Weekends jammed/weeks busy

Once again, I am so very busy and I realize I am not writing here as I want to...

Last weekend, we went to Lake Town for a "wedding scouting trip" and we took my mom along for the ride (particularly since it was Mother's Day weekend). We left town after work on Friday night and arrived in a town close to Lake Town late (no reason to spend big on a nice hotel or inn when you are only in it from 11:30 until after breakfast!).

Our first stop on our scouting expedition was the actual wedding location. We had reserved a day-use site overlooking the lake and had done our best to choose it sight-unseen. It's a good thing we went to check (DB's idea)! The location, while pretty, was very sunny (would be unbearable in July) and on a slant...so any attempt to put catering tables would have been difficult. With the help of an extremely nice and knowledgeable ranger (thanks, Ranger Rick!), we found another totally perfect spot. We can actually used the huge picnic tables for our reception (so no need to rent tables). And the location for the ceremony is perfect...and all in shade. Ranger Rick was able to tell us about where the shade would be in July so our guests will be comfortable. AND, we were able to switch the reservation at no extra charge so we are all set.

After this, we went for lunch to the restaurant where the caterer is headquartered. The food was yummy so we were in a good mood for our meeting with the caterer right afterwards. We had already had an estimate so we knew that we were in the ballpark with this company. She thought of lots of things that I hadn't thought of -- linens, tubs with ice for beverages, reduced per-head rate for kids. I was really impressed. And I was really surprised just how fun it was. Being a girl who never thought of details of a wedding, I wasn't very interested in all the trappings, but I'm having fun with things like this! Am working on flowers now too. :-)

When we had finished with the caterer, we went back to the wedding location to measure the tables for her, then we took a drive around the lake and checked out the houses we have rented for our family from the outside (we couldn't, unfortunately, see the insides). I realize I may not have written about all this -- this wedding is for our family -- none of whom could come to the wedding in September. Our immediate family is over 50 people! Anyway, the houses are all walking-distance to each other and look very nice.

I had reserved rooms at what looked to be a nice inn near Lake Town (Lake Town only has one hotel and it's PRICEY). After checking in and seeing our rooms were lovely -- and each with a private deck overlooking a rolling lawn down to the river -- we went to the on-site winery for a tasting. On the way strolling up the hill, we said hi to the alpacas. The wine was really great -- I've never been to a winery where I liked so many of them, I don't think. I joined their wine club! After this, DB and I had a glass of wine at the wine and beer garden which was also on the property. It was beautiful. Then we all went to dinner and DB and I finished our night back at the wine/beer garden with live music and dancing under the stars. A truly fantastic time.

On Mother's Day, we took my mom into Yosemite Park for brunch at the historic Wawona hotel. It was a dream. So very beautiful and the staff was very accommodating. But before this, we had coffee on the patio of the inn...not wanting to leave. As we went back to our rooms, my mom asked us to come into her room because she had something for us. She handed me a small box which was obviously jewelry. It was the cameo necklace that her mother gave her on her wedding day in 1960!! Of course, I know this necklace as it's in all her wedding photos. It matches my dress perfectly and it's over 100 years old. We both cried. It continues to be so interesting to see how important this wedding is to our family and friends.

All in all a really fun weekend -- I've booked DB and me into the same inn for the night before our wedding week starts so we have a little alone time before the family descends. :-)

This recent past weekend was in town, but jammed! One of our friends was graduating with her masters in nursing on Saturday and we had offered long ago to help set up for her party. I had been asking her for weeks what time and where we should be. I knew the party started at 1 so I figured we wouldn't need to be there much before noon. On Friday when our friend finally responded to my repeated requests for info, she said we needed to be at her house at 8:30 and then sit at the beach saving space until everyone came (which ended up being around 3). No bueno, amiga! We had no time to do that, but we got up early and did take a couple of her friends down to the beach to save space until we could get back at 11:30. We literally sat there for all those hours. People arrived around 3. I was cranky. But we did end up having fun...and learned that this particular friend has a lot of trouble communicating. All her friends involved in the set-up were pretty pissed off and DB and I spent time diffusing some "situations".

After the party, some of the people ended up coming to our house...along with PD1 and her 4 kids who were staying with us before an early-morning visitation with The Molester (which continues to suck). We all had a great time and everyone headed to bed a little before midnight. I decided to stay up for a little bit to play Words With Friends before sleep. When I got to my bed, there was DB and two of the grandkids sound asleep. No room for me! So I got a non-comfy 6-hours of sleep on our (very cool, but not very comfy) 50-year-old sofa.

At 6 am, I hear rustling (which often happens when the grandkids are over). I get up and see that one of the grandkids has left our bed so now there's room for me! I go to get into bed and, ugh!, it's sopping. My 5-year-old grandson had wet the bed...ALL over. I stripped off what I could and put towels where I could. Then a light went on upstairs and there was my sweet grandson, all dressed for the day. He had taken care of himself as best he could. I told him to come down and I'd help him with buttoning his shirt and I said "you forgot to get up to go to the bathroom, huh?". I told him it was ok and asked if he wanted to come back into bed with us in his clothes. He did, so 4 people in the bed. Then the 3-year-old showed up and, with 5 people in the bed, all sleeping was pretty much over. We did rest though and I had fun listening to 3-year-old practicing his words while he thought we were all asleep. Cute!

After visitation, DB and I got a teeny rest, then I went over to a friend's house to help her weed her garden. We had been over there a couple of weeks ago and I saw lots of weeding needed. I love to weed. I mean I really love it! And I have no real yard so don't get to garden at my house. They are selling their house so I asked her if I could help and we made it a party! After about 3 hours, some other friends came over and we had a potluck dinner outside and watched the eclipse (after we showered, of course!). It was lovely. And there's still weeding to be done next weekend!

Today my body is sore in all the good places. Gardening is such good exercise. I miss it. And I've been off yoga for almost three weeks due to a bad back attack. Going back tomorrow...and have acupuncture in the afternoon in case I tweak something again.

Life is good...and full! ;-)

Summer approaches

Well, barring a huge snow storm in the Sierra sometime in the next month, I think we are done skiing for the year. Our last weekend (two weeks ago) was the best of the season -- light snow all day Saturday, bright sun and warm all day Sunday, and warm on Monday (when we skied two hours in the morning before heading home). I actually skied a few "blue/blacks" (advanced intermediate) and had fun on them (after the first panic of seeing the steeper slope -- DB takes me down my first time on different slopes and I'm usually good after that). I'm proud of me! ;-)

That weekend we also were able to afford a condo right at the lift so all we had to do was walk 100 yards and we were skiing. I can't begin to tell you what a great luxury that is -- to not have to lug all your equipment into a car, then park, then lug into a lodge to change then stomp to the lift. We can't usually afford to stay so close but since the snow has been minimal this year the rentals are much cheaper than usual. Oh oh, now we are spoiled.

Our last run that Monday definitely told us it was time to stop for the season -- it was so warm it was like skiing through slush or mud. Not fun. The "snow" is so wet, you can't turn. And if you can't turn, you can't stop. DB and I both almost crashed on that run -- a very familiar and easy one for both of us. We went into the lodge and said "ok, that's it for this season!".

So now we have our weekend back and, while I LOVE ski season, I must admit it's nice not to have to crowd two weekends' worth of chores, social life, etc. into one. Last weekend was wonderful. Saturday, after we supervised visitation with The Molester, I went to yoga, then we had a date to see "American Idiot" live show downtown. The next day, we had NO plans. It was AWESOME. We walked for hours at the beach and around our neighborhood. Luxury.

We have a similarly unscheduled weekend this weekend - yay!

My weight is still maintaining. I am back at yoga with minimal pain in my ankle, but I still have to be careful. Walking seems fine, but yoga still is kind of ouchy. I still want to lose at least 10 pounds before the wedding in July, but I am feeling pretty good in my body right now...and that is rare.

April might be the end of ski season

So I might have some more time to be here! When gone one work day out of every 10 for a few months (and three "real" days out of every 14), things get backed up. But I am doing well. I am consistently 15 pounds or more less than I was last ski season and it makes a real difference in my ability, I think.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a ski accident. I was coming in slowly at the bottom of the hill after only a couple of runs. It was one of the first real "powder days" of the season (California has had a winter drought this year = not the ton of snow we usually get in the mountains) so the mountain was crowded (which I dislike...and I am spoiled because it rarely gets this way). There were two snowboarders stopped right past the "gate" (where you radically slow to get into the lift lines) and there was a ton of space between them so I went to ski between them to get to the lift line. Just as I was ON TOP of them, one scooted toward the other, completely closing off my route. I could not stop and crashed into them. Twisted my left ankle badly and my left ski popped off...

At first I was just very mad at them (you MUST be aware of yourself no matter where you are on the hill...even stopped at the bottom...you can't move without looking/being aware of people around you). DB was right behind me and helped me up. The idiot snowboarders asked if I was ok and I said I didn't know. I didn't. DB encouraged me to walk around a bit before going back up to ski. As I did, I realized that my ankle REALLY hurt. So we headed to ski patrol...

When we got my boot off, it didn't look too bad. Definitely did not look broken so I just laid down on one of their cots for 1/2 hour and iced it and took some ibuprofen. At that point, I felt like the ankle was just bruised from impact with the interior of the ski boot (thank goodness they are so stiff...I am convinced I would have broken my ankle if they weren't). So I headed back up the beginner run to see how it felt. Not good...I was done for the day.

I sat and waited for DB to finish a few more runs, then we headed to our hotel. After I took the ski boot off, my ankle really began to swell. I laid down on the bed with my leg elevated and with ice. DB went out in the (by this time) blizzard to get some ibuprofen (he had to hike across a parking lot and take a gondola to get some for me!). By dinner time, I could hardly walk downstairs for dinner. Not good.

The next day I realized I couldn't ski. I stayed in bed with ice and elevation and a movie (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...excellent). When DB was finished skiing, I hobbled to the car and we went to the pharmacy to get an ankle brace. With that and my stiff snow boot at least I could walk. But no more skiing for me that weekend.

When we got home, I knew I couldn't go to yoga for at least a week...the ankle was dark purple all over and still hurt. I knew I had to be very careful with food and I was. I was off all formal exercise (including no morning beach walks) for a week. Then I started walking again. This last weekend, I skied and, with a little pain, was ok. Today I went back to yoga and had a similar result. I am looking at yoga as physical therapy to finish my healing.

I didn't gain weight during the non-exercise time. I was very careful with food. In fact, I weighed slightly less when we went away for skiing last weekend than I did two weeks prior before the accident.

Our ski weekend last weekend was a ball because we went with PD2 and our 4 granddaughters! Two had never skied before and we put them all in lessons on Saturday. They were the only ones that got to ski that day because wind gusts were up to 75 MPH so all the grown-up lifts were shut down. It was an adventure! Sunday the weather was beautiful and we all had a ball skiing.

So, moral of the story: you can survive enforced non-exercise if you are very very careful with food. But it sure feels great to be back at it! :-)

Water

I may have learned a new thing this weekend: the power of drinking water.

I know, you all are saying, "Helen, get with the program, we've all known how important water is FOREVER". You're right. I have known it intellectually, but I have never had a situation where I had a real practical experience...and, like with most weight- and food- and exercise-related things, I seem to need to EXPERIENCE the theory in order for it to (start to) sink in.

So, we went skiing last weekend. I am trying to do better with my eating and drinking on these weekends this winter than I did last year (when I weighed 15-20 pounds more than I do now). I am generally (like at home) not eating red meat. I am drinking not more than one beer a day. I am trying to keep the eaten-out breakfasts within a reasonable range. I am trying to balance -- when I've eaten something higher in calories or carbs than I usually eat at home, I eat less at the next meal. So far, so good (although I still have Xmas/NYE/Birthday lbs not completely gone)...

BUT, Sunday I had some ice cream after dinner. I had been craving it since my birthday and I made a conscious decision to eat it. Honestly, it was not very good and not worth it, but I knew what I was doing and was prepared for the consequences. Other than that, I had eaten REALLY well (even the eaten-out breakfasts which I always have to watch volume-wise -- and I had cooked dinner at the condo on Saturday night -- salmon and sauteed spinach and mushrooms, yum!).

THEN, Monday I made another conscious bad food decision for breakfast: corned beef hash and eggs...and a biscuit. The biscuit tasted like dry cake so I didn't finish it and the corned beef hash was SOOOOO salty. As soon as we got in the car after eating it, I had to stop for a huge 2-liter bottle of water. Over the next hours of driving, I drank two of those babies. And more that night. While I always have water on my desk as I work all day, I am sure I never drink that much regularly.

And, miracle of miracles, when I got on the scale yesterday (I left it at home for this short-trip weekend...maybe a mistake), I had only gained 1 pound. THAT is a miracle. One that I am not taking for granted, but am looking at the facts and figuring out how that happened...even with the extra exercise of skiing, I don't think I would have had that result without all that water.

So, glug glug, I just may have finally learned the lesson of REALLY drinking water...in fact, I need to go get a refill right now! ;-)

Best. Valentine's. Day. Ever.

I have THE BEST VALENTINE!! :-)

Because we both think going out on Valentine's Day is for amateurs, once again this year, my sweetheart made last night special at home.

When I got home from work, the house was lit only by candles (and the red light on our Valentine tree), the massage table was set up in the living room, gifts were on the counter and there was a fire in our chiminea on our front patio. DB poured me a glass of champagne, while we burned the flowers he gave me for my birthday (they were ready to go) and talked about our day...

Then, dinner time! He had gone to my current favorite restaurant and gotten take-out of my favorite dishes: kale salad, brussells sprouts and deviled eggs. I love this place because portions are perfect and the chef adds just a little something yummy to each dish: blue cheese to kale, bacon and dried cherries to brussels sprouts, horseradish to deviled eggs. Perfect.

DB had gotten me way too many presents, but he told me that we would laugh at them together and we did! The theme was "food is love" (my family's unspoken motto): oven thermometer, new measuring spoons and two awesome spring-loaded cake pans (I struggled with my cake pans last weekend). So very thoughtful...he had talked with a friend of ours who is a baker and went to a special baking store. Sweet!!

I got DB a chest-mount for his GoPro camera (usually goes on helmet when skiing...and ziplining), but it didn't arrive in time. Oh well...it will be here in time for this weekend's ski trip.

We both had nice massages and went to sleep fairly early...it was great to have a night just to focus on each other and LOVE.

I am a lucky girl.

Birthday Season and Valentine's Day

Lots of fun = little time to blog! :-)

The trip to the island off the coast for my birthday weekend was amazing. The best part? My sister flew in from NYC to surprise me!! Wow. I was asleep on Thursday night while DB had band rehearsal in the studio (I've trained myself to sleep through the loud music), ready to leave the next morning on the boat and I had a dream that there were all these people in my room, including my sister. It took me quite a while to wake up...and realize it wasn't a dream! It was so much fun to have her with us on the Birthday Adventure. And DB had kept it a secret since last August!!!! Special. :-)

We got to the island in the late morning and checked into our condo overlooking the ocean. Had some champagne, then went into town for a light lunch and some grocery shopping. I really wanted to cook dinner on Friday (the condos are expensive and I want to be in them as much as possible!) so I made delicious steak wrapped in bacon (treat), salad with homemade vinaigrette and roasted asparagus with tarragon. Yummy!

On my actual birthday (4th), I woke up early, excited for the day to begin! We went to brunch with friends who were already in town (this was my only really BAD meal of the weekend and I paid the price), then back to the condo to relax until our ziplining adventure at 2 in the afternoon.

Ziplining ROCKS. They first give you instruction, then take you in a bus up the mountain. At this place, there are 5 ziplines...you zip all the way down the mountain, across canyons, etc. As Birthday Girl, I was the first in our group to step off at the first zip -- everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and I flew away! It was literally AWESOME. The first step-off was a little scary but, after that, we all couldn't wait for the next one and were sad when they were all over.

After ziplining, we went back into town to meet some new arrivals at their hotel, had a glass of wine and some cheese and I got a hula hoop from a friend for my birthday! FUN.

I got all dressed up in my 6-inch booties for dinner at a really nice restaurant that night and was so blessed to be surrounded by dear friends on my special day.

Sunday, after breakfast, we had scheduled a whale-watching trip. We got into an impossibly tiny boat to head out into the ocean...I'm pretty happy that we didn't run into any whales! But we did run into dolphins and sea lions. The dolphins were just amazing...the water is so clear you could see them swimming under the boat right before they jumped out of the water!! At one point, we were in a pack of hundreds of them. It was, again, AWESOME.

So far 50 is...AWESOME. :-)

[I did gain some on my birthday weekend and it's not all gone yet...it still amazes me how much longer it takes to come off than to go on.]

Last weekend we celebrated two of the grandkids' birthdays and today I celebrate LOVE. Specifically, the Love of my Life, DB.

I got my first "wife" Valentine card today. It felt really good.

Wishing everyone love...

I'm proud to say I'm (almost) FIFTY YEARS OLD!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiehDcVZ-vA

LOL, I love that video...I'm going to post it as my Facebook status on Saturday (when I actually turn 5-0).

Anyway...

Last week we were in Ski Town for a week vacation and we are leaving tomorrow for a 3-day weekend holiday for my 50th. Weight hanging tough at about 18 lbs less than last year at this time. Still have some holiday lbs to lose before getting to my pre-Xmas lowest of the low weight. I brought my scale on vacation to keep it real and it really helped.

With the BIG birthday, I've been very reflective this week. Most of all, I've realized how my life has changed in the past 10 years. 10 years ago, I had tons of what I thought were really good friends. My friends were really my life. I look at the photos from my 40th b-day weekend and I am not good friends with almost any of the same people anymore. And, this week, I realized that the people who are my friends now are, by and large, flakes. Why is it now acceptable to be a flake? It depresses me because it makes me feel like I'm not important to my friends.

I have invited my closest friends to a special dinner on my birthday. Some are so flakey that I have no idea who will show up. I am feeling like I should have spent the money to bring the PDs and the grandkids and my mom with us, rather than doing a nice dinner for friends.

Life is different now. I love my life then AND now (despite flakey friends). :-)