Self indulgence

I really want to start using an online diary. I have a Livejournal, but I never use it. I want to try something new. Let's do this!

My name is Brieana. I am 24 years old. I live in Illinois, but I grew up in California. I live with the most wonderful boyfriend in the world. Mike is the love of my life. He's 28. He's lived here his whole life. We met online six years ago. We talked online for a couple years before meeting in person, which we did in August of 2006. Then I moved here the following April. I brought my two cats (Noodles and Carmelita) with me. Mike had grown up with dogs and didn't really know anyone who had cats, so it was exiting and fun for him.

We bought our house two years ago, and since then, our little family has grown. He wanted to get a cat of his own, so as soon as we had unpacked, we drove down to the local no kill shelter and got Edgar. He was four and had lived in the shelter his whole life. He was adopted once, but returned. But Mike fell in love with the seemingly plain brown tabby who was terrified of being picked up. He was so happy that when we first got him, he would start purring if we just looked in his direction.

It had to be less than two weeks later when we adopted Chester. Oh, Chester. My sweet, amazing Pug. He's the best dog I've ever had. In our city, the legal limit on pets is four cats or dogs (or a combination therein) so we didn't plan on any more pets. But, of course, that October, a woman came into my work with a two month old kitten she couldn't keep. I worked at Petsmart and it was 8 pm. She'd had the kitten for a few days, but her son was allergic. None of her friends would take "Gizmo" and the shelter was closed, so she was going to put the kitten out on her patio all night if someone wouldn't take her. So of course, I had to. Once I held that tiny, black baby, I was hooked. Despite what I kept telling myself at that point. And that's how we got Penny. She is the funniest little thing. She's the cuddliest of all our cats, and will perpetually be the baby.

THEN my grandma in California called to tell me she didn't want to keep her Chihuahua, Chiquita anymore. She had Chiquita for 7 years, and I had always told her I would take her. I was so scared of Chiquita going to a shelter. Who wants a ten year old dog? Very few people. I just so happened to be going home for a visit the next month, so it probably was fate. I flew her home with me and she's never been happier. She and Chester are such a sweet pair. He looks out for her when they go to daycare and snuggle when it's cold.

I've been knitting for four years. I was terrible at first! It was so hard to teach myself. When I moved here, I started trying to crochet and that was SO hard! I gave it up for a while. Then one day, I tried and it just clicked for me! I dropped my needles and started making Amigurumis. I'm rather talented, but I have really low stamina, so I only make them as gifts ONCE in a while.

I started knitting again about six months ago, and now I LOVE it! All that time crocheting taught me some great habits that really brought my knitting up to a new level.

I was lucky to get an awesome old Singer sewing machine for free when Mike's great aunt passed away. I just learned to use it last fall, and I hope to make her proud as I make all kinds of things.

So far, I've made some skewed curtains for the kitchen and a Blythe dress. Sewing is like knitting for me, right now. I'm teaching myself, so it's hard to understand patterns and instructions.

I've become super obsessed with Blythe dolls since last September, when I got my Roaring Red. I was also blessed to find an AWESOME doll house at the Goodwill for $20! It's 4.5' tall and and three awful shades of purple. I can't wait to paint it, now that it's warm enough. But I'll save that for another entry.

This year I'm trying to go outside and be a normal person. We've been working on our yard for the last couple weeks. We've built a raised garden bed with cinder blocks, put in some flower beds and pulled down the hideous, ancient monstrosity that was the split rail fence around our property. It's really awesome and fun working outside, but I'm terrified of tanning unevenly and I hate wearing shoes, so being outside is a mixed affair for me. My neighbors must think I'm so weird, tilling the ground in bare feet.

I've been trying to lose weight for nearly a year, now. Last July, I was bigger than I've ever been. I developed some bad eating habits, living with Mr. Picky-eater-with-a-fast-metabolism. We'd eat out 3 or 4 times a week, and when I worked nights at Petsmart, I ate out every single day of the week. Most of the time it was Taco Bell. I'd get a grilled stuffed burrito at 9:15, eat it once I got home and go to bed around 10:30. Little did I know, said burrito is 680 calories. Plus I'd usually be eating a couple chicken soft tacos, also. I did this at least 3 times a week. Since I groomed dogs, I wore sweats to work every day. I rarely wore jeans, so I didn't catch on right away that they weren't fitting anymore.

Then I finally weighed myself. I was 255 pounds last July. That's when I started counting my calories. At first, I allowed myself to only eat 1,800 a day, but the counter I used reduced my alloted calories with every pound I lost. As time went on, I started making healthier choices to suit my caloric intake limits. I lost 20 pounds in four months, no exercise involved. At this point, I had a gym membership, but I never went, for various reasons (excuses). Then I went home for Thanksgiving, and after the second week, just ate whatever I want. I have tried, but it is SO hard to get back on that wagon. I hit 230 last Christmas, but I've hovered around there since. My lowest so far is 227, but since I just started counting again last Monday, I would eat whatever I wanted, whenever, and my weight would fluctuate.

Exercising on a regular basis is hard for me, and I do want to implement some kind of routine, but since I've been doing a lot of yard work lately, I've been lax on writing that schedule out. But I need to. My original goal is to lose 100 pounds, and that still stands. But we've been invited to a wedding in October, and I decided to lose 40 pounds by then. Technically 42 (or 45, depending on the day). I want to be 185 by then. I want to be able to buy a dress from a store, and wear a regular size, even if it's an extra large. I'll take it. I just want to buy my clothes in the normal sections. Lane Bryant is like a highway robbery, not to mention their clothes are so thin and cheap for those prices. As of the 9th, I was 229, which is fine with me. Fluctuations between a couple pounds don't bother me. It's 4 or 5 that do.

I've been slowly writing this entry for like two hours now. I think it's time to go to bed. I'm going to try to write in here and post a picture as often as possible. I'm really rusty on expressing myself on paper, and I think it's because I stopped writing self-indulgent journal entries after high school ended. Haha.