Pilates and stuff

I went to the Pilate's class today that I tried to go to last week, but missed. Have you done pilate's before? I haven't. It was kind of interesting. Very relax-y. Stretch-y. Not high tech. I have a feeling my tummy will be sore tomorrow. I am planning to go again next week.

I am still not eating sugar. I did just fine at yesterday's pre-Thanksgiving dinner. While preparing the candied yams, I was a little shocked by all the butter and brown sugar. More sugar than yams, actually! I skipped the yams. And the pies. I brought home some cake and cookies for the kids. I did not sneak into the kitchen to eat the treats.

My 21 sugar-free days ends next Tuesday. I feel kind of powerful and strong. It turns out I don't NEED it. There is a bag of peanut M&M's in the kitchen and I haven't had a one. And I'm not even feeling sad or left out about that. Do you know how unusual that is for me? Candy, chocolate in particular, usually CALLS to me. I am planning to stay in control of my eating and limit sugary treats to Holidays and other special occasions, not each and every afternoon.

I just ran in and weighed myself. I'm down one pound since last week and I am now at a reasonable weight for me. So I won't mention my weight again here.

That's good. In other news, I haven't been to the beach in almost a month. That is not good. I am going to fix that this weekend.

What are you fixing for dinner? I am not interested in cooking, but my family keeps expecting to eat all these meals. Crazy people. Help!

I feel like I'm on a cooking show

Yesterday it was 2 large crockpots full of beef stew, and a pan of apple crisp.

Today I have a pecan pie in the oven, a double batch of rolls raising, sweet potatoes ready to lose their skins, and potatoes waiting for the pot. And it's not quite 7am!

Yikes.

Yesterday was YW in Excellence for our ward. It was a fun night, and my stew turned out great. I'm not really a stew maker, so I got Sister Chang's "recipe". I wasn't sure about all the cans of tomato and the oyster sauce, but it really turned out yummy. Here's what I scribbled on my Sacrament Meeting program:

1 tray of stew meat. not the Costco size tray. Trim.
Onion
Celery

Brown meat with onion and celery until it gets kind of juicy. Transfer to crockpot. and add:

1 can tomato soup
1 can tomato sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes

I didn't know the sizes of cans so I just guessed. Let that stuff cook for a few hours, then add in:

Carrot
Potato
Cabbage
Celery
A handful of Hawaiian salt mix
a dash of pepper
beef bullion, just a cube or two
Oyster sauce. a bit.

then maybe a half hour before serving mix some flour with water and stir it in to thicken. Add salt to taste. But not too much. Enjoy. This filled my crock pot to the brim.

Today there is a Thanksgiving feast at Nathan's work. At 11:30am. I'm glad I'm not roasting the Turkey. I woke up early to get everything going. I hope I can get the rolls done and still get the kids to school in time.

This feast could really put at damper on my no-sugar for 3 weeks thing (one more week to go. Yeah me!) Here's my plan: turkey and all the fixings including cranberry sauce = yes. Pies = no. I hope that works.

What should I wear today?

Lazy Weekend

It is raining cats and dogs. Or maybe geckos and frogs. Lots of rain.

And it almost feels cool* enough for some cheesy potato soup. Mmmm!

Just the sort of day to lay around reading and napping! So far today I have taken one two hour nap and read half a book.** Perfect! Unfortunately reading and napping does not interest the kids so much.

They were playing in the garage, watching the rain, but I just saw Emily putting on her poncho. I have a feeling I should get out some towels and heat up water for hot cocoa. It's not often that hot cocoa sounds good here.

There goes John in his poncho. I wonder why he's not wearing his rain boots?...


Do you have any weekend plans?


Later tonight we are heading into Honolulu for the Symphony. And dinner, I hope!




* if's funny how 78* with a slight wind can feel cool.

** The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society

Thursday check in. on Friday

Where did Thursday go?

Last week I cried to you about a little problem I was having, and I'm back to check in.

I had a goal to drink more water, stop snacking, and do all that good stuff. It looks like it's paying off, I'm down 3 pounds. Yippee!

I'm also doing no sugar with Amanda and co, and I have to say that it is working. It has been a week and two days and it's really not been a problem. I said no to brownies and pie this week without feeling deprived. In the interest of full disclosure, I was force to drink some kind of poi and banana smoothie at the ward potluck following the parade on Tuesday. I didn't actually want any, as it looked rather grody, but it tasted really good. I'm sure it was full of sugar.

In other good-for-me news, I went to the gym yesterday. My friend told me about a Pilate's class she attends, and I told her I'd meet her there. But I went to the wrong gym. I didn't realize there was more than one. Since I was going to be too late for the class, I went ahead and had a tour of the Martinez Gym. Then I headed over to the other gym and picked up a class schedule and spent a half hour on the elliptical machine. I guess that was fun, but living in such a beautiful place, I think it's silly to work out on a treadmill when I could be outside, you know?

I'll check back next Thursday and let you know if I made it to the Pilate's class...

Happy Veteran's Day

In celebration of Veteran's Day, we walked in our little town's parade. There were marching bands, and, old tanks with tracks, and troops of marching soldiers, and a truck with a D-Day survivor and us.

Our ward (congregation) decided they wanted to participate, again. We did this last year, and Nathan and his dad (both veterans) walked together. Nathan is out of town this week, so he missed all the fun. And boy was it fun....

Did we build a float? or Find some mini motorcycles to ride? or Maybe push a handcart? nope.

We just walked.

We had a few missionaries, and some boy scouts with flags, and a scraggly group of kids and parents. One child cried the entire route. Appropriate, I thought.

It was embarrassing to me, though Emily and John loved it.

Right behind our sad group was the cutest bunch of marching ukulele players, ever. There were about 50 children, all in matching yellow hawaiian shirts, strumming and singing as they walked. They were adorable. I want to join that group next year....

I saw a news camera zoom in on them and I've been trying to find video of it, but I guess it didn't make the evening news. Shucks!


+++++++++

I have been seeing some young wounded warriors around the base lately. There is a boy in my son's class whose dad was badly wounded in Iraq earlier this fall. The boy left school for about 2 months while he and his mom travelled to be with his dad in the hospital, but he recently re-enrolled in John's class. The dad has walked his soon to class a few times, with a walker. He has both of his legs and arms, but he seems kind of strapped together with lots of braces and wrap.

There is another dad that I see occasionally in the mornings at school. He is young and strong and has one prosthetic leg.

That is the kind of thing that brings tears to my eyes and takes my breath away. These are the young men and women veterans who need our prayers, and maybe something more, this Veterans day.

*****************

A few years ago, actually exactly 4 years ago during the last election cycle, I was driving some kids up to Mt. Rushmore for a school field trip, when one boy in my car asked Hannah what her dad's job was. Hannah said he was in the Air Force. The boy said "My dad would NEVER do that." Meaning he would never serve in the military, ewwww!

I don't think I said anything, but I remember wishing I had said something like, "whew! Isn't he lucky he won't have to, since other people are willing to sacrifice to protect his family."

And you know, I'm so glad that little boy's dad doesn't have to serve in the military if he doesn't want to, but I am proud today of those who have chosen to, expecially my own Veteran!



Isn't he cute in uniform?

Weight-Gainer 2000

When we were first married, we lived close to Nathan's family. Nathan's brother, Terry, and family lived in our same ward, and we spent a lot of time hanging out at their house. I've written before about Nathan's brother and his teeny-tiny Army shorts.

I was kind of shy at this point in my career. And easily embarrassed. Terry was (and is) really into fitness and body building. He had slightly embarrassing pictures of hot babes and nearly neked dudes with major muscles. He also had a giant sized jar of Weight-Gainer 2000 sitting on top of the refridgerator. Weight Gainer 2000 was (is?) a protein powder for weight-lifters, I think. Awesome.



I'm not telling this story to make fun of Terry. Hi Terry! But since I spent a good portion of my time at their house being embarrassed for one reason or another, this is kind of fun!

No, really, I'm not here to actually talk about Terry. I'm here to discuss that Weight Gainer 2000 stuff.

It's got a catchy name, don't you think. Weight Gainer 2000. Here is the sad tale of my own personal Weight Gainer 2008. Waaa.

Exactly 3 months ago today, Nathan returned home from Iraq. Woohooo!



Today I weigh exactly 10 pounds more than I did 3 months ago.

boooo. hiss.

I have a feeling it has something to do with being content, and cooking real food, and going out to eat, and ice cream Sundaes, and forgetting to run, and homemade chocolate chip cookies, and french fries, and fresh cinnamon rolls...

Mmmmm. Sounds good.

No. Bad. Very Bad. It is time for drastic measures. Food journal. More water. More running. No more brownies.

I'll be checking in here each Thursday to keep me honest let you know how I'm doing.

Any favorite healthy eating tips?

Laughing

Way back, long long ago (last month) when I was avoiding my blog, my sister Mary and her family came alllllll the way across the ocean to visit us in Hawaii.

It was so fun. Mary has posted up a lot of awesome pictures of the grand time we had.

And it was fun.

We swam

and snorkeled

and hiked

and pigged out on shave ice

and hula'd

and paddled

and had an all around wonderful time.

And though swimming with the humuhumunukunukuapua'a was amazing (that's not actually a humu. I think it's a triggerfish. maybe.)

and the sunsets on the beach were beautiful...



...the best part of having them here was just hanging out with my sister.

She is so fun. And funny.

Mary, you crack me up!

10 Tricky Things that made Halloween a real Treat!

#1 - the cutest fireman around

#2 - The cutest fireman around in the easiest Halloween costume in the history of my mom-hood.

Hi Fireman John!



#3 - Fun neighbors to trick or treat with

Don't forget #4 - one coolio dad to take the kids around the neighborhood so I could read hand out candy to ghosts and goblins

#5 - cutie pie flapper girl in the dress that worked just fine.

# 6 - Bollywood

#7 - Henna Tattoos


#8 - more cool neighbors of the tween variety to trick out with!

#9 - one white sheet = costume happiness

#10 - two white sheets and two adorable girls too cool to trick or treat this year.

It was a fun night of dress up here in our little neighborhood. If giving out lots of candy = success, then I think we deserve a gold star. I gave away 4 giant bags and 16 smaller bags of chocolate and skittles.



Has anyone else around here eaten way way way too much Halloween Candy?

uggg.

Thanks for the idea, Amanda. I think I'll try that no-sugar thing...tomorrow....