Slimming down

Ahh, so I have finally committed myself to slimming down.  I have been at it for almost a month now and am actually enjoying the workouts and the results.  My clothes are fitting me again and I am feeling much better about myself.

My workout routine consists of 3 days of weights which takes me 1 - 1 1/2 hours or so to complete with each day concentrating on a different area.  I also do 1 hour of cardio 2 - 3 times a week.  I change cardio up each week/day depending on my mood.  I may do the elliptical or a class. 

I absolutely love being back in charge of my body.  I have been watching my food intake and trying to keep it healthy.  There's been days where I can't help it (BBQs, friends coming over) but I have done great so far.  I originally started with counting calories on my phone via an app (Android phone) but now know pretty much what I need to eat to keep my goal calorie intake for the day, especially on days I go to work.  I keep the same meal plan for the most part on those days.  I eat 6 times a day, all small meals or snacks to keep me from binging.  So far I have not binged once!  Yay me!

This has been a great journey for me so far.  I am set on keeping this lifestyle up.  I may eventually cut back on going to the gym so much but I definitely will keep active.

I want the old Kasi back.
The one who felt sexy!
She's on her way!

Visible results?

I received my first compliment today about how my weight loss effort is noticable. I kick my own ass at the gym. It's nice to know it shows.

The abuse of LOL

I have come to notice that many people abuse the use of LOL and LMFAO.  I think I used to be a culprit as well.  I stopped when I realized how freakin' annoying it is to see every sentence, no matter the context, end with LOL or LMFAO.  I'm talking about seeing this on Facebook, MySpace, and other social networks.

I remember way back in the day before the days of Facebook and MySpace.  Back when social networks were vary basic, the mIRC and AOL chatroom days.  Remember those?  From what I can remember this is where we began using acronyms for various actions such as "laugh out loud" - LOL.  Back then, I'm talking mid early to mid 90s and even late 90s and early 2000s, it was cute and new.  People used it as it should be used, when something was deemed funny.  So, yes, that make me sound so old...mIRC...before the days of mass cell phone use.

Why do people use LOL or LMFAO after they "say" such things as "I walked to the store" e.g.,  "I walked to the store.  LOL!".  Can someone tell me why that is LOL worthy?  Now if there was something absolutely absurd about this person walking to the store then maybe it would be LOL worthy but it's likely not worthy of an LOL or anything other than a plain old period.

Please please people keep your LOLs and LMFAOs to a minimum.  Don't use it in place of an exclamation point.  It looks idiotic sometimes.

Where to begin?

This is my 3rd attempt at writing this.  I have a few things to write about however I don't feel like writing about all of it right now.  I guess I can just list it so when I do decide to write I know what to write about.

1.  Bedroom (did I write about that already?)

2.  Hawaii

3.  Weight loss

4.  School

5.  One last thing but I will have to wait to post about that.

Maybe I'll get to these soon.  Maybe not.  One day though.

Bedroom makeover #1

I completely forgot to take a "before" picture of my bedroom.  But it looked something like the picture below of the oak bedroom set.  Mine was a lighter color and more fancy and a bit nicer but you get the idea. The light colored wood and country look hasn't been my style for awhile.  I bought that bedroom set 8 years ago and I loved it back then.  My tastes have changed. 

We hadn't done a thing to our bedroom.  It disgusted us actually.  We didn't have a nice comforter and sheet set and no decor on the walls.  Our room was just BLAH until we decided to do something about it.


A few weeks ago we bought a new bedroom set.  We bought this bed:

 and this media chest:

We chose not to buy the rest of the set 1) to save money  2) to have room to move around in the bedroom  3) because we plan on doing other things for storage purposes  4) because I have a better idea!


We decided to paint as well.  FINALLY!  I have never in my life painted...ever!

Here's what we have done so far....

Next will be putting up floating shelves next to the bed as an alternative to nightstands.  Here's an example:

I'm excited to be getting my room finally put together.  It was so depressing before because it just wasn't "me" anymore.

Our house, a year later.

A little over a year later and we are still not anywhere near finished with decorating the house.  We haven't painted nor put all the baseboards in.  We haven't even gotten the whole place decorated period.  not one room is complete as of yet.  Laziness is one issue. Another is finding things that catch my eye.  So here is what we have so far.

Front of house 
Only thing we have done is plant grass and pull out some ugly bushes and trees that were by the window and then laid down wood chips for now.

Livingroom
Eventually there will be a mantel.  However Andrew doesn't want one because we use the space above the fireplace to watch movies with the projector.

Bar area off the livingroom
It's supposed to be the formal diningroom but we have no need for that.

Diningroom
One day that light ficture (and all the rest of them) will be changed out.

Family room
We will change out those two tables for a nice dark colored coffee table.

Man Cave

Soon we will have this bed & media chest in our bedroom

Suraya's bed                                          

Camera Quest

As usual I can never lay dormant for too long.
I always have t o have something going on.
So of course a new item has piqued my interest. 
The DSLR camera.

For the past year or so I have been noticing people's pictures and how amazing they look.  I compare it to the pictures taken from my point and shoot and they pale in comparison.  Especially action shots which are usually spontaneous.  I definitely need something better.  That and I believe my point and shoot is lost forever in my house or in some thief's grubby hands.

I went into this thinking I could just ask what camera owners of DSLRs would recommend and choose from there.  Wrong.  I soon learned that there is so much more than just looking at how pretty a camera looks and how many meg pixels it has.  Much much more. 

To help me out I ventured over to this site:
http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/ 

That site took me through the steps on choosing a camera based on what I want out of one and what I plan to take pictures of.  It breaks down the terminology as well.  After that step it was on to lens types.  I learned so much and realized that it's not all about the camera but about the person behind the camera as well.

My next step was on to the store to choose the camera based on the 3 I had in mind:

Canon EOS Rebel XS - $499
Nikon D3000 - $499
Nikon D5000 - $699

It was a toss up between the Rebel and the D3000 at first then Andrew jumped in with the D5000 which I had considered but wasn't sure I wanted to spend that much being a beginner.  The main features that Andrew and myself liked on the D5000 that the other two don't have are the Live View (same as on a point and shoot), the tilt screen, and video mode.  There were other features but those three were the most enticing.

I left the store too overwhelmed by the prices, all the features, and the cameras themselves. 
I left with no camera in hand. 

When I got home I did a little more research and found that I may need to change my mind about lenses as well.  I was planning on getting a package with a 55-200mm lens as well as the 18-55mm that the cameras I was looking at comes with but read that the kit lenses aren't great so it's better to save the money and buy later.

So frustrating altogether.  I thought I had it all down and was ready to jump onto the DSLR bandwagon but now I am hesitant. 

Yes, I will still get one but I have to figure out what's best for us and this is where I am running into issues.