A Tribute To Dad - Happy Birthday!

Well first just to get this out of the way - 150.0 and glucose 113.  So... from the slightly elevated glucose reading you decide whether or not I had an almost respectable amount of dinner followed by a not so modest bowl of vanilla ice cream (not the light kind) topped with chopped up trick or treat candy bars.  I almost feel like Rodney Dangerfield - I got NO self respect!  Unfortunately I also have very little remorse :)  so you can see why this is such a challenge.  I am frequently way to willing to sabotage my diet!

Back to Dad.  Or as the grandkids all call him Pa.  This is for you - on your birthday.

I have a father to be proud of.  He is always there for me even though he lives on the other side of the country.  I always know if I'm puzzling or troubled over something that I can call and get a thorough consultation on any subject under the sun.  Well, maybe consultation is not exactly the word... anyway :)  he always gives me lots to think about.  I am so proud of my Taylor heritage.  I come from a long line of very colorful people.  Many of them were successful business men. Many were inventors.  Many of them were "preachers".  I had the privledge this spring of going to visit the church at Bury St. Edmonds, England which is the spot where one of my ancestors Roland Taylor preached with such conviction that it caused him to be imprisoned for two years and then burned at the stake by a church Cardinal - back in the mid 1500's.  I fortunately made this trip after having read Pillars of the Earth so I had a much greater appreciation of the long ago event.   Somehow I can imagine my dad in that role.  He is always willing to speak out for what he believes regardless of what anyone else thinks.  Whether or not your agree with him you have to appreciate that we absolutely need those kinds of people in the world!  They make you think.  Sometimes they make you angry :)  but they always make you think!   Taylors have one thing in common.  At least the ones that I have known personally and that is that they all love to laugh.  Now, sometimes they are laughing at you, but never without darn good reason.  My dad is one of those colorful characters (oh so colorful) who have been blessed in business through very hard work and decication.  He has a whole bunch of "real life" experience having learned many lessons, making some very good choices and some very bad ones too.  He has a very deep faith in God who has walked with him through the mountains and valleys of his life.  Many times leading and guiding him behind the scenes as my dad had a good many "wilderness" years.  He has been blessed with  the most devoted and adoring wife on the face of the planet whose self assigned job is to support and pray for him.  She has grown large knoby calluses on her knees due to many hours of prayer.  :)  I think of my dad as one of those "larger than life" people.  No matter what he does - he does it in a big way!  With all his might.  He has just a touch of the "grandest tiger in the jungle" syndrome which I appreciate because even though I have days when I feel like a complete failure I always bounce back because after all, I am a Taylor.  Of course God has his ways of helping us remember to be humble... :)  I am thankful that I have a family to be proud of and a name to live up to.  Many times in my life when I have been faced with choices I think.  Hmmm... is this something I want to have to explain to my dad???  :)  Sometimes it has caused me to make good choices.  Isn't it great to have a dad like that?  My dad really was instrumental in getting me on track with my diet.  He made me test my glucose level a couple of times when I really didn't want to - because I had a hunch that it was not going to be good news.  I think he almost had to hold me down to do it.  And he did not care that I was highly irritated at him for doing it.  He knew that it was an issue that I needed to deal with.  He's very helpful like that.  :)  Well, I could go on and on!  I love you Pa!  I hope you have many more birthdays.  Jeff and Andrea can't wait for you to be the care taker at their beach house - someday.  :)  Oh, by the way... this is instead  of a birthday present.  I know... worst present yet!  Even worse than fifty two boxes of individually wrapped up Jello.  :)  I still love that present!  If you ever become "forgetful" like Grandma... that's what you are getting every year.  You'll love it!

And that folks is my dad.  Gotta love him!  Well... I guess you don't "gotta", but I sure do.  :)

Ciao!

Can You Believe - It's Friday Eve!

Thursday is my third most favorite day of the week because it's almost Friday which is my second most favorite day of the week.  Well actually Friday afternoon is my second most favorite day of the week.  Saturday morning is my FAVORITE day of the week.  I'm very torn about Sunday.  There are a lot of great things about Sunday but one thing that factors heavily toward it being my least favorite day of the week is that it is situated right in front of Monday.  :(  That's a horrible thing to do to a perfectly lovely day!  Ok... that was completely ridiculous!  But so is the fact that you read through that entire brain fart.  :) 

You can tell I really have nothing to say today.  I should just get up and get busy!  We are having new friends over for dinner tonight and although I have mostly set the table and partly prepared dinner I still have lots to do.  I'm making chicken enchiladas.  I hope it turns out ok because I'm pretty much making it up as I go along.  You would think that with access to five billion chicken enchilada recipes I could just pick one!  That would be too easy - and besides, the four billion recipes that I read didn't seem quite like I thought they should.  We'll see.  My daughter Michele should be here tonight and if I mess this us she will be sure to let me know.  She has developed a killer chicken enchilada recipe.  I do mean killer too.  I could gain back all twenty pounds at one sitting.  :)  Pretty darn good stuff though!

Speaking of weight... 148.9 and glucose 106.  I hate having to report anything over 100.  Not that it's all that bad... especially since I am not taking medication to control my blood sugar.  Still... I really thought I could consistently keep it under 100.  I was a little surprised this morning because I couldn't remember eating anything yesterday that would have caused an elevated glucose reading.  As we know my brain is already checked out for the weekend so it took me awhile to remember the brown rice I had for dinner.  I made it ahead since I am planning on having rice and beans to serve with my enchiladas tonight.  I of course had more than the prescribed half a cup.  :)  Tonight I either need to eat a late lunch of steamed veggies and then drink a big glass of Metamucil right before dinner or just give up and pig out on the gooey enchiladas and follow that up by binging on the big bowl of trick or treat candy.  I'll let you know which way it goes.  The trick or treat candy was NOT my idea by the way.  It's this husband who just will not behave in the way I think he should.  Which is maybe why I love him so much.

Oh my!  He just let my stinky dogs in and they are pouncing all over me!  Here... I'll close with some random pics I took over the last couple of days - and they all contain stinky dogs.

This is Lucy on the bridge focused on the ball that she is just sure I'm going to throw for her.  Dave's cornstalks are in the background.  he decorated the bridge.

and this is Tank doing what he does best... nothin!

Oh!  Here are the grapes from my new vines.  Yes... this is the entire harvest :)  And they were so tasty!  Tank thinks so too!  

Can you tell he's as obsessed with food as I am.  When I take the chicken scraps out and throw them in the chicken pen - if I leave the door open he waits until I am around the corner and then goes in, scares off all the chickens and eats the vegetable scraps I threw out for them!  What a strange dog!

And finally Dave posing in front of one of the many cottonwoods that in the fall turn bright gold when the evening sun hits them.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog; as random and unfocused as it and these pictures are :)

Ciao!

The Last Ten Pounds...

Well let's just start off with a great big sigh!  There!  I said it!   Blech!  This is hard!  The good news is that I'm holding steady at 150.5 and glucose 101.  The bad news is that I'm holding steady at 150.5.  :(  My original goal which I thought was attainable is 140.  I still think it's attainable and now I have even more reason to want to reach it... a January Mediterranean cruise.  How awesome is that???  I have the rest of October and all of November and December to drop those 10 pounds.  But here's the deal... I see some major hurdles in the way:  Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Those treasured holidays for me are all about food.   And not the weight loosing kind either.  The other thing I'm finding is that with the colder weather I'm not craving salads.  When it's cold outside I want warm food.  The thought of a nice chilled salad right now just makes me want to shiver.  I'll need to come up with some new strategies for fall and winter.  Once I overcome these fall hurdles and hit that goal weight I'll have to have superhuman will power to not gain it ALL back on the ship.  There are endless opportunities to commit dietary suicide.  I think I'll hang a sign over my bed that says LITTLE FLUFFY PASTRIES ARE GROSS!   I wonder if I could ever believe that?

Well  seems like I haven't posted a food pic in quite a while so here's one.  I was simmering a pot of tomatoes to make more marinara to can and thought it might make a nice base for a quick little fish dish.  This is tomato sauce, tilapia, zucchini and roasted diced poblano peppers topped with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese.  It was tasty, light and healthy.  Plus it was a one pan dinner which was great since I already had a kitchen disaster with the new batch of marinara sauce brewing.

Really... it's fish.  Just a little hard to see under the zucchini, breadcrumbs and cheeeeese.

Ciao!

I Refuse To Report That...

This morning I weighed 150.4 because if I did you would know that I gave in to these thoughts - I'm sick and feeling like crap and therefore it's ok to lounge around on the couch watching TV and eating peanuts, pistachios AND a whole bag of popcorn - with cheese on top.  Oh... and a small plate of nachos.  I suck!  On the positive side it's Friday!  I feel better already!  My blood glucose was 103 which is not bad considering that I was!  Very fortunately I did not die in my sleep so I will have the opportunity to redeem my self respect today :)

Gotta go!  Ciao!

I'm Back!

Life sure can get crazy huh?  Recently the different parts of mine have been competing for attention.  Last week I spent in Woodinville working.  Immediately after arriving back home I found myself in the middle of the most racket this house has seen since - well... last Thanksgiving.  It was a glorious weekend.  I had all my kids home AND my two granddaughters!  What a treat!  Here we are...
From left to right... Adam, Bobby, me, Dave, Amberlyn, Katie with baby Charlotte, Nicole with Aubrey, Michele and Daniel.  And Lucy looking for something to fetch.

And... Mumsey with granddaughters Aubrey and Charlotte sitting by Grandpa's big pumpkin.

We are a crazy bunch!  After they all went home I had to take two aspirin and go to bed :)  But it was fabulous fun.  I've spent most of this week fighting a cold :(  Right now I'm psyching myself up for another work day.  Who to sue today?  :)  This is the best part of the day - right now!  I'm sitting on the couch watching the sky become brighter, slowly revealing layers of fog up in the pasture and against the big hill in the back. Looks so very fall.  The weatherman promises a beautiful day.  Last night I worked until dark harvesting the last of the tomatoes on the vines before the freezing nights ruin them all - two laundry baskets full :) I couldn't even carry them.  Had to get Dave to carry them into the barn.  Wonder how many jars of marinara two laundry baskets will make? Can't wait to find out.

Well... with all the activity I've had a bit of a roller coaster with the weigh ins and glucose readings.  Some days were less inspiring than others!  Today I am happy to report 148.4 and glucose of 95.  The last 10 pounds is not coming off quickly!  Still, I look better than I have in years and am confident that if I can maintain a reasonable diet I can have a long healthy life filled with many more family reunions and many more grand babies.  :)

Ciao!

Death By Birthday Cake...

Who knew birthday cake would be on the list of possible causes of death?  How can something sooooo good be sooooo bad for you?  Ok... Me.  Bad for me.  (Insert giant sigh here)  It's possible that I stuck my finger in the left over frosting a few too many times.  My blood glucose level this morning was 136 which is probably the highest spike since I began this adventure in May.  This means I get to have way less fun with food this weekend when ALL my kids and grand babies are home.  Boo hoo!  I can't get away with "nuthin"!  I also did have the tiniest bit of rice with the fabulous Thai shrimp bisque that Andrea made.  So yum!  But since it was just the tiniest amount and typically I can eat small amounts of rice I'd say it was the cake.  Ya think???  That glucose reading was like a slap in the face.  Apparently I enjoy being slapped :) because I bet it's not the last piece of cake I ever eat!

Ciao!

Woooooah!

Ok... back in the right direction.  I'm amazed how easy it is to slide down the slippery slope back into fatness :)  I don't want to really find out but I wonder if I could gain back 20 lbs in two weeks?  I don't have a weigh in this morning because I'm in Woodinville but my glucose level is creeping back down.  This morning it was 106.  Yesterday it was 127 and I ate very moderately on Monday (on the trip over).  Ok... I did steal four of Aubrey's french fries.  And I probably would have had more if they were hot crispy McDonald's fries but instead they were BK mediocre fries.  We stopped at BK because I knew I could get a chicken salad with no taco chips to have to toss away.  I think my glucose level was just left over from the free for all weekend.  Anyway... let your guard down for just a minute and POOF your fat again!  I guess I really should say POOF... I'M fat again!  I am staying with my little brother Jeff and his teeny weeny and very cute wife Andrea so if I were going to eat there all week it would be a successful week because she is a great AND healthy cook.  Last night we had baked chicken with marinara sauce and mozzarella.  So tasty!  And green beans... I resisted the mashed potatoes.  Yay!  But I'm not.  The rest of the week I have places to go and people to see.  Dinners out.  Let's see how I do the rest of the week.  :)  Oh!  All my kids are coming home this weekend.  I get to have both grand babies!  Maybe I'll be too busy to eat!

Ciao!

Yuk!

Well this is like ripping a band aid off.  Painful and just gotta get it over with so here goes.  Fatometer 152.7 glucose 124.  Don't even ask!  Obviously I have been misbehaving.  And stressed out.  And those two ingredients are a recipe for nonhealth!  Rather than focus on everything that's bad about today I will go do something productive.  Like take a shower.  :)  There's a start! 

Gotta get ready for a road trip to the "other side".  Ciao!

P.S.  Oh  the kids were right... I can't be trusted!  My baking career may be over.