A Big Glass of Green Goo

Over Christmas a friend was extolling a 10-day green smoothie diet he tried that made him feel so much better and lose a few pounds. He got the idea from watching the documentary "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead", and since that had been sitting around on our Netflix Instant Queue for some time, we watched it. My parents coincidentally had a juicer sitting on their counter, but they wouldn't let me take it home to try for awhile. ha Like my friend, I feel like juicing is a little wasteful with all the pulp left over, but blending everything seemed like something I could try without having to get a new piece of equipment just to test it out.

Since I got back from the holidays and stepped on the scale to see a whopping 170 come up, I thinkknow I need to do something. One of my three pairs of jeans I regularly wear no longer fits. And though this diet was touted more for its energy improvement effects, I need that AND to lose some weight.

So I hem-hawed around, making sure I had everything I needed.That's a freezer shelf full of frozen organic spinach I already had from the CSA.

Then I decided I would try one before I committed to a full 10 days of these. My first had a lot of fruit (and I used milk) so it might be easy to drink.

It WAS pretty good.

Now to pull out the big guns...the Ronco built-in blender/mixer/whatever dealy...to blend up carrots, spinach, tomatoes, kohlrabi, with just water. It worked wonderfully and my smoothie (enough for breakfast and lunch) was in the frig.
Here goes...Well, that didn't last long. I came home starving and insisting on pizza and TWO Cokes instead of the broiled chicken on the menu. My inner child is a brat!

So, Where Was I?

Well, I seemed to get derailed. I was once again going at a great clip, keeping up with the daily blog updates, but then...nothing. This time I have a reason...

We were finally able to see the neurologist Friday about Alexandra's walking. He is also in Louisiana and was referred to us by the pediatric orthopedic specialist Alexandra first saw in September. Though I'm not trying to hide anything and am glad that our concerns are finally being addressed, I am hesitant to put every detail out on the Internet. I've been thinking about it (in addition to still being sick this weekend) and discussed with Michael, and we agreed that we should hold back on some stuff we post to the blog.

I never said this was a full disclosure blog (ha), and I don't want to be limited to only fluffy posts with kid pictures or my occasional rants, but it's not like I'm writing for The New York Times. There are some specifics that we don't even discuss w/ Alexandra because they would go over her head or make her feel like something was wrong with her, so it's not right for us to post her private medical info. online. I'm not really sure where to draw the line, though.

That being said, I'll probably update the grandparents on our latest visit via phone call. And anyone who has a question, can contact me directly. ;-)

P.S. Alexandra is perfectly fine. She's a smart, fun-loving, amazingly happy child.

Awkward Family Photos

Pirate Grandma with the new "strainer" patch...

"Wait, what?"...
My dad imitates (makes fun of ;-)) me and says that I say that all the time. Yesterday when my boss and I were having a discussion over FaceTime (He's in Houston now.), it froze. Right after he was explaining some crazy request one of our sales people made. So he emailed me his frozen screen. ;-)

MLK Jr Day

Weekend Recap

Back to the grindstone this morning after an "Eh" weekend. ;-) I wasn't feeling well half of the weekend, and we were all coughing yesterday. I've gotten to the point where I don't mind going to work, but it sucks when the weekend didn't afford lots of fun or rejuvenation.
We did, however, get to meet our future son-in-law. LOL This is the boy Colin Alexandra spoke about in the last video (how she was "in love" with him). ;-) Turns out that he was just as excited that she was coming to his birthday party as she was. She said that she asked him and that she was his "boyfriend."

The old familiar "Pump It Up" inflatables party place closed down, so I welcomed a change of venue. Colin's party was at this place that had video games and a labyrinth of tunnels and slides (like at McDonald's or Chick-fil-a but more extensive). All the kids had a fun time but one little girl (ours) didn't want to stop playing and take time to go to the bathroom, so we had to say goodbye after she had an accident.

Yesterday was spent mostly in bed. I wasn't feeling well in the morning so Michael and Alexandra didn't go to church without me. The washing machine broke last week, so I mustered up enough energy to bring the clothes to the washateria and get Alexandra out of the house so that Michael could nap (He was coughing the whole night Saturday too.). $10.75 for two giant loads. Holy cow! Even the regular (small) size washers were $2.75. What happened to the days when one washload was 75cents?! I didn't bother to dry the clothes there (I was almost out of money anyway!).
Oh, and Alexandra saw a half-dead roach! ;-)

I'm Not Ready For This

[Audio messed up towards end for some reason.]

NOW It All Makes Sense

My mom had eye surgery this morning at 7am to remove a wrinkle in her retina that was causing her vision problems. They left me a message at 8:20, already on the way home, and I called her back at 9 for an update. She was in bed, drinking a cup of coffee. It surprised me that she was awake and functioning to begin with (She had left the message saying everything went fine.). She said she was mostly awake during the surgery and could hear what the doctor & nurse were saying. The doctor said the wrinkle came right off, but that this surgery was different from something like cataract surgery with instant results. It might take six months to heal and her vision to get back to normal. Mama was about to relax and go to sleep for the day as she hadn't gotten much sleep last night.

I was relieved to hear that everything went well but I had a question.

Me: "Why are you drinking coffee if you are going to sleep?"

Mama: "Coffee makes me sleep better."

Me: "Ooohh, NOW it all makes sense! I get my alien physiology from YOU! Like Pepto-Bismal MAKES ME throw up."

Mama: "It makes me throw up too! But maybe it's just all in our heads."

Me: "Well, considering I never knew that about you, I don't think I just came up with some kookie idea that the medicine to STOP people from throwing up should MAKE ME."

;-)
But anyway, glad to report that everything went well with the surgery. And that one more of life's crazy questions is answered. I AM NOT ALONE. ;-P