Finally.......a painting!

She's a little strange........but I enjoyed painting her :) She reminds me of years ago when my mother would have her hair 'done' weekly and she'd wear this special wrap (turban) to bed at night so as not to destroy the 'do'! :)

My dog loves me so much today! We finally were able to make our 3.5 mile walk out to the local high school!! It's something we try to do on a somewhat regular basis when the weather allows but obviously winters in ND make it next to impossible to do for about 5 months out of the year.
Oh........I know I could bundle up, put on snow shoes and really JUST DO IT......but I don't. And he forgives me♥

Have a great week!
Darla

On a lighter note......

I've tried painting and I just get so frustrated! I've painted over the same 10 x 10 canvas now 4 times! BUT....I just wrapped up my 6th Zumba class last night :) I'm down 13 lbs and feeling so much better!
I have about 20 to go. It sure comes off slower now that I'm 'ancient' but it's all good. At least it's coming off.

As for my art.....uff, I'm just stale it seems. I think I need to change things up a bit again. Maybe a landscape.....or florals.....or critters. The girls seem to get worse the more I do. Hopefully Saturday I will have some time~no pressure and just see what happens.

Hugs to you all!
Darla

A little Friday humor for you all :)

Since I haven't had a chance to paint this week I thought I'd offer you a little something to make you giggle ;)

WHY WOMEN SHOULDN'T TAKE MEN SHOPPING

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on Her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring

And preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like Most women - she loves to browse.

Yesterday my dear wife received the Following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samuel,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our Store.

We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both Of you from the store.

Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, Are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off At 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an Official voice, 'Code 3 in House wares. Get on it right away'.

This cause The employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from Her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance,

causing Management to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a Carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the Children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would

bring pillows and Blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him He began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'

EMTs were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a Mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting Department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants Were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously While loudly humming the ' Mission Impossible' theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people Browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he Assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

And last, but not least:

15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, Waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in Here.'

One of the clerks passed out.

I WAS able to attend 2 Zumba classes and spend a night babysitting my grandkids though, so the week was not a total loss! haha I WILL PAINT THIS WEEKEND! I must!

My weekend :)

This past weekend was ........well..........sucky!

It started out great! I got up Saturday morning with intentions of getting to Zumba and then heading out to Grand Forks to get some serious shopping done. My cupboards were bare!

Towards the very end of my Zumba class my right ankle buckled a bit (ouch) but I finished up and it wasn't too bad. After I got home and sat for a bit, it really stiffened up and became more sore. I decided to pass on the grocery trip and try again on Sunday.

At about 5:30 pm I heard a very loud, strange noise in my basement. I went down there to find this:

A garden hose on one of my 4 sump pumps had broken off and water was shooting straight up onto the basement ceiling. I couldn't get to the pump to unplug it and make it stop without getting drenched with ice cold water :( It finally subsided and I was able to reach the plug and pull it out. Then I had to unplug the tv and my treadmill. I know hind site is 20/20 but really, should I have been standing in water messing with electrical cords? Probably not.

It turned out that the metal hose attachment had rusted off and all I needed was a new garden hose but I THOUGHT I needed a special adapter and the hardware store in this little town was closed for the day. I decided to just empty the sump by hand with buckets and knew I wouldn't get a lot of sleep that night. I at least figured I'd get 3-4 hour stretches but NOPE! That hole filled up every 1.5 hours! I had to try catch a few winks in my living room chair so that I could hear the kitchen oven timer go off.

Each time I sat down, my ankle felt better but then I'd have to get up, hobble downstairs and haul 20-25 gallons of water over to the downstairs toilet! Waaaaaaaa I wanted to cry!

Luckily Dale came to town Sunday morning and fixed it for me. Whew!! By Sunday evening I was so overtired I couldn't sleep and I've been slowly catching up all week :) My legs were so stiff and sore and then I thought, 'WHY WOULDN'T THEY BE?' I was up all night doing leg squats! haha

Anyway, with Spring coming after a long winter with TONS of snow, this is to be expected. It just gets old sometimes.

I need to paint! I'm going to try get downstairs tonight and try. With all the water issues lately, my basement just isn't the calm, fun and creative place I need it to be.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!!
Darla

Job Well Done!

Welcome Home DEAR RENEE! I thank you for everything you did to brighten my world!
You will be missed so much, but I take great comfort in knowing you are being rewarded at this time.

I'm sorry

I have been a slug! A total slug! I haven't updated this blog for 1.5 weeks, the longest gap ever I believe :(

It's not that I don't want to, I just haven't had anything new to share. I've tried painting a 10 x 10 canvas.....3 times! I just can't get my groove going with it. Twice the image of a girl comes through the background, but her eyes are closed so I go with a 'peaceful, dreamy' theme and something goes wrong. Way wrong.

My latest (and I might just share a photo yet before I paint it over) was going along ok I thought, she was dreaming and I put a butterfly on her neck. When I walked away and came back, all I can think about when I look at her is...... death. NOT a good thing! It's a little too Silence of the Lamb-ish!

The diet and exercise is going along well and after 6 weeks it's finally becoming a little more natural to eat right and get in my exercise. The first 2-3 weeks are hard, but I think I've broken through that barrier that has blocked me in the past.

This weekend we're having another Zumba class and I'm so excited. I really did love it!

Hopefully I'll have something to share soon if I can get my brush to do what my mind and heart want :)

Have a great week!

ZUMBA

Meet our Zumba Instructor, Dacia! She's fantastic and has a body to totally inspire! So fit and toned!!
I had so much fun! I LOVE music with a beat ( I was a drummer in high school :)
so I knew I'd love Zumba♥

I wore my Polar F6 heart rate monitor and was super excited to see that I burned 706 calories in this one-hour workout! Woohoo!! I do have to say I forgot to hit the 'start' button until we were into the workout for 3-5 minutes and I also took a break to go looking for a water fountain since I totally forgot to bring my water bottle.

I've been doing some Turbo Jam and The Firm dvds at home and the most I've burned with them is 465 in a 45 min. session so it's pretty comparable I guess. This was fun and I never thought I could do a full hour of anything physical like this, but the mood, the music and the fun of 30 people partying together made it what it was!!

I thought I'd report also on how the last month has gone for me with my 'healthier living' change up :)
I'm doing it the old fashioned way..........monitoring calories in, calories out and it appears to be working just fine. I've had a few days that I strayed but I tried to get right back on track.

I've lost 8 lbs and 7.75 inches!!


Have a great week everyone and thank you all for your sweet compliments on my last journal page!

I like this Zumba commercial I found online!