Whew!

Whew! I feel like my life has been such a whirlwind lately! But all is well, and Iwanski is doing well, so I couldn't be happier.

I've been busy working, exercising like a mad woman (gotta keep my heart healthy, too!), and researching and cooking healthy, yummy recipes.

It's been busy, but honestly, I'm having fun with the whole healthy eating and exercising thing. I love our new exercise bike that Iwanski's family were so very kind to buy for us, and best of all, I've discovered that I really do like cooking!

I have to marvel at the magic of the universe sometimes. It really was a natural progression for me, to learn to cook and enjoy cooking.

It all started a couple of Christmases ago, when we did a "homemade gifts" Christmas with Iwanski's family. I decided to bake cookies for Iwanski's sister, and I discovered that I like baking. So over the next year or two, I started to bake more and more often--but I still didn't really like cooking. I think that most of it was just that I was afraid to try it and fail.

Then, my good friend Jonathan started to have me over for "Julia Child night" every Tuesday, during which he showed me many useful and relatively simple cooking techniques, like how to chop an onion, or how to peel & devein shrimp. I started to realize that cooking wasn't quite as crazy-difficult or as scary as I had previously thought. I began to develop "cooking confidence" and made a couple of tasty dishes that Iwanski and I really enjoyed.

Then, this whole thing with Iwanski's surgery happened. It was completely unexpected--something I couldn't have prepared for--but I do feel in a way that the Universe was at least preparing me for one part of Iwanski's recovery--how to cook healthy meals for him...and for me! I've got a good 30 pounds to lose, too.

But guess what? I've already lost 5 pounds! Whoo hoo! This healthy eating and exercising thing really does work, folks. The challenge is to make sure that we stick to it. But I'll tell you, there's nothing more motivating than open-heart surgery!

Now I'm eagerly doing things like sprouting my own bean sprouts, researching healthy seafood recipes, and looking up recipes for various types of hummus...I just found one for sweet potato hummus that sounds divine!

So I guess life handed us a bit of a lemon recently...and I'm making a giant jar of lemonade!

Oh, and for all of my wonderful blog buddies who have been busy posting and haven't seen a single comment from me, I want to assure you that I will be back soon to read blog posts and leave a comment or two. Believe me, I do miss reading your funny, interesting, and even sometimes silly blog posts. I've just been a wee bit busy as of late.

But as former California governor Ahhhhnold said in The Terminator... "I'll be back!"