I went out Friday evening with my cousins & my brother. We had Chinese for dinner. (Yum! Sesame shrimp & Egg drop soup!) Then we went to the movies to see, 'The Dark Knight'. We pre-ordered our tickets online, which was a smart idea because the theater was mobbed when we arrived. The ticket line was out the door! The movie was very good. (Long too!) The joker freaks me out, he is so creepy. I still don't understand why Katie Holmes didn't resume her role in the Batman sequel as Rachel though.

I ordered two new books from Amazon.com. They arrived earlier this week. The Redheaded Princess by, Ann Rinaldi & The Life And Death Of Anne Boleyn by, Eric Ives. I finished the first one and I'm halfway through the 2nd one. I'm a fast reader, haha.

Anyway, since I made the post about all of my favorite books awhile ago; I wanted to do one with all of my favorite music. You can view my list by clicking on the pictures below or by going to my profile on stylem.com. Enjoy!

Create Your Own!

I am home from work today because of a family emergency. I will most likely be off work tomorrow also because of things. Very stressful & emotional time at home right now. My mom was in the hospital last night. It's not something I want to go into on my blog though. Personal family issues. Please just keep me & my family in your thoughts & prayers. Thanks. I did get to talk to F.B. on the phone this morning for about 40 minutes which was nice. I really needed him.

In other news: My treadmill arrived Friday. My brother helped me assemble it. It took from 7pm-9pm. Mostly because we had to take apart my old broken treadmill to even get it out of my room. I was just able to use it tonight. Only for 15 minutes. But wow... that thing can fly! I got the: Weslo Cadence C44 Treadmill from Walmart.com












I believe the motor in my old treadmill was going. Sometimes during the middle of a workout while changing speeds it would blow a fuse and I would have to turn it on again and lose my distance/time/calories burned. Also it never seemed like run was "run". The new one has a slight incline already on it and you can adjust the incline a bit more too. So now I have to get used to the speeds of this new one. jog on this new treadmill is like run! I was out of breath. It looks like I'll be getting even more of a workout with the new treadmill and that incline definitely works the muscles in my legs! After 15 minutes I was sweating up a storm and I already had 2 fans on!

I do miss a few things about my old treadmill that the new one doesn't have. The old treadmill had a red display for the numbers- easier to read than black numbers on a gray background. I don't have any rubber grip on my handles and there's not much space on the tray to hold stuff except water bottles. My ipod video does not fit. My old display could hold everything I needed. Water bottle, chap stick, glasses, elastic bands, ipod. Oh well. At least it will give me a good workout!

I am excited though, because the plus reading is definitely more accurate than my old treadmill. The old one would say my heart rate was 70 after running. The new one said 160. That sounds more normal. And the calorie burning seems more accurate too. Now to workout all this week, even if it's just 15 minutes! I have to get used to the new speeds!

My ratties have been keeping it interesting. I had them outside one day a few weeks ago in the enclosed flower bed for less than 10 minutes. Sugar ended up getting a tick on her. It was such a pain to get out of her because it had gotten under her skin near her one ear. Then I had her on the antibiotic Cipro (Had half a bottle left from Cinnamon's spay.) for a week just to make sure she didn't get an infection or lyme disease. Now I've been spraying them down with small animal flea/tick spray if I do decide to take them outside.

Sugar hated the Cipro though. I had to give it to her in an oral syringe and this is what she had to say about it:

Then the day before the 4th of July Cinnamon ended up getting something in her eye. I'm not sure what it was. It looked like a small piece of gray cardboard or a paint chip to me. I tried flushing her eye out with saline, water. I even tried to get it out with my finger or by massaging her eye. After about an hour of messing with her eye I decided to call the vet. They saw her 30 minutes later and took her in the back to flush her eye out. The vet said he even had a hard time getting it out it was sticking in there really good! He did get it out though thank goodness! I think Cinnamon must have 9 lives or something. She's been to the vet 5 times & my other two have never been! (*crosses fingers*)

Spice hasn't gotten into any trouble lately. *knocks on wood* She's just been chillin' this summer:

Happy 4th of July to everyone! Our cat Popcorn turned 15 today. When my brothers & I were younger we used to give our cat birthday parties with a can of tuna fish. Sadly we outgrew it, so she hasn't had a birthday party in 7 years!

Popcorn on her 1st birthday (1994):



















Since she is turning 15 this year we decided to throw her a party. As you can see, she really enjoyed her tuna!

Went to the park today and took the ratties. It was sunny & around 82 degrees. Walked around for about 2 hours and took lots of pictures! Here's some pictures from today:

You can check out all the photos from today here!

In other news my new treadmill should be arriving sometime next Thursday. So I'll have a fun weekend putting that together! I really miss my treadmill! I think it breaking & having to buy a new one is going to make me commit to working out full time again. I needed that push. I also am getting my star tattoos re-touched again Saturday. Still not completely satisfied with the color.

Staying home for the 4th of July with the family for a picnic. My Dad is going to use the barbecue sauces I got him for Father's Day. I ordered him: Bone Suckin' Sauce, Fat Bastard Hickory Smoke Sauce & Fat Boy Steak Rub from the Barbecue Store Hehe! They even send you mints with your order & they replaced one of the sauces that leaked during shipping free of charge! I'm meeting up with F.B. for a "date" online tomorrow afternoon and I'm back to work on Monday. I took off a week. Paid Vacation. I needed a "Mental Health Week". Thank God for Government Jobs. Happy Early 4th of July to everyone!

P.S. Did anyone hear they are closing 600 Starbucks stores in the USA?! Noooo! I hope none of the ones near me close. I love my drive thru one. And I need my Friday Starbucks Fix. I LOVE White Chocolate Mocha Frappucinos! Yummy! I got addicted to Starbucks when I was in the Philippines. Heehee!

(Me at Starbucks in Mall of Asia- Manila Philippines.)

Hmmm.... those 8-10 pounds that I've been trying to run off... I think I've given new meaning to the term "Fat @$$". I got on the treadmill to run tonight and not even a minute into running my treadmill decided it had had enough and broke. The plywood or whatever kind of wood the platform is made of underneath the belt split completely down the middle. So now I can't even run this week because it's busted. Trash. I was being lazy all last week and I decided since I had a full paid vacation week off from work I would work my lazy @$$ out the whole week. But my 5 year old treadmill had other plans...

So after crying about it... I went on Walmart.com and order a new treadmill for $298.00 because living without a means to run & work out is like not breathing to me. Now I'm in even more credit card debt. I want to puke. Blah. I guess this was God's way of telling me I should be getting my butt on that treadmill and working out steadily instead of saying, "Oh I'll rest this week..." or "I don't feel like it tonight." And it's not like I can run around my neighborhood... there's just highway & no sidewalks. I need my treadmill fix... there's only 3 more months until my trip to the Philippines and I need to get in shape.

What the heck am I going to do with myself this week??? I think I need to go to the park tomorrow and walk or else I'm going to go crazy in this house all week long. I was going to go shopping tomorrow but since I just jacked up my credit card that option is out. I've already spent Sunday & Monday in my bedroom feeling depressed... I've just felt really "blah" this week...

Do you see this silly baby?






















And this cute little boy?

















And this dorky guy?

He's ALLLL mine!!! Aren't I lucky?

Don't we make such a cute couple?

Now check out these email subject lines:

From Sarah Lynn: AHHHH! CAN WE REALLY?!

From F.B.: Yes...hehe.

WE'RE FINALLY GETTING MARRIED!!!

F.B. and I have been talking about things and working out alot of issues since last weekend. We've also been discussing the future. We've decided we'll be getting married next year! We never really had a set plan on when we were going to marry. But we've finally decided on getting married fall/winter of 2009. I will probably stay in the Philippines 4-5 months next year. No set date on the day we'll be getting married though because it depends on how long it takes to file our paperwork, marriage license, etc.

We will be getting married in the Philippines by a judge. We both have never wanted a big wedding. Just a small ceremony with family/friends and dinner out afterwards. (Here are the requirements for me to marry in the Philippines.)

We've also always talked about having a short honeymoon in Boracay! F.B. has always said he wanted to take me there and we agreed a long time ago we would do that when we got married!

Here are a few paragraphs from some of our emails from the past few days:

From Sarah Lynn: So are we getting married next year? Are we really?! Am I allowed to blog about it yet? Haha! I just want you to say we can do this, that we'll make the commitment and plan on getting married next year. I want that so much! I want to be with you for good... I want to start our lives together. And you know we probably won't get to really be "together" until some time in 2010. But at least we'll be married and working towards filing paperwork so we can actually live together in the same place!

And if you think about that, that's still awhile to find a job since it's only mid 2008, if we get married in late 2009 and don't live in the same place until 2010.... you see what I mean? Isn't that enough time for you? Aaaaaah! I want to get married to you! I do! I want to get married next year! I could stay for 4 months or so and we could get married and maybe even take a little honeymoon to Boracay for a few days... and we could get to spend so much time together. And I could come home and file paperwork for you to come here- unless you've found a great job, then I can file paperwork to move there...

From F.B.: Btw, the answer is yes baby. haha. We could get married late next year. I wanna be with you. I know that the job issue can get frustrating. But I do hope that I could find a job before that like you said, to get some experience and save up too. That would be nice. Late 2009 sounds nice baby. It's not that I changed my mind about it. I just thought it was a little too soon to get married this coming October like you said since I'm still looking for a job and you're saving money too. I wanna be able to save up some money too for us whenever I get a job.

We've always agreed that the person who was more financially stable wouldn't move. Since I've been at my Government job 6 years now, make a nice salary, have good health & retirement benefits, have my credit cards, good credit and our savings. The best option financially for us, would be for F.B. to move to the US. Now if F.B. does find an amazing job over there before or right after we marry I would definitely move to the Philippines to be with him. The person that moves will be unemployed for several months while the paperwork is filed and before they can find employment. We did talk about this option when I was in the Philippines in January and he agreed it made sense.

Also even though I love the Philippines so much & love visiting there, I wonder if it would be difficult for me to obtain employment there. The visa procedures also seem more complex than the USA procedures. I worry about the language barrier. Tagalog is the main language, even though English is also spoken. I don't think I will ever be able to speak Tagalog fluently. I know words & phrases and a little taglish, but I am not fluent. And I don't think I would ever be able to drive in the Philippines! The traffic scares me too much!

So that is my big news! We'll be getting married next year!!! I'm excited. We'll have to look at wedding bands when we are together in October. We can price them over there, though they may be cheaper to get here in the USA, we'll have to see. Hehe!

So... 2 years ago I lost 60 pounds. My lowest weight was 125 at 5'6". My favorite weight was 127. But the past year 8 pounds have come back & stuck to my butt somehow... blah. I'd just like to get back to 127. I feel my best at that weight. I've been around 132-135 lately. And I don't like it at all. I know most of you are going to say that weight is just fine & I'm crazy. But all of my jeans which are 5/6's & 7/8's are extremely snug on me lately. To the naked eye I don't look like I've gained weight, but to me when I'm pulling on my jeans and they are snug and uncomfortable to sit in & few pairs I can't even zip up anymore... it's a huge deal! More so, because I worked so hard two years ago to take all the weight off and to have even a little of it creep back on is scary to me...

I used to run constantly when I first lost the 60 pounds on my treadmill. I would run/walk 30 min every day. Then when I got down to my goal weight I started running twice a week. But this year since I've gotten back from the Philippines in January I have been very lazy about working out. I don't really have a set schedule at all & there's been a few months where I've just worked out once the entire month. My diet is pretty much to same & I always watch what I eat... so I know that's not the issue... my issue is getting my butt on my treadmill and sticking to a schedule. I've been extremely lazy this year and it's starting to catch up with me...

Monday I started working out again. Now instead of struggling through 30 minutes of running/walking twice a week, I've been running for a full 15 minutes. Which is a nice change from my usual workout that was becoming monotonous to me. So all this week Monday-Friday I'll be running 15 minutes every day. Then I'll try to increase to 20 min next month... when my body gets used to working out again! It feels so good to work out & I can't wait until my jeans are actually comfortable on me again!

In other news... F.B. & I have been emailing & meeting for our online "dates" on the weekend. It's nice getting back on track with my relationship. We always chatted on my cell phone on instant messenger on my lunch breaks every day, but it's nice to be able to talk about stuff again and to spend more time with each other. We've been having some serious discussions/talks the past weekend/week. I might be able to announce some big news on this blog within the next couple of days. Stay tuned...