Category Archives: goals list

Crawdad Days

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A few weeks ago, I crowned my successor as Ms. Classic Crawdad Days. I had so much fun holding that title last year. First, I was so excited to have won!

I competed in the 40+, Ms. Classic, division. At 62, I was the oldest person in the pageant. I’ve been competing in pageants for 25 years and it was the firs time I’d ever been crowned on stage and it was thrilling. I loved the ladies I competed with. They were so kind and fun to hang out with all day. It helped to wipe out a previous bad pageant experience and even if I hadn’t won, it would’ve been a great experience.

The Crawdad Festival was fun and we hung out all day at the festival, held a baby contest, rode rides, and went to the rodeo. I’d never been to a rodeo before and that was a high point, one I definitely want to experience again.

There is a 5k run for the festival. It was super early and it was COLD last year so I didn’t get to the festival in time for the race. And this year, I didn’t go to the festival at all but I’ve been paying attention on Facebook

On Saturday was this year’s 5K race. Do you know there was not one woman over 60 who participated in that 5K? The oldest woman to run was 58. There were for 60+ men and 2, 70+ men!

It’s things like this that cause me to add to my goals list. I keep a goals list and there are around 50 or so items on it at all times. Big things, little things, but all things I for sure what to do or try.

I have added the Crawdad Days 5K to my goals list. Next year, darnit, there will be a woman over 60 who competes. I actually have the USMC Marathon on my goals list for 2025. It takes place in November so a 5K in mid-May seems more than reasonable.

Who’s going to join me?

Half Clown

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Back in ‘April, I did an appearance with Fire Marshall Tom in the Safety Zone at the Adkar Shrine Circus. As well as being fire marshall, Tom also serves as Huffy the Clown, an educational clown. So it wasn’t strange that all the clowns at the circus stopped by to talk to Tom while we were there.

safety

The more I interacted with these fabulous folks, the more I thought, “these are my people” and “I need to be a clown”. At that time, we were tentatively supposed to move overseas so I told Tom that I would let him know once I knew for sure. 

At the Mrs. International Pageant a few months later, we each had to introduce ourselves at Orientation. Each table of contestants received a different question and we then had 30 seconds to answer it. The question for our table was “What is one item on your bucket list?” 

Well, I don’t have a bucket list but I do have a Goals list and at any one time there are over 100 items on it. I was the fourth person in line. While I waited I was trying to think what one thing on that list would be at all interesting to my sister contestants and pageant staff. Then it came to me:

Glammie the Clown!

I was happy with my idea and waited for my turn. I told them how my granddaughter already calls me Glammie so I want to take it a step further to become a clown of the same name. I told them that my big, wide clown shoes would be my favorite shoes ever. (I didn’t know how true this would be prior to wearing 5″ heels for 11 hours a day!) Glammie the Clown was very well received and over the course of the following week, many of the other girls told me how awesome they thought it was.

Now, I’ve been back from the pageant for a month or so and I realize that I need to get moving on this clown thing. I finally connected with the Gentle Jesters group last Tuesday and was able to go to their monthly meeting that night. They gave me all kinds of great tips and told me how it works. They had an event yesterday and told me I could come as a clown or come to observe. sickle_cell

Since I have no  clown items, I said I’d come to observe. I made my way to The Supporters of Families with Sickle Cell Disease Back to School Bash where I essentially served as a clown intern or clown in training. I learned how to make balloons into dogs and swords. Then I was thrown into face painting. 

halfclown

I’d watch Lucy paint several faces and I just wasn’t sure I could do it. So I asked the first little boy, what he wanted me to paint on his face. He said, “A lion.” OMG how do you paint a lion? So I kind of winged it and when I was finished, I handed him the mirror and he got the biggest smile on his face. It was so awesome! I’m glad that Lucy made me paint faces because I was pretty sure I couldn’t do it and it turns out, I was wrong. 🙂

lucy

I’m so excited to be a full clown. Glammie the Clown will be making her debut on September 10 and the Claremore Community Center. Stay tuned!

 

K is for Knowing Yourself

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I’m going to quit running. Although it’s been a fun challenge to get back into it, at this point in time, I don’t think it’s the best thing for me.

I used to run all the time back in the early 90s, as I’ve mentioned. It was super hard to start running again. Harder than I remember it being back in the day but it was a challenge. Being able to take full breaths to the bottom of my lungs was exciting. It’s the biggest reason I don’t want to stop. 

Getting faster or adding more mileage on every run was another fun part of the process. I got such satisfaction from that. But, being honest with myself, running is just not for me. At least not right now. Maybe not ever again.

I love to walk and I walk everywhere. My last run not only made my left foot hurt really bad but it made the lower right side of my back hurt.  Am I still too heavy? I don’t know. That could be it. Maybe I’m just too old, even though I know a lot of much older people than I, run But if my foot and back hurt so much that I can’t walk the rest of the day, is it worth it? I don’t think so.

I have several running goals on my goals list: 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon. I read books about ultra runners (50+ miles) and think, “Wow! Wouldn’t that be cool to do?” But I might just have to let it go.

I think you really have to know yourself at all times to make sure you’re giving yourself the best. So that’s what I’m doing here, what I know is best for me, giving up running. At least for now. I’ll still get plenty of exercise with my running and cycling, both of which I love. I just may have to re-evaluate my goals list. But that’s okay. There’s always more goals to add to the list to achieve. 😀

Wheeee!

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I rode a bike! I haven’t been on a bike since I was a kid but I rode one today. Here’s my experience. 

The biggest thing I learned is that while I might be able to run with my mouth open, I should most definitely not ride a bike with my mouth open. LOL! I’m pretty sure my protein intake is higher today. 😉 

I Ran!

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I was so excited to run this morning. I used to run all the time, completing as much as a 20k. I was a member of the Chicago Area Runners and I did races a couple of times a month. My favorite race was the Chicago Avenue On The Run that took place on Mother’s Day. My favorite distance was the 10k.

I don’t “look” like a runner. I’ve never been built that way. I’m built for distance, not speed. I was never fast but I was never the last person across the finish line either. 

It’s been a long, long time since I ran with any regularity. I ran some for fitness 15 years ago but it’s been since the early 90s since I was a regular runner.

Still, on my goals list I have a 5k, 10, half marathon and a whole marathon.

Before we left Tulsa, I told myself I’d start running again once I reached a certain weight. But since I’ve banished the scale now and have no clue how much I weigh, I decided that today would be a good day to start.

I’m still learning my way around here and I got a nice warmup walking to the trail where i wanted to run. I am pretty sure there’s got to be a better way to get there than the one I chose that included a LOT of stop lights and traffic. 

I got to the trail and started running. It was HARD. Every time a bike passed me I thought, “I need a bike”. More than once I thought, “I’m never doing this again” but an interesting thing happened on my walk home. Where I happened to get a little lost-ish thereby extending my cool down by about a half a mile. 

I thought, “You know what? I will do that again! It was good. I can’t believe I actually ran!” 

That put a smile on my face. 😀

Like my friend Marie told me this a.m.

I know that’s true. I’m excited for that day. I’ve planned a half marathon in September and a full marathon in May of 2016. It will be so much fun to cross those off of my goals list. 🙂

Almond Fauxsants

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Back before Christmas, I was discussing Almond Croissants with my friend Gini Dietrich. You see, I haven’t been able to find an almond croissant in this state since we moved here. Gini said we should try and make almond croissants over the holiday break and then check in and see how it went.

convo

After commenting on the release of her new book the other day (Yay! Can’t wait to read it!), I asked her if she had made the croissants.

croissant

I was laughing. We had also watched all five seasons of Breaking Bad and it’s as good a reason as any for why I hadn’t tried to make the croissants yet, either.

I finally decided that I was going to give it a whirl. I used this recipe. It looked easy enough.

But I’m here to tell you that they are NOT croissants. I’d call them Almond Fauxsants. 😉

fauxsant_closw

The dough is somewhere between a biscuit and a bread dough. I knew it as soon as I touched it this a.m.

Upon reflection, I can see clearly that this could not have ended up as a croissant because adding yeast to the dough would make it doughy, bready. Not flaky.

Back in the day, when we lived in Saudi, we had a friend named Ko. Ko made croissants one day. He told us that he folded and folded and folded butter into the flour. This, I can see, would make a flaky croissant.

Anyway, I tried to make these look like croissants but I skipped the egg wash and the almond sprinkle on top. I’ll save that for when I figure out how to make real croissants. 🙂

fauxsant_tray

PS – These “tasted” like almond croissants because of the almond filling I used for the insides. But I could have avoided the whole bready vs flaky thing by just eating it off the spoon. 😉

PSS – I guess I cant really cross 107 – Make almond croissants off of my goals list since these were not really almond croissants. 😉

Rolled Fondant Cake

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Yesterday was the Glambaby’s birthday and today is Boo Boo the Wonderdog’s birthday. I decided I was going to try my hand at rolled fondant frosting. It’s #60 on my goals list and I’ve always wanted to try it.

candles

I’m left handed and it’s really hard for me to decorate with buttercream because all of the tools, tips, etc. are made for right handed people and it just doesn’t work. But fondant always seemed like roll and place and I figured it would be easier to do.

I used the Marshmallow Fondant recipe at All Recipes to make my own fondant. I don’t konw what your fondant eating experience has been but mine has been Blech! Nasty. The reviews for this recipe were good for taste and ease. They were also very enlightening. I read through them all so I would have the best chance of success. There’s also a video to watch to gain more courage.

I knew I could do it, I was ready!

I chose this cake for inspiration.

I made two layers of brownie in five inch pans so it’s a pretty tiny cake but it’s all we need. I put peanut butter cups into the brownie before I baked it. For filling, I melted chocolate chips.

cake1

Then I rolled out the fondant. It was easy! I used cornstarch to keep it from sticking.

rolled

I then place it over the cake.

I took a small amount of the fondant and worked some red food color paste into it. The palms of my hands are still red. 🙂

hand

I then cut out the little hearts, painted their backs with water and stuck them to the cake.

cake

I know there are fondant cake making secrets I must still learn. How to keep my hands from being dyed when coloring the fondant, how to make it smooth.

But for the most part, I’m pretty darned excited with my first effort at rolled fondant. Doing what I did seemed pretty easy and I would definitely try it again. 🙂

Ton of Fun Challenge

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I do really well at challenges because I’m super competitive. That’s why I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge this month. And now, I’ve joined the Ton of Fun Challenge at Fleet Feet Sports.

Tons of Fun Challenge

The 12 week program offers nutrition advice, fitness workouts and accountability. Fitness isn’t tough. We work out every day and I feel terrible if we miss. And I could write a book on diet and nutrition but the actual doing of it? For the food part?  I need accountability!

I went yesterday a.m. for my first weigh-in. I stepped on the scale and learned that I have had WAY too much food fun the past couple of months. The good news is, it makes me feel like crap so I’m ready to get in line.

If you read my blog, you have read about my 100 Goals list. I’ve added completing this challenge successfully to the list. Like other goals on the list, if I attain this one, it will allow me to also achieve (or be closer to achieving) Goals 2, 3, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 31, 43, 47, 53, 54, and 79. Interesting, eh?

A couple of those goals are fitness and running related. A couple are wardrobe related. 🙂

The program offers support in a facebook group and prizes for reaching various goals. I’m excited. This is one challenge I’m going to win! 🙂

Do you use challenges as a way to help you achieve a goal?

Creative Writing Contest

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If you read my blog yesterday, you will know how much I love the library. The other day, I went to the Tulsa Public Library website and saw this:

Creative Writing ContestI had actually seen the same notice last year but it was too late in January when I saw it and I was too busy. But this year, I still have over half a month to prepare my entry.

I’ve written about my list of 100 Goals. Number 85 on that list is: Enter a creative writing contest.

So…

I am polishing up my entry. It’s the same one I would have entered last year so I already knew what I was going to write.

There are four categories:

  • Short Story
  • Children’s Fiction
  • Informal Essay
  • Poetry

Mine entry will be in the Informal Essay category and I will submit it next time I go to the library.

Judging will take place and then there will be an awards ceremony on April 12. I’m excited to actually enter a contest and to be able to cross number 85 off of my list. If I should get a prize, that will just be the cherry on top. 🙂