April 24, 2011

Easter





i hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

what IS the best part of Easter? 

is it getting up and finally making it to church, seeing friends & hearing a great Easter sermon?      yes

is it sharing a nice meal with the family?     yes

is it seeing your son, whom you haven't seen since Christmas?      definitely yes

is it eating lots of chocolate, cookies & cupcakes?       yes

or...
is it that your brother walked away from a car accident on his way over to dinner with you and your family on Easter?

most important than anything else...yes!





hope all your family is well on this Easter day, too



April 11, 2011

i love pearls before swine. it is one of the comics i look forward to reading everyday. yes, i read the comics. they make me laugh, especially this one. goat and zebra are the voices of reason and normality. pig is the eternal optimistic and naivete and rat...he is just hilariously bad.

so....this one showed up today.

i printed from one of the many blogs i read a post called 'on how to grow your blog' and i wish i could remember which one it was because i would love to give it credit and a connect it with a link (sigh).
anyway, it gave several suggestions, starting with the most important question - what is the end goal for writing a blog?

that is a good question. i like writing it just to write, but secretly do i want more?

a chow life, which is a great blog combining life with great recipes and beautiful photos, wrote in this post: "While I don’t believe I need the validation, it’s certainly nice to be noticed from time to time. "


i would say that this is true. i don't NEED the validation, but to be noticed is really really really nice. and to be read...i would love that! plus i think i need those delicious cupcakes with nutella(!) frosting.


on a side note, there was a sale on lobster tails and i have never bought lobster to cook at home...ever, so i got them, boiled them and ate them. they were so good. i could eat it a lot of lobster.
you can't see the lobster. it is on top of the rice. i also made a cucumber, tomato and blood orange salad. i ate it alllllllll up. husband scott said that it should etiquette-ly okay to lick one's plate because it is delicious, it leaves no waste and one doesn't need to rinse the plate before putting it in the dishwasher. it is so ecological, right. be green!

April 09, 2011

CSA

i picked up my very first CSA this morning. i finally looked up what the acronym means - community supported agriculture. this is what i got:
i get 5 items: cilantro, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccolini and the straw mushrooms, then i get to pick 5 other items: strawberries, golden beets, tomatoes, purple sweet potatoes and a green that i can't remember the name because i have never heard of it. i also bought the white asparagus which is scarier for me to prepare than the unknown green thing.

the green thing (i will add what it is when i ask what it is called) is to be lightly sautéed. so i went to my go to dish for lunch with sautéed greens and added a poached egg and a tomato salad.
 the greens kinda tasted like spinach, but crunchier because of the stems. it was a nice crunch, but seem to be a bit woodsy and lacking. then, i scooped up a tomato that had balsamic and cider vinegar on it with the unknown green and what a difference!

so, in the future, i will put a splash of balsamic - maybe the sweeter concentrated version - on after it is cooked, with a grilled pork chop and roasted potatoes or mashed potatoes.........

stop, ann. you are making yourself hungry and this is only day 5 of weight watchers.

6 points, btw.

edit - got the answer on the name of the greens - Tong Ho or chrysanthemum greens. cool, hunh?

April 08, 2011

you must see...

just got home from watching 'of gods and men'. it was the. best. movie. ever!

go see it....now

April 07, 2011

things i should have taught my children, but didn't

daughter michelle called me earlier this week with "mom, how do you remove a tick. it is so grosssssssss?" so, i told her what i knew, asking her if she has any vaseline to smother the tick, and she said no. then, i said "light a match, blow it out and quickly touch the tick on its back."

that didn't work. the tick flinched, but it stayed firmly embedded.

she, finally, got it out with tweezers.

so.........i looked up how to remove a tick to see if i gave her the correct instructions.

on one website (kidshealth.org), it starts off with calling the doctor to see if one needs to save the tick, then the following words: "...don't use petroleum jelly or a hot match to kill and remove the tick..."(i did not make that up. seriously, look it up)
on another website (about.com) it had this to say: "applying heat, alcohol, petroleum jelly or fingernail polish to an embedded tick is not effective."

so much for MY parental advice.

back in my girl scout camping days (yes, i was a girl scout - nerd), that is how we did it. i have a scar on my stomach to prove where i jerked, when my girl scout leader was trying to burn the tick with a cigarette. i was going to show you the scar, but taking a photo of my stomach that hasn't seen the sun in a 100 years was to scary to post...not to mention the contrast between the white scar and white stomach wasn't really there.

obviously, when my children ask for advise from me, i should google it first before replying, right? or is it alright to give advice learned from experience?

here is how you should remove a tick (taken from the 2 websites above and yes, the advice was nearly identical):

1. use tweezers to grasp the tick firmly at its head or mouth next to the skin (be sure that you have really really good eyesight...seriously, who can see the head of a tick?)
2. pull firmly and steadily until the tick lets go. about.com also added not to puncture the tick because there is bacteria juices in the tick......gross.
3. swab the spot with alcohol

so now, you know how to remove a tick.

oh, and btw, i did tell michelle to put the tick in a baggie and google deer tick to see if her tick look like a deer tick to rule out lyme disease. and to watch for symptoms like a rash that looks like a target.

do i get points for that? i hope so.

April 05, 2011

a very very long post

i have hit rock bottom (get it? from felix the cat? yes...i am that old).


anyway, i had lost 50lbs by the beginning of 2010 and have very quickly put it back on. congratulations, i now weigh more than i did when i was about to deliver my 9lb 5oz baby boy, who turned 22 in february, so i can't quite say it's still 'baby fat'. 


this same son posted very recently the following video on facebook:

it is totally inspirational. on his blog bendoeslife.com,  ben davis lists a few points about what needs to be done to 'do life.' 


- tell people - make youself more accountable (check - i told the starbucks people, who know my name as in 'hi ann, grande latte with 1 raw sugar & a zucchini muffin?' no thank you, i am on weight watchers, so i will take a venti iced green tea, no sweetener, please). 



- don't fall for gimmicky inspiration - although his own video gets you started, you have to find your own reason to lose weight (check - you will see my inspiration of what i don't want to look like anymore, if you can stomach it. can't quite show it, yet).
- you're going to miss a workout - same goes with eating, but what is important that you don't let it cause you to back slide. start right back up, not next week or next monday. (this will be harder)
- get involved in something organized - join a group (check - i will be starting back to weight watchers)
- just do it - you know like nike (again harder to do)
what wasn't listed is knowing your weakness. mine is that i won't do this all by myself. to diet, i need weight watchers to weigh in and get clapped. i need the claps. i workout in the gym with my good friend, kelly, a personal trainer twice a week and i have my walking buddy, ingrid, to walk for an hour twice a week. 
what else i am going to do is join a yoga group and that will be hard. there is no yoga in our area that has a class in the earlier afternoon except bikram yoga and i am not sure i am up to it. most classes are until noon and then start back up at 4:30pm and once i get home...i don't like leave. 
now ben does life posts his before photo...and i am not quite ready nor am i ready to post my before weight. maybe down the line (i did take photos and i am honestly amazed that i show up in the gym, looking like this, and then run to the grocery store, but i do. i am hoping that it is true that the camera puts on more pounds. please say that it's true).
so..................if anyone is out there and hears me, laurie just got me to ask her to marry me (kidding! just saw oklahoma! last week at tcu - so much fun). what i was really going to say is:
if anyone is out there reading this blog, i have started and i am making a change.
and 5 weeks from today, i turn 54 years old. that is my first goal - to be 10lbs lighter by my birthday, which is completely doable. unfortunately, we are going to a wedding, in florida, where we will be spending time at the beach. i say unfortunately because it would be nice to get this:
i LOVE this!