loose ends

 

Charley waiting patiently at post office

1. Yeah!! My passport is being processed finally!  John found a website to get my birth certificate from South Dakota and I finally went to the post office last week.  Fairly painless except for the $135 fee.  Ouch.  I'd rather buy something for the house for that price.  Not an ugly picture.  The only mistake I made was that I thought I had to bring 2 color photos of my own with me.  The directions just said "two recent color photographs"  hmm so I found a couple of me that weren't two fugly and had them print over at Walgreens in the wallet size.  I was so proud of myself for thinking they needed to be small.  So after going to walgreens to pick up ugly pictures of myself, Charley and I headed over to the post office and waited in line.  When it was our turn I handed over proudly my birth certificate, filled out paperwork, and photos.  Uh oh, wrong photos.  They have to be special passport photos.  So I loaded Charley back up and ran across the street to Meijers.  The girl takes my photo and tells me I can't smile and that my ears have to be showing.  What?  Why would my ears have to be showing?  But I pulled back my hair as much as I could and hoped that my chubby chipmunk cheeks wouldn't block my ears.  You could see a sliver of them in the finished photo.  Oh well, I thought hope that is enough ear for them.   So got back to post office and unloaded Charley to wait in line again.  Everything was golden, except when I asked about my ears he laughed and said he never heard of that.  Oh well, I will have ears in my passport photo but at least I should definitely have it by December.  Can you hear my huge sigh of relief?

 


2.  My sweet puppy has a new home :(  I wanted to keep her so badly, but a good friend of mine who is a dog groomer knew of a girl who was looking for a puppy.  It is a good match and my sweet puppy left last weekend for her new forever home.  I have to keep telling myself to think with my head and not heart.  We already have 2 dogs that are at times (a lot) a handful.  If we kept her it would just really add to our stress level.  We sure don't need that.  Ultimately it is the best thing for puppy, she gets to be spoiled in her new home and the best thing for the 2 dogs we already have.  Still sad though :(


3. Weight loss is unmentionable right now.  Nonexistent.  Hasn't happened.  I decided yesterday though to start a food diary and to really keep track of the calories I consume.  The weird thing was that writing things down and counting the calories made me want to eat more.  I am like a rebellious teenager when I try to take control of my eating.  There is this naughty part of me that just doesn't want to be controlled.  I don't know what would be better?  Like should I just make sure to exercise at least 5 days a week and just eat healthier and try not to obsess about it SO much.  I feel like the obsessing about every calorie and every pound I am not losing is just sabotaging me.  It sounds so easy but for some reason I just can't.  I haven't even been to the gym since the whole "runner's knee" thing.  My knees feel fine now, so there is no reason now to avoid the gym.


4. I can't think of anything else to tie up right now.  I am trying to spend more time reading because a.) I love reading and b.) I could really give up some of my computer and television time.   So I will tell you what I am reading right now and maybe it will spur me on to read faster so I can tell you if I liked it and then tell you about my next book.  Right now I am reading Orange is the New Black.  About a girl who was arrested on some minor drug charges and has to do time in a federal prison.  It is pretty good so far.  I am  reading it on my e-reader and for some reason it is taking me a lot longer than it would if it were a book I cold hold in my hands and turn actual pages.


That's it for now, Happy Halloween!  I will hopefully have some good pictures and stories to post from tonight.