Category: My Life

I got this message this morning when I woke up and logged onto my email.

31 days until your next cruise!
7-day Southern Caribbean Explorer
Ship: Caribbean Princess
Embarkation Port: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Number of Days: 7

I am really looking forward to this cruise and to getting away from it all. It’s been a really busy Autumn for us. A lot of running around, a lot of catch up work around the house, and some stress.

Mostly I get stressed about the little things. Isn’t that silly? I really shouldn’t, but I do. I need to learn to just let it roll off of my back, but I find it very difficult to do that.

I also need to not take things so personally and allow people’s words to hurt me so much. Yes, it’s been a tough fall.

Now I am looking forward to my 50th Birthday Cruise. That will be fun, relaxing and we will see several new Island Countries that we have not been to before.

Yes, I’ll be sending reports and pictures along the way. How could I leave you all behind? Oh yes! One month and counting!!!

I can hardly wait!!!

I was off to my hair stylist’s Tuesday afternoon and when I arrived I sat down in her chair with a frown and showed her this:

Flat hair on the top, wild sides and a style that was nearly impossible for me to do. Add to that the fact that it was making my face look fat and it all ads up to one unhappy lady!

Margarita went to work. I explained that I wanted layers and lots of them, while keeping my length. She cut and measured and cut some more. I glanced at the floor and was amazed at the amount of hair she had trimmed off. Apparently my hair had really gotten quite long and full.

Once she was done with the snipping, she gently fingered my hair while she blew it dry and these small curls formed.

Margarita styled it a bit fancier than I will, but she showed me how to encourage the curls and then to style my hair so that it actually is pulled back away from my face naturally.

I know from previous cuts that having this style will be easy for me. The really funny thing is that when I was a little girl, I had tight blond curls. Then one day in a fit of pique my mother cut them all off. After that my hair never grew back curly. Wavy, yes, but no curls.

Now, as I enter my 50’s I suddenly have found that my curls returned with a vengeance. I suppose I could cut them off again, but let’s face it, I can’t afford another 50 years for them to return!

I’ll be playing with the new style now and seeing what I can do.

What do you think?

******************************

PS: I opened the door at the end of the evening to walk Greta and found Fritz doing a frantic dance. The smell that hit me was so overwhelming that I knew he’d been hit by a skunk! While Hubby made an emergency run to the grocery store for tomato juice, I washed Fritz down with brown soap and rinsed him well. All this was done outside in the 54 degree weather!

Hubby returned from the grocery store and we started to wash Fritz with the tomato juice. Sponging it into his fur until he was completely covered. Then we got out the hose and started to rinse him off.

We now own a Pink German Shepherd!

He is now drying off in the basement where he will spend the night. I sure hope we got it all and that tomorrow Fritz will be back to normal. Well, besides the pink hue to his fur, that is!

LOL!!!

I went to the doctor with Hubby today to get the results of tests we both had recently. I expected to breeze through my exam and have Hubby be the patient with the problems. After all he is a diabetic, and he does have marginally high blood pressure, and he is twenty years older than me, so I thought that the tests might show a problem with one of his ailments.

Was I wrong. Apparently turning 50 causes ones body to melt down and turn to mush.

My cholesterol level is too high and I’ve been given 6 months to get it in line or he wants me to be on medication. My blood sugar is also incredibly low and he is concerned about that. And although my blood pressure is extremely low (I should probably be unconscious) I come to find out that the combination of low blood sugar and low blood pressure isn’t actually a good thing.

The highlight of the exam was finding out that he feels I am close to a good goal weight for a woman my age!

A woman my age!!!

Well, I knew it had to happen. I am close to becoming (in just about a month) a woman “my age”!

I never thought that 50 was old. Wait I did. I remember thinking that being 50 meant being close to having one foot in the grave, but then, I was 9 years old at the time. Now at 49 years and 11 months both my body and my brain are failing me.

As I looked in the mirror today I wasn’t too thrilled at the face that was peering back. So I started to check things.

Eyes? Not bad, although the lids are looking a little tired. Nose? Thankfully the plastic surgeon did a good job. Mouth? Still good, not many lines around the edges.

So what was wrong?

My hair.

It’s long, almost all one length now and I am totally unable to do it on a regular basis. I either leave it curly like Little Orphan Annie, or pull it into a pony-tail.

So while you are reading this, I will be at my favorite salon getting the hair cut into a style that says “WOW”! And is easy to keep under control.

I shall report tomorrow on the makeover!

I have had several people write and ask me about my recently posted eye pictures. I wrote about it a long time ago, but many of you have joined me since then. So let me post this link which will tell you the story of what happened to me, and my poor little eye back in 2002.

I’m quite lucky now. I have most of my vision, and my distance vision is perfect. About the only deficit I have is with my peripheral vision, and there isn’t much we can do about that. After what I went through I am very happy to have as much of my vision as I do have.

Yes, it was a very scary thing to go through. I can safely say that one of the greatest of all of my senses is my vision. To not be able to see the beauty around me would break me. So I thank God each and every day for doctors gifted and dedicated enough to have been able to operate and restore what was so cruelly taken from me.

The eyes are both doing well now and I simply have yearly visits to make sure that the eyes are remaining healthy.

Trust me, I will never again take my vision for granted!

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~SAD~

These were taken in 2002 after my retina detached and I had the surgery to repair it. Not only did I feel like I had been punched in the face, but I looked like it too. It was a tough time for me, and I was very sad.

Okay, I know that you all have been dying to know how I did with my diet during my trip into Amish Country. Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is simple, homemade and just plain delicious. This is the kind of food that makes a Weight Watcher shake with fear!

And shake I did!!!

Now I tried to be good. I had packed Weight Watchers yogurt and Weight Watchers snack bars to keep me honest. On the first day I even made myself a turkey sandwich on diet bread. Oh, I was feeling strong!

Then came the dinner at the Angus Beef Steak house where I chowed down on Beef Wellington, which I sort of felt I could get away with because I didn’t have a baked potato with my meal, just a garden salad and no dessert. The next morning, however, I totally screwed up.

Pancakes, maple syrup and bacon!!!

Okay, I could get through this. I’d just make it up at lunch. What did they serve? Pulled Pork sandwiches, chips and cookies. I was good. I didn’t eat the cookies!

That night the banquet was amazing. The most delicious chicken cordon bleu ever, with baby red bliss potatoes in butter sauce, corn and green beans, salad and for dessert, triple chocolate mousse cake!

Yes, I knew then that I would burn in hell.

I also did not watch what I ate when we visited our friends in the Catskills. She is a remarkable German cook and I enjoyed every single bite of her cooking. Yes, every single bite!

So, what happened to me as a result? I gained a pound for all of my transgressions.

I’ve now hopped back onto the Weight Watchers train, and I am taking care of myself again. It makes me realize just how easy it is to slip back into old and bad habits.

Time to get out the carrot and celery sticks!

I’ve been consciously working each and every day to get to my goal at Weigh Watchers. Most recently I decided to watch my carbs a bit more and eat more fruit for the same number of points. I’ve been rewarded by two weeks with very good weight losses. Last week I was down 1.2 pounds and today, 2.2. What does this mean? It means I have just 4 pounds to go to my goal weight!!!

I’m pretty happy about this. That is probably a great understatement. You see a year ago I was really unhappy at the weight I was. I didn’t like the fact that my clothes were tight (and getting tighter) and my cheeks looked very much like a chipmunk! I also didn’t feel well. I had no energy and felt quite lethargic.

I’d thought about Weight Watchers for a while, but I felt like if I failed at one more thing, I would have a melt down.

Christmas came and New Years was on the way, so I looked up where the closest meeting was and I planned. Right after New Years I was going to go. I was also not going to miss a meeting unless I was in Intensive Care! And I haven’t missed one meeting.

It has not always been easy, and I have had weeks when I did everything right and didn’t lose an ounce! However, I kept going and I didn’t give up.

Now it is so close. My goal weight. The weight I have wanted to be for the longest time. It’s really happening!

I am the Incredible Shrinking Woman!!!