Hello from the Black Hills!!

My son and I are spending the week at my Dad's house. The main goal is to sort through...oh, 30+ years of clutter! My son and I worked on it a little bit yesterday morning. We're sorting toys to be given away, kept for my nephews to play with when visiting Grandpa, and kept as sentiment. Dad had made me a Barbie doll house....23 years ago? Maybe even longer. I'm going to be taking that home with me, and probably all of my Barbie stuff. I have a niece who visits often, and she will enjoy it. Although, it has a lot of sentimental value, so it may become a "showpiece" instead. We'll see.

I'm also going to be taking home stuff Mom saved from as far back as elementary school. I have no doubt I will even find stuff from before then. My brother doesn't want his, but Dad & I feel that it might be "safer" to box it up and store it just in case he changes his mind or his wife or sons have a curiosity.

Today I will get to spend the day with my sister-in-law and my 2 nephews (2-1/2 years and 9 months). I am so looking forward to it! Partially because I get to use my Hobby Lobby gift card I got for my b-day, but mostly because I get to spend time with my family. I am desperately lonely where we live. My son spent last night with one of his best friends, and I'll get him back this afternoon. Then we'll spend the evening with another friend. Tomorrow we'll spend the day working upstairs. Thursday I'll hang out with my sister-in-law at her house (and if it's nice enough, we'll go to the beach at Sheridan Lake again!!).

We'll be going home Monday morning. I won't have a weigh in until Tuesday morning. I've also decided to move my treadmill downstairs so I can watch Night Court in the mornings!! lol

Well, it's time to get going to meet my sister-in-law. Thanks for reading!!

~~Heather

New 'Babies!'

Ziggy

Izzy

Fuzzy checking Iggy out.

We got 2 leopard geckos today!!

They were on Freecycle, a lady can't take care of all her critters anymore. They are actually really sweet and *very* soft. The female is "Izzy" and the male is "Ziggy." I had them named that before I even saw them, and nothing else seemed to fit. :-) The poor cats aren't sure which is more of a curiosity...the geckos or the crickets!! (edited as my DH suggested "Izzy" instead of "Iggy" for the female, so we renamed her. Again. lol)

Things are going well. I start doing phone calls Monday. I could log in between now and then, but I think I won't. I'm just not altogether that anxious to be on the phones, ya know? I am off full QA for my medical transcription contract. That means that they no longer read all my reports before going to the hospital/doctor/clinic, but will instead randomly check them. That makes me *very* happy! I also potentially have another contract coming in...I'm still waiting to hear back.

I'm looking forward to spending a week in the Black Hills, the 21-27th. My DH will be unable to come with, but that's OK. He can take care of the new critters!

I'm slowly still losing weight. I do miss the vet clinic job in that respect. But such is life. I did notice, on my ticker from ticker factory, that my BMI is down a full 2 percentage points. I thought that was pretty amazing!!

Not much else...trying to at least make ends meet...and maybe be winter be slightly coming out ahead? We'll see what the future brings.

~~Heather

Happy July 2

I was watching a repeat of David Letterman the other night. His guest was Julia Roberts. What a fun segment!! She actually had him speechless a few times. And she looks incredible, of course. I would love to be able to sit down and have lunch with her someday. Wouldn't that be a treat?!

I'm slacking this week on movement. I'm struggling to hit 1,000 steps a day...youch!! We kind of spent a week of no schedules while my DH was on vacation. I need to get back into a routine, that's for sure. Even when the alarm is set, DH turns it off if he wakes up before it. Hello? I need it too!! Oy. It doesn't help that we've been staying up until 11 or so at night, either. Need to work on that and drinking more water and moving. I bet I sound like a broken record!! LOL

My DS will be leaving for 5 days tomorrow, to go visiting relatives. Lucky him. :-) I was supposed to go, but will be doing my training.

I read an article at the Newsweek website about the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) wanting to euthanize wild horses!! They are "overcrowded" in the corrals. Well, put 'em back in the wild, dodoheads!! *sigh* But lobbyists for the beef industry have convinced WA that the horses (27,000 left) are doing more damage to wild lands than 4+ million cattle. Hmm...let's think about this.

Some ranchers are turning to raising buffalo over cattle. Why? Well...for one, cattle will bury a watering hole/spring. Put a herd of buffalo in the same pasture, they will find it back and open it back up. Put a herd of cattle in a blizzard, they will turn tail to it and start to walk...right off cliffs, into creeks, etc. Buffalo? They do something we all should do with our problems: They face the blizzard head on and survive.

I like beef as much as the next person. However, I don't think 27,000 mustangs are harming the federal lands (you know...the lands we *all* pay taxes on) more than 4+ million cattle.

I could go on and on, but I won't. It's frustrating to me. I've never been into politics, but some things just irritate me.

At least it's a nice day today. Yesterday got a little warm for my taste...almost had to turn the AC on!! :-)

~~Heather