chane, chane, change......

Along with the new healthier me, comes the new healthier blog design. Hope you like it.....

A couple of updates :

• I did join weight watchers this morning - so woo hoo !!
• I saw DREAMGIRLS last night and I have to say JENNIFER HUDSON deserves every award she is nominated for and more for her role in this movie - wow !
• I am going to Abilene in the morning for a quick 36 hour turn-around. So, probably no blog again until Sunday.

Have a great weekend.

The mindset.....

I am completely of the belief that the mindset you have when changing the way you eat/live is 100% key to your success. I have often said, that any diet will work for anybody if they have the mindset to commit to it and change. So, how do you get there ?

I don't know.

For me, I have also believed in mind over matter when it comes to getting sick. When I get a sniffle or a symptom - I tell myself, no, no time to get sick and I don't want to be sick. And, I don't get sick. Obviously, there is not much I can do about food-poisoning which I recently experienced but overall this works for me. If I say, ugh, I am getting sick, where's the bed, I want my mommy....then my body will react accordingly and I will get sick.

Now, this is just me.

So, what am I doing to get ready for my healthier change in 2007. I am talking to myself, talking to my mind and body. I am acknowledging the challenges, worrying about the stuff I am going to miss and crave and generally getting my mind ready for the change. I know it is not going to be easy and that is the thing I really think I need to work on from a mindset stand-point so I don't get discouraged. I am joining Weight Watchers tomorrow....it is a good place for support and the accountability of a weigh-in. I started last week trying to walk 0.5 mile at lunch...and once I am not huffing and puffing when I get home, I will increase the distance. I'm not meeting my goal of every work day yet by 100% but I am working on a gradual improvement to get there - I am doing more than I was two weeks ago and that is a good start.

Let the change begin.

First things first.....

....so I made a few changes effective January 1 that I am putting in place right away. NUMBER ONE ... be healthier. Seriously, I have an overall goal for 2007 of getting healthier and part of that was telling myself that I am smart enough to know what food to not put in my mouth...and first to go on that list is fried food. I am no longer eating anything fried. Period. Really, I don't think it is going to be that difficult. There are plenty of things to eat at restaurants, etc. that are not fried. A few more items immediately on the banned list are white rice, white bread and regular pasta. I may eat the whole grain versions of these on occasion but overall....banned.

More updates on changes later.

The story of their lives....Bob da*n it.......

Well, I finally got past my EIGHT days in a row of working - ugh !! It was so exhausting. And now I am officially on my new schedule. So, I had Friday and Saturday off. I spent Friday hanging out with a friend in the morning and then ran errands in the afternoon, I wanted the day to be fairly restful because Saturday I was taking the THEA test at 8:00a. This is a test for college placement and also the test required to enter the Education program at UTA. There are three parts to the THEA, Reading, Writing and Mathematics. I have to achieve certain scores in each one to get into the program.....270, 220 and 230 respectively. I will get the test scores back in 10 days. I thought it was long and tiring but I think I did good.

After the test I went home to relax and took a little nap. I went to the No Frills Grill at 5:00p to hang out, eat, play trivia and watch the Cowboy's game. Well, this picture pretty much sums that experience up :
With less than 2 minutes to play, the Cowboys are losing 21-20, they march it down the field to like the 5-yard line but cannot get the touchdown. So, Gramatica comes in for the 3-point kick to win the game. It's a 19-yard kick, a no brainer. But as is the story of their lives, Tony Romo fumbles the snap, the good snap, and the extra-point is history. He tries to grab the ball and run it in but, it's all over. Even a hail-mary with 2 seconds left can't save them.

It was a screaming, cussing and yelling moment. So disappointing. Which brings me to my last blog topic, swear words. I don't really use them that often. I might say "What the hell?" in a moment of frustrated confusion but I don't really have a standard swear word for those instant moments, like when you stub your toe or are just flat out mad. So, I created a new one. Bob damn it. The beauty of Bob damn it is that you are not taking the Lord's name in vain but it sounds similar enough to the common version that you are still getting your anger across. Feel free to start using it yourself.

Until next time.......peace out.

OK, so it's that time.....

....time to pick the folder/notebook colors for my classes so I can search my warehouse of office supplies to see if I need to buy anything. This semester I gave the task to my cousin since he was so disappointed in my choices last semester. Here are our emails back and forth :

To : Tom
From : Tracy

I am giving you the honor of picking my school folder colors for this semester. Here are my classes :

MATH 1308 - ELEMENTARY STATSTICS
SCIE 3301 - INTEGRATED PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY
SCIE 3305 - ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS

What colors do you choose and then I will blog them for everyone to see ??

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To : Tracy
From : Tom

okay - well, math is really black and white, so I would pick either of those colors.

physics and chemistry...hmmmmm...i'm not really feeling a color preference...so, YELLOW!

environmental systems - i'm not even sure what this class would entail, but anytime i think of the environment, i hope for GREEN systems.

i'm at work - gotta go

So there you have it.

ELEMENTARY STATSTICS - black
INTEGRATED PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY - yellow
ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS - green

Christmas Recap.....

OK - so here is the Christmas recap.....first of all, of course it was awesome to see my parents even though it was only for a short time. I met them Saturday morning [the 23rd] for breakfast at The Cracker Barrel in Arlington on the their way to Abilene. We had a great breakfast and I gave them my presents to take down with them. I got a tour of the trailer and then they were off. I worked Saturday and Sunday and headed to Abilene at 5p on Christmas Eve. Arrived safe and sound and finished up the thumbprint cookies my dad loves when I got there. The kids were decorating cookies and everything was ready to go.

That evening, we played Mason's 'Show Me The Present' game where he had put together a little present for each of us and then we had to answer Christmas trivia questions. Although Grammy's question was questionably Christmas related. It was a lot of fun and was just another example of how creative he is. We got cookies and reindeer food out for Santa and the reindeer - then I was off to bed out in the trailer with Mason and Dad.

The next morning we all got up to see if Santa had been there and open presents. Here are several pictures from the day.

[before the madness begins]

[emptying out the stockings]

[Mason's favorites]

[Morgan's favorite]

[Morgan's horse jean jacket]

[The Cars tent - taking up most of Mason's room]

[Inside the Cars tent]

[The aftermath]

I got all kinds of awesome gifts from everyone. I got a Playstation 2, some royal blue CROCS, some stereo speakers for my living room to plug my iPod into so I can have music. I got , the KONE, some games for the PS2, some bling for my iPod. I got a lot of ornaments from Mom and JoLynn 'cause my tree needs some work. Overall it was a great Christmas !

Of course I had to work on Tuesday, so I left Christmas afternoon to head back home. And sadly, instead of making myself something to eat when I got home, I went out for a bite. The next day was basically HELL. Somehow, something I ate was not good....and Tuesday was the worst day of 2006 - I was sick and aching all day. It was horrible. I worked for a couple of hours just to get some stuff done but then I was in bed the rest of the day. It was awful. Thanks to Courtney for bringing me chicken noodle soup, crackers and sprite.

Mom and dad ended up coming through town earlier than planned and we had dinner at Steak and Ale where I had some grilled chicken breast and potato - still being careful from my last outing and then they were off the next morning.

Overall - the holidays were great - even though they were short and I didn't get to go back to Abilene to spend time with mom and dad since I was sick. Next year, when I have some vacation time things will be much better and less hectic.

I hope everyone that reads this had a wonderful holiday and was able to spend time with family and friends.

New schedule......

So, this is my new work schedule effective next week - that fits around my school schedule. I am so lucky that I am working for a company that works with me to help accommodate this. I will have Friday/Saturday off also which is great. I worked every weekend for this last 6-months so it will be nice to have one weekend day off.

By the way, the school part of this schedule doesn't start until Monday, January 15th.
I will post tomorrow with Christmas pictures and stories.

Grades !

Just a quick post with my Fall 2006 grades :

TRIGONOMETRY : A
ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM SOLVING : A

What I expected....it was a good semester and I am looking forward to Spring classes.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'.....

...my new company is awesome. Just had to post a quick note to say that. I have been rolling in gifts and accolades over the last two weeks and late yesterday I received this wonderful gift via FedEx !!

I can already tell 2007 will be filled with peace and harmony.

[Ceasar - my bamboo]

Thank you, Cynergy !! Happy Holidays !

Merry ^%$#*@^ Christmas

To be honest, I am titling this blog solely based on this picture :

I went to BEST BUY on Wednesday to look for something. I was in there all of 10 minutes, because of course, they didn't have what I was looking for, and when I came out, I was greeted with the excellent parking job you see here by the owner of this Infinity QX4 SUV. It's hard to tell from this picture, but basically they were parked about 4 inches from the driver's door of my Honda Civic. Needless to say, I could not get in my car. I was livid. I went back in the store armed with the license plate number, etc. and had them paged FOUR times. No one ever came to move the car. Finally, after waiting about 30 minutes at my car....I had some skinny girl that was coming out with her boyfriend, climb into the passenger side and back my car out for me. Let's face it, this bod was not designed for that kind of maneuver. So people, if you are going to be out shopping, LEARN TO PARK !!!

OK, so that is all about that.

Wednesday, I met my friend Charles for shopping first thing in the morning so he could finish his shopping for his family. I think I am a personal shopper to all my male friends, you know who you are. We had lunch at RED ROBIN which I had never been to and was very good for a "gourmet burgers" joint. Basically, the rest of the day Wednesday and all day Thursday were devoted to finishing my Christmas shopping, of course I went overboard this year. Also, had some dinner and trivia at the No Frills Grill one night which was nice. And, I did find the elusive RED wrapping paper at Hallmark. But, of course, I have a beef with it. If I am going to spend the money to buy wrapping paper at HALLMARK, I expect it to be good, sturdy paper. It was not. Two of the presents I wrapped with it, I could see the packaging right thru the paper. So no surprise for those recipients if they look hard enough. I had to use two layers on one package for my nephew so I knew he wouldn't see what the present was.....grrrrrrr ! I'm just saying, Hallmark, get your act together with your paper. We are wrapping them so they will be a surprise, so I shouldn't be able to see thru the paper. Duh !

More tomorrow with family travel updates, etc. and my journey for the holidays. And Season, just FYI, since my whole family converges at my sister's house, we like to wrap our presents basically with the same paper or at the very least, a theme, so we can tell them apart, in other words, what came from who, etc. It's a goofy tradition, but we all do it.

Red wrapping paper......

.....okay, if I were a retail store that carried wrapping paper, when Christmas was close, I would overstock red and green wrapping paper and then get all the Christmas paper in too. But, apparently that is not how others think. I bought some wrapping paper for Christmas, I like to wrap all of my presents in the same paper, and it is red with white snowflakes on it. Very simple and cute. Well, I didn't buy enough, of course, because for some reason my presents are large this year....and I thought, well, I'll just get some plain red wrapping paper to go with it. Apparently, at Christmas no one has any red wrapping paper.....as one might expect. I've seen some red glitter paper some red on red paper but no plain ole red flat wrapping paper. So, my day off tomorrow will be in search of this elusive wrap.

The rest of the week.....finishing the "chore list" - mom and dad drive through on Friday or Saturday and then I go to Abilene Sunday night. I stay for Monday, Christmas day, and then drive back home that night to work Tuesday, then back to Abilene Tuesday night for my two days off. Quite the whirlwind. I'm looking forward to spending what time I can, with mom and dad.

Until later.....

Tag ! I'm too friendly.....

So, Alberto "tagged" me - for all you novice bloggers out there - this means he has taken some quiz or answered some question or list of questions on his blog and now he has "tagged" me to do the same.

So, the question is - what are your top 5 Christmas Songs ??

Well, I go for the oldies but goodies.....the deep ballads and poignant lyrics. So, in no particular order :

1. The Christmas Song [Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire]
2. The Little Drummer Boy
3. The First Noel
4. Silent Night
5. Blue Christmas - sung by Elvis Presley, of course

OK - I tag Courtney, JoLynn and Curtis to list their 5 favorite Christmas songs.

And, guess what, I won the NOVEMBER INCENTIVE contest at work - this is data compiled over the month on lots of call stats, attendance, etc. The only thing I need to work on - I'm too friendly. Who'd a thunk it ??

Winter cleaning......

....well, it is that time of year again. The one time my parents come into town, which means a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious cleaning job is now under way. I have a list of 11 items that must be done before they get here and exactly 11 days until they get here. No problem....however, blogging may be slowing down while this is in progress. I promise at least one more blog this week after I take my final on Wednesday but other than that they may be kinda sparse for the rest of the year. I'll do what I can.

Wish me luck on the cleaning !

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

...I decided to add a little snow to my blog for the winter. In Texas we don't see snow that often so I thought it would be fun to have it on my blog to look at. Let me know if you like it.

End of the semester, finally.....

Well, today was my last day of regular class for this semester. I have one final in Trigonometry tomorrow [yes, Saturday] and another final next Wednesday morning but that's it. I am expecting A's in both classes but will post the final grades here when I get them.

Next semester starts up on January 14th....I am submitting a work schedule revision request to my boss next week to accommodate those classes and will post my new schedule here when I have it. Next semester I am taking :

• Elementary Statistics
• Integrated Physics/Chemistry
• Environmental Systems

No worries.....I am looking forward to it. The two science classes are just overviews of their subject matter - no lab or anything. One of the new friends I made in my Applied Math class this semester, Mandy, is in two of my classes so that will be nice.

More later.

Why I love the NO FRILLS GRILL

Those of you that read my blog on a semi-regular basis often see me mention the No Frills Grill as either a place I recently have been or am planning to go. I have been wanting to post about it for awhile but tonights visit was the trigger. This is a long post but I think it will entertain.

My family has been going to the No Frills Grill since they opened. There are 4 locations .... one in Arlington [the original], one in Ft. Worth [where I go now], one in Mansfield and one in Keller. I have spent time in all but the Mansfield location. It started out as a very simple bar and grill where the menus were hand stamped on brown paper bags and the variety of food was simple and yummy. One draw was the fact that they had NTN trivia and another was that they were right next to a movie theatre. The initial family favorite was shrimp quesadillas but our list of favorites has grown over the years as they have.

Here are some pictures from MY No Frills Grill taken last month :

[The outside of the No Frills Grill]

[Jessica - the favorite waitress]

[The NTN trivia game box]

Being a regular, when I enter the building, I know all of the waiters and waitresses names and they know mine. Without asking, within minutes a diet coke is sitting in front of me. The manager, Dave, may sit down at the table and chat for awhile and when it is a slow night the wait staff may also plop down for a visit.

There are many regulars, even a celebrity or two. Barry Corbin, who is known for his role as Maurice Minnifield in Northern Exposure, as General Jack Beringer in War Games, and more recently as Coach Whitey Durham on One Tree Hill is there almost every night when he is in town, with the 'Brain Trust' as I call them. He is super nice and will take a picture or sign an autograph if you ask. I've also seen local radio personality Kidd Kraddick from 106.1 KISS FM there with his family on occasion.

I enjoy the food, and as I have mentioned, I also play trivia on their NTN trivia game. I have always enjoyed soaking up trivia and quiz type games so I find this an integral part of the fun at the No Frills Grill. And it doesnt hurt when I outscore the 'Brain Trust' some nights.

But, the real reason I love to go to the No Frills Grill is the people. Not just the employees but the customers. I have seen and heard many things at the No Frills Grill. I've overheard loud conversations about sexual habits, I've seen grown men gather in an extremely organized manner to draft their fantasy football team live, I've seen a kid suck the ketchup out of a ketchup bottle while his mom wasn't looking. I've seen drunk people in Halloween costumes, I've counted the number of plastic cups a person has stacked in front of them on dollar beer night and wondered how they were getting home. But tonight was a banner night for observation and experience. Tonight I saw a girl reserve a table for 10-20 of her closest friends to have only 9 show up and that was at least an hour after she shoved 3 tables together. I saw Barry get dragged to the bar by some women holding his hand and shouting choo-choo like a train as she drug him along behind her. I saw a man in the dining room pull a saxophone out of its case and proceed to serenade someone in the bar and in the dining room with Happy Birthday and more importantly, I saw the girl with 9 friends walk around from the dining room to the bar several times with a piece of toilet paper hanging out of the back of her pants like Rapunzel. Here are two "blurry" cell phone pictures for proof, and when I left still no one had told her.

[Sitting at her table]

[One of many treks to the bar]

This is why I love the No Frills Grill.

Carry on.

Elevator Etiquette

I don’t know who raised half [or more] of the population but apparently whoever it was, they did not teach their offspring about elevator etiquette. I am asking you now to learn this lesson and pass it on. When you are waiting on an elevator, make sure you are standing to the side when the door opens allowing EVERYONE on the elevator time to exit before you move forward and step on. DO NOT plow onto the elevator the minute the doors open. This applies to basically ALL forms of public transportation, which an elevator is unless you have one in your home and then you can do whatever the hell you want to. This morning at school as I am trying to get off the elevator three girls plow into me, trying to get in, when there are still more people trying to get off. As I walk by them, they rudely say “Excuse me.” as they knock my backpack from my shoulder in their rush to enter the elevator. Needless to say, we almost had a throw-down.

Be polite. Be considerate. Do unto others.....

Yep, it's the busy season.....

....so December brings in many things, one of which is what I call the busy season. That time of year when I have a million things to do. Sadly, it is the time of year that I usually want to savor and have go by slowly so that the time my parents are here for Christmas seems to last longer and the few days off I have from work seem more restful. But that is never the case. So what is on my calendar this month ?

Well, I did get a couple of things done last week. One, I put a fresh coat of paint on my hair....ha ha ! Yep, those greys were starting to take over. And, yesterday, I finally finished putting up my Christmas tree. I'm still looking for the tree skirt [white sheet] that goes underneath - but here are a couple of pictures for you.

And....this week is crazy.

Monday - Class/Work/Part 2 of Trigonometry test [Part 1 was was easy]
Tuesday - Work/Dinner with the White's
Wednesday - Class/Haircut appointment / group study for Applied Math final
Thursday - Working to have Saturday off
Friday - Class/Work/Review for Trigonometry final
Saturday - Trigonometry final
Sunday - Work

And then one more final on the 13th....and Diabetic training.....I'm learning to be diabetic. LOL ! Actually, on my last Dr.'s visit the results of my blood work showed that I am borderline diabetic - so now I am on yet more meds and I have to go see a nutritionist so she can help me get my blood sugar under control. Another step in my plan for next year to be the year I get my health back on track.

Well, there's an update from me for the next week. Ciao for now !

Don't like the weather ?

In Texas they say if you don't like the weather, then just wait a minute. That saying couldn't have been more true than 2 days ago. On Wednesday, we topped out at a balmy 80 degrees - it was sunshine and shorts all day. I went to the movie that night, around 5:00p, when I came out of the theatre 2 hours later the temp had dropped 35 degrees.....and it was raining.

By the next morning it was VERY cold.....around 30 degrees when I woke up and it actually got colder throughout the morning. From about 10:00a - 3:00p - it was rain, sleet and snow.....yes, snow. The weather person called it a "winter-mix" and it was a mess. Luckily I had no work and no school yesterday so I just stayed in and snuggled up.

Here are some pics from the day :

[the ledge on my balcony]

[a close-up of the ledge]

[my patio chairs]

[my footsteps on the balcony]

[my poor car]

Calling in sick.....

...those of you that know me, know that this is something I rarely do , in fact I have very STRONG opinions about missing work and tend to be judgemental in that regard even though I try not to. Anyway, I found a recent article about it today and this is an excerpt from the article [because if I listed the whole thing, I would be getting up on my soapbox]....when you comment, tell me which one of these made you laugh out loud.

Workers who are chronic offenders may be running out of ideas. Forty-one percent of hiring managers said they have received unusual or suspicious sick day alibis. Sixty-two percent did not believe them, according to the survey. When asked to share the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, hiring managers offered the following examples:

1) Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.
2) A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.
3) Employee was feeling all the symptoms of his expecting wife.
4) Employee called from his cell phone, said he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and no one was around to let him out.
5) Employee broke his leg snowboarding off his roof while drunk.
6) Employee's wife said he couldn't come into work because he had a lot of chores to do around the house.
7) One of the walls in the employee's home fell off the night before.
8) Employee's mother was in jail.
9) A skunk got into the employee's house and sprayed all of his uniforms.
10) Employee had bad hiccups.
11) Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out.
12) Employee's horses got loose and were running down the
highway.
13) Employee was hit by a bus while walking.
14) Employee's dog swallowed her bus pass.
15) Employee was sad.

It was number 11 for me......ha ha !!