A little happy dance

The weekend at the parents went great! Ben and I got into town around 10:30 last Thursday night, spent some time talking to my mom then headed off to bed. Friday was jam packed with activities. If you know my family, you know we do not sit down. There is no such thing as "lay around and watch tv together." Abby, Kelli (my little sisters) and I took Ben on a golf ride around the farm, then we hopped in the car and toured Jackson..... 15 mins later we were done. :) I'm just kidding. I got to show him the house I grew up in and the neighborhood that has so many awesome memories, then we went down to "the big pool" and played on the playground. The pool didn't have any water in it so we just looked at the rocks on the bottom. haha . We enjoyed lunch at Ed's (or The Drive-In) - gotta get that cherry coke in! - then went on a shopping extravaganza to Dirt Cheap! We watched the little girls play in their softball tournament and went and hung out with Ashley and Misty. Saturday we were up bright and early to do some fishing, then spent the rest of the afternoon watching more softball. Easter morning was a bit chaotic, but what day isn't at the Crosby house? Dad had us up for a walk at 9:00am, then we all rushed and got dressed for church. In typical Crosby fashion, we were late... and late is the one thing you do not want to be on Easter Sunday! We were looking for a place to sit and the usher said "Um, I think the 3rd row up front in the very middle is empty." so we all (6) marched up right in the middle of church and took our seats as everyone looked at us and smiled/laughed. After Easter lunch we took the little girls easter eggs that they had dyed and played "egg schmear." Rather than hiding the eggs and looking for them, we hit them with a baseball bat. We ended the day/trip with a rousing game of family softball. With only 3 gloves and 7 people, it wasn't quite the exciting/action packed game that you might think it was, but we had a great time non-the less. So overall I give the trip an A+!

As far as other areas of my life.... thinks are looking great! I have an awesome opportunity that could be happening for me in the next few weeks. I can't say much about it right now, but I will be keeping you posted. I am however, very excited about it!

Ciao!

heading down south

We're coming up on Easter weekend. You know what that means? LONG WEEKEND! Hallelujah. I get Good Friday off from work so Ben and I are going down to my parent's house in Jackson, Al. I haven't been home since Christmas so I'm excited about seeing everyone. Ben has never had the pleasure of going to the awesomeness that is Jackson - but he is so excited he can't wait! We have quite the little busy schedule. Between all the site seeing that is to be done and world renowned shopping.... we're gonna be busy.

Places to see/Things to do:
1. eat at Ed's (or "The Drive-in")
2. Dirt Cheap - enough said
3. go see "the big pool". We won't get to swim because it obviously isn't warm enough, but we can still look.
4. watch my little sisters play in their softball tournament
5. go fishing at dad's lake and have a fish fry
6. visit friends
7. did I mention Dirt Cheap?
8. take a golf cart ride around the Farm
9. ride horses (if there is time)
10. church on Easter morning


That may be all we have time for, but ya never know! I will tell you all about our trip when I get back. Hopefully we will have a very uneventful trip down there, but if you know my driving record.... one can never be sure!

Happy Easter!

10%

I did it! After 11 long weeks, I finally reached my 10% goal. For those of you who aren't aware, back in January I started this new diet or "lifestyle change" as Ben likes to call it. It's been surprisingly easy and really easy to stick to. Along the way they celebrate 5lb milestones, but the first real goal you have is your 10% goal. I got this nifty (aka ugly) key chain as a reward, and I plan on using it proudly. Next week I get to set my goal weight, which is the ideal weight that I'd like to be. It will probably take me 50 more weeks to get there (I HOPE NOT!) but I'm in this for the long haul.

Many of you reading this may have no idea what it's like to struggle with your weight on a daily basis. But I was "blessed" with my mom's metabolism and gene's and my weight is something I have always, and will always struggle with. I'm hoping and praying that this "lifestyle change" will be something I actually stick with. No more fad diets or pills. No more eating grilled chicken every meal for 3 months. Those days are in the past. Here's to the new Mindy! The healthy, happy, and hopefully skinny - Mindy!

Maybe in a few more months I will post some "before" and "after" pics - how exciting would that be! Yea, yea - I know you're just bursting with anticipation. For all you ladies and gent's that are around to offer encouragement and support, I appreciate it more than you know! Thanks!

struggling....

Ah!I am so tired and having the hardest time staying awake! I babysat last night and the parents didn't get home until around 11:30, which put me getting home around 12:15am. I am one of those people that require a good 8 hours of sleep and getting in bed at 12:30/12:45 and getting up at 6:30 was not even close to my full nights sleep. Today is gonna be rough.

Hope your day is looking better than mine!

on the hunt for a house....

I am LOVING house hunting! For those of you that don't know, Ben and I have been looking at houses the last few weeks. I guess technically I should say BEN has been looking at houses, but he is letting me put in my two cents about which house I like, etc. I think it's pretty swell of him to let me help decide even though I won't be living there for quite sometime. (Maybe it's just cause he knows my taste is better than his. hehe)

We've been meeting with the Realtor the past few weekends and perusing through different homes. The first weekend we looked at houses on Mud Island. These homes are all newer homes (most built btwn 2000 - 2005), with big bathrooms, big closets, garages.... but no yard. At all. The floor plans are spacious, open, and inviting. It's also one of those neighborhoods where there are about 7 different styles of homes, and they just keep repeating. You don't noticed that the houses are pretty much the same though, because they are all different colors, and various architectural details are different from home to home. But for the most part it's a lot of the same house. A plus to living down on the Island is that it's on the river with a great river front park close by, it's convenient to downtown but you don't feel like you're living in a city.

The second weekend (this past weekend) we went and looked at the High Point Area. This is an older part of town in East Memphis. These houses were built anywhere from the 20's - 60's. They have a lot of character, and just about all of them have been remodeled and upgraded. The thing with this neighborhood is that the houses are smaller, there isn't much closet or bathroom space at all, and none of them have garages. BUT! They have huge yards.... and the neighborhood is just so nice and cute. We did find one house that we both really liked. It's actually two doors down from where our friends Jenny and Haden live. The only thing that Ben isn't 100% sold on is the fact that there is no garage.

We will be going out on Saturday for our third and hopefully final house hunt. The area we are looking in is Mid-town. The houses we've picked out to look at look really cute online but we've seen these past few weeks that just because it's cute online, does not mean it's cute in person!

Ben's lease is up on his apt. the first of July. So he's not in a huge huge hurry, but time is getting closer and closer for him to make a final decision. Hopefully after this weekend we will be able to narrow it down to 2 or 3 houses and then weigh the pro's and con's of each house. I'm praying the the Lord will lead us to the right house. A house that Ben feels comfortable buying and can afford. Even though it isn't my house - I can't help but be excited about it!

Snow? Maybe? Probably not

Oh oh! It might snow! I'm sitting here at work, checking the weather.com radar and hour-by-hour updates to see when it might get here..... The weather man is such a tease and got my hopes up last night that today might be a short day at work. "SNOW BY 11:00" he said. Not true. Well, there were a few flurries but nothing good enough to send us home early. My prediction is that it will be snowing a good, steady snow by 4:00. I haven't decided whether or not I think it's gonna stick. But I'm being skeptical and saying no.

The weather has been NUTS this week! This past weekend I was wearing short-sleeves and loving being outdoors. Tuesday we had snow flurries, Wednesday and Thursday it was back into the 60's... and now they are calling for snow again! Crazy!

Well, they are letting us leave early today "just to be on the safe side." I'm crossing my fingers for snow!

Have a great weekend!

Tugging at the heart strings...

Every year about this time one of the radio stations in Memphis does a St. Jude radio-thon.... and it gets me every year! St. Jude is such a wonderful organization and we are so fortunate to have it here in Memphis. They are obviously a non-profit organization and they run strictly off donations. Patients (children w/ cancer) are able to come to St. Jude COMPLETELY FREE and get treated with top cancer treatments in the world. They even provide a place for the parents and families of the patients to stay.

Anyway, during this radio-thon they have these sappy songs playing and in the middle of the songs they have parents that are telling their stories about their children that are at St. Jude or have passed away from this horrible disease. They have children that are patients there now calling in and telling their stories. I've been listening to it all day at work and have been crying most of the day! They are asking people to become a "Partner in Hope" with St. Jude. In order to be a Partner in Hope you only have to commit to giving $20.00 a month. I've been a partner in hope for the past few years and it's money I never miss! If you're interested in becoming a Partner (which I STRONGLY suggest!) call 1-888-278-HOPE. If you want to listen in you can listen online at www.kix106.com. You have to call by 7:00 tomorrow night!

Um, yeah

I'm back! I had great intentions of posting sooner than today but obviously that didn't happen! I'm sure you are just dying to know every little detail that has been going on in my life in the past 10 days or so, well let me fill you in!

The weekend of the Memphis/UT game turned out to be a lot of fun. Ben and I went down to Tunica Friday night and met up with a group of friends. I'm not much of a gambler, but I was up $1.50 on the penny machines at one time...I ended up losing it all in the end. I knew I should have cashed in while I was ahead! ;-) Saturday everyone met up at Ben's apartment before heading downtown. I had purchased the most amazing shirt to wear, and I knew it was gonna be a big hit. (HA!) Everyone decided that buying tickets was a no-go so we went to Jillian's Sports Bar and hung out/watched the game at the UT Alumni Party. It was a SEA of orange. Gross. My friend Becky came down and hung out with me so I wouldn't have to be the lone Tiger fan in the mass of UT fans. Bruce Pearl, the UT coach came and gave a little pep-talk/speech. You would have thought God entered the room the way these ppl just went nuts! Becky and I were looking at each other like "are you serious?" The game was very exciting, non-stop action and scoring the whole game. But with the ref's on the Vols side, and them playing a little better than the Tigers, UT pulled out a victory. The score was 66-62. very close game.

My Awesome T-Shirt!

I'm trying to think of what else has been going on...this past weekend Ben and I went to Lebanon, TN to visit his grandparents. His uncle was in town from DC so it was a lot of fun getting to meet him. The weekend was very relaxing. We napped, ate, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.... it was great! Other than that life has been pretty much the same ole' same ole' - work, hanging out with friends, etc. I'll be keeping you posted!