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Lovely Day

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Day 414 in being blessed on my way to meeting Mickey (16 days to go)

This morning I woke up early and went to worship with Mike and my bestie Jean. What a blessing! It is always twice the blessing when I get to sing and worship with Jean!  *sigh* (of contentment)

Plus she and I got our free flu shots today at church. Thanks to Advocate Health Care and Walgreen’s. Now we are ready for flu season. 🙂

Mike and I will grocery shop soon. (Healthy foods only please.) Then I’ll take my walk. And this evening Jake and Eliza will come for dinner. I will give them their Magic Bands and their luggage tags for Magical Express. Two weeks from this Tuesday we go to Walt Disney World!  I get so excited thinking about it!!

What a lovely day and what a lovely weekend!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Blessed and Exhausted

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Day 413 in making my way to Mickey

Today I spent the day at the Women of Faith conference in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.  It was amazing!  Every speaker on both days was inspiring; I laughed, I cried, I came away blessed.

I didn’t wake up early to walk today because we were up at 6:30 to get ready, have breakfast and check out of our hotel.  We wanted to make it to the venue by 8:00 am to get in and get good parking.  Last night we missed about 45 minutes of the beginning, due to traffic and had to park in Timbuktu!  Today we were there early and could stroll in leisurely.

Anyway I am pooped so I’m off to bed.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Walking, Eating and Living Life to the Fullest

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Day 412 in celebrating on my way to see Mickey (18 days to go)

This morning’s jams as I took my early walk were: Kiss Me by Six Pence None the Richer and Shake It Off by Taylor Swift.  I made it a little farther than yesterday, but I am really feeling it now.  My legs are like, “What are you thinking?!?”  But it’s a good sore, a progress-being-made kind of sore.

Tonight I attend the Women of Faith Conference (named Loved) in Hoffman Estates, Illinois with my bestie from Michigan and my bestie from Illinois.  Yay!  Jean and Joan in the same room praising the Lord with me; it doesn’t get any better that that!  We will hear Sandy Patty, Sheila Walsh and Sarah Jakes Roberts tonight and many more tomorrow.  Man, oh, man, I am juiced up…with excitement (and a little bit of caffeine).  🙂

We three girls are having a pajama party at the Hampton Inn tonight.  That way we save about two hours of driving.  We’ll go down early, check in to our room, grab some dinner (I hope to find a dinner salad) and head to Sears Centre for renewal and uplifting praise!  Woo hoo!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Pressing On

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Day 411 in sweating it out to meet up with Mickey (19 days to go…only 19!!!)

Why is it so difficult to do the right thing?  I woke up early this morning to walk.  This is my fourth day in a row to do so.  Hardly earth shattering, right?  I swear, it was such hard work today.  I tried visualizing walking toward Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom.  No good.  I tried changing locale and visualized walking down Hollywood Boulevard toward The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  No good.  So I imagined walking from the bus stop toward Spaceship Earth at EPCOT.  Nope!  It was just exhausting.

BUT, Dear Readers, I did manage to push on and even walked a little farther than yesterday.  I was listening to Sabrina Carpenter on my iPhone, who is on the Disney Channel show Girl Meets World.  She has a song called The Middle of Starting Over which seems to be my anthem (my jam) just now.  I know the song is about falling in love, but it is so catchy and has such a great hook that I cannot resist it.  🙂  And with this exercise thing, post cancer diagnosis and treatment, I am in the middle of starting over.

So I will not be discouraged.  I will not stop my daily walks.  (Lord, willing and the creek don’t rise!)  I will persevere, for in only 19 days we fly to Orlando and our lovely time share at Disney’s Old Key West Resort.  I hope to get the chance to take a swim that first evening.  It would be bliss!

Why is it so difficult to do the right thing?  Because it just is, or as my mom would have said to me, “Do it because I said so!”  Please pray for me to have the stamina to see it through, Friends.  Meet you at the Kingdom!

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The Merry and Bright Dessert Party

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Day 410 in taking better care of myself to meet up with Mickey in just 20 days

Today I booked The Merry and Bright Dessert Party at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for Mike and I in December.  This is a brand new, one year only event. Here is what touringplans.com has to say about the event:  “The Merry & Bright Dessert Party will include holiday-themed desserts, specialty alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, sodas, water, tea and coffee. The Dessert Party will take place from November 6 through December 24 from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. and on December 25-30 from 8:30 p.m. through 10:00 p.m.  Each guest in the party will receive a keepsake roll-up stadium blanket.  Guests will be able to enjoy the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights from a reserved location at the end of the Streets of America near the entrance to Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show.”

This is the last year for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney World.  Those of you who have seen these lights know how absolutely amazing they are.  Those who have not seen it?  It is impossible to imagine, and it is stunning.  I’m so glad that Mike and I will get to see it one last time.

AND I woke up early and walked this morning, stayed sugar-free today, ate healthily and had my three-tooth bridge re-cemented at the dentist’s.  So…today I have been a good steward of this body God gave me.  PTL!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Tuning Up This Engine

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Day 409 in pushing through to make it to meeting up with Mickey

Today’s plan was to wake up early, again, and take a walk before work, AND to eat healthy all day.  So far, so good.  Waking up early is not so good, but I do feel more energy during my work day when I get that walk in in the A.M.  So tomorrow I’ll hit it again.  Imagining myself walking down Main Street USA on my way to Cinderella’s Castle is very motivating!  It made me push a little further today.

For breakfast I had a banana with peanut butter on it.  My peanut butter is crushed peanuts with no additives.  So delicious!!  My lunch was two boiled eggs, four mini-peppers and an apple.  For dinner it’s a half cup of wheat noodles with a cup of Mike’s homemade tomato sauce with lean ground beef added and plenty of raw, fresh veg.  Mrs. Bryan (one of Mike’s two bosses) gave us two baskets of tomatoes from her garden, and my wonderful Mike turned them into tomato/spaghetti sauce. Yum!

I have drunk 6 cups of water today and hope to get in three more cups before bedtime.

So it’s been a “treating myself well/nourishing my body/moving my body through space kind of day.  I feel good!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

BTW: My three-tooth bridge fell out today. It’s always something, isn’t it? I was chewing sugar-free gum and out it came.  My dentist told me not to chew gum anymore.  Guess I should have listened. PTLA!

 

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On Track, Fighting Back

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Day 408 in taking the right steps to meet up with Mickey (22 days to go)

Today’s plan, as stated in yesterday’s blog, was to get back on the beam.  It’s been a good day.  I woke up a half hour early and took a walk this morning.  It was torture!

Waking up early is not my thing.  I am not a morning person.  As a matter of fact Mike, Jake, nor I are morning people.  Emi is a morning person, and frankly, I’m amazing she lived to tell the story.  She is an amazing person, and I deeply admire her ability to rise above the morning mourning that happened every day of her growing up.

But anyway I got my butt out of bed early and did it, one morning down.

I have also had a great food day.  We had baked salmon and sweet potato for dinner with plenty of raw veg.   And I am drinking more water again.  No sugar today.  I feel satiated and nourished.

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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Getting Back on the Beam

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Day 407 in my journey to meet Mickey

I have gained a few pounds in the last few weeks.  I sort of threw in the towel and went a bit wild.  But today, I am re-resolved to get on and stay on the right path.  The path where I put healthy fuel (foods) into my body.  The path where I get out of bed an hour earlier every morning and get in a walk.  After all I am only 23 days away from going to Florida. GAH!

Wow!  In 23 days I’ll be there…in my Happy Place.  I can almost smell the sun screen and chlorine now.  🙂  I will kick up my feet at Disney’s Old Key West and exhale…like, really exhale, the kind where I can actually feel the stress falling away.  Ah……

Mike picked veggie sandwiches for dinner tonight.  Shredded brie on bread rolls with sauteed mushroom, peppers, olives and onions.  They will be delicious, but not exactly low-cal.  I will make a point to eat plenty of raw veg (especially broccoli) to help push it through my system.  Then the rest of the week it’ll be:

Monday: salmon and baked pumpkin with raw veg and dip (hummus maybe)

Tuesday: Easy Chicken and Bean Stew with raw veg and dip

Wednesday: Stuffed Green Peppers with raw veg and dip

Thursday: baked chicken with sweet potato and raw veg and dip

Friday and Saturday: Women of Faith Conference  So, Friday-dinner with Jean and Joan.  Yay!  Saturday-dinner with Jean and Wayne.  Yay again!!  I hope to eat some nice dinner salads over the weekend.

My body is so ready to get back on the beam!  I feel so much better and have so much more energy when I’m making better choices.  Why do I not just live my life there?  It still shocks me just how easy it is to slip off the proverbial wagon and make non-optimal choices.  Sheesh!  All I can say is, “Help me, Jesus!”  And I know He will.  PTL!

Meet you at the Kingdom!

 

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Magical Mayhem

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Day 406 in fixing my mistakes on my way to meeting Mickey

Today I called Walt Disney World.  I few days back I tried to reserve a place for Mike and I on the Magical Express bus in December.  Even though I had put that there would be two of us taking the Magical Express to Disney’s All Star Sports Resort from Orlando International Airport and then back again three days later, by the time I finished online, they only had one person listed as riding the bus, and that person was Mike.   So I called and had a lovely visit with Danae (pronounced duh-nay).  She took a look and said that no reservation had been made.  Gee whiz!  Apparently I messed it up big time.  Danae got it all straightened out, and now we are reserved on the bus and all our flight information has been entered. Whew!  It sure doesn’t take much to mess things up.  So my advice? Always double check any reservations that you make online.  🙂

Meet you at the Kingdom!

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MagicBand Madcapness

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Day 405 in exciting developments on my way to meeting up with Mickey

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles…our MagicBands arrived in the mail today. This is so exciting!!  We three girls are fashionable and extroverted in our choices: blue, yellow and red.  The three menfolk are more conservative: all three chose gray.  ðŸ˜† But it just tickles my funny bone to look inside and see our names imprinted there. The trip is only 25 days away now. 25 days!!!  I get so excited thinking about it that I could just puke. 25 days from now we’ll be at Olivia’s Cafe enjoying our Unbirthday Dinner. We’ve been saving up for 2 years of birthdays for this. 

Dear Readers, the MagicBands have entered the building!  Can Walt Disney World be far now?  NO!

Meet you at the Kingdom!