Meatless? Me???

I have been looking more and more at what I eat. I am learning so much, and I have really realized that you are what you eat. You will get out of your body what you put in. I keep hearing so much about how many hormones are injected in our meat and all they junk that is in it. Honestly, P and I cannot afford to eat all organic. But, I have realized that I can eat less meat. Being a true Southerner, I have eat meat at almost every single meal most of my life. Growing up, we had meat, a starch, and a vegetable at every single dinner. We could not afford to eat out, but my mom made sure we had some well balanced meals. A few weeks ago I spoke with a friend who has been doing some research and she was telling me that in countries that don't consume much meat, and have a diet higher in veggies and grains have a much lower rate of cancer and obesity. After talking with my friend, I started going meatless on Mondays, which is not something that I had ever done. I have been so used to having meat so much that if there was no meat on the plate, it just seemed like a snack to me. But I have been feeling great, so I have decided to go meatless on Monday's and Friday's. Plus, I have been much more discerning about the meat that I do it.
I know that going meatless is not the answer to all the food questions I have, but I feel like this a major step in the right direction for me.

Reminiscing (Warning: Long Post Ahead)

My mom called me on Thursday night to let me know that my great aunt passed away. The funeral service is on Sunday evening. Around lunch time today I hopped in the car and drove about 2 hours to where she was living to be with my family. So here I am, laying in bed with going over the days events. Here is the back story--
My grandmother had 9 brothers and sisters, 5 boys, 5 girls. The boys all passed away when I was young. Now, there are 3 of the 5 girls left. The first of the girls to pass away was my precious grandmother, who died when I was in middle school. We lost her to lung cancer, a terribly nasty disease that sucks the life out of its victims, and leads to much pain and suffering in the final months. My aunt E that passed away on Thursday was the youngest of the 5. She has been living for the last 4 years with her sister, my other great aunt H, who is an angel without wings. See my great aunt H, is one of the kindest souls you will ever meet. Her husband passed away 2 decades ago and she has been living on her own ever since. When my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, my aunt H packed up a suitcase, locked up her house and moved in with my grandmother and took care of her for 2 years while she was sick. For 2 years, she put her life on pause to take care of her big sister. My aunt H provided so much comfort to my grandmother while she was sick. Then, 4 years ago my aunt E took a terrible fall and got sick. So my aunt H asked her if she wanted to come and live with her, and she said yes. For the last 4 years my aunt played sister, comforter, nurse, mother, doctor, and therapist to a physically and in the end mentally ill woman. She fed her, bathed her, stayed up nights with her, and even changed her diapers in the final weeks of her life. Aunt H did all of this, without asking for anything in return.
After my grandmother passed away I started spending the summers with my great aunt H. She lives in this quaint town with 1 small grocery store, and no police station. I spent my summers running up and down the main roads with my cousins. I stayed up late and watched scary movies with her, and then when I was too frightened to go to bed, she let me sleep with her. In a way she became my surrogate grandmother. So many memories of my childhood are wrapped up in her. Being here in her house, in her town, its like a damn has broken and hundreds of memories are filling my mind. Some good, some bad, some in between.

I had big plans last night. Plans to rest. Crazy week at school, track starting, so long days and late nights. I got home last night around 6:20, took the dog for a walk. My plan was to make dinner and veg out. P was laying on the couch with aches and a fever. I made dinner then decided to get dinner ready for tonight, just to make it easier. Yes, done. Everything was done. The house was clean, my bags were packed, all I needed to do and all I wanted to do was take a steaming hot shower, grab my book and lay in bed. (If you are an animal rights activist, you might want to stop reading now.)
Life had other plans that involved a shot gun, a skunk, my sick husband walking in the field with said shot gun, and a very stinky dog.
Yep, our dog got sprayed. It was cold and rainy so I had to take the dog inside to give him a bath. A bath that lasted almost 45 minutes and used ALL of the hot water. Here is the bathing cycle, dog shampoo, rinse, vanilla, rinse, bath and body works products, rinse, more dog shampoo, rinse. For a dog that loves water, this dog hates a bath. By the time we were done, my shirt and shorts were soaked, I used about 5 beach towels, and there was about an inch of water on the floor. While I was bathing our dog, P was in the pasture looking for the culprit, and was unable to find him. I ended up coming in taking a cold shower, put on my p.j.'s and collapsed into bed.
When I got up this morning the yard still smelled like skunk.

15 hours

We woke up this morning to the alarm going off at 3:30 A.M. Quickly we got up and brushed our teeth, washed our faces, and jumped in the car. 15 hours later, we have reached our destination stop 1. We are in Colorado for 3 days. A little bit of whirl wind tour of the state if you will. I am on spring break this week and P had an opportunity come up in Colorado, a chance to network with some people he has been keen to meet. So here we are. And I must say I was not thrilled with the prospect of spending 30+ hours in the car on my week off. You see, I hate to drive, I really do. My commute to work is right at 100 miles round trip every single day. My carpool friends and I figured out that we spend upwards of more than 24+ days a school year commuting to work. Thus, my disdain for being in the car. Anyways, when this opportunity came up, I was ready to kiss P on the cheek, say adios, and spend a luxurious week doing nothing. Just sleeping in, cleaning my house, playing with my dog, and reading by the river in the balmy 80 degree weather we are currently experiencing here in TX. But, I told P if he asked me to go, that I would go. Well, he asked and I said yes. And I have spent the last two weeks ticked off about how I would spend my spring break. Trust me, I can hold a grudge like no one else. But I gave P my word, and so I stuck to it, I have just not had a happy heart in the process. Due to the drive, we have had plenty of time to talk and I felt convicted so I asked P for forgiveness for my bad attitude and for being angry with him for asking. He graciously forgave me, and has spent the last 15 hours doing his best to entertain me and keep me occupied. This day has been long, but P stayed super positive, and even appeased me while I was being a pouty brat, because he knows how hard this is for me. So tomorrow we hop in the car again, drive another few hours, spend some time with some folks until Tuesday, hop in the car again on Weds and drive to another location. Spend a few hours there, then hit the road home.
Now I plan on working out and remaining on my feet until bed time.
AHHH

And thanks P for your patience with me.

Hectic

It is March 8th. Holy stinkin cow. This has been a crazy few weeks. I feel like I have not had a minute to sit down and think. It started with our retreat at school. We take our kids on an overnight retreat which is a blast, just jam packed. After our retreat our school had our re accredition, which added a major level of stress to our already packed schedule at school. We are a private school, and we are accredited by the state, as well as an international private agency. They came for 2 days, interviewed parents, teachers, students, and faculty. They observed our classes, looked at our financials, analyzed our admin, teach staff and techniques, curriculum, and a ton of other stuff. The full report comes out in June, but we had a meeting with the accreditation team after school one day and the preliminary report they gave before leaving was amazing. Basically, at the end of the accreditation, the team explains 2 things, one is things the school does well, the other are major areas in the school that need improvement. Our results--nothing! In the past 60 years that this organization has been around, they have never gone to a school and left with no major recommendations for improvement. WOW! All of our hard work has paid off. It is an amazing acclaim for our school.
Then we have been at a conference the past 3 days. No rest or weekend for the weary I guess. The conference has been great. I have learned a ton and feel re energized, but now I am tired. 3 days of non stop packed days have left me spent. Plus, my bff had her baby last night! She called me when she went into labor and and I ran out of the conference to go to the hospital and got to be there for her labor (just the part before the pushing) and then to see a healthy baby boy!