My Bike Ride is a BUST.....

.....literally. I'm not sure what happened but my exercise bike just froze up. Won't pedal. Won't do anything. Hut, the big "he man" that he is, can't seem to figure it out either. Could explain why it was only $10 at a yard sale. Such a deal. So I'm sorry everyone, but the bike ride is off. Not that I was really good about riding consistently but at least I got on it every once in awhile. Guess I'll have to pull out the old "torture device", the glider. We'll have to see. Or maybe I'll get lucky and one of my kids can figure out what's wrong with the bike. Anyways, I'm off to the kitchen to have some Minestrone soup and then on to the couch to watch DWTS (one of hubby's favs, I'll probably have my nose in a book). And then hopefully I can sneak into his room to watch the season premiere of NCIS. Have a great night.

Out with the Old, In with the New

I have been a slacker this week. Not sure why. No excuses, no explanations. But today, Sunday, starts a new week, and hopefully I'll have some energy to do things this week. I did start by getting my hair cut. I have been long debating about letting the grey grow in. Last week I bought bleach blonde dye hoping it would blend well with the grey. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to dye it. So I have a box of bleach blonde dye if anyone is interested. I decided a haircut was what I really needed. And the hairstylist at Walmart knew exactly the kind of cut I needed. Her name is Tammy. Hats off to you for being able to understand what I wanted. This is before haircut. Boy do I look like an old witch. Seeing this picture made me realize I am too old for long hair.

I really love this cut. She put alot of layers in it, like a shag cut. It really made my natural curls come out. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but you can tell the difference. I don't think I look so old in the second one. I think if I keep up with the haircuts like I should, the grey will grow in and not be so noticable as it grows in. I know that I really feel a whole lot better about my hair.

This is my handsome husband. He got a haircut today,too. It's basically a mullet, but he'll tell you it's a catfish. It's very short in the front and very long in the back. He is growing his hair to donate to "Locks of Love". You have to have hair at least 10 inches long to donate. His is 6 inches. So only 4 to go. He said once it's long enough, he's cutting it, donating it, and then starting all over again.

Great News!

Before I get to my news, I want to thank Gary & Andi for their comments on my bike ride. I will research any and all history and anything I think would be of interest I will share. Thanks for the great ideas!

Now for my "Great" news. I went to the doctor today and he has taken me off of one of my diabetes pills (Actos, the one that caused me to gain weight) and one dose of Amaryl. He checked out my glucose readings and was very impressed. And he said if my morning reading stays below 120 for the next 30 days I will totally come off of the Amaryl, too. So that will only leave the Metformin. And I don't have to go back to see him for 3 months. I am still on my blood pressure medication, plus iron pills and B vitamins. But hey....if I keep going the way I'm going, maybe the next time I see the doctor, he'll take me off of something else. I was so thrilled about being taken off those meds and now hopefully I can start taking the weight back off. Everyone have a great night. I know I am.

Bike Trip

It's been two weeks since I started my infamous bike trip. I only rode for one day and then I lost my little dog. That made it hard for me to want to do anything. Well Sunday and Monday I got on my bike finally and started riding again. And I decided since I had already ridden to Dundee, I would start from there. So I left my nephews house in Dundee and travelled down 17-92 through parts of Dundee, Haines City and Davenport. Finally I made it to my sister Holly's house. It was a total of 14.7 miles, but I broke it up into 2 days. I think I'm going to rest up and then try to make St. Cloud to see my boys. That may take me a couple of days. Well see. I will post photos later on some parts of my trip so far. Have a great day.

I'm a WINNER!

Not one to usually toot my own horn...but GrannieAnnie had a contest on her website the other day and I won. I'm so excited because I really never win anything. You all should check out her blog. Click here GRANNIE ANNIE . Right now she had a picture of a devine looking chocolate cake you bake in a coffee mug in your microwave. Gives new meaning to coffee cake. Check her out and follow her link to the other blog with the cake recipe. I had fun reading other blogs for your contest Annie. It feels good to be a winner! ( And I am actually a winner everyday because of my loving family and friends).

Thanks!!!!

I have met some of the most wonderful people since I started blogging. One of those is Cecile. Cecile is one of the most thoughtful people I know and I love her to death. Most of you know that I lost my little girl dog a couple of weeks ago. Well this past Friday I had a package waiting for me when I got home from work. It was from Cecile and it was full of all kinds of scrap booking goodies. She sent me things so I could make some pages in memory of Miss Piggy. Plus make pages of the dogs I still have and yes, she even sent some so I could make pages of my new kitties. She thought of everything. I haven't scrapped in almost 10 years. So now I have no excuse. Thank you so much for being so wonderful and thoughtful Cecile. You are one great friend.

Kinda hard to see the 4 different pages here....the first has dog collars, the second has dog sayings, the third has dog bones and the 4th which is really hard to see says "Cats Rule". I love them all.

Tons of different colors and sizes of paper.

Different dog themed goodies....who would have thought there was so much out there.

Lots of other goodies to use. I don't know where to begin. Thanks, again, Cecile, you are the bomb.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

If you haven't figured it out yet.....today is MISSY'S BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday to one of the most wonderful people in the world. Not only are you the best sister in law, but you are also my best friend. Have a wonderful day full of celebration ( yeah, I know, you did it all yesterday). Have a bite of that wonderful chocolate cake for me.

I've been tagged!!!

Fellow blogger Gary, tagged me today. I feel honored as I don't think I've ever been tagged before. This should be easy as it's only 5 things I have to talk about.

1. Where was I ten years ago?

Let me see, I was living next door to where I live now. My husband and I had a mobile home on the lot next door to my father-in-law whose house we now live in. I was probably in the kitchen working on crafts for the annual craft fairs we have here. Missy and I used to be pretty crafty back in the day LOL.

2. What was on my to do list today?

Going to work was the main thing. Delivering Andi's gift that she won for donating to my Diabetes walk was a must today. I also should have gone to Walmart to pick up a prescription but that won't happen until tomorrow. That was pretty much it.

3. What would I do if I were a billionaire?

I'm not sure I can answer that. I probably wouldn't be the person that I am today. I'd probably do drugs or drink too much, sleep around and have bad rumours and stories told about in the tabloids, with some trashy photos.

4. Five places I've lived.

Well I was born in Massachusetts and spent most of my formative years residing in Haverhill. Then I moved to Orlando, Florida with my parents when I was 17. I then moved to Davenport, FL with my first husband. 10 years later I lived in Eloise, FL with my wonderful 2nd husband (and we still live there). I lived in Cleveland, Ohio one summer when I worked for the Cleveland Indians. That's pretty much it.

5. Bad Habits.

Number one is probably spending too much money on kids and grandkids. But hey, you can't take it with you and I'm not a billionaire. Another bad habit I have is biting my fingernails. I've been doing really good about not biting lately, but I still get the urge. The bad habit I have that my husband hates is me going around all the time complaining about how fat I am.......like he can do something about it. I think that's it. If anyone who knows me can think of anymore that I might have....let me know.

Now comes the fun part......picking 5 people to tag. Here goes......Cecile, Hut (Simple Man), Grannie Annie, Sue and Andi. Have fun you guys.

Burgers and Fries

No we didn't change the kittens names. And no we didn't go get the other two. We discovered a new burger joint. A friend of mine had told me about this place months ago and honestly I had forgotten all about it. Hut and I always go out to eat on the day we run to the bank. Tonight he wanted to eat at Cracker Barrel. For some reason when we got over that way I remembered that Bill had told me about this burger joint in that same neighborhood. Hut and I decided to try to find it even though we couldn't remember the name. I thought it was Five Brothers. I was close. It's called Five Guys Burgers and Fries. They make good old fashioned hambergers and they actually use real potatoes for their fries. Stupid me didn't think to take any pictures of the burgers, but I did manage a pic of the fries and bags of potatoes. They fry their fries in Peanut Oil. They have boxes of peanuts on the counter. You can eat as many as you want while your there but the box says to please not take any with you because of peanut allergies. You can pretty much have what you want on the burgers. And the fry orders are HUGE. Hut and I got a regular fry order and shared it. We ended up throwing 1/2 of them away. And they don't use trays. All the orders are put into a brown paper bag. You can eat in if you want. Fuddruckers used to be my burger place of choice, but Five Guys is definitely the place to go for a good old fashioned burger. You can check them out online at fiveguys.com. Hopefully there's one near you. YUM!

Five Guys Burgers & Fries....

This is how their french fries start out. And they have a sign hanging in the dining area that lets you know where the potatoes come from. Today's potatoes were from Pasco, Washington.

And here's what's left of our fries. The burgers were so good, we just wolfed them down. Notice the paper bag that the fries are on. That's how all the orders go out.

The "Terrible Twins"

The "Terrible Twins" racing up the stairs by the couch.

They are hysterically funny. They are so tiny, but so full of energy. Hut said last night that they are more fun to watch than the TV. Coming from him, that means something. He even said we should have gotten the other two kittens. No way. Two is enough. They greet us at the door. They follow us around the house. We have a set of stairs that Miss Piggy used to use to get on the couch. They have a grand time playing on those stairs. They play king of the mountain. We have a dog bed in the living room for Princess. Well it's not Princess's anymore. The kittens have taken it over. It's a whole new world in this house....the kittens keep all of us on our toes. The dogs are still having issues with them, but hopefully soon, they'll adapt. Here's a few pics of our comical kitties.

Oscar up close and personal with the camera.

Here's Mayer.....very photogenic.

No the picture isn't upside down. The kitties are wrestling at the bottom of the stairs.

All pooped out from their kitty games.

PS. I did get to donate blood today. Yeah for the iron pills that made it possible. If you can, please donate.

Update: Well we have a boy and a girl. Oscar,of course, is the girl and Mayer is the boy. Everything showed up really clear today LOL!

Too Tired.......

I missed doing a blog yesterday because I was so tired, I went to bed at 6:30. I have been so tired lately I just don't know why. Good news is I finally got a hold of the Doctor's office and they moved my appointment up a week, so they can see what's going on with my weight and stuff. But that's a blog for another day.

Today is Blood Donation day at State Farm. Hopefully I can donate today. Usually my iron is too low and I can't donate. But I have been on iron pills for awhile now, so hopefully today I can. I am a big advocate for donating blood and I get upset when I can't. So hopefully this will get you to think about donating. It's a great service to everyone and hopefully none of us will ever need to use donated blood. Have a wonderful day.

Oscar & Mayer

First of all I just want to thank everyone again for their kind words and compassion about my dog, Miss Piggy. You really don't know how much I appreciate you all. Secondly, I want everyone to know I am not replacing Miss Piggy. She is no replacable. And I don't plan on getting any other dogs. I still have two, Max and Princess. I did, however, this past weekend, adopt two other furr babies. I'm not a big fan of cats, but I adopted two kittens. We ended up at a yard sale that was giving away free kittens. Hut told me I could have one and I told him we really needed two. So we got two. Hut named them Oscar and Mayer. It's funny because we were talking about something earlier that morning and he had mentioned Oscar and Mayer. So when we got the kittens, he asked what I wanted to name them and I jokingly said Oscar & Mayer and he liked that idea. I call them Kitty and Other Kitty. They are almost identical. One has whiter legs than the other. I think they are both girls but I'm not sure at this point. They are 7 weeks old. And they are comical. I'm sure alot of you probably think I am trying to replace Miss Piggy but I assure you that's not the case. I still come home everyday and cry a little because my girly dog is not here to greet me. But the kittens give me something to keep my mind off it. They are really cute and the dogs are scared to death of them (which is really funny, because the dogs are big). So meet Oscar and Mayer.

This is Mayer laying on Oscar's head. They were in the truck while we were checking out another yard sale.

This is Oscar on the couch. This is a very vocal cat.

This is Mayer just chillin'. Mayer is the quieter of the two.
At the top of my blog you will notice 2 "I Love Your Blog" logos. I'm sure you've seen quite a few of these lately. My wonderful sister in law Missy designed them and awarded them to her fave bloggers. And I just happened to be one. Thanks, Missy. Another one of her fave bloggers is my dear friend and animal lover, Cecile. Cecile also awarded me one. Thanks, Cecile.So I chose the blue one from Missy and the pink one from Cecile. We are supposed to award our favorite bloggers with them also. So many of you will get duplicates. Here's my list:

Andi (private)
CECILE
GARY
GRANNIE ANNIE
JILLY (private)
MISSY
ROSE DESROCHER
SIMPLE MAN (my husband)
SUE
TRINA

You guys are the greatest. Make sure to "grab" your award...either color. Keep on blogging!

Stay Tuned

Good morning! Stay tuned, I will have a new blog later on this evening. Thanks to everyone for your kind words after the loss of my little girly dog, Miss Piggy. It meant so much to me to know so many people care. Have a great day!

In Memory of Miss Piggy

It is a really sad day for me today. My little daschund, Miss Piggy, went to doggy heaven about 6:30 this morning. We were never sure how old she was and she didn't seem to have any ailments. She just layed around with some labored breathing for about 15 minutes and then she was gone. There was nothing we could do. I held her in my arms, petted her and let her know how much she was loved. I am going to miss her so much. I love you Piggy Sue.

Day One Bike Trip

Well I'm on my way. 11.4 miles today. That was easier than I thought it would be. Took me about 2 hours. I stopped by Andi's but she wasn't home yet. I didn't realize she was only a little over 2 miles from me. So I thought, well that's not much of a challenge. So I decided to go visit my nephew LD, his wife Jen and my great-niece Skylee. They live near downtown Dundee, FL. That was enough travelling for me for day one. I'm pooped. Tomorrow I am going to try to make it to my sisters house in Loughman, FL. I think that's a little further. We'll have to see how my legs feel. After that I'm going to see how far it is to my son's house in St. Cloud from there. Make sure you check out the map I have on the blog, so you can see where I am travelling. I will try to share photos of different locations and places I've been. Enjoy the trip.

And the winner is.......(drum roll please!)

ANDI BRANNON

Yeah Andi, you won the little butterfly goody cup for making a donation to my cause. Just email me and let me know where and when to deliver it (remember that Tues. and Wed. I'll still be in Tampa). Thanks to everyone who purchased a bracelet or made a donation. You are ALL winners in my book. I wouldn't be where I'm at donation wise without all you wonderful people out there. Thanks again from the bottom of my heart. Hut did the honors of drawing the name out of the hat. Just a quick note about my labor day. We visited my son Wade and his fiance Christina. Wade's friend Tony, his wife Amber and their 3 children also came. A few other's were invited but didn't show. All I can say is it was their loss. We all brought something so it was like a pot luck. I brought hambergers, potato chips, buns, potato salad, soda and some condiments (that's what Mom's are for). Christina made coconut cupcakes (YUM!)and baked beans. Wade marinade some boneless chicken breast and cooked some hotdogs. Amber and Tony brought this BEST macaroni and cheese I have ever eaten in my whole life. Plus they brought apple slices and grapes with some kind of fluffy dip that was amazing. We all ate until we were stuffed. And believe it or not, there was enough left over, so everyone got to take something home with them. We had a great time. Unfortunately, my other son Scott, had to work. I hope everyone had a wonderful, safe, filling Labor Day. Back to the old grind tomorrow.