Time Sure Does Fly By

I looked at the last time I had written a blog and it's been 3 weeks. My first thought was, "Where have the past few weeks gone?" Then I remembered what we've been doing...adding a sprinkler system to our yard (front and back) and then my mom came down last week to help me plant garden plants before the sod goes down in May. 

You just don't realize how long it takes to make your yard look decent until you start the process. It took us a whole day just to pick out the plants, and then we had to work the soil and get them in the ground. Needless to say, it took much longer than I thought it would.  We planted between 40-50 plants last week! 
I also planted some tomatoes and I already have a little baby one on one of the plants. Here is just a taste of what we did last week:

Closest to the House...before planting

One of my planters...planted in March

second planter..planted in March

Lampost area..it now has mulch

Some planters in the back with herbs and pretty flowers

Fuego Verbena and a Rose of Sharon

My pink lemon tree..can't wait to see it grow

RJ Junior who we found out is really a girl squirrel! haha

Malachi enjoyed boating on Saturday

 

overwheming

I have to be honest; some days I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with what? It's been close to two months now since my official Chrohn's diagnosis and this new lifestyle is still tough to get used to. 

Often times, I find myself dreading going into the kitchen. That's where I spend half of my day, b/c I have to cook everything I make from scratch. There are days that I just want to be able to make a sandwich or pop a frozen meal into the microwave, but I know that it won't be beneficial.

On a positive note, I am finally starting to eliminate more things from my diet. How can that be positive? I'd rather eliminate things that make me feel worse than continue eating them b/c they are healthy. Cauliflower is a great vegetable, but it's on my elimination list now. I think brussel sprouts may end up on that list too. I may try them again in the near future. 

Today, I wanted something a bit sweet, so I took a recipe for peanut butter brownies, and made the dough into cookies. They are pretty decent and super easy to make.

• 1 1/4 cups natural peanut butter (we grind our own at Fresh Market)

• 1 egg

• 1/2 cup honey (or agave..I used less than 1/2 cup of honey and they weren't very sweet)
• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

 Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and mix all ingredients together in a bowl. I just mixed them together with a spoon and it worked fine.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and then roll cookies into balls and place on cookie sheet

Bake for 15 minutes and then enjoy!!

My favorite time of the year

You probably think I'm going to say spring, but I'm not. It's Masters Week, and I'm paying my tribute to the most wonderful event that happens in Augusta. 

1995: I was hired for my first job; working in the main concessions area at the Masters. For me, that meant being there at 6 am, and leaving around 6 pm or later. Keep in mind, this is my spring break. Was I crazy, YES. I worked my tail end off that week, but I also made a whopping $350 and was introduced to the Masters golf tournament. I fell in love with this place.

1996: I did it again; I decided to work my butt off during my spring break. This time, I worked near the 11th and 17th (I think) holes. A little less hectic than the previous year, but this time, I could hear the sounds of the clubs and crowds from my tent. 

What I failed to mention are the passes. The managers could give out 30 minute passes while we were on our breaks, so if we got caught without a badge, we could show our pass and prove that we were on our break. Those passes were my freedom to enjoy the course. And boy, did I.

1997: My senior year of high school and this time, I moved up in the world. I became a bagger for the gift shop. Some of you might think, so what. You've obviously never seen the gift shop at the Masters. I've never seen so many foreign people with so much cash at any other time in my life. I met some really neat people, but the best thing that happened that year was meeting a guy named Jake. Jake was a stock boy for the gift shop, and like me, was spending his spring break waking up early, and going home dog tired.  During the course of the week, we set the ground work for becoming friends for life. We spent some our of breaks together  walking around the golf course, and I believe we even watched Tiger win his first coveted Green Jacket together.

We went to different colleges, but somehow we still managed to keep our Masters bond alive. I even talked him into taking me to the course a few times. After we graduated from college in 2001 and he moved back to Augusta, I conned him into taking me out for our "anniversary" each  year during Masters Week. He always complained, but he always took me wherever I wanted to go.

Jake and Alicia on the course in 2005

Jake scared the mess out of  me a few years ago. I got a call from our friend Christel saying Jake didn't show up for work and he had been in a car accident. It was Easter Sunday 2007 (the final day of the tournament that year) and I couldn't get hold of him or his parents. Finally, after church, I called the hospitals in Augusta and found him. The poor guy spent a few painful days in a room, but thankfully recovered. I wouldn't know what to do if something had happened to my Masters buddy.

Of course I made him take a picture with me!!

 Thanks to my Masters buddy (who practically knows everyone), at the Mayors Reception of 2006, I was introduced to an amazing lady who became a great confidante and friend. The Mayor's Reception is always the first day of the practice rounds (Monday), and many restaurants from Augusta would hand out free food to hungry visitors and residents of the city. The Mayor was always on hand to award one of the beloved golfers with a key to the city of Augusta. 

Jake had told me about his friend Julie, and from what I knew about her, I couldn't wait to get a glimpse of her. It was just my luck that they  happened to attend the Mayor's Reception together that year, and we were properly introduced. In fact, I believe I spent at least 30 minutes talking to her, and don't believe that Jake and I said much to one another! From that day on, Julie and Jake and I had many a lunch/coffee date together and Julie and I attempted to pencil one another in every so often. In 2007, Julie and I attended the Mayor's Reception together sans Jake, and captured this picture below:

So, in conclusion, I am grateful to the Lord and to the Masters golf tournament. It provided me the opportunity to meet 2 of the most amazing people I know! Happy Anniversary friends!!

I am not a millionaire

My new favorite thing to do is watch the Secret Millionaire show. Randy and I have a big screen tv in our guest house, but we don't have cable or an antennae, so we don't actually watch it.

What we do happen to have is a cable that connects our laptop to the tv, and that allows me to watch Hulu on something other than a 17 inch screen.

So, Monday nights, we head to the guest house and I watch Secret Millionaire while Randy works on the jet skis. Yes, we have a jet ski and trailer in our guest house.. (it's a disaster right now).

Speaking of disasters, have I mentioned our back yard? We (well, mostly Randy) have torn up our backyard so we can lay down sprinklers for our future sod.We've been working on this for a few weeks (and when I say weeks, I mean every evening and each weekend). We're finally close to being finished, and we had someone come and give us a quote for the sod. Our tentative sod date is May 17th...whoohoo

 

I am loving spring. Once the temperature gets warm enough for short sleeves, I get the itch for planting. About two weeks ago, I went to Lowes and bought some plants for the two planters in our front yard. Rand and I also purchased 6 (yes, 6) planters for the back yard and I have placed my transplanted gardenia in one and some lavender, rosemary, and pineapple sage in another. My mom is coming down for a week around Easter, and I can't wait for us to work on the rest of the gardens!! I'll post pics once it's finished.

grilling and cleaning

I decided to be brave: I purchased my first whole chicken. Some people might think that's no big deal, but for someone who hates the though of sticking my hands into a cavity of a dead animal and taking out it's organs, it's a big deal.

Thanks to some factory worker, my chicken came with it's organs in a little plastic baggie (inside the cavity, of course). I promise you that sold it for me. I threw some garlic and onions into the cavity, rubbed it with olive oil and spices and then cooked it in the crock pot for 4.5 hours. Nice!

I learned that Randy will eat things with bananas in them as long as he can smother it with honey. Yep, he got jealous and decided he wanted my banana cake (which is really glorified banana bread without flour). So, I am now learning that when I make something for myself, I might as well make double of whatever it is, b/c my husband (who hates healthy), will want it.

We grilled turkey dogs last night (which happen to be gluten free and casein free). I can honestly say they def. weren't as good as hot dogs, but it's better than nothing. Thanks to Applegate Farms for making them.

Today, I am going to make an apple cinnamon cake. Keep in mind, this cake will be made without flour, so I'm interested to see how it goes. I'll post a recipe if it's good.

flourless cake

So, I've never been a huge sweets person, but not being able to eat something makes me want it more (of course). I found a recipe for a gluten free, sugar free cake. I know it doesn't sound real..how can you make a cake without sugar or flour?

Well, you use coconut flour, almond flour, add two eggs, a few other ingredients *like bananas, peanut butter, vanilla, and agave* and voila- you have cake!

The best part is, Randy doesn't like desserts with bananas. That's right, I get to eat the whole darn thing by myself, and it's so healthy I can eat it for breakfast, snack, or dessert. It's quite moist from the 4 bananas I smashed in the batter, and next time I may try 3. Other than that, not bad for a first time flourless, sugar free cake!

Smells like poo

I know you're reading this b/c the title says smells like poo.

This week has been a tougher week so far..my symptoms have been worse, but so far I have been able to accomplish the things I do on a regular basis.

Because I've cut out all things bad for me, I am jealous of my husband who gets to eat vegetable chips and kettle chips..I like crunchy things!!

I found a recipe last week (if you can call it that) for kale chips. It honestly sounded gross to me, but I said, why not? Monday I bought a huge bag of kale at Publix.

Today, I decided to make kale chips..the recipe is pretty easy:
wash and dry kale, set on foil on cookie sheet, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Uhm, the kale was ok...I ended up eating all that I made (I think I was just hungry) but my house smells gross!! Apparently cooked kale smells like poo. Great, right? I still have 3/4 of a bag of kale left. Any ideas?