Birthday Aftermath

Another year older and closer to death.

According to DeathClock (you can find out when you are to die by clicking on the link)

Aside from that sunny disposition, I otherwise had a fantastic day.

I really appreciate all the phonecalls, e-mails and Facebook contacts that I got throughout the day. You guys really made my birthday special.

I started by going to work and then a few hours later Kristy and Logan took me to Angie's for breakfast. Angie's is a local diner that serves some of the best food in the valley. I love going there for breakfast, I have never been disappointed in their food and service. I got a broccoli and Jack cheese omelet with hollandaise sauce (I know, surprisingly healthy right?) and then Logan told the waitress that it was my birthday and she came back with some other girls in tow and a HUGE cinnamon roll. Now I admit, the reason I went there for my birthday was to get this large free cinnamon roll but I kinda forgot that they would sing. I told them that they didn't have to sing and then they said then I wouldn't get the cinnamon roll to which I replied, "then you will get no tip." That didn't work, they sang to me anyway. But it was worth it to get that warm cinnamon bun.

I went back to work and then my dad took me out to lunch at Quizno's. I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day! After a nice lunch with my dad's I went home and decided to go out for a run. Unfortunately the run was not as great as I wanted it to be. My knee still smarts whenever I push off of it. I tried my best but the discomfort was getting to me. This knee is bumming me out. I managed to run the last two blocks when suddenly I heard this tiny girl voice yell out "Happy Birthday!" It was Hannah, one of my Primary girls. I had no idea she knew it was my birthday. Her parents saw me and wished me a happy birthday as well, my name must have been on our Church newsletter. But who remembers the birthdays?

After my run, my mom came over to surprise me. And you know what she gave me? A case of Cherry Coke. So yeah, I must have an addiction if one of my birthday gifts is soda! We had a nice visit and then Kristy and Logan came home.

That evening we took Logan over to his school for a Bike Rally put on by our scouts. I have a real great neighborhood with some fantastic neighbors. And it was nice to be wished a happy birthday by them all. One of them said it must be hard turning 32. Boy that was nice to hear. I told her my real age and she was surprised and then she made fun of me because I am older than her. The rally was a lot of fun, Logan tied for first place. Afterwards we all ate Otter Pops and Amber (our Bishop's wife) gave me a ton of Otter Pops as a  birthday gift. Hmm... this is an alarming addicting trend.

We came home after visiting and chatting and I got my birthday cake. It was not a cake exactly, it was these very yummy chocolate cream cheese cupcakes with peanut butter and chocolate chips in them. Like I said, very yummy indeed. While we were eating Kristy realized that they did not sing to our neighbor Kara for her birthday last Sunday. We had talked with her a few days ago and found that since her brother Jordan left on his mission the day before her birthday she was unfortunately left out. She didn't do anything fun and felt kinda bummed. So I thought it would be nice to grab one of my cupcakes, put a candle in it and go over. I am sure glad we did. She was there with a lot of the other Young Women and we were about to sing to her when she ran inside to light it. After we sang to her she told us that no one had sung to her this year for her birthday. And then the Young Women sang to me for my birthday.

So all in all, I had a very nice birthday.

Freaky Eaters

I have a new addiction and it is ironic that it is a show about food addictions. It is called Freaky Eaters and it is on the The Learning Channel and it is like a bad car wreck. You are curious and so you take a peek and now you cannot look away.

The past three Sunday evenings after Logan goes to bed, Kristy and I will watch this show. There are some strange addictions, people who only eat french fries, people who consume gallons of maple syrup, there is a lady that eats tarter sauce with EVERYTHING.

Seriously. 

Everything. 

From jello to cupcakes.



Watching this show got me thinking. Am I addicted to certain foods? I don't think I am. I compare myself to these poor people and I don't think that I am addicted. At least not to the point to where these people are. But am I just on a slippery slope? So what things am I possibly addicted too?

4) I Cannot Believe It's Not Butter

Or some sort of spread that is like it. I can eat this with everything and I am afraid to admit that I do. When I had a bottle of the spray version, I sprayed it on my Pringles. And I sprayed it on my Mac & Cheese. Uh oh, I may have a problem. But then it has been months since I had any. But if I did, I would eat it with everything. Hmmm... I better be careful with this stuff.

3) Chocolate 

Now I don't eat chocolate everyday but I definitely crave it and I think that if there was some chocolate in front of me now I would eat it. But I don't go out of my way to get some. I guess that I am lucky that I am more slothful. Who would have thought that being slothful would be a good thing?

2) Otter Pops

I can go through a box in a day easily. We bought some Saturday night and by this morning half the box is gone. And if I had it my own way, I would have polished them off already. But I would feel bad that Logan didn't get any. So if I am thinking of my own kid before me, I guess I am not addicted. I will eat any type of Popsicle.

1) Soda

I could give this up but I just don't want to. This is probably my biggest addiction but it is one that I think I can control. In fact, I used to drink a ton of this stuff. At least 4-5 cans a day and now I am down to 1 can of  sugared soda a day. I could quit but I personally believe that everything is good in moderation. As long as I am not abusing it, I should be good.

But that show definitely got me thinking...

Redeemed

Boy was it a rough one today.

I was feeling a little disappointed this weekend. I don't want to go into the details so let's just say that there have been some actions by people that I like that have left me a bit disappointed. 

That feeling lingered into today as well. For the last few months I have been asked to assist in the Primary. Now I love the Primary. I love being with those children and I feel that is where I belong.

But today I was losing it. The kids were really rowdy and I was feeling overwhelmed and disappointed. Sure, they are just little kids and I think I would have been able to handle it if I wasn't already feeling the way I was. I just was feeling that I was not reaching the kids. One of the kids that I like called me mean. This ugly feeling didn't leave me even after Church was over.

And then a knock came to my door. 

I opened it and saw one of my Primary girls holding a bag of cookies with a note with her family behind her.

 

Maddie had made a card (with the help of her mom) with a nice fresh batch of cookies and they were just for me. It was exactly what I needed and really redeemed my day. I was ready to tell the Primary leaders that I was finished with my volunteer time but Madelyn convinced me to stay. Well, at least one more week!

Resolutions Halftime

It has been six months since I made my 2011 New Year's Resolutions and even though I don't want to, I guess I should take a look at how I have done. I will rate myself using the Mountain Dew Rating System with 5 Dews being the best (meaning I totally nailed the goal) and 0 Dews meaning I totally flopped.

Resolution #1
"Take Time to Write More"
I did complete another ScriptFrenzy round but aside from that I have not taken the time to write anything else. I do have that children's book that I want to work on. And I really should complete my other novels and take some time to plot my new novel that I will be writing in November.

Resolution #2
"Read More"
The year started out really good. I read a couple of books during the first quarter and I read the Ensign every month for the first quarter. Unfortunately I am struggling this 2nd quarter. I am a little over halfway through my book (Mick Foley's Have A Nice Day) and I think I can finish it off before the end of the month. I have fallen off the wagon when it comes to the Ensign reading. I missed one month and I am behind this month. I have got a lot of reading to do these last couple of days!



Resolution #3
"Be Healthy"
I said I would exercise 5 days a week and I think I have been very close to doing that. I might have missed a day or two here but I can honestly say that I have been exercising a couple times a week. I have played racquetball, I have been riding my bike to work, I have been walking with Randy and I recently have been hitting the Total Gym. I can also honestly say that I have been careful in what I eat. I am definitely eating more healthier foods (more fruits and veggies) even though I still eat my share of treats. I have cut down my soda consumption as well. I still have time to train for my 5K and hopefully my knee will keep up. I think I hit this goal outta the park!

Resolution #4
"Pick up a Pen and Draw!"
Sadly I have not done as much with a pen as I would have liked. I have taken some time to do some doodling but that is about it. I still am interested in doing some art based on the songs of Queen but I have not done anything yet. Looks like I know what I need to do for the rest of the year.

Resolution #5
"Play the Bass"
I still have not learned how to read music but I still manage to pluck my bass a few times a week. Some of the songs I thought were difficult at first are now pretty easy. And some of the songs I am able to sing along with while playing which is way more difficult than you would think. My voice wants to follow the bass and the timing is off and most songs. I am also active in my choir.

I was thinking that I had not done so well with my resolutions but after looking and thinking about them, I think I have done a pretty good job (averaging about 3 Dew per goal). There are things that I definitely need to improve on and now I am feeling a bit motivated to work on them.

The Heat

Ugh. I hate the heat.

Sorry Lebron but it is true.

I feel like Elaine here. My gosh! The heat!

And not only that, my body cannot handle the heat.

Yesterday was practically a blur. I rode my bike to work and came home and ate a lunch and then it all went downhill from there. I got sick to my stomach, I was hot and didn't have any strength. I felt dizzy and the only thing that sounded good (I had no appetite and I was not thirsty) was closing my eyes.

And this is not the first time this has happened. I get heat exhaustion all the time. I got it Friday night walking around SummerFest, I got it while at a family reunion, I got it severely when I was helping Kristy mark a 5K course many years ago and I got it last year at Girl's Camp.

Every time I get over it, I say to myself that I will make sure that I drink liquids and stay cool so it doesn't happen to me again. And then it happens and I refuse to fix myself up. Last night I was sick again but I refused to drink anything. Kristy had to go and get me a cold Gatorade and I still didn't want to drink it. But about an hour later I was feeling a bit better.

I swear that last night will be the last. But I am sure that it won't. Hopefully I won't get it while I am at Girl's Camp here in a couple of heats.

I just hate the heat. And that has to be the first reason why I don't want to go to hell!

500th Blog!

Day 500 

So I was going through my blog, desperately trying to come up with something that I wanted to write about when I noticed something quite surprising.

I have published 500 blogs!

Well, technically this is the 501st blog. So that means that I have blogged 136 times since my initial 365 year.

Uncanny X-Men #500

Fantastic Four #500

Avengers #500

I guess this makes me some sort of superhero right?

Rise Above (the clutter)

I have been listening to the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark non-stop yesterday and today. I found a place online where you can listen to the whole album for free. Sure it is cheesy but I am cheesy so this is right up my alley.

While listening to this I was surfing the Internet and decided to make myself useful. I am still in that strange dejunking mood so I decided to part with the rest of my CDs. I sold a whole bunch months ago but I kept a lot of them, I just couldn't part with them.

No longer. I have sold almost all of them. And the reasoning is that I have not looked at them since I sold my last set. I have them all in my iTunes, I also made a copy of them and I have them in my backup too. So it is not like I would lose them forever. They are just taking up space and I am positive I can use the money I make for something else. I am still holding on to my Queen collection and I justified myself in keeping them. I have looked at the CD inserts recently to look at the art and pictures and to figure out some lyrics. But that is all of them.

I sell my CDs (you can sell games and DVDs as well) to two different places. One offers free shipping (you print out a shipping label) and the other will credit you when they pay you out for your shipping costs. Now you may not make a lot of money selling them back. In fact some CDs they have so many of that they will only offer a quarter or even a nickel. But I look at it this way, these CDs are taking up space and I never use them. So why have them? I might as well get something right?



I recommend clicking on the banner above to visit SecondSpin first. And then open up a new window/tab and go to Spun.com and compare the prices. It is interesting but you will find that one place will buy a CD for 50 cents and the other will buy it for $8!

And already I don't regret getting rid of this stuff.