Fattie Fattie 2 by 4

Couldn't fit through the bathroom door.

Seriously - I have noticed that I am gaining weight. I knew I would. This time of year with the audit and 990 and holidays I just can't find time to get to the gym (excuses, I know) and gingerbread lattes come back to Starbucks. It's just a tough time. Well I'm not genetically blessed and if I don't go to the gym, I gain. Almost instantly.

I knew I had been gaining weight but several things have recently happened that made me realize it's time to hit the gym - hard core.

1. When I walk by stationary furniture in my house like the bed or dresser I've been grazing the sides. I don't think I'm cutting the corners, I think I'm just outgrowing what my mind knows/thinks my dimensions are. YIKES!

2. My butt crack has extended. Let me explain. When I wear tight jeans, it pushes my lower back fat together creating an extended butt crack. I have NEVER had this problem!!

3. My doctor hasn't seen me in several months and when he saw me he was literally so mad he was practically spitting. He actually couldn't talk to me. He said "We've worked too hard for you to do this. You MUST manage your weight!" Oh boy. But he's right. It's not harsh if he's absolutely correct. And he wasn't yelling at me but because I hold him in such high regard it hurt to let him down so much.

4. All my pants and shirts fit tighter. My bra seems too small, my shirts roll up, my waistband leaves a mark on my skin. All signs that I am definitely gaining weight.

5. And perhaps tell tale of them all, the scale has indicated a 10 pound increase since about August. That's terrible!!


So I have decided to do the following about my weight.

1. I have ordered the vegetarian program for Nutrisystem and plan to stay on the diet for 4 to 6 months. Dane is also on the Nutrisystem diet, though probably not as long as I will be. You have no idea how excited I am that he's doing this with me. I firmly believe it is a huge factor to my success or not.

2. I have ordered the Get Fit book. Check it out, www.getfitbook.com, it's a pocket sized book that outlines a 12 week diet and exercise program into 12 small weekly goals and very nicely lays out how to manage your food workouts and keep track of your progress. I have used online journals before but research shows that there is something about the tactile motion of handwriting out your goals and plan to get there. Those that actually write their plan out have a 75% better chance of reaching their goals than those who don't.

3. I have created a visualization board that will help me keep my eye on my goal both at work and at home. I'll go over the visualization board in more detail in another post (I have three posts I want to bust out).

4. I purposely purchased an outfit that is about 2 almost 4 sizes too small for me. I took a picture of this outfit and put it in a frame. Then I wrote "I will wear this size 10 outfit by March 2009. - Crystal." I will put this picture up at work for all to see and for me to be constantly reminded of my goal.




5. I will post to this and my MySpace blog about my journey. Putting it out there for my friends and blog stalkers to see will be motivating for me to stick to my guns about this goal. Actually the hardest part will just be managing to post.

Between those things I have a good feeling that I can and will get my weight under control once and for all.

So without further adieu: I pledge to lose 50 to 60 pounds over the next 6 months. It doesn't matter what my start weight is, I'll just keep posting on how much I've lost and how I'm feeling about it. Stay tuned for more!

Clean Audit! (Almost) And Then Some

Well I submit our first copy of final draft for our annual audit report to our auditors and Finance Committee. I'm guessing since the auditors haven't given me any heads up saying anything was wrong that there are no adjustments for FY08. The fat lady hasn't sung yet, but I think it's safe to say that if there were adjustments, they would have informed me so those adjustments would translate to the financial statements I put together. That said, there will be some items in the management letter but that's to be expected. We don't pay $15,000 for nothing. We expect the auditors to provide feedback on how we can improve. But there were no sufficient deficiencies, no material weaknesses, and no violations to internal controls. And no adjustments. That says "A" to me. WHOOT WHOOT!!! I'm so happy! Now I can focus on the next thing, the 990, which needs to be done before my winter break. As of 12/19 I will be out of the office (at Toy-n-Joy - YAY!!) and not returning till Monday, January 5th. SWEET! I really look forward to that time of year to relax and spend time at home. It's the only time of year I can take two weeks off for the price of one. Actually just four days. We get four paid holidays and three days are "employee appreciation." Then I'm taking four vacation days. So I have to crank out the 990 before that and material close November. When I come back I can focus on ironing out Oct and Nov, fixing the budget, and getting Dec buttoned up. After that it's business as usual and the only two projects I'll have are contracts and creating my how-to manual.

Just in time for my MBA program to end and Becker to begin. Did I mention I start class on my 29th birthday? Since my 29th will not be celebrated I plan on doing a HUGE thing for my 30th. I'm talking week long party, spa treatments, champagne toast, dress to the nines (but funeral style since we will be mourning the passing of my 20's), B-I-G party! Back on track, so I'll actually attend the classes for Business and Financial before....wait. A diagram:

The CPA Exam - for those who don't give a hoot about becoming a CPA
The CPA Exam is divided in to four timed sections:
Business - 2.5 hours
Financial - 4 hours
Auditing - 4.5 hours
Regulation - 3 hours
A long time ago you had to sit for all the exams at once. Not so anymore. The exams can be taken all at one time or spread out. The exams are administered by computerized exam leader Prometric. If you've taken a C++ or gotten your medical certification then you are familiar with Prometric. Becker CPA Review recommends you take their class and then study for 1 - 2 weeks before testing. There are 9testing months a year, non-testing months being March, June, September, and December. When you apply to take the test, once approved, you get a NTS, or "Notice to Schedule," that is valid for only six months. So you have to make sure you are ready to take all your exams when you get your NTS but you need your NTS at least two months before you take your first exam because you need to reserve your spot. A definite song and dance to work everything out.

Now back to the original post
...I sit for the exam. I couldn't quite work it out to sit for the business exam in the time allowed so I decided to double up on Business and Financial, give myself 3 weeks to study and take both exams on the same day or back to back days at the end of April. Then I'll take Audit and allow myself 1 week to study and take that exam in mid-May. The idea behind this is if I cut myself short 1 week of study time, I'll be able to take advantage of a full three-day Memorial Weekend with NO studying and NO homework since my next class, Regulation, won't begin till June. I will finish Regulation in June with a week or so to study and take the exam at the beginning of July. ~PHEW~ I'm excited and scared out of my mind and nervous and terrified and exhausted. I can't believe after all this time it's finally here. It wasn't real till I sat down and scheduled the days that I'm taking the exam. I'M TAKING THE CPA EXAM!!!! Wow.

So not to put the cart before the horse or anything, but I wanted to book my celebratory or at the very least well-deserved "you worked hard" slash 2nd anniversary vacation now while I had the time to consider the details. Once Feb comes I won't be able to focus on anything but the exam. I wanted to take about 4 weeks off in July and "check out" after all I have done these past 6 years. Further, I wanted a trip where I didn't have to think - someone told me where to go, we could leave our luggage in one place, we didn't have to worry about transportation, and someplace in Europe. Originally Dane was going to get a new Mercedes, but we've tabled that idea for now. So back to the drawing board we decided that a cruise was the best way to go. Low and behold I got a "Travel with Alan" special email just this morning. Observe:



Click to enlarge

So Dane and I booked the trip. I can make payments and I already have some money socked away for this trip, even though I didn't know what it would be till now. So we are really excited. I've always wanted to go to St. Petersburg in Russia and to have 2 days there! Awesome! Not to mention all the countries we'll hit up. Sweet.

I'll post more later as stuff comes in. I want to post something about Cmas and a few other things.