Today I am doing something else I have never done before: taking a long road trip solo. In a few minutes Muffin and I will head toward Arkansas and my daughter. Hubby is staying home to work. I'm so looking forward to spending Mother's Day actually feeling like a mother. I also got my CA pics uploaded so hopefully one day while Em is working I will get a recap post together.
Happy Tuesday everybody! 
This is going to be a fun week. 
My youngest niece turns 6 this time next week and her mom asked me to help her redecorate her bedroom for her birthday. This is right down my alley as I've often dreamed of being an interior designer.
So yesterday we spent the day shopping for fabric and accessories to coordinate with the Tinkerbell bedspread she had picked out. The challenge was to stay kid friendly and girlie without breaking the bank. We decided to mix it up a bit and go with flowers and butterflies, not just Tinkerbell. My SiL and I both sew, so we divided the projects. We'll do our sewing while she is in school and then next Monday we'll put it all together. PTL for an uncle who is painting furniture!
Today I am happily immersed in shades of lime and butterflies, ribbons and beads as I am making the canopy/drape for her bed. Just hope it turns out as cute as it looks in my head!
Finished:
For years I have been online friends with Mary Hurlbut both on xanga and on facebook. We met on the xanga Christian Moms blog ring and soon began praying for one another's families and getting to know each other better. We often dreamed of one day meeting face to face.
Well, a few weeks ago that finally happened. My travel buddy, Mary Ann met me in Laguna Beach and we spent a whole week together with Mary at her mom's cliff-side home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This was my first trip ever to California. It was so much fun hanging out with these two women who love the Lord. Thanks to the generosity of those two camera bugs I have loads of great photos and hardly even took my point and shoot out of the case. It was a perfect balance of just hanging out and activity. Great times! I'll create an album soon, but for now here is my favorite group shot from the week:
Okay, don't anybody faint and fall over because I actually blogged! 
I could talk about lots of things here but today I am choosing to resume blogging with the story of some MAJOR changes I have made in my lifestyle this past year. Then tomorrow I will share something very exciting I got to do this month.
It all began a few weeks after my 49th birthday when I realized my next birthday would be the big 5-0. Looking back I realized I spent my entire 4th decade overweight and not feeling good about how I looked with little to no stamina. I saw my Moma get thin in her old age, but didn't want to wait that long to be slender again. So I decided then to do whatever it takes to begin a journey toward health. I began counting calories and exercising 6 days a week. My goal was to lose 56 pounds and 5 sizes by my 50th birthday. I figured losing a pound or two a week was do-able.
Along the way I learned what my trigger foods are, how to tame the carb monster and eventually ended up with a new healthy lifestyle. I eat more fruit and vegetables than I ever have in my entire life. I only eat red meat once a week. I rarely eat simple carbs, ever! I lift weights twice a week and walk or ride my bike or do an exercise DVD the other days. And its finally paid off. I have decided if I want to feel good about the way I look, I can never again eat anything I want and must monitor every single bite that goes in my mouth from now on.
It didn't happen the way I planned. Some weeks I managed to lose more than one pound. But more often than not I only lost1/2 to 1 pound a week. Inches lost: now that's a different story. I didn't meet my birthday goal. But I didn't give up. I've come too far for that!
Its been 14 months and I've lost 4 sizes and 42 pounds, so I'm still not there just yet. 
But the last time I was this size was at least 15 years ago. Clothes are fun to shop for again. Now, people walk up to me and say things like, "You've lost a ton of weight!" Yep, I'm loving it....
Wow! Its been quite awhile since I took the time to blog. Not sure where to begin playing catch up but here are the things that stand out in my mind since mid September when I last posted:
We're still trying to sell our house in Arkansas. We have had several interested buyers, but so far each and every time the sale has fallen through before it finalized. When it finally does sell, we hope to get serious about building a house.
In October I spent a whole week with Mary Ann in Pennsylvania. We had both lost about 30 pounds so we did lots of shopping and went to the gym most every day. It was so much more fun to eat healthy and sweat together! I had a wonderful week with my sister of the heart. My two most favorite purchases were a bracelet and two pair of boots. Since I don't live in the woods anymore, I got my crunching through the leaves fix toward the end of my visit when she took me hiking at Ohiopyle. Once I got home hubby and I spent 3 days reconnecting, then we took the inlaws and spent a week working on a widowed aunts house near Waco. I enjoyed every minute of it, but never intend to be away for 3 weeks straight again!
In November Coffey Anderson was at our church along with Jesse Duplantis. I had a blast singing with him both at practice and in the service that night. And Jesse is always good! We met our Em and her boyfriend at his folks' house (about halfway for us both) for Thanksgiving. Now we know why he is such a sweetheart ~ he got it from his Moma! It was the first time since I was old enough to reach the stove I didn't cook anything for Thanksgiving. Best part is I didn't blow my eating plan because there was no food to taste test or leftovers in my fridge!
Hubby is working 6 days on, 3 days off these days with every other rotation being nights. I am still not very good at being quiet so he can sleep so I tend to leave the house when he's trying to sleep. I've been doing a bit of sewing, first for my niece's birthdays, and most recently a few Christmas gifts. This year I did almost every bit of my shopping online. Gotta love Amazon.com!
My weeks have fallen into pretty much of a routine. Most weeks I get to keep my great nephew who is now almost 26 months for a few hours, and sometimes even his 4 month old baby sister. He calls me Shushan now instead of Mine and is the light of my life. Most recently hubby and I had them both while parents and grandparents went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas Concert.
On Thursdays I meet a girlfriend for a standing salad lunch and on Friday nights I cook supper for my inlaws. Tuesdays and Sundays have become my most favorite days since I am singing on the praise team at church now. There's just nothing like a jam session! This weekend is our Christmas program He Made a Way In a Manger. Hopefully hubby will get home in time to attend as I get to sing the title song just before pastor speaks.
I haven't seen my son since Thanksgiving of last year. Hoping to remedy that situation sometime after the first of the year. As usual Em will be coming in on the 23rd and heading home the day after Christmas. A few weeks ago I realized I must have finally turned a corner because for the first time since my son was stationed in Alaska, I can hear I'll Be Home For Christmas without crying. Until very recently, it reduced me to tears each and every time. I can finally think of Moma or Daddy and smile. Quite often we laugh about what we think they would have said or done in our particular situation.
Hopefully it won't be 3 months before I find time to post again. Merry Christmas y'all! For those of you on facebook you can find tidbits from me there.
Guess you could say the genealogy bug has bitten. I've been lost in family genealogy for weeks now. My MiL told me about this neat website where you can look up memorials of both loved ones and famous people called FindaGrave. So I've been systematically looking for all of Mother and Daddy's siblings and parents on there and adding the ones who are missing. Which of course, led to research on Ancestry.com, which led me to a cousin I never met who had a photo of Daddy's mother I had never seen. Turns out he looked just like her! When I received that email hubby heard me squeal from the other end of the house! 
So both Moma and Daddy's parents are listed, but without an obituary. Seems I remember sending that stuff home with my older brothers, only I don't remember who I gave what to. So now I am trying to track down enough biographical information to write their obituaries. It would be so much easier if I had their memorial books on hand...
That's really all that is happening with me these days.
Don't know what happened, but my words seem to have dried up. Somehow I went from that gal who always thought she'd write a book to someone who barely strings three sentences together. Maybe its just a phase I'm going through, or maybe that part of me is gone...
Yesterday Ken had his third chemo treatment. According to my SIL each one seems to hit him harder than the one before. Guess that is the way it is supposed to work....
Its been too hot to work on our garage project, so our place still looks like Sanford and Son from the road. Hopefully September will cool down and we can finish. Hubby's work is talking possible layoffs if third quarter numbers aren't up, so guess we'll postpone replacing windows awhile longer.
This past weekend hubby and I went to spend a long weekend with his aunt and help her work on her house. The guys worked on the remodel while us girls did the sort and toss thing. Course we had to find time for a round or two of Rummicube each evening while they rested. Thought it was hot here, but it was even hotter there! We all used muscles we forgot we had.
Time to go weed the flowerbed before it gets too hot to be outside. And laundry... Seems there's always laundry.
Still trying to get back on schedule after my road trip. 
Hubby worked some long hours before I left so Saturday we went to breakfast together before I left. Turns out it was 303 miles door to door. Not much to see but sky when you head West from where I live until you get almost to their house. I remember when we took Moma to stay with them.... She lived in New Mexico when she was in her twenties and kept talking about the Watermelon Mountains. Come to find out Sandia means watermelon in Spanish. Turns out we were the ones who didn't know....
I got there mid-afternoon New Mexico time. Ken looks better than I expected, but I have to say that is the first time I remember seeing him without a mustache since basic training. They told him to expect to lose all his hair so he went ahead and shaved it off instead of waiting for it to fall out. Between the lymphoma and chemo he doesn't have much energy, but he just keeps on keeping on. He's still working and can't sit still for very long at a time. Having to sit and rest is so foreign to him.... I encouraged him to listen to his body and rest when he needed to. Its obvious he doesn't plan to do that until he literally can't put one foot in front of the other.
Sunday we went out for breakfast then to church. I love experiencing how others spend their day to days. It was neat to see how much the staff at their favorite breakfast place doted on them and then meet their church family and worship with them. They sit at the very, very back now since Ken is supposed to avoid crowds. That afternoon while he rested, I went with my niece to the pool with her kids. (Her oldest took up with me almost immediately, but the two little ones didn't have much to do with me until that last evening there.) Sunday evening was a precious time as big brother pulled out some of his favorite Southern Gospel Cds and we sat around and sang along. He must have enjoyed it too cuz he stayed up about an hour longer than usual. After the kids went to bed my niece came over and us womenfolk stayed up and had a nice long visit.
Monday Ken went to work and we took the kids to the Aquarium/Botanical Gardens and then to a hands on kids museum. They were so excited they could barely eat breakfast. On the way home we stopped for ice cream and at last my great-niece decided to be my buddy. Ken was already home when we got there. After he went to bed my SiL and I discovered we really liked alot of the same tv shows and piddled around on her computer some.
Tuesday came much too soon. Diane and I met Ken for brunch then I headed east. I got home just in time for practice Tuesday night. Next time I'll build in some time to stop and walk around midway cuz I had a major case of fanny fatigue when I got there. It felt good to stand and sing!
Wednesday Ken had his second chemo. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.
Life is good. So far this has been maybe the best week I've had since we moved here. My new little great-niece is just precious. Hubby and her grandfather both declare she looks just like them. One thing is for sure she has hubby's mouth.
Yep, life is good!
You just never know how things will work out....
I don't usually take a nap on Sunday afternoons, but felt the need for one yesterday and slept for almost two whole hours. Turns out it was a very good thing because about 1:30 a.m. this morning I got a phone call that my niece's water had broken, so I boogied on over there as planned, so they didn't have to wake up my great nephew. I catnapped all night while he got his nap out and then brought him home with me to stay until mom and little sister are ready for a visit. At supper last night his grandmother informed me when they show him my picture and ask "Who is that?" He says, "Mine." With a tag like that I don't care if he ever learns to say Aunt Susan....
BTW, my great niece was born at 4:31a.m. and weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and is 19.5 inches long. I hear she's beautiful!
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