HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Skippy

I had to do one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do this past Saturday.

I decided to euthanize Skippy.

Wow. That was so weird typing that last sentence… I think I’m still in the “denial” phase of grief…

Long story short, but back in August, Skippy had a major stroke. Well, the vet called it something else, but basically that is what it was—some major episode that effected her nervous system. They told me at that time that she would be almost totally fine, but she wasn’t. She was never the same. The hardest part to explain is that she just wasn’t herself. There was a complete blank look in her eyes. She didn’t care about any human contact, never cared about getting petted, never jumped up on the couch to snuggle. She didn’t seem to recognize anyone. She had been going to the bathroom inside (#1 and #2) for months—even though she went out many times a day. She would go to the bathroom while we were sitting in the same room as her! Although she ate constantly (dog food and snacks dropped by Ellie),she acted like she was constantly STARVING. All she did all day long was search and search and search for food. She was starting to nip Ellie. Even though her teeth were dull and Ellie never seemed to care… She was almost completely deaf.

The vet said that was she had was equivalent to human Alzeimers… and it was not a mild case. If it were mild, they would have recommended a drug therapy that could have helped a little—but in her case probably wouldn’t have done anything.

So, anyway, we decided this was what was best for her—and I know best for our family, but it sure doesn’t feel like that yet…

She was a wonderful, easy going, go-with-the-flow, sweet, caring dog who went through so much with me. She meant the world to me and I can’t even begin to express how much she will be missed by everyone who knew her.

Test!

A FOOD POST (not recipes)

So, recently my friend Nicole sent me an email that said something like, "By the way, Jiffy, I am going to pick your brain this weekend on the best things to read if I want to learn more about this organic meat stuff." I was so excited I couldn't hardly stand it...someone is voluntarily allowing me to expunge my vast knowledge (ha) on my favorite topic to rant about!??! Typically I get the glassy eyed look when I pounce on someone regarding meat. Anyway, due to the fact that I'm so busy these days, then exhausted about 8 PM, it took me a few days to reply to her, but I was on a roll. I thought I might go ahead and use what I wrote to her as a blog post?!

So, basically, here is my reply to her:

So first I just started getting interested in the whole food topic from reading a lot of blogs, etc....

Then, I read the book Skinny Bitch. Which is really more of a diet/lifestyle book, but it had me convinced I needed to be come a vegetarian OR even a vegan!!! It's pretty extreme, but they do give some good information & it's a really short & funny book.

Then, I started Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan. He's pretty much the expert on all things Organic in my book. HOWEVER... he's very scientific and the book reads that way. I never could get through it. But, I have listened to a lot of podcasts with him speaking & I love him! The documentary Food, Inc. is based on all of his research. That movie is a MUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT if you guys haven't seen it yet!!!

THEN I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (she actually wrote The Poisonwood Bible). As far as I'm concerned you can skip the first two and go RIGHT to this one! It truly changed my life :) It's the true story of how she and her family go and live on a farm for 1 year and only eat food that they produce. She is a wonderful story teller and also inserts a lot of science AND facts on the FDA, etc. ALSO includes lots of recipes.

I am not sure where my copy of Skinny Bitch is.... I loaned it to someone! I do have Omni if you want to borrow it....I read Animal on my Kindle. I actually need to buy a copy of it for the recipes.

So my main thing is that although I do try not to eat meat for every meal, if I AM going to eat meat, I want to know where the heck it came from and how it was raised! Therefore, I do not eat meat in a restaurant (except Scotty's Brewpub--they have local organic beef!). ESPECIALLY CHICKEN & POULTRY! That is the WORST!!!! How they are raised (never see the light of day), in filth and pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones! The cows don't have it much better, but once in a while I will cheat and order a steak just because I love it that much. I have not eaten pork (on purpose) in over 2 years and really don't ever plan to again. Pigs eat GARBAGE. For beef, you want the GRASS FED, not the grain or corn fed...

Craig calls me a hippie constantly, but for me, it was more of an awakening. I am APPALLED that these backwards practices go on in the US (Umm, aren't we a highly advanced country?) and that our lovely government is behind all of it! Seriously, it was just so eye opening for me & it infuriates me!

For now, I buy most of my beef and chicken from www.greenbeandelivery.com. It is amazing. I also have gotten all of my produce from there (and farmers markets), but obviously that has slowed down. I do find that Trader Joes is an awesome, affordable place to buy good meat too. SuperTarget carries Laura's (which is organic) Lean Beef and a lot of other organic choices too.

For our Thanksgiving this Saturday I splurged on a free range organic turkey!!! I'm excited!

I do not think that organic meat is all that much more expensive than regular. It is probably a dollar more a pound, but it's COMPLETELY worth it to me. I would much rather give up something else if I had to.

OK, so that is my 2 cents!

Next topics for me to tackle (and I'm working on learning about them as we speak!) are household products AND GMOs (which I already posted about).

15 Months

Well, I'm a couple of weeks late, but I wanted to post a 15 month update for Ellie!

We had her 15th month check up the last week of October and she checked out wonderfully :)

She's right on track developmentally and she is still LARGE!!! She is in the 95th percentile for height and weight... And I SWEAR she does not eat any food with added growth hormones!

Here's a bullet list of some of her current

-Walking EVERYWHERE
-Talking more each day... favorite & most used words: No (while shaking her head for dramatic emphasis), Thank you (sounds like Deh do), Dog, Duck, Owl (it's in one of her books), Mama, Mom-mom-mom-mom-mom, Dada, Lola (she will not say Rosco or Skippy--I'm thiking it's the "s" she hasn't gone for yet), Uh-oh, Ya
-Still loves reading books
-Will NOT drink milk in ANY form. I've even resorted to chocolate & strawberry!
-Loves cheese in ANY form, so I'm pretty confident she's getting her dairy
-Was not a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween, but LOVES candy
-Loves to slide. She has a small Little Tykes slide inside that she loves and if we are playing outside, she refuses to swing. Only wants to slide.
-In a big "Mommy Phase"... Not that I mind, but I really have a hard time accomplishing ANYTHING
-Loves her Daddy & Grandparents... as long as I'm not around
-LOVES Rosco... hugs and kisses and plays w/ him every day
-Also, constantly fights w/ Rosco over dog toys
-Just starting to really explore what is inside various cabinets...yes, we have our child locks on the dangerous ones
-She's still a really good eater, but will let you know what she does or doesn't want. She does not like to have the same thing every day. Which is great! I'm hoping this means she will not be a picky eater.
-Her favorite foods seem to be cheese, mac & cheese (any form!), green beans, avocados, yogurt, apples.
-I let her have a little cup of water while we read books before bed. She will NOT let me take it so now she takes it to bed w/ her every night! I don't think she has ever taken a drink of it in her crib, but she MUST take it to bed with her!
-Loves music of any kind. Any song can hit her right and she just starts shakin' her booty! She seems to really love Mariachi music... she can't contain herself in Mexican restaurants!

Ellie B is our pride and joy. We are having so much fun laughing with her each day and watching her grow. We are so lucky to have her in our lives.

Reading with Mema

Playing with new toys Mema bought her

Big girl getting ready to slide

Eating smarties

Trunk or Treating--gimme something good!

Worn out after a long day trunk or treating

Carrie & Jared

After college, I worked briefly (I think for about 8-9 months?) for the airline, ATA. It was not my dream job, by far, but it was a job that brought me back to Indy from Nashville, where I had moved for my first job out of college. My job title was Customer Service Quality Assurance. Our team travelled around to the various airports that ATA serviced and "secretly" observed and recorded data on the employees working in those airports. It was fun travelling (mostly to Vegas, Florida, Arizona & Chicago), but the job was a bit lonely for me, as I would certainly describe myself as a people person! It was also a big learning experience for me, working at such a large company with many, many bosses and a lot of red tape.

One of the highlights* of my employment there was meeting a friend, Carrie! She worked in my department (but did more marketing type stuff!) and we hit it off instantly. I often got "talked to" about spending too much time chatting with her in her office. I had the opportunity to hang out w/ her and her husband Jake a few times outside of work & I always had the best time with them.

The best thing about Carrie and one of the reasons I hold her so near and dear to my heart, is that she taught me how to cook! Ok, not literally, and I have had many influences, but she is the person who I credit with giving me the confidence to try my hand at cooking... and the rest is history. I love to cook & would consider myself a foodie (although not the "live in the city eat out at fancy restaurants every night" type of foodie, but that's another post).

Carrie gifted me with one of the few things I would grab when I run out of the house if it were burning down (of course, yes my daughter and pets would be first). My crockpot cookbook. This was the first cookbook I was ever given and she knew that if I would just try some recipes from it, I would see how easy cooking can be! Some of my standards are still in that cookbook. I know you can get most recipes on line today, but I am old school. I LOVE cooking from cookbooks. I love looking at the pictures. I love thumbing through them and getting new ideas and trying new recipes. She wrote a cute note in the front, something funny & slightly sarcastic

We somewhat kept in touch for the 8 years that I lived in Arizona and we have not managed to get together since I've moved back, but thanks to facebook I think I know a bit of what is going on in her life. I recently got a chance to catch up on her new blog and discovered something amazing!

SHE IS GOING TO AUSTRALIA COURTESY OF THE OPRAH SHOW! How exciting is that?

Here is a link to her blog: http://bitesizedbycarrie.wordpress.com/

Check it out for the story and I know it will be a great place to get new recipes and funny stories!

*Side note: Another highlight of that job was meeting Jared the Subway Guy! Long story short: Jared worked at ATA with u! It was after his first round of commercials w/ Subway and I would often see him in the hallway, proclaiming to Carrie, "There's Jared! There's Jared!" I don't think she really saw the "celebrity" I did, but I am such a sucker for celebrities. Anyway, she emailed him and asked him to go to lunch with us one day and the rest is history! I HAD LUNCH WITH JARED AT SUBWAY! It was awesome. Carrie took a picture & gave it to me in a frame which I still have on my desk to this day. It is a great conversation piece for me :)

GMO's

Do you know about GMO's????

If I started posting about my issues with the food industry, I could rant and rage on a daily basis... and I don't want to sound like I'm preaching. Do you have any idea how DISGUSTING factory farm raised beef & chicken (any meat really) is??? It is really easy to buy grass fed, organic chicken & beef now & it does not break the bank like it used to! But seriously, if you are purposely not educating yourself on the American FDA, you are risking the health of yourself & your kids! (oh sorry, I wasn't going to preach!)

Momma Baker (via Jeni) is my own personal information expert (I can always just email her w/ questions & she is a wealth of knowledge... through her battle w/ fibromyalgia, she has discovered that just eating organic makes a HUGE difference in her health. Anyway, the newest subject matter I have been learning about genetically modicifed organisms... The European Union has completely banned them, yet they are predominant in the US food system! She passed this along to me today: http://nongmoshoppingguide.com/

Check it out!