Happy Halloween!
It is slightly misting here and not many kids are out tonight. We usually have truckloads of kids who come in from the outlying smaller towns but not tonight. I also think that so many churchs and communities are having "Trunk or Treat" and carnivals that not so many kids go house to house anymore. For the first time in several years I did purchase enough candy (and good candy, too, not the cheap bad candy I have been known to give to the kids I believe are too old to be out trick or treating!), but the kids are not coming. Our friend Ian just left and he was a very convincing Harry Potter.
There is a tree frog stuck to the glass of our outer front door. It is so funny and looks like I put it there on purpose. The kids who have been by have loved seeing it.
The past weekend was Homecoming for my alma mater (and my place of employment!). My favorite people in the whole world came to visit. We missed some regular attendee who had to be other places but we partied without them.
As I predicted there were some tears, but they ended and as you can tell by her post (http://www.reagansblog.blogspot.com/) she is a strong, wonderful woman.
The surprise was not all that exciting except to all my friends who have lived through my floor saga...we have a new floor in half our house! It is fabulous and I love it! I did have a fun surprise from my friend Jenn who is now expecting baby #3. I know he/she will be as cute and smart and funny as the first two.
And as for Halloween, I hope that I can keep from eating all the candy that the kids are not coming for.
Happy Halloween!
It is slightly misting here and not many kids are out tonight. We usually have truckloads of kids who come in from the outlying smaller towns but not tonight. I also think that so many churchs and communities are having "Trunk or Treat" and carnivals that not so many kids go house to house anymore. For the first time in several years I did purchase enough candy (and good candy, too, not the cheap bad candy I have been known to give to the kids I believe are too old to be out trick or treating!), but the kids are not coming. Our friend Ian just left and he was a very convincing Harry Potter.
There is a tree frog stuck to the glass of our outer front door. It is so funny and looks like I put it there on purpose. The kids who have been by have loved seeing it.
The past weekend was Homecoming for my alma mater (and my place of employment!). My favorite people in the whole world came to visit. We missed some regular attendee who had to be other places but we partied without them.
As I predicted there were some tears, but they ended and as you can tell by her post (http://www.reagansblog.blogspot.com/) she is a strong, wonderful woman.
The surprise was not all that exciting except to all my friends who have lived through my floor saga...we have a new floor in half our house! It is fabulous and I love it! I did have a fun surprise from my friend Jenn who is now expecting baby #3. I know he/she will be as cute and smart and funny as the first two.
And as for Halloween, I hope that I can keep from eating all the candy that the kids are not coming for.
Homecoming
Friends are coming and my daughter is coming. There will be laughter and there will be tears. There will also be a surprise or two. It will be a good weekend.
Race for the Cure
If you have never experienced a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure then you should really walk/run at least one. It is a more than a moving experience to see the waves of people moving down the street all united to see breast cancer cured.
For the second year in a row, I took my 77 year old mother, who is a three year survivor, to participate in the race and all the surrounding survivor events held in Little Rock. We started out on Friday evening at pasta party with great pasta, Caesar salad, bread (all from Macaroni Grill), beverages, and Blue Bunny ice cream. A band was playing and people were having a wonderful time. Mother was clapping her hands and tapping her feet to such songs as "Celebrate Good Time" and "RESPECT."
This morning we headed for the Survivor Breakfast and Photo. What a moving experience to see all those pink shirts and caps all celebrating their victory over cancer. Then the pink shirts mixed in with the white Race for the Cure, and all the other colors of the 700 individual teams that participated. A total of 40,000 people walked/raced today. It was amazing.
Maybe it was because I have had an incredibly busy two week, or maybe it was because I haven't slept well in the last several nights, but I was very, very emotional. I would just about get it all under control and then I would read the pink papers that many had attached to the race numbers on their backs. Those pink papers were either in memory or in celebration of women who had battled breast cancer. The first one that I saw read, "In Memory of...Too many!" and that brought immediate tears to my eyes. The ones with just individual names (like the one on my back) did not touch my emotions as much as the ones who said, "In Memory of...My Meemaw" or "...My best Friend, Beth." I really teared up on the one I read at the Survivors Luncheon that read, "In Celebration of...My Precious Mother." It is amazing what putting a face and name on a cancer warrior does to one's emotions.
Race for the Cure
If you have never experienced a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure then you should really walk/run at least one. It is a more than a moving experience to see the waves of people moving down the street all united to see breast cancer cured.
For the second year I took my 77 year old mother, who is a three year survivor, to participate in the race and all the surrounding survivor events held in Little Rock. We started out on Friday evening at pasta party with great pasta, Caesar salad, bread (all from Macaroni Grill), beverages, and Blue Bunny ice cream. A band was playing and people were having a wonderful time. Mother was clapping her hands and tapping her feet to such songs as "Celebrate Good Time" and "RESPECT."
This morning we headed for the Survivor Breakfast and Photo. What a moving experience to see all those pink shirts and caps all celebrating their victory over cancer. Then the pink shirts mixed in with the white Race for the Cure, and all the other colors of the 700 individual teams that participated. A total of 40,000 people walked/raced today. It was amazing.
Maybe it was because I have had an incredibly busy two week, or maybe it was because I haven't slept well in the last several nights, but I was very, very emotional. I would just about get it all under control and then I would read the pink papers that many had attached to the race numbers on their backs. Those pink papers were either in memory or in celebration of women who had battled breast cancer. The first one that I saw read, "In Memory of...Too many!" and that brought immediate tears to my eyes. The ones with just individual names (like the one on my back) did not touch my emotions as much as the ones who said, "In Memory of...My Meemaw" or "...My best Friend, Beth." I really teared up on the one I read at the Survivors Luncheon that read, "In Celebration of...My Precious Mother." It is amazing what putting a face and name on a cancer warrior does to one's emotions.
Off to State Convention
I'm leaving tomorrow for my profession's state continuing educaiton convention. It is is Hot Springs. A fun place to visit but I will be in meetings all day.
Then to LR for the Race for the Cure. It's a busy several days.
Beautiful Moon
The moon is about 3/4 full and is very, very bright. After supper Gene and I took a ride with the top down. It was a little on the cool side but we just turned the heater on and kept riding. We looked up and saw a cloud pass in front of the moon. Because the moon was so bright it made a beautiful sliver glow around the edges of the cloud. I really did see the silver lining. What a nice evening.
Today I am Efficient
I am getting things done today. Before 11:15 am I have paid bills, put dishes in dishwasher, showered (including drying hair), folded a load of clother, driven a friend to Little Rock to the airport, shopped for the apartment we are furnishing for a family displaced by Katrina, deposited money for my daughter, eaten lunch with my husband, advised a student, checked all my email and checked today's required blog readingins. I deserve a treat! I just wish that I could be efficient every day!
Now I Remember!!
I remember what I wanted to talk about! I am not upset, yet, but I am a little frightened of my husband's new purchase. He bought a talking scale on ebay.
First of all let me tell you that he loves ebay. He is addicted to ebay. He scans ebay for about an hour every day. The vast majority of the stuff he buys is good and useful. He bought this talking scale to be useful...but i"m not sure if it is.
I am a very very private person about personal details. I am a very extroverted person but I typically do not share my personal health issues. Sharing my weight takes me so far outside of my comfort zone that I need a passport to return to my safe place. It started with school nurses who yelled the weight of third graders from the scales at one end of the hall to the teacher recording the height and weight at the other end of the hall about 100 feet and 10 classrooms away, but that is fodder for an entirely different post about my childhood baggage and neuroses.
Last week I ventured outside my comfort zone to join with others in my department in a weight loss contest. Several spouses, including mine, are also in our own version of the "Biggest Loser." I am the official recorder for our group because I won't reveal my numbers to just anyone.
My husband is a larger than average man so he needed some industrial strength scales for an accurate reading. He found some on ebay and they arrived at our house on Monday. The scales talk to you. At this point it is very polite conversation. She says, "hello" when you turn them on and after about 15-20 seconds, she says, "I"m ready." I use the pronoun 'she' because it is a female synthetic voice. When you step on the scales the number zero flashes for another 10 seconds or so and then the voice yells your weight. I think that the volume goes up about 20 decibels when the actual weight is announced. I was embarrased and I was the only person in the room.
So, we have a talking scale and thus far things are not awful because we have both been losing weight. Although the voice is loud is not scarcastic or condescending when announcing the weight. But what is going to happen if I add a pound or two...will the voice become scolding, will it attempt to demean me, will it add to my current case of universal guilt and try to make me feel I am a bad person for gaining weight. I am not quite sure how to cope with a talking scale if it develops an attitude. Any suggestions?
I Just Know I Was Upset about Something
Earlier today I was upset or perplexed by something and now I can't remember what............
