Along Came Holly…

Well, the inevitable happened. Ben and I decided we needed to lose weight, and here I am, on day 7 or so and I am craving sugar like nobody’s business. I feel like one of the individuals being chronicled on Intervention. I swear if I thought I could stick my fingers down my throat and force myself to throw up, I’d eat an entire bag of Oreos right now. I’m not implying that Bulimia is a joke–it’s not–I can understand the want for that kind of sugar pumping through my sugar-deprived veins.

Ben is such a champ about all this, he gets excited talking about his broccoli soup and Special K with blueberries. I would just rather not talk about food at all since I am not able to eat the things I really enjoy, I just shovel in the stuff I should be eating while secretly hoping an Arnie’s chocolate swirl cake rolled in chocolate sprinkles will just land on my counter, calorie-free of course! Ben believes my lack of sweets makes me “feisty”. Sometimes it just makes me crabby, but I know I need to do it and live a healthier lifestyle. I just wish it included pasta and a cookie once in a while. C’est la vie!

As I mentioned previously, Ben and I bought four acres of land recently in a rural area outside of Grand Rapids.  While we are not planning to build soon due to the poor housing market, we have begun to do a bit of research and see what is “out there” as far as house plans, builders, etc.  A good friend is a Realtor and has suggested a local builder, so we are planning to go see one of their properties this weekend (open house) along with another suggested builder, who coincidentally also has an open house this weekend.

On Monday night, we went to the Macaroni Grill for Ben’s birthday.  They have the butcher paper tablecloths covering the tables, and needless to say, Ben and I began sketching our respective dream homes on the tablecloth.  We made lists of our wants, needs, and the like.  Then, we came home and I began to explore the internet…famous last words, eh?

Found my dream house, folks!  It’s pie in the sky, I realize, especially without having kids to fill 4 bedrooms…but here is a link if you are interested….

http://www.homeplans.com/exec/action/plans/browsemode/details/filter/plnid.27919/hspos/hsnet/page/1/planid/27919/section/homeplans

Long live the Blaine!

It has been a pretty monumental week or two as far as celebrity deaths go–we’ve got Billy Mays, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Steve McNair…and unless you live on Mars, Michael Jackson.  While I am sad about MJ’s death (my first ever album was Thriller), I think the most understated death was that of Farrah Fawcett.  I really did not know much about her illness other than she was fighting with Enquirer about posting death pictures of her…until I watched her documentary Farrah’s Story.

She was a strong woman with limitless courage.  This was in spite of being surrounded by spineless men, particularly her son and husband who were caught doing drugs together.  Her son’s parting gift?  He was incarcerated when she passed away, her only child.  Dispicible.  I was inspired by her will to live–she went to Germany for all kinds of alternative treatments and never gave up, even when her cancer came back again and again.  It was quite a moving documentary; if you have not seen it, I recommend it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve really posted anything of significance on this site, so here is what I’ve been up to lately…

• We bought land!  We close on it Monday afternoon and we are very excited.  We’ve had our eyes on this land for over two years and we had thought it was off the market, but it returned at a much lower price, so we nabbed it!  It is four acres outside the city of Ada (suburb of Grand Rapids) and is in a very good school district, given we end up with kids someday.  We have now taken to riding around neighborhoods and commenting on what we like/dislike about houses.  I drew a master plan for our house tonight at Macaroni Grill; it’s pretty funny.
• I am taking graduate classes through the mail.  The company is called Learner’s Edge and it is much less complicated than attending a university, especially since the work load is lighter and I don’t actually ever have to attend a class–it is self-guided and I do it at my pace.  Good stuff!
• Ben found and helped his mom purchase a house in Grand Rapids.  While she is travel nursing, his sister Marie is living in the house with friends and Toby.  Yes, Toby has been returned to his rightful owner, and Rapinland is a little less hairy–literally and figuratively!

That’s the full updated list as I have it.  It has not been a tremendously eventful summer, but ah, the summer is still young!