Month: July 2013

I haven’t been mowing any of the yards for several weeks now, because of the extremely dry weather – no grass was growing, basically. But after the rain over the weekend, it was time to mow today. I’d kind of forgotten how much I enjoy mowing, especially out in the country on the riding mower. And such a beautiful day to do it.

I’m also remembering how much I love shingling as we’ve been working on the 117 roof the past several days and doing the shingling itself last night and, hopefully, tonight.

Dad and I agreed on a challenge. It was actually my idea, but he came up with the prize of $300 for the winner. I am trying to lose my 31 pounds before he finishes the house in New Auburn and gets it on the market to rent. What is really good about this is that, while we are both being challenged to do something that has proven difficult to keep at in the past, they are also things that the other person will appreciate when it is all over, i.e. Dad will appreciate me being thinner and I’ll appreciate the house being done. So we certainly don’t want to sabotage the other person’s progress, because we want him/her to be successful, just not quite as soon as we are successful! Wouldn’t it be cool if we tied….?

First, I decided to run over to the bank with our new treasurer (Augie) and get the signature cards changed. I’d been in last week and asked if I couldn’t just take the card with me and have him sign it and bring it back. Couldn’t do that – had to go in with him. So he was in today and we went over, thinking it would take about 5 minutes. 20 minutes later I said I was getting to be quite late for delivering meals, so she said I could go and she would finish up with him and I could come back later with my drivers’ license. I delivered the meals and went back and Augie was still there! It must have taken over an hour and we still aren’t finished, because now they need all this documentation to prove we are really incorporated and we are really non-profit and we really elected Augie treasurer and that Carole is no long treasurer. Crazy! And time consuming!

So, when I got back to the Center, I was already late for lunch and as I headed out of the building to go home, there was someone who had fallen. By the time we called 911 and convinced him to go with the paramedics to the emergency room (which took a LONG time), it was 12:50. I agreed to drive my co-worker back after she dropped his car off at his home when I realized it was only 8 minutes until my dentist appointment. I made it on time, but without any lunch. And I had to go back afterwards to do the paperwork on the fall.  And tomorrow I have to gather all that other paperwork for the bank.

Ah, life was simple when I was just a mom. (Just kidding, moms!)

We are finally back to working on the house in New Auburn. We were down for a couple hours on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings and about 8 hours yesterday. Our project this week has been the repair of the roof on the back. It was a problem you couldn’t really see, but there were significant leaks. When Dad got the roofing off and we saw the mess, we we amazed we didn’t have more leaking. They had never actually attached the addition to the house.  It was built about 6 inches away and then the tar paper and shingles just covered the space. Not a good idea. So we had a lot of actual construction to do before the roofing could begin. And we had the hole from the chimney to patch. And the overhang was totally rotted, so we had to remove all that and shorten it up by 6 inches on all layers. Lots of putsy work. But all that is left now is the actual shingling and that shouldn’t take but an evening or two. Then we can start inside again!

We are going to finish it and rent it, rather than sell it. It is going to be so nice when it is finished and I don’t want to miss that part of the whole project by selling it half-done.

I’m on a crash diet, which is the absolutely worst way to lose weight, and I don’t recommend it for anyone, but…. I am 6 1/2 pounds lighter than I was Monday morning. Of course, my weight was up a couple pounds Monday morning, but it was still down 5 1/2 pounds from where I started the year, making me now down 12 pounds.

This is the story. Way back last fall, I think, I decided to go off my simvistatin (for high cholesterol) and see how I felt. The difference was amazing. I felt way stronger and could work out lots better. So I decided I would not go back on it, but rather just lose the weight, which I know will bring my cholesterol down. (The simvistatin is just the “lazy” way to control my cholesterol.)

Fast forward to this week. I’m almost out of meds and out of refills, so I have to get in to see my doctor to get my prescriptions refilled (not simvistatin, of course, but the other two for my feet and my stomach). But my weight is way higher than I wanted it to be when I saw her again.

So I called and made my appointment and the earliest I could get in was in 30 days. So, I thought to myself, “I can lose a lot of weight in 30 days. ”  Besides, I figure that I can’t do myself a lot of harm in just 30 days of insufficient food.

It isn’t like I’m not eating. Every morning I have something before I exercise – either a shake or a bar with a special complex that keeps my muscles from tiring and supposedly helps you burn fat and not muscle. And I have a glucose control shake for lunch – actually a serving and a half, because it is only 110 calories a serving. For a.m. snack, I’ve been eating watermelon. In the afternoon for snack, I have a green smoothie (almond milk, spinach, peanut butter, frozen bananas and frozen blueberries), then I have a reasonable supper, like chicken or fish and lots of vegetables. Before bed, I have a bowl of oatmeal with some nuts or something mixed in.  So it isn’t a lot of calories/points, and it is sure working. I also have been taking a fiber drink a couple times a day. I can only take 1/4 serving mixed with the full serving amount of water at a time, or it is too hard for me to swallow (weird, I know).  I also exercise a lot. I’ve started doing my tai chi most afternoons and tae bo the two days that I do the tai chi class in the a.m., in addition to all my regular classes and work outs.

I feel great. But it has only been 4 1/2 days. I’ll keep you all posted. Like I said, not the healthiest way to lose, but I really need to lose as much as possible before my appointment, which just happens to be early in the morning of the day we leave to see you all.

So now you are all expecting to see me looking nice and slim, so I really have to stick with it!

I see it has been a while since I posted.

We are past the halfway point with the show. Only 4 more performances. Only 4 more nights of driving home at 10:15 and getting to bed close to 11:00. I’m starting to get sleepy in the evenings, but only 4 more nights. I can do this!

Chloe comes to visit for a few days today! Dad and I are both taking off work tomorrow and we are going to the Barron County Fair. It has been quite a while since we’ve been to it. It is going to be really hot yet , but we’ll just take our time and wear lots of sunscreen.

Speaking of heat. Ugh… It was a lot hotter here than Bluffton, yesterday. But it won’t last much longer. They are predicting highs in the upper 70s on Saturday.

“Annie” opens tomorrow, so tonight is the dress rehearsal, but it has been opened up for family members, so I imagine we’ll have an audience. It will be fun to hear people laughing at the funny parts that we have heard so many times that we forget they are funny. The pit band was actually all there last night, for the only time before the show opens. Both the bass and the regular trumpet player will be gone today, but we will have a substitute trumpet player, who will be playing 3 of the nights, I think. Then we have two clarinet players, one for 4 and the other for 6 nights, I believe. The bass player has to miss one performance – she has a college class on Tuesdays, and absolutely can’t miss that. No sub for that.

What this all means to me is that I have to be ready to catch the parts of whatever instrument is missing or is new that night, in case they get lost or simply can’t or don’t play their part. Adds a lot of stress to my performance, since I already have my own part to play. And for all that extra work, I get paid… well, the same as everyone else.

I’m feeling glad that this is my last show at the Barn. I don’t think I’ll miss it at all. But I’m trying very hard to have a good attitude about it when I’m there. I find that it is all a matter of what I’m concentrating on – if I concentrate on the good, I’m happy. If I concentrate on the frustration, I’m not. My choice, really. And it will all be done in less than two weeks.

No work today! And what a beautiful day it is. Dad is having the brat feed at The Garage, so he is over there already. He didn’t need my help, so I am more-or-less on my own today. Had a good workout to start the day and I plan to do some gardening and painting and such. And watch the band go by in the parade. The rest is pretty boring… Speaking of the parade – people actually were putting their chairs out along the street over 24 hours before the parade. On my walk today, I decided to count chairs already put up by 7:00 a.m. and there were 305 on just one side of the street just from the clinic by our house and going north. So there must be at least 1500 chairs preset along the entire route. Which means there will probably be over 4,000 people watching the parade, because people are at least two or three layers deep along the entire route. Pretty amazing!