Test Run

Well blogger seems to be getting it all back together.. finally have my missing post back up.. no comments with it though .. oh well.. better than nothing... I am not sure what all happened but wow did blogger take a big fall last week and it is taking a bit of time to get it up and going again. I had a wonderful weekend and took some pictures.. can't wait to share it... but I will.. just want to make sure when Publish PostI post that it will be sticking around.

Life Uncommon

I love this song.. the video is not so wonderful.. but it gives you an idea. I love Jewel and this cd is from one of those times in my life where there were some powerful changes, one of those growing and learning stages in life. I put the cd in yesterday and was listening to it and thinking about how much life has changed since then and how even though some of the choices I made in that period of my life did not end up being the best at the time.. they all brought me to where I am and I would not trade this place for anything in the world.

The words of this song mean something to me.. in every aspect of life.. "Lend our voices only to sounds of Freedom" is something I believe we should all try to focus on. "No longer lend you strength to that which you wish to be free from" for me it is about not getting involved with what I do not support, not wasting time arguing about things that do not matter to me... watching/reading stories about things that I do not believe in. The big things to the little things. It is about keeping myself focused on the things that matter and that are important to who I am and where I want to be going.

*edited to add* Just read a friends blog and loved how it tied into this post "Talking Things Up"

Life Uncommon"

Don't worry mother, it'll be alright

And don't worry sister, say your prayers and sleep right

It'll be fine lover of mine

It'll be just fine

Lend your voices only to sounds of freedom

No longer lend you strength to that which you wish to be free from

Fill your lives with love and bravery

And you shall lead a live uncommon

I've heard you anguish

I've heard you hearts cry out

We are tired, we are weary, but we aren't worn out

set down you chains, until only faith remains

Set down you chains

And lend your voices only to sounds of freedom

No longer lent your strength to that

which you wish to be free from

Fill you lives with love and bravery

And we shall lead a life uncommon

There are plenty of people who pray for peace

But if praying were enough it would have come to be

Let your words enslave no one and the heavens will hush themselves

To hear out voices ring out clear

with sounds of freedom

sounds of freedom

Come on you unbelievers, move out of the way

there is a new army coming and we are armed with faith

To live, we must give

To live

And lend out voices only to sounds of freedom

No longer lend out strength to that which we with to be free from

Fill your lives with love and bravery

And we shall lead...

Lend out voices only to sounds of freedom

No longer lent out strength to that which we with to be free from

Fill you lives with love and bravery

And we shall lead a life uncommon

Weight loss Wednesday

It is back... I did these post on Wednesdays for a while last year.. and I was losing weight.. sometimes just a tiny little bit.. but it was coming off.. then I had a few weeks where nothing was coming off and I stopped writing.. and then the weight not only stopped coming off but the weight I had lost started coming back :( Now I am starting over.. and going to be visiting this blog every Wednesday with my weigh in and to talk about what I have done during the week and what the goal is for the coming week. Holding myself accountable and writing it down here for not just me but for everyone else to see really helped. Thank you to everyone that left comments last time around and please feel free to leave them again, I can really use your support.. just knowing someone is reading this will help motivate me a lot.

I have about 20 weeks until our planned trip to Vegas, wow that seemed a lot longer away until I counted it out, and I would really like to have lost between 20 and 30 lbs by then.. well I would like to have lost at least 50... but I know there is no way that will happen. Last time I did this I started at 260 and by the time I lost 30 lbs I was in a whole different size of clothes.. which I have a LOT of clothes for that size.. so if I can lose 30 by the time we go to Vegas I will have a whole new wardrobe by then. My smaller goal is a one pound a week. My overall biggest goal is to be a LOT healthier. I am thinking in getting healthy I will lose about 60 - 80 lbs total.. but even though my focus appears to be on the weight itself.. it really isn't.. it is just that the weight is an easy way to watch things change as we start. Hauling around all the extra pounds is not healthy.. in anyway.. so being a bit focused on the weight to get things started is good.

My goals this week is to exercise, exercise and exercise! Drink lots of water! Eat less carbs and sugar!

I have my exercises all figured out, have a long list of things to do from my physical therapist... and I need to be walking/running on the treadmill at least 4 days a week.

Weigh in today 255 ~ Goal 180

Camping in the Rain

Went camping last weekend with my sister at the spot she has.. it is one of those camp grounds where you buy a space in it.. that way you always have a place to camp. You can leave your trailer up there year around and there is a club house with a pool and a craft/activity room for the kids and basketball place and a bunch of other stuff.. always stuff for the kids to do.. and they even have a grown up only space.. yay!!

It was pouring rain for a lot of the weekend.. but.. the way they are parked we just pull in at a bit of a angle and then with both our awnings out we can put the fire right outside the awnings and sit under them and have the heat reflected in and it was awesome!

When we got there Friday night it was raining... we sat around the fire and visited.. had some awesome steaks that were cooked on the bbq.. sister covers hers with fried onions and mushrooms and then melts blue cheese on top... I tried some of this.. minus the mushrooms.. and omg.. I will now be eating my steaks this way.. they were So good! If you have a favorite recipe with Blue cheese.. please share it here.

Friday all night it poured... ... attempting to get up in Saturday morning was close to impossible.. it was cold out there... and every time I rolled over it rained harder.. so I stayed in bed until a bit late :) Then the rain stopped so I got up.. everything was still soaking wet and the huge trees were dripping big drips.. but it was nice to just sit and visit around the fire. I love spending time with my sister :)

The rain pretty much held off all day so in the afternoon we were able to all go for a walk with the puppy ( sister has a baby chocolate lab that is so very sweet and too cute ) we explored around the camp ground for awhile and then made it back right before it started raining some more, just in time for dinner :) Tonight it is hamburgers on the grill then smores in the pouring rain.. no way I was going a whole weekend of camping without a smore.. no matter what the weather.

Sunday morning was still a bit wet.. and Mothers day.. so I again slept in and then had a lazy morning with some hot cocoa and computer time. Then up for some visiting and cleaning up campsite so we can get home and get some things done. This weekend was very relaxing and calm... I loved getting to visit with my sister.. it is so special that we get to be friends now and not just sisters. I also loved the time Dave and I just spent together in the motor home, working on projects and visiting together.

A Wonderful Weekend!

Camping Deception Pass

This last weekend we stayed close to home instead of heading out to the ocean... it was wonderful.. no stress of traffic... took like $25 of gas instead of $200 and gave us a lot more time to camp and relax and enjoy. I am thinking this year we will be spending a lot of time exploring camp grounds within an hour of us, there are a lot of them.

Almost there, driving across the big bridge over Deception Pass, going to be camping down there. We got to camp it was still daylight.. just barley.. but it was nice.. got camp all set up and the fire going.. and sat around visiting and roasting hot dogs and making smores... then inside to play

some poker and have some drinks... I am not sure what the martini was called that Laura made.. but I can tell you all this stuff was in it and it was so so good.. smooth and rich and oh wow!

Next morning we get up and have some breakfast and guess what.. more poker!! It was that kind of weekend... we played for a few hours.. had some lunch and some beer margaritas, my sister got me started on these and I love them. Beer Margarita Recipe here

We did decided to take a walk around the loop and check out some of the other camp sites and just walk a little bit... we ended up going around the loop and then heading to the beach..followed a nice trail down and then took the road back.. it was a nice adventure.

Trail to the beach

This is a very pretty beach, sandy and with some rocks and just a beautiful place with some of everything. I did find an agate and a handful of sea glass this weekend. :)

The big trees were just amazing... so tall and old and beautiful!

Camp is all cleaned up and we are ready to go.. well.. we are not ready to go home.. but we have to check out of the site... this photo is great.. makes out motor home ( on left ) look so tiny.. they pretty much are both the same size. Back to the beach we go.. just going to park the motor homes there and spend some time enjoying the wonderful weather.

I can not believe I did not get a photo of the motor homes parked in the parking lot with the awning out and the lawn chairs... some people gave us some odd looks.. I think they were jealous :) We did walk around the point and check out the bridge... the one we were on when we took the first picture... we got a bit closer.. in fact I am sure the huge rock we ended up on was where there was a cache.. but I had left the info in the motor home so was not sure. I did not get any pictures from there because my phone died... I will get them next time.

This weekend was so much fun... the weather was great... warm and sunny.. today it is pouring again :( We had good food and drinks and great friends to visit with. Even saw another good friend of mine who was visiting the park for the day with family in from out of town. The only problem with the weekend was it was just too short...they are always too short. After we got home and everyone got cleaned up we all headed back out and went to the casino to spend a couple more hours stretching the weekend out... now we are back to the weekdays and already making plans for another weekend out and some longer trips too :)