March 24, 2018

Hello and Happy Saturday. It is rainy and cool here in East Tennessee today.  I am always reminded when I complain about the weather something my daddy said many years ago. He had lung cancer and he knew he was dying. About a month before he passed away my mom was looking out the window and she said “ I am so tired of these rainy days I just hate them” my dad got a longing look on his face and said “ I love every day.”  So whenever I think about the weather and want to complain I try to remember just how fortunate I am to be here. Every Day.

Anyway enough of that. I promised you some pictures of our table that we decorated on Thursday night for the Chamber of Commerce  Banquet. Our table won Third place!!! We did a spring gardening theme.  There were so many beautiful tables.  A lot of money was raised

A much needed haircut yesterday.

The first picture was taken about 3 weeks ago when I was in St. Louis.  Some bad lighting but you can see how long my hair was.  I really needed a cut it had been quite a while.  I have been working on my low carb eating and  have lost a few pounds  it amazes me how much better I feel letting go of the carbs.  I am scheduled to see my doctor on Monday so I will be able to get an idea of how much I have lost this month.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day and I came across something that really made me think. Why not treat every day like the weeked? (or whatever days you have off from work) A lot of time I think we are rushing to our days off. And if you’re like me a lot of my days off are used to catch up on cleaning house, grocery shopping,  doing laundry oh my!!!  Why not do a little something special after your work days?  You could have a special meal, a nice glass of wine, a massage or facial or as someone told me yesterday, just let your hair down.  Do something good for you. Take care of yourself. Be good to you. You know the old saying if you don’t love you first no one can.  Do something for you and share it with me.  I would love to hear it.

Have a wonderful day!!!

Lisa

 

Tuesday March 20, 2018

Hello and Happy Spring?  I don’t know where you are from but here in the south it does not feel like spring today.  Yes I know it officially arrived at 12:15 this afternoon and the temperature at that time was about 50 degrees F and it was dropping.  There is actually two inches of snow predicted in this area by morning.

I wore my leather boots to work.  I love my boots and I know that my days of wearing them will soon be over.  Some boots I don’t mind wearing in the summer but it is usually just too hot and humid here to do that.  I overheard someone today say I wore sandals yesterday and I will be wearing snow boots by morning.  Yes that’s East Tennessee for you.

My knee is better but I am still feeling some pain when I overdo it.  That’s what happened on Saturday. I had a meeting in nearby Athens just about twenty miles south of me.  Athens happens to have a Hobby Lobby, which I love.  I was looking for items to decorate a table that we are doing for Thursday night at our Annual Chamber of Commerce Banquet.  The table decorations have become one of the most fun things about the Banquet.  Local businesses agree to decorate a table complete with a nice center piece and take home goodies for six people. Last year we did a batman theme and it was a lot of fun.  This year we decided to go with a garden theme.  Here is a sneak peek of some of the items we will be using to decorate the table.  I will show you the finished table on Thursday.

So after I spent almost two hours in Hobby Lobby trying to decide on a theme. My knee was feeling a little tight.  So of course I decided to visit some antique stores in Downtown Sweetwater, if you get a chance check them out, so by the time I made it home my knee was throbbing. I am a glutton for punishment

I spent most of Sunday taking it easy and my knee feels better now.

Of course when I was in Hobby Lobby I did purchase some yarn.

I will probably make scarves with these. I am not a yarn snob but to be honest Hobby Lobby doesn’t sell a very reliable sock yarn. This usually has to be bought at a yarn specialty shop. I believe if it is worth your time it is worth your money.

Anyway, Happy Spring or whatever you are having where you live.

Lisa

Wednesday 3-14-2018

It seems like I have been playing catch up all week.  I started the week behind schedule and I have been struggling to get caught up.  Do you ever have those times when you have so much to do you just want to take a nap and forget everything that you need to do,   well that’s kind of where I am this week and it’s only Wednesday!!

For one thing I have had meetings every day this week and that puts me behind on everything else that I need to get done.  Another thing that I struggle with is that I tend to think that I have to be such a part of everything that I am involved with.  Now don’t get me wrong of course you want to be involved but sometimes I tend to get overstimulated like a child on a sugar high after eating an entire bag of gummy bears and a box of milk duds, don’t ask me how I know what this does to you,  and I think I have to have the answers to every single one of life’s problems not to mention being the cheerleader, coach and Most Valuable Player at the same time.  This can be exhausting.  I am not trying to play the woman card but I think as women we often think we have to be everything to everyone.   This realization hit me kind of hard yesterday as I was rushing to get to a meeting and struggling to be up up up!!!   So I said to myself what if I didn’t push myself this way all the time?  I think everything would be just fine. So I decided to practice taking a step back and listening more, and watching what is going on around me more and being silent when I want to, and being good to me.  I don’t have to be “on” all the time.   Here are some ways I think I will practice this.

1. Get better sleep at night, I think this really is the key to healthy living
2. Stop procrastinating.  When I procrastinate I find myself running behind and putting
me second because I am taking care of something difficult that I have put off until the
last minute.
3.  Eat healthy but don’t deprive myself of things I love.
4. Get more exercise.  This one has been hard with my sprained knee but there’s still
stretching and yoga and lots of other ways to get more movement.
5. Stop trying to cram 48 hours of work into a 24 hour day.
6. Let go of things I cannot control.  ( This is the hardest for me)
7. Enjoy what is going on around me by truly living in the present.

Wish me luck it won’t happen overnight.

Be good to yourself.
Lisa

Thursday 3-8-2018                                                          

On Monday morning at 4:45 A.M I discovered that me and my luggage do not get along.  I was packed and ready to head to the airport for St Louis. Of course I was running a little late.  I zipped my suitcase and started to put the little handle pulley thing down when I realized it was stuck.  It would not go down. I vaguely remember the last time I had taken it somewhere it stuck like that at the airport and the skycap wouldn’t take it until I got the handle down because he said he didn’t want to damage it.  I should mention at this point I am very hard on luggage

After about ten minutes of struggling, cursing, and pouring a gallon of sweat, could this be considered cardio?, I realized I was not getting this handle down.

I ran down to the basement and grabbed another suitcase much larger than what I needed but the next best choice.  I quickly transferred the contents of the bad suitcase into this one.

This reminds me of the quote from Steel Magnolias where Clairee says to Ouiser “you know I love you more than my luggage”  I think it’s safe to say at this point I love everyone more than my luggage!!!!

I stayed in St Louis for several days for a meeting and didn’t have much time to see anything but the hotel. I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel  right at the airport. This is an easy stay I don’t have to get a car because the hotel has a free shuttle to and from the airport.

This hotel is really beautiful and I can tell you that every team member there has got hospitality going on.  The lobby area has lots of beautiful and comfortable seating. This is a great hotel.

Whenever I travel I like to take knitting with me so I brought a pair of socks I have been working on and this scarf.  I love this self striping yarn. Just when you get tired of a color you are ready to change. I don’t remember where I got this yarn I have a couple of skeins of it. I am using size 4.5 bamboo needles for this scarf and it is really simple cast on 22 stitches and knit every row.   Just straight boring knitting.  The kind I like. Sometimes.

So I am headed home this morning and while leaving the elevator at the hotel an eldery lady said “oh my that’s such a large suitcase” and I proceeded to tell her the story.

See y’all

Lisa