The Waiting Game

Why hello, all two of my readers! I know, I've been gone for a bit. So what's up with me lately?

I've been applying for business school! Yes, before taking the GMAT because I was smart enough to schedule my test *after* most application deadlines! I am smart, S-M-R-T. So I have also applied for a GMAT waiver. Everything has been mailed off, so I should hear from the school ... sometime, I guess. The official deadline is August 2.

I've been taking pre-requisite modules in case I get into the school. Yes, you have to take these before you find out if you're accepted, so that you have enough time to complete everything before the MBA program begins. Since I majored in English as an undergrad, I have to take ... all 6 of the pre-reqs. Which in time spent going "wha?" and furiously taking tons of notes adds up to eleventy bajillion hours of modules. I've gotten into a routine and stuff is actually making sense now. How do I know? I tried explaining to Tom how to figure out predetermined overhead in order to calculate proper cost per unit using normal costing and he looked at me like I had three heads. I mean maybe I did have three heads at the time, but I think he was just awed by my awesome grasp of managerial accounting.

Diet and exercise are going alright. Still working out with Jillian via 30DS although I've been itching to get back on my treadmill lately, so I may alternate. I hit a wicked plateau after dropping a quick 6 pounds after signing on with Lose It on my iPhone. Luckily patience (and not diving into a Costco-sized bag of Swedish Fish) kept me on track and as of this week I am losing again. Woo!

I've got about 2 weeks before fulfilling my promise to post a pic of myself in my bridesmaid dress, so my weight picked a good time to start dropping again.

The container garden is going well. Still waiting on tomatoes and green peppers to get going, though.

It's way easier to wait for the veggies than the answer from school.

Traveling and Plans and Projects, Oh My!

Yes, it's been a few weeks!

I've spent the last three weeks traveling to Nashville (before the floods), North Carolina, and Ohio. Then I promptly got sick last week and am continuing to battle allergies this week. It's been an awesome few weeks.

Despite the travel and sickness and general malaise, there has been progress on several plans/projects. I have managed to not kill anything in my container garden -- in fact, stuff is growing! I've narrowed down my business school options and am now trying to figure out how to afford any of them. I'm still working out, doing the 30 Day Shred again. So sore am I. I've also started tracking my weight with the LoseIt! program - more to make sure my portions and calories don't start creeping up (like they did when I was traveling. Well actually, the calories didn't so much creep as make leaps and bounds; hello, lemon martinis and grapefruit gimlets and wine and copious amounts of delicious restaurant food).

The family is good. B is still potty training and I am continually amazed at the power of M&Ms as a motivating factor. His birthday will be here before I know it and then I'll sit and wonder how the hell I have a three year and have managed to not break him yet. Tom has some cool things going on and his school year is almost over; then it will officially be summer.

Finally, my bridesmaid dress arrived about a week and a half ago. I'm feeling so poofy that I have yet to admit that it's here or take a picture of myself in it. I'm giving myself a month to get my act together and then I am posting a picture no matter what. It will serve as good motivation, or public humiliation, or most likely, both!

Green Thumb, Maybe? We'll See.

So I am not usually a get-out-there-and-get-sweaty girl. I'm more of a sit-in-the-AC-and-watch-other-people-work kind of person. But for some reason, I have always been weirdly obsessed with yard work. Not that I've done a lot of it, mind you, but when I do it sets off some sort of synaptic misfire in which I truly believe I can march into Lowe's, buy a bunch of gardening supplies, and do something with them. Successfully.

I think my interest goes back to being a kid and spending summers with my grandparents. My Pop Pop was an awesome gardener, y'all. He had a huge plot where he grew potatoes, cucumbers, squash, and ... tomatoes. OMG, the tomatoes. They were so good, and to pick one off of the vine and eat it in the warm sunny backyard was summer for me. When I think about my Pop Pop (he passed away in 2001) I always think about those tomatoes and his garden - and I think he would be thrilled that I thought about them. He loved working hard and having something to show for it (he was a carpenter. I like to think he and Jesus are having a grand old time up in Heaven).

*Sniff* Anyway. Gardening.

It all started this weekend when we cleaned up the front yard and I got the notion that if I was good at raking pine needles and leaves, surely I could plant some things and grow some of my own veggies and herbs, right? Then I would really be eating local, har har. Yeah, it was that bad.

I'm Googling "container gardening" and considering what I want to plant. I can't really consider an in-the-ground garden right now because we have loads of deer and if I put in a ton of work into a garden just to have freeloading deer come and eat everything ... oh hell no, Bambis. Grow your own delicious local produce!

(And yes, I know there are deer-preventing things you can do. I'll research them but right now I'm sacrificing logic for sarcasm. Shocking, I know.)

So yeah, another plan in place - I've heard container gardening is relatively easy so hopefully I'll have something to show for my efforts. I can feel my thumb turning green already!