March Madness

So I filled out a bracket this year, as always, even though I wasn't participating in a pool. But this year I added a twist. I am phenomenally bad at guessing the brackets. Really bad. So I decided to test myself. I filled out 2 brackets: one using my own best judgement, and the other using coin tosses. Yes, I filled out 1 bracket entirely by flipping coins. I wanted to see if my basketball knowledge was better than random chance.
Some highlights from the coin toss bracket: the coin picked Stephen F. Austin, a 14 seed, as the ultimate winner. Oh, you haven't heard of Stephen F. Austin? Well, that's probably because they lost in the first game. My Final Four had Stephen F. Austin, Washington, UCLA, and Robert Morris. That's a 14 seed, 4 seed, 6 seed, and a 15 seed. My coin really liked the underdog. My Final Four choices had all been eliminated by the Sweet Sixteen round. In short, my coin toss bracket was decimated.
So how did my own choices go? Sadly, I picked UT as the ultimate winner, losing that shot immediately after the first game. Half of my Final Four picks (Michigan, UConn, UT, Clemson) were gone by the Sweet Sixteen. However, I still have 2 Final Four picks correct.
What does it boil down to? I am, in fact, smarter than a coin toss. The coin toss got 19 bracket spots correct; I got 32 (maybe 33 if Michigan beats UConn). This is a relief. Maybe next year I can get a little bit better.

more reasons to work out

Currently, I have an accountability partner for working out. We have to confess how well we did each week - both of us are trying to work out 4 -5 times a week. It's working really well. I usually have the motivation to work out 2 - 3 times a week, but by Thursday and Friday I'm really over it. This accountability bit really gives me the extra motivation to get those final workouts in.
However, I may have discovered another reason today! I had to go see the cardiologist today because I've had a couple of close calls in the last 3 months (close calls meaning that if I hadn't been able to lie down, I would've passed out). Both happened after taking my heart medication, you know, the chemicals designed to keep me vertical. Now, the last time I saw the cardiologist, he told me to work out. And I have been. And what do you know, today he reduced my meds! He doesn't know why I'm having symptoms, but I'm choosing to say it's because I've been working out and my heart has remembered how it's supposed to work! So while I'm not losing weight, gaining upper arm firmness, or experiencing less knee problems, I am going to assert that working out is improving my life. :)

Tough Chick

I've been doing a lot of weightlifting lately. Last summer I noticed that my upper arms had turned into large swinging bags of loose tissue. So I'm working on my triceps. After almost a year, I have yet to see improvement, but I won't give up! However, as I worked with machines and free weights, I began to notice some pain in my wrists. I have notoriously floppy joints, so I assumed this was the problem, and I set out to find a solution.
The solution is weight lifting gloves with wrist supports. The only problem is that women's gloves don't have wrist supports. They're really cute, pink and red with contrasting trim, but no wrist supports. The nice sales guy told me that manufacturers just don't give women's gloves wrist supports. Sexist manufacturers! This meant I had to buy men's gloves. Fortunately, I have fairly large hands, so I was able to find a pair that fit right. But they are serious looking gloves. They make me feel like a badass weightlifter when I wear them. Black leather, fingerless, with velcro wrist guards. Yeah!
So there I am at the gym, wearing my tough manly weightlifting gloves, feeling like a bad ass, lifting my 5 pound dumbbells. What you say? 5 pounds? Only 5 pounds? Yes, there I sit, wearing men's weightlifting gloves, designed to give wrist support to manly men lifting 50 pound dumbbells, hoisting delicate 5 pound dumbbells in to the air.
Oh yeah. I'm a tough chick.

New Budgets

Dale and I are taking the Financial Peace University class at our church. Yes, we did a different financial course a few years ago. But lots has changed since then, so we're taking this course to ease the transition back from single income to double income (yay God!). This week we did our new budget. It's a zero balance budget - every dollar for the month of April is designated, as of tonight! If we want to change something, we have to change something else - we can't just spend $20 extra on groceries without taking $20 out somewhere else. Oh, and we're going to cash for certain items (groceries, restaurants, clothes). This is ironic, given that we almost never use cash anymore! It's gonna be a big switch, but we're excited about it! We're finally going to be systematically saving for a new car, a vacation, painting the house, etc. Before we were just randomly saving, but now the saving is allocated. Pretty cool!

Who says I'm old?

I know that my physical health has deteriorated rapidly in the last few years. My brother and sister-in-law regularly laugh at me when I discuss my ailments. I'm finding sad areas of sagginess, a pathetic inability to dance for more than 5 minutes, and various aches and pains at all times.
But who says I'm old?
On Friday night, I partied with high schoolers. Young high schoolers. We bowled, we did a scavenger hunt, and we played Twister and video games. And I stayed up all night. Oh yes. I wasn't even tired until 5:00, and by then my body was waking up again! I didn't even doze off during the movie. Sure, I went home and crashed, but here's the thing: half of the high schoolers slept the night away. ha HA! I can still out party teenagers, so who says I'm old??

high schoolers

Tonight is the high school lock-in. I'm chaperone and co-leader. And I'm pretty excited.
Now, there is some stress involved - I'm hoping we have enough drivers for the scavenger hunt, I'm hoping that everyone has fun and stays safe, etc.
But overall, I'm just excited. I like hanging out with high schoolers. I love their energy, their passion for relationships, their ability to act coolly mature in one moment and act like a 10 year old kid in the next. I love the fact that they have moved past the "trying to be funny" stage into the "actually funny" stage. Seriously, I don't know why so many people don't want to help out with high schoolers! Because that's the really interesting thing - aside from me, the leader, and one or two other people, NO ONE wants to help out with them. I guess this is where people find their niches in working with kids of different ages.

Free Write

This is from my friend Kathy at 10 Minute Writer. It's a "free write." Details are on her blog, but this is my result:

The city of Glome stands on the left hand of the river Shennit to a traveller who is coming up from the south-east, not more than a day's journey above Ringal, which is the last town southward that belongs to the land of Glome. Just outside the city there were 2 run down houses, side by side, with gardens in front. One belonged to a witch. The other belonged to a poor but honest farmer and his wife. Now, both the gardens were full of plants and thriving, but the witch grew the most beautiful rampion in the whole land of Glome, but the farmer and his wife couldn't grow any rampion to save their lives. The wife was bitter over their failure, and spent days at a time nurturing rampion seedlings and watering and fertilizing the delicate plants, only to watch them wither and die before fruiting. One day, in the height of summer, the Queen of Glome was making a progress through the land, and was planning to visit all her subjects. The wife made a beautiful bread, but knew that the best garnish for it would be the rampion. She sat in her kitchen and wept over the fact that she would be unable to show her cooking off to its best angle. Her husband came home early from the fields and found her weeping.
"Why do you weep?" he asked.
"I have no rampion, which is the only thing which will bring my bread distinction," replied his wife, weeping. The farmer sighed. He couldn't stand to see his pretty wife cry, and he formed a plan.
So at dusk he climbed over the wall into the Witch's garden, and, hastily gathering a handful of rampion leaves, he returned with them to his wife. He didn't realize, however, that the Witch was watching from behind the curtains. The demon just laughed and laughed. She carried a quantity of matches in her old apron, and held a packet of them in her hand. Now she struck one in the gloom of her kitchen, and let it burn down almost to her finger. Just before it made contact, she muttered, "Let the rampion burn their throats just as this match burns my finger."
The next day dawned bright and clear for the Queen's progress. The farmer and his wife took their appointed places along the road. There was a space next to them for the witch, but she did not appear.
"Where do you suppose she is?" asked the farmer, nervously.
"I don't know and I don't care," replied his wife, smiling as she arranged the rampion over the bread.
"If she comes, how will we explain the rampion?" he asked again, still nervous.
"Say we bought it at market," she replied, unconcerned with anything but her beautiful dish. The farmer sighed. No market rampion ever looked as good as the witch's, but he was in this thing now no matter what.
The trumpets caught their attention, announcing the Queen's approach. All along the road were farmers and their wives, dressed in their best clothes and holding modest offerings. The farmer's wife could see that no one had such gleaming green rampion as she, and her heart swelled with pride.
Dust rose on the road as the retinue approached. The trumpets continued playing. First appeared a group of jugglers and tumblers, rolling around and doing tricks. The children in the crowd were delighted, but the farmer's wife had eyes for nothing but her bread. Next came the trumpeters and drummers, making a beautiful melody, but the farmer's wife just kept her eyes on the bread and sighed with joy. And then, finally, came the Queen. She walked regally, taller than any man there. She was accepting each donation into her hand, and then passing it back into a large wagon. In return she offered a gracious blessing. The farmer's wife was so nervous she felt like she might faint. Then the Queen was there, her hand graciously reaching out to her.

7 quick takes

1) I LOVE this weather! I will spend the afternoon in the hammock.
2) I'm baking a new bread today, a loaf of cheese bread that looks really yummy.
3) I'll be doing some gardening too today. Did I mention I LOVE this weather?
4) This is the last day of spring break for me. It's all work from here on out.
5) Today's date is 3/6/9, isn't that cool?
6) I'm ruminating on building an arbor in the backyard. In stages.
7) I can't wait to go out and buy flowers for the garden and the back yard, although I'll wait until it's more reliably warmer.