Ever since vacation, Dana and I have felt like we’ve always been on the go. While the reasons for this are varied, we basically hadn’t had a lazy day around the house since before vacation, and we were in desperate need for such a thing.

Luckily, Sunday provided such an opportunity. We visited Grandpa G for his birthday on Saturday, so our Sunday schedule was pretty much wide open. Dana and I took full advantage by not leaving (with the exception of my run to the grocery store in the morning). Dana took it upon herself to straighten up our bedroom, which now looks one hundred percent better, while I tried to straighten up the living room as best I could and vacuum-packed the 40 lbs of chicken breasts we bought at the strip district on Saturday.

This coming weekend is a long weekend, which will be a nice break as it’s my first non-sick day off since vacation. Hopefully we can just relax a bit this weekend… but somehow, I don’t think that will be the case.

What a crazy weekend it was. Dana’s great-Aunt Dolly (along with her cousins from Atlanta and Delaware) flew in for a surprise 90th birthday party for Aunt Dolly. Seeing as though we have not seen any of them since Deuce’s christening, it was a nice to catch up with everyone and spend some time just hanging out. Dana’s cousin Gina has a 20 month old girl, Kayla, with whom Deuce kind of played with this weekend. I say kind of because, for the most part, they avoided each other like the plague, only playing together Saturday before everyone left. We, however, chalked that up to them being slap-happy from lack of sleep.

Overall, it was a great weekend with one minor glitch. The surprise party was at the Wooden Nickel in Monroeville, a restaurant that requires semi-formal attire (no jeans and a t-shirt, no shorts, that sort of thing). Well, seeing as though I’m a software developer in a fairly laid back company, I haven’t dressed up in at least 3 months, and that time was in a suit for my cousins wedding.

It’s almost 4:30, and we were supposed to leave at 5. I went into my closet, grabbed my nice khaki pants, and proceeded to get dressed. As soon as I put them on, I knew I was in trouble. Apparently I lost all my weight from my waist down, because the pants did not fit at all. All I needed was a gold chain and a baseball cap to complete my oversized look. That wasn’t going to fly. So I proceeded to pull every pair of dress pants I own out of the closet, and subsequently tossing each one on the bed after discovering “hey, this doesn’t fit.”

I walked into the office in the “smallest” pants I could find, and as soon as Dana saw me, her response was “We have a problem…” So, with a half hour of budgeted time, I threw my shorts back own and drove down to Kohl’s to find a pair of pants that fit. The pants that fit were TWO sizes smaller than my smallest pair of dress pants. I’m currently in a pants size that I haven’t seen since high school.

So that’s the dangers of weight loss… Make sure you budget for new clothes. But I’m not complaining.

It’s been a crazy few weeks for Dana and I. It seems like we’ve been going non-stop since we got back from the beach. Before we know it, it’s gonna be September. With the exception of the headache from the spinal anesthesia (which took a few days to go away), Dana’s knee recovery is going very well. She’s been walking between 2 and 2.5 miles about 5 times a week, and she’s working up to jogging at least a portion of those miles.

In our continuing effort to “get healthly,” I’ve been tring to jog/run about 5 times a week. I’m up to a continuous 1.25 miles at a pace of about 10 minutes a mile. Not great, but not bad. My goal is to get up to 3 miles at an 8 minute mile pace. Considering I don’t think I’ve ever really been able to run like that, it would be a great accomplishment.

The side effect of all this running is that I’m beginning to lose weight again. Dana and I are still continuing on the South Beach-inspired diet, although it’s more like our normal eating habits have been transformed. Since the start 24 weeks ago, Dana and I have lost a combined 75.5 lbs. That’s not bad, considering we had a few weeks of “slippage” with vacation and stuff like that. We are both about 20 lbs from our Christmas goal weight, although the rate of loss I’ve experienced in the past week or so may cause me to have to lower that goal weight a bit in order to keep pushing myself.

Deuce has a bit of a cold again, but other than that he’s been doing good these last few weeks. I only hope stuff slows down enough for Dana and I to spend some quality time with him.

Dana, Deuce and I are house sitting Grandma and Grandpa A’s for a week while they are on vacation. Needless to say, we are a bit tired. Deuce doesn’t seem to like sleeping in the crib they have, and won’t lay in the bed unless someone’s there. Plus, when he gets up at like, 5:00 am, he stays up. Couple that with Dana and I not sleeping very well, and you get two very tired people.

On the plus side, Dana and I have begun what I hope to be a regular exercise routine. I had started on the treadmill last week, but being away from home, I “graduated” to jogging down the road at the in-laws house. I’m only doing between a mile and a mile and a half, but it’s a gradual thing. My final goal (a long way’s away) is to string together three 7 minute miles… But that’s way down the road.

Dana is recovering well from her knee surgery, in fact she’s been walking a few miles every other day. Deuce is off to Grandma and Grandpa G’s today, so hopefully Dana and I can get some rest… although I don’t know where.