daily 2006 january page

Kay's Daily Journal
January 2006

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January 31, 2006 - Tuesday

Advice #31: "Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out shoutin' - 'What a Ride!'."

Resolution #31: I will set limits on TV viewing, game playing and all other couch potato type activities.

The end of the month. Man, what a quick January. And warm. Very unlike most January's. Not that we get real cold January's here in the woods in Virginia. But normally, at least around and just below the freezing mark. Not this year. We hit 70° more than once this month. Today was a little cooler after the rain stopped, only getting into the low 50's. What can I say. We still have February to go through.

Should I continue with another month of resolutions?? I haven't decided. I have more Cowboy Wisdom's also, but will just post them all on my other website N4KUP on the "Truths" page. I hope you have enjoyed reading them.

How many of my resolutions have I been keeping? Have I broken any of them yet? Well, duh. Some were broken immediately. Some are more long term, so cannot be considered as broken until next December 31st, if they aren't completed. Maybe what I should do is have 2 lists. One for resolutions and another one for goals to achieve. That would probably make more sense. Food for thought for next year.

After tomorrow, the January Journal will be under the archive section. A passing of the torch to the new month. What will February bring? Who knows. But around this house, there really is never a dull moment. It may all seem mundane to you who are reading these journals, but I don't write EVERYTHING here. Many times I leave out the good stuff and the bad, just because it's private. Some things are just not for everyone to read. You really might get bored if I wrote it all down. This journal has become very theraputic for me, if nothing else. A way to collect my errant thoughts at the end of the day, before I try to sleep.

February will have Valentine's Day, President's Day and our 31st Anniversary. Thirty-one years. Man. Well, I'll write more about that when the day arrives. In February.

Perhaps I'll tally up the resolution breakages and successes and let you know next month how I'm doing. I hope you have at least smiled at some of our stories, thoughts and experiences, as well as the resolutions and cowboy wisdoms, throughout this month of January.

January 30, 2006 - Monday

Advice #30: "Ya can't keep trouble from visitin' but you don't have to offer it a chair."

Resolution #30: I will start a savings fund for the Designer I.

The Designer I is an awesome sewing machine, extremely overpriced. But it is really neat. It does all kinds of embroidery and stuff for quilting blocks. And it's all computerized. You buy (separately, of course) software packages that have multiple designs in them. Put them into the machine and voila', you have some fancy design. You can also download patterns from the internet. SO COOL. I guess I'll have to win a lottery or something to ever own one. They run, with everything (except additional software packages) including it's own special work center, in the ball park of $5500 or more. But it is really cool.

Today I finally got my room changed around so that I can use the treadmill. I got on it just to make sure all is running well, since I haven't used it in years. Jim had to make a couple adjustments on it, but seems to be ok. I did a big 3 ½ minutes and it took me 20 minutes to recover. Man, I've really become the couch potato. I used to walk on it for 45 minutes at a time. I'll do better tomorrow. I was already tired from moving the furniture around. The good news is that I have to get my pulse into the 125 area for fat burning and 135 for aerobics. I think I was close. At the twenty minute time afterwards, my pulse was still over 100. But you have to remember that my pulse runs fast all the time. 85-90 is resting rate for me. So 100 isn't too bad. BP stayed around 115/70. Thought that was excellent!

We had received a thingy in the mail about a big contest at the Rappahannock Motors. Some of the prizes listed were free oil change, free service inspection, $1000, $2000 and the grand was a $20,000 or pickup truck. So I went with my ticket to see if I had won anything. Funny thing was, they interview you, obviously, for a sales potential. I expected that. What I didn't expect is when they scrapped off my ticket, the man told the woman to just scrap the bottom section. Now I don't know that it was crooked. I'm not accusing. But it looked suspicious. If I had been a better candidate, would they have scrapped the top part of the ticket? Or the whole area on the ticket???? Makes you wonder.....

I got the free service check, which is free anyway. They look your vehicle over to see how much money it will cost to get something fixed that you didn't know was broke. Nice way to drum up more business. And in all honesty, man, I really liked the Jeep Liberty 2005 & 2004 (used) that I looked at. Very similar to Dad's CRV on the inside and out. They wanted $15,995 for the 2004, blue, only 34,000 miles on it, in excellent condition. And the 2005 only had about 17,000 miles on it and they wanted $17,995 for it. So really good deals. And the 2005 was still under factory warranty. We're not ready to purchase a new vehicle in the next year, but in a couple years, I believe that will be a real possibility to look at.

Course, if I won a lottery, (though not likely since I don't play!), the Jeep Commander would be on the list. They start around the $40K mark and I think they look similar to the new H3's that are about. Pretty neat vehicle! Another cool vehicle is the Dodge Dakota 4 door pickup. AWESOME. I had fun looking around.

Anyway, I had to go try, who knows, I could've won. It would have worried me if I didn't at least try.

Well, I'm really tired and I still need to tackle another corner in my bedroom tomorrow. I'm cleaning out clutter, one room at a time. It's tough, cause I can't stand to throw things away. So I'm trying to find a place for everything. If I can't find a place to store it, then it has to go.

So far, storage is beating the garbage bags. I knew it would!

January 29, 2006 - Sunday

Advice #29: "Keep a light rein, a steady hand and a steely gaze."

Resolution #29: I will practice songs for church faithfully for whenever I can be there.

Didn't do much today except to work on the exercise examples. I found some really neat exercises, but they were animated. So I captured the ones I was interested in learning. But for me to print them out, I had to convert the gifs to stills. So I pulled each one, one by one into an animation program, copied and pasted each frame to get a comic strip effect of the exercise. Next I have to copy-paste all the written explanations. To top it off I made a little chart to log how many I do of each exercise. Sounds complicated, it was. But mostly just time consuming. All the time I've spent on it, I'd better use them!!!

Actually, I've done some research about exercising and learned a few things. Basically, there are four categories that interest me, that would help me. First is the stretch exercises. I should do these first before I do anything else. Perhaps this would help my achilles injury that plagues me constantly when I walk.

Second type is the core exercises, which work different muscles in your body. All aid in general health and weight loss. Third type is the strength exercises. These are good for building muscles. Muscles burn more calories, thus these also aid in weight loss. The fourth category is your cardio exercises. These are things like walking, biking, dancing, aerobics, outdoor activities and so forth.

There are so many areas that would benefit me, in all of these categories. And they aren't hard, it's just so many different ones to work and/or stretch different muscles, which in my case desparately need some help. So you can understand why I need photos of the procedures. And of course, you do some on some days and others on other days. And the strength exercises shouldn't be done two days in a row. You are supposed to only do them 3 days a week or so, especially to start. Once I get into a routine, I probably won't need the photos, but it will be a help initially. The little log section is on the bottom of each page for each exercise, good for one month. So I can totally track how many I'm doing, for each exercise. Cool, huh?

So now that I've learned all this, I need to practice it. I'm actually getting excited about working on this. I've made up logs to track my progress not only on the different exercises, but also on the treadmill and biking and even walking outdoors. All of it sounds great if I do it. And I'm going to. Not try, but do.

And the icing on the cake for all of this is the fact that, when I exercise, be it biking, walking or whatever, my sugar stays down much better. Duh. Should've known that anyway. I've just noticed that on days when I go shopping and do alot of walking, I get my lowest sugar readings. Awesome!

The resolution about singing is because they ask me to sing whenever I show up. So I've decided to be more prepared to do so on a regular basis. I love doing it, don't always do that great of a job, but still love trying. It's also good practice for me. It's not that I get nervous, but more that I get out of breath from the standing. So my voice often is shakier when I do sing. I think the exercises that I'm starting may help me in that aspect also eventually. I hope.

The church group asked Jim to put the sermons online. So he's been working on them one by one. They started recording the song at the end of the sermons a few months ago, so some of my performances are now online at the end of some of the sermons. Man, a couple of them sound pretty bad. Need more control. When I'm out of breath, it's harder to hit the right keys....

It's a shame that when I sang "Tavern to a Temple" it wasn't recorded. I thought that maybe I had done a good job on that song. Such a message in it too. But without hearing it on tape, I'll never know.

January 28, 2006 - Sabbath

Advice #28: "When the riding gets rough, tilt your hat down, use your spurs and get tough."

Resolution #28: I will restore my old school scrapbook.

So how are my step counts doing? Well, the lofty goal of 10,000 steps a day is a lot harder than I thought. Man, I feel like I'm on my feet all day, yet I'm not getting many steps. Hmmph...10,000 steps a day? At this rate it will take me three weeks to hit my first 10,000. The thing is smart, it knows when I'm just taking little steps around the house, or when I'm really walking or going up and down steps. So just walking inside, around the house, doing odds n' ends, the steps don't count up as fast. When I go shopping or walk around the yard or treadmill or up and down the steps, well, it is almost one for one with the count! Interesting. Guess I'm going to have to "step" it up abit. Tee hee, get the pun??? Step it up??? OK, I'm tired.

Well, I took a short walk outside today, since it was so warm out. No, I don't like warm weather, but this was at least pleasant, not super humid. Not like spring, summer and fall normally is here.

These warm days are getting ridiculous. Yes, yes, I know it's chilly in the early morning, but 50-60's during the day?? It made it to 70.2° today. Where's winter? I'm not asking for tons of snow. I'm not asking for icy conditions. Just a little seasonable cold air. Enough to kill off the extra spiders and bees. Otherwise we'll have a bumper crop this year. It's all because they don't let farmers use the pesticides like they did years ago.(the insects, not the weather)

The funny thing is that I often lament that Virginia is not like the climate we had in Westminster. It's true. We had drier weather, humidity wise. We had colder weather, winter wise. More snow, less ice, less humidity. But you know what? They haven't been having much winter either since we left. So it's not just Virginia. It's the whole Mid-Atlantic. The Northeast still gets winter. Why not us? Global Warming?? I hate to believe that theory. But in the last 10 years we haven't had the winters we had years ago.

While in town yesterday, an older man was talking to me about the unusually warm weather. He said that the groundhogs have stayed active and out in the fields all winter this year. Normally you don't see them until winter is over. He's right. What is going on??? I have buds on my flowering pear tree. My roses are trying to bud. My hyacinths are trying to come up. It's still January. We had a couple weeks of colder weather in November. We had the winds of March and the showers of April in January. I guess it makes since that in February we'll have our May flowers.

Maybe we'll get a blizzard next August.

January 27, 2006 - Friday

Advice #27: "An excuse is a lie with a skin around it."

Resolution #27: I will do a scrapbook for us of all our Christmas's, 1975 - 2005, similar to the ones I gave as gifts a couple years ago.

We had photographed every page in both of the gift albums, some of which can be seen on my webpages devoted to Scrapbooking. So I have some guidelines on how to design my scrapbook pages. The only big difference will be that I will do 3 pages for each year (at least), a couple pages for photos taken with both families and then one or more devoted to our own home Christmas photos.

It's a big project, like doing the two gift albums all over again, only all at once. Will probably have to use more than one Scrapbook album. I'm organizing my photo folders on the computer and figuring out which photos to get reprinted. Most are already printed as I had doubles made when I worked on the two gift albums years ago.

Went back to AC Moore today. They had Hanes T-Shirts on sale, 5 for $10, in 38 colors! (not in my size of course, but for Jimmy). He wears different colors to match under his button type shirts so we got a bunch for him. Cool deal. I really, REALLY like that store! Also did some grocery shopping since we were in town anyway.

Not much else happening. Ran some laundry this morning, dishes, bagged garbage for the dump, all before going to town. So felt like I had a full day. I'm tired so will call it a night.

January 26, 2006 - Thursday

Advice #26: "Never drop your gun to hug a grizzly."

Resolution #26: I will systematically clean out and organize all closets.

More housework accomplished today. Actually got a bathroom scrubbed! My least favorite job. Also sorting a few more sewing items into my cabinet for easier access. That's more fun than cleaning anyday.

Seth called, had a good time on his trip to Florida. His group won 2nd place in the cup drop contest. There will be an article in the Jacksonville news as well as Socorro news about the whole thing. If we can locate it, I'll send it out to everyone to read. Seth's looking for it.

Jimmy's enjoying his classes everyday. He had some tests today, but said they weren't a problem. He comes home and works on his homework, then has time in the evenings to do other stuff. By the way, he is ranked 72nd for the whole state of Virginia in his Yu-Gi-Oh competition out of many thousands....I'll have to get the number from him.

Jaws (the movie) was on TV this afternoon and I listened/watched it as I was doing housework. One of my all time favorite mini-disaster films. It had a big impact on me because we saw it in the theatre the same time we were shark fishing in the Delaware Bay. We had just signed up to do some shark tagging in the Bay for the US Fish & Wildlife Center. We hooked one that was almost as long as our 17' boat. I swore later that I could hear the "Jaws" theme music as it snapped our lines and lazily cruised on up the Bay. We would often catch some small one footers especially when we were fishing for flounder on the bottom. You can see a picture of one on the fishing page of my N4KUP website.

It was also interesting that when we were shark fishing, we always trolled the shallow water, close to the beaches. That fact and the movie itself has kept me out of the water for many years. And in recent years, the frequency of attacks has increased, so....not a swimmer anyway. Now if I won a lottery and could have an indoor swimming pool, that would be a whole new ballgame! We no longer have our boat but we had some good times while we had it!

January 25, 2006 - Wednesday

Advice #25: "Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce."

Resolution #25: I will organize the school boxes.

You guessed it. Like the baby boxes, I've also saved a box (each) of school stuff. A sampling of classwork, awards they won, report cards and all kinds of stuff. These also need to be organized. Really, I should probably put all these things into scrapbooks. It's on the "To Do" List. Honest!

Some days it just seems like I get more done than other days. I feel like I worked all day today, but didn't get much accomplished. Well, yes, I did 3 loads of laundry, dishes twice, cooked a couple meals, but you know what I mean. I want to do so much more. I lay in bed at night just thinking about all my to do lists, things I need to do, things I want to do and just wonder why I didn't get more accomplished. Funny thing is that I'm getting more done now than I was before the holidays. (I was having some health problems then.) So I shouldn't get discouraged. But did you ever have some things that you really wanted to do, but even when you have time, you don't do them??? I don't get it. Why didn't I do them? Beats me....

More laundry today and general housework, probably seems pretty mundane to some. Sometimes for me also. But it's a means to an end. Housework, do some in the morning, then maybe I'll have time to do some hobby stuff in the afternoon. That's my good intentions every morning.........but, as you can guess.........sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.......

January 24, 2006 - Tuesday

Advice #24: "An old timer is a man who's had a lot of interesting experiences -- some of them true."

Resolution #24: I will organize the baby boxes.

Baby boxes are just boxes of stuff I've saved of the boys, since they were infants. Just a small box each of things like their baby books, lists of gifts they received at birth, miscellaneous odd's n' ends of toddler years.

Today was more routine. We got Jimmy's car back yesterday afternoon and it made it through inspection. Today I just ironed and did laundry, organized some bills that need to be filed and miscellaneous stuff around the house. It was nice to stay home a day. I'm normally home everyday, but the last few, seems like I was running everyday somewhere. Kinda unusual.

I added a few more rows to the ripple afghan. It has quite a few errors on it, but all along I have been using it as a practice piece, just to get back into the groove. Yesterday, at the store I found a great book, "Idiot's Guide to Crocheting and Knitting" and it not only has a lot of the different stitches for both, but also goes into detail about crochet hook sizes vs. yarn sizes and knitting needles and yarns. This is the area I really need to learn more about, so I bought the book, on sale, fortunately! I looked at it a little last night and will look at it more in detail over the weekend. I'm so excited about crocheting and knitting. Maybe I can make some things and sell them.....

Another couple rows in the store had dollhouses and all the accessories needed when building one. Including the flooring and wallpapers, furniture in both kit form and finished, also the electrical wiring. I haven't thought about that. If I want it to have electric lights I have to wire it before I wallpaper it......Don't know if I will fool with that much detail. It would be cool, I'll have to think about it...$$Don't want to spend more than I have! I'm going to make most everything from scratch anyway. Years ago there was a woman who had a website that had instructions on just tons of stuff to make from scratch for a dollhouse. She added stuff every month. Then after a few months, was no more. Fortunately, old pack-rat me, had already printed out all the stuff she had put online. I saved it, of course, for the day I would have time to work on it. Not only did I print it out, but also saved it on my computer as backup! So I'm good to go!

So many hobbies, so little time......

January 23, 2006 - Monday

Advice #23: "Don't name a cow you plan to eat."

Resolution #23: I will sand and hot-glue the dollhouse together.

I've had it for years in kit form. The dollhouse, of course. Got it while I was working and just have never put it together. So today I drove Jimmy to class as his vehicle was in the shop for inspection and some work. Since his classes were only from 9 am to 1:15 pm, I stayed in town. (We actually arrived about 8:20 am).

I was working on the lettering for Mabel's sign, so I needed to check a few more stores out, trying to locate what we needed. My last resort was the second scrapbooking store that we have in Fredericksburg. Unfortunately, they didn't have what I needed but the nice lady recommended that I try AC Moore.

Now I never heard of this store, didn't have any idea what it was. The lady explained where it was located and I still had 2 hours to burn before meeting Jimmy. So I thought, why not, and went over there. Well, WHAT a STORE!!!!! You name the hobby or craft and they have it. EVERYTHING!!!! Man, I'd really like to win a lottery now!! I spent the 2 hours just going from one end of the store to the other and I still didn't see everything.

It's just a bigger store than Michaels, more selection, sales and bargain prices. WOW! And I love Michael's so you can imagine how I feel about AC Moore!!! What a place!!! Long story short, I found some lettering that would work, so sign is done.

Well, I'm really tired tonight after browsing and window shopping all day, so will quit for now.

January 22, 2006 - Sunday

Advice #22: "Always ride your horse in the direction it's going."

Resolution #22: I will finish the quilted potholders to sell.

Again, one of those projects started before we left Westminster. Man, I was so ambitious in those days! Quilting, crocheting, cross-stitch, macrame', plastic canvas, latchhook rugs, gardening, canning, cake decorating, candymaking, genealogy, music....where did I get all my energy??? That's only to name a few of the pots I had my hands in. I also used to read about 4-5 books a week, romance novels mostly, but also craft and hobby books. When I was busy and couldn't read, I played audio books and listened while I canned etc. Was it just that I was younger? Or thinner? What happened? I want to have energy like that again!

Well, the potholders are also in a tub in the basement, but I know where they are. We have gone through almost all the boxes and tubs in the basement, except for one corner, so that may be where all my crocheting is located. I have found most of my other "projects". I will list some of these in coming resolutions also.

Today was busy, we went to a friends farewell party at the Pastor's home. Our church group is sponsoring our first missionary to our "sister" church in Tanzania. You can read more about it on our church website by clicking here. Be sure to hit your back button to come back to my pages.

I also am re-doing one of the signs at a local business for a friend, so I'm trying to locate certain lettering and stuff. No luck today

I had gotten my medical alert bracelet, but it was from a different company and I don't like it as much. The latch is so hard to undo, that I need help to get it on and off. So I'm going to look into another alternative. Jim should wear one too, but I can't get him to do it yet. Anyone who is diabetic should wear some sort of alert, cause if you were in a car wreck and unconscious, they might give you something IV that wouldn't be good, like glucose....So it's better to be safe than sorry. Well, actually I found a chain to match the one on the bracelet which is longer. That will help. The one I had fit, but had a latch that I couldn't undo with one hand. This chaing had a better latch and most important, I can latch and unlatch it with my left hand. So Jim is going to fix it for me.

January 21, 2006 - Sabbath

Advice #21: "Never take to sawin' on the branch that's supportin' you, unless you're bein' hung from it."

Resolution #21: I will finish the granny afghan.

Finishing the granny afghan won't take too long. All I have to do is crochet the blocks together. Most of the blocks were already done. I have to find them. That's the biggy. They are buried in a tub of unfinished projects in the basement.

I sang at church today, "Could You Walk a Mile". It's an emotional song to sing, but I made it through without getting all teary-eyed.

I didn't sleep good last night, felt sick to my stomach. Lots of flu going around. But I toughed it out and got up and went to church anyway. Felt a little better today. After lunch (3 pm), I fell asleep on the sofa and slept until 6 pm. Felt even better after the sleep. So hopefully it wasn't a flu, just somethin' that I ate that disagreed. Anyway, I feel fine tonight.

We tracked Seth's flight this evening. He arrived in Florida around 10:20 pm EST. Some friends from Va Tech (who were also coming to the symposium) were going to pick them up and take them to their motel. So hopefully they made all their connections!

Well, even with the extra sleep, I'm tired tonight and have a busy day of stuff to do tomorrow. So I'll end this now.

January 20, 2006 - Friday

Advice #20: "If you follow behind the lead cow, you will step in the mess he leaves behind."

Resolution #20: I will do at least 4 oil paintings (freestyle).

When I talk about freestyle oil paintings I'm speaking of doing oils from scratch. Not the paint by number types. I do plan to complete several of my paint by numbers that I have laying around, but I will mention those in another one of my resolutions. The freestyle will be of nature scenes. I've watched the Bob Ross TV programs and he made it look so easy. I know it won't necessarily be anywhere near as good as what he did, but I've got to try. The unrecognized artist inside of me is crying out for release! So....hence the resolution to do the paintings.

Today was Jimmy's free day and he wasn't scheduled for work, so he had time to do some homework and things that have been piling up that he wanted to accomplish! Good job! He did a couple things for me also, which I really REALLY appreciate!

Seth leaves for Florida tomorrow with his undergrad students. It should be an interesting experience! I know they will have fun too. They have a direct flight, no layovers which is awesome! Have fun guys!!!

Jim arrived home around 3 pm today from his short trip to Wallops Island, VA. He and several co-workers spent the last 3 days there doing some test work. Beautiful area, we had hoped to move there back in 1983/84, but funding fell through for the work, so it didn't happen. At the time we were sorely disappointed, as we had combed the area, looked at houses and all that stuff. The area is so like where we grew up, except the ocean is closer. The people are true Eastern Shore people, also like where we grew up. So it was a blow not to be able to go there at the time. But just like everything else in life, when one door closes, another opens.

Our 2nd door led us to re-locate in Westminster, MD. There could've been no better place to raise our boys. We had 3 acres of open field in the back corner of a 40 acre farm that had been subdivided. So we weren't on a road, but had a common drive that led out to a little back road. The main highway was two 4 acre lots away (the back road was 4-three acre lots away), so it was a safe open area for the boys. Almost all of the 12 homes built there that year had young boys. Only one group had girls (which were older) and one house was just an older retired couple. So all the boys had almost 40 acres of open fields to play. Model rockets, kites, baseball, soccor, football, all could be easily done in our yard. (See my Backyard pages for photos!). And when it was time for school, the bus stopped up on the main highway, which could be seen from our front window across the valley (when they were older), when they were in elementary, I met the bus on the highway, same location. Anyway, so our 2nd door was so wonderful, that we never missed going to Wallops afterall!

Well, I worked on some house projects, got some housework done that I'd been putting off for awhile. Emptied my bottom file drawer of books, sorted and put on the bookshelf. Inventoried my karaoke music and got all my material refolded and put in the cabinet. Crocheted a few rows on the baby ripple afghan, talked on the phone and surfed the internet. Normal days.

January 19, 2006 - Thursday

Advice #19: "Expecting the world to treat you well because you are a nice person is like expecting the bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian."

Resolution #19: I will sell some things on eBay.

Happy Birthday David!!!!

Busy day, just worked on laundry and that type of stuff. Also got all my sewing material sorted and stacked in the cabinet for easier access and use. Dishes done and working around the house.

Added rows 5 and 6 to the afghan this evening. I think I'm using too small of a crochet hook, though the yarn is a fine thin baby yarn, so...don't know alot about which hooks to use with which yarn. Guess I need to read up on that part of it.

So yesterday's total steps was 1158. Probably would've had a few more but took it off when I was getting ready for bed. Now today, even with all the laundry and housework, only 200 by 5 pm. This pedometer measures not actual steps but steps that would count as aerobic steps. For example, just walking across a room might actually be 10-12 steps for me, but will only register as 1 or 2 steps towards my "exercise type". Yet when I go up the steps to the 2nd floor, I get 10 steps of credit immediately. It's cool. But I see I need to actually get on the treadmill to rack up my steps.

Guess I'll start a exercise and BP and steps log on another page to publicly track my progress. Will think about it over the weekend. Let's see, twenty weeks to lose -- ( a lot )-- pounds...and drink water daily, exercise, keep sugar in normal ranges, so much to do. Learn to eat healthier, been working on that one, need to learn to control portions better. Don't cook food that I like, I suppose. Crochet more.

January 18, 2006 - Wednesday

Advice #18: "Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance."

Resolution #18: I will learn how to play the banjo.

The rains came through, heavy at times, last night and this morning. My raingauge batteries are dead so unfortunately I didn't get the total rainfall. Looks like we had quite a bit from all the flooded ditches and fields. Now the wind is back. Surprising winds for here in Virginia, very similar to what we used to get in Westminster this time of year, only not as cold.

Well, at noon today I had walked 958 feet. That's not much. Going to have to "step it up" to get to 10,000. Don't think I'll make it today! But at least I'm working on it!!!

I have a banjo, very inexpensive one that Jim got me years ago, when I was singing with Lex & Eunice. Eunice played a "mean" banjo, and she gave me some pointers and helps, but I just never followed through, since things changed and I was unable to get together with them as often as I would've liked. Jobs, then children, then moving all continued onward, you know, life in general, so I just put it aside for someday. Well, this is the year. I want to learn. I still have the cassette that Eunice recorded for me with instructions on how to play the banjo.

I've designed my February and March Journal pages. Takes time to design each one the way I want it to be, so I work on the pages ahead of time, so that at the beginning of the month I can just upload the page where I will start adding my daily journals. They're cute, well, you'll see February in a couple of weeks!

I forgot to take my sugar again this morning. Unbelievable! But I did remember last night. Lowest reading that I've ever had, 98. That was 2 hours after supper, but I had taken my meds, so it's natural for it to be lower then. Jim said it is also normal to be lower that time of evening, since your body dumps insulin into your system after a meal to help neutralize the sugar. My meter actually has some neat graphs on it (and even more when you dump data to the computer!). I'll have to read some of the averages according to the times of day. It's cool.

How's my crocheting coming along, you ask???? Well, the afghan is about 36" wide and I got about 4 rows done last night. It's a pastel orchid, later I'll add blue, pink, yellow and green, also all pastels. It's to be a Ripple Afghan and probably about 48" long.

Oh, and a side benefit to crocheting at night while watching TV??? I didn't eat any snacks, just crocheted. Well, to be honest, I don't have any snack foods in the house right now, but I have some healthy ones, like fruit, cottage cheese-fat free, of course, and carrots. But no junk. But I didn't eat any of those either. AMAZING.

January 17, 2006 - Tuesday

Advice #17: "You cannot unsay a cruel word."

Resolution #17: I will faithfully practice the piano.

You will notice that I have renamed this as my "Daily Journal", instead of "Daily News Journal". I also have current events and politics pages on my other website www.n4kup.com . I don't keep those up on a daily basis, but this is turning out to be more of a diary or personal journal so thought that I would rename it appropriately.

Did 3 loads of laundry today. That's my limit daily, water-wise. Bagged garbage and hauled it to the local dump. Jim usually does this, but I needed to pickup some milk anyway, so just went on and did it. Had a couple big boxes, from my bookcase and cabinet, so wanted to get those out of the hallway too. Nice energy levels this AM. Pooped out by afternoon!! But feel like I'm starting to accomplish some things that needed to be done!

I can't believe it, but I forgot to check my sugar level this morning. It's been running pretty consistant so not a big deal, will check it tonight anyway. I am supposed to check it every morning before breakfast and 4 days a week I check it again either after breakfast, lunch, supper or before bedtime. Don't mind it at all. Helps me watch out for what I eat better by having to check it so often!

Jim went back to work today and Jimmy back to school after a long weekend. It was nice having everybody home. Well, almost everybody! We miss you Seth! Seth is really busy out there in New Mexico. He is taking some undergrads to Florida next week for a symposium, then in March he will go to Mississippi for a Severe Storm Annual Symposium as one of the "presenters". Then he'll come back to VA in May to go on the 2006 Storm Chase with his group from Pulaski County and Va Tech. So he has a very hectic schedule for the next few months. This isn't counting his work, teaching and classes at college either!

I got my pedometer today. Got it all set up and I'm wearing it right now. (Course I'm not walking right now, so it's not doing anything.) But it counts the steps and my goal is 10,000 a day. It will take me awhile to work up to that I'm sure! But that is my ultimate goal.

Started a ripple baby afghan, crochet. Yes. I remembered how to chain stitch. That's the starting row. And the next row is double crochet, so I remembered that one too. No, I don't have a pattern and no, there is no baby coming or around, just decided to do a baby afghan to "get my feet wet" so to speak in crocheting again. Hope I can remember what to do next.....

January 16, 2006 - Monday

Advice #16: "The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'."

Resolution #16: I will learn all I can about keyboard and midi.

It's nice to have both Jim & Jimmy home today, no work or school! It's "Lee-Jackson-King Day" in Virginia. Honoring the great Robert E. Lee, Andrew Jackson and Martin Luther King. Men of great vision, one and all. So we have a holiday. Actually, Jimmy is installing some software on his computer and also doing his taxes today. Jim is updating some of his stuff on his computer and I'm typing my journal!

I forgot to add into yesterday's log that Jim put my new bookcase together on Friday. Yesterday we moved it into my music room and I have loaded all my books onto it! I love it! I still have one shelf to fill but I'm going through my books and sorting them according to whether they are writing books, genealogy books, art, nature, weather, disaster etc. So that will make it easier to locate a given book when I need it.

My nature books are some of the Simon-Schuster ones, like Cacti, Rocks & Minerals, Shells and so on. They are great reference books and I'm using them to organize, not only my collections (on my "to-do" list) but also the data I'm putting online on my webpages.

The books for the bottom shelf have been in a drawer of my file cabinet. Once I sort and move them onto the bookshelf, I'll have a free file drawer which I desparately need to file more genealogy papers that I have been collecting and receiving over the last year or so! See, it's kinda like a snowball. Once one thing has a "home", everything else can shift to where it needs to be, thus freeing up floor space!!!!

Well, at least in theory it should work that way.

Next project....clean out the bedroom closet. Then the coat closet, then the kitchen closet. And so on. I guess you could call this my "Spring" cleaning. But actually it is more like last "Fall" cleaning! Always works that way. I start organizing and re-organizing stuff on paper in September. Once it cools down in late October, I start the cleaning and actual physical re-organizing of furniture and stuff. But I'm slow and October turns into November and then Thanksgiving arrives. After Thanksgiving, well, it's a rush to do Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents and getting ready for the holidays, baking, decorating, trying to shuffle stuff around that I had started to re-organize in October....well, you get the picture. Happens every year, like clockwork! And every year I swear that I won't do that again, I'll start earlier, I'll not do the heavy rearranging that time of year, I won't change the cabinets around. But I do it anyway. Kinda like my annual Christmas injury. It's like the sun coming up everyday. It happens, no matter what I do or say. It just happens. That's the way the Fall Cleaning goes also. It just doesn't happen. I plan, I start, but it doesn't get done until April. So let's just call this my "Fall" cleaning. And next fall, I'll call it my "Spring" cleaning. I may have to start adding a year into the framework.......

This is my "Fall 2005 Cleaning".

January 15, 2006 - Sunday

Advice #15: "Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer."

Resolution #15: I will make quilted covers for my kitchen appliances.

Not much new today. Jimmy had to work and Jim & I just did some odds n' ends around the house. I worked on my contests, which I was way behind in, getting them addressed and sorted for the coming weeks. Jim worked on some computer stuff and taxes. Always lots of fun. But it's done, man, done!

So you're getting a good picture of my resolutions that I've made for the year. I'm going to list some more of them through next month. I have so many projects that I would like to do, but the last 10 years or so, either I was working and didn't have time, or I just wasn't feeling up to par to do anything other than just get by! I'm actually feeling better these days, hence the longer resolutions list this year.

It blew pretty hard last night and got down to 27°. There were a few tree limbs down and a couple small pines, but nothing major. Power flicked on and off about 20 times, but no lasting outages, thankfully! It was still pretty gusty this morning but calmed down as the day wore on. The wind felt cold but the sun was actually warm, so it wasn't too bad. Nothing like the winds and cold we used to have in Westminster this time of year. And nowhere near the intensity of Isabel in 2003!

January 14, 2006 - Sabbath

Advice #14: "The best sermons are lived not preached."

Resolution #14: I will make quilted covers for music equipment.

Jimmy was in Richmond today at a Yu-Gi-Oh Regional Tournament. GO Team!!!

Adding in that Jimmy won 7th place at the Regionals (out of 163 competitors), earning the coveted "playing mat" that only the top 8 people win at Regional Competitions!!!! YES!!! GO JIMMY!!! See the photo here.

Redskins play Seattle Seahawks today. One lady at church was wearing her Redskin outfit to support our team! Kick-off is before sundown, so we'll turn it on after 5 pm and see where they are. Most think they will lose, unless they got their offense back into the groove, and defense will have to maintain the efforts they did last week!

Adding in the news that the Redskins lost. They had the win within reach but blew it. Well, better luck next year. They're still our team!

The storms came through early this morning, around 2:30 am. I had woke up a few minutes into the storm from the flashes of lightning and the booms of thunder. I saw another very bright flash, a loud boom and the thunder started to roll, then I couldn't hear the thunder from the whirring or fast whomp-whomp sound. I figured that maybe the lightning had struck a small plane, and a large propeller or jet engine was at this very moment coming down in our yard or worse, coming towards our home. The sound increased, from the west side of the house, moving over the house, towards the east. Then it was gone and I could hear the thunder once again. The rain came down immediately after this and all was quiet again except for the flashes of lightning and the dwindling sounds of thunder as the storm moved away from us.

Jim jumped out of bed and ran to the windows trying to see what it was. We both heard it, we've never heard anything like it. It lasted maybe 5 seconds, 10 at the very longest, though at the time, I felt like we were suspended in time.

This morning we looked around the yard. No new trees down, no new branches laying on the lawn. All seems normal. No reports of a plane going down. And you guessed it, no propellers or jet engines lying near the house. Perhaps a tornado? No damages or evidence of such. We've had a small tornado in the past go almost directly overtop our house. It didn't sound the same. That was more of a roar. This was a whirring sound, low, loud but not like the roar. There were no severe winds that I am aware of, during the storm. The best we can figure is that perhaps there was a small funnel cloud, up above the tree level, never touching the ground, or even near the treetops. Your guess is as good as ours. What do you think it was?

January 13, 2006 - Friday

Advice #13: "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'."

Resolution #13: I will set up a budget plan for genealogy stuff (books, CDs, fiche, film) that I want to purchase this year.

I made myself a form in Word by month to list the Genealogy books, CD's and miscellaneous things that I would like to purchase (it actually goes up through the year 2010...so many things I'd like to get!). While it is true that there is alot of data online and accessible for free, those are just the tip of the iceberg of data that is available in some form of published source. It is really phenomenal how much information is documented these days! When we first searched records at the Library of Congress, I was almost overwhelmed by a library so large. It was like a dream! So many books and so little time! With the advent of internet, many kind folks have put their data "out there" for others to see, study and hopefully make a connection, thereby adding to the original data for that individual. I know that just by putting my data on my web pages (www.uriefamily.com), I have received more information than I ever could've imagined. Many times I receive thick envelops from wonderful people in the genealogy world, just adding to my data! There are some very kind folks in this genre. I know that I am so grateful to many who have shared their information with me, thus combining our lines, adding to them, sometimes numerous generations. It still amazes me. This is definitely a hobby that by giving, you will receive a hundredfold!

I'm sure that if I go through my files, my books and CD's, and all the records we have collected over the years, the envelopes of data that have been graciously sent to me as well as additional online searches, I will be able to confirm and add many additional generations on some of my lines. It is time consuming, and normally I work on this hobby in the winter months, like now. So this, plus the crocheting, knitting and quilting, I think these will keep me occupied most of the winter months. Did I mention scrapbooking????

With all the hobbies and crafts that I do, it's a shame that I haven't figured out a way to make some money out of at least one of them. Would be cool to open a craft-hobby store, but everything takes capital. It's the old, "gotta have money to make money" or "the rich get richer..." theory. My sister-in-law, Penny and I have talked about opening a store if we lived closer together, but alas we live 3 hours apart, so for now it's not possible.

It hit 70° yesterday and the last couple nights we had very heavy fog. Today we're under a slight risk for some thunderstorms. They may come later tonight but so far today it has been a gorgeous day! In the 70's. Where is winter????

January 12, 2006 - Thursday

Advice #12: "Every path has a few puddles."

Resolution #12: I will do my surname alpha searches each month.

Obviously, I have reached the point in my resolutions that involve my hobbies. Genealogy has been my hobby since I was a teenager. Jim and I did some real extensive research at county courthouses, cemeteries and state offices in three states as well as many nights after work at the National Archives, Library of Congress and DAR in Washington DC. (Actually, the DAR, county & state offices were only open during the daytime hours so we periodically took a day or so off from our jobs to do some of the research!) Point is that I have 2 full file cabinets of data, most of which has never been organized. It got to the point where I was collecting anything on a surname, figuring I'd sort it all out later. Since my family ancestors have mostly been in one area for 300 years, more than likely if there is a Urie there, I'm related to them. (as well as most of the folks in the county!)

I actually have enough "to do's" on my various hobby lists that I could provide a resolution for each day of the entire year (that's 365 resolutions for those of you who....well, you know who you are!). Will I list all these resolutions throughout the year? Genealogy, Music, Scrapbooking, Quilting, Crocheting, Knitting, CrossStitch, Needlework, Embroidery, Woodies, Miniature Dollhouses, Collections, Model ships, trains, planes, Sewing, Rubberstamping, Writing, Weather, Oils, Charcoal, Art, Cake Decorating, Candymaking, Photography, Astronomy, Ham Radio, Pets and various Nature and other miscellaneous crafts, to name a few categories. Think I can't have a list of resolutions to fill the entire calendar year????

That's the problem with having so many interests, you know. Jack of all trades, Master of none. That's me. I dabble in so many hobbies, that I master none. Oh, well, means there is always plenty to do and more to learn. If I can't be learning something new, it wouldn't be interesting. And the women I worked with back in the late 70's & early 80's said I would be bored when I quit my job to be a full time homemaker. Boredom is something I never experience. There is always some hobby or activity to work on, always something new to learn. Bored? Never. Tired, frustrated, frazzled, scattered? Yes, sometimes. But never bored.

Like today, worked on routine stuff like laundry and cleaning the kitchen. But then I saw the contest envelops just sitting there, waiting to be done, so I worked on those for a couple hours. Then I went online for a couple hours, doing the freebie searches and updating some of my email addresses and this journal. Now I'm working on supper, oops...SUPPER...got to GO...

January 11, 2006 - Wednesday

Advice #11: "Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway."

Resolution #11: I will finish transcribing the wills cassettes.

You are probably wondering what are "wills cassettes". Years ago when Jim & I were doing alot of genealogy research, we often visited many courthouses around the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Copying wills was tedious from the huge books they were written in and sometimes the microfilm machines with copiers were either non-existant, not working or already in use. Costly was another factor. So we got small tape recorders and read the wills and miscellaneous records. I was a fast reader and would even spell out some of the words, as was Jim. So we filled alot of cassettes with data.

After I was home full time with the boys, I began transcribing them, but it was slow and time-consuming, and babies always need some attention, housework needed to be done, garden, canning, well, you get the picture. So the tapes were packed once again for yet another move, without being transcribed.

After we moved into our home in Virginia, I transcribed a few of the tapes, but then went to work full time, once again, the tapes were set aside. Just before the holidays this year, cleaning up the closet, I came across them once again. This time, I'm going to get them transcribed. I type very fast now, compared to the old days. So, though I know I won't be able to quite keep up with the speed that we read the data into the tapes, I ought to be able to do alot better. (Used to have to type what people were saying when I worked in Tech support at Intuit, so my speed greatly increased!). Actually, I'll probably "rip" the tape onto the computer, so that I have a backup copy also, then transcribe it.

Well, I feel better. I had a complete paragraph of negative thoughts, and once it was typed I felt better, so now it's deleted. You won't have to read what I was feeling awhile ago! Lucky you.

OK, it had to do with dieting. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

January 10, 2006 - Tuesday

Advice #10: "If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try oderin' somebody else's dog around."

Resolution #10: I will complete one quilt for our bed this year.

Not only am I wanting to get back to crocheting, learn to knit as well as several other projects which will be forthcoming in my resolutions over the next couple weeks, but I also want to get back into quilting. I have the material, I have the patterns, I have many blocks already cut out, all those unfinished projects I started before we left Westminster....

I'm happy to hear that Aunt Dorothy is home from the hospital and doing much better.

Seth called with some great news, he was selected to present a paper at the 5th Annual Southeast Severe Storms Symposium held in Mississippi in March!!!! Quite an honor. He is presenting a paper on "Skywarn, Amateur Radio, and the Automatic Position Reporting System." So Cool!!! We are very proud of him. This will be a interesting experience for him too.

Well, as you can tell, I'm extra tired tonight. Not sure why, though I have been busy all day. Nothing strenuous, just laundry and routine stuff. Just tired....

January 9, 2006 - Monday

Advice #9: "Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God."

Resolution #9: I will learn to knit this year.

I know what you must be thinking. Does she really have 31 or more resolutions? Yes. I do.

I already know how to crochet, though it has been a few years since I did it. I would have to look at a book to get me started again, but I think it would come back pretty quickly. But knitting? Never got the hang of it. So I want to learn how to do some basic knitting this year.

Seeing my niece, Laurie, from Michigan, over Thanksgiving is what has started all this. She is into crocheting big time right now. So I have dug out my old crochet needles, taking stock of all my yarn and will probably go back to crocheting in the next day or so also! I'd forgotten how much fun it is. Thanks, Laurie!!!

Sugar ran high all day today. I ate the Special K vanilla almond brand cereal early this morning for breakfast. Says it only has 9g of sugar but it shot my sugar up over 200 for a test 2 hours after I ate. I wasn't feeling good, so I tested. So I threw the rest of the box away. Can't eat it. I feel better this evening even though I fixed potato salad for supper. Sugar was down lower this evening also. Funny how you can feel the difference.

Tired, so will call it a night!

January 8, 2006 - Sunday

Advice #8: "Lettin' the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in."

Resolution #8: I will record my 2nd CD this calendar year.

Didn't have another usb port on system, so bought a hub. Now I can plug in my glucose meter without having to disconnect other stuff. Also gives me a spot for my midi cable and future stuff, like someday, my own digital camera etc.

I'm already working on the songs for the new CD. And now that I can put the midi back in the equation, it will help me out. Still have so much to learn however. This CD will be all public domain old familiar hymns. I want to add in some other instruments also, but I've got to learn more about laying tracks in my software. On the first CD, I only layered the music track and my voice track. This time I want to layer several different instruments, like Jimmy on the guitar and bass, me on a couple other instruments, as well as my own harmony tracks. Will prove to be interesting, no doubt!!!

Also got new hearing headset for my other outdoor activity. Figured it's a good way to encourage myself to take a walk each day too. I have a pedometer to measure steps. Goal is 10,000 steps a day. Will take me awhile to work up to that but I'm going for it. There are even awards you can get for doing 10,000 a day for so many days in a row. Cool stuff...

Jimmy starts back to college tomorrow, got his books Friday so he is all ready. This semester will be better in that his Monday through Thursday schedules are almost identical each day. So his routine will be easier. Last semester it was 9 am one morning, 2 pm another day, some days ran from 9am to 8pm which were tough days. So this semester will be cool. Then he'll work on Fridays and Sundays. Busy schedule but he is doing very well.

Seth is going to send us his new schedule for this semester too. He's busy also, going to Florida for a week in January, May is Storm Chase 2006. And he has alot to do between now and then!

It's good to be busy.

January 7, 2006 - Sabbath

Advice #7: "Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance."

Resolution #7: I will finish cleaning out the basement this year.

We had 23° this morning. Now we're talking!! I had to break out a blanket last night for the bed. Love this weather!

The Redskins play Tampa tonight, but starts before sundown. So we'll miss the kick-off. But we'll get it on after sundown. I'm going to work on my contests this evening during the game. I'm 7 weeks behind! From just before Thanksgiving until now, just haven't had enough spare time to devote to them. Actually I missed some good ones around December, but there are always more the next week. I see about 35 that I need to enter, each one gets multiple entries. I don't enter every contest. I'm picky. I go for the electronic equipment - like big screen TV's, computers, music equipment and vehicles and cash. I usually don't enter the trip contests, mainly because it would be difficult to travel with Jimmy in school and Jim's busy work schedule.

However, I do look for trips to NM now that Seth is there. I am entering one that is a trip for 4 to anywhere in the continental US. I know, chances of winning are near zilch but you can't win if you don't try!

Well, Redskins won but Jim says they won strictly on Defense, apparently Offense was non-existant tonight. Next game is with the Seattle Seahawks. Redskins better have Offense back online...

January 6, 2006 - Friday

Advice #6: "You're fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong."

Resolution #6: I will declutter the house (somewhat) this year.

Today we took down the Christmas tree and decorations. Christmas is over. Only 354 more days till Christmas 2007.

Actually I still have the outside lights to take down, but one of the guys will do that part. Up in Westminster we used to put them up on the top of our roof along the ridge vent. But this house is too tall (two story) and we don't have a ladder that tall yet. So, something for a future 911 call.

Well, I'm the only one that pulls a Tim Taylor at Christmas time each year. You remember Tim Taylor of Tool Time on the sitcom "Home Improvement"? He would always get injured setting up his Christmas decorations, requiring the local fire and rescue teams to come to his house. Well, the only difference is, I get injured before I've decorated. My usual mode of injury is all the boxes and decorations sitting around the house, waiting to be hung or placed in a strategic location, and I will get in a rush doing something and trip and fall. Happens every year, doesn't matter what I do. Some years it is simply another bruise, some years it's a sprain. This year I didn't hit the floor, but I had ordered my bookcase and I tripped over the box and slammed my foot down hard trying to not drop the stuff I was carrying. Putting all my weight down suddenly on my bad ankle, twisted in not quite the right position, well, I limped through the holidays. But it is doing good now and not swollen anymore. I could still walk on it, so it wasn't that bad, this time.

Jim (husband) always does his injuries in the fall. He plans on going outside to do some of the things that were put off all summer due to work or heat & humidity. Then he'll do something which ends with him injuring himself. Those are stories that I wished I had a camera in my hands at the time! Course, he'll have a tough time beating my record.

Just like when this house was being built. Jimmy (son) fell at school and broke his arm by the elbow. About a week or so later I fell and cracked my wrist. Both of us had casts on at the same time. But he is ahead of me in broken bones. Broken arm #1 by his wrist, broken finger, broken arm #2 by his elbow, broken hand (bone below wrist), cracked breast bone (from the 2003 car wreck).

My record is, broken arm (at birth-not my fault!), broken fingers(2), broken toe, broken bone in foot, hairline fracture of the skull, cracked wrist. Did I forget any???? Guess I am ahead. Figures, another thing I am good at.

Well, Jimmy is ahead of me in stitches. Well, unless you count my surgery stitches, then I win again. Enough medical history.

It has gotten colder here today. It's about time. Right now it is down to freezing. Not going to stay cold, only for a couple of nights then it's going to warm back up into the 40-50's again. Boo. Winter should be cold and snowy, at least a little. I guess really it's a blessing in disguise, since Jim & Jimmy both have to be out on the roads. So strike the snowy part. Maybe we could have just a little on a weekend, but be gone by Sunday mid-day......

This book is long enough for today's journal......

January 5, 2006 - Thursday

Advice #5: "Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none."

Resolution #5: I will read the Bible through completely this year.

I've read the Bible through before when I was younger. I've read many sections of the Bible through on many occasions. I've read entire books of the Bible through in one setting many times. Several books of the Bible, like Matthew and Revelation-to name a couple, I've read numerous times. But I don't think that I've ever suceeded in reading the Bible daily to read it entirely within one year. Oh, I've started to do it, many times and managed to make it up through Dueteronomy or so. And I've read it sections at a time, marking off a chart, so that when I'm done, I've actually read the entire Bible.

But never straight through from Genesis to Revelation. So that's my resolution for this year. Straight through from the Beginning in Genesis to the end of time in Revelation.

Ran for prescriptions and a few groceries to get through next week. Didn't take too long, went in the afternoon. Didn't see anyone that I know while there. Practiced some of my songs during the whole trip yesterday and again today. Finally starting to get my voice back after the bad cold/flu I had in early November. Sure has taken a long time. Still cough a little at night but nothing like I was for a while.

The doctor had asked me to keep a log of my blood sugars (which my meter does) and also my blood pressure readings before and after exercises. Interestingly enough, my BP stays very reasonable, resting 110/61 is one of my lowest, averages about 110/70 most of the time. After exercising, it's peaking around 130/85 or so. Not too bad. Pulse runs fast though. 85 in am after rest, 98-105 just doing routine stuff around the house and higher with mild exercise. My target pulse rate for exercise should be 95-165. I'm AT target just walking around the house! Now the sugar, well, I still haven't gotten into the habit-pattern that he requested of every morning fasting and one day a week take it 2 hours after breakfast, lunch, supper or a nightime, (4 days a week). I tend to forget the 2 hours after meals and remember at night. Shame too, since night readings run a little high compared to some of the others. AM's are running 120-125, the one's after lunch one day a week are usually my highest readings, 160+. The after suppers ones run in the 130's, but I do take my evening meds right after supper also, so that helps pull it down, I'm sure. Anyway, average for the month of December was running, all readings combined, about 125+, so not too bad. Could be alittle better, hopefully this month, since I don't have all the Christmas candy and cookies around to tempt me!

Yep. They're all gone.

Till next year....

January 4, 2006 - Wednesday

Advice #4: "Always drink upstream from the herd."

Resolution #4: I will walk outside in addition to my daily exercises.

Today I returned Dad & Dot's computer to them. It was a quick trip but I enjoyed the visit. I had never reconnected all the cord thingy's in the back of the computer before so that was a learning experience for me! But we got it connected, didn't have any sound, then finally figured out I had the sound plugged into the wrong place. Well, they were both green like the cord. Anyway, it's fixed, connected and they are back online! (Jim actually fixed their computer, I just transported it back to them.)

Not much else going on today, tired but traffic was not so bad, so made the trip in good time.

Just saw we had a message from Earl on our phone, from Sunday... Sorry Earl... I haven't been very good about checking to see if anyone has called. We didn't see the VT game, watched the 'Skins instead. Seth may have watched the Tech game?

January 3, 2006 - Tuesday

Advice #3: "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment."

Resolution #3: I will drink eight glasses of water daily.

It rained pretty hard a couple times yesterday. Just kinda overcast and drizzly so far today. Got to catch up on some more laundry. Checking about getting Jimmy's car through inspection and trying to find out when we can pick up his books for this semester.

Worked on more laundry, funny how it can get so piled up in just a couple days! Then just more old, same old same old, very routine day. Jimmy worked on his taxes a little bit and Jim went to work today. He always hates when his vacation is over. I don't blame him either. The worst thing about having days off and being home is knowing that they end and you have to go back to work. Been there, done that, at least for a few years. Offered to go back again to work, but he really prefers me being home full time, as I do also. So as long as we can swing it, here I am.

Got a Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs in the mail today. Guess what? Many of the pages are the exact same stuff, same layout, just a carbon copy. Except for one thing. The prices of the items. Who do you think is the most expensive?????? Give up????? Well, it was Montgomery Ward. Many pages, the items were $10+ more than the same exact identical item in the Sears catalog. Who'da thunk it???

Seth called and is still sick. He was also upset about his gas bill. So he has cut his gas way back, meaning he won't have enough heat, and believe it or not, it really gets bitter cold there in New Mexico (remember he's almost a mile high there in Socorro). I have all the temps and wind speeds and wind chills and humidity on my "ambient weather" for all the various family members. His is always one of the coldest, windiest and of course, the driest (My brother Ed's, in Michigan is usually number 1 with Seth a close 2nd). I told Seth to keep his thermostat at around 66° which is what we do here (course it doesn't get that cold here in Virginia but I do keep a flannel shirt in the living room for when I'm not doing anything but watching tv), but we kept the temps at 66° in Westminster, too. I put plastic on the windows up there to help keep out the drafts and we always wore warm sweats or pj's in the dead of winter.

Well, tons to do, as always, so will call it a night.

January 2, 2006 - Monday

Advice #2: "Life is simpler when you plow around the stump."

Resolution #2: I will do some sort of exercise, daily, for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Jimmy didn't have to work today afterall, they didn't have as much business coming through as they had expected. I slept in this morning, just a dreary overcast morning and I stayed up way too late last night.

Found a really cool website with free patterns for crafts, crochet, quilting, knitting, woodwork, and much more. www.freepatterns.com You have to register, then they email you a password which allows you access to all the patterns, all for free. So it's cool. I downloaded more patterns than I will ever use, but it's neat to have them, as I often get contacted to see if I have a particular pattern.

In Virginia, we have an annual car inspection that must be done. Jimmy's needs to be done in January. My car is May. All depends on when you bought your car. So we've got to get his car into the shop this week to see what it will cost to make it through inspection. He goes back to school next week.

Dad's computer is fixed and ready to go back to him. We ran it all night and so far all is well. I'm adding some photos and music onto it, as well as updated family history files.

Going to break from the routines today and just enjoy a family day before Jim goes back to work. We'll watch a couple movies and eat pop-corn and play on the computer. Sounds like a "routine" day.....Hm-m-m-m.....

One final thought for today.......

HURRAY for the REDSKINS!!!!! AWESOME game yesterday against the Philadelphia Eagles!!!

January 1, 2006 - Sunday

Happy New Year !!!!

Advice #1: "Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads."

Resolution #1: I will lose weight this year.

As you can see above, this month I'm adding a new feature to my Daily News. It's something that a friend sent to me and I thought I would share it with anyone who might read this journal. It's an old Cowboy's Advice. So the advice for today is....

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's Eve. We didn't party, just like we normally don't, though from the grammar in that sentence you might think we did.

Jimmy had to work this morning, early shift and Dad is bringing his computer over to us to work on. I think Kevin is riding over with him. They will be here later this morning.

Do I tell you my New Year's Resolutions one by one? Would that make them not come true, like wishes? Not tellin' them last year didn't seem to help them come true, so maybe I should slowly reveal them in this journal. Hm-m-m, I'll have to think about it.

I guess I can reveal the first one, the most obvious one! It has been number one on my Resolution List's for several years!

I actually put an amount that I will lose, but everyone tells me it is discouraging to list the total amount you want to lose. So, lets' just say it's alot and I'm going to do it this year. Already started, except for a few days around the holidays. Thanks to my diagnosis of diabetes, I've already lost a little. Talk about your blessings in disguise! And I feel better. Can you beat that?

Dad, Kevin and Jessica came for a visit to bring Dad's computer. We went to Jimmy's place of work for lunch. It was really delicious! I talked with Penny on the phone while they were driving back home and Kevin arrived at home while we were still talking on the phone. This may not sound like much to someone who doesn't know where we all live, but it's about a two and a half hour drive or so! But Penny and I always have alot to talk about! It's a shame we don't live closer together. Same thing when I talk with my other sister-in-law, Eunice. We get talking and time just flies!

Anyway it was nice to see everyone!

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