When me and my siblings were little, we would often drive to the beach. I wasn't a big fan of the long 2 1/2 drive on curvy car-sick-causing road with my many siblings, or getting sandy on the beach and driving home with wet clothes after dark. So one trip, my dad told us we were going to "Kristine Rock", giving it a special name to try and entice me to enjoy the trip. We made many trips after that to Kristine Rock, and even though the smell of beans for our traditional picnic lunch of Haystacks didn't set well with me, I felt special enough that I put up with it. Several trips, we rerouted the water flowing from the creek into the ocean, and then came back and found our new waterway had stayed where it was, so we switched it again. My siblings and I still call it Kristine Rock to this day.

red dot is for kristine rock!

The actual location is Fogerty Creek, just south of Lincoln City, OR before you get to Depoe Bay, OR. There is a creek and depending on which side of the driveway you go in, you end up on either side of the creek and can climb on the rock from the south side.

I made E visit with me on one of our Anniversary trips - this is June 2007:

Kristine circa 2007

And on Christmas Day, I took my inlaws to visit. it was a beautiful December day. Clear sky, beautiful waves, and some great photo ops.

click through for Instagram video

And many years later, I still feel special that my dad "named" the rock after me :)

...and that's the story!

 

Last week, I wrote a post about the Back to Basics challenge (#wwbtb) and listed out some of my current goals.

First up, the challenge for this week was Improving Spaces, making areas of my home better able to help me reach my goals. This has been a constant source of the rearrange-a-rama in my house through my journey!

• In the kitchen, I carved out spaces for my medifast meal replacements early on, and then did a major purge of the extras in the cabinets around them. I've been tweaking these cupboards a little more as I have been adjusting to maintenance. Today, I condensed the selection of meal replacements and protein bars into one area, and moved the dried fruits and nuts and smoothie makings to another area. This gave me a little more of a consistent place to grab for the things that match. Yes, that's a big theme for me, "like" things MUST go together, even if the order seems nonsensical to those around me ;) My scale and magic bullet and George Foreman grill are easily accessible on one counter. My measuring cups and spoons are in one drawer and tea is in another. I'm pleased with this setup.
• Another area I made over this spring was my craftbrary/exercise area. It was bookshelves in a guest room, then my craft room, and now my exercise bike and weights are in there. This week, I've been working on straightening for not only ease of exercising but to revitalize my business goals.
• Because one of my new goals is to improve my sleep atmosphere, I've also been trying to keep things clean around my bed. Less clutter gives me less to stress about, theoretically. And less clutter lets me find my sports bras & yoga pants, and actually do the exercises in there!

meal replacements, baking supplies, and less frequent stuff on top shelf

dried fruits, nuts, and smoothie ingredients, with counter-fruits and veggies

The challenge for the present week is all about tracking, and I'll look more at that soon. I'm so deep in the tracking on MyFitnessPal that every bite is documented. I don't trust my body yet to tell me when I'm hungry all the time, though I hope to get more intuitive about this!

So how did I do on my lockscreen goals? I blogged several times. I drank more unflavored water every day. Exercisewise, I rocked it: 4 days on the bike, weights twice, yogastretch and abs three times. and I walked both days of the weekend! My sleep environment is still a work in process - one night, I fought the sleep and got up and played in html for several hours instead, oops. As far as weight goes, I'm up just a tiny bit, but my pants are fitting better, and I am feeling tighter and stronger. Maybe a little too worn out, but I did push myself awfully hard after being less active for a few months. So I'm pretty sure that this will all show that my muscles are forming and needed repair time before I see a balancing effect. Giving and getting support was good. I'm hoping to just continue on with all these things this week, no big change in goals.

I'm feeling proud :) Rededicating my efforts really seemed to help!

 

I'm thinking that this is the year we won't have a Christmas tree. 

The last few years, it's been a lot of work to put up the tree.  It's a fake tree, we've had it since we got married, and it's a good choice for us.  I've poked my arms up a ton getting the lights just exactly how I wanted them.  Last year, I was inspired by the holiday decorations in the New Orleans section of Disneyland and I got a lot of beads trying to recreate that... but it didn't quite come out how I wanted.

We don't spend that much time downstairs, so it feels like if I were to put up a tree, it's just going to be for show when we have E's birthday, and that's about it.  Plus, the exercise bike is in the way, and I *must* keep using it through the holidays.  So space is tight, especially if we have 15 people for E's bday, we need every inch.

Also: this year, we'll be flying to California on Christmas morning.  So no opening presents under *our* tree, we'll have to celebrate earlier together.  We'll celebrate around the tree at my parents house on Christmas Eve, and with E's parents on Christmas day.  This is all very exciting!

Alternate plan: I've got some crocheted garlands and snowflakes and I'd like to put those up with lights on the wall.  I'd also like to put some things up in the office where we'd actually get to enjoy them.  And a wreath on the door with my angel in the middle of course.

Decembers are always stressful with all of the things I feel I *MUST* do, and I'm looking forward to keeping things more simple this time around.  Focusing on health and the spirit of the season is more important, I do believe.

I've been thinking a lot about diets lately, mainly because I went on a big effort for a 'lifestyle change' last year. I say lifestyle change because i intend on it being permanent and making tweaks to improve all the time. A lot of diets have the suggestion of getting support from someone else. Funny thing, several family members are dieting, so they would be a likely choice. But the diets they choose are so different than what I'm doing, it's hard to even compare. I've read a lot of different diet books and one reason I've chosen the changes I have is because my goal is to reduce my cholesterol by decreasing fats and increasing fiber (more fruits and veges, integrating whole grains). And exercise, of course. The end goal really seems to make a difference in the diet chosen, and some of the diets seem easier in the short term but less sustainable. Not that it's all bad to use a plan that's short term, I just have further to go with changes that couldn't be made in a month or two. I still haven't seen enough of a change from my actions and it's a daily challenge. But I am pretty sure it's going to make a difference in my life now and in the future, so I keep trying -and reading a lot about health and new ideas for recipes to keep up with my goals.

The weather has been crazy here in Vancouver, WA in the last few weeks.  So much so that we actually had a White Christmas (yes, I watched part of the movie during the week too).

Like I said in one of my last posts, we went to see Scrooge on the 14th and had snow and blew away.  By the next weekend, it was Eric's birthday party (the 20th) and it started snowing again.  Luckily for us, the party was at our house, because if we had needed to drive home afterwards, we might not have made it - so much piled up while we were together!  From that point on, it just kept snowing and ice-ing for the next week.  We had gone shopping on the afternoon of the 19th (E got off early), and it was a good thing we had lots of leftovers from the party to eat on!

E tried to go into work mid-day on Monday and found his chains from the old car didn't fit the new car as we had hoped.  So his boss came and got him and they went chain shopping but of course everywhere was sold out by then.

Tuesday the 23rd, we had been looking forward to going to church with the family for the Christmas Eve Eve candlelight service.  It was too treacherous to drive, and the church cancelled, too.  That was probably the scariest day for me, I was so worried we were going to have to cancel or postpone Christmas Eve because it was so awful out.  I was calling my siblings all freaked out, but they calmed me down and said it wasn't as bad as it seemed and all that.

Christmas Eve, Megan and Andrew were nice enough to drive us with their Yukon with 4-wheel drive.  So everybody made it to spend the whole evening together, despite the snow in my parents apartment complex.  We had fabulous prime rib, mashed potatoes, ceaser salad that wasn't *tooooo* garlicy this time, and of course, the usually Christmas treats that Sarah and Megan and I made to share.  I did a healthier version of a Christmas biscotti, and some linzer tarts that E put together.  I was actually finishing Sarah's present as we were on our way, and it's as usual: I get too many extra ideas I want to put into a project and try to put them in motion at the last minute and then get rushed at the end.  I need to steal her present back and do a better job of attaching the handles!  We exchanged gifts between siblings AND the parents this time instead of saving some for Christmas.

Christmas day, our plan had been to spend the day with my parents.  All the other siblings have other sides of family to visit, but ours are down in CA, so we didn't have that option.  Without being able to drive in the snow, my parents came and picked us up, and we spent the day together.  We watched The Rock, one of my presents from the night before, and I knitted some and finished weaving in ends of the placemats for my mom (she got 8 on Christmas Eve, and I had 3 more just needing weaving - I need to make at least 2 or 3 more).  E played a game, and I watched some of the House marathon, which was a new show for me because it's always been on up against something else.  Dad made us a delicious breakfast, and we had some good leftovers for dinner.

Finally on the 26th, the snow started to melt.  It still was icey and E got his boss to get him again.  He worked part of the day and then came home and we played games and watched stuff.

Today, I was anxious to get out of the house for the first time on our own in a while.  We had Olive Garden and browsed the mall.  I found the daily calendar I'd been wanting on 50% off.  We walked and visited the library to bring back books and get a few more.  And then I came home and rested more.  I'm getting a cold, and have a sore throat and stuffy nose to go along with it.  So the extra rest was helpful.  We played more games and watched more Buffy commentaries on the 5th season, where we are right now.

I don't have plans for tomorrow, but it seems to keep warming up, so I could leave the house if I wanted to!  That's a blessing :)

I said outloud to E last night that I was actually excited it was only 7 days til Christmas Eve. And I surpised myself by saying that.

The last few years, ive been stressed right up intil Christmas. There is always so much going on, events to go to, gifts to buy, e's bday party to host.

This year, I'm a little more in control of my gifts, the final handmade things are coming together, and I think the drugs i've been in this year are helping too.

I'm really hoping that my health stays good through the next week. And I'm looking forward to seeing the ways I can keep Christ in Christmas, including a church service in Christmas Eve Eve with my family.

I feel blessed!

We had snow yesterday.  With little cyclones of wind to go along with it everywhere. When we drove out to Washougal for our play (Scrooge from the Christian Youth Theater), it got more blustery and snow-covered the further we went. 

This morning at our house, all the snow was completely gone.  It was windy last night, so it seems like it all just blew away.  It certainly didn't get warm enough last night or this morning (it's 24° at 11am) for it to melt!

There's still chances we'll get more this week. It's going to stay cold. My only hope is that it's good enough weather on Saturday for E's birthday party!