It's A New Day! Yay!

Thank God for new days!  Yesterday was horrible!  It didn't start out that way... just got worse as the day went along.  Once work was over I took a little stress walk and then made some tasty soup.  I never could shake the yuks though.  You may have noticed if you read my blog from last night :)  Anyway...the stats... this morning the fatometer read 149.3 and glucose 96.  Heading back in the right direction.  Amazingly I did not stress eat yesterday.  I did have one bite of Daves rocky road ice cream - which was very gracious of him since he is still iritated at me for eathing up all of his chocolate cake last Friday night.  What I didn't mention before though was that on Sunday we had friends over for dinner and Rosie brought a fabulous pear pie.  She made it out of pears from their tree.  It made me all kinds of excited for our trees to grow up and begin bearing fruit.  Made me feel all grandmothery to imagine making apple, cherry, pear and peach pies.  I expect my self dicipline will be well developed by then :)  But I've gotton off track... Rosie's pear pie was scrumptious.  I did have a small piece - very small.  And she did leave a piece for Dave for later - and I did NOT eat it.  Yay!

There's really not much new to report.  I have taken a few random pics over the last week that I'll share with you... whether or not you want to see them :)

Let's see...  I'll start with my turkey noodle soup from yesterday.  It was warm, tasty and soothing to the soul... almost.  :)

and this is a fall feast from a couple of days ago...  yum... corn on the cob from the garden and root veg from the farmers market

I took these random pics a couple of days ago when summer finally returned.  I was so excited!  This pic is late in the day showing what's left in my garden and the glowing cliffs in the background.  I call this the magic hour and always go outside to see the sun shine on the red rocks.  So pretty!

This next picture I call - If Only... for reasons that should be apparant since tomorrow is October

This pic is all about hope and faith... I know these grape vines are weeney now but someday there will be grapes.  Lots of grapes :)

And just look at the blue sky behind Dave's barn...who wouldn't want to live here?  And notice the pathetic weathervane on top of the barn... oh you can't see it?  Exactly!

When was the last time you spent a few minutes admiring the clouds and picking out funny shapes?  For me about two days... but prior to that... too long!  Check out the cloud bunny...

Do you see it???  :)

Ok well... (reminds me of my Aunt Rita - she used to start almost every sentence with "ok well") this has been fun and rediculous.  A necessary part of each day... in my wacky world anyway.

Now back on my head... time for work :)   Ciao!

If You Don't Have Anything Good to Say - Don't Say Anything At All.

:)

The Trouble With Crowing...

Is that it is such an unpalatable meal!  Crow that is.  Yes, I do think I recall actually crowing about breaking the 148 barrier.  Apparently I was a dang pig all weekend!  This morning I weighed in at 151.3 - after doing everything possible to achieve the least possible weight!  Well, everything short of throwing up.  That action is reserved only for extreme illness and then only when there is absolutely no other alternative so that's completely out of the question.  I won't bore you with the details of my weekend of gluttony other than one tiny story and then I'll share my ideas about how to correct my behavior.  It all started Friday evening when we had dinner with some new friends from church.  We had a great time and finding their house was an adventure in itself!  I thought we lived out in the sticks.  In comparison we don't!  My GPS failed again!  Once we found their house we were delighted with their pond and series of waterfalls.  Such a beautiful setting.  And Marian made the most delicious enchilada casserole.  The only way I can describe it is that it just melted in my mouth.  I brought a salad.  It was loaded with goodies such as roasted corn and bacon so not the most figure friendly dish either.  The real problem came though when I was unable to resist the moist, fudgy chocolate cake.  :)  And ice cream.  Even that would not have been the end of the world but we were sent home with a very generous piece for Dave to enjoy later.  Dave did not put it in the food safe where chocolate cake should be kept.  Instead he set it on the counter.  That was mistake number one.  Mistake number two was that he got into it and took a couple of bites then wrapped it back up.  Mistake number three was letting me see him have those bites.  I kept watch on the clock all evening and when Dave finally decided he needed to go to bed...  well, I was only going to have one little bite.  I did have only one little bite.  I repeated the little bite until the entire piece was gone.  In the morning when Dave woke up there was wailing an gnashing of teeth.  :)  I can only be forgiven if I make a loaf of banana bread.  I have not done so yet and so I'm still in the dog house.  Anyway my weekend went from bad to worse.  It was a 48 hour binge.  I am disgusted with myself and unfortunately I enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are my ideas for punishment/healthier behavior:  no staying up past 10pm, no food after 8pm, going to bed when Dave does, no TV for a week (because that's what gets me in trouble - snacking in front of the idiot box), absolutely no after dinner snacking.  Hmm which shall I choose?  I think I'll pick no food after 8pm and be in bed by 10pm and see how that works out.  It could result in dropping those few pounds and being well rested.  What a concept!

The weather this week is supposed to bring some warmer temps.  Possibly up to 80 degrees.  I'm hoping that my tomatoes will go ahead and ripen!  They are ripening a bit at a time.  I did make some very tasty fresh salsa with veggies from my garden.  Only problem is... what to eat it with other than chips???  Ideas anyone?

Ok, gotta get back to work so... Jabba the Hutt signing off - ciao!

Careful What You Ask For!

I've been anxiously waiting for my tomatoes to ripen for weeks and now they are coming.  I've been covering my tomato row with a huge tarp every night because it's getting down in the mid 30's already and I'll be seriously angry if they get frozen now!  I've been pulling the green ones that are low to the ground and bringing them in and they are ripening slowly on the counter.  Now I have tomatoes in every stage of ripeness imaginable.  My favorite for snacking are the cherries.  I've been sending Dave to work every day with a container full and I've been eating my share right off the counter.  I need to go out and pick more this afternoon but here is a pic of a few laying around the kitchen waiting to ripen and become marinara sauce.  Oh so much work but...yummy!  There are also Walla Walla sweet onions and Anaheim peppers in there.

Remember... this is what these same plants looked like in May...

So sad!!!  I almost ripped them up but instead I cut them down to the ground and they grew!

So I guess it's been a successful year after all.  There are still hundreds on the vines.  I think I have enough jars though.

My sunflowers are finally smiling at me too.  Here's one:

And here are the rest of them dancing in the wind and smiling at the sun like good little sunflowers do:

  

And here is my prize pumpkin.  Hope it gets a little larger but it's doing very nicely:

It's hard to tell how big it is... but it's very large.  I'm so excited!

This morning the fatometer read 148.5 and glucose was 100.  Yay!  A new low... again!  (Every ounce counts!)  I had half an ear of corn at dinner last night.  I ate it very slowly and convinced myself that it was enough.  I didn't really believe myself though.  Really I wanted three or four ears :)  But... what's a chubby diabetic prone girl to do?  Such a struggle!  With all that corn in the garden... to gorge or not to gorge?  That is the question!  

Well... ciao yall!

I Love Corn! :(

Stats:  149.1 and glucose 113.  Probably due to eating TWO ears of corn that Dave pulled out of the garden yesterday.  I knew I couldn't get away with that!  And I ate them anyway!  I'm so sad!  :)

Gotta keep moving... Ciao!

A New Low - Again :)

Cock a doodle doo!  That's me crowing like a rooster :)  fatometer reading 148.8.  Yeah I know... but every ounce counts!  :)  I just love seeing a new pound on the scales.  At first the pounds went by quickly.  Now... not so much.  And sometimes it goes the other way so I'm pretty happy to see 148 even if it is 148.8.  Glucose reading was 101 so coming back down from the food fest in Woodinville.

Yesterday I did make Tomato Basil soup.  Yum.  I didn't have a recipe, just sort of made it up.  It turned out very tasty.  I thought it needed just a little zip so I added some chipotle Tabasco sauce and that made it just a hair spicy for Dave.  It wasn't hot... just not really like Campbell's.  Oh Bummer!  Did that come across as sarcasm?  Good.  :)  Anyway... to go with it I made a quesadilla with chicken, black beans and cheddar cheese on whole grain tortillas.  They are absolutely not as tasty as regular flour but they are less likely to cause the glucose spike either so it's worth the sacrifice.  It was good with all the yummy stuff inside though.  Here's what it looked like...

I still have lots of tomatoes left and lots more on the vine hopefully ripening today!  Looks like the expected high is going to be 65 and mostly sunny then a low of 39.  Getting a little too cool for my liking - tomato wise.

Well, gotta go...  Ciao!

The Best Monday Ever!

Well maybe not EVER but my tomatoes are ripening and I'm so happy!  I see tomato basil soup in my immediate future!

Aren't they pretty?  I have lots of large tomatoes too.  I was gone for about a week to Woodinville then a ladies conference in Spokane and I asked Dave to keep an eye out for my tomatoes ripening and he said he would.  He said he didn't see any ripe :)  I assumed he would pick the zucchini too... they just keep coming.  If he didn't see them he just needs an eye exam because there were some were so large that they are useful at this point only as a baseball bat!  Bad pic but you get the idea... they were enormous!

Well... the basket is about 12 inches tall, the whole basket weighed 25 pounds and you can see how big they are compared to the normal size tomatoes :)  I cut one open and the seeds were almost the size of pumpkin seeds.  I saw a recipe on Allrecipes.com for zucchini boats filled with a sort of meatloaf type mixture.  I might make that with one to test it.  I really don't know what else to do with them other than prop them up with the funny shaped pumpkin sitting outside.

 

Anyway... it really feels like fall now.  I hope we have more nice weather but who knows?  I do like fall though.  I roasted some root veggies that were scrumptious Sat eve.  Here's what they looked like on the way into the oven.  Check out the awesome red and white ringed beets.  I got those from Farmers market.  I've missed it two weeks in a row though so I'm looking forward to Friday :)

Almost looks like candy :)

Well... I have lots and lots to do today so I better get on it.  Oh!  I did spend an hour this morning going through and getting rid of lots of clothes.  It was a bit gratifying to dump shorts that were too tight in the spring and are now elephant baggy.  Yay!  I still have more to do.  You know how it feels to have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear?  Now for the stats... fatometer 149.8 (inching back down after my week in Woodinville) and glucose 106 - which is a Red Sea miracle after eating the Zips burger and half a thing of fries yesterday!  :)  No more of that for awhile!  I really want to get it back under 100 which would be the top end of the normal range.

Ok... Ciao!

Assessing the Damage

After pretty much a free for all week in Woodinville I arrived home determined to exercise just a skosh more self control.  I got home around 7pm and had one ear of corn that Dave had pulled out of the garden and then later... popcorn.  Oh brother!  That's was not a great start!  This morning I weighed in at 151.5.  That was actually better than I imagined and glucose level of 110.   I was in such a hurry to get out the door this morning that I didn't take the time to eat breakfast since I was rushing to pick up my friend and drive into Spokane for the Women of Faith conference.  The morning passed quickly and before I knew it lunch time had arrived.  They served a boxed lunch which included a turkey sandwich, Sun Chips, an apple, a soft cookie and a small bottle of water.  I gave my cookie away right away and removed about half of the bread from the sandwich.  I did indulge in the Sun Chips and they were SO good!  I was saved from eating the whole bag though because it began to rain and we decided to head back indoors.  I tossed the rest of the chips.  For dinner we went to a restaurant I love in Spokane... the Red Tomato.  There were four ladies in our group and we paired up and decided to split a meal.  I had their yummy tomato basil soup and half of a great chicken pasta dish.  I did avoid the bread.  Yay me!  The conference lasted until 10pm.  We drove back to the hotel and ended the day with a swim in the pool.  Well, I didn't swim so much as just splash around and then soak in the hot tub for a while.  So... not really a calorie burner for me.  I was also able to pass on the soft warm cookies they had in the lobby as we headed back to the rooms.  So... yes, the pasta was definitely a splurge... on top of a week of splurges and yet I did make some good choices and painful sacrifices :)  I'm a little afraid to whip out that glucose meter in the morning though.  I know I really need to refocus and lay off the popcorn. 

Even with all that while in Woodinville I took the opportunity to go shopping and trade out my jeans that were beginning to get baggy.  I hate baggy!  I was able to fit into a size I never thought I would see again... size 6.  That's right kids!  SIX!  :)  Of course it's entirely possible that it's a "vanity" size 6.  But that's ok... if that's the case I started out with a vanity size 12 so it's still an accomplishment.  I still have roughly 10 pounds to go.  If I continue eating the way I did much of this week I'll have to pack those new size 6 jeans away pretty darn quick.  That would just be too sad!  :)

Ciao!

An Amazing Place to Nose Dive My Diet

Apparently since I don't have my glucose meter I decided eating sensibly was not necessary.  That came in really handy last night when my friend Dee wanted to go check out a new place she heard about called Tandem Wine & Cheese Bar in Bothell, WA.  At first I thought,  wine bar huh?  Meh... why would I want to go there?  Probably not that much there would be on my self imposed "plan".  I'm so glad I went though.  The place is adorable!  It's like a step back in time.  Of course they have plenty of non alcoholic beverages and it's perfectly appropriate to bring children if you like.  We ordered a cheese/meat/fruit platter... which would have been ok except that they brought a fabulous focaccia bread to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  And they kept bringing it... and I kept eating it.  I believe I even swatted at the poor waitress who attempted to take it away.  :)  (Insert big sigh here)  Anyone with just a little self control would be able to enjoy a great meal in one of most charming eateries I've been in for quite some time.  They also have a bed and breakfast suite upstairs that is Lisa's (one of the owners) pride and joy.  She hand picked all the furnishings.  She told us she really put her heart and soul into it.  It shows!  From the looks of the suite she has a beautiful heart and soul :)  I would highly recommend dropping by for a visit.  They are happy to show the Loft (the b&b suite).  It is definitely on my list of for sure places to stay.  The pic to the right shows a small part of the Loft.  Here's the link to their website:  http://tandemwinebar.com/  Go check it out!

Well... I'm so sorry to not be able to report my stats... you know... with the no scale and forgetting my meter at home.  I am eating a very healthy salad right now in order to pay for my sins of last night.  (It was worth it)  :') 

Ciao!

Oh! The Horror!

In so many ways!  First... the fatometer read 151.7 this morning (Monday morning).  That's horrible.  I deserve it but it's horrible!   I think my blood glucose was 108.  But I don't even know for sure.  The weekend was so busy that I don't even remember when I took it last.  It will be days before I take it again too.  I'm in Woodinville now and went off and left the darn monitor on the kitchen counter.  So... I took my boys to Aligator Soul for appetizers last night.  Yum!  :(  Deep fried fish, hush puppies, gator and chicken.  I also got a cup of onion soup which was fabulous.  I'm glad I have no glucose monitor!  Oh the horror! 

The other horrible (but comical) event from this weekend was that little Aubrey dropped Nicole's (her mommy) drivers license between the cracks of the deck.  After failing at the coat hanger/gum trick she was forced to put on my old overalls and crawl under the deck to get it.  Here are a few pics from her adventure...

This is getting ready to go under  She did not laugh for long :)

They had to tear apart the stone wall to get in.

I was kind enough not to mention the bull snake that Dave thinks might live under the deck until she came out.  She did not encounter the snake.  If she had it would not have hurt her however she may have had a heart attack from fright which would have been horrible as the perimedics would have had a heck of a time getting her out from under the deck.  :)

We did have some fun though... other than watching Nicole crawl under the deck... finally some of the corn has begun to ripen.  Aubrey liked it!

So Did Mumsey... but we won't show the three corn cobs on her plate. (oh the horror!)

Aubrey also enjoyed checking to see how big the pumpkins were getting.

And seeing the sunflowers with Grandpa Dave

All in all it was a great weekend! 

I'm looking forward to being home again.  Meanwhile... I went to the store and bought way too much salad stuff to eat - I think subconciously as punishment for the three corn cobs and the fried food.  Oh the horror!

Ciao!

Here's to Neighbors!

Warning!  It's 3am and I have no idea why I'm awake but I figured since I can't sleep I'd get up and chat with myself in my blog.  That ought to put me back to sleep in no time :)

My friend Dee was pretty grumpy about not having her morning reading material since I did not blog yesterday.  Too funny!  Apparently it's become a necessary part of the day.  Like toilet paper perhaps :)  She wanted to know... what's for lunch?  I guess I mentioned on facebook that I had invited my neighbor over for lunch. So... I'm gonna tell ya!  But before I do I'd like to know why my cat thinks he can just walk up and sit right down on my arms while I'm trying to type???   Seriously!  How rude!

Recently my neighbor Sharon found me on facebook.  Or... maybe I found her... but we live next door to each other and never see each other.  Ridiculous right?  Well... when I say next door I really mean next farm over.  If I were to pop over for a cup of sugar I'd most likely get in the car.  Anyway... we both work from home and decided we should get together for lunch so I invited her over to my house.  (I think I'm ready to go back to bed :)  Unfortunately I've made coffee so I can't waste it which means you could be in for a long post.  Poor you!  Remember... it's ok to stop reading!)  On Wednesday when I remembered I had invited her I immediately thought about what I needed to go to the store and get.  Then I decided I could probably rummage through my pantry, freezer and fridge and just make something.  I always have too much food in the house for two people anyway.  Somehow I decided on chicken salad and after coming up with my newly canned peaches and unearthing some dried figs in the rummage fest I zeroed in on peach/fig chicken salad.  I had chopped up some of those figs and simmered them on the stove along with some peaches to make a sauce to bake the chicken in.  That was very tasty and I put that pic on facebook and was devastated when one of my favorite cousins whom I will not name (Robin Knight) said it looked "nasty" and said I should have just fried the chicken :)  But I was in too deep to turn back so I pursued the idea.  Here's that nasty chicken getting ready to go in the oven



and here's what it turned into

I had some fancy lettuce from the farmers market that I lined a small glass ice bucket with and put the chicken salad in that.  I served it over salad greens. I opened a can of the fresh peaches I put up a few weeks ago.  Oh and I had previously bought some cinnamon raisin bread from the farmers market and cut a few slices and put some peanut butter and huckleberry jam into tiny little jars and set them out for "dessert".  We never actually got around to eating that but the jars were adorable.  I bet Aubrey (little granddaughter) would love the little jars of P B and J.  

I decided I might need something hot since everything else was cold so I made some green beans.  I added bacon, sun dried tomatoes, red onions and sprinkled them with feta cheese and backed them in foil.

I made basil-lavender iced tea:

 

and I gathered a few herbs from my herb pots for a little bouquet for Sharon to take home

It's sage, lavender, rosemary, lemon thyme and blooming oregano.  Making this bouquet made me think of my sweet mommy who is THE most awesome hostess.  As long as I live I will never be able to cook as good as she does or set a beautiful table like she does.  Anyone who knows her will agree!

I also made a caprese type salad (cukes, zucchini, fresh mozzarella, basil, pine nuts with EVOO and balsamic vinegar) that you will see in the next pic of how it all came together.

We had a nice visit which was a real treat for a work day lunch and it was great to get to know Sharon a little better.  So now you know what I made for lunch and now I can go back to bed!

Ciao!  :)

 

Sneaky Snake Chili and Other Experiments

No... there's no snake in the chili... it's just an expression.  Whew right?  :)  You know how you have to be super sneaky and hide veggies from your kids when they are little?  I did anyway.  They will still roll their eyes as they name off all the dishes they found zucchini in :)  Well... as it turns out Dave does not seem to like spaghetti squash.  And remember that 8.5 lb spaghetti squash I pulled out of the garden the other day?  And remember the mother of all pots of chili?  Very fortunately spaghetti squash is extremely mildly flavored so it occurred to me that I could possibly "hide" it in the chili.  Really I was doing it for myself.  I do like spaghetti squash but dang!  Enough is enough!  I hate to throw things out though so today I did a little experiment.  I just chopped it up and presto!  Just like magic!  Now you see it - now you don't.  Twice as much chili... half the calories more or less.  The only trouble is... now I have even more chili :)  But that's not a bad problem to have.

For dinner... I was highly irritated to find that Dave had to work late again!  I had salmon fillets in the fridge marinating that needed to be cooked.  I hate eating late but if I'm making Dave's favorite dinner which is salmon it needs to be fresh not warmed up.  Almost every night I call to find out what time he is coming home.  That's one of the "benefits" of working for the rail road... he never knows when he's getting off work.  I had been thinking ahead about what I wanted to do about sides.  I had an acorn squash from the garden that I thought I would bake.  And don't forget about the never ending zucchini in the garden... what to do???  I decided on a two squash dinner.  Sounds strange I know but I thought I'd go with a sweet and savory theme,.  For starters I marinated the salmon in teriyaki sauce then cooked in a grill pan on top of the stove.  For the zucchini dish I chopped up a large zucchini into a roughly 3/4 inch dice.  I chopped up an onion and one garlic clove and sauteed them in a little olive oil and seasoned with curry powder and turmeric.  I cooked 1.5 cups of one of the fancy pastas I bought at the Pike Place Market (lemon parsley-it was a pretty yellow/green color) and tossed it into the zucchini with some pine nuts, crumbled feta cheese and at the last minute stirred in some some fresh herbs from the garden, basil, lemon thyme and fennel fronds.  I don't have any idea what to call it.  I'm sure something will occur to me.  It was definitely worth repeating.  The acorn squash became "dessert".  I cut it in half and scooped the seeds out then filled the well with a small sliced apple (skin on - why throw away the fiber?).  I sprinkled a little cinnamon on top and dotted with half a teaspoon of butter in each half and baked it until tender.  Once it was cooked through I drizzled a touch of honey on top and because Dave loves this I topped it with marshmallows and browned them.  All this was totally made up on the fly.  Fortunately each dish was quite tasty :) and worked well together.  This is what it looked like:

I used two marshmallows on Dave's half and cut up one marshmallow into pieces for mine.  If this looks like a whole plate full of food - it is!  I only ate half so I know what I'm having for lunch :)   The stats this morning are 149.4 and glucose 96 so yay!  The bit of pasta and smidge of honey and one marshmallow didn't derail the blood glucose deal. :)

I invited my neighbor Sharon over for lunch on Friday.  Today I began thinking about what to make that I could mostly prepare ahead since it is a work day.  She works from home too and since she lives next door so we thought we would just take a lunch break together.  I immediately began thinking about what I needed to go to the store to get and then thought I would challenge myself to see what I could come up with without making that trip to the store.  I have a couple of ideas but noting solid.  I'll let you know how it comes together.  Many times these surprise meals turn out ok but - no guarantees :)  No worries though... sneaky snake chili will NOT be on the menu!

Ciao!

A Day of Thanks...

I am thankful for WATER!  Our water is running again.  It's one of those basic necessities that I don't really think about much until it's gone.  In our case it was not really gone... just gone from the house.  We washed dishes in the tiny motor home sink and took a shower in the tiny motor home shower.  Not that much fun but way better than nothing!  I washed four loads of laundry yesterday, ran the dishwasher and this morning... ahhh... bath time! Candles and the whole ball of wax.! So I guess I am also thankful for the big jetted tub and the water to go in it.  And that I could hang out in there like a lounge lizard and jump out and run and slide into my upstairs office chair at the very last moment before the clock struck 8 am.  So... I guess I am thankful for a job that allows me to work from home!  Come to think of it... I am a big fat spoiled brat!  I like it!  I am slightly less fat than yesterday though!  The fatomer read 149.3.  A new low!  Every ounce counts :)  Blood glucose was 100.  Normal... barely... but normal.  And normal is not generally a word people would use to describe me so... cool!

Ok... enough silliness.  Gotta get busy working... those lame debtors won't sue themselves and that's a fact!  Yeah... you know who you are!  :)  (As if anyone reads this!  Ha!)

Here are some other things I am thankful for today...

The well that is put back together again.

Mama hen and her babies :)

The Cows saying... Feed Me!!!!

My Awesome husband Dave (Panda getting in on the action)

And my big goofy family.

Ciao!

Still No Water!

And that's the bad news.  Hopefully Fogle will come out today and fix us.  The good news is my blood glucose dropped down to 95 and the fatometer read 149.7  :)  A new low!  By two ounces :)  Every ounce counts!  Just goes to show... way easier to eat properly at home!  I even had half a tortilla shell.  Well... actually I made a cheese quesadillas to go with a taco salad and gave Dave 3/4 of it.  So that would be equivalent to half a shell. 

Well, better quit goofing off!  Lots to do today... including going to the laundromat!  It was closed yesterday :(  I'll go throw the laundry in the machines and then go license Dave's new trailer for him. 

Oh, by the way... the last Lemony Snickets event to report on from the weekend was that Dave got stunk by a bee right in the forehead.  Over the last two days one eye has puffed all up.  I am now married to a monster!  Should have taken a picture!  :)

Ciao!

What a Weekend!

I knew Friday morning as I turned on faucet to brush my teeth that it would be a different weekend.  We had planned on taking our old motor home over to our river property in Ione, WA to spend some time clearing trails and creating access for the tractor so Dave could begin developing the property in ernest.  I had my tooth brush all ready to roll and was very displeased that no water ran from the faucet.  Hmm...  nothin!  Long story short... we decided that the recently discovered break in a water line must have caused the well to go dry and burn out the well pump.  At this time we still aren't sure... we just have ... no water.  When Dave got home that afternoon I heard him making a couple of phone calls and figured he was getting information about the well pump.  Instead he asked me if I was ready to go.  Well no... I thought we were leaving Saturday morning.  He said he thought we would leave tonight (Friday) since we had no water... no reason to hang out at home - but instead of going to Ione which is north east of us - almost Idaho and almost Canada we would be taking the truck to Post Falls, ID to buy a trailer and then Saturday morning continuing on to Genesee ID to pick up a cattle guard he found on Craigs List.  Huh???  Ok!  I scurried around and grabbed just a change of clothes since I knew we would be back to repack before going to Ione.  We thought we would just pick up the trailer and then find a little motel to spend the night before heading to Genesee.  I had no clue where Genesee was but with Google Maps on my phone I had no doubt that we would find it.  On the way we realized that Post Falls was so close to Rathdrum where our dear friends Lori & Woody live that we thought we would call them and see if they were home.  They were.  Years ago they purchased a very old building that housed a saloon called the Westwood and have lovingly restored it.  The building is historically important as it is the oldest continually operated building in the Kootenai county.  It's been a post office, a bank, a couple of other things and finally a saloon.  I don't spend a lot of time hanging out in saloons these days but this one is special.  Woody was running Karaoke Friday night and Lori after working a double shift that day was hosting a birthday party for a friend.  They invited us to stay with them and we gratefully accepted.   Years ago they sold their home and built an apartment in the building behind the saloon.  The same building also housed a large garage where their much nicer motor home was stored and that's where we stayed.
Dave was smart and went to bed early but I wanted to visit with Lori who had to stay until closing so I did not get to bed until after 2am.  Oh baby!  About midnight Lori brought out trays baked artichoke dip with bagels and little smokey sausages.  Of course I snarfed a bunch of bagels and dip.  It was delicious!  And I enjoyed my visit and the food and even sang Rocky Racoon on stage.   Dave was up at 7:30 am and ready to go!  Big sigh!  We snuck out without saying goodbye since our friends are not early risers.  We stopped to get gas and I found some coffee labeled "extreme caffine".  Perfect!  :)

I called Dave Dennler to get his address so I could punch it in to Google Maps.  He insisted on telling me exactly how to get there and finally gave me the address - the only piece of information I needed and wanted as I was sleep deprived and grumpy.  He asked me what my name was and when I told him Kathy I learned way more about a certain young woman in his past than I needed to know... she had been married three times by the time she was 37 and got really mad when he did not give her an engagement ring for Christmas.  He told me that he had lived on and operated his farm for 55 years.  I knew we had a serious character on our hands.  :)  Genesee is "a ways down the road from Moscow" and I must say that I'm very glad I wrote down some notes from his directions because my GPS gave up miles from his farm!  Finally we made it (after stopping and getting directions from another farmer working outside) and were rewarded by a place that was very fun to see.  His lifes work he said.  He's 75 years old and can no longer work but about 6 hours a day and has nobody to leave the farm to when he's gone.  He showed us anything we wanted to see and asked me if I didn't want to take one of his little donkeys home too.  I just have to insert a few pics from his place.

Here's his weathervane:

A view from the farm...

Here he is loading the cattle guard onto our trailer with a 1940 something tractor.

This is just a pic of some of the crazy stuff he makes.


The ride to and from Genesee ID was spectacular.  I love road trips anyway so I thouroughly enjoyed myself.

We made it home and began the process to reset for our little camping trip to Ione.  Man we were glad to not have sold our old motor home since it was the source of drinking water and showers with no water in the house!  Sunday morning we went out to breakfast in Chewelah before heading over the mountains so that I would not have to wash dishes in the tiny motor home sink.  Even with splitting breakfast I know my body was screanming, "come on!  Give me a break!"   After all, half a biscuit and half an order of hash browns is still quite a glycemic load!  I told myself to just shut up and take it.

The drive to Ione was beautiful.  We live in such a gorgeous state!  I was feeling great after a good nights sleep and upon arriving was thrilled to discover that at some point in the last ten years a new cell tower must have been erected because I plugged in my wireless modem and my little mini notebook and presto!  I was connected to the internet.  I tested a phone call on skype - logged on to my remote Valley Supply connection just to test it to see if I could possibly work from there.  Yep!  :)  After messing around with that I moved on to the more critical online tasks... Farmville.  :)  I know!  So lame!  Dave was busy clearing brush with the chain saw and thought he'd take down an old dead tree.  I thought he was just going for the little stuff so I was very surprised when the tip of the tree crashed down on the front of the motor home.  How exciting!  What the heck!???  Well anyway... he finally finished clearing and came in all sweaty with bits of pine and cedar stuck all over him.  He decided to change clothes and went rummaging around in his over night bag and then asked me if I had packed him any extra T shirts.  Again... What???  The answer would be NO!   Since when did I start packing your clothes???  So he found my (formerly Katie's) grey/black rose print camofloge jacket and decided that would work.  It was very pretty on him!  :)

Here he is standing between his two favorite trees on the property.   Too bad it's blurry!

Dave decided then that he better check in to his work situation one more time.  The job he had been sighed up to (he works for BNSF) had been annuled for the holiday which gave him a three day weekend.  He fortunately called in and discovered that someone with more seniority bumped him off that job in order to get the holiday off and Dave had been reassigned to work Monday on the six thirty am job.  He was thrilled!  NOT!  He is at the place in life where time is more important than money and he was really looking forward to having the holiday off.  Instead he's going to be making a lot of money today.  All that to say.... we packed up the motor home and dogs and headed home.  Camping trip OVER!

Back on the road again!  Ione is only about 60 miles from our house.  That's not too far... unless you have only driven about three miles down state hwy 20 when the engine of the motor home shuts down.  :)  Well all I could think to do was pray!  Dave looked over at me like I was a loon and I said, Well, if you have any better ideas..."  He thought we should call AAA and have a big tow truck come.  I informed his that I "forgot" to renew the coverage for that year.  He decided I better keep praying :)  The engine kicked back on and on down the road we went.   It was such a pretty drive and we enjoyed the scenery as we drove along the river.  At one point I realized that I must be getting older... Dave looked over and commented, "Look at the reindeer."  I looked around and said I don't see them... I didn't know we have reindeer here."  He looked at me once again like I was crazy and said, a little louder than was necessary, "I   said    looks   like   it    RAINED HERE woman!"  Ha ha!  Well... we were pretty nervous about the engine but kept plugging along until we got within two miles of the top of Chewelah Peak up the Flowery Trail road when the engine shut down again.  This time he looked over to make sure I was praying!  :)  Never fear!  After considerable cranking the engine and praying we finally made it to the top of the pass and started down the other side.  He kept our speed pretty slow since the brakes were not as responsive when the engine shut down :)  We wound our way down the 10 miles to the bottom and eventually came to our own little road.  I was never as glad to see Cottonwood Creek Road!

Since we knew we were faced with another couple of days of showers and dish washing in the motor home Dave decided to go over and get some water from our neighbor Denny (who also thought Dave looked very pretty in his girl sweater).  He let me and the dogs out at the end of our road and we walked on home.  About half way down the road I saw our part time neighbor Jeremy driving towards us.  He stopped the truck, got out and grabbed a nice tuna fillet that he had recently caught and had frozen.  He had thawed it out for dinner but they changed their plans and wondered if I might want it.  :)  It was oh so tasty!  I also chopped up some of the root veggies that I had bought at the farmers market on Friday (which now seemed like a week ago) and roasted them.  I had bought a fancy kind of beets.  They were candy apple red outside and when I cut into them there were red and white rings on the inside.  So yum!  Dave and I actually fought over the beets :)  I also added a few little fingerling potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and a couple of zucchini.  I wish I had taken a picture of the veggies ready to roast.  They were beautiful.  I have enough for one more dinner so I will take a pic when I prepare them.

This morning Dave got out of bed at 5 am and headed off to work.  I pretended to be asleep :)  I'm so bad!!! I did fall back asleep and did not wake up until 7 o'clock.  I feel very much like I'm playing hooky as I sit at my desk writing this.  It's Monday morning and normally I would be working.  Instead it's Labor Day!  I think I'll go into town and see if the laundromat is open.  Dave hopes to have our water up and running tomorrow eve but I'd just as soon get the piles of laundry out of the way today.

After all the adventure and random meals of less than healthy food I weighed in at 149.9 this morning.  :)  I'll take it!  Glucose was 106 which tells me I better buckle down and get serious!  I want normal glucose readings!

If you have persevered and made it to the end of this little story you know way more about my weekend than you wanted to know and I apologize for that.  Next time - just stop reading!  :)

Last note little note:  good thing we came home!  I learned that the temp was predicted to reach 33 degrees last night so I covered my tomatoes!  Whew!  Close one!  I've watched over them too long to lose them now!

Ciao!

Good News and Bad News...

First the good news... this morning the fatometer read... 149.9!!!!  Ha ha!  I know - lame... under by one ounce.  But like I always say... every ounce counts!  Yay!  Oh... also it's Friday and when is that not good news?  Now the bad news.  (Insert ginormous sigh here)  I saved one fresh peach... I know!  Peaches again!  For a special little dessert for Dave and he decided he wanted it last night.  Grilled peach slices over French vanilla ice cream  drizzled with huckleberry honey and scattered with... you got it... cashews!  Yeah... it's to die for and yeah... I had some too.  I should have taken a pic of that but I didn't think of it because I was in too big a hurry to snarf it down!  So... my glucose reading was 119 this morning.  :(   But!  The fresh peaches are gone... and the cashews are gone!  Time to redeem myself.  Good thing I ate only salads yesterday... other than the peach dessert :)  One of them was awesome.  Gotta show you... actually it looks like every other salad but it was really good... Satusama Bacon Salad:

It was romain lettuce topped with cucumbers and tomatoes (from the garden) and some fresh mozzerella cheese.  Of course there was the bacon - not too much, just enough for a little crunch and flavor - and don't even think about using fake bacon bits!  Let's see... oh yeah the star of the show... those little satsuma oranges and pine nuts topped with basil.  The dressing was just a squeeze of lime with really good balsamic vinegar on top then a drizzle of basic light ranch dressing.  I love to drizzle balsamic vinegar first.  It's low cal and oh so tasty if you use a good one.  After that you don't need much additional dressing if any at all.  I just felt like a little drizzle of ranch would go good.  I was right, it was pretty tasty. 

Well, that's all for today folks, gotta roll.  Have a great weekend.

Ciao!

I'm Pretty Sure I Need An Intervention

First off, just to get it out of the way the stats are:  glucose 107 (yes, there's a reason) and fatometer 150.4.  Last nights cardinal sin was... peaches.  Then cashews.  Then peanuts in the shell.  At this rate I will be back to 160 in no time.  Yep, fell asleep on the couch again watching stupid TV.  It was great!  And stupid because my eyeballs are stinging this morning!  :)  I'm such a creature of habit.  I think I need to change my habits!  I really hate to say this but I may and have to ban cashews from my house.  :(  How bout... only in the shell nuts because they take longer to get at?  Back to the peaches... well... actually back to where it all started... I did not have a mid afternoon snack so I was super hungry after I got finished working.  When I canned peaches the other night there was one quart that wouldn't fit into the canner so I left it in the fridge.  You will remember I bought that nifty water carbonator?  Still nifty.  I love it.  Anyway, I've been drinking a lot of beverages I dream up with a little fresh fruit and a dash of sugar free syrup (currently strawberry is my favorite).  Very tasty!  That's what I had in mind for that jar of peaches.  A couple of slices in my big sippy cup in the morning and I can refill it all day.  The fruit adds a nice subtle flavor and it's pretty!  Throw in some crushed ice and a sprig of mint or basil and you have an awesome little drink treat.  But see - Ive gone off on a tangent again.  Back to the peaches.  I thought that I would just have a few slices out of that jar for a snack then go out and mow the lawns since Dave was not going to be home for no telling how long.  (Fire started on the tracks in the rail yard in Spokane and his job was messed up for hours!)  I did have a few slices.  Then I ate the rest of the jar!  A quart jar mind you!  And a couple of handfuls of cashews...  Enough.  This confession is not making me less fat!  Oh... finally Dave came home and we had the most fabulous rib steaks on the planet.  I had a whole steak.  Couldn't resist!  I also made green beans from the garden.  I put in a few crumbles of bacon and a little salt & pepper of course and a dash of curry powder.  Try that if you like curry.  Yum!   All that to say - it's so difficult to be good!  Here's my challenge to myself.  For the next week be in bed by 10pm.  That ought to curb some of the late night snacking.  Weekends are the exception!  If I could I'd be awake all  the weekend hours.

Yesterday for lunch I was very excited about my caprese salad :)  Everything from the garden.  Except for the fresh mozzarella cheese.  And the pine nuts.  Ok... the tomatoes, cukes and basil were from the garden.  Everything else was not.  :)  I also had a bowl of the way too big pot of chili from last weekend.  I stashed a bunch away in the freezer.  It's so easy to pull out for a quick meal.  Again... everything from the garden.  Tomatoes, onions, zucchini (gotta use it up any way I can think of) and beef from the pasture.  It was a very tasty lunch :)

Alright.  Time to have a little breakfast and then get busy working.  Enjoy your Thursday!

Oh hey!  I have a whole seven "followers" on my blog.  Thank you followers.  Having to report to you almost keeps me from eating myself into a big fat ball of diabetes :) I guess I sort of owe you my health.

Ciao!

Note to Self...

You are stupid!  :)  I just have this obsession with staying up too late and watching reruns of stupid TV shows and snacking!  It's like there are not enough hours in the day and once night comes and I get to sit down (I mean other than my office chair all day) it takes me awhile to unwind.  The binge snacking has  to go.  Anyone else suffer from this?  Please tell me I'm not the only one!  I don't know why knowing there may be other out of control people would make me feel better - but I think it will.  :)  So last nights grievous diet sin  started off with a pretty big bowl of peanuts in the shell.  Guess that would have not been so bad except that it was followed by several handfuls of cashews and then... wait for it... a bowl of Bryers French vanilla ice cream with pistachios scattered over the top and about half a peach sliced up.  It was fabulous!  But... I felt guilty about it then and first thing I did was pop up and test my blood sugar to see if I got away with it.  Umm... NO!  Up to 109.  Not a train wreck but still above normal.  Last two weeks I've had more slightly above normal readings than since I began.  The fatometer read 150.4.  Not dropping!  How could it?  :)

Well... the good news is that I canned more peaches last night.  All the jars sealed and I'm pretty excited because my friend Carol was going to make bread and butter pickles yesterday and we are going to trade peaches for pickles.  Pretty cool :)

Today I'm drying oregano from my herb pots.  It will be nice to have a stash when the fresh stuff is gone.

Time to get to work!  Money to collect/people to sue!  Yippy!

Ciao!