living at 211*

There are some things in life right now that are stressful. They aren't easy. They aren't simple to figure out or work through. And sometimes those things have me so upset I'm barely worth a lick to anybody.

I love it how God can say what He wants to say to me, even when the words themselves don't exactly match up. Sunday's sermon was one of those times! He was talking about anger. Most of the time my feelings are just limited to frustration. But every now and then something happens though, and I do get angry.

It was interesting. The pastor talked about being angry a lot growing up and one particular conversation his dad had with him and all he said was son, if you don't get a handle on this anger, it's going to destroy your life. In my opinion, those are some of the wisest words anyone could say to someone who struggles with anger.

I must be in control of how I respond to the things going on around me, or it is going to make my life very difficult. I realize this and yet set it aside when the heat isn't turned up at that moment. He talked about how the boiling point of water is 212* F. And how many people live at 211*. I realized that in many ways, I had been internalizing the issues going on around me, keeping my heart and mind at a steady 211, so that if there was the tiniest blip of struggle or confrontation on the radar, it sent me into boiling mode and it just made life difficult.

So God used those words to smack me 'tween the eyes on Sunday. Again.

And yet I know *I* can't do this. At all. Obviously. But He can! I am so glad He wants to recreate us and is continually make us into new creatures... something that doesn't resemble the old at all!

guilty as charged

I've been charged with eating at my desk! The nerve of my husband some people!

Said accuser also states that my keyboard sounds like maracas when shaken. I just don't know where he could get such a crazy idea!

Do you?

sh-sh-sh

This is our favorite commercial right now!



So... when you really want somebody to zip their lip, just say "sh, sh, sh... shut it!"

At least that's what it sounds like to us. : )

How many of us wives and moms have given that look at one time or another? And you can't forget the cute little quirky smile at the end either!

the sporty look doesn't work for me

Today was day two of my Sports Active 'thing'. And no, this blog isn't going to turn into a play by play of every little thing about this.

But I do have some observations.

My legs are in terrible shape. And since doing day two a couple of hours ago, it's getting harder and harder to move around the house. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!

And another thing.. ahem.. I wouldn't mind the running parts so much, if I were an A instead of a C, if you get my drift. I noticed while doing some of the movements yesterday, that at times 'the girls' seemed to have their own ideas, and at my age, that's not too comfortable.

So I went out in search of a sports bra some sporty under things. It did not go very well. And I hope places like Walmart and Target (yes, I wanted to try the cheap places first) don't have hidden cameras to watch folks change, to make sure they're not gonna put on ten things and try to walk out of the store, or something.

Because if they did, whoever watched me yesterday got an eye full. I hope I certainly hope it's a she isn't scarred for life by what she saw. Because here's the deal, there should be one rule for sports bras SB's... they should buckle in the back. The two I tried on did not. I repeat... did NOT buckle in the back. So I had to put it on over my head. That part wasn't so bad. Not great and certainly not a pretty sight, but not bad.

Taking it off. Well, that's another story. I got it up and 'over' part of the way. But then I ran into problems. It's like the thing shrank. It seemed a little small and I struggled and wondered if I was going to be able to get the thing over my head. Let me just say.. not a pretty picture!!! I had images of myself either wearing it out around my neck and casually telling the lady at check out that I'd just like to wear it out and leaning over to scan the tag for her... or calling in the jaws of life from fitting room three to come and cut me out of it!

But finally.. and I do mean finally, I was able to free myself from the crazy thing. And in case you're wondering... no, I did not buy either one of them!

I told my husband about my little adventure and I think he wishes he could have been there to see it. So he could laugh. But he did offer up an alternative. Why don't you just use an Ace Bandage?

The funny thing is... I had the same thought while driving out of the Walmart parking lot.

getting active

I'm not an overly active kinda girl. In the past, I went through a period of getting in shape. Really in shape. I was very lean and very strong... for a girl, that is.

And then life happened. Or something like that. Actually Bub got sick. And everything else in life came to a screeching halt. I did a little bit for myself during that time, but not much. There were times when he was sick that I could go for walks. So my legs stayed toned part of the time. And I also used to run the stairs to the fourth floor to his hospital room, rather than take the elevator. (I still can't believe I used to do that!)

I can't even hustle up one flight of stairs now!

I did Wii Fit for a while. I liked it. But there were things about it that bothered me. For one, I almost never got my heart rate up enough to be of any cardio benefit. And secondly, it was heavy on balance... and one of my legs is stronger than the other, and I was having a hard time overcoming that. And then there's the boredom factor... and the 'this thing takes forever to move from one movement to the other' factor. And the lack of resistance!

Enter the EA Sports Active for Wii! It came out yesterday and I was one of those crazy people standing outside Best Buy waiting for it to open. I only got the setup part done yesterday.... telling it my age and weight and making my little person and all that.

Today I got to start it! There are endless options for creating your own workout...including resistance! I was pretty impressed! And no unlocking (like the Wii Fit)! But there was also the option for a 30 day challenge thing. Everything is programmed in for 30 days of workouts and I got to pick the intensity from easy to medium to hard.

I picked easy. And I'm glad I did. Dern. Kicked my hiney.

And I actually got winded and sweaty! Both of which are good things if you're trying to workout. Also... I could do this in the privacy of my own home and didn't have to subject myself to young, fit bods at some workout place. And that kept me from feeling like a doofus doing weird things I don't normally do, too! Hello.. squats!

Well, today is/was the first day. 29 more to go in this little challenge! Hopefully I can stick with it. I have a terrible habit of coming out of the gate strong, and then getting really sloppy with this sort of commitment.

So, I'm hoping I can stay active and challenged for the 30 days and have a little something to show for it!

patheti-kitty

This pic was taken after an exasperating effort on my part to catch her begging for food. She'd come and sit there with this certain look to her. Every. single. time. I grabbed the camera, she'd do something weird. She'd either go to her bowl, or walk away or like in this photo, stretch out. I guess I'm supposed to think she's staaaaarving.

It's not like I see can your ribs there, kitty cat. Sorry cat, I ain't buyin' it! She did her thing in the most pathetic fashion that day. I think she even ended up eating the old food off the floor. But yeah.. she was just a leetle bit pathetic!

But still cute, doncha think?

photo meme

Karen tagged me for a photo meme! What you're supposed to do is open your fourth folder and post the fourth photo. Depending on how you count different folders and what not, I guess one could come up with different photos. So I played around with this a little bit to try and find something fun.

I know nobody wanted to see a pic of my feet in Birkenstock sandals. I took a photo of myself wearing sandals shortly after I got out of my cast and boot after I broke my foot. Like I said.. nobody wants to see something like that. And since I don't really do a lot of posting of photos of my family 'cause I'm a paranoid privacy freak I didn't go exactly by the rules...but I came close. lol This is the fifth photo because I didn't want to post one of my hubby laying on the grass in the backyard cuddling the dog. So I picked one of just the dog. : )

Shortly after we bought our house.. the same house we live in now... we decided to get a little dog. I had had a poodle growing up and he was just about the best little dog in the world. And I knew I couldn't get a better one if we tried, so we went with a shi tzu. Her name was Missy and she was quite a mess. And our first 'baby'.

We'd had her for several years when our son was born. Not long afterwards, we realized that with all his health problems (he developed asthma at 4 months of age), we could no longer keep a dog. His allergist insisted we give her away. It broke our hearts. And we resisted. But finally we knew we couldn't keep her. Amazingly I was able to find her a wonderful home with a great family.

They called us about a month after they took her to let us know she was fitting in nicely with their family and children and sleeping on their beds and just generally doing great. And then not long after that, they moved away and we never heard from them again.

The other day we 'did the math' and realized that even if Missy lived a long, full life, she would most likely have passed on my now. I'm so thankful for the amazing family that took her when we couldn't keep her any longer.

There's our little Missy dog! She was so cuddly and affectionate.