Flo-Rida

(This post has nothing to do with the rapper^)


PICTURE THIS:

Jack and Linds cruising around Tampa in a convertible Camaro with the top down on a beautiful day, jamming to Dre's new album, and them swimming at Clearwater Beach with its pristine, soft white sand, known as one of America's best beaches.  And its all pretty much for free.


Dreamy, right?


Somewhat at the last minute, we took a trip to Tampa, Florida in early August.  Jack was invited there by his job for a conference and they generously paid for everything for the two of us to go to the conference, except for my airfare.  So we could not say no to a virtually free summer vacation!

True, it was more of a vacation for me than for him, since he was mostly in conference meetings and panel discussions while I was by the pool...but still.

So he was invited to attend CAAFP -- Conference of African American Financial Professionals.  And let me tell you, it is reported to me regularly that my mother-in-law of blessed memory used to like to say, "You just can't beat a black man in a suit," and after hanging around this conference, I'm inclined to agree!  What a great-looking bunch!  The only problem with that was that my complexion and beach attire in comparison to all those handsome gents made it all the more obvious that I was only there for the food...

I imagined people at every conference room breakfast, lunch, or dinner, noticing that suddenly this suspiciously under-dressed white lady who somehow has a name badge shows up, looking sunburned, whenever free meals are served to conference attendees.

Yeah, well, it's true.  No shame here.


Besides that, the only problems with our "vacation" was that (1) Jack was tied up in meetings for far too much of the time, and (2) we took practically NO pictures!


On our first day before the conference began, we had a great beach day and experienced the bizarre Florida insta-storm weather.  And we splurged on some excellent coconut shrimp, thresher shark skewers, and gator bites.  I'm fairly confident that alligator falls within our Pescatarian diet, since they are water lizards...yeah, let's go with that.

On our last day we went to the Florida Aquarium-- that place was fun!  A big outdoor-feeling section in a large glass dome was my favorite part, it felt a little like jungle hiking with all the trees and the animals were just right next to you with very low glass separating us, and birds just flying all around.  This section is where we got to pet a baby alligator!

They also have amazing experiences available like going straight from the Aquarium onto a dolphin-finding boat trip, going inside the penguin habitat(!), and swimming in some of the tanks!  If your kid is a future marine biologist, this would be a great place to go on some adventurous encounters.


And they have lemurs.  How many aquariums have lemurs??


At the end of it all, we definitely got some sun, some beach time, some pool time, and some relaxation.  Plus Jack got to "network" ie strike up never-ending conversations with complete strangers, which is pretty much his most favorite thing to do :)  So I'd call that a win!

The Jackson Diet

We’re not picky eaters, we’re just particular eaters!

I have been trying to encapsulate my answer to people’s incessant question, “How did you do it?!” when they find out that, since we’ve been married, Jack has lost over 50 pounds(!!).  Everyone assumes that I keep him on a strict diet at home, and they want to know the secret ingredients.  The truth is, it stems from many things. 

 

First, we exercise together regularly.  We jog a 5K outside by the beach most days a week.  We also enjoy going on long bike rides together, hiking local trails on weekends, and occasionally playing tennis on the courts right down the street from our home.  Nothing too crazy or vigorous; just consistent, moderate outdoor workouts.

Second, he was sent to the E.R. for diabetes earlier this year and after a scare like that, he has really reformed his outlook on food.  He is very disciplined at avoiding sweets, starches, and carbs.  People think that I am depriving him, but I will offer him a bite of my treat and he always refuses!  Its all him!  I’m so proud!

But perhaps most important is the way we regularly eat.  You can be on the treadmill for hours and it won’t make up for a giant milkshake, double meat/double cheese burger, and extra large chili cheese fries.  We rarely eat out, and that alone saves him countless calories (and dollars).   Mindfully preparing our own food means that he gets a lot more produce and nutrient dense “slow food” rather than gross, high carb, hidden sugar, GMO, pesticide-laden fast food. 

The particular way that we have been eating for nearly the past year is full of purpose.  Each area of focus has a medical or nutritional reason.  We joke that we have the medical records of an 80-year old couple, even though we are newlyweds with an averaged age of 35.  Here is how our health profiles influence what we consume:

Diabetes                 ---no sugar added, low glycemic, low carb

Hypertension             ---low sodium, no processed foods

Cancer                   ---all natural, no canned food, high in

                            antioxidants, avoid soy and sugar

Brain Trauma             ---fatty fish, natural fats, DHA and Omegas

Wheat sensitivity        ---gluten free

           

Here are some of our RULES for the market:

1) Mostly Pescatarian—wild caught seafood, eggs, and whole fat dairy.  We do have the occasional organic, free-range poultry— usually when its on sale and we are weary of fish for a minute.  We eat all kinds of seafood—lobster, crab, scallops, mussels, clams (most of which we can get fresh and local as New Englanders!  Lots of shellfish comes from our very own city of residence!).  When we eat fish, it is always fatty fish, as in, NO TILAPIA.  Bleh.  (Watch this video and you’ll think its gross, too…)  Hubby is allergic to white fish (cod, trout, tilapia) and so we mostly eat fish like Ahi tuna and salmon—always wild caught in the US or Canada.

2) High Fat, Low Carb

Yep, we eat lots of oil, nuts, seeds, and even butter—ain’t nothin’ wrong with organic, unsalted, cultured butter!  Yes, the newest research has been confirming again and again that fat –even animal-based saturated fat—does not make you fat!*  Look it up if you don’t believe me.

           

Low glycemic index

                        No juice.  No more than 2 servings of fruit daily.

                        Yams > Potatoes

                        Quinoa > Rice

                        Buckwheat > Wheat

            No sugar added

            No artificial sweeteners.  No natural sweeteners, for that matter!

3) Gluten Free.  What few grains we do eat are whole grain and naturally free of gluten.

            Buckwheat groats, quinoa, GF oats. Organic brown rice cakes or crackers

            Most baked goods I make are with almond meal and/or coconut flour, so they’re grain free anyway.  Paleo recipes are okay because they are typically low carb, but they are absolutely stuffed with coconut sugar (still adds sugar, people!!), which I simply omit from the recipe, and maybe add an extra banana, or extra spices for flavor and just let a bread be a bread, not a sweet bread—if you catch my drift.

4) Nothing artificial at all.

5) Organic produce, unless it has a thick peel and is known to be pesticide resistant, like bananas and grapefruit.  Watch out especially for the Dirty Dozen!  This includes organic eggs and dairy.

6) Local whenever possible.  We have enjoyed picking our own fruit at local farms this summer.

7) Seasonal, except select super-produce that we can’t go without (berries, avocado, banana)

Some other food rules we follow include:

1) Store in glass containers, even glass water bottles.

2) Nothing from cans.  All beans and legumes are rehydrated on the stove.  All tomato sauce is homemade from fresh tomatoes, fresh garlic, and oil; or from organic sauce sold in glass jars.

So what do we eat when we’re hungry?

Jack recognized early on that what he thought was hunger, was actually thirst.  As such, we drink lots and lots of filtered water.  I also like to keep homemade iced herbal teas in the fridge at all times.

(Iced mint and lemongrass tea, chopped mint leaves, the zest and juice of 2 limes.  Mojito tea!)

(Iced Mango-Hibiscus tea with chopped peaches we picked)

Snacks:

            ¼ c of raw, unsalted mixed nuts

            slice of organic extra sharp cheddar

            hard boiled egg (free range, with Omegas)

            Up to 1 cup of fresh berries

            Homemade hummus with carrots and cucumber slices

            Guacamole with broccoli florets or bell peppers

            Garlic-stuffed green olives

            Wild caught sardines on an organic brown rice cake (Jack loves sardines—a man after Grandma’s heart!)

Breakfast:

            Usually eggs with extra egg whites made in a scramble, omelette, or frittata with garlic, veggies, cheese, and organic salsa.

            But if that carb-craving mood comes at breakfast, I have made waffles out of almond meal, spices, eggs, and coconut oil before, or made the following--

           

        A) Creamy buckwheat hot cereal with cocoa powder, walnuts, and chia seeds.

B) Organic Berries; topped with a mix of GF oats, almond meal, ground flaxseed and hemp seed, spices, and coconut oil. Baked.

                        Both generously topped with plain whole milk organic yogurt. (Trader Joe’s European style is my go-to.  Jack prefers So Delicious Unsweetened Vanilla Coconut Milk yogurt because it contains no grams of sugar from lactose.)  This second recipe is a great examples of how we simply omit the sugar or even honey called for in regular or “Paleo” recipes.  If a recipe has a bunch of fruit in it, then why are you adding a bunch of sugar, too?   

We like to make an almond meal/buckwheat flour banana nut bread, sweetened only with mashed bananas.  It is excellent!  Doing it this way boasts the food’s natural flavor and eliminates unnecessary sweeteners of all kinds, even so-called “natural” sweeteners.

Here's an unsweetened spiced quick bread recipe of my own making-- a blend of carrot cake and paleo banana bread, without added sugars.  The carrots were from our farm share.  I believe I used a blend of Almond Meal and some other gluten free whole grain.  Topped with Neufchatel cheese.  We finished the whole loaf within 3 days!

Our Weekly Essentials Grocery List: 

(I re-stock these weekly!)

            Unsalted Nuts

            Avocado or guacamole

            Cheeses

            Tons of vegetables (almost exclusively from our CSA)

            Eggs (organic, free-range, omega rich diet)

            Plain yogurt

This summer we have a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm share from our nearest farm.  Just as an example, we carried out the following from this local farm just in the past two weeks:

Peaches

Blueberries

Arugula

Bok Choy

Onions

Corn on the Cob

Purple Beets

Scallions

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Garlic

Collard Greens

Boston lettuce

Broccoli

Eggplant

Peppers

Cucumbers

Roma Beans

Tatsoi

This obviously really helps us to up our veggie consumption, and helps us try some different things.

Some farm share experimental recipes:

(Cheesy Kohlrabi Latkes)

 ("Mac and Greens" Yam noodles with collard greens baked in homemade cheddar sauce)

 (Succotash salad with corn, black beans, cucumbers, a spoon of salsa, oil, vinegar, spices)

(Blanched zucchini noodles and garlic scrapes in homemade tomato sauce with fresh basil and parmesan)

Some of Jack’s favorite dinners recently have been things like this:

Local soft-shell crab soaked in homemade buttermilk, dredged in almond meal or coconut flour + cayenne, and pan fried in avocado oil.  We serve this with something like a cole slaw made with chopped napa cabbage, shredded carrots, shaved radishes, toasted sesame seeds, feta cheese, and vinaigrette.

Sauteed shrimp and garlic (and whatever leftover veggies we have, like bell pepper strips) with blanched zucchini noodles, in a light sauce of tahini, olive oil, salt + pepper + cumin, and lemon juice.

Boiled lobster tails (Costco road show!) with melted butter, wrapped in Boston lettuce leaves with avocado slices and red cabbage strips.  Very summery served with a little salad of watermelon, mint, and feta.

Farm share eggplant, sliced and dunked in avocado oil + egg white, dredged in almond meal and spices, cooked in air fryer until browned.  Served over a bowl of homemade tomato sauce, topped with Asiago and Parmesan cheeses.  (I don’t like eggplant, but this was delicious!)

Now, I do eat a little bit of high quality dark chocolate on most days, because it is possible I could lose my mind without it ;)  Occasionally I get a hankering for a (small) drizzle of local honey, which is okay.  And of course, we cheat now and again—he will have a nice bison burger served over greens maybe with a small serving of sweet potato fries, I have an ice cream cone from our neighborhood shop—but we have been enjoying the way we are eating so much, and we have seen such positive results, that it is not very difficult to say no to “regular” foods.  We earnestly stick to our plan at least 90% of the time, and don't get too upset about when we struggle.

And that, my friends, is how you lose over 50 pounds in less than a year without going to a gym, without purchasing a meal plan, without counting calories, and without going on The Biggest Loser.  Good luck!

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED READING:

*Grain Brain, David Perlmutter

            -A high fat and even high cholesterol diet does not hurt your heart, rather, it helps your brain!!

In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

            -Eat food, not food-like products

Tiny Veins, Healing Brains

(Sorry for the repeat, this is also on Linds' blog)


BIG follow-up appointments this month.  I spent hours and hours and hours at Yale in the middle of July.  Honestly, most of those hours were spent letting people try to find my veins with needles.  WORST THING EVER.

When I went for my MRI, I had an order in for bloodwork, so they decided to take the blood while they were finding a vein to prepare for when they needed to inject contrast (dye) to make things show up on the MRI better. 

So there I sit in the waiting room wearing, I kid you not, paper pants.  Imagine paper towels…in the shape of pants.  I’m not sure what Yale has against hospital gowns, but paper pants are ridiculous, not to mention freezing cold, especially with how hospitals love to blast the A/C.

So I’m shivering in my new paper towel outfit when I tell the nurse, “Look, I have small veins, so you might as well save us both some time and call your supervisor over to stick me.”  She ignores me.  I know she can’t handle these veins, but she is confident.

Three needle sticks later, she decides to call her supervisor.

And those had not just been polite little needle sticks, but each was a slow stick followed by pulling the needle in and out, and rooting all around under my skin.  Ouch.

The supervisor tries twice more and, rather than admit defeat, she declares me too cold and relegates me to a wheelchair in the corner where she covers me with wet, warm towels.  I was like a big white snow man, with melting paper pants.  Then they forget about me.

Meanwhile, some dude is having a panic attack in the next cubicle, cussing out the nurses, and faking chest pain to get out of his MRI.

Oy.

They remember me again.  This time the floor supervisor tries, declaring, “I prefer to use the bigger needles.”

Why, Zeus, why?

She even uses the ultrasound vein finder machine, but no.  After rooting around and making me bleed everywhere, I have nothing to show but a lap full of bloody gauze and alcohol pad wrappers…and three more bruises in my hands and wrists coming on.

Believe me when I say that repeatedly hearing the phrase, “Oh, I blew out another vein!” is seriously disturbing. 

Her one accomplishment was drawing some tubes of blood from a vein in my hand.  IN MY HAND.  So much pain...  I just don’t think that is supposed to happen.  My purple and green hands and wrists confirm this belief. 

Then they forget about me again.

And finally, an expert from anesthesiology comes in, and even she needs to try twice.  She implements the slap the patient’s arms silly approach, which is rather painful considering my arms and hands are full of holes at this point.  Then finally, FINALLY I get an IV in for the MRI. 

Meanwhile, I’ve blown hours past my MRI appointment and my oncologist appointment.  It literally took hours to get one, stupid IV in.  At Yale-freaking-hospital.

Fortunately, after having done everything in my power to not cry for the entire morning, things did get better.

After the MRI, I was ushered right in to see my neuro-oncologist (he is awesome)—apparently he sent out search parties to see what the heck was taking them so long to start the MRI (a very good question, dear doctor).  He and his assistant reviewed the images immediately.  Although nobody to-date has been able to give me a definite “cancer-free” assessment because of all of the post-surgical blood muddling up the MRI scans, my doctor was confident that all he could see on my scans this time around is scar tissue, no polyps or unusual things of any kind.

His confidence is so reassuring.  Nicest of all, he gave me some advice—which Jack is very quick to remind me of—he said, you should not be thinking about this every minute of every day, don’t be afraid to live your life.

That was a powerful moment for us.

At Jack’s request, the doctor also gave the green light to go on the kiddie rides at Six Flags, which had someone doing a victory dance… (Hint: not me)

 Boy, do I have a lumpy dome, or what??

And my poor little boneless, metal plate section at the back :-(  Did you know that the metal pinches my muscles back there a bit, so I can’t lay down with the back of my head pressing directly into the pillow?  True story.  I need to have a cheek facing down or else its ouchy…and sometimes I can hear the plates and mesh clicking, which is all kinds of weird. 

I liked this^ because of the pretty colors.  They’ve given me this image in black and white, but this was the first time I’ve seen it in all of its colorful glory, and it is much more fabulous this way.

The Berkshires

Like a rustic, hiker-friendly Hamptons, the Birkshires are a mountain range in north-west Massachusetts where plenty of folk from NYC, Boston, and elsewhere retreat for some peace and quiet, while still having some classy restaurants and an impressive arts scene.

While I was getting ready for work on Friday, Jack was on his laptop and asked what I thought about staying at a BandB this weekend in the Berkshires-- of course I said YES!

So we had a very spur-of-the-moment Memorial Day weekend trip that included amazing food, a Rhubarb Festival (rhubarb-based chili contest!), state park after state park, hiking on the Appalachian Trail, and a lovely Bed and Breakfast. 

We were so impressed that as soon as we started driving away, we began making plans for what weekend we can return!

Visitors

Way out here, we had west coast O'Neill-Price visitors!

First of all, everyone's favorite missionary --Elder Baby Evan--  came home from Argentina! :DDDD

And Baby Evan had never even met his new favorite brother-in-law!  So a trip out east was absolutely required!  And my mom and grandma could not imagine someone in the family going out east who was not them, so we got to have all three visitors!

And, boy, was it a visit-- they wore us out!

We saw a Red Socks game at Fenway Park on Boston Day.

We ate lobsta' at the Barking Crab in Boston.

We went to Silver Sands State Park and walked on the exposed sandbar to Charles Island at low tide.

We saw the Weir Farm National Historic Site, which included a little hike.

We ate loads of Frank Pepe's Pizza in New Haven.

We saw the Yale Glee Club and Camerata perform beautiful music at Woolsey Hall on Yale Campus

We did Family History with the Billion Graves App (super cool!) at the Milford Cemetery and also down at the Manhattan Temple.

We ate lunch at a Manhattan Farmer's Market and saw the Lincoln Center.

We walked around Trinity Church and Wall Street, NYC, and caught a peek of the 9/11 Memorial.

We pretty much did it all.


THANK YOU FOR THE VISIT!

Diabetes!

No more Shake Shack for us!

A few weeks ago, sweet Mr. Jack had some routine blood work done and when he looked at his results online, he could not believe his eyes and made an appointment with his doctor for the very next day.  At that appointment, his doctor made him report to the Emergency Room (a procedure we are all too familiar with in this little family...).


The problem was that his blood sugar was CRAZY high.  Like, unbelievably high.

So lets talk about a little blood sugar measurement called your A1C score.  According to the Mayo Clinic, these are some guidelines:

SCORE
4.5 - 6 = Normal
5.7 - 6.4= Pre-diabetes
7+ = Diabetic

Many people with Diabetes have a treatment goal of getting their score below 7 with medication, diet and exercise.  Also note that this score is measured within one's blood cells and so it is actually an accumulated measurement of your blood sugar levels over the past 3 months or so.  In other words, your A1C score signifies what your average blood sugar levels have been for a long time, unlike doing a finger-prick blood sugar measurement which only shows your blood sugar level at that exact moment.

Armed with this knowledge, guess what my sweetheart's A1C score was on his bloodwork was?  Just take a wild guess.  6.5?  Nope.  7?  Nope.  8?  Get this...SIXTEEN POINT FIVE.  Yes, 16.5.  That's like, off the charts.  His doctor thought it was an error.  Every nurse who kept checking and re-checking each said the same thing, "I have NEVER seen a score that high!"

Leave it to us to break new ground in the medical field...

So Mr. Jack was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.  This is not too surprising because he has a very prevalent family history of this disease.  But what was so strange to me was that we don't even really eat sweets, and we only eat whole grain carbs.  So I was really baffled by how his blood sugar could be so high.  Well, what followed our ER visit were three days full of guilty confessions such as,

"Well, you know how I told you I sometimes eat 2 or 3 oranges in one day... well, its really more like 5 or 6, maybe even 7 oranges in one day, most days a week..."

"Okay, I did stop for a giant stack of pancakes those days I had to wake up early..."

"That bag from Dunkin' Donuts you found in the car was mine, not my nephew's..."

Then there was the time when a nurse asked him if he ate sweets and he stated, "Ice cream is definitely a favorite of mine, and I eat it frequently."

Uhh...We haven't bought ice cream the whole time we've been married!

"Yes, I must admit that when I take Seth to the doctor every week, we stop to get ice cream and usually some other treat, too."

Oh, my.



Since then, Jack has enrolled in a long-term study at Yale where he gets regular checkups with a top endocrinologist.   We feel very fortunate to have gotten a grip on things before he really became ill.  In hindsight (isn't it always that way?) we have noticed some signs that something was not quite right.  Even now, he gets some achy pains inside, and his vision gets a little blurry since his blood sugar levels and blood vessels are changing and adjusting so dramatically- but this time they are changing for the better.



Don't worry, he is doing well and has certainly learned his lesson!  He had a BIG scare when we had to go to the ER for monitoring.  Since then, he has been so incredibly diligent with his diet, and his blood sugar scores have been in a steady fall, and are now in the Healthy zone.

Within a week of our ER trip, we (1) Joined a gym, (2) Went to a yoga(!) class together, and (3) He asked ME if we could do a farm share/CSA this season!  And I thought I would be begging him to pay for a CSA!  Who is this man??  He's great!

Now I am the one who is sneaking sweets, so I don't tempt him!

Moving On Up

Linds' Improved State of Being:

-- I am no longer wiped out until the next day if I exercise a bit
-- I sleep a normal 8-9 hours per night, instead of 9-11
-- I don't need a nap every day anymore
-- I have felt MUCH more like myself over the past month
-- Ergo, I have been SO BORED lately

So...

I got a new job!

It is perfect.  It is part-time, so I am not too stressed or over-worked, and I get to do Child Advocacy with a wonderful organization that I have respected for many years: CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates).  I am so glad to be back in an area of law that I always wanted to be back in- AND at a manageable pace.  And they pay me!  WHOA!

We are very pleased :-)

And that sweet hubby has been chauffeuring me to my office at the courthouse because he is scared of me driving in snowy weather (probably rightly so)-- what a sweetheart!


PLUS, this week we celebrated my Mardi Gras Birthday!  Doctor says to avoid sugar, so instead of baking an ENTIRE cake that I would invariably eat within a couple days, we went to Claire's CornerCopia (my favorite!) and chose a slice from their gorgeous cakes.  They even provided a candle!

Here's to MORE BIRTHDAYS for everyone-- kids in danger, cancer patients, and ME!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to one and all, and many blessings to you in the New Year!

I am feeling well— not quite my normal self yet, and I still get tired easily, but my bald spots are re-populating and I survived a very nauseating encounter with the flu and I’m definitely on the up and up.  Thanks to everyone for your well wishes, especially over the holidays.  It was so fun for us to receive Christmas cards from so many loved ones over our first married Christmas.

NOVEMBER

Early in November, my mom leaked an image of a t-shirt she designed for our family to wear at the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day Race in Long Beach, California.  I knew the whole family worshipped our Baby Gwen, so our Thanksgiving running team was to be called Gwennie’s Gobblin’ Gang, but to my amazement, our team shirts had me written all over them…literally.  The text was in our wedding colors, the shirts had a Philly LOVE statue replica spelling out “CURE.”  The shirt itself was gray which, like its pink breast cancer cousin, is the color representing brain cancer awareness.  And then in great big letters it read as follows: Gwennie’s Gobblin’ Gang runs for Brain Cancer Awareness and LINDSEY.

 

Here's Miss Gwennie herself with her sweatshirt saying "Go Aunt Lindsey!"  What a doll she is!

And Gwennie's Gang spanned the entire US-- from Long Beach, CA, to 35 degree weather in VA, and states in between!

Whoa.  There is something about having your name all over people’s chests –not against their will—that feels…powerful/awkward/humbling.  Seeing the gray-clad runners and walkers really made visible the fact that so many people think of me, pray for me, and love me.  It was an unexpected jolt of support, so THANK YOU to Gwennie’s Gang for making me feel so supported!  Once again, I have the greatest family in the whole world.  And my mom even collected donations for The Breathing Room Foundation in Pennsylvania which gave me a grant while I was receiving radiation.  So great!

December I

You probably heard about our disastrous experience at our home…picture this: a single-family house in New England that is near the ocean, not insulated, and has no fireplace and no working heater, IN WINTER.  Really, really bad.  So we had the great pleasure of moving (I HATE MOVING!!!!) to avoid freezing to death.  But we are really happy with our new place and Mom and Dad even helped us put on the finishing touches because…

December II

Mom and Dad came from California to stay with us for Christmas!  We went to New York City because, according to Clarence, “There is nothing like Christmas in New York!”  We saw the big tree at Rockefeller Center, had a smashing meal at 21 Club while a brass band played carols in the restaurant, and marveled at the bustling shoppers down 5^th Avenue—especially inside Tiffany’s and FAO Schwartz.  Because who can resist toys and diamonds in Christmas Eve?

We also popped up to Boston for a day to complete their Eastern tour.  So glad to have some extra Price’s on the Right Coast this year!  Please come back!  And that means you, Evan, when you are back with us in the USA!  We had a little error in calculating the time change, so Evan called me on my iPad during church from Argentina and I basically disturbed every last Sunday Schooler by running around the church trying to get the best internet reception.  Sorry, not sorry.

December III

Since we got married this summer, we have been meaning to go down to Georgia to get me acquainted with more of the Jackson Family.  We wish it had been under happier circumstances, but we made the trip sooner than expected to attend a dear uncle’s funeral.  Our only mistake was driving to Georgia…that is one heck of a long drive…  But the family was so kind to me and I got to meet tons of cousins, aunts, and uncles I never knew I had!  Get this—both of my husband’s parents had FIFTEEN children each born into their families while growing up!  FIFTEEN!!  I could NOT believe this when my sister-in-law told me!  So, yeah, LOTS of cousins!  And we got some real gems from Uncle LeRoy: old family photos that we are restoring and using as we work on putting together Clarence’s complicated and expansive Family History.  Of course we will post them when they are restored!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!