Month: August 2009

Before and After Without Mouseover

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Just In Case Anyone Was Wondering What I Look Like Now Since There’s Never Any Pictures Of Me (Possibly Slightly Due To My Husband’s Dependence On Me to Take Every Single Picture), Oh And Plus Another One That I Cropped Out This Woman On That I Was Quite Proud Of, Course You’ve Actually Already Seen the End Result

I lack the intelligence to understand html. Well, probably not the intelligence, just the interest. It’s incredibly boring. It’s 4:57 AM and I want a mouseover picture. Steven said it was stupid easy last night and all I needed was the html code, so I googled it this morning. Out popped, nerd page after nerd page. No problem I’ll just read one and figure it out. Holy cow, seriously these people make these blogs sooooo boring and you know some little nerd (or big nerd in my husband’s case) just gobbles this crap up. Too much effort, so here is (without mouseover of course) before and after pictures that I screwed with.

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I had the perfect picture and this woman just stepped right in my way. Well I definitely had to crop her out of there, plus a little color readjustment to brighten up that red hair. Steven laughed when I showed him what I did.

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Me trying to take a picture of myself, I wanted something for Facebook, since my other one was like 5 months old. It ended up looking more like a freaky flair than a profile pic though.

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I asked Steven to take a picture of me, this one turned out significantly less than flattering. I had to fix it a little. I did like the color that my lips turned out. Unfortunately still not a profile pic, more like the cover of a spooky narcissistic novel.

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What I actually put on my Facebook page. I’m realizing how badly I need a haircut.

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BTW, the majority of the pictures I take I do not adjust as much as I did these ones.

Joining the ranks of the whiners

Well, people. I just recently went to the Va for a check up and to get a referall for my ears. While I was there I had to do the basic check up of blood pressure… temperature… cholesterol (how ever you spell that) and of course… weight. It is pretty obvious to all that I have put on substantial weight since I left the Marine Corps in May of 2008. I think I clocked out of the USMC at 235 lbs, which is 10 lbs overweight by their standards. I got married that same month and begun a life of absolute laziness. On Thursday of last week, I weighed 293 lbs according to their scale. That’s about 60 lbs in 1 year and 3 months. OBVIOUSLY their scale is off by about 40 lbs… yeah… right… but I vowed to never hit 300. Sarah and I committed ourselves to an exercise plan and have been pretty good about sticking too it. We have run somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half for about a month now. I don’t have a scale to weight myself (that.. and I don’t think I’ve made any progress), but I had felt pretty good about my ability to endure running for longer and longer periods of time. Today, I had the opportunity to go running alone, and I decided to really try and break the sound barrier (hyperbole…). I felt like I did a pretty good job, about 2 miles in probably 18 or 19 minutes… ( Keeping in mind that I used to do 3 miles in that span of time). When I got into the house, I came in praising my dachshunds ability to run. Abby, the dachshund in question, is an amazing runner. She just runs and runs and she practicly pulls me along.

I will deviate for a moment to discuss some backstory I may have never told you. People in the military frequently get kicked out of bootcamp for a body condition known as ‘shin splints’. I would dare say it is probably the #2 way people get out medically (I”m guessing #1 is claiming to be suicidal). It is pretty well ribbed among those who make it out to their first duty station that ‘shin splints’ is a whiners way out of the Corps. In all my years of running in the Marines I always rolled my eyes at guys who would fall out of runs due to shin splints. Some part of my inner being would almost judge them instantly as ‘wussies’ who just needed to get over it. In my defense, I believe I once had shin splints, though they were a minor annoyance, and I just kinda limped for a few hours before I went about my day. I think you might see where this is going.

So as I walk in, singing the praises of a weinie dog who put me to shame, an overwhelming pain in my shins hit my legs really hard. I kinda waddled for a minute, but eventually I had to collapse onto the floor. My legs would support my body no more. I am officially a whiner.. I’m one of THOSE people who have too much weight for their body to adequately use it the way it is supposed to be used… I’m really in a ton of pain…

I took some tylenol, and I think i’m going to take the day off tomorrow. I may walk for a few days (at a Speedy Gonzales’ Grannie’s pace), but I’m not giving up. My goal.. and I set it broadly before all who choose to read this blog… (which based upon how many people comment on my posts.. is.. Steven and Maria…) I want to be 270 lbs by Christmas. This whiner wants his shins to stop hurting.. Anyone want to join me in my quest for unwhinerhood?

Just In Case You Were Wondering…

No one bats an eye when you take a point and shoot camera to the McDonald’s Playground and take picture after picture of your children, they probably assume you’re just one of those moms. However, should you take your brand new huge Canon 50D to the same McDonald’s Playground, parents will start giving you the scared eye, the one that wonders if you’re going to nab their kids, even though it’s pretty obvious that you’re only taking pictures of the children you produced.

The wings and wands were free at a store grand opening. They also painted Seporah’s fingernails. Tell me that isn’t awesome.

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Ow! My nose!

So my first week of annual training in the guard was all Combat Life Saver class, which I took active side probably 5 times.  So I really kinda just blew off the class.  I sat all the way in the back and goofed off with the others in my unit, who were also all prior service and had also all taken the class multiple times.  Not a bad idea for me.  Or the other 2 E-4s.  But the Sgt who was in charge of us should have been upfront.  He comes off as a really smart guy, really!  But when the test hit, well, lets just say it wasn’t pretty.

As for me, I aced the test, got my IV stick on the first try, and did well enough that 2 others who just wanted IVs, but couldn’t find anyone that could hit them, including the Medics, asked me to get them and I did them too!  So 3 IVs in 3 tries.  I offered myself as a vein donor because towards the end there were lots of people who had missed 8-10 times and we were running out of veins.  So I volunteered myself and got stuck 8 times.  And since I was kind of walking them through the procedure and actually put my own catheter in once, I was only missed twice.  6 successful IVs!

But last of all is this little beauty.  Talk about uncomfortable.

Have You Noticed All Of My Recent Posts Are Just Updates?

Well Seporah started school last week. You’d think that would make life less busy since we only have 1 child at home, but then we’re right smack dab in the middle of Steven’s National Guard 2 week thing. Seporah seems to be enjoying school, she gets a report everyday, so far she’s had 4 smiley face days and only 1 frowny face day. She “talks” about her friends and has started singing songs more. Right now they’re working on Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She thinks it’s super cool that she gets to ride a bus. Each morning we go out to the bus stop and she climbs on and Felicity and I wave and say “Bye Bus! Bye Seporah!”

Felicity is going right along with the potty thing. She’s already pooped in the potty twice! Craziness (especially considering her sister’s only done that like 4 times)! Felicity loves going to the potty like a big girl and I’m quite sure she’ll be potty trained before Seporah (who does go grudgingly with reminders).

Felicity will be 21 months in a couple of days. Seporah was 22 months when Felicity was born and Lord was that awful. Seporah HATED the baby, kicking and screaming the entire way! Felicity on the other hand will point out every baby in sight and wants to touch and hug and kiss them (right now she’s reading a baby book, “Baby! Baby!”)! I can’t help but wonder if it would have been a whole lot easier if Felicity was the big sister, she would have loved the baby I’m sure. Not that that’s going to happen any time soon, but it’s like a what if…

I broke down and bought a non-point-and-shoot nicer camera. I researched and researched which one I wanted. Before this I didn’t even know what nicer cameras were called (SLR for those of you who are as ignorant as I was). I decided to get a Canon 50D (no it’s not the one I talked about a few posts ago). Apparently it’s pretty popular, it was sold out in the first 3 stores I went to (they’re like, we get shipments in and they’re sold that day). So on the third store I “bought” the camera and will have it as soon as the next shipment comes in on Tuesday. I’m like yeah!