Marbled orb weaver spider

This is a marbled orb weaver spider. I took the first 2 not so good pictures at Madaline Bertrand County Park and then googled when we got home and found the better picture of the bunch. I had never seen one before today and don't care if I ever see one again.

FIVE!

I did it!! I am so stoked, I decided this morning that I was going to try and run five miles. I have not been running very much because I did something to me knee, I have been doing low impact workouts. My knee still hurts a bit but is much improved so on the treadmill I went. Ok, so it took me a 57 minutes but I did it, actually with a cool down it was a grand total of 5.3 miles in 62 minutes at a 4% incline the entire time. For me this is quite the accomplishment. I have been flying high all day, endorphins are my friend, wheeeeeh !

Certain songs remind me of certain people...

For instants this morning while I was at the gym I had my Ipod on while I worked out. The song " You alone" came on, as I was singing along in my head and came to the words "I'm alive" that repeats several times , I thought about a gal that used to sing those words at our mid-week service. Her name is Kristin Davis, I always enjoyed watching Kristin as she had great stage presence and a beautiful voice. Kristin moved away a few years ago but as I was singing along I just kept thinking about her, I remembered her birthday is December 8th and that I should see if I could find her email when that time a year roles around and wish her a happy one.

Later that day Bob and I went to lunch and then decided to go walk the mall ( go figure! ) instead of going home and be tempted to loaf around the house. As we are walking and talking about to turn into a store Bob recognized a friend from church that was at the mall too. He said " hey there's Elizabeth", she spotted us at the same time, as we got closer to stop and chat I couldn't believe it, with Elizabeth was none other than Kristin!!!, I said to her you are not gonna believe this but I was just thinking about you this morning, I told her how I was reminded of her through that song and even brought up when her birthday is, kinda cool, hey?

Ummmmmmm- do you think I like cheese?

Generally Sunday evenings if we don't dine out with our friends we just grab whatever we choose for dinner. Tonight I decide I wanted a piece of bread and cheese, cottage cheese and cheese potato chips!! Good thing it was reduced calorie cheese, non-fat cottage cheese and baked Lay's potato chips. So where are my vegetables? eeh, I will double up tomorrow.

I saved the little birds life...I hope

I stepped out into the garage today and noticed a female hummingbird flying around. She was trying to find her way out but seemed to be staying near the ceiling. I went and got a leaf rake and made several attempts to help the gal out. We came close a few time as I had opened the back service door thinking she might head towards the light. She actually landed on the rake a couple of times and I would go to lower it so I could release her but she would fly off and land on a ledge at the top of the door. She was getting tired I am sure but I wouldn't give up, at last I trapped her just so on the rake and lowered it out the door and off she flew, now lets hope she didn't go have a heart attack!!!

Milestones

I have been going to the gym now faithfully for about a year and a half or better. I like to set goals for my workout each time, generally I workout on the elliptical machine or the treadmill. When I workout on the treadmill I set the incline as high as it will go, set my time for 40 minutes at a fast pace, every once in awhile I will bump up my speed to a jog keeping the machine at the highest incline and jog for 5, 10 or 15 minute interval, believe me this is not easy for the princess that I am :) . I have been wondering if I could run for an entire workout so the other day I decided to try it, so I hopped on and took off jogging without any incline, I did it!!! I was so excited, that was on Friday, yesterday then I went back to walking fast and jogging at intervals at the highest incline, today I decided again to try and see if I could jog the whole time, I walked for about 3 minutes and then took off only this time I set it at half the incline. I did it again, both times I jogged 4 miles but setting it on an inclined helped me to burn about 100 more calories. It's something I would have never thought I would be able to do but with perseverance, faithfulness and hard work I did it!! I think I will stick to this goal for awhile and build up stamina for my next goal which to jog 5 miles.

Freak of Nature

Check this out, I looked out my bedroom window last night and saw this, it is a magnolia tree with a flower on it in the middle of July! Magnolias bloom in April, which it did. This happened last year too, wonder what is up with this tree, anyway I think it is pretty cool!