Monday Mish Mash #1

So I signed up to do a 10-day Blog Makeover Challenge.  I read about it in another blog (thanks, Charlene!) and sort of jumped in the middle of it.  So far I'm pretty intimidated - it seems like most of the other bloggers have inspirational, educational, or business / store type blogs.  Mine are pretty much for shitz & gigglez.  But I'll stick it out, I've been learning a lot, even if a lot of it doesn't really seem to apply to me & my little trio of the blogosphere. 

On the plus side, I've found a bunch more blogs to read, and people to follow on Instagram and hopefully people enjoy following me back!  But I feel as tho I need to step up my blogging game so I don't look like a complete moron.  Game on!

Speaking of new blogs I'm following, Amy over at Country Mouse City Spouse started her first linkup and I joined in!

I'll introduce myself to anyone new visiting.....I'm Lisa, happily married to Randy and our 10 year anniversary is in July.  We have 1 spawn, Miss Angela, who is 18.  We have a slightly overweight Beagle named Jack and 3 cats - Chester is a big ol' orange tabby whose around 16 years old, Maddie is the queen of the castle and Daisy was born in my sister's barn last May and came to my house in September.  Her & Chester are buddies!

We live in SE Michigan, about 20 miles from Detroit in a quiet little 'burb in a tiny house with a nice big yard.  Our last name is Love, so the Love Shaque.

Randy is a computer programmer originally from Arkansas, Miss Angela graduated high school last year, hostesses at a Thai restaurant and is still on her competition dance team at her second home, aka Dancers Only Studio.  We're just starting comp season, so they show up a lot on my Instagram.  She's been dancing since she was 4. competing since 12 and I've never missed a single performance.

I am a US Navy veteran.  I was in from 1992-2000 and was a postal clerk.  My 2015 April A-Z Challenge posts are all about my time in the Navy.  Sea stories, places I visited, experiences and the like. I now work for a trucking company in the billing department.  I've been there almost 16 years.

Randy and I are both amateur radio operators (he plays much more than me) and that's why you'll see N8LTG associated with me a lot, that's my call sign. He does a lot of volunteering for the Multiple Sclerosis Society doing radio stuff at events and we both belong to Oakland County Emergency Management and are Skywarn weather spotters.

I love Halloween and it's pretty much on my mind year-round.  You can't wait until the last minute to put together a large display like I have!  Quite honestly, my Maple Grove Cemetery is very basic compared to some of the displays & "haunts" I see on some of the Facebook pages I belong to.  I don't do blood & gore, either.  A combination of humor & elegance is my thing, if that makes sense.  My H'ween display has its own Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter.  And I'm a taphophile.  That means one who is interested in cemeteries, especially the art & history.  I belong to Find A Grave, which is a database of headstones used for genealogy & such.

I kind of like being on a Mish Mash, since my thoughts tend to do just that!  Kinda flutter from one thought & idea to the next.  Sometimes I wonder if I talk too fast for some people, especially when they clearly aren't following me.  I try to slow down and think first, but that doesn't always happen.  Makes me wonder how my dear sweet Southern boy husband does it!

So, welcome!

Real quick, to follow up on Friday's post....DOS got 5th place at the Winter Wishes Pom & Dance Competition.  They were up against at least 2 other studios that spend a LOT more time practicing than they do, and it shows.  I have the video posted on my YouTube page if you want to watch. They always seem to create a traffic jam going into their first kickline and I'm sure the judges can't help but notice!  And spacing. Um, yeah.  But other than those couple things, I think they did great & I'm proud of every single kid.  This picture was grabbed off the Dance Force Xpress FB page - Angela is the huge goofball the 3rd from the left in the front row, the one leaning oddly!  They're all yelling YEAH right here, so that's why their mouths are all open.

The official results haven't been posted yet, altho they said they would be.  Apparently all of the All Stars routines were close in points, I'd like to see how close!

So I'm going to get this linked up over at Amy's page, so hope to "see" you again!

#TFTLS

I forgot to post!

My meeting / weigh in was only last Tuesday!  But life happens.  And I had a 2.1 lb loss!  WOOHOOOO!

I did pretty good with my "diming".  I learned that browsing in an antique store means you're not walking hard enough for steps to register, so last Sunday I only had 1537 steps recorded!

It was nice having a menu planned out.  I have a white board on the fridge where I post this so I can see at a glance in the morning if there's anything I need to set out for that evening.  Or maybe if I want to switch days around, or whatever. I'll still know that I have the stuff to make whatever I choose.  I'm nothing if not flexible, we're not having Chinese this week, we're going out for bd's Mongolian BBQ.  Which is to my benefit, since I'll be using a LOT fewer SPs!

My Fitbit weekly report.  I love having it call me O Great One!

We're going out to dinner tonight because Miss Angela requested it.  She had her last All Star dance competition this morning and we think she deserves it.  I posted the video on my YouTube channel, but it'll be the same routine as the one posted in December.  They got 5th place this time! But they were up against 2 studios that we all know practice every day, and DOS does once a week.  Maybe the teachers need to think about that?
                 
So I'm going to keep this short for now and I'll post again after this week's weigh in.  I'll be going on Wednesday this week because I have an eye appointment Tuesday during my usual meeting time.  What the heck was I thinking when I took that time slot??  Sheesh.

Later!
#SnS

Hooray!

It's that time of year again!

Sign ups for the April A-Z Challenge open on Monday!  I think I'm only going to sign this one up this year instead of 2 or 3 blogs. I started a spreadsheet back in October when I was hit by inspiration with an A-Z blog post, so I have most of my topics figured out already.   Let's do this!

So, gosh.  I haven't posted in a while.

Monday the 11th, the Salvation Army came by and picked up Angel's old bedroom set and a whole lot of other crap out of her room.  She's really liking the beautiful oak set that my sister gave her.  And at least one of the cats loves to lay in front of the mirror!

It was nice to get all that out of the garage, since Randy had stacked it in front of the totes for the Christmas stuff!  So I couldn't do much by way of un-decorating until that all got moved.  Then...GAME ON!  The Christmas stuff went away and the "winter" decor came out. Snowmen & gingerbread men.  I have several of this guy's family.  I love his face!

So this is what we've been up to.  Crazy Ron, one of the truck drivers at my work, brought this lovely costume in for poor Jack.  His wife dresses up their dogs for any number of occasions and now he feels the need to share in the dog-shaming.  Oh, and he brings at least 5 pictures of his dogs in for us in the office.  I have a file in my desk labelled "Ron's Dogs" and have pictures dating back to 2005.  Sad!  At least this one velcro'd and fit around Jack's chest, unlike the Santa one that I squeezed him into.  As you can tell, he's still not happy but it was quite hilarious!  I actually love the little bracelets!

So, the shower off our bedroom has been un-usable for too many years to think about.  So I broke down and bought a shelving unit to fit in there and I finally have a place for towels & sheets!  (please ignore the nasty shower door - I wiped it down, but that white shit is caked on there!)  This little thing makes me feel so accomplished!  #smallhouseproblems  We used to keep towels in a dresser in Angel's closet but we could never get to them with her hamper & stuff in front of the closet door.  So next will be the get rid of that dresser so she can use her closet for clothes (and more costumes!)

Last Sunday, Randy and I wandered around a local antique / craft mall and I saw this completely impractical, yet awesome purple dragon pin.  I thought about that damn thing all day Monday and finally decided to go buy it.  I love it, but I have no idea what to do with it!  It's huge and too heavy to actually wear, unless I put it on a scarf or something.

I also bought this ~fabulous~ spider bling.  Truly, the iPhone pictures don't do either of these pieces justice - because that spider sparkles like crazy!  And the blue stone is spectacular.

Sunday is dance competition #2 of the season.  This one is gonna be great.  It's barely 10 miles away and if everything goes smoothly, like these seem to do....we should be done by 1pm at the very latest!!  I need to take advantage of this, since it's the last of the All Star competitions and the next 3 are regular team competitions.  Which means 7 routines instead of just one and most likely the entire weekend.  Miss Angela wants to stay and watch the HS varsity & JV dance teams go.  Her alma mater, Utica HS, is going to be there and she wants to watch them. 

I need to spell this out, because it's confusing.  She's on 2 different teams from the studio. The All Stars compete with high school dance teams doing pom routines and sometimes hiphop.  The competitions are held in the school gym.  Their outfits can stay their studio/school name.  The regular team competes on stage in auditoriums, against other studios.  All styles of dance are represented and the studio names are not advertised. This year, Angel is doing large group lyrical, senior small group tap, senior small group jazz, hiphop line, jazz line and then her duet & solo.  I confess I'm disappointed they're not doing senior small group hiphop this year, since last year they were FIERCE!!  Guess that's what happens with a bunch of kids practically grow up together doing what they love - they all compliment each other.

So the plans for tomorrow......Hmm.  I don't know!  Angel has to get her costumiform & accessories together but she's a big girl and can do that herself.  OH!  I forgot to update the costume issues.  So they didn't arrive until 3 pm the day before the last competition....and NONE of the skirts fit!  The company tried to say Terina (studio owner) didn't measure the girls right, but she knew she did.  So all their skirts were way too tight for them to use.  They tried and when they did the kickline, the skirts rode up around their hips.  So Terina went and bought them all black shorts to wear instead.  The skirts have since been replaced and while the black shorts looked nice enough, the skirts should be better.  I'll get a better picture this weekend of the entire costume worn correctly and with poms.  Here Angel & Maddie were clearly messing around.

Oh, yay!  Today was doctor / x-ray visit #1 of 2016!  She apparently got mad at the boyfriend a couple weeks ago and punched a wall.  Not smart.  Of course her hand & knuckles were swollen and bruised.  Then they healed and yesterday I got a text saying she smacked the same hand on the corner of the kitchen cabinet and her hand instantly swelled & turned purple. Luckily, there's no fracture or dislocations.  She just managed to hit it in just the right spot between the knuckles to be dramatic. So she's been icing it and that's about all she can do. 

Winter finally arrived, with a vengeance!  We don't have crap for snow, but damn its cold!  I feel sorry for those people along the East Coast right now getting feet of snow dumped on them and they have no way to clear that mess.  I was listening to a radio station out of Nashville on my way into work this morning and they took a call from a guy from Michigan who was on his way there in his snowplow to help.  The radio guys cheered, saying "Yay, professionals"!  Heck, the guy hasn't had much business up here, that's for sure!

Alrighty - I was just messing around until Miss Angela's curfew and now that she's home with time to spare and we've heard all about her day....it's time to sign off!