The Week in the Proverbial Nutshell, 3

I'm linking to Java's Follow Friday 40 and Over at Never Growing Old!  You simply must go visit Java if you haven't already.  She's just as sweet as the day is long! AND there's an award for everyone who stops by while this post is up!  Scroll on down to see it!

And now, the week in a 

My niece in NH put some pictures of their snow up for me because she knows how much I love it but never get any.  I love seeing all the pictures of all y'alls snow too!  It looks so pretty!  Of course, if I lived up north or in the midwest, I'm sure I'd be saying something completely different!  It's just that our summers are BRUTAL!  The warm weather around here lasts only about a week or two, cold weather, if I'm lucky, a couple of months. The rest of the time?  HOTTER THAN HELL!  And HUMID.  Combine those two lovely features and you get misery.

I spent Tuesday and Thursday tutoring some cute little first graders.  If your ego ever needs a boost, just volunteer at an elementary school.  Goodness, those little darlings will make you feel so special.  Looks like I might be going back in as an interventionist IF the funding plays nice.  We should know soon.  I don't know about every state (or country for that matter) but it seems like the first things that get cut are all related to our children.  Our new governor is going to hit the special needs kids.  Hard.  Hope everyone's so glad they put her in there (that was sarcasm, just so you know). 

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DoodleBug took some time to come over the bridge and visit.  She's finally taking her first education class and LOVES it!  It's making her even more excited about majoring in education and I love seeing that youthful enthusiasm on her face, in her tone and in her actions.  She becomes so excited just telling me about this first class.  Takes me back to the first time I got to take a class related only to my major.  It was SWEET!  Of course, we are education crazy around here.  My MIL was an English teacher; my mother a School Psychologist; my aunt a college professor...we have been known to recognize the value of a good education.  And, if we can't, there are plenty of folks to point it out to us.  LOL  That's DoodleBug on the right.  She's dressed in her footed, sock monkey, Christmas jammies.  Yep, she's gonna make a great kindergarten teacher!

Had a reconnect with another friend from college.  My neighbor across the street had run into my friend from back in the day.  They started talking and, the next thing you know, they discover they both know me!  So, Friend-from-collegeS and I were able to get in a brief catch up this week and made plans to get together when she returns from a cruise!   Yay for chance encounters of the chatty kind! 

Julie, at The Going to be New Me asked me if I had tried the cycling on Wii Fit yet.  I told her I had not but that I would.  And I did.  And, before all was said and done, I had pedaled 2.7 miles on that darn thing because I can't follow the little map thingy that tells you where the #@$% flags are that you have to pass by in order to get the darn thing to stop.  Julie has also started a linky where you can sign up to walk 400 miles in 2011.  So Thursday, I take Tucker on our daily walk and, before the end of the second mile, I'm ready to curse someone out.  WTH is wrong with me?  Then, it hit me.  My legs were sore and tired from all that 'pedaling' on the Wii Fit.  I'm starting to not like Julie so much.  LOL  (I'm kidding, of course! Julie, I still LOVE YOU!).  Any hooo--get yourselves over to Julie's and WALK IT OFF!
 
Helen at A Crafty kind of Truffle has bestowed the Versitile Blogger Award on me!  Go visit Helen and share some love with her--you'll find interesting reading and some craft ideas that will inspire you to get all those pictures out and scrapbook them!

You know the drill over here.  When an award is bestowed upon me, it is bestowed upon YOU!  If you are visiting here today, I am bestowing this award on you!  I just can't pick and choose!  I'm one of those crazy people who truly read and enjoy the blogs I follow!  If you already have this award and would rather, just pass it on to someone you'd like to see have it.  There's no need to be shy here- it's YOURS!  The actual rules are that you pass it on to 15 recent bloggers you have discovered; thank the blogger who gave you the award; link to that blogger in your post; list 7 things about yourself.

Now, 7 things about me----that you don't already know....this is going to be hard...Hmmmm......
1. Ms Clairol is one of my best friends--Pecan, #18.  And I have no intention of ceasing the relationship. EVER.
2.  I am have just begun reading SHMIRSHKY by E.  You should check it out.  But be warned, you might hurt yourself from all the laughter.

3.  I analyze things way too much.
4.  When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a professional football (that's American football) player when I grew up.  A linebacker.  For the Dallas Cowboys.
5.  I really hate it when something breaks down...because I really hate being inconvenienced. 
6. When my brothers and I were in high school, Mother went back to finish her degree.  When I graduated with my MS, she graduated with her MA.
7. I still volunteer at the elementary school our girls attended.  Which just happens to be the same elementary school Hubs attended back in the way-day.

Patrice at Everyday Ruralty started a new Wednesday meme and I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT ON WEDNESDAY!  It's called Wednesday Words of Weight Loss.  Give Patrice a visit--always worth the time--and join her new meme every Wednesday.  I'm going to cheat this week and add my answers to the WWWL questions here, today.  And, memory serving correctly, I will do it right next week.  Sorry Patrice!

This week's questions:

1. Are you trying to lose weight, stay the same, or just eat healthier?

Apparently, I'm trying to gain weight.  Although what I need to do is LOSE weight.  I had lost 83 pounds but have worked very hard for quite a while now to gain some of that back--17 pounds of it to be exact.  Why?  Did I lose too much?  Uh, no.  I wasn't even close to being finished with the loss, I just fell back into bad habits.  I think I put only 17 back on because of walking the dog 3 miles every day.  If I hadn't been doing that---YIKES! (A post about the original weight loss attempt is here if you want to read about it).

2. Did you gain weight from Thanksgiving and/or Christmas?

Probably, but who knows?  I've been putting on for so long, I think it's safe to assume that every day, not just holidays, are included in the shrinkage of my clothes.

3. What is more tempting to you sweet or salty snacks?

SWEEET, SWEEET, SWEET, SWEET!!!!  Candy, cakes, pies, cookies, chocolate...ANYTHING SWEET!  I love me some sugar and I'm not talking about kissing (although that's nice too...LOL). 

4. What are you doing for exercise?

I am still walking Tucker every day--mostly we walk 3 miles but sometimes only 2.  And that blasted Wii Fit.

5. Please tell me something you can do this week to be nice to yourself.
Spend more time walking some trails looking for birds.  I love taking pictures of bird! Great way to spend the day! 

All in all it was a very nice week.  Low key and uneventful which I really like.  And so, here's to your weekend and the week to follow.  May they be even better than what you want them to be!

The Week in the Proverbial Nutshell, 2

Time to wrap up the week in a nutshell and link to Mrs. 4444s Friday Fragments and Java's Follow Friday 40 and Over:

Started un-decorating the house on Monday.  I had hoped to get started on Sunday but, everyone who was in from out of town didn't leave until late afternoon and evening.  Which is fine with me because, not only were we having an absolutely grand time, I was able to use their presence as an excuse NOT to start the depressing-overwhelming-I-don't-want-to-do-it task of un-decorating the house.  Now, it's Friday and I am still faced with completing said task.  There's just no escaping it.  Nor are the good fairies or little elves or any other little helpful creature coming to do it for me.  Only one tree is down. Darn it!

This is celebration week at our house every year.  January 4 is our oldest daughter's birthday; January 5 is our wedding anniversary; January 6 is my birthday.  Now, there would really be only two things to celebrate during this first week of January had our first precious not arrived 20 days early.  (Actually, all our daughters arrived on this planet early:  Breezy, 20 days; Deanie, 16 days; Birdie, 10 days; DoodleBug....well, she probably would have stayed in for another month--we did have to entice induce her out into the world.). Anyway, Breezy turned 26 on Tuesday; Hubs and I celebrated 27 years of marriage on Wednesday (we went to one of our favorite restaurants downtown Charleston and it was Yummy-licious!); and I celebrated my 45th birthday yesterday.  (I've been celebrating my 45th birthday for 8 years now...it's wonderful!).

This is the last week before classes resume for the spring semester (this will be Birdie's last semester, she graduates in May with TWO degrees--Athletic Training and Exercise Science--WooWhoo!) so our two youngest daughters, who attend college and live downtown, have been coming home to spend time with us.  We've played games (Banana Grams; Farkle; Wii sports), we've been shopping (I purchased some new little kitchen items which led to a rearranging of the cabinets in the kitchen which led to having to clean those cabinets first--well, the shopping part was fun anyway); we've been out to lunch; one day we just sat around and read books for an entire afternoon!  I've completely enjoyed having this time with them but not one single time did I think:  "HEY- here are your little helpers, let's get this house un-decorated!"

I participated (silently--and by silently I mean in my journal and not via blog) in a month long daily-prompt-writing thingy in December (Reverb 10) and I really loved it so I am now looking for something similar for January---anyone heard of anything?  Meanwhile, I am using Mama Kat's prompts at Mama's Losin' It!

I also bought myself a new bird feeder--one of those flat, hexagonal ones that can be used as a feeder or for water.  The birds really like it.  So do the squirrels.  Which means that Tucker likes it too.  He's been chasing squirrels all week.

Hub's side of the family has a tendency to be negative and blame any and all lack of accomplishments on bad luck which, inevitably leads to one huge, life-long pity party (it's ok to put this in here, Hubs is well aware that they do this, thank God he is not like this at all).  Deanie, our daughter who moved all the way up to DC several months ago was beginning to take on this negativity.  Finally, when I simply COULD NOT STAND TO HEAR IT another minute, I told her in that nice, nurturing mommy's-here-for-you, caring, compassionate voice (right...I was the drill sergeant in that Geico commercial) that if she didn't start sending out positive vibes all she was ever going to get in return were more negative results and then she would end up just like L and W!  She worked on changing her attitude immediately (she's not used to getting yelled at) and has had a change of 'luck' already.  She has been looking for a new place to live (it's difficult up there when you have a 100 pound chocolate lab) and decided that she was going to find a place.  She and the roommate did find one and it was between them and one other girl.  This is Deanie's second week of her second job (bartending) and when she was filling out paperwork she told the boss that she was unsure of the address because she was moving next week.
Boss:  Where are you moving?
Deanie:  she told him the location and explained that they hadn't gotten word for certain but that she       was trying this new thing where, if she wants something, she believes that she will get it...
Boss:  Wow, that's a really nice location.  I have a friend who owns property there. 
Deanie:  Oh really, where?
Boss:  On the corner.
Deanie:  No Way!  What's his name.
OK, so you see where this went.  Boss's friend is the guy who owns the properties that Deanie is hoping to rent and Boss just happened to be having a meeting with his friend the next day...Amazing what a positive attitude will do for you! She understands that this is not like having a genie pop out of a bottle and grant wishes.  Hard work and determination are still necessary to make things happen.  HOLD THE PHONE!  WAIT A MINUTE! LIGHT BULB OVER THE HEAD!  IF I believe the fairies are coming to un-decorate the house....LOL  Seriously, our two college lovelies have just offered to come help tomorrow.  What did I say about a positive attitude????!!!


Picked up the new contacts this week.  That crazy eye doctor was all like, oh there are so many wonderful options out there now for dry, allergy eyes and if they're fitted right you won't have any trouble, blah, blah, blah...Well, he was right.  I completely forgot they were in yesterday and enjoying seeing the world without those frustrating glasses! 

Ate Chik-Fil-A waffle fries for lunch on my birthday!  OMG I could eat those every day of the week and NEVER get tired of them! 

Finally, Carol at Facing 50 with Humour is hosting a new weekly feature where she features a different blogger every week on her blog and--I'M THE FIRST ONE!  How exciting!!!  Carol and I have discovered that we have an almost twin-like connection in the many similar coincidences we have encountered.  Really, I'm NOT kidding, it's almost eerie!   And seriously, if you haven't already discovered her blog, then you are missing out on some of the best humor you've ever read!  Please go over and give yourself a laughter filled uplift for the day and share some love with Carol!