It's been a while. I've been trying to do a health/diet/fitness overhaul and it's been consuming me. Because if it doesn't, I'll lose interest like I always do. But Bamma introduced me to SparkPeople, which has been such a great tool and it's helped me a lot. The BEST thing about SparkPeople is that it's COMPLETELY FREE. The second best thing about it is that you earn points for all of the good things that you do, and it kind of keeps me going. You get "trophies" and other things like that. (Like if you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, get 8 hours of sleep a night, etc.) And you can set your own goals and track your progress. It will even show you graphs of your weight over time, your calories consumed over time, your fitness minutes over time, etc. And it's so easy to keep track of your calories, because EVERYTHING you could ever think of is already entered in either by Spark People or other users, so you just do a search and "voila!" Also, they have tons of recipes. I'm not following the suggested workouts/recipe diets, I'm just counting my calories and keeping track of what I eat, and entering my fitness minutes. I'm super suprised about how long I've kept it up - I signed up on Nov. 11th and I've kept up with it pretty good. Anyway, if you decide to sign up, find me. My username is "shimmylala". My short term goals are to lose 10 pounds by Christmas, 15 pounds by NYE, and reach my goal weight by either May or March (I forget which one at the moment) I'm doing good with the 10 pounds lost by Christmas, but I am doubting now that I'll be able to drop 5 pounds in one week for my NYE goal. We'll see - I'm going to do my best but 5 pounds is a LOT for one week. Classes are done (YES!!) until mid January. We're having a NYE party at Aerin's, it's going to be a Black & White party and I'm excited for it! Then Dean's 25th is January 9th, which is a Saturday so we're having another big Soiree that night, and the theme is "Dress to Impress" which I think is fitting, because he LOVES to dress up and look sharp. It should be fun. I've started thinking about my goals for the new year and I have a few ideas... - To be less dramatic. - To be more positive - To get, live, and stay healthier - To de-clutter the house As for the house I have a lot of goals for this coming spring/summer/fall (when it's not so COLLLLLD out!) - Run electricity to the gazebo - Install a motion floodlight in the back of the house - Take out the carpet from the mudroom and install tile - Put in a stone patio in the back - Rip out the ugly lilies that I hate and put shrubs in the front - Install a bathroom fan (to get rid of the moisture) - Take down the livingroom wallpaper and repaint it I know realistically we won't get ALL of that done but hopefully we can do a lot of it.

Just got back from the gym.

Thought I was going to die.

I was pushing and pushing and pushing, but after about a half hour, my little heart was confusing the heart rate monitor.

It was all like, "Is your heart for REAL right now?!"

And I was all like, "Yeah, I know it's ridiculous. Just go with it."

And my heart was like, "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!?!"

And I was like, "Trust me, heart, this hurts me more than it hurts you."

And my heart said, "I don't know about that."

Meanwhile, the elliptical kept saying, "SLOW DOWN TO REACH TARGET HEART RATE" on the monitor.

And I said, "If I go any slower, I'll be going backwards."

And then I said "Screw this."

And I was done with my workout. I couldn't tough out the 7 minutes and 26 seconds left of my 45 minute workout. It was all I could do to walk three feet and pink up the cleaner spray bottle. I was driving home and thought I was having a stroke or something, but it turns out I just forgot that my heat was on high as hell mode and that wasn't helping anything.

Long story short, I'm still alive. Hopefully it will be easier next time. "They" say that it's sposed to get easier, but it's worked opposite for me so far. We will see. Right now my heart is NOT impressed.

Check my email.

Boring but true!

Dean & I just took the most amazing nap..I love weekends. He went out to the hunting camp with his dad and grandfather today, and I brought in all of the furniture from the gazebo down to the basement. I've been meaning to do it for a while but have been putting it off, so it was a good day for it. And I had to take apart the bar, bring it in piece by piece, and then assemble it all again down there, so needless to say it took forEVER.

Coda was so cute outside today, he loves to run as fast as he can back and forth in the backyard, but there are TONS of leaves out there (that need to be raked tomorrow, gahhhh), and he loved the sound he made running through them. :) He also needs a bath ASAP, gotta get on that.

My cookie lee party was amazing, got a lot of inventory moved. The girls LOVED the discounts, I was pretty much giving it away. I really want to sell it all so I can make room for the new stuff!

We had chinese for dinner, it was so good!

I just took a shower, so I need to go brush & blowdry my hair before it gets too dry in the towel. HAPPY SATURDAYYY!

If you would like me to send you the new Fall/Winter '09 Cookie Lee Jewelry Catalog, please just send me a message with your address and I'll send it right out!



PS...TGIF!

What a BEAUTIFUL day!

I love fall. I always will.

So I had my interview at JCPenney today. I left work early so I could come home and take a shower, figure out what to wear, etc. I tried to tell myself not to stress about the interview, because there's really no reason to. It's a seasonal job for e_tra cash, so worst case is I don't get hired and am not able to buy lots of christmas presents this year.

But an interview is an interview, and I couldn't help stressing over it. Plus, by the time I was ready and left the house, I had about 3 minutes to get there. Luckily, when I walked in, the manager I was interviewing with was waiting for me in the catalog department, but there was an old guy (looked like a customer) that she was talking to. I don't think she noticed I was late.

So when she was done, she came up and introduced herself, and at that point I morphed into the person I can only ever be during a job interview for some reason: confident, outgoing, calm & collected. I really act like I'm normal and have my shit together. (I don't)

Anyways, we get up to her office, the interview begins. She asks about my customer service e_perience. I proceed to act as if customer service is the reason I am here on earth. I might as well have said, "Customer service is my middle name." -- It was THAT bad. But I have no control over it, the Interview Verbal Diarrhea.

If I were her, I wouldn't have hired me.

After I got control over my own thoughts again, I mentioned that I worked at Clinique in Macy's a few years ago.

DING DING DING!

Apparently she was one of the store managers there when I was there. We actually both left the same month. Since I was a clinique girl, we didn't interact with the Macy's managers like the other employees of Macy's did. I think the makeup counters pay macy's to be able to have their counters in their store? I don't know. Basically I got an hourly base pay from Macy's, and then commission on top of that for whatever I sold. Annnnnyway...She told me that one of the managers there got fired for se_ual harrassment. When she said that, I said, "Finally - took long enough!"  Before I could figure out that wasn't the best thing I could have said, she started laughing, and told me I had the job. Sweet!

So I start training Nov 4,5 & 6th, and have my first day of work on the 7th. I'm hoping this was a good decision. I think in the long run it will be. But yeah I'll be taking 4 classes, working fulltime as an Office Manager (my real job), and then going to Penney's (she said it will probably be 15 - 18 hours a week - we'll see what my schedule is like.)

Oy. I hope I don't lose it.

I decided to go upstairs and do my workout video tonight after the interview. I first programmed the new universal remote for the tv/dvd player upstairs. That apparently took a lot of energy, because once I finally figured that out and started the video, I only lasted about 5 or mayyybe 10 minutes. I justified it by telling myself I'd go to bed early and get up before work to go to the gym. We will see.

I applied online at JC Penney for a nights/weekends part time holiday job. I did that a few days ago and they called the next day to set up an interview.

I was caught off guard, because I've applied at JC Penney & Bath & Body Works for the last couple of years in a row for a holiday part time job, and never even got called. I always want to apply at the LLBean Call Center in Waterville every year too, but by the time I think of it they have all of their holiday staff hired already. I need to remember to look into it earlier next year.

Bath & Body hasn't called me yet but the girl said that the manager is out for a week so not to worry if I didn't hear anything right away. To be honest I'd rather work there for some reason but whatev. It will just be nice to have the extra cash for christmas shopping/oil heat.

I watched Pam & Jim get married on The Office last night and it was epic. I was more excited for their wedding than I was for my own. Just kidding but it was a fabulous episode.

I ordered a few pieces of jewelry from the new Fall/Winter 09 Cookie Lee catalog and there's some great stuff!! I was so excited. I'm having a home show next Friday night and I can't wait to show everyone the new catalog!

I need to cut my hair, it's SO long. I grew it out for the wedding and honestly I think I look better when my hair is longer like this, it's just so ANNOYING. My hair is so thin. Not like balding-thin but the strands are thin as opposed to thick. But I have a LOT of it. The only thing is that it gets greasy & flat SO easily. Anyways I think cutting a few inches off would be the best thing for it.

I have to say I am relieved to not have to go tanning all the time now. I'm going to get pale again quick, but I was just tanning for the wedding. But every time I would go, all I could think of over and over laying in the tanning bed was how my skin was AGING. So I'm done with that..I'll stick with the spray tan (VersaSpa) if I need some color.

Greg's in Europe, I'm so jealous. He's been to London & Amsterdam, and is going to Scotland next. SWEET!! I loved Germany and I'm itching to see more of Europe, esp. France, Italy, Greece, & Ireland. We'll see.

YEAH Cookie Lee!!

:D

Five Ways to Make Cash Fast - ABC News

Read the article, and let me know if you have any questions. Great time to become a consultant, right in time for the holidays!

So busy.

BUT WE'RE MARRRRRIED!!

Can't even believe it still..doesn't feel much different. I gotta go start on thank you notes now...so many to write. We were so SPOILED, people were so generous that it seems so cheap that all they get back is a little thank you card!!

But I thought I'd post the link to the photos if anyone wants to see!! But just as a warning, there are about 600 of them. :D

davisphotos.smugmug.com/Weddings/Jenny-and-Dean-12-September/Jenny-Dean-91209/9704263_KQ9sc#655959311_D6wGp

I'll post in a couple of weeks hopefully if I have time. I have classes and work and catching up with everything after the wedding so who knows when I'll be on here again.

Happy September!!

PS.. WHAT should I be for Halloween? We're already planning our party and I need something EPIC.

I'm going to be married in 12 days!!

Where the hell does time go?? This CREEPED up so quick. Love it!

Less than 2 months now, HOLYCRAP.

A few updates since last time:

Serving set ordered from JeanM:



Toasting flutes I really like:



Custom Converse slip on sneakers I just ordered for me to suprise Dean (he has custom chucks for the wedding):



His shoes: (His are suede though, mine are canvas.)



Those haven't shipped out yet but they'll be here by August, plenty of time!

I got custom clothes ordered today too. I got a t-shirt and hoodie to wear before the wedding while we're getting Medolark ready, because we'll be down there thursday& friday before the wedding. And then I got a robe to wear on the wedding day when I'm getting ready:


Reads "mrs. king"
.




Reads "Bride To Be" on front as pictured, and "Mrs. King" on back:



Reads "Mrs. King" on back:




In other news, I called two of my fav. hair/makeup artists from People's Salon, to see if they would travel to Camden to do my hair/makeup and anyone else's who wanted it. They said yes!! Well, I still need to call them back, Shannon left a voicemail for me and I keep forgetting to call her back. Shannon did my hair/makeup for my Junior prom and Jen did it Senior Prom. I'm VERY picky with both my hair and makeup for special events like that so I am SO relieved that they agreed to help me out. That way I know I'll like what they do and I won't stress as much about whether I'll look like crap on my wedding day. I had a trial in Portland before my bridal shower in May, at Jonathan Douglass Salon. I saw them at a bridal show in portland and the lady I talked to was awesome. She was my age, maybe a couple of years older. But when I went I got this older woman, and she was an ex-Glamour Shots worker. Basically, I could have done what she did with my hair myself, and it was falling out 15 minutes into my bridal shower. The makeup was horrible too. I still need to call and cancel the appointment for the wedding day (I keep forgetting). AND she doesn't travel, so I'd have to go all the way to portland the morning of my wedding then drive all the way to camden. NOPE. But it's all good now, things work out for a reason!

Still need to decide what I want for jewelry to wear that day. I definately want a necklace and earrings, I'm not sure about a bracelet yet but I'm leaning on no. Which is fine because that's less money I have to spend on jewelry! Speaking of jewelry, we need to go wedding band shopping. I want most of our budget for that to go to Dean to find a wedding ring he really likes, because I already have my engagement ring that I'm in love with!

First dress fitting is this weekend. I want them to fix the corset back, because right now it's so close together that when it's laced up, you can't really tell it's a corset. Well you can but I want the corset part to be wider. So I'm going to have them fix that for me, and obviously take the length up a couple of inches because I'm so short. Then I'm going to have them alter the neckline a bit. It's a sweetheart neckline, but it's a VERY rounded sweetheart and I want it to be more subtle. And lastly, the train. I don't have much of a train at all, but I'm thinking about cutting it off alltogether and having NO train. We'll see. But if not I'll just have her bustle it and wear it bustled the whole time. I'm going to be walking down very steep stone steps at the ceremony in front of everyone, and I'm SO clumsy. No grace whatsoever. So the train would get in my way even more anyway, and plus I don't like trains in the first place, which is why I was thinking of just chopping it alltogether. I'll see what the seamstress thinks though. I don't have any undergarments for it either, but the Madeleine's store has tons stocked there and it says on the form that the seamstress will pick out the right bra undergarment arrangement that will work best with my dress.

Before I went dress shopping, I was wishing I had the money to get two dresses: a fancy one for the ceremony and a casual/slinky/sexy one for the reception. But then I found "THE ONE" and after that I couldn't imagine how any bride would want to take off a dress they love so much! I told Dean I wanted to wear it the next morning at brunch, and on the plane to our honeymoon haha!! I love it so much.

There's TONS of other details that are neverending, but I'm done with this post for the moment. I can't believe it's so soon!!!

I can tell you sweatpants will still be in play! At least for me.

Can't sleep, so I decided to blog.

:)

Haven't really had time to lately. I've missed it, as lame as that is. It's how I get things off my chest though, and think things out. I'm not a good verbal communicator (at ALL). I've ALWAYS communicated best through writing. Journals, letters, etc. I guess that probably will never change. But I am trying to work on my verbal communication, I swear! It drives Deanzer nuts for sure so I'm trying to be better at that.

Anywho, it's been really busy. I mean really REALLY busy lately. Kristi came up to visit a couple/few weeks ago, and came to hang out with all of us at Rachel's. It was frozen bucket night and Rachel's bday celebration! It was so good to see everyone, we haven't been hanging out as often as usual! And it's always good to see Kristi! Feels like just yesterday we were all in 4th grade taking Math Objectives and reading Anne of Green Gables. And being dorky. Haha! It really does still feel like I'm an infant, but then again I have mortgage payments and a crazy dog and a fiance and wedding to plan! So surreal! I do wonder if I'll ever feel completely "adult". Because right now I still struggle with that. Just tonight I realized...wow, I am a WOMAN now. I'm a grownup. But I just don't feel like it still! I feel the same as I did in highschool, except I have more responsibilities. I can't really articulate the feeling, but it's a weird one for sure.

I was SO sick last night! A migrane hit me like a bus out of nowhere at about 8PM. So I threw back some motrin (I do finally have prescription migrane medicine - imitrex - but it has really bad side effects with the cymbalta I'm taking. I go back to see doc next month so hopefully there's something else that will help)

I went to lay down and about a half hour later, I was nautious. I ran downstairs and to the bathroom about 3 or 4 times and got sick, and finally after laying on the bathroom floor for about 15 minutes I knew what the rest of the night was going to be like. Dean helped me out bigtime as usual, and got me lots of water, an icepack, and rigged up the trashcan with trashbags. I spent the rest of the night from around 9ish to 3 or 4 am puking my guts out. It was BAD. Most of the night I was puking at least once every 20 minutes. And the nausea was intense and didn't let up. It was horrible! And I had already gotten rid of the food in my stomach, so it was one of those things where you drink water and it comes right back up, and drink more and it comes up again. It was constant and miserable, and poor Dean didn't get any sleep either. When you get sick that much, it really does take so much out of you! I was exhausted this morning and ended up having to come home and sleep. Definately slept the day away.

But! I'm better now!

Geography ends tomorrow! I have to take one more exam then I wipe my hands of it. It was one of those "spring" accelerated courses that lasts a month. But it's just a gen. ed. requirement so I wanted to just get it out of the way. PS I HATE geography. I hate school in general actually. I wish I had never even gone to college. Maybe someday that will change but honestly it is SUCH a source of stress and anxiety for me. I've never been able to handle it the way I should that way. Almost done! God, I can't wait.

Dean's almost done the classes for his Low Energy electricity license too..he only has 2 classes to take, then he takes the exam for the license! That's pretty cool because we thought he had 3 or 4 left.

My birthday was incredible, as always! My last birthday "single" as everyone kept reminding me. Mom and Dad had a barbeque at their house for me the day before my bday, and prepared a delicious feast! Mmmm! Amber and Matt came and Nana, Papa, all my siblings, Jackie, Steve and the boys, and Big Greg! Mom and Dad suprised me with the most beautiful solid wood hutch (I dont' remember what kind, I can never tell if something is oak, pine, maple, etc.etc.) a couple of months ago for an early birthday present. Mom decided to give it to me early because I was telling her how we were looking for a hutch, and she didn't want us to buy one because they had it in storage for my birthday present! Haha. It is so beautiful though! And it was custom built for my aunt & uncle's house. They moved to St.Croix though and sold all that kind of stuff. So mom bought it for me then and they've been storing it all this time!

Anyway, they gave it to me early and promised not to get anything else for my birthday but of course they did (they spoil me so much!  haha)

Mom got me the mother/daughter Willow Tree which I love! It even has our hair colors right. And dad got me one of those door locks that you can enter a code to unlock it. We put one on our registry because mom & dad have one and it's so great! You don't have to carry your key around, you just type in your code and you're in! Dean installed it right away and we absolutely love it! EVERYONE spoiled me for my birthday!! Tina and greg got me all sorts of goodies! My first "Life is Good" tee shirt, a GREAT photo frame (which I just filled tonight with pictures from my bridal shower), and a fabulous aluminum waterbottle! And Bam & matt got me the prettiest flowers, and dean did too! They're still doing really good in the vase actually, they've lasted quite a bit! Nana and poppa gave me poppa's money clip, which is super special. The family got me a GREAT beach chair with backpack straps on it and it has a pocket onthe back so you can put stuff in there. Hard to explain but it really does rock. Gram Angela got me scratch tickets and I won a couple bucks! I have to bring them in to exchange them for more tickets. I keep forgetting!

Jenn and Addie are back in Germany now, but we had so much fun with them while they were here! She's a completely different baby from when we saw her last. What a good girl! And we have their dog Lucy for a few days. Jenn's dad dropped her off at work today. Poor lucy! Coda is so excited and won't leave her alone! He has a big crush but I keep telling him that's gross. She's his cousin for god's sake!! :)

She's a good dog, I'm hoping she'll rub off on him a little.

Wedding plans are coming along nicely. The only headache about it is the catering. With the guest list at 250, it's hard to find a reasonably priced caterer. So that's our only hitch! The engagement announcement was finalized today and will be going out this Sunday. We have the stuff for invitations and will start putting them together once we can figure out what we're doing for food. We have to have a section on the RSVP cards about what food everyone wants.

My first dress fitting is in July, then I have 2 in August! I have to go down to NH where the bridal shop is to do those but I don't mind. I'd rather, because they really know what they're doing there and I don't want the pretty dress to get butchered! I need to find shoes because they want me to bring the shoes to the first fitting. I'm not too concerned about it though. I know I'm not going any higher than kitten heels, but I might just do flats. I'm so damn clumsy! And it's going to be outside so I don't want to be sinking in.

We have to start looking at wedding bands soon too but I'm not too concerned about that. I'm sure that will be somewhat simple (I hope).

Kevin's coming tomorrow to visit! We're excited to see him. It should be super fun! I hope the weather starts to turn around. Today was nice for a change though! We love to go camping and hoped to go TONS this summer, but haven't gotten the chance to yet with the busyness/bad weather. But we haven't taken coda camping before so we'd love to go somewhere that we can take him too.

I'm going to stop myself now, because I really do need to try and get some sleep. So ready for the weekend! SOOOOO ready.

I went to Madeleine's Daughter today and found....THE ONE!!

Now I know why they always say, "You'll just KNOW." SO ecstatic!

I'M GOING WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING AT MADELEINE'S DAUGHTER TODAYYYY!!!

LOST is almost on.

I hope I sleep tonight!!

Everything happens for a reason (sometimes). We had our photographer, but basically it fell through and we had to start from scratch. But Aerin recommended a fab guy named Andrew Davis who takes beautiful pictures. SO much better quality than the other one. I love his style, so much more photojournalistic and artistic than the one we had before, and a lot more reasonable too!! AND, he gives us a high resolution DVD of all the shots for free, and we can print them wherever/whenever we want (which will save us a lot of $$).

Also, he's there the WHOLE day with us, none of this crap where they do 4-6 hours then you have to pay to add on to it. That rocks. And we have a second backup photographer, which will be fabulous to have 2 points of views in the pictures. Andrew sent me the link to her work as well, and it's equally as gorgeous! They're both really talented. Her name is Rachel Swain.

Yip!

I have also decided to go with Jonathan Douglas Salon & Spa for my hair/makeup. I saw them at the first bridal show I went to in Portland, and they were so warm and friendly. Plus they gave me concealer and I liked the makeup, it was mineral based, but wasn't seethru. It hd coverage which I like. And they'll be able to travel up to Camden to get me ready on the big day.  I have an appointment set up to do a hair & makeup trial at the end of may in Portland, since I'll be down there anyway for the bridal shower at my grandparents' house later that day. I'm excited!!

The biggest things on my mind to do now are to find a caterer & to find a dress.

I went dress shopping w/Mom, Dad, Tina, Katelynn, Amber, Aerin, Spencer, & Zach last Sunday at Hussey's General Store. It was an experience, as Hussey's always is! I actually got my prom dress there and it was pretty decently cute



That's me all the way on the left!! Don't mind the goofy hair...I always say I ended up looking like Annie that day. It was a disaster but at the time I thought I looked cute. Here's a better picture of my awful prom hair:



:D

I dont' have a lot of pictures of prom, because pictures weren't digital at that time, and by the time I actually got around to scanning them and uploading them, I had moved so many times that they were gone forever. Booo!

Anyway..off topic now. So we went to Hussey's, and there was only dress that we all liked.




It's weird to see it on this model, because it looks like a completely different dress on me!!
Anyway, we're going to Madeleine's Daugter Bridal Salon in Portsmouth, NH this Saturday, where I've ALWAYS wanted to go to look for my wedding dress (just because I got a big catalog from them around prom time junior year, and they had the most extravagant dresses that I LOVED.)

It will be so fun and I can't wait!! And when I went to Madeleine's website to see the lines they carry, I was ecstatic to see that they carry Cymbeline gowns! I love that line, and when I went to Cymbeline's site they said the nearest retailer to me was in NYC so I thougth that would be out. Yay!

Gotta go for now. I'm feeling so much less stressed about...EVERYTHING now. I'm trying so hard to not be completely neurotic, and enjoy everything about planning this wedding and being engaged!

Happy Thursday!

Hi lovelies!!

Just wanted to post a couple of Steals n' Deals for you, just in time for Mother's Day!


The Mom/Madre Angel Wing Necklace is regularly $32.00.
I'm marking it down to $25.00 if you order it before Monday, May 4th!

Let me know if you'd like one! I can ship it to you for $1.