A new me

Today I am making a pledge to myself. I am at my highest weight I have ever been at in my life and I hate it. I can't fit in some clothes and it drives me nuts every morning when I go in the closet to find something to wear to work. I only have like 4 pairs of pants that fit and 2 skirts so you can imagine that doesn't get fun and with that I REFUSE to buy new clothes.

I, Libby, pledge that I am going to start running 5 days a week and will allow Jillian Michael's Boot Camp to kick my ass 5 days a week. I will choose heathier options for eating and will no longer be a fat lazy ass every day. My goal is to drop a total of 39 lbs. and my first goal is to drop 15-20lbs by June 6th. The rest of the goal it to loose it by the end of the summer. That is an average of 3 lbs a week which I think in the beginning is gonna be ok but will get tough in the end.

So say goodbye to the old Libby and a slow hello to the new one!

Call me...

Tina Taylor the tool woman!

In our spare bath upstairs we never had our contractor put in shower doors since at the time we were on a strict budget and the renovations were costing us enough that we figured we could do it later down the road. That time has come now, only a month in the house, with guests coming to visit on Saturday. We had guests stay over already, my brother and my brother-in-law but they just used the master bath. There is a bar for a shower curtain but I am not really a fan of them so refused to waste money to buy one just for guests this weekend (which happen to be my in-laws).

On Wed after work I set off to Home Depot while waiting for Scott to get home. When I arrived back home with the shower doors, silicone and drill bits to go through tile, I was off on a mission to get them installed by the end of the night. Scott thought this was going to be great so grabbed a beer popped the top off and sat on the couch to watch some hockey.

Starting time: 6pm

Everything started off good, all the parts were in the box! I lined up the bottom rail and it fit perfectly on the bottom however then reading I needed to saw off 1 1/4" so that the side wall jabs could fit on the bottom too. Time to run out to Sears Hardware for a saw now and a metal file.

Got home with that and it was time to start making dinner. I made a Whole Wheat pizza with Turkey pepperoni on it and put it on our pizza stone and let it bake away. Got the bottom rail cut and the side wall jabs up and marked the 6 holes where they would get attached to the side wall. Everything was going great, couldn't imagine why people don't do DYI more. Stopped to have dinner, except the pizza wouldn't come off of the stone. Scott headed out to the local pizzeria and got us pizza while I continued to work.

The instructions said to use a 3/16" drill bit for glass and ceramic tile and I had just that. My dad told me to put masking tape on the tile which would also help the tile from not cracking. So I drilled my 6 holes and there was no cracking! Next I needed to put in the wall anchors and those little devils would not fit so I used a 1/4" drill bit and made the holes larger. They still wouldn't fit and so I used the largest drill bit I had in that tile set which was a 5/16" and that seemed to do the trick. An hour later all of the wall anchors were in. Scott came up and helped me hold up the wall jabs while I screwed them in.

The rest was easy peasy.

And so may I present to you our new shower doors in the spare bathroom:

Here is the before:

The during:

The finished product:

The ending time: 10:45pm

I did all of the silicone work so that it would dry for our guests and so we are officially ready for company!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mother-in-Laws birthday and while we don't get to see her much since we are in New Jersey and they are in Buffalo we will get to see her this weekend to celebrate.

To a wonderful mom on her birthday

Mom, you have raised two beautiful, loving sons, been caring and loving to your whole family, always putting others first, ensuring that your family is taken care of, a kind and loving woman, a down to earth soul and the best mother-in-law that any daughter-in-law could ask for.

People always dread in-laws and I can say that I am truly blessed to have a wonderful 2nd mom. Today, I hope that you have a wonderful, relaxing birthday. Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!

June 2, 2007 - London, UK

October 2008- Head of the Charles

May 25, 2008 - Anne Hathaway's House

October 7, 2006- our Wedding

Timber

5 years after moving into our house and living one summer here we had enough of this Sweetgum tree, as it is called, that drops these spikey balls all year round. You know those times when you just want to walk in your backyard with no shoes on and feel the cool grass on your feet, well we could never do that without being in dire pain due to stepping on these things.

We have been busy trying to find someone reasonable to come and take the 40' tree down, not an easy task. $900 later, a massive tree down and lots of wood to split up for a fire in our outdoor firepit this summer! SUCCESS!!!! My tootsies will be happy this summer :-)