Random Stuff

I'm always shocked when I go to my blog and see I haven't posted in almost a week.  Mea Culpa.  I get busy and forget.  It's weird how life is so full right now, but I'm loving it.

Let's see.  I went to the new eye doctor, got a totally new prescription, and picked up the glasses yesterday. And I can see.  Without blinding headaches.  So, old eye doctor who insisted the prescription was right and it wasn't your fault I couldn't see, you were wrong.  It was your fault.  Pffffft.

Libby had to have surgery to have a tumor and her other anal gland removed.  She's recovering nicely.  She has to wear the e-collar, which makes her unhappy, but there's no choice.

All the roses I planted - both last year and this year - are blooming and my house looks so pretty.

And today I should finish the AA's for The Colton story.  Once they're gone, I need to dig back into the revisions for All or Nothing.

I'm still exercising every single day (except weekends).  I'm on week four of the program I'm doing.  So far, I haven't had a dramatic weight loss, so obviously I'm still eating too much.  I need to go back to writing down calories. Sigh.

And that's it for now.  We've had beautiful weather, but we need more rain.  Especially at the lake.

Midweek

We've had a fair bit of rain, and the flowers I planted are doing great.  Here's my newest rose bush.

And the gardenias and impatiens.

That brings me happiness.

Yesterday, I went to a new eye doctor and had a new exam.  He disagreed with my prescription (duh, since I couldn't see) and said I don't need prisms.  He was very thorough and I liked him.  I took the new script to Visionworks and fingers crossed this time (fifth remake) I will be able to see.

Today I took my sweet girl Liberty Belle to the vet.  You may remember she had anal gland surgery in December of last year and had a mass removed.  Now she has another mass and is scheduled to have the anal glad removed as well.  Tomorrow.  Prayers for her, as I am very worried.  I love my sweet brindle boxer girl.  And she's only two years old.

That surgery was a bugger last time and the recovery worse.  I am so worried for her.  I love her so much.

Week Three

Easter was yesterday and we had a small, but relaxed family dinner.  Just Lonnie and my dad and my daughter Stephanie.  And me, of course.

We had spiral sliced ham.

photo credit: pulaw via photopin

And I made Pioneer Woman's recipe for deviled eggs and also for roasted asparagus.  Her stuff is always, always, always delicious.  

I also made a cheesy hash brown casserole.  And we had Hawaiian rolls.

And we finished it off with a delicious homemade caramel, apple cheesecake.  It turned out wonderful.  I sent some ham and some cheesecake home with my father, but we still have a bit of leftovers.  Yum.

And then today I went to the gym to begin week three of the six week workout.  I increase the weight each week, so I can challenge my muscles every time.

I'm pretty proud of myself.  I can do it.  Yes.  I will look good and feel good when I go on that cruise later this year.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you about my spa day last Thursday.  It was wonderful.  Amazing.  First, I had a hot stone massage.  Ahhhhh.  Then I had a body wrap.  That was... weird.  Like they slather on some stuff and then wrap you up in cellophane.  And then I had a facial, which was wonderful.  After, I purchased a shoulder wrap thing that you can heal in the microwave and use to take tension from tight shoulders.  Which mine always are since I spend so much time hunched over the computer.

In writing news, today I also begin pretty extensive revision for All or Nothing, my Harlequin Romantic Suspense which is scheduled for Jan 2015.  

So there you have it.  My week begins

Friday Free Day

When my daughter was in First or Second grade, every Friday they'd have Friday Free Day.  Each kid would get to bring his or her favorite toy to school and play with it at recess.  We were poor (I was a single mom at the time) and I'd write her name on everything in black magic marker and instruct her not to lose it.   I didn't tell her the real reason was because I couldn't afford to replace it if she did.

Years later, she told me I made her paranoid, thinking someone was going to steal her toys.  Ah well, best intentions and all.

Today marks the end of two solid weeks of working out every single day (Monday through Friday, and with Roses for Rescue last Saturday, I'd say Saturday too.)  The scale didn't want to move at first and the end of week one had me UP two pounds!  I've been diligently following the workouts and using Wednesday for cardio, and finally at the end of this week, the two extra pounds came off, as well as two more.

It's funny because I go to the gym at the same time every day.  There's this woman who could be a fitness model - she's so toned and strong.  I watch her workout with awe - she does lunges carrying forty pound over her shoulders.  She is my model for what I'd like to look like, and I am well aware of how hard she has had to work to get there.  And work to maintain.

On the other side, one of the trainers was training this woman who kept complaining.  This is too hard, she whined.  I need less weight.  And then one of her friends showed up and she talked instead of working out. Apparently, she once used to be very fit, because she kept talking about the workouts she used to do.  And she was young too - maybe in her mid-twenties.

It's like the way I've been on the writing front.  I think I just needed a break.  I did the revisions on the Colton book, piddled around with the new Nocturne, but wrote very little.  And yesterday the revisions came on All or Nothing.  I haven't started them yet.  I'll start Monday.

It's Good Friday.  Good enough of an excuse to take the day off.

Mid-Week Mindlessness

I've continued to go to the gym and I'm finally down two pounds.  Yay!

And yesterday, I planted all the flowers I'd purchased at Roses for Rescue.  One beautiful yellow tree rose, two gorgeous geraniums, and two beautiful impatiens.

Then, because I was already dirty, I went over my dad's house and planted all his plants too.  He bought ten.
It looked beautiful by the time I finished.

And then I limped on home, completely sore and exhausted.  I was so sore that I didn't sleep well at all last night.  And yet, this morning, I dragged myself to the gym for cardio.  Yep, I'm proud of myself.

I can't do treadmill since my tendon is acting up, but I did my cardio on the recumbent bike and some elliptical.

Now I'm home and should be getting back to writing!  Pssst - tomorrow is my spa afternoon!

Winter's Last Stand

Well, I made it to the gym five days last week.  I was sore, but ready to work on Saturday morning when I showed up at 7 am to unload roses for Legacy Boxer Rescue's Roses for Rescue event.  This is one of our biggest fundraisers each year.  Two of our volunteers who own Roses USA donate the flowers and bring them in from Tyler.

At 7 am, the semi rolled into the lot and also a box truck.  Volunteers were ready.  They offloaded the pallets, we undid the shrink wrap and began the set up.

It was a nice day, mostly cloudy, in the 70's and later 80's.  Perfect weather, except for the unrelenting wind.

We also ran a garage sale at the same time.

I baked 3 dozen muffins and took them for volunteers to eat for breakfast.  Racetrack arrived with free coffee.

And we worked.  There were tons of flowers.  I grabbed the ones I wanted to purchase and loaded them in my car.  And paid.  Many other people did the same.

Here is part of it, all set up.   Multiply this times 3 and you have an idea of how many flowers we had.

And the customers arrived.  They came in droves.  We wrote their tickets, loaded up wagons and carts, and toted their flowers to their cars.  I had Lonnie bring me a cap as the wind was crazy.  I was glad I'd put on SPF50 sunscreen.

At 11:30, the volunteers who'd camped overnight began grilling burgers and hot dogs.  Others had brought salads - pasta, potato, Chinese noodle, and deviled eggs.  Buns and condiments and everything.

I was starving.  My friend Denice had brought some turkey burgers so we ate those.

By 1 pm, I was exhausted.  Grimy and sweaty, and I hadn't thought about my pulled tendon until this day. My ankle was all swollen and I could barely walk.  Ack.  I'm actually wearing my brace today.  And yes, I did go back to the gym.

Here are some picture collages others took of the events - I got these from Facebook, off Legacy Boxer Rescue's page.

There we lots of dogs in attendance.  And we raised $27,521 for Boxers in need!

An awesome day.  Even if I was way too tired to even plant my flowers on Sunday.

And today old man Winter decided he needed one last hurrah before Spring.  Yesterday it was 80.  This morning it was 44 when I woke up.  It's blustery and overcast and chilly.  Tonight there is a freeze/frost warning, so I'm glad I didn't plant.  I put my flowers in the greenhouse until after the possible freeze.

Sore

One word sums up how I feel this morning.  Sore.  My poor body is shocked that I'm working out again.  My legs hurt, my abs hurt, and my arms hurt - which is sad since the upper body workout is tomorrow.

Monday, I worked Core.  Tuesday, lower body.  Today - Wednesday - I just did cardio, 10 minutes on the elliptical and 20 on the treadmill, occasional jogging, mostly walking on an incline.

Tomorrow is upper body, Friday is core again.  And Saturday is Roses for Rescue, in which I will be working.  I'll be there at 7 am to help unload the plants from the trucks.  They come in huge pallets and a forklift takes them out of the truck and puts them on the ground.  Someone removes the shrink wrap and then we volunteers carry them to where they need to go.  Gardening gloves come in handy.  So does sunblock and Chap-stick and water.

So by Sunday, I will have worked out 6 days this week.  Surprisingly, I don't mind it as much as I thought. My trick is, get up, eat a Greek Yogurt (low sugar too), and go.  Before I do anything else.  I'm usually there before 8.  That way, it's over and done with and I can devote the rest of the day to writing and foster committee stuff for Legacy.

I'm working on revisions right now.  For the first time in this book, I came across a change request that I didn't like.  It was more of a suggestion, but it stopped me cold.  I decided to think about it and move on.  I made a note of where it was so I could go back.

During all of this time, I've been doing battle with my eyes.  It's difficult to see and read and work, which makes life... interesting.  I went to my eye doctor on Feb 24 (yes, nearly 2 months ago).  She gave me a prescription, told me if it didn't help, I'd need prisms.  (I looked up prisms in eyeglasses and wow.)  So the new prescription didn't make anything better, I called her, she prescribed these prisms.  It takes 10 days to get my glasses back since Visionworks has to send them out.  I get the prisms, still can't read.  I can see everything great, but can't read.  I go back to the eye doctor, they say the glasses are made wrong, go back to Visionworks, who says no, they're made correctly.  Back to the eye doctor, who says Ooops, I might have made a mistake on your astigmatism in your right eye.  Back to Visionworks, eyeglasses remade.  And I still can't read.  Now the right eye is great, but I can't see out of the left. It's all blurry.  And I can only read if the book is held at arms length.  Back to the eye doctor, who reruns the eye exam and concludes the prescription is correct.  Sorry, she says to me.  If you can't see, it's not my fault.

What?  Oh, your eyeglasses must be made wrong.  I ask if I really need these prisms.  After all, I'm 52 and have never had them.  She insists I do.  She has someone look over the glasses who says the left eye is made wrong - the prism is wrong.  Too bad I didn't get my glasses made by them, she says.  (At 5 times the price). I go back to Visionworks (who have been wonderful through all this) and they recheck again and say the glasses are made properly.

So here I am.  I can't see.  It's not the eye doctor's fault (according to her).  It's not Visionworks' fault (according to them.)  Therefore, it must be my fault?  What?  So I'm having the glasses made to the prescription without the prism.  If I still can't see, then I have no choice but to go find another eye doctor and have an exam done.  And Visionworks said they will remake the glaasses.

I've worn glasses since I was 18 months old.  I have never had this happen.  I consider myself lucky.

Back to work, sore body and crappy eyesight, and all.

Day 2

Wow, am I out of shape.  I used to put the resistance on the elliptical machine at 12-13 and do it easily for 30 minutes, barely breaking a sweat.  Now, I put it on 5-6 and 10 minutes in, I'm huffing like nobody's business.  And perspiring.

Today was my second workout.  It was a lower-body workout (yesterday was Core.)  And lunges - whoa, nellie.  I used to do the length of the gym carrying 12 pound weights, and back.  No weights, length of the gym once, and I thought I'd die.  One of the trainers, the only one left from before the gym was sold to a new owner, recognized me and said hello.  He also corrected my form on the lunges, told me to go slower and put my hands on my hips.  I was very grateful for that.

Squats - I actually had to use the exercise ball to brace my back against the wall.  Like a total newbie. Which, I guess I am.  I'm starting all over, and all the hard work I blew off by slacking, is gone in the wind.

My fault.  I need to make sure it never happens again.  My new job - getting my body back in shape.

What's funny is I'm sore from the workout yesterday.  And the old me would consider it lightweight.  Planks - I used to be able to hold one for 2 minutes.  Now, barely 15 seconds.  Sad, sad, sad.

But I'm glad I went back.  And my body is too.

Ordinary Life

I've been so bad about blogging.  I turned in my book on time, and then got a hair cut, went to the dentist, did a Home Visit for Legacy Boxer Rescue, and messed around with my next book, which I intend to start writing today.  (YAY!)

Also, I finally, finally went back to the gym.  My membership was kept up and never expired, so all I had to do was show up.  That's half the battle, right?

I started going to this gym in 2009.  My husband gave me 30 days of personal training for my birthday that year.  I bought more after that, and lost 20 pounds.  I was in great shape too, with definition and everything.

Lots of things happened after two years of working out.  I hurt my tendon, had to do physical therapy.  My mom was sick.  And I got lazy.  I came to believe I hated the gym, hated working out, hated sweating.

So I stopped.  Not sure when exactly.  Maybe late 2012, Maybe 2013.  I know I haven't been in a year, at least.  And I've gained almost all the weight back.

Yuck.

So today, I went back.  I bought this book.  It has a bunch of six week workouts, targeting core, lower body, and upper body.  I will do them five days a week,  do only cardio one day, and take one day off.  I made a notebook to bring with me and record reps and weight.  After I finish the first six weeks, I move into the next, and then the third.  It's like having a personal trainer.  Sort of.

I had read another book that said one should pretend working out is their second, part time job.  Set a time everyday and simply show up.  Like you would at a job.  Even if you didn't feel like it, because we have to go to work even if we don't want to.  That works for me.

So I've changed up my routine a little bit.  I will be going every morning now.  No choice.  It's my new job. I'm going to get back in shape, lose the weight, and improve my muscle tone.

I bet I'll be a lot happier too.