Always something going on....

Feeling good

2011-10-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

Third day...this is about the most consistent I have been with Cardio in about 13 years!!

Monday- 40 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday- 35 minutes on the different elliptical

Wednesday 32 minutes running.

I am at 107 minutes out of 300.

How am I going to meet that goal? I have 193 minutes to go..

Here's a plan:

60 minutes of Zumba Thursday

Spin Class Friday morning 60 minutes

Running with the girls for 73 minutes...what will that be..5-6 miles?? That's doable.

Food wise doing very well, except I slipped up and had some pretzel m & m's this morning from the office supply store...oh well..

A good day!

2011-10-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a win. I had a good plan for food, packed my lunch, and even went to the gym. I had a fleeting thought of skipping it as my car was headed towards the exit off the freeway..but I fought the urge to keep going and turned right instead.

Slept like a baby too!

I'm back!!!

2011-10-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long time since I updated this blog...because...like the name says..there's always something going on......

I decided to fire it up on the blogging front again to keep track of my progress as I train for something very, very hard....

Yep, Trevor and I have signed up for the Tough Mudder Arizona, on January 15th, 2012. It should be interesting, and I hope it will be motivating enough to get me out there and get in shape! I've gained about 30 lbs since my lowest point after my weight loss surgery, and I would like to lost that, plus about 10 more.

So..loosely..here's the plan:

Clean up my eating; I'll be committing to trying to Eat Clean...I have one of the books, and it seems doable. My biggest challenges are eating enough protein, and not eating every thing in the house in the evening after say....6pm.

Cardio/running: I need to get serious about cardio and running. Here's a big fat secret, I know..all these people say that when you have weight loss surgery (or the vertical Sleeve gastrectomy, like I did) you MUST exercise consistently to lose weight. That's not true. You will lose weight..I lost 100lbs in just over a year..and I really didn't exercise all that much..ran a couple of miles 3 times a week-maybe. The big thing is keeping weight off, and continuing to lose...that is the kicker. I think if I had done cardio consistently from the beginning, I don't think I'd have gained as much. So...my goal is this:

5 hours a week- accumulated throughout the week. This morning I ran for 30 minutes, and I'm even thinking of going to the gym this afternoon for a little elliptical...we'll see.

STRENGTH: If I'm going to have any hope at all of doing the monkey bars in the mudder, I must get stronger, so I'll need to start lifting again.

This week I also hiked at Mt. Lemmon with my mom and sister, but since I officially signed up for the Mudder yesterday, I'm not counting that as part of my time for the week.

So, this was the workout for today...so far.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

The month of January was a little odd for us. I started out well, and after the terrible events in our town on the 8th, things just kind of went....ugh...

So..starting out again with blogging...Here's what we're eating this week.

Monday- Nutty Chicken Stir Fry (since this post is being written on Tuesday, I can tell you this recipe is fabulous!)

Tuesday- Spaghetti, Asparagus, Garlic Bread..Mr. G is cooking...

Wednesday- Pork Chops and green beans

Thursday- Meatloaf in the crockpot....

Friday- Clean out the refrigerator night.

This weekend we will be out of town.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-02T19:23:00.001-08:00

Monday	Bruschetta Chicken Bake
Tuesday	Crockpot Meatballs and Gravy
Wednesday	Grilled Chicken
Thursday	Beef Stroganoff
Friday	Meatloaf
Saturday	Burgers on George
Sunday	Spaghetti?

Getting organized at the New Year is so fun!!

Within the next 3 months, I plan to...

2011-01-02T19:03:00.001-08:00

So far for the next 3 months, I have a few things planned! Currently on the definite list is:

Speak to a group of first time 1/2 marathoners in Phoenix on January 15th
Run a 1/2 marathon in late March (Oro Valley 1/2, not sure of the date)
Go to the gym regularly- there is a class on T, Th, and Saturday morning, and I would really like to make it there more often!
COMPLETE a training schedule before the Oro Valley 1/2
Turn my 2010 taxes in to the accountant by the end of January
Pack my lunch for work 4 days out of 5
Stick to my budget without any drafts from savings!
Drink 1 gallon of water every day

Ten memories from 2010

2011-01-02T18:50:00.001-08:00

This was a prompt from a scrapbooking board I read. I think it would be good for me to blog more frequently, and these daily prompts might help. When getting ready to write this, I got to thinking…gosh..what did I do in 2010??? So, here goes…

Mono- In late 2009, I’d been pretty tired and worn out, and finally went to the doctor in January of 2010, and was diagnosed with mononucleosis. Ugh!! I was very frustrated, really don’t know where it came from, no one else around me was sick. It took a very long time to get over, and I would say only in the past couple of months have I felt “recovered”.

Loewen reunion- In June, Hayley and I went to South Dakota for the Loewen reunion. It was very cold and rainy for the whole trip, but it was fun to see all my cousins.

Mexico- went to Mexico with my co-workers for our annual trip, this trip was probably my favorite of all the Mexico trips, because I brought Hayley and she was able to bring her friend Jenna. They had a blast!!

Running…I kept having to take breaks from running, due to the mono, but this year, I was able to do a really neat event. The Tempe 10 miler, sponsored by Aflac, had a special division for Cancer survivors called “Team Courage”. I had signed up before, but hadn’t been able to go for some reason or another. This year, although I hadn’t been running much, I decided to do it. I signed up, all my entry fees were paid, and they gave me a lot of neat things. It was very emotional to run this race, there were about 20 other members of Team Courage and it was really cool to be able to run.

Justin’s graduation….Justin graduated from high school in May. It was great for everyone.

Justin joined the Air Force, and Larry and I took a road trip to San Antonio in late October for his Basic Training graduation. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more patriotic! Very proud.

Marching Band, most Fridays this fall were spent at a football stadium. No…our team was horrible and lost all but 1 game. But the greatest fun was watching Hayley in the Marching band!! She played Bass drum no. 3.

Car drama…2010 was the year of car drama…my car. I had transmission problems, and got the bug out of the shop on New Years Eve 2009..and it still had problems. In late February, I had to have the timing belt and water pump replaced, and in August, I had more transmission problems!! I don’t think anything has caused me as much stress as that “year” of car problems. It got so I hated driving, anywhere. The great news is that VW has extended the warranty on my transmission, so I’ll hopefully be getting some money back on that soon.

Weight gain. 2010 saw me…along with my lack of activity, gain about 23lbs back that I had lost with my weight loss surgery. I have felt a bit bad about it, hated buying new pants, but am not too upset, I’m going to get back on track this year.

Go Cats! This year we went to 3 Wildcat basketball games and the UA-ASE football game!! Lots of fun, I love any time that Hayley gets to be around the UA Campus.

Wow…in thinking of these 10, I realize that 2010 was well…boring. Maybe it wasn’t, but I wasn’t really good at documenting it.

Action Sports International - www.asiorders.com

2010-11-19T12:12:00.000-08:00

Action Sports International - www.asiorders.com

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-10-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Life has been busy for us lately, but we have been getting back to a routine- Yay! Makes me squeal with delight!

Here's what's on the menu for this week:

Sunday Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes Have you tried these? I love them, so simple, and you get a recipe card to keep...will definitely do this one again.

Monday Crock Pot Taco Soup although as I type this, I recall forgetting to put the corn in....

Tuesday BBQ Beef sandwiches this is a new recipe...hope it is good, sounds like it will be

Wednesday... Grilled Chicken

Thursday.. Sonoran Hot Dogs

Friday- Nothing planned...I have Bunko, the daughter has a football game, so mr. is on his own!

Saturday night- Spending the Living Social deal I got last week for Boston's...

I made my bed!!!

2010-09-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to build this day bed since it first appeared on Knock Off Wood back in November. It was what I really wanted for my "craft/guest/Office" room. I finally got it done, and I'm so proud! I did buy the wrong wood the first time, I guess fiber board, even though it was cheaper is no good. It would split every time I tried to drill in to it. Another trip back to Home Depot for 3/4" MDF and I was back in business.

This thing is HEAVY! Super- duper solid. I'm still shopping for just the right baskets...for now, I just was sticking stuff in there to clean up the room. :)

Knock off Wood is now http://ana-white.com/

Lots of great ideas over here at Shanty2Chic's party!

Graphic Dining Room - 50 Comfy Cottage Rooms - Photos - CoastalLiving.com

2010-08-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Graphic Dining Room - 50 Comfy Cottage Rooms - Photos - CoastalLiving.com

Someday...where we have a large window in our dining room, I want French Doors like this...except we don't have a baby...and the view from our window will be of our side yard.

Patterned Kitchen Floors - 50 Comfy Cottage Rooms - Photos - CoastalLiving.com

2010-08-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Patterned Kitchen Floors - 50 Comfy Cottage Rooms - Photos - CoastalLiving.com

This post is about patterned Kitchen Floors, but what I really like is how just a couple of cabinets are painted white. hmmm....

How I’m going to duplicate this look….

2010-08-10T21:19:00.001-07:00

As I posted earlier, I really love this bedroom! I got to looking at the picture, thinking about how I would duplicate it. So, I thought I’d put some thoughts here. Our bedroom window is situated in the same place as this one, so luckily, not a whole lot of imagination is required!

1) Paint color. I have been thinking about this, the color currently on our walls is a dusty sage-y green color, and I like it, so I do believe that I’m keeping that for now.

2) Wall behind the bed.

I’m going to either wallpaper about 70% of the way to the ceiling with this beadboard wallpaper. I really like the crisp look of the wallpaper, and I can paint it an even nicer white if I want.

OR

I’m going to do this board and batten treatment.

Of the two, I kind of like the 2nd one, because of the architectural detail it would add to the house.

3) Nightstands

Of course we will build these awesome nightstands from Knock Off wood..(note- we only have a li- ttle ways to go before I finish the Stratton Daybed for our craft room! I’m not able to see a lot of the detail on the ones in the picture, but I’m ok with these.

4) Lamps- We just had a Family Dollar open last week, and for 20 bucks, I can get two silver lamps, I think they will work just fine, unless I see something at a garage sale or thrift store for less.

5) Bench- hmmm..still looking for options on that one.

6) Headboard, there are a zillion tutorials on how to make an upholstered headboard, so I think that’s what we’ll do.

7) White pillows, shams. I have these already, I do like the black trim around the edges, and how it’s repeated on the duvet. I wonder if I just can sew some ribbon onto the edges of my shams for some punch?

8) Duvet Cover- I know I can make this, just need to figure out a pattern, and then find the right color of green/gray. I like how the curtains match.

Ok..there’s some out loud thoughts on the bedroom. Of course all in good time, right?

New great room color

2010-08-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the test wall we painted to see if we liked the color we have been considering to repaint our walls. I love this color! It’s Valspar Wind Drift. It’s a blue/gray, and at times during the day it’s grayer than others.

I really like the crisp and airy look it gives to the house and the contrast with the floors. We aren’t sure yet when we’ll finish the rest of the great room. We have to rent a ladder to deal with the tall ceilings, but one of these weekends, we’ll get it done.

Here’s a picture to show the old wall color. We hadn’t re-hung the bamboo blinds up yet, so the sun doesn’t burn through the windows quite so brightly!

Things in my yard I haven’t killed….

2010-08-07T20:23:00.001-07:00

Last year, when I planted some vines, I posted pictures of them….giving them all equal billing. I picked 3, hoping that at least 1 would thrive in this heat.

Well, 2 out of 3 are still living, 1 is THRIVING.

First….the Caroline Jessamine…RIP. It did not live…dried up and died, of course if I had discovered that I had turned it’s water off completely…maybe it would have had a chance. Oh well…see ya!

Second, this guy…the Tangerine Crossvine, is living. It bloomed beautifully a few months ago, and after a couple of months of HOT weather, it’s still growing and it actually bloomed a few days ago, but the flowers faded in the heat pretty quickly. I’m looking forward to seeing how it does when the weather cools off.

And the winner is…..

Potato Vine….this stuff, I think, is impossible to kill, or at least so far…. It bloomed a bit this year, nice purple flowers, so I hope it will bloom nicely over the winter. It will take some trimming, but I like how it is trying to grow on the rebar vines on our wall.

Trailing lantana has proven to be a hardy plant for our yard. Most of the plants in the picture below are plants that I planted over a year ago. I guess I was supposed to cut them back in the spring to just about nothing, but I didn’t, so there is more green than flowers this year. I will trim them back this year, and hopefully they will bloom nicely again next spring. The yellow flowers were planted this spring (2010) and are doing great.

The tree too tough to die….. we bought trees from our local electric utility last Fall. They were cheap, 11.00 each. We bought a mesquite, an Arizona Ash, and a Desert Willow. We planted 2 of them right away, but weren’t crazy about the Desert Willow, so it sat in our side yard for a few months, in it’s container, with no water or care. We were cleaning up the yard one day, and I noticed that this tree was sprouting new leaves like crazy and doing really well! We figured once we put it in the ground, it would get the message that we kill every plant we try to grow, and proceed to die. Well, guess what?? It’s still living!! We planted it in our side yard, next to where we hope to someday have a patio outside our dining room.

It’s still a little scrawny, but growing like crazy, so it’s going to stay!

I thought I’d add a photo of the palo verde tree I bought Larry for his birthday/Valentine’s day… It’s doing well, and hopefully will give us lots of shade next year.

Here is the tree right after it was planted.

I have found my bedroom inspiration

2010-07-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

I think I've actually found a designer that combines a lot of the things I love. It's just a tiny bit country, but very clean and crisp and not too folksy. His name is Barclay Butera, and I think I'm in love. I guess that would explain the "B" on the pillow in that picture, huh? He even has a section on his website of desert designs. Really like the use of white and light. With it being so hot here, I am really into keeping things light and airy, but homey at the same time. We have struggled with our bedroom since we moved in and I really like the look of this room. I think I'll see what I can do to duplicate it.

Beadboard Wall: I think I can do this with beadboard wallpaper.

Paint: mmm..wonder what Mr. G will say about painting again.

Bedding, I can totally make that duvet.

Love the bench at the end of the bed, I can make that.

Headboard, I think I can make that too..

We'll see!

Pillow Mania

2010-07-04T19:43:00.001-07:00

We are in the process of “lightening” things up a bit in our great room. I think, looking back, that we picked too many warm tones when we painted. We have the very warm wood floor, and the peanut butter colored paint…everything just seemed too warm, not cooling. And here…….we need all the cooling we can get, real or imagined. I started by changing the red/gold/green curtains out for white ones a couple of months ago. We already had white slipcovers on the sofas, but the pillow covers were all warm reds, golds, and green. So this morning, I got a bit of motivation, and decided to whip some up! I made 5 new covers, and the best part is…I had all the fabrics and trims in my stash. I really like them, for them for the most part. Larry liked them too, he said “Jules, I love your pillows, you should sell them!” I love that man, he knows just how to stroke my ego. I am not starting a pillow making business, but I did really enjoy sewing them, sewing renews me like nothing else.

A few minutes ago, I prepped one of the walls for painting. It is going to be Winddrift which is a gray blue color. You can see in the above picture we’ve been experimenting with different samples. We’ll see….hence just painting 1 wall for now.

Treasure!

2010-07-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Wow..I guess it's been a really long time since I updated on here. Well, here i am!

I wanted to post pictures of the super crazy thrift store find that I scored last weekend. We stopped in to Savers, just to wander around a bit, and as I was thinking.."hmmm, they don't have much today...." I came around the corner and saw THIS! Except it was REALLY dirty, and sitting in two pieces. The hutch was on the floor a little ways away from the buffet...and it is Ethan Allen! Another lady spied it as I was looking at it, and she was circling like a shark, waiting to see if I was going to buy it or not. I called Larry over, convinced him to help me lift the hutch up onto the buffet to make sure it went together, and I was sold! The base was 9.99, and the hutch was 12.99! On Ebay there are pieces from the same collection selling for 250.00 !!!!! I am not sure if I am going to paint it, or leave it as is, we are getting ready to paint again, so it just might work the way it is. It is solid and heavy, I just love, love, love it. It needs new handles on one drawer, I might get little glass ones..not sure.

Linking to http://southernhospitalityblog.com/a-catholic-rummage-sale-part-ii/ for the Today's Thrifty Treasures.

I made this!

2010-05-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

Good Saturday morning!! This is my first weekend in a very long time where I have not had several things scheduled for Saturday. Love it. Going to spend some time in my craft/guest room/home office organizing, crafting, etc….

I wanted to post a picture of the bench I made about a month ago, I wanted to make a cute little vignette outside our dining room window, and I wanted a bench. I found the pattern for the Simple Spa Bench from Knock Off Wood and thought I could handle that. I went to Home Depot, got the guy to cut some pieces a little shorter for me so they fit in the Blazer, and that Saturday night…as Justin and Larry headed off to the races, I was building away!

Here it is, in all it’s cuteness. I see I still need to paint that side piece..and put some other “stuff” on the bottom shelf, but I kind of like it! Two out of the 3 geraniums are doing pretty well, not sure what Mr. Blue Pot is thinking….oh well, it will get very hot here in a few weeks and none of them will make it. I painted the pots with car model paint “borrowed” from my husbands stash, I had the red for the bench from painting our dining room chairs about a year ago.

I’m sharing with the girls at Shanty2 Chic for the I made it without my hubby Party!

and I'm joining in at the fun at Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday night Special!

Spring Lean

2010-04-29T06:27:00.001-07:00

The gym I go to is having a contest called the "Spring Lean"; everyone puts in $20.00 and after 7 weeks the person who has made the biggest transformation wins the pot. Right now I think there is about $300.00 in it. I would LOVE TO WIN!! I gained about 15lbs when I had mono, and to be completely honest, I really haven't dieted since my surgery. I would really like to lose about 25lbs.

Yesterday was day 1, my food intake looked like this:

Breakfast: 5 egg whites
Snack when I got to work: 3 bites of carrot cake...
Lunch: Tuna, spinach, and cucumber salad, I hadn't had cucumbers in forever, and gosh it was good!
Snack: 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds
Dinner: Dream dinners creamy risotto...about 1 cup
Snack: Atkins protein bar..

All in all not too bad, I know the carrot cake was not super but this is a huge change from the way I've been eating.

Today has started out better with a chicken breast for breakfast.....

I finally did it!

2010-03-01T19:56:00.001-08:00

After months of ooohing and ahhhing over the projects at www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, I had to try something!

At the end of the hall leading to my daughter’s bedroom is this little space that needs some storage…not much, just for some towels, books..etc… But it is only 53” wide by 11.5 inches deep. I really want a built in look for this space, and everything is either too deep or not wide enough. Enter the Thomas base cabinet and hutch I am planning to build 3 of these, two slightly smaller with the matching hutches.

Tonight on my way home I stopped at Lowe’s, got the nice guy to cut in into lengths I read off my phone…and came home to give it a try.

After laying out my boards, I discovered some were too long…so I had to cut them.

In the corner of our garage sits a table saw that I brought home from work. My boss said we didn’t need it there anymore, so I brought it home.

Wow..is it LOUD!! But quite efficient! I had the cuts fixed in no time and I was on my way.

Here it is after “Step 1” It was a little wobbly at this point..but I figure it’s going on carpet, so who cares? It’s my first attempt, anyway! I used wood glue, like Ana said to, and I pre-drilled most of my holes. I paid dearly each time I thought I didn’t need to pre-drill…the wood split.

So, after only about an hour or so…maybe an hour and a half…..VOILA!!!

I think this will work out great! I have to get some more of the trim pieces for the front, and build a door…but for now..I’m pretty impressed!

More building adventures to come..Carrie and I are going to build an entertainment system for her living room on Saturday!

Feeling loverly….

2010-02-13T12:32:00.001-08:00

I am actually feeling really good today! That’s 2 days in a row! Could it be that I am starting to recover from this mono thing?

Tomorrow is Valentine’s day…and I bought Larry a lovely tree. It’s a 24” box Desert Museum Palo Verde. I got a great deal on it when we ordered a load of trees for our new office, so I had them throw an extra one on the truck for me. One of the guys from work came and planted it, and that’s a good thing, because I did not realize how big a hole has to be to put a 24” box tree in it! Apparently, this tree will be 20-25’ tall in a couple of years! Yay! It should give us some nice shade. It will probably also make my allergies go crazy too…so I suppose I’ll be buying the costco size box of Claritin!

Desert Museum Palo Verde

Patience…..

2010-02-11T15:58:00.001-08:00

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. ~John Quincy Adams

Patience is the companion of wisdom. ~St. Augustine

I am really trying to be patient with my health right now. I feel sick, some days more than others….

I am just not feeling any better, and want to feel better- now. I am taking vitamins, drinking aloe vera and kefir, taking herbs, tylenol, walking a bit, and still, my neck glands are swollen to the size of clementines..(ok, maybe not that big) my arm pits hurt…today my ears hurt and I’m running a fever. I have pains in my stomach and sometimes from my back that feels like I am being stabbed…..ugh.I know much of it is just the mono, but I really wish I was feeling a little bit better, just to see the light at the end of this tunnel. To get back to the old me.

How will I start running again???

Health update…

2010-02-08T19:40:00.001-08:00

Well, tomorrow I see the surgeon, to talk about the scan and blood work I had last week, and to see about getting my gall bladder removed. My gall bladder feels like it is doing flips tonight…must not like thin mint cookies!!

I’m really, really missing running, and exercising regularly. I guess that means that I’m feeling better. Yesterday I realized that I’ve kind of gotten into a bad cycle with this mono thing. I had gotten into a rut of not doing much with my hair, no make up…wearing the easiest clothes…pajamas by 7…etc… I decided that if I looked better, I might convince myself that I feel better!

Long time, no blog…

2010-02-03T16:22:00.001-08:00

My dear friend Carrie reminded me awhile ago, that it had been since December 22 that I had updated this blog. Yep…

Anyway, the holidays were great! Had family visit for the week between Christmas and New Years, was nice to have them here, too bad we had record cold temps!

January 18th I had been feeling kind of yucky for a few days, so I called in sick to work and went to the doctor. She diagnosed me with a sinus infection, ear infection..and took bloodwork…to test for mono….WHAT? And of course as karma would have it, since I laughed at the thought of my old self having mono, the next day, the nurse called with the positive result. So, here I am, on the 3rd week. Not feeling a whole lot better, really. Taking lots of vitamin C, echinacea, and starting today, some Aloe Vera. The worst part is the fatigue and not being able to exercise. I had gained about 5lbs over the holidays and that number hasn’t changed, so I guess I’m doing ok.

Really wanting to get some projects going in the house. Our craft room is completely taken apart because we were going to be given a desk…but that didn’t happen. But we had moved the other desk/storage piece into H’s bedroom…so the contents are in a bit of disarray right now.

Loving all the ideas at www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com . That woman is amazing! She said she is posting office furniture plans soon, so maybe that will turn into something for the craft room. We want to each (Larry and I) have our own work space in there.

Christmas letter!

2009-12-22T05:19:00.001-08:00

I got a little motivated last night and decided to get some cards sent!! Larry wrote the letter, I called the neighbor to come take a picture and here it is…55 envelopes ready to go today!

Holiday greetings everyone!

Glass family comin’ at ya from sunny Tucson Arizona…just doesn’t seem like Christmas when its 65 degrees out…

Its been a fun filled year for Julie, Larry, Hayley, Justin and Trevor (Gemma)…oh, I forgot the dog…Larry the dog…put Trevor at the end ‘cuz hes 21 and out on his own now…has been for a few years…Gemma is his GF and BFF and all that stuff…shes a sweetheart…

Larry STILL works nights at the main post office in Tucson…where every day is one more day closer to retirement…Julie STILL works as bookkeeper/office manager/property manager and just about every kinda job

her boss needs her to be…

Hayley is a freshman @ Marana High School (go Tigers!) where she swims, softballs, orchestrates, and builds drama club sets…I think…she also aces most classes but has a disdain for her biology teacher…who tends to give out “Bs” on report cards…

Justin is a senior @ Flowing Wells High School (go Caballeros!) he loves auto shop, hunting, fishing, ANY kind of car racing and basically lives for getting his hands dirty…hes also getting signed up to join the Air Force next year after graduation in May…

Larry the dog just does dog stuff…

Hope everyone had a great 2009 and is having a joyous and peaceful holiday season…our best wishes to you for 2010!

Sunday night tradition

2009-12-21T04:46:00.001-08:00

We had a fireplace built last summer….lots of pictures on here from the construction. Well, we have really enjoyed it. Just about every Sunday night, Larry builds a fire.

I wish I knew how to take a better picture of them at night!! Anyway…if you could see this, you’d see Larry and Justin hanging out in front of a fire.

I am thinking I’m slowly converting my husband to my “cottage” style of decorating!! Look what Justin and he did yesterday!!

Can you see it? Yep..that’s chicken wire on my china cabinet!! Cool, huh? The wire came out of a dumpster at work, I guess it was left over from the stucco job. love it!

I have a few little trees decorated..I love the glow of the extra lights in the house.

In the den, this tree has a bunch of ornaments that Trevor and Hayley got when they were little from their Grandma.

Oh! And that fabulous picture of Santa on the plate? Drawn by me! circa 1973. I remember doing it in school, they gave us a white circle and told us to draw a Christmas picture on it and this is how it came back.

In the kitchen..just a little tree…lots of lights, love the glow of the lights on the tile, might have to do some permanent lights there.

And by the entryway to our bedroom, just a little tree with some berry picks in it.

Busy week ahead, just one more gift to buy and wrap.

My newest blog crush

2009-12-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

Somehow I stumbled onto this blog, and I am so impressed. Ana apparently got tired of waiting for her husband to help her build things and decided to figure things out for herself. She has created plans and directions for tons of things I want to build for our house and they look EASY! We are going to attempt the Stratton daybed for our guest room....bookshelves for the hallway...nightstands for our bedrooms....who knows? All I want for Christmas is a compound miter saw! Oh, and when I emailed Ana that I wanted to do the daybed, but was just going to wing it and modify her other plans, she posted daybed plans for me!!!!

Glass Christmas decor!

2009-12-14T19:58:00.001-08:00

We finally got going on it!! I had great plans this weekend to get it done, but Sunday afternoon found me OUT with a migraine headache. I still have it, but it has subsided enough to get some decorating done.

Tonight we put the tree up and after a little panic where we couldn’t find the on/off part of the cord, we found it..and it turned out beautiful. Hayley and I decided to go with a red/gold/clear theme.

This was before any presents….and I realized we don’t have a tree topper!! I had one a few years ago, but in the moves, it must have gotten lost.

I saw lots of ideas in blogland about decorating with apothecary jars, and items from the dollar stores. Here’s my first attempt!

They are on the right..and filled with candy canes and giant peppermint sticks. The ribbon is from dollar tree, and all the jars are from thrift stores and the dollar tree. (if you get the epoxy addiction like I do, dollar tree has a great little candle stick that glues well to glass jars)

The paper mache star was 50 cents at this little thrift store by our house, the glass cardinal belonged to a dear family friend who passed away a few years ago. The little trees, I’m not sure what to do with, I stuck some red berry picks in them, but I’d like some lights and maybe some little birds would be cute. The runner I’ve had for a few years.

More apothecary/candy creations. The little red leather box is full of sea shells from Mexico. Still working on this vignette.

I hope you can see this, it’s just a bunch of jars (salsa!) with tea lights in them. It’s really pretty on it’s own, but for the holidays I thought it would be cute to wrap garland around it and stick a few picks around. Larry and I both love the look of the glow, so simple.

Another shot of the living room…with the Christmas pillows I made on Thanksgiving.

The dog, making himself at home amidst the pillows.

On top of the Armoire that we keep the Wii tv in. I need to get something else for the vases, but I kind of like them up there. Maybe I’ll go rescue some branches from the desert and put them in there.

I want to find 4 of these little wreaths, 1 for each chair in the dining room. So far, no luck, all the usual suspects, Jo-Ann, Michael’s, Dollar Tree, 99cents Only = no luck.

Dining room…I suppose an iron would help? hee hee…..

And I thought I didn’t collect anything! I realized I have several nativities..love them. How about that cake stand?? 50 cents at the thrift store across from our new office.

Not totally Christmas-y but I just wanted to show what I did with my mom’s china. It’s been stored “away” as long as I’ve had it. Love that it is out on display now.

And the kitchen…needs some work still. There are some wire containers of glass balls up there, but I need to re-work it…just keeping it real.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little tour of our Christmas so far!

You can see a ton more ideas (over 600 the last time I checked!) at www.thenester.com. For some reason the button is not working for me tonight.

Christmas decor....

2009-12-14T05:32:00.001-08:00

is coming soon!! I had great plans to get it done and pictures up this weekend, but a migraine found me..(possibly from all the mashed potato candy I ate while I was making it...ugh). I am starting to feel better this morning and am hoping to finish it up tonight...while watching the Cardinals win!!!

In the meantime, if you click on the link in the last post..there are 499 posts of blogger's Christmas tours!! TONS of great ideas!

Decorating for Christmas…….

2009-12-02T21:29:00.001-08:00

I think I am going to do this, just for fun!!

some inspiration…

I love the look of these jars with candles in them. Working on something with some garland….that is ALOT of jars in the picture..wow…

We’ll see how things turn out. Loving the holiday season this year, life is good and I feel truly blessed. I think tomorrow, I start pulling out the Christmas stuff and seeing how I can decorate and if it is photo “worthy” for the Nester’s tour!

There are some great ideas at Rare and Beautiful Treasures...., definitely going to get some picks to beef up some garland like here.

Stayed up too late watching the Wildcats lose in double overtime….sigh………..

Thankful…

2009-11-26T21:18:00.001-08:00

Today was a great day! I took it easy, and ordered dinner from Super Target, Trevor and Gemma joined us and it was super nice.

There is nothing I enjoy more, than watching the Broncos and sewing!! What a great evening I had! I decided I would make some Christmas pillows. I had some Christmas fabric in my stash, so I dug around for a pattern and here’s what I came up with! Oh! And the Broncos beat the Giants 26-6!! Yay!!

This one needs a couple of “frog” closures where the two fabrics meet. I made the white one behind it last year. The pattern called for piping around it, but I didn’t have any that would match, so I inserted some rick rack in the seam.

My first successful “Flange” pillow! I’ve tried to do this before, and it has never worked out. I think it turned out cute, and I like the “Touchdown Santa” in the middle! Go Broncos!

And this was the first one I did tonight. I have A LOT of the Feliz Navidad fabric. I really like that fabric, kind of a nod to our closeness to Mexico. I had some piping that I had just enough of to go around this one. I really like the suggestions from www.homebodyholly.com for making pillows out of thrift store clothing. All three of these patterns were really quick and easy (i.e. no zippers) So I may be checking out the 99cent rack on Monday to see what kind of cool stuff I could find for pillows. Hmm…what about the formal rack? Sweaters?

I think I’ll be doing some more sewing tomorrow. Hayley has made a request for some new pajama pants, so I’ll be shopping my stash to see what I can find. love that kid.

I think another thrift store trip is in order!!!

2009-11-24T04:59:00.001-08:00

Holly has a great post today about making stockings out of sweaters.

I have been struggling with my sleep patterns lately. I wake up early…and lay in bed and fret about being awake… I’ve had a couple of revelations pop into my head.

1) The other night I was lying there, and I turned on the radio and just thought “how nice, I can just lay here, and ENJOY the music, how often do I get to do that?”

2) And this morning, I just GOT UP..how about that? I am not really tired, and I’ve had coffee, read the news, put dinner in the crock pot, and emptied the dishwasher. Why not just embrace this extra time and enjoy it? I know, I’ll be tired at 7:30 tonight, but that’s ok.

Been a little crafty lately!!

2009-11-23T19:09:00.001-08:00

I thought I’d post a couple of projects that are nearing completion..and a few random things I’ve done lately!

First…I started this first project 4 years ago…as a gift for my brother, who with his wife really like “moose” themed items. I was in the middle of chemo..and it didn’t get done. I pulled it out over the weekend and am going to finish it. It will be about 45x60 inches when it is done…still adding to it to make it larger. Not sure if you can see, but the middles of the blocks are Moose. Cute!

Then, my sister-in-law (Larry’s sister) is about to be a Grandma!! Cassie and Nathan are due any day with a little baby girl. For her, I’ve made this little baby quilt…

I think my photography leaves much to be desired…it is 8pm..so I think natural light would be better, but oh well!

One of my favorite blogs Homebody Holly is doing a series right now, on cheap holiday gifts. At a thrift store today, I bought a glass candy dish, and a glass candle holder for…one whole dollar….and I had some epoxy already…so I stuck them together and made this!!!! I think I could love epoxy!! This thrift store is right across the street from our new office, which could be dangerous..because it is the nicest and cleanest thrift store I’ve ever seen…and within walking distance from our office door! Can you see that little white pitcher just above and to the right of the glass creation? 50 cents!!

And last, but not least…a couple of months ago, someone in blogland was making chalkboards out of thrift store silver trays. I think I paid a couple of bucks for one of these, and maybe a dollar for the other one. One is by my coffee pot, and I change it every so often….to a coffee themed quote. (I like the chalk markers from Michael’s)

And the other one, doesn’t erase very well, but it is smaller and moves around….

House progress

2009-10-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

I have really been "into" decorating our house these past 6 months or so. I'm enjoying how it has turned out. Back in the spring I purchased a design consultation from Layla at The Lettered Cottage.

The first picture is the wonderful "inspiration" photo Layla created from the "before" photo below it, and below that is how the house looked this weekend. So far, I'm pretty happy with the results!

Since our budget has been basically "zero" for this, I've not bought too many items. I bought a rug with a black border rather than a red one. I snagged this one at Fry's when I was grocery shopping.

Still left to do (or wish we could do!)

Window treatment in dining room...the one that is there is not perfect, but will do. we had a little mishap when we were securing a shade screen to the outside and the outer pane of the double pane window is cracked. Since we bought the house, we have wanted that window to be a slider, and to have an outdoor dining area outside that window. So, right now we are weighing our options for getting that done sometime in the near future. The window will have to be re-glazed at some point before the weather gets hot again. After that gets decided, I will probably do something like the green sheers Layla recommended.
Figure out something cute to put on that plant shelf!
Accessorize the coffee table. I like that basket, but I need to take a saw to it to make it lie flat on the table, there are hinges below it.
I would like something on top of the Black Armoire.
I would really like to paint my kitchen cabinets white......but Mr. Glass will not even entertain the idea.
I also can't convince him to let me put beadboard on the bar between the kitchen and great room....so, for right now it is painted white.
Although you can't see it well in this photo, I'd really like to duplicate this on our dining room wall. The Old Painted Cottage built a really cool side table and shelves above it. I should not wonder why I love it so much...Layla did that design as well!!
I need to get some more black frames and a few more black and whites printed. I really like the look of the ones on the black shelves. There are some pictures from New York of my mom and sister that would be wonderful up there.

Anyway, that's the update on the house progress!

Pinetop weekend

2009-10-19T20:03:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Larry and I went to Pinetop, Arizona for a couple of days. I won a trip on the radio in early September for knowing the answer to a trivia question. The question was: “ If this were a country, it would be the 6th largest in the world, what is it?” Answer: the entire membership of Facebook.

So, my reward for storing useless knowledge in my head was 2 nights at the Hondah resort and Casino, $50.00 in Casino Cash, Dinner at the Resort restaurant, and $20.00 in gas to get back home. I had never been to Pinetop before. It is about 4 hours away from our house.

We rode the chairlift to the top at the Sunrise ski resort. It was beautiful!! It’s really a treat to see the trees turning color. We don’t have much of that here in t-town.

ON the way back to Pinetop, we stopped at Hawley Lake. wow, wow, wow!!!!

We did not win any money at the Casino!

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Some random pics of my yard…yep…those are tomatoes!!!

I made this!

2009-10-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

I posted my sofa table over at my new favorite blog "Shanty2Chic" for their I made it without my husband party! I was so excited to do that project that I had it done before he woke up from a nap.

There are so many good ideas on that blog, just love it!

Carolina Jessimine

2009-10-05T09:43:00.001-07:00

Carolina Jessimine 3.18.09
Originally uploaded by Adrienne Carter

And...I still have this to plant today. I can't wait for this all to bloom!! Love the fall in AZ!

Tangerine Cross vine

2009-10-05T09:23:00.001-07:00

P4230020.JPG
Originally uploaded by Charles1949

I planted some of this yesterday too!! I am very excited to see how these grow, I'm loving the cooler weather and the thought of getting some color in our backyard.

Snail Vine

2009-10-05T09:22:00.001-07:00

Snail Vine Flower
Originally uploaded by toddandnoelle

I planted some of this yesterday......

busy!!

2009-10-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Gosh, I can't believe I have not updated this blog in almost 3 weeks!! I guess we've been so busy that I just have not had time. TOMORROW I am planning to really work on our yard, and to plant some great herbs..and to figure out how to keep my dog from eating the new things that come up from seeds.

Updating…

2009-09-13T15:15:00.001-07:00

I have not been good at updating this blog lately. I was so happy to get all my runs in during August, that I guess that was the only thing I could think of to post!

I wanted to give more of a report of our New York Trip. I haven’t printed the pictures yet for scrapbooking, but I’m planning to get it done sometime this week..but for now:

This was very early on the morning of the 19th, I think about 4:30am, we were headed to the terminal from the parking lot.

After getting an extra long ride from LaGuardia to our hotel, courtesy of the shuttle driver that had the wrong address, we decided to walk down to Times Square to pick up our tickets for the double decker bus tour. Times Square was incredible! There are probably more people in that little area than the entire state of Wyoming. So, our tickets had to be picked up at Madame Tussaud’s.

And then it was on to the Double Decker bus for the night tour of Manhattan. We saw quite a bit that first night, and the bus stopped under the Brooklyn bridge at this place that had ice cream and a great view of the skyline.

I think we all crashed pretty hard when we got back to the hotel, even though it wasn’t that late for New York time, but it was 3 hours ahead for me, and 2 hours for the Wyomingites.

One of mine and Kristen’s favorite shows, is Project Runway. I didn’t even realize when we planned this trip that we could go to Mood Fabrics, the store the contestants went to when the show was taped in New York. WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! We could not believe this place. For someone that sews, and for the majority of my fabric choices to only be whatever was at Jo-ann’s…this was the holy grail of sewing. I love to sew, and having that kind of store to go to would be so cool. I hear there is one in LA that is supposedly bigger.

After Mood, we got back on the Double Decker for the trip to Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, and Ground Zero. We didn’t actually go on the Liberty Island, it is very crowded, and they just recently opened the torch to 30 people at a time, I guess it is sold out for quite some time ahead. Ellis Island was pretty interesting, just to think of the thousands of people that passed through, quite amazing.

Ground Zero was very eye opening for me. I did not realize the buildings were as large as they were. The dark building in the center of this photo is 1/2 the size and 1/2 the height of one twin tower, and this building was 50 stories or so. So, it was really awful to think of them being hit and falling.

At Battery Park, the globe that used to be in the entryway of the World Trade center was recovered from the rubble and re-erected as a memorial.

A 1 month streak!!!

2009-08-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I only have 2 runs left in August to have completed 100% of the training program I am doing right now.

I've ran twice during every week, in the morning before I go to work, and made it to every long run, except one, where I did it on Sunday and ran 9 miles, so that counts!

New York City!

2009-08-26T06:08:00.001-07:00

I spent last Tuesday night-Saturday in New York City with my mom, sister, and my niece! It was so fun! I loved New York City! In the short time we were there, we saw Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, Chelsea, West Village, Canal Street, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Fashion District, went to Macy’s, SOHO, Brooklyn Bridge, took a cruise in the Harbor, hmmm…what else? We had real NY Pizza, ate at the Carnegie Deli, had hot dogs from a street vendor, and I’m sure I’m missing something.

Fire in the hole!!

2009-08-16T19:19:00.001-07:00

Oh wait, I guess that’s what you say when something bad is going to happen, right? Anyway, this is not a bad thing at all! Our fireplace is almost done, and I am so very happy with how it has turned out. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have anything as nice as this.

They’ve added the bench, the mantel, and the backs of the benches all done. They just have to put some extra stucco on the front, and put the red bricks on top of the back rest. We will then paint it to match the house. I’m not sure if the picture shows the correct scale…but it is somewhere between 9 and 10 feet tall, and the bench is about 10 feet from one corner to the other. It’s going to be so nice when we have some cooler nights this fall. I bought a little bunclle of wood today at the convenience store, but I’m not sure we’ll light a fire just yet.

School is in full swing for Hayley now. She seems to be liking it, and we just found out that enough girls have signed up to have a fall softball team. She’ll (and I’ll) be busy.

Go ME! I ran our Magic Mile yesterday, to determine the proper pacing for our 1/2 marathon training. I’m really pleased that I improved by 47 seconds over last year!! This week I am going to run on both Monday and Tuesday mornings, so I have my running in for the week. I’m not planning to run on Saturday since we will be in NYC, but I’m hoping to go on a 9 mile run with friends on Sunday morning here. You can read about last year’s magic mile here

Back to menu planning..

2009-08-10T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've been back on the menu planning wagon for a couple of weeks now. Something about knowing what's for dinner in the morning gives me an all is right with the world feeling.

Sunday- homemade pepperoni pizza, (made with pillsbury crust)
Monday-Crock pot Jambalaya and rice (put together last night)
Tuesday- Burgers on the George and potato salad
Wednesday-Beef and ramen stir fry
Thursday- Hamburger helper...(yes, we really eat it..sometimes it's just easy!)
Friday- Peppercorn pork tenderloin
Saturday-C.O.R.N. (Clean out the refrigerator night)

All of this is easy to do, it's so great to have it ready when H comes home from swimming..starving.

Ran this morning, two weeks in a row I have made it out on Monday morning, what is it...three weeks makes it a habit?

First day of HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

2009-08-06T06:45:00.001-07:00

Hayley started high school this week…can’t believe she’s already a freshman in high school! The week is almost over, and she seems to be doing well. She’s also on the swim team and she has said several times how much she loves the people she has met. This picture was taken on the first day in the morning..and I made her pose for another one…before she went to the bus. hee,hee!

Remember the Granny Smith Apple free paint I got a few weeks ago? I painted the area above our cabinets, and Larry didn’t really like it at first, but I think he’s coming around. I, on the other hand, love it! What do you think of painting the cabinets? I’d like to paint them white, but I think that will take some convincing. This picture makes our other walls look really yellow, they’re actually a color called Peanut Butter.

My running is going really well this week! I signed up to be a pace group leader for the Galloway program. It’s really cool, because, most of all….it saves me the 99 bucks for sign up!! Whoo-hoo!! Being a leader really keeps me accountable to the program, so I feel I need to get all of my weekday runs in so I don’t show up and just run on Saturdays. It’s a really fun group this year and I am loving it. I ran on Monday morning and yesterday morning, today, as per the schedule, is an easy walk, that I’ll have to do tonight. It has been really, really hot here, I think it was 109 here.

School starts tomorrow!

2009-08-02T10:46:00.001-07:00

Hard to believe that for us, summer is over! I guess the powers that decide this sort of thing figure..it’s too hot..so the kids may as well be in school! Hayley is all ready for high school.

The first layer of stucco went on the fireplace this morning! After the inspection tomorrow, he’ll finish the stucco and we can paint it to match the house. Then he’ll be able to build the benches. It’s going to be really nice. It is LARGE…and quite solid, excited to have it done and build some nice fires and just enjoy the cool outdoors when fall comes.

I’m a little late in posting these, but we have had some computer problems…so here are a few pictures from the 4th of July. We stayed at a hotel over by La Encantada, just for a change of pace. We tried to watch the fireworks from the balcony at the mall, but got bored and went back to the hotel.

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HomeGoods StyleScope - I'm an Earthy Casual

2009-07-30T15:15:00.001-07:00

HomeGoods StyleScope - I'm an Earthy Casual

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Happy 14th Birthday Boo-boo!

2009-07-26T17:26:00.001-07:00

It truly seems like yesterday, you were this cute little kid, although this picture was just before your 10th birthday. We are so proud of the beautiful young woman you have become! You’re smart, funny, make us laugh..(and cry, and pull our hair out..)

I hope you had a fun day hanging out with us!!!

Just for fun…

2009-07-26T17:23:00.001-07:00

The one the left was taken in May 2007….and the one on the right was today….together we’ve lost 199lbs!!!

update….

2009-07-18T10:03:00.001-07:00

Well, the masons came today to work on the fireplace! It’s now ready for stucco and is as tall as it will be. I think this picture makes it look taller than it is. We are so excited to see it coming together, I think next he is going to start the benches and the stucco will be the final step. It has been really cool to watch it go together, under the “triangle” shaped part is a steel piece that has a damper on it, they built the block around it, and then the concrete flue on top was put into place. The first time, he didn’t have it straight and we were treated to a very colorful speech as he rescued it!

Been running with my Galloway group. This morning, we were told to run a 30:30 interval, which means 30 seconds of running and 30 seconds of walking. My ego was a little bruised at first, but I am surprised at how good I feel, and we actually went faster. Interesting to see how it will progress!

Tonight Hayley’s team plays in the state tournament, should be fun, a balmy 106 degrees expected at game time. We are going to take our own shade and relax as best we can.

New color for kitchen

2009-07-08T07:34:00.001-07:00

Washington State's Granny Smith Apples
Originally uploaded by Dave Ward Photography

A few weeks ago, I read about a free paint giveaway that Glidden was doing. All you had to do was go to their website, pick a color, give them your name and address, and you would get a free quart of paint.

The little wedge of wall above our kitchen cabinets has been white, green, and is currently a peachy color. I haven't really liked any of them. Since the green was my initial idea, the first green was too dark I think. I hated spending more money on yet another color to try up there, so I decided since this was free, I'd throw caution to the wind and go with this crazy green color called Granny Smith Apple. I was going to post a swatch of it, but I found these photos on Flickr, and it is EXACTLY that color.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

2009-06-26T19:26:00.001-07:00

The fire place is coming along! They have been out in the yard at the crack of dawn and it should be done soon!

More importantly, the dog is doing well! Happy and cute and regular.

Home Inspiration

2009-06-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Had a discussion with Mr. G about how long I have to "like" the stuff we do to our house before we change it. Hmmm...what does that mean, really? I put up the current window treatment in our house last July right before we had a BBQ, I wasn't happy with how it turned out, so I've kind of never liked it.

I've found some thing that I'm really liking right now.....

I like this chunky molding on top of this window and would love to try to tackle this in the dining room.

Really liking these ideas for adding personality to a cookie cutter home...

Also into this molding look... maybe I should have been born in the south??

I don't know how long I have to "like" something, but I'm really liking how the house is coming together right now and I feel like the things we have done will keep me happy for awhile!

Happy Monday!

2009-06-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

Not loving how this picture looks...but my live writer is not working right...ugh...you get the idea.

Well, it's a new week! Let's see what's been happening at the Glass house!

Friday night was the softball party for Hayley's team. They had a great season and ended up 19-0. It's been a hectic season, dealing with some icky politics..but Hayley has done very well when she has played, always gets hits, always gets on base..would love to see her batting average and place it somewhere...but I digress....that's softball. On to all-stars and the state tournament.

Swimming is going well...swimmingly...Now that softball has slowed for a bit, she'll be swimming in a couple of meets a week. Love seeing her do all this stuff.

Our house...well...the plants are still living...amazes me every day!! Larry even told me yesterday how impressed he was with them! I am really looking forward to the fall to plant more stuff and see how it goes. I was thinking about taking the Master Gardeners course, but it is on Tuesdays from 9-3:30, so I guess that will have to wait a few years.

We spent the weekend working on the great room transformation. The armoire is done being painted black and looks really, really good! Larry also painted a little table that I had bought at the Habistore for 15 bucks black...it wasn't until I was putting a new handle on it and putting the drawer back in that I saw the stamp Sumter Cabinet Company on the inside..whoops...it's apparently quite an expensive piece of furniture..no wonder it's so well made! Oh well, it's really nice now and we love it...so I guess that's what matters, huh? I sanded and stained the table top yesterday....Larry is going to paint the legs and the bottom today...it looks really good. When I was outside wiping off a layer of stain, somehow I turned my leg and fell, crashing to the ground onto the rocks. I ended up with a sore back, about a 1.5 inch gash on my foot, and a scraped up knee...ouch. The chairs are turning out ok...we're always shocked how much paint it takes...it will probablly take 2 cans of spray paint for each chair! Oh well, I guess that's cheaper than new chairs, right?

Here Lizard, Lizard!!!!

2009-06-19T05:32:00.001-07:00

Last night, Larry and I were in our backyard, talking about some concrete plans, checking the progress out on the fireplace, etc…when over his shoulder I saw something on the fence…. I stopped talking and said “There’s a lizard on the fence, I’m going to go get my camera” and tiptoed in to get said camera. I don’t know why I hurried, because when I got back he hadn’t moved at all.

and I was really surprised that he (I assume it’s a he…didn’t “check” or anything like that… :) didn’t move at all as I was taking pictures, he let me get really close.

This is the first “wildlife” we’ve had in our yard since we moved in, unless you count crickets, which I am doing everything possible to get rid of!

This morning at 4:30, my dog was barking, turns out the masons were here to finish digging the footing for the fireplace. Hayley and I both woke up, so she made us scrambled eggs and we had a nice breakfast together. It is now 5:31 and the masons just left.

The transformation is under way!

2009-06-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I ordered a photo consultation from Layla at The Lettered Cottage for our great room. We've been working on it bit by bit and we are finally making some progress! So far, I've redone the photos to all black and white, I ordered new creamy white slipcovers that should arrive this week, I sanded and stained my coffee table black..it turned out great!!...my adorable husband is painting the armoire as we speak, and we are going to paint the table and chairs this weekend. I found a rug at Frys, it has black trim, not red, but it's about 1/2 the price of any red trimmed one I've found, so I think it will be ok.

Looking at them now, the before one isn't the exact one I sent Layla, but it's close. I really like her style of decorating. I'm going to order a consultation for my den next I think, maybe the master bath too.

Sometimes..you have accept what is enough...

2009-06-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had planned to get up early and run, and be back at my house for the masons to arrive to continue working on the fireplace. I got up at 5, put my running clothes on, and the schedule just didn't work out..so I decided not to go run. I did pack my gym bag, in the thought that I would go to the gym on my way home from work. I almost didn't go, I had a very busy day, and was going to stop at Fry's, buy this new area rug I've been wanting..and go home. I told Larry on the phone that's what I was going to do. After I drove a bit, I thought that the gym would be a better choice, and called him back and changed my plan.

Next stop: LA Fitness. I got on the treadmill, and was running away, trying to run at a 9:30 pace, and realized it was kind of hard.... Then, a light came on, and I realized that I was running much faster than I needed to. I've read tons of research that says to run training runs slower than your race pace, and my goal race pace is somewhere between 10 and 11 minute miles...so if I run 11:30-12:00..that is enough. And so I slowed down and ran comfortably for the next 20 minutes. So, my point is..sometimes, you have to realize what is enough, and not to always have to do more. Right now, we are busy at home with lots of projects, lots of activities, and what we are doing is enough, we do not need more. If we eat Lean Cuisines for dinner that's fine..it is enough.

The fireplace construction has started!!!

2009-06-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

When we bought our house, we thought it would be really cool to have an outdoor fireplace. Well, we found out that they are kind of expensive. Well, last year on my birthday, a mason that I do some bookkeeping for, told me that he would like to build it for me, if I buy the materials. How cool is that?? Well, we found out that our municipality requires us to have a permit, and our HOA needed to approve it. We kind of took our time, but with the help of someone at work doing a drawing, we finally had all the approvals in place. Last week, they came and dug the hole for the footing...if you look closely for the orange lines in the dirt, that's where the hole was supposed to be. No big deal, they are coming tomorrow to dig the hole the rest of the way and construction will begin!! Cool!!!...well...I guess it will be hot.....

That's my skinny husband moving some rocks around...doesn't he look great??? :)

Check back soon for more fireplace pics...they came again this morning with rebar, and are coming back tomorrow! For even more great outside ideas, check out Kimba's garden party at a Soft Place to Land..

Backyard update

2009-06-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

I am really shocked and amazed that I have managed to keep anything alive in my back yard. It's been my most successful attempt yet, so I've included some pictures. We've been so lucky with the heat this year, it's only been 100+ I think 2-3 days, so that could have something to do with it. I have been really faithful to go out and turn the water on to my drip system in the back yard...sometimes I even forget and leave it on all night...whoops!

From top to bottom...here are what is in the pictures:

Sago palm- technically not a palm tree, but that is what it's called. This one got a little burned when I planted it, but the new growth in the middle all looks good.

Vinca flowers.....I just moved these into a bigger pot, we'll see...they are only an annual, so I don't expect them to survive too much longer.

Hey Mom....You were right!! Those Mose Roses (portulaca for all you scientific folks) don't take much water at all, and they bloom really pretty.

Bottle brush bush..this is supposed to get red flowers on it that look like..."Bottle brushes"

This is a Potato Vine...I didn't think this guy was going to make it, but it seems to be coming around.

These are called "Tombstone Roses" they aren't really roses at all...kind of a climbing carnation type thing...recomended by my neighbor. They seem to be doing well.

These are the Lantana that get watered by my neighbor overwatering. (his water runs off of his yard into mine)

So...there's my backyard update...things are looking good..I'm no master gardener by any stretch but it's coming around.

I need to write this down to make myself remember this feeling...

2009-06-16T12:15:00.001-07:00

in place, moving forward
Originally uploaded by dead_squid

This morning, I got up at my usual 5am (alarm is set, but I usually wake up around there anyway) I got up, drank some coffee and sat in the den for a few minutes watching CNN and thought to myself.."Hey..I could hit the door at 5:30 and run for 30 minutes.." Must have been the caffeine because I actually did it instead of talked myself out of it. I ran 2.6 miles in 30 minutes and felt really good when I was done, got home, drank a little more coffee, and was able to get showered and to work by 7:30. Today, I definitely have more energy and it feels so great to have already exercised today.

I like the caption to this photo that I found on Flickr "some days it just feels like I'm not actually going anywhere when I'm in the middle of things, but after it's done I realize I'm not sucking wind and actually feel pretty good. that's some pretty good progress in my books." That pretty much sums up how I felt this morning, and throughout the day. I need to remember this tomorrow morning!

One week later…..

2009-06-13T12:50:00.001-07:00

Well, after all the musings of why I was so tired last week…I decided to take my own advice…

This week, despite my crazy busy schedule, of working, softball, and swimming, I managed to run on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today..Saturday, for a total of 14.87 miles! I actually feel pretty good and am not having the horrible fatigue I was feeling last week. Today I had planned to run 6 miles, but my stomach disagreed, and I had to return home at a mile..so I only got 2 miles in…oh well, better than nothing right?

This week, I had something really cool happen. On Facebook, I got a friend request from my best friend in elementary school and junior high!! I was so incredibly pleased to reconnect with her. We had not been in contact for many years, I can’t even remember why we stopped being friends, actually. I think we might have gone to separate junior highs for ninth grade and then just grew apart as we went to high school. Turns out, we still have a ton in common and I can’t wait to talk to her more.

Night at the races…..

2009-06-07T19:04:00.001-07:00

For as long as I’ve known him, my husband has wanted me to go to a car race with him. I have not really wanted to go. Last week, my friend Carrie and her husband came to one of Hayley’s softball games, and we got to talking, and Carrie told me how they had gone to the dirt track over Memorial Day weekend and had a great time. Larry had gone that weekend too! So, imagine his surprise when I went home that night and said…Carrie and Rob will go to the races with us…so I’ll go too! Larry was able to even get free passes from Justin, and off we went. I have to say, it was fun…just for the people watching alone would be worth the price of the ticket, but I actually had fun, the cars were LOUD…they made my stomach rumble!! We even got mud splashed up on us a few times. It was fun, and I think Larry was glad that I was able to enjoy one of his favorite things. Also enjoyed spending time with Rob and Carrie…wish we lived closer!

Speaking of Larry…he is shrinking before my very eyes!! I think he’s lost 65lbs or so since the end of April!!

Amazing!! He barely snores anymore, his health has improved dramatically, and I think he feels a whole lot better.

Here’s a picture of him from today!

My health…not sure why, but I’ve been extremely tired lately. I had my 6 month checkup with my oncologist on Friday, and my bloodwork and the CT Scan from last week were perfect…so I have to start ruling some things out….Here’s my thoughts:

I’ve barely been doing any exercise at all since the beginning of May.
I’ve not been as vigilant as I should have been about eating right.
I HAVE been taking my vitamins very regularly.
I’m very busy with work and home activities lately..and who are we kidding..I ain’t no spring chicken..so maybe I’m just tired??

So, after all of that….

I’m going to try to exercise a bit (at least 30 minutes ) every day…regardless of how busy I am, 30 minutes will make a huge difference in how I feel, I know it. I just got back from a 40 minute run and feel better than I have in weeks.
Try to eat 60g of protein a day, and drink 1 gallon of water.
Keep taking vitamins
Plan better so I don’t get stressed out and maybe cut back a little….I don’t HAVE to do everything????

How neat is this…

2009-05-13T17:48:00.001-07:00

I came across this blog the other day, and I really was touched by this picture.

It reminds me how we have really gotten away from sending cards and letters with the advent of email, cell phones, texting, instant messenger, etc. All those cards on that bulletin board are basically nice words of encouragement and love. We need to do that more. I’m going to try.

The whole blog is called Daisy Cottage and her photography is beautiful!!

My best advice-ever

2009-05-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

It’s a great idea to write down all your computer passwords in one place…like a little address book…. But the one rule you must always, always follow….

DO NOT TAKE THE BOOK OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! YOU WILL LOSE IT!!!!

Yes, I did…just spent the last hour going thru my wallet, logging on to everything and changing all my passwords…ugh…not sure that’s enough, hoping I’ll find said lost book and all will be for naught…

Chasing Rainbows

2009-05-08T23:52:00.001-07:00

Chasing Rainbows
Originally uploaded by Franny B

I have been thinking a lot about running, more specifically, running faster. I would really like to break 2 hours in the 1/2 marathon. Is this possible? I'm not sure, the fastest I've run is a 2:15 when I was 32, I think. But I do know that I've never completely stuck to a training program, so I don't know what I am capable of.

Hmmmm....much to think about. Maybe this will be a way for me to committ to finishing something.

This decorating thing is getting fun!

2009-04-30T21:39:00.001-07:00

So…a recent post over at Thrifty Decor Chick was how to make a sofa table for under $20.00, and I was intrigued. I decided that I would give it a try!

On Sunday we went to Home Depot and bought the boards, had them cut, and within about 30 minutes of getting home, I had it done and in the living room!

Yes, it is a bit wobbly, but it doesn’t matter, because it goes between the couch and the wall.

I wish I had made it taller and wider..but here is how it looks now:

Tomorrow I’ll figure out what I can do to add height to it, like Thrifty Decor Chick did…and I’ll work on arranging it a little better. I’m really wanting cream colored slipcovers the more I look at this photo.

We went to a softball game tonight…Hayley did awesome..and the score was 25-5..or something like that. Trevor came by with his dog Zoltan. That dog loves to be held like this..he just hangs out and looks around. Too cute!

Attempting to grow something…

2009-04-26T08:45:00.001-07:00

One of my goals for the year was to grow some stuff…I am not much of a gardener.

My neighbor tends to overwater his back yard, and a couple times a week, the water seeps under the fence and against our back wall. Rather than talk to the neighbor about this problem-AGAIN- we did that last year…and I think he’s still mad because he had to move the ~~outhouse~~ play structure that he built right up against the fence. So, I decided to make lemons out of lemonade, and plant something that I would enjoy, rather than be annoyed that he can’t deal with his watering problem. I planted some trailing lantana along the top of our rock slope. I’ve been dutifully watering them everyday, and they are not dead yet!! Yay! My other neighbor tells me he can help me hook up the irrigation from my front yard to my back yard, but we are not ready to trench for that yet, so for now, I guess I’ll be watering them by hand, in addition to the free water from the neighbor.

We also finished putting up our rebar vines last week. I know that I’ll need to put the irrigation in to keep anything alive long enough to actually climb the vines, but for now, they look pretty cool.

I am planning to plant some Potato Vine below them to grow up it. I really like that it says “grows much faster with moderate water” in the notes…I like some results from my gardening! :)

I finished the bathroom!!

2009-04-25T17:28:00.001-07:00

I got a rare treat today, Larry and Justin went to Phoenix, and Hayley is at a concert all day…so I am home alone for most of the day.

I finished Hayley’s bathroom! Today I:

Hung the towel hooks and bar (yes, Larry, I used anchors)
Painted 2 picture frames black
Picked up 2 new mats and a new frame at Michael’s
Put the picture frames back together and hung them
Cleaned the bathroom….
Hung the new white towels
Decided the basket should be black…so it got the spray paint too!

I am calling it done. The total cost for this project ended up being about $50.00!

Moulding from Habistore $4.00
Moulding from Home depot..(that we didn’t use) $10.00
Pictures (we had them all, Larry bought the bird ones at a garage sale for the frames..I like the pictures, so I just spray painted the frames black)
Spray paint .97
New Mats for the bird pictures $6.00
New White towels $15.00
Paint..we had from the craft room, but I also brought home some leftover paint from work, that I would have used if I didn’t have the other.
Towel Hooks $9.00

And HERE are the pictures!

I was inspired by a post at the Lettered Cottage that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. That bathroom had a beach theme. I think beach themes in the desert are kind of silly, so I decided to call this a nature, spa theme. I really like how it turned out. One of the accessories I found to use was a glass bowl that I received several years ago as a gift… I had some white, pearly, heart shaped rocks that I put in it, but I decided I needed something else in it. Suddenly I remembered the jar of buttons that I had in my sewing room. This jar of buttons is OLD….my mom bought them at an auction on second street in Gillette when I was about 9 or 10. I went through it and pulled out a bunch of white ones and put them in the bowl. Then I put the heart rocks in it. I think it’s kind of cute.

I think I may still do something to the mirror, maybe a frame around it, painted black. Larry and Hayley both like the shower curtain, so it is staying for now, but I’d kind of like to put a white one up.

Hayley’s bathroom progress

2009-04-13T21:17:00.001-07:00

Today I went to the Habistore to find some moulding for the bathroom. We were lucky and found a gorgeous, thick piece bundled with a couple of thinner pieces for $4.00!! Larry took them home and found that we were short about 2 feet to use the thick piece. So…I went to Home Depot on my way home..and picked up some other molding, for about 10 bucks. I cut it to size at the store, so I could get it home. Got home..hated this moulding, and decided to check out the thinner pieces from the Habistore…it is actually going to work really well. It’s got a little leaf pattern on it, Larry painted it tonight and is going to paint some more tomorrow. So far, I have spent 14.00 on this project. I’m thinking of changing out the shower curtain to a white/cream colored one. I actually have some embroidered white curtains that I can use as a shower curtain and re-use the liner behind the brown one. Tomorrow, Larry is going to finish painting and put the moulding up where the blue and white meet.

One of my favorite bloggers is having a giveaway this week! Sandy at 4 Reluctant Entertainers is giving away a beautiful 16x20 Canvas print made from your very own photo…made by the folks at Online Poster Printing. Her blog features a photo taken of a dollar store glass, made into a canvas..makes a really cool piece of art!

Making our house a home…

2009-04-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard that at least 1 in 6 homeowners is “underwater” in their home…meaning, they owe more than their home is worth. Truth be told, in Arizona, the problem is much, much worse…and I would estimate it to be at least 40% or more, depending on where you live. There are some areas of the Phoenix metro area, where a home purchased for 225,000 a few years ago, has lost over 100,000 in value. We don’t live in that area, luckily, but we are most certainly “underwater” about 10-20%% in our home. But the biggest part of that sentence..is this is our HOME. I did go through a phase when housing was just starting to panic..thinking “oh my gosh…we are losing money!” But looking at things now, this is how I see it. We LOVE our house, the semi-rural area we live in is part of a nice little community. It has everything we have ever wanted. When we bought this house it was to live in, we really have no intention of “flipping” it or moving anytime soon. Larry and I both enjoy coming HOME at the end of the day to this beautiful place, we are not struggling in any way to pay our mortgage, so it’s time to ENJOY this place! :) So, I am over the panic of the initial fall, and am really beginning to invest a lot of energy into making it more beautiful and more “us”.

I really love The Lettered Cottage Blog, and a few days ago she posted a consultation she did of a bathroom. After looking at it closer, I realized it’s a very similar layout to our hall bathroom…also known as “Hayley’s Bathroom” This is the post where it is shown.... I have some blue paint leftover from painting our craft room last year, and I think this would be super cute in there. So…that’s an upcoming project I think. As soon as I find my camera, I’ll post some pictures and let you see how I do!

Catalina State Park Trail Run

2009-04-13T05:48:00.001-07:00

Saturday, April 12th, was the Catalina State Park Trail run. It was a little unnerving when we got there, because it was COLD and rainy. We were lucky though and the rain held off until the afternoon for the most part.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T09:51:00.001-07:00

Another 1/2 in the books!

2009-03-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Today I ran the Valley of Gold 1/2 Marathon and oh my goodness, it was hard. For some reason, I go into these things thinking I am ready, and THIS will be the one I do really well. I don't expect to win or anything, but I'd like to do a 2:20 or so like when I was 30, sounds fair right? Today I felt good at the start, but just like the previous 2 1/2s I have done (in December and January) at 10 miles..I just bonked. I felt kind of dizzy, and just lost all motivation to keep going. In all cases I have kept going, I just don't know what happens to me! I do know that I have had sugary jelly beans at about mile 9 all 3 times, so I'm wondering if there is a blood sugar spike and I then crash really hard. Today's course was very hard, it really felt like we were always going uphill, but when I uploaded my GPS.....of course we had as much ascent time as descent...so that shoots that theory. Anyway...Hayley took this cool picture as I was running away from where they waited to cheer me on...although like any smarmy 13 year old would point out...I was WALKING here...not running...love ya.

I went to the coolest place today!

2009-03-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

I am on a huge "nesting" tear right now. NO, I'm not pregnant, I just am really motivated to do stuff to our house. I've found several blogs that have really inspired me to get working, even though we don't have a ton of money to do stuff.

The Nesting Place where her motto is "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful"

The Lettered Cottage, Layla is a designer who is redoing a 110 year old home. I really like her cottage style, and am thinking of ordering a little consultation from her.

Southern Hospitality....I just saw that her and Layla hang out..how cute!

And A Soft Place to Land has a ton of cute ideas and inspiration. I saw about 10 other blogs while I was making these links, but these are just a few good ones.

The cool place I went today was the Habistore. This is a store where people donate used building materials, furniture, and household items. I bought the cutest little table for my front door, and 5 picture frames for 23.00! The table was 15 bucks and the picture frames...they are all big and nice wood were 8.00.

This will come back to us someday....

2009-03-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

Today we were driving home from picking up a curtain rod at Wal-Mart and Larry saw a desert tortoise about to cross into the road....knowing that they don't move very fast, we decided to save him from certain death...by the time the next car would have come, he'd have been in the middle of their lane and probably gotten crushed. I relocated him (well, I guess it could have been a "her") to the side of the road.

moving forward

2009-03-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much here lately, but I've been keeping up with life quite well, meal planning and all!

I had my 4 year colonoscopy on February 21st, and to prove how busy I was, I didn't even think about the results of the biopsy for the entire week following. I had a lot going on, and just kept on going. The biopsy was clear!

I think every time I am about to have a major cancer check up, I get so worked up about things, that I almost convince myself the cancer is back. Every headache is a tumor, my stomach gets upset from eating just about anything, my bones hurt...and as soon as the test is over, I feel fine. It's amazing what the mind can do.

On a Sunday afternoon....

2009-03-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

Last February...we went to Catalina State Park...and I took some pictures. Today..I was messing around with Photoshop and came up with this...cool, huh?

Why can't my math teachers have come up with something like this?

2009-02-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

My daughter's math teacher showed them this video the other day....heck if dorky Mr. Cundy had come up with something like this, I might not have slept thru his class every day!!

Menu Plan Monday....

2009-02-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

I'm just doing 1 week this time...have A LOT going on in the next 2 weeks, but also an extra day off on the 13th, so I'll get caught up then!

Monday, February 9th Pepperocini Roast Beef
Tuesday, February 10th Tuna Casserole...
Wednesday, February 11th Chicken Stew in Crock Pot
Thursday, February 12th Pork Stir Fry
Friday, February 13th--- Larry and Hayley cook....
Saturday, February 14th- Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, Ranch Pasta Salad

Monthly Organizing Round Up

2009-02-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

I really love the orgjunkie site!! One of the things she is doing is having a monthly organizing round up. In January the goal is paper... Well...when we bought this house, I opted to have a "Computer Enclave" built in off the kitchen..and I'm embarrassed to say..that the cabinets got stuffed full of junk when we moved in 14 months ago, and that's how they have stayed.

I can't seem to figure out how to post these pictures correctly..so I labeled them "before" and "after" in case you can't figure out which is which!! (HAH!)

I still would like to paint the wall behind the desk, and figure out some type of cord management, but I feel GREAT having this project done, it was one of my goals for January...and yes, it is done! You can read more about Monthly Round ups from Laura by clicking on the little cowgirl icon below!

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-25T17:42:00.001-08:00

I menu plan for 2 weeks at a time...so I've decided to post 2 weeks worth of Menus....

Monday-Jan 26 Hamburgers on Grill....Suddenly Pasta Salad
Tuesday-Jan 27 You are on your own...we have a concert of Hayleys
WednesdayJan 28 Crock Pot Lasagna
Thursday Jan 29 Spaghetti and Meatballs
Friday Jan 30 Chicken Fajitas
Saturday Jan 31 Pork Chops Milanese
Super Bowl Sunday...not sure..going to a party...will eat lightly all day!
Monday February 2- Carne Guisada
Tuesday February 3 Slap Me Silly Grilled Chicken and Potato Salad
Wednesday February 4 Green Pork Chili
Thursday February 5 Fish
Friday February 6- Pizza (homemade or the hut...we'll see)

I included links for most of the recipes. The Suddenly salad is a copy of the boxed mix, but MUCH, MUCH better and healthier. We all really love it. The Pork Chops are really good as well, crispy. The grilled chicken, we have had once before, but I am going to try to spice it up a little, I liked it but Larry would like it spicier..so we'll see.... I try to cook with the Crock pot on days that Hayley has games or days that I am going to do something after work. I think I am a pretty frugal shopper...I bought everything for this menu, plus stuff for our lunches and breakfasts for $147.00 today after coupons and Frys card savings. I am thinking I spent about 60.00 on things other than for these dinners....so that means $87.00 for 10 dinners, so that is at least 30 servings...at $2.90 per serving. Much cheaper than any value meal I can think of!!!

I'm going to sign off and go watch "A very Duggar Wedding" I love that family!

You can check out lots of other menu planning ideas here >>

16 things about me

2009-01-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

Some of the blogs I read have been posting a random list of 16 things about themselves..so here goes:

I am 40 years, 6 months, and 25 days old today
I weigh 167 lbs
I've lost 114 lbs..yep..do the math...I really weighed that much
I've run 2 full marathons
I've run 6 half marathons
I love Wheat Thins
I currently love Tim Tam cookies...so glad they won't be available in the states after March
I cannot stand Tomato Juice
I love the movie Snakes on a Plane, and any movie with a goofy monster in it
I have a wonderful son and daughter
My husband almost always calls me "Jules-honey"
I check "what's on" QVC at least once a day, but have only bought about 5 things in 20 years!
I can cook, sew, and do anything else domestic.
I'm currently reading Dewey, the Small town library cat who touched the whole world.
I'm meeting with a college advisor tomorrow. I'd like to get an accounting degree
My dog, and my husband...are both named Larry!

Ok...if you are a fellow blogger...consider yourself tagged!!! Post YOUR random 16 things.

Rockin' and Rolling.......

2009-01-21T06:35:00.001-08:00

On Sunday, I went to Phoenix with two friends from my running group to do the PF Chang's 1/2 Marathon. It was such a cool experience! 27,000 people!!! I really liked doing a race that big, since there are so many people, you are never running alone, and there is no way you end up last. I was actually right in the middle, I think.

Things I learned from this one:

I really should run more!!! My longest training run for this run was 6.5 miles...

I need to run more in the afternoon heat, rather than in the early morning when it was cool, I really was not used to running in 70+ degree temps.

I CAN do just about anything!

I'm going to do another one here in Tucson at the end of March. I'm hoping to do a little faster time for that one. I did 2:51 for the Rock and Roll, and I think with some training and determination, I can do 2:30.

Menu Plan Monday

2009-01-12T05:10:00.000-08:00

Monday- Pork Chops, Green Beans, Potatoes
Tuesday- Hamburger Helper...yep..out of a box and everything!!
Wednesday- Grilled Chicken, Pasta Salad
Thursday-Beef Stew in Crock Pot
Friday- Sloppy Joes, Corn on the cob
Saturday and Sunday..I will be in Phoenix for the 1/2 Marathon.

Hopefully it's a good week!

Best husband ever!!

2009-01-06T04:59:00.000-08:00

First...some background..... since my chemo a few years ago....and now since losing all this weight...I have a really hard time keeping warm....especially when our version of "winter" comes around and it gets a little cold here. We also were very careful when we picked out our lot for our house...so that our master bedroom would not get any eastern sunlight...so Larry could sleep well during the day...and it would not get too hot during the summer. This has worked out great..but the sun that heats our living room so nicely during this time of year doesn't do much for our bedroom and it tends to get a little cold at night. It's really not that cold in there, it's just me, pretty much..I wake up nearly every night shivering. So, after several weeks of multiple comforters...sleeping in sweat pants/shirts...yesterday Larry went out and bought me....an ELECTRIC BLANKET!!!! This was so sweet!! I slept great last night...and if my dog had not wanted out at 2am...I'd have slept all night.

Last night I tried a new recipe. Larry had asked me a few months ago if I'd ever made real fried chicken....and since I haven't...and not sure I ever will....but I found this recipe for Crispy Baked Chicken and it had pretty good reviews..so I thought I'd try it. It was really good. Most times when I'd tried something like this the coating all falls off or it gets soggy. This was really crispy and the chicken didn't dry out or anything. I used drumsticks...but I think I'd make it again with boneless breasts.

One little word

2009-01-05T05:19:00.001-08:00

I read a blog of this scrapbooking woman....and one of her things each year is to pick one word that you can focus on throughout the year. You can read more about it here.

My word is Plan. Since it is the new year...you may think that it is about organizing and stuff like that...but those things...I pretty much have a handle on. I chose that word to remind me to plan other things....like having fun...spending time with Hayley and Larry...doing fun things....and letting the type A things slide a little bit.... plan to have fun, plan to enjoy myself..plan to have a good day...plan to be happier...etc...

I told Larry about this...and his word is.....well..I better ask him first..

Getting back on schedule

2009-01-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

Well...after a few weeks of odd schedules and two four day weekends in a row... it's back to work and school at our house tomorrow. Getting back to meal planning...

Sunday- Crock pot roast beef
Monday- Crispy Baked Chicken
Tuesday- BBQ Beef Sandwiches and potato salad
Wednesday-Crock pot chili
Thursday- Taco Night
Friday-We are going to dinner at PF Chang's
Saturday- Clean out the refrigerator..on your own...lefovers....etc!

Had a fun weekend...we rented "All Star Cheerleading" for the Wii.....fun times!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad 2008 is over! I woke up yesterday with a bit of a cold and a fever, but I'm feeling better today. Taking the day to get reorganized, caught up and regroup for the new year!

silly me....

2008-12-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

I have signed up to run the Tucson 1/2 Marathon this Sunday.... Silly me....have I run a whole bunch these last couple of weeks? No. Do I feel that I'll be able to do it? Yes.... Is this wise? Maybe not. Oh well....It'll be fine.

I'll post an update on Sunday afternoon. The race starts at 7, so we are thinking we'll do it in 2.5 hours...so I should be home, showered and curled up in bed by 11!

Menu Plan Monday ~ Dec 1st

2008-12-01T06:26:00.001-08:00

Menu Plan Monday ~ Dec 1st

If you click on the above link, you will get tons of links to other people's menu plans for the week. I get some ideas from them. They are really ambitious folks who post links to their recipes and everything....sheesh......One of these weeks I'll do better.

my daughter's superrr cool (;

2008-11-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

well really, this is Hayley (:
but my madre really did write the title, I swear. ;]
i'm supposed to post her menu for the week,
which Larry refers to as our house's bible :D

SUNDAY: BBQ Beef Sandwiches
MONDAY: Chicken Stir Fry
TUESDAY: Crock Pot Taco Soup
WEDNESDAY: Sausage & Bowties
THURSDAY: Burgers on Grill
FRIDAY: Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon
(who does that, really?)
SATURDAY: Spaghetti w/ Garlic Bread

well i'm done here,
that's enough Hayley for all you readers
(:

I wish I could dance like this!!!

2008-11-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2008-11-09T09:20:00.000-08:00

I love to plan things. It is part of my nature, I guess. There is something about knowing what is for dinner and having a plan for the day that gives me an "all is right with the world kind of feeling"

I have found I am not alone!! Over at orgjunkie.com..(the picture above) every Monday there is a place to post your menu for the week. I like reading everyone else's plans and getting ideas for my own.

So...here is my first attempt!

November 9- Pepperocini Roast Beef in the Crock Pot
November 10- Pork Stir Fry
November 11- Fajitas with the leftover beef from Sunday
November 12- Grilled Chicken and Hot crashed potatoes from the Pioneer Woman
November 13- Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup
November 14- Home Made Pizza
November 15- On your own!! Hayley and I are going to Phoenix for the Undy 5000.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

Last night, I got home after work, having decided that I would NOT attend a Halloween party tonight...I hadn't even made a costume and just wanted to enjoy tonight and hand out candy at home. Well, Hayley got invited to a party for tonight, and didn't have a costume, so I decided to make the costume I was going to wear, for her!!! We started at 6pm, and finished at 10! Here is a picture of ME in it......More of Hayley later! :)

It's Little Red Riding Hood, but I didn't have the hood on at the time of this picture.

10 miles and a pumpkin patch...

2008-10-21T06:47:00.001-07:00

I ran the Carondelet 10 Miler this weekend... I really wanted to test my fitness, to see how close I could get to running it in 2 hours. Well.... I did it in 2:12.... and I was about 15th to last..... It was a warm day, but all in all, I'm really glad I did it.

On Sunday, we all went to the Pumpkin patch.....and later that night...after some assistance from Hayley, I figured out..(well, she figured out and taught me) how to do some things in Photo shop... So this is my first digital 12 x 12 page!! Yeah..I know...a little elementary, but I finally got the concepts of putting stuff together on it. I'm planning to make our Christmas card soon!

Probably one of my proudest moments- ever.

2008-10-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Hayley, about to finish the Jim Click Run and Roll 8k on Sunday. That's 4.97 miles. It was her idea to get up and go do a race, we got inspired helping at a water station for a 5K the night before. I do not think there is a prouder moment in a parent's life than to see their child perservere, even when it is difficult. Right after this picture was taken, she sprinted to the finish and beat some other lady that was right ahead of her. Go BOO BOO!

Busy weekend....

2008-10-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend!!! I think I'll make two posts...so I can correctly document it!! On Saturday..Trevor and I ran 13 and 7 miles..respectively, and I was bored waiting for him to finish, so when he and his partner came in, I ran their last mile with them. Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the picture from the Apple Farm and the huge zucchini? Well, I was bored and a little hungry..(because that's all I get...a little hungry) and decided to make these zucchini cakes. They turned out EXACTLY like the picture and they were very good!!! I also learned a couple of things.......1) Grating a big zucchini like that takes forever...I did as much as I needed, and talked Hayley into doing the rest! and 2) ANYTHING fried smells good when cooking.

Determined and grateful....

2008-09-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today it seems like our economic crisis is only going to get worse, not better, anytime soon. I'm not sure what to think of the political situation. I do know, however, that I am doing well, and life is pretty darn good.

I'm feeling grateful for:

My health..I ran 3 miles when I got home today, in 95 degree heat, and it felt so good! Losing this weight was such a great thing to do!
I am cancer free so far...just two more years to go until I am at that magical "5 year mark"
I'm listening to my daughter play her viola beautifully. I'm so proud of her.
I've completed more runs in this marathon training program than I ever have in 4 times of starting the program and quitting. Must be because I am running with a group and Trevor comes and drives me there every Saturday!
Our bills are paid, and although we have zero equity in our home, we love it and can see ourselves staying here a very long time.
My job continues to challenge me, just when I think I know it all, I find that I don't and need to learn some more!
My husband adores me...why I'm not sure...since I'm pretty grumpy sometimes... :)
My son is in love and treats her very well, probably the best compliment to a mother.

I'm determined to continue being grateful for the wonderful things I have in my life.