What's on your Sunday menu?

good very early mornin everyone. I'm up and going..whether I like it or not.

I don't have a lot planned today. My brother and his family are coming over and we'll be making a Mexican fiesta! We'll run to the grocery store to get a few things. I am looking forward to a decent taco salad. I found some corn tortilla salad shells that are GF and I'm excited...simple mind simple pleasures LOL. I vacuumed last night and will do the couch sometime this morning. It just needs it.

Pain levels yesterday and so far today are atrocious. It's why I'm up so early. I'm hopeful for some positive movement at my appointment Tuesday.

my eating has been a lot better. Small steps. I've lost around 5 pounds in the past 10 or so days. I'm showing myself a little bit of grace that I afford to so many and not usually myself. I've stopped my eating something right around I go to bed(only time I have is a very small thing to take my meds with if I'm late taking them). I've stopped a lot of snacking. I'm not putting pressure on myself...I know I need to lose it for my health but I'm doing it for my back...which is basically the same thing...I guess LOL trying to roll with the punches.

We've got a big chance for really severe weather here this evening. Yay...I'll be thankful for rain but they are saying baseball sized hail will be common and an elevated chance for tornadoes...also bad winds.

QOTD: what is your favorite herb and or spice?

My favorite herb is cilantro...esp when mixed with lime. Spice wise cloves and cardamom are my favs with plain ol pepper really close.

B: Oatmeal with a tbs of peanut butter and dark chocolate chips...coffee!

L: taco salad with the works but not a huge salad

D: likely leftover taco stuff as actual tacos and a yogurt probably

S: 5 tortilla chips and the rest of the mango salsa and something else, just not sure what,

One last meme that made me laugh yesterday.

Mornin' All!

got most of the packing for our trip done yesterday so I wouldn't feel rushed today. You guys have probably figured this out by now, but for some reason going on big, international trips stresses me out. That is, until I actually get on the plane - then I'm OK. But before then, I worry about the house being burglarized (we WERE burglarized about six years ago - we were away from home, but not on a trip, though), and I worry that something will happen to the cats while we're away, and I worry that we'll forget something important - but really, the only things that would be really bad to forget are our passports and CDC vaccination cards (I've got those in the carry-on now - so they won't be forgotten!!!). So today it's just tying up any loose ends (and there are very few of those!), and taking Minik the cat over to my friend's house. Minik picks on the other cats and has been known to attack them, and I don't want the cat sitter having to deal with time-sharing the house (which is what we have to do all the time). So Minik will be on a cat vacation while we're on our human vacation!

I blew it last night and ate a bunch of ice cream, which I almost never do (DH often has ice cream in the freezer, but I can easily ignore it). Unfortunately, it wasn't the Halo Top variety, so my calorie intake yesterday ended up through the roof. Fortunately, I'm still feeling super stuffed this morning, so hopefully I'll be able to come in at quite a bit lower than my usual calorie range to make up for some of that.

QOTD: I like pretty much all of them - but maybe rosemary or cinnamon? I've been using cardamom lately in my rose-flavored yogurts and protein shakes, and I really love that as well.

B: I may just have a Fit Frappe. I feel too stuff to eat anything, but I probably need the protein. Coffee with half & half

MS: will probably skip since I haven't even had breakfast yet, and have no desire to

L: Rose Greek yogurt with 2 T pistachios

AS: more plain Greek yogurt if there's any left in the container

D: maybe a light Jimmy Dean's breakfast sandwich

have a great day, everyone!

My way of dealing with travel anxiety has always been detailed lists. I planned every outfit, listed every item I was taking and tucked the list in the suitcase to use again when I packed to go home. Even though I had people coming in and keeping an eye on the place, I worried about fire, burglars, flooding, and braced myself for the worst on the trip from the airport back home.

When Joe got cancer, we did not have an alarm system installed. I would have to stay over night at the Cleveland Clinic and worried each time about coming home to a break-in. I called an alarm company and arranged for them to come out and give me an estimate for making things more secure. I told Joe that they would be coming while I was at work. He immediately got upset and said that I was just doing that because I thought he was going to die and I would be alone. He was exactly right. I called the lady at the alarm company and explained why I was cancelling. He lived a few more weeks and my first call after notifying family members of his passing was to the alarm company asking to quickly get things installed.

They had everything done in few days. Now I have a monitored alarm system with lots of cameras, and a loaded gun in the bedroom. If I go away I arrange for someone to come in several times a day. I thought my cat was 15, but the vet looked at her record and told me that she was 16. She gets anxious when left alone and I try never to be away for more than a few hours.

I am sure your trip will be wonderful and everything will be fine at home. Sending Minik on his own vacation is a great solution to worrying about him causing trouble.

I thought about getting cameras or a whole alarm system after our house was burglarized. It is such a horrible thing to go through - you feel so violated. We have absolutely nothing in here that any burglar could possibly want, but the thought of someone being in my house and going through my stuff was just awful. There were four or five houses on my block that were hit that fall - but then there's been nothing since, and that was a few years ago. A lot of the neighbors got security cameras, though - and almost everyone leaves their exterior lights on all night. Actually, we were broken into in the middle of the day (which is actually when most burglaries take place - when people are at work), and we live on a corner, so the police officer was a little surprised. Corner houses are pretty exposed. But...it happened.

another thing about our block - almost all of us are retired now, so there are a lot of people home during the day. that may be part of the reason we've been OK lately, too.

we did buy ADT stickers for all the doors and windows - and we did have an ADT sign in the yard, but about a year later we noticed it was gone. Not sure those stickers are going to fool anyone, but I suppose most burglars would prefer not to take the chance and they'll just move on to the next house...

I don't want to live with the doors and windows closed and locked in nice weather. Someone had attempted to break into this house before I bought it so the previous owner had installed an alarm system. I bought my camera system with me and had it installed here. I paid about $2000 for the video system and two cameras back in 2012. It was $2500 for the initial installation of the doors and windows back in 2009.

I added a new camera recently and it cost $100 installed. I was expecting it to cost $1000, but the price has really gone down. It costs $26 a month for it to be monitored because I own all the equipment. I use a local company, my sister has ADT and pays about $50 a month, but rents equipment from ADT. The advantage to that is having the latest equipment.

Good morning! Such a wonderful night with the family. The littles got to try fishing, which was a total sh#t show and the adults were laughing so much. A big campfire and homemade pizza with our son's portable pizza oven. Nothing is as good for a Mama's heart then being able to sit around a campfire and really get to talk and listen with your adult children. They are such good humans and I am really proud of them.

I did not keep my promise of one glass of wine and I did snack on some sugared mixed nuts, dang it. But at least I did get about five mile of biking in and most of it was the E assist off, and I can feel that in my thighs this morning.

Today is a out hanging out and then watching the oldest granddaughter's gymnastics competition. Then back to the campfire for my son's last night here.

food looks like maybe:

B. Chorizo beans and a fried egg. Quesadillas for the guys

L: I will probably take some jerky and a power bar as the competition is right at that time.

D: guys are having rib eye and I am having left over roasted chicken. I wish my new stomach liked rib eye. My mouth misses it!

Peace Everybody

I love that Meme. I can see my dog and cat doing that!

QOTD. Favorite herb. I love fresh dill! But after that fresh oregano, basil and cilantro. Sometimes all the above in a fish dish sautéed in butter and onions with lots and lots of all the fresh herbs. I have a small container garden to harvest from. Also good done with scallops. I haven't done that in a while...

I have a small but expensive burglar alarm. Twenty pounds and always on point. Lol. Her name is Sadie and she lets me know when anything approaches the house, especially bunny rabbits. There are lots of those around. Other than that Some years ago we replaced the old windows with hurricane glass ones and breaking through those is very time consuming and impossible. The one entry door is steel but I worry about someone picking the lock and hurting my dog. Anything else they can have. Most people here in the neighborhood are work from home or retired but not us. There have been break ins but it's been a long time, maybe ten years. And this is a corner lot, but so much heavy landscaping that the house is kind of hidden?

Menu. Fresh fruit. Left over Chinese. Snacks are honey roasted peanuts.. not the best choice.