Shape up with the Daily HEET!

OoooH! OoooH! Cindy!! I've been meaning to mention this...but my little pea brain gets distracted...be careful walking with those hand weights. DH was walking with them, back in the day (2007-2008 when we went on our full-on health kick). He's thin, blessed with the Athletic Build, but he wanted to get more *In Shape*. He bought a set of 5# hand weights and every day he would walk the beach during his lunch. Within 2 weeks he was noticing pain in his back, lower and upper, and neck area. (Side note...DH is from Utah and was a Back Country Skiier and Mountain Hiker - he knows when his body is not feeling right.) We both went on line researching it. We both found many articles that had the same thing to say. Walking with weights throws the natural curvature of you spine off. Your arms are there for a reason, to keep *your* natural balance. The weights can throw that off. I'm not saying "Don't" do it, I'm just saying, if you notice any kind of stress, pain or discomfort, put the weights down! DH did immediately and found his walks to be much more comfortable and beneficial. He was able to go further, faster and had no more discomfort. And, he trimmed down quite nicely I might add, wink, wink!

Alright...you know what...It's been long enough. I'm just gonna say it. Something I have never admitted publicly in any way, shape, or form. The only people that know are his family, my family, the people I work/volunteer with and my neighbor across the street who watches out for me and I for her (2 single chicks.) DH and I met on the internet. It was Christmas break 2005 (My 2 week shutdown.) I was sitting here alone, all the festivities were done, family and friends were gone and I was bored. 2 weeks during the holidays can be a long time when you live alone and have done so for many years.. So...I went to a Chat Room online. Scary for me because believe it or not, I'm *horribly* shy in real life (Yes, seriously! Talk about a Wall-Flower!). But I was using it as a way challenge myself, break out of that mold I had been living in for so long. So, I started conversing with this girl from Maine or Massachusettes. Somewhere that was really cold, frigid and getting oodles of snow. We were joking that I would come to her house for a "holiday dinner" and she would come here when the weather turned warm. In the midst of this conversation "Xplorenc" logs on. No words were exchanged between the two of us the first night or two but I was intrigued by the name, just a strange kind of fascination with the user name. A couple nights later, turns out it was a *guy* and he sends me a private message. To make a long story short, he thought I was still living in Michigan because of all the "snow" comments I made to the girl in the frigid north, sitting here at my computer with my windows wide open, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and my irrigation system running. (I was doing this late in to the night when my sprinklers would come on automatically.) and he thought I was some poor helpless girl that needed help, LOL! Well, believe me, I set him straight real quick. I was not some helpless chick in the frigid north but we continued our Private Messaging. It quickly turned to Instant Messaging and within a few weeks, he flew here from Utah to celebrate my 40th birthday which is February 16th. In a matter of weeks, between December 25th and February 16th, we were both hooked. He was here for 4 days. Flew in on a Thursday and left on a Sunday (that was his first NASCAR race, btw!). As soon as he got back home he started making plans to move here. It took him 3 full days to drive cross-country from Utah to Florida in his Suburban towing his work trailer. I had an extra Nextel phone from work that I mailed him and we kept in touch the entire time except when he went through a long dead patch in Wyoming. I took my map book to work and would monitor his progress and check in every hour or so. During the night, especially as he got closer and I knew the route by heart, all the way through Kentucky, Tennesse and Alabama, I walked him through it. Minute by minute. all the way from Chatanooga through Atlanta. His arrival time couldn't have been more perfect. I got off work at 4:00 and he arrived at 4:30. Pulling down the street looking like something out of the Beverly Hillbillies. Big, jacked up Suburban (a mountain grinding truck), big red canoe on top and a towing a work trailer to boot. It was April 1st, 2006.

We both talk about it often, still to this day. We are always referring back to the "Internet Days" and who said what (Ask me someday about the band Guess Who....sound like a Laurel and Hardy thing..OMG...you have NO idea, LOLOL!) How strange were the circumstances that made it all happened and yet, how perfect it all was. The timing. How bizarre the circumstances were. Neither one of us lookiing for a partner and yet finding something so wonderful. We are not *legally* married. Not in the eyes of the state. But, we both wear bands and I sport some pretty nice "Bling". He feels a little more pressure than I do to "do it legally" but I'm not ready. But he knows I'm committed to him so he cuts me some slack.

Neither one of us are quite sure when to celebrate our anniversay. We seem to have so many. But it's always sometime between Christmas, my birthday, April when he moved here and the following March when we exchanged rings. So...I'm somewhere in the midst of my anniversary!

And now we have the boat. The name XPloreNSea was my idea. My take-off of his first internet name. Pretty ingenious, huh!??

And this post has taken me hours to write. It's been a struggle to put in to the words I did but I feel it's time to just let it out. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I'm a conservative girl and have always stuck to my conservative roots. I know my choice was true because my dad and step-mom love him and even though there is great distance between myself and his parents (who spent a week with us over a year ago) we seem to have a deep respect and love for each other. Not to mention his grown children, 2 of which have spent time here and a Sister and her husband. They all seem to like me OK. So, again I say, it's All good.

Thank you for allowing me to share this piece of my life. Thank you for making me *comfortable* enough to do so. Maybe now I can tell perfect strangers, "Yeah! I did that, too!" I doubt it, LOL, but maybe someday...

Tomorrow is Measure Monday...pull those measuring tools out!

Nitey Nite HEETers!
Julie

Hey Hazel!! Great Big Welcome to the HEET! I'm still at the office but getting ready to bug out. I'll catch you all in a little bit when I get home...

Julie