Close up of the quilting:

Here’s another little experimental top that I’ve had laying around for quite a while.  Finally made the quilt sandwich and started quilting.  Then I wasn’t sure where to go with it, so it went back up on the design wall to be stared at for a while.

Last night and today I had a lot of fun putting together these little squares of wool felt and buttons.  I had this idea way before Christmas, and had the wool already cut into little squares.  And of course, I had the buttons.  And I even knew WHERE the buttons were.

I already know how I’m going to lay these out on a background fabric and add more embellishments.

Have I ever showed you guys my spinning wheel?  It came back in the house shortly before Christmas, but to be honest it hasn’t seen a lot of action.  I need to get something more colorful to spin, and then maybe I’ll be motivated.

And finally, a little progress is being made on the sheep rug.  I’m working on filling in the grass.

So that’s it for now.  I re-subscribed to Netflix, just for the streaming videos.  They have vastly improved their streaming ability.  I am watching that series that everybody else seems to have discovered, Downton Abbey.  And yesterday I watched a pretty interesting documentary–”Fat, Sick, and Almost Dead.”  About two extremely overweight guys who both had an autoimmune disorder, and both went on a vegetable and fruit juice fast, and lost a ton of weight and seem to have put their autoimmune disorder into remission.  It was pretty impressive.  I don’t really want to go on a juice fast, but it did make me want to eat a lot more veggies LOL.  Plus, it was just really encouraging to see–to remember what my health was like before I started this, and to think about what bad shape I’d be in now if I hadn’t changed the way I eat and lost some weight.

Another really great thing I watched today was a John Ortberg interview with Louis  Zamperini. Louis is the subject of Laura Hildebrand’s (author of Sea Biscuit) newest book, Unbroken.  Its quite a tale, and he is still quite a character at 94 years old.  He was in the Berlin Olympics, survived 65 days on a life raft in the Pacific, and then became a POW during WWII.

And believe it or not, with all the creativity, and the increased movie watching, I am still keeping my activity level up.  I average making it to the gym 3 days a week, and then am walking the hills on the days in between.

Well, I’d better get off to bed.  All’s quiet on the western front, and I want to keep it that way!

Its been raining here all day, and at 4:30 it let up a bit, and I thought its now or never.  So the rainboots went on, and me and Noah headed out for a walk.  Its not that fun to walk in rain boots, but  I am ever so grateful to have them.  While we walked I was going over all this stuff, trying to think how I could change my thinking.  Cause like I said, I wasn’t really hungry, and I wasn’t really craving anything in particular.  Just feeling sorry for myself.  So I thought about what I had planned for dinner, and I decided I didn’t really want to eat that.  It would still be good for tomorrow.  And then I thought about what I did want.  And I remembered I still had some of that healthy chili in the freezer!  And that bag of new high fiber pasta from Trader Joe’s that I haven’t tried yet.  So I am allowing myself one extra grain for the day, and will have that for dinner.  In the meantime, I walked quite a bit longer than originally planned, and that also made me feel better about myself and my choices.

Okay, so now dinner is over, eating is done for the night.  I still came in around 1460 calories.  The ‘chili pasta’ was delicious, and was just what I needed(?)  I weighed out the pasta, and the chili was already frozen in single serve portions.  So no overboard on amounts.  Then I had a piece of dried pineapple (after I checked the calories online) and some walnuts for dessert.  And back to basics tomorrow.  This is just the way it is.  Maybe not fair.  Maybe tiring, boring, endless.  But that’s just the way it has to be for POW’s (previously over weight.)  I know from filling out the survey for the NWCR that this is common practice for weight loss maintainers (planning/calculating/tracking food/meals.)

Scenes from the past few days:

As you can see, I am not suffering!  This bowl actually looks better than it tasted.  Although it was pretty tasty.  It is my version of katie’s chocolate oatmeal.  I just increased the unsweetened vanilla almond breeze to 1 cup, and left out the banana.  I think I added in 1/4 cup of eggbeaters to make it custard oats.  Came in around 300 calories for this bowl.

This salad was yummy and easy to assemble.  White tuna on top of chopped romaine with some carrots, some crushed pineapple, and a few spiced cashews on top there.

I am right back in the swing of knitting.  I found this pattern in my stash, and decided to try it.  After sweating bullets over the first couple of rows (lots of counting with a pattern like this,) it all came back to me.

Of course to make a sweater, I have to keep going and make five big pieces.  And then sew them together.  And pray that it actually fits right.  Just reminding myself.

The Queen was in fine form this weekend.  Thought I would share what a day looks like for her.  (Its exhausting, if you ask me.)

Assuming her position of authority in front of Noah.  I truly do not know why she does this,  She doesn’t really seem to enjoy it.

She has to endure a little sniffing.

“Just pick me up and get it over with, will you?”

And then a little ear-flipping…

Until finally she’s had enough!  (actually, I think she was just starting to yawn here, but the expression on Noah’s face is priceless.)

Then I caught a sweet picture of Mr. Monk by the woodstove.

Oh, no.  That will not do at all.  ”Here, I can improve that picture for you.”

“Yes, it is exhausting being queen.  But SOMEBODY’S got to keep order around here.”

The queen must always sleep with one eye open.  Especially if there’s a camera in the area…

Thought I’d report in on some good eats from the past couple of days.  First of all, in spite of the cold weather, and my usual reluctance to eat salads when it turns cold, I have thoroughly been enjoying my salads this winter.  When I travel, I find myself actually looking for a reason to eat lettuce.  If you had told me this when I was a kid, I would NEVER have believed you.  Lettuce was just something to be picked off of the hamburger bun.

My version of the California Chef's salad: baby lettuce topped with chicken, oranges wedges, carrots, blue cheese, and pecans.

So I told you about the food I was going to fix for ‘sewing day,’ and I have to tell you it was a resounding success!  That triple berry granola crisp is a no-fail recipe.  People absolutely love it, and they seem to really enjoy hearing that it is a low-cal healthy recipe. If you have access to a Costco, their frozen triple berry blend works great, and is the most economical way to buy berries.  I served it for ‘brunch’ (we meet at 10am and always have some sort of treat and coffee to start the day) and I had a bowl of Fage mixed with cinnamon and splenda to top it with.  Yummy.

On to lunch.  Helen, the soup was the smash hit of the day (I made Helen’s coconut curry kale soup.)  Everybody loved it, and every last bit of the soup had disappeared when I went back to the kitchen.  I made the recipe just as printed, including the chickpeas.  I didn’t have a can of tomatoes, so I chopped up a couple of tomatoes and then I found a bag of frozen cherry tomatoes in the freezer and threw them in too.  I think that was about the same tomato content as a can.  I put in 36 mid-sized shrimp.  One of the ladies, who is an excellent cook, took the recipe home to make for her husband, and she mentioned to me that the flavor was very similar to the soup served at Lemon Grass, which is a very nice Asian Bistro restaurant around here.  Now.  I have to admit.  I still don’t like the flavor of curry very much.  And I picked out all my chickpeas!  But that’s just me.  I really wish I liked curry, because it just seems like the ‘in’ thing. That’s okay, there’s plenty of other food I like just fine LOL.  Case in point:  I LOVED the low fat corn bread that I made.  LOVED!!! I don’t know if its because I’ve been corn bread deprived for a couple of years, but I thought it was quite delicious.  And I tried to make a ‘healthy’ honey butter by combining Smart Balance Lite and some honey.  Its probably because the smart balance lite has a higher water content or something?  It kind of separated, or became weepy.  It looked weird, but it tasted DELISH on the bread.  I was never so happy to have one piece left over!  Guess who had a second piece of corn bread with dinner.

I’ve been staying on track with my healthy eating, mostly bobay plan (which is a carb cycling type of plan,) and I have most definitely kept up with my newly defined “I am an active person.”  I told my BFF about this proclamation, and she said, “Debby, you ARE an active person already.”  And I said I know, but now I want to be.  That seems different to me than just fitting in activities/exercise because that’s what’s necessary to keep the weight off.  I think that’s partly why I stuck that sentence in there about “If being a little heavier is part of this, so be it.”  I am going to be active because I want to be active, NOT because I want to look a certain way or fit a certain size. Does that make sense?  And does anybody else think its weird that it has taken me seven years to come to this point?

So between being active and having too many new games on my Kindle Fire, creativity is a bit stalled.  Must work on that trait next.

Today, in between the five loads of laundry that are all folded and put away, I started a new knitting project.  I started it because ever since I taught Shelley how to knit, well, before that even, I’ve been thinking about knitting again.  And I had a whole bagful of beautiful white yarn (that was previously an almost finished fisherman knit sweater in my former size 26-28!)  But while I sat there knitting (and Shelley, do you know how long it takes to get through a row of 195 stitches) I started thinking really negative thoughts about myself.  Why are you starting a new project that you’ll probably never finish?  Why are you sitting here, when you could be doing so many other things that need to be done?  You’re never going to get around to getting chickens (topic for another day.)  There were a lot more negative thoughts, and they are quite common, I realized.  They go on every day.  And if I hadn’t started knitting that sweater, negative thoughts about what a waste–all that good yarn and you just never get around to knitting it.  What’s wrong with you? would have been added to the mix.  So I did stop with those particular negative thoughts and realized that I was doing something positive that I had thought about for quite a while.  Its exhausting to be me.

I have consciously worked (mostly through this blog) on not indulging in negative thoughts about my weight.  I feel like I’ve made major progress in that area.  But these others…I’m gonna have to put a stop to them.  Probably has a lot to do with the major changes in my life in the past year.  I have a pretty good daily/weekly routine down, but it is very different than my life a year ago.

Well to end this post on a positive note, we (Wendy and I, and our project, “The Bridge,” for the kids of Carrefour Poy, Haiti,) had a stupendous day at church yesterday.  We did another presentation in front of the church.  Wendy had made a slide show of some of the kids and the scenes in the village (I was so nervous I forgot to look behind me to see it.)  There was such a positive response.  Since starting this in mid-December, we already have sponsors for 23 kids.  I was just elated when I realized how much money this would enable us to send to the pastor down there  to help with their school.  There is a lot of work involved, but I am more than happy to be able to do it.  This is what I was looking for when I retired.  Only then I didn’t even know what I was looking for.  Just being open to God’s leading. I started out telling Wendy that I didn’t think I could sponsor another kid, and for sure I was never going to Haiti.  Guess who has another little girl to pray for, and guess who is going to Haiti, probably sooner than later.  There are just a lot of details that we could take care of that are difficult to do long distance.  Plus, I want to see for myself, and look for what else we can do to help.  I am very excited about how this project is going.  Wendy came up with a verse that describes exactly how things have been happening since we started:

 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Tomorrow is sewing day, and guess who is bringing the food!  I made Helen’s recipe for the Coconut Curry Kale Soup with Shrimp, and I looked up a recipe for low fat cornbread that sounds simple and delicious, and quite reasonable calorie-wise.  It just seemed like a good pairing.  And for the morning I am going to make that delicious Triple Berry Granola Crisp.  I got it covered with healthy food for the day!

And now, as one of my favorite bloggers, Mr. Taylor, says, “Its back to the sofa” to knit one more row on that new project.

This first video is LONG, but it is very cleverly done, and the information from a medical doctor was really interesting to me.  The basic assertion is that 1/2 hour of exercise a day can make a BIG difference in your life.

The next article is actually the blog entry from a writer for the NY Times.  I came across it by way of PJ’s blog.  I am surprised I haven’t heard more reference to it.  Maybe because I don’t read that many blogs any more?  Anyway, The Fat Trap is a pretty interesting article about the difficulties of losing weight and keeping it off.  There are over 800 comments on this blog, so it caught someone’s attention!  She references Lynn Heraldson, the first blogger I ever read, and a successful maintainer.  She also references the National Weight Control Registry.  So Debra SSY’s defunct blog (her name, not mine) got a bit of action from it.  Debra had her blog up for a year, and spent a lot of time researching the science behind weight loss maintenance, and challenging the powers that be to do more work in this area.  Her blog is a very good reference tool for anyone serious about maintaining their weight loss.  Okay, this doesn’t have that much to do with exercise, except that it mentions the NWCR.  And their data says that most people who maintain a large (more than 30 pound) weight loss for a long period of time exercise on an average of 1 hour a day.

So when Miz posted her excellent blog on ‘being soft of core,’ (exercising consistently for shorter periods of time,) I asked her what she thought about those stats.  And she had such a good answer, (which I almost missed because I forgot to go back and see if she answered,) that I thought the conversation was worth repeating here:

I commented:

 I do love your concept of being ‘soft of core.’ I have taken that to heart, and now feel okay when I am done with my weights session at the gym after 20 minutes. Just this week, I have shortened the doggie walks and added in some stretches and core exercises (haha, that’s what I thought your blog topic was this morning) which makes me very happy.

Keeping my exercise plan something that I can continue for life is so very important to me. One thing I do think about, though, is the stat that most previously overweight people who have successfully maintained that loss long term exercise one hour a day. Do you have any thoughts on that?

And Miz replied:

well I do and I don’t. I know it’s all backed up by science so I agree BUT I also have seen so many friends who have regained their weight because an hr a day felt overwhelming so they STOPPED WORKING OUT COMPLETELY.
I wonder what would have happened had they found something they’d actually do timewise (30? 40?)?
Would they have regained some?
Still all?

I’m not sure….

I guess I’m taking the middle ground on this one.  Most days I do exercise more than 20 or 30 minutes.  Probably not quite an hour.  And if a day comes along when I feel too tired to move, I’ll be satisfied with the 20 minute stroll with the doggies before it gets dark.

Last link.  And again, not much to do with exercise.  But worth mentioning again.  I just re-subscribed to the Nutrition Action Healthletter.   They do their best to present the latest scientific research on nutrition and health.  After all, the newsletter is published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and their byline is “Transforming the American Diet.”  I can say that they were definitely a big part in transforming this American woman’s diet!

And with that, I am off to walk the doggies and head to the gym for a session with the exercise bike!

So since I had to go through that traumatic event, I wanted to treat myself to a Pinkberry frozen yogurt.  I also had a very short list of things I wanted to look for.  I wanted some pink towels, I wanted to LOOK at some of those fabulous Newton running shoes that Shelley has, I needed a new bedside lamp, and I needed to get some extra fancy hypo-allergenic dog food for HRH.  Sophie has some mild food allergies, and for convenience sake, I had tried once again to convert all the dogs to the same brand of dog food.  And then eventually Sophie starts licking her feet and legs.  Slurp, slurp, slurp.  Every evening.  Followed by me yelling “STOP LICKING!”  Followed by me feeling bad.  How would you like it if your skin felt itchy/irritated/dry (I don’t actually know what it feels like to her) and someone yelled at you to stop.

Anyway, back to my shopping trip.  I never did find the pink towel.  Weird.  But everywhere I went, I found some fun bargain.  I’m just guessing things were marked down after Christmas.  I found some ‘gourmet food’ items at Home Goods.  I tried to control myself.  Got some cookies and cream coffee, dried apricots, giant cashews, and some chocolate, cherry, and almond granola!

Next stop, Marshalls.  Surely they have some pink towels.  Nope.  But look what I just happened to pass by on the way to the towels!

I swear, I have been looking for the right pair of clogs for three years.  And finally gave up and got those two pair of shoes right before I left for my Christmas trip.  And then I find these Born clogs on sale for $29.  I couldn’t resist.  I love clogs for airplane travel, so you can kind of slip them halfway off your feet.  Oh, plus when you go through the security place, very easy on and off.

I walked around in them for quite a while to make sure the heels were not too high for me.

At this point I was running out of steam, and I almost drove on by the sports store (where I was going to look for the Newtons.)  But there was a 15 minute parking place right in front, so I thought, I’ll just run in to see if they even have them.  Well, they did not.  But look what I found!  Saucony, my favorite brand, and these are a new ‘extra light’ version.  Not quite as colorful as the Newtons, but close enough for me.  Plus the fact that they felt fantastic the minute I put them on my feet.  You’d better look quick, cause they won’t stay this pretty for too long.  I’ll probably reserve them for gym shoes for a little while, and then they’ll get drafted for their real purpose, taking the long walks around here.  Oh yeah, these were on sale $20 off too!

On to Costco to get the Queen’s special formula doggie food–Turkey and Sweet Potato.  I guess we’re more alike than I thought–we even eat the same stuff.  And I scored again!!!  Right inside the door they had a big display of Magic Bullet Blenders with a special $10 off.  I have looked at the Magic Bullet displays for year.  I resisted getting one before Christmas, and I guess it paid off.  My old Oster blender has been trying to give up the ghost, and since I am using it more and more, the timing was just right.  I am now the proud owner of a Magic Bullet 25 piece set!  I have no idea where I’m going to put all those pieces…

And, the last thing I had on my list–a bedside lamp?  I got the very last Ottlight in Costco for only $19.  Yahoo.  No more jumping out of bed to turn the light off just as I’m about to drift off to sleep.  I also got some green beans, giant cherries, blueberries, and a whole box of the Pure Protein bars I’ve been eating lately.

And then it was off to Pinkberry for my froyo and the drive home.  I had brought my food for the day with me, so no need to stop and get lunch.  And I got home just in time to take the doggies for their evening stroll before it got dark.

It was a very good day.  I made myself a turkey taco salad for dinner, and it looked so pretty I had to take a picture of it to share with you.  Dessert was about 10 of the giant cherries and a Russell Stover sugar free mint.  I am quite fond of those right now.

I did a little more work on the spreadsheets for our Haiti project.  We are having a meeting with our pastor and the treasurers tomorrow, and are trying to look like we know what we are doing LOL. Which, BTW, I don’t think I mentioned yet how wonderful it was that two of my bloggy friends, Pubsgal and Cammy, offered to help when I complained about having a problem with Excel.  In emailing with Cammy, she mentioned Google Docs, and that has been a lifesaver.  Just what we needed!  Its really wonderful how people you haven’t even met are so willing to help you.

I am very happy with my activity level for this first week of 2012.  I have been able to get into the free weights room at the gym, and do bench presses with the bar each time I’ve gone.  I’m adding in some core exercises on the days that I walk at home.  Helen, I can do 3 whole 30-second planks.  And then I collapse on the floor huffing and puffing.  And all the dogs come over to see what the heck is wrong with me.

I’ve been hitting up the Redbox lately, and have seen some really good movies.  Midnight in Paris was delightful, Sarah’s Key was really good, and The Beaver, starring Mel Gibson and Jody Foster, was actually a fascinating movie.  One reviewer commented that the Mel Gibson ick factor was one of the reasons it didn’t succeed.  That made me laugh.  I guess since I don’t have tv, I never saw all the horrid stuff he was involved in.  Its interesting to me who we will forgive and who we won’t.  I LOVE Hugh Grant.  I can’t help it.  When he got caught cheating on  his fiance(?) with a prostitute, was there a time period where we didn’t forgive him?  Which reminds me, have you all seen “About a Boy?”  One of my favorite Hugh Grant performances.

Somehow I got into quite a Meryl Streep movie review with Shelley. Have you young’uns seen Sophie’s Choice, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and Out of Africa?  They  are must sees, if you like Meryl Streep, or good movies, or women with accents LOL (Meryl Streep really became known for her ability to do accents in these films.)

And then there is my affinity for movie musicals.  Remember when I said I wanted to start reading some classic books?  Well, I thought I’d start out with an easy one.  I downloaded Oliver Twist to my Kindle Fire.  Which led me to serenade the dogs with ALL the songs from the old (60′s?) musical Oliver.  Whe-eh-eh-eh-ere is love (sung in a high whispery voice)   O-li-veh, O-li-veh, never before has a boy wanted more, (sung in a generic chorus of voices,) and One boy, boy for sale, he’s going cheap... (sung in the deep baritone of Mr. Bumble)… oh, the dogs were sick of me by the end of the day LOL.

I guess maybe I should post a little more frequently.  You can divide this into several days readings if you want.

Most of all I want to live a balanced  healthful life.  WITHOUT ANGST.

I want to be

• Active.
• Creative.
• Spiritual.
• Generous.
• Joyful.

I want to be all of these things.  I want them to be balanced in my life.  I even wrote “If being a little heavier is part of this, so be it.”  Now I don’t think that that’s necessarily so.  Cause honestly, my joints are telling me every day that I can’t be heavy AND active.

It feels so good to say that I WANT to be active.  For a very long time it was just something I did to stave off the inevitability of weight regain.  But finally, I am realizing that it is something I WANT.  One of the highlights of my trip was going to the gym for a weights workout with my brother.  As always, he gave me some good tips on correct form.  But this time I also knew what I wanted to do, and what I was capable of doing.  That was fun.  We also got in plenty of long walks.  And since I’ve been home, I have been consistently very active, just cause I wanted to!  Who’d a’thunk it?

This is all tied in to spending time in a town where I weighed some of my highest (234) and lowest (124) weights when I lived there 30 years ago!  The past month or so I have seen women my current age who are really struggling physically due to being overweight.  And I have seen young women who are as overweight as I was when I started this last weight loss journey.  I’ve been in all these places and so many in between.

I guess that’s why I want to live that “balanced healthful life without angst.”  No more worrying about ‘going back.’  I might not ever be the ‘ideal’ weight for my height.  But part of my self-definition is now ‘active.’  I like that.

Here’s the things I wrote down.  Not too exciting, I guess.  But they please me.

• Back to losing mode.  (I got out the Bobay plan and am back to following it.  With a tweak or two–want to eat a little more dairy, so am including my homemade yogurt.)
• Cook new stuff.  Minimize wheat and sugar.
• Eat fruit plain and enjoy it.  (I got in the habit of having fruit with cottage cheese or yogurt or something extra.)
• Eat more vegetables.
• Continue to exercise 5-6 days/week, 1 hour per day.  This is the exercise regime that most previously overweight people maintain.
• Back to quilting 4 hours/day.
• ORGANIZE HAITI.  Our sponsorship program for the children of Carrfourpoy, Haiti has been more successful than we imagined.  So at each juncture, we have to figure out what to do next.  My latest challenge is basically to learn how to navigate Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excell.  These programs seem to have conspired against me.  But I am excited by the prospect of being able to help these darling children.
• Call Lisa–volunteer.  Lisa works with a mission for the inner city kids in Stockton, and I would like to try and help out down there.
• Train Noah to come.  Oh, my.  This is the one I am most excited about.  Noah knows exactly what come means.  He comes perfectly off leash IN THE YARD.  But twice in the last month or so I have left the back door open, and he is GONE.  And he acts like he never heard the word Come before.  And then I get panicky (the opposite of calm-assertive) and that doesn’t help.  I asked his trainer about this when I picked him up, and she was well-aware of his habits.  So we will be having her make a house call in the next month or so.
• Read my Bible more (I have the New Living Translation on my Kindle Fire, and I am finally learning how to navigate it.  Fun!)  And memorize a new chapter in the Bible.  I was doing pretty good on this for a while.  And then I stopped.  So I am looking forward to picking out a chapter that I find particularly meaningful.
• Live within my budget.  Give more.
• Read more classic books.  My friend was telling me that a lot of classic books are free to download on the Kindle!  Score!

So today was a very nice start to the new year.  Oh, I have to tell you about a new product I found!!  Its an instant oatmeal, only its not that ground up instant stuff.  Its multi-grain, and includes guinoa, flax, barley, oats and some other stuff.  You make it in the microwave, and it is so good!  I cannot tell you how wonderful I think it is.  And you know I am quite the connoisseur of oatmeal, right?  Anyway, the brand is Good Oats, and the multigrain stuff is called Abundance.  You must try it.  Plus, two minutes in the microwave with no pan to clean afterwards?  So this morning I started the day with this oatmeal.  I got in a little blog reading and emailing, and Bible reading, and got dressed and headed out the door with all three doggies.  And when we got back, I did quite a few stomach crunches and stretches.  I didn’t list those things above, but those are two exercise components that have been lacking lately, and I want to make sure I add them back into the rotation.  On to the post-travel laundry, and I actually had some time to do some serious quilting–I made a cover for my Kindle Fire!

Anyway, it was a very nice trip.  Except for UNITED AIRLINES leaving my big suitcase behind both coming and going.  I stopped at Walmart in Texas to get some basic clothes to wear.  And to be fair, they did deliver the suitcase two days after I arrived (day after Christmas.)  And on the way home, I wasn’t that sad that I didn’t have to haul it by myself out to my car in the economy parking lot.  I did have a hard time finding something to wear to church this morning…

Anyway, as I knew would happen, there was an unlimited amount of Christmas goodies constantly present.  And I pretty much constantly grazed.  Oh well.

Here’s a few pics of the trip.  My brother’s first grandchild.  She really is a cute little girl.  And she almost looked like a little angel floating around in her special Christmas dress.

My brother has a dachshund too!!  Here he is, being tortured in his Santa Claus suit.

This is my favorite picture of my brother and his dog.  He LOVES that little dog, and the little dog loves him.

The second half of the trip was spent in Wichita Falls, where I lived for a few years, and also went to nursing school.  It was fun to be back there  and see a few old sights and a few new ones too.  I stayed in a hotel room–la la la!  I do love my ‘alone time!’

On Friday, my brother was kind enough to drive me down to Frisco, where the long-awaited meet-up with Shelley was planned.  Here is Shelley and Jeff listening to my normally Very Quiet brother gabbing away!

We met at Scotty P’s where the burgers and fries AND onion rings were every bit as delicious as Shelley promised.  Jeff very nicely took pictures of us.  And we told him to make sure and get our ‘skinny’ side.  I wasn’t too pleased with my appearance, so I cropped the picture to show the important stuff–shoes LOL!  Aren’t Shelley’s boots great?  And those are my new VERY COMFORTABLE shoes that I got at Nordstrom Rack on the way out of town.  That is a very nice place to shop for good shoes at a nice price.  These are Clark’s, and I also got a pair of Josef Siebels.

Alright, here we are, in front of the famous Scotty P’s.

Then, we headed over to the frozen yogurt shop.  What?  You were expecting something else from me and Shelley?  Besides eating froyo, the plan was to teach Shelley to knit.  I was most excited that I was actually able to teach Shelley to knit!  Since I am left handed, it has always been kind of torturous to try to teach people to knit right-handed.  Shelley is left-handed, so that is the first time I have taught a left-hander to knit.  I was so proud of my ‘pupil.’

Saturday was time to head home.  I flew into Amarillo, but I actually saved $100 by flying out of Oklahoma City.  And since I was in Oklahoma City, I finally got to meet with long-time blog buddy Jill!!  The Oklahoma City airport wasn’t the most exciting place to meet, but we had fun gabbing for a while before I had to get on the plane.  Jill’s husband Shawn came with her, and told the story of how they met!  I told Jill she needed to write a blog on it, it was such a good story.  And I have to say that I have been SO IMPRESSED with all the husbands of all the bloggers I’ve met.   Really nice guys, and very patient with the whole unexplainable blog meet-up thing.

Me and Jill:

It sure is fun to meet bloggers in person.  Since we have common interests, and we already spend a lot of time ‘talking’ to each other, we never seem to have a lack of things to talk about when we finally meet in person.

So, as seems to be my tradition, I stopped on my way home from the airport, even though it was really late, to get some milk and yogurt starter to make a batch of my homemade yogurt.  I made that this morning, and it turned out excellent!

And then after church, I stopped at the grocery store (well, actually, two grocery stores) to stock up on fruits and veggies and cottage cheese.  So glad to be home and to be able to return to my foods of choice.  More about that tomorrow.  I have lots of ‘New Year’s Thoughts’ that I want to share.

So everything has gone according to plan, and I am ready for action today!

Tuesday, started the day with an excellent protein pancake.  Lori has the best recipe for this, so I always refer you to her blog.  I have it the same way almost every time.  With some walnuts cooked into the pancake, and topped with mashed overripe bananas.

Doesn't that look tasty? It was!

Tuesday afternoon I was still feeling a little blue, so I decided to take a walk with Noah, because as Lori says, “You never regret a workout.”  I took the mailbox keys, just in case we made it that far.  And what do you suppose was waiting for me in the mailbox?  A box full of healthy treats for me and the doggies from one of my favorite bloggers, Pubsgal!  I tell you what, that someone would take the time to send such a thoughtful gift really lightened my mood.  Plus THOSE ALMONDS were just the thing I needed to refuel for the long walk home!

In the evening, I had my single-serve concert in my living room.  I even took pictures of the sleeping doggies and the lights in the dark to prove it to you all.

LIght eggnog in mug, and a few treats!

About halfway through The Messiah, at 9pm(!!!) a delivery truck pulls up in front of my house. Honest, guys.  I live one and a half miles back on a twisty dirt road with no street lights.  How the heck he found his way here is a mystery to me.  Bigger mystery–did he ever find his way out LOL!  Anyway, as promised, I was sitting in my pj’s listening to the music, which necessitated me leaping up to get my bathrobe on.  in the meantime, the guy WALKED UP ON MY PORCH.  Do you know what Noah thinks about strange men walking up on my porch in the middle of the night?  Well, now I do!  Anyway, the peace of the evening was a little disturbed.  But finally everyone settled down and we finished the concert.  It was a lovely way to spend an evening.

Not quite as relaxed, but close.

Oh, and earlier that day, I watched one of my all time favorite movies.  I found the OLD version of The King and I (with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr) at the library.  That is one of the greatest movies ever!  Of course, I LOVE the ballroom scene, but there are so many great moments in it.

Yesterday was the day to visit Mom.  It was a pretty relaxed drive (great traffic both ways) and an enjoyable day.  Too much food, and I could really relate to Cammy’s post about being done with the treats before the actual day arrives.  So today and tomorrow are for good clean food.  Of course we went to the thrift store–my last chance to find some REALLY COMFORTABLE shoes before giving up and going retail LOL.  I even tried on some cowboy boots since I am going to Texas!  The fruitcake was great, and can I just say that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to make healthy choices at The Outback.  They might have a few healthy choices on the menu.  Its just impossible to stick to them.

So today I am off and running (soon) to get stuff organized/arranged/packed for leaving.  I am hopeful that I can get everything done by early afternoon so I can make a quick run to the gym for a ‘last chance workout.’  But actually, you know what’s good about visiting my brother?  He still loves to work out, so I get a ‘personal trainer workout’ when I visit him.  Along with nice long walks with his “little dawgie”–Shelley, he has a mini dachshund too!!

This will probably be my last post before Christmas, so I will wish you all the most wonderful Christmas ever, and an even better New Year, as we all move forward in our quest for the most healthy life possible!