Sometimes I just can’t believe the sweet, amazing, talented ladies I find myself surrounded by. Cat Mayer never ceases to amaze me!

All of the photos are up from wedding #2 and they are AMAZING.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the lessons I’ve learned. I think the real life lessons – the one’s that sear themselves into our core, that we will never forget – are learned under distress. These are the lessons that are forced upon us in situations we would never choose to place ourselves in. But I think this is exactly why we walk through fire and come out thankful – we are forced to grow. This is why I am thankful for the pain I’ve been through – I am not the person I used to be and that is SUCH a good thing.

Yesterday I wondered to my friend HOW exactly it was that I lived through the last three years. Now that I’m through them, I wonder how I made it that long hoping and wishing and praying and holding on? That was valuable time, but I am so glad I’m through it.

I learned patience. I learned how to hope and what faith really is – after so many years of being confused about it. I learned about who I am; I know myself when I never did before. I discovered that God is, indeed, real. And I learned about love.

Love is not a feeling. It might begin like one, but love, real love, doesn’t start until after the feeling leaves. You really love someone when you make a choice to love them. Loving someone is choosing to extend yourself for them. And loving can be really, really hard. Maybe the hardest thing you will ever do. Love is work – but it is the most fulfilling and worthwhile work you could do. There are not different kinds of love, just different faces to the same coin. When you do the work of loving someone – choosing every morning when you wake up that you will love them – your own heart is healed in ways you could never imagine. Even though you are emptying yourself to love, the process of doing it fills you back up.

Falling in love is magical. But the real stuff starts when things get gritty, when you see someone at their worst and you choose to love them anyway. Loving is giving someone the power to hurt you. It is very risky and it is worth the risk.

I’ve been hurt and I’ve been abandoned – someone didn’t choose to love me when the feelings disappeared – but I still believe wholeheartedly in love. I still choose to love. It’s love that healed me.

Day two was a little better than day 1. I woke up feeling nauseous but that subsided by mid-morning. I made the V28 juice which I think was supposed to be similar to V8, but it wasn’t very good – kind of tasted like dirt. By the end of the day I had a little energy and felt ok. The cravings weren’t too bad and Danielle and I went on a 1.5mile walk. She is a day ahead of me and was down 4.5lbs by day 3. I don’t have a scale and haven’t been to the gym to see what my loss results (if any) are.

Day three was rough. I woke up in the middle of the night with strong anxiety and a sense of dread about the fast. In the morning I woke up nauseous again. The anxiety came back off and on throughout the day (which isn’t normal for me at all) and by the end of the night I had really low blood sugar and felt terrible even though I was either eating or drinking something every few hours. I seriously considered quitting the fast. The cravings were gone, but the fruits and vegetables didn’t seem like enough to sustain me through out the day.

The v28 has been the only recipe from the site that I haven’t liked so far. I’m thankful that I love all veggies and I did LOVE the seaweed salad:

1 cup Soaked Arame Seaweed
2 Tbsp Flax Oil
1 Avocado
1 Tomato
1/4 Red Onion, finely chopped
1 Carrot, chopped or shredded
Parsley, finely chopped
Fresh Lemon Juice
Sea Salt
Dash of Cayenne

Add all ingredients together in bowl, mix and enjoy.

So yesterday I started a 15 day fruits & veggies fast. My friend Danielle told me about this great documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead and after I watched it, I was sold on the idea of a fast. It was pretty amazing how these two men reversed some pretty serious diseases and lost TONS of weight by juicing. Danielle was totally sold on the idea of doing the fast too so we decided to give it a go.

I started with the Reboot Standard fast which is 5 days of fruits & veggies and fruit & veggie juice, 5 days of just juice and 5 more days of fruits & veggies/juice. I am not totally sold on the idea of just juice for 5 days, so I’m giving myself the option to possibly eat during that time.

I’m trying to follow the suggested meal plan. I knew I’d have an easier time sticking to the diet if I knew exactly what I was going to eat and when. I like every vegetable, so it seemed like a good plan for me.

Yesterdays meals looked like this:
Breakfast: pear
snack: Green Juice – kale, spinach, apple, celery, cucumber, ginger (pictured above – it was actually quite good and full of protein thanks to the kale and spinach)
Lunch: cold carrot-ginger soup – which I loved (I juiced carrots and then blended the carrot juice with an avocado and some spices), a giant salad with homemade honey mustard vinaigrette.
Snack: a plum and a banana
Dinner: Steamed broccoli, snow peas and carrots with homemade sesame ginger dressing. The rest of the carrot soup. Some fresh coconut.

By the end of the day I kind of felt flu like and very lethargic. These symptoms are very typical of the first few days as my body cleanses itself. My stomach was very bloated and uncomfortable too. I felt full but not satisfied. All I wanted was something with grain – the kids were eating giant pretzels and I WANTED one.

Friday night Carrie,the kids and I loaded up my Xterra and headed to Delta, the next town over, to watch the double feature at the drive-in. Before pulling in to the movie, we headed to Sonic for dinner. (I rarely eat fast food and rarely eat at chain restaurants – I try to only eat at local restaurants as much as possible. But I have been CRAVING the Chicago Dog at Sonic – it is SO good!) As we pulled up to Sonic, we were happy to see the drive-in spaces FULL of vintage cars. It was SO fun!

After we enjoyed our delicious hot dogs (Chicago for me, New York for Carrie and Chili Cheese for the kids – they are their father’s kids) we headed to the movie.

We backed the Xterra in, laid down the back seats and set up a comfy little camp. The movies were Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Cars 2 which were perfect for the kids. Carrie and I fell asleep during the last movie, but the kids went strong all night, probably fueled by all the sugar they consumed. The movie starts at dark which put us home (after the 30 minute drive) around 1:30am.

I have to say, it was one of the MOST fun nights we’ve had all summer. Definitely a summer tradition we will continue every year.

(now I’ve got to run like 10 miles to burn off the hot dogs and popcorn!)

I spent last weekend working on a quilt for a much anticipated baby. My friend Rickelle chose all the fabrics for her baby quilt – which I love. We’re leaving the binding off until the baby is born in the next week or so and we find out if it’s a boy or a girl. If it’s a girl, the binding is definitely going to be HOT pink, which I think will be darling.

The fabrics are a collection of Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry. I’m not sure what the black and white damask is, I bought it in NYC at Purl for Amy and she donated it to the quilt. The finished size is going to be approx 44×60 – It feels big but I think it’s a great size to last a kid a long time. I quilted the back with diagonal lines and I really like how it turned out. I just followed the bar on my quilting foot to determine the distance between each line.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and can’t wait to get the binding on and wash it up so it gets all puckery and wonderful!

Amy and I also have spent some time sewing little birds for the baby’s mobile. I’m so excited about this project! We got the idea and the pattern from Spool and it is turning out SO cute.

Yay little baby! I can’t wait to meet you!

I’m starting to filter though the wedding pics I took in Wyoming. I’m not happy with the colors yet, but here are a few:

this one is my favorite

My dear friends Seth and Carrie made a video for Gain’s Facebook Contest and they are in the top 25 with a really great chance to win a million bucks. Please help them win by voting for their video everyday until August 1st.

Here’s the link

You have to allow the Gain app through facebook and then go back to that video to vote for it.

Thanks so much!!

Saturday night we decided to head out on an impromptu camping trip with my aunt and uncle and my newlywed cousins. The kids and I had a wonderful relaxing time – it was just what we needed.

My cousin and her new husband carved their initials into a tree.

clover, my cousin’s dog

don’t know what my uncle was demonstrating here

Honor loves Scott, my cousin’s husband. He is craving his dude time lately. Scott was really patient and took the kids fishing which is basically a practice in changing lures and untangling line.

I feel so lucky to live in a place where I can drive for less than an hour in nearly any direction and be in such beautiful mountains.

Friday was another yard sale-ing success. Amy is not only my canning friend but she is also my yard sale-ing friend. We go at least every other Friday all summer long and it is one of my very favorite things to do… evar.

Chairs before

Our last score was a set of wooden chairs. We split them up, each taking two for the front of our houses. There was a little damage done to the wood by what appeared to be a very large dog, but Amy’s husband took care of that really easily with his saw.

Amy’s look so darling in front of her house.

I painted mine aqua to match my fluorescent steps. They still need a touch up and I have little patio area planned for the space underneath them (just as soon as I can talk someone into helping me with it!).

(if you look very carefully, you can see Dexter peeking his little weenie head out the curtains.)

I’m feeling a little discouraged with the state of the outside of my house… it’s so much work to keep up with by myself. But these chairs gave me some much needed inspiration and motivation.