And 23, plus spring/summer has truly arrived

Full fledged, green leafed, growing grass spring/summer has arrived here at last!  Yesterdays rain resulted in some massive chlorophyll expansion in our great northwoods.  Seems a little over-dramatic, but this is truth.  It was a notable change over night.  This is good!

23 days to Italy.  I got around to doing some camera accessory shopping last night (if it isn't last minute, it isn't procrastination, right?) and now I have to push on to a few other things...  It will be hard to think about all things Italy when I have company this weekend, but that is ok too.  I am ready to think about all things Grandkiddos and my own kiddos and things like that.

I had a nice discussion with my Italy bound colleague yesterday and it was so exciting to listen to her talk about the general way things will go.  Also we are traveling with a group of 45- 3 groups from Cali and one from Texas.  Interesting! Hopefully next week we will have a more detailed itinerary.  I know I am very impatient.  

Today is the senior class trip- and the 8th grade roll ahead day  hour- holy smokes, I forgot about that.  Oh well.  I can talk my way through most anything.  

Press on people, it is Wednesday- long weekend ahead!  Keep on spreading the joy.  :)

Road trip pictures

Wednesday found me traveling to the greater Eau Claire area, home of some fabulous shopping and also my old stomping grounds from the college years.  Ah the fond memories.....  Anyway, Eau Claire is one of my favorite shopping destinations.

Signs of spring

For those of you who don't live in a remote area, virtually all shopping trips are planned occurrences.  There is rarely a spontaneous "let's go to Target" trip, as the nearest Target is a 2 hour drive- with good weather, little traffic and a tail-wind.  And of course it depends whose driving!  ;)  No, we have to plan our shopping trips here and they are long days that are filled with an intense sense of purpose and usually some preplanning.  I mean when you need to visit a minimum of 5 stores plus get lunch in there, and get back before the deer come out at dusk, this takes some motivation and a schedule.  Not everyone does it like me; I like to get going super early (by 6am usually) and then get home by 6 pm, otherwise I just get too sleepy.

Anyway though I prefer to drive with another person along for company, this was a good trip to do alone, as I had many specific items that I was looking for.  I ended up going to Target, Starbucks, Menards, Scheels All Sport, VS, The Gap, Pier One, Best Buy, Hancock Fabric, Target again, Kohls and a Natural/Health Food store.  whew!!!  Then, unfortunately, I realized that I had missed one thing and stopped at Walmart in Ladysmith.  Which I generally avoid like the plague, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

So you are probably wondering what in the world this has to do with the scroll-down lovely that you are about to see!  On my way to Eau Claire and back I traveled on Hwy E to get to Hwy 70 and just over the county line into Sawyer county there is a beautiful little creek that crosses under the road and it was so lovely that I stopped, turned around and went back to photograph it.  It was overcast and grey in the morning, but still icy/lovely.  Then the blue skies on the way home had me  just knowing that I would be stopping again- for the contrast.  So the following pix are a representation of those 2 stops.  I have 2 pix that are virtually identical except for the time of day!  

Pine Creek, 6:30 am

Pine Creek, 5:30 pm

 It was totally worth the effort to stop!

And I found a lot of joy that day....

What I did over my spring vacation......

What I Did Over My Spring Vacation

By Debi Oswald

So what did I do?  Oh yeah, that's right!!

CHAPTER 1  Snow Day!!!!

 We got an EXTRA day of spring break because we got dumped on by a huge snow storm!  That was awesome!!  The weather guys had predicted a big storm and then they backed off and said it looked like we would get 8 + inches, but not the 14 that was predicted at first.....  WELL, they under-forecasted!  YAY!  School was called off and I did lots of picture taking.....  you can see them here................ and also  here.....................  and to taunt the people who did have to go to work .........here.....................

Oh LOLA!!!  Your sinking!

Mystery of the disappearing mailbox

Snow shoes on the butterfly chair- they got a workout this weekend

Jacpot waiting for me!

CHAPTER 2:  SHOPPING BABY!!!

So, it was really nice of the weather to cooperate with my trip to Wausau to do a little shopping.  I of course like to shop with a friend, and Luann is the perfect traveling companion.  She and I talk the entire time during our travels, enjoy the same sorts of things and I have come to discover that Luann is a wonderful stylist and personal shopper!  After picking out lots of things to try on, she kept bringing things for me to try on!  

Here are a few things, some I did buy and some I did not.  It was so much fun to try clothes on that fit well and looked good on me.  

Lunch at an awesome little cafe called Becca's! 

Debi and Luann at Becca's in Wausau

 

Size 10!!!

Hot new boots on SALE!!!  

Nice, but did not get

MINE!!!

Also mine!!

Vegetarian Mediterranean Salad- lunch!!

CHAPTER 3: PAMPERING DEBI DAY

Seriously, if you don't know why Debi had a pampering day you have not been paying attention!  

I planned for this day a couple weeks ago!  I spent lots of time at the gym today, in many various rooms!  It was so much fun.

No pix of the 2 hours I spent working out (awesome) or the HOT STONE MASSAGE!!!  (even more epically awesome) - It was a wonderful way to spend the morning!!!

The massage was followed by a nice little poor man's  lunch at my favorite diner- The Pal.  While sitting there with the MA and Joe the Builder, there was some activity out on the sidewalk nearby.  There was a massive snowpile right on the sidewalk, which I guess wasn't too much of a surprise.  But what WAS a surprise is the fact that a guy was  shoveling the snow off of the sidewalk into the street- right in front of my car!!! And I was parked in!  Fortunately, the vehicle behind mine left before I was done.  You just never know!

WTH????

At any rate, this wasn't the end of my day, I went BACK to the gym and had a glorious little pedicure later.  ahhhhhhhhh!  It was a good day to be Debi!  :)

Best little seat in the house!

Hot pink baby!!!  with sparkles

CHAPTER 4: Company for the weekend

Saturday brought Number 2 son, his wonderful gf, Sarah Jane, and of course Ruger and Toby!  What a nice time we had.  Lots of goofing around, outdoor hiking through the snow, shooting of catapults through the house.....  Lol, all kinds of things.

Checking out the snow depth and tiring out the dogs!

Target practice and scope sighting in

Ruger and Toby

Action shot!!

Mikey and Ruger

Sunday found us hiking back to the cabin where the MA and Bob the Barber are working on the spiral staircase.  Next step is the railing to tie the whole thing together.  

Debi and Greg

They had so much fun!

CHAPTER 5:  Homemade pizza

So a great friend of mine on the loseit site gave me a recipe for an awesome, different pizza!  It is a pizza without tomato sauce and it is a bit unconventional in it's ingredients.  So I made a whole wheat crust, then used the second crust to make a more conventional pizza plus the White pizza!

They were both really good!

I'll put in the recipe later.....

Wheat Pizza dough

Rising!

Heat that pizza stone!!! for an hour at 450

Prebake pizza crust for about 5 minutes

OOOPS forgot to take a photo of the finished pepperoni pizza!  It went fast

White pizza- sliced cooked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions, crumbled bacon, thyme

Add mozzerella cheese

OMG, good!!!

This is all I needed! Well, there might have been a beer involved!

CHAPTER 7: BENCH PRESS!

I have been working on this for a while!  I was told that I could bench press over 100 pounds, so I have been trying that.  A month ago, I attempted and didn't quite make it.  3 weeks ago, I had been sick and had an epic fail.  So after working really hard including freaking pushups (drop and give me 50!) I finally accomplished it!  Not only that, but I went beyond the 105 to 115!  I am so happy!!
I went on to finish my chest and tricep day with some adrenaline (and am feeling the effects of it today) and then ran again.  I have been working on running for several months. It began with little spurts in my walks, every 2 weeks or so.  Then I progressed to once a week.  Well, lately I have been on a streak, so I planned to run 2 times a week and work up from there.  I have skipped that completely and am running (intervals) every other day now!  If you knew me from before, which many of you did, running and I were not on speaking terms.  Maybe to the phone!  But that's about it!

The amazing thing is how good it feels.  Who knew???

105

115!!!!

I finished off the day later with a walk in the snow, and had a 1200 calorie burn day!  I have never done that before either.

And that is what I did on my spring break!!  And I found a lot of joy.......

Until next time, be a joy giver!