Goodbye Allie!

Hello everyone. I hope you had a good weekend. Friday afternoon, I found out that my Great Aunt Allie passed away. Allie broke her hip a few years back and since then has had a tough battle with Alzheimer’s. I wouldn’t wish that disease on anyone and I hope with each passing day that they come closer to a cure. In the past few weeks, Allie’s health began to deteriorate and she died on Friday. Allie would have been 90 on January 1st. I spent the weekend in Chattanooga with family and her funeral was yesterday. My family and I will miss Allie but I find comfort in knowing that she lived a full life. She loved to work, travel and be with her family and so that’s how she spent all of her time. I have great memories to keep with me, Allie made my prom dress for me when I was a junior, she was always laughing and telling stories and she NEVER had you over to her house without trying to find food to give you. I was able to keep some jewelry, a jewelry stand and one of her travelling souvenirs so I will always think of her when I see them. Rest in peace Allie!

I weighed on Friday morning and I was actually down a few ounces which brought my total weight loss to over 81 pounds. I was really proud of that but because I was out of town all weekend, I ate horribly so I know I’ve gained weight. I have been good today but I’ve got three Christmas parties this week so I know that I will gain some more. I am going to be good all week next week before Christmas Eve & Day so hopefully I can balance out a little bit. I don’t think I will look at the scale again until the first of the year though so I will know exactly how hard I’m going to have to work. Don’t worry though, even though I’m cheating a lot, I’m still being good when I can and I am kind of excited to start being diligent again in January…I’m aching to get to my next goal…I’m just going to enjoy myself a little first.

Even though I got home kind of late last night and I was exhausted, I was really wanting to get back to normalcy so I went ahead and made my weekly recipe…



I made Chicken Fried Rice and I’m so glad I did because it was yummy! I wanted to make something fast and this was a nice option for that. I am going to tell you what I used but you could make everything from scratch if you wanted and it may taste a little better. You start off by scrambling some egg whites and then setting those aside. Then you sauté onions and garlic…after those have gone for a couple of minutes you dump in some chicken breast (cubed into pieces that are about an inch long) to the onions and garlic. I used the frozen fajita chicken strips that are already cooked instead of fooling with raw chicken. After that mixes, you add two cups of cooked brown rice. I used the premade instant rice instead of actually cooking rice. Mix all that together for a few minutes and then add the egg whites back in. You can also add peas and carrots if you are into that sort of thing. Throw some soy sauce on there and you are done! This was quick and easy and if you use cooking spray instead of oil, brown rice rather than white rice and egg whites without the yolk, it’s very healthy too.

Before I go, I wanted to give Whitney and Xay another shout out. Their birthdays happened last week but tomorrow, they celebrate their anniversary. Happy anniversary y’all! I hope you have many more!

Enjoy your week everyone, I posted the lyrics to “How Great Thou Art” below. It is one of my favorite hymns and they played it at Allie’s funeral.

Bye!

“O Lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed;

When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;

Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come,
With shouts of acclamation,
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!” How Great Thou Art- Carl Boberg