Chicago Tribune
30.6 pounds and 30.05 inches so far.
My husband and I have kind of settled into raw veggies and dip for lunches (I add a hard-boiled egg or string cheese, and my husband adds barbecued chicken with no bread) and a main meal salad for dinner, so we’re awash in Nutrisystem entrees right now. (My husband received his frozen and non-frozen this week. I received my frozen and should get my non-frozen soon.)
I called customer service today to see if I could delay our next order. Raphael couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. He was encouraging about our efforts to date and we agreed to delay our next order for 90 days. If we want to order a la carte before then, fine. If we want to shorten the delay, fine. If we need to delay it further, fine. No muss, no fuss, no problem. How wonderful is that!?!?!
Our only complaint is that they no longer offer pulled pork. My husband really liked that, and it almost derailed us on our weight loss efforts. They DO offer barbecued chicken, so he has substituted that, and I make him pulled pork and we freeze it into individual portions for him.
Our son is coming to visit Monday, planning to stay about 3 weeks. We’re really into the plan now, particularly since we can have ‘flex’ meals, so it shouldn’t be a problem for everyone to eat what they would like. We’ll go grocery shopping as soon as he likes and get what we don’t have.
I’m feeling good about the progress my husband and I have made. He’s down about 30 lbs., too, and has lost almost 6 inches from his waist. He was wearing 38/30 jeans when we started and is now ALMOST comfortable in 32/30’s now. :0) He is trying to do sit ups, something he hasn’t done since he was in the Marine Corps from 1961-65, so I’m proud of his efforts. Even more important is his effort to cut out as much sugar as possible, since he’s a Type II diabetic. His blood sugar reading this morning was 96. (100 or below is NORMAL). I’m doing more exercise than I have done in many, many years – doing yoga and abdominal exercises one day, and the elliptical trainer the next. (Today is the elliptical). I’m feeling stronger and a bit more flexible.
So, we’ll keep on keepin’ on, and we’re pleased that we are on a program where the company will work with us. My goal is to be ordering at least one – if not TWO – 10 lbs weight loss NS bears with our next order! :0)
Rosemary Clement Moore – http://www.pinterest.com/michaelbliss
Filed under Attitude, Funny Signs - Humor
Richard Green – LinkedIn
I feel an especially strong pull toward wherever this idyllic place is because it’s yucky outside here in Greenwood, Arkansas today. It’s cold and rainy. Forecasted for us for the weekend is a ‘wintry mix.” I think I’ve told you before that Arkansas does not do winter well.
I wouldn’t mind if it just turned cold and snowed. We always do ICE first – sometimes really causing almost un-repairable damage – and THEN we might get some snow over it.
In 2001 we got a ‘wintry mix’ that resulted in our being captive in our house, unable to get down our 650+ foot steep driveway until we chain-sawed the trees. That took us three days of really long, hard, cold work. The tree branches were snapping off as we stood on the porch. I still cringe when I hear that awful sound. We have what we call ‘trash trees’ rather than majestic or beautiful ones, but I love them all and it broke my heart when we lost so many.
So as I gaze wistfully at this gorgeous photo by Richard Green, I wish I could escape there and spend the day, at least.
Our worst day is supposed to be Saturday, when we have a 100% chance of rain/sleet/snow and flying hairballs, according to the weather channel. I just have all appendages crossed that whatever happens will be clear for Monday, when we pick up our son at the airport for a much-anticipated visit from Thailand.
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Mother Nature
Peter Wever Art via Elena-(Livia) D-LinkedIn
Filed under Creativity, Oil Paintings I Love
“Profile of the Coco Parrot” – Paul Militaru Photography
We have about half of our first floor done in tiles – walk-in pantry, kitchen, dining area, utility room, and two half-baths. I have been working on this project all day and am about half finished.
I scrubbed all the counters, polished tables, cleaned window sills, harvested lettuce, put out a few Christmas decorations, etc.
This is the kitchen. I’ve scrubbed everything up top now, and the stove parts are in the dishwasher.
This is looking from the kitchen out toward the dining area. (You can see my lettuce plants in the background.)
These are a few of our Christmas decorations on the divider between the dining area and the kitchen.
This is the dining area and my moved-inside-veggie garden. I still have lettuce and some celery plants.
The next step in today’s project is to vacuum all the tile and then mop.
I’ll try to take pics of more Christmas decorations when the light changes.
I hope you’re having a good day, too.
This photo of our son, Brian, and me was taken at Christmas in 2007. It’s still one of my all-time favorite photos.
I’ve been a Scrooge, basically, since then because my heart wasn’t really in it. Our son decided several years ago that in order to really learn Mandarin, he needed to live where it was spoken. He packed up and went to China, attending an American language school there, leaving just before they had a terrible earthquake. He came home, but then went back, this time living in Shanghai.
Then he decided that he wanted to live somewhere more quiet, so he went to Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has made it a point not only to continue learning Mandarin, but also to learn Thai. He participates on a regular basis on an app where people can call in for translations between Mandarin and English and Thai. This allows him to get more and more fluent as he tries to help others.
A friend and his wife joined him in Chiang Mai several years ago. They work together doing computer stuff for various clients in the U.S. Before he left the last time, he set up a secure chat program so that we could leave messages or type at each other real-time. We do that on almost a daily basis. He also set up a program called ‘appear.in’ which he and his friend use in conference calls. We can see each other real-time and talk, like Skype or other similar programs, but MUCH better quality.
It’s been three years since he’s been home. We communicate more than a lot of families who live in the same city, so he hasn’t really seemed a world away, though he gives wonderful hugs, and my ‘hugs bucket’ has been empty for a long time now.
Recently he talked about MAYBE coming home for a visit. I put it out of my mind because a lot can happen in a short space of time, making it impossible – although intentions are the best.
He is actually coming home! We will pick him up at the airport on the 10th of this month!!!! He can stay until January 2nd, when he will fly to see other relatives and good friends before returning to Chiang Mai.
I am definitely feeling the Scrooge in me thawing this year. This morning I got out the two Christmas wreaths I kept after my purge of ‘stuff’ in our home and put them up. I then got out one bag of decorations that I’ve put up in the past, when I wanted to look at least a little bit festive. These are up in the dining area now. (I’ll take some pictures to share a bit later today.)
My husband and I decided that this year we would decorate a Christmas tree and get out all the decorations we haven’t used in years. This means we will need to move furniture in the living room to accommodate the tree – plus haul the huge Tupperware bin of decorations and the tree up from the basement – something we haven’t done in a long time. I’ve decided to wait until our son is home to do the tree, so we can do it together as a family.
As the fact that he has his tickets, and we have a flight arrival time now (the trip from Chiang Mai to here will take a total of 28 hours with layovers, etc) the fact that he’s REALLY coming home is starting to sink in. My heart feels full, plus lighter and lighter. I keep finding myself smiling.
The very best Christmas present we could have – except for when I gave birth to him 40 years ago on Dec. 13th…
Filed under Attitude, Cause for Celebration, Delightful Surprises, Family, holidays
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Catherine Lee – LinkedIn
Hannah Kirk via Morning Coffee With Abba Ltd
Lately we’ve been meeting a lot more deer as we drive back and forth from town.
I’ve been told it’s rutting season, and then told the does are trying to stay AWAY from the males, and then told it’s because of the weather getting colder.
I don’t have a clue what the real reason(s) is/are, but I love seeing them – as long as we don’t hit them with our car, or as is the usual case with us, they run into US!
Years ago our son was heading out to go back to college. It was dusk. He left, and then returned several minutes later, thoroughly shaken. He had gone around a curve close to the house and a deer had jumped just when he was passing and hit his car in the front-driver’s side of the vehicle. Our son was fine, and he said the deer ran off. We’re not sure that the deer was okay, though. We had to pay a couple thousand dollars to fix the damage to the vehicle.
Another time, my husband left to do errands in our ‘Vette. He came back, thoroughly shaken and angry. TWO deer jumped and hit the front of the Vette. My husband was all right, other than being pissed. Both deer ran off, so we don’t know if they were okay or not. The Vette was totally smushed in the front and spent several weeks in the shop being repaired.
A third time my husband was on his motorcycle. He rounded a curve and a deer jumped out of the woods on his right and just clipped the front of the cycle. My husband was fine, though shaken, managing to keep the bike going and not fall down. The deer ran off. We had to replace a light and a handle bar on the motorcycle.
We have lucked out in our encounters with deer. Even though you’re careful and watching for them, things happen really fast.
My favorite times are when we see the deer in plenty of time to slow WAAAAY down, watching as a whole group of them cross the road, one at a time in parade fashion, looking at us with interest.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Mother Nature
unknown – email Bill Lites
I decided to dive in and re-read my collection of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. I reading # 5 now, “High Five.”
Janet has built a whole world that is funny and fun with a quirky main character, Stephanie Plum, who becomes a Bond Inforcement Agent (Bounty Hunter) by blackmailing her weird relative who owns a bond agency.
The cast of characters really grows on you. I feel as if I know them. I love living in their world for awhile, smirking and snorting over what goes on. I love Janet’s down-to-earth REAL attitudes and reactions, the flaws and foibles of all Stephanie’s friends and family.
There are 25 books in the series to date. When I get to the end of the ones in my collection (20+) I’ll order the rest of them.
I love being able to do what I need to during the day and then dive in and lose myself in my current Stephanie Plum book….
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
My husband’s cousin’s wife, Murray, lives in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Every time we can make the time, we have gone to spend as much time as possible there. Several years ago Murray took me to a wonderful shop called Old Estate Art Gallery.
I fell in love with something and bought it on the spot. Each time I’ve visited Murray has taken me there to see what they are offering, and they have never disappointed me. A couple of years ago, I asked them if they had an online store and if they could ship things. At that point in time, they weren’t in a position to do that. That has now changed!
The link above takes you to their page on Facebook. You can look at wonderful things they are currently offering. I found my Christmas present to myself there just a few minutes ago –
I fell in love with the gray “Cool Rat” at the bottom right part of this picture.
I messaged them via their Facebook page, asking if they could ship now. They answered my message very promptly saying that it depended on what item I wanted. I asked them if the gray “Cool Rat” was still available. They replied yes, told me the price, and confirmed they could ship him to me USPS.
I called them and confirmed that the rat HAD to be mine. Karen, the nice lady who answered the phone, went to grab him for me before someone else scooped him up and will call me back with the final price when she knows the shipping amount.
It was a pleasure doing business with her, and my Christmas present will be on the way to me soon!
This is a wonderful store with so many items you won’t see elsewhere. When you have some time, visit their Facebook page.
WARNING: You may be like me and become addicted!
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Eating-A-Child-Scribol.com
I prefer to think of this as an evil fantasy – along the same lines as the Halloween witch flying head-first into a tree, or Halloween pumpkins eating baby pumpkins…
Filed under Creativity, snow people
These are charcoal pencil drawings!
“Emma” – Saverio Scoleri Art – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri Art – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri Art – LinkedIn
Filed under Creativity, drawings, Saverio Scoleri Art
Mary Engelbreit via sayingimages.com
Filed under Attitude, Changes, empowerment, Encouragement
“Birds in Flight” – Lake Geneva, Switzerland – Kirsty Bonner – LinkedIn
“Strike on the Lake” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Seagulls” – Paul Militaru Photography
A “colony” of seagulls. A “flock” or “brace” of ducks. Whatever you call them, I LOVE seeing groups of birds doing anything. Somehow just seeing them makes my heart soar.
FreakingNews.com
I feel pretty good right now. I just finished a session of folding myself into a paper airplane – otherwise known as “Yoga for Seniors” type moves. I’m not using the DVDs lately – just doing the moves that feel as if they’re what my poor, stiff body needs to fully stretch out and relax. I spend a bit more than half an hour, and then also do abdominal exercises.
The biggest problem I have is trying to relax at the beginning. I lie down on my back on my mat with my wedge pillow, arms and legs spread out and just try to relax and breathe. Typical of life around here, I had just started to relax a little bit and our lab puppy, Amber, lost her lunch right beside my left hand on the carpet. I yelled a bad word and leaped up as fast as I could, trying to get her outside. She tossed her cookies once more on the way out – this time on the tiles in the dining area. My husband helped me get things cleaned up. We don’t know what Amber found to eat outside, but apparently it didn’t agree with her. (She seems to be fine now, but we’re confining her to her bed in the utility room for awhile.)
I tried again, having to breathe through some pain on whatever muscles run across your back at the shoulder blade level. After a couple of minutes or so, I was more comfortable and then moved my arms up over my head. That showed another area of my back that was tight and sore, so I breathed into that. too. And so my yoga poses went.
Even my husband is remarking on my progress now. I’m able to touch my toes! It takes me a minute or two for my body to ‘give’ enough, but then I can do it! Since I started out with fingertips about a foot off the floor, I feel good about it. I’m also very close to being able to touch my forehead to my feet when I’m sitting with the bottoms of my feet touching each other. I’m making progress in loosening up this old body in several of the poses.
My husband is teed off that I’m able to do more sit-ups than he can. I’m up to 30 now, from none at the beginning. I’ve been trying to do this for about 6 months, I guess, so I’m glad I’m getting stronger. My husband has done it intermittently over the past two months, and has gone from none to 10. I’m pointing out that he’s made a lot of progress and that, if he keeps practicing, he’ll get stronger. I’m also doing leg lifts and whatever the exercise is where you do a sit up pointing your elbow to the opposite knee. AND I don’t need a crane to get back up off the floor!
We aren’t really impressing anyone with what we can do, but – when we take the time to remember where we started – we pat ourselves on the head a bit and resolve to keep on keepin’ on. (I also put a gold star on my calendar.) :0)
Combine this with bowling tonight with friends, and a cleaning project today – and we have a good amount of exercise for the day.
Filed under exercise, taking care of yourself
I’m not much for cold weather. I love PICTURES of snow and winter, but I rarely get out IN it, other than to walk around with my mouth open, trying to catch snow flakes. On a rare occasion we in Arkansas (and Oklahoma before that) have enough snow and the right KIND of snow to actually do things like snow angels, snow ball fights, and building snow people. I absolutely LOVE the creativity people show in building snow men and other snow people and animals. I celebrate them again, starting today.
Burying-Other-Snowman – Scribol.com
Filed under Creativity, Seasons, snow people
“Field Maple” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Gold Leaves” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Grass and Clover” – Paul Militaru Photography
“In Depth Study of Mushrooms” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Spine and Leaves” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Thistles” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Two Shades of Rusty” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Warm Colors at the End of the Fall” – Paul Militaru Photography
“What’s Left – Thorns” – Paul Militaru Photography
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Niki Firmin – LinkedIn
Niki Firmin – LinkedIn
Niki Firmin – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
Oleg Vishnepolsky – LinkedIn
“Let’s infect the world with good.” Anneberly Andrews – AnneberlyAndrewscom.wordpress.com
One of my good, long-time friends sets a beautiful, inspiring example for me each time we’re together. She looks for opportunities to help others or to be kind every day.
She doesn’t ever say anything about it. We were spending an afternoon together and I watched in quiet amazement as she did good thing after good thing almost unconsciously. They were small things, like offering to return a cart to its place in the parking lot for an elderly lady, or opening the door for someone, or letting someone get ahead of her in line. She returned abandoned carts to the store. She retrieved the lid of a trash can and put it on the can so it wouldn’t blow away again. I realized, after watching her, that it was an attitude, a habit developed by lots of practice, and an unconscious recognition of what she personally could do to make the world a better, kinder place.
When I asked her about it, she looked surprised and then said she had been doing it for years. This discussion happened several years ago. I’ll never be as good as it as she, or get to the place where I do it unconsciously, as she does, but I’m really trying to emulate her wonderful example. She makes people feel special – like always greeting me with a huge grin and open arms for a wonderful hug. She makes people’s loads a bit lighter. She brings out smiles wherever she goes.
She’s not perfect. None of us is. But she’s one of the best people I know on the planet and I’m so lucky to know her. I’ll continue to try to look for opportunities each day to do what I can do to brighten someone’s day.
Filed under Attitude, Good Thoughts, kindness, opportunities
Charles Dickens via Lisa Bearnes Richey
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes, Funny Signs - Humor
Science ABC
“I didn’t make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row.”*
My current exercise plan of doing ‘yoga-and-exercises’ one day and the elliptical trainer the next seems to be a good fit for me.
If I try to do both in one day I get overwhelmed since I’m a couch potato for some awful number of years now. I’m also trying to go through my over-30-year-old house, purging/donating/cleaning/reorganizing room by room, plus working out in the yard when the weather is cooperative, so I’m getting a good amount of other exercise on a daily basis, as well.
I envy folks who ‘discover’ exercise, quickly becoming addicted, feeling ‘off’ if they miss exercising one day. I envy folks who actually reshape their bodies with exercise, looking gorgeous in their cute little exercise outfits. I’m not dead yet, so I can really admire (and do a little bit of quiet drooling) over men who routinely rip their shirts off to expose their six-packs and bulging arms.
Reality is a whole different story, though. What I am going for – since at 71 I’m getting a bit long in the tooth – is
- balance – I don’t want to get tottery and pitch headlong down our stairs, and we have them everywhere here. I want to keep walking like I mean it, not hesitantly, as if I’m walking on eggs stiffly, as I see in so many older ladies.
- flexibility – I get stiff and sore at the drop of a hat, so I want to do all I can to get more flexible and then stay that way.
- lessening of pain – I would rather not be dependent on pain relievers in pills, gels, oils, or whatever. I would prefer to exercise my way to feeling as good as I can.
- loosening – this is probably weird, but as I exercise, my body is feeling ‘looser.’ I can feel my stomach muscles when I walk – a new feeling for me, believe me. My body is moving more easily.
- strength – One of the many ‘perks’ of getting older is getting weaker. I can accept that there are certain things I should no longer be trying to do, and that’s okay, I guess. But I DON’T want to accept giving up what I consider regular things and I will fight to strengthen my core muscles, my arms and legs, etc. in order to continue doing most of the things I would like to do until I croak.
- general health – as I get stronger, I’m healthier. I don’t get sick nearly as much. I feel better every day (unless I’ve killed myself overdoing the day before) and then MORE EXERCISE!
- new, smaller clothes – I also freely admit that I’m enjoying fitting into clothes that have been hanging in my closet – some of them for YEARS now – without being worn because they were too small. I’m enjoying almost being down 4 sizes in jeans at this point, with the thought that I might actually need to buy smaller ones in the future. :0) I like being able to look at clothes I really LIKE, rather than mainly concentrating on whether they are large enough to cover my bulk.
It’s okay that I will never be like the crazy people in the exercise machine commercials who seem to be in a sexual frenzy while bicycling. That would be wonderful, but it’s not gonna happen. What I FEEL happening is good. It feels good enough – along with the sweet little gold stars I give myself on my calendar each day when I do my scheduled exercise – that I want to continue. That’s good enough for this old broad.
“I decided to stop calling the bathroom the “John” and renamed it the “Jim”. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.” *
* Quotes were sent to me via email by my good friend, Marsha Koenig
Filed under Encouragement, exercise, taking care of yourself
creativeartworksblog 