COME TO A MEETING WITH ME

It's Tuesday and you know what that means? It's trash night and I can't forget to put the cans out.

Just kidding. Well, I do have to put the cans out but, Tuesday, for me, is weigh in day at Weight Watchers. Every Tuesday, I get up early and go to my meeting, weigh in and know that no matter what, the week is over and it's time to start fresh.

I thought I would bring you all along so you can see where it is I go every week.

This is my leader Annie. I love her and can't say enough good things about her. She is so up beat and full of ideas, tips and recipes. She really should write her own book.

To me, the leader is one of the most important things in the meetings. If you click things are wonderful. If you get one you can't relate to, well, my advice is to go to a different meeting and keep searching.

Don't give up until you find a leader you really enjoy. It will make the biggest difference in your weight loss journey.

When my sister and I first joined, we went through several meetings before we found Annie. We knew right away she was something special.

I actually look forward to going to see her every week. I know if I lose, she is there to encourage me to keep going. If I gain, she is there to help me figure out why and what I need to do to have a different result the next week.

She is always positive and such a joy to be around.

The part most people dread is weighing in. Those scales seem to make everyone a bit nervous. Even when you know you did good, it's still not fun to get on there.

Up here at the front is where you check in, pay if you have to and then get weighed.

Go on, step right up!

No one sees your weight, except the lady behind the counter. This part of the scales face her and only her. She will then put a sticker in your book showing how much you weigh and what your weight loss was that week. Then she gives you the book back.

See, it wasn't bad, was it?



Weight Watchers also has some great snacks, cook books, DVDs and other items you can purchase at the meetings. They don't sell these items at other stores. Only at the meeting locations.

I almost always get one or two things to take home to enjoy for the week.

Then you go take a seat and it's time for the meeting to start. Each week is a different topic. The leader will talk a bit and then everyone else adds to the meeting with their input. It is here where you get some super ideas, first hear about new products, make friends and get your support.

Everyone is there with the same goal in mind. To lose weight, get healthy and stay that way.

There are some who have lost all their weight and are life time members but still go weekly. They say they would put all their weight back on if they didn't go. It helps to remind them to stay on track.

I can't wait until I'm a lifetime member. I know it's only a matter of time before I am. I'm not giving up until I make it.

I still have a long way to go but, with determination and the tools given to me by my great leader, all the support from my friends and family I know I'll be there before I know it.

Going to my meetings is fun. I have met so many great people there and it's almost like we have formed a little family. We all know when someone is missing. We know about each other's family. We know about each others ups and downs in trying to lose weight. But most of all, we know we can count on each other for support.

So that's it. What is that? Oh, you wanted to know how I did this week? Well, I'm happy to report that I'm down another 1.4 pounds this week.

I'm leaving for Vegas on Wed. I'm going to do my best to stick to my plan and come back with only the extra weight of the money I won and not the weight of extra pounds!

TREASURES FROM THE CHURCH RUMMAGE SALE

Oh no, I almost forgot to show you guys what I got from the Church Rummage sale this weekend.

I love this little Salt and Pepper Shaker. The vintage car pulling the vintage trailer was just to cute to pass up.

Now I can say I actually own a little vintage trailer. How I wish it was a life sized one though.



I got these four beautiful Pink Depression Glass champagne glasses for only $1.00. Yes, that was $1.00 for all four of them.

When I first noticed these bowls I knew I wanted them. They were a great size for a nice big salad or a big bowl of soup in the winter. Plus the color was fun. I could see using these in a lot of different Tablescapes.

But, they were marked $2.00 each. More then I wanted to pay. Since it was a Church rummage sale I didn't want to ask for a lower price. I put them back.

Then, the last day of the sale, I went back. Everything was marked way down and I got all four of them $2.00. At only 50 cents each, I couldn't pass them up.

Same thing with these plates. I liked them and thought they had a fun feel to them. They are from Pier One Imports (so are the bowls above) and at $2.00 each they were a great deal but I didn't want to spend $8.00 on plates when I had so many already.

Yet, there they were the last day of the sale. Marked down to $2.00 for the set of four. I quickly decided I "needed" just one more set of dishes and home they came with me.

This little guy was just waiting for someone to see him for the treasure he was. He was dirty. Very, very dirty. Marked $4.00 most people looked at him and put him down.

But, then I picked him up and saw him for who he really was.

He was a Hummel! I knew he was worth way more then $4.00 so I was not about to let him get away.



Once home, I noticed something odd. He had a twin!

When my aunt died, I inherited some of her Hummel collection. Low and behold, she had purchased the same little guy. So now, I have both sitting in my hutch, looking darling together.

I love going to Church rummage sales. It's like going to seveal garage sales all in one place.

IT WAS A HAUNTING NIGHT AT BLACK STAR CANYON

This weekend I went with one of the Paranormal Investigation groups I belong to Black Star Canyon to search for any type of paranormal activity that may be out there.

There are many tales of murder, suicide, KKK meetings, Satanic Cults as well as historic accounts of a large Indian massacre that happened there in the 1800's

I have heard and read about many strange happenings in Black Star and while I have been there during the day before, I have never been there at night.

I was excited to see what, if anything, we would experience.

As a few of us were waiting at the main entrance for the rest of the group to show up, Daniel went walking around. A few short minutes later he came back to show us this bone he had found.

It was really kind of creepy because it is a large bone. Not something left behind from someone eating chicken or ribs.

We talked about what it was from and what could have eaten it.

The Beware of Mountain Lion sign was taken a little more serious after seeing this.

We received a call from the 1/2 of the group we were waiting for. They were going to be at least another hour.

So, the four of us decided to go ahead and start our hike into the canyon. Perhaps we would hook up with the rest of group later.

As we walked a little way into the canyon, it was clear that this hike wasn't going to be the same as during the day.

Things seemed a bit more dangerous at night. It was hard to see anything beyond our flash lights. The trees and flowers, that were so pretty during the day, cast eerie shadows at night.

The quiet sounds of birds chirping were replaced with crickets, frogs and at times, a frighting silence.

Seeing broken tree branches like the one above made us wonder what caused the large branches to break. Would they be falling completely down soon? Would one fall on us?

After walking for about 1/2 of an hour I started to feel like I was being watched or followed.

I asked if anyone else felt this way too. The other three all claim they felt that but didn't want to say anything for fear they would sound like they were being paranoid.

We were about 50 minutes into our trek when we came across a bridge. I had recognized this from my trip during the day.

We stopped there to take a peek around and also because a few of us thought we heard something coming from the side of the path.

One girl took a picture and the flash of her camera lit up the area. I noticed in back of her someone was standing about 3 feet. I thought it was Chris because it was the figure of a taller person in black. Actually, the figure looked like it was all black. Like a shadow or something but since Chris has dark hair, was wearing a dark shirt and had jeans that looked dark at night I assumed it was him.

Well, you know what they say when one assumes something.

As soon as the flash came, it was gone and so was my vision. It takes a second to get used to the dark again.

During that blip in time, Chris said something. It startled me and I actually got freaked out. Not over what he said but it was because he was not standing to my left where I had just seen him when the flash went off. He was actually over on my right about 6 feet away.

I then quickly looked to see where Daniel was. I knew Daniel was shorter then the figure I had seen but I thought perhaps due to the flash from the camera maybe a shadow was cast and made him appear to be taller.

Only, Daniel was standing over by Chris.

I asked everyone if any of them had moved because I saw someone or something standing behind Bree when she took the picture. Everyone said no, they were still in the same spot.

Chris said he noticed I had whipped my head around and appeared to be startled when he spoke and he knew I was a bit freaked out over something.

I quickly thought about what had just happened and when my mind wrapped around the fact that no one was playing a trick on me, I believed I had seen a true shadow figure.

So, we got out the tape recorder and started to do some EVP work.

EVP work, for those who don't know, is when you capture disembodied voices on a recorder. Often voices you don't hear in person but somehow the recorder is able to.

I'm not sure if we actually captured anything because I have not heard back from Bree yet. She is the one who had the recorder and would be the one who went back through her evidence to see if we caught anything.

Anyway, as we were getting ready to move on, I said out loud "We are going to move on and if you want to get our attention again then touch one of us." Then I went on to say "Make the person you touch Daniel."

I said this really not expecting anything to really happen. You see, Daniel had never been on any type of Paranormal Investigation before and was already scared. So, I said this more to lighten up the mood and of course, everyone laughed.

We packed up our stuff and moved on.

As we were about 5 minutes down the trail it was Chis and I up ahead and then Daniel and then Bree was about 10 feet in back of him.

Daniel bent down for some reason and when he did so he yelled out "Did you touch me!" When he turned around he noticed no one was close enough to him to touch him.

He got really scared and told us how someone or something had touched him on his rear end. Not a shove or push but more of a friendly tap.

He was so scared and excited. After about a minute or so, it dawned on us that I had requested whatever I saw to touch one of us, namely Daniel.

I have to admit that even being the skeptic that I am, I felt like we had just had some kind of paranormal contact. Between feeling like we were being followed, hearing sounds, seeing someone that wasn't there and then Daniel being touch. Well, it was all stuff we couldn't come up with any reasonable explanation as to how that all happened if it was paranormal.

We continued on and a short distance later, a truck came down the trail. There are a few people who own places in the canyon and the stories I have heard are they are not very nice. They do not want people going through there and try to tell hikers and bike riders that it is private property.

The truth is the trail is open to the public and it's the areas on the other sides of the fences that is private property.

We all stepped over as far off the trail as we could so we could let the truck go by. As it did, it slowed down then as it got right by us the driver made his tires spin so the rocks and dust was flying up. It became hard to see and breathe.

Since we all heard the story of a man name Art Tuttle that was a bit... how should I say this, off his rocker, that drove a pick up truck and has been known to pull a gun on hikers, Bree said she didn't feel comfortable and wanted to go back to her car and go home.

The rule is, if we come in together, we go out together. No one is left behind or sent on ahead alone. So, we turned around to leave.

While, Chris, Daniel and I really wanted to go in deeper and stay longer, none of us felt really bad leaving as we all felt we had a great night with lots of activity.

One the way out, we did run into the rest of our group. They asked us to continue on but we explained that Bree really want to go home so we left them to go head.

As we reached the gate to where we parked the cars by, a group of people were just starting out their trek in and they asked if we had anything strange happen to us. We told them and they said "Well if you want to know where a really haunted spot is, go by the bridge. There is always activity there."

Funny, that was right where we had our excitement happen.



I really had a great time and I'm looking forward to going again. This time, further then where we made it this time.

We have another night planned on the 23rd of July. I wonder what what strange this will happen that night.

ANOTHER FUN SUMMER DAY WITH YOUR BFF

Two days in a row these BFFS got together for lots of fun, laughs and good times. Of course, this is my darling great niece, Trinity with her BFF Jesse. They met through Brownies and have been as close as sisters ever since.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day out so they asked to come over and go swimming.

I think they were in the pool for about 3 hours and would have liked to stay in for hours more but, we had other plans for later in the afternoon so they had to dry off and change clothes.

We then headed over to the church where it was opening day of the yearly carnival.

There the girls had fun playing silly games.

Here they had to pick three keys and hope that one of them opened the treasure chest full of prizes they could pick from.

They both had bad luck at this game.

I made the mistake to ask to take a peak inside to see the prizes. Once they saw, their eyes open wide and they wanted to play again.

Again they tried and again, no luck. So we moved on.

This was the first year they had some bigger games to play. More like the ones you would find at the county fair.

Yet, most people seemed to like playing the games that were more of a homemade feel to them. They would win tickets there and could cash them in later for prizes.

The smells of food filled the air. Here, fresh made Kettle Corn was being made. I really wanted some but I was strong and walked away.

There were hot dogs, hamburgers, pop corn, onion rings, dots ice cream and lots more.

Normally I would have made a stop here at the Mexican Food booth but I'm hoping for some sort of weight loss this coming Tues so I passed and waited to eat until I got home.

It was off to the ride area for us. I love going to carnivals at night really. I like the flashing lights and music as well as crowds.

We were there when it first opened so it was pretty empty and we even had to wait for the rides to be tested before they could be opened.

When I was younger I loved to go on carnival and fair rides. Now... not so much.

I enjoy seeing others have fun and to listen to the laughter. It's images like this one that get my attention. It's all so retro feeling to me and makes me long for the past.

Times when I loved going into the Fun House and getting trapped in the maze of glass walls.

Now I think I would get in and panic when I couldn't get out.

The BFFS had a lot of fun going on the rides. The scarier the better for them.

As for me and my sisters, well, we enjoyed keeping our feet planted firmly on the ground and watching the girls making memories.

After all, isn't that what Summer is all about?

Oh, I almost forgot! We did go to the rummage sale there too. I'll show you tomorrow what treasures I found there.

DISNEY SURE KNOWS HOW TO THROW A PARTY

Thursday, we drove up to Hollywood to go to the movie theater owned by Disney, The El Capitan. We were going to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.

I love going to this theater to see movies. Of course, they are all Disney or Pixar movies. So it's always fun for the whole family.

Trinity took her best friend, Jesse with her. If you remember being a kid, no matter what you do, it's always twice as fun if you have your friend with you.

We had to wait outside to get in. The line was long and it was hot out. We did have a great place in line though as we got there early. So we, got to sit while we wait.

The girls had matching shirts with Jesse on them and GIRLS RULE, which is their favorite saying.

Inside the theater was a cute photo op they had set up. You could climb inside the large box and become the Newest Action Figure from Toy Story.

Going inside the theater is fun. It's an older theater and so they kept a lot of the old charm from the Good Ol' Days. Like the man playing the organ before the movie starts. They also showed a short animation that reminded me of the days they always had a cartoon before the actual movie.

There is a balcony and also side box areas. Sometimes, they have a show before hand with Disney characters and they will show up here.

No pre show this day though. They had a special thing planned for after the show. We couldn't wait to see what it was.

Before the show starts, the organ disappears down into the stage, the lights go dim and the curtains start to open. Several layers of curtains appear and each one has a pretty light show.

They showed some fun previews. Then it was time to put on the 3D glasses and enjoy the show. It was a great movie. Very cute and even a bit sad.

After the movie we were lead outside and over to Hollywood High School across the street to the Fun Zone.

Everything there was included in the price of the movie ticket, with the exception of any food or drinks you may want or things you may want to buy in the gift shop.

The shows, rides, games and activities were all there to enjoy, over and over.

Even the stars of the shows were there. Here is my sister, Patty hobnobbing with cast. They welcomed her into their group like she was one of the family.

The Fun Zone is open to everyone who sees the show for 2 1/2 hours. Then you must leave and the next group of movie goers get to have fun.

By doing this, the place is never overly crowded and there is plenty of time for everyone to have lots of fun.

You could race a Slinky over at The Slinky Dog Super Steps. Even I had fun playing around here.

Crazy tall man was walking around making everyone laugh.

All the games had a theme of something from the movie.

The way they set things up was really great and everything was decorated so cute. They really outdid themselves.

Rex's Race was one of the more popular places. Friends and family would race each other on tricycles and whoever won got a free ice cream.

The biggest draw was Bullseye's Bungee Jump. Of course this is where Trinity and Jesse wanted to go first.

Trinity shot up in the air so high it looked like she could hop off onto the top of Hollywood High's roof.

Jesse went way up too. You can see the Roosevelt Hotel in the background.

We took in a show called Dancing with with the Toys. At the end, everyone gets up and dances too. Lots of fun seeing all the kids dancing and having a blast.

Tons of toys to play with got the attention of most of the kids. Here Jesse and Trinity is playing with LEGOS. Is there any kid that doesn't love LEGOS?

Sunnyside Daycare is where the Toys (in the movie) were sent and they try to escape. So there was a big area set up with that theme too.

They had things like a Maze and things that the kids had to go through, under, over and around in an effort to escape Sunnyside Preschool.

Each area was named after one of the Toys at the school. Like Big Baby's Bumpers.

The girls doing a great job of getting across without touching the ground.

Swinging on a rope to jump from one area to another without falling in the "pit" was a great place to watch big smiles on the children's faces.

There was even a playground set up with swings and slides. Just like the kids in the movie had.

Oh my! It appears my sister, Maureen, may have found a date for this weekend. Why that's Ken! I wonder if Barbie and Maureen's husband know about this?



Of course, being the animal lover that I am, I enjoyed my time with Rex and Bullseye.



Somehow, Maureen, got talked into the Rex Race with the girls. Here they are with their bike helmets on waiting for their turn.



And...they're off! They raced around the course and Jesse was the winner. Way to go Jesse!

It was then time for the Ferris Wheel.

I love Ferris Wheels. They remind of Summer fun and being a kid. I enjoy going to top and getting to look around. I was always happy when someone on the opposite side from me had to get off and I would get to stay on top for an extra minute while they got off.

The girls did everything there was to do there. They even made a visor to take home. We enjoyed a snow-cone and by the time our 2 1/2 hours were up, we were all ready to go.

We had a blast and were all tired.

Since we parked over at the Kodak Theater, the girls had to stop in Build A Bear at the attached mall. They both got a big animal and a small one to take home.

We ate dinner in an effort to let the traffic die down before we headed home. It was a great way to rest up and talk about the fun we had.

I took this final picture outside the restaurant and then we left. Good bye Hollywood. We will be back soon!