Archives for January 2010

And this little piggie is chilling in the guest room!  Okay, I’m obsessed with these little towel animals.  I admit it!  We’ve been on two cruises and I just love these little guys!  So much that I got a book showing how to make them.  I’m just now getting around to playing around with it.  It’s fun, and they’re super cute!!

Anyhoo…

Nothing much going on around here.  I decided to switch our guest room and office.  So everything in the guest room I took into the office and everything that was in the office went into the old guest room.  Whew- I’m tired!!  The guest room is completely done!  And I’m still working on the office.  I HAVE to get it done this week because school starts back next week.  I ordered a new desk and it’s not supposed to come in until the 20th, so hopefully I won’t have any assignments the first week of school.  And I kindof have to wait to do much in the office until I get the desk in so that I can make sure everything fits.  The only thing I’ve really done in there so far is put up some new curtains.  But they’re really cute curtains!  LOL  I decided to do turquoise in the office.  It will look awesome with the desk- can’t wait till its done!

I decided to switch the two rooms because I’ll be working on schoolwork from home more this semester than last semester (especially since I have an online class and no classes on Fridays) and the room that I was using for the office is right off of the living room and the TV is right up against the wall of that room.  It’s fine when no one else is home, but when my hubby is home of course he has the TV on and it’s freaking LOUD in that room.  Not very conducive with studying.  Especially when you have ADD and already have problems focusing as it is! So anyway, the other room is farther down the hall and it’s much more quiet. 

That’s about all I’ve got going on here- just working on that room.  Took the dogs to the vet today, which is a fete if you’ve got one that’s trying to escape the office the whole time and the other (the one that weighs 100 lbs) is trying to climb in your lap!  The girls are having some tummy troubles, so we’ve got them on some meds and some nice bland food (which they actually seem to like, surprisingly).  Hopefully this will all clear up soon- the vet is expensive!!

I have to share this yummy pita pizza I made for lunch!  It was on one of the new pitas I was talking about the other day- they’re only 60 cals and so good!  (btw- sorry for the picture quality, I dropped my camera with the lens open-on concrete no less- and it broke.  :(  I’m so sad!  And I haven’t really had it that long either)

So I just took a pita and some leftover pasta sauce and a little cheese and voila!  Tasty yumminess in just minutes!

Brown rice and lentils are simmering away on the stove for dinner.  Smells delish!  Here’s the recipe.  I’m adding some jalapeno chicken sausage to them tonight.  There also might be a glass of wine involved!  Okay, there will definitely be a glass of wine involved!

Oh yeah, look who I found lounging on the bed when I was changing the sheets.  You step away for 30 seconds and she’s up on the bed taking a nap!  Crazy dog!  Good thing I hadn’t put the comforter on yet, lol.  (oh, and that’s a queen size bed!!!)

Off to do some blog reading!  Night yall!!

I slept till almost noon again today!  Who am I?!  I usually can’t sleep past 7 AM even if I try.  It might have something to do with my lack of sleep the night before and the tylenol PM that I took, though.  🙂

After I got up I had a quick lunch- a leftover turkey burger from last night.  Then I bummed around a bit more before I headed into town to the grocery store.  Anytime I’m at the grocery store I’m always on the lookout for new stuff and I found a few new things today that looked pretty great.

First is this Nature’s Own cinnamon raisin bread!  YUM- can’t wait to try this!!  I like the Nature’s Own brand because 1) the first ingredient is whole wheat flour b) there is no high fructose corn syrup, and 3) no preservatives!

I also liked this one in particular because I noticed that it was fortified with a bit more vitamins and minerals than most bread.  And a few of them were things that I know from my diet analysis that I did are things that I am deficient in- Calcium and Vitamin E.  So that’s good that I can get a little more of that into my diet just by eating some yummy cinnamon raisin bread!

The next thing I found were some Pita’s.  They looked interesting so I thought I’d try them out!  I’ll let you know how they are…

I like that it has flax in it- I definitely don’t get enough Omega-3’s. 

And then the next thing, I’m not exactly saying this is “healthy” but I just couldn’t resist.  I can pronounce all of the ingredients, so I guess it’s okay right?  😉

Light Pimiento Cheese!  Anyone else’s parents buy this stuff a lot when they were kids?  My dad LOVES this stuff!  We almost always had some in the fridge.  It takes me back to the good ole days :)  Am I insane or does anyone else love this stuff as much as I do?! 

Well, besides the usual suspects (fruits and veggies) that’s all I picked up at the grocery store.  We didn’t really need much.

Tonight we’re having taco soup and home made margaritas for dinner while we watch the cowboy’s game.  We’re not huge football fans, but Justin IS a huge Cowboy’s fan so I am being forced to watch the game.  Oh well, there are margaritas involved so I guess I’ll live!  🙂

I’m sure everyone has their own taco soup recipe cause it’s pretty popular, but I’ll post mine later anyway.

Have a good evening!!

Bible verse of the day…

This is SO GOOD!  I was feeling crappy today and wanted something warm, sweet, and comforting- this definitely delivers!

This is a random old weight watchers recipe that’s been sitting around forever.  I happened to have all the ingredients on hand when the craving for something sweet and delicious hit, so I decided to go for it!  I haven’t gotten the chance to run it through my diet analysis software yet, so I don’t know the calorie count for it, but I do know it’s 3 pts/slice if your a weight watchers person.

I changed the recipe up for what I wanted, but I’ll give the basic recipe first then tell what I did different.

Just look at this!!!

Apple Cake

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fat free milk
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 cup self rising flour (if you don’t have any, use 1 cup regular flour and add 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/8 teaspoon salt to it)
1 1/2 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 large apple
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Coat an 8-inch round cake pan with cooking spray.
2. Beat eggs and 1/2 cup of sugar in a large bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy.  Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla extract.
3. Combine the flour and cornstarch and fold into the cake batter.  Pour mixture into the prepared pan.
4. Layer apple slices in a circular pattern on top of cake.  Combine cinnamon and sugar in a cup and sprinkle over apples.  Bake for 30-35 mins or until a knife comes out clean when inserted.  Cut into 8 pieces and serve.

What I did differently…
I used a bundt pan instead of a regular round cake pan.  I also doubled the recipe.  I layered the apple slices at the bottom of the bundt pan, then the slices that were left over I chopped up and mixed into the batter.  Then I poured the batter over the apple slices.  I also saved the cinnamon/sugar mixture until after the cake was done- then I sprinkled it over the cake after I took it out of the bundt pan.  Oh and I also put about a teaspoon of cinnamon into the cake batter as well.

This cake is delicious and you should definitely make it!  I’m sure it would be just as delish if you followed the recipe exactly.  I was in the mood to get a little crazy though!  Turned out really well, and would be super delicious with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Bible verse of the day…

Anyone still going with theirs or did you give up already? ;)  Just kidding!  Things are going well here.  I still can’t believe I actually made a new years resolution- I’ve never done that before.  But it’s going pretty good- sticking to my calorie count, working out, eating lots of good stuff and not a lot of bad! 

I’m now thinking I’m glad that I made a resolution.  I want to be the happiest and healthiest that I can be.  Justin and I went to a funeral yesterday, and that always makes you think about life.  Justin’s best friends sister died.  I didn’t know her but Justin did.  All through the funeral I kept trying to remember if I had ever met her, but I never could recall if I had.  But as the funeral went on I wished that I did know her.  We got there just as the funeral was starting and we could barely squeeze through the door it was so packed.  The church was completely full and there was a line clear out the door.  We ended up standing along the wall up by the alter of the church.  As the service went on I couldn’t help but look out at all the people that were there.  She seemed like she was a person that was very loved by everyone.  You could just tell by looking out at all of the peoples faces that were grieving.  Yet with the grieving there was a sense of joy there as well- the joy that even though she left kids, a fiancé, lots of friends and family behind they were all happy that she is now in heaven.  It was very touching and sad at the same time.  My heart and my prayers are with the family right now as they are dealing with all of this and all of the legal things that are going along with the accident.  I pray that have comfort in this hard time and that the kids are taken care of through all of this. 

Death is a strange thing.  It does and doesn’t make sense at the same time.  As much as you know that a loved one is in a better place it still hurts so much to lose them.  Does it sometimes seem selfish that we get so upset when someone dies?  Especially if they are suffering?  Or even if they didn’t and it was a sudden and pretty instant death like Tina’s?  You know that since they are in heaven that there is no longer any pain, but yet you still want them here with you.  Maybe not- just a random thought. 

Anyway… it’s never too late to make a resolution to be your happiest and your healthiest!  It doesn’t have to just be on new years and it doesn’t have to be as the result of a tragedy.  Any day is a good time to get your life back on track.  Whatever that may be for you…quitting smoking or drinking or drugs, getting back in church, eating healthier, etc… now is the perfect time!  What are you waiting for?!

Before I post any pics I just have to take a second to reflect on the beauty of this place!  It’s just amazing to me that places like this still exist- almost exactly the way God made it (except with a few modern conveniences like electricity, restaurants, and shopping!).  Spending time here and seeing the gorgeousness of this place that is almost untouched by man just makes me wonder how people can NOT believe in God!  It really put me in touch with God’s goodness and the amazing blessings that He has given me.

Here are some pics!

The view from the balcony of the house we were staying at.  Breathtaking!

The view from my bedroom!  Can you imagine waking up to this every morning?  Amazing!

Snowing…

Playing with the pups!  Hey McCoy!  Silly goofy puppy!

Snow puppy!!  hehehe.

The Toby!  So cute- like a little stuffed animal!

I spent most of my time doing this…

Drinking coffee and reading!  I read this book in two days- it was SO good!  Now I need to see the movie- I wonder when it comes out on DVD?

Headed out for a walk in the SNOW!!

pics from my walk…

The ski resort…

Silly Gooses!

Brrrrr!!  This seemed fairly average during the day, but it got down into the negatives a few times!  BRRR!!

The overnight snowfall one night!  Wow!

One more of the silly snow puppy!

That’s all!!!  Good times!