Archie Says Goodbye to Boyhood

Poor little poochie--Saturday Archie & his brother, Murdoch, got fixed. The vet and even the SPCA down in Virginia Beach was charging an arm and a leg and your first-born child to neuter just one of them! So in an effort to save money, and give to a local(ish) non-profit business, my mom took both of the boys to Prevent-A-Litter (aka PAL) in Richmond. Contrary to the neutering quotes both of us had gotten from our respective vets--me: ~$250 & my mom: ~$400--both the dogs only cost $60 total. Don't you just  hate when you're charged an unnecessarily absurd amount of money for something that actually only costs a fraction of the price? I don't get it...

My mom saw this in the paper Sunday.
Too funny/coincidental!

Anyway, since Richmond is about halfway between my mom's house and my apartment, and the dogs' surgeries were supposed to take all day (well, in order to make sure they're okay afterward), we decided to meet up in Williamsburg and do a little shopping. Aka have a mother-daughter day. Aka a LOT of driving: Charlottesville-->Williamsburg-->Richmond-->Williamsburg-->Virginia Beach. I may have fallen asleep in the passenger seat on the way to pick up the dogs after our shopping excursion--that rarely happens!

The Prime Premium Outlets at Williamsburg (they just renamed them) are normally hit or miss and rarely anything in between. Shockingly, Saturday was an in-between day. No real clothing bargains to be had--but at this point, I only really look at the athletic stores + JCrew anyway. However, there were a lot of random sales, meaning I walked away from the outlets with:

All THIS!

 That is:

Two new pairs of very "Fall" heels...

Three pairs of Reef sandals ($5 each!!)

A new mug for my oats...
And only the cutest, softest moose EVER!

And that purple Puma tank, which doesn't really need its own close-up. But was a steal at $11. Not bad at all. All courtesy of my momma. This, coupled with a Target trip (courtesy of my own bank card), and I made out pretty darn nicely!

$25 desk--yes please! Assembling it myself: priceless.

Oh yeah, see that stein on the shelf? That was filled with this bad boy minutes prior to this photo being taken:

Shake!

Who said steins are just for beer? And who says you actually had to be a Darden student to get one of those? ;) Don't worry, I didn't steal it. But this reminds me--I got new protein powder Friday! I ran out (and was also getting sick of the flavor I had) on Wednesday and didn't have time to get more til Friday after work. Enter Cafe Mocha flavor--umm, delicious (doesn't even begin to describe it)!!

Getting a little side-tracked here. Back to the weekend! Sunday, more time was spent with the pups, and I hit a new recent low weight-wise! 122.2! Body fat is decreasing steadily& BMI is staying pretty decent. Meaning? Losing fat & maintaining muscle mass!! Please note: this is the first time I have actually disclosed weight on this blog, because I'm still pretty conscious of it. However, being that my goal is to get on stage and strut my stuff in front of numerous strangers (& friends), I feel it is necessary to start holding myself accountable this way. Thoughts??

So of course I celebrated how any crazy sane person would--with a run through my old neighborhood. Talk about humid! I'm also not one to workout in just a sports bra and shorts, but I had to given the weather. Baby steps people, baby steps! It was a little wet from sprinklers, so these suckers were retired to the patio to dry out stay out of reach of the hungry pups.

It was such a serene morning to run, and I passed some VERY patriotic houses. My fave was a yard that had numerous small flags adorning the grass. And the cars. And the house itself. I desperately wanted to take a picture, but I only had my ipod on me. Bummer!

The rest of the day was spent running errands, pampering the pups, and hanging out with an old high school friend that I hadn't seen in 4 years. Loads of fun! Even had a photo shoot with Archie. Don't let the pictures fool you, these were taken by professionals ;)

Someone wants a belly rub!

Murdoch doesn't like when Archie
gets all the attention. 

Nom, nom, nom.

Attack!

So much love in this picture...

Sorry to jump around a bit, but I'm seriously shocked that in 2 weeks I've managed to attain what previously took me about 8 weeks. Definitely a good feeling, and only makes me more anxious/excited to see what I can accomplish in the next 10 weeks!

Which reminds me of this little conversation tidbit from Sunday night hanging out with my friend (who's in the Navy):

So how many pull ups can you do?

Umm, first set...about 10. Goes downhill from there.
Wow, I thought you were gonna say like 2 or 3!

Yeah, I don't pretend to be badass. I just am. Kidding (about the cockiness)!