Happy Valentine's Day

I actually didn't expect anything this year, which made it even better. Last year I don't think we did anything. We were both working so it just wasn't as fun. I think he got me flowers, but I don't even know. This year he made reservations at our favorite restaurant. It's out in the middle of nowhere so it's never busy, but it's a really nice fancy restaurant. There's never more than maybe 2 other couples there at a time. We only go there a couple times a year but the guy there always remembers us. It's just a older German man and his son that run the place. The food is amazing, and the service is very friendly. It's very quiet out there and they have soft classical music playing in the background. In the summer there's always deer grazing in the field right in front of the restaurant. I keep forgetting to take pictures when we go there. I took some with the camera phone today but it was dark out so they didn't turn out very well. Next time we go there I'll get some good pictures. Overall it was a good Valentine's Day :)

No house for us

Lately we've been trying to buy a house. Unfortunately even making almost $60,000 a year isn't enough to buy much in this area. It's so expensive to buy even a condo, let alone a house. We've looked at so many places and given it an honest try and just can't find anything that suits us. The few times we've found something that might do, someone's put an offer on it before we can even really think it over.

Maybe it's a good thing, if we were to buy something right now, our living expenses would double. Our mortgage payment would be about twice what we're paying right now for rent, and living costs would go up (heating, property taxes, etc). Buying a house sounds great, but when we have to give up everything we do and have, it doesn't quite seem worth it.

I guess we'll try again some other time.

Origami Gift Boxes

I started making these cute little boxes awhile ago, and I just thought of putting them on eBay. I listed one today and we'll see how that goes, but I can make tons of them. If anyone reading this is interested, e-mail me or check out my auction number 180210904928.

I hope they sell, they're fun to make and I'm not selling them for much. The only problem would be the shipping. I don't think it would be too much though because they're really light.

They're lined with parchment paper too so you can put stuff like cookies and candy in them without the oils bleeding through the paper. I'm going to give my co-workers cookies in them for Valentine's Day :) I can't wait. I bought a bunch of paper to make them and I just want to make tons of boxes but I can't just have a bunch of boxes sitting around for nothing, that would be a waste of space. So for now they'll just stay paper :) I hope people buy some of them.

Day 2, another mindless post

I still have no idea what to talk about in these things. I'm still trying to lose weight, that hasn't changed. I realized today that I have to stop reading recipes and snack ideas when I'm pretty much out of calories for the day. Whenever I read about something really yummy I just want to make it. So today I read about scrambled eggs with cream cheese in them (light cream cheese), so guess what I made? That's right. So now I'm about 175 calories over what I should be. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day right?

That reminds me, I have to go get the garbage ready for Denis to take out tonight. I was supposed to do it earlier but got carried away watching season 5 of CSI. So I guess that's all for tonight. Nothing interesting to report.

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to my blog. I've never really used a blog before so bear with me. I don't know what to say with a blog, but I'll use it to update my situation. I guess that's what it's for, an online journal. I've kept an actual journal on and off for years, but never online and never so other people could read it. This is different.

I posted the picture on the side because I am currently trying to lose weight and that is only picture I actually sort of like of myself that shows me as I am right now. I'm not obese or anything, but I do have about 25 pounds to lose all over and I figure I might as well get going on that before it gets more extreme. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be able to post a slightly slimmer picture of myself. My goal right now is to lose about 1.5 - 2 lbs a week, so we'll see how it goes. I've lost almost 4 pounds so far, so I'm excited.

The website I'm using to help me lose weight is www.thedailyplate.com. It's really helpful in keeping track of how much I eat. I never realized how much I actually ate until I started tracking it all with this website. It's pretty bad when you run out of calories before lunch time! I've managed to stick pretty close to my calorie requirements now, so it seems like the site is working. Drinking enough water is important too!