Choosing Not to Stress Eat

It was an insanely busy day at work today and had to deal with several urgent interruptions.  I am responsible for both the HR system and compensation at work.  I had blocked my calendar off to work on configuring and testing the benefits changes for open enrollment in the system, but kept getting interrupted because we need to make urgent staffing changes, which requires compensation information.  I don't mind having two areas of responsibility, they are both very interesting and I like changing things up because it keeps me from getting bored.  However, I find it incredibly stressful when the two areas have conflicting deadlines.  I have yet to figure out to navigate those times without my stress level hitting max.

I was sorely tempted to reach for the bag of SunChips that was sitting at my desk (they came with a lunch sandwich one time).  Not because I was particularly hungry, simply because I wanted to chew on the chips as a form of stress relief.  But my scale has been moving down again this week (yay!) and I talked myself through it.  It's only a temporary relief that would cause me more problems later, and negate all the hard work I've been putting in.  So instead I tried deep breathing to calm down, and had some success.  I assume I'd be even more successful if I practiced it on a regular basis, so maybe that should be another goal.

On another topic, today is my husband's birthday.  I realize this is pretty sappy, but that is one area of my life where I always know that I made the right choice.  My husband puts up with me in good times and bad (and lately there have been too many bad times).  He stands by my side in parenting and all of the other difficulties we have to navigate.  He's a good father and teacher, and a wonderful man.  I can hardly believe that we're both 40 and we've been married over 15 years now.  I'm ever so grateful and he deserves an amazing day celebrating him!

My husband's eyes are red in all the wedding pictures because he cried after the ceremony.  You'll notice that I did not; he's definitely the sentimental one in this relationship.
If you can believe it, my mom made that wedding dress.  I think it cost us around $50 in materials.