Health & Free Living

First of all, I need to mention that I have the most wonderful husband. He is so loving and supportive and I am so blessed to have him in my life. God is so good to me. :) Thank you so much for all of your prayers for Walter's job. Walter got a new job and started Thursday of last week! He is working for Bengal Capital in downtown Chicago. It's a growing trading company and Walter is in charge of all their computer and networking stuff. It's great because he in many ways gets to be his own boss. So far he is really enjoying it. He takes the 5:30am train into the city and then comes home no later than the 4:30pm train. He pretty much works when the stock exchange is open. He enjoys working in the city again (about ten years ago he worked in the Sears tower) and the time to "check-out" on the train. Plus, it's so nice to have him on a consistent routine -- now I'm the one who's not around! :) My jewelry business continues to thrive and grow. Even though

Well, because Walter and I are already taping two shows on our DVR on Monday nights, I haven't been able to watch "Dancing with the Stars." :( BUT, then I realized yesterday, I CAN WATCH THE EPISODES ONLINE!!! I am so excited!! Seriously, the internet is awesome! (Can you tell that I'm a little bit addicted to DWTS?) This past Friday night, some of my friends and I went to the "So You Think You Can Dance" Tour concert. Umm...AWESOME! I didn't really watch the show until this past season (and only on and off). It was so much fun. Back to DWTS...that is connected because Lacey (the professional with Lance Bass) is a former finalist on "So You Think You Can Dance." The judges got on her this past week for showboating her skills too much and not helping Lance to shine. I'm with them. Lacey says that the judges are just hard on her because she is new, but they have never done this to the other new pro dancers. Gotta be honest, I don't know h

There have been some changes at the Niesluchowski household recently. First of all, Walter and I adopted a 5 year old female black lab mix (fully trained) and a kitten from the Humane Society a few weeks ago. Actually, it was less than a week from when we put down our cat, Miles. They are so sweet. They fooled us, however. We thought they were both mild-mannered...boy were we wrong! Midnight (the dog) follows us everywhere and we think that Cole (the kitten) must be on crack because he darts all over the house and is super hyper. He also loves to crawl all over my neck and face at night and play in my hair, so we now have to lock him out of our room at night. :) The next big change is that Walter was let go by his company on Friday. Total surprise. It's a bummer, but also a huge blessing. The travel, politics, people, etc. were killing him and it was time for him to get out of there. Walter had thought about leaving, but that's always a hard choice to make -- he would have been

Per Amanda's request...my "Dancing With the Stars" update. After this first week, here is my opinion. Brooke Burke is by far the best dancer and the most natural of anyone -- plus, she's really sweet. I love how she danced with her baby. :) I think Toni Braxton does a great job as well. I don't really care for Kim K. and think she should have been voted off yesterday. I mean, come on, she's not a good dancer. I don't think she'll go far. Ted McKinley wasn't great, but he shouldn't have gone off yet. He actually did better than some other people. Okay, gotta admit people, I know that everyone enjoys watching an 82-year-old Cloris Leachman "dance," but she isn't any good. Yes, there is some grace shown toward her because of her age, but it's a bummer to watch other people who are better get voted off simply to keep watching her. (On a side note, I think it's so cool that Mark's dad, Corky, is another one of the professio

I'm not much of a cat person and I inherited Miles the cat when Walter and I got married. Unfortuantely, one week ago (September 13), we had to put Miles to sleep. :( It was horrible. I had become attached to him and I was heartbroken and Walter was devastated when it happened. Miles kept me company when Walter traveled. So sad. Now the story, however, gets quite amuzing. :) Long story short, on Wednesday, I met Walter at the Naperville Area Humane Society. We were smitten. So, on Thursday, we adopted a 5-year-old black female lab mix dog named Midnight (the same name as my childhood dog -- Providence!). She is completely trained and SO SWEET!! But wait! There's more!! WE ALSO GOT A KITTEN!! His name is Cole and is also black and SO CUTE!! It's hard to believe we got another cat. (Those of you who know me are probably laughing right now). :) We have our own mini-zoo at our house! Midnight and Cole get along really well and Midnight loves to chase Cole around the house. She

I got all motivated to try to continously blog back in March and have failed miserably. Since then, David Cook won American Idol (woohoo!!!) and the Cubs swept the White Sox this past weekend (double woohoo!!). :) Walter has been traveling like crazy lately (this is week 8 in a row) and I'm looking forward to when we can spend time together at home! Two weeks ago I traveled with him to Anaheim, California for one of his work trips. With my job, as long as I have a computer and internet, I can pretty much work from anywhere, so when he was working, I worked. We had a great time -- usually worked in the morning and then relaxed the rest of the day. On Sunday, we drove straight from the airport to LA to see the Cubs play the Dodgers. Cubs won, of course! ;) Monday evening, we had dinner at Downtown Disney (we stayed just a couple of blocks from Disney). Tuesday we headed to Laguna Beach -- LOVED IT! It is such a cute little artsy town (and I got some new Reefs while we were there). On

I have to say that everyone on "Dancing with the Stars" did quite well last night. Watching Marlee Matlin brings tears to my eyes. She did a great job last night again. This time, she did get a little bit off beat, but she can't hear the music! I am always amazed by her. Shannon Elizabeth did a great job with the jive and Kristi Yamaguichi did well on her tango. I was really impressed with Priscilla Presley and her tango last night. She was really in character and her steps were all very sharp and precise. Kudos to her. Jason Taylor looked great. He has the smoothness and rythmn, but I agree with the judges that there needed to be a little more snap with his movements on the jive (he needs to snap his legs on the kicks). Other than that, he really has remarkable dancing abilities and I think he is the best male on the show. I must say that I agree with the judges and their response to Marissa Jaret Winoker's jive. I think she could have done really well, but her danci

Well, I missed American Idol on Tuesday, but I heard about David Cook's rendition of "Billy Jean." Now, since I've only recently tuned into the show on and off, I hadn't heard many of the guys sing yet. Anyways, I just listened to it on YouTube (what would we do without YouTube?) and David Cook was AMAZING! Oh my gosh, I loved hearing him sing that song! If he ends up putting out an album and sounds consistently good like that song, I will be buying the album AND going to his concert. So, fav guy right now: David Cook. Fav girl: gotta love Brooke White. :) Those two alone just might get me hooked on this show! (Never thought I would say that -- I've been refusing to watch it for years!)

So, I've been watching "American Idol" some this year. I know, shocker. I have to say that I really enjoy all of Simon's comments. He really tries to be constructive and it's good for people to hear the truth -- it's easy for those closest to us to tell us how wonderful we are...if we only view ourselves based on their judgement, we'll have a false sense of self. Anyways, the audience needs to stop automatically booing everytime he talks. What he says is good and he deserves more respect. I actually kept telling the audience to "shut up" while I was watching. It frustrates me...

Yes, Amanda, I am back to watching "Dancing with the Stars." I love this show! I had so much fun watching everyone dance. Jason Taylor (NFL player for Miami) was fantastic and fun to watch. Kristi Yamaguchi was near perfect and Shannon Elizabeth was so graceful. But, my favorite performance to watch was that of Marlee Matlin. Wow. For those of you who don't watch the show, she's deaf. Yeah, it's pretty cool. She's a fabulous dancer and even the judges talked about how she had good "musicality." My in-laws are deaf, so it's even more special to watch her dance. (Actually, this is my mother-in-law's favorite TV show!) I have been incredibly impressed and hope that she goes far. I tried to vote last night, but my email was super slow and by the time I decided to text message (couldn't remember the numbers, so had to go online to get them), it was too late. On the other side, as sweet as she is, Monica Seles is by far the worst of the female

Hmm...kind of forgot about my blog, but I am going to try posting again. This past Sunday was Walter and my first wedding anniversary! Can you believe it's already been a year? And I love him more and more every single day. :) (Cheezy, I know, but true). We are going to try to head to Vegas at the end of the month to celebrate. Walter has to go there for work, so why not go the weekend ahead and have some fun. Woo hoo! I'm excited. I hope it all works out. Also on Sunday, my dear friend Debbie Marcey got married! She is now Mrs. Deborah (Debbie) DeVore. Yea! I'm so happy for her. Of course, the wedding was beautiful and the reception was wonderful. She was a gorgeous bride! My jewelry business is going GREAT!!! I love it! It has done more for me than I ever imagined and it continues to grow (along with my confidence and self-image). I am truly blessed and grateful that God brought this opportunity into my life. Take a look at the website: www.premierdesigns.com You can'