Working My Way to a Healthier Lifestyle

Just over a year and a half ago now, I decided to get into shape. I'd gained umpteen pounds with my pregnancy, and hadn't shed them all. So I joined a gym and started eating healthier, and lost about 30 pounds in total while toning up. It was awesome.

Before ...

However I gave up my gym membership earlier this year, and my body has changed it's shape somewhat. For all of you ladies who are already thinking "Mandy, you're so skinny, puhleease!", you should know that while I don't really think I'm fat, I am most definitely out of shape.

So starting this week, we've been working out every day. And Celeste loves it. She thinks she is working out, too, and will flex her biceps and "show you her muscles" that she gets from "working out at the gym" (aka. Kid's Club).

While this post may bore you a bit, the point is now I've publicly said I'm getting in shape, so I have to stick to it. (Goodbye, chips and salsa; I will miss you.)

Summer Fun

I love how my daughter runs at me, full speed when I open the door to her daycare at the end of each day. She throws her arms around my waist, almost knocking me down with sheer, rapid and intense inertia. Then she quickly grabs her things and proudly displays her craft of the day.

Recently, she's been into both a purple and heart phase. Here she is, proudly displaying her crafts from last week.

While there's absolutely no argument that having a child isn't stressful, pain-free and difficult, there are moments that make up for the rest. Here are just a couple from this weekend...

Friday, June 24, 2011:

While Celeste and Eric were watching Phineas & Ferb, I was doing housework and got in between Celeste and the movie. So she quickly shouted, "Mom!!!! Get out of the way!! I wanna see the kissing part!!!"
(Phineas and Ferb's older sister Candice and her crush, Jeremy)
Uh oh.

Saturday, June 25, 2011:

We were out on the jet ski on Clear Lake, going about 10mph with Celeste in the front letting out tons of high-pitched squeals.
"Daddy, go faster!"
Eric speeds up to 11mph.
"Okay! Okay! Okay! That is fast enough, Daddy!"
"Now go chase that big bird with the big beak!"

Sunday, June 26, 2011:

Two of her cousins were in the backseat of the car with her.
Celeste: "Guys, at my house, I have this great hiding spot on my bed, under the covers..."
Chelsey: "Celeste, your mom is listening!!"
Celeste: "Guys, you're NOT letting me FINISH!!! So there's this great hiding spot..."

Here are a few photos of my nieces and daughter. We went with my sister-in-law and her four girls to a favorite spot in midtown on Sunday afternoon, Sweet Lola's.

Girls Day

Today after work, Celeste and I went with Aunt Alicia to get our nails done. Celeste kept the attention of everyone in the salon with the things she was saying and doing. I took this little video of her while she was getting her pedicure.

She is quite the spoiled little girl!

Can You Hear Me Now??

My parents save up all of my junk mail and deliver it to me from time to time. Nope, I haven't lived in their house for over 6 years now, but I do still receive mail there.

Today they brought over my mail along with Eric's father's day card and gift, and I had a few laughs.

So apparently I, a 29-year-old, healthy female who can hear pretty well, ended up on the mailing distribution list for a hearing aid center in Webster. I'm confused. They have my maiden name, which is something I haven't had since I was 22 years old, and my parents' mailing address. Yet somehow, I'm on their list. I'm just wondering if they got it from the Friendswood High School yearbook pages?? Somehow? I don't know.

I think the important thing to mention here is that they're having a sale though. So maybe I should go! You think they come in hot pink or zebra prints?

And for those of you who're going to ask, this wasn't addressed to my baby boomer parents. Nope, it was addressed to yours truly, member of Generation Y.

They even have friendly, well-experienced staff members who are there to help me. That is, if I can even hear them...

Bountiful Blooms & Clean Rooms....Finally

This weekend began on Friday afternoon with promises of no stress, relaxation, and a weekend where I could accomplish some things at home that needed to be tackled. It has turned out to be quite the interesting weekend.

After getting home yesterday afternoon, I went outside while Eric was starting up the grill, and wow, I saw the most beautiful bloom from one of the new hybrid hibiscus plants. So of course, I grabbed my cell phone and started taking pictures of plenty of blooms around the yard.

I love, love, love having color in the yard. It's awesome to open the windows and look at these beautiful flowers from inside the house throughout the day. They're simply gorgeous to me.

For mother's day, Eric and Celeste gave me this pink orchid (below). I'm not that great at orchids, in fact, I'm pretty awful with them. But the poor plant has managed to hang on until now, which is saying a lot. Not sure how much longer it'll be with us, but it's here now. And the blue orchid ... that one's amazing!

Saturday was completely full of cleaning the house. Dust, sweep, mop, clean, wash, repeat, etc. Whew. As anyone knows who has had small children, this is quite a feat with little ones in the house. Let me just elaborate for a minute on some of the episodes of the day....

1. Moved the couch to find melted Now and Laters on the wood floors. Scrub, soak, scrub, soak, ugh.
2. Me: "Celeste, what is that on the wall?"
   Celeste: (very matter-of-factly) "Boogers."
   No joke.
3. Fixed a broken leg on her toy box.
   20 minutes later, she rocks the toy box and moves it until it breaks again.
4. Me: "Celeste, why are you writing in red markers on the tile floor??"
   Celeste: "Sorry..."
5. Sweep and mop the floors.
   10 minutes later, mounds of cake are everywhere on the floor.

...and the list goes on. I love my baby girl, don't get me wrong. But there are some days, when I just want to scream at the world in frustration. How is it possible to keep a clean house with ONE five-year-old inside???

One of the tasks today was to clean her room. We went through her toys and got rid of a huge 55-gallon sized bag full of them. Here are some before and after pictures of her room. The look on her face in the before photos is because she was embarrassed about her dirty room. (So stop keeping it dirty?)

Before...




After...

I wonder what it's going to look like tomorrow. Oh the fun joys of being a parent!

Wild, Crazy and Beautiful

Last winter was hard on my yard. I lost some rare, hybridized hibiscus, all of my palms (except the huge Medjool in the front) experienced severe setbacks, and Bermuda grass took over the flower beds. As you may have read from one of my previous posts, I decided to tackle this early in the spring this year. Instead of dealing with each and every strip of Bermuda grass growing throughout my flowerbeds, I did a complete overhaul of them. Eric dug up the Pygmy in the front yard and the sago that had outgrown our small front flowerbed, and then I went to town cleaning everything out, putting in new plants, dirt and mulch.

After completing the front yard, I only got about halfway through with the backyard before life began to happen (shuttle mission support, final exams at school, etc.). In the backyard, I'd placed some white petunias around one of the sagos (and had planned on putting some matching ones around the other but haven't gotten to it yet), and some purple petunias with white stripes near two stacks of limestone rocks. Both were originally very tiny plants. In fact, the white ones were those teeny-tiny starters that are roughly $2 or so for a pack of 6? The purple-and-white striped ones were actually only one plant each, $4 each from Home Depot, and were in small 6" pots. They were planted in April, look at them now!

Granted, things look like a mess there around the tortured queen palm. There are reasons for that. I planted things temporarily around the queen when I ran out of time so that they would be alive when I found the time again, and my Excavator thought it would be a great idea to see how hard he could tug on the Queen Palm last winter. Thank goodness he lost interest before it snapped.

(Deep sigh...) I absolutely love a colorful yard. Hopefully, we'll get some rain soon so that my water bill can go down!

IIIMS Award

One of the many fun parts of my job is developing websites. A few years ago, I helped design the TPS Imagery Inspection Management System (TIIMS) for the Space Shuttle Program. This website houses all of the inspection-related analysis of the orbiter's heat shield (Thermal Protection System).

With the closeout of the Space Shuttle Program rapidly approaching, one of my coworkers (Dan Smith) decided we should do something similar for the International Space Station, since our group also performs the same type of assessments of the ISS (potential handrail damage, MMOD strikes, etc.). So led by Rob Scharf (pictured below in the middle, back row), we pulled together a web-based system for the ISS program called ISS Imagery Inspection Management System (IIIMS).

Every quarter, our company has an award ceremony for quarterly awards across the contract. This time, our IIIMS Development Team was the recipient of the Superior Team award. And I'm proudly putting on my pocket protector for this one.

(L-R): Glenn Ellis (SARD Director), Jim Heslin, Dwight Osborne, Dan Labasse (Database Developer), Rob Scharf (ISAG Project Manager), Yours Truly (Web Developer), Joy and Lon (Jacobs).

Yep, I love my job.