Day #90: Cactus Adventure Morning!

On our morning walk - Buster wandered off the sidewalk just a little too far.

It's a good thing I was wearing a sweatshirt this morning to wrap around the stuck cactus, because otherwise I would have had to carry the little guy the rest of the way home.  You can't grab that with your bare hands or else you'll get poked - trust me I know.  

No worries - he's fine :)

All caught up - sorry for the missed days!

Day #89: Spring is in the Air

Spring is here!!!  March - in like a lion, out like a lamb.
It's supposed to get up to 90 degrees in Tucson today!  HOT!

Day #88: Uh oh.... it just might stick

This is what was in the package from the previous post.

And as the title says - it just might stick.  More on that later ;)

Day #87: Box of Gold?

Or at you would think seeing as it has a "Lift with care" sticker on a box that is not large enough to weight much.  Oh and of course the sticker was on the ground when I went to pick up the box, so I did not use proper lifting technique to pick up this heavy package.

Day #86: Spring time self portrait

Day #85: Benefit

The benefit of being an hour behind in clinic means that patients have plenty of time to finish reading their Hunger Games People magazine and give it to me on their way out!! :)

Day #84: Toe Shoes, anyone?

What to buy, what to buy??  My REI dividend and a 20% coupon came in the mail the other day.

A picture is worth 1,000 words  :)

Day #83: Playtime

Day #82: You know you are an adult when...

You know you are an adult when you drive to home depot to buy gardening supplies.
Yes, that is correct, I spent my Saturday morning gardening.
I attempted planting plants in my yard once before - July 2010.  It failed miserably.  One problem is that the ground was extremely hard, because it was so dry and packed in.  Then the plants died, probably because the roots couldn't take hold in the hard, dry, soil.  After the death of the plants, Buster proceeded to eat them.

So, this morning I was picking up dog poop and lots of weeds, when I realized the ground was soft and moist from all the recent rains.  Impulse decision and off to home depot I went.  I had been wanting to go buy some mint soon anyway, because it is almost Mojito season.

Below are pictures of my newly planted yard.
I don't have a before vs after picture - but it's pretty easy to imagine before - just take away the plants.

I know - not good lighting.  There is another silver cassia plant to the right of the fence that is not pictured.  The silver cassia is the small one you can barely see above, just to the left of the gate.

This yellow one is called sweet broom.  I'm contemplating going back tomorrow to buy another one of these.  It may be smarter to just wait and see if these survive first.

My herb garden:  over pots have mint and inner pot has basil.  Yum Yum

Day #81: my weekend companion

Day #81: It's a Sign

Click on the photo to enlarge.  Weener dogs anyone?  

I think Penny and Buster may want a sister and from the looks of this sign - it could be considered a rescue.

Day #80: Thoughtful vs. bored

Me before bed.

Day #79: food, food, food (minus meat, cheese, eggs, and any other animal product, except honey)

So what does a vegan eat?  It's been a week on my new diet and I bet you are wondering how I am surviving.  Pretty well actually - better than I expected.  So what have I been eating?

Well above you will see groceries from my shopping expedition from when I got home from Whiteriver.  

Breakfast:  I usually have some homemade granola with either almond milk or soy yogurt.  

Soy yogurt is good, just as good as milk based yogurt, and much much better than almond milk yogurt - bleh.  Also, I've been eating more oatmeal.  I've made waffles and had Tucson Tamale company soy chorizo tamales - both breakfast foods, but I ate them at dinner.  Sorry no pictures of breakfast to share with you.

Lunch:  Today I had vegetarian chili from Trader Joes.  Otherwise I have been making hummus wraps with fancy artichoke hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and avocado.  Yummy.  Pictured below.  It tastes better than it looks.  Otherwise I usually eat leftover dinner for lunch.

Below is a super delicious potato salad I made.  I will eventually post this recipe - it is THAT good.

It is red potatoes with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and basil.  Delicious.

Snacks:  ProBar - Halo S'mores pictured below - super yummy.  Yummy even compared to non-vegan granola bars.  Probar also makes some fruit and nut bars that are good.  S'mores bar is extra awesome because it has marshmallows in it.  Other snacks include pretzel thins, potato chips, trail mix, chips and salsa, smoothies.

Dinner:  Lentil soup.  Mushroom bulgur.  Polenta with kale, spinach, garlic, covered in a spicy tomato sauce. Black bean and tofu tacos.   Yesterday, I slaved away forever and made a wild rice (thanks auntie ed for the wild rice) and leek stuffed acorn squash topped with a leek sauce.  The squash is pictured below.  The leek sauce is delicious and made with tofu, but not very photogenic hence why the stuffed squash is pictured without the sauce.  

You know you want some.

Dessert:  You saw my delicious cupcakes and ugly but good cake.

Also included in vegan dessert are Joe Joe's (trader joes version of an oreo), as well as delicious dark chocolate.  Almond milk ice cream is better than I expected.  Soy ice cream is next to try along with Tofutti ice cream sandwiches.  

I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can think of right now.  So no, I'm not starving.  I don't think I've lost any weight.  If I remember I'll weigh myself at work tomorrow.  I don't feel tired yet.  I feel good.  And honestly I don't really miss anything yet.  Week 1 down, 3 to go and then we'll see what sticks and what doesn't.  

Day #78: It arrived today!!

In case you did not guess from the clue before. I think you'll get it now, as here are pictures of your answer :)
Engraving and poetry courtesy of my Daddy!

Day #77: Snow Day!

We knew a storm was coming in today, but we didn't think until the afternoon.  Well at am when we woke up the thick dark grey clouds had already coalesced in the skies above.  While eating breakfast, the snow started to fall.  I quickly packed my things and headed out - trying to beat the storm.  Well, that lasted ~15 miles down the road when I decided it was too dangerous to continue- as the snow had started sticking to the road.  I was not even to the curvy windy part of the drive back.

So the doggies and I had a snow day with Sarah.  Lucky for us, she didn't have to work until this evening.
Neither of my dogs has ever seen snow, as far as I know.  Buster liked and Penny tolerated it.  She surprised me and walked around in the snow, while Buster did more leaping and bounding.

We left this afternoon after the store clouds cleared and the sun came out.  I hit plenty of snow and rain on the way back to Tucson, but only had to drive for about 10-15minutes worth of snow just starting to stick to the road.  I made it back successfully and in time for work tomorrow :(

Day #76: Salt River Canyon Rafting

I went back up to Whiteriver this weekend, which is why I was unable to post until now. 

Sarah is there and the hospital was having a group outing to go white water rafting.

We had a good time.  

Can you find me?  I'm sexy and I know it!  hahaha

Off we go!

Photo courtesy of Marina

This is a picture of my raft, I'm the one in the back on the right side.

Photo courtesy of Marina

Day #75: Better looking cupcakes

A more successful version of my first attempt at vegan baking.
And I realize you may not believe me, but they are rather delicious!
Vegan buttercream frosting to top it off and green for St. Patty's Day!

Day #74: Baking Adventure

Tonight I made my first attempt at baking vegan cake. As you can see, it stuck to the pan - but it does taste pretty good. On the tasting scale it ranks slightly above a boxed cake, but it as made from scratch.
Since the cake didn't turn out quite as planned, I whipped up another batch of batter quickly & made cupcakes, so the cake can stick to the cupcake wrapper instead.
I also made a vegan green frosting for St. Patty's day. I'll post pictures of the final cupcake later. :)

Day # 73: Relaxing

Delayed post because I had a 6/10 headache last night & went to bed instead of posting.
Please note my new purse - thanks Auntie Ed and Tina!

Day #72: Muttmover, Muttmover, Muttmover

Today IT arrived!  What is it?  It is the Muttmover - aka a backpack to carry my doggy around in!

Hehe! You should have known it was only a matter of time before this happened.  

Thanks to Sarah and BJ who got it for me for my bday!

Day #71: Sights of Summer

One for me..... One for you ... And one for (no Buster!  don't eat Penny's bite!)

Day #70: V is for ....

The time has come!  For what you ask?  Remember when I attempted and failed at my year long quest to make an eco-friendly change each week.  Well, part of that failure came from the fact that in doing my research, I realized that the one way in which I could make the biggest impact on the environment with one change would be to give up meat.  At that time, I was not ready to make such a large change.  I made excuses - such as I don't have the time to figure out how to be a vegetarian in a healthy way right now, aside from the fact that vegetables are not my favorite food group.  

Well, I bet you think you know where this is going and you are probably pretty close.  Recently, Sief has been watching some documentaries on the food industry and some studies about how healthy a plant based diet is, even excluding dairy!  

I have in the back of my head, waaayyy too many facts about the meat industry from a book I read a while ago called Eating Animals.  So while I was in Whiteriver, I happened to be a roommate with a mostly vegan individual.  We had several conversations.  I also rented on iTunes a documentary called, Vegucated.  And after all of this, I have decided it is time.

V is for Mostly Vegan. 

The mostly being that I will still eat honey.  I am planning to this for 4 weeks, staring tomorrow, March 12th.  This means no animal products (aside from honey) will enter my body.  No beef, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, ice cream, milk chocolate, etc.

Here are my 3 reasons in no particular order:

1.  It's good for my health.

2.  It's good for the environment.

3.  It's good for animals (animal cruelty)

(I know my parents are sitting at home reading this shaking their heads.  My dad is calling me Margaret (a hippie teacher from my childhood) in his head.  They may or may not be worried that this will stick, I'm not sure, I guess it depends on how much faith they have in me.  I hope some of it sticks, I don't imagine I'll never eat certain foods again, but maybe by the end of the month, much less often.  We'll see.

Tomorrow starts the big adventure!)

Day #69: Cookies make everything better

I forgot to post this one earlier - this is from Whiteriver.  I was preparing for a presentation on Gestational Diabetes that I had to give.  Yummy homemade chocolate chip cookies with almond milk from a grinch mug.

Day #68: Back to my old stomping ground

This is taken at the Rillito River Park in Tucson.  Do you see the nice river?  Yes - that would be the left portion of the picture with all the brush in the middle.  I'm walking up above the "river" on a nice paved walking, biking, and horse riding trail.

It feels so good to be home with the sun shining in my face!

Day #67: Tree Hugger :)

Day #66: Car with no A/C = gelato on the ride home

Yup that's right - the air conditioning went out on my car.  Not exactly sure when, seeing as it was winter I wasn't using it very often.  I noticed it the last time I drove back to Tucson.  It's starting to heat up in Tucson, so having no A/C is not going to last very long as the summer months are fast approaching.

This time on my drive back from Whiteriver, I planned a stop at the best gelato place in Tucson, Frost.  Oh so yummy - chocolate hazelnut.

I took my car in the next day and a handful of benny's later my A/C works.  

Day #65: When mom's away the boys will play

This is Buster out with his Dad - he is at a little cafe, obviously sitting on a chair, and if you look close you can see that next to his left foot is a bully stick!  

I would have to say that he is spoiled rotten!

(As I type this post he is curled up in my lap under a blanket on the couch)

Day #64: Birthday Clue

Here's the clue that I was texted on my birthday from my parents.
Can you figure it out?

Day #62: Birthday Sundae

One of my roommates, Sasha was out of town the weekend of my bday and I had not had a chance to tell her my birthday was coming up.  After she found out, later that evening - she surprised me with a pineapple sundae birthday dessert.
The catch is that this pineapple sundae is a dessert from the cafeteria and had been sitting in the freezer for how knows how long and there just happened to randomly be birthday candles in the cupboard.
So know I did not eat this birthday dessert, but I did enjoy the chocolate cake I bought myself from Safeway!

Day #61: Dog sized bird

It's hard to tell from this picture - but out on the reservation and in rural arizona in general they have these pretty large ravens.  Definitely bigger than my little doggies!

Day #60: Fry Bread

Welcome to the Whiteriver Motel - that is the building pictured below.  

I went on a dinner outing there, because I had heard they had good fry bread.  

Fry bread is a native american staple and even though I have rotated at 2 IHS sites prior to this one, I had never tried it.  

This is an Indian Taco - refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese on fry bread.  Pretty tasty.

Day #59: Delicious and Nutritious

 Awesome - berry smoothie - made from fresh juiced juice with flax seed.
I realized in looking through my recent pictures - most of them are of food.  I guess that tells you how exciting things were in whiteriver and/or how important food is to me!

Day #58 - Yummy

Breakfast in the van on my ride to Cibeque, an even more rural clinic than in Whiteriver.
Oatmeal with strawberries, blueberries, and sliced almonds.

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Also, as a P.S. to Day #57 post - if you want to watch a stand up comedian on the pain scale of 1-10.
Watch this:

Day #57: On a scale of 1-10

One of my favorite mainstays at the Whiteriver hospital.

We are always supposed to ask - how bad is your pain on a scale of 1-10.  1 being very little pain and 10 being the worst pain you can imagine.

I love when patients are sitting there comfortably looking at you, not even a glisten of a tear in their eye, no grimace of pain on their face, no abnormal posturing to show they are try to get to a more comfortable position - they are just sitting there like you or I would and I ask "how bad is your pain on a scale of 1-10?"  And....you know what they answer 10 or even better they will say 12, which is not an option by the way.

Umm... I don't think so.  I am sure they are in pain, but it's NOT 10 or even 12/10 pain.
10/10 pain is having your femur broken, any limb ripped off, or for some reason I always think of this scene in some Mel Gibson movie where he is strapped to a chair and some people are torturing him and they take a hammer and smash his toes against the concrete - that's 10/10 pain.
In 10/10 pain you should be doing any one or combination of the following: writhing around in bed, crying, having difficulty breathing - gasping for air, vomiting because you cannot handle the pain, sweating, clutching some part of your body, or passed out.

So next time you are at the doctor and they ask you - how bad is your pain on a scale of 1-10.
This is what you should say - well if a 10 is having my arm/leg ripped off, well then this pain is a 5/10.  Trust me they will believe that you are in pain and take into account that you are a reasonable person.