??? Suzie Homemaker

I'm on vacation.  Yay!  No work until 8/1/11!

I didn't weigh myself today.  Not because I was worried or didn't want to, but because I forgot.  I vaguely remember kissing Pete goodbye at 6am and then falling asleep.  When I woke up it was 8am.  I went down and got coffee started and started in on my to do list.  I have a bunch of things that I want to get done in the next week.  Deep cleaning and organizing and decluttering.

I worked on my to do list until noon and then headed out to run my errands and Pete's errands (see - Suzie Homemaker).  I came home and started dinner and Pete and I ate. 

I love days like this.  Days where I get things accomplished.  And although I didn't go to the gym today, I was moving ALL DAY.  So it's good on both fronts.

About the gym...I did something with my foot.  On Tuesday night during training with my trainer, I did mountain climbers.  I think it put way too much pressure on the balls of my feet.  I intended on running afterwards, but after about 10 minutes, my feet hurt.  Every time I took a stride on the ball of my left foot it hurt.  Immediate afterwards my toes would go numb.  I had this issue before, but solved it by getting good shoes.  Usually my shoes last me a good 12 months.  My shoes are only 8 months old, but after looking at the soles, they're pretty worn in the ball area.  So I'm going to try different shoes tomorrow and hope that the pain doesn't return.  If it does I think I need to either try new shoes or see a podiatrist.

Confessions of a multiple size horder

Multiple times in the last 2+ years I've promised my husband that I'd clean out the closet in the extra bedroom.  You see, I purchased our home before he and I dated and fell in love and moved in together.  In the bgeinning, the extra closet was for my craft storage, the opposite season's clothing, gift boxes and the vacuum.  My husband and I have vastly different ideas of cleaning.  V A S T L Y.  I'm all about touching it once and figuring out a place for it.  He's all about getting it out of sight.  So between my idea of storage and his idea of cleaning, the closet is a endless space of, well...crap.

Since he moved in I've been promising to clean it out.  And for a while it got partially cleaned.  Every spring I'd take out the spring/summer clothes and put them in my closet.  I'd go through the fall/winter stuff and donate anything I hadn't worn (my policy in keeping clothing amounts managable) and pack those away.  I think it happened once after he moved in.  By the next season, the closet was so full that I couldn't get to some of the clothes and forgot that the others were in there.

Until last week.  Last week I came home and Pete was telling me that he had helped me.  I cautiously asked what he meant and he told me to go look at the extra bedroom.  Words fail me.  Half of the clothes that were packed away now created Mount Clothes on the bed and reached almost to the ceiling in the corner.  Every plastic tote that contained clothes was out in the small room and everywhere you looked was, well...crap.

So this weekend I offically cleaned out the closet.  I spent a few hours going through all the clothing.  In fact by the end of the day I had touched all the clothes that I own, including underthings, socks and shoes.  In the end I dontaed 9 large lawn bags full of clothing, 1 of shoes and 1 of purses and belts and random things.  Pete donated about 2 bags of his clothes. 

I had every size from 'misses' large to 3X.  I looked at those bags in the garage and realized that I had been hording old clothes.  Clothes that didn't fit me, clothes that didn't look good on me and clothes that I had never worn because they were too big, too small or just plain bad.  I was horrified. 

This is how my closet looks now:

I didn't take pictures of my shoes, but I am down to one shoe rack and 3 pairs of boots.  My sock drawer no longer overflows into the bedroom floor.  My workout clothes fit into one drawer.  My tanks and other clothes fit into one drawer.  It's all organized.

You know what?  I feel lighter.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted.  I feel more free.  It's not that I was wearing all those clohtes and I certainly never saw them everyday.  But knowing they were there was like carrying around a bag of clothes on my back every day.  It was like I was giving myself freedom to get bigger because I had clothes to fit that larger size.  I can see everything that I have now and I know where it all is.  The things that I have fit me nicely and look good on me.  I need to bottle this feeling when I go clothes shopping and remember that I don't have to buy things just because they fit.  I buy them because I feel good in them and they look good on me.

The girl, the dog and questions

I am usually lost in thought or talking to Pete while on the way home from work each day. Yesterday was no different. I spent the time thinking and listening to low music. I was just about home when I saw a little girl running down the road after a dog. I kept going, thinking that there was nothing I could do. A second later I was turning my truck around. I had a mental image of the girl seeing the dog hit by a car and it wasn't a good thing.

By the time I turned around to go back, the girl was laying on the ground crying and the dog was several hundred feet ahead of her. I pulled the truck up in front of the dog to cut it off and slow it down. When I got out I whistled the best I could, called and bent down low. The dog came over to me and got close, but not close enough for me to grab it. I stayed low hoping it would stick around me and rather than do that it took off again in the same direction.

I got up and walked aorund the truck to where the girl was running and I could tell she was scared. She was crying and upset. I asked her if she lived near there and she said that she lived in the same complex that I did. I asked if there was someone home who could help her and she was noncommital. As we were talking I watched the traffic and made sure that the dog crossed the busy street safely.

I turned back to the girl and asked if she wanted me to drive her to her house to get a parent to help her. She said no and I relized that I was asking a child to get in my vehicle, something that I wanted her to do, but that she shouldn't do. I asked her if she wanted to use my cell phone to call for help and she said no. She said that she was afraid per parents would be mad at her. I told her that they would be worried about her and that she was far from home.

She was insistant that she catch the dog by herself. I watched her cross the street so that she did so safely and told her that if she didn't catch the dog in the next 15 minutes she should probably go home and ask for help. I reminded her that it would getting dark soon and that she didn't want to be out on the busy road in the dark chasing a dog. She promised she would and ran to the house where the dog had taken off to.

I watched her for a short time and then got in my truck and drove home. I wonder if she caught the dog? I wonder if her parents were worried about her. Then I think that I should have figured out a way to get her to contact her parents to make sure that she was ok. Was she just a stubborn child who was determined to do this on her own or was I lacking in my ability to persuade her to do what I thought was best?