Archive for April, 2010

PostHeaderIcon Murder of a Lilly

I have mentioned before that I have a black thumb.  Well, every year there is one flower I look forward to.

At the head of my “Rat Graveyard” there are 3 lillies.  They bloom in HUGE red flowers, 2 or three per bush, ONCE a year.  I love those flowers.

I didn’t plant those lillies and I do nothing to tend to them but they never fail to pop up and please me.

Well…..

Last week they started opening.  And last week my neighbor started doing yard work.

There is a palm tree in our yard that grows next to the fence.  It is next to my lillies too.  And since it is RIGHT next to the fence some of it grows over into our neibhgors yard.  So while he was doing yard work he trimmed it.

I harbor no ill will for him trimming the tree.  I hate that tree and wish it would die a mysterious palm tree death anyway.  What I do harbor him ill will for is killing my juvenile lilly blooms!

As he trimmed the branches, some fell into OUR yard, RIGHT ON TOP OF MY FRESHLY BLOOMING LILLIES!

Unbloomed buds were snapped off.  Half bloomed buds were broken and smashed.  Only one lone flower remains!

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This is my one remaining bloom, and it is in pitiful shape.

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Here are the murdered blooms and buds, taken from me too soon.

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And those are the disgusting palm fronds that took away my beautiful red flowers this year.

PostHeaderIcon Parker Eating Food Photos

Remeber a few months ago when I mentioned that I had somehow went to the hospital and came home with a child.

Well, I still have him, he’s still human, and he’s still the cutest darn baby in the whole wide world.  (His gramma and I agree on that one.)

I’ve recently started occasionally giving him some “real” food.  Real in this instance being liquefied food that comes in little jars that babys are supposed to eat.

Thus far he’s eaten some rice cereal, some banana and some apple sauce.  Banana seems to be his favorite.

Eating

He eats pretty good for a child who can’t even sit up completely on his own yet.

Closer mommy..

He likes eating too. When he’s swallowed the last mouthful he’ll grab my hand and move the spoon into his mouth again, just like he does when I’m giving him a bottle.

yummy yummy

And this last one is my favorite picture we have of him eating. I think the look on his face is so cute.

PostHeaderIcon The Bird Ladies

They fluttered into the store thirty minutes before closing time.  From the start they reminded me of a flock of birds.

As a group they circled the flower stems.  They made more than once circuit to make sure they didn’t miss anything.  There they were like vultures, circling the same patch of forest trying to make sure they didn’t miss a tasty morsel the first, second or third times around.

They stoped together and talked.  Chatter, twitter, squawk with laughter.  There they reminded me of seagulls landing on a beach, arguing over the crumbs of chips left behind by some earlier beach goer.

Then one of them stopped, tilted her head a little and looked at me with bright wet eyes.  She seperated from her flock and swooped towards me.

Now she is was a single bird of prey.  A hawk or an owl who has spotted a meal and is going down with talons out.  I was the rabbit, frozen in her shadow, wanting to run but knowing that she has seen me and even if I run my days are numbered.

She stops short in front of me, seeming to size me up before asking, “Where is the bathroom.”

“At the back and to the right,” I tell her, gesturing widely as if to shoo her away.

She flutters off, back to her flock and they twittered together a moment before swooping off again.  The flock migrated together to their watering hole.

PostHeaderIcon Train to Run a Marathon? Race to success?

While answering daily questions for my sparkteam’s spring challenge, I realized that I don’t actually DO much.

No, I take that back.  I do a lot.  I’m a new mom to a 5 month old son.  I’m a wife to an out of work husband.  I work a full time job, taking in extra hours any chance I get.

My job is very physical.  I climb up and down ladders.  I lift boxes.  I walk from one side of the store to the other and back again.  I log between 10,000 and 15,000 steps on an average 8 hour day.

Being a mom is very physical too.  I have a 14.9 pound bundle of joy who can’t even sit up on his own yet, most less actually WALK on his own.

But it seems that holding the baby seems to have taken up all of my non work time.  Its at home that I do NOTHING once I get home.  I maybe get on the computer, or watch a movie with the hubby, but I’ve not worked out since I started working.  I’ve not even gone for my walks around the neighborhood, which I was really starting to like and look forward to before I went back to work after my maternity leave.

I look at a lot of fitness magazines.  The first place I turn to is always the success stories.  Women losing massive amounts of weight and keeping it off for so very long.  Women whose stories help motivate other people.  People like me.

I want to be a success story one day.  I want someone to read about me and say, “if she can do it, then I can do it!

A couple of years ago there was a man who was around 400 pounds who declaired he was going to run the Boston Marathon.  It made a lot of people angry at him, but even more people supported him.

I was dissapointed to find that his blog is no longer up.  I thought I could look to it for inspiration.  I started thinking maybe I needed a goal.  Something more serious than to “lose weight.”

Now, I have no intentions of running the Boston marathon, and not just because Boston is too far away.  But there are local marathons, and marathons to fight cancer.

Now getting fit to run a marathon would be an odd choice for me.  I’ve never thought I wanted to be a runner.  But I just think I need SOMETHING more tangible to work towards.

PostHeaderIcon I feel my fat touching my fat!

Once upon a time I weighed 225 pounds.  Then I lost about 15 pounds and 2 pant sizes.

I was HAPPY to fit in a size 20.

Now I’ve gained all that weight back, plus some.  I can’t even fit in my size 22 jeans anymore.

Did I mention I can FEEL the fat on my back rolling back on itself on my back.

I used to look at the REALLY big women sometimes and tell myself, “I know I’m fat, but I’m never going to be THAT fat.”

Well guess what.  I think I’m that fat!

Things must change.

PostHeaderIcon Thankful Thursday (on friday)

I’m so tired. So very, very tired.
I’m hungry, and have nothing to fix for lunch.
I’m thirsty and have no coffee.
I want to sit and whine all day, throw myself a pity party.

Instead….

THANKFUL THURSDAY (on friday)

1. Parker is healthy and growing like a weed!
Parker's First Easter

2. WIC for letting me keep my baby fed.
3. Swagbucks and Gather for letting me earn gift cards for my time spent online.
4. The free magazine subscriptions I can get because of mycokerewards
5. Closing shifts mean I get to sleep in.
6. I’m off this weekend.
7.  I have a job.  (Cause ONE of us needs one)