Saturday, June 29, 2019

Memories & Exciting News

Yay!  We had our first fire of the season last night!  
We've had this fire pit for years & have only used it maybe 5 times.  
S'mores were made & enjoyed. 
I don't know why this made me happy to see this morning, tho.  
It's been a while so I'm linking up with the lovely ladies Lindsay, Beth & Charlotte at the Peaceful Posse. There's too much crap & negativity in the world, so these are all positive / happy / grateful posts in this linkup. 
Mine's pretty short today, but with no lack of happiness, tho!

First of all....  I'M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!   
Miss Angela told me back in May that she's taken a test and it came back positive.  
I went with her to the doctor to get checked out & they confirmed it and gave her the #s to the ob in the medical group they belong to.  

She had her first appointment with the midwife on June 12.  I like that they start out talking to a midwife.  Once she hits 5 months, she can opt to be seen by a doctor, but Louanne said she doesn't see 40 patients a day and can spend as much time as needed with us and down the road, can even deliver the baby.  Which will happen at the local hospital, so if there are any complications, a doctor is nearby.   Louanne was awesome and Angel is plenty happy to stay with her. 

So at this appointment, since Angel's cycle has always been irregular, they were guessing that she was probably 7-8 weeks along.  They went ahead and scheduled an ultrasound to find out more. 
Nope!
On June 12, she was 11 weeks and 6 days along!
Her due date is December 26 - a Christmas baby!
As of last Thursdays - 14 weeks.
It's her little burrito bump! 

Sadly, tho.  Her & baby daddy don't always get along and they fight a LOT.  He was with us at her first appointment and seemed happy and his face lit up when he saw the image on the ultrasound screen.  But I don't know if his dad knows yet, and Angel said his mom didn't seem to care.  Since this is supposed to be a positive post, I'll keep my opinions about her to myself. 

But that's OK - she's got my entire LARGE family who are all excited and has her back.   She doesn't need them.   My mom is tickled that she's going to get great-grandbabies # 4 & 5 in December, since my niece is also due with her third munchkin then. 

Randy was so cute when she told him.  She was nervous since she didn't know how he was going to take it.  So on Father's Day she gave him a t-shirt she had made that said "Promoted to Grandpa 2020" (made before she learned her due date - LOL!) and put a copy of the ultrasound picture on top of it.  When he opened the box, we could see him staring like he couldn't figure out what he was looking at and when it finally dawned on him, he teared up and asked "Really?"

************************

So now for the memories part.

One year ago today, we were in Orlando at Angel's last dance competition with her second home, Dancers Only Studio. 

And they won National Champions with their hiphop line called Girl Power!

Today, one of the choreographers from the studio posted this video she'd made.   
Lots of memories!

And an ever farther back memory - this is their hiphop line from 2016.
We took this one to Nationals in Charleston SC.  
They made it to the showdown as a judge's choice. 

Happy rest of the Weekend!



Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Weigh-in Wednesday 6/19

Happy Hump Day, Ya'll!

I totally skipped the scale this week so my official weigh-in for the week is +/-0.  

The topic at the meeting  was basically about attitude and staying positive / glass half full.  Which I needed to hear, since I have been feeling so down about staying the same weight for so long and knowing what I need to do to make the program work, yet not doing what I need to do!  

On the plus side - check this out!
 I was over my 7000 daily step goal every day last week, except Sunday! 
I chose 7000 as my goal since I have an desk job which means I sit on my ass a lot of the day, so I have to work to make it to 7000.  

My best day was also the last dance class I had before recital - so between a nice hiphop combination and going over the tap dance multiple times.....

Sunday I barely cleared 3000 steps and actually - that impressed me.  My knee hurt so bad from when I popped it during the recital that I really am surprised I got so many.

Funny thing is...I was at work Monday and was standing in a coworker's office chatting and shifted just right and popped it again - loudly!  But it felt SO much better!  Since then, it's just been sore. And I can pinpoint where the pain is coming from.  

It still reminds me that it's not anywhere near 100%, tho.  I have to fully turn and place both feet on the ground before standing when I get out of the car (it's my left knee, of course) because if I don't, sharp shooting pain happens.  Things like that.  It's killing me to sit at the desk and not have my foot pulled up under my other leg, since it won't let me bend it that far.  I was happy to get out there & mow the lawn yesterday with minimal trouble, tho.  I made sure I took some ibuprofen about an hour before I started and that helped. 

So.  Let me see.  What can I work on this week?  Saturday I'm going to be gone a lot of the day.  I'm leaving the house at O-dark-thirty to drive to a campground near Jackson, MI (90 miles or so) for the Michigan Hauntfest.  I plan on stopping at 2 cemeteries to explore on my way there.  Lots of walking!  Then on the way home, I'm stopping at the National Weather Service office to mooch dinner off Randy and his friends that are doing Field Day   The rest of the week is pretty low-key.  So I should be able to get things tracked with no problem.  So that's it.  Tracking.  

So yet again - I will set an alarm on my phone reminding me to track and try not to just shut it off & ignore it.  

Wish me luck!
Bonus photo of this awesome rose in my yard.
I've never had purple tinting in my bright pink roses before!

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Sunday, June 16, 2019

Happy Sunday!

Happy Weekend, even if it's almost over!
Yeah, I totally missed Weigh-in Wednesday but I'll probably have to make it a bi-weekly thing since on the 2nd & 4th Wednesday each month, I haul ass directly from WW to the VFW for that meeting, and I get home late enough that I am not about to sit down in front of the computer.  
I was down 1.1 lbs this week anyway.  Woot!
Speaking of the VFW - since I am going into my second year as the post surgeon (don't ask me what that means, since even the VFW bylaws are super vague) - they got me business cards!  And the leather card wallet is a gift from our new commander.  
I wonder when a good time would be to point out that the website is wrong?

You guys!  My first dance recital was last night!  
And I get the impression it went over really well since we could hear a lot of laughter from the audience.  
We didn't dress up Friday for dress rehearsal, but we still could hear the girls on the sides of the stage whooping & laughing for us.   Since I'd never been on stage before, I had no idea it was 10,000 degrees up there!  And Angel used to go out there multiple times??  She was in 11 dances one year, how did she not melt??
Well, here's 2/3 of us fabulous ladies.
Angel had already taken the pillows out of her butt here. The lady in the white gown (also her first year in dance) has a stuffed cat on her shoulder - she had several attached to her walker.  And the lady in blue has a purple feather boa, and her walker was wrapped in one, too.  Our teacher Meghan had a red skirt on & sparkly jacket, gold sequin fanny pack & gray wig.  Jamie the kind-of co-teacher had on an obnoxious purple dress with a padded butt & boob area. 
I was pretty proud that I remembered during rehearsal that I was looking down a lot, so I made sure to keep my head up and smile / make faces. 
My only issue is that I hurt my knee sometime during the third song.  Like something popped in it and I almost went down.  So I have to give a lot of credit to these competition girls who go on stage with injuries and manage not to show it.  I know Angel did more than once.  She said it's adrenaline.  
Randy had been at a buddy's house and was going to try to make it to see us - but I knew where he was and would have been more surprised if he HAD made it.  But he was at the school when we came out & had flowers for us & took us to dinner.  Guess he'll just have to wait until we got the DVD so he can see it!  We didn't bug anyone else in the family to go, since we just had the one dance (the Dancers Only Studio recital is no longer the Angela show!) but there were enough people in the audience that we knew to make it all worthwhile. 
Random photo of the local heron rookery.

Oh man - I just went back & was reading an older post - I never reported back on presenting the VFW scholarship check to the 2nd awardee!  Quick recap - a local WWII vet passed away back in 1995 and willed his estate to our post (which he was not a member of!) so they created a scholarship in his name and up to 3 local kids are randomly chosen for $1000.  The one kid was already in community college and was happy to get his check mailed to him, but the other asked to get his at his school's awards night.  
So this kid not only attended the regular local high school, he also was one of 40 (out of 75 kids) valedictorians at the math/science/technology super-smart kid school.  Luckily I was only able to make it to one of his awards nights so I went to the UCMST (most places call it STEM) one, which also happened to be their graduation banquet.  So I got a nice dinner out of the deal.
I was crazy nervous about getting up in front of people to speak, like knot-in-my-stomach-for-2-days-before nervous!  I kept telling myself that I wouldn't know anyone anyway (but I did know one kid - his sister danced with Angel for years and he himself even danced a couple years, too) and that this wasn't about me - it was about this particular student.  So I came up with a brief little speech with how the scholarship came about & realized too late that I didn't actually write the kid's name on my paper, only his initials - so I had to pull it from memory and hope I got it right.  So I said his name very slowly & dramatically.  I didn't stutter or say um, but my voice was oddly high pitched.  I could hear it & couldn't do a damn thing about it.   
So I managed to present it and not pee myself.  After I sat back down, this woman slid into the chair next to me and introduced herself as his mom and asked if I would be around afterward so they could take some pictures.  Apparently the boy's beloved (WWII vet) grandfather had passed away just a few days before I called to let him know he was drawn for the scholarship!  So it really meant a lot to them and that they felt it was a sign from grandpa.  Both his parents were in tears, so I felt honored to be there on behalf of the VFW for this particular family.   
Besides, even tho the awardees were chosen at random, I was really impressed with this kid's application and kinda hoped he would get it. He re-wrote the application to include every activity & club he belonged to and a description of what it was, and even added his hockey stats for the season! 
We dog-sat for my sister over Memorial Day weekend.  I sent her this artistic photo of Ranger on our patio. 
Daisy realizing the bedroom window was open and something was out in the yard. 
This month's first-Thursday meeting for the search & rescue team ended up being training at one of the sheriff's deputy's property.  The 3 of us who haven't done land navigation training yet teamed up with someone who has and were assigned a team #.  Then we were given a paper with directions and went to our beginning point (a pole in the hayfield marked with a letter).  The paper told us the setting for our compass and we had to figure out the number of paces we took and write down the next point.  We had to find the correct 6 poles and write them down.  Luckily I chose the right partner.  I was going to tag along with Tim, whose property it was.  But he admitted he wasn't the best for me to go with since he needed a serious refresher.  Nearby was JR heading out, so I went with him instead.  He was a good teacher!  He showed me how to use my compass and he'd let me get a heading first, then he would and we'd compare. And we completed our course correctly! 
It was a nice day to be outside training! 
So anyway.  Things will definitely be quieting down a bit for a while.  With dance being done for the season I have one more evening free each week.  I was hoping to get outside and work on a Halloween project today, but it was cool & drizzly most of the day.  But I don't know how much my knee would have let me done anyway.  

Randy had a nice Father's Day - Angel got him a t-shirt and a picture and I took him out to breakfast & we had BBQ chicken carry-out tonight.  

But that's about all I got for now. Hoping nobody had floated away or anything in all this rain we've been getting lately!
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Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Weigh-in Wednesday

I really need to get my ass back in gear with this whole weight-loss thing.  On the plus side - I know I'll be able to maintain, once I get to goal!  I'm literally within a pound of where I was when I restarted WW 11/17 after my hysterectomy.  It's been a roller coaster, but here I am. 
sesame street smh GIF
Sad.

Anyhooo. 

So Wednesday's are my weigh-in days, I'll be trying to post after my meetings.  
This goes back to my 2019 word for the year - FOCUS.    I've been sucking pretty badly, actually.   Why do I feel the need to come home from work & watch random YouTube videos instead of adulting?  Like the laundry & cleaning ain't gonna do itself!  

But I digress.  And I'm rambling.  
Woohoo - they're doing charms again!  If we go to 6 out of 8 weeks this summer, we get a sunshine charm.   Hmmm I wonder where the rest of my charms are?  I have them all on a chain so at least I know they're together.
I'm doing pretty good with activity.  I went out paddle boating with my sister last Sunday.  Once we got the hang of steering & fighting the wind, it was pretty fun.  One hell of a leg workout, that's for sure!
That's Spawn photobombing us. 
Kayaking is going to happen again this summer!  We went a couple years ago and it was a lot of fun.  We went thru a rental company where we parked our cars downstream and they bussed us upriver (not even a mile from my house!) and got in the kayaks there.  It was reasonably priced, too. 

Oh yeah - on the 15th is my dance recital!  After 15 or so years of being a spectator in the audience - I'm going to be on stage!  The music is finally cut and it's going to be a 4 1/2 minute dance!  
Talk about a workout - tap dancing is no joke!  When I first started, everything from my ribcage down hurt.  I must be getting fit, since it's not too bad anymore.  Taking glucosamine for my knees is helping, too. 

Ugh, guess its time to sign off, my computer wants to restart to install some updates.  
Later!

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