Not my kind of weekend...

Let's just start with this picture, shall we? It may look pretty, but trust me - Snow is getting old.Yes, it snowed again. It wasn't that much and it made everything look pretty again. Too bad it just melted today due to the "warm" weather. Overall I think it was like 2-4 inches or something. They actually canceled school for this. I have no clue why as the roads were fine. Poor kids are going to be in school until July at this point.

Zuleika and Fritz have taken a liking to Dutch's new bed (cover made by Grandma). It is nice and soft... and big enough for everyone to fit on! Below is what Zuleika did to Dutch when he wasn't looking. Good thing he doesn't mind. How adorable!
Dave sent me home from work on Friday after a mere 4 hours. According to him I sounded like a sex phone operator over the walkie due to my extremely raspy voice. I was hacking up a lung and couldn't get rid of my headache. Plus, carrying around a tissue box with my MOD clipboard did not look that good. On my way home I had to stop at Wal-Mart. Yes, I had to. If it was not right next door to the store I would have gone some where else to get my meds. Anyway, look what I found! Yes, this is a sweet song collection of Lionel Richie. Don't laugh at me. You know you want a copy too.
I was so exhausted from not sleeping in days that I fell asleep on the floor while looking at Zee playing in a bag. I was out for an hour... on the floor... playing with the cat. I took some of that new Advil PM yesterday evening (only 1 pill) and was out for the entire night. I feel very well rested today and hope that I am almost as good as new tomorrow!

It finally happened...

I got my first cold of the season. I thought I made it through cold season but everyone at the store just came down with it over the past few days. I had my cashier disinfect every piece of equipment that anyone would touch with the magical powers of the Clorox wipe. I hope that this stops or at least limits the spread of germs. I think I am going to have to break out the hand sanitizer too and have the cashiers disinfect their hands once an hour.
The good news is that I am much less miserable today than I was yesterday. No amount of meds could stop my lower back pain last evening. I finally fell asleep after propping up my legs with pillows and crossing my legs in the "Indian style". Ahhh, sweet relief.
Dutch was actually a very good boy and let me rest the entire night. I had to bribe him though. We are going to do something fun and exciting as a reward for his good behavior this week.
I hope all of you are germ free!

Easter Sunday...

Easter was nice and relaxing this year. My holiday began on Saturday evening after work. I purchased some polymer clay to make some charms and beads for my Autism walk team. Unfortunately I am not very good with crafty stuff so I ruined my stock of white clay and spent a few hours doing so. I attempted to make a puzzle piece charm by first creating a puzzle piece out of red, surrounding it by white, and rolling it out into a cane for slicing. I must have lopsided hands because every time I tried to roll it out I messed it up. I ended up making pink out of my white and red fubar. In the end I experimented with my leftovers and got the following charms. I might make a necklace with one or two and a key chain with the big one.
I went to my mom's house on Sunday morning to have what I thought would be a small breakfast. My mom made tons of food for 8 of us. Baked french toast, breakfast casserole, two kinds of quiche, spinach pie, fruit, ham, turkey, sausage, bacon, beans... so much food and all from scratch! The table was very pretty. My mom has a knack for this stuff. I do not take after that side of the family at all! Check out the Martha Stewartness of the kitchen.
Meghan went all out on the fruit display. Very nice, and tasty! Check out her fanned strawberry.

My aunt and I decided to make jewelery to pass the time. We are probably going to take a class to learn exactly what we are doing. I made some earrings to match the shirt I was wearing. They came out nice. It was my first ever pair that I made so I have a lot to learn. But, they came out nice anyway. I also made a necklace but it is more for summer. I have found a new way to relax!

I also decided that I am going to document my progress in my weight loss. Pretty soon I will be riding my bike to work! It is 4.5 miles each way. Uphill to work and down hill from work. I figure it will help me lose weight, get my legs back to the power houses they used to be, help the environment, and help my bank account! I have to do some work on my bike first, like changing the tubes and adjusting the gears... but I am getting excited to do this and maybe some other people from work will do the same! Here is my before picture. I decided that I would take a picture of the scale once a week to see my progress. I noticed that even my feet look fatter than they used to. Please ignore my nail polish. I put it on for valentine's day and just haven't kept it up. Official scale reading: 162 lbs., 4 pounds less than the last time I weighted myself. Now that this is public knowledge I can't back down!

So this is how my day started...

OK. It's been a few days since my last post. Busy at work with the new boss, visits from people at the office, contractors... the remodel is starting on Monday so it's countdown time!
So for those of you who know me well enough to know my weird eating quirk, this picture will make you think that sometimes the universe just wants you to take a breather. My quirk is that I am extremely methodical with my food. When I eat a meal I need to eat one item at a time. For example, if I have chicken, rice and green beans I need to complete eating the green beans before I eat the rice and so on. Also when I am making my meals I keep everything separated. When making layered food I need to make sure all my layers are even and that the flavors are consistent. This leads me to the picture. I cooked some breakfast ham on the stove and took it off to cook the egg in the same pan (no need to dirty two pans). While the egg was cooking I cut up some havarti cheese and randomly let it drop onto the ham. When I felt I had enough cheese to cover the majority of the ham once the cheese melted I spun the plate for easier execution of the placing of the egg. Here is what the higher powers showed me to do as I started my day after a night of little sleep... coincidence? I think not. Even though I was running a few minutes behind for work I couldn't resist getting a shot of this. Looks like a smiley face to me!

St. Patrick's Day...

I am not Irish so I guess I don't have any reason to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I spent my day the same way I spend most of my days off. Cleaning, making appointments, going to appointments, errands, and checking in with work. Fun, eh? At least the sun was out today. Dutch enjoyed going in and out of the door as many times as he could. He even sat on the porch for a few minutes enjoying the sun. The snow is almost gone from the hill behind my house. It gets pretty much direct sun for a good part of the day so this is always the first area of my property to clear. Unfortunately it is going to snow again on Wednesday. Hopefully not much. Even the cats were begging to go outside!

Dutch also got a new bed today. I got a great find at L.L. Bean. It is just the inside of the bed. My mom is going to make a cover for it. As you can see Dutch and Zee both enjoyed the new bed.

And on top of all of that I finally went to the doctor about my wrist. I have been in pain off and on, more on than off, since July. My orthopedic surgeon is such a great guy. He has done 3 operations on me, all successful. He has a great bedside manner and explains everything to you that is going on with the injured part of your body and how he is going to fix it. He actually remembered me from my first surgery to fix my broken arm. He said "We did that surgery on a Sunday right? You were so nervous and you were talking so fast!" Yep, that is me. What a great memory! Anyway, diagnosis on my wrist... tendonitis and what can be compared to carpal tunnel but on the side of my wrist - and maybe a little cyst. He said if he was correct that the cortizone shot he gave me should stop the pain and swelling completely in 10 days. I am to call back and report to him the results and if it is not better... plan B.

Day of... cooking?

I was off today. I had such a bad morning. I got out of work at 2:30 am and got an alarm call at 5:15 am. This time there were no broken windows! All three cops came in with me to make sure all was ok. Probably just a mouse. They are cute but dang are they good at setting off an alarm or what?!?! I finally got out of bed and on the road for my errands by 1pm. Got some new hiking boots, my yearly installment of Adidas sandals for summer, and did some other errands. I was half asleep watching Paula Dean this morning and saw her making a veggie lasagna. It looked good minus the cream cheese. So, I decided to tweak it and make my own version! It came out ok. A bit bland, probably due to the lack of cream cheese! I even made an individual pan for my mom. Aww, I am a sweet kid.

So, while the lasagna was cooking I decided that since I was being a health nut for the day I should probably dehydrate some fruit for later on in the week. So, I spent the next hour slicing apples and strawberries, dipping them in lemon juice/sugar solution, and strategically placing them on the dehydrator racks. In 24-48 hours I will have some yummy, yet healthy, snacks. Maybe if they are lucky I will share them with my family this weekend!

End of the road...

Friday was Stephen's last day in Manchester. And, on top of that it was the last day that we will work together for probably a very long time. It was a bitter sweet day for me as Stephen and I have been eachother's partners in crime for quite a while. I think we are at the point where we both knew how eachother ticked, the decisions we would have made, and have grown to rely on eachother to step up to the plate when the other is not around. Though all that was a good thing I think maybe it is good that we are switching gears and working with new people to keep us on our toes and to learn new things. The store staff has adjusted well to him coming to the store. I think most people realized that it was a good thing to get some new blood in the store and hopefully the momentum for change will continue with Dave's reign. I am pretty excited that Dave is going to be my new fearless leader. I think I will be challenged to improve in different ways than what was expected in the past and that is cool.
We had a party for Stephen, small but sweet. The cake was priceless. It is an inside joke. We got him two gifts... one was a hand held GPS unit for Geocaching. I introduced him to that when we met in Salem 4 years ago! He was pretty excited as he is surrounded by caches at his house. He also received one of the rocks that was thrown threw our front windows last fall. I kept it for a special occasion and painted it with our store number. He got a kick out of it. Stephen will be missed. I am sure the Concord crew is overjoyed to be getting him back. They have missed him!

Almost Spring!

What a beautiful day it was! Dutch was overly anxious to go for a walk so we went when I got home from work. I thought I would take the whole family since it was so nice out. Fritz and Zee absolutely loved the walk and Dutch was walking tall and proud. To the right is a picture of the kids after we got back from the walk. I didn't get as many shocked looks from people driving by as I normally do. Maybe the neighborhood is used to seeing me out with the cats by now.


Zee is getting stir crazy in the house and has rediscovered her love of plastic bags. I found her all tangled up with her best friend when I got out of the shower the other day. Why are cat's so obsessed with plastic? Fritz doesn't have this problem and I hope he doesn't learn any bad habits from her.

Happy Birthday Dottie!

It was Dottie's 50th birthday party on Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see Dottie again and to hang out with my TRU crew! The cake was from Frederick's and it was so yummy. Almond pound with butter cream frosting. It looked so pretty that I was almost sad for eating it... then I had a bite and wanted to keep going! Lots of TRU people were at the party, some of which I don't see much any more and most don't get to see my "wild side" (I did the chicken dance, YMCA, the hokey pokey and a bit of random dancing; and of course I was my normal goof ball self). And, thank goodness that I don't get to see their's much either. These ladies can get rowdy! They were dancing, drinking, being dirty old ladies... it was so much fun! I am glad that I went! The picture to the right is the Manchester crew (minus Tim). This was the "pre-let-loose" portion of the afternoon. It is sad that we all wear red or purple at work all day-5 days a week-and they all wore red for the red hat club. I was in "raspberry" (light red). I think Liz just likes purple or is obsessed with her job. Probably both. Dottie seemed to be having a good time too...

Frog legs!

I tried my first frog leg tonight. Yes, it does taste like chicken... kind of. To me it had a chicken soaked in green pepper juice taste. Definitely didn't taste like 100% chicken. Would I have them again? Probably not, but at least I can say that I tried a frog leg. Have you?

Monarch's Redneck Mullet night... yes, mullet night

Friday night hockey game! There are no pictures of the actual game posted here, just pictures in honor of redneck mullet night! For those of you who REALLY know me you know that I think mullets are a sweet way to style hair. Short on the top and long in the back. You get the best of both worlds! I had a great time with my friends and hope we can do this again some time soon.

Megan and me showing off our teeth and my mullet wig.

Even Max had a mullet!
"Dolly" and Max getting ready to perform at the redneck games.
Toilet seat toss... aka ring toss.
This lady had a sweet mullet wig. Looks like the "church lady" from SNL, don't ya think?

Now that is a real mullet. Sweet.

Tower Hill Pond

Today I took Dutch out for a nice long winter hike around Tower Hill Pond in Auburn, NH. I also went to find my 100th Geocache but was unable to do so because of all the snow. I think Dutch and I both needed to get out into some fresh air. I know that I needed to regroup and refresh my nerves after a rough week last week. I feel a spiritual connection with God out in nature. Today was a great day for that connection!

First view of the pond off the trail.

Dutch wants to cross the lake... I don't.

Someone's grammy is going to be upset with them! How do you lose a mitten?

Baby pine tree growing out of the trail.

This tree must taste good. Ants and termites have abused this tree!

So pretty!

This picture was taken from across the pond! I love my new camera!

The dam house? At the base of the house the water/snow line is at 53'.

Can't we go in?

That is a big crack.

Someone misjudged this part of the trail.

Still has the spark plug!

Dutch got a sniff of a critter's house...

I must have forgotten my sled.

They mean business!

Dutch wanted to attack every snowmobile he saw!

Mom! This is our way out!

For those of you not in NH, this is a picture of the snow at my parents' house. I didn't realize how much shoveling we have done this year until I saw the shrub under the snow.

The same snow bank as the above picture. I leaned onto it so you can see the height.