Full Circle*

I was at the Dr.'s office this week and had to get weighed (why do they always do that BEFORE they take your blood pressure?) I was shocked to see that I had gained weight. I know we're in the holiday season, but I have maintained my weight for several years now. I currently weigh the most that I have ever weighed in my whole life (including being pregnant).

Come on, Liz. It's time. Please get up off the couch and change your life !! No one can do it but you !!

I love you. You're precious to me. I'll do it with you. I'll be by your side, every day. You can count on me. We can do this.

* I started this blog originally when I accepted a challenge to lose weight. That was in 2008.

It won't happen to me

They're right, obviously. I didn't want to believe it. I thought my experience would be different.

Ha! People who respond to ads on Craig's List can (and tend to) be flakey. They are interested. They WANT what you're selling. They're coming or they'll call you again .... so you wait. If you're like me, you wait for days.

I've seen the disclaimers on other Craig's List ads that go something like this:
Serious inquiries only! Don't tell me you'll come if you don't intend to. I'll hold said item for one hour. If you do not come, I will call the next interested party, etc ...

NOW I understand why this happened to a person I know. The man was ON HIS WAY to purchase an item. He was half-way there when he recieved a call on his cell phone. The seller informed him that the item just sold. I thought that was a bummer and that he was treated unfairly. Now I see that "its for sale until the cash is in my hand" philosophy is not a bad method.

Looking back

In hindsight, which is always a clear 20/20, I did not have the slightest idea what it was to be married. I was not mentored by a wise and godly Titus 2 woman and my own parent's marriage didn't help me, it probably added to the depravity of what would not be "happily ever after."

I had high expectations. First of all, I expected my prince to BE charming, 24/7. I expected him to live and breathe to desire to be at my side. I just expected him to KNOW and BE what I expected a man to DO and BE.

I'm sure he had expectations too. I would assume he expected me to be his sweetheart and willing lover 24/7. I don't think he expected me to turn into his mother* and demand answers and obedience out of him (where had he been, what happened to our money, TAKE OUT the trash).

* used figuratively

October 6, 1979

Thirty years ago today I walked down the aisle in my beautiful white wedding gown and began what I thought was my "happily ever after."

Standing in the narthex, awaiting just the right moment, My dad said I still had time to not go through with this if I didn't want to. I smiled and told him that I wanted to (get married). He turned to the side, pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed his eyes. I was already in my fantasy world. THIS was the day every little girl dreams of. I was the princess in my own story and my prince was waiting for me at the altar.

The Cost of Beauty

After one eyebrow was completed, there was no stopping. I had to let her do the other one. I wasn't going to be the big baby who wimpered in the chair. Had to really work at holding my eye relaxed (as if I was an old pro) and not react by flinching and closing it tight.

There was a tear, just one, but I caught it before it rolled across my face.

Couldn't help but wonder what all Esther had to endure in her time of preparation to go before the king. Surely they primped and preened her. Wonder if that's when the saying started about beauty not being pain free (or something like that)?

I didn't know

Went to the mall, this afternoon, to have my eyebrows done. A woman performs the transformation by using some sort of thread. She holds it in her mouth and winds it around a finger or two. It crisscrosses and plucks as well as razors away the unwanted hairs.

I had watched the demonstration video and seen other women sitting in the chairs having this procedure done. It worked and appeared to be painless.

I purposesly let my brows grow unattended in preparation for this day. Little did I know, I would regret that decision. Won't do that again!

The Sound of Silence

My daughter is taking "American Sign Language" this year. She has DVDs that she is assigned to watch at home. When she goes in to do her lesson on the DVD I still am surprised that she's in there in complete silence. There is no talking on the DVD.
Duh!

She has been sharing new vocabulary with me. We practice together. It is EXHAUSTING! By the time we finish a fairly simple conversation I am amazed at how much it takes out of you. I truly appreciate the wonderful gift of speech and hearing that I have. We take for granted the fact that we can talk and don't even have to be in the same room with a person or that we don't have to watch their every hand movement and "read" words that are spelled letter by letter.
Wow!

On another note, I have a new cell phone and a new wireless plan that includes texting. I am trying to catch up to all you people who have been texting for ions. If you do text me, realize that it will take awhile for you to hear back from me. And I will be the one writing in complete sentences (like a dork). I still don't recognize that it's MY phone that is ringing (or singing or whatever it is doing). I was at the pharmacy the other day and I heard this music start playing. It continued playing (I realized it was a phone and NO ONE was answering it !!) I glanced over at the man standing next to me only to discover him looking at me.

"Oh! Is that my phone?!" I said. It was! Of course by the time I discovered that and fumbled to get it out of my pocket, turn it over and look at it, it stopped ringing.

At home, I hear various phone sounds and I'm always asking if it's my phone (if it rings/sounds for longer than 2 seconds -- the usual time it takes one of my kids to answer their phones) but no, it's not mine. My son is living at home again. His phone does something (beep, play, ring, etc) constantly. "It's mine," he replies.

I think I'm getting a ringing in my ears. Don't know if I'm getting a brain tumor from talking on a cell phone or if it's from hearing all those "unnatural" sounds constantly. Maybe it's because people are TALKING (or texting) about me ... no, wait, that makes your nose itch, right?

Off on a rabbit trail of sorts

I'm starting a new blog today.
This one will be a journal of my personal battle with ...

... you'll have to go there and see for yourself "with what?" ;0 )

The title of it is: lilredhen5-anewday

Hurray for Hollywood !

The Walk of Fame in Hollywood. It is a pretty sight at night with all the lights and twinklies. It's a very busy spot ... lots of tourists. Countless tour buses, daring bicycle riders, constant traffic and policemen on foot. Movie star look-a-likes waiting to take a picture with you (as long as you agree to their "we work for tips" spiel first) and you have patience to wait for your turn.

I was surprised to see that the stars on the sidewalk are not well maintained (as I was led to believe). We came upon several of them that were dirty with muck and who knows what. We didn't walk long when we all detected .... urine. Yep, that was the smell. It was stronger at some points than others, but it always lingered.

Lots of souvenir shops and sadly just as many risque lingerie and streetwalker attire shops. Every one of them has a large display window on the walkway.

Hmmm ... a thrilling location for anyone who idolizes the Hollywood scene. It seemed like a trip to Sodom and Gomorrah for me.

His time is always right ...

I was clearing out a closet today, decluttering and organizing it. I'm not surprised to find things out of place or even things I have forgotten I had. Speaking of the latter, I found one of my purses in the bottom of this particular closet. With a chuckle of delight I opened it thinking that I might start using it again. I found it almost empty and decided to check the zippered compartment ... my jaw dropped and I let out a little scream! There was cash in the pocket! What a blessing! I don't know know how long the purse was lost here (or even how it got into THIS CLOSET) and I am clueless as to what that money was doing in that strange little zippered pocket, but I do know that it was the RIGHT TIME to find it! Thank you, God!

Dog Training 101

The dogs we had when I was growing up, were untrained. And they lived outside. They'd wait by the door and try to run into the house whenever they could. We didn't bond with them.

Dog training promised to make the whole dog experience different for my children. I called around and set up a meeting in our home. This company claimed to have trained some "famous dogs" (used on TV and in movies). The price was high, but I assumed this was the company that a friend of mine had used and highly recommended.

When the trainer came for our first session, I told her that our dog was going to jump up on her when we opened the back door. She asked if I wanted the dog to jump on her. I said, "no."

"Ok, that's all I need to know," she said. I wondered how this petite little gal was going to stop our medium sized, over zealous dog from "greeting" her. She told me what she planned to do. She would lift her knee, hitting the dog in the chest, and the dog would fall back. She said it may take two times, but after that our dog would not jump up on her. This I had to see!

Taffy jumped up at the same time that she pulled up her knee. And just as she described it, our dog fell backward. One more attempt, with the same result and the deed was done. Never again did our dog jump up on this tiny lady.

Notice how I didn't say that she never jumped on us again ... you have to be consistent with the
knee.

Dog Psychology

Not long after we brought her home, we were robbed. We came home to find garbage on the floor and no sign of the dog.

We found her in the backyard, sitting INSIDE a large plastic tub. She just sat there and looked at us. She seemed to be ... depressed, or was she scared. Perhaps she had been traumatized by the burglar.

I made some phone calls to find out what could be done for a traumatized dog. After answering several questions, I was told that it didn't sound like she was having an emotional breakdown.

Now we knew that if she could get up on it or INSIDE it, she would. She liked to dig in the garbage, given the opportunity. And when she didn't look like she was laughing, she looked like she was sad or depressed. An odd contrast ... until you see it for yourself.

Our Dog

He agreed. Sounded like a good dog for us.
Next day, the kids and I went to see "our" dog.
She was out in the backyard ... chained up (I was oblivious to this first clue).

The second thought I had was about her size. She was MUCH BIGGER than Wishbone and not a Jack Russel terrior either. OK, she did have the shape of his face. I could have turned around and walked away at this point ... but my kids were enthused, and the dog was too.

They wanted her and they wanted to take her now. So home with us she came, along with a partial bag of dog food.

Somehow I missed the second and third clues ... she was chained up because she "does not do well with other dogs," we were told. "She likes to sit on furniture, too."

Dawn of the Dog

"We're looking for a home for one of our dogs. Have you seen Wishbone on channel 8? She looks like Wishbone," the speaker said to our Sunday School class.

"Wishbone"... I looked pleadingly at my husband. He knew as well as I did that our kids wanted a dog. What better dog could there be than Wishbone? Surely this would be a highly intelligent, remarkably obedient pet!

She was up to date on her shots and at two years of age, was clearly over the chewing stage. What more could we ask for ...

Scarey Times?

One day God spoke this into my heart: "everything is as it should be."

Hmmm. Sit back and contemplate that.

If you trust in God and believe that He is in control, you CAN have peace.

If you don't, I guess you have alot to be anxious about.

Mid-Life Topics

Constipated? Drink more water. Drink more water anyway. The more you drink, the more you have to ... go. I have to go so frequently that I know where the bathrooms are at every place I frequent. One of the first things I do when I arrive is ... go. Before I leave one location, and head out to another, I .... go. The location of a bathroom (is it in the front or the back of a store) can determine how I coordinate my stops. My family "jokes" about making a pit-stop at one another's house to ... go. Depending on who answers the phone when you call to see if someone's home, you just might arrive to find the front door standing open, the hallway clear and the bathroom light on. These are the ones who are sensitive to the times when you don't quite make it. Enough said.

Feral Cats

This blog was jointly written by me and my husband.

My sweetie thinks that I should use the word feral in the story of the Mighty Grey. He was listening to the radio the other day and heard a conversation about them. The question posed to the listeners was: who is more fierce -- a feral cat or an animal rights activist? The callers who responded seemed to think that a feral cat was.

One of the callers told about a time he drove down the alley and was going to run down a cat (not run over it, but get it to move). He stopped within 6 inches of the cat. He got out of his truck and looked at the feral cat. The cat stood its ground with a look that said, "What? Is that all you've got?"

We've had our own experience with them, as they congregate next door to us. They are not skittish or intimidated by us. They sleep on our outdoor furniture, leaving their hair all over, even though we have tried numerous things to discourage them. They lay on top of the wall or even on our roof to taunt our dog. I have seen three at once drinking from our pool. They use our entire yard as a litter box and saunter as they walk (even if we come outside) as if they had free reign of our property.


One of the worst problems we have with them is that they have gotten into our attic.
It all started when a door, which allows access to the attic, was left ajar. It was probably a cold and/or rainy night. A cat must have been seeking shelter. The next thing we heard was mewing.
So Bob left the door open, hoping that the cat would come out. And thus began our intense dislike of these feral cats.

Bob has tried many times to rid them, but they hide under the insulation and won't come out.
Kittens have been born in our attic. They come out at night and walk all over (sounding like a grown man). Not to mention all the mewing that travels through the vents and drives our dog crazy. Just when we think they are all out of the attic and Bob closes the door, one of the gargantuan warrior cats uses its mutant body to force open the door and it starts all over again. When Bob has seen them outside the door, he's tried to sneak up on them to close the door (thinking they will run away) but they run back in and jump back up to the attic.

The dilemma is, if they are not all OUT before we secure the door completely, they will eventually die up there. Then Bob will have to go and dig their decaying bodies out of the insulation.

Dog Games

For as long as I can remember, our family dogs would run away and not come back until they were darn well ready to. First there would be some (major!) humiliation as we'd follow them hither and there calling (begging) them to come to us. Not only would they run, but they would stop and sniff around until we would be almost within an arms length and then they'd run again. Great fun they had, at our expense.

Finally, when the dog was very thirsty or maybe a bit tired, it would let us catch it. Not one time did it come to us when we'd call. And it didn't jump into the open car door as we'd drive along behind it either. It would pretend to be engrossed in some smell in the grass and would let us "sneak up" and grab it's collar.

At this point we would feel elation that we had CAPTURED the dog and were the triumphant ones!

The Mighty Grey

I haven't seen the creature in I don't know how long, but I think it may have spawned some offspring. Now I am seeing a "cat" of gargantuon porportions. It is the size of a medium dog. I'm not talking about a fat cat. This is some mutant fully equipped warrior feline. It walks across our backyard fearless of our dog, who easily out weighs this sleek mammal three times over.

This grey animal is a wonder to behold. It catches your eye and holds your gaze. Unlike it's parent, the creature, who would hold your attention in shock and terror. The creature would streak by and allow only a quick glimpse of itself. This majestic son parades around to allow you to see him in all his glory.

My Daddy

My dad and I like to talk about our BMs. It's not the main topic of conversation with us, but no one else is interested. We commiserate when we're constipated. We share new strategies and we delight with one another when our pipes are working well.

As strange as this may seem, it's a precious part of my relationship with my dad. He's 73 and I appreciate every day I have with him.

I love you Dad! Have you had a BM today?

Curlers

Ran out the door to deposit a check for my husband. I forgot that I had curlers in my hair (not that it would have mattered). Went throught the drive through window. A male voice welcomed me and commented that he knew my hair was going to look great!

He must've grown up seeing curlers. Remember when your mom would wear them to get ready for a date with your dad? Or maybe on Saturday night for Sunday morning? I hope he wasn't thinking about seeing his old granny in curlers!

Anyway, his comment made my morning.

Books

I bought a book at Savers the other day. Today I discovered that I already have it! Got to get back to entering my home library on "LibraryThing.com"

Update on Vinegar

The vinegar doesn't seem to be working. I've been spraying it on. Maybe I need to pour it!

The most discourging part was when I checked one morning to see if it had kept the neighborhood stray cats off my charis on the front porch. It didn't seem to. There was cat hair all over both of them :(

I had sprayed vinegar around the perimeter of the front porch, on the base of the chairs and on the arms (which are metal). I didn't spray the cushions. I wondered if they had just jumped over it all. Grrr.

Vinegar

While looking for a natural recipe to use to kill grass and weeds I came upon a website devoted to the many uses of vinegar. When used full strength, it's supposed to kill grass. I'm experimenting with a patch in my yard.

It will stop ants and deter cats from using your yard as a litter box. One tablespoon of distilled vinegar in one gallon of water should clean your plastic patio furniture. I haven't tried that yet. I'm on a quest to find out how you can eliminate the chalkiness of white patio furniture once its been in the sun for years. If you know ... please post a comment. Thanks!

A New Workout Routine

I've been working in my backyard pulling weeds and dead grass. By the time I stopped the first day I could barely walk. And if I was bent over it was not easy to stand up straight again. When I came in the house I sat in our recliner and didn't move for a couple of hours. Bad idea. Sitting felt wonderful, getting up was another story.

My husband said I had the weekend warrior syndrome.