Day three

Day three of the new job and both me and Baby are down with a bad cold. :(

What a FUN kid she is! We've already had a few adventures. I'm really enjoying this job.

This morning, the older brother, Bryce, stayed home from school with a fever. He's got it, too.

He was in the office with his dad when I heard Eric (the dad) saying "There's a deer in our yard!!"

I grabbed my camera and...

Sure enough!



It's Mama was in the yard across the street. That's the best my little point and shoot could do through the window.

Quick blog

Haven't updated in a bit... so will do a quick one before heading to work.

Ah, work. At this point it should be called "Play". I get to play with a 6 month old girl practically all day. And what an EASY kid she is! She is happy to sit and play for 30 minutes at a time!

The only thing she does NOT like is tummy time. Her and I are going to go rounds with that. The Dad is glad I'm going to have her do tummy time. I guess she wasn't getting it at the day care they had her in.

I know for sure I have (at least) two hummers that visit my feeder, one male and one female. The dark headed one is male. He has a little flash of red on his throat, but it's not visible in this photo. The lighting wasn't wonderful and the flash on the camera kept scaring him away. The female, on the other hand... seemed to LOVE the flash and would almost pose for the camera.



Alright! Off to PLAY!

Spring?

Crocus

Rose


Tulip


Daffodils




Hyacinth

Warning!!!

I'm going to get on my soap box for a bit.

If you don't like soap box posts, then you might want to skip this one.


I go to Planned Parenthood to get my birth control pills. They're cheaper and I can buy several packs at a time, which allows me to continuous cycle. The cramps have gotten to be debilitating enough to warrant continuous cycling, but my prescription plan will only allow me one pack a month... uhhhmmm... yeah. The math just doesn't work that way.

At any rate, whenever I go, there's usually people out at the opening of the parking lot. Today was no different:


Honestly, I just wanted to go up and slap them. And then ask them, "Who are YOU to take away MY right to choose?"

I also wanted to add, "Instead of sitting here on your asses, why don't you go inside, pick a scared girl and try to help her through this, try to somehow make her life better instead of telling her how lousy she would be for choosing to end a pregnancy that will change her life, potentially for the worse! You want her to keep the baby? FINE! Help her with schooling! Help her get a job to earn money to raise this baby. Be a MENTOR if she chooses to adopt it out! But don't sit here on your asses and tell me how to run my life."

Now, I don't condone using abortion as a means of birth control. If you don't want a kid, do something about it BEFORE hand.

But if a girl comes in, pregnant of no fault of her own (rape, incest... sadly, it DOES happen), then yes, the option should be there.

Or if the pregnancy were to somehow harm the mother or put her life in danger. Then yes, let her have that choice.

Just don't take the choice away from all of us.

What dreary weather...

This Seasonal Affective Disorder is kicking my hiney today. Even exercising under the sun lamps didn't help. I was so excited to see a mostly clear sky this morning, but the next time I looked out, it was over cast and dark.

Here's what I did yesterday on the treadmill. Yesterday was a good day, despite it being over cast and rainy. I got a LOT done.


Here is today's feeble effort. I figure, hey, at least I did SOMETHING.


And on the nail biting front... I'm getting there.


My left pinky has taken quite the hit. The nail ripped so I had to trim it short. Then I sliced the tip of it open with one of my new kitchen knives.
Well, now I know for sure they're sharp!


In other news, the Geo is officially dead. The timing belt broke. It would cost between $800 to $1,000 to fix it. So.... no more Geo.
RIP Blue
1992-2009

Yay!!

I start my new job on Monday the 25th. I've been looking around the east side of town to see what there is to do with a 6 month old. Not a whole lot. Hoping her mom doesn't mind if I take her a bit further west for a bit of fun. :)

I did 45 minutes on the treadmill. Got a pic of it, but haven't uploaded it as yet. Will do that tomorrow. It's almost time for bed.

Found a lovely little website, thanks to Merilee.
http://www.mypyramid.gov/index.html
If you click on Meal Planner (on the left), input your information, it will take you to another page where it tells you how much of each food group you should eat. You can then input the foods you've eaten and it will fill up the chart and show you how much you've eaten and how much you have left. It will also count calories and fat for you. :) I'm very visual in this respect, so this has been extremely helpful.

Alright, bedtime. I hope to catch a picture of the male hummer that's been visiting my feeder. He's FAST, that one is!

Driving to Tri-Cities and back in one day is for someone MUCH younger than me.
I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon.
This is the reason we went over. We have inherited a small pickup.
A '91 Ford Ranger XLT.

We've actually been thinking about trading the Geo in for a truck. While we love, love, LOVE the Geo, it just doesn't haul that much. It's been a great little car, though! As soon as Mechanic Dave gets it up and running, we'll be selling it.

BUSY DAY!

I went swimming today! Felt like I needed some exercise that wouldn't batter the body quite so hard. But let me tell you!! When you try to swim UPSTREAM in the river rapid section... WOW!
Let's just say that now my shoulders are sore.


Martin and I just took our poor sick Geo in to the mechanic. Not sure what's wrong with it, but want to get it up and running so we can see about selling it.
We've inherited a small pickup truck from his Dad and it will be far more useful than the Geo. It was (and still is) a great little car for kicking around town. Kelsie isn't interested in driving it because it's a manual. As luck would have it, the "new" truck is an automatic.
Now I just need to get her to study and take the test to get her permit!
Wish me luck.


On the job front:
I was offered the job I interviewed for on Sunday.
I've accepted it.
YEEEE HAW!!!

Back to changing diapers and mixing bottles, baby food and messes...
BUT
also back to doing fun projects, play dates, outings, and watching a small child learn the wonders of the world.

It could be worse...

but I'm glad it's not. :)
By "worse", I mean I could have this job:




I suppose if I really, truly, absolutely needed SOME sort of job, I would be thankful for it. But I'm glad it's not gotten to that point yet.

Went to a resume writing workshop at Worksource today. Usually their workshops are dull and dry, but I actually got something out of this one: I got one on one help! I've found that it's extremely difficult to get help at Worksource unless you're the squeeky wheel type.
I'm not.
Not usually.
This time I just got lucky.

After the workshop, I found a spot to sit and each lunch, then got out and wandered a bit, playing with my new camera. What a creepy looking tree. I may go back after it's leafed out and get another shot.



A couple friends of mine are doing the Couch to 5K program.
The first day of the program calls for alternating 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking. Riiiiight... being asthmatic, I know that this will be close to impossible. Sooo...
I "dumbed it down".
30 seconds jogging, then 5 MINUTES of recovery. I managed to jog a total of 4 times before the coughing REALLY hit. My hope is to slowly increase jogging time and reduce recovery time. More than likely I will never be able to jog a full 5K, but even just improving the length of time I CAN jog will be a benefit.

Wednesday

So after yesterday's games of pickleball... I had a very sore day today. :(
That's what I get.
I DID get off my duff and move, albeit slowly.

I mean VERY slowly. This was 1.5 miles an hour.

I've gone a week without biting off any nails. I know I can quit. I have before. It's just a matter of will power.

What a day.

No walk on the treadmill for me today. Instead I met Martin over at Firstenburg for a rousing game of Pickleball!!

What is Pickleball you ask?

Imagine playing ping pong with a whiffle ball on a court about a two thirds the size of a tennis court.

That's Pickleball.

It's great fun!
Martin and I didn't get to play together; instead I was paired up with a very nice guy named Keith.

Now, I'm not an amazing athlete by any shade of the imagination.

Nor am I really any good at Pickleball.

But somehow, we came up with a system and we won 2 out of the 3 games we played.
It was AWESOME!!

I scored several points in a row, I vollied like I had never vollied before and... wow.

I am very proud of how well I did.

Now if I can just get my racket arm to settle down. :) It's a little sore.

Today's viral fun on facebook included putting a picture of yourself as a kid as your profile picture.

Here's mine:

Insert Witty Title Here

It was a blah sort of day. Woke with an upset stomach which totally derailed the day's plans.
Ah, well.

I was feeling better by this afternoon and decided to take a walk outside. I didn't realize how cold it was, so I didn't do the 2 miles I had been planning. Instead, I did a mile and tried to beat my time from the last walk I took outside. I had to be careful, though. The cold air is an asthma trigger.

Not only did I beat my time by about a minute, I didn't start an asthma attack until I got home and was immediately able to hop in a hot steamy shower to combat it. Yay for me!

While I was outside, I noticed that the bulbs are already sprouting!!
Incredible!




I guess no one gave them the memo that it's still the middle of winter!

I had an interview yesterday. I felt it went really well and am hopeful that they will see me fit to nanny their darling little girl. :)
Will have to wait and see.

Artistic Director's Awards

Last night was the first annual
Artistic Director's Awards
at Magenta Theater.
What a fun time!

My friend Stef posted an awesome blog about it here.

Martin got two awards,
one for Lights and Sound and the other...
get this... is called

"The Martin Award"
and it's for service and doing what needs to be done with a cheerful attitude.

I must say, I am quite proud of my hubby.

I also go an award for directing Wind in the Willows.
That show was truly fun to do and I am looking for another show to direct in 2011.

This should be...

...yesterday's post... but I ran out of time to put it up, so I will do it now.

I managed to do another 30 minutes on the treadmill
And on a SATURDAY!
That's pretty much unheard of!

I would much rather walk outside, but the weather is just so miserable, that indoors on a treadmill is much easier. Here's my set up so I don't get bored.


To help combat the S.A.D. I have a 5 bulb light with three full spectrum bulbs, the two over head ceiling light and I even turn on the lamp on my night stand. It makes it so nice and "sunny" in there and after 20 to 30 minutes on the treadmill under the lights, I feel SO much better!

Good day... strange, but good.

It was a good day today. Strange, but good. I slacked off this morning procrastinating about a lot of stuff. I DID call and set up an interview for a job. We shall see how it goes. There's a ton of people vying for this job, so... (shrug)

I also procrastinated about getting some movement in. FINALLY about 2pm I told myself to get off my duff and get moving. Did 30 minutes on the treadmill with all three lights just a-blazing. I felt SOOO much better afterward. Realized that the SAD is starting to set in. I'm not depressed, not like usual. Just kind of mentally lethargic. Life is pretty decent, over all... just needing something (or someone) to motivate me to get off my butt.

Normally the distance would have read further than that, but for some reason when I put the speed at 3 mph hour, I kept tripping. So I lowered it to 2.5 and still got a decent work out.


Went outside, briefly, between the rain storms. I think the plants are nuts. My tree and a couple of my rose bushes are already starting to send out new growth. The pics I snapped of the roses didn't turn out.


About 8pm I got a call from one of my Magenta Mates. The hot water heater in the workshop evidently broke and flooded the basement of the theater.

Martin and I packed up our two super sucker machines and after slurping up about 35 gallons of water:

Yeah! MUCH better. We set giant fans out to help dry it, the person in charge of building management has been notified, and hopefully we'll be able to get the hot water tank repaired and a couple more fans going. This wasn't NEAR as bad as when the roof flooded. We figure we had about 100 gallons for that one.

I noticed a little bird hovering around my sliding glass door, so on a whim I pulled out a hummingbird feeder, mixed up the nectar and hung it up. Sure enough, an Anna's hummingbird started hanging around.

I even got a video of her.
I tried embedding it, but for some reason, it wouldn't work.

I love how she grabs the flower with her feet and just sort of hovers there. Eventually, I'd like to get another feeder, one with a perch. It might make it easier to snap pictures of her.


I was driving around town and happened to glance at the vehicle next to me. I cracked up.


And then, at my destination, I saw this poor car and the dog in the back seat. Before I snapped this, he HAD been laying down with his head resting on the back of the seat. As soon as I put the camera up, though, he started barking.
I only got one shot.
Because I ran.


It's so tough to get pictures of Nigel. He's just so BLACK that all the light just gets sucked into him. I got lucky on this shot. Too bad there's a box in the way. He was rubbing his face on it, as he so loves to do!


Nigel really is a loving cat, although if you ever come to visit, he will run away and hide. If you come often enough, he will MAYBE come out to see what's going on. He has finally decided that he sort of likes my neighbor Kim and my friend Dawn.
He is definitely my little shadow, though! He will follow me all over the house.

And he loves to give me head butts (his head is SOLID) and nose kisses. Every once in awhile, he'll get carried away and nom on my nose. Ow.