Amazing people

Last night we went to an amazing couple's house for dinner at 6pm and ended up talking with them until 12:30am. They are an older couple from our church with the most incredible hearts for ministry. They're so encouraging and at the same time they want to learn as much as they can from us. I love having a relationship like that, they've pretty much been our mentors while we've been in Yreka. I'm sure going to miss them when we leave, but I know that God will provide more people like that in our lives. He gives us what we need when we need it.

Giant spiders, not one but two

We had TWO giant spiders at our house the other night. One right outside our back door and the other right inside our garage door. They were about an inch in BODY length, not counting legs. They were huge and brown. I've never seen that kind before and they were gross and scary! We killed them with very toxic spider spray (I tried not to breathe it in). I did not like it, and neither did Andy. Now I'm freaked out to go in my garage. I can't figure out what kind of spiders they are either, so I don't know if they're poisonous! AHHHHH! I hate spiders!

News...

Hi everybody. Some of you know already, but some don't. At the end of August Andy and I are moving to Stayton, OR (15 minutes East of Salem). He got a job as a Middle School Pastor at Foothills Church. We're really excited about it, but also very sad to leave my family and the people at our church here. Now we just have lots of packing to do and I have to find a good job in Stayton or Salem. Pray for us as we do all that stuff and don't have a lot of time.

In other news, we went camping with my whole family last weekend, which was a blast. Then this week was our church camp, so we were camping for that all week and just got home today. Next week we're taking our Jr. Highers to the lake and our High Schoolers to the coast for 3 days. So needless to say, we're a little busy. I'm definitely getting back into a mostly raw diet after eating terribly in the last week. My choices weren't great, for lunch yesterday there were hot dogs, chips, cookies, and fruit salad with tons of whipped cream mixed in. Yuck. Now I have a headache and hopefully I can detox again this week!

Bad news about Raw

Well, I'm afraid that I won't be able to continue my raw food challenge for the full 30 days for several reasons. First of all, I'm so busy that I don't have time to prepare enough nourishing raw meals to last me through every day. I'm constantly running around, grabbing a salad here and some fruit or nuts there, but simply not enough calories to get me through the day. I've lost about 8 pounds, and for me that's way too much. I've been doing Fitday, a nutrition calculator online, and I've only been getting 900-1200 calories per day with what I've been eating. Enough protein (at least 30 grams), but just not enough calories to keep me going. This evening I felt like I was going to pass out, which is not a good sign. 

Another reason is that I went camping over the weekend and that was fine doing raw, but this week I'm going to our church camp and helping all day with preparing the food, and it would be very hard to stay all raw because I would have to bring my own food, store it, and prepare it all on the side. 

The last reason is that our budget is super tight this month and all raw fruits, veggies, and especially nuts are not cheap, so it would be great to eat the free food at church camp. 

Some day when I have more time I might again attempt 100% raw, but for now I'm going to drop to about 70%. The other 30% will not be anything processed and will not contain any refined sugar. I refuse to eat those things because they are nothing but bad, cancer-and-disease-causing foods (if you can even call them that).

I will continue to eat lots of green smoothies, green juices, salads, fruits, etc. Just not quite 100%. Thanks for cheering me on, and I'm sorry to have to tell you that I can't continue.

Raw Day 8

I totally forgot to add this video on Monday! It's now raw day 11 for me and going well!
Raw Day 8 from Jill Pullen on Vimeo.

Jeffrey

I found this very cute picture of Jeffrey, so I thought I'd share it. He's 1 1/2 today. I love this dog.

P.S. It's Disneyland's Birthday too!

Raw Day 7

Raw Day 7 from Jill Pullen on Vimeo.

Raw Day 4

I don't know what's up with my shiny tooth in this video. It's not really like that.

Untitled from Jill Pullen on Vimeo.

Zucchini Pasta

I made this for lunch today. It's totally raw, and the noodles are actually zucchini. The sauce is made of water, pinenuts, honey, garlic, nutmeg, lemon juice, almonds, all spice, salt, and pepper. It was really good, and Andy even liked it!

Raw Food Day 3

Raw Food Day 3 from Jill Pullen on Vimeo.

My 61st post

Exciting milestone for blogging! J/K 

I'm just trying to recover from all of the exciting things that have happened lately. After Mexico Andy and I went to Portland. It was only supposed to be for two nights, but our car wasn't all the way fixed (it cost $1800!!!!) so we had to wait until Thursday to come home. Andy's brother got engaged while we were there, so we went to their engagement party at a bar. It was interesting.

When we got home I was in my friend Carrie's wedding, so I had rehearsals and dinners and things to go to. It was a beautiful wedding on Sunday night, so that was fun. But I'm tired. This week is VBS at our church and we are in charge of the Jr. high kids for that. We're planning camping trips, waterslides trips, getting lots of event requests from the kids, etc. Busyness! I just finally cleaned up the house, did some grocery shopping, and balanced our checkbook yesterday. Life can be crazy, and there's no end in sight! The good news is that my friend Cassie and her husband and little daughter are coming to visit us in August. We're excited about that! I'll video blog later about our raw-foodness.

30 days of RAW

Raw Day 1 from Jill Pullen on Vimeo.