I'm home!

Well I've been home for a few weeks now, I've just been really busy! The trip went really well, minus the traveling! It was a nightmare - 4 out of 4 flight delays and my exhaust fell off my car on the way home from the airport! I

It was really hot and humid while we were there but it was beautiful. We were just a few blocks from the Alamo so that was neat to go down and visit that. The Riverwalk was just below the hotel and had plenty to choose from for restaurants and shopping so we had a good time exploring that. We had dinner Wednesday night with one of the people from Cardinal who we work very close with and all of our sellers. Thursday night we had dinner with all of our sellers at The Fig Tree which was along the Riverwalk. It was wonderful! I tried foie gras for the first time - YUCK! But at least I tried it. So many good memories form that night. We all got pretty drunk and topped dinner off with a flaming desert. And we topped the night off with a night cap shot - Sex on the Beach! See my pictures on facebook or myspace from the trip!

In other news, I'm still around 20 lbs for my weight loss but I haven't really been working on it all that much. I've just kind of been slacking and eating whatever. I need to get back on board though because I would like to lose another 10-15. But at least I'm staying the same and not gaining.

I went to Melanie's first doctors appt with her last week on Weds. She is too funny! She was so scared about everything! But she got through it and I think she is much better now that she has seen the doctor. Next Monday is her first ultrasound too and since i'm off I get to go with her so I'm super excited for that. I know this sounds mean but I hope we are the only two who are going.I think that would be a fun thing for me and her to share together. But we will see. I know her mom is not able to make it but she did invite Liz. I don't know if she will have the day off but she has been having a lot of Mondays off lately so maybe.

Ben is gone this weekend at the farm. All four of the boys (Ben, Brian, Kyle and Rob) went down to Ben's grandpa's farm - the one we were at for fourth of July. I'm glad they were able to pull it together because I know they have been wanting to get down there for a while together. So me and Melanie hung out last night. We had a good time - went to dinner and then to the mall to look at the Motherhood store that has maternity clothes in it. She just wanted to look around to see what they had. She doesn't need anything quite yet but she does feel like she is busting out of the clothes she has. She told me last night that she really finally "feels" pregnant and not just has a slight pouch. I'm just working on cleaning around the house though and doing laundry while Ben is gone. I'm off tomorrow and Tuesday since I still get a day off from work becuase of my 4 ten's so it should be interesting. So this week at work should fly and then Friday is my birthday so I'm excited for that! I don't know what we are going to do but I want to at least go to dinner then maybe everyone can just come back here to hang out afterwards.

We did find out that Ben's mom, Sue, will be coming home the first week of Novemeber. That's what she says now but we will see when the time comes. I do think she will come back but I just don't know how everything will work. I think she will be fine if she gets a job and gets into a routine and just doens't sit around the house all day. I am worried though because she will be pretty much staying with us until the house sells in Arizona and what if me and Ben want to try to start having a abby. Not sure how possible that will be with her here. I know we can find ways but still. It's just not as simple. But who knows when that will be, I was hoping for the end of this year/beginning of next year but we will see! :)

San Antonio Bound

Well I will be leaving on Tuesday for San Antonio for work. I am going there for a tradeshow for one of our distributors like I did back in May when I went to Daytona Beach. I'm excited because I'm going with another co-worker and all of our field people will be there! I can't wait to see all them, I don't think I've seen some of them since January! I'm VERYYYYY nervous about flying as I always am but hopefully everything will go ok. I don't know why but I hate flying (well I do...my birthday is 9/11 and I'm just not ok with flying really anymore). We do have a layover which makes things harder but I will be going with my coworker so he should keep me sane. I'm sure I will have lots of pictures when I come back on Saturday!

Not much else is going on...our A/C went out...plans are still in the works on what we are doing with that. All I can say is we are HOT. Luckily, Ben's aunt and uncle are out of town right now and let us borrow their window a/c while they are gone. And once htey come home we should be able to borrow his grandparents for another week to at least keep our bedroom cool. It's just miserable for our doggies though. I can deal with it, it's them I feel bad for :(

We are just taking everything else one day at a time, money continues to be a huge struggle (hence why the A/C thing is still in the works). I just keep prayin that one day it will be ok, and we won't have to worry about money. I feel like when we really need it though it is there so that's all I can be thankful for right now.

As far as my weight loss, I'm down around 19 lbs now. I slipped today some and maybe a little yesterday but it was hot and I needed ice cream! :) But I'm happy with where I am at and I am hoping to be able to watch myself while we are in San Antonio. If not, I will resume when I get back. I hope to be able to work out some while I'm there, most likely I will be indoors on the treadmill though! Its forecasted to be at least 100 or more the whole time we are there.

And finally, I forgot to post last weekend - my mom's birthday was Sunday! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY MOM! We are going to have dinner here when it cools down!



Well, I need to get off here and finish packing! Have a great week everyone!

Kyle's Birthday

Here are some pictures from Kyle's Birthday - the first two are from dinner at Texas Roadhouse then the rest are from the crazy night we had at Kyle and Liz's house...

Liz and I

Mel and Liz at dinner

Mel and Ben

The girls <3

Liz and the birthday boy!

Hubby and me

Bri and Mel

Kyle and Mike

Really gone at this point...

Grandma Boyd's 70th Birthday Party

Below are some pictures from Grandma Boyd's 70th Birthday party that was a suprise! She loved it and it was really nice to have a lot of family there!

Ben with Ava and Maria

Giving Grandma her cake

Me and the hubby

The Boys

Uncle Otto and Grandpa Boyd

Nick and Lydias Wedding Pictures

This is just a few of the wedding pictures from Nick and Lydia's Wedding on July 11th. I took a TON more plus some videos. It was a great day!

Congrats Melanie and Brian!

They found out last night that they are pregnant with their first baby - exactly one week after their 5 year anniversary. Congrats to them!! Here is a pic from Saturday (their anniversary party). Funny that she was pregnant and she didn't even know it yet!

Hello Long Lost Blog!

So I haven’t written in a while but I need to do an update! Things have just been pretty busy since we got back from the 4th of July! First up was Nick and Lydia’s wedding on July 11th. It was a really beautiful wedding and I’m so happy for the two of them. After a beautiful honeymoon at Sandals, they are now in Michigan and enjoying it up there! Nick's job is based out of there and Lydia is working on getting a teaching job there since she just graduated with her Masters.

The next day we had Ben’s grandma’s surprise 70th birthday party (July 12th). His grandma thought she was going to Olive Garden and then someone was going to pick her up and bring her down to Ben’s Aunt the lives two houses up from us to “pick her up to go” and then we would surprise her. Ben’s aunts were supposed to be the ones to pick Ben’s grandma up but Ben ended up being the one to pick her up. It still went off and she had really no idea even after seeing the balloons and everything in the front of the house. She was mad though because she wanted her Olive Garden. But it was a good time with almost the whole family there. I have lots of pictures to post from that day! I’m going to make a slide show of the whole day and I took some video so that will be really nice to have.

Next up was our friend Kyle’s birthday the next weekend (July 18th). We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we went back to Liz and Kyle’s house. We decided we were going to stay the night there at the last minute so we could drink and not have to drive home. I got really wasted, probably worse than I’ve ever been except for once or twice. Some interesting pictures came out of the night but I will stick to the good ones when I post them! We went to breakfast the next morning at Bob Evan’s…I just had fruit. It’s all my stomach could handle.

The following weekend we really didn’t do a whole lot because I was tired of running around. We did go to our friend Rob and Rachelle’s house Friday night to swim and hang out. It was ok until Rachelle started yelling at Rob in front of everyone. Long story but it was still a pretty good time. I think other than that we pretty much hung out at home all weekend and relaxed.

This past weekend on Friday night, we had game night at our house. Melanie, Brian, Kyle and Liz came over and we played board games with them. My mom found a bunch of my old games from my old house (it’s being rented right now so the games were still in the basement). So I have like 3 different Monopoly versions, 2 Clue’s and a bunch of older games. My favorite has to now be Outburst which my mom actually gave me – she got it as a wedding gift a few years back and never had opened it! Then on Saturday was Melanie and Brian’s 5th wedding anniversary party. They just did something small at their house with family and friends. It was a good time. Mel picked me up at 1 pm so I could help her get set up for the party. I brought my laptop and did some music for us to listen to. We just had rigatoni, salad and rolls to eat but it was still good. We hung out there pretty much all night and had a good time but I was tired from being there all day.

So I think that’s about all the catching up on events. Now as far as work goes, it’s not too bad. We are just still going crazy with orders because of swine flu and with the fall coming up which is always a bigger season for us. I started my four 10 hour days this week which have been ok so far. It was really nice having Monday off but it’s been a struggle getting up earlier and staying later. But I am adjusting already so I think it will work out!

I am down to a total weight loss of 14.5 pounds! I’m so excited but none of my clothes fit. I did just buy two new shirts for my trip to San Antonio (Aug 18 I leave for work!) which are dressy shirts but I need to get more pants for work! Most of my shirt fit still but my pants are getting too big! I am still trying to hit 20 pounds before I leave but I don’t think that will happen. But that’s ok! I’m happy with where it’s going and I just need to crack back down on my eating because I’ve been a little lax lately about it. I am still walking every day and I’m trying to walk the neighborhood at night if I have the energy and it’s nice out. So wish me luck!!

I’ve also started a huge project to back up my pictures on CD’s and on to Shutterfly and remove them from my computer. It ran out of space last weekend for me to add more pictures so I need to do it! It’s been a not so fun process but I have this need to double back them up just in case. I would hate if anything happened to some of my pictures. So that’s pretty much what I’ve been working on at night right now until I get through them all. They are on CDs but it’s just backing them up to the website that’s taking a while.

I think that’s all of my updating for now. I will be back to post pictures later!

July 4th

So this year we decided to go out of town for the4th of July which we never do! It was fun to get away for the weekend while my parents stayed with the puppies. We went to Salt Fork to Ben's Grandpa's Farm. Ben helped mow most of the time while I sat around and read my books (had to read the 6th Harry Potter again to get ready for the movie to come out next week!). There was tons food and it was a great and peaceful time down there! We literally were in the middle of nowhere...it was about 4 miles on a gravel road to get to the farm. I've been there only 2 times before but I'm so happy we went. And I even got Ben to take me to the fireworks in Cambridge since we weren't getting to go to Akron's! They were really neat for such a small town.

It is really the middle of no where- view off the front porch

Sitting on the swing in the yard while Ben was off mowing

Us...not the best picture

Me :)

Fireworks!

Slideshow of the fireworks

So in other news...I'm back to watching my food a little better. It wasn't easy while I was gone over the weekend and at the beginning of this week with cake at work for a co-worker. And for some reason all last week I was craving ice cream. So needless to say I went back up slighty. I'm still down 5.5 lbs but I am going to get back on track from here on out!

Work is going well, kind of busy right now. I am worried that some people may be leaving my department but it's ok. It's good for them we will just miss them. I just hope some people that have the power to do so, will make the decisions that need to be made to keep them around instead! Also, I'm excited to be going to San Antonio in August for another tradeshow. I will be going with one of my co-workers, Corey, who I absolutely love. We will have such a good time there!

Also, I have a wedding to go to this weekend. I was supposed to be in it but Ben had just gone back to work at the time and I couldn't afford the dress for another month and she was anxious to get them order. I'm pretty sad that she didn't wait for me to get mine because I would have liked to been in her wedding since she was in mine. But it is what is it. I'm excited for her and her fiancee. She will also be moving to Michigan so I will miss her even more! Hopefully, she will come home once in a while and I will be able to keep up with her over the internet. So I will have pictures to post from that i'm sure after this weekend! Her bachelorette party is tomorrow night so I will be going to that but we are just doing dinner. But I might have pictures from there too!

Well I think that's all for now...

Job and A Kind of New Me

Just wanted to write a quick update on life. Ben is finally back to work. It is not an ideal job, and way different from anything he has done in the past. But I think he is enjoying it thus far and we are just glad he is back to work. He is glad to be back into a routine of going to work and not sitting at home all day with nothing to do. We are pretty sure he will make his way into management pretty quick so that is the day we are waiting for. He isn’t making much money but at least he is making something!

I have decided that it is time for me to get into better shape. I have started walking about 1.5 to 2 miles every day at work and I kind of doing Weight Watcher’s. My co-worker brought in her stuff and I am doing the point system.I don’t really have the money to join but I am not sure that I really need to go to the meeting sanyways. You can find a lot of stuff out online and with the stuff I got from my co-worker I am doing good. I weighed my self this past Saturday and I was at 178.5 (God that’s bad!!!) and when I weighed myself yesterday morning I was already down to 174. So weight lost so far – 4.5 lbs. Some of that may have been bloating but I’m still VERY excited that this is working for me. And the best part is I really can eat what I want, I just have to stay within my points. And since pop is so many points, I have started to drink water with Crystal Light mixes in them, which is also very good for me. In case I have never mentioned this, I don’t drink water. Yes, this is true. I don’t’ know, it just makes me gag. So at least I am getting my water now : ) So wish me luck!

That’s about all the updating I have for now. I’m just working now and trying to keep busy. I think we have a cookout this weekend at our friend’s, Mel and Brian. Not sure what our July 4th plans are yet.

Happy Father's Day

I just want to say a quick "Happy Father's Day" to all the father's out there! And especially to these ones....

My dad, Don, on the left and my step-dad, Eric, on the right

Grandpa Blankenship, Ben's maternal grandpa

Grandpa Boyd, Ben's paternal grandpa

My maternal Grandpa, Grandpa Evans

I love you all! You mean the world to both of us!!

Raejean's Baby Shower

This past Saturday, we (mom and me that is!) made a trek a baby shower in Ashland. It was about an hour drive for us but it was for my old baby sitter Raejean so we gladly made the drive. They have been long time family friends! It was good to see her, haven't seen her since my wedding last year. Time just flys I'm telling you! So here it is...she is having a little boy. They aren't sure of the name yet. Her and her boyfriend Cory are super excited and she has a son who can't wait to be a big brother. It was hosted by her friend Melissa. Very good turn out and she got some wonderful gifts that will definitely add to the baby's room!

Present table - there was a picture frame for everyone to sign

Everyone eating cake - The people on the actually couch are her boyfriends mom Joan, Raejeans younger half sister Cara (who was just a baby last year I swear!) and her mom Ruth

Other guests

Beautiful mom to be!

Opening gifts

Mom and me

Strike!

So I remembered what I was going to post about! Bowling with my parents last weekend. It's something that we haven't done in a while, and never with my parents, but it was a good time. And free courtesy of a few gift cards that my mom had. Plus there's enough left to go back again! Even better...I won the second game :)

Ben Bowling

Eric and Momma

Ben and me - always bein silly

Me bowling

Mom being too cute bowling

Night out and Memorial Day '09

I'm so behind on this! I keep tellin' myself I will keep it caught up and then I keep being lazy!

So here it is...Saturday before Memorial Day me and Liz went out. It was one of the first warm nights so we finally decided to start our summer bar routine :) It's just so much more fun when it's nice out! We had many some drinks and a good girl night out. It started to get humid towards the end of the night but we loved every minute of it. It was our first official night out!

Towards the end of the night - don't know what her face is about! LOL!

For Memorial Day, Liz and Kyle had everyone over to their house for the first time together. His parents and her's came over also. It was a fun and late night! Lots of food and fun...

Baby Trent and Ben

Me and Liz

Mel and Trent

He's too cute

The little family :)

Ben and me

The girls - me, Mel and Liz

The boys - Rob, Brian, Ben and Kyle

I'm not sure what else I'm forgetting but I'm sure there is! So I will be back with another post as soon as Iremember can.