26 May 2007

Saturday

I got to sleep in this morning and it was nice. The only thing on my schedule is a 1/2 hour run, then I have to work Nutro for a couple of hours then that's it!! The rest of the weekend is free and clear. I have somethings to do but they can all be done at home - yes!!!

I don't have much to say this morning. I guess I'll go get my run in so I can relax before work. I do want to get this house cleaned really good and I have a quilt to make (Lisa :) , which reminds me I have to run by the fabric store.

Okay, that's it, I'm off. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll check back later.

25 May 2007

It's Aloha Friday, no work till Monday.......

Of course, every Friday is Aloha Friday here in the islands.

I can not tell you how fantastic I am feeling physically. My body is changing and I like it!! I think that it's taken time for the strength training to start working it's magic. I've been doing it consistently for 60 days now and I'm really noticing differences. I'm not seeing a whole lot of changes on the scale but I'm seeing it in other ways. All my shorts are looser. All my tops fit a little looser. I can feel my clothes. I know this sounds weird but the only thing I can attribute it to is losing the layer of fat right under my skin. That's totally cool.

I have got to work on my nutrition though. I just haven't been as careful as I should with that. I've been eating very well, I just have not been counting calories and that's why I don't think the scale is moving. I will develop a plan over the weekend. It's 5 weeks until the 4th of July. I want to be able to run a 5k in 35 minutes and have dropped 5 lbs of fat by then. Having a goal is good!!!

24 May 2007

Gardening

I love gardening. Okay, maybe love it too strong a word. Let's say I enjoy gardening. I like have a vegetable garden, there is nothing better than fresh vegetables, plus I know they are organic. I love enjoy weeding, but I really do love watering the garden every evening.

The problem is, I'm not very good at it. I tend to not do so well with plants. I don't actually kill them because hubby is good with plants, but I stress them out a lot :)

Well, I've found something that may help.

Click Here

This may be just what I need, a newsletter about gardening. This may be my saviour.

You too can sign up for this. Simply click on the button, enter your first and last name, and your email address. That's it. Simple. Sign up by June 1 and tips on gardening will be delivered right to your inbox.

It's that time of year, get your garden in summer shape. It's also a great way to take a break from all your training. Get out in the sunshine and grow something.

It's Thursday.....

and that used to be my hardest day of the week. I would not want to get up and I used to moan and whine about it. It was too close to Friday and basically just to be struggled through. Fridays were no problem because they were Fridays. Anyway, I don't seem to have that problem anymore and that's good. I bounce out of bed almost everyday of the week, even Saturday and Sunday or days I can sleep in.

I have decided I need to take a couple of days off. I'm feeling little burnt out and fried and I need a couple of mental health days. Maybe in June......

I don't have anything to say. I'm feeling good and wish I could read the blogs (bloglines is down right now :( ) I will catch up with everyone later.

23 May 2007

Or.....

Why did the mouse end up in Orlando??? What is the attraction to Orlando??? I know nice weather, year round open, blah, blah, blah....... But seriously, Orlando is way down in the isthmus that is Florida. Not exactly convenient to the rest of the world huh?

But, if you find yourself heading there and need an Orlando rental home you might check out this site. Get up close and personal with the mouse and stay in a house while you're doing it. Not a bad deal.

Do you ever wonder

how some things come to be? I wonder about lots of things all the time, but mostly how things came to be the way they are. For instance, how did we come to cook meat? You know our ancestors ate meat raw. So how did it come that we cook it. I bet a group of cavemen are sitting around the fire one day eating what's left of the raw meat. One of them drops it into the fire and he says, "screw that, I'm eating it anyway" :)

But I have wondered how Branson came to be the live music capitol of the world?? How exactly did that happen. What exactly makes Branson so attractive that everyone wants to be there? Maybe I have to visit it to understand :)

Mailboxes

Do you pay attention to mailboxes?? I do. Around here a lot of people make things out of their mailbox. They will cut wood and make it look like a dog or a cat of a whale or.....whatever they can think of. It's pretty amazing.


Mailboxes add character to house. A really cool one can definitely make the house. It adds to the curb appeal (which is super important in real estate).

The mailbox for this house sucks big time. It is a rusted box stuck on top of a metal post with a concrete base. Yuck. But, the most important part, it is situated in such a way so that no one can park in front of our house. With a drug dealer next door, that's a good thing :)

Hmmm, interesting.....

So I went for my first run this morning. I threw caution to the wind, said plantar be darned, and headed out.

I was prepared all day for pain. I knew that at some unsuspected moment I would suddenly be crippled with pain unable to walk. Hmmmm.... nothing.....

After sitting at lunch I gingerly stood fully expecting to be on the floor writhing in pain any second. Hmmm..... nothing.....

I'm now home from work. My foot is a little sore like it is every night. It never really bothered me all day. Hmmm...... Interesting.........

I can not even begin to imagine what's going on. Could it be that the pain is due to the condition of the foot and not anything I do??? Could it mean that if I stretch, ice, golf ball, ibuprofen, I will be able to hold off any further damage and just live with what I have??? Hmmm...... Interesting....

Okay kids, it's started.....

For the last week or so I've been kind of searching. My workouts are going really well, I'm gaining muscle and losing fat and really feeling great. But this is the danger zone. The time when I get feeling cocky and this is usually where the wheels come off. I've been trying to avoid that happening and I thought a race might be a good idea. I'm itching to do a triathlon but just can't fit the swimming in right now so that will have to wait.

After looking through the local race calendar last night I think I found the perfect solution. The Firecracker 5k on July 4th. It takes place less than 1/2 mile from my house. It's on July 4th (which is 5 weeks away). It's only a 5k. So I've set my sights on that.

I've been having a real problem with plantar in my right foot. I've been trying to clear it up for weeks now; ice, stretching, ibuprofen, golf ball rolling; and nothing seems to help. There is a certain level of pain and I can't seem to make it go away. Last night I was doing my evening stretching and added a new stretch where I'm actually staring at my foot for 60 seconds. As I as looking at my foot I realized it looked different. After I was done stretching I investigated the problem and found that the arch in my right foot has fallen - completely. That's why I can't make the plantar go away. So I've decided to just ignore it. I will continue to treat the plantar as I have been but I'm not going to worry about why it won't go away. If my arch has fallen, it may never go away. So I guess it's time to learn to live with it.

So towards my goal, I got up and ran this morning Now I haven't run in probably 2 months and it felt good. I ran slow and only ran for 30 minutes. I ended up feeling strong. So I'm back to running - yeah!!!

I was looking at the calendar and realized that I have to be ready to run a 15k by August, so I better get running. Okay, now I've got to get some work done.

22 May 2007

Just some stuff.....

Houses here in Hawaii don't have the addresses displayed very well. Many streets don't have sidewalks so they can't be painted on the curb. With all the trees and bushes growing here, putting it on the house can be a gamble. I think everyone needs to get an Address Plaque! Let's all pretend we live in mansion and have some of these fancy things :)

The weather here is absolutely dreadful!!! I'm freaking melting from the humidity!!! It looks like our tradewinds will be back by Thursday - yeah!!!

I've written some posts over at Flo's Place. You all should drop by and check them out.

That's it for tonight. Catch you all in the morning.

This may shock some of you,

and it may be TMI for some. Take your chances. I've had plastic surgery. Believe it or not, I have. I have always been, shall we say, well endowed. As I aged they to be more and more of pain in the back. So I finally convinced my insurance to cover it and I headed off to visit a Plastic Surgeon. It was one of the best things I've ever done.

Now the Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery is much swankier than where I went. They have the latest techniques for procedures including tummy tuck (I'd love to have that), liposuction ('kay, that scares me a little :), and others.


Seriously though, plastic surgery has place. I don't agree with people who have all kinds of procedures done just to have them done or suit their vanity, but plastic surgery can be a real life saver. If I had not had my reduction I know I wouldn't be doing some of the things I do now. My daughter had augmentation because she was lopsided. She couldn't buy a bra that fit and shirts looked funny on her. There is a time and a place for everything, even plastic surgery.

Another day.....

so I've started something new. I was cruising around the internet over the weekend and came across a mystery shopper site. Now, this is not one of those pay $49.95 and we'll hook you up. Or fill out this survey that's 12 pages long and you need to complete 3 offers and we'll hook you up. No. This was a legitimate mystery shopping company. It cost nothing to register and they sent me an assignment. Last night on the way home from work I did my first mystery shop. It was kind of exciting.

In my work for Nutro I know about mystery shoppers. Nutro says that we get mystery shopped about once a month. I also have a routine, since I know the mystery shopper will be inquisitive, I make sure I do my thing if anyone shows interest.

So I did this shop last night and the employee didn't do so good. I really felt bad and actually presented the situation 2 different ways to try and illicit the proper response. I couldn't get it. I did feel bad. I know everyone has an off day or you're busy and it's hard to devote the necessary time to customer but like I said, if someone shows great interest and presents a specific situation twice, that should be a red flag. It was fun.

The weather here sucks. We've lost our tradewinds and the humidity is up around 95% - ugh!!! Working out this morning was brutal. I was pouring sweat and panting like a dog. I know I couldn't push it as hard as I want to because of the stifling humidity. But the workout did kick my butt!!!!

So Heros ended last night - wow, the causality list was pretty high on that show!! The Bachelor ended too. I knew he was going to pick Tessa, she seems more suited to him. I wrote a nice post on TV over at Flo's Place, check it out.

21 May 2007

Getting island fever.

It's been getting bad lately. I keep thinking about going away. Being good, being adult, doing the right thing gets old sometimes. I've been sooooo good lately. Haven't spent any money frivolously at all. I get tired of it. I want to just chuck it all and run away. Stop being an adult, stop being responsible, stop being practical. Just do what I feel.

Okay, that's not going to happen. But I may have found the next best thing. This place has all inclusive resort. This way you can take an exotic vacation and not worry about what you're spending, it's all included. That rocks.

They offer vacations all over the world, Mexico, Jamaica, Bali, Cyprus, Crete, The Canary Islands, South America....... I'm outta here. I need to go somewhere and I need to go there bad. I want to visit exotic places, eat strange food, meet new and interesting people. Ugh!!!! Take me away!!!

Monday, monday......

I was looking at my calender as I worked out this morning and I realized I've worked out every Monday for like 3 months. Monday is a day I never miss. Interesting......

I've started my third week of this strength training routine (the routines change every 4 weeks). This one has chin-ups in it and I've had Hubby install a chin-up bar in my workout room. Do you know I can not do a chin-up? I can finally lift my feet off the floor about an inch. I am so weak in the upper body. Well, it's something to work towards.

What else?? I just don't seem to have much to say today. I read blogs this morning and couldn't think of any comments to make. One of those days when I'm really quiet and withdrawn.

Okay, that's it. I'll try to write more later when I'm feeling more talkative.

20 May 2007

Whew, what a day.

Well, we got all our chores done; Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Sports Authority, Old Navy, and bed shopping.

First, I did not realize how expensive beds are. We found a couple that we really liked. One was super expensive. It's the top of the line Serta with Vera Wang material (oh, big deal! No one sees it cause is covered by sheets, duh!). But it is comfy. I laid on it for just a few minutes and I could feel myself relaxing and getting into it. It has a nice pillow top that's not too fluffy. It's great!! It's also $2700!!!! Yeah, I don't think so.

We found a couple of others we really liked and it's going to cost us at least $1000 to get a bed. We have a platform bed now so we don't need a box spring. Wow, I had no idea.

I did check out the Sleep Number bed and I wasn't overly impressed. I know they say you have to sleep on it for awhile before you find your right number, but I really couldn't get super comfortable on it. The top was very thick so there wasn't a lot of fluff to sink into. I need a little of that and they just didn't do it.

Anyway, that was my day. It was long and busy but it was fun.

Sunday morning, go for a drive......

Hey, hey, hey, it's a beautiful day!!!!

Okay, I can't remember the words to that song, now it will bug me all day :(

Today Hubby and I have the entire day off together!! I do not remember the last time that happened. Mostly it's he has to work in the morning and we meet for lunch, or I have to work and we hook up for a beer. This is sweet. There's lots to do. We are going to hit Sam's Club and K-Mart, Old Navy, and Sports Authority. Finally, the mattress store.

For a couple of months now I've been have trouble with my back and shoulder. The back just hurts. The shoulder however, is bad. If I lay on it my hand goes numb. If I lay on the other shoulder my hand goes numb (huh??). Also, my one hip has been giving me lots of problems, it almost constantly aches. I've decided I've either got serious arthritis throughout my body and should be condemned :) Or our mattress is shot.

Now I know nothing about mattresses except I like to lie on them :) But after thinking about it, I realized this mattress is about 6 years old. I'm guessing that's the extent of it's life span. As I said, I know nothing about mattresses and do not know how long they are supposed to last. Once I buy one I literally forget about it until it stops doing it's job. Well, this one has stopped doing it's job.

I'm really thinking about getting one of those Sleep Number beds. The thought of being able to adjust your bed based on how your body feels that day is super appealing to me. Also, having different adjustments for me and Hubby is very appealing since there is little we can agree on with a mattress. If anyone has one let me know how it is. We are going to look today but won't be buying one for a couple of weeks yet.

Alright, that's it. I've got to get moving so I can get my chores done and go out and play.

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...