Obsessed

I’m not sure if I’ve talked about it on here or not but I’ve recently figured out how to stream onto my Kindle.

I hardly ever watch TV at home because Trevor and Scott dominate it. Occasionally something Scott watches will catch my interest, but usually they are watching some kind of cartoon. I haven’t even watched the last five or so Disney movies (I used to LOVE Disney now, eh) so that tells you how much I tune in to Cartoon Network.

People I know are always talking about some kind of series and I’m always like, nope haven’t seen it. But now that I can watch things on my Kindle (with headphones! And it’s portable!)  I've been watching a few shows.

The first show I watched was Downton Abbey. Suburban Correspondent along with my some of my book club ladies had talked about so I thought I’d check it out. I voraciously watched the first three seasons that were free through Amazon Prime. Sadly the next Season you have to pay for so I opted to just go watch something else.

Then it was onto Orange Is The New Black. Jessica had told me about this series awhile back. It’s only on Netflix. Do not watch this show with any children hanging around LOTS of nude scenes. I watched most of it going “OMG!” But it’s got a great story line. I really like when they go into each of the prisoners lives and show how they ended up there. The last episode I watched was such a cliff hanger! I couldn't wait to see what happened. Then I found out that was really the last episode and the new ones come out in June. At least that’s not too long to wait.

Now I've been working my way through Mad Men. I’m on Season 4. If I’m home, I’m probably watching it. I've figured out how to prop up my Kindle so I can watch it while doing the dishes, making dinner, folding laundry, lying in bed, on the couch, at the table, anywhere haha.

I don’t know if anyone else is familiar with this show or not but I just have to say, there has got to be about 50 little Don Drapers running around. That man is such a whore. Has anyone else noticed that all the women he sleeps with are brunettes? Makes me wonder why he married a blonde in the first place!

I just love the clothes that they wear and I'm a little sad that no one dresses up in the office where I work. While I totally hate the way that women were treated, everyone took time and care when dressing. 

If you have recently stopped smoking you probably shouldn't watch this show. Everyone is lighting up constantly. I was born in 74 so when I remember when they started having smoking "sections" in restaurants. My parents didn't smoke but Scott's parents did. He has told me how they would smoke in the car and he wasn't allowed to roll down the window. Sounds pretty miserable!

Do you have a favorite series you like to watch?

Concert Time

A week or so ago Trevor had his spring band concert.

The school puts this on along with an Open House night. Only now he is in 5th grade and they don't do Open House for the older grades. It was a super hot day and they had the concert in the "old gym". Which makes perfect sense to use the old gym that doesn't have much for air conditioning on a really hot day.

Usually they have a program but there wasn't anything this year. We got there early so that Trevor could be there on time. He was walking around quite a bit trying to find out where he was supposed to be.

There were several groups that were going to be performing. His regular band class where he plays the trombone was not performing because there was too many absent kids. I thought it would have been nice if they would have worked him in with the next class up so he would have got to play a bit, but they didn't.

The school apparently has 2 music teachers. One that does the regular band stuff and then another one that does extra things like choir, guitar, strings and percussion.

Trevor also does percussion so that was what he was doing that night.

The concert was really nice, the kids all did really well. The choir sand "Roar" and "What Does The Fox Say". Kind of fun for the kids to be able to sing something that they actually hear on the radio.

Here is Trevor playing the drums (far left) (couldn't get the video to work so you just get a picture)

I think the kids did really well for only meeting once a week for about half of the school year. Trevor really enjoys being in band.

What I didn't like about the concert?

Well first of all it was hot, and with no programs it kind of seemed like the whole thing was an after thought. They didn't have the kids in a designated area to sit and so they were in and out the back door and wandering around. Good concert manners would have been to have some seats set up for the kids not performing where they would sit and watch the concert. I think they were really missing a valuable lesson there.

Also the parents that would get up and leave between sets when their kids got done playing. Yes, it's hot, but the whole thing was only about an hour. If you can't sit still for an hour you have serious issues. Also letting your younger children run in and out and talking to them without whispering is very, very rude. I actually hushed up a group of girls that were talking with normal level voices during a performance. Seriously? So rude.

I think maybe they need to bring back some classes in manners and how to act in public. Obviously the parents missed out on it too.

Wake Up Call

Ahhh I think I finally found it. My motivation to get myself back on track. I've been on a steady decline (or shall I say incline on the scale) lately. 

What did it take?

Standing in the dressing room trying on strapless bras for my friend's wedding on Saturday. Nothing like seeing your belly hanging out in bad lighting to get you to the salad trough.

It's a good thing I had grocery shopping on my to do list after the "buy a bra" experience.

Healthy food shopping :check:
Healthy food cooked for dinner :check:
Healthy food made for lunch :check:

4 mile run (with some walking) :check:

Oh yes, I have not run in two months except for the 2 5k's I ran. When I finished my last half marathon I was starting to really not like to run. It was feeling like such a chore. I think I was just a bit worn out.

I am finally to the point where I want to run again. Sadly it took two months to get there but when I went out last night I remembered how when I run my brain works through things, how it feels good to push myself to keep running when I want to quit, how even though it hurts a little, it really does feel good.

And I'm not going to lie I like seeing that calorie burn. I think I'm finally about ready to invest in a Garmin or some sort of watch to track my calories. I think that will help motivate me more too, if I can see how much I am actually burning instead of an estimated amount.

I definitely need to buy some new running shoes. All my callouses are gone and I could feel ever rub and blister starting when I ran last night.

So here it is, 20 pounds to my goal weight. (Up about 15 pounds from my lowest-which my mind can not seem to stop reminding me about). 

I tried on my bridesmaid dress this morning because I've been worrying I won't be able to get it zipped up but it zips up just like it did the last time I tried it on. Just fine. Funny how we get ourselves all worked up for nothing.

Here's to keeping my shit together for the next 20 pounds. There are lots of events going on but I need to stop using them as an exuse to eat crap. There is some kind of "event" almost every day and every weekend. Time to get back to just making good choices and loving myself more.

Black Dog

Black Dog by Stephen Booth was our book club book for March. I was so busy I never got the book finished but I made myself finish it before I started Yellow Crocus.

The main players:

Laura Vernon, a precocious 15 year old girl who is found dead. She was seen with a young man on the grounds of the estate she lives on. The young man worked for the estate and goes missing soon after she is found.

Laura's family is her mother, who is pretty much out of it most of the time, her father who in the beginning seems to have it together, but later we learn he's got a lot of secrets, and Laura's brother who hates his parents.

Harry Dickinson, the man that finds Laura's shoe, which leads to finding Laura. He is never without his black dog who follows him everywhere. The dog is actually the one that finds the shoe when they are out on one of their routine walks. But wait.. is it really a routine walk or was there more to it?

Harry has two buddies he hangs out with all the time. They go way back. Back to the war days, and stick together like peas and carrots.

Helen, Harry's granddaughter who is kind of a care taker to her grandparents. Helen's father works for the the rich parents of Laura. Maybe this is all a little too close for comfort? Helen also has a hidden crush on Ben since they were kids. Will anything become of it?

Ben Cooper, the detective on the case. Ben's father was a big man in the police station but was killed on the job a few years ago. As a result his mother is going through a mental break down and so Ben has this going on in the background while he is trying to work the case. Ben is also up for a promotion. Will he get it, or will the new girl in the station steal it out from him?

Diane Fry, a new to the police station detective comes with a past. But what is it? Diane is showing Ben up at ever turn and really pissing him off.

The story starts with Harry finding the shoe of Laura Vernon. Laura has been missing for awhile and there are search teams out looking for her.  As in most cases Harry is looked at as a possible suspect while the detectives Ben and Diane work the case.

While they are working the case they follow multiple leads and we find out the deep dark secrets of everyone in the little town. So many people seem to be the suspect. I had to keep reading to find out just who "did it". Such a great suspense story with an ending I didn't see coming!

I just realized that there are thirteen books in this series (this is number one). I can't wait to read the next one!

Mother's Day Cont.

I never posted about my actual Mother's Day! Friday I spent with my mom but Sunday started off with Trevor making me waffles from scratch. Pretty impressive!

I"m so glad we finally got a Belgian style waffle maker. They are so much better than those tiny little square ones ;)

Then Scott cleaned the house up while I was lazy and watched shows on my Kindle.

Later we went to town and stopped by my Dad & Step Mom's to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. I got her this bird feeder. The top is like a big mason jar. I kind of love it and wish I would have bought myself one too!

They have three dogs. The youngest is Lady who was a pound puppy. She is a terrier of some sort. Trevor had a lot of fun playing with her.

After visiting there for awhile we went over to Scott's parent's house. I didn't take any pictures of his mom since she had just got out of the hospital a couple days before. She seemed to be doing a lot better, which is great.

I got her these little African Violets. They were so cute!

We were all starving by the time we left there so we decided to just go out to La Villa to have dinner. 

They really have the best tacos. Sooo good. Pretty nice Mother's Day this year!

Snookie & Rusty

So I'm pretty sure I wrote that we have a new to us dog. She belonged to my brother and sister in law (and my niece Adrian).

Her name is Snookie. That's the name she came with and she knows her name so of course we didn't change it. She is a pug. I never thought I'd like a smaller dog but she is so much fun.

I thought for sure Rusty would eat her when I first got her but surprise surprise she is the bully around here. She has no problem biting his legs while he walks and jumping up and trying to beat the crap out of him. They really get along great though. They like to drive me nuts by having loud wrestling matches.

If I had to rename her I'd probably call her Shadow because she is ALWAYS next to me and wanting me to hold her.

The other day I was watching Mad Men on my Kindle on the couch and she was right next to me doing this.

She's so funny with her big eyes.

There is also a lot of this

What's life without a dog? Not worth living I think ;)

Top Security

Trevor had his first dance Friday night. Yes, he's only in 5th grade. The school is so small that in order for the 8th graders to have a fun graduation dance they invite the younger grades also.

He was all kinds of excited about it.

At my cousin's wedding a couple years ago I found out my little man was a dancing fool. He was dancing so much that people made a circle around him and were cheering him on.

I watched in awe, thinking "who is that kid?".

So I tried to warn him that the girls always said that no one actually danced at these dances. The teachers have been known to call them "stand-a-rounds".

He was so worried about the times.

We have to be there after 7 but before 7:20 or they won't let us in.
You have to pick me up at 9 but not after 9:20 or I won't be able to go to another dance.

Yeah yeah kid, this isn't my first rodeo, I've got it.

So he was dropped off at 7 and then I went over to my neighbor's dock and enjoyed the sunset.

Of course I set my alarm so I could make sure and get back to the school on time for pick up.

I was there a couple minutes before 9 and there was a bunch of parents standing around by the gate that they use to close off the school. A kid was hanging on it and it opened up so I walked up to the door to collect Trevor.

I got a "How did you get in here" from the guy standing at the door (who also happens to be my neighbor). I was like I walked in? Came to pick up my kid? Then the teacher ran over and told us we "had to get out" and back over to the gate area.

My God you'd think we were breaching security at the airport the way they were all acting.

Never mind that just last year you had to go up to the door to collect your kid. It just cracks me up because HELLO I've been picking up kids at this school for 16 years now. Maybe they should have posted the new rules somewhere for us old timers.

Things sure have gotten "tight" the last few years. I miss the old laid back days. When Jess was there I would have been invited in to hang out.

Anyhow, he said he had a great time and they all danced. Apparently you just have to be a 5th grade boy to dance at the school dances.

Memorial Day 5k

This morning I went out to run at the Memorial Day 5k. I haven't ran since my last race at the zoo. I didn't have too high of hopes on breaking any records or even running the whole thing. I also went out with my friend kind of spur of the moment last night so that wasn't helping either haha.

So a couple things I learned today.

1.) Bring water to all running events. When I was on my A game I could make it through a whole 5k with no water. Yeah, not the case today and it was hot. There was no water stops for the whole 5k, which is really surprising to me.

2.) Getting the right size race shirt is pretty much impossible. The last couple have been almost too small so this time I got a size bigger and SURPRISE it's a tech shirt in the size ginormous.

3.) I should probably actually start running on a regular basis again.

I'm not sure what my "official" time was because I knew it wasn't all that great so I didn't even bother looking. It was around 35 minutes though.

Taking a break from running was good because I was getting kind of tired of it but I'm finally getting to the point where I miss running again. I definitely miss coming in under 30 minutes too! Today I was about 8 minutes slower than my fastest time. This was a totally flat course that I should have been able to just blow out real quick if I was up on my training.

The good things about my race today were, HELLO my pants haha

I think they are hilarious and totally make me laugh. Plus they were totally appropriate for today's race. Although I think I should have made them into shorts like I briefly thought about doing. That would have been a little bit cooler.

My cousin Natalie and her husband Trevor also ran the race. We hung out for a little bit before and after. She's actually my 2nd cousin but who is counting ;)

There was quite the to do going on at the park but after walking around the car show area and not finding my Dad (thought he was going to be there but I guess he didn't make it) and seeing how long the line for the food was (1000 people or maybe 100, about the same),  I just came home.

I have book club in about an hour. I'm totally looking forward to hanging out with my little book club ladies and just chilling out for the rest of the day!

Good Bye To Jess & San Francisco

Tuesday was such a sad day. 

I took the day off so that I could take Jessica to the airport. Melissa was "sick" so she could go too. Trevor went to school because he had a field trip that day and that's more exciting than taking your big sister who beats you up to the airport. Scott went to work because that's what he does.

My mom came over and the girls and I drove to San Jose. We picked up Scott at work and then we went to Jack In the Box (Jessica's choice because they don't have those in North Carolina) for lunch. He drove to the airport where we deposited her at the curb and I cried the big cry. She happily walked into the airport and then she was gone.

Honestly I think all this would be easier if I had a date of when I would see her again. I know we are lucky to have all the technology we have today to keep in touch but it's not quite the same as laying next to her on the couch while she's sleeping listening to her breathing.

So after that Scott went back to work and I decided we should go to San Francisco to make the day less sad. I probably should have not worn contacts though because they were really bothering me after all that crying. By the time we got to the city I felt like I was half blind. We walked about 12 blocks until we finally found Wal Greens so I could get some contact solution and then all was well. 

I took my mom over to see the Musee Mechanique. I just love that place. One of these times I'm going to bring a shit ton of quarters so I can watch all the old little movie things in there.

This thing is all made out of toothpicks. It's missing it's little roller coaster but the train goes around and everything else moves. 

 The old submarine outside the arcade and a view of Alcatraz. 

This sea gull flew up while we were standing there. It gave us a once over and then went over to beg off some people that were standing there eating while they looked over the water.

That's Pier 39 over across the water, that's where we walked over to and spent the rest of the day.

The Pier always has the prettiest flowers. These planters were outside a restaurant. Great color combinations.

Check out the thorns on this plant though, wouldn't want to fall in there. 

The Golden Gate bridge is in the distance but you can't really see it through the fog.

 

We had to go say hello to the Sea Lions. They are so funny. One will pop out of the water and just flop down on top of the rest until he knocks one off and takes it's spot. 

 These people had 3 of these Great Pyrenees. They kind of stole the show for a bit. It's like having a small horse for a dog! Can you imagine how much fur you would have all over your house.

I found my latest exercise routine on a t shirt (kidding)

We ate dinner at Chowder's. Melissa looked so pretty in the window but would not let me take a picture. WTH? Someday when you're 40 you will wish you had a picture of yourself at 15 by the window in San Francisco ;)

I tried to wait it out a bit so we wouldn't hit the commuter traffic but  I was also kind of worrying about how much our parking was costing. It ended up being like $36 when we left and I still had to drive through some commuter traffic to get to the Bay Bridge but then it was fine. 

So a nice way to end a sad day.

Good-Bye For Now Party

So of course the day for Jessica's party we had like 25 mile per hour winds. ALWAYS crappy weather when we plan a party outside. 

We ended up huddled on the back side of the club house to get a break from the wind. Thankfully it calmed down a bit after awhile. 

I didn't take too many pictures (my mom took some of everyone, so I'll have those in a couple years).

The girls dragging a table over from another area

My best friend Carolyn and her 3 girls. 

My Mom, Me and my girls

Jess and Grandma

I FINALLY got to meet my niece and nephew! This is Emma.

and Vincent

and mom with her dog Tinkerbell 

We brought the paddle boat and the kids had fun taking it for a spin

After everyone left and things calmed down I went over to my mom's cabin and hung out on the porch until 12:30. So nice and relaxing!

Fly Away Little Birdie

I promise I haven't keeled over.

I've just been in the process of processing that my oldest was

1.) leaving me and
2.) left me.

I've decided I had this whole parenting thing all wrong. Why did I think I needed to make my children independent? I should have sheltered them and made them totally reliant on me so that they would never leave me.

Of course I never thought that they would move farther than down the road. Definitely not all the way across the country.

But I think I'm making it over the hump. I might actually eat food that is good for me today tomorrow and go back to the gym. I like, totally haven't cried at all today yesterday so that's a miracle.

Yellow Crocus

Our book club book for the month of April was Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim.

This is the story of Mattie, a black plantation worker and Lisbeth the plantation owner's daughter.

The story begins with Mattie, nursing her son in her little shack of a house on the plantation. She's soaking in the last few moments with her baby boy. She is just waiting for "them" to come and get her. Eventually the knock comes and she leaves her baby with her grandfather (who will take him to a cousin to feed) and goes into the big house.

She is now the wet nurse to baby Lisbeth. She doesn't want to like the baby but she can't help wanting to help her and soon little Lisbeth works her way into Mattie's heart.

She is pretty much a full time mother to Lisbeth except for when the parents want to have some "time" with her. Lisbeth bonds with Mattie like a child would to her mother and they have a beautiful bond.

Through the years things change and eventually Mattie goes back to the shack and Lisbeth's life if full of pairing ups and society.

The story follows both of their lives and how their bond influences the choices they make. I really enjoyed the whole book, as did everyone else in book club.