Muggle

So it is Saturday morning at about 9:00 am and Nisee is still sleeping. She was up for about an hour and a half at 5:45 am this morning. I got up with her and when she went back to sleep so did I but as always around 8:30 I am up and cannot go back to sleep so I decided to go ahead and get ready to go to my Moms so that when she wakes up I will be ready to go and I will just need to feed her and get her ready. When getting ready I decided I was going to wear one of my most favorite shirts. It is my Muggle shirt!

Now if any of you know me you know that I am a HUGE HARRY POTTER FAN! Like Those Twimoms got nothing on me and my HP fixation! There is no cute name for this though. I do like Twilight as evidenced from previous blogs but it pales in comparison to my Harry Potter! I have read all of the books 3 times except book 7. I have seen all of the movies way too many times to count and I own multiple copies of them. I have at 4 Harry Potter Shirts: My Muggle one of course, A Dubledore's Army shirt, A Neville: My Hero shirt, and a Levicorpus shirt. My Muggle shirt is my favorite Harry Potter shirt. Now if you are not a Harry Potter fan you might be saying "What the Hell is a Muggle?" A muggle is a term that is used in the books and movies for "non Magical folk" has Hagrid puts it best. Now your probably saying "What the hell is a Hagrid?" but this post is about my Muggle shirt so if you want to know that go read the books or at least watch the movies. The same thing goes for "What is Dumbledore's Army and Levicorpus?"

So as I was getting dressed I put on my jeans and then my freshly washed Muggle shirt. It is a maroon color fitted t-shirt with the word Muggle in white harry potter font type letters across the chest. I headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth and that's when I saw it! Right there in the middle of the shirt just above my belly button is a huge grease stain. I was super pissed!!! We have always tried to wash my clothes and Chad's work clothes separately so that his work yuck didn't get transferred to any of my things. I went and looked for the basket to see if I could see anything that might have caused this and sure enough right there with all the reds was one of Chads old work hoodies covered in grease stains.

Now I know Chad was doing a good thing by washing the clothes but it just drives me nuts because he keeps ruining my clothes! Last week he ruined my yellow cardigan by washing it with some pinks or oranges and it has stains all down one side so it had to be thrown away. BUT Back to my muggle shirt. I know grease stains do not come out. I worked at a fish restaurant for 6 years waiting tables and we served 90% fried foods so there was a lot of grease in my clothes and no matter what it just would not come out. Now if you know of a way to get it out please let me know because I tried every stain remover and detergent I knew of plus some crazy home remedies as well and NOTHING worked.

SO what am I going to do now that my favorite Muggle shirt is ruined? Well 1st off I am going to wear it anyways today because I am just going to be visiting family and they won't care about it. 2nd I jumped on the computer to see if they were still selling it! THEY ARE!!! Warner Brothers still has the shirt for sale on their website. YIPPEE!!! AND even better its on SALE!!! So I am going to order a new one. Crisis averted!

This post I am sure for most has been pretty boring because well it has been about a freaking t-shirt but this blog is about what is on my mind! HAHAHA

I am going to close this post with the trailer for the new Harry Potter films that are going to be releasing November 2010 and July 2011! I am so excited about these movies and saddened too. I know what happens since I have read the books but in addition to that it is the close of the series. This is the end. It was like when Lord of the Rings ended. Sure Return of the King was sad when the King of Rohan died and when you see Frodo leave his friends because being the ring bearer was so terribly hard on him but more than that I was crying like a baby because I knew I would not get to journey to middle earth this way anymore. It would be through the same movies at home or only in my mind as I read the books. And I think that is how it is going to be when I see these final movies. It is going to be the end of something phenomenal and spectacular and something that has really touched me and my life. SO enjoy the trailer and a few pics of me and my Harry Potter obsessed self!

This is a comparison of the 1st HP film and the last HP film posters. Thanks to Mugglenet.com






This is my Tattoo of course! It is not solely for Harry Potter although it partly is because I love Harry Potter. My Maiden name was Hollie Potts aka HP and my married name is Hollie Pangan again HP and I have a friend that called me HP. So I thought it was a great way to do my initials and pay respect to the Potts I used to be the Pangan I am now and show love for my fave books and movies!




This is me in my Dumbledore's Army shirt before OOTP came out.



This is a tank top that is now owned by Amanda Smith a friend of mine. When I bought this tank top it was an extra large but I wore it this one night that I was hanging out with Christina and then I washed it and it shrank down to what had to be a small or medium so I gave it to my friend Amanda who also loves Harry Potter and is small enough to wear it. So I know its well cared for, LOL!



Sad thing is I do not have any pictures of myself in my Muggle shirt ... I am going to have to change that!!!!

And wow it took me 55 minutes to post this and Nisee is still sleeping another WOW!!!

No you eat less!

So I am re-posting this. I saw it on Jessica's blog who was re-posting as well and like her it bothered me.

Go to http://www.sophiabush.com/blog/ to read the post in its entirety.

Basically Urban Outfitters has a new shirt that says Eat Less but not only that the picture of the model wearing it is of a sickly skinny looking girl in this shirt. To me it is not at all attractive and not only that it sends a bad message.

Now personally I have never bought a thing from Urban Outfitters mostly because I am not a single digit size and I cannot wear their clothes but besides that I don't care for their styles either. AKA I think their stuff is ugly! Nothing against those who like it but I am not impressed. It is also way to expensive for what it is. I can get stuff that looks much better from Target for a third of the price. BUT that is not the point of this... The POINT is that it is in very bad taste to tell people to EAT LESS and send a message to already impressionable teens that they need to eat less. To me that might as well say being anorexic is ok so that you can wear our clothes.

I am obsessed with my weight and I have a terrible body image issues. I struggle all the time to lose weight and do what I can to be healthy and it's hard for me as a 28 year old woman to deal with the pressures that society puts on you to be thin. I cannot imagine being a teenager now in high school and being a bigger girl and having to face the need to be thin much less to see other girls walking around in shirts that say Eat Less.

Personally my goal is to be a healthy weight. I don't care what size that is I just want to be healthy and happy! That is what everyone should want and that should be what these retailers should be promoting. I haven't seen a shirt that says Happy and Healthy yet, Have you?

On another note my weight loss has stalled this week. I have been stuck for a week at the same weight but it was bound to happen since I have lost so much so fast in the past 6 weeks. I also lost a lot last week because of the stomach virus I had. I couldn't eat for a few days b/c I was too busy getting sick. I am still exercising and watching what I eat. I am sure that it will pick back up next week. This one week will not derail my progress. I have come too far and I have too many goals I want to reach! Tomorrow starts my work week. Hope its a great one! Night All!

Robert Pattinson

Ok so I want to shoot Catherine Hardwicke for ruining what could have been a much better portrayal of Edward Cullen by Robert Pattinson. Since she was the 1st director she set the stage for how the characters are portrayed in the series. Each director after that can make changes to the movies but as far as how the characters are played it is very hard to change that. This is of course in my opinion and I am of course feigning like I am an expert in this area. I also know that the screenplay writers have something to do with this too but I prefer to blame the director and especially to blame her!

SO why am I now bitching about this? I mean Twilight came out in 2008. Well that's because I just watched Remember Me. AND it SO proves that he can act so much better than his work in Twilight. I mean he has gotten better in New Moon and Eclipse but still in Remember Me he was great. I have much more respect for him as an actor now. He is also much hotter for me now! Don't get me wrong he was cute and hot before but now its just magnified. Yes, Stephanie you told me so! I said it for you, so you don't have too!

Remember Me is a great movie and I highly recommend it! Just be prepared with Tissues and maybe even some oxygen because it is SAD and SURPRISING all at the same time. I am still in shock I think, or maybe awe! I am not going to say what happens even though I want to. Remember Me is about treasuring everyday of your life and the people in it. I loved it and it's message is powerfully delivered! SO like I said check it out but be prepared for some shocks and tears!

A link to the Movie online
http://www.rememberme-movie.com/

OK enough about Remember Me and Robert Pattinson. This post is going to go down on Monday because its after midnight. IDK why I am so wired tonight. Normally I would be passed out but I think it is because my mind is racing. I am hoping that this blog will allow me to get that out so when I do hit the pillow I fall right asleep. I am off work tomorrow. It is my day off but I have to work 4 10hr days after that but I can deal because it's the last week of it! Tomorrow will be a lazy day or a cleaning day. I have not decided yet. Probably a lazy day! HAHA

Well have a great night everyone!

The Picture is of The Family before going to the grocery store today!

Yard Sale and Babies!

The Yard Sale was a great success! We sold a lot of items but we still had a lot left. I had a lot of Nisee's clothes for sale and some other baby items that she doesn't use anymore but very little of this sold. I was surprised because normally baby items go fast. All her stuff is in really good shape too. She had so many clothes that she never wore the same item twice until she was like 6 months old. I still did great and made around $150! It is really helpful with Chad being laid off but its sad when the money will have to go to pay for groceries and bills.

We had a lot of clothing for adults too and most of the summer items sold easily. There was one woman who came and bought over $80 of mine and my sister in law's clothes. She left with 3 trash bags full of clothes! It was so hot though that most of our winter items were left hanging because people didn't want to even pick them up. We had a great location at my Mamaw's in Statesville because she has a great carport and lots of shade trees and we make sure to have everything under those so we would keep people out of the sun. Since we had so much left over we are going have another yard sale in September but this time at My house. We can use my garage and we have good shade on one side too. Maybe this time more of Nisee's stuff will get sold as well as the winter items. I guess this will continue until we don't have anymore stuff to sale. Either way I am really happy about how it turned out.

I also got news from Nicole yesterday. My friend Nicole lives outside of Seattle in FT. Lewis, Washington. She was expecting a baby girl on September 16th. She sent me a text yesterday to let me know that little Juliet Victoria Zukowsi decided to come early Friday July 23rd at 9:21am pacific time (12:21pm here). I talked to Mommy yesterday evening and both baby Juliet and Mommy are doing well. Her birth went well for Nicole but since Juliet was early she will have to stay in the hospital. She was born at 32 weeks and was around 3lbs 11 oz. I am pretty sure that was what Nicole said yesterday. I was so excited that I can hardly remember everything. She is too precious and I am so happy for Nicole! She is going to be the best mommy ever! Her baby shower was supposed to be this coming Saturday but now it has been put on hold and I will get to meet Juliet at her own shower! I can't wait!





There are so many people having babies and pregnant now and it makes me want to have another one so bad. Chad and I had talked about having another baby next year. We will have to see though. It all depends on if he has another job by then. Things are looking good in that area though! We are keeping our fingers crossed!

Yesterday was my Brother in Law Roger's Birthday. We are going to a cookout by the Pool at Chad's Moms house for him today! We are ready for some pool time! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER!!!

Excited!

I was up until almost midnight with the last post on my blog and I paid for it this morning. I was so tired but once I got up I had a new burst of energy because I knew that today was my Friday and Monday and I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday! We had a long day ahead because we had to go to Durham but I had a great time meeting new people and my new team mates! :) I am super excited about what is coming up at work!

I have now lost 25 pounds and I am really excited about it. I am still working on hitting that 30 lb mark by my 10 year reunion and I still have time to reach that but we will see. It is a long journey. There are a lot of things going into this but I am not doing it on my own and I don't intend to make out like I haven't been helped. I am using an appetite suppressant to help with my food. I guess I should start by saying what made me decide to look into this. Before I started taking this I was working out and trying to watch what I was eating but I could not control my food intake. Each day I would start out great and then I would just break down starving. So then I started looking at making sure I was getting the right balance with protein and carbs at each meal to make sure my food would last and my body would burn the right things but it still did no good. I was seeing very little improvement and most of the time it just depressed me. Then a friend at work told me about something she had tried that had helped her lose the weight and she had lost a lot and looked great. So I decided, Well it can't hurt! So I started June 8th and I have had nothing but success since then. I am still exercising and trying to eat right because you can only take this appetite suppressant for 4 months at a time and then you have to take a month off and at some point I will have to do it myself anyways or the weight will just come back. I am hoping that after this first 4 months I will be able to continue on my own and not need it anymore. We will see! I am very excited because it has been over 2 years since I have been at this weight!

So I am sure you all know that I love Twilight and a Friend of mine sent this to me! It is so funny! Check it out! HeHe!!!


And on that note! No one got sent home this week on SYTYCD... 2 people are going home next week! I DON'T Like It but oh well! Good Night everyone!

Dancing

One of my favorite shows is So You Think You Can Dance! I love this show! I watching it religiously and I think it is just great! I danced when I was younger and I really enjoyed it but not enough to make it my life but watching this now makes me wish I had. I remember my dance recitals and my costumes. I think I was pretty cute! HaHa! Nisee likes to dance and watching her and watching this show makes me wonder if she will be a dancer. She will bob her head and kick her legs and swing her arms and it is so cute! We have tried and tried to catch it on video but every time we turn on the camera she stops and just looks at the camera. We will keep trying but I think we are going to have to be sneaky!

What really surprises me is how moving some of these dances are. They make me laugh and cry. I even find myself wincing and being nervous for my favorites when they are dancing. SO I am going to share some of my favorites with you.

The 1st was Ivan and Allison! I loved it! It was so beautiful!



The 2nd is Lacey and Kameron (Ignore the captions) This one hooked me!!!


The 3rd is Season 4 ... there were so many ...







Then came Season 5:
The 1st dance is named addiction and if you have ever had one this one will speak to you so deeply ... and it just gets it! So powerful!


Then came this one ... you know what its about and well


Season 6 was great too




I think that this season is my favorite because of the all-stars though!

Season 7:
Kent and Lauren perform to Collide (Acoustic Verison) by Howie Day....

Robert, along with All-Star Allison, performs a contemporary dance to Fix You by Coldplay....

Well if you have watched all of those you have been here for a long time. I am up way past my bed time. I will have to blog more about this soon! Obviously this is something I love!

Public Libraries

I am piloting a new schedule at work for the next 3 weeks. I will be working 4 10 hour days each week. My hours vary a little each week but I will have off either Monday or Friday each week. I had Monday off this week and after going with Chad to the unemployment office we went to the Davidson County Public Library. Now I haven't been to a public library in years. Heck I haven't been to a library at all since college. We went there so I could get a library card of course to borrow books. Since Chad got laid off we are poor and I can no longer BUY all the books I want to read so I am now going to the public library. All the books I was wanting were checked out. But there were a few others that I had been eying that I got.

I have been reading the Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series. It is a young adult series but the story is really good. The books read fast and I have read the 1st 4 books. The 5th book is not out in paper back yet so I am having to wait on it and I am not very patient but I guess I can deal. These books have also reignited my interest in Greek Mythology and I ended up checking out a book on it. I also got a Kathy Reichs book, Pirate Lattitudes by Micheal Crichton, and Witch and Wizard by James Patterson. I have almost finished Witch and Wizard and its good so far. I love reading. I tend to stay up too late reading and then I pay for it the next day.

On another note I am officially down 21 lbs. YIPPEE!!! Nisee is taking Steps. Most in a row is 5 so shes not really walking but we are on the way! Mamaw isn't doing very well but we are dealing. Work is super busy. That is my life right now.

The pic below is of Nisee wearing her necklaces. She loves to dress up already! I am afraid I have a girly girl on my hands! So much for Chad's little hockey player!

Success and The Coast

It is almost my bed time but I had to take the time to stop by and get in a quick post. Since my last post I had a great vacation and have reached the 1st 2 of my goals for weight loss. I had posted a bunch of goals around weight loss back in early May.

Here are my Goals for the weight loss Portion of this journey:
1) Lose 8 pounds by the end of May for our Beach Trip
2) Lose 10 more pounds by the Fourth of July (total 18 pounds lost)

My time line is a little off but I can say that as of this mornings weigh in I have officially reached my 18lbs gone! I am super excited about this. I am finally under Pre-pregnancy weight by 3 lbs. This is a big deal for me!

My next goal has to do with my High School reunion which has been moved to August 7th, 2010. It was originally Aug 14th, 2010. My goal was 3) Lose 12 more pounds by August 14, 2010 for my High school Reunion (total 30 pounds lost). I am still going to try to get as close to that as I can. So we will see.

Things are still pretty crazy around here with Chad being on temporary lay-off. My parents are the best in the world. They covered our trip to the coast. We were staying in my brothers camper which is free but there are other costs. They are so great! Chad got to fish a lot with my Dad. My Dad has his commercial license, so he makes money for the fish he catches. So Chad was actually able to work a little but while he was there. They caught a lot of flounder.

Nisee and I had a blast playing in the ocean and sound. Nisee likes the ocean as long as you are there with her. She is braver in the sound because there is no waves. I found some great sea shells. We walked almost all around the island. We also stopped at a sand bar and I got some surprises. First I picked up a conch shell and it moved, I screamed b/c there was still a conch in it. I returned him to the water. Next I found a snail shell that was really pretty and I picked it up carefully and inspected it closely, I even had my mom check to make sure it wasn't anyone's home and we decided it was empty. Well about 5 mins later I screamed because a crab came crawling out to yell at me for moving him and trying to steal his house. It was pretty funny to my mom but I was done with that sand bar. I got back to the boat and my dad had caught 3 sand sharks and had them laid up on the bar.


There is so much more I could go into but it is my bed time. I will try to get on here and share a lot more of the things going on in my life. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Father's Day and Temporary Layoffs

Father's Day was great yesterday but the night before we did not get any sleep. Nisee did not want to sleep at all. Not sure why but she didn't. For Father's day we went to Breakfast for Chad then to visit my Mamaw Evalene then to Papaw Lester's for homemade ice cream and finally out to dinner with my Dad. Chad's father passed away back in 2005 so we just celebrate for him.

I have told some close friends and my family about this but I haven't told anyone else really. That is until now. Chad found out last Monday that he is being put on temporary layoff starting today for 2 weeks. Ok so if it only lasts for 2 weeks then we can handle that but what if it lasts for longer? We don't even know how much unemployment that he is going to get yet. So we are in a wait and see pattern and for anyone who knows me that is so hard. I like to be in charge and I like to be in control. But since there really isn't anything I can't do about it I guess I will just have to learn to handle it. It is driving me crazy though.

I also have to go back to work today. 12-9 all week. YUCK! I have enjoyed being at home with Nisee so much this week that I really do not want to go back. She's growing and talking so much. It is harder now that when I went back after Maternity leave.

Nisee has offically taken steps. She took 1 step unassisted on Saturday and Sunday she was taking up to 4 steps alone! She still hasn't taken off running but she is on her way! I will soon have a toddler!!! Below are just a few pics from Fathers day.

Surgery ... June 15, 2010

I am SUPER tired. I only got about 4 hours of sleep night before last and only 4 last night. I am running on EMPTY! I just wanted to take a quick minute and update on Nisee's surgery. She did great today! Her surgery was at 7:30am and we had to be at there at 6:00am so that meant we had to be up at 5:00am. We checked in and they took us back to pre-op and Nisee pretty much just got to play in her hospital gown for the hour we were back there. They verified all their information and told us what to expect but with children her age they do not put any IV's in until she is asleep. About 20 minutes before they took her back they gave her some medicine that made her really loopy and sleepy. She was so peaceful and it was really hard for me to let them wheel her away. Needless to say I cried but not too long which goes to show the level of trust I had in Dr. Burton. He did a great job and was very reassuring while being direct at the same time. That is important to me. The surgery took about an hour. They took out her adenoids an put tubes in her ears. Dr. Burton came out to us in the waiting area and told us that all went well around 8:20am and that he was very glad that we did the surgery. He said she had a lot of "goo" in her ears and that her adenoid tissue had almost covered her nasal passages and he was not sure how she was breathing at all. He feels certain she will be greatly improved once the swelling goes down in about a week. About 20 minutes later they called us back to recover to see her. She was screaming. They prepared us for this earlier b/c children her age do not understand the disorientation that the anesthesia causes. Even prepared it was hard to see her. She had an IV in her foot and some blood on her ears. I rocked her for about 45 minutes. She would not go to Chad or My Mom for a long time. Towards the end she went to My Mom for a little while and then when we got her dressed in her clothes she started waiving at all the nurses. She was ready to GO! It was cute and funny! She was already starting to come around. She was still back and forth between sleeping and screaming with brief moments of content. We got her home around 11:00am. She has been doing well the rest of the day. She even played some this evening. Her appetite is good. We are just really glad that she is doing so well. I think better than expected. She is just draining all over the place. It's really kinda gross. I think she is going to be so much happier when she gets over this! Well we are off to bed because we all need sleep after a day like today. I want to say Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for us.

on a sadder note please pray for my Papaw Lester. They had to take him to Baptist tonight. He started throwing up and sweating really bad which are signs of a heart attack and he has really bad heart problems. The last I know is that he is feeling some better but he is still there and we haven't gotten a final word from the doctor yet. So please remember him in your prayers!