redwinelover's Journal, 08 May 2011

Happy Mother's Day all of you friends of mine that are moms! :D What a great day, huh?

My husband is getting me a fabulous (but secret) gift, and the love he's shown me over the last few months in particular practically stuns me. We've been married for nearly 24 years now, but it really DOES keep getting better and better.

We hiked together yesterday - did the same hike we did last week (Miner's Needle loop in the Superstition Mountains). We arrived at the trail head about 5:30am - would have been even earlier but I'd forgotten my sunglasses and a desert hike without sunglasses - even WITH a big brimmed hat, is very uncomfortable and NOT good for the eyes. Well, anyway. It was already warmer at 5:30 yesterday than it was several hours later last week. Hiked at a much fast pace, did this hike in 5 hours instead of the six we took last week. All was good with my knee until about halfway through. Then it started aching on the downhill parts. Ugh. Oh well, wasn't close to tears this time, so it was okay.

We saw lots of jack rabbits, lots of gecko's, various birds, and then I almost stepped on a snoozing snake. Ooohhh... that wouldn't have been good at all! It was small, but you never know. It was probably harmless, as well, but I didn't want to take a chance and wake it up. So we walked off the trail around it.

Much later in the hike we saw a beautiful salamander (we think that's what it was). We've never seen that on a hike. By the time I got my phone out of my pocket and turned on, the creature was gone :( It did get pretty hot by the time we finished up our hike, though and I wonder if it's the last one for the season here. We'll have to go north to Payson or Sedona for more hiking.

My daughter was VERY creative this year. She had me look for a clue as to what she'd bought for me. She said it was red and in the kitchen. After much searching around, I said this little ceramic teapot is red. Finally she said yes, that's it (there are a LOT of red things in kitchen cabinets!). I pick it up and it's making this strange sort of noise - I can't identify it. Now remember I'd just about stepped on a snake yesterday - so she assured me it was nothing alive. Thank God. So I take the lid off the pot and there are all these little strips of paper with "I love you because... " and all these wonderful things she wrote! It was SO amazing. I'm SO lucky. I pulled out and read 15 - 20 of them... what a girl! Underneath these slips of paper were several bells. You know? Jingle bells kind of bells. Okay, I'm stumped. What kind of clue is bells in a teapot??

So I suck at guessing and figuring out this kind of thing. I know my husband would have guessed! Hell, he actually guessed we'd given him a giant nutcracker for Christmas! lol...

Okay, are you ready for this??? Kettlebells! OMG! Duh... tea "kettle" with bells in it! Yep, my girl gave me a set of solid iron kettlebells! A 5 lb, 10 lb, 15 lb and a 20 lb kettlebells! And she's downloading some Kettlebell workouts, too! I do have Jillian Michael's "Shred it with Weights" dvd that uses kettlebells, so I was able to get started today. Fun! I could see how one could get hurt, though, if not using proper form. But how sweet of her to do this!

And tonight my son and his girlfriend are going to make dinner for us! It's a surprise and supposedly it will take into account my need for calorie control, as well. They are shopping as I type, picking up what they need for this fabulous dinner!

I'm such a LUCKY woman! Again, happy mother's day to all this applies to! Hope it's been half as wonderful as mine has been going!