Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Two

Woke up feeling a bit hungover today.....What is UP with that?  I only had one beer at dinner and drank water at the concert!......so feeling the way I feel and as hot as it's going to be.......a day at the pool is scheduled.

It was a scorcher!  I could only do about 2 hours before I was done and most of that time was spent in the water.  I did get one Vanity Fair magazine read.  Besides, I was looking forward to the refreshing shower I was going to take once I got home.  A trip to the grocery store was a must for milk and supplies to make iced coffee...yum.....AND I ended up purchasing this.....thought this might be fun over vacation.  :)

Spent the rest of my day playing in my scraproom.  I finished a album project that I've been working on as a gift and I even finished up a complete of pages I had started from early May.  I'll post some of my recent pages and projects later.

Tried a new recipe for dinner that I got from the Betty Crocker web site; Buffalo Chicken and Potatoes.  I lightened it up quite a bit by using reduced fat cheese, light ranch dressing and reduced fat margarine to mix with the corn flakes.  Not sure if it was a keeper.....I liked it but Fred didn't.

I rented the movie "The Artist" to watch, but I didn't get to it.....story of my life....instead I got wrapped up in the season finale of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and an episode of "American Pickers".......

Stayed up late reading The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry.  This is the second in the series he writes about his character of Cotton Malone.  It's reminiscent of Dan Brown's work and I've enjoyed what I've read so far.  I think there are at least 7-8 more books in this series.

Gotta go......

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day One

I SLEPT IN! YAY! After getting up at 5:30am to be at work at 7:00 for almost 25 years, it hard to sleep in when you want to....I'm making it a priority during this vacation.

It is my husband's 53rd birthday today and I wish he could have taken time off but the are in the middle of a big project and it's just not a good time. We're going to celebrate once his gets home by going to dinner to one of our favorite places, Olympic Flame and then to Wells Fargo Arena for the ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down and Gretchen Wilson concert.

It was such a beautiful morning that I took the paper and my coffee out on the deck to enjoy. I got Connor to help me water all of the gardens and containers both out front and in back before he headed off to a friend's house for a while.

I spent a good couple of hours playing in my scraproom trying to finish a present that absolutely has to be done by the end of July, plus I'm trying to decide what I'm going to work on next weekend when I get together with a friend who I haven't seen in forever.

 After lunch, I went up to my local nail salon and settled in for a pedicure and facial wax. I hate that I have to wax my lip and chin on a regular basic. I understand my eyebrowns...I have big eyebrows, but the hair on the lip and chin is a "getting older" thing that I'm none too happy about.

I got an awesome glitter gem polish on my tootsies.....silver and aqua......

When I got back home, Connor was back home earlier than expected because his buddy got grounded for not doing the dishes and I laughed and said "See, you're not the only one who gets in trouble for not doing as you were told".....he thinks he has it soooo bad....ha! We did spend some connect time watching "I Am Legend" together. I had never seen it and although the subject matter was compelling, I found it to be depressing and I hate depressing movies, but I can't say I hated it.

 Fred came home from work and we hustled to get ready for our night out. Connor had to work from 4 to 8, so we would see him after the concert. We got to Olympic Flame with enough time to have a leisurely meal of saganaki (flaming cheese), gyros and greek beer. Fred got a piece of baklava for his birthday!

We got to Wells Fargo just in time to hear Gretchen Wilson finish her set with covers of  Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" and Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll"......she was pretty damn good!

3 Doors Down brought the house down......opened with "Time of Our Life" from their newest CD and did everyone of my favorite songs of theirs.

ZZ Top came out and I about died when they launched into "I Thank You".....I have loved their version of that song since the 70's, and then they went right into "Have Mercy"...a blistering blues song and then after that "Jesus Just Left Chicago"......very very surprising choices to open the show with.  They showed just why they have been the music business as long as they have.

We had a great time and Fred said he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday!   

P.S.  I sat next to this awesome dude with a really good camera in his phone and he's going to email me all the awesome shots he got!  SCORE!

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation

I'm seriously hoping that the next 12 days will give the opportunity to chill the fuck out.  Excuse my french, but my life plate has been seriously overflowing with a lot of things that A.  I've never had to deal with before, therefore I'm treading in unfamiliar territory or B.  My insane need to try and do it all.

I've come to sort of a crossroad in my life where I want to make some changes and I'm sure it has to do with Connor only being a few years away from leaving the roost and a possible retirement for me in 7 years.  I've been wanting to downsize everything.....well, except my scrapbook room.....lol.....I'm wanting to simplify and I'm ready to shake off some of the responsibilities that I've taken on because of my insane need to be in control.  I'm completely ready to give up some of that control.

I could go on and on about my job, but I'm not going to because it is what it is, it's not going to change, at least not for another 3-4 years when the current management retires, so I just need to try and keep an even keel and keep my eye on the prize of being able to retire in 7 short years.

I'm also hoping that this vacation will give Connor and I a chance to reconnect.  Since starting his new job and now being able to drive himself, we don't see much of him and I'm feeling a real disconnect there.  We're going to go to the Des Moines Art Center together sometime over this vacation to see Jackson Pollock's MURAL....$150 millions dollars worth of art that the University of Iowa was given by Peggy Guggenheim.  He likes doing those type of things with me.  He wanted to go to the Des Moines Art Festival with us last weekend, but he had to work.

Fred and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary during this vacation also and I feel bad that Fred was unable to take any time off right now.  His company is in the middle of a major project and a major remodel so he needs to be there, but we will celebrate it in August when we are in San Francisco and then Napa/Sonoma Valley.

So, now that I've got that off my chest.....here's hoping for a peaceful, fun, relaxing, lazy vacation!
P.S. I have to share pictures of my beautiful plants that my husband and son bought me for Mother's Day and they are still looking good!

My New Challenge

Today is Day #1 of the new challenge I have set for myself of a minimum of 60 minutes of activity a day, seven days a week....no more taking a break unless I'm sick.

I can split it up into multiple sessions of activity, for example....some days I walk when I'm at work...15 minutes in the morning or afternoon or both and if I do that.....then there is 30 minutes I've done and I only have to do 30 more after work, or if I'm feeling great and energetic, I may do 60 minutes more after work.  I'm still going to Kosama, but after hurting my back last week, I'm going to have to back off of it this week.  I don't want a set back.

I'm also back to using a program I really love to track my food.  Lose It! is an awesome food tracking program that I think has a great food database.  Much better than My Fitness Pal in my opinion.  I also like that it will sync up with my Fitbit that I use to track my activity.

I find that I can do one of the two things well.  I can either do really well with my exercise and activity or I can do really well with my food choices, but it's very hard to do both really well together.  I'm hoping to change that over the next two months.  Besides my goal of 60 minutes a day of activity, I am also setting a goal of losing 23 pounds before August 6th, which is when we leave for San Francisco for a combination business trip/wedding anniversary trip.   Wish me luck! 

I'm going to try and update my blog more often that I have been simply to have some accountability to my goal. I may also share some healthy recipes and some menu items that work for me. I know tomorrow I'll be having my favorite berry/yogurt/low fat granola parfait for breakfast, a big salad with roasted chicken for lunch.....dinner I'm not sure about......but I know it's planned, I just can't remember what it is. Back to work tomorrow for me.....I've been off since last Friday and it's been nice. Leaving you with a photo that I took several weeks ago when I discovered a bird had built a nest in my hanging geranium plant on the front porch.  There ended up being four eggs, two that hatched (we saw the little birds) and then.....poof.....they were gone and only one small egg remains.  This is like the fourth time birds have built nests in plants on our front porch.  I'm surprised they like that location considered how much activity there is and the fact that there are usually cat faces looking out the bay window.