Diet, Drugs, & Dedication

You know, it's really difficult to be a confident, successful, beautiful woman. I mean, there are so many things to maintain/prevent that it can be overwhelming. I often think it would be MUCH easier being a man....well, except for having something hanging between your legs 24/7. That would just get annoying - HA!

This week, I've made several delicious dishes that I of course took pictures of to share on here. The first thing I made was these "Soda Cupcakes." Raina told me about them and they sounded so easy and delicious that I figured, why not try them out?! You just get a box of white cake mix and then add in 12 oz. of your favorite soda. She suggested trying Diet Sunkist, which makes these a wonderful orange treat. You mix the soda in with the cake mix and fill cupcake liners, then bake just like normal. They are 3 Weight Watchers points and so worth every bite! I didn't put any icing on them or anything and they taste fabulous!



The other thing I made (which I've decided will be "the meal" that I make for anyone I want to impress) was Honey Spice Chicken, skillet asparagus, and acorn squash. I had made the first two dishes before, but was encouraged by Mom to try the acorn squash and it didn't disappoint! It has the consistency of a sweet potato and just tastes delicious. The other thing I love about it is how easy it is to cook. I'll definitely be buying more of these and trying butternut squash the same way in the future!



This week, Mom got the Raspberry Ketones that she ordered after watching Dr. Oz a few weeks ago. They are supposed to be a natural supplement to aid in weight loss. It was such a popular show that the GNC warehouse apparently sold out of them the day after the show aired. How crazy is that?!?! I started taking them this week and we'll see on Friday if they are making a difference.




I've also started taking or will start taking all of the other supplements you see in the picture. Between fighting carbs to building heart & general health to strengthening my joints, these pills are going to hopefully help kick my body into shape. I'm starting to feel like I need one of those pill sorter things that people who have lots of meds take. Does this mean I'm getting old? Shoot! Also, I may be buying one more supplement to add to my stash that I saw on Dr. Oz today. It's called satiereal saffron extract and he suggests that you take 88-90 mg 2 times per day. It is supposed to be a natural appetite suppresant and a woman on his show that took it over one weekend lost 5 pounds. It never hurts to try right?

Finally, after talking to Mom on the phone today, I realized that I have to find balance in my life between social outings, exercise, eating well, and growing spiritually. I feel like I'm on the right track and do well at the first and last of the list. It's the middle area where I sometimes fall short. I have to come to a point where I take care of the body that God gave me and dedicate time to improving it into the best that it can be. In order to do this, I think I'm going to have to commit to working out certain days of the week, no matter what.

Here is what I think I'm going to try to do each week:

Monday - Bachelor night
Tuesday - Workout & cook a healthy dinner
Wednesday - Connect Class
Thursday - Workout & cook again
Friday - Who knows? It's the weekend!
Saturday - Workout (hopefully in the morning to get it over with)
Sunday - Another workout (probably before grading in the evening)

As with anything in life, it's not going to be perfect, but I HAVE to carve out at least 2 days a week to workout and then commit to working out both days on the weekend. Not only do I lose weight and inches when I workout, but I just feel better. So, I may have to respectfully decline some happy hour invites during the week, but hopefully in the end, it will all be worth it.

High Five for Friday (or Saturday)

So, I saw this "High Five for Friday" on another blog I read called The Small Things Blog where she wrote about 5 high points in her week. I like the idea, so I'm doing it today to recap my week.

Here are my "High Five for Friday" (even though I'm actually writing this on Saturday):

1. Valentine's Day was wonderful! My amazing parents sent Tiff's Treats cookies and chocolate covered strawberries to me at school on Monday. They were delicious and if I had any left, I could take a picture to post, but they're gone! Also, our PTSA at school brought a magnificent spread of "sweet & salty snacks" for us on Tuesday, so I ate WAY too many sweets this week. On Tuesday night, I went to see The Vow with Casey, Stacey, and her roommate. The movie was ok, but the best part was spending the evening with such fun girls! We proved that just because you're single doesn't mean that Valentine's Day has to be awful.

2. I just love my dogs! They have been so cute this week. Each morning while I'm doing my Bible study at the kitchen table, they both cuddle up on the back of the couch and sit waiting for me to leave and give them their goodbye treat. How can you not love these precious little guys?



3. I was on the phone with my Dad one day discussing how & when we're going to fix the mess my dogs made on the side yard and I spotted these beautiful blooms. Diane gave me this tree (or plant, I'm not sure) for my birthday last year and it has just been green until now. I guess since this Texas weather is so wacky, the plants think it's April, so this one is blooming! I can't wait to see what it looks like as it grows. :)



4. If you're on Pinterest, you've probably seen the hilarious pictures of Ryan Gosling with the funny sayings on them that always start with "Hey Girl". Well, one of my coworkers sent me an email with a ton of Hey Girl pics that all have to do with teaching. When I read it, I seriously laughed out loud while my room was silent and kids were testing. This one is my favorite:

In the spirit of this idea, Casey came up with her own. A friend of ours, Rosie, said that she thought that Ben, The Bachelor, looks like Mogli from The Jungle Book. We were also talking recently about how every Bachelor makes the girl that's the most afraid of heights go on some crazy date to "conquer their fear together." So, here is Casey's Bachelor version of Hey Girl: 

5. I started book 1 of The Hunger Games on Friday night. I'm only on chapter 7, but I can tell it's going to be a great book. As I was reading through the first few chapters about "the reaping", all I could picture was the preview for the movie. I have to finish this before the movie comes out in March so I can go enjoy it with all my Hunger Games loving friends!

Weekend Recap

Alright, so this post is going to have lots of random pictures, but I kind of feel like the pictures keep readers entertained. Maybe that's a flawed theory, but I like it, so that's all that matters - HA!

My weekend started off with a nice mani/pedi at Milk & Honey - thanks to K's ex-boyfriend! I was wanting a shellac manicure, but since it was an "all natural" salon, they don't do shellac. I decided to go with a "Pinterest-y" grey color on my nails. I've been wanting to try a grey-ish color for awhile, but never want to invest in one myself. So, when better to try than when it's free money?!



What do we think of the color? Depending on the background, it sometimes looks navy, which I'm not a huge fan of. Oh well - it will probably be chipping off in 3 days anyway since manicures don't last long on my nails. This is why my mom & I are looking into buying our own shellac "kit". (more details on that to come later)



I absolutely LOVE the color I got on my toes - it's called Drop Dead Gorgeous! I seriously HATE feet and can't believe I'm putting a picture of mine online, but it's all for the sake of showcasing my toenail color!



I decided to curl my hair for church on Sunday (to hide the greasy roots really) and thought it turned out pretty cute! The self portrait adventure was a bit difficult, though, without a forward facing camera on my phone. Also, I am starting to love my new hair color more and more! Since I had it done, it has lightened drastically and the blonde I used to have is starting to shine through and look like highlights. This may be my new "natural" (if there is such a thing in hair color these days).

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of snuggling on the couch to stay in from the sleet and FREEZING cold weather. The poochies LOVE going to Grandma's house because she spoils them with top of the line treats (that their mom can't afford). I think that my future child might be HUGE if she feeds them "treats" like she does my current "children". They always sit so pretty and attentive when they hear the rattling of the treat container!



Tyson is such a snuggle bug at night - he loves to curl up right beside me on the couch while I'm grading or watching TV. On Sunday, it was around 40 degrees all day, so you can understand why he is almost completely covered up!



The picture below is all I could see of Toby when we went to bed Sunday night - he was wrapped up in the blanket on my bed and I could barely even see his little head & ear sticking out! I don't know what I'm going to do this summer when I start training them to sleep on the floor and don't have them as bed buddies anymore. I'm hoping, God willing, that I'll need more room in the bed someday, so they'll have to learn that they don't get to hog half of it anymore!




I'm actually looking forward to Valentine's Day this year as I have plans to see a total chick flick, The Vow, with Casey. I'm not bitter at all about being "alone", which is not typical of my V-Day emotional state most years. It's going to be a busy week, so we'll shoot for another post recapping the week on Thursday or Friday.....

Getting Connected

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I've recently gotten back into the routine of going to church. It's been a really long time since I've felt such a deep connection and conviction to a church - I always seemed to visit churches on a "guest speaker" Sunday or just have a really hard time connecting with the message. The atmosphere and message at Austin Stone, however, has already in 3 weeks of going, led me to be more in tune with God than ever before.

I've started reading a book I bought with Raina at a conference a few years ago called The Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study and it has provided me with strategies for studying God's word. As suggested in the book, I made plans to study the Bible everyday at a time that couldn't be cancelled or pushed off due to other circumstances. Like Matt mentioned in one of his sermons, "Who or what is more worthy of our time than God?" This is so true - of all the things on our to do list, none is more important than building a lasting, loving relationship with our Father. I've been waking up early everyday and spending at least 30 minutes quietly reading the book and Bible and focusing my thoughts on Him. I was successful at keeping this commitment everyday this week except for Friday, which is kind of a story in itself.

I was broiling chicken on Thursday and after taking it out of the broiler, I put the pan back in the oven. As I'm eating my mediocre meal, my smoke alarm starts going off and the dogs are looking at me like "What the heck, Mom?" I'm fanning the air away from the smoke alarm with a kitchen towel and my eyes start to burn. At this point, I realize how smoky my house is from my stupid mistake of not turning the broiler off before returning the pan to the oven. :( So, I open the front and back doors to create a "draft" as Dad calls it and try to get the stinch out. I also decide at that point that the smell will NOT be out anytime soon and that if I shower that night, my hair will immediately absorb the smoky smell, so.....I showered Friday morning instead of doing my Bible study. I'm pretty sure God has already forgiven me for it.

And, we're back (to the main point that is). I also signed up this week for a Connect Class through the Austin Stone. The class is designed for people that are wanting to plug in at church and hopefully become part of a missional community, which is their name for small groups. Casey and I had been talking about wanting to get connected in this way since it's often so easy to get/feel lost in such a big congregation. One of the church partners suggested that this was the best way to get started on that mission. We will be meeting on Wednesday nights from 7-8:30P starting on February 22nd and I'm excited to see what this class will bring for me.

I'm kind of proud of myself for these steps in my life. I am hoping that the class will help me not only grow in my faith, but also to network and meet other believers that could help expand my social circle. After all, it's all about who you know, right? I will never know who God plans to use to carry out his plan for me, which I pray someday includes meeting the man he made just for me!

Zebra Cake....Well, Sort Of

So, I found this on Pinterest in two different colors and both recipes explained the same process for making the actual zebra stripes. I decided to try making one for the Super Bowl in red and blue since the Patriots and the Giants both had variations of both colors in their uniforms. This is what the cake was supposed to look like.

Click here to see detailed directions on how to make your own.

The directions tell you to use GEL food coloring to die the white cake batter your desired colors. I only had blue coloring that was GEL, so I decided (under Mom & Dad's direction) to just use regular food coloring - what difference does it make, right? So, we divided the cake into 2 parts and started spooning alternating bits of the batter into our two 9" round pans. This is what it looked like when we put them into the oven.

After baking, letting it cool, then fighting the "crumbles" to try and ice it, I cut strawberries into quarters and wrote XLVI across the top. It definitely isn't Cake Boss worthy or anything like that, but for a bunch of dudes watching football, I thought it looked good.

I was super excited for everyone to cut into the cake since the BEST part was sure to be on the inside with the beautiful ZEBRA STRIPES! Unfortunately, it looked like red, blue, and purple mush. It would have been redeeming if that flavor had been delicious or SOMETHING, but since the recipe called for white cake and I used vanilla icing, it wasn't much to write home about. :(

I think I'll try this again possibly with a square cake or maybe cupcakes and use white/black GEL food coloring and maybe some fancy pink icing. If you've made one of these and have any advice for me, please feel free to share!

To top it all off, my Super Bowl evening ended with this:

(not sure why it's upside down)

Apparently, I was going 65 on old 183 near Crystal Falls, although the officer didn't cite the posted speed limit on the ticket. The first thing he asked me was if I'd been drinking and later on in the traffic stop told me that he asked that because he could smell it on my breath - RIGHT! He proceeded to get me out of the car, ask me a few questions, then leave me standing in the 40 DEGREE weather while he sat in his heated car writing me a ticket. When he came back up to me at the end he also said "Um, your license says you're blonde." I said "Well, I used to be, but I died my hair BROWN a couple weeks ago." Seriously?!?! Who asks that?

Needless to say, it was pretty much a downer with the combination of my cake flop and traffic stop. Hope you all had an enjoyable Super Bowl Sunday! 

Let's give this another try...

Ok, so I've been wanting to start blogging again, but always find an excuse not to - everything from no time to not having anything to write about. So, I'm going to give this another go and hope that it goes better and is more successful than it was the last time that I posted twice in April 2010. I don't know how often I'll get around to posting and can't guarantee that it will always be entertaining, but it is a journal and record for me after all, right?!

This year, I didn't make any New Year's resolutions because I have a hard time sticking to things and quite frankly, there are too many improvements that I need to be making to just choose one. I also don't really feel like waiting until the new year is always the best time to try and make a change in your life. So, instead, I've gradually been adding things to my "to-do" list that I either need to be doing or that I should do in order to make me an overall better person. Below, you will see a picture of all that I've been trying to juggle lately. Let me be honest, I know that everyone has their own "picture" of what they juggle, and I'm by no means trying to complain, just explain and document this phase in my life.

From top left clockwise, here are the things I'm working on lately:

1)Grading - this is not something that I necessarily WANT to be doing, but it's inevitable. I've really been trying to do more of this at school so I can spend my time at home doing other productive things, but it doesn't always work out that way. I do have to admit that grading is my least favorite part of the job - why is it that as little girls we love pretending to do this or helping teachers?

2)Bible study - Casey, her cousin Stacey, and I have been going to Austin Stone for the past month or so and I've really been led to start spending time in God's word. I've never been one to read the bible because I don't feel like I'm educated enough to always get the big-picture meaning, but I've been reading a book I bought a few years ago that I'm hoping will help me with this. It's called The Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study and the author is hilarious. I'm hoping to learn some strategies that will give me confidence to start reading and understanding God's word and plan for me.

3)Bills & Mail - I hate mail, absolutely hate it. Katie will tell you how weird I am for this, but I tease her about her lack of trying on ANY clothing before buying it, so we call it even. I mean, let's be honest - except for the month of December, does anything good really come in the mail? All I have in my mailbox is bills, credit card statements, credit card applications, and the occasional coupon, which I don't use. I struggle with sorting, opening, and putting away all of the mess that I get in the mail. so I need to make an effort to work on this.

4)Working out - I struggle with this all the time and think I will for the rest of my life. With it getting dark so early, it makes it hard to get out and run. Also, without my accountability partner, Raina, running with me, I've been having a hard time running alltogether. So, I need to start doing SOMETHING, which I think for me right now will be Turbo Jam. I'd love to do a cardio video twice, maybe run twice, then do a strength video each week. I know that I feel better when I workout, so that is my goal in this department.

5)Reading - I've had that book checked out from the VHS library for over a month now and haven't cracked the cover. I would love to be a more avid reader, but when I try to read at night, it puts me to sleep. Casey inspires me to read and with all the hype surrounding the release of The Hunger Games I might trade in the book I have for that one. I think I can commit to finishing that by the end of March! I've heard it's SO great!

So that was a lot, but oh well right? Post coming soon about my attempt at a zebra cake...