October has begun, Oh let us Rejoice

1) Dan (finally!) starts French

After a quick 9 month wait (sufficient time to have a baby or something equally horrendous) Dan finally starts his French Class this week. Hallelujah.

(my first baking endeavor in over a month : bundt cake for cafe rio night at maloys)
2) The End Of Sweet Free September

So, Dan and I set a goal to not eat sweets (candies, cookies, cakes, soda, syrup, banana bread!, etc) for the month of September. Dan made it 14 days, till the Oreos in Yosemite incident. I held strong, save for one cheat: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. I was assigned to make it for a RS Activity, and fully intended on holding strong and baking but not tasting... But it pulled me in like a baked good siren to a calorie filled sea. I'd never tasted it before, and I'd heard nothing but wondrous things about it from my family and my cousin Annie (its my Aunt Amy's recipe.) It was so worth it. Every. last. bite.
But I do feel a bit like a goal flunky. But then again, it was SOOOO worth it. 

3) The Beginning of "We Have a Budget October!"

The RS activity for which I made that devil bread was one on "Goal Setting". It was hard to choose a goal for the activity, being that I'm perfect and all... But I decided on setting a budget. It's not that we're bad with money - but I know we could be squirreling away a lot more into savings instead of into Red Robin... Which will come in handy come April, when we are paying money to go to school - instead of having Army paying us! Part of the goal setting criterea of the activity was to make your goal known to others - so someone holds you accountable. Now you know. Wish us, and our Dave Ramsey-esque envelopes good luck.

4) General Conference

I know I sound like a true Cougar (which I must completely renounce after that catastrophic loss to none other than Utah State), but I love General Conference. The word "prophet" is synonymous with "Gordon B. Hinkley" in my mind, as he was the only one I ever remember. I have nothing against President Monson, it's just that I really loved the cute, sweet, funny, President Hinkley. This conference was a bit of a turning point for me personally: I really saw another side of President Monson, and warmed up to him immensely. He gave an awesome talk during the RS Session on not judging others - and being charitable towards their actions. And best of all, he showed so much personality in all the sessions! There were a few talks that spoke strongly to me, namely Elder Eyering's on Sunday Afternoon on trusting in God, and his messengers. I came back to my notes on this talk after hearing President Packer's talk... The Church and Homosexuality is an issue I have trouble reconciling - so Elder Eyering's talk serves as a good reminder to me on trusting the General Authorities, even if my intellect would disagree. 

5) The Eminence of the Best Holiday of All

Yes, I bought Halloween lights. Yes, it came out of my newly alloted allowance. Yes, it was totally worth every penny. 

It is October. 
6 months till we become Utahans again. 
I am full on rejoicing. 

Baby Showering

Blogs can be dangerous. They inspire you to do things you shouldn't (see dresser re-finishing, etc). In this case it was throwing a baby shower. I love the blog Hostess with the Mostess. It basically highlights parties with themes incorporated in to every last water bottle wrapper. They are so cute that it physically hurts. What it doesn't highlight is the Hostess passed out after taking one too many Adovan due to the stress of competing with said parties. I felt this competitive edge as I was competing not with the entire blogging world but with ANOTHER ward baby shower held the same day. All that mattered was that mine was better, or I'd die trying. Kidding. Kind of... Anyway, Christina and I put together a little party for Rebecca who is having her first girl (girls are sooooo much funner than boys, fyi). Behold:

The truly interesting thing about this picture: the sun is shinning! The shower was held on the ONE hot day this year. Like we had a fan going and people were still sweating. Awesome.

Theme = pink and brown and elephants. Why? Rebecca likes Pink and Brown. And because I like elephants. The end. 

I pretty much believe it was divine intervention that lead me to finding pink/brown/elephant baby shower tablewear. Also, the tissue paper balls = really hard to make look like Martha's. And don't hang them the night before, they will fall, and they will get smooshed on one side. 

Food = Lion House rolls, yummy mozzarella skewers, Homemade Mac N Cheese, Salad

Plus Christina made S'more cupcakes and the pink cake in the background!

Party games = a form of torture, in my humble opinion. I came up with a few though, such as this baby animal quiz. Much to my delight, people chit chatted the whole time and the games did not need to be implemented. 

Favors= pink animal cracker cookies. There may or may not have been previous prototypes of more extravagant favors. I may or may not have called my mother in tears over failed prototypes... 

Presents! Including this adorable hand knit bib from Sis. Robbins. I wanted to steal it.... 

This is Christina, my co-consipirator. She has the cutest little girl I've ever met, Amélie. See? Even her name is adorable. 

Where was Dan while this was all going on? Why, Rock climbing in Pinnacles of course!

 He even got my passport stamped for me:

Dan also picked up a harness for me. Perhaps he wants climbing to be a new couple's hobby. Or perhaps,  as I suspect, he worries that I'm already plotting my next shower and doesn't want the house turned into party central again. Its safer for everyone to have me jumping off rocks rather than trying to be a hostess with the mostess. But I still have a lot of tissue paper left! And you can't let that stuff go to waste. You just can't. 

Where are these Bears You speak of?

This weekend was our last hurrah before Dan (finally!) starts french so we decided to backpack it up. We've been wanting to go to Yosemite since our friends the Streeters went and returned with stories of its grandeur, so we decided this was our chance.  

One thing we quickly learned is that Yosemite cares a bit about its bears: we had to pack all our food/scented items (toothpaste etc) in a bear canister, and even then we had to keep our packs in a locking bear box at night! "Bears treat all packs as gift wrapped food! Tearing into them regardless of their contents." All garbage had to go into special carabiner locking cans, and there were signs everywhere. 

So, did we see a single bear? NO! Did every last German we passed on the trails see one? YES! I feel very ripped off. But it was still a good time...

The first day/night we backpacked in the Toulamne Meadow area and did Cathedral Lake. Very pretty.

At night we went to a Ranger Campfire entitled "Bear Necessities." Ranger Mike, though a bit crazy, shared some interesting tidbits: The bears of Yosemite are so "corrupted" because in the 1970's they used to have "bear feedings" as an attraction. They'd take all the leftover food from the fancy Awhanee Hotel and dump it in a pile and let people watch. "Bear Feedings" turned into massive "bear fights" and ended up being quite a problem, as one can imagine. 

Dan picked up a package of Double Stuf Oreos at the Supply Store, but there wasn't room in the bear canister - so over half the package had to be eaten before nighfall. I didn't eat one of them. Dan was feeling a bit sick that night...

Instead I opted to spend my souvenir money on a Nat'l Parks Passport ( I was denied entrance into the Junior Ranger Program). One stamp down, couple hundred more to go...

I got to eat my first MRE on this trip! There's definitely one more reason I wouldn't last in the Army....

We ended the trip in little Yosemite Valley with a hike to Nevada Falls, great views of Half dome. It was my favorite hike by far. 

We had an awesome time, aside from one incident that shall be remembered as the "Trail of Tears." 

(Names removed to protect identities): Person A didn't sleep all night because she was freezing (it was way colder than we prepared for). Person B wanted to set out at 5 am before the sun was up. Person A begrudgedly exited her already freezing sleeping bag and put on her pack. And then proceeded to cry for the entire first mile because she was so cold it hurt. Person B was not amused.

However, Person A and B were reconciled in the end. We backpacked Yosemite without being killed by bears, or each other. I think we can all count that as a success. 

Lo's Thoughts (on My Worst Enemy = the Scale)

( this could be the problem - from our honeymoon in mexico  '08)
I never really worried about my weight for the first 19 or so years of my life. My sisters Kiersten and Anna were the skinny ones. I was not, and I was okay with that. I wasn't heavy or anything - just average - and I never gave it a second thought.

Then came my Freshman Year of BYU. I totally put on the cliche Freshman 15. I think it was just a total lack of restraint (hello! dipping oreos in caramel!) and portion sizes (hello entire box of betos!). I ended my first year of college at the heaviest weight I'd ever been at. I knew that. But still it didn't bother me.

My second year of BYU I was super busy with Arabic/Dating Dan/school in general + I got pneumonia and I lost a lot of weight without trying. Or exercising at all. People started commenting on how thin I was. I finally felt like a "skinny sister" and I liked it. So I began consciously losing weight.

 It climaxed when Dan went to Basic and I was super stressed, I was living with my Aunt and Uncle (and felt like an imposition using their kitchen), and had a move to the Middle East looming. I got down to lowest weight I'd been since probably before middle school. And I liked it. Except I was always hungry. So hungry that the "hunger headache" became a constant background. 

 I moved to Jordan. I had a fabulous roommate, who ate normally and was totally happy with herself - despite not being a size 0. She became like my "body acceptance role model." 

So I began eating normally too. I gained some weight, but still felt good about myself.

 Skip forward to moving to Monterey. I have a kitchen of my own and lots of time to bake. Dan and I love going out to eat. And the pounds started to slip back on.
 And nothings bothers me more. I exhaust a ridiculous amount of time thinking/worrying about it. Daily. 

I get nervous about going home and seeing my sisters and girlfriends that I know are thinner than I am. I feel like I failed in comparison. I often find myself taking inventory of all the girls my age at church and compare my size to theirs.
 I exercise now more than I ever have in my life, but I'm back towards the heavy end of my weight spectrum. I feel fit, but not skinny and that bothers me.  I know my downfalls: I love baking (and eating all my treats), I love going out for a donut or croissant, and I can never get too much pizza.
I feel like I'm constantly at odds with myself - I can either enjoy eating (and having energy to excercise!), or I can enjoy being thin - but not both. 

I know I should focus more on being heathy than on being skinny. 
  I know I should stop comparing myself to others and instead just be happy the way I am, be my own "body acceptance role model".
I know I should focus on serving others and devote less time to my selfish obsession with apperance.
I know all these things, yet there is one thought that still trumps all the others in my brain and consumes me:
I just want to be skinny again.

* I debated for a long time about posting this (I wrote it a couple months ago). It's somewhat personal. And I definitely don't want it to be interpreted as me fishing for compliments or sympathy or something. But in the end I decided its my blog, so I'll do what I want. I wanted to write this and the blog is my only form of a journal... So, yeah. 

Dan Doesn't Like Cats (and other Lies)

"I don't like Cats." - Daniel Richard Mealy

Meet Blackie, or Mr. Bitey as Kiersten renamed him after watching the movie "Kick-Ass" at our house. He's a ruffian stray that Dan buys food for, feeds, pets, and asks to let come in our house. Today, while out shopping, Dan found a little dog bed and asked if he could get it for Blackie/Mr. Bitey, that he might rest more comfortably on our doorstep while meowing insistently to be fed. 

Yeah, he totally doesn't like cats. 

Camping (kind of) & a Hot Hike

Last friday night our ward had a camp out. Which consisted of us driving an hour, pitching a tent right before dark, having a bad night of sleep, and then packing it all up. I think the ward activities leaders forgot some things, like activities. There was nothing planned, but luckily Dan's friend Rick brought an LED frisbee which provided us with hours of fun (like staying up till 1 am fun). We (Dan & I, Rick & Sue, and Pete & Bonnie) played many a round of 500, Ultimate Frisbee, and our personal favorite : keep away from all the bratty 8 year old boys.

The next morning, in an attempt to actually do something borderline outdoorsy on our camping excursion, we (same group) elected to go  to Pinnacles Nat'l Monument and do a day hike. We selected a nice 6.7 mile loop that was classified as "strenuous" - but we weren't too worried. It started off nice and cool, going through caves, lunching by the river, enjoying ourselves. Then we gained altitude, and temperature. It hit 102 degrees and the fun hike turned into a death march. Around mile 3, I drank the last of my tiny propel, the only water I packed-bad news bears. Next time I will most certainily wear a camleback and most certainly not full length garments. By the time my dehydrated self staggered back to the base I was seeing  mirages. A few diet cokes later and I was restored to full health. Really though, what does diet coke not fix?

Answer: Nothing. 

You Make My Dreams Come True

It is no secret that one of my greatest aspirations in life is to become a dog owner.
Well, my dreams came true.... for 3 days. We got to dog sit these lovelies, Ozzie and Kita, at their house (no dog smuggling at our apartment like the Little Dog Incident). We got to walk them and pet them and force them to take medicine (Kita loved me prying her mouth open while dan squirted the most awful smelling medication in - NOT) and run them and pick up their poop (note: only Lauren did this, Dan is little girl - I totally deserve a dog). I fell in love with them - they're way chill older, pre-trained dogs- perfect for my needs. We considered abducting both of them.
But their owner is a Navy Seal. And you never want to tick off a Navy Seal. They will kill you.