Long lost loves...

When I was in college my fav. drink was Rum and Coke, when I lived in Mississippi I brought Captain into there lives. Shortly after I left it was lost in my life. On my way down to south TX to see my parents I was rerouted with canceled flights to Chicago. I was able to fly first class for the first time ever in my life. When I was asked what to drink Rum and Coke came to mind. I forgot just how good it was. We got a bottle in Mexico.

I am writing this updated blog from my parents home in South TX. Today was 80 and sunny. It is so nice to be in spring like weather again. I do miss hanging out and talking with people that are younger the 55 however. We have been down to Mexico, I remember how I love to bargain with people on the street. I got some great deals and most importantly had a lot of fun doing so.

I have been hit on twice, once by a man that was in his early 60's who's wife left him. Tony I met him in Mexico while getting my pedicure in Mexico. He wanted to Marry a white girl from the states. I turned down both males. I will keep lookin for the man of my dream, however makes a woman feel good to be hit on by someone who can't really see that well and other one who is desperte.

Other TX highlights...
- Swimming outside and doing water aerobics
- Fresh shrimp in South Padre Island
- Seeing my parents
- Going to a polka Catholic Mass
- and the AMAZING weather..

Fall update

I have not been pretty bad about blogging the past few months. A friend told me a few weeks ago that they enjoyed reading my blog b/c it helps them feel connected to my life. I'll try to do better.

I was surprised to find out on Thursday night that we (my roommate and

myself) had tickets to go see the Broadway musical RENT this weekend! After moving some work meetings and other things around I was able to enjoy the musical . It was a nice afternoon with good friends and a nice break from my weekend of work.

As many of you know my parents sold my childhood home in Van Meter and now will be "snow birds" and be spending there winters in TX. I will be joining them for 10 days over my Christmas vacation. I was not quite sure where there new home was so I did some looking online. I did not know that my parents would be moving to Mexico/Taxes really on the border. I am looking forward to spending time with my parents, going to Mexico, South Padres Islands, eating shrimp and enjoy water aerobics with all the old ladies in the pool. The new winter home is close to McAllen TX. If you notice the map to the right, you can look south and see the green star, that's HOME, mostly in Mexico. A few photo highlights of the new house... The front of the house , the kitchen (YES! I know it's PURPLE!), and my parents know own an orange tree...

Long awaited blog..

A good friend pointed out that it is time for me to update my blog...


Last Wednesday after class I went to The House of Bricks with some friends to hear the band Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. I don't remember the last time I went out to a bar or club in Des Moines, I felt almost "cool". The band was a unique blend of country meeting Rock and Roll, there lyrics made me laugh and the crowed was a mix people in country hats and biker dudes. The leader singer had better hair then me and was enjoyable to look at the eyes, and the drummer was just HOT!

As I was "dancing" I could not help but remember something my good friend Pauly down in Mississippi once told me ... "white people dance with there months open". He always told me that all I needed to do with stick with the two step and keep my mouth closed. Pauly - I failed on Wed. night.

They have a unique sound and fun songs. Check them out :)

Michael Phelps or Shamu

Over the past few weeks I have built up my swimming from 20min to now an hour. I even went and got a pair of goggles to wear so the chemicals in the pool don't burn my eyes.

I have find this hour a great chance to think or more importantly to not think at all and just zone out doing something other then laying on the couch watching TV.

I am sure I look like Shamu in the water even though I would like to think of myself as the next Olympic girl Michael Phelps. Every time I come up for air I sound like a whale that I seen in Australia last summer.

The new swimming idea is two folded:
1.) I want to start to run sometime and I hear that it is much easier for swimmers to run. I am hoping that it will help with this goal of running over time.

2.) My back has been messed up since I moved at the end of July. Doing any other form of working out hurts to much and I have found swimming to be very relaxing.

After A LOT of convincing from Lacy and Bob, I went today for the first time ever to a physical therapist about the lower back pain. In a 2-3 weeks at $80 a week I should be back to normal or that is goal. It is NOT ok for Loaders to only be comfortable while standing, sitting and laying around is what I do best and I wish to not be in pain for those Olympic sports. I am looking forward to feeling better soon however I am not looking forward to the dent this is going to cause in money.

In other news. I fear it is time to go out and buy new clothes. The old clothes are starting to get to big. I don't know how I am ever going to find old FIA and NCYC t-shirts to wear daily that are a size smaller, I might have to start dressing like a women.

Small and random thoughts...

A few small and random things in my life....

1.) Next week my parents will no longer own my childhood home in Van Meter Iowa.

2.) I have started swimming daily (ok really I have gone every day this week) and I am working on doing the breast stroke. It has been nice.

3.) I am LOVING farm fresh tomatoes this summer, I average about 4 a day. I also have found a new love for yellow pear tomatoes.




4.) My bed sits at an angle in the corner of my room so none of the sides are touching a wall. I have not fallen off or drooped a pillow in over a week.

5.) I have only one more episode of the TV series Weeds to watch tonight, I CAN'T WAIT!

6.) I love this summer's big brother.

7.) Moving and this summers Vacation to Mississippi was a lot of money, it's time to rebuild the savings account. I am sad so say I don't there will be any upcoming trips anytime soon after Colorado in September.

Ta Ta from Tonia's Times

Be still. Be quiet. And know that we have a God that loves us.

A few weeks ago I moved into a new home. Lacy (roommate) and I have worked hard at making our new place a home. One thing I wanted to do when I got into this new place was create a space in my bedroom for prayer. A place where I can spend time each day with God.

Each night when I go upstairs I turn off the cell phone. Turn on the lamp (never a big fan of overhead lighting) and light my prayer candle. After getting ready for the evening slumber comes my favorite part of the evening. I sit in my prayer chair and spend sometime being still, being quiet(never an easy thing for me to do) and let God love me. Prayer is always different, never structured and always life giving. This has become my favorite part of each evening.

At the end of prayer I turned off the light and crawl into bed and just let the softness of the candle flames dance on the walls around me. It is the perfect way to end the day.

Like most things in my life I have rules for the prayer chair. Nothing ever gets put into the prayer chair, such as clothes, books or other items that would prevent me from sitting in it. I am only allowed to sit there when I am in prayer.

If you do not have a space for prayer, try it, you will be amazed at how that space will transform your life. If you would ever like to join me, you are always welcome!

I got nothing....

Everyday for the past week and a half I have been thinking about what to post in a new blog and I truly have nothing new going on in my life to blog about. There is always items going on in our lives but some things are just not items to be shared.

So I will now hit up some of the superficial highlights in my life, really if I was you I would just stop reading.

- I am moving July 24th. B/c I am lazy we hired a moving company who will move all of our shit in under 3 hours - I am looking forward to having to do little to no work in true loader ways.

- I love watching the TV show Weeds - it's a must check out.

- Mississippi was a lot of fun and I am still sad that I am back in Iowa and not down south.

- When I was down in Mississippi I meet a black Hip-Hop artist that's pretty great, if he ever gives the "ok" for the blog I wrote about him I'll post that up.

- I am failing at getting healthy in 2009, something has got to change SOON!

- My parents sold there house in Van Meter.

- I have gotten to hang out with my friend Nikki and lot going on walks, and good chats on the floor of the new townhouse.

- I really like beer.

- Father Al is in the office today so I can't watch my online TV shows while at work. I better go home now.

I have lots of blogs saved up maybe I should post one of those.

Current Temp: 101

Hello from M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I!

Day one of the summer program is going great! In the morning I helped out in arts and crafts and painted a great flower. I spent the afternoon in the pool flopping around like a beached whale teaching kids how to swim. It made me thankful for all the hours my mom and dad spent with me in the water teaching how to swim.

Yesterday when it is only 99 outside we went to the horse races. It was fun to people watch and I think I lost 6 pounds just sitting outside in that heat. We then went to the Do-Drop to get a bit to eat. The Do-Drop is a double wide trailer out in the country that is half bar, half dance floor. I was the only white person in the joint and was the center of everyone eye for the first 20min. or so that I was in the club.

The first time I was down here four years ago we took a bus trip up to Ohio, half way home the air quite working. This trip my 2nd plane did not have air on it nor did the Do-Drop club. Air is a MUST for down here in late June!

Pictures to come soon. Ta ta for now!!

God Bless

So many first in the month of June

There have been so many first this month already and it is not even half over.

For the first time ever on Friday June 5th I locked my key's in my car. I was happy to find out that my car insurance company will be paying that $47.70 bill. Maybe the 5 sets I have should be not all in one location.

Another first is no cable TV. That's right for the first time in over 5 years I will no longer have cable TV. This is a BIG step for me. I am hoping that it will make me more active and save a bit of money as well. So far it has been a hard few days but is working on both goals. I will be a lot happier when they turn back on my Cable Internet that they shut off without being told on Tuesday morning. Not having cable and not having Internet has been hard!

On Saturday I went out to the Van Meter house for my last meal there. I made pork chops, salad and potato packets. It was very lovely and was glad to eat my last meal with my parents together on paper plates, sitting at a card table in the middle of an empty living room.

Ray and Mary also had their auction on Sunday June 7th. It was my first auction to ever attend and was interesting. I however don't think I will be one of those people that go to auctions daily to buy other's items. I would however like to say that my Pink Flamages Floyd and Florance Flanagan sold for $25!!

On a side note you might want to know why I never update my blog. I never have anyone to read over and make sure the spelling and grammar is ok so they just sit in my file under saved drafts, there are over 10 in there. It's

kinda sad because some of them are good post!

One last picture of the black shitter...

The summer of moving...

Change is all over my life right now, good thing for the most part I can handle it with only small mental melt downs.

I am waiting for the end of May and the start of June. For one there will be a new word of the month. I am still trying to learn how to use May's word of the month correctly, I have failed so far 100% of the time. I will keep trying though till Midnight on Monday June 1st.

Another large change in my life is my parents are getting ready to sell the home that I grew up in. They will be now summering at the Lake house and spending the winter in TX.

Both houses are a war zone however they are slowly getting better! I went out to the lake house to help mom and dad on Sat. night and Sunday. The living room did have only one chair to sit on but I think we made a large dent in the pile. This picture was taken half way done with moving and unpacking boxes. Even though I joked around this weekend Mom you have done a great job making two houses fit into one. I hope that next time I come to the lake house that both of us will be able to sit on furniture and not have one of us lay on the floor.

The newest addition to the lake house has been a nice new three car garage for storage, the boat, and both car's. It looks GREAT! They really did a nice job with everything. Dad has been working on doing the electrical work for the garage when his back is ok!

If your looking for something to do on June 7th please come on out to the auction! There will be some items on sale, even a house if your in the market, good food and most importantly I will be there! If you are unable to make it on June 7th don't worry Lacy and I will be moving July 28th so your welcome to come help with that!

Normal....

I am sorry that I have not had an update in a few weeks. I am still working on getting my life back to normal. I was having such a positive and healthy routine till mid April so I am working on getting back into that. I have now only had one nap in the past few weeks and sleeping at night now. Soon I hope to go back to NORMAL!

Today is Cinco De Mayo so my co-work Lori and I went to the store and got drinks, chips and salsa for the staff. We sat outside and enjoyed each others company on this lovely day. It's nice to enjoy good friends and company even if it is during work hours.

In other news - late July Lacy and I will be moving into a town house in West Des Monies. We are having a fight right now about a miniature collection of Lacy's that I find UGLY (and there are a few people that agree with me) vs. my old school place mates. Lacy does not really care for the place mates and to say I don't care for the miniature set is an understatement. If it comes down to it I will not have the place mats out in the new townhouse as long as I don't have to look at the miniatures. Here is a picture of the place mats, I will put up a pic. of the miniatures if needed. Does anyone have any thoughts... I would enjoy hearing them. The flowers are pretty.

Community

For the last few years I have not stayed in touch with the community of Van Meter (my hometown). It's not that I don't enjoy those that I went to High School with or anything negative, we just all went our separate ways after leaving Van Meter.

This week a good friend, and former classmate took his life. Mike was like a brother to me while growing up. His sister (one of my best friends still today) and Mike use to spend hours at my house and my brother and I would spend hours at there house together. We grew up together, learned together, and share so many wonderful memories together. When our water pipes would freeze my brother and I would hope that the water would not come back on so we could go over to Mike and Nikki's to take a shower b/c that meant we got to play together and hang out.

Mike I will forever remember your smile, your baby blue eyes, "cows just float down the river", "Mikey wants to go out there", your sleep walking, dancing with you at your sisters wedding and so many more memories. You will truly be missed.

This week I have been thankful for the community of Van Meter and the family of Mike. I have seen old friends, we have been a source of comfort, peace, and prayer together this week. This week has shown me that COMMUNITY both old and new are important, and that love will always be there.

For those of you who had the honor of meeting Mike, thank you this week for sharing your stories, tears and prayers with me, I am blessed to have you. For those of you who have been praying for the family, thank you we need all the prayers we can get!

On Monday and Tuesday we will say good bye to our good friend Mike, share stories, tears and prayers. I am thankful that I have so many friends to walk with me in this journey.

Michael Joseph Robinson R.I.P, you will always be in my heart. I pray that Greg, Renee and Nikki that you are able to have peace...

TRIDUUM and other life updates....

The church at St. John's is almost ready for Holy Thursday's mass: the white flowers are up, the feet washing stations are out, new candles are ready to be lit, and the adoration chapel is ready for prayer. I need to run and get more white towels for the washing of the feet, and then everything will be in place.

Many of us that work for the Catholic Church call this not only Holy Week but Holy Hell Week. There are so many small things that need to be done to make sure everything runs smoothly. I have taken extra time this year in prayer while doing preparation. It has truly made a difference. These three days are a gift, it is my prayer that you are an active participant....

Other Highlights:

The running is going slow but well.

Not talking on the phone while driving is HARD!

I have got a bad cold or allergies are here. As long as I take drugs I am good.

I will be on the radio next Friday morning with Bishop Pates, if you live in the Des Moines area you should tune in to hear me on KWKY 1150 AM at 9 AM.

Andy is coming into town on Good Friday! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Prayer request: Please pray for a high school student of mine who is having a hard time with homework. We talked about doing a month of self improvement and her goal this month is homework. Please pray for her.

God Bless you on the first day of the Easter Triduum!

These items are not Apirl Fool's jokes....

Happy April!

April's word is "fool" .... I will try to incorporate the word "fool" into everyday life the month of April. If you have a word for May let me know and I will pass them on to my good friend who picks the words for me each month.

One of the things that I am doing this lent is buckling up each time I get in the car. I know that for so many Americana's this is a non-issue however it is something that I have struggled with due to being lazy. This has become very useful in my life now because while buckling I do a short prayer for safe travels, it's been nice! Yesterday when pulling out of the gym parking lot this foolish lady almost ran into me because she was talking on the cell phone while driving. I could not help but think of how often I have done that. So...April's self improvement goal is to no longer talk or text on the cell phone while driving. This will be a struggle since this is when I make 60% of my phone calls. I am looking forward to seeing if it makes me a better driver and more alert to what is going on around me. I will keep everyone posted.

I have made it my goal to be able to run a 5K by September 2009 or maybe 2010. On Monday I started the Couch-to-5k running plan. I would say that I am at .1 of week one with this plan. My goal is by the end of April to make it to week 2. Hey, everyone has to start someplace. I have some friends joining me on the journey to run as well, so please pray!

Well those are the April updates from my life....more to come soon!

What's love got to do with it?

Often I am reminded of how my Catholic faith morals and values are different then most of society. I was yet again reminded of this again tonight after going to this web site visuwords.

For those of you who have never seen this web sit is is "Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate." It's a dictionary and thesaurus in one.

It's a GREAT web site that is fun to get on and play around on, I suggest you try it. I typed in my name but nothing came up, and since the word "love" has been such a buzz word around my apartment tonight I thought I would type in the word "love". One of the branches of the word love goes directly to "sex, bed, humping, making out, rolling in the hay...." and so much more. It makes me sad that to so many people think this is what love is. After all I think society and media tell so many of us that this is love.

When I think of Love I think of what is going to take place in a week as we enter into Holy Week. Where Christ died on the cross for my sins rose from the grave and went forth. The Pascal mystery is love.

(A large thank you goes out to my friend Matt who showed me this web site, I am sure many hours of my life at work will be put to good use playing around on this web site!)

On another side note. My friend Andy thought my first blog would be something of an introduction, I'll do that now. …

I’m Tonia; I will blog whenever the mood hits me. Also I can’t spell and have bad grammar. Thank you for stopping in and reading. Please feel free to leave a comment!

Out with the Old in with the New in 2009

In the past few months I have become increasingly more "green". I don't really like the term "green" as much as I just like to become more aware of what I am doing to the earth, taking from the earth, and giving back to Mother Earth. I have started to recycle more. I never used to like to recycle because of the work, but I make the roommate take the recycling. However the amount of items I have put in the recycling box has increased. It has started to bug me with that amount of trash and items that are being thrown out each day.

Another thing that I would like to start having in my life is a compost pile. Every time I put something in the trash or put down the garbage disposal that could go into the compost pile, I think of how nice it would be to have one. I am sure there are large benefits to having one, however they are unknown to me other than the amount of trash would decrease.

Also, I have started to look into products that are environmentally friendly such as soap, laundry soap, cleaning products, and so on. I however have not gotten to the point of spending more money on these items; after all I did just get done paying off debt and would like to not go back into it because I buy green friendly laundry soap.

Also this website and concept fascinates me: 100 Mile Diet.
If I had more time, energy, and motivation in my life I would take this challenge. Since the roommate and I have gone very healthy with what we eat and put into our bodies, I am looking forward to spring and summer time with the Farmer's Markets for some Iowan grown produce.

The year 2009 has been a splendid year of out with the bad and in with the good. I am enjoying this new healthier "green" lifestyle.