10.07.2008

Hello! I want to welcome our new subscribers. Glad to have you with us. I hope this has been a good week for everyone. Last week we had to use our furnace for the first time one morning. The afternoons are still warming up enough till I can open windows for a few hours each day. The evening light has been fabulous and I'm wanting to get out to take fall pictures, but the leaves haven't changed very much yet. I'm thinking by next week. :) Take care everyone. ~Toni
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On October 11, John and I will mark the 3rd anniversary of when we quit smoking. I wanted to share two sites that really helped me those first few most difficult months. http://www.roofchek.com/quitsmoking/ and http://www.whyquit.com/ This address is for a stop smoking help group. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.stop-smoking/topics?lnk=srg&hl=en These people were so supportive of me. I will warn that emotions can get jacked into high gear while in the process of quitting and these people are very "real" and do not hold back so sometimes that language can get very PG-13. But for me their help keeping me quit was well worth any 4-letter words I had to wade through.
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This comes from one of our newest memebers, Nancy:

You deserve a little luxury. Bath & Body Works is giving away a year's worth of pampering products, and I thought you'd like a chance to win.
No purchase necessary. Click here for entry details and Official Rules.
http://www.sharebathandbodyworks.com/
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Recently Marie wrote and asked me if I had thought of including a joke with each newsletter. I told her I thought that was a grand idea and gave her the job. :) So I introduce to you:

Marie's Laughter

A magician was employed by a Shipping Line to entertain the passengers during cruises. The captain owned a parrot which always insisted on being part of the acts put on by the magician. He would perch on the edge of the stage and screech, "He does it with a mirror" or "He's got it up his sleeve." The magician was furious, but since the bird was a favorite with the captain and he was anxious to retain his position for future cruises, he maintained an angry silence.One evening as the magician worked, the parrot continued to harass the unfortunate man. Sadly the ship ran into a mine which had become detached from the sea floor after a storm. The explosion tore the bow off the ship which sank within a few minutes. Amid the wreckage and the lifeboats, the magician sat on one end of a table from the first class dining room. At the other end sat the parrot, dirty and disheveled, his feathers caked with fuel oil. For some time they eyed each other malevolently saying nothing. Finally the parrot shook himself and advanced across the table. He fixed the magician with a beady eye. "Okay, I give up," he squawked. "What did you do with the ship?"
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~Cool Picks From Phyllis~

Hi everyone! This weeks Cool Pick is a site called Zipskinny. No, its not a site to tell you how to fit into your skinny jeans! At http://www.zipskinny.com/ you can type in your zip code and get some cool information about your area. The info comes from the Census website. You'll find out the population of your zip code, the amount of land it encompasses, median household income, etc. You can even compare your zip code to others. Not only is it fun and interesting, but its a great tool if you're planning to move, because you can use it to check out what schools there are in your soon to be new neighborhood, or see a map of it. So, as they say on the Zipskinny website, go ahead and "get the skinny on that zip"!

"I would just like to remind everyone that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In an earlier issue I posted a link on how to do a breast self exam, and I'm going to post it again now.
http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/self_exam/bse_steps.jsp

I hope you will all take the time this month and every month to do a self exam."
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Eighty and counting

Anne wore a white wedding veil, and when her husband Dominick kissed her, he laid his hand on her heart. But the Cosentinos aren't newlyweds. The Clearwater, Florida couple just celebrated 80 years of marriage. Married in 1928, Mr. and Mrs. Cosentino met when he was 18 and she was 16. Now, they're 98 and 96, and attend a Clearwater Catholic church. The secret to lifelong marriage? Couples "shouldn't anticipate their entire marriage will be rosy," Mrs. Consentino told the St. Petersburg Times, "but compassion and devotion can keep them together."
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Phyllis H has come up with another great column idea, so here she is to introduce it to you.

~Diet Column~ (temporary name until we think of something better!)

Hello everyone! You might recognize me from the Cool Picks column. I hope you're enjoying that, and I hope you'll enjoy my new column, in which I'll offer tips on successful weight loss, and also take you along on my own journey to take off pounds and inches.

You might wonder what qualifications I have to offer you weight loss tips. Well, let me tell you my story. In September of 2005 I began a healthy diet and exercise program. In 10 months I lost 86 lbs and many inches, going from a size 22/24 to a size 10. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how HARD it would be to maintain that loss, and I ultimately have gained back most of the weight. So now you're probably thinking that I really shouldn't be the one to offer diet tips, since I'm a weight loss failure. But I don't really think of myself as a failure. I think of myself as just a typical dieter. Did you know that 90% of people who lose 50 lbs or more will gain it back within two years? Losing weight is hard...and keeping it off is probably even harder.

Which brings me to the point of this new column. Every week, I am going to offer diet and exercise tips, plus I'll also post regular updates to let you know how well (or not well) I am doing on my diet as I work to re-lose the weight I gained back. If you want to lose weight, I hope that I can inspire and help you along the way. Even if you don't want or need to lose weight, maybe you'll just find this column to be an interesting read. In any case, I'll be back in the next issue with my first diet tip.
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John and I recently ordered a documentary film on the September 11 terrorist attacks. After watching it I was thinking about what a great country America is and I thought how fun it would be to spend the next 50 weeks highlighting each state. Let's go alphabetically and begin with Alabama. If you have something cool or unique about your state, send it in to me when I'm getting close to you and I'll include it.

Alabama introduced the Mardi Gras to the western world. The celebration is held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins.

Alabama workers built the first rocket to put humans on the moon.

The world's first Electric Trolley System was introduced in Montgomery in 1886.

Alabama is the only state with all major natural resources needed to make iron and steel. It is also the largest supplier of cast-iron and steel pipe products.

Alabama became the 22nd state on December 14, 1819.

Baseball player Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron was born in Mobile in 1934.

Boxer Joe Louis was born in Lexington in 1914. He died in 1981.

"Alabama" is the official state song.

Baseball player Willie Howard Mays was born in Westfield in 1931.

A skeleton of a pre-historic man was found in Russell Cave.

At 2,405 feet Cheaha Mountain is Alabama's highest point above sea level.

In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy's heart... The surgery occurred in Montgomery.

To help fund education Alabama instituted its state sales tax in 1937.

In 1995 Heather Whitestone serves as first Miss America chosen with a disability.

Alabama's geographic center is located in Chilton a community located 12 miles southwest of Clanton.

The word Alabama means tribal town in the Creek Indian language.

Blount County was created on February 7, 1818 and is older than the state.

Winston County is often called the Free State of Winston. It gained the name during the Civil War.

Hematite is Alabama's official state mineral and is known as oxide of iron (Fe2O3).

The star blue quartz is the state's official gemstone.

The pecan is the Alabama's official nut.

People from Alabama are called Alabamians.

On January 11, 1861 Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede from the Union.

On January 28, 1846 Montgomery was selected as capital of Alabama.

Singer and entertainer Nathaniel Adams (Nat King) Cole was known as the man with the velvet voice. He was born in Montgomery in 1919 and died in 1965.

Alabama resident Sequoyah devised the phonetic, written alphabet of the Cherokee language.

The Birmingham Airport opened in 1931. At the time of the opening a Birmingham to Los Angeles flight took 19 hours.

Alabama's mean elevation is 500 feet at its lowest elevation point.

Audemus jura nostra defendere is the official state motto. Translated it means "we dare defend our rights."

Washington County is the oldest county in Alabama.

General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in 1814. Following the event the Native

Americans ceded nearly half the present state land to the United States.

At the Battle of Mobile Bay Admiral David Farragut issued his famous command, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." The event occurred on August 5, 1864.
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~Handyman John~

It's fall. The leaves are changing. The mornings are cool & crisp. Frost is not too far away. And unfortunatly for motorists, love is in the air. The fall rut for whitetail deer is upon us and these animals will be on the move now more so than any other time of the year. I urge everyone to use extra caution this fall while driving especially in the pre-dawn & dusk hours when deer are hardest to see. If any of you have hit one, I don't need to explain the extensive damage it can cause (I hit one last year & the year before. My poor truck has been through a lot).

Pictured on the far right is a set of deer whistles. I installed them after I got my truck out of the shop last year. I picked them up at Wal-Mart for around $5.00 & they are a snap to install. Some folks say they don't work but my experience so far has been the deer seem to be alerted something is coming their way by the time I see them... Definatly not foolproof but it possibly gives an edge. So be careful on the road. And if you hunt, join me this fall for some payback!
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I recently tried Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats in new Blueberry Muffin flavor and I really like it (the blue milk is just an added fun benefit). Of course you can tell it's an artificial blueberry flavor (nothing tastes like real blueberries except for real blueberries). I saw it at the store and asked John if he thought it would be good and from behind me a lady said "my daughter loves those". The daughter was maybe 10 and she was standing there, very shy with eyes cast down and her cheeks a little red. I said to her, "so you like these huh?" and she barely said "yes" and so then I say "does it really taste like blueberries?" and then she looked up, pointed to the box and said "No, it tastes like blueberry muffins." So there you have it.
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Good advice from Jeanne:

THIS MAY HAVE BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE BUT YOU MIGHT REMIND YOUR MEMBERS IF THEY LIKE TO DO SURVEYS & GET FREEBIES, LIKE I DO, TO SET UP A SCREEN NAME JUST FOR THOSE SO YOUR PERSONAL SCREEN NAME ISN'T FILLED UP WITH THOSE. FOR A LOT OF FREEBIES YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP FOR THEIR E-NEWSLETTER. I DO SURVEYS FOR ABOUT AT LEAST 10 COMPANIES SO DON'T WANT ALL THAT GOING TO MY PERSONAL SCREEN NAME. JUST A THOUGHT. KEEP UP THE GOOD JOB. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ISSUE.
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I just finished a fantasic book titled Summer of Light by W. Dale Cramer.

Mick Brannigan, a construction worker, loses a good-paying job because of some freak accident, sort of his fault but not his fault. Adding insult to injury, he finds himself playing nursemaid to his three kids. Even more flustered is his wife, Layne, whose job keeps a paycheck coming in. Mick isn't the stay-at-home-dad type, she's sure. He's a good dad--when she is there to supervise it all...the unrelenting daily stuff. Keeping the house clean, food in the fridge. Attacking the ever-mounting laundry. Supervising their five acres of land and the menagerie of animals... A lot is on the line, and just how the Brannigan family will survive--that is, without anyone getting seriously hurt or killed, the kids ending up psychologically and emotionally damaged, or the laundry undoing their marriage--remains to be seen...

Packed with humor, true-to-life characters, and themes to enlighten the soul, Summer of Light is altogether poignant, witty, entertaining and delightfully down-to-earth.