Checking In .............Today is an absolute gorgeous day here. It's around 80 and very breezy. Steve, Mark and I just returned from a walk around the lake. Our sub division has a community center and right next to it are several lakes with a walking path around it. We walked up there and Mark took along his scooter. Right now, Florida is in a drought and the lakes are very low. A lot of the retention ponds have dried up. It's pretty ugly here right now. There is a chance of rain tonight so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it rains. We are also in a high/severe fire danger warning as well. While we were out walking, we saw smoke and the planes circling around. Hopefully it was just a brush fire and not someones house. It seems to have died down now. While we were walking around the lake, we saw a huge alligator. It was about 5 or 6 foot. Although, any size alligator is huge to me. We also saw some cute turtles. As soon as we get some decent rainfall, everything should start turning green again.

I'm still hanging in there with my workouts. I actually look forward to them now. The time seems to go by quicker. I'm not as sore anymore.

Elizabeth will be home next week for her Spring Break. I'm really looking forward to it. The other kids aren't on spring break until April so we will get to spend some quality time together. Next Saturday, we are all headed down to Sarasota to watch a spring training game. It's the Cincinnati Reds versus the Tampa Bay Rays. Since those are our two favorite teams, we don't have to worry about which one loses. Sadly, this is the Reds last year to have their spring training down in Florida. They sold us out and are moving to Arizona. So, next year we will just be Rays fans. Steve was also able to get Opening Day tickets for the Rays v. Yankees. He is going to take Mark and Greg. It's a night game and also is on their first day back from school. It will be a very late night since the stadium is in St. Pete. The things men will do to watch a good baseball game.

Not much else going on. Getting ready to fire up the grill and have an early dinner so we can chill out tonight. It's been a long week. Steve is finally home after a week of travelling. I am so glad he is home. For some reason, the kids think that there are no rules when dad is gone.

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend. I'm going to go out and do a rain dance in the hopes that the rains come. :)

I'm back...........Has it really been that long since I've blogged? Time flies.

To be honest, I really haven't had much to blog about. My life is pretty much the same thing day in and day out.

However, I did make one huge change. I finally started working out with a personal trainer two days a week. I'm not going to lie. It's hard work. It was very painful in the beginning. My first day, we worked on lower body. Oy. Simple things hurt. I dreaded having to use the restroom. It meant having to sit down and get up. Getting in and out of the car---hurt. After two days, I felt better. My next session was upper body. YIKES. Again, after two days, I felt good. Week number two didn't hurt at all. I've been able to keep up with them. I started my third week this week and I wasn't dreading it. At first, I thought, why do people want to do this to themselves? It's boring. But, each trip in is better and better. I love the people I am working with. There's no yelling, but lots of positive encouragement. The other hard thing for me to start doing is to eat breakfast. I have never been one to eat it. Now I do. Otherwise, I get dizzy and lightheaded during the workout. I have no idea if I've lost weight yet because I'm not getting on the scale. I don't want to get let down so early in this. But, I have a whole new outlook on the Biggest Loser Show. Those people work at it every day. I only go twice a week.

I'm still battling whatever crud I've had. I've been to the doctor twice now. Still not 100%. I'm so sick of coughing. I will hang in there like they say and hope that I can shake this after six weeks.

My oven went out last week and I finally was able to get it fixed yesterday. Boy, did I miss it! I tried making chicken in the crock pot and it just wasn't the same as baked.

I finally got back into my scrapbooking groove. I did four pages over the weekend. I was so happy that I was able to sit down and actually concentrate long enough to finish some layouts. I'm trying to use up a lot of my supplies so I can justify buying new stuff. I was at Michaels yesterday and they have some cute new stuff but nothing just "had to have".

Well, it's almost that time of day where I have to go and get in that car pool lane. So, I better get a move on and get some stuff crossed off my "to do" list before the kids start rolling in.

Happy Tuesday!

I just don't get it..............................We got notice last week that State Farm is pulling out of Florida when it comes to Homeowner's Policies. We got our official letter on Friday that we will be losing our homeowner's insurance within the next two years. However they WILL continue to service our Auto insurance. We've been with State Farm forever and were quite happy. We've been good, loyal customers and have never had a claim on either the homeowner's or auto. So, now it's time to begin the hunt for new insurance. We will also be taking our auto insurance with it. Their reasoning is that they can no longer afford to stay in Florida. Okay, fine. Times are tough. I understand. So, imagine my suprise last night when I saw a State Farm insurance ad during the Superbowl. What? They can spend millions on a TV ad?? Just my .02.

Happy Monday!