Happy Mother's Day

Well, one day early....but I'm not going to be around tomorrow because my boys have surprised me with a day trip to IKEA. We're leaving in the morning and should be back by 10:00pm tomorrow night.

YIPPEE! I can buy my bookshelf and stainless steel planters that I've been wanting.

There goes the budget diet this month, but it will be less money spent next month when we go up to the Twin Cities on vacation, so it all comes out even in the end.

I've been researching activites to do next month and I think I've got some fun things planned that everyone will enjoy.

Today, I got up and went to the gym for a 45 minute cardio workout. As I've said before, I'm trying to go 10 minutes longer and 10% harder for the next few months and then I'll bump it up again.

On the iPod playlist today:
Listen to Your Heart - Little Feat
Calling All Angels - Train
Wide Open Spaces - Dixie Chicks
3 AM - Matchbox Twenty
Dear Mr. Fantasy - Tesla
Bring Me To Life - Evanescence
Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Salt In My Tears - Martin Briley
I Will - Ben Taylor
It's About You - Train
This Is How a Heart Breaks - Rob Thomas
Soak Up The Sun - Sheryl Crow

Just a heads up......run don't walk to your nearest grocery store, Walgreens, Walmart, Target, etc to pick up a package of this:

Nectarine and White Ginger

The scent is to die for.......

I've also started using this:


An excellent self tanner moisturizer that comes in mousse form. I like the way my skin feels after applying it.

Having my sister and the kids over tonight for Chicken Nachos. Right now, she is with Fred and Connor seeing the movie "Star Trek". I didn't go because I wanted to work out in the yard and get some more gardening done, besides I'm waiting for next weekend to go see "Angels and Demons" with Tom Hanks, based on one of my most favorite books EVAH!

I simply can't wait for Dan Brown's newest book coming this September called "The Lost Symbol". The publishers are keeping pretty mum about the subject matter other than the whole book takes place in 12 hours, but I heard it going to be located in Washington DC and has to do with the masons....??? I don't care whats it's about, I'm reading it as soon as it comes out....LOL

Well, I've got to go get a shower taken and get organized for our day trip tomorrow. Have a Happy Mother's Day!.....go give your mother's a hug...I wish I could, but I'm definitely going to remember her tomorrow.

A Rough Day

Today was a big rough....hoping that tomorrow will be better.

Yesterday I made it back up to the gym. I haven't been since before I left for Washington DC and I really needed to do some strength training. It's not that I haven't been exercising, but when it's nice, I would much rather walk or ride my bike than to work out on a treadmill/elliptical. If felt so good that I ended up working out for about an hour.

On the iPod playlist:
Similar Features - Melissa Etheridge
You Make Me Feel Right at Home - Ted Nugent
I'm Eighteen - Creed
Woman In Love - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
How the Story Goes - REO Speedwagon
Flash Tan Queen - REO Speedwagon
Colorful - The Verve Pipe
Walk Away - Kelly Clarkson
Losing My Religion - REM
Space Lord - Monster Magnet
The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
Roller - April Wine
Bring Me Some Water - Melissa Etheridge
Where Do The Children Go - The Hooters (featuring Patty Smyth)

I love my iPod.

If it wasn't for my iPod, my exercising would probably become non existent. I can plug in and rock out and forget that what I'm doing hurts and that I'm most likely out of breath and sweating like a pig.

I love the randomness of my iPod's shuffle feature.

It's just like that box of chocolates from Forest Gump. "You never know what you're going to get". I think I like the randomness also because my life is anything but random. Random usually isn't in my vocabulary and certainly not in my routine, it that makes sense. It's the one area of my life that doesn't matter that's it random....LOL

Thanks goodness tomorrow is Friday and I have a three day weekend!

Later.....

A Beautiful Day

Another beautiful day in central Iowa. I worked from home today so when lunchtime rolled around, I decided to take a walk up to the post office (approx. 2 1/2 miles round trip). Did some of it jogging for that interval training that gets my heart rate going and is fabulous for greater calorie burn. I've been trying to go 10 minutes longer and 10% harder than I have been doing.

On the iPod playlist today:
One - Creed
Mama Let Him Play - Doucette
Yellin at the Xmas Tree - Billy Idol
Dear Mr. Fantasy - Tesla
Colorful - The Verve Pipe
Why Can't This Be Love - Van Halen
If You're Gone - Matchbox Twenty
Walk Like A Man - Grand Funk
New Sensation - INXS
Fever Dog - Stillwater

Probably blew that nice workout by eating that mini cannoli that I just HAD to have earlier this evening. Oh well....such is life.

My DC Trip

Thought I would finally get around to telling you about my last trip to DC.

I had a great time on this trip. I already posted about my seat mate on the flight to DC and we got in Monday morning around 10:00. Once I grabbed a taxi to my hotel, got checked in and settled, I headed off to the Zoo. My hotel room was small and bathroom smaller, but the grounds were lovely and it was located in the Adam-Morgan area of DC that is a fun area to walk around and look at all the stores and restaurants.

My meetings were pretty intense and we all had to use major brain power
to get the amount of work done that we wanted to finish, so by the end of the day, I was pooped! Tuesday night was lovely, so several of my co-workers and I found a nice Italian restaurant on Connecticut called Cafe Paradiso and I ordered a antipasto tray and a diet soda. After dinner we all decided a walk was in order and then back to my room for the night. We hit it hard again on Wednesday and by 6:00pm, I was bushed. I met up with one of my co-workers and we had a quick bite to eat at one of the restaurants at the hotel, then I hit the fitness center and lights out by 10:00pm. Am I a lighweight or what?.....LOL

Thursday we finished at around 11:30, so I called Congressman Boswell's aide, Andrew and we arranged to meet at 1:15. We walked over from the Thurgood Marshall Building where are meeting were held and we walked right past:


The Supreme Court Building


East side of the Capitol


Library of Congress


Statue outside of Library of Congress


Vistor's Center at the U.S. Capitol


The Crypt


Center of the Crypt, which is the center of the Rotunda dome
Originally thought that George Washington would be buried there, but when he died, his will and Martha stated that he did not want to be buried in the Capitol, he wanted to be near his family at Mount Vernon


Painting of Lincoln's second inaugural address


Hallway on the Senate side of the Capitol with paintings on the curved ceilings


Abraham Lincoln's desk location in the old House of Representatives room (the whisper room)


The Dome of the Rotunda


Close up of the fresco painting on the Dome in the Rotunda


Frieze of United State's History from Christopher Columbus to the Wright Brothers


Close up of the frieze


One of the four painting depicting the founding of the United States


The Portrait Monument of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott

Now, just to warn any of my conservative friends that may happen to be reading, you might not want to read any further, you may just start to hyperventilate.....

As we were standing in the Rotunda finishing up the tour, I watched Steny Hoyer(D-Maryland), House Majority Leader walk right past with all of his black suited congressional aides, but I didn't get a photo because it happened too quick, but moments later, in walked Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House! It only took a few minutes for people to realize that she was there and the cameras started to go off, people surrounded her wanting photos, autographs and hand shakes. My friend Kathy is from San Francisco and Mrs. Pelosi is her Congresswomen, so she was thrilled to have a chance at a photo op. I waited until the crowd backed off a bit and as she started to walk through, I stepped forward, called out "Mrs Pelosi!", she turned to me, I stuck my hand out and said "Mrs. Pelosi, it's good to see you" and she grabbed my hand with both of hers and replied "It's good to see you also" with a big smile. This far left liberal was THRILLED! I know she raises the rankles of alot of people and that's one of the reasons I LIKE HER! I like that she run circles around that old boy network and doesn't kowtow to any of them. She serves her constituents well and from what I experienced, she was MORE than gracious to everyone that wanted a photo, autograph or handshake.


Entrance to the office of the Speaker of the House


Speaker of the House Pelosi coming into the Rotunda



My friend Kathy and Mrs. Pelosi....I'm bummed about the fuzziness, but I didn't have time to switch out my lens and I was too close for the lens I had on my camera


The Capitol Dome


The park outside the Capitol building


Another shot of the park outside the Capitol building


The Thurgood Marshall Building (where my meetings are located)

It was an awesome day! and even my Congressman (who I happened to see again on my return flight) said that's a pretty good experience for my first tour of the U.S. Capitol.

What a Gorgeous Weekend!

FINALLY! It's been a very busy weekend. Between unpacking from DC, straightening up the house (the two I live with are clutter hounds) and hours of yard work, it doesn't seem like I've had a chance to really relax, but that's okay. It all needed to be done.

We spent hours yesterday pulling dandelions, raking out gardens, watering our sugar snap peas, planting some new perennials (I planted a knock out rose, yarrow, sage, lupine and asters) and spraying the whole yard with liquid weed and feed. Still need to mulch, but I have to wait until next weekend after I plant my zinna seeds.

Our tulips are in full bloom and so is our lilacs and I brought a big bouquet of lilacs and grape hyancith inside so we could enjoy the scent.





Did a very challenging 45 minute walk this morning after I read the Sunday paper. I'm trying to do more jog/walk intervals so that the intensity of the workout is there.

On the iPod playlist today:
Stand - Alice Cooper
De Do Do, De Da Da - The Police
I Just Want to Make Love to You - Foghat
Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters - Elton John
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic - The Police
Mississippi - Train
Saturday Night Special - (song by Lynryd Skynrd but covered by Tesla)
Feel - matchbox twenty
Tumble in the Rough - Stone Temple Pilots

Budget Diet Report: I'm happy to report that just keeping a better eye on our money this month netted us an extra $350.00 this month. I think we're going to give it another go this month although we already know we have an extra expense of purchasing our annual Aquatic Center family pass and that's $125 bucks but worth every penny.

Have a good week.....oh and I'm putting together my photos and story from my US Capitol tour. I'll get it posted sometime this week.

I'm home.....

Got home last night just in time to see Survivor (the only program on television that I make a point of sitting down to watch). Had an amazing tour of the Capitol after my meetings ended and when I'm more motivated, I'll post pictures and tell you the whole story because something amazing happened during my tour that I want to share.

Sure wish the weather would change. Our yard looks like crap and the neighbor's dandelion field doesn't help. They DO nothing for the care of their yard and slowly but surely, the dandelion's are taking over our yard also and I WON'T hire a lawn service. I'm not taking on that expense also, but hopefully this weekend, hubby, son and I can get out their with the bottle of roundup and our dandelion puller and get rid of them (at least for a while). I'm also hoping to get that perennial bed raked out and a few new perennials planted this weekend. Later today, I'm going to go up to the greenhouse at Southeast Polk High School and see what they have for sale. Hy-Vee had some really nice looking perennials for sale, but they want $7.99 a piece for them and that to me, seems high, but I may cave because they did look pretty healthy.

I'll tease you with one photo from my afternoon at our nation's capitol:

A Day at the Zoo......

Got into Washington DC today after a wild morning. Sometime after 2:00am, the electricity went off in our area and needless to say I overslept because the alarm clock didn't go off. My saving grace was that my flight was delayed by 45 minutes so I still made my flight.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to one of Iowa's Congressmen Leonard Boswell for the flight and when I told him that the only place I hadn't seen in all of my travels to DC was the Capitol, he took my name, pulled out his card, circled a number and wrote the name of one of his staffers on it and told me to call her today or tomorrow and get a private tour set up for Thursday after my meetings end. SCORE!

He told me I could stash my luggage in his office and then after the tour, they would get me a taxi to get me back to the airport for my late afternoon flight home.

He made the mistake of asking me how I thought things were going in Washington, so of course, I couldn't let the opportunity pass on having a captive audience with one of our U.S. House of Representatives and we had 2 hours to kill, so I told him what I agreed with and what I didn't. I think he appreciated my candor.

Situations like this doesn't happen very often and for those that know me well, I'm not one to pass something like that by.

Spent most of the day at the National Zoo which was just a short 3 block walk from my hotel. Here's some photos from today:


The Entrance


Zebra


Tian Tian


Lion


Bald Eagle - can you believe that shot?


Anteater - she was carrying her baby on her back


The O-line


The Orangutans can swing from the eight towers on vine like wires


Capybara


Elephant


Elephants


Prairie Dog - he/she posed for me


Tiger

I also took some photos outside of the hotel I'm staying at. The grounds are gorgeous as you can see from these photos:







And lastly, this is the view from my hotel room. The National Cathedral.


Hope you enjoyed my photo tour!

Heading back to Washington DC......

I leave in the morning for Washington DC. I'm there until Thursday, then I'm flexing on Friday. Please, Please, Please let me have one nice day so I can rake out what I call our "triangle garden" that is one of our perennial beds. I've bought new mulch for it, but it needs raked out and I want to plant a couple more things before putting down the new mulch.

While in DC, I'm staying at the Marriott Wardman Park which looks to be very close to the National Zoo, so when I get in tomorrow morning, I'm going to head over there with my camera and see if I can get a shot of the pandas. Yea Me!

Here's a few of the layouts I completed in April. Thank goodness for the crop that my friend Lori hosted last weekend or I wouldn't have gotten that much done.











Click on the image to see it bigger. I used ALOT of older supplies for these layouts. That always feels good to use up stuff you've had forever or in my case hoard forever.

Have a good week!

Happy Earth Day!

I'm old enough to remember when the very first Earth Day was held. April 22, 1970. I was in junior high and it was a big deal at school from that day forward.

I like to think that my family and I are environmentally conscience. We recycle and repurpose everything that can be recycled and repurposed from newspapers, glass, cans, plastic, cardboard and lately I've even been saving our kleenex boxes to take out to the Animal Rescue League. They use them as feeding dishes for some of the animals. I no longer purchase syrofoam anything and have reduced our comsumption of paper towels and napkins down by at least 50%.

I also like to think that my sudden craze to simplify (my personal word this year) is part of being environmentally conscience. I don't want to live with so much stuff (well, except for my scrapbooking stuff....lol) and both Cragislist and Freecycle have become my friends. It feels good to let go of things and even helps my brain to become "clutter free" KWIM?

Update on the Budget Diet: Going good.....we've saved over $200 dollars and the month isn't over yet. Probably could have saved more, but had a couple of last minute things come up that required some spending, but hey, I wasn't going to be a Nazi over the checkbook anyway, just wanted to see just how much $20 dollars here and there could potentially add up to and to save a bit for our vacation in June. I think we're going to try and continue this until our vacation in June.

Oh and for my friends that I KNOW will love this.....I am so freaking JAZZED that our President decided to visit Iowa on Earth Day!