Mother Might Know Best

Michael has been working late lately so we didn't go on our walk yesterday. Our walks are fun since we get to share our daily going-ons with each other. Unfortunately since I have the summer off and have just been hanging around home I don't have that exciting of stories to tell (you might have guessed this by my lack of blogging of happenings).

So anyway- After changing from his work clothes Michael laid down on the bed, so I joined him- so we began our daily talk of our happenings- I told him my mom called and checked in about the earthquake (we are located about 2o miles away from the epi-center, and although we did feel it, and it caused the the pool water to sway, there were no waves with white caps)

So..... that lead us to talk about mother's and then Michael told me how he never forgave his mother for letting him wear the blue tux to one of his proms. However upon further examination of this story reveals it was not her fault.

Michael's mom took him tux shopping, he saw the blue tux and said he wanted it- His mother asked "Are you sure?" looking back at this Michael now sees she was trying to give him an out, because he admitted he would not of listen to her had she said NO!

Michael's reply to "Are you sure?" Was Yep, It's blue" (Michael's favorite color)

For some reason Michael and I really cracked up over this story-but I am also sharing this to all the mom's out there so they can feel vindicated (I think I have quite a few pictures of me in outfits I can't believe my mom LET me wear)

Sorry I couldn't find a picture of the blue tux, but this one has a nice purple bow-tie and cumberbun!

_______

Target Thursday:

Stayed the same, ate blueberries and my Hershey kisses, did not eat oatmeal or floss much.

So onward with the 22 live long tricks as reported by Redbook:

Turn off the tube during dinner-it leads to mindless eating, and not realizing you are full.

It also suggest to place the treadmill next to the TV- sorry to report this does not work, we tried it for about a year, and we just sold the treadmill

A Lucky Day

Last Sunday we took a juant down to Del mar Racetrack. It was nice and cool there since it sits right next to the ocean. In fact Del mar in spanish means the sea.

We got there right before the second race, I picked out a horse to bet on, but decided just to watch- wouldn't you know the horse won.

So the third race I bet a horse, and also place an exacta wager (which means I had to pick the first and second place horse in that order) and I won! The $2 bet paid $43 dollars- I was really happy and could of gone home then.

I continued just place $2 bets, and I won every race I played, including another exacta! I came out ahead by $79.30 :) It was definitely a lucky day for me, should of played the lotto- but hated to be greedy.

Happy Birthday Linda!!

Today is my sister-in-laws, Linda's, birthday- She is 3*. So I thought I do a top 10 reasons why she is not just my sister-in-law but my friend.


1. She is a great spa buddy





2. We share the love of photography, although she takes way more pictures than me.

3. We love baking Christmas cookies together

4. We love the same kinds of food & restaurants.

5. We love to do crafts together

6. We make a great tennis team

7. We have fun game nights together

8. We love travelling together- and trying to visit all 50 states (picture of our trip to Mexico.)

9. We both like blogging, she is the one who got me into it-picture from her blog "These are the days"

10. ...and most importantly we just love hanging out together

Have a great Birthday Linda!!!

for those who read both our blogs please go to Ramble On for a blog debut from Linda's hubby Thomas.

Target Thursday

Hi all,

Well the past week I was up, I was down and the total net was zero. I had some blueberries this morning, and I did buy my Hershey Kisses, but I eat about 4-5 a day and not the 1-2 that was recommended.

So I said there were 22 tips to live long here are two more:

1. Have oatmeal for breakfast: by eating oatmeal for breakfast people eat 30% less calories at lunch compared to people who at cereal-oatmeal digest slowly, fending off hunger-another plus is that is helps to control type 2 diabetes.

2. Floss (remembering I am targeting overall health) not only for the obvious for healthy gums and all, but a clean mouth can help fight against heart disease and stroke.

These are two more easy things that I will try to put in my daily routine.

-----

Kermie tip of the day: use water bottles not bottled water. Living in America we are fortunate to have one of the cleanest water supplies in the world. Most bottled water is just treated tap water- so save on the package and use washable water bottles- and save money in the process.

-------------------------------

My new couch, thanks to my mother who bought it for me!

Julie Andrews

On Friday we went to the Hollywood Bowl and saw Julie Andrews- I of course love her for her work in the Sound of Music- Who doesn't? and the whole crowd did a sing-a-long with her and the band to Do(e) a deer. The guy behind me cracked me up, he knew all the words even to the doe ray ray mi so so part.

But I forgot she also was Cinderella, and the following song has been stuck in my head since Friday. Click here for a great You Tube (sorry couldn't get it working on my blog).

Julie sang with other singers, since as she put it: "I had throat surgery a couple years ago, and although I can't hit the high notes anymore, I can sing the heck out of Old Man River!"

Happy Birthday Momma Bear(er)

July 21, 2008 my mom turns 3/4 of a century- for all you non math people that is 75 years old!

So to wish my mom a happy birthday, I am remembering all the decades we shared together.

Your 20's: Don't remember much of these since you were 29.5 years when you had your darling youngest baby girl-aka me!

Your 30's: Lots of homemade birthday cakes, homemade clothes for me and my dolls, being homeroom mother, math flash cards, and teaching us CCD.

Your 40's: You went back to school and received your RN degree. These were tougher years due to raising your 2 teenage daughters, and I think one of them who shall remain nameless-but it is not your darling youngest drove you to cigarettes- a nasty habbit that I am glad you stopped. But no matter how unruly we got we did have lots of fun with family vacations, scrabble games, and eating your Christmas cookies.

Your 50's: Helping put 2 kids through college, and then one again, becoming a grandmother for the first time. (In the picture my mom is on the left she is the oldest of 3 girls, her mom is center, her youngest sister is to the right and her other sister is in the picture on the wall)

Your 60's: retiring, moving to NC to watch your grandchilren grow up, visiting your california daughter and making her curtains and turning the dungeon into a respectable living place.

.

Your 70's: Making retiring official and moving to FL, taking up swimming and knitting, and buying lots of stuff from QVC! (picture taken last year,Michael & I were positive you were going to go overboard!)

Mom no matter what your age: I love you and thanks for always being there when I need you:)

Happy 3/4 of a Century!

This & That

Just some randomness today

First up: Movie Review

Pixzar's movie Wall*e: Loved it! A kids movie with a grown up message- great for all ages--although a bit sad a parts (I cried) but with a happy ending:)


Next Up:

Take that Grandma Sheila (may need to read my sister's-in-law's Linda's blog titled Cookie Monster to get this one and the comments): Just to let you know I am cool too 'cause I bake your 1st born cookies! The dough may be store bought but my bottle of wine is bigger!



Lastly:
A Kermie tip from my hubby Michael. Plan to do all your errands at once to help save on gas(and money), instead of making just making a special trip to the store for milk or something

Photo Hunt: What is it?

Today's photo hunt theme is "What is it?"

Can you guess?? (and no it is not just rocks!)

Today's photo credit goes to Michael, while hiking Mt Whitney in Sept 2007, this was a trail marker.

Did you guess correctly?

Friday Fill Ins

1. If I could be a fly on the wall I would ______.
I would listen intently.

2. Jealousy is ____.
wasted energy-although knowing this it can still overtake me at times.

3. When I see a shooting star my wish would be that _________.
I win the lottery-but guess I should play first.

4. I'd rather be ______ than ______ any day!
happy: sad

5. Certain songs when I hear them make me wanna _______.
Sing out loud with them even if I do sing out of tune- my favorite to sing along to is Whitney Houston "I believe that children our our future"

6. If time were in a bottle ___________.
I never let it out- guess it would be like the movie Ground Hogs day- at least I could perfect one day :)--although he did get tired of reliving the same day, so maybe I would let it out very slowly.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _____, tomorrow my plans include _____ and Sunday, I want to _____!
the Hollywood Bowl and Julie Andrews
going for a hike or maybe a train ride to the track
hang out with my honey bunny aka Michael

Target Thursday

Well it has been awhile since I did a Target Thursday, and I guess I should of kept them up, since I gained back most of the weight I worked so hard on losing last year and now am only occasionally exercising - so it is time for me to recommit to Target Thursday.

Since I have the summer off I have been watching some of the talk shows in the a.m.. During one of the shows they interviewed a lady that decided she would use all the advice offered in magazines and change her life- it actually worked for her.

So today I was reading a Redbook article called 22 Live Long Tricks and I thought I share the two easiest ones I can do!

1.Treat yourself to dark chocolate (however this is not as good as it first sounds, only 1-2 Hershey kisses a day)- this helps lower your blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease by 5%

2. Snack on blueberries: They have the greatest antioxidant punch per serving. They help to protect vision, improve motor function and improves short term memory.

Semi Wordless Wednesday

For the 4th or 5th year in a row we attended the Sierra Madre's 4th of July parade. After the parade we head for the park where there is music and food stands for a picnic. At the park Ian was playing with his baloon, and I snapped about 25 pictures of him since he was having so much fun. This is one of the 25, I thought it was cute that had a baloon for a head, don't you just want to draw a face on that baloon?

Hollywood Bowl & Chris Isaac

In an attempt to make our Friday nights more exciting, I purchased 5 shows at the Hollywood Bowl this summer.

We hop on a bus for $5 round trip door to door, so we don't have to worry about traffic.

You can pack a picnic dinner with wine, and either eat on the grass, grap a table, or eat at your seats. So it is a very inexpensive evening.

* the reason the picture is off center is if you enlarge it, in the hills on the right is the Hollywood sign.

The theme was "A Romantic Evening" and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra played for an hour. And I must say they were quite good, since I usually do not like listening to just an orchestra. The conductor was quite good, he explained where all the songs came from.

After intermission Chris Isaac joined the orchestra and sang. He was enjoying having both his band and orchestra as his back ups. Although he felt a little bad for the orchestra having to back him up-as he put it " they had years of practicing giving up things, and then they finally make it to be in the Hollywoodbowl Orchestra only to back up a hillbilly like him."

This Friday we will be going to see Julie Andrews at the bowl :)

-----

Just a reminder during the summer months dry your clothes outside, or wait til the evening to use the dryer.

Trying New Things

Well the family invasion is over. We had a really nice time together and got to do lots of things. We tried to let everyone pick at least one thing that they wanted to do during the week-sometimes hard since there were 12 people and only 7 days.

My sister-in-law Kristen (the newlywed of the group) owns a horse and she picked horseback riding in the Hollywood hills. (I did not get a picture of Kristen riding, so here is a picture of her when we went sailing)

So Michael and I announce there will be a horseback riding trip the next day. Unbeknownst to me my sister-in-law Suzie has never been horseback riding - a fact I only found out about after we were about 1 1/2 hours into the ride, and her horse had been walking on the edge of the hills the whole time.



After I found this out- I was so proud of her trying something new- she did confess(after the fact) that she was nervous about the ride- but she didn't want that stopping Kristen from having a good day riding.

Suzie also told me that it felt good to get out of her comfort zone, and try something new. So today's advice is TRY SOMETHING NEW that you always wanted to do!

---------

KERMIE'S BACK

Also Suzie gave me a good green tip that I never really thought about- Empty your water bottles in the plants instead of down the drain. (this sometimes means going outside-but it was worth the long walk to the front door, because it does make me feel good conserving water-CA is in a drought these days)