Savannah

I love Savannah. LOVE it. I got engaged there. It's a beautiful town. The beach is so close by at Tybee Island. There are wonderful places to eat and drink. Just walking around under those oak trees is so awesome.

This is a picture I took on our trip back in 2008.



Gorgeous.

We're planning on taking a few trips there in the near future. One is coming up this weekend. It's a short one because Martha will be with us. (Vacations are hard with a 16 month old.) We're going Saturday-Sunday. A quick trip, but we'll have both full days. This will be the first time Martha sees the ocean and the beach. I'm sure she'll eat some sand, but I can't wait to see what she does when the waves wash up onto her feet. She loves the water. Bath time and playing in the pool are two of her most favorite things to do. So, it'll be good.

One of Chris's friends has an apartment there for the next year because he's there for a work project. He'll be back up here once or twice a month to visit his wife, so we have a free place to stay any time that he's not there working. Woo hoo!

I'm not sure if we're staying in a hotel this weekend or his apartment. We haven't checked with him yet, but I'm ok with staying in a hotel this time. We can Priceline a good deal.

The next trip we take will be baby-less so we can stay out later and be a little more free with what we do and where we go.

I'm so pumped about this weekend though. It'll be our first family vacation with just the 3 of us!

Yuck

Ok, scratch that juicing thing. The first taste I had tasted like grass. Pure lawn. I couldn't get the taste and smell to go away all of Saturday night and well into Sunday morning. I even tried making my own juice that was less grassy and more sweet, but then it was too sweet and made my stomach hurt. I played around with the recipes and absolutely could not find a tolerable tasting juice that I could drink more than 2 or 3 sips of. HORRIBLE.

So, it was a nice thought and good effort, but the juicing thing just isn't happening. We've got a ton of kale and spinach now though, so we'll be eating a lot of salads. I'm going to make a kale soup too. One that Cyndi made once when all 6 of us were living at my parents house. It was delicious.

Oh, and I'll probably make some roasted carrots...or this "carrot fries" recipe that I found too. We have 2 whole bags of carrots left. All these fruits and veggies won't go to waste. We'll just eat them instead of drink them. And I'm ok with that.

I lost 3 pounds from the stomach bug from hell a little over a week ago, and then somehow lost 2 more pounds since then and managed to not gain it all back yet. So that's a start.

Juicing

Let me start off by saying that I've never done a "cleanse" or "fast." And all I've ever known of fasting was for religious reasons.

Doing a lot of research after watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, I learned of several reasons for doing a fast/cleanse.

So, Chris and I are doing a 7 day juice cleanse. This means only drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juice for 7 days (and water, of course). We're starting on Sunday the 14th. We've both said that our goal is 7 days, but continuing beyond that is possible if we feel like we want to. Personally, I am scheduled to give blood at work on the 24th, so I'm going to do the 7 days, and then take 3 days to eat again so I won't pass out when they're sucking out all my blood.

It should be interesting since we still have to be around food every day and feed Martha her normal food. I know the temptation to cave will be there. I'm hoping to stay strong and get through the 7 days.

I'm really excited about all the nutrients my body will be getting though. It sounds so cheesy. I'm aware. I just eat so much crap. I'm always moving so slowly, tired, etc. From what I understand...this could be a really good boost for me. I mean, it's inevitable - when you stop eat all the crap and replace it with tons of fruits and vegetables, it has to do something good. So, we'll see!

I'm also hoping that the juice combinations that we learn to make are tasty enough that Martha will like them too. It would be really nice to get some veggies in her diet. She's not the healthiest eater, which is our fault, I know.

We're going out Friday night for our last yummy meal. I'm craving guacamole.

I am not invincible.

I am not invincible, although I was really crossing my fingers hard yesterday hoping that I could escape contracting whatever stomach bug Martha and Chris had.

Martha threw up at my Mom & Dad's house on Wednesday, but who knew it would turn into more and more puke? She woke up from her afternoon nap at home in puke. Threw up two more times that night, then woke up the next morning in puke. Who know how long she had been sleeping in it. I have no idea why she didn't cry or wake up and talk or just anything to alert me to the fact that she was rolling around in vomit. When I went to get her up Thursday morning and discovered the mess, she said "shooo weeee" like she does when I change her dirty diapers. She knows what's up. It stank really bad. And that sheet is ruined. One word: blueberries.

Chris picked up the sickness at some point and had his own puke-fest on Thursday when I decided to stay home and help with Martha, per his request. He didn't think he could take care of her and be sick at the same time.

I thought I avoided it... until I got to work today. Stomach pains galore.

I feel bad that I left my one remaining teammate alone yesterday (he said it sucked) so I'm trying to avoid leaving early today. I popped some pepto and am saying silent prayers every half hour or so. I'm on my lunch break right now and have less than 3 hours to go.

I'll summon Patty Loveless as much as I can until I'm safe in my car on the way home. I just need to think about anything but puking...

"I try to think about Elvis, Memphis, Oprah in the afternoon
I try to think about palm trees, fig leaves, the creature of the black lagoon
I try to think about high heels and good deals anything to get me through"