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Archive for February, 2007

A check and a poem.

February 27th, 2007 at 02:58 am

Tonight when I retrieved my mail, I had two items of interest.

One was a check from Treasure Trooper for $38.00. I'm still annoyed with them for a number of reasons, but I am happy to get at least this amount. We'll see if I get the other $40 next month.

The second item was an envelope from poetry.com. I had entered a poem into the contest as part of one of Treasure Trooper deals. I hadn't kept my own copy of it, so I was glad to get another copy. It supposedly is in the semi-finals.

Of course, they offer to let you purchase a copy of the book it will be published in, as well as offer to publish an "author's bio" for the low low price of $25. Um, yeah sure. I'll buy a book if I win the $1,000 prize. Rolleyes

Well, that's all for now folks.

I earned a bumpersticker!

February 26th, 2007 at 01:21 am

I mentioned in a previous blog about how Sparkpeople.com was having a contest this month for people referring others to the site. The top prize is a $100 Amazon Gift card, the only other prize is a Sparkpeople bumpersticker. Every person who refers at least 10 people get the bumpersticker.

Well as of this afternoon, I received credit for my 22nd person referred (total) and my 10th person this month! It may sound kind of silly to get so excited about earning a bumper sticker, esp. since I don't put them on my car . . . but I really wanted one anyway and didn't really want to buy one. Smile

I wonder if I'll get to choose which one I want? Smile

I'm also only 600 points away from the 10,000 point trophy. I wonder what that is going to look like? I wonder how many points to the next trophy? I am way too focused on those points I think, and I can't even do anything with them like on saving advice. Smile

Happenings

February 17th, 2007 at 05:44 pm


Feb 13:
* Woo Hoo! Lost another 0.4 lbs.
Also, my Spark team had a NO GAINER week - which is pretty amazing for 20 people. It is the second time this has happened for my team since I started leading back in July of 06.

* I got an email from Coach Jen (who is the Spark person in charge of the Community Team Members - kinda like Jeffrey/Nate). One of the things she mentioned was that for the first New Member sparkteam there were over 12,000 members! Wow! I'm really curious how many people will be on my team when my turn comes. (Each New Member Sparkteam has 3 co-leaders and stays together for a month. Community Team leaders have signed up to lead these teams - essentially help new people with whatever questions/concerns they may have.)

* I now have 8 people signed up for Sparkpeople thru me for February! I just need two more people to get a bumper sticker. Woo hoo! I'm so happy people are getting to enjoy the wonders of Spark because of my obsessive ramblings about it. Smile Smile
Valentine's Day:

* Pulled over by cop for making illegal left turn. I thought the sign said no U-turn. Received a warning for that, but did not have my current insurance card with me. So, I did receive a ticket for that. Frown

* One of the people at the delivery place I walk by everyday on the way to work held up a special sign for me, "Happy Valentine's Day." Smile

* Spoke to our Landman and to our Communications Director about my being interested in completing whatever training would be necessary to become our Landman's assistant. They both seemed happy to know that I was interested.

Feb 15:
* Celebrated my one-year anniversary at work.

* Received an email from Treasure Trooper saying that my check has been printed and I should receive it soon. It was $40 less than I was expecting. The $40 is from one deal where the company was giving me problems and I canceled early. I am SO done and over Treasure Trooper. (Much more to it.)

Feb 16:
* Received my Fed Tax Refund. Smile Have thought of a million ways/places it could be spent/used, but for now it is sitting in my ING checking account.

* Had my first session with my mom's Personal Trainer (gift certificate for Christmas -2 sessions). I throughly enjoyed it and felt I could gain so much from it if I could do it regularly. But throughly DID NOT enjoy the drive to get there. Too bad he's not 20 miles closer to me.

* Ate supper at my mom and stepdads. My mom had made me this super sweet mini-booklet card talking about how I was when I was younger and how I am now. It was essentially celebrating my one-year at my company. Then we played a game of Scrabble and unbelievably I LOST! That doesn't happen very often. I blame it on the fact that we were missing about 12 - 15 letter tiles. Smile

Laundromats

February 12th, 2007 at 12:45 am

Today was another laundry day. Fun, fun, fun.

Have you ever noticed that laundromats have an abundance of the large capacity washers ($2.25/load) that are almost never full, but the normal capacity washers ($1/load) are nearly impossible to find one, let alone two that are available? (Holy run on sentence - yikes!)

And is it just me, or is it a purposeful ploy to not have enough laundry carts for everyone to use?

Have you ever noticed (or maybe this is just in Texas) that the only station on the tv is some Spanish language station played at extreme volume. But of course the screen can't be seen by the majority of the people in the laundromat.

Why is it that parents feel comfortable letting their barely toddling children have free range throughout the laundromat where numerous strangers go in and out constantly?

And is it just me, or does the price of the dryer correlate directly to how clean or grossly unclean the bathroom is?

I'm thinking that I'm going to have to come up with a good reason to make another visit to my mom and stepdad's before my next laundry day.

Signed,

Throughly sick and tired of using laundromats and longing for the day of living somewhere with my very own washer and dryer again.

Look behind you and beside you.

February 3rd, 2007 at 08:58 pm

I have about six pretty nice suits in my closet that I bought about six years ago when I was trying to start my own business.

I didn't have very much opportunity to wear them after I closed my doors, mainly because I started teaching again, but also because I gained weight and couldn't fit into them anymore.

So, a few years ago after having lost over 50 lbs, I was once again able to wear them. I couldn't wear them to work (school) so I wore them to church. Fast forward a bit, and again couldn't wear them due to gaining weight.

A few months ago after having lost a good bit of weight once again, I decided to try on the suits. Most of them fit! I had them dry cleaned and was thinking of adding them into my work wardrobe. But then realized that it may be a bit of overkill for where I work, plus if I wore them more often, then I'd have to get them drycleaned more, which would add up. So they sat in my closet.

Today I decided that I would wear one of them to church. I picked out one of my blue suits, fixed my hair, did my makeup, etc. Looked in the mirror (front view only) and felt like I passed muster.

After first service I decided to step into the ladies room to get a tissue for my nose. Smile While there, for some reason I decided to check out the back view in the mirror. Doh! On one side of my otherwise very nicely fitting jacket, was a two inch rip along the seam! I wish I knew how it happened, although it doesn't really matter I guess. It shouldn't cost too much to get it fixed, since it is along the seam.

But knowing that I'd been walking around church with that big hole in my jacket really made me self-conscious!

-------

Then when I got to my apartment complex there were a bunch of young boys riding around on bikes. I was getting close to my parking spot, when all of a sudden this kid flys out between two parked cars on his bike right in front of me! Thankfully I was going fairly slow, and we saw each other about the same time, otherwise I don't even want to imagine what may have happened!

Needless to say, that sure got my adrenaline pumping!

Did my taxes today. :)

February 3rd, 2007 at 03:58 am

I finally got my W2 from my current employer, so I could file my taxes. I went through irs.gov and then used Turbo Tax online. I'm getting a refund of slightly over $800, even though I readjusted my witholding amount in September.

So, what are my plans for this money? I'm going to use part of it to pay myself back in a couple budget categories I siphoned from a little in order to pay for my new eliptical machine. Then I think I'm going to put $100 in my Vacation account. Then the rest -- 1/4 to each of the following: Emergency Fund, House fund, Roth IRA, and New clothing fund.

This is the largest refund I've ever gotten. One year I got $500 back, but most of that was because I had opened a Traditional IRA that year.

_____
Something else really cool - well two things actually. Smile Today I got an email telling me when my week is to lead a team of Sparkpeople new members (newbies). Smile I'm so excited because I think this will be a great way to help people really feel comfortable and accepted right away on the site.

I'm also kind of excited about the promotion Sparkpeople is running this month for referring new people. I've gotten credit for 11 people so far (4 others who forgot to use my username when signing up). What's really neat is that *everyone* who refers at least 10 new members gets a Sparkpeople bumper sticker!

I think Sparkpeople is such an awesome site and I absolutely LOVE telling people about it! I kind of embarrased one of my friends the other night when we were at social dinner for women. There was this lady who was talking about how much she wanted to be healthier and lose weight, etc. Of course I felt like that was a perfect opening, and started telling her all about Spark. Smile Smile

I just can't tell people enough about it! After having used Weight Watcher's Online and paying out the nose just to use the site and their online tools, it is
SO refreshing to find a site that in my mind at least, is SO much better in every way, not to mention completely FREE. Smile

I love that word Free, don't you? I love it even more when that word is coupled with losing over 40 lbs. Smile

I have been at a bit of a standstill lately, but with a little revamping of my exercise program and trying to keep my eating in check (did I mention tracking *every bite*?) I am slowly starting to move in the right direction again.