Mom Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar

Who me?

Yes you!

Couldn't be!

Then who?

Allow me to sound like an old curmudgeon for a moment, but what in the world is wrong with parents these days?

While I was picking out bagels at Schnucks, a mom brought her two kids over to the cookies. She picked out a cookie for each of them and handed it to them. They ate it while she piddled around looking at the rest of the desserts. Um... HELLO??? Aren't you going to pay for that!? What in the world. Showing your kids it's okay to steal food? They're not free samples. I was so taken aback A, that she wasn't even the least bit ashamed, B, that she didn't even try to hide it, and C, how matter of frank the entire thing was, like they do this all the time. It's time like this I wish I was more bold, I wish I would have called her out for it. Part of me wanted to, the other part told me to mind my own business. That part won.

Starting Rehab

...but not THAT kind of rehab.

Yesterday was my first official day of pulmonary rehab! Tuesday was my 'setup' day where we went over all of my information, made sure my chart was up to date, and went over the program and what I would be doing.

Every day I do exercises on the treadmill, then the arm machine (that little thing that sits on a table and looks like your arms are pedaling a bike), and a step machine which is like climbing steps but you're sitting. I think they're excited to have me because I'm a slightly different case than usual. I'm excited about it too.

When I walked in, I immediately saw a woman doing crafts to pass the time while her husband was in rehab, talking with another lady about their AARP benefits. Yep, I'm definitely the youngest person there.

The most common reasons cardiac and/or pulmonary rehab is prescribed for heart patients and adults with COPD or emphysema. Even the nurses commented how they weren't sure I was the patient, saying "Your chart painted a different picture." I get that a lot, and my doctor and I have talked about it. It's a blessing and a curse. I look healthy—my skin has good color, I'm young, I'm not overweight, I don't struggle to walk or display problems with my joints. But my insides, mostly my lungs, tell a different story. It is difficult because it takes some mental power on my part to also admit that I'm as sick as I am, when I show no outward signs. But hopefully it'll stay that way for a long time!

Spoiler Alert on "Reality" TV

It seems ages ago when "reality tv" became a thing, when we progressed away from scripted sitcoms to real life shows. Even so, reality tv has morphed into something else and it seems every new show follows an obscure person or obscure group of people; that's the million dollar formula. And somehow you make a show out of it.

But I'm not so sure how many people actually realize that almost every show is still scripted; I think it's understood by most, but I am also confident that many people would be aghast if you told them that their favorite show is faked, as I was with the last example I'll give. 

It's one thing if you choose to ignore it. You want to be entertained, don't want to have to think while you watch TV, so you bite and take the bait. That's fine, and I get that. I watch Duck Dynasty but I am fully aware (and fully okay) with the fact that they feed them situations to help create the show. But I'm a thinker and in my truthful core, I always try to figure out if they're pulling one over me or not. Sometimes I'm okay with it, sometimes I'm not. Consider the following a "How Do They Do It" and I'd advise you to stop reading now if you want to remain blissfully immersed in Call of the Wildman, American Pickers, or House Hunters. If you're curious, read on.

Cold Tuesday

It is a whopping 14 degrees outside, bitterly cold once again. Luckily it wasn't too windy today, or else it would have felt like it did right after New Year's. It sure was windy overnight though.

We got a dusting of snow overnight and schools were called off today. When I woke up, I thought that sounded ridiculous! Once again, it seemed that everyone was scared away by the tiny amount of snow. Then I learned from Jarrod that his drive to work was kinda rough, hitting a solid sheet of ice on the way. And the weather lady said that the snow fell on warm roads, melted, and then refroze as it got colder. Oh... now I get it.

Not wanting to risk it, I cancelled my doctor's appointments today and will do them in a couple weeks. The nurse understood completely and didn't want me to try and venture west (where they didn't get any snow). So I stayed in and worked from home all day and then went to Walmart tonight. I must say, that was possibly the best Walmart experience I've had in a while. Turns out no one shops at 6-7 pm, there was hardly anyone there. It was great, and I was out of there in less than an hour.

I also finished a book that I've been reading like crazy; I don't think I've ever attacked a non-fiction book so quickly. It was Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer. It was such a good book. The author did a fantastic job researching (he listed his sources, broken out by paragraph) and you could tell he strived to give an accurate portrayal of the Busch family, unlike the media coverage that they received in the newspapers (especially in recent years) which sounded as if it was practically dictated by those in charge to spin things in a good light.

But it is a sad tale, really. In a nutshell, I'll give you my thoughts: To go from the founding father Adolphus, with his glamorous over-the-top-ness, to his son who was just as flashy, to "Gussie" Busch, the stubborn man who was respected by most of St. Louis and who turned the company into a booming business, to August III who ousted his father, yes, but still had a good work ethic and believed in quality and being the best, to his son August IV, the hard-partying cocaine-addicted mess of a CEO (and mess of a guy in general) who never really cared enough about the business to take it seriously—that is a sad story. None of these men were perfect people by any means, or very moral, and they spent/wasted a lot of their millions, but they all believed in their business and their community, except for the last guy, IV. A-B was a source of pride for StL where a man could get a job, make a career there, buy a house, send his kids to college, but now that pride is mostly gone and everyone says it's just not the same since InBev bought them out. I feel like I learned so much St. Louis history in this book and like I said, it is a sad story to go from so much pride to so much disgrace and scandal. I highly recommend it especially if you are from St. Louis, like non-fiction, or enjoy a good well-rounded story.

Yesterday

Yesterday, the 15th, was Jarrod and I's anniversary of being together. Eight years ago, in the wee hours of the morning while talking on the phone Jarrod asked me out. And you could say the rest is history.

Wow, eight years!

In other news, I've started training for my 5k! So far it's been good. I'm trying to build up my endurance walking at a brisk pace of 3 miles an hour; not attempting jogging just yet. Because even if I walked at that pace the whole time, I'd finish is just over an hour, which is pretty good.

Jamie's Big 5K

It's snowing right now, yay snow! I haven't gotten a chance to see an updated weather forecast but hopefully it'll amount to something. I believe it is supposed to.

Tonight I had a good walk on the treadmill, which was great because lately I've been feeling a little more 'meh'. But before I took my walk I finaaallllyyyy… wrote out my 5K training schedule! Woo hoo!

Now that I have it down in pen and ink, and have it planted on top of the treadmill, I know what I need to do. On the website for GoSTL they had a suggested training schedule that lasted 9 weeks. I am going to need to ease into it a little more, so I modified it out to start next Monday, which will make it 13 weeks of training. Then tonight I've been reading up on some tips for your first 5K, which were helpful.

• Mentally break the race out into 4 mini-races, three 1-mile races, then a fourth (and easy) tenth of a mile.
• Do your first mile slow, pick up the pace for the second, then kick it in gear and try to pass a person in the last mile.
• When training, develop a brisk walk, then add in some jogging, then add in running as you can handle it.

I'm super excited, and hopefully that'll stay that way and I won't get discouraged. The next thing I've done tonight is research for backpacks for oxygen tanks. I have not needed oxygen while exercising her at home, yet, but I figure I will probably need it for this since it's 3.1 miles. I was happy to see a bunch of options, so looks like that shouldn't be a problem.

Furthermore, if I can get all set up with the pulmonary rehab my doctor wants me to do, that will really help me in training for this because the point of rehab is to build up your endurance. Pulmonary rehab would be three times a week, MWF, and those days coordinate perfectly with my training schedule and what I'm supposed to do on MWF.

What's In Store?

Holidays are great and all but I'm kinda ready for them to be over. Yes, I'm very excited to have people over tonight but after that I am ready to get back in a routine. It has been really hard to keep up with all of my treatments and exercising with the holidays; not to mention we had some sort of Christmas celebration to go to for five nights straight last week.

So what's in store for us in the upcoming year? Well… hopefully a lot.

• Finishing the basement—Our hope is to get things inspected, then drywalled, then we can start putting the finishing touches on like paint, flooring, and trim. We might do the bar this year, we might not. We also hope to get the projector and all of the equipment so we are actually able to watch movies down there! 
• Continue working from home—I've been working from home all month now and I think it is going great. I have not had any complaints from anyone yet about it, so hopefully all of my superiors agree. 
• Keep up the good work—I STILL don't have my morning cough back, and it STILL amazes me. I am officially one month out from my hospital stay and still doing really well. At this point, now I'm really wondering just how much my workplace was making me feel terrible. The past few nights I've woke up coughing, but outside of that I am doing good.
• Do my 5K—Along with that, I'm still very hopeful I can do my 5K! Since I bounced back from my sickness and now have been able to hold my own I'm hoping to train in the next 3 months and do it! I looked it up, and last year the person who finished last did it in 1 hour 18 minutes, so I figure that can be a good starting point for me. If I do, I'll let you know so you can all join in cheering me on :)

I hope you have a good year too!

My 5 Alternative Resolution Suggestions

To resolve or not to resolve? We always start the new year off with good intentions, and then end up falling back into our old ways within two weeks. Everyone wants to work out more, weigh less, etc. However, I'd like to lay out a list of alternatives that could be more achievable.

1. Silence Your Phone During Dinner—Whether you're dining out or eating at home, just put the thing on silent or set it in another room. Be present and enjoy your meal with the people in the room. It saddens me when I see parents and the kids are left to fend for themselves while mom and dad waste time on their phones. Don't be like those people, at home or out in public.
2. Limit Your Online Time—Again, we all know how the internet can take over so much of our time. Make a point to stop that right now and limit your time if you spend too much of it online.
3. Try New Food—Once a month, pick a new specific food or specific restaurant you've never been to.
4. Donate—Make a donation somewhere, and don't tell anyone about it. Nothing is less charitable than when you make a point of telling your friends that you gave $$ to some cause.
5. Go to Church—If you don't go at all, try for once a month. If you go once a month, try going weekly. I used to think that going to church would get you into heaven. Then I thought it was silly that people go to church, thinking it will get them into heaven, while living awful, hurtful lives outside of church. Now I understand that church does not get you into heaven, but it enhances your life and, whether you realize it or not, makes you a more holy person.

Saturday Night Adventure

I went to take the dog outside. But as I stepped over the threshold I paused because I heard this odd sound. It was like a soft sound, like something was going pfft pfft, pfft pfft. I turned my head to look inside and found a bird flying around... in our house.

Josie was already on her way to go potty so I called to Jarrod saying "Jarrod! There's a bird in the house!" Right as I said that, I realized there was another bird fluttering around the porch (possibly its mate) and I shut the door immediately to keep the second one out.

Once we got back inside, I put the dog in her crate so we could open up the front door and the deck door in hopes of getting the bird (it was a house finch) to fly out. Jarrod had closed all the bedroom doors to keep it out of the rooms. Jeff was coming over for a movie later, and he arrived at this point. It was so hilarious trying to get the bird to fly out; we had out a broom and a Swiffer hoping to keep him moving. I set bird seed outside in hopes he would see it and find it enticing.

Sitting atop the dining light.

The bird kept landing on the dining room light, then he'd sit on the ceiling fan in the living room, then go down the hall, then come back to the dining room, then at one point Jeff said "Oh no, he's found a house!" because the bird had landed on top of our cabinets where I have about 8 decorative bird houses, haha. Then he landed ON the corner of the open front door about 3 different times, but somehow didn't see the great outdoors just beyond. I think after chasing him around for about ten minutes. He flew out just as unnoticeably as he came in, though he did leave behind some bird crap on the wall. However he pooped horizontally ont the wall, I'll never know.

For most of the month, every time I'd take the dog out, there would be bits and pieces of greenery from my wreath on the ground, right as you opened the door. I asked Jarrod if he thought he had slammed the door shut a few times, but he didn't think so. I began to believe that some birds were pecking at my wreath, because on more than one occasion I'd see one around the porch. I'd say tonight confirms that suspicion.

I took the wreath down.

Movie Theaters

We went to see American Hustle tonight. The movie itself was good, but our experience was a tad annoying.

I have yet to talk with someone else who is as picky about movie theaters as me and my husband are. It is so rarely that I even go to a movie theater because I usually end up getting cranky from the whole experience. The things that bother me are things like parents bringing babies or toddlers to PG-13 and above movies, or teens talking during most of the film. Tonight was also bothersome but for other reasons.

For one, when we walked in, there was this god-awful, so-painful-it-was-comical song that a twelve-year-old was singing about bullying (OMG it kept going and going) that went something like "... and then you; can find out; what it means; to be small!"—that's another topic for another time, but really? Are we really to the point where we need pop tunes at movie theaters, written specifically about bullying? Furthermore, does anyone honestly believe crap like this makes kids think "Oh, maybe I shouldn't be mean."? Further furthermore: this is an R movie, almost everyone there was over 25, wrong target audience!

Ok, enough on that tangent. But anyways, there were so many commercials for TV shows and shoes and coats, just like you'd see on TV. Then on top of that there were at least 5 movie previews, which they didn't start on time at 8:20 but at 8:40ish. Which meant our movie had an even later start.

They didn't turn the lights off, they only dimmed them slightly, so it was still too flipping bright in there. I couldn't tell if they even shut the door to the theater because the noise in the hall was distracting. Then you had the rumbles from the theater next door bleeding in to our movie, pretty badly too. The three 50-something women next to me wouldn't stop talking. And the kid in front of us put his feet up on the seats... with no shoes on, just socks. Dude, you're not in your living room.

And this is why I wait till things are available on Netflix and just watch movies in the comfort of my own home where I have no one to bother me except maybe my dog.