just 10 more

Food has been pretty good—new month, new start—yada, yada; my same old song…..I’m currently up 7 and have convinced myself that it’s my body getting ready for winter….

Been busy, officially taking today off from going out.  Thurs. I ended up taking A. to dental surgeon for a swelling between gum and cheek; he says normal post-op swelling (after almost 6 weeks??), no signs of infection (good!!) hmmmm…then we did our volunteer stint at the riding stables….I had a therapy horse who wanted nothing more than to eat grass so it was a slow go…….Fri..sleepy, groggy am again; went back to bed and woke at 11am….afternoon, evening: helped the running club give out race packets for big race this week-end (A. couldn’t do this race)…..Sat. up @ 600am and out by 8am to senior regional tryouts for orchestra—-required to tryout, no danger she’s gonna make this one; something like 300+ violins for 40 spaces……then off to an afternoon invitational high school cross country race in another city…mowing job..forgettable movie…we got in about 1opm last night, long day but I sure slept well…. 

Under the heading of ‘here we go again’……A got royally hassled by a teacher for carrying a drawstring bag with a logo from a 5K she ran that said: “The Vineyards of ——”.  There is a school policy of not allowing anything advertising drug or alcohol use AND I think this is a very good and needed policy.  The Vineyards of —– is simply the name of an upscale development where the race was held  about an hour from here and a vineyard is simply where grapes are grown.  Grrrrrrrrr!  Reminds me of when she was in 6th grade and very proudly carrying a purse to school for the first year; her English teacher (who knew her well by then, it was Oct. or Nov.) told her she couldn’t carry the purse she had (no bigger than any others) because……..it was large enough to carry a GUN.  No. I am not joking!!! This resulted in an apology to her by that teacher and an apology phone call to me from the  person also.  Teaching is NOT an easy profession, frankly, it would take a lot of money to get me into it and I know I wouldn’t last a week cause I’d be banging heads together (students and their parents) but PLEASE can’t they stick to dicipline issues that are really issues????  She has had many wonderful, dedicated teachers—still raves about her 2nd grade teacher, 6th grade science teacher, and 8th grade algebra teacher—since I’m complaining I’ll give credit where it’s really due.  If she does something wrong (and she has) I have NO problem with them calling her on it.  In honesty, I know I’m stricter than most.

I just finished a book by an English author I hadn’t read before:  Robert Goddard; a mystery (Into The Blue) and rather good, I thought.  I’ll be looking for more by him…..

Making stew later….have a good day, chickadees…

Bfsk: grapenuts flakes w/skim, decaf tea w/skim…….snack: 2 heaping t. f.f.cottage cheese, 8 oz. V-8

Made my soup–chicken, garlic, mush., br. rice concoction last night, will be lunch w/ a salad

Got to gym this am: 6:40 to 9:40am– did  it all—not “mono draggy” today

Great news!!!!…..A. tested yesterday for her orchestra seat for the  year; she thought she’d be 4th or 5th since there are tons of good violins—-she made 2nd chair!!!!!!  Yipee!!!!  I’m so proud of her!!! Not half bad for a new tenth grader!!!

Gotta shower, clean up kitchen and load dishwasher, eat lunch, and go help at the cross country meet……have good days, chickadees!!!

Haven’t seen any hummers on my feeders for about a week so I suppose they’ve headed south.  I had lots this year and I’ll miss them.

Had another extremely sleepy day yesterday; napped twice in fact: change of season, allergies, weather, school starting???  Don’t know; I just feel like I have mono every few days…..had a sleep study early last spring; dr. said I was borderline for # of sleep apnea episodes and he would give me a CPAP machine if I was still having probs. in a few months; back then I was waking way too many times and not getting back to sleep, now it just these horrible draggy days—I hate the idea of adding that stupid machine to my life……I do know I’m real sensitive to lack of sun but it’s been sunny here since Sunday…..ach!!!!  I do take a chewable kids vit. when I remember—about once a week.

Anyway life has been good…..food has been decent, at least I don’t remember being bad…had usual bfsk and a nectarine for snack….going to make my chicken, mushroom, brown rice, and garlic soup with the secret ingred. of a dash or two of soy sauce later…made a good tomato strata with bread crumbs from a delish loaf of whole grain herb bread a couple days ago, new recipe……

Will pick dau. up at 4:00; nothing on the agenda tonight—yeah!!!!  Had to take her violin to school earlier; wouldn’t have but she has a playing quiz today.  Some woman blew a red and almost creamed me as I was leaving the development so I’m just glad to be here at this point–horns, schreeching tires, the whole deal—given her speed, I don’t know how she swerved enough to miss me w/o losing control.

On Sun. afternoon the stable used A. as the pretend disabled person for a training session of new volunteers….I stayed cause she wanted some pics on her fav. horse—the one with anxiety issues….well, he wasn’t too bad during the training, but when they were done he took off galloping with her on his back; round and round the oval pen like a possessed beast; scared the instructor half to death—the man was actually about 3 shades whiter.  She stayed on; no harm done and thought it was wonderful; I figured he’d have to stop sooner or later…..but I’m not sure they’ll be using him…he’s a beautiful thoroughbred and I think he might be trying  to revisit his days at the track……he really is a bit highstrung but according to dau. could have much worse habits; still, I don’t think he’s terribly suited to the disabled….

Good day, all!

First, food for rest of yesterday…..main meal…1:30..roast beef, mashed pots. with a little gravy, carrots, broccoli, 1 piece bread……..snack..9:00pm-late, I know..small lo fat yougrt, 5 whole wheat crackers, 1 string cheese

We did horse therapy for disabled children last night–I had 2 lovely horses this week; my dau. had one just introduced to being a therapy horse who has anxiety issues and is on anti-psychotic meds; during the second session I really don’t know how she handled him and kept the rider on…he freaked out a couple times ( semi- rearing, dancing in circles, throwing his hea wildly) and I know I would have just let go of the lead line….of course, he is now her favorite horse!!!!…guess they knew what they were doing in giving him to her….me, I’d up his meds!!!

Food so far today….bfsk: grapenuts with skim, lo salt V8, decaf tea/skim…….snack @11:00am: 2 heaping t. of ff cottage cheese, 1 nectarine

 Have to take dau. running shoes down to school for c.c. practice…also drop her period pain meds and an EIA inhaler and paperwork off with school nurse….I’ll kill the extra hr. or so at Barnes and Noble, then bring her home when practice is done….folk dancing tonight…

Today is Fri…….my usual gym and yoga day…..I went, I really did, I just couldn’t get my body out of the car to go in, sat in the lot….decided I was just too exhausted and came home and slept on the couch till neighbor called at 10:30am…….what’s this about???? been exhausted lately, gained weight ( and I know this is NOT the way to lose it)…I think it’s the weather…..we are on our at least 5th day in a row of gray and cloudy with drizzle or mist—–I NEED SUN!!!!!!!  and I need it now……….. 

Time…where does it go?? I’ve spent over an hr. trying to just get caught up on some of the blogs I like read.  I haven’t blogged since last Sat. despite my best intentions and promises to myself.  AND I’m UP another pound.  I did full gym both Mon. and Wed. this week and increased a couple weights again….130lbs. on calf press and 110lbs. on leg press.  OK On to food today….I just can’t remember the other days, but know I wasn’t too bad…..

Bfsk: grapenuts w/ skim, V8 juice, decaf. tea w/ skim……….snack: 2 t. ff cottage cheese, 6 strawberries, 1/2 multigrain Wasa…..and lots of water

Will make effort to get back with rest of food…..have pick up dau. after sch. to go to physical therapist to get shoe inserts adjusted, I don’t know, she ran yesterday, didn’t do terribly well and just didn’t look very happy, but at least she ran with the team; she has to run in an out of town invitational again this Sat……….tonight we do our volunteer stint at the stables—-it was suggested to me yesterday that I help out there during the day on Tues. as they are short volunteers,  I keep telling people that I am NOT the horse person and if not for A. I would not be there at all but they don’t seem to believe me….I do like it, it is a good cause but 3 1/2 hrs. a week with horses is enough for me.  Add that to what I do for the running club both at home (minor but time consuming paperwork), club community service work, and on the finish line and you have an almost full time job!!!  Plus school volunteering.  No wonder there’s no time……I also have 9 hrs. a week in the gym, but that is purely for ME…..and that time is not being cut…….I think I’m still adjusting to the back to school uproar and change in hours; I’m tired all the time–going to bed at 9:30pm, usually unheard of, I’m not gonna recognize Jay Leno if I ever do get to see him again……

I am up 4 pounds; this is NOT acceptable.  I know when (mid-Aug.) it (my downfall) started; with my dread of dau.’s impending wisdom teeth surg. and we all know what an awful, painful experience that turned out to be ( dry sockets be damned), add school starting with a new high school, the daily (too long) missing bus drama, the cross country bureaucratic snafu resulting in A. not being able to compete at the first meet (which I fixed yesterday—not my job…but, ya know, If you want something done right…)  and you have my very own personal recipe for weight gain.  I got to wonder, just how much would I have gained back if I had had a REAL, MAJOR crisis?????  So, question: how to fix?; answer: start blogging everything going in my mouth again and not PUT anything in there that I wasn’t eating when I was being successful losing weight. I lost almost 30 pounds between  last Oct. and May, hit the plateau but managed to maintain till mid-Aug. so I MUST have been doing something right.   Being back at the gym will help too—have to be consistent–M.–W.–F.

I did a partial gym yesterday….stretch and exercise, weight machines, a little treadmill-about 15 min…… then had to take car to garage; noticed Wed. that I’d been driving around with an inspection sticker that expired in Aug.; VERY lucky not to have gotten caught… esp. going on and off the local military base!!!! 

Thurs. evening the theraputic riding program started again…3 1/2 hrs. of wrestling with semi non-cooperative horses; first one kept trying to bite me, second was a “leaner” (on me!!) who wanted to do nothing but put his head down and eat grass…..but we got thru, hopefully the disabled kids had a good time and all is well there…..

Last night we went to folk dancing; I don’t do this, I just watch dau.. It’s a good group of people with a couple notable exceptions, in my opinion….but we won’t go into that here….A. has danced with them Fri. nights for about 4 yrs. now…..didn’t get there much last yr.—high school is a whole new ballgame with a very early start…I really encouraged her to go last night cause she worked soooo hard all week and didn’t have a race or invitational to run today.  It was good to see (most) of them again.

OK food: so far today…..grapenuts flakes w/ skim, lo sodium V8, decaf. tea w/skim…………snack: 6 small/med.  strawberries and 4 pieces deli thin turkey and 10 M&M’s (no more!!!)………..

A’s still in bed, or at least in her room, she’s got to go to her mowing job later; well, sometime today…

Ta, Ta til later…

I like it here; I really do.  I’ve lived in Pa., Mi., S.C. and here.  However, now and then something just strikes me as being so strange.  My daughter has a day planner given her by her school, it’s 5 x 7 and has a school calendar, vacation and other important dates, rules, sports sched.; you know, the usual.  Well, the first month in the calendar is Sept. and the first important date noted is…….Jeff Foxworthy’s birthday (?)   Is it just me?  Is this odd?  Washington, Jefferson, Kennedy, and Foxworthy…..I mean, I like Jeff Foxworthy  BUT………god, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried…..

On another note, today was the first regular cross country meet and I’m at the finish line helping get ready for the races when my dau.’s coach tells me she can’t run today…..the paperwork allowing her to transfer for purposes of academic pursuits has not cleared yet and come back from the district administration…..poor kid, she took it well and cheered on her teammates….one our boys took first!!!!  But Grrrrr!!!!  Had an orchestra parents meeting tonight, too.  I’m to help with publicity and receptions.

Gym today: usual stretch and exercises, upped seated calf to 130 and leg press to 100lb……2mi. on treadmill, 8min. on rower, skipped ladies lite aerobics–too many errands before going to meet….food OK…….fading fast, need bed….g’nite

I can’t get started today w/o at least mentioning 9/11.  There are a lot of people out there who are having a very bad day today since this is the day the world as we all knew it ended.  I wish everyone who lost a loved one the continued strength and courage to carry on and hope they have had all the love and support they have needed in these years following the horror.  It affected us all in some way: I had a phone call from my best friend since kindergarten that morning (I’m orig. from Pa.) and literally all she could sob out before hanging up  was, ” Turn on the t.v.; there are very bad things happening.”  I used to be a MAJOR reader…..4-5 books a week; after 9/11 I couldn’t even pick up a book for a couple years; reality so awful makes fiction just not matter. I read now but it will never be with the same anticipation or enjoyment.  I think all of us  paid a price either small or large, tangible or intangible that day.

The week-end was super busy and I didn’t manage to get on here to blog yesterday either, except for a few quick comments on other  blogs.  Food hasn’t been bad, honestly it’s a blur.  I know I didn’t meet my food variety quotas I had set–I think I had only one meatless day and maybe fish 1x….as with everything, will try harder.  Exercise totals weren’t bad, but I didn’t nail everything there either…..at least I don’t think I did, my pedometer is off, I looked at it when I had a 1 1/2 mile total on the treadmill and it wasn’t even saying 1 mile and I only rode bike once…..rats!!!

Did gym yesterday 3hrs.: warm up stretches and exercises, weight machines; same as Fri. except I upped the triceps press to 100lbs., 2 mi. on treadmill. 12 1/2 min on the rower, then 40 min lite aerobics 

Will start a new week today–yeah I know it’s Tues. and it doesn’t feel quite right but don’t want to wait til Sat. or Sun……

Food so far today: grapenuts flakes, v8, decaf tea, skim, grapefruit, handful of peanuts

Planned exercise for day: stationary bike

Yesterday I wrote that the Blue Angels are in town for an air show and how nervous all the extra stunt flying in the area makes me.  We had a crash of one of the team of the GEICO Skywriter planes this afternoon, pilot killed.  Thank God it was in a field.  And the Blue Angels just lost one in April. Air shows are awesome but are they really worth this?  I think it’s dangerous enough living  close to a jet fighter base with out importing more danger.  Right after we bought this house one of my neighbors, 7 months pregnant, was driving to an OB appt. and a jet doing a turn at too low an altitude crashed,  killing her.  I still shudder everytime I pass the spot.

We had a bus today.  Transportation super. showed up too with explanation that bus was picking up and turning around at a church on the way into the development where they picked up last year……and there is another student from here on the bus, she rides to my dau. school and transfers to another bus to continue on to the h. s. with the medical  academy.  Infamous driver is a male, looks to be in his 30’s with a very neatly pulled back pony tail.  Case closed.

I was at the gym about 6:30am.  Stretch and warm up exercises.  Weight machines: 2 types….STRIVE which have 3 levels you change as you go through your sets; 1 is med. tension, 2 is light, 3 is hardest and Nautilus where you have to change the amt. of weight for more or less of a work-out (I just keep it the same).  Since it was my first time in ages I kept the weights from 5 to 25 lbs. lighter than I had been doing.  I’ve never had any instruction so I just muddle through doing the machines I like.

STRIVE: chest press..40lbs.  10, 10, 8       diverging lat. pull-down..70lbs.  10,10 and 8@ 60lbs.    low back extension..75lbs  8,8,8   seated pull down..60lbs.  10,10,6

Nautilus:  seated calf…120lbs  12,12,12   leg press…90lbs. 12,12,12 abdominal..50lbs.  12,12,12    compound row..70lbs  12,12,12    triceps press…90lbs.  12,12,12

It felt great to be back at the machines!!!!  Then I did 2 mi. on the treadmill and finished at the gym with 12 min. on the rower and on to ladies lite aerobics—-all done at 9:40am.  This was my usual work out every Mon.-Wed.-Fri. starting last Oct. and up to when school got out mid June and I’ve missed it.  Yoga instructor was sick so I did the lite aerobics to finish up today and I didn’t keep up with all of them, taking it easy.

I’ve had to send 2 sympathy cards today to women I know who just lost their husbands….one a lot older, sudden; the other about my age, cancer.  Sending 2 in one day is just a bit strange, makes you think.  My husband, the stick-in-the-mud, gets an extra hug when I see him!! 

Dau. has a cross country invitational tomorrow; have to have her at the school for 7am; it’s a bit of a trip.    G’nite!

I am a patient person.  I truly am.  A very patient person.  For the third day, no bus.  Took A. to school, came home, called the area transportation supervisor, got connected after only a 10 min. wait on hold.  In a very cheerful, triumphant voice (expecting praise, apparently) he says, “Well, Mrs. —-, we got your daughter to school on time today!”  When told that this was NOT the case, he said he had double checked with the driver and was assured that a student was picked up at her stop.  Either the driver is lying or some child was transported where they didn’t need to go.  Our development has no other students attending this school.  The transportation super. also asked me if I had contacted “another dept.” about the matter (told him I did); my guess would be that the head of school district busing in city admin. let him know that I spoke to them also yesterday.  Anyway, the transportation super. will be AT our supposed bus stop tomorrow am to see for himself what is happening (or not happening).  One thing you learn in a town with a large military presence is how to go up the chain of command and document, document, document.  Now we’ll see if it has done any good; frankly I’m not holding my breath.  This is getting very tiresome.  I am officially miffed AND peeved.

The Blue Angels are here and have been practicing all day, tourists are out in droves, all holding up binos and looking up long enough to get permanent cricks in their necks.  I know the pilots have to practice for the air show but doing it over a city (and my house) makes me cringe.  Yes, we have jets all the time BUT they aren’t flying upside down and rolling and looping.  You know, to this day, I haven’t seen that Tom Cruise movie; just can’t bring myself to pay to hear jet noise. 

Food…bfsk: grapenuts,skim,V8, decaf. tea…….snack:  microwaved Alpine Lace cheese (on parchment paper or it becomes bonded with the plate), broke into pieces and used as chip dippers with Newman’s Own Salsa–love this stuff, I can pronounce everything in it., a plum, nuts–peanuts and almonds, later a stick of string cheese and 1/2 Wasa….very ’snacky’ day………..dinner: brushetta, sm. salad and garlic and olive oil  tossed spagh………….Finally, a meatless day!!!!

Gym and yoga tomorrow!!!!  G’nite!