March Holiday Wrap Up

I have enjoyed sharing the unusual holidays of March with you all. My last "official celebration" is March 30 Take a Walk in the Park Day, To be honest, I forgot all about it until around 2 pm this afternoon. The very last thing I wanted to do after work is go for a walk. As I mentioned yesterday my leg has been bothering me the last couple of days and I just wanted to go home from work and do nothing. In my head, I started plotting how I could just celebrate a day late.

Part of the purpose of this blog is to hold me accountable. So I started reconsidering how I could make it happen. There is a park about 6-7 minutes away. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that felt so far away. Are you sensing my complete lacks of motivation?

Then come the excuses - legit or not they still felt like excuses. The park I was considering is a decent sized park. The road through it forms a loop that is a little over a mile long. On a normal day, I wouldn't have even thought twice about the distance. but even that seemed like too much of a commitment today. What if my leg felt worse and I was half a mile away from my car?

Suddenly, another park pops into my head...the one less than 2 minutes from my house. It is small so I could walk a little, take some pictures and consider Take a Walk in the Park Day celebrated.

Now what to wear? So, there is this completely embarrassing factoid. I was in the middle of laundry and my clean clothes options were limited. I know many of you are going to totally relate to this picture of my only available pair of non-dress pants.

Truth is I am always planning to lose weight, so I keep a very limited wardrobe. I don't want to invest in clothes that I am going to shrink out of soon. For most of my life, I have had one. maybe two. pairs of jeans that I can wear at any given time. Well, with the weight I have gained back this winter I am down to one pair (the one pictured above).  I certainly don't want to replace that size of jeans when I am going to get back on track and fit back into the size smaller jeans that hang in my closet. The workout pants I normally wear for walking were in the wash because I have been wearing them around the house because they are more comfortable. Ugh! It is an embarrassing truth and it is a bit discouraging.

Funny story to lighten the mood.  I decided to take a picture of the damage my thighs had done to these jeans while I was still wearing them. As I am trying to get a decent picture, it suddenly dawns on me...am I seriously taking a picture of that region to post on the internet????  Oh the things we do for our blogs! I promise you the above pictured jeans are completely empty and laying on the bed for the picture.

I put the jeans back on, laced up my walking shoes, grabbed Millie and off I went to the park. I decided to just wander around and see how my leg held up. I have been to this park many times. I strolled and reminisced about some of those times.

We held my sister's 30th birthday party at this pavilion. I am sure she won't mind me saying the 10th anniversary of that party is coming up in a couple of months.

Flashback Photo - unfortunately the pictures of my sister are with other people that I don't feel comfortable forcing to be on my blog. So, here is her other half and their eldest child :)

June 2005

My nephew's first football team played on this field.

Flashback Photo

September 2009

Evidently, the park must have received a grant for improvements because there were plenty of new things to be seen. How cute are these bugs in one of the three playground areas?

The biggest surprise is a brand new disc golf course. I had no idea they were planning to build a course. I asked one of the players and he said they had installed the baskets just a couple of weeks ago.  The course starts in a brushy/wooded area with a creek running through it. That is going to make for some tricky frisbee-ing. When we have played at other courses, we don't run into too many other players. But there were at least 7 groups playing this afternoon. I am sure it is because it is new and quite different terrain than the other courses nearby. I also noticed this course has 18 "holes" - the other two in the area have only 9 "holes."

 It ends on the open area on the other side of the park.

I am not sure why this is perched on a specially made mound. My theory is that it makes it safer for sledders. This basket is at the bottom of a hill where people sled in the winter. Or it could simply be to create elevation.

My husband was super excited when I showed him these pictures. We enjoy playing disc golf and I am sure we will testing the course soon. We have never played a course with woods/brush, so that will be a new challenge.

Before I knew it, we had wandered all the way across the park. My leg actually felt really good. We paused to get a picture of Princess Millie on her throne.

On our way back to the car we walked by the old tennis courts. It looks like they might have tried to fix the surface, but I think it could stand to have a new net.

This abandoned ball made me think of Desiree at Finding the Skinny Geek Within. I wondered if she has ever crushed a ball like this. Of course, Millie wanted to take it home as a souvenir - I didn't let her.

Our walk was very enjoyable and the weather was perfect. So, the moral of this holiday is get out and Take a Walk in the Park even if you don't feel like it.  A special thank you to all of you who read this blog for giving me the extra motivation and encouragement that sharing this journey brings.

Finally, I must disclose March 30 was I Am in Control Day. also. The mere fact that this holiday fell on a Monday makes it seem un-celebratable  I will be honest, I am not even sure what that is supposed to mean. I suppose it means I am in control of how I respond to all the craziness this world brings. I am certainly not in control of much, but controlling my responses just might be enough. The past few months I have felt quite out of control and maybe this hits a little too close to home to make into a silly blog post. So for now I will ponder it and see where I am come I Am in Control Day 2016. 

So ends the March holidays. I hope you enjoyed this little romp through the obscure. I think I am going to miss making them a part of my adventures.