Catching Up
07-20-2003, 9:13 p.m.

Well, this is the first time that I've even turned the computer on since Thursday night. I guess that it has just been one of those busy types of weekends where I don't have time to do anything else but what I am doing. Well except for today, where I've done almost nothing at all, but that has been really nice too.

Let's see. Friday, after work, I drove out to Jen's house. She was having a Southern Living at home party, and then Cory and I were planning on spending the night with her. Since Jen left today for Charlotte to visit her parents, and since her birthday is coming up this week, we decided to celebrate it in Friday/Saturday before she left. Cory and I both got there early in order to have dinner with Jen before her party, and she made us a yummy dinner. We gave her the birthday gifts we had for her, which she totally loved. Several months back, Jen researched 35mm cameras.. she wanted to get one, but Don veto'd it on the grounds that they had a good digital.. Jen accepted that, but we could tell how disappointed she was, so we made a note of it to look at cameras when her birthday came around. I am not that great at secrets, hehe, but we never let on, and Jen was so suprised when she opened it. She never suspected, and even totally had forgotten about wanting one, so that made it extra special. She was so thrilled, and it was obvious, and that really made it so worth it. I am glad that Tonny, Cory and I decided to get it for her.

Jen's party was really nice, and it was great getting to meet the friends that she has made. They mean a lot to her, and I know how much she wanted us to like them, and we did. She had a lot of people show up, and I was glad of that for her. We had a nice time. Afterwards, once everyone left but Sherry, Cory and I, we sat around talking, and then sat up playing cards for a while. That was fun, but I could tell that Cory was just exhausted, so we finally took pity on her and sent her to bed, and went ourselves too.

In the morning we got up and played cards again until it was time to wake Cory up. Once we were all up and ready, we left for breakfast. Cory and I wanted to take Jen to Cracker Barrel for breakfast for her birthday since it's one of her favorites, and I am glad we did. We had a really nice time!! We hung out there as long as we could, but eventually we needed to get going. Cory had a party to go to, and I was going to my mom's.

I went home first and took a shower and got dressed and then headed out to my mom and dad's. My mom had volunteered to work at a youth rally for a friend's church, and I had volunteered to go and help. I got there, and my mom had gone and bought about a hundred or more prizes from the dollar store (she is such a generous good person my mom), and she was organizing games for the kids to play, so I jumped in and helped. We had so much fun, having relay races, playing red-rover, and just other sorts of games with all these kids. They were having such a great time, and the people from the Church couldn't believe how much we were doing. It was really special, and a great day. I am glad that my mom volunteered for it.

Afterwards, mom and I went shopping for a couple hours, to look for outfits for our cruise. But man, I just wasn't have a good day with it... I really have gained so much weight in the past month, and it's showing in my clothes, and I just refuse to buy a bigger size, so it's back to step one with the better me stuff. My mom had the same problem, and that was a little depressing, but we talked about it, and both of us started again today (Today was day one). It's been a rough day, but I really want to get back to where I was. I can't believe I went backwards like I did. I know that it's going to be very hard to get back on track, but I had a good day today, and that is encouraging. I don't know, I feel like a broken record with this lately, but I really am determined. Someday I have to get it right.

We finally gave up on shopping and made a pact to try again in one month! Hopefully we will both be feeling better about ourselves then. We did have fun last night though, after we got back to her house. We pulled out all of our cruise stuff and talked about the excursions that we wanted to do. We didn't want to book too much because we really want to enjoy the Islands as well, but we wanted to do one or two things. My dad doesn't really enjoy water stuff too much, so we didn't want to pick things that would take up the whole time we were there either, but we finally decided on doing Helmet Diving on St. Thomas. It was between that or snorkeling on St. John, which we both really wanted to do, but my Mom and Dad have been on this particular itenerary before and she really wanted to do the helmet diving before, so we decided on that. I am really excited about it too! We are not going to book anything for St. Maarten, and instead are going to shop and explore there on our own. For the Princess Cays, I really want to go snorkeling, so we are going to rent equipment there... so it's a good mix of what we all want to do, and I am thrilled with it. I can't believe that we are going, it's going to be so awesome.

I didn't leave there until really late, and didn't get home until after midnight. My mom wanted me to spend the night, but I wanted to go home because I missed Stephen so much, and I am glad I went home, it was nice to sleep with him. I slept so good, and actually even slept in this morning. For the first time in as long as I can remember, Stephen actually got up before me, lol. It was nice though, cause he made us breakfast and let me just lay around in bed for a long time. I loved it, and needed it.

I went to the gym after I got up, and had a great workout. The first good one in a while. I had been going, but I really put effort into it today, and that was nice. Afterwards I treated myself to a pedicure. My feet have been so dry and my skin cracking and so that felt really great. I love pedicures, but haven't had one all summer, eek. Then it was off to the grocery store for me, and then back home. We spent the rest of the day just laying around doing nothing, watching the Sox game, reading and just spending time together.

Now I am working a little on my scrapbook and catching up here. I can't believe that I haven't written all weekend, but in a way it felt good to not be on the computer at all. Okay, I had no choice, there was just not time to get on anyway, hehe.. but it did feel nice.