I can't believe its Dec. 1st!!

This year has gone by so quickly, we are so close to 2010 and that blows me AWAY!! LOL

We have had such a great (but insanely busy) holiday season already and there is so much more to come!! The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we started a new tradition in the Kimpel-Sheldon household. Baking and Bellini's!!! We made yummy Bellini's and baked for the coming day. We made a Pumpkin Pecan quick bread, 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies and a Paradise Pumpkin pie. The timer for the oven we off at exactly 11:59! Woo Hoo!!

Thanksgiving we had breakfast and a Black Friday planning meeting at my parents house, it was so yummy and I think is a great start to the off years where we won't all be together for Thanksgiving!!

Jen and I then went over to her Mom and Russ's house for Thanksgiving and cooked together and had a great day. Our feast was SO good!!

Friday Morning at 2:45 am brought Black Friday!! Danielle, Janae, Krista and I met at Kohls at 3:30 for their 4am opening!! We hit 8 stores in 5 1/2 hours, it was insane and SUPER fun!!! I have named us the Crazy Black Friday Sisters!!!

Friday night we went over to Jen's mom's house to visit with cousins, Brad and Lacey. They came in from Utah for Thanksgiving and it was great to visit with them and the rest of the family!


Saturday morning through the afternoon was preparing for Kim's surprise 50th birthday party. Jen and I met Russ at Costco and Party City and got all the goods. Jen then took her mom for a pedicure and shopping to get her out of the house. The party went off without a hitch and we all had a great time!!

Sunday we spent some time around the house in the morning and decorated for Christmas in the evening!! We LOVE our tree and are totally in the Christmas spirit!! I don't have any pictures yet but they will be up on FB soon.

For our Christmas gifts to each other we booked ourselves on a CRUISE!!!! We are really looking forward to it, its a 7 day Mexican Riviera with stops in Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta in Feb. We will be going with my Mom and Dad and Sister, Danielle, and her husband Jason. Janae has graciously decided to stay home and be the dog watcher for the week and then she will get to do something fun on her spring break. We are all really excited and can't wait till it gets here!

Around April - June we are looking to get pre-qualified to buy another property (so if anyone is or will be looking to rent a 1 bed/bath let us know). We really want something with another bedroom/bathroom and a yard for our Duncan!!

And something we are really excited for right now......DRESS SHOPPING for the bridesmaids and possibly me on Dec. 13th! So Exciting!!

Thanks for reading....hope you enjoyed the update!! :)

Nicole

Why is it that??

Why is it that? I find myself asking this all the time, but especially right now! Why is it that Nicole found a new way to get motivated and that in turn motivated me, but not 4 days later I come down with the flu?? Last week I was practically dead to the world, ALL WEEK. This doesn't make for easy dieting on anyone! I couldn't eat really for 3 days, but that means Nicole wasn't making herself dinner.. once I got my appetite back I wanted everything in sight! This didn't help either of us. We haven't really worked out in about a month to be honest. We were back to "Let's lose some weight before gaining muscle!"... because losing weight I don't care who you are makes all the difference in attitude above and beyond gaining muscle (aka weight)!!

Nicole said yesterday "I guess I'll just be a fat bride.." but I just don't even think she is fat. When I look at her all I see is a sexy beautiful woman! This doesn't help her.. lol and we're just not helping each other because we're weak. We have lost some strength and most of our motivation.. at least for today and the last week or so, but we'll get it back.

It was funny because a couple days ago I said.. let's go (insert bad place) and we'll be good after that! Or how about this one.. "At least we keep saying, we'll have a good month, EVERY MONTH!" We haven't given up all the way, every day dieting and being good is on our minds, but actions speak louder than words (even when they're in your head!) I do know... Anyhow, some encouraging words would be much appreciated!!!

PS - I'm starving right now!

Empire State of Mind

Some of you may know what happened with my little brother Jonathan, but I wanted to update you and let you know things are looking up. He will be going to Full Circle Treatment Center very soon as well as get back in school! My Mom and Russ have shown tremendous strength and patience with him and I have faith they will be able to overcome this with Jon. It's been really nice watching them unite during this tough time. A lot is really coming around for our family.

Work couldn't be better for me. I had the best review yet. I have really worked hard to get where I am and I'm not stopping yet! I love my job and it's obvious, I know, but I really am grateful for it. In my review my manager and I discussed my roles and upcoming promotion. Currently, I'm "transitioning" into the Senior Analyst role and she said when the money is available she will give it to me. I love this new role, even though I'm just getting a taste. I'm able to monitor and escalate within the senior ticket queue as well as send out our one minute meetings. I love taking on more responsibility! On top of that, I had a review with my sup. and he wants me to be sort of the "moral specialist" because we can really use it around here. We have a few guys burned out and just really in a slump. I hope I can help with that!

Nicole's work is going good too. She's starting to become more involved with large projects, testing, etc.. this has been really good for her. I'll let her elaborate next time she blogs or something! I just know what a difference it has made in her attitude with work and her self-esteem and it's all good!

Duncan has been the best boy. For awhile we've been on the "we want another puppy" kick, but that seems to have subsided, at least for now. He's just REALLY good, REALLY happy, and loves his life and we love it with him! Not sure the risk is worth it for our household...

Working out - we've been very consistent with it, but we're not dropping weight. I can definitely feel a difference in my jeans, Nicole says she can't really, but I can on her! I feel better all around. I've had a lot of back and right leg pain and working out has definitely strengthened me and taken some of that pain away. I actually enjoy cardio, I really get into the treadmill and am just starting to get into the elliptical - you burn SO many more calories on the elliptical! We're 2 days away from measuring and I'm really hoping to see some results!

All for now, gotta get back to work.

~ Jen

PS - love the new JAY-Z album Blueprint 3 - favorites are Empire State of Mind, Venus vs. Mars, and On to the next one

An evening @ home..

Often times I find myself wondering where the time goes after I get off work... I seem to hardly ever have time to relax, but I'm okay with that. Yesterday I was thinking about this and sorta watched how my evening @ home went. Here it goes..

Got off work 3pm, Nicole needed a new shirt (so I went to Old Navy and bought us a few new shirts...) grabbed us an Iced Coffee from Starbucks and brought it all to her. Got home about 4pm, took Duncan potty and played Frisbee! for a little bit. Jumped on the laptop for a few mins before I knew it Nicole came home from work, I now was on the phone with my oldest sister Lisa.. We both got ready to go work out, went to work out about 6pm and got back around 7pm. Fed our Duncan. Made us dinner, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher while Nicole ran Duncan down.. ate dinner. Cleaned up our mess, walked down to the garden to pick some tomatoes and bell peppers. Got back home, started a load of laundry and switched the other. Both took showers, switched the loads, folded a load while Nicole was watching TV, blow dried hair.. took Duncan out again, watched SYTYCD and it was bed time @ 10:30pm.

See it's never ending I tell ya! I wouldn't have it any other way because we are WAY productive!

Some updates for ya!

Gosh, so much has been happening for us! All kinds of good stuff! I'm not going to focus on the bad stuff, that's just not my nature! :)

Okay, so first of all, Gelato Thursday was a hit! We officially have our wedding party! I will have Kerrie (Sister), Dana (Brother), Jon (Brother), Christie (Cousin) and Kara (Longest Best Friend) stand up with me and Nicole will have Tammy (Mom), Danielle (Sister), Janae (Sister) stand up with her. This is SO exciting and we couldn't be any more proud and ecstatic to have such important and amazing people stand up for and support us!

Secondly, we're changing up our diet! We haven't been too successful with just calorie counting. We've been doing it for a LONG time and have just plateaued I think. We're going to start adding more protein to our diet as well as working out. So far we've accomplished working out 3 days this week and it's not even over yet! Pretty optimistic, but we realize it's consistancy that is key which of course is the hardest part.

Lastly, our boy Duncan is 99% better. Just has a little healing around his eyes where he needs to grow some hair back, but is doing great otherwise! He has been playful again, drinking more normal amounts of water and just looks SO much better.

Happy Friday everyone! We actually have this whole weekend off together and are really looking forward to it.