Day 210 of NO VINO

No I didn't want to go without WINE but I did want to go without the extra calories.  So now for my one glass of wine I can have three "OTHER" drinks for the same calories.  This has helped a lot regarding the 'cutting calories' and trying to drop this final 35 pounds.  The death of me may be getting back to my 'fighting weight' but I look forward to getting there but am  mostly looking forward to gaining it all back. 

I had a darned good time gaining all my weight.  Well the Infertility treatments were not so much fun and all the other stuff that was associated with that not so much but eating all the yum-a-licious stuff that I did was scrumptious.

So Cheers to the wine that I will not be drinking any time soon and "CHEERS" to my new drink of choice.  I can thank it for helping me to not be the 'world's crankiest person'.  However, my husband may say differently on this.    (And by the way a SIP of wine does not count.... just enough to touch the lips)......

Cheers from Vodka Country!

Preppy or Peppy? A Sense of Fashion?

At times during Junior High & High School I was kind of preppy.  I was not a "TOTAL PREP" but did have the obligatory Monogrammed sweater and pink Izod.  I even had the loafers and the purse that you buttoned different covers onto so it would match your outfit should you so desire! The add-a-bead was probably the preppiest thing ever.  Never really considered PREPPY to be jewelry related but for me this necklace described PREP in my world perfectly.

Since I kind of skipped the prep thing the first go around in the 80's I think I will forgo the opportunity for it this go around in the 11's.  Once is enough in my world.  RECYCLE?  I am all about some recycling but do believe that we need to sometimes think twice about it in wardrobe.  PREP is NOT for everyone.  But I do love those that can pull it off.  I am simply not that.... now let's move on to a man in a Pink Button Down or Pink polo... now I truly LOVE IT!  A man in PINK is sexy in my book! Therefore, Prep can stay!

Haven't Been Drinking....

Much Wine Lately... but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it.  We have been invited to go on a WINE ROMP which means we get to romp around various vineyards that are in North Carolina.  One of hubby's co-workers, whom I think is the coolest chick ever, puts together this romp and they head out for a Saturday full of romping and drinking.  There is one coming up soon and I so hope we can go.

My Calories saved by LESS INTAKE of VINO have been used elsewhere so I can't honestly say that I have dropped that many pounds by not consuming one of my very favorite things.  Somehow replacing ice cream with with the wine hasn't worked too well.  (I have had ice cream only three times but I made it large portions so it could have counted for probably six times).

I will still dream about thee and until the final 30 lbs shed from me I will let visions of wine dance in my head.  Till  then it's Vodka... of which I have gotten some pretty tasty recipe's for great drinks but there is nothing better than good ole' wine!!

Cheers!

Confessions

Reading this cause you think that it is going to be better than your best friends last confession that she waited 12 years to do and laid the priest right out on the floor?  Sorry to disappoint. I am not Catholic. I have nothing against Catholics  I just happen to not be one although my children will be going to Catholic School in the fall if I have not already gotten them kicked out. (another post for another day).

1.  I can NOT click my fingers.  How could I have been a cheerleader all through school and college and not be able to click?

2.   I absolutely undeniably with all my heart body and soul DETEST the song "OPEN ARMS".  I love Journey but I dislike this song with a passion.  Nope, it was not a 'romance gone wrong' or a bad experience at the school dance.  This song absolutely grates on my last nerve and I would probably run over small children or sweet little old ladies to turn it off wherever I am as to not have to listen to it. 

3.  I would hang glide and sky dive if given the chance.  However, the thought and/or sight of a mouse, rat or mice absolutely terrifies me. 

4.  Walking up a flight of escalators that are not in workingord ranks with the song "OPEN ARMS".  It drives me bonkers beyond belief

5.  I have always disliked my hair but loved my nose. 

6.  I have a tendency to be around 'needy people' more often than I should be.

7.  I have never really 'cleaned house' of friends but I think that I may need to do that.  Those that just 'suck the life out of you' are just not what I need in my life any more. 

8.  I no longer like mornings.  Bad thing is that I am not a particular night owl either.

9.  Those parents who yell profusely at their kids while playing sports need to have a muzzle or a free prostrate exam (yes women included).

10.  I confess that women drivers are horrid.  Help those who drive mini vans and don't get me started on other type vehicles.  Who thought of the idea of making a car that you can drive at the same time (OR TRY) while being in the back seat with your children?  REALLY?

The Word "AMAZING"

This has got to be the most "OVERUSED" word in the world and I think it is sad.  I do NOT like using this word and do so rarely but could listen to "AMAZING GRACE" a thousand times over.  Now that is amazing isn't it?

Just a Thought.....

Alcohol does not make you FAT   - it makes you LEAN.... against tables, chairs, floors, walls and often not so attractive people.

Have A NICE EVENING !!

When your day is almost over and you think you will never get away from it all just know that there is some NECTAR not far away.

Happy Sippin'

Ann



A Conversation with my Husband BEFORE KIDS

• Hey You

Hey.

• What's UP?

Nothing... want to meet for lunch?

• Sure... where? 

Don't know you pick.. .I don't want to think.

• OK meet at Eddie's Place.

See you there.

******** meanwhile at lunch.....

• What are we doing tonight? Want to go to a movie?

Sure

• OK You PICK... because I picked last time. 

OK.

• So what's up at work? How's the big job going?  Really he did? Wow...... blah blah blah.

A lot of nonsense chatter that I always loved because I have always been "into my husband's day".  No I am not consumed by it but I have an interest in his career too.  May sound weird but it's warpiness.  I also ask him just about every day what he ate for lunch....not because I want to drool over what he may have had or because I am jealous that he got to go out and I more than likely did not but because I care about what he ate and just want to know.  YES AGAIN -- Warpiness. 

So you think I am totally into all his business?  NOPE.  This is coming from a wife who has NEVER ONCE gone through his wallet or his briefcase in 20 years.  Heck I never did that when we were dating.  (Yes I think I am one of a few that can honestly admit it).  If he tells me to get something out of his wallet I usually don't especially  if he is in a position where I can can just toss it over and let him do the work.  I have no desire or need to go though his stuff.  I am not looking for anything and guess there is a part of me that feels so totally comfortable that nothing is there.  Maybe a bad feeling to have?  I don't think so.  I am married to the type person that is kind of like a SAINT ON EARTH.  He will not like reading that but it has so much truth to it on many levels (all very level levels -- no tilt to them at all).  Raised so properly by two incredible people he is as grounded as they come.  I am the EXACT opposite.  I can be talked into anything at just about any time.  Yep.. that's me... your 'portable party'.  I know life is not always a party but it is my often annoying bubbly happy-go-lucky you can try to piss me off attitude rearing it's cute little head (not stating I am cute here just a matter or word usage) that makes me a person who should be more responsible but am not.   

So our life AS WE KNEW IT changed overnight.  The process took right at a year so yes we had time to plan but it was such a different type of planning.  It's not like we had the pregnancy to go along with it.  We were PAPER PREGNANT and knew no delivery date.  Now that was weird.  What was even weirder is that for adoption number 1 we got the news on a Tuesday left on a Friday and were back 9 days later.  Now that delivery was pretty darn quick (after our pink slip was issued).    My second birth was not so fast.  She was going to take her own time and do it to her own beat.  Lil' Miss Maran made us travel for miles and it was, I might add, the biggest trip from HE*L ever.  SO WORTH IT AFTER THE FACT but a total crappy trip that would make a great life time movie one day.  To this day I really could still do without Chinese food and we have been home for over 90 days. Back to Child 1...ssuddenly two married people (for sixteen years) who had just turned 40 were getting a 10 month old child and reality could not have hit harder.  Talk about SPOILED -- YES US...no not the kid (well that comes later).  It was a difficult adjustment to say the least.

I was so afraid that my local watering holes were going to go out of business.  So scared that the places that 'knew my name' would no longer know me.  Fearful that my life was over I couldn't imagine having a child or two and still getting to do anything because you don't have children and get to do stuff right?  See the selfishness coming out here?  My friends never got to do anything.  They sat home and stared at each other and talked about the newest model of baby puke.  (Puke does change in color, size, texture and smell I am told).  I will not put a severe jinx on ourselves by going into detail here about baby puke for fear that our one child WHO HAS NEVER PUKED, YAKED or HURLED with us will start doing so). So this conversation will not take place frequently.  But I can promise you one thing....the first time said un-puken child does puke.... the ENTIRE world will stop for the moments that it is occurring.  Said child will COMPLETELY and totally flip out and never know  how said child's body could do such a thing.  I don't even know if said child has even seen anyone else puke... well except for me on one really bad late evening... OK JUST KIDDING.  Uhm... not sure am I?  I am going to say yes.

Adjustment came with it's harshness.  More to follow on that..............

IT's A SAD DAY

When your 3 year old (pretty fresh from China) looks at your blog and Points to the WINE BOTTLE and yells... "MOMMY JUICE"..... uhm...... A proud moment or not?   Let's Debate!!!

My Warped Pet Peeves

1.  People who do not use their blinkers. They are on the car for a reason.

2.  Walking up or down an escalator that is not working.  FREAK ME OUT!

3.  Acronyms.... OK BFF BTW LOL you da bomb.com!  Dislike acronyms since my infertility and adoption days (sounds like it was so long ago ahe?)

4.  Ice that tastes like something rank from the freezer.

5.  Those who cough or sneeze and do not cover their mouth... REALLY?

6.  Getting an order of fries (like I need them) and they are half empty.  I AM A HALF FULL person but when it comes to my fries if you cheat me of some then I become half  EMPTY real fast.

7.  Shoes that eat your socks.  (Are they just that hungry?)

8.  Know it alls ---- I won't get started on this.

9.  BLOWING YOUR NOSE AT THE DINNER TABLE.... dude, I have just had an incredible Thanksgiving dinner or a nice meal out and now you are going to blow your nose at the table? (the dude is not my husband as he would never be this nasty).  I also love it when you (Meaning any person in general) are at my house and you blow your nose at my table on my nice table linen napkins.

10.  Shots of any kind or type. Would think that after infertility I would be over this but I am NOT ANYWHERE CLOSE to being over it.

Grandma was supposed to Marry Howard Brown

Instead of marrying Howard Brown she married Albert Bryant.  My grandpa (fondly nicknamed "Pete" by my mother) was truly a man of his own will.  Grandma (Flossie) yes, that is truly her real name was supposed to marry Howard within a week.  She was walking down the road and found my grandpa in a ditch. Literally she pulled him out of it.  Cold, drunk and talking gibberish he was.  The next day Grandma told Howard Brown that she couldn't marry him.  She married my grandpa (Albert or aka Pete) a few weeks later on Halloween.  Grandma always said it was a real trick. 

So that's how it started and pretty much from that start has been the way life has been.  Grandma was one of the smartest women ever.  Her 5th grade education need not fool anyone.  I will never forget her helping me with college math.  Amazing how a woman could figure out stuff and never have what we consider a 'formal education'.  Goes to show that while educations are good and they can help you go far... it doesn't mean the brightest of people are the only ones who have them.  My grandmother quit school to help her mother take care of her brothers and sisters.  She had a sister named Bertha and there were a few other siblings too.  I always giggled as a kid that my grandma's name was Flossie and she had a sister named Bertha.  Unfortunately from what I remember her sisters name fit her perfectly. 

My maternal grandmother was named Gladys.  So my sister and I to this day call each other Gladys (that's me) and Flossie (that's my sis).  My sister and I are nine months apart so we set the model on sibling rivalry and sisters not getting along.  Thankfully that all changed when we were in high school.  It is fun going shopping with her and shouting out  "Flossie".  People just turn around and stare.  They especially stare when I tell Flossie that she needs to remember to get her hemorrhoid ointment.  (That one always gets a few laughs). 

So back to Howard Brown... well he was broken hearted and devastated about Flossie marrying that "DRUNK ALBERT BRYANT".  Grandpa earned his name just about each and every day of his life.  When I was in college I went Grandma's and she and my Aunt Jean were cleaning like crazy.  I asked why and was told that Howard Brown was coming to visit.  He and his wife showed up early.  The curtains were not put back up in the living room and Grandma looked like she had been in the garden all day even though she had only been in it the better part of the morning.  She was a real country girl.  Howard Brown came into the house went straight to Grandma.  He hugged her and kissed her and turned to his wife and introduced them to each other.  Howard's wife said to my Grandma "So, you are the woman that my husband has always been in love with".  My grandma said "Well, I guess I am ".  My dad shows up a little later and meets Howard Brown and says to him "You are the man who was supposed to be my father".  It went on from there.  Grandma was really nervous about his visit.  After that visit Howard called Grandma just about every week.  He was still so in love with her but my grandma only had eyes for "Grandpa/ Pete".  How sweet it was.  How sad it was too that Howard went his entire life being in love with her when she was with someone else.  This is not an uncommon story for sure.  Grandma married my grandfather and he was the type man that he was.  Don't get me wrong...Grandpa was a wonderful person... you just had to catch him when he was not with the bottle... which for a long time was few and far between.  A VERY BAD CAR WRECK made him sober up. He went from about the time I graduated from high school till his death in 1997 without a single drink.  That was about 15 years.  Every time I saw him I told him how proud I was of him.  He was so bashful he would blush.  I remember being a really little girl and getting out of the car  during one visit and seeing grandpa sitting on the front porch.  I ran up to him and he had cut his finger. He was sewing it up himself with a needle and thread.  Wouldn't the insurance companies love him as a patient nowadays? 

We used to stay with Grandma and Grandpa a lot during the summer. It was so much fun staying on the farm.  One day Grandpa left and he didn't come back for a few days but when he did he had two ponies with him.  Apparently he had won them at the turkey shoot.  From that day on my sister and I had ponies.  Mine was named Dusty and hers was named Penna.  Her pony always laid down when you were trying to ride it and it was so funny.  They were miniature ponies so they never got big.  I am not sure what happened to them but I can imagine that they were lost during a drunken' adventure.  Oh well. 

So that is the start to my family...at least a couple generations before my arrival.  However let the above serve as the overall plot and you will bet many of the 'rest of the stories' show up here.  It was a crazy, absurd, wacky, weird and warped childhood but it was mine and I wouldn't have wanted it to be any different (well, now that I look back on it).  It totally made me who I am today.  The good, bad and whatever else may come along.