6 miles today...

The thunder is echoing outside and I'm glad that I did my walk this a.m., though it is cooler now. The breeze is picking up and I'm thinking riding may be out of the question for the time being.

That's o.k. Laundry is in process, the house is slowly being picked up.

Bonnie called and we had a great talk. Lots of laughing, giggling and talking about children.

David is working downstairs, the little ones are laying down and quiet pervades the house.

Ahhhhh.....

6 miles today in a little under two hours. I can't believe it. But it feels SO GOOD to be able to say that. David bought me a pedometer. Its pretty cute, clips to my pants and keeps a fairly good record of the steps. But you don't use it as a end all in the grand scheme of things. Walking can be and is fast becoming, for me, addictive. With my personality that shouldn't come as a shock to anyone.

Max had his check up yesterday. He is so good and everyone just loves his personality and calm demeanor. Kidneys working great, (I could have told them that! ;-) and we're to keep on keeping on with the meds. I did tell Dr. Barb that Max and Jake occasionally walk with me since Max has dropped 1/2 lb. The hope is that with the weight he's losing that it will help the narrowing of the trachea that causes him to cough. His heart condition appears to be under control and I'm very happy and relieved.

More walking...

The day started off HOT! Sticky! and just plain nasty. I think we waited to late to get started on our walk, for this morning.

This picture is more than it seems. If you'll pull up the pic you'll see a sign in our neighbors yard that say's, "Curb your Dog". Appears as though someone already did. Check out the sidewalk. That's just plain sad.

Something bright that greets the day where I walk...

I rode all the streets in our subdivision today except for the "private drives" and if Jen and I walk each and every road we'll be walking 5.7 miles. So I now have my new goal.

Lorraine and Miss Abbey. We met Lorraine and Abbey a couple of weeks ago while on our walk. Since then we typically meet up about half way through our morning walks. Abbey and Miley love each other.

Lorraine, Abbey, Jen and Miley.

Bamboo and Chaney sharing time under the rock.....


My new Lionfish definitely has "Attitude" with a capital "A"! He is not afraid of anyone or anything. I think this one may .....

Don't want to jinx myself.



Having fun.....

Moving and more...

Almost 6 a.m. been up since 5... Thank you, Max.

So as usual I'm doing a bit of surfing before everyone is up and running. Thank heavens the kids don't have conventional school today. Just testing from 2 - 3:30 and then no school tomorrow at all, for my brood.

After checking up on all the blogs that I follow, I've discovered that a lot of people I follow (don't know personally) are moving. Does that bring back memories. Not all pleasant ones, I can say. I'm so glad that I'm not faced with that prospect any time soon. I never did like the act of moving. I loved being in a new apartment or house. Though now when I think about it I did act positively while moving and purged a lot of stuff so that there was room in the new place for fun new stuff on occasion. :-) Oh well I hope everyone gets settled with as little trouble as possible.
(Shhh.... I 'AM' looking forward to the day of being able to move out of this monster into something smaller and having to down size the "stuff" that is in this house. Just gives me anticipation chills just thinking about it. Oooooo.... Oh well. I know thats a long way off.)

Cooler weather on the horizon for us. Nights in the 50's and days in the 70's - low 90's. Still better than most other places in the nation. Yesterday, David felt like an evening ride for the first time in about a week with the completion of his first portion of the book. So we headed off and ended up out on Marksheffel Rd. headed north from Constitution Rd. and we had to stop and put on jackets as the temp had dropped sufficiently to start the freezing process for me. Burr... (Its August, right?) The ride was nice even though we didn't stop at Starbucks for the traditional "end of ride coffee" :-( . Everyone we've ridden with is now hooked on that last stop. Its our time to talk about the ride, hash out riding issues, ask advice, etc. And, of course, Starbucks is always glad to see our smiling faces show up at their stores. We're the envy of all who see and enjoy our company. O.k. whatever....

I think today will find me cleaning bathrooms and bedrooms. The kiddos can vacuum and make their beds while I dust and clean windows. We have preparing to do. At least thats what I'll tell them to get better cooperation out of them. Reason...

TJ is coming for a visit. He called the other day and didn't realize that we've not spoken in almost 2 years. So glad to hear his voice and know that all is well. He and Amanda are moving to Montana and will be driving through here at the end of September. He'll be flying Helicopters for the Air Force up there. Anxious to hear how long they'll be stationed there. Offered the guest room up for their use. Hope they'll take us up on the offer. All the kids are thrilled that TJ! is coming for a visit.

First Day of School and more...

My baby's...
Ready and waiting...

O.k. now we're here and all lined up... I think I'm ready for 1st grade. Yep! I'm ready!

This is great! I'm so excited!

Another friend in the same class!

All day..... I get to stay in school .... All Day!

I get to buy my lunch at school for the first time. I'm in the big leagues now...

My poor rug. All in the same day I discovered that there was a crack in the vase of the beautiful arrangement that David got me for our anniversary and it leaked water all over the breakfast table and onto the chairs and floor. Got that all cleaned up and later in the afternoon, after changing vases, a gust of wind blew over the new arrangement and spilt water all over the table and floor again. So this time the rug was so wet that we had to move it outside to dry. The kids took this opportunity to do an old fashioned "rug beating" and just had a blast doing it.

What a great Birthday...

Olivia made me this pillow all by herself and I had no idea she was even making it. Dad said that she has worked for weeks on it. All crocheted and sewed it together all by herself. The pillow is just beautiful.

Thank you, Honey!

David got me this beautiful vase of roses, lily's and baby's breathe. The aroma is just indescribable. You smell them the minute you walk in the house. Very calming and relaxing.

For lunch David and the kids took me to China Inn 2. They have a wonderful buffet with authentic Chinese and the usual American Chinese food. Fen, one of the owners and the mother of Jason (who has been here to play numerous times), ended up surprising me for the day with a birthday cake and paying for our entire meal. I tried to explain how appreciative I was and I think she finally understood. I hope so.

The Lionfish is another gift. I'm crazy about these fish and I hope this one won't cause a landslide in the tank. I've made sure that everything in the tank, for the moment, is unmovable.
Tonight David is taking me to Jake and Telly's for dinner. Greek food! Jen and Bob accompanied us there. Oopa!

At 10:00 the owner of the restraurant walked around giving everyone a shot of Ouzo and then he toasted to Friday night and us all being there. OOPA!!!

Well the pics of the dinner didn't turn out well, but the pic of the dessert did! So from top to bottom: Ouzo Ice Cream, Tiramisu, Chocolate Mousse, and then Saragli.

Of bikes, bears, birthdays and a anniversary

More bear sightings every day. Our neighbor called and told me they had to pick up a friend of their daughters who was walking home when the bears came to close to him and apparently showed an interest.

32 years... This is our rehearsal dinner. Can't believe we were ever that young and cute!
50 years old... (Well I won't post a picture of that! ;-)) Yep!

My brother, Steve, and I share a birthday. Happy Birthday Steve!
Our friends Bob and Jen, who we ride with, have been sharing a bike for the last few months. You might remember my post of them taking the plunge and having Jen move up from the Hyosung to the Harley Davidson Heritage Softail. Like so many of us, Jen was the first to ride and Bob, deciding that if he ever wanted to see his wife again might need to learn to ride. Story sound familiar? David experienced that same scenario over 3 years ago. Well yesterday Bob bought his bike. An '09 Electra Glide with the touring package. Just beautiful!

So off we all rode for a bite of lunch at our favorite fast food Mexican joint, Monica's Tacos. 4 bikes, 4 riders and the newbie owner of the group leading the way.

Jake and the storm...

I finally have had enough. Jake. Our 6 year old poodle who insists on not house breaking. I caught Jake "spritzing" my vanity chair in the bathroom. I jumped off the bed, screaming his name and chased him through the house and put him in the corner!

We had a wonderful storm the other night and I just couldn't not take a picture and video of it. Kind of reminds me of the movie "ID4". The lightening was phenomenal as you'll see.

Walking, Kiddo's and Bears....... Oh My!

Three little brown fur balls and Mama! Jen sent me this pic of their trash being assaulted last Tuesday, about 2 days after we had a bear munching in OUR garbage. She had just been saying that she was disappointed that she'd not seen any bears this year. I guess this made up for it. (Click on the pic to pull it up to a larger size)

School starting soon. Kids getting excited. So is Mom!

Just thought I'd throw this picture of my lazy shark in for good measure. She (yes, its a girl) loves laying on her side on this rock. Just waiting for feeding time...

My walking is going well. Averaging about 2 miles a day. That's pretty good for me. Working on increasing the distance. Just have to quit wheezing on the hills! Ha Ha! I'd like to get to about 3.5 to 4 miles daily before the winter weather sets in. I do anticipate keeping up the walking even in that time of year. Do you think I'll need to wear different shoes then? Anxious to find out.
David working non-stop on his book. He has to have the first 25% turned on the 15th of the month. The date for release has been pushed back a couple of months, I believe. But we'll let everyone know when to check in the book stores for it, definitely after the first of the year.

I'm starting to get the painting bug again. I really want to re-paint the upstairs family room. Problem... How do I move a 150 gallon aquarium to do the painting? I suppose I could just paint around the thing and then paint the wall when we have the floors redone sometime in the distant future. The room really needs a new coat of paint after 11 years. I guess I'll start looking at colors and then decide if I want to move the aquarium or not.

Do you have any idea just how lucky I was to catch a picture of the "thing" living in our basement? I know the picture is fuzzy, but I had to hide and spring out when it emerged from its hiding place.

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