Thankfulness

So, I was having a pity party on Saturday night and decided that I need to stop, and enumerate the things(or should I say foods) that I am thankful for. It sounds so silly, but I cried over food. Thats right, food. We went to a pre-holiday party that one of Drew's classmate's threw and there was a TON of yummy delicious good fatty food. Now, I dunno the magic number of fat grams that will send me whirling into dire gallbladder pain, so I have been avoiding them as much as possible. Not to mention that my doc told me of another prego lady who had to be hospitalized cause one of her stones moved and blocked her pancreas! (why would you tell that to a lady with anxiety anyways???). So at the party I had a burger minus the burger and some carrots. I washed it all down with a fat free cake that I brought. I held in my tears while eating my cake (which totally did not turn out!!!) as I watched everyone else delve into the plates and plates of holiday cookies and treats not to mention the cheese ball! I held them in, until we got to the car that is. Then I lost it. Brookie kept saying, "it's ok mom, I will help you" which actually made me laugh enough to be able to gather enough air to tell Drew why I had broken down. He said, "whats wrong?" and I replied, "food!!!!". Silly, I know. I was crying over food. I felt like the recovering alcoholic at the beer and wine festival. I have since gathered myself and I can now laugh about the whole thing. I have decided that I need to be thankful for all that I CAN eat instead of depressed over the rest. So here are some of the wonderful fat-free or near fat-free things that God has blessed me with.....(in no particular order)....

Fat free cream cheese: while you are no good in a cheesecake, you make a wonderful spread on just about everything else! And you are reasonable priced at the local super market, or should I say "sooper" market. My favorite is a cream cheese, cranberry, spinach, mustard, and turkey breast sammie!

Fat free sour cream: You rock! You have made some of the yummiest mashed potatoes, and if I mix you with ketchup you make a pretty good fry sauce (not that fries are on the menu). I can mix you with salsa and use you to dip my homemade tortilla chips! (they are delish. You take corn tortillas and cut them into triangles and stick them in the oven on a non stick sheet. Then turn the oven on to 400 and when it is preheated, your chips are done. Only 1 gram of fat for three tortillas, or 24 chips! store bought have about 7 grams.)

Fat free cottage cheese: Once again, cheese that is fat free! How do they do it? Since fruit is usually fat free (and sugar doesn't count!) you are great for an afternoon snack. I especially love you with peaches.

Fat free yogurt: You come in so many flavors that I can have you every day and not get bored. You are also very yummy as a frozen treat. I can sometimes find you for 33 cents and that only adds to my joy.

Fat free cool whip: I know why you are so good! It is your sugar, but how you do it without cream is a mystery to me. I can dip grapes and strawberries in you and I can even put you on angel food cake (fat free as well!!).

Fruits and sometimes veggies: The majority of you are very good and very fat free. Although I struggle to keep you naked from the wonders of ranch and peanut butter, you have filled me up in my moment of hunger.

Bouillon: You are so loaded with salt that you need no fat! You make my soup very tasty, and with some no-yolk noodles you make an excellent fat free dinner.

Juice, soda, and sugary candies: you may give me diabetes, but you are fat free!

Cereal, wheat bread, and oatmeal,: While you have some fat, you are almost fat free and bring much needed relief late at night.

So you see, I could have celiac disease and be diabetic and be allergic to milk and eggs and peanuts and heaven forbid chocolate...but I am not. And I am grateful! Feel free to leave your favorite fat free item in the comments!

The Morning Miracle.... post by Drew

As I was riding my bike to work this morning I had an incredibly jolting experience....

While heading eastbound on major street in Longmont (well about as major as they come in Longmont) I was enjoying the nice crisp winter morning. Suddenly, an extremely loud sound came from about 15 feet away. A head on collision had just occurred right next to me. But, it was not over. One of the drivers of a car had gone into immediate shock and kept her foot on the pedal... she was heading in my direction. I immediately came to a stop and she went right in front of me. Her car was moving over 30 mph and was less than one foot from running me over. Her car stopped about 10 feet away from me as she plowed over a sign and drove head on into a tree. I was able to help her until the paramedics arrive on scene and rushed her to hospital.

The driver that was at fault in the accident came barreling through a stop sign at 45-50 mph. She missed the stop sign because she was text messaging. She came through and hit the other car head on. Miracle #1 The car that was hit by the texting driver saved my life. If she had not been hit, the texting driver would have ran over me at 45+mph. The consequence is clear (rather, messy). Miracle #2 About 5 minutes before the accident, I crossed the street early than I normally do, which delayed my ride by a second or two. I typically do not cross where I did but clearly the Spirit was influencing my decision. If I would have stayed on the same route that I always take I would have been hit by the texting driver before she hit the other car. Again, the consequence is clear. Now, the moral of the story (well one of them).... this accident occurred around 8am. Brooklyn had said a prayer about one hour prior and included the statement "..bless daddy that he can be safe and have a good day." I had also asked for protection before leaving. I am certain that the faith of my family allowed me to be sensitive to Spirit and make very subtle, yet life saving, decisions. Also, I wonder what would have been different if I had an IPOD blaring in my ears? Would I have been able to be aware of these small whisperings? Hmmm.... I am humbled by these miracles. Let us keep the others involved the accident in our prayers!

One other moral.... everyday I see people texting and driving. Are you serious???? If it is so necessary to text while driving... maybe you should slow your life down, de-complicate yourself, or just pull over if it is that important.

long awaited

Ok, so I finally figured out how to download, hehe, we got a new camera and I love it, but new technology is always tricky for me. So here is October for us. What a mild and great month!

This is pretty much what we did all month, yum yum.

I thought this was cute.

So it looks like he is pushing her, but he is actually being pulled along and he loves it!

This is one of my favorite pics of both of them. I can't believe how big she looks. She's growing up!

Happy halloween!

Brook was so excited this year. We had halloween all month and we have already started with Christmas. I have to say that it was one of my best Halloween's ever! Not cause of anything super new and exciting, but because Brook was so stinkin excited. It got Drew and I in the spirit real quick. I have decided that holidays are 1000 times better when you have a kid that is soooo excited about it, she talks about it for weeks. I think she wore her Halloween costume 100 times before the actual day. Which she has already "tried on" her Christmas dress a bazillion times. Yeah for kids and holidays!

T was a monkey. Look at his feet. They were sewn on backwards! Maybe thats why it was such a good deal-hehe.

So Brook's outfit was actually Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, but she kept saying, "I'm gonna be a princess for Halloween!" and since the costume did not come with the ruby red shoes, and they cost $16 while a princess crown with a wand was only 99 cents it was easy to give in. So she went as Dorothy the princess. This pic also has one of Brookies best friends as Snow White. I think she pulled it off well!

Drew's costume was easy this year since Brook kept saying, "I'm a princess and daddy is my prince!" Thank you Burger King for coming through for us. Also, since we have been married, I have been Drew every year for Halloween. I was a football player for two years, and a college graduate for the other. So naturally, I had to be him again. So I went as a marathon runner! I can't wait to see what Drew does this coming year to inspire my costume for next year!

We also celebrated the mormon Halloween on Sat. at our trunk or treat. The kids did great and I, I mean they had lots of candy!

Wow, this is a long post. I did want to add that the fat-free thing is going better than I thought. The hardest and most depressing part for sure (thus far) is going to a restaurant. Luckily that is not a big prob since we hardly ever go, but for Drew's graduation, we went last night. You Coloradans will appreciate that we went to Sam's3 and as you can suspect, there is NOTHING fat free there. It is kinda embarrassing asking the waitress, "and could you do my toasted sub with no butter or oil, and no mayo, and is your cottage cheese fat free? and can I sub yummy awesome fries for a bowl of sub-par fruit?" Yeah, it was depressing. The good thing is that thanks to our over-processed choices of foods these days, you can find almost anything in fat-free. You would think this would be healthy, right? Wrong! You can easily make things taste good without fat by over compensating with sugar and salt. I am going to do a post in a while with my fav. fat-free foods, but just know, since sugar is fat free there is a good chance this whole ordeal is going to give me diabetes!

There you go, uber-long post with pics!!!

complacency

Remember a while back when Elder Nelson gave a talk about complacency and how heart patients will get feeling good and stop taking their medication because they feel fine? I remember hearing that and thinking, "who would do that?" why would you risk your heart and life? Well, I somewhat understand now. Ever since the major gallbladder issue a while back I have known that I have to eat a fairly fat free diet if I want to avoid the pains. I did good but then everything felt fine so I started letting fat sneak back into my life. Then last night I delved into 4 peanut butter cookies without a sweat. Now if you have ever made peanut butter cookies, you know that they are basically fat, sugar, flour, and more fat. Thats probably why they are so good. Well, I got what I deserved. Another long gallbladder night, this time avoiding the ER since I know there is nothing they can do about it. I did turn to Drew at about midnight and said, "thats it, we are adopting from now on". Thats right. I would rather have a peanut butter cookie anytime I want, than create life! Well, at least at midnight I would rather.(Side note, for those who don't know, being pregnant increases my chances of gallbladder attacks and my doctor said that this will likely happen with each pregnancy). Anyways, pray for me cause it is going to be a LONG holiday season going fat-free style! Pass the carrots!

bwa haha

Caught it!

enlightenment

So, pics are coming, but I can't get my computer and camera to agree on things right now

Anyways, Do you ever have those nights where you are enlightened and you feel the need to share your pearls of wisdom that you received by pondering in the wee early morning hours? I had such a night, and here are my pearls!

1. There is something very attractive about your husband when he says, "I don't care if I have to kill it with my bare hands", and then you both squeal like little girls cause it runs past your baracade.

2. My mother-in-law has told me that she used to go grocery shopping in the middle of the night, cause with all of her kids it was the only convenient time. I discovered that Walmart is not such a horrid place at 2 am and now I totally understand her. Had I not been in a hurry to get back with the traps, I might have stayed for a while. Also, at that time, you can totally find helpful, available employees to help you!

3. There are 4,763 places for it to hide in our house, and although we checked all of them, it is still out there/in there.

4. There comes a point when after many hours of failed attempts, you CAN fall asleep knowing that there is a mouse lurking somewhere in your house.