186.5

186.5 this AM!  That means that I hit my goal of maintaining over the last couple of weeks while we put the deck on the house.  :D  Which I must admit, looks FABULOUS!  It is done except for the last two pieces of rail on the steps.  We decided to wait on the stop steps until we start the patio.  And we're going to start that right after we get the dumpster because right now, there is a nutty amount of carnage in the back yard!  The dumpster is $75 so, worth every penny for us.  We may even go to the next size up so we can put some other stuff in there if need be.  I actually need to calla gain and ask what all can be put in there.  I think everything but hazardous waste.  And well, we have nothing hazardous to put in there!  Let me load a pic or two of the new deck...

This first pic is of the before.  You can see that the new siding is unpainted (it is yellow and gray because for whatever reason, they changed the primer so one primer is gray and the other yellow... weird!)  That big hunk of glass is our sliding door into our dining room.  The little window under goes to our family room.  It's hard to see in the pic, but the yellow foundation was damaged and had to be scraped really well, cleaned and then patched, then primed/sealed.  I will have to go over it one more time.  But I got the area around where the deck was installed finished.  And of course, there are my handsome boys! They were helping move dirt around.  LOL

And here is the almost finished product!  This was the last pic I took, but there is railing now where the stairs are.  The patio will come off of that small deck and come around to the back where the main deck is (you can see a piece of flag stone there).  It's going to be a round patio, but with soft natural lines.  We don't plan on doing any kind of sand or stones, but rather to leave it and let the grass grow through.  I do plan on planting some slow growing grass, so here is to hoping that takes!  Oh, and there will be a large opening in the middle for a fire pit.  Anyways, you can see the green we plan on bringing around to the back of the house on the side of the house once all of the 'stucco' concrete repairs are done.  I am going to TRY to work on that this week, but I also need to do some work on the inside of the house since with all of the work on the outside, the inside has been sorta neglected.  Not badly, though.  I've been pretty good about staying on the dishes, doing laundry, and keeping it picked up.  But the carpets need some shampooing, the floors need a real mop, and a deep dusting is in order.  It's just that right, outside work is a priority since the weather is nice.  I'm going to try to get outside later and do some more prep.  I need to try to get at least the bottom half of the house done and that way hubby can be here when I do the upper.

So, that has been what I was doing!  We got a lot done but wish we could've done some more.  But as it was, we worked ourselves halfway to death.  LOL  Hubby even hurt his thumb pretty bad yesterday trying to finish the rail.  The drill bit slipped and hit his thumb nail and went through.  :/  It was pretty bad and I felt awful for him.  I was with youngest at gymnastics and then out running a few errands.  So yeah, it was bad.  It means he is out of commission for a while until that starts to heal up really well.  I just hope that during the evenings I can work on projects and get things knocked out so he doesn't feel so much pressure to get things done.  He seems to always feel such pressure when doing things.  It must be a man thing!  If I can work on things slowly and make progress, I feel good.  Hopefully I can do that and relieve some of the pressure for him so he won't worry.  Mostly the things I would do anyways!

On the weight and diet front, now that hubby is back on his normal schedule, I am going to try really hard to get back to a lighter diet.  I tried to stay at 2000 or less while we were working and I think my number shows pretty well how I did!  AND, we only ate out 2 times, I think.  Once with friends, once on our family day, and then last night.  But I don't know how I count it since it was spread out over 2 weeks.  I do know that we are going to try not to eat out but maybe once over the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.  I think we can pull it off!  And doing so will really help me to keep my weight in check and hopefully lose some.  And here in a bit, I'm going to try out some 'formal' exercise!  My hip still hurts in one spot and is sore, but I am just going to focus on doing the Pilates for upper body and maybe my calves/butt since I can do those without laying on that hip.  Then it will hopefully be some time on the recumbent bike.  I hope to be completely healed soon.  Slowly but surely, it's getting better.  :)

That's it!  That's what has been going on and what my plan is.  Here's to getting to the low 180's soon and then on to the 170's!  :D  Have a good hump day everyone!  lol