My New Workout

Okay so this is the DVD I am going to be doing tomorrow. That is if I can wake up since it is now almost midnight and I am still up on this computer. This is from the personal trainer Jackie Warner. She is featured on Bravo. She also has a new book that is due to come out in April. Now that is just what I need is one more workout book. I love to read workout books though. I thought I would do this before embarking back on P90X. I can choose from several 15 minute workouts, or do a 40 minute full circuit. That is the one I am planning on doing tomorrow. I hope to get back into a routine of working out after being off close to 8 weeks. What in the world happened to me? Well, once you get out of a routine of working out, it just becomes easier and easier to put it off and then before you know it, you are not doing it at all. So... tomorrow things are changing!!! Whoops.. I just looked at the cover of my DVD and it does not look like this. So this is not my workout DVD. But... it is similar. It is by Jackie Warner, and it does have everything I said it had. This is either just a different cover or an entirely different workout.

On My Knees

Just today I found out about two couples who are getting a divorce. One is a young newly married couple... irreconcilible differences. The other is an older couple in their 50's married for over 25 years with several children.. adultery. I am so sad for all of these. What God has joined together let no man put asunder. And the two shall become one. ' Til death do us part. So what is the deal? I will tell you what the deal is. Satan moves about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You think you can go alone up against Satan? Don't you ever believe that!! You must put on the armour of God. You must rely on the Holy Spirit. If you're not a Christian.. forget it.. you don't stand a chance. For some reason we seem to believe that satan is like a football opponent. You know when you are losing in a game.. losing big.. you are 40 points behind. So what happens? The opposing coach puts in his 2nd or 3rd string. He lets up. And we think Satan is the same way. We think he is going to relent and go easy on us. Don't you believe it!!!!! He is going to kick you when you are down. He is never going to let up. He is here to destroy you. And he is here to destroy your marriage, your testimony, your character, and anything that you value. He will go after you, your spouse, and your children. You must seek the Lord God. I am on my knees for these dear people. You know them. Oh, you may not know these exact people. But you know someone like them. We as believers in Christ must be in His Word, be armed, and be ready to pray hard for those we love. I may sound pessimistic, but I am not. I know the end of the story. So does Satan. He knows the end of the story. He will not be the winner. Jesus is the winner. But right now Satan is making hay while he can. Let's all be a praying people. Pray for yourself, your spouse, your children, your friends, this nation. With Christ all things are possible. Greater is He that is within me than is within the world. I am counting on His promises. Meanwhile.. I am weeping and heartbroken for my dear friends. But I am not without hope. I am on my knees.. standing in the gap.

Oldest Son

Today I had planned to do some more work on getting rid of stuff in my garage. I got some more plastic containers so that I could get rid of the banana boxes. There is just some stuff I cannot part with right now. But, I got a call from my oldest son. He lives in town, about a 15 minute drive from my house. He was home sick from work and wanted to know if I wanted to come clean his house. Actually, even though he felt bad, he did help me some. I took the makings for taco soup, and enough was made for our lunch and his supper. We got the carpet vacuumed and then shampooed, got his closets cleaned out- old computer, printer, keyboard, clothes that no longer fit, broken items, and then just stuff he did not want. We got the kitchen all cleaned as well as the bathrooms. We lifted the cushions on the couch and loveseat and got all the crumbs that had fallen in there. Did I mention that this son is a 26 year old bachelor and VERY VERY MESSY!!!! While I was doing the shampooing, he was rebooting the laundry. So he now has a clean house and all the laundry done. We also rearranged photos, candles, etc. As soon as the weather gets nice, I will help him get his yard cleaned up.


I got home from Frisco on Wednesday. My little granddaughter was feeling much better and was able to return to daycare. So, it really is nice that I can be available to help my "kids" when they need me. I hope that when I need some help, they will come to my aid. Tonight, I am really tuckered out from all the work that I did at ds's house. I worked from 10:15 until 5:15. DH did not want takeout which was what this tired old woman was going to get. Instead, he wanted a sandwich, so I went by Sam's and got turkey, extra-fiber bread, avocado, bell pepper, and Monterrey Jack cheese. I also got some of their southwestern hummus. I just love it! So hopefully tomorrow, I will make some progress on that garage.... anyone need me to do something else????

Unome Weekend at 669

Wow!! What a fun weekend with my Unome girlfriends at 669. Okay.. explanation.. my unomes are a group of high school friends that get together twice a year. We began this 6 years ago when we were all turning 50. Our birthdays start in September and go through June. So we are all pretty close to the same age. Our first get together was in Feb '04 and we only met for one night. Then we met in Feb '05- again for one night. Then we met in July '05 and we met for a weekend at Crystal Beach for two nights. That is when we all decided we liked two nights and we liked two times a year- we just could not get it all in with our catching up in one night and we enjoy one another so much we want to see each other twice a year. We have since been to a hunting lodge of one of our members outside of town called Huckleberry Lodge- two times there, one time at Nancy's mother's house, one time at Nancy's house, one time at my house, one time at Jan's house, one time at Jan's ranch in Valero, one time at the Mariott in the Woodlands, and now this last time at our hunting camp. I think I mentioned that dh was worried because there is only one bathroom and if you are in the loft, you have to walk outside and come back in to go to the bathroom. This is the most people we have ever had at 669 at one time to spend the night. But these ladies are all pretty adaptable. Here is how the weekend played out:

Friday- the original plan was to meet at 4:30, load up and go to eat Mexican food in Nacogdoches, and then on to see the Liverpool Legends performance. Well, Jan's plane was late getting here. So we went to a local Mexican food restaurant and ordered for them and they made it in time for us to enjoy dinner before making the drive across the river. Then we all enjoyed the LL performance. I think we all agreed that we liked the early Beatles' music much better than Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, or Sgt. Pepper's album. The guys even had the Beatles' mannerisms down pretty good. It really looked like Ringo Starr. And of course we were quite a spectacle with our matching Beatles' shirts. Okay, then we made it to the camp and we snacked and talked and stayed up until about 3:30 a.m.

Saturday- we talked about going to Crockett to seeB.J. Thomas perform at their civic center. However, this idea was nixed because... when would we visit? So, we leisurely got up, drank coffee, had a breakfast casserole- which I think is a great recipe.. not just because I made it. We then began work on preparing the vegetables for pico de gallo while Fadra made chicken tortilla soup... the temperature was in the 30's so we kept the fire going in the fireplace. We all did get dressed in our camo with hair fixed and makeup since we were doing our group photo, and it was going on the honored wall of guests at 669. We had one of the members of our camp take the photo and then we took a couple with the camara set up on automatic. I think we will use the one by the trees to go on the wall. We had the soup going and we had the photo made, so that meant we had the time free to have a few margaritas- they were the best! We took a late afternoon drive down to the lake and then we came back and just relaxed. Those were the only times we went out the door other than getting more firewood or going up to the loft. Bedtime did not come early. I was the last to go to bed and that was at 2:30 a.m. Oh.. I forgot to mention that Fadra's birthday was Saturday so we celebrated with giving her cards, gifts, giftcards, and a delicious birthday cake!

Sunday- since the road into the camp will not accomodate low-riding vehicles, we parked three by the road, and drove two Suburbans and a Yukon to the cabin. So Sunday morning Carol left early and she took Fadra to her car. Dee Ann left shortly after and she took Sandra to her car. Jan, Peggy, Susie, and I stayed and put the finishing touches on putting the cabin back to pre-unome order. We washed and dried all the dishes, made all the beds, gathered all the towels, swept and vacuumed, and then relaxed until we had to have Jan back to meet Dee Ann to take her back to Bush Intercontinental. I got everyone delivered to their car/house and was home by 11:30. I was only home long enough to clean our my suburban, get the cooler cleaned out, get a few loads of towels done, and then I proceeded to repack and was in the car and on the road by 1:50 to head to Dallas. Since my little granddaughter is still not up to par from her illnesses, I volunteered to stay a few days so her mom and dad could work and not have to take her to daycare. I am so glad that I am retired so that I can help out in a small way. I was unable to help the past two weeks because I was sick and was getting ready for my friends to come. She is such a precious little doll, and I have time right now to post this blog because she is taking a long nap. So... retirement has so far proved to be quite busy for me. I am wondering if it will slow down. And... I absolutely MUST get back to my exercise program!!! I hope that my post will soon say something about that!!!

Hectic Day

I must say that yesterday proved to be a most hectic day for me. I began with my scheduled yearly doctor's appointment. That went well.. except for what I weighed on the scales... would you believe with my boots, socks, shirt, pants, and jacket I weighed 10 lbs. more on the doctor's scales? And we won't even go there. The funny thing is that it did not even upset me. I know that the lack of exercise has had an impact on my weight, but it is what it is.. and I have been too distracted with my cleanout activities to be focused on my exercise. But I will... soon!

So, I went out to our hunting camp, 669, because I am hosting my unome (you know me) girlfriends this weekend. There are supposed to be 9 of us in attendance, but there will probaby only be 8 (more about that later). I got out there and began one chore, and then saw.. oh I need to do this.. and that went on and on. I cleaned the bathroom as well as moving all of dh's toiletries. You see there is one bathroom and we will need all the counterspace. I cleaned and cleaned out the refrigerator- new fun food coming tonight! I had already changed the four beds upstairs in the loft. It was done last week. I changed the sheets on the queen and the two twins downstairs. I straightened the kitchen cupboards. I decluttered the mantle. I swept the entire cabin, as well as the front and back porch. I removed all the Bowhunter, The Rifleman, Duck's Unlimited, and Fish and Game magazines. I had so many interruptions ( more on that later). So let me just finish while I am on the subject of 669 telling what I have to do out there today. I plan to cook my sausage and put together my breakfast casserole for tomorrow. I am going to vacuum the rug out there. I am taking more coffee cups and another coffee pot. I am taking some "girl" magazines- Fitness and Southern Living as well as a few inspirational books. And also some fun DVD's like Mamma Mia, Baby Mama, and The Holiday (my new favorite DVD). So all of that should not take me too long.

Okay, about all of my interruptions. My granddaughter went to the ER two weeks ago and had the croup. She has not bee back to daycare but maybe one or two days since then. Her croup got better, but she came down with a stomach virus. It was not a continual vomiting and diarrhea, but she would vomit maybe once a day and the diarrhea stopped. Along with her sickness, my daughter also had a cold. So my dd goes to the doctor yesterday and gets antibiotics and a steroid shot. Meanwhile her dh and her mil (who has been taking care of gd) let her know that after she left, d gd vomited again and after her dr. appt. the doctor wanted her in the hospital for IV fluids due to dehydration. So... off to the ER they went again. They spent all day in the ER with the baby having an IV in her arm (it took 3 x). They hoped to come home, but since it took so long for her to have a wet diaper, they were told they had to stay the night. So while I am cleaning, I am going back and forth with her with texts and phone calls. I could not be there because I am hosting my gf. And I could cancel except that one is flying from Midland and two are driving from Houston. The rest live nearby. And then... I get a text from the one that I said will probably not be with us tonight-her hours old newborn granddaughter is not breathing well, and they are life-flighting her to Houston. So I am texting all the unomes back and forth telling them about this. I was praying all day long for these babies as well as parents and doctors and nurses.

So tonight's agenda is to go to the nearby university and see the Beatles impressionists called Liverpool Legends. We are all so funny and corny. We found these Beatles tshirts that are the picture of them on their first album- Meet the Beatles. We are all wearing them tonight. I will certainly include a photo later of this. Oh yeah.. also, I told my friends we would all get a photo made to go on "the honored wall" at 669. We will all wear camo for that. I told them not to buy any but to bring a shirt if they had one. Well... after cleaning up out there and investigating, we are like a Cabela's store- camo tshirts, sweat shirts, jackets, coats, pants, waders, caps, and gloves- you name it, we have it! I will include that photo later too.

Okay, time to get moving and start my busy day. Please keep all of these in your prayers.

My Retirement Thus Far

Okay, so my retirement began officially on December 30. Since I only worked on Tues and Wed, that was my last Wed to work. You could say that I am now starting my 4th week of being retired. Everyone keeps asking me, " How do you like retirement?" Honestly... I have not gotten into that mode of thinking yet. I can say that right now I am definitely not enjoying it because I have had so many unforeseen and stressful events come into my life. I mentioned the car accident and my grandbaby going to the ER. I had to take my mom to the doctor last Monday. I was able to get up in the attic at my house and bring down all the "banana boxes" that were stored with all kinds of things. I think I did that on Monday and Tuesday. Well, on Wednesday, I was getting a cough. And also, I pulled my back out when I thought I was quite strong enough to lift that third seat in my suburban all by myself. So I had a pulled back and a hacking cough. I planned to go to Galveston to meet with the contractor who is putting our beach condo back together. I also was able to deliver the paintings to my uncle's house that my mom was giving to my cousins. Yea!! getting stuff cleaned out and organized.
I called a friend who lost their beach house at Crystal Beach. She drove down from Sugarland and we were able to meet early. It was truly a business trip because I was going back and forth to the condo and Home Depot... making decisons. It did not take me long to spend 2K on new appliances. We went to my favorite local restaurant - Shrimp and Stuff. I had the boiled shrimp po-boy and some gumbo. The gumbo had a thick rue.. almost like a stew... which is not what I prefer. I like my gumbo more watery. We had time to go and see her lot near San Luis Pass. They decided to rebuild there instead of Crystal Beach. By the time we finished with talking to the contractor and viewing several condos at Seascape and running our errands, we had spent the afternoon. We stayed at the Comfort Suites which was very nice. It was also great because we could walk to the movie theatre. We decided to eat down at the dock at Fisherman's Wharf. I was in such a mood for some good fresh fish. I had the grilled red snapper with mixed vegetables and rice. I also had two glasses of Pinot Grigio. It was a great dinner. So we made it back in time to see two movies. We saw "Leap Year" which was cute, but quite predictable. And then we saw "The Lovely Bones." I had heard this was a good movie. Well... definitely not my kind of movie. I may read the book as I heard it was good.. but then again, if I did not like the movie, chances are that I will not like the book either. However, let me just say the young girl who played Susie Salmon did an excellent job. Now I am not going to spoil this for you, but there was a time when she was in a place that she regretfully knew she should not be in. This young actress made you feel the fear that she was having. It was an outstanding performance by this young girl. So.. it was midnight when we got out of the movies. We got back to the hotel.. talked a little, watched a little TV and were asleep by about 1:30. We were up early for our continental breakfast, and I was on the road back home by a little after 9:00 a.m. on Friday.

So Friday, I was feeling tired and still had my cough. Not only did I inhale all that dust in my attic, but also in the various condos due to the residue from the tile jobs we went in. So I got a double whammy of dust in the lungs. So I made a few stops on the way home- fabric stores and my favorite Mexican restaurant- lunch portion of chicken fajitas ( I only ate half) with some beans, rice, onions, and corn tortillas. I am still wondering why I did not get any guacamole, but that was fine with me. Friday evening I had some gf come by as my dh was at the hunting camp. We visited, watched part of a movie, and they went home.

Saturday morning, I moved slow.. still not feeling very well, joints kinda hurting, but not sick. I took about 15-20 more boxes to the recycling bin. Then I, along with faithful dog Roxy, proceeded to our hunting camp (669). My plan was to begin getting it ready for this coming weekend when my unomes came to visit. There will be 9 of us staying. But instead I layed on the couch. Then it hit me... fever, chills, headache, neckache, backache, ankles and feet and knees - you name it. I felt terrible. I went in and took a hot bath because that always makes me feel better. And it did. I held off on the Advil. Germs are being killed when your temperature elevates so I just kept telling myself that there was a battle going on in my body. I had extra clothes on along with a blanket. DH had cooked homemade venison chili, and I did eat that. All we had to drink was a Big Red, Shasta grape or Shasta creme soda. What a choice! I took the grape and later a big glass of cold water with a half of lemon. So I was kinda feeling better, and then it hit me again. Oh gosh... I am thinking.. I have some kind of flu. No stopped up or runny nose, but the aches.. ohhhhhhhhhh. So I decided I would take another bath. And while I was in the tub, I had dh get me extra wash cloths so I could put a hot one on my chest, on the back of my neck, and on my forehead. He made fun of me!! argh#@!!!! So I decided right then and there, no sympathy from you.. I am going home. I was not mad, just was feeling bad. However, after taking the bath, I took two Advil, loaded up the car and went home so I could lay on a heating pad and if need be walk around the house all night. And if I could not sleep I had cable, movies, and FB and the internet. Yesterday was spent laying around all day in the bed with the heating pad. Today I would have done the same, but I HAD to get a birthday card off to my sister who has a birthday tomorrow. And she will probably not get the card until Wednesday. So I did feel better- good enough to go to several places that I needed to go. I still have the cough and the backache. The rest of my body is feeling better. But I will say one thing... doing core exercises will stop you from pulling your back out. I have not done mine in over 5 weeks, and it is certainly obvious. Tomorrow I have to go to town to have blood work because I have my annual checkup on Thursday. I plan to get up early and make it there since I have to fast. Since I will be out early I will make the dreaded Walmart run to get some additional plastic bins. I am slowly getting all the stuff organized that I want to keep. There will be little going back in my attic because I do not want to continue climbing that ladder. It will just have to be nice and organized in the garage. So... there you have it. As soon as I am up to par.. it is back to exercise for me. Gosh.. it makes a difference!

Okay, I was quite the chatter today... I guess I should have written this in several installments.

Movie, Book, and Wreck

I had a friend of mine loan me the book "The Help". I know that should be underlined, but I am not sure how to do that on the computer. This book is written in first person by three women during the early 1960's. Two of the women are black and are "maids" to the white women of Jackson, Mississippi. No offense meant by the word maid... this was just what they were referred to as. Today we say housekeepers. But back then they were a maid.. or should I say handmaiden. Because they were so much more than a housekeeper. They not only cleaned the house, but they washed and ironed, cooked the meals, and served as a nanny to the children. Okay, back to the story.. the other person's view is written by a young white woman desiring to be a writer. She is sympathetic to the civil rights' of African -Americans, especially to black women. I will not relay anymore of the book so that I do not spoil it for you. I liked the book- I grew up during this time.. in the south, and yes, we had a "maid". I wondered if my white family behaved like some of these white families in the book.

Okay, I usually do not go to R rated movies. But I was assured this one did not have bad language in it. Well... there might have been a few bad words. The dialog was very adult and sex talk. There was a scene showing Alec Baldwin's exposed rear. But the movie not only had humor, but I thought had some depth. It showed the effects of divorce.. on the spouse that was left, the grown children still reeling from the effects, and even the one who was at fault who is now truly on the outside looking in. Any person considering divorce should see this movie and think much deeper about their lives, the lives the divorce will effect, and not just about the here and now.

I will soon be back to my exercise program. Just alot going on here at my house. My college son is here.. and when I say here.. I not only mean here at my house, but I mean here on this earth. He and some companions were in a terrible wreck last Friday night. The vehicle hit some ice and rolled 3 times. My son was sent to ER and only had glass in his scalp. I could have been receiving the news from the DPS that every parent hopes they never hear. Thank you Lord for being merciful to my family.

I will soon be back to my exercise. Needless to say, this has been an emotional time for all of my family. I went for a walk a couple of times last week, and also today. I plan to get myself back on schedule soon. Maybe I will be walking, maybe jogging, maybe P90X, or maybe a new video by Jillian. I have been working on my healthy eating now- no Dr. Pepper, drinking more water. I know what I need to do, so I better get 'er done!!!!