Monthly Archives: March 2012

Unintended

So you know I made a deal with my BFF’s husband to run a marathon next year. And I’ve been gearing up to start running again. But…I’ve been way too afraid to go out the door and run. I was afraid someone would laugh at me.

On Saturday, there was a run here, in Bartlesville. I hadn’t heard about it so I googled it when we got back from walking Boo Boo. Turns out it was even a 10k which used to be my favorite distance.

I looked at the map and I saw that it followed the Pathfinder north and behind the police station before ending up Downtown again. Hmmm. I have seen the Pathfinder but never really knew where to get on it.

When we were driving back from grocery shopping, I asked David if we couldn’t turn on the road that would take us to that spot on the race map and he did. Guess what? There’s an entrance to the Pathfinder with a parking lot and everything!

Suddenly…

I figured that if I went down to the Pathfinder to run, there would be way fewer people to see me. And that’s what I did today.

Today was supposed to be a recon mission. Check it out, see how it goes, who was there. I planned to walk and loaded a 60 minute Latin walking file onto my iPod. I planned to run tomorrow provided the Pathfinder was suitably empty.

When I turned on my iPod, it wasn’t the Latin walking workout, it was the Jeff Galloway 30/30 Run/Walk workout. So…I decided to go for it.

It went well! Yes, running feels weird at this weight. I haven’t run since 1999 and I was considerably lighter then. But the 30 seconds running alternating with 30 seconds of walking made it into a workout that I could do.

Wee hoo! I was so excited to run. I’m really going to run a marathon. But first up is The Color Run in June. 🙂

Fudge babies

Ever since I decided to kick the sugar out of my diet once and for all, I’ve been doing pretty well.

Except for a small incident involving Lyndzee Vieweg and a shared piece of chocolate cake, that is. Shhhhhh!

Anyway, mostly I haven’t wanted anything sweet which is unusual for me. But yesterday I wanted a cookie. Badly. I started looking around the internet for paleo sweets and remembered Fudge Babies.

These little goodies are not only easy to make they are totally not bad for you!

You will need

  • 1 cup of walnuts
  • 1 package of dates (mine were 227 grams)
  • 3-4 tbs cocoa
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Place all ingredients into the food processor and whir them up. Form them into balls and voila! Almost instant chocolate paleo goodness. Nom! 🙂

Worlds oldest bridesmaid

August 1, 2005 was a day like any other.

Or so I thought.

That was the day that I “met” Lyndzee Vieweg when her registration form sailed into my email box stating that she would like to represent Oklahoma as Miss Teen Oklahoma.

The first time she tried, she won the Northern regional pageant we produced and was Miss Teen Northern Oklahoma International. But it wasn’t yet her time to wear the state crown.

In 2009, she finally captured the Miss Teen Oklahoma International title but she captured my heart straight away. Way back before I ever met her in real life.

I call Lyndzee my mini-me. No, we look nothing alike but I don’t know if I could have a child more like me even if my blood ran in her veins. We’ve actually had people ask, “Are you sure you two aren’t related?”

I adore her. We have so much fun together. We laugh and our wacky brains run on the very same track. We usually think of the same thing at the same time but if not, the one who doesn’t think of it is quick to get aboard the crazy train with the other.

Now, Lyndzee is grown up. The most beautiful young woman both inside and out. She’s getting married!

I’m so excited for her and her fiance’, Dustin, seems like the perfect match for her. He reminds me a lot of David. He lets her be her own unique self and just smiles and raises his eyebrow at times. 🙂

And now, I’m about to embark on the next role of my life: World’s Oldest Bridesmaid.

Yep, Lyndzee has asked me to be her Matron of Honor.

Whoa! What? Matron? Do I drive a station wagon? LOL!

I desperately try to not be matronly. I am, after all, tragically hip and incredibly cool. 😉

I’m honored beyond belief to serve in this role for Lyndzee but we did have to have a discussion about the title. We have come up with Glamazon of Honor. I think I can live with that.

When Lyndzee asked me if I would stand up for her, my first reaction was to laugh. I mean, seriously? I’m old. I asked her if she was sure she didn’t want me to sit in the pew next to her mom and she emphatically told me, no, that she wants me to be her bridesmaid.

I’m beyond honored. Sincerely. 🙂

We went shopping for wedding dresses on Saturday. Of course Lyndzee had a different idea for the belts she was shown.

And she really wasn’t a bridezilla while waiting for more dresses.

She’s too much fun for that.

But it’s clear to me that Lyndzee is going to be one gorgeous bride. (This is not the dress she will be wearing.)

I’m so excited to go on this journey with my mini-me. I’ll try not to be too sappy over the next year as we head towards their wedding date, April 13, 2013.

Life is truly interesting and you never know how someone you meet will factor into your life long term. I am completely blessed to have Lyndzee as a friend. 🙂

21 Day Sugar Detox – Week 1 recap

Whew! I did it. I finished one week of the 21 Day Sugar Detox.

If you’ve followed along, you know that we started eating a paleo diet back in November of 2010. I did pretty well with that until this summer when we found out that Nikki was pregnant. Geoff was in Saudi and, like the good mother-in-law that I am, I ate along with her. Oh it was fun!

But I didn’t feel good. All of the reasons why we chose to change our eating habits came flying back into my face. I was tired, my joints ached, I was gaining weight.

I tried really hard to get back on track. But then came Pinterest with all of those delicious recipes (my baking…nom nom nom board was my most popular) and Christmas and I just couldn’t manage to be more than 50/50 on Paleo. I was slipping into a sugar hole.

Unicorn came back from Saudi and went to a project in Little Rock. I had disentangled from EVERYTHING in my life in order to go to Saudi and I was kind of at loose ends trying to figure out what to do.

I stumbled across the Daring Bakers Challenge. And joined it. Then I found Tuesday’s With Dorie which is a group baking their way thruogh a Julia Child baking book. I joined them. And then I found Project Pastry Queen. I bought the book and joined them.

My thought was that I would bake the items and give them away. But I didn’t know anyone in Little Rock to give them to so I either ate them or threw them away. Both bad choices.

I was back and forth between Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma babysitting for my friend’s twins and the birth of our glambaby, Aniston.

On February 25th, faced with having to make a quick bread, a rum cake and chocolate tarts for the challenges, I had an epiphany: THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR ME!

It came down from high, I’m sure. 😉

I had seen the 21 Day Sugar Detox and had been leaning towards doing it and it seemed like it was the perfect time. A new group was beginning on March 5.

I bought the program and got started. I’ve done the first week and it hasn’t been too hard. The night of the third day, I got a headache. I was expecting a headache but am still not sure if it came from taking the sugar out of my diet or the heinous winds we had here in Oklahoma last week.

I was flat out tired by days four through six. I expected that, too.

But I was able to stick to the program and eat no sugar. I really do feel better overall. And, I’ve lost 5 1/2 pounds as a cherry on top.

I know I can make it through the 21 days and on into the future. I KNOW how bad sugar is for me. But when I read an article saying that sugar helps to cause wrinkles, it gave me extra motivation to succeed. 🙂

If you find yourself falling in the sugar hole and not being able to climb out, I suggest you give the 21 Day Sugar Detox a whirl. They have a facebook page where you can find support, answers to your questions, recipes and all manner of good things.

What do you have to lose but some pounds and wrinkles? 🙂

Robo ridiculosity

It’s the political season. Super Tuesday is tomorrow, the day when Oklahoma votes in the GOP primary. As the primary gets closer, the robo calls increase.

We have our home phone with Vonage. They provide us a visual voicemail of each missed call via email. Each email contains a transcription of the call and a .wav file of the actual call for us to listen to.

The transcriptions are more than humorous. They are HILARIOUS!

I’ve been tweeting pieces of the calls but they are beyond funny so I offer you the full transcript of several calls for your entertaiment pleasure. 🙂

“Hi, this is Richard door. Next time you’re at the gas station watching the dollar amounts and higher and higher on the gas pump and she that’s four digits come up and it’s 20. Thank you Betsy you girl for all the present Obama’s cost you more money because of his one word energy plan. So it was really off our coast. It really the deep water, the driling in Alaska and no key still by four and of course, know listening to the American people. Instead personal bottle and he wants to listen to radical and Barbara washed answering our economy with our national security at risk. I’m present. That’s all going to change Britney’s American cutting’s technology for the safe extraction of oil on our coastal Federal Williams. S131 I will sign in order to build that Keystone pipeline with thousands of people to work. If you wanna seal up extract and watching the” … more. Please listen to your voicemail for the remainder of this message.

Oh my.

“Hello, this is former Congressman JC Watts. I’m calling today on behalf of my friend Newt Gingrich news there’s a conservative leader we need to defeat Pres. Obama in November and that’s why I’ve endorsed noon for Pres., new shares our Oklahoma values and you can change Washington because he’s done it before, under his leadership the speaker at the budget was balanced unemployment was only 4.2% and pro growth policies help create over 11 million new jobs. Now new to have a plan to use our domestic energy resources to lower the price of gasoline to $2.50 per gallon and a lemonade. I did pendant on foreign oil. This election will be very close and every vote will make a difference. Polls will open from 7:00AM to 7:00PM in Oklahoma. So please make sure you get out to cast your vote for noon. Again, I ask you to please join me in supporting Newt Gingrich for president and Tuesday’s election. Thank you so much for your time” … more. Please listen to your voicemail for the remainder of this message.

All we need is $2.5o and a lemonade for a gallon of gas. LOL! 😉

“I’m calling with red, white and blue fund America desperately need to change. We can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama. We need to replace them with the true conservative and that man is with Antwan, Rick is Amanda character, a dedicated family man a man with the record as a strong principals conservative. We can all be proud of, he’s strong and economic moral cultural and national security issues, Brooks. Antwan this is only Republican running for president that has beaten the democratic incumbent and he’s done it twice. This election against Obama is going to be top and we need a proven conservative leader like with Antwan to win and get our nation back on the right track. As you go vote, remember that Barack Obama and ask you to believe in him. It looks Antwan believes it’s time we have a president who believes in you vote with Santoro for the Republican nomination for president on Tuesday, March 6. Thank you. This call is paid for by red one blue fun and not autho rized by any candidate or candidates committee. “

I need to run right out and find Antwan (is he a Steeler?) because he’s clearly the man who knows who I should vote for. LOL!

I hope you found these as amusing as I did. I won’t miss the robo calls when they are gone but we’ve sure had a great time laughing at the transcripts as each one sails into our email box. 🙂