We're on our way

Alright, I've been an awful blogger, but the month of July was probably the worst month ever for Brax and I. Brax came down with a stomach flu and sinus infection beginning the 4th of July; and he's just now back to normal. He had 5 doctor's visits in the meantime to figure out what it was - the doctor's conclusion was that it wasn't anything bacterial and he just had to give it time. We also had to do a middle of the night emergency room visit week before last when Brax got a kidney stone and there was no pain medication in the house. Add to that our annual vacation to White Lake and a doctor's visit for me when I got the same stomach flu and sinus infection, and we were ready for payday on Thursday!

On the bright side of life, Ken and Eddie began the house on Tuesday! The footings for the foundation have been dug and the concrete's been poured. Since we've had a super-busy week with just being back from vacation, we haven't been out there to see it yet. We're planning on stopping by tomorrow after church and taking pictures and I'll update the blog then to show the progress.

On the WW front...well, there is no WW front. I have gained 7 lbs. since the end of June due to Brax's illness, my illness and vacation. I did jump right back on program this week and am hoping to have those 7 lbs. lost by the end of this month. I got a good lecture from my WW leader as well - which I deserved! She was right, I have gone waaaay too far and lost too much weight to screw it up now. I won't get my 100 lbs. star this year, but by this time next year I'm hoping to be close to my goal weight.

It's been a long week...

Anyhow, I'm sorry I haven't blogged in over a week. Brax and I have been running around, trying to get our house (the one we live in now) straightened up and I've actually had a social life this week. (Surprise, surprise, I know). I went to go see the Sex and the City movie with Julia and Kitty Wednesday night, and had a ball - I hadn't seen Julia since her honeymoon and haven't seen Kitty since Julia's wedding, so it was good to catch up.

On the WW and exercise front, I have not been good at all in the past month. I have had at least one day completely off program every week for the past 4 weeks - that is NOT the WW way, and it's not the way I lost 80 lbs. I have to get my fat butt back in gear - I was doing so well, and I feel as if I've lost my motivation lately. I have been playing Wii Fit a lot lately, and have fallen in love with the running segment. I've downloaded the Couch to 5K podcasts and am hoping that I can start doing those when the weather gets back less hot - even if I have to do them after supper.

Brax and I did work on our lot last weekend, and the pictures are below. We got the lot staked off and you can see where our house will be in comparison to the road. We're still waiting on the Progress Energy folks to get out there so that they can do our power pole so Ken can start on the house; however he said that if they don't get out there soon, he's going to start without them. He wants to have our foundation done before he has to go to Minnesota in the end of July when Jodi's daughter is born.

House pictures:
Here's our driveway!
Billy, Brax, Alex and Tony checking out the lot.
A view of our lot from the cemetery.

Brax driving in the first stake to mark the corners of our house.
The outline of our house!!

WE DID IT!

Brax and I are officially in debt up to our eyeballs - and excited about it. We signed the paperwork to close on our construction loan late Thursday afternoon, and all is a go for starting on our house. Our driveway was installed sometime Thursday as well, and once the contractor can get the people from Progress Energy out there to get our power lines installed, he will dig the foundation.

We're going out to the lot on Sunday after church to do the final decision on the placement of the house. I'm planning on taking pictures and doing a photo journal of our progess as well. I am so excited and definitely cannot wait!

Spontaneity

Yes, Brax and I do have it sometimes. We're closing on the construction loan tomorrow, and found out at lunchtime today that closing costs were going to be about $900 more than we had anticipated. Of course, we both freaked out! After the initial panic subsided, we realized that we were going to be OK, but still, we were both a little tense for the rest of the day.

So, after supper, we were sitting and staring at each other as is normal. I mentioned I had a sweet craving, so Brax suggested we scoot over to McDonald's and get ice cream. After a couple of minutes debate (yes, I had to debate over ice cream) I agreed. So, we drove to McDonald's, went through the drive though, and then took the long way back so we could finish our desserts before we got home. Once we got home, we were both feeling better - less stressed. I think it was a good break for us, and something that we never do. Usually, once we're in for the night, we're not leaving the house for anything. We agreed that we'll have to do it again sometimes. So, we're not the old boring fuddy-duddy married couple that most people think we are. :)

Out of Touch

So, a whole lot has gone on since I last blogged. The loan officer at the bank has everything she needs for our loan approval, and we are closing on June 19. I'm both excited and terrified about this; but I know that everything will work out in the end.

The power company will be running power lines out to the lot on Thursday, and then things will start moving quickly. Brax and I picked out the brick for the foundation tonight, and we'll call the contractor with our decision in the morning. We're doing vinyl for the main part of the siding, so the brick choice wasn't a major decision, but still...we're on our way!

We're still exhausted from our weekend at the lake. Mama has been traveling a lot for work lately, so Brax and I invited Tony and Alex to the lake for the weekend. Who knew that spending a weekend with a 3-year-old would be so exhausting? Alex was ready to play in the water and go from sun up to sun down. He was absolutely adorable, though and we all had a blast. Brax even got in the water both Saturday and Sunday - and everyone who knows him knows that is a rariety.

Anyhow, keep your fingers crossed that this loan stuff doesn't completely drive us batty. We're on our way for sure.

Aaarrrgggghhhh!

Oh my Lord. This loan application stuff is so confusing. I have about 3 inches of paperwork that I have to read and sign, and the more I read and sign the more confused I get. I called my mom and she walked me through a little bit of it, but man...they aren't kidding when they say you're signing your life away!!

On a happier note, Brax bought me Wii Fit today after I had been searching for it all weekend. I played with it for about half an hour and got a decent workout. He was more amused by the fact that I kept getting smacked in the face with soccer cleats during one of the games...how sweet, huh?

Anyhow, please pray for me. I'm getting really intimidated by this whole process and a bit scared!

Signing My Life Away

OK, I really hadn't planned for this to be a daily blog, but I had progress on the house thing today. Since the one of the main purposes of this blog was to document my house journey, I figured I would update.

Brax and I got all of the loan paperwork in the mail today, and now we're really excited. The interest rate is lower than we anticipated and it looks as though our payments will be about $160 cheaper than what we had budgeted for. We have to do some paper-signing later this week, but it looks as though we could be breaking ground withing a month. I'll have to post some pictures of the lot when I get some taken for documentation. We're on our way!

It's Friday!

And thank goodness for that. It has been a long, busy, stressful week for both Brax and I. Pray for his cousin Junior, who is in the hospital with MRSA. We don't know how he got it, but he had surgery Wednesday night and the doctor took a 5" x 2" place out of his thigh that is 2" deep! He's in some pain and can't work for 2 weeks, but seems to be in pretty good spirits. His mom (Brax's aunt) has been up there 24/7 since the surgery and she had some minor surgery on her kidney a couple of weeks ago and isn't back to 100% yet either. Not a good week for the Webb family.

I took this afternoon off to run some errands and do some house stuff. Our loan officer is almost finished with our application for the construction loan, so I dropped off some documentation to her before leaving Rocky Mount. I then went to the tire place to get 2 new tires on my car, and had lunch at a new place in Wilson - Sweet Maria's Bistro. I had a chicken club sandwich and AWESOME homemade potato chips. Although, the sandwich and chips used up just about all of my daily points, so I used that as an excuse to get a milkshake from Chic-fil-a on my way home and now I'm just nibbling mindlessly.

I also decided to go out in search of Wii Fit. I need to get back into my workout routine, and what better way to do it than something that's fun, right? Alas, there is not a copy of Wii Fit to be found in Wilson. I looked online, even, and every place is sold out. I refuse to pay more than retail price for it, so I'll just have to keep searching Wal-Mart and the like until I find it.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Long Time, No Post

I know, I know, this is supposed to be my accountability blog. It's just been one hell of a week, so I haven't had time to get online much, much less blog.

Anyhow, I lost 0.6 lbs this week at WW, bringing my grand total to 79.8 lbs. gone since last January!!! I want that 80 lb. star so badly I can taste it - victory will be mine next week.

I haven't been exercising at all, due to us being so busy with the house and related things, so I don't even have a goal for this week. I'll post one Sunday for the upcoming week, though. Speaking of the house thing, it is rolling right along. We have gotten all of our documentation to our mortgage lady and hope to start within the next month. I can't wait - Brax and I have been working on this for so long that I can believe it's finally becoming a reality. I'm getting excited!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend off. Brax and I, along with Hank and my mom, are at White Lake for the weekend. (Yes, we have internet at the lake - we're high-tech rednecks). Anyhow, it's cold and raining, so there's not much to do right now but just sit and stare at each other.

I did get a walk in this morning (finally) and it felt so wonderful to actually walk. I walked 37 minutes and actually did a little bit of jogging as well. It started sprinkling on me about the time I got to the camper so I had my timing down well.

So, my week's activity to date - 37/150 minutes for the week. Unless I decided to spend all day tomorrow working out, it doesn't look like I'll hit my goal. But, I'm back in the habit of exercising, and that is what matters, right?

Exercise Rant

Ugh! You know, I hate getting out of my routine. Before this gum graft and taking 3 weeks off of exercising, NOTHING would have stopped me from getting at least a 20 minute workout in. Yesterday, my excuse for not working out was that Tony stopped by and we went out to eat with him. I still had time after we got home to do a quick WATP DVD or even hop on the exercise bike. Did I do it? NO!

Today, I was all excited about doing a couple or three miles of walking outside after work. About 4:30, the bottom fell out, it was thundering and lightning and hailing. There goes my plan to walk outside. I do have a new WATP DVD I haven't tried, as well as the exercise bike that is now gathering dust, but I certainly haven't made any move to use either of them right now.

Tomorrow, there is no excuse. I will work out. I might not get to my 150 minutes, but I'm certainly not going to slack off on it, either.

Therefore, my week's goal is as follows: 0/150 minutes of exercise.

Why I'm Here

So, aside from a brief Livejournal escapade and some random drunken blogs on Myspace, I've never done a daily blog. I decided I wanted to do one to document my Weight Watchers journey and goals (although I'm over a year into the process) and also document my house saga.

I began Weight Watchers in January 2007 at a weight of ____. (You actually thought I was going to tell you what I weight - HA! I haven't told ANYONE what I weight when I began). Anyhow, I've lost about 75 lbs. since. I haven't been as committed as I should have in recent months - my first excuse was Julia's wedding and related festivities, and the second was the gum graft surgery I had a couple of weeks ago. Now that I'm over both of those, I'm going to be doing a weekly goal for myself and posting here for accountability. This weeks goal is 150 minutes of activity - I've been unable to exercise since I had the gum graft and haven't exercised hard-core since Julia's wedding, so I'm easing myself back into it.

Brax and I started our house saga in April 2007. We began by looking at modular home to put on some land my parents gave to us. We moved to deciding to custom build a home, and after over a year of meeting with the contractor, glitches and arguments over tiny stuff, we are ready to take everything to the bank to sign our lives away. So many people have asked about the status of our house that I figure I can update every more quickly with blog posts.

OK, so here goes. I'll be updating my blog at least a couple times a week for my WW accountability as well as updates on the house process.