Weight Loss Wednesday

Well.. this is not a post I want to make.. because.. nothing.. NOTHING has happened .. which I think is worse even than going up a little bit. I almost did everything I wanted to in the last week.. I did walk a lot.. NOT every day though :( I did eat good.. and I did drink a lot of water. Only problem I have with the water thing is.... the amount of times I have to run to the bathroom. I am noticing I have more energy... when I am awake I am more awake and when I am asleep.. well besides the shoulder, I seem to be sleeping better.

With the bike being all fixed up and the weather being nice we decided to go for a ride the other day.. and I went to put on my chaps and coat..... it was a experience with some mixed emotions. Six months ago I tried to put them on and there was no way either were going to fit at all.. I could not even get anything zipped... it was one of the big turning points for me. Now I can get them both on... the coat rides a bit high.. but I can zip it and wear it... I am going to start looking for a new coat now though.. a new style.. the one I have is from many years ago and well.. I want a new one :) The chaps.. I can get them on.. and zipped.. but... they do not fit well and my problem with them is that my legs are getting some muscles in places they did not have any before.. I am thinking I will get a new pair of chaps that fit a bit different... at least going to go try them on and see what I think.

With all that being said... I am going to keep walking... keeping tightening my core.. drinking lots of water.. running to the restroom.. and eating small healthy portions.. and see what happens.

Amazing Weekend

This weekend was great... spent a lot of time on Friday just hanging out with Dave. We took his mom to the doctors and then went and had a quiet lunch just the two of us at one of our favorite restaurants .... it was nice to just sit and visit. We came home and had some more time alone so spent it just talking and being together :)

We then took Missy and headed up to visit with my sister, her honey and my dad. My sister bought one of those pieces of property in a camp ground.... it is really nice.. and a bit closer to us than their home. They were up there this weekend camping and had dad with them so we wanted to go up and visit for a bit. It was really nice to sit around a camp fire and visit and have a bbq, a drink and just relax and visit with family. All growing up we did that a lot.. at home and while camping.. and until about 10 or 15 years ago we all lived pretty close together. It is one thing I do not like about all of us being grown up and having our own lives... I wish we all still lived closer together.

Saturday we got up and headed south... we have been trying for years to go watch the big rigs from Canada race.. and they have three races (this year only 2 I think ) here in Washington. We tried one year to see them in Monroe which is closer to us.. but it rained and we decided not to go since they don't do much in the rain... and most years we are just too busy and we miss them. This year worked out wonderful..... we headed south to South Sound Speedway and had a great night to watch. They did build the seating on the wrong side of the track and we spent some time dealing with the sun setting into our eyes.. but all in all.. it was wonderful. Love the small town feeling of the whole place. We found ourselves driving through Tacoma while they were having the Lewis-McChord Air Expo and it was amazing. As we were driving down the freeway I thought I saw a huge kite... well it was the stealth bomber and then some jets which shook the jeep and we ended up hitting the next exit and finding a great place to pull off the road and watch the planes for awhile. I have now added it to my list of things I want to go to.

Back to the racing.... there were lots of other racing too... from not very experienced with lots of restarts and wipe outs.. to the fancier cars that seemed to be going a lot faster. Thankfully no crashes where anyone was hurt. I know nothing about racing but I had a blast and look forward to going to more races now and learning a bit more about how it all works and the rules... it would be nice to know what is going on when they have to restart and everyone is in different positions and what not.

Today we are having a lazier day at home.. woke up late.. watched some tv... working in the shop :) the door handles on the motor home were falling apart.. so we looked into getting some new ones.. but they would cost a pretty penny.. so Dave decided to make some of our own. He took some old pieces of oak that used to be window sills in our house. He glued them together to get them to the right thickness and cut them to rough size. Then he traced the old door handles and headed to the table saw and band saw to cut them out. Sanded and routed and sanded some more.. drilled some holes and.... photos and blog post to follow when they are done :) I am doing some more cleaning on the motor home.. some blogging.. work in the garden.. and cleaning around the house... I think it is called puttering and looking busy :)

Am uploading more photos on to flickr and more videos on to youtube :)

~Michelle

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