Big news .....

a little late posting this but...........

WE HAVE A NEW GRANDSON!!!

 

John Thomas was born on Jan 23rd

7 lbs. 7 oz 22 inches long

he's going to be tall

 

It was a very rough start to his little life

about 20 min after our daughters water broke, the placenta started

detaching from her uterus

which then caused her and the baby both to start losing blood

it was very scary for our family.......our daughter was rushed to

the OR for an emergency C-section.

our little grandson stopped breathing and his heart stopped

our daughter lost a lot of blood

and then from a previous surgery, she had a lot of scar tissue so

they called in another surgeon to take care of that

she was in surgery just over 2 hours and boy were we nervous!

 

the good news is the baby and our daughter are both fine

and we are again, in love with another grandson

his little cheeks have a terrible rash on them left from the tape

that held the breathing tube in place. But it's getting much better

and almost gone now

 

 

later......

 



Snacks ...

With clean eating, I rarely find that I want a snack

I guess because I don't have to worry about counting calories or fat, don't

worry about the quantity I eat because I just eat

until I'm full, I just don't need snacks

 

unless of course it's going to be a long time between meals

I eat lunch at work at 11:30 but don't usually get any supper

until 7:30 so I eat an afternoon snack at work

and may eat something like a banana before going to exercise class

 

One of the snacks that I have found that I LOVE is Larabars

not to be confused with uber larabars............which contains lots of

ingredients. That is what I try to stay away from.

 

some of my favorites are.........

 

peanut butter cookie - contains dates, peanuts and sea salt!

Banana bread - contains almonds, dates, bananas

Cashew cookie - contains cashews and dates

Coconut cream pie - contains dates, coconut, almonds, cashews

and extra virgin olive oil

 

the dates are in all of them as a sweetener

and let me just say, these are really good, I love them

 

 

later......



Clean eating .....

I thought I would give an update on my clean eating

I'm still doing it.....and still loving it

I have found it to be very easy

and I think it's because I don't try to overthink or re-create things

I just try to eat food in its most natural state

and I avoid all sugar. I do see other people doing it and making it difficult but it shouldn't be. It's just easy......

I always said I would do this 90% of the time

vacation and holidays would be my 10% that I wouldn't eat clean

so during Christmas, I enjoyed other foods and some sweet treats

I only gained 2 lbs but that very quickly came off

what was the eye opener was how it made me feel

sluggish and not so great

and made me crave sugar

So it was very easy to go back to my clean eating

on January 2nd!!

believe me, clean eating....it's a good thing. I can't say enough about it and I really try hard not to sound preachy to people......I just love it so much and how it makes me feel.

I had eaten half of my dinner before deciding to take a picture
we had chicken BBQ, roasted string beans and roasted cauliflower
yum!!!!

 

later......

Puzzles ....

I love working puzzles

but I usually just do them in the winter time.....and always

after football season

 

So when they were forecasting snow, I had to pull out a puzzle

that I had bought earlier in the year, 1,000 pieces.

Jake was coming over to stay with us during the snow "storm"

so we worked it together......and finished before the snow

even arrived....haha!!!

and since that one came together so fast, we decided to

get another one out....2,000 pieces!!

that was a little slower even getting the outline together

and then news of the new grandbaby coming forced me to

clean it all up.

Maybe another day......

later......

 

Snow ....

If you know me or have been reading my blog for awhile, you

know that I LOVE the snow. I seriously just turn in to

a child again at the mention of snow in the forecast.

I think it's crazy that people fuss about schools closing.....let them have fun!

and it's crazy that people in my area fuss about it because we are

pretty much never snowed in. I can think of a handful of storms that

kept us housebound for more than a day

in all of my 57 years of living in Richmond.

I think it is hilarious that people rush to get milk and bread for the storms but

I do not make fun of folks for doing it. It's just a Richmond thing!

it's funny and quirky and it's fine.

I'm sure there are people who will say yeah, it's fine with you because

you have the option to work from home. Well, that's true, I work for an

awesome company that is smart enough to make sure most workers

are mobile.....but even if I didn't, I would just take a day off!

But enough of that......we finally got SNOW this winter.

January 21st we were told 3 to 6 inches and in true Richmond fashion

we closed schools, mobbed the grocery stores and waited and waited

for our snow to arrive. It was late.....and when it did, it was beautiful

but also in true Richmond fashion, we got 2 inches of snow, not 3 to 6!!!

but it sure was beautiful......

and it's cold, cold, cold!! the day after the snow it was 22 degrees

and with wind chill 10 degrees. We are supposed to get down to

9 degrees later that night......brrrrr.

below taken from my front door and whoops, forgot to take
red ribbon from Christmas off of the mailbox!

 

still waiting for that "big" snow......maybe next year

 

later.......

Yarn and a wreath ....

I bought this cute, soft yarn last year hoping to make a baby

blanket with it. But seriously, when I tried, I had no idea how

to crochet with this stuff. I tried watching some youtube videos

but that wasn't much help considering I'm not that great at

crocheting. I taught myself and just kind of wing it!

But I really waited too long to return it so I decided to try

and make something with it.....a wreath!

how easy is this, I just wrapped and wrapped

it's hanging on the door to the sewing room and I think it

looks fine right there!!

 

later.....

January ....

here's my January chalkboard

I didn't bother putting any events for the month up there

just needed this one message........
 

 

and our sweet little doggies had to wear sweaters with single

digit temperatures!!

 

later......



Bacon ....

Who doesn't love bacon!!

even with my clean eating, I love bacon.....I just eat the

nitrate free bacon. Bacon is so good you don't need to add

chemicals to it!!

But I hate the mess of frying bacon.....grease popping everywhere

So I started cooking bacon in the oven and all I can say is

why oh why didn't I already know about this!!

So easy

we just lay it on parchment paper.......easy clean up!

 

perfect and crisp every time!

 

later.....

Baby sprinkle ...

More pictures from the baby sprinkle.....

 

Nicole and Janace.......Janace is one of my friends I have had the longest

we've been friends for 35 years! And I just love her!

 

Nicole and Lynne.....Lynne is Jacquelyn's mother-in-law and

one of my dearest friends!

 



Nicole and Sherry with Sherry's daughter......Sherry is Nicole's best friend

 



Nicole with my sister Kandi and her daughter Gabrielle

 



 

with my sister-in-law Susan and her daughters Abby and Mallory

 

with my sister Vickie

 

with Tyler's sister Heather

 

Bucky, Jacquelyn and Declan

Nicole and Tyler

 



 

about to become a family of 5

 

later......



A Baby Sprinkle ....

Jacquelyn hosted a baby sprinkle for Nicole at our house

on Jan 5th. A sprinkle is for a 2nd baby.....a smaller version of

a baby shower. This was the first party Jacquelyn had ever planned and

wow, she did a great job. She had wonderful ideas and everything

came together perfect. It was small and intimate which is exactly

what Nicole wanted.

here's some pictures......

so ready to have this baby!!

 

sisters.....

Jacquelyn had gourmet cupcakes for the sprinkle.....yum!!

 

the theme for the shower was "snow" since it was cold cold cold!!

these little paper decorations reminded us of snow flakes so she

hung them around in just a few spots

the table looked so pretty. She used snowflakes from my Christmas tree
on the table

 

guess the candies in the baby bottle and paper to write

sweet messages for Nicole and baby John

Jacquelyn did a great job on her first party!! Now she is planning
Declan's first birthday party!

 

little candies for each guest to take home

 

it was fun and wonderful being with our family and friends

 

later........