Is it the end of the year ALREADY?!?!

My friend, Mist, with Thanksgiving Pheasants.....

My way of teasing my oldest son with Christmas Decor....

Our girls hot tub and cross country ski party yesterday!!

Taking our pup skiing today - check out her frosty mug ;-)

Lost Motivation is probably the biggest reason i haven't posted for so long. That, and the fact that every day I spend hours scouring the Internet for real estate. Its been rather taxing and exhausting, but I know that once I find the right place, I'll be glad for the work I put in :-) As for the lost motivation part, well that can be worked on. Really - it hasn't been THAT bad. I'm still probably 10lbs less last than last winter at this time. Don't know how I'm pulling that off, but still 10 lbs more than I want to be too.

Seriously thinking of doing a REVISITED 365 Days of Situps. Even though I failed it miserably by only doing maybe 6 months, I had the best abs I've ever had. My big failure was the biggest success ab wise I've ever had. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try again, now that I'm not doing any, I am missing that muscle look and my new cross belly ring just doesn't look as cute with the mid winter pudge ;-) Okay, well if anybody has any good suggestions, I am WIDE OPEN!!

Harvest For Your Health

My daugher "Saphara" processed a pumpkin ($2) at the local grocery. She made amazing things with it including these muffins. The little girls "helped"

I know what you're probably thinking "sure she hasn't posted on this blog in eons, she must have fallen off the wagon... hard" or maybe "she must have struck it rich as the next "whose who of unknown blog authors"". Uh...no. Really, its been an upside down crazy fun summer followed by a busy Autumn. Children's home school correcting and assigning is always at the forefront of my thoughts when school begins. Not to mention that, but my house has been filled with company. My new foster daughter requires uh "special attention" ;-) And whats more its harvest. Ahhh harvest.... which brings us to this forthcoming post!

Back in the days when I was 50 lbs heavier, I couldn't figure out how to incorporate eating healthy on a budget. Even if I wanted to, when I was at the grocery store, the last thing in the world I wanted to do was to go home and munch on a nice salad. No, the delicious pictures on the boxes of frozen pizza called my name from the moment I stepped into the diabolical grocery mart. Yes, time and time again, I was just plain sucked into the vortex of fat. After all, who wants to wash vegetables after an exhausting trip to town anyway? I want something EASY CHEESY....mmmmm. Problem is, "easy and cheesy" do not make my thighs happy. On the contrary, it suffocates them, and alas, healthful eating is of necessity.

When I really became desperate enough to do anything, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to afford living on grocery store produce. The kicker is that nobody has to. It IS impossible for normal people to afford a lot of that stuff. As I began seeking out alternatives, I found healthier ones were literally right there :-) Here's one of them :

My good girlfriend from church, the one who saved Super Catman's life (another story for another day), told me about this orchard years ago. It was so cool, because the day I showed up (about 3 years ago), I asked the lady how much the apples were and she told me "FREE"!! It had frosted and she couldn't "guarantee" them, so she was allowing people just to help them selves. HOWDY!! That day, the kids, I and some visiting relatives picked between 600-800 pounds of them!! It was a tremendous blessing and as it turns out, they were the best apples I'd ever had!!

This year, that good ol' girlfriend of mine told me about them again and invited me along. Boy howdy was I all about that. They did charge this year, but only at 30 cents a pound! Now if you were to buy Gala and Honey Crisp apples (with no guarantee of freshness) at the store you know it would be maybe 3 to 5 times that price per pound. Mine will last in the basement till Christmas and maybe beyond, besides the ones I process will be around a lot longer than that. You can do the same thing. There are lots of orchards all over. Its not hard if you make a few calls, with a little determination, you too, can do this ;-)

Just don't forget to pay attention to how you're storing them. It was wet the day we picked, and I was glad I went through them today. The plastic tote I had some in had pooled water on the bottom. A cardboard box with some other ones had 2 earwigs crawling around at the bottom. In another box one of the kids had inadvertantly thrown a rotten one. Any of that stuff would have caused rot and waste had I not discovered and fixed those problems.

It was a crazy adventure (as they always are). It was raining out that day, so we picked fast. Thankfully the rain had let up so we didn't get too wet. It was a blast picking with my friends and their kids. Crazy as it was, I had planned to take home 100-200 lbs. We ended up weighing in at 319 lbs!! Ha ha ha. I laughed as I stuffed the boxes all over the place around the car and trunk trying to jam the children and apples in. It was a precarious ride home, but my husband didn 't say much about it. He said "you can buy as much as you can fit". Little did he realize, or did I. I had just sent all the kids off with boxes and in an hour or two we had a plethora!!

At any rate, it was outrageous fun and something I'm proud enough of to post on my fitness blog with the hopes that I will inspire somebody else to do the same........

You Pierced What?!?!

The Red Nosed Twins Post Nose Piercing!!


I figured I'd better "go big" and get it all done while I had the chance.....

The Mother Daughter Nose Piercing Bonding Day ;-)

Well, it happened. Maybe it started with cliff jumping. Maybe it was the "do something afraid" section on my girls accountability list that I have been daily checking off. Maybe it was something that started long before that. Maybe it was a combination of a lot of things. All I know is that when my husband said it was okay for our daughter to get her nose pierce something inside me snapped.

At first I was really mad. "How dare he tell her she could get her nose pierced?!" Back in my teens, I couldn't get my nose pierced. Later on, in my 20's I couldn't get it done either until I just accepted it was never going to be an option for me. Instead, I was kind of nervous and maybe even a little judging about it. A really mean lady I once worked with had her nose pierced. She always scared me. After that, just seeing a nose ring made me shudder. One of my best friends has one. Its just natural on her and it made me stop being afraid of people with them ;-P Well, anyway, it just plain wasn't fair. I should have one. Its part of my ethnic heritage and right isn't it? I'd also been wanting to do my belly button for a very long time. I seethed.

After a while, I asked my husband about it. He was rather noncommittal. Still, something in me didn't seem to rest. Night after long night, I started having nightmares about body piercings. After the third consecutive night of terrifying nightmares, and a lot of prayer, I was convinced that this was something for me to do. Any time there is that much wrestling and opposition going on inside of me, its usually something I'm just needing to do. I don't want to look back on my life and have regrets of things I never got to do. Here was my chance and I was taking it. The day we left for the nice body piercing lady's house, my husband prayed for us and for it all to go well.

All I knew was that I was going to force myself to go through with it no matter what. Now when I think of "body piercing", I think of a guy named "Biff" with whiskers and tattoos all over smoking a questionable substance. He laughs deeply as he downs a brewsky and flicks his butts next to where he is about to pick up the cross contaminated blunt piercing instrument. A bunch of riff raff are drinking and laughing loudly as the victim prays he doesn't contract hepatitis from this particular job. I ignored this imagination. This was my chance. I didn't know what to expect when we got there, though. We were both really pleased and relieved to see that the lady was super nice and very professional. She actually has her own autoclave and sterilizes her instruments. She used high quality surgical steel and adhered to the the strictest of aseptic technique. And man was she good! I could hardly believe my eyes. That lady has a gift and skill unmatched. Not only is she clean, professional, and confident, she knows how to do it in such a skilled way that there was almost no pain. The discomfort there was, was very minimal and extremely short. My nose didn't even bleed. She was quick about her work and very sure of her skills. Its the kind of thing you want for that kind of thing (you know?).

So as it were, me, the one who was gravely offended about her daughter getting her nose pierced, not only scheduling the job, but did her own nose and belly button. On the way home, my daughter was grinning from ear to ear, and about cross eyed from all the times she kept looking at her nose. I knew she was old enough and mature enough to know what she wanted. I also knew I would never be old enough and mature enough to know what I wanted ;-) But I was glad I did it anyway ;-)

My New Exercise Buddy

As usual, I have sadly neglected my fitness blog, but again, with good reason :-) After a long night shift, my husband surprised me by allowing me to stop at the animal shelter. He shocked me again, by actually agreeing to allow me to be the "foster mama" of this little lab puppy :-) Isn't she sweet?!

My usual routine has become "wake up and get that puppy outside to pee"! The good little girl has never had an accident in her box yet, but she did let loose on my eldest when he was carrying her out after 9 hours. Good thing he is so good natured!

After that, school has begun with the children and I am busy getting them started on the day. Puppy has been getting a mile run in several mornings. She is learning to heel. Yesterday she did amazing. Today it was a battle of the wills and she had to learn who was the "Alpha Mama". No fun, but necessary for her benefit and for her future. After that, its check the children's progress.

On any given day, you will find me carrying me tiny pieces of diced up hot dog in my pocket. No, its not because I have fallen off the wagon. Its a suggestion from one of my old co-workers for an economical puppy treat. It works great!! Libby comes when she is called or whistled to, "sits" on command, is learning process on "shake", "lay down" and "roll over". I'm pleased with her progress. Having her is a dream come true and I don't want to jeopardize that with her being unmanageable. Other than a few potty accidents in the house, she's been a real good girl. I am looking forward to extending our runs and having her be a good motivation for me to get out there! It was a super fun time at the lake last weekend when we took her camping along with some of our friends. Our dogs played together in the sand and water fetching sticks and having a crazy good time.

I was relieved and happy to see that my jeans still fit good when I did the summer/fall switch. In fact, 8's are a lot more comfortable and I even have a couple pairs of 6's :-) That is happy for me. Having accounts at several consignment stores has helped me keep up on sizes, and finding cute things that look nice. One magazine article I read long ago said that you have to force yourself to try stuff on on a regular basis. One, because even when we feel "frumpy", seeing even a little improvement can be a great incentive. Another, because when we look good, we feel good. It makes us want to keep trying. Not having money for new clothes shouldn't be an issue. There are always clearance and consignment racks. I regularly take in my stuff as well as things my kids have outgrown. It keeps a steady stream of credit for shopping and keeps frumpies far away ;-)

I hope you are having a good week and accomplishing your goals. I did do a week long coffee fast which was good for me. Been trying to run more with the pup. Restarted a sit ups regime. Though I haven't had any eating plans for a while. Tomorrow I am taking The Sock Fashion Expert to get her nose pierced. I am undergoing some serious soul searching about what or if I should pierce along with her....

my most STELLAR summer ever (why you haven't heard from me)

Super Fun Cliff Jumping!!

This is my amazing son!!

The Most AMAZING, Romantic, BEST EVER Get Away for our 20th Can you believe my husband bought us a boat?!?
He took me away to remote
Idyllic, even EUPHORIC settings....

Me Cliff Jumping AFRAID!!

Diving....

Isn't this the most romantic setting ever?!!? What more could anybody ask for than a secluded sandy cove?!?

Fun with the kids in the sand, water and sunshine :-)

Maybe our funnest family summer EVER!!

The most amazing food at my cousin's wedding!!

The Wedding in Bellingham was sooo romantic!!

I've had such an incredibly fun and amazing month that I couldn't possibly spend too much time next to a computer. I barely made a few posts on my other blog telling of our cliff jumping, wedding and romantic get away adventures. As for dieting and fitness, well its been haphazard at best. Every week I seem to squeeze in a 7 mile run or two. I'm still some what active, but its hard to do any kind of routine with all the fun going on :-) I did some food fasting too, but again, discipline has been REALLY HARD. Play play play has been the name of the game ;-)

Now that its coming to a screeching halt, I see D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E in the near future and I'm not all that embracing. I just want to be lost on that remote sandy beach in a bikini forever without all the work that looking good in it involves. Selah......

Today our girls accountability group got together and did our thing. I was the only one present with a filled in chart and that was for only one week. I think we all saw the writing on the wall. Time to get back to work for us all!! Oh if mojo were only that simple. After such amazing food, crazy fun, and timeless romance how does one get back to a life of cottage cheese and fitness blog posts? I DON'T KNOW. alas alas boo hoo violin.

So my resolutions this month include but are not limited to :

- a work out day with a friend

- a home school routine that incorporates some kind of fitness routine for me

- a more regular exercise routine

- more disciplined eating

- a new blog name and a new game plan

- some way to make this blog more interesting (if nothing better than to spare my husband of its painful boredom ;-) )

That sounds like a grand start ;-) Okay, tell me how you've been surviving this past divine month?!?

2011 - 1.76 Mile "Long Bridge Swim"

My Eldest Son,
"The Archer" and I in front of the finish point.....

















Arriving at check in.....
Picnic afterward....

The Start of the swim....

The Archer in the middle (wet suit and green cap)

My son "Archer" again... isn't he amazing?!?!

Me..... try not to laugh ;-)

My husband states he can pick me out by my "wounded frog swim"

Hubby and I at the finish. So thankful for my wonderful supportive husband!!

Archer with the free ice cream!!

As usual, nothing was "status quo" about the Long Bridge Swim for me this year ;-)

The lakes had been cold and didn't warm up till Mid-July which didn't give me a lot of time to train. I almost didn't even do it except that I had told the kids that I would do their dishes turns for a month if they participated. My eldest, "The Archer", took me up on it. With some swim strokes tips from Blue Alice, he was all set for the day!

As usual, I obsessed over what I would wear. All my most comfortable, best hard wearing swimwear are bikinis. I decided to try wearing water shorts over the bottoms for added modesty. In the end the shorts dragged low and looked horrid. I guess the best thing I can do is laugh it off. Last year I wore swim shorts and a tank over my bikini top. That tank created a lot of drag and looked ridiculous. I guess I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board for next year.

In the early morning we arrived in plenty of time for check in. I phoned my husband and told him that Archer go scared and changed his mind.... hahaha. Neither my husband or the Archer found that amusing ;-) My Bloomsday buddie caught up with us and we hung out there awaiting the safety meeting. After boarding the buses, we anxiously got to our start point. It was so much fun having my son be there with me!! I felt so proud of him :-)

Once we got into the water, I lost him but I knew he was a strong swimmer and would be fine. He said he kept thinking of Dorie on "Nemo" telling him "Just keep swimming - just keep swimming" lol!!

Just when I settled into a groove, somebody dropped a cup almost on me from off of the bridge. As it floated by, I became rather leery of swimming so close to the bridge. On I went, a little further out......

Right away I noticed my swim shorts dragging. My goggles seemed too tight. Nothing seemed right but I kept on swimming anyway. I accidentally kicked somebody. Then I punched somebody. Oh dear. None of that was intentional. People just seemed to keep swimming in front of me. As usual it seemed like I was swimming in place and I had to keep focusing mentally to tell myself that I was indeed, moving......

To add insult to injury, as I finally got my mental train of thought back, some old guy accidentally grabbed my behind. I was shocked and he immediately apologized, but it kind of threw me off to say the least. You just never know whats going to happen in these things. Most normal people meet a lot of nice people and have a great time. Me, well nothing ever seems to go "normal". Hahaha.

My husband and kids expected "The Archer" to be ahead of me and so for the first half of the swim I never saw them. I was fine with that, figuring they were tracking him. Then, half way through, just as I was feeling weary there they were cheering me on. Turns out my husband states he wasn't cheering me on, but trying to signal me to pull up my britches - bwa ha ha ha. Really he did cheer for me and I felt the wind under my wings. I even think I might have drafted a little here and there. Though I was tired and worked hard, I never stopped once. I'm still awaiting my time results to post. I think since I didn't train this year and since I was about 13 people later I probably don't have as good of a time.

When I got out, I consumed ice cream, cookies, fruit and all manner of free snack food. Though my incessant craving for steak eventually won out. If ever my appetite was completely out of control, its when I finish something like that!! My Archer made it out of the water not long after me, but of course the kids had to razz him about his mom beating ;-) Really, I'm amazed and proud of his accomplishment. I'm so excited that he had it in him. Besides my most important desire of wanting to pass on a relationship with God, I hope all my kids will have a love for fitness. It is such a simple, yet profound way of expanding and enhancing ones life.

In conclusion, the swim was a lot of fun, but was not without mishaps and misadventures. I suppose if I couldn't look back and laugh at myself I wouldn't have an entertaining story to tell ;-)

I Love Camping!

Bags of Popcorn always go camping with us (but never come home) ;-)

We always eat allot of fish too....

And I LOVE escaping in my kayak....

Its ALWAYS romantic......

We just got back from a several day trip at Lake Koocanusa. It was allot of fun and I did allot of things right dietwise. Here's a list of some of the "right choices" :

- My husband packed bikes for us all and led us on an excruciating trek up a mountain road. I peddled up Miss Moonbeam in the baby seat for an extra burn! After that we had to hike through the woods in search of a waterfall. It was quite the work out :-)

- I only ate 1 hot dog each time we roasted them (and only 1 s'more each time too). Our only left overs were hot dogs. The kids referred to them as "gross". It got me to thinking "Do I really need to bring hot dogs to roast to make camping fun?" Probably not. Now the s'mores, well old habits die hard (lol). We all prefer my daughters homemade grahms to the store bought ones hands down! Though they are made with a good amount of butter. The kids favorite camp meals I made which they claimed were "best ever" included :

• chicken quesadillas on home made wheat tortillas


• fresh caught native fish


• shrimp and brown rice in a garlic sauce


• nachos made with my own mashed beans and elk burger topped with veggies and salsa

case in point : all healthy, wholesome for the most part foods - hooray!

- bravely i did a good amount of kayaking. Two hair raising trips across Lake Koocanusa exploring. It was great fun, allot of arm and abd work and high adventure!!

- swam across to the end of the bay several times with the girls and did the whole perimeter one time. That was HEAVENLY!!

- drank allot of lime and mint water. Drank less than a can of soda the whole time until our date night.

- packed snacks to "fill in" for the things I knew I shouldn't eat allot of - like substituting that second hot dog for cottage cheese with strawberries or having half a banana with peanut butter as a late night snack or breakfast filler.

- Hiked all over, enjoyed the sun, friends, etc.. Though I made delicious meals and enjoyed them, they weren't the center of the enjoyment for the day :-)

I told all about our trip on my other blog, including this story, but its kind of a funny one :-) On the middle part of our camping trip some of our friends joined in with us. That Saturday afternoon, while the men were off fishing, the children were playing in the water near by. Us girls were relaxing at an ultra secluded cove. We were laying out on the sand in our bikinis laughing and visiting and just soaking up the sun. Here and there we'd dip in the cool heavenly waters or swim out to where the choppy cold waters met the calmer waters of our private bay.
It was probably in the 80's or 90's and I felt like not much could be closer to heaven on earth. Then all of a sudden this helicopter flies over. It flies over again. Then it flies over AGAIN!! Around that time, my friends husband was getting back. After it flew over 3 times, it circled us! We all wondered what on earth it was doing. "Why is that helicopter looking at us?" my 8 year old wanted to know. "They're not looking at us, buddy." He told him. Then he thought for a moment, perturbed and with a rather disgusted voice asked "Why would anybody want to look at women in bikinis?!" We all laughed.

I suppose it is time for me to change the name of my blog as I have been rather inconsistent in my sit ups endeavors. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I aspired for it. I did pretty good the first 6 months and my abs are allot better than I ever imagined. I just am so busy and can't seem to keep up with them, especially when I'm doing so many active things outdoors. That's okay. I will keep doing them, just not every day. So any new name suggestions?

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

"Fish Princess" and I swam across a bay at Koocanusa

Miss Moona feasts on Goat Girls organic Greens right out of the garden :-)

Me testing out the new wet suit :-)

First off with my terrible confession......this is rather..er.. difficult... errr.... i think i went a week without doing any sit ups.... oh that was painfull. Okay, now onto better news....

It WAS a super fun couple of weeks since my last post. I DID get in a 4 miler and 7 miler run before my company arrived. Then our family had an AWESOME week of fun with them. Every waking moment was FULL! From fireworks to lakeside life to games to hikes the fun never stopped. But I am reminded (via my blog and a little squish) that its time to get back to work!! I could party all summer, but if i did, I'd lose a lot of ground. Here's some proactive things I've been doing since all the fun.....

1. made a great wild rice and trout dinner for my guests at the last "party" so it was a healthy fiesta!

2. been making DAILY healthy organic fruit smoothies for the fam!

3. 7 mile run last night (met a moose)! ugh :-)

4. restarted my sit ups regime...

5. several days at the lake - got in some distance swims.....

6. THE ARCHER AND I REGISTERED FOR THE LONG BRIDGE SWIM!!

ooohhhhh the pressure is on now ;-) I'm always THRILLED when i can pass some form of passion for fitness down to my kids!

7. Hubby and I did an 11 mile bike ride together :-)

8. More fun athletic endeavors in the works!! Mojo is rising......

I see a lot of backpacking and camping in the near future too - which always burns alot of calories minus the hot dog and s'more factor ;-) There is NOT MUCH i'd rather be doing than hanging out at some remote sandy beach and frolicking in the water! I'm such a nature girl tho i never used to be! Really, everything is there. You just gotta see it. The forest is full of romance and privacy. Running, Hiking, Swimming and sunshine pulls out those happy endorphins and burns calories galore. Feasting on Huckleberries, fish and other Forrest edibles are naturally organic, naturally balanced..... Bathing in the fresh mountain lakes is exhilarating. A little lupine is intoxicating perfume....wild forest mint to freshen your breath before kissing your lover. I know i know - i'm getting corny on camping - lol!!

Anyhoo..... My wet suit is working out well, tho the lakes have been warm enough without it. My new bike is working good too. Still need to post one of those pics ;-) I'm excited about my new bikini toooooooo. My husband specified the cut and style he wanted and I ordered it from venus - fun!! I Love being married to you toytrkman!!

And so now you've agonized in my defeats, and shared in my thrills of victory for the week ;-) Till next time.............

UGH!

Here's some pics of us girls before church the other day. The Sock Expert REFUSED to let me put up any of the ones of her - though she is totally adorable!! It was a big step for me because the dress I'm wearing is NEW. That's right. Its new and I didn't even buy it on clearance. I got it at Ross. Laugh, but spending $20 on a dress was a stretch for me. I totally panicked buying it - almost didn't. I FEARED whether my husband would like it or not. As it turned out, he loved it and my friend Elasta Woman says its her favorite ever!! Whew - relief! So I figured I'd put up the pics :-) I am also over due to put up my bike pics and my NEW WET SUIT pics.......

The wetsuit is a crazy story!! I was lamenting our return from a super fun weekend as we headed home. (See "A GRRRReat Weekend" post) Anyway, my husband decides to stop at our favorite used sporting goods place on the way through the big city. I'm feeling all disheveled and frumpy. I can't bear to go in until I pluck out the unsightly chin hairs that have popped up on my face over the weekend. I'm disgustedly sporting "the pms bloat". My shorts are a size or two too big and have a bizarre hang to them. Am I painting you a good "frump feel?" Okay, so in I go not really wanting to be "seen".

I head straight over to the wet suits which I have eyed for the last several visits. The water is just soooo cold and its almost July!! How will I EVER get any training in with out one? So anyways, this guy comes up and says "I just got done doing the same thing!" He's all smiley and friendly. "Are you an open water swimmer?!?!" he asks. Of course I love being labeled "an open water swimmer" and I'm all about it because, after all, I am one. After a while I start to get some weird vibes. Maybe he's being too friendly? Naaa. I'm frump city here. He's just being polite. We both just love open water swimming. Not to mention my entire family is milling around and its a small store. He shows me his purchase. It has short sleeves. I tell him the sleeves hindered me with my last wet suit. He tells me to "work my guns" displaying a playful a muscle flex for me with a wink. One of the clerks possibly picks up on the awkwardness of the situation and hangs around adding in a few comments here and there. After a while the friendly swim guy moves on. I'm trying on my 3rd wet suit and feeling a bit befuddled. I wasn't expecting all that attention.

Then he comes back..... He has this silly head thing and asks me if I've ever used one. Now I know he can't possibly be serious. This is an excuse. I swallow. This is more than friendly. He starts acting silly and flirty. I swallow again feeling nervous. Is this guy actually flirting with me?! Then he starts giving advice on wet suit fit and brushes my waist with a mock pinch. Okay now about a million alarms go off and my face is beet red. I'm flattered, but ugh!! Doesn't this guy see my wedding ring on? Suddenly the guys intense, flashy eyes change from "pursue" to a look of sheer horror. I follow his eyes to behind me. There my entire family is standing and staring at him with protective stares and arms crossed. My husband, particularly, does not look happy. His giant biceps seem flexed and there is a bit of a twitch to his jaw. I kiss his cheek, smiling naturally. He puts a protective arm around me. I turn back and the flirter has fled in terror........... My husband buys me the wet suit (cool). I wander out the door wondering what I should have done differently.........