Life is full of surprises!

View from  my kitchen window three days ago.

View from my kitchen window this morning, October 29, 2011!

 Hello everybody. It's a cold, snowy.....yes, I said snowy, Saturday here in PA. What a surprise! This is a little unexpected, but we are actually getting snow. Some parts about an hour or so away from us, will be getting about 8 inches. I think we will get about 1-3. It's not sticking to the roads, but it's definitely a day to stay warm inside. I have lots of "homework" to do for the business, but I just can't get motivated to get started. I was at the office all day yesterday and my mind needs a break. I decided to make that crock pot chili with the pumpkin from the skinnytaste blog. It will be great tonight for dinner. You know we eat out alot, and I can't remember the last Saturday night we ate at home. But we went out with friends last night and Penn State football starts in a few minutes, and it's just that kind of stay at home by the fire kind of night. It's nice to have dinner in the crock pot. I don't use it much, but love when I do and everything is ready at the end of the day.

Saturday night chili!

You know I love all of you, my blogging friends. I really look forward to reading your blogs and hearing about what's going on in your life.When I blog,  I always feel like I need to say more than just what's going in my life. I want to make it interesting, and  give something worthwhile to you. But today when I was reading Kay's blog, and she mentioned how alot of us aren't blogging that much, I realized that I should do it more and not just when I have something important to share. My favorite things to read are the normal posts, the real stuff about your lives. I guess that's why reality TV is so popular. So along with my resolution to be better about tracking what I eat, I want to try and check in, if not every day, then at least every other, and share a slice of my life, whether boring or exciting, pictures or no pictures.

So what's going on in my life? Well work, as you might have guessed. Both of my new girls started and I have high hopes that they will work out great. It's exhausting teaching them because I have so much talking, explaining and demonstrating to do. But they both have office experience and are quick learners. One of them is very overqualified ( Masters in health administration from Cornell!) but she has four girls and wants a part time job and has run a practice before. I see a light at the end of the tunnel for me as far as getting alittle relief. It may be harder on the budget to hire two people, but even if less is coming to my pocket, it will be worth it to get a little of my life back.

Roscoe and Riley

Steve, Roscoe and Riley

Thursday night  my blood pressure was raised a bit. I was sipping a glass of wine in my women cave (den/home office). One dog was on the leather love seat next to me chewing a bone, one was curled up on the chair, and one was on the floor sleeping. The bone dropped and I don't  know what happened, but a big fight occurred. My husband came running in from the other room, and we couldn't pull them apart.There was yelping and growling and teeth showing. We finally did, and I was so upset that they would fight like this. Roscoe, who is the smaller one, really went after Riley, the larger one. Steve, the white one, is getting older and grumpier and I think he may have went for the bone when it dropped,Roscoe reacted to get it and poor Riley got caught in the middle. I'm not really sure, it all happened so fast. Try as I might to replay it in my mind, I still do know how it happened. So when everyone calmed down, I'm petting Riley and telling him it's all right and I happen to look at his neck between his collar bone. There is hugh tear. No blood, just looked like raw flesh. He has alot of loose skin ( who doesn't right?) and when I told my husband to look at it, at first he couldn't even find it. But when he did, he said he needed stitches. So off to the vet he went at 9PM. He came back about 40 minutes later. Turns out the vet said they will have to put Riley to sleep and he will need surgery to put a drain in. Apparently with a wound like that, if you don't do this, fluid can build up under the skin and infection can occur. So Riley spent the night and now he is home and fine. The drain will come out tomorrow, the stitches in a few weeks. $1600 and all is well. The fact that my dogs, who always get along so well, would get into a fight was another surprise for me. I remember this happening once a while ago with two of my great danes, the most gently docile dogs. It also was over a bone. The vet said food, bones can cause this. My son said 'Mom, remember how Mike and I would get into some huge fights growing up and you had to break us up?' I do remember that.  But this still caught me by surprise!

So I'm doing pretty well with my tracking, and it is showing that I have been going over fairly often. I realize that now I have to track before I eat, not after, or at the end of the day as I sometimes do when I'm working. I always know what my breakfasts and lunches are, but when we eat out, and I go home and try to figure out the counts for what I ate, there are often some surprises! There it is again....surprise! So I know some planning before I put it in my mouth will help in this area.

View from my front window.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, filled with good surprises!

Thought for the day: If you expect nothing, you're apt to be surprised. You'll get it. ~ Malcolm Forbes