Friday, June 26, 2009

Day 10 - Death of a legend

On June 25th 2009 around 5:26pm (EST) Michael Jackson was pronounced dead. Sources say it was due to a cardiac arrest. Latest news is that the police are looking for his personal physician because apparently he gave him a shot od Demerol shortly before his cardiac arrest. His family thinks that the doctor gave him too much.

Now I know there are a lot of people who didn't like him due to his child molestations allegations and his eccentric lifestyle. I am the first to admit that I did not care for what was going on in his personal life, but the truth is that the man was a true musical genius! His music reached all across the globe and I don not think that there is a man, woman or child out there today who does not know who is is or has never listened to his music. He has influenced an entire generation with his music and dancing.

Who hasn't seen Thriller? I remember when I was little my brother and I would LOVE to watch it because our sister was SO scared of it that she wouldn't even come into the therefore giving us a break from her! Michael Jackson was ALWAYS playing in our house. My mom loved to dance with us and the song that has always came to my mind is "Wanna Be Startin Something", she loved to dance to that song.

I remember going to Disneyland MANY moons ago. While we were there we got to see Captain EO in 3D. It stared Michael Jackson and Anjelica Houston. 18 years later, I still remember that! That is the type of impact that he had on me! I remember walking to Walmart carying my CD walkman listening to Thriller. I repeated Thriller over and over so I could learn the words. Who hasn't tried to learn the dance moves?!? I remember seeing a video of someone's reception where the bride and groom (maybe it was the whole wedding party) danced to Thriller. Not sure if it was their frist dance or not, but it was funny!

The type of talent he had is only around once in a lifetime. I never understood why everone was crying when I saw clips of Elvis Presley's death. Now I do. To me, this is what it must have felt like to my mom when Elvis died. She grew up listening to his music just as I grew up listening to Michael Jackson.

If you watch videos of his performences, like the 1984 Grammy Awards, he was an awesome entertainer! No one will be able to repeat what he had done for the music industry. he had such a profound influence on so many through his moves and music ranging from the "average Joe" to some of the well known recording artists like Madonna, Britney Spears, Cher and Celion Dion.

You don't have to like the man to LOVE the music!

R.I.P. Michael Joseph Jackson. You will live forever through your music and influence on the music industry.


Michael Joseph Jackson
August 29 1958 - June 25 2009

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Day 9 - Catching up

So I know it has been a while since I have posted! I have been a busy little bee! We have a lot to discuss; there is the Wii Active, the calendar and the book.

Wii Active - I really can only do the Wii Active durnig the week. I work full-time and hubby is deployed so the only time I really have to do anything is after work. I get off from work at 1630 and go to my friends house to do the Active and then I go pick up my daughter at 1800. So needless to say that my schedule is off from everyone else's even though I did start on June 1 like everyone else did. So, so far it has really worked me. I HATE the running! I was never a runner. I think I can actually walk faster than I can run. My favorite is anything sports related! I especially like tennis. I think I could really tome up and lose weight if I could just get my eating on track. During the week I usually make myself a smoothie or I will go and buy one here at a local place (along with a blueberry bagel w/butter) and for lunch 8 times out of 10 I will get Subway. I do slip on occasion, but I'm only human! During the week I usually don't eat much, if anything at all. I recall eating 4 string cheese and some water with Crystal Light, or a couple, ok, several handfuls of dry cerealand a few root beers. My schedule weeknights don't allow for eating. I come home aroun 1830 - 2000 depending on if I need to go to the store or an FRG meeting, I then feed Shannon and let her play for a bit while I clean up something. I TRY and clean up after myself during the week but most of the time I only wash out her bottles. Then around 2000-2100 I give Shannon a bottle while twittering or checking email or going on facebook. Once she is asleep I put her in her crib and take the lap top with me to bed and I am usually on til about 2300. So as you can see, I have my priorities messed up but it works for me!

The Calendar - As most of you know, and for those of you that don't, I did a pin up photo shoot with a local photographer to send to the hubby. I LOVED it! I didn't think I would because I don't feel I am where I need to be for those kinds of pics (I feel those kind of pics are a privlege, NOT a right, like spandex and bikinis). Anyways, so after I had them done I had someone on twitter ask me who sponsored me to get the pics done?! SPONSORED?? I guess the Army since I payed for them myself. This conversation led to an idea. What if I put together a calendar of Army wives in the classic pin-up poses and sell them. The proceeds could go to a non-profit that supports our troops, a way for us wives to support those that support our husbands. I put it out there to my twitter friends (you know who you are) and everyone loved the idea! After I started getting messages that people would buy it (still not sure if they were serious or being nice) I decided I would try and get er done! So a week into this process I have talked to the same photographer that did my pics (also an Army wife) and she is on board to do them at a discounted rate. She is going to get with her hair and makeup gals to see if they would be interested. I put an ad on craigslist asking for Army wives that would like to participate and got an overwhelming response! Now I am just waiting until the photographer to come back from vacation (he hubby just got back from Iraq) and we will discuss details. I will also be asking my aunt, a seamstress in AZ, if she would donate/discount her time and skills to make the outfits. I have also decided that when someone purchases a calendar they will get to decide which non-profit they would like their money to go to. Now I am going to be realistic, not ALL the money will go to the non-profit, we will have some go to the NP and some stay so we can crank out more calendars. Now, I know it's not all about the Army (DeltaWhiskey1), so I thought that I would "test" it out with Army wives first and if it sells, I will do one with every branch of the military! I have my fingers crossed!

The Book - I'm not quite sure that I put this out there, but I am "working" for the new Army Wife Magazine (launching in the Fall 2009), I will be "reporting" here from Fort Drum about things going on here and in the outside community as well as doing an advice column called "Letters to Limerick". The person responsible for putting the magazine together is also going to be putting a book together. It will be letters of encouragement and advice from Army wives to Army wives. There will be many chapters like Deployment (before, during and after), Finance, Dealing With Loss and Education. I am one that gets the letters, reads them and determines what section it should fall under and if it should be included. I think it will be GREAT! It's basically a book of other Army wives saying "I wish I knew about this....." or "When I was dealing with this I found this helpful........" Like I said, it should be great!

Anyways, if anyone out there is interested in getting involved in any of the great things that I am helping out with/heading, just let me know! If you want to help financially or with a service you can twitter me (JenTheArmyWife) or if you would like to write a question to the advice column or write for the book you can email me at jen@armywifemagazine.com.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Day 8 - Wii Active Training Day 1

I know that this is a little late but I had a photo shoot that I was doing all day yesterday, but that is another blog story!



So, day 1 of the Wii Active Personal Trainer. I really think that doing some of the pre-made exercises helped out a lot before I started this journey! I knew what to expect and I knew what I could do. I have it on the medium setting right now. I enjoy doing this because it feels like you are playing a game! Seeing the other "you" on the screen helps out! One thing that I wish they had an option for is actually doing the 30 day challenge with a friend. You can do the pre-made workouts together, but you can't do it with a friend?!

So Day 1 went well for me because of getting to know some of the exercises before hand! I think the hardest thing that I am going to have to accomplish is the eating. I usually have a smoothie for breakfast, Subway for lunch and something small and handy for dinner. Lately it has been string cheese or the Minute Rice brown rice in the single servings container. I have a 5 month old and as most of you parents out there know, she comes first. By the time I feed her, bathe her and put her to bed it's too late for me to eat a "real" meal. This is something that I am working on but once the hubby comes home from Afghanistan it will be better. Before he left I ALWAYS made a complete meal. With him gone, I have no one to cook for until Shannon starts eating real food. Until then it's string cheese, water or anything else that is quick and portable!

Since I didn't do it yesterday (and I'm sure my Wii will yell at me) I am going to be doing day 2 today. I did hear that if you miss a day the program auto-corrects itself and makes you work out harder to compensate. *SAYS SARCASTICLY* Yippy I can't wait!