Parrot on my butt

This is Gus, our African Grey parrot. He is 23 years old. He talks and beeps and whistles and makes the most annoying sounds possible. We keep his cage area open and he can go in and out of his area but he usually stays put. Every once in a while he flutters down to the ground (his wings are clipped). And he walks around the house looking for us. Today he found me in the living room..I was on the ground down leg stretching for my pt after surgery. He hopped over climbed up my arm, walked down my back and hung out on my butt

Chicken Vegetable Soup

I call this my healing soup. It has the best flavors. And because I cook it in the pressure cooker it is fast and easy. I don’t really have a recipe but I always start with diced onion, celery and carrots. A cup of each or if less than a cup then equal amounts. I sauté these in olive oil then I put 1-2 cans of diced tomatoes, a cup of frozen peas, a handful of frozen spinach. Then I season with dried basil and dried parsley, salt and pepper. . I’ve made the soup like this and it makes a good veggie soup..just add water to cover the veggies and cook. But for chicken soup..I add chicken drumsticks to the pot and chicken broth/water. My pressure cooker has a soup setting..so I let it do it’s thing. When it’s done I wait 1/2 hour to make sure that the pressure is down (better safe than sorry) I take all the chicken legs out and with a fork I scrape the meat from the bones. I put the meat back into the pot. This soup is amazing and it’s exactly what I need to heal after surgery. I use any veggies I have in my fridge you could probably add some beans to make a minestrone like soup.

Thankful for Netflix and Prime

It’s been 5 days and I’ve done nothing but this. I’m in tremendous pain (more than I expected), I’m stuck in a bed or a chair, I have a heavy cast (makes it awkward to sleep/move, my tail bone hurts from sitting and laying in the same position for a week...But I have to say...I have THE best family! My husband and kids are taking the best care of me. I am truly blessed. And finally I’m having a Coffee. My stomach was so upset the first couple of days, but the headach(and caffeine withdrawals are hoping the stomach can tolerate it.

Surgery Day

I was injured at work 10 months ago and after wearing a boot for 2 months I wasn’t completely healing so I did physical therapy and still not healing had an MRI that showed damage to my tendon. So, finally, after months of walking around in pain and not being able to do much, I went in for surgery. my husband, William, drove me to the hospital a little over an hour away. I didn’t feel nervous until the day before. Surgery only took 45 minutes and William got the news that everything went well. I slept for most of the recovery room time and as soon as I was awake I was being dressed and put in the car to go home and slept most of the way home. At home I was well taken care of. My leg is in a cast and was partially numb for about 18 hours. I slept most of the first day and when awake I was just groggy from the anesthesia. I woke up in the night in tremendous pain..all the numbness was gone and I was now nauseous and feeling the injury completely. My biggest challenge so far has been getting to the bathroom. My house is 4 levels. It’s not easy to get around on crutches. I have a scooter on the the main level. But there is no bathroom on the main level. Mom came to visit Wednesday and had to come upstairs to visit me because I was so nauseous I had to stay in my room. She has trouble getting up the stairs so Thursday morning I felt slightly better and with the help of my son I made it down stairs. Photo 1 is before surgery. Photo 2 has been every moment since. I’m going back and forth between my bed and chair. My body is aching from being down. 6 weeks before, the day my surgery was scheduled, I stopped all sugar and refined grains so I would have the best chance to heal without much inflammation. I actually haven’t had much appetite, probably due to the nausea, so I’ve been eating mostly chicken broth and Lara bars. I’ve also had a cup of lentil soup with chicken and sweet potato. I was told I won’t be able to put weight on my foot or drive for atleast 6 weeks so I’m planning on working on some sewing projects. For now, I’ll just sit here and heal.

Ruby Beach in Washington State

The mist was beautiful. It looked exactly like how I imagine the Pacific North West coast. There was a lot of people on the beach, but we found a great lunch spot and after lunch we explored the rocks and walked on the logs. Liam made a sort of log shelter.

Summer Vacation Donuts!!

Our Vacation was at the end of July this year. We decided, ahead of time, to not go to chain restaurants..we wanted to try local spots if possible. Donuts was a HUGE part of this! It's almost as if we traveled from donut shop to donut shop...yumm

We drove from California to Oregon to the tip top of Washington. These photos are from 1 of the many many donut shops(there's no room for a diet on summer vacay)...some really different donuts from Voodoo Donuts in Portland, Oregon. I think we first saw Voodoo on TV.. a show that I used to watch on the food network channel, when we used to have cable.

Cock-A-Doodle Donuts in Port Angeles, Washington. The night we got into Port Angeles, we checked into our hotel and walked all around the town. We spotted this donut shop and went back the next morning... BTW the city of Port Angeles is really cute. I wish we had more time to explore.

April 5K in Fresno

July 2016

I haven't posted in so long! I actually haven't sewn or made anything lately(other than attaching badges to GirlScout uniforms). I'm still on a fitness journey though. I started Crossfit 6 months ago. That means that I've been super sore for 6 months. My very first class was a 1 on 1 with a trainer. I went home and couldn't walk for 3 days without moaning and wimpering. So, what I've been up to lately... I also ran 2 5Ks and am signed up to do another next week...and I'm really bad at running. I just keep telling myself that its good for me.

Chocolate Cookies!!!!

This is the new cookie I tried this year. It's called the Fudge Bonbon Cookie and it is very good and chocolaty! I have a chocolate loving husband and he loves these cookies (probably because they are almost all made from chocolate. Recipe: 2 Cups of all-purpose flour 1/2 Cup finely chopped pecans (I think I'll chop them less next time I try these) 1/4 Cup butter 14 oz. of sweetened condensed milk(1 can) 1 tsp. vanilla 1 package of chocolate kisses 2 oz. white baking chocolate 1 tsp canola oil(I didn't have canola, so I used olive) 1. Combine flour and pecans, set aside 2. Microwave/melt the chocolate chips and butter, stir until smooth 3. Stir in milk and vanilla until blended. 4. Add the flour mixture in and mix well 5. When cool enough to handle...shape the dough into a ball around one kiss. 6. Place 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. 7. Bake for 7-9 minutes at 350deg. 8. Take them out of the oven when the tops begin to crack. Cool on a wire rack. 9. Melt the white chocolate and oil in the microwave. Drizzle over the cookies. (I did step 9 the next day)

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas from our family! We tried to have all of the cousins on the stairs for our annual photo. It never works out how we'd like..but after a bit of photo shoping..here they all are: Nicole 17, Liam 16, Carson 15, Kaden 14, Rachel 13, Riley 12, Ethan 11, Kale 11, Kennedy 10, Evan 7, Sidney 2, Miisa 1. We have a big crazy family. My Mom and Dad have 12 grandkids and we all celebrate Christmas with a delicious dinner and open presents on Christmas day. December has been really exciting and busy for us. Both of our kids had band concerts, marched in the parade. Liam plays the trombone in the high school jazz band and sousaphone in the marching band. Riley is in the beginning 6th grade band and plays the trumpet. My girl scout troop had a special Holiday party. We asked all of our girls to bring something to share that was a tradition from their family. One of our girls talked about Hanukah and taught us how to play Dreidel. Another of our girls brought Latkes for us to try, and another brought Tamales!!!mmm It was fun to hear the kids talk about the special things their family do. We lit candles and sang and decorated cookies. We traveled to visit friends and then stayed a night with Williams parents. We had "Christmas" with them a few days before Christmas. We had so many events and thing to do that we weren't able get a tree until a week before Christmas. Once it was up and decorated we had our first batch of cookies. More about the cookies later. It has definitely been a busy end to the year. We are blessed to be able to have such a nice Christmas. I had some of my good friend over to do some baking.

Run or Dye 8/23/2014

I Ran 5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We signed up for this as a group a few months ago. Our group was: my husband, William, My friend Judy and her husband, Charles, My friend Sophia and her sister, Heidi and her daughter Marissa. We also saw a handful of people I work with and some of my Girl Scout Leader friends. William stayed with me the whole time even though he could have run it faster. I think we ended in 33 minutes..? The start was exciting! There were so many people. There was loud music playing, we all threw our powdered dye up into the air. Everyone was sprinkled in color. Then we ran. And I ran the entire way without stopping! We were in the third wave and once we started running I was determined to go as far as I could before walking. The longest I'd run (since age 21) was a half mile. People in front of us were walking from the beginning so for the first 5 minutes we were having to dodge around people. We were mostly in the sun, but it was still early(the first group started at 9am). Once we finished it was starting to feel warm. I am so proud that I ran the entire way without walking. I totally surprised myself. I did it at my pace, but I was able to stay steady the whole way! There were 5 color stations along the way. Volunteers would scoop up handfuls of color and throw it at the runners. I didn't get too much in the beginning but by the end I was coated in color powder! Two of my little girl scouts were the ones throwing the colors at the finish line. I hear my name and turned my head to look and say hi as I was running across the finish and got a face full of orange. I had to go over to the grass to spit..it was in my mouth and nose and eye. I looked like a Cheetos!

Girl Scout Journey Day Camp

Mother Daughter Tea

Happy Easter

my WLC plate

This is a sampling of the foods I have been eating on the Whole Life Challenge. Some call this NSNG or Paleo. It's basically no-sugar, no-dairy, no-grain. I feel great eating this way! I'm so happy with the variety of food I'm able to eat. My tastebuds are changing, everything tastes so good. I started the 8 week WLC January 11, 2014. The challenge ended in March but I kept eating the same clean diet. May 2 started my second WLC. I'm hoping this will give me a boost and keep me going.