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!

Welcome, 2011!

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous, worry-free, wonderful new year. May this year be filled with blessings for all of us. And more blog posts!

Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Something To Think About

I read this today and just loved it, and wanted to share it with you.

Fulfillment is a reward the Lord grants his sons and daughters for their unselfish service, not a prize to be grabbed from God's hands by force.

That's something to think about in this day of "me, me, me."

Wanna Do Something Nice?

There is a wonderful blog that I follow, A Joyful Chaos. I love to read about this lady's former Amish life. Here is a link to a recent post. In it she has asked for cards for her Aunt Vernie. I sent one from our family to her on Saturday. If you want to do something nice for someone, email Mary Ann (her email address is on the right side of her blog under the picture of the fretwork clock) and get Aunt Vernie's address to help make her birthday special.

Some 'Splainin

I Didn't Die

How's that for a blog title?! Well, I didn't. Die, that is. I've just been horrendously busy and blogging took a back seat again. I'm not even going to try to apologize this time - life happens! There are lots of posts started (in my head, that is) that will hopefully be written soon, about what's been going on around here. Here's the Reader's Digest version:


1. Jerry is home from Delaware.
2. In 2005 Jerry and I bought a trailer in Rehoboth Beach.
3. We had trees taken down.
4. I love C. Booth dry oil.
5. I'm bellydancing again.
6. Jerry is home from Delaware.


Elaborations to follow. One day. Soon. I promise. No, really.

Romance

Back again! Hopefully I can carve out more time for blogging, because I really do miss writing. I'm still working on the whole Delaware saga for you, but in the meantime I wanted to share this.


Last week Shopper's Food Warehouse had triple coupons. In my world, that's a big deal. Anyway, Jerry and I needed a new showerhead (don't ask) from Lowe's, so we figured while we were in the area we'd stop at Shopper's and scout out prices for couponing that week.


It was late when we got to Shopper's, about 10:00 at night, so we pretty much had the store to ourselves. We went our separate ways in the store looking at different things, but happened to meet up again in the cleaning aisle - Jerry at one end and me at the other.


As we were perusing items in our respective ends of the aisle, our wedding song came on over the store's speakers. I put my arms out and walked toward Jerry and told him that we should dance - it was, after all, our wedding song. And what were the chances of hearing your wedding song, 28 years later, in a grocery store at approximately 10:30 at night, with no one else around?


So, we danced. Right there in the cleaning aisle. I had my eyes closed, just enjoying the moment, when my husband of 28 years, my high school sweetheart, the love of my life, whispered in my ear.............




........"We need toilet cleaner."




Ah, romance.

Don't Give Up On Me!

I didn't disappear - things have been insanely busy and blogging has had to be put on the back burner for a little bit. Don't give up on me, though! I'll fill you in with the happenings here and in Delaware, complete with pictures, very shortly. It may have to be in installments, but that will keep the suspense up, won't it?!

Back for a moment....

The zucchini has released me, but now work is keeping me hopping - but that's a good thing, so I don't mind. Summer is typically when the doctors all seem to go on vacation at once and work is slow, but the last couple of weeks have kept me very busy, and I'm grateful. So, briefly, just had to share a couponing fete for today! (I've still been couponing - just not as much; not as much time!)

Today's haul at Food Lion - and Tom and Andy went for me because I was stuck working - yes, my boys can coupon with the best of them!

20 boxes of Eggo waffles
10 tubs of Best Life butter.
3 loaves of bread.

Total: $1.27


Here's the math in case anyone out there wants to do this too - or not, if you aren't as deranged as me!

Transaction #1:
10 boxes of Eggo waffles @1.67 each, 16.70
10 tubs of Best Life butter @.99 each, 9.90

Total 26.60

Used 5.00 Kraft catalina from last week
Used (5) 1.00/2 coupons from Sunday paper on Eggos
Used (10) 1.00/1 coupons from Sunday paper on butter

New total: 6.60 out of pocket, received 10.00 catalina from Kellogg's.

Transaction #2:
10 boxes of Eggo waffles @1.67 each, 16.70
3 loaves of bread @.99 each, 2.97

Total 19.67

Used 10.00 Kellogg's catalina from Transaction #1
Used (5) 1.00/2 coupons from Sunday paper on Eggos

New total: 4.67 out of pocket, received 10.00 catalina from Kellogg's.

If you subtract the 10.00 catalina I received from Transaction #2 that I still have to use on my next trip there, my total was 1.27 today for 20 boxes of waffles, 10 tubs of butter, and 3 loaves of bread. It's a sickness hobby!

Zucchini Gang here.........

So, yeah, Karen asked us to write and let you know that we, the Zucchini Gang, have taken her hostage. We didn't wanna write, but she said 'people' might come looking for her, and then the jig would be up. We're taking care of her - sort of. We're making her cook zucchini 101 ways - only the zucchini we say to cook - not us, of course. We'll let her go when she finishes, or passes out from exhaustion, at which point we'll find another sap to hold hostage. Don't try to find her - we won't be responsible for our actions if you do.


- Zucchini Gang

A Question

Have you ever wondered what 90 cups of shredded zucchini looks like?



You haven't?



Oh.

Favorite Commercials

We don't really watch TV. People are actually horrified and act like we're freaks surprised to discover that neither I or any of my clan have ever seen even one episode of American Idol. Well, we seem to be doing okay, in spite of ourselves! Here are some of my favorite commercials, though. The one at the end is one I found on YouTube.

Father's Day, Take 2

The weekend before last we celebrated the rest of Father's Day. Andy's gift to Jerry had been delayed in shipping, so we didn't have it for the actual Father's Day. He got him a pellet gun. A very heavy, potentially very painful, pellet gun. Tom got him CO2 cartridges to power said gun. Now all of the boys have one.





The morphology of pellet guns around here is interesting. Tom got one for himself last year which he thoroughly enjoyed; so much in fact that he got Andy one for Christmas last year. Andy enjoyed his so much, that he wanted Jerry to have one, presumably so the three of them could have battles.

I felt like Ralphie's mother in A Christmas Story, "You'll put your eye out."

They spent Sunday afternoon shooting various objects around our yard. Bees on my lavender plant didn't stand a chance. If there is a honey shortage this year, you know who to blame.

We made badly-drawn targets and hung them from the clothesline. We initialed each person's shot so we knew who shot where. Note the "M" on the shot below. Yep, that was mine. Pure luck, I tell ya.





My contribution was a cake. I got this decorating idea from this blog post. I know it's a little late to do the flag cake, but I might still try it. My circles didn't come out as neatly as hers!

Air Conditioning - A Pictorial

I am cheap. I did not want to turn on our air conditioning. Recently our thermostat looked like this







Then it looked like this







Then this







And this







Then my family started acting like this




I surrendered.

To Rosie

Rosie, thank you for the comment you left regarding "The Pen, the Sword, and All That." I wanted to let you know that I did indeed receive it, but because of the personal nature of some of the things you wrote, I chose not to publish it, not without your permission. God is indeed a forgiving God - and it's a good thing, too, or we'd all be doomed! Thank you again for taking the time to leave your kind comment. It was appreciated.

Dad Life - What a Hoot!

Listen carefully to the words - I especially love the Aladdin part!

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

The Pen, the Sword, and All That..........

There are many variations on the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword." Playwright Bulwer-Lytton is most often credited with it as a line in a play in 1839, but actually the Greek poet Euripides is believed to have been the first to say it a long, long time ago (considering that he died in 406 B.C., it was a long time ago).

I have been pondering the post on acceptance I wrote a week ago and felt the need to write this one. Perhaps I could have said it differently, or thought it through more thoroughly. It was not my intent to open old wounds with my typewritten words. When I write, I very seldom think through as I'm writing; the words go from my brain into my hands and come out here on a page. I usually write very quickly, because I write "on the fly" as it were, and it wasn't until I was attacked in the comments that I stepped back to read, really read, what I had written.

It is interesting that the post was about acceptance. I am not writing this one to gain anyone's acceptance; rather to gain peace for myself about having hurt another person, however inadvertently. I still feel the same way about not needing anyone's approval, and it is for that very reason that I write this. It doesn't matter to me whether anyone thinks I'm weak or strong for writing this; the fact is that I hurt someone else unintentionally and that's not how I choose to live my life. Jesus is my model for meekness and humility, but sometimes human nature gets in the way.

I can still be strong enough to stand up for myself and accept myself regardless of what other people think of me, but I can also be strong enough to apologize if I don't feel peace about an issue, and so I sincerely apologize for the pain I caused another individual. It was most certainly not my intention.

No matter who was credited with saying it first, it is indeed true. The pen is mightier than the sword. Oh, and you might want to jot down that bit of trivia about the saying - you know, just in case you happen to get in the Cash Cab or something and it comes up!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled silly and optimistic blogging.

Camera Obscura

On Father's Day we (okay, the boys and Jerry - I took pictures!) built a camera obscura. Here is a link that will tell you how it works. What it is, or was in our case, was a cardboard box with a hole drilled into it. Tom had told us about one of his classes in Arlington when they had covered all the windows in the classroom until it was completely dark and then put a pinhole in one of the window coverings. The Arlington streets and skyline were then projected onto the back wall of the darkened classroom, upside down. He said they watched people walking by, cars and clouds - all upside down. We tried first to put a piece of blueprint paper onto the back wall of the closed box but no image came out. We discovered that would take a LONG time for the exposure to put an image on the paper.

Jerry is closing his office in Delaware and as things were being moved out of the office, an old blueprint machine was about to be thrown away. More about the Delaware office in a future post, though. Jerry and I decided that we wanted to play around with the machine before we threw it away, and there was an unopened package of blueprint paper too, so the boys and I started doing some experimentation to see what we could do with it. It doesn't take much to amuse us, as my readers already know!

We tried using the paper as sun paper - you know, the kind you used to use as a kid when you would lay rocks and such on it and leave it out in the sun and the images would appear in contrast on the paper? We left ours in the sun too long. Turns out you only have to expose it for a few short minutes, but that diazo (blueprint) paper also needs a chemical reaction to finish developing, like a photo. That's why there's ammonia in a blueprint machine to finish the development process.

Later on after taking the box back in the garage, Andy got inside it to see if there would be an image projected onto the back wall of the box. After a few minutes of his eyes adjusting to the dark, he was able to see our driveway projected upside down on the back of the box. Then a neighbor walked over to visit and Andy saw him approach - upside down - on the back wall of the box. As if the neighbors needed further confirmation that we weren't wrapped too tight, having our son in a cardboard box on a 90-degree day confirmed it!

We half-celebrated Father's Day last week. We'll be doing the second half this weekend. Andy's gift to Jerry ended up being delayed in shipping with UPS and didn't arrive in time, so we get to celebrate twice. I'll post about Jerry's gift after he actually gets it, if I get a chance. If not, have a great weekend, y'all!

Never A Dull Moment

Last Sunday we let our cat outside. Because he only has 2.5 legs, we only let him out when we can supervise him, or watch him from the front window. I didn't see him when I looked out so I went outside to round him up. I found him sitting under one of the massive bushes we have in our front yard. The bush is so big that he was literally under it and in it. Usually you can just scold him and he comes running out, but no amount of scolding was moving him this time. I reached in and tried to prod him out with my hand, but he wasn't budging.

Just as I was figuring that I'd have to climb in after him, a portion of something large, black, shiny, and about an inch and a half in diameter slithered past my face. To be exact, about three inches from my face. I jumped back and made a strange sort of yelping sound. I didn't know that such a sound could come out of me. The cat was snake hunting in that bush.

I ran inside and alerted the troops. Jerry and Tom got shovels and tried to coax the snake out. Well, first we used a stick and kept poking at the poor cat until he got so mad that he ran out of the bush, but he wasn't happy about having had his prey intercepted. Jerry finally "scooped" the snake out of the bush but he slithered out of the shovel and dropped to the sidewalk, where Tom then trapped him under his shovel.

I didn't want them to kill the snake - we were pretty sure it was a harmless black snake and, well, I would prefer a black snake in my yard than mice in my pantry. So we decided to put him in a trashcan and release him in the woods in the back yard. Here are pictures of our Sunday visitor.