So my 5k for 50 and more…

Brenda and I went and played tennis for 60 minutes but since we chatter lots I’m going to say we did 50 minutes and the we walked a 5K in 50 minutes (really it was 48 minutes but I’m going to round it up to say 50 for 50).

We are going to do this again on Friday. It is so much better doing this with a friend. The time goes by so much faster with a partner. I have really missed doing these things with her. We are both pretty independent and do fine alone but when we get together we push each other and laugh and just plain enjoy it.

I have heard back from Michele about her challenge for my birthday and she choose to ride 50 hardcore miles and I have got to share this pictures with you…Her stats for me:

Total miles biked: 50

Fastest: 20.62 MPH

Slowest: 10.60 MPH

Total time: 4.5 hours

Total calories burned (using Endomondo): 3, 259!!!!

Terrain: Hills, flats, country and city

Isn’t is wonderful to feel like this? I am so wanting that feeling again. I am very proud of you Michele. Want to meet Michele? Just click her name and be prepared to find a woman on a journey of a life time.

There are others who have joined me but nothing in my e-mail yet so I’ll post them as they come in. Remember my e-mail is in my profile or it’s engine3 at gmail dot com.

Yesterday Kim and her darling husband took me out for lunch at Famous Dave's. WOW, it was great and wonderful and tasted so good and the company was awesome. Thank you both again for such a great time. Kim and I also got to stop at two different thrift stores. Oh how I love thrift store shopping.

So today is a very busy day. Driving bus, day caring and then tonight am day caring for my bus garage boss and his grandbabies. They may be starting here when mom starts school but today is a test run. I was going to take the day off from driving bus but I figured they might as well see what my whole day is like and meet Brenda and tonight we’ll go see grandpa and visit great grandma and the baby baa’s.

An update on Mike….he is awesome, now. It was hard for him the first few days and it’s still hard in a room with 4 other guys but I know that they’ll figure out a routine that will work for them. Guys are so different then girls. We seem to jump in with both feet, make plans, lists and have everything organized within the first day or so, guys….well nothing like girls. His first day of school was great and here’s a picture of him in his diesel colors. He is just so handsome, if I do say so myself. :o)

 

Me, well I’m adjusting. Really I was doing pretty darn good until I saw this picture yesterday. This past weekend we got some wood to start redoing the ceiling in Mike’s room and I’ve picked my colors….want to see?

Well this isn’t the great picture of them, they are a bit brighter. One’s called Luscious Mango (that’s the lighter one) and Orange Marmalade is the other. I am loving them and realized as I was looking at them, so many other colors go with them.

Okay, lunch is done, it’s Barbie time. Take care my friends. Blessings to you all.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. It was so awesome to get them and to still be getting them. Along the way this week we also snuck in our 32nd anniversary.. Pretty darn cool.

I am 50 today….(well in 2 hours, I’m posting a bit early)

Happy birthday to me. Well, we’ll see about the happy part. It has been a difficult weekend and my heart is still broken but I know we’ll survive. Mike made it to Laramie in 26 hours and he got a good night sleep in his car for 7 hours so he did excellent. He’s now in a motel for the next couple of nights and tomorrow will get to do some finding of businesses and what not. He has to go to the DMV and get a permit for his dirt bike. Both of us cry easily so been keeping the conversation light and happy. Trying….

I’m not sure if I’ll get my walk in tomorrow or on Tuesday but don’t forget to join me and then tell me how you did, what you did and if you’d like to share the time you can but you don’t have too. I have a birthday present for you so on Monday the 30th I’ll have Joss pick a name from a hat and announce the winner.

50 is nifty I’ve been told. Well I know that I’ll do my best to enjoy and move forward and get to know me as a person instead of just as a mom. I know that I have again gained some of my weight back and that is unacceptable so that means more work to be done. However I knew that I was going to be working on this and April 23rd is that day to start on it. I don’t have to start over since I’m not back to where I was but I am part ways there so just going to continue on this life style journey of getting to be the healthiest me I can be.

e-mail me at engine3 at gmail dot com when you are done joining me on my birthday run/walk/trot/swim/ski/move your butt week.

Okay my friends. I am off to bed. 4:30 will still come early and tomorrow will really be my first lonesome morning. No Mike to get up, no breakfast to make, no lunch to prepare, no phone calls telling me he’s leaving for work, no text telling me he’s there. It will be quiet and so different and still a bit sad but I will survive and learn but until then there’s a box of tissues in each room and I can cry my heart out in the shower and not bother Jim.

Take care and God Bless!!

And he’s off….

And I’m not liking it at all, at least not yet I’m not. It’s hard, HARD!!! There’s not enough tissues in the box, or the box in the garage or the bathroom. My head hurts, my eyes hurt and my heart hurts. Yep, I know we’ll be fine…..but that’s not what you tell a person though, not when their little world is unraveling a bit. I know that one day I’ll enjoy the quiet and doing things alone …. but for now NOPE!!!

Yesterday I took the day off after my am bus route and spent it with Mike. We went shopping for one last pair of jeans, shirt and sweatshirt. We went and got bought $170.00 in groceries so I know that he’ll have food until he gets his living expense check the 9th of May. And then we went for a hike. My favorite pass time with Mike.

 

                                    

Our walk started out with climbing this tailings pile. And yes it’s even steeper then it looks. I made it though and I could still breath.

Spring is starting. It’s beginning to green up. A new beginning in more ways then one.

 

I love following Mike where ever he leads me. This was a hard hike for me emotionally.

                                

My guy and his puppy. Oh boy are they going to miss each other too.

I don’t remember the name of this pit lake but it’s always awesome being out there. I am going to have to be brave and keep going even without Mike. I love the hiking and the dogs love the free run and playing.

Mike and his dad. Jim is always trying to be just that little bit taller then Mike. I know these next one is blurry but we were laughing.

 

Oh guys, this is hard. So very hard. My heart is broken. It will mend, it will grow and it will be okay, one day at a time. Mike just text me, he’s almost to Willmar. 170 miles into his 1000 mile trip.

I’ll keep you posted and tell you when he arrives and how life is being a kidless mom after 20 years of being a mama. I love being a mama and know that I will be forever but not having to hold and touch…that will take getting use too.

I hope you all have an amazing and relaxing and wonderful weekend. Blessings my friends!

Weather….

In the past 4 days we have gone from 65* to 15* and back to 50*. You know that that looks like? I’ll show you…

 

Friday started out with the sun coming up in the east and it raining in the west. We got about an 1” of rain.

Saturday was beautiful. We had sunshine, blue skies and a day of working with Mike.

Sunday it rained and rained and rained.

    

Monday I woke up to this. It was cold and snowed for a good part of the morning. When I parked the bus there were icicles hanging from it.

Today the sun is shining and it’s almost 50* again. The trees are starting to bud out and I can even see teeny tiny lilac buds on my bush. And Teddy, great grandma’s cat, was loving the sunshine.

That’s Minnesota for you. You can start the morning out in your winter gear and the heat on, by lunch time you are in shorts and thinking hard about the A/C, at 3:00 the A/C is on, by 5:00 you are thinking it’s time for pants and by bed time the A/C is back off and the heat is near clicking on. Repeat most of April and part of May. But you know I wouldn’t want to live anywhere's else (unless Jim said mountains then I’d move).

Hope you’re having a great week. Mine is full of emotional up and downs but we are slowly getting Mike packed and ready. 3.5 days left until he’s on his way to Wyoming. I’m telling you, Wyoming, you had better be good to my son OR ELSE!!!

Walking/jogging getting done. We are 1/3 the way through the year and I am a little over 1/3 my way to my goal for 2012. Not bad, not bad at all.

Take care my friends and have a blessed afternoon.

P.S. Gotta share this with you too…..

What happens when you leave a white bottomed kitty in the coal shed for the night? This!

Working with Mike….

 

While Mike started working on his leaf springs I changed the lower radiator hose for him. My dad and uncle came over to check on Mike and I and we took a full weekend job and did it in 9 hours on a Saturday. We worked pretty good together (minus a few arguments here and there).

It was a sunny beautiful day. It was great working with Mike. And now his suburban is ready to roll to school.

Tonight Mike had to write out an essay for a $5000.00 scholarship. I think it turned out very well and tomorrow he gets his recommendation from his boss so he can get that ready and sent off by Wednesday. Hey, if there’s any English majors or professionals that could read over his essay it would be cool if you’d like too and see if there’s anything that needs changing. Just a thought.

Tomorrow starts the new week, bus at 5am, daycare at 8, bus again at 2 and, well really I don’t know what the evening will bring but I’m sure something interesting and I’m going to try a stir frying for dinner tomorrow, never done it, time to try it

Take care my friends and have a blessed night sleep and an awesome Monday.

Don’t forget this…Mark your calendars!!

So 50 is only 8 days away. I am going to greet my new era, new age with as much gusto as I can possible muster up. The 23rd will be my first day back to work without Mike at home, it will be my first breakfast alone. It will be my first morning not to get Mike up and moving. But is will also be my first day at being 50 years old and since I can’t change any of it, the getting a bit older and Mike heading off I have got to deal with it and face it all head on and that is what I am going to do.

This 50 is going to be “the day” that my life begins. It’s my time to concentrate on me and getting me to the place in life I want to be. Life will be different and challenging and exciting and interesting and hard too but I can now take the time to make sure that I am here when Mike graduates, when Mike marries, when Mike has babies and maybe even when Mike’s babies have babies. I can be here to hold, learn to explore and relove my hubby, I can be here to just plain grow old in the healthiest body possible.

I have spent more time relosing some of the pounds I lost in the beginning but that is going to stop now. Well really I have some to still relose before I’m onto the virgin pounds that have been stuck here for way to many years but I know I did it once and I know that I can do it again. But it’ll happen.

So there, don’t forget to mark your calendars and if you’d like to join me starting April 23rd on the way to losing a few more pounds and ton up and look good then I’ll be there to cheer you on and when you have a moment or two in your lives you can stop by and tell me to more my butt and get those extra pounds off and tone up those lumps and bumps.

Take care my friends. Do have a blessed and awesome Sunday!

It was wonderful!!!

It was a wonderful turn out last night for Mike’s going away/good luck dinner. Really it was awesome. 15 people were there and the only missing was one of our best friends and they’ll be stopping by to see Mike next week. The food was excellent, the company was better and the feelings were the greatest. I took some phone pictures to share with you this morning and Kim took some with her camera that I’ll post when she sends them to me. I just had to share this morning. I got teary eyed only once but it was contagious with one of my long time daycare mamas and Mike’s first daycare baby and that was a bit hard but it also showed me I am not alone in Mike heading off. They too will miss him lots.

So here’s my pictures and more to come later on.

 

 

Thank you my friends for making Mike feel so special and knowing that he will be missed but that we all are so very proud of him!

Blessing to you all. Have a great and awesome weekend.

A $10.00 gift card from sneakpeeq

Have you ever heard of SNEAKPEEQ? The largest and fastest growing social shopping company on Facebook. They have over 600 brand partners and want to spread the word about the amazing products.When it comes to the Healthy and Wise, NOT…but Learning/sneakpeeq giveaway, everybody wins! sneakpeeq is giving away 20% off your next purchase just for entering, plus a chance at the Grand Prize: one winner will receive a $10 gift card to use on your favorite food, style and home products—that goes a long way in sneakpeeq’s amazingly low-priced boutiques!
Come see all the things you love but haven’t discovered. sneakpeeq only has New Products that you have never seen before!
Enter the giveaway by clicking on this link: sneakpeeq and joining sneakpeeq! All winners will be announced on my blog on May 1st, 2012

So you have to click on  sneakpeeq …only sneakpeeq works because it’s a special link from my blog to them so click on sneakpeeq… There is one rule, it’s only good for in the US.

Hey $10.00 of free money to buy something you’d really like, it’s a good free idea. Go check out their site and see if you’re interested in entering. It’s a very unique experience, especially if you’re a facebook fan.

The giveaway will start today and go through April 31st and then on May 1st I will announce the winner. Give it a try, see what you think. ENJOY!!!

Blessings!!

Wanted Fitbit…

Does anyone have one they have outgrown, not using, upgraded from?

I so don’t want to backslide, gain weight, or any of those things and I have read so much about the Fitbit I would so love to give it a try. I found one at REI and with Mike’s discount and savings I can get one for $80.00 plus shipping and right now that’s out of my budget.

So figured it sure wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Take care my friends. Blessings!!

Please explain…

Why the dentist has to cost so much? Why our regular healthy insurance can’t cover dentistry?

Mike broke off a tooth and tomorrow has a dentist appointment. I asked just for an estimate, $600.00. WHAT!!! Mike leaves for school in 10 days and we are saving every single penny to get him there, set up and then he has to wait 3 weeks before his living check comes in. OUCH!!! 

Oh well at least it happened here at home and not in 10 days when he’s in a new place.

Hope you’re having a great day. It’s cold and was snowing this morning, now sunny but windy and still cold. Minnesota, shorts one weekend winter coats the next week.

Blessings everyone!