Christmas decorations…what were they thinking?

When I got home from a long, exhausting day at work yesterday, my neighbor greeted me out on the sidewalk.  She wanted to know if I cared if she decorated the porch and the bushes…we share a covered porch with bushes on both sides.  Maybe I was just too tired to be making such momentous decisions, but I told her to go ahead and decorate, it would be fine with me.

My decorating style is more woodland, with berries, birds, rusted ornaments…all of that kind of decor.  I just find it to be visually appealing and restful. Well, imagine my surprise when I walked out my door early this morning to go to work and saw this…

Luckily, I was half asleep and it was still dark, but I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures when I got home this afternoon.  Isn’t that something?

When I was telling one of my friends about this, she told me she drove by a house that had pink flamingoes lining their driveway, some standing, some toppled…wow…I want to see a picture of that one.

How about you?  Is your decorating style more traditional, whimsical, woodsy, or trendy?

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On the downhill side…

Okay, before some of you young whippersnappers get the wrong idea, I’m not talking about the downhill side of life…I’m talking about the downhill side of the Christmas season as it pertains to the world of retail.  Once we make it through the Thanksgiving weekend it’s all about customer service and keeping the merchandise downstocked (you know, so people can buy it?). 

Finally the Thanksgiving weekend is over.  I know a lot of you were able to spend the weekend with family and friends.  There wasn’t much of that for me this year, just a lot of working…long hours…long, exhausting hours.  But we’re getting there, the end is in sight, the six day work weeks will end (eventually…not as soon as I thought they would, but still…), and I’m looking forward to a long winter’s nap…or at least an afternoon’s nap.

And I think there’s snow in the forecast for Tuesday…seems about right, it is almost December, isn’t it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 146

Aye chihuahua!!  I’m worn to a frazzle and still have another day to work before I get a day off.  At least I feel like we’re finally starting to get a handle on all of the seasonal stuff.  We still have a little more to get done, but we’re fast approaching the period in the season where all (all?) we have to do is keep things stocked and help customers.  It goes by so quickly…and that’s not a bad thing!

I did do a little range of motion stuff this morning before work, but am hurting quite a bit.  Not sure if part of that has something to do with the wild weather we’ve had last night and today.  Temps in the high 70s today…this is November, right?  Then thunderstorms this evening.  It kind of feels like spring.  But I think all of that is about to end…soon…like on Wednesday…on my day off…of course~

My eating was okay.  Almost all frozen stuff that I have in the freezer at work.  After the holiday season, I’ll get back to eating healthier, less processed food.  Until then I’m just going to try to make it through by eating Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine…I did eat four and a half servings of fruits and veggies.  A little short of my goal of 5, but still not too bad.  I’ve got a little salad mixed up to take tomorrow to eat while my dinner is in the microwave.  That helps on the freggie intake.

I think sleep is maybe the most important thing I can do for myself right now.  I actually came home and took a nap this evening.   And I’m not going in at 5 am tomorrow.  We usually only do that on the days that Chris and I are both there and he’s taking tomorrow off.  I’m afraid he’s getting sick.  I keep bringing fruit and salad in for him to eat, and he does eat it, but I think the long hours and stress are starting to take their toll.  Sometimes I don’t think our company (or any retail company) realizes just how much they ask  demand of us at this time of the year.  But we’ll get through it.  I may go out and buy some Echinacea tea, well, that’s if I thought I could get him to drink it.  I drink it when I feel a cold or the flu coming on.  It’s definitely not my favorite tea, but I think it helps…yes, that could be all in my head, but I think there are a lot of cures out there in nature that we don’t often take advantage of.

What about you?  What do you do when you start feeling under the weather?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 136

Image by **tWo pInK pOSsuMs** via Flickr

A pretty good day today.  I guess getting a decent night’s sleep helps.  I managed to get in about 7 hours last night and am hoping to do the same tonight.  It was crazy busy with people stocking up on all of the discounted Halloween and fall merchandise.  And yes, people have already started their Christmas shopping.  Back in my pre-retail days, I always set the goal of finishing all of my shopping by Thanksgiving.  Now I’m lucky to finish it at all.  Gotta love those gift cards.  And really, I like getting gift cards myself.  Then I can just go out and buy whatever the heck I want…oh wait, I pretty much do that anyhow…well, within reason…no trips to Paris or fancy shmancy cars…but you know what I’m saying, right?  There really are advantages to living by yourself.

I stopped at Kroger this morning before work to stock up on healthy dinners for the freezer at work.  I didn’t even realize they were having one of their mega sale things where you get $5 off your purchase if you buy ten items.  So, yes, I bought 10 Healthy Choice meals for work.  The one I ate for lunch today was really quite tasty…lemon pepper fish with rice and broccoli…only 350 calories and decent as far as sodium goes.  And, you know, that’s something I would be unlikely to prepare for myself so it’s a real treat to be able to throw it in the microwave and have a hot meal ready in 5 minutes or so.

I ended the day under on calories again.  Wow!  Two days in a row.  What’s going on? I also did some walking and strength training this morning.  And lots of walking at work, lots of walking, lots of talking…it’ll be nice to have tomorrow off and be able to enjoy a little peace and quiet.  I can be quite the talker, but I also like some time to myself.  I NEED time to myself in order to function.  I’ve been that way my entire life…never minded alone time.  I know there are a lot of people who want to be surrounded by people every minute of every day, but not me.  Being able to get away from people gives me time to recharge and go out and do it all again.

I’ve got to run some errands in the morning.  Then I’ll come home and clean house and do some cooking.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find a few minutes to do a little extra writing.  How about you?  What’s in store for your weekend?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 134

Image by scaredy_kat via Flickr

Have you ever had one of those days where you know you’ve been busy all day and have nothing to show for it?  That was my day today.  Go, go, go…and get absolutely nothing done.  But, such is life in the retail industry at times.  Maybe tomorrow will be a bit more productive…

I did upper body strength training and walked for 20 minutes this morning.  One of these days I’ll get back to working out for an hour or so a day, but that day probably won’t be here until after the holiday season.  We start our six-day work weeks in another week, so this is my last weekend off…boo!!  I do well to keep the house clean during that time of the year.

I did a good job with my eating today.  Twice avoided fast food and stuck with my plan.  I ate six fruits and veggies over the course of the day.  I feel pretty darn good about that.  Aiming to repeat tomorrow.  Had a V8 at lunch (low sodium) along with this chicken broccoli thing and half of a roasted squash.  That’s the most veggies I’ve had at lunch in quite some time. 

I need to do some cooking this weekend, haven’t sat down and planned anything yet, but I want something that is healthy, has loads of veggies and is easy to take to work.  I’ve been thinking about a pot of veggie soup and salad for lunch next week (I’ve noticed I tend to try to make healthier versions of some of my favorite restaurant meals…you know, Olive Garden soup and salad).

Definitely early to bed for me tonight.  3:30 will be here much too soon…sweet dreams to all!!

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 128

Image via Wikipedia

Wow!!  What a wild day.  Nasty weather, temps dropping, rain and mist all day, windy…brr…definitely not a good hair day…ha!!  And believe me, I sprayed on extra hair spray this morning before I left the house…all to no avail…when you’re outside in this stuff unloading a truck (really, there has to be a better way to do these trucks, if only I could get those bigwigs to listen to me)  there’s no point in worrying about how your hair looks.  And now there’s a frost advisory for tonight…there go my little volunteer grape tomatoes…

Oh my gosh, I just read a blog about one of the healthiest sounding chili recipes…Nikkianne posted this blog and I’m determined to make this recipe for chili…just the way she made it.  I’ve been wanting to make a pot of chili for a while and keep putting it off.  No more…this will be the one.

http://nikkianne.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/cocoa-corn-chili/

My eating was pretty good today.  I was tempted to go out to eat lunch even tho I’d brought my healthy lunch from home.  I think, more than anything, I just wanted to get out of the building and away from people for a while.  But I went back to the break room and nuked my lunch and was satisfied.  Ended the day with five fruits and veggies, so that’s decent.

Other than working the truck and doing some range of motion exercises for my shoulder, I didn’t do any exercise.  Of course, working that truck is constant motion for over eight hours.  And I’ll be right back at it at five tomorrow morning…trying to get some extra work done…ho ho ho, I love Christmas so much!

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I don’t have to buy a lot, but I have already purchased a few things.  Should probably get with that so I’m not doing it any closer to Christmas, you know, going into stores and stuff…I shudder at the thought!

 

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Wow…it’s almost Christmas

I’ve kind of missed the excitement of the holiday season, just plain working too much…but I had today off (as well as the next two days…woohoo).  Still didn’t do anything to enjoy the season…actually took a couple of long naps, ate too much, watched Days of Our Lives and cuddled with my little cat.  Kind of nice to have an entire day without having any kind of expectations.  Tomorrow I’ve got to get to the grocery store for a few last minute things…think I’ll go early (I still wake up early on my days off) and get back home before the hordes descend on the stores.  I’ve had enough of crowded stores…

Battling a little bit of depression this year.  Not getting together with my brothers and their families and not going to get to see my step sister‘s kids either…once they all grow up they have so many other obligations that I’m not always able to arrange my schedule to match theirs.  Sure not like Christmas‘s past when we all got together, the kids were little, my mom was still alive and we made Christmas a family event.  Definitely miss my mom…it’s been 20 years, but I still miss her…she was really what kept our family together.  But, I guess it’s true, the only constant thing in life is change, and we all have to do our best to adapt.

I’m looking forward to getting the junk out of my house, getting back with my fitness program and doing some serious decluttering…that’s something I really have to stay on top of and I haven’t for the past few months…looks like there will be several trips to make donations.  I find living in a less cluttered home helps me lose weight and not be depressed…some kind of connection there for sure.  I’ll plan my weekly missions later (I typically tackle one area at a time, getting rid of  a set number of things each day that I work and a different amount on the days I don’t work).  Getting back to a normal routine will help me get back to losing weight and I definitely need to get the weight lost…I’m going to do it and I’m going to keep it off!!