Shocking News!

Before I tell you the shocking news, I had to share this photo of this cute little vintage style wagon that Kristi brought over - she put some pots of flowers (that we need to plant) in it and I thought it looked charming sitting in front of the chicken yard.  :-)

NOW, to the news... I went to Fabric Depot here in SE Portland after swimming on Monday and found what I thought would be a perfect pink for Caleb - the color name is.. "Shocking Pink"!  I texted this photo to Kristi to show Caleb.. and he liked it!  And his Dad likes it!  I like it!  We all like it.. maybe even love it. HA!  Now what am I going to do with 2 skeins of too bulky orange yarn?  Maybe make some pumpkins in the fall.  What do you think of this color? :-)

While I was off swimming, Dayle made strawberry freezer jam!

These are actually the last berries of our local growers, so I'm glad he got them.

Freezer jam is our favorite, as it tastes WAY fresher, as you don't cook the berries.  You mash the berries, mix sugar, a little lemon juice and pectin with it, stir and ta-dah!

You put it in freezer containers and let it sit out for 24 hours, then pop it into the freezer for fresh berry jam in the winter.  Our next jam will be raspberry, our favorite.  Kristi and Travis brought all 4 boys over yesterday and we gave them lunch of peanut butter and fresh jam sandwiches.  :-)

I got some neat metal buttons at Fabric Depot, too.. and sewed them on the bear's overalls... then Kristi thought he needed a pocket on the front, which I made and sewed on, then I made a little hanky and stuck it in there.  :-)  A side note - guess what else was at Fabric Depot?  This green yarn!!!  

My super hero grandson, Hayden and his bear.  I had a solemn conversation with him on the care of his bear.  No hitting anyone with it.  Don't let the dogs play with it.  Take good care of it.  And I made it with love for him.  I hoped he would sleep with it tonight.  

Kristi is doing a "home summer school" with all 4 boys.  They did their work and then grandpa gave them each a bowl of strawberry shortcake!  This is Michael, left, and Gabe on the right. 

Hayden and Caleb enjoy theirs.  I'm not sure why Caleb is looking at Hayden like this.. :-) 

Caleb with the beginnings of his bear.. and a mouth full of strawberry shortcake! 

A few people asked how I've lost 25 lbs.  Well.. we started out with a well-known program that uses famous people as spokespeople... they sent us large boxes of prepared foods.  I thought we needed something to jump-start us.  It worked by showing us small serving sizes and what kinds of things we could eat.  We supplemented it with fresh salads and cooked fresh veggies.  We used small amounts of dressing on the salads and Molly McButter sprinkled on the veggies.  A sample of our daily meals is:  Breakfast - one of their granola type bars which actually taste pretty good.  We're allowed a mid-morning snack, but we never eat it.  Lunch is one of their entrees with a veg or salad.  Afternoon snack - a bar or non-fat yogurt.  Dinner now is a smaller serving of something healthy that we make - like BBQ chicken in small amounts with a 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes and a bit of gravy (chicken gravy from a packet) - and either a salad or cooked veg.  In the evening we even have a "Skinny Cow" ice cream bar.  It's slow but we're both losing, not going up!  I can't wait to get all the prepared stuff consumed so we can have healthier and tastier and SMALLER meals that we make ourselves.  But the stuff we got really helped us get started.  ... ok.. I head off swimming soon.  On Friday I'm hosting a Girl's Lunch on my deck and Dayle is BBQing us chicken.. they are bringing orange baked beans and potato salad!  Have a great weekend!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)