Post Crossing

Thanks to some twitter friends I kept seeing their posts about postcrossing.com and had to go check it out myself. It was not long before I was signed up and had a profile filled out so I could play too. It is a site where you sign up with your address and a few more details and then you exchange post cards from all over the world. You request to send a post card, be sure to write the id number on it.. then when it is received they will enter it on the site to show it arrived.. your name will then go to the top of the list to receive a post card. So far I have sent 3.. two of them being to Florida and the last one I have sent to Russia. I have written to a 14 year old girl... a 31 year old mom of 2 and a man who did not share much on his profile.. but he likes postcards from where you are. I have received 2 postcards.... one from Berlin and one from Netherlands.

You do not write back and forth between these people... you most often just get one post card from them and then you write to someone else. If you are interested in writing back and forth you can include your address and then they have the option.. there is a spot on the site to show that you would like to do that or not.

I am enjoying sending postcards and getting them from lots of different places. It makes it exciting to go to the mail box every day and see what might be in there. To read a little bit from someone far away. I wish I had known about this when the kids were younger.. I think they would have enjoyed it... they seem to get a little excited and they want to read the postcards that come... but.. if I ask about them doing it I get the teenager eye roll and shoulder shrug.

~Michelle

New Shop Coming

Just a heads up... I have been working on getting a new shop up and running... one that will take the things I have learned over the last few years and put them together and hopefully be a lot of fun. The shop I have been running has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience. When I started all I made were personalized glass identifiers (wine charms) so the name Glass Identities was perfect. Over the years things have changed and I have a lot more going on in there than that and a lot more I want to put in there... so time for a change. The new shop is going to feature Sea Glass and Shells... two of my favorite items to work with these days. I love the long walks on the beach looking for treasures that I can make into fun items. I love getting to use the big drill press in the shop and having my own set of drill bits :) I am hoping to have the shop up and running and full of beautiful things by the end of August.

~Michelle

Weight Loss Wednesday

I am not being as good about posting every Wednesday as I would have liked.. but I have been doing great on walking almost every day on the treadmill... and have been eating ok..... water intake has been way up. All in all I am feeling a lot better again... walking every day gives me a lot more energy. Have been having some issues with my shoulder... pretty much it has been killing me. The worst part about it is that it seems that everything I do makes it hurt... walking is great.. but I can't swing my arms... I had fatty arm issues before I was in the accident... since then it has gotten worse... thanks to the PT I have muscles in my arms now.. on the top... but still have the wobble underneath :( So many things outside I want to do.. and yet... shoveling is out.. raking is out.. and pruning ( with big shears) is out... it isn't that I can not do things.. it is just that I do them.. and then for 3 days I hurt too bad to do anything. I also have to be very careful when I am doing things..... with everything I do I have to think about how I am reaching.. or turning....so frustrating. I do have another appointment with the doctor and I am hoping there is something else we can try... the one "specialist" says I am disabled and I am not liking that plan at all.

So back to the weight loss... I have not lost weight.. in fact I have gained a pound in the last two weeks... I am thinking it is a good thing though.. because I have started walking again and because I am doing it faithfully and a bit different than before.. I think I am getting some new muscles... hopefully in another week or two the pounds will start falling again. I have the treadmill set to almost straight up hill these days... at almost a run... from all of our hikes around here it is the hills that kill me. I can flat hike for miles.. so since we seem to have massive hills everywhere we want to hike. I am hoping this will help... and well I am having fun so am going with it.

weighing in at 238 up one pound

Weight Loss Wednesday

Well... I am not wanting to do this... so it will be short and sweet... no pounds lost this week.. but did not go up either... and my muscles are killing me. Did a bunch of hiking.. lots of hills.. and ... did some resistance type stuff with my legs... oh wow... ouch. Not hurting as bad today as I was the last two days... which I am sure means I need to do more today and really push it push. I also need to drink more water.. a LOT more water. I did not walk on the treadmill at all this last week :(

This coming week... drink drink drink a LOT of water.. and walk on treadmill!

weight 237

Weight Loss Wednesday

I know it is Thursday...but for some reason my days of the week have been off all week.. which makes for a really long week at first.. then it is over before I am ready.

I started off this year doing Weight Loss Wednesdays (first post here) and I did good for a few weeks.. then the focus started slipping.. and I had a horrible week and well.. sitting down to write about a horrible week was hard.. so I did not do it... and now I know.. that is when I SHOULD have done it more than the good weeks. I got to a place where I was not losing any more weight.. and it was getting easier to have a little extra at a meal.. or an extra snack..and I was hating the treadmill.. since it was not working... and well it snowballed.. and here I am getting back on track.

Summer should be easy time for this.. so many fresh fruits and veggies.. which I LOVE.. and we are outside all the time... even though the weather was better in February than in June this year :( Thankfully I was born and raised here in Washington and I am used to it raining ALL the time.. I am also far from sweet enough to melt... so outside we go. We have found geocaching... which is wonderful in so many ways... really gets us outside doing things... lots of caches are hidden on some really great trails... because of geocaching we have found several great hiking areas right near our home... and this last week we have been exploring them... our plan is to go at least three times a week. These are hilly trails.. hills that go straight up and down... trails from a mile to about 5 miles. The one we did the other day.. we kept up a good pace and had a good workout. We out hiked our teenagers too. Good for us.. bad for them.

We have a vacation planned for this summer that involves a lot of hiking (and geocaching) in hopefully ten different states... and we picked the top ten hilly states.. so we ( ALL ) better get in a lot better shape before then. Not only will it be hilly.. but I am expecting some of these places to be well over 100 degrees :( I will be hating the heat.. and I am sure complaining loudly, I want to be sure my hill climbing muscles are not doing any extra complaining.. as I am sure I will be testing everyone's last nerve as is. I will be bringing the Advil for my shoulder ( it hates all hiking) and that will help with any sore muscles too..sure wish there was a pill for the heat. Hmmm now that could make someone rich.

So here I am.. back on track... back to posting on Wednesdays (from here on out) no matter what!

Goal is to lose 15 lbs by August 27th (ten weeks) That is 1.5 lbs a week... with vacation coming I am sure I can do this.. always seem to lose weight on vacation.. without even trying.

Will be eating a lot of fruits.. veggies.. and drinking a LOT of water. Will be walking on the treadmill... at least 3 times a week.. and good serious hikes in the woods at least 3 times a week. Will also be working on some targeted muscles with some different exercises and want to start using the wii fit more often.

Starting weight 1/5/10 ~ 262 Weight today ~ 237 total weight loss ~ 25 lbs with @50lbs to go