Windy Friday

Happy Friday!  It is windy here, and a perfect day to hang laundry on the line.  My line is on my back porch.  During the hurricane in August of 2011 a limb fell out of a tree and took out my clothesline in the back yard, and we never replaced it.  I like my porch line, though.  It is a retractable one, and that's nice, so it's not strung across the porch all the time; only when there are clothes drying on it. 

Not much going on here.  The house in Ocean City is not ready for cleaning yet, so that won't be happening this weekend.  Yesterday I ran (slogged) this week's 5K which was in Olympia, Washington.  So far I am #57 out of 62, so we'll see where I end up on Tuesday when this 5K ends and the new one begins.  Last week's was the Grand Canyon and I was #135 out of 149.

A good portion of my time this week has been spent in caring for the cat in some fashion or another.  He is so very old, and has good days and bad days.  On his good days he acts like his old self, plays and can get around pretty well, and use the facilities he is supposed to use.  On his bad days he doesn't want to move, hardly eats or drinks, and seems to forget where the facilities are and is incontinent - wherever he happens to be at the time.  *Sigh*.  I have lost count of the times I have mopped and shampooed carpet the last two weeks.  I don't mind though, because honestly I don't think he will be with us much longer and the bit of extra work he's causing me is worth it.  He has been a family member for 13 years.  I suppose if any other family member became forgetful and/or incontinent I would clean up after them, too!  

Well, the cat is having a good day today and so I let him outside to sit in the sun on the front porch, but I'd better go check on him.  Kind of like a kitty nursing home, isn't it?!  Put the old folks out to sit in the sun on the porch for a while!  Now if only we had a kitty rocking chair.......

I hope you all have a lovely Friday :)

Wednesday

A lot of bloggers have "Wordless Wednesday" which is where they post just a picture - hence the "wordless."  I have decided that I would rather have a "Worship Wednesday" for two reasons.  First, when have any of you known me to be "wordless"?!  Chatterbox is more like it.  And secondly, I want to share music that I like, and I hope you like it too.

I'm not much on the videos that accompany the music, but if they entertain you, then great!  It's not that I don't like them, but I usually just enjoy listening to the music and, well, since I don't do two things at once very well, watching and listening tax my brain!  Anyway, here is this week's.  I just love this song.  Favorite lyric: Awakening my heart, breaking through the dark, suddenly your grace.

Sharing A Laugh

My sister sent me this card.  I literally laughed out loud!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (Click on the pictures to enlarge in case you have trouble reading it). 

Yes, I'm 49 now.  And according to my sister, I'd better enjoy every day of the coming year!

I Do Have A Brother.......Somewhere.......

I have mentioned before that I have one brother and one sister.  This one brother also has a blog.  Which he hasn't updated in 7 months.  And his last blog post was titled "Spring Is Here." 

While I admire his cunning in apparently trying to wait a whole year so he can recycle that blog post title before he writes again, I would like to request that he at least blog something!  He is an excellent writer and I miss his posts.

I know he is very busy, but I also know that he recently massively broke his finger, and I for one think a picture of said finger is in order.  I wrote about my sister's heart attack and I wouldn't try to take the liberty of writing about my brother's broken finger when he has a writing forum of his own. 

So, brother o'mine, inquiring minds want to know.  And see! 

And yes, I realize I'm asking you to type with a broken finger.

Oh, and unfortunately you'll have to do better than a broken finger to catch up to Sherri.  

All Washers Go To Heaven

Or something like that.  It was determined that our approximately 16-year-old washer had to be put out to pasture.  We went to Sears and got a new one Sunday afternoon.  I'm in love.  Yes, we went with an agitator-less one, but so far I love it.  I don't have to do a small mopping of the floor after every load!  Yay! 

Here are pictures of Jerry taking a look at the old washer.  In a rather, um, unorthodox way.  But what a brilliant use of heavy equipment! 

My hubby is so smart.  And handsome.  Okay, I'll stop now.  You're welcome.

So, the old washer is destined for the scrap yard next week.  At least we'll get something back on it from the scrap metal!  And our new washer is eligible for a $100.00 rebate from our electric company, but in filling out the rebate form I saw written at the bottom, "While funds last for this program."  Yeah.  What are the chances that "funds" will still be available when it comes time to process my rebate?!  I won't hold my breath.

Happy Wednesday to ya!

Happy Sunday

It's a beautiful sunny Sunday.  I woke sometime during the night to the sound of rain which was very nice, but the sun is out brightly now. 

Not much going on today.  Jerry and Andy are outside and have the washing machine apart to see if it can be fixed or should be put out to pasture.  It's not looking too promising.  I am inside at the moment browning ground beef and onion for the crock pot pizza that I am making for dinner tonight.  Then I'll be going back outside to sit in the sun with a fresh cup of coffee, and watch my men work on the washing machine.

Jerry stopped by his mom's the other night on the way home from the tree job and she sent him home with a large basket of vegetables.  I intend to make very good use of those!  The two eggplants will be made into eggplant parmesan which will be my lunch all week.  The tomatoes will go on sandwiches and/or tomato pie for dinner one night.  The green peppers will be seeded and sliced and put in the freezer to enjoy all winter.

So, that's my Sunday so far.  I hope yours is relaxing, too.  Happy Sunday!

It's Happening Again.....

Sorry folks - time flew by again and I haven't posted anything in a while.  You haven't really missed anything, though.  I mentioned in a previous post about going to Mom's; I still haven't gotten those pictures from Tom.  I need to remember to do that so I can post them.  Last weekend we went and picked up Jerry's new flatbed trailer.  One of these days I'll post pictures of that, too.  I seriously need to get it together regarding pictures, don't I?! 

Today is a relaxing day.  Well, except for my washing machine finally deciding to leak profusely.  Oh, well.  I managed to get a lot of extra time out of it anyway before it got to this point.  Now I don't think we can put off getting a new one any longer.  On the bright side, I have the laundry hung out and that makes me happy.  There's something peaceful about watching laundry blow in the breeze. 

It doesn't look like we are going to be doing the 5K in October after all.  That weekend is the weekend that the house in Ocean City will need to be cleaned so it can be turned over to the owners.  That's okay, though. I haven't trained as much as I should have, and there's another one in December that we are going to aim for now.  I have only done two 5K's on the treadmill recently, and my times weren't anything to brag about.  Last week's was in Boise, Idaho, and I placed 115th out of 123 participants.  The person who was in first place had a time of 17 minutes!

Jerry is doing tree work today, so he came home last night instead of tonight.  I get a bonus day with hubs!  He'll probably be kind of late as it's a big job, so we'll have fried chicken (Banquet in a box - no, I'm not cooking fried chicken today - don't judge), something else and vegetable.  A simple dinner. 

And last but certainly not least, I would like to wish my associate father a very happy birthday.  Happy Birthday, Paul!  I hope you have a great day. 

Maggie first used that phrase, "associate parent" as she didn't like the word "stepmother."  It's true.  Step-anything has a bad connotation associated with it.  I think it started with Cinderella.............

Well, off to do stuff on this wonderfully relaxing Friday, while my laundry blows peacefully on the line, and I know that dinner is out of a box!

Fear of Walgreen's

Well, this week I overcame my fear of going to Walgreen's. And my fear of getting on the treadmill again. You see, the last time I went to Walgreen's on the Wednesday after Labor Day, my sister called and informed me that she had had a heart attack on Monday, Labor Day. My sister, who is in great health and has no risk factors for heart disease. Yeah, that sister. And she's not even old.

She had a spontaneous coronary artery dissection which caused her heart attack. You should Google that; there's a lot of interesting information. Turns out that spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is not discriminating. It has happened to people in all walks of life; active, sedentary, old and young. She had symptoms which prompted her to go to the emergency room and she had a cardiac catheterization and stent placement.

And this is why she wasn't at Mom's on Saturday. I just wanted to make sure she was okay with me writing about her before I wrote this.

I found something on the interwebs that described a coronary artery dissection in simple terms, and I thought it was interesting. It said to imagine that the lining of your coat has ripped on the inside under your armpit and you have a hole in the lining there. When you try to put on your coat, your arm goes between the lining and the fabric of the sleeve and your hand can't come out of the end of the sleeve because there's no opening. When that happens on the inside of your artery, the blood can't go where it's supposed to and your heart suffers for it. The stent puts pressure against the "lining" where the artery can heal, and the normal blood flow channel can resume. I am not sure if this was the exact scenario with my sister, but it's a pretty accurate description of coronary artery dissection.

I am so thankful that she is okay. I was sitting in the parking lot of Walgreen's when she told me. I was shocked, stunned, and got choked up. I only have one sister and one brother, and I'd like to keep them around, thankyouverymuch. She is now back to work and doing fine, praise the Lord, and I hope and pray that there will be no more incidents for her.

I realized that I kept making excuses for not getting on the treadmill after that. I was too busy, had too much work, hadn't gotten enough sleep, etc. Then this past Monday I realized that I didn't really have any excuses. I was afraid. I had to face that squarely and admit that I was afraid to run again. Jerry and I talked about things, and being the wise man that he is, he reminded me that living in fear is not living at all. I thought about Sherri, not even a week out from what she went through, and she was returning to work on that same Monday feeling fine. So, I got back to it and of course did just fine. I have logged 18.82 miles since Monday. And I'm still here to tell about it. If Sherri isn't afraid to go on with her life like normal, it makes me feel silly to be afraid! So I won't be.

Well, okay - I admit to slight trepidation going to Walgreen's, but I'll get over that!

Hope everyone has a great Friday. I intend to. Hubby is coming home today, the weather is supposed to be beautiful, and we don't have plans to travel, so we probably won't be running over small children this weekend. Life is good!

A Long Ride Home

Yesterday we went to Mom's and had a great time, as usual, but Sherri was sorely missed. We called her from Mom's house, though, and talked to her. I told her that I really missed her being there because I had to deal with brother Mike all by myself! We had quite a spread of food and everyone ate themselves silly, as usual. The next time we all get together it will probably be at Cracker Barrel to draw names for Christmas.

On the way home we went to Ocean City so I could see the house Jerry is building. It was very nice finally seeing it in person. I see pictures and talk to Jerry a lot during the day and know what's going on, but it's a lot different actually seeing the progress up close and personal.

I will post pics of Mom's and the Ocean City house soon, when I get them off my camera.

On the way home from Ocean City we had just turned off of Route 1 onto Route 54 when two boys ran across the road directly in front of us. The cars in the other lane were stopped, so we think they thought that traffic was stopped across both lanes and they could cut between the stopped cars, not realizing that our side of the street was moving. Anyway, quicker than you can think, there were these two boys; one at the side of the Tahoe and the other directly in front of me on the front passenger side. Jerry slammed on the brakes, every one of us screamed something incoherent, and we all jumped out of the vehicle right there in the middle of the street. One of the boys had run into the side of the Tahoe on Jerry's side, and the other one had just tapped the right front.

When we got out they were both standing on the sidewalk looking ashen and shaky, as were we. A man in the other lane said that he had blown his horn to try to get their attention to let them know not to cross, but apparently they hadn't heard it, or known it was for them to stop. We asked them if they were okay and they both said that they were. We asked them where they were staying and offered to go talk to their parents but they said no, that they were fine, just shaken.

The oldest one looked to be about 12-13 and the youngest about 8-9. They looked kind of alike so I assume they were brothers. The oldest one told Jerry that he really was okay; the younger one didn't say anything, but his eyes were as big as plates and when I asked him how he was, he just nodded his head, smiled shakily, and made a motion with his hand on his chest to tell me that his heart was beating really fast! I laughed and did the same back to him and assured him that my heart was beating just as fast as his!

Anyway, finally they said they were really okay, and that they didn't need anything, so they went on up the sidewalk and we headed down the road. A short way later Jerry decided that he should probably call the police just to let them know what had happened, seeing as how we had stopped traffic and everything, and just in case some yahoo got our tag number and thought we left the scene of an accident or something.

We did a U-turn and headed to the Fenwick Police Department. They weren't open but there was a number to call the officer on duty, but he turned out to be inside the building anyway, so Jerry told him the story. He said it was out of Fenwick's jurisdiction but gave Jerry a number to call for the Delaware State Police and said it would probably be a good thing just to have it on record, so Jerry did this.

The police took all the information and assured him that it was okay, that he did the right thing by calling them to let them know, but that the boys were not in a crosswalk when they crossed, both boys assured us that they were okay and walked away, and that there were several people who saw everything and could attest to that. They told Jerry that they doubted anything would come of it, but if it did, they had his report and there were witnesses, so there wouldn't be any problems.

So, it was a VERY long ride home! We dropped Tom and Sam off at about 10:30 and got home about 11:15. I remember collapsing into bed shortly after we got home, and that's it until I opened my eyes this morning and saw the sun shining.

That incident was really scary, and I hope those boys never try anything like that again. Judging by how shaken they were as they were both visibly shaking and looked like they would burst into tears any minute, I think maybe they'll use the crosswalks from now on. I hope so, anyway. Praise the Lord that they were okay.

Now that I've caught you up on our exciting ride home, I'm off to do stuff. Don't know what just yet, but I'll think of something! Enjoy your Sunday, and give the good Lord praise for EVERYTHING - just because He is!

Six Weeks

Six weeks from now (okay, five weeks and six days) the boys and I are doing another 5K. That means I have six weeks to get my act together and try to beat my time. Actually, I'd like to beat the boys' times, but I'm not holding my breath! Considering I haven't been on the treadmill in a week, I think I need to step it up a little - oooh, bad pun. Sorry.

I think I'll focus on tomorrow for starting - right now Tom and Sam are on their way here and they have stopped at Pizza Hut to pick up pizza and wings, and we're going to gorge ourselves and watch Frontier House. Yeah, tomorrow sounds much better!

Happy Sunday!

I'm Such A Nerd

It doesn't take much to impress me. You all already know that. But today I was really impressed!

Tom called last Friday to talk about stuff in general. Since we both have Bank of America accounts he asked if I had used their new mobile deposit feature yet. He told me he had just deposited his paycheck from his desk at work, and how very cool the app was. I reminded him that I hadn't gotten my iPhone yet. I'm waiting until September when the new model comes out; then I will get the one that's out now for REALLY cheap.

So, today Jerry received a check for his business. Usually if he's in Delaware, I will deposit these during the week but I wanted to try this stuff out. We used Andy's iPhone and it was very easy. You just put in your account information just like you're doing stuff online, and then take a picture of the front of the check and the back of the check, then it comes up with your different accounts and asks which one you're depositing it into, you pick the account, and that's that!

It tells you to hold onto the paper check for 14 days just in case but you can get rid of it after that. Right after it confirmed the deposit on Andy's phone, I signed onto the bank on my computer and sure 'nuff the money was in the account. I'm such a nerd that this absolutely thrilled me! As I said, it doesn't take much.

Oh, and it works on other smart phones, not just an iPhone. I see less trips to the bank in my future.

Happy Sunday!

I have been loving the rain yesterday and this morning. I'm a rainy day kind of gal. Sunny days - meh - they're okay, but there's something cozy about a rainy day. Last night, though, storms kept me up intermittently throughout the night. If it wasn't a boom of thunder waking me up, it was torrential rain that did. Then at 5:30 this morning it was the cat banging the side of his food dish letting me know in no uncertain terms what he wanted!

Speaking (writing?) about our cat, I believe he has diabetes. Over the last month or so I noticed that he was drinking TONS of water and then consequently flooding his litter box, to the point that I had to change it every other day. Now, if that had been me or a family member, I would have immediately put the symptoms together and it would have screamed "diabetes" at me. I guess I'm slow because it took me a while to put those symptoms together for the cat.

Anyway, turns out cat diabetes is much the same as people diabetes. Dry food is not a good thing for a diabetic cat, so we switched him to Fancy Feast Classics. There are other kinds of Fancy Feast varieties, but only the Classics have the low grain level and therefore lower carbs, which help control the blood sugar.

So, I changed his food a week ago, and he's like a new cat. He's playing again and not laying around all the time. His water intake has returned to normal, and thankfully, he's not flooding the litter box anymore! I got some Ketostix to check his urine (sorry if that's TMI!) and it was negative, so I think we've got this!

Please note that I chose to try to handle this ourselves first rather than take him right to the vet and start down the insulin and vet-bill road. Because the cat is 17 years old as it is, the extensive research I did indicated that at his age a vet would probably recommend putting him to sleep rather than treating his diabetes, and because he only has 2.5 legs too, that would almost certainly be recommended. We don't want that, and will treat him ourselves, but if he got worse or changed in any way, we wouldn't hesitate to take him to the vet and do whatever was necessary for him. I don't want to be flamed by anyone or have anyone accuse me of neglecting our pet.

So anyway, because I can't leave food out for him to eat whenever he pleases and he has to be fed on somewhat of a schedule to keep his blood sugar under control, when it is feeding time he isn't shy about letting us know! He has figured out how to put his paw underneath his food dish and flip the dish up and then it clatters down to the floor. He will do this repeatedly until someone feeds him. He's old and crippled, but he's a character - a spoiled character!

Well, I guess I'm off to try to do some more organizing. I have NO organizing abilities WHATSOEVER. But I'm trying!

Hope everyone has a happy Sunday, and I hope you make time for the good Lord today :)

Oooh....Hold Me Back!

How 'bout these guys?! This is an actual page from a 1970 J.C. Penney catalog. Hold me back, ladies - I may not be able to control myself..........................................................FROM LAUGHING!!

Hmmm.......I think my brother would look stunning in the first outfit.

Just.....Wow!

Andy had me listen to this group, Pentatonix. They are an a capella group and they are AMAZING. Here are two of their songs; Google them and you can find more. They are really talented.

Monday......*Yawn*

Good morning, Peeps! Happy Monday to ya.

It is another cobwebby-brain Monday. Jerry left for Delaware at about 3:00 this morning which is his usual time leaving. And we usually can't seem to get to bed at a decent hour Sunday night; we are always trying to stretch the weekend just a bit further. So we got to bed at about 1:00 then got up at 2:15. Hence the *Yawn* in my title. Sometimes I do go back to bed, and I did this morning, but only for a little while. This is the house he is currently building; this house is actually in Ocean City.

I haven't mentioned any names, and Ocean City is kind of a big place, so I think I'm okay posting those pics, without invading any privacy of the homeowners. Andy and I will probably be cleaning this one too when it's ready to turn over to the homeowner. Well, that's the plan right now, anyway. I like cleaning Jerry's houses because he's a stickler for keeping the job clean as he goes anyway, and makes sure each subcontractor cleans up after themselves and leaves it clean for the next subcontractor to come in and work, so that makes the job much easier for Andy and I.

I'll tell you about my WONDERFUL weekend in a later post. Right now I've got to get some work done - it's going to take me a little longer today, what with all the *yawn* breaks I'll be taking, and the coffee I'll be pouring!

Hope your Monday is a lovely one :)

Not Much To Report

Not a lot going on around here. Some sort of bug/cold/flu has been chasing me this week and I've been doing my best to get away from it. I haven't exercised this week. I'm feeling a little more myself today, though. I still did what I had to do this week, but just felt blah, and felt like I could nap every hour. Glad that's gone.

Now those storage bins I told you about from Dollar Tree are sitting here mocking me, and I intend to do something about them. But I am also the Queen of Procrastination, remember?!

The final tally for last week's 5K was that I was #97 out 103 participants. I would like to try to do this week's before Tuesday. This week's is in Houston, and on the overview it looks like there are HILLS! EEEEK!

I shall end my mundane post now and get to work! Enjoy your Thursday.

A Story to Share

I love this lady's blog. She is a talented seamstress and does great crafts. She recently shared an update about her friend's baby, Dylan, who has had some trials, to say the least! You can read the story here. It's a great story with wonderful pictures.

What I Woke Up To.......

A couple of weeks ago Andy had a friend over. These two friends always stay up all night playing video games, guitar, whatever, which is perfectly fine with me. One time I woke up in the morning to my vitamin bottle having graffiti on it which was hilarious - as soon as I can find the picture I will post it - but this particular time, I woke to find this staged scene in the living room.

And because I happen to know that this friend's mom reads this blog - I won't mention names! You're welcome. The boys had brought in Jerry's yucky ashtray from the deck, and they said since they couldn't find any dice, they put out dominoes!

Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I KNOW these boys and this was STAGED and just for FUN. The only reason I shared it here with you is because I totally trust my son and his friend and wanted to share their fun with you. They are wonderful and trustworthy young men, and I appreciate their sense of humor very much. Just wanted to add that in case anybody thought we were running a gambling house!

Results

I mentioned in Friday's post that I wanted to do this week's 5K, and I did that Friday afternoon. Here's my torture device wonderful treadmill welcoming me. See the "Welcome Karen" at the bottom of the screen?

I did better than I have in any previous runs. This is the screen after I finished. My time was 46:04. Sorry about the glare of my flash. Right now I am #90 out of 95 participants. I hope those numbers look better at tomorrow's final tally, but even if they don't, I'm still proud of my old lady self!

Queen of Procrastination

I am the queen of procrastination. I never intentionally put things off - I just find better things to do! So this is my new desktop background on my computer. I find it oddly motivating.

I Must Go Here!

I MUST, MUST, MUST go to this place! It is Skyhigh Sports. There are a few of them scattered across the country, but this one is in Nashville. I read about it on another blog and now I REALLY want to go! It looks like so much fun. Watch the videos on the site. Dodge ball on trampoline floors and trampoline walls? Oh yeah! Count me in!

And Happy Sunday!

We have had one stalker respond to Friday's post. Any more lurkers - or stalkers?! Feel free to chime in!

Hello, Friday!

Happy Friday to ya!  We had the most lovely rain this morning and distant rumbles of thunder.  I LOVE this kind of day. 

Today I am working and cleaning a bit, and then I will have to make myself purty for my husband who has been in Delaware this week and who is coming home today.  And believe me, making myself purty takes effort! 

Also, I've been organizing my basement storage shelves in my head all week and now my containers arrived from Dollartree.com (that place is GREAT!) and so it's time to get the organizing out of my head and onto the actual shelves. 

I want to try to do this week's 5K today, too.  So, this post is a brief one. 

One last thing - I see on my stats that I actually have more than three readers!  Can you believe it?!  Neither can I!  Anyway, since I told you all about MY plans for today, I would like to hear from my readers about YOUR plans.  Y'all need to stop being lurkers and start leaving comments (ahem....nice, clean ones, please!)

Hope your Friday is a great one :)

Final Tally

I just finished doing workout #2 which I told you about in excruciating detail in a previous post.  Yes, I managed to do it all the way through again!  I was a little worried because I haven't exercised since the 5K last Tuesday.  I'm still going to get through it a few more times before moving on to #3 because it is still definitely a challenge.

The final tally for last week's 5K was that I was #98 out of 106 participants.  This week's 5K is in Oklahoma City. 

Not much going on today; just working, doing a little cleaning, and reading.  I'm currently reading Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss.  I'm really enjoying it and don't want it to end!  All the really old books are free on the Kindle and I have been reading many of them.  I really like literature from that time - it was actually literature - but there are definitely a lot of good books out there now, too. 

Well, off to do stuff now.  Hope you all have a great evening!

Happy Monday

Good afternoon!  We had another quiet weekend.  Jerry and I had big plans for yesterday that didn't work out.  We were going to be at Lowe's when they opened at 8:00 and look at freezers, washing machines, shower stalls and toilets - not that we're getting all of those at once.  We're just shopping around right now.

About 2-3 months ago our big freezer bit the dust and we have been making due with a small chest freezer and the top portion freezers of two refrigerators (one in the house and one in the garage).  That freezer was like a member of the family.  We've had it for 23 years.  It moved to West Virginia with us, and back again.  I cried when that freezer died.  We were told it can't be repaired because they have changed the coolant systems now and it will cost more to redo the coolant system than to replace the whole thing.  Did I mention I cried when that freezer died?

The space was a little tight when we first unloaded everything out of the big freezer into the smaller ones, and now the space has eased up as we have used things, but we are gearing up for winter again.  We want to buy another cow and pig and these freezer spaces just aren't going to hold that.

Then, naturally, because if something can go wrong it will - about a month ago the washing machine started leaking.  Thanks to the interwebs we know what it is, but either we fix it and start down the slippery slope of one thing going wrong at a time, or just get another washing machine.  It is a Sears machine and we have had it for 16 years.  We have never had a minute's trouble with it before now - I love it, and we understand each other after 16 years.  Can you tell I have trouble with change?!  

When we went looking around online we actually discovered that it's harder to find one with an agitator now.  Maybe I'm old fashioned but I don't see how the agitator-less ones can get your clothes clean, and in only a couple of inches of water?  And I don't like the front load ones.  And I don't like the low water ones.  Now do you see why I keep holding onto my old one?!  It only leaks a very little bit which is really very manageable, and still cleans my clothes just fine, thankyouverymuch.

The shower stall and the toilet are for finishing the basement bathroom.  The toilet needs replacing and Jerry has taken the wall out between the bathroom and laundry room to make room for a shower stall as it was just a toilet and sink before.

Anyway, all this to say that we never made it to Lowe's.  Our usual morning routine is to sit out on the deck while I have my first cup of coffee of the day and he has his first smoke (yes, he's working on that!) and then we start our day.  But we couldn't get started yesterday, and one cup of coffee became three, and I don't think I even got out of my pajamas until 10:00!  Yeah, I know.  Don't judge.

Last night we watched two more episodes of Jericho - just two.  We are getting better at pacing ourselves!  Then we watched Andy finish a video game he has been working on, then it was bedtime.  A most uneventful but yet relaxing day.

I am now #89 out of 96 participants in this week's 5K.  I'll have the final tally tomorrow when the location changes and a new one is announced.  I haven't exercised yet today.  And may not.  Don't judge!

Enjoy the rest of your Monday :)

Moving up!

Just a quick note to let y'all know that I'm now #53 out of 56 in this week's 5K - despite the veggie pizza, Mom! - the other day my mother emailed me a smart remark about my pizza post and coming in near last!  Everybody's a comedian.....

A Shameless Business Plug for My Son!

Tom is a gifted graphic artist and I promised you I would share his website.  Click HERE  for all the print-y goodness!  His prices are really better than that other online company, Vista*****.  Check it out for yourselves and send a little business his way - you won't be sorry.  And I'm not saying that because I'm his mother! 

More Veggie Pizza!

I had a hankering for more veggie pizza, so I just finished making one and am waiting impatiently to cut into it!  And yes, I did use the word "hankering."

Andy and I went to Giant today and for the first time used the Scan-It thingie.  I really liked it, and it's much easier to use than I thought.  It was very nice to bag our stuff as we shopped and have that all done by the time we got to checkout.

We had thunderstorms roll in during the night that woke me up occasionally, but I didn't mind.  I love thunderstorms - just not the terrifying kind!  Last night's were very mild, and we got some much-needed rain.  I didn't have to water the garden today, or fill the birdbath.  We have tomatoes, green peppers and squash going right now.  The broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower finished and we replaced it with squash.  I was sad because the cabbage white moths pretty much destroyed the cabbage and some of the broccoli.  We'll be armed for them next year, the little buggers.

I ran this week's virtual 5K this afternoon which was in Topeka, Kansas.  There is a new location every Tuesday, and right now my standing is #22 out of .........23!  There are still five days to go; surely I can finish ahead of a few more people?!  My time was 46:35.  Not setting any records, but I'm happy with it.

Welp, my veggie pizza is calling me, and I'm going to answer!

Enjoy your evening :)

Update!

Woo hoo!  I did it!  I actually made it all the way through the second workout a little bit ago.  And I felt so good afterwards, I went for an additional two miles!  Bring it ON, Elizabeth Hasselbeck!  No, no....only kidding, Elizabeth.....(cowering)...

Happy Tuesday

Good morning, my peeps!  Just a short note before I get back to work.  Today is the last day of the pay period for one of my jobs and I'm in there with everyone else grabbing the work as fast as it comes in to get as much on this paycheck as I can!  Picture a shark feeding frenzy, or better yet, people knocking each other out to get the last Cabbage Patch doll ('member that?  Sheesh), or whatever the latest got-to-have-it-for-my-rotten-kid-so-I-don't-have-to-spend-time-with-them toy of the season is. 

Okay, it's not that bad, but people do tend to wait until the end of the pay period to get their contracted amount of work in.  I'll admit that I've sometimes done that over the years.  Mostly I try to work consistently throughout the pay period, but I still sometimes put a little oomph in at the end!  A whole lot of people don't work at the beginning of the pay period, so I have all that I want then.  But like I mentioned in a previous post, the work really hasn't gotten slow this year as it usually is this time of year.  And I'm okay with that.  Oh yeah - this morning I typed about a patient who is allergic to chocolate.  Can you imagine?  I can't - nor do I want to!  What a horrible, dismal world that would be!

Yesterday I was completely lazy.  Not work wise - I did extra work - but as far as exercise and food.  I didn't exercise, and worst of all, ordered Dominos for dinner!  Oh, yes I did. 

Well, off to do more work and whatever else I can get into.  My plan is to exercise today, but we'll see how that goes.  Happy last day of July, everybody - can you believe it?! 

Relaxing Weekend

Yesterday was a good day.  Tom came over early because he had some graphics business in the area to take care of, then he and Andy went and played tennis.  Meanwhile, I got some work done while Jerry napped, and then I made pizza. 

The veggie pizza was REALLY delicious.  You should definitely try it.  It was based on Tammy's pizza recipe but I used what I had on hand.  I used her thin crust pizza dough recipe which has turned into our favorite, and the one I make most often.  For the sauce I used Frank's Red Hot Wings Sweet Heat BBQ sauce.  Then I put a layer of thinly-sliced fresh squash and one diced fresh tomato on the sauce.  Then I put a thin layer of Mexican shredded cheese and then a layer of Colby Jack shredded cheese.  On top of the cheese I put another layer of thinly-sliced squash, really thinly sliced onion, and diced green pepper.  Then I cooked that pan of goodness at 450 for about 9 minutes, and ohhhhh, man, was it delicious!  I made a second pizza too, just regular pepperoni and regular pizza sauce, because Jerry isn't one with hot sauce or veggie pizza! 

While we ate we watched Jericho, which Jerry and I have been watching on Netflix.  It's pretty good, but creepy.  We're trying to pace ourselves - we have a bad habit of finding a show we like and then watching it in big chunks instead of spacing the shows out and making them last! 

Today, Sunday, we are just relaxing.  Jerry is outside cleaning his truck, I'm inside making potato salad, reading, and typing this!  In a little while we'll grill chicken breasts for stir fry, or whatever I decide to do with them.  Hope your Sunday is relaxing, too, and I hope you'll make time for the Lord because it is His day, after all. 

Happy Sunday :)

Going for a record here....

THREE DAYS in a row for posting.  I may faint.  And so may you.

I've been playing around with the Blogger settings and decided to try a new layout for a while.  I like the dandelions.

I mentioned my new treadmill - well, in short, I LOVE IT.  Except that it's going to kill me.  More specifically, Jillian Michaels and Elizabeth Hasselbeck are going to kill me.

The treadmill is iFit compatible and so connects to my computer and tracks everything; miles, calories, and lets me load preprogrammed workouts from my computer on it.  In the preprogrammed workouts hosted by Jillian Michaels and Elizabeth Hasselbeck that come with the iFit module, the incline raises and lowers by itself according to what you've chosen, or you can use Google maps to put something on there.  I put my own street on there because there's a hill on it!  Also, the last 5K we did in March had hills and so I put that 5K course on there so I could be more ready for next year!  There are also virtual 5Ks and 10Ks all over the world that iFit puts on there, a different place each week, and you can compete with anyone in the world who chooses to participate.  The treadmill tracks the time and then posts everyone's results.  I have run six of them and I'm usually somewhere around the bottom of the list, but that's okay.  On the iFit website there is also an average time of all the runners together who do the 5Ks.  I'm just doing my duty to bring the average down!  Wouldn't want people to get too full of themselves, ya know.

So, back to Jillian Michaels and Elizabeth Hasselbeck killing me.  I decided that things were getting boring - sure, I was sweating like a pig and getting out of breath, but I wasn't seeing changes anymore, and the Jillian Michaels workouts I had been doing were getting boring.  So, I found an Elizabeth Hasselbeck 30-day Makeover Workout.  Oh.My.Goodness.  You're supposed to do one each day.  Uh huh.  It took me SIX DAYS to finally do the VERY FIRST workout all the way through the way it was programmed in there.  I finished the whole 30-minute workout but I would override the settings and bump my speed down when I felt like I was going to die/my legs were going to fall off.

So finally on the sixth day I managed to do the whole 30 minutes just the way good ol' Elizabeth Hasselbeck told me to.  Concerned that it may have been a fluke or for some reason I had superhuman strength that day, I decided to make sure I could stick with workout  #1 successfully before I moved on to workout #2.  So I did that for five days and lived to tell about it.

Then yesterday I'm not sure what got into my brain and made me think I was ready for workout #2, but I tried it.  And failed.  Miserably.  The reason this is a 30-day makeover is because it kicks your behind EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT.  On the very first one she has you going 4.2 miles per hour on a 5% incline which varies up to a 10% incline at a lower speed.  Hills and 4.2 miles per hour?  At the same time?  That probably doesn't sound like much and I'm sure everyone reading this could do that, but I thought I was going to pass out.  Workout #2 has you going at 4.3 miles per hour, again on hills.

I didn't get a chance to try it again today because I was working, cleaning, getting ready for Jerry to come home......yeah, all that.  Do those sound like excuses?  Yeah, they do to me, too!

Anyway, just thought I'd post with my mundane thoughts for today.  Remember, you asked for it!

Have a grand Friday evening, everyone :)

Two Days In A Row!

Good morning!  Two days in a row I've posted!  Since the last post in June (the one before yesterday's), Blogger has changed its format.  Guess I'll have to figure this out.........For now I'm just typing in the little box they give me!

Nothing special planned for today.  I went to bed entirely too late last night and so got up later than usual this morning.  Yesterday I was on the treadmill by 6:00 AM  but not this morning!  Oh yeah - I got a treadmill!  I'll have to tell you all about that soon, too.  I have been reading Ishmael and the sequel to that, and that's what I was doing last night when I didn't realize how late it was getting.

I'll be heading out soon to Safeway and Rite-Aid to do this week's couponing and to get Jerry's Pepsi stash for the week.  Yes, I'm still couponing, but it's getting harder and harder since that stupid show came on and ruined it for honest and ethical people.  Yesterday it was Giant, CVS and Walgreen's.  I have my rounds each week, but it usually doesn't take long because I'm only getting a few things at each place.

Lately I've been driving Andy's car and it is really fun to drive.  Andy's getting his hours in to get his license, so I drive some and he drives some.  It is a BMW 318ti and it feels like you're sitting on the ground when you drive it.  I love the way it handles and scoots down the road!  It's a very different feeling from my Tahoe, which I still love, but I also like zipping around corners in Andy's car!  The first time I drove it, Andy was with me and I was taking one of the traffic circles like I'm used to when I drive my Tahoe - slowish, so as not to roll over!  Andy gave me a dirty look and in a drill instructors voice told me from now on I'd better take corners LIKE I MEAN IT!

Last but certainly not least, I want to wish my oldest son a very happy birthday today!  So proud of that son o'mine!  Funny - he's getting older, but I'm still staying young.  Wonder how that works?!  Happy birthday Tom!   We love ya LOTS!

Well, off to start my day, a little later than usual!  Hope everybody has a wonderful day today, especially Tom!

I'm back!  Actually, I didn't physically go anywhere - just took a short sabbatical from blogging!  Most bloggers are polite enough to tell you that, but I kept intending to write and never got around to it.  My apologies for my silent page. 

Since I wrote last, Andy graduated and got his first car, and Tom got a new car and launched his graphic design business.  I will post pics of cars and a link to Tom's business soon. 

Work is just as busy as ever which is strange, because usually this time of year the docs are all taking vacations and work is slow, and then when they come back in August they want all their work caught up to two days!  I'm thankful that it's keeping at an even level.  Jerry is back and forth between Delaware and here, and doing tree work here and there.  So, nothing has really changed, but I figured I'd better update so people didn't delete my blog!

I will try to write more often just so some people don't harp on me about not writing often enough.  I just hope those same people remember that they bugged me to write when I write about humdrum, mundane things just to have something to write about!  Just kidding - I like to write; it's just finding time to do it!

I hope everyone's summer is going well.  Ours is - just way too fast, and too busy! 

Have a wonderful Wednesday, y'all!

Recycle bin?! I think not!

Iknowit'sbeenalongtimesinceIpostedbutpleasedon'tputmeinyourrecyclebinbecauseIhaven'tpostedintwomonthsI'vebeenbusyandhaven'thadtimetoblogbutwillseewhat Icando! 

Yes, I know what "tomorrow" means.

So, I didn't update "tomorrow" like I said in my last post. But you really should know me better than that by now!

The 5K went pretty well. I walked A LOT of it. There were hills on this course and they were tough. I really am out of shape for this kind of thing. At least the rain stopped just long enough for the event. I looked at my heart rate monitor at one point when I felt particularly winded and it was 189. I figured that maybe that was what the doc meant by not exerting myself, so not wanting to end up in the ER, I took it a little easier. Besides, like I said, I'm REALLY out of shape for this kind of thing!

The boys did well. We separated and did our own thing on this one, so they just waited for me at the end. I went straight from the finish line to the truck to leave, so that's why my face is so red in our group picture. I always turn red as a beet when I pretend to run. I feel fine but I look like I need life support. You can go here to see the results. You can hit Ctrl+F to search for our names instead of reading through the whole list, if it's easier.

There were people with cameras all over the place. As I was rounding a corner, I saw a camera aimed directly at me and begged the lady holding it PLEASE DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE! Well, I begged as well as a person gasping for air can beg. I found these pictures of Andy on the web, though! Luckily, none of me have showed up around teh interwebs. In the first picture below he is talking to the lady who finished just ahead of him - she's 70! Andy said he drafted her the whole race, like a race car!

So, there is my recap - sorry it's a little a lot late!

The Good, The Bad, and the (Not So) Ugly

Here's a recap of the last few weeks.......

1. Jerry and I went away for a weekend for our 30th anniversary.

The Good: We had a GREAT time. We put 1,050 miles on my truck (I'm not kidding - we have proof!) and saw just about every inch of West Virginia and a good portion of Virginia, too. It snowed the night we were driving there. That got a little hairy in the dark in the mountains, but I loved the snow - seeing as how we can't seem to get any here this year.

The Bad: Tom borrowed Jerry's fancy shmancy camera for work and accidentally left the photo setting on a some weird thing that only he has software for - which means I can't upload all the pictures I took until he changes the file format. Which, of course, I didn't know as I was taking ALL THOSE pictures.

The Ugly: There may or may not have been some white-knuckled gripping of the arm rest in the snow, in the dark, with trucks barreling by in the opposite direction.




2. I had a colonoscopy this Wednesday (two days ago).

The Good: The adenomatous polyp is GONE! It didn't grow back. Praise the Lord!

The Bad: It was a colonoscopy, y'all.

The (Not So) Ugly: They did remove two very small polyps and I have to go back in three weeks to find out the pathology of them, but the doc wasn't worried about them and said they didn't seem like anything to worry about, and I won't need another colonoscopy for five years, instead of three years, like it was this time. So, not so ugly.




3. There's a 5K tomorrow that the boys and I are participating in.

The Good: I'm excited and eager to get out there and have fun. I'm slow, but I have a really good time!

The Bad: I started having knee pain and needed new shoes, so lost some training time until I got new running shoes. And also my treadmill broke and getting outdoors to run didn't really happen very much. I finally got new shoes this week, but still lost valuable training time.

The Ugly: They told me after the colonoscopy that I wasn't allowed to run tomorrow because they removed the polyps and I might bleed. I was already signed up for this before they scheduled me. I might try to run anyway because I'm so slow, walkers can pass me! We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Consider yourself caught up until tomorrow!

Catching Up

We had a great time at Mom's in February. Here's a recap in pictures.


This guy showed up (identity masked to protect the innocent guilty).







There was a motley crew in attendance.......









Hilarity ensued........








There was entertainment.......








And family pictures taken - like this one......








And this one..........








And this one.......








And last but not least.....GOOD FOOD!

So True!

There's another 5K that I'd like to try to do in March, but my treadmill broke and I'm forced to go outside to run, which isn't working out too well! We'll see if I'm ready - I may have to walk this one! Anyway, I wanted to share this - a friend sent it to me and it is SO TRUE, and cracks me up every time I see it.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

This week is our 30th anniversary! The post I wrote (in the sidebar about what I have learned in 26 years of marriage) still applies. We are planning to go away but haven't got all the particulars in order, so nothing to write about yet, but Happy Anniversary to us in the meantime and yes, I would do it again, and yes, I pray for an additional 30 years (or more) with this wonderful man.

The Other White Meat

Well, now the freezer is full. For Christmas, Jerry's mom got us a half of a steer (which Jerry's brother raised). That filled the freezer pretty full. Then in December Jerry bought a whole hog and we picked up the meat from that on Saturday. Well, except for the bacon and a couple of the steaks which weren't ready yet. We decided that since we bought the whole thing, we wanted everything but the oink! The only thing we didn't keep were the intestines, feet and head. I didn't want chitlins and pig feet, and we didn't know anyone who ate them. Jerry's friend who keeps us in wonderful produce (and the grower of ALL THOSE SWEET POTATOES!) wanted the heart and liver, so those were for him. Jerry and I are curing the hams ourselves. We are flying by the seat of our pants on this, as we've never done it before. We cut one of the hams in half because they are 20 pounds each, and instead of curing one of the halves, I put a spice rub on it and it is smoking on the grill right now for dinner tonight. I would have put a picture of that on here along with the ones below but, um, my spice rub kind of caught fire and while I'm sure the roast inside will be delicious, it doesn't look too pretty! I told Jerry it just had a protective shell on it while it finished cooking! Maybe I'll be brave and post a picture of the charred protected roast for you when it's done. Maybe.

Here is the half of the ham that we are curing. That's sugar cure on it right now. We'll rinse that off this evening, inject it with liquid cure, and then rub more curing salt on it before wrapping it up and letting it do it's thing.


Same goes for this one, only this is the whole one - the 20-pounder. It doesn't look that large here, but it is!




Here is the fat rendering in my pot for lard. And cracklins. Yum!

Yum!

I made this Gourmet Bean Soup for dinner tonight. Oh. My. Goodness. It's really good. Actually, anything I have ever made from Tammy's site has turned out well. The sweet potato rolls I made at Christmas were Tammy's pumpkin roll recipe; I substituted sweet potato because, well, I have three recycling bins full of sweet potatoes in the garage that Jerry's friend generously gave us (and Jerry helped dig) - and Jerry doesn't even like sweet potatoes! What a guy. And what a run-on sentence! Anyway, give the bean soup a try. I used hot Italian sausage in mine. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!

A Post To Share

I regularly read Lisa Pennington's blog, The Pennington Point. I recently read a Faith Points post called Do Not Compare Yourselves One to Another, and it was so good, that I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it and that it encourages you as much as it encouraged me. You should also peruse her other blog sections and posts; she is a talented lady!

Welcome, 2012!

Well.....it's 2012...the world didn't end, so I guess I should update my blog! (although some people are predicting it won't end until December 21, 2012).  THAT would certainly save on Christmas shopping next year, wouldn't it?! 

So it's a new year, and as usual, I have made some goals.  I'll call them goals this year instead of resolutions, and maybe I'll stand a better chance of actually sticking to them.  Some of my goals are the usual suspects, including weight loss, but others are new this year.  We'll see if we can make it past February!

I guess it's time to take the tree down.  That makes me sad.  It seems that Christmas came and went so quickly this year, that I didn't have time to enjoy the tree.  It doesn't help that we put it up a week later than we usually do, either.  Next year we'll put it up earlier.  There just won't be presents under it until after December 21.  Assuming we're all still here. 

Well, just wanted to check in and let my loyal readers (all 3 of you) know that I'm still around.  And yes, one of my goals was to post more.  We'll see how that goes! 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Bowing to pressure to update my blog, I am wishing everyone (all 3 of you) a very merry Christmas. And please don't forget in the merriment of the day that Jesus was and is the original and best gift on Christmas. 
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween?

No matter what your beliefs are about celebrating Halloween, this picture is funny.

I Did It!

The boys and I just got back from doing a 5K. Yes, I actually did it! I wasn't fast, but still - I DID IT! Tom ran ahead of Andy and I and finished in 34:00; Andy and I finished in 51:02. I'm proud of all of us. It was a lot of fun and we are definitely planning on doing it again.


The boys were telling me to pose for a picture in muscle-man style and were demonstrating, and cracking me up with their poses.


























Are they frightening or what? Or what, is my guess.
























I didn't die. This ol' lady's pretty proud of herself.

O Aunt, Where Art Thou?

I have an aunt whose email
Was hacked with vicious malice.
Instead of happenings in Maine,
I get ads for Cialis.

O aunt in Maine, please write me with a different email address, or leave a comment here so I know y'all are still kickin' !

Earthquake

I didn't post about the 08/23 earthquake yet, but Andy found this and I wanted to give you all a chuckle too.

Welcome and Goodbye, Irene!

We didn't fare too badly in Irene. Our power went out at about 9:45 last night and just came back on a few minutes ago (about 6:00 PM). Darn it. I love it when the power goes out. I'm weird like that.

We had two trees down across our driveway, and one came down across our street by our mailbox. Two came down in our neighbor's yard, cutting across our back yard. One came down on another neighbor's deck, which has a funny story associated with it, which I will share with you another time.

For now, though, I wanted to update that all is well here, and share some pics I got this morning.

The first pic is the back yard. You can see the two trees that fell across our fence from the neighbor's yard - but didn't hurt the fence.

The second pic is what's left of the tree that fell across our driveway.

The third is the other part of the above-mentioned tree.

This is the tree that fell across our street. And that's
our poor mailbox.








This is Jerry's trailer with a tree that fell just behind it, missing it.

I Love Snow

And here's why:



That's the thermometer on our porch. See the time stamp from my picture? 12:41 - it's not even the hottest part of the day yet. Thinking snow thoughts.......

Crickets

Well. I have had quite the hiatus, haven't I?! My readers clicked on my blog and got.......crickets. Nothing there. Every time I start to write, I feel like I need to enclose pictures or something, instead of just writing about it! So I'm not going to worry about that. If I add a picture, well, that's a bonus.

We planted a garden and have onions, green beans, tomatoes and peppers growing. Nothing ready yet, though. We also planted two trash cans of potatoes! We hope to have better luck than last year. This year we actually used seed potatoes, so that should work out a little better. I was gifted with a huge bag of cucumbers yesterday and requested to make pickles, so I'll be doing that shortly. I was given huge amounts of strawberries earlier in the summer and asked to make jam, so I did that. It's a good trade - they provide me with the produce and in exchange ask for some of what I'll make with it. Good deal for all involved. I hope to be getting bunches of grapes soon with which to make jam. When the weather is cooler we will plant cabbage and broccoli. I hope to have enough cabbage to can more sauerkraut this year.

Well, my enchiladas are about ready to come out of the oven. Just wanted to give you a quick update and let you all know that I'm still around, instead of crickets!

I'll leave you with this - my great uncle passed away somewhat recently and Jerry and I are helping to get the house ready to put on the market, and in cleaning it out we came across this:

Nice luggage piece, no?

See the little tag on the bottom right hand corner?





It says "Amelia Earhart luggage". Who thought THAT was a good idea?! Would you want to take that on vacation?

Style, or lack thereof!

First of all, let me state that I have indeed been keeping up with my jogging slogging (slow jogging!) Monday, Wednesday and Friday I'm at it. I just haven't posted my stats.

I made a discovery, though. The first few times I killed myself trying to finish within a decent time. And then crawled off the treadmill and was pretty miserable. Then I noticed the scale wasn't moving - in fact, I gained two pounds! Talk about discouraging! Then I realized that all my huffing and puffing was actually making my exercise anaerobic instead of aerobic, and I was out of any fat burning zone - I was just in survival mode!

So, then I tried not pushing myself quite so hard, discovered I could actually breathe while I was slogging, and guess what - the scale actually is moving downward now. I figured the first couple of weeks of pushing myself too hard, my fat stores said, "This chick is crazy. Better hold on to EVERYTHING!"

Now I can actually function after a run, and the scale is moving too. Good stuff. I didn't post my stats but I will if Mike someone needs proof - it seems Mike certain people might not believe I'm actually keeping up if I don't post!

Secondly, I found this great blog. This man photographs men and women (mostly of New York) of advanced years who show style and individuality. The ladies are gorgeous and inspire me. Yes, it's New York, where people don't look at you sideways for wearing different things, but who says you can't rock your individuality in the boonies if you want to?

I look at the photos on this blog and can't help but wonder what happened to me. Both of my grandmothers were fashionable in their own way. One always had nails painted, wore costume jewelry all the time, never left the house without lipstick, and I have pictures of her back in the 50's looking glamorous in evening wear. The other had more classic style; never wore pants, always believed a lady should wear a dress and stockings and heeled shoes, and did this right up until the time she died, in her 90's. Both of these ladies were always looking fashionable for the most part.

So, my question is how did I end up looking like this?! Part hillbilly, part throw-on-whatever's-close-and-fairly-clean? By genes alone, I should have more fashion sense. I need to work on that. In the meantime I'll enjoy the people on this blog and envy their freedom in being themselves fashion-wise.

Monday Stats

It was a tough walk/jog today. I didn't get in a hurry; my legs weren't cooperating.

Distance: 4 miles
Time for 3.1 miles: 1:02
Total time: 88 minutes
Maximum heart rate: 173 beats per minute
Average heart rate: 140

Happy Monday!

Very Cool

I had to share this with y'all. There is a very cool site, Jogfm.com, where you can enter in the time you want to go a mile and it will find music accordingly. I set up my iPod with music I found there and I have loved it. You can buy the songs from that site, or what I did was use their song suggestions and then bought them from this site, which is where we have been getting our music for a long time now. Much cheaper. Disclaimer #1: I get nothing from these companies by recommending them. They have no idea I even exist. I'm just passing along things I like to my readers (all 3 of you!) Disclaimer #2: If by chance you are not happy with either of these companies, don't blame me. Refer to Disclaimer #1. Happy Sunday, and Happy May!

Accountability and Happy Birthday

Okay - here goes. I've been running for a few weeks now and plan to run a 5K in the fall. There. I said it. I am posting it here so it can keep me accountable, and keep me going. I'm going all out and posting my times and my stats from my heart rate monitor. Right now my pace is S-L-O-W (think snail), but that's okay. Rome wasn't built in a day, and these hips didn't get this way in a day, either.

I go 4 miles. The first 3.1 miles (5K) I time myself, then after that I just walk and enjoy the music. So, here for your amusement, and to keep me on track, are today's stats:

Distance: 4 miles
Time for 3.1 miles: 58:51 (my best time yet)
Total time: 87 minutes
Maximum heart rate: 175 beats per minute
Average heart rate: 140

I had kind of a hard time today. My legs felt like lead. It's been a week since I was able to get on the treadmill, so that didn't help. Oh, and this didn't either -




Yesterday was Jerry's birthday and this was his cake. And a half. We went to Jerry's mom's house on Wednesday to celebrate, and then had a birthday dinner here last night, so he got two birthdays. That's a good thing. He's a good man. And who wouldn't want two birthdays?!

Easter Recap

Writing about this year's Easter reminded me of other years, so I figured I'd put links to past Easter posts so you could read them all from one place.

Easter 2005

Easter 2008

Easter 2008 (second post)

Evidently I didn't write about years 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Or I just couldn't find the posts. I know I took pictures each year of our dysfunctional Easter baskets, but I guess I didn't get them off my camera yet. One of these days I'll get my act together. Happy Friday to ya! And yes, I'm aware that my post date at the top says Thursday, 04/28. I started the post then and finished it this morning. So again, Happy Friday to ya!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, y'all! Here are pictures of this year's irreverent Easter basket ritual. We are irreverent about this part of it because we know what Easter is (it's all about Jesus!) and what it isn't (Easter bunny!). For the last few years I have been amused by the boys' creativity in that department. I go to bed and leave them to their devices to find Easter candy vessels. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a picture of this year's.


A shoe box and my bread pan.



Oh, and look what they left for the Easter bunny........


Body building supplement powder and potatoes.


There is no rhyme or reason to the things we do here. We just amuse ourselves! Also, did you notice the books in their baskets?! Tom got a Dora book and Andy got a Thomas the Tank Engine book. Seems the Easter bunny had a joke up his her sleeve as well!

Happy Easter to everyone. Whether you go to church or not, please don't forget to give praise to the Lord who gives us hope and a future, because He died for us and rose on this wonderful day. And try not to eat too much candy!

Happy Anniversary!

Have you ever?! Have you EVER seen someone as rude as I, to take such a long break from blogging? Well, I did. But I have a good reason. Which I'll tell you another time.

Right now I just want to say happy anniversary to Jerry and I. It is our 29th anniversary today. I am SO blessed to have that man as a husband. I love him so much it isn't funny. When you've been married 29 years and still hold hands and snuggle while watching old westerns on TV together, well, that's love! And I'm not ashamed of admitting that we hold hands, snuggle, OR watch old westerns on TV!

Okay. I've written a blog post. I'm sure my brother was beginning to feel pretty smug because he had several blog posts up on me. Not anymore, brother o'mine. Ball's in your court!

Have a lovely Sunday!