lesser of 2 evils

This past Saturday my adventure of becoming a professional organizer continued.  I spent a few hours at Jane's cleaning out her hall linen closet.  We both felt pretty lousy so that's why I only did one hall closet instead of both.

I thought I was chosing the lesser of 2 evils, but somehow the linen closet became super scary.  There was a huge mountain of twirled up bedsheets and semi-folded towels crammed into the closet.  It's beyond me how my own flesh and blood can live like that.  I guess that is why I am here:  to help out my Aunt when in need.

Enjoy the makeover!

The Before

looking into the linen closet

looking into the other side of the linen closet

top two shelves

bottom half of the closet

Cody thought that I was making a quiet place for him to sleep.

The After

looking into the right side of the linen closet

top two shelves

middle part of the linen closet

looking at the floor

looking into the left side

the final product!

The Final Season in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum

To say our good-byes in high Auburn spirits, Dad, Daniel, and I spent last Saturday evening (February 27th) at the AU vs. LSU basketball game.  It was the final Saturday game ever played in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.  Both Dad and Daniel had never been to an Auburn basketball game before.  Since I am the seasoned vet with having attended 2 basketball games my sophomore year of college (one against Alabama and the other against Kentucky, both of which we lost), I felt like it was my alumni duty to be there as history unfolded:  both for Dad and Daniel and for Auburn.

We left our house around 2:30 in the afternoon headed for the best sandwich place EVER, Momma G's.  Apparently there is more than one location now in Auburn, but we ate at the original.  Y'know the ol' dumpy one right across from Lowder Hall (my home away from home...Lowder Hall not Momma G's).  It felt like another lifetime when I use to stand at the corner of Donahue and Magnolia waiting for the light to change in order to cross the street headed to class.  It was weird standing there with Dad and Daniel with no backpack, but I still had on my Wallabies.  :)  Daniel had never been to Momma G's before, but I think he liked it once we were able to sit down with our food.  I could really go for a Momma's Love right now with some of Momma's Nachos.  mmmm.  just to taste all of those calories.

After stuffing our faces, we drove around for 10 minutes trying to decide where to actually park.  With the new construction of the Auburn Arena and Village dorms, there is no more C parking!  Where in the world do all of the students park now?  I am SOOOOO thankful that I got out of there before parking became worse than it already was.  We finally ended up parking about 5 rows from where we had initially parked for Momma G's.  At least we tried looking for a closer spot.

We made it to our seats with 10 minutes to spare before tip-off.  Supposedly we had seats in the lower level, but there was nothing lower about being the 5th row from the top!  Thankfully, I was able to keep my seat for the entire game, because it might have been disasterous with no railing! 

view from our seats

The atmosphere at a basketball game versus a football game is infinitely different.  Auburn tries to bring some of the same excitements into the basketball game as football games.  For example, 2 videos played:  one before the players came out and another right before tip-off.  The pep band, cheerleaders, and Tiger Paws are there to provide entertainment and spirit.  I must admit that the LSU fans showed more spirit than the Auburn fans.  In fact, if they hadn't have been there, then the Auburn fans would have fallen asleep due to the lack of excitement.

pregame

The Tigers played an outstanding game never trailing the LS-Who Tigers once in the game.  They were spot on with their 3's.  What an amazing memory to have of Beard-Eaves.  I have so many memories of being there over the past 8 years.  My favorite B-E memory still is my college graduation.  There's nothing that can top that!

74-59 victory over LSU

Daniel and me

Dad and me

Thanks for the memories, Beard-Eaves!

WDE!

C'mon, Easter!

Two months of 2010 are in the history books, my friends.  And that means that my time limit for my weight loss goal of 10 pounds before the end of May is almost halfway over. 

Yep.

How, you may ask, is it going?  ummm, AWESOMELY.  Better than expected.  As of 2/27, I am down 5.7 pounds.  Let me take a moment and brag on how wonderful that is.  Y'see, I have never purposefully tried (hard) to lose weight before.  In fact, I never knew that it could be done.  But it can and I am extremely proud of the nearly 6 pounds that have evaporated into thin (no pun intended) air.

Now back to reality:
The celebration can't last too much longer because I still have more pounds to lose.  And I can't lie about still being motivated like I was on Day 1.  The motivation has slipped, and I am slacking a bit on the exercising.  I know that if I want to see results like I have seen these past 2 months, then I have got to step it up again.

Easier said than done, but definitely do-able.  With the no sweets for Lent still going strong, I think that I can achieve more weight loss in a reasonable amount of time. 

Plus Daniel told me the other day that once Lent is over he is taking me to Yogurt Mountain and Dunkin' Donuts.  (!!!!!!!!!!!)  C'mon and be here already, Easter!

i. want. CHOCOLATE!

When I made my 2010 New Year's resolution, I really felt like my true New Year's commitment was becoming a better person, inside and out.  I know I said that I would like to eat healthy and exercise, which in turn would help me lose weight, but there was a deeper commitment that I felt needed to be made.  Once I announce to the internet world my resolution/goal, it would be hard for me to go back on that.  The internet is my accountability partner....millions of accountability partners.

So the decision was made for my 2010 resolution.  And here we are almost 2 months into the new year and I am down 5.5 pounds.  A tiny mirable as I like to see it. 

Then I thought to myself...Leslie, maybe you should try to have better hygiene too.  I know that sounds gross and yes, I keep myself "up".  What I mean by that is actually flossing my teeth, using mouthwash, taking multi-vitamins, and using lotion on my dry hands.  I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is something that I haven't been doing a lot of in the past.  Just doing the simplest of tasks can really change your future.  I am happy to report that I am at least attempting to keep up with my new hygiene habits.

As if all of the above hasn't been enough for me to focus on, I have really challenged myself.  I have given up sweets for Lent.  I have personally never participated in the religious practice of Lent, but I felt this year I could/needed to do it.  So no candy, cookies, ice cream, cake, brownies....and NO chocolate!  Am I crazy?  sure.  possibly.  ummm, yes.  Can it be done?  You're darn tootin'! 

With every little thing I have challenged myself with in 2010, I have felt God's support.  I know that none of the above can be done without Him, and He is the only One who can change me for the better.  "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me."  Philippians 4:13  He gives me the motivation to push through and remember my commitments to myself.  Not only are they commitments to me, but they are commitments to Him.  He has given me this body on loan and it's my responsibilty to take care of it.  How can I do that if I don't maintain the daily routines?

I may have made a handful of outer resolutions, but I know that the greatest change in 2010 will be the one He makes within me.

2 month deadline?! are we nuts?

This past weekend Daniel and I were discussing our next at-home project.  When we moved into our house, we decided that the inside would take priority over the outside.  That was a smart move, because my OCD would have set in BIG time if we had been any slower in cleaning/organizing/packing away all of the inside stuff.  (Just between you and me:  the garage is still driving me bonkers.  But out of sight, out of mind, right?)

So up next...the outside!  I think our main focus will be the backyard as opposed to the front.  The front is in good condition and presentable to the neightborhood.  Daniel has a vision for the front yard, but it has been deeply surpressed by the back yard's need for care. 

Our vision is simple:  nice and relaxing with a splash of color.  So maybe I added in the color part, but what would the back yard be without color?  I mean this is part my back yard too even though Daniel has "final" say.  His vision is great!  I just know that it will take a lot of time and hard work before it will be complete.  And did I mention money too? 

I keep envisioning those makeover backyard HGTV shows.  Now it won't be near that professional looking but I am exicted to see what Daniel has in mind.  And our deadline?  yep, it's May.  We have decided to host (if she will still let us) Jane's retirement party. 

I am not supposed to give details about what we are planning on doing, but it will be drastic.  My number one concern is Tyson.  He has already uprooted a rose bush that Daniel planted after we had moved in.  You should have seen Tyson drag that bush from one side of the yard to the other.  Jackson just sat and watched him do it.  Guess he wasn't about to get in trouble for what Tyson had done.

camera update

My camera is fixed!!!!
At least for now. 


hmmm...now back to the drawing board on "what to get Leslie for her 26th birthday".

weekend update

Since when do the weekends go from 2 days to one slightly extended day?  Seriously, I need more than just 2 days to rest after long weeks.  Or we just need to incorporate naptime during the work days.  I could easily go for a 3 hour nap...every day.

This past weekend was Valentine's Day weekend.  I plan on making a post just about our V-Day so I don't wan to give too much away now.  All I will say that it was 1000% more romantic and stress-free than last year's (you might remember this episode).

Sad news about my camera.  Yep, I need a new one.  I was going around last night making pictures of our V-Day gifts when something crazy happened.  The evil camera spirits invaded it!  It now won't take pictures witha  flash at all and all the pictures are SUPER dark.  So now it looks like my birthday request is changing from VB to a new camera.  All money will be happily accepted (not saying that it wasn't before).  Ugh, it just makes me so mad! 

In happier news, I am just so proud of Daniel.  He is taking an internet Algebra class this semester, and it's not the easiest class to take online.  He has had a couple of stuggles with learning the new material strictly from the book and leaning on what I can remember from over 10 to 12 years ago.  His first assignment of 59 problems was due last night at 10PM.  After nearly giving up on a stubborn little algebraic problem, he completed 100%!  I had given up on that last problem, but Daniel was determined to complete it.  And his perserverance paid off.  He got it right!  100%!  Boo-ya!  He is so smart.  I hope he realizes that with some perserverance (and his new prescription of adderall) that he can do anything he wants.