God's Creatures, great and small...

I am having a small ongoing battle with one of my neighbors.

This neighbor covets my flowers and has begun eyeing a dwarf lilac tree (which I received in memory of my grandfather) with a lascivious gleam in his eye.

I have tried reasoning with this neighbor and even offered him gifts of bread, fruit and such (seeing how I'm not eating them anymore)- but no. I even offered him some of my precious macadamia nuts. He turned up his nose. He would rather munch on the roots of the gorgeous flowers that I planted - dig them up and leave them scattered about the lawn every morning.

And then there is the lilac tree that he has made several false starts toward - but has thankfully been chased away by the rabid barking of the vigilant Rolo-dog.

Squint at the picture to the right and you will see him. That little rat bas - er, the chipmunk.

*And* I found out this weekend he has friends. Four of them that dart from hole to hole - in my yard, the soy field, the space between my yard and the soy field.

They pop out at you at unexpected times. Most often, it is only worth a shriek of surprise, but if you are walking the Rolo-dog, who feels it is his duty to eat (or at least *taste*) anything that crosses his path, it can be a shriek followed by a long scream that slowly fades as the Rolo takes off after the little rat, dragging you along for the ride.

I've tried reasoning with my neighbor, but he won't listen. I hope it will be better once we have a fence put up, but I suspect he would just tunnel his way under it.Don't you dare coo: Awww...Isn't he cute?

He knows he's cute. He's counting on his cuteness to keep him out of prison. Don't fall for it. He's cunning, stealthy and evil.

Anyway, the tree is safe for now. I've planted some more flowers around it to distract him from chewing on the bark of the lilac. Of course, if he *touches* my hydrangeas - I'm letting Rolo loose and all bets will be off.

Green acres..

Ah! The smell of cow manure in the morning.

Less then a year ago, we had a house built in the middle of nowhere, well - actually in the middle of what was once a corn field but is now a tiny little subdivision (tiny meaning a plot of land that was supposed to hold 290+ houses, but has only 35).

Needless to say, unlike living on the north side of Chicago, there is not a lot of ethnic food to try out, but there is a lot of land. A lot of big, open spaces - and a soy field behind us that was a corn field last year.

It's nice. Seriously. I love it. Especially the weekends when I don't have to commute.

I like not living in the big city anymore - but honestly, small town living (actually, it is a village of 1100 people - not having enough people in it to qualify as a town) takes a lot of getting used to - like everyone here waves at you, whether they know you or not. In the city, we waved at people too - but usually with one choice finger and not all of them.

Another thing, everyone knows everyone out here and that means everyone knows your business. Recently, there were cougar sightings in the local newspaper. One of the village cops saw me outside walking my Rolo dog one evening and told me that I should carry a flashlight to use as a club because of the cougars and (get this) because I walk my dog so early in the morning....! How the hell do these people know I walk my dog at 4:00 am?! No one is up at that time but me, the dog and God!

And the wildlife. Ah, the wildlife. Every Saturday and Sunday morning I sit in my backyard and stare off in to the soy field, serenaded by the sound of yipping coyotes while I watch deer tentatively graze at the edges of the property. Not to mention my on-going battle with a little rat bast...er, never mind. That's a completely different post.

True Story to further illustrate:

I wake up last Sunday morning looking for my husband. I know he was next to me sleeping some time during the night because his snoring woke me.
As I stumble to the kitchen, I see the basement door open.
I yell downstairs: "What are you doing?"
After all, it is 7:30 am on a Sunday morning - football doesn't start that early, or does it?
"You have got to see this! Come down here!" He shouts back.
I pull a face - after all, this could be a ploy to 'get some' and I have not yet had coffee nor brushed my teeth.
"No." I reply, thinking it may not be a ploy - after all, he never gets that excited a tone in his voice when he's trying to get lucky.
"C'mon - seriously, come down here and look at this."
"Why?" I yell back, pulling a face because I am slightly afraid to see what might be in the basement since he recently found a questionable lump of gray fur in the yard.
"Hurry up!"
This is said with such childlike glee that I cannot help but go downstairs - to find the images below in the window well, or 'escape hatch' as we like to call it.
Do you see that at the bottom there? WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!
Now, I have gotten used to finding frogs, toads, even a stray field mouse who got stuck trying to escape the resident hawks, falcons and owls - but I have never seen anything like that thing in my window well. Rather, things - because there were two of them. Just when I get used to my property looking like one of the Plagues of Egypt after it rains, I now have *this* to contend with...Not to mention the damned dog trying to eat every single toad that wanders haplessly in or around our yard.
"What do you think it is?" He asked, leaning closer to the window.
"I have no freaking idea." I reply, my breath steaming up the window as we both press our noses to the glass.
"Should we take it out to get a closer look?" He asked.
I turn my head and I suppose my face says it all because he grins. "Or not." He finishes.
"We need to find out what it is before we touch it." I say, eyebrows pulled together and slightly tentative as if it could attack me through the window. "Looks slimey."
"Yeah."
"Well, don't touch it til I find out what they are."
It was a salamander. Two of them.

Now, do an internet search for salamanders in Northern Illinois. Not much information, is there?

Anyway, the salamanders are gone. I asked the neighbor kid to remove them and he happily did so - putting them in the pond behind the house where they belong.

Yeah, I sure do like living in the country. All sorts of interesting flora and fauna - which I will show you more of in the next post.

Note to my mom....Quit eating all that bread..!

And noodles, and rice and those other processed-to-death things that you like so much.

Anyway, to answer your questions (she says in a nicer tone):

Breakfast:
Egg salad made with two eggs, mayo and dijon mustard
Three sausages (typically brown n serve turkey cuz I can nuke them at work)

Lunch:
Tuna salad made with mayo and dill. No onions. No relish. Nothing that would turn to sugar in my body.
Wrapped up in lettuce leaves (preferably romaine lettuce)

Dinner:
Chicken strips fried in butter (yesh - I said butter) and coated with parmesan cheese. Usually about four ounces, which is one of those Perdue pre-prepped chicken breasts in the bags - you know, the individual serving ones?
Cauliflower steamed in the microwave and then mashed up with butter (yesh - more butter) and bacon bits and some cheddar (nom-nom-nom).
Big old salad with lettuce, spinach and cucumbers (no tomatoes, but you know how squidgy I am about tomato guts)

Snack:
Two deviled eggs (four pieces, so two whole eggs) made with more mayo and yellow mustard or dill or celery seed. NO RELISH. Or maybe cucumbers (with the guts removed) and celery or jicama with some ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing. I used Maries dressing.

I also drank one cup of coffee a day with three splendas and creamer - real creamer.

I didn't eat more then 20 carb grams a day. I didn't notice a lot of weight loss in the beginning, but that might have been because I was addicted to my treadmill and building up muscle again.

Not seeing a weight loss did not mean I was going to go back to the way I was eating. I am really not on a diet, so don't worry about ribs showing. It is a way of life, and changing bad habits never have a quick fix to them. I need to be healthy inside instead of just looking good on the outside.

I drank ALOT of water - and I exercised. You should try exercising too. I know how much you hate it, but even walking around the block is something - do as much as your RA will let you, but don't hurt yourself.

Okee-dokee?

If you want to try losing weight this way, I am more then happy to lend you my books. Read and learn. Learn and experiment. Experiment and grow.

Not that the viewing public needs to know, but when I got um...bathroom challenged so to speak - I had one piece of sugar free candy...WHOOSH! I shouldn't be eating it, but my system needed to adjust and after the first week, I didn't need the candy anymore. Of course, you should use psy - silly - psyllium? Whatever - I couldn't say it let alone know where to look for it - though I now know it is metamucil. (ick - er, yum!)

Oh - also find a low carb community to stalk. *insert creepy chuckle here* There are plenty of low carb, inexpensive recipes online too. Find some that look interesting and try out your mad cooking skills. Unlike me - you are not a klutz in the kitchen (did I tell you I sliced off a good chunk of my finger on a mandoline I got from work?), so your recipes will probably turn out better then mine.

Finally, if you want to try it - wonderful. Give it two weeks and let me know how you are doing. Getting your body past the addiction to all that sugar is a lot of work and a lot of cravings. You will not always succeed, but you need to look at the big picture.

Personally, I feel pretty good and I know from the way I feel that my blood sugar has not plummeted to below 80 like it had that night you and gram highjacked me and stuck me with gram's diabetes poker thingy to take my blood sugar.

Anyway, read the books and then try it - you might like the way you look and feel. Oh yeah, before I forget - go to Fitday - sign up for an account and log your food in there so you can see how many carbs and calories you are eating each day. Good information to have.

I am not a registered dietician, nor do I claim to be - but I love you Mom and want you to be around to torture your daughters and grandchildren for many more years.

*hugs*

Blech

What a crappy day. Blustery, windy and rainy. Feels like October. I stressed all the way home from work about getting my Christmas shopping done.
Seeing how I work over 60 miles from where I live, I had like an hour and a half to think about how much Christmas shopping I wasn't getting done because of traffic and the long commute and what is that guy doing in front of me? Is he picking his nose? Why isn't he watching the road? That's disgusting. - and oh my gawd - should I get a part time job to buy gifts this year because I really don't want to use the credit card, the interest rates are so high and what will I do with that debt if (gawd forbid) one of us loses their job?

I continue along this vein in my head for about ten miles before the little, sane voice in my head talks me down and tries to reason with me:
...Breathe...deep breaths.
It's okay - it's only September 4th.

I seriously need help.

Went to my favorite blog - well, one of my favorite blogs. *sigh* She didn't update, but I am not complaining because who knows how long it will be before I update/return to Blogger?