Memorial Day

I wanted a lazy Memorial Day and I wanted to get out of town, but with gas costing well over $4, we settled for a half-day trip to San Juan Bautista. It was a perfect day. We left in the afternoon, and drove 35 minutes to the little town. We went to the mission there. Tom and I both wondered what Addison would think of the trip since his ideas for Memorial Day were:

1. Go see Indiana Jones.




2. Go swimming.




3. Go to the park.




4. Attack Tom (this is a recurring theme around here).

The weather wasn't good enough for swimming, but too good to spend the day inside watching a movie. The park would have been too crowded, and he gets to attack Tom plenty. When we pulled up to the mission, we did get the expected, "Is this it?" remark... but he loved it. He was fascinated by the old kitchen, cemetary, and chapel. We spent almost an hour at the mission, and then spent the rest of the day shopping the antique shops around town. By town, I mean 4 block strip of main street. By shopping, I mean going to the 5 shops that were open on Memorial Day. By antique shops... well, I sort of mean antique shops, but I also mean little stores full of people's old and sometimes crappy stuff. There was a store that sold rocks and beads that Addison (ok... me and Tom, too) thought was pretty cool. He got a shark's tooth there and I got a purple rock. After I left the store with Tom looking at me like, "hmm... you just bought a purple rock the size of large peanut M&M", I decided the rock needed a purpose, and so it is a worry rock now. I'll have to start worrying more. After that, we went to the turbo antique store where I found a treasue (see tomorrow's blog). We had been there a while when it became obvious they were trying to close up. It was 5:00 on Memorial Day after all. We left and walked back down the street to find a place to eat. We followed our noses because something seriously smelled good, and it led us to someone's backyard barbecue, which we almost crashed because everything was closing! Finally, we found a Mexican restaurant called Jardines de San Juan. It was super cute and really good. As we were eating, a big group of people came in consisting of all of the shop owners from downtown. I guess that's where you go at 5:00 in San Juan Bautista.

We were tired enough by then and drove home stopping only at In-N-Out Burger for a vanilla shake for Addison. He was asleep by the time we got home (even though it was only 7:30). I wasn't ready for the long weekend to be over. I need more holidays like that.

For some reason, I only took pictures at the mission. I wish I had pictures of downtown San Juan Bautista. We'll have to go back.

This cactus extends about 6 feet above our heads. I had a picture of the whole thing, but somehow I deleted it.

I decided that it might be fun to look like I was drunk in all the pictures we took on Memorial Day. I think I pulled it off pretty well here in front of the baptistry.

Addison to Tom when he saw the baptistry: "How do people fit in those tiny little tubs?"

Tom thought that my "drunk picture" idea was so much fun that he decided to look like he was smelling something foul.... Well done, Thomas.

You know you wanted to see the rock.

Sugar Free

So, I just finished day 10 (out of 14) with no sugar, bread, fruit (anything with any type of sugar) and things are going pretty well. I've discovered a few things about trying to cheat my way around it though. I'm doing ok without the bread, except for breakfast. Eggs are getting old and have way too much cholesterol for my Lundell blood. Tonight I broke down and went to Costco to buy the big package of egg substitute. It's mostly (99%) egg whites and hopefully doesn't taste like glue. I'll find out soon (not tomorrow though. I 'm going out to breakfast with my friends where, sadly, I will have to skip the blueberry-wheat germ pancakes at First Awakenings).

Anyway, I loves me the sweets, and have tried to find every candy and chocolate that exists displaying those 2 little words "Sugar Free". There are lots, and they're pretty good, but now I am trying to weigh my options when it comes to eating chemically produced sweetener or going without. Here's why:

1. People can have a "sensitivity" to sucralose. In other words: Stephanie, your stomach is not going to feel right as long as you continue to eat Sugar Free Reeses Peanut Butter Cups , even if you only eat 1 and the serving size is 5. Conclusion: Splenda is out for me. Good thing I didn't buy the Costco box (I think it tastes gross anyway).
2. My favorite sugar free treat so far has been Dove Sugar Free Dark Chocolates. I was excited these about because I didn't see any artificial sweetener in them, just something called maltitol. Then, I was at Costco tonight stocking up on fake eggs, and this guy shoved a handful of chocolate at me and said "You can eat this. It's sugar free!" How did he know? He told me all about maltitol. It sounded like the answer. It's processed from wheat. That's good, right? I loved that man. I bought his $20 box of chocolates. Then I came home and read this about the problems with maltitol. (I still ate one of the tricky man's chocolates. You should hear my stomach right now.).
3. Aspartame tastes pretty good in Sugar Free Jello and Diet Sprite. I'm not really a soda drinker anymore, but I'll take what I can get when it comes to sweetness right now (diet cola has never been for me). I've been a little afraid of aspartame for a while (here's why), but I just read on the FDA website that they consider it safe as a food sweetener. I don't know about it though. I'll keep eating my Jello and drinking my Sprite, but I don't have much brain power left to lose. Is it worth it?
4. My only happiness comes from a little herb called Stevia. It is a sweetener that has been used in other countries for centuries. I'm gravitating towards it because it's the only natural, noncaloric sweetener I have found - and it tastes good! I bought a little bottle of it at Trader Joe's the other day and I love it in my Pero in the morning. You can even grow it! I'd fit right in with all of the other herb growers here.

I could probably go on, but it's late now, and as I've been typing, I've been looking up more sweetener info on the internet and I am certain no one is as interested in it as I am. I look forward to four days from now when I will indulge in oatmeal with strawberries and feel like I'm eating strawberry shortcake - if I make it until then without my brain withering away and my stomach wearing out. I'm counting on you, Stevia.

What A Day

Today at about 1:00, I finished up some work and headed out for my usual run before picking Addison up. As I was driving down Laureles Grade, I saw a little explosion just off the road on the east side. I thought, "hmm, that's weird" and kept driving. I was headed to the tennis club to run on the treadmill (because it was 90 degress here today!), and then as I was walking in, a man was speed-walking out and said, "You better get out of here. That fire is coming down the mountain." Huh? I looked up to see a fire raging down the hill from where I had seen the explosion earlier. And then, I panicked. There is only one road out, and if the fire moved too quickly I wasn't getting out. I tried calling Tom to tell him to go get Addison because I was about to die in a fiery explosion. He didn't answer. Nice. I drove calmly out to the main road and saw that there was another fire a little further down, and then I called 911. They of course already knew about the fire (why can't I be the hero?), but the dispatcher didn't know about the explosion (maybe I am the hero!). She transferred me to the fire station dispatch guy to have me tell him about it, but he already knew (I guess he's the hero). He said 2 transformers had blown on Laureles Grade. No power at my house or anywhere else in the vacinity. So... I headed out to get A from school. Tom called back by this time and said his power had gone out at work too.

No time for a big run, but I did take a nice walk in the sweltering heat on the trail behind Addison's school. I picked him and we headed into town to go grocery shopping. On the way in, (driving on the one road that leads into town) we saw that the traffic headed back was stopped for miles and miles. When I got to the turn off to my house, I noticed that the road was closed. Even if I wasn't going grocery shopping, I couldn't go home. And then I realized that I couldn't go shopping because I had no fridge to put things into. I had the brilliant idea of taking all of my groceries to Tom's office until he reminded me that his fridge would be just as warm as mine as they had no power either, and then we changed plans. I stopped at Cheryl's and borrowed a swimsuit, towel, and sunscreen for Addison, and we headed to the beach. Addison jumped in the water and I sat on the towel thinking - OK. I can still get everything done. If we stay here for just a little while, Tom will be back from getting the generators at his house (he had gone up to get generators to bring to work) and then I can shop and put all the groceries in his fridge. And then, I can still take Addison swimming with his friends at 5:00 like I was supposed to. And then, I'm sure I'll still be able to go eat and make it to enrichment at 7:00 and go out afterwards for treats. An hour passed at the beach and I realized I probably wasn't going to make it to the swimming pool. Addison was having so much fun with a new friend (they dug a HUGE hole that they could both fit in), and I was talking to new friend's mom and realized I probably wasn't going to go grocery shopping either. And then, I started thinking that life was pretty good, because when we can't go home, we get to go to the beach and meet new friends. I also started thinking about the wonderful people in our lives. Cheryl had given me the key to her house, just in case I couldn't get back home and they were out. Annie had given me instructions on how to get into her house if I couldn't get back into mine. One of A's friend's parents called to ask if we needed anything because she had heard about the fire on Laureles Grade. And Marv (Tom's uncle) called to say he was out of town, but could be here in an hour and half if we needed to get into his Pebble Beach house to stay (I thought about telling him our house had burned down). And then, while everyone is laughing and talking, a huge wave came and washed my keys that were sitting innocently on the sand out to sea. Yikes. I started half-heartedly pushing up sand with my feet in a lame attempt to try to uncover the keys that were being carried away by the ocean. Tom called again at about this time and I told him about my keys. Keep in mind this is after last Wednesday when I dropped Addison off at scout's and went to this same beach to sit and read and left my lights on and my car battery died and he had to come rescue me. Also keep in mind that this is after I locked my house key and car key in my house as I was running out the door to get to Addison's book fair and was stuck outside and he had to come rescue me. On all of these occasions, his response was "I'll be there in 10 minutes". I'll keep him around. So, after about a half hour, I finally said "I give up" to new friend's mom who is so kindly unearthing the sand with me. I start watching the kids who are now collecting crab skeletons, and thinking about how life might not be as good as I thought and praying all the while that even though I know this is the most impossible thing ever, please let my keys wash back up onto the shore. And then, I look over to see new friend's mom picking something out of the sand 30 feet away from where we had been. My keys!! I'm not kidding... It was really my keys. I hugged her and told her I was in love with her. Yikes for her.

Tom arrived about then. I was sunburned and done. We went to eat and Tom said he would take Addison home and watch him while I went grocery shopping. And then, I got to go grocery shopping all by myself. When I got home Addison was showered, read to, and asleep.

It turns out Tom's the hero.

This is the only picture I took today. I took it with my phone.

Mother's Day: A Photo Diary

First thing in the morning (if you know Addison, you know I mean FIRST THING) Addison brought me the gift he had made in school. Very sweet.
I wore my new shoes.

At church, the men made us lunch, so we skipped Relief Society and ate.

Addison (with a little help) got me this beautiful orchid that I will probably kill because I have problems keeping indoor plants alive. Tom has assured me it will live.
Addison and Tom went to the beach and collected a few treasures, including a crab leg and seaweed, while I....
slept!... My favorite part of the day.
Then we went to Black Bear so that I could eat 7-grain almond pancakes because Monday begins a new way of eating for me. Good luck to me!I actually ended up ordering something different (I have no idea why. We were at Black Bear, and I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I like there.) and Tom, being as sweet as he is, ordered the pancakes. Guess what Tom ended up eating.

(Not pancakes)

**Scrabble**

Addison, Tom, and I were playing Scrabble tonight, and I had my first ever, use-all-seven-letters word. It was ZEPPELIN. Not only did I get 43 points for the word (the z was on a triple letter square), but because I used all of my letters, I got an extra 50 points. That's a 93 point word you're looking at!!
Sadly, Tom still won.

Bobcat In My House

When I got home on Wednesday night, this bobcat was in my house...

Just kidding!!! It was this bobcat...

Addison just started scouts and couldn't be more excited about it. He earned his bobcat badge at pack meeting on Wednesday. He had to wear the badge upside down until he did 3 "good turns"...

1 - carried in groceries for mom

2 - cleaned up dvds without being asked

3 - got Tom a drink

PS - it's crazy to me that I use words like "badge" and "pack meeting" in reference to my own child.

Room With A View

I have been watching this bird make its nest for the past 6 weeks. It is just outside the window in front of my desk, so as I'm working, I often find myself staring at the bird sitting on her eggs. Last night, while Tom and I were cleaning up after dinner, Addison came running in yelling, "There are baby birds in the nest!" We came in to look, and sure enough, there they were. They like to peak their little heads up and flap their wings. The mama doesn't spend much time on the nest anymore. I'm not sure where she is off to. I don't think she'll win mother of the year, for sure. When she does come back, though, I love seeing the 4 tiny birds poke their heads up and fight for food. I've tried to take pictures of it, but every time I open my window, I scare the mama off.

I took this picture leaning out my bedroom window.
We all decided to draw a picture of the nest and birds. Tom and Addison sat on my bed and sketched long after I lost interest in my lack of artistic ability.

Addison's rendition.