Muir Woods

I am starting to see a doctor in Alameda, CA (Dr. John Nieters). He has been one of the best doctor’s I have ever seen. He spends time with you, and really wants to get to the root cause of what is going on. His approach to treatment is much different than the other doctor’s I have seen. I highly recommend his radio talk show podcasts that he provides as well. He has two: The Balancing Point and The Medicine Men. I have learned quite a bit through these shows.

So this new adventure towards health provides me an added bonus of being able to see my amazing sister and her family once a month for a bit. They are a lot of fun. I can’t get enough of the time granted to me to play with my nephews. This past trip in April we visited the Stanford University campus. I think I’m in love! The campus is so beautiful and filled with trees. I had no idea their mascot was the tree. Who knows, perhaps I may look into going to grad school there :)

Saturday we all went up to Muir Woods. It was a pleasant surprised to find that the park was free that day. It’s was National Park’s Week. I LOVE National Parks Week. I think I need to honor it every year.

Muir Woods is so breathtaking. The tall trees are like none else. Tall and red. And can I mention that they are tall.

Ok, Blogger is doing something weird to where I can't rotate my pictures. So stretch your neck, and turn your head...

A very tall tree...

My nephew keep saying, “Common’ let’s go find the woods.” I think we forgot to explain to him what “woods” meant. I think one of his favorite parts of this place was the water.

Nephew looking at the river

He loved looking at it. He also kept trying to find sticks. We are wondering if he wanted to go fishing.

Nephew with his newfound stick

I just love this picture and smile :)

There were some trees you could go inside of... his own little house

Handwriting

Right now I am taking a college Chemistry class. As I sit here doing homework, I am thinking how different some college classes are going now, due to advances with electronics and computers. With this class, I am required to turn in ALL assignments as hand written only. This is due to so many people cutting and pasting their work into word, that nothing can be trusted now they feel. Out labs are required to purchase the carbon paper and to write in pen, so that it will show up on the copy page underneath it. For that is the copy we turn in each time. Our professor told us that if our handwriting is not legible for him, than it will not be graded. So press hard, slow down, and write bigger.

Lucky for me, I haven't lost my skill with handwriting, and yes, my assignments take a little more time, as it is faster for me to type. But I find I understand more, as I slow down and write my work out. I do see some  classmates, who just graduated from high school, struggle a bit with this, especially during their labs. It's not good when they can't even read their own handwriting.

In addition, I had to buy a cheap calculator to use on my tests. Nothing that can store memory of anything. I guess it's time to go back to the basics again, especially at college.

123

Today is my Great Grandma Walker's 123rd Birthday. Her 123rd Birthday was on 1/23. How great is that to say. Not many people can say that. And those who do, probably don't think about it as they are not living on this world :)

Happy Birthday!!!

... Or actually 6 month birthday to my sister Lindsay!

Motion Sickness

I think my dog, Jake, has motion sickness problems.

On Christmas Day, I went with my really cool sister and her family to the park. I decided to bring Jake along as well, as he really likes the park. When my fun nephew wanted to go down the slide, Jake started to follow him. So I went too. Jake didn't want to go down the slide by himself. He sat on my lap and we went down several times. After, Jake threw up all over the sidewalk. I didn't think much about it, as he threw up food my dad gave him (it was not a part of the gluten free/ dairy free protocol).

Today, I decided I wanted to go walk a different park than our usual. So Jake and I climbed into my car and drove to Freestone Park. Jake loved it there, and we walked around for awhile. Driving back, he didn't move much. He would either put his front paws on my console and just stare right at me really close, or sat in his seat very still. Right when we got to our front door, before going in, Jake threw up.

So perhaps Jake still has a lot of digestive problems, and we should stay away from slides, swings, and some car rides for awhile :)

The FUZZ Speech

With the New Year coming around, and many people making new year resolutions and striving to become a better person, I thought I would share "the fuzz speech" to help you get motivated to move once again!

Oh.... fuzz can also be called "loose connective tissue" for all you who have taken anatomy :)

Our Kosher Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I decided to be adventurous and eat turkey. I think it's been about 2 years or so since I have tasted one. My mom and I went on a hunt to find a turkey for this event. While at Trader Joe's we found a Kosher turkey. This was exactly what I wanted. You know the turkey had followed good dietary laws, was killed correctly, prepared well, and didn't have anything added to it but salt. It's interesting to google how a kosher turkey is prepared.

Through this, we talked about ways we could prepare this. My mom was telling me about how her mom would cook a turkey in a paper bag. We looked up different recipes on how to do this, and found one that sounded good. Here is what we did:

 First thing is to butter the turkey. I can't handle butter right now. I thought about using ghee, but didn't have any. We used Olive Oil instead. It worked out well.

 Then you place the turkey in a paper bag. We placed the bag in our lasagna pan as well, to catch all the drippings, and keep it more secure.

 Online they said to staple, tape or sew the bag closed. We chose to staple it.

 It's all ready to go in the oven :) We had read many different temperatures to bake it. One was cook it at 500 for the 1st hour, 400 the 2nd hour, then 300 the 3rd hour. We may try this next time. This time we did it 325 degrees.

 After it is cooked, we slit the bag open, and checked the temperature

 It looked and smelled wonderful!!!

 Here's the kosher turkey out of the bag. It had a wonderful taste. We enjoyed the simple meal we prepared. I also made almond flour biscuits, and quinoa. My mom said some gravy using the pan drippings, and mixing some almond flour and water together. The whole meal was most enjoyed, and every bite was  savored.

After, other family members came over, and they had dessert, opened up Christmas ornaments, then played a few rounds of Chicken Foot, in honor of my Grandpa Black's birthday.