The new stuff around here isn't exciting, but maybe that's a good thing.  Can't handle a lot of excitement with my personal economy nose diving a million miles an hour.  I have had no raise, and I am in the same boat as many folks, trying to pay utility bills that have tripled, and buy gas that's now 4.45 gallon.   Seriously looking at filing bankruptcy. Then I can actually afford to replace my roof, and fix my car.   Right now I am sending 700.00 a month to pay off inflated debt, and actually I will be paying it off for another 15 years, right up to my retirement, leaving me NOTHING for retirement.  Insanity.

There has been a change or three around here.  Good ones, for sure. I have lost 40 lbs.  Cara and Joshey are doing well.  She is excelling in her nursing program, and they start back with classes the last week of August.  I can't wait for her to finish and pass her boards and be a real, walkin-talkin RN!!  So proud.  

Joe is here with me, he is doing much better than he has in years, also very proud.  Tim and Co are having bad times and grandie may have an extended sleep over at Gramma's.  hinthint. 

Tiffany and her guy Joe the Naptizer are ok and they now live upstairs from me.  So far so good. 

Hope u are well too.

Weight Watchers points plus plan is the best option for me, and works wonderfully!  As of now, I've been on for 16 weeks, and I've lost over 30 lbs.  Also, because of getting rid of the white sugar/flour stuff, I feel alot better and have started jogging using the Couch to 5K program I got online for free.  I am more than half way thru that and loving it, LOVING IT!!!  Hope all is well out there in blogger land!

this month I proved something to myself. 


When I eliminate most of the white flour, rice, sugar from my diet, I am 100% better for it.    No dips in energy, no crazy negative moods, no cravings for more white flour, rice, sugar... you get the picture.   Food no longer has any power over me.  Seriously, it works.  Also, by getting rid of cable tv, I enjoy what ever tv watching I choose to do.  Worlds of difference around here, seriously. Try it some time.

also, I am nearly finished with the first ever jelly roll quilt.  it's not bad at all.

record heat and flowers love it

record heat and flowers love it, a photo by pam-agramaglobulin on Flickr.

what a difference a few years make... we will have to make it a priority this spring

REALLY sad how my property was so pretty, with lots of purple and pink flowers and roses the first year we lived here.  Now it's boarding on squalor.  Seriously.   I need to just man up and pay someone to haul away the garbage.  Grr but I hate spending money on that.

About once a month the Polish Club is renting out it's hall to the 'Ravers' who keep the music blasting until 2 am.  Now, I get that it's Saturday, but the place is closely packed in amongst about 20 or so private homes. 

There has got to be something we can do about this.

Got thru first week of WW, not bad at all.  I gotta think that having the WW website on my laptop has somehow made this easier. 

What did I learn this week?  Well, for one thing, quilters have a habit of giving food related nicknames to things:  jelly roll, layer cake, honey bun.. 

I guess I am  thankful that my biggest problem is that there is an abundance of food, rather than the opposite.

A super long time ago, I was introduced to Body For Life, the book, and I started that journey with hopes to win some competition.  I did eventually lose 85 lbs and went from size 22 to size 8.  The food was ok, but when I was very slim, I found I had to eat very little food, and exercise alot to maintain, and well.. it was crappy.  My back and knees hurt, and I was always starving. 

Very slowly I gained and gained and eventually stopped exercising totally.

Then.. I was watching world news on tv and saw an old man walking in the mountains on snowy paths, with no shoes.  It may have been Afghanistan, but regardless, it hit me hard.  Feeling like such a spoiled usless lump of turd I knew that I had to change my ways.   And so I joined weight watchers and did the 'core' program and lost 50 lbs.   But with core program, you can eat until you are full.  So I soon realized I was eating to the point of discomfort, every day, and I wasn't actually able to change the basic attitude that got me into this mess.

So, again, I slowly gained all of it back, and was at a size 22 in a few years. Then I remember when I turned 46 it didn't matter to me at all what I looked like.  I didn't have a mirror, aside from the small one above the bathroom sink.  And every so often I didn't feel so great.   Then it was discovered that I had high blood pressure.  A few years later, and my doc has told me to go on a 'no concentrated sweets' diet.  So I guess the fasting blood sugar test was a little high. 

Well, all in all one would think that I would be joining weight watchers again because of my size.  Or to just avoid a stroke.  But believe it or not, I have started a new hobby that has given me a new attitude.

So, havng accepted that sometimes I can feel hungry during the day and it just isn't all that agonizing, and after eating anything and everything I wanted for almost 8 years, I guess I'm over it.  On to the next phase of life, where I will live at peace with food, and 'some' will be more than enough.

sorry, been really busy with my dog, grand daughter, sewing, and collecting/fixing old sewing machines.

I am following Craftsy and it's block of the month program, but I have a small problem. So far I don't really care for the block of January.  Not gonna make it.  So now what?  How does that look when I am already a block behind everyone else from the very start. Ugh.

When I shut off the cable and switched to just HULUplus and high speed cable, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

The old lazy way of plopping into the recliner and watching cable is gone.  Now I selectively sit down and watch some very choice programming IE Diary of a Foodie by PBS.

What of your beloved Weather Channel marathons, you ask... So I just check the website and then get up and do something constructive.  AND now I even watch and e n j o y a football game once in a while. Who'da thunk it?


I am so totally pumped about this that I can see big changes in my future, all because I dropped cable tv.  Could this be the year that I actually do run in an WDW half marathon?   Maaaaaaaybeeee.

alzheimers quilt project

I found a use for a small art quilt I started, so it's going to be bound and sent off to the Alzheimers Quilt Project and sold, proceeds going to help research.  Yay!