Catchin up on life's events

GOODNESS! It has been busy. I have a moment of quiet...everyone is napping except me so I'm taking a second to remember what we've been doing.

Last weekend - or I guess the weekend BEFORE last, my friends Josh and Meredith got married. You couldn't have asked for better weather or a prettier place. It was at a place called David Hill Winery just outside of Forest Grove - man...it was God's country. Travis was in the wedding party and Keira was the flower girl. That made for a busy weekend - and a lot of trips to Forest Grove. Travis spent the whole day Friday Sept 26th with Josh helping him set up. Keira and I met them out there for the rehearsal/dinner. It was a blast. My sister and brother-in-law were there too, because Nate was officiating the wedding. That made things all-the-more fun. :-)

We had the opportunity to spend the night in a hotel after the wedding. Nate and Teresa and Jenny and Bryan did, too and we had so much fun. We hung out in Nate and T's room until WAY past my bedtime ;-) drinking rum and cokes and eating greasy McDonalds. It almost felt like I was young again! We all had a concensus that as MUCH as we love our kiddo's dearly, we could have probably used even another night or two away - playing with our friends. There is something freeing about not having to check every which way to make sure some little person didn't wander off, do they need to eat, OH, please don't touch that, now they have to go potty. Did somebody poop? I LOVE being a mom and all that goes with it and looking at those precious little eyes and smiles makes it all worth it. Sometimes, though a little time away is just what you need to keep your lid from blowing off on those tough days.

With that said, the rest of the week was interesting. Monday, Travis and I started our new Sonoma Diet. We have a book and a cookbook and I had been researching it for about a month. A friend of ours at church lost most of her baby weight from it and I am resolved that I HAVE to do something. SO, I woke up completely freaked out about having to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I even got Travis up an hour earlier because I wanted to make sure he got breakfast before he had to leave for school. We did pretty well the first week. Travis lost a total of 6.5 lbs (YEA) and I lost 4...but I gained back two from the weekend. I'll explain in a minute. The food is really tasty, but the first 10 days are the hardest. You aren't supposed to have ANY sugar - not even fruit. This is to ween yourself from a lifetime of sugar cravings.

Anywhoo, it was pretty easy to stay strong the first few days, but as the week stretched on, I found myself feeling hungerier and less satisfied. On Saturday night, I went to my friend Katie's b-day party at El Tapitio, a Mexican restaurant close by. I was surrounded by GINORMOUS pina coloda's with WHIP CREAM on them! Margharita's, chips, and OH my such good smelling food engulfed all of my senses. I sat with my chin on my hand and grunted that I was a bit grumpy because I was on a diet. I did eat a chip or two, but it didn't really do anything for me. I wanted to cheat really bad, but good ol' Jenny was like "ABSOLUTELY NOT!!" Thank you, Jenny. My friends Kate and Betty urged me to get the tortilla soup, saying it was very tasty and would work with my diet. Thank God - at least I could eat something. Soup didn't sound that exciting but it did have avacodo in it and it was very easy on the pocketbook. NOW, what to drink. When I left for the party, Travis and the girls were at my neighbors house watching the Ducks game. My neighbor told me that a diet coke with a shot of Bacardi Silver was only 60 calories. Unfortunately, El Tapatio does not carry Bacardi Silver. "I'll just have a diet coke, please."

I did resolve to have one of Katie's special pomnegranete drinks in a fancy martini glass when we got back to see the adorable house she just purchased. Well, the drink was so good and went down SO incredibly easy that I decided to have another. She also made warm bree (sp??) cheese with toasted hazelnuts, apples, and bread. Are you trying to KILL me here?? I had a little bit. The night was fun - it felt good to let go a little bit (once again) and just hang out with girl friends. I did pay for it in the morning when I got on the scale and two of my treasured 4 lbs I had lost had found their way back. (sigh).

I am craving fall comfort food like mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin spiced lattes! It is so hard to have resolve. But I DO not want to stay this weight. I am starting to excercise, too. Today turned out to be a nice day so the girls and I went to Portland Christian and I chased Keira around the track, twice. I also managed to do 20 sit ups on Trav's sit up bench and have my little hand weights I will be using in a few minutes. This weight is going to come off!!

Well, I am trying to be domesticated and right now am getting ready to make a big batch of homemade tomato sauce to freeze from my abundance of tomatoes in my garden. I'm trying to be a better steward of my stuff and let things go to waste, as much. Plus, homegrown/homemade is always better, right? :-)

That is just a little bit of what happened this week, but I only have a little time.

I will post some pictures in a bit.

TTFN!