I did it! Now what?

So I actually made it through the three days without eating any solid food except a bit of watermelon.  And, I actually had a huge burst of energy yesterday, which I am still feeling this morning.  That might be the fact that I'm drinking strong coffee on a very empty stomach, but whatever.  I had very little hunger, a little weakness here and there, but otherwise it was a piece of cake. 

I didn't clean out my system (if you know what I mean) as I'd hoped but I'm optimistic for today.  Now the problem is I don't know what the heck to do.  Should I eat?  What should I eat?  And, guess what, I don't even want to eat!  I'm going to finish off my Naked Green Machine today before foraying into solid food and then I'm just not sure.  Maybe I have acquired one of those eating disorders like I prayed for when I was a teenager.  Just a month of anorexia, that's all I ask! was my fervent prayer. 

I'm taking Gracie out for a haircut today, gonna clean out the trailer (note to self:  get tabs), and obsess about what my first solid meal in four days might consist of.  Mike is on his way back from Canada, and the sun is actually shining in Seattle...pretty much, hallejulah!

Day Two

I did it, I made it through day one of my green juice fast/cleanse.  I wasn't even hungry, which is so weird because I am always hungry.  No exaggeration. I think that stuff is thick enough and full of so much veggies and fiber that it just hangs around in there awhile.  Anyhoo, day two, I'm at work today so I'm hoping my stomach won't make scary growling noises and embarrass me.  Lost two pounds overnight, I'm not stupid, I do know that it's not "real" fat, but I don't care cuz it's the bloat I'm gunning for this time. 

I finished off the big bottle of Odwalla this morning, Liv absconded with a glass yesterday so I didn't actually drink the whole bottle myself.  I'm going to grab a Naked in the cafeteria today (can't wait to see how much that little bottle will run me down there) and start the second large bottle from home after work.  Since Mike's out of town this week it's been easier than it would have been otherwise.  The little guys are happy with whatever I put in front of them for dinner so last night they had a box of Annie's Mac and Cheese and pigs in a blanket with li'l smokies and crescent rolls.  Gross right?  At least I had absolutely no desire to eat it, although I almost shoves a spoonful of mac into my mouth before I remembered.  It would have been really sad to ruin an almost complete fasting/cleansing day with a mouthful of boxed mac and cheese.

Today...

Jack had a dental appointment and he said it "hurt sooooooo bad".  He's still not done with the dental work from his BMX accident, which was two years ago tomorrow.

That was one of those days I want a do-over on.  I would change that day by saying "No, Jack, you may not go to the skate park and knock your front tooth out and chip most of the other permanent teeth in the front of your mouth and then have expensive and painful dental procedures done for the next 5 years."  That is verbatim what I would say.

Then we came home and made 5 half pints of the bestest blueberry jam I have ever had.  No lie.  I was not aware I was an awesome canner until just this month.  I canned 8 jars of super delicious strawberry jam a couple weeks ago and now I am obsessed with thinking about some delicious combinations of fruits to make into jam.  Strawberry rhubarb is next, which I obviously did not think up myself.

Speaking of food, I started a three day green juice cleanse fast today.  So far I'm not hungry, although I did augment with a bit of watermelon.  I do not have a juicer and didn't really want to invest in a piece of kitchen equipment I may never use again.  So I'm using Naked Truth Green Machine and Odwalla Original Superfood.  They are so much better tasting than they look.  They would have to be because they look like algae sludge.  They are thick enough to make me feel not starving, so that's good.  I've been gastronomically BAD for a while now, I'm hoping to knock off a bit of the bloat before heading to Cannon Beach next week.  We are staying at the RV Resort for the week of the Fourth.  I'm excited...the weather is supposed to be lovely so I'll keep my fingers crossed.  I love Cannon Beach, literally, I Love Cannon Beach.  It's enough like a California Beach to make me feel a little bit homesick.  Yay for vacations!

Curiosities

Camping was okay.  The weather wasn't awful, it was fine.  The kids got along okay, not great, just fine.  I didn't do a great job planning meals, we didn't have a lot of money to work with and payday wasn't supposed to be until the day after we got home.  I wanted to make sure we had money left over for any emergencies so I got some real cheezy food.  Lot of hot dogs, top ramen salad, chips. Now I'm a little fatter than when I was last Friday.  We stopped at the Heidleburger on the way out of Leavenworth and chowed down on their amazing cheeseburgers and onion rings on the drive home.  Best meal of the weekend.  I was a lot unhappy when I got on the scale this morning.  Why won't those numbers ever just go down instead of up?

For some reason Mike always chooses to pick a fight with me when we are on a road trip.  I'm sure it has something to do with a captive audience, and the fact that I tend to storm off when I'm just done with the conversation.  It's hard to storm off when you are in a car going 65 mph.  So, the trip started off less than peaceful.  We got over it and moved on. 

We did climb a mountain.  Just steep and high enough to be exciting for the kids and not cause me to have a heart attack on account of my pesky fear of heights.  We walked a lot, mostly since Elke refuses to poop anywhere near our campsite, which is nice of her but it's also annoying watching her pace around waiting for someone to walk her to the pooping hill.  With all the gross people leftovers she eats while we are camping she becomes a very prolific pooper.

I'm looking forward to our next trip.  Hopefully it will be a warmer, sunnier time and place.  I'll be more creative with the camping food so I don't end up with a nasty food hangover.

I did read a great book on my Kindle, it's called In Zanesville, and is the story of a girl with a dysfunctional family growing up in the 70's.   Sound familiar? 

Update!

     It's been a while.  This blog was created to keep in touch with Liv while away at school but it morphed into a way for me to be a little creative in my mostly uncreative life.  It became a little cathartic, and I say "little" because there's really only so much you can say when you know people who know you, are reading.  My husband stumbled upon it one day and was concerned that he came across as a bumbling dork.  For that I am sorry, I just report.

     Liv has been home so much, the 1.5 hour drive isn't enough to keep her away her my awesome mothering, that I haven't needed to keep her updated on our doings.

     Liv ended  up at Western and is in fact finishing up her quarter next week.  She'll be home, back to the basement bedroom for a few months and has procured a position with the "City" as a fire hydrant painter for the summer. 

     Sam moved back home in January, down to the basement as well.  She broke up with that guy, and is a very happy, single, working 23 year-old.  I'm happy to have her back, in every way.

     Other than that, I really don't have much to report.  We are hoping for some positive changes next month, which I am not at liberty to discuss until such changes occur, which they better.  So send positive energy our direction. 

     I anxiously await a weather change, Seattle has been mired in rain and clouds all year.  We finally hit 70 degrees last week.  Seriously, end of May.  My mood is bad, I'm usually feeling a happy bump in my brain by now but this daily darkness is not working for me.  I fantasize about moving to a sunnier clime on a daily basis, but my large brood of children keep me grounded in the realization that being away from any of them for any amount of time would counter the effects of sunshine in my eyes. 

     Camping season will commence this weekend with our annual trip to Leavenworth.  I give that a sincere yahoo!  Finally!!

Not too bad...

Um, Liv, if you're reading this, I have some bad news.  We suffered a slight bit of flooding this weekend due to the aforementioned blog entry entitled "Aloha".  We lost about 1/4 of the carpet in Liv's room, luckily I put in the stick down squares so we were able to just pull up the wet ones and can replace them with new ones.  I did not panic or freak out, you would have been so proud of me.  I was very zen about it, especially after watching the news on Sunday and realizing that we got away with very little damage compared to so many other people.  The rain was freaky though, it never stopped all night, most of the rivers here in the great northwest jumped their banks and lots of people lost everything.  Mike and I were out in the midst of it checking gutters and putting down tarps around the house.  We had to end up stapling a big blue tarp to the south side of the house and sloping it down like a tent to direct the water away from the foundation, so far so good.

We stayed hunkered down for the weekend and watched the rain come down in sheets.  It was cozy.  Grace and I have almost managed to beat Donkey Kong Country Returns but that last boss is a real beezy.  We watched a lot of TV, cleaned house, read, and cooked...my ideal weekend, I never got out of my sweats, I even slept in them.  Ahh.  I even finished wrapping all the presents I have bought so far, that's a big deal as I'm usually up until 3:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve finishing up.  Not this year!

Picking up Liv tomorrow night at 7:00 and then Sam is off to visit Kourtnie and Trevor in El Paso on Wednesday morning, she'll be gone for a week and is sooo excited, it's Trevor's 2nd birthday already.  Crazy.

Aloha!

This blog has become some sort of depressing weather report lately.  Saying that I will go on to mention that we are battening down the hatches for some record breaking rain heading our way, one of our famous Pineapple Expresses.  Sounds so tropical and it is, kind of, it's a stream of rain and warm air caught in a system trough coming from Hawaii and heading towards us, we could get a couple inches of rain.  So Mike is at Home Depot getting some gutter extensions to lead the water away from the house, he added and adjusted tarps to our leaky roof areas and cleaned out the leaf-filled gutters.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we are prepared enough and won't have to deal with anymore water issues here at the homestead.  Liv is arriving on Tuesday evening, hopefully not to another "weather event".

One more week until Christmas Winter Break,  I'm almost done shopping now, awaiting a couple more packages by FedEx.  I will have to brave the elements and my mental state to do some actual shopping to finish up.  I've assigned Mike some tasks, like picking up gifts for his littlest nephews and taking care of Brynn's gifts.  We decided not to buy gifts for each other this year but that always bites me in the butt, so I have been grilling the kids about whether or not Mike is getting me a gift, just in case.  So far they say they "don't know anything" but they are terrible liars and I'm concerned. 

We watched "Eat, Pray, Love" last night, so good and such beautiful scenery.  It was between that and Twilight Eclipse, I figured I'd give Mike and break and chose the chick flick over the tween drama, that poor man.  Anyway, I'm going to grab my couch blanket, a cup of mocha, and watch Eclipse while the Pineapple Express has it's way with us.