CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Every birthday, the prospective birthday person gets asked by the folks, "So, what do you want for your party?" Granted, we don't actually have parties the way most people associate the word party. No invites sent out. No venue is rented. Nothing like that. What the question is actually asking is usually, "What do you want to eat?" Although, often when I'm asked, it includes, "Do you want a bonfire?" I'm not sure how my birthday bonfires started but something about the usually coolish nature of March lends itself well to building a big outdoor fire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. I had one last year, for instance. My 32nd birthday, 2011 This year, though, it's been way too hot to justify adding more heat to the sitch. So I nixed it for my 33rd. Kind of a relief because as fun as the bonfires are, they're usually a lot of work for at least three people--Mama, Daddy and me. Which doesn't seem quite fair, does it? lol...

Almost a week ago, but here 'tis. My birthday post. Part one, anyway. Part two will cover the day AFTER my birthday--aka--the family birthday party. Ya'll, if you've never spent your birthday with your dog, a four-year-old girl, a two-year-old boy and your sister you are seriously missing out. ;-) I had the best day. It wore me completely slap out but it was the best day. It started out with a sweaty 5:30am walk and some serious snuggles with the Devil Pup. I pretended that she sang Happy Birthday to me because I'm crazy like that. I sang on her behalf and then thanked her. ha! Also, apparently, unmarried women past thirty are all crazy cat ladies. Except I'm not fond of owning or sharing space with cats. I only like cats in the LOLCats sense. Other than that, I'm totally living up the stereotype because it's way more fun than being a pathetic loser waiting around for some man to come rescue me. But I digress...(read a post recently written by a 35-ye...

...thirty-three. ...still 243 pounds and okay with that. ...actually at my sister's house enjoying some fun with toddlers and spinach artichoke dip. (I wrote this yesterday and scheduled it for today! Evil genius!) ...happy to be where I am in life. No regrets. No "I thought I'd be ________ by now." Today I am learning to be healthy, joyful and full of the Spirit. (Capitol "S" intentional.) A few things to note about that picture... * I took that on Wednesday night when I was actually still thirty-two. I look TOTALLY different now.     * I'm actually wearing my nightgown in that there pic. *I may have the shoulders of a linebacker, three extra chins and some splotchy as all heck skin but I am totally rockin' that hair, man. So. Yeah. Today I am thirty-three. Three years into my thirties. Funny, other than some wacked out knees and twenty extra pounds, I still feel the same as I did at twenty-three. Either I've a...

When I was little--up until I was about twelve--my mother was the church custodian. All that meant for me was that I spent a lot of Thursdays or Saturdays at our church.  (Before Mama went back to work she cleaned on Thursdays. After she went back to work--when I was ten or so--she cleaned on Saturdays.) I roamed that land like it was mine, inside and out. But I rarely went into the cemetery alone. Partially because we'd been warned not to and partially because it kind of scared me. As a junior in college, I took a photography class and one of the assignments was a photo series, as in, a series of similar subjects. Some people did trees. Some people did dogs. I did this cemetery. I went up there in my little bucket of dust Cavalier and spent an entire afternoon snapping shot after shot of the headstones in this cemetery. I wasn't even a member there at the time. We'd long ago left that church and moved on but that sense of ownership over it lingered even as it seem...

This little green booger was crawling all over my pollen infested car the other day. So long as he stays ON my car and doesn't get IN my car , I'm cool with him.

Though the calendar would have one believe that spring didn't arrive until today, I think Mother Nature had a few laughs about that . Spring sprung here a couple of weeks ago. Actually, it started in February with the blooming of daffodils, Japanese Magnolias and a few other plants. But now? Everything is in full bloom. The trees are all lush and green again. And I don't even wanna talk about the grass. I'll let Libby do that. Anybody wanna come mow? My lawn guy is too busy playing delivery guy and drink coffee with his mama guy to fire up the mower on my shaggy disaster of a yard. With what I pay him... Oh wait. That's right. He does it for free! Except when he does it for cookies. Guess I'll be waiting on his terms, then. At least Libby doesn't seem to mind!

My yard is a depressing mass of weeds, the likes of which I don't usually see until sometime in April/May. On overgrown mess. Unfortunately that means my lawn guy (aka DADDY!) needs to unearth the lawn tractor from it's slumber and de-weedify my 1.5 acres. However, before he can do that, I had to do some major clean-up in the yard. You know the worst thing about owning property with trees on it? Trees are a big blistering mess! Winter is hard enough on trees but add in all the blustering windy and bad storms we've had over the past several months? Fuggetabot it. So. Yeah. Instead of walking a couple or three miles Saturday I hauled on my boots and work gloves and hiked around my 1.5 acres picking up limbs and sticks for two hours. I wrestled with the wheel barrow (on it's almost flat tire!) making about four trips to the brush pile in the back. I sweated, nearly blew my back out and got a wee bit dehydrated but by George, I got the sticks pick...

*Today marks the last day of Spring Break. Next week? Back to crazytown. *pouty face* * I've had my fill of sandwiches and salads for lunch so I'm on the hunt for something different for a while. I couldn't even finish my salad today and ended up tossing it in the trash. I know! Terrible! I guess I'd just hit my limit. *sigh* I'm fresh out of ideas. Anybody wanna throw a suggestion in the ring? Something healthy, easy to fix and transport, under 400 calories? *I have discovered that I really really really like Oikos vanilla Greek yogurt. I've tried it several times over the past three or so weeks and it really is good. Thick, creamy, not to yogurt-y. No aftertaste. AND...fat free. And add a little orange blossom honey to it? *swoon* *I did a 12 minute "boost" mile with Leslie last night and I'm now writing to you from the grave. * Mrs. How Sweet posted a recipe for chocolate biscuits this morning. Yes. Chocolate... Biscuits. I can't ev...

Anybody looking for a good book recommendation? I've got one for ya! :) Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis. I found it kind of by accident while researching a book that was recommended on another blog.  You know how Amazon is...always trying to sell you more than what you're looking for? lol Good Enough was on the "People who purchased this book also purchased..." list and I really liked the description. Basically, it's a book about a woman named Melanie who lost a boat load of weight a couple of years ago when she was diagnosed with diabetes. Now that she's finally healthy and in charge of her new healthier lifestyle, her husband dumps her for a woman three times her new size. Turns out he was a chubby chaser and wasn't attracted to Melanie's trimmer body. *frowny face* (Oh, the irony!) The story reveals how she deals with this, finds a new "family" along the way and even finds love again. The best part, for me, about this book wa...

...I don't talk about my weight loss/dietary and activity goals with some people. You lucky ducks and sometimes Sis2 are it, as far as my blabbing about that goes. The reason? Mama has said several times lately (about her co-workers, not me), "I'm so sick of hearing about everyone's diet." You see, everyone in her office is on some sort of diet. Three are doing Weight Watchers, one is doing a fad diet I can't recall, and the other is just always on some diet or another. So me? I just don't talk about it. If I eat an extra cookie (or a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar like yesterday *facepalm*) I just pull up my (thankfully) baggy britches and get on with it. Maybe confess it here on my blog where anyone who doesn't want to know about it doesn't have to read it. As far as Mama knows I'm just being me.  I've mentioned that I'm walking with DVD's and I figure she can guess why but I just don't talk about it. For one, I don't want to ...

It's spring break around here. All the "kiddies" have fled for parts unknown leaving campus a ghost town. Even though the "kiddies" are obviously my bread and butter I do so rejoice when they are gone. I know. I'm terrible. Thank goodness I can cross the street without nearly getting run over. Much. ;-) There is a certain relief when campus is quiet and all the students are off having fun. (Or studying, as the case may be for many.) Campus is so calm and peaceful. Everyone who's left behind sort of breathes deeper and more relaxed. Not so much rushing from one thing to the next. Not slacking, but just not rushing either. It's a nice respite. It's difficult to fathom, though, that once everyone is back next week, there are only five weeks left of the semester! It seems we just got back from Christmas and already it's nearly time for summer sessions. I don't see how they keep up with that pace. I don't recall how I ever kept up w...

Two weird and majorly self-esteem building things happened to me this weekend. 1.) I weighed in and discovered I've lost another THREE POUNDS since my last weigh in a week ago. I do realize that some of that could have been water weight. But with my pants fitting so much better now and the fact that it made me feel majorly awesome...I'LL TAKE IT!! :-D I weighed just before dressing and heading to town for groceries so my insane confidence boost must have seriously still been glowing because ya'll... 2.) I totally got hit on in Wal-Mart. No, seriously. I was cruising the frozen veggie aisle all smug about my three pound loss (for a total of 8.6 since Jan. 4--hootie hoo!) when I made eye contact with this guy. He wasn't bad looking but sort of maybe a little bit on the thugish side. I'm a friendly gal so I smiled at him a bit and went back to debating whether or not my three pounds would justify my purchasing a bag of frozen french fries. Then he's standin...

...I am now completely, irrevocably and totally in love with Brussels sprouts. And I don't even need the brown butter maple sauce anymore! I toss those babies in a skillet with some olive oil, s&p and pan roast them (split in half) and then drizzle them with some garlic red wine vinegar when they're done. Yum. I'm almost addicted, I think. Who woulda ever thunk it?? NOT ME! :-D :-D :-D

Because I have nothing interesting to blog about and because I am silly enough to photograph my night time lunch packing work... First assemble all the players in this drama. It's 9:30 and dragging all the junk out onto the counter will save you time and keep you organized.  Deli sliced pepperocini, parmesan cheese, wish bone reduced fat ranch salad dressing, bag of romain salad mix, various containers, Borden pepperjack sliced cheese, measuring spoons, container of roasted chicken breast and a sandwhich box with one slice of bread.   Also make sure your counter is as cluttered with appliances as it can possibly be. Also, show off your bananas and your motivational Valentine's Day card. (Thanks, Trixie!) First, slice up some of the roasted chicken breast and pack it in a small container. But don't take a picture of it because apparently this part isn't crucial. Then measure out your parm and bacon bits (real, please!) into a small container of thei...

So I finally got up the courage to ask off work for my birthday and the following Monday. I had originally wanted to take a week's vacation that week but I put off asking too long. I hate asking off even though we have built in personal days for just that thing. But me asking off involves asking other people to cover for me while I'm away. And I hate, loathe and despise asking people for favors. Last year I wanted to take off on my birthday but I waited until the week of and then no one could cover for me and I got all pissy about it. I'm still a little pissy about that. lol So this year I'd intended on asking back in February to give plenty of notice and get my plans in there first. But I kept chickening out. But today I just got sick of myself and went for it. Something I have to keep reminding myself of is: If you never ask for it, you can't be disappointed when you don't get it. Pastor was saying the same thing about prayer this past Sunday. You know, ...