An Awesome Week

My parents left Florida today to get home in time for my aunt's surgery. This was the first time in my adult life that I was on vacation with my parents, ( a few days in Mackinaw doesn't count). We spent the week on the beach and at the pool. I felt like a kid again. My dad and I went out past the breakers in the surf and my mom stayed on shore just like she did when we lived in Florida when I was in high school. I kept on waving to her over the waves so she wouldn't worry. My dad and I kept laughing when the other of us would get hit by that awesome 7th wave. The three of us went to one of the pools and spent most of our time there sun-bathing because the pool wasn't heated and the water was FREEZING. Dad and I went a different day to the smaller pool to see if it was any warmer. It was, but the filter was broken and we didn't want to turn into the creature from the black lagoon so we didn't stay too long. Where was Danny this whole time you ask? You guessed it, working. He didn't take any vacation time for this trip so he has to work during the week.
My mom made me a special dinner since I haven't had red meat in forever. We had steak, baked potatoes and corn-on-the-cob. We were going to cook it all on the grill but found out it didn't work. That's o.k. because we found out Mom and I make a pretty good team in the kitchen. Last night, for their last night here, I made dinner for my parents. Nothing fancy, just chicken stir fry, but it was awesome to hear my dad say how good it was, and for my mom to say I was turning into a pretty good cook.
Last night Danny put Louie in his life jacket and brought him down to the beach to see if he could get him to swim so my dad could see it before he left. You guessed it. LOUIE CAN SWIM!!! When Louie was a puppy he fell off a pier and has been afraid of water when he can't touch the bottom. With the help of his life jacket, he swam in the surf and my dad got to see it.
When my parents left today I cried like a little baby. I don't really know why. It was just that we had had such an awesome week.

Louie the Chicken

Yep that's right, Louie is a chicken. He won't go in the ocean except the shore and not even there if the waves come in too fast. We are also having a heck of a time getting him up the stairs from the beach to our deck. He is afraid of steps where he can see between the risers. One of us has to stand on the deck with the gate open and the other one of us has to run up the stairs with Louie. Bandit, on the other hand, is a champ. He likes swimming and he is climbing all the stairs, both inside and outside of the unit with no problem. He just gets tired a little more than normal. That's o.k., so do I, these stairs are pretty steep. Hopefully my dad the self-proclaimed dog whisperer, will be able to get Louie swimming before the end of this trip. We just need it to stop raining and to get warmer.

We've entered a new time zone

You've heard of the normal time zones: Central, Mountain, Pacific and Eastern. We have entered something resembling the "Twilight Zone", and I don't mean the vampire movies. We have entered the " Old People Time Zone". Let me say I mean no disrespect to the older generation, but this is nuts. We checked into our hotel at 5p.m. last night, went to dinner by 6p.m., which my mother thought was almost too late and not worth eating, although she did like her chinese food buffet. We were back to the hotel by 7p.m., in our p.j.'s by 7:15p.m., asleep between 8 and 9p.m. This led us to be awake at 4a.m. What the heck? I've gone to bed at 4a.m. before.  Does this mean I'm going to need a nap around noon?  Let's just say this is new territory and I may visit for a while, but I will NOT be living here.  Day 2, October 8, 2011

Road Rage Queen!

Yep, that's my new title. I wear my crown proudly. It is a lovely though harsh looking crown of polished chrome with many spikes. As I go along in this lovely ( heavy sarcasm) traffic, I wish I could throw my crown through some windshields or under tires of drivers who find it necessary to cut me off and then slow down to under the speed limit. I believe a came up with a few new swear words today. Danny just laughed and shook his head. My other favorite thing is being in the middle of a Semi sandwich. That's when you have the shoulder on one side of you, a Semi in front of you, a Semi in back of you and one on the other side of you. Now when you are in a SUV that is bad enough, but when you are in a Prius, all you see is wheels and bumpers. & hours worth of driving and the day is finally over. Now to get some sleep so I can do it again tomorrow. FUN,FUN,FUN!!! Day 1, October 7, 2011

Oh crap!!!

My parents and I drove into town yesterday to  where my walk is going to be on the 23rd of this month. I knew by the course plans that I would be walking up half of a bridge, but I never thought anything about it. Well we saw the bridge and I almost fainted. This thing is huge, and I am afraid of heights. Not to mention the fact that at most, all of my other walks have only been a little hilly in spots. I am walking up a bridge!!!! What am I nuts?! Don't answer that. When my dad saw the bridge he automatically said I would never do it, which just made me more determined than ever to finish this walk. So this time I have no time limit for myself. I just have to finish. I don't care if I crawl over the finish line. I WILL prove my father wrong. When I do finish the first thing I will do ( after sitting down, drinking water and catching my breath) is call my dad and tell him he was wrong.

Are You Serious?!

So the weather around here has been pretty crappy lately, the usual Fall stuff. This week it decides to show us a little bit more of summer. Why complain you ask, because I am leaving for Florida and the weather there has gone from sunny and 89 to cloudy, rainy and thunderstorms and 79. Seriously? I know Danny is the cause. ( sorry Hun). He has had a cloud over him since the Mac Race. It poured the first day on our cruise and now this. Hopefully this is Florida rain and it will do all it's raining on the other side of the street and leave us alone ( those of you who live in Florida know what I am talking about). It could also do the 10 minutes of storm thing too. I just can't picture driving all that way and having to sit inside for the whole trip. I will go nuts.

Today makes this trip seem so close, finally. I have to take a bunch of stuff over to my parents' house so they can put it in their car to give us more room for "Our Boys". I don't think they have any idea what they are in for. I for one don't want to laundry while on vacation so therefore have packed enough for the entire time. We did pack smart in that we used squishy duffle bags instead of my hard shell suitcase.

I made my weight goal for this trip early and actually lost an extra 5 pounds so things are looking up. I want to walk a lot on the beach to keep my training up and I am actually scheduled for a 5-k on our last day in Florida. Hopefully playing in the water with the dogs will help keep my weight down as well since we are spending this trip with my parents and my mom is an awesome cook. I just have to remember: Portion control, portion control.

Time to get the last of the things we need packed up, because tomorrow we are off.

Here We Go Again!

It has been over two years since I had my last blog. May things have happened in my life since then. I have decided to become a much healthier person so I can keep up with all the kids in my life. I want to be the aunt who can run around the amusement park with the kids and climb the dunes at the beach. I no longer want to be the aunt who can only sit on the sidelines and watch the fun.
In February of this year I made a huge decision to change my entire lifestyle. I started eating healthier and even started going to the health club. My friend from high school posted how she was participating in a race for the first time in a long while ( she was a runner in school). I was impressed to say the least. I was never athletic in high school ( the opposite actually, I was pretty klutzy). I had many injuries that kept me from doing any sports. So when I decided that I wanted to start walking in races my family thought I was nuts, although they always support anything that makes me healthier. I started training to walk in 5-k races. I am not nuts enough to think that I can run so walking will have to do ( FOR NOW).  To date, I have completed one 1-mile race, one 2-mile walk and two 5-k races. I am hooked. I have found something that I enjoy doing and that is good for me. I have lost 60 pounds and feel better than I have in a long time.
My family is a very small one. My husband Danny, myself and our two dogs, Bandit ( 12 y/o German Shepherd Mutt); and Louie ( 2 y/o Yellow Lab). We want to do things with ( Our Boys) while Bandit can still enjoy them. When Bandit was much younger we took him to Florida so he could go swimming. This time we found a place in Florida that allows dogs to go swimming right in the Gulf and not in some inlet. We are planning on spending 3 weeks with the dogs on the beach. This time, my parents are coming with for the trip. I will be participating in a 5-k while we are in Florida. This should be a fun trip.