Weigh-In Wednesday

Holly, I'm so proud of you for getting close to your goal. Unfortunately I weighed in this a.m. at 89.0 so you've got a few more pounds to go. My stomach and bowels have caused so much havoc this week so I guess that's why I've gone down again. When Holly helped me last week she was showing me the moves she made while doing her thing with Wii and it looked just the stuff Hyun does on his board.

Ryan and Rachel moved a truckload of stuff in last Thurs and then began living here on Sun. night. They are not only an adorable young couple (married just 10 months), but he's constantly asking me what he can do for me. He mowed the lawn yesterday (don't know where Brad is), but I think I'll have Ryan continue doing it. They are in awe of my quilting projects (all in various stages), canning that I'm doing and loved the fresh peach pie I made for them yesterday. Last night he put together the grill he won on "The Price is Right" when he went with Dustin and other friends to LA along with some other great prizes and he also won a Honda motorcycle that he's riding to USU. They both are fitness conscious and he has shared some other delicious flavors of protein powder that he buys other than vanilla and chocolate. The cran/raspberry I had today was delicious. When he smokes or grills some fish, he's going to share with me also.

I'm still in shock from the news I received that one of my missionary friends, vivacious Marilyn,who we had so much fun playing cards with and crocheted with and taught us all about Office 7, was found dead in her bedroom this morning by her grandson. It has hit me hard - life is so fragile.

Weigh-in Wednesday

Finally! Over the last 3 weeks I have gained 2 lbs and then lost 3 more. Whew. Down to 192. If Mom is still 90.5, I only have 2 lbs to go for my first goal!

Things I believe have helped:

Not so much beer!

Snacking on the way home from work. I am so hungry after running around at work all evening. On the way home I would think about what I had at home I could make and then the thought of having to fix something after working all day led me straight to the nearest drive-through. I now pack some fruit and nuts specifically for the drive home and I'm good for that last hour or two before I go to bed.

I bought a used Wii Fit Plus from a co-worker and have been having a blast with all the games it came with. I literally laugh out loud to myself when I play the one where I am a bird and I have to flap my arms to fly, lean side to side to steer and stop to float down to the targets, but hey, I am the only player so I have the High Score!

On a totally different subject, let it be known that Justin and Taryn are killing me at Words with Friends. I suck. Plants vs Zombies is addictive and I have a beautiful Zen Garden.

Weigh-in Wednesday

The weather has really heated up this week (95) yesterday and the grasshoppers are everywhere - worse they are enjoying the everbearing strawberries that I was looking forward to. I picked 6 peaches yesterday so am glad for those. Dad would have been thrilled as he could hardly wait for the first ones off the tree. The awning repair fellow finally came last week and put new ropes on all three - so much better than before. The cucs are really coming on, but still no red tomato. Have been catching up on my 2010 scrapbook and should have that done soon. Was hoping Brady would blog his good news, but I guess he's swamped. I gained 1/2 pound this week (90.5) so "pigging out" must be working. I made a small batch of Swedish pancakes and enjoyed one with syrup. Thanks Rebecca.

Wednesday Weigh-In

All those brownies, donuts and cheesecake, ha!, have paid off this week as I'm up to 90 lbs. now. My vertigo has calmed down this week so I did dill pickles yesterday along with plum jam, worked on Becky Hansen's gift, and am working on three quilts I have in various stages.

Recipes

Swedish Pancakes  Serves 6?  Depends who is eating.
4 c. oats (whole rolled)
1 c. flour (I do half white, half wheat)
1/4 c. sugar
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
4 c. buttermilk (low fat)
4 eggs (or 8 whites)
1/2 c. butter (I forgot to add this when I made it at mom's and it tasted great)
2 t. vanilla
Mix Well. Let sit 30-45 minutes. Cook. Eat. Enjoy.

The Frugal Gourmet's Southern Barbecue Sauce      Makes one quart
3 c. beef broth
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. yellow mustard
1/4 c. white vinegar (cider will do, also)
1/8 c. liquid smoke (a must)
1/2 c. worcestershire sauce
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1 T. chili powder
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan.  Simmer SLOWLY uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened.  This will take about 1 1/2 hours.  Watch it closely because it will burn if the heat is too high.

I make a double or quadruple batch and can it them.  Of course if you do that it will take longer to thicken.

Progress

Here are the photos of our shop so far.  Jesse and our friend Gary (the contractor) have done great work.  Jesse has been working very hard to save us money on labor.  For the last week Jesse has started working on the shop at 8am until 2pm and then goes to work until midnight. What a rock star.  He plans to do the roofing, insulation, drywall, wiring, windows, doors, etc. himself (with my help of course).  

Spell Checker

Obviously I haven't figured out how to save changes from spell checker before clicking publish

Reunion Remembrances

Hi my cubbies, as my vertigo returned last week I'm trying to take it easy and have been thinking a lot about our fun reunion and all the things we did together. Of course, it wasn't perfect as our CA family wasn't there and hopefully one of these times we'll all be able to reunite.

Glad Brooke and family and Rebecca and family had safe trips home (especially since the Montanites took a little detour through CA). Thanks to Justin and family and Holly for all the help they gave me stripping and making beds, vacuuming, cleaning up, etc to get house back to normal. Thanks to Jesse and Katie for figuring out the vacuuming problem and for Justin and boys getting those huge weeds out of strawberries that took over while I was running through Europe. I spent first of last week in strawberries and raspberries taking all the rest of the small weeds out of there and it looks sooooo much better now and I continue to get enough berries from both to eat on cereal and yogurt. Thanks to Justin and Jesse for storing the two beds in preparation for Ryan and Rachel's move-in.
Thanks for all of you when we had our photo taken. You're all learning when it's good to be serious and when it's okay to be goofy! Everytime I get online now I see this adorable photo.
Thanks to Sunshine who kept her surger purrrrrring making 6 skirts for Holly and 3 for Rebecca.

Thanks for all the stampin up cards you shared with me. Those you gals did this year are awesome and I know Taryn had fun doing them.

Thanks to Holly for bringing Taboo for all of us to play. Hyun, Taryn and Drew really did well for their first time and I know Brady, Mary and Hannah would have had a blast also. I still remember the racous laughter around the table.

I also remember the "intervention" you had for Mama Bear and remember when it was decided that we would have "Weighin Wednesday" each week to help me with my goal to gain weight and monitor each of yours. So today being Wednesday my weight is back down to 88 after it was 90 last week.

It was the concencious that you liked the first recipe of Welsh cakes a bit better than the second recipe. I'll send both those recipes plus the raspberry jam recipe via an email attachment and hope that Rebecca sends us all her recipe for those delicious Swedish pancakes also (ASAP please as I want to make some for me).

I gave Justin and Katie info to get best results with lawns. Water less often, but for longer times. Raise the lawn mower to 3" except for last mowing in fall when it's to be at 1" Also spread Epsom Salts (cheaper than expensive Scotts, etc products in keeping your lawn green).

Bottled my first dill pickles yesterday and today Holly (thankful for her) helped me put on my second denim quilt and pick quite a few apricots from tree. Unfortunately there aren't enough to do jam. I did some delicious plum jam several weeks ago.


Had a nice visit with Brady, Mary and Hannah and learned about their very busy schedule coming up.

Will look forward to hearing from each of you with this new blog which seems much better already than the other one. Thanks so much to Jesse who set it up for us and I've heard good things from friends and relatives that it is user friendly (even for "experienced adults" like moi.

Glad you all liked the Welsh gifts.

Weigh-in Wednesdays

This reunion, while lounging on the North Beach at Bear Lake, there was a discussion of Mom's wieght (currently 88lbs). Some of us felt that we needed to be informed of her wieght on a regular basis (so we could worry about her more efficiantly). Someone sugested she post it on our new blog site! Someone else suggested we could all post our wieght. Maybe that was Mom.

Anyway, I have decided to bore you all with my wieght battle and post my wieght on what I have chosen to call "Wiegh-in Wednesdays". (There is no guarantee this will appear every Wednesday or even ON a Wednesday).

A little history to begin the boredom:

My highest wieght at my divorce January 1997 was 220 lbs. I dropped to 200 rather quickly but fluctuated between 195 and 200 for more than a decade. At last years reunion I had dropped to 188 and was excited to fit into a size 14.

This year I was 192 but strangley was fitting into a size 12. Well, maybe I should say squeezing into a size 12. :)

So to begin.

My first wieght goal for Wiegh-in Wednesdays is to be less than 100 lbs more than my mother. Mom of course can help me reach this goal faster by GAINING wieght. Go Mom!

This morning I wieghed in at 193 so I need to lose 6 lbs to reach my first goal. Wish me luck!

Fabulous Feis!!!

The kids did fanastic this weekend at the feis!

Ffiona won her slip jig & moved it up a level & she also got 3rd in the trophy special!

Haedyn danced the 2 Hand with Ryllen- they got 2nd! He also got second in his reel and got to move it up to Novice!!

Taegan placed her Reel as well! she got 1st! she moves that dance to Prizewinner!! she got medals in 3 of her other dances!

Taryn got her 1st!!! She is now an Open Champion! (highest you can get!) in addition to that she placed 2nd against open champs in the Trophy Special (she danced it for everyone at the reunion)

In all it was a great weekend!!!!

You should all get this in your email.

I believe we will all get emails when posts are added and when comments are made.

Lagoon

The Friday after our reunion we took the kids to Lagoon, they had a ball. The funniest part was seeing how scared Brayden got on the roller coasters, and then he would get off and say it was great and he wanted to go again. This is a video my brother shot of him riding the Colossus at Lagoon, the best part is what he says, so turn up the sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUjN6M6AEJs