Temptations and a Green Thumb

Entry #3
I'm realizing that I need to list these by entries instead of days. My computer had been in the shop with the Geek Squad for a few days so this is my third blog entry, but not the third day of my "diet".

I put that "d" word in quotes because I hate the word "diet". For much of my life I've been on one diet or another and always with the same results. However, in the interest of ease (and I am a lazy creature) and speed, that will be the word used when I write this blog.
Since posting last, I've successfully navigated two challenges and have begun searching for my green thumb.

Last Wednesday evening my family went out to dinner to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday. We went to Chili's and had a great time. For the first time ever I planned what I would eat before going to the restuarant. With the help of the internet it's now possible to look at the menu, including calories, online. So that's what I did before leaving for the restuarant. Passing up the chips and salsa (of course, placed right in front of me) wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. My sister Christine, who knows about this blog and my newfound determination to lose it this time, was so sweet and offered to move them away. It was tempting to have her do it, but I decided that I can't run from food and temptation for the rest of my life, so we left it where it was.

The next day I was meeting Christine and my niece and nephew at the movies to see Toy Story 3. The monster looming there, of course, is the concession stand. The smell of popcorn did provide for a bit of a temptation, but it wasn't as hard as I'd feared it would be to resist. Before I went I'd heard about how the last few minutes of the movie were pretty hard to take and to bring a box of Kleenex. I was bound and determined not to cry. Does two tears and brimming eyes count as crying?

On to the green thumb. My yard is small (I live in a condo) but it has looked like a jungle for most of the summer. This weekend I'd decided to start to spruce it up. When beginning this diet I wanted to start going to the gym on the weekends as well as weekdays. No need. My body is sooooo sore from the bending, shoveling, etc. that goes with gardening. This weekend showed me in no uncertain terms just how out of shape I am. But now at least half of my yard is pretty with flowers of every color everywhere I look (as long as I only look at the western half of my yard).

Gardening has never been my forte. I'm really good at killing plants and flowers. Growing them, uh, not so much. My father was a gardener's gardener. I swear he could have taken a popsicle stick, planted it, and something green would sprout out of the ground. He loved to work with the earth, plants and flowers and his yard showed it. Many people who knew who my father was would often comment to me on how beautiful his yard was. My dad passed away last April l5th and I miss him. So I'm determined to make my yard as pretty as I can. That will be my tribute to my Dad. With St. Francis (I have a statue of him in the yard) and my Dad watching over my efforts, I'm sure my yard will bloom.