Favorite Online Sensation

I had to write another blog entry for the Tweedee Productions blog today. You can read it here.

Weight!

All week I've been meaning to bring an old picture of me to work, so I could scan it and upload it to this blog. I wanted to post of picture of me at my heaviest and a picture of me now. I think I've written previously about my constant struggle with my weight. When I graduated from college, I weighed 250 pounds. I have lost 80 of those pounds, which is no small feat! But according to the Body Mass Index (BMI), I should lose at least 15 more pounds to no longer be considered overweight. I should say that I have some issues with the BMI. It doesn't take into account frame size or muscle. I know that I should visit my doctor and talk about an appropriate weight. I should have a body fat test done. But I also know that I could stand to lose at least 15 pounds. Not because the BMI has classified me as overweight, but because I know the risks of carrying around extra weight.

Despite all this logical thought, I must admit that, even though I have been at my current weight (within 5 pounds) for over 6 years, I still think of myself as a fat girl. In my mind's eye, I am almost as big as when I graduated from college. My brain tells me that's not true. My friends and family tell that's not true. But my heart hasn't accepted that as truth. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps it will someday. In the meantime, I remind myself of all the things I can do more easily now that I'm not so heavy - jog, sit in theater and airplane seats, navigate a crowd, etc. I still have a hard time practicing portion control, especially when I'm not at home. I still can't turn down ice cream (or most other sweets). I still overeat. But I still try.

"My Favorite Madison Moment"

At Tweedee, we've been working on a video that has included interviews with some BIG NAMES in Madison. We've done 5 interviews so far with 1 left to do tomorrow.

We started with Suzy Favor Hamilton, former UW track athlete and 3-time Olympian.







We moved on to 2 UW Hospital employees. And then Mayor Dave.








This afternoon, we interviewed Ron Dayne, former UW running back and Heisman trophy winner.

Tweedee Productions Blog

I just wrote my first blog post for the Tweedee blog. Check it out!

11 weeks old

I just realized that I haven't blogged in over two weeks! I'm sorry it's been so long, but with work and the puppy, I feel like I've been meeting myself coming and going.

Anyway, the first couple of weeks with Bella were especially difficult as she would go potty in her bed (crate) all the time. It didn't seem to matter if she had been in there for half an hour or 3 hours - she would go potty. We finally called the vet, and we discovered she had a urinary tract infection. She's been on amoxicillin for two weeks now, and she has only had a couple of accidents in her bed during that time. Hooray!! Giving her medication is a lot easier than working on behavior modification. And when she's not in her bed, she always goes to the door to let us know when she needs to go potty.

We started a puppy socialization class this week. We learn about training (starting with Sit and Come), and the puppies get a chance each week to play with each other. There are some really cute puppies in the class with Bella! We're looking forward to learning more about helping Bella to become a well-trained dog. It'll be a lot of work, but it'll be worth it!

Here are some pictures we took last night when our friends brought over their 8-year-old Husky.

A good Norwegian man

My grammy tells everyone that I married a good Norwegian man. Though this is true, he is Norwegian-American rather than from Norway. It's his birthday today. His first birthday as a married man. I'm excited to get to take him out for dinner (after getting our church directory picture taken!) and give him his gifts. We'll have a family celebration on Sunday. I love birthdays! But I love nothing more than I love Einar!

Bella Tori

This picture was taken the night we brought Bella home. She was 2 days shy of being 8 weeks old. We met the breeder and 2 of her sisters at the big truck stop where I-90/94 and I-39 split. We really liked all 3 of the puppies we met, but Bella was the one we felt the best about. When we got her home, she fell asleep on the towels by the door.




This picture was taken one Bella's 8-week birthday. She was curled up on the couch while Einar and I got ready for work. We have since decided that she will not be allowed on the couch unless we invite her. Since she's gonna be a big dog, we don't want her to think the couch is hers. Humans first! She sure is cute, though!



This picture was taken the day after the picture just above. We were at Einar's parents' condo for a wonderful Mexican dinner prepared by a visiting cousin. It was the first time Einar's family got to meet Bella, and she was a big hit! Well, except with Chino (the Shih-Tzu). Chino wasn't sure what to think of Bella, so she pretty much just hid and tried to go unnoticed.



I will try to get more pictures taken one of these days - I keep forgetting to charge the camera batteries. She is already noticeably bigger. We are working really hard on getting her housebroken, and for the most part, she's doing okay. She just doesn't have a very big bladder yet, so her accidents tend to happen when we're at work (although I'm going home a couple times a day to let her out) or overnight. She'll get it. We're starting a puppy class on May 13 for 6 weeks. We can hardly wait!

Recession

I know I've written about the economy before, but I've been trying to avoid that topic, since it's all over the news and I feel like we all hear enough about it. But when I was reading the Planet Money blog today, they had this post about the IMF naming our current recession a "synchronous recession," which is not good. I continue to be thankful for my jobs and Einar's job. I continue to pray for all of the people who are unemployed or underemployed, especially my brother and others I know personally. I am trying to stay optimistic. . .

Belated

Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday. We'll be gathering with her and other family members on Saturday to celebrate her birthday. I'm excited to spend some time with everybody and to get to have some food off the grill! Last year, Ingrid and I had a super-fun time going to the Maple Bluff Community Garage Sale, and we just decided to do it again this year. Of course, that means that I need to figure out when that's happening, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. Get some coffee or chai and a scone from Manna and hit the sales!
This picture was taken during the formal pictures for the wedding. They were all waiting around for their turn, and Ingrid hams it up!

Blogs

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been put in charge of getting 2 blogs for Tweedee up and running. The first one is for Tweedee itself. All 6 of us will take turns writing on the blogs, and it will be updated at least once a week. Check it out here. We started the blog, in part, because we wanted to get "Samie the Intern" episodes available as a video podcast on iTunes. However, we ended up needing to start a separate blog for "Samie" to do that. You can watch the video episodes on that blog OR you can open iTunes and search the podcasts for "Samie the Intern" and download them. If you didn't know this, I am completely in charge of "Samie the Intern." I schedule the shoots, come up with ideas (with a lot of help from Samie and my bosses), shoot the video, edit, and encode as a QuickTime movie for the Tweedee Productions website and the "Samie" blog. It's a pretty fun thing to get to do. I hope that you'll check out the videos, if you haven't already.