a funny thing happened the other day....

I don't get out much. I go to work. I go to church and I go to COSTCO. Some might say that's not much of a life but here's the thing; as I scurry about in my busy little life, I notice some of the funniest things in the oddest places.

Last week I went to Costco after work. It was a busy day at the big box and I had to park a little farther out than usual. But it was a sunny day and I was up for the trek to the front doors.

As I was walking to the front doors I saw two couples leaving the store and making their way towards me, each man pushing a very full cart accompanied by an animated, adorable wife; the best accesory any guy could ever want for a trip to the big box. The couples manouvered their cargo to practically matching SUV's parked across from each other.

They proceeded to unload the carts into the back of the vehicles almost in perfect unison. When the last piece of merchandise was neatly stowed in the bowels of the vehicles both back gates slammed in unison and all 4 adults pushed the empty carts to the cart corral-together. It was so cute watching this whole operation. It was almost like a little choreographed dance and I was throughly entertained. But the best part of the whole show was still to come.

I was now approaching the spot where these two vehicles were parked tail to tail. Four people walked backed to the two SUV's. They split off into two groups of two and four doors opened together as four individuals climbed in to the two vehicles opposite each other. Two engines sprang to life at precisely the same moment and two transmissions were thrown into reverse in unison.

It was almost like watching a movie. The two SUV's backed SMACK into each other-right there in the Costco parking lot! Four doors flew open, four adults vaulted to the back of the two vehicles that were now bumper to bumper. They all looked so surprised! Each couple just stared at the situation with a general sense of "what the heck?!?" and I was thoroughly entertained for another day.

a tale of two Sara's...

These are my kids:

Dylan and Angela, Nathan and Katie, Ben and Sara, Grayson and Diana, Sara and Jordan.

We've had a lot of fun getting used to two Sara's in the family.

Last spring Jordan decided he wanted to marry Sara Baines. Jordan's sisters were pleased and excited to have another Sara in the mix. Then one day in the midst of all the excitement Wally exclaimed, "Which Sara do you mean? There are 'two many' Sara's! It's so confusing." Thus began our year of specifying: Sara Ellan vs Sara Wynne, Sara (Jordan's wife) vs Sara (Jordan's sister)

This is Sara (Jordan's wife)

Sara (Jordan's wife) had a tough go of it. Becoming Sara Smart was a bit of a stretch for this reserved, quiet Sara. She would introduce herself as Sara Smart and people would look at her and say, "No you're not. I KNOW Sara Smart and you are not her...." But she took it all in stride and when her sister-in-law (the original Sara Smart) married Ben Toone, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Now we could have a Sara Smart (the new one) and a Sara Toone (the newly improved original Sara Smart).

This is Sara Toone (the original Sara Smart)

Last week when I was out of town, Sara Toone called me to report that she'd picked up the mail and...

"I got my tax return in the mail today! Yay!" she exclaimed.

"Well, get that in the bank so you can go shopping," I advised.

Oops!!

You guessed it. When the new Sara Smart came to pick up her mail, her tax return was mysteriously missing and Sara Toone had a new pair of shoes.

my name is lorri and i'm a micromanager

I like making sure everything in my little world is running along tickety-boo. It's always been important for me to check and double check that all the i's be dotted and t's crossed-just so. In some ways, it's a good thing; bills get paid on time, reservations are made with precision, we never show up at the border when it's closed, contracts are signed and initialled in all the right spots, and dentist, doctor and optomitrist appointments are made right on schedule. I am the master of making phone calls and double checking EVERYTHING!

When our family was growing up I had a huge color coded calendar on the wall with everyone's schedule and activities neatly recorded. My favorite time of the week was our family "Calendaring Meeting" held every Sunday night before bed. Knowing everybody's business is my thing...and I'm pretty good at taking care of things!

My husband says I've ruined my children (who are now all adults) because I managed everything so well for so long, they started to depend on me to take care of their "stuff".

In my defense, I did send each child out into the world with their very own portable file holder containing all the important papers regarding banking, credit cards, cell phones, etc. I made sure they each had a birth certificate, SIN card, health care card, and all those other little important bits you need to make your way through life.

I have a secure PIN keeper on my I-phone that I keeps all the important numbers and information that I need...and all the numbers that each family member might need at some point in life. I've just not been able to let go of their personal information. What if something happened and they needed a number and couldn't find it? I have it on my PIN keeper! and I could SAVE THE DAY!

For the last few years as my nest has emptied, I have been validated by the occasional call from my grown up kids. "Hey Mom, could you tell me my ED ID number? I need it to apply for a scholarship." "Hey Mom, I'm at the doctor's and I don't have my health care number. Could you text it to me?" "Hi Mom, I'm applying for a job and I need my SIN...have you got it with you?" I've also been the go-to girl for bank accounts and credit cards, with all those nasty little PIN numbers for every account, neatly stowed in my secure PIN keeper. "Hey Mom, I'm at the store and I forget the PIN for my new chip card. Have you got it?" Hi Mom, what's the PIN for that savings account I never use?"

Last week while I was "on vacation" I learned that I may have, indeed, ruined my children.

Three mornings in a row, my trusty I-phone pinged in my ear between 4:30 and 5am with a frantic message from one kid or another. "Health care number, STAT!" "Mom I can't sign my contract for summer employment without my SIN number-HELP!" "Do you know the account number for my bank back in Alberta?"

Groggy and disoriented I replied, " Do you know that it's only 5 am in Hawaii? It's still DARK outside! Don't you have that information somewhere?"

Each time the response went something like this: "Sure I could find it, Mom, if I looked for it-but I knew you would have it so I just thought I'd call. How's your holiday?"

I decided to turn my phone off and vacation properly for the remianing 5 or 6 days. The lesson was finally driven home on my second to last day at the beach when I got a mid day text from my sister back home.

"Please come home. Your kids keep phoning me

when you don't answer their calls.

I am tired of your vacation.

Please... Come... Home..."

adventures in dialing....

I'm not very good with numbers. They just don't stick in my head. They get all mixed up when ever I try to shoot them out of my brain on to paper or the computer keys OR the phone!! Actually phone numbers are the worst for me. I have never memorized a phone number in my life. I will carefully look the number up, write it down precisely, and then check three times as I dial to make sure I've dialed correctly. It's something I've trained mysef to do. After many years, I rarely make a mistake.

I work in an office and I am on the phone all day. That's what I do! I have awesome phone communication skills; "a very pleasant telephone manner". It's just getting connected that is a struggle for me.

I also keep my handy dandy i-phone right by my computer so that I can keep in touch with my family. I will often check text messages and even answer it when it rings during the day. I love my i-phone!

So the other day as I was winding down at work, I remembered that I needed to call Katie to give her a message. I picked up the office handset and thought for a moment and realized I could dial her number without looking it up because I was sure I KNEW IT OFF BY HEART!

As I was waiting for Katie to pick up, my cellphone rang. I thought to myself; "I can quickly tell whoever is on the cell I'll call right back and then I'll just give Katie the message and I'll be good to go."

So I put the cell to my right ear and kept the office handset in my left ear and proceeded to multi-task like a genius! "Hello?" I spoke into the cell. "Hello?" echoed in my office handset.

O brother- both phones were answered at the same time! "Hello?" I spoke clearly into the i-phone just in case whoever was calling hadn't heard. "Hello?"echoed right back at me.

"What the HECK?!" was my frantic thought. "What's going on with these STUPID phones??!!"

Then I looked at the caller ID on the i-phone and my old brain started to calculate what was going on...

You guessed it! I had inadvertently dialed my own number! I was talking to myself! baha

I hung up on myself; carefully looked up Katie's number and dialed from the handset.

Message delivered. Lesson learned.

Adventures in Dieting

About a year ago I decided I needed to work a little harder to be a little healthier. I signed up for "Boot Camp" and started exercising regularly with Laura, the best fitness instructor for miles. While attending Boot Camp I learned about "Clayton", the Building Healthy Lifestyles Coach at the Raymond Clinic. I got a referral and started visiting with Clayton regularly.

I think I've always known that physical health is really all about weight and I learned a long time ago that weight is all about "calories in" vs "calories out". And I know that calories are all about choices! So I began this journey to lose the "last ten pounds" with my eyes wide open and a pretty good, realistic attitude.

At my first visit with Clayton we talked at length about numbers-an area in which I'm not particularly gifted. But it looked something like this:

1. I was 48 years old the first time I visited with Clayton.

2. I have given birth 5 times.

3. When I got pregnant at age 20, I weighed 125 lbs.

4. My weight was hovering 155 lbs. for about the last 5 years.

5. That's 30 extra pounds in 28 years- just over 1 pound per year...or

6.... a mere 6 pounds per baby! It didn't look that bad when I looked at it like that. (Unfortunately, I did look that bad and it was time to do something about it.)

7. To lose that weight I would need to lose 1 pound per week for 30 weeks! I could be back to babe-o-licious in less than a year! (30 weeks -7 months and change- February 2011 be exact)

8. To lose weight I would need to exercise about 150 minutes a week; or take 10,000 steps a day or decrease my calories to about 1100 per 24 hours.

I was determined to do it and set off with enthusiasm. I loved Boot Camp. I've always been a morning person so 5:30 am worked out well for me and I loved being outside in the early morning. Everything was fresh and cool and the workouts were tremendous. I experienced a couple of firsts last year at Boot Camp. I actually got to the point where I could do two minutes of push ups effortlessly and then I pulled a muscle doing sprints one morning. I've never worked hard enough to pull a muscle-EVER! It was a new and exhilarating experience for me. And my body was feeling awesome. I looked better and I lost some weight over the summer-about 5 pounds.

And then I stalled! And I stalled hard. Week after week I would head off to Clayton's office to weigh in and week after week I weighed the same give or take a few ounces.

Winter arrived with a fury and as it got colder and the snow got deeper I decided I could not go to exercise class anymore- too early and too cold. Then I decided I couldn't visit with Clayton anymore either. There was Halloween candy, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to contend with. I was just done. I would eat healthy and walk on my treadmill but all that other extra work was hardly worth the 5 measly pounds I'd dropped.

So spring has arrived; I'm down 5 pounds from last year but SERIOUSLY?! 5 pounds...so I headed back to Boot Camp and over to see Clayton.

I had finally broken the 150 mark around Christmas time and on my scale at home weighed in anywhere from 147-149 on any given day. Last week when I visited with Clayton, he laughed right out loud as he looked at my numbers.

He explained, " Weight is generally very dynamic. It goes up and down during the day-sometimes there will be as much as a four pound difference in one 24 hour period."

But not me. I have weighed EXACTLY the same each time I've stepped on that high tech scale since the beginning of the year; regardless of the time of day or my eating habits. I've had cake for my birthday and I finished off all my nieces' Valentine treats and chocolate Easter bunnies.

That's 6 visits in the last 4 months and absolutely NO CHANGE in my weight. So it really didn't seem to matter if I ate hershey kisses for breakfast or stayed in bed through my exercise class. My weight is stable. That's a nice way of saying "stalled"!

So if ever there was a reason to be discouraged or unmotivated, this has got to be it. But I will carry on in my quest for the acceptable BMI; right after I finish these Doritos.

(to be continued...of course)

Back to Boot Camp

Last spring I went to "Boot Camp." For years I had wanted to work harder at exercising and staying healthy. Painfully aware of my own mortality, I set off on a journey of early morning fitness and self discovery that would last the entire summer. IT WAS AMAZING!!!

I have always been an early riser so waking with the sun to go exercise was FUN! I didn't miss a workout and loved every minute of the journey until winter set in...By the end of October, it was still very dark at 5:30 in the morning and it was cold and most mornings there was SNOW on the ground! I could not make myself go. I started sleeping through my alarm and by November 1, I just plain quit going. I settled in for a long winter's nap and packed on a few extra pounds of insulation.

The sun has been waking me up the last few weeks. I have heard the occasional bird chirping in my backyard. I've been thinking about Boot Camp. Last night "Laura" called. "I'm starting a new session tomorrow and it's half price for the month of May."

I was so excited to get back to boot camp. I set my alarm for 5:13 am. I was ready, set....

GO!! The alarm sounded and I bounded out of bed; ready to go at 5:28 and in the car by 5:30 for the 15 minute drive to boot camp. I was PUMPED!! I even remembered my water bottle as I was heading out the door so I was feeling GREAT!

I pulled into the parking lot in record time, jumped out of the car, opened the back door to grab my water bottle and my ?shoes?!!

My toes are still burning from banging my poor bare feet with the skipping rope. I'll be back to boot camp on Wednesday with everything I need to workout properly.