The house guests have left the building. The dog is gone and the cat is VERY cautiously exploring the house, running back to our room every few minutes. It's funny and sad at the same time. She hung out on the top shelf in our closet, or on the window "seat" in the bathroom for the last week. Poor baby. I'm sure she's happy to have her house back. I am.

It's funny to me that my friend never really got on my nerves and she was here for 7 days. Her dog was the only problem. I've never had guests stay that long without feeling that "wow, I can't wait until they leave" feeling. That's pretty cool. However, I'm sure it will be a few more months until we see each other, again.

Dinner out with my friend last night was really nice. I've missed him. Our kids met for the first time and my hubby met his wife for the first time. It was VERY nice. Hopefully, we can do it more often. When I met him, his wife and daughter were in Tennessee because he was waiting to be transferred up there. The transfer never happened so the girls moved back here a few weeks ago. He's hoping that the transfer will come through the first part of the year. I will miss them all when they leave. They are awesome, and fun, people.

I'm really not making any progress in the weight department. Granted, I haven't been trying really hard and I have been drinking too much and not exercising. But, I think I have successfully retrained myself to not eat until I am full. Rather, I will only eat until I am no longer hungry. And, I only get food out to eat when I get hungry. That has been a looooooong time coming and I feel like I am finally there. Food is no longer near the top of the list of things I think about and desire. I also REALLY dislike the feeling of being full, now. Retraining your brain is some very difficult work.

I am going to take a page from Judy's playbook and challenge myself not to drink during the week. That could easily save me 400+ calories a day.

I am also going to work on getting to bed at a reasonable hour so that getting up to run in the morning will be possible. That could easily be another 300 calories a day x 4 times a week. And, if I don't drink, I will sleep better and feel better in the morning. Which will reinforce the cycle. Yeah, I know, rocket science, right?

So, tonight we will put all the furniture back in place and get the house back in order. The Missy cat pulled tissues from the tissue box in my room and shredded them on a regular basis over the last 7 days. Some parts of my bedroom (especially under the bed) look like it has snowed. This is her way of acting out the stress, or whatever the name of that behavior is. Then it got tracked through the house. Woohoo!