair of jean capri's (I know that might sound lame to some, but trust me, they're super cute). And not only were they super cute, but they were super cheap as well! So I actually bought them in the next size down. Little did I know the prophetic importance of that purchase.

So that will be my 'tester'. My mode of measuring. And trust me, when I can get those bad boys on - you all will be the first to know.

Tired

I'm going to bed in 14 minutes. The earliest I've gone to be in quite some time. But I got an early morning tomorrow. We're going on a little trip to visit some friends. Just a day trip, as well be back before dinner. So does that even count as a trip? 

Anyway, to bed I must go, as I gotta get up earlier than normal. 

Oh, and I need to get working on my Korean lesson. I've totally been slacking.

Small Goals

Seriously. They're small. I decided that I'm not going to eat Fast Food anymore. We'll see how long it lasts, but it's a goal. I'm also going to make sure I really stock up on any fruit I want. That will be my 'splurge'. I actually LOVE fruit, but I tend to over buy it, and then it goes bad, so then I buy less, and then I wish I had more. So I decided that fruit will be my source of sugar. So I'm going to make sure I have the best fruit in my house so that I'll be excited to eat it.

And that's it for now. Small goals. Seems doable. So here we go.

So ...

... I have a lot on my plate right now, so I don't have much time to write, but I wanted to check in.  I also wanted to add that next week I'm going to be starting up some weight-loss things again. I'm not going to go crazy and make some huge goals, but I am going to focus on making small changes. But more about that later. 

until then, here are a couple of more photos.

For those who watch

Boys Over Flowers

(my favorite kdrama)

it really comes down to this:

Team Jun Pyo

 

or

Team Ji Hoo

WHICH ONE HAS YOUR VOTE?

LOL

So guess what I did today ... I totally forgot that it was my Wedding Anniversary! Isn't that something the husband is supposed to do? Which don't worry - he did as well. But fortunately, since we both forgot, it didn't matter to either of us.

Alright. I'm headed to bed. Busy day tomorrow. How about you? What do you have going on this week?

Ugh

Seriously... sometimes adult Korean Adoptees can be SUPER draining. It's absolutely amazing how vast our views can differ. Who knew. So I'm tired ... and annoyed.

so on a lighter note:

hey 'innotof'

this is for you 

he's saying, 

"when I see you smile ... it makes me blush"

It's Over

We just finished the series. SO SO SO freaking good. And I have to say - I LOVED that the husband watched it with me. I tried to get him to tell me who his favorite F4 member was, but scoffed at the idea. So then I asked him what F4 member do you most identify with ... he wasn't that amused by that either.

Episode 24 (I think - we watched 3 episodes back to back so it's kind of all blurring) when Jan Di makes the 'lunch box' and they go on the date to the ocean and have a picnic. I'm not even kidding when I say I was bawling. Like at the end of that episode I was kind of 'ugly crying'. I just wanted to be left alone in a quite place where I could just sob over and over uninterrupted. 

But now it's over ... and life goes on. 

Speaking of which, I have my second Korean lesson tomorrow. I'm not as prepared as I should be. I hope my tutor doesn't get mad at me. 

LOL

So we're finishing up Episode 22 as I write this. The husband is fading... but I know what's coming up still... and I just want to power through it! 

Oh well. I guess that's what tomorrow is for. 

Sorry to be lame... but I gotta get back to viewing.

It's becoming pretty standard now

... we watch two Episodes each night. We're on Episode 18. I think this has got to be the best 'quality time' EVER!.

and for all you BOF fans:

Why JiHoo ... my my, how you have grown!

Who would have thought that 'JiHoo' would turn out to

be the best looking out of all the F4 members.

Seriously - he's the best

(I've seen all their FB fan pages, so I know)

I'm sure I'll be getting back on the weight-loss/organizing band wagon

soon ... I just have 7 more episodes left and then it's back

to our regularly scheduled program.

So I got a text today ...

... it was the from the husband ... it said, and I quote: Ready for some BOF tonight?

I know. I'm totally in love with him too.

He called me later just checking in... and I teased him about being excited about watching BOF and he said that actually, he was excited for me to watch BOF. Of course like any good wife, I gently reminded him that by liking BOF he was NOT trading in his 'Man Card'. Once I had him convinced of that, he admitted that he wanted to figure out what the connection between the old man and JiHoo was. To which I responded with, 'I told you this show has a ton of fantastical stuff in it!'

Anyway, I cried a ton in tonight's episodes ... and of course he didn't. But it's all about baby steps. He'll get there one day. Slowly he'll open his heart, and then he will truly understand the beauty of BOF.

I'm at a REALLY good part!

Episode 14... when JanDi and Jun Pyo are on the bridge.. he's going to tell her to get lost... and it'll make me cry... and later when he tries to get to the airport in time and he can't make it, and he has the shoes, and he falls down crying... guess who will be mirroring his emotions... that's right... me. 

I LOVE THIS KDRAMA!!!

The husband doesn't know what's about to happen... I bet he'll be devastated (hardy har har).

Got a ton done today. Things are going well. Oh - and I texted my Korean Tutor and asked him to leave me a voicemail with him saying all the vowels and this one consonant that I JUST.CANNOT.PRONOUNCE. 

No joke - at the end of his message, he says good-bye, and I swear I hear laughter. I'm pretty sure it's his room mate. The little stinker. But whatever - it's not going to deter my learning. I mean, this mini-van driving, stretchy pant wearing, middle aged Momma is a force to be reckoned with.

just movin' along

Got some stuff done today ... planning on getting more done tomorrow. Simple as that. 

Oh - and the husband and I are back to watching Boys Over Flowers. What I find interesting, is that when I watched the series for the first time, EVERYTHING caught me off guard. I had no clue what was coming next. But for some reason, the husband seems to 'predict' everything that is about to happen. Okay, so maybe not everything, but pretty darn close. I mean ... maybe I was just too immersed in the relationship triangle of JanDi, JiHoo and JunPyo to know better ... but I'm actually pretty impressed. 

And on another random note: I woke up this morning saying Korean vowels in my head. Kinda cool. But kinda creepy.

WOW

Okay - so I had my first Korean lesson today. My tutor is this cute little Korean boy who has a super deep voice. Totally not expecting him to be so little. But let me tell you - this kid is SMART. He goes to a UC that's just over 30 minutes from where I live. 

Anyway, I brought my lesson book (that I bought online) and he brought a book as well. All we did today was go over the consonants and vowels and practiced saying them. Aigoo! Was it HARD! There are some vowels that my mouth literally cannot pronounce. I'm not kidding. There are consonants that I swear to you sound the exact same, but apparently they are different.

But regardless, I really enjoyed my lesson. And because I am old, I'm already forgetting how to pronounce some of the letters, so I spent forever tracking down a YouTube video that could help me. I have a lot to practice, but I'm actually really excited about it. What's interesting, is from the way it looks, I'm going to be able to read Korean, before I'll know what any of it means. That kinda makes me laugh. 

But enough about that. It's time to go to bed. I have some projects lined up for the next couple of days. The kiddos are gone and I'll be focusing on ORGANIZING my house. It's been straightened up a ton since we had company (so I had to get things back in order) and the next few days I have some time reserved to focus solely on getting things in their proper places, and figure out what I need to donate/sell/give-away. I'm really excited to finally finish that up and while I'm doing that for part of the day, I have to catch up on the 1200 piece order that I'm supposed to have done in the next couple of weeks. So it's a busy time for sure. 

So what do you guys have going on this week? Anything fun?

the end has come

My company is leaving in the morning. It's bitter sweet as I really have SO MUCH FUN with them, but I do have a ton of stuff I have to get a workin' on. Such is life - right?

Oh - and I thought I'd mention - tomorrow I'm going to my first lesson with my KOREAN TUTOR! Yeah ... watch out world ... this chick is about to become bilingual.

um ... AWESOME!

Guess who won $150 at the casino tonight? That would be me (well ... technically the husband won most of it). And by winning $150, I actually mean walking out the door with $150 more than what we walked in with. Super awesome.

What a way to end the night!

Good Times

That's what I'm having right now. Seriously. I'm having a good time.

I'm SO tired

Today wasn't super busy, but I guess we were kind of on the move the entire time. Anyway - I'm BEAT and I'm SUPER tired. Plus, the eldest child had a SUPER rough night. In fact, I just had to run upstairs because she woke up and was in some hysterical state and couldn't be calmed down. Well... I guess she finally did calm down since I'm now writing on here... but man. I'm beat.

So I don't mean to be a total loser, but I'm 'out'. 

Hope you all are having a better night than I am!

Party Time

My company has arrived and we've been having fun. They're the sort of people that you can just hang out with and it's SOOOO easy. 

Right now we're watching 'Ip Man 2' on Netflix. Now let me tell you - I am NOT into Kung Fu movies. In fact, I hate them. I hate fighting, I hate seeing blood, I hate when movies are super intense. But when I was on the plane ride home from Korea with my son, this movie was the ONLY thing I could see on the plane. So I basically had no choice but to watch. And honestly - I LOVED IT. 

I just remembered this movie a few days ago, so the husband and I watched it. And since our guests haven't seen it, I was more than willing to watch it again.

So with that - I must go. As the best fight scene in the whole movie is getting ready to start. 

Hope you all have a great day!

(oh - and in case you didn't hear, the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Korea ... and guess who's planning on being there!)

it's late

The husband and I are watching BOF.

Enough said.

(I'm having guests come tomorrow... so I won't be doing any workouts, etc. but I'll still be checking in)

woah

I decided to wait until evening to do my jump-roping since it's been getting so hot in the morning. I started at 9:07pm. I got through 3 minutes before I called it quits. There's a few reasons why:

1) My rope is too long and it was super frustrating trying to jump

2) It turns out jump-roping is way harder than I thought it would be (in the cardiovascular sort of way)

3) It was 88 degrees out

So the plan is to get a new rope in the morning. I should have gotten the speed rope. I looked at it, but it was longer than the one I got. And I honestly didn't know that you can shorten them. 

But now I do. So I'll be all over it. 

So now I need to spend the rest of the night sewing. I'm actually a bit behind from where I wanted to be at this point, so it's time to get down and serious. Oh, and earlier this evening the husband gave me a 'fist bump' and looked me straight in the eyes and said, 'hey babe - Boys Over Flowers tonight?' I swear to you, I have never wanted to make out with the man more than I did at that moment.

Happy 4th of July to you all - I hope you all had a fun and safe night!

here we go!

So I got a jump rope today. Problem is, I got a bit overwhelmed when I got to the jump rope section. I probably should have done a bit more research,  but since it was just me and the kiddos, I had to make quick decisions. I ended up getting  nylon rope because of the length... but I think I'll go back later this week and get 'speed rope' - which I think it what I was supposed to do in the first place. 

I also did some looking around online and found out that approximately 10 minutes of jump rope equals running a mile. Which now that I think about it ... why wouldn't it? You're jumping pretty fast ... kind of like running ... except in place.

I also read an article that said you should start with 5 minutes. If you need to take a break, that's fine, but don't rest for longer than 15-20 seconds. Since I have absolutely no idea how I'll fair on this, I'm just shooting for 5 minutes. Depending on how I do with that, I'll either stay at that, or increase slowly. 

So that's it. Just 5 minutes. So try it out and let me know what you think. 

As for me? I need to finish up this episode of BOF. I'm sad to report that the husband is actually sleeping next to me... so disappointed in him. So disappointed. But we still have 22 more episodes left to get him hooked. 

Alright, I need to finish up the rest of my 'alone time' with Jun Pyo. It's kinda hard to come by these days.

gotta run

I actually talked the husband into watching an episode of Boys Over Flowers with me.

It's all about priorities.

obviously

Tomorrow I'll post about our first jump rope challenge - hope you're ready!

WOW

I'm still sore. For reals. In fact, I think I'm more sore today, than I was yesterday.

Oh - and I forgot to mention something last night. There's another thing my Aunt talked to me about. What is it? Jump-roping (is that a word?) There are SO many health benefits to jump roping ... or jumping rope ... or jump rope (whatever). But I actually don't have one and I really want to get one.

So here's the deal. Who wants to get one too and we can jump rope together?!?!?! For reals! If you do, I will. Well actually, I'll do it regardless. So the plan will be to get our jump ropes by Sunday night. I'll post what my 'goal' will be for Monday - and then you guys can do it too and let me know how it goes. Whadda ya say? Are you in? Will you do it? C'mon ... don't leave me hanging!

aaaaand I'm back

Seriously - I had written a whole post last night and I couldn't get it to post. And then Blogger totally locked me out of my blog. Like I couldn't even get access to log in or out. Totally frustrating. 

But in all honesty - I didn't have much to say because I was waiting until today was over. You see, after reading my blog entry (about having to schedule out almost 2 hours of my life each day to exercise) my Aunt (who's also a personal trainer) emailed me. We exchanged a few emails and then were able to catch each other on the phone later in the evening. 

And let me tell you ... it was a pretty awesome conversation. 

I have to say - my Aunt has a way of encouraging you beyond belief. While still giving you the cold hard facts about making lifestyle changes, she actually makes you think that it's doable. It's a pretty amazing gift if you ask me. 

So what did we talk about? We talked about doing High Intensity, short workouts. So after looking around on some websites she shared, I found one that I was willing to try. I promised to do it the next day, and I would email her after I finished. 

Okay. Those are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay hard. I'm talking WAY hard.

Here's what I was supposed to do:

10 seconds of 'running in place' emphasizing 'high knees'

5 seconds of laying on your belly to 'rest'

(repeat continually for 4 minutes)

Step out to a wide stance

Squat

Drop to knees and do a push up

(repeat 30 times as quickly as possible)

Repeat first circuit

Okay... so I did the first 4 minutes and it was tough. I was instantly sweating and breathing hard. And I also discovered that the whole '5 seconds of resting on your belly' is a total joke. It's more like just doing a push up for an extended amount of time. Because as soon as you lay down, you pretty much have to get up again. 

Next, I immediately moved on to the second circuit. 

I got through 10. That's it. That's all I could do before collapsing into the fetal position - and then I was just focusing on getting oxygen into my body and not fainting or throwing up. 

That being said - I kinda liked it. I know - super crazy, right? I mean, I'm totally tired from it ... and was all day. In fact, I even felt like my brain was fatigued. But I was actually pretty happy with accomplishing about 9.5 minutes of High Intensity exercise. 

I'm taking tomorrow off. No doubt. But I'm thinking I'll try it again on Saturday (or maybe Monday) Three times a week... it's doable. 

And I'm thinking that my goal will be to see how long it takes me to do the full work out. Because once I can get that down,  I can actually try it without modifying the moves. Since technically I'm supposed to be lifting a 20lb sand bag on my shoulders while I squat accompanied by push-ups where I'm NOT 'resting' on my knees the entire time. 

I guess they don't call this High Intensity for nothing!