Cheating on Dunkin Donuts

Yesterday I made an early morning run to Wal-Mart to buy a replacement coffee maker before work. Although I love my French press, I decided it was time to go back to a programmable coffee maker that can wake me up with fresh brewed coffee before I ever get in to the kitchen.  Having secured my purchase in the back seat, I decided to go through the drive thru at Dunkin Donuts for an early morning coffee treat on my way to work. The cheery person at the window handed over my coffee and as she was wishing me a great day, she happened to look into the backseat where the coffee maker was stored. She glanced from the coffee maker and back to me. Our eyes met and I felt like I was caught doing something really wrong! Like somehow I had betrayed this wonderful woman who just made a great cup of coffee for me! I wanted to explain to her that in my defense, I bought the Dunkin Donuts brand coffee to make in my coffee maker but I realized there was no talking my way out of this one. Better to just admit I was a Dunkin Donuts cheater and drive away!  :)

Keep on smiling!

Who's Jeans Are These Anyway!

I am on Day 17 of a 100 Day Challenge to intentionally move 30 minutes every day for 100 days.  Thus the name, 100 Day Challenge.

I have been diligent and hardworking and smart; varying my workouts and cutting back when my knee bothers me. I’ve also become brave enough to do some assisted pull ups and tricep dips even when other people are there!  Believe me, that takes a lot of courage on my part!

The hard part is, I am not losing weight.  My clothes fit differently but the scale has moved very, very little. Yes, I know you should go by how your clothes fit but sometimes it's hard not to be ruled by the scale!

It all brings me back to a time many years ago when I lost a lot of weight. I was hitting it on all cylinders and consistently losing weight along with my clothes fitting differently.

One weekend morning I was absolutely jubilant! I came through the house and said to my husband, “Wow! The scale is the same but my body is really changing! Look at how huge these jeans are on me!  I have the belt cinched all the way in.  They are practically falling off!” I twirled around and probably even danced a little.

My husband looked at me with a curious gaze and said, “Of course they are too big. Those are my jeans.” 

The dancing stopped. I gave him a withering stare.  Was he really trying to take away my weight loss accomplishment with a joke like that? 

He looked sort of taken aback but didn't recant his statement. It was completely unbelievable to me that any human being could be so unsupportive! With one last dagger shooting look, I stomped back to the bedroom. How hurtful! And then I took a good look and…… he was right. They were his jeans!! 

Oh my. If it were truly possible to die from embarrassment, that might have been one of the many moments in my life that would qualify!

But I didn’t die from embarrassment and I changed into a pair of my own jeans, held my head high and continued on my weight loss journey!

I’m on that journey again. This time I’ll be more careful where I grab things from the closet!

And in case you are wondering, that is not a current photo of my husband and I at the beginning of this post.  I know you were wondering!

Keep on smiling!

The Perfect Pick Up Move

I've been married for more years than I have not so the world of current pick up lines and moves is somewhat foreign to me.  But this sounds like a brilliant idea! 

I would love to see this become a cultural norm! :)

Keep on smiling!

I'm a Life Long Bookworm And I Love Old Photos

This is me. And it is a classic. Even at a very young age, I had already mastered the look. "Ummm no.. I have no interest in playing hide and seek with you, you silly boys that claim to be my brothers. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a very good book?"

Truth be told, if you look closely at the photo, I believe the book might be upside down. I am most certain one of my brother's was probably pointing this out and making fun of me which brought on the icy stare of the little sister... Fear the little sister! They found that out later, I'm sure! :)

Their teasing, however, not diminish my life long love of reading. Eventually I almost always had the book right side up and read everything I could get my hands on! From all the books in the church Sunday School rooms to ordering books by mail from the public library when I was a kid living on a farm in the country. They were delivered and returned through the USPS for free! I read every Nancy Drew book and every Hardy Boys book that was available.

Going back to the photo though... I'd like to note that my Mom should totally get credit for inventing the Princess Leia hair style almost a decade BEFORE Star Wars came out in the theaters.  And I mean the ORIGINAL Star Wars!  Few people know where the idea came from.  Until now....

Also of note.... for those that know me.... You can already see that my feet had grown disproportionately large, relative to the rest of my body! Ha ha!! You'd think I would have better balance, all things considered!  Just one of those things that makes me unique!

I am enjoying finding these old photos. They make me smile. Although the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the photos could be better, I am thankful to have these memories preserved! 

Keep on smiling!

The Grand Romantic Gesture

I was pretty late getting home from work last night. I came into the house and found candles lit everywhere - all through the house. It was beautiful and so romantic!

And I thought to myself, “Wow, who are you and what have you done with my husband?” But seriously, the glass is half full and life is full of unexpected surprises so I decided to just roll with it. Carpe diem! So…. with my best come hither smile, I said, “Wow! I love all the candles!”

And my husband looked at me with those hazel blue eyes of his and said, “Oh yeah, it really, really stunk in here when I got home. It was awful. I think it was something in the garbage. I don’t know what but it was really bad. So I took out the garbage and then lit all the candles to get the stink out.”

Ohhh yeah…. that sounds more like my husband. I guess I let my imagination run away with me… :) 

Silver lining! The house smells great now! And I choose to find it romantic that he went through all the work of making sure the stink was gone before I got home! 

Keep on smiling!

Diversity in the Workplace

I am a lifetime HR professional.  It is what I have always done.  Over the years, there have been ever increasing discussions around diversity.

When people think of diversity, generally they think of ethnic diversity, followed closely by gender diversity.

But diversity is so much more than differences in ethnic background or differences in gender!

My administrative assistant is less than half my age.  Let’s call her Peg.

Peg: I’m puttin’ on my boots tonight and going to a Luke Bryan concert!

Kari: Sounds like fun! We have tickets to see Bob Seger next week!

Peg: Oh! The dad from Full House?

Let’s not forget to honor the little things that make us all different and diverse!  And let’s not forget to have a sense of humor!

Keep on smiling!

Bob Saget

Bob Seger

The Rain Gauge

 

We’re from Wisconsin. We talk about the weather a lot. We start off conference calls by asking our coworkers in other parts of the country or world about the weather. Frankly, I thought everyone was as infatuated with the weather as we are. It turns out they are not.

One of my former managers was from California. She said she never understood why people from the Midwest talked about the weather so much. People in southern California don’t talk about the weather.   “How’s the weather today?  It’s 72 and sunny.  Just like every other day in southern California.” What’s the point in talking about it? 

And then she moved to Wisconsin and the reason for all the weather talk became very clear. You never know what’s going to happen.  It can be sunny and warm in the morning when you wake up and blizzard warnings can be out by the afternoon. Or tornado warnings. Or hurricane strength winds. Or wind chills below zero.  You can run the heat in your car on the way to work and need to run your air conditioning on the way home from work.  So the weather is always an interesting topic!

The meteorologists here earn their money. Or at least they give it their best shot.

This summer I bought a rain gauge. Somehow it made me feel very old. I’m not sure why but I have this belief that the only people who own rain gauges and are actually interested in how much rain we get are either farmers (I grew up on a farm) or old people. 

The funeral home in the town I grew up in gave out rain gauges as a gift one year.  So there are still people (probably old people) in my home town with little plastic gauges with the funeral home information on them.

I found my rain gauge when I was looking for something else of course. But there it was and it is decorative!!  The stand has scroll work and a red glass globe and the rain gauge itself is set nicely into the scroll work.

I was a bit embarrassed to put it out in my yard but I did and it looks great with the flowers and plants surrounding it.

Of course once I had the rain gauge out, we headed into a long drought period and I had no need for it!!

Sort of like last year when we finally broke down after 20+ years and bought a new snow blower.  We didn’t have a large enough snowfall to use it more than once during the season!

Makes me wonder what else we should buy to alter the state of nature! Ha ha!

But back to the rain gauge. I am now the person who can tell, with authority, how much it has rained in our neighborhood.  This weekend has been completely gray and gloomy and rainy.  We have already had 7 inches of rain with no end in sight.

I have to say, knowing exactly how much rain has come down is somehow more comforting to me than only knowing that it has rained steadily since Friday night!!

I’m sure I’ll keep talking about the weather no matter where I roam. Just like I keep taking pictures of sunsets and sunrises!

Keep on smiling!