Ice Cream Flavored Macaroni & Cheese

I had full intentions of writing a blog post all about the nerdy running plan that Jerry and I are going to start. I spent a LONG time working on it and I'm excited to get started! But I'm going to have to hold off on that post because it's already almost 9:00 PM and I still have a ton of things to get done before bed. This whole day went by so fast!

I just realized I haven't even eaten since breakfast--that's how you KNOW I've been busy, haha. 

I will share a funny story that happened today, though. I had too much going on to start working on dinner, so Jerry said he'd make dinner. I told him he could make homemade macaroni and cheese for him and the kids (easy enough). Well, when it was done, he told me that he really screwed something up because it tasted like ice cream. Hahaha! Yes, ice cream.

I asked what the heck he put in it, and he said he used almond milk because we didn't have any regular milk. I don't buy cow's milk anymore because I always end up throwing it out (it rarely gets used). The last time I bought almond milk, they didn't have unsweetened and since I just use it for oatmeal and cereal, I bought the regular stuff (which is slightly sweetened).

So, poor Jerry used the almond milk to make macaroni and cheese. While it tasted like ice cream, the boys were all definitely grossed out and it went in the trash. I should have thought of it when I told him to make the macaroni and cheese, but I haven't made mac and cheese since I started eating vegan, so it didn't occur to me.

Anyway, I will write more this weekend (sometimes Jerry reads my blog and I don't want him to read it before I'm done working on this way-too-big project I started way-too-late in the day).

But as a quick update: Phoebe is doing good! She despises getting the subcutaneous fluids, so we started doing it every other day (when she starts pacing between water bowls, I know it's time to give her fluids). But she's been eating (her usual tiny amount) and she's gotten much more affectionate with me. She's actually sleeping on my bed as I type this, and she never does that. I've been taking her outside a few times a day and she LOVES it. Today she rolled onto her back in the sun and just soaked it up. I honestly believe that going outside is what perked her up enough to step away from death's door last week. 

Okay, I really have to go get some stuff done before bed. Here is today's random fact!

This is interesting to me for two reasons: 1) I had NO idea that happiness could be genetic; and 2) that only 10% of happiness is due to life circumstances. I would have thought those numbers would be reversed at least. I'm not sure how to verify this, but maybe when I have more time I'll look it up. 

(Sorry for spelling or grammar errors--I'm not going to read through it tonight.) Good night!

Continue Reading...

Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 47

Don't you love that Phoebe is in this picture? (Along with Chick, of course, but Phoebe is never in my mirror selfies!)

Week 47?! That means only five more weeks until I've been doing this for a whole year. By "this", I mean counting calories and running again to drop the weight I gained in (mostly) 2018-2019. I had *really* hoped to be at my goal months ago, but when I started this last May, I really didn't think I'd stick to it for very long. So, I'm just grateful that I've made a ton of progress.

Well... this week wasn't so good. In fact, I didn't count a single calorie this week! I could come up with several reasons, but if I even start to list them, they will certainly sound like excuses. I've had a lot going on emotionally and I've had a very busy week. But mostly, I've just been snacking way too much after dinner.

I need to knock that off! My plan for the whole month, actually, was to stop eating after dinner. Our spring schedule is so wacky that trying to plan a dinner to cook has been really frustrating. Whenever I do cook, it seems like nobody is here to eat it; and then when I think, "Why bother cooking?" the kids are asking what's for dinner. I know what I need to do--I need to plan better and make use of my crockpot--but it's a matter of just doing it. I'm sure many of you know how that is!

Anyway, I knew the scale wasn't going to be my friend today. I had a great weigh-in last week, but today, well, not so much:

It's no surprise to me that I was back in the 150s again. I was at 149 last week, so I'm up 3.6 pounds.

Since I have my DietBet weigh in on May 1st (or 2nd at the latest), I definitely don't want to feel like I have to drop five pounds overnight. Today, I worked on making a 10-day challenge. I told Jerry last night that I wanted to do 75 Hard, but for only 10 days and I wanted it to be relatively easy. So I'm doing 10 Easy instead of 75 Hard--I should get a shirt that says "I completed 10 Easy" when I'm done, hahaha.) My list?

• Eat roughly 1600 calories a day. 
• Exercise 30 minutes per day in the morning. 
• Read 10 pages.
• Write in my five-year journal.
• In bed by 10:00 PM.

That may not look like much, but I think that if I can do that for the next 10 days, I'll feel really good about myself and ready to keep moving forward.

I spent some a LOT of time working on a new running schedule for Jerry and me. Usually, I like to write my own schedules, but this time I am doing a heart rate based training schedule using the base workouts from the 80/20 Running book by Matt Fitzgerald. I chose the Beginner 10K plan because it looks like what Jerry and I want to work on--we aren't looking to train for a race or to set a PR or anything, but just something to keep in running shape. It looks simple enough!

It only took me so long because there is a lot of flipping back and forth between pages of the book (this is *not* a Kindle-friendly book, by the way--if you read it, and I highly recommend the book, you definitely want the paperback version). I typed all of the workouts into a spreadsheet to make it easy to read.

It's six days a week, but a few of the days can be easy cross-training, so I'll probably use those days to do my old five-mile walking route with Joey. But I'll post more about the plan tomorrow.

Okay, so I had a bad weigh-in this week, but I made a plan for the next 10 days (at least) to get back into good habits. I feel gross after eating too much all week. (I'm still eating completely vegan, though!)

Here is today's random fact of the day:

This sounded so bizarre that I had to look it up. Here is a quote from this article:

"His job title is somewhat unusual: ikemeso danshi, or 'handsome weeping boy'. He runs sessions with the sole purpose of making people cry.

'Japanese are not used to crying in front of people. But once you cry in front of others, the environment will change, particularly in a business.'

The idea is to show off your vulnerability - when others see that, it's supposed to bring people together so they work better as a team."

I would be so good at that job! Hahaha, I cry over everything--even Hallmark commercials--so it wouldn't take much to get me sobbing over movies about dogs dying(!)--yes, that was an example. But what an odd way to bring people together! I like the American way of team building exercises like working on getting out of escape rooms ;) 

Continue Reading...

Transformation Tuesday #67

I've been dying to go outside and do some transformative work on our yard and the exterior of our house, but with this weather (the rain, wind, snow, and cold) I am just going to have to wait even longer. I was itching to work on something today, so I took some before pictures of a couple of projects. One of them only took three minutes to transform; the other is going to take longer, so I'll have to wait on the "after" photo. It took a much more time than I thought and I'm not even halfway done!

Anyway, here is probably the tiniest transformation I've ever posted, but it made a world of difference in something I was just going to throw away. My cats have several nail scratchers (to avoid them scratching the furniture) and this one is probably the least used. Once in a great while, Chick or Phoebe will actually play with the ball in there, and when I put catnip on it, Estelle likes to use it to scratch her nails. However, the cardboard was totally shot--there was no way it was even working for their nails anymore.

Before I threw it away, however, I tried to lift the cardboard out to flip it over--it had NEVER occurred to me to try that before!--and it was like a brand new toy. It looked perfect.

There was a ton of catnip underneath, too. We sprinkle catnip on top of it sometimes, and it obviously fell to the bottom. While such a small transformation, this was totally satisfying, haha.

So, that's my little transformation to share! (And I would feel bad not throwing out this little PSA at the opportunity: Please don't declaw cats! I've owned a LOT of cats in my life, and as long as you trim their nails once in a while and have appropriate places for them to scratch, they will leave your furniture alone. I just get sad when I hear of cats being declawed, so I like to mention it when I get the opportunity. Okay, let's carry on...)

Here are a couple of readers' transformations as well. Enjoy!

---

This is not a very dramatic transformation but I was so sick of digging through my pans when I needed one of the larger ones on the bottom. So I bought these little pan organizers and I love it! Can just grab and go, ready to cook! 

- Amanda, Wisconsin

Amanda, I love this! You have no idea how many times I organize my pots and pans only to find them thrown in there all willy nilly. It drives me crazy! I really need some of those organizers. Looks great! -Katie

---

I had submitted a bathroom redo in the fall (Transformation Tuesday #47) and I guess I've been bitten by the bug... decided to spruce up my home office as well since I spend so much time in there! We painted (a slightly different shade of white, lol) and added some funky peel and stick wallpaper.... which I also used on the back of my million year old bookcase to give it new life. Some new throw pillows and some tidying and it feels much more welcoming!

- Krissie, Ontario, Canada

Krissie, I LOVE the wallpaper! I don't know if I'd ever be brave enough to try wallpaper (yesterday I was looking through old pictures from the 80s when I was a kid and I couldn't believe the wallpaper, haha!). Yours looks so sophisticated and I love that it's only the one wall--not overpowering. he room looks so cozy!  -Katie

---

We discovered ants in our pantry and just had started unloading when I thought to take a picture.  The biggest transformation is that the second shot contains no critters!

- Antless Angie

Angie, I feel your pain! We sometimes get those tiny little ants in the spring. They seem to come from nowhere! I love how nice and organized your pantry is. I have a large pantry that I love but it's totally disorganized most of the time. Glad to hear you are now "ant free" ;)   -Katie

---

Thank you for including your transformations! Cleaning and organizing feels so good when it's done, doesn't it? Please keep the transformations coming so I can keep posting :)  If you've transformed something--anything, even if you think it's boring (like my cat scratcher!) please share. Just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Include your name and a description of the transformation. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Continue Reading...

A Snowy Spring

I am at a loss for words today! I've been in kind of a down mood lately--not a depressive episode, but just a general feeling of "not happy". It may have something to do with this ridiculous weather. Isn't it supposed to be spring? Look at this...

And that was in the morning. It continued to snow all afternoon, accumulating probably an inch and a half or so before it switched to rain. Each time I think the weather is going to break and it'll finally feel like spring, we get hit with snow or just really cold weather. I'm definitely glad we got our new roof (and new gutters!) before it started raining every other day, though.

I'm desperate to do some work outside. I want to work on the landscaping (the ground was literally frozen today), stain the back deck (after having Jerry power wash the house), and just generally clean up the yard and exterior of the house.

Anyway, that's the extent of my post today... hopefully I'll be in a better mood tomorrow! I need to use my light therapy lamp; I completely forgot about it, but it was surprisingly helpful when I used it regularly.

Here is today's random fact of the day:

I was curious, so I decided to do a little experiment and spin a penny 10 times and record whether it landed on heads or tails. Well, it ended up being 50/50, starting with heads! It was almost consistently back and forth from heads to tails the entire time: H, T, H, T, H, T, H, H, T, T.

Anyway, don't forget tomorrow is Transformation Tuesday! Please please send me some transformations so I have something to post ;)  Remember, just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com and include a description of your transformation.

Continue Reading...

New Weight Loss Comparison Photos

The other day before a run (two weeks ago now! ugh) I was trying on some black running tights when I had the idea to have Jerry take come current photos to compare to the same black outfit from January 1, 2021. Of course, I had weight loss goals for the year, so those were going to be my "before" photos. I was still over 50 pounds down from my highest weight (in 2009) but I had gained quite a bit of weight back and it was obvious.

My favorite way to see the body changes is to wear tight black clothing--very form fitting. They are totally unflattering! But it's easier to see the changes in my body that way. Today, while I was deciding what to write for my blog post, I decided to try on some of the clothes I wore last year when I got back on the wagon as far as calorie counting and running. I'm really excited at how noticeable the difference is!

Also, I'm kind of horrified that I'd gotten that much bigger. In my mind, I wasn't nearly that big. It's hard to see myself as the size I actually am (big or small)--it's frustrating! I usually have Jerry take a picture of me if we're going out somewhere so I can at least see what I really look like.

Anyway, here are some fun weight loss comparison pictures. (I had to put the watermark on them because people love to steal my comparison photos to advertise diet pills and such.)

This first one is from the first day I started losing the extra weight: May 24, 2021. I was 197 pounds. The second pic was from today at 149 pounds (as of my last weigh in).

This "before" photo was from June 1, 2021 at 189.4 pounds (versus today):

This one was from July 5, 2021 at 180 pounds (versus today):

This "before" pic was from July 7, 2021 at 180 pounds (versus today):

This "before" pic was from August 25, 2021 (at and was significant because I'd never been able to wear that shirt! I couldn't even pull it down over my chest when I first got it. I was excited to wear it. The second pic is from today, and you can see it fits even better. (I no longer have that cardigan, so unfortunately, I just have to bare my arms.)

Here is a running selfie for comparison as well... 

And finally... I hate to share these because they are embarrassing! But I love what a difference you can see in my body. The weight difference is 194 versus 149. Here goes:

Pretty crazy, right?! I'm so glad that I managed to do the work it took to get here. I'm not done, but I'm happy that if nothing else, I'm maintaining a small weight range. I'm hoping to lose about 15 more pounds.

With tomorrow being Transformation Tuesday, if you have any weight loss comparison pictures that you'd like to share, I would love to see them! And I know others would, too. So please consider it :)  (I just ask that you send the before and afters separately, unaltered/unfiltered; it's easiest for me to keep the photos uniform on my blog.)

Continue Reading...

Vegan Recipe Review: Nachos! (Cheese Sauce)

Since I started eating a vegan diet in January, I've been doing this recipe series to try out new ways of eating (mostly) familiar foods. I've always loved trying new things--even if it doesn't sound good to me at all--because I never know what I may take a liking to!

Each week, I pick a recipe (usually via Pinterest or one that is recommended to me) to prepare--exactly as written--and taste. When my meat-eating family is here and willing, they taste it as well and give me their honest opinions. I've been trying to pick a variety of recipes so that I'm not always making the same dish with a different sauce or something like that.

This week, I decided to get VERY adventurous (for me and the ingredients I'm used to, anyway) and I chose to make vegan nacho cheese. I've been staying away from the "cheese" recipes because they just sound so odd to me and I just can't imagine them tasting good enough for me to buy the ingredients needed.

However, making cheese out of cashews seems to be somewhat of a rite of passage when eating a vegan diet. So, I decided to make the nacho cheese sauce first, because I figured if there was anything my family could hop on board for, it's nachos! I love nachos as well, and they've become a food that I usually prepare when we're having people over to play games or have a bonfire or something like that. I'll set out loads of nacho chips, a big crockpot of nacho cheese (the canned stuff), chili or taco meat, and all of the toppings so people can load them up. Everybody loves nachos!

On Pinterest, several random recipes that looked good to me led to the same blog--It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken--and that is where I chose to use this recipe for nacho cheese. She actually calls it "Melty Stretchy Gooey Nacho Cheese". Sounded promising.

So, the ingredients to make this "cheese" are: raw cashews, water, tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, white miso paste, paprika, maple syrup, onion powder, turmeric, and garlic powder. You can see why I was skeptical! (You can find the recipe on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. I'll link to it again at the end of the post.)

The "special" ingredients that I wouldn't normally buy or have never used before include the raw cashews (I love roasted cashews, but had never bought raw), tapioca starch, nutritional yeast, and white miso paste. I ordered the cashews and nutritional yeast from Amazon, and bought the tapioca starch and miso paste from my local Kroger--I was really surprised they had the miso paste, because I'd never even heard of it. It was in the (very small) Asian foods section.

This is what nutritional yeast looks like, in case you are wondering:

It's a popular ingredient and even condiment in a lot of vegan recipes, but the thought of it kind of grosses me out and I wasn't crazy about the taste on pasta or popcorn. (It supposedly has a cheesy flavor.)

And this is white miso paste. I wasn't expecting it to be in such a big container--I assumed it would be in a squeeze tube, like toothpaste. Haha! It stays good for a year in the refrigerator, though.

Preparing the recipe is actually really easy. Like all of the "cheese" or "cream" recipes I've checked out, you start by soaking the cashews (this recipe said you can boil them for 10 minutes instead, which softens them; that's what I chose to do). This is what they look like after they're boiled. They expand a little and get soft:

Then you just throw everything into a blender and blend until completely smooth. It was very liquidy, which I expected because the recipe said so. In this picture, I was just trying to show how liquidy it is:

Then you pour it into a pot and heat, stirring, until it becomes the texture of nacho cheese.

The first time I did this, the pan was too hot (I had it on medium-high, per the recipe instructions) and it burned immediately. There were lots of brown chunks in it after scraping the bottom, so I decided to throw it out and try again. This time, I put the heat on medium-low and that worked much better. After a couple of minutes, it was ready to taste! (This is a terrible picture, but it was hard to take a picture with my left hand while stirring with my right hand.)

I didn't want to pour it all over nachos without tasting it first, so I just grabbed a chip and dipped it. I was completely surprised at how good it was! It amazed me that those ingredients had turned into this really good nacho cheese. I had Jerry and the kids taste it at this point, too. The verdict:

Jerry - Not totally crazy about it; couldn't put his finger on what it was. He didn't entirely dislike it, though.
Noah - Said it was better than canned nacho cheese, but he's not a big fan of canned nacho cheese either. (He uses shredded cheddar on nachos.) Still, the fact that he said it was better than the canned stuff was worth mentioning.
Eli - Even more shocking than the ingredients list turning into cheese was the fact that Eli actually LIKED it!

I'd bought a can of nacho cheese for the family in case they didn't like the vegan stuff and I offered to open and heat it, but Eli said he'd eat the vegan stuff. And Jerry said he would too, considering he was going to load the nachos with other stuff as well. Noah just pulled the cheddar out of the fridge. So, I didn't even have to open the can of nacho cheese! 

But.

There was a problem with the texture almost immediately. As soon as it started to cool off (only a minute), it started to thicken and it wasn't something you could pour over the nachos. It had the texture of very thick sour cream, so it kind of came off the spoon in clumps rather than drizzling. I have to stress that this all happened within probably 60 seconds. This is what it looked like after we'd each put some on our nachos--so just a couple of minutes:

Still, I managed to spread it around my nachos. Then I proceeded to add lots of toppings: taco "meat" (texturized vegetable protein--soy crumbles--seasoned with my homemade taco seasoning), black beans, jalapeños, olives, avocado, green onions, and tomatoes. It looked SO GOOD. (There is nacho "cheese" sauce under all the toppings, I promise.)

Ohmygosh, they were delicious! With all of the flavors together, I never would have noticed the difference between the vegan nacho cheese and regular canned nacho cheese. I just wish the texture would have stayed more of a sauce.

When I was cleaning up the kitchen afterward, I put the leftover nacho "cheese" in a container for the fridge, and you can clearly see what I'm talking about. It was one big clump.

The following day, Eli actually asked if he could use it to make nachos again. I was so shocked--but I said sure, I'll heat it up. I added the clump of cheese and a little water to a sauce pan over medium heat. I stirred and stirred and stirred, hoping to get it to a good consistency. Finally, it was sort of saucy, but there were smaller clumps in it. As soon as I stopped stirring, it would firm up again. So I had to constantly stir while attempting to drizzle it on Eli's nachos. He said it tasted just fine.

So, my final thoughts: I am shocked that the odd ingredients produced something that very much tasted like nacho cheese. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was nacho cheese on my chips.

I'm bummed about the texture! I know I didn't mess up any ingredients (remember, I made it twice!). It's got to be something with the tapioca starch. I read the comments on the recipe and several other people said the same thing--that it tasted delicious but it gets way too thick too quickly.

I'm not going to give up on this recipe, though, because I really liked the flavor (and for Eli to like this was shocking!). Next time, I'm going to try using half of the tapioca starch and see what happens. It's so fast and easy to throw together and it tastes so good that it's worth experimenting a little to get the texture right.

Overall, I'd say this recipe was a winner! For Eli to like it (especially enough to have the leftovers when I had a can of nacho cheese in the pantry) was all it took to convince me. I could certainly see using this for quesadillas, baked potatoes, macaroni and "cheese", as a dip (if I can get the consistency right), and several other things. That plate of nachos was amazing!

Once again, here is the link for the recipe on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken.

Continue Reading...

Friday Night Photos!

It's been two weeks since I posted a Friday Night Photos, so I hope it's not too overwhelming. We'll start with Joey, since he's never in the spotlight. He was so happy to be up on the couch with Jerry and me. I love this picture of Jerry and Joey! It's rare that Jerry smiles without doing a "Jerry face" and while I love the Jerry face, a genuine smile is nice, too. And Joey totally looks like he's smiling.

After I wrote yesterday's post, I ended up taking pictures of pictures in order to have copies of about 550 pictures from when I was a kid. It took such a long time! It's so hard to find the right lighting and angle the picture so that it doesn't have a glare or reflection (especially of my phone that is taking the picture).

I spent some time thinking about how to prevent that and then I made my own little jig out of cardboard, Mod Podge, and white paper. I basically glued the white paper to the cardboard, making one side of the cardboard white. Then I poked a hole in the center, just big enough for my camera lens to show through. I used double-stick tape to stick my phone onto the side of the cardboard opposite the white side, so that the only thing you could see on the white side was my camera lens. This way, when I held up my phone to take a picture (of another picture), the reflection and glare wasn't there (most of the time--it was really hard to find good angles when the sun was out from behind clouds).

I had Noah take these pictures because I obviously couldn't do it with my phone:

It worked pretty good--I did this for over 550 pictures!! It took me several hours, but now I've uploaded all of them and I'm happy to have the "digitals". 

I just finished this book called 'False Witness' by Karin Slaughter. It's a suspense/thriller and it's really good! It's would take forever to get into all the details of what it's about, but if you generally like the same books as I, then check this one out for sure. It doesn't move super quickly, so it took me longer to read it, but I really liked it. And there were several twists that were a fun addition. (And no, I was not reading while driving in this picture!)

This is just a picture of Eli at his baseball game (he's batting). I can't get over how much he's grown. 

Maybe this is something that's already all over Pinterest, but I was pretty excited to come up with this idea. My favorite vegan meals are basically a grain of some sort (brown rice, barley, quinoa) along with beans (my favorite are chickpeas in these types of recipes), vegetables (whatever I have on hand--usually broccoli or cauliflower) and a sauce. I looked up several recipes for sauces and then I took out all the ingredients for the sauces and started prepping them into Mason jars. 

I made four different types--orange sauce, Chinese garlic sauce, teriyaki sauce, and general tso's sauce (yes, I like Asian flavors!). After mixing the ingredients in mason jars, I poured the sauces into silicone cupcake molds and put them in the freezer. Once frozen I transferred them to plastic bags and then back into the freezer.

Now, to make dinner, I grab half a can of chickpeas and one of the little cups of sauce and put them in a sauce pan. I let them cook (covered) over low heat until the sauce is melted and thickens. Then I heat up a cup of whatever grain I already have cooked in the fridge, and I pour the chickpeas onto it. (You can obviously add vegetables as well--on this particular day, I was starving and in a hurry, and just ate it like this):

It makes dinnertime so easy! (For sauce ideas, you can check out my Pinterest board where I have them all saved.) If any of them have a non-vegan ingredient (like chicken broth) I just swapped it with a vegan alternative. But that didn't come up more than once or twice.

Okay, the rest of these pictures are cat photos. I take way too many of them, I know! 

As I mentioned, I worked some more on the little cat "bubble hut" thing that I was making out of the kitchen table I milled down into useable oak. (The top and bottom parts are made from pine, only because I had pieces that were large enough.) I made a reusable jig for my router to cut holes of any size and it was SO easy to cut the hole out of this. The plastic piece has little holes in it so you can nail it to the center of the hexagon. Then you just rotate the router around that point, cutting out the hole. The slit down the middle of the wood was just because it was a scrap piece and it was already there. I've since filled it in.

I screwed in the plastic bubble and attached that to the top/front. (I originally made this so that I could hang it on the wall with the bubble in front and holes in the sides for the cats to crawl into. But Phoebe loves it with the bubble on top and she's been sleeping in there so much for the past week.

The first picture shows how it would be if I attach it to the wall (higher up, obviously). I like the second picture because you can see Duck's face peeking out through the bubble. (I still need to sand it; you can see where I filled in the nail holes) and finish it somehow, probably with paint since I didn't use oak for the whole thing.

This is how Duck and I play sometimes--he plays with me the same way he plays with Chick. I use my hand to grab at him, especially his neck, and he grabs my hand to bite me and "rabbit kick" me with his hind legs. When he and Chick do it, it looks like they're fighting to the death, but they love it. When one of them is tired, they lie limp and then the other one stops the biting. It's really cool how they do that. And Duck does the same to me--he'll be "fighting" with my hand, biting and kicking, and then if I let my hand go limp, he immediately stops until I'm ready again. He sees me as a fellow cat! ;)

This is Duck and Chick after I spray their toys with catnip spray (it's called Meowijuana). They LOVE it and it makes them play and wrestle for a good 30 minutes afterward.

Then they just chillax with a nap in the sun :)

Jerry was taking some comparison pictures of me in all-black running clothes (I took the same ones in January 2021). Duck kept getting in the way, so I had to put him on the bed. But I like this picture Jerry took:

I'll post the side-by-side photos this weekend. There is quite a big difference!

And finally, an update on Phoebe. I have no idea why Jerry is making a peace sign, but Phoebe was happily sleeping on his lap for a couple of hours. 

I love this picture of Phoebe and me. This is when she was smelling the Burt's Bees lip balm on me, but it looks like we're kindred spirits, no? hahaha. My nose was all red from crying. This was what we thought was going to be her last day.

And this is the change in her in just a few days of fluids and eating. She's still skinny, but definitely not like that first picture. She's eating right now, but she wants nothing to do with her special kidney diet food. I'm just going to feed her what makes her happy until we know it's time to let go of her. When I am super old, I just want to eat ice cream and cookies all day long. I'm just so glad she's looking so much better!

Have a great weekend! xo

Continue Reading...

Digitizing Photos

I didn't even really know what to title this post! Usually I recap my running for the week, but since I've been giving my knee time to heal, I actually haven't done any running in a week and a half. I didn't plan to take this much time off, but I also didn't think my knee would still be bothering me.

It's frustrating--the pain comes and goes, and it's not bad enough where I feel like I need to see a doctor for it, but it's a nuisance. Whenever I walk and then turn my body, I feel the pain. Or if I'm sitting for a while in one position, it hurts pretty badly when I stand up and walk. So, I may try running on it in the next couple of days and see if the pain is as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I don't really have time to write a "real" post, so this is pretty much a filler. I have a stack of photos that I need to make digital (and by that, I mean taking picture of pictures, hahaha).

It's super tedious--trying to keep away any glare and making sure the room is bright enough with natural light is kind of a pain. But I'm not a photographer and I don't have a scanner, so that's just what I have to do. I did it with a lot of pictures several years ago (when I post photos older than about 2007, they are "pictures of pictures"). 

Some of these pictures are hilarious--just all of the horrible hairstyles my mom gave me. I really should do a photos post of the worst of those. They are so cringey!

But here are a few interesting "random facts" that I haven't posted this week, and I will do a "real" post tomorrow:

Hmmmm... no pressure at all! I guess I need to get rid of my "resting bitch face"--ever since a reader complained that she saw me at Kroger and I gave her a dirty look, I've assumed I have resting bitch face. I didn't even realize there was an encounter (she didn't introduce herself or anything), but she said she bumped into me and I gave her a dirty look. I promise you, if you ever see me in public, whatever look I give you is not intentionally a "dirty look"! I'm a friendly person to approach, even if I feel totally awkward. Truly. Ask people who have met me!

I've always adored American Sign Language and have wanted to learn it fluently ever since I was a kid. I took several classes and I do feel like I could communicate on a very basic level (probably with all the wrong structure types, so it would be more "English" Sign Language, where you sign the way you speak. ASL has a totally different structure of the sentences.

This makes me kind of sad! I'd be happy to purchase a couple package of socks and donate them once in a while. In fact, I challenge all of you to donate some socks to a homeless shelter and then report back. (I don't like the photos/exploitations of people who video/photo giving away items for people in need. I do a lot of this for people in need, but I don't give myself a pat on the back on social media and I certainly don't take a video of it. A quiet donation means the most (in my opinion) and makes me feel like I'm doing it for the right reasons. I'm glad I learned about the socks! I'm adding it to my to-do list.

I actually filled out an application to be a volunteer somewhere, but I'm afraid to mail it. If people google me, lots of personal things come out--having bipolar, namely. When people hear that word, they immediately judge me. This was something I never thought about when I "came out" with my diagnosis. The media makes bipolar look like I could have a total breakdown and harm people or something. It's nothing like that! I'm completely sane (even though I like to call my self "diagnosed crazy"--as someone who take crazy pills to make me not crazy). But it is what it is! Maybe I'll get the courage to mail it in soon.

Okay, I really need to get working on these pictures before the daylight is gone. Friday Night Photos tomorrow!

Continue Reading...