Golden Oasis

Remain Positive!

What a weekend! A word on Goldens and Agility courses....if they are trained-fine, but if not -well, many of the 35 Goldens just sat in the shade watching their owners jump over poles was remarkable. Nugget really could have cared less! Nevertheless, we have a GREAT group and there was fun to be had just talking and having a little picnic. Golden Moms & Dads can COOK :) 

Nugget is the one just loving the attention...as usual!  Just gotta luv ol' red just laying down while the peeps are just wondering what they can do to get Goldens jumping! ...okay off to the fair!!!! I'm balancing my checkbook as Typepad takes sweet time getting these pictures on...so I'm going to wait a bit!

{Choose to Move}....good! Good week...busy and maintaining. As I was telling Meg...one time when we went out to dinner I exchanged soup for fries (that is something I would never do normally!) so I was quite proud of that... I had a lot of exercise...just would have liked to see some scale movement..perhaps this week! This week is labeled "The Power of Positive" as with my thought above..need to focus of what I've done and the fact of maintaining is a good thing! This morning we got off the hill (Mission Trails) at about 8:45am and it was just very hot already. I squeezed in a 30 min. hike. Too hot for me and Nugget....just to take a cool shower and hang out in a warm house. These houses do not have 'air', so it will reach 83 inside as it's in the 90's...I hear cooler weathers coming! THEN my third computer just won't come on...push button *nothing*...I've nosed around inside cleaned up, re-seated RAM (as if that would do anything)...nothing...everything working on the same plug and strip.  *nothing* no beep, no fan, no life.   Rest assured I have everything on CD's, and to cost to fix would probably be a high fraction of what the new ones are going for now, so hmmmm....good excuse?    Anyone ever had the same problem?   Probably some fried motherboard or something.

If you haven't had enough pics of the golden blur- just click here!

"M" is for...

Mushroom! I love seeing mushroom and apparently so do others....

I found this little petite one yesterday... 2nd picture is a little blurry, but it shows now 'cute' it is!

(clickable)

A BIG THANK YOU to D! My 'Thinking' Winnie The Pooh is perfect! Your note was right on the nose...my thinking spot! I loved the Monet note card as well....my daily pull off type calendar is Monet!

As you can see doing a little blocking this morning..so back to pinning...amazing what you see in a picture that you don't see standing right over it!!!

Everyone have a great weekend! Busy one for us...have the Golden Meet-up picnic this weekend with an agility course to see what our fluffy ones can do and also the San Diego fair!  Temps are suppose to be in the 90's this weekend...so the summer is off and running!

ALSO, I'm keeping close tabs on the Mato Vega fire (12,000 acres) in Southern Colorado...my parents are directly across from it. It looks like it's not going to cross HWY 160 and that is a good thing! ....meanwhile 160 remains closed...

Something Sharp

Hi! Just wondering if I'm the only one that does this?

I'm such a visual learner...that I will take something, like the beaded purse project and go over it and actually write out the line repeats. Then later, after the pattern is off and going, simplify it on an index card for quick reference as I cross off the lines I complete.  What does this say about my lack of trust in just picking it up and starting...NOOOooooo I have to analyze it first! ;}

There's always tidbits to share....yesterday on my walk..which felt great after being less than best....I went to my favorite place- Mission Trails. Every time I find something different..the varying green on this plant came out perfectly it was just a luscious green against the brown backgrounds. I missed the bloom and something already carefully got it out, leaving a neat crescent behind.

The Golden Rug....that is about all we get after a 40 minute walk...

Full Monday

I fixed my filet butterfly! I adjusted the pattern and crocheted it horizontal down rather than side to side vertical as in the pattern(?). What a difference!

My first knitting with beads started this weekend! What fun! I am making a small beaded purse for my daughter for her 8th grade 'promotion'! They are in year long schools, so the promotion isn't until end of July. It was so much fun stringing them on!

Last week was a hard one and I'm going to omit half the details, but landed me at the doctors for something that required antibiotics....although, it was nice to see my scale at home wasn't lying..as it was the same as the Dr's :) On the side note though because of the above item..Dr. said give her 10 days of taking it easy. Which doesn't match with my Choose To Move! So I really focused on my intake of veggies and fruits! I met my goal, but not in the way I wanted to. Last week was creating a plan of action..and that I did!  This week is Strengthening Your Resolve....

After printing out various helpful diet charts from the AHA and MyPyramid that I introduced last week, I still didn't have something that exactly worked for me, SO....I went to my favorite Excel program and made my own! Click on it and if it seems like something you might be interested in..email me and I'll send it to you. All you would have to do is go to MyPyramid to get the amounts needed for your profile and adjust the goal within the chart and you would be off and running and have something to print out every week!

Finally, I would like to present the finished {Book of Dreams} with a big thank you to Kari at Artsymama for hosting such a neat project! I pale in comparison to some of the participants, but I learned a lot and although I don't think I quite got out of the 'scrapbook' look into the art realm..it has opened my eyes to this media and I want to experience more! It also really re-opened some dreams for me and made me take a hard look at some stuff....everything hit at the right time!  Please click on my Flickr badge on the right side bar and go to my {Book of Dreams} set!

"L" is for...

My "L"...not only the fact his name begins with 'L', but for love, laughter, and our lives together!  This is a man of true devotion to me, his kids, and his work....a true balance in every sense..although the work may extinguish that time for family for extended periods of time..when he is here --he is truly engaged and attentive!  "L" could mean nothing more than MY "L"

Week 2 {Chossing To Move-American Heart Assoc}

Just to refresh memories... a friend of mine, Meg and I have decided to join the American Heart Association's Choosing To Move. We are starting Week 2 today.

I have really taken off on this! I'm going to use certain color felt pens for marking my calendar and all the great worksheets that the AHA has us to print out to keep us on task for the week. After all, accomplishments help motivate me! I shared with Meg what kind of folder I am keeping all our worksheets in and she laughed and rolled her eyes! Although I'm serious about all this, I wanted to keep some humor in it, so I bought myself a Sponge B. folder with Plankton Labs on the front...thought it was fitting " 2005 Annual Report-Building Tomorrow's Crabby Patty...Today!" Call me crazy...and shhhh ...don't tell my kids, but I'm a closet fan of Squid-ward and Mr. Crabs! ANYWAY, Meg shared a really great point that many woman do... don't buy clothes because of the thought, "When I get to be that size.." or "When I get more in shape" or any other reason, but WE NEED TO TREAT OURSELVES. Meg went shopping and bought some cute clothes and some nice sandals and went out with some friends...she carried herself differently, people noticed, couldn't put their finger on it, but knew something was different. That something was CARING for oneself!

As we moved through the week, I felt this first week was a chance just to think about 'what' we are doing, 'what' we are eating, 'when' are we exercising. I felt I did pretty good, but I didn't keep it up as I wanted to. The eating part was frustrating because I had no appetite. There are a lot of reasons for this and it doesn't help when DH is gone. I had to remember to eat and when I did-it wasn't the best. I didn't exercise daily as I wanted...only three times last week, but they were long periods. HA! Justifying coming out already!

Looking up websites keeps me motivated and I found a great one... My Pyramid I filled out my information and printed out MY amounts of different kinds of foods! Over the weekend I was thinking that it was time for a specific goal... instead of 'exercise more' it will be '30 min. a day' Then lo and behold I go to my Second Week in {Choosing To Move} and that is the focus 'Creating A Plan Of Action' with short term goals!

I will note on a personal side...my intent is to lose weight while also taking care of my heart. I have a lot. I've started lifestyle changes a few weeks before I even found the AHA program. I don't know why it's hard to say this, but I have lost 8 pounds. I guess I'm timid in stating that because I fear I will find them again...but this is not what I want my {Choosing To Move} Mondays to be about..but my 'highest' was always getting 'higher' and that has stopped and must continue to stop.

So, to let you know my short-term goal is ..to accumulate 30 min. of moderate physical activity for 5 days...and as one of my worksheets have a blank for -a 'Reward'. My reward will be one of the AHA cookbooks!          What will be your short-tem goal?

Padres

It's official- my son's team are the champions for their major Little Leaque division for this area. Off to play other teams in San Diego! Go Padres! Then on Friday we enjoyed the real Padres vs. Florida Marlins. As always, it is a treat to go to the downtown stadium. I found a neat website that summarizes it very well! After looking at his pictures taken in '04, I will say that that sky line has changed a lot! Pictures show our left, middle, & right view. They won that night and it was actually a pretty fun game to watch with our $12 hot dogs!

I think I'm the last person on earth..or within the blogging community to not have this, but it's on my overgrown list of books that I want!

Some reads to finish the weekend:

• Make Mine Blissful these floating houses and mailboxes are intriguing!
• Close To My Heart A few months back I posted about how she was following her dreams of getting back to ice skating...her projects and her pursuing a dream is inspiring to me and she deserves this trophy! Bravo Zulu!
• On the Needles scroll back starting at June 2nd -she highlights some baby birds and some interesting facts about them.

{Book of Dreams}

It's official -they are in the playoffs 10-0 our favor last night..win next game they are going to TOC!  Sorry for the fence, but my boy is on first ready to run...

{Book of Dreams}...wow...what a project-what a flood of emotions attached to it. I don't know where to start! I'm feeling like it's coming together in a somewhat scrapbook-y type way...I was puzzled of how to prepare the pages first. I know there is tons of info on-line, but it just seemed to get in the way of my wanting to PUT my stuff down and I thought that was more important than form...sorry for the hand in the picture, but I was showing the pop-up I made.

I'm ready to end having to DRY stuff out...that frustrates me. I'm ready to pick it up and start writing all over the sucker! Does it look like some of the inspirational ones in our group?...NO! Will it ever come close to ones in magazines?...NO! If you look closely at the inside title page, I tried to capture my eye in the mirror. This was a withdrawn book from the library- how sad I thought..what? Never to be read again? Gee, that is a life sentence for a library book..perhaps I'm been 'withdrawn' from my own dreams? The pearl painted pages show the address #'s I've been at in my married life. Military people can relate how you signify a passing of time at a certain house...oh, N was born here, T was born in the 'green' house, we were here or there during that address, etc. Dreams dreamed- dreams lost-here and there. Not a necessarily a bad thing..it just is what it is.

After evolution of what a DREAM is to me..it has been proven to be a scrapbook (altered book) of how some dreams of mine have been lost and how much external factors influence the outcomes.  Things I have learned:

• choosing a small children's book is good for learning
• I wanted to prepare my pages with 'gesso'...you know how expensive that stuff is?  I didn't want to invest just yet.
• I've pulled the pages out in the beginning thinking that would be easier- I have no idea how to put it all back together again!
• Kids have great idea about this 'book murdering' stuff! ;) ..as my dd calls it!
• I don't have an eye for graphic design....yet
• I have tons of collected things and feel like I just want to glue them all in there.
• My dreams are not lost- it's the 'action' process that needs work.

-Complete stillness watching doves about three feet away through an open window at Golden Oasis- Have a great day!

"K" is for...

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on the Choose To Move - I plan to highlight it every Monday! Now to show you something I finally finished...it is a Sugar 'n Cream cotton washcloth in 'Country Side Ombre' color.

Unfortunately, it is hard to see the knitting design 'Stacked Barrels' with variegated color yarn.

Next, I want to update you on that 'cute' red fuzzy bug I took a picture of on my last walk. VELVET ANT....a wingless wasp! Cute to look at and thankfully I didn't touch it..I hear a killer type sting that last days!

I want to share my latest adventure with Nugget hosted by Petco for our Golden Meetup group (and any other dog lover- this is a yearly event) on the San Diego Horn Blower cruise of the bay! We had a fantastic time...if you ever come to San Diego this is a lovely short cruise that gives you lots of information concerning SD bay and a very nice view of everything. The morning we went it was quite hazy, but that didn't stop Nugget from enjoying that sea breeze blowing into her face! I believe you can go to 'pictures' on the left side of the Meetup link and view them...I don't think you need to be a member! There are many pictures taken of the cruise, but here are a few of mine. After a while she just rested and gazed into the sea through the 5" gap on the side!

Last night I pulled out a 300 pc puzzle to work on with my kids. I really love working on puzzles...plus doing them really brings out kids thoughts and feelings about stuff...school, baseball, or just life in general!  Needless to say, it was completed in about 2 hours. I'm going to use Puzzle Saver on this one!

and finally.....the 'K' is for KOA.  I know I'm cheating a bit because it should be of a picture I have taken, but again, this was the first thing that popped into my head! The campground hyperlinked was the KOA that my husband and I and my parents came very close to buying!  This Polson, MT campground at the time in early '90's was just built, incidentally, they were just now being built with logs by the same company that supplied the logs of my parents present and past log cabin.....   we had traveled to it, looked at balance sheets, took thoughtful walks...we had traveled around seriously to about three KOA's in the nation -one in NC and one in Missouri, but my Dad had fallen in love with this one. My daughter was about 2, my husband was home in CO Springs working hard (he trusted my thoughts and reasoning on this), -- we were down to signing the contract--........but I stopped it....although I love my parents I knew this was going to end up being a hard thing trying to raise a family and having my parents RIGHT THERE....it was too final...we were only 5 years or so into our marriage..we wanted another child...the thought was we would run it and parents would support, but still have their travel time. We would be 50% partnership between families. I saw my love for doing this in my Dad's eyes as he looked over the beautiful Polson Lake there in Montana....    but I couldn't do it..WE couldn't do it. I felt so bad I stopped my Dad's dream of this beautiful place and owning & running a business (they could not have ran it themselves)...however, I'm not sorry for changing courses. Soon after that is when my husband decided to re-join the Navy- things fell into place...it ended up that when he went to a recruiters office-it was his old Senior Chief on his past ship- he said, "No problem...I'll get you back in!" (that was the time period of cut backs or should I say low manning)...thus leading us to these last few years until retirement.  Back then I also questioned if this particular campground could sustain two family incomes-it wasn't a year long campground....of course this was before the RV boom and now looking at it on-line...I'm sure it is doing VERY well.

KOA's (Kampgrounds of America) are great places to stay and is a great franchise if anyone is interested in owning one!         -So yes...this is my "K"...

Just for Us!!

My dear readers, I have something exciting to share....I have a dear friend from New York, that goes by 'Mags', who I have know for many years- lets just say back to 8th or 9th grade..she's gonna kill me for not remembering this!!!  ANYWAY, after school we lost touch...both moved both had life that took us different ways..then through another high school friend that I caught up to through something like classmates.com, I got back in touch with Mags...   WOW, we took off just like it was high school...it's so wonderful to have her back in my life- I could brag how much she has on her plate right now, but one thing that we ALL have in common is that we are WOMEN WITH A HEART...and a heart that we need to take care of. Now, not sure about you, but some of us have paid attention to others in our lives. ie..husbands, children, college in late periods of our life, work...etc, and we become last in our priority of 'taking care of'     Well, Mags and I wanted to change that! In the past, when we supported each other- it felt good and worked!   Life certainly gets in the way, so she emailed me and said..."Weren't we doing this???" YES! So, I hopped on the Internet (when am I NOT on the Internet?)and just went right to the American Heart Association and I found a 12 week program called Choose to Move! Great free format that I thought would be that 'third wheel' to keep Mags and I on track. Then I had a fantastic idea..WHY KEEP THIS TO OURSELVES?  My blog readers could  should know about this fun thing! So, let me introduce {Choose To Move}   The statistics are startling...one may think of variety of cancers - those are serious as well, but the statistics show it's a little know fact that heart disease is WOMANS #1 KILLER!!!!   500,000 a year! So my challenge (and care) for my blog readers is to perhaps join us with this twelve week Choose To Move program. To keep me on task I want to blog about it weekly. Ok, Mags (and readers!).....lets start printing out those items they have for us this week! I'm also going to be working on my {Book of Dreams}..need to post some more pictures! ...oh, and that darn "K" is a couple of days late! ...and I was daring to think I might want to do the 'Amazing Lace'...Oh, Lordy...Golden Oasis seems to be getting too busy with things I want to do!!!   First things first..... MY HEART! I'm just really pondering this wonderful muscle...when you really about it...how it beats for so long of time! ...well let's go and ADD some beats to it's length of time!!!