A few weeks back I made mention to changing my diet to help overcome some of the obstacles I face with my secret pain, endometriosis.

After giving the medical field more than their fair chance to treat me like a lab rat, I’ve decide it’s time I take matters into my own hands.

The plan I am about to outline to you will seem somewhat unattainable. Truth be told, it is. Which is why I am using it more as a stringent guideline that I follow as best I can.

I mean, no one, including me, honestly believes I am going to completely give up coffee, chocolate or alcohol, so why set myself up for failure? Plus “guideline” sounds so much less depressing.

My new nutrition plan’s “guidelines” do not allow me to have any of the following items:

- Red meat

- Dairy (including cheese)

- Wheat or product containing flour (gluten)

- Refined sugars and honey (including chocolate)

- Alcohol

- Coffee

- Fried food

- Soy products

- Additives and preservatives

All of these items cause inflammation, increased estrogen levels or negative prostaglandin (I don’t know what that last one means… but it sounds really bad!).

Again, these are guidelines I am following as best I can.

At first glance you might be wondering what the hell else is there to eat?

Well I’ll tell you.

TACOS!

They have to be chicken… and in a corn tortilla… and without cheese. But, TACOS! I love TACOS and they are totally doable! So are vegetables, rice, fish, salads, vitamins and almond or rice milk (no soy remember?).

Yeah, so don’t worry about me finding enough to eat. The guys at the local taco cart are getting to know me VERY well.

Dos pollo tacos por favor, senior!

Plus since I came to the conclusion wine totally isn’t alcohol (it’s fruit, duh!), I’m pretty sure this is a diet nutrition plan I can stick to!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Healthy shmelthy, Just me

Spring Semester 2010 starts today for me. This semester I am trying something a little bit on the scary side for me. My work has graciously agreed to let me cut my hours back and I will now be taking classes back to back on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Cutting my hours obviously means taking a cut in my pay. This is incredibly scary because I am also upping my credit hours and therefore my tuition.

Yikes!

But you know what? I’m not stressing about it. Well, a little. But I am applying for scholarships and I’m in the system to get financial aide (although it looks like I won’t qualify). Things are definitely going to be tight, but I will find a way to make it work!

To be honest I am really excited about this semester. It is all classes that go towards my communications degree and will also carry over into my daily life.  So while additional hours and less income is scary, I am more excited than anything.

I feel like I have momentum.

I feel like there could actually be an end in sight.

The end being years away, but still, I see it and that’s the point.

Right?

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Back to School

Last week, for my fathers birthday, my sisters and I took him out to experience something he has never tried before…

SUSHI!

That’s right, my dad just turned 58 and had never eaten sushi before. Fortunately for him, he has lovely daughters willing to introduce him to new and wonderful things! The best part was that he loved all of it, even the nagiri which I don’t particularly care for.

My mother, who was experiencing sushi for the first time as well, is not quite the raving fan.

Oh sure, she put on a brave face and was a good sport, but I think it is safe to say she will not be rushing out for more anytime soon. I told my sisters she would not like the nagiri, but they kept insisting she try it so she finally agreed to take “just a small bite”. Only you don’t normally take just a nibble of a large slab of raw fish. But she did, and sure enough right after her small bite she promptly, but discretely, spit it out!

We are not all cut out for eating raw fish.

I do give both of my parents mad props for trying new things. I mean, it’s not like they are college students experimenting with mind altering drugs or their sexuality, but they were going outside of their comfort zone of meat and potatoes and that’s a pretty brave thing to do.

Happy birthday Pappa! You don’t look a day over 40.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Loved One(s)

If I was an attentive blogger who was on top of her shit, this list would have been posted before the new year. However I am NOT a blogger who is on top of her shit, so you get it now.

My 2009 year in review.

January: I entered into my second semester of college. I started out the year single, but became reunited with an old flame who I dated 1.5 years earlier. Cautiously we started dating but it wasn’t long before I was head over heels for him. Karina promised to “cut him” if he hurt me.

February: ED and I celebrated Valentines Day a little early because I was going to be gone over the holiday hiking in Moab with my friends. It was my first time hiking there. I loved every second of seeing the beauty around me and I even finished a grueling 8.5 mile hike!

March: I continued taking baby steps with my relationship with ED until he dropped a bomb on me and asked me to go with him to the country to meet his family. I nearly had a heart attack when he asked me but happily agreed to go. To say this was a HUGE step for us would be an understatement.

April: The full swing of school and all of it’s stresses started to take it’s toll on me, like it does every semester. I documented shaving my cat Aurora. I do this a couple of times a year, but this was the first time I actually took pictures.

May: After finishing the semester with a 4.0, ED and I decided to celebrate by taking a trip to Zions National Park. We had an absolutely amazing time. We both love to hike and it was the perfect weekend get away. Karina the Russian often meets me for lunch and she took me for the perfect picnic lunch in the park with her kiddos.

June: I got a tattoo that I had been talking about getting for TWO YEARS. It turned out absolutely beautiful! In fact, a few weeks after getting it a stranger recognized me at a festival because she read it on my blog. It totally made my day. ED finally decided it was time to start taking me around his friends.

July: What a busy month! I launched my new blog (the one you see here today. My old one can be found here) with a great deal of help from my friend Sarah who I am forever indebted to. I attended my older sisters bachelorette party where there was fire dancing and her “Non-Conformist Hippie” wedding. I went to BlogHer in Chicago! A conference completely devoted to blogging and booze. It was overwhelming, but such a fun adventure. While I was gone I let a man take over my blog. When I returned I got in a fight with Karina the Russian and made up with her.

August: Yet another busy busy month. I turned 22… again. ED turned 30 and to celebrate both of our birthdays we took an amazing trip to MEXICO! While I was gone I had two amazing guest bloggers: Sarah from Tales of Wit and Charm and Brittany from Barefoot Foodie.  Love those girls! Oh, and I moved.

September: I started fall semester and had some of the quirkiest teachers yet. I went to heaven, also known as Lake Powell. I posted two (short) essays. I fought and made up with Karina the Russian, again.

October: Let’s see, in October I moved… again. This time into a place I absolutely love! My iPhone was stolden and my life just hasn’t been the same without it. I dressed only semi-slutty for Halloween and attended two parties. And I cooked for ED, the first time in the ten months we had been dating!

November: The beginning of the month I wish I could forget. I lost my oldest and dearest friend, Zach. *Deep breath*I finally got the courage to write about my lost relationship with Jesus and why I left the LDS church which prompted me to start a new feature on my blog called “TMI Friday” (Too Much Information Friday) where I boarder the line of oversharing. I just decided I no longer wanted to hold anything back. And I haven’t. I wrote about my divorce, and how grief effected me too.

December: Well to back up a bit, I spent my first Thanksgiving away from my family. EVER. I overcame my fear of shooting guns. I continued with TMI Friday, writing about oversharing and the most personal of all, my secret pain. I met Dooce! Threw an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party and spent half of Christmas with my family and the other half with ED’s.

Whew!

For those of you who are new to my blog, there you have it. You now know everything there is to know about me… at least from the past year.

I’m not sure how many people will actually get through this post, but to be honest, I did it mostly for myself anyway. It was time consuming fun to look back on the past year and you know, even though the economy is in the crapper and I lost one of my best friends, 2009 really wasn’t a bad year for me. I traveled, got straight A’s and am in the healthiest relationship I have ever been in.

Here is to 2010. Please don’t take a giant crap on me.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Just me, blogging

I realize I am probably the last person to get around to posting about New Years, but here it is anyway.

For New Years, ED and I decided to host a little get together with a few of our closest friends. It was thrown together at the last minute, but somehow we were able to pull off one of the best New Years parties I have ever been to.

My sister Staci recommended we make it a formal mascarade party, which meant not only did we invite our guests less than a week before the party, we also requested they come up with some sort of a mask too!

Are we the best hosts or what?

I feel incredibly lucky that so many of our friends were able to make it. Some ran into babysitter issues and some had already made plans, but I think it is safe to say that those who came had a great time.

I should clarify that there were actually men present at this party. But none quite as dashing as my darling ED.

Although he looks  like a superhero here, he didn’t come to my rescuing until later on. Before everyone started arriving to the party, ED decided to shine up the hard wood floors. He sprayed the floor with Pledge and mopped over it with a flat dusting mop. The floors looked beautiful, but were slicker than an ice rink! Even after we tried to clean the Pledge off the floor we had to tell all of our guests to walk carefully — especially the women in their high heels!

However, it was not until right after the stroke of midnight when we went outside to watch the fireworks, that I slid on the actual ice and landed right on my ass! Not to worry though, my masked hero came running to sweep me up.

Happy New Years everyone! Here’s to an amazing 2010!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

ED is not Emotionally Disturbed, Holidays, Out and About