Checking In from the Library

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm still alive. Here I sit at the library again...wishing we could afford a new computer...or at least a new harddrive for the old one. We've been kinda busy with other things in life to even get the thing checked out. I will definitely try to do that soon.

You don't realize how much you rely on these things until yours dies. We do our banking and pay almost all of our bills online these days...not to mention keeping up with what's going on with family, friends and church members...I just read a prayer request for my friend Jody. Apparently, she's in the hospital about to give birth...(or perhaps she already has). I'm going to have to run and make a few phone calls, find out what the scoop is. It is a few weeks early for this little one to arrive, but Jody is farther along in this pregnancy than she was with either of her other children. Keep her and the new little bundle in your prayers please. Thanks

Sad News and Prayer Request

Just a note here to let people know that my step-daughter, Ruth suffered a miscarriage yesterday at 21 weeks. She and her fiance, Dan are doing as well as can be expected in a situation such as this. They named the baby boy Jeremiah James and a graveside service will most likely be held for him this Friday afternoon, here in our home town for family and close friends. Please keep Ruth and Dan and their families in your prayers. Thank you.

Week 17 Weigh-In ~ 30 lbs gone!

Actually, 30.6 in almost 4 months. That's almost as much as my grandson, CJ weighs...and he gets awfully heavy after just a few minutes. I feel much better with even that amount off. My knees don't bother me at all, and I think I just have more energy. I would really like to have 50 lbs off by our anniversary on September 30, but maybe 40 is a more realistic goal. If I actually do get 50 lbs off, I hereby promise to post the (fully clothed) picture of my butt that CJ snapped with my camera last year on that date, along side a current one of my (somewhat smaller behind). The photo was taken with my old fashioned film type camera at a hotel we were at in Sioux Falls last year. The film was still in the camera until just recently when I got them developed and discovered the not-so-flattering picture of my patoot. CJ was not even quite 3 years old then, but he was already a budding photographer.

I'm still computer-less. Right now, I'm at my friend Lisa's house blogging right alongside of her. Actually, she's busy ignoring her family and entering giveaways at the moment. Their livingroom is a bit like a computer lab with 3 machines going all at once. Thanks for sharing your computer, Lisa!

My Computer is Toast!

Or so it seems for the moment anyway. I tried to restart it yesterday, because it was acting stupid...that was a mistake. I have not been able to restart it since. It just keeps flashing from one screen to another. I even tried to start it up in "safe" mode...that was a no go too.

Right now I'm posting this at the public library while I wait for an oil change to be done on my vehicle. Hopefully, we'll be able to get something figured out...or I won't be blogging for awhile.

We do have another one, that MIGHT work...we have to get something figured out. We can't afford a new computer, and I don't know if I can live without one without going stir crazy.

I'll get back online again somehow tomorrow, (even if it means another trip to the library) and let y'all know if we've made any progress.

Week 16 Weigh In ~ Missed It by THAT Much!

I was really hoping to have 30 lbs off by this week, but I don't. I lost 2.2 lbs this week for a total of...(drum roll please)...29 lbs gone!!! I'll take it. Now if I can just keep it up and lose a few more this week. One thing that did happen with this weeks weigh in, was that the second digit of my weight dropped to the next lower digit. I'm pretty sure that means I lose another point. You pretty much lose a point with every 1o lbs you lose.

To figure out how many points you are allowed per day, one of the criteria is the first two digits of your starting weight. From there, they add points for different things ~ like being a certain age, (younger than I am), being male (obviously not me), or being over 6 ft tall, (nope, not me either). You are also allowed extra points for the activity level in your daily routine. When I started out the program, I could have a total of 30 pts per day. By contrast, my hubby, who was 300 lbs, happens to be male, is over 6 ft tall and works quite hard at times was allowed a whopping 44 points per day. That's a LOT of points, but we figured he had been eating a LOT MORE pre-Weight Watchers.

I'm very proud of him, he's probably lost somewhere around 35 lbs, so he's lost a few points too... I think I'm right around 27 now myself. It's all good, I think my stomach has shrunk too, so it's not like I feel hungry at the end of the day...and if I do, I can always munch on veggies...they're what we like to call "pointless".

Beth Was Awesome as Usual

Not that I've ever seen her in person before, but I have done some of her video bible studies in the past. She was great, and I had a wonderful weekend with friends. Sarah and I had a little trouble getting to the Target center in the first place, but once we got there, we had really good seats, thanks to our friends, Cheryl and Lyn who were volunteer "encouragers". Beth was as funny as ever too, and even put on her cheese hat as she announced they will be doing a conference in Green Bay WI next year.

This is Travis Cottrell, he was the worship leader. He has a very powerful voice, and even performed a new song he wrote recently. At the end of the conference on Saturday, the worship team started us off with a few songs and eventually the instruments all dropped out, and then the team quietly slipped off the stage. I had closed my eyes during this time...and was surprised when I opened them to find them gone. It sounded pretty cool to have that many people, (mostly women of course), singing praises to the Lord together.

Beth is so personable, everyone that knows of her at all thinks of her as their "best friend". She would go and sit and chat with people in the audience. Here she is picking on some guy that came to the conference with his wife.

After talking to him, she turned and saw this little 10 year old girl named Anna, and talked with her a bit. She asked her if her mother had dragged her there, or if Anna had wanted to come. Little Anna replied that she had seen Beth in SD and enjoyed it so she wanted to come again.

We all had a great time, and had a few laughs walking around the city and eating at the 8th Street Grill. We had 4 ladies in our hotel room, which only had double size beds. I joked that Sarah and I were sleeping "triple" in a double bed...because Sarah is expecting, of course. Ray was not far away, so he picked me up from the hotel, and another lady was nice enough to ride home with Sarah, so she wouldn't have to go solo.

I'm Off To See Beth!

I am going to the Beth Moore conference with a group of women from my church. Some of us have done several of her bible studies over the past few years, which all had videos that went along with them. I have always enjoyed these studies, because she's so good at relating to other women. During almost every video lesson, if you looked around the room, everyone was laughing, or crying...or crying until we laughed. Come to think of it, I should really pack my purse with a bunch of Kleenex right now.

It should be an inspirational and fun weekend. I also get to spend tonight in a hotel room with 3 other women...that should be interesting too! Although, we won't be done until 9:30 tonight, and the doors open at 7:30 tomorrow morning...so I guess we'll have to get some sleep...I've never done anything like this before, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll let y'all know how it went.

Wordless Wednesday #7 ~ A Great-Great Grandma Who's a Real "Swinger"

This was taken at the party on Sunday. Someone noticed my 76 year old mother on the swing. By the time I got over there to take this pic, she said, "I'm getting off, I'm drawing a crowd." Too bad I didn't get a picture of her riding bicycle around the park a little later.

Coincidental Connections?

I've heard it said that everyone in the world is connected by 6 degrees or less. Ever since I started attending our church here in P-town, about 7 years ago, I have run into people there that have some kind of connection to me and or my family. Granted, they are all Minnesota connections...but are pretty much spread throughout the state, which leads me to believe that everyone in MN is connected by only one or two degrees. Here are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head...

1. There is a woman named Mary Lynn, who went to Apollo H.S. like I did, (about 30 miles away from here), I didn't know her then, but her brother, Gary was in my homeroom. He and I graduated from there way back in 1976.
2. I moved to Rice, MN in 1985. A few years later, someone named Brian moved into the house directly across from us with his 6 yo daughter, Charissa. Brian is a brother to Bob...who is married to Mary Lynn, (see above coincidence), and his daughter and my daughter, Jessica have been bff's for over 20 years now!
3. My sister, Kathy did not go to the same H.S as I did, Mom and Dad had moved by then, so she went to Rocori. Jody, who is one of my best friends from church went to the same school, her sister graduated with my sister in 1987.
4. My kids did not go to the same H.S. as I did either, they went to Sauk Rapids High. Another one of my best friends, Sarah attended the same school and at the same time as my oldest son, Jeremy.
5. Sarah is married to Terry. Terry's mom, Cheryl was a Cubmaster in Staples, MN at the same time I was a Cubmaster in Rice, MN. Coincidentally, we have discovered that their family and mine attended some of the same family camps at Parker Scout Reservation, and that Terry and his brother played together there with my two sons, Jeremy and Joel.
6. A couple of years ago, while I was on the 30 year reunion committee for my class, one of my classmates, Dave, came to a meeting and said that his son had been in a terrible skiing accident and asked if we would keep him in our prayers. At the time, I was going to a bible study at the home of a friend from church named Lyn. During our prayer time, I brought up wanting to pray for Dave's son. When Lyn asked what their last name was...we discovered that she actually sorta dated him for awhile before either of them met their spouses. They had met at a completely different church near the twin cities.
7. Then there's the man named Tom from our church. It turns out, his parents, (who live in Brainerd, MN), are very good friends with my parents, who live in Cold Spring, MN. They belong to the same antique truck club, with his dad being president of the club. My dad is the vice president, and my mother the secretary of this club.
8. Now this one may be the weirdest...About 11 years ago, my niece Jackie, started doing foster care. She took in two siblings to begin with. Their names were Joey and Krissy. She had Joey for about a year and a half, and Krissy a little longer. Eventually, Joey's dad got custody of him and they moved here to P-town. Unbeknownst to me, I have known Joey for the past 5 or 6 years from church. I never put it together, since he had a different name back then, and I hadn't seen him in a few years. Oh...and get this, Joey's best friend's name is Drew, who just happens to be the son of one my very best friends, Lisa! So now Joey has graduated from H.S. and is going into the Marines and Jackie, (who is now in the process of adopting Joey's 2 sisters), had a party for him on Sunday. Here is a picture of some of my family with Drew and Joey in it. (back l to r), Drew, Joey's sister Krissy, Joey, his cousin Kim, Janessa's boyfriend. (front l to r) my brother Bob (bending over), my nephew Tiegen, nieces Katie, Sarah (holding Elizabeth) and grand-niece, Janessa. Just think, I was Joey's foster great-aunt for awhile!

What do you think of all these little "coincidences"? Every time I find a new one, it just confirms for me that I am right where God wants me to be...at least as far as church is concerned, that is.

Week #15 weigh-in ~ Hangin' in there...

Considering the busy week I had, I was really afraid I'd gained a pound or two...or more. It wasn't that bad...I only gained .4 lb. That's not even half a pound. With Ladie's Night Out on Friday night, (where one of our favorite activities is EATING), company all weekend, and a family potluck picnic on Sunday...it got kinda hard to keep track of my points. Actually, I probably quit counting all together long about Thursday. Oh well, I did get my "clapping hands" charm with the number 16 on it tonight, because it was my 16th meeting. However, I'm counting it as week 15 weigh-in because, that's how many weeks I've been on the program.

I'll get back on program this week and try to get some walking in. I don't think I got any of that in last week either. It will come off...it will come off...it will come off. I think that's why they call it will power.

Playing Catch Up

We had a very busy weekend, with a house full of people. Both of Ray's daughters, Sarah and Ruth had come with their SO's, Brad and Dan, so we could all be there when his son Dan's wife Terianna and our newest grandson, Hayden arrived for a short visit from OR on Saturday.

Here is Grandpa Ray with his first (bio) grandson. Not that he doesn't treat my 2 like they are his own grandkids, but I think there is something special about holding your own son's son:

Hayden is a real sweetie pie, and was happy and smiling almost the whole time he was at our house. He didn't seem a bit scared of any of us "strangers", which I was a little concerned he might be. Here he is with Auntie Sarah. Uncle Brad is in the background:

Here's another one with "Auntie Molly":

Here's a couple taken by Molly while his mama was feeding him. I think Molly could have a promising career as a baby photographer. She seems to have a knack for it:

We had a great visit with Hayden and his mom, Terianna. His father, Dan was not able to come this time, but he will be coming for two weeks at the end of September and will be bringing Hayden back again. It will be fun to see how much he has grown and changed by then. Hopefully, he'll remember us all at least a little, by the time he comes back.

Late for Ladies Night Out

We had our monthly "Ladies night out" on Friday night at church. We don't actually go "out" we just get out of the house and get together at church to play games, talk, eat and laugh our fool heads off. Anyway, the girls all know that I am usually a little late for this event, but Friday night I had a pretty good excuse. We had some rather severe storms in the area, and it was pretty nasty out just about the time I should have left to go.

My step-daughter, Ruth and her fiance had just arrived for the weekend, and they were contemplating runnig to McD's to pick up food for themselves and my dd, Molly. There were no tornado warnings out for our area, but there were severe thunderstorm warnings. They had just decided to make a quick run, when Ruth looked out the window and said, "I guess nobody's going anywhere for awhile." We all looked out the window, and this is what we saw across the driveway:Thankfully, Ray came home a little later and he and Dan, (Ruth's fiance), sawed some of the branches off and cleared the driveway. Meanwhile though, I had called Jody at LNO and explained the situation. She said, "I'll be right there to pick you up". What a great friend!

Here's what it looks like from the house. A rather large branch of the same tree had been broken off in a storm last August, while we were gone on vacation. As you can see, half of the tree is still there...I kinda wish the whole thing would have gone. We were planning on getting rid of that one anyway. I wonder if it's less expensive to get rid of half of a tree...

Wordless Wednesday #6 ~ My Birthday Party Invite

(Designed by my talented sister, Kathy)

Another Busy Week Ahead...

On Saturday, we finally get to meet baby Hayden! Hayden is the son of my step-son, Dan and his wife, Terianna, or "T" as they call her for short. He is 6 mos. old, but we haven't met him yet because they live in OR. T and Hayden are coming to MN for her grandmother's birthday party this weekend. We were going to have to drive up to the casino where they will be staying for the weekend, but Ray talked to Dan last night, and now T and Hayden are going to be dropped off at our house for a few hours, so we can visit and then we'll drive them back up to the casino. Dan is not coming to MN with them for this visit. He will be coming back to visit with Hayden in September.

Here's the thing though...Ray's daughter, Sarah and her husband, Brad are coming down on Friday night, and his daughter, Ruth and her fiance, Dan are also coming to spend the night that night so that everyone will get a chance to see Hayden and T on Saturday. That means I have to find room for them all to sleep, which can be done...it just means making sure all the rooms are actually clean...including the 11teen year olds! I usually just close the door to that room and pretend it doesn't exist. I also have to rent or borrow a carpet shampooer to clean the living room floor. I have a carpet steamer, but it isn't working properly, so I haven't cleaned them in quite awhile. With Hayden at the sitting up/crawling stage, I don't want him crawling around on our disgusting looking carpets. So I have my work cut out for me this week.

Molly has a swim party to go to on Wed, at a local hotel. The birthday girl's mom asked if I would stay and help supervise. That's fine, but it pretty much shoots Wed afternoon for cleaning. Friday night is ladies night at church, so I have to have everything done before I go. And then will come the fun of trying to keep the house picked up on Saturday morning with 7 of us people and at least one dog in the house. I also need to run to St. Cloud and take care of some business one day this week. I'm thinking of doing that today, just to get it over and done with.

Week 14 Weigh-in ~ Back on "Target"

Yippee! I did it! I had originally wanted to get to my "target weight" by my birthday, and I was within a pound of that goal the last 2 weeks. This week, I lost 2.2 lbs., which puts me a little past my goal. I received my 10% key chain, so I now have something to put my 25 lb charm on. This is what the key chain looks like:

I'm not sure if it was because I was chasing Shelby around this weekend, or exactly why I did so well this week, but I'll take it. I have been trying to get some walking in each week, and probably did that a couple of times last week too. The only thing is, I have to get up early and do it before it gets to hot. I've found that I look forward to walking more when I borrow a "book on cd" from the library, but it in my personal cd player, and listen to a story while I walk. This works whether I do my walking outside, or inside on the treadmill. My hubby just fixed the AC last night, (thank you, Honey!), so now I can walk indoors if the weather is not nice outdoors. The trick is, to only let myself listen to the story while I'm walking or doing some other unpleasant task-like washing the dishes, or scrubbing the kitchen floor-which also gains me "activity points".

I'm thinking that the rest of the Summer should be pretty much smooth sailing as far as staying on program. The grad parties are done, the camping weekend is over, I survived my birthday and 4th of July weekend. I'm sure there will be other occasions to accidentally overindulge, but for the most part, I'm safe.

Adventures in Babysitting!?!?

This weekend, I volunteered to watch my sweet little 5 yo niece, Shelby, who happens to have been born with Down Syndrome. I soon discovered it was going to be an even more interesting weekend than I had anticipated. We picked her up from my sister yesterday after the parade, and hung around for some of the other festivities in town. She and I enjoyed dancing to one of the bands that played there during the day, and played on the playground there at my old grade school.

On our way home, we decided to stop and pick up a couple of things at ShopKo. I knew Shelby probably needed a change, and she told me she had to go potty. Ok, I took her into the larger handicapped size stalls, and we did our business in there. When I walked out, she promptly closed the door behind me...and quick-as-wink...locked it. Oh goody-now what? I tried my coaxing skills with her, but she wasn't having any of that. She had a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye the whole time she stood there, refusing to come out. Finally, not having my 11yo with me in the bathroom, I decided the only way to get her out was to slide under the stall door and get her...but the moment she saw me doing that-she promptly slid under the stall to the adjoining one, and had that one locked too, lickety-split! Okay, I'll try the coaxing thing again. "Shelby, would you like some candy?", "Yes." "Than you have to come out.", "No", "Then you can't have any candy." "Please?" It was evident this was getting me no where...so I slid under that door and got her out of there. Thankfully, she didn't crawl into the next one this time. I was thinking while sliding under the door, that it's a good thing I lost weight. I may not have been able to get under the door without getting stuck otherwise. Wouldn't that have been a hoot??



I have also figured out that you don't tell Shelby something if you're not going to do it...she's smart as a whip and has a one track mind...she will NOT let you forget it. This morning, she wanted to go to her house. I told her her mom wasn't there. She said, "Amber?" I said, "Yes, your big sister Amber is there." She asked if she could go see Amber and like a fool I replied, "Maybe later". She has been asking me all day, "Go see Amber???" Right now the little darling is napping, and I should go get a few things done around here before she wakes up. I have to watch her like a hawk when she's awake, because she loves to unlock doors and run outside. I guess she likes to LOCK doors too.

Parade Highlights!

Yesterday, we headed to the town I grew up in, (which is about an hour West of where I live now), for their big July 4th festivities. For as long as I can remember, almost every year of my life, I have either been in or sat and watched this parade. For the most part, you see the same floats and entries year after year...but here are a couple of my favorites. My parents own a 1963? Ford convertible, so are asked to have either the grand marshal or some other parade royalty ride in it each year. This year, they had the honor of escorting the senior citizen King and Queen. They had one of my little nephews, and one of my little nieces along for the ride. There was another entry we first saw in last year's parade. It's pretty impressive. A local towing company lines up all of their trucks...and the first truck tows the next one, which tows the next one...and so on...and so on. I believe I counted about a dozen trucks here. It looks pretty cool, but I'm not sure how they take corners. Very carefully I guess.

Here are a couple of other pics that my hubby and I took:

Small Town...Big Fireworks Display!

Our town has been putting on a fireworks display for about 7 years now. I have been to displays in larger cities, but they are not necessarily any better than the one we get to see in our little town. We don't generally have them exactly on the fourth, in fact, they were on the third this year because they are held at the local speedway, which holds races every Friday night. I was trying out my new camera last night, and here is a sample of what I caught. I thought it was an especially good show this year, even though I ended up watching most of it through the small screen on my new camera. My only wish would be that one of these years they would update their whole speaker system, so that the patriotic music they play along with the fireworks extravaganza didn't sound so much like the old car window speakers we used to listen to at the outdoor drive-in theater.

I was watching the video I had shot with my camera, and thinking back to when I was a kid, (you know, back in the olden days), when we would see one firework set off at a time by hand. Each one would be followed by a collective oooooooooh, aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, or OOOOOOHHHH...from the crowd...in sequential order. It was like it was all scripted, everyone said the same thing at the same time. After all, you wouldn't want to be caught "aaaaaahhhh"ing when you should have been "oooohhhhh"ing!
Back then, it seemed like the shows lasted for hours, and they probably did - since they were mostly lit one by one. They were nothing like the displays of today, which have sometimes made us wonder if they had accidentally triggered them all at once. Anyway, it was a great show as usual, and hopefully, the community will continue to support it so that generations to come can enjoy them in the future. I am going to try to post a video of the grand finale here:

Wanted: For Kidnapping!!!

Kidnapped again!!! They did it, they got me again. I had just returned from shopping yesterday, I pulled in my driveway and got a call from my friend Lisa. She says, "Where are you?" as if she'd been searching for me for awhile. "I just got home", I replied. She keeps chatting with me while I'm bringing the items I purchased into the house...and all of a sudden, there is a white pick-up truck pulling in my driveway behind me. I say out loud, "Now who's pulling in my driveway?", to which Lisa replies, "That's me". She, her mother, Pauline, and our good friend, Jody have come to "kidnap" me and take me out for my birthday. We were to pick up the other co-conspirator on the way. Some of you know her as Sassyfrazz, but we just call her Sarah. They had done the same thing to me last year, and then we went on to kidnap the rest of them for their birthdays too. Last night, we went to Applebees because I knew they had WW friendly meals there. We had a great time, and I even got the happy birthday song sung to me by the wait staff, along with my free birthday sundae. Thank you ladies, for another memorable birthday kidnapping!

Believe it or not, last year was not the first time I was kidnapped. That was exactly 50 years ago today! Yes, I was all of 4 days old, so I don't remember it very well. However, I've been told that my very first Independence Day was quite eventful. After a fun filled day that included my first boat ride, Mom and Dad had taken me and my 4 older siblings to a fireworks celebration in a nearby town. Dad took the other kids to watch the fireworks, and Mom was supposed to go get Dad to watch me in the car as soon as I went to sleep. As she left to get him, he was already on his way back to the car. Mom and Dad both returned to where they had left the car...but it wasn't there!
After frantically running down a long winding road looking for the car, (and me), they found it closer to the main road than it had been...and me...still asleep inside of it. We're pretty sure the would-be car thieves discovered me in the back, and did NOT want to add kidnapping to the list of crimes they might be charged with. It now seems to be somewhat of a tradition for me to be kidnapped around this time of year.

Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry Reminder!!!

The newest VeggieTales DVD will arrive in Christian book stores on the 12th of this month, and will be available in other stores on the following Tuesday 7/15! Here is a brief synopsis:

Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue On July 12, join Huckleberry Larry and Tomato Sawyer for a wild ride down the mighty Mississippi! When Tomato and Huck meet a stranger in need, they discover that while helping others may not be the easiest thing to do, it's always the right thing to do! This heartwarming story is based on the Biblical lesson of helping others inspired by James 4:17:
Anyone, then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. - NIV

As I have mentioned before, I am an ambassador for Big Idea. They used to send us screener DVD's when new movies came out, but I guess they're not doing that anymore, so I have not seen it in its entirety yet. They have made video previews available for us to post on our blogs etc. and I have one posted at the bottom of this page. Just scroll down to check it out. It looks like another winner.

Wordless Wednesday #5~ Forty Pound Frog!

Week 13 Weigh-in ~ Maintaining???

Well, all things considered, I think I did pretty good. With camping all weekend and then the big birthday party, I did have a bit of a gain this week...I was up a whole .2 lb! I don't really call that much of a gain, it's actually like 3 oz. That could just be th difference in scales, or maybe if I'd gone to the bathroom one more time??? The only reason it bothered me at all was that I had really wanted to get to my target weight by my birthday, and I was sooo close. I'm still within a pound though...and I still have 25+ lbs off, so I can live with that.

The only problem is...after going out last night, I prolly have a little more to take off...and then there's the whole July 4th weekend coming up... Oh well, there will always be some challenges I guess. I should be getting my 16 week charm in a couple of weeks, and I'll be happy if I have the key chain to put it on by then. I'll just keep plugging along here, and someday...I'll get to my ultimate goal.
I DID wear the size 16 jeans last night though...and they actually fit pretty good! Gotta love S-T-R-E-T-C-H Denim!!!

Great news!!! There were several people that gave me cash for my birthday, to go toward my digital camera fund...Ray put in the rest and bought me a really nice one last night!!! Woohoo! I'm still trying to figure it out, so I'll have to post some pics of my 0ther presents later today.