Introduction to project: Bringing my sexy back

As I was at home for Christmas with my family (which was amazing by the way), we did our annual complaining about the amount of weight we've gained. In all honesty, I hadn't gained any weight...but I hadn't lost any either. So, we decided to all fork over $10 and weigh in. Our family "biggest loser competition" had officially begun. I was the last one to weigh in. When I stepped on the scale and was 1.5 lbs lighter than my uncle, a full grown man who is a good 5" taller than I am. WHOA. Hold the phone. I am 22. I'm not married. I have no children. I should be in my prime. I should be insanely healthy because not only is it something you are supposed to do when you have the time to focus on yourself...but, it's all the rage to be fit, right? So...I started talking a little smack. I'm going to win this competition.

That was the day after Christmas. I was in Kansas until January 2nd. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day...usually spent out at a restaurant, catching up with friends and family. I ate like a pig. I drank pop and beer and cocktails. I ate greasy food and tons of dessert and huge portions. I had an empty plate every time I ate. Yah...pretty serious about this weight loss thing. Guess I will start focusing on it when I get home.

Fly back to South Carolina. I go grocery shopping...stock up on healthy food! Check! My mind is sorta in the right place, but I really don't have the urge to go workout or anything. Just not my thing. Then, I get on facebook to do a little catching up. I have some new pictures tagged from a friend from when we were in Manhattan for New Years. The first couple were cute. Then there were some pictures of me dancing....and I almost started crying. I don't feel as big as the scale shows me or as big as those pictures show me. I untagged myself and even went so far as to emailing her to ask them to be taken off. And....they are still up. No big deal, except that we have all the same friends and I look disgusting. Ihave a little freak out and Eric calms me down (he's so great at calming me down when I'm freaking out). He tells me that I've been talking about making a change for a while now and if I truly feel that bad about it then its definitely time. And dang it...I think he might be on to something.

I sign up for a Gym membership. They ask you to come in for a screening and first workout with them. I get insanely sick. Don't go for a week and reschedule many times. Then, I go. I'm 39% body fat. I weigh 158 lbs (10 lbs lighter than the Christmas weigh in...eating healthy and being sick pays off). Then they work me out...for 20 minutes. I thought I was going to die. It was so intense. They said that's what it would be like if I were to get a trainer. He's a good salesman. His name is Sterling. :) I sign up for a trainer. It's expensive as hell. I kind of freak out. Can I be this selfish to spend this much on myself??? I sign the dotted line. Done, no turning back. Go home...lose a lot of sleep over how expensive it is and if I'm really that committed. Eric says just go for it. It's my money and I work hard for it. I have 3 days to cancel, which is after my first training session.

Three weeks of training later. My trainer's name is Gideon (well, that's his last name, but that's what he goes by). He is insanely sweet and has an amazing story of his weight loss struggles and the journey to where he is now. He sent me a nutrition plan. We work out once a week together. Then I have 2 other days a week of resistance training. The off days are cardio and abs. He sent me workout plans for each day. I go to the gym 6 days a week. I'm not supposed to weigh in but once a month...but I have. And...I'm not losing anything really. BUT....my chest is getting smaller. My legs and arms are starting to look more toned. AND...the line on my stomach where my fat starts...is a lot smaller. I feel better. I'm looking better. I am sticking to the workouts. I am sticking to the healthy eating. I haven't been eating fried foods or any pop (2 of the hardest changes to make to my lifestyle).

This isn't my new year's resolution. This is my rest of my life plan. And I'm telling people about it. Anyone and everyone. So there it is. Hold me accountable for my actions!

L.I.F.E.

a little about my L.I.F.E. right now--

starting with L (love):
Eric is still looking for work. We thought we had one that was going to hire, but it fell through. After he returned to the search, we had an unexpected turn of events. The same people who ended up not hiring recommended him for another job. This job...could be amazing. He would be a sales/product rep for most of the east coast. It's a French fertilizing company. He would do his first week of training in France (how cool is that!?!?) and he would be traveling quite a bit. The company would pay him mileage on his travels on top of his salary (which is a really nice starting salary). The more he talkes with them the more that he wants to be a part of it. They aren't going to be making a hire decision until December...so, it's quite the wait. In the mean time, he's still looking for other things and for some part time work. We don't have to have him working, but it would give him something to do and make me a little less nutty about our money :) So, if you're reading this...please keep your fingers crossed or him in your prayers for finding the right job!
Living together is going really well! It's just making me absolutely certain that I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him. In fact, we're talking marriage. Of course, it's going to be awhile for many different reasons, but we both agree that we intend on marrying eachother.

Now for I (Interests):
I have had so much on my plate lately and have been driving myself fruity. After a very long venting email and phone call to Jill, we've come to the conclusion....I'm bored and/or restless. Aha. Of course, such a simple answer...but what to do with my spare time? I need a new hobby! So, I've started various different projects. My bathroom is now fully decorated. My photo albums are now full and in order, but definitely need some captions. And then...I took up a hobby that I've always been too scared to tackle. I've started painting! I have always been fairly artsy...but I've always been scared to try painting on a canvas. I don't know why. I think it has to do with the possibility of failure or not being able to paint what's in my head. And I have to say...I love it. I'm obviously no Leonardo...but its so wonderful. I can completely lose myself. So far, they've both been of different interpretations of trees...so I have to go a different direction next time. But, when I sit down after I get that first stroke of paint on the white canvas...it's on. I can't stop. And it makes me happy :) I can't wait to keep it up!

I haven't had a lot of time to try many recipes lately. The last one was a complete failure. It was a middle-eastern inspired beef and eggplant lasagna. Had lots of odd spices and herbs. It was ok..but my roomies definitely weren't fans. Hah. So, I haven't been cooking much more. I've been working so many closing shifts that I haven't had time to cook when I get home. Soon I hope.

Now for F (family & friends):
1st...something I'm so excited about. Jill! :) She's home. She still doesn't feel 100% like herself and everyone she's talked to said it might take a long time. But, she's sure giving everything her all. She's back at work. She's already had to deal with a bad stomach flu with Aidan. She's back to taking care of her parents (gma's meds and entertaining gpa). She's making chore lists :) I'm so proud of her. We're through the worst as far as we know and she's working on living her life again.

2nd...I miss my friends and family from back home so much. However, it's looking like I'll be home for several days for Christmas and I'm hoping everyone can get in touch over the return home!

3rd...we are making friends! :) slowly. but we definitely have a couple of different groups that we can hang out with and are sure to have a fun time with! it's so great! it's making SC feel like home.

Last....E (everything else):
The rest...well, work is intense. We are short one manager and will be for a couple more weeks. I've been working a lot of closing shifts, so I've had a lot of late nights. I really love the staff there. We get along really well and everyone comes to work happy and ready to work. I am really happy there. I do come home tired and frustrated sometimes...but that's just part of the little quirks that come with the daily restaurant business. I am excited to see what happens in the upcoming shifts.

I like SC. I think it was a good choice to be here.

1st Day at MY restaurant

:) Can anyone say...wahooooo!?

Today was day 1 at the restaurant that I will be helping manage. My title is Bar and Service Assistant Manager (so...bar and host)...but we rotate shifts. So, I'll be managing the kitchen and the service part too on certain days. This restaurant is in downtown Columbia right in the middle of all the action! We will do a lot less sales than at the Harbison restaurant...but I think this will be a more effective team. And there are lots of areas of opportunity and I'm so pumped to start working with my team to improve!!!

My boss and the other managers are great. They gave me a very warm welcome and were quick to start showing me the ropes of the new place. This restaurant is in an old train station that was built in the early 1900's. It's got old hardwood floors and a little older decor. Next spring it's up for a rennovation, but I'm hoping they leave a lot of it alone to keep with the personality of the restaurant. We have a completely different clientel at this one too.

Eric is still job searching. We moved to a bad spot for agriculture! He's been working hard on finding one though and has been amazing as support for me. He's been wonderful at keeping up our home and fixing awesome dinners. I have full faith in him that he will find a job that he loves.

Word on the street is that I have a lot of opportunities with Longhorn and great chances for promotion within the next couple of years...so, hopefully it will take us in the right direction for us! :)

I'm homesick a little. Ready to have some more family come this way to see me! :) I'm missing a lot of my friends as well. I don't have many friends here and that makes me miss all the amazing people not here with me.

Breaking up domestic disputes...

This post is really serving as an update. I've had a few different requests for an update and I thought that I would go ahead and fill the empty void that has become my blog.

First, we'll focus on family, because that's most important.
--> I was fortunate enough to have my two days off this past weekend plus a "personal day". I used this time to fly to College Station, Texas to see a few of my family members. Jill is in Houston for a few weeks getting her chemo/radiation treatments. After the few weeks of her treatments, the doctors say that she has a 95-100% chance of living the rest of her life cancer free. I know that treatments are really hard on her and it's a really difficult time for her. However, hearing the news about her cancer free chances was so amazing. I'm ready for this rocky experience to be over. She has been a fighter and she will push through.
--> While in Texas, I got to meet Sophia Lucille Adams...Ethan and Desirees baby girl. She's three weeks old! She is such a beautiful little girl. She looks like a little doll!!! :) However, we have a rocky relationship. Apparantly, she views me as a bully..and she cries every time I hold her...or....she spits up on me. A lott.... most of the weekend I was wearing Sophie spit up. :S Haha. As cute as she is, it definitely reinforced in my mind that I'm not at a point in my life where I'm ready for children. At all. I also got to see Marcia and Marisa (and I usually only get to see them once a year), and Kelsey (I haven't seen her in sooo long. she had awesome tales of her recent study abroad experience) and of course, Karen, Rod, Grandma, Paula, Quinten, Dad, Jill, Aidan and Seth. It was so wonderful to see everyone.
--> I really haven't been too homesick since the move, but with all of Jill's health problems...I have been feeling really anxious to see the family. So spending the weekend with them was fabulous! :) Now, I'm getting super pumped to see some of Eric's family. Hopefully we'll be seeing them here in a couple of weeks!

Now, let's move on to what consumes most of my time: WORK
-->Training is going really well. I'm in the front of the house now. I've already been trained as an SA (which stands for Service Assistant aka Hostess). That was an area that was totally new with me but I was able to learn it quickly and master it. I did my 3 days of server training, which was a breeze. :) Mostly because I've served since I was 15. The last server that trained me gave me 2 tables on my own..and she LOVED me for it. I made her some dang good tips. She said she wanted to train me every night. Haha. It is a little humbling to see the money that they make. If you break it down hourly vs. what I get paid hourly...they make more than the managers...which leads me to a topic that I'll touch on later. I'm currently in the middle of bar training. After that, I will have 2 more weeks at this restaurant, one at my new store: Gervais (which is in downtown Columbia) and then one week in Orlanda at LHU (or Longhorn University). Then, I will be a real big kid...an official Longhorn Manager! Crazy how quickly training is going.
-->One of my biggest points of frustration is other people's work ethic. It's not quite as big as mine...and I like people to work their asses off. However, finding people who will work their asses off is hard to do. A lot of the people on our team have crazy amounts of potential and can be hard workers, but there is no sense of ownership or respect. And it results in slacking and bad communication. I'm excited to be able to use the skills I've learned and the ones that I already have to work with my future teams on these areas of improvements. :) I've noticed that yelling doesn't work very often and it creates a lot of friction. We had a situation that kept recurring and the other managers were yelling about it. I took 2 mins and wrote a "fairy tale" about the situation and included the proper way to handle the situation. I've gotten a GREAT response from the team using this tactic. They respected that I tried a new approach and didn't just gripe about it. They also thought it was funny that I chose the fairy tale method.
-->I'm getting good at handling conflict. In fact, last night as I was leaving, I had to go back in and have a manager call the cops on a couple in our parking lot. They were physically fighting and then they drove off. I had to keep our other guests inside so that no one would get hurt. Life isn't always that intense in the restaurant business...but is sure as heck isn't ever dull. :)

Finally, the rest of my life....
--> Thus far, I love living with Emily. However, I feel like I haven't gotten to see her at all lately! :( I'm hoping that I'll start slowing down and we'll have some time together! Her stuff is really cute and makes the apartment look better!
--> I am loving living with Eric as well. We cohabitate really well. He is talking with a company right now and should have a job with them by next week.....and he'll actually be using that Agronomy degree! I think that will be great for him because he's pretty bored being at our apartment all day. I think that he'll be happier living here and meeting new people at work. Some people to talk to that know what he's talking about will be awesome. Hahah. I really do try...but I don't know what half that stuff is! :S
-->I like SC so far. Really ready to start exploring and enjoying it a little more! :)

(might add some pictures soon)

It's Early

Today I get the pleasure of doing an early opening shift, so as I write this it's 5:39 a.m.. I will be at work from 6-4, but then, I'm off early! woot woot! I thought I would take a few minutes to write a little blurb about how things are going since I have a few minutes before leaving for my day.

The apartment is coming together really nicely. I have posted pictures on facebook of the decorating process....if you would like access to those, let me know, I'll send you a link! Currently, I'm at a standstill until Emily moves in on August 7th. We have just some wall hangings and some knickknacks that need to be put on the walls or shelves, and we're waiting to see how much we have and what she wants to do as well. I'm so pumped to see her and have her living with me again! It's going to be great! I'm also pumped to see mamma and pappa Noetzel. It'll be nice seeing some familiar faces!

Work has been going well. I've been learning so much and continue to grow and develop every day. My GM has been on vacation for most of my training so far, but has returned. I was able to sit down with him for my one-on-one and my first evaluation. I should see today how he thought I did. I was able to answer all questions and felt pretty confident about my restaurant knowledge up to this point. This week my DO (above the GM) will be in house and I will meet with him for a one-on-one for him to check my progress and make sure it's ok for me to move on beyond phase one. He'll also be grilling me on my recipe knowledge, so I've been studying those like crazy! :) I feel like I know a lot of them though!

I get two days off a week and am still learning how to manage my time on those. I don't like doing things like going to the store on my day off...but obviously, it's going to be necessary sometimes. I do a lot of cleaning and upkeep on the place. Sometime soon I would like to make another beach trip, so hopefully we can work that into our plans.

Eric is still job searching. I know it will take awhile and am totally fine with that. However, he's antsy about not having one. I am hoping for the best. I just want him to be happy with what he does. We're doing great with the cohabitation thing. We work really well together and have most of the same expectations for the apartment. We tend to have a lot of fun with it!

Well, that's about all I have time for this morning. I will try to add some photos later today of the apartment. I hope everyone is well. I miss you!

Monday -- just another day of running errands! I decided I didn't have any clothes to wear to the new job, so we went shopping. I went to Sears and found some great stuff on sale for pretty cheap! So, we didn't have to spend a lot, but I still got a lot of good professional attire :) I spent some time on the foodnetwork.com looking for new recipes before we went to the grocery store. We bought our list and I came back and cooked. I made Italian baked chicken and pastina...after reading some of the reviews, I made several tweaks to the recipe and it turned out DELICIOUS!!! :) I was so happy with it. If you like Italian, chicken, and tomatoes..oh man. So yummy. The picture is here to the right. A burst of flavors thanks to all the tweaks! Hehe. Monday I went to bed happy and full, turning in early for my first day of work.

TUESDAY--MY FIRST DAY AT MY BIG KID JOB! :)

I woke up at 7...well, that's when I got out of bed anyway. From about 4:30 am on, I couldn't hardly sleep because I was worried about sleeping over my alarm. However, there was no chance of that...I was too excited to sleep. I got up, showered, and got around rather quickly. HOWEVER, then came the dilemma of what I should wear. Each thing was worst than the last, and nothing was good enough. :S So, needless to say, Eric got to see me at my most spazzy state (and yes, it happens to coincide with a little gift that I receive once a month). I was not a nice person and have since apologized for my actions. But, alas, lucky him...he has the pleasure of knowing everything about me...the good and the bad. Finally, I settled on "the outfit" got it together, and headed off to work. I got there early, parked, and walked around the building trying to figure out which "back door that would be unlocked" they were talking about, because none of these were unlocked...except the doorway that a huge truck had a chute connected to unloading a delivery. My boss called and asked if I was the blue shirt that just walked by the front door, and he told me that it was the door between the truck and back of the building. I crawled around and under to make my way through and into the building. The day started off with videos, introductions, and then most of it the day was spent going over the manual and policies. We were made to feel really welcome. Myself and one other person are training together at the same pace..and then there is one other MIT that is two weeks ahead of us. We all train at one place and then end up being transferred to our right locations.

The day was a good one and I was excited to start the second. WEDNESDAY, today, was my second day. It was a lot of floating/observing and we had our first test and some projects to work on. Every day during training will be a 10 hour day, so we'll see when I'll start feeling it. Haha. Right now, I'm still very excited about the company! :) I really believe in the Loyalty R.U.L.E.S. and their core values. There are some unique policies that I will have to memorize to maximize success, but I feel like I am cut out for this company and will do great things.

Only time will tell!!!

In my off time, I am trying to keep Eric company. However, we still have no furniture and when I get home I'm exhausted. Our "together time" consists of dinner, how was your days, a movie on the computer, then sleep. I'm ready for some furniture and for a routine so we can start to do more things together than the current situation allows. I think things will get significantly better when I receive my first pay check and we can afford to go out and about! Haha. I'm extremely thankful for him sticking it out with me and giving me unconditional love.

As for now, I'm signing off. I don't have a lot of time before I need to go to bed! My 10 hour shift starts at 7 am tomorrow! Early shirley! :0) Good night and thank you for all my readers. Having your support/acknowledgement means more than you know!

IRMO, SOUTH CAROLINA :)

Today was my first full day in Irmo, SC...the place where I now live. Eric and I woke up at 6:30 on Tuesday morning. I didn't get much sleep due to sheer excitement running through my veins about starting the move and all the adventures ahead. We got up, got around, did errands, and met the moving truck and workers at 8:45. By 11:15 they were finished loading everything, I had cleaned my parts of the trailer, and our vehicles were loaded and ready to go. After a quick stop for gas and food...we started our journey. We had to ride in seperate vehicles so that we would have them both in Irmo, so to make the drive less boring...we took walkie-talkies! :) It helped a lot.

Day one of the drive, we drove 10 hours. We drove to Eddyville, KY where I stayed with Jill's cousin Amy. She and her husband are really great and let us stay there for the night. It was perfect timing too...because we were really ready for a break from the road. We didn't see a lot of new scenery, as we'd both seen parts of that part of the country before. The drive went fairly quickly and we made excellent time. It was fun to see people's reaction to the massive deer head in Eric's front seat! Which leads me to my next item of discussion....

....Eric and I get along really well. We rarely fight, although we disagree on things often, we rarely bicker. However, the biggest point of contention between us about this move...was that darn deer head. It's huge. Ugly. And a dead animal. Here's where we differ...he thinks it's "beautiful" and I'm "lucky he only brought one". I told him, if we were moving into a house, with a garage or extra room that could be converted to a game room...it wouldn't be a big deal. But, tiny apartment..we don't need it! But ya win some, ya lose some. :( He did travel across the country to be with me in an area completely out of his comfort zone! So, I think I can suck it up and let him have the deer head!

Day 2 we got up at 6 and were on the road by 7:30 after eating with Amy. We drove the remaining 8 hours, and only stopped 2 times for gas/food. It was a quick trip. We were both astounded by the way people drive...the speed limit is 55-65 mph most of the way here..but we had to go 80 just to keep up with traffic. It was rediculous! We made excellent time though. Driving through North Carolina and the Smoky Mountains was really cool. That was an area completely new to both of us...and it's breathtakingly beautiful! I can't wait until we have time to go explore them! :) Finally, around 4:30 we arrived in Irmo at our apartment. Mind you, we'd never seen the place other than online. We had to wait for the office girl to get back in the office, but once we did, she put us to ease and then we signed the lease and came and saw it.

THE APARTMENT---is awesome! It was such a relief! :) I am a huge control freak, so not knowing what we were getting ourselves into was a little more than scary! It is slightly smaller than we both thought it would be, but it's a great lay-out and it will be perfect for the three of us (Emily is moving in with us in August! Can't wait for that!) I absolutely love the kitchen, it's a great layout! Most of our stuff still isn't here and probably won't be here for a few days, but I already feel like this could be home! Eric and I have been working on a lot of unpacking and trying to find our way around Irmo. So far we're doing ok!

We are really excited to get settled in and start meeting people. All of the people we have talked to around the town have been really nice so far, though, so that's comforting! Well...I guess that's about it for now. We're just taking things one day at a time and loving life!