Happy Birthday, Dad!

This post is a day late, but I wanted to wish my dad a very happy birthday! He is such a good, loving father, and I don't know what I'd do without him. I love you so much, Dad!!!

Boring little Rexburg?

If you know anything about Rexburg, then you know it's considered a small town. Additionally, when you drive into town, the sign reads "America's Family Community". And after living here for 17 months now, I can assure you that not a lot of excitement happens here. So imagine my surprise to read this...

http://uvsj.com/articles/2008/09/26/news/15.txt

I know that bad stuff happens everywhere, but seriously, this is REXBURG. What is this world coming to? Are pigs flying too???

More pesky pounds dropped

Just a quick update...As of today, I've dropped a total of 40.5 lbs. After reaching my initial goal of 30 lbs in mid-August, I set a new goal to lose 20 more by Thanksgiving. So today I'm at the halfway point and feeling great about the progress. I can't believe what a difference losing all this weight makes! I'm so ready for the challenge of losing the rest...bring it on! :)

Quirky things

Just for fun, I thought I'd share some quirky things that you probably don't know about me.

* While I've never actually been diagnosed with OCD, I believe that I have small doses of the disorder. For example, I always have to check the doors multiple times to ensure they're locked before going to bed or leaving the condo, even though I know I've already checked. Another example, one that will probably get a chuckle out of you because it's so strange, is that I have to apply my deodorant with 18 swipes under each arm! Why 18, you ask? I have no idea! I'm not even sure when it started, but I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. My mom used to joke that I ate my deodorant, because as you can imagine, I go through a stick fairly quick. There are a few other things I do that probably fall into the OCD category as well, but nothing major. I would be concerned if these things drastically affected my quality of life, but since they don't, I just laugh it off. :)

* I'm a list person. I make lists for pretty much anything, and then I make lists for my other lists! For example, Eric and I decided to go camping late spring. So I immediately started making lists of what food we needed to buy and what needed packed. Once those were done, I had to make "better" lists to organize what I had already written. Craziness I tell you!

* When I was little, I would sleep on my belly with my butt sticking straight up in the air. :)

* Because I'm such a picky eater and it really does affect my life, I got desperate and went to a hypnotist in California to try and change some of my eating habits. It didn't necessarily work miracles, BUT before I was hypnotized I couldn't eat anything green (not to mention a ton of other things) or I would literally gag...Since being hypnotized, I can at least try some new things without gagging, and I'll actually eat a salad now. That's real progress for me, people.

If you didn't already know how weird I am, now you do!

Happy Friday!

Posing for the webcam again :)

While I don't think I'm a vain person, I admit that I like seeing my face (and body) look so much thinner than before I lost this weight. I've lost 38 lbs so far, and I'm enjoying feeling healthier, thinner and just overall better about myself. And considering Eric isn't a picture person and I can't really take my own picture without the webcam, these are the quality pics (yes, my computer is in my kitchen, so that's the awesome backround!) you get to enjoy...

Sorry to those of you who don't like to look at me as much as I do! :) lol

Book Recommendation

Eric's boss just gave him a book to read at his leisure, and I decided to give it a go last night. You may think it sounds boring, because it's centered around providing excellent customer service, but it was actually quite enjoyable. The title is Raving Fans, and it's written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.

I've always felt that customers in any business are the nucleus of that business and should be treated accordingly. After all, where would any business be without customers? Yet, when I look around, I see people -- myself included -- getting horrible service in pretty much every industry that exists. I've worked in various aspects of customer service since I was sixteen, and I've always felt like I could put myself in the customer's shoes at any given time. Since we're all customers ourselves, it should be fairly simple to understand a customer's perspective. But businesses struggle with this very important missing link day after day. My opinion as to why they struggle or fail is that they don't truly CARE about their customers. The focus of this book is to teach business owners and managers that a satisfied customer is simply not enough...You should ALWAYS strive for "Raving Fans", or your company will never truly be successful. I like how the authors utilized a 'fairytale' storyline to keep things light and enjoyable, even though the message may be somewhat intense. I also like how they used many specific examples and kept things simple to drive their point home.

This book was quite short, totaling 132 pages, which is a plus for those who don't really enjoy reading. The spacing was a bit strange, as I think they could have easily fit more words on each page, which then could have cut the book down to less than 100 pages. Still, I finished the entire book in about two hours. That said, I think this was a great book, and I think that anyone involved in customer service could benefit from reading it. If more companies would incorporate these simple strategies into how they run their business, there would be a lot more happy customers or "Raving Fans"!

Ouch!

If any of you follow football, you already know that my Colts didn't start the season out on the right foot (sniffle...wiping tears away now). It was a depressing season-opener against the Bears, but I still have faith they'll pull it together and have a great season. My only source of comfort about the Colts losing week one is that Eric's Chargers lost too. :-) (Hey, I'd be lying if I said any different!) I must admit there were quite a few surprises in the first week's games, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing how things progress throughout the season.

Yay football!

Football season is here!!!

Despite my less than chipper mood lately, one thing I'm super excited about is the arrival of the NFL FOOTBALL SEASON! I've become a bigger football fan over the last few years, and I can't wait to see what this year's teams will do. For those of you who don't already know about my obsession, I'm a huge Indianapolis Colts fan. Peyton Manning is my god! Okay, maybe that's a bit much, but you get the point. I'm also still gloating about the Giants beating the Patriots in last year's Super Bowl, as I can't resist another Manning brother! And of course, there's always a little tension in our household when the Colts and Chargers play...Eric loves the Chargers. We can definitely expect some trash talk during week 12! lol

GO COLTS! Beat da Bears!

One side note...I dug out my Colts tee shirt today, and I guess I hadn't realized how huge it would be on me now that I'm down 35 pounds...If anyone hears of any good NFL apparel deals, please let me know! :)

Update

I apologize to those of you who actually stop by to read my oh so exciting blog and have been left wondering why there haven't been any posts for two whole weeks. To be honest, I've been dealing with some difficult issues, and I didn't want to post a bunch of negative stuff on here. I won't go into a lot of detail at this point, but Eric and I are trying to make some important decisions about our relationship. The majority of our issues are due to the fact that I REALLY don't like living in Rexburg, ID, while he's content here. I feel like I've given it an honest chance here over the last 16 months, and my feelings of wanting to leave have only gotten stronger. But unfortunately money is really tight due to the lack of opportunities here, so moving doesn't seem to be an option at this point. I've realized that I'm not okay with working a crappy, low-paying job, when I know I can handle so much more. I'm determined to find something that gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment again, and I just haven't been able to find that here. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet, but as you can imagine, having invested over 7 1/2 years in this relationship makes this an extremely difficult decision. Regardless of the hurt and anger, we love each other very much and want to explore every option before calling it quits altogether. Please keep us in your thoughts and/or prayers.

I'll try and get back to my regular posts this week...I hope you have an amazing week!