The Great Calendar Shortage of Twenty Ten

OMG....(and I mean Oh My Goodness....I wouldn't say Oh My God unless I was praying....that's just me....IDK) any way enough of the text talk...Did you know that there is a severe calendar shortage in the Greater Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin area?

Me neither! Somebody should have warned us.

I had to go to THREE stores to find a 2010 Calendar. For real people, even Hallmark said they were sold out before Christmas. Something about no one giving out free ones this year so everyone had to buy one. Is this Obama's idea of an economic stimulus? Well if it is .... it is working!!!! But really, this should have been the lead news story even before all of the H1N1 vaccine shortages and stuff. Honestly. I am so shook up right now I am shaking.

How did I find out about this lack of calendars you ask? Well let me just tell you.

My employer always gives us two calendars. One is a very nice wire bound one that is a little on the big side, but that just makes it easier for me to spot when my next day off is. It is very professional with no added gobbly gook on each date.

The other one is a Diversity themed one where every child of every employee of the entire corporation is invited to draw a picture of what diversity means to them. Then they are pasted all over this calendar. Very busy...that is all I will say about the design. It also listed every event that every office in all 4 states would sponsor. Really, I don't need to know when the Oklahoma Full Service Unit is having their Red Bandanna Rodeo to help injured Cowboys. Just really don't feel the burden for them.

I would always bring that one home to use in the kitchen. Remember my anal list making issue? Well, that is what I would use this calendar for. I make my weekly menu on the calendar after pouring over my cookbooks, magazines and recipe files. Choosing the meals that just make my mouth water and on what day to have them. Then I would have the recipe at hand for when it was time to make it and I would use the menu to make my grocery list so I didn't end up with 25 pound of ground beef and no chicken breast. It is really a very ingenious method. I may patent it and market a calender just for this use.

But, lo and behold, due to cost saving measures we only received one calendar this year. (Guess which one we got? I will give you a hint.... The Texas Tumbleweed Benefit Garage Sale for Sunburned Ranch Hands is on June 23rd.) So now I am left to my own devices on how to plot my meals. Dan-o suggested I print one off of the computer. HA! Amateur. It has to be compiled on a bound calendar so it can be saved for future reference. I have menu calendars dating back to 2004. I will not be accused of fixing the same meal too many times in a decade.

I hated to spend the money on a calendar, but it was a true necessity and was eager to pick one out and hurry home to begin my planning for February. Imagine the sunken feeling I had when CVS Pharmacy and Hallmark shot me down. I was in a panic. But the nice lady at Hallmark, who also shared my disbelief and disgust in the lack of calendaring needs, told me she thought she saw some at the Kroger. I didn't even say good-bye. Just took out of the store like a scalded cat. Thank God. The Kroger had a few precious calendars left. I was so thankful I fell to my knees and offered up a sacrifice of praise right there. I chose the Monet Garden theme. Not that I am a art aficionado or anything, it was just more my style then the Harley Davidson theme.

So now I am a happy woman. I have my calendar and life is good. If you are in the area stop by and I will show you my rare 2010 calendar. And if you stop in on Tuesday we will be having Potato Crusted Chicken, Steamed Citrus Green Beans, Garlic Mashed Potato's and Glazed Carrots.

Weight....I Have Something To Say!!!

So it has been a while since I have updated the world on the elimination of the extra poundage.

Let me share a little of what tasty morsels have crossed these lips.

First there was Thanksgiving. 'nuff said there.

Then came Christmas. Cookies, cakes, big breakfasts every morning, big dinners every night and lots of snacks in case there would be more than a 45 minute gap between meals.

We had Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake
Out of this world.

Southern Living's Chocolate Citrus Cake
Amazing!

Praline Pull Apart Bread

It was all so wonderful...so very wonderful. Sigh....like a dream.


So...now here is the final tally.....

Ladies and Gentlemen...

For 14 straight weeks....

The dreaded scale....

Has moved....




DOWN!!! 15.1 POUNDS to be exact!!!

Yes, even with all of the indulgence, I lost weight!!!

I am not bragging mind you, I am just thrilled!!!

I would like to thank the redeco project, the Wii, the long walks in the park!!!

I think I have finally stumbled on the secret to weight loss....exercise. Who knew?

Now I just have to keep the motivation going.

I think I even feel another 100 step photo walk coming on!

Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear blo - og.
Happy birthday to you!

It has been one year since I set out on this experience of blogging! I have enjoyed it and am really quite surprised that I have been faithful to it for this long.

I have enjoyed sharing little glimpses of what is bouncing around in the great expanse of my head!

Some of the posts have been about me. Some about others. Some have been sad. Some have been happy. Some have been hysterical. Some of them have been pointless. Some have actually taken some thought to put together. Some have been just a brazen excuse to show you pictures of the cutest little boy on the face of the earth!


But they are all part of my life, as simple as it may be.

I appreciate both of you that read my ramblings and hope you will stick with me as we embark on year two. I am not making any promises that things will be any better than last year, but who knows what lies ahead!

HAPPY 2010!!!!

This year I am resolved to.....

Wait...I am not going to resolve anything. Today is another gift from God just like yesterday was and tomorrow will be, if He so chooses. I should be striving to be and do my very best whether it is January 1st or September 19th.

This is not to say there isn't much I need to improve on. There's more than enough that I need to work on, and I will try and try again to make those improvements. But what I am not going to do is set myself up for failure.

I am a fanatical list maker. This Christmas, as in Christmas's past, I had a list of what we would be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a calendar that listed what needed to be cooked and when.

I do this for a couple reasons.

First, my memory is just not the steel trap that it used to be. I do think this is hereditary though. My Grandma Runyon would come out of the bedroom after dressing and take her both her hands and tap her shoulders (checking to make sure she had a shirt on) tap her breasts (yep, there's the brassiere) tap her waist (check - pants and panties in place) and then off she would go.

Second, it keeps me organized. Without the list, we very well could be enjoying breakfast casserole for Christmas dinner and Red Beans and Rice for breakfast because I didn't read the recipe ahead and know that the beans had to cook for 8 hours. This is not to say that this list making doesn't have it's flaws as evidenced in the multiple runs to Kroger on Dec. 23....or 1:00 in the morning Dec. 24. But hey, the pull-a-part pecan rolls were well worth the trip!!

Third, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. There is no feeling like marking a task off of a to do list. Even if the task you are marking off is making another to do list. It is something that needed to be done and it got done....mark it off.....move on to the next job.

So if I am such an anal list maker why aren't I making any New Years Resolutions? It isn't because the list would be too long (although it would be quite lengthy) it's because those resolutions are what I want accomplished. I want to loose weight. I want to be better with money. I want to exercise more......I want I want I want.

Nothing I want can be accomplished unless it has been ordained by God the Father and until I have completely surrendered my will to His, even if the things I want are good things, they can't be attained without His power. So in 2010, I will continue to seek His will and let Him make my resolution list.

I am looking forward with anticipation to what God will do for my family in the coming year. He has so blessed us in 2009 that it will be almost unimaginable to see what He can do in 2010.

Happy New Year to all of you. I pray that 2010 will bring you blessings untold!

Wait....I think I have found my computer......

Oh my word, have I got lots to tell you about....but, it is just going to have to wait until next year. We have been busy, busy, busy around here.

This is what my living room, family room and dining room has looked like since the Monday after Thanksgiving.











For almost two weeks, my underwear drawer was in the living room. Now, I am sure the neighbors have often thought of me as conservative and modest, but let me tell you, if they happened a glance in the direction of the large picture window in my living room at just the wrong moment.....whoa baby....they have seen a whole new side to me!!!!

So a just a quick recap/explanation as to the silence of the blogs:

Two weeks before Thanksgiving a bedroom was born in our basement. We decided we needed another sleeping space for when all the fam was in town. Soooooo.....we added the bedroom, had the existing drywall resurfaced (can you spell DUST?). Repainted the entire basement and installed new carpeting.

Well, since the old bedroom furniture is now in the basement boudoir we need a new one upstairs, but we can't put new furniture on that nasty 1980's green carpet....and if we get new carpet in there, we need carpet in the other spare room. And if those two bedrooms get new carpet, then MY bedroom needs it too. Soooooo......we took all the furniture from the three bedrooms and stacked it nicely in the above mentioned living spaces. Painted, re carpeted and replaced all the furniture.

It looks so nice....I can't show you pictures of the results just yet, but I will when I have got everything just like I want it.

Oh yeah, in between all this redeco work, I fixed Thanksgiving dinner for around 30 people, Christmas shopped, baked and holiday partied it all out.

I am pooped.....15 pounds lighter....and pooped!!!

Well, I hope you all are sticking with me, because I will be back to my routine in January and we will have lots of stories to share then!!!

Until then Merry Christmas Santa!!!

Wishing All A Blessed Thanksgiving.

With Love and Thankfulness,
Dee

Just Some Pictures of My Favorite Little Guy...

Start Up the Band, We Are Gettin' Ready to Dance!!!

The regular season opened up tonight for the Big Blue with a W.
UK 75 Morehead State 59
Thirty one more games until March Madness.
I can not wait. I haven't been this excited since Christmas!!

Movie Night!

I have been thinking about this while I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep. It doesn't take me too long to nod off so it has taken quite some time to put this list together!

I have been trying to decide what my top 5 favorite movies of all times are.
And in answer to the question you are thinking, but do not want to ask out loud because you are alone and looking at a computer screen ... No, I don't have better things to think about.

Well, after much deliberation here is the much anticipated list.

Drum Roll Please........


Number 5:
"Cheaper By the Dozen" I am talking about the old one with Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb. Tied with "Meet Me In St. Louis"
It's my list so I can have a tie if I want to.

The original "Cheaper By the Dozen" is so cute and fun. It is also very interesting to see how the role of an intelligent woman is handled as a submissive wife. Lillian Gilbreth maintains her dignity and does not discredit her intelligence in any way while showing respect and submission to her character of a husband.

"Meet Me In St. Louis" is really just one of the movies that I enjoy of Judy Garland's. I love the time period this movie is set in and the music it classic.





Number 4:

"Lonesome Dove"

I know this is technically not a movie, but is a mini-series, but again...it is my list.

I also know this movie seems very out of place on this list, but I just really like Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall and I enjoy a good western every now and again. So what's the big deal?



Number 3:

"Steal Magnolias"

What an example of true friendship. Six totally different personalities yet they are loyal, dependable, honest friends. There is never a hint of jealousy, judgment or uneasiness, just pure friendship between all of them. And the story line, ahhh....I cry every time I see Sally Field have her fit of rage at the end of the funeral. I'm a little teary eyed right now. sniff sniff



Number 2:

"Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"

I love black and white movies and this is another movie with Myrna Loy. This movie just takes you right out of the days problems and puts you in a fantasy where money is no object and women always looked glamorous and everyone lives happily ever after.



And The Number One All Time Favorite Movie of Mine Is..........




What can you say about "Gone With The Wind"? It is spectacular. Four hours of pure southern belle drama. The movie is outstanding in spite of and because of it's 1939 special effects. In fact, that adds to the charm of the movie. The burning of Atlanta is a sight to behold.

I am deeply saddened and hang my head in shame when I say that my daughters have never seen this epic film. I am sorry girls, I have failed you as a mother. I hope that some day soon, they will take an afternoon and watch this movie.

Honorable Mention:
**Edited to spell Anne Shirley's name correctly...what was I thinking? It is Ann with an e. Duh!**
"Elf", "Anne of Green Gables", "A Christmas Story", "Driving Miss Daisy", and anything with Myrna Loy or Cary Grant.

So there you have it. Don't ask me why I felt burdened to share this with you. I guess now if they should have an open mic night at my funeral and you can't think of anything nice to say about me, you can always sigh and say "She really liked old movies...and who the heck is Myrna Loy anyway?"

October 31, 1986 Was A Very Good Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
STEPHANIE!!

AND
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2 Sticks of Butter, 12 oz Cream Cheese, 1 Pound of Powdered Sugar ......

Obviously, from not having a post that chronicles every morsel that enters my mouth, you can assume that the scale is showing a downward spiral.

So let's recap the last several weeks:

10/7 total lost to date - 7.8 pounds

10/10 have a piece of carrot cake. just a small piece mind you, with wicked good cream cheese frosting made with 2 sticks of butter, 12 0z cream cheese and a pound of powdered sugar results in a net gain of 1.4 pounds

10/21 After a week of near starvation, the scales shows a whopping loss of .5 pounds.

TWO WEEKS LATER-----on 10/28 the scale shows a loss of 1.6 pounds

Bringing the total loss to 8.5 pounds!

Moral of this story.....stay away from Carrot Cake......it will kill you.

Can You Stand the Cuteness?

Just little Halloween preview of the cutest little chunky monkey you have ever seen!!

A Fall Full of Fun, Family and Friends

In case any of you (or should I say either of you) have missed me, I sincerely apologize. I would like to say I was off on some exotic vacation, or I would even be pleased to tell you that I have been busy accomplishing great things, but neither would be true. Truth is, I have just been lazy and haven't had the gumption to hop on here and update you on my very interesting life.

Actually, lots has happened since I last posted. Let's see if I can remember.....

Well, I had the entire first week of October off from work!! That was wonderfulabulos!! I got all my closets cleaned, grocery shopped for the entire month, cooked several dinners for the weekend and worked up a little fall display for the neighbors to enjoy.

I can hear your gasps of wonder and amazement now. I will come and create a vision in your front yard if you want me to. Just give me a jingle.

Then on Thursday, I went in to Chicago to spend the day with this little guy:


Maybe you don't recognize him with his entire foot in his mouth. Try this one...



We had loads of bouncy fun....





Then that evening, Steph and her friends flew in and spent the weekend.



All the boys in Nashville are big for their age. Any way, we had a lot of fun. We went shopping in Kimono Kinswansna Kemoshino Kenosha. We went to the Kenosha Outlet Mall where all three of us brought home a little something or another.

Then, on Saturday, Chris, Kelly and Emerson joined us.

We spent a very cold morning at the Apple Orchard and The Pumpkin Patch but had lots of fun!












On Sunday, I fixed Steph's Birthday dinner. Our little girl will be 23 years old on October 31. Everybody say it together....Ahhhhhhh.


Emerson also got his first taste of yummy rice cereal.



Oh yeah....I gained 1.4 pounds. Stupid carrot cake with crazy good cream cheese frosting made with 2 sticks of butter and 12oz of cream cheese and 1 pound of powdered sugar.

This week isn't looking any better. So, if by Wednesday, the scale isn't showing some kind of a loss, you may get another bite by bite post. But I am NOT giving up or in.

So that is my life for the last 11 days in a nutshell. You are now up to speed on the craziness I like to call life. Hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have!

Weighing In With Some Good News!

I know that all of you have probably lost sleep wondering "How much will Dee lose this week?"
Well, my dear insomniac friends, toss and turn no more. As of this morning, I am down an additional 1.4 pounds. This brings me to a grand total of 7.8. I of course would like this to go a little faster, but I like to think of it this way.... it's always gonna be an uphill battle. Sometimes I'm going to have to lose. It doesn't matter how fast I get there, it's the climb. Yes my friends, it's the climb.

In my quest to loose the extra poundage, I have been in search of some things that will help curb those times I just need a bite to get me through. Since the Bacon/Egg/Cheese Biscuits from McDonalds, the Lofthouse Cookies, and all the other goodies were adding pounds I had to locate some alternative snacks. Here are a few that have helped me over the last month:

I think this was ingenious, I make my own Bacon/Egg/Cheese Biscuits. On Sunday I will scramble the entire carton of egg beaters, fry up about 1/2 of this package of turkey bacon and then divide it among about 5 little plastic containers with 1 1/2 piece of bacon in each container. Then when I get to work, I toast my English Muffin, microwave the container of egg & the bacon, and then assemble it with a slice of no fat American cheese. Easy-peasy! And really it tastes pretty good. This week I got crazy and found some turkey sausge patties to try.

These yogurt parfaits are yummy. I especially like the lemon one. They come in several different flavors like Chocolate/Raspberry and some kind of Carmel something or another. They are 100 calories which is perfect for a snack and taste like dessert.



Two of these Wheat Thins, one triangle of Laughing Cow cheese, a cup of grapes and a can of tomato juice and there you have the perfect afternoon snack. The Wheat Thins really don't taste much different than the little ones, but just because they are bigger it fakes you out and you think you are eating more. It's all a mind game, that's all weight loss is, just messing with the mind.



I LOOOVVVEEEE Red Velvet Cake. Now these Weight Watcher one point bars will never push a real RVC off the buffet table, but it will fulfill the need for a bite of something sweet. They really do have that red, kind of velvety, cream cheesy taste to them. The down side to these are they are very small. You have to nibble them to feel as if you have actually had something. No need to wear the stretchy pants to eat one, but they hit the spot when you are hungry for a sweet.

Love this. Smartfood Popcorn Clusters. So far I have tried the Cranberry Almond and the Honey Clusters. Both are good. Small servings, so eat slow and they are just enough. Not enough to get you through Gone With the Wind, but enough to get you through 1/2 of a show of Toddlers and Tiaras.

Let me know if you have any other goodies that would help fill in some snack gaps!

Grrrrrrrrr.........

So, it is with less than an enthusiastic yelp I post this week's loss.

I lost...... .7 pounds.

Look again, not seven pounds but POINT seven pounds.

Very frustrating.

Grrrrrrrr

I was oh so very careful to eat my veggies, drink my water, and even got in some really good walks. That Cranfest was a day long walk-a-thon. I went to a new walking path near my house unaware that it was a roller coaster kind of path. Up and down, up and down, but I made it and was fully expecting to drop at least an extra two pounds this week because of the energy I exerted. But nooooooo, I only lost .7 pounds.


Grrrrrrr

Well, I am not going to give up yet. I must keep plugging along and look at the big picture.

.7
plus 3.4
plus 2.3
equals
minus 6.4

Well at least this little guy sees the bright side!

It Was A CRANtastic Weekend!!!

After what has seemed like the quickest summer on record, we found ourselves with a beautiful fall day and nothing to do. So we loaded up the Blue Pacifica and traveled up north to a land called Wisconsin. We dropped in on Warrens, Wisconsin's Cran Fest. And my oh my what a CRANtabulous festival it was.

This festival was just chock full of crafts, produce, food and flea marketers. It was a veritable crafter's/flea-marketer's CRANtasy! If you were in need of a wrought iron coat tree in the shape of a huge eagles nest....they had it. Looking for baked goods made special for your pet? Look no further, there was plenty at the Cran-Fest. How about any kind of Indian dreamcatcher you could imagine. Yep, two booths of those much sought after adornments right there on Main Street. Always wanted your home to smell of cranberry? Then the tables full of cranberry pot pourri would have had your senses tingling.

And the food. You could get cranberry ice cream, cranberry cheese, cranberry sausage, cranberry fritters, cranberry juice, cranberry fudge, cranberry wine, cranberry smoothies, cranberry salsa, cranberry muffins, cranberry apple sauce, cranberry BBQ sauce....just throw a cranberry on something and call it good!

Oh, and the best part, we got to tour an actual, working cranberry farm. Are you green with CRAN-envy? It was very CRAN-ucational.

So if you ever get a chance, I would highly recommend the Cran Fest for a day of fun and adventure. It is one that we won't soon forget!!! Enjoy some of the scenes from our CRAN packed day.

Welcome to Warrens

Just a glimpse of the humanity roaming the streets
in search of anything cranberry.

We ate lunch in the basement of this Baptist Church.

This was lunch, notice the green beans.
Yep, you guessed it, cranberries.
They actually were quite good.

This is our bog tour guide, Bill Heffener
(No relation to Hugh.)
Bill is an agent with the UW Ag department.
He serves the farmers in Monroe county.
Here he is telling us that
"We will be goin to da cranberry bog
and lookin at da equipment and what not dat dey use
ta grow da cranberries."

This was our Cranberry Chariot.

This is a field of unharvested cranberry bogs.
They don't flood them until they are ready to harvest.
Huh...who knew?

This appears to be a sweet, little old lady
enjoying a beautiful
day at the cranberry farm, but DON'T BE FOOLED.
She was a wild woman. I watched her step on some
girls toe while trying to
snap pictures of the farm machinery.
Here she had just elbowed her way
up from the back bumping
into me and nearly sending me down the hill
into the irrigation ditch.
She was CRAN crazy I tell ya.

This is my attempt to get an up close picture of
the cranberry in it's natural habitat.

More berries than you can shake a stick at.

Here Agent Bill mesmerizes our little group with his
vast knowledge of all that is cranberry.

This is a new bog in the making

I wasn't close enough to hear this conversation, but this is how I imagined it:

Dano: Say a guy wanted to build one of these in his back yard, how much do you figure it would cost?

Bill: Oh, I would say a pretty good penny sir. You would hav ta hav da land excavated and sand brought in. Den you would hav ta buy the plantin's, install da irragation system, build yourself one of dem reservoirs. It would be quite expensive.

Dano: But if I could do the digging my self, or say get some friends over, buy some pizza and get them to help. That would cut down on the cost don't you think. I have some friends that own a bob cat that I think I could get to come over and do some of the excavating. My friend Dan Wade, he builds houses and remodels on the side, has his own bob cat and I think he could knock something like this out in oh say a day or two.

Bill: Well, yea, if you got somebody ta help. That would cut down on the cost.

Dano: I don't think I need a cranberry bog, but my wife, she is always watching HGTV and coming up with little projects for me to do. She will probably start wanting one of her own so I just wanted to get an idea of what it would cost a guy.


Dano: So you do much fishing in the reservoirs?