I should have taken a picture

Today I was removing the Harvest Decor we've had on our doorstep for the last 2 months.  It consisted of various pumpkins, gourds, hay bales and flowers.  While picking up a pumpkin that was on one of the hay bales, I was startled to find that not only did I get the pumpkin, but also the hay bale it had consequently frozen to, and a pot of flowers that had been sitting on the bale as well.  Quite picturesque if you ask me.

November in Review...

Because I'm a slacker, and don't regularly blog (which I'm sure is noticed by my avid readers (tee hee hee)) I am going to give a brief synopsis of the month.

Beginning:

Stopped eating the sugar
Moved areas at work for the 5th time in 7 months
Put out some work fires (this required numerous calls to the IT department, re-training people, running around frantically, wanting to cry, scream, punch something or all of the above, making snap decisions and ultimately harnessing my chi--ok, maybe all but the last one)
Attended FHE--including Thanksgiving Jeopardy and A Capella  Mania
Gorgeous weather
Went to a "Christmas Carnival"....yeah.....
Ate at Sawadee for the first time--Highly recommend!

Middle:


Visited with good friends I haven't seen in forever
Talked to the adorable, pregnant Amy and found out she's having a boy!
Went Christmas shopping--very dangerous
Decided I have no real interest in any of the men I've been talking to for the last month
Started listening to "Fictionist"--great band
Weather started getting a bit nippy

End:

"Blizzard" warning
Went to Logan for Thanksgiving and saw the fam
Inherited a lot of Christmas decor
Inherited a gorgeous set of old books from my grandpa  (and 3 couches...)
Survived temperatures around -4....not my idea of a good time
Played fun games with friends
Laughed a lot

This month seems to have dragged out over a very long period of time, and I am actually glad that it is over, I'm excited to be back on the 1st of something.  I'm even more excited that we have refrained from putting up Christmas decor til this point :)

Whey Low, Keifer and Weight Oh My!

So I've been doing the whole "no sugar" thing for 18 days now, and around last Saturday I realized that my life was going to be a whole lot sweeter if I invested in an artificial sweetener to bake and cook with.  The only problem with artificial sweeteners is...they're generally gross-bad after taste, bad during taste, sometimes even a bad before taste.  Aside from that, I have a very temperamental stomach, and a lot of the things I ingest tend to make me sick, artificial sweeteners being among them.

In my sweetener research (yes, I did sweetener research) I read about this sweetener called Whey Low. Digging a little deeper, I found out that there is only one store in Utah that sells it (and they only started doing so recently) and luckily for me, the store isn't terribly far from my house!  I'm such a lucky gal.  So I decided to take the plunge, I went out and bought the white sugar and brown sugar versions with every hope that they would not make me sick.  Well, I am still alive, and I think it is great!  No funky taste, you can substitute it for sugar straight across, and best of all, it doesn't affect my stomach in a negative way.  Wahoo!

I also love probiotic yogurt.  The kind I prefer is Lifeway Keifer.  It is available in some delicious flavors, is lower in sugar than traditional yogurt, helps with digestion and is just plain yummy.  It does have a unique zing to it that you don't get with regular yogurt, but I find that I enjoy it (some of you may not).  Keifer is my sweet indulgence.  If I feel like I want something for dessert, I generally reach for my bottle of yogurty goodness.

And since I'm on the topic of healthy eating and whatnot (not sure how that happened...oh wait, yes I do) I would like to add that I don't like it all that much.  I mean, I have had loads of compliments on how I look, and I generally feel better, but I still have my frumpy "I feel fat" days.  Ironic?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  The horrible thing about weight is that it fluctuates.  Meaning that although yesterday the scale may have informed me I had lost an additional 10 pounds, today I could be right back up there.  That's pretty mean if you ask me.

But yay for weight loss!  Just don't mention it...

Schnookums...

I'd like to think that once I'm in a nice, healthy relationship--nothing akin to what I've had in the past (with very few exceptions), that I will not fall into the nauseating habit of calling my boyfriend/husband/whatever by nicknames that should only be given to enormously fluffy cats by their charming owners.

There will be no:

Cuppycake
Hunnybunch
Sugarlips
Babe/Baby
Schmooky
Bunny
Smoochy
Poopsy (how that is endearing is beyond my comprehension)
Puddin'
Muffin...actually, no food names...ever
Lovecycles
Kitten
Puppy....no small fluffy animals either...non-fluffy ones are out too
Pookie
Loveling
Sugar
Light of my life  (Gag me with a spoon)
Angel Face
Tootsie
Button
Babycake
Dreamboat

This post may seen completely random to anyone reading this, but I seem to be surrounded by people who are letting the pet names get out of control!
So I am stating this now...I refuse to call my future Sugar daddy/Main squeeze/Macho man anything on this list (or in those previous describers).

And if he's wise...he'll have read this, and will return the favor.

Sugar-free

My friend Stacy Tiney is going without sugar this month, and she asked my co-worker Sharistan and I to do it with her.  So...I am going to avoid sugar for the month of November.  To preface, I can still eat things that have some sugar in them like yogurt, for example, we're just avoiding sweets and things like that.  Stacy is trying to work up to the point where she doesn't even eat things that have sugar in them at all, but that is a work in progress.

No more hot apple cider to heat up my morning...and no Thanksgiving pie either.  It's a darned good thing I don't generally eat a lot of sweets anyway, otherwise this would be difficult!

Stop

It is now November...I can hardly believe it!
It feels like October just started, but in actuality it is a distant memory...more of a vague blur actually.  I spent a good portion of the month playing phone tag with my school mentor, working over time, walking to and waiting for the bus, sitting in choir practice, reading books I still haven't had time to finish, putting off my workouts, talking to really awkward men-folk, going on really short dates, carving pumpkins, decorating cookies and playing games with my ward. 
I'm not sure what is in store for November, but I hope that it is less stressful than October was (though as I read that list I just wrote, it doesn't look stressful).

Go November, Go!