Tuesday, 30 March 2010

As many of you know, I have been on the Mayo Clinic Diet for several. I don't know how much weight I have lost, since I haven't weighed in many months. Last night when I got home from work, I tried on a pair of LL Bean chino capris and an LL Bean chino skirt. I was expecting both to be fairly snug. Guess what, they fit. The skirt was tight the last time I tried it on. As a matter of fact, I couldn't get it zipped it was so tight. I didn't realize that I lost that much weight.

To celebrate my weight loss, I stopped by a drugstore and purchased some Caswell-Massey gardenia scented talc. I love the smell of gardenias.

I hope everyone has a good Wednesday.

Sunday, 28 March 2010

I had a fairly busy weekend. I got back in town and rushed to get my chores done so that I could watch Desperate Housewives. I sat down and tuned in and...it was a rerun.

Friday night, I met my mother and our dinner club at a local Italian restaurant. I had the Cobb salad. It was okay. Too much bleu cheese.

Saturday, we got up early and got ready and headed to Huntsville. On the way out of town, we stopped at a local shopping center. Several of the businesses were having a sidewalk sale. At the gift shop, I bought blue/white Williamsburg hunt toile placemats and napkins. I have some linens in this pattern and I was excited to see these. I've had mine a long time. I just wonder how long these have been sitting in the storage room of this gift shop. At least they were there for me to purchase for a low price. In Huntsville, we went to Sam's, Target, Belk's, Talbot's and Publix. At Target, I bought Easter bunny gifts for my sister's foster children. I am going to use sand buckets to hold their candy and toys. At Belk's I bought a white Vineyard Vines 3/4 sleeve polo. At Talbot's, I got a green 3/4 sleeve cardigan. We got home in time to see my sister's oldest foster son off to his first prom. He looked so handsome.

Today, we got up and went to church. My sister and her "children" were all there. They were able to participate in the parade of palms. They were so cute. Before long, it was time for me to come back. This afternoon went too fast.

I hope everyone has a good Monday.

Thursday, 25 March 2010

Today was such a dreary day. It rained off and on all day. Tonight there was a tornado warning for our county, but the storm was a few miles south of here. I guess it's that time of year when we spend our time dodging tornadoes.

I am so glad that this week if finally over. For some reason it has been a long week. Tomorrow, I'm going to leave work early so that I can get to my mother's for dinner with our dinner club. We are going to an Italian restaurant. I can't decide if I want the Cobb salad or the Walnut Blue Cheese salad. Both sound equally good to me. I have about 21 more hours until I need to decide.

Saturday, my mother and I are going to Huntsville shopping. We will be doing mostly Sam's shopping. Then it will be on to Target and Publix. Maybe we will have time to stop by Belk's and Talbot's.

I hope everyone has a good Friday. TGIF!!

Tuesday, 23 March 2010

Thanks to Mom on the Run for telling me about seeing Tretorns in the Lands' End store at Sears. Since my right foot is still swollen, I wanted to be able to try on the Tretorns before I bought them. This morning I called the local Sears store to see if they had the Tretorns. I spoke to an extremely nice lady named Mattie. Not only did she say that she had them, she went and checked to make sure that they had my size. Then she included a $15 off coupon. I wanted to make sure that Sears had them before I drove all the way over to the Galleria. It is not real convenient, but I do go there when I need to visit several stores. I left work early to get there. I actually needed 1/2 size larger than what Mattie was holding. The only problem is that they are a little big on my left foot, but I think I'll manage. The only problem is that I can't use a SuperFeet pad in them. I bought them anyway. I figure since I go barefooted when I'm in the house, I can handle wearing Tretorns without the pad occasionally. I got both the navy and the white. If they work out okay, I am going to order the pink from tretorn.com. These are going to be my summer wear everywhere shoes. I am so proud of my purchase. I thought I was going to have to go to Atlanta to get some shoes.

I hope everyone has a good Wednesday.

Sunday, 21 March 2010

This has been a dreary day. It has rained off and on all day. I took the opportunity to just lay around and watch movies. This afternoon I fixed a pot of Harney's Christmas tea (I drink it year round) and watched Julie & Julia while I sipped it. To accompany my tea, I fixed myself a big bowl of fresh strawberries and ate on them during the movie.

I went to a banquet for my women's club last night. It was held at Landry's. I'm not that big of a fan, but my food was fairly good. I had planned on sticking to my diet, but when free dessert was offered, I caved. I got the Brownie a la Mode. I only ate half. It was delicious.

I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of the weekend.

Saturday, 20 March 2010

I don't know about where you live, but it is absolutely beautiful here. I have all of the blinds open so that the sun can shine in. We have not had a pretty sunny day in I don't know when. Yesterday was beautiful also, but I was trapped inside at work. I am going to enjoy it today, because tomorrow is going to be rainy. We can't win for losing this year.

I have to go to a banquet this evening. I may get ready early and run a few errands on the way. I was thinking about stopping at an apothecary and getting some Caswell Massey gardenia talc. I don't wear perfume or cologne, but I do wear scented powder. I have a hard time finding scents that I like. Right now I am alternating between Chanel No. 5 and Clinique's Happy. I'm tired of Happy and I want to save my Chanel No. 5 for special days. Do any of you wear scented powder? If so, what are your favorites? I wish I could find some Lauren powder, but apparently it's not made anymore. I may go on Ulta's website and see what they have. As you can tell, I want something new.

I have noticed a lot of improvement in my foot in the past couple of days. I tried on an old loafer and it almost fit. But, the shoe fitting and being able to wear it are two different things. I think I am going to have to live in sneakers for a few more months. I think I am going to go to Atlanta in a few weeks and get me some Tretorns and have them fitted with a SuperFeet. I don't think I will be as self conscious of the Tretorns as I am the big Nike's. I hate to keep talking about my foot, but since October, it has dominated my life. Hopefully in a few months it will be back to normal.

I hope everyone enjoys their Saturday. I hope it is beautiful where you live.

Wednesday, 17 March 2010

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

I hope you are wearing your green today. I will be sporting a kelly green J. Crew cableknit wool sweater with my LL Bean navy twill pants and a RL blue OCBD. I love kelly and navy together.

Have a good day.

Monday, 15 March 2010

My mother invited a friend to go with us to the open house. We were extremely disappointed. They did not have very many clothes. They had some monogrammed gift items, but nothing different than anywhere else. The tea room was closed. You would think that they would do a good business on Saturday. I guess they take Saturday off since they are open for Sunday dinner. For the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad, click here. After we left there, we drove to Guntersville. We ate lunch at Wentzell's Oyster House. I had the chicken jerk chili and a garden salad. The chili was real tasty. After lunch, we went to downtown Guntersville and visited a few shops. I bought a Lilly-looking hot pink bangle bracelet at All About Her. All About Her carries Lilly Pulitzer, Lacoste, Vineyard Vines, Tervis Tumblers, Vera Bradley and a few other brands.

Saturday night, we went over to my sister and brother-in law's house for dinner. My brother-in-law cooked shrimp, steaks, pork chops and chicken. Guests brought sides. My mother bought a peach cobbler at the meat market and cooked it. Everyone enjoyed it. Other sides were mac & cheese, cheese grits, salad, potatoes, corn, brownies and ice cream.

Sunday, after church and lunch, we went to Movie Gallery. I bought Julie & Julia and Four Christmases for $14.99 each. I got Legally Blonde and Christmas Vacation for free. I have Legally Blonde on VHS and it is almost worn out. It is the movie that I watch when nothing good is on TV.

Right now, I am watching the 5 Browns on PBS. It is a good show.

I hope everyone has a good Tuesday.

Saturday, 13 March 2010

Since the party on Wednesday, Queenie and I have been living on fruit and grape tomatoes with a few cubes of cheese thrown in. Now it is all gone, except for the cheese.

Last night, I drove up to the my mother's house. We went to eat at Zaxby's. We don't have that many choices except fast food and Mexican restaurants. There is one nice restaurant, but my mother ate there Wednesday night and we will eat there after Church tomorrow.

Later this morning, my mother and I are going to a grand opening for a new store in the next town south of here. My mother was a good customer of a ladies shop there, and now the owner is very ill. The store has been sold to a lady that owned a cutesy gift shop. She has combined the two businesses into one. My mother is going for the clothes and I am going for the gift items. We plan on eating lunch at a local tea room, if it is opened. If it is open, I'm going off of my diet so that I can have some of their delicious Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I can eat an entire pan of that stuff. YUM!! I'm not sure if Strawberry Pretzel Salad is a southern thing, an Alabama thing or a North Alabama thing, but if you haven't tried it, you will definitely enjoy it. I always eat it as my dessert.

I'll be back later with news of our purchases.

I hope everyone enjoys their Saturday.

Wednesday, 10 March 2010

I read that between midnight and noon today, the county that I live in had 5 inches of rain. That's a lot of rain. And there's more on the way. When I turned into my neighborhood, I noticed that the street was yucky. I imagine that earlier in the day it was flooded, and when the flood waters receded, it left the debris.

Today, Queenie and I hosted a 30th anniversary party for our maintenance man at work. Close to a hundred people responded to say that they would be there. We had sandwich trays, fruit, veggies and cookies. We also had potato chips and chex mix as filler food. I think he really appreciated it. We had an entire tray of sandwiches left, a lot of veggies and a lot of fruit. That means lunch tomorrow.

Not only did I have that event, but there were some superiors in from out of town. I had to order lunch and beverages for them and the others in my department. By the time the party was over, I was exhausted. My foot was really hurting when I left work.

I came home from work and did some light cleaning and laundry. Now I have my foot propped up where it will stay until bedtime.

I hope everyone has a good Thursday.

Monday, 8 March 2010

Today for the first time since October 19, I wore a dress to work. I normally wear dresses four out of five days a week, but since my accident I haven't had one on. Today, I wore a brown Pendleton sleeveless dress with a Brooks Brothers camel merino wool cardigan, goldtone Brooks Brothers "346" hoop earrings and pearls of course. Even though I had on a dress, I still had to wear my big silver and yellow Nike's. I felt really good about myself in that outfit. I think I will start wearing dresses and skirts more often.

I hope everyone has a nice Tuesday.

Sunday, 7 March 2010

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I was fairly busy this weekend.

Friday night, I drove to my mother's house. She almost had dinner on the table when I got there. Isn't that a nice Mama?

Saturday morning I took all of my tax stuff to the accountant. After that, my mother and I drove to Huntsville to do some shopping. We really didn't need anything, but it was such a nice day that we wanted to get out and go somewhere. We went to Belk's and Dillard's to look for dresses. We didn't have any luck at all. I bought makeup, a bath mat, Blue Willow pagoda salt and pepper shakers and a Blue Willow night light. I walked from one end of the mall and back. It was tiring, but very beneficial. When I got back home, I just sat around and read.

Sunday, we played hooky from Church and went with a friend to the Cracker Barrel to eat breakfast. Then we drove the long way home and looked at the scenery. When we got home, we walked to my sister's house and got her 2 year old foster son and took him to the playground to play for about 30 minutes. He had a blast. He ran, played and then my mother pushed him on the swings. He almost started crying when it was time to go home. It was good for all of us to get out and walk in the fresh air.

I was home bound for 9 weeks and then when I could get out, the weather turned bad. This was the first pretty weekend since I have been able to walk. It was nice to go shopping and then go for a walk. I just wish next weekend would be just as nice.

I hope everyone has a good Monday.

Wednesday, 3 March 2010

This has been a fairly slow week at work. Queenie and I have been busy planning a service anniversary party for the maintenance man. Our maintenance man is a great guy. He has been with the bank for 30 years. The woman that he reports to was going to do the party, but decided against it, because (1) it was not in the budget and (2) he had a party for his 25th anniversary (we don't remember it). We decided that we would plan it. We are taking a collection to cover food and whatever is left over, we will give to him as a monetary gift. This man deserves it. He will do anything for anybody and never complains.

I'm sitting here right now watching Sixteen Candles. It is such a fun movie. Anthony Michael Hall plays the perfect geek. And all of his geeky friends. How scary! Jake Ryan, what a hunk! Does anybody use the work "hunk" anymore? I never have been able to figure out the girl with the brace.

I have Sirius radio in my car. I've had it for years and I listen to the same 3 or 4 stations all of the time. Last week I decided that I would listen to a different station every day. Today, I listened to the 90's station. I don't know where I was in the 90's, but I didn't recognize any of the songs. This afternoon, they played a few that I recognized. I guess, I've been stuck in the 80's. I normally listen to the 80's, Pops, or the Sinatra stations. Tomorrow, I'm going to listen to the 40's station. I've listen to it before. To me it's a happy station. I feel like I'm in a Fred and Ginger movie. What does everyone else listen to?

I hope everyone has a good Thursday.

Monday, 1 March 2010

I intended for Sunday to be a lazy day. It was for the most part. I laid around and watched movies and read. I also did three loads of laundry. I also did a lot of food prep for the week.

I tried on some of the dresses that I bought on vacation. They just did fit when I bought them. Now they are a little loose. I haven't been able to wear them because I can't wear the appropriate shoes. I think I'm going to start wearing them with my Nike's. No use them hanging in the closet. Most people at work know that I am recovering from a broken foot and have to wear the Nike's. I think Wednesday will be the first day for a dress. I haven't worn a dress since October 19. Before my accident, I wore dresses about 80% of the time. I'm more comfortable in a dress than I am in pants.

I hope everyone has a good Tuesday.