Happy "55"!

Friday was my 55th birthday. It was a really great day. It started out very quiet. I was the only one in the house awake. I went to work and got so many wonderful presents. Everything from workout clothes to handmade jewelry. At 5:30, I went to my daughter's house for my surprise. That was what I was told by my three year old granddaughter. It was a surprise and she wasn't talking. We got there and I was greeted with flying streamers and many yells of surprise and it just kept getting better.

We had a great quitar player.

We had a princess.

We had an acrobat.

We even had dancing girls!

We had yummy roasted vegetable pizza and lots of snackies.

There were lots of presents and every one of them was something I asked for.

There was chocolate eclair cake with candles and helpers to blow them out.
(Don't ask me how, but the picture for this just disappeared and I can't find it!)

There were lots of smiles and laughter. It was a great surprise. I was told I would love it and I did. I have the best family ever. Everyone was there except my daughters boyfriend who is still down at Purdue. He called though.

This is my daughter, the hostess. She does way too much. She has a three year old and a one year old and is 20 weeks pregnant. I should be doing for her, not vice versa. My youngest daughter gave her lots of help, so that made me proud and happy. Like I have said many times before, I have amazing kids! This was a great birthday and being 55 is better than I could have dreamed. Maybe I'll even do that half marathon. I've been giving that lots and lots of thought. We even discussed it at the party. I'll let you know when I decide.

Lastly, thank you to all my friends who left me birthday wishes on my blog, email and Facebook. It made the day even more special. You are the best!

You Capture/Lines

Lines, okay!

This is my couch.

This is my favorite Longaberger basket.

My table runner.

Our stockings.

Lines gone wrong. This was supposed to be really cool. It's the house across the street and it was supposed to show the reflection of the lights on the rain soaked street. Guess I'll be trying that one again sometime.

Okay, you know the drill. Head over to Beth's to see the rest of the lines.

Weigh In #6

It's weigh in time again. I keep waiting for the week when I can say I had a big loss, but it just never seems to come. I lost .5 pounds. I say this every week, but any loss is better than no loss. Right? One of these weeks is going to be my week I can't wait!

Thank goodness I have my pedometer to keep me happy. This week I had 100,923 steps which converts to 50.5 miles. Now, that makes me happy!! Christmas shopping has helped add some extra steps. Yay for shopping!!

I'm having a real battle with myself over this 1/2 marathon thing. There are so many things to consider. I've done two half marathons before in Indy. I walked them both and I had a good time. This is going to sound funny to most of you, but I have never flown before. Do I want to fly for the first time all by myself all the way across the country? Can I raise $3500.? I had a hard enough time raising $350. for the March for Babies last spring. Then there is the fact that I am going to be 55 on Friday. I'm at least 20 to 30 years older than most of the girls in the Sisterhood. I would love to go and do a great job and raise the money and meet all the people that I only know online, but can I really do it? Will my ankle let me do it? Like I said, lots of things to consider. Luckily, I have a few more weeks to think about all these things before I have to commit or decline.

The next three weeks are going to be tough as far as keeping on track with my eating and exercising. There are so many parties and family functions that I have to go to with the holidays. There is also my birthday. I went out last night and tonight already and my birthday is two days away. Lord, please give me the strength to get through this hectic, but oh so happy time. You guys can send a little inspiration my way too! Please!!!

Golden "54"

If you have been reading my blog from the beginning, you know how I have felt about being 54. I wrote a post about it early on in my blogging adventure. 54 has not been my favorite age.

What I realized this past week was that I have missed a lot of the joy of an entire year of my life by worrying about a number. My dad died at 54 and I hated being that age. I spent too much time dwelling on that number. Anything that was going to happen in my 54th year was going to happen regardless of what I did or didn't do.

I was thinking the other day that if you can have a golden birthday when you turn the age of your birthdate, why can't you have a golden birth year? This was my golden birth year. I was born in 1954 and I was 54 this year. Makes sense, right?

So, one week from today, I will turn 55. I plan to enjoy every minute of my next year. I will be thankful for every day. I will not dwell on the bad that could happen. In the final analysis, you can't really control anything. You can just live what comes your way. I plan to do just that.

I will enjoy my family. I will spend all the time I can with my beautiful grand kids. I will wait with great anticipation for my third grandchild. We will find out on the 14th (my mom's birthday) what sex this baby will be. I will continue to enjoy my job. I will continue to work on my lifestyle/exercise changes. I will continue to learn all I can about my new camera and photography in general. Believe it or not, I am even thinking about trying to run a half marathon in San Diego of all places in June. My girls at the Sisterhood have me thinking that I can do this kind of crazy stuff.

These are my promises to me and me alone. I spend a lot of my life doing for everyone else and that has always been my choice. I'm sure I will still do that, but I will also live for me. It is my life and the choices are up to me. 55 is going to be a good year lived without dread and worrying to the best of my ability. This is my promise to myself!

You Capture/My Happy Story

Last week when I saw this weeks assignment, I had an idea about Thanksgiving and Santa coming to town. I sat down tonight and I counted the pictures I had picked out and it was an even dozen. That got me thinking. There is nothing in the world that makes me happier than

This dozen We are a perfect dozen. It started out just the two of us and over the years we went to six and now there are twelve of us. In April, we will be a bakers dozen when we welcome our third grandchild. My family is everything to me. I love them with all my heart. Even though I decided to go with one simple picture, I think it tells volumes of my happy story.

If you head over to Beth's, I bet you'll find some wonderful happy stories. That's where I'm heading.

Weigh In/Week 5

I can't believe it is already week five. I am pleased to say that even with the holiday, I was able to stay even with my weight. I would have liked a loss, but this is okay too.

Globetrotting is going great. I had 105,585 steps which converts to 52.7 miles. I am really loving this challenge. I feel really good about this one.

I am also really enjoying the More Workouts challenge. It gives you a great workout. The lunges were trying to kill my ankle, but Christy told me how to remove them from my workout and that has helped a lot. I really love the boxing and the obstacle course.

Head over to the Sisterhood and check out how everyone else did this week.

And For This I Am Truly Thankful!

Four years ago today, my daughter married this wonderful man. They didn't want a conventional wedding, so to speak. They were married by a justice of the peace at the hall where they had the reception. The attire was casual. The menu was vegetarian (except for the chicken that I was able to convince them of the morning of the wedding). People were encouraged to go in the bar and check on the Notre Dame game during the reception. It was different from any wedding I had been to before, but it was perfect. It was them, it was special and I loved every minute of it. Fast forward four years. This is them today. They have had their ups and downs like any married couple, but they are happy and healthy and what mother could ask for more than that. They are each others best friend. They have fun together.

As a mother, I couldn't be happier to have this man in my daughter's life. He is a perfect fit in our family. We are blessed that he became a part of all our lives.

And for this, I am truly thankful!

Happy Anniversary!!

I love you both with all my heart!!!

Weigh In/Week 4

It's not been a bad week over here. I'm down one pound. A pound is a pound. I'm loving the new More Workouts with the exception of the squats. They are killing my knees. They are also making my thighs hurt, so that is a good thing.

Globetrotting is going well. I was a little worried when I added up this weeks steps. It was quite a bit lower than last week, but I figured out why. Last week started on Monday so I had extra days in there. I felt much better after that little discovery. This week I logged 99,832 steps for a total of 49.9 miles. I love my pedometer!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with family and friends. I'm hoping to be good when it comes to the food and liquor. I promise I'll do my best. The whole family will be here and we'll be taking our annual Christmas card picture. That is always something to remember. Try getting a dozen people to smile and look the same way at the same time when they range in age from 1 to 57. It's quite the adventure.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

Life Was Good Today!

It was a girls day. My six girls and I headed out to the local feed and garden center to meet Benny the Turkey. Because the littlest angel decided to sleep for the trip and had to be carried, I only have a picture of five of the girls and me. I would have liked to get a shot of the six girls. We learned some neat things about turkeys. Did you know that their head turns colors? We saw it go from red to white to blue and back to red again. It was pretty cool.
Somebody had a pretty good time with her aunt to protect her.

This is Benny the Turkey.

This is what the littlest angle did for the outing. Hey, when you're tired, you're tired.

We stopped to see the koi pond.

This one is for you, Mary!

We always have time for a pose or two.

Then we started running and jumping from hay bale to hay bale, so it was time to go.

We said good bye to Benny and off we went.
The littlest angel finally woke up when we got back to grandma's house. She doesn't even know what she missed. Maybe we can go back before the holiday, so she can see too.

So yes, life was good today. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

I love my girls with all my heart. In my book, they are perfect.

Weigh In/Week 3

I'm down a half pound this week. My body just likes to lose in little spurts. People keep telling me that if I lose it slowly, it will stay off. I'm going with that theory. It's just not going to take me to a big loss for the challenge. Worse things could happen, I guess.

Now, the Globetrotting challenge, I am rockin that. Although I may be doing it all wrong after reading other posts. I asked Christy last week if we could wear pedometers and count all our steps and she said yes. So, I've been wearing my Weight Watchers pedometer since before the challenge started. It is great because it converts your steps to miles for you. I've been as high as eight miles and as low as five miles on any given day. Since the start on November 9th, I've walked 126,561 steps for a total of 63.2 miles. Is that awesome or what???

I'm excited to start the EA Sports Active More Workouts on Friday. I got the biggest surprise last week when I received a copy in the mail for free. It was from EA Sports Active for being a community leader for the 5k challenge. I was so happy. Thank you so much for an awesome gift.

That is what is going on over here! Hope you all are having a good week.