Melarky

After three days of no refined sugar I was desperate for something sweet. Disappointment soon followed desperation. The sugar cane wasn’t very good.

I’m at the end of day two of the no refined sugar challenge and it really stinks people. I woke up this morning wanting my sweet cereal and instead I had wheat toast with honey (seems like an old people food the only thing I was missing was a bowl of shredded wheat). I was pretty grumpy when I couldn’t have any cereal so I gave some of my baby’s rice cereal a try. It wasn’t so good. I think tomorrow I’ll try oatmeal with peaches and honey, anythings got to be better than this mornings breakfast.

I’m definitely eating a lot less. I can tell I’m hungry or at least I think that’s what that is…anyway, it’s a feeling I’m unfamiliar with.

Sugary foods I miss and am craving so far; Soda (mostly rootbeer), jam, chocolate, and any cookies.

P.S. Heidi, if your worried about that picture and wondering if I’m eating toast with delicious jam on it, I’m not, that picture was taken a few months ago when we were having that jam tasting party. Remember? Just in case you don’t, here is another picture to remind you. You’re welcome. I just didn’t want you to forget.

Heidi apparently giving a thumbs up to the Windmill Farms Red Raspberry Jam

I hate doing laundry. And I love anything that will make it a bit more bearable. I recently tried the Purex 3 in 1 laundry sheets. I really, really like this product and would continue to buy it if only it was a little cheaper.

What I liked about this product:

• Convenient. Just throw one in with your wash and then transfer the sheet along with your wash right into the dryer. No pouring laundry soap, fabric softner, or worrying about dryer sheets. It was also very handy when my Mom needed to do a load of her laundry and she didn’t have any soap (she needed to go to the store but didn’t have time) so I just popped one in a Ziploc bag for her and she was on her way.
• Clean. I usually drip laundry soap on the top of the washer and dryer but the sheet is totally clean and neat in the handy case. It seemed to clean the clothes just as well as the Tide I usually use.
• Scents. There are three different scents you can choose from. I’ve tried two scents, the Pure and Clean and the Tropical Escape and I liked the Tropical Escape one better.
• Space Saver. Instead of two or three bulky bottles. I just had a skinny container that fit anywhere.

What I didn’t like:

• Price. The starter kit comes with 20 loads. For about $5.00 to $7.00 (I can’t remember the exact price). The refil pack comes with 24 sheets and is only slightly cheaper than the starter kit. Just not a great value. You can get at least 10 or 15 loads MORE for the same price with a different brand.
• Freshness. If I did a larger load the scents didn’t seem to come out with the clothes. These sheets seemed to work best with small-medium loads.

I don’t know why I come up with and then agree to things like this. After talking to my sister-in-law Heidi last night we decided we were both sick of being big so it was time for a challenge. No, its not a Mel Vs. Heidi this time, I don’t even want to know what the humiliation would have been for this one. We just want to support and help each other out. We both have some pretty hefty weight loss goals, so we thought we’d start out small…overcoming our biggest weakness of all, sugar. So all this week were not consuming refined sugar. I’m only a few hours into this challenge and its already kicking my flabby butt! I can tell I’m grumpy without my morning bowl of super sweet cereal. Curse you Heidi!

Heidi and I almost 8 years ago.

This means avoiding all products made with white sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, fructose, and ALL artificial sweeteners.

Even though this particular challenge is a bit extreme, this actually isn’t such a bad idea for me. I need to seriously cut down on my sugar intake. There is a high chance I’ll take after my Dad and develop diabetes. You think watching my Dad shoot himself in the stomach with an insulin shot before every meal would get me to slow down the sugar train but so far it hasn’t.

I’m sure you all would be surprised how much sugar I consume in one day (I guess if you look at the picture below its not that surprising). On a usual day, I’ll eat a sugary bowl of cereal for breakfast, maybe two. If I have toast, I’ll load it with jam. Lunch time. I’ll more than likely have a dessert, a ding dong or cupcake, or some candy from the clinic if I can find it (I have lunch with my hubby everyday at his work where there is usually a jar of candy). And a dessert is a must after dinner. This is usually a pie, cake or cookies. I’ve been making dinner more these days which means I’ll make a dessert too. Most recently, I made the most heavenly chocolate pudding cake I’ve ever had, actually half of it is sitting downstairs on the counter right now tempting me and sucking my will to live. Dessert after every meal isn’t it either, its snacking all day long on sweet things. It really is out of control.

Heidi and I after our most recent Mel Vs. Heidi. Probably not the best picture to use, we just finished running (well one of us did).

This challenge is super hard for me and I think everyone including me thinks I’ll fail. If I make it, I’ll reward myself with something fun. I haven’t thought of it yet. Any ideas? Okay, besides the obvious binge of sugar. Think I’ll fail? Do you think I’ll lose some weight? Any suggestions on what I could have to sooth my sweet tooth that doesn’t have sugar in it?

P.S. No reason for any of you to suffer! (I made this cake Saturday night and it was the best cake I’ve had in a long time!)

It really bugs I somehow deleted the picture of the cake I made. It looked a lot better than this one, but you get the idea.

Chocolate Pudding Fudge Cake

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, milk, oil, water and eggs. Beat for 4 minutes, then mix in 2 cups chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

To make the glaze: Melt the butter and 1 cup chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave oven. Stir until smooth and drizzle over cake.

This is what happens when my sister and I don’t have to watch our kids at the park.

Before it was cool to ride scooters (or at least until it was tolerated due to gas prices), we were riding a 1977 Vespa Piaggo Ciao Moped. Mark bought it from his friends parents back in 96′ or 97′ for $100. They had won it in a raffle around 1980ish, but had only put a little under 300 miles on it in the 15+ years they had owned it.

They agreed to sell Mark the moped if he promised not to ask for his money back when he realized how weak and slow it was. Mark’s dad had mopeds growing up, so Mark knew what to expect out of the little moped and agreed to never ask for his money back as long as they never asked for the bike back.

After Mark went on his mission, it just kind of sat around and didn’t get used and eventually stopped working all together. Because I have places to go and I only want to get there slightly faster than a light jog, I wanted Mark to get it running again. He found some repair guides online and a few sources for parts, and finally got it working yesterday just in time to put it away for winter. I’m so proud of him, for doing it all himself too!

Here’s an awesome Italian ad for the Piaggio Ciao moped:

If any of you Italian speakers can please translate the video for me because I can’t get our moped to shoot lasers out of the head light and increase water pressure, and it doesn’t say anything about it in our English version of the manual.

A little history about this little yellow moped we affectionately call the Yellow Duck (because the horn sounds like a duck quack)…

My husband and I met in art class, Logan High, 1998. He tried starting up awkward conversations and I only responded with short yes or no answers. After all of that indifference he even worked up the courage to offer me a ride to work after school, but I turned him down after seeing his truck and opted to take the bus instead (he read in my journal later that I had turned down his ride with the words written in big bold letters “OH NO, HE’S A HICK!”, but you should have seen this truck he was driving, it had bales of hay, engine parts, and a bath tub with the words “Treasure Tub” painted on it in the bed of the truck, it was girl repellent).

I thought Mark was nice, but it wasn’t until he showed up to school with the Yellow Duck that I really started to notice him. I had never ridden anything like the moped before, so when he offered to let me ride it, I jumped at the chance. It was so fun, I drove it all over the school parking lot, and then went down and drove it on the brand new running track that they had just installed, even quacking the horn at the football team as I passed.

Me in Summer of 2002 and 50+ lbs. ago. And on the right, just reliving the good old days.

When I finished, another friend of ours wanted a turn, so he got on the moped, and got about 10 feet when the police showed up. Since I wasn’t riding the bike when the police showed up, I somehow escaped getting any of the blame, but it was apparently because I rode the moped on the track that they were called (geez, people get so whiny when you ride your motorized vehicle on their brand new track they just spent thousands and thousands of dollars on, pretty unreasonable if you ask me).

Mark, my husband, in Summer 2002, and also 50+ lbs. lighter. And on the right, scooting it up now!

Mark talked with the police officer for a while and ended up getting off with a warning, promising not to ride his moped home but to load it up in his truck (among the hay bales and bath tubs scattered in the back). Watching Mark talk to the police was when I actually knew I liked him. He was just very calm and collected and handled the whole situation really well. He looked so cute over there talking to the cops, that and I wanted another ride on the moped!!!!

The moped is running like a champ now, and everyone is getting their rides in while they still can, even Mark’s Dad took it for a spin! We do still need to do a few things to it for next year. Mainly we need to get all the paperwork done. Mark never did get the registration done on it. In some states you don’t need to title and register vehicles under 50cc’s (the moped has a 49.9cc engine), but apparently Utah isn’t one of those states. We also need to get some new tires for it (the ones on it are cracked and will probably have a blowout any time now).

Action shot of my father-in-law.

Wellington has sure enjoyed the scooter. He’s a great age now for his Dad to take him on rides. He’s old enough that he can stand up and hold on, but small enough that his feet have plenty of room on the foot rest and short enough we can see over him.

Here is “Pappy” taking Wellington around the parking lot.

Before Wells even turned two years old I introduced him to the potty. He liked sitting on the potty reading and pretending he was big, but nothing ever happened. After he turned two I started to try to potty train him. It was slow going. The occasional triumph of going tinkles on the potty resulted in stickers. That worked for a bit but soon the allure of stickers wore off so in my desperation to get him potty trained I upped the ante. First it was stickers then it was candy, then it was hot wheels, yes that got a bit pricey to buy a hot wheels every time he went tinkles, but like I said I was desperate. He did pretty well with this reward and now has a good collection of cars. Eventually, this too lost its charm and he was back to not going at all on the potty. His Dad bought him a loud blinking fire engine to entice him to go poo poo’s on the potty, something that he had never done before, something that apparently was scary and could only be done in his diaper in the privacy of his own room. That fire engine sat on our dresser for months. Occasionally, we’d push a button in front of him, showing him what fun he was missing out on, but he didn’t care, nothing was going to get that kid to go poo’s in the potty, nothing, not even a new bike.

For months a new bike was promised if he went poo’s in the potty. I understand this was a big reward but we were going to get him a bike anyway so it worked out. After months of trying, finally a few days ago I let him have some prune apple juice and as you can see that did the trick!

We still have a ways to go when it comes to being completely potty trained but we’re on our way. I’m so so soooo proud of Wellington and he’s such a big boy and so big on his new bike.

I’d love to hear any potty training suggestions from those that have been through it before!!!!!!!

Really I have so many posts to write and not enough time today. I’ve been meaning to post these videos anyway, this is just the perfect lazy day to do it. I really love making of videos, listening to the commentary on movies, finding out trivia…all those sort of nerdy things. So here are a few videos with the making of videos that go along with them.

Daft Punk-Around the World

The making of

Here are some others:
Weird Al-White and Nerdy and the making of video…

Evain Roller Babies and the making of video…and this one too. Wow what a process!

If anyone knows of some other good ones, let me know.

There is still time to get yourself THE BEST Tigers Blood Snowie in town! Unless it’s closed, then it’s too late.

Last week we found the best place to get a Tigers Blood Snowie. It’s right at the Willow Park Zoo entrance in Logan. It was the hugest, cheapest, snowiest, awesomest, everythingest snowie I’ve ever had.

The snow was so fluffy, so fine, the perfect consistency. The flavor was awesome. We’re big fans of Tigers Blood, so that is the only flavor we’ve tried. You could also put in sweet cream on it for no extra charge. This is what really made it the best.

I thought the prices were awesome. The large one we first got was monstrous, and was $2.75. There are two other sizes, the medium $2.25 (I got this one the day after, that’s right…we went back the very next night to get some more) and a small $1.75.

We talked with the owner(?) while we were there the second time and asked him a bunch of questions:
What do you use for the sweet cream? French vanilla flavored Coffeemate concentrate.
When are you closing? As long as I can make $10 an hour and the sun is out I’ll stay.
Will you be back next year? That depends on the City and how much revenue he made this summer. He mentioned also whoever gets the location has to use these special plastic cups so that zoo patrons who like to liter, wont harm the animals with Styrofoam ones.
Were you here last year? Yes. Last year was his first year at the Zoo location.

Ummm…they were awesome. They are like…ditch-your-dumb-diet, not-share-with-your-kids, wet-your-pants….good. You really need to go try them before they leave for the summer!!!!!! Oh, yeah, and they accept visa and mastercard.