As the leaves change...

Fall time brings probably the most beautiful time of year. I love all of the warm earthy colors as the leaves change.

Fall reminds me... Of combining and trying to get the harvest finished before it gets cold. Of driving across the Saskatchewan River near Elk Point and the breathtaking beauty of the trees as the leaves turn orange and red. Of going up hunting in the mountains, setting up the tents and spending hours on horses hoping to see that big bull elk! Of kids back in school and football season. Of canning all of the bounties from our garden and everything I could buy so our shelves were stocked with bottles of food for the family. Of making a dozen apple pies a day to freeze for a nice winter treat. Of birthdays in the family, including my own! Of making zucchini bread. Of thinking that Christmas is just around the corner...

Down memory lane...

This past week we had food safety classes in Santa Maria California. This is the area that we lived in off and on for about five years when I was younger. We originally moved to Oceano in my 5th grade year. We lived just a block from the beach, which I loved. We moved to Nevada and then back again in my 6th grade year, again to Oceano for awhile.

We then moved to Lompoc for my 7th, 8th, 9th and most of my 10th grade years. During that time we lived in 5 different houses. One of which burned down, but that's another story. While living in that home, about 5 miles from town, I met my best friend, Gloria Valla. We were total opposites but totally clicked with each other! She was beautiful, cared about her looks, and much more mature. I was such a tomboy who really didn't care about boys or what my hair looked like! We had so much fun together exploring the hills and goofing off. This past week I was finally able to see her once again and once again, we clicked! We hadn't seen each other for close to 40 years! Yes, we have both aged... Her husband, Steve Bridge, was a really nice guy and just smiled as we traveled down memory lane. Gloria had an album of old pictures of us which were pretty hilarious.

The place where we lived is now a golf course. I did find one house on South M street we lived in but didn't have my camera! So sad. I found my junior high school and the elementary school in Oceano. I also found the church I attended in Lompoc after I was baptized.

While we were in California we traveled to Solvang, a Danish settlement, visited Fess Parker's (Daniel Boone tv series actor) and the Firestone (Firestone tire guy) wineries, the La Purisima Mission(we lived across from it but the house is no longer there), and stayed in a hotel on Pismo Beach. All places from my memories (expect the wineries).

Unfortunately, the two days we were at Pismo were foggy and chilly. But, we did see some dolphins swimming and walked around old downtown a lot. I was so disappointed that we couldn't go swimming. There were many brave surfers out but they were wearing their wet suits.

Throughout the days we spent, I had a hard time because I kept thinking about my mom and wanting to ask her questions or to tell her something I had seen or remembered. We also toured many different fruit and vegetable farms and generally just had a wonderful time.

Doin' Good

Well, we have three weeks under our belts (which we can see now) with our healthy new lifestyle. We are actually doing quite well. Frank has lost over 15 pounds and I'm pushing 10! We have been pretty darn faithful in eating better. No more "fat" snacks after dinner. Smaller portions without all of the butter, sour cream, etc is really helping. We haven't had the hunger and cravings so I guess this TAIslim is working for us.

Another huge plus is our blood pressure has really dropped! I was 98/75 and Frank has been 112/72!!! I guess we will prolong our lives doing this this.

We have been going on walks and riding our bikes. It's a mile up the hill to the stop sign and so that's a walk we take quite a bit. It's been kinda fun to walk and talk in the evenings. It also makes us feel better. Tera and Tenlee have been over quite a bit and goes with us. Poor little Tenlee's legs go twice as fast as ours to keep up but she does it. Her little mouth is also going about that fast the whole time.

We leave for California this weekend and so we will see how we maintain while we are gone - with all of the temptations and eating out for every meal. But, we will have aswimming pool and the beach so should be okay.

A very traumatic event has happened to Tera this week. Tenlee started kindergarten! It sounds like she was pretty excited because she woke up at 4:30 am to get ready to go. When I talked to her before they left for school she described everything she was wearing and told me how "poofy" and curly her hair was. On Monday they just went for an hour and a parent was supposed to go with them.

This morning she caught the bus. Tera called just crying. Again Tenlee was excited about going and woke Tera up at 6:30. I did tell Tera that she couldn't show Tenlee how sad she is because she will quit wanting to go to school.

Last Saturday Tera asked me to hem up several pair of Tenlee's jeans. After we measured them, Tera started asking if they would look just the same and to make sure I didn't hem them too short, etc. Finally, Tenlee said, "Mom, grandma knows what she's doing." Thanks, Tenlee!!!