Wanna Share a Pepsi?

Valentines Day is for lovers, right? Having been single for the past 20 years, (it's hard to believe it has been 20 years), I tend to ignore all of the Valentine hype. Yes, I have been "alone" for that long and as odd as some people find that to be, I am very happy!
There is a difference between being "alone" and being "lonely". I have rarely felt lonely. You see, when you finally make a decision to leave an unhealthy relationship, it is PEACE that you are looking for, not companionship.........but there are moments.....

A few years ago there was a large group of us going to Vegas for a few days. My best friend Deb is a travel agent and is good at getting these groups together. Being from a small town, we usually all know one another.
On this particular trip, Deb had a bus to take us all on the 80 mile drive to the Dallas airport. There was a couple on the trip that has been married for 30+ years. To watch them interact, you would've thought they were newlyweds.
We were settling down in the airport waiting to board the plane when I took a seat behind this couple. She had recently undergone a hysterectomy and had gotten the Dr's permission travel. As I sat there, I could hear her husband talking so concerning to her. "Are you feeling ok?" "Did you take your Tylenol?" "Anything hurt?" and the last question, "Do you want to share a Pepsi"?
That last  question brought tears to me eyes. It really made me start thinking how wonderful it would be to have a relationship like that. To have someone to really care about me and my well being. To share the excitement of going on a trip and all of the experiences of being there. It also made me wonder if she really knew how lucky she was to have a husband that truly cared about her.

So it is that type of relationship that I want and I'm not settling for anything less. That probably explains the last 20 years of being single. Those type of men are either taken or don't exist.....but I haven't given up hope....I'm pretty sure I'll recognize him if I meet him.......... and when I do I'll just ask,

                         "Wanna share a Pepsi?"

Texting for Seniors

I received this from a friend today and it make me chuckle.....had to pass it along :)

 TEXTING FOR SENIORS

 Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears

 to be a need for a STC

(Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for Senior Discounts this is

 the code for you:.

 Please pass this on to your CHILDREN and Grandchildren so they can

 understand your texts.

 ATD: At The Doctor's

 BFF: Best Friend Farted

 BTW: Bring The Wheelchair

 BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth

 CBM: Covered By Medicare

 CGU: Can't get up

 CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center

 DWI: Driving While Incontinent

 FWB: Friend With Beta Blockers

 FWIW: Forgot Where I Was

 FYI: Found Your Insulin

 GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!

 GHA: Got Heartburn Again

 HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement

 IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?

 LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out

 LOL: Living On Lipitor

 LWO: Lawrence Welk's On

 OMMR: On My Massage Recliner

 OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.

 PIMP: Pooped in my pants

 ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up

 SGGP: Sorry, Gotta Go Poop

 TTYL: Talk To You Louder

 WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?

 WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again

 WTP: Where's The Prunes?

 WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

 GLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)

Let's All Get M.A.D.!

Dear Friends and Family,
I am writing this note as a request to help my friend Aracley with her fundraising project, while at the same time you will be helping many girls in a faraway country with their needs.
As I'm sure you all have figured out I am a huge Donny Osmond fan. I have never quite reached the "stalker stage" (even though my family may argue this....Ha) but it is kinda fun when people say, "I saw Donny in a magazine and I thought of you...or I saw Marie on Oprah and thought of you.
Here is my request..... last Aug. at Donny's fan Get Together in Las Vegas, he held a contest with his fans, or Donny.commers (DDC) as we are called :)
After a brief interview with Donny's assistant, his job was to  picked 10 fans that he thought had the best ideas for a project to Make A Difference (M.A.D.) in the world or their community. My friend Aracely was chosen with her MAD project and I want to  help her reach her goal. Her project is to help build schools for girls in Sudan. The high school in which her daughter attends is a partner school with the organization that helps build schools and dorms for these girls, as many have to sleep on dirt floors. She is raising money by "selling" matching friendship bracelets. With only a $10 donation the donor receives a handmade friendship bracelet, made by Aracely's daughter Lindsey and her friends, and a girl in Sudan will receive a matching bracelet to yours with the name of "her" person.You don't have to be a Donny fan to help out, heck, you don't even have to like him! ;)
 I have my bracelet and it is very special to me. If you would like to donate, please just message me here on fb or my email address is: BEastwood@aol.com or you may contact Aracely Pesek at: lelyp@comcast.net
Her website is: http://www.madforsouthernsudan.com/index.html or hit the "like" and "share" button here on her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=149376488427726
Tell her I sent cha!

Here is part of her e-mail to me:
I'm contacting you for HELP with my MAD project.   I've become even more devoted to this cause than I thought imaginable.  Perhaps later in life after the kids were grown or I was retired, yes, I pictured myself doing something like this.   But not now, not this involved.  I LOVE it, don't get me wrong.  And I will continue this even after Donny's involvement is over.  For the next 5 or 6 months though, I will need help from my friends.  This may come across as a bit desperate.  Well, that's 'cause it is.

As you know, I am helping to build and supply a girls school in a remote village in southern Sudan.  No matter the outcome from this week's elections there, the school will remain a priority among the villagers. I've had a few different fundraisers and they've been very successful, especially within my community.  Those local events are the types of fundraisers I will continue to bring to this organization after Donny's MAD program is passed on to the next group.   What I would like now is to get Donny's fans to show their support for my MAD program. Donny is taking time from his busy schedule to answer our emails and posted our updates on his homepage last month.  He wrote me last week about how glad he is with what Lindsey and I are doing and that his team will be posting some updates again soon.  He loves the MAD girls' enthusiasm and dedication to our causes.  And he really is excited about his MAD program.  It wasn't just all talk on his part.  He really is committed to this.

I want to be able to show him via photos and/or video that his fans are supporting his MAD.  And that's why I'm coming to you.  Wherever you are located - the US, the UK, or Australia-  you can help!   My initial idea to get his fans involved was with the bracelet project.  That is still my hope.  Of all the fundraisers I hold, it's the bracelets that interest Donny the most.  He's still excited about the raffles I've had and is always willing to sign stuff for me to donate.  And he thinks it's cool how my community has supported all my local events.  But his reaction  when I talk about the bracelets is noticeably greater.  On the update he posted on his homepage, he included all the info I emailed him about the bracelets, but he edited lots of the other events.  I'm curious to see what he includes in the next update and which photos he chooses to upload.

A way that you can help with the bracelets is by trying to get your friends or family to make a donation and receive a bracelet.  I can send you a dozen bracelets (or how ever many you'd like) and once you collect the donations, you can send the money to me via check or paypal.  But before you distribute those bracelets to the donors, I would ask that you take a photo of yourself with all the bracelets or a photo of you and the donors with their bracelets.  With the photos, I will send Donny the details of who you are, where you live, and what you did to help.

Or how about a group of Donny fans getting together for a fun meal and each taking 2 or 3 bracelets to sell to their friends or family.  I think that a group photo or video of several of his fans would make him really happy to have started this MAD thing.  His vision for MAD was to see his fans all coming together to make a difference.  Us 10 who were chosen were just the ones who were assigned to accomplish this AND at the same time support a cause and make a difference. 

For those of you who have made a donation and received a bracelet, THANK YOU!!   I would love a photo of you wearing your bracelet!!  Just make sure we can see your face and the bracelet.  I can email you a photo release form which I will need signed and returned before I can submit the photo to Donny.  I will be sending him a slideshow with donors and their bracelets.

On my website's donate page  http://www.madforsouthernsudan.com/Donation.html  ; I have $10 as the minimum donation to get a bracelet.  Students, scouts, and any other youth group member can get a bracelet with a $5 donation.   If you make a $15 donation, I can send you 2 bracelets as long as it's indicated in the message to me.   All bracelets are custom made in any colors you want and in any of the patterns pictured on the website.  Favorite colors, sports team colors, school colors- you choose!

My goal for the bracelet project was to "sell" 650 sets of the bracelets.  That's 1,300 bracelets since the donor keeps one and the matching bracelet goes to one of the girls at the school.  I haven't taken an accurate count of the bracelet pairs for a few weeks now, but I know it's somewhere in the low 200's. That's far from the goal which I was hoping would have been met by mid February.  The director for the charity we are partnering with is going to visit the school in February and I was hoping she would be able to take all 650 bracelets to the girls.  It doesn't look promising at this point.  We will still try to reach our goal by next month - as impossible as it may seem.  I don't want to only send bracelets to half of the girls, though.  So if we don't get all 650 sold, we will have to wait for someone else from here to visit the school and make the delivery for us at a later date.  It may be a visit from one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" or a teacher from one of our local schools.  But having the director of Project Education Sudan be the one to take the bracelets to the girls will be the most beneficial, as she will be able to document it with plenty of photos and videos to share with Donny. 
If you're on facebook, please join my page at  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=149376488427726 .  Or if you do see one of my posts on my personal facebook page, please consider hitting the "share" button so all of your facebook friends will see my post too.   
  
Wow, sorry this is so long. I hope you understand why I'm asking this of you.  It's not for me.  It's for Donny and the Donny.com community. His words to us were that he wants the DDC community to be known to the world as a caring and giving community.  But most importantly, please keep in mind who you will ultimately be helping here. It's not me, it's not Donny, it's not DDC.  It's young girls ages 6 to 16 who have NOTHING!  Except for a dream to have a better future - and the only way they can reach that is to get an education.  South Sudan has the lowest percentage of educated girls in the WORLD.  Lower even than Afghanistan during the Taliban rule.  23 years of being attacked by the Islamic northern Sudanese resulting in over 2.5 million citizens killed and all their infrastructure destroyed just because of their Christian or indigenous beliefs.  The war ended in 2005 and since then the people have slowly begun to rebuild.  But unlike so many other countries who have received worldwide support for similar atrocities (which were not even as devastating), South Sudan has gotten little help.  Until recently.  Maybe it was all the attention Darfur received - they are in western Sudan.  Maybe it's George Clooney's campaigns to bring awareness.  Maybe it's because of the elections going on right now to decide whether South Sudan will become a country separate from Sudan.  Whatever the reason for South Sudan to finally being recognized, the fact remains that they need help.  And my MAD specifically targets and helps just one school.  We will actually see just where our funds will be used.  We will see the girl's smiles and know we are helping to keep their dream alive.   Please feel free to ask me any questions about the situation in southern Sudan or the school and I will try to answer as best as I can.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long email.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I send you a heartfelt THANKS for your friendship and support!
Love and hugs, always
Aracely

Lane's Baptism

Christmas Season ends with the Feast of The Baptism of The Lord but it also began my grandson Lane's first step to his lifelong commitment and discipleship to the Lord. On Sunday, January 9, 2011 Lane received the Sacrament of Baptism. Even though the weather was cold and rainy, it was a great day for our family! We are so lucky to have that baby boy!
Here are a few pictures from the day!

The Family

The Grandparents

My Grandsons, Callan, Carter and Lane

Courtney, Josh, Lane and Tracy

With Father Ed and Godparents,Aunt Tracy and Uncle John

With Father Ed

We have a wonderful friend in town that bakes cookies for all of our family occasions. You should all be proud. I didn't take one single bite of one. I will have to confess,I couldn't resist taking a small piece of a Czech pastry.



Never Ever Give Up!

No matter what you are facing, never, ever give up hope!!

WATCH HERE!

Walking...As We Get Older

The Importance of Walking 

Walking can add minutes to your life.
This enables you at 85 years old
to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing
home at $7,000 a month. 

I like long walks,
especially when they are taken
by people who annoy me.

                     

 The only reason I would take up walking with a companion
is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

 I have to walk early in the morning,
before my brain figures out what I'm doing..

  I joined a health club last year,
spent about 400 bucks.
Haven't lost a pound.
Apparently you have to go there.

   Every time I hear the dirty word 'exercise,
I wash my mouth out with chocolate.

                                        


The advantage of exercising every day
is so when you die, they'll say,
'Well, she looks good doesn't she.'

If you are going to try cross-country skiing,
start with a small country.
 

I got a lot of exercise
the last few years,......just getting over the hill.

 We all get heavier as we get older,
because there's a lot more information in our heads.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

AND

Every time I start thinking too much
about how I look,
I just find a Happy Hour
and by the time I leave,
I look just fine.

Hot Chocolate Recipe

The chocolate cravings have begun!
I happened to have mentioned on Laura's No Sugar No Soda blog that I was craving hot chocolate. She was kind enough to research a recipe for me that is sugar free AND fat free. I wanted to share it with you.

Ingredients
3 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup Splenda granular
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 (1 ounce) package fat-free sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
Directions:
Prep Time: 1 mins
Total Time: 2 mins
1. 1 Mix all ingredients together.
2. 2 Store in airtight container.

Add 3 Tbsps mixture to mug
Add COLD water (helps with clumping)
Heat to desired warmth

I didn't add the Slenda to mine only because I have the Sun Crystals I am going to try. I am just going to add them to the mug. I have it mixed up and can't wait to try it!!


Here is the WEBSITE if you want to take a look!!

Thank you Laura!!

Candace, you HAVE to try this....and even share it on your blob!!

BPA<---->Throw it Away!

BPA....are you familiar with it? I had heard things about it here and there but never really gave it much thought until a few weeks ago when Dr. Oz had a segment about it on his show. I really paid attention, or so I thought. I was telling my family about it at Christmas and the more I tried to tell them about it, the more I was confusing myself and them.

If you look at the bottom of any plastic water bottle, childs sippy cups, bowls, the hard plastic bottles we use to carry water to the gym.....on the bottom of all of these there should be a number present between the triangle shaped recyle arrows. Here is where the confusion came in.....what numbers are harmful, which ones are not. I had to go to my computer and do a little research.

First of all you may be asking, what is BPA? BPA, Bisphenol A is a xenoestrogen, a known endocrine disruptor, meaning it disturbs the hormonal messaging in our bodies. Synthetic xenoestrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children. BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes.

To be certain that you are choosing a bottle that does not leach, check the recycling symbol on your bottle. If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene), your bottle is fine. The type of plastic bottle in which water is usually sold is usually a #1, and is only recommended for one time use. Do not refill it. Better to use a reusable water bottle, and fill it with your own filtered water from home and keep these single-use bottles out of the landfill.

                                 

For a list of good and bad numbers LOOK HERE!

Not only is BPA found in water bottles, some cans that our canned veggies, tuna, etc. come in, also contain BPA. I have started buying all of my tuna in pouches. It costs a little more, but I am investing in my health, so I feel it is worth the small extra cost. I may be going overboard too,but I also have replaced all of my plastic drinking cups with drinking glasses. They were only $8.99 for 10 glasses at Ross. I just feel better mentally drinking from the glasses.

                            Plastic Coding System

HERE is a better definition of the recycle codes. Can you understand now, why I was confused trying to explain this to my family ;)

There are many articles online to better explain BPA leaching and how to avoid it. I hope I have made you just a little more aware of it. Pass it on!!

Raspberry Lemonade

I am trying to find substitutions for soda, so I thought I would try to make raspberry lemonade made with Stevia sweetener with my juicer. I used an entire bag of lemons, there were 8 or 9 in the bag (I forgot to count them) and a whole container of fresh raspberries.

                                                     
                                   My little helper washing the lemons.

        We rotated adding raspberries and lemons, adding lemons last.

I used 3/4 cup of the lemon/raspberry mixture, 3 cups of water and 6 packettes of Stevia. It turned out really good!

Fruit Phobia

As strange as this may sound, I suffer from "Fruit Phobia." Although I have not done a Wikipedia search on this (maybe I should) I feel like there really is such a thing! I will not eat any type of fruit at all. If I even think about taking a bite, I get nervous! I know, I know, you can go ahead and say, "SHE'S WEIRD." I've been told that a time or two. I think a better term might be "fruit texture challenged." I caught part of  an episode of Dr. Phil once that had a gentleman on the show that was the same way about vegetables. Now I know I'm not alone with this strange phobia! I did meet Dr. Phil once * and I wanted to say, "remember that nutty veggie guy....I'm the fruity fruit girl!"

On the serious side, I decided I need to purchase a juicer. It would be the only way I would be able to have fruit in my diet. I will drink any fruit that has been juiced, except for apples. I have never tried an apple, probably never will try an apple,  and for whatever reason, I won't add one to my juicer. Strange, I know.

I shopped around for my juicer to find the best price. I waited until Kohl's sent out a 30% off coupon and I bought my Jack LaLanne juicer then. Regular price was $99 and I was able to purchase it for around $70. My daughter told me sometimes the GNC store also has them for $70.

So this morning, with the help of my grandson Callan, we made juice!

                                      
Preparing the fruit is the most time consuming part of the process. I usually do the washing, peeling etc. the night before. I don't have any fancy citrus peelers, so I use a teaspoon. It seems to work well for me!

                                          First we add pineapples....YUM!

 

Then we threw in some strawberries, grapes and oranges. The juicer comes with a recipe book, but most of the time I just throw in whatever I have in the fridge.

Our finished juice! It was very good!

I buy the small plastic cups at the Dollar Store. They fit perfectly under the spout.

To make clean up a little easier I put a Wal Mart bag in the pulp catcher.

*Meeting Dr. Phil.....he was with his wife Robin at a book signing in Waco. He said "Hello" I said "Hello."That counts as meeting, right? :D

Happy Birthday Callan!!

Where does the time go? I remember my mom saying the older you get, the faster times flies. I have really started to realize that we need to savor every moment in life, because it's gone in a flash!

Today my grandson Callan turned 4 years old. It just seems like yesterday he was born. We had a fun day of celebrating. I need to add, I didn't eat ONE bite of birthday cake! It sure was hard to turn it down!

I just wanted to share a few pictures from today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!

New Year Prayer

Here we are, starting the 2nd day of the New Year. I have something I would like to share with you HERE