Walking, Laughing and a Tea Bath

Hi y’all!  Today I only did 2.26 miles but I did it between several stores.  I had to go in to work early this morning to be passed off on meds so that is done now.  Now I can successfully perform all aspects of my old/new/old job again.  I feel a little better about the whole situation now.  I think this will be a big help.  Or at least make me feel better.  So while talking to the nurse I was catching her up on what was going on with me, since I worked with her before I left when Jeffrey got sick.  I told her about my hyperglycemia and my quest to lose weight and all.  She told me some unsettling stuff that I already knew.  She said if I was going to get diabetes, I was going to get it regardless of what I do.  Well ok.  I knew that deep down inside but you hear so many stories of people overcoming it and whatever else.  But like I told her, even so, I will be looking better.  I went ahead and asked her what the normal blood sugar was for a non-diabetic.  She said it used to be 110 and below, and even 120 at one time but now it is 70-100.  Well if that is the case,  my fasting sugar is high every day.  I declared this evening that this may not be a bad thing but a blessing (always looking on the bright side I am).  If this is what it takes to get me to slim down and get my health together, then ok.  I can deal with it.  I don’t WANT it, but if it is what is dealt me, I am going to make the most of it,  In other words, if I find out at the next DR visit that I am developing it anyway no matter the weight loss, then I will deal.  That doesn’t mean I am going to eat like a hog and gain it back.  I have a vision and I must get there.

I returned home and ate.  I am still fighting the low carb thing when I go out to eat.  I have been out and about so much lately that I cannot seem to get it back under control.  Things are going to settle down and if I can at least keep the walking going, I shouldn’t put any back on.  I am worried because first of all I want to look better and be healthy but I also don’t want all I have done to be just for nothing.  Remember me talking about getting aggravated about repeating things?  Yeah.  You get it.

We went to go see my brother today.  Remember me talking about a relative that had major surgery recently?  It was him. I plan on doing a whole blog on that journey maybe tomorrow, maybe in the coming week.  I don’t know.  I just want to be able to logically put my thoughts together and that is coming soon.  Anyway, before anyone panics, he is doing great!  Says he feels better too.  We visited him for about 3 hours and then we went to get my VBS stuff.  Vacation Bible School is in about a week or so, so I needed to get all that stuff together.  If anyone is reading this that goes to church with me, thank you all so much for all the help to make this happen!  I couldn’t have done it without God’s and your support.  So in the middle of all this we decide to get something to eat since we had been out all day.  Let me tell you where that goes.

The food is good as always at Denny’s.  They go out and I pay the bill.  The guy behind the counter was talking to me about his gut that was all wrong.  Needless to say, that turned into an interesting conversation about running people out of bathrooms and you see where it went.  So I went to the car, told my Mom about it, and she clips off something totally hilarious as I am swigging my tea.  I, for real, sprayed it out my mouth, out my nose, all over my wheel, dashboard, shirt, pants, and the excess ran under my butt.  I look like a kid that was potty training that missed!  Oh my goodness!  I haven’t laughed that hard since we got into a laughing tizzy seeing my brother earlier.  He hadn’t laughed like that since his surgery he said and he thought it would do him some good.  That was hilarious too.  All in all it was a good day and I accomplished what I set out to accomplish.

Now I am still up and writing my blog.  I think I have been resting too much lately  I figured I would stay up a bit later, and get up early to walk, and rest all day tomorrow so Wednesday we can see our rescheduled Reds game.  I am beat.  When I say I am beat, I am not kidding.  My legs, my back, my knees, even my BACK FAT is hurting!  What in the world is so bad that your back fat has to hurt?  I don’t know but mine sure does.  I hope I can stretch out and just relax tomorrow.  And do laundry and walk of course.  And I think that is one reason too.  I need to consistency of walking EVERY day at the SAME time.  Otherwise my body does something ignorant like buck everything I want to do.

Now I need to play catch up with the 30 day challenge.  Here goes;

Day 9–Favorite meme at this time:  I have seen a few recently I like but I don’t remember them so let’s go with none.

Day 10–Talk about your pets, or pets you would like to have:  I have Sheba, a Min Pin, Tink, a Chihuahua, Max, a Min Pin and Shih Tzu mix, and Coco Chanel a German Shepard mix.  I also have Tubs, Carter, Toby, Izzy B and Jinx cats.  We have a few cats outside too, Jetty and Zippy and Shaleigh.  We love our critters.  Sometimes they understand me more than society.  The only thing I can say about pets I would like is that saying I saw a while back: I only regret I don’t have a mansion big enough to house all the homeless cats and dogs in the world.  I think it said cats, but I love dogs too.  I think I should have been a vet as much as I love critters.

Day 11–Your top three favorite bands:  Well this is easy.  Rob/matchbox twenty.  That was a no brainer.  Still can’t believe that after 20+ years I got to meet him! The Fray.  That was a no brainer too.  Still can’t believe that I got to meet and HUG Isaac Slade.  Hmm mhhmmm.  And Maroon 5.  That one needs no explanation I am sure.

Day 12–My thoughts or opinions about Harry Potter.  I have read them. I loved them.

Day 13–Your thoughts or opinions about Mean Girls.  I am not sure, the movie?  With Lindsay Lohan?  Is that it?  Is this the one where the one girl choked on a jawbreaker?  Meh, I didn’t care for it.

Well now that is caught up.  I hope they get better than that.  That is all for today.  Have a great night y’all!

–S

Best Birthday EVER!

Hi y’all!  I have taken two days off from writing, and I need to catch up.  Saturday we did a shorter walk, 47 minutes 1.89 miles, because company was coming.  I used the two-pound weights.  I didn’t care for those because they aren’t made of the mushy stuff and my sweat just beaded up and made them slick.  Annie said the next time I could just use her set of one pound ones together with mine and walk that way.  And talk this way….ha!  Hope y’all got that.  Anyway, I did that today but more on that later.  While walking we heard something snorting at us in the woods and on the other side of the road something that sounded like metal falling.  Odd.

We grilled out Saturday for our anniversary.  We have been married 17 years now.  It was a rare occasion for Derek and I both to be home at the same time for it but we were.  We grilled out corn, taters, burgers and dogs.  My brother, my best friend of (it will remain unnamed) many years Larry was here, and Annie’s friend Cody from work came out.  We had a good time, food was good and Larry and Derek played music.  We refuse to say how many years we have been best friends.  Just one of those things, ha!  I am sure they all got tired of me hashing out the Rob Thomas concert but they never said a word.

In the afternoon we had to make a birthday cake run.  The next day, the 21st, was my birthday.  I was born in the daytime which in my opinion is pretty odd.  Guess that explains me.  Ha!  We ran to Wal-Mart.  On the way there I played the concert for my brother to hear.  With our VIP pack we got a bracelet that gave us a code to be able to download exclusive content.  That content was the whole Indy show!  I am so thrilled to have a copy of it!  It has some new stuff on it that I will get another copy of as soon as the album comes out.  And it is just awesome because for me I remember what I was thinking and feeling at every moment during the show.  The sound quality is awesome too.  Anyway, I played that all the way to Wal-Mart and home and he thought it was pretty awesome.  Also we framed our signatures.  I will add a photo below.  I will also re-add the link to the video of him signing it for me since it was messed up the last time.

Another couple of observations about our show.  The lady who kept trying to get us to notice her apparently didn’t realize she was in the presence of greatness–Rob Thomas.  I did.  🙂  Also, there weren’t any scalpers or people trying to buy tickets out front of the venue.  I was glad.  I don’t like stuff that is annoying and that is.

We get to Wal-Mart and are faced with the dilemma of what cake to get.  We both don’t need it, but birthdays only roll around once a year so we did anyway.  We got the chocolate and the white one.  I had to have the flower piece, of course, because that is what we do when it is your birthday.  The birthday person of course gets the flower.  Do I believe that having some cake is going to rimrack my diet?  No.  Do I believe if I eat that every day in some capacity or another it will?  Yes.  Absolutely.  So I have enjoyed it now, and I am good.  I even bought some pop to have over the weekend and  I didn’t have that.  There is some debate over whether diet pop is good for you with the aspartame or not.  I stand on that without an opinion. I use sweetener in other stuff, and in the water flavors.  I guess it is as healthy as a chemically created compound can be, but when you are trying to fight off diabetes to keep it from developing, sugar is the enemy.  I guess we do trade one evil for another but I have noticed that you don’t consume sweetener as readily as you do sugar.  I guess that is a plus.  Or I should say I don’t.  I did notice this too.  After not eating sugar for almost 9 weeks, since this starts week 9 of the diet and week 8 of exercise,  I sure did get a bit stoned on the sugar from the cake.  Ha!

So my brother and I planned some stuff that we want to do soon.  One thing is in September Annie and I have a concert in Lexington Kentucky.  On the way home, we are going to see if we can take a tour of Waverly Hills in Louisville.  (Bear with me as I know some of this is a repeat.)  I mentioned to him about going to the concert and to Waverly.  He is going to go with us and hang out in the hotel and work while we go see the show.  That will be awesome!  Having him along is a hoot.  He acts about like I do, or rather I act like him since he is older.  The kids act like me.  You see the pattern here. For example, Annie stopped me this morning on our walk, pointed, and said branch, and took off walking.  There was a tree branch in the road and she apparently felt she needed to point it out to me.  I am really happy with how they both have turned out so far and with how they act, which is more and more like me every day. More on that later.

The next day, the 21st, is my birthday.  As you already know, Annie gave me tickets to Rob Thomas, second row, which ended in a meet and greet with an autograph.  That was a dream come true!  My Secret Sister at church gave me a Denny’s gift card, which is my favorite restaurant, and two light up yard spinners!  They are awesome!  Later that afternoon, Annie couldn’t sleep so she blogged then she randomly tweeted to Rob Thomas.  Here is what she said.

Hey @ThisIsRobThomas it’s my mom’s birthday today. We saw you last Tuesday in Indy! She would love for you to wish her a happy birthday! 🙂

— annie ☔ (@annieebanannie_) June 21, 2015

About three minutes later she came running out of her room and told me to look.  She was absolutely flabbergasted.  This is what I found.

@annieebanannie_ tell her happy happy from me. But only because you like @truTVjokers

— Rob Thomas (@ThisIsRobThomas) June 21, 2015

I almost come undone.  She almost come undone.  Rob Thomas took time, again, to talk to his fans.   I just think more of him every day.  I knew when I first heard him that he was awesome and now I have proof.  Thank you again Rob, if you ever happen to read this.  Two of your biggest fans are in Indiana.  You sure made my birthday rock!

Annie and Jeffrey both are two of the greatest kids ever.  She went out of her way to get those tickets, wait with me to get the autographs and then try to get him to tell me happy birthday.  Jeffrey was talking to me this morning and told me that he can tell I am losing weight but I was just fine the other way too.  He has a heart of gold.  I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They both deserve son and daughter of the year awards.

And we can’t forget Ben Gleib last week told me happy birthday too.  I also had so many birthday wishes on Facebook that I couldn’t keep up with them.  This birthday has been one of the best ever.  They are all good knowing I made it another year and spending it with family.  This one was just totally special.  I just want to say thank you all to everyone who made this birthday a special one!

Today was back to normal, sort of.  We walked this morning, 1.71 miles and 54 minutes.  We shortened it a bit today.  That thing was still snorting at us in the woods.  Originally thought it was deer humping (ha go ahead and laugh) but if they are still going strong after three days…..well that isn’t it.  My Mom said it was most likely a mama deer with a baby.  My uncle apparently tangled with one of those once.  I decided I didn’t want to tangle with that so we went another way.  On the other way we decided that maybe it was a Bigfoot.  We were then trying to figure out what we would do if we found one or what the Bigfoot hunters would do.  That is one question I would ask.  Once you find one, what are you gonna do with it?  I am not sure if they are friendly or not so this may take some thought.  Some states say it is illegal to shoot one, so that is out.  I hope it is a friendly one.  Like I said, as long as it lets me take pics, I am cool.

So we changed routes and went back down the hill and up and then back up again.  I had no issues with huffing and puffing too bad or breathing in general or dizziness.  That is good.  Tomorrow we are going to do the same thing again and see how it goes.  I want to work up to going to the crossroads here, which is down a smaller hill, up a large one, down a dip and back up and then you are there.  Once I get that, then I want to walk to circle, around the neighborhood.  I will get there.  For whatever reason we think that walking the hills is much better for us.  We like to believe that it works the guts and the butt more.  And the legs too of course.  I just want to get more of that burn in because it helps.  I also took a handful of two one pound weights and walked with those in each hand.  That still seems to be doing some good.  Lots of good really.  Still been hot, still really buggy in the mornings. That one stupid bug seems to like to fly in, land, and be obnoxious but only on the pavement part and only in a specific part of the woods.  I am going to look it up and see what it is and what repels it.  If it says to wash in tomato juice I would be tempted to just to repel it.  The dragonflies thought have disappeared too.  I rarely see one of those anymore.  I still plan on Googling them I just haven’t yet.

Our deep freeze has gone on the fritz.  I am not sure how we will handle that but we will figure out something.  I am about all typed out for today.  I have much more but I can catch up tomorrow again. Y’all have a great night!

–S

No Exercise Time–Why are the machines empty?

Hi y’all!  I didn’t blog yesterday.  We were at the hospital with my brother who had to have a procedure done.  I didn’t get much walking in all at once.  It was like there was no time for exercise, but later in the day we, Jeffrey and I, started going up and down the stairs until I was so tired I couldn’t go up them anymore. Jeffrey kept bugging me to start going back up them again but I did go up 3 flights(6 sections) of stairs several times and as I wore down I couldn’t do it more.  I was able to go down successfully the rest of the night but not up. We actually ended up spending a good part of the evening going up and down stairs and all over the place when we were really tired and punchy. Total for the day yesterday was between 3 and 4 miles but that was over a course of 17 hours.  We did walk for 17 minutes continuously and that was toward the evening, in the basement and as close as I could get to my daily walk time where we were at.  I wanted to find the morgue.  Why you ask?  Well when we were at one of these hospitals several years ago, we got off the elevator to go to lunch or supper and the first thing we saw as the doors opened was the door to the morgue.  I wasn’t for sure which hospital it was, but it wasn’t the one I was at yesterday.  We went back upstairs and told them (the others with us) that we went walking and looking for the morgue.  Didn’t phase them at all.  They know how bizarre I am.  Had I found it, I just would have thought that was interesting and it was that hospital that we found it in before.

On another note, not exercising in the morning like we always do really put my bones and joints in a bind.  I sat too much, I could hear fat coagulating on my butt and arms (not really but you get it), my knees were hurting, my legs were locking up, my butt was hurting, my arm and chest muscles were hurting from too much usage from hauling stuff in and out that we needed.  That was why Jeffrey and I decided that I needed to walk off the carbs I ate plus to get up and get moving to feel better.  I never once thought that missing exercise would ever be something that I would be all sorts of bent out of shape (literally) over but it was.  I am on the path to healthy and I will just have to always figure out how to work that in, or I will pay for it later.  I wouldn’t trade my time at the hospital with him yesterday for anything, but I do need to remember to continue to take care of me in every circumstance.  This is how we fall off the wagon.  A little this is ok here, won’t do this so much there, and before you know it, we have backslid and I can’t do that.  I left last night with a massive headache and still have it currently.  It is down to a dull roar which is manageable but still annoying.

Eating at a hospital is another story totally.  One thinks that when they go to the hospital that they should have options that would fit almost all diets, right?  Well let me tell you, that doesn’t work that way.  The only sugar-free thing they had was jello.  Ok….and diet pop.  That is another story in itself.  The only thing that they had was low-fat.  Umm, not necessarily at this point thanks.  There was all sorts of stuff just running over with carbs.  I had to just eat what I could and make do.  I did however have the foresight to bring my own water and water flavors.  I had no desire to spend a small fortune on water all day and that was a huge help.  I also included some sugar-free sugar wafers and I am glad I did.  I was just rather disappointed that there was nothing that would have really worked for me.  I was asked why couldn’t I buy one of the breaded sandwiches, take it off the bun, and pull the breading off?  My wallet says no.  That would be a total waste of money considering in order to fully make one whole sandwich, I would had to have bought about 4 of them to pull the breading off from.  And that just really sounds nasty anyway.  Unbreading a cooked breaded sandwich.  Ugh.  I do know I sure miss cooking on days like that.

So the soda story….I was looking on the room information where it talked about the cafeteria hours and I read where the hospital had made the decision to help make people healthier.  They were going to limit full sugar soft drinks that are available for purchase in the hospital.  Normally this would have really just set me afire.  After all my lifestyle changes, it didn’t bother me. I don’t drink diet soda (and obviously not full sugared soda) because the amount of sodium in it will cause you to retain water.  In the vending rooms there was a big sign that said the hospital was going to try to help stamp out the two things or conditions that were impacting us health wise here in Indiana and that is obesity (I am but not so much now) and diabetes (where I am heading if I don’t get this together).  Ok I get it.  But, there was this problem too.  At one time I decided that I wanted a cold water.  Water is healthy, right?  Well we had to walk all over the place to find one for Jeffrey after I lost the urge for one because we couldn’t find one.  We found it, oddly enough, in our quest for the morgue.  The ONLY ONE in the whole hospital I think was all the way in the basement, hidden from the majority.  For a snack, when we went to the cafeteria,  I had decided that I needed some tea.  No sweet for me of course, but the unsweetened they had was wrong.  It was just nasty.  The lack of caffeine could explain my headache.  They did have coffee but it was like drinking the nastiest bitter drink every.  Meh.  Been sucking the tea down today like I own the only box of tea bags in the world and I need to drink it before someone steals it.  It has been helping.

Back to the reason for our trip yesterday–I just don’t think I am going to go into all that now about his procedure.  I will soon but for now, just know that all will be well and God has this.  It is a very scary thing but it will be ok.

The weather here today has been pretty mild.  Again it is hard to believe that this is Indiana in June.  The a/c compressor hasn’t kicked on at all today and I have it set pretty low, because you know me, I smother no matter the temp.  With headache and all, we resumed our normal walking today.  56 minutes and 2.11 miles.  The honeysuckle sure smelled good today but under the smell of that was the smell of farmers, distributing smoldering, rotting poo all over the fields.  Like I have said before, we are used to smells but man the honeysuckle took on a whole new perspective by the end of the walk!

Boy did I need that walk!  It was good and cool and it felt good.  Annie thought it was a bit cold but I liked it.  By the way, she does a blog too and can be found at https://anniebanannieee.wordpress.com/.  As we walked today, I told her about yesterday since she couldn’t go because of work and we talked about many things.  One thing I relearned today is that Annie loves questions and the more I can conjure up the better she likes it.  So I would ask her something and she would reply.  And if I was slow on coming up with something she would ask me to ask her more!

One thing we noticed was that the road to my Mom’s house had been grated.  This created a problem.  Let me explain.  Annie thought that walking on it would be harder on our feet, but I found that the gravel was quite spongy which was nice to walk on.  That isn’t even the issue.  Let me tell you about Leaf.  As we walk. we of course are watching where we are walking.  Living in the country does that to you.  You look for holes, rocks, things to trip on, snakes, etc.  All of these you want to avoid.  If you don’t believe me, if you were raised in or live in the country, and you have a city friend, next time you get together, ask them to discreetly observe your behavior when you walk.  I have had several people ask me why I walk with my head down.  Obviously, number 1, I am so talented that I can trip on flat carpet but it is out of habit.  I want to make sure I don’t step on something that will kill me or bite back.  Ok, back to Leaf.  When we first started walking, as a way to keep the walk fresh and amusing we would look at the things on the ground and name them or whatever.  Y’all know how this is.  I know every single person does this but I am not afraid to admit it.  We all name things around us: places, objects, roads, turns in the road, animals, etc.  We had Leaf.  We would talk to Leaf or say hi every day, and Leaf was just there to encourage us to keep walking so we could see him.  She put him under some rocks, originally as an experiment, to see if any animals or cars or whatever would disrupt the rocks.  I will tell a story about that later too.  Leaf was doing so very good until one day he had been strung out from under the rocks and ripped up.  Oh my.  Well we said a few words for Leaf, and nominated a beautiful yellow Maple leaf to be the new one, named Leaf 2.0.  We put him a little further up the road under some rocks.  This time we kept forgetting to say hi but yesterday, the road was grated, and took every single piece of Leaf 2.0’s existence away.  We said a few words for Leaf 2.0 and tomorrow, we will nominate Leaf 3.0.  Are we nuts, or just creative?  I like to think we are nuttily creative.  Here is a pic, and you can see how spongy the road is and you can see my footprints in the fresh dirt.

The animals I am referring to that would have upset Leaf are just deer and the like.  Although recently, we have had some weirdness going on.  Down the lane to my Mom’s we had something that sounded like it was throwing rocks at us, and another time it sounded like something was whistling at us.  Another time Annie also heard someone talking and it wasn’t me or our headphones.  We tend the think we have a bigfoot.  And why not?  We are in the middle of no where with thick forests.  It could be!  Does it scare us?  Nah.  Just as long as he/she poses for a pic…..

One thing I have said many times is that Annie and I talk about feelings and about friendships a lot.  Odd we both would have these weird things happening at the same time.  One thing we discussed today was first impressions and how we categorize people and if those opinions change.  I think when we meet people that we like to categorize them, such as they look like a good friends, an enemy, a backstabber, someone who is awesome, a potential date, etc.  These first impressions can actually change, once we get to know someone.  I guess the point of the conversation was being wrong or having our opinion changed over time.  Anyone else ever do this?  And I guess too this goes beyond a first impression.  It is more like a first categorization.

On our walk we saw one of the local farmers go in and out with their truck so we just hop on over to the side of the road out of the way.  The second time we got off the road when we saw them we ran right smack into some pretty flowers on the side of the road.  We took some pics.  Not sure what they are but they look like daisies.

I really look forward to blogging every day.  On days when I can’t, I feel that too just as bad as not doing the exercise.  I hope to get more followers if for no other reason than to see what silliness I am up to today.  It really helps me though and keeps me going.  Also forgive my grammar and spelling mistakes.  Remember, these are my thoughts and since I know the grammar rules, I am apt to break them.  Ha!  And, too, I think that leaving a bit of a mess up in gives it character.  Makes it a bit rustic if you will.  Yeah, only me, describing a blog as rustic.  And rustic in terms of thoughts is I think priceless.  Some of the best thoughts are unsophisticated.

I better stop for today.  I have a missionary speaker at church tonight for my missionary presentation and that will be awesome.  Have a great night!

–S