TTC.

I think I'm going to start to be a lot more open now, especially since we're officially in the beginning processes of TTC (trying to conceive). I thought about making a blog specifically for that, but this blog would just be left behind, and I don't want that. I might go changing the title a bit, but for right now, I'm just going to keep everything here and update you all. Hopefully no one leaves my blog because they don't want to read about the new part of my life.

Yesterday, I spent some serious time with God, praying and asking for His help in making this decision. I know my mom isn't going to be thrilled. Well I mean she will, but I know she'd prefer if we waited a few years. She wasn't ecstatic when we got engaged at 18/19 and married at 20/21. I don't want to sound like a bratty teenager, but she can't tell me what to do. Honestly, this decision is between Chuck, me and God. We aren't doing it to please anyone else, it seems like all signs are pointing toward starting our family, even if it doesn't make the most sense to us. I know He'll take care of us. Yes, we are living with my parents, and we're not planning on living her forever. I think my biggest worry is that my mom is going to think we're taking advantage of her hospitality by letting us live here. I know that she would never kick us out, but it does worry me that she might through it up in my face that she's letting us live here for free. I'm worried she's going to think we're irresponsible and didn't think things through. But I try to not worry, and I've been praying that God works on her to help her understand that this is our decision, and we're doing it for the right reasons.

I really don't like my job. Yesterday, my boss decided to through me a little "pop quiz" to see how much I learned my first week. The questions included naming his education and working credentials, what kind of work we specifically do, the address and telephone number of my employer and how I do certain tasks. Now I've mentioned before, this is a part time job, only about 20 hours each week, in finances. I've never had a finance class in my life. Never. My boss wants me to think of my feet, push me out of my comfort zone, and I could understand that if this was going to be my career, with room for promotions and career advancement, but it's not. I flat out told him during my interview that my dream job was to be a stay-at-home-mom. He knows that. Other than him, there is one other employee, his assistant. G told me that he wanted to catch me off guard, and that it was my responsibility to google his name and find out everything that I could about him. The reading materials he suggested I read? I should have brought them home to show that I was really gung-ho about working.

Are you kidding me? For a part-time job with no career potential you want me to waste my time googling you at home?? No. Freaking. Way.

I was SO livid when he told me that. I was seriously ready to quit on the spot. When I told my mom after I came home, she actually suggested that I quit since it didn't seem like a good fit for me. I'll suck it up, but the only thing that's getting me through is that I should have less than 1 year of working there.

I spent some more time in prayer today, and still feel at peace with our decision. If I was obsessed with babies before, I'm so much more obsessed now, Mr. Skinny actually commented that he thought my obsession would go down, but it's spiked up. I go to the doctor on Monday for a check up and I'll be mentioning that we're ready to start TTC and see what she says. I'll be finishing up with my pack of birth control pills this week, so my only question is about my weigh. I've lost 30 pounds, I know I'm not in a healthy BMI, but I really don't think I could ever comfortably get there. 132 lbs. my butt. I'm okay with waiting until I'm 140 if she really recommends it, and I'm thinking that I'll give myself two months to really loose as much weight as I can (healthily), really focus on what kind of foods are going into my body, focus on my taking my vitamins daily, saving money, praying and preparing our marriage for this new stage.

For right now, I'll keep the TTC/baby posts at a minimum, hopefully, as I'm still focusing on that "skinny" stage before the TTC stage. My focus on the blog is still going to be becoming a healthy person, whether that's a healthy pregnancy, a healthy body before pregnancy or post-partum, health is the main topic. I just might be asking a few more baby questions to the moms, pretty sure they're just two - Kara and Tina - who read my blog.

Have you ever had an awful job/boss? Tell me about it.

When did you know it was the "right" time to have a baby?

Life Update.

I'm sorry! I've fallen off the blogging wagon in the past week. With the new job, the Harry Potter premiere and my graduation party weekend, it's been hard to find the time to update you, my lovelies! Let's start with the job. Sorry for the long post with no pictures, but there is some exciting news if you keep reading!!!

It's okay. It's a job, I don't really love it, but I probably won't be happy until I'm at home holding my own child. My boss, let's call him G, is a believer of figuring things out for yourself rather than being trained, while I would prefer proper training first. I ask him questions and his answer is "figure it out for yourself. When I was in law school I had to figure things out for myself." And I would love to answer "yes, and that's why I'm not going to law school, thanks." It's a little annoying, but you'll have that. I can't complain, it's 7 miles away, and I only have to work 20 hours/week. It's a laid back job, G is flexible and he knows the family, after all it was Mr. Skinny's grandma who told me about the position. It's interesting enough, just not what I'd like to be doing all day long. I'm getting the hang of it, but it will probably take a while until I'm really comfortable in the position.

Secondly. The Harry Potter movie. It. Was. Phenomenal. Honestly. As a true Harry Potter nerd, I loved this movie. I've accepted that the movies and the books are different and are going to be different, but this movie followed the book pretty closely. After just re-reading the books over the last month, it was fresh in my mind. There were some things that I wished they focused on, and parts I thought they were going to change, but happily, they didn't. It was a tear jerker for real and I'm glad that I had tissues. I went to the midnight release with my brother, his ex girlfriend, and her cousin. It's a pretty awkward situation, so I'm glad I had my iPhone to keep me busy for those few awkward hours.

Next is the weekend update. Friday my aunt, two of her kids and their spouses, and all my little cousins. Baby fever hit again, of course, but this time Mr. Skinny actually told me to toss my birth control. He's ready to start our family! This was a huge surprise to me, and while he was okay with starting our family in the next few years, I really didn't think that it would be quite this soon. I've written on this a bit, but after Mr. Skinny's grandfather died in February, I felt like it was our time to start trying, I don't know why, but I just felt like it was time. I knew I had to graduate, I tried to find a job, blah blah blah. Now that I couldn't really find a job and Mr. Skinny has a rather good time, it's time. I spent a good chunk of time this morning praying about it, and after a long and serious talk last night with Mr. Skinny, I really feel at peace with our decision to start trying in the next few months. I feel like this is what we're supposed to do. So for right now, no one I know in real life knows, and we're not planning on telling anyone just in case we get some "you're not ready" comments. This is a decision between me, Mr. Skinny, and God.

Graduation party went well, but now I know that we aren't going to have a ton of parties with both families, it was awkward and no one talked. Sunday we were on the boat all day and wow, am I sore from that!

Anyways, that's some exciting news, right?

I have a question for you readers now. Would you prefer that I kept this blog, changing the name slightly since I'm obviously going to be going on the road opposite of skinny when I'm pregnant, or should I start another blog for baby makin'? What do you think? Would you keep reading a baby makin' blog?

Shopping Time.

Quick post today folks, I'm off to my first day of work in a bit!

First off, my weekend was great. Saturday was a bit boring, but Sunday definitely made up for it. My in-laws all came over to go swimming, and we had a blast, even though my back got burnt to a crisp! We were expecting to go on the boat, but my dad's 44 year old boat and 29 year old motor didn't feel like starting. Dad stopped at the boat store yesterday and they *think* they know the problem. I hope so, because I want to go water skiing this weekend!! It was still fun just swimming though. My sister in law's dog had a blast though, and was quite exhausted on the way home.

Yesterday was shopping day. Back when I went to Disney World in March, my mom got a $50 Boscov's gift card for making the arrangements through their travel center. Since it was my birthday, she gave me the gift card. With my new job, I need some nice clothes, so I thought it was time to use my gift card! I'm not a huge fan of Boscov's, but it was nice to not have to pay for clothes. I got a skirt, khaki capris, one shirt and a pair of shoes. I didn't take a picture of the shoes, I forgot.

This morning, I went for a short (1.5) mile run, then thought it would be a good idea to jump in the lake, so that's what I did! All in all, I burned 424 calories between the swim and the run. I might just have to make swimming after running my normal thing!

I've gotta make my lunch, then I'm headed to work. I'll hopefully check in tomorrow, but forgive me if my blog falls by the wayside while I'm trying to figure out my new lifestyle.

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How do you cool off after a run?

Do you forget to put suntan lotion on?

Just What I Needed.

As most of you know, my last few runs have been "eh" I'm not really sure what is it, but they just haven't been great. I'd take a walking break when I feel like it, maybe I just haven't given my runs my all. I actually thought about going on a few electronic free outings to see if I could just get out of my rut as of late. Since I haven't been able to do that second one mile run in W6D2 I thought I'd just head out and see what I could do. I did run yesterday, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot today in my run.

I might have mentioned it before, but when I run, I can't pass my house without being finished. I need to run loops, I don't like running the same road multiple times, and I can't pass my house and do a repeat of the run I just did. I know it's all in my head, but I just can't. I've also mentioned that because my house is on a lake, we're up on a hill, and I won't run up that hill, it's a HUGE hill. So my running trails have been pretty limited. Today though, I branched out and ran on the Main Road. I ran down the hill, to the Main Road and kept going. It was something new and it was wonderful.

I wasn't sure if I was going to try to repeat W6D2, or what I wanted to do. If I was going to move onto the next day, it's a 2.25 mile run. Straight. No walking breaks. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to do that, so I kept an open mind. Well once I did my warm up walk, and starting running, it took me awhile to get into my groove, but I was doing pretty well. Then, once I started back up the hill, my phone rings. It's the guy who was coming to fix the chipped windshield in my car. I had to answer it. This was enough time for me to walk, albeit very slowly, up the hill. Once I made it up the hill, I picked up my run again, checked my GPS and saw that I walked about .11 - no big deal. I took one short walking break and ran until I did a whole 2.25 mile run! And I'm psyched about it! It was seriously just what I needed to boost my confidence about running and convince me that I CAN do this!

On the job front, Mr. Skinny's grandma's financial advisor offered me a job! It's part time though, only 15 hours/week. I STILL haven't heard from Wells Fargo. I called the store I interviewed at and she said she couldn't tell me anything, I had to wait until I talked to HR. What. A. PAIN! I just want to know if I should hold out for this full-time job, or if I should just take the part-time job. I will say though, if I take this part-time job, then it's going to be for a while. He doesn't want to waste his time training someone if they're going to ditch him for a full time job in a few months time, which I completely understand. So I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. Awesome. I think I might call the store again and demand that I talk to someone. I just need to know if I have the job or not. Why is this so confusing?!

We'll all get it figured out.

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When was the last time you got that extra boost you needed?

Do you have any advice for me?

Oatmeal, Part 2.

You guys are the best! Thank you for all the responses about oatmeal. I actually made some this morning after my run! Speaking of my run, it was an "eh" kind of run. I did it, but not without a good amount of walking. I was glad when it was over. I added a hill into my run. The hill I've been avoiding since we moved back up here. And I ran up it once and walked up it once. It. Was. Intense. I don't know if it was the hill that made me so tired and "eh", but it wasn't an awesome run. I'll be repeating W6D2 for sure. Not a bad pace for most of the run portion. 2.84 miles completed.

Okay, now onto the oats. I'd like to try Overnight Oats, but I wanted to just try straight up oats first. I was going to do a peanut butter/banana, but I think I tried that before and didn't like it, so I just stuck with a basic cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Gathering Ingredients.

Oats. Skim milk. Cinnamon Almonds. Bowl. Measuring cup. Sugar.

1/2 c. of oats in the bowl.

1/2 c. of milk in the bowl. I added a splash more.

Ready to be nuked!

... And go!

"Mmm, I'm hungry. Let's have a snack!"

Overflowed. Guess I need a bigger bowl next time.

Ready!

"Oooh! Another add-in!"

Cinnamon Almonds. Peanut Butter. Sugar.

Looks pretty good!

But is it going to be good?

Hmm.

... Um...

It's a winner!

I ate about half of it and was satisfied. I'm gonna head out and do some yoga, then probably finish it up depending on if I'm hungry or not. The oats weren't awesome, but there were eatable. I'll definitely be trying it a bunch more times!

On a side note, Wells Fargo called me back this morning while I was out for my run. I tried to call her back when I got in, but I got the answering machine. I left a message, but she hasn't called yet. It's been over an hour. I think I'm going to call once more now. She didn't say any news, just wanted me to call her back. I don't know what to think. I'll keep you posted!

Update: still haven't heard from Wells Fargo, but I am enjoying my cold, leftover oats better than the warm, fresh oats.

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Do you prefer your oats warm or cold?

Interviews & Keys.

On Wednesday, Wells Fargo called me to set up an interview, so we set it up for 9:30 on Thursday. This was hard because it required me to get up before 9am, and I am SO enjoying my summer vacation, or what I'm referring to as my summer vacation. I get up at 7, make my breakfast, get all gussied (is that a word anymore?) up and I'm ready to go. My resume is printed out, I have directions and I leave. Get there, no problem, but I'm a half hour early. I'm playing on my iPhone, it's raining, so I make sure all the windows are up. Before I get out of the car, I make sure all the doors are locked. Do you see where this is going?

I open the door, get out, and as I'm shutting the door... *ding, ding, ding*... Crap! I locked my keys in the car. Now I'm going to an interview, so I can't just let them know how scatter brained I can be and how I locked my keys in the car, although I don't think I've ever locked my keys in the car before. I send my brother a quick text "I locked my keys in the car, you'll have to bring me the spare, don't go anywhere" and head into the interview.

Fail.

In all honesty, I think the interview went well. They're only interviewing 2 other people for the teller position, and I like to think that I answered everything well, I'm personable and I'll get the job, but we'll see. I've never had a sales job before, but I'm not gonna lie, my job at McDonalds helped me more than I ever would have thought possible. I think every teenager should hold a part time job while in HS and/or college. Learn balance and responsibility, be a part of something, even if it is McDonalds. Yeah, it sucks, but it teaches you something.

My brother did come and drop off the spare, even though it was 30 minutes from home, so I took the poor kid (literally) to Panera for lunch as a thank you.

Anywho, I'll be back to my enjoying "summer vacation" and hope that I get a call at the beginning of next week.

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What's your opinion on students having jobs? Did you have one? Where?

Apology.

I know that I haven't been doing much, and there's really no excuse for me to not blog on a regular basis. I was SO good last week. I had a blog every day from Monday - Friday, and was super proud of myself. And I was packing. And I was working. This week? My schedule is filled with yoga, running, biking and weights. That's it. What the heck?

This week though I have a little bit more going on. Tomorrow I'm hanging out with a friend that I have hung out with in years. I'm pretty excited. I've got to take Mr. Skinny's dog to the vet, he's got swollen back paws. I've also got to figure out our car insurance. When we moved, Allstate completely screwed up our insurance. Note: don't ever call the 1-800 # when dealing with insurance. Go to an insurance agent. Our premium tripled in price. Yeah, so now we have to find new insurance before we can go back to Allstate. It's so screwed up the insurance agent can't even fix it.

My view while I'm doing yoga.

On the job front right now: I had a third interview scheduled for this morning with Bankers Life and Casualty, but I cancelled it. It seems like a good company, but I'm just looking for a job for a few years, I'm honestly not looking for a career and that's what Bankers seemed to be. You can make great money, but it seems like you have to work 50+ hours each week, and I'm not okay with dedicating that much time to a job.

So Mr. Skinny's grandma called me today. Her financial advisor is looking for a part time secretary to help him out with his business. I'm waiting for him to call me right now actually. I just sent him my resume. It would only be 15-20 hours each week, but I could find another part (I just typed party, haha!) time job fairly easily, I think. It was the stress of finding a real, full time job that kind of scared me. We don't need the health insurance, Mr. Skinny's is awesome and free, and with him working so many hours (he worked 60 hours in 5 days!), we can pay our bills with his paycheck. Well minimum payments anyways. So my check would go to extra bills, credit cards, and savings. It's great since we don't have to pay rent. My mom's paying for most of the food, too, so we don't even really have to pitch in for that. It's pretty sweet.

My bff right now, the dog.

So if you are the praying type, pray that I find a job, and that we can work everything out and figure it all out.

Update: Just talked to the financial advisor and he asked me a few questions. He said he's going to digest it all and come up with some more questions and we'll meet later in the week and go over some exercises. I hope this works out. I didn't even think of pulling 2 part time jobs, I was just looking for a full time adult job. If you're the praying type, please pray.

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How did your last job search go?

We Moved.

Just a quick post to say that we moved safely over the weekend. Mr. Skinny is off at work today, I had one phone screening this morning for Wells Fargo for a teller, and I have another one this afternoon for an insurance company, but I think it's to learn how to sell insurance, which I want no part of. I'll go anyway, just hoping for some good news, and to get interview experience at least.

I'm lounging around the house, running, biking, yoga-ing, lifting weights, taking care of the dog, cooking and unpacking. Our room still looks like a mess. It's really hard to take 5 rooms and cram it into one room. Sorry the blog will suffer while we get everything organized and I find a good schedule.

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Tell me something exciting that's going on in your life!

Job Hunting.

We're moving on Saturday, and while I know it's the best opportunity for Mr. Skinny and myself to be closer to our families, not to mention a great job for Mr. Skinny, I can't help but be bummed that I don't have a job lined up. I don't have anything on the horizon even. No, I don't love my job in Maryland, and I have to stay in school to keep it, but it's a job and has pretty good pay.

I've started looking for jobs in our area, but there doesn't really seem to be a lot. It's really hard because we're moving to a small, rural area. There aren't a lot of jobs in the immediate area, no scratch that, there are NO jobs in the immediate area, and the closest "city" is at least 35 minutes away. 35 minutes away is doable, but not for a mediocre $8/hr job at the mall. It's not worth it to put the gas in my car. Not to mention that I'd have to use Mr. Skinny's car, which has transmission problems and I'd like to drive the least distance I could.

I know that God has a plan for us, I truly do, and He's made everything else work out perfectly, I just wish He'd tell me what that plan is. We can live off Mr. Skinny's salary for a little bit, but it's not going to help us pay off any credit cards. I'm going to try my darndest to find a job, but if I can't - I'm going to have to go back to McDonalds. Lord, please have something better in store for me than McDonalds - please!

In the meantime, I'll enjoy my time running, biking, yoga-ing, reading, organizing our new lives and looking for jobs.

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What did you do when you or someone you know couldn't find a job?

A Super Long Weekend.

I'm going to warn you. This post is probably going to be wordy and not have any pictures. If I add pictures while I'm writing a blog on my PC at work, it screws everything up. But I have important information for my readers and I won't have time until June 13 to write a proper post at home with my Mac.

The reason?

We're moving. Officially. My last day of work is next Friday.

Mr. Skinny interviewed with a construction company last Friday, and they gave him the job on the spot. He went for his drug test and physical right after the "interview" and will have to go to orientation either this week or next.

I'm excited, really I am, but it's hard to close this chapter of my life. And while I absolutely love being around family and dispise the 200 mile, nearly 4 hour drive that it is from PA to Maryland again, I loved being on our own, away from drama, able to do what we want and not have to check in with anyone. We'll be living with my parents, and yes, I know that we're not going to be reverting back to being in high school with curfews and such, but I'm probably still going to let my mom know where we're going.

And I've learned to love my job and the people I work with. It's really hard to tell them I'm leaving, I know they appreciate me and everything I do. But this is the right thing. I know it is. On Friday morning, I got an email from the job that I had applied for in Maryland saying they were "pursuing other candidates." It was a sign from God that Mr. Skinny and I were making the right decision. As much as I love my job, I have to stay in school to keep my job, and we couldn't go for a few years with me going to school every semester. Even if it is a community college, it's still $800/semester.

My parents are ecstatic. Mr. Skinny's grandma is just as ecstatic. My in-laws are excited, too. Even our siblings are excited. Mr. Skinny was beeming all weekend. I'm excited, too. I just need to be okay with leaving the life I have and starting a new chapter in the book of my life (how corny does that sound?).

We also had a good long talk with Mr. Skinny's cousin and his wife about our lot. The cousin and his wife will be living next to us. We're going to be saving a lot of money so we can build our house faster. Next summer we're going to put our driveway in, splitting the cost with the cousin and wife. Hopefully in the next 3-4 years we'll be able to put our house in.

I should be excited for this because it's one step closer to having a baby. Mr. Skinny was worried about health insurance, but with this job, its free! I know it's a wonderful thing, it's just hard. I don't want people to look down on us because we're moving back in with my parents. It's not that we've failed. There's a huge empty room with it's own bathroom that no one uses! I've already had to answer the question "You're just staying with your parents until you find a place, right?"

You want the answer? No. Probably not. Well yes, eventually. But we'll probably live with my parents for a good few years. It's rent-free, and no one uses that area. We can save our money and get on our feet. Why buy a house just to move out in a year or so? And Mr. Skinny is DONE with apartments. Why pay rent, you aren't getting anything out of it. That's his problem, and I understand it, I do. So we'll save money and we probably won't move out until we have our house built. I really don't view it as taking advantage of my parents. I'll be cooking for them, and helping them out.

Okay. Sorry about the long-winded vent. I'm nervous, I'm excited. It's going to be hard, but it's going to be fun. I'm excited about the opportunity, but nervous about leaving our space and moving back in with family. But this is what God wants us to do.

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What's a hard decision you had to make? Did it all work out?
Have you ever lived with your parents/in-laws after you were married?