Games People Play

High Above Abrams Creek Trail - GSMNP

November 20, 2010

I am so behind in responding to those that "tagged" me when the game was all over BlogWorld a few weeks ago.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading every one of your responses to the questions that were asked of you and don't really have an excuse for getting my questions answered so late in the game.  Thanks to each of my blog friends who tagged me and so here goes with probably more information about me than you really care to know!!

 Sheilah

1. What is your favorite holiday and why and how do you celebrate it?  This might be a bit unusual and sometimes I think it's the radical in me just wanting to be different, but my favorite holiday has always been Valentine's Day.  Many years ago, Mr. B and I settled into the tradition of choosing really nice Valentine's Day gifts for each other and it's a lot of fun. 

2. Do you relish time alone and what was the last thing you did when you were alone for 24 hours?  Yes, I absolutely love being alone and never have any problems finding things to do.  24 hours alone would always be spent in a combination of reading and preferably, hiking.  If not hiking, walking!

3. What is your favorite type of ethnic food and when and what was the last time you ate it? My favorite is Japanese, but truthfully, it's easier to say the only kind of ethnic food I DON'T like is Indian.

4. Who was your favorite teacher in high school and why?  My high school years were the worst years of my life, so I can't say that I had a favorite teacher.  I was going through a horribly rebellious stage and hated school.  I can't even remember the names of most of my teachers and I sincerely pray that they have no recollection whatsoever of me!  LOL!   Now college is a different story...........................

Lori

1.  How do you silence that bratty little voice?  I'm having the battle of a lifetime with that bratty little voice right now and if ANYONE out there knows how to silence it, please let me know.  Death threats between me and it are NOT working.

 

2.  What is your favorite exercise/work out?  Hiking, of course!

3.  What is your Thanksgiving indulgence, if any?  My MIL makes a cranberry congealed salad with a cream cheese topping that is just delicious.  Unfortunately, it is full of sugar and she knows how much I love it, so it seems to appear on the table for every holiday and many times when no holiday is in sight!

4.  What is your favorite holiday memory?  Oh my, there are so many, but two come to mind. 1)  My grandparents lived in Cleveland, Ohio, a long, long way from East Tennessee especially in pre-interstate days.  To minimize the stress of traveling with young children, my parents would let us get to sleep, then bundle us up in our PJ's and blankets, deposit us in the warm car and we'd travel all night long to get to Grandma's for Christmas.  Since my middle name has always been "go," I was much too excited to sleep and I can remember peering out the car windows as we'd drive through hundreds of little towns with their different Christmas decorations.  To this day, there are some towns through Kentucky and southern Ohio that I can tell you what decorations lined their Main Street in the 60's.   2)  When Mr. B and I got married in June of 1977, I already knew that he had never had an electric train.   He is an only child and how it happened that he'd never gotten an electric train, I'll never know! That's what I got him for Christmas the first year we were married and 33 1/2 years later, I can still see the look of sheer delight on his face when he opened that gift.  Although we finally gave it to the child of some good friends, that train wound it's way around the base of our Christmas tree for at least the next 20 years.

Deb

1.  What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?  Music

2.  What are your top 5 favorite artists of all time?  That is an impossible question to ask a musician!!   I'll just name a few of my favorites:  Felix Mendelssohn, Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, Steve Green, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Martina McBride, Sandi Patty, Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman.................this is impossible - I could go on forever.  I just love MUSIC!   (BTW, my favorite other kind of artist is Robert Tino, a local guy who does amazing mountain scenery pictures)

3.  Who are the inspirations in your life?   Jesus Christ, Mr. B and the Senior Pastor of my church

4.  What is the one thing you wish you would've know when you were younger?  It's o.k. to march to the beat of a different drummer. 

Dawne

1. How do you feel about weighing yourself? How often do you weigh and why?  Since 2006, I have weighed myself every morning and entered the weight onto a Excel spreadsheet.  The weights are averaged at the end of each week and the average is what I focus on.   My weight fluctuates dramatically so a 7-day average keeps me from becoming so discouraged with the wild fluctuations.

2. What is your favourite, healthy snack?  Almonds

3. What's the craziest diet tip you have ever tried?  I've never been one to latch onto crazy fads, so I can't recall any really wild diet tips I ever tried.

4. What is the biggest change you have made in your life in your journey to a healthy weight?  Eliminating Diet Coke from my diet.  Although they have no calories, I was totally addicted to them and in response to a challenge with Mr. B several years ago, I agreed to give up Diet Coke for three months and he agreed to give up real Coke.  We both finished the challenge - I stuck with it permanently and with few exceptions, so has he.  I am working towards the goal of completely eliminating white flour and white sugar.

Please forgive this extremely long post, but I wanted to get these questions answered and hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about what makes me tick.  

 

Here is my Hot 100 Challenge Update for this week:

1)  Reach my goal weight of 138 on or before February 28, 2011.  I have changed this goal from December 31 to the end of February.  I hope to show a good loss by December 31, but it is really important to me to reach goal weight by end of February and have a couple of months to settle into maintenance before we leave for Prague in early May. No loss this week, but no gain.  I am holding steady!

2)  I will eat nothing containing white sugar, white flour or trans fats. Not perfect, but o.k.

 

3)  I will walk 10,000 steps every day or an average of 10,000 steps over seven days.  Haven't done so great on this one.  Bad weather and lack of a hiking partner kept me off the trails and I was just lazy a couple of days.  Rare for me not to get my walking in, so I'm letting it go!

 

4)  I will not eat between meals or after 7 p.m. Done six days, but attended a party Sunday night after our Choir Program at church.  Let's just say I fell off the wagon!

I'm not going to "tag" anyone specifically because I want all of you to answer one question and it is this:  What is your favorite Christmas or Holiday song?