Wow I know its been a while

Yes I promised I would walk and blog and post but in my own defense nobody yelled at me for procrastinating.

I have not been walking everyday but Amber has been making me play the WII Just Dance. Holy moly talk about sweating. People if it too cold where your at to go walking like it has been here, this is a really good alternative. It gets your pulse pounding and makes you sweat you butt off. My son and his buddies do that P90X work out and Just Dance had them panting and sweating in no time flat. It truly is a great work out. As far as losing weight goes I have been avoiding the scale and focusing on feeling healthy. I figure the more I feel healthy weight loss will follow.

Oh Lord Help Me, It Is That Big!

Today Jim and I went on a very short walk but it had a couple of big hills.
He insisted that he needed to take pictures for my blog.
Why?
Because he said how can anyone know how much I lose if they don't see where I started.
Jeez, I would much rather lose 50lbs and then post my first picture. Yeah, I think I like that idea much better.
However, since he insisted so much, I allowed the pictures to be taken. And I am going to post them. To make myself feel, somewhat, better I am going to post the pictures I took of him also,lol.
I promise to take more interesting picture and show you the Missouri nature trails and wild life. Let me get warmed up and adjust to being honest about my weight.

My new blog title, my new quest

I quit smoking on January 1, 2010. Since then I have packed on about 60lbs. I have gained so much weight I acually scare myself. So I decided to do to myself the scariest thing I can possibly do and share with others my experience trying to get myself healthy.

I am going to share pictures of myself(not with my body cropped out), the places we go, and the things that we see.

I am going to share this journey with you.

My Facebook family and friends played such a supportive role in my success quitting smoking I now feel I can drop this weight with the support of my friends and family.


So here I go wish me luck! I look forward to hearing from you.





p.s.

This past week we walked a mile Thursday and Friday. Today We walked 2 miles!

Why do they just stand there?

I think if you were to ask most of my friends and family they would describe me as intelligent. Some might even say very intelligent. I have a confession, I have always prided myself on being of above average intelligence. You know what they say, Pride goeth before the fall.

Born and raised in southern California I love my Missouri home and rural setting. I love looking out over the green pastures and drive down the dusty back roads just to catch a glimpse or two of the local wild life.


I have to say my blondest moment came last winter when one day, during one of those rides, I realized that the thoughts I had at that particular moment were so... Dumb!

I was driving down the road admiring the beauty of the snow falling on the fields when a thought crossed my mind. "Stupid cows! Why do they just stand there letting the snow pile up on there backs? I mean, really? Why are they so dumb? Don't they have the commonsense to get in out of the weather." And yes I continued with the racing random thoughts until finally it occurred to me, "Mary! Where do you think they are going to go!"

Ummmm. Well. Hmmmm. I had literally hit a brick wall in the thought process. I sat there dumbfounded and speechless(in the "talking to myself" sense)"What the hell made me think the cows were dumb"

I guess its another thing that we don't think about really until we come face to face with real life. I always thought that cows lived in a barn. They did when we played with the Little People Farm as kids. They live in a barn in the books we read as children. Old McDonald had a farm, where did all his animals live? Not in the house with him, I'll tell you that much!

Even as a kid in the brief time we live in Monroe City, MO and my dad had cows, when we went to the farm the kids were told to stay out of the cow barn. It never entered my 10 year old brain that the cows didn't live in there! They were milked and sent back out to the field.

How may I ask is a girl born and raised in Southern California supposed to know that I have been lied to my whole life and that the messy truth of it all is that the poor cows in the field don't go home because they ARE home?

Now here I am as an adult trying to justify the fact that something so elementary was so long lost on me. I kind of had to admit to myself and to others around me that I am not as smart as a 5Th grader. Around here apparently there are kindergartners that have a leg up on my city girl state of reality.

I guess they also say You learn something new everyday.

Lord, I pray that my next life lesson doesn't make me feel so blond.

Its Not A Diet!

My New Years resolution is to get healthy. i am attempting this because my successful resolution from last year came back and bit me is the ass. I quit smoking. I put them down and went cold turkey and never touch another one. Yay me, right? Not so much. I gained 50 lbs. It is sooo not fair because when I smoked not only did I weigh 50 lbs less but I also could breathe better and my blood pressure was terrific.

I tell ya I got cheated! Here I thought if I quit smoking good health would automatically follow.

So this year I am trying to word things different. First of all if I say diet I am doomed to failure cause yuck! Who wants to go on a diet? Diets suck. I am doing a Healthy Lifestyle Makeover. Sounds exciting, huh.

First I quit drinking pop. Next I cut sweets and junk food and got a journal to log every single thing I put in my mouth.
I got a pedometer and the goal there is to force my self to continue to take more steps everyday.

So this is day 7 and I am feeling quite confidant that I can do it. However the children are trying to sabotage me in there sweet innocent ways...Mom, taste what I made in my easy-bake oven! Hey mom I brought you a super delicious extra large red bull! Cookies cookies cookies, because the cookie monster lives and breathes in our house his name is Grandpa and Amber his side kick gotta just bake all the time.

If I can quit smoking I can do this.
It must be done because I will not have more more child lay against my butt on the couch and say "I love your booty mom, its so soft and squishy." It was said in the most loving and affectionate way but dang I didn't really feel so cuddly anymore. I wanted to run from the room crying. Then of course the humor of it kicked in and I had to laugh. Kids are honest.

I can do this because I want to wear the really cool jeans I buy my daughter. Of course I will never be her size but I would like to at least see them in a size I would fit into.

I can do this because you can't find affordable fat clothes that don't look like something an old lady would wear. Its like the buyers for the stores say OK let just buy hideous clothes for the fat girls obviously they don't care what they look like anyway.

I can do this because I want to see Dorothy's kids have kids.
I am young still and I would like to do fun things with my kids and not feel like people are looking at me funny.

So here I go on my healthy journey to a new lifestyle say your prayers and cross your fingers for me.
I'll keep you posted.

DON'T SAY THAT WORD!!! (Big brother is listening)

I feel like the whole idea of political correctness has run amok.

There are new words added to the list everyday that we shouldn't use anymore and now its even a guessing game as to what those words actually are.

Tonight I watched an entire news report about a new "Politically correct" version of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn because the origin has been deemed offensive. WHAT!!!
Mark Twain novels are a part of American history and great literature and cannot be "re-written" and still pass along the same message.

To me a lot of the whole you can say this not that is a bunch of Bologna. I feel like the censorship of certain words only breeds more prejudice.
If all men/woman are supposed to be equal then why spend so much time pointing out how different every one is?

I think that we too often just sit back and watch as our freedoms get stripped from us. We love to complain about it but how often do we actually get up and DO something about it?
When was the last time that you got up off of your couch and went to a rally or even a town meeting to give your opinion on how things are being handled? Did you stand by quietly and just except the hand you were dealt or did you go on record saying you emphatically disagree with the decision being handed down?

We as a community, a city, state and country are all too ready to complain about how things are getting way out of hand and then either vote that same "idiot" into office or don't show up to vote at all.

How can we justify it? BY saying,"Well I didn't vote so its not my fault" or maybe, "Well my one vote doesn't count anyway!"

If you ever talk to your friends and neighbor and hear how much you share views don't you ever wonder how certain laws get passed especially when everyone you know had the same views? Its because so many can't be bother to exercise there right to vote.

It just really gets me how we can sit idly by and let pieces not just of classic literature but of American history be perverted it to something that only loosely resembles the original.

Today We Learned From Each other

Trying to come up with just one subject to blog about is kind of a task. My mind has so many things I think you would enjoy reading and so so many things I want to write about but I want to do each subject justice and not just write a half-assed story that doesn't really tell the tale. So today I am just going to talk about my outing with Dorothy.
Dorothy is a very intelligent 2 1/2 year old with no mouth sensor.(I know that's every 2 yr old, right?) Today she was in rare form.
First she started her day by informing all of us that she had a "rough night" and we needed to "keep it down" At this point, I was just waking up and Grandpa was out in the sun room by himself drinking coffee. Really? I know she is definitely not a morning person but Wow.
Later we are in Marshals looking for dress shirts for Jim to wear to work when she informs me that "those shirts won't look good on you, Mama" "they are not your color". I said, "Baby they are not for me the are for daddy." To which she rolls her eyes and replies, "Its a good thing."
Next in yet another store she tells me "You are getting on my nerves!" and after a scolded her for it she told me, "If you don't behave, Me gonna make you wait outside!"......Yeah she wasn't winning a whole lot of points today. And we did end up outside but it didn't go the way she thought it would.
We ended up a Target where upon entering we spotted our favorite thing....coloring books for a dollar. So I let her pick out a couple that she wanted and told her if she was good in the store she could have them. There were four......to begin with.
As I went from aisle to aisle doing my shopping she kept dropping these books one by one on the floor and finally I realized she is testing me. Here I was playing fetch with a 2 yr old. So I told her "That's it" The next one you throw on the floor stays there. Not 2 seconds later went the first one and much to her shock and dismay I kept walking. A little while later here goes the next. Her little eyes about popped out of her head when I just kept walking. The third one was the charm. She through that sucker and I kept walking her little eyes welled up and she said "Mama, me sorry" "Me not throw anymore books" The rest of the way through the store she clutch that last book to her chest and was a perfect little angel.
I guess over the years I have mellowed because the same behavior by one of the older kids years ago would have had me in tears and running for the car desperate to get home.
I have grown up with my kids. I am very proud to say that they have taught me well to pick my battles and to save my energy for a fight that is worth fighting. She showed me today that she is testing the limits of my patience and I taught her the art of negotiation.
By the way we left with 2 books.

Why Are You Laughing?

"Why do you laugh at everything?"
I couldn't believe he was asking me that.
"Excuse me?" I replied with a laugh.
He said "See! You can't even answer me without laughing a little!"
"Why is my laughing a bad thing?"
"Because nothing is funny!"



OK. So in my opinion if its not funny maybe we need to find out why. I was not gonna let this kid make me feel bad because I would rather smile and laugh than wear a frown.

If its not funny maybe we need to smile so the bad doesn't go all the way through. Maybe if we smile and laugh the brighter side is easier to find.

No, I am not a morning person or one of those dinging people who giggle relentlessly because they haven't a thought in their head. I am definitely not advocating going to a funeral or a court hearing and laughing openly.

Humor is all around you if you allow yourself to find it. If you don't take yourself so serious and laugh at yourself, goodness, it is so much more fun, especially, when you are the first person to laugh when you fall and bust your butt.

I don't always laugh when I am happy. Sometimes I get so sad, stressed or simply over whelmed by life it takes my breath. Yeah, I could give up and give in and sometimes cry my way through it but the tears always give way to laughter cause what good do the tears do you? Yeah, they are good for a while and maybe even a little cathartic but in the end they slow you down. How many people to you see running a race with tears? Now, how many people run while laughing?....Almost every child!

OK so I smile and laugh when you don't think its funny, but I feel joy in my heart and I am ready to take on the world.
I laugh because life is so much easier that way.