on her journey of 2 miles she thinks of shakey birthday wishes, stopping to smell the roses of love and where to find 20 bottles for a great many queens crowns

15 years ago on the 13th of this month my youngest was born.

as with each of my kids, he has brought so much love and happiness. 

max is such a beautiful, kind, thoughful, loving goofball. 

 snapping a photo of the oh-so-ever-elusive max is nearly impossible. 

i have lots of photos of his hand blocking my view through the camera lense, or blurry photos,  so for now these will have to do.

 max is now over 6 feet tall...a smidge taller than his daddy.  he has his grandpa's big ears that fit his large c.z. stud earring perfectly.

 blonde hair, blue eyed and freckle faced. 

he has my off the wall goofy sense of humor and his daddy's work ethic.

a layer cake that did not become a cake-tastrophie....mainly because we finally have a proper set of cake pans. 

i have discovered a new love....dark chocolate cake.  i love anything dark chocolate and never knew a cake mix of this kind existed until the hubs brought it home from wal-mart.  yellow use to be my favorite, but no more. 

one of the requests of the birthday boy was a shake weight. 

max wanted the manly version.

we bought the girly version, and we are glad we did. 

everytime the commercial comes on we all become immature teenage boys and make goofey comments and giggle...but wow...this is really a workout. 

we all have been using  this muscle inducing gadget and i love it. 




ValenTiNe's

i just love love......love is a gift.  and although diamonds, chocolates, and a huge expensive bouquet of beautiful flowers are wonderful.  being loved and having someone to share my love with is wonderful too.

i am so fortunate to have a  man that loves me unconditionally. 

my honey surprised me with a heart shaped, strawberry topped cheesecake...my favorite, huge chocolate covered strawberries...my other favorite, and a large bouquet of some very beautiful, but very sad looking red, yellow and white roses, and they were just perfect and beautiful.

i shared bites of cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries and then began dividing the roses into several bottles and jars to be scattered throughout the house so that everyone can admire their beauty.

the time on the antique clock that no longer works is set to our wedding date.

over the last couple of days my idea for my piece and part of the adorning crowns swap has evolved.

just one problem.  i need 16 of these.....

this is a watkins brand vanilla bottle.  the recently switched over to plastic bottles.  sigh.....

this bottle is a wee one, one about 2 1/2 - 3 inches tall. 

with fingers crossed i am hoping that a local teacher and art supply recycling center called leftovers will have the quantity of these small bottles that i need to complete my artsy endeavor.

a corsetted bottle.....




this week steph and i started taking walks again.  it has been quite awhile since we walked.  the past summer was hotter than hot and this winter has been quite a nasty one.

she and i have taken advantage of the beautiful weather and started walking again. 

the first day...a  mile and a half.

from there on it has been 2 miles.

i had quite the ah-ha  moment, as oprah would say last year when it came to walking after a trip to the mall one day.

after spending a day at the mall i was pooped when we got home, but not dying of exhaustion.  the next day steph and i went for a walk and i felt myself stiffen up making the walk more difficult and tiring.  the walk of 3 miles seemed to take forever and was miserable.  then it hit me like a ton of bricks.....we probably walked 3 miles easily at the mall the day before...what was the difference??????

the difference was my mind set, my beliefs. 

i view the mall as fun, exciting, pleasurable....i view my 3 mile walk as a workout, exercise, hard and miserable.....because that is what exercise is, right?

i have since learned to change my focus to being more positive.  it is not a workout.  it is good health, fewer meds and dr. visits.  (i often thought of these things when i was viewing my walks as execise and it did not help previously)

  i took this as time to spend talking with my walking partner and spending one on one time with them, be it my hubby or one or two, or all three of the kids. 

i began to view this time as one to breathe the fresh air, hear the birds singing, soak up some good ol' vitamin d...with sunscreen schmered skin that is....to feel the breeze, to wave hi to a neighbor, to get out of the house. 

it also helps to visualize a bit less lumps and bumps and more healthy curves, a smaller pants size, or just plain feeling like the sludge has been sweated out of my body. 

i feel healthier, lighter, prettier,  more energetic. 

in a short time i will be addicted to the endorphins that are released when being active and i will be out there walking in the cold, the heat, the rain with no problem.  this week has been a hard one though. 

i traded using my walking pole for one of my arm crutches and have become quite good at using it this past week.

my vertigo is stirred up by the walking, but i have had a wonderful two weeks of being not quite vertigo free, but about as close as i have been in awhile.  everytime this happens i hope that maybe, just maybe this time it will behave on a permanent basis.  time will tell. 

loading and unloading the dishwasher put me in a spinning and balance challenged tizzy last night, the up and down movement mixed with the back and forth motion of putting clean items in their proper place just does this girl in.  but i hope that maybe someday it will go for good....

well, the hubs has just walked in the door so it is time to say bye for now. 

nighty night.

mwah!