Introduction

I was reading Ich liess mein Herz in Deutschland's blog. I "met" her in a Christian online group I am on. I liked what she was doing on her blog and thought I would do the same thing on mine. Thanks Rena for sharing the 30 day blog challenge!

Day 1

Introduce Yourself


I go by Lola. This is a special name between my husband and I. Frankie and Lola is the name of a Jimmy Buffet song. He is Frankie and I am Lola. Jimmy Buffett "brought" us together.
I am a 30 something newlywed. Mother of two. I have a wonderful 16.5 month old grandson that I refer to as "Little Man." I also have an angel grandson "Lima Bean" who was born and went home to his Heavenly Father this past November. I have a furry daughter named Gemma aka The Pup (or affectionately called Satan.) and a furry grandson named Tiger aka Professor Sebastian.

15 Random Facts about Me-
1) I am a vegetarian
2) I used to be a big meat and potatoes type of girl
3) I am part Irish, German, French Canadian and Blackfoot Indian
4) I am the oldest of six children
5) I am the only girl out of six children
6) I am left handed
7) I am a beginner quilter. I have completed one quilt and working on another (have been working on this one for 2 years. LOL)
8) I home-schooled my daughter from 2nd grade all the way to couple months into 6th grade. Then from two months after the beginning of 7th grade until January 2011.
9) I LOVE Country Music
10) I collect Elvis Presley mementos
11) MY bestest friend has been my friend for over 25 years.
12) I attended high school in Hawaii
13) I love cooking and baking
14) I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the BBC America channel and spend hours watching/listening to it.
15) I am addicted to the Sims game

I hope you will join me in this 30 Day Blogging Challenge.








"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

Best Night Sleep

* FYI- There is a curse word in here. I changed it in earlier posts but not this one. Also this book contains cursing.


Last night I had the best night sleep. Best in a very very long time. I actually slept from what I would say was 1030 pm until 5am. Didn't wake up once. Woke up feeling refreshed.. Oh I guess I should mention it was night two of my sleep study and I had a c-pap machine on. Talking with my sleep tech he told me that my apnea was really bad. He said that as soon as I would move just a tad bit I would have episodes. This would cause my legs to "run" and I would wake up. But even he said I did great with the machine. He told me that not all sleep apnea was weight related that some times it is age related. The older we get the more relaxed our muscles get. I told him he was better off sticking with the weight thing! LOL. However, I now have marks from where the leads were placed on my neck and shoulders. We are thinking it is from the adhesive on the pads. So back to the doctor on Monday for my results. Hopefully, it wont take too long to get a c-pap machine as much as I hate the way it looks I loved being able to sleep.

So this just reiterates my need to lose weight. I always said I never wanted to be on one of those machines to sleep. I am 3/4 of the way through the book Skinny Bitch. I have to say I love this book. It makes so much sense to me. Frankie and I went out shopping yesterday and started reading labels and realized it is harder than it looks. But we are preparing to be vegan by the end of the month. I haven't had diet soda in a few days. I did have a regular orange soda (sugar is so bad! But there is no caffeine in orange soda). Today I had my first iced coffee in a long time (my first coffee in over a week.). I am finding that I am not enjoying it as much. I will be switching over to organic decaf green tea. I can drink green tea with no sweetener added. I am buying Frankie a juicer for his birthday (he knows this already so it isn't a surprise.) and we are looking forward to fresh "squeezed" juice. We have no issue with vegetables in our diets. We do however, have an issue getting fruit. This is something I plan to work on. I have plans to purchase a chest freezer. When I do this I plan on starting to make meals a week in advance and freeze them. I figure this will also help since I want to start baking the bread we eat. I also plan on finding recipes for vegan cakes (for birthday's and such). I also will be working on "reworking" recipes into vegan recipes that we can eat.

My ultimate goal for my family is live off the "grid" as much as possible. We are talking about buying a house with a yard. If we do get this accomplished then I will try to get a vegetable garden growing. I also plan on having a clothesline. I love the smell of line dried clothes. I also am on the lookout for all natural ways to clean my house. I hate adding chemicals into the house. I bought a steam mop Thursday. Used it in my little kitchen for the first time yesterday. Holy Cow I was shocked at the dirt it picked up (I had just mopped my floors Wednesday).


I hope everyone has a wonderful blessing filled day.





"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

A couple of Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the session I had with Little Man on Monday the 7th. He was such a ham and such a good sport.


U of L t-shirt from Mamaw and Great Papaw.

Gator outfit from Sha Sha and Papaw.

I was disappointed that there were no backgrounds offered. Just a plain white. I definitely spent more than I wanted but I can't wait to get all the pictures back. The girl did a couple of collages and I can't wait to see them.

It hurt loading Little Man, his momma and her bf in a cab this morning to head to the airport. I was happy and sad. Happy because I know that his momma was missing her home and other family and friends. Sad because I wanted to keep them with me forever. It is so hard living more than 1000 miles away from them. But hopefully we can make a visit a yearly thing. Either us going up there or them coming down here.












"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

Sad for this week to end..

My wonderful grandson, Little Man, and his momma and her boyfriend have been here for a week. It has been a great week. I am so sad to see them leave tomorrow morning. It has been so great having them here. The laughter of a little baby is so contagious! It is so neat to see the expression on my grandson's face as he experiences things for the first time. Bubbles, animal crackers, cookies, and so much PBS. It has been so great... Have I said that it was a great time. We didn't do much. We stayed around the house. We only have a small truck. We had more people than seats. So we went out in shifts. LOL.. Took Little Man to get his pictures done. I can't wait to get them back. They will be back on the 18th... We were only able to get ten pictures which only seven were keepers. 16 month old little boys do not sit for long periods of time.

-Updates-
-Mammogram- was clear
-Sleep study scheduled for Thursday and Friday nights.
-Back to sleep doctor on Monday for results.
-Been reading Skinny Bit#$. This book is funny. The language is frank. It hits the point though.
-We have decided that once all our dairy and eggs are gone then we will not be replacing them. We are going vegan. It will take a little more diligence but we feel it will be worth it.


The Monkey has received the following grades for the 4th grading period at her school. 104%, 102%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 98%, 97%.






"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

Well, I didn't get the mammogram yesterday. I went to the place to register. Frankie was still in his scrubs with his name badge when we got there. The lady registering me asked him if they did mammograms at the hospital he worked at. He told her yes. She then told me that if I wanted to I could go to Frankie's hospital and have it done and it will be covered 100% by insurance. If I have it done where we were then I would have an out of pocket cost.. Hmm... $$ or free... Guess which one I took.. It was nice of that person to let us know that in advance.

The Monkey is thriving in public school. She has been in the school for 35 days. Yesterday they gave her the notice that they are pulling her out of her English class and putting her in an Honors English class... We are all really proud of her.






"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

I am so excited... 8 days and Little Man, his momma and her bf will be here for a WHOLE WEEK! I haven't seen my sweet boy since the very beginning of August. I miss him so much.. Poor thing is sick right now so please pray for a quick recovery for him!

I am on the hunt for a book called "Skinny Bi@#$" and a book called "Skinny Basta$%" . I think we are ready to try a totally vegan diet. I told Frankie this weekend that I want to cut out all dairy from our diet. This would leave eggs in our diet.. Well, I can replace them too then! So after the Lactose free milk and dozen eggs are gone they will not be replaced. My father tells me about this great store called Whole Foods where he bought a lot of vegan items during his 5 months as a vegan. (he is once again a carnivore but I still love him!). Unfortunately there isn't one close enough to us.. I used to shop at Whole Foods years ago in Cambridge, MA when I was visiting. I always thought they were just a weird store for yuppies.. Sorry! I take it back!




I broke down and went to the doctor. I voiced my concern with her over the very high amount of people in my family with cancer. Currently my mother has "girl" cancer (that is all she will say)it had been in remission for years. My uncle (my father's brother) has esophageal cancer it was in remission but now it is back. Unfortunately this doesn't look good for him. My mother's sister is a breast cancer survivor. She has had a double mastectomy and so far so good. So after this was all said I voiced my concern. I asked if I had to wait until 40 to get a mammogram. The answer was- Absolutely Not! So I have an appointment this afternoon for my second mammogram. (The first one I had years ago and was because the doctor felt something that the other doctors said must have just been scar tissue from the reduction I had. So thankfully that one was clean.)

I ask that you all take a moment of your time and click this link. One moment. One second really (depending on how fast your computer loads. LOL) One moment to click to find mammograms.








"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

Homekeepers Journal Time!

Thanks to Sylvia over at Christian Homekeeper for the prompts! You rock!

This week’s Homekeeper’s Journal is about Spring Time Plans.

In my kitchen, I plan to ….. cut the process foods out.

Plans with the children ….. Make sugar cookies with her.

Plans with the husband ….. House hunting. Spoiling our grandson.

Plans for my house ….. Spring Cleaning! I want to get the condo totally cleaned

Garden Plans ….. Well living in a condo we have no garden :-( BUT hopefully if we can get a house with a yard then I will have a garden! Flowers and veggies/fruits.

Other Plans ….. I want to work on my cross stitch. I have a nice Tropical Themed one that I want to get finished. I need to go buy some materials for the two I was working on. The fabric has become stained and destroyed.

So excited!!!

I am so excited! My grandson and his momma are coming for a visit!!!! They are planning on coming down beginning of March... AHHH it is so far away! LOL I am so impatient. I haven't seen them since the beginning of Aug... He has since learned to talk and walk! Oh it is time for Sha Sha and Papaw and Auntie to do some major spoiling. They (Papaw and Auntie) haven't seen Little Man and his momma since June 2010.

I have begun a self imposed walking routine (which I also imposed on The Monkey! LOL). We now walk to her school in the morning and then I walk home. This makes for a 3.8 mile walk round trip for me. I have an application on my phone that calculates the distance, calories burned, pace and etc for me... I love it. Last week there were only 4 school days so that made 15 miles I walked. Same for this week. But a regular week will be 18.8 miles a week.. I plan to find a little way to bump it up to 4 miles a day. But I want to do a couple more weeks at 3.8. Maybe! Patience isn't my strong suit! LOL I think I will have to buy a little umbrella stroller (or as they say where I am from- strollah. :-) ) so while Little Man is here he can go on the walk with me in the morning (because unfortunately Auntie will still have to go to school.)

I have a problem that is actually really funny. The Monkey laughs at me (ok so did hubby when I told him). My problem is when I think in my mind I speak with my Boston accent. When I talk very very rarely does it come out. Do any of you that read this blog think in an accent different from where you live? We also have a running joke here that the Pup will learn to bark in an English accent because she watches so much BBC. I know we are weird but we are original! LOL

Lately I have been noticing that a few people that I know have been victims of mean people hiding behind names (some false) on the internet. Please remember (not that any of you would do it on purpose) that mean words really do hurt. I try to live by the adage that all it takes is a little smile or nice word from a stranger to change the life of someone. You never know whose life you have changed. I try to explain this to The Monkey as we walk to school and I greet the crossing guards with a smile and a kind word and I thank them.


May you all have a blessing filled day!







"To God Be The Glory Great Things He Has Done!"



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten