I love Fall

I tolerate summer for two reasons. The first is that I have no choice, lol.  The second is that it leads me to Fall and Winter, my absolute favorite seasons of the year.

Here in Georgia, one of the first signals that Fall is "falling" is that the humidity drops dramatically seemingly overnight. (Aaahhhhh....) When that happens, I finally feel like I can breathe. Typically this happens around the 1st week of October, but then we get a "wonderful" Indian Summer where temps shoot back up into the 80s and I am sad, lol.  Now as we are sliding into November it feels as though Autumn is here for real.

When I woke up this morning it was chilly and breezy.  I came out to the living room and Patrick had a fire (our first of the season) going in the fireplace, and was cooking a stew/soup at the stove.  (Could the day be MORE perfect???)  Looking at the forecast for the week ahead, I see our first dips below freezing in store.  Love love LOVE!!!!

I'm sitting at the kitchen table working on my English paper and enjoying a cup of pumpkin spice coffee with caramel creamer. I glance to my right and see the autumn leaves falling in the breeze.  I am thankful.

Setting up to fail?

Is it foolish to begin a weight loss journey just as we're coming into the holidays?  Am I just setting myself up for failure and stress?  On one hand...it's certainly not going to hurt me to make good food choices and perhaps work out, lol.  On the other hand...really?!?  LOL!

I kind of feel like it's one of those things that if I wait until the right time I'll never do it.  Sigh.

Why can't I just be thin?

A weekend of highs and lows

Yep, I'm a week behind.  That's me!

Last Friday I headed up to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for a weekend of girlie-time with one of my very bestest friends in the world.  We had each made a list of three things we wanted to do, and set ourselves to doing them!  I wanted to go to the Christmas store, eat at the Pancake Pantry, and stay up late chatting.  She wanted to go up in to the mountains to see the leaves (we *kinda* did that...the traffic was SO heavy that we sort of counted the visible mountains from Gatlinburg as going "up into the mountains."),  eat at Mellow Mushroom, and walk around Gatlinburg/PF window shopping.  It was DEElightful to spend time with my girlie.  I needed it.  Oh oh oh!  We rode this thing called the SkyLift up to the top of a mountain...and I literally almost dropped my purse.  OMG.  That would have sucked!!!  But I caught it *just* in time. Shew.

In sad news, just as I was pulling into the Smokies, Patrick called to tell  me that his mom had passed away. We knew it was coming, and it is very sad.  But honestly?  We are relieved that she is finally at peace.  The poor woman was miserable for the vast majority of her life. THAT is the saddest part.  Patrick is of course grieving the loss of his mother...but he encouraged me to go on with my girlie weekend. I had major guilt, but we talked many times throughout the weekend, and he was doing ok.  The hardest part for him is getting his head around the fact that she is gone.  She had, among other things, dementia...so he has been "losing her" for a really long time.  There really was some relief to knowing she is free at last.

I really want to get back to blogging.  Anybody still around to read?

Missed the goal

Well October 15th has come and gone.  That was the day by which we wanted to have walked 300 miles.  We didn't make it.  We walked 140 miles...and you know what?  That's awesome.  We fell short of our goal, but we started college, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and life happened.  But I"m proud of what we accomplished!

In school news, I'm BEAT.  Midterms were last week, and I got A's.  This week I had a test in every class (again!) and gave an oral presentation in Anatomy & Physiology today.

You know what I need?  A girls weekend...and that's exactly what I'm going to have!  First thing tomorrow morning I'm headed out for a weekend of fun and relaxing with my best girl, Tricia. I can't wait.

The Forgotten Blog

Being the awesome blogger that I am, I figured that I should maybe post something!

Hi to anyone who happens to read this! Hope you're having a marvelous day.

Something amazing is happening right now...Patrick and I are ALONE in our home.  This has not happened in TWO years since my parents moved in.  But tonight, my mom is in CA, my dad is staying at my brother's house, and Shannon is at Girl Scout Camporee. Holy cow!

Another amazing happening of the evening, is that Louis, Shannon's pet praying mantis (yes really), laid an egg nest today!  Apparently she is a LOUISE!!!! Wow!  Did you know a praying mantid's egg case can hold 400 babies?  Eep!  Science is so awesome.

Not sure I mentioned this...but it's noteworthy.  The sale of my parents' house fell through.  That's the suckage.  So many things were riding on that sale...but no.

Also, I'm having some financial aid issues....blarg.  I'm breathing deep, having faith, and keeping on keeping on.

Let's see...what else?  I helped name a friend's kitten today.  Volunteered for Shannon's theatre group and sold tickets tonight.  Aaaand, I have midterms next week.  On the agenda for tomorrow?  Church and studying!!!

All in all, life's good...just a few bumps in the road.