I saw this referenced on another blog. Warning, you've got to have a good sense of humor and take it as just that - a joke (goodness knows, I hope it's a joke! LOL). I think my fellow BC sistas will enjoy it
I know you're laughing your heiney off at me. And rightly so. I've complained nonstop since we've moved here about how hot it is. Well,it's a whopping 69 degrees. Brrrrr. Cold front.
I'm sitting here kinda watching this Christmas special. Christina Aguilera just sang with Sasha Cohen skating. Sasha, the olympic medalist, out there skating her heart out, not knowing that C.A. got most of the camera time, just standing there singing. Ugh.
snail count: 3
gas on post: $2.63
Gary flew out to the Big Island today for that Stryker stuff. He'll be back later tonight. *sigh* I miss him. He had to get up at 3:30 am. just to catch the flight today, so I haven't seen him since last night.
Okay, so I have a confession. I totally think I've got some sort of mental problem. I know I've promised to not talk about the "non diet" - but here's proof that I'm crazy. It's totally not a diet. Because I've got puh-lenty to eat and tasty food too. But not the sugars and the salties (which I love). So tonight, after dinner (I hadn't had a "bad" food all day) I remembered that there was about 1 1/2 inches of cookie dough (Pillsbury sugar cookie dough in the stick form) left in the fridge. Not really enough to cook - because we would all have to wrestle over who gets the cookie. LOL! Anyway, I couldn't get that thought out of my head.
I can't just throw it away, so...
I ate it.
Not only ate it, I SNUCK it.
I stealthily crept to the fridge, rummaged around like I was searching for something (and I was!) and hid it behind my back and slunk to the most private place to eat it.
The thought running through my head?
I gotta eat it before 9:30. That's when Gary gets home.
Gotta hide it from Jake because he's been asking to eat cookie dough. (and I piously tell him "no!" it's bad for you)
I'm so BAAAAADDDDD!! Am I the only one like this??? Are there people out there who can actually let a good food go? Yes, I know there are. You are the ones who save your Halloween candy and eat only 1 piece a day. And then you are able to throw it away when you get "tired" of it. Not me. No. Gotta eat it all in a day or two. And then rummage for more. If you see a 41 year old woman going door to door in a costume holding a pillow case, that'd be me.
Do you know that I STILL have some green bean casserole in the fridge? I just can't throw it out because it's so good and I might need to eat it. It must be growing mold by now... No, I will not eat moldy food. I'm not that bad. :-)
My real problem is thinking that candy and chips and junk are good food. LOL! Barbarian. I need to develop aristocratic taste buds.
See?? I'm sick. Look at how much journal I've devoted to food...
Maybe I'll go back to thinking about snails. And how cold it is. Must be winter. :-)
It went something like this: Dear God, I give my whole life to you. I will tell everyone about Jesus.
Well, he said a lot more than that, in a kid's way, but this was the basic jist. So afterwards I asked him, what will you tell people about Jesus. And he said, that he's the only God in the universe. And I said, and maybe tell them about God, like how he loves us? And he said yeah. I wonder if I've got a little missionary on my hands. He marched up to me a few years ago and prayed the prayer of salvation, just spontaneously. This prayer he prayed the other night seems spontaneous too. Because while he was saying it I was reviewing in my mind the devotional we had just done and the sermon we sat through that morning to try to figure out what sparked this. I dunno. Sometimes Jake will absorb something (and you would swear he's not listening) and days later bring it up. I'm thinking he's been stewing on this for a while.
I made pizza tonight. Tried to make a whole wheat crust. Tried. *sigh* That's meal #2, in a row, that I busted my heiney on, and ruined. Well, I ate it. Fortunately, I had bought a frozen pizza for Gary and the boys.
I have found an online support group for my new eating efforts, so I won't regale you with every last boring bite of food I've eaten and every mile I've walked. Yes, I hear your sigh of relief. LOL! Yet I do want to shout to these people - stop being so rigid!! It's okay if the yogurt has 7 grams of sugar instead of the 4 grams of sugar suggested. You don't have to use olives if you don't like olives. Quit counting calories!!
We'll see if I don't get kicked off soon enough because I've gone all kamikaze. :-D
I chose #2 also!! Hooray! And your prize is.... a brand new car!! Just kidding. ;-)
I'm so exhausted. This was NOT the week to start this new "diet". I *tried* to cook the salmon, but something has happened to our grill. I think the turkey killed it. It has fire, a little bit - the temp won't go over 300 degrees. So, needless to say, the salmon didn't cook. I had to toss it. What a waste! And then, I had to cook a large pot of soup to eat throughout the week. Plus I had to shop around for some ingredients I couldn't find. I'm going to have to make a pizza crust for tomorrow, since I can't find a whole grain premade crust. I can do it, but it's just more work.
On top of it all, this is a bad week for Gary at work. The whole Stryker thing. The native Hawaiians are protesting the Army training troops on the Stryker. (a tank I think) Something about protecting the environment. This thing has been in the works for years, it's been through the courts already, all the studies have been done. The native Hawaiians want the military presence gone - so there is nothing acceptable to them. And apparantly this whole thing came to a screeching halt because of politics. Election year and all. Playing both sides of the fence. Ugh. So Gary has been dragged into it. BTW, Gary is a JAG. An Army lawyer. He said his part will be done this week. I won't hold my breath. I just hope it doesn't go into the holidays. :-(
Today I had my first fill. They put 100 cc's in! More than I thought they would, but it didn't make a whole lot of difference. I guess I'm expecting too much. But I do see a difference. I still have a lot of excess skin, so maybe I won't feel the stretching until another fill or two. I feel great. No pain or tightness. It is raised more in the center (the cleavage area), which bothers me a little because my skin is sensitive there. And of course I'm paranoid that it's too close to the center (making a uni-boob), and I'm paranoid that it's too low because my bra band goes right over it - it has from the beginning. I"m sure when the hard expander comes out and the soft implant goes in all will be fine.
My booblet. I can't wait to show Gary, if only he'll get home sometime!!
Yesterday we went out in our annual desperate attempt to get the perfect photo for the Christmas card. These three photos are our favorites. Maybe I should do a poll, because we all have different opinions on which one is the best. Which is your favorite? BTW, Ryan has his hand on top of Jake's head in picture #3.
I took at least 25 pictures. It's so hard to get children to look into the camera, with a nice smile, at the same time. If I could cut and paste different parts of different pictures together, I could come up with a stunning photo. Kids! LOL! Gotta love 'em. *sigh*
Now that I've chosen (I'll reveal which one in my next post), I need to work on the inscription. We used to send out christmas letters a long time ago, and then that went down to long notes scrawled into friend's cards, then to nice religious cards with a photo inserted, and finally to the impersonal photo card. After the year we've had, I just don't think the impersonal photo card is the way to go. Not everyone on my card list knows that I had breast cancer (can I say it in the past tense yet?? had). I don't want to go the whole letter route, and I'm not clever enough to write a poem... Should I even mention my bc? Ultimately, I just want to lift up God and express what he's done for me. I need to pray about it and noodle. I just wish I didn't feel the time crunch. Mail is so slow from here.
There are rumors swirling that an earthquake and tsunami has been predicted, so they've had to put messages across the top of the tv screen. Earthquakes are not predictable... I guess people are scared because there was another aftershock yesterday.
I'm reading the Oz and Roizen book, You on a Diet. These are the doctors that Oprah has on and they show organs, diseased and normal. Anyway, I'm liking it. Well, I don't like the writing style, it's maddening, but I like that I'm being told how the body works and what happens to the foods you eat, the chemical interactions going on and all that good stuff. I like to know WHY high fructose corn syrup is such a bad thing. I think I rebel against all the nutritionists wagging their fingers at us saying "no, no,no" with no REAL explanations. I'm going to try their two week menu plan. I went to the store today and bought an unreal amount of fresh veggies and whole grain this that and the other. I still don't have all that was on the list. But I like that it's less a diet and more of a change it the quality of food you eat. No low carbing - complex carbs instead. Quality foods that trigger the satisfaction chemicals, instead of foods that sabotage you and makes you even more hungry. Let the foods do the hard work. Plus incorporate daily exercise. Normal exercise. I'm pretty good at that part, plus I'll modify to fit my current limitations.
This appeals to me a lot. I always thought that I should be eating better quality food. And I think that's why I liked the Dr. Phil plan, but let's face it, his was a DIET. You can SAY it's a lifestyle, but at 1200 calories, it's a diet. And I felt deprived. Anyway, I digress from what I wanted to say. I've been thinking ever since the BRCA testing came back pointing to the cause of my cancer most likely lifestyle. Well, that's got to be my atrocious eating habits. I have learned over the years that I just cannot get away with anything, and it includes my eating. I am just too big for my body type. I'm only 5' 3 1/2" tall and I have a small to medium bone size. I can't say I'm big boned! (although big hipped, and that comes by genes!) I'm not brave enough to post my current weight. Trust me, I"m not the 108 pounds I was when I got married 18 years ago. Not even near.
It's late, I need to shut down. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend.
They both visited Santa, but only Jake allowed the picture. Jake actually WANTED to visit Santa. We had to coax Ryan, and even then Gary had to go with him. This is a big deal in the Brock household. It's been years since they've visited Santa. They've never really liked any large characters. All of their pictures with Santa are either crying babies or the look of terror on their faces. I remember when we were living in Enterprise Alabama. It was Easter. After church we went to Po Folks restaurant. All of a sudden a large bunny (aka The Easter Bunny) began making rounds. You should have heard the wails when those boys spotted that poor innocent bunny. Mr. Bunny had to circle the restaurant the other way. Just long enough for us to pack up and pay our bill. This was a little after their 2nd birthday.
Chuck E. Cheese. You can forget that. They love the place, but not the rat. They don't even like the character rooms - thank goodness. (I had a brief stint as a bus person at a CEC - in the beach boy room - ugh!).
We even cut a wide berth around McGruff the Crime Dogs that wander the mall.
No. Disney is NOT in our future. Busch Gardens was a great theme park to avoid all that character business.
Deep down, I think it is Ryan who is the most afraid. And Jake just triggers off of him. This is the first time Jake has displayed independence. Yay! He's growing up and becoming his own person.
Supposedly it was an aftershock from the GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF OCTOBER 2006. Somewhere in the 5 range of the ricter scale. We didn't feel it. At all. Plus we didn't lose power. Can you imagine the disaster if we had a statewide powerloss on Thanksgiving?? Oy!
Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone. I hope it was pleasant. Ours was nice. I slaved in the kitchen and underestimated the length of time the turkey would take, so everything else was ready except Tom Turkey.
I learned a few things. Start the turkey early, even if it's only a 3 pounder. Don't use the recipe I used, because it was not condusive to gravy. Don't use that snickers apple pie recipe again! Plain apple pie would have been a lot better. (blasphemy, I know) Snickers don't melt nicely. Just gets gooey and clumpy. Make the corn thing more often - it was good. Plus I learned that the Top Chef site doesn't put the real recipes online. I watched most of the marathon yesterday and saw one of them make the pizza and he made dough - the recipe calls for pita bread. Plus the corn recipe was simple, and the judges DID rave about the layers of flavor. They're holding back on us. Ticks me off.
I am so thankful for my family, my good health, for God, for this country and all the things that we take for granted. Like sight, two arms, two legs, everything pretty much functioning as it's supposed to. I'm thankful that I get to eat every single meal outside on our lanai, and not getting attacked by mosquitos. I'm thankful that I'm in a climate that I can exercise outdoors even in winter, which is so helpful to the recuperation. I'm thankful that I have both my parents, who are still together - very leave it to beaver childhood, and adulthood. I'm thankful for my two lovely little boys - I love them so much - and that I got both of them at once. Otherwise, we'd only have one, and I couldn't begin to choose which one. I'm thankful that God knew better than us. Because I certainly had my doubts in that first year!!
Anyway, I could go on forever.
Life is sweet, even when it's sour. :-)
Aren't they so funny! They just had to pose for the pictures. Some Marines had helped out for our school's Turkey Trot fundraiser - and this was a bonus!
PS. Shaving cream does a pretty good job getting it off.
First, thank you Pam for the sparkly flag. Love it!
Then I've just started looking for the pink ribbons and found two I'm trying out. The sparkly one is fun. The other one, I like what it says. I feel like it represents our little BC sisterhood in J-land. But the problem with this one is I can't get it bigger without distorting it. So, I'll live with these for a little and continue searching.
I get so cracked up by two commercials. The Geico caveman commercials and a newer commercial, I'm not even sure what the product is, a telephone I think, anyway, it's music related. These two young guys are singing these ridiculously funny lyrics to "Rock the Casbah" - and they are serious! It just tickles my funny bone.
I would like to add some interest to my journal here - so I'm going to comb the web for interesting images. I wish we could customize these journals more - but I don't want to go to one of the more "popular" sites. I think maybe I should add a nice pink BC ribbon, and maybe something tropical or an American flag or something. Maybe something sparkly. LOL! If you know of good places to look, let me know!!
The President stopped in Hawaii on his way to Asia. I told Gary to just give me a call if he was going to bring him home for supper... LOL!
I baked Okinawan sweet potatoes yesterday for supper. I took pictures and will post them soon. They are PURPLE! I really don't like sweet potatoes, but these are nice and mild. We can also get a white variety of sweet potatoe (I don't know what it's called) which I like even better. It's also mild, but moister. Or at least that was my one experience. :-) Wait, let me run get my camera and upload the pics.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
1/2 pound bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Cook bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat until brown and crisp. Remove from skillet to a paper towel-lined plate. Let cool and break into medium pieces.
2. Add corn to skillet and cook over medium heat. When corn is tender, add bacon pieces. Stir well and season to taste.
3. Serve warm.
http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef_2/recipes/episode_5/index.shtml
I haven't cooked regular bacon in a long time. I usually buy the turkey bacon (we don't eat bacon much) and Gary grimaces. So, since it's Thanksgiving, I bought the real thing. It might tempt Gary to actually eat corn. That man is a picky eater. I don't understand how anyone doesn't like corn. It's sweet! I think, despite how skeptical I am of the simplicity of the recipe, I think I will like it. There was a salad I used to get at Don Pablos that had skillet fried corn in it. Yum. I've always wanted to try that, but never had. I don't fry foods any more... Thursday will be an exception. :-)
I'm on a new blood pressure medicine since the pharmacy doesn't regularly stock the one I've been on. Right now I have a little headache, which I can't necessarily blame on the new meds -but you know how it is - every little thing becomes suspicious. I've been taking my bp twice a day and it's been great, but I don't trust it's accuracy. Again, paranoia. LOL! Boy, I'm going to be a crotchety old lady when I get old.
I haven't done any scrapbooking in several months. None. I have time, but not the will. (obviously I'm spending all my creative time here on the pc!!) Well, the pages I'm working on are from a 70's 80's party. I can't remember the names of the people and neither can Gary! LOL! I hate getting stuck. Anyway, I told Gary last week "what if I decided to stop scrapbooking?" Yes, blasphemy, I know. He wasn't happy because of all the stuff I have. But I really don't have a lot compared to other people. I'm really thinking about more of a way to just get the pictures into a book - safely. With just a tiny bit of journaling and color. Even more stark than the usual Creative Memories "style". It's a good idea, but the problem is I haven't done my boys' first two years of life yet. I want their baby album to be special. I feel such pressure when it comes to the first year. The boys were so doggone cute, but the pictures were just awful. That was before we had a digital camera. yeh, I'll blame the camera. LOL! And I want to really document what it was like. Infancy is special, but with twins, it's an adventure in survival. I think it'll be the album that will be most interesting to our descendents, not some silly 70's/80's party by a bunch of soldiers and their spouses. Oy.
Ever wonder how to care for orchids? Well, I'm gonna give a little mini class. Which is ludicrous when you think about it. I have such a black thumb. The fact these orchids have lived this long is amazing. But when you hear how low maintenance they are... Let's just see if this method really works in the long term.
Now, I've been told by the nurseries that you should water them lightly every 3 days and fertilize them every 3 months. But my mom told me a different watering method. Check it out, it's so easy:
Let the pot sit in a tub of water for 15 minutes once a week.
I'm watering mine right now. The pictures above were taken today. I love, love, love my white orchid. I got it during the trip to Chinatown. It looks so good in our bedroom, which has a Japanese feel to it. The purple one was a get well gift from Gary's office. I got another purple orchid as a get well gift, but my mom left it in a windy area and it broke!
Keep your orchid inside, it doesn't need direct sunlight.
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I went grocery shopping today and picked up my Turkey day food stuffs. I'm excited. I'm going to grill the turkey (a little 3 pound boneless turkey breast) using a recipe from my Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Grilling cookbook. Plus I'm going to make a corn and bacon recipe I got off of the current season of Top Chef. It looks too easy. But the judge Padma said it was cravable. I can't resist that! It was done on the TGIF challenge. And for dessert I've got an apple pie recipe that uses mini snickers. I got it from the M&M's website (I get their monthly mailings). They all seemed like yummy fun recipes. I like trying new easy things.
So here's my T-day menu:
Cinnamon-Spiced Turkey Breast with Cranberry-Orange Sauce
rice
gravy
green bean casserole
Ilan's corn n'bacon
stovetop stuffing (I hate stuffing, so this is the best I can do)
jellied cranberry sauce out of the can
Hawaiian sweet rolls
sweet iced tea
sugar cookies (which may morph into snickerdoodles)
Pilgrim Pie
It's not too much, but it's a lot for just the 4 of us. Yes, the sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie are glaringly missing. The cook doesn't like these, so the cook isn't going to bother... The troops aren't complaining. :-)
It's new to me, maybe not everyone else. http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/17/implants/index.html
Basically it says the FDA has approved the sales of silicone implants again. They've been banned for 14 years.
I'm not sure if I'd even have the opportunity to get them, would I want them? I still have the images of the women who were on daytime talk tv making those cancer, lupus and migrating silicone claims. Hard to shake a stigma once it's been asserted.
Of course, the whole implant issue is something I never took seriously because I never thought I'd get one (or two). Never. Never thought I'd get cancer either...
Sure none of the studies have linked cancer or lupus to the implants, but, according to the article, they don't address what happens in the body when the silicone leaks into the body. And implants do rupture.
All food for thought...
If you saw a one-boobed soccer mom type out walking in shorts, t-shirt, baseball cap and mp3 player - that was me. I don 't know how other one boobed gals do it, but I just can't do the prosthesis thing (be it a sock or official form - yes, I usually use a folded up sock, it's the most comfortable for me LOL!) all the time - or even some of the time. I only do it for the more "formal" occasions, like going to the mall or out to eat at McDonalds. But wearing a bra tires me out. How ludicrous is that?? A jog bra is okay, but not with anything stuffed in it. And I won't go out in public without a bra at all - heavens!! I'm much too puritanical for that. However, I have overcome my puritan ways to at least go without in the privacy of my own home. Now, I'm overcoming some vanity by walking my boys to school with one side flat. And going on my walks with one side flat. I'm a bit unsure about the school thing. I don't want to scare the kids or make my own children oddballs. I wear big baggy tshirts that have logos emblazened on the front - so in my own mind it's enough camoflage that the casual person won't notice anything. One thing I've learned in my time is that people don't look at you as much as you imagine. But with kids, I may be deluding myself. I dunno.
So, if you see me, or someone like me with 1 boob, or lopsided, square or flat boobs - just think charitable thoughts and pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary. And I think it's safe to say that this goes for the bald gals too. I bet sometimes your head is just too tender to wear that hot, scratchy thing - just to walk around the block or to the mailbox!!
LOL! Some tsunami. I guess it wasn't as puny as the 18 inch tsunami that they had years ago. But I'm not going to get excited over a 5 foot wave, when they get 20 ft. waves on the North Shore every year as normal.
In my imagination, I think I had a LOST star sighting today. I was out walking in the neighborhood where Oprah's alleged house is. So I'm on alert for stars. And here goes this guy running past me. He kinda looked like Matthew Fox from the rear. Didn't get a good look at his face. But, Matthew Fox is kinda of a ordinary looking guy, if you know what I mean. He's not a Hurley or Syid.
I'm on the SBCV Disaster Relief email list, and I've been getting all these call outs for help. When we first moved here, I tried to find something similar, but I haven't found it. Of course, in my current condition, I really can't help... But seeing the tornados in North Carolina really gets to ya. And I see reports of the relief efforts here for after the earthquake. I saw a news report on a nursing home on the Big Island. The beds were lined up in rows in the cafeteria. It will take months for them to get the rooms fixed. We need to take care of our elderly!! My heart aches for them. That is no way to live.
My boys went to a friends house yesterday to swim. It was the first "social" outing for me, in a long long time. Nice, but tiring. Thankfully, Gary knew he was getting home late, so I hadn't planned on cooking.
I don't know if I talked about Ryan's speech therapy yet. He had it Wednesday. The man said that Ryan wasn't able to hold his tongue to his teeth hardly at all. He doesn't have good muscle control in his tongue. So Ryan has "homework" to practice it. Thankfully, Ryan is very willing to practice. I'm not too surprised at this diagnosis since Ryan has had such a hard time with sensory, touching, fine motor skills, and oral defensiveness (gagging on textures and tempuratures) ever since he was a baby. When he was very young, through Child Find, he got help from a Speech Therapist. Child Find is funny. They only want to help with things that pertain to school. So they wouldn't help with his eating problems. And I really had issues with the ST, she was very stern and unreasonable, IMO. She was able to get Ryan to do the tongue side-to-side, so she declared him okay, just stubborn and maybe mom just overreacting and projecting (she didn't use the words, but I clearly got the vibe that I was doing this to him). So anyway, back to current day - this ST says he DOES have problems moving his tongue side to side. Vindication! But it's not a sweet thing. I don't WISH that Ryan has a problem. I'm not GLAD. Not at all. But at least now we can get help.
I haven't slept very well the last few days. <whine on> Our bed is a "hot" bed, it gets hot in the spot you lay, so you need to move a bit to get out of the hot spot. Well, I can only sleep on my back, I have no where to go. I sleep with a fan pointed on me and usually the sheet is kicked off, but I'm still hot. Sweaty hot. I yearn to sleep on my side. Either side would be nice. I used to flip and flop all night. I love to sleep. Being in one position is very hard for me. It makes me antsy. Last night at 3:30 I actually got up and laid in the recliner. let me tell ya, the recliner isn't as comfortable when you aren't on Roxicet. *sigh* <whine off> I'm sure this will pass. I'm grateful to have a nice bed, roof over my head, and off pain meds.
GTTD (gross things they do) Ryan picked up a water bottle he found at the playground and took a sip from it. YUCK! I was walking over to them because Jake had the bottle and was pouring the water out. Just that quick Ryan grabbed the bottle and took the swig. I did the mom grunt unh, unh, unh and he spit it right out. I told him about all the germs, yadda yadda. poor thing. He was horrified. (note: I always take two water bottles with me to the park, so he knew better) This is almost as bad as when he licked the drink machine at McDonalds. Most boys you worry about the trips to the ER from broken bones. This child is going to end up with Hepatitis.
The boys went to the arboretum today for a field trip. Jake was excited to learn that chocolate comes from plants and Ryan was excited to see an earwig. These boys are so different from each other. You wouldn't know by personality that they are twins. :-)
Got my hair cut today, the first in many months. It's longer and shaggier than the picture you see. I hate trying to find a new hairdresser. I may not go back to him. Yes, him. I'm not wild about getting my hair cut by men. I'm too intimidated. I'm not an agressive person, so I need someone I feel I can say, you need to cut my bangs more. He cut the back perfect. As short as I want. But I guess when I told him to "don't cutthe sides short because it's really curly there" he heard "don't cut the sides and front". So my hair is the right length back, but barely trimmed elsewhere. I guess the surfer look is just a little too prevalent here. LOL! My eyes are covered! I need to see if my old hairdresser is still around. Um, I'm going to stop complaining now. Because I just remember I've got some dear J-Land friends who have no hair. :-( I'm terribly sorry for being insensitive.
Boy, I need a new 'tude! Lots of complaining. Really, I'm not this unhappy in life. I'm usually a pleasant person to be around. :-) Pork chop night! That'll make anyone happy. :-)
This is the information I got from the Dole Plantation. It was a free demonstration, so I don't think I'm violating any copyright laws. :-)
1. Look at the pineapple. Don't worry too much about the color. Golden or green, they are both delicious. The girl said that the golden ones got more sun, they have a suntan. What you do need to look for is uniformity on the size of the eyes. (I think they are called eyes, you know what I mean) If they are smaller on the top of the pineapple and larger on the bottom, then it is not full grown. Don't choose that one.
2. Give it a good sniff. If you are drooling, then don't pick it!! Trust me on this one. If it has a deliciously yummy strong smell, then it's overripe. Like an overripe banana. Yuck! It'll be too sweet, probably fermenting on the inside. The pineapple should have a nice light fruity smell. Light.
3. Feel it up. All over. If it has squishy spot(s) then it's going bad. Don't pick it.
Fresh pineapple is ono (hawaiian word for delicious). Once you have fresh, you'll never eat canned again. Once you have local fresh, then you'll just be sad, because you know what you've been missing and will have to save up hundreds of dollars to fly back here (or somewhere else tropical) to eat more!
I'm working on growing pineapples. I've got two planted. I'll post instructions and photos soon. I hope my red pineapple photo didn't ruin the delightful surprise I had when I first saw how pineapples grew. Who knew??
snail count today: 3
gas on post: $2.66, gas in town: $2.79
current temp on my lanai, in the shade, at noon: 84 degrees.
I'm 4 weeks post op today. Today I walked to the beach and splashed in the water. It's been at least a good 6 weeks since I've done that. :-) Ahhhh.
Reva's going to live! I just couldn't believe they would knock off such a major and interesting character. Now, what to do about Reva and Josh. The last time they got married they said this was it. If it doesn't work out, no more. Yeah, right.
Well, it looks like my last post didn't take. Just as well, I'm sure it didn't have much in it. Except maybe the news about Ryan. He is going to start speech therapy next week. 30 minutes after school on Tuesdays. Yay!
Snail count: I got 9 today. NINE!! Egads. Just how many are out there?? We've been throwing them out for at least a month.
Physical therapy. You're going to laugh, but a woman's foo-foo fussing in the morning, trying to get all purdy is the perfect therapy. I'm appalled at my lack of range of motion. And all my getting ready activities challenge it. Drying my hair, shaving my opposite arm pit, even shaving the bad armpit! Just now I attempted to feel up my good side, you know, for lumps, not for kicks. That's hard to do! I find it difficult to cross my arm in front of my body. It's also hard to stretch my arm straight up and straight forward. Forget about extending it and going backwards. I shudder to think that it'll require tearing a few more muscles. Yeowch! Housekeeping is good therapy too. All the reaching required, laundry, putting away dishes, vacuuming...reaching for those snails... LOL! Yes, I do the recommended hand walk up the wall. I do that multiple times throughout the day. But that whole area on my chest is so still. It doesn't move like the other side. I stand naked in front of the mirror a lot, because I have to put on that fungus cream and I let myself air dry before and after. So I get to see the differences between the sides. It's not pretty, but it's me and I'm used to it.
The good news is I'm becoming slightly more used to wearing my sock in my bra. I don't think I'm quite ready for that form yet.
Check out this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15635064/ Apparantly she was on tv today. She has documented her mastectomy and reconstruction with photographs, because she wasn't able to find such before hers and wanted others to see what to expect. (did that make sense?) It's quite brave and beautiful. I think she looked a lot better that I do, but she wasn't perfect. So it gives me hope, because her reconstruction is really good.
I'm still sad. But I've only cried just a tiny bit, once today. It was when I put on the shirt I'm wearing. It's not a shirt I would have normally worn, before BC. It's big and button up. And it reminds me of recovery, which reminds me of my parents. Oh yeah, twice. They sent me an email today. Gee. I sound like some homesick teenage bride. But this is good. I've always wanted to be close to my family. I'd rather feel the need to cry than feel nothing at all.
I'm procrastinating. I need to go right now and get milk and garlic bread. Because school lets out soon and I've vowed to never take the kids to the grocery store again. LOL!
Mom and Dad are off to the airport. I hate saying goodbye. It's so quite around here. Even if they weren't noisy people, their presence is gone. I'm all boo-hooey now. The boys are in bed now. It was so sad to see them say goodbye. I think they are old enough to really start feeling it.
sorry, I just had to go off and cry a bucket. They've been here for 10 1/2 weeks. We've lived here longer with them than without them.
sorry. I had to cry another bucket. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time. I'm crying more now than when I was diagnosed with cancer.
This morning I had my last follow up appointment post surgery. They are pleased that it looks like the redness is almost gone. I have to take the cream for another week. Just in case I guess. I saw the plastic surgeon and told him my concerns. He said I probably tore a muscle and that was normal. He said it would happen probably 10 more times before all was said and done. And that the fill process is all about tearing the muscle. Yeowch! He said that people start feeling worse at the 3 week mark because we are becoming more mobile. So at least I was put at ease. My fills will start in 3 more weeks, at the 6 week mark. That will be right after Thanksgiving. I'll have the start of my new booby for the new year.
Gary is back. Now I'll go cry on his shoulder while he rolls his eyes and laughs at me. :-)
Saturday night I was sitting on the couch watching tv with my hands laced behind my head. It's a good stretch for those of us who need it. I brought my arms down and swear I felt it move. the expander. yeowch! Now I'm so sensitive I can't wear that little boob form at all. Or my jog bra. I have an appointment in the early a.m. so we'll see what he says.
The thermometer on the lanai (in the shade) says 88degrees. It's at least 10 degrees hotter in the house. I'm not quite sure how I'll ever manage to get in the Christmas spirit with these temperatures!!
At church today I realized that I am too focused on myself and my chest. I haven't been reading my Bible like I should. Haven't been in fellowship with God. And I can tell in my interactions with my family. I can also tell that I'm at great danger of becoming a hermit. It is such a hassle to go anywhere. I feel like I have to present myself as normal. A two boobed woman. But it's not comfortable to do that. I'd rather stay home and be braless. It's not comfortable to ride in a car. The roads here are horrendous, by the way. LOL! I wonder if I'll be brave enough to buck conformity. :-D That makes me giggle just thinking about it.
Did I mention it's hot?? I'm sitting here at the pc, with a fan pointed at me, I haven't exerted any real energy at all today, and I'm sweating. It's beading up and pouring off my face. What a whiner.
Gary is out bowling with the boys. It's for cubscouts. Mom and dad leave tomorrow late night. Aughh! I'll be on my own again! In charge of everything!! Laundry, food, school, cleaning...
My ACS Reach for Recovery volunteer came today. The first thing she noticed was me holding my arm out a bit. LOL! REally?? I'm doing that, still?? I don't even notice it anymore. A lot of times I prop my fist on my hip, making me look angry or indignant. It's a cross between habit and the lumpiness underneath my armpit. Anyway, she brought me a bag of pamphlets and a bra and fiberfill form. To add insult to injury, the form is too big (in my opinion). My mom thinks its fine. She says I need to tighten the strap on my natural side. I say that it's natural to droop a bit and I need to take out some of the stuffing out of the form. I guess I've always been used to the smaller side and just don't see bigger is better. To me, bigger is fatter. (hmmm, reflection on society these days?? the obsession with weight?)
Speaking of weight, I need to stop eating the boys' Halloween candy... My mom made yet another DOUBLE batch of chocolate sauce. We all had a serving for dessert last night and I put the rest in the freezer. I'm tempted to dump it out when they leave. Gary may kill me if I do... I think we should have just melted all the boys chocolate and use that as a sauce. That way it would have been a smaller, more managable amount and we would have gotten rid of a bulk of the halloween candy. Two birds, one stone.
Speaking of chocolate, have you experienced a chocolate fountain yet?? Paula Dean has a new show and in the chocolate episode she sticks her tongue in the cascading chocolate. She also pulls a man out of the audience and gets him to do it too. I went to a women's thing at our church in VA and we had all kinds of goodies and there was a fountain there. It's sooooo good. Actually, my favorite things to drench were the strawberries and marshmallows. Yeah, you think that marshmallows is such a kid choice, too sweet and all that. but it really was yummy.
I was reading a friend's blog about her 2nd graders math being too hard for her and her husband to help him. We had a similar incident this past week. My mom was helping the boys with homework and gave up on the math. I had to read the "family link" to understand what they wanted. They can't just teach straight math, they have to teach 10 different methods to add numbers greater than 10. I told my child how *I* learned, add the numbers from right to left carrying digits, and he called that "old school". LOL! He said that his teacher preferred the "old school" method too. Whatever happened to simple memorization?? That is the fastest and most straightforward way to do math. All these other "tricks" are just that, tricks. It takes twice as long to estimate, then do the math. Listen, I like math. It's sorta easy and makes sense to me. It is a straightforward thing. And it's something where you build upon skills. You have got to memorize the tables. It's the best way. It's the foundation for math. I think all these tricks are for older kids. Ones who are into the reasoning phase.
Do you think I found something I get passionate about?? LOL!
Monday and Tuesday are no school days. Plus next Friday. We are going to work in the two new child friendly movies. The Santa Claus 3 and Flushed Away. I love going to the movies. I need a popcorn fix. :-)
And our lawn guys are here. Yes, it seems you CAN mow and blow while it's raining.
Last night I decided to clean off the top of my dresser. And I dusted. (I'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor) My brand new, high quality, beautiful dresser is warping. From all the moisture!! The drawers are sticking. Did I mention this was brand new? Just 2 years old. Beautiful. It's taken me 16 years to find bedroom furniture I like, like enough to buy a whole set. (I'm not a matching set kind of person, but I LOVED this stuff) This dresser has a mirror on top which has been getting water droplets on it. Last night I cleaned the mirror and noticed that several pictures had the water droplets and the WALL had water droplets. Oh No!! PLUS the couch feels wet. Mildew is going to happen. All of our furniture is going to be ruined. Mildew popped up on our outdoor furniture just yesterday. *waaaaah!*
If I had known we were going to move to Hawaii again, I would have never bought ANY of our newer furniture. Never.
See, being a career military family, you learn to live with junk furniture. You move too much to have anything nice. I do know some families that buy new and sell with each move. I don't know how they aren't in debt up to their eyeballs unless they have money outside of the soldier's career. I bought this stuff thinking that we were only a couple of moves away from retirement. I never dreamed we would have an overseas assignment. (this is considered an overseas assignment) That's what I get for thinking.
This island got 3-10 inches in a 24 hour period. I'm quite sure our back yard got at least 8!!
I finally got my pink ribbon t-shirt. I ordered it from cafepress.com and it's so cute! It's pink and it has the ribbon on front and it says "hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11". It's so me!
It's been raining, raining, raining, for days! It briefly stopped to allow trick or treating last night. Our backyard has a lot of concrete, so the water began pooling up and little waves from where the water was pouring off the lanai roof. So anyway, today there was a mudslide onto the Pali Highway, right at the entrance of the tunnel. Big news. Anything that stops traffic is big news here, since the traffic is so horrific. The Pali Highway is one of the 3 tunnels that links the windward side to the other side of the mountains. The Pali connects Kailua and downtown.
I'm watching Oprah. She's doing a show on pizza. Yum! Tomorrow she's doing a show with Dr. Oz. Something about losing weight in 10 days. I'll have to see that one. Need it!!
