My Diet Plan

Feeling really fat after our weekend in Lovell, I decided it was time to start a serious, low-calorie, no sweets allowed diet. For breakfast I had instant oatmeal with only 1/3 cup of milk, mid morning I had an orange.

Breakfast Calories: 240

I was feeling a little famished when I went home for lunch so while I was waiting for my Lean Cuisine ravioli to nuke (a whole 3 minutes) I grabbed a weight watchers sherbet and ice cream bar. Okay that kind of went against my no sweets rule, but hey, it was weight watchers.

Lunch Calories: 340

After work I decided to stop by the grocery store to get the makings for a healthy, green salad. I walked by the seasonal aisle which they had freshly stocked with Easter candy. Without hesitating I grabbed a bag of miniature Cadbury eggs, thinking that I would reward myself with one small egg each night after dinner. By the time I reached the checkout stand I realized how stupid that idea was so I decided to put them back on the shelf, when what did I spot...........marshmallow chicks and rabbits! (my favorite Easter candy) Well, you all know the outcome of this story.

Dinner Calories: 910

There were still a few left (4) when I came to my senses, so I soaked them in water and threw them away. As disgusting as it may sound, getting them wet keeps me from going after them when my blood sugar returns to normal and I find myself craving sweets. TOMORROW I really am going to get serious about dieting.

Mom's Birthday Party

Today is my mom's 79th birthday ( I can get away with telling her age because she doesn't read my blog). When my son was little he called her his Chinese grandma. Looking at this picture, taken when she was 15 years old, she does kind of have an Asian look. Her ancestry however, is German and Norwegian. Ken and I picked up Colette and the kids and went to Lovell for the weekend to help her celebrate. Kim and her family decided to join us and drove down Saturday.

Gourmet jelly belly's are mom's favorite candy and she usually gets one of these huge jars each year. She keeps the jar hidden, but I bet they still don't last very long. I inherited my sweet tooth from both my parents. My sister Jennie had us all to her house for dinner Saturday night. There were 30 of us packed in her house. Jen is pretty easy going and she just goes with the flow. I would have been completely stressed with that many people in my house.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero are becoming mainstays at our family parties. All the children, young and old like to pretend they can sing. Tanner is taking his turn at the mike, accompanied by Madison on the drums and Nathan on the guitar.

Madison is singing here and Ken is anxiously waiting for his turn.

Kim has alway been a wannabe rock star. Colette and Kirsten are the members of the band. Tanner is probably thinking that he could sing it a lot better than his mom.

Of course baby Luke always attracts a crowd. We had a fun, but noisy weekend.

Dirty Harry in His Golden Years

Ken and I celebrated Valentine's Day by driving to Miles City for dinner and a movie. We haven't had a movie theater in our town for over ten years so our movie dates are few and far between.

We both wanted to see Gran Torino, starring Clint Eastwood, so the choice was easy. Actually, there was no choice, as there is only one theater in Miles City. I really do live in the sticks. The movie gets its title from a vintage car belonging to Eastwood's character. He plays a crotchety old bigot, grumbling about all the Asians who have moved in and taken over the old neighborhood. His prized 1972 Gran Torino is a magnet for the local gangs.

Clint Eastwood has always been one of my favorite actors, from the time he played Rowdy Yates on Rawhide. He has said this will be his last acting role. That's sad to me because even at age 78, I think he still has it.

I really liked this movie and would highly recommend it. Be forwarned though, you may not like it if you're offended by raunchy language.

When Walter Kowalski stands on his lawn and growls in his raspy voice "get off my lawn" you can almost imagine it sounding a little like Dirty Harry's "make my day".

Silly Sign

I took this picture in a restroom in Hawaii. Really......do people need a sign telling them not to drink from a toilet!

Surviving Chucky Cheese

When Colette told me she was going to have Caelen's birthday party at Chucky Cheese, the memories of going there with my own children (back then it was called Showbiz Pizza) flashed through my mind and I instantly felt a headache coming on. For those of you lucky enough not to know about Chucky Cheese, it is an over-priced pizzeria, a child's fantasy land and a parent's living hell.

The cost of the party sounded do-able to Colette as there were only six kids invited. Of course, those six kids had parents who attended, and there were grandparents and a couple of friends who didn't want to miss this adventure and suddenly the cost of the party is 2 1/2 times the original price. I thought Colette was going to go into shock when she got the total bill.

The original cost of the party included two one-topping pizzas, 6 children's drinks, a small cake and twenty tokens per child. Using those tokens in the game room is where the real fun begins, along with grandma's headache.

Walking into the game room, you're suddenly bombarded by the sound of screaming kids, laughing kids, crying kids and they are everywhere, you can't take a step without running into one of them. Add to that the ding, ding, ding of the games, the pounding of "bop the gopher on the head" game, and well.......you get the picture.

Surprisingly, I handled the noise and confusion much better than I did thirty years ago. Maybe I'm developing more patience in my old age.