Just Say No – To Ice Cream

Yesterday we went to some friends house for a barbeque. We had some yummy burgers, potato salad and a big lettuce salad – it was all very good and I probably ate more than I should have. And then there was dessert – chocolate ice cream and oatmeal cookies. Although it was hard, I didn’t have any. I said – NO – to ice cream – in the presence of witnesses.

I really like ice cream – actually I really LoVe ice cream – especially CHOCOLATE. I have been know to polish off large amounts of it in a very short period of time. There is no such thing as having just a small bowl and  rationing out the portions so that it lasts longer and the calorie impact is spread out. When there is ice cream in the house I will eat it 2 or 3 times a day. I have tried the idea of just not bringing it into the house and only having some when out – but, do you know how easy it is to drive by the neighborhood ice cream stand? And they even sell cones at the grocery store where I shop. What about limiting it to only special occasions ?  The problem is there are just way too many special occasions in life – at least where ice cream is concerned : )

Recently, due to some health issues I was told by my doctor that I must get serious about losing weight. That was not going to happen if I continued my love affair with ice cream. I had a decision to make – my decision was to just say NO to ice cream and all other sugary stuff. I seem to be an all or nothing type of person in this area.  That decision is starting to pay off – I have lost 15 pounds since March 7. I still have a long way to go but, I feel like I am making progress.

So this will be a summer without ice cream – except for one day in August – our anniversary – which I have decided warrants as a special occasion – 31 years together is definitely something special to celebrate. Maybe I will skip the nice steak dinner and go right to a VERY BIG big bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream. Now how many more days until . . . . . ?

Father and Son

Son got a new softball bat and needed Father to pitch balls, catch balls and . . . chase balls. Father and Son are now hot and tired, in need of a cold drink : )

Lilacs and Garden Flowers

A lilac bush in my backyard – I love the scent of lilacs – wish they would bloom all summer : )

I bought some flowers for the garden today. I will show you some after pictures once they are planted.

Windows Live Writer

I called the computer wiz daughter last night and she was just as baffled as I was and although that still left me frustrated at least I knew I wasn’t just stupid because I couldn’t figure it out myself. This morning I had am email from my loving hubby with some blogger help sites – he is really a wonderful guy. Through a comment on one of them I decided to try Windows Live Writer. I did a test post before this and it was so easy and so fast and so not frustrating and it has some extra features like adding special effects to photos. If this post works the same I will be a definite convert. So here goes . . .

Just for fun I am posting some silly pictures of computer wiz daughter. I was able to crop this picture right here in the post as well as chose the size I wanted – and it was so easy : ) Oh – there is even spell check which is great for all the typos I make.

These pictures were taken in 1981 and scanned into the computer so the quality is not very good, but they still make me smile. I am going to try one more and then I really must go – adorable grandson is coming for a little visit.

This is my loving hubby kneading bread for me when I was pregnant with the daughter in the above pictures – he really is a keeper.

I am so excited about this new way to post and would love to keep going, but I will be back later.

Monday Meanderings -- Part 2

We also found the Grand River in our travels on Monday.

Hubby dropped me off on the far side of the bridge so I could walk across and take pictures -- he parked the car at the other end and we met in the middle. I really liked the shadows of the railing.

Some more shadows and looking through the railing down at the waters edge.

Two views of the river from the bridge.

Looking back after my trek across the bridge. Time to go to the gas station up the road for a cold drink.

Frustrated

I have just spent a good part of my day getting quite frustated with Blogger -- why don't the pictures go where I want them too? I really do not want to go back to wordpress because I really like this template and I don't like any of theirs right now, but after today I am reconsidering that option. I see lots of Blogger blogs with pictures so it can't be that hard -- which makes me feel pretty stupid -- a feeling that I really do not like. I am trying one more time with this post and then . . .

It happened again -- the picture went to the top of the page and I had to move it -- which I guess is not that big of a deal except that sometimes it messes up the spacing of the text or other pictures. Maybe a call to my computer wiz daughter . . .

O.K. I give up -- time to call the computer wiz and see if she has the answer.

Oh -- these are just some pictures I took in a mall parking lot awhile ago. The sky was a perfect sky blue and the clouds were perfect puffy cotton-like clouds. The light post looked cool too against that perfect blue sky.

P.S. I have now edited all my posts so that they look right, but I decided to leave my frustation post here anyway -- just as a reminder : )

Monday Meanderings -- Part 1

On his day off  hubby and I like to drive the back roads, often with no particular destination planned, but just to relax and enjoy the drive. I even bought a map that shows all the back roads in Ontario. Hubby would probably skip the map and just drive, but I like to know where I am and more importantly, I like to know how to get home from wherever we end up.

This week we drove on some gravel roads and came upon this really cool railway bridge. Part of the fun in these drives is to take pictures of things we see and do along the way.

Hubby bravely ventured into the ditch to get this picture of the water tunnel at the side of the bridge.

I took this picture inside the main tunnel.

It always amazes me when I find grass growing out from the rocks.

My hubby -- the rock climber -- whenever there are rocks to be climbed -- he will climb them.

To be continued . . .

Dandelions

I chose my blog template it is simple and I just liked the way it looked, but it has caused me to notice the dandelions a little more. While out driving the other day I saw a number of fields just full of them and they really were quite pretty. I didn't get any pictures of the fields, but I did take a few by the side of the road -- the detail -- even in a weed is amazing.

Baby Feet

There is something so sweet and precious about baby feet -- especially when the belong to your very own grandson.

Taking Time To Relax

A few days ago hubby and I took a little break for some relaxing time together and this is where we went. It takes less than 15 minutes to get there -- we both enjoy it and it doesn't cost anything -- you can't beat that.

I think there was a sailing class happening because there were a lot of sailboats all together going around in circles.

A couple more pictures of the view we enjoyed together. You can see even more pictures of this place here.

A Fresh Start

About this time last year I discovered blogs. I had known about them before that, but last April was when I discovered that there were so many  really great blogs out there by so many great people about so many things that inspired me. I felt connected somehow to others who in some way were like me -- sometimes it was in the things we liked or things we did or what we dream about --I felt like I was a part of something good. 

I quickly became quite addicted to reading  many of these blogs and then of course I had to have a blog of my very own. I actually started a couple blogs before settling on one which I blogged happily away on for a number of months. But, after a while I felt frustrated and wasn't sure why I was doing this whole blogging thing. I took some time off to sort through my thoughts and feelings about blogging, coming to the conclusion that I had strayed away from my original goal which was to have fun and just be me. I began to feel that I had to measure up to some invisible standard of what to write about and of how often I had to write instead of just writing because I enjoyed it. I had started out wanting to share my life and who I am, but somewhere along the way I lost track of that -- it may not have showed to those who were reading my posts, but I knew that something wasn't right.

So, I have said all that to say that I am making a fresh start.

I have been trying for much of my life to live up to others expectations -- trying to fit into a box that was just not the right size or shape. I am trying now to throw away all the boxes and  learn how to just be me. So in this blog I plan to express myself through words and pictures without having to do it the way I think is expected, but the way I want to. Sometimes I will post quite regularly and sometimes my posts will be more erratic.

Thank you for joining me on my journey of  "Simply Being Me".

You can find my previous blogs here and here.