OMG, Can’t We Just Love One Another?

This last week has been very disheartening to me.  I listen to people blame Donald Trump  and the NFL for their hate filled hearts, its disgusting.  Seriously people we are all responsible for our own actions, not President Trump or the NFL. 

For the last two years I have watched people that I thought were kind people become so filled with hate and feel that Facebook is the place to exhibit this hate.  I discovered that black lives matter and only black lives, I was so surprised because I have always believed that ALL lives matter, imagine my surprise over that one.  I also learned that police officers lives don’t matter either, I was always taught to respect police officers so this also surprised me.  I taught my kids that everyone matters and that there are hate filled people that come in ALL colors and walks of life, I just didn’t think that they would have to experience this hate on Facebook or in their day to day lives.  I guess Facebook is a safe place for people to post hate filled posts and to continue spreading this hate in other areas.  It’s a shame that this is the platform that they wish to take, I can only hope it doesn’t come back to bite them in the butt.

Last year we had an NFL player decide to not stand for the National Anthem, ok it’s his right, and now we as a nation are taking this to a whole new level.  His not standing didn’t bother me, what did bother me was that he didn’t follow through on his protest.  If you are going to protest injustice then get out there and do something about it.  Volunteer at a homeless shelter, go to the inner city and work with children showing them the right way, mentor young people, volunteer at a veterans home or hospital, do something don’t just sit it does nothing but show your arrogance.  When this player decided to sit and not stand many people decided it was time to burn their jersey’s, did it solve the problem?  No I’m pretty sure it did not because they just went out and bought more stuff.  What also bothered me was when they would show the players during the National Anthem and a few were sitting on ice chests or riding exercise bikes, seriously!!!  That to me is not acceptable and they should have been pulled from the game, but we all know that the owners aren’t going to pull players until it hits their pocket book, the almighty dollar rules the game.

So here we are a year later and the only change that has happened is people are filled with more hate then they were a year ago.  Rather than take responsibility for our actions we have allowed our environment to dictate our actions.  We no longer want to be the solution we want to be the problem.  We would rather choose hate then to choose love and acceptance.  We would rather create dissention then to create unity.  It’s a sad time for America but we cannot blame the president because we are all responsible for our own actions.  It’s up to each one of us to decide if we want to treat people with respect or not.  I for one still believe that every single person is important and I want to continue treating people with respect, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to speak my mind because after all this is America and I’m pretty opinionated but it does mean that I’m going to continue to treating others the way that I want to be treated.

Rather than focus on the sit/stand problem facing America this week I’m going to focus on those that have lost so much due to the hurricane’s that hit parts of the US, I’m going to focus on those that have lost loved ones this year and are learning how to go on without them, I’m going to focus on children that are going to bed at night on an empty stomach, I’m going to focus on our vets who can’t get decent medical treatments, I’m going to focus on how I can be a better person and how I can make a positive difference.  What are you going to focus on?

OMG, I Love Christmas!

Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved Christmas.  I have never been concerned if I got gifts or not, I just love the season, the meaning behind Christmas, the lights and just about everything that comes with the season.  I love Christmas so much that I usually start shopping in January and usually have everything wrapped by Thanksgiving.

This Christmas we were fortunate that we had both our daughters and their families here for Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  We did all of our family traditions and added a few new ones. 

We start preparing for Christmas on Thanksgiving.  This is when we pull out the tree, yes it is an artificial tree, I have a hard time cutting down a tree just to sit in my house for a couple of weeks when an artificial tree works just fine.  On the morning of Thanksgiving, we pull out appetizers along with all the Christmas decorations and turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  As soon as the parade is over football comes on in one room and Christmas movies in the other.  Usually by the time the parade is over we have all the decorations out and ready to start decorating.  I do the inside of the house and my husband heads outside to decorate outside.  We spend the day decorating while also cooking our Thanksgiving meal.  By the end of the day we usually have the tree up, gifts under the tree, part of our Christmas village, lights on the house and other decorations displayed throughout the house.  We get up the next morning and finish our decorating jobs.

The day after Thanksgiving is when I start working on our Christmas letter as well as the Christmas cards.  Our Christmas letter is really a family letter describing what we did for the past year.  It is a lot of fun to work on as it requires me to look back over the year and remember all the great thinks that we did.  After the letters are printed and the cards are addressed they are ready to be mailed.  I usually wait until the following Monday to mail them, sometimes I’m too excited so they go out that day. 

Once in a while we will go out and do some black Friday shopping but we wait until the afternoon in hopes that the crazy people have all gone home for some much needed rest.  We start baking our Christmas goodies the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We plan out what times of goodies we are planning on making, who we are sending them to and who we are going to hand deliver to.  We both enjoy this time.  I always make my fudge, which is requested by many, my husband makes a wide variety of cookies.  This process usually takes us several days but seeing the happiness on he faces of those we care about when we give them these goodies makes it so worth it.

At this point we are now able to enjoy Christmas movies.  I have a set schedule of what movies I watch and I rarely go outside the box and change them up.  I start off with Miracle on 34^th Street, on to Elf, then onto Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3, after this it is time for both Home Alone movies and then if I’m lucky I watch Vacation Family Christmas.  I always end my Christmas movie watching with White Christmas.  In between watching the Christmas movies, I also watch Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the Grinch.  I like to do this with a big bowl of popcorn in my sweatpants with comfy socks on my cold feet.

One of the things we like to do as a family is load into the car and go look at Christmas lights.  When the kids were young we would grab hot chocolate and just drive around various neighborhoods, as they got older we would go to Opportunity Village and the last couple of years we have headed to Ethel M. Chocolate Factory, who doesn’t like to get chocolate while looking at Christmas lights? 

Something we have done a couple of times is draw names for a secret Santa gift exchange, take $20 and buy stuff for our stockings. It is a lot of fun.  You have to spend all $20 and if you don’t then the remaining $20 goes into the stocking.  This year we filled out questioners which helped a great deal when making your purchases.  We then wrap them and fill our secret Santa stocking.  On Christmas Eve we eat fried chicken with coleslaw and French fries.  While eating our food we open our stockings from our Secret Santa.  We have to guess who drew our name which is not always easy.  The gifts are meant to be silly gifts, this year my husband drew my grandson’s name, he asked for food items such as Hamburger Helper, Shake n’ Bake and hot chocolate.  So my husband got him Hamburger Helper, Shake n’ Bake, chocolate covered pretzels, hot chocolate and since he said that he liked the scent of vanilla he also got a room deodorizer.  We all laughed because it was such an unusual gift selection but it’s what he wanted. 

After everyone goes to bed the rest of the gifts are delivered by Santa Clause and the stockings are filled once again from Santa.  When everyone gets up in the morning we eat cinnamon twist coffee cake, drink coffee or hot chocolate and then begin to open presents.  This year our grandson was given the task of handing out the presents, he did such a great job.  After all the presents are opened we spend the rest of the morning playing with our gifts and napping for those of us that got up way too early.  One tradition that we stick to when opening presents is we save all the bows, I know bows are cheap but I have a hard time not reusing them so we save them and reuse year after year. 

Christmas dinner has changed through the years.  When our girls were little we used to have ham, mashed potatoes, rolls and a vegetable.  We now have prime rib, backed potatoes, salad, rolls and a vegetable.  We are not big dessert people so we either don’t bother to serve any or we have ice cream.  This year we made hot chocolate ice cream, which was delicious.  By the end of the day we are all tired but happy and content.

While our Christmas is busy we still take time to remember the true meaning of Christmas.  It’s not about presents, food or shopping, it’s about the birth of Jesus.  While we enjoy all the traditions remembering the birth of Jesus is the most important part of the holiday season.  I hope that your Christmas was as special as mine, God Bless you!

OMG, Politics!!!!

Both the Republican and Democratic conventions are over and now it is time for the bashing of each party to really get started.  I listened to both sides with as open a mind as I could, however it was not always easy.  This blog is my own personal opinion and is not meant to persuade anyone to one side or another.   

I’m going to start with Donald Trump.  While some feel that he has no filter and in all reality he doesn’t, which is a trait I happen to admire as this is how I live my life.  Never ask me a direct question unless you are prepared for a direct answer.  What I like about Trump is that he is not a career politician and so therefore he has not had 35 plus years to hone his skills of using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing. 

Some say that he is a bully.  I don’t necessarily agree with this.  I think that he is someone who speaks his mind which I know can come across as being a bully.  I hope that all of those that are judging him on this remembers that Harry Reid used to do the same thing but worse, he would destroy someone’s life and not think anything about it, Donald Trump has, to the best of my knowledge, never done that.

Some say that he hates women.  If he really hated women would he have married such strong independent women?  Would his daughter be a strong independent woman?  I can say NO he would not, he would be married to someone like Michelle Duggar who feels that her husband is the king of the house and that she should be there for him no matter what and his daughters would be like the Duggar girls.  The tag line that the Democrats like to use is him say “she had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming from I don’t know where”, I took that to mean that she was looking at him with hate and evil in her eyes. 

I have heard that he plans on putting up a wall around the boarders.  We are a diverse nation and will always be one, no matter if there is a wall or not.  I’m all for people coming here to the US, but I want them to come here legally.  I want them to do what my ancestors did.  So I guess I’m for putting up a wall if it forces people to come here legally.

It has been said that he has caused contractors that worked on his buildings to go bankrupt.  I really have a hard time believing this.  I would like to see the contracts that the individuals signed.  There are ways of getting your money and clearly they did not do any of the things that they needed to do.  Also did they even read or have their agreements reviewed?  I would say probably not, but I’m just guessing.  I have only heard others talk about these companies but have never heard anyone from these companies step forward and say that this really happened so to me it’s just another way to try and convince people to vote for Hillary and not Donald.  So sad that she has resorted to lies.

Now on to Hillary Clinton.  First off I’m going to say this, she is a career politician she has been coached on what to say and when to say it.  She changes her political viewpoints to insure that she will get more votes and not because she really truly believes the words coming from her mouth.   

She stood on a stage and talked about women’s rights, how she is there for all women and that she was breaking the glass ceiling, seriously!!!!  I remember a few years ago when her husband was accused of sexual harassment, what did Hillary do?  I can tell you she did not stand behind these women, even knowing what a pig her husband was.  She could have easily sat and said nothing but not her she decided it was best to trash these women in the media.  I’m not sure about how you feel but knowing that this is her way of standing up for women’s rights but it makes me sick.  She could have handled the situation with more class but she chose to take the gutter route instead.

She talked about how Trump wants to put a wall up around our boarders and that she is not for that.  I guess she has forgotten that she voted several times to do this exact thing.  She stated that those that come here are not taxing on our resources and that we should welcome them with open arms.  I disagree with her on this.  Take a look at our schools, not only do our already over worked, over stressed teachers who have to deal with so many other issues now have to add to their stress by how they are going to teach these children that do not speak the language, don’t these children deserve more?  Also have you ever been to the emergency room?  When people come here illegally they do not have healthcare so they are not getting preventative healthcare, instead they rely on our emergency rooms which then means that doctors can’t treat those that have true emergencies because they are taking care of those without insurance.  Also speaking of insurance what about car insurance?  If someone comes here illegally they do not go out and get a driver’s license, so therefore they do not have car insurance.  Who ends up paying for this if they are in an accident?  I can tell you it’s those of us that have car insurance.  But remember they are not taxing to our resources.

Let’s talk about her healthcare plan.  She is all for Obama Care, I guess she can because I’m sure that the tax payers pay for her insurance and she has no idea what health insurance costs, especially since Obama Care went into effect.  I am fortunate because the company I work for pays my insurance for me so every month I look at it as a bonus but others are not so fortunate.  I handle our accounts payable at my job so I see the health insurance bill every month and I can say that if I had to pay for health insurance I probably would go without insurance.  If I was a family of 4 it would cost me 1 pay check a month to pay for health insurance.  That means 50% of my salary would go to health insurance, I’m not sure what she call’s affordable but that is not affordable. 

At the end of the day I could almost live with all of her flaws, however I cannot live with the fact that as Secretary of State she could not distinguish between personal and confidential governmental emails.  I cannot trust someone who does not understand this very basic part of her job.

At this point I’m sure you can figure out who I’m voting for.  I do want to point out that if you are voting for Hillary just because she is a woman then please do us all a favor and stay home that day because you really do not deserve to vote because you are a clueless person, I guess that is the Donald in me coming out.

GOODBYE 2015, HELLO 2016

We are only a few short hours away from saying goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016.  The best way to describe 2015 for me was the year of the “Good, Bad and the Ugly”. 

The Good – I’m so blessed with an amazing family.  My daughters, grandkids and husband are my world and I don’t know what I would do without them.  My youngest daughter taught me patience and how to go with the flow.  Her life seemed to some as being in total disarray, but she somehow kept her chin up, a smile on her face and stayed positive.  She managed to move, with her husband and dog, 600 miles away from where they live to a new location with just a few days’ notice.  She had to live with her in-laws, which for some would be difficult, and she figured out a way to make it work.  I’m so proud of the way she handled this difficult time. 

My oldest daughter has shown me how to be a good parent.  She is raising two of the most thoughtful, loving, caring individuals I have ever met.  I’m not sure where she learned her parenting skills from but I stand in awe of what an amazing job she is doing.  We were able to take a short trip with our two grandkids and our daughter; they were the best traveling companions ever.  We had such a good time.  We were having such a good time that the hotel manager called to tell us to quiet down; I guess we had a little too much fun. 

My husband this year has shown me that he is my true sole mate.  He is the one person in this world that knows my inner most thoughts, my fears, my hopes, my past, my present and my dreams for the future.  He is my rock, he is always there when I need a shoulder to cry on (even though I hate to show emotions), he makes me laugh when I really want to cry, he reminds me every day that I’m worth something and that he is proud of me.  I love this man!

The Bad – this year I have had to say goodbye, or more like hope to see you again, to some that I cared a great deal about.  It’s never easy.  Some of those individuals were people I worked with. Knowing that I’m not going to be able to swing by their desk or pick up the phone just to talk has been hard.  One of the individuals that were let go was someone who always had my back at the office, seeing his empty cube was not easy and has been an uphill battle for me.  His departure meant a lot of stuff was dumped onto my shoulders and an increased work load.  I’m learning to adjust to this and redefine my processes.

This was also the year that I discovered that no matter what I do or accomplish I’m never going to amount to much in my mom’s eyes, so why keep trying.  This was a sad discovery for me but one that I should have known was coming.  I love my mom and always will but I know that for whatever reason I’m a disappointment to her. 

The Ugly – this last year brought out the ugly in so many different ways, mostly through social media.  I have witness family members rip each other to pieces on social media over differences of opinions, why can’t we just agree to disagree? After all the bickering family members would wonder why they were unfriended, seriously? 

One of the ugliest moments was when a sibling decided it was a good idea to bring up past events from our childhood and then stated that it was their Facebook page and therefore could post whatever they wanted to.  I know for me it stirred up a lot of old memories that I thought I had buried or dealt with, I lost many hours of sleep over this. I have since decided to consider the source and know that this sibling is an extremely unhappy person and making others feel the same way somehow makes them feel better about their life.  I guess you can’t fix stupid.

With 2015 almost over and 2016 about to begin I plan on making some changes and have only "The Good" for 2016.  My goals for 2016 are to be a healthier, happier person.  I’m not going to let the bad and the ugly of the past define my future.  I hope that 2016 brings to you much happiness!

OMG, Food Poising!!!!!!

A while back my husband and I bought a bullet, thinking how much fun we would have making healthy shakes.  I went to the grocery store and bought a variety of fruits, vegetables and raw pumpkin seeds.  The first one that he made was hard to drink because of the bright green color and he had put spinach in it, which apparently raw spinach doesn’t agree with my tummy.  So I went a while without having another one until one dreaded Friday.

My husband decided one Friday to make us a fruit shake with a variety of frozen fruit and yogurt.  It tasted delicious and even told him how great it tasted.  We leave for the office and on the way there are started thinking that I didn’t feel very good but that I probably just needed something other than just a shake.  When I got to the office I decided to eat some pretzels that I had in my desk drawer, not a wise idea.  While eating the pretzels I break out in a sweat and feel the need to get sick, yuck not a work.

I run to the restroom, luckily it was a false alarm or so I thought.  I go back to my desk and start working, all of a sudden I feel like I need to get sick.  I run to the restroom, no false alarm this time.  I rinse out my mouth and think “ok now maybe I will start to feel better”.  I get back to my desk and once again I need to run to the restroom.  After about the third time I call my husband and said I’m going home.  Thank God I keep towels in the car because as he was driving me home I was getting sick every 3 – 5 minutes.

We arrive home and I run into the house to continue what I had started at the office.  This is when my husband decided to do some research on what was going on with me.  I have my head in a bucket; I’m trying to sip water and praying that it stays down.  He comes into the room with me and says “I googled your symptoms and I’ve narrowed it down to three probably causes”.  I’m thinking “what the . . . “.  He says “it could be a concussion”, I replied that I didn’t hit my head, “ok so then we can rule that out, so then it could be food poising or a mental health issue”, I’m looking at him and still thinking “what the . . . “, I then blurt out that it must be mental health because I’m sitting here and listening to this.  We then determined that it must be food poising, which is what I figured all along.

Once we determined that it was food poising he then decided to read to me the ingredients from my morning shake.  I still have my head in a bucket, taking sips of water and praying that it stays down when he begins to read the ingredients.  If you have ever had food poising going over what you ate is not a smart idea.  He keeps reading as I’m getting sicker by the minute and finally I couldn’t take it any more so I scream out, “I have mental health issues so just stop talking”.  He quietly walks into the other room and thank God I fell asleep. 

It has now been a couple of weeks, I still can’t eat fruit or yogurt and my husband has come to the conclusion that it was food poising after all.

OMG, Getting Older Sucks!!!!!

Every time I see an ad that says 30 is like the new 20, 40 is like the new 30 and 50 is like the new 40 I want to slap the person who came up with it.  I’m sure it is someone who is in their 20’s and has no clue what it’s like to get older or it’s someone who is older and is just trying to make themselves feel good about their age.  Either way they still deserve to be slapped because I’m pretty sure when I was twenty it didn’t feel the same as when I was 30, and when I was 40 it didn’t feel the same as when I was 30. 

I’ve also heard that wisdom comes with age.  This is true but most of the time you can’t remember anything any way so where the heck did all this wisdom end up.  I once had a friend who was watching me struggle to remember something say to me “our mind is like a great big filing cabinet and as we get older we just have more files to go through to find the one file that we are looking for”.  I’m not sure if she was trying to make me feel better about not remembering or if she was trying to point out in a nice way that I was old, either way it did make me feel better so that is what I’m going with.

As we get older the things that we used to do with no problem seems to become more and more difficult.  Now when I do things I think “what the heck is that noise” and then I realize it’s my body going snap, crackle and pop.  I also find myself moving slower than what I used to move or being more cautious when doing things.  Man getting older sucks!!!!

As we get older we start growing skin tags all over our bodies.  Skin tags seem to grow over night.  One day you have none and then the next day you’re like “where did that come from”.  They are never cute enough to be called a beauty mole, no they look like those eye things that grow out of potatoes when you have had them for too long. Getting older sucks!!!

I now catch myself asking “when did the (pick any place) start hiring children?” and then I realize that they are actually adults.  When did everyone start looking so young to me?  Man it sucks getting older!!!!!

The other day I caught myself taking my glasses off so that I could read the small print on something and I found myself thinking “when did they make the print so small?”.  I was so frustrated until I went to work and saw a co-worker do the same thing which made me so happy until I realized that she is older than me.  I said something to my eye doctor about having to do this and he said “well it’s all part of getting older and that his dad was going through the same thing”, what the heck I’m now as old as my doctors parents, when did this happen?

So while I’m trying to embrace getting older I still want to go on record as saying “GETTING OLDER SUCKS!!!!”

Paper Gown’s, seriously!!!

Once again it was that time of the year that I had to have my annual visit to the doctors, yuck.  I’m not looking forward to this appointment because, well let’s face it, it’s not any fun.  So as I walk into the waiting room the first thing I hear is a screaming baby, and I think to myself I want to scream too but people think you’re crazy when you’re an adult so I hold it in and sign in at the front desk.

I take my seat and wait for the mountain of paperwork that you are expected to fill out with each visit.  I wish you could just write on the paperwork “Look at last years” but that’s not accepted.  My name is called so I go and get my clipboard with the mountain of paperwork attached.  I sit back down, still hear the screaming baby, and begin to fill out all the paperwork.  Once I’m finished I take it back and give them a copy of my ID and insurance card.  I then go back to sit back down and continue listening to the screaming baby, won’t that kid shut up for Pete’s sake. 

Finally they take me back, yes no more screaming baby.  The nurse and I walk to the scale, oh good lord did I wear light enough close, nope I must have gained 10 pounds from my house to the doctor’s office.  Oh well it is what it is.  Time for them to take my blood pressure, I’m sure it’s elevated after all I’ve been sitting in a room with a screaming baby, filling out a mountain of paperwork and I just got weighed, that would make anyone’s blood pressure rise.  Apparently between walking from the scale to the chair I must have died because I had no blood pressure.  After a few minutes of looking at me and then back at the blood pressure cuff she must have realized that I was indeed still a live and something must be wrong with the cuff so she takes my pressure from the lower part of my arm and, hallelujah, I’m alive.

After that scare it was time to enter the exam room.  We enter the room and the nurse hands me a paper blanket and paper gown, which she tells me is one size for most and to leave it open in the front.  She leaves the room and I fist unfold the blanket, I’m using the term blanket loosely as it was the size of a baby blanket, doesn’t she realize that I’m a grown up in a grown up body and a baby blanket isn’t going to cover anything so I quickly pray that the gown is made for grown-ups, I figured since I had just come back from the dead my prayer was sure to work.  Nope the gown was made for someone that wears a size 0, seriously how many people really wear a size 0?   

I begin putting on the size 0 paper gown, which I leave open in the front, and I hear a tearing sound so now my size 0 paper gown is open in the front and the back, awesome.  Oh well nothing I can do about it now.  I proceed to the exam bed, which why do doctors face the bottom part of the bed towards the door, don’t they realize that during the exam your whohaw is going to be facing that direction.  I hop up onto the exam bed and proceed to put the paper baby blanket over whatever I could and it happens, a hot flash hits.  Not just a small one, no that I could hide but a full blown sweat dripping one.  So I notice that now my size 0, torn, paper gown is stuck to my body, awesome.  Now that the gown is stuck to my body I’m thinking I must look like a fright.  Here I sit in the size 0, torn, wet paper gown anxiously waiting for the doctor to come in.

In walks the doctor, oh how I hope everything is somewhat covered, but since it’s stuck to my body at this point it doesn’t really matter.  After we exchange greetings the exam begins.  I’m soon asked to scoot to the edge of the exam table, not an easy feat since it feels as though I’m going to fall off the table and give the doctor a lap dance, not the way I want this appointment to go.  The doctor sits down to begin the exam and decides at that point to crack a joke, I start laughing and then begin to worry that I might laugh so hard that tinkle a little, whew I didn’t.  A few more jokes and answers to a few questions this appointment is over.

The doctor leaves and I’m finally able to take the size 0, torn, wet paper gown off and put my clothes on.  As I walk back out into the waiting room the screaming baby is still in there, thank God I made it through without screaming but there is always next year.

T-25 Does Not Stand For Time – 25 I think It’s Torture 25 Different Ways!

A few months ago I decided that I needed to step up my workout routine since I wasn’t seeing the results that I wanted to after doing some research, apparently not enough; I decided to purchase Shaun T’s T-25.  I figured that everyone that I knew that had done his Insanity workout looked amazing after 90 days so why not give this a try. 

My workout DVD’s arrived about a week after I ordered them.  I was so excited about it and could hardly wait to get started.  I sat down and worked on my workout plan.  I decided that one of the things that I like to do is watch the news while I ride my exercise bike so I decided that I would get up at 3:40 instead of 3:50.  I would do T-25 first and then spend about 15 minutes riding my exercise bike and watching news.  This sounded like a great idea to me; after all it was only a 25 minute workout DVD so how hard could it really be.  I knew that the T-25 program was only 10 weeks, such a short time to get up 10 minutes early every morning.

I decided the following Monday would be an excellent time to start.  So the first Monday I get up, put on my workout clothes and head to my workout room.  My workout room consists of a TV, DVD player, a yoga mat, thigh master and two exercise bikes; one for me and one for my husband because apparently we can’t share one.  I walk into my workout room all excited about my new workout routine and how amazing I’m going to look in 10 short weeks.  I put my hair up in a ponytail, turn on the TV and put the DVD in the player.  I can hardly wait to get started.  The first thing you see is Shaun T who explains that one of the workout buddies is doing a modified version and IF you get tired you can follow her, what does he mean IF.  The first day the workout is called Cardio which really means sweat profusely and use parts of your body you didn’t remember having and that you will know that you have for the next week.  I figured that I should probably start with the modified version after all this is my first day, so the workout begins.  At the 2 minute mark I’m silently swearing at the TV and wondering when the torture was going to end but I keep going.  At the 15 minute mark I have sweat pouring out of every part of my body, even parts I didn’t know you could sweat from, and my swearing is now out loud, I really hate Shaun T at this point.  We get to the 12 minute mark where he announces that we are over half way done and to keep going, after all it’s only 25 minutes; he really means 25 different ways of torture.  I tell myself you only have 12 more minutes you can do this.  Next thing I know we are at the 5 minutes mark and somehow my hair has come out of the ponytail and is stuck to my face and neck and my hatred for this man has intensified but before long we begin the count down 10, 9, 8 I can do this, 7, 6 you’re doing it, 5, 4, 3 almost there 2, 1.  I was expecting balloons falling from the ceiling with confetti, after all I just completed the most grueling workout I deserved some sort of an award.

I continue this workout routine for 6 weeks, of course doing the modified version because let’s face it I’m not in shape yet.  So I start week 7 thinking I’m so amazing look at what I have accomplished so far so I need to step it up again.  I figured why continue doing the modified version, why not step it up and do the regular workout.  I turn on the TV, put my hair up, turn the DVD player on and get in position for my workout.  The workout is called Speed, ok I can do this after all I’ve been working out for 6 weeks.  The workout begins and I immediately realize that I can’t keep up but that’s ok I’m going to go at my pace but not doing the modified version.  The first 5 minutes everything is going great and then all of a sudden my body when one way while my right knew went the other way.  OMG the pain was so bad.  I sit down on my yoga mat and start rubbing my knee.  After a few minutes I figured I’m ok so keep going.  So I get up and begin what I call my version of the modified version.  I finish my workout, get ready for work and go about my day as though my knee doesn’t feel like it is on fire.  The next morning I get up thinking that I had given my knee a rest so I was fine I could do my work out, after all I still have 3 weeks to go can’t stop now, what a mistake that was.  I’m now sitting on the couch with my knee propped up and an ice pack on it hoping that the pain goes away.  I guess it’s time to switch to Sweatin’ to the Oldies, just a though . . .

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? 

OMG, I’ve survived another year of Christmas shopping!!!!!

OMG, why do people think that they are the only ones that need to purchase gifts for the holidays?  Before I head out to shop I put on Christmas music, plaster a fake smile on my face and pretend that I’m just out for a day of fun.  I hum Christmas carols and greet everyone with a “Merry Christmas”.  By doing this I’m able to cope with the crazy people out shopping.  This year I have been ran over by shopping carts, pushed out of the way so that someone could get an item (even though there was a whole display of them) and had an item taken right out of my hands; but I have also had people open doors for me, given me coupons for my items, smiled at me, helped me pick out gifts for my nephews, help me figure out what a 12 year old girl would like and just been friendly. 

Since I usually finish up my shopping early I like to go to the mall and people watch.  It is amazing what you see.  I love to grab a Starbucks coffee, find a place to sit and just watch people.  It’s amazing to see the different types of people that are out shopping.  They are as follows:

There’s the husband that is walking around looking confused and usually caring a bottle of perfume or a kitchen item (that usually depends on how long they have been married – the newlywed has the perfume while the guy that has been married for many years has the kitchen item). 

Then there’s the stressed out mom, she is usually walking at a fast pace but with a confused look on her face.  She’s the one that you run into that is talking to herself and going through her basket naming off family members, she is also the one that gets in line only to leave part way through the wait because she just remembered that she forgot that all important gift. 

Then there is the organized person, they have a detailed list of everything they need.  They are usually carrying several packages because they are only going to the mall one time and one time only.  They are also the ones on a mission and you better not be in their way because they have no problem with mowing you over to get what they want.

There’s the dad out shopping for the mom with all the kids in tow.  He has that confused look on his face and usually at least one child is crying.  He is the one that is circling the store as though a gift is going to just fall from the sky and land in his arms.  The more children he has with him the more confused he looks with each one having their own idea of what mom would like.

There’s the group of teenage girls out gathering more information for their Christmas wish list and just being teenage girls at the mall.  Then there are the teenage boys out trying to pick up on the teenage girls.  Of course this is not a seasonal activity, this happens year round.

Then there’s the shopper who is just happy to be out shopping.  They are the ones singing along to the Christmas music being played and just enjoying themselves.  They are the ones that are just winging it.  They figure that whatever they come up with is going to be spectacular, after all it is Christmas and the spirit of giving is much more important than anything else.

I like to think that I’m in the last group of people.  I just love going out to the mall and spending time enjoying the holiday.  I love the decorations, Christmas music, seeing all the kids dressed up to see Santa Clause, smelling the cookies that are being baked at Mrs. Fields Cookies and everything else going on at the mall.  I’m also thankful when I’m all done and everything is wrapped and under the tree.  Since I have completed all my shopping now it’s time to just sit back and enjoy the rest of the holiday.  I think I will open a bottle of wine, turn on a Christmas movie, light up the tree and sit back and relax until it’s time to return all the gifts I bought that just weren’t right. 

 

 

Yes, 29 Again

I just celebrated another birthday or as I like to call it, the anniversary of my 29^th birthday.  I say that I’m 29 so often that when I have to actually but down my real age I have to do the math first. I started saying that I was only 29 was because I couldn’t deal with getting older.  Now I love the idea of getting older because it beats the alternative.  I’m really enjoying this time in my life; I’m healthy, happy and love spending time doing what I want to do with no real obligations to anyone but my husband.  I’m a few anniversaries away from celebrating a mile stone anniversary and when I reach that mile stone I plan on celebrating.  I want to either have a great big party or take my family on a great vacation; of course I could possibly do both.

Every anniversary gets me thinking about past anniversaries.  Growing up I didn’t have many parties.  I can actually only remember two, one when I was five and the other when I turned 17.  Being born in the summer didn’t help with having parties.  Most of my friends didn’t live close by and once school was out for the year I didn’t see them again until school started again.  Not that I’m going to age myself but growing up I didn’t have a cell phone nor did any of my friends and since we lived far away from each other our parents were not going to drive us over to each other’s house.  After I was married my husband for some reason thought that I didn’t like to celebrate so I never had any parties until my first anniversary of my 29^th birthday.  He gave me a great party, all my friends were here, he ordered stripper and we all had way too much to drink.  

As my sister and I got older we would make birthday cakes for each other.  My mom rarely remembered that it was our birthday, I know that she knew we existed after all she was there when we were born but if she actually remembered that it was our birthday on our birthday was so rare.  As I got older my mom would send my birthday and Christmas gift together, I guess it was her way of not forgetting.  What’s really odd is that now that we are all adults my mom actually remembers on our day, maybe that’s what happens when you get older you start to remember important dates such as when your children were born.

This anniversary I spent a quiet day at home with my husband.  We spent the day hanging around the pool and then went to dinner.  I received several phone calls wishing me a happy birthday or anniversary depending on who was calling.  The following weekend my daughter was in town so we had a nice family dinner and red velvet cheese cake for dessert.  It was great and I’m so thankful that I was able to celebrate with my family.  I’m looking forward to many more anniversaries; of course I may change it up to celebrating the anniversary of my 39^th birthday.  You never know…..

Thunderstorms and Me Don’t Mix

I hate thunderstorms.  I actually am very terrified of them.  Each time I hear the roar of thunder I want to jump out of my skin.  I’m so terrified of them that I don’t know how to explain how it makes me feel.  On a really bad storm I can have such a panic attach that I swear my heart has stopped.  I dread monsoon season every year because I never know when a thunderstorm is going to hit. 

I don’t know how people that live in areas where weather is very unpredictable live. A few months ago we were at our daughter’s house in North Carolina.  We were outside enjoying a nice evening when the clouds started rolling in.  I kept saying that the clouds just didn’t look normal.  There was something about them that seemed to have my hair standing up.  I can’t explain it but I was slowing starting to get scared.  I finally said that I had to go in because I couldn’t take it anymore.

So I go in the house with their dog, Jax.  I open a bottle of wine hoping that having a drink will help calm my nerves.  Next thing I know I hear the thunder and my heart stops.  I start to panic, Jax starts to pace and my husband tries to calm me down. 

Just as I was starting to calm down the weather radio went off.  I thought that I was going to climb out of my skin.  My daughter picks it up and says that there is nothing to worry about it was just announcing that there was a severe thunderstorm.  I refilled my glass of wine and tried to relax.  Then the radio went off again.  This time the Jax is pacing even more which is really starting to freak me out.  Once again my daughter says that it is just a severe thunderstorm and I refilled my glass of wine.

While trying to relax the radio went off for the third time.  I really started to panic, Jax was pacing even more and the clouds outside were looking pretty scary.  My daughter picks up the radio and says “Oh”, I knew at this point that it wasn’t just a severe thunderstorm that there was something else going on.  She tried to play it off as though nothing was happening but I knew things weren’t right.  Jax was pacing even more and I should have just put a straw in the wine bottle and drank it that way.  I looked at my daughter at asked what was going on.  She finally admitted that we were under a tornado warning.  I have never been in a tornado warning, watch or anything having to do with a tornado.  I really started to panic.  Since my daughter doesn’t have a basement I didn’t know what to do which really made me very nervous.  My son-in-law said that if it goes to tornado watch we needed to get into the pantry or the bathroom.  I refilled my glass and prayed for the best. 

A tornado never did hit but it was a moment in time that I would never forget.  People that live with this kind of stress on a regular basis amaze me.  I don’t know how they do it but I’m glad it’s them and not me.  I don’t ever want to go through that again. 

The Friendly Sky’s

About a month ago my husband and I went to see our daughter.  When I made our flight reservations I was so excited knowing that we were going to visit that I didn’t pay that much attention to little details such as what time we had to be at the airport and how long our layover in Atlanta would be.  We ended up having to be at the airport at 4:00 am and our layover was 30 minutes long.

So we get to the airport at 4:00 am and since we got our boarding passes the day before we were able to check our bags at the curb.  We head straight for security.  We were commenting on how fortunate we were that the line wasn’t very long.  We do the usual strip down and got into line to go through the metal detector.    They were having everyone go through what I like to refer to as the “naked x-ray machine”.  There are about 30 of us in line waiting patiently to enjoy this experience.  I get pulled out of line and told to go through the metal detector, what a relief.  My stuff goes through x-ray with no problems, I’m now thinking “if the rest of the trip goes this smooth it’s going to be amazing and the first for me”.  Shortly after this we get to our gate with plenty of time to spare. 

Finally we start being boarded on to the plane.  We sit down and I look in the pocket in front of me to ensure that the barf bag is there, I don’t have one and neither does my husband, but I figure everything else is going so smooth I’m not going to need it.  I get air sick real easy and I like to know that it is there is I need it.  I set the screen in front of me to watch the flight across the United States and pull out the Air Mall magazine and start looking through it to see what they have that I can’t live without.  We bring to taxi to the run way for takeoff.  The takeoff was so smooth I was amazed.  I didn’t feel sick or anything. 

The pilot announces that we can now turn on our electronic devises so I turn on my Kindle so that I can read a book and my husband gets out his iPod so that he can listen to music.  Everything is going so smooth what could possibly go wrong?  All of a sudden we hit the worst turbulence that I have ever felt.  I begin trying to focus on the person in front of me while taking deep breaths because I have no barf bag.  I look at my husband who is busy playing his air guitar along with his air drums and I’m thinking “thanks for comforting me”.  While I’m trying to keep breakfast down I hear a woman a few rows behind me scream our “sweet Jesus we are all going to die”, my anxiety level went through the roof.  I have never seen flight attendants move so fast.  They were at this woman’s side in seconds trying to calm her down, but of course at this point she is now praying loud and getting louder by the second.  My husband finally looks at me and realizes that I’m about to bring breakfast up and I really need his help.  He puts down his air drums along and holds my hand and reassures me that we will be ok that it’s just pot holes in the sky, which always works for me.  The turbulence lasted for about 45 minutes. 

We then hit a strong head wind and we were due to land after our connecting flight was scheduled for takeoff.  We discover that a large group of us, there were nine of us, were headed for the same location on the same flight.  The flight attendant was able to find out what gate we needed to go to and since we were such a large group they actually held the plane for us.  At first I was impressed until I discovered that the plane was so small that our group took up half the plane.

Once we landed we had to run from the A gates to the D gates, the prayers worked and we had a smooth landing.  The group took off on a mad dash with the understanding that whoever got to the gate first was to tell them that the rest were close behind.  We had to take the train to get to our destination gate.  We get on this train just as the door was closing.  The train takes off and I fall back on my husband who pushes me forward which pushes me into the arms of a complete stranger who attempts to help me to stand up.  We get to the B gates and people get off and on and once again we take off.  I promptly fell back and once again my husband pushes me forward where I land on the same stranger.  At this point I’m so embarrassed and not sure what to say so I just look at him and say “we have got to stop meeting like this people are going to start talking” he busts up laughing and agrees with me.  What a relief that he got my sense of humor.  At the next stop I held on to the pole so hard that I thought that I was going to rip my arms off when the train took off, but I managed to stay upright.  We finally get to the D gates and the mad rush begins.

We run to our gate knocking over several people in the process.  We get on the plane and find our seats.  I get all situated, look to see if there is a barf bag and sit back to relax.  Just as I got comfortable the man in front of us turns around and starts talking to us.  As I looked up to talk to him I realized that he was the man that I had fallen into on the train.  I was embarrassed but tried to play it off as though that kind of stuff happens all the time to me.  I hope he believed me.

Just getting to my daughters was quite an adventure and I look forward to doing it all over again, of course I would like to spend a little more time in the Atlanta airport. 

My Friend the French Fry

The first of the year my husband was told by his doctor that he needed to lose weight.  We decided that we would do this together and so our journey begins.  The first thing that we did was sit down with every diet book and magazine that we had in the house (we could not believe how many we had in the house) and came up with a plan.  We wrote everything down so there would be no guessing as to what we could or could not have.  This plan included making changes in the things that we were consuming.  This was first off an eye opener but also very difficult because we decided to give up some foods that I really love such as French Fries.

French fries go with everything.  You can enjoy them by themselves or with a side dish such as a hamburger, steak, fish, or even shrimp.  You can enjoy with an ice cold glass of wine, a cold beer or even champagne, whatever you like.  You can dip it in ketchup, cheese, or even fry sauce.  You can put chili or cheese on top, or even use them as a nice crunchy bed for ribs.  What other type of food is so versatile?

OMG, has this been the hardest thing for me to do.  I had no problem giving up cookies, chips, pretzels, cake, chocolate, bread and even alcohol but giving up French fries has been almost impossible.  I find myself dreaming about them.  I think about the texture, the slight taste of salt and yes even the grease that glistens on it.  I miss how four shoe string French fries (yes four is the correct number) dipped in a vanilla milk shake taste.  I can envision the crunchy salty taste of the fry mixed with the sweet taste of the milk shake, oh how my mouth is now watering.  I can hardly wait until the day that I can treat myself to this delicious combination.

Until that special day I will be content sipping on my virgin rum and diet Pepsi munching on carrot sticks dreaming about the perfect food, the French fry.