Would You Like a Little Tofu With That Whine?

So what exactly is it that they say about the best laid plans? I think all I've ever heard is "Well, ya know what they say about the best laid plans!...." and (after a mocking chuckle and a shake of the head) "...the best laid plans.....". Personally, if I felt I needed a strong basis for the argument to never plan anything, I'd use James 4:13-16.

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

Being a mist and all, it was probably a bad idea to decide what to make for dinner ahead of time. Of my planned dinners- and this being Wednesday night now- I have made......none. Nada. Not one. Desserts? Nope.

And Monday should have been easy; all I needed to do is defrost the soup I made last week, chop a few veggies, skip the beggar's purses, and butter a few pieces of bread. It's not much, it's certainly not fancy, but it's dinner. Unfortunately, there were a few kinks in the path to a warm tasty dinner on Monday.

The first bump in the road was realized when I rolled over in bed to thank my alarm clock for the 6 am wake up by whacking it in the head. Simply rolling from my left side to my right sent shoots of dull, oppressive pain running through my joints and muscles. My head felt like a fish bowl filled with manky water and big, loose rocks and it seemed that a rodent of some sort had lodge itself in my throat. Swallowing was very near impossible. Every step from the third floor down to the kitchen felt like I was hobbling out of surgery where I'd just been stitched up. It was hideous.

I consider myself to be a moderately strong woman. I'm no Corrie ten Boom, but with time I usually come to grips with tough situations and can take it. No cold/flu can get the best of me! All you really need to know is that in order to endure my load I have to let off steam. Usually that means talking it through regularly (poor Heather knows all about this one- she's most often my ear), but if opening my mouth hurts I'm going to have to vent my frustrations in a more primitive way. Uh-huh. I'm gonna cry.

And cry.

And cry some more.

Then I'll wipe all the tears away and toss the Kleenex in the bin. I'll tighten the belt on my robe, pull up my sleeves and start making The Boys' lunches...... and then I'll cry, maybe even having to throw the soggy bread out and start over with the lunches.

I might even sob a couple times before the Tylenol kicks in.

And then the pain lifted and I was me again. The rest of the morning was normal, except that Ian had an appointment with the allergist. Poor boy got poked and pricked, stuck and squeezed. In the end, it looks like he's still allergic to milk and now we've added peanuts, peas, walnuts, shell fish, and cashews. Uh-oh. There's the vegan version of cream in the corn chowder we're having for dinner, and it's made from- you guessed it- cashews. Bump #2.

Not that it mattered. I made it out of the allergy clinic and down to the pharmacy before I fully realized my pain relievers had worn off. I sat in a chair that had a magical gravitation pull and found that all my limbs had quadrupled in weight, which could only mean that I'd have to die in the chair. I managed to phone Tim to set up weekly visits and the occasional sponge bath when the chills and tears started.

Someone must have been in the back of the pharmacy, watching me and switching the heat off and on, just to see me go from shivering violently under my thick winter coat, to throwing it off and pulling my trousers legs up to my knees to release some heat so that I didn't catch fire. All the while crying, my tears feeling either like hot lava or ice water depending on what the sneaky pharmacy heat guy was doing.

By the time all my mascara was smudged into a tissue and smeared around my eyes, I remembered that an emergency room was just at the end of the hall. I thought if I could break free of the the gravity I might try crawling there, maybe grabbing a nap on the way. Just as I'd gathered my strong womanly resolve to follow my plan, Tim arrived and escorted me to my van, where I took more Tylenol and threw in a Motrin for good measure. Half an hour later I had returned and the shivering, crying lady was gone.

Too bad for the family, she came back right about the time I should have been making dinner. It's still not clear what Kristine made for dinner, but I suspect it was here specialty: mac 'n cheese from a box. Put differently, Zach and Ian couldn't/wouldn't eat dinner that night. Nice. While mom slept. Really nice. NOT!

I am happy to report that the chills and aches are gone and it's only a sore throat and ears that bother me now. Still not sticking to my menu plan, not through today, anyway. But, to quote another strong and whiny woman, "Tomorrow is another day"!

And, yes, I will take a bit of tofu with my whine. Thank you.

A Healthy Husband

Ruth has been listing the things that she is thankful for and I've really enjoyed reading them. Her goal is to list 1,000 things. That's a lot!! I've been thinking about starting my own list because I think that it is so important to always be thankful.

I'm thankful for one major thing today. I'm thankful for my husband's health. Dan has a terrible nerve disorder called Trigeminal Neuraglia. It's very rare and extremely painful. Usually it doesn't affect him but last Thursday Dan had a tooth pulled and it triggered it. Whenever he has had an episode he has been able to handle it with his medication and within hours of the first dose the pain diminishes. He wasn't so lucky this time. He has been in excruciating pain for 7 days. This was scary. He had to quadruple his dosage to get any relief and by the time he was that medicated he could barely walk from the meds.

The meds are never guaranteed to work and since it took 7 days and huge doses of medication I was frightened. I was so scared that maybe this time his meds weren't going to work. Some people suffer continuously with this disease and never get any relief.

I'm thankful tonight that Dan is healthy. He's back to his goofy self and we can put this terrible week behind us. Plus, it's his birthday and Father's Day on Sunday so he'll be ready to party! :)

Ironing

I have a long and established history of being anti-ironing. I usually drag the iron and board out once every three years, and only when I absolutely have to. I've been known to pass on perfect pants when I realize they will require ironing. I once jokingly cast the evil spirit of ironing out of a group of friends.

So I was surprised when the occasion came up that I wanted to watch a tv show in the middle of the day but couldn't justify sitting on my rear end doing nothing else... so I got out the ironing board, the iron, the scented ironing water I had bought and never used and went to work on anything I could find that needed ironing: scarves, cloth napkins, trousers, even t-shirts. I was able to watch tv and have a strong sense of accomplishment at the same time. By the time I was done, I actually felt more relaxed and had less pain in my neck. I had never known about the therapeutic value of ironing, otherwise I'd have taken it up years go.

I left the board up in the living room (much to Tim's irritation, I might add!) and looked for every opportunity to sneak back in their and iron the wrinkles out of my laundry and ruffled spirit! Tim even honored my request for a can of starch. On the day I found myself ironing The Boys' underwear and the bed sheets I figured it had gone too far. But what's a tense girl to do when all the traditionally ironable laundry is done and she needs a fix? When I start ironing my money, please have me committed. We all have our boundaries.

How about you all? Are you pro- or anti-ironing?

Just As I Am

When I was a teenager my mom used to comfort me with the promise that adolescence doesn't last forever, thus the acne on my face wouldn't either. I began to look forward to turning twenty; I thought that as long as the word "-teen" wasn't a part of my age my skin would miraculously improve. If my mom had known that my skin would be plagued for a further two decades- and possibly beyond- I don't know what her comfort strategy would have been. It's difficult to instill confidence into a teenage girl with a severe case of acne.

And that lack of confidence followed me into my 20's. By then I didn't have the false comfort that the condition was on it's way out. My lovely mother then started saying that she still got the occasional pimple into her late 20's, which would have been fine if my problem was simply an occasional pimple. I did a couple of rounds of Accutane and experienced several months of perfectly clear and beautifully dry skin. I loved it, but the results never lasted (despite the dermatologist's word that it would permanently clear up my complexion).

Now I'm in my 30's and rosacea is the new problem, added to the old. In it's most severe forms it can be a devastating condition, so I'm holding out hope that it won't get worse. I did a fairly quick internet scan of natural treatments for rosacea and come up with quite a few. I still plan to make an appointment to get a referral to a dermatologist, but while I wait I've begun taking all of these daily:
Quite a regimen, right?! Add to that the prescription medications I take for my neck problems and it's a whole stomach-full of pills. I got to drop one though; despite being labeled as "odor controlled" it caused terrible dragon breath! I thought it would help boost my immune system, but it's going to have to work without the help of garlic.

I remembered years ago that I used to use lemon juice on my face in an attempt to bleach out my freckles (now I don't know why, I love freckles!) so I started using fresh lemon juice on my face hoping it could make my skin a nice creamy color again and also for its antibacterial properties. I don't have a clue if it's working, just as I'm not sure that the green tea I brew up daily and wipe my face with is either. But at least the tea is soothing and the studies about the amazing effects of tea on the skin are too tempting to ignore. It seems to be in every sort of beauty product these days, and I figure I might as well try it.

I love Makeup Alley, a site that has user reviews of various health and beauty products. I came across two highly popular "remedies" there that I'm trying: Burt's Bees Naturally Ageless and aspirin masks.

The trouble with the Naturally Ageless Repair Serum is all the oil- a big "n0-no" for anyone with oily skin and acne. On Makeup Alley so many people raved about it, even those with acne-prone skin that I decided to try it. I bought it for about $10 cheaper on eBay and have been using it for 2 days. I'm not sure what I think yet.

I'm a little iffy on the aspirin mask as well. As far as I can tell it just contains the same ingredient as half the over-the-counter blemish cream (salicylic acid). I have tried it twice- using 8 aspirin with a strong green tea solution (it doesn't take much) and a drizzle of honey- and haven't seen any difference. I will probably try it a few more times, and see if I can become as dazzled with the results as others are.

Some women, especially older women, clamor for the prescription cream Retin A. I've been using it off-and-on for many years. When the rosacea was first diagnosed, several months ago, I had gone to my doctor to ask for a stronger prescription of Retin A. He laughed at me. He said he's not sure how I managed to get the high dose I have and I wouldn't be getting anything more than that. I guess it helps, but the truth is that even if it didn't help the acne I would use it anyway for my "aging" skin. Maybe it's helping some tiny lines and wrinkles I have but can't see because of the Retin A!

Have you noticed how I don't "own" the acne with my words? It's not "my acne". After so many years of dealing with it I've come to see it as a condition that has happened to me. It's not me. I am effected by this condition, there isn't anyway around that, but it doesn't effect who I am essentially as a person. My friends and family- who know me as a person, not as a skin condition- love me, and my husband doesn't even see my skin issues when he looks at me- he sees me: the real me, the me I'd be if I was runway-beautiful or disfigured. I wish it hadn't taken 20 years to learn this lesson about true self-worth. I hope that learning it now will help me to teach my daughter that beautiful skin/hair/eyes/clothes are a nice bonus, but not what really counts. God created me as I am, with skin conditions I don't seem to be able to control. I don't know why. But I know he loves me just as I am.

"I don't think you're an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of the ridiculous about you. Your mother's pretty interesting. And you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um, you tend to let whatever's in your head come out of your mouth without much consideration of the consequences... But the thing is, um, what I'm trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much. Just as you are."

~Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones's Diary

Is This Weird?

One disadvantage to living in Europe for more than five years is that sometimes I'm not sure what's "normal" and what's oddly European. For example, I couldn't remember if people in my hometown parked in the road and if cars traveling on the road sometimes had to take turns in order to drive around the cars parked in the road. I'm told they don't generally do that, while I experience it every day. Food products, health and beauty products, gadgets and technology, tv shows, day-to-day behavior... I've lost touch with mainstream America.

So I wondered if this product I found at the English grocery store is unique to Europe or is also in America. Onken BIOPOTS Wholegrain yogurt has little kernels of cooked barley, wheat, oats, rye and rice so it's chewy. It boasts 3 different bio cultures, which is why I bought it. As my mom would say, "It's good for the gut." It's tasty, and great for the body, except that it's whole fat yogurt. A low fat version would be nice.

I really like yogurt with granola, so I guess this is about the same, only the grains are soft and chewy rather than crispy.

Anything else like this in America that you've seen?

Healthy Living

Have you ever visited a very large city and then discovered that it painted the inside of your nostrils black?! As much as I love London, I'm far less enamored with the dirt and grime that invisibly coats the city. I never notice it until the end of the day when I blow my nose. Where did all that grime come from?! You can't find a simple patch of earth for miles on end, but it appears to find my nose without issue. What I'd like to know is what my lungs look like after a day-- or what a permanent resident's lungs look like. Breathing a city's collectively exhaled exhaust can't be good for the body.

What is good for my body is exercise. I haven't worked out regularly since I moved from The United States in 2003. I loved it then and have missed it. A whole bunch of stuff prevented me from working out: lack of transportation, heat, pregnancies and morning sickness, geographical location. It's no wonder I gained 20 pounds.

All it should take to motivate me to exercise is the long list of benefits. Here is a sampling:

• Reduce the risk of premature death
• Reduce the risk of developing and/or dying from heart disease
• Reduce high blood pressure or the risk of developing high blood pressure
• Reduce high cholesterol or the risk of developing high cholesterol
• Reduce the risk of developing colon cancer and breast cancer
• Reduce the risk of developing diabetes
• Reduce or maintain body weight or body fat
• Build and maintain healthy muscles, bones, and joints
• Reduce depression and anxiety
• Improve psychological well-being
• Enhanced work, recreation, and sport performance

A more vain reason to get in shape fitting back into my thin jeans. That would be nice.

So Monday I went to the gym with a friend. J going with me was great because she kept me motivated. We chatted while we used the stair stepper, which makes time fly. We took it rather easy since it was the first time; 15 or 20 minutes on the stair stepper, about a half hour using the strength machines (I concentrated on my thighs and arms), then 25 minutes on bikes.

Also on Monday I started walking Zach to school. It's about a 15 minute walk, some of it uphill, and I think it's about a mile. There and back twice is about 4 miles in a day- not bad for starting back into a fitness routine. The downside: English schools let out yesterday for their 6 week summer holiday. I'm already looking forward to starting back in September, if nothing else than for the exercise!

If you're looking for a way to keep track of calories and your daily workouts, I'm going to pass along a site that one of our readers- and Heather's good friend Amy- let us know about. SparkPeople is a very thorough tool for getting back on track. I find it to be a great tool, but if I'm not careful I spend more time skimming through the site than actually moving my backside!

Cheers!

Some Ramblings and a Prayer Request

This week has been C-R-A-Z-Y! Last Wednesday was McKenna's sixth birthday, and then Monday was Amanda's 13th! This poor mama cried the entire day. Poor Amanda, she took it well. Everyone thought I was upset about feeling old. I'm not sure what that's all about, but I certainly wasn't crying about that. I'm not sure where the time went, or how Amanda got to be 13. She's such a great girl. Of course, we have our moments, but overall, I could not ask for a better girl. She's respectful, understanding, compassionate and kind. I am so lucky to be her mom.

Here is another crazy story for you! A few weeks ago we talked to a guy about putting in a new fence, but never gave the go ahead. Dan woke up the other day and said "That's so strange, I had a dream that I ran a few errands and when I got home that fencing guy had ripped out our fence". I took the kids to school, he went to run errands. He called me a few hours later and said "Uh, you remember my dream? They ripped out our fence!". Yep, the guy showed up, assuming we wanted the fence, and took it out. Dan's brother in law, a pastor, had these words of advice "Next time God gives you a dream like that, act on it before your fence gets ripped out" LOL! Everything has worked out and we love our new fence.

And now the prayer request. I have been thinking for about 4 weeks now that I needed to ask for prayer on this. I don't even know where to start. On May 15, 2003, a beautiful baby boy was born into our family. Little James. I have written a little about James here and there. He is my nephew. When James was 3 months old he was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Menkes. We didn't know about this disorder. I had a baby brother who passed away at the age of 5 months. We always thought he had died of other causes. Menkes is so rare, that it was unheard of in 1979. We were told James would not live out the year. He would never walk, never talk, be mentally retarded. The list goes on and on. The doctors were wrong about a lot of things. James never walked, but he talked in his own way. He did live out the year, in fact, he lived to be 19 months. He was a blessing, and continues to be one every day.

The prayer request is this. Menkes is an X Chromosome disorder. It is passed from the mother to the son. If you are a carrier of this disease, you have a 50% chance of your son having this disease. There is no cure. My other sister is 11 weeks pregnant, and she too is a carrier of this terrible disease. Her and her husband decided to try and have one child on their own. They understand the risk. Today my sister went and took a special test. Tomorrow we find out what the baby is. If it's a girl, they will quit the test, the baby will not be born with Menkes. If it is a boy, they will let us know and then in 2 weeks we will find out if the baby is healthy or not. It's important to know if the baby has Menkes prior to birth because there are some medications out there that help the quality of life.

Tonight at my bible study we looked a little at this verse. Isaiah 54:10. "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

My prayer is that whatever lies ahead, that His covenant of peace will not be removed from our family, especially my sister.

Thank you for your prayers. As soon as I hear tomorrow what the tests say, I will do an update on the blog.

-Heather

My Nose Piercing Woes

Back in December when we were in Oregon for Christmas, Heather and I took a trip in to Portland so I could get my nose pierced. I wrote about it shortly after having it done, here. Since then I've had several false indications that it was healed enough to take out the original, large stud and replace it with a smaller one. (I'm talking about the straight part that goes through the nose. While the piercing heals a large one is supposed to be used to keep it from healing too small.) At point I put a smaller one in, one with a little ball on the end (on the part inside my nose), and left it for several days. Well, the skin and cartilage grew back around the straight part and the ball was too big to allow me to take it out. I had to yank it out! OW! It required a minor procedure involving Tim and a lot of rubbing alcohol and Kristine with a flashlight to get the bigger stud back in.

Then this morning as I cleaned the inside of my nose with sea salted water on a Qtip, I felt a slight sting on my nose. When I looked for the diamond stud... IT WAS GONE! I had pulled it into my nose. Not through the piercing, into. The diamond part was buried inside my nose.

Tim tried using pliers to push it back out, with no success. Then he tried pulling it through the rest of the way, but that was out of the question. Finally, we packed up the kids and went to base to the emergency room. I'd have been embarrassed if I hadn't been so upset about it. The guy who checked me teased me that they'd have to keep the stud and I burst into tears! It wasn't the right time to mess with me.

So, here's my dilemma: Should I take the stud out and let it heal? I like the stud, but now that I've ripped it through my nose once the chances are good I'll do it again. I don't want a bigger diamond. I think it would look funny. Also, I don't know where to get one, other than the smaller ones that are meant for healed piercings. My only chance of keeping it is to find a jewelry store that sells studs with big diamonds that are meant for piercings that aren't healed.

As I ponder this, Tim is pressuring me to take it out. He's against piercings and tattoos in general; doesn't like the idea of messing one's body up. I feel that there are tattoos and piercings that can be over-the-top, but small and tasteful ones don't bother me. In fact, I like the way mine looks, when it's not an open wound from yanking the piercing through my skin.

If you were me, what would you do? Feel free to leave a nice, sensitive comment, and/or vote in the poll in the sidebar.

~Reese

Recycled Article From the Old Blog: Vanity Sizing

I’m 32 now. It happened somewhere between getting married, having four kids, moving to the other side of the world, and buying a mini van. It snuck up on me, much like the extra pounds that won’t budge. It may be a fact of life that we tend to gain weight as we age, but it is especially true in America. Thankfully, there is an answer other than painful, costly surgery and the cabbage diet: vanity sizing.

Vanity sizing is a clothing company’s practice of mislabeling their merchandise based on size in order to appeal to the vanity of their customers. Their marketing surveys told them most women want to be smaller than they are. So they obliged them. A size 12 may be labeled as a 10 or an 8, an 8 as a 6. They rightly calculated that if a woman realizes she’s miraculously a smaller size in a certain clothing company’s clothes, she is more likely to go back for more fashion-centered ego massage. Of course, not every company does this- only those that desperately want to stay in business.

This is interesting on more than one level. For starters, experts are telling us that more than sixty percent of all Americans are overweight. This may be good news for McDonald’s, but it presents a challenge to clothing companies who create clothing for everyday people. I’m not talking about super-skinny models and anorexic actresses who appear on the front of women’s magazines next to captions like “Melt Away 10 Pounds in 2 Hours!” The rest of us need clothes too, and sixty-some-odd percent of us are holding a Big Mac in one hand and trying to pull our high school jeans on with the other. We let out a collective groan when the jeans don’t cover our thighs, much less our not-so-tiny heineys.

We’re embarrassed by the extra weight. We take to wearing long sweaters and jackets to cover our expanding selves. We invest in girdles, spandex body suits, and control-top pantyhose. We diet, we eat cheesecake, we buy cheap Thigh Master imitations at Ross, we get our daily dose of espresso, we invest in more diet books than our bookshelves can contain, and then we buy bigger clothes.

Whoever said corporate American CEO’s are selfish and unconcerned for us commoners was not aware of the practice of vanity sizing. There are those who create clothing that is not only attractive, but has our fragile self-esteems in mind. The caring corporate executives of certain fashion companies realize that we are gaining weight and need bigger clothes, but that actually purchasing larger sizes is damaging to our psyche. So, in consideration of our feelings, and possibly to boost sales, they began labeling their products differently. I can say from personal experience what an exhilarating feeling it is to take a dress in my regular size into the fitting room and have to ask the sales girl for a smaller size. I can feel the envy of all the other women around me. I begin thinking that possibly my metabolism has finally got its act together, or switching to unsweetened soy milk really paid off.

This method of self-esteem boosting does present some problems. For example, not all companies participate in this misleading labeling scheme. So, if you’re unfamiliar with the brand you must try your regular size, plus a size smaller. On the positive side, you can tell your friends you’re a certain size and be completely validated in this false statement by the lie sewn into the seam of your clothes. However, as America’s waistlines grow, it may eventually be necessary to vanity size down by 3 sizes or more to ensure against a total loss of self-respect.

The reality is, of course, that many of us are submerging ourselves into a comfy, murky pool of denial. We may be allowing ourselves to be whisked down a greasy path of fast food convenience, where our schedules are so packed that exercise is a laughable proposition and popular culture tosses photos of stick-thin teenagers and the latest fad diets at us, while most of us want to simply squeeze our eyes shut and hope for the best. The best being that our friends and family ate a few more Big Macs than we did, and haven’t discovered vanity sizing.

~Reese, who definitely cannot fit her heiney into her high school jeans.

MRI Update: A Bulging Disc and Butt Exercises

You may remember my anxiety as my MRI appointment approached, earlier this month. Well, it came and went without a hitch, and last week I got a call from a nurse with the results of the MRI as well as the x-rays: degenerative disc disease, just as we've known I have. While I was glad it wasn't anything very serious, I was also disappointed that there wasn't a more specific problem with a more specific cure. The pain in my neck is increasing, as is the numbness in my right arm. I have numbness most days now, as opposed to once or twice a month just a year ago.

So today I went back to see my amazing doctor about my hip pain (the x-ray didn't show anything in my hip). He said, "I know the nurse went over the results of the x-rays and MRI with you, but I'd like to cover it with you again." He proceeded to explain again about the DDD, which is mild and in its early stages, and then started drawing a diagram of my bulging disc. WHAT??!! Bulging disc?! It seems the nurse forgot to mention the one and only thing I hadn't already known about my neck. Suddenly the pain, tingling and numbness were explained. I felt almost happy.

It's not that I'm happy to have a disc that's supposed to be properly tucked away in my spine bulging out and compressing nerves (and for the record, I hate the word "bulging"), but I am happy to not feel like I'm suffering from something in my imagination. I have definite signs of the DDD (such as a stiff neck, especially in the morning), but I've actually had providers tell me there's no way it could be DDD because I'm too young for it. As to the continued and worsening pain, sometimes I've been so discouraged by my trips to see my care providers that I've left in tears. There's no cure for DDD, and some providers- like the last one I had in Germany- seem to think I just need to snap out of it. Now I have solid proof that I'm not making it all up and even a solid plan of treatment.

The treatment for now involves a referral to a British pain management specialist. There are several possible treatments, all different depending on how the disc responds. I'm praying that it will get embarrassed by all the attention and hide itself back where it belongs!

As for the really funny stuff from my appointment today, Capt S (not my official provider, but I'm going to try to switch to him) started giving me his take on my hip pain, "Sometimes when the muscles are lax around the joint it causes the joint to slip a bit and that could be happening, especially since the pain is most noticeable when you sit for long periods and go up stairs. What you're going to need to do is strengthen the gluteous..." blah, blah, blah.... I started laughing! "So, I need to do butt exercises?!"I asked. He laughed back. "Yeah!"

Flashback: Heather and Holly are visiting Germany and I invite them to join me in butt-lifting exercises so that when Tim gets back from Kuwait (and they get back to their respective homes) he'll be impressed with my butt (and their significant others would be impressed with theirs)! I asked Heather if she wanted to impress Dan with a high, tight backside, but she only laughed and let me do my squats and leg lifts by myself.

Flashback #2: Last time I was in America Heather's hubby Dan (a fitness buff) showed me the best way to do squats, holding onto a pole in his and Heather's workout room/computer room. Still, Heather refused to join me!


So, I laughed out loud when Captain S told me to get a firm and shapely butt and all my troubles would be over. Now I actually have been prescribed exercises for a nice rear! HA HA, Heather! What do you have to say now?! ;)

~Reese

Heather Has the Blahs

Heather told me yesterday via email that she has the blahs. That's entirely understandable, having so recently exited the humdrum month of March, a month that can't make up its mind as to whether it wants to be winter or spring, gray or bright, warm or chilly. Chances are it will only take another week or so for her body and mind to catch up to the realities of April and she'll be just fine. But in the mean time, I think it would be nice if we, as a community of caring sisters and friends, could offer her some suggestions to shake the blahs. Here's my contribution:

• I think you need something extreme to shock yourself out of it. Nothing illegal or immoral or exceedingly dangerous. Maybe bungee jumping, rolling yourself in snow then jumping into a hot springs pool, or sky diving.
• A really good, long laugh would probably do the trick, the kind that makes your sides hurt and you gasp for air.
• You won't like this one: stop drinking Pepsi for one week and exchange it for a non-pop form of caffeine (to avoid the withdrawal headache), and in that time drink a whole box worth of detox tea. You might need to flush out your liver and kidneys of toxins. (If you go with this one, we need to see pictures of your face as you down the yucky tea!) If you want to really detox, you might consider homeopathic enemas, but we don't want to hear about it.
  

Anyone have an suggestions? How do you shake the blahs?


~Reese