Pencil Thin

I work out on an almost daily basis. My favorite workout routine involves getting on my treadmill and walking as fastly on an incline as I can. I have found over the years that I cannot workout without music. This means having a good set of earbuds that fit my ears well. I absolutely have to listen to music while walking, or it just doesn’t feel right. I have tried several different set of headphones and earbuds over the years. Finding a good fit makes all the difference to me. I love not having to constantly adjust my headphones during my walk and being able to hear my music over the noise produced by the treadmill.

This week someone close to me was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease. This came as a bit of a surprise to me because this person does not seem like someone who would be experiencing thyroid problems. Aside from being a bit shocked at having a disease that will require lifelong treatment we are glad to finally have some sort of diagnosis. At least having a diagnosis means we can educate ourselves and that there is a course of treatment that can be followed. I am glad to know that my loved one is under the care of a competent doctor who is very proactive in assessing and caring for the health of someone so dear to me.

My husband loves Big Band music. For his birthday his father gave him a collection of CD’s featuring various Big Band artists. I don’t mind this type of music, but it isn’t my favorite. For some reason there is something about the combination of trumpets and french horns that always reminds me of old time cartoon music. I simply can’t shake the idea from my head that I should be watching a black and white cartoon instead of sitting at the dinner table listening to music. This is the only type of music that has this effect on me. I guess my mind reverts to my childhood and all the old cartoons that we watched with my grandparents.

My youngest son loves it when we sit and watch cartoons with him. He doesn’t care if we actually pay attention to the show as long as we are sitting nearby. It is pretty hot here today and doing much other than sit and watch the television doesn’t sound appealing. I sat down to watch a bit of Batman with him. The episode he chose featured a character called the “Music Meister”. As it the show progressed he became more and more angry at this singing character that made everyone else around him sing. Finally, he said “Oh crud quit singing” and turned the television off. I am really glad he made the decision because I was about to turn it off myself.

This will be the first year in a long time that we are planning to take a family vacation. Typically our summer vacations involve camping at a nearby campground. This year my husband has a lot of vacation time that he needs to use up. We live in Pennsylvania and aren’t really very keen on spending a ton of time driving to some far off destination. I have considered checking into hershey lodge discounts and spending time at Hershey Park.

It has been about 14 years since I was last there. The last time I was in Hershey, Pa was for a job interview at Hershey Medical Center. I spent several days in Hershey, Pa and toured many of the local attractions. I would really like to take my children to see the Hershey Zoo. They love visiting the zoo, and we try to go to one wherever we are spending time. Another place I am sure they would like is Hershey Gardens. The Butterfly House at Hershey Gardens is right up my childrens alley. My oldest son is keenly interested in falconry, and there is a place called The Falconry Experience that he would love to see. I have been to Hershey Chocolate World and know without a doubt that my children would go crazy over all the candy available there.

It is really neat to plan a vacation that doesn’t involve sleeping in a tent or cooking over an open fire. I love camping, but there is something to be said for getting a good night’s rest and not smelling like smoke all day and night. My children haven’t had a real vacation for a very long time, and I would love to create some long lasting family memories for them. I really like the idea of only driving a short distance as opposed to spending all day in the car to get to our destination. It should be a really great trip if we end up actually booking a trip to Hershey. It seems like things always come up to derail our plans.

My children are with their grandparents for the night. They do not go very often for overnight stays because my in-laws have pretty busy people. We rarely get a night to ourselves. The problem when we do get a night alone is the fact that there is nothing to do in our town. We live in a VERY small town, and unless we want to hang out at Walmart there simply isn’t anything to do. So we went out to eat in and now we hanging out in the bedroom watching television. It isn’t exciting but that is okay we are happy just to have some time alone.

I am starting to get confused when it comes to the media sensationalizing when celebrities enter rehab. I always thought that alcohol rehabs were a place where people who had reached a point of recognizing they need help go to get clean and sober. The media seems more and more to make rehab seem like a vacation that everyone who is “cool” or “rich” needs to participate in from time to time. I remember one celebrity who recently was stated to be entering rehab for exhaustion. I have always believe that when you are exhausted you take a nap or use some vacation time and that this isn’t a condition that requires rehab?

I drink a lot of smoothies. The thing is that until recently I only have made one flavor of smoothie – strawberry. I also must admit that I hate bananas. In fact, I can’t tell you when I have ever willingly eaten a banana. Today I ate or rather drank 3 bananas in various smoothies. As it turns out if you put enough stuff in a blender along with a banana you won’t taste the banana. Right now I am drinking a peanut butter cup smoothie, and it is pretty good. So good that I also had one for lunch. Who knew bananas could be edible.

It seems as if winter is finally over here and I could not be happier. Yesterday was actually a gorgeous spring day. My son has been begging to visit every playground he sees. I swear he could be a walking advertisement for swing sets arlington va. I was able to get some planting done yesterday which worked out perfectly because it has rained all day today. This worked out perfectly because I didn’t get a chance to water the seeds yesterday and thankfully nature did it for me today.

This is the one time of the year where my kids have to participate in standardized testing for their cyber school. In previous years we have had to travel about 160 miles round trip for testing. This is the first year that we have had testing available to us locally. It has been WONDERFUL! I cannot tell you how nice it is not to have to get the kids out of bed really early in the morning and then travel for so long. I really think this will also help the kids focus on testing and not feel tired and stressed from a change to their schedule.

I have been working out about four times a week for several months. During this time I have felt a bit let down by the results of my activities and was convinced what I was doing was not working. Given the intensity of my workouts I guess I expected more dramatic results. My workout basically consists of 45 minutes of uphill walking at a brisk pace and a steep incline. I burn nearly 500 calories during this activity. I almost gave up and switched to something like a theraband at yogadirect but decided to stick with it. I can now say that I am seeing the sculpting in my legs and calves as well as muscular development. I haven’t lost weight, but I am smaller, and that is what keeps me going.

My children are very involved in a couple of group in our community. Without going into detail I will say that these groups are spearheaded by an amazing individual in our community. He is constantly doing good and giving his time to those around. One week ago he went missing. There is no indication of what happened to him and it beyond troubling to his family and those in our community who have come to know him. All we can do is pray that he comes home safe and sound very, very soon.

After an exceedingly long winter it seems as if we are finally getting some warm weather. I can’t wait until we can get out all of our outdoor furniture and start cooking outdoors once again. I really wish I could get some new patio furniture or at the least one of those round patio table covers but I think there are going to be other expenditures we need to make first. Our garden is a never ending project, and before I buy anything that isn’t absolutely necessary I always put money into the garden. At the top of my list this year will be several loads of compost. The soil always benefits from a fresh layer of compost and the plants love it.

This week we received some startling news that has been very tough to process. Someone who is connected to our family and especially our older son has come up missing. This person is a leader in our community and is very involved in leading our youth to be the best people they can be. I had to inform my son this week that someone he cares very much for is simply gone without a clue. That is very hard for an adult to grasp and even more so for a teenager. There were helicopters flying over our house looking for signs of this person and it brought tears to his eyes because the area they were searching is a river…

Last weekend the weather really warmed up and it felt like spring was finally here. Today the temperatures have dropped and all I can do is daydream about the best resource raleigh nc real estate and moving to the south. We got about 4 inches of snow this morning and are due to get freezing rain tomorrow. I know that spring will come, but this is the time of year when I just start to get cabin fever. I can’t wait to be out in the sun and digging in my garden. All I can do right now is plot and plan everything I will do when the time is finally here for gardening once again.

Today was a day for deal shopping. I went out early this morning to my least favorite store which is Walmart. I had some coupons that I just couldn’t use anywhere else and wanted to get there before the crowds started rolling in. Thankfully my transactions went well, and I wasn’t given the typical Walmart hassle about coupons. I then went to Big Lots and scored a ton of clearance priced food which included cereal, granola bars, coffee, and juice boxes. I had a 20% coupon for these items which dropped the price down even further. Tonight I will head to CVS in hopes scoring some deals with early activation of tomorrows sales.

It is funny the things you find yourself saying to your children that you never thought you would say. I am constantly telling my older son to stop reading. I feel horrible saying that, but he simply gets completely distracted whenever there is a book around. If he isn’t reading he is researching places to buy books like Becks Books or he is planning a trip to the local library. I feel terrible telling him to put his books away, but there are just times when we have to focus on other tasks. I am really glad that he loves reading so much and I know this is a joy that he will carry with him through life.

My oldest son came down with a cold about 5 days ago. He was pretty miserable right up until last night. I don’t like it when my kids are sick and got up several times during the night with him. He has been coughing quite a bit and was runny a fever. Today he says he feels much better even though he is still coughing heavily. I am just glad the fever is gone. He was so miserable and had the chills despite my best efforts to make him feel better. Now if the rest of us don’t get it we will be doing good.

My oldest son is now a teenager. Along with becoming a teenage he has started to develop download sony acid or not. I really wish things were somewhat like when I was his age and music either came on a cassette tape or you listened to it on the radio. There was no computer to use or anything to download.

For several months I have been working out about 4 times a week. Each time I walk on the treadmill I set a goal of walking for 45 minutes. My other goal is to burn at least 400 calories during this time and to cover 2.5 miles. I am now up to quite a high level of incline walking and am burning about 450 calories each session. The thing that is frustrating the crap out of me is that the scale is not moving. I keep walking even though the scale doesn’t move and keep telling myself that I am getting toned if nothing else.