Fall 2012!

How is it possible that my last post was spring and this post is fall?  And not only fall... it snowed last night!  Enough to cover the grass, trees and barn roof!!!  but it's rain/snow now and melting off.  This spring, summer and fall have been full of life.  Some painful stuff but mostly wonderful (sounds like Dorthy describing her trip to Oz) and full of change!  Boy, how to fast forward 6 months?  Well... food wise... I believe it was just about June 1st when I took a good look at myself and decided that once again I needed an intervention - or at least a new plan!  I believe this was brought on by having to once again go to my upstairs closet and dig out my fat pants!  Ugh!  My Aunt and Unc had arrived to spend the summer with us by this time and somehow it occurred to me that maybe I should try Weight Watchers.  Aunt Jane is a lifetime member and has been very sucessful keeping trim for a long time.  Maybe I had gone to the trailer for a visit and caught her writing down points in her food log.  I don't recall what brought on the decision to join but join I did and it's been an interesting journey from that time to this.  Currently I am down 20ish pounds from June 1st.  I really want to loose another 5 or so but I'm proud of how far I've come.  Just so you know... they are the same 20 pounds I've written about over the last two years.  Anyway... when you fall off the wagon you just get up, chase after it for awhile and get back on right?  Oh, I may have rolled around in the road for awhile but I'm back on!  As of today I weigh 148.7 and my glucose level this morning was 79.  Yes... during my period of fatness my blood sugar once again climbed higher than is healthy.  And once again... now that I'm eating a much healthier diet it has come way back down and is now in the normal range.  Yay!  That is the ultimate goal.  I'm sure I'll have more to say about the Weight Watcher program later but for now... lets move on.

At the time of the last post I was about 9 months into to my new retirement and Dave was just getting settled in to his.  He found as I did that as wonderful as retirement is it definitely is a major adjustment and that even welcome changes can be confusing and scary.  At this point we both just don't want anyone to wake us up and spoil the amazing dream! 

Dave spent the summer working around the yard, fields, barn.  Messing with fences and animals and working a bit on our property across the hills at the Pend O'Reille river.  Here he is doing a little clearing so we could bring the old motorhome over to camp in...



And here is Lucy bout to climb out of the water after a nice swim ...





Tank looking for a little reassurance after the chain saw noise is over.  As you can see in the background... I was very glad to get the motorhome over there.  I'm not all that much into tent camping.  :)



And just one more shot of the lake front area



He also spent time thinking about and semi planning the fall road trip we have recently returned from.  More about that later.  He began every day the same... cup of coffee on the porch in his trashy and ancient Lazy Boy recliner with his legs in the sun and his kindle in his hand.  I loved seeing him be able to relax and smell the java :)  I spent the summer working in the garden and kitchen attempting to come up with food that was yummy, satisfying and did not exceed my weekly/daily allowance of Weight Watcher points.  I was mostly successful.  Once late summer came along it was good-bye home and hello road.  My first road trip was accompaning my daughter to southern CA in order to become daughter Katie's live in nanny.  

This is a pic of us as we were getting in the car to take off.  Look at my beautiful sunflowers in the background.  :)  And Lucy & Tank :)  And the shirt that I'm always getting razzed about wearing in every picture.  Hey!  It's comfy!  :)

The drive down was fun for the first 8 or 12 hours and them miserable once I figured out that she wasn't stopping until we arrived!  But once we did arrive I loved spending time with my beautiful grand daughters!  I also enjoyed the desert heat and playing with the babies in their little swimmy pool.





Charlotte and Kami splashing







Walking the GRAND daughters :)



We celebrated Michele's birthday while we were there...

We went to San Diego...



Charlotte at Sea World





Me at the waterfront

             



 

Katie with babies at the Hard Rock San Diego







Oh and here is revenge for Michele posting my 1990's big
hair with Tweety Bird glasses pic on facebook :)
Michele at Coronado Beach :)
Actually... I absolutely love this pic.  It's my favorite
current pic of Michele.  A great memory :)

 




























And one of my all time favorite pics... Sst Mary Katherine Muhammad with babies.
Looks like Charlotte is saying... Uncle Sam Wants You!


But all good trips must come to an end right? 
So I can go on another one!  But... that's another story... especially since I can't get my text format to behave :) 

Ciao!