Just East of the Bridge

Long Celebration?

There's one thing about being a delinquent blogger .... someone will bring it to your attention!  LOL!  I was sitting next to Christina when she was talking to my sister and they were talking me having a 'long birthday celebration' since that's what my last blog was about.

I know, I know ... bad me. 

I'd be surprised if anyone is still checking over here.  (If you do, let me know!!!)

So ... here's what's happened and happening since my last post:

Biggest news ... I moved from Bushnell to Webster.  Downsized from my lonely 3 bedroom house into a mother-in-law apartment connected to Christina's house.  Austin and Christina really worked long and hard to make it nice for me and they did a great job.  I'm slowly chipping away at the pile of boxes and getting things settled in.  Looking forward to this 3 day weekend to do some more of that.

Madelynne gets a kick out of calling me her 'neighbor' as my living room connects to Christina's dining room.  When the door is open I get plenty of visitors in and out for little visits. 

Last night my door was open and I sitting on my couch reading when Bren came in with his book and declared we were having 'book club'.  Soon Maddy and Tyler were in there too, each with their own book.  Addy and Wyatt, or commonly known as A&W, were already in bed.  Since it was book club, we needed refreshments so Brendyn went out and made us all popcorn.

Now when I come home from work, instead of coming into a dark, quiet house, I come through the front door and have 5 little people come running and calling my name and telling me they missed me.  Definately one of the perks!!

Another perk is eating dinner with the family and Christina's cooking.  She is a much better cook than I am and she said that since she's already cooking for 7 that changing that number to an 8 would not matter to her.  We eat a lot of vegetables from the garden and all sit down to the table to eat together.  A much better plan for me than fast food or take out in front of the television alone!  And since she's cooked, I help clean.  Ordinarily it's Bren's job to load the dishwasher after supper but he hasn't objected to a little help from me!

It's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to stand in front a paint chip display and pick out a color I wanted surrounding me.  I have a lot of purple accessory things since I love purple Iris's.  I also have brown couches and recliner.  But in the end, it was a color called Jamacain Aqua that 'spoke' to me.  And it really turned out pretty.  I'll try to post some pictures as soon as it doesn't still look messy from unpacking.

Other news, the wedding of Betsy and Peter is a week from today.  Clothes are bought, shoes are bought, jewelry has been carefully accessorized and a list is made of what we need to bring with us.  Since neither their car nor my car will hold all of us, and due to gas prices, it was more economical to rent an 8 passenger vehicle and all ride together.  We're making the weekend into a mini vacation and letting Florida beaches compete for our attention for the remainder of the weekend.  So rehersal and rehersal dinner, wedding, reception, beach time, beach time, a visit to an Amish restaturant ... and did I mention some beach time in our near future.

So ... I'm still here!  Just been busy!

But I'll try to do better ..........  don't give up on me yet!

 

 

The Higher The Number, The Longer The Celebration

... or at least, that's my theory!

So happy birthday to me!  I've been reading about a new nail product called Shellac by Creative Nails.  It's a new procedure where the special color and top coat is sealed under an ultraviolet light and they claim it will be free from chips, smears, smudges and dings for 14 days.  That interested me because I am so hard on my nails.  I usually end up buying whatever color a salon uses on me, or bring my own from home, so I can do touch ups as needed without starting over.  And by the time I pay the bill, start the car, get home etc, inevetably I've messed up at least one!  I go through spells where I'm willing to spend the money and get it done ... and then I'll go strip them off and go for months and never do it.

At my last haircut appointment one of the girls there had just come back from New York City where she had her nailed Shellac'd and her's were already 10 days old and still looking fabulous.  So, I found a place, made an appointment for Wednesday night and here's what I have.  I took this picture this morning so my nail treatment is already 5 days old and looking great.  What I'm really interested in is the wearability because if this wears well, I'll do this before Betsy's wedding in June.

 
Thursday, my co-workers surprised me with lunch and that was nice as it's difficult around here for any of us to be gone at the same time and usually we cannot eat together.  That's always a treat as I am very fortunate in enjoying the company of my coworkers.

Friday night after work I headed down to Clearwater to meet up with my good friend Janet where we had tickets to the Make and Take Event associated with the StampFest.  Some of the MnT's were just so-so, a couple were great, one was so terribly ugly it was pitiful, a couple just weren't my taste ... but we had fun.  Afterwards we went to Smokey Bones for dinner where I had wings and cole slaw.  (Yeah, I know I just posted about a weight loss with Weight Watchers and no, I havn't figured out how many points those wings were but hey .... it's my birthday, right?!!  I'm back on the system as of this Monday morning and that's that.

Saturday after breakfast we joined the other 14 million people at Stampfest.  One of the vendors from Pennsylvania has some great flower stamps that coordinate with industry standard flower punches -- what a great idea!  At her booth I bought some precut cards, these flower stamps and the hummingbird stamp.  (sorry, I know it's sideways but I can't figure out how to flip this on typepad!)

I left Janet behind at the Stampfest when I left at 2:30 as I had to be at Christina's by 5.  Saturday  night was the Valentine Banquet at our church, and even though it was my birthday, I offered to watch the little kids so my big kids could go to the banquet.  It's not unusual -- and it's not something I EVER take for granted -- that the little kids come running and calling my name and reaching for a hug everytime they see me.  It's a blessing to my heart EVERY time.  And that day was no exception except this time .... Baby Wyatt (15 1/2 months) came running too.  He's a sweet little boy and definately making his personality known and holding his own with his older siblings. 

After Christina and Austin got home and we chatted a while I went home to find over 100 messages on facebook, email and answering machine in addition to the ones I had in person, on text message and my cell phone that day.  I have some great friends and they sure know how to make a girl feel special!!

Sunday, after lunch at Christina's we played a game of cards called Trim and then we had an appointment at David's Bridal for me to try on dresses for my role as Mother of The Bride.  It's going to be a 7pm wedding, so that means a formal dress for me.  And enough of a color change that I can't wear the dress I wore for Christina's wedding.  So after trying on several dresses, we decided on one (although I really would have liked to have been able to combine the skirt of another one with the top of the one I ordered!) and I went with a dark teal that they call Jade.  The bridesmaids are wearing 'Pool' so this is just a darker version of their color. 
This picture doesn't do either color justice but you get the idea.

Then to celebrate my birthday, Valentines Day and the Finding Of The Dress, we went to Red Lobster to celebrate.  I highly recommend the fire grilled shrimp and lobster tails!  Mmmm-mmmmmmm that was good!!!

As we left the Red Lobster I was thinking that this had been a good, full, fun, productive weekend and was happy with my birthday celebration, not knowing there would be one more blessing.

On the way home from Red Lobster, we picked up Brendyn at his dad's and when I stopped at a gas station to fill up the car, Brendyn bought me a Diet Mountain Dew out of his own money.

I love that boy!!!!

Last Post of The Year

Well .... my year anyway!

Tomorrow I will be 10 years old.  5 and 5 makes 10, right? I don't know why this double nickle number is bothering me because 50 didn't bother me and neither did 51,52,53 or 54.  But this one ....... I don't like the sound of it. 

A couple of weeks ago I was into Perkins and the waitress gave me the Senior (Over 55) discount.  I was very torn ..... do I accept the discount and keep my 54 year old mouth quiet ... or do I protest and say, Hey, I'm not that old yet!  Finances won out over pride and I stayed quiet, paid the bill as presented and left.  But still .... I'm just saying .....

Since being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in September I've been trying to make some changes to my dietary habits.

Some of these habits go back to grade school.  For reasons I really can't explain, we never ate breakfast at home during the school week.  We lived just outside of the boundary for bus service, (1.5 miles) and so our mom had to drive us to school every day.  Me, my three siblings and my mom would pile in the car every morning and we'd drive 2 miles the opposite direction from the school to Pursley's Market and the four of us kids would take turns going into the store to buy something for breakfast.  Whoever went in the store got to pick.  So ... sometimes it was donuts, other times it was poptarts, eclairs, cream puffs, cookies, maple triangles etc.  They had a very nice bakery display. No milk (milk was an extreme rarity for us to EVER have!), no orange juice, nothing to drink, just the hand-held store bought breakfast.  Then we would have the 3.5 miles back to school to eat whatever had been purchased.

Since my dad worked for Kellogg's, we always had cereal in the house, but that was either a weekend breakfast food or an evening snack.  Cereal and milk is still today, one of my go-to favorite evening snacks.  I've just had to learn to pick my cereal choice better and have now lowered my milk to 1% and actually measure out a serving with a measuring cup.  Let me tell you, cereal bowls and cereal servings are not in sync with each other.

After being diagnosed I had a few sessions with a diabetic nutritionist and she had me focusing a lot on carbohydrates, and changing what I could over to the whole grain variety.  I've also lowered my milk from 2% to 1% but I can't quite make it to skim.  Skim just doesn't taste good to me.  I've thought about buying 1% and skim and mixing them but that has not gone beyond the thinking process.

A couple of weeks ago my daughter started talking about Weight Watchers and I said that I had been thinking about joining that also.  I was going to join right after the first of the year (typical I know!) but I was still sick and I know myself well enough to know I can't pile too many things on at once and being sick and on a diet just wasn't doable.  But by the time she was talking about it, I was feeling better (finally!!!!). 

So last Thursday we joined and yesterday was our first weigh in.  I lost 3.6 (I just did a typo and typed 34.6 -- wouldn't that have been nice!! LOL!!).  This morning I was back at my regular doc for a diabetic checkup and med renewal appointment and all together since September 24th I'm down 11.5. 

So 11.5 times Happy Birthday to me!!

P.S. To those who asked about the previous post, Betsy (Elisabeth!) is my youngest daughter.  She's 28, a teacher at a Christian school in Port St. Lucie and is twitterpatedly in LUV and just got engaged.  Christina and I are going shopping on Sunday to see if we can find me a dress I like for the wedding.  I'll keep you posted!

 

 

I know, I know ...

I know ... my last post was November 29th.  And perhaps you've been checking in here and thinking I have dropped off the face of the earth. But ... I'm still here!

Right there after Thanksgiving I got sick with congestion/cough/sneezing/snotting/ respiratory and ear stuff.  It took 2 months, 2 complete cycles of antibiotics, 2 bottles of Mucinex DM, prednisone and did I mention 2 months before I finally started to feel normal again.  Most days I'd leave the office, drag myself home, and collapse on the couch only to fall asleep in 10 minutes. But, thank God, I'm finally feeling better.

Big news from the East of The Bridge country is that Betsy is engaged!  She met Peter at a missionary camp in North Carolina and they've been traveling back and forth from Florida to North Carolina and burning up the phone lines ever since.  We met him briefly in November and then he was with us at Christmas for a few days.  A few Saturday's ago he drove 5 hours south and Betsy drove 5 hours north and they met in Brunswick Georgia and climbed the St. Simon's lighthouse and he proposed at the top of the lighthouse.  They are now planning a wedding for June 3rd and planning and plans are in full swing. 

The funniest remark about the engagement was Brendyn's who said, " I don't know him well enough to call him Uncle!".  I told him to come up with a list of questions and we'd have Peter answer them.  Apparently Brendyn must have thought he had a vote in the matter!  LOL!

Last weekend Christina and I hosted one of our Crop in The Country crops, this time in Sumterville since the Lake Pan facility wasn't available.  It was a smaller venue but it was good.  Linda and Natasha and Jules all came up and we had a blast.  I like the smaller crops in that we can all chat together.  There was lots of laughter, lively conversation and even some productivity happening.  Linda worked on a new clock for Hilltop, Natasha was working on her Brave Girls online class things and Jules, Christina and I were doing scrapbooking pages with kids being a common subject.

So .. there you have it.  You are all caught up now. 

And I'll try to be here more often ........ I promise!!

 

 

 

12 Hour Black Friday All Nighter

I know there are some people who would never venture out into the craziness of Black Friday.

For us, it's a tradition.  Ordinarily we get up early, hit a couple of early places, get breakfast, hit a couple more places and get back home around noon.

Just as it's tradition to go buy two Tampa Tribune papers, one for me, one for Christina. Which, was a bigger pain this year than it should have been.  I got up at 5 and drove the 1.5 miles to the nearest convienence store only to be told that the paper lady had not yet arrived and to come back at 6.  The St Pete Times was there (at 3:30 they told me!) but the Trib lady was never that early.  Went back at 6 - still no paper lady.  Went back at 7 -- this time prepared to wait it out with a notepad to make some thinking notes and a book to read.  Finally at 7:50 she pulled in.  I could have slept in till 7:30 and still had the first newspaper!!  Keep in mind I live in the middle of nowhere.  Newspapers are not home delivered.  You either have to know where there is a coin box or buy from a convienence store.  I'm 100 miles to St. Pete and 50 to Tampa.  Makes no sense to me that the closer paper was 3 hours later!

Prior to the shopping there is the tradition called the 'Reading of the Ads'.  This is where we spread out the ads on the table, browse, discuss, circle, list, prioritize.  Even Madelynne got into the ads this year.  Too bad my camera is not where I am right now but it's not, so I'll have to post that picture later.

Like I said, usually we get up early and go.  This year, 'getting up early' would have been too late.

Walmart's sale started at midnight, Toys R Us was open all night long, some stores opened at 3, others at 4.

So what does Hard Core Black Friday Shoppers do?  You pull an all nighter that's what.

We left Christina's, ads in hand at 9:45 p.m.  All the kids were in bed and we left Austin watching television.  We had decided to go to Lakeland. (Our choices were Clermont, Brooksville, Leesburg, The Villages, Ocala, Wesley Chapel or Lakeland.) Walmart was advertising 'come shop while you wait' and that sounded good to us so off to Walmart we go, getting there about 10:15.

The parking lot was already packed and we quickly found out that the 'shop while you wait' was not possible.  The store was ringed with pallets of the sales items.  If you wanted one of those items, you staked out a claim near the pallet and stayed there.  You could not get up and down some aisles as they had them taped off with 'Do Not Enter' signs. Christina wanted a pallet item, so she staked out her space and I wandered over to Crafts and picked up two $20 Cricut Cartridges, went and bought us Mountain Dews (Caffiene - Good!) and went back to keep Christy company.  About 11:30 an employee came and unwrapped that pallet and boxes started to go into carts. Including ours. One lady had planned ahead and picked up two bath towels and covered her box and one by one the boxes and the people disappeared into the store.  We waited a bit ... then did the same.  We looked for the $4 pajama's.  Couldn't find them and made our way to the front of the store and got in line at the checkout.  Of course, you couldn't check out until 12:01.  At midnight, straight up, a loud roar came from the side of the store.  We could hear people shouting and screaming and then saw people running.  We looked at each other wondering what was going on but it was just Walmarts planned and enforced riot as people were grabbing merchandise.

What a stupid system.  Instead of letting people 'shop while they wait' -- as in, pick up the stuff you were interested in buying and wander the store getting other things, they created an unsafe atmosphere by making people wait until midnight to then fight over what was on the pallets.  And of course, nothing rang up correctly.  I felt sorry for the store clerks!

We left Walmart and got over to Toys R Us.  There was a line outside just to get in.  They were letting 15 people out and then 15 more could go in.  We heard about a huge line just to check out so I gave Christina my list of things and we decided I would go and immediately get in the checkout lane while she shopped.  I do not know what the problem was with the cashier system there, but the checkout line was over 2 hours long, weaving in and out of the aisles, (which made the aisles impassible).  They were out of the sale items we were interested in and since everything in our cart was regularly priced items, we decided to abandon that store and move on.

Next was Old Navy.  We stood in line for about 10 minutes to get inside.  We saw some cute kids clothes but this was Christy's store and not mine so I went outside and sat down.  Besides, I don't like those creepy looking manequins!  Same thing there, what was on sale was gone and what she liked was regular priced and not worth the wait in line so we moved on to Children's Place and Arispostle just because they were open.  So far, not so much buying being done.  In and out of 4 stores in a row without spending a penny.

We drove through the plaza with Target and followed the line of people waiting to get in and decided we were not going to wait in line and went to breakfast at IHOP instead for an energy booster and a bathroom break.  By now it's 3 a.m. or shortly after.

Back to Target we go right in and split up.  I go get the one big box item I want, guilt trip the attendent at the 'trying-on-room' to give me her cart that had one package of batteries in it, meet up with Christina, do a little more shopping and get in line. Where we stood.  For 2 hours. And the big box became invisible to Christina.  At one point I said I was done shopping for the person who the big box was for.  She said, "Really? What did you get that person?"  The big-box was, literally, 6 inches from her face.  Later, someone in line asked her 'who is the big-box-item for'.  Now she's looking around to see who's basket that item is in ... hello!  It's in ours!  Right in front of you!! Ok, maybe you had to be there.  Maybe she was a little punchy considering we had been up all night, but it was funny to me.  And maybe it was funny to me since I had been up since 5am Thursday to buy newspapers!

One thing I found though -- people talk to Christina.  In every line, in every store, people talk to Christina like she is their long lost friend.  And they talk about everything: their Thanksgiving, what they are shopping for, who they are shopping for, compare ads, discuss ads etc.

After Target we went back to the mall and shopped at Bath & Body Works and Sears.  Sears always puts their pretty little girl dresses on sale for 60% off and since we have 2 pretty little girls, it's a good match.

By now it's coming up on 9 a.m. and we discuss whether we really need to go to Michaels or Joanns.  Which, we decided we did not, even though I hated to let those good coupons go to waste.  I could have found something, even though it would have been for me and not a Christmas present, but even all nighters must end sometime.

Christina started to doze off as we were coming back across the Green Swamp and I said, no, don't do that, stay awake and talk to me.  She tried to convince me she was listening with her eyes closed.  Ummm .... not! We got back to her house almost exactly 12 hours after we left.  The kids were eating breakfast and I had a bowl of cereal with them and passed out ... I mean went to sleep ... in Brendyn's bed.  Who, by the way, was promised a rich reward for monitoring a kid movie and sippy cups while we passed out.  I mean slept.  Christina came and woke me up at 2pm.  It wasn't a long enough sleep, but her theory was that if we slept too long, we wouldn't sleep that night.

At 5ish, I packed up the three oldest kids and off we went to Clermont to see Tangled.  We missed the first 8 minutes so if someone could tell me HOW the Wicked Witch Who Wanted To Stay Young and Beautiful Forever took the Princess, we'd be most appreciative of the information. Great movie by the way.  Two thumbs up from the boys and Madelynne!

Christmas shopping is done except for something for Wyatt.  Just havn't found the right thing for him yet.  Waiting for one more shipment to come in from online shopping and bought wrapping paper and tape.  I'll start wrapping in the evenings, a few things at a time.

Count this Black Friday as successful.

And it's good to know, that when I need to, I can still pull that All Nighter and survive!