Itty Bitty Hooves

If Only I Had…

You know, if you have any amount of property, whether it’s a small lot, or a bunch of acres, it takes tools, and equipment to keep it looking its best, and if you love to garden, it takes a lot more. All that stuff can get quite expensive. The best time of the year to buy garden equipment is now. The summer’s ending and you can get great deals on everything you need. It’s kind of hard to get in the mood to buy that stuff now, but think about all of the things you spent the summer saying ‘if only I had…’ and look at the deals you can get so you can have them next year at a much more affordable price.

You can get terrific Fall Decorations too. The season’s just coming up, and the deals are now, before the cute items for you home and garden are in great demand. Don’t wait until you can’t afford it and are standing around thinking, ‘if only I had…’ Get it now.

Vegies Everywhere

I went over to a friend’s house yesterday and while I was sitting outside having coffee with her another of her friends dropped in. He’s a lovely widower who spends all of his time keeping up his lovely property and planting huge gardens that he can’t use all of the produce from so he asked if Ellen and I would like to come pick some stuff for ourselves. Hey, how can you say no to an offer like that? Free vegies that we didn’t have to work for either… well beyond the picking. So we drove the couple of blocks to his farm and spent an hour gathering tomatoes, zuchinnis, acorn squash, green beans, roma tomatoes, and eggplant. What a haul. I only gathered one bucketfull for myself. It’s just me so I don’t need much, but it’s a lovely variety of vegies. I helped Ellen continue to gather another two buckets for herself for a total of four bushel buckets of the above. Then we sat in Bill’s back porch and chatted for a bit and headed home. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and a very healthy, and good tasting one too.

Expose Yourself

Now this is REALLY cool. Have you ever wondered how they make the television commercial spots you see on tv–In fact, the very type of infomercial I saw last night on the exercise DVDs, as well as regular short commercials and other spots? If you own a business, at home, or in a remote office, and think about how much it would improve your sales if you had more exposure but don’t know how to get it, check out Hawthorne Direct for all the information on how you can get your very own local or national exposure through the most popular and effective advertising medium around–television.

You don’t have to be a ‘big name’ to get big name exposure, you just have to know where to find the company that can get it for you.

Running On High

I’m still kind of running on high with the last weigh-in and feeling so good about myself. Now don’t get me wrong, at my weight 25 pounds is barely noticble to anyone else, but boy do I feel it. I even gave myself a little ‘present’ last night for my special landmark by ordering a set of aerobic dance videos to workout to. I really didn’t think of it as a ‘present’ when I ordered them, I just thought wow, yeah, I want a nice aerobic workout that is FUN and that one not only looks effective, it looks like a blast, so I ordered it. Afterwards I felt a little guilty because it was a little expensive (it’s a big set) but then I thought, you know, people talk about rewarding themselves for each ‘goal’ of loss (determined by them) sometimes it may be new clothes, or a day at a spa, or getting their nails done, or hair colored, or whatever, something that makes them feel good for having lost that specific amount of weight–so what’s wrong with the tapes being a reward–it beats shoveling down a piece of cake, lol.

So that’s what it is and now I don’t feel guilty anymore. 25 pounds wasn’t my first ‘goal’ but I won’t let that stop me from feeling good about it. haha

Learning By Experience

You know, I really believe that nothing beats experience when it comes to learning. It’s hard for people, especially children and teens to understand the vast differences, and amazingly special diversities of the world from just reading books. Allowing your children to experience the world first hand is the best gift you could ever give them, and yet finding affordable student travel opportunities can seem daunting for the average parent. There are wonderful programs that can allow your kids to get all they can from trips provided at fantastic rates and you can feel great about giving them the ability to learn in person what the world is all about. Let them put the book knowledge into true perspective. Let them look with wonder at the real historical and architectural wonders, as well as getting a life view of the cultures that make our world so wonderful. Widen their horizons and give them the gift of the world.

First Twenty-Five

I weighed myself this morning. I should only weigh myself once a week, but I can’t stand the suspense so I do it twice. Even though this isn’t my ‘official’ weigh in day (Saturday), it IS a milestone day! I’ve made it to my first TWENTY FIVE pounds lost! A friend of mine highlighted the significance of it. It sounds like a lot — 25 pounds– but it’s not easily visualized until you think about it. Go to the grocery store (or if you’re like me and get them all the time anyway just go to the back porch) and lift a 25 pound bag of dog food!

THAT’S A LOT OF WEIGHT.

No wonder I feel so fantastic lately… I have a long way to go, but thanks to my friend, Mal, I now have an even better way to visualize what an accomplishment each 10 to 25 pounds is… the local dog food aisle at my grocery store.

Bully For Bulldogs

Salt Creek Kennel in Tulsa has adorable bulldog puppies for sale. I came across their site while looking for reputable breeders that follow all of the breed standards and take exceptional care in breeding healthy puppies with special consideration to those problems that are breed related and brought on by careless breeding practices. I applaud top kennels like Salt Creek as the dog world enters the digital, and technological age to bring their high quality animals to the public. Never losing sight of what’s important in the structure of a sound breeding program is so important. Aw I would have posted a picture of one of their adorable Bulldog sires, but they have a script that won’t allow copy and paste. I don’t blame them, it’s a safety measure, but I would have loved to share it with you. What a mug on him! I guess you’ll have to visit http://www.saltcreekkennel.com to see him for yourself.

Return of the Hairy Beast

Oh, did you get a load of the big mustache on Bob in the wedding picture… that’s coming back. Let me explain. We have a deal. I hate the mustache, and he loves it, so for 6 months out of the year starting on our anniversary he shaves it off and keeps it off, then in October, for the winter, he gets to keep his lip ‘warm’ with that fuzzy, scratchy, irritating mountain of hair. I’m looking forward to winter this year (probably for the first time because I usually hate cold) because it has been a weird and HOT summer, but I’m not looking forward to the hairy beast’s return.

Get The Computer That’s Perfect For You

If you have even a little bit of computer knowledge, you can get great prices on gaming equipment, memory cards, and cheap CPUs online. It’s a much better way to get what you REALLY want in a computer than a pre-packaged often more expensive version produced by a company. You can customize your PC to be everything you need and nothing you don’t. When you spend as much time on the computer as I do that’s a big deal. I am in the market for a new computer and this is the way I’m going to go this time. I’m ready for a computer that is exactly what I need for the challenges I put to it. I need a computer designed just for ME… by me.

Are You Ready For This?

I scanned an old picture in the computer this morning. I wanted to remind myself of my new goal for weight loss. The picture is from my wedding 25 YEARS AGO. I was a thin woman back then. LOL I haven’t even looked at this picture in years even though the large version of it hangs in our family room. It’s funny how you ignore things you don’t want to see. I don’t have any full body shots of me now, or in recent years… the camera has not been my friend (it tells the truth).

Anyway, are you ready?

Here it is:

That’s my goal weight: 120 (actually it was 118). I’d settle for 120, haha.