Lucky! You're supposed to do that at home!

My sweet dog, Lucky, who I usually refer to as 'Puppy', has developed an icky habit lately. You know I've been making an effort to take more walks. And half of the time, I take Puppy with me. And the little monster ('little' meaning: dear, sweet, honeybaby - we all know he's not little!) is defecating in neighbor's yards!! What?! That is not how we do it! He has been an at-home-pooper all his life! I mean - all his life! What on earth happened? If this keeps up, I'm going to have to go shopping for some pet supplies. The plastic bag over the hand thing is just YUCK! I'd like to find a pooper scooper like my dad had once - it was this really cool contraption, that would keep your hands totally clean! Clean is definitely good when it comes to my hands. But that's a whole 'nother issue we'll discuss another day!

Don't stay up so late!

I'm completely worthless today. I was semi-functional for most of the day, but, since around 1pm, I've been a lump in front of this screen. I stupidly stayed up last night until 12:30am! What was I thinking? I know full well that lately I've been very tired - even falling asleep for the night one night at 7:30pm! And yet, I go and stay up that late!

I've got lots of work that I could be doing right now, but, I am so uber sleepy, I am half considering going to bed! You know what time it is here? It's only 4:30! Isn't that crazy? I wish I had an in-house movie theater - that would be just perfect right now. I mean, really - I'd hate to go to bed at 4 in the afternoon! But if I could get cozy in some home theater furniture, relax, and watch a movie - that would be perfect!

One thing is for sure - you won't catch me staying up that late again any time soon! Sheesh!

Indigestion! Indigestion!

I've got some dumb song stuck in my head and I'm not even sure what song it is! I have the worst indigestion - it seems like just about anything can give me indigestion lately. And the song that is stuck in my head is a made up one!

You know the guys that did the 'Conjunction, Junction - What's Your Function?' song... It's that educational cartoon that used to come on Saturday mornings between our 'real' cartoons. And one of those songs is repeating endlessly in my head with its words changed to .... you guessed it!

"In - di - ges - tion! In- di - ges - tion!"

So silly!

I pinked my shag again!

Well, ok, it might not exactly still qualify as a 'shag', but, it is definitely layered! And I have once again added pink to it! And I have a young friend up in Canada (Hi Alyssa!) who recently had some pink highlights put in, as well! And so I tried to do a 'dedication chunk' to her, but, I discovered that it was really tricky to get a 'chunk' of hair colored when your hair is so layered. I did it as much as I could, though. Here's my 'Dedicated to Alyssa' chunk:

Ain't it pretty? I just love that shot! I only wish the chunk had been from the top of my head down, but, that was two separate sections of hair, because of the layering, and so I couldn't figure out how to do it without making a big mess!

And here I am, being a total weirdo, stretching up so you can see the pink chunk:

That wasn't working so well, so that's when I decided the closeup would be better.

And here's just me:

Hopefully, you can see in that shot, there's a good bit of it in my bangs, too. And then I did the highlights very softly all around and a bunch on the tips. I like the way it came out.

It's so much fun to do, and it gives me such an uplift to my spirit. I really enjoy doing stuff like that to my hair - it just perks me up a bit! And it's so easy on the checking account, because, since I'm only doing highlights, and my hair is now short - I got to use that same box of color around four times! So that is definitely cool! If I had to go spend $65 every time I wanted this done, it would be such a bummer! It's fun to have it done professionally sometimes, but, I sure wouldn't want to pay that all the time!

I conquered 'The Beast'!

The other day I was telling you about my 'Little San Fransisco' neighborhood that I live in and how I was going to 'Conquer the Beast' - the big hill up the street from me. Well, I did it! I conquered The Beast! It was hard, and I had to stop once in the middle to catch my breath and make sure my legs hadn't fallen off, but, I made it!

This was last Wednesday, and I haven't been back out since - so I've done a horrible job with my LiTaWaMo. I have done wonderful, in that I keep getting 'back on that horse'!

We've had a lot of chaos in our lives lately, though. My middle son just got sick with asthmatic bronchitis and missed a whole week of school. My daughter just celebrated her eleventh birthday and had some activities at school, and my parents are coming into town in a couple of days.

So I'm still plugging along, but, I'm not getting out there every day. The cool thing, was that my husband had just bought some new batteries for my camera - so I took some wonderful pictures of the fall colors around here on my walk. I don't think I'll take my camera every time, as it was kind of obnoxious carrying it. And I wound up taking about one hundred pictures that day. If I kept that up, I'd have way too many pictures to deal with!

I really want to get out there and walk tomorrow and Tuesday, so that when my mom is here she and I can walk - she loves taking walks and it is so beautiful out here, that it will be nice to be able to to do that with her. And I figure taking walks the next two days will loosen me up a bit for it.

LiTaWaMo setback

Well, I had another bad migraine yesterday, so my walk didn't get taken. And I didn't have any extra walks from prior days to bank on this time!

So I'll just have to take two walks today. I might walk the dog first, because, I have to be gentle with him and not take him too far or on too steep of hills, because, he is handicapped. We have had three different diagnoses from three different docs - hip dysplasia, spinal deformity, leg deformity. The last vet (curse him!) went so far as to call my sweet Puppy 'lame'. Lame? Way to break a mother's heart, dude! And shoot! This dog could outrun that doc any day! Just not for long distances. He is good at short spurts, you know?

So I'll take him on his semi-easy walk, and then I think I'll attempt 'the hill'. Does that sound ominous? Haha! I call my neighborhood "Little San Francisco" and the hill that is on my street is ...WOW! It's a monster!

I'll see if I can take a camera with me and snap a picture of it for you!

So I'm getting back on the horse! I also didn't blog on LisaMarieMary.com for NaBloPoMo yesterday, and I'm really bummed about that. But I'm just going to get back on that horse, too!

A fresh new day - a fresh new perspective!

Our Daily Bread - Thanks, Bro!

I just got this in an email from my brother. He said that his company sends one out every day, and that this one really resonated with him. He sent it to the family, thinking it might resonate with us, too. And it did. And it does. I believe this with all my heart.

So often in life, we don't do things, because, we are waiting until we can do them 'right'. That is just plain silly. I'm quite certain God is not wholly concerned with whether or not you are in a church, kneeling, folding your hands in the proper way, etc.

Did you forget to hit your knees this morning? Then talk to him in the car on the freeway. Have a little chat with him at your desk. Heck, talk to him all day long - he is your friend! He wants to hear from you!

So yeah, my brother hit the nail on the head - I needed to be reminded of this today! Thanks, bro!

LiTaWaMo - Kickoff time!

Ok, folks - it's time to get serious. Or, at least, a little bit serious. As I'm doing NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) over on LisaMarieMary.com, I thought I would borrow from that and do a 'walking one' for myself! I started out with 'National', but, soon realized I'd need to change it to 'Lisa's' ....as, it's just me. And the only thing 'National' about me is the spread of my....

Yeah, well, you get the point. I'm going to make every effort possible to walk every single day this month. Even if it is just a little, short walk (because I'm busy, tired, sick...) I would like to walk every day.

And should I succeed (I will succeed, I will succeed) - by the end of the month, I should have a nice habit established, as it only takes twenty-one times of doing something to make it a habit. Sounds like a plan, eh? Yep, I thought so, too.

And, I'll get back on track with my Healthy Habits while I'm at it, too. I'm gonna need a couple of days to get going on that list, though.

And we're pretty low on water bottles right now - eeks! I'm gonna have to make sure the old man gets us some more this weekend, as there is no way I am drinking this tap water out here. Yuck! When we lived in Texas, and we ran out of water bottles before grocery day, I could put tap water in the bottles, refrigerate them, and when they were nice and cold, they were totally drink-able. This water out here is seriously yuck-o, though! So that's kind of a bummer, because, I feel trapped, or stuck to ...well, you know - dependent, on those damn bottles. And that just sucks.

That's okay, though - it'll work out. And today - I actually took TWO walks! (No, I won't cheat and count that for two days!) My silly Puppy decided to poop in a neighbor's yard, and as he never used to do that - I didn't have a bag with me! So I took Puppy home, and went back to retrieve his fecal matter. Ewww! For five whole years, Puppy spoiled me by only pooping at home! And now, the last two walks, he has pooped out and about! Gah! It's back to carrying bags for me, just like I did when he was a puppy and I didn't know of his 'only poop at home' rule - the one that is no more....

Wow - I ended the last two paragraphs on a sour note. That last one - literally and figuratively! I'll have to remedy that. Here's some happiness and sunshine:

Thirty days of walking is going to be so good for me! I'm going to feel so good and it's going to become a habit! I'll be able to keep up better with the kids and zip my pants up easier. Life will be absolutely, terrifically perfect.

Was that better?