Friend Makin' Monday - Valentines Day

I'm going to be messed up all week!  The girl had her Nationals dance comp this weekend and we didn't get home til yesterday, so today feels like Monday to me.  If you want to read all about it, here's the link to the post in my other blog, but in a nutshell - this pic sums up the weekend...  

They won National Champs for senior small group lyrical!  

I am so proud I could burst!!

So onto FMM...

Valentine’s Day

Here’s how it works: you copy the questions, answer them and post them to your own blog. Then you come back here, and in the comments, post the link to your blog post with your answers to this week’s questions. If you don’t have a blog of your own, just post your answers in the comments.

1. How was your Valentine’s Day? What did you do?  As I mentioned above - I was at a dance competition, doing the dance mom thing.  It was a long weekend, but enjoyable. 

2. When you were a kid, did you exchange valentines in school with your classmates?  Yes, we pretty much had to.  We got a list with all the kids' names so we didn't leave any out. 

3. What was your best Valentine’s Day date/day/etc?   Ummmm...... I guess this past one.  I forgot to mention in my other post that Randy had flowers sent to the hotel for Angel and I !  A pink rose with purple filler for her and a bunch of pink, red & white carnations for me.  It's been a while since I got flowers from him so that made it especially nice!

4. Do you like Valentine’s Day?  Not usually.  

5. What is your favorite Valentine’s Day treat?  Hmmm,  there's nothing I can think of that screams only V Day to me.  Conversation hearts, but I don't like them. 

6. Do you have any Valentine’s Day traditions?  Nope. 

7. What is your least favorite thing about Valentine’s Day?  Seeing the bitches at work get flowers sent to them! 

8. Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day? Share a picture if you do.  I have things here & there.  I decorate for basically every holiday to some extent - Christmas & Halloween being the big ones. 

 My skeleton cupid has a sash that says Fatal Attraction - lol!

9. What is the best present you have ever received for Valentine’s Day?  Can I get back to you on this?  Drawing a blank!

10. Is there something you like to do for people you love on Valentine’s Day?  No, it's just another day, but I do get a card for the hubby.  This year I left it on the bed when we left so he couldn't help but see it.  I also like Sara's idea of volunteering at an animal shelter.  

Friend Makin' Monday - Fears

Happy Monday!  I was actually busy at work today!  I'm off Friday & next Monday for "JamFest Dance SUPER Nationals" so I've been working my butt off to make sure I have everything done that I need and such. Plus I had to leave an hour early to get Miss Angela to her practice at 3.  Just found out one of the girls on the team has NO family going to watch her dance!  WTF people!  I hope they have a good reason and not just asshattery.  So she now has 2 new moms.  She's staying in our room.  Gonna be cozy in there with 2 adults & 3 teenagers!

Onto FMM -




Fears

Here’s how it works: you copy the questions, answer them and post them to your own blog. Then you come back here, and in the comments, post the link to your blog post with your answers to this week’s questions. If you don’t have a blog of your own, just post your answers in the comments.

1. Do you have any “consuming” fears?  I'm not sure what that means, but I don't have any that make me shudder at the thought of it.

2. Have you ever overcome a fear that was once consuming or crippling?  I was pretty fearless as a kid - I was Dad's shadow so wherever he went, I was sure I could, too.  That made for several falls into the river up north, I fell thru the ice into waist-deep water, etc, etc.  Oh - I thought of something.  I never liked deep, dark water. something might grab my leg.  I think that came from watching Jaws as a kid.  Then I joined the Navy.  Brilliant, eh?  And I was just telling Randy earlier today that I was bummed that while in the Navy, neither of the ships I was on did a swim call.  That's where they would anchor out in the ocean and you could jump off the boat.  I don't think smaller ones do that often, but carriers do.  I would have loved to jump off the side of the aircraft elevator (lowered, of course) - it's got to be 30 or more feet to the water!

3. Do you have any silly fears?  Not now, but I remember watching some stupid horror movie with my parents as a kid where this slutty model was sitting on a bed and saw something sticking out from under the bed and poked at it with her shoe.  It was a black panther's tail and of course it attacked her.  For the longest time I would run across the room and leap onto my bed.  Then to get up - I'd stand up and jump as far as possible away from the bed.   No idea what movie that was.

4. Do you know how your fears started, or have they always just been there as far as you know?  I don't know about the dislike of dark water.  We never had air conditioning, so in the summer I'd get up in the middle of the night and go out in the pool by myself.  We spent many hours in the river up north, dodging cow patties from upstream.  When I was in Brownie Girl Scouts, we went on an overnight trip to a museum and in order to go in the deep end of the pool, you had to show the lifeguard you could swim the length of the pool.  I tried.  I was probably 7 years old.  I made it half way and he had to dive in to save me.  But none of these ever scared me that badly.

5. Do you like to watch scary/horror movies? If so, what is your favorite?  Not really.  I don't watch much TV.  Movies like the Exorcist are best, with scary mind games instead of blatant blood & gore.  We just watched "Cheerleaders Must Die" this weekend & it was the cheesiest ever!

6. Do you like to go to haunted houses?  Sometimes.  I prefer haunted hayrides.

7. Are you easy to scare?  I can be, if something really catches me off guard.  Oh I don't like bugs to be on me.

8. What is your reaction if someone scares you?  I can't describe the sound I make, a deep, guttural OH, type noise.

9. Are you afraid of clowns?  Not afraid of them, just don't like them.

10. Did you believe in the boogeyman when you were little?  I had older siblings to be afraid of!

Weigh in & stuff

Well, honestly - I didn't weigh in tonight.  Randy has Tue / Wed / Thu off this week for comp time for wasting most of a weekend on work stuff, so he took his car into the shop yesterday and needed to pick it up tonight.  He's lucky we kept my old Escort so he had a way to get to his dentist appointment this morning!

Anyhoo.  Tracking was crappy this week.  Activity was decent.

I spent 3 hours out shoveling snow Monday and I only got 2 APs for it????  Sheesh.   Saturday also included cleaning stalls & lugging horse food & bedding around, too.  My sister had a minor medical procedure & couldn't do any lifting, so Miss Angela & I went to help out around her place.

 It's a snowbank with wheels!

So, I've come up with a plan.  And it's gonna be a tough one.  I'm going to avoid sweets & such and limit myself to 2 Coke Zeros a day for the rest of February.  And I dug out the spiral bound tracker to do that, too.  Oh yeah, I went back on the DWLZ.com message boards for the extra support.  It's been a while since I've been on there and they changed everything!  So I have to figure that all out again. 

Randy is all aghast - but what about Valentines Day?  What about it?  My least favorite holiday. I was told I'm "too practical" to expect dinner out on Valentines Day.  Pppft.  Anyway, the girl & I are leaving mid-day Friday the 13th for Kentucky for a dance comp and won't be home til Monday sometime. So we'll be going out anyway!  I'll pack snacks & drinks for the 4 1/2 hour drive there & to have in the room and the hotel offers hot breakfast in the morning, so we should be good there.  

I really didn't want to get on a scale this week anyway, Mother Nature usually isn't nice to me.  So wish me luck on the NO SWEETS thing - I'm gonna need it!  

...and of course out of the corner of my eye I see the giant Peppermint Bark Ghiradelli chocolate bar I got for Christmas and this is really going to put a kabosh on my Tim Horton's visit in the morning.  I can't cheat already - today was my first day!  So I guess I'll stick with my oatmeal for breakfast.  Sigh.  

Friend Makin' Monday - Love is in the Air

Holy crap - it's Monday!  I'm totally off a day since we got a snow day today!  We had well over a foot of the nasty white stuff dumped on us (thanks for saying only 7.5 inches, NWS!!)  Miss Angela and I went out & shoveled about 4-5 inches yesterday right before Randy got home from up north, and the wind was just starting to pick up then.  So this morning there were knee-deep drifts in places and bare cement in others.  I was out there shoveling steady for 3 hours and Randy came out & fired up the decrepit snowblower and did most of the lower part of the driveway.  

Technically, I was supposed to go into work today, I told them I'd be in once the roads got cleared some. Never made it.  Shucks.  The school called yesterday afternoon and not long after that, Randy got an email from his work saying he could work from home.

....and we just got the phone call about schools being closed tomorrow, too! 

Puxatauney Phil is over-rated.  Here in Michigan we have Woody and she has a better track record of being correct than Phil.  12 out of 16 years she's been right & also 6 out of the last 9 Super Bowls she's chosen the winner.  However Woody was under the weather this year, so Murray stepped in and saw her shadow.  I like that they actually wait until the sun is UP instead of doing the thing before dawn and of course there are cameras with lights = shadows!  But since the sun was shining pretty today, it was legit.

How about that halftime show last night?  I really like Katy Perry so I enjoyed her show a lot. I don't care about football so we'd do stuff during the game (fix food, take the dog out, etc) and hurry back in for commercials.  

So onto FMM....



LOVE is in the Air

Here’s how it works: you copy the questions, answer them and post them to your own blog. Then you come back here, and in the comments, post the link to your blog post with your answers to this week’s questions. If you don’t have a blog of your own, just post your answers in the comments.

Ugh, I don't even like Valentine's Day!  Feel free to cringe like I did when I heard this..."I'm not going to take you out to dinner on Val Day because you're practical like that and know that it'll be crazy at every restaurant."   I usually buy myself flowers, too.  So I'm really not too upset that I have to take Miss Angela to a dance competition out of state that weekend!!!

1. February is the month of LOVE…do you have one?  Yes - We've been married for 8 1/2 years and been together for (thinking.....) 13 years now!  I should get bonus points because our last name is Love!

2. Is there any activity you LOVE to do more than anything else?  Hmm.  Reading.  Going on walks if its nice out.  Photography is up there, too.  Horseback riding.

3. Is there a certain place you LOVE to go to on a regular basis?  Hmm - I could use this right now. The Buckstaff Bathhouse in Hot Springs Arkansas.   I'd love to go melt in a hot bath right now and get a massage.  The water there does great things to my skin, too. 

4. What animal do you LOVE the most?  We are a bi-petual household.  We have a Beagle & 2 cats and I can't say which one I love the most.  Horses are a close third.

5. What do you LOVE most about the city/state you live in?  4 seasons.  OK, after today, lets say 3 of the 4 seasons!!

6. Are there any people or just one person that you LOVE to be around?  My husband & daughter of course.  When I comes to going to dance competitions, there are 2 other moms who are my favorite people to be around.

7. What food do you LOVE the most?  MEAT.  Seriously anything fixed on a grill.  I've even tried grilled rattlesnake before and it was delicious. (tastes like chicken / turkey)

8. What drink do you LOVE the most?  I'm leaving Sara's answer up here. Water, followed by iced tea, followed by a well made margarita.  Thumbs up!

9. What book that you have read do you LOVE the most?  I can't think of any one that I LOVE - there are several I like well enough to re-read.  RuPaul's biography, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Fabulous.  The entire Skye O'Malley saga from Beatrice Small.  The Earth's Children series from Jane M. Auel.

10. What is the craziest thing you have done in the name of LOVE?  I can't think of anything I'd consider crazy....oh wait.....I have Randy's name tattoo'd on my ankle.

I'm going to put a bonus # 11. on here.  My favorite LOVE quote.  From RuPaul - "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love someone else?"

Thoughtful Thursday - where I live....

The weekend is near!


Please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section yonder at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your Thoughtful Thursdays questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own Thoughtful Thursdays post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Where I Live

1. Where do you currently live? Shelby Township, a suburb about 20 miles north of Detroit.

2. Have you lived in your current state throughout your entire life?  No, but mostly. I did 8 years in the Navy, so I happily moved away for that. I came back to Michigan, but not the same place.   I grew up in a small town where I graduated with the same people I went to kindergarten with.  Very clique-y.

3. If you answered no to Question 1, then where else have you lived? In Orlando for 2 months for bootcamp.  Pensacola FL for 4 months for school, then was stationed for over 2 years in Georgia on my first ship (which is now nothing but a fond memory - RIP USS Canopus AS34!) then I moved to California to report to my next ship - a slightly bigger one - the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN72 for just over another 2 years.  We changed homeports from Alameda CA to Bremerton WA, and then I transferred to the Naval Base in Everett, WA for the remainder of my enlistment.  

Purty!

4. What is the coolest thing about your city/town? It's a nice place, nothing too special that I can think of.  Some historical significance with the park at the end of my street used to have a race horse farm owned by the boxer Joe Louis and a restaurant that was also a stop on the Underground RR. There was a huge cedar tree that was planted prominently in the area called the Beacon Tree.  There's an elementary school called Beacon Tree in it's honor.

5. Are there any holidays that your state goes all out to celebrate? Not so much holidays....we are avid sports fans here (not me personally - I just like the Wings!)  There's a statue in Detroit called the Spirit of Detroit that wears a custom jersey whenever any of the sports teams make the playoffs.  It got a Lions one for the first time in ages this year!  And it gets a LOT of use out of the Red Wings jersey.  

Fox Sports

 

I have a picture of just the Spirit framed and it sits on the end table in the living room. 

6. Describe your neighborhood (climate, scenery, etc.) Like I said.  We're about 20 miles north of Detroit and within 40 miles of 2 different Canadian border crossings. Close proximity to both big cities & country.  It's an older neighborhood, my house was built in 1940, as were most of the houses around.  We have 2 season - winter & construction.  Actually I love both spring & fall.  I don't handle heat & humidity well.  

7. What do you wish you could change most about the place you live?  The roads.  They suck.  When I was driving my Escort (it's an elderly car, but perfect for the girl's first set of wheelz) there were times I actually thought it was going to break apart.

8. Describe your home. What’s your favorite thing about it?  Ooo, I'm gonna have to dig deep for this one!  The only time I take pics of the house is at Halloween!  Hence the jack-o-lanterns on the step. 

It's tiny.  We have a big yard.  The roof is new, so it doesn't leak.  There is a shed in back for storage, as well as an add-on across the back of the 2 car garage (that a car has never been in) that's about 8 feet deep - so lots of room for my Halloween & Christmas decorations.  Which is good since we don't have crap for storage inside!  

9. Where do you shop for groceries? Sometimes Kroger, but mainly a little local place called Hollywood Market.  They have a great meat counter.

10. What is your favorite regular activity in your city/town? Going to the park at the end of the street.  From our back door, down the street and around the entire park & back is exactly 2 miles. There's a nice walking trail & nature center there.  There's another park not far away also, that's more nature-y called Holland Ponds.  There's a heron nesting area there and places to sit and watch if you remember binoculars!