Hand and Foot With The Girls

This blog is, once again especially for niece, Michelle who lives in Japan. I spoke to her on the phone as I was on my way to pick up the pizza and promised her pictures of the evening.

Hand and Foot is a card game that is so much fun. We laugh and laugh while we play. Of course, we laugh when we are together doing ANYTHING!!

"Valentino's" pizza: pepperoni, green peppers and sausage. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. It was so nice and hot...Delicious!

Hand and Foot requires a LOT of cards. We are using 9 decks here.

left to right: Julie, me, Mom, Maura, and Melanie. When we play cards we like to practice our Irish accent. Maura (whose family is Irish) says a phrase just like her Auntie Marq's and then we try to repeat it. That's when the laughter erupts! I'd say we are easily entertained.

Mom made the most wonderful salad. Sister Jewels (Julie) has to have "roughage" with her pizza, you know.

Counting points! Look how serious Mom is...that's probably why she ALWAYS wins!!!

The Saga of the Retractable Dog Leassh: WARNING, Graphic Photo!

My sister Melanie asked me to blog this story in order to inform you of the dangers of the retractable dog leash.

Below is a photo of my leg, the result of being caught between 1 dog on a leash and 2 bigger dogs NOT on a leash. The retractable leash is thin and round like a rope. As the dog on the leash tried to get away from the other dogs, the leash wrapped around my leg. The wound was deep, like a burn.

Although I treated it for about 2 weeks with neosporin and saltwater bathes, it still became infected.

I'm happy to report that after 10 days on an antibiotic (4 times a day), silvadine cream, lots of hot water and wrapping it when I leave the house...it's healing nicely. My doctor informed me that it WOULD leave a scar. (Any scar preventing/removing remedies out there????)

Interestingly, when people ask me about my leg, if they have a dog...the have had a retractable leash injury! They are simply dangerous!!!! So my advice to you is to find another type of leash!!!!!

Graphic picture follows:

Happy St. Partick's Day

In honor of the holiday Ireland has shared with us all, St. Patrick's Day, I'd like to spin an Irish tale. (It's a completely true story...but you know, I did KISS THE BLARNEY STONE and therefore received the "gift of eloquent speech" or as others would say the "gift of GAB".)

I have lived my life believing that four leaf clovers were a fairy tale until Beth Nash told me her mother could always find them, wherever she looked. And she said, "If you find one, you can always find more." When I was visiting Beth in Alaska I actually found my first four-leaf clover right in her yard! (Yes, it was SUMMER!!!)

When I was visiting Ireland last year with Beth and my Irish sister, Maura Moynihan Berzman, I looked for the clover treasures everywhere I went. It's a wonder I saw any sights because my head was always searching the ground. I thought there could be nothing as special as finding a four-leaf clover in IRELAND, the land of the shamrock, the land of wishing steps, hills and bridges, the home of "luck"!

This is my friend Siobhan O'Leary Wills and I in front of her B & B, the La Cita Inn, which is just a very few miles from Blarney Castle. Siobhan's sister, Marion Walker is my neighbor here in La Cita, Titusville, FL. Anyway, she also has a vacation rental home in the country where Beth Nash and I stayed for a few days after leaving the B & B.

Isn't it a lovely home? Beth and I decided to take some pictures of the house as we were leaving, traveling back to Dublin to fly home. Our time in Ireland, this magical, green land was coming to a close without a four-leaf clover.


Before I got in to the car I thought, "This is my last opportunity. I'm going to take one more look." So I walked straight out in front of where you see me standing and looked into the grass.

And...you guessed it! Right in the center foreground of this picture I spotted the largest FOUR-LEAF CLOVER imaginable!!!!

And THIS is it!!!

Isn't it beautiful and amazing!!!

Even more amazing...just like Beth's mom always said, it was NOT the only one!

Beth and I spent at least another 30 minutes looking through the grass where she found 4 and I found 3 more! I framed all I found, one of which I keep in my bedroom to see it often. One is hanging at Siobhan's in the La Cita Inn and another is in La Cita, Titusville at her sister Marion's. (I framed the 4th for my Irish sister Maura for Christmas but I put away somewhere and now I can't find it!)

As I was having my quiet-time this morning, journaling and actually LISTENING to to the Father speak, He reminded me of the verse in His Word, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

And then, of this clover and the entire day (which held more special surprises).

As I remembered this day I heard Him speak to me, "I know you Lisa, I gave you what you longed for. It was not even necessary to ask Me. I told you in My Word 'I will give you the desires of your heart' and I DID". I will continue as you continue to delight yourself in Me, just like this (morning)."

And then I realized for the first time that a DESIRE OF YOUR HEART is just that...it's something that my heart longs for. Something I hold inside. How many times do we pray and beg God for the things we want? He knows full well what is in our heart spoken or not because He KNOWS us.

As I mentioned earlier, there were other special things, spoken and unspoken desires that I didn't even consider praying about because they seemed trivia in the grand scheme of things and certainly they were nothing I NEEDED. But God, He gave them to me anyway. Not only that ...He LEAD ME TO THEM (remember Bethie?). And the result was being completely overwhelmed with His goodness and kindness to me, which means so much to me that even now as I think of it, I FEEL it and my eyes well up with tears.

So if these things that I didn't NEED (Does anyone NEED a clover?) and didn't pray for, He gave to me because they were a hope in my heart...How much more will He DO when we ASK Him in prayer?

Either way, the thing is, we must first KNOW Him and SEEK Him... ENJOY Him and His Presence. Do you?

My Hair

This is especially for Meghan (in MS) who would like to see my hair shorter and Michelle who can't see my new haircut because she's in Japan.

So girls, what do you think? I know, I know. It doesn't look any different to you, does it?

For Girls Only

My Friend Brandy emailed this story to me and it made me laugh. I thought you girls out there might enjoy it too. We can all use a laugh every now and then, can't we?


The Wash Cloth

Ladies this has to be read, laughed at and passed on. There's not a woman alive that won't crack up over this. I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the week. Early one morning I received a call from the doctors office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30 a.m. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school and it was already around 8:45 a.m. The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn't have any time to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such a visit but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash in that area to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, raced to my appointment. I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, 'My, we have made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?' I didn't respond.
After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home. The rest of the day was normal...Some shopping, cleaning and cooking. After school when my 6 year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, 'Mommy, where's my washcloth?' I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, 'No, I need the one that was here by the sink. It had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it.'
Never going back to that doctor.............................Ever!!

The Running Continues

Today's post is an update on my adventure in running.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Meghan and Claire have inspired me to begin running as opposed to doing my usual power walk. Taking Meg's advise I began by running 4 minutes and walking for one. (I have been told this is called the Galloway Method.) The first day I tried it I could run for only two cycles of 4 to 1 (on the treadmill with a warm up and cool down). After that I was spent!

This week I was able to do 5 "cycles" of 5 to 1!!! It's amazing how quickly the body responds to exercise. As a yoga teacher I've always been amazed at how quickly we are able to gain flexibility but in the last couple of weeks I see that quick gains are not exclusive to yoga. Every time I have run whether on the treadmill or outside, it has become easier for me.

I encourage you to get some sort of exercise...whatever suits you. I will continue to keep you "posted" on my progress. Hopefully next time I will be able to report some sort of WEIGHT LOSS as a result of all this running!!! Is anybody out there working on losing the "Holiday" weight like I am????? I'd love to hear WHAT you are doing and how you are progressing.

Running

I virtually never post without a picture but I have to give a followup account of the information Meghan gave me about HOW to begin to run.

As I stated in the earlier post I took Meghan's advise about running for 4 minutes and walking for 1. The first day on the treadmill I was dieing (as I reported in the post). Since then I've been running everyday either on the treadmill or outside. NO MORE power walking...I'm either running or walking to rest.

Today, on the treadmill at the gym I bumped it up a notch. My ratio today was 5 to 1. Five minutes running and 1 walking. I was on the treadmill for over 30 minutes!

The moral of this story is that Meghan gave me some good advise (Thanks Meggie!!!) and it will work for all of us...if you are well enough to run. Give it a try, the sky is the limit!!!