Elm Street

Joy will turn 21 soon and we have been discussing her present for several months now. She talked about jumping from an airplane, we talked about taking a trip...then she finally decided...she wanted another tattoo. Not any tattoo, she wanted her entire upper arm area done. She had been looking as designs and searching for artists for quite a while, so when she told me what it was I knew she had thought it all out. She called the artist at Elm Street Tattoo, made the appointment and we made our date to tat!

We arrived around noon and Dean, the artist, was busy drawing her owl design. He took his time and sketched out a great design. An hour later he started and this was the beginning of a great tat.

He worked on her arm for over three hours, taking two breaks along the way. In fact, he "finished" twice before he really stopped. After about 2 hours, he stopped, wiped her down so she could bleed out and decided he was not done! He did this twice before he was satisfied. This man take his work seriously! Here he is working hard! Joy was staring at all the stuff in the room!
Voila! The finished product! I can't wait for the healing to be over and the colors to really show up. Note the lime green in the eyes...my idea!!! In fact, I think Dean added the green just to shut me up! Happy Birthday, Joy!! I love you!

East Texas Wedding

One of the most beautiful places in Texas can be found between Hwy. 37 and Hwy. 82...Clarksville, Texas! This was my mother's hometown and one of my favorite places to be! My cousins live there and we love to go visit whenever we can. Last weekend was my cousin Kevin's wedding. So off we went to Clarksville...well, actually we started our in Paris, wedding in Powderly then lunch with Grams on Sunday in C'ville.

This is Kevin and Erin Moore. Kevin is one of the nicest men you will ever met, and Erin is beautiful! They are very much in love. Erin's uncle let them have the wedding on his land, in his barn. It is so relaxing and beautiful! Look at this:
I love these ladies...Grams, Kari and Debbie!
It was nice to get away and spend time in the country with family! We missed Larry. He is Debbie's husband and Kevin's dad. Right now he is working in Kuwait and was not able to come home for the wedding. I am sure when he returns in the fall we will travel back to East Texas and welcome him home! Love you, guys!

Changes

I made a decision in January to eat healthier and get hopefully lose weight. Nothing new. Almost everyone makes these "resolutions" in January. I made my decision based on my health and age. See, every January 1st a new year begins and every January 2nd I have a birthday. Great combination, huh? Anyway 54 years old and weighing over 200 lbs. is not a good combination. Especially when your hips lock up, you can't walk straight is you sit for more that 20 minutes at a time, you can't climb a flight of stairs and you can't sleep at night because of your own snoring. Not a pretty picture, is it??

Well, I cut out fried foods, sugar, soda, candy...everything that we all know is bad for us. I quit eating take out food and started taking my lunch to school. Turkey on whole wheat with spicy mustard became my main meal. We ate healthy at night, too. Juan and Joy went along with all my changes and adapted well. Altering some meals was not easy, but we all got through it.

I did a herbal cleanse (thanks, Lori!) and started sipping on Spark energy drink. No coffee, no red meat, no dairy for 10 days!!! I thought I would die! But, 10 lbs. later I was elated!!! I was truly motivated now!!

Next Juan bought us an eliptical machine and it is awesome! I had to start out slow and work my way up...first 15 minutes, then 30, now I can do 45 - an hour! Still not at a fast speed and not using the ramp, but I'll get there!

Long story short...4 months later I have lost 25 lbs. My goal is 20 more by the end of June (not that I think I can do that!) before we go to Florida for vacation. I would be happy with 10 more pounds as long as I can firm up some.

You probably did not want to read about my diet plan. But, if you are like me you might need some motivation to get healthier. Maybe my story will help you. At any rate I feel better, I can move around easier, and my sleepy time is great!!!