30 Days of Lists 18

If I Won the Lottery...

It's funny, but I'm absolutely convinced that some day I WILL win the lottery.  Why shouldn't I?  I'm nice enough, I want to do good things with the money, I don't want to win hundreds of millions of dollars, just enough to do what I have planned...

I'm not worried about leaving money behind, or leaving a legacy or an endowment, although that's nice enough if there's money left over...

Here's my plan:  win $10million, get $5million.  And here's what I'd do with my money:

1. Pay off my sister P's house and give her some money
2. Buy my sister C a place to live, or pay off her house if she's already in one and give her some money
3. Pay off DSD's house
4. Put money away for a future grandchild for college
5. Put money away for J and A to finish school and give them a small sum to play with
6. Renovate Mom's house and make any and all repairs and give her money
7. Go to Disney World and Universal Studios and Sea World
8. Quit my job
9. Find a volunteer job, something to do with literacy or children's reading; if it's a paid position, that's bonus
10. Here's my splurge:  put cable and wifi in the lakehouse so we have it on the weekend (or whenever we go, since I won't be working it might not be the weekends)
11. Buy furniture as I need it
12. Make a nice donation to both of my churches

See?  Nothing elaborate, nothing extravagant.  I don't want or need designer clothes, or big name cars.  I wouldn't move or renovate my homes; I like them just fine. 

Yea, I might go on another vacation or two a year, maybe one of those last minute cruises that you book just a few days before, or a trip with our friends G and M when they travel.

I'm not looking to shop in Chanel - I'll probably still shop Walmart or Target or Kohl's.  I won't get a new car until my 2005 Hyundai needs to be retired, and then it will probably be another Hyundai.  I like diamonds but I won't be dripping in them.  Hubby will most likely still take a part-time job at Home Depot or Costco or Lowe's, whoever will hire him.

If you add up what I have on my list, it probably won't even use up 1/2 of that $5million, so sure, if there's some money left over when I kick it, I'll leave some to everyone and a little to my grammar school and my college.

Nothing big and flashy.  See?  I deserve to win.  So keep those fingers and toes and legs and eyes crossed, friends and family!!!

LEARN 19

This is a big one: I have LEARNed that I really enjoy not working every day.  These past three days, well, they were filled with rest and relaxation, sun and fun, BBQs and family.


And I have LEARNed that I am D.O.N.E. with wanting to work for a living.  I know I have to, because that whole "living" thing requires dollars and cents and unfortunately for me, I don't have a money tree in the backyard.  I don't have a sugar daddy to bankroll me and provide me with credit cards and bonbons.

But seriously, folks...  I have LEARNed that it's really easy to forget things you have LEARNed in the past, like BCC'g people on an email and sending ONE, instead of 200.  (Thankfully I re-LEARNed it only about 4 or 5 emails into the list...)

I am constantly LEARNing that I can LEARN new things and the same old things (over and over!) easily, even if I think it's not as easy as it used to be.

My dad and my grandfather used to say, "Use it or lose it."  And I think that applies here.  I have to consciously think and LEARN and the more I do, the easier it gets.

I decided to spend almost $100 on a time management/leadership program offered by Franklin Covey, through Amazon Local ($99 for $1599 value!).  I'm going to tell my boss and hopefully he'll tell me to T&E it but even if he doesn't, I assume I get some sort of certificate of completion that can be added to my portfolio; I'll even send a copy down to HR once I'm done...  It's based around the course I just took through them last month...  It was very basic; this online course will be much more in depth and will provide a lot more information and training.

I've LEARNed that I really have to step it up here at work, as much as I might not want to do it - just skating by with what comes easily isn't enough anymore.  I really have to go all out if I don't want to be the next in a line of 1200 who came before...  We laid off 1200 people over the past year, year and a half...  I don't want to be # 1201...

30 Days of Lists 17

This won't be a long one...

Road Trip Must Haves

1. Books
2. Kindle (even though I'm a book person)
3. Magazines
4. Contact lens solutions
5. Spare pairs of contact lenses
6. Books
7. Glasses
8. Phone/camera
9. Sunglasses
10. Round brush
11. Comb
12. Clips and hairbands
13. Hair products
14. Money
15. Credit card
16. License
17. Passport
18. Clothes
19. Shoes
20. Books
21. Earrings
22. Chargers
23. Spare car key
24. Books (sense a theme?)

Day in the Life...

Or should I say Weekend in the Life...  These pictures were taken Saturday and Sunday of Mother's Day weekend...  A little bit of commentary so you know who's who and what's what...

On Friday afternoon we stopped at the vegetable market on the way home from work.  We bought all we'd need, and then some, for the weekend BBQ.

I spent Saturday morning cutting, breading and frying 2 out of the 3 eggplants we bought.  We'll grill the third one on Tuesday.  There was a lot of eggplant, but a substantial amount was taste-tested by yours truly.  I can eat it like it's candy!

In the afternoon, when hubby was supposed to be frying up the peppers and onions and potatoes for our Italian hot dogs, I FINALLY squeezed in this season's first pedicure.  Oh, my, it was about time!  I really should have checked out the perspective before I posted this picture; my ankles look like cankles!

While I was upstairs working on taking spring/summer clothing out and putting away winter clothing (FINALLY!), J decided it would be a good time to trim the tree, without telling me.  Notice the camouflage clothing - I'm convinced he's trying to go unnoticed by me!

These are the flowers I sent to Mom for Mother's Day.  I LOVE Personal Touch Florist in Nutley, NJ.  John is the B.E.S.T.

Oh, I'm SO enjoying the colors!!  Winter was a lot of black and gray and brown...

Flowers from my baby sister's family for me!

 

Here's a photo of C and Mom.

Look at my beautiful A and handsome J!  It was just yesterday that they were mere babies!  Yea, she really showed us up all dressed to the nines like that!  She said she didn't know what the dress code for the BBQ was...  Trust me, it wasn't dresses and heels!

She's just the cutest!

C brought that awesome chocolate cake with icing and candy sprinkles.  There's a banana cake at the top and the one on the right is an apple pudding cake from Shop Rite.

Just had to get a photo of the three of us - need to learn Photoshop so I can get rid of that neck...

Mother's Day was nice.  Of course there were some people missing and I wish they'd been able to be there, but...  that's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.  I don't have to like it, but I have to accept it.

Happy Mother's Day, y'all!!!

LEARN 18

This was a busy week.  I worked all 5 days so that's one reason, no time working from home, no days off...

But what I noticed specifically this week was that I really have LEARNed a lot this past year at work. 

I always felt, in previous jobs, fully capable.  I knew that I had LEARNed the job and could do it better than anyone else.

But I'm going to be brutally honest:  I'm not a salesperson at heart.  And that's what I do now.  It's a job.  And it's not rocket science.  But I could probably do a better job if I applied myself and LEARNed how to do it better.

And my company has apparently felt the same way (not just about me, though!) because over the past year they've offered us a lot of additional sales training.  Now they've laid off over 1000 employees in the past year, too, which to be honest, has me working that much harder, too, to avoid getting added to that list...

But as I've gone through the training, I've LEARNed that it's common sense, for the most part, and I think I have a lot of common sense.  So I've had a breakthrough:  I LEARNed that I can be a salesperson, that I "get it," that if I spend a few extra minutes thinking about whatever it is I don't understand, I CAN LEARN it and LEARN it well enough to be comfortable selling it!

I sort of always just felt the different programs would sell themselves if they were right for the customer, but I realized that they could never LEARN about those programs and decide if they wanted to buy them unless I LEARNed the programs and actually, consciously, SOLD them.

So I spent some time LEARNing our custom printing program, and our e-book program, and I'm LEARNing about our ELS program and our digital (non-e-book) offerings...  And my brain is working again!  I'm retaining information, I'm LEARNing all about these products!

Hey, Dad, like you said, "Use it or lose it!  And I'm USING it!!!!

30 Days of Lists 16

Things I Love about...  My Husband

I could have posted a list about "Things I Love about...  Pizza" but I'm not going to do that, as much as I love pizza...  If you know me, it's no surprise that I opted to make a list of what I love about J.  I struggle putting my love into words; I always sign my cards "I love you THIS MUCH!" but I don't tell him often enough how important he is to me.

So I'm going to go ahead and tell all of you!

1. His big heart
2. The way every child is immediately at ease with him (Pied Piper, anyone?!)
3. The way he loves me
4. That he puts me, our kids, and our families ahead of himself
5. The way he struggles to understand what is going on with JIII
6. That he still loves his job after 40 years
7. That he's not afraid of hard work
8. His patience
9. His understanding
10. His temperament - he's always so easy-going
11. How everything we have we have because he worked so hard to get it for us
12. That he always wants me there and doesn't need any "alone time"
13. That he takes me riding on his motorcycle
14. That he gets so startled when I wake him to take his glasses off his face after he's fallen asleep
15. How he always remembers the recycling and the garbage
16. How he doesn't mind doing laundry and cooking dinner
17. That he doesn't mind me going to scrapping crops every couple of months even though it means he's stuck at the lake without a car (although we all know if he wasn't so "frugal" we could take two cars up there!)
18. That he's so handy and is able to fix or build anything we need
19. That he doesn't realize what a catch he really is
20. That even after being burned so badly in his first marriage, he was still willing to take a chance on me
21. That he worries about our nieces and nephews (on both sides of our family) as if they're our own kids
22. That he built a cradle for E and a rocking horse for A
23. That he helps all the neighbors whenever they need anything
24. How he doesn't understand computers but can take a car engine apart and put it back together blindfolded
25. That he's so loved and respected that everyone tells me what a great guy he is and how lucky I am to have him

It was easy to list 25 things, and I could go on, but perhaps my next list should be "How easily distracted I can get and how I'm perfectly willing to write a blog post rather than work..."

30 Days of Lists 15

Lessons Learned

• I've learned, first and foremost, that God never gives you more than you can handle.  Even during dark days (and I know my definition of dark could be very different than yours), I know I have the strength to deal with whatever it is.  I come from good stock; my mom has been through so much in her life and survived it all.  She left her home in Poland at age 7 or 8, lived in Siberia, Africa and England, and then relocated to the US when she was 21. She has lost her mother, her father, her sister and her husband, and is estranged from her other sister (Mom is on the receiving end of the estrangement, not the cause of it). If I can be 1/2 as strong as she has been, I'll be just fine.
• I've learned that no matter how nice I am to someone, they don't have to be nice to me.
• I've learned that I can be the best friend in the world, but I can't force someone to be my friend in return.
• I've learned that you don't have to talk to someone every day or see them more often than once every ten years or so for them to continue to be one of your best friends.  A real friendship can go the distance, both in miles and in years.
• I've learned that I have a very strong work ethic, and although I can goof off with the best of them, I am proud of the job I do and I don't ever want to do a bad job.
• I've learned that I can put up with a lot from children, but the two things I can't tolerate are being ignored when I call them, and whining. Ask my niece and nephew:  they heard "Answer me when I call you!" and "No whining!" a lot while they were in my home.
• I've learned that I have value, that I'm better in many ways than I've ever given myself credit for being (and I sure don't intend that to come across as arrogant - I'm not the most self-confident person in the world and it's taken me a long time to recognize my worth - I think this is pretty common for everyone).
• I've learned that I do have some artistic talent, even though you can't compare it to my sister or my father...
• I've learned that I have an awful lot to learn!

LEARN 17

I took advantage, last week, of a class sponsored by our HR department.  It was called Franklin Covey:  The Five Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.  It's a class based on the time management giant's new way of managing time. 

I LEARNed it's not about filling every time slot in your planner with something to do, someplace to go, or someone to meet.  It's less about calling that person at 2:47pm and more about LEARNing what it is they want or need, or determining if what they offer is something you want or need...

It's about LEARNing to make better choices.  And after all, isn't that what life is all about?

I use that phrase a lot, "making better choices."  I have a niece and nephew who are brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.  So smart.  So capable.  And they have made so many (to me) obviously questionable choices in their young lives.  But I've also seen them LEARN from their mistakes/decision, and that's what it's all about, right?

There were 16 of us enrolled in the class, and we spent the day, from 9am to 4pm, in Corporate 2.  We ranged from assistants to editors, from sales coordinators to tech support managers, from directors to VPs.  It was empowering to spend the day with such a wide range of people - it's not just me struggling with the day to day maintenance on Salesforce.com.  It's not just me spending more of my day than I should in Quadrant 4...  I'm not the only one who has spent her career on Outlook but never learned to highlight incoming emails.  I'm not the only employee who feels she's not maximizing her productivity.

I had to do some digging to LEARN more about myself and about my work habits.  I LEARNed - well, I finally admitted out loud! - that I spend more time organizing and planning to organize than I do actually doing.  I admitted that at 53, I haven't yet LEARNed to be a good housewife, to keep an organized and spic-and-span home.  I LEARNed that I have to take more responsibility in our home; I LEARNed early that my husband will do it if I don't.  While this has made my life very easy, it's time to take charge again.  I need to be more productive at work (yes, I'm writing this blog post during work hours, but I'm going to let myself slide considering I'm writing about an HR class I took...).

I LEARNed that I really need to pay closer attention in class.  I am, for the most part, a good student.  I enjoy LEARNing and I understand that LEARNing requires active participation.  It's NOT a passive activity.  But I tend to get distracted very easily, and even in a class about being more productive, about managing my time more efficiently, about making better decisions, I still get distracted by others, and I even distract myself!  (Which, btw, is more common than I like to admit!)

I LEARNed that I take great notes, but not great enough!  There's a lot of detail in my notes, but I think with age, I've sort of assumed (wrongly!) that instead of my notes sparking my memory (the way they used to in school), I really have to actively pay more attention - there are things I wrote down that I can't tie to a memory.  I quite obviously intended the notes to be enough to help me remember more of what was presented, but I'm finding with age that I am not remembering as much as I did when I was younger.  Sure, I can remember anything important if I have to, but when it's a discretionary memory, something I don't have to remember, it's a 50/50 shot that I retain it.

Okay, 50/50 might be an exaggeration, but I'm seriously making an immediate commitment to try to LEARN better, to remember more, to pay closer attention...

The end.

30 Days of Lists 14

Today I Saw...

• Beautiful stained glass windows at Mass for my mother-in-law (Happy Birthday, Mom! Miss you SO much!)
• A delicious venti-sized Iced Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks - for FREE!
• Sunlight
• A pile'o'work to do
• A pile'o'laundry to do
• Two phones + 2 laptops, all up and running
• Gas prices are on the way up again
• I need to dust my hallway (I'm never home when the sun is coming in that window - all of a sudden I see the dust!)
• Neighbor boys leaving for temple
• The baby who lives across the street isn't a baby anymore!  He's over a year old! (It's been a long winter with none of us hanging around outside for several months...)
• What day it is - our property taxes are due in less than a week!
• Our seedlings are almost ready to be transplanted outside (but it's too cold!)
• I have a large stack of books to be read - can't wait for summer and sunny afternoons reading on the dock
• My to do list (and I almost fainted!)
• Bills to pay
• A horrible news story about a 16yo girl killed because she didn't want to go to prom with the person who killed her

I saw a lot more, but my day is over and we're going to the lake so I have to pack...

30 Days of Lists 13

Things to Do This Spring

1. Change out my winter clothes for my spring and summer clothes
2. Get through some more of my 40 Bags/40 Days list, specifically our linen closets and my china cabinets
3. Lose weight
4. Continue going to the gym and actually doing something when I'm there, something that will give results
5. Take care of my knees
6. Pack light for my AZ trip, and my cruise
7. Stay on top of Project Life
8. Scrap some more layouts (outside PL)
9. Be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, friend...
10. Keep my planner up to date and really use it to plan
11. Eat healthier
12. Take a walk every day
13. Cut back on snacks - a guilty winter habit!

LEARN 16

Hmm, what have I LEARNed this week?

I've LEARNed that...

• I get distracted very easily
• I can get used to staying home from work very easily
• I feel accomplished when I do something as simple as a load of laundry
• I need to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend...
• I want to spend more time improving me
• any more improvement in my knee is up to me, that I've been discharged from any and all PT
• I really don't like going to the gym
• two men were stabbed just a mile or so from my house, by a homeless man who they knew had psychological problems - one mad died and one is being treated at St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson
• I'm getting more and more antsy to ask M about J
• what you see in someone else's family isn't what it really is, and unless you're living it, it's really easy to make judgments
• "the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry" (thanks, Dad, for instilling in me your love of Robbie Burns!)
• I'm really excited about my June vacation to AZ and my July cruise/Orlando trip, and my Miami business trip in September, and my cruise to nowhere in November (IF this happens)
• I miss my cousin Rick a lot - and I have to make a better effort to stay in touch
• it's a lot easier to buy new clothes than take care of old ones, hence the obscene amount of winter/summer clothing I have to change out every other season

...

30 Days of Lists 12

DIYs I Want to Try

1. Painted wooden stools - Done!
2. Colored backdrop on bookshelves - Done!  Obviously I need to take some photos and update these links!
3. Wall-papered or stenciled backdrop on bookshelves
4. Blue ceiling
5. Built in window-seats - They're not built-in but they fit in as if they are!
6. Make curtains out of sheets - Done!  I'm using them to cover the open bookshelves.
7. Make a terrarium
8. Make a container succulent garden
9. Sew a quilt
10. Knit or crochet a blanket - practicing!
11. Doodle an entire wall (like Alisa Burke's), or even part of one (see her movable walls here)
12. Paint my own napkins like Katie Bower did here

That's only 12 of them, but I know there are more - I have an entire binder full of torn out magazine pages of projects I want to try, but it's sort of unrealistic to add "butler's pantry" to my DIY list since there's no room for one in my current home...  maybe when I move to my compound...

LEARN 15

Hooray!!!

I've LEARNed that there are only 15 more weeks until our cruise! 

We booked it last night.  Now we have a day or two to decide if we want to add on a couple of extra days before the cruise for the parks...  Which we do...  But we have to figure out which parks, other than Universal/Harry Potter, we want to go and see.  Harry is a done deal.  Period.  End of statement.

We haven't been to FL since our engagement in 1998.  I know the parks are pretty much completely new now; they're constantly adding and upgrading and changing...   AND the tickets are, I'm sure, exorbitantly expensive...

I've also started to pay a bit closer attention to my pet peeves - don't ask why.  I've LEARNed I have a few.  Here's what REALLY stinking annoys me:

• There's more salt in a salt packet than there is pepper in a pepper packet.  And I rarely use salt, only on my eggs-over-easy, but I do use pepper...
• When I go through a tollbooth, I give THEM money.  THEY are the ones who should be saying "Thank you," but I do, and they DON'T say "You're welcome" in response.
• When I call a wrong number, I say, "I'm so sorry."  When I'm at the receiving end of a wrong number call, they just hang up.  Grrr.
• People invading my personal space.  I'm very affectionate.  I'll hug you when I see you, if I haven't seen you in a while.  I can stand next to you, even close to you.  But when we're merely acquaintances, do NOT stand overly close to me and lean on me, like I'm a lamppost or something.  I don't want a virtual stranger touching me!
• I despise people acting as if they a) know more than me, b) have been in a worse situation than me, c) are richer than me, d) are better than me...  You know what?  You're NOT.  Even if you are, you're NOT.  The minute you start acting superior to me, you've proved you're not smarter, richer, better...  AND you get really annoying...  (Yes, I work 5 days with someone like this and she's really getting on my last nerve lately...)

I'm sure there are several more, but these have popped up recently and no, they are not the result of me getting older and crankier.  They have bugged me all my life - it's just that now, I feel the need to share...

LEARN 14

What did I LEARN this week?

I LEARNed that no matter how hard I try, I do not like working out in the gym.  I had my free one hour with a trainer.  I warned her up front that I wasn't going to sign up for training sessions, no way, no how.  I just wanted her to show me how to work the machines I haven't used yet, so I don't hurt myself if and when I decide to give them a try.

She insisted on a short, 15-20 minute work out, as part of my hour. 

Fine.

SHE didn't LEARN that I know my own mind and that she can't in any way make me change it.  Well, actually, I guess she did LEARN it, to some degree, but she really doesn't believe in her heart of hearts that in two weeks, when she checks in with me again, I'll still not want to sign up for sessions...

I LEARNed in those very loooooooooooooong 15-20 minutes, that I can work out hard and not have a heart attack and pass out or die.  My God!  What she made me do!  I can't even believe I did it!  Sure, I admit that I felt proud of myself for having stuck to it, and not flipped her the bird and walked away, but did I enjoy it?

No, no, a thousand times, no.

I even cheated in PT yesterday and did fewer of one of my least favorite exercises and totally skipped two others.  I added two new ones into the rotation so I feel like it wasn't an entirely bad session, and it's the first time I did that in four months...  I just couldn't face them, I just couldn't.  I'll try to do at least one of them at home before next week's session, so hopefully that one will become a little less intimidating and painful...  The other two I can't modify at home, so I'll have to struggle through them at the gym on Monday...  I suppose I could try to do a couple when I go in to the gym, for non-PT time, but do I want to do that?  No, no, a thousand....  You get the picture...

This was probably not one of my best posts, but it's what's on my mind and I've LEARNed to just let that stuff out, once in a while...  even if it's not the most fascinating content on the face of the earth...

Tonight we're going to Eataly for dinner, me and a few coworkers from this office, and a few who were let go during the reorganization.  Looking forward to it, but I really wish it wasn't in NYC.  I really don't like the city...

30 Days of Lists 11

Books I'd Like to Read This Year


Some of them are older, some of them are newer, but they all made their way onto my iPhone "Book List"

The Longest Ride, Nicholas Sparks
Eat That Frog!  Brian Tracy
Linger, Maggie Stiefvater
Forever, Maggie Stiefvater
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
The Last Dead Girl, Harry Dolan
Hope in a Jar, Beth Harbison
Oath of Office, Michael Palmer
Suzie Bitner Was Afraid of the Drain, Barbara R. Vance
The Shadow Patrol, Alex Berenson
Death Benefit, Robin Cook
Cell, Robin Cook
The Drop, Michael Connolly
Throne of Glass, Sarah H. Maas
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Matthew Dicks
The Light Between Oceans, ML Stedman
Every Day, David Levathin
Origin, Jessica Khoury
The Dog Who Lived, Teresa Rhyne
Monarch Beach, Anita Hughes
Where'd You Go, Bernadette?  Maria Semple
Crazy Salad, Nora Ephron
The Last Letter from Your Love, Jojo Moyes

30 Days of Lists 10

I carry a black Coach bag, this one here.  The awesome thing is I got it for $91.00 at the outlet store in Atlantic City!  I got the matching wallet, here you go, for only $57.00 at the same sale.  Yea, never before in my life have I ever spent that much on a wallet, but considering list is $228, I think I did okay!
Here's what's in my bag...

• The wallet itself, containing cash, gift cards, credit cards and insurance cards, along with a picture of my hubby and me and my dad's obituary
• My checkbook with 2 checks to be cashed (one insurance check and one dividends check)
• My personal cell phone and my work phone
• 2 pairs of sunglasses
• 2 pairs of readers
• My "real" glasses - we have an eye doctor appointment after work today
• My Kindle Paperwhite
• My rosary beads
• Coupons
• My book of top secret passwords to all my websites, accounts, etc.
• 3 pens

And an orange Orla Kiely etc. cosmetic bag (yes, I know the Target photo looks red...  trust me, it's orange!) that contains...

• 3 lip glosses
• 1 lipstick
• a comb
• 1 pack of HotHands
• Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia perfume in a roll-on bottle
• Boroleum ointment (I never leave home without it!)
• Blink eye drops
• Neosporin
• hand sanitizer
• a hair clip or 3
• an emery board
• a black eyeliner

Then there's my Vera Bradley tote bag which, today, contains...

• My analog computer (which is a book of folders where I sort paperwork I use on a regular basis)
• My check envelope where I put current bills after they've been paid (today was a bill-paying day)
• the newest BH&G magazine I haven't started reading yet
• my Sigma makeup brushes
• my makeup
• my Naked 2 and Naked 3 eye pallets
• my Skindinavia makeup finishing spray
• a pair of winter gloves (just in case the snow comes tonight like they're warning us it might)
• a bunch of last month's bills that we have to burn in the fireplace this weekend, if I remember to bring them with me to the lake

And that's about it...

LEARN 13

OWIE!

I've LEARNed that I REALLY need to work harder in the gym to get fit.

I've been going to PT since my knee surgery in early December and have seen a marked improvement.  Hubby is worried, though, that when we go to Florida this summer on our vacation, I won't be able to keep up.  He keeps making comments like, "We can't be just going to the parks for a 1/2 day" or "There's an awful lot of walking in the parks" or "Are you going to be able to walk around the parks?"

I've told my PT therapist that that's my goal, to be able to walk easily and without pain, able to keep up with my Energizer Bunny of a husband in Harry Potter World.  Yesterday we sat and reviewed my current PT plan, and tweaked it a bit.

We removed the balance work - no more balancing on one leg while I throw the ball at the trampoline and catch it on the return.  No more standing on the balancing ball and circling clockwise and counterclockwise.

My lunges were removed - thank you, Jesus!  BUT then he took me out to the gym and showed me a way to do lunges and squats using the arm straps on the big swing frame.  He added a modified way of planking, something I had planned to try "someday" - now I have to lay face down on the floor, support my weight on both arms and bring each knee up to the corresponding elbow, 3 sets of 20.  It's supposed to work on my core and on my upper body.

I've LEARNed that it's hard.  And I've LEARNed that muscles you didn't know you had can still hurt, almost immediately after you've stopped doing the exercise!

I've LEARNed that I want to do nothing more than cancel my Thursday training session, the free one I get with my gym membership.  Brendan, the PT doctor, said he'd be surprised if the trainer wants to do any more than just try to sell me training lessons, but I reminded him who he was talking to - I'm in sales.  NO one can sell ME something I don't want, but it's likely I'll be able to get what I want from them!  And what I want from her is a brief rundown of how the machines work that I'm planning on using to get a bit more fit than I am now, even if I'm the turtle:  slow and steady.

On a side note, I've LEARNed, too, that I might be allergic to citrus/orange juice.  I'm not really into OJ but every once in a while, during the year, I crave it, and it's been that time.  I've been drinking 14oz of Tropicana Orange Tangerine Juice 5 times a week for the past 2 weeks.  Back when I was about 16, Dr. Bierenbaum (mom's cardiologist, who I used as a GP) told me to listen to my body.  He said if I all of a sudden crave oranges or orange juice, it's likely I need some vitamin C and I should pay attention to these cravings.  (He also taught me that when I'm sick with a stomach virus of some kind, if I crave something it's unlikely that something will make me sick, even if it seems to fly in the face of medical reason!)

On Saturday, I got that neck thing again:  bright red flush in a square-ish spot on the front of my throat.  No itching, no swelling, no pain.  Just color.

Then on Sunday, a new symptom - a rash of raised bumps and redness along the side of my neck.

So I called my doctor and took Monday off so I could see her whenever she had a minute or two.  They called me to come in at noon, so I went.  No, I didn't change perfumes, soaps, deodorants, shampoos, conditioners, laundry detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets, hairspray, mousse, volumizer...  I didn't eat anything different, drink anything different...

I posted the first picture on Instagram and got a comment back from a former work friend that a friend of hers gets that same flush when she drinks wine.  I don't drink wine, but two weekends ago I did have a glass of sangria...  I checked with Dr. Internet and one of the symptoms of a sulfite allergy is that sort of flushing.  Dr. C. sent me for bloodwork and added an allergy screen to it, just for $hit$ and giggles.

But then I went to my sister-in-law's house.  It was Monday, after all.  The first question out of my niece's mouth was, "Have you had any citrus lately?"

Well, yea, the OJ - WHICH I never thought about when my doctor asked because it's normal to me to drink it at random times during the year.  But I never paid a bit of attention as to if I get this condition around the same time as I drink a lot of orange juice...

So even though it's fading fast today, I'm back to my OJ drinking to see if it gets aggravated again...

I'm LEARNing to be my own experiment!  Will keep you all posted!

LEARN 12

Wow!  I've almost LEARNed how to style my hair in this new, straight style!  (Yea, not so erudite, but this is HUGE, people!  I'm 53 and I'm not curling my hair!  I'm styling it straight, without any Jersey poof!)

On the more serious, brain-oriented side of things, I was 42 before I LEARNed that I had even a little bit of artistic talent.  Growing up, my dad could draw, my baby sister could draw (in fact, she almost exhibited in a gallery!), but me?  Not so much.  Oh, sure, I could recreate a mean version of the gastrointestinal system for biology class, or draw and color a picture of the human heart, but artistic?  Me?  Uh-uh.

Then I lost my job.

And I found scrapbooking.

And I LEARNed that I could create some semi-decent pages!  Create!  Who'd have thought I could create anything?!?

Years went by and I realized one of my scrapping idols was actually a mixed media artist, and I started watching and paying attention and attending her classes when she was local, and guess what?  I can art!  (My friend E and I refer to making art as "arting," in verb form...  I'm sure that will get annoying and wear very thin very soon!)

I've done some backgrounds, done some watercolors with stamped images, but do you think even one of them is hung up in my house?  NO.

I have a couple of scrapbook pages displayed, but no art.  And that's going to change soon.

You may not know this, but I am addicted to Instagram (krys72599).  And I've found so much more art on there and I'M BETTER AT IT THAN SOME PEOPLE THAT ARE SELLING THEIR ART AND PUBLISHING BOOKS ABOUT THEIR ART.

Okay, art is in the eye of the beholder, we all know that.  But there are a few artists who I've seen post images of their art, and sure, it's modern, it's mixed media, it's theirs.  But in my humble opinion, I can do better!  I may not be able to draw but I've LEARNed that I need to stop being so hard on myself, that I need to start giving myself more credit, and finally, I can art!

I'm going to stop being so critical of what I create.  I'm going to create something that I can frame and hang, even if no one else ever sees it, in my office or my scrap room or somewhere.  But I'm going to do it.

I've also LEARNed that I'm a visual LEARNer.  I can't recall if I've mentioned that here before, but I just recently changed my way of entering things in my planner.  I use a Franklin Covey printed planner and I've started using different colors and boxing tasks instead of just listing them line after line.  And I SEE my accomplishments.  I SEE that I'm really and truly doing a lot each day, not just a couple of check marks off the list.  And that makes me feel so accomplished!

Here's an example of my new way of planning - and it may be messy but it works for me!

So no big revelations today, but still, LEARNing is forever, and it's good to know I still can!

30 Days of Lists 9

Just thought I'd give you a look at Today's To Do List.

Here you go:

PERSONAL

1. Post my LEARN post
2. Post my 30 Days of Lists post
3. Send a sympathy card to my cousin's wife, who recently lost her mom
4. Make a hair appointment - trim and roots
5. Start filing taxes
6. Call L and wish her a Happy Birthday
7. Call NYSC about our memberships
8. Cancel tomorrow's free personal trainer hour
9. Nail appointment 6pm - pick up Mom no later than 5:45
10. Check MegaMillions winners - retire? 
11. Check UrbanOutfitters website for scratch off world map
12. Lake pillows from urbanfarmgirlandco site - still available?
13. Download new books to Kindle

WORK

1. 10am Marketing meeting
2. 11am AEC meeting
3. Call customer in MN re:  500c order Beekeeping FD
4. Call customer in Phila re:  account and discount
5. Call customer in Phila re:  account and discount AFTER lunch (since you woke him at 9am!)
6. Send proformas to EF
7. Call KH re: e-books for course adoption
8. Follow up with LJ re: e-books never ordered
9. Track SFDC opportunities and update

30 Days of Lists 8

Favorite websites and blogs, in no particular order

1. Young House Love
2. Bower Power
3. Organized Jen
4. Alisa Burke:  Redefine Creativity
5. Enjoy It by Elise Blaha Cripe
6. The Pioneer Woman
7. The Mossy Nest
8. Ali Edwards 
9. Just Me and My 4 Little Chicks
10. My life...just not on the road I expected