Present in a Blue Box with White Ribbon

Today marks the 30 days of NaPloBoMo and 32 years of my marriage.

We've had 2 children, 2 dogs, 5 houses, 11 motorcycles, 18 cars. Currently there are still 2 children with one son-in-law and one more of those in July 2007, there is one grand-dog, 2 motorcycles, 2 cars and 1 truck.

As with life there have been good times and not so good times, just with life and not with the marriage. I think we give and take evenly and allow each other to be their own person.

As for the Blue Box and the White Ribbon........

One Day More

Reminds me of the song from Les Misérables .....

Anyway, still sore from the marathon day in DC.yesterday.

It was the nicest of the past 3 days ,sunny and warm,and I'm glad I went in. Posted some pictures on Flickr of the animals at the zoo. Not to many comments and I didn't put the names of the Panda's ..shoot me...I did get them uploaded and I'm posting today, but I don't really have the energy right now to do to much more.

Plummer comes tomorrow, we went to pick up DH's truck tonight, new bumper on the back and he is a happy camper. Tomorrow is the last day of November and this blog month.....now the question is, am I going to do this in Dec?!?!?!?

A day at the Zoo

Got up at 6:30 took the Metro in to DC and spent the entire day there. The pandas were so cute! This picture made me think of the ying and yang thing. He was asleep, it was about 9am.

I spent about 4 hours total at the zoo and took a lot of pictures.Then I went to Union Station,the Capitol,Lincoln Memorial.To tired to post much more than this.Feet are sore, lots of walking. I hope to get some pictures up on Flickr soon.....

Monday and 3 more days...

Going onto the Randomizer
I see that a lot of the blogs are not "current" . This past week-end could have been a tough one if you were on the road, in the air, or shopping . Makes you wonder how many are still in the running. Will there be a tally of how many started, when did most drop out and who will win what prizes? Guess only Fussy will know and tell.

There are a lot of blogs that really make you go "Hmmmm" , some are hilarious, lots of people have medical issues, more than you would think have children with Autism. Some have beautiful pictures and links to other sites that have filled up my favorites list. It has been interesting reading other blogs and commenting on some that have held my attention. All in all I think this has been fun.

Plummer dude came out today. He takes the paper work back to the office and then another plummer dude will call and set up a time for the digger and fixer men to come out and do the job. This may be a week out before anything happens.Interesting side note is that they do not...DO NOT...guarantee the work from the site fix out to the yard. From site fix to the house they do, so if the yard fills up with water...it's not their problem.Let's hope that doesn't happen, especially with winter coming the next 3 months.

A Major Leak!!!

We, meaning I, noticed a little bit of water in the basement Thanksgiving evening. Just little drips, but it was from the main valve coming into the house, in other words, water under pressure...not a good thing.Wiped it up and put a bucket under it. We called a plumber, not as an emergency, but to have them come out since it was the main pipe. DH tried to tighten it a little.....don't do that.......the fitting is plastic, one of the ones that has broken in other houses and flooded them.....eek. I am kind of in a panic mode, I think I hear running water all the time.

Looks like we will have some digging going on this coming week. They will come back out on Monday and give us an estimate, (like we're suppose to shop around for this), just do it before it really starts leaking. The drips have increased, so I'm a little concerned every time we leave the house, and I hear things all the time when the house it quiet...I just want it fixed!!! Soon and before all the Holiday things start.

I called them again this morning. I think the drips are dripping faster, kind of, maybe, anyway I told the girl that when they come out on Monday, it needs to be in the "we're going to do it mode" and not the "hmm, this needs to be done and we can do it Thursday mode" It would be nice to get this done without it being a true emergency which falls into another $$$ level.

Motorcycle Day....and 5 more days to go

There is still one more day to the week-end yayayayyy.

We went on a motorcycle ride to West VA, Harpers Ferry

,and Charlestown,( we did not play).
The photo is for Robbie a nurse I worked with who loved this place.

Then we went to Tuscarora Mill
a really neat place to eat,and the food was nummy. After lunch we went into this little bakery we split a pecan bar and one coffee.
we are so cheap it's not even funny. It had some neat photo opportunities though and smelled wonderful.
Just a fun day. No stress, no rushing around. Back roads were empty . Was a little nippy, but I had a heated vest on, so I was toasty.

Then I spoke with Vamom's 76 today. She pointed out the Holidailies and noted the "portal "thingy, ( what ever that is) then there is the
Holidailies at Home thingy, so I'm not really sure about that one....I think I need to read more about it. I noted that you can post a minimum of 50 words or one photograph to the Holidailies. Maybe I could do the photo thing and be into the habit for January.....decisions, decisions. Five more days left in November.

What have I done?

Before I answer that, how cute is this little purse? A lady in line at Sears let me take this picture and yes I took the camera to the mall, and I did take a few pix of the madness. Just thought this was really cute. She said it was a gift bag a few years ago from Bath and Body. Just cute!

I guess I've enjoyed this month of nablopomo so much that now I've signed up for Holidailies
and, (this one I really can't believe I did), I've signed up for this . I've even started a new blog
for this one, I'm not sure even how to do some of this..so it will be a learning lesson too.


I am excited about the 365 days of pictures. I don't have to post it everyday, just take a picture everyday. and upload them several times a week..I can do that, right? I don't have a lot going on in 2007 , do I? Right... my mothers 75th birthday, 2 nephews graduation, 3 weddings, one of which is VAMOM's 78, a trip to CA and UT in August , 2 motorcycle events that I know of, (this will change), reunion with nursing school buds, that I am in charge of planning.Bikerman also wants to plan a vacation somewhere, sometime, when we're not really busy...so I can take a picture a day and post them to this site, can't I? We'll see.

I even started another Photo Blog on the Blogger Beta site...just want to check it out before I move everything. I'm not a fan of Beta anything, they have a tendency to have problems in the beginning, so after it is more stable I may switch over. However this may be where I post the best of the best......Up date here...the beta site sux big time.SO glad I did not switch this one over...I don't think anyone that did, or has started a beta one is happy.So I may move that one over here....

A Thankful Day

I guess we all need to think about what we are thankful for and what we have.There are always those that are less fortunate than we are. I'm thankful that my husband has been cancer free for the past 4 years. I'm also thankful that both of my daughters have found someone to love and someone that loves them.That all of my friends and family that have been through chemo this year are doing well.

Hope everyone has a Happy and Thankful day....

Look at this......

One of Santa's reindeer was resting in the back yard this morning.....getting ready for the big day.

The day before....

Heads Up.......

The average Thanksgiving meal contains around 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat. Yikes!

This was on Hungry Girl this morning...did I need to see this? But then again,it's only one day. I love all the foods relating to Thanksgiving day, except cranberry sauce. Not a big fan of that. I like cranberry juice, and if there is a cranberry spread on a sandwich I might be ok with that. Maybe it's because I grew up with that jellied canned stuff, but I don't like homemade sauce either.

I have made my pie and baked the squash already today, everything else can wait till tomorrow. Its just the 2 of us, should be a quiet day. I"ll worry about 76 being on the road tomorrow going to NC, and hopefully 78 will make it to WI later this evening to be with her future in-laws.

Went out today after seeing an area with a lot of Bluebirds, but by the time I got there they were all gone, guess I thought they would wait on me. Anyway, got this picture of a tree trunk that I thought was pretty neat.

I think they're all down!!!!

Here are some before and after pictures taken over the past month...while yes they are lovely with all the colors, I'm glad that they are all down and out of the yard.....I've blown and raked the leaves at least 3 times a week for the past month...Now the grass needs to be cut, but is way to wet from the last rain and it's suppose to rain again this week-end.
These show the front upper right of the yard.....


This is a view out the back door with and without leaves, such a different view. I only have to blow off the deck for these leaves, most just go into the woods.

Day 20...10 more to go!!!

I think the time has gone fairly quickly. But then again November and December always seem to zip by to me.

Spent the day shopping, in real time and on the web. I hopefully have found the dress to wear to 78's wedding in July, not a small feat, looking for a dress to wear in July in November. But then again, I'll do anything to avoid having to wear a MOB dress. Most of those dresses seem to have beads and glitter, just not sure why. I thought all of the attention was to be on the bride. They also seem to be to dressy for a beach wedding, but then again that is my opinion. BTW, this is not a link to actual dresses being considered.

I also bought Christmas gifts for some of the family. I thought Monday might be quieter at the mall and it was to a point, but it is already a little crazy . I'm really looking forward to the holidays this year, especially since I have more time off.

Amazing Photography

We went into DC yesterday to see the Nature's Best Photography Exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History.
It is amazing to see these photos and read the stories of the people that did these pictures. The closest thing I have to any of these might be the flying needle picture. Seeing these did make me want to go out and shoot some more pictures like this. I may have to make a trip to the Washington zoo here soon. I have a neighbor that moved not to far away and she has tons of bluebirds in her yard. I may try that in a week or so also, feeling the need to do this!!!!

Who reads your blog?

I spent last night watching a movie and having dinner with my husband. While doing these activities I clicked on the randomiser and just clicked away. Found some interesting ones, funny ones, sad ones, and everything in between. What was interesting was the number of blogs that no comments. A lot asked questions, one even offered to do FREE headers for the first 3 people to blog on her site.....all but Blogger....other wise I would have said yes. She had one taker.....
So of the thousand plus bloggers doing the NaBloPoMo how many have no comments or answers to their questions after 17 days? I did make some comments on a few that I found interesting. There was a blog on toast written on 11/16.....I loved it!

So what is the answer to my question? Who reads and comments on your blog? I have 76 and 78 that will occasionally comment. I was reviewed by Holly. I get the spammer, which I delete. Otherwise there are very few others. We'll see if I get any answers :-)

I went to the mall yesterday to take some pictures. I've decided to take pictures of neon and I thought I might fine something there in one of the little stores, well guess what...I can't take pictures in the mall and BTW, there is no neon in the mall..they don't allow it !!!!!!Guess I'll have to hit the bars.

How cool is this?!?!?!?!?

Remember day #15 when I made a list of my favorite web sites? Well one of them was this . Today I got this in the mail to use free and I just have to Buzz about it...how cool is that!!!!!This retails for almost $100.00

This is much better than the free coffee maker. That was neat...this is cool!

I've belonged to Buzz for maybe a year, so it doesn't happen right away, but how cool...Happy VAMOM7678!!!!

This grosses me out!

OK this is really gross to me.

NBC4 did a story on the 5pm news about it yesterday evening.....showing all of this "ick"

I do not have pierced ears, I think I am the only one in the world who doesn't, but then again that's OK...the "hole" thing really grosses me out and this makes me queasy....I'm a nurse. I worked in surgery and loved it, but this....oogly!!

76 and 78 have pierced ears, but I didn't take them, my sister did..I can't even watch it being done. I know why. I had a traumatic viewing of this in nursing school, friends using an ice cube and an 18 gauge needle to do it....I can still remember watching while everyone was piercing each others ears and I knew there was no way in he** that I was going to have that done to me.....

We had a patient come into the office one time that had a tear, her child had pulled on her hoop earring and ripped her ear, I was so grossed out, I had to leave the room after I apologized to the pt.

A photo of my unpierced left ear...the right one is not pierced either!

15.2 I have been reviewed!!!

Holly has reviewed the V's...and not Rashenbo . Thanks for the review and comments. Not sure why I look familiar to you, I've had several blogs, but this is the only one that has made it this far. Maybe next year more will offer to review and kudos to all that are doing it this year. I like seeing all the "stats"
And as promised a pansy picture. Planted these last week to put some color outside the kitchen window.....

Day 15 Web Sites

I really feel this is a cop-out, but since everyone seems to continue making lists and before the numbers get to high,thought I would list 15 of my most favorite web sites. Enjoy!

This is an early post, suppose to be sunny and warmer today...rain tomorrow. Lots to do today. May try and post later with a photo. I will post later with a picture...

Weight Watchers
Dotties Weight Loss Zone
Sparks People
Hungry Girl
Buzz agent
My Survey
Road Food
Zillow
This is Broken
Tiny House
Freebies Forum
My Bargain Buddy
Daily Candy
The List
Trip Gas Price

Reviewing the Blogs and Crap happens

Rashenbo is reviewing all of the blogs that are doing NaPloBoMo
...OMG!!! I cannot imagine reading or looking at every blog doing this. It would be like reading the entire WEB. The V's will be reviewed this week...yes I am following it, so how lame is that? That being said I think I am addicted to the randomizer . There have been a lot of really good ones out there. So yeah, I look at a lot of the blogs too.

Bikerman had a bad day at work only made worse by the fact that someone ran into the back of his truck while he was sitting in a line of traffic at a 3 way stop.He was 6 cars back from the sign. EEK! Hard to believe she didn't see him. Apparently she was not paying attention. There is some cosmetic damage done to the rear bumper.We will have to wait until daylight to see if it is worse than it is. The truck is pretty new, so he is going to have the damage appraised and see if there is any damage to the frame.There is also something poking through the rear bumper...not a good thing :-(

This is a photo of the Ridgeline and the reason it was purchased.He is not real happy right now.....

The 13th Daily Blog

Today continues to be gray and dreary. I took this picture at 4pm with my new camera lens . Nice! Takes great pictures in low light, and it is a really neat size. This is a Christmas present, but I wanted to use it now. This may be changed to an Anniversary gift, since that date is before Christmas.

I started my day having breakfast with another NaBloPoMoer .Glad she called last night to remind me, otherwise I would have forgotten.

Then I helped a friend who moved 2 1/2 months ago, work on unpacking some boxes.She is totally overwhelmed. Her husband fell last week and shattered both heels .He will be unable to put ANY weight on his feet for at least 6 months. This will have a big impact their lives, since he does so much around the house. DH and I will go back over tonight and hang some shades and a few pictures. I think if we do a little at a time to help this will be a good thing. They are both very nice people and this will be hard to have others do things for them.
Let's hope the sun will come out tomorrow......

Sunday Day #12

Following on the heels of a beautiful Saturday, today is quite the opposite.Poopy day, rainy and cold. Great day for chili ,watching football on TV, and putting day #12 of NaBloPlMo online.

Trying to get up the nerve to post the before and after photos of my weight loss , so it can show why I belong to the National Weight Control Registry . Looking through the photos, there are not a lot of full body pictures , most are just face shots and I am behind people...funny how we do that. Like it will make a difference.It certainly did to me at the time. I actually lost over 30 lbs , but have maintained the total of 30 lb weigh loss. So here are the photos and the face says it all. The first one was taken Spring 02 and the second one was taken Jan 06, (I was sitting on a motorcycle)



I started WW June 02, made goal Dec 02, and Lifetime, Jan 03. It is not a diet, it's a life style change.

#11 on 11/11

What a beautiful day today was for November. Sunny and warm.
Bikerman and I wanted to go on a motorcycle ride since it was sooooo nice. I had signed up to donate blood this morning at 9:30, and figured we'd be on the road for the ride around 10ish..nope I was sitting in the chair at 10, then we were outta there! after some slight fluid intake and a nummy.

We left Oakton and headed out to The Plains for lunch . Sounds good right? Well while zooming along the back roads of Middleburg I started feeling like ca-ca. Headache, light headed, nauseated...not a good feeling when wearing a full face helmet. Deep breathing. Happy thoughts , anything to make it go away. Wishing we had brought a bottle of water, I finally had to have bikerman pull over in a school parking lot in the shade, take off the helmet,and jacket and just lie down. I think it was a combination of lowering my blood volume, heat, and probably some dehydration. After laying there for a few minutes and cooling down, I felt a lot better, and we continued on our ride. We made it to The Plains and had lunch at the Rail Stop, and while we were eating the proprietor walked in...He is a resident of The Plains and one-time co-owner of the Rail Stop. Though he sold his interest in the business 2 1/2 years ago he continues to take his meals here, as often as five times a week when he's not off playing another character.
..how cool was that!?!?!?! He really looked good.

We finished the ride and came home and finished some chores we both needed to do.

I was surprised at how crappy I have felt the rest of the day though. I kept going, but I really have had to push myself. It really takes a lot to make me stop and lay down for a few minutes, but this has done it. Glad there is another day of the week-end.

Day #10 is special.....

Day #10 should be special, so this entry will be about 10 things people may or may not know about me..

10... I was Home Coming Queen in the 8th grade
9... I was in the movie "All the Way Home" with Robert Preston and Patricia Neal
8... I was president of my junior class in Nursing School
7... I dated a guy in college who was president of the inter-fraternity council and went to all those parties at all the fraternities.
6... I flew back seat in a Navy jet and 36 hours later had a collapsed lung , that kept me in a Navy hospital for over 6 weeks.
5... My husband asked me 3 times to marry him before I decided to marry him.
4... I was going to be a Home Economics teacher, if I didn't become a nurse.
3... I had never seen a pine cone on a tree or carved a pumpkin until I was married.
2... I have a difficult time spending money
1... I have belonged to the National Weight Loss Registry for 3 years.

Happy Birthday to VAMOM's 78.

This time 28 years ago I was having my second c-section. Wanted a girl the entire 9 month and luckily God listened. Looking back there were definitely times we were candidates for the Dr Phil show, bad mommy vs PITA toddler, but we made it through. Pretty pink glasses to wear. The mom going into an intermediate teacher, after school and telling her that the daughter will do anything necessary to bring up the grade on a test that she took and "THOUGHT" she failed, only to find out the next day that she made an A. Sitting on the bed going through flash cards to learn Latin in HS. Calling long distance to Tennessee to wake her up for classes in college. Being lucky enough to have her graduate and then come back to the area to work, only to have to move to the west coast 3 years later.

She has a job, working for the
"mouse" and loves it. She had the opportunity to go to
"Hong Kong" for her job in March this year and let me, someone who had never been out of the USA, come over and visit for 10 days. How unbelievably cool that was.
She is working on her own webpage and the best of all is getting married to a wonderful guy in 2007.

I hope one day they will be on this side of the Mississippi........

Trying to Link

Along with the daily posting and pictures, I have been working for the past 3 days on trying to put a link to my site. If you look back I've listed places and things, but I have no links. I've cut and pasted so many things to see if it would work. I know there is a "key" on the site to add them, but somehow it hasn't worked for me. So last night while the TV was chatting about the election, I kept practicing.

Tonight I will be going to the FFX Government building for a presentation by
Roadfood. Looking forward to seeing this. DH and I have tried to be better at eating at more local establishments while we are on the road instead of chains. This can be both a good and bad experience. (check out that link...yayayaya)

Yucky day here in VA, gray and drizzly, suppose to clear and be nicer the rest of the week. Went through some of my summer photos and found one that I liked, to post today.This was taken in Utah in August.Really beautiful part of the country.We'll be going back there in August again for the
Utah Small Sat Conference

I'm on a roll now :-)

A sunny picture for my gray day......

Happy Election Day

Hope everyone out there in blog land voted today.If you didn't you need to ask yourself why and then think about what if you could not vote at all, or had no choise of your own. (Ok, off soap box) At this point I fall into the group that just wants it to be over. It has been a very nasty and verbal campaign. I voted last Saturday at the county government center. DH was going to be out of town, so I decided to vote with him, absentee. First time I had ever done that. I always just go to the voting place, this was so much easier though.

Dinner tonight with a former co-worked.One of the few I have left in this area. Most have moved or not kept in touch. She is a really nice girl, pregnant with her second child and also quit working shortly after I did. The difference is she has a son with autism and spends a lot of time with him.

I hope to work learning how to put a link on the blog....still have a simple mind and nothing is working for me...but I'll keep trying.

Making photos....and I'm on the list!

I love taking pictures. I don't love HAVING to take a picture. Because then they are not really what you want to take pictures of. I have 2 more weeks to go, and we have already picked the one that will be enlarged, so the things I'm taking pitures of now have nothing to do with anything. I'm having to look for things to photograph. These are drops of water...

My blog is now on the list for NaBloPoMo....yayayay..it's the little things for me that matter.

Back from the beach......

Nice trip to the beach in MD. Think we like VA Beach better. I know it is November, but this place was dead!!!! Maybe it is because we used to live in VA Beach and have gone down there more. Still it was fun. Made the week-end go by all to fast.

Day #4....off to the beach!

Leaving this AM for the beach for a day...will be a bit nippy, but a nice change of pace for us.

Had a fun time yesterday afternoon in DC with the daughter. We both enjoy food and cooking so we went to The Metropolitain Cooking Show in DC. The crowds were light for Friday, everyone will be going in today and tomorrow to see Paula Deans boys. But is was so nice not to have to fight the crowds. Then we had dinner at Zaytinya
probably one of my most favorite restaurants in the area.

The picture is of VAMOM and 76...funny thing about this picture is we both actually have long hair.

...and the winning photo is

So last night in the photography class we..the group...chose which picture is the chosen one out of all the photos taken over the past 6 weeks. I've been pretty pleased with most of the ones I took. The one picked at least has some meaning to me. We have to enlarge and mat the photo for our last class.This picture was taken at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles CA. I took in on a trip in early October with daughter #1 to go see daughter #2. It did turn out to be a neat photo.The person in the photo is daughter # 1.



I also found out last night that one of the girls in my class is the daughter of Micky Dolenz,of the Monkeys. She is a really sweet girl and takes excellent photos.I thought she looked like someone I knew from the first class, and she just let is slip out last night.Pretty cool!

Mixed Emotions

I am so ready for all the leaves to be off the trees. I have raked and blowed leaves for about 3 weeks now and there isn't an end any time soon. We basically live in the woods and while most of the 4 seasons it is lovely,including the fall, the leaves are over whelming.

I have also been going through some Christmas things to get a little better organized for the holidays. I found this little momento in one of the boxes. I think I have kept everything the girls ever did, I probably have their first poopy diaper somewhere ( just kidding) Here is a little someting that is about 25 years old and the little girl just turned 30 in August.

OK, so today is #1 on the posting for 30 days...we'll see how this works out. This picture was the only one I liked for class this week, nothing seemed to look good in "My Eyes" I'll keep on snapping away and hope to include a new pix along with blog during these upcoming days....