One Foot on a Banana Peel

I have huge news.  Tim went and saw the doctor tonight…of his own free will!  He’s been dizzy for three days, so you’d think it’d be a given, but not with Tim.  He avoids all things medical like no one else I’ve ever known, but only for himself.  If anyone else even thinks they might not be feeling well he practically wants to pack them off to the emergency room.

Getting back to the point, he has vertigo, probably.  I have to get a prescription filled for him tomorrow that is supposed to help.  His blood pressure was up just a little, but that could be from the dizziness.  As soon as the doctor can get it cleared with the insurance, he has to get an MRI on his head.  He was also advised to lose weight (Yes!  They’ve never told him about that before) and to get to a dentist, which is another medical professional he avoids at all cost.  Funny (not really), because I just read yesterday how poor dental health can actually lead to heart problems.  The one thing he didn’t bring up was his sleep issues.  Maybe next time.

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Tomorrow’s Megan’s last day of school.  Wow.  That’s one year of high school down and three to go.  She’s growing up too quickly.

I have another whole week to go.  Boo hoo.  Everything is going well even though the kids are bouncing off the walls, high on the nearness of summer vacation.  I just wish it would rain and cool things off a bit.  The temperatures have been near 90 degrees all week.  It is so stinkin’ hot on the bus.  I come home and all I want to do is plop on the sofa right by the air conditioning vent.

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My friend (and fellow bus driver), Helen, had an eye-opening experience this morning.  Driving down off the mountain at around 7:00 am, a bear cub ran into the road and right under her wheels.  There was no way she could stop.  Thankfully, it seemed like he just got knocked for a loop as he got up and took off back in the direction he came from.

A- Attached or single?- Attached..

B- Best Friend- My hubby.

C- Cake or Pie- Cake.  Chocolate cake.  Marble cake.  Yellow cake.  Angelfood cake.  You get the idea.

D- Drink of choice- Pepsi, but I’m trying to give it up.  Sigh.

E- Essential Items- Books, computer…

F- Favorite color- Yellow.  It cheers me up when I’m in a poopy mood.                       
G- Gummi Bears or Worms- Worms, the sour ones.

H- Hometown- Still live there and as John Mellencamp sang, "It’s probably where they’ll bury me."

I- Indulgence- Larry the Cable Guy.  He’s so politically incorrect, Lord forgive him, but that right there is funny.

J- January or February?- Neither.

K- Kids- Five.  1 son, 1 daughter, 2 dogs and 1 husband.

L- Life is incomplete without- Books and friends.

M- Marriage Date- November 17, 1984

N-Number of Siblings- Zero

O- Oranges or Apples?- Apples, preferably with cheese or peanut butter.

P- Phobias/Fears- Snakes, sharks, and cancer.

Q- Favorite Quote- Live well. Laugh often. Love much.

R- Reason to Smile- I woke up today.

S- Seasons- I guess we’re going for which one I like?  It’s Autumn.

T- Tags- Are a good idea on your luggage so the airline can return them to you after they mistakenly ship them to Bolivia to be stomped on by a herd of native cattle (Bolivian cattle distressing is all the rage in Paris you know….never mind that it makes you look like a homeless person in Podunk, USA).

U- Unknown fact about me- I have never watched Titanic.  Not even 5 minutes of it.

V- Vegetarian or oppressor of animals?- Fire up the grill and kill the cow!

W- Worse Habit- I bite my nails.

X-X-rays or ultrasounds- Depends what "part" we’re looking at which I’d prefer.

Y- Your Favorite Food- Chinese

Z- Zodiac- Regular, I’m a Leo.  Chinese, I’m a dragon.

The internet service continues to be spotty at best.  I don’t know if I mentioned it, but my mom is having the same exact problem with her DSL.  She is home all day so she was able to chat with three "ever so helpful" folks over in India, who set up an appointment for a serviceman to come to her house….somewhere between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm.  Lucky for him he showed up closer to the 8:00 am time because by 9:30 am Mom was accosting the guy wiring the new house across the street from me.  She felt he should be able to tell her when (and if) the repairman was coming.  He gave her an 800 number to call.  It connected her to India again.

Anyway….when the repairman did show up, he put some kind of splitter in her basement, did away with something else, changed that, etc.  It worked for all of an hour or so and now she is back to hit or miss service.  She tried calling all kinds of phone numbers but they all lead to India.  Apparently, there is not a single Verizon employee that you can connect with in the U.S.

Since I got my computer at Best Buy, I was thinking about calling in the Geek Squad but Matt kind of said they are very overpriced and not as good as they’d have you believe.  NO!  Computer techs that don’t have all the answers?  How can that be?

Bottom line?  For now I’ll see ya when I see ya.

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Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend.  We did.  Tim didn’t work at all!!!  We got lots of work done in the yard and Megan and I did the spring cleaning on about half the house.  It was very productive.  Sadly, after working up a healthy sweat in all this wonderful hot, humid weather we didn’t get to cool off with a dip in the pool.  While working in the yard we discovered the pump is split so we’ll have to get a new one.  Poo.

Matt and Ashlei came home Sunday evening and stayed till late yesterday afternoon.  It was nice to see them as it seems like visits are getting fewer and farther between as the months go by.  I’m not sure what will happen after yesterday.  M & A were having a huge fight.  I mentioned it to Matt and found out it was about us.  Ashlei told Matt she feels like she doesn’t exist when she’s here and that no one likes her.  Ugh!  We all try to talk to the girl, but she only talks to Matt and Megan.  She spends most of the time holed up in Matt’s room.  The only time she talks is when I ask a direct question.  I don’t want to make her feel interrogated just to get her to say something.  I asked Matt what he wanted me to do.  He doesn’t know.  We are trying but the girl has a lot of issues.  She also plays the emotional, boo-hoo, card with Matt everytime things aren’t going her way (like when he quit school and was going to move home and she broke up with him saying if he wasn’t ready to live with her he wasn’t ready for a relationship either).

Add to all that drama the fact that I had to revisit the whole morality thing.  Yes, they are adults and if they want to live together in their own place, fine.  If her mother is okay with it, and apparently is since they currently live with her, fine.  However, I draw the line when it comes to them sleeping together in my house.  That rule was set in place from the beginning.  Matt obeyed it the first few times.  Then I strongly suspected he was sleeping with her but leaving before I got up.  This time there was no pretending.  They shared the room and the bed.  So, in the midst of all this other drama I had to deal with that, too.  I told Matt that he knew the rules and explained that I did not want his sister seeing it and thinking we were okay with it. 

Everything happened before the picnic so the rest of the day was a little tense.  We all tried to be extra focused on Ashlei, but she remained distant.  And now I’m sure the whole dispute over the sleeping arrangements will become another bone of contention.  They might visit, but I’m sure the visits will be short.  And Tim is livid.  If Ashlei tries to keep Matt away from us, Tim is braced to go off on her in a major way. 

Fun, fun, fun.

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It’s down to the last two weeks of school.  Well, for me, anyway.  Megan is done this Friday.  This is when all those extra days off during the rest of the year suck.  The private school I also pick up has early dismissals every day from now on so I will have shorter breaks during the days.  So, even if the internet cooperates I might not be around much.

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*DISCLAIMER*  In case you didn’t figure it out….THAT IS NOT MY REAR END IN THE LAST POST!

That’s all there is to walking….so why don’t I do more of it?  Anyway, today is Day One of Leslie Sansone’s 6-week program Walk Away the Pounds.  Today I walked 1 mile in 30 minutes (Leslie builds you up gradually).  Not hard at all, but that’s the point.  If it was excruciating right off the bat how many people would stick with it?  Not me.

As far as food, I’m just trying to make healthier choices for now.  Leslie recommends getting started on the walking first and then worrying about calories and fat and cholesterol and all that fun stuff after walking becomes a habit.

The whole program is about building yourself up and feeling encouraged instead of discouraged.  I like the sounds of that.  And the best part?  No complicated routines to learn and NO SPANDEX (the world ain’t ready for this ol’ gal in spandex).  Heck, getting into spandex would be all the aerobic exercise I’d need for a week! 

That’s the bottom line.  If you ask me.  And you didn’t.  But I’m sharing my opinion for free today.  Lucky you.

What I’m talking about is the whole thing with the tainted pet food, animal feed and whatnot being exported from China into the U.S.  Did you know that it’s not an isolated incident and that the government is well aware there is a huge problem?   So, why don’t they do anything about it?  Trade.  Our businesses and farms want to be able to export to the ginormous Chinese market.  If we do what we should be doing about their unsafe (and in some cases lethal) imports then they won’t let us send our products to them.  Some of what they are sending us is absolutely revolting.

Read more about it here.

Doing so-so on the dieting.  I’m not the type that can jump right in and change everything right away.  I’ve gotta do it in babysteps.  One thing at a time or I’ll bail on the whole deal.  Right now my main focus is water.  I really don’t like to drink the stuff, but I know it’s one of the biggest keys to success.  Sooooo……..I’m tapering off on the Pepsi, gradually making the switch to Diet Berries & Cream Dr. Pepper (where, oh, where has my Cherry Vanilla gone?), but more important, is that I’m (most of the time) grabbing a water bottle or Lipton’s Diet Green Tea Citrus and skipping the pop all together.  Lord, I miss my caffeine.

Among the books I bought the other day at Barnes & Nobel is Lori Sansone’s Walk Away the Pounds.  I’ve done Lori’s workouts before and really like them.  You do your walking right in the livingroom in front of the television.  The book is a complete six-week plan with journal pages and the workout DVD.  I am going to start reading it today, but the plan starts on a Monday so I’ll have to wait till Monday to actually get going with the walking.  Oh, and have I mentioned that I have a walking buddy lined up for the summer?  One of the ladies I work with lives in the same town I do and we’ve decided to take advantage of our park’s walking path in the mornings.  Can’t wait.  I just have to get some stretches from my doctor because the last time I walked on the path every day I ended up with heel spurs that lasted a year!  What a pain.  Literally.

Had another long evening last night.  We went to Megan’s FFA awards banquet last night.  It was a nice event, but oh, so long!  It started at 6:00 and it was 9:00 by the time we’d heard the last of the droning student speeches (FFA tries to build public speaking skills) and all the awards (over 100) had been announced.  Megan was recognized for receiving a gold medal on her record book at the state competition….the only freshman to earn a gold, I must add in my proud mamma voice.  She received a cash award and a pin to display on her FFA jacket.

It’s 10:36.  I should really be in bed (the alarm goes off at 4:00), but here I sit.  I have been on the run all day and just got home at 10:00.  I need a little down time before I can think about sleeping….which is definitely going to come back to bite me in the butt tomorrow.

The puppies went to Cutie Patootie’s for grooming this morning.  The name is soooo embarassing, but they do a great job for an incredible price and most important, the pups like the ladies there.  They even managed to trim Elvis’ toenails, a feat best attempted under the influence of something really, really strong.  The whole adventure wore me out, though, as my boys don’t do so well on leashes and they get so hyper when they get to go somewhere.  For crying out loud, Scooby was so excited to get out of the car that he somehow managed to jump up on my face and I ended up with his foot in my mouth.  Phhtttbbbb!

I convinced myself (like it took a lot of convincing) that I deserved a treat while the boys were being groomed so I went to Barnes and Nobel.  Uh oh.  On the plus side, I did not indulge in anything from Starbucks.  On the minus side, I bought five books and a magazine.  On the plus side, all but one of the books were bargain books and I used my membership card to get another 10% off.

I picked the dogs up, dropped them off at home and went back to work…which is where I was all evening.  See, every four years school bus drivers have to recertify through time in the classroom, a written test and a driving test.  Guess who’s four years are up this summer?  The class wouldn’t be bad but it’s at the main garage which is a good 20 minutes from the garage I drive out of and they choose to hold the darn thing at night.  It took me 40 minutes to drive home.

As for the dieting, I did okay.  I could have done better, but it’s hard when you are grabbing something on the go.  I just tried to pick the healthiest thing I could.  At least I was thinking about every food choice I made.

Well, I am off to bed.  I think I can sleep now.  Thanks everyone for the support and offers to become diet buddies.  I’ll be taking you up on it.

‘Night!

It’s no secret that I need to lose weight.  It’s also no secret that I stink at losing weight.  In light of that, I read every article and book I get my hands on.  I need all the information, motivation, encouragement, pep-talking and butt-kicking I can get.  The sad thing is I rarely learn something new.  I know this stuff.  I could probably write my own book about dieting do’s and don’t’s.  It’s the physical application of the knowledge that trips me up.  Basically, when it comes to changing my habits I am L - A - Z - Y.

See, now that right there was a big no-no.  One who is trying to lose weight must never ever mutter disparaging remarks about oneself.  Negativity becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you want to lose weight, you must only think cute little happy, fluffy thoughts.  Envision yourself thin.  Imagine how good it will feel to be in great shape.  Think of all the extra energy you will have.  Blah, blah, blah.  Yeah, right.  That might be the secret to success, but ever dieter I know has perfected beating themselves up to the level of an olympic sport.

Getting back to reading all the advice…I was reading Redbook magazine this morning.  They are following the progress of three women as they try to lose weight and get in shape.  I like to read things like that because somehow I feel better knowing that someone else can’t stick to a diet, either.  Plus, they do often have handy little tips for coping.  This month there’s a little piece on nixing that negative self-talk.  The one that got me thinking was the advice to replace ‘I cheated’ with ‘I chose.’  It says that The word "cheating" implies that you’re an untrustworthy person who’s broken a potentially unrealistic diet rule (such as, "No dessert until I’ve lost 20 pounds").  Instead, take responsibility for your behavior - say "I choose to eat that piece of cake."  Doing so puts you back in the driver’s seat and empowers you to make decisions in the future based on what makes sense for you in the moment - not on what some too strict diet dictates.

R-iiiiiiiiiiight.  Like me being in control of my diet decisions is a good thing.  Look how great a job I’ve done with it so far.  More depressing yet, is that this thinking could apply to all of life.  Everything in my life is at least roughly affected by my choices.  Even doing nothing is a choice.  Good grief!  How depressing.  This is not good.  Depressing makes me want to eat from the bad, evil (but oh, so yummy) food groups of carbs and fats.  What’s a girl to do?  I want chips!  I want chocolate!

But I choose (rather unhappily) to ask….

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE PASS THE FREAKIN’ YOGURT AND CELERY STICKS.

*And yes, today is day one of getting really, really serious about this.  Again.

Okay, so it’s not actually the computer’s fault.  At least not as far as I can figure out.  Last time I posted I thought I had figured out my internet problem.  I stand corrected.  My connection still comes and goes it spurts…..and never when I want it.  I am hoping Tim will help me take everything apart this weekend and see if we can find the bad connection.  There has to be something lose or a short or something somewhere. 

Just letting you know I am still alive and well.

I’ve seen this meme all over the place the last couple of days, but I’ll give credit to Rachel since hers was the only blog of someone I actually know.

*Type your name with each of the following verbs and do a Google search.

1. Stacy needs…

• A shoulder to cry on.
• Unconditional love.
• Help in math….more than you will ever know!
• To be drowned….Yikes!  Glad that was about another Stacy.
• Food….well, I guess I am a little hungry.

2. Stacy is…

• In fact, NOT a clone….good to know.
• Uniquely qualified to represent the Cherokee Nation….uh, no.
• A best-selling author, model, landscape photographer and editor….I wish.
• 30…again, I wish.
• So entertaining and funny….aw, shucks.

3. Stacy likes…

• Pudding wrestling….well, I guess it would at least taste better than mud if you got it in your mouth.
• To blog….kinda goes without saying.
• To cheat and eat lots of junkfood….sadly, this is my prefered method of dieting.
• To camp and fish.
• To practice martial arts on her boyfriend….no boyfriend and I don’t think the hubster would be too keen on being my practice dummy.

4. Stacy wants…

• To be on "The View"….no, I don’t.
• To meet 19 people….I’m game, but why 19?
• To win money….that would definitely be nice.
• To know what the hell is going on….where?  with who?  when?

5. Stacy gets…

• A surprise….oh goody, I love surprises.
• More than she bargained for….in a good way or a bad way?
• Bitten by a poisonous snake….don’t bother sucking out the poison because I will already be dead from the heart attack caused by being that close to a snake.
• A free round-trip ticket to visit India….I’d go just because I’ve never been there, but India isn’t on my list of places I most want to visit.

6. Stacy says…

• She has a wonderful secret….and I’m not telling.  Neener, neener, neener!
• Hello.
• Goodbye.

7. Stacy does…

• Not like Randy Orton….who???
• Need as much encouragement as she can get.
• An admirable job….of doing what?

8.  Stacy eats…

• Too many pies….I’m not really a pie eater.
• Slowly.
• Takayoki with hashi….what the heck is that???