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

25th Anniversary of a terrible disaster

Today is the 25th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.
Do you remember where you where when this happened? I know different generations have different tragedies that they will always remember.
Jan. 28th 1986 @ 11:38 am EST.
I was living in Spring Valley, CA. I was in the 8th grade sitting in homeroom at La Presa Jr. High. We were watching it on televsion.

Seven lives were lost that day. Something that was supposed to be so amazing ended so terrible.




Tuesday Feb. 1st will be the 8th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster.
I was standing in my kitchen watching the shuttle on television while my 4 yo played.


Another seven lives lost.



Please take a moment to remember the families of these fourteen heroes from our space program.



Edited to add:

Yesterday was the 44th Anniversary (so before my time) of the Apollo 1 Disaster where all three crew members were killed in a fire in the cockpit.




Here is a nice interactive link I found that allows the viewer the chance to learn more about these 17 people.

NASA Day of Remembrance










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



JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

My friend Sylvia over at ChristianHomekeeper does a Homekeepers Journal. She gives the prompts and anyone can answer them on their blog. She has a McLinky on her site so anyone who participates can add their blog and we can go read it!




This week’s Journal is all about HOME

In my homey kitchen …..
There are dishes in the sink that need to be done and dinner ingredients on the counter

My thoughts on being at home ……
I love it. I love being home when my hubby gets home from work and I love being able to be here when dd leaves for school. It also gives me the opportunity to pick her up from school and be with her every afternoon. I also love being able to take the time to make meals from scratch.

A constant habit I have of making my home comfortable is ….
Making it smell nice with candles (I almost always have a candle warmer going) or food cooking. I always open up all the windows when the weather allows. This way there is fresh air.

If I could change the decor of my home ….
I would love to get matching furniture. Furniture that matches the decor and each piece.. LOL

What I want my children/spouse/other family to remember about my home is …
It always smelled nice and was a great place to bring friends over to. I want them to remember it as homey.

Home …
To me home is more than just a house. It is somewhere where love grows and families make memories.






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


JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

Today I did it.. I actually pulled out one of the work out DVD's and did a 1 mile walk with Leslie Sansone. The DVD I used was Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds: 5 Day Fit Walk. I was able to do the 1 mile walk with out having to take a break. I was pretty pumped about that... I also did a 22 minute workout with the Wii Fit Plus. I was so excited when I stepped on the balance board and saw that I had lost 7 pounds since Thanksgiving. I did a workout that was equal to 3.98 mile bike ride, a few minutes on the "stepper", and a couple of yoga poses. I felt awesome!

I have gotten my butt in gear and also gotten back on SparkPeople. I think it will help to record what I am eating and doing for workouts. It will be easier now that there is an app for my phone so I have NO excuse not to keep up with it..

I was so full of energy (believe it or not) after the workout that I attacked my desk. I actually got it 98% cleaned. Frankie came home so that ended my cleaning. But it is all nice and neat and I was able to find my food/workout journal that I started last year (gave up after a month of trying to track ww points.)



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


JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten

New Start New Year

Sorry I haven't been on in awhile. Things have been weird for me lately.

A big change we made was enroll The Monkey in public school. I am not overly fond of this decision but I really wanted her to have a diploma and she REALLY wanted to go to school and make friends.. How could I say no. She has completed 2 weeks and LOVES it.. But to me it is really really weird. Her first day of school she came home and told us about other students in the school. Other students (ages 11-13-maybe 14) that had dyed hair, (ok now big as anyone who knows my family knows that The Monkey has Bright Blue Hair) TATTOOS, and PIERCINGS! I almost fell out of my chair... What are middle school students doing with piercings (Other than ears) and tattoos??????? Wow! Have times changed since I was in middle school...

The weird thing for me (other than the piercings and tattoos) is being home for hours a day alone. But my house is loving it. I have made a routine for myself- Up between 4am and 630am (depends on how I slept) sweats, t-shirt and shoes on. The Monkey up at 7am. Breakfast for her and we sit and listen to music before she leaves. Pup goes in the kennel (she LOVES chewing electric cords) and Monkey and I head down stairs to meet friends for her ride to school. Then it is back upstairs for house work. Bed made, dishes done, sweep, go through the house and clean up any messes. Then it is shower and dress time for me. This usually takes me a couple of hours... Then I sit and use the computer a little. Lately facebook has bored me so I am not usually on there. If it wasn't for some family and some great friends I would leave facebook.

I plan on completing my course for Hotel and Restaurant Management this year. I also plan on finishing up a quilt I started for Little Man before he was born (14 1/2 months ago! LOL)
As of Wednesday I will be the official Secretary of the Board of Directors for our condo complex. YAY! I have been a Director at Large for 6 months now.

I also have made a couple of goals for myself. Goal one- planned to reach by the end of the month- is to rely less on pre-packaged food and make 90-05% of all meals by scratch. I also plan to employ me crock pots (all four of them! LOL) more. Goal two- lose weight again. I lost some a couple of years back and unfortunately the weight came back (and brought some friends). Goal three- we have implemented a new family night. Saturday nights is family movie and popcorn night.


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Years.




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


JMFK 11/27/2010 Gone but never forgotten