Hawaii Bound

I am on my way to Hawaii as you are reading this!! My daughter is presenting a paper at a medical conference in Honolul and invited her Dad and I to join us. Doesn't take much to convince me to go anywhere, but especially to Hawaii!! My hubbie didn't want to go (I know, crazy, huh?) He says he has no desire to see Hawaii. That's ok with me - more girl time! He'll be ok though. My brother-in-law will be coming from Texas on Sunday to hang out with him. Don't want to think about the trouble they could get into! This will be good for both of them, though. My sister died in November and this is the first time he has come to see us since we moved to NC. They were both scheduled to come visit us for Thanksgiving, but she didn't make it that long.

Here's the hotel where we are staying. Pretty cool!

I won't return home until May 8 (Thursday) so no posts for a while!! I'll be thinking of you as I'm sipping my Mai Tai and soaking up the rays.

Sharon

Staying Refreshed while we fight the War

In my quest to lose weight, I try to drink lots of water. I usually don't drink my water "straight" but flavor it up with lemondade. My favorite has been the little individual packets from Crystal Light. But, I have recently discovered another flavoring. If you like just a touch of flavor in your water, try True Lemon, Lime or Orange. It's refreshing!! I discovered this flavoring through an e-mail advertising free samples. If you know me, I'm always on the look-out for FREE!! But also, this company is doing a good thing for our country. They are donating 10 packets to Operation Gratitude for every new registration for their free samples. They have almost reached their goal of donating 1,000,000 packets for their Patriot Drive in May. (Operation Gratitude is sending 50,000 care packages to our troops serving Iraq and Afghanistan.) If you would like to receive free packets of True Lemon and find out more about it, click HERE. Stay hydrated this summer!!

The war in Iraq is on my mind a lot lately. I am not going to get political on you - that's another story!!! But, my daughter is a pediatrician in the Army and I am trying to get prepared for her phone call that she is being deployed. Just about everyone she did her residency with and the interns in the classes below and above her, have gotten the "call". She stays busy sending "care packages" to her friends and fellow classmates. (She has a secret cookie that she loves to send them to keep up their spirits.) So far, she has been safe since she is now doing a Fellowship in DC. But, her good friend in Fellowship (who will finish this June) has already gotten her orders to go to Iraq in August. Ashley keeps trying to prepare me that this is a reality. But, I tend to think like Scarlett - and will worry about it tomorrow. I hope tomorrow never comes. My son served in the Army also after his graduation from West Point. He has always been a very lucky guy. The good luck bucket follows him around! When he got his orders to go to Iraq, he had just gotten married. That was a bummer for him and his new wife and family. But, what could he do? Off he went. His luck came when his "office" in Baghdad happened to be one of Sadam's castles. He jokingly told us that he would wait to do his "morning constitutionals" on Sadam's porcelain throne!! Plus, to make things better, he ended up only having to serve there about 6 months. So we were fortunate to have him back safe and sound and hopefully, without too many bad memories. He came home and started his married life and has become a remarkable husband and father. (Can you tell, I am a proud mama????)

Exercise at the mall

Happy Sunday to all! Hope it was a good day. It was for me. After breakfast I asked my hubbie what was on the agenda. His plans were for us to go to the "Y" and exercise. I've been pretty good about doing that since we joined in January, but today just wasn't one of those days! I tempted him instead with a trip to Concord Mills Mall. Now, I know you are thinking, "my husband would NOT want to go to the mall!" Well, mine is not a mall person either - and forget about shopping!! BUT, Concord Mills has a Bass Pro Shop!! Ah Ha!! And, he has been wanting to get some new shoes AND a fummer hunting vest. So, off we went. Our first stop was the Bass Outlet (clothes store - not Bass Pro!). What a sale they were having - everything was on sale and in addition to that you took another 40% off! Of course, I didn't find anything (surprise, surprise!!). But, hubbie found some nice shoes at a great price! We walked all the way around the mall - going in tons of stores. I was looking for some summer shorts. Most of them were either too short, too expensive or the waistband was not at my waist! Seems like most clothes these days are made for the younger generation - not those of us who wear "granny panties"!!! Hubbie was getting to be an expert on scoping out the shorts. I'd pick up a pair and he'd say, "the zipper is too short" knowing if that was the case, they were low risers! Finally, after making it almost all the way around, I found Burlington Coat Factory (why do they still call it that? I didn't see any coats!!). But, their selection was great. Plus, by then, we were close to the Bass Pro Shop so hubbie could go there and I could shop and touch and feel to my hearts content! I ended up with 3 pairs of bermuda shorts and one capri set (with top and capri's) for a total of $65!! Pretty good, huh???!!!

Then, when we got home, I cleaned out my closet, putting away my winter sweaters and jeans and getting out my summer clothes. I had to try most of my summer stuff on since I've lost weight and am down 2 dress sizes!! Yippee!!! So all in all, it was a very productive day!

Enjoy this card I received this week from my Monday Mailer friend, Carol. She does beautiful work.

Maintenance can be a good thing!

I was dreading today! I go to Weight Watchers every Tuesday so today was it. Normally, it's ok, but .... last week I was in VEGAS baby!! And, what happens in Vegas stays with ya! I was not a good girl in staying on my Weight Watchers plan. (I don't call it a diet - it's really a different lifestyle of eating.) Monday was our first full day there and it was also our anniversary (#35!!!). There is a great Italian restaurant off the Strip in Vegas that we try to visit on each trip. A carafe of wine comes with your meal and at the end, they bring you the best Cappuccino ever!!! Of course, Sonny doesn't like wine and I don't like to waste, so I tried to do my best with the wine. Luckily, the meal I ordered wasn't my favorite (I was branching out and trying something new) so I didn't stuff myself with the pasta. Then on Tuesday, we traveled to the Strip again for dinner at Stage Deli. They serve the biggest pastrami sandwich you have ever seen. I do believe it has a pound of meat on the sandwich. Again, I didn't want to be wasteful so I had to eat the whole thing. I did resist the cheesecake though. After dinner, we went to see Jersey Boys at the Pallazzio. It was wonderful and we would both highly recommend it - especially if you are a big Four Seasons or Frankie Valli fan like I am. Our sweet daughter got us tickets to the show for our anniversary and the seats were excellent!! No one showed up for the seats in front of us so we didn't have to peer over anyone's head even if we did have a "chatty cathy" sitting beside Sonny. Every morning in Vegas we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the Golden Nugget - omelets, bacon, sausage, etc. etc. One morning I even had to try the bread pudding (I know - breakfast dessert!!). It was the hot rum sauce that you could pour over the pudding that hooked me! Yummmm. After all, Sonny was having eclairs!! If the food wasn't enough, one day I drank White Russians all day and another day it was Capt. Morgans with DIET coke - talk about calories!! Wow! Anyway, back to Weight Watchers. I was holding my breath during weigh in, trying not to breath. The leader said "you didn't do so bad". When I looked at my card, I hadn't lost anything BUT I hadn't gained either!! So maintaining is a good thing!

I was able to make a card this morning for the challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. I love their site and used to always do their challenges. Lately, life has gotten in the way and I have not made time to do the challenges. They have a different one each day. Monday is technique; Tuesday is colors; Wednesday is a sketch, etc. So today's challenge was using the colors: blush blossom; groovy guava; and basic gray. Yesterday's technique challenge was to make a card using double ribbon somehow. So here is my card which met both of these challenges. I will be sending this card for my Monday Mailer because it uses SU's Ginger Blossom designer paper. I also used my Cuttlebug and my star punches. Hope you like it!

Sharon