Sunday, January 30, 2011

Wonderful Weekend in January

There's being outdoors and enjoying being outdoors. Saturday morning, Lauren and I went for a two mile walk(trying to gear up for walking with Birdrunner). It was sunny and warm. Temperatures eventually reached over seventy degrees. After returning from our walk and drinking some much needed water. We saddled up and went for a two hour ride. Lauren's dog, Lady, tagged along and provided a little extra entertainment-first she chased an armadillo. The armadillo curled up and Lady had to see what that was all about. Then, Lady layed down in the Buffalo River. Coming back, she decided that wasn' t cool enough so she went swimming in some much deeper water. Sassy and Daisy chowed down on some fresh grass and some bamboo. Dinner was some chicken spahetti, salad, and garlic bread.
Sunday, we took Lauren's car to the shop. I did a little work at Fedex. Then we ate some chinese (yea! Sushi and mongolian grill). Then Lauren took a much needed nap while Dwight and I played "Monkey in the Middle" with Chalupa and played in the dirt in the greenhouse. I'm excited that some of my flowers are already coming up. Now to surf the internet while chilli gets done in the crockpot.

Friday, January 28, 2011

My Corporate World

As you may have deducted from my lack of posts, I have a job. It's working for Fedex Freight at the Corporate Office in Harrison. We employ a little more than 1400 people. Yea, I know Harrison doesn't have that many people but the people come from all over-Bergman, Marshall, Pyatt, and other parts of Newton and Boone county. This is the headquarters. The main place. Where it all happens. The building itself is really nice-and the people aim to keep it that way. I work a ten hour shift and see the housekeepers at least three times a day. I think the lady cleaning the restroom waits for someone to leave so she can go sanitize it again. The lights are controled by sensors-they come on when someone walks into the room. You wave your hands in front of the paper towel dispenser and your towel appears. The doors have lips to open them so you don't have to touch where someone else has touched.The breakrooms are fitted with ice machines that disperse the good ice-the soft, crunchy kind like you get at Sonic. They furnish the cups too-not just any plastic cups, but biodegradable plastic cups-you can't leave them full of water over night because they'll disentergrate. These people are serious about being kind to the enviroment-everyone saves their cans or gives them to someone who does. The coffee machine will let you use your own cup (to reduce the use of paper cups). I forgot to bring my own cup to the machine and figured what the hell-and got coffee in a paper cup. I was told "Not cool Newbie". The guy was smiling when he said it but I think he was serious-later the person sitting next to me went through my trash to make sure that I had put all of the paper to be recycled into the correct trash can. Did I mention some of these people transferred from Arizona and California? Tree Huggers with a capital "T", but they seem to be a nice bunch.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Looking back

While on facebook, I was looking at pictures that one of my former girl scouts has posted of her child and I was thinking how incredibly fast mine have grown up which was all kinda ironic since I had a dvd from 1983 playing in the background. That skinny kid with feathered hair is yours truly. Our class made a production of where we wanted to be in ten years...I wanted to have four kids and an engineering degree. Funny how wanting to have kids came first and being a mother is something that has made the biggest difference in my life.
Someone asked to be my friend on Facebook and it's weird to sum up your life in just a couple of sentences. I could write volumes but who would read it? Here's where I really look back-what made Dad ask Karon out the first time? More importantly why did she accept? What's mom's favorite thing about Mike? How did Ralph and Betty meet for the first time? How did my grandparents meet? What made them fall in love? Someone should have wrote this down for me so I'd know. I came across a baby book for Dwight-his Grandma made it-her handwriting is so neat and there's so many interesting facts in the book, but the most important one is how much she loved him. Write it down. Make those memory books or take the pictures and just make notes.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Tuesday that turned into a Monday

I shoulda known something was up when I awoke at three and started to fix Dwight a hot breakfast only to discover my clock is totally screwed and it was really just two am. Good thing I didn't wake him-he would not have been amused. Temperature a chilly 20 degrees.
Then I couldn't really go back into deep slumber because my stomach was in knots just thinking about going down the hill to Jasper on black ice. Got a text warning me about black ice sometime before 5. Temperature has dropped to 18 degrees.I don't know which was worse me thinking about driving on ice or me thinking about Lauren driving on ice-I decided it would be better if I took her so one of us could go for help if the situation arose. Sometime around seven my stepson informed me he was taking Lauren to work (yea-Love the kid).
So off the kids went to town and the temperature dropped to 16. The horses seem immune to the cold and wanted their grain. Immediately. And it started snowing again. I throw on some really warm, thick sweats and head out to feed the chickens and impatient horses. This usually only takes ten minutes so I didn't think about grabbing any gloves(big mistake). I throw some feed to the chickens and they look at me like I'm nuts-they aren't coming outside for anything. Then, I grab the two buckets of feed-lucky me I notice the step to the tack room is iced so I avoid it and start down the hill. This is where I fall the first time, but I don't spill any grain and the horses are not amused at my lack of progress down the hill. So I get going again and slide two or three times before I get down. I'm almost to the first feeding bucket and wham I fall the second time. This time-I do spill a little bit of grain and the horses look at me like-hurry before you spill any more. I slide to the other buckets and everybody gets fed and I start up the hill. By this time, my hands are completely numb and I'm really wet from frolicking in the snow on my butt. Then I fall going up the hill. I might have caught myself if my damn hands weren't numb, but who in the hell falls going up a hill? I think I heard the horses snicker.
I'm going back to bed with a good book.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bucket list 2011

The last time I did a bucket list was 2008. I had 5 things listed.
1. Go on a cruise (done-such a great time)
2. See all three of my kids in college (done-one is fixin' to graduate)
3. Take a hot air balloon ride.
4. See the Grand Canyon.
5.Have my passport stamped several times.

so let's do this again shall we?
1. See the Grand Canyon.
2. Ride "maid of the mist"
3. Take that hot air balloon ride.
4. Take part in a marathon.
5. Get a new passport with my married name and have it stamped at least three times.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Resolutions 2011

I know that 2011 is well underway, but I'm hoping if I write these resolutions down I'll be more prone to keeping them. Coming up with 11 is hard, but I'll try.
1. Lose weight-I know, I've done this a million times before but this time I have a reward system in place. I want to lose 50 by my birthday and then I'll go see the spring butterflies at the Butterfly Palace in Branson.
2.Try one new recipe each month-I did this last year-and managed it all the way through the year-this month is already done(Cornmeal gravy once made with water and once with milk).
3. Call an old friend once a month. Not necessarily the same old friend each month, but your past has made you what you are.
4. Learn something new each month and write it down (learned to reset the odometer for oil changes on the yaris).
5. Do something special for someone once a week-if they notice or acknowledge it in any way it doesn't count and you have to start over. This is actually a lot more fun than it sounds and it can be as easy as making sweet tea.
6.Try to drink 8 glasses of water each day(I hate drinking water when it's cold outside and can't remember the last time I drank 8 glasses in one day)
7. Try to eat two servings of vegetables each day(this ought to be interesting).
8.Try to read one book a month-I used to read volumes, but since I've started wearing glasses I really don't read that much anymore.
9. Date Dwight-no really, do something fun that just involves being together which can be hard with all the chores and responsibilities of every day life.
10. Have a Christmas fund in place-you know so I can go crazy on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
11. Redo my bucketlist.
Ha-found eleven that I think I can do.