Hacker Widow

Author Archive

I have decided to blog about something deeply private to me. My weight. I have always battled to be the size “required” by society. I guess you’d classify me as rubenesque. Funny how something that was so beautiful that masters sought to capture images of larger women  for centuries, has become a shameful condition. It saddens me that we have been lumped together with health issues. Now I’m not saying that I am a healthy weight by any means. Goodness know I need to lose some weight. But it is doubtful that I, being 44, will ever get to the Dr.’s goal weight of 135 lbs. Pulease!!! I will settle for feeling healthy, no more pain in my joints, and possibly buying clothes that fit nicely and are comfortable. *sigh* So onward I go, hoping to start and end this journey the same, with the proper mind set to get healthy and stay that way. This is no minor feat. Coming from a long line of couch potatoes, I know I have the deck stacked against me.  Wish me luck and please feel free to hold me accountable. I will be posting about my journey in future posts.

So we were able to spend a couple days with our youngest daughter last weekend. She is a kick to be around. Very spontaneous and extremely funny, there is never a dull moment when she’s there. That being said… she decided that I am now to be known as fun-sized. Fun-sized??? How can I be fun-sized? I am 5’6″ and weigh…well, never mind. ANYWAY, there are many wonderful things that are fun-sized..

Maggie, our Yorkie, is fun-sized.

Snickers…DEFINANTLY fun-sized

Awwwwww….. but not…

Me…yeah, I know.

Is 20 too old to ground??  :-/

Well we are finally getting settled in San Luis Obispo. It is beautiful all the time and leave nothing to be desired. WOW… pinch me. It is amazing that we have the privilege of calling this city home. I do miss a few things from the valley though…

First is this certain little girl:

I miss you, babe. Hopefully school will finish soon so you can come over here.

Second, the place I walked daily…

From the top of Rocky Hill…

(Ignore the red line…have no clue what it is..)

…to the bottom. I talked to the beautiful babies daily  :-)

It was the first time in my life (no exaggeration!) that I was motivated to workout. I started walking it in late August. This means that the temperature hovered around 100. But I still did it. I became so dedicated that I only missed a day during Thanksgiving week and a couple during Christmas. If my oldest daughter

(Hi babe!!)

was around, I’d drag her up it with me. It was great….Then we moved :-/

I began to worry about “falling off the wagon” since enjoying exercise is NOT in my genetic make up. My hubby suggested that I go to this little park way down at the other end of our road. *sigh* Ok… I drive to this little park. It is cute but small. I begin thinking to myself, “This will be fun. Walking in circles for a hour!” I get out of the car and start. Towards the back of the park is see this

Hmmm, I wonder where the path goes? I decide to follow to see. Then I see this,

And this..(one of the three bridges I get to cross!!)

WOW..this is getting better and better. I keep walking, huffing and puffing, dragging my poor little dog along.

Even get to go through a tunnel!!!!!

With respect to Rocky Hill, this has to be one of the most beautiful walking trails I’ve ever been on.

Ok….the hubby did good.

I consider myself a fairly spontaneous person. I can change on a whim. Do something different. Try something new, all without relative harm to my mental state. The thing I am really bad about is taking chances. Now-a-days, it is very hard for me to do something that, I feel, is a risk. Most of it is physical risk. It terrifies me to think of flying to another country without a hardcore plan in mind. It always has. My sisters are more of the adventurous sorts. They have done things like that and more. I am envious of the adventures they have had, but shiver to think of doing them myself. I always start playing the “what if..” game. What if I lose my way in a strange city?…What if the boat leaves without me?…What if my husband or I get thrown in jail for some ignorance on our part and sit in a cell to rot??? OK, I know that’s a little extreme, but you get the idea. I have come to realize that for me to truly enjoy things like big vacations, I need to spend the extra money and hire a travel agent to make sure that all my fears are addresses. So vacations are handled, but what about the rest? Our family have been on a veritable roller coaster since about September. I won’t bore you with the details, but needless to say, it was hard to focus on all the wonders of the holidays this year.  :0(  And now, we are headed for the next great adventure in our lives. In two weeks time, my hubby and I will be relocating. We will be moving about 3 hrs away from our current home to San Luis Obispo. This has been a dream of ours for many years. (Though I did think our children would be moving with us….) So this is where that crazy fear comes in. What if we don’t like it like we “think” we will?…What if my husbands job fizzles out?…What if…. See, what I mean? Changes are good. They keep you alert and on your “A” game.I am really excited about it… really!

The first book that I am reviewing is “Tandem” by Tracey Bateman. This is her second book. It takes place in Abbey Hills, a small Ozark town. The book focuses on two central characters, Lauryn McBride and Amede Dastillion. There are a series of unexplained murders happening. Lauryn is trying to come to terms with her father’s illness and keeping the family business above water. Amede is carrying a dark family secret and is searching for her missing sister. The plot is very easy to follow. There are several twists and turns that brings in several other characters that enrich the story. Personally, I couldn’t read it before bed because my mind would spin trying to figure the plot out. :0) Though I felt that the ending was a bit rushed, I would defiantly read other books by this author.

This post is showing one of the activities used to teach color recognition.

First, I chose a picture that could be divided into colored parts.  I believe this was just a piece of clip art from the computer. You can also use simple color books for pictures. They do need to be at least 6-8″ large to allow for the student to be able to manipulate.

I colored each section separately.

Then, I colored corresponding colors on the tips of cloths pins.

Christmas is in the air…. Driving to run errands is much more cheerful when your singing Christmas carols along with the radio. Rob and I decided to try and keep this Christmas as traditional as possible. Not that easy since 3/4 of my stuff is in a storage unit in San Luis Obispo. I never thought in a million we’d still be in Exeter. Rob has been working in SLO for 6 months now. He has been commuting home every weekend. It’s been hard on him, on all of us actually. So as of Friday, I will be making weekly trips to SLO to try to find a place to rent. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Fall is finally here in Exeter. I went for my walk up Rocky Hill yesterday and it was misty, windy and cold. WOW, what a difference a day makes. The day before it was still 70 degrees. Hopefully we are now going into the last of the hot weather. We finally got Haileigh settled in Yuma. :0(  I already miss her terribly. I am happy that she is starting her new life, though. How exciting! We have had a very odd kick off to the holiday season, normally, this is our favorite time of year. The weeks leading up to Christmas were always filled with happiness and anticipation. Well, Halloween is gone; didn’t even decorate. Hosting Thanksgiving here; focused more on having to fly Dad out to Virginia to a new facility. Hopefully things will calm down enough after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy the season a little.

since my last post, that is. Talk about a whirlwind!!!! The house is up for sale (Anyone interested??? Anyone???), Rob has already been working in San Luis Obispo for 3 months, and our oldest is getting MARRIED next month!!!! Yikes!! Ok…breathe…  It’s actually going really well. She knows what she wants and we are making it happen. It going to be beautiful!! And then,(fingers crossed) we’ll be in SLO by Nov. I’ll try to be better about blogging our progress…

That pretty much explains my life at the moment. I really can’t explain how it feels. Some personalities are ok with waiting for circumstances to dictate the course of ones life. I don’t happen to be one of those. I consider myself a pretty laid back person but this is ridiculous. I just want to move on to the next phase of our lives.  :0/