[color=bluue]Guys, I'm sorry, I'm being pushy again and not waiting for a consensus but I posted an Easter sprint (thanks for the name Anagramatic) challenge just for extra ... no conversation needed ... just take thee all a second to post a weight challenge for Easter ... it can be maintenance or a loss (or gain if anyone wants to gain? ) ... I'm PLEADING, BEGGING, HUZZAHING 100 percent participation so's we can be as fab as possible on the holiday ... the Easter Towel Boys are officiating (you have to buy your own prizes). You don't have to stop posting here or on the food/exercise thread ... just post a goal weight for Easter and come back and report how you're doing ... THIS IS MY ONE OR TWO GOOD THINGS FOR TODAY ALA CEARA ... I'M GOING TO REACH MY EASTER GOAL BY VIRTUE OF HAVING SIGNED UP FOR THE CHALLENGE!!! Huzzah!
Later ...
Anagram, so sorry for thy family's loss ... this is very distressing ...
If my blood sugar weren't dropping I'd go into my thoughts on the whole gay marriage/civil union thing! Right now, I need to go listen to the bishop verdict (a long story that's been going on here).
Sometimes we just keep thinking of our own problems when there are awful things going on just one or two desks away.
In fact, I've been meaning to ask all of you for special energy and prayers for a 3 yr old little girl who was thought to have the stomach flu but was suddenly diagnosed with a "floating" cancerous tumor all across her lower abdomen and liver. Since her trip to the doctor last Friday, she has had a couple chemotherapy treatments, a long surgery and a blood transfusion. She is only comfortable laying down, she feels pain when she tries to bend her waist. ( this was before the surgery )
So true, we don't know when things will become much worse for ourselves or someone close to us.
This is why we need to take care of ourselves today so we can be of help if we can.
In fact, just today, someone wrote to the Flylady talking about how happy she was to be an "asset" rather than a "liability".
As well as learniing how to lose weight and change our eating habits we are also leaning new coping skills.... and by our example, those around us can be inspired just by our example.
As Oprah always says : "When we know better, we do better".... ( I know, I paraphrased ..)
We really do have so much.... lets enjoy and be grateful...
I'm just sliding by to say hello---have felt a little weak the last few day with a springtime cold; I avoided illness all winter too---oh well!
Okay guys, I'm worried about out Punkinseed. I miss her something wonderful!
Yo!!! I pmd Punkin and got no response, which is so unlike her ... maybe if everyone else pms her or emails her if you've got her email (I don't)? Don't want to bother her if she's just taking a hiatus or even decided not to post anymore, which is truly her perogative and I wouldna say thee nay on that, o' Friday Queen, because sometimes I do that, too (take a hiatus) but she's posted here for years and if she's seeing these "howlers" at all, she'd get in touch with someone.
Also sending goodvibes to Wsw and all the other MIAs.
Eydie, if thou feeleth so inclined would love to have thee (and EVERYONE) peek 'n participate on the Easter challenge thread ... it's VERY minimal posting time ... post an Easter weight goal (including maintenance), report or post anything that relates to that, reach Easter goal, buy new outfit, feel fab!
Ok, you DON'T really have to buy a new outfit. That's just something that the towel boys threw in.
You know how they are.
The Easter challenge, as I was just pmg to Anagramatic, got my lazy ol' self that's totally burnt out with the gym not to mention my whole life, OUT OF THE HOUSE and run/walkin' around the neighborhood for 60 minutes. I INTEND TO REACH THAT EASTER GOAL!!!! Kaylets and Anagram have taken the challenge as well. Who's with us?
Whole day has been turned upside down... food ok but schedule !
DH and I left the house at 5:30 am to get to some sales b/4 the rain came in but we found nothing. Spent about $4 if that much.
Then kicked around waiting for the veg market to open at the farmers market. We got there as they opened and the other vendors were firing up their grills for breakfast... The smell turned my stomach so quick I had to go outside and wait for DH in the car...
Came home and slept for 3.5 hrs expecting to find good news about my auctions when I awoke.
Nope.
Ah well... could be much worse right??
let me see...who asked for good news each day?? Great idea Ceara..hope the dog show is treating you right!
This is the good news... I can post more auctions tonight since I am now refreshed from a 4 hour nap... AND .. tonight Women's World Figure Skating is on so I will be wide awake for that too...
And I have good friends to listen to me be a big whiney baby....
Like I'm the only one who's auctions didnt all sell !
I did have some go...
Anyway...
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Thought of the day :
"Learn the rules but accept the fact there are exceptions."
--Life's Little Instruction Book
Question of the day :
"What is the best bargain you've found ?"
I forgot about the good news request ... very immersed in my own head today and well, I guess that's my good news!
Actually I got irritated at the bank when an officious (but ever so tastefully dressed) young woman (sorry, not bashing anyone of the youth persuasion, merely reporting she was young relative to moi, also not one of the usual clerks), proceeded to lecture me that my particular request wasn't the usual way things were done at that bank (even though I've been using the same banking methods at selfsame bank for all the years I've lived in Arizona). Gosh (substitute another word), I really hate being lectured by bank clerks about the way banking works ... do I LOOK like an idiot to you guys? Do I LOOK like a person who doesn't understand what a bank does? Well, ok, you can't see me, but trust me, I don't look like an idiot, etc.
My horoscope today said I should "snap back" if criticized and stand up for myself, so I pointed out one of the employees there whom (who?) I've known for years and asked if she could help me, whereupon Ms. Banker of 2004 graciously said she'd do what I asked but she was just telling me the way it usually workds.
Hmmmm. Perhaps I DO look like an idiot! This led to an assualt of peanut butter cup lust and I'm feeling quite cranky. Perhaps I should write to the bank president.
Haw! I can top that one, Empress. I was getting a card for the cash machine, and the woman issuing it to me coached me about how I don't have to take a handbag with me, I just have to put my card in a little coin purse and slip it in my pocket, and she even showed me her special technique, etc. I couldn't believe it---I must've looked like I'd just come down from the hills or something. She talked to me like I was 12--I couldn't believe it, but found it more amusing than exasperating. She was the chatty sort though--anything to keep the conversation going.
Hmmmm, sometimes I wonder if I need a little more "snap back" in my life? Wonder, ****! The answer is YES, I DO! WITHOUT A DOUBT!
Okay, good thing that happened today----I visited my father today and he has a brand new puppy so I could in some good wallowing time with the pup and it's little needle teeth.
Sheesh, Eydie, makes one wonder how we manage to wander around the world by ourselves all day!!!! Glad thou now knowest the proper accessories for the bank machine!
I think I found it irritating because I'm usually so well known in the bank and they have a great bunch of people working there ... the woman KNEW she was irritating me and she kept doing it ... everytime I answered her, she came back with a topper, she was clearly not used to people talking back!
Glad thou hadst a chance to play with the pup!!! There's nothing like a puppy to cheer us up!!! Actually I met a new young canine in the neighborhood myself on my jog this a.m. ... I've been hearing this loud mournful baying wafting on the night breeze for weeks ... was worried that a dog might be sad or in pain somewhere but couldn't tell where it was coming from ... sometimes it sounded like the Hound o' the Baskervilles and I thought I might see Sherlock striding in from the desert or something ... but this morning everyone was out doing yard sales (we do that VERY early in the a.m. here because of the heat) and as I jogged past one of the sales, there he was!!! A beautiful hound dog ... well, I'd call it a bloodhound but the guy that had him said he was just a "hound" that was about a year old and had been found wandering in the canyons (so that's what they named him)!!! Far from being sad or hurt, he was lovely, glossy and inquisitive and learning about his front yard and I was able to chat with him. His proud possessor said the little guy (100 pounds or so) was used to the back yard so now he was teaching him about the parameters of the front yard. He was so good. I heard him start to bay as I jogged off and the man gently told him to stop and he stopped.
Here I am, sipping a coffee catching up on what's going on in the palace, and Amarantha starts talking about Sherlock riding in out of the desert...I spit my coffee all over and thought I was in the twilight zone! I was SURE I was on 3FC...yet my nick on another board is Sherlock! Threw me for a loop, Empress! The little hound dog sounds adorable!
And yes, isn't a miracle how we manage to wander around on our own without the "help" of such knowledgeable people! At least in Eydie's case I think the woman's heart was in the right place.
I, too, hope that Punkin is busy having a wonderful time with one or two of the towel boys, but would really like to hear that from the Queen O'Friday herself! Cerise, do you have any influence in such matters since the two of you have conversed? Or maybe we should just leave the porch light on to welcome her home when she does arrive?
Yo! Wildfire!!!!! Sorry about the coffee thing!!!! Actually, I once had a budgie named Sherlock. He was yellow and green and traveled with me halfway across the country when I first moved here. Sadly he's now buried in the front yard, but he was a very nice budgie and had a happy life, for the most part, I believe.
Yea, Punkin, the light is on. Mayhap the noble Friday has computer problems?
But I also hope she's having a wonderful time basking with the towel boys somewhere ...
Now where is Arabella? She was posting recently but dropped outta sight again. It can't be, Wood Nymph, that thou be putting work ahead o' the palace again?
Don't do that! I never do!
Ok, I need to get the heck off the internet and take a nap! Again!
Ahhh...nothing like a nightly cuddle with the best boy in town. He's so adorable. He comes and stands with his front paws on my knees and asks to come up. When I scoop him up he curls right in under my chin and purrs and purrs. Here's pictures we took today of my baby, Peppy:
Amarantha, my eldest cat is also called Sherlock. Sorry to hear your budgie is no longer with you, but I have no doubt he had a wonderful life with you.
Kaylets, how sad about the little girl with cancer. Sending good vibes out for her. Poor little mite. Great signage! Sorry to hear of the recent incident with DS. I know all too well how that is!
I'd like a word or two from wsw, as well! Hope everything is going well in the new condo.
Zadie, look at you go...down a pound already on your Spring challenge!
Cerise, hope you aren't working too hard! Of course, it is the weekend now and I know you are enjoying it completely with The Ramon. Say hello to him from me!
Anagram, glad to hear The Special Place has redeemed itself. It is SO disappointing when a favorite place goes bad. They are hard to find these days! Have you solved the pool problem yet?
Well, darlings, I will try to stop in more often, although we leave for Las Vegas on Tuesday and will be gone a week, then I start the new job the following day. Things will be on a more even keel after that.
Hello s Sorry for being absent again! Things were a bit less good with son; I guess I'm beginning to wonder if he might be schizophrenic and knowing so many sad stories about schizophrenics -- I really hope not. He saw a doctor last week (for not-very regular monitoring that they do) who prescribed six more months of meds for him, when Matt was thinking that he might be almost done. I was reading more about schizophrenia, and he just fits the profile so well. They don't diagnose, though, on a single episode and I'm so hoping that that's all there ever is. I've talked to him a bit about recovery, how the best thing he can do if he wants to get off the meds is do all the things that will affect his brain chemistry positively: get exercise and sunlight, meditate, etc. I'm thinking of talking to him about my problems, about setting up the same kind of checklist that I have (of course I haven't been using it the past week or so ) to help get focus. He did start running last week, and found it made him feel really good.
DH and I are in Halifax this weekend, on our little get-away. I've been a bit depressed over the situation with Matt, so it hasn't been the blissful and carefree time that I hoped for, but it has been a bit relaxing and I think that it's done me good. I feel ready to start being proactive, instead of reactive, and that's a good sign. Of course, as someone called it, it is the dreaded EOM (end o' month) again, but I'm not in bad shape this time. Will have to keep nose to grindstone most of the time until Thursday, but not desperate.
Diet has been hit and miss -- some good days, some mediocre (sp?), some not good. Thursday I found myself eating two big bowls of Turtle (the chocolate kind -- no amphibians were harmed) ice cream after lunch. Food is another major tranquillizer, n'est ce-pas? Damn nasty side effects though! I'm going to do better.
I'm going to aim for all perfect days until Easter and just see where that gets me instead of aiming for a certain weight. I still have 2 pounds to go to get down to where I am in my sig. I've got DH's family reunion in Ont. and company meetings in Boston in late July-Early August, and it struck me yesterday that I could lose a good chunk of this chunkiness by then if I apply myself. Or I could just piddle the time away, be miserable, and stay the same. I vow to reapply myself.
Okay, it turned out not to be really a fast post, but just a me-me-me one. Pardon my solipsism! I love you all to bits, and I'll be ready to pay you the attention you so royally deserve next time!
Not a me-me post at all, Wood Nymph ... very informative as to what's going on and that's what we're all here for, to share (and get/stay fit 'n fab)!!! I just love it when thou posteth so I know you're still there and ok!!!! BTW, I think it's great that ds is running ... that's the best thing he could be doing for himself IMNHO!!! Good for him!!! Hey, even if thou be not interested in posting a goal weight, I think I can safely speak for all the Bunny Squad in saying come on over to the Easter Sprint and post thy goals and report!!!! The towel boys are always making up rules for these things, but we can ignore 'em!!!
I personally know the motivation provided by the challenge accounts for my loss this week ... see details (brief details) on the challenge thread!
Wildfire, thy baby hath the most BEAUTIFUL TEAL COLORED EYES!!!! A royal feline if ever I've seen one!!! Thanks for letting us know about thy coming trip as well so's we won't have to start sending howlers out after you!!!!! Good luck on the new job!!!
No sadness re the noble budgie Sherlock ... he's flying around in the universal continuum now, probably looking for his budgie buddy Watson, who's still with me. I also have my mom's budgie Betty Boop, whose care I took over a year before mom died. My family has always had budgies about the place. Mom used to breed them and we all just keep perpetuating the tradition. I love the guys but don't think I'll adopt anymore after these two are gone ... not that they show any signs of that happening soon! They are both in robust health at the moment!
Ok, I'm going out for an unhealthy breakfast since I've been eating unhealthy all week and lost weight!
This morning's weighin was 2lbs down and I am taking it!
I've started climbing stairs twice as much as I was and really making sure I counted every point....
We'll know in a few weeks how much difference this makes in how fast I lose...I've been losing a pound or two and then plateauing... for nearly a year... guess it was long over due to get moving more!
Anybody ever see a show called " what not to wear?". I knew some outfits never felt comfortable to wear but assumed it was just "I'm too big"....
Never realized that some body shapes, types, will never look as well in some styles as others.... and that only a very few look good in cargo pants! ( and even fewer look good when they've filled the cargo pockets! ...just what I need...more bulk added to the outside of my thighs!)
The downside is that the "traditional" blazer cut is NOT what I should be wearing... My figure requires what they described as a "lock and load" type of jacket... 3 buttons buttoned higher than the traditional 1 button....
Ok... looks like I will also be shopping on the more expensive floors...
The good news is that I don't need to dress formally most of th e time
.... ah well, too bad it took me nearly 50 yrs to realize there's a very valid reason so many styles "don't look right" on me....
Just like it took me years to realize button up shirts didnt work for me... either a shell underneath an open blouse or a different style entirely kept me looking more together ... seemed that no matter what I tried, I was always fighting this battle with the buttons fighting to stay closed...
Anyway... who cares ?? I'm even boring myself! Lost my point somewhere along the way....
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Today's thought :
"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
---Alexander Woolcott
Question of the day :
" Are you looking forward to Daylight Savings Time?"
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Ceara- Photos were very cute! Thanks for sharing!
Arabella- Glad you had a chance to stop by! We're always here for you!
Everyone!
Lets treat ourselves very gently this Monday!
Good morning, all you best and most beautiful of women! Here's to us!
Here we have a fresh new week to do with what we will (to some extent, anyway!). After getting more exercise and refocusing, I feel much more chipper today and less inclined to feel helpless. This whole attitude/perspective thing is so tied into my weight and habits. So hard to take control when I allow myself to feel like things beyond my control are the focus. And it also stops me from being as effective as I might be in dealing with these things Attitude is everything!
Amarantha, I agree with thee -- there's just nothing that makes you feel the way running does. And I truly believe that it cures what ails the psyche as well: fixes up brain chemistry, makes life seem easier and less stressful. I'm going to start again as soon as either a. I lose some weight (not sure my body could stand the poundage -- pun intended) or b. the paths are clear in the park (I go slowly and a lot of the aerobics come from the up and down nature of the path). In any case, I've recommitted to getting some intense aerobics. I hadn't been for the most part, and I just feel so much better after a few days of it. I think it's a good thing!
Kaylets, I was not bored for a second reading about your wardrobe discoveries! As a matter of fact, I'd love it if you could describe the blazer shape you talked about a bit more. It sounds very cool, and I think I might need something in that style. Re: cargo ( typo: I typed "carbo" first) pants -- whose idea were those? Someone skinny that likes to carry lots of stuff, I guess. And maybe is not vain? Who needs "thigh enhancement" pants? Pas moi!
QOD: I actually resent daylight savings time a bit. I go to bed early and would like to be able to enjoy some evening time in the summer instead of feeling like such a dweeb!
OK -- off to shower, make coffee, and get some work done this a.m. Love to all, mentioned or unmentioned!
) ... I'm PLEADING, BEGGING, HUZZAHING 100 percent 
participation so's we can be as fab as possible on the holiday ... the Easter Towel Boys are officiating (you have to buy your own prizes). You don't have to stop posting here or on the food/exercise thread ... just post a goal weight for Easter and come back and report how you're doing ... THIS IS MY ONE OR TWO GOOD THINGS FOR TODAY ALA CEARA ... I'M GOING TO REACH MY EASTER GOAL BY VIRTUE OF HAVING SIGNED UP FOR THE CHALLENGE!!! Huzzah!
The little hound dog sounds adorable!
At least in Eydie's case I think the woman's heart was in the right place. 
I never do!
I'm going to do better. 
A fresh new week!
Attitude is everything! 
I think it's a good thing!
