Week 2 results

Another 3.5 pounds and about 8 inches lost! Woohoo!!
This gives me a 2 week total of 7 pounds and 23 inches. That means I've averaged a half a pound a day! And almost 12 inches a week! I can hardly believe that! It's just amazing and I love it!
Now I get to start adding things back in a little at a time to see how I react, and to get ready for the Hubby's return on Friday and the return of cooking for someone other then myself who won't eat most of what I've been eating for the last 2 weeks (and who wants to cook twice?). Friday and Saturday night I had the grand daughter for a few hours, so I made some 3 year old friendly foods during that time, and I will admit that I sampled. So I know I'm good with rice, potatoes and cheese already. I really wasn't too worried about having problems with any of them. So it was good to have that confirmed. However, today at Church I had a tiny piece of bread during the Sacrament (it's kinda like the Catholic Communion for any non-LDS folk out there..) and within minutes I had a headache and my throat started to feel a little closed off and tight. So, it looks like I do indeed have a wheat intolerance of some sort. I know I don't have Celiac Disease, thankfully, but I don't know yet if it's just a wheat allergy or if it is an all out gluten intolerance. Will take a bit more experimentation. But for now I am doing some research and will start slowly replacing things in the house with gluten and wheat free alternatives. This is going to be hard though. I love bread, and crackers, and pasta, etc so very much. At least these days there are viable alternatives, and I've already learned quite a bit in just an hour or so online about converting recipes, so, if I can find the things I need, I should be able to still do a lot of things.
Is going to be interesting the next few months while I get this all figured out and get my pantry all sorted through.

February

Ok, I am managing to remember to post. Woohoo!
Not much is going on right now. Winter has been weird this year; too warm and not enough snow, but it seems to be trying to be normal again now.
Hubby is off at work for another week and a half and while he's been gone this time I decided to try a new diet. Shockingly, it's actually working! I lost 3.5 pounds last week, and 15 inches over all! This is the first time since the car accident in 2007 that I've been able to loose anything at all and I'm loving it! I know I've lost more inches since I did my weekly weigh in check (do those on Sundays) and I'm just loving this! Not sure how long I'll be able to stick to this once T comes back from the slope, I'm not supposed to do this for more then a few weeks at a time anyway; but I am going to be doing it every time he's gone, that is for sure!
I have been taking a provident living class every other week and this week I managed to get started on the "home work" for it. We were told to put together 5 cook book binders and start collecting our favorite recipes. The binder topics that were "suggested" didn't really work for the way I cook, so I came up with my own and wound up with 10 of them to start with. Some of them are for things we haven't covered yet in the class, but it will make it easier for me to sort my recipes.
And I'm going to be getting ready to get my seeds started for this year's garden here any day now. Soon as I get a chance to sit down and see what all I have and if I still need anything. The greenhouse is up in the front window and nearly ready to go. I need to find out from Hubby if I'll be able to use the window bay in the master bedroom this year or not (it is a construction zone currently) so I know how many tomato and pepper plants to plan for.
The de-construction of our master bed and bath continues. Well, it's on hold while Hubby is away, but he got a lot done last time. The linen closet walls are down, there is a big hole for a window in the wall between the 2 rooms and the sink counter is out. There is, sadly, a big pile of drywall bits on the floor as it was too cold to move those out before he left, but those won't be there long. We are hoping to get the tile and tub out this time and to maybe even get started on replacing the flooring in the bathroom area. We will have to order the tub itself soon and it will take several weeks for that to show up. (We have to special order it because of the color we want it in - gray.) Should all be very nice once we get it all done. Just hope it doesn't drive us all crazy until then. :)
In other news.. B1 and C have a house!! They close on the 17th and we're all very excited about it. It will only be about a 20 minute drive from us, so it's not too bad. :)
And.. B2 took first place on her oratory last weekend in speech and debate!
That brings everything new and exciting more or less up to current :)

2011 A new year, new hopes

Ok, so I was just reviewing and saw that it had been 2 months since I posted.. so, it's about time.. My only blogging goal for the year is to post at least once a month on each of my blogs. We will see how that goes.
Thanksgiving was a hoot. We had all 3 girls here, plus the SIL and grand daughter and the guy the kids have been house sitting for, whom the SIL also works with. It was packed and crazy, but it was fun. Because hubby's work schedule kept him away until Friday, we did the big dinner on Saturday. Which was nice as it spread things out a bit more for the girls. They did Thanksgiving day with their grandparents and aunt and uncle, then Friday we all went to town to pick their dad up and went to see the Harry Potter movie, then Saturday we had the big bash. That was also the grad daughter's 3rd birthday, so we made it a double party. Tons of food and some video games. Things wound up being called a bit short of our original plans as the eldest step daughter had to go to a funeral, but we still managed to have fun before the younger 2 left on Sunday.
Christmas was quiet for me. Hubby was at work through Christmas and New Years this year, so we didn't do much. So I got a nice quiet restful holiday for a change. This doesn't happen very often.
Tomorrow we get our new stove at long last!! After having spent most of the last year with the oven not working properly and making due with a large toaster oven, a crock pot or two and an electric roaster oven (thankfully the burners worked! though once in a while you'd have to start them with a lighter. Though, honestly, it's amazing how much you can work around with those, I even did a full Thanksgiving dinner!) we are finally getting the new stove we've been saving up for. It will be so nice to actually be able to cook again! And this one is a nice 5 burner, double oven stove. I am seriously so excited. I have no idea what I will cook first on it. I ordered it New Years Day and it will be showing up here just days before our anniversary. I told Hubby if he was smart he'd try to make it a Christmas and Anniversary present, but he's even smarter and says he doesn't count major appliances as presents.. Which is almost sad, because he has one of the few wives who would totally count it. lol
Health wise, this week has kind of sucked. I feel fine, actually. Blood pressure and everything are all fine, I've just been dealing with a LOT of pain this week, and that just drains me physically and emotionally. Though so far, at least emotionally, I've been able to bounce back quickly after the worst of it eases up. Just makes housework that much more of a hassle. I really am getting tired of the pain though. I'm trying to exercise more and get the joints in question to feel better about it, which, I'm sure is part of why they want to hate me so much right now.
Things are brewing with the kids.. most of it I don't feel I can talk about quite yet, though we are waiting to hear back from lawyers regarding options for trying to get the younger 2 up here full time.
But, the eldest has big news.. they finally found a house they felt they could put an offer on and it looks like they might just have a place to call their own soon, if all goes well with inspections and what not. It would only be about 15 or so miles from us, so that's not too bad at all. We are very excited about it. It will be nice to finally have them permanently settled.
Meanwhile, we've finally started the demolition on our master bed and bath. Hubby tore down some of the dry wall, cut a big hole in one of the walls, and generally made a big mess. He enjoyed himself immensely. There is still tons to do, but it feels nice to have it properly started. Sadly, it has left me with a bit of a cough, but then, we expected that, which is why I don't get to be part of the demo. Just have to get him to clear the tub and get to the tile removal soon. It should all be very nice once it's all done though. I think we finally figured out exactly what we want to do with it now, no more questions.
As for our adoption plans, we are still hoping to get everything in and done this year. Things had to go on a small hold as Hubby had to switch companies, so we are temporarily between health insurance coverages, so have to wait for that to kick back in, but that will be here soon. Sadly, it looks like I'm not going to be getting some of the money I was hoping to get this year to help cover costs and all, and depending on how things go with the girls and legal costs there, things might be a bit tighter then we were counting on, but we will manage one way or another.

Some things I do..

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot to report lately. Hubby's job is changing, as it often does with slope work. The contract he's been working under has been bought by a new company, but the company they are doing the work for insisted that the crew he's on stay. So he's in the process of changing companies, which will will mean needing to update paperwork and we're just waiting for everything to be official before we finish all of that up.
Meanwhile, I have spent the last several days doing one of the things I enjoy doing. Canning. Specifically, I've been making jams. I did pickles a while ago. Last year was the first time I'd done pickles in years and I got a bit carried away and pickled everything I could get my hands on. Cucumbers, peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, pea pods, carrots, etc. They were really good and the kids and their friends ate through most of them and demanded more. So I did a bunch more pickles this year. Jars and jars of them. Oldest step daughter took a dozen of them right off, as an early birthday present for the guy they are house sitting for. Hopefully I've got enough of them bottled downstairs to last though the year.
Anyway, this week I decided it was cold enough to do jams. I had a few bags of frozen fruit in the deep freezer that needed using up, and we had pureed and bagged up almost 2 watermelons this last summer, so I had all of that to do something with. I got 31 half pints of watermelon jelly done yesterday. That was a long day and I was very tired by the end of it, but it's good, and will be going into our Christmas gift bags this year for a nice little touch of summer in the middle of an Alaskan winter. That was from 10 batches of jam.. I have a big bowl of foam and left overs in the fridge from that as well, and am trying to think of something to use it for... maybe watermelon thumbprint cookies?
Today was a much easier day. Only two batches of jam needed doing. I did a batch of plain strawberry and a batch of mixed (strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach and white grape). Both were very yummy. I got 8 half pints from each batch. I had done an earlier batch of watermelon and some blueberry jam and blueberry syrup this summer, so between it all, and the bottles I still have from last year's jamming, I may not need to make jam for another 2 or 3 years!
Tomorrow, may plan anyway, is to do a couple batches of butter which will then go into the freezer. I also need to do a small batch of cheese to see how well it freezes. I'm really just starting with cheeses and haven't been able to do anything more complex then a simple quesa blanca. I tried mozzarella once, it didn't work out too well, but my hubby thinks he killed my thermometer which may have been the problem. I need to try that again, but probably won't have time for it until after Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, this is the year we have the girls for it instead of Christmas. This year, because of hubby's work schedule and the fact that the grand baby's birthday (she'll be 3) is on Saturday, we're having the big family dinner and party on Saturday instead of Thursday, and the oldest gal wants to host at the house they're at. Which is fine. It's her first year up here, everyone will be here (except her brother, as far as we know anyway..) and, hey, means I won't have to do the clean up! We've got the menu mostly nailed down and we're splitting it up so no one is doing everything. We'll both be doing turkeys though. She wants to brine one, but because of my blood pressure I am on a low sodium diet and brined turkey is not a good idea when I know there's going to be an abundance of salt in other things (though I'm working on that as much as I can...) so I'm doing a non-brined one, that will instead have a great herbed butter tucked under the skin. It has never failed me. :)

Pre-Winter Storms

Well, winter will soon be arriving here in Alaska. How do I know this? The pre-winter storms have started. Thursday night the wind started. Friday we woke up to continued wind (according to reports, 50 mph with gusts of up to 100) and to find that half of one of the trees in the back yard had broken and fallen over. Not much of a surprise for this poor tree. We had tried to support it, but, years before we bought the place, someone had tied it and forgotten. Over the years the wire had cut in as the tree tried to grow around it. It has lost bits in the past, either through winds or though pruning we've done to try to save the tree. We don't know if it will survive the most recent damage. We will try to repair it for the winter and see how it does next year, but this might have been the last straw for it and we might have to cut it down.
As if the winds weren't enough fun, Friday also saw Tom heading back up to work, so no, he didn't have time to deal with the tree, so I will get to do that later this week. (hoping to get the son in law to do most of it, actually...) Then Saturday morning, at 4 AM, I got woken up by an earthquake. Felt pretty big, but, after listening to make sure it didn't wake up the grandbaby who was staying over, I, and everyone else in the state, rolled over and went back to sleep. Turns out it was a 5.4 centered about 89 miles north of here. I know, to those of you use to California quakes, that sounds huge. Up here, they are generally so deep that, while things get shaken up a bit, there's rarely much, if any damage, cept maybe to knickknacks.. I spent most of Saturday cleaning the last of the garden stuff off the back porch. One or two things still to take care of in the yard and things should be ready to go for the winter.
And today I discovered that my bell pepper plant that has been kept in the house with the tomatoes, is infested with spider mites... *sigh* So far it doesn't look like they've spread to any of the other plants and it is now in isolation in an attempt to save it. I've gotten 2 peppers off of it so far this year, and it has several more in development, and, darn it, I want those peppers! This is the first year I've gotten one to actually produce viable fruit and I want em!
Probably the hardest storm was today at Church though. I was running late and arrived just in time to hear someone talking about how important it is to have kids while you're young enough to keep up with them, not when you're older and tired. That kinda stung, but I could deal with it. I know that these people have no clue of the heartache I deal with because of infertility and I know I wasn't their intended audience even if I was in the audience. But then, class was all about the importance of teaching in the home and our roles as mothers. Ok, twist that knife a little more.. I was able to participate without too much problem, but by the end, I was really feeling that, although I know the role and have been granted a small, part time part, I still feel as if someone out there is saying that I'm not worthy enough for a full time gig. And it hurts, it hurts so badly. Tom always jokes and tells me that I didn't need the practice and that I'm one of nature's grandmothers, and I adore the grand daughter, but, darn it, I want to be Mommy! I'm tired of waiting, of finally getting started on adoption paperwork only to have something new pop up to put things on hold again. Why can't my body just work for once!?!
On the way home from Church today, there were tiny little snow flurries. They left no trace and were soon gone.
Yup, winter will be here soon.

Holding patterns...

First, an update. Turns out Gaia often breaks into random tears over potty training (I chatted with her mom about it.) So it wasn't just me, yay! And she's always a picky eater. Hubby and her mom said that if she wouldn't eat anything, then I should just let her go until the next meal.. I have such a hard time with that, though, but she was pretty good about eating the rest of her time with us.
Now on to the new stuff. We're in a holding pattern again.. Just when we were posed to finish up or first round of paperwork and application, we are waiting. Hopefully we can still get the things done soon, but for now, we wait. Tom has heard rumors of possible lay offs coming at work, so we are waiting to see where that is going. He's already actually been offered another job, though it would be a cut in pay and is temporary (though we don't yet know how long that would last..) but it would be something to get us through if we needed it. We just don't know if he needs it yet. They are hoping to know one way or the other sometime next month, and either way should have work through til the end of the year. We just would hate to jump ship if lay offs aren't coming for him and they are going to extend their contract or something. For now though, at least until next month, we wait and see and save our pennies, just in case. We've been very lucky in this economy to not have been hit too badly. Really hoping our luck holds. :)
Emotionally, it's been rather draining on me.. Just had my birthday earlier this month. Is it really sad that the only thing I wanted this year was to have our fingerprints taken? I've been keeping myself busy though. We're moving the older girls downstairs for the next year or so while we do some renovations upstairs. We've got to move out of the master bed and bath while we do some work in there. (After the mold in the hall bathroom this past February, we suspect the little old man who built this house maybe didn't use the right stuff in any of the other bathrooms, either, so we are going to be taking them apart one at a time and fixing that, hopefully before there's anywhere near the problem there was in the hall bath.) And we'll be moving into their room while we do the work, because, well, there's no way I could live/sleep in a construction zone :) and we need to replace flooring in our room anyway. Once we ever get done there (which will be a while due to costs and the fact that we're doing it ourselves on the weeks hubby's home, so it will be an on again/off again project.. I'm figuring 1.5-2 years before everything is done upstairs..) we'll replace the flooring in the girls' room before moving them back up.
So I've been moving their stuff down and getting that all set up. Am actually mostly done with that, just a few more bits and pieces and one dresser to move this week. Then just have the finishing of set up downstairs. Then cleaning up and seriously cleaning the carpet before starting the moving of our stuff into their room.
The nursery is also more or less set up at the moment. Mostly it's set up as toddler zone for the grand baby, but would be easy to convert back to infant mode when needed.
And just got buzzed. B1 is coming over to pick up some things, so I'd better sign off for now and get a few things ready to go.

Frustration...

Sorry for the gap in posting. It has been a busy 2 months. Sisters in law and several other relatives came to visit for a bit, kept us busy. Then we had the big end of summer sending home of the girls and then starting the big end of summer clean up. Have been busy, busy. Then B1 and C had to go back down to Washington for C's brother's wedding, so I'm watching the grand baby all this past week and for a few more days.
For the most part, it's been loads of fun. She's working on potty training and is doing really well. She hasn't managed to poop in the potty yet, but she'd doing great with peeing in the potty. And is doing great at flushing and washing her hands and such.
The frustrating part has been her eating patterns. She is at that stage where she randomly decides that she doesn't like certain foods. It doesn't matter if she loved it yesterday, or has never tried it before, she will just randomly decide she isn't going to eat something and then will just sit and sulk and refuse to even speak. *sigh* It's very frustrating and I'm at a loss for dealing with it. I've gone and bought the organic stuff her mom buys just for this occasion, and she won't touch it. Hoping we don't have too much more of this during the next few days as I'm running out of ideas. Luckily though, hubby will be home tonight so maybe he'll have a few extra ideas.