It is a huge relief. Now if only I can find a job (something more permanent and better paying than babysitting) and speed up the process of my husband and I getting into our own place again and out from under my parents roof.

My grandparents are in town right now. I'm enjoying spending time with them.

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Thank you all! *hugs* Life's been pretty stressful. Been trying to sell our condo (short sell process sucks). Today is our 4th scheduled closing date (2 were postponed due to buyer and her bank and the last one because the bank with the mortgage wasn't responding to attempts to contact and get paperwork in order). So I am really stressed and hoping that it really will close today. I've been hunting for a job since I was laid off in October and other than small jobs (like nanny-ing, babysitting, and minor data entry) I haven't found anything. I'm stressed and really realizing how much I've used food as a comfort in times of stress. It's been really, really hard to stick to my diet when all I really want is to eat whatever I think will make me feel better even for a little while. I haven't totally blown my diet, but there are several days that include foods not on the diet when it should have just been the diet. The stress of living back under my parents' roof is beginning to get to me (especially because my 5 & 3 year old brother and sister have no concept of volume control and are still working out a lot of issues from the pre-adoption portion of their lives). I feel so utterly not in control and I don't like this feeling. It's hard to focus on weight-loss when I feel so overwhelmed.


EDIT: 4th scheduled closing is the charm!!! The condo has officially switched hands! Hooray for the fact that we no longer have to deal with it (haven't been living in it since Jan.) and hooray for the buyer since she had to be out of the place she was renting earlier this week and now she has a place. *happy dance*

11 day diet

*does a happy dance*

I hit 249.3 today!!! I am below 250!

*continues happy dance*

11 day diet

Thanks Michelle and Don!

Did 3 miles yesterday at a 17 minute mile pace and another 3 today at a 10 minute mile pace. I'll start back on Round 5 of the diet tomorrow. (Took a longer break than normal to carbo load for the 12k (7.something mile) Bloomsday I did on Sunday). Starting it tomorrow so that I can enjoy the block wide bbq we are doing tonight. I feel so much better on days that I exercise! I'm back on track for hitting my 1000 mile goal by the end of the year. There are 238 days left in the year and if I average 4 miles a day I can still achieve my goal. That's 40 minutes on the elliptical at a 10 minute mile pace or 80 minutes on the elliptical at a 20 minute mile walk. I can easily commit to 40-80 minutes of walking/jogging/running a day.

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I can happily say I have finished yet another Bloomsday I think this makes 14! I had a blast. I walked with 3 other friends all in costume and chatted with several others I knew throughout the race. This year I walked in my Sith Twi'lek costume which meant that I carried an additional 15lbs on my head (the lekku [aka headtails] of my costume). None of us were concerned about time. We were walking for the fun of it. I was interviewed and we probably had at least 100 people take our picture throughout the 12k course.

My Stats
Finish Time: 2:35:58
Overall Place: 40,277 out of 44,490
Ran with a pace of 20:54 per mile
The average pace for 24-year-olds was 13:03
Placed 847th among 893 people the same age
Placed 15,788th among 17,717 people from Spokane, WA
Placed 32,393rd among 35,983 people from Washington
Placed 51st among 60 people with the same last name
Placed 23,635th among 26,349 females
Placed 540th out of 569 among 24-year-old females

I'm happy with the pace we kept - especially considering the number of times we slowed down or stopped for someone with a camera.

Monday I woke up a little sore but made a point to keep stretching all day. This morning I did 2 miles and plan on doing several more tomorrow.

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It definitely has most of the community involved via in the race, volunteering to help with the race (handing out water, picking up the warm-up clothing shed at the beginning of the race and donated to charity), reporting the event, or watching the race. Most of downtown is closed for the event and then it's concerts in the park for the rest of the day.

Thanks I'm pretty proud of the pace I kept - especially since this was the first time I didn't have a walking buddy for it and the hilly-est course I've ever done. And I can feel it today. I'm pretty sore.

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The race started out purely as a race for fun. A few years back they started picking local charities to support. This year it is the YMCA & YWCA Your Y fund.

It takes place the first Sunday of May every year. So May 3rd will be the race morning and who knows what the weather will have in store. Bloomsday morning is notorious for unpredictable weather - one year we started in the snow which turned to sleet which turned to rain with a strong wind and eventually went sunny. I wasn't in town for it last year, but I still completed the 12 k on my elliptical that morning and my brother was able to send me a shirt. This is a race I've done since grade school (they run an after-school program called 'Fit for Bloomsday' in the grade schools each year leading up to this race and American's Kid Run - which was Junior Bloomsday when I did it, but now is run by a different group).