Moving time

For a while I got away from working out in the mornings.  You know, 6:00 comes too early and  I got lazy and whatever.  But I've been getting up and jumping around again.  I don't enjoy it any more than I did before.  At least I'm not swearing at Torture Guy as he works out in Hawaii with 3 former fat girls ... and says ... as he is touching these three former fat girls "pull in your stomach."  What the heck does that mean?  "Pull in your stomach."  Where am I supposed to put it?  If I had a stomach that was flat and tight, it might pull in.  But mine is sort of soft and round.  How do you pull in a fluffy belly, and where the heck do you put it. I think you have to have muscle to pull things in.  I don't think you can pull fat in.  It just sort of mounds up and rolls around when I move.  And the other tape I have (yes, it's a tape...I confess) the Skinny Girl in the 80s leotard says "tuck in your butt."  What?  Is she kidding?  She obviously hasn't seen my butt.  It's round and soft and sort of going south for the winter, if you know what I mean.  How can I tuck it in?  It's not like the corners of the sheet when you tuck it in at the bottom of the bed.  Where am I supposed to tuck it?  And if I pull in my belly and tuck in my butt, do they meet somewhere in the middle?

I never really march or jump.  My round parts kind of jiggle around the living room like a bowl of jello.  Once I get going, I just have to try and keep up with my wiggly parts.  When my feet stop, it takes a minute or so for my butt and belly to stop. 

And it's not just my roundest parts that cause me problems.  My thighs and upper arms sort of waggle when I'm doing jumping jacks.  (I hate jumping jacks).  I'm afraid my bat-wing arms might take me airborne if I'm not careful with the waving movements.  And you know those skinny ladies with the thighs that don't touch when they walk?  I hate them.  My thighs are best friends.  No space there.  If I wore corduroy pants, you could hear me coming from a block away.  Swoosh, swoosh.  I do not own corduroy pants, by the way.

I am in better shape than I was a year ago.  I can do a few sit ups and push ups and I've graduated to 5 pound weights from little water bottles (yes with water in them).  Not exactly pumping iron, but an accomplishment for me, I'll tell you.  And perhaps, someday, I will have a place to put my gut and butt when Torture Guy and Skinny Girl in the 80s leotard says pull and tuck.

At 6 in the morning, I will be doing my best imitation of a mobile bowl of jello, wobbling from right to left, reaching for heaven while hoping my weight keeps me earthbound.  It's really not so bad once I catch the rhythm of the wobble.

Feels like summer

Today was actually hot.  But I have no illusions.  It's supposed to get cool again by the end of the week.  Sort of a peek a boo summer.  Why am I so fixated on the weather?  Because my garden is dying on the vine.  Nothing is growing much except the potatoes.  Everything else is just sitting there.  And I don't even know if the underground potato part of the plant is growing or just the green leafy stuff above the ground.  You can only really know if you pull the potato, and then all ya got is a scrawny potato wannabe. 

So I will pretend that summer is really here and that my garden is really growing and that I will really can bottles and bottles of tomatoes this year, and eat carrots, and enjoy green beans and all that.  The illusion keeps me going.

Right now we are like 3 bugs in a rug.  I'm rattling about the house with the short little mother-person finally home from Arizona; and the hollow leg, almost teen, here lick my upper lip and you can feel my mustache even though you can't see one stray hair there (yuk and double yuk) grandson spending the summer.  So far we're having a great time just like we had good sense.

And that, as they say, is that.

I'm back

Since I was here last...

It's been a long, cold winter...

We had some fun

And then it was cold some more...

And we thought winter would never end...

But finally it did.

Cammie is getting bigger

Zarr got baptized

Megan turned 4.  Adam won a math competition among all 4th graders in San Diego.  Ethan had a birthday, and so did Zian, Zarr, Chase, and Katie, and Little Grandma, who is doing great by the way. (Whose birthday did I miss?  Anyone?  No, most of your birthdays are in DECEMBER!!!)  Paul moved to Benton City (can anyone say Twilight Zone?).  Justin made Super Chief (that's not what it's called...but something like that...Senior Chief, that's it!). Angelo passed his CDL.  Robin just finished her junior year at Heritage College on her way to her Master's.  Jen and Jade are doing well and I'll bet there are herbs and flowers growing in their garden, which probably looks better than mine.  Allicia's tomatoes are doing better than mine.  Lan and Floyd hit a deer on Snoqualamie Pass last week and totaled their car but they are okay.  Jen and Robin are both having birthdays this month.  How can this be?  We are all almost the same age now.  Robin and Uncle Rob share a birthday, which is cool. 

And I got a hair cut (this is a self portrait which is why part of my wonderful hair cut is missing in this picture), a new job (two actually, but who's counting), and my tomatoes are finally planted.  

And when I got home from work tonight, I was greeted by this miracle...

All is well with the universe.