Mix tapes like your first boyfriend made......but better.

I've renewed my love of mix tapes again. Kind of.


Let me explain.


I own a Blackberry. And this is after having the most basic of
phones for over a year and how I would go on about how I would
*never* own a cell phone. EVER. But, I heard from friends about
how GREAT the Blackberry was and I drooled over everyone
else's.....until I bit the bullet and got one last February. And
I love it just as much as I did the first day I got it. Even more.
It's like my own wife. Honestly. I do everything with
it. It remembers all my appointments, my mom meetups, holds all
my favorite ringtones and games, takes pretty boss pictures (or
it does compared to my first phone, the Kitana), it holds my grocery
list (and other various lists, because I am an avid list maker....
seriously I've got an issue) and it keeps me connected to all my
friends and family.


I have a point. With the mix tapes. I didn't forget.


The best thing about my Blackberry is Pandora. What's Pandora,
you ask? OMG, you don't know? Seriously? (Okay, so I'll be honest..
..I didn't really know-KNOW either. I mean, I did. But not like
I really know now. Anyway....) Pandora is like the best mix tapes you
ever heard. Like the ones you and your friends would make off of
the radio or with your killer system, which was really only a turntable
with a tape deck. Basically, you start off your search for your
favorite artist (mine yesterday was Melanie, like Brand-New-Key-Melanie)
and it will generate songs that are close to that sound or
the time period and will let you thumbs up/thumbs down or just skip it,
if you aren't feeling it. Super freaking cool. I really started
listening to it on Friday and I've been pretty much listening to it
non-stop since.


This is even more exciting for me because....we'll....my MP3
player bit the dust last week. It'll do that when it's been through
the washing machine twice. (I know, I'm a MORON.) I had just started
walking my two miles in the morning again and having Pandora going
while I'm walking got me to my happy place and I actually walked two
and a half miles! Having Pandora instead of my MP3 player is just
wonderful. I can make a new "radio" at any time and I don't have to
worry about loading all these different songs on my MP3 player when I
want a change. It does all the work for me and you know, it does it
better. Because you're listening to these songs and it's kind of
like....oh, yeah....I LOVE that song.


So, anyway. It really is great. I can't say enough good things about it.
And it's so nice to have a new motivation to get me walking and happy.
Because when I'm happy about walking, I'm more apt to do it and
that'll help me that much more in my weight loss.


For those of you who have a Blackberry and use Pandora, what are
some of your "radio" mixes that you've come up with with your beginning
search?

Sure, it smells like mothballs but I had THE best time.

I haven't talked about the whole single wide budget, double wide
skillet frame of mind I have while raising/feeding two kids and a
husband in a long time.

I apologize.

I am a hardcore thrifter. I started when I got a job at Value Village
at seventeen and it was over from there. Dude, they used to give you
50 percent off all your purchases. How can you NOT be hardcore and act
like a child let loose in a candy store? Come on now.

I have a friend who discovered not long ago that there is a local by
the pound thrift store. Seriously? How did I not know this? She'd been
once before and really scored and she thought we could go together and
check it out. I did end up going without her for the first time with
the family and that was a huge mistake. For a hardcore thrifter who gets
"into the zone" when she's looking for bargains, bringing her three men
was an EPIC mistake. It's just a bunch of clothing and housewares/toys/
books dumped into bins and you dig for what you're looking for. Whatever
IT is. Sometimes, you don't know until you put your hands on it that
that was EXACTLY what you needed. It usually smells really bad (like
fourty boxes of old mothballs, urine or the rare bins that smells
like old vomit), there are a few lurkers who are waiting to grab
what you discard, and there's no air conditioning. Oh, and most
important? Watch out for the clothing with nasties. You'll find at
least one. But it's a hardcore thrifters dream. You have to trust me
on this. When I went for the first time, I had a half hour before
the family gets bored and I get ImhungryImboredthisplacesmells
canIhaveadrinkofwaterIhavetogotothebathroomIwanttogohomethatpersonissorude.
Never again. I'll head with my friend next time.

Her and I headed out yesterday and got to the store right as
they opened. Four and a half hours later, we came out with two
huge carts full. HUGE. But, our kids' school clothes were
all taken care of. And it wasn't all nasty, stained clothes. There's a
lot of high end clothing that's just sitting there waiting for you to
find. You just have to dig for it. I spent $67 and I think my friend
spent ten dollars more. The great thing about this place is the more
you buy, the cheaper per pound it gets. I didn't really understand that
until I realized that the price was going down. (I wished I'd kept
some of the gems I threw back, I don't know why I didn't get it.)
For my 67 bucks, I got six huge bags packed full of clothes and one
bag of books. Not bad. And there was a ton of name brand clothing.
I even was able to find some clothes for my youngest that I could put
away until he could fit into them. Not bad. I highly suggest
you take a friend. Her and I kept throwing clothes back and forth
for each other. You find something great, you want someone you know
to have it. Trust me. She found this great almost new pair of Aeropostle
jeans that she couldn't just leave there, so she walked them
over to a girl that she thought would fit into them. You just can't let
it sit there!

Because I spent time digging, I was able to afford groceries next month
instead of spending money on brand new clothes. I still have to get the
school year basics and new shoes, but everything else is taken care of.
For 67 dollars.

Oh! And to tie in the weight loss, I did buy two pairs of pants for the
next size down I go for a small portion I would have spent elsewhere.....
even at the regular thrift store. (OT, I'm down 40 pounds!)

So. Yesterday was a productive day. Thrifting owns. Seriously.

Pillow Talk.....kind of. In a different way.

I've kind of plateau'ed again.

It's not because I'm lazy. Gosh no. I've just realized that I
like sleep and am kind of in this whole passive aggressive
relationship with my bed.

It's warm and cozy and quiet. We'll, kind of quiet. My husband
sounds like a gosh-darn buzz saw when he's sleeping. And we also
share the bed with our ten pound mini-doxie and she's a bit of a
cover/bed hog. (How is it that little dogs can seem like they're both
50 feet long but also 50 feet wide. We only have a queen bed but
she makes herself ginormous so we're both huddled up while she's
spread out over precious bed real estate.)

I don't have a lot to share about what I'm doing with my weight loss.
It's nothing huge. Still not drinking soda. Still eating super healthy
and eliminating all sugar/white flours. I've even recently decided I'm
going to cut out my nightly sleeping pill that I've been taking
for years just to kick everything I can that's unhealthy. I started
last night. I slept better than I thought I would but the two things
that took me by surprize were 1) I don't act like I did before kids
and get "the munchies" an hour after taking the sleepy-ni-ni-pills (why
does that happen? Someone PLEASE tell me) and 2) I didn't wake up
and act like a Linda Blair before her exorcism. Two very strong
bonuses in my book.

I have a point.

What I'm getting to is now that I don't have two little ni-ni
sleepy pills to knock me out at night, I'm hoping that I get back
into the swing of things and get up early and do my two miles again.
I miss my morning walks, more than just for weight loss sake.
And I want to really enjoy sleeping and wake up refreshed, instead
of taking two pills and conking out an hour later and waking up six
hours later more tired than when I went to bed. I like my bed, yes.
But I want to LIKE my bed.

So. That's all I really have to share. Oh, and I'm now down 35 pounds
and two pants sizes. Even if I'm not walking two miles in the morning.

How is your weight loss journey going?