Surprise Baby Sprinkle and Birthday Celebration

Planning a surprise party is almost impossible with Melissa. Trish and I decided months ago to give her a small surprise baby sprinkle on her birthday. I thought it was appropriate since we had her first baby shower for Violet on her birthday 6 years ago.

Melissa spent days grilling Jamie on our plans once I told her to meet me at Trish's house. She just knew we were throwing her a baby sprinkle. But I played my part very well and when she arrived she was totally surprised for the party instead of the make overs she thought we were doing.

If you ever need a party planner, Trish is your go-to person. She can turn a few finger foods, balloons and the most incredible individual bundt cakes into a beautiful table arrangement.

There were just a few friends invited so Melissa wasn't as overwhelmed opening gifts.

Let's don't forget the ever popular personalized Mimi. Do you know how hard it is to design a baby afghan when you're told the nursery color is "floral"? This was the best I could come up with in keeping with the floral design. I hope the new baby enjoys hers as much as Violet and Lincoln do.

This will be one of the last photos taken of the Taylor family as a family of 4. In just 8 short weeks, a new baby girl will join their family.

After the sprinkle, Trish let us hang out at her house for an Italian dinner to celebrate Melissa's birthday.

Happy 36th birthday, Melissa and good luck trying to juggle 3 kids. I can hardly wait to see you tackle that!

One Week Closer to Goal

I'm another week closer to my 2019 goal of beating Bruce at weekly Fitbit steps.

Bruce thinks it should be easy for anyone to beat him since he has a goal of 10,000 steps a day and actually tries to stick to it. In all honesty, my winter goal is the number of steps it takes me to get from my bed to the living room chair. So getting well over 70,000 steps a week means I'm really working up a sweat. Two out of thirteen so far!

AFC Championship Football Game

There was a slim possibility I was going to the AFC Championship game and I mean less than 1%.

But the gambler in me played the worst odds and sat up at Harrah's hoping and praying that 2 people would back out at the last minute and Trish and I would be able to go to the game.

And the odds paid off. It was the eleventh hour and 59 minutes when we climbed the steps of the bus to see the most coveted game in Kansas City Chief history.

Never mind that the temperatures hovered in the teens. I spent the few days before the game deciding what and how many layers I needed to stay warm. I even crocheted headbands to layer the warmth for my head.

Before standing in the hour long line to enter the stadium gates, I searched the tailgaters to find my friend Todd from high school. Todd is a veteran season ticket holder and always tailgates - rain or shine. I was just hoping to remember where he usually sets up.

The Chiefs started off slow and didn't play the best of games. The second half was more to the fans' liking and with 30 seconds left on the clock, the Chiefs tied the game 31-31.

My mind started flashing back to the longest game in football history played at the old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City on Christmas day 1971 when the Miami Dolphins beat the Chiefs 27-24 in another AFC Championship game and I was there. After sitting in the cold for over 3 hours, I feared a new record would be set. But with an unlucky coin toss, the recharged Patriots surged down the field, scored a touchdown and beat the Chiefs 37-31.

Would I do it again........ummmm, NO! But it was exciting knowing you were a part of something big.

One Week out of Thirteen

It's only the second week of the year and I beat Bruce in Fitbit steps. My goal for the year was 13 weeks out of 52.

I have to admit he was on a train for 2 days on his way to Tucson but no one stopped him from pacing the aisles of the train. I know he has another travel day this week and I might be able to beat him but I don't think he's stopped walking since he hit Tucson. After he saw I beat him this week in steps, he probably cancelled that return flight back to St Louis and decided to walk home instead!

Dice Exercise

Today's additional physical activity was rolling the exercise dice.

I couldn't have rolled anything harder. If you don't believe me, then try it. First I had to look on YouTube to see how to do a proper squat because every time I thought I was doing a squat, I kept falling down. I can't quite get my butt below my knees, but I do feel a small burn in my legs so maybe it's working!

January Fitness Challenge

Michele and I are constantly trying to figure ways to stay in shape and lose weight.

Our January challenge is to walk 250,000 steps - not such an easy task considering I hate walking outside in the cold. Michele took off running January 1 while I limped along for a couple of days before realizing I had to get in a little over 8,000 steps a day. I also added for myself a daily exercise routine choosing from 20 minutes on the elliptical, a YouTube walking video, Richard Simmons "Sweatin' to the Oldies", weight lifting, roll the exercise dice and resistance exercise bands.

I took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and decided to take a walk. All the Christmas decorations are down but I did run across a hub cap someone so nicely placed by the mailbox. Not wanting to look at the same houses in my neighborhood I always see, I headed to the Jackson County trail behind my subdivision. Bad idea. The trail is partially paved and partial gravel. The gravel part was so muddy and slick it was easier to walk in the grass. I wonder if the county puts down new gravel in the Spring?

New TV Stand - Sweatin' to the Oldies!

In keeping with my 2019 goal of keeping my blog updated in a timely manner, I am writing this post on the first day of the year.

My new TV stand finally arrived and Michael came over to put it together for me. Unlike my new coffee table, the stand was actually completely put together in the box. Hooking up a TV, VCR and cable box isn't that easy for me, so Michael got me going just in time to watch Judge Judy.

Oh, he also made sure my DVD player was hooked up and running and good ole Richard Simmons' "Sweatin' to the Oldies" is now cued up and ready for my weekly workout!