Diet/Exercise Results Update

Diet Update

So we're still dieting.  Aaron is always starting over, but I'm doing well.  Newest stats:

Diet Update

Well today was weigh in day for week 3.  Im doing really well, and Aaron has recommitted :)
The goal is to get healthy.  A healthy BMI is around 20-25 which for me is about 122 lbs.  Im not even 5 feet tall and I have a very small body frame somewhere under here so that is not unreasonable although it feels that way.  Im setting the goal to get to 128 lbs and be able to maintain it (after that i can make a new goal).  That is a goal I feel I can accomplish, especially since I remember weighing that only a few years ago but I can't remember weighing less than that in the last 7 years.  Im told a healthy women's waist is on average 32 inches or less, Im hoping for something around 28 or a size 6/8.  Last night I was able to get my size 10/medium clothes on which i haven't done in a few years.  It was fun and exciting to realize I could get them zipped, but they are still to tight to actually wear out.  Hopefully in the next two weeks those clothes fit comfortably :)

great new web site!

mapmyrun.com

I was reading tips from people who had lost alot of weight on shape.com and came across one recommending this web page to map your run/hike/walk route.  It gives you all sorts of info.  So Aaron and I made a route.  It was 4.23 miles and went in a circle.  I mapped it thinking Aaron could run it, but we decided to walk it and check it out.  I was nervous, because once we were out there the only way home was to keep going but we did it.  it took about 2 hours, we took our time, mostly b/c our feet hurt.  When we decided to go for the walk we just went, we didn't put on the right foot wear so as a result... we have yucky bloody blisters.  But overall it was fun and we're excited to stick with it and make new routes.  We went left out of our road, right at the thompsonville fire station, passed the Methodist church, turned right on katherine rd, at the end turned left then right on cartier which turned into St James Ave, turned right at the end, then left on freshwater which brings you out on elm street at the light by TGIF's and home depot.  Turned right on elm, then right on route 5, then left on our street.  2 hours later, we're home and getting ready to go subway (we earned it).

Diet Week 1 Results

We have completed week 1.  Aaron cheated a bit, but for the most part we did well.  We aren't doing anything particular, just eating healthy food, counting calories, and exercising.  We both lost 3 pounds week 1.  If feels good but I calculated it out and if we stay on track (me losing 2lb a week and aaron losing 3 a week) it is going to take me 11 weeks and aaron 10 weeks to reach our goal weights.  Funny, aaron's goal weigh is my current weight, ok maybe not funny if my mom is ready this shaking her head.  How did we let this happen :(  I have 20 more pounds to go, aaron 27 and Im not confident we'll make it, but for now we are doing well.  I caught myself in the mirror today at target, and was surprised for the first time.  I don't tend to see "overweight Jill" when Im getting ready in the morning, I see a "normal sized Jill".  Im not sure how this happens but I had a bit of a holy cow moment in target.  I didn't recognize myself.  Well I guess it is good motivation to stick with it.  Lucky for me I have a good friend who goes to the gym with me regularly and a husband who prefers healthy foods.    

Lyman Orchard's: A New Card Family Tradition

So what did the card's end up doing for there labor day vacation fun since camping was canceled and so many things are closed following the hurricane.........

Lyman Orchards!  This wonderful place is in Middlefield, CT about 40 minutes from us.  Aaron really wanted to go apple picking, but there was so much more than just apples.  We got there around 11:00 and started our day in the corn maze.  What did we learn.... Jill is a freakishly obsessive control freak.  We were in the maze 2 minutes before we were fighting because Aaron wanted to run in it, get lost, then find the way out while I wanted to play the game (you answer questions as you go and they tell you which way to go and then there are some trivia facts and cornundrums that if you answer all of them correctly you can win a prize).  We quickly agreed if we wanted to have a good day and any fun at all it was best to let me in charge b/c otherwise they were going to have to send the corn cops in for us and I was going to hyperventilate.  Yes I am embarrassed to admit this, but Aaron teased me all day that this was going in the blog b/c I always share his embarrassing moments.  We spent the rest of the day laughing about what a control freak I am and how it is a good thing we went just the 2 of us.  The corn maze was a lot of fun and well worth the $20 it cost for the 2 of us to enter.

Next we went to the Lyman Orchard's Apple Barrel, which is their country store/restaurant.  We had wonderful deli sandwiches before heading to the orchard for some picking.  We sat on the porch overlooking the lake and admired their bee traps that were full of yellow jackets.  Next we drove around the homestead and golf course on the way to the actual orchard where we made 3 separate stops to pick different fruits.  We started with apples, and noticed every few trees in the row was one with these little (cherry sized) pink apples that we had never seen before.  We taste one that had fallen on the ground and realized they are in fact apples and are very yummy so we picked a couple handfuls.  Later we found out that these are a type of crab apple that is planted for the bees and are not for sale (they let you have them for free and dont care that you pick them).  We also picked ginger gold apples and gala apples.  Aaron decided he doesn't like jenomic apples or mac's.  Next we picked peaches. There were 2 varieties that we saw and Aaron did not like the red skin ones so he picked the second kind which he said was just ok (hartcrest).  Then we were off to the pairs, we picked two types of asian pears that were excellent!  Aaron didn't like the bosc so we skipped those.  You may be wondering why Im only sharing Aaron's opinions on the fruit, well to be honest Im not much of a fresh fruit person.  I like my apples in pie, and my peaches and pears from the can.  Im more of a berry/melon person myself.  We came home with 8 apples, 8 peaches, 8 pears, and a bunch of those little crab apples (which are probably the only thing I will eat).

After picking we went back to the apple barrel for some cider donuts and apple cider.  We were sad to hear that the cider is not made on site.  After an E-coli outbreak a few years ago in cider crops the government required farmers to pasteurize their cider, so Lyman Orchard's sends their apples off site to be pressed and the cider to be prepared.  We then set out for home, exhausted but both in agreement that Lyman Orchards is on of the most beautiful places we have ever seen and well worth at least an annual visit and it made missing our camping trip worthwhile as well.

http://www.lymanorchards.com/

We're still here.....

I know the blog has been abandoned lately.  Since getting better I have been online much less.  So what has happened to the Card's in the past 6 weeks or so.....

Well first the most amazing neurologist figured out why I was getting so sick and luckily for me it was an easy fix.  So Yay, Im walking, talking, eating, and back to my full strength.  In hind sight it was actually a good experience because it helped to put things in perspective and made me appreciate my body alittle more.  It also gave us a chance to see Aaron rise to the occasion of being a caregiver, and he passed with flying colors.  So now Im just trying to be mindful of what I eat, and exercising with my good friend vicky who keeps me motivated.  We have been yoyo dieting for months now, but are trying to be more diligent now that Aaron's doctor has told him to lose a significant amount of weight.  I have a feeling we will be on this roller-coaster for the duration of our mortal life.  We both love "yummy food".  Just this morning I found the wrappers to 8 full size Hershey bars in aaron's car.  I had bought them on Tuesday for our camping trip and each bar would have made 3-4 smores.  Well as soon as we canceled our camping trip on Tue afternoon aaron snuck the candy out with him to work.  2 days latter, no more candy bars and Im left to be sad wishing I had thought to eat them first ;)

The garden was a success this year.  We did lose the weed battle for the most part, but we got enough food stored for the winter to make it worth growing the garden.  And the rabbit got some treats to.

The bees, well there is a sad story.  We are currently in mourning.  We had 8 hives a few weeks ago and were hoping to collect another 100lbs of honey.  Well because of the late golden rod bloom and the weird weather the bees were unable to give us anymore honey.  They have enough honey in the hives to sustain them through the winter.  In addition to the lack of honey, we lost 4 hives due to flooding in the hives.  We are still investigating to see how this has happened, seems to be an equipment flaw.  To say the least Aaron has been going through the stages of grieving.  First he was angry, decided he hated the bees and didn't care about them anymore.  Second came self-loathing when he declared himself the worst beekeeper to ever be born.  Now we are just sad at the loss of our cherished bees and hope to soon start thinking about next years beekeeping season.

Construction is going slow but is good.  We just need to put in the closet door in the living room, the trim on 2 windows and around the doors and floor, and put in the extension jam thing for the front door.  Then we can hopefully move onto the kitchen and downstairs bathroom.  All our work was almost for nothing when I came close to burning the house down earlier this week.  Our kitchen has a very old electric stove in it, one of the first electric stoves created.  Well it malfunctioned and made for a scary smoke mess, but all in all there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage except for a dangerous stove.  We hope to finish up the house and maybe sell it and get an apartment closer to aaron's work so that we can simplify our lives alittle but who knows.

Hurricane!
Well we hear there was a hurricane, and a number of friends and family were without power for many days.  We see hurricane flooding and damage all around, but our little town seems to have been spared 100%.  We waiting at home all day for the storm to come (Aaron wanted to go stand outside in it for some crazy reason), but it never came.  We watched the radar and our town stayed in a pocket the entire storm.  Light wind, mild rain, nothing worth mentioning really.  So we count our blessings and pray for all of those who were effected.

Aaron had some big thing at work, "The rack and stack", which apparently is some evaluation process that rates you against your peers.  He did really well, which is both a blessing and a curse.  He did to well to stay in his current job on 2nd shift which we really like.  So he had a meeting with HR and it looks like in 6 months he will start this job rotation program in which he will change jobs every few months to learn the entire place in preparation for being moved to upper management.  So why aren't we thrilled.  Well first it is 1st shift, which isn't our favorite, second its less money now (more latter).  On 2nd shift we have alot of time together, time to work on the house, go to the gym, do bee stuff etc.  On 1st shift he works longer hours, for less pay, with more stress, and we see each other less and less gets done at home/bees etc.  But we have a job, and this is a good opportunity for aaron to advance so here we go.  We're very grateful to have work, and advancement opportunities.

I have enrolled in an EMT course that will start in 2 weeks and go into December.  I think this will be fun for me and its helpful that it is only 2 nights a week and some Saturdays.  You only have to be 16 to take the class, so Im hoping this will be a breeze considering I've had a 100+ credits of biomedical course work already.  I also hope this is fast paced enough for me, I think it will be.  I get board easily.  So I know I said no more school ever, but it looks like 1 more class (and maybe another class in a year or so).

So that is what we've been up to, or at least what I can remember.

A General Update

Where have we been, what have we been doing... Well here is the exciting recap of life in Card house the past few weeks.

Garden:  Well the garden is booming.  We are getting lots of summer squash, peas, and cucumbers.  The tomatoes are finally turning red and the green beans will the ready to pick in a couple of days.  The only complaints are with home depot.  We bought all of our sprouts from them and now that we have fruit it is obvious some things were mislabeled.  So our cherry tomato bush is some other kind of tomato bush that makes big tomatoes and 2 of our zucchini plants were actually summer squash and yellow crookneck summer squash that looks just like summer squash with a bent neck and lots of bumps but taste like winter squash.  Moral of the story, dont buy your plants at home depot.  I have been blanching and freezing the squash and zucchini and will be doing some pickling and canning soon.

Bees:  Well we have sold all of our honey and are super happy with it.  It taste great!  I still need to deliver some of it, and we still need to collect the money, but it looks like we may break even this year.  We have always successfully grafted queens, they emerged, mated and are now laying eggs in their new hives.  We're conquering the beekeeping world one season at a time.

House:  Construction is common place in our house.  Aaron installed two new ceiling fans in the living room and they make all the difference on these hot days.  Paul has been replacing our old stairs for the past week and half.  They are no longer steep, narrow, railing-less, and broken.  We are worried that we have re-created the problem of not being able to move a bed up/down the stairs.  When Aaron moved in to the house we couldn't fit a queen sized bed up the stairs.  We had to rip out the railing, balusters, the post at the bottom of the stairs, all the trim, and part of the ceiling in order to get the bed up.  When we re-did the upstairs my dad corrected the ceiling so this would not be an issue again.  Well now the new stairs are less steep and come to a landing, making the distance from the floor to the ceiling shorter than Dad had corrected for.  I guess we'll wait till we're moving to worry about this.  We are very excited to have a new big closet under stairs.

Old Stairs

New Stairs (Still in Progress) (Pic is backward)

Health:  Well we stink at dieting.  It turns out carbs are my favorite.  We have been eating alot of PB&Honey sandwiches and fruit loops.  But on a happy note I have been feeling much better this month.  I'm still not pushing it to much, and still have my moments, but overall much much much better. The neurologist is awesome, he is a great doctor and returns my calls in person instead of having a nurse or PA call me.  Friday is my MRI and Aaron is coming for support and to be my driver.  Im very claustrophobic but the neurologist gave me some Valium for the anxiety.  I hate drugs, and I hate feeling out of control, but Im terrified of being in tight places (and not a fan of the IV contrast) so I think I'll take it.  

Honey Extraction!

Much to our surprise we had an early extraction this year.  There was so much honey on the hives that the bees were starting to eat it in order to make more room to lay eggs.  Usually we would just add another hive box to give them more room, but there were already so may hive boxes stacked up that we couldn't reach to add more (never mind take them down once they fill with honey and are 50 lbs).  So we extracted/harvested the honey.  We expect a second extraction in September and hope it yields just as much honey.  This was an all day event.  We started at 8am.  The kitchen had to be cleaned, the equipment had to be cleaned and set up, and the very heavy hive boxes full of honey needed to be brought up from the field.  Aaron had to carry all the 50 lb boxes up to the house, totaling at least 6 trips, maybe 10, but I was to busy cleaning to count.  Once he got all the boxes to the house he had to go through them and sort out which frames we could use.  The bee's had not capped all of the honey (which must happen before people can eat it).  So those frames had to go back down to the hives.  Aaron was not excited to make three trips back down the hill to the hives, especially since the boxes were still heavy.  But we still ended up with 102 lbs and 4 oz of honey bottled.  Finally, we hit the 100 lb mark.

Some of the heavy honey filled boxes Aaron had to carry across the field and up the hill to the house, 1 at a time.

The extraction set up.  The blue bin is a decapping bin.  You use a hot knife to cut the wax caps off the cells full of honey.  The wax and alittle honey fall into the bottom and can be collected later.  The silver machine is the honey extractor, it is a centrifuge that spins the frames and the honey spins out and falls the bottom.  Below the extractor is a bucket with a filter on-top.  The honey is filtered to remove any wax/debris and is stored in the clean bucket until bottling.

Wax and honey in the decapping bucket.

Here comes the honey!  It looks dark in the picture, it isn't that dark and taste yummy!

the solid stuff is wax, but it cant pass through the filter.  We filter our honey through cheese cloth and a steel honey filter which is under the cheese cloth.

The extractor can hold 6 medium frames or 3 large frames.

Aaron trying hard to get all the honey inside because the bees are working hard to steal it and bring it back to their hives.

Bees everywhere, but they dont sting this far from the hive.

Aaron decapping.

Honey!

All our products.  From left to right, 2oz jar of honey (these are what we give our neighbors to keep the peace), 0.5lb jar ($4), 2lb jar ($13), 1lb jar ($7), and a beeswax candle (not sure if we'll sell these yet, does anyone have an interest?).

Correction

aaron's email is:
aaronmcard@hotmail.com

Honey Sales Start Today!

We are extracting honey and officially taking orders.  First come first serve.  1/2 lb = $4, 1lb = $7, 2lb = $13.  We are limiting honey sales to 4lbs per customer.  Thanks!  Orders can be placed on facebook, by email, or by phone.

aaronmcard@hotmail.com
JPease3984@gmail.com
860-986-9608
860-899-4046

Project Update

Garden:
It is really starting to take off.  We have lots of tomatoes (cherry, big boy, and beef stake) but they are all green still.  We also have tiny peppers (bell, and a variety of hots).  There are lot of squash and zucchini, and today we picked out first two summer squash.  Our pickling cucumbers are growing fast and I think I will be able to pick some in the next 2 days.  Our green beans are blossoming and out lettuce finally reared its head.  The peas are growing up the fence, but no blossoms yet.  The egg plant arent growing at all, so I think they are a lost cause.

The garden, it look small and empty in this picture.  It is actually very good sized with  easily 20 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, a few peas, a bunch of green beans, 6 cucumbers, 6 squash, 3 lettuce that have come up, 2 egg plant, and 6 strawberry plants.

Bees:

We were more successful rearing queens this time.  Now we wait.  Last monday (before the holiday) we made up nucs.  A nuc is a small starter hive.  On that tuesday Aaron put the new queen cells (its a queen that has not emerged/hatched yet) in the nucs.  We have to wait 3 weeks before we can look and see if the queens emerged and are doing well (we have 2 weeks left).  Aaron says if we dont lose any honey that we easily have 150lbs already and that we should be able to meet our goal of 200lbs (last year we got 60lbs).  We are only managing 3 hives for honey, the others are all used to make more bees.  We started the season with 4 hives and now we are up to 11 at the moment.  Aaron says we will finish the season with 8-11 hives depending on how he decides to manage them.  Next year at least 6 hives are being dedicated to honey and the goal is 500lbs.  HONEY COMING LATE AUGUST EARLY SEPTEMBER!

House:

Aaron and I installed half of the living room floor.  Now we need to wait for the stairs to be finished before we continue.  It looks really nice and was super easy to install.  Other than that we are at a temporary stand still with the house.  Once the stairs are done we'll finish the living room and then we'll see how our wallets feel about the kitchen and bathroom.

Other than that we haven't been working on any projects.  Im feeling really good today so I'm excited to work on something.  I asked Aaron if there is anything he would like to me work on he said cleaning the car, so that is on my list.  Aaron is on vacation and he is excited to work on relaxing :)  He needs a real vacation.  Usually on his vacations he works harder than at work and then goes to work drained.  So far this vacation we went to the Cape and he has watched movies, played video games, gone swimming, ate yummy food, bee research, and mostly just relaxed.  But its only wed and he is talking about cleaning the basement, he just isn't good at doing nothing.  

Overcoming obstacles

My Mom brought me over this great chair so now it is much easier for me to do dishes, cook, and work at the kitchen counter without needing to take breaks to sit down.  This perfect chair has been sitting in her attic for years.  It is empowering to overcome obstacles and to be able to take care of myself.  Thanks Mom!

Candles

Finally, Aaron felt we had enough beeswax stored up to make a few candles.  We had enough wicks to make six, but it turns out we have enough wax to make 15-20 candles.  This was our pilot run.  And like most of the things we do around our house there was some trouble shooting involved.

First, We collect the wax in our solar wax melter.  We take frames out the hive that aren't needed anymore and place them in the solar wax melter.  The sun melts the wax and it runs down into a pan.

Second, We process the was.  The was in the pan has wax, honey, water, and debris in it.  It is dark brown and gritty and ugly.  We fill a pot with an inch of water and add the contents from the pan.  Once everything is melted we pour the wax through a wire screen and then through three layers of cheese cloth into a fresh pot.  This gets out alot of the debris.

Third, we pour the hot wax (plus honey/water/and fine debris into a Tupperware container and let it sit over night to solidify.  When it does this is stratifies.  The water goes to the bottom, then the debris in the middle, the wax makes a nice solid brick of pretty wax in colors ranging from bright yellow to white depending on the age and properties of the wax.

Fourth,  We take the wax brick and but it in a pot on low heat, melting it slowly and making sure not to burn it until all the wax is melted.

Fifth, Set up the candle jar.  We have been collecting only glasses, especially those tiny ones that people use for alcohol because they are the perfect size and pretty.  This was our first opportunity for trouble shooting, every blog/book says to place the wick in your container and then to keep it centered and standing using a toothpick across the top and clip the wick to it using a paper clip.  Our paper clips were to heavy and kept tipping the wicks to one side.  So we used that blue tape that you use when your painting trim.  I ripped off a piece that could span the top of the container (our little glasses), poked a hole it using a pen and then threaded the wick through.  The metal piece of the wick sits in the bottom of the glass.  We made sure to center our wicks.  You need to leave enough room to pour the wax in so I rolled the sides of the take up, but I could have cut it.

Sixth, Pour the hot wax into the containers and let sit till it cools and solidifies.  Leave some room at the top.  We discovered that as the candles cooled, the tops cracked.  Aaron explained that this is because the wax was cooling to quickly on the outside and not the center.  Our solution was to pour another layer of wax on top after the wax was solid.  They look really pretty because we used two different waxes, meaning they are from different times and as a result are different colors.  Our candles our a pretty yellow with a pale yellow/white on top.

Our Six Candles.

Lack of Independence

Well the diet is not the only thing Im struggling with today.  A lack of independence is really starting to give me some unwanted anxiety and depression.  My body can't seem to do the things that used to be so simple.  My abilities very from day to day even hour to hour but not being able to write or bathe, see or stand, walk, cook, clean, etc is wearing on me.  Saturday night I was very week and in some pain.  Sunday I stayed in bed most of the day b/c I wasn't feeling well and Aaron was very sick.  Today I woke up fine but after an hour of being up my legs weren't working and I was hurting.  It is frustrating to feel so limited.  To have to decide between showering or doing the dishes because I can only stand long enough to do one or the other.   And there is the always looming risk of falling because of weakness and lack of balance.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day because today I am super frustrated (not to mention the no carbs no sugar which means no comfort food).

I am grateful for an amazing husband who is being very helpful and supportive as well as my Mom who listens to me vent no matter what time of day it is.  It is hard to feel so crummy and look fine and it is hard being bounced from doctor to doctor.    

Carbs :(

Just the thought of preparing a meal void of carbs (and sugar) makes me want to give up.  Aaron was very sick last night so I wasn't going to start our diet today, but he insisted.  I was born with my fathers taste-buds, meaning every meal I crave white bread with butter.  Today I made a salad for lunch, lettuce/tuna/egg/balsamic dressing.  It was good, but would have been better with Italian bread and butter.  Dinner was scrambled eggs with spinach and fat-free cheddar cheese again, it tasted good, but would have been better with ketchup and buttered toast.  Desert was a sugar free grape Popsicle, oh how I wish it was a brownie, or cookie, or ice cream.  I hate dieting!  Aaron loves it, these are his favorite foods.  Not me.  In an ideal world I would eat the following:

Breakfast - McDonalds Sausage burritos, fried egg sandwiches, corn beef hash, donuts, french toast

Lunch - Burgers, hot dogs, tuna fish sandwiches, chili with bread, any creamy soup with bread, chips

Dinner - Shepherds pie with bread, lasagna with bread, burgers with fries, mashed potatoes

Snacks and Deserts - Ice cream, cake, brownies, cookies, chocolate 

Like I said, my fathers taste-buds.  As a result my cholesterol is way to high and Im supposed to change my diet and take medicine until it is within normal limits.  This diet is supposed to be a lifestyle change.  The first two weeks are hard, but then you add in fruit and healthy carbs (and avoid white sugar and white flour products).  But thinking about it just makes me sad.  I love bad sugar and bad carbs!  The diet allows you to enjoy them occasionally after the first 2 weeks, but occasionally isn't lifting my spirits.  I am not even 12 hours in to the diet and I want to quit, cheat, or modify it to let me eat grilled tuna melts and hot fudge sundaes everyday.  I always lived by the philosophy eat what makes you happy because a short happy life is better than a long miserable life.  My dad and I would enjoy our big macs and laugh at people preaching healthy dieting for the sake of healthy and long living.  But then my father died at age 55 from heart disease and now my perspective is changing.  Moral support is much appreciated!

Getting Back on Track

Well it is time..... We are getting back on track with our South Beach Diet.  We started the diet back in April and fell apart a little more than a week into it, although we did lose some significant weight.  We are starting again this Sunday with Phase I (No Carbs, No Sugar Phase).  In April I started out at 153.3 pounds and got down to 145.7 pounds in 8 days.  We will weigh in on Sunday but Im averaging 148.8 pounds most days lately and most of my clothes that fit are a size 12.  Aaron is doing the diet as well, in fact he is the one pushing to get us back on track but he isn't a fan of telling everyone his weight so I'll only post how much he has lost.  In Phase I you lose mostly water weigh, which I don't have much of post colonoscopy so I may not see much weight loss.  What will we be eating you wonder, well here it is:

Phase I

Meat

Lean Cuts of Beef

Tenderloin

Skinless Chicken

Skinless Turkey

All Seafood

Boiled Ham

Canadian Bacon

Pork Tenderloin

Veal (chop/cutlet)

Low-fat-free Deli Meat

No Baked Ham

No Ribs

No Duck

Low-Fat or Fat-Free Cheese

American

Cheddar

Cottage Cheese

Feta

Mozzarella

Parmesan

Provolone

Ricotta

String

Swiss

Nuts

Natural peanut butter, 1 tsp

Peanuts, 20 small

Pecan halves. 15

Pistachios, 30

Eggs

No limits

Tofu

No limits

Fats

Olive Oil

Canola Oil

Dairy

None (although this is not clear, the book says none but then the Phase I recipes use skim and low-fat milk)

Veggies and Legumes

No Beets

No Carrots

No Corn

No Potatoes

Tomatoes (1 per meal)

No Yams

All green veggies

Turnips

Onion

Bell Peppers

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Spices Etc

No added Sugar spices

Broth

Extracts

Horseradish sauce

I can’t believe its not butter spray

Smart Balance Spread

Pepper (any kind)

Sweets

Limited to 75 cal/day

Sugar Free Hard Candy

Sugar Free Popsicles

Sugar Free Jell-O

Sugar Substitute

Sugar Free Fudgsicles

Fruit

None, except Avocado

Starch and Carbs

None

No Processed Foods

(No ketchup, mayo, jelly, jam or any processed/fatty/sugar/carb food) 

Sunshine Yellow.... Yuck!

This morning my mom came over and helped us paint our living room.  Aaron and I had picked out a pale yellow color from home depot.  After one stroke on the wall I hated it, it looks like the sun blew up in my living room.  Aaron liked it so we kept painting, and finished the room.  Mom said it might look better after it dries and so we accepted it.  After coming home tonight the verdict is in, it is horrible.  After talking to mom, who agrees the color is to bright we decided to re-paint the room.  I went to home depot tonight and bought more paint, this time a neutral sandstone color, something I can live with.  So mom will be making another visit to help repaint the room and hopefully Aaron likes it because he liked the yellow (seriously the room looked like a day care, all it was missing was some children's mural).

Other News:

Health Front:  Still no clear diagnosis.  colonoscopy didn't shed any new light.  But I'm feeling ok lately.

Bees:  Aaron declared that today was bee day, so he left this afternoon with Nate and John to do bee stuff and attempt grafting queens again.

House:  Well the walls are an ugly yellow at the moment, but we're working on that and the floor is going in soon.

Nothing else to do at 3am

Its 3am, and Im awake downing dry toast and ginger-ale in a desperate attempt to calm my stomach.  So to pass the time I'll update the blog.

Gardening Frontier:  The garden is doing well, we have tomatoes.  They are still green, but we're looking forward to eating our veggies soon.  We are having a serious mosquito problem which added with my frequent fatigue is making the weeding a challenge.  I always start with the tomatoes b/c they are my favorite plants right now and then I usually get 3 rows in before having to go inside, which means the last three rows have more weeds than veggie plants.   But we're still loving the garden, and from now on I will force myself to weed the other side of the garden.

Construction:  We are ready to install the new floor, now we just need to buy it so we can get started.  Hopefully it will be in before July.

Bees:  Aaron's first attempt at grafting larvae and rearing queens was a bust.  Originally he thought 8/13 grafts took, but it turns out the bees were just building comb and not developing the queen cells (a cell in the comb that the queen larvae grows in).  He was sad, but knowing Aaron he will master queen rearing very soon.  There is a strong nectar flow in CT right now and the bees are making lots of honey.  

Things will be slow this week since Im going to be out of commission part of tue and all of wed.  Im really looking forward to Thursday, the day I get to refill my belly/colon with yummy foods :)

Casserole Success!

Well I made the casserole yesterday, the recipe made 3-8x8 pan casseroles which I froze.  Today I thawed one and baked it according to the directions.  I added bread crumbs to the top before baking it b/c I thought it would add a nice crunchy texture.  It took the entire 30 mins to cook in our oven.  I did a taste test, alittle scared b/c it smelled yucky when I was making it, but to my surprise it is delicious!  In the future I may add alittle more chicken and alittle more broccoli.

One another note.  About this time last year, right after we seeded our new lawn a turtle decided to dig up the cool dirt and lay her eggs.  I was at school that day but my Dad was at the house doing the usual construction.  He called me at school and took a picture with his phone to show me when I got home.  He was so excited about it and thought it was so funny that the turtle dug up our grass seed.  Seeing the turtle again today was such a blessing, it brought that memory of my father to me, which otherwise I think I would have forgotten.  The poor turtle didn't lay any eggs today, probably because we were taking her picture and aaron kept trying to move her along with a stick. (sorry for the bad picture)

On a sad note, Aaron killed my rhubarb.  A couple weeks ago I noticed all my raspberry bushes were dying.  He had sprayed them with weed killer thinking they were pricker bushes.  Well today I noticed all my rhubarb (minus 1 plant) was also dying.  He wanted to spray the prickers and weed growing on the fence in the back yard, which my rhubarb grows beneath.  So sadly, the rhubarb is now dying.  A few tears were shed, but oh well.  In the future I'm not letting Aaron buy weed killer.  

 Dying plant :(

The only living plant left after hurricane Aaron.

The living room floor is being planed today, which is very loud.  I tried to take a nap in the camp chairs out in the shade of the garage, but aaron was using his saw which isn't any better than the planer.  My body is exhausted, especially my legs and hips and eye lids.  It doesn't help that my stomach has been keeping me awake at night.  I see a very long afternoon nap in the air conditioned bedroom coming very soon.  And Im happy to report I haven't fallen since Friday :)  I just might be getting better.

Photo Update

 Living room construction.  Its coming along very nicely thanks to good/talented friends.  If anyone needs work done we can recommend people.  These pictures are after the gutting, reframing, insulating, plumbing, electrical, hanging the new sheet rock, taping and mudding, new windows, and the floor being tore out.

 This is our new bay window that we got for free!  We love it.

 Another view of the living room.  That space under the stairs is currently open to the basement.  Im hoping to build shelves into the new stairs.

 This is the 100 year old floor.  It has lots of nots so we need to plane the floor before we continue.

 This is the 50 year old floor on the other half of the room which we think was an addition.  The house stayed in one family until we bought it, and they had a bad habit of painting around their rugs.

 The new front door.  It is really pretty, these pics don't show it well.

 outside bay window.

 The view of the field from the front door.  It you look hard you can see the bee hives (small white boxes) way down there in the back.

 Where the 50 yr old and 100 yr old floor meet.

 The missing bathroom wall.  Im standing in the kitchen looking into the bathroom, so sad.

 Here Im in the kitchen looking into the bathroom on the left and the living room on the right (and FYI these pics are taken with my web cam so they are mirror images (aka backward).

 Kitchen ceiling by the bathroom.

 our new plumbing.

 more plumbing

 which required us to put a hole in the kitchen/bathroom floor, so I can see into the basement from kitchen as well.

Front door again.

This is the bruise from my fall on Friday.  There is another small one on my arm which got caught in the railing and a third small one on my knee from my fall on either wed or thursday.  Luckily I am a quick healer.

Aaron mixing up a 50% Formic Acid treatment for the bees to keep them healthy!  He is out in the garage playing scientist, calculating solution and what not.

The solar wax melter.  We have enough wax for 4 candles now, but aaron wants us to wait till we have more before we start making any candles.  Although it looks ugly here the wax is a beautiful bright yellow.

Aaron's tomato plant.  He wanted one of his own to try the worm compost material one.

The Garden.

Tomatoes 

and peppers...

more tomatoes

and cherry tomatoes

and more peppers...

and peas and cucumbers 

more cucumbers

and green beans.

and left overs.  These are a few left over plants still in the egg carton.