Hello Disgusting. Good Morning Gross.

So Jas and I started the end of the year out with a detox/cleanse.  He read about this particular one in a magazine and since he's had so much trouble with his stomach lately we thought we would give it a shot.  I agreed that I would give it a go with him and even though it hasn't been quite as bad as I thought, there have been lots of times that I've wished I would have allowed him to embark on this food journey alone. 

The bummer is that half way through it, it doesn't seem to be clearing up any of the issues that we were hoping it would.  And alas, I don't think I'm going to finish the month out looking like Heidi Klum, although I am no longer popping out of the top of my pants and other clothing items, which is very good news indeed. 

The low down: we eat a liquid meal for breakfast and dinner and then a restricted lunch.  The hardest part for me has been giving up coffee in the morning - no caffeine, no coffee, even decaf.  I usually roll out of bed and go directly to the coffee pot.  Sometimes I set the timer the night before and have it waiting for me when I get up and if not I stand and watch it drip into the pot until there is enough for a cup.  I'm not even in it for the caffeine, just something warm and wonderful to get me going.  I've had lots of herbal tea lately, but it just doesn't cut it.  A week and a half to go and I get my blessed coffee back. 

We've had lots of weird juice concoctions.  Jason is such a machine, he can just down it, probably like he downed certain beverages in college (I'm just speculating since I didn't know him in college).  Or to give him the benefit of the doubt and probably more the case, maybe he just downs that nasty juice like he does a glass full of water at the end of a bike ride.  There have been nights were I just sit at the table and stare at my glass and try and gag the thing down one gulp at a time. 

A week and a half to go.  I'm dreaming of hamburgers already.

In other news, we are trying to decide what in the world to do about our church 'situation'.  In May we started going to a new church that we love, love, love - mostly.  The only problem is that if we fell over dead and never showed up to church again, I don't think more than a single person would notice.  And that single person is the children's director who checks our kids in on Sunday mornings.  It is getting to the point that we are getting a little lonely.  So we're trying to decide what to do, what to do.  UGHH!  It has been just another friendly reminder that this world is not our home and nothing here on this earth is perfect.  It has really convicted me though about being friendly, even if it is just making eye contact and smiling. 

We're also trying to plan out our trip to AZ.  We're headed down for a missions conference at our home church during the middle of February.   I have already made a schedule of where we are on which days, which evenings and afternoons we are going to be seeing people and when I get to meet my cousin's new little baby and spend time with my nephew that I haven't seen since June.  It is always such a struggle when we are there because whenever we go the time gets divided between my immediate and extended family, my friends, our 'couple' friends, the church, supporters and in-laws.  It gets to be SUPER frustrating for me sometimes trying to stretch ourselves so thin.  However long we are there seems to never be enough time.  I am super excited about getting in some good SUN time while we are there. And some good mexican food too!