#4 Music

Music is a part of me.

Now, I could not tell you the difference between a C note & a G note just by sound alone-no I have to see the music to do that. And when the musician in a movie/show inevitably asks the singer/other musician "what key would you like?"-believe me when I say, I have no freakin' idea how they know what they are talking about. Oh yes, I know that they sound different & I might be able to tell you the difference between a minor key & a major key, but to be so specific about that stuff-please don't even begin to trust me with it! And don't even get me started on having to find a beat-oh, I can, but it's not always pretty. Trust me when I say that marching band was definitely not my strong suit! ;)

I do know, though, that music has always been a big part of my life. From the radio always being on in our house growing up, from all of the tapes & eventually CD's I listened to growing up, from the MP3's that eventually came blasting out of my computer in college, from my days of taking piano lessons when I broke my arm up through part of high school, from my days in junior high band playing the clarinet (I wanted to play in high school, but mom said it was too much "running" along with doing sports-at the time I didn't fully get that, but now I do :), from the days of dancing any chance I could get at various weddings/outings to these most recent days of hoping to instill a similar love of music into my own child. Music has & always will be a big part of my life.

It is the one thing that I know I can turn to when I am feeling stressed & know that after just a few well-picked songs (either listened to or played on my piano), I will be feeling better. It is also the one thing (besides having a good friend to share it with) that makes exercising seem easier. It is the one thing that is probably most tied to my memories. There are many songs that when I hear them, I am instantly taken back to a certain time/place/feeling in my life almost as clearly as if I was right there again-if only for a moment anyway. I could not even begin to imagine my world without music in it...in fact, when answering the question, "would you rather be blind or deaf?" I usually say blind because I would hate never getting to hear some of my favorite songs/sounds again & the voices of loved ones (which are like music to my ears-nice how I worked that in there, huh? ;)

So, over the next 30 years, music-I hope you & I will be hearing quite a bit of each other still! :)

Time to Change...

the look of the ole blog that is.

I was receiving a message that my blog background would be disappearing on Friday, so what better time to change things up a bit. I loved the look of the old background, but with some of the changes that blogger has made (since I've really messed around with any of this kind of stuff-maybe last summer) I am actually pretty excited about it. Keep an eye out-I'm hoping to change a few more things over the next few weeks too.

And now for your entertainment (or in my husband's case, he'd probably view it as torture!), a video of those fabulous Brady's singing "Time to Change"-I know, clever, isn't it?! ;)

I know they're a bit corny, but I just love this show!

For my dad...

who is always dutifully checking here for new information & has recently (yesterday) commented on the lack of blogging.

This will just have to do for now, but at least it will be something different to look at for the moment :)

He can also recently be quoted as having said, [insert sarcasm now] "You won't ever have to worry about anyone kidnapping Luke...they'd bring him back!" [it's okay to laugh now-I found this statement quite humorous! :)]

Hmmm....you think Luke kept him & my mom busy on his recent overnight stay! ;)
Luke is definitely, busy, that's for sure! But, boy, did I enjoy the break-even if it was only for a day!
Thanks mom & dad!

(And you all wonder why I'm tired all the the time & not blogging enough this summer?) hehe

#3 My Weight

My Weight, you ask? Yes, my weight.

For almost as long as I can remember, it has been my constant companion/nemesis. I have always been a "big girl" & since a very young age, have always been self-conscious about it. I can remember being a little girl running around the house wondering why my belly stuck out when others' did not. Then came along school, where I was always at least a head or two taller than all of my classmates (& I was even one of the youngest in my class!) & along with that came being quite a bit heavier than my classmates too. I hated the seesaw because there was never anyone I could ride it with (or if they tried-it always took at least 2 of them on the other side for us to go up & down.) All throughout school, I always felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb (especially when I hit 6 feet by 6th/7th grade!) & always felt like I never quite "fit in" completely with anyone. Junior high was definitely the worst for this, let's just say that junior high boys can be especially cruel with the kinds of nicknames that they come up with & think are hilarious...thus, humor became my way of fitting in...I always remember hearing that it was a good way to defuse a bully, but I'm not really sure that it did the trick. However, I did figure out that I liked making people laugh (& still do to this day when I can) & that no matter how much you ignore them-words can still make a deep hurt.

Anyway, as the years have progressed, a huge chunk of me has always been focused on my weight, I never really dieted when I was younger, my thoughts always turned to exercising first instead, but I just never really stuck with anything outside of sports at school & softball during the summer. Even the year I joined an all winter volleyball program & actually slimmed down quite a bit, I still knew I was "fat"-even when others' kept telling me that I was looking "so good!" It wasn't until college when I happened upon some pictures from that era, that I thought "Wow, I looked pretty good then! If only I had realized it at the time..."

As an adult (& mostly since being married), I have now tried several different "diets." Most of them have worked, but the weight has eventually come back. About 3 or 4 years ago, I hit my highest point ever & realized that I needed to do something & make it stick. I can't even remember if I started out doing a specific diet, but I know that eventually what I was doing was combining aspects from the 3 or 4 that I had tried & basically doing my own thing (in a healthy way.) I ended up losing about 30-35 lbs, which eventually lead to me being able to maintain & keep off about 25 of those lbs for the last couple of years. My ultimate weight loss goal is to lose about 80-90 lbs from that high point I had hit, so I have about 2/3 of it left to go, but I also know that I have done better in the past hitting about that 30 lb mark & then taking a break from it for awhile to maintain that point that I reach.

So with 30 approaching very quickly, I am hoping to do that again by the end of the year, or at least be heading down on the scale instead of the "same old same old" numbers. I find it ridiculous to do this in an unhealthy way, so trust me when I say that I will be using healthy eating habits & exercise. And I hope that before the next 30 years have gone by, that I will have finally reached my "dream weight."

So, to my lifelong tag along, my weight, thanks (I guess) for all of the life experience you have bestowed upon me, but please don't be offended as I try to say "SO LONG" to part of you as the years go by! :)

Day 1...Part 2

As we enter the church, we find out that although we are ten minutes late for church-the Mass is only just beginning. Even if we were going to be late though, I was okay with the fact that no one would know us & that (although normally I try to dress "nice" for church, this time...) my "dumpy" looking tank top & jogging capri pants that I had been traveling in would be 'okay' just this one time. Boy, did I stand out like a sore thumb!

As we're walking in, we notice feathery white hats lining the aisle, which can only mean one thing in a Catholic church-the Knights of Columbus knights were there for Mass, which only means one thing-this was an important Mass! The next thing I see are individuals walking down the aisle followed by a priest wearing a tall hat, which means THIS MASS WAS BEING DONE BY A BISHOP & there I stood in my dumpy looking tank top & jogging capris! Hmmm...needless to say, I felt just a little bit conspicuous next to all of the very dressed up people who were there to celebrate CONFIRMATION! So the hope of a "short" Mass flew out the window as we walked out of church 1 1/2 hours later-I was just glad that Luke ended up napping through half of it, which helped to hide my dumpy looking outfit too :)

The bishop did a wonderful job & was interesting to listen to too-& it was interesting to note...that before he got started with things, he apologized for being late-his GPS had led him to the parking lot of the local Kroger's instead of to the church! Guess that answered my question from our trip to the church ;)

The only trouble we really ran into was at the end when we were walking out of church & Luke requested holy water. I took him up to the font, but as any good two year old will do who is in the throws of his "terrible two's", he stalled around & wouldn't dip his hand in the font so with people waiting behind us I just moved on out the door. I did not realize what an ordeal this would lead too! My child proceeds to throw a lovely tantrum while screaming "I WANT HOLY WATER!" as we head to the car. If I let him get it, am I caving into a tantrum? But then again, what parent wouldn't want there kid to have all of the holy water (as well as its blessings) that they could get? Maybe it would cure his terrilbe twoitis! :) We opted not to give in to the tantrum & we heard about it all the way back to the hotel & then again sporadically throughout the rest of the trip-we finally promised him that he could DEFINITELY get some holy water the next week at church.

All in all, it was a good experience & we made it back to the hotel to catch just a little bit of time in the pool before turning in for the night to rest up for Day 2 of driving!

P.S. Since, I have been a horrible slacker of a blogger lately & it now feels a little 'dated' to continue writing about a vacation from well over a month ago :) I'll probably include one more post with the "highlights" (& maybe some pics) & then try to move on from there ;) Maybe I can improve on my average of 2 posts/month over the past few months!

Day 1

We (actually more like me :) decided to split our 12-13 hour drive up into 2 days. We knew that we would be stopping after about 6-7 hours of driving and figured this would probably be the best plan with a 2 (almost 3) year old in tow. The driving went rather smoothly (with no electronic gadgets along for entertainment, I might add!) & we arrived with a few hours to spare before the evening Mass time that was scheduled at the local church that we were planning on attending.

We hung around our hotel room for a little while, but very quickly figured out that the aformentioned child would not do well with this plan for very long, so we decided to go get something to eat & then attempt to find the church. Supper went well & Luke got on fabulously with the older ladies sitting in the booth behind us (I think he even got food offerings from them if memory serves me correctly.) Then it was time to find the church...

We went back to the hotel since this was the point where our directions started...we had about 10 minutes to find the church (it was only supposed to take about 3-5 minutes to get there). We started driving, but being the "navigator," I noticed that none of the street names matched except for the one that was our hotel's driveway...hmmm.

We finally decided to go back & get directions from the hotel staff. They looked up the address & located it on a city map & we were on our way! As we drove, I wondered aloud whether or not a GPS would have been very helpful-probably not if they get their directions from the same major source that Scott looked ours up with. We got to the church about 5-10 minutes late...normally that would be a "tsk, tsk" but God must have been smiling at us on this day (or in my case laughing tremendously) because...

TO BE CONTINUED ;-P

What a difference a year (& a vacation) make!

One year ago...we were left reeling from having a new baby as part of our family for a couple of days & then having to take him back...

One month ago...I was really not looking forward to these last few days as they would mark the 1 year point since this had all happened & we still have not been able to add another member (even with a seemingly "real" possibility in our future at the time) to our family in that time frame...

What can I say? Vacation was a wonderful distraction & ours came at the most opportune time!

We had not purposefully planned it this way for this reason-it was based on work schedules, but it was nice timing to say the least.

It was not lost on me, though, that on the day we made it home-was the same day one year ago when I was able to watch a little being being brought into this world & how it filled my heart with joy & I was hopeful that wherever Baby E (who probably isn't much of a baby anymore :) was, that he was having a very happy birthday. He will always hold a special little piece of my heart even if he isn't part of our home & family. Happy Birthday Baby E!

Monday was the anniversary of taking him back, but luckily, even though I have a "mind for dates"-this date was forgotten at the time & wasn't as difficult to deal with :)

Vacation stories coming soon & maybe even some pics-WHAT???-I know, I rarely do pics so you'll just have to wait & see on that one :)