Happy Birthday to Fred and more Jessica Sprague assignments

Happy Birthday to my hubby of almost 21 years! (our anniversary is Saturday) Connor and I love you very much and little does Fred know, but we made him his favorite dessert in the world this morning, Key Lime Pie. The pie is chillin as we speak.

Took some time last night to get a couple more assignments completed. This is a great class and Jessica is a great teacher.






So much for the Aquatic Center today...bummer! We're watching Chloe today and tomorrow as her mom is pulling a double shift today and has to turn around and go back tomorrow morning at 7:00pm, so she'll be with us until tomorrow afternoon.

I think some scrapbooking is in order.

Music Alert!

Download as fast as you can "3 Doors Down new CD "3 Doors Down"...it's awesome! and for all you fellow Chad Kroger fans, you MUST check out THIS CD from Theory of a Dead Man. These guys kick ass! I have a couple of my favorites from that CD on my tuneage here on my blog. Enjoy!

Success!

Yesterday afternoon was my day of reckoning with my personal trainers. It's been 6 weeks since I started my training and it was time to weight, take measurements and figure out my BMI again. I'm happy to report that I have lost almost 5 inches overall, almost 2 inches in my waist, 2 inches across my shoulders, 1 inch in my biseps and 1/2 inch in my hips (DAMNIT...I wanted more but the hips are the last place women lose it, so says Satan and Darcy the Devil). I have also lowered by BMI from 37% to 31%.....YEA!! I'm shooting for a BMI of 21-22%, so I still have some work to do. I wasn't super happy with what the scale said, but both trainers were really pleased with my progress and told me to QUIT FOCUSING ON THE SCALE. FOCUS on what percentage of your body is fat. I can tell that I'm more toned and my clothes are fitting a bit more loosely.

Today is a vacation shopping day. I'm heading out shortly to go see a new hair stylist for a new do, then I think Connor and I are going to go out to the Mall. I need to find a pair of black sandals and a new bra. I think a stop at Hobby Lobby may be in order also....I've been working on my scrapbook albums and I didn't buy enough in blue, so I have pages that have no place to go....when I'm done. I blog them, because I've very please with my scrapbooks now that they make sense.

Vacation, all I ever wanted.....

and so the song goes by "The Go Gos" back in the 80's.

So far my vacation has been great! Saturday morning Fred, Connor and I got up extra early and went to the Downtown Farmer's Market on Court Ave. If you want to go to this, you MUST go early. Even then, it's packed with people. It's such a great time and Des Moines should be very proud of an event like this. I quit going for a couple of years because the crowds were getting bad but last year I made a point of going a couple of times and enjoyed it so this year I'm going to try and go at least once a month.

I took my camera this time to record some of the sights. Too bad I can't record the smells, because the food is amazing!





I bought a nice big bunch of rhubarb to make rhubarb crunch this week, I found some excellent looking tomatoes for BLT's this week and I had to have some strawberries because they looked so good.



I had been hearing about the breakfast burritos that you can get there but by the time I found the stand, the line waiting was outrageous and there were too many other good choices, so I went looking for something else.....Well, I found it...Cinnamon Apple Nut French Toast with powder sugar and syrup....Oh Baby..was it good! Big hunks of bread, just the right amout of cinnamon and apple with pecans in it. It was $4.00 and I couldn't believe how much I got. I couldn't even finish it all. I wanted to try a Pupusa also, but they're huge and after my french toast, there was no way I could even attempt to eat one. I try one the next time I go.

Another great thing about the Farmer's Market is all the people I see that I know. Saturday was no exception. We ran into Peg Smith and her mother and I hadn't seen Peg since our party almost a year ago. It was good to see her and we made plans to meet at the market in two weeks, this time...me without the boys and her without her mother. We thought Bloody Mary's might be in order.

Anyway, that was just Saturday morning at the market. Once we were done there, I coaxed Fred and Connor over to the Pappajohn Center for Higher Learning in the Western Gateway for a photo shoot. I've been wanted to get photos of Connor in the newest sculpture on the grounds and since we were going to be downtown for the market, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. I haven't had a chance to tweak the photos yet, but here's a sneak peek..



Saturday night brought dinner on the grill and family movie night. We watched "Fool's Gold" with Matthew McConenghy and Kate Hudson.

Sunday my Dad was back in town from Canada so we spent most of the day together and then Sunday night we took him to Pizza Ranch for dinner as a late Father's Day gift. I think this is the first time EVER that I have witnessed a certain fraility to my Dad that I haven't seen before. He is getting older....70 next January and until now never noticed. He just found out that he has Hepatitis A and he has some type of skin condition on his arms that he really need to have a doctor look at. I just so used to my Dad being this big strong cop/military guy that he always has been that I wasn't prepared to see him as vulnerable as I did this time.

Today I got together with my friend Cheri and we spent the day poking around the shops of the East Village in downtown Des Moines. We stopped and had lunch at the Grand Piano Bisto on Grand Avenue, which I've been wanting to try for some time. We were not disappointed. My grilled turkey and Cheri's grilled chicken sandwiches were very good and it's a cool place. We had a really good time!

I'm loving that I still have 6 days of vacation and lots of fun things planned.

Another Digi Layout & Day One of Vacation

This week's challenge for my Now We're Rocking class, or NWR for short is to do a layout using a free download the Jessica provided for us called Carnival. Here's the page I did using some of the kit. I stayed up way too late last night to get caught up with the class.....but hey, I'm on VACATION!



We had a great day today but I'll post more about that later.

I don't know if this link will work, but we'll see....

Here's the Stacy Julian slide show I was talking about. You can stop the show and just flip through the slides. My layout is on slide 13, and my other things are slide 22 and 30.

Library of Memories

Well, I'm Stoked!

I received my very last email today from Stacy Julian regarding the Library of Memories class I've been taking since January. She put together a slide show as a farewell for all of us in the class and as I was viewing it, my jaw dropped because she used one of layouts and two of my pictures that I submitted to the gallery in her farewell message.....Hoo Hoo! She reviewed the whole class in her message and the layout that she used was only one of two in the category "Least Common" pages and one of my photos is the lead off for the Triage section. Then she used a photo I submitted of my category drawers for that section of the slide show.

I was pretty jazzed because I know just how many hundreds of people took that class. The gallery is chock full and the forums were always hopping, so for her to recognize my contributions is pretty cool!

Now We're Rockin....

So I signed up to take Jessica Sprague's intermediate class "Now We're Rockin with Photoshop" and the class started on Monday. It wasn't until last night that I actually had some time to sit down and go through the 7 lessons that I haven't had time to look at. I was doubtful that I would be able to get through them, but I surprised myself and breezed right through. Hey! maybe I'm better at this digi stuff that I think I am. Anyway, here's the first layout that we did for the class.



We learned some VERY cool tips and techniques and I'm pretty darn sure this class is going to be worth every penny I paid.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out in the blogasphere. Last night Connor helped his Dad cook steaks on the grill, corn on the cob, julienne potatoes and I put together a big salad for his Father's Day meal. Connor and I were willing to take him out for dinner both last night and tonight, but Fred wanted to cook at home last night.

Of course, I hate to cook, but Connor volunteered to learn how to grill a steak, so I said I would do all the cleanup. We dined al fresca on our deck which was lovely because the weather was gorgeous. Here's a few photos from the dinner




Today, Fred and Connor went to see "The Incredible Hulk". I decided to let them have some father/son time and stayed home to color the gray out of my hair.

Connor and I played a trick on Fred today. I told Fred late last night that I was going to make a penne pasta casserole with turkey italian sausage, mushrooms and onions for dinner tonight. Fred is NOT a big fan of any other type of pasta but spaghetti so the penne pasta casserole was not going over very well with him and as soon as he got up today, he started growling about it. Little did he know that it was a ploy. The real plan was to surprise him with a dinner at El Azteca, his favorite Mexican restaurant in Pleasant Hill.....he got a big chuckle once we told him that the joke was on him.

After dinner we drove around and looked at some house. I've got a bee in my bonnet about moving into a ranch style house. We're not getting any younger and I'm wanting the majority of everything on one level. We saw a couple we liked so Fred is going to make some phone calls tomorrow....I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow brings work......my last week before vacation. 10 glorious days.

Saturday = Chore Day

Saturday's are our household chore day. Some Saturdays the chores aren't too bad, other Saturdays, they're a bitch!

Today was one of those bitch days....LOL

On the chore board was yard work and cleaning the garage. Connor got busy on the mowing while Fred and I did the weeding. I also got those damn pumpkin seeds planted that I've been wanting to plant for a month. The yard looks wonderful! the only good side effect of all this rain.

Once the yard work was done, we decided to tackle the garage....oh boy...what fun!

We went through stuff, reorganized things, pitched a butt load of stuff into the back of Fred's pickup for a dump trip and then completely swept and vacumned the whole area. It looks great! I even washed the small set of stairs going into the house and the door needed a good washing also. I was surprised that it didn't take us nearly as long as I though it was going to take.

Since I worked from home yesterday, I took advantage by getting most of our laundry done and I completely wiped down and cleaned all of the kitchen countertops.

I'm happy to report that all of our goals for our house for 2008 have been completed. Fred is estatic that I don't have any more jobs for him to do around here......well, at least not for the foreseeable future.

I'm planning on painting the trim around our new patio door tomorrow....one of my gifts to Fred for Father's Day. Speaking of Father's Day. I got to see my Dad yesterday. Too bad I put his Father's Day cards in the mail on Monday...what a dodo..I kept thinking it was next week that he was coming...oh well, he'll get them when he goes back to Las Vegas.

He came into town to meet up with some of his buddies for a Canadian fishing trip. He left early this morning but will be back next Saturday and then he's in town for another week, so we'll be able to spend time together then. We're going to take him to Pizza Ranch, since he's ever heard of it before. One must experience Pizza Ranch once in their lifetime....LOL

Iowa = Waterlogged

Here's a few photos of the Des Moines River taken yesterday morning/early afternoon. It has GOT to stop raining for we're all going to be in a world of hurt.




I'm working from home today but later Connor and I are going to take a ride over to my Aunt and Uncle's home to see how they are doing. They have water in their basement and when my Aunt called last night, she seemed very upset and depressed, so I need to go see them.

I have a kid in Junior High!

It's hard to believe that this kid is going to Southeast Polk Junior High come August. In just the last couple of months, I've seen a big change in him physically and in his maturity level. One thing for sure, he loves his Mom.



This week was our first full week of summer vacation and he spent most of it at Kid's Klub here in Altoona. Next week, I'm off on Monday, working from home on Thursday and the rest of the week, Fred is going to take vacation. It's hard this summer because he's at that transitional age of too old for day care, yet not quite old enough to stay home for 8-10 hours by himself and even when he's old enough, I still don't like the idea of him home that long by myself, only because I know he'd spend the whole time either on his PS3 or his computer...I'm not stupid. So until he's old enough to work, we'll have to get creative in keeping him busy.

I while back I blogged about not being ready for girls (they are SO assertive at such a young age), but I'm afraid the time has come. Connor has talked about a girl from his class for the last few months as being his "girlfriend" and "they're going out"....going out???? to where??? I guess it's the same as when I was that age and we said "going steady". Her name is Ellen and she seems like a sweet girl. At his 6th grade graduation, they were posing for some pictures (not for me - their friends), but I got off a couple of clicks also.





I think they make a cute couple, but he tells me this week, he's met another girl, Serena at Kid's Klub....and so it's starts....

Darcy the Devil IS the Devil

and I though Satan was bad! WTF? This girl kicks ass....she had me with 8 pound weights in each hand with arms straight out twisting my wrists back and forth with the weights for 60 seconds. Do you know HOW long 60 seconds is? well, let me tell you, when you have 16 pounds in your hands, 60 seconds is fucking LONG!

I was so tired when I got home that I did nothing but eat a quick dinner (egg, hashbrowns, turkey sausage) and hit the sack...

One would think that after that 50 minute session, one would take a day break, but no, today I decided to bring my exercise clothes with me and walk during my lunch hour. I ended up walking for 55 minutes. I don't know how far, but I went from the US Courthouse Annex to Birdland Marina and back...sweating like a bitch...I had to wait another half hour once I got back to my desk to change back into my work clothes because I worked up that much of a sweat. Glad I keep deodorant in my desk.

On a sad note, my girl Hillary is out of the race for the Presidency. I love her, admire her, respect her and HOPE to GOD she isn't on the ticket as VP. She deserves more than a #2 position, she much more of a leader than that. She is and will continue to be an amazing Senator from New York and I predict she will make history as a great legislator. Young women will have her to thank for women gaining ground in politics in the future. Alas, though, I'm afraid I probably won't live to see a woman President. It's still a man's game, unfortunately.

Fred being a Obama supporter is thrilled, but let me tell you, one would think that a man that has been married for 22 years to me would know when to keep his mouth shut...he can't be this stupid? can he? with me?? me who is opinionated, aggressive, cutthroat and passionate about politics and he thinks this is the time to give me a hard time about politics?? OH no, no, no, no.....

I'll leave you to figure out what happened next.

My Progress with Satan

This week is week four of my sessions with Satan. In fact, tonight Satan will be passing me off to Darcy the Devil. Satan is very busy and unfortunately, our workouts have been interrupted, so we both feel that I need to have an uninterrupted workout session, so Darcy the Devil will now be my personal instructor. The good news is Satan is not going to charge me for the last two sessions..WOO WOO!

Satan will also not let me near a scale, so I have NO idea if I've lost any weight in the last month. I definitely feel like I have and I'm most certainly more toned in areas. Fred and Paul have already commented on that. My clothes are fitting way better and I wouldn't be surprised if I don't drop a size by the end of June, so my workouts must be effective.

Today, I've already walked up to US Bank at 6th and Walnut and back to the East Village where I work and after work, I'll have my session with Darcy the Devil.

I feel a little guilty because I didn't make it to the gym yesterday and I also didn't make good food choices those over the weekend. god damn smores.....

Hoping to get back on track this week!

Yea! It's done!

Finished up the garage sale yesterday afternoon. It was a huge success, Fred is taking the leftovers today to Goodwill and next weekend we are going to tackle the garage.

I also got him to carry a corner hutch that I had in our bedroom downstairs to the basement. It's a piece that I've had forever and I think it is on it's third color....lavendar....well, lavendar no longer is what our master bedroom is decorated in and it certainly doesn't go with the copper, gold, bronze and brown I've chosen.

I actually bought the bedding from JC Penney back in February. Here's a photo of it. It's much darker and richer than the photo shows and we love it. It's a very luxurious feel, which is very different than we've had in bedroom decor.



One of my goals for my vacation week in June is to paint the wall behind the bed. I'm not painting anything else in the room because our master has 18 foot high ceiling and I'M not going up that far. God helps when we do have to paint it...LOL!

Well, I'm off...I'm heading to the gym and then I need to make some potato salad. BLT's tonight (got some pretty good tomatoes at the Farmer's Market), potato salad and baked beans.

I've got a WILD week at work this week......