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Life is just moving right along here. I truly enjoyed my vacation time of doing nothing. It felt so great to just not have to be on the move and work and just shut down for a week. I needed it badly. But all things have to come to an end and Tuesday it is back to the drawing board for me.

The biggest news here is that my daughter got engaged to her high school sweetheart 2 weeks ago. It caught me by surprise to be honest. And as a parent you question the decision they made, and wonder if it is the best for them. So the best laid out plans change. She will be moving out to Colorado in the fall to join him, seeing he is stationed there and continue school next spring there. I have come to grips with this slowly. And I had to realize that ..well ..mother here didn’t do anything different then she is doing at that age. My wonderful mother reminded me of that when I told her the news. But I am happy for her. and hope for the best, which parent wouldn’t.

Our little Teka has been diagnosed with diabetes. I have been cooking her food and have been giving her supplements since her diagnosis, but her sugar level is just not going down. I am going to try one more thing with her and hopefully that will help on getting her levels down.  If it doesn’t I will have to make the very hard decision on having her euthanized. I know Ayla will be heart broken and so will we, if it comes to that.

My Son has submitted his application to graduate from MSU next year. It seems like it’s been forever since he started College, but this journey is coming to an end and now makes me feel a lot older then I want to be. 

Hot flashes are the pits..and that is all I got to say about that.

Been cooking and baking a bit more trying out some new recipes and old ones, but I had to tone it down a bit, there aren’t enough people in this house to eat it all, and I don’t want to get to a point were they can roll me everywhere. 

Reconnected with some old friends I grew up with, back in my hometown on Facebook. It is a shame when you have to ask ” Who are you, and how do you know me”. But by all rights it’s been 24 years since I left Germany, so it is understandable.

Anyway like I said in the beginning, Life just keeps on moving and so is this day. So I better make the best of it. Till the next time folks. 

 

 

Melting away and other stuff

So I barely survived the first heatwave of the summer. And we still have a couple of months to go. I am either going to become a nudist or move to Alaska. For your sake you better hope I choose Alaska. If I would loose weight while I am sweating, I’d be out there 24/7 and have a slimming figure by the beginning of fall. But seeing that won’t happen I will try to dodge the heat as much as I can.

Seeing that I spent a lot of time indoors nowadays so I don’t melt away, I’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows on PBS. One night at 11 pm I was so fascinated with the grilling show they ran, I wanted to go outside and fire up my grill so I could satisfy my over sudden desire for grilled tuna, pineapples and chicken. I have to stop watching them, these shows just leave me hungry at the end and then I am forced to eat cookies. Or I head to the grocers the next day and buy everything under the sun and make an ungodly amount of food. So cartoons it is from now on..well right after I try the new recipe for omelets I saw Jaques cook up yesterday.

On the family side of news, kids are doing fine. Son has finished his summer classes and is finally a senior starting this fall at MSU. His main concern is now on landing a internship this semester to be able to graduate next spring. My daughter is heading back to East Lansing this fall to begin her second year. She is also moving off campus this year with a few people. She will get to experience first hand what it means to pay bills without that mysterious money tree in the backyard that she seems to think I have.

Well time to get cooking, my stomach is getting mad at me. Until the next time folks.

Make a miracle happen

For a couple of weeks now I was contemplating on treating myself with something for Christmas. I was looking at a new TV for my bedroom or at a new cell phone for myself, and going back and forth between the two.

But since I couldn’t make up my mind, I figured well I guess I don’t need either one of them. If I wanted one or the other bad enough I would have purchased that item by now.  And I guess the guild factor came along too. Why buy something that I really don’t need. The phone I have is working just fine and there is really no need for an additional TV in the house, if I fall asleep at the beginning credits anyway.

So I decided, since there are so many families out there again, that can’t afford to buy gifts yet alone food I will take some of the money and buy a few items and donate them to a local charity that will make sure the items will go to a good family.

I guess what I am trying to say is, if you are out shopping, be it for groceries or for presents, maybe you can spare a few dollars to buy a toy or food or even a few clothing items and donate them. I may not have a lot myself, but I am sure that I have a whole lot more then some of the unfortunate families out there.  And I will know that I can make someone Christmas a little more brighter and I will enjoy that feeling a whole lot more then buying myself some unneeded gadget.

The meower

That is our cats name right now. We do not call him by his regular name at this point, because his regular name is too nice for him. We rather just call him, whiner, complainer, needy, annoyer, noise maker.

He meows non stop. He meows like 2 blocks away from home, to announce to the whole neighborhood he is coming through. I compare him to one of those cars with the big speakers in them, that you can hear 3 blocks away going “boom, boom” first, before you see the car.

He meows for food, even when the dish is full. He meows walking through the house, complaining he is tired and needs to sleep. It isn’t even a nice meow it is one of this whiny ” I am just meowing for the heck of it” meow.

The fun starts once it gets close to 5 pm. I swear he has an internal clock that tells him, okay it is time to annoy the people. He will get up from where ever he is sleeping, heads into the kitchen to fill back up, because sleeping made him hungry, drink some water and then the meowing begins.

And it will continue till you let him out. There is no letting up. We try talking to him, and answer his meows with questions but after 30 minutes the meows get louder and more intense. That is when we let him out, and off he goes, the same way every time. We have followed him to see where he goes, and it is the same spot, a house down the road. Must be he has a lady friend and needs to visit her.

Right now he is sleeping, maybe I should walk over to the chair and start meowing to see if it annoys him. But then I am afraid, my daughter will put me out the front door if I do that.

Fooooooddd…

Please people help me!!! As all of you know I quit smoking in December. Which I didn’t do of my own free will, I got forced into it. But nontheless I had to quit.

Well it has actually been going very well, probably due to the fact I was on pain medications, and they subdued the urge to smoke. But now that I am not on pain medications anymore, my brain tends to think I need to smoke.

So when I get that urge, I look for food. Oh yea..I am at it again. I love me some Chocolate, then some Crackers, then some chicken..and lets see what else I got in the Freezer. Going back to get some Orange sherbet, not just once but twice. Oh I bought some sourdough bread, and there is the cream cheese…a slice or two won’t hurt.  I am afraid I will gain all my weight back and then you will have to roll me out the door.  And I just invested in some new smaller size jeans, because my old ones weren’t staying up anymore, but I would have looked cool with the kids that wear their pants around their knees.

At work well I realized I am running out of change very fast, because it is being used to get a snack here and there out of the Vending machine. What is wrong with me? And then to make it worse, my daughter asks to make Brownies, helllooo..toots..you don’t wear anything you eat. I DO !

So now I have invested in gum. I am not much of a gum chewer but I suppose I need to curb the food intake somehow. If you hear of a woman with hamster cheeks in Michigan, with pants around her knees, that will be me looking for food.

Superbowl Sunday

Yes it has arrived. The holy day of football. And it doesn’t matter if you are a fan of the teams playing in the superbowl or not, you still watch it because it is the in thing to do and the commercials are supposed to be great. And for some it takes a few weeks of planning. Here is what it details.

Your selection of “the” TV. I have had friends that will rent a big screen TV for the Occassion. You need one big TV and then several little ones stationed around the house, like in the kitchen, dining room, hallway and bathroom because you do not want to miss any of the action on your way to the little girls room and while you are in there.

Beer, you have the Keg ordered weeks ago and the spot for it all cleared outside on the Deck to keep it cold, next to the Hot tub, because after the game, you have to relax the pain of loosing on your football pool away. For any other Beverages it is BYOB, and the kitchen is your spot for that.

Food, you have your few favorite items already selected, and sweet talked the wife into fixing them for you. You also put out the request to your guests on what your favorite is that they make and should bring to accompany your favorites. Bags of Chips with dip are only accepted from single friends that have no “Superbowl dish” yet.

You have a chair designated as your chair. It is the best spot in the house, at least that is what you think.The guy in the Bathroom disagrees with you.

You have your football pools ready, the numbers highlighted.  If they are good numbers you are all excited because your chances of winning are great, but if they are lousy numbers you come up with all kinds of scenerios of what plays need to happen for you to get the 5-8 at the end of the quarter.

Overall everybody that is having a Party has done this for many years and has a game plan when it comes to this day. I am sure there are other rituals out there, if you want to elaborate on them be my guest. I just know that I will make a sub sandwich today and have a bag of chips and dip ready for the game. Bring on the commercials!

My Confession

Yes I am confessing today. I am confessing that this coming Thursday it will be 4 weeks since I have smoked my last Cigarette outside of the Marriott hotel in Ann Arbor. I am confessing that I have had the urge to smoke several times since I have been released from the Hospital, and have resisted that urge. I am confessing that I have not made a permanent homestead in front of my Refrigerator to eat everything possible when I have the urge to smoke.

I am confessing that I used the excuse of wanting a Cigarette of getting my kids to go to the Store to get the Brownie mix, so I could get my Brownie fix. But I am also confessing that I did not hit the Plate of Brownies and ate them all in one sitting, nor did I growl at my kids and tell them to back away from the Brownies or hid them in a secret spot.

Wow I feel much better now that I have done all of this confessing. And  I betcha you all thought it was going to be a juicy confession. Sorry to you all, I lead a very dull drum life with no excitement other then my small petting zoo talking to me and telling me stories.

But I quit smoking 3 years ago before. I got so sick around Thanksgiving with Bronchitis so bad I could not breath normally and it scared me bad. It took me 2 months to get better and during those two months I did not quit smoking but I did tell myself  that I would quit New Years Eve. And I did. I took up cross stitching to keep my hands busy, I bought Carrots and Celery to snack on, I bought everything “healthy” under the Sun that I could have for when the smoking urge hit. But I still gained 30 pounds, because food is just so good.

I quit for 8 months. Yes 8 months, until my Ex-husband decided I’ve  had to much quietness and happiness in my life and stirred up the pot with my daughter and made a mess out of our relationship. I picked up a Cigarette and started smoking again. Oh was I mad, but not mad enough to quit again.

So now this Surgery as painful as it may be, may be a blessing and a good helper for me to quit smoking completely again, and I must say I’ve been doing good.

So here is to my Confession, and to my almost 4 weeks of being smoke free! I think I will have a Brownie now, because I have been so good.

Is it just me?

Okay, my daughter was gone for 5 days. 5 days worth of bliss. Yes I missed her, but it was quiet here. So today she returns and she calls me at work to let me know she got home, and I was happy and we talked for a bit. Anyway after I got out of work, I called home to check on something and she answered and she had to start complaining about how there was no snack food in the house. I was like, well if you mean junk food, no there isn’t. Well she continued on how I always just buy food that I will eat and nothing for her. I’m like excuse me? So needless to say, the conversation ended with “fine” and “whatever” and basically she is mad at me now, because I did not go and run right out and buy a bunch of stuff for her.

If I remember right, when I grew up, I did not get to request the groceries and things to eat that I wanted. I ate what was at home and was set in front of you. And if you did not like it, you either were made to sit there and forced to eat it, or you went to bed hungry.

It is not like there isn’t anything to eat here, there is plenty.; The Pantry is full with stuff, the freezer has things in it that she can make, but I have more of a feeling that it is laziness that compelles this generation to complain that there is nothing to eat. How hard is it to open a box of something and fix it? And don’t get me going on leftovers, I eat them, they don’t. I just get so mad, when I clean out my fridge and have to throw things out, that they never touched. In my young days, that never happened. You ate the same thing 3 days in a row, just a different variance of it.

So is it the Generation that we are raising? Or is it just the plain German in me that feels that way? Did I overreact when I said to her, that if she wanted to complain to go back where she came from? Did I contribute in raising a couple of easy come-easy go kids, that don’t appreciate the fact that they have food, when there are millions of kids out there that go to bed hungry for days in, because they do not have food?

Sometimes I wish they would have the growing up that I had. I mean I did not have it bad, my Mom tried very hard to provide for me. But I did not have the luxuries that this generation thinks it deserves.

The only thing I am looking forward too is, when my two darling children ( a bit sarcasm is in there) have their own kids, and they want everything under the roof and are not happy with things, how they will handle it. The curse has already been laid on them a long time ago, you know the one ” I hope you have kids just like you”….I know I am evil.