When All Else Fails

......Just laugh.

With gas prices being the way they are, you can either laugh, or cry. Here's something for your laughing pleasure:

Bullet Update

Since my last post took me two days to get together, I am just going to update you with bullets.

• I lost 1.4 lbs last week. My total now is 13.4 and 6.22%.
• I regressed with my water drinking and I haven't been keeping up with my 4-5 glasses per day.
• Two weeks in a row, I have put the laundry away the SAME day it was washed and dried.
• I know....shocking, huh?
• Two nights ago, I went to bed at 10:45pm and woke up at 6:50am and I did not wake up one time in between. Eight straight hours of sound sleep......I can't remember the last time that happened.
• I do not like overripe bananas and I will not save them.
• Last night I went to bed at 11:30 and woke up at 6am, 6:15am, 6:30am, and 7am (thanks to Ray's alarm clock). However, I did get 6.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.....well, who am I kidding, that stinks!!
• Tonight I am going to bed early, I hope.
• If you ask Nate, "What does a lion say?" he will growl.
• He can tell you what a dog and a cat say, too.
• He likes to jump off of the arm of the couch and dive onto the couch.
• He learned this from Grace.
• Grace is going to VBS this week (Vacation Bible School) thanks to my friend, Carla. She will be there from 8am-12pm everyday.
• I have one load of laundry to dry, and one to wash and dry and then I am done with laundry. For now.
  
• Did I ever tell you how much I HATE putting laundry away?
• I hate it almost as much as I hate trying to figure out what to make for dinner.
• No, maybe I hate trying to come up with ideas for dinner more.
• No, maybe it's laundry.
• Uh, it's a tie.
• Are you bored?
• I would like a latte now.
• But they cost too much money.
• Would you like to donate to my latte fund?
• Please?
• Pretty please?
• I'd better go finish my laundry.
  

Safari

Yesterday we went to a place we've been wanting to go to forever.......Lion Country Safari. It's about an hour north of me in a very rural area compared to where I live. It's a little on the expensive side (adults are $22), but we had an awesome coupon for yesterday that saved us $22, so yesterday we went. The biggest part of the attraction is the drive-thru safari, where you can see tons of animals up close and personal. In addition to that, there is a petting zoo (which wasn't much of a petting zoo), a little ride on train, a huge carousel, an mechanical elephant ride (kind of like the dumbo ride), a ferris wheel, some animal and bird feeding areas, and a splash area where the water splashes up from the ground. Well, due to the storm that was approaching, and this new lightning detection technology that's been implemented throughout much of south Florida , which detects lightning from up to 5 miles away and issues a warning, all of the rides and the splash area were closed. The park issues rain checks, so because the closings were due to inclement weather, we were able to get a rain check to come back (but it must be within the next 30 days). So, at least that was nice that we might be able to come back and do the other things we missed out on.

Grace doing her Flamingo impersonation

Nate, "Iss Dat?" (What's that)

Iss Dat?

Grace walking with her friend Avian

Playing in the water misters (they had these throughout the park)

Nate running around outside the splash park

Gracie-face

Tired Nate-dog

Ray and Grace driving through the Safari (Don't worry, the speed limit is only 8 mph)

The Safari part was really cool. Here is the list of animals that you might see along the Safari (the ones in bold print we actually did see, or should I say the ones I know we saw):

Brown Pelican, Fallow Deer, Brazilian Tapir, Aldabra Tortoise, Rhea, Llama, Impala, Greater Kudu, Aoudad, Gemsbok, Nile Lechwe, Nilgai, Blackbuck, Asiatic Water Buffalo, African Lion, Ostrich, Addra Gazelle, Mouflon, Eland, African Elephant, Wildebeest, Waterbuck, White-handed Gibbon, Grant's Zebra, Giraffe, Chimpanzee, and Southern White Rhinoceros.

African Elephant (the haziness here is due to heavy rain falling)

Asiatic Water Buffalo

Blackbuck

More Blackbuck

Brazilian Tapir

Gemsbok

Giraffe -This was actually taken during the walking part where there was a Giraffe feeding area.
This is also in the Giraffe feeding area. You can see how close he was to us.

This Giraffe was in the Safari part and was probably about 10 feet or so away from the car.

This particular Zebra is called Grant's Zebra.

Another view of Grant's Zebra

I believe this is a Greater Kudu (female).

I believe these are Impalas

More Impalas (except for the brown one, which is a Nile Lechwe)

Llamas

African Lion-Male

African Lion-Female

Mouflon

Mouflon

Nile Lechwe (the dark brown one)

Ostrich

Southern White Rhinoceros (see the rain falling?)

Rhino again

Waterbuck

Waterbuck again

Wildebeest

White-handed Gibbon

Not sure....John help!

Not sure again.....John?

Same one as the pic above, but now he's (she's) trying to hide

Monday Update

Well, after a very busy week, Monday is here. Grace had a ballet recital Saturday and the week was filled with rehearsals. The recital was very nice and I enjoyed it a lot, but I am glad its finally over. I will post some pictures of the recital soon, so don't fret! My blog has been lacking in the picture department, I admit.

So how did I do with my exercising and water drinking?? Well, I did great with the water, but the exercising was cut to only 2 days this week because on my first walk of the week, I noticed my foot was hurting, primarily the heel. I thought I would just walk through it and that maybe the next day it would be fine. The next day it did not feel better, but I did a walk and some time on the elliptical machine anyway. By the following day I realized it wasn't just going to get better in a matter of a few days, and I cut out the exercising to rest my foot. Still, today its bothering me and I'm bummed about it. But hopefully it will get better soon and I can continue with the walking and elliptical machine.

As for weight loss, despite my frustrations on Friday morning, I miraculously somehow lost the 1.6 lbs I gained, and another 1.4 lbs on top of that. So, I am down 1.4 lbs from last week, which brings me to a total of 12 lbs even lost. That also brings me to 5.56% (or I guess I'm supposed to round that to 5.6%??) lost total. Because of the week I had, I am pretty happy with that number. I have 3 lbs until my first goal that I've set for myself, so I'm pretty happy that I will finally feel like I've accomplished something. A big part of the reason it's so easy to get frustrated is that I have a pretty long way to go. It's not like I only had 20 lbs to lose; it's so much harder when you can't even see the finish line. But that's why I've set a bunch of mini-goals, so that I can get to a finish line somewhere along the way. I've also set up little rewards at every 15lbs lost. One I'm really excited about, is the next 15 lbs.....so I only have 18 more to go.......is playing volleyball at a friend's church. On Sunday nights they have an open gym and I cannot wait to play again. I miss it a lot. I used to play a lot of beach volleyball at a park that had tons of beach courts set up. We'd play 2's or 3's and it was great fun and exercise (although, I think just starting back after 8 or 9 years off, I'll stick to gym volleyball). I figure once I get a loss of 30 lbs. I can reward myself by playing again, and by that time I should be in better shape to play, which will be a big plus. Then I can get in some exercise that's really fun!

My goal for this week is to up my water to 5 glasses a day, and rest my foot as much as I can so it can get better faster so I can get back out and exercise.

Pounds left until first goal: 3 lbs

Frustrated

I'm just so frustrated this morning. Although I haven't quite kept up the walking 5-6 days a week thing I had hoped to accomplish this week, I have been drinking my water....at least 4 glasses a day. I did a 2 mile walk one morning this week, and I also did a one mile walk followed by 10 minutes on an elliptical machine one evening, so I did get some exercise in. I haven't been doing hardly any exercise, so that was definitely a step in the right direction. Anyway, you might be asking why I'm frustrated. Well, I have really been trying NOT to weigh myself at all until Monday, and this week I've been doing well. Today, however, I did get on the scale to take a peek and see how my week was going. Lo and behold, it shows I've gained 1.6lbs!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!

I just don't get it. Why am I not already down at least a pound?? I know I could certainly get there by Monday, but I feel like for every two steps forward theres another ten backwards. I know I could be doing more exercise, but I am doing something. My eating has been better this week. I've eaten breakfast each morning, had some good fruits in (not sure about the veggies), and I haven't had any red meat whatsoever. Also, on WW you get your daily points that you must eat and then 35 points that you can use in addition to that, to use whenever you'd like. You can use them all in one day, or split them up in between days. I still have 21 of those left. Now, granted.....yesterday was a higher point day for me. I used 8 of those extra points for a CHERRY LIMEADE from Sonic thanks to my terrific mom-in-law, and her nifty sidekick, Diane (my lovely sis-in-law, Wendi's mom). Anyway, thanks to them, they picked me up some yummy cherry limeade on their way home from visiting our newly re-Floridianed family members. Cherry limeade has to be one of my most favorite drinks in the whole world.

Ok, ok.....I got sidetracked with the limeade......but back to my rant, already in progress, I just am so discouraged right now. I guess I just feel like I have SO far to go and that it seems like I will NEVER get there. At least at this rate I won't. Don't worry, I'm not going to give up. I am going to keep trying, because if I don't then I will FOR SURE never see the finish line. But it's days like this where I wonder why I'm doing this. It doesn't take me long to remember, though, that I'm doing this to live longer. I'm doing this for my family. I'm doing this to help others. I'm doing this so that I won't hide whenever there's a camera around. I'm doing this so that my kids will go outside more. I'm doing this so that my kids will be able to go places like the pool, the beach, and water parks. I'm doing this so that life doesn't keep passing me by. I'm doing this to live......period. And most of all, for God, to bring Him glory.

I Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

I Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Blah

So today is Monday, my weekly weigh in day. I have to say I didn't expect much. Although I think I stayed within my weekly points allotment, I had horrible eating patterns. I either did not eat breakfast most days this past week, or I ate it so late that it was almost "lunch". The same thing happened often for lunch and dinner as well. Also, we had out-of-town family visit for the weekend, which usually means restaurant get-togethers. This weekend we went to Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel. Anyway, between all that, I expected the scale to not be my friend. It wasn't. As the result could have been worse, when I first weighed myself today, it showed a gain of .4 lb. Later, when I weighed myself, though, it showed a loss of .6 lb. Even though it wasn't much, I will take whatever loss I can have. This week I am hoping to accomplish two things. One is drink at least 4 glasses of water each day. I know that it is supposed to be 8-10 glasses each day, however, I am not a big drinker of anything, so to drink 8-10 glasses of anything is difficult. Baby steps, baby steps. Second, I am planning to walk 5-6 days a week. Today was not one of those days due to the fact that I did not get to sleep until AFTER 3:45 am, and was awakened at 5 am by Nate wanting a bottle of milk. He then woke up again, or never really went back to sleep, at 5:45 am for a second one. I then went back to sleep until 8:30 am. I had planned to try to walk this evening, but it was exceptionally hot and humid out, and despite being tired, dinner ran late and Ray wasn't able to leave work until late and got home later than I had hoped. Tomorrow, however, is a new day, and I am going to try my hardest to beat out any excuses that come my way.

So after the .6 lb loss this week, I am now down a total of 10.6 lbs and a total of 4.91%.

It's Hurricane Season!!

For those of you who do not live in an area usually affected by hurricanes, you had no idea today was the first day of the official hurricane season, which lasts until November 30th. The rest of you knew that, however, and have probably already started buying your supplies. Ironically, a tropical system off in the Gulf of Mexico decided to form and create Tropical Storm Barry today, perhaps to kick off the season. Even though Barry isn't heading towards South Florida (he's heading north for a but, then supposed to head east) he is bringing the area some much needed rain. However, officials have said that while the rain is nice, it's not nearly enough to help. We would need somewhere between 30-40 inches of rain in order to alleviate the drought conditions.

So, the looming question--Where is Barry heading and how strong will he be? He is supposed to pretty much just stay a tropical storm, which is good because we certainly need the rain from a storm like this but obviously not the winds, and its heading towards the big bend area. Here is the current forecast track:

****REMINDER: FLORIDIANS, ALL HURRICANE SUPPLIES CAN BE PURCHASED TAX FREE UNTIL JUNE 12th DUE TO THE HURRICANE TAX FREE HOLIDAY WHICH STARTED TODAY.