I just realized I responded within your quote and I am on my iPad...no idea how to fix it! I don't even know how to bold my part..sorry.

Well, it was called Dick's Hickory Dock and it was in Kittredge. However, I just discovered that it's gone. So sad...it was truly the highlight of summer and fall...when it would get so miserably hot in Denver, we would drive up to Kittredge, getting cooler every foot we climbed up into the mountains. Then, the restaurant sits by a beautiful cascading stream, lots of outdoor seating while you eat shoe-size baked potatoes and pulled BBQ chicken. Truly something like heaven. I am soooo bummed it's gone. :(

Another vote for Evergreen. Or Durango...both are beautiful. Evergreen gets you to Denver pretty easily (and has the best BBQ restaurant ever in the little town next door). Durango is wild gorgeous but is a bit more remote. It does have a hospital, I believe.

That's so hard because we have them for such a short time but... A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that she always thought her mom was invisible because she was one-dimensional...her single, solitary interest was her kids. My friend says she is still this way and she still sees her as invisible. I mulled on that for a long time (because at the time, I would have been considered invisible by this definition) before realizing that that was probably true. I have since let it be ok to pursue some of my own interests. I won't do it at the expense of my kids...that boundary is clear to me; but those things that bring me joy and can be done without that sacrifice, I will do (ie: I really want to get a doctorate in Constitutional Law. I will take classes towards that end but wouldn't go full time at this point because that feels consuming to my family life, etc...) I don't want to be invisible to my kids...misses the whole point of relationship :)

We have a 2005 Toyota Sequoia, with captian's chairs so it seats 7. We live in skiing country so it's 4WD. Probably get 22 mpg on average. All of the 2nd and 3rd row seats fold down separately and also have a folding up option so that gives you twice as much storage room in the back. With the back seats in position, there is adequate storage room but really opens up with one or more of the seats folded away (we ski every weekend and even though we have a Thule topper, everything fits just great in the back if we lay some of the skis longways through the middle.) We have had zero issues with it...fabulous car.

It really varies. We use Costco for anything we possibly can. What we can't get at Costco, I will look for on Amazon. Some of their stuff is a really great deal (cereal, soap, gravy mixes, jello, coconut oil, birch sugar) if you can find it as a subscribe and save (auto shipments at a 15% reduction with free shipping). However, the subscribe and save can change at any point: there are several items we were using that aren't available by the next shipment date or the price goes up/down, etc.. Anyhow, I would say if you have time to spend on the sight looking for things you use a lot that you can't get at Costco, you should be able to find at least a couple of good deals.

Negin, just a few thoughts as I have read through the posts. First, some of my weight history: skinny my whole life with one of "those" metabolisms. During college, I would buy those 3/4 pound Hershey with almonds bars and eat the whole thing in one setting...just because...and I was so skinny. When my dh met me in graduate school, he thought I was anorexic because I was so thin. Now that he knows me, we both laugh because I love to eat. Love it. If I like the taste of something, I will keep eating even if I am full...which was fine 15 years ago.. Fast forward to age 38 and two pregnancies later, I had 25 lbs that I could not shake. So I started running. Ran about 18-20 miles a week. Dropped 10 lbs. right away. Then everything just stopped. No matter what I ate or didn't eat, how much I ran or didn't run. Nothing. This went on for about 5 more years. But I just kept running. A little over a year ago, I got ahold of Taubes book and it was the beginning of what has now become a new lifestyle. Totally resonated with me and exactly what I was seeing in my own life. The part on exercising and the section on metabolic resistance were particularly helpful. So I stopped running (which by now was becoming painful to my neck and sciatica) and started walking. I have changed my whole mindset about cardio exercise being for heart health, etc..rather than for weightless exclusively. I also started eating low carb, high protein and lost another 10 pounds. Then stalled again. For the past 5 months, I have been hovering here, unable to lose the the last 5 pounds to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I had given up getting there since it seemed that even low carb and no sugar (i do use xylitol and erythritol regularly) were helping me to only maintain, not lose. Then by accident, i got ahold of a book called Strong Women Stay Strong about using weights to keep muscle mass as you age and it got me thinking. So i started researching and bought the book The 12-Second Sequence by Jorge Cruise (the Belly Fat Cure guy). Since I have started adding in weights, the weight is coming off. There is a lot of research out there that confirms you have to be building muscle to keep your fat burning operations working. And I have my own anectodal research :). So, all of that was to say, for women our age (I am now 48 and i kind of remember that you are over 40?), I believe you will have to add in weight bearing exercise into your life if you want to be able to keep fat off. The 12-Second Sequence is great because you only do the workout twice a week and it takes me all of 15 mins. It does make use of a weight training machine which we were able to find used. But he also has alternate exercises if you don't have access to a machine. You will need some hand weights and an exercise ball, though. But I do strongly encourage you to try and incorporate some into your life..I honestly do not believe we can lose weight without it. Not at this age. Also, I do use the 1000 Low Carb Recipes book and a couple of other recipe books (one uses a lot of xylitol, erythritol, whey protein powder and cauliflower). Plus, I made up a recipe for Peanut Butter "Cookies" that I love and it totally takes care of me sweet tooth. I will share it if you like. Hope this is helpful. (I am writing on my iPad and don't catch the autocorrects always so I apologize in advance!)

We are living parallel lives :)

Many European countries (Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Italy, France, Lichtenstein, Austria, Switzerland) China (and Hong Kong before it went back to China), Japan, and Okinawa (technically Japan but still its own island)

So with you :). I have read only a handful of fiction and only a few of them were actually enjoyable (Cold Mountain, Snow Falling on Cedars, The True Story of Hansel and Gretl, Narnia books, and currently reading Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Love non-fiction. Love. It.

We do something very similar to the Cabbage Roll Casserole except we make it very low sugar, gluten, carb by adding cottage cheese to the meat, no rice, and brown gravy instead of a tomato-based sauce. So good :)

Do you prefer dry, alpine climates or humid, temperate? Spokane is beautiful, alpine, dry, pine and cedar, airport, close to Montana, Canada. That would be my personal choice but I adore a dry, alpine clime. If not there, I would choose one of the islands for a temperate, albeit damp, climate.

Favorite beach of all time is at Rockaway Beach...up by Tillamook (where the cheese factory is). It's beautiful, very quaint and not touristy. Easy access to Lincoln City and Seaside (but don't stay in Seaside...crowded, touristy, so not very fun). When are you going? They have the best July 4th celebration.

Nooooooooooooooo!!! Oh, this is not going to end well. They'll find me with eyes glazed over, fingers unable to be unpried from the keypad...

Awwww...I am on my iPad and can't get the "eek!" smilie to pin. But, that is eye-popping funny! I want a Davy Jones "I'm a believer" necklace now...

You are not the only one...we have them on our second floor and as soon as we can afford it, putting carpet in. They are loud enough (even with rugs) but something about on the second floor seems to make them even louder. Love the cozy, warm feeling of carpet :)

I don't spend a lot of time on the computer but I still can't believe I missed Etsy! Where have I been? I have been looking for a great balsam lotion for months...found it on Etsy. Been looking for fun, vintage glass frames for months...found them on Etsy. Been looking for a distressed metallic leather belt for a year....found it on Etsy. I feel so....behind. And I can't seem to get off it now...I might need an intervention at some point :)

Thanks so much!

Do you cover with aluminum foil or leave uncovered?

Oh my word...that is funny! I have been so annoyed for you all day...i mean, really? That's how she wants to roll? Sheesh. And although I have nothing else to add as you have gotten excellent counsel and encouragement here, I just want to join with everyone else in conveying how sad I am that this happened to you...you are not alone :)

What Parrothead said..it's all about acclimating. After that, it's just preference. I would rather be cool and wear more clothes than be hot (read: anything over 80) and not be able to get cool. And I hate AC..to me, it's an unnatural-weird-doctor's-officey-feeling. We went to Disneyworld in late September thinking it would be cooler and we were d y I n g. Eighty degrees and all of it as water! Gah.

Holy moose.

Perry Noble at NewSpring Church in South Carolina (just hang on...he is unwilling to be "pc" from the pulpit...but he's solid, orthodox). Louie Giglio at Passion City Church in Georgia. Powerful.

That is so funny...tonight my ds asked me what I would pick if I could pick any super-power and I said the one that cooks and does the dishes. I hate it too. Enough that I would choose that over the super power that would let you eat croissants from Costco all day and have it have the same effect as eating broccoli and raspberries.

Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts