January 26, 2013 Old Woman #2

The real me looks darned near as old as that photo I posted earlier!

Amy, Alicia and Alicyn stopped by with a lively orchid plant and birthday cupcakes.


 They couldn't get 74 candles on the cupcake, so I settled for 1.


If you had gone 59 days without a dessert (I've lost 12 pounds!), you'd be grinning like a Cheshire Cat  at the thoughts of sinking your teeth into a luscious lemon cupcake too!


The girls brought me an orchid plant!  I've never grown one before, so it will be a learning experience for me.  I've never met a houseplant I couldn't kill  :-0


Mr. Granny was manning the camera.  We were trying to give him instructions, and he wasn't doing a very good job of following them!  More than once he got me laughing at his attempts, but we did get a few decent photos out of him.  I won't say how many pictures he got of his finger.  It definitely made for a happy birthday!




47 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! This photo makes you look sooo much younger ;-). 59 days without dessert? You should be on Oprah! I have a hard time going 59 minutes without something sweet.

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  2. Happy birthday and congrats on the weight loss. I know that cupcake tastes incredible after 59 days. I have been there myself!

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    1. Agriburbia, I've been there before, too....too many times! I do pretty well for a few years, then the weight slips up on me before I realize it. Darned new ice cream and bread machines did me in last year :-)

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  3. Oh yum lemon cupcakes. I've only met one plant that I couldn't kill. I have an aloe plant that was given to me by my lab partner in college. Decades ago. It is my only houseplant left. I can forget to water it for over a month and it lives. I'm sure it could be killed with too much water, but that isn't likely.

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    1. Daphne, I had a snake plant that lived for years and years, until I took it to AZ with me. It got some type of bug down there that finally killed it. I kept shaking off the old potting soil and thoroughly washing the roots and repotting it into new soil, but whatever it was kept on hatching out no matter what I did. I also had a dieffenbachia and an angel wing begonia that lived a long time. The begonia was a start from my grandmother's plant, and probably 15 years or older. We moved to this house during a cold spell one November, and Mr. Granny put the plants in the back of the pickup to transport them. He didn't think driving two miles in that weather would hurt them, but it killed them both. Other than the snake plant, I haven't had live house plants for all the years we traveled to AZ for the winter. Now that we stay home, I guess I should give them another try.

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  4. Happy Birthday. Hope it was wonderful. I have also been on a diet and am not eating sugar. Some days go really well and some days I want a whole bag of candy. Why does it have to be so hard to eat healthy? I have an orchid and the instructions said to water it with 3 ice cubes once a week, you just set the cubes on the bark that surrounds the orchid. So far it seems to be working. Good luck.

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    1. Thanks, Peggi. I just pulled my orchid out of the plastic pot it came in and put it in a tall glass vase that fits perfectly on my kitchen windowsill. It, too, said 3 ice cubes or 1/4 cup of water once a week, so Saturday will be its watering day.

      To keep from eating sweets, I have had good luck eating apple slices, with the peeling, with 1/2-1 tbsp. smooth peanut butter for dipping. I also buy no added sugar fruit cups to keep on hand....applesauce, peaches and mixed fruit. One or two graham crackers with a fruit cup is quite satisfying. Fruit/yogurt smoothies, made with my home grown frozen berries, has become my "ice cream" of choice. I cannot give up my carbs. If I can have my whole grain breads and cereals, with lots of fiber, I don't find it too hard to keep the calories under control. Take away my bread and oatmeal (I add flax meal and chopped walnuts to it), and I turn into a monster ;-) So my sugar consumption is quite high, but it almost all comes from fruit and a small amount of dairy.

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  5. Happy Birthday! I love the picture of you laughing! Looks like you had a fun day. Congratulations on the weight loss too. Nancy

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    1. Thank you, Nancy! Sometimes we just have to make fun of ourselves. It makes life more enjoyable.

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  6. Happy Birthday Granny! I think you have your numbers mixed up, looking more like 47.

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    1. Thank you, Dan! Will you marry me?

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    2. How about a spring wedding?

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    3. Dan, can it wait until after we get our onions and potatoes in? :-D

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    4. all plans must be directed around garden activities. us, too.

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  7. Kudos to you on losing weight! I've been doing a 21-day Sugar Detox lately (I'm on Day Five). I've been trying for quite a while to eat healthy, but for me that often means more fruit and less vegetables. So for 21 days I'm dropping the fruit (it has sugar in it too), and upping the veggies. There are so many processed foods, like bottled salad dressings, that have sugar in them, sometimes in more than one form.

    I bet that cupcake tasted awesome! You look so happy, I love to see you laughing.

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    1. Alison, I still give in to a few processed foods, but not very many (Stove Top stuffing, anyone?). I make my own practically zero calorie/sodium salad dressing with water thickened with a bit of cornstarch, cooled and mixed with my choice of vinegar and herbs. I do add a little bit of olive oil at serving, but don't like mixing it in and then storing it in the fridge. My greatest health hazards are artificial sweeteners which, having grown up with a diabetic mother and having a son who was diabetic from the age of ten, means I've consumed every brand of artificial sweetener on the market....and I'm still alive and relatively healthy. My go to desert, when fruit just won't do it for me, is 10 calories of sugarfree Jello with a dollop of that 20 calorie chemical called Cool Whip Light ;-)

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  8. Happy Birthday! I hope you've sown your onions and leeks!

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    1. Oh, 5olly....I buy my onion plants the beginning of March, plant my bunching onion seeds outside around the same time and, at my age, I have too many leaks. Oh, you said leeks. Thanks for the well wishes.

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  9. Happy Belated Birthday Granny!!! I'm such a bad friend.....I hope you forgive me! You look wonderful! What a great day and Mr. Granny did Ok with the pics!

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    1. Well, I wondered when my best ever cyber buddy was going to say something! Thank you :-D

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  10. Happy Birthday! Looks like you all had a great time, and congrats for losing 12 pounds!

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  11. happy birthday gran! you look GREAT! xoxoxo

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  12. Happy Birthday! You look great, and I haven't even gone to see the other photo, yet, to compare! That sweater looks great on you.

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    1. Thanks, Ali! I grabbed two of those sweaters (the other one is red) on sale last week. I had a similar one in light turquoise, and I've worn it so often it's almost worn out. I just love them, and thinking about going back to get a couple more.

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  13. Happy Birthday! Hope it is a good one!

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    1. Thank you, Shawn Ann. at my age, all birthdays are good. So much better than the alternative ;-)

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  14. Happy Belated! Looks like you had a grand time!

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    1. I did, David, and continued the good time with a day away from the house today! It's always nice when I can let someone else do the cooking :-)

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  15. I hope your birthday was great. I hope I look as good as you do when I turn 74. How was the cupcake? And congrats on the weight loss! I'm trying to exercise since my eating habits are pretty good. I just need to increase my metabolism. I'd much rather eat a cupcake!

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    1. Hey, the cupcake was great, Langela. I think it tasted twice as good, just because I hadn't had any cake (or cookies, or pie) in such a long time. I also got birthday cake and ice cream today, but I kept the portions under control. No harm, no foul!

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  16. Happy Birthday, Pretty Lady.

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  17. Happy Belated Birthday! You look fantastic and I would NEVER have guessed your age in a million years!

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    1. Haha, Farmers Wife...you'd probably guess I was ten years older than I am! Too many years of gardening in the sunshine have taken their toll. Too late to do anything about it now, so I just continue to wrinkle and sag and bag. Thank you for the birthday wishes :-)

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  18. Happy birthday Granny. I had to get back to work to catch up with you. I hardly use the net when I am home. I just received $75.00 worth of seeds Saturday. I am going to convert my raised beds to the Square Foot method this year and try to raise more than just tomatoes in the same space. You have inspired me to get my hands dirty again. Now if you can inspire me to loose some weight you will truly be my hero. Love YA
    Your Gardening Friend
    Frank from Virginia

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    1. Thank you, Frank! Hey, Mr. Granny has lost 16 pounds since December 29, so I'm sure I could motivate you! I'm up to 5 miles at a shot on the exercise bike now....just watch those pounds fall off of me, LOL! Actually, I only have six more pounds to go, and I kind of hate to see it end! I always did love a challenge :-)

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  19. Lovely photos! Tell your husband I've never ever taken a picture of my finger - but I've taken plenty of my feet! :D 59 days without dessert? You go, girl!

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    1. Thank you, Jean. One of my favorite photos, taken by Mr. Granny, was of his eye. He was holding the camera up backwards!

      PS: I'm waiting for you to come up with some fabulous low-cal recipes! Mr. Granny says if I feed him much more plain grilled chicken, he's going to start laying eggs. Oh, the birthday called for dessert two days in a row, but I'm back on the wagon now :-)

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    1. Thank you, Stefaneener! I was happy to see you back on your blog :-D

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  21. Try http://www.skinnytaste.com/. There are a load of great recipes that look really yummy. Going to try one tonight.

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    1. Peggi, bookmarked! Thank you. I've been looking for a decent black bean burger that doesn't fall apart in the bun. That gives me another version to try, after I use up all the others making them into quesadillas, LOL

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  22. nothing new in my sincere belated wishes: you look great, i hope i feel as peppy as you seem to, and best wishes for a happy 75th year. i love the photos.

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