OMG, Where Did 2013 Go?

As one year ends and another begins we like to reflect on the past and make resolutions that we feel would make the coming year better than the last year.  So my reflections are more like discoveries about myself than anything else.

I discovered that my family is very important to me.  I can’t tell you how many times I have thought that my family could be the biggest pain in the butt, however I have discovered that they can be but I still love them.  I discovered that my daughters are grown women and that I need to step back and let them blossom.  I discovered that my grandkids are amazing individuals that have many talents that I just didn’t know that the possessed.  I discovered that I love my husband more today than I did the day that we got married.  I discovered that without my family encouraging me and cheering me on that I may not have reached the goals that I have set for myself.  So with each discovering there is also a goal and my goal for 2014 for my family is to become their cheerleaders in life.

I discovered that I have some truly amazing friends.  This year we were blessed with spending a couple of long weekends with special friends.  We laughed, cried and got into trouble together; but then again if you are going to get into any kind of trouble who better than a friend.  We also continued our monthly dinner with a very good friend who I know that no matter what happens I can count on her to be there a 100% for me and I know that I would be there 100% for her if the need ever arose.  So my goal for the New Year is to spend more time with my friends, to laugh more with them and to think about them more often.

This year I discovered that I wasn’t making enough time for my hobbies.  I love to read but there just never seemed to be enough hours in the day to sit down with a good book and read.  I also love to cross stitch but once again I just never seemed to find the time to do this either.  However I did seem to find enough time to play games on Facebook.  I discovered that I probably need a 12 step program for my Farmsville 2 addiction; there is just something about that game that is addictive.  My goal for the New Year is to spend less time on Farmsville 2 and more time on reading and cross stitching. 

I discovered this last year that I love junk food.  I discovered that everything is better with bacon.  Bacon goes with everything from your basic breakfast foods to deserts.  I had found that while I enjoy my more exercise routine it just hasn’t been enough that I really need to step it up and get back to doing more than just riding an exercise bike in the morning.  My goal for the New Year is to increase my exercise routine and to become more active on the weekends.  I ‘m also going to try and not eat as much junk as I have been and to remember that while bacon may go with everything doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to eat it with everything.

So as 2013 comes to an end and we head into 2014 I know that I’m not always going to meet my goals but I’m going to do my best to reach them.  Good bye 2013 and hello 2014!!!!

Happy Anniversary Prince Charming!

Wow, 32 Years ago I married my Prince Charming.  At that time I was clueless about what it meant to be married.  I thank God that I married a man that has never tried to change me and accepts me for who I am.  My Prince Charming knows my many moods but most importantly he knows my heart.

My Prince Charming knows the many different sides of me.  He knows when I’m upset and when I need time to just process whatever is going on.  My Prince Charming knows how picky I am about various things, he knows my love for hearts and crystals.  My Prince Charming knows my favorite foods and drinks.  My Prince Charming knows how much I love to spend time sitting by the fire pit drinking wine, listening to music and spending time together.  My Prince Charming knows that I can’t walk into a room without tripping  over my own two feet so he is always there to pick me up, my Prince Charming knows that I can’t eat scampi without spilling down the front of me so he is always has extra napkins. 

I have often said that you can tell how much a man loves his wife by looking in his eyes.  When I look into the eyes of my Prince Charming I see love compassion and of course a few wrinkles.  So while I may have been clueless about marriage in the beginning my Prince Charming has made the journey through life worth every minute.  I love my Prince Charming more now than I did 32 years ago. 

To my Prince Charming I love you with all my heart and spending the next 32 plus years together is something I’m looking forward to.  Happy Anniversary Prince Charming

OMG, Diet & Exercise, YUCK!

About a year and a half ago I decided to get healthy.  I first off changed up my eating habits.  I eat five small meals a day with each meal between 200 – 300 calories each.  In order to do this I had to make a daily menu and follow it, not as easy as it sounds.  I do allow myself cheat meals, because after all I am human and I need my junk food fix once in a while.  I then started an exercise routine.  Ride my exercise bike in the morning for 30 minutes, Pilates at night, hiking on the weekend and Wii fit whenever I could fit it in.  Sounded like a great plan to me.

The first year I lost 47 pounds, yeah.  I was very proud of myself.  Then January happened.  In the first four months of the year I had to have surgery on both legs, we lost four people that we cared about and a couple of relatives had health issues.  I’m a stress eater and so you can only imagine what I did with each one of these life events, I ate and ate.  I have since gained back 15 pounds and don’t feel as healthy as I did in December.  Oh well this was a lifestyle change.

To keep myself motivated for the first year I would tell myself that I didn’t gain all this weight overnight.  I didn’t go to bed one night thin and wake up fat, it happened over time.  I had to remind myself that there are no magic pills; eat everything that you want, never exercise and then take a pill and you are thin and healthy.  I know that the diet industry wants us to believe that there is such a thing but if there were we would have a world full of thin people.  While we are at it why don’t we make a pill that makes everyone look like super models?  I would be first in line at the pharmacy for that pill.  I would love to go to bed the size and shape that I am currently and wake up tall with long legs and perky breasts. 

So in May I decided to get back on track.  I challenged my daughter to a squat challenge for June, crunches for July and pushups for August.  I thought this should be easy enough, right?  Boy was I wrong.  The first few days of doing the squats were pretty easy, but after that was pure hell.  My rear end hurt so bad that I couldn’t sit, stand, walk or move.  There were days that I thought “what did I get myself into”.  I had to continue no matter how bad it hurt because I had made a commitment to my daughter and if she was going to put herself through the same pain then I was then I couldn’t let her down.  To keep myself going I started telling myself that I was going to have buns of steel and I would give myself stars on my calendar for each day that I did squats.  I needed some self-gratification and putting a star on a silly calendar was giving me this gratification. 

With June being done and over with I ended up losing seven inches over all, 3 of those inches in my hips.  I was feeling real good about going into July and crunches, boy was I fooled.  Crunches hurt more than squats, my stomach muscles feel as though they are on fire.  I keep telling myself that I’m going to have six pack abs, ok let’s be realistic one pack, but that is better than having keg abs.  So I’m going to plug away at my crunches for this month and then on to pushups while dreaming about the day that someone comes up with that magic exercise/diet pill.

OMG, Cars!

Recently I decided to trade my old car in and get a new car.  My old car was 10 years old and I loved everything about her but it was getting to the point that we needed a car with 4 doors and she was a little sports car.  Making the decision to trade her in was not an easy decision.  I spent many Sunday’s visiting car lots, car dealerships aren’t opened on Sunday’s so there are no annoying car sales men to deal with.  I spent countless hours on line comparing cars, but when it came down to it I went with a car that I thought looked cool and I would look cool driving. 

Since my old car was 10 years old there weren’t all the fancy widgets that are on my new car.  There are so many little things to on this car it makes my head hurt to think about it.  We spent the first two hours after owning it going through just a few of the features, they want us to come back for a four hour class, since when did you need to attend a class to start a car, listen to music and figure out where you are going. 

While the reality of it is that I should attend this class the pride in me says “I’m not a stupid person I can figure this out on my own”, but I’m pretty sure I can’t.  A few weeks ago I was driving to my hairstylist and decided to turn on the air conditioner.  All of a sudden I’m sweating and thinking “great I’m going to need to take the car in to get the air conditioner fixed because it’s broken”.  All of a sudden I’m thinking “why is my butt getting warmer?”.  I had actually turned on the seat warmer and not the air conditioner, I hope to never make that mistake again, there’s just something about having hot buns on a hot day that just don’t work.

In my old car I had to actually push a button to turn on the radio and I had no GPS system, now I just push a button and a lady comes over the speaker system and asks me what I want.  The only problem is that she never understands what I want so I get this lecture from her telling me I can’t ask “what can I say”.  Soon after starting this process I find myself calling her a bitch and screaming at her to phone home or change the satellite station.  Usually at this point to get even with me she turns the radio to a station I would not normally pick or she calls some obscure phone number.  I think the worst time with “the voice” was when I needed to go to particular destination that I had never been before.  I started the process by say destination, she then replied what city, at this point I’m thinking “wow she heard me” it was too soon because it went from bad to worse.  I gave the city then the street name and number, of course since she never understands me I’m screaming in my car, I must have made her mad because she was giving me directions for some place four states away.  I kept on screaming at her that it was the wrong location.  At this point she got frustrated with me and turned on a sports station and cancelled my trip.  Since when did our cars dictate our destination and what we are going to listen to?  I’m thinking about changing her voice to my mom’s because at least when I’m getting yelled at it should be someone that I know and love.

Gotta love a new car! 

RIP Aunt Riggie

People come into our lives and we never realize how much they are going to touch us.  Riggie was one of those that touched my life in such a way that all I can hope is that I turn out to be just as amazing as she was.  Earlier today we got the call from her son that she had passed away.  She was 94 years young but had given up the fight and was now in a much better place.

Riggie was my mentor, aunt and confidant.  I met her 28 years ago and fell in love with her instantly.  She was the type of person that I can only hope to someday be like.  I remember when we first met.  My husband’s father had passed away and we went to Hawaii for his memorial service.  One night I come walking out to the patio and Riggie, my husband’s step mom and his cousin’s girlfriend are sitting on one side of the table and there is only one chair on the other side of the table.  My first thought was “what is going on and am I on trial for something”.  As I nervously sat down Riggie asked if I wanted a drink, of course I wanted a drink I didn’t know what was going on.  I had my drink in hand and Riggie began to say to me “as the head of the household I want you to know that we have been discussing you”, I thought “ok so at least you have the nerve to tell me that you have been talking about me”.  She then proceeded to tell me that they all liked me and had accepted me into the family; you could imagine my relief since we were already married and had been for a few years.  This encounter was a turning point for my relationship with Riggie.

During this trip I remember how excited Riggie was to teach me how to drink wine, of course it was from a box because she was absolutely amazed that they could get good wine in a box.  She also introduced me to some of the finer things about Hawaii. She showed me that it’s ok to have a vise as long as it doesn’t interfere with your life, she love to have one cigarette after dinner.  She would sit back and enjoy every single moment of smoking it.  Of course my vise is not smoking but enjoying good glass of wine and no I no longer dink wine from a box but do think of those days fondly.  She also taught me that it was a man’s responsibility to clean the silver, help in the kitchen, clean house and help with the kids.  She was for equal rights, no matter what.

A few years later Riggie and her husband, Larry, moved to the mainland.  They found a nice apartment in a senior complex.  They had the apartment designed to fit their needs.  Riggie was about a foot taller than I am.  I remember our first visit to their new apartment and how excited she was to show me how great this place was because it fit her height.  I remember standing at the kitchen counter and thinking how much I felt like a child because it was almost at eye level.  I then went into the restroom where I had to almost jump to sit down on the toilet and washing my hands was not as easy as it should have been because I could barely reach the sink. I kept looking around for a footstool.  

As tall as Riggie her heart was just as big.  When I decided to go back to college she encouraged me to.  Whenever I was getting discouraged about raising children, going to school and working a letter from her would show up.  I cherished those letters and her encouragement.  I’m not sure if I would have continued if not for her.  After I graduated with honors she was so proud of me and told me this often.

While we didn’t live close to each other and didn’t speak to each other often she was still such an important person in my life that there will be a large hole.  Riggie, rest in peace.

What Kind of Animal Are You?

The other day at work we were talking about the different types of people at work and how they are compared to animals.  We came up with slugs, toads, leeches, monkeys and pigs.

Slugs:  These are the individuals who never take the initiative to do anything.  They tend to appear busy at all times but never get anything accomplished and love to pass work off onto others.  They also complain nonstop about everything. 

Leeches: These are the individuals who take the credit for a project when they contributed little to nothing.  They also tend to hang around those that work hard thus giving the appearance of being a hard worker themselves.  They also love to brag about how important they are to the company.

Toads: I’m not sure how we came up with toads because all I could think about was how when a dog puts a toad in their mouth they tend to foam at the mouth which causes them to spit the toad out.  Then again there are people who would fit in the toad category.  I can think a few people that have caused me to get so angry that if I was prone to foam at the mouth I probably would.

Monkeys: These are the hard working individuals.  They are the ones that are called upon when something really needs to get done.  They are smart, dependable, and loyal.  Of course monkeys pick bugs off each other, make rude sounds at the zoo and have been known to spit.  Not sure if that makes them smart or not.  I’ve never picked a bug off of someone, nor have I spit at anyone and I know I tend to try and not make rude sounds at work; coworkers don’t appreciate that at all.

Pigs: These are the smart people.  Of course one coworker asked how smart a pig is, since we eat pigs so if they were really that smart wouldn’t they come up with a way to not be eaten.  When she said this I was reminded of the book “Charlotte’s Web”, Wilbur was a very smart pig, he got Charlotte to spin her web into words so everyone thought that he was a brilliant pig.  I guess in reality Wilbur should have been a leech instead of a pig, but then again maybe leeches are really as smart as a pig after all they do get others to do their work while taking the credit for it just like Wilbur.

While I’m still not sure what kind of animal I am I know for sure I’m not a toad, leech or a slug but I’m not too sure if I’m a monkey or pig.   Neither one sounds like something I would want to put on my resume but then again maybe I would?