Things this week have been mostly good.  My tummy issues resolved this week but came back out to play again this weekend but not as bad.

Most days I am not hungry at all and sometimes double up on my shakes so I don’t have to drink so many.  I survived my first lunch where people were eating around me okay.   I am missing chewing things quite a lot.

Matthew is having trouble doing his full workouts.  He is very tired and has had to cut back by about 30% though he is still going 5 days a week.

I went to the gym twice this week and did okay. I missed Friday because I was having a problem with my knee hurting.

Matthew is also having problems with his gall bladder hurting, he has a non functioning gall bladder for which he needs surgery.  The doctor says it shouldn’t be aggravated by the diet but it seems to be anyway.

My favorite shake of this week was the chocolate coconut.  Matthew really likes pumpkin spice shake.  We both start the day with a mocha shake. I make a several pots of coffee and put it in the refrigerator to make our shakes with.

I’ll start a post soon with our shake recipes.  One tip for all protein shakes I have tried over the years, the longer they sit in the refrigerator the better they will be.

I lost an additional 4.75 inches this week for a two week total of 9.25 inches lost (across all measurements).

I lost 3.4 lbs since last Sunday, averaging .5 lbs per day. Total lost as of this morning 14 pounds.

Two week average is 1.08 lbs per day.

My first follow-up appointment and official weigh in with the doctor is this week.

This is what it looked like before I did anything.

Here it the original mailbox flower bed from October 2003

Here are some photos from the original project in April 2005.

and the original “finished” product

Sometime between April and September of 2005 our mailbox post rotted out and our mailbox fell over.  It has been cemented into the ground and since we have an in-ground sprinkler system we didn’t want to mess with digging the old concrete out, so we got a new mailbox and moved it over several feet. I also changed out the edgers on the bed and put in some more plants, including a forsythia sprout my mom gave me.

April 2009- Things look sad

Last March (2010) I put weed barrier fabric down over the whole bed and covered it in mulch, it took me two days and it didn’t even slow down the weeds.

A couple weeks ago I decided I wanted to re-do this bed, AGAIN.  This time, I wanted to replace the crappy plastic edgers with concrete ones and put river rock down.

Saturday, I went and bought 15 bags of river rock and started cleaning off the bed

Sunday I went and bought 24 concreted edgers and started the rest of the work, which included digging a trench for the edgers

First half of edgers in

First half of rock in

This part is “finished”.  I want to put in some more perennials and I still have to switch out the edgers on the mailbox bed, but that will have to wait for another day.

At this point I estimate that we have put approximately $300 into this flower bed and in excess of 50 hours of labor.

With some recent happenings at work (I’m filling in a position for someone who is on sick leave) I started musing on all of the different jobs I have had over the years.  On a whim I decided to make a list. When the list started getting rather long it became a challenge to actually remember everything. I am 36 years old and have had 32 jobs. Wow.

To the best of my memory, this is everything, but there is still a good chance I have forgotten something.  Some of the dates may not be completely accurate.

I actually feel fortunate to have had so many different jobs.  Each one has given me experiences and expertise I can call on to meet different challenge in life and work.  I am, however, glad that I no longer have to wash dirty underwear, mow lawns or scrub toilets for a living.

There are some things I didn’t list here, like the summer I picked blackberries everyday and sold them to get money to buy my clogging costumes.  Or being a wedding/portrait photographer, or working at my great aunt’s flea market.

1.     1986-1990-Painters assistant (my mom was  a house painter)

2.      1989-1992-Hardee’s (front counter & drive thru) *my first “real” job

3.      1992-1993-Hayesville High School (Tutor)

June 1993-Graduated High School

August 1993 Started Tri County Community College

4.      1993-Subway (I got fired from Subway through no fault of my own-this is the only job I’ve ever been fired from *knock wood*)

5.      1993-1994-Tri-County Community College (Student Ambassador)

6.      1993-1994-Carolyn’s restaurant (front counter, milkshake maker & short order cook)

7.      1994-1995-Ingles Market Deli (cook, counter person, sandwich maker)

January 1996-Transferred to Western Carolina University

8.      1996-Student worker, secretary at some on campus teaching center that I can’t recall the name of (WCU-Cullowhee, NC)

9.      1996-Clay County Care Center (laundry) *remind me to tell you the skunk story sometime

10.  1996-Burger King (cook and counter)

11.  1996- Landscaping & lawn work for family business

12.  1997-Great Smoky Mountain Railway (telephone operator)

13.  1997-Chick-Fil-A (cook and counter)

14.  19971998-Clay County Care Center (housekeeper)

15.  1997-Hinton Rural Life Center (housekeeper)

16.  1997-Housekeeper @ at a Bed and Breakfast

17.  1997-McDonalds (fry cook)

18.  1997-WalMart (overnight cashier)

19. 1997-1998 The Western Carolinian (reporter)

20. House sitter for one summer

20.  1997-1998-WCU Writing Center (tutor and webmaster) *I was also doing my internship here at the same time

21.  1997-1998-Coulter Faulty Center (computer assistant)

May 1998 Graduated WCU

22.  1998-Smoky Mountain Sentinel (reporter)

23.  1998- Huddle House (waitress, lasted 1 day)

24.  1998-Mountain Home Nursing Services (receptionist)

October 1998 Moved to St. Louis

25.  1999-2000-Mercentile Bank (internet banking specialist) *laid off when bank was bought out

26.  2000-Broadband Investment Group (support specialist) *laid off when the company went under

27.  2001-Multidata Systems (help desk manager)

28.  2001-2002-Anheuser-Busch (technical analyst) *laid off when project was over

29.  2003-2006 Webster University (help desk coordinator)

30.  2007-Online book reviewer

31.  2006-2010, Webster University  (assistant director of information services)

32.  2010-present -Webster University ( business process analyst)

I met Matthew online in 1997, on a bulletin board system called ISCA.  I was in college in Cullowhee, North Carolina and he was living and working in St. Cloud, Minnesota; we were both 22 years old.  We talked online and on the phone every day for months.  On October 23, 1997 Matthew flew down to North Carolina and we met for the first time on my 23rd birthday.   A month or so later Matthew moved to St. Louis, Missouri to take a job.

Over the next year I flew up to St. Louis several times and Matthew came back down to North Carolina a few times and we talked for hours on the phone everyday.  I graduated college in May 1998 and moved back in with my mom for a few months while I decided what to do with my life.  I hadn’t been able to find a job in my field (technical writing at the time) and missed Matthew terribly.  I lived with my mom and worked as a receptionist while saving up my money.  After long debate we decided that I would move to St. Louis.

On October 24, 1998 I moved to St. Louis, Missouri.  I knew two people in St. Louis, Matthew and his friend Jeff.  I brought with me two suitcases and my computer and less than $1,00o in the bank.  I had no job, no car.   We lived in a one bedroom apartment in Rock Hill.  We fought like crazy, I was depressed and homesick and going a little crazy because I couldn’t find a job.  It took me until February of 1999 to get a job; once I started to get out of the house and make some new friends things got better.

In the fall of 99 we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment in the same complex, and I bought Matthew’s old Chevy Lumina from him when he bought a new car.  The next few years were up’s and down’s but we were together through it all. Including, losing my grandmother, losing my job at the bank due to a merger, getting another job at an internet start-up company only to have it go belly up a few months later, months of unemployment, a horrible job I don’t like to talk about, another job and anther layoff, Matthew changing jobs a couple times and buying a house.

We bought our house in the west county area of St. Louis in September 2002 and I was laid off again in October 2002.  It took me until February 2003 to find another job, where I still work today, at Webster University.

We’ve traveled a long way together, Matthew and I;  physically and emotionally.  No matter what happens I know that he will be there beside me.  Sure we fight sometimes, and bicker quite a bit, but to me that just proves that we still care. I see my friends go through stormy relationships and breakups and am thankful those days are behind me.

I love Matthew more than words can possibly express.  He has stood by me through all of the insanity that I have thrown at him, he has been my rock through all of the bad times.  I am a better person because of his love.