Megan said no more stories but she didn't say anything about movies =)

I have a new project.

Quilts. I've finished one but it came out too small. Now, I'm making a big one, the size of a blanket. It will be Megan's blanket. That's what I've been up to.

verdict

The verdict is in. Finally, Gary got his orders yesterday. We have a new assignment. It's not in the east or in the west nor is it in the south or the north. Give up? It's right smack in the middle of good ole US of A. Nebraska. Yep, we're going to Nebraska. Never in a million years did I think that I will call Nebraska home but home it will be for us, at least for 2 years.

When I asked Gary how long we'll be there he said, "There's a saying, Once you get Offutt (that's the name of the base), you'll never get off it." So, yeah, we're not too excited about this move. We made a list of the pros to get us psyched about it.

1. We can afford to buy a decent house.
2. If we buy a house, we can finally have a dog.
3. It has 8 bordering states that we can explore.
4. It has an aeroclub, maybe I can learn to fly. It costs $4000.

That's all we got so far.

schedule

Mom has left a couple of offline messages, what time are you online? Sis asked where the hell I've been. I'm still here. I just a have a new schedule and I'm not in front of the computer as much.

I can't contain my happiness.

Hahaha. I weighed myself today, it's been weeks since I last did, I was so worried but I lost 7 pounds. I'm so happy. I've reached one of my mini-goals. I have 2 major goals when it comes to weight loss. My shoot-for-the-moon goal is 50 pounds and my land-on-the-star goal is 30 pounds. What am I talking about? Ever heard of that saying, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll still land on the stars"? That's what I'm talking about. 50 pounds seems so impossible, the 30-pound goal is my possible goal.

Even 30 pounds seem so daunting, so I decided to break it down to mini-goals and that is 10 pounds. I forgot to set-up the reward system so I don't know if I should get myself something or just save the money.

Anyways, I'm 2 pounds away from pre-mommy weight. Oh yeah, I've made names for my weight stages. There's post-Cali(4), pre-Cali/post-mommy(9), pre-mommy/post-Davao(7), pre-Davao/post-AF(10). I'd be so happy if I get to post-AF weight!

The thing is my post-Cali weight is what I weighed when I was pregnant, full-term! I had started lose it but it crept back over the years. Every year, I keep telling myself I need to lose weight and I would lose a couple of pounds but only to gain them back again.

I'm telling myself that this time is different. This is not just some fad diet that I'm doing. I'm actually changing my lifestyle to something healthier therefore I should be able to keep the pounds off. Look at me, worrying about keeping it off when I still have 20 pounds to go, actually, 19 (19 sounds better than 20, don't you think?)

For now, I'm so happy. You should see me right now, I'm singing,

I'm so happy that I can't stop crying...

I've been fnishing up the dollhouse.

This is the left-side of the living room.

The two top shelf of the display cabinet has blue and white jars. We made those using beads. I got the idea from the vanity tray that I bought for the master's. At the bottom shelf is a silver tea set.

Not very visible is a black cat sitting on the chair.

This is the right-side of the living room.

Clearly, this side is not done. It needs a coffee table & side tables. I'm also thinking of adding a floor lamp. It is very dim. Up on the mantle are more vases/jars that we made, once again, out of beads.

The niche next to the fireplace is a built-in bookshelf. We made those books ourselves.

Here is the kitchen/dining room.

Very small. There's a chocolate cake in between the two vase on the window sill. There's a cutting board and a butcher's knife on top of the shelf (those are stickers, scrapbooker's stickers).

The kitchen dresser, the food items sitting on the shelf are oranges, potatoes, carrots and a loaf of bread, made out of clay and then painted.

The dining table is set for dinner. This room just needs something on the walls.

Bedroom 1, the master's bedroom.

The purses hanging on the washstand are scrapbooker's stickers, same as the pictures on the wall. Not seen on the picture is the wardrobe. I sewed fabric together into rectangles so they can look like linens and towels.

Bedroom 2, the nursery.

This is my favorite room. More sticker's here, the dresses and the pictures on the walls. Another cat sitting on the rocking chair. The mermaid is a real toy, from Peter Pan. Not seen here is the bookcase, it has more Peter Pan figurines, books and a couple of toys from Megan's. It still needs more toys.

This used to have a front yard but since we don't have a spot for the complete dollhouse, it's kept in a box. It has a small pond, a sitting area, & a grotto.

That's it.

BRRR...

It's been so cold here lately. If it's not raining, we usually would walk to school. It's about a 10-minute walk. With this weather, I just might start driving her to school. This morning, frost everywhere! It's nice to look at, glinting under the sun, but, it's so cold.

By the time I get back from school, my thighs feels like they're freezing. My nose is all red and my ears hurt. Yesterday, my ears felt like they're about to fall off. Today, I got smart, I wore a sweater underneath my jacket and pulled up the hood. They didn't feel like they're ready to fall but they still hurt. I forgot to put chapstix and so my lips started hurting, too.

Right now, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, a slight breeze, it seems like a perfect day but it's still chilly.

Yehey! I lost four pounds.

At the same time, I'm aghast to have lost so much in so little time! Who am I kidding? Yehey, I lost 4 pounds. Count that, 4... 1, 2, 3, 4! Really, though, I AM happy I lost the pounds, but still worried to have lost that much in the span of 2 weeks. It doesn't seem healthy. I just console myself with the fact that I am not doing anything UNhealthy. I still eat. Maybe, the smoothie-diet is working! OR, maybe, I'm just drinking enough water. I probably drink 10 glasses a day. I am just SOO thirsty lately!

Now, the pessimist in me is saying, I'm bound to hit my plateau soon. Why can't I just be happy? That's an achievement I should be celebrating, right? RIGHT! So, there.

In other news, the gym has a new policy. No street shoes. We're supposed to handcarry our workout shoes. Oh, well. I could buy new shoes since my shoes are more than 6 months old,(you're supposed to replace them every however miles) OR I could just clean them and get a few more months of use out of them and just use the money to buy Turbo Jam.

I really want to buy it but it costs too much. I just want 1 but they send you all these videos, I don't know why, and "if you buy in the next 30 minutes, Chalene will give you a bonus video for your abs" or whatever it was.

I just finished reading The Historian and I am so upset not because it was no good, it was really good, the part that I'm not happy about is, it's a very creepy book and I didn't really want to read a creepy book since Gary is in one of his trips again. But, having started the book, I just have to finish it. I have to because, although I know that good will triumph over evil, I have to make sure that they did just that. And they did, and I sighed a big relief, now I can step outside at night and I wouldn't have to worry about evil lurking at night.

Unfortunately, it has an epilogue. ARGH!

Megan's party was a whole lot of fun.

Even the adults enjoyed themselves. See, the people in-charge said that the ceramics needed 3 coats of paint for the colors to come out right after they fire it. Kids, being kids, got tired of painting after 2 coats, so the adults took over and finished the third coat.

It was so relaxing. John's mom enjoyed it so much she started asking about classes and stuff. She then convinced me that we should do it. Having nothing better to do, I agreed. She extended the invitation to Tarah's mom and she said, she'd love to. So, for the first time, I have a mommy-date!

I'm sewing up a storm here.

Is there such a phrase? Sewing up a storm? What I mean is, I've been doing some sewing projects. I borrowed a book from the library (by the way, if you haven't been to your local public library in a decade, I highly recommend visiting one and while you're there, might as well get a library card) entitled "Sew Sensational Gifts" and it has some ideas that I want to do. NO, I won't start sending these out as presents, it's for me.

I did an apron for me and Gary. I'm so tired of finding grease spots in our clothes. This should put an end to it. Now, how to convince Gary to use it. Then, I lined these woven baskets that I got from a bazaar. We use these baskets as a catch-all for items that can be easily misplaced or just sit on top of the table or counters, (I hate clutter). Now, we know where our keys, wallet, lighter are. Those baskets were a good find, $10 for 5 baskets and they have a lid, only thing was it wasn't lined. Well, not anymore.

Today, I'm making a beach bag. Our beach bag is 4 years old. It's packed and ready to go. It has our flip-flops, swimsuits, towels, sarong, floaties, and sunblock. It's for those oh-so-rare sunny days and we want to head to the beach, I don't want to waste my time looking for things. If we want to go to the beach, 5 minutes and we're out the door. Might as well, it takes about an hour to get to the beach.

Other things I want to make:

1. Travel toiletry tote - to replace my emergency overnight bag in the car. I don't know where we were but we were in one of our last-minute trips and it was getting late and we didn't want to go home but we have no choice but to. The next day, I bought travel-size shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothbrush, and toothpaste, then added razors and change of underwear. That's our emergency overnight bag. I think we've used 2 or 3 times now.

2. Glove compartment organizer - who doesn't need one?

3. Portable clothing valet - maybe this one is just plain silly, but unpacking for 3 is a pain in a butt. Now, if I make 3 of these valets, I could assign a valet per person, and then when I unpack I don't have to search where is whose. All I have to do is grab the valet and Voila, I'm unpacked.

The only problem with these projects are the materials needed. I've never heard of them until now. Cloth pack and grosgrain ribbon. I did a quick research and as it turns out, they are materials used in backpacks. I could order them online but I might have tire of the idea by the time they get here.

Now, there are other projects. Girly projects. Dresser tray, drawer liner, hang-ups. Not really to crazy about them but I just might try it one of these days. It's 5:12 am. I don't know how much sleep I had last night but I got so tired of trying to go back to sleep that I gave up around 3:30. I cut out the fabric for the beach bag and then tried to figure out how to add pockets. Now, all I need is to make the fabric stiff!