Local Food? Fresh Food?

Woo Hoo! Last night was a happy gym night. I got one of my favorite machines and happily sweated away. Now if only I could remember to take my ipod with me. No gym today. It's youth group at church tonight and we're heading to the beach.

I have been fascinated lately with an interesting blog called No Impact Man. I find myself in the middle of the road on the whole global warming, consumer waste issue. I can see strong arguments on both sides of the issue. I tend to be wary to firmly state my opinions in such a public place because I know that I am willing to learn and grow and what I believe today, might be different tomorrow. With that being said, here are some of the things I have been thinking about and pondering.

I am LDS (aka Mormon). We believe in the Word of Wisdom (WOW), which is a kind of health code. Most people know that we don't drink alcohol, coffee or tea and many think it also includes caffeinated sodas. (I drink diet peps1) What is less well known is that it also says that we should eat meat sparingly and eat foods in season. Having that background, I have found the whole eating locally movement very interesting. I have enjoyed reading about how No Impact Man has been adjusting his lifestyle and I find myself contemplating ways I can incorporate some of the same things in my life.

There is no doubt in my mind that it is healthier to eat less processed foods. I have only been back on ww for about two weeks and I can already feel a difference. I have more energy. I feel stronger and healthier. I still eat some processed foods like frozen meals, but I have also incorporated a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables. Face it, when you're hungry and you have a choice between 5 or 6 little crackers that you can inhale in less than a minute, or an apple... apple wins.

So here are some things I have pondered:

Is it better to pack a lunch in a reusable container which has to be washed, or put veggies in little snack bags?

Is it better to make multiple trips to the grocery store to purchase fresh ingredients or use energy to keep frozen foods frozen?

If I were to use reusable grocery bags, could I actually remember to take them to the grocery store? How many should I buy? Is carrying them around in my car going to annoy me?

And is there some kind of remedial course I could take that would teach me how to keep fruit and veggies longer? What makes celery wilt? Where should I store mushrooms? (love them, but it's a constant battle to use them up before they get slimy? Do the drawers in the fridge that say "low moisture" and "high moisture" really work? Which food goes in which? What if I switched the placement of the drawers at some point in time?

And that's just the surface of all of my questions. Feel free to comment and leave suggestions... but please.... no preaching or critisizing.

Monday Night Gym Woes

So what is the deal with Mondays and the gym? Does everyone go crazy on the weekend and then run to the gym on Mondays to try to undo the damage? Other days are busy, but Mondays are unbearable! I got to the gym at 5:40 and there was not one single treadmill or elliptical available. Not only were they all full, but I was not the only one waiting. I hate the treadmill, but I was desperate enough that I jumped on as soon as one was open....only to find out that I must've avoided the treadmill for a VERY long time. They have all new treadmills and I could not figure it out.

Call it pride, but I did not want anyone to think this was my first time at the gym, so I quickly pushed the quick start button like I knew what I was doing and I started walking. I guess you could call it walking. At one mph it felt more like I was filming a scene in slow motion. Hmmm..maybe this is just the warm-up and it will slowly increase speed. One minute later and I am still going 1 mph. I start pushing buttons. Where is the stinking speed button? The girl on the treadmill next to me seemed fun and she was chatting with the girl next to her so I sucked it up and said "ok, I'm a dork and I never use the treadmill. How do I increase the speed?"

Turns out I'm a good judge of character. She and her friend were both hiliarious and they showed me the BIG GIANT button. I'm not kidding it was HUGE!!!

I lasted 10 minutes on the torture device and went to stand in line for my friend the elliptical. I wish I could say it was a better experience.

Why is it that we have a whole row of brand new treadmills and yet it looks like we also accumulated a bunch of old style ellipticals? I hate the Life Fitness ellipticals and love the Precor ones...guess which one I got.

Let's hope Tuesday works out better!

National Stamping Day and Month!!!

One of the fun announcements at leadership conference was "National Stamping Day and Month." Not only is it a great way to celebrate the love of stamping, but it also means that there will be some great specials from Close To My Heart and I sooooo love a special!

And let's face it, it's about time we had a National Stamping Day!

Close To My Heart did all the legal paperwork and they actually own the rights to National Stamping Day and National Stamping Month. Now all we have to do is plan the party! Too cool!!!

Leadership Conference - Day One

Woo Hoo! I'm back from another awesome Close To My Heart corporate event! Unlike some of my other "road trips" to convention, or leadership....this one was a much shorter drive. Leadership was at the Kona Kai hotel on Shelter Island in San Diego! I think it took me about 30 minutes to get there.

Even though I live in beautiful San Diego... I work, I'm a mom, I'm busy and I don't get to enjoy our beautiful city enough so I was quite excited to spend a whole weekend down on the coast.

Here's what it looked like when we checked into the hotel and opened our door onto our balcony. That's a cruise ship heading out of port way out there.

It's a good thing I took this picture the first day! Because it was cloudy and overcast the rest of the weekend....May gray, June gloom.. it's supposed to be gone in July!

Here are our East Coast buddies waving from their balcony.....of course they made fun of us when we were fanning ourselves and saying it was "muggy." They have offered to put together a survival kit for us for our trip to Orlando next year, complete with a towel. I think they might be worried that we can't handle it.

Our opening ceremony was under a huge canopy on the lawn, by the pool. I can only imagine what the other hotel guests thought when they saw and HEARD this large group of women (and one man!) gathering and greeting and talking and hugging!

Then it was time to link arms and make our own intertwined "circle." We had way too many to make a true circle....but the effect was the same.

And once you're standing... and you're in a circle... you definately have to do the "wave"

Then we split up into our color groups and headed out to the beach for a warm-up activity.

The rest of day one was too exciting to photograph! (that's my excuse for forgetting to take pictures...welll that and I've never quite succeeded at taking good photos indoors when there is bad lighting)

When we entered the room for the opening ceremony we were greeted with Christmas Music. Of course some were so busy chatting and greeting that it took them a really long time to notice that there was Christmas music and Christmas trees (Hi Chris!) But there was no denying the Christmas theme once Santa's Elves came out. The corporate staff came out dressed like elves and did the most adorable dance! It was hilarious. And if the elves are there..... then surely it must be time for presents from THE woman of the house...Mrs. Claus. And boy was Mrs. Claus generous!!!!!

We got our new catalog, learned about all the fun new products and upcoming campaigns and everyone in the room got a copy of our new book Imagine!!!!

DVR Blues

I'm singing the broken DVR blues. Sunday I hit pause on the dvr and went to go start a load of laundry. When I came back the dvr was rebooting and going through it's software update. When it was done, the recording disk no longer worked. I called the cable company last night and we went through all their diagnostics and they tried to revive it, but sadly, it looks like it's a lost cause.

My schedule is busy this week and I can't meet them until Thursday. Oh the drama!! I have forgotten how to watch tv without pause, rewind, fast forward and record. Josh and I keep picking up the remote and pretending like we're pausing or fast forwarding. It seems like such a waste of time when I have to sit through commercials. And then there's the fact that I rarely sit through them. I usually play a game with myself where I have to go clean during commercials... then I get sidetracked and forget to go back and I miss crucial plot points. Oh woe is me....

What will I do without So you think you can Dance? I'm not sure I even know when it actually starts. I usually just watch it whenever I get home.... And shh... don't tell... but I actually watched an episode of Big Brother and then set the DVR to start taping it...

Oh well... I guess I just might have to get a life and ignore the tv for a while.

There is one silver lining. The new dvr won't be set to tape all of hubby's shows. "Oh, so sorry honey, no discovery channel shows for you. Darn. Shucks."

Bwa ha ha ha haaaaaa (One could think I sabotaged said DVR just so that I could record chick flicks and Oprah instead of Dirty jobs and discovery channel)

Work out girl is back

Oh my poor neglected blog. You can always tell when my focus has shifted... the blog suffers.... and I was on such a roll there for a while.

What has sidetracked me this time?

Hubby was home for a few days. (Who can blame me for that one!)
Rather than drive home, only to have to leave again to pick Josh up from work, I've been hitting the gym! Woo hoo!

And since I started going to the gym, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and join ww again. I say again, but really this is the first time I've actually joined and gone to a meeting. (I joined online once before.) I even stepped on a scale for them. Very scary!

Last night I called hubby on my way home from the gym and said "I'm back! The girl who loves to work out is back in charge!" Up until last night I felt like I could barely get through my workout. My heart rate went up faster. I felt slow and uncomfortable. But the human body is an amazing thing! After one week, my heart rate dropped. I dropped a bunch of water weight and it felt good to work out again. I still have a ways to go, but at least the journey is enjoyable again.

Live Earth Love and a mini rant

I'm sure I never really enjoyed the experience when I was growing up, but for some reason whenever the sun is streaming in the windows and I have music playing, I remember Saturday morning cleaning sessions at home. Even now, when I write about it, I can almost smell the pledge and hear Diana Ross, The Carpenters, Judy Collins, Elvis and many more that I can't remember. Mom always loved music and pretty much anything was fair game in our house. Well, except maybe Rock. I think rock was reserved for Dad's car. Dad was the Eagles, Pat Benatar,

I guess that's where I get my eclectic taste. I'll listen to just about anything. I never dismiss an entire genre of music.... so Live Earth was definately my "cup of tea."

This Saturday I turned on Live Earth and the sun was shining in the windows and before I knew it, I was cleaning like a mad woman! I went through boxes of junk and did some major decluttering. It felt so good! I absolutely loved all the different music and bands that came on throughout the day. I absolutely loved the scientist band in Antarctica - Nanutuk. I loved all the different stages featuring recycled materials and all the "green" tips that were shared throughout the day. It was a fun music loving, cleaning house day....

Well except for Melissa Etheridge... she completely annoyed me and her tirade about democracy was completely out of place. This was not about America or American politics and while I don't entirely agree with everything the movement was about... I do feel there are many areas where we can all improve. I learned many useful tips that I will incorporate into my life and felt the "Live Earth Love" and was being succesfully indoctrinated until she came out and spewed her ridiculous comments. Then I started wondering... hmm... if I unplug my charger from the wall when it's not being used....would it even make a dent in all the waste that she and her buddy Al Gore generate? I wonder how much his son wasted on his 105 mph jaunt when he was "wasted."

And... I wonder if she even thought about the fact that if everyone sat around relaxing in the 80's instead of working "too hard" and dreamt about ways to build flying cars... would we have had all the incredible medical advances that saved her life? Me thinks it's probably a good thing all the doctors were working hard instead of sitting around in hemp clothes smoking pot and dreaming about ways to save the environment." I would say maybe it wasn't... but the same advances that saved her life have saved many others too and I wouldn't dream of saying it wasn't worthwhile.

A Perfect 4th

Today was one of those days where you just go "ahhhh...that was a good day."


We got up bright and early and headed to church at 6:30 to set-up for the annual pancake breakfast. Then I headed home for a nap...yea right. I tried, but it never really happened. Instead I dropped Josh of with some friends, went to the grocery store and headed over to Candace's. Candace has a gorgeous back yard and pool and I rarely go out and enjoy it. Usually we're too busy stamping... but I have been craving some sunlight. Every time I go to lunch, I wish I had a reclining lawn chair that I could just put out on the lawn so I could relax and soak up the sun.... Well today, my wish came true!


Instead of stamping, I took a break from everything and I swam and hung out in the jacuzzi and played wii. It was so much fun.... how much fun, you ask?


At one point I came into another room after playing wii and Sheila said "you sounded just like a teenager out there."


Hmmm... I'm going to assume she meant it as a compliment.... We were laughing and carrying on. Last time I played, I was an awesome bowler. This time, I created this incredible hook. Everyone had suggestions about how to cure it. I tried it all and nothing worked. Every once in a while I'd compensate and get a strike or a spare, but when Dalton showed up he said "I didn't think you could only knock down one pin." Thanks Dalton! I feel better now that I know I educated you on how bad someone can bowl.


I left the party around 7:45 and met up with Josh and his friends to watch fireworks. We found the perfect spot this year and we could actually see them going off on the ground. Once they were over we jumped in the car and got out of there fast!! I was home by 10!


A perfect day!!


Here's a picture I took while I was waiting to meet Josh. I got there early, so I pulled out my scriptures and read in the car. It was so beautiful and quiet!!