Does your car have a name???

When we got rid of my '98 Plymouth Voyager.... yep..ugly blue thing, we bought a brand spankin' new Jeep and I love it.  The girls and I named her Flower, husband kept out of that whole naming the car thing.  Ashley likes to talk to Flower now and again but that's just an Ashley thing. 

It occurred to me this morning how kind of attached you can get to your vehicles and how they become a little of who you are.  There are lots of random (over used word but appropriate in this instance) things in my vehicle.  Examples..... a large green pepper shaped tray, various toys, an assortment of shoes, table runners (must get them to Mandy), floaties (the armbands the kids wear to swim in), bird seed(who am I, Mary Poppins?), a bikini (don't spit your coffee out it's obviously not mine) and crumbs of all shapes and sizes.  So you see there's always something to rattle around or fiddle with, no matter how many times I promise to clean out my car on the weekend it just either never happens, or on the occasions I do get to clean it out, it's right back to where it was within a matter of two journeys.  Holli keeps her vehicle nice and clutter free so last night when she graciously gave Ashley a ride, the kid told her "Miss Holli, there's nothing fun in your car!!".

This morning we played music loudly on the way to school because we were all in a good mood... yep finally... the last day of school.  After throwing them out in the drop off lane I turned off the cd player and then it started to sprinkle outside. I wished I had a long drive ahead of me because I love the peace of driving without the radio, especially when it's raining just enough to put the wipers on medium and they swish back and forth, hypnotizing you into a wonderful sense of oneness with your Jeep.  OK yes I know I've finally lost it but for a few minutes there it was perfect, just me, Flower and the rain, and I thought to myself.... "and breathe!!".

feel free to leave comments and let the world know what your vehicle means to you. 

Somebody stop me.....

For those of you who don't know.... I am a complete and utter nightmare when it comes to health issues. I hate doctors, well I don't hate them I just don't trust or believe them. I am sure that they are highly over paid to just tell everyone that they have a virus, or to send them for more tests that never reach a conclusion or they "refer" them, or prescribe drugs and "lets see if this will work". So I rarely go unless I feel like I'm dying. I would rather diagnose myself and then prescribe myself something that I can buy over the counter, hence the nightmare begins. I have had several run ins with dosage that have ended in minor disasters. Not to be shared with the world (all four followers, why don't I have more by now?) on this blog but those of you personally involved with me probably already know the story of Steve buying Drano at three in the morning at Walmart. The guy asked if he had a hairball!! hahaha... no he had a wife with a self medication problem. There was another time that I took Benedryl in the morning for a seasonal allergies and I went to work and slept for two hours in the back office!!!! Nice job if you can get it.

So yesterday I was feeling that little tired, lazy, Friday kind of feeling and I think to heck with my healthy eating plan (I am still trying to lose weight!) I had breakfast AND lunch from a local BBQ place which is DELICIOUS!!! However, this chick has not eaten anything fried or greasy in a long time and my tummy decided that it didn't like all this junk I was gleefully stuffing into my mouth. Soggy home fries that are so awesome while you're eating them, it's just wrong to love those fries so much!!! Yummy breakfast in a cup, grits, eggs, cheese with bacon on top! Super pulled pork sandwich with the best spicy BBQ sauce ever... oh yeah this is fabulous cuisine.

So later in the afternoon I get that feeling that I dread, yukky, stodgy feeling like you just ate one of those little spongy animals that grows when you leave it in the sink for 72 hours. Those of you with kids know exactly what I am talking about, we have turtles, chicks and a star fish currently growing and shrinking in our house. Anyway, when I was playing the oboe in high school we had a thing called a pull through which was a string with a weight on one end and a cloth on the other, when we finished playing our instruments we'd clean out the spit with a pull through. Ever since those days I have thought it would be great if we could do that with our bodies... just swallow something and then pull it out the bottom and boom... you're clean inside and can move on. That was all before the days of colon cleansing and irrigation and that kind of thing. I digress. So last night I though to myself, after a couple of hours of feeling pretty uncomfortable, "I'll just grab some milk of Magnesia, can't harm anything". Well, yes it can Dr. McGillicutty.... yes it can. I took a huge dose right before bed, I was determined to beat this thing, and the bottle says "take preferably before bed". It also says it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours to work..... SO WHY DO THEY SAY TAKE IT BEFORE BED!!!!!!! Everyone sleeps for more than 30 - 240 minutes!!!

It's two thirty in the morning and Krakatau's decided to do it's thing in my stomach. Arrgghhh what in the heck is going on here. Instantly I regretted the decision to drink half a bottle of said milk of magnesia. It took a while but eventually I was able to get back into bed and go back to sleep, suffice to say I think I "pulled though" quite effectively. I was wondering if this would negate the weigh gain I had surely achieved earlier with all that crappy food. My only regret (well not my only one but a major one) is that I had big plans to explore with the girls today and take my camera along and take some prize winning pictures. I am afraid to step out of the front door folks, terrified of being caught on the hop so to speak.

So here's where I'm at.... do I a). take something to counteract the m.o.m. that I took last night???? again jumping into my nightmare with OTC drugs??? b). Do I eat some cheese, bananas and apple sauce like I would give the kids when they were a little runny??? or c). Do I arm myself with some Ooops I Crapped My Pants and get out there anyway???? or 4). maybe I can sit here at the computer all day and bloggidy blog, read everyone else's blogs, blog some more, check FB and be right next to the loo until these "consequences" pass????? pray for me.

Team Lean

OK good news on the TL front, I lost 4.5 lbs in this the final week! Go Me.

Luxuries are no longer luxuries....

What's up with all the AIG nonsense, I am just floored by it all. Don't these people have a grasp on reality or what? Anyway, everyone is blogging or twittering or whatever about all that and nothing I have to say will make any difference so I'm going to leave it well alone. I just wanted to mention it in order to demonstrate that I do keep up with what's going on outside my own four walls, unlike the AIG execs, obviously.

OK so this is the topic of the day, TEAM LEAN. It's an effort by the local YMCA here in Thomasville to skinnify some of us fatties that love food more than exercise. You can have a team of either four or five people and the goal is to lose the biggest percentage of weight over the contest which runs for ten excruciating weeks. Steve and I are on the same team with a couple of our neighbors; we suck!!! That is, Steve and I suck, our friends are actually doing so much better than we ever will. Particularly Jill who is little to start with, she's lost more than any of us. More than Steve and I put together!! How embarrassing. She has determination and will-power, two qualities severely lacking in our lazy ass household. I always talk a good game but actually skipping the breakfast burrito (410 cals) for the whole wheat bagel (120 cals), it's hard.

Steve doesn't even talk a good game, he hasn't been to the Y to work out but maybe once in the entire ten weeks, this is the last week. He doesn't research any of the food from the restaurants he visits on the daily basis for lunch. If it's a wrap he thinks it's healthy, not always the case young man!!!! So here we are in the home stretch with not a lot to show for our half hearted efforts although we are the very people who need to lose the lbs and get fit. I am forty for crying out loud!!!! He's not far behind either. So this week it's on baby, better late than never. No wine, no sweets, no mayo, no sausage and lots of good healthy exercise. I started this morning with a two mile trot on the treadmill.... unfortunately Mr. Healthy was in front of me and I had to watch his lean self running while the pounds were literally jumping off his body, I swear I could actually see them!!!!! They had little glib faces that were laughing at me, they were circling like wolves and two managed to hop on before I got to the weighing in room! Woe is me.

So watch this space for updates on my healthy lifestyle, I am making a promise to myself and if I cheat I will declare it publicly on this site. If I don't I will also publicly announce it to the world, well the little bit of the world who are watching this space. I went to the Chinese buffet at lunch and did a pretty good job of choosing healthy items such as vegetables, sea food and egg drop soup. I was also happy to see one of my team members also skulking there where she thought no one would see her!!! A ha... we're not all perfect after all. Food is a luxury people, be glad you can still choose what you eat!!!!!! If AIG has their way we'll all be eating rice and beans, not a bad thing, it's healthy and with the right beans it's pretty tasty. Bon Appetit.