A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney

1993-1 year after we met.

Sept. 24, 1999 (7 years after we met)

Sept.24, 2009 (17 years after we met and 10 years of marriage)

We beautifully expanded in that 10 years of marriage.

I can't believe I waited this long to blog! I have been so extremely antisipating our 10 year anniversary. We made it!! I totally can't even describe my feelings for this. I am just so happy.

We really didn't do anything out of the ordinary. But these days getting a babysitter is out of the ordinary and it was fabulous to dress up (even though I didn't feel like I had the time I needed to do a full girl work over) and go out and just be excited. We did have supper out and saw a movie. I got a large arrangement of flowers. I also got a new water heater since ours was leaking water all over the floor and that is always romantic too. So since I was thinking about all our years together and everything we have been through I did a little blog page with music, pics and how we met. Of course because it is on blogger it is totally backwards and really you should read it from the bottom up. chris-n-jara.blogspot.com

[T]he way he treats his body, you’d think he was renting. ~Robert Brault,

Working as a personal trainer and being in the health care field, I often get asked questions about nutrition. Unfortunately, I am not a dietitian or a nutritionist. I was however, a dietary aide once when I lived in Farmington. Anyway, I know several people who have tried different cleanses. There are so many ways to clean out your system, some bad, some good, some weird, you really have to be careful.

So back to the point. I experimented on myself. I had a client ask me about the General Motors diet plan. I still need my nutritionist to look it over and tell me how bad it is, but I figured why not try it and actually experience a set diet for 7 days and see what happens. I have never been on any certain name brand eating program and I was really hoping to lose cravings for the junk that I so dearly love to eat. Which was something I had heard happens from people who had done cleanses regardless of which one they tried. And I have to say that I didn't much enjoy it. This particular program lets you eat as much as you want, so I was never hungry, but in order to flush your system you start basic and with LOTS of water. I don't like to drink water. The first day was fruit. I love fruit so I made this huge fruit salad. This was the day I actually detoxed. I knew what day I was going to start this program so I kinda binged the day before. Probably not the best idea. I was extremely nauseous. Day two I felt much better and it was veggie day. Again a good day and I supplemented with the wonder soup they suggest. The only down fall was that Isaac had been asking me to eat lunch with him and I about broke his heart telling him I couldn't go. So I went on pizza day, like he wanted me to and only ate veggies. Day three is fruit and veggies. Still not hungry, but those chips in the cupboard look scrumptious and I have not had a Mountain Dew in THREE DAYS! Day four is bananas and milk. I so totally cheated on this day. I feel bad. However, it was because Chris had made breakfast for everyone and I thought he would feel unappreciated if I didn't eat any of his biscuits and gravy. Day five was beef and tomatoes. Yummy!! Day six beef and veggies and day seven was fruit juice, brown rice (which I skipped) and veggies. At this point all I could think about is the fabulous food I would eat the next day and not feel like a cheater. And also how active I would have to be to not gain weight back if I really wanted to eat all that other stuff. Day eight, I am no longer on the program. I am supposed to wake up feeling lighter and healthier and just plain fabulous. It seemed like such a long week!!! But here are the tips I have about this cleans and eating in general.

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  This was good for my system. It did get rid of toxins in my system. After I worked out today I did go right out and buy a Mountain Dew. I was so excited to drink it out of habit, but it tasted really gross. I was incredibly disappointed, that I might rather drink some water with lemon in it. But that was the whole point.


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  I liked that it was easy to follow. It included almost all food groups, but lacked in dairy (which you get three glasses of milk on day 4) and fats. Generally you should get 15-20% of fats in your diet too for healthy brain function and of course to protect those precious little organs of yours.


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  The wonder soup was super yummy and I recommend that you try it.I think that if you are on weight watchers point system it should be worth zero points.


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  This particular program claimed to lose 10-17 pounds in one week. That is the MOST RIDICULOUS thing I have ever heard! Please don't lose more than 2 pounds per week unless instructed by your physician. I did lose more than that, but less than the 10 pounds they promised and probably because I enjoyed a biscuit with scrumptious gravy on banana day.


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  When in doubt eat according to the glycemic index. It prevents diabetes and if you are already diabetic you pretty much have to eat that way anyhow. It just shows you how to utilize complex and simple carbs without eliminating any good foods.


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  Remember diet is what you EAT and not what you DON'T EAT.


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  Eat the most when you are busy. Eat a big breakfast and not so much at night. Timing is almost as essential as what you are eating. If you are working out ( and you should be) always eat IMMEDIATELY after. Not only are you going to burn the calories, but it will increase your energy.


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  If you don't want to drastically change how you are eating, feel you will miss your favorite food. Then don't give it up. Look at what you are eating and see what needs to be added. Do you need more grains, are you really getting all your fruits and veggies. Try adding instead of taking away.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. ~Author Unknown

The house when we bought it. Chris had to add the landing outside the kitchen door before we could even buy it.

Zoey on the tire swing.

Looking down the cat walk to the main deck.

Chris has a nice nook for his grill now.

The finished deck.

Even I can still get on a horse. Crazy, I know!!

JO and Zoey.

Zoey on Willy. This is the horse she fell from. Not one of the tall ones. She's tough though.

Isaac and Zoey on the first day of school.

Zoey on her first day at preschool.

Isaac showing off his new batman backpack.

Isaac on his first day of first grade. OMG a grade!!!

New pictures, old pictures, random pictures. And probably since blogger loads them backwards, no particular order. I just like to confuse everyone. And we all know that someday when I look back at this someone will have questions and I won't remember, cuz its not in order.

If you are wondering there is no major news. We have been staying busy with school, speech therapy, two kids in soccer and me attempting to coach it. I did lose a kid last week. She really wanted to play on the other field with the other two teams. I had to run after her and she really wanted to be over there so just asking her to come back didn't work. I had to catch her and bring her back. We have been hanging out with neighbors and Isaac is going to be having a few weeks of having friends over for a sleep over. We have officially finished the deck. Of course there are still little things to do like redo the siding and touch up paint on the deck and we were one board short for the stairs. But it is fully functional and Jara is super happy!! Zoey got sick last night, but already is starting to feel better. Hope she didn't share.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it. ~Yogi Berra

Zoey's appointment went well. I think? She is 3feet 6 inches tall and in the 90th percentile for height. She is 36 pounds and in the 50th percentile for weight. I finally asked about the discoloration on her left arm and we are clearing that right up with a bit of cream. Who knew it would be so easy to take care of. Also the doctor heard a heart murmur, both in sitting and supine positions. I don't really know what that means, since Isaac's closed up on its own and she says that 90% are benign. I'll have to let you know if anything comes of that.

Some people say soccer's a matter of life or death, but it isn't. It's much more important than that. ~Variation of a famous saying

So I wish I could figure out how to write my life, so that it sounds interesting to read about. We have had a most interesting week. We lost Sherman, started school, started soccer, started speech therapy and Zoey has a well baby check Friday morning for good measure. Even though now Isaac has decided that he still has his cough and should go also. Whatever. I haven't taken Zoey in for a well baby since she was two and they totally freaked me out by telling me that she was in the 20th percentile for weight. Seems not such a big deal now, but I made a lot of phone calls that day.

We missed Isaac's first soccer game, cuz I am a loser that can't write down the right time. So both the coach and the assistant coach called and left me messages today about game time. (I really had a bad beginning part of the week!) But today was my first game coaching the pre-K team. Zoey was in charge of handing out soccer jerseys to all her teammates. She was very proud of that. Most of the kids didn't show up until after our scheduled game time, but we let everyone warm up. I was so happy to know the coach of the other team. We were so totally in the same boat (not really knowing what we were doing and just going with it). My goals for the team were to learn how to start and stop the ball without using hands or tears. At the time I really felt that this was an age appropriate goal. Well, Zoey's pretty controlling and really didn't want the other kids to have the ball so she just picked it up and ran with it!!! Seriously. Other than that I have got pretty good talent for 4year olds on my team. Now I just have to teach them that we are not playing against ourselves but the team wearing the other color. My team fought like cats and dogs, they are a very aggressive team. "I can run faster than you"or "I can kick the ball better than you." I had two girls literally fighting for the ball after it had gone out of bounds. There is nothing better than elbowing and pushing your way through your own teammates to make sure that you are better than them. On a good note though--none of my kids cried, even after they got kicked and hit! I think I will have different goals for next time. Or at least a different strategy. And now I am exhausted. The field was little, but the coaching was overwhelming!