The Devil is alive and living in East Texas, we call him" Southern Food!"

So I will start out with Grandma guilt! I missed my baby princesses 1st birthday!But I went shopping with her, her mother and big sister for birthday stuff before I left.

Issy shopped in her tutu!

Then I was off to Gilmer to take a puppy and visit my parents for a while. we stopped by and visited Lana and Aunt Beth.

Then on to the 21/2 hour drive home. Dad held Bebe all the way home.

Bebe fit right in.

She was very playful and LOVES socks.....

And naps......

and stairs.

                   I had fun visiting friends, A high school friend arranged a  last minute dinner, I hadn't seen
3 of the girls for 27 years!

One of dads childhood friends was running in the local elections and he come over and had dad help him make some signs. they have been friends for so long the were in scouts together.

While I was there it was Chris's birthday. They invited me along for his birthday dinner. It was a very nice evening, but I forgot to take a picture of the their  beautiful and pregnant daughter and son-in-law.

Me and Gina

Mom had glaucoma in one of her eyes. It was really bad. She needed an eye surgery. It was scheduled for the day after I left. Dad ask if I could stay a bit longer to help out. Mike arranged it and I stayed longer. Mom's surgery went very well and I was so glad she finally had it fixed!

 

Now for the devil part. The Food!  Yikes!!!!

I wanted some nut's but they were stuck in this yummy sugar!

I called a little "lunch restaurant" and they were having chicken fried steak that day. I couldn't resist so we had yummy lunch! I shared a meal with mom, and just took a bite of roll and potatoes. The purple hull peas were legal and have more protein than black eyed peas.

And I do not like fish. But there is one kind of fish I have liked my entire life. It's fried fish from a cafeteria called "Lubby's" I had to ask dad to get me some, even with the tarter sauce! YUMMMMM!

With all of the devil temptations. I was glad to get away from my weakness "the peanut patty" but I got a few local cookbooks that actually have recipes for them! I never thought about making them myself!!!

It was a great trip. I enjoyed my time at home and I lost 2 pounds in the 2 weeks I was gone!

A busy week.....

We started out with the Super Bowel, we had another family with just 1 kid left at home over.The guys were watching in the living room, and the girls were behind them talking and having fun.

Brooke loved the puppies and held one of them for a very long time. Even got her to sleep.

   Then the puppies had a little party of their own with our left over rib bones. We know a great caterer if you are in the market for smoked meats!

The next morning Mike was off to Canada and I found out the Tiny princess was sick. Elizabeth had RSV. Issy got it last year and was very, very sick. We were worried about her and sad she was sick.

Tuesday I went over and picked Issy up for a sleep over. To give mom a little break and to help mom take better care of Elizabeth. She got her tiny back pack packed and her cow bank and one of her princess dolls. She was ready to go.

I didn't take pictures on the first day, except when we were leaving. I don't know why. She slept with me that night. She was in the bed waiting for me. She was sitting on my side, I tried to get her to scoot over to the middle of the bed as I climbed in. I didn't even have my head on the pillow yet and she cuddle into my arm and said "I snuggle you." And she did, all night long I had this little warm body sleeping against me, and loved it.

We went out and shopped a little the next day. The sun was shining so bright when we came out of a store, it lit the car next to us up. It was a dark metallic charcoal grey. I couldn't take my eyes off of it, it was so shiny with tones of blue, silver, and  dark grey. And the metallic was sheer glitter, as I said the sun was shinning brightly.

As I but Issy in the car I told her, "Issy grandma thinks the color of that car is so pretty." She said "It has sprinkles on it too." So 2 year olds like glittery cars:-)  While we were out she had to go potty. At my house we have a little seat that sits on the big one. But we had to go to a public bathroom with no tiny seat. Flashback::: I am going to regress here. When I was a little girl and my grandma took me potty, she would hold me over the potty to I wouldn't touch the seat. I don't know how she did it. She must have been very strong. I remember her doing it often when we were out::: But thank goodness for paper toilet seat covers. I had to hold Issy's hands while she was on the really big potty. She told me, "Close yours eyes, OK" so I closed my eyes. I guess a little girl needs privacy too.

   

I just saw a saying the other day something like "Nothing makes you more happy or more tired than your grandchildren." I have to say amen. I love her but I do get tired. Luckily her uncles all love her. Uncle Steven chilled and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with her. That seems to be her favorite show when she is here.

 Thursday was crazy. Mike and I had our 4 month follow up appointment we are doing great. They were super impressed with how much Mike has already lost, this quickly. Then we had to go get Mike's bag from the airport, that a whole other story. Then we took our car to the dealer to get work done on it. We were going to be there for about 3 hours but ended up being there for 5 hours. We were so close to Stacy's so we swung by to say Hi, to them. Aunt Brenda had fallen down the stairs and broke some toes. Then we made her climb the stairs to come and see us! I didn't know she had been hurt! But we enjoyed seeing them.

Then we rushed home and I had to make cookies for a fun cookie exchange. Our ward has a lot of fun things for the ladies to do. There is a game night, a book group, and a recipe group. Last night was recipe group. We had a lady teach us how to make chocolate moose. I even took a bite and it was soooo yummy!

I didn't plan on being in the dealership for 5 hours so I was going to make a fun chcoclate marshmallow cookies. But I had no time so I ended up making peanutbutter no-bake cookies. Those are always good. The funny thing was somebody brought chocolate no-bake cookies, they bought at Wal Mart, who knew you could buy them! I brought home the cookies and we tasted lot's of yummy cookies. There were cinnamon chip cookie, a marshmallow-peanut-rice crispy cookie, a cake ball coated in chocolate, coconut bars, thin mint cookies, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cup, and 2 flavors of no-bake cookies. We cut them up into tiny pieces and Mike and I even had little tastes. I worked out a bit longer today to try to make up for all my tiny bites last night! But it was a fun evening, and made me want to make something fun for my family for Valentines Day!

Then we got up this morning and headed to the Chiropractor. Mike had made us appointments. I have been with this guy since I hurt my neck 21/2 years ago. When he saw me today he said, "You are really looking different!" I said "well I hope that is good." He laughed and said "Of course it's good!" He is getting into 

acupuncture and did some on Mike last week. So Mike had him do it to us today. It was kind of crazy. He did a treatment for stress. We had to lay on a table with needles in our feet, shins, and hands and not move while listening to soft music for 20 or more minutes. When I tried to walk out of the room I was staggering and bouncing off the walls. I think it did relax me! 

Wow... a little difference?

Well about 4 months ago a reporter did a story on Mike and I having our gastric bypass's together. I didn't think much of it, I had just had my surgery and it was 1 week later and Mike was having his that day. I figured it would be a quick little story on local TV, so I wasn't worried about it. The story went very well. They moved the date back on it, and ended up running it for sweeps. We were a cute fat couple happy and doing something that we thought would better our lives. We were taking a little control of our health. And the reporter Brandy Vega told us the people at work liked us from watching her work on our story. That made us feel good.  The story aired and went very well. It was the most popular story on the website the next day, and we didn't know it, even Brandy didn't know that they reran the story the next night. It made Mike and I feel good, that that many people gave a hoot!

Well today Brandy came back over to do a follow up story on us. I had a rocky little start but I'm fantastic now I have lost as of tonight 74 pounds. It will be 4 months for me tomorrow the 5th. Mike has done amazing the entire time he has lost 1almost 110 pounds, in less than 4 months. In the interview I was a dork and just said dorky things, nothing that I thought I would say, or wanted to say. Just air headed things! Oh well I trust Brandy to edit the stuff so I'm not so dorky!

 

Mike reenacted his "before" look for her.

                                 I got a new hair cut for it:-)

          

                 We had to go buy Mike a shirt that wasn't way to big, but he found a hat.

Oh, on a side note... the puppies are way cute!

A man Mike is great friends with, in marketing for Mike's company, wanted a picture of Mike in his big pants, for a magazine add. He wanted to say that using Mike's "product" would slim your waistline!hahaha I don't know if we will ever get to see it. He is in Ireland, and I don't know what magazine he is sending it to. But this is one of the pictures we sent.

Quite an impressive picture.

Well brandy wanted a picture from way back. So I went back to find a picture and ran across these. Mike and I and even the kids FREAKED OUT! WE were so FAT!!!

Mike and I both had some great nurses. I had a few nurses a couple of times, because I was in the hospital 3 times! But they ask us to come back and see them. We went back before Christmas and each of our favorite nurses were there. They were excited to see us and had seen our little news story. That was fun.

a million pictures!

Nathan goes and visits his sister ever so often. I sent the camera with him one day and told him to bring me back some pictures. These were just a few. The girls from Uncle Nate's eyes:-)

I made one of the hundreds of recipes we collected for that recipe book. This was the meatball soup. My friend said it was really yummy. So I tried it. Everybody LOVED it! It will be a new family favorite. The flavor of the soup, made Mike very happy. Nathan knew there were onions in it, and loved it to!

Erin and Jon are such awesome parents. They have little parties with the girls. They let Issy pick out a cupcake pan for their party times. She was excited to pick square cupcakes. She had a friend over and they decorated their own cupcakes.

The puppies came back to our house this week. One had a gross little accident and I had to bathe her so I got them both. They looked so cute!

I decided I really needed a new hobby this week. I went with a friend and her mom to a really cool little knitting and quilt store. They had some great stuff!

I love quilts but as of this time I have no desire to get into this tedious little difficult hobby!

 I would like to try my hand at knitting. A friend of mine Kim just started and loves it. I am going to try and see if I can even do it!

                                  These are the cute puppies.

                           This is Mike holding them after their bath. I bathed them but he was tired?:-)

We love facebook. It has helped us be in touch with so many friends. A long time friend from Arlington found us last week. We found out they lived in Utah too. So they came over last night for dinner. I tried a recipe I had not made in forever. Mike and I have to eat more protein so I'm having to get a little more creative.

I decided to make Swiss Steak.  Ana makes it with this little jar of chili sauce from the grocery store. I am now on more of a budget so I freaked when that little jar of sauce was $3.

I bought a large can of crushed tomatoes and decided to find a recipe to make my own. I did and it was really good and made a lot more than what was in the little jar!

 

I am going to have to find more uses for it!

Then I don't have a clue how to pick or cook steak.  I decided to approach it like my steak was tough. (Oh on a side note, Swiss Steak is not named for the country. It is a process of making tough meat tender.)

I treated my steak with salt. you completely cover the meat in salt, where you can't see the meat. Let it sit for 15 minutes to an hour. then rinse it all off and pat it dry. I seared it and threw it in the crock pot.

I covered it in half of the homemade sauce, and a can of tomatoes. Then I added 1 gianormous sauteed onion.

sauteed green peppers....

I saw a few recipes that added carrots so I tried that.

And then I added a little water to the last of the chili sauce and cooked it all day. I forgot to take a picture of it finished so just picture this last picture a lot darker. That's what it looked like finished. Mike almost loved the vegetables as much as the steak:-)

Great friends, good food, it was a fun time!

                                                                      

It's been so long...

It's been so long since I have posted anything, I kept on waiting to go back and fill everything in. but that wasn't going to happen so I'll just go forward from here.

I spent a zillion hours trying to find recipes and ideas for a cooking Relief Society meeting we were having. I video taped ladies cooking their easy recipes. Then I had a lot of ladies at church send me their easy recipes. I cooked a ton over the past month. It felt good, I really enjoy cooking. The recipes we gathered were easy so people would get back into the kitchen and start cooking again. It has really worked for me:-)

Food is my thing. I am learning how to approach it in a different way, but I do enjoy it. We had some sadness recently. I was sad for a  few families, in the neighborhood. I didn't know what to do but knew I wanted them to know we cared. So I decided to make a quick soup. Well long story short I had to make a humongous batch and it turned out just so-so. I was so disappointed. I just had to pray that it would taste better to them, and remember for myself it's the thought that counts! It also felt good to go visit them all, as we dropped it off and tell them we loved them.

But I made them these yummy rolls rolled in mayo, butter, and parmesan cheese. I also made cake and substituted buttermilk for the water and melted butter for the oil. I hope the cakes were good at least!

When I came out of the bedroom to go to church Mike said wait right there. He went and got something and then ask the boys if they saw what he saw.

Mike thought I looked like Sarah Palin! hahaha It was just the shape of my glasses, which I got before anybody knew who she was!

We celebrated our 27th anniversary.

My parents were here for 4 weeks during Christmas, we had a great visit with them. My dad helped on a few projects. One for Mike and one for me!:-)

A loft for Mike for all of the Christmas stuff.

And another set of shelves in my pantry for me! i love them . Thanks Dad!

The puppies have grown and are super cute.

So are the girls......., super cute!

Issy called me and said "Hi Gamma, you and papa come to my house." I told her when I got her papa from the airport that afternoon we would be there. Who could tell her no!!!

It's been a good month!