Yay! I get to see my new house in April! I get to see my step-monsters, too, so it will be a double-super-awesome trip!!

Developments with the house...

Well, all of the utilities are now on. Scott has found a few minor leaks in the plumbing that are the result of cheap parts and shoddy work. He is hoping to have most of them fixed by tonight, since it will just be a matter of replacing a few of the connectors (or whatever the heck they are called). There are various small issues with the house that will need to be addressed over time, but nothing that really affects the 'livability' so that's a plus. I'm already looking at paint chips and carpet samples. I can't wait until April to fly back and see this place! Scott has most of the appliances - just need a dryer and a refrigerator now. I'm kinda glad I'm not there right now, because I have absolutely no patience, and not being able to get it all done in one day would definitely be an exercise in patience.

My little super-chunk

I really enjoyed meeting my nephew, Nathanael, for the first time. He is the cutest little man in the whole world! And yes, I know I'm biased. I can't believe all the things he can do at only 5 months old! He holds his own bottle, already has 2 teeth, can roll over to his stomach, and is almost, ALMOST crawling. It's kind of like he can't figure out that he needs to bend his knees, and he can't yet hold up his head. So he does this weird little thing where the straightens his legs (which pushes his butt way up in the air) and straightens his arms (but his head is still on the ground) and pushes himself along the ground on his forehead. So stinking funny!! Some pics of my trip home:

Our New House!!!

Yay! Our offer was accepted for the house in Caledonia, so Scott is hoping we can close by month's end. I have been informed that he will not paint a single wall or lay a single swatch of carpet or tile until it has my stamp of approval in person, so I've already started browsing online! This is so exciting!!

So the trip to Columbus wasn't exactly a success, but at least I have a better idea of what the city feels like, now. Scott is going to look at another house today, because the one we looked at and made an offer on while I was there is bank-owned, and they are being slow and refusing negotiation. They came back with a request for our best offer. Um, in that case, what we offered you, that's our best offer. :(-

I'm going to MI tomorrow - my flight is super early in the morning Seattle time, and I'll get to MI early afternoon central time. Mom took a couple of days off of work and we are going to go visit my sister and my nephew. I'm probably going to take a bazillion pictures. I am so excited to meet the little guy!

Once I get back from this trip, I'll have a couple of weekends free - no drill, no work, no travel. I am kind of excited about this, too. As much as I love to travel and visit, it will be nice to relax and get some much needed work done around the house.

Lacking ambition...

I've really been trying hard these past few days to get back into the swing of things with my diet and exercise. Thanksgiving didn't give me any trouble - heck, I lost 6 lbs in the two weeks surrounding that holiday. Christmas, on the other hand, my determination and willpower gave less than stellar showings.

Successfully falling back into the routine is proving far more difficult than I had anticipated. I find myself so hungry at the end of the day that I gorge at dinner, and I'm not even setting the calorie intake as low as it was before. I'm trying to ease back into it by starting at 1800 calories per day, and it's just not keeping me full. I realized I'm not giving water intake as much attention as before, so we are going to try to up that in the hope it will fill in the gaps.

I don't even want to get started on my ambition as it pertains to workouts. I find it so much easier to cut calories than to burn them. Workout time doesn't leave me feeling refreshed and accomplished, it just leaves me feeling sweaty and icky and wanting to take a nap.

I don't know what my problem is, but February isn't going to be the month to fix it. I have drill this weekend, I'm going to Columbus next weekend, and Michigan the week after that. Upheavals in my daily routine do not lend themselves well to my overall health & wellness. Grr.