Winners!

This is me (in the back) with most of my Extreme Fitness Challenge group. This was taken just after we finished our 3rd and final group challenge. I have to brag a bit when I say, we won all three group challenges.... and our team took 3 of the 5 individual challenges. Kelly (the man with the goatee) won for most weight lost with 20.5 pounds. I was runner up with 16. The other teams didn't even come close to our results!

We loved our trainer, Jeanette, so much that we forced her to sign up to teach a group fitness class for us until the next EFC starts in January. I will be seeing her and 9 more of my teammates for the next 6 weeks!

On Saturday, Lyle and I went out to Monte Carlo night at the club. My favorite chief, Rita was dealing blackjack, so that is where I stayed all evening. Lyle wandered and played a couple hands of Texas Hold 'em. We each started the night with $3000 of funny money, and I ended the evening with $30,000. We didn't want to stay for the prize giveaway at the end, so our cash was donated to a friend. It was a fun night, and I have to say, Rita is the best BlackJack dealer EVER!

Just Cleaning out the camera

It has been forever since I did a real update post. Mostly because I have been working full-time, taking 3 college classes, taking a cake decorating class, enjoying my Extreme Fitness Challenge workouts for an hour a day 5 days a week, and then trying to recover on the occasional minute off.

But I don't have quite so many excuses now, 2 of my three classes are finished, I have a week before my new face to face class starts, so instead of writing my business final paper, I decided to update you with pictures from September to today!

I put them on the slide browser, just because Blogger has been difficult about pictures the last couple of weeks.

Enjoy the show

Update!

I have a lot of things to post about, but have decided to hold all that for something more newsworthy.... Tonight's dinner.

My BFF (Best Foodie Friend) Susan posted a recipe yesterday that sounded yummy. She gave the link and some advice about trying to add a can of black beans. I checked the pantry and noticed we had all 6 ingredients needed, so I dropped them in the crockpot for tonight's dinner.

The recipe: Slow Cooker Tex Mex Chicken

I added the 1 can of black beans, drained and I used a can of corn, rather than frozen.

The result:
And for dessert: Cherry Almond Angel Roll

I substituted Strawberry Pie Filling for the Cherry, since Lyle doesn't care for cooked (aka Mushy) cherries. It was incredible!

And it even looked pretty:

Thank you again Susan, for an incredible dinner suggestion!

A Winner and A Loser

I am usually up early to exercise, but it has always been on my own, or with my workout buddy, Rita. After a year (yes a year!) of seeing the ads for "Extreme Fitness Challenge" I decided to give it a try. I paid my fee, decided on the 5 - 6 am class, and waited nervously for the first day.

That day was September 14th. I met my trainer, Jeanette, and the rest of my group. We all got our Blue Team t-shirts and started with a bang. Jeanette is very motivating and always full of energy, even when we aren't quite there. I love every workout even when I am dripping with sweat and every muscle in my body is screaming STOP!

Yesterday we had our first challenge against all of the other teams. The challenge was a dead hang from a pull up bar. I held on for 1 minute and 42 seconds, the average for our whole team was 1:54, and that was enough to declare Blue Team the winners! My prize: A brand new workout towel, embroidered with the fact that I am a winner!
Today was our first official weigh in, which also made me a Loser. Since our start 3 weeks ago, I have lost 7 pounds, but that wasn't the surprising number, I also lost 1 inch off my hips, and 5 (yes FIVE) inches from my waistline. I credit that to Jeanette and her evil "waist-shapers". Those numbers were enough of an incentive for me to get down the box of size 12 jeans I have had in my closet since we arrived on Okinawa. The result:

They fit!

I still have 5 weeks to go, and I am sure Jeanette has more in store for the Blue Team.

On a sadder note, today I had to say goodbye to an old friend:My first "biggest loser" win, with my good friend Tanya, has come to the end of it's usefulness. My favorite shirt lost it's battle with the sweat monster and had to be put down. It was for its own good, but it will be sorely missed.

I do have more updates to do, but homework beckons. Writing a paper a week has really put a damper on my "fun" writing, but I only have one more paper to go for writing class and one final paper for Business Management, then I will be back.

Nutter Butter Banana Pudding Trifle

All I can says is YUMMMMMMM! I saved this recipe, because it sounded like it would be good. Nutter butters in banana pudding? Why didn't someone think of this sooner? But then I made it and it was OOOOOOHHHH so good! Unfortunately, everyone else thought it was good too, so there wasn't any to bring back home after the picnic.

The recipe:
Nutter Butter Banana Pudding Trifle
Southern Living Magazine
February 2009 (page 86 if you have the mag) or use the link

Prep: 35 min., Cook: 20 min., Stand: 30 min., Chill: 2 hr. This homemade pudding is divine, economical, and uses on-hand ingredients. The pudding has thickened enough when a distinct trail is left in the mixture when you stir with a spoon. The cookies will soften the longer the dessert chills.

Yield
Makes 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients
3 cups milk
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 medium-size ripe bananas
1 (1-lb.) package peanut butter sandwich cookies
2 cups sweetened whipped cream


1. Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted. 2. Fill a large bowl with ice. Place saucepan in ice, and let stand, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until mixture is thoroughly chilled.

3. Meanwhile, cut bananas into 1/4-inch slices. Break cookies into thirds.

4. Spoon half of pudding mixture into a 3-qt. bowl or pitcher. Top with bananas and cookies. Spoon remaining pudding mixture over bananas and cookies.
Top with sweetened whipped cream. Cover and chill 2 to 24 hours. Garnish, if desired.

Shortcut Nutter Butter®-Banana Pudding Trifle: Omit eggs, sugar, flour, and butter. Substitute thawed extra creamy whipped topping for sweetened whipped cream. Reduce vanilla to 1 tsp. Place 3 cups milk and vanilla in large bowl; add 2 (3.4-oz.) packages vanilla instant pudding mix. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until thickened; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in 1 (8-oz.) container sour cream. Proceed with recipe as directed in Steps 2 through 4.

My notes on this recipe: This will serve more than 8-10 people as it is pretty rich. I made the full-fledged, make-your-own pudding version. It tasted much like a vanilla custard. I think the quick version would also taste good, but not nearly as rich and creamy. When I make this again, I will layer the cookies and bananas differently as it was a bit too much mass in the middle. Next time: 1/2 the pudding, 1/2 cookies and bananas, remaining pudding, remaining cookies and bananas, then the sweetened whipped cream. I sweetened my heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar. No measurements, I just kept sprinkling in spoonfuls, until it was thick.

Back to school

It took me a while but I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up! I enrolled in college and have finished my first week back to school. Granted I am only taking 2 real classes (and 1 one credit "required" class)but I am still a little worried about how well I will do.

I am already having a little anxiety about my writing class. I like to write, and I don't think I totally suck at it. I also have opinions, and I am usually good at sharing them. So why is it that as soon as my writing teacher handed out our course list and I saw that we had 4 papers to do, my mind went blank. And it still is...totally and utterly blank. What do I know? What should I write about? Can I actually convince anyone to see my point of view in 600 words?

My business class is an online class, and the instructor just posted our first information this morning. I glanced at it, printed out and am getting ready to actually look at it, but I am a bit afraid. Do I really have what it takes to be a college student? Am I putting to much pressure on myself?

I guess only time will tell. I have already enrolled for my next term classes, so I have commited myself until the end of December. Maybe by then I will be more confident that I am doing what I need to do.

Off to study.... wish me luck!

Ohayo Gozaimasu

....means Good Morning in Japanese, but on Okinawa it means Nice to see you. And after such a long time it is nice to see you!

My computer troubles were a bit more than I thought and we ended up having to dump my whole computer and start it from fresh, so I have busy updating software, reinstalling programs, trying to figure out why my CM Software quadrupled my photo bank, and resigning myself to spend the time deleting said photos!

These last few weeks have been extremely full. Stephanie participated in the DEFY program (Drug Education For Youth), spending a week touring jails, climbing walls, visiting parks and having fun.

Chris went to a Survival Camp (called NIKO, but I have no idea what that stands for) for 4 days. He camped in the jungle on the northern end of the island. The highlight of the trip for him was roasting a whole pig in a ground pit. He came home battered, bruised, dirty and stinky. He can't wait to do it again next year!

I am loving my new job. I should have started up in the craft section to begin with! I am in crafters heaven! I love the people I work with and am so much happier than I was in the frame shop. I also took a giant step and enrolled in school. That's right, at 38 I am a freshman! Today is my first day of school and I am more than a little nervous.

Lyle is still Lyle. He has been busy working as well as helping me with the regular house stuff and running kids from here to there. He plans on taking some time off in September, but we will see.

That is about all the news that's fit to print. I didn't want you thinking we fell of the face of the earth!

Tang Dynasty Dinner Show

I really am trying to finish the China posts and move on to real life, but some minor technological difficulties seem to be preventing that. I think I have the final kinks out of my internet troubles (thanks, Rick!) but you are all going to have to make do with pictures of our Dinner Theater rather than a video (someday you will see the video and thank me for sparing you now).

Anyhoo, We landed in Xi'an, which is remarkable like the central US. It was flat, a little more brown than green and the bus ride from the airport seemed to take forever!

Some of the sights on the street included more motorcycles than in Beijing. It has something to do with the additional taxes on motorcycles in Beijing (thieves tend to prefer motorcycles, this cut down on crime, supposedly).

We enjoyed watermelon with EVERY meal we had in China. In case I hadn't mentioned it, watermelons run about $20 each here on Okinawa, so it is a very rare treat. In China, this forbidden fruit was plentiful:In Xi'an each street seemed to sell it's own specialty. This street was filled with pet shops: But just like Beijing, the traffic was horrible. So bad that they had traffic cops in intersections WITH stoplights! Unfortunately, I was unable to get the picture of the police car with lights and sirens going that was hood to hood with oncoming traffic. The oncoming traffic refused to move out of the cops way!

After arriving at our hotel, we had just enough time to get our room keys, check out the room, then climb back on the bus to head to dinner. This is when the duck for lunch started to catch up with Lyle. He missed most of the dinner and all of the show :(

The food was incredible, and the dancers were very good. The musicians were everything you would expect from a Chinese dinner theater, specializing in instruments that are no longer played by anyone..... except at this theater. Again, you will thank me for not posting the video! Even Lyle could hear the final performance from where he was sitting!

Beijing, the final day

We started our final day in Beijing with only three stops planned - The Lama Temple, Lunch and the Airport. No shopping, so Lyle went out to haggle with the "One Dolla" guy for some final souveniers.

We boarded our bus and were on our way to the Lama Temple. We had seen this sign a few times, but I was finally able to get it on camera:


The Lama Temple:

The Shisa Dogs of China are very similar to the Shisa Dogs on Okinawa with one difference. On Okinawa the male and female are different only in how they hold their mouth, open versus closed (no comment necessary). In China the Male Shisa always had a decorated ball under his paw, while the Female was always holding down a cub. I think I prefer the Chinese Shisas!

After Lama Temple we were on our way to lunch. No trip to China would be complete without a meal of Peking Duck. We stopped at this restaurant with a duck outside.

While we started in on the dishes at our table, a waiter brought in the cart with the duck. Our tour guide said" You will want to get your cameras out for the demonstration on how to carve the Peking Duck" All of the men (and Sharjuan) got out their video cameras, stood for a better view and readied themselves for what we thought would be a wonderful display. We were all VERY disappointed when he just carved it as we would a turkey. No talented knife show, just a man carving a duck..... We all tried it and agreed that it wasn't spectacular, but it was good.

After lunch we were off to the airport, where I was able to get one last Beijing sign:

See you all in Xi'an

We interupt this vacation

for a special announcement (or 3)

Just so I don't fall incredibly behind on real life, I wanted to update the last week. We have all gone back to work (except Stephanie, who lives a life of leisure) so not much to post about except:

Chris got his braces removed

My remaining friends in North Dakota (all 2 of you) sent me a care package (including returning a shawl I forgot I lent you LOL)

We immediately had to try the new popcorn seasoning (the parmesan garlic is YUMMMMY)

And last, but definitely most important. Stephanie turns 12 today!

Birthday pictures will be coming soon!

Day Two, continued

Our drive to Badaling was very interesting. Our big bus, on a curvy road, covered with tourists, both walking and on buses. I don't think our horn stopped honking the entire drive up. The scariest point was our drop spot. Our bus went through the small tunnel pictured below. This is an actual road, not just a tourist drop, but the tunnel is only one car wide. The traffic through didn't care if people were also trying to use the tunnel, they just honked a couple times while driving through.

The wall was definitely the highlight of our trip. It was after all the main reason we wanted to go to China! Our guide gave us an hour and we were off. Chris chose out goal of the high tower to the East. We stopped for a quick photo, then got to hiking. It got gradually steeper as we neared the peak, eventually becoming uneven stairs. Once we reached the top reality set in for me. I don't like heights and we were WAYYY up there. Not only that I had to climb back down! Going down was harder than climbing up! On our way down a Chinese woman tapped Stephanie's shoulder and motioned to her kids and her camera. We had been warned that this may happen, so Stephanie just nodded and gave her best American Blond smile.

Once we reached our starting point we did a little shopping at the souvenier shops and found the best thing ever - Cold water and Ice Cream. We each picked a treat and sat down for a rest. Before we knew it, it was time to board the bus and head back to Beijing.

On our way back we stopped for lunch. Imagine our suprise to find these tiny cups

And this small bottle

We were informed it was the local moonshine and it was included in the lunch! All of the adults has a sample (or two)!

We did buy a bottle to bring home, not because it was particularly good (imagine watered down nail polish) but because it was only $2 and a GREAT conversation piece.

After lunch we headed to the Summer Palace. It was here we decided that if you have seen one palace, you have seen them all. The Summer Palace's claim to fame: it is home to the world's longest corridor (730 meters).

Another quick ride on the bus to see our final scheduled spot of the day. The Olympic Stadium - The Water Cube and the Bird's Nest.

Since there was no dinner planned for this evening, we all decided to check out Wafujing Street. For any of you that watch any of those Strange Food shows, you might recognize the name. For the locals it is just known as the Barbecue street. Here street vendors sell everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on a stick. The first "food" I saw when we walked up was a Starfish Skewer. Rick, I thought of you the whole time we were here! We each ate something strange, Lyle had Sea Snake, Chris tried Fried Silk Worm Larva, Stephanie had a frothy drink, and I had spicy noodles (I know, the girls wimped out, but we had nothing to prove!) We all enjoyed skewered chicken, steamed dumplings and for dessert - Fried Ice Cream!

Afterwards we all caught our own taxi's back to the hotel to get some Tums and Immodium AD! Tomorrow, final day in Beijing and off to Xi'an