Mirrors

Have you priced mirrors lately? C'mon, it's just a piece of glass with silver paint, right? I'd like to put a nice one over my mantel but I'm reeling over the cost of those I like.

So I've been thinking about mirrors. I like the dining room mirror since it is an antique but no one hardly looks in it. I use the bathroom mirrors to put on what little makeup I wear and brushing whats left of my hair. I try to use the bathroom mirrors to see to pluck those damn hairs that appear on my chin, which I check for constantly but don't seem to find until I'm somewhere in public and am sure everyone notices it. The bathroom mirrors in my house are not good for finding these chin hairs. The light is not good in any of the bathrooms. But if it is a sunny day, the car's vanity mirror in the visor is great for finding and plucking those hairs.

My teenage daughter is appalled that I go into the car in the driveway and groom my chin.

I lost my funny

About 9 months ago I was going thru a major anxiety issue and my doctor put me on Prozac. I'm not complaining, it did wonders for calming me down and stopped me from feeling like everyone was trying to put a knife in my back. But I do think it evened out my personality a bit too much. I can't seem to see the hilarity in life like I use to. I'm considering getting off the Prozac and will be discussing this with my doctor in a few weeks. I want my funny back.

I still find a lot of humor in everyday living but when I try to write about it, it seems too forced or more like a list of complaints (wait, isn't what this is? Shit, am I going to have to delete this too? AAARRGGH!)

It could be that I've lost my funny along with my fat. Perhaps I was one of those fat jolly people and as I've lost weight, I'm no longer jolly? Well, I should be damn funny still since I've got loads more fat to drop!

Cookies Galore

I took over the job of Girl Scout Cookie Manager for all of my town. There are about 30+ Girl Scout Troops with about 350 girls. My job is to supply all the troops with the 8 varieties of GS cookies throughout the sale. I keep a stock of cookies to parcel out and resupply as needed. My goal at the end of today, the last day of sales is to have an empty garage. So far my plan has failed.

Every year GSUSA changes the types of cookies we sell. They will always have Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils, DoSiDos and Tagalongs. Then they have 3 other types that they replace after 1-3 years. This year the 3 types we have are Lemon Chalet Cremes, Dulce de Leche, and Thank U Berry Munch. All three are not selling very well, with the Lemon hardly selling at all. The Lemons got bad press this year. The bakery recalled some lots of Lemons because the taste was "off". Now our council did not receive any of these packages but the local news reported it and people were leery. Many of my troops found they could not sell these so I took them back. The Dulces are selling because they changed them from the previous year and the Thank U's have cranberries in them and people are just not jumping at that.

My garage is full of Lemons, Dulces and Berries. Now we have a program to deal with left over cookies. We collect donations for Operation Cookie Drop. Our donations are used to buy our cookies to send to US military. People are very supportive of this drive and give generously. The cookies left in my garage are used for Operation Cookie Drop. I really hope that the military loves the taste lemon as I think the bulk of what they are getting will be these. Besides, the chocolate based cookies don't travel as well and melt in the heat of the desert.

Buy cookies!

New Year Resolution

I started swimming at the local pool yesterday. This doesn't seem like a big deal but I don't think I've put on a swim suit for a couple of years.

So I dig thru my dresser and find 4 swim suits. One is so old that I can see thru the thing so it's out. Another was old but looked okay. And 2 were practically new. Both the good suits were the same size so I figure I'm set...until I try them on. One is just a tad to big and the other cut circulation off in my legs.

I wear the one good suit that is a tad big and it's okay, a little low in the front but I didn't swim out of it. My friend Mary and I spent about 45 minutes in the pool and it was fun. I did about 6 lengths of the pool and a lot of treading and kicking and floating.

Today my suit was still a bit damp so I wore the one that looked okay. It was fine until I got into the water and the last of the spandex disappeared and I had saggy bottom. Not that I don't have saggy bottom all the time but this was ugly.

So now I have one suit that fits and one that will fit soon (I hope). I did 30 minutes in the pool today and I can't wait to go again. I got a 3 month pass to help keep me motivated.

Tiny Rocks

Every morning I swing out of bed and into my slippers and every morning there is tiny gravel in my slippers. Now I know that no one else in the family wears my slippers so where's the mysterious rocks coming from? My bed is not full of tiny stones as Rob would have a fit as he can't sleep if there is a wrinkle in the sheets much less a sand box.

You would think that I would shake out my slippers before putting them on each day to clear them of these tiny pest. But I don't.

Have a Rocking Christmas.

My Favorite Christmas Song

Christmas Cookies and Ornaments

Last night was party night with my Brownie Girl Scouts. First we lined up (some parents helped), each took a day from the Twelve Days of Christmas. We sang the first part together, then each girl had to sing their gift. The girl who had a partridge in a pear tree, had a tough time pronouncing partridge. They love it so much, we did the twelfth day twice.

Next they colored wooden ornaments and then they made shrinky dink ornaments. Some we shrunk in the oven but others we watched shrink as I blew my heat gun over them. They all got a kick out of watching them twist and make gross shapes before flattening out.

For snack they decorated cut out cookies. Lots of colored sprinkles, shapes and sugars over the frosting. And Mint Hot Chocolate. They were in heaven, in a sugar coma, bouncing off the walls. I'm so glad that none of those girls are mine and I got to send them home.

Teenage Girls

I'm very fortunate to have been a Girl Scout leader for over 9 years now. Currently I have a 2nd grade Brownie Troop and a 9th grade Senior Troop. Most of the 9th graders I have known for over 9 years and they are like my own kids.

At our Senior Girl Scout meeting we have a planning session on what to do next, do some badge work or an activity and then have a feast, er, snack. This last couple years I've been having them make their own snack. They get to chose for some meetings, I get to chose for others. Last night they got to decorate cut out cookies with frosting and sprinkles. It was a major sugar fest but then it's almost Christmas and we limited it to 2 cookies to eat now and take the rest home. They also consumed almost a gallon of milk too.

This time is also spent for open discussions. For most of them the topic is boys, school and fashion. They got started talking about how many of the boys at school talk openly about masturbation. My co leader and I let them carry on with these type of discussions and occasionally offer advice or correct misconceptions they have. Only 2 of the 8 girls are dating yet. I love that they can be open and feel free about their lives.

Oh yeah, our activity last night was cutting out snowflakes. They thought it was goofy until I showed them how to fold and cut the paper to make a 6 pointed flake. Then they didn't want to stop. Don't they teach snowflake making in school anymore? Next I'm going to show them paper doll chains.

Why I don't Blog much anymore

I haven't been myself for a while. I've been dealing with depression and other health related issues. I created My Cat ate my Brain as a place to post things that tickled my fancy or stories that I feel are hilarious. For a while now, its been a struggle to lay pen to paper, or in this case, finger to keyboard and get the ideas to come out. My meds are working tho and I'm feeling much better but other things aren't so good. These are the things I'm concentrating on now.

Most of my health issues are related to my weight. I'm fat, or as the doctor's term it morbidly obese. If I don't do something soon, I do not doubt that my life will be shorter and you can't blog from heaven. On Dec 23rd I'm having Gastric Bypass Surgery to help me on the way to a better and longer life. This is not a miracle cure or a skip in the park. It is a drastic life style change. My love affair with food is over and we are going to be just friends. And with most friends, you can only handle a little at a time.

To document my journey into the world of healthy living, I've created another blog called Losing It at http://toshortformyweight.blogspot.com/ Please stop by and lend me your support and encouragement along my journey.

May everyone have a great Christmas.

Chris

Premeditated Acts of Violence

Yesterday 4 Police Officers were slain by a lone gunman who entered a coffee shop known as a police hangout in a town near where I live. He went in with the intent to kill police officers. This incident comes less than a month after a car side shooting in Seattle where an officer was targeted. They have a suspect in the Seattle killing in custody. They have a suspect in the shooting yesterday but haven't found him to arrest as yet.

I am very upset by these killings. I'm frightened. The hubs is a police officer. Although we didn't know the officers slain or their families, we know what kind of people they are. They are us.

Do I worry about my hubs job? Yes
Do I wish he wasn't a cop? No
Would I ask him to change jobs? Never

I have immense pride in him and all those in law enforcement. He loves what he does. It takes a special person to be a cop. They don't do it for the money (it's not the best paying job around). They don't do it for the glory. They do it because they believe in our country, our communities, our safety.

I hope I never have to face what the families of those officers are going through. I pray my husband and his coworkers, his friends, never have to face a crazed killer.