I know, I know.

I'm really sorry. It's been FOREVER! I don't know if we've really been that "busy", per se, I guess I just haven't had much to blog about (since we haven't really been "busy" doing much). We did have our housewarming party last weekend, which was pretty laid back and enjoyable. We got to spend time with a variety of friends, I cooked all day, I got to see Sarah's new bling and talk wedding stuff... all in all, good times ;) We also had my friend Leanne here visiting last Thurs-Fri-Sat, which was tons of fun! Leanne and I had a lovely girls' night with lots of beer, kitty fun, movies, etc. on Thursday night while Ben visited his dad, and Janelle and Sarah came up and hung out on Friday evening with us and made dinner (sweet!). Unfortunately Leanne had to get back home on Saturday for a grad party so she missed our party, but we had a great time while it lasted!

Leanne snuggling with little Squidward

Lewis hanging out on Leanne's legs... LOL! They LOVED her - she let them sleep on the couch with her at night ;)

And this week was my LAST WEEK OF WORK!!! HOORAY!!! I've been waiting SO long to be finished, and now here I am - a free woman again! Today was my last day, a half-day followed by a group outing to Just Cakes in Bethesda for cupcakes, brownies, and other horrendously fattening treats :) Then I made the long-ass commute for THE LAST TIME, took a nice (WAY too long) nap, and soaked up my freedom.

Speaking of fattening treats, I've officially decided that it's time to start paying attention to what I'm eating again. I'm flirting dangerously with the upper limits of my weight gain tolerance. I really don't tolerate ANY weight gain well - no one does - but this is generally the maximum that I'll stand for before taking drastic measures. I think they call it "yo-yo dieting". It's not severe, I only fluctuate by 5-8 pounds when I go through these phases, but I've noticed that it's definitely a pattern for me. I lose some weight, start feeling good, get into a good work-out regimen, and then something happens to make me fall off the wagon. I injure myself, I get sick, I go on vacation... and then I start sliding down that slippery slope toward completely abandoning it all. And then one day it hits me that I've been COMPLETELY ignoring what I'm putting into my body, eating whatever I want whenever I want, and I look in the mirror and IT SHOWS. Ugh. So I'm in one of those ruts at the moment. Part of my problem is this athsma issue I've been having that's keeping me from running. I just can't run like I used to. I'm usually wheezing and feeling a lot of tightness in my chest by about 5 to 10 minutes into my run, and by 20 minutes I feel like I'm going to collapse and I have to stop. Running really is my work-out of choice - it's so rewarding and I feel like I've really kicked my ass and accomplished something when I'm finished - but lately it's just not working for me. I'm trying to get more diligent about doing the Jillian Michaels 30-day shred DVD that I bought, so we'll see how that goes. It's hard to get started because every time I start it again, it KILLS me and I have to skip at least the next day or even two because my muscles simply aren't functioning. Once I get into the swing of it I know I'll be able to do it daily, I just have to allow myself to ease into it WITHOUT allowing myself to fall off the wagon during that day or two between work-outs. Ugh. The endless battle.

I really should be getting to bed. We're leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend in North Carolina to visit my aunt, uncle and two little cousins - the aunt who just had the baby boy a few weeks ago. I can't wait to meet him! I went to Target today and did a little baby shopping (ALWAYS fun!), did some laundry and packed for the trip. I'm hoping to take a day trip with my cousin Nikki (she's 12) while we're there to get her out of the house for a day since she's sorta cooped up with her mom and the baby all the time while her dad is at work. We're thinking some kind of amusement park or water park or something - apparently there are a few nearby. Should be fun! And of course there will be lots of baby-cuddling and photo-snapping ;) We're dropping the kittens at my dad's for the weekend (he's all anti-pet these days, but you should see him with the kitties - he loves them!) and then heading out west and down south (they live in western western NC). It'll be about a 7 1/2 hour ride, so like I said, I'm off the hit the sack. My psycho husband who apparently enjoys torturing himself is already dead to the world for the evening - he's working tomorrow morning 5-8am to make some OT money. It's much needed, but he always seems to pick the WORST days to do this stuff - it's always when we have a zillion other things to do and he wants to try to squeeze in a few hours in the extremely early morning, so he can be exhausted all day and pass out early. Ugh. But I really can't complain about having a husband who will go the extra mile to provide for his family ;) I just hope he doesn't think this means I'm driving...

So, be looking for an update next week with lots of cute baby pictures! We're both off all week so I'll have no excuse not to blog. We do need to organize the office before school starts, and the kitties are getting "the snip" on Thursday, but other than that we're pretty wide open! Vacation on the couch... there's nothing quite like it ;)