My Place to Rant: January 2005

A LIFE CHANGE....AND MORE

When Jeremy was here, we three made a little wager. Whoever loses the most weight by June gets $100.00. Then I mentioned it to Jeremy's grandma and she said she would kick in another $100.00. This is all fine and good but I want to take this to another level.

Basically, I have been fat since 4th grade. I have been obese most of my adult life. My dear father died at age 49. He had been obese most of his life. I will be 42 on Wednesday. I do not want to die so young. There is more than just $200.00 riding on this. Mark and I have decided that we are going to make a "lifestyle" change. We want to grow old together. So, we went to the store and bought lean meats, chicken, turkey, veggies and fruit and low fat and no fat and .... you know that stuff is really expensive. So, after we drained the bank account, we are now starting our lifestyle change.

As of February 1st, 2005 we are changing all of our habits. Not just eating but others too. You can keep up with how we are doing by coming to this blog. Please wish us luck. I have to do this. I have no choice.

I am going to share things on here that will be very embarrassing and shameful. Please do not judge us. Just encourage and keep us in your prayers. Thanks...

Until tomorrow...

Me and Mark, January 30, 2005. This will make a great "Before" picture.

Looking through our bedroom window. Side of the house.

Our tank is getting burried. I think Mark needs to blow around it.

These are the woods where the deer sleep at night. This is looking out our bedroom window. Some nights if it is clear you can see them laying on the ground.

Looks like we need the plow to come again!!! It's so white and pure and beautiful.

The snow on the car is just from over night. Look at all of it behind the cars!!! Part of that is actually where the plow came and plowed the drive, but alot of it is fresh.

THis is where Mark blowed the other night with new snow. He's out doing it again now.

Is the tree getting shorter or the snow getting deeper? On Tuesday you could see grass under the tree.

This is looking out the front door. This is the front porch and under that snow somewhere are steps. That's as far as I could open the door because of the snow.

SNOW WARNING

Have you ever heard of that before? Me either. Not until yesterday. It has been snowing now for almost a straight 72 hours. Sometimes it's very light and fluffy like floating puffs of cotton and other times, like this morning it looks like it is coming down like rain. Mark was so happy to think that he would only have to mow the yard 3 maybe 4 months out of the year instead of 12. The snowblower has taken the place of the lawnmower!! Luckily, you only have to blow paths and stuff and not the whole yard. Actually, Heidi would rather he did the whole yard.

They say that the wind is going to pick up and it will be blowing snow this afternoon. That means there will be tall drifts from the snow blowing across the roads and stuff and hazardous driving conditions. Anyway, there is a light, if you can call it that at the end of the tunnel. Today the high is not supposed to get out of the single digits and the lows in the negatives but on Tuesday it's supposed to be in the 30's. Now, this is good because it's warmer and it's bad because it's warmer. It will put a nice little thin coat of ice over the beautiful fallen snow and the roads.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not griping. I love it up here. I love the snow. It is so amazing to me. I like to watch the fluffy white snow fall. It looks like it is just lazy and just floating around and will get to the ground when it feels like it. What we are getting right now is just a constant light fall of tiny little flakes.

I forgot to tell you that Jeremy got back to Texas. He was pretty happy. He made it to his dorm. Classes started on the 18th. He bought his books. I could not believe, his geography text book was $111.00. UUUUUGGGGG!!! Anyway, $360.00 later, he is back in school. He really likes his classes this semester. THat's always a good thing. He called me one day and said that he was sitting on a bench outside the building of his next class enjoying the sunshine. I said "wow....you can sit outside!"

We got a Happy New Years card from our landlord downstate. He and his wife seem so nice. He said if we love the house now we will surely love it in the summer time. I am looking forward to that lake!!! Anyway, we thought it was nice that he sent a card.

I guess that's all. It's time for me to get to my rat killing. Mark is still asleep. I let him on Saturday because we get up so early during the week.

Take care everyone!!!

Mark snowblowing after we received over 4 inches of snow in 24 hours. Lovely.

Mark blowing the snow. This is in the lake yard.

Playing In The Snow...

Today when we got home from church we decided to go outside and play. It was about 23 and no wind. It was nice. The snow was falling a little and it was not too cold. So, Mark, Jeremy, Heidi and I went outside. We walked down to the lake and we had our first slip and fall. Jeremy was going full force and hit the concrete and it was covered with ice, so he hit the concrete...with his rear end!!! It was funny but it wasn't. He hurt his wrist a little. It's not broke. Anyway...we had so much fun. You will see in the pictures. Oh, this is the first time that Heidi has gone off the lead and she ran and ran and ran. When she came in she was so tuckered. She has slept all afternoon. There was a cross-country skier on the lake and she took out after him. Of course she is all bark. She hit that lake and when he looked at her she tucked her tail and ran back up the hill.

Jeremy did sled down the hill. It was so funny. See the pictures below. I mad the biggest snow angel you have ever seen. I hope it's like this tomorrow so we can go out again!!!

Enjoy the pictures. Oh...I don't know if I have mentioned that me, Mark and Jer have a bet that whoever loses the most weight by June when Jeremy moves up here wins $100.00. So, I have decided that my goal for next winter is to be down enough to at least cross-country ski. I would like to down hill but Mark doesn't like it. I probably will have to do it by myself. Yes, we have medical insurance!!!

Ok...enjoy the pics. It was a lot of fun.

R