Ice Cream addiction and Stress Eating.....

Ugh!!

J.O.B. and Stress Eating!!

   I have figured out, in these last number of years, I am a stress eater. Yup. This is me. This is my ugly truth. I can easily drown my sorrows in a 1.5-ish quart of ice cream. If I have a 1.5-ish quart in the freezer, that is what I will eat for the next 18-20 hours. I will not eat another thing in between. I am not proud of this. What follows is a whole lot of feeling bad! Yes, there is the usual feeling bad, and that I "can't believe I ate the whole thing" kind of feeling. The worst feeling is that I am not taking good care of me. I suffer from the rise and fall of my blood sugar from eating ice cream. My body starts to ache all over. I beat myself up mentally for doing such a thing to me. How can I do this to myself? Easy. Stress. It drives me, and I let it own me. I allow it to take over. Then I beat myself up some more, mentally.

   So what did I do, today, when J.O.B. stress ran rampant at work? You know, when one of your office mates "throws you under the bus" to the boss. Yup. Ice cream. This time I just chose to do it a little differently. I went through a drive thru and ordered ice cream. Yup. Culvers. Two scoops. Flavor of the day. The same cost as a 1.5-ish quart of ice cream from the store. It was a small price to pay for my dignity. I was able to feed the stress monster. I did not have extra in the house to continue to eat and feel lousy again. I did take a nap after the ice cream, and yes, I didn't feel all that great. I am pleased to say, that I am up and about and doing things. I even made a lovely cup of lavender tea. So, I made progress. I do not have to beat myself up today.

   I also did something else a little differently. I took a very small walk around my yard and the neighboring woods. I took pictures with my cell phone. A couple of the ones from the woods were blurry. I was being attacked by 4-6 mosquitos with each picture that I snapped. OUCH!!

My wonky sunflower.

Hostas gone wild!

Beautiful ground cover.

I love this little piece of root.

Fungi!!

What?!! What??!! A pink puffball mushroom? Lol!

Interesting little collection.

Another fungi!!

I just wanted to get this out here. I wanted to get some of this out of my head. I wanted to see the choice that I made in a more positive light. It worked. I am much happier this evening. :)

Colleen Inspired Hike!!

Charlotte and I are back on the Trails, again!!

This past Saturday, we headed over to the little Amish Store outside of Fort Atkinson, I did some very quick shopping, because Charlotte was in the car. (Windows down 1/3rd all the way around the car, lots of fresh air for her, but she loved barking at every person there!)

Then we headed over to our favorite walking park in the same near area. Dorothy Carnes. Love it. It was looking mighty bleak, but as we got further into our walk, I was able to see more signs of spring. :)



"Colleen's Tree"

The first thing we did was walk to the overlook deck. There was a nice couple there, bird watching with binoculars. The Sand Hill Cranes are back in full force and making a lot of loud calls. There were all kinds of different ducks, and they pointed out a female goose who had made a nest nearby. Chatted for a bit and then Charlotte was ready to move on, straining at the leash!



Mama Goose just beyond the weeds

At first, I was dismayed. The woods looked so dead and winter like.....

Then I looked closer......




May Flowers

And closer......

I even noticed little mini black ducks out on the water....they looked like lost ducklings without their mother!

Around the trails, and up and down, and around, until we came to Turtle Mound. What was I thinking? Picking a "More Difficult" set of trails for our first time out and about? My feeties were starting to scream at me! So we continued to head around towards the start of the trails, using the choice of two trails, "More Difficult" and "More Difficult"! Hhhhhmmmmm, which one should I pick? Lol!!

I kept looking high and low for more signs of budding plant life! Lo and behold, I found this small squash-like seedling popping up out of the ground!! Left by the birds, no doubt!

Then up ahead we found a young couple with a three month old Black Pug puppy. Charlotte was feeling very aggressive, so I held her back. To watch this puppy, "protecting" his little pack, was so cute. They said that was the first time that they heard him barking at anything! I should have taken a picture of the three of them. It was so delightful to chat back and forth with them. Hopefully, I will see them on the trail in the near future. :)

We moved on.

I found the neatest pods on a dry plant.

Then, to finally make my day, I found one lone spring flower!!

Our walk was complete.

Mission accomplished

Time to go home.

Till we meet again........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 



Colleen.... Day One

The Following Day

Colleen posted updated pics from her first day of her thru hike on the PCT! (Pacific Coast Trail)

Her blog tells about her first day.

Then come the pics!!! Absolutely amazing!! Scenery!! Little creatures!! Desert flowers!! And Toes!!!

Don't miss it!

At first I thought this planned hike was way out of my comfort zone, but now that I saw her first blog about her adventure, I am jealous!! Beautiful scenery, even though it's tough on her feeties! Amazing, amazing, amazing!!
(Just didn't care for the pic of fire ants? Too many Florida memories with those guys!!)

Go check out Day 0 and Day 1!!
http://butwhatififly.blogspot.com/

My Sister is Officially "On Her Way"!!

My Little Sister is Hiking the Pacific Coast Trail!!!

Colleen is taking the next four months to go from the Mexican/U.S. Border in California up to the Washington/Canadian Border. She will be doing this for the next six months!

She is starting her thru-hike from Scout and Frodo's house. They are what they call Trail Angels, Scout and Frodo help many different hikers to get a good start! They pick them up from the train station, give them a place to sleep and meals right before they are taken to the trail's starting point. Wonderful people.

(I found this little blip on a blog by Kat Davis about her time spent with Scout and Frodo. http://followingthearrows.com/2015/04/13/welcome-to-scout-and-frodos/ )

Colleen said that there are about 500 people ahead of her and there will be about 900 people starting behind her in the coming months. So she won't be totally "alone".

(A fun side fact: My mom has been documenting her steps on a website that she is on. She picked the Pacific Coast Trail. :) So in effect, she has been "hiking" where Colleen is going to be soon, and as Colleen "passes" her, Mom will continue and walk where Colleen has been! What a cool concept! There are pictures along the way on this blog, so mom will see some of the scenery, too. [I do not have the website, yet. When I do, I will post it] I will be logging my steps to the same site.)

I will also share pics that Colleen posts, as long as I have her permission. So that all being said:

Here is Colleen's blog site, http://butwhatififly.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to browse, and if you would be inclined to help donate to her, there is also a donate button under the page along the top, called "Want to Help?" This will help her for when she is able to go into a town along the side of the trail. There she will be able to take a shower, buy groceries, and/or eat a pizza!!

By the time that I post this, Colleen has begun her journey of 2,650 miles!! From this point.......

Catching Up!!

Charlotte was so happy!

 

We finally went for a walk! (5-26-14)

  We headed out in the car to go to a different part of the Drumlin Trail.  She was so happy, she was whining to get out of the car.  It was beautiful out and the air was heavy with honeysuckle.  It was wonderful!

 
  We found another bridge.  Of course, I had to stop quite often and take pictures.  Then a bike rider passed us by and scared both of us.  We walked until we came to a road.  We passed over it and continued down the trail.  Well, it turned out that we were not the only ones scared by that bike rider!  Our nostrils were assaulted with a strong smell.  As we walked down the trail, the smell got stronger and stronger, until it got to the point that it was starting to burn our nose and eyes.  Yup!  Time to turn around!!  We will venture down that path another day.

  So we turned around and headed back.  Once we were by the road to cross, I turned around and looked back down the trail.  There were two deer playing on the trail.  I watched them for a bit and tried to take pictures of them.  They turned and got off the trail.  I walked along the road with Charlotte to see if I could see where they would come out into the field along the trail.  I didn't see them at all, but when I looked to the field on the other side of the road heading back towards the bridge, there by the road stood a deer just looking at us!  I tried to take a pic, but off she ran!  So we turned around and went back to the path and headed back to the bridge and the car.

Deer on the road! Have to look close!

 Then we saw a bigger dog with her female human following behind.  Charlotte wanted to bite her.  She was a large black and white, mellow kind of dog.  Finally, Charlotte got along with her.  Her human was named Diane and she lived right near the trail.  We had a delightful bit of conversation.  Maybe we will see each other again. :)
 
  We went across the road to head for the parking lot, but continued down the trail in the other direction.  Took a few more pics of flowers and then headed back to the car.  It was enough for one day.  We went home, totally happy.

 

 

Strange reed-looking things

 

Walking Dinner!!

Run, Charlotte, run......

   I decided to go back to the Drumlin Trail that we had been on last, and give it another go.  I wanted to see how far we could go this time.  Turns out that it meets up with another spot that we had been on, coming from the other direction.

 

 

   So off we go, and it wasn't long before we passed two couples with a young child.  They were going to sit on the bridge for a while.  So Charlotte and I continued to the spot where we smelled the skunk.  I started chatting with Charlotte, so that if there was a skunk, it would hear us and hopefully, amble off.  That was the plan. We did smell a hint of skunk, but that was all, so the plan must have worked! 

 

   The mosquitos were getting much more aggressive, so we upped our pace.  The scenery was so beautiful, but I didn't want to stop and take as many pics, because of the mosquitos.  By the time we met up with the place we had been before, the mosquitos were relentless!!  We turned around and really punched up our walking pace!!  But, alas, it was to no avail!!  Charlotte and I were being eating alive!!!  It was painful and we just pursued forward.  We did get a little relief when we were on the bridge, but had to hit the woods for a short while till we got to the car.  I had huge welts all over!!  And so did poor little Charlotte!!  It was a shower and EmergenC for me, when we got home.  I will not go on walks again, till I have some kind of bug protection for Charlotte and I.  Period. 

 

Hello world!

Charlotte and I have done absolutely nothing over the winter!  And both of our waistlines show it!! 

This has been an unbelievably looong Wisconsin winter!  It is officially Spring, and we have snow on the ground and snow in the forecast for this Sunday.  Really?? Seriously???

Charlotte's little Mexican paws just don't tolerate this cold ground.  The dachshund part of her loves to fly out the door to see if there are any Chippies to chase. (chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, etc.)  Then she remembers how cold it is!  She is so fast at doing her little numbers outside and then running for the door to come in.  Lol! 

I have been down with a really bad cold/flu thing.  Every time I go outside, my lungs go backward and fill back up with rattle-ly stuff.  Then I am confined to the house, again, with the humidifier running.  So walking is really just out of the question, till it finally starts warming up. 

So I did something different.  I got on my mini trampoline/bouncer.  And did a little bit of bouncing.  Okay, so it was probably a minute, but it seemed a lot longer than that!  And my dear Charlotte?  She sat on her chair and just watched.  You could just see her little mind wondering what on earth I was doing.   So I think that I will do a little bit of bouncing every day, just to build up a little more of my lung function, while getting used to doing more than just walking around in the house. :)

I am also waiting on more updates on my Son-in-Law, Roy.  He had a knee replacement this morning.  It was to be a partial, but might have been a full knee instead.  It would depend on what the surgeon found when he opened up the knee.  He is out of recovery, so now it is onto recovering and rehab for him.  Go, Roy!

Have a great rest of the day!