Moral Quandary

Today I went to get the one Peppermint Mocha I was allowing myself this season. It's one of my very favorite things about Christmas, but I fear it is also one of the things that puts on extra pounds. At the drive through, I ordered a tall (small), non-fat peppermint mocha with no whip cream. I pulled around and there was one car in front of me. I waited FOREVER to pull up for my mocha. I wondered what these people must be ordering! However, after about five minutes they were handed a single drink and drove away! I pulled up to the window and paid for my drink. I don't ever get a receipt and I know that it was $4 something. It's always $4 something for me at Starbucks. I had to wait another five minutes for my drink. While waiting I can see them making the drinks. The barista makes an iced drink - not mine. She makes something she puts whip cream upon - not mine. Then the window guy brings me the whip cream drink. After ten minutes, I'm not going to argue about a little whip cream. Really, I don't care that much. As I drive away, I notice that I don't have a tall(small) drink, I've got a grande(medium) drink. Should I have taken it back? A grande drink is also $4 something, so maybe I paid for the larger drink. I just wasn't paying that much attention. Maybe I ordered that grande drink? I think that I wanted a grande drink, but I was going with a tall drink because of the diet. They wouldn't have been able to sell the drink they gave me and would just have lost out making me a new drink. Plus, I'm not really truly sure I didn't pay for the grande drink. I drank it. It was delicious and I would do it over again, even with the extra calories.

DPP - Day 25 - Shots from the Plane Window

Yesterday I spent almost the entire day travelling to my home. We left Ben's Dad's house at 8:00am CST and arrived at our home at 7:00pm MST (This converts to 8:00pm CST). 12 hours on Christmas Day in cars, airplanes and aiports. It really didn't feel like Christmas this year. Of course the tickets were significantly cheaper flying on Christmas. I could tell that a lot of families had snapped up the cheap tickets too. Lots of crying babies on the planes. However, we made it home safe and sound another year. Ben's Dad has a freezer full of food and I can feel good about that. Right now I'm tired and cranky and wish I had just stayed home, but I'm sure that when I'm well rested and full of a delicious peppermint mocha (the only one this year) I will feel much better about everything.

DPP - Day 24 - Snow

Snow, snow and more snow! It snowed almost all day today here in Minnesota. The weather is supposed to be nice, although in the teens tomorrow, so there should be no problem with the flight. We have a layover in Denver where the temp is supposed to be in the FIFTIES! That's more than double! SLC is supposed to be in the forties.... also more than double. It will feel like the tropics!

DPP - Day 23 - Herman the German

Nothing says New Ulm like Herman the German... Unless it's a bottle of Schell's Beer.

DPP - Day 22 - The Great White North

It's like a Norman Rockwell painting here in Minnesota. Today I mostly filled a deep freeze. Two pans of lasagna, tuna casserole, goulash and two pots of lasagna soup. Tomorrow I make a turkey. Friday I make chili, turkey tetrazzini and beef stroganoff... That's new - Ben's Dad is going to attempt cooking pasta and adding sour cream to the heated up beef stroganoff out of the freezer. I think it will work well and it's something different

DPP - Day 21 - COLD!

Here we are in Minnesota. This seems like a crazy thing to do... Head somewhere colder than home for Christmas. The bed has tons of blankets and at least we will sleep warm!

DPP - Day 20 - Note from the cat

This is for our cat sitter. I really need to work on teaching the cat to spell.

DPP - Day 19 - Best Christmas Present Ever!

I'm having a tough time thinking of new things to take pictures of, so today is an old picture again. Here I am using the best present I ever got. It's my telescope. It was the biggest surprise. I had no idea that I was getting it. In fact, it was so amazing of a present I wouldn't have even put it on my list to Santa. I really enjoy finding Messier Objects and double stars. It's a great challenge to find things in the sky. This picture was taken at the Wyoming Star Party - Weekend Under the Stars. It's very fun. We look at the stars all night and ride bikes during the day! It's in the summer, but it gets SO cold! You can see I'm all bundled up.

DPP - Day 18 - Christmas Present

This is my Christmas Present from Ben. He built the plant stand himself. That's why I got it early... Hard to hide something that is being constructed in the garage. It's exactly like a plant stand we saw at the Stickley Furniture Store, at a fraction of the price! :) It's oak and the top is the same quartz as our kitchen counter top. He also gave me the radio to fit inside it to replace the giant one we had before. What a wonderful present!

DPP - Day 17 - Some mountains I've ridden my bike to the top

Snowy Range, Wyoming












Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado

Strawberry Pass, Idaho

I've actually ridden up many more mountains, but these are few I stopped at the top to take pictures. The toughest mountain I've ever ridden is Mt. Nebo in Utah. Monte Cristo in Utah was pretty tough too, but I think it was because I was tired. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to take pictures at the top of mountains in the future.

DPP - Day 16 - The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....

These are the stockings I knitted to hang from the mantle when we were first married. They have never actually been filled with anything. I guess nothing is better than a lump of coal.

DPP - Day 15 - BUNCO!

Tonight was Bunco. It's a dice game, played with 12 people. It's amazingly fun. Everyone in the group takes a month to host and buy the prizes. We have dinner first, and then we play the game. Everyone gets a prize, but there are 4 big prizes that are very coveted. I won the second biggest prize tonight! VERY EXCITING


The other ladies are all nice and interesting people. When I was asked to join the group I was somewhat apprehensive, however they tricked me into joining as a permanent member by mentioning that I would get to host. I LOVE hosting and cooking food for groups of people. Buying prizes that everyone would like is a challenge, however. It was very hard last year and I spent a lot of time thinking. I host in January and all the prizes but one are purchased already! It was very easy this time. I'm not giving any hints though! It's a big secret.

DPP - Day 14 - Newest Shawl

Today I am wearing my newest hand knit shawl. This one is a real accomplishment! I dyed the yarn myself, (I took a class.) and I created the pattern myself. It's a pretty simple design, but it was necessary to really show off the beauty of the yarn. I knit about 4 different patterns with this yarn before I gave up and created my own. Shawls are really one of my very favorite things to knit.

DPP - Day 13 - Baking Day

Today I took a day off work to bake. My baking gifts may be out of control. I made 30 loaves of banana chocolate chip bread, and I'm wondering if it will be enough. One of my friends mentioned that maybe I'm making delicious treats for my friends so they will all get fatter while I am getting skinnier, making me look all that much thinner! I'm not that devious, but it does sound like a good plan!

DPP- Day 12 - Ice Sculpture

Some people down the street create an ice sculpture in their yard every year. They just spray water and let it freeze. They also freeze blue lights inside, so it's lit up at night. It got very cold, very quickly this year so the sculpture is taller and thinner than ever before. Now that we have a streak of warmer weather, the structural integrity is failing. Usually it takes weeks of very warm weather to melt it.

DPP - Day 11 - Wine Whine

Waa! Ben is on his way to the liquor store to get a bottle of wine. He'll probably get a delicious Shiraz or Riesling. I'm not going to have any. It's rather disappointing, but I suppose wine and mochas are how I put on a lot of this weight. It's not a good idea to drink your calories! Of course, I know a lot of portly LDS people who don't drink alcohol or coffee, so it's not a panacea. (A thousand pardons to all my Mormon friends) It doesn't help that I like to cook and LOVE to eat either. All this diet business is a lot of work... Especially during the holidays.

This is an old picture, but it went so well with what I wanted to talk about that I decided to use it anyway. I just love the refraction of light at it passes through the wine in the glass.

DPP Day 10 - View from my street

This is the view I have driving up my street on the way home everyday. Well, in the winter anyway - no snow on the mountains in the summer. Honestly, I am very lucky to live in such a great place. We are here because it's where Ben found a job, but I don't think we could have picked a better place if we had tried.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Socks.

These socks were hand knit by my mom. They are some of my very favorite socks even though I now can knit my own.

New Socks

Here is my newest pair of hand knit socks.

DPP Day 9 - Socks

I tried to post from my phone. This did not work. My phone is now dead, so the lovely pictures of hand knit socks will have to wait until tomorrow. One pair I've had for quite some time and my mother knit them. The other pair is my newest pair of hand knit socks, knit by me! They are both wonderful, so do return to see them.

DPP - Day 8 - Babies!

Ben got new calves at work. They were born on Monday! What fun getting to feed them! They have to be fed twice a day by bottle for about two weeks. I got a pair of new boots to wear while feeding them, but I'm pretty sure no one would find them fashionable.

After dinner it was time for a nap.

DPP - Day 7 - Olympic Sweater

Yesterday I was cold all day long. Really, you couldn't believe how cold I was! Therefore, today I brought out my second warmest sweater. I knit this one before the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. Dale of Norway does a pattern for each Winter Olympics. They are always stinking hard. I've knit this pattern 4 times... Once for me, once for a friend, once for my brother and once for my husband. It was crazy. I believe this pattern may have been what vaulted me into Capital "K" Knitter status. After this, I really think I can knit anything.

Here are a couple of pictures of me wearing the sweater at the closing ceremonies of the Salt Lake Olympics:

DPP - Day 6 - Reindeer Footprints

I think eight tiny reindeer have been in my yard!

DPP - Day 5 - Riding the Trainer in the Basement

At the beginning of November, my mother told me about livestrong.com. This is a site for tracking your food consumption, and best of all - it's free.

I started tracking my food, trying to lose two pounds a week. It worked! I lost 10 pounds during the month with Thanksgiving dinner!

Now I'm working on losing another 10 pounds, during the month with Christmas treats and Christmas dinner. My school is having a 12 Days of Christmas Treat Fest. It's a terrible temptation, but I've persevered so far (three days) and eaten no treats.

I've started riding the trainer in the basement to help speed things along. I usually hate riding the trainer. However, this time is different. I'm using the Garmin to track my heartrate, I've got fantastic playlists on my Ipod and I bought new earbuds so I can't hear the trainer at all. I try to keep my heartrate in Zone 4... That's 75% to 80% of my maximum heartrate. "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" can get my heartrate even higher!

I told Ben that if I could lose twenty pounds we could ride Lotoja again. Lotoja is a 206 mile bike race over three mountain passes. We rode it in 2008. Since then we have gotten a new Co-motion tandem bicycle. The new bike weighs significantly less than the old bicycle. We could be super fast!

DPP - Day 4 - Mountain Stream

This picture was taken only two miles from my house. It's so nice to live in a place where the mountains are really only a short bike ride away. I really feel that I get to live in the best place in the world. Of course, everywhere has its faults (like the beer here), but the greatness outweighs the negatives.

DPP - Day 3 - Icicles

It's a grey, dreary day here. However, it finally got above freezing and LOOK at the huge icicles forming on my roof!

DPP - Day 2 - Belated Thanksgiving Feast

The day before Thanksgiving vacation was a half day snow day here. Kindergarteners didn't come at all, and missed their Thanksgiving Feast. Fortunately, the Kindergarten teacher is a saint and rescheduled it for today. This is what one of the kids brought for the feast! AMAZING!

DPP - Day 1 - Christmas Quilt

I'm taking a break from talking about the van to start The December Project. The project is to take a picture and post it for each day in December.

We don't have a tree. We have a Christmas Quilt. This quilt is a McKenna Ryan pattern. She's my favorite designer! In piecing, this quilt is quite easy to complete with the fusible applique technique, however it was much more difficult to finish! Moose (the cat) loves to sit on the top of the couch. It's a sectional and he uses the back as a runway to walk past people while they are sitting on the couch.

Blizzard!

Due to a blizzard here in the Cache Valley, our trip to Lake Mead has been cancelled. Fortunately, we had purchased delicious food for our trip. We won't mind eating it here at home, plus we are stocked up if we get snowed in. :)

The Tandem in the VAN!

Finally, what we have been working on since the very first day of this project, when we were out for a bike ride and stopped at a Dodge Dealership to see if the tandem would fit across the hypotenuse of the van. (It wouldn't)

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving at Lake Mead

Ben has been working on the cabinet for the rest of the gear and the bike rack. We also got the new seats into the van and swiveling!

The best news is that Ben ordered and installed the door handles for every door that didn't work right. The passenger side door handle worked going out, but not going in and the sliding door worked going in, but not going out. Also, the sliding door couldn't be closed from the inside unless the van was on an incline to help the door slide closed. The passenger door would sometimes not close properly and either bounce right open after you closed it or open randomly some undisclosed time later... Like while driving down the interstate. This was somewhat frightening.

We can really start to see the end of the project. Doors and drawers are Ben's project for Christmas Vacation.

The Van Comes Home

We got the van back. It was a week later than we hoped, so no time to try it out before the Fall Break weekend. However, the furnace, fridge and stove are up and running now. Ben is putting in the counter top and sink this weekend. Last night Ben installed the overhead lights. He choose LED light fixtures to save on battery energy. Plus, two of the three have a red switch option for ASTRONOMY! I can't wait to take the van out with the telescope.

We got the new captain's chairs with swivels, but they sent us the wrong swivels! They are missing seat belt brackets. They are sending us the right swivels, but they will arrive too late for Fall Break. There will be many more photo opportunities this weekend, so stay tuned!

Propane Tank

The van is away from home now getting a propane tank installed. We hope to have it back this week so we can go camping in it next weekend. We are gearing up for the big FALL BREAK weekend, so we would like to try stuff out to make sure everything works.

Our First trip in the Van

Ok, it's not finished, but it's got carpet and a bed. We used all the camping equipment from our car camping days. The only thing that was missing was the tent. Honestly, that wasn't missed much! :)