Happy Halloween!!!!

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!

I'm on a sabbatical.........

I have been so busy with school getting out and camps starting and baseball and t-ball and making plans for the summer etc. that I have totally neglected not only my blog, but everyone else's too.

I tend to be an all or nothing type person. So I'm either totally into the whole blog thing, reading my regulars and commenting, posting on mine or I'm totally avoiding the whole thing. If I can't spend a lot of time on it, I tend to put it off all together. I can't figure out how to just do it a little bit. And I feel like maybe I was spending a little too much time in blogland. I kept finding new ones I liked and bookmarking them. My daily reads list just keeps growing.

So I have been negligent about blogging. But I've been to the pool quite a bit. I've helped with my kid's t-ball teams. I've done ALL of my laundry. I enjoyed 12 hours of the school picnic. My kids and I have slept in a couple days.

I am going to cut myself some slack and tell myself that it's ok if I haven't read the latest post of my top 25 favorite blogs. When I have time I will get back to reading and commenting. In the meantime I am taking a break and enjoying summer.

My girl is smart!

My daughter is scared of dogs. It really doesn't matter what size dog it is. She'll claim that she likes little dogs. But if she is presented with a tiny cute little fluffy dog she still acts petrified. It's a pain in the butt because there are dogs everywhere. Lots of people have dogs as pets. Any outside activities in the park or wherever, usually involve dogs. And it prohibits her from going places too. If a new friend wants her to come over, the first thing she asks me is if they have a dog before she'll commit to going.

Some houses we visit have the philosophy that the dog is part of their family and should not be inconvenienced by being put away someplace just because one kid is scared of it. Or people try to reason with her and tell her that the dog won't bother her. But if you are truly petrified with fear by something (and you are five) no amount of logical reasoning is going to matter.

My BFF's family has a golden retriever and she is wonderful about putting the dog away when we come over so that my daughter is not scared. I think she just wants my daughter to be so comfortable at her house and have fun and knows she can't do that if the dog is around. She is so good about it that sometimes I forget they even have a dog when we are there because the entire time the dog will be put away.

So my BFF's family got a second dog. A new little puppy they adopted from the Humane Society. She emailed me some pictures of her kids with the cute little mutt. So I told my kids about their new addition.

My point to this whole post is that since my BFF and I already have my daughter and her son betrothed and he is a dog kid and she is not, I asked my daughter how this will be handled once they are married. I asked her "What are you going to do when you and your boyfriend get married and he wants to get a dog?"............

She said "Well...... I'll get to decide because I'll be the Mom."

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

I'm lazy.

I'm feeling so very lazy. I have several loads of laundry waiting for me in my laundry room. I have some tidying up to do in my kitchen. Both have been waiting for me all day. I just don't feel like doing it. And I shuffled around those papers in my in box. But I didn't really do anything with them..... I'm just too lazy today....

I love these commercials...

The new series of commercials for Orkin totally crack me up! The way the big ass termite talks in that low even tone is great. And the drive by at the end.... love it.

My latest obsession......

I have been obsessed with the iced nonfat chai latte from Starbucks. I went into Starbucks this morning to get a gift certificate and was very strong and abstained from purchasing one. However, I was chatting with the gal working there (not sure if she was officially a "barrister" or not) and I was telling her how I much I have been enjoying them. She said that she likes them too. Then she said how she likes to add a shot of vanilla to hers....... Well, what do you think I have been thinking about since then??? I'm going to have to get one tomorrow!

Gin In My Apron Pocket: Using my gym membership

As a member of Lotta's gin tipping club, I am proud to report that I went to the gym this morning for the second time this week!!!!!

I mentioned before that for Christmas my Mom gave me a year membership to a gym that I had been wanting to join. So I went a couple times in January, maybe once in February. I think I'm being a little generous with myself here. But the point is I have not been in quite a while.

So this morning and Wednesday morning both I walked on the treadmill for an hour. I have to play little mind games with myself. I start out slow for five minutes then increase every five minutes until I hit my maximum speed at 15 minutes. At that point I say to myself all I have to do is five or ten minutes at this speed. By the time I reach ten minutes I feel pretty good and can go for a little longer. So I went at my max speed for a full 30 minutes and then slowly decreased my speed by five minutes increments.

One of the lovely things I inherited from my Mother's side of the family is a little dizziness. All the women in the family suffer from a little vertigo here and there. Some worse than others. But for me if I don't slowly decrease my speed and baby step my way off of that treadmill then I am in trouble.

All the treadmills at the gym have televisions with cable in them. So you just bring your headphones and plug it in to the treadmill and you can watch tv while you walk. That makes a big difference to me. It really helps to pass the time.

When you finish using the equipment you are supposed to use this rag and spray to clean it up a bit before you leave. But they also have this guy that walks around wiping things down too. So I see him getting a little closer to me and he starts wiping down this treadmill next to me with a guy walking on it. I'm thinking please don't come over here because I just knew it was going to throw me off. Sure enough here he comes. He totally wiped all the edges of the track off while I was walking on it. I kept thinking "please don't let me fall".... I didn't fall, but it was a little awkward. I have my headphones on trying to find my zone and this guy is wiping down by my feet. Am I supposed to chat with him? Make eye contact? Smile? Just a little weird.......