the best laid plans of mice and men...

LORD You are good and Your mercy endures forever. i come before You humbly asking that You insert Your will into the making of these plans and then grant me the grace and the courage to follow through with them.

to lose the weight:

the good news here, is that i've already lost 12 pounds. what's cooler than 12 pounds are the articles of clothing i don't wear anymore because they are too big! unfortunately there's are still several items that are too small. the goal is 12-15 more pounds by my birthday (august 1), 5-10 more pounds by the time school starts (august 24) and another 20 pounds by christmas. that makes 50-65 pounds total.

the tactic:
1. walking>jogging>running daily or at least 4 times a week and lifting weights or using other toning exercises 5 times a week
2. drinking more water and less pop, eating less dessert, and planning and counting down to indulgence days.

my new style:

simply beautiful is what i'm calling it. i'm taking tim gunn's ideas and adding them to my career plans and personality. i need staples: nice solid black, white, pink, and blue tops; nice solid tank tops for layering; 2 or 3 pairs of good jeans; functional but classy pants in muted tones; solid colored dresses; vests, jackets and sweaters galore. if you're bored with these ideas, the plan is to take full advantage of this lovely new discount jewelry store in the okc metro and buy all kinds of loud, crazy, fun jewelry and accessories, including scarves and hats.

we're not even going to touch shoes. shoes are an entirely different beast. i haven't decided which avenue my shoes will take.

i'm also going to have a consulting done about my hair. the goal is to wear dredlocks. the lady i've talked to who has locks and knows how to do them says she waited a year to lock up her hair because she didn't want to start off too short. well, i'm not afraid of short - i rocked the rihanna for several months. so in a couple of weeks i'm going to make and appointment to see her and figure out if it's possible to lock my hair at the length it is. if she says it's possible, i'll probably take the plunge around my birthday.

the biggest thing about the simply beautiful transformation is that the hair is all i can start on now. i will not buy jeans or tops until i'm closer to my weight loss goal. it's my incentive as well as a money-saving tool.

and i'm all about throwing in a couple or three new tattoos! lol.

the house - cleaning:

i clean my bedroom all the time, which is wonderful progress from where i was. now i need to learn to clean the kitchen. that will just take a pair of rubber gloves and bravery. if i really want to be good, i could clean the garage, but i'm making no promises there. and then there's a spare room that could use some sprucing.

tactics:
1. i need to really get rid of all the bags of things leftover from the move. it's not sexy to have bags everywhere. plus i still don't know where a lot of stuff is.
2. the issue there has been that i moved from a HUGE bathroom to really a half-bath so i have a lot of stuff. i could get one of those fun door hangers that were made for dorms.

i have turned our spare room into a work/art space. it's tiny, but its functional. it needs some work though.
1. i need to bring my desk out of storage and into the room.
2. i need to gather and store all of the unused bedding in our rented facility.
3. stack and label my art boxes
4. keep my office things contained
i'm highly motivated by the show "clean house." thanks, trish suhr.

the house - living:

1. i need to make routines for cleaning and re-organizing
2. i need to hang my art on the walls in the spare room
3. i need to print some pictures off of my computer
4. i need to have real projects, not just boxes of supplies
5. i need an ipod dock that charges and has good speakers

one more thing...i need a job!