Life as a CrazyMimi

I love Christmas.  Always have.  I could listen to Christmas music 365 days a year.  I love the feelings I get this time of year.  I love remembering Christmases from my childhood.  I had the perfect childhood.  Not kidding.  Not one bit.  I had a perfect childhood. I used to get so excited on Christmas Eve that I would throw up.  I couldn't sleep. And when I came down those stairs on Christmas morning and saw all those presents displayed as only my Mom could do...err...umm...I mean as only Santa could do, I was the happiest little girl on earth!  Our gifts weren't wrapped.  They were displayed.  And I mean to tell you, they were DISPLAYED!  It was like walking into a toy store!  I don't want you to think we were spoiled.  We weren't.  We were extremely fortunate to have enough money to have a Christmas like that.  My Dad and Mom both worked HARD every single day...except Sundays...to provide for us kid...

As we all know, this year has been like no other in recent history.  I am very guilty of saying it's been a horrible, horrible year.  However, when I realize a few things that have changed in my life, I'm not sure it's been that horrible.  I've learned some valuable lessons this year. First, let me tell you WHY I say this year has been horrible....  March 9th, 2020, life as we know it in our family changed forever.  My husband Troy suffered a heart attack, coming very close to not making it.  I was told 30 minutes was about the time he had left when we arrived at the ER.  A stent was placed and he was good to go.  (Gratitude #1)  But this totally changed our world.  Troy had smoked for 50 years, and he led a pretty sedentary life.  I mean, he works and he works hard, but he really didn't do any kind of exercise to get the heart rate up.  He is now up to 2.5 miles on his walks. I joke that next year he will be running a 5K with ...

I get asked a certain question a lot, and I don't actually know how to answer it. The question is this - what motivated you to start running at this stage of your life?  I usually say it's because I needed to lose weight and knew as I got older, it wouldn't get any easier.   That really is one reason,  but I've come to realize that there is much more to it. Much, much more. It's the feeling of accomplishment, feeling good about yourself,  knowing you can do something that not everyone does. I really can't put it into words, but this is how I view running ~~~ I have a love/hate relationship with running.   Let's use last night for example...I love when I'm getting my mind ready to run the next morning.  I get my clothes out and ready.  I watch what I eat that evening to be sure I'm not sluggish, and I try to get to bed early. I love knowing I'll be putting in my miles for my half marathon training, burning calories, and challenging myself. The...

For the past several days, this Crazy Mimi has been living her best life.   No secrets here.  What you see on Facebook is what I'm doing.    Lake Anna, VA gets invaded yearly by a gang of hooligans I call my Punkins.  Ranging in age from 7 to 20, with one Great Punkin who is almost 9 months old, and has completely stolen Mimi's heart.  Like I mean gone, taken, never to return stolen. To see your Grandson become an incredibly awesome Daddy is so unbelievably cool!  So with four generations together, there's bound to be tons of pictures taken and memories made, not to mention the laughter that is loud and crazy, and probably terribly annoying to anyone close by.....like at the beach when we started getting looks...😆 Dalton, Shelbie, and Raylynn were only with us for one day, but what a day it was! I got to see Raylynn crawl, and it reminded me that I saw her Daddy walk for the first time at the lake.  This place just overflows with good memori...

To begin this post, let me explain who Nana is... My Mom is Nana to most of her Great Grandchildren. (Brandon calls her something else because he has another Nana.)  Nana is greatly loved by all her Great Grandchildren, and known for certain things.  For instance, she always has "Nana mints" on her.  Some people call these mint lifesavers,  but no...they are Nana mints! Nana's tuna salad is pretty famous in our family!  No one...and I mean NO ONE can make it, and have it taste like hers.  Many have tried,  many have failed. So I don't even try anymore.  When we go to the lake for vacation,  I buy her the cans of tuna, and she blesses us with her tuna salad which lasts a very short time. Same thing when we go to races.  Tailgating isn't complete without Nana's tuna salad. Nana is also known for homemade everything.  She keeps cookie jars full at her house all the time.  A sign hangs above them saying she charges "one hug" for "o...

As you know by now if you follow my blog, my posts usually have a lot of humor in them.  I like to laugh.  Life is so short that we need to seize every single day and make the most of it! Find something to be happy about and laugh about every day!  We never know what life will throw our way! So I just set this post up right there!👆 I recently bought a long desired kayak.  I've been kayaking for about three years now. I absolutely love the peace out there on the lake!  I don't do rivers or fast waters.  This is all about relaxation for me.   My granddaughter Emily and I love to watch the sun rise over the lake on our yearly vacation.  I kayak with all of my Punkins, my daughter-in-law,  and numerous friends.  So buying one was the highlight of my week last week! So I've been thinking that I should name her....yes, her.  She's female...of course!  With my sense of humor, I  have been thinking of names like "Wild Granny...

I, along with everyone else in this country, have seen and heard a lot of terrible things in the past week.  I have watched some awful videos, watched the news, and seen some things on social media that disturb me greatly.   I have also seen some good things.  I have seen peaceful protests, cops hugging, praying with, and having conversations with protesters.  I have mostly stayed out of conversations about this.  Why?  Simply because I'm a "Cop Mom".  I have a Son who is a respected, and respectful officer of the law. He has never had a complaint against him. He has risen through the ranks to Lieutenant, and has a spotless record. He respects human beings of any color, religion, or nationality.  He does his job, and for that I'm very proud.  He does his job well, taking his responsibility to his community very seriously. Not all cops are like that.  We all know that.  We've all seen that.  They tarnish the badge for all c...

Well folks, it happened yesterday.  I got the call that I will be going back to work soon. 😢 Why the sad face, you ask?  Well, here it is.... I don't want to go back to work.  And no one is more surprised than me!  Ok!  My husband is probably more surprised even than me.  I like being home.  I have become very content enjoying my home, cooking dinner every night, and spending time with Troy.  Why is this surprising?  Let me tell you a story. In the past two months, life as I've known it has changed completely. And I'm going to be honest here, so get ready!  Before March 9th, I wasn't happy with my life, my job, my marriage, or anything else.  The ONLY thing I was happy with was my fitness routine.  Working out was my stress reliever, my "always make me feel better" solution.  If I was stressed, I'd work out.  If I needed to "run away", I would go for a run.  And on and on.  And there was a lot of stress...

I have noticed a gradual change in my attitude toward staying at home in the past week.  Could it be that I'm starting to like it?  Whaaaatttt??? I was actually thinking about this very thing Tuesday morning, while sitting in my favorite chair, still in my PJs, drinking my coffee and finishing my yogurt and strawberries.  Did I mention it was 8:30 AM?  Yeah, I was just hanging out watching the Today show, nice and warm covered in my blanket. I was thinking about what my "old normal" 8:30AM looked like.  Patients would be arriving, I would be preparing contracts for the day, my coffee would be long cold or gone, and my breakfast would seem long done. I would have been up for 3.5 hours if that was a MD day, or 4.5 and had my gym workout in for the day if it was the PA office.  By this time of the morning, I would also feel the stress creeping in. But here I was, still lounging, still relaxed, having been up for about an hour and a half.  I started thi...

For a very long time, while working three jobs, I have longed for a mental health day...just a day I could stay home, not have to go anywhere, or do anything.  Just be.  Just for a day.  I dreamed of what I might do that day.  Read a book, write a blog post, make a nice meal for hubby and myself, or even give myself a pedicure.  All of these things mentioned are a luxury to me.  I stay super busy all the time, and don't take time to do these things. So fast forward to March of 2020.  Guess what?  I got my mental health day....plus 20 as of today. Since March 21st, pretty much every day is a mental health day.  However, my mental health is not so great with all of these days.  How could I have longed for this kind of do nothing time for so long, and not be thrilled when I get it?  Especially for 21 days and counting!  And before this stay at home order,  I was always thinking about what life might be like when I retire....

First, I need to say, this is meant to be humorous.  I know this pandemic is extremely serious.  I don't want to minimize the seriousness  of it at all!  And I will address more serious topics in another upcoming blog post.  But this one is definitely aimed at humor. I think we need humor to get through this.  We also need prayer.  Lots and lots of prayer.  But on with this post. I have, like many others, been staying at home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.   I'm used to being home on weekends,  so I  didn't really start noticing the difference until Monday.  Bear in mind, it's only been TWO days.  Yes, two!  I have to say I'm not exactly enjoying it so far.   Some of my observations: 1.My house has never been cleaner.  Seriously, check that top shelf for dust! You won't find any! 2.That pantry is so organized, please do not look for ziti on the middle shelf.  Z is at the END of the...

Catchy title, right?  I've been meaning to write this blog post for a while now, but life seems to get in the way all the time!  So finally, I'm getting to it!  When Ryan and the VA Punkins, and my great punkin, were here for the holidays, Jeremy and Angie brought Brandon over so he could hang out with his cousins for the night.  While this large group of knuckleheads were all standing in my kitchen, they decided to give Mimi something to laugh about after they were gone home.  Now this group is quite diverse in their likes, dislikes, areas they live in, and even shows they watch and books they read.  But as diverse as they are, they ALL have one thing in common...their sense of humor.  This Boothe family has such a crazy sense of humor you can't believe it.  So here's what transpired in my kitchen that day.... But first, a little background. I use "Alexa" for everything.  I do mean everything.  I have an Echo Dot in almost every ...