Friday Fun Stuff

The contest is over. I was happy to be one of the 8 finalists. There were 150 people who started out and had their pictures on the wall. Only 25 of us did the final weigh-in.

I didn't win. Well, I didn't win the cruise. But I lost - so I won! The guy who won the cruise lost 57 pounds - in 3 months! I asked him how he did it - as far as eating goes, he just halved his portions. And he worked out 6 days a week - 1-1 1/2 hours a day. I don't know how a person gives that much time to working out, and would love to know if he'll keep up that pace. And he's a guy - they seem to have an advantage when it comes to losing weight. Not fair! He switched off with cardio every other day and weight training the opposite. We were given kind of a lecture on how weight training is the secret to really losing weight - you're cheating yourself if you don't do weights. I HATE WEIGHTS!! So I am not sure what I'm going to do with that challenge. But - I plan to keep losing. Here is the visual proof of how much difference just 16 pounds makes.

Taken 6/4/08

Taken 9/03/08

This dress is to serve as my next motivator - DC gave it to me for my birthday several years ago and it fit for about 5 minutes. I would love to be able to wear it again someday - - preferably this year.

We had a bit more excitement on our culdesac yesterday than I like. I was sitting on the swing in the front of the house, holding a twin on each leg. I saw this young guy running stealthily across my neighbor's yard, ducking through a hedge into their next door neighbor's yard. I thought it odd, but it didn't really strike me how very odd it was. He stayed behind the hedge for several minutes, then took off like a shot across the circle - charging between two other houses, limping with one shoe on and one shoe off - probably jumping a fence into a back yard. Just then a police car came storming down our usually fairly quiet street, hollering to ask any of us if we'd seen a young man running through the neighborhood. I was glad to give the officer what I had seen, realizing that my gut feeling had been right on target. This kid had the nerve to ask a neighbor guy to give him a ride, or to let him use the phone - while he was in his back yard!

The kid shed his red and white striped shirt and ran like a shot to the end of the culdesac, turning left toward the park. Fortunately, he was apprehended and arrested. By this time there were 3 police cars on our street. Evidently there were warrants out for the occupants of the car - when the police finally got the female driver to stop, the kid in stripes jumped out and took of fas fast as he could run. All sorts of rumors began flying around our neighborhood. I wish I knew the whole story. But it was pretty scary to think of what might have happened in those minutes before he hit our street.

Yesterday was story time day at the library - I was almost there when I realized I had forgotten to put the stroller in the back of the minivan - it is usually there, and I had taken it out for some reason. There I was with the book bag full of returning books, the diaper bag, my purse (which I left in the car), and two car seats with babies who are not as light as they used to be! I struggled to get them into the library, very happy to put them down in the story room.

The good news is that we still live in a small town in some ways. The twins are quite the celebrities at the library. The story lady was happy to sit down on the floor, feeding them their bottles while Feisty and I returned the old books and checked out some new ones. She then helped me carry one of them out to the car. I will never let that happen again!

Speaking of library books - it is time to start reading Beverly Cleary books to the bigger girls - my favorite children's author of all. I just love Ramona Quimby.

Sammy and I have been talking about our mutual love of all things Ramona (I love Ralph S. Mouse, too!) I told Sammy that I have some pictures of Feisty that remind me of Ramona. What do you think??

The other day I was in the grocery store when they were playing music that I actually enjoyed - from the 60s. The song that I was singing as I shopped was "See You in September." Do you remember that one (if you're in my age bracket?) You know how sounds and scents can take you back in your mind? I instantly went to 1966, the summer between freshman and sophomore years of college. I had my first serious boyfriend that school year and was missing him that summer.

I was working two jobs, seven nights a week, that summer to try to close the gap between the money I had and the money I needed. It was a terrible summer. One of the jobs was at the Dairy Queen (which didn't help me get rid of the "Freshman Fifteen" I had gained!) The radio played all day every day, and this song came on several times a day. I just found it on Youtube and discovered that The Happenings had just recorded it that very summer. Every time I heard it, I would almost cry. Oh, my goodness, it was so romantically sad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlUigSXxgG8

I was working so hard that summer, assuming that he was, too. When I found out that not only did he not make any money, but had ended up owing the company by the end of the summer (remember Southwestern Book Company - it roped in lots of college guys to spend their summers beating the streets trying to sell books for their college tuition). When we got back to school, I broke up with him. He eventually flunked out - he was not the serious student that I was, and we were not well suited for each other after all. Thank you, Lord, for protecting us from ourselves! I still wonder what ever happened to him, poor messed up guy.

Have a wonderful week-end!