One blind mice

There are no cutesy pictures for this post.

I will say this. I have been wearing glasses since the 4th grade. I think that was somewhere around 1982. I have been wearing contacts since 8th grade, which I think was about 1986 or so. I am nigh unto blindness at this point. Well maybe not really, but I cannot see, and if it were not for thin lenses I'd be toting coke bottles for glasses. It's just that bad.

Combine this with just being tired and not paying attention this morning, and also having the air be full of fall allergens. And there were lots of bottles and doo-dads out in the 'gettin' ready' area of the bathroom, which is the whole bathroom because it's really a shoe box. Can you see where this is going? Can you SEE? I wished I could have seen at that point because what happened next is...well just read on, won't ya?!

Normally, I just drop a tiny bit of eye drops into my eyes to make those necessary contacts go in smoother. This morning it was Afrin. Yes, the nose spray. Not so fun for my eyes, or my face, which I then I had to wash out and then reapply all of my war paint.

Then I put my glasses on because of the funkiness happenin' in my eyes. They fell off my face when I bent down to grab something off the floor. I didn't see where they bounced and so I was blind, once again. Joseph had to come in and find them for me, because I was so pitiful and sad...kind of like a melted snow cone or when you drop an ice cream on the hot pavement. And i'm sure a fluffy bunny died or something because of my pitifulness.

And now I just want a nap because the coke bottle glasses are makin' my face hurt.

I Voted Today

I voted today, just like the sticker says. Except for my sticker says, "I kept freedom alive, I voted today." I think that's exactly what it is -- keeping freedom alive.

My ballot. New Mexico is a closed primary state, which means we can only for for the party we're registered in.


Joseph got time off of work to vote, so he came home and picked us up and we all went together. Of course the ladies at the poll loved James. We're teaching him to be a little patriot! I think they had a spoon in the booth in case you brought your lunch but not a spoon.


Me placing my ballot in the counter. I was number 25 to vote today. Primary elections are very light on voter turn out, which is sad really as this is the chance to really pick the good candidates.


James and myself with our stickers afterwards. James was having none of this however. He just wanted to go inside and have a baba and a nap.


I take voting very seriously. Very seriously. The day I turned 18 I had my Dad register me to vote, and since I was 18 I've only missed two elections, just two -- one when I was at BYU and consumed with school and one the year after I moved here and was not aware of the New Mexico election schedules, they are different that in Arizona.

It makes me sad when I find out that people don't vote too. It's especially poignant today voting as yesterday was Memorial Day. As I watched the tributes play on the news last night and Sunday night I was very contemplative about the sacrifices that so many have made for the freedoms of our country, and it made me so excited to go and vote today.

It also troubles me when I hear my friends boast that they know nothing of politics and current events. I just want to scream, REALLY?? You don't know what is going on in the world? You can't take 10 minutes to read the news every day? You need to know what is going on in the world, so you can be an informed and responsible citizen, so that you can make informed and responsible choices when you go into that voting booth. Because just voting for R or D is wrong. There are bad R's and bad D's and good R's and good D's, and you need to know who the goods and the bads are.

And speaking of being informed, here is one thing that I'm just going to suggest candidates of the future. Even if you are running for Village Idiot, you need to have a good up to date website in 2010. I was doing some last minute research on the candidates last night. One guy's site was great on the front page, but not so much on subsequent pages. I clicked on the "Issues" tab and all it said was, "COMING SOON"....well too late now, elections were today. And then another candidate just had a picture of him standing behind a podium. No words, no header, no links, no nothing. Lame, people, very lame.

So here is your challenge....vote when you can, become informed and wear that sticker proudly. Because when you vote, you do preserve freedom.

Day of Enchantment

You all know we live in The Land of Enchantment. We have many jokes about this, most of all that it's really the Land of Entrapment, the Land of Manyana and so on....really you just need to come here to KNOW what I mean. Seriously people, I'm not lying to you. New Mexico gives WEIRD a new meaning. And I oughta know, as I am proficient in weird.

So, the New Mexico Department of Tourism is sponsoring a contest called Day of Enchantment. You can submit 5 photos you've taken in New Mexico for a chance to win fabulous prizes (please say that with your best game show announcer voice!!!), one of which is $10,000. Not that I have any chance of winning that, because lets face it, I only have a pocket camera that I barely know how to work and I am pretty much dreadful when it comes to photography. However, I can make a mean scrapbook page if and when the need arises. Just wanted you to know that. In fact my friend Deb the Band teacher often said my school room looked like a scrapbook, I think she was right. (HI DEB!) (And if you don't know I luff Deb she's the best!!)

So here are five submissions, they are not the best. In fact after I uploaded them I really wondered why I chose those particular five because there were more, gooder photos in my photo stash...I'm claiming temporary insanity or that Sweet Baby James was probably screaming or ripping apart something important.

Click on the link above the picture to go the website to vote, if you want to vote, and you totally don't have to because I fully admit there are better pictures from which to choose. :)

Submission One:


A typical view of Northern New Mexico from somewhere around the Atomic City.

Submission Two:


This is a volcanic rock formation in Bandileir National Monument, which is about 20 mins down the road from our house. We call it the Halloween Rock. For some reason the whole image did not upload, or more likely I could not figure out how to make the whole thing show up on the website..anyway, this is my favorite of the five.

Submission Three:


I love lilacs. This is another photo that did not upload right. Every May The Atomic City EXPLODES (heheh Atomic explosions of lilacs) in a shower of purple and lilac perfume. It's delicious, really, really delicious!

Submission Four:


This is one of my favorite peonies from last summer. This year's bunch is about to burst forth any day now. Holy Peony!!

Submission Five:


It does snow in New Mexico. As some of you might know from previous photos featuring 'deathsicles' and muchas snow on the ground...IT SNOWS! So in this particular photo, the snow came in the early fall before the leaves had fallen off the trees.

And there you have it....photgraphy, not one of my strong points, but it was fun anway. :)

Health is a Family Affair

I got an incredible response to my previous blog about Diet being a dirty word. So in that same vein, I'm going to dole out some of my lifestyle wisdom...Call me Dr Joyce Brinton if you must. I prefer the Mormon Erma Bombeck, because let's face it. Erma was REAL!

First, lets talk about what many of my friends have discussed in relation to lifestyle changes and getting healthier. Their husbands do not support them. Men, REPENT OF YOUR FOLLY! If your wife needs to be less of herself, or wants to start eating better, then guess what, you should want that too.

Once a friend asked me how Joseph dealt with my being on Weight Watchers. I told her that he did it with me. Her eyes fell out. She then told me her husband wouldn't eat anything made from a WW cookbook, nor would he support her. He still insisted the house be filled with chips and cakes and other treat items. If you think I wanted to go and drag him out of Elder's Quorum right then and there and give him the what for, you'd be right.

If one person needs to make a lifestyle change I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the whole family needs to make that lifestyle change. Children will pick up and adopt their parents eating habits. It's also hard enough to have to cook and keep up with the kiddos all day long, but to have to cook two seperate meals? No-way! None a that happnin' here! I'm not saying that pancakes are off limits and you can't have an occasional ice cream. But what I'm saying is that it is unfair to have two sets of gastronome going on under one roof.

And let's face it, you really do start to fall apart after 30. If you let yourself fall apart after 30 it's will take more than all the kings horses and men to put you back together again.

Eating healthy can be a family affair and a fun one at that. Challenge your kids to eat the rainbow. Teach them how to read a food label (if they are old enough to read), have them choose their favorite fruit and veg at the store and then have them help you prepare it -- studies show that kids who cook with their parents are more likely to have a healthy diet and like healthy food than those who do not.

Second, and the other thing is that I have a firm belief that being healthy is a righteous desire. I know that Heavenly Father helps us with our righteous desires. I have to pray daily and even many times a day to make it thru the day on plan and on points. Toady has been hard already, and we shouldn't even mention yesterday's "cream cheese frosting" incident. Make your lifestyle change a matter of prayer. I promise it will be better that way.

Tomorrow we will diverge from health related topics. I promised my brother James' UBER-cool friend Janina, who has kindly consented to me my friend as well a story of how I killed James' Beta fish. It's a tragic tale really....be sure and tune in!

Diet is a Dirty Word

Anna challenged me to a diet race. I said no.

"But Joyce" you say, "Aren't you on a diet with the Weight Watchers and all that?"

No, no I am not on a diet. I am on a lifestyle quest and WW helps me on my way.

So here is what started my whole relationship with WW three years ago. It was the fall of 2006, I was finally starting to come out of the haze of pregnancy loss, teaching a year at Satan's High School and I was told by the doctor that I had too high of blood pressure for one so young as myself. I finally felt that I needed to do something as well, because let's face it cottage cheese belongs on a plate, not on your thighs and as much as we'd like the think the Ba-donk-a-donk bottom is hott, it's not.

I knew Atkins was bad. I knew that I couldn't do something like Nutrisystem -- too expensive and didn't really teach you how to live better. I knew that things like Jenny Craig or LA Weightloss were also out because the nearest locations were in the Capitol City some 45 mins away. I also knew I could not join the YMCA or the one "gym" in town. Both of those places wanted $45 to $65 a month, and although we are doing fine in the wages and salary department and despite what my hellish, minions of students though, we were not made of money.

So I landed at WW. My friend Christianne did WW in high school and loved it, but more than that, she lost weight and it stayed lost. I knew this was the right program for me.

So I got online and found out that they did in fact have a WW group here in town, but I knew I could do the program on my own if I had the materials. So because we live so far out on the fringe I could get what was called an "AT HOME KIT" it had all the stuff you'd buy at the meetings with out the cost of meetings. I bought it, the kit came in the mail and I read thru everything and prepared myself for 2007. I started on January 5th 2007, the day Joseph went back to work from Christmas break.

That first day was hard!! HARD people. Oh so hard; I'm sure it was how a drug addict felt going cold turkey clean. However, I was determined to stick to the plan and only eat enough food as my points would allow. Did I mention it was hard? I was in tears many, many days and nights about it. There were days I totally blew it and made bad choices. But I'd decided in the beginning that there would be no snivelling, no complaining. I was making a choice to CHANGE MY LIFE, to CHANGE the way I was, to CHANGE into a healthy person. I was CHOOSING to take better care of myself and the gift of life I'd been given by a loving Father in Heaven. I was CHOOSING to keep and live the Word of Wisdom better because I believed in the blessings it promises. When I had a bad day, it was time to reevaluate, CHOOSE to do better the next day. Because in the words of Anne Shirley, "Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it." That became my mantra, every single day.

Those first weeks were hard -- some of the hardest in my life, and I really learned something about myself and what I was able to put myself thru. I ate because I was board. I ate because I was sad. I ate for no reason at all. I had a very co-dependent relationship with cheese and it had to stop. I had no idea what a real portion size was and I was eating way too much. I am a sugar addict and for the first time in my life I was willing to admit that. I drew on the hard times in my life -- tromping thru the Bulgarian snow, losing my babies, deaths and disappointments to get me thru. I knew if I could come thru those things standing, I could do this. You might wonder if I'm being hyperbolic about this. I don't think I am. You need food to survive, and yet food was my enemy. How do you balance that?

But before I knew it, I'd lost 10 pounds and was down a jean size. I lost another 15 and was down another jean size. Then I was down 30 pounds and swimming in my fat clothes. I was finally able to wear the clothes I liked again, and I was finally able to put my wedding ring back on. Do you know how much it stung to take it off because it wouldn't fit a year and a half before? It made me feel like I was unfaithful to my husband. Horrible, horrible feeling, but so absolutely great when it went back on. I recently put that ring back on for the first time since about the 7th month of pregnancy. I felt just as good to have that ring on my finger again this time as it did the first time and as it did the day we got married. My blood pressure was also at a very healthy level as well -- no medicine for me!!

But the real reward, the absolute best reward I had from my choice to life a healthy life was April 18th, 2008. That's the day I first heard Baby James' heart beating. I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time and still didn't know if this pregnancy would end in failure, but that heart beat and a very sweet whisper from the Holy Ghost assured me that this one, this time I would stay pregnant because I'd done my part to take care of myself.

So I'm not on a diet. Diet is a dirty word. I'm on a quest to live a healthy life, for the rest of my life. If you want to join me, stick around because I'm going to write down and share what it takes, because I love you all that much!

:)

Curing up and Dying

There is a truth universally acknowledged that the relationship a girl has with her hair can be a fickle beast. I am a textbook study in fickle. Some of you might have also noticed me being fickle on my facebook status about my hair last night. Well here is the story, and it's all true.

So the truth is that I started professionally coloring my hair when I got home from my mission in 1996. So much so that I no longer knew what the real color of my hair was. I suspected something along the lines of a rodent and its droppings. But it didn't matter. Every three months I'd go in and get a color job and call it all good.

Then one day I just stopped. That happened to be around the time I found myself in a family way. The other thing was Michelle the girl who did our hair just up and disappeared around that time too. Seriously, phone disconnected, gone, no forwarding address. Truthfully I was not overly sad about this, as she was mediocre at best, but dang it! It took us 3 years to find her and here in the Atomic City that is something. You can get your hair done at the Cuttin' Corral by the Mullet Ladies (not recommended) or go to the foofy places that charge a lot of moolah! Seriously a rock and a hard place people. What is a girl to do?

Why color her own hair of course, because hair the color of rodents is not appealing to me. Although Joseph says my real hair color is just fine. Whatevs...

The first dye job went as follows:



Kinda nice and reddish. But was I satisfied? No I was not. And I kept moving on thru the blond shades, in search of that perfect shade, with the result of getting hair that looked like this:



But not nearly as pretty. Let's face it, I was becoming a color catastrophe. I needed an intervention. And also I needed to get rid of the serious trailer trash roots I was developing once and for all.



So I headed out to the store, once more to try and find my El Dorado, except this time it was not golden locks I was after. I was going to find a shade close to my own and become responsible. After all, I am 36, and I need to be responsible.

And there it was, Loreal 7 1/2 Ash Blond:



She called out to me, and told me her name was Brenda and that she would be my color consultant for the day. She assured me that like the box said there would be excellent grey coverage and that I need not fear.

I trusted Brenda and took her home. I holed myself up in the bathroom and began to work the magic (at least I hoped it would be magic)



After 30 mins had past I unwrapped my hair from the towel to see the results! PANIC PANIC AT THE DISCO! Remember that time when Anne Shirley died her hair raven black? Ya, that's what it looked like. The hair from the deep lagoon. Oh CRAP!

Joseph assured me it was not that bad:





This morning I am still coming to terms with my new doo:



What color would you call it blogoversians?

At least I don't have hair like these ladies, so I'll be happy about that



I think the Faith Tones are beauty school drop outs, but I wonder if they can rock the house?

Curing up and Dying has never been so fun.

New Year's Outlook

So, I'm not really into resolutions this year. I'm just not.

But I have decided to just get things done. By that I mean get all of the half finished projects done...just DO IT. Pres Kimball would say that.

When we have our projects done, then we will move on to something else. (A car full of treasures donated to Goodwill, and two bags of stuff given away to the pick up charity this week alone!!)

Also, I'm back at Weight Watchers, so expect a weight loss, lifestyle, health/fitness post from time to time. As for the WW, it's been a good week. My wedding ring already fits back on my finger -- it hasn't since before James was born. So yay me! And I am more motivated and excited to do it this year than I was in 2009. I don't know what happened, but I'm just going to go with it.

And if you didn't know, because I can't remember who I've told, James is getting tubes tomorrow (Friday, Jan 8th). I think and I hope things will be better for us after the tubes. Marie says they will be, and you should always trust Marie, she knows.

15 mins of Fame!

I would just like to say that after calling my Congressman today and getting laughed at by the dork answering the phone, I tweeted, I facebooked it, then I called the Gleen Beck Radio Program and told the nation about it.

Yes, I got on a nationally syndicated radio show and told my story. If you care it's today's show, the third hour about 35-40 min in.

Joseph recorded it on his MP3 player, if anyone knows how to upload an audio file to blogger or of a program that will do it, then let me know!

This is my 15 mins of fame! I am AWSOME today!

A Reasonable Day

Things to do when you cannot sleep, and it's still a few hours till you can get up and have a reasonable day:

1--Sing all seven verses of A Poor Wayfaring Man Of Grief a few times, and realize you don't know all the verses, so you'd better start paying attention in church more.
2--Walk yourself thru Target in your head and rearrange the store so it makes sense.
3--Make up your own political ads with the stuff you'd really like to see the candidates talk about..."This is Andersonland, and we approved this message....let's eat!" Or just imagine the candidates on some goofy Japanese game show where they get punched in sensitive places if they answer the questions wrong -- that would bring out the truth.
4--Imagine how great it will be to shovel snow in about 4 weeks. AHAHAHhhhaaa, not.
5--Count how many times Skeletor kicks my bladder, and grade those kicks on the Richter Scale. Let me just say this, the San Andreas Fault has NOTHING on this kid.
6--Get up and re-read all of the pregnancy and baby books I swore I was going to burn.
7--Direct Joseph back to bed when the neighbors start "moving around" and waking up the dead in China at an unreasonable hour. (He's funny when he's sleepy! And they are really loud).
8--Think how cold your arms are outside of the covers.
9--Chew a piece of every flavor of gum you have stashed up in your secret gum hiding place. Hmmm...pomegranate!
10--BLOG!

It's now 6:46 AM, I can have a reasonable day now.

Spontanious Car Buying In August, or How the Rain Changed Our Day

If we were contestants on the Price is Right (COME ON DOWN!!) Not only would "coming on down" rank in the highlight category of our lives but, we would also be sure bets to get into the Showcase Showdown which is possibly the best part of the show. Of course we would pass on the lame showcase, because there always is one lame showcase, and who really wants a pinball machine, a lifetime supply of rice-a-roni and kitty litter and new carpet. What we would want is the trip to Scotland or Brasil or....or....or....


A NEW CAR....



Just so you're not confused, we didn't win this lovely on the Price is Right, I know, I know, go erase that pre-set on your TiVos, but we did purchase this car, this weekend, that's why I'm hanging out of the window like some sort of stupid dog out for the time of it's life. Because this car is F-A-N-C-Y, so I really am having the time of my life hanging out the window like a dog. woof!

Here's how it all went down. We've known since I began this pregnancy that we would need to get a new car. Not just for the fact that I really have a hard time driving the Corsica, but for the fact that we felt like we should have a car in which ALL the doors opened, for safety's sake. And also for the fact that we really felt that the NM State Police would not look kindly to a car seat strapped to the front end our our truck, again it's all about safety here!!

So, Friday we decided, while in the Capitol City, we'd pop into a stealership and see if we could just look at a car. JUST LOOK! So before entering into the Santa Fe Auto Park we made our plan of attack and put our best game faces on. Needless to say, before we'd eve pulled into a parking space the vultures were on us....they really wanted to do anything to help us get into a car...TODAY! Then they wanted to take us over to the Rodeo, where all the used cars and unwashed masses were having a sale to look some more. See, this is where being pregnant has its advantages. I just said, clutching my belly, "I don't think I'm really up to that today" and the tears fell from my eyes, and a bunny rabbit died somewhere I'm sure, it was so sad.

Saturday dawned, rainy and COLD, thus eliminating any good outside activities. Joseph admitting defeat to the weather got on line to just look around at more cars. He went to Carmax.com and found a Chevy Equinox and he hollered at me to come in and look. Then jokingly he said, "Do you want to go down to Abq and look at this car?" I seriously said, "Sure why not?" So we went, and looked, and bought, and ate a peanut butter sandwich while we filled out the paperwork and drove away, the end.

By the way, Carmax is a great place to buy a car. They have no haggle pricing, they will not bug you to finance and it looks like a giant Ikea inside because it's all yellow and blue.

So now we own this car, and it's fancy. Everything is automatic, it has a CD player and you can even adjust the volume from a little button on the steering wheel. It even has leather, not pleather seats. So now there is no excuse for you people to not come and visit us.....!!

And that is how we spontaneously bought a car one weekend in August!

Jammin!

As a follow up to the adventures of Hansel and Gretel, I made raspberry jam with all the berries I picked in August. Now that we have a deep freezer on the back porch, I have room to make more things to go in the freezer.

I have to say this year's jam turned out exceptionally well. Funny thing, when you do the pectin right, the jam will set right--those funny recipes! I've also discoverd plastic freezer jam jars. Yes, multi-use plastice jars with screw on lids. They stack and are easy to fill. I think I'll make jam more often.

If Dil thinks I'm sharing my raspberry jam with him, he can think again. This jam is too good to share--sorry little bro.

Here is my jam recipe:

3 C mashed raspberries (you can use the frozen kind from the store too!!)
5 1/4 C sugar
1 box sure-gel pectin prepared according to the box directions.

Method:
Mash the berries and add the sugar. Stir in sugar and allow it to dissolve, there might be small sugar crystals, and this is ok. Rest for 5-10 mins. Pour in prepared pectin mixture and stir till fully incorporated into the berries. Spoon into jars and allow to set 24 hours on the counter. This jam will freeze for a year, or can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, but it won't last that long--promise!

Tips for Better Living: Add Sugar

When a recipe calls for sugar, and you are pretty sure it calls for sugar, even though you seem to miss the line in the recipe that says, "Add 1 C sugar" and you keep thinking to yourself, "I could have sworn this recipe needed sugar." Go with that feeling. Otherwise be prepared to eat the grossest, blandest tasting banana bread ever. Also when said recipe calls for nutmeg, you can skip that step all together, because somehow nutmeg in this particular recipe tastes gross.

Never fear, there is always a solution to these kinds of culinary dilemas right? Of course right, anything can be solved by remembering the skills you learn on Food Network. I decided after I'd made the sugar-free banana bread to make a simple syrup and pour it over the bread, thus making it a drowned cake of some sort. So after boiling my syrup forever, and getting sugar water all over the stove, the floor, and myself, I drowned the bread. Ummm, not so good either. Even Joseph who has eaten everything I've ever fixed, except that pan of Volcano Chicken, said it was a no-go and to just toss it. I suppose it's not wasting food, if we hope the ginormous caterpiller in our garbage barrel might eat it, or the crows at the dump will find it scrumptious--right?? Right!

So much for feeling 'food-netoworky', eh? Paula Deen, you have nothing to worry about!

All Hansel and Gretely

Berry picking on Saturday was a sucess. We are going to do this again next year, at the same time, because there were hardly any people in the fields picking. There were also tons of nice ripe berries to be had. Joseph, of course, won the berry picking contest. He is very fast and very un-afraid of bees. I, on the other hand am a big wimp!

Speaking of bees....there were tons of them in and amogst the raspberry canes. Of course, growing up with our Dad, who kept bees for many years, I have always known that when a bee charges you the last thing you want to do is swat at it or scream. So what did I do when a HUGE-MOUNGOUS bumble bee came at me? Oh, I swated and ran screaming, because I'm a dorky-dork like that. I wasn't stug by the bees, but I was a mosquito buffet. I have some spectacular bites on my arms--I mean they are works of welty art, connect the dots and make your own constelations!

In the end, we netted about 4 lbs of fresh rasberries, which is about 11 cups. I froze 9 cups and put the remaining two in some jello, which has been the most fantastic dessert I've made in a while. As soon as we get our back porch freezer (my birthday present--how exciting am I?) I will turn the berries into freezer jam, which is better than cooked jam, because it tastes like the fresh fruit.

I told Joseph as we were leaving the field that when we told people what we were going berry picking it sounded very "Hansel and Gretely". To which he replied, "Oh yes Gretel, let's go look for sugar cottages in the woods now."