A Retirement Gift

I had an annual Dr. appt. last week & since I had to put on 'real' clothes (opposed to workout clothes) & put on makeup (my new least favorite thing to do), I also arranged to have lunch with a friend from work.

She left the company several years ago but we were & continue to be friends outside of work. I've known her for well over 20+ years & have watched her kids grow up. Her youngest just turned 16. It was great to catch up with her & to hear all about the kids new adventures.

After lunch as we were saying goodbye she said that she had something for me in her car. It was in a Target shipment box & since she had to get to a conference call she just handed me the box to open later.

I ran a couple of errands & then went to Dr., which took almost 2 hours of wait time! That is most unusual & I had my Kindle to read but still ... He apologized & was done w/me in about 15 minutes, all's well.

By the time I got home I had completely forgotten about the box until later in the day. When I opened it here is what she gave me!

It's a Ninja power blender, the kind you see advertised & on infomercials. All I could say was WOW! This thing is very powerful. It came with the blender as well as the 2 different sized jars which are great for making smoothies.

I think the primary purpose of it is to incorporate veggies in order to be healthy but the 1st thing I made was a pineapple, strawberry, lime, coconut smoothie. Not dietetic at all but very delicious.

Today I made an avocado, pineapple, yogurt smoothie which was very thick so I put a few ice cubes in it to melt down so I could drink it through a straw. Very tasty. I'm going to venture into incorporating spinach & other greens soon. Maybe this will be the way that I can actually add Kale to my diet (not my favorite green!).

No venturing out for me this week it's supposed to be raining almost every day but should cool down a bit for the weekend which will be great as we have a family reunion to go to. I've got to decide what I'm making to eat. Thinking Old Settlers Baked Beans & a Key Lime Lasagna? I'll post about it next week.

Have a great week everyone!

Work, Charities, Health & Garth Brooks

Looking back over Sept. to now, I thought I hadn't been busy but I have. I'll use that excuse for not posting earlier.

I was very busy at work, as our busy season (2 years worth) has begun. Many conf. call, staffing meetings, WebEx sessions & other mundane work stuff. But our office has also been busy with some extras too.

We had a Hands only CPR class. It's a 2 step process if you find someone in need. 1. Call 911 & 2. Do chest compressions until help arrives. The premise behind it, is that more people are apt to do the procedure if you don't have to navigate the mouth area (unless choking or blockage is involved).

We also have gone paperless in our day to day work so we collected gently used file folders, binder clips, paper clips, etc. We donated 28 boxes of stuff to our local county Teacher's Supply Depot where teachers can come once a month to get things for their classroom. They are very creative in what they make out of the donations!

This past week a few of my co-workers & I went to a local Hubbard House fund raising breakfast. Very good organization that helps women (& even some men) & children get counseling & hopefully OUT of the relationship that is harming them. They also offer shelter when needed. Listening to some of the stories really makes me realize just how lucky I am to have had such strong kind men in my life.

Sept. & Oct. are my health awareness months. Labs & Bi-annual regular checkup - good (except my Dr. kindly asked how I had gained 10 lbs. - hint hint).  I also had the dreaded mammogram & bone density tests. Mammo good, bone density - I need to increase my calcium intake. I get about 900 - 1000 g. today (usually) but the Dr. wants me to increase to 1500 (w/o supplements). She suggested the Almond Milk (yuk!). I tried the un-flavored & the only way I could drink it was to put a t. of honey in it. It is very high in calcium. I drink a glass of raw milk with my vitamins each morning but can't get any info on how much calcium is in it. Research thus far only shows that it has a much higher calcium amount than pasteurized milk. If anyone has any links with that info I would appreciate it.

Next week is the dreaded colonoscopy. Actually I dread the day before worse. Jello, broth & a gallon of Meralax (double yuk!). But that Propofil(sp?) will give me the best 2 hours of sleep I'll have all year.

Went to the country last week & did a deep house cleaning. We were having guests come in for the week, for a large Expo nearby. It was a beautiful day & I was able to use my new retractable clothes line to dry the sheets & wipe cloths. It worked beautifully. Here is the last item, our blanket. It didn't get ALL the way dry but I only had to put it in the dryer for about 7 minutes.

Oh well, I'm off work today sprucing up the city house. It's beautiful here, having one of our only handful of fall days. Got relatives from the country coming in tomorrow to go to the Garth Brooks concert. Not so excited to be around that many people but I just won't touch anything & try not to touch anyone I don't know. He does put on a good show & his wife Trisha Yearwood is performing with him & I've never seen her in concert.

Off to cut up watermelon & take rinds to compost. Have a great weekend everyone.