Life Change Week 2 - New Toy

So I have made it through the 2nd week of my life change effort. It was a little harder than the first week because I found myself craving sweets. That made it a little tough, but I did not cave and eat anything bad. A new food I have taken quite a liking to is quinoa. I had never really heard of it before and when I did, I had no idea what it was. This is what multi-colored quinoa looks like (for others like me who are in the dark).
It is a little bit like crunchy cream of wheat, for lack of a better explanation. I like to put it on my salads to give them a little oomph. I also really like just eating it plain with a little bit of coconut milk (another favorite on this change) and maybe a little banana or blueberries thrown in. It has an interesting smell that doesn't come through in the flavor thank goodness.

These photos came in out of order to the next one is Spencer with my new toy. We had a Dell laptop for about a little over a year. I really liked working on it. You might say I got a little addicted. Anyway it died (yes, after only about a year). Dennis got an i-pad for his birthday, but I was missing the laptop. He kept bugging me about buying a macbook so finally this weekend went out and bought one. I get a little discount as a public school employee which helped--a little. We bought a MacBook Pro with a 13 inch screen. I am having lots of fun with it.I had another picture where Spencer was taking a picture of the back of the computer but I loaded in two copies of the same picture. It is so hard for me to get pictures where I want them in these blogs that I am not going to bother adding the other one.
This is this weeks rendition of the muffin. The last two weeks I have used squash to make my muffins. This week I am trying pumpkin. I also added some cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg to "spice" them up a bit. They are made with eggs, almond flour (or meal), bananas, pumpkin, salt and well you are supposed to put in some olive oil and as I was sitting here typing this I realized I forgot to put the oil in. Well, they seem to taste alright anyway.
These will be my breakfast for the week and they are very tasty (even without the olive oil). They also have a little bit of quinoa flour in them too. I meant to take a picture of one of my salads, but it's just a salad so big deal. I make a dressing with 1/2 olive oil, 1/4 balsamic vinigrette, 1 tsp dry mustard and some minced garlic. It is super yummy and I find that I like it on lots of other things besides salad. Week two sounds a lot like week 1 and week three is sounding a lot like the other two weeks. I will let you know how things go when I reintroduce some of the stuff I have been doing without (wheat, dairy, corn products). I'm finding this food so yummy who knows if I really want to bother!

Major Life Change Week 1

Before I get to the life change bit I thought I should acknowledge that Tucker turned 20 last month!! I guess that does sort of qualify as a major life change. Hard to believe my little, bitty first born is so grown up now! He is a hard worker (puts in 30 hours a week at Dunn Lumber and is taking 10 credits at the community college--one math and one chemistry class). He reads graphic novels but listens to somewhat sappy music at times. He still has a nice twinkle in his eye and an infectious grin and a fulltime girlfriend (sigh). He asked for two pies for his birthday instead of cake. He wanted a butterscotch pie that he could eat all by himself and not share with anyone and a peanut butter pie that everyone else would eat. In the end he did share just a little bit if the butterscotch--but not much.

The other night Spencer asked Tucker to help him with his Spanish homework. They looked so sweet together I had to take a picture. They do manage to have a little more fun together now that they are older than they did when they were younger!

So to my life change. Last Monday I started on the Abascal Diet (though I do not call it a diet myself cuz that is not why I am doing it). It is an anti-inflammitory diet designed to help stop inflammation in your system. The first three weeks you cut out all dairy, wheat corn products & sweeteners (though you can eat corn). The other part is that whatever meals or snacks you consume should always be 1/3 meat/protien and 2/3 fruits and veggies (though breakfast can be 1/2 & 1/2) I had been sort of doing the 1/3-2/3 bit for a few weeks before this, but I had not fully cut out all the other stuff. So Monday I dove into it for real.

This is a meal I made for myself last week. I had made some mashed potatoes earlier in the week that were 1/2 potato and 1/2 cauliflower (which they say taste just like regular mashed potatoes and it is actually true). I took the leftover mashed potatoes stirred in an egg and heated it up in the fry pan with a little olive oil. Then I topped the whole thing with avocados (which you can eat freely). I probably looks pretty disgusting, but it was actually quite delicious.

I also made these muffins which I eat for breakfast every morning. They are made with almond flour, eggs, squash, banana, baking soda & olive oil with blueberries thrown in. I heat them up a little in the microwave and mash them up with a little applesauce. It is amazingly delicious.

I made myself a salad pretty much every day with this yummy balsamic vinigerette dressing that I made from scratch. One of my favorite things to do is bake up a bunch of veggies in tinfoil in the oven (like I made when we were in McCall this summer). I use the leftovers in an omelette the next day for breakfast. It's been kind of fun and I have been eating food I have never eaten before--like quinoa.

I definitely have not been hungry or felt deprived. You can eat as much as you want of things as long as you keep the ratio at 1/3 to 2/3. After the first three weeks you reintroduce the stuff you cut out one thing at a time and note your reactions. I learned about this from my co-worker Dana, who went on it because of her arthritis, she determined she had reactions to wheat products and coincidentally also lost 38 pounds. Another co-worker tried it and determined she had recations to dairy products and certain oils in processed food. I decided to do it to see if I could find any foods I might have reactions to in the hopes of maybe clearing of my esophogus problems.

This is just week 1 and it has been pretty easy. The only thing not on the list this week I might have eaten was some frozen yogurt sorbet with Spencer the other night. It said it was dairy and fat free, but it did not say sugar free. Otherwise I have been pretty true. I figure I can make it the next two weeks pretty easily and then we'll see what happens then. Will post again at the end of next week.

Snowmageddon 2012

Now those of you who live in areas where you lots of snow will find it slightly ridiculous that a city like Seattle could be closed down by a few inches of snow. But sadly, it is true. Generally once a year, we get a good snow storm (though last year we didn't) and it pretty much brings everything to a halt, even though they prepare for it as much as you can. Why? you might ask. Well because it only happens once a year why would you go to the expense of an expensive fleet of snow removal equipment--enough for the greater Seattle area (Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, etc...). You wouldn't, though they did finally concede that salt might not be a bad idea despite the "environmental concerns". So this year's snowmageedon happened this week. This first picture is from in back of our house where the resident racoon made his way through the snow.
We did not have school on Monday as it was Martin Luther King Jr day and we were supposed to out doing good deeds and marching in the street in honor of Dr. King. (We stayed home and my friend came for Scrabble). The weather forecast was very sketchy as to when or if snow would actually come. So, on Tuesday we had a two hour delayed start of school--just to be safe. Shortly after school began it started to snow--at least in the north end of Seattle where our school is. Parents began to freak out and our phone was ringing off the hook. Just as the first group of kids went to lunch the District decided we would have a two-hour early dismissal--giving us one hour to get it all together. Let's just say the phone never stopped ringing. The kids left at 12:20 and by about 1:20 it had stopped snowing. Next picture is our front porch.
The weather forecaster originally had declared that the biggest snow would come on Tuesday and by Wednesday it would be rain. Later it became Wednesday could see the biggest one-day snowfall since the 50s. Around 4pm on Tuesday came the call there would be no school on Wednesday. Looking out my window I wondered why--there was nothing in our area. I knew outside areas had been hit pretty hard so I could see why they cancelled their school days. At 2:30am when I got up to go to the bathroom it was still the same and no snow was falling. By time Dennis left for work at 6:30 he said there might be an inch of snow. By time I got up (much later) there was 3 to 4 inches and it was still stacking up. Enough to justify the school closure--whew! (Picture of the garbage can to show the actual snowfall--though this is from today so it has shrunk)
And yes, 3-4 inches is enough to lock down Seattle. They only plow a few major major roadways and leave all the side streets as is. Feel free to blaze a trail in your 4 wheel drive if you have one (and dare be on the street with other idiots blazing a trail!) My friend walked over from her house and we spent the day playing Scrabble while our kids went across the street to sled on the hill at the park. Can't beat that. Still the forecasters were saying rain would be coming by Thursday when the tempurature was supposed to be in the upper 30s. Thursday came along and brought freezing rain (which is an interesting phenomenon if you care to read about it elsewhere). Dennis stayed home, lit a fire in the fireplace, my friend and kids came again to repeat Wednesday and the snow never did turn into rain. Speculation was ripe for whether school would be out again today, Friday, since rain was forecast again. (I think this next picture is funny because the wheelbarrow looks like it is smiling--which I didn't notice till I downloaded the picture)
You guessed it. School was cancelled again today. It is raining, but it will take quite awhile for it to wash away the snow. People are still sledding across the street--getting every bit of enjoyment out of our one week of snow as they can. All these pictures are from today. We probably got 4-5 inches on Wednesday, another inch or two on Thursday and now we are just waiting for it to become a memory.
That's another reason to like Seattle. You get one week of snow--enough to just kind of enjoy it and then it is gone. It doesn't hang around for months and months turning ugly and it only takes on storm to get you out of school for a day or two. You can't beat that--though the "snowmaggedon" aspect from the media standpoint is a tad ridiculous. It is a nice break from the rest of our winter weather which is dark, dull, grey and rainy.

A Visit from Dad

Dad came for a visit for Christmas. We decided to invite him because Cooper turned 12 on his birthday and that meant he was ready to be receive the priesthood in our church and be ordained as a Deacon which means he would get to pass the sacrament during church services as well as other responsibilities. Dad has ordained all the other boys so it was a tradition. With mom's passing in August I figured Christmas at home might be a little tough so we asked him to come from Cooper's birthday until after his own birthday on the 29th. A nice long visit. We took him on the Christmas ship cruise his second night here.We got to eat dinner and cruise Lake Washington with a flotilla of all sorts of boats decorated with Christmas lights and listen to very nice Christmas music. Despite his expression in this photo, he DID enjoy the cruise.

When he visted in September, Dennis let him wear this nice brown leather jacket that he bought at Value Village. Dennis decided that it looked so nice on him that he gave it to him to keep when he came at Christmas. We gave him the gray scarf for a Christmas gift and he is wearing one of Cooper's baseball hats.

We visited Pike Place Market (towards the end of his trip actually). It was very crowded and he decided that he really didn't need to visit it again any time soon. We also wandered through one of the few remaining antique stores near the market. He DID enjoy that.

One of my favorite things at the Market are the flowers that are sold by the Hmong people. A big group of them settled on farmland near Carnation and they grow flowers and sell them at the market. The arrangements are always unusual/interesting and fairly inexpensive as flowers go. Spencer took this picture (in fact all the pictures except the 1st one of course) of some of them. Not sure it does justice to the flowers, but the different colors give you a little idea.

This is Dad & I coming down the stairs from the Market. I think it's funny because we almost have the same mouth expression--except I look happy and he looks grumpy.

Okay I know this is random, but I threw these two pictures of Cooper in because they were in the same folder where Spencer had uploaded the pictures from Dad's visit. They cracked me up so I just thought I would throw them in for fun.

They are from this summer at our friends the Guidos' cabin in Riggins, Idaho. Cooper is a regular fish when we visit and spends all his time in the pool. Spencer was testing his photograpy skills. It think they are hilarious.

This last picture I like to think of as the Three Wise Men. This is from the Chandler "Little Christmas" on the eve of Christmas Eve. Dan & Lisa throw a big Chandler gathering at their house where Swedish pancakes are served along with all kinds of other yummy food. When everyone saw these guys sitting on the sofa we had to get a picture. The Wise Men are (left to right); Lisa's dad Philip Wickstrom, Dad and Dennis' dad Dwight. Dad & Dwight are both 82 and I think Philip is a little younger but close in age. It was so funny to see them all sitting together on the sofa!

Dad had a great time at the party talking to everybody there and everyone loved having him. Kacee's older sister wanted to adopt dad. Doug almost started crying when he saw dad (didn't know he was coming). We had a white elephant gift exchange and one of mine was a container of Cox's Honey (best honey in the world straight from Rigby Idaho) which dad had shipped me in the mail before coming up. It was meant for Lisa but Doug ended up stealing it for his wife. I thought they might come to fisticuffs. (I did give Lisa her own container on New Years' eve when we got together).

I wasn't sure what to give dad for Christmas (always tricky and even trickier thinking about him taking it home on a plane). The scarf (mentioned earlier was an easy one cuz he could wear it. I also got two picture frames and put in a couple of old pictures I had scanned from his slides back in 2004. This first one cracked up all the "boys" because I look just like Spencer did when he was a baby--same semi-crusty expression (without the bonnet of course).

The next one I also love because the of the dreamy, faraway look in mom's eyes and they were so young. Of course both of them made him cry, but then so did pretty much any conversation with anyone--including waitresses, shop keepers, random people in the store, etc. Though these did make him cry, not just choke up so that probably wasn't fair of me. I just thought he should have it.

I also made him filled cookies (thanks to Inkom Crazy Lady for the recipe). He put them in a big baggie, packed them in his soft luggage and checked that bag on the plane. I asked when he got home how they survived. He said great. Not sure I believe him but then he says "they taste the same" no matter whole or crumbled!

Tae

You asked for it and here it is. For those of you curious about Tucker's new girlfriend, Tae, here is a picture for you. Tae is half Japanese, half Honduran. She is a Sophomore at the Univeristy of Washington and Tucker met her at his cousin Kelly's sorority--which of course tae is also a member. She is a very sweet girl and Tucker is quite smitten with her. The spend pretty much every day together. Dad met her when he came up in September and gave her two thumbs up. We like her too (when we get to see her). This cropped out of a bigger picture that Spencer took for the Sorority. Tae has had Spencer take photos for the sorority twice now and he has done a pretty good job (though he says he won't do it again because some of the girls "are not very nice".) So now you have met Tae.

T-Day

This year we spent Thanksgiving at our house with just our family, Oma & Opa and Tucker's girlfriend Tae. It was a small group compared to past years. I always make pumpkin pie and rolls (the same rolls we always had when I was growing up--Parker House). Dennis does the mashed potatoes and Oma brings dressing and Waldorf Salad plus relish items. Usually we cook the turkey on the BBQ but this year we did it in the oven and it was great. Spencer, by choice, is always in charge of table decorations. He makes place cards for everyone each year from the craft paper we have. These are this year's place cards. He always amazes me with his creativity. He got these leaves off the tree out in front of the house, dried them off (it was rainy & yukcky on T-Day) and proceeded to make these awesome place cards!
We weren't actually totally alone that holiday week. We had seven little visitors for the week. My friend Michelle was "fostering" a pregnant cat for a local shelter. The cat ended up having six adorable kittens a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Michelle and her family were planning on going to Florida for the week for the week of Thanksgiving and needed someone to watch all the kitties while they were gone. Spencer volunteered (he was motivated by the $50 Michelle said she would pay). Tucker was all for it because he had come to Michelle's house with me one time and met all the kitties and was totally like a little kid about it. So we had the kitties from the Saturday before Thankgiving until the Monday after--basically 8 days. Long enough for all the boys to get attached (well mostly Tucker & Cooper). They even named all of the kitties. These pictures are of a couple of the kitties in Tucker's vest pockets. The striped one they named Doug.

This one may or may not be Tolouse, Thomas O'Malley or Simba. There were three gray kitties (two that were identical--born in the same sac), and a tiny black & white kitty (Marie). Yes, most were named from Disney's Aristocats movie which Tucker & Tae had recently watched.

My personal favorite was Marie because she was the smallest. They were extremely cute, especially when they were in a feisty mood. We also had the mama kitty which we called Mama Kitty. They stayed mostly in the downstairs bathroom but we boxed in a section of the hallway outside the bathroom when we let them out to play. We didn't want them all over the house, mostly because they were major pooping machines. Cooper made the mistake of feeding them some milk one day--boy did we pay for that one in a major, runny way! So yes, the downstair smelled a little poopy, okay alot poopy, but it was still fun to have the kitties for the 8 days.

And no, we did not end up keeping one despite Cooper's fervent wish that we could. Despite their awesome cuteness, kitties become cats and we just were not into having another one! It was fun while it lasted though. Well not so much for Spencer as he was on kitty litter patrol everyday, plus he was afraid of Mama Kitty for some reason. For the rest of us though it was fun--even Dennis on occasion.

Last Meet

Yesterday was Spencer's last meet of the season for X Country. There were 10 schools at the meet. Spencer got to run for the JV team which was the next fastest boys after the Varsity team for Ballard. He was supposedly number 14 so he just made that. (There was a third race that was for all other boys who were no Varsity or JV). So every team there was running their top 14 too so it was a race of 140 boys. His last race last week he ran the same course in 20 minutes even.So, he was running with a faster group than he usually does and he said he could tell it and thought he had done a pretty good job. He ran the race in 19:17! That's a big leap in x-country. He was very excited because his goal had been to break 20 minutes and he sure did it. It was a great way to finish off the season. I think if he keeps running with a faster goup of kids his time will continue to improve.

I know I keep make posts where Spencer is the topic. Spencer would say that's because he is my favorite (not true). We don't see much of Tucker these days between his work and his girlfriend. Cooper is playing soccer but it is on Sunday and Dennis is the only one who has been going to the games and he has not been taking pictures. Both are doing well though.
Dennis & I took a trip to Phoenix a week ago and had a great time. We played golf four days in a row. We had a great time. Sadly I got sick while we were there. Not sure if it was a cold or finally letting go of the stress of the start of school and other things. Still sick a week & a half later.
Today would have been my mom's 82nd birthday. Not sure what I can say other than that.