Superbowl Sunday

My day started with my 4 yr old son throwing up all over me and in my face, literally. Yeah - that was just lovely. Had to laugh -what else can you do. Then later, I started feeling crappy and got a fever. Fun times. My 7 yr old son says to me, "you know mama, that was kind of rude for James to hurl on you and get you sick". Ahhhh well my son, not rude, just part of the job. Besides, it gives me a great story to tell his girlfriends about him when he's older. 

Meanwhile, I guess there is some kind of football game on today that everyone is talking about, and something about commercials. :) Yeah, I'm not watching it, I'm watching a documentary on Alaska. I'm such a rebel that way. 

Whenever I think of Superbowl Sunday I think about my sweet hubby and when we were just newly dating, 20 years ago. It was a Sunday afternoon, and he came to pick me up at my dad's house. My dad says "hey, where are you guys going?". We answered we were going to walk around Washington, D.C. (I lived in VA). My dad was like "WHAT? It's Superbowl Sunday, aren't you going to watch the game???" ... clearly my dad was shocked. My sweet Tom just looked at him with a surprised look on his face, and said "Oh, is that today?". He had no clue. Neither did I. It's not that my husband is anti-athletics or sports or anything, and he can watch a game now and then with the best of them ... but he just hadn't been paying attention. My dad told me to hurry up and marry that man because I had a keeper. My dad was right. I did marry that man. We will celebrate 20 years of marriage in April. 

At any rate; hope you enjoyed your Superbowl Sunday - - whether you were watching television, looking at monuments or dreaming of Alaska.

Here is our wedding pic:  (Happy to say I'm smaller now than when I got married)  ;)

As always, make champion choices,
Debra

Groundhog Dog - Different Meaning to Me

On this day in history, when I was 12 years old, my mother had a heart attack.  At that time, she was only 40 years old.  It was unheard of, really.  She had a major heart attack and was in the hospital for probably 3 weeks I think.  She was overweight and had been a heavy smoker.  This, of course, was the day she quit.  It's hard for me to remember that my parents were smokers before then, but they were.  This was in the 80's, and low-fat everything was all the rage.   So after mom got out of the hospital, we became a low-fat, low-salt household.  I remember her buying some sort of fat-free potato chips and thinking 'why bother?'! LOL   ....

She started an exercise routine after that to help rehabilitate herself.  She got to where she was walking about six miles a day.  She lost a good bit of weight, in addition to quitting smoking.

Fast forward five years, 1987 - she is 45 years old - she unexpectedly died in her sleep from another heart attack.   I was just 17 at the time.  I use to be angry and bitter that she worked so hard, only to die anyway, just 5 short years later.  However; now I realize it was a gift from God.  Her 1st heart attack was so severe, she almost died then.  All of her hard work bought her those 5 extra years, and if you think about it - the five years that a young girl goes through from age 12 to 17 - well those are pretty darn important.

So whenever I think of Groundhog Day - I don't really think about groundhogs or predictions of summer.  I remember coming home from school to an empty house (which NEVER happened) and wondering what the heck was going on.   I remember how everything changed that day.   Happy to say that my father, who is now 70, is definitely still smoke-free, and alive and well.

Present day, I am 43 years old.  I definitely think about the reality of my own mortality - especially given that my mom died so young.  But I'm doing well.  I still have weight to lose, but all my numbers are good (blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.).  I'm a work in progress, but thankfully I've never had to battle smoking or drugs or alcohol or anything like that.  Just food :)

This is a photo of my mother holding me as a baby.

As Always, Make Champion Choices,
Debra

30 Day Challenge Over

So, I just finished up a 30 day challenge that I did privately.  I did not tell a soul about this, not even my husband.  I just kept it to myself.  

You see, I often listen to contemporary Christian music, and here in town, the radio station is KLOVE.  But I never listened to it exclusively.  I would jump around between KLOVE and the local country station, and sometimes a pop station.  I'm not new to Christian music, I've been in love with it since I was a teenager, but it's never been an exclusive choice.

Anyway, the KLOVE station frequently promotes their 30 day challenge, where you make a promise to listen ONLY to Christian music for 30 days, whether on the radio or your iPod or whatever.   I took this challenge and actually did it for 31 days, all of January.  I started New Year's day (obviously).  Again, I never told anybody.

About the 3rd week in, my teenage daughter says to me in the car, 'you know mama, you sure have been listening to a lot of Jesus music lately'.   I just said 'yep'.  She then responded with she thought it was nice.  That was pretty much the end of the conversation.

I must say, I really did enjoy this whole past month of listening exclusively to Christian music.  I'm not saying I'm going to do it that way forever, but I did not change my radio station today, even though it is now February.  One unexpected value that I received from this is the confidence in completing something.  That probably sounds minor, but in all of my heath and fitness quests and challenges and things going on, it's nice to just quietly complete and accomplish a goal.  I find it very motivating.  It makes me want to set MORE goals and meet them/beat them.

Another neat thing happened, I discovered new music ... and found some great workout music.  I finally redeemed some iTunes gift cards I'd been hanging onto and loaded up with a ton of new songs (all Contemporary Christian music).

I also realized that I like listening to the news on the KLOVE station.  You see - in the past - that is always when I would change the channel, because I didn't want to listen to talking.  Once the news or jibber jabber came on, I'd switch to country or something else until I found music.  Participating in this challenge forced me to just leave the station alone and listen to the talking and the news and the testimonies and prayer requests.  I really found this uplifting and encouraging.  I must tell you; I had no idea I was missing out on some of the best stuff from the station.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that.  I'm more motivated, and have been slowing creeping out of this funk I had been in lately.  The month of January did wonders for me.   What goals will you set?  What can you accomplish in February that will put you in a better place?

And speaking of February - - I made a calendar of tasks to do each day this month.  I'm sharing it here, in case you want to participate as well.  Feel free to steal it, borrow it, share it, change it, etc.

As always, make champion choices!

Debra