The Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska 2008.
How can you continue to have a bad day while
looking at something so beautiful?!

Life is not always a bowl of cherries...sometimes its the pits!

How I wish that life were always easy. Although, if it was, I guess I wouldn't appreciate the good times as much.

Gotta luv it!

Way back before it became fashionable and ecofriendly (i.e. "green") to buy stuff used, I was already a Garage Sale Junkie. My kids wore tons of clothing from garage sales, especially as babies. Over the years, I have found all kinds of bargains. Take today for example: I bought a really nice, clean, functional bread machine for $2.50. That's right...two dollars and fifty cents. How can you pass buy a deal like that?! So to all those out there who haven't yet been bitten by the garage sale bug...COME ON IN, THE WATER'S FINE! Not only is it better for the environment to purchase used "stuff", its better for your budget too. Its also alot of fun hunting for deals. Just be careful...if you don't pay attention, you can end up spending more money on gas than you save by finding bargains! Happy Hunting....

Bike Update

Well - I made it past the end of my road tonight. OK, it was only 1 driveway past the end of the road and I walked part of the way back. But I am just going to keep on trying. Millie the Yorkie has adapted to riding the bike alot faster that I have. When we got back into the garage after our brief trip, she didn't want to get out of the basket. I could just hear her thinking "Are we done ALREADY?" Maybe I should teach HER how to pedal and I could ride in the basket!! I figure that, about the time I start to get the hang of this, it will start to snow and I will have to start all over again next spring. I wonder if they make snow tires for bikes?

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Check this out! Not too bad for a "newbie"!!

I am so pitiful...

I have been really excited all day thinking about riding my new bike. I got home from work, changed my clothes, put my Yorkie in the rear basket and headed down the driveway. Cool....right? WRONG! I could barely make it to the end of the road (and that is NOT very far) before I had to stop. I forgot how much WORK riding a bike is. Perhaps I should have gotten a model with a MOTOR! But of course, that wouldn't be very green now would it?!

At the end of my last posting I asked if anyone had any bubble wrap. What I SHOULD have asked was: "Does anyone know a good massage therapist?" My butt hurts already!!

Its all good!

For quite some time, I have been considering buying a 3 wheeled bicycle for myself. I still want to ride, but my daughter took my 2 wheeler. Of course, I never was very good at riding it anyway (lets just say that BALANCE is not one of my strong points!). But I didn't want to buy anything NEW. I wanted to find a USED bike because:

1. I don't know how often I will get to ride it
2. I don't want to spend a ton of money and
3. I have learned from a year of following the "No Impact Man" expirement/blog that buying used stuff is better for the environmet. (Buying used means NO resources are consumed to create something. Its as "green" as you can be!)

So, I have been searching on CraigsList for a 3 wheeler for a grown up. Lo and behold....I found one! OK - I found it several days ago and just today got the courage to call the contact number. The nicest person called me back!

Tonight my husband and I took a drive through the country to her horse farm for handicapped kids. I figured from her add that she might have 4 or 5 bikes to choose from, so I was considering myself really lucky. Boy were we in for a surprise.....she probably had FIFTY of them to choose from! It turns out they were all donated to her to sell as a fund raiser for her kids.

I found a really heavy duty bike with a basket in back and the most comfortable seat I have ever parked my rear on. I got it for a fraction of what it would have cost new, the money went for a great cause and no harm was done to the environment. So you see....Its All Good!!!

Now...if I can only manage to not hurt myself......hmmmmm....does anyone know where I can find a used bike helmet and a roll of bubble wrap?!

Why are cookies so EVIL?

Like many other people, I constantly struggle with my weight. Over the past couple of years, I have been losing not only the battle, but the entire war. I recently (like...last Wednesday) managed to convince myself yet again that I needed to try and eat healthier. I made it until Sunday, but then the cookies got me.

How is it that such innocent looking little circles can hold such POWER over me?! I swear that they just jump into my mouth on their own. And really, what did I ever do to them to deserve this? Haven't I loved them all equally (and well) over the years? I know that I pay them WAY to much attention. If you don't believe me, just check out the number on the tag of my pants. Wait a minute - you had better not!

Why can't cookies taste like liver....or brussel sprouts? If they did, then I would have absolutely no problem leaving them alone!

Lord, grant me patience...

I used to think that no one could "push my buttons" better than my husband...I was wrong. My teenagers are WAY better! All the experts say, when dealing with teenagers, the most important thing is to never lose your cool. Clearly, those experts never spent any significant length of time working with anyone in this age group. I try really hard but....eventually I find myself losing it and getting sucked into their moods. Yikes!

Don't get me wrong, I am blessed with 2 really good kids. They really aren't doing anything that every other teenager in the world isn't doing too. And I am fortunate in that mostly what I have to handle with them is mouthiness, at least so far!

If there is anyone out there reading this posting who has survived raising teenagers, I would love to hear from you. I am particularly interested in ways to keep my cool when their hormones (and mine) are raging!

Two Little Boys

Someone I know had a baby boy today. I found this especially moving, as MY "baby boy" started High School today. HE was very nervous. His MOTHER was a basket case! But anyway...

How is it possible that he is in High School already? Wasn't it just last week that I watched that chubby, red haired little boy take his first steps into my arms? And wasn't it just yesterday that he started kindergarden? And didn't he reach Junior High School only an hour ago?

When my children were little, other parents told me "enjoy it....it goes by quickly". And I listened. I really did. But I don't think that anything truly prepared me for just HOW quickly it would go. Or the fact that the speed of life would not simply go from one rate to another but would instead go into a constant acceleration that has yet to slow down, much less stop.

So here we are in High School, raging hormones and all.

He turns 15 in a couple more weeks. If you think I am melancholy now, just wait until that post comes along!

Today was my first day back to work after 10 days vacation. Right before I left, we had a MAJOR flood at work (water main break - nasty!). I came back to an office in turmoil, which is not good when you are a "compulsive neat" like me! All of my stuff was gone and someone elses stuff was in boxes in my office. My computer was on a shelf and 2/3 of my desk had been emptied out. Whoever packed my desk for me got a little carried away. They packed away my beeper, my calculator and every writing implement I had. Without those basic tools, you might as well use me as a door stop because that's about all I am good for!

I found not knowing where or how I was going to work was very unsettling. It made me really anxious. I didn't even know where the contents of my office went. I eventually found the boxes my stuff was in (HUGE relief!). But as I was searching, I spent some time thinking about what I felt to be the most important things I needed to find. It turns out, my needs were pretty simple: my fan (no menopausal woman can live without her fan), my beeper and the picture of my sister that I keep on my desk. Even after I found the boxes, I really only needed the stuff that was in one or two of them.

I think there is a message in all of this somewhere. But at the moment that message isn't coming to me. I just have this feeling like there is something really important that I am supposed to learn from this experience. I guess I will just have to wait until its the right time for me to figure it out. But.... I so HATE waiting....so if any one out there can see the message clearly, would you please let me know?!

I have NO IDEA what I am doing!

My niece, Anne, has this really cool blog that I love reading. (I will post a link to her blog if I can ever figure out how!) She uses it to share pictures of my beautiful great-niece and great-nephew and to share a little bit of herself with us. When you live at opposite ends of the country (Northeast vs. Southeast) its really nice to be allowed these frequent inclusions into the lives of your distant family.

Being the compulsive person I am, I decided that this blogging idea was pretty cool and I should do it too. There was this really easy link at the top of her blog page that I clicked on and....Ta Da...my very own blog. Sounds great, right? Well...it is...sort of....if I had any idea what to do now! I think I see a phone call to Anne in my really near future!

If you are reading this blog, please bear with me. I am currently on the steep slope of the learning curve! Oh - and if you have any ideas for how I can make this blog thing actually work, please let me know and I will try to figure out how to read your comments!

In the mean time, if nothing else, I hope that some of this gave someone a good laugh!