WHY can't I get paragraphs on this post?! Is it because I changed my layout?? What's going on?! I'm sorry if it's hard to read...

This is from my sparkpeople nutritin tracker from the week, starting with Tuesday. I saw on TV the other day that when you eat the right foods, you need less of them. I think that sums up my week. See, when I have used Sparkpeople before to track my nutrition, I was stuck on Lean Cuisines, instant oatmeal, wine, etc. That's not to say I don't love my wine still, but my food diet has changed a great deal, I think from doing the South Beach Diet. I have always cooked, but I had to focus on whole foods, not relying on potatoes to fill up, and eating a ton of veggies instead.

So now that I am doing more of a "phase 3" diet (really just a traditional balanced diet), incorporating fruits and whole grains daily, I need to watch my portions more, which is why I am back on Sparkpeople. On phase 1, you can eat all you want, but on phase 3, I notice more poundage. The freedom of being on phase 3 is harder to manage - it didn't help that I ate blue bell ice cream everyday for about a week. LOL But overall, tracking my calories this week seems a lot easier than in the past. I still get to eat quite a bit of food because I've learned the right foods to eat.

Tuesday, I ate a McSkillet burrito combo meal, so even though I wasn't absurdly over my calorie count (I was too full, so I skipped lunch), check out that fat. 78 grams!!! For TWO meals. And I was on the low end of the protein spectrum. Point taken.

Wednesday was the only day I got enough calcium. I actually went over! It is because I had a cup of milk with breakfast, and a latte during my night class. I can't be using up all my calories on milk, though. So I am thinking about starting a multi-vitamin or something to get more calcium. I was over my calorie count that day by a bit. I usually eat four meals on Wednesdays - breakfast, something at noon before my workout, something at 4-5 before class, and something at 9 when I get home. Tom made manwich with ground turkey instead of beef (half the calories), and I ate it one whole wheat bread instead of the white buns (almost half the calories). Mmmmm.

Yesterday was a cool day. I had my yogurt and coffee for breakfast, a chicken fajita for lunch (leftover from the night before), and pot roast with mashed potatoes & cabbage for dinner, with a sprite zero with 2 oz. rum for dessert. You can see through the week how my calorie and carb count got progressively lower, which is good. I really like being able to eat potatoes with my pot roast again!

Speaking of cabbage, it was the cabbage from my garden, and this is what I did with it. It was great! Per one of the comments, I also added some sliced banana peppers. Good stuff. I'd like to add more bacon next time...I had the calories to spare on that meal.

Off to be productive!

Well, we halfway had a fall garden this year, with some cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. The sprouts and broccoli have pests, but we picked a cabbage today, finally. Look how beautiful it is! We're going to eat it tomorrow.



So, we got to thinking about our onions. These onions have been around for 3 years. They were my very first thing to buy and plant. We grew them in containers, and since we didn't use them all that year, we transplanted them to the ground the next year so they could get bigger. We moved them again when we made the raised beds last year, and there they sit. Remember last year when I planted these? Here, I'll paste it from my myspace blog:

"You've been warned. It's gross.

Well, I started my veggie garden today. Tom built me a tiered garden around our storm shelter mound. We put down weed barrier, and I began cutting out places for my plants and stickin' em in, one by one.

Making room for a nice little onion bulb, the dirt I was moving kept falling back into the hole, so I stuck my gloveless, happy-to-play-in-the-dirt hand in there to hold the dirt back, and pulled out something solid I thought must have been a clump old plant roots.

Until I saw the legs. I sat there in shock for a minute, then ran inside and yelled, "TOM! I just pulled a dead animal out of the garden!!!" Then I ran into the bathroom, whimpering in disgust, and scrubbed my hands.

Went back outside, and my laughing hero was chunking the intruder over the back fence. I asked if it was a mouse, and he said it was a MOLE. They must have killed it when they were tilling the soil with the garden claw a few days ago.

It was slimy. And on my HAND."

I had forgotten all about that until today. UGH. Anyway, those are the onions in question. So we figured they would be huge softball sized beautiful sweet and yellow, and we decided to pull the tallest, thickest one today. Tom prepares to do the honors.

Whaaaat?

It's a GIANT green onion!!!

Look how thick this thing is.

We're gonna rinse it anyway and we'll eat it tomorrow.

In the meantime...

I have so many pictures to catch up on - maybe I'll get some time on my big PC this weekend to upload them. This tiny laptop isn't great for working with photos. But anyway, there is our fall yield. LOL...

http://perezhilton.com/2009-03-23-new-couple-alert-31

Ugh. I sing better than her! I can't believe she's living my dream.

Finding over 300 meal plans updated weekly.

http://orgjunkie.com/2009/03/menu-plan-monday-march-23rd.html

Better than CHRISTMAS!! Can this really be happening to me?!? I am GIDDY!

I've had the 30 day shred for about 40 days now, and I've done it about half of those days. The big things that messed me up were my SC trip, and getting sick last week followed by a camping trip. Tomorrow, I'll start it again for the 3rd time. So I'll be sore again, for the 3rd time. *sigh* But I looked at my calendar, and there is no reason I can't do this everyday for 30 days. No Wednesdays of course (at school 9-9), but I work out at the gym those days. No trips in the next 30 days, some assignments and exams, but no big work deadlines. I can do this 30 days. So there!

I am pretty worn out! We got back from an uneventful Tawakoni trip a few hours ago. I am mostly better, still congested, but no aches or fevers. I'll take it.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon, set up, took a walk, and I laid around while Tom went fishing for a little over an hour. The fishing stunk all week. We didn't try really hard, but we didn't want to have to. Oh well! We got to watch Lost, then that night the congestion train came to town and I thought I was dying. DYING. I woke up about 2am and could hardly breathe, so I moved to the living room (where the ceiling is higher and there is better airflow) and watched TV while feeling sorry for myself and trying to keep a hot towel on my face til about 5. The pain from behind my cheeks was intense, it felt like my face was about to explode.

But when Thursday morning came, I was feeling better. I know most people do feel worse at night than during the day when they're sick. I was happy for that. Tom and I went fishing a bit that morning. My antibiotic (which the doc prescribed as a sort of catch-all fix, even though she thought I had the flu?) made me sensitive to the sun, so my hands got burned even though I was wearing long sleeves. LOL, only me. We couldn't buy a bite, but we saw fish swimming by. *sigh* We gave up and took a trip to town. I was NOT going to spend another night without Nyquil. My parents came for a visit that evening and stayed for about an hour. It was my mom's birthday. Then we watched Hell's Kitchen, the news, and I went to bed in the living room. I slept like a baby and felt a lot better Friday morning. I don't know whether the antibiotic, Nyquil, or just good ol' time finally kicked it (whatever IT was), but I didn't want to waste time with one or the other.

Reade, Miranda, & Danyelle came Friday afternoon. We didn't do a whole lot waiting for them - Tom went to visit his parents, I laid around and watched a Lifetime movie (The Texas Cheerleader Scandal...LOL) and General Hospital, then we played Yahtzee til they arrived. Tom broke two model airplanes that day - one before he even flew it, and one he crashed while trying to land it. We played a little ladder ball. Then we watched the frakkin' series finale of Battlestar Galactica, and Tom and Reade stayed up late talking outside while me and Danyelle gave up at about 11:30pm.

My parents came Saturday afternoon for a visit - we had smoked brisket and pork loin, potatoes, corn, and beans. It was pretty awesome. I made my mom a birthday cake and everyone seemed to like it. It was the smoothest camping meal we have ever had - didn't forget anything, set off any alarms, overcook anything, etc.

We really didn't do anything different than we would've if we'd stayed home, but it was nice to get away, and it's nice to be back. I still don't feel like school has started this semester. It's half over, though! I'll be glad to get back to normal this week.

To my pity party! Somehow I got sick. I have a fever. WTF?! I can't remember last time I had a fever. My whole body hurts. Tom is taking good care of me, though. Except I asked him to go get me more juice earlier and he still hasn't. I'll probably go myself tomorrow. Tomorrow I have GOT to get something done. I need to see if I can be up and moving around or if I still need to lay in bed. I've only been awake for 5 hours today. It was definitely not an "up and moving around" day. But I am going camping later this week, and I need to be better, pronto!

So my goal for tomorrow is: go to the store for more juice and sprite, and inventory the camper to see what we need to stock in there (for example, I know I stole the shampoo out of there and need to replace it.) Would love to keep some laundry going, too. And, tonight or tomorrow I need to make a list of stuff to pack. I really need to clean in there, but it'll have to wait probably til the last minute. I need to make my mom a birthday cake, probably Wednesday. I need to get her a birthday present but I'll probably order it online.

I was going to post some pics, but I'm giving up on this typing/thinking business! PLEASE pray that I get better very quickly. I want to go camping. :-(

Yay!

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I have a headache I think is caused by a toothache. I just noticed it all of a sudden but I don't have drugs with me and don't feel like walking to my car. That's what it's going to come to though...

I want to do another countdown.

1 hour before I get off my butt to get some excedrin out of my car.
1 day until my last class day before spring break.
2-4 days before I finally post Charleston and Irish Festival pictures up here. Here, settle for this. I did it in class last night.

6 days before our Tawakoni camping trip
21 days til my next conference presentation
22 days til the conference presentation right after that one
22 days until an education career fair at school where I hope to dazzle some school districts who may in turn hire poor uncertified me to teach math. LOL
29 days until I find out whether my proposal was accepted for the conference that I'm really interested in (I get to do a lot of research and get cool experiences with my mentor, mostly in special ed, but this is the one that REALLY means something to me. national association for gifted children)
48 days until I leave for Nashville for another conference
49 days til Danyelle joins me in Nashville to tear it up!

71 days til we leave for Colorado. Our longest, furthest away camping trip. The ultimate test of marital strength. *evil laugh*
98 days til a June conference presentation
105 days til Grandparents University
118 days til I leave for Spain, assuming they purchase my ticket soon!
127 days til I turn 25 in Spain
128 days til I return home to my loving husband as an official member of the "I've been to Europe and I'm 25" club.

I just paid $6 to access the internet from my laptop here at the Charleston airport. My flight leaves in an hour...I assume they'll start boarding in 20 minutes or so. But I will probably wait til closer to take off to board. So it's the perfect timing for a blog-on-the-go.

My trip has been great. I am worn out! I will post pics eventually, but who knows when. I have meetings at school today, and tomorrow is the Irish Festival followed by the UFC fights. The Dean of Mean vs. Rampage! I am rooting for the Dean of course (Keith Jardine), but I hope he doesn't get demolished. He got knocked out a couple fights ago, and it was pretty heartbreaking. I just love that guy. I don't know why. He is a badass. Then I have homework and studying to do Sunday.

So anyway, full disclosure. My flight was delayed when I came to Charleston. They told us the flight attendant was late, they updated us later that they were trying to find her replacement, they found someone to take her place, then announced another delay because they needed to verify the pilot's ID. LOL! I'm thinking, do we REALLY need to know all this?!? I am one of those that isn't that concerned about the government keeping secrets from us because I am pretty happy in my bubble. But anyway, there was another flight that came in Wednesday with a bunch of people I knew/met at the conference. Their flight was delayed because they had to make repairs on the planes (rubber seals), and when they boarded, the plane was nose heavy, so they moved someone from front to back. We are on those tiny tincan American Eagle planes with 1 seat on the left, and 2 on the right. And they knew the girl who was moved and said she was tiny. So 100 lbs really makes a big difference?! You better offer me a stiff drink with my new seat if I'm moved because the plane is nose heavy.

Edit: They just changed our gate from B1 to "emergency exit stairs next to B2". Hahahaha!

So let this be the ironic post everyone refers to if my plane goes down today. And the cherry on the irony sundae can be that I'm studying for my death & dying exam on the plane. ;-) Love y'all and see you soon!

Poor kitty. I swear we brush him, but it never fails, he goes outside and gets some horrible mat that just grows and grows out of control. We can't hardly get a pet brush through his thick mane, so I think I need to get him a human hair brush. We had him shaved again today to get his mats out. We can tell he feels so much better! This time, they gave him a bandana!

Have a good week!