Subtle Changes

("Queso" takes a drink from the horse trough)
I have been trying very hard to keep "refined sugar" out of the house this summer.
I had a house sitter that told me it looked like we were moving, because the pantry was 1/2 empty! She knows I usually keep lots of treats/snacks ready at hand. I have not had cake mix, cookie mix, or cookie dough in there all summer. With the heat, I still need to work on the ice cream....
My daughter had a friend over today and when we had lunch I realized the only "snack" I could offer them was fresh fruit! WOW! what a change. One of the major areas that will make a BIG difference is activity. I need to come up with things to do in this heat with the kids. We are all about "swimmed" out. What horrible English. LOL
Tonight for dinner I baked Mahi Mahi and white rice. I know I could have done brown rice, but I didn't have any and even if I did, I did not have the time to cook it. It takes forever. That's still better than a burger and fries. I have a few weeks to work with my kids and get them back into the swing of school.
We went to the school and dropped off some paperwork, in order to avoid the horrendous lines at orientation. I am sooo not ready to start that daily 2 hr drive thing! Arrrrrrrr!

Who turned the heat up??

MY GOSH!! What the heck folks?? It's MISERABLE out there! I so dread this time of year. I can't move without sweating. I can't breathe, it's so humid. Why the heck do I live here?? Seriously?? What was I thinking? I want to crawl under a cool rock and just stay there. Someone call me when Fall gets here, and make it PRONTO! (That's fast in Spanish, for you non bilingual peeps) The entire family went to a water park this weekend. It was not the experience any of us thought it would be. It was miserably hot. Of course, no tables were available. The water only felt cool for about the first millisecond and then it felt like bathwater! YUCK! We went there because a church had rented the place out and it was "private" after closing until 9pm. A friend of mine attends the church and we tagged along for the evening. There is only THREE weeks of summer left!! WOW! I'm so sad. The kids are growing so fast. I have been looking for a specific picture of my father and in the process have come across photos of me at their ages. I remember how I saw my mom, and I think, I AM NOT THAT OLD! LOL I would like to think of myself as young at heart. I was playing with the kids in the pool at a friends house the other day. I realized I don't have a memory of my mother playing with me. Strange. I hope my children grow up with fond memories of their laid back summer days with their good 'ol M O M! I know my mother did the best she could, I hope I do better, and I hope Carson does even better than I did! It's what we are suppose to hope for right?

Amarillo by mornin' ..........

Last weekend we went to visit a longtime GF of mine. We met years ago while she worked at Baylor with me. She is now a FT SAHM. We had never been to Amarillo and were pleasantly surprised by all there is to see and do out there. We went to Cadillac Ranch, where the Cadillacs are buried in the ground and you spray paint them. I have pics, but in my other memory card. We also went to a really cool musical called "Texas." It is held in Palo Duro Canyon and the back drop is the canyon. They use live horses and lots of lights and singing and dancing. At the end there was a small fireworks show. It brought back flashbacks for me of a similar production that El Paso does, and it is called "Viva EL PASO!" Pretty much the same thing. We got home pretty late (12:00am) and decided to jump into the pool anyway. Whew! The next morning I was feeling it. I am too old to party like a rock star people! Sunday was great and laid back. We went out to play with the horses and had lunch then hit the road. It was a fast and furious visit, filled with lots of laughs and fun times. Nobody expected it to be a 6 hour drive from here, but it is. No matter how ya slice it. Misty has a beautiful LARGE house. The kids really enjoyed themselves and she was a wonderful hostess! I wish I had been feeling better. On Thursday before we left I had been running a fever and felt horrible. I am so glad we did not stay home.
It took me pretty much all week to recover from the trip and squeeze in working 2 days this past week. I finally feel back on track. We went to church this morning and the sermon was awesome. The title of this series is Experience the Impossible. I have to share a profound part of it. It began with this statement up on the screen:
Attempt something so impossible, that unless God is in it. It is doomed for failure.
What else can I say?

Happy Birthday America!!

I hope everyone had a happy festive 4th. We had a quiet one at home. I came down with a summer cold and was still a bit lethargic. I LOVE fireworks!! I think they are so romantic, and beautiful. I am sad that I did not get to see them this year. Life will go on. I have been so busy, with the kids and I actually got in a few days of work, and I even went to the gym a few times. Our water class is getting soooo full! Uncomfortably full. Since the weather is pretty, well, not exactly pretty. If you call high 90's with tons of humidity pretty, then you know what I'm talking about. I guess I should rephrase that, at certain times of the day, the weather is pretty enough to get some exercise outside. I have been walking the dogs and they are loving it! I was so pleased with myself the other night. I went for a late night walk, and when we got back both dogs, just fell on the cool tile and were panting and panting. The next day they both slept in! That NEVER happens. I took Carson and my neighbor swimming and I got called "Brazilian!" My neighbor said, that cuz I have gotten so tanned and I was wearing my hat (gotta protect the roseca) sitting in the pool, under the umbrella, I had that look. I've been called many things before, but that was a first. I am going to start my "vision" board. I think it will help me stay focused. It took me awhile to find one that I liked and thought would work. Now I need to decide where I am going to put it. I have to set some major goals. I don't think I've made progress, cuz I don't have a goal. I am very goal oriented. I'll take a pic when I get it up and going. That's all for now. Ciao

Rollercoaster Ride!

I can't believe I'm such a slacker at my postings! I really thought, I would be posting like 2-3 times a day. I'm averaging maybe 6 a month. Pitiful!

So, I've know what I wanted to write about for some time now. I have just been trying to work up my nerve. There have been so many things going on, I'm impressed with myself that I am not in a constant hair pulling, full blown crying, major DIVA mode.

I guess I should begin by telling you my husband has a new job. Yea him! I however have had some major difficulty dealing with it. I am the one that does the bills, handles all the finances and ANY paperwork that comes into this house. He has no clue. He is a hard working husband that just pretty much hands over his pay check and lets me take care of it. We did negotiate a higher pay, but the benefits is what really had me on the fence about the entire deal. They would NOT start benefits until 30 days after being on the job. I didn't even know companies still did that!! I did not want to go through Cobra, it's so darn expensive.
I recently have been talking to a friend of mine that has a brain tumor and was postponing her surgery until August. We discussed her reasons why she wanted to wait. Out of nowhere I was more blunt than I intended to be and told her that maybe this was happening because she had to let go and give God control. Long story short, she talked to her husband, talked to another GF that pretty much told her the same thing, that she is a control freak (not my words) and after about 10days since our talk, she called and rescheduled her surgery for next week. A dear friend of mine, once told me that the trials we go through are usually to learn something.
Well, just cuz you are suppose to practice what ya preach, guess what happened to me????
Since I knew our benefits were changing, I felt I did not want to leave any "money" on the table. I thought I would take care of as many annuals as I could. As I have mentioned before I turned 40, which meant I needed a mammogram this year. I had one done when I was 35 to establish a baseline. It's the Monday of my husbands last week at his job, and I get a phone call at work. Apparently, I had to return for more testing. There was something that was on my films that they wanted to get more pics of, and they wanted me in "this" week!! OH MY GOSH! Talk about, freak out. It was an internal freak out. I was at work. I had to keep my composure. I know I can handle whatever this "thing" is. I was completely freaked out about the insurance situation. We were going to lose benefits in a few days. What if they tell me, I need a biopsy? What if I need surgery? The big one, I did not even want to think about, what if it was cancer?? Would the new insurance cover me with a pre-exsiting condition?? I was a wreck. By the grace of God, I managed to get in on Wednesday. It is a SUPER long story about my visit, but I will say that bottom line, I have to go back again in 6 months for another follow up to see if "it" is getting any bigger. Like I said, practice what ya preach. I had to completely give control up to God. Do you know how hard that is, as a health care worker?? Lesson learned.
My emotions had been all over the map in 3 days. I don't know why, but it always seems when God moves in my life, it happens in many areas at once. I guess, that is how an extremist like me functions best. All or none.
I am standing firmly in faith that everything will be okay. I have turned it over and am not worried about "it" and the insurance. I will go through what I am suppose to, knowing, that he is with me. It's a thin line between denial and turning over control. I don't deny the situation, I just keep telling myself, the outcome has already been determined and I am taken care of by the best Doctor there is!!

Friday the 13th

Ohhhh, It's Friday the 13th! How did your day go? Ours went well at Chica's house. As each day of summer goes by, I have to remind myself of my goal this summer. I gave birth to polar opposites. They are only 2 1/2 years apart. Perfect, according to many child experts. Yeah right! One boy, one girl, different interests, different toys, different friends....
This summer I am determined to get them to "bond."
I have this line my kids are going to grow up telling their kids about. Hmm, I'll say it. Don't anyone freak out. I've never done, nor do I intend to do it. I want "just the thought of it" to be enough for them. So, here it is. I threaten them when they are frighting that I am going to duck tape them together until they get along. I've explained to them, it would be like a 3-legged race type thing. Ahh, how what you say, can come back and haunt you.
It was my daughter's school field day. I was in line to pick up, when I notice the music teacher coming towards my car. Instantly, my mind starts racing.... what did one of them do. I roll down the window and she has this big smile on her face. It's not often, but it happened to be a time when the hubbster and I were picking them up together. She walks over to his side of the car. I was driving. She tells us that she was in charge of the 3-legged race at field day and she had to tell us what Carson told her. "It was the funniest thing" she says. Apparently, when Carson got done with the race, she looks at her and in a completely serious face says, "OMG! Now I know what my Mom is talking about when she says she is going to duct tape me and my brother together! That was hard!!" I red face explained to her, why she said that and then she adds, "Oh yea, she told me that her and her brother don't get along." Great! It's one of those great Carson moments, you just gotta love. My child has no filter. She has a thought and her mouth spurts it out.
I mention this, cuz today, it crossed my mind. Oh boy, did it cross my mind. I have yet to carry it out, but the thought that she now knows what I'm talking about is now pretty interesting.

Strange Noises....

Just like all professional dieters, I too have tried my hand at a few diets, programs, fads, tricks, and anything else people told me would work. One program that gave me the most success talked about letting yourself get hungry. You knew you were there, when you heard your stomach growl. The concept was, that if your stomach is full, it will not make any noise. It was to train you to learn about "hunger." The other day while at the dentist, I heard the assistants stomach growl. Let me give you a visual of her. She is a cute, young, blonde, petite female. Not at all the physique of someone who routinely overeats. Pretty much, we all heard it, and she made a comment to try and not be so embarrassed about it. When I heard it, it got me thinking.... when was the last time I heard "my" stomach growl??? I couldn't remember. That's because I keep it full! duh, chica!
I took the kids to a matinee today. During the middle of it, I heard it!! LOUD and CLEAR! I just smiled. I have been trying to work on portion control. I felt good that I was not keeping myself so full. Now, before I hear it from the professional dieters, I know it's not good to get too hungry. That's the key. It's like walking a tight rope. Learning how to keep your balance, so you don't slip and fall.