Reflections from Dinner

I went to dinner with my cousin Anna tonight who is in town for a work training thing. We caught up in between Carter entertaining the booth next to us. I crave good conversation of true value. Thanks cuz! i love you!

Blogging Again

So, I looked at my blog and I haven't written anything since January. I was doing the whole detox thing. That lasted 5 days...Anyway, life seems to be moving too incredibly fast these days. I have realized that I need to start using this short time we have on Earth in the best way that I can. I have recently reconnected with my niece Jessi, Todd's daughter. She is incredibly sweet and I pray that one day she will understand how much I love her, even though circumstances make it hard to be normal. Yesterday, Rachel graduated from State. I am so proud of her. She really had to fight to accomplish this goal. So many times she needed encouragement, but she did it! It is in these moments that we all miss our Mimi. She would've been so happy to see her graduate. It seems like every experience I have I think about her. I still can't get through church without crying. Mimi was Christ-like in every way and it is funny that I can just now see how much she taught me...that she is still teaching me. I pray that I can be the example she was to my boys and all the people I meet. That is a struggle, but I try and I think I am getting better at it.

Detox Day 4

Okay so those 3 pounds from yesterday are gone. So technically I have lost 2.2 pounds as of this morning. The salt water flush tasted great this morning. Is that weird? Today was good. I went back to adding the cayenne pepper in the drink and it was drinkable. I read last night about people having these terrible headaches and I was thinking that's weird because my head hasn't hurt at all. Big Mistake! The mother headache has been hangin around all afternoon. I want to take something or drink a coke but I can't. I didn't get much sleep last night so I guess that is a factor. I am honestly not hungry, but if I smell food then this ravenous sensation takes over. We still have leftover chilli and Brooks finished it off tonight. It looked awesome and I almost cried a little because I wanted a big bite of it...I am about to go drink my last lemonade stuff and have some tea. then it is bed for me!! At midnight, I will have gone 100 hours without eating!!

Detox Day 3

I'm hungry.Really hungry. I've almost quit like 5 times today. I keep reading sites and am getting conflicting information. I was doing the capsules, but then I read don't because your body has to work to digest the capsule. I also saw that I should be drinking ALOT more water and I haven't done that either. Crap!! I feel like I have been wasting time!! No point in doing it if I am doping it wrong.I weighed a minute ago and have gained 3 pounds. What the crap? I haven't eaten in 3 days...
I do "feel" good though--when the cayenne isn't burning...
I was headed to the fridge and Brooks said my stomach looked smaller. I questioned his honesty and he promised he wasn't lying. That was enough motivation to get me through the night. I'm going to bed.

Detox Day 2

Last night I didn't sleep well because Jake woke up around 2:30, 3, 3:30--I finally gave in and put him in our room because running back and forth sped up the laxative tea and put me in the bathroom when I needed to sleep. I got up a little after 5. I weighed and had lost 1.5 pounds. Yay.I was able to get down all 32 oz. of the salt water flush this morning. I downed it in like 3 minutes and it almost tasted good. It almost reminded me of chicken broth or maybe I was pretending. Around 6:30 I took a cayenne pepper capsule and drank some lemonade. About 5 minutes after taking the capsule my nose literally opened and I felt like I could smell and breathe in better. Then my ears felt like steam was coming out and my stomach started burning. I drank some cool water to put out the fire and that seemed to work. I went on to school and took another capsule about 7:30.Bad idea. By 8:30, my stomach was on fire and upset. I walked out of class to the bathroom and actually threw up a little bit. I felt like I was going to die for just a minute and was considering going home, but then--as quickly as it came on, it went away. Weird.
School was easy and even lunch was manageable despite everyone eating around me. I drank a cup of peppermint tea while everyone ate. I took another capsule and drank lemonade during 6th period. Stomach felt hot again but didn't "hurt" like this morning. I went on to take Jake to the Dr. and was fine. I drank the rest of the lemonade and had my 4th capsule. I can feel the heat from my throat to my stomach, but it isn't uncomfortable.I am about to have some tea before my laxative tea. I really haven't been hungry today like I thought I would be and I am quite amazed that "stuff" is still coming out even though I haven't eaten in almost 48 hours.

Detox Day 1

So yesterday I was googling diets. I found this Lemonade Detox Diet. Beyonce recently used it to shed pounds quickly for a movie. Anyway...yes I do know that to lose weight "the right way" you just have to eat less and exercise more. However, I want a bit of a jump start. I decided that this detox really starts when you have to go all over the place looking for ingredients. I went to Kroger and got lemons, cayenne pepper, and uniodized sea salt ($18). Then I went to wal-mart looking for the laxative herbal tea and grade B organic maple syrup. I spent $12 there but stopped at Brookshires since technically I didn't get the right syrup. They had nothing. When I got home I researched the tea again because I wasn't confident in my choice. I saw that I had chosen the wrong one, so I got back in the car to Wal-mart and bought "Get Regular" Yoga Tea. It is in a really pretty box--so I spent another $4---we are up to $34 and I haven't even got started.
I drank my tea last night around 10 and it was really good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I went to bed shortly after. I slept fine until 4 am when Jake woke up. I noticed my stomach cramping a little when I got up, but it wasn't enough that I couldn't go back to sleep.
I woke up around 8 and went straight to make my salt water flush. This is 1 qt. water and 2 teaspoons of sea salt. I had to google to see how many oz is in a quart--it is 32--so I made my concoction and begin to drink it. If you've ever gone to the beach and accidentally swallowed some water--that is what it tastes like--but not as strong I guess.It is not good. The first cup went pretty fast, the 2nd took a bit longer, the third even longer and here it is 10 am and the 4th cup is still looking at me. I drank 20 oz of regular bottled water and it seemed to give the same effect. I have been to the bathroom 3 times so far. I weighed, but I am not brave enough to reveal that. Will keep you posted on day to day weight loss.
I realized that I bought the wrong syrup so I called an organic food store this morning and they have it so Brooks is on his way to get it now. I will go ahead and start making the lemonade. You have to use real lemon juice so I am going to use my juicer to get as much juice as possible out of the lemons because they are pretty expensive.
It is 10:15 and I am not hungry, emotionally I am okay, and physically I am good too!
later that day....
Okay so I volunteered to cook chilli for a girl that lives in our neighborhood that had a baby Friday. I had to smell this amazing chilli and spoon her a family sized bowl of it. It smelled so good and I wanted to stick my face in the pot, but I didn't. It was really hard. I cleaned the kitchen to get rid of the smell. I seemed to notice everything Brooks ate. I feel fine, but am realizing this is going to be hard. I was reading more on this diet and read that you can take cayenne capsules so I went to GNC and got a bottle (another $9) but I think this whole thing will be more doable if I actually can stomach the lemonade. I drank some peppermint tea, then had my laxative tea. Both were very good and almost comforting on this chilly night!

Tubes

Carter got tubes in his ears this morning. Yucky day to get out let me tell you!! I arrived at the wrong place at 6:30 this morning. Played phone tag with Brooks til almost 7:00 to figure out where I was suppossed to be...you can imagine my frustration level at this point---there is a reason I handle all appointment making--but he did it this time to "help out" ---never again!!! Anyway--Carter put a cute little gown on and the actual putting in of tubes only took about 15 minutes. Then I was introduced to my child who was possessed. He was all over the place, grabbing his ears, screaming, throwing his head back with huge arches. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. They put us in this little sound proof cubicle to "recover" from the meds. At one point we were both crying. I was so tired and this was the longest Carter has cried in his whole life. Ugh...but he finally came around after 30 LONG minutes and we were back in the car, in the snow, headed home. He took a nap and is now up playing.