A Handsome Surprise for a Handsome Man!

The last week or so has been super crazy between getting ready for Andy's surprise 40th birthday party, getting the house back in order, doing stuff for my business, and helping Kristi with everything.

Speaking of Andy's surprise party... It was awesome! I was able to keep it from him until the actual surprise which I didn't think I'd be able to do. He spent the day with his brother and pastor golfing. I spent the previous evening and morning with my sister getting ready for the party but told him we were doing wedding stuff. LoL! So we started by going to party city to get the tableware and balloons. All I have to say is.. WOW! is that place expensive! The tableware for 36 guests came out to like $32. That was double what I had budgeted since I had done research on their site about pricing. Um.. apparently store prices and online prices are completely different. Who'da thunk it? So we ran to Wal-Mart to get all the food stuff like hamburger buns, ketchup, hamburgers, drinks, etc. Just because my curiosity got the best of me, I took a quick trip over to the party supply isle to do some price comparisons. Needless to say, the exact same products costs less than half of what I paid at Party City. I was pretty proud of my find and returned all the other stuff. I love saving money! :-) Anyway... Sarah and I headed to Matt's to start the party set-up. The party was set to start at 3:00 p.m. with Andy arriving between 3:15 & 3:30. Around 1:00, Matt called to say that Andy was super anxious to get back to the house because the Flyer's game was supposed to start at 3:00. For the next 2 hours, Sarah and I were trying to come up with excuses to keep Andy away. So we had everything set-up by 2:00 and decided to start making the hamburgers around 2:30 and keep them warm in the oven until Andy arrived. Since I'm no grill master, I was very hesitant to make them myself. I got the first 12 on the grill and realized I didn't have anything to flip them with. LoL! Thankfully, Todd offered to cook them and according to his wife is a "grill master" (they did turn out pretty freaking fantastic). That was a complete blessing. Right around 2:40 some of the guests called to let me know they were running late. Oh boy! God must have been on my side during that time because Andy actually fell asleep on the drive back to Matt's (Matt was driving so don't worry) which allowed Matt to take a nice long detour. Because of that nice detour, all the guests arrived before Andy so the surprise wasn't spoiled... Yay! All the guests crowded into the dining room for the big "surprise" until he walked into the door. All 32 of us screamed "surprise" as he walked around the corner and his mouth just dropped! It was absolutely fantastic! We had awesome, awesome food including baked artichoke dip, pigs in a blanket, potato and macaroni salads, baked beans, hamburgers, and a bunch of other goodies.

Some of the guests:

Miss Cathy

 Megan and Eli

The Bentzel & Slimmer Families, Susan

The other Bentzel: Shane

 Sig & Liz

 Angie & Jim

 Mom & Katelynn

 Wendy

 Sarah

 Mom, Bill, & Matt

 Of course: The guest of honor and his adoringly beautiful girlfriend (I'm not biased... no... not at all):

Mmmmm! Cake!

This cake was soooo freaking fantastic! I highly recommend getting your cake from COSTCO because they're amazing (and fairly inexpensive)! We had a really great time hanging with all our friends and family and were so grateful for everyone being there. :-)

On the business front.... Not much is happening there. It's been kind of crazy this week with Kristi returning. I'm still trying to get over my shyness with calling prospective clients. Haven't quite figured that out yet but I figure if I do a lot of praying, it'll come. I'm pretty sure I have a few more clients who are soon ready to sign-up which is good. My goal is to hit ED (executive director) by the end of June, although if I don't get over my shyness I definitely won't hit it. 

I'm really excited for this weekend. It'll be nice to have a relaxing, three day weekend with my two favorite people. Tomorrow, we're planning to hit up some yard sales since I don't have a single piece of summer clothing that fits me (not even the Perfect Fit buttons are helping!) and going grocery shopping. Oh, and of course cleaning! Sunday we have church in the morning and our 2nd annual Backyard Bash in the evening. I'm totally stoked for that! :-) It's going to be a great time with food, friends, and games. Unfortunately, Kristi wasn't able to be here last year so I'm really happy she'll be able to participate this year. 

On the knitting front... I'm super excited about a yarn I just recently found. The Chambersburg SnB' group I'm part of is doing a KAL from June through August. Our theme is socks-Yay! I am obsessed with the fun, bright colors of sock yarn so this is the perfect KAL for me. I have about 4 different pairs of socks on needles right now--mostly because I'm so impatient when I find a new, lovely sock yarn that I just have to find the perfect pattern and CO. Well, the challenge for this KAL is to pick a more challenging pattern. The first pair of socks I finished was the Brigit Sock. The pattern uses a cable and twist stitch so it was a little challenging for me. My personal challenge for this KAL is to create my own sock pattern. I found a stitch in a dictionary called the Flemish Block Lace Stitch and decided that I eventually wanted to use it for a sock pattern. After finding this awesome yarn at Uncommon Threads called Batika, I spent about 3 hours going 

through the Ravelry sock patterns. I found 5 or 6 patterns I liked but was worried that they wouldn't show very well because of this yarn. So I figured out my gauge and decided to make my own pattern. I added two stitches to make 64 and CO. I am now through one pattern repeat and on my foot it went (these are top down, btw). Ugh! I am so disappointed because it seems too big! I've already graduated to a size 1 and am worried if I drop the needles to a size 0, it'll be difficult. There is a part in the pattern where you have to k3tog and I was already having difficulty with that on the 1's. So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to use a different yarn. Batika seems a little thicker than most sock yarns; the company suggests using a size 3 or 4 needle instead of a 1 or 2. I do have a few other sock yarns in my stash so I might use one of them instead. I've had a skein of TOFUtsies by SouthWest Trading Company in my stash for like 2 years because every time I find a pattern I like, the business of the yarn makes it unnoticeable. I'm thinking it could possibly be good for the pattern I'm creating. As for my other started projects: I started the Daisy Stitch Tunic as featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits and it's going very well. Since this is going to be a Christmas present, I'm putting it down for now to start the project for the KAL. I'm about half finished the front panel already. :-) I'm thinking it's going to be a pretty quick knit, which is definitely a plus because I'm thinking once I finish losing my weight that I might make one for myself. I definitely want to try the Ambrosia Cardigan also featured in the same magazine. It reminds me of a corset and is so beautiful! Hm.. What else is on my needles? Oh, my first attempt at 2-at-a-time using the Sweet Pea pattern by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I'm thinking of frogging these and using the yarn for my KAL but haven't decided yet. I think that pattern would look better with the Batika yarn instead. As I have them started, I'm using Red Heart's Heart & Sole in the colorway featured on the page. I really want to finish up my Messenger Bag which I started over 2 years ago but ran out of yarn. I'm using Lamb's Pride Bulky and love the colors. I think I'll only need 1 more skein of each color. This is going to be fantastic when it's finished! I got my winning yarn in the mail earlier this week. My first idea was to make a purse and felt it because the colors are just so gorgeous, but it would be super small so I'm not sure yet what I'm going to use it for. Here's a picture:

On the weight loss front: Yeah.... that's pretty much been nonexistant! I totally fell off the wagon last weekend with the party. I definitely do not have the self-control and will power I would like because I saw that food and just couldn't help myself. In my own defense, I could have eaten much, much worse than I did. Instead of loading up my plate like I used to, I put just a tablespoon of each item. It tasted great but on Sunday I felt just awful! My stomach hurt and I felt so sluggish. What amazes me is that I used to feel that way everyday and never thought anything of it. Now, I can't imagine feeling that way again! I got back OP (on plan) on Monday and am sticking to it hard-core. I'm a little nervous about Sunday because of our bash but I am determined to stay OP. My best friend who is also OP with me will be there and I'm hoping that we can keep each other on track. LoL! Well, I should probably stop here before I finish a book... LoL! Until next time: health, happiness, and blessings!

Winning and then some...

So I get on Ravelry this morning to check out some of my groups pages and have a new message. I wasn't overly excited; however, after opening and reading the message... I was oober excited! I've been following The Alpaca Yarn Company's blog, Paca-Blog. They have been running a contest to pick the names of the new summer Paca-Paints colorways. So, of course I had to put my two cents in on those babies! (Which BTW, they are GORGEOUS!) Everyone who responded went into a drawing for a free skein of each colorway. So back to my original story... I opened my message and VIOLA! I won! Seriously, I know I'm totally stoked but you have to understand that I never win anything. I will be receiving a skein of the fantastic colorway Mardi Gras and can't wait to knit with it!

Well, that was pretty much the highlight of my week :-)

So as most of you know, Andy and I have been looking at buying a house by the end of the summer. We have been looking now for a few months and finally found the perfect house at the end of March. Unfortunately, the financing isn't going to come through until October. Andy and I prayed about our decision and feel that God was calling us to build our house. The gentleman who built our "perfect house" was enamored with our story and wanted to build us our own house. He is even willing to let us move in before our financing comes through, which is totally awesome. Well, Andy and I are kind of starting to rethink everything. It seems like one thing after another is getting in the way of us being able to start the building, specifically dealing with S&A for our lot. The first lot we picked they said no to because they don't want two bi-levels next to each other. Okay.... so we picked another lot in the same development (which is a fantastic development). They came back again and said no but didn't give us a reason (which we now know is because they don't want anything built on that lot until all other lots are developed first). But, they offered us two other lots which neither Andy nor I are really that happy with. So Andy and I started looking around for other lots outside the development. We found one that we both really liked in a more rural area and at a fantastic price. What the seller failed to disclose was that we'd have to rip up the main street, both lanes, in order to run the sewage lines, have underground utilities, and install a grinder pump which added another $10,000 to $15,000. So, we went back to the drawing board and picked a different lot in the first development and have just gotten word again that we can't get that lot either. We're once again back to the first two lots S&A offered. The only issue I have with those lots is that S&A has been royally screwing with us for the last month and a half and I don't really like the size of either of the lots. It almost makes me think that maybe God is telling us this isn't the time to build our house. But... I don't know.

On the business front, I have gotten two more clients signed up this past week and have another 2, possibly 3 or 4 signing up in the next few weeks! If I'm able to get those clients signed up by the end of August, then I'll have hit my goal of 10 clients, which I'm definitely excited about! I've really been falling behind on my reading of Dr. A's Habits of Health and Living a Longer, Healthier Life (HOH/LLHL). I've just haven't had much motivation the last few days to do anything but clean and laundry which is a complete rarity for me!

Speaking of... I was so happy that I got our room and like 6 loads of laundry finished yesterday! I was so happy with the results even though it's not completely finished. I'm planning to finish that up tomorrow.

I didn't get too much accomplished today except customizing my blog, which I have to say looks pretty spiffy now. I did get the grill situation for Andy's party taken care of which was a definite blessing. I was also able to work out the cake dilemma so that made me happy too. I am so excited for his party on Saturday. I just can't believe that I've been able to keep it from him all this time (it's been in the works now for about 2 months). I even have it worked out that he won't find out about it until he walks in the door of Matt's! Giddy up! (BTW, it's his surprise 40th birthday party.) I even managed to get the names and numbers of some of his fraternity brothers without him knowing anything... Oh, I'm a sneaky one! :-) I'll post some pics of the birthday boy and party in my next entry.

I got my next shipment of food today which is great because I was getting really low. I swear, every time I open the box it's like Christmas! I tried a new antioxidant shake today called Cherry Pomegranate and it was good! Some new things I got to try this month was the Cherry Pomegranate and Dark Chocolate Antioxidant shakes, honey mustard pretzels, and Chili Nacho Cheese Puffs. I'm down another 2 lbs from last week which is great. I'm hoping to have finished losing my weight by the end of June. I only have another 28 lbs. to go! :-) Here's my before and mid-way picture so far:

Here's the before and after shot of my boyfriend (he's down 55 lbs. from his start weight!):

It is amazing to me how incredibly fast, safe, and effective this program is. And, I love the fact that we get a personal, one-on-one health coach for free!

I got some awesome shots of Andy's parents landscaping. I love taking pictures of flowers and scenery. I especially love the digital camera Andy got me for Christmas! Here's a couple of the photos:

 Beautiful Rhododendron

 

Trellis

Purple Iris

 Pretty yellow Iris

 It took me so long to get this shot!

It took me even longer for this one!

Well, I better get dinner started. I have SnB tonight and am so excited to see everyone! I haven't been there since before Christmas so it'll be nifty time of knitting and conversation. :-) Until next time: health, happiness, and blessings!

My week

So what's been happening this week? Everything! Kris was super sad that she couldn't stay with me "forever" (that's what she loves to say anytime I tell her it's time to see daddy). The exchange went really well, which is a blessing. We go to court on June 4th to decide custody. I'm hoping that it goes in my favor, but who knows with the judge we have. Actually, who knows because we're not going in front of the judge this time. I got a notice back in February that my ex-husband filed for full custody of our daughter. The original hearing was supposed to be heard on March 2nd. Well, I have since gotten two subsequent notices stating that it was postponed and rescheduled. The first time it was rescheduled to April 8th, still in front of Judge Maier. The second time it was rescheduled to April 29th but this time, instead of being heard in front of Judge Maier we are now supposed to go to mediation. Well, it has been rescheduled for a third time; this time being June 4th in front of mediation. I'm so confused as to why they would do this. Jared and I went through mediation and the whole reason we're in front of Judge Maier is because we can't agree on the terms of custody. Mediation just seems pointless, especially since I'm going to have to drive down again for another hearing because we still can't agree. The other thing I don't understand is why they think mediation would do us any good when I've filed a cross motion stating that I will not agree to Jared having full custody... Hmmm? Does that make sense to anyone else?

On a lighter note... Kristi felt much better this week. She ate, ALOT! It seemed like every ten minutes she wanted something to eat! I guess though that she wasn't getting as much nutrition as normal since she could only eat soft foods. She was saying the funniest things all week long. So Andy, Kristi, and I went on a walk around our neighborhood the other night. As we were walking around, she kept pointing at the trash on the ground saying, "There's the litterbug again. He must be around here somewhere because there's litter everywhere!" Haha! I just love when she says stuff like that. Later in the week, she was having some pain so I asked if she wanted her medicine (Tylenol + Coedine). She said, "Yes. But when I took this stuff last Tuesday it didn't make me sleepy; so, there's no sleepy-gas in it!" Again, I say... Haha!!

Speaking of sleepy-gas.. For those of you who have kids who haven't had surgery, they flavor the laughing gas! Kristi had chocolate chip cookies when she had her teeth pulled and grape when she had her tonsils and adenoids taken out. Why don't they do that for grown-ups! How awesome is that?!

So my French Market Bag KAL is going great. I have 5 1/2" of 8" completed and will be then working on the handles. Giddy up! I can't wait until this is finished because once it's off the needles, not only can I use it but also I can CO something else. My goal is to have this finished by SnB tomorrow night. My "something else" is Ellie's Daisy Stitch Tunic which the yarn came in Saturday! This is going to be g-o-r-e-o-u-s! I'm hoping to have this project completed by the end of August so I can start on some other Christmas gifts. I am using Peaches N' Cream in Silver Grey for her top. It's a really nice light gray and perfect for this top.

My business is going fantastic so far. I hit my CAB (Client Aquisition Bonus) for this month which is awesome! I'm currently at 6 clients signed on and my goal is to have 10 by the end of the month. I have two more prospects from Andy's work and a few from Facebook as well. My goal is to reach Executive Director by the end of June and be able to go to National Conference in the second week of July.

Mother's Day was great. I am so grateful that Jay let me have Kristi extra time this year :-) After church, we spent the day down at Matt's with our family and his girlfriend's family. There were like 20 people there and it was a great time of fellowship. We had fantastic food and conversation. Matt's house has beautiful landscaping and I was able to take some pictures of the flowers. 

Another Day... Another Dollar?

So today didn't start off too great. Kristi woke up in one her moods (which we affectionately call her Kristi Crabbypants and proceed to sing the theme song of Spongebob Squarepants but insert Kristi Crabby Pants!). It started off with her eggs. I make my scrambled eggs pretty well done so there's brown on some parts of the eggs. Well, Kristi didn't like that and decided to tell me she wants Andy to make her eggs from now on. Well okay then! So, attempting to lift her crabby mood, I decided to take her outside and have her help me plant the flowers I got from my mom and the Easter flowers she bought me. Needless to say, going outside helped but I ended up doing all the work! LoL! She did enjoy watering them. :-)





Other than that, my day was pretty uneventful. Kristi and I watched Enchanted and a new episode of the Backyardigans that we had recorded last month. I didn't get to work out or any laundry finished like I had wanted. I did get my business spread sheets set-up and updated, so that was good. I also got to knit for a little. I'm working on the French Market Bag from the winter 2003 issue of Knitty. It's a free pattern and I am using Patons classic wool in Leaf Green. Here's a picture of the first few rows and yarn:




This is going to be beautiful when it's finished! I haven't decided yet if I'm going to line it and/or make pockets. I love pockets so if I decide not to line it, I'll definitely knit and felt a few.

Last night was our Take Shape for Life leadership call and it was absolutely FANTASTIC! The call included 4 different Presidential Directors who gave information about what strategies they employ with their down lines. It was very exciting and I am stoked to try out a few of these ideas. Andy and I both posted our before/after pictures (well mine's a half-way as I haven't reached my goal yet) on Facebook and have gotten an amazing amount of responses. As of right now, there are 11 people asking about the program so I am hoping to get a few of them signed up and on their way to optimal health! Tonight was the second training session for new health coaches. Kelly did a fantastic job with the presentation. After I hear these calls and training sessions it just rejuvenates my yearning to share this news with EVERYONE! Take Shape for Life is working to get America health one person at a time. I am hoping to have at least 10 clients under my belt by May 20th and it is looking like I'll be there soon! Yay! :-) Well, I better get to bed.. Have a good night everyone!

~In God's Amazing Love,
Courtney