accountability friday 1/1/10 starting new year off right

good morning you did really good i am so glad i decided to go on yesterday and start the accountability  i am sure it will help if i post everyday even if i have a bad day i want to loose 10lbs hope to talk to you soon

Good for you and the mall walking. My dad goes to the mall to walk with his group. He's 78 years old and it's better than having him walk out in the weather...baby steps on the exercise..if I lived closer to the mall (35 miles away) I'd be better off, I figure.

Good to see ya today.

Dawn:

Go to see ya too!   I know, I kept thinking we are the youngest people here by about 50 years!!!!

But it was fun!  I think the more people we can get involved in our exercise program the better it is for us (to keep us on track & them to get them exercising).  The baby was also so cute!  The mom is trying to loose about 20 lbs.

Today its going to be a high of 18 degrees,  brrrrr.  Being this close to Lake Erie and it not being frozen just kills us.  I enjoy the winter ,just not the bitter cold!

I cant believe you live that far from a mall, I dont think I knew that.  I think thats not a bad thing!

Hope you have a great day!

It's a common belief about California AND New York...there are rural areas of California too. You just never hear about it. To let you know about where we are, when the Shuttle comes down in California, they make their final approach turn right over our house...It's rural! Dirt roads, no fences. BLM land all around..no sewer (septic), no city water (wells).

It's actually the best of all worlds. Yesterday it was 60 degrees with no wind so I worked in the yard, pulling muscles all over my chest and shoulders by raking and trimming trees but it gets down below freezing and we do have snow sometimes..Plus it's 100 degrees in the summer with NO humidity...Actually, a great place to have a garden..

Dawn:

It sounds absolutely beautiful!  I read your post about your yard work with your food intake.  Thats such a great workout.  We have to find those types of exercise where ever we go!

I am so happy for you that you live in a rural area. My husband is wanting to move out into "the county".  I am such a city/suburb girl, will I like it?  I dont know.  I guess it will have to be the right situation.  I just keep thinking I want more school choices for my 2 little girls, will I want to live that far out and have only one choice (for high school in the future)?

I love the fact that it was 60 yesterday with no wind.  Sounds delightful! My girlfriend lives in San Deigo and is originally from Ohio and tells me its very beautiful.  Only been to San Fran once, would love to come back to California.

My other girlfriend lives in Scottsdale,AZ.  I have visited her and I just want to tell you how breathtaking the moutains are.  I loved it!  Just dont think I could handle all those clay colors and no change of seasons!  Do you have a change of seasons?

Melissa

Living rural isn't for everyone. As for school choices, I had a private school available for our son. I drove him there every day. That didn't work. I didn't like the local school so that wasn't going to happen. Then I put him in CAVA (California Virtual Academy) and that didn't work either. Locally they have an independent study program and he gets his work once a week and he works on it all week long (or the last all night) and turns it in the following week. That seems to be working.

I get kidded all the time about being a pioneer woman. We had no water and no power for a while. No septic for a while...But we lived through it and got alot of clues from my pioneer ancestors. Learned alot..but then we bought 40 acres and built our own house.. hard work. Not for reh faint of heart.

Yes, we have different seasons. We have a really long growing season, lettuce and cold crops in February, tomatoes and stuff like that in May, then garlic in September and starting over again in February. We grow grapes and olives..alfalfa. Almond Trees grow here. No oranges.

Speaking of Scottsdale, I'll be going there the middle/end of this month for the Barrett-Jackson event at WEst World...Staying in Tempe.

Dawn:

I have always wanted to go to the Barrett-Jackson, love watching it on TV! Have always loved cars and there is nothing like it.  My girlfriend and her husband usually get tickets to go and love it.

Almonds sound delightful!  Do you grow on your land?

40 acres!  Does not sound like anything for the faint of heart.  Lots of work!  Sounds wonderful (not actually getting there and all you had to go through).  The pay off of the house sounds like it is worth it.

My girls go to a little county school right now, which I love!  Its the high school thing I am not sure about.  Hubby would like to move right now and would be very happy living in a rural situation.  I'm thinking about it, its just in the snow it takes forever to get anywhere.  Half-hour to 45 min is fine, but then the snow added on could make it a 2 hr. commute.  If the  right situation opens up, I'm sure we would take the plunge!

Its great all you have lived through and learned!  It must be great having that much room and quiet.  Hearing my neighbor play drums is NOT charming!  The 81 year old on the other side plays the organ (sometimes charming??).

Have you ever been to Barrett-Jackson?

Melissa

We bought the property back in 1988 with the purpose of splitting off parcels and putting up houses. Nothing ellaborate but small houses that my husband can build himself. He's 66 but he's very fit and that was some time ago, he was even more fit then...Now I think he can build one more and that will have to pay to have the rest put up. All the parcels are 2.5 acres. We put up a double wide and then the market fell. We sold it i***** and got a total of $10,000 profit out of it. We put up the shell of our house now, no interior walls and no septic, some plumbing and electrical came in as we went..We finally got a final in 1999 and got running water in the kitchen and the first part of the house finished after we got a loan on it to make improvements! We'd been "trucking" ho****er from the bathroom to the kitchen (which was more like a garage than an actual kitchen!) for that whole time. We did improvements as we had money. My husband gave up his business and my meager wages were the only income we had. He would do odd jobs but that took him away from working on the house so not many of those were taken..In 1999 we got the last home loan and basically doubled the living area of the house and finished it with a 1200 sq ft garage. The house is 2156 but with the garage it's 3456..It's been slow but it's ours and it's built to our specs..

The rest of the property is basically just desert. 1/2 mile by 660 feet deep. We haven't cleared or anything because we like the wildlife and the plants...teddybear cholla cactus, joshua trees, creasote bushes, sage brush, rabbit brush...just weeds. But no tumbleweeds. none of those on the property at all.

No, we've only watched Barrett Jackson on TV. This is our first time going there. We'll be going on the Thursday and Friday. I'm taking off Thursday and we'll leave about 4 am Thursday, get to the motel and rest and then our tickets are for after 5 pm Thursday. Then Friday we have 8 am to all day..then we'll have dinner and come home..if we make it all the way home, that's okay but it's okay if we don't too. We got our motel in Tempe so it's far enough away that it's cheaper but close enough that we dont' have to drive too far to get there.

Our house is about 700 feet south of the younger neighbors who play rap/rock music when they have a party...nothing we can't live with. We hear slight mariachi music from further up the road (about 3/4 mile) sometimes, but still very quiet. Once when my daughter and son-in-law came to watch the house while we were gone, he brought his rock band out. They set up right outside the house, on the patio and rocked the desert pretty good. We asked the neighbors to the south of us if they heard anything and they didn't...