The Lost Dog Food

I lost a bag of dog food.

Well not literally.  I’ve been weighing myself semi-weekly.  Not on any regular schedule but often enough to track my progress.  I’ve lost 22 pounds.

I’ve been talking to my therapist for over a year now and I’m finally making progress.  It’s a long story on what I’m doing or how I’m doing it.  It’s a combination of things:

• In December 2009 I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  To most people this is bad news but for me it was good news.  May be the best news.  I’m now forced to take my health seriously.  If I don’t, I could end up really hurting myself.
• I hooked up with a really great nutritionist - Robyn Webb.  I’ve known her for years.  She writes for Diabetes Forecast Magazine, does broadcasts on TV and writes books for the ADA and she writes cookbooks too.
• I started eating right and exercising at Bally’s Fitness.  I’m still only on a semi-regular exercise schedule but I get more and more consistent each week.
• Lastly, I’ve begun a Bible study with some of the women at my church.  The study is called the Lord’s Table.  It focuses on our relationship with God and how he wants to and can fill the void.  It’s an interesting study and it’s really helping me to not focus on food and focus on him more.

Anyway, so I’ve lost 22 pounds. That’s equal to 1 big and 1 med size bag of dog food.  I put them in my grocery cart and tried pushing them down the aisle.  It was heavy and hard.  See what that looks like.

Day Three of the New Job

Today's my third day at my new job. This is a small company but I'm really going to like working here.  The benefits are better than I realized and the work we'll be doing is something that I can be proud of I believe.  My title is "Senior Security Engineer."  I specialize and certification and accreditation of information systems based on the 2002 FISMA.  It sounds much more complicated than it really is.  I like what I do and am really good at it.  I'm so glad God blessed me with jobs I'm good at and that I also like to do.  Several of the guys I used to work with at SRA International are working here now. In fact, they recommended me.  I wonder which one of them is going to get the new employee bonus?  I guess they'll have to battle it out LOL!  I've spent most of the past two days filling out paperwork and working on my company-styled resume and bio.  I hate writing them.  I find it difficult to describe what I do and my expertise in the third person.

I have an office with a window and I share it with another guy.  We do the same kind of work.  He seems pretty nice and very knowledgeable which is good.  I hate working with people who think they know NIST and FISMA and then don't.

Oh, there is one thing I don't like.  This building is surrounded by trees and a small woody area so there are stink bugs in the corridor of the building.  I hate bugs.  Also, supposedly there's an occasional problem with mice.  Mice love old buildings.  They don't bother me as much as bugs do.  I'll flip out if one of those stink bugs makes its way into my office.

Of course now that I'm the new girl on the block and want to make a good impression I'm not on Facebook as much. Oh, oh.  I think my plants in Farmville and food in CafeWorld are going to spoil and die.  Ack!!!  I was doing so well leveling up.  That's going to be a hard habit to break.

One last good thing.  I calculated that my last paycheck from Smartronix will arrive on April 9 and my first paycheck from this new job will arrive on April 15.  That means that I'll actually get paid three times this month.  Yeah!!!  I could use the extra cash.  It'd time for me to do some shopping for some summer pants and shirts for both work and play.

That's about it for now.

Head Over Heels

I had a MOST embarrassing moment yesterday.  Nearly gave my mom a heart attack in the process.  I was sitting outside enjoying the beautiful sun in my Mom’s backyard with my dogs.  I was sitting on her back stoop.  When the dogs started bugging me I figured it was time to go inside so I stood up, or at least I tried too.  I’m not sure which one of my beasts it was but one of the flexi-leashes got wrapped around me a bit.  I tried to untwist myself and began to lose my balance.  Just as I was beginning to think I had regained my balance I began to lean forward.  I knew then it was all over.  Clumsy girl hadn’t regained her balance.  In a split moment I remembered the instructor from one of my self defense classes telling us not to put out our arms to brace the fall.  That’s how you get broken wrists and arms.  So, I tucked my arms in.

You wanna know what happens when you tuck in at the top of a hill.  Yeah, that’s right.  You go tumbling down in.  I flipped over in a somersault and slid down the hill.  Splat!

I screamed as I was falling - cuz that’s how I do.  The scream scared the heck outta Mom.  She thought the dogs had gotten lose or something worse.

Somehow in the tumble I twisted my ankle.  The same ankle I twisted up several years ago when I wiped out walking the dogs in the snow and ice.  Luckily I didn’t get hurt just a little sore and bruised my ego.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention.  The best part of the whole incident is where I landed.  Right in a stinky fresh pile of doggie doo.  Eww!!

Well at least I got a cute pic of the dogs before taking the header.

This is the hill I tumbled down