What WAS that?

Today quickly turned in to "errand running" day around Yuma. I went to the post office, Lowe's, work for a few hours, then decided to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to see if they had any good movies on sale. Wal-Mart was absolutely packed but that's not the point of my story.

After dodging 5 million snow birds to get back to the DVD racks, I started browsing the sales. Not much on the $9 and $13 racks blew my skirt up so I pushed further back into the depths of the DVD area, where I discovered a large bin of movies for $5 and quickly began maneuvering my cart toward it. I'm not the best cart driver in the world so when the bin began shaking right when my cart got near it, I assumed that I'd bumped into it. Then I realized - all of Wal-Mart was shaking. This was quite odd to me and it took me a good 2 seconds to realize it was an earthquake.

Now, y'all know me. Y'all know that I grew up in Ohio and have lived almost my entire life in the eastern half of the US. I have experienced only one earthquake before this while I was at Auburn, in the middle of the night. I lived in a mobile home at the time and when the shaking started at 3am, I actually considered the possibility that some drunk college kid had just run their truck into my house. That seemed much more plausible to me than an earthquake.

Back to the story at hand...today's earthquake in Yuma. After I realized what was going on, I started trying to figure out what I should do. What does one do when stuck in the bowels of Wal-Mart during an earthquake? There are no sturdy surfaces to hide under, anywhere you move puts you closer to shelves full of merchandise that could plop down on top of your head. I sized up my options and decided to...continue sorting through the movie bin. I wasn't close to any merchandise shelves, there was nothing to dive under and the shaking didn't seem bad enough to make the rafters or lights fall so searching movies until it was all over seemed like the best idea. Turns out, many others in the store didn't agree with me because they were running around searching for a place to make their dive. Most of them didn't succeed. Everything was fine though, it wasn't a strong tremmor even though it lasted for several seconds. I heard that some merchandise fell off shelves but nothing major.

So the answers to the two questions I've asked myself today...1) What WAS that? It was an earthquake, moron! 2) What does one do when stuck in Wal-Mart during an earthquake? Keep looking at movies because $5 is a great deal and you're getting a brief opportunity to browse while everyone else tries to hide!

I'm still totally over 2009.

Prayer Request

I just got back from an awesome trip home for Christmas. It was so great to spend Christmas with my family and to get to see everyone in just 2 days! Reflecting on the happy time I got to spend with my family, enjoying all the gifts we have in eachother leads me to my request...

One of my very dear friends had a baby, baby Andrew, a few days before Christmas. A few hours after he was born, he was diagonsed with a heart problem called Transposition of the Great Arteries. My friend's husband was in Afghanistan at the time of Andrew's birth but because of this serious issue, the father was able to come home on emergency leave. The whole family is together as baby Andrew goes in to open heart surgery tomorrow to hopefully begin correcting his heart problems. I'd like to ask for prayers for my friend and baby Andrew as they await surgery tomorrow and then hope that Andrew is able to recover. I can't imagine how difficult this Christmas has been for that family.

Any thoughts or prayers you can offer in the coming days are most appreciated!

Dear 2010

Please hurry and get here.  You seem like such a nice year, with your clean even numbers.  There's already so much to look forward to as you approach.  My puppy's coming to live with me, my housewife is coming to live with me, I get to move to my real job as the DASC division head.  I'm so excited for your arrival!

As for 2009, we're through!  It's full of such little annoyances that they've added up to a deal breaker.  Let's examine the most recent evidence.

1) The smoke alarm ordeal
2) The chip I got in my windshield last week
3) The nail I got in my tire over the weekend
4) My garbage can exploding packing peanuts all over my driveway and promptly spread to all my neighbors yards and driveways

Yes, 2009 I have moved on.  I wish you the best of luck though, please just leave me out of it.

He Kills Me...

Who am I talking about?  My Daddy!  I don't have the words to say how much that man has made me who I am; for those of you who know the two of us, no words are necessary.  He taught me, at the same time, how to write a check and high crawl on the old, cracked laminate floor in my parent's kitchen.  That floor isn't there anymore. 

Anyway, when I talked to my folks last week (I've tried to always call them on Sundays, ever since I left home for college) Daddy had a comment about my post a few weeks back about how my weight has gotten a little out of control.  Daddy said, "Kiddo, you need to go on a diet." Thanks Daddy, I hadn't grasped that at all!

This week I had more time to talk to "the fam" because I wasn't 2hrs removed from a weekend of physical pain...i mean my fantastic Crossfit Level 1 Certification...and facing a 3hr drive back to Yuma. So I called my parents before supper...yes, I say supper...time so that I wouldn't have to listen to Daddy fuss because his food was getting cold.  We had a generally standard chat, updating everyone on the goings on of our lives, health, work, etc.  AF and UJ (my favorite aunt and uncle) showed up at my parents house while we were on the phone so I got to say hi to AF and UJ, which is always fun.  Especially getting to talk to UJ, he was my favorite childhood...life long really...pal and I miss him terribly. 

Back to how Daddy kills me!  I told Mom and Daddy that I'd let them go because they had company and, well, I'll be home in a few days and we need something to talk about, and we began to say our goodbyes.  Daddy started his normal "You take care kiddo." which really means "I love you Kid" but he actually said "You take care Kiddo and be safe and I'll see you on Tuesday." 

"Daddy, I'll be home on Wednesday." I said as Mom echoed my words to my father.  Daddy answered "I thought you were coming home on Tuesday.  I'm not going shopping on Christmas Eve!"  Apparently Daddy hasn't shopped for Mom's Christmas gift yet.  I think I can con him into shopping on Christmas Eve though.  Perhaps I should call Mr. John and prep the battlefield a little.  Mr. John is always the best way to get Daddy to do anything he doesn't want to do! 

How to end hunger

I've discovered the best way to make your stomach tell your brain "No more food, thank you."  Simply fill your house with fresh fruits and veggies and some type of lean protein (I chose chicken) and get rid of all your cheese, bread and anything else that contains gluten or is delicious.  I promise after a couple of days of eating like that, you would rather gnaw your right arm off than eat another bite of spinach!

What does that mean, I've been doing a good job eating/working out relm this week.  I worked out Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and am taking a rest day today.  Tomorrow I'm going to do something relatively light, probably some 800m tempo repeats in preparation for my Combat Fitness Test on Friday, along with some core work.  Thursday will be a rest day and then I'll jump straight into my super-fitness weekend.  Friday morning I take the CFT; it focuses on short bursts of all out effort over 3 events...should be a good time, I've never taken it before.  Saturday and Sunday, Charlie and I are attending a Level 1 Crossfit certification in Phoenix.  Even though I wasn't able to follow my weekly plan exactly, I think I'm doing pretty good job following the spirit this week.  Next week though, it's on like donkey kong...or something like that.

Family Unite!

I'm getting very excited about going home for Christmas.  The Donnelly's have a Christmas morning tradition that has existed for at least 60 years and I'm sure it's much older than that.  We all get together and have breakfast very, very early on Christmas morning.  I remember first going to my Great Aunt Margaret's house (I think that was her name) and then when she couldn't host anymore...maybe when she died, I don't remember that either, Christmas morning moved to my parents house.  I want to say that was when I was 2 or so.

Anyway, my building excitement for Christmas morning makes me think of lots of things, mostly all the great food traditions that my family and extended family have.  There are lots of recipes that I love and have no idea how to make.  With that in mind, I've decided that my family wide gift for next Christmas is going to be a Donnelly and extended family cookbook.  Mostly, this is a selfish undertaking so that I can have my family's food and carry on some of the traditions while I spend the majority of my time away from home and my family.

So what do I need...I need everyone who has a recipe that holds some family meaning, not necessarily tied to a holiday, to send them to me.  I'd also like to include things like craft projects, games, decorating ideas and the like.  Basically, it's a way to carry the family around with you when you can't be home.  Ok family, let's get it done!

Too much to say

I left work early today and have been sitting toiling around my house, wondering what I should write about.  There's just too much so I'll give a quick blurb about several things.

1) My trip to Quantico - never confuse effort with results.  People sometimes find themselves in over their heads and need to learn to recognize, reassess and actually fix the problem.
2) Eating/Working out - I get a C for this week.  I managed to PT a couple of times but did not manage to actually follow much of a paleo/zone inspired diet.  Hopefully I will remedy that with my trip to the grocery store where I only purchased cooked chicken, veggies, fruit and some cooked turkey sausage (not so paleo/zone but I don't want chicken for breakfast).
3) Joined a Snap Fitness that's 1.3 miles from my house so I can run to and from the gym on weekends and week days when the base gym is close.  Soon, the savings in not having to drive to base to workout on weekends will even out the money I'm spending on a gym membership.
4) I bought some patterns for handbags, skirts and pajama pants that I really want to make.  Now I just have to get a sewing machine.
5) In the desert, 70 degrees feels like 35-40 degrees in places where the average temperature barely gets above 80.  I've lived in the desert for the last 11 months and I'm currently sitting in my 72 degree house in sweatpants, a sweatshirt and cold weather slippers.
6) 6pm.com is the best website of all time.  I got 2 pairs of $100 shoes for $15 each and only $7 for shipping.  LOVE IT!

Ok, I'm out!