Ugh...

Well my friends, it happened again.  The roof of our apartment is leaking which means a wet, ugly, brown ceiling for us.  Last September we got a record amount of rainfall with over 23 inches in less than 2 days.  So when our ceiling began to cave in and drip water at that point, I understood why.  Not only was the texture starting to fall off, but the actual drywall that composed our ceiling began to sag.  We could literally see up into the rafters.

Later that week they came in and "fixed" the problem.  I would say "masked" the problem would be a better term.  They pulled down the wet drywall, cut out a chunk slightly larger and replaced it.  It now looks like this, Exhibit A:

You can see 2 lines where they patched it in and didn't let the mud completely dry before retexturing.  Those stains have been there ever since, but the ceiling itself looks ok.  So why do I say it only masked the problem?  Because they never actually got up on the roof of our building and repaired the actual leak!  And it took until yesterday for me to have proof of this.  I bring you exhibits B, C & D:

What started out as this:

 

 Grew into this:

And, this morning, looked like this:

So I called maintenance, nobody answered.  And because this isn't considered and "emergency" I had to leave a voicemail instead of being transferred straight through to their cell phone to have them come fix the problem.

Oh how I want to move!

Just 4 More Pounds...

Until I can cross off goal #2 on my weight loss journey!  So let me fill you in on where it all began.

Since about 3rd grade I can remember being one of the bigger girls in the class.  For the most part it never really bothered me.  I grew up playing sports and being very athletic in general.  I played volleyball, basketball, softball, golf, raquetball and competed in the shot put & discus in track & field.  As I got through high school, I knew that throwing the shot & disc would be my specialty.  When I went to college as a thrower, I was small.  What a role reversal, going from being the biggest girl on the team at a lean 185lbs to the smallest by quite a bit on my college team.  That would soon change.  I was in the weightroom four days a week trying to gain muscle and get stronger, and it worked.  But I wasn't being conscious of what I ate, and at many times had a total disregard for healthy choices.  My teammates & I would get together for "fat nights" and you can just imagine the amount of junk we ate those nights.  At my highest point in college I weighed in at 245lbs, a 60lb increase from the day I set foot on campus.  But my weight also rollercoastered up and down to 215lbs as a Junior and 235lbs the day I graduated.


So fast-forward a couple years, I have been offered a job on the other side of the country and have decided to retire from throwing after a dismal performance at the 2008 Olympic Trials.  I'm not lifting weights to maintain my muscle mass and I'm not exercising at all, and I'm still eating the large amounts of food that I did when I was an athlete.  This was not a good combination.  In August of 2009, I weighed myself...247lbs.  That was it, I was going to lose the weight.  I created an account with MyPlate on livestrong.com and tracked each and every calorie I put into my body.  And its taken 2 years, but I crossed off goal #1 of 215lbs a few months back and now am on to goal #2 of 200lbs.  I am just 4 little pounds away and am excited beyond belief.  Goal #3 will be to get down to high school graduation weight of 185lbs.


Here is my progress since August 1, 2009 through June 24, 2011

As you can see, there have been some slip ups.  But the general theme has been downward!  I am so excited and cannot wait to share that momentous occasion when I drop down into the 100's for the first time since 2002!


Now here are a few pictures so you can see my ups & downs:

 

Linen Closet Makeover...

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, I know I did. This past week I went on a home-purging spree. I felt like we owned too much stuff and it was making it hard to keep the house clean & clutter free. And add to that the fact that we registered for a ton of new stuff for our wedding.

If we didn't do something about it now, our tiny little hell hole apartment would look like a scene out of Hoarders once we brought back any wedding gifts this fall. So it was time to start throwing crap away.  I decided to start with our clothes (I didn't get pic of this, sorry) and pack up anything that didn't fit.  This filled up two large TJ Maxx shopping bags, just from my side of the closet.  I took it all to Clothes Mentor and sold it, they paid me over $100 for the items they accepted, the rest went into the garage sale box.

The next area to tackle was our small linen closet in our "hallway".  It had become a catch all for anything and everything that didn't fit in our home.  And it doesn't actually hold any linens, go figure.  So here are the before & afters:

 

As you can see, its a skinny little closet with 5 shelves & ample floor space, and I did my best to fill them all.  Now we're down to just using 2 shelves & the floor!

 

 

 Here are the top 2 shelves.  The top shelf used to hold christmas decor & gifts we pick up throughout the year, shopping bags & any misc. items that didn't fit on other shelves or weren't needed on a regular basis.  Now we have moved all of the games up to that shelf and they are stacked to the ceiling!  But considering they used to be spread out amongst 3 different shelves, this is a much better solution.  The 2nd shelf used to house what we used most frequently.  It contained all of our meds & extra toiletries as well as all of our puppy supplies.  Now it is EMPTY!

 

Shelves 3, 4 & 5 mostly held games before and a random assortment of junk.  Now we have emptied out 3 & 4 and have our essentials on shelf 5 (sorry its kind of hard to see it at the bottom).  I separated everything out into 3 baskets.  The left one has extra razors, toothpaste & brushes, combs & contact cases.  The middle contains any extra products such as shave cream, shampoo & hair stuff.  The right one has our meds.

 

 

And finally, the floor.  It used to be a catch all for odd shaped items that didn't have homes.  Now it is streamlined with 2 matching baskets, one for puppy supplies & the other for computer & other electronic parts.  The large contraption in the middle of the before picture was a liquor bottle dispenser from my college days, it is now in the garage sale box.

It's still not complete, as I'm sure once other areas of the apartment get purged & organized I will move things into the empty shelves.  Maybe I'll try a novel concept and actually store our linens in there instead of the laundry room! 

I'm linking up with House of Grace and her series "Organize Your Life - Simplifying your Life One Week at a Time"

Did you know...

that in just 112 short days I am getting MARRIED!?  To say that I am excited would be the understatement of the year.  My future Hubby & I have been together for nearly 5 and a half years.  We met in college at the University of Nebraska, where we were both members of the Track & Field team.  What started out as friends gradually evolved into something more.  After both of us had graduated, we decided that whoever got a job offer first should take it, and we would move to wherever that was together.  In 2008, I was offered a coaching gig at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  This was a HUGE move for both of us.  But we did it, we embarked on a 24hour, cross-country road trip in his mom's suburban with a U-haul trailer tagging along, with the two of us and our 110lb mastiff crammed up front.  We drove it straight through, and let me tell you, driving with a very large trailer through the mountains of West Virginia is S-C-A-R-Y! But we made it, and moved into our tiny little 1-bedroom apartment.  Fast forward 2.5 years, and we're still in that same tiny hell hole apartment.  Its January 31st and we're getting ready to go to one of the local sports bars for beer & fried pickles (God Bless the South for their fried pickles!) and he stops me on the way to the bathroom as I'm getting ready.  He asked if I would like what was inside of this little white box in his hand.  While resisting the urge to yell "ITS ABOUT TIME!" I said yes.  It was a day I'll never forget.  Nothing mushy, nothing frilly, just a simple question.  Just his style.  
 

Life is grand...

"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.  Today's trouble is enough for today."
-Matthew 6:34 New Living Translation of the Bible

While contemplating this verse in my devotional this morning, I loved how they summed it up.  Not worrying about tomorrow is not the same as not planning for tomorrow.  Planning & goal setting for the future and setting up the necessary steps and schedules to get there is perfectly OK.  As long as you are letting God guide you through those steps.

I have long been a planner, and unfortunately that tends to bring worry into my life.  I am working on letting things happen as they happen.  I still plan and make lists with the best of them, its part of my strong need for organization & order, but I'm getting better about not letting the worry of whether things are done just so take over my life.  Certain events that have happened in my life recently have really shown light on the fact that we are not in control of our lives, and no matter how grandiose our plans are, they can change in an instant.  God's plans are not always our plans, but they are the right plans.  Let God in and show you the path, and follow it joyfully.

Hello blog world...

I'm Jeni.  Welcome to my new blog, Waiting for Petronella.  As for now, I will keep the meaning behind my blog name a secret, hopefully I will be around here long enough to fill you in someday.  This blog is a way for me to share my life with you all.  It will be a mishmash of everything: Godliness, craftiness, yumminess, nerdiness & neatness...and of course randomness.  I hope you enjoy what you read.

Take care.  Jeni