Month: September 2013

Part of the Appalachian Trail.

As you can see, we had beautiful weather on our sightseeing day up into the Smoky Mountains National Park! It rained the day we were at Dollywood, though.

And exhausted. I don’t think I’ll do two buses again without Dad along to help. It is so hard to make decisions about where to stop along the way when you are talking about 95 people descending on a bathroom or group of restaurants. In Wisconsin, rest areas are disappearing and not being replaced (and I have an old atlas), so often the plans had to be changed at the last minute.

I didn’t take very many pictures, since it was a show trip and most of you are familiar with the area (having just been there!). All in all I had fun, but am certainly glad I don’t have to do that for at least a year!

The whole gang is settled into our hotel in Pigeon Forge now. We had a couple of beautiful days of driving and made it here with no problems. Yesterday was a long day, leaving at 8:00 a.m. and arriving at our hotel ahead of schedule at about 9:00. Today we didn’t have to leave until 9:00 and arrived almost on time at our restaurant for a great dinner. We had to phone in our choices yesterday – either grilled chicken, grilled meatloaf, or Santa Fe tilapia, which I went with. It was unbelieveably good! We were late to dinner because we got stopped by a traffic jam where a car had caught on fire along the expressway. By the time we went past, there was nothing but a burned-out shell. Awful. Can’t imagine what would cause a car to catch fire like that.

Tomorrow starts the sightseeing and shows!!

Yes, the long-awaited “two bus” trip is tomorrow. I have everything washed and packed and am completely ready to go other than packing my cosmetic bag and meds in the morning. My outfit is even ironed and laying there ready to put on. I plan to be at work at 7:00 a.m. Some people will probably beat me there, even though we don’t leave until 8:00.

We couldn’t find our “Next Exit” book and I’ve been going crazy trying to find it. Finally, as a last ditch effort I thought to look in the car. Who’d have thought? Anyway, there it was, right with the atlas, which is probably the most logical place. So I used it to plan places to eat. I also went on Google maps and zoomed in really close to see how close together the places named in “Next Exit” actually were. Amazing what you can do with the internet.

A couple had to cancel out yesterday and I never did find a replacement, so I’m going to put the opportunity out there for anyone from the trip who cares about them to contribute something toward their lost money (which was $1238). Everyone is getting $10 back from me, so I’m hoping a really lot of them will toss that $10 in. Even if only 75% do, that would be $750. I’d like to be able to refund them about $1000, but the travel account can only do about $250. Plus I’d rather not start refunding money because then we’d have to do it for everyone who has to cancel at the last minute. But I feel particularly bad because I told them we had a waiting list, which we did, and should be able to easily find someone, which it turns out we weren’t.  Unfortunately most of the people that were on the list didn’t leave the week free, just in case. Next year I’ll keep in contact with those on the list, reminding at least the top people to keep the week free if at all possible!

Tomorrow we drive through to Indianapolis. Then on to Pigeon Forge on Monday. We start home on Friday, staying overnight in the same place we are staying on the way down. We should make it home Saturday just past the supper hour.

I’ll have pictures!

Nothing back from the job Dad applied for, but when he goes to his conference next week (which is why he can’t go on the trip with me), there will be occupational health nurses from Minnesota there, too (it is a combined Wisconsin/Minnesota conference), so he may get some leads from them. Time will tell.  Thanks for your prayers.

Well, Dad sent his resume to the hospital in Shakopee last night, for the job they have that he would love to get. If this job doesn’t work out, he’ll look for another, but for now, this is so perfect that it is all he’s really considered. It would be perfect because it would use all he has learned both in nursing and administration to solve problems, which is what he really enjoys. That and teaching people how to work smarter.

So, pray for us. It is an exciting and nerve-wracking time. I really thought he would have the job he has now until he retires, but I can tell he is really, really tired of giving flu shots and reworking paperwork forms. Ugh!

A week from tomorrow I head out with 92 other people to the Smoky Mountains. I’ve already started packing my suitcase and I’ve decided what I’m going to eat for breakfast and lunch and snacks every day so I don’t gain any weight. (We’ll see how it goes!) I’m nervous/excited, which is about normal for this time every year. I know that I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the 7 days, but before we leave I always waste a lot of energy worrying about things that may never happen – that will most likely never happen. We had the pre-trip meeting on Tuesday and really a lot of people turned out for that. It looks like a really fun group,  as usual. But big. Really, really big.

In other news, Dad and I are seriously thinking of moving to Shakopee. It was just a lark when we first said it, but it got us to thinking. Closer to grandkids. Better job opportunities. And probably most importantly a chance to gracefully transition out of all the things we are involved in that we are ready to be done with – The Garage (me, not Dad, as far as being ready…), accompanying for the Red Barn, playing at Faith Lutheran, the senior center. Even with the school accompanying, there will have to be a time when I stop and it will be a lot easier if I stop when I am still really good, because I’m moving, rather than keep playing until  my skill is declining, simply because everyone assumes I’ll be the one to do the accompanying. What I’m saying, I guess, is that it may be time to pass the torch.

We are really seeking God’s direction, but feel that He doesn’t put random ideas like that into our heads for no reason.

So, anyway, we’ve been crunching the budgets, looking at job opportunities (there is actually a perfect one for Dad right at the hospital in Shakopee), and looking at houses. I’m going to have to let my “no split levels” condition go. The best ones even close to our price range are split levels. Then there is the debated between the fixer-upper that will cost a lot more in time and supplies vs. the ready to go home that is a bit more expensive. Well, a lot more expensive. But really nice. The one I’m leaning to has its back yard touching the grounds of the Shakopee Community Center grounds. But the price is pretty scary – $184,000. Dad would have to get a higher paying job, that is for sure. But it is possible, right? (see it at http://www.edinarealty.com/homes-for-sale/MN/Shakopee/55379/305-Columbine-Lane-93265169 )

Anyway, we’ll keep you posted. It may come to naught. Or it may be our future. Only God knows.

I had a visit with a nutritionist Tuesday (my birthday gift to myself). She loaned me a book to read and I would highly recommend it to each of you, as I know you all struggle with unwanted weight gain. It is called Mindless Eating and it is by Brian Wansink, PhD. It is available in paperback. The subtitle is “Why we eat more than we think.”

He raises a lot of good points and the book is filled with research he has done. He has a great sense of humor, so it is quite easy and compelling reading. It was fun to find out why we eat what we do, when we do, and as much as we do. Some of the research has been published elsewhere, mostly in health magazines, so it wasn’t all new to me. But what helped was the way it was organized with suggestions at the end of each chapter as to what to do about what the research has shown. It is one thing to know about the forces that are affecting us and another thing to know what to do about it.

His biggest take-away was that we won’t be able to sustain huge changes, so it is pointless to even make them. We need to make many small, almost unnoticeable changes. He suggests making 3 changes and putting them on a chart with the days for a month, then checking off each evening which change(s) you succeeded in making that day. After a month of being even partially successful, just these three changes should have helped you avoid a good number of calories. If you’ve found that you were almost always checking one off, you can replace that one with a different one next month. But you aren’t expected to be working on more than three things at a time. And they are three pretty little things.

Anyway, I’d highly recommend reading this book and giving his suggestions a try.

These are the three things I’m trying to do:

1) Get my CLA from a capsule rather than a sports bar (saves me about 100 calories each time.) CLA is what I take for workout endurance.

2) Fill my dinner plate at the counter and not go back for refills. (Could save me several hundred calories each day, depending on how much I like the main dish!)

3) When eating out only have 4 bites of bread and 4 bites of dessert – notice I didn’t eliminate either, but just cut the portion. (Could literally save me hundreds of calories when eating out on my trip)

And, while I have the pictures out, some of my favorites from my camera from our trip:

Sorry I didn’t get everyone, but I didn’t get good pictures of everyone, unfortunately.