Hello everyone, just a quick note to let you know we are not dead!  I work in retail so, as you can imagine, my days are very hectic right now and leave little to no time for computers. K is working a ton too (gotta pay for Christmas!) so he hasn’t had any time to get on here either.

Since we have two adult children living with us temporarily there has not been much spanking going on, discipline or fun.  We had one day  over a week ago where we had a couple of hours with no one here but us and K did use that time to address some respect issues.

Our eldest son leaves for Army basic training on January 4th.  We are so proud of him but it is going to be so hard to have him gone.  We also have a daughter engaged to be married to an Army soldier.  He is in Iraq right now and will hopefully be home within a couple of months.  When he comes home they are moving to El Paso to live together until they get married in November.  They are just babies but you know how that is, you can’t tell them anything.  Her response is,”mom you were the same age when you got married and look how that turned out! “  Dang, I hate when they throw my successes in my face!

I have given work my notice.  I have been there for over a year with no raise or promotion.  I am a minimum wage slave with a college degree, that sucks!  I have told them I will stay if they give me a $3/hour raise, at the least.  I work really hard there and love my job but it isn’t worth what they pay me.  I can’t justify being away from home and my kids for that little money.  I really want to stay so I hope they come through.

I hope you all are managing to stay sane during this busy season.

May your holidays be blessed with good family and friends.  May you receive all those things that truly bring joy to your lives.

This was a much better week, diet wise.  I am down  about 3 pounds and have only 1/2 pound to lose to get back to my pre Florida weight.  K lost too but he has a bit more to go to get back to his pre Florida, pre deer camp weight.  I got my spanking for gaining, not too harsh but not a walk in the park either.  Mostly it was just to refocus me on my goals.  K has to refit the laundry room pantry for his punishment job.  I need more shelves and the ones that are there shored up.  I need it better organized and more accessible.  I can’t wait!  It isn’t too bad of a job but it will definitely cut into his tv/game time.

Have a good week everyone, we are expecting 9-12 inches of snow between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning so I need to get to the store and make sure we are well stocked in case it really happens.  That is prime Christmas cookie baking time!

We both gained weight this week so we both have consequences.  K has to do a horrible job of my choosing and I get spanked.  I haven’t picked the job for him yet.  I don’t want to be spanked but I did ask for this and I am grateful that he is holding me accountable.  I know for some this seems harsh but I don’t ever want to be a size 22 again and it would be too easy to end up back there.  I am so thankful that K is willing to do the hard job and hold me accountable for this.  (Of course when I can’t sit comfortably I might change my mind!)  This is tough on both of us.  Tough for him because he has to be the hard ass and tough for me because I get punished for what is normal for most people (gaining weight on a holiday).  However, I refuse to give back all my hard earned weight loss!!!  Complacency is the enemy here and it will not be tolerated by either of us.  So, please don’t think badly of K, I asked for this and I need him to be strict and hold me to the rules we set.  It was all my idea in the first place.  I can’t give up now!

Happy Thanksgiving one and all (who celebrate!).  Enjoy the day, the food and the time with family.   I count each of you as a blessing, thanks for all the support and encouragement you have given us as we walk this path.

I lost another of the 7 pounds I gained on vacation. I have 3 1/2 left.  Geez, it is much harder to take off than put on!  I really want to be a size 8 by next summer so I need to keep focused on the goal.  I am a slightly loose 12 or very tight 10 right now.   Once I get there I will have gone from a size 22-at my biggest; I had already lost a little of that before I started the spanking diet and was down to an 18/20.  Wow!

The holidays should be manageable because I will be working so much I won’t have time to nibble.  My job involves a lot of walking too so that should help keep me on track.  The rule is no gain and K hasn’t said yet if he is going to hold me to that for the holidays.  Part of me wants him to keep me to it and the other part wants him to say “aww, it is the holidays, just go for it!”  That’s the part that loves Christmas cookies!  Of course when I am in a sugar coma and feeling sick and sorry for myself I will wish he had kept me on the diet . . .  Can’t win for losing.

Have a great week, it is a mad, crazy work week for me (I work retail) so if I don’t have time to get back on here, have a wonderful Thanksgiving all you Americans!  May you (regardless of nationality) be truly blessed by the abundance that surrounds you.

Wednesday was the one year anniversary of my first punishment as a disciplined wife.  It really is amazing how much our relationship has grown in that time.  I think back to how I was before, always sniping, criticizing, complaining-it wasn’t pretty!  Now, I still get crabby but I have more self- control.  I think about what the consequences are going to be and usually decide that what I am crabby about is not important enough to give it that kind of power over me.  (The power to earn me a spanking.)

What else has changed?  The kids see two happily married people who can’t keep their hands off of each other-much to their dismay!  We have gone from being intimate maybe once a week, if we were lucky, to almost every day.  I hope our kids look at us and think that they would like to have a marriage like ours.

I have gone from thinking I have to take care of myself because no one else will to knowing that I can rely on K to take care of all my needs, whether I am willing to admit to them or not.  Which, as you submissive partners know, what we need is not always what we want (at least not in the moment).

I have learned how to express myself respectfully when I disagree with K.  That is big!  Of course, having learned it doesn’t mean I always do it but I do try!

I have made some wonderful online friends in this year as well.  It is great to “talk” to like-minded people who understand exactly what I mean when I say . . . “damn, I am so in trouble now!”

Having said all that, it has only been a year and we have so much more growth ahead of us.  We are still in the let’s try this and see how it works stage.  We have given up some things and added others, we no longer do scheduled maintenance but it is still regular.  Scheduled wasn’t working because of my weird work hours.  We are still working on finding quiet implements for discipline (if anyone has ideas feel free to share!).

Here are some of my “wishes” for the next year.  I would like to try different positions for spanking, right now we just do over the end of the bed.  Our bed is too high for OTK and we have no room for a chair in our bedroom.  I would also like to be even more under K’s control, not in the BDSM way, but with him having higher expectations for me meeting his needs on a daily basis, things that would make his life easier and his role of HOH more obvious.  Does that make sense?  He doesn’t believe in micro-managing, and I don’t really mean that, but I would like him to have some higher/consistent standards for how he expects me to make his day better if only because he is the HOH and deserves it.

This lifestyle is an exciting  journey, I only wish we would have started it much earlier in our marriage.

We weighed in after we got  back from Florida and it wasn’t pretty.  We had both gained about 7 pounds. Yikes!  Fortunately for my behind we had agreed before we left that a vacation was a vacation and we wouldn’t worry too much about it.  After we got home we went right back to our usual routine with diet and exercise. So, we weighed in this Saturday and ~K  lost four pounds and I lost three and a half.  Not bad.  With the holidays approaching (too quickly for me!) it will be a big job to keep losing weight.  But, we have worked way too hard to give up now.  Good luck to all of you, make good healthy choices and the holidays won’t be something to look back on with despair.

We are back safe and sound from our journey to Florida.  We had so much fun and we did a lot of things in a short amount of time.  We drove down with three kids in the car, always a test of faith.  We really enjoy listening to books on CD while we drive.  This time we listened to the “Gregor the Overlander” series.  If any of you have middle aged (or older) children they would probably really enjoy this set of books.  They are about a 12 y/o boy and his little sister.  They accidentally fall into a portal that leads to the underland where animals and humans live together tho’ not always in harmony.  Each of the five books in the series is based on a prophecy that Gregor has to fulfill.  They are a bit scary though, for the young ones,  so be aware.  One of the nice things about this set is it is very entertaining for all ages, both K and I were as engrossed in the story as the kids.

We spent some quality time with K’s dad, something we haven’t done much in the almost 27 years we have been married.  It was wonderful.  I know that K was happy to do some bonding.  We enjoyed spending time with his dad’s girlfriend/partner also. They live in Fort Lauderdale right on the New River.  It is a very lovely area and we got to see some huge boats/ships as they made their way to and from the boat show.  We went to the ocean one day but couldn’t swim because the jelly fish were swarming, or whatever it is jelly fish do.  They were everywhere!

We also got to see my dad and his wife’s “modular” home in Venice, Florida.  We would call it a trailer but she takes offense at that.  It was very nice and just the right size for two people who spend more time outside than in.  They live in a senior complex that is 55 or olders only.  They have two beautiful pools and a nice exercise room and common room.  They go there every year for 4 or so months right after Christmas so it was nice to see where they hang their hats.  While there we got to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, now that was beautiful!!

We missed you all while we were gone and hope to catch up with everything soon, it seems like you all have been very busy without us!

I had a good week last week.  I lost .8 pound(s) and managed to do my whole journal! Woo hoo!  No punishments for me.  Things are going pretty well, we are getting ready to leave for Florida so that is a lot of work.  While we are there we will try to make good choices without depriving ourselves.  It shouldn’t be hard once we get to our destination (staying with family) but the driving part is more difficult.  Eating out with three picky kids does not lead to the healthiest of meals! My goal is to maintain so hopefully I manage that.  Everyone, have a great week, there will not be a diet update next week but I will try to find a wifi spot so I can at least check in and let you know how we are doing.

It was a mixed week, diet wise.  Last week, I again gained 1/2 pound so I had a total gain of 1 pound.  This week I lost everything I had gained but didn’t fill out my journal.  Why did I not fill out my journal?  I know that not doing it leads to bad things.  (Which it did, I have to write 200 lines.  Not fun.  I have to do it tonight before I go to bed.  I might be up rather late! )  I absolutely hate doing the journal, I thought that maybe if I lost weight even if I didn’t fill it out, K would relent and not make me do it.  (And maybe he wouldn’t punish me for not doing it)  Of course, my reasoning was flawed, as usual, and I guess I better just start doing the journals otherwise the punishments are just going to keep getting worse and at some point K is going to start seeing it as blatant disrespect and disobedience.  I don’t really want to go there!  Big Sigh!  Have a good diet week every one, hope you do well.