World-renowned two-time Adventure Racing World Champion, Danelle Ballengee had learned to keep going when everything and everyone told her to stop.

But now she couldn’t move…

http://blog.changemyselfchangetheworld.com/?page_id=796

Finally, we have the boxes by the front entry way. Not exactly a great first impression when you walk into someone’s house to see their stuff piled up. I am still amazed how much I have accumulated over the years. Though I got rid of a ton in the garage sale this summer there is still so much more that we do not want to put back down in our basement once it is finished. That gives me about another month to get rid of all this crap. Looking back on these posts I am realizing that at least half of the rooms in our house are in need of a makeover. Sigh.

Another room that needs serious attention is one we call “The Cat Room”.  Even though there is furniture and a very nice king sized bed (actually two stacked on top of each other) there is no way we can consider it a guest room. Who would want to stay in the same room with a bunch of cat litter boxes?
 
 

Aside from the shelf in the corner there, the closet is also full of stuff from the basement as well as every drawer in the dresser. We even have hidden boxes behind the bed. Of course we would prefer not to have an entire room dedicated to cat litter and storage. There must be a better way.

I wish I could find my real “before” picture of the basement. It was worse than my office. Every square foot had something in it, boxes, tubs, blankets, camping equipment. You could barely walk around down there. Now it looks like this:     
    
In the left corner there will be a wet bar. That side of the room will have a nice foosball table and a treadmill. On the dark wall is a projector screen for our little home theater and a couch will divide the two sides of this very long room. There will also be a small guest bedroom and bathroom.

I thought it would be really embarrassing to post my weight on the internet but this is far worse. (Sigh.) The picture below was taken about a week ago. It is supposed to be my office but it looks more like an episode of Oprah. For the past year I have worked from my couch downstairs because I have been afraid to go in there. The picture doesn’t even do justice to how bad it was. I say “was” because soon after I took this photo I at least cleared off the floor and desk so I can work in there again. Just straightening it up is not going to cut it this time. I do that every couple months and before long it becomes a dumping ground again. I need to get rid of all this junk!

For the most part we keep our house straightened up. On any given day a person could drop by unannounced and we would not have too much to be embarrassed about. However, there are exceptions, rooms we hope visitors avoid. To make matters worse, for the past year we have been working on finishing our basement. During that time everything we would normally store has been living among us. Being smothered by my own stuff has made me extremely motivated to get rid of all of it. We had a major garage sale in the summer and donated whatever we couldn’t sell. How in the world, then, do we still have so much stuff?

Saturday I played Queen of the Court in an indoor beach volleyball tournament. I finished somewhere in the top half which is not bad after not playing in awhile. My next goal is to finish in the top 8. That might take awhile. Sunday I played women’s doubles followed by coed. That’s 8 hours of volleyball in 2 days. I am wiped out but I have to get a run in today before I let my race goal get too far away from me. I am probably still around 9 minute miles. My hip and knee started feeling better right when we got our new bed so I am hoping I am okay to run now. We’ll see.

WEEKLY WEIGH-IN:
Last week: 152
This week: 150
Start: 157
Goal: 137

This week’s feature includes all the people involved in the rescue of Haiti from the destruction caused by last week’s earthquake. We will hear amazing stories about the heroes involved in this effort but there are others I am sure we will never know of.

http://blog.changemyselfchangetheworld.com/?page_id=629

Last night was our first night on our new Sleep Number bed. After getting about 4-5 hours a night for the past several weeks I finally got a good night sleep. Good thing too because I was getting pretty crabby.

Apparently people either love everything about the bed or think it is the worst ever. My dad has one friend who put his in a spare room and bought a Tempur-pedic. He has another friend who loves it so much she set a separate sleep number for her dog’s side of the bed. The jury is still out for us. Apparently it takes awhile to fall into one camp or the other. But I have been having pain in my knee, hip, and lower back from a tight IT band and our other bed was so hard it made things worse. I tossed and turned and kept Todd up all night. So for me this bed was an big pain relief. So far so good.

I do have kitchen cabinets that stay organized all the time. I never lose a tupperware lid. Canned foods and spices are always in order and my refrigerator is always clean. But there is another side of the kitchen more indicative of my former self.

To the left is the giant utensil drawer. You cannot tell from the photo but it is 3 feet wide and almost 2 feet deep. It is packed front to back. I really have no idea what all is in there. I probably have some great utensils buried in it but I am not sure.

On the right is another junk drawer in which I found an oven mitt, a cat brush, deck of cards, a network cable, plant food, scotch tape, and a straw from Sonic. I can barely find two items in here that should be in the same room much less the same drawer. I love to cook and I love my kitchen. If I could get this half to work like the other half I would be in kitchen heaven. So I guess that’s the goal.