Intervention Needed

If something doesn't change soon, these

are going to stand in the way of this

Help, I think I am addicted. In 4 days I've almost gone through a bag and a half by myself. I must be stopped. Damn Kroger and their 10 for $10.

Disclaimer: Marathon should read Half Marathon because after 13.1 miles it's no longer fun for me.

images courstey of google images and insidenikerunning.com

Spring Break Count Down

While most people will be headed here

Lolly and I will be headed all the way to the top of here

I know, we're going in the wrong direction. On the bright side - no swim suit needed!

5 short days and 11 long hours in the car until we arrive at my parents house. I am looking forward to 9 days of questionable weather, 2 birthdays, 1 Easter, possible a birth of a niece, the opportunity to talk fast, run some flat miles, and be completely entertained by my crazy parents.

Icing on the Cake

Actually more like the frosting on the cupcake. Anyone know a good recipe for buttercream icing? I have one that is good for sugar cookies but I am looking for that hardcore sugary frosting you get on a cake from a bakery.

I would seriously kill for one of these babies right now.

picture courtsey of google images

Thanks for the Reminder

Opened my email to find this the other day...



It's been 20 years since you graduated from IU and it's a great time to reconnect with your alma mater by joining your Indiana University Alumni Association.

Based on the number of times the university calls my house I am not so sure they are as interested in my reconnecting as they are in my donating. I'll come off some jack once I get over the hard feelings I have for you firing The General (Bobby Knight). no disrespect for Coach Crean.

But in the meantime thanks for the reminder that I am getting old...

Shoe Heaven and Quantity vs Quality

Where have I been? Have I been living in a cave? No I've been shopping at the lamest mall in the Atlanta area because it's close to my home. But yesterday I was in Buckhead so I stopped at Phipps Plaza to look for these, Tory Burch Revas.

I stopped by the Tory Burch store where I am sad to say the customer service was less than par. By less than par I mean if there's two people in the store and one is looking at shoes wouldn't you ask "would you like to see a shoe?" I guess not, so I headed hereWhere the heavens opened up and rays of sun shined down into the shoe department. I need to get out more often. The sizes, the selections. Gone are my days of looking for size 5.5 and 6 shoes at lame department stores. Nordstrom's is now my shoe hook up. I tried the Revas on and I am sad to say that they looked completely dorky on me. Maybe it's just me and my pointy toe shoe habit but my feet looked too miniature. So I ended up with these.

Much cuter in person and $135 less than what I was expecting to spend, which I quickly spent at Intimacy.

I foresee a lot more miles being put on my car in the future, all in the name of shopping. Which may seem counter to my previous clutter post, but is not. I've learned over the years it's better to buy quality not quantity. In my 20's I was a quantity girl, then realized the error of my ways and became a quality girl in my 30's but felt bad spending the money on myself. Now in my 40's you better believe I am worth it!!

Clutter

"A lot of clutter is a lack of acceptance that a moment has passed"
~ Peter Walsh

That quote, which I think I read in O magazine, sent me searching for more from Peter Walsh. He has several books. I've started with this one because it was available at the library. Always my first stop when looking for a book, because I am cheap like that.

I've been on a simplifying mission for the last couple of years and really thought it was about the "stuff". I am learning it has absolutely nothing to do with the "stuff" at all.

While reading yesterday it dawned on me that I might could actually have a life that I can come home from work and not have any "house" stuff hanging over my head. You know the kitchen always needs to be cleaned, the piles on the desk and counters need to go away, laundry needs to be up. I love to do laundry, it gives me such a feeling of accomplishment. Mister even teases me about it. But I HATE putting the laundry up. I realized yesterday it's because we have way more clothing than 3 people need. Who wants to spend their time stuffing clean clothes into dressers and closets? Hello, light bulb moment!

Lolly and Mister need to watch out, I am about to go on my own clean sweep and if it's not functional or I don't love it, it's gone because this is one girl who's holding onto a whole lot of moments that have passed!

Happy St.Paddy's Day

May God give you...

For every storm, a rainbow,

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends, A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Enjoy your St. Patricks Day. Now go drink some green beer...

Monday, Monday

Because everyone's week should get off to a good start ...

Look what the UPS man brought today

Could these be any cuter?

I found them on ebay. I plan to use them to decorate the walk way for Lolly's upcoming birthday party. Once the guest arrive I'll move them indoors as decoration.

My Little Beta

Congratulations Lolly!
My little National Beta Club Member.
You just keep on succeeding, cause Momma's gonna need someone to support her when she's too old to work.

Confession

I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. On days like today, life in cube land is not a good place to be. I work for a great company that has two downsides:1) the commute 2) I have to sit in a cube. I know that's corporate snobbery but prior to coming here, the last 8 years have been spent in offices, some small, some grand, but all with walls and a door allowing an escape from co-workers.


A few self observations

• I am a morning person but I don't like people until about 11:00am. Unfortunate for me I arrive at work at 7:00am. That 5 hour span can be hairy some days.


• I would prefer to have people either be happy all the time or grumpy all the time. Pick one, I don't care which. I just want to know what I am working with. This makes me completely unforgiving to my moody co-worker. I hate having to listen to you being all sunshiney when I know tomorrow you'll probably be all snappy.


• A cube makes it completely impossible for me to vent about anything without everyone hearing and I could use a vent today. If I get one more condescending email from a particular person I am going to lose it. Lady I am your business partner not your secretary.


• There are two completely different Ann's, the "work Ann "and the "real life Ann" , and never the two shall meet. Being professional, even kneeled, and politically correct can be exhausting because the real life Ann likes to keep it simple and real.

I am off to deal with the emails because while it's ok to make me wait for a reply I know you're expecting a speedy answer from me because that's how work Ann rolls...

Happier Things

Lolly's birthday is next month and I've been busy party planning. I usually start planning 6 months out because I am a planner like that. This year we changed themes mid planning so I felt a little under the gun but made some progress yesterday. We're going with a Sweet 13 theme. A tween Candyland if you will. I found these cute invitations at Retro Whimsy Designs .

Stay tuned for more party updates...

Lockdown

Like my normal telecommuting days I dropped Lolly off at school today. I notice a lot of police cars and officers around the school. Immediately, lead foot that I am, think they are there to remind us not to speed in a school zone. I pull up to the school, notice an assistant principal standing out front drop, Lolly off right at front door and asst principal. Go home and start working in my home office, listening to the radio in background, the usual. Some 3 hours later, a co-worker calls "Is MC alright?" Huh? "The schools on lockdown, go to ajc.com". This is what I find.

My stomach falls out. No answer at the school. Relay info to Mister. Receive text from one of Lolly's friends, everyone ok, lockdown, being dismissed. (which was exactly right, only those students, whose parents came to pick them up, everyone else finished out the day). Thank goodness not all students adhere to the no cell phones at school rule.

Still don't have the all the details. My number one question is why in God's name did they let us drop the kids off if they knew something was going down. That asst principal could have easily stuck her head in the window and said keep going. This wasn't a case where school started and then a lockdown happened. This was lockdown from the minute they hit the front door. Lockdown at the high school, lockin at the middle school is what I believe they told me. (the schools are connected by a hallway) Some parents dropped off their middle schoolers off, then proceeded to the high school to drop off but where turned away and not allowed to go back for the middle schooler, could you imagine?

As we waited in line to collect our kids, they asked do you have any questions to which there were no real good answers. Played off like everything is ok, the kids are in class. That's cause we were lucky this time. Honestly at this point I don't think they could have given me an answer good enough on why they didn't turn us away.

The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. The thought of what if, and that I was naive enough to drop her off at school, just thinking that the police presence had to do with speed awareness. How does a kid get a gun that size, where are the parents, how did these kids get so disenchanted with life?

I will be forever thankful that someone tipped off the police and that the police took it seriously. As I listen to Lolly and a friend laughing upstairs, she seems no worse for wear. Her momma, on the other hand is looking forward to a good long cry once Lolly is safely asleep tonight.

Hello My Lovely

How did I live without you and your camera capability?

If I could only figure you out...

R.I.P.

Rest in peace. You have served me well.

Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday Everyone!

I am looking forward to a day full of indulgencies, mostly in the form of sugar and diet pop =)

Enjoy your day!

Life Changing

For a smart girl, I often wonder why can't I lose that pesky ten lbs,which has alarming hit close to 20lbs in the last few years. I know what to eat. I like to run. Should be easy. Calories in, calories out. I've considered things like fear of failure, no self control, my sugar addiction etc, but still end up back at why is this so hard?

Then I happened to stumble across this book recently. Below is an excerpt from a review

It all starts with how you think. With other programs, you think about nothing but food: counting, weighing, and worst of all, food you can't have. This way of thinking inevitably contributes to diet failure. The Beck Diet Solution is the only program that helps dieters use Cognitive Therapy methods, based on research to forever change those treacherous thought patterns that lead to overeating, cheating, excuses, and other dieting downfalls.

What do you mean my thinking has something to do with it? This has been a big eye opener. Concepts such as Eat Sitting Down. This in itself has been life changing. I was amazed at how rarely I eat sitting down. Not just meals, but snacks, a taste here, a taste there. I can't believe the amount times I caught myself putting food in my mouth and realized I was standing.

Another concept Pratice Hunger Tolerance, hunger is not an emergency. Some of you fit and trim girls maybe laughing but it always felt like an emergency to me. Where I got this feeling I have no clue but I sure become one cranky girl if I get hungry.

This is the first thing I've read about weight loss that hasn't made me feel that it takes some kind of magical combination of what you eat, when you eat, and the moon and stars aligning to be successful and it has nothing to do with low carbs, counting points, or having food delivered to my door.

Many, many, many years ago I made an easy decision to be a "happy person", to stop focusing on the negative and just be happy.I will be completely floored if all years of weight struggle, many when I was a perfect size but could not see it, could have been averted if I just chose to be a thin person. Make that a happy thin person.

Happy Valentines Day, love

Header Giveaway

Chance to win a free header at A Southern Accent . What a great giveaway! Who wouldn't love a chance to win that?

Mister

Happy Birthday Mister!
You're the Johnny to my June
and the John to my Yoko.

I am Just Saying

I know he was handing out hope but did anyone catch a deadline for when everything would be fixed?

Anyone Seen My Motivation?

This is what I should be doing a lot of...cleaning. If we are going to get the current House of Fowler on the market in order to return to the original house of fowler so that we can some day be living on the Land of Fowler, I need to get a move on. Between Mister, Lolly, 2 very large dogs and 2 fighting cats I am feeling very unmotivated...

Polygamy

If this wasn't my pretend husband
I am quite certain this would have to be.

I've had a growing fondness for Bob Harper over the many season's of Biggest Loser but it wasn't love until he went off on Joelle “WHAT IS IT?” “WHAT THE F—, JOELLE?” “YOU STOP AT 20 SECONDS EVERY F—ING TIME!”. Let's just say he had me F-. Until that point he was "too nice". But that right there showed me there's a whole other side to Zen Bob. And I think I like it.