Well, as July quickly approaches, NaBloPoMo’s theme for the month is FOOD.

Well, I decided that I’m not going to complain about my weight anymore.  It’s something that I can control.  So, starting Monday I’m going on a new exercise/diet.  That’s what I’m going to blog about.  Sure, I’ll probably still be ranting and raving about this, that and the other–but I’m going to be theme blogging everyday in July.  I need to keep a FOOD diary anyway.

Here’s the plan:  I found a blog about dieting on Saturday and I determined that in order to lose weight, I needed to figure out how many calories I need to eat in order to facilitate weight loss.  How it’s determined:  Take your weight and multiply that by 7.  That is the number of calories to eat in a day.  Divide by 4.  This magic number is the number of calories to eat in 4 meals.  Basically, 3 regular meals and a snack.  This blogger said that you should not eat less than 1050 per day and no more than 1500 at the max.  Add in exercise and wall-la!

Rob and I went to Ramstein today.  We decided that we were going to have brunch at the Officer’s club.  $37.80, 2 large helpings of food and 2 desserts later, we went to the bookstore on Ramstein.  It’s so much bigger than the one on Vogelweh.  I ran into some people that we knew in Hanau.  We got to chatting and she was telling me that she rides with her husband in for PT and then she hits the gym for an hour or so while he’s doing Army PT.  What a great idea!  So, I talked to Rob and asked if I could ride in with him to PT.  He said as long as I don’t slow him down in the mornings, sure it would be no problem.

We’re both going on low-calorie diets, too.  One thing my parents taught my brother and I early on was that the only way to effective weight loss was a balanced diet, reduced portions and exercise.  Well, back then, I used to be anorexic and I think that my parents on some level knew that.  That’s why they tried to teach me that.  I don’t really have a problem with anorexia anymore and I seem to have an overly healthy relationship with food.  So, for the month of July, I’m going to try to lose some weight.

Once a week (on Mondays) I will weigh myself at the gym (since my scale isn’t worth anything except an over sized paperweight!) and I will report it here.  I will also log EVERTHING that I eat, how many calories it was, and my activities for the day.  If I think about it, I might even take pictures of the food I eat.

I hope that this will motivate me.  It will also give me two added bonus points.  One for blogging for the day and another one for blogging on the theme of the month.  I hope you check out my blog and leave encouraging comments to keep my motivated!

Well, I need to get some shoes put on and take Casey and Rob for a walk.  Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Rob has to work late again tonight, so we won’t be going on date night after all.  I’m a little bit bummed, but I should have seen this coming.

I need to call and cancel.  That’s alright.  I should get most of tomorrow with him though, since it’s Sports Day.  I think it’s going to be an early day (though, I seriously doubt that it will), but at least we have the weekend.

We were going to go see his cousin who is coming to Germany over the weekend of the 4th, but that will also not be realized.  He’s leaving to go to the field on Sunday morning.  We’re going to meet Charcoal on Saturday for a few hours (who knows really how long!) and then, we’ll have to come home so that he can go to bed at an early hour.  Sometime during the course of the week, I’ll need to pack his bags for the field.  Yes, I pack his bags for him.  He likes me to do it.  I do it well.  He never gets it packed up the same way that I do–I’m much more efficient about it than he is about it.  I’m surprised he’s never left anything behind, all things considered.  I usually make him take an extra duffel bag so that he can get everything he left with!

Well, so much for a date night!  Oh well.

Thanks for reading!

A friend of mine, Randomability, sent me an email today.  She wanted to say thanks!  Here is the original post that she sent me and this is the link inside the post.

It made me cry.  Thanks for sharing…and you’re welcome! 🙂

So, to all of you out there: friends, family, vets and to our soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines/coasties:  Thank you for supporting us, our country, our way of life.  Thank you for your sacrifice!

God Bless America.  Freedom isn’t free!  “All gave some.  Some gave all.”

Today is my brother’s 30th birthday!  Hooray!

Happy birthday, my little-big brother 🙂

How many times do you open a box of stuff that you’ve ordered on-line and just thrown away the advertisements?  Today, I opened the box of DVDs that my husband ordered.  I never give much thought to the ads that are inside the package–until today.

There were 2 coupons for new sandwiches at McDonald’s (which 1.  They don’t have the same sandwiches here in Germany that they do in the US and 2.  I don’t like to eat at McDonald’s!), there was a coupon for some prepackaged meat (which I may have to use since Rob loves lunch meat sandwiches) and then there was this curious plastic ad.

I gently pulled it out and there was a drawing of a Soldier wearing a kevlar helmet on a radio.  I read further and I realized that this was for cell phone donation for Soldiers, so they can call home!  I turned it over and it’s a mailer so you can send your phones in.  There’s a web address so, I go and visit it.  www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

Now, I’m thinking, wow!  I actually got something worth keeping (until I can find Rob and I’s old cells)–worth reading about and worth passing on!  If you go to the website, you can print off a label and you don’t have to pay for shipping, but come on, cell phones don’t weigh much–you can pay for the shipping yourself (it’s not going to be too much) and then more money can be put into the program to help our troops!

What this program is:  It’s a cell-phone recycling movement.  They sell the donated cell phones for money and then they use that money to buy calling cards for the Soldiers who are overseas.  This program was started by two ‘tween children who are now 15 and 16 years old.  AT & T got on board and they donated about $300,000 dollars worth of calling cards for the troops!!!  It’s amazing.

I know you all have a least one phone that you don’t use anymore, so what are you waiting for?  Donate it to our troops (and pay the shipping costs yourself–if you can)!

Get the word out and watch the videos on the webpage.  They made me cry!

My poor animals.  While I was upstairs checking on Gizmo, Casey pee’d on the floor.  It was bright red.  I immediately called the vet and I found a local vet who speaks English less than a half a mile away from my house.  I took Casey in and you wouldn’t know he was sick by looking at him, but the assistant took his temperature and while my German is extremely poor, I understood that she was saying that his temperature was high.  I know the word for “normal”!  It’s the same word, just pronounced differently.  Kind of like “Norm-Mal” (mal pronounced the same way that we pronounce “mall”).  She didn’t say that word.  She said, “haut” which is hot.  His temperature was almost 40 degrees C (104 degrees F) Casey has to go back tomorrow morning, along with Gizmo.  They need to make sure that Casey’s fever is down.  I know Gizmo’s a little warm, too.  Cranky as ever, too.  I’m not EVEN going to try to take his temperature.  He already scratched me pretty good earlier!

So, Casey got two shots today.  One for the fever and the other for the infection.  I had to call the people that kept Casey over the weekend, so that they know that he is sick.  He was probably already sick before the weekend.  My theory is the blood in the urine probably manifests after the infection’s been there a while.  At least this is getting taken care of now before we introduce a new puppy into the mix of things!  Ack!

Well, I’ll let you know how Casey’s doing later.  Both animals are currently sleeping and that means I can get some stuff done around here!!  TTFN!

Well, I’m not sure what’s wrong with him, but since last night all he’s done is growl and hiss.  This is not like him AT ALL.  Typically, he’s very docile and sweet.

When we went to Budapest, we left him here alone with lots of food and water.  When we got back on Monday, all he wanted was to go outside and we let him.  He usually doesn’t go too far away and comes in at night before we go to bed.  Well, he wanted to stay out all night.  WeI didn’t worry about it too much.  He had been cooped up for four days.  Rob said that when he came in on Tuesday morning, he was being extremely loving and wanted all kinds of attention.  Last night before I went to bed, he was laying on the couch next to me, growling and carrying on.  I leaned over and started to pet him, thinking it would relax him.  He started to hiss and show his teeth (something he doesn’t do often).  Casey was laying down, not messing with Gizmo so I didn’t understand.  I picked Gizmo up, usually he’ll calm down if I take him up to bed.  He wasn’t having any of it.  Then, I guess he came and laid down on the bed later last night.  This morning, after Rob got home from PT, Casey woke up and apparently woke Gizmo, too.  He started fussing and growling again.  All three of us headed downstairs.  Gizmo comes down for three reasons: 1.  He’s hungry 2.  He wants outside or 3.  He wants to play with Casey.  Gizmo was downstairs, not for food and didn’t act like he wanted to go out so when Casey came in from his morning pee, Gizmo was sitting about 3 feet from the door.  Casey took that as a sign of “I want to play”.  So, Casey did what he always does…goes straight up to Gizmo and starts to sniff him when Gizmo starts to growl, Casey didn’t think that it was a warning or anything.  For 30 minutes, Casey chased Gizmo to no avail.  Rob just looked at me and said, “What’s wrong with the cat?”  I shrugged.  He was doing that last night, too.  So about 15 minutes ago, I went upstairs to check on Gizmo without the dog and at first when I laid my hands on him, he purred and seemed to be enjoying it.  Then, his fits of anger started again.  I just left him up there, and Casey and I are no where near him, but he was still up there growling and hissing a minute ago.  I really don’t know what’s wrong with him. Maybe he’s just sick and he’ll be okay in a couple of days, I don’t know.

I thought maybe he had gotten bit by a rabid animal, but he’s up-to-date on his shots (actually, he’s a little overdue–3 months in August), but I thought I’d wait until we went in to get Casey’s shots updated to update Gizmo’s, too.  That way they’re on the same schedule and I don’t have to remember to take them in at separate times.  I was reading about rabies and the shots are actually good for three years, so I really don’t feel like it’s an emergency to get it updated right away.

Well, there’s not much I can do.  I’ll keep yah posted on his conditions and hopefully, if he gets some rest he’ll be okay later on this afternoon.  I’m going to go check on him again, now.

Thanks for reading and have a great day 🙂