Daily Commute....

Is it just me, or do you feel like you know each person on your daily route? I leave for work at the same time every day. Along the way, I see the same people. It's mostly when I get to the city. I see this little girl at the bus stop all by herself and it bothers me that her mom isn't with her. She comes out of this apartment and walks up a 1/2 block and waits. I would never let my little girl wait by herself there. Maybe I shouldn't judge because I don't know her family situation but I worry about her.

Then I see a young mom with her daughter waiting for the city bus. I feel bad that they don't have a car and have to wait in snow and rain for the bus. I always see them hugging and laughing and talking and I think what a great mom she must be. I saw them in the grocery store one day and thought I knew her from somewhere and then realized it was the bus stop mom. Today I saw her and she cut her long curly hair very short and had it straightened. She's a pretty woman and it looks great on her. I commented to my husband (he was driving me today) that she got her hair cut and he asked who she was. I told him I see her every day and feel like I know her!

Then I see this older (maybe 60's) woman who walks every day. I'm not sure how far she has to walk to work but it's at least a couple of miles or more. Depending on what time I leave, I see her in different spots, during rain, sleet, snow. I am always going the opposite way, otherwise I'd be very tempted to stop and give her a ride. My heart breaks that she has to walk so far to work.

I hope this doesn't sound strange. I'm just wondering if others have the same daily observances.

Forgot the most important part of the weekend!!

I stuck with the diet with the exception of drinking low carb beer. I have now lost 10 lbs.!!!!!!! I'm thrilled to death! I love this South Beach diet!! Now I can work on the other 30. I'm setting 10 lb. goals at a time though. Feels great!!!!!

Riverfront...

Lake front...

Memorial Weekend....

Aaaaah, what a weekend! We left Sat. a.m. for Maine. Looked around at a few areas for vacation homes. Got to our friends' in Cornish, ME & then headed to Lake Sebago. The place had its own beach. Very nice!! We sat out in the Sun. on the deck for a bit, cooked out, went in and played cards. The next day we sat on the beach & deck. It was really hot and sunny, great weather!!!! Then we headed for our other friends camp on Ossipee River in Saco, ME. It was very humid there. The river was way up! We ate steamers, lobsters, corn, etc. Came back late that night to our Cornish friends' home and slept. Left fairly early Monday but not early enough to avoid the little town parades. We had to take a detour but didn't lose much time. We cooked out when we got home. A nice weekend, all in all.

Memorial Weekend plans...

I can't wait for tomorrow to come! We are heading to Maine (just the two of us) and meeting a realtor to see a few vacation homes and then heading to our friends' house. Then we'll head over to Sebago Lake. We are staying at a beautiful place right on the lake (so I'm told). We'll come home on Mon. and have a cookout with my mom, two boys and one gf. It should be a nice relaxing weekend. Ahhhhhhhh.....

Porch project

here's the paint that I'm not crazy about. It's beautiful at night, a greenish blue watery color. During the day it becomes baby blue or robins egg blue and is too bright for my taste. I think they may be painting the new color today. I can't wait to see it but I'm a little nervous. The tile is now finished and I don't have a photo of that yet. I LOVE the tile!

A painted house without shutters!

Well, here's the new paint job on our house. My neighbor said we should leave off the shutters so it could look like an old colonial. We toyed with it but think we like our black shutters so they're putting them on today.

Well, it's been a while....

My back is somewhat better. I've started the South Beach diet and I'm on my second week. I've lost 6 lbs. so far. I was successful in controlling myself last weekend which was very tough. I had a party at my neighbor's where the margaritas were flowing (my favorite) and I refrained. They also had TONS of apps and I did not have anything. I went to my cousin's graduation party the next day and didn't have anything but what was on my diet and had two low carb beers. My mouth was watering over the cake but I didn't even have a bite. I was so proud of myself. Now I have to get through Memorial Weekend without indulging. We are heading to Maine. I'm planning on packing lots of veggies and stuff for salads so that I'm not tempted. I'll stick to low carb beer again since that didn't seem to bother me.

I'm so excited...my cousin from LA is coming in this week for his brother's wedding. He will be visiting us either Thurs. or Fri. night. I just love him. He's a riot! And the boys love him because he's very artsy (photographer & also used to design windows on Rodeo Dr., now works for Armani). I have to get my house back together as much as I can.

We''ve had painters for a couple of weeks now so my rooms have the screens sitting in them, the windows are filthy but I don't want to clean them until they're done. The house looks great with the new paint. Hopefully the shutters will go back on today. The porch is coming along also. I'll have to post photos when I get time. I wasn't crazy over the color. I wanted a watery blue and it's kind of too bright during daylight. It's perfect at night though. So...I picked out a new paint for the second coat. I'm hoping it's what I want. We've ordered new cushions for the patio furniture and will get the hot tub soon. They are tiling the upper porch floor today and will then move on to the bathrooms. I have to hurry up and pick out the tiles!!! Then we're doing wood in the entire downstairs of the house. Whew! Moving too fast for me but John is concerned he'll have a job and won't have time. He interviewed yesterday and it seemed like it may work but I don't want to jinx it. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!

nana mom's day card

Here's a card I made for my mom from the boys. You can't see the background and the colors are off but you get the idea.

Ugh again!!

My back is really killing me today. I'm walking around like an invalid. It's been a zoo here but I don't have the energy and tomorrow will be worse. I have 150 people coming here and there's not enough seating. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that some won't show up! I won't be able to move around tables and chairs like I normally do so I'm hoping the student who is supposed to be here shows up!!!

I was supposed to start the South Beach diet today but didn't have the right ingredients in my fridge. I'm thinking I'll stop on the way home because my co-worker really wants to start and wants us to support each other. I'm not sure how this will work. I'm not used to doing things like this with a male!! I need something to get me going though!!

I think I'll skip the treadmill since I have no energy and am in serious pain. I ate my share of cookies and candy today, just so that I have it out of my system for the diet (good excuse, huh?!).

Ugh....

Well, my back is out again. It started yesterday and it almost felt better by bed time. I woke up in pain this a.m. I'm beginning to wonder if it's my mattress. I've been walking around with Deep Heat on so my new perfume is mentholyptus! Yuck.

I just reread my post on Fri. I did NOT have a margarita at lunch or at home on Fri. It was a little hectic and I ended up having a couple of Coronas with lime instead.

Sat. was good. I made my paint can at the lss and spent a decent amount of money that I don't have!! Ahhhh.....retail therapy! Gotta love it. Took photos of Greg which was a little stressful. He was not cooperating. John and I ended up at Lui Lui after Home Depot on Sat. night. The pizza (chicken, broccoli, white sauce) was delicious!!!!!! Sunday.....hmmmmm...I can't remember what happened. Oh yeah, we grilled outside but had to eat inside. It was a little chilly. E & his gf joined us. Then I went into my room and made several birthday & mom 's day cards.

My house was painted yesterday. I'll have to take a photo. John called me at work to say that the paint was much darker and could I zip home (20 min. one way) and take a look? I said that I could not since my boss was in and I was swamped. So he said he'd tell them to go ahead and I said fine. It came out really nice! It's what I wanted originally so mistakes can be good!!

Another weekend already!

Oh, I'm so happy Fri. is finally here! It is a gorgeous day out (almost 80). I had a quiet week email wise because my good friend was away! Hope she had fun!! It's been a zoo at work so I haven't had the time anyway.

Picked out some tile for the bathrooms last night and took samples home. I'll have to make a decision before my husband drives me crazy!!!!!!! 8-})

IWe're grilling steaks & I just have to have a margarita (or five) for Cinco de Mayo. I may end up getting one for lunch with a friend. I need to relax a bit!

Tomorrow I'll go to my fav store (stamp/scrap) and enjoy their anniversary sale & fun. Then I have to pick up the flowers for Greg's gf's prom. Yikes...he tried on the tux last night and looked soooo grown up! The pants were a mile long so I pinned them and John took them back today. They said he should have been there when we picked it up. I told him to tell them that THEY should have given him the pants he was MEASURED for! I'm not sure how he made out yet.

Oh, and he's back to the girl pants!! I'm very disappointed. I hope it doesn't last long. I asked about the jeans I spent a fortune on and he said he'll wear them once in a while. Grrrrrr.....

one more thing...

J NEEDS a job!!! I forgot to add that. That's why he's so ready to go crazy on the house. He's driving me crazy by calling at work just to chat! He watched some infommercials the other day and bought some state of the art ladder and a stupid pasta cooker - yes, that tube thing. He cooked dinner last night and it was horribly pasty!! The sauce would have been good but the pasta was horrendous. He's sending it back. This was after he made more pasta today, called me at work to ask how to make pasta salad. He needed something to make with his experiment! LOL I don't think I'll be trying it! too funny.....well, off to the treadmill.

Hump day...

Not much new. Got Marissa's gift out for her first communion. I hope she likes the cross & card!

We've been on a rampage trying to pick out paint & tiles for the house. J is very anxious to get it done. We are having wood installed on the first floor rooms, tile in the bathrooms & porch, having someone paint the porch (FINALLY), J is painting our bedroom & redesigning the closets. Then we'll just need a hot tub to go in the room that was built for one about 2 yrs. ago! I'm happy the house will be done when our visitors from England are here and also when I have my niece's baby shower, but I'm not happy about having to rush my decisions. I'm not very confident in my decorating skills.

More later...

Weekend..

Well, Fri. night we went out to look for bookshelves/storage for my sb room, found what we wanted at the Mill Stores. Can't wait!

Sat. I cleaned and then we went to the party. I was wrong about J's aunt's ages. They are 60, 80 & 85. It was a nice time. J's brother flew in from MI for it.

Sun. I went food food shopping early so we could spend the beautiful day out back. I got settled on my LaPlume chaise (ahhhhh) with my magazine and read for a little bit. It was nice but quickly got breezy. We didn't last too long out there. Came in and cooked dinner for the fam. DS' gf joined us. She's very sweet.

Later, I bolted for the sb room and made a first communion card for Marissa who is my godchild in MI. I just found out this past weekend that it's next weeked so I obviously can't go. I need to find a gift on my lunch hour.

J is suddenly saying that all I do is spend time scrapping or stamping so I guess I have to back off for a bit! He's never complained before. It usually gives him time to play the guitar or research real estate in ME. Oh well...