TheElegantShoestring: January 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

Desert Beauty

Another beautiful Sunday afternoon and more time enjoying peace and quiet.

A dry stream bed made for a nice hike.

And we found another dry waterfall ...

Total quiet ... no cell phone coverage ... no traffic ... no people -- anywhere --

This is my kind of prospectin'! Takin' it easy!

And isn't this little fellow cute? He's just taking a sunbath.

I did not park my chair under this ... looks a little iffy to me ...

Just another day in paradise. Hope you had a great weekend.

Blessings,

Friday, January 27, 2012

Getting a Grip ... before it's too late

In 2010 I joined Weight Watchers Online and lost 38 lbs -- first time I've lost weight in a good long time. In 2011 I kept my weight within 5 lbs of my goal UNTIL we took that wonderful cruise to Bermuda in October!

Food -- in every conceivable variety -- was available every hour of the day. Not good. Even though I kept my portions small and sometimes even tiny there was so much to try that I managed to put on a few more pounds that have not wanted to leave even three months later.

SO -- I joined Weight Watchers here in Havasu a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to getting down to my ideal weight. That's going to take a while. So far -- down 2 lbs. That's better than going up.

My reason for bringing this up is that "WW" has the neatest apps for your Smartphone and I'm having so much fun and finding it so easy to track my food. One is called "WW Mobile" and it keeps a record of your points used each day as you enter what you've eaten.

And the other is the "WW Scanner" that actually scans the bar codes of foods and provides you with the point value! Handy in the grocery store to check if you even want to bring that yummy home and handy at home to check what you're taking out of the freezer or pantry. Hi-tech stuff and so cool. No more calculating, no more little notebook with me all the time. Just plug in what I've eaten and "voila"!! it's entered.

Some high-tech stuff is really neat ... this is one of them for me.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Sunday Afternoon

My husband has a new hobby -- looking for gold. It gets him out of his office on weekends and out under Arizona's big sky and into places we normally would not go. I went along this weekend as we checked out a dirt road to see where it goes.

We ended up in the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge and had a nice peaceful time doing a bit of hiking and just enjoying the quiet and the beauty around us.

A riparian forest, which means that it flourishes along a stream's flood plain.

Fields of rocks --

A quiet path ...

The "Happy Campers"

End of a lovely afternoon ...

Hope you had a great restful weekend.

Blessings,

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Balloons Everywhere! ... and more

This weekend Lake Havasu hosts the Balloon Festival and we've been treated to a brightly colored extravaganza.

We happen to be in the direct path of where the wind was guiding them and had a couple land behind houses on the street.

What fun and we didn't even leave the yard!

This wonderful man had a birthday this week -- Happy Birthday Geo.

The pool is finished and we're closing next week -- yeah!

Blessings on your weekend ...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Watching Water Run and Other Stuff

Finally, the pool liner arrived on Friday! The appraiser is waiting for it to be installed before presenting his final figures so we've been under the gun to get this done ASAP. Luckily our pool company is very cooperative and have been working this weekend to get it running.

I'm glad this is not my job -- I would be more than a little frustrated here.

Within a few hours they were adding water --

And then the waiting begins -- Friday afternoon --

Well, it's now it's Sunday afternoon and it's finally getting up to the skimmer area so the pool installers can prime and start the pump. No, my guys did NOT stand there since Friday watching it fill!

Tomorrow I'll get pictures of the "new" pool -- finished. Yeah!

As I've mentioned and showed previously our plants have struggled not all successively to make the transition from Tucson to Lake Havasu. I've had this little Christmas catcus for three years or so and it finally has bloomed this year. Better late than never ... poor thing just didn't like the change of scenery.