Ice Skating Rinks

The temp here still hasn't come up above freezing since mid-December but it really hasn't snowed much since the end of the year. This has left us with a frozen crust of snow on everything. Most of the roads are clear and dry, but the ones that aren't- the roads less traveled- are covered with a bumpy hard ice sheet that is very hard to navigate on foot. It was cold today, and windy. Please don't think this is a complaint. The winter is BEAUTIFUL. I do long for a fresh coat of snow to clean everything up, but I am the minority in that regard.

On the diet front, I am still clean of all my prior addictions. I still miss all of em too, and I am frustrated that the scale shows nothing yet. Yes, I know that scale weight is not the only measure, but there are moments that I think I could be eating and drinking and eating what I want and maintaining...so why all the hard work. Then I have moments like this morning when I was in the back seat of a car and was forced to see my chin and neck in the rear view mirror for an extended time. That was lovely. No eyes or hair to distract from the neck and chin that I definitely did not want to claim.

Grapefruit, Banannas and Peppers, Oh my!

Another day down. They say the first 3 days are the hardest, and I hope it's true because it has not been easy. I haven't suffered the caffiene withdrawl headache, but I have suffered MAJOR cravings for diet soda, or anything sweet. I am tracking my calories and nutrition on Fitday as is Dakota. Thats a great FREE site that really makes you realize what you are putting in your mouth. With my daily vices on the no-no list, there hasn't been much I have wanted to eat. I carry an orange or banana with me so that I don't get home hungry and dislocate my jaw to eat whatever is in front of me.

If you haven't checked it out yet, the newest member of our family to start blogging Chibi the pug. Her advice coulum is not to be missed.

Sweet and Surprising

Dakota had his meeting with his consultant this morning. He also got his grades for the last semester. My goodness, I could not be prouder! He got A's in WA history, PE, Math, Math Interventions, an elective and a B in English! Thats a 3.83. He is setting the bar high for the other kiddos, we'll get that info this week, so stay tuned. Chey is taking to Spanish like you wouldn't believe, and I can no longer understand about 1/2 of what she says. Gabe's laptop contracted a nasty virus he is working on fixing, and I think Jess is just happy to be done with his Great Wonders project, which received a high A! (His mom is glad that's done, too!)

So far so good on my detox plan. Whats really funny is the thing I am craving most is artificail sweetener! Most of you who know me are aware that I have never thought of sweets as my weakness, I am more of a bread, cheese and butter kind of girl. However, those same folks know that I have been shamelessly addicted to energy boosting supplements for over a decade. For years, I took drops with a high ephedra content (until it was banned!). I used to pour a couple of Diet Squirts into a mason jar, load it with the energy drops and refill when it was empty. My desk always his a couple 12 packs of Diet Squirt. When I finally had to give that up, I switched to Diet Rock Star energy drinks. I would have at least 2 of the giant 32 oz ones every day. That was even more expensive than the drops had been. Then, Gina showed me that I could get a lot more bang for my buck with the Crystal light energy packets. They were only about $3 for 14 packets, which would last me for 3 or 4 days. Massive caffiene, almost no calories, how could that be bad. BTW, in Gina's defense, she bought them for herself, and did not like them- she was not trying to feed my bad habit.


Anyhow, if I calculate correctly, I have never skipped a day of energy drinks of some sort since the days of North Creek Heights, about 15 years ago! So all this time I thought I was addicted to caffiene and ephedra, and I think I was just as hooked on Aspartame or whatever they put in the drinks to sweeten them without calories.

I have no issues with energy, I feel great...I just wanna chug some diet soda...NOW. I am going to do some more research on why they are so bad (I have been told, it just seemed like the lesser of two evils) and that should motivate me to stick with it.

Something I have been putting off

I keep talking and talking about it, but it's time for me to get serious about getting healthy. Todays WT really made me think about the fact that it's hard to serve with my whole strength if part of my "whole strength" is just taking care of the body I have neglected. So here is me, putting it out there...I took measurements in several places and I still have a grand total of 80 inches I need to lose. My goal is to have that completed by the end of August. I'd rather not share how many pounds that translates into, but I will down the road. How am I going to do it? One word. DETOX. I am cutting caffiene, alcohol, dairy, gluten, artifical sweeteners, and as many cooked food as I can. It's going to be a drastic diet because I need drastic and I am tired of feeling yucky so often.

Hold me accountable. I will post inches lost every two weeks!

Spam, Geography and the Alternator

Welcome to random world! Not a lot of significance has happened so far this month. The Alternator went out on the van, and we are waiting for something to close before we replace it, so we've been sliding around in the truck. Gina is still staying in town, and Hugh and I are still being wimps and sleeping in the house instead of trying to brave the bus. Gabe and Jess have been splitting their time between both places and I realize how spoiled we've been all living together. Back to forgetting stuff at the other parents house, back to trying to keep track of which article was studied where and with who.
I got distracted sorting through stuff in my outlook email box. I had 6000 unread messages, plus many more than that that had been read. I started trying to get rid of the spam and successfully reduced the unreads down to 3400 before remembering that I was going to update this.
I had an encouraging call from a coastie friend who says he thought maybe my love of this place was a phase, but that every time he talks to me I sound even happier than before. I think I am. It's been almost a year since we first started talking about this move. The first weekend in March was out first visit here, so it must have been mid-February when we first talked about it. What a difference a year makes.
I saw Skyler in town today and he looked...at peace...I don't know any other way to describe it. He had a smile on his face, and this sense of well being that made me feel very happy. He looked almost guilty. I asked him what was up and he sheepishly admitted that he thinks he is really starting to like it here. I told him I thought it kinda gets in your blood, if its the right place for you, and he seemed to understand what I meant. However, he hasn't embraced it yet.
We had a great visit from the CO, very encouraging. He and his wife were a delight and they will be back in April. It still feels a little odd to only have one night time meeting a week, but we are filling it up with study time. Just miss the association, I guess.
I finished the world geography course, which is designed to teach you all the countries of the world in 18 weeks. I designed it for Chey, who is now so far ahead of her grade that she gets to back off on school work and hence, will not need the course this year! I had a blast doing it though, and I am hopeful I can get into writing curriculums for $$ in the near future.
Dakota is insisting he is starving to death, so I am going to go build some dinner.

Starting off the year right

We had Paula, Raine and Laraine here this weekend. Gina, Skyler and Ganny had George and Kathy at the house in town. It was a weekend of great company, good food and wonderful upbuilding conversation. The WT study this week was so invigorating, I think we all got a shot in the arm to start the year off.
Paula and Raine stayed up at the Kammeyer estate, and We kept Laraine here at The Rainey Ranch. Laraine took us to dinner at Tonasket Pizza Co, and having not been for a meal out in months, it was pretty amazing. They have Calzones the size of Shetland Ponies. Dakota had JUST arrived home, so part of my meal was spend just being happy to see him again. I think we took more food home than we were able to eat.
We tried bribing the three of them with more snowy drives and congregation gatherings, but alas, they headed back over to the wet side. I mean, the West side. Or maybe I don't.