Annual Turkey to Tree Trimdown!!!!!

Annual Turkey To Tree Trimdown (T4)

It seems that a lot of people I know are embarking on what most people consider the impossible – losing weight during the holiday season!

So, I propose that we swing at windmills together and prove these naysayers wrong! Skinny people, you can participate too! I consider this more of an effort to remember to take proper care of oneself more than a month long diet! I think it is really easy to justify some extra cookies during this time of year, but if we are focusing on self-care during this month, it will be less likely to be a cookie marathon by Christmas.

What do I have to do, you ask? Well, it is simple (on paper anyways)

From today until late night December 23rd, you do the following:

1. Care for your mind and/or soul.
Do something spiritual every day for a total of 30 minutes. This includes prayer, reading, meditation or anything else you find uplifting to your soul. So as not to exclude my chubby atheist compadres, I’ll suggest some readings of philosophy, poetry or something else that will help focus your mind and explore your world.

2. Care for the belly!
Come up with a plan to keep the reins on the food. If you know some particular food pattern is a problem for you, focus on that. For me, it is going to be the sugary fat girl food each and every time! So, I’ll be avoiding it for the T4. So, put down the chips and figure out what you can eat instead :)

3. Care for the machine.
Don’t forget the body that keeps you mobile. Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. Take the stairs, office people (but make sure you won’t get locked in first! I did that once ). Since I’m a gimpy girl, I’ll be spending my 30 minute minimum in the pool. This amount is the MINIMUM!! Those silly experts claim you need 30 a day just to maintain your weight, but if you have cookie calories to contend with, you should probably aim higher! Skinny fit people, you all just ramp it up a little, okay?

4. Document your plan and your progress
Either post your plan and progress on your blog or facebook, or send me an email. Why? Because we all need the support :) I like to know what others are doing and what is working (or not working) for them. My email is crimsoncoconut at gmail dot com. I’ll probably be doing most of my updates on facebook, so if you aren’t my fb friend, add me. I will probably also do the end-of-efforts post on the blog as well in case you are just curious about the end result.

A Bit O' Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was pretty nice! We had the sister missionaries over and it was good to get to meet them. They are really lovely ladies and I'm pretty glad they are here! I tried to take pictures of my children, but as usual, they weren't very cooperative! Lee was unusually cooperative though, so I did get a picture of his foxy self.




I also got a picture of this super awesome pumpkin cheesecake with a maple pecan glaze. It was my first try at cheesecake and it was tasty beyond belief. It will be happening every Thanksgiving for the rest of my life!



What is there really ever to say about Thanksgiving? We ate for two days?

Veterans Day with a little Romance :)

For some reason, Veterans Day always has me reminiscing about this amazing story in my family.

During WWII, my granduncle, Bill Butler, was serving in the Pacific theatre on a boat. At the time, the soliders were not allowed to disclose to their loved ones where they were located. My grandaunt Beth (possibly his girlfriend back then, not sure if they were married yet, but I'm thinking not)had no clue where he was. Every time there was reports of action, women across the country had no way of knowing if those fights were touching the life of their solider.

Anyways, my ingenious granduncle came up with a way to let Beth know where he was. During WWII, Hawaii had their own money. He took one of these colorful notes and cut a heart out of the middle of it where it said "Hawaii" and mailed it to her with his next letter. She received the heart and knew where her guy was.

Me, being the incredulous cynical child that I was, had zero belief in that silly tale and of course said so to my granduncle (affectionately known as "Grumps") and he said "Oh yeah??" and, standing in his kitchen with a big ol' grin on his face opened his wallet and showed me the remaining portion of that 40+ year old Hawaiian dollar with the heart missing from the middle. While I was sitting there with my chin hitting the ground, he turned to his wife and said "Show her the rest of it, dear" and she opened her purse and showed me the heart he had sent her all those years ago.

Is that not the most beautiful story of wartime love EVER?? I think so :)

My Idea of Romance...

My husband has a tendency to be a very random individual. It has an upside and a downside. Lately, I've had tunnel vision on the downside, but he sprung what I'd like to call a "grand romantic gesture" at me completely randomly. These occasional surprises (plus never being boring or predictable) are definitely the upside of being married to Chaos. I'm not a fan of the usual romantic things for the most part. I'm more a veggie garden girl than a flower garden girl. I still like the flowers, but if you're going to bother, it should serve a purpose. Flowers look nice, but veggies keep you alive!! So, this may not be your idea of romance, but a little area in our room for me to hide and study in, complete with crazy motivational pics of my children and a dung beetle moving his dungly wares and MORE is definitely my idea of romance. Here's what the wall looks like. It makes me pretty happy :)



(And yes, that is Ahmadinejad in the lower left corner)

Halloween Pt. 2

Cyrus is much easier to get on camera. He is clearly swashbucklin' in this costume, but if you lose the hat, it apparently is much more reminiscent of "scarecrow" or "Civil War soldier". Too bad I couldn't get the parrot to stay on!




This last photo is of my friend's jellyfish costume. Best use of an umbrella and office trash EVER!!!!

Halloween Pt. 1

Our Halloween was pretty low key this year with all of us being some form of sick, but we did manage to get to the branch Halloween party at least!

Taking photos of Rejeanne is always a challenge. She likes to hide her face most of the time from the camera, plus she is fast moving and prone to making odd faces just in the nick of time. I think I did okay this year though!