Herbed Potatoes and Bikini Bodies

Quite the title isn’t it.

Mr. Gaunt and I went on a long hilly walk today, I’m kind of hating the gym lately, too hot and stuffy. I’m loving the nice weather, and feel awful not taking advantage of it, so we have been walking a lot. Today we walked to the Post Office, the Library, and strolled through Maritime Heritage Park (which is a beautiful park that unfortunately ends up being kind of sketchy with all the homeless that hang out there). Needless to say our walk ended up being exactly three miles. So that’s nice.

I did have a little breakdown on our walk. I feel so unhappy about my weight right now. My physical fitness has to pick up, and my decadent splurges have to go down stop. I need way more veggies, and way less cheese and bread. I just know how much better I would feel minus 30 pounds. Lordy. It’s never-ending is it? I feel like my ass and stomach are larger than they have been in a while though, which is just so unpleasant. Consider me on a diet!

For dinner we had grilled chicken sausage, asparagus, and herb potatoes.

The potatoes were leftover from Mothers Day that I sliced up. Then I just cut some thyme, dill and oregano from my garden, tossed with some olive oil, pepper and salt, and baked at 425 for 15 minutes. Super yummy, and not too bad for you.

Also in super exciting news!!!! Mr. Gaunt got a promotion today! He will now be a supervisor, which is more responsibility, but also more money! Yay! We really could use more money. I also have taken up a twice a week cleaning gig at my moms wine bar via our other business, which will be bringing in a nice little monthly paycheck. I have also sold 3 paintings this month, and booked our largest wedding yet for November! Mr. Gaunt has also started a used media shop on Amazon that he is done really well at so far. You would think with all our little business adventures that we wouldn’t be nearly so poor. The funny thing is, all this money will be coming in later on, so far now we just have to keep treading water and hope for the best. HARD WORK! HARD WORK! HARD WORK!

Mr. Gaunt and I spent time the other night talking about our jobs, and how hard we are working, and our dreams. We have a philosophy that it is better to work our butts off trying to work for ourselves, and have freedom, then to just work a basic 9-5 for someone else. The saying “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” rings so loud for me. The passion and desire I have to build a career around my life, and not build my life around a job, will continue to fuel me through the hard times. We will make it. We will work for ourselves. We will be able to do the things we want to do. We will get everything we need.

On that note, I did ZuzkaLights ZWOW #19 video tonight. I did it the best I could, and my abs feel it. She says its to prepare me for my bikini body…yeah…uh huh. You should really do it too! It’s not to bad, and its super fast.

http://www.youtube.com/zuzkalight#p/a

 

The Dark and Short

When it starts getting dark at 5pm, my days seem to vanish, cut in half. All summer I was running on such little sleep in order to give myself as much day as I could. I would wake up at 6:30 and wouldn’t go to bed till 1am. Then daylight lasted from 6am to 10pm, it felt like the days went on forever, and even still I felt I needed more time. Now Its dark when I wake up, and dark 2 hours after I get home for work, the days are teeny tiny. We are also on a slightly different schedule, as Mr. Gaunt now works at 5am, so we have to be in bed eyes shut by 10pm. Between 4 and 10 I feel like we GO GO GO.

Yesterday I came home and immediately went into the kitchen to bake  a pumpkin cake (because I’m crazy…shhh!. Once the cake was in the oven I sat on the couch for another hour finishing a painting that has to ship out today. By 5:45 the cake was cooling and I whipped up some cream cheese frosting (cause I’m god damn Martha Stewart…duh!), changed out of my work clothes, and by 6 we were in the car going to our friends house for dinner (and movie, and invitation making). We got home at 9pm, I spent 30 minutes on the computer, then to bed. It was actually a great evening, and we love doing things like that, but I often feel like every day of the week is similar in busyness, its hard to find balance.

This morning I woke with some anxiety, which after searching my brain

side note: Does anyone else do this? When you feel stress or anxiety but aren’t sure where it comes from, you run through all the things going on in your life until you feel that PANG. Then you know whats causing it.

I determined it was a mix of money, and my job. Money because I have to take a TON of time off (unpaid) in the next few months (4 weeks off to be exact) and I worry that the coattails of wedding funds will be gone and we will be very sad folks. Also because we are switching from a big bank (booo) to a credit Union (yay!) and we got our first credit card (Yay & Boo), but we still havent finished moving all (like there’s a whole bunch…lol!) our money over and closing our accounts. So I feel like we are in banking limbo, and that is scary…ugg. But when the stupid banks all close by 6pm WHEN ARE PEOPLE SUPPOSE TO DO THAT SORT OF THING! I wish banks were open from 6am to 10pm so people could get off work and do banking things, lordy.

As for my job (are you guys sick of me bitching about one shitty job after another for the last 3 years yet? Yeah, me neither.) Its lame, and it pays nothing, and I have ZERO benefits because technically I’m still seasonal, and now they are making me take 5 unpaid weeks off before the end of January. On top of that, it’s just super boring, which I don’t do well with.

Sooooooooo

I have a plan. A business plan! A plan to start my own business doing something I’m good at, and something that’s not too hard. It’s a plan that could maybe be a full-time gig for me, that MAYBEEEEE could even be a full time family gig! That would give me (and my man friend) my own schedule, and wouldn’t cost a million dollars to start-up (except we kind of need a van…of the mini variety). But I’m lazy, and I get scared with business politics, and I’m bad with money, and I worry too much. How could I ever function? I know my mom and Mr. Gaunt will help too, but they are both busy with their own jobs, neither of them feel the DIRE NEED to do something better with their lives (well they do, but not as much as me). So far I have a business name, a logo, a plan, and a lot of ideas and lists. What I need is a business license, a van, a bank account, a website, supplies, brochures, uniforms, and a gig. Which is overwhelming when you have a full-time job, a part-time painting job, and a life cat!

But I NEED it to happen! So I’m just going to wing it. I’m going to go get the things I can get (no van for me…):) and piece together the rest!

Oh! Maybe YOU can help. What is another word for “Execution” or “Executor” in the “get something done” meaning, not the “kill someone” meaning?

So I feel better, blogging always helps me sort out my thoughts a bit. And I’m sooo excited to FINALLY make my bridal shower Thank You Cards tonight and Mr. Gaunt is changing his alternator tonight (the shop quoted him $600…psh! No way) So him and his friend Greg (who helped him change his starter) checked the book out at the Library and are gonna give it a go. I’m so proud of him for attempting to learn these things, and I’m glad he has Greg to help him feel more comfortable under the hood of a car.

Alright. I also NEED some new music! I would love you lots if you would post at least 1 or 2 of your favorite songs at the moment in the comments!

Quitting for Happiness

My dearest Kelli inspired me to talk a bit about my job/future plans of unemployment.

I know I should be all freaking ecstatic to HAVE a job, any job, and I should thank my lucky stars that I can work somewhere and make a living to help support my family, blah blah blah.

Here is the thing, I can’t do it. I can’t continue to destroy my mind and spirit, and waste any natural talent and ambition I might have left. I can not hate my life for a paycheck. I can not spend 40 hours a week trying to look busy. I can not be disrespected and talked down to by some pervy old man who somehow kissed enough ass to make his way into some pointless paper pushing supervisor position.

I cant.

And I wont. (and for the record I wont be letting that happen to my future husband either, whether he can stand it or not)

And so I’m quitting. On February 25th I will NEVER go back.I will NEVER look back. And most of all I will NEVER decrease my self value like I have for the last 2 years, just for $12.35 and hour….NEVER.

So everyone wants to know what I will be doing once I get to Washington. Well, the options are endless, despite the poor economy in a college town for a girl with no degree.

Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about:

1. J+M design: continue putting along with our painting business. I will have to take 1 month off from this until Mr. Gaunt and I are back in the same house.  Our new home has a nice storage area for Canvas, and the Art community is always full of support in Bellingham. I have new ideas for promoting and would really like to continue with this. My goal is to make 30% of my half of our income this way by next January.

2. Weddings: Im sure its something that has crossed every wedding planning brides mind “I could be a wedding Planner!” but I have already done one, and I think I do offer a unique point of view. Not to mention Im not really looking to “plan” more to help “create” fun eco-friendly budget friendly weddings. Mr. Gaunt and I have talked a bit about starting a wedding “trade, rent, collect” type business as well as a cleanup/set up crew for brides who want reliable help without the high cost of a planner.

3. Marketing: My mom runs/manages a wine and tapas bar that REALLY needs to get their tushes in gear and start moving forward. I have lots of ideas to help them grow. Food, t-shirts, music, events, Id love to have a hand in all of this.

4. BLOG: This includes a serious upgrade, as well as marketing and err…a possible cookbook idea. (=

But of course those are all somewhat self-employed business opportunities. Am I willing to go back to corporate? Yes and No.

-No MALLS!

-No large corporate chains…none! It’s not a community I want to support.

-Yes to seasonal jobs at my old Graphic DEsign firm

-Yes to seasonal jobs at my brothers farm

-Yes to helping local companies work Farmers markets

-Yes to 32 hours, not 40.

-Yes to time off to be with my family, helping Mr. Gaunt through school, and all of that.

So we will see. I have such big dreams and I’m finally going to be in a position to make some of that happen! I’m so excited to be back in the community that very much supports my unusual ways of making a living.

Most of all I’m ready to grow up and stop selling myself short. Mr. Gaunt and I will be married in 7.5 months, and we plan to start a family in the near future. I want to have the flexibility and the peace of working a job that works around my life, not my life working around a job. Thats how I was raised, and that’s how I want my children raised. To be free minded, happy, and creative!