Perfect Pairings Job 8:21

Job 8:21

21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

Had a good time bowling with the family on1/1/11. How can you miss with a few strikes, some spares, and Ms. Pac-Man?

Head on over to Baloney's to get some more perfect pairing action.

Perfect Pairings Jeremiah 33:6

Jeremiah 33:6

6 Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

This one goes out to Baloney (the original Perfect Pairer) who is recovering from shoulder surgery.  Hope to see you back in Perfect Pairing action real soon!

Guilt Trip

The very same day we got Harry trimmed, was one of the colder ones on record this winter.  This cold day was to be followed by many a colder one and about 8 inches of snow.  I am not in King Harold's good graces.  Here's the before:

And here's the After:

So cute right?  His little orange preppy sweater just adds to the appeal. Thing is, it has been so cold he just shivers and quivers and lays in his kennel with his sweater and his extra sheepskin blanket . I've tried to make amends.  Turned the heat up two degrees while I am work.  Let him snuggle on my lap. Bought him some biscuits with a gravy coating on them.  All for naught, 'cause you know what he did? 

That's right. HE SHUT HIS EYES AT ME.  Like I wasn't even there.  Like I was dead to him.  Like if he thought real hard about it with his eyes closed, maybe all his Harry hair would grow back.

And I thought, surely he didn't mean it.  Whatever happened to that whole faithful companion thing? Woman's best friend?  Puppy love? All he gave me was more of this.

I guess he really meant it.  Sorry Harry, if you're trying to make me feel guilty, it's working.

Signing off from the doghouse,

Shannon

Resolutions...

Yup, we're eleven days into the new year and I am now professing my resolutions - well one resolution in particular.  I'll have to admit this resolution has been on my to-do list for many years.  You got it - I need to lose some weight.  Need to get me some healthy in my life. And how.

I have always enjoyed food.  It's a family tradition.  My grandmother ran a restaurant and worked in food service for most of her life and our family did likewise - my mom still does.  My grandma's chocolate whipped cream roll is to absolutely die for as is my mother's banana cream pie.  I have a weakness for baked goods and sweets and it shows. Alot. It mostly shows up in a large, roly-poly tire around my middle.

So like a pendulum (tire swing swinging back and forth?) I would go on a very strict diet, lose a good amount of weight, go off my very strict diet and gain it all back again just as fast as I lost it.  Very frustrating. Humiliating. Depressing.  Making me feel like a failure every single time. 

Now, I am a cardiac rehab nurse, and more recently have become a diabetes education coordinator.  I know what I should do. I tell people what they should do. I teach classes on the subject for heaven's sake. I know what all this extra weight can lead to.  Somewhere there seems to be a little gigantour disconnect between my mind and my stomach.  The stomach wants what the stomach wants - or so it thinks.

So, one night doing the leap-blogging thing, I found this site.  I wasn't really looking for weight loss motivation, but her button caught my eye (taking the crap out of scrapbooking) on some other blog I was checking out, and, click, I was sucked  into reading Cathy's own inspiring weight loss story which she had dubbed Move More, Eat Less.  Now that I can do. (How crazy is that! How about giving moderation a try!) She has a nifty little journal you can  purchase and download to track your progress. I also signed up for Weight Watchers online. Been there. Done that. Did lose.  Have to admit to being a little impressed by the whole Jennifer Hudson story too.  Does she look great or what?

I also read a WW success story in which a member said it only took her "x" many weeks to lose the weight, but 10 years to learn how to do it. I am chalking up those other "failures" to learning opportunites. I've read if you tell people your goals you are more likely to succeed.  So might as well tell the whole darn internet and go from there. The deets:

1. Post my monthly MMEL results to my blog.
2. Run the Tulip Festival 5K - no walking this time.
3. Give up my *shudder* quiver* gnashing teeth* Dt. Dr. Pepper.  I don't know when, where or how soon, but it needs to be done.

So there. Here's to healthy in 2011!!

The Greatest Generation...and then some

I wish I had had a tape recorder (er, do they make tape recorders anymore?), or some sort of recording device going at work today.  I have a fun group of patients getting their cardiac rehab on right now.  Somedays I try to teach them a thing or two, and then somedays they teach me a thing or two.

I happened to have three war veterans in the room today swapping stories of their days in the service.  Some stories were hilariously funny, some sweaty armpit scary, but all were pretty inspiring.  I can't imagine doing what they did.  I can't really fathom war to any extent that they experienced it.  These days, it seems like we have so much more knowledge and technology at our fingertips - but I guess that makes the weapons that much more complex too.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had recently read the book "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. She wrote "Seabiscuit" a few years back and I love loved that book, so when I saw "Unbroken" sitting there on the library shelf, even though not my typical read, I thought I would check it out.  Literally. It was monumental - or some other inadequate adjective. The book follows Louis Zamperini's life, from an incoragible trouble-maker, to Olympian and WWII bombadier whose plane went down in the Pacific.  He survived in a lifeboat for 47 days only to be captured by the Japanese and held as a POW until the end of the war.  The recounting of these events illicits a physical response.  It was definitely hard to read at times - almost making me sick. 

The wonderful thing is the hope and forgiveness with which the book ends. One of my favorite photos in the book is a 81 year old Zamperini skateboarding.   Who skateboards at 81?  Louie Zamperini is still alive today at the spry old age of 93. 

So I get a little awestruck when I hear the guys telling their stories. On one hand, I don't think they think anything of it.  They just did what they were asked to do. They are national treasures, and we really owe them a lot.  Much more than could ever be repaid, I suspect.  I'm glad I get to hear their stories, and I'm glad they are here to tell it.