Busy Weekend!

I took Friday off to go shopping!  I have been looking for new chairs for my kitchen and after much searching and pricing I found something close to what I wanted at Cost Plus World Market. The only problem was the closest store is an hour away from my house!  I borrowed an SUV (thanks Aunt Rosalie), loaded up my mom and headed out. I forgot all the fun stuff Cost Plus has! I spent more than I had planned but had a great time doing it! 

I swore to myself that I would stay home and work on my yard this weekend and it was perfect weather!  I seeded bare spots, planted pots, a flower bed and lettuce, trimmed bushes, cleaned out beds in the front of the house and got a pedicure! :D  I am up at the butt crack of dawn on the weekends anyway so I headed out to Home Depot and beat all the other crazy yarders to get my mulch.  If you live in my area, Randazzo's on 13 Mile/Schoenherr has great prices and a nice selection of hanging baskets and porch pots.  I still have to put the mulch out, trim more bushes, level the water fountain, split hostas, buy and plant tomatoes and figure out what I am going to plant in a 6 foot long bare spot I created (Aunt Diane?).  My back yard is tiny but has just enough room to keep me puttering for the summer.  After all this I am starting on the garage sale!

Now that it is warm out the time seems to fly. I am trying to slow down to enjoy it a bit ..but see above!

Have a Happy Memorial Day weekend!

I bought a bike!

Isnt' she the cutest thing?  Her name is Mickey and I giggled like a little kid riding her this weekend. I think it was the streamers blowing in the wind!  She is an Electra Townie. http://www.electrabike.com/ They have some really cute bikes but I liked this one. I added the basket, bell and streamers and off we went!

So this week's post is pretty random since I haven't posted anything in a few weeks.  My trip to Key West was wonderful. The weather was perfect with only one day of rain. We snorkeled on a Rum and Reggae sunset cruise, spent time on the beach and did a "Pub Crawl".  It was a hoot. This funny guy walked about 20 of us around to 5 different bars in downtown Key West and we all had drinks and then off to the next bar!  I think the crawl part described what we did the next morning getting out of bed!

I spent most of the weekend in the yard cleaning up and getting my raised beds ready for veggies.  I have two 4x8 beds but I don't think I am going to use both of them this year. I may only plant a couple tomatoes, peppers and lettuce and then fill the other bed with cutting flowers.  The grass in the back yard looks pretty crappy so I am going to fill it in with some seed.  I also have to clean out the bed in front of my arborvitae wall and plant something in there that I don't have to take care of.  I need to replace a few pavers in the walkway that goes from my patio to the side of the house and I am thinking of getting rid of a few bushes in the front. Whew, that is more work than I thought I was doing...

The big garage sale will be June 22.  I need tables. If you have a long table that you can let me use for a few weeks please send me a message on Facebook.  It will take me a couple weekends to set this mess up and I will be looking for help. :D

I spent the entire weekend shredding papers!  Bob was his mom's conservator for the years she was in a nursing home and the amount of paper that generated was staggering.  Bob also had a bunch of paper, mostly medical. I really didn't realize how much until I started shredding.   I put the shredder in the living room and used it during every commercial for 3 days.  I threw out 10 tall kitchen garbage bags of shredding in Monday!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all!

It's finally here!

I am heading down to Key West with my sister, 2 cousins, cousin-in-law and Aunt. My cousin's daughter and her friend will be meeting up with us for a long weekend. They planned this trip in January so it has been a long time to wait! My big plan is to lie (lay?) by the pool drinking fluffy drinks and ogling the cabana boys! Big thanks to my mom for staying at my house! Ciao!

What I learned in the past 6-months!

It's been six months since my darling husband died. In some ways it has flown and others it has dragged. I am doing fine, really, but moving on is a tough thing. This is what I have learned in the past 6 months.

I have learned that I don't like living alone because there is no one to talk to and as we all know, I am a talker! I have never lived alone.

I don't like having to take care of every damn thing in the house either. Laundry, yard work, cleaning, dishes it's all too much. Bob and I split the chores pretty evenly and now to have to do it all sucks.

I also don't like having to call on others to help but this is a sticky wicket because everyone wants to do something, anything, to help. A GREAT BIG thanks to my brother Bobby for changing out my bathroom faucet on his lunch hour! My brother David for securing my back door and garage and my brother John for getting my sprinkler system up and running for the season, fixing my leaking faucet outside and helping to put my headboard on my bed frame. Another big thanks to my favorite cousin Jim for spray paint help and getting the ugly old treadmill out of my basement and most importantly for getting the grill out! A very special thank you to my mom from her favorite granddogger for all the dog sitting.

I have learned that duct tape fixes just about anything and who to call if it doesn't.

I have learned that I have too much crap and this is important, get rid of all your crap! Bob kept EVERYTHING! I have an entire Sears Hardware store in my basement. It is going to take me about 3 weekends to organize a garage sale and get rid of all of this stuff. Anyone know how much a used grinder goes for? I have been cleaning, tossing and giving away stuff for months and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel yet. Honest to god I found his uniform from Vietnam that I didn't even know he had and 2 pair of platform shoes from the 70's, his, not mine!

I have learned that I am stronger than I thought I was. I miss him every single day but it no longer feels like someone scooped out my heart with a teaspoon. I can't say I am excited for the future but I can now see a future.

My aching face!

I had a laser treatment this week on my face. Since my skin is so fair I have had a ton of sun damage... you know there was no such thing as SPF 30 when I was a kid..anyway, sun damage caused broken capillaries especially around my nose. V-Beam laser was designed to treat these and lucky me, they have this laser at work! I had the treatment Wednesday and ended up with a slightly puffy face afterwards. When I woke up Thursday I looked like a chipmunk! My face is swollen, especially around my cheeks!

I started this post Friday and thought I was going to finish it that night but here it is Monday and I am just getting back to it. My cheeks have gone down but they are still a bit puffy. I hope it all goes away by Easter!

I am on week 3 of Weight Watchers. The first week I thought I only lost 1 pound but I weighed in later and it was 2. This week I am down 1.5 lbs. Only 11 more to go but at this rate it will be July before I get there. WW is a TON of work. I think about food all day! I do ok with meals but it's the snacks that I am having a hard time with. I like salty crunchy but I am getting pretty sick of popcorn. My other issue is I don't eat "diet"anything. I have never had a diet soda. When Bob had his heart surgery we cut back on processed foods and I still have a hard time buying anything in a can. A lot of the foods that are low in points are processed. Everyone tells me it will get easier. I sure hope so because before you know it, I will have long ears and a tail! Speaking of ... have a Happy Easter!

I finally did it!

I joined Weight Watchers! Ok, stop it. I know I am not fat but I gained about 4 lbs since Bob died and add that to the extra I was already carrying, I am uncomfortable and my pants don't snap. The more Bob was in the hospital the less I cooked. It was much easier to pick something up. Since I don't eat hamburgers or french fries I thought I was doing ok. After he died I pretty much quit cooking. Again, easier to run to Nino's and get prepared foods to heat up and salads at Panera Bread. I need to get back on track and eating a bit more healthy.

I have never dieted in my life. I haven't had to ever watch what I eat. I am 5'7" and in my 30's I weighed about 135, in my 40's 145. I am in my 50's so you can see where this it heading... I have a goal and when I reach that goal I am buying myself an iPad. Of course the iPad 4 may be out by then but it's still a goal.

So, Weight Watchers is a lot of work! I think about what I am going to eat ALL DAY! I have to log my points and check my points for every freaking thing I put in my mouth. I am told it will get easier once I have my frequent foods logged and I get used to the point thing. I figure the secret it fiber. That and water keep me running all day :D

I am still plowing through the Dana Stabenow series. I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy these books. I am on the 14th in the series and I started the 1st February 13. Can you tell I don't watch TV? 14 books in about 6 weeks! That's a lot even for me.

Time change blah...

I don't know about you but I am tired! This time change thing just wears me out and takes about a week for me to get adjusted. My body thinks it is still 4:30 am when I get up at 5:30! Not my favorite time of year.

So, I am joining Weight Watchers on-line program. I have a 10lb goal and I am just too damn lazy to do anything about it. My brother and 2 sisters in law participate in WW and see great results. My boss lost 30 lbs (but she eats carrots all day) and another person at work lost about 50. Since the hubby pasted away I haven't really been cooking. It is easier for me to just grab something to go and as you know, to-go usually means junk! I am hoping that with a little of the discipline I have been laking I will meet my goal soon.

I started the Pilates class and promptly dropped out! I went to two. The class was advertised for mixed levels but ended up being for advanced level students and the instructor wasn't that great and making sure the classed worked for beginning and intermediate too. The good news is, I just found out you can get exercise classes On Demand! Comcast has a bunch of free classes so I am going to try out a few this weekend. The other good news is I can now walk outside. Gracie the Wonder Dog loves the mile long walks we have been taking all week!


Oh and I am still stuck on the Dana Stabenow books!! Oh my god she killed someone off and I about died! I am on the 11th book and have 8 more to go. Seriously, I can't read anything else. I just have to know what happens next!

Enjoy your weekend!