Working the battle of my bulge!!

What a weekend. We got a nice little snow storm that dumped 5” or so of snow on Saturday and Sunday it was close to 50. The nice thing is all the melt has turned everything VERY green here.

While snowed in CB and I got into a conversation ….uh oh…. Actually this was a good one. We decided to both make a conscience effort at losing some very unwanted pounds. With this we decided to incent the process. Don’t have all the incentives laid out but CB is looking at about 10lbs while king chunk is looking at about 40lbs. So at every 10lbs there will be a reward for the chunkster…where they will be every few lbs for the lady of the house.

We have since thrown ourselves into a workout plan that has left me happy but a bit sore..LOL. I have even hit the treadmill, this is the thing I dislike the most but will drop more weight than lifting which we are doing too. It helps that she has personal trainer background…but when she gets into business mode I tend to fade as I prefer to see my wife as a nice and sweet lady not the drill instructor that comes out in her when we exercise. Our eldest has joined us so that helps to keep it a bit light and our youngest is discussing doing the same. Family time is a good thing….ha.

The deck has been re-shuffled

I made my last post confirming that we had booked our rooms for ST Maarten. Had two other couples scheduled to go with us. One couple had a contingency plan that was enacted so they decided to back out but another couple may be stepping up to take their spot. Here is the rub for a couple of us. I think I shared before the same issue that is happening all over America may be hitting home. Our company has been purchased so 4 of us wont know if we have jobs or not for the next 4-6 weeks. Based on that outcome I do believe we can start looking to purchase flights.

If we are let go…the trip goes from three couples to one…us, and will be moved to a much earlier date than November. Like as soon as I can book!! I do have some business ideas that will take a bit of time to develop…but once up and running I am pretty sure will provide at least some income for near term…and hopefully support me in the long term. That said some of it will be based in ST Maarten so I need to get back there to complete the next level of my plans. I hope beyond hope that things work well and all three couples can go. This will make for a very fun trip.

Still watching airfare and waiting on sales to hit. It looks as if I had to book today we would fly from Chicago rater than Dallas or NYC or even Charlotte. So would be commuter flight from KC to Chicago and then Chicago to Miami and on to the island.
I have a magic number set in my head and if they get there I pull the trigger even if I am not sure about weather or not I will still have a job.

Step one complete

Its starting to happen! Woo Hoo!!

Have gotten a hard conformation from one set of friends and a soft one for yet another to come along to the islands with us this November. Today I booked 3 rooms at our resort! Rob is a very happy camper. We have rooms, next up is the flights!

I needed this today, things are good but at this time of the year we are used to tanning and getting ready to pack for our trip..now the wheels are in motion. Look out island we have you in our sites and are ready to head that way.

Getting a room is pretty small but I cant believe how happy it made me…is like the first robin you see late in the Winter that tells you Spring is on its way. Next up is coordinating flights for 3 couples….heck I should open a travel business..LOL

I’ve got what may be a terminal case of RIF!

It has bee ll months since our last visit and Rob has a bad case of RIF! What is RIF? It is Reverse Island Fever. I say reverse because we used to live on Oahu and Island fever was the want to get off that rock! This is Reverse of that….I think Jimmy Buffett said it best….”I gotta go to ST Somewhere” and my somewhere is ST Maarten.

We usually go in April but this year it just isn’t the best of ideas (see interpretation as not enough money and hoping to hang on to my job in a merging company) so we are looking at traveling in November instead….Oh NOOOOOOOOO! Hope I can make it that long.

This does however give me the opportunity to put together some photo-art sales ideas. I have a couple up my sleeve and now that it is getting warmer outside I am starting to get a bit more motivated about getting things set up and hopefully get my little business off the ground.

So now we have picked the month and I am looking at our flights….prices are pretty reasonable. Next will be pull the trigger and start the official countdown to return. Yes I have invited some friends but at this point have no idea if they will accept the offer and go or not. We shall see!!

Trip time is getting closer….

We have discussed travel to the island this year with several friends and have two couples that may be interested. We will pay our fees within the next week and look to pin down a date in November and then book the rooms. This little positive change has made things look up for us both.

We got about 5 or so inches of surprise snow this weekend and spent a lot of that time discussing our trip. Rob feels as if there has been some stress lifted off his shoulders.
I am facing the possibility of a layoff but at this point I am trying to get a business up and running. I have the ideas and now need to follow thru to turn my little venture into a hopefully profit making company. A big part of that will be another trip to the island so I can capture the photos I need to put some real teeth into my business. Right now I am selling one off pictures and only in SXM. That makes things a bit tuff to make it big but I have the right ideas and plans now I just need to put things into place with a follow up trip , unfortunately it looks as if November is as soon as I can get back on island.....better Nov than not at all though!!!

We also found a new toy this weekend, ok, not new but new to us. Wife and I have stepped out into social networking and have put up pages on facebook. Lots of fun!