"Live your life!"

Gosh, time flies when you're having fun and boy have we have been having fun! From Birthday parties to Family BBQ's all the way to tanning and playing with Duncan (AKA TenderPaw, its his Indian name)! Life is just really amazing and Nicole and I are very grateful.

This is Nicole's second week of school and so far so good. She is doing her first presentation tonight and is a little nervous. I helped her make her visual and practice last night and she did excellent, I know she's going to do just as good in class! Can't wait to hear how it went.

Work has been really busy for Nicole and I. In these times it's a blessing! Especially because of the financial goals we have been working towards. Our plan to pay off our RC Willey debt by Aug\Sept is on track and that feels really good. We've only got 1700 to go and in June can make a 700 payment. Can't wait to be done with it! Along with that, NO STARBUCKS STILL! I'm very proud of myself and us. It has been 19 days now! They say after 21 days a habit is broken, well I'm right there! HUGE savings and I know we'll really start seeing the figures in the next month or so. Plus, we RARELY eat out, not even once a week sometimes. To give you an idea of how bad it used to be... BOTH MEALS OUT EVERY DAY! That's a lot of dough and calories!! LOL Glad we're done with that too!

Week 4 has officially weighed in and we're down!
Nicole lost 1.5lbs - 9lbs total
Jen lost 1lb - 9lbs total
Grand Total 18lbs! We didn't meet our goal of 20, but next week we will! We splurged quite a bit this weekend and practically starved and worked our tails off to accomplish what we had gained and then lose a little more on top of it! I hate that, but it's worth it at the same time! I look forward to next weeks results!

My Dad got his own apartment in Huntington Beach and we just planned a trip to go see him in July. We're going July 17th-July 20th. We haven't been down in some time, so it'll be nice. I hardly ever get to spend time with the Sheldon side of the family (Dad and Sister) mostly due to distance, so this will be great. I'm hoping to see my Sister Lisa and her fiance Chad along with my niece Kayla and nephews Ricky and Jake! I wish they were closer so it wouldn't have to be so far and few in between visits! Anyway, we're really looking forward to that.

Gonna call it a night now! Hope you all enjoyed the update!

PS - Just talked to Nicole, she's on her way home from school and she thinks she DID REALLY GOOD on her presentation\speech! YES!

Ohh yeah Week 3!

I'm off today and should be sleeping in, but the excitement got to me this morning! Nicole was giving me kisses bye before she left for work and I uttered the dreadful words, "Did you go down?" She responded with "Yes, 1lb!" We gave each other a high five and she left and I had my alarm set for 9am... I tossed and turned and my stomach told me I was hungry and my abs were hurting from the Wii Fit kicking my butt and suddenly I got excited and anxious to weigh myself. I rolled out of bed, boy did that hurt, weighed and sure enough down 1lb too! We have gotten our lows back and dropped below them!

Week 3 Jen -1.5lbs = Total 8lbs
Week 3 Nicole -1lbs = Total 7.5lbs
Kimpel - Sheldon Grand Total - 15.5lbs

We're kicking butt and taking no names! (That's for you Tammy!)

I've been tanning a little bit here and there and that sun sure does make me feel good! Nicole has been going to school in the evening which makes her feel good and we're just really on track! I hope we have a bigger loss next week! That's what we're working towards! A household grand total of 20lbs would be awesome!

Another great thing - Nicole won her American Idol pool at work ($125.00)! First place! Oh yeah! Go Kris! We're so glad he won!

Please keep up with encouragement and tough love, we really do need and appreciate it! ;)

PS - No Starbucks purchase for 12 days!!!! 5/9 is still the last time! I love making them at home and Nicole does too! Saved us over 100 so far!

Week 2, I'm not lovin' you!

Another week has passed and we didn't lose, but it's okay because we maintained our big drop last week. We're still working very hard and it seems as though one bad day (Mother's Day) makes you really pay for it. It's a very hard balance between not feeling deprived and being good. At least I find it difficult. I have been walking a LOT and have my pedometer on my side to track my steps. I walked about 6k steps Tues, 10k steps Wed and today I'm at 5k, but the night isn't over. Walking on my breaks and walking Duncan HAS really helped and I actually enjoy it. Nicole and I went for a walk last night and it was perfect out! We are going to try to do that more which will be harder since she starts school next week. She'll be in school 6pm-9pm Tues thru Thurs for the next 7 weeks, but we will still find time.

Update on the Starbucks habit that was... LOL!! I can say WAS! WOW. I haven't purchased a Starbucks since Saturday morning 5/9 and that was only because we were out of half and half. Nicole went to the store that very afternoon and got it for us. I've made them all week! I actually can't believe it.. I almost went today because I've been craving cold... and chocolate... and thought I could convince myself of a mocha light frappucino, but I actually just went home and had a weight watchers ice cream instead... :) It's saving us a ton of dough!

Work has been good for me. I met with my Director yesterday, for the first time, and it was awesome! What a neat woman; so easy to talk to! Her name is Jenn too and she worked for Gap for 18yrs... pretty much everyone at Williams-Sonoma has worked at Gap, including myself! We talked about some really neat things.. about my skills, weaknesses, development, what's working, etc.. it was GREAT! I can't wait to see what is in store for me there! I seriously love my job and the company I work for. I am grateful for it every day! The last two weeks I've been helping to train the Corp. side on our group, Store Support. It's fun and I think it's pretty neat that I get to take part in the training, esp since I've just about got a year under my belt. I must be doing something right! ;)

Duncan, well he's pretty much perfect... except for the fact he threw up bile @ 4am this morning. Poor Nicole, but I always thank her, she always just gets up and takes care of business... probably mostly because she wants to get back to bed! LOL No really, it sucks when that happen and Nicole really is awesome! He has been doing pretty good on our walks actually. We've walked the whole Gibson Drive (it's a loop kinda) twice, just he and I, and I really enjoyed it! His walking has gotten 100% better already!

Well, I'm outa here. Done with the computer for now and Nicole is about to come home and make us amazing apple garlic chicken for dinner! I'm looking forward to having these next two days off, I've had split days for the last 3 weeks, so it'll be nice. Plus, we've got some fun stuff goin' on!

~ Jen

Results!

Week 1 has officially weighed in and Nicole and I each lost 6.5lbs! I love it! We're kicking butt and working hard! Nicole said today, "It's worth the hunger this time!" and I agree! We're working so hard at shrinking our stomachs so that we can eat the right portions! We usually have a salad a day and are staying away from a ton of bread.. potato's and baked goods! It's not easy, but we're getting results, thus making it easier! OH and we're not drinking soda, period.

This is the first time ever in Jen-Starbucks history that I haven't gone to Starbucks every morning and every afternoon each day. I have been making my iced coffee at home! Since Sunday I have only gone to Starbucks TWICE! Once was paid for by Nicole's amazing job she does @ work. Someone sent her a thank you gift card. :) The other was today because I met my cousin Christie for Starbucks and it was my turn to treat (we trade every other time). In fact, we're going to pick up more half and half so I can keep on with this trend. I'm saving us TONS of money, roughly 50 a week to be exact, by cutting out this habit! I'm very excited and proud of myself and hope I can keep it up!

That's all for now!

~ Jen

Here I am....

Okay so I am a horrible blogger! I love to read em but posting them is another story!

So Jen is making us Killer Artichokes for dinner again! MMMM I am officially fired from making them....TOTALLY screwed them up when I tried! LOL Oh well, I don't mind!! :)

This weekend on Sat. while Jen was at work I did some gardening on our beautiful patio! I planted a dahlia, replant and staked our Freesia and planted two trailing petunia's or "blue million bells" in our basket that will go at the top of our trellis. It is soooo nice having all these gorgeous plants and a wonderful bench (thanks Dad) out on our patio!! I look out the window every morning when I wake up now! I never knew how therapeutic gardening was, I sat outside and planted and watered and all that for an hour and came back into feeling so accomplished and relaxed. Now I just want to keep buying plants! LOL We are going to have a jungle!!

I have been searching high and low for a wedding venue with no luck. Either the ambiance isn't right, or the price is too high. We compare everything to the Hyatt Downtown. Nothing beats the view so far. The prices are ridiculous (one place I found was 7500 JUST for the facility rental) but still a bit out of our budget. So we have been bummed and have been on the lookout for somewhere else. Last night we sat down ans added up what we want and how much it would cost and how much we need it to cost. When we went and toured the Hyatt, the event planner there mentioned that it never hurts to ask for something so today I sent an email to her with our "offer." We are hoping to hear back soon and are trying to stay optimistic that they can make it work. We are hoping that a Friday night in Aug. is slow enough that if we didn't book no one else would. That would definitely help us out! If they accept it would be perfect and I think we would officially book with them and put our deposit down. Then comes the fun stuff!!! Look out family and friends.....we will be recruiting help for all the projects and idea we have in our heads! :)

I don't want to get anyone hopes up but here is a picture of the Hyatt's City View Room! Cross your fingers that we get an answer back...and soon...before I go crazy!!

Determination has finally struck!

Sooooo we TOTALLY fell off the wagon last month, but we're putting it behind us. Today is a new day - May 1st and we're both focused and determined to SHED Pounds! We can do this. We have before. We're completely starting over. Not referring to our previous weight loss or doing what we did before because it hasn't worked for us since the first of the year. We weighed in this morning and are going to measure eachother tonight.

We've got a GREAT month ahead of us! We're going to pour our drive and motivation into this - so watch closely because it's on! We will lose weight this month and the next, etc.. Among eating right, we're going to Wii-Fit and Exercise like no other!! We bought our first 3lb dumb bells. :)

Nicole starts school at the end of May, so it's good timing to get us on track and eating light meals and snacks throughout the day. Work is going to really start picking up for me (hard to imagine considering I'm slammed everyday right now) so I can really focus on that and not FOOD. I figure it will be easier, but nonetheless, we're prepared. Root us on and be a good influence to us! Danielle, that means no invites to get "burrito's" and you know what I mean! LOL No Red Robin nights, it's completely out until we get this under control! :)


PS - Nicole hasn't blogged in awhile, I'll have to talk to her about that!

~ Jen