Day 72: November 7th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night." ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

Today I sat down and added up all the miles I have walked and ridden since starting my "Great Exercise and Weight Loss Experience" on the 8th of September.  I was pretty amazed by the results, and thought I would just throw those miles onto the map and see where they would end me up at.  Do you know, I have gone enough miles that if I had been actually walking them nonstop I would almost be in Amarillo, Texas right now, which is a fifth of the way to our family in Arizona? WOW!!! I had no idea! How cool is THAT, though! I'm really impressed with myself on that one. No wonder I slowed down on all the weight loss, my body is becoming a machine! HAHAHA  Yeah right, dream on, I know, but still... I'm doing it! I haven't quit!  Yay, me! 

Here's the map that shows my distance walked.....

Okay, okay, enough of that!  I went for a really great, really fast walk first thing this morning, while the sun was just barely coming up, and I think I might have over-worked myself.  I did do some of the walk really slow while I was looking at all the leaves on the ground to find the best, most perfect ones.  A little distracted, I know. But I did try to make up for it by jogging some of my walk route. And let me tell you, I don't know what it is but there is something wrong with my knee!!! It hurt so bad when I first tried to jog that my leg nearly went out from under me! I had to actually stop for a minute and stretch it.  After that I jogged a little every once in a while, but I didn't try as hard as I did on that first jog.  I guess I have to face the facts... I'm not sixteen anymore.

Mocha sunning herself

Thought this was really cool, so I wanted to share it. This is Chloe's big old footprint... I can tell it's time to do her claws again, can you?

I went to study group this morning, but we didn't stay for hours and hours like we usually do. None of us were really feeling that great, and Laurie had to go to lunch with her sister, so we only studied for a couple of hours.  But the good news is that I walked up all three flights of stairs when I got there, and down all three flights of stairs as we were leaving.  So I guess I can add that to my exercise for the day. No wonder my knees hate me!  After study group I went ahead to the grocery store and bought us just a couple things to tie us over. You know, bread-milk-eggs, that sort of thing.  Then I came home and paid the stupid mortgage payment that I absolutely hate paying.  We could have one heck of a really nice RV with a smaller house payment! LOL And maybe we'd have the ability to go out in it and vacation, too! ;)

My pretties... THIS is what I wanted the stupid morning glory to do in the summer.

Tonight I made spaghetti for dinner.  I tried to make it Ron's way, and it turned out alright, but it still just wasn't like his.  I think the biggest problem is that when HE makes spaghetti, I don't have to do it.  Plus, I've never been able to tell when the noodles are done, so they always turn out either a little too firm, or super mushy.  Tonight they were firm.  The kids had the common sense not to complain, though. Which I thought was a great idea on their part... who knows what I would have done to them if they had! LOL  I want so badly to go to Braum's and get some ice cream, but I'm being a very good girl and staying home to pretend that I've already had it.  Sigh. It's not working... my mouth is telling me that I DEFINITELY did not get to eat any ice cream.  So when are they going to invent a healthy, fat free, calorie free ice cream anyways???

Tiger being his usual self, following me around like a puppy-dog waiting for scraps.

I AM NOT AMUSED. DO NOT TAKE MY PICTURE.

Day 71: November 6th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Only a life lived for others is the life worthwhile." - Albert Einstein

Today I looked in Cody's room, and was completely amazed at how much laundry he has been able to hide away. I kept wondering where all my socks were, and now I find out that he's been sneaking into my room and taking MY socks to wear because he's too lazy to do his laundry. Which is HIS chore. And his room looks like a squatter lives in there. I told him that he'd better clean up his room and keep it clean or I'll be moving him out of it and into the little tiny room I'm using as an office.  And do you know what he said to that??? "That's ok, it's easier to keep a small room clean."  UGH!!!!! WHY, OH WHY did I think I wanted children??? Seriously! I can't believe that he just doesn't care that his room smells like dirty feet and locker room, and that he doesn't shower.  What is WRONG with the kids nowadays? Geez, I sound like my mother, but come ON! It's disgusting! My mother would have already beaten the crap out of me. And do you know what? I kept my room clean. Too bad they took away the ability for a parent to discipline their children. I have a feeling there would be a lot more decent people in the world than we now have.

On a more positive note, things are staying clean in here temporarily.  And it's kind of nice.  I haven't really done much of anything today but laundry and all that, but making my bed this morning was a big improvement, because lately I've been pretty lazy about doing it, and have just been avoiding it.  There's a LOT of things I should be doing lately, like studying, but I am having a really rough food week so it's hard to focus on much else. It seems like I am constantly hungry lately.  I've GOT to start doing better on drinking water. I think I'm going to go ahead and change out the water filter  under the sink a week early, because I really think the water is tasting horrible lately and hope that will fix it. It kind of smells a little funny to me, too. I'm not sure what the city is putting in it or not filtering out, but something is definitely different.  And when I don't drink the amount of water I should, I get hungry.  So yeah, the water issue is going to be a really big one.   I just hope that a new water filter does the trick.

Day 70: November 5th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "The joy of meeting pays the pangs of absence; else who could bear it?" ~Nicholas Rowe

Clinicals today went very well. I had a pretty good day. I was in dialysis, so I got to see a lot of different things, which I normally wouldn't see.  In all honesty there's not a lot that goes on in dialysis, so there's not much to tell.  Afterward I came home and planted the other hibiscus tree, so they are now both in the ground and I'm hoping they will adjust to their new home before the cold weather sets in. We'll see, because it's supposedly going to be really nice over at least the next week or so.  Since the house is mostly clean and my laundry's mostly done, I'm going to spend some time tomorrow figuring out what to do about my clematis. I'm thinking I'll just put it out front somewhere, because it won't get the intense sunshine it gets where it is in the back yard. Or maybe I can plant it along the back fence, not sure yet.  I have all night to think about it, so we'll see.  Either way, it's been a really long day and yet I don't really have much to say because the entire bulk of it was all clinicals, where nothing big happened, so I'm going to hit the road and get to bed.  I'll write more tomorrow, when I have something to say.  Bye for now!

Mocha practicing her low-crawl. Not sure why she does this, but she does it all the time.

What is it with Mocha and her tongue?

Mocha's grinning at you!

Why I hate Halloween candy!!!

Day 69: November 4th, 2009

Quote of the Day: "There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying things which are beyond the power of our will. " -Epictetus

I have had a really great day today so far!  I had to go to school today, which meant getting up super early, which was a downer, but it went by quickly.  Then while on the way home, Laurie and I decided to take a trip through Vernon and go to Sonic for a BLT and a drink.  Little did we know that we'd be taking a road trip, though!  We tried to take Main Street out of town to the highway, but as we finally figured out we were getting further and further from the town and nowhere closer to the freeway.  As a matter of fact, we were heading southeast according to her car, but had literally no idea where in the world we were.  So we turned around and went back the way we had come, then made a right onto a road which we figured would bring us to the freeway.  Turns out the whole scenic trip happened because we turned right on Main Street in Vernon, instead of left!!!! We were laughing the whole time because we kept seeing the backside of this granary which we KNEW was just off the highway we needed to be on, but we just couldn't seem to get there.   We finally did get to the freeway, though, which was fun.  We got to see a lot of tractors, fields and cows, though. And a really great rodeo arena.  And a broken silo. And a whole lot of redneck houses (the kind you wouldn't want to break down in front of at night without visions of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" running through your head.  Eventually we did get home, though.

I called today to have the truck and car payment due dates changed, because the whole thing about having $3000 in  bills due the first of the month and only $900 after the 15th of the month just isn't working for us.  They made it sound real great, then told me that the first month that would be affected would be the Dec payment, so I'd have to make the November payment on the 8th when it's due and STILL make an additional payment of $115 and some change. So I told them to notate the account that I will make the payment on the 18th of this month (which I'll probably pay on the 15th) and then call to have it set up. That way, it will still change as of the December payment but it's not going to kill us in the meantime. And I'll be able to feed the kids!  So as soon as I get off the phone with them I call the lender for my car to have the due date changed for it, too, expecting another big hassle because they're the ones who are so rude about calling you to collect payment on the 9th when it isn't paid on the 8th.  But no.... with them, I was off the phone in less than three minutes!  She said "Okay, that change has been made, allow 24 to 48 hours for it to update in the system, and your new due date is the 15th of the month, so your next payment is due on November 15th."  I was amazed. I asked her "Hey, do you need a weather report or something, because this call didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would!!!" So now, the car payments will be due on the 15th, and once I get the truck payments adjusted they will be due on the 22nd.  And also, they never did process our interest reduction yet, so they are looking into that and it should be completed within a week.  So things are back on track. Finally!!!

Other than that, not much has happened today that's worth talking about. I'm getting ready to go out and go for a walk, and then I'm going to ride the bike later tonight in front of a movie. That should surely help me to rack up the points for today, right?  I sure hope so, because that Sonic must have thought we were too skinny- I think they tripled the amount of bacon normally on one of their sandwiches.  We had to take half of it off and throw it away.  UGH! I can feel the pounds just adding up on my thighs!!!! And my arteries clogging!  But once we got all that bacon off the last half of the sandwich it was really good... it turned it into a BLT without the B.... much healthier.

Now I'm off to go try and work my butt off. We'll see how far I can go toward that! LOL

And by the way.... one branch of the oleander has gone nuts.... look how tall it is compared to the rest of the plant! AND the other plant next to it!  But as you can see, it's forming blooms... that should be an interesting look.  Wish the rest of it had grown like that! LOL

Day 68: November 3rd, 2009

Quote of the Day:

"Aromatic plants bestow

No spicy fragrance where they grow;

But crushed and trodden to the ground,

Diffuse their balmy sweets around"

-Goldsmith

I went on a marathon cleaning spree today! The house looks so great, and it smells great, too. AND I can finally feel like I can relax, which is a welcome change from the way it's been the past few weeks.  The kids' rooms are still completely horrible, but I have shut their doors, and I don't have to worry about it that way.  I just have to force them to keep their doors shut, that's all.

Here's some good news, now I can start researching flights and hotel rooms for our trip to Reno for the Nationals tournament in June. And the best part of it is that we will be there for my  birthday! Yay me!!!  I'm so excited to be going ANYWHERE at this point that I could jump up and down.  I won't, though... I'm too old for that now. I might dislocate a hip or something! LOL Nah, just kidding.... but I am pretty excited about it, because we haven't been to Reno for Nationals since 1998, and we had a lot of fun back then.  Plus, getting to watch Ron bowl is something pretty amazing, if you ask me.  Just thought you might like to know that.  The way he makes it look SOOOOOOO EASY just drives me nuts.  Because of him I've been hanging around bowling alleys since I was 17.  We actually met in a bowling alley, did you know that? I think we were eight, and it was during youth leagues.  We had a mutual friend, and as a matter of fact that mutual friend is also the very reason that we are together right now.  For which I am eternally grateful!

Oh, and I found out today that the plan is for Ron to bowl in the state tournament on April 24th and 25th with his guys here.  It's in Dallas this year, so it should be really easy for him to make it to this one.  He may not even need a hotel room, since it's so close.  They bowl their first set at noon on the 24th, so no hotel room on Friday at all, and if he decides to overnight it, it's only one night. AWESOME!!!  I can't wait to have my baby come home again so that I can watch him bowl.  The only thing is, I hope he is back in time!

I have school again tomorrow, for which I think I'm ready but can't say for sure.  I've spent so much time cleaning today that I didn't get a chance to get my books together or anything.  But that's alright, it's not a test day so it should be relatively easy to wing it.  I do have all my lecture notes ready.  Can you believe I didn't even get to plant that second hibiscus tree?  I'm going to either have to do it tomorrow, or wait until Friday. And I'm really not looking forward to doing it because the darn things are so heavy, and just don't want to come out of their pots.  I still haven't decided where to plant my clematis vines, either, so that's going to be yet ANOTHER thing I'll have to think about doing on Friday.  But since the house is clean it should be relatively easy to get around to it.  Once the homework is done, that is.  As for now, well.... who knows... maybe I'll just get to bed early so that I'm ready for a four hour lecture tomorrow with an hour and a half in the car. Sigh.  I can't wait until school is done!!!

Day 67: November 2nd, 2009

Quote of the Day: "If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up." -Abraham Maslow

I've sure had a heck of a day!  I'm not sure what happened to the morning, I didn't manage to do much more than a couple loads of laundry.  I started thinking about our water bills, and kind of went off on a tangent.  I realized that for the past three months they just kept getting higher and higher.  So I started looking around for reasons why that would be happening.  I checked the toilets, the water heater, the sinks, the outside hose bibs, and couldn't find a single leak. So I went through all the sprinkler cycles one by one to make sure we didn't have a busted sprinkler or something, which it turns out that we didn't.  So all I can figure is that the sprinkler in the back must have been busted a lot longer than I thought.  And then, after all that work, the stupid water bill came in the mail.... and was back to normal.  GRR!! I wasted three-fourths of the day looking for a water leak I had already fixed?????? Are you KIDDING??? Boy, don't I feel sheepish! HAHAHA

I went to walk with Sherrie this afternoon and ended up having a total "World's Funniest Videos" moment.  We were walking in front of the church by the railroad tracks toward IC Evans Elementary, and I stepped up into the grass off the road to make way for Sherrie and her stroller, and landed my foot right into this hole that was so grown over into grass that you couldn't see it.  So, of course, I ended up falling, and twisted my ankle in the process.  I can only imagine what I must have looked like.  Definitely gave everyone a good laugh that was driving down the road, I'm sure! Here's my most-current wt loss pictures -but you can't laugh or I'll just have to get Achmed after ya!

After that, I just came home and worked on  planting the first of the two hibiscus trees. I think I got it in the ground well enough, but I had a really hard time getting it out of the stupid pot.  I guess that maybe it's better not to buy pots that aren't cylindrical if you're going to be planting something? Oh well, though, it eventually came out and I don't think it was any worse for the wear.  At least, if it makes it through the planting process it'll be good to go.  And it's the only way that I"ll be able to attempt to keep them, since I can no longer move the pots into the garage over the winter since the car and truck are in there now.  The roots would never survive out in the open in pots in the cold.  I'm going to do the other one tomorrow, and I sure hope that it goes a little better than this one.  Or at LEAST comes out of the pot with an intact root ball. I'm still thinking about it to decide if I can figure out a better way to get it out of there.  I need another person to help me, but since I don't have anyone I'm just going to wing it.  Made me rethink trying to do the rosemary, though, since it's in the same exact pots.

Tomorrow I'll finish the laundry, vacuum, dust, and clean up the kitchen, then it's off to trying to straighten out the yard. I have to mow, pull weeds, plant the plants, and basically get everything ready for winter. I emptied the ashes from last winter's fires today, too, so I'm all ready for that first fire of the season. Now, I just need to figure out how to go about getting the wood, because our stores are really low from last winter.  We may have enough left for about four fires.  Maybe someone out there will put up an ad for "free firewood if you come and get it".  Food for thought, right? I've checked on Craig's List, but so far there's nothing. Lots of people saying they're selling by the pickup.... and charging for a full cord or face cord for that small amount of wood.  What, do they think we're all morons? Don't know what we're doing when purchasing firewood? Makes you kind of crazy!  Oh, well... most of it's not seasoned wood, anyways.  Nothing like trying to start a fire with green wood.

Here's another pic of Mocha for you, though I know you're probably tired of seeing her.

Day 66: November 1st, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Knowing that we can make a difference in this world is a great motivator. How can we know this and not be involved?" - Susan Jeffers

Okay, Houston, we have a problem.  Why is it that all of a sudden I keep forgetting about doing the blog? For the longest time I was so proud of myself because I was sticking to it, getting it done at a reasonable hour, and actually managing to do a blog every day!!!! Tonight I left the computer to go watch a movie, had to stop the movie to go pick up Cody, and was in the middle of watching it again when Ron came online and  caught myself thinking that I'd just go to bed afterward and finish the movie tomorrow.  So bottom line is.... I almost forgot about it again!!!!!! UGH!!!!!
 
Today I spent a lot of my time working on homework. I had to get up this morning and go spray texture on Ron's friend Doug's walls because he got short-orders to PCS and had two big holes in his walls that he had to fix. He got a quote from some guy that was outrageous ($1200) so I offered to do it for him since we have the equipment. I was only there half an hour and that included the getting the air compressor set up, mixing the texture, spraying it, and doing the knockdown. Can you imagine getting $1200 for that???? I told him I'd add it to his bill! : )  And I'm seriously considering dropping nursing to go spray texture, if you can make THAT much money at it!
 
Tomorrow is house cleaning and yardwork. I'll be playing little happy gardener for probably the last time this year!  I'm finally going to put those hibiscus trees in the ground, hopefully in time that they will be able to be protected from the cold. We'll see. I have to clean out the front planters and fertilize everything one last time too, so that'll take some of my time.  I have to figure out a spot to put my clematis, and I'm also going to plant the rosemary and I'm not sure what else, but I'm definitely going to do as much as I can to enjoy these last few days of warmth. It's hard to believe that winter is just around the corner, isn't it? I mean, we just barely had Christmas, and now Halloween is gone and it's almost Thanksgiving again.  Why didn't I listen to my mother when I was little and she told me that time goes faster the older you get? Why didn't I try harder to hang onto every second, instead of spending most of my time wishing that the days would fly by?
 
Actually, isn't that precisely what I'm doing now??? LOL