Sunday

Another blogging friend had an amazing victory! Dawn reached ONEderland. Congrats, Dawn. Dawn is an amazing person, and I am greatly inspired by her. I am just tickled pink for her! (And yes, again, I did get teary eyed.)


Friday I pulled a muscle in my back. Saturday it was still hurting, but I did a very easy FIRM tape with no weights. Instead of getting any work done yesterday, I rested. I used my heating pad, we snuggled up and watched a movie, and my son used his magic elbow on my sore back and worked the kink out. Today it's barely noticeable, but I'm not going to work out. I think in our quest for health, we sometimes forget how very important rest is. That doesn't mean we need to take a day off all the time, but it does mean we need to listen to our bodies. Mine today says rest from exercise.

We have a lot to do for my son's upcoming birthday trip. Why is it that it takes so much preparation to go away for two days? He's very excited and wants to do more than we can pack into that time frame. Luckily my energy is so much better that I'll be able to do more than we did last year. Luckily he wants to go see Toy Story in 3D, so I'll get a good rest during that movie. That was one of his favorite movies when he was little, so it will be fun to re-visit it--in 3D!

The Epilepsy Foundation in Minnesota comes to our small town about every six-eight weeks in good weather months to pick up curb-side donations. This is my favorite place to donate to, as my son has epilepsy. They'll be coming in a week, so today I need to go through my closet yet again and bag up my old clothes that are in good enough condition to donate. I also need to wash those smaller jeans that I found awhile back so I have clothes to wear. Our weather finally turned, so I have to say goodbye to my capris. It's going to be difficult to clear my closet of them. Scary. Not the smartest thing to donate in the fall, I suppose. I've been smart and pulling the clothing that is too big out of the dryer and putting it into a bag that I keep right there. So I will have a nice donation bag for them. It's quite amazing that my husband has more clothes than I do. I used to have so many clothes that I took up a couple closets--back in the days when I worked. Now I have very little. There's comfort in numbers, and it's scary for me to let go. Yet if I don't, there won't be room for me to grow.

Now it's time for me to get up and tackle that closet.

Celebrating a Blogging Friend!

What is the one thing we all want most? GOAL!

Hop on over to Missy's blog and leave her a congrats! She reached GOAL!!!

You know, I just get teary eyed (I'm such a sap) when my blogging friends accomplish great things! Yes, I am teary eyed right now, and very happy for her!

Way to Go, Missy!!!

Friday

Yesterday turned out better than expected. My son had a blast swimming, and I did visit with three nice women. As we were leaving, I thought about my "fear" of chitchatting, meeting new people. It's not really unfounded, as many people I have met have been extremely judgmental and harsh--something I'm not used to. I think that I just got frustrated due to that and put up a block. I'm also out of practice chitchatting--and like riding a bike, it came back easily. The whole key was to ask a million questions they could answer about themselves. I had a couple of nice conversations.

I have a friend who says, "Get over yourself." That's what I need to do. I'm at the point in life that I don't really care a whole lot what people think of me, which makes the whole process easier.

~~~
We went to five thrift stores yesterday. Two had a FIRM tape. The first I already owned. The second, I got so excited I almost jumped up and down. 50 cents, and it was the one I wanted to buy next--Not So Tough Aerobics. The sleeve was really beat up so I decided to pull the tape out to check it. That's when I almost teared up. The tape inside the sleeve was NOT the tape listed on the cover. Oh, the horror! I felt so defeated, left it there, and walked back to the car with shoulders slumped. lol

I'm hoping next week that I'll run into some tapes. And a special thank to a blogging friend who is going to complete my classics collection. Thank you, Missy.

~~~

I had another NSV yesterday! It rained all day long. We ended up getting 3 inches from yesterday's rain. At one of the thrift stores, I had to park a long way away. When we came out it was pouring, so my son and I ran to the car. I said RAN. Yes, I RAN! All of 30 seconds, maybe 45, but by golly, I did it! And I didn't even stop and think, I just did it. It wasn't until I was putting on my seat belt that it hit me! I could not have have done that a month ago. Gee, I ran with my kiddo. How cool!

~~~

I was disappointed yesterday that I did not work out. When I got up, it was thundering and pouring and I made the decision to not go. I don't like driving in the rain, plus I don't want my kid in an indoor pool when it's thundering and lightning out. So I did not work out in the morning. About an hour before it would have been time to leave, my husband called to say hi. I told him my decision and he told me to just go anyway. He was right, we did--and it was worth it. I did not have time to work out before leaving, though, because I'd have needed another shower. I thought I'd work out when we got home. After all that shopping, hitting Target and Taco Bell for supper, driving an hour home in pouring rain--which stopped 5 miles outside of town, I was shot. I blew my exercise yesterday. At least I got a lot of movement, but I was a little upset with myself. Oh well, I worked out today.

That's about it from my corner of the world.

Thank You!!! And other Tidbits...

A great-big, heartfelt thank you for all the kind words on my big milestone. I got 51 comments--even my hubby came out of the woodwork and left one. One for every pound and one from him. I was so honored and treasured each comment.

Sometimes this is a lonely journey and only others on the journey understand how important those milestones are. My best friend has not even asked me how I'm doing--and we talk once a week. I think the last time we had talked, I had lost around 20 or so pounds.

So anyway, I'm on top of the world. Thank you.

~~~
My hubby took me to dinner that night, and all three of us enjoyed overly spicy Mexican food. It was so hot I was tasting it the next morning. I don't like spicy food, but it was a joy to celebrate!

My son's birthday is next week and he and I are planning a trip out of town. He wants to eat at The Olive Garden and Fuddruckers. Olive Garden I can handle, but what on earth will I do at Fuddruckers??? That's a very dangerous place for me--the burger, the bun, the fries and the cheese...good grief! I think they have a Garden Burger, so I can go breadless with one of those, but that cheese...it's going to be tough.

Every school year, I plan into our calendar a few days off at DS's birthday. This year we're going to go to a zoo and perhaps a science museum. Depends on his mood. He also wants to go to a real mall. He has an itinerary all planned out, but I informed him to plan on exercise time for me. Yes, I'm going to take my FIRM video and workout in the motel. Pity the poor people below me. I'll pick a slow weights video so I don't stomp around too much--which means I'll have to pack weights. lol

The day we leave is my day. I have Googled and printed out a map of the area thrift stores. I am hoping and praying I find a lot of FIRM tapes! I have my fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we're going swimming in the big city with other homeschoolers. My son is excited, but me? I'm nervous. Time to come out of my shell and meet people I've never met before. Gag, I'd rather clean toilets. I'm not a social butterfly and prefer very small groups. That won't happen tomorrow, plus it will be hot and humid. I hope I make it through the day. When we're finished, I'm going to hit the four thrift stores in that town in search of what else, FIRM tapes. lol So at least there's a nice reward for making it through the day.

We've been very busy with school this week, and I'm very behind on blogs again. I always feel guilty when I get behind.

And with that, I had best get to bed because it's after the witching hour, I have to get up early so we can get our academics done and so I can get a workout in before we leave.

Monday Morning Weigh In

Weight: 232
Loss: 3 pounds
Total Loss: 50.5!!!!

Finally, I have hit that 50-pound milestone! Yes!!!

50

Laugh at Me Part Two

See this hair? This photo I took in the middle of August. I had taken an entire year to grow out the gray, chopping off a majority of my hair in February, and growing it out again. I was never, ever going to dye my hair again. It's a PITA.

When August hit, I started re-thinking that. Hubby mentioned a few times, "Wow, you're really getting gray." I looked at photos of my mom about 5 years older than I was where she had gone gray and she looked awful.

Besides that, my roots were really, really dark. The ends always turn red. There are dark blonde hairs in there, too. I was a multi-colored mess.

So, I bit the bullet, bought two boxes of dye.

I screwed up. My hair is closer to black now than the brown I was going for. I've never made a hair coloring mistake like this before. It's drastic.

See the previous photo I posted!

However, there are some up sides to this mistake. I'm a little self-conscious about my weight. I get embarrassed when people notice the loss instead of being happy. So when school started, and after-school activities reared up again, I was around people I hadn't seen all summer. Instead of noticing that I had lost 20 pounds since I last saw them, the only comments I got were: Your hair! You colored your hair!! Wow. lol

I don't know if I'm going to keep this color or not. If I don't, I'll have to go a salon and find someone who can fix it, which won't be cheap as dark is really hard to correct. On the positive, with my blue eyes, I look fantastic in blue--it's amazing how the dark hair and blue colors work together. It's not me, although for the first time in my life, my hair matches my naturally dark eyebrows. And my roots.

Anyway, we think it's funny. I screwed up, and I do laugh at people's responses.

You have to be able to laugh at yourself in life. This was just too funny not to!

Go Ahead, Laugh at Me (I'm laughing!)

When buying new exercising clothing, check the back to see if it is a T or a regular tank. I did not. We had a huge laugh over this. I do not own any T-backed bras. Three of the four exercise shirts I bought are T-backed.

Go ahead, laugh. We did!