Honeymoon Pics :)

Sharing some pics from our honeymoon - we went to the Bahamas - it was an amazing time. VERY relaxing and we met some really great people there. We had so much fun - from taking out the Hobie cat (mini sail boat thingy), to my first attempt at scuba diving (ha! was a bit challenging but, glad i took the course), to daiquiris every day by noon, trivia in the pool and just spending good quality time together - very beautiful, fun and romantic week :) In fact, we had so much fun that we've already booked another trip - this time to St. Lucia next November! YAHOOO!! Here are some pics for ya....

Chad and me on the pier - beautiful water!!!






beautiful sunset!!





One of my favorite nights was our last one - we had a private table set up on the beach and had a candlelight dinner! Was awesome - we had lobster, champagne, etc! Was very sweet way to end our week :)

table setting

cheers!!

Was a blast and can't wait for our next vacation! And holy cow I actually have a baby tan now! Actual tan lines :) As you can tell I have ultra fair skin and I usually avoid the sun - I wish I could say the reason is cuz I am being pro-active against skin cancer BUT my true motive is vanity - trying to fight wrinkles, freckles, sun spots, etc. However, I am excited to have a baby tan - I wore 45 - 90 spf the whole time b/c I'm a dork but hey - a little tan looks ok afterall :)

Back to reality today for sure....working and playing catch up. Back in health mode too - start back to running tomorrow - looking forward to it actually! On a side note - I think I'm addicted to a new reality show - new to me anyway - Tabatha's Salon Takeover on Bravo - AWESOME! She's like the ultimate salon therapist - very cool show! OK - later, feels so good to be home!

we're back!!

and so...back to reality effective tomorrow!! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind - from wedding to honeymoon and all of that in between - but, wanted to update everyone quickly. I am officially Ashley Nicole DeVries now - yahoo! I will blog in more detail once things have settled down - we just flew in today from Bahamas BUT, to sum it up - spectacular :-) Everything was just perfect and gorgeous - it was amazing having so many of our friends and family all together and wow wow WOW! Our ceremony was so beautiful, the reception was so much fun (yummy food and cake!) and the cocktail party JoAnne threw for us the night before was AWESOME! and of course the honeymoon was a total blast!

Wanted to share a few pics from the ceremony - here are a few pics that my fab friend Tracy snapped for us - she is a very talented photographer!

love this one of us...awwwww

me solo

my father walking me down to Chad

kisses

Cheers to everyone and will be blogging more as soon as I wade through my million and one emails/voicemails for work tomorrow morning...oh yeah and have to start the thank you notes as well - will be back soon after catching up on some zzzzz's :-)

uh-oh..... come on mr sunshine and miss spectacular sunset!!

I was checking the weather forecast for Sarasota and getting a little panicky....30% chance of rain and isolated thunderstorms!! Let me remind you our wedding is on the beach and our reception is OUTSIDE by the pool and tiki bar! Shit....

Then I stumble across this article and it really is true - and I will read it a few more times to calm down - it is our day, about us and all the details do not matter. If we have to move it inside - so be it. Stay positive and all the rest will fall in place....***positive self affirmation here****

I promise to myself I will remain POSITIVE and focus on the end result - and also the fact that we will be surrounded by awesome family and friends too :) The End!

Also, just want to add that I am just humbled and amazed by the generosity of old friends and new. Received a surprise gift in the mail yesterday afternoon that about made me cry - as it was so unexpected :) I am so fortunate to have such lovely beautiful people in my life - past and present.

Hair, Dior and last minute stuff...

Well - had a bit of a hair oopsie over the weekend - my friend Christine did my roots and it was the first time she's done my hair. My natural color apparently has a LOT of red undertones in it because it lifted a tad bit ORANGE at the roots!

Yikes!!! Here are the orange roots....



Here I am in foils - we decided to add more low-lights to it, balance it out...



Here I am this morning sans makeup (yuck!) and you can see my lovely zit that is on the mend, lol....



Now, I think it still has a tad bit too much orange in my left root section BUT, I do love the color on the ends, she added a lot of dimension that was lacking in my bleached blond and it needed definition bad.



I also LOVE how Christine will do my hair for the wedding - it will look similar to this but with less boing-boing ringlet action - more of a loose wave...but, it looked really awesome and was exactly what i want my hair to look like on the big day.



I may add some low lights to the roots to get the final orangey tone out if i have time - have so much to do!!! I need to pack, get a pedi/mani, clean the house again, get everything lined up for our awesome dog sitter Melissa (still not thinking yet of HOW MUCH I will miss the girls while we're gone!), etc etc etc...BUSY next couple of days!!!

One awesome thing - I was able to find the PERFECT earrings for my wedding day - i love these - found them at a bridal boutique right by my house - Blushing Bride. Man, wish I had known about that place sooner!! They had some great stuff in there!! But, i just adore these earrings so, very happy about that....



And - i also hit up the Dior counter on Saturday with Christine and have my arsenal of wedding make up ready to go! I love their stuff, more expensive but totally worth it - their eye liner ROCKS!



Aside from that.... just busy getting organized and packing. I have our travel stuff and rings all ready to go -




now just gotta pack!!! Not sure how much time I will have to blog over the rest of the month. I think we are leaving laptops at home - just because we will be so busy! But....will have LOTS to update in December!

So - cheers to our wedding day - send me positive vibes that everything goes as smoothly as possible! I just keep repeating in my head what Chad has said all along - don't worry, the day is about us, the important thing is that we are getting married and the rest of the details don't matter in comparison to that, they will fall into place :)

And don't worry - my mascara is waterproof for that day as I KNOW I will cry during the ceremony - happy tears of course! That's all for now - laters!!

Let's Go Blues!!!

So, last night we went to the Blues hockey game - fun! There were only a couple fights - the main reason I love hockey is due to the fighting :) But...still a really good time. It was military appreciation night and we had $127 tickets for FREE! Our seats were awesome and Chad and I decided those seats were way cooler than the nosebleed section cheapy seats - which is where we would normally sit!!

View from our seats


Us at the Game

Seeing this pic above really makes me want to cut my hair....not a lot but, the ends really need it!! No chopping till after the wedding though :) My girl Kristine will fix me up this weekend.

Anyway - we are going to the wine bar tonight, just for a little bit - we need to get organized on packing, cleaning, etc so.... need to make a list cuz well, I'm a list maker :) And a wine drinker so - making lists at the wine bar it is! Happy Friday everyone....weekend is here - enjoy! ;)

Trying to be Good and Ignore the Demon Cookies....

First let me say that this week has been EXTREMELY hard for me to eat healthy...I am really trying though... with the combination of wedding stress, work stress and PMS...it has been a challenge. BUT - I'm doing good, well....minus the booze. But hey, we all have our vices.

I'm proud of myself though because last night I oh so wanted to roll through Mickey D's and get a cheeseburger with small fries. It's funny the conversation I have with myself to justify things - I kept thinking "that's only 10 points....big deal" but, I was a very good girl and had a turkey burger at home instead with 2% cheese and low fat mayo and all of that was just 5 points. And it satisfied my craving - and no fried fries! So Go Me!!

Here is my healthy wrap I made for lunch today -



OK so it's not healthy to eat at your DESK but... besides that was good!

I put one tbsp of Wholly Guacamole's Spicy Avocado Dip (totally rad btw), 1 oz of turkey deli meat, 1 oz of black beans, 1 tbsp of feta and some salsa....damn skippy it was awesome. And yeah, I had some tortilla chips on the side and they were not baked but - they were portion controlled to 1 oz. What can I say...I rock. OH and look at the cute salsa cups I found that are portion sized out... I brag about this company all the time but you have to check out Wholly Guacamole's stuff - they are yum and all ingredients are super fresh, not chemically junk.

And then.........Chad comes home with THESE.....

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!

TAGALONGS!!!

Sorry for the blurry pics but I think I was shaking with joy/lust/temptation, etc...

Sweet jesus - Tagalongs are one of my many food demons. Usually cannot eat just one...or two...or fifteen. Have to eat the whole box. In fact, I remember a LONG time ago I ate an entire box of Tagalongs in one sitting - I was a bank teller at the time and ate the whole box for lunch - can we say Fat Smackey?? I was telling Chad this story and he calculated the calories for me of the entire box - 980 calories, 63 g fat, and 56g sugar! Holy lord.... Anyway.... think I will put these in the freezer until we get back from the wedding!

Just have to say that I've worked my tail off this week and finished my November audits EARLY! Whooo - HOOOOO!! Even though there were guys with chainsaws outside my window most of today taking a tree down.... Glad that is out of the way! Now I can just wrap up a few small things over the next couple days and say See Ya to work until Dec 1st! Yahooooooo!!!

OK - that's all for now, Chad and I are going to the Hockey game tonight. We got free tickets thanks to the Blues giving out totally awesome seats to the military! Will take some pics of course! Later - hope everyone is having a good cookie-free week!

Bridezilla Moment One......

Here is how to freak out a bride the week before her wedding…

I make a call today to the Manatee County Clerk’s office to check on our wedding license.

Apparently there is a three day waiting period for Florida residents – Florida is Chad’s resident state as he owns a house there. Being active duty military, you don’t change your home state everytime you move – major pain in the a$$!

So, I explained that we are arriving in town on Wednesday the 18th….. Captain Retardo on the other end of the phone says…”Okay well, you have to wait three full days after you apply so….. you can’t get married until Sunday”

Ummmm…………..WHAT THE F??????????????????

Oh ok….sure no problem – Hey Everybody….can we just move this thing to Sunday? No biggie RIGHT???

After screaming at Captain Retardo that this is unacceptable, there has to be some other way?, surely we cannot be the first people in this situation, etc, etc, etc….. I speak to her boss. Thankfully, Captain Retardo’s boss is more informed – the three day wait begins the day we apply, which will be Wed so, yes….we can get married on Saturday. And oh yeah, if Chad has a valid passport we could just use that and skip the 3 day wait period.

Holy Wave of Relief!!!!!!

After thanking her and apologizing for my Bridezilla freak-out, I ask her to please inform Captain Retardo of this information to prevent future Bridezilla moments from happenening.

HOPEFULLY – this will be my last and final freak out moment….. the funny thing is that I emailed Chad during this and he replies back all calm and collected “so we need to change our flight to Tuesday?”…… one of the many wonderful things about my Chad – he is so laidback and calm about things, really helps me to gain perspective.

OK, that’s it….The End :)

New Recipe and New Fez!!

This weekend is going by way too fast! Boooo! Slow down!

Friday night was very low key - just stayed in. Chad made a fire for us in the fireplace and we tried a new pork recipe. I found it awhile ago online and just now got around to trying it. First time I've made anything using Chinese Five Spice - was tasty though and really a different flavor. The dish was - delish!!



Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Chinese Ginger and Lemon Sauce

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces pork, 2 tablespoons sauce, and 1 tablespoon green onions)


Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut crosswise into (1/2-inch-thick) slices
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 cup chopped green onions
Preparation
Combine first 3 ingredients, and rub evenly over pork.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan, and cook 1 1/2 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Remove pork from pan, and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium. Add 2 tablespoons onions, ginger, and garlic to pan; cook 2 minutes or until fragrant, stirring constantly. Combine sherry and next 5 ingredients (through soy sauce) in a small bowl. Add sherry mixture to pan; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add pork to pan; cook 3 minutes or until pork is done. Remove pork from pan using a slotted spoon, reserving liquid in pan.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add cornstarch mixture to pan, and bring to a boil. Cook 30 seconds or until slightly thickened. Serve over pork. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup green onions.

Nutritional Information
Calories:189 (30% from fat)
Fat:6.2g (sat 2.1g,mono 2.8g,poly 0.7g)
Protein:24g
Carbohydrate:6.1g
Fiber:0.6g
Cholesterol:75mg
Iron:2mg
Sodium:513mg

Yesterday Chad joined The Shriners - which is like an offshoot of the masons. Except they drink A LOT, drive go karts and wear funny hats :) LOL - seriously, these guys do a lot of awesome things for the community and for children - like the Shriner's Hospitals, etc. Anyway - while Chad did his thing with the guys all day, I got to hang out with the Ladies of The Shrine - was so much fun! We went to Alton, IL and took a tour of the historical homes there, had lunch at this very cute tea room Josephine's (FABULOUS desserts!) and then some shopping afterwards. We headed back to The Shrine in East St. Louis and had the Fez ceremony.... Here's a pic of me putting on Chad's Fez, kinda crooked :)



My hair looks horrid in this pic! I'm holding off on getting highlights until right before the wedding....thinking about chopping off several inches afterward too - we'll see.....I had short hair for so long, kinda nice having the long hair thing for now.

After the ceremony and meeting....HOLY PARTY! Those guys can seriously throw down some drinks and have a good time! There are about 11 different little "bars" in The Shrine and we went to several and had a blast. I was even serenaded by a brass band in one! Felt like we were in a New Orleans bar for a minute! We liked the Highlanders bar the best - these guys play bagpipes and wear kilts and love to drink - their bar was very tiny but, they had a full band set up in the corner that was rockin out - was fun! We wrapped the night up with a couple more drinks at The Town Lounge - total dive bar near our house. Now today is chillax day! Busy week ahead..... Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

some randomness for you....and p.s. MY DRESS FITS!

Well - I had my final dress fitting tonight and GOOD NEWS! It fits :) It actually fits perfectly so - yahoo! Now I just hope it looks good in person....looks good in my mind - lol! I had this horrible thought on the way home from the dress shop - oh shit, what if i forget to bring my dress to Florida???!!!?!? I am going to have to make a big sticky note of all the things I CANNOT FORGET when we leave. Two weeks from now, we will be chillin in Florida, having drinks and kicking off our wedding weekend! I also get to meet Chad's best friend Duane that day so, really excited about that. Two weeks until we leave......TWO WEEKS!!! Holy cow! I am so excited!

Not much going on, I've been very good this week - eating extremely healthy and working out - I did bootcamp on Monday night, ran on Tues and today - then bootcamp tomorrow night. It is the last one as winter is practically here - I think we are going to have a winter session at Vicki's gym which will be a fun change of pace and a good way to avoid extra lbs this winter!

Thought I would share a few pics - this is a HUGE pizza from Schiappa's - which is this Italian restaurant/bar near our house that we will hit on Friday nights randomly - very close to the house and we can have a couple brews at the bar and drive the .25 miles home safely! Here is a pic of the huge pizza - Chad and I were impressed...



now - this pic does not really do it justice cuz trust me, this thing was HUGE! But, you can kinda use the random guy in the pic as a reference point to get an idea of the hugeness....speaking of hugeness - check out the server's T-shirt in the back - LOL!

Here is proof of my healthy eating this week - here is my egg white omelet, my America's Favorite bacon (less fat than turkey bacon and tastes awesome) and berries....this has been my brekky pretty much all week - YUM! I've been putting spinach, ham & feta in my omelet - super tasty!



Here is a pic of a wrap I made for lunch this week....






It was SO GOOD - in fact, looking at this pic now is reminding me just how yummy it was, think I will make another one tomorrow....


This is a low fat wrap, Morning Star Buffalo Chiken Nuggets (faux chicken!), with spinach, romaine, pickles, cucumbers & low fat creamy ceaser dressing - YUMMM!!!

Here is a new recipe I tried for dinner this week - was really fab and super super quick and easy - it is Grilled Chicken with Tuscan Mustard Sauce - I will share the recipe below - try it, super super quick, easy, tasty and healthy :) Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, of course, my fave.....



Grilled Chicken with Tuscan Mustard Sauce

Mix up 1 tbsp of freshly chopped rosemary, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp whole grain mustard, salt & pepper and 1 tsp of dijon mustard. Spread this over chicken breasts and either grill or GFG it.

Then to make the sauce - take 1 tbsp of whole grain mustard, 2 tbsp of low-fat mayo, tbsp of water and I put a smidge of horseradish in there for pep and heat. Put a tbsp of that on top of each chicken breast and it's that simple!!

Final pic is me and Chad being goofy.... can't wait to be Mrs. DeVries in 17 days!!

more boring updates!!

sorry I've been out of the blogging loop lately! Have just had a lot on my mind with the wedding, etc - I am really excited - only 15 more days to go before we leave for Florida!! YAHOOOO!!!!

This weekend was a whirlwind - I took Friday off to wrap up some last minute wedding stuff - bought the jewelry I'm going to wear with my dress and bought a few cute dresses for the Honeymoon - wow, all the stores are having awesome sales on their summer stuff here so, I picked up some CUTE summer dresses for like $10 - $20 each that were regularly priced over $100 each.....SCORE!!!

Friday night we went out with Tim and Di - we went to The Stable for pizza and beer and ended up at Johnny Gitto's in The Hill - total blast! Then on Saturday for Halloween, Chad and I just had a fun day running errands and we stopped in for a beer at the VFW here and then went over to Hooter's for wings - total pig out weekend! Now, we nornally do not hang at Hooters but - it was very entertaining to check out the creepy old men and dudes there that were checking out all the girls - the staff was dressed up in Halloween costumes and most of them pretty slutty as to be expected, lol but - it was a trip watching the retards in there fall over themselves trying to talk to the chicks. There was one creepy guy in particular that Chad and I kept cracking up over....anyway - fun times for sure.

The Sat night, we had a very low key Halloween - Christine came over and we just sat outside, had some beers and passed out candy. No dressing up this year but, definitely will next year!

Sunday was just a lazy day - did laundry and I organized my closet - I have a bit of a shoe fetish and have a zillion pair of stilettos! Remind me that I do NOT need another pair of silver heels! Four pairs is enough Thank You!!

Anyway - today I am back to eating healthy and working out - except I am going to be REALLY GOOD as we leave for Florida soon!! I'm going to be running a lot b/t now and then and thankfully the weather seems to be cooperating with my plans - it is beautiful and sunny today.

I apologize again for NO PICTURES! I have not been very good lately about this but, will try and do better - I know my blog is boring with me just rambling about daily life and no pics :) Back to work for me - later y'all!

boring update for yas....

thought i better update so everyone knows i'm alive :-) been super busy with work...in fact will be really busy with work right up until the wedding - lovely. but, hey - i'm not complaining! i thank my lucky stars every day for my job - working from home is a blessing and so is working with and for awesome people. Anywho....

I have found a dress for the cocktail party the night before the wedding but, as usual...need to have it altered! although at the rate i've been eating, not sure if i need to have anything taken in! Stress and this time of year in general just makes me want to EAT. Getting harder and harder to work out! But..... i really need to stay motivated!

Other than that - nada going on. Chad and I don't really have Halloween plans yet and I'm not in the mood to really dress up this year so, think we may just have a low key chilled out Halloween but, ya never know with us - we'll see. We always have fun handing out candy and having a few drinks. We are going out with some friends on Friday night and other than that - nothing planned.

That's all i got for now - will take some pics later to post and liven things up - hope everyone is having a good week!! Later!

Grilled Pork Jalapeno Apps

Been busy busy with work and wedding stuff.... I think we've almost got everything taken care of....just a few more details and DAMN I'm ready for our day to get here! I'm trying not to get stressed out because Stress = Zits for me and, don't want that for the wedding pics. Stress also = Reese Cups for me. I had some yesterday in fact! But, not feeling too bad as we did bleacher runs at Bootcamp last night and I ate pretty healthy the rest of the day. Sometimes, you just have to stuff a Reese's Cup in your face......and damn they are good :)

Stress also = shopping for me and I hit TJMaxx after bootcamp last night! Found 3 cute sweaters for winter and some skull socks.....a girl can never have too many pairs of socks with skulls on them :) I used my gift card from my lovely work team - they are so sweet - gave me a giftcard for Boss' Day! I was so surprised.... record time for me hanging onto a gift card - I think I had it for a week!!

Wanted to share this appetizer that Chad made for us on Sunday - we were kicking back watching football and he wanted to show me these appetizers that his buddy Phil made for him - You take pork tenderloin and marinate it in Jack Daniels and Italian Dressing. Then you cut the tenderloin into bite size pieces - put a jalapeno slice on top of the pork, then you wrap that up in a half slice of bacon. Then grill them.... YUM!!!!!!! These were amazing! We always have low-fat bacon at our house so, figured they were too too bad for us. Damn they were good - here are some pics...

on the grill

my baby grillin'...and Bebe in the back there

finished product - YUMMMM!

I was procrastinating this week so, cleaned my office - yahoo! Yes...this is clean for my office, lol....here is where I spend a good chunk of my life....



One a side note....my throat is starting to feel raw, my eyes hurt which is a weird thing that usually means I'm getting sick, and I'm grouchy and sleepy.... damn it to hell...i better not be getting sick!!!!!!!! Curses!!!

OK - back to work....at least tomorrow is FRIDAY! :-)

Hermann Winery Trip!!

Saturday - I went with some friends on my very first Missouri Wine Road trip! Was such a total blast....we rented a van and headed to the wineries that are north-west of St. Louis - in the little town of Hermann, MO. Such a quaint and beautiful little area! We hit a handful of wineries - Stone Hill, OakGlenn and Adam Puchta to name a few... it was a wee bit chilly but, overall weather was beautiful and it was a good time had by all. I came home with about a half case of various wines - can't wait for the next trip with Chad - gotta check out the Augusta wineries and B&B's!!

A special thanks to Vicki's Dad - he was our DD and drove the van for us.....and put up with our drunk asses!! :) Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure...can't wait for the next trip!!!!

Rosemary Chicken Salad Sammies

Today for lunch, I decided to try a new chicken salad recipe I found....plus I am also trying to use my fresh rosemary up before it gets too cold and my rosemary herb bush dies! So, made this and yum...it rocked....

Here is the sammy.....



Wanna bite?



Rosemary Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Yield
5 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)
Ingredients
3 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 3/4 pound)
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped smoked almonds
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
10 slices whole-grain bread

Homemade Chicken Ravioli!!

Last night, Chad made homemade Chicken Ravioli......SO GOOD! It was his first attempt at making the ravioli's by hand - and he did an excellent job - very tasty! He even did the pasta dough with half whole wheat flour to make it a little bit healthier ;) Here are some pics.....

The raw ravioli's before they went into the pot....



Boiling away.....



Finished Product.... I wanted to make them look prettier by putting a nice green salad next to them or something but, really just wanted to stuff my face so - snapped a quick pick and....yep, stuffed my face :) yums



Here is the recipe for the filling - we even used the leftover's tonight for manicoti....Italian week for us!

Chicken Marsala Ravioli Filling

8 ounces chicken breast, cut in strips
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 shallot, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/4 cup Marsala wine or chicken broth
4 thin slices prosciutto, sliced
4 bay leaves
Fresh thyme and parsley leaves
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated, divided
Salt and pepper
1 egg
1/4 cup heavy cream

Brown chicken in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add shallot and garlic. Deglaze with Marsala. Take pan away from heat source and flambe. Return pan to stove, flame will go out in about 1 minute. Add prosciutto and herbs. Sprinkle in bread crumbs and 1 tablespoon Parmesan. Drizzle in 1 tablespoon of olive oil to keep moist. Discard bay leaves. Pulse together all ingredients in a food processor. Add egg, cream, remaining Parmesan and olive oil. Pulse again. Chill before filling ravioli.


Hope everyone is having a good week, Chad will be hunting this weekend so - my girl Christine is coming over Friday night to help me with my "wedding hair" - not sure what I want exactly but, she will help me figure it out. I'm going to make dinner for us too so, will be a fun time. Then Saturday I have a winery trip with some of my bootcampers! It's going to be cold as hell Saturday too so, gotta figure out what the hell I'm going to wear and find some gloves! Fun Weekend ahead!!!!

Surprise Bachelorette Party!!

So Monday night - I trudged off to bootcamp, a little bit sleepy but determined to get a good work out in. I get there and see all the girls in the parking lot of the park we work out at - waiting on me. We march past the pavilions, headed to a different area than we normally worked out in. Of course, I am oblivious and yacking away with my friend Angie...chatting about this and that...and then all of a sudden.....SURPRISE!!!!! No workout, a bachelorette shower instead!!!

I was so surprised and got teared up a little bit - I am so lucky and fortunate to have such thoughtful and wonderful people in my life! Thank you to all my wonderful bootcampers - you guys are SO awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are some pics to share....

Check out the cool banner Vicki's Larry made! and the awesome spread!!

group shot in front of the banner

oh yes we did....karaoke!

here is proof...I NEVER karaoke!!

It was a blast - Thanks again to my bootcampers!!! You guys are amazing!! :-)

Oktoberfest!!!

One of our favorite beer festivals here in St. Louis is the Soulard Octoberfest....we went yesterday and had a total blast! Great beer, good brats and a really good crowd - was so much fun! Here are some pics of us....






GOOD TIMES!!!! Now if I can just get motivated to get my arse off this couch and start cleaning the house.....

Rosemary Beef Stew :-)

This weekend was pretty chilly so, decided to make us some Rosemary Beef Stew - mmmmmmmmmmmm!!! so good!! This is a pretty easy stew to make and Chad and I LOVE it.... in fact, we had some for breakfast this morning already :) Trust me - if you want to impress your man (or woman) with your soup making jedi knight skills....make this! It is killer, promise!

Of course - I will share the recipe and a pic.... Nothing says comfort food like a big bowl of this stuff :)



Red Wine Beef Stew with Potatoes and Green Beans
Recipe courtesy Dave Lieberman

Making an amazing stew is a whole lot simpler than most people figure. After you brown up your beef, all you basically have to do is throw a bunch of tasty ingredients in a pot and let it do its thing. Adding green beans at the end of cooking freshens up the stew and their snap is cool. You can make it completely in advance, as far as 2 days ahead of time. Just refrigerate it right in the pot and reheat it over low heat. You?ll have to stir in a cup or so of water because the stew will have thickened up. (Do the water thing if you?re reheating leftover stew too.) I use butter to brown the beef because it adds richness to the stew and makes for a creamier gravy. But you can substitute any type of oil for the butter if you want. Pretty much any decent red wine will do for stew; I like using Burgundy or Cabernet Sauvignon but the basic rule is that as long as you?d be happy drinking what you?re cooking with you?re in good shape.

Prep Time: 20 min Inactive Prep Time: -- Cook Time: 2 hr 0 min Level:
Intermediate Serves:
about 10 servings Ingredients
2 pounds beef chuck for stew, cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
4 medium carrots, peeled, halved and cut into 1-inch chunks
3 small onions, diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans reduced-sodium beef or chicken broth
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 medium russet or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 handfuls green beans, ends trimmed
Directions
Season the beef cubes lightly with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy 6-quart pot over medium heat. As soon as the butter starts to turn brown, add half the beef and raise the heat to high. At first, the beef will give off some liquid, but once that evaporates, the beef will start to brown. Cook, turning the beef cubes on all sides until the pieces are as evenly browned as possible, about 5 or 6 minutes after the water has boiled off. If the pan starts to get too brown at any point, just turn down the heat a little. Scoop the beef into a bowl and brown the rest of the beef the same way using the remaining butter.

Scoop out the second batch of beef, then add the carrots and onions and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook until the onion starts to turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour until it has been worked into the veggies and you can’t see it any more. Pour in the chicken broth, wine, and crushed tomatoes, and toss in the rosemary. Slide the beef back into the pot and bring the liquid to a boil.

Turn down the heat so the liquid is just breaking a gentle simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook 50 minutes. Stir the stew several times while simmering so it cooks evenly and nothing sticks to the bottom.

Stir the potatoes into the stew, cover the pot completely, and cook until the potatoes and beef are tender, stirring occasionally, about another 45 minutes. Add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes until the green beans turn bright green and are cooked through but still have a nice snap to them.

really.....really?? Eat a sammy already!

I came across this on the Internet this morning.... totally disgusting.

I mean REALLY....and we wonder why so many people have body image issues or eating disorders. This is just GROSS.... like the article says, her head is bigger than her pelvis. I just can't believe some people would find this appealing....

Anyway - sharing and moving on....back to my egg white omelet with bacon on the side and full-fat creamer :)

Thai Chicken Larb Salad

Tonight Chad and I decided to make Larb at home - so glad we did, it was awesome!
Here is the recipe - very healthy!

Thai Chicken Larb

2/3 cup fresh lime juice
1/3 cup fish sauce (found in Asian markets or in the Ethnic aisle of most grocers)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons Thai roasted chili paste
3/4 cup canned low sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 lbs ground chicken or pork
1 cup thinly sliced green onion
3/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
3 tablespoons minced fresh lemongrass (found in Asian Markets)
1 tablespoon thinly sliced Thai red chili pepper or serrano chili
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

Combine the first four ingredients in a medium bowl. Save this sauce for later.
Simmer the broth in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground chicken. Simmer until cooked through, breaking up any clumps of meat with a spoon, about 8 minutes. Add green onions, shallots, lemongrass and chillies. Stir until vegetables are tender and most of liquid has evaporated, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sauce, cilantro and mint.

Recipe makes 4 servings - per serving it is 274 calories, 5.7 g fat, 1 fiber, 40g protein :)


***We pretty much followed the recipe but we sauteed whole chicken breasts in the broth first and then once it was cooked, minced it and then added the other ingredients. Also, next time we will cut the amount of fish sauce in half. But...VERY YUMMMYYY!!

Here is Larb in the mixing bowl.....



And here is how we ate it - wrapped in lettuce....divine!!

holy hangover....

Not exactly sure when I will learn my lesson.....shots = feel like ass the next day. It's that simple. However, it is hard to NOT do shots when the bartender is giving out free ones....a LOT of free ones. Ah well - it was a good time.

Rewind a bit... Chad and I went to the "Pork With Passion" fest in downtown O'Fallon - which was a lot of fun, actually. It was kinda small and not a lot of people there but, I think there was so much going on this weekend that people were checking out other things. Regardless, Chad and I still had a blast. It is a pork steak cook-off for professional and amateur cooks - there is a "People's Choice" award where you pay $5 and get to sample the top 8 pork steaks and vote for your favorite - which was cool b/c we got a little taste of everyones. We want to enter one of these amateur cook-offs - looks like a total blast!

Anyway - from there, we decided to check out some of our local watering holes and settled up to the bar at this place in downtown O'Fallon called Haney's.... wow, what a blast we ended up having! Bartenders were super cool - Christine and Spencer ended up meeting us and let's just say lots of drinks were had, lots of karaoke for Chad and Spence and lots of shots for me and Christine! GOOD TIMES!! Apparently we went through the McDonald's drive through....twice. Ahhhh good lord. I would say I'm getting too old for this but, hate it when people say that so - maybe I should say 'I should know better by now' ;) And somehow....we managed to not get a SINGLE PIC....damn! Next time....

So, as you can guess, the majority of today was spent feeling like ASS but, I am good now - Chad made me Matzo Ball Soup which is the BEST hangover cure. He even brought it to me on the couch so I didn't have to lift a finger - my baby, such a sweetie :) We did go this afternoon to Sam's and stock up on the protein... let's just say we now have an ungodly amount of chicken in the freezer and about 6 pork tenderloins! We actually bought an 7.8 pound tenderloin for $15 (whoot whoot!!) and divided it up, sealed them up individually with the flavor-saver and now they are freezing. It really does save so much money to do it that way - we rock.

Well - I have beer brain and am rambling about boring stuff so will stop here... we are about to crash soon anyway. Hoping everyone has an awesome week!! Night ;)

Weekend is Here :)

Yeah!! Weekend is here! The weather is really starting to feel like fall which is my favorite season so yahooo!! Last night, Chad and I checked out the Chili Festival in downtown Belleville - wow, was it packed out! I couldn't believe it....we had a few beers at the Wine Tap and then walked around the fest - we finally found the ONE booth that had White Chili and they sold out while we were waiting in line.....boooo! Although - I told Chad - there is no way it was better than my white chili so, no big deal ;)

Today we are going to check out the "Pork With Passion" festival in O'Fallon....the name of the festival makes me giggle but, apparently it is a pork steak cook off and other various things associated with pork.....hoping to find a fried pork tenderloin sandwich there!! YUM!

Then next weekend is Ocktoberfest in Soulard and we are going to do a doggie walk on Sunday with the girls - a mile walk with proceeds going towards the Siteman Cancer Center. Will be a fun time.

That's all I got for now - will take some pics this weekend - think we may hang out with Kristine and Spencer later tonight - we will see! Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!

Vino & Boots

Wanted to share some of my recent shopping finds...one thing about me....I love love LOVE to shop! But, I always like to find a good deal, otherwise...meh!

Now....I think these are super cool but, really only for the calorie conscious lushes in the world ;) Let me explain...when I am being really good and counting my calories (including those of the alcoholic variety) I actually pour my vino into a measuring cup so I know exactly how many ounces I'm drinking. Now, this is a pain in the ass and usually I end up eyeballing it.....until until UNTIL I found these bad boys....



So...the first etched line marks 4 oz, second line is 6oz and the third is 8 oz! Genius! I even drink milk out of these! :) They are functional and stylish - love them! You can buy your own at this link. Go for it, if you are a calorie counter or portion control obsessive like me - you will love them!

OK now - while I was in ATL I had to spend a few hours at Nordstrom Rack in Duluth - they have the best deals!! Everything is quality and bargain priced.....for example.....I bought a coveted pair of redwood-brown Frye boots!! These babies are normally around $300 and I found them on sale for $79!! SCORE!!! I love them and have already worn them out and about....I think these will be a wardrobe staple for me this fall/winter.......aren't they beautiful??? And they smell amazing....nice quality leather!



I also picked up a cute new pair of jeans on the cheaps ($40) and some cute t's...including a black bedazzled UGA bulldawg tee - sounds tacky as hell and well maybe it is but, I like it :) Gotta support my alma mater! Anyway those were my major finds that I'm jazzed about right now....that is my last shopping spree until after the wedding..... i hope!

In wedding news - I had my first dress fitting last night! Of course the alterations are pretty intensive as I had to buy the dress about 2 sizes larger to fit the ta-ta's. The lady took in about 2" on each side down the bodice from the ribs to the hips......can't wait to try it on once that is done - will look awesome! Now to figure out what to do with the mop of hair....will brainstorm on that for now.

That's it for now - my stress for this week is gone as I met my deadline for work - tomorrow is boot camp and then it's Friday - yahooooooo!!!! Night Everyone!!

Bachelorette Weekend Recap!

I am still have a huge smile on my face thinking about my 10K!! So proud of all of us - it was SO much fun!!! There is another 10K coming up soon here and I'm thinking of doing it...we will see. Chad asked me today if I was going to continue to run....YES! I love it!

Anyway - recap of my "bachelorette" weekend.....was a total blast - the night before the race we went to Seasons 52 and had great conversation and very healthy awesome dinners. They also had desserts there that were served in shot glasses - very tasty and great idea - when you just want a bite and not the whole thing!! Here are some pics before dinner....

Mykla, me & Stacy

I love love love my dress!! I've had it for 2 years and have not had an opportunity to wear it - was perfect for our dinner Friday! And got lots of complitments from dirty old men....although I'm not sure exactly why - HA ;) lol



Me, Mykla and Tiff - Tiff's dress is actually from a boutique near my house Circa!! SO CUTE!

After the 10K on Saturday morning - we had a big breakfast at Waffle House & went back to Tiffs house for facials, then went shopping! That night, my girlfriend's Mary, Christy & Mikele met up with us for dinner and drinks. First we went to Urban Flats for dinner and then onto Tongue & Groove for dancing and MORE drinking :) It was a great location b/c it is right near the Marta station so, took Marta there and cabbed it home. So much fun :) Pics to prove it!!









This weekend was just the best!! All of my favorite things - shopping, girl talk, drinking and FUN!! And like I said - still so excited about the 10K - it was an amazing feeling to cross that finish line!! No marathons in my future but definitely more 10K's and maybe a half marathon one day - we'll see!!

Back to reality for now - gotta buckle down for some busy work weeks and stay the course regarding food and exercise.......Next road trip is for our wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Yay!!!! Finishd the 10K!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the big day - Big Peach Sizzler 10K!!! It was my very first 10K ever and my goal was to run the entire thing - and......I did!!! I am so very proud of myself and all my girls!! I ran it in 1 hour and 12 minutes - not so bad. Stacy finished in under an hour :) It was super humid out but - we all did a GREAT job!!! :-)

Here is our before pic at 6:30am in the morning....




And here we are post-race.....all sweaty and happy!




YAHOOOOOO!!!! Awesome way to start the day....now time for some shopping and later we will have dinner & drinks....YAHHOOOOOOOO!!! :) More pics to come!!!

40 bottles of beer on the wall.....40 bottles of beeeeeeeerrrrr!

Well, guess this blows my theory that beer has zero calories....and also foils my current research project that beer has negative calories if consumed while shakin it on the dance floor. Hmmmmm, oh well - at least my beer is #2 on the list! Of course when you drink 8 or so....which i NEVER do....

Check out this article for the 40 best beers for the waistline - interesting!

Don't Judge Me by My Workout Playlist....HA!

Came across this today and LMAO - this is so true of me :) I have a pretty tacky & raunchy playlist for my workouts....but I really do have good taste in music otherwise ;) Apparently, I am not alone.....


Check Out The Article Here

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Just a few days away....from the 10K!

So, this Saturday is the big day - my first 10K!! Feeling lots of emotions - excited, nervous, scared, etc etc etc.... really looking forward to seeing my sisters, Mary & Tiff - will be a total blast!

Here are my new running shoes - they've really made a big difference in my running - they are so light and I don't have any shin pain at all....love them!



My plan is to run tomorrow and Wed (have bootcamp tonight) and then no running until the race. Everyone has told me if I can run 5 miles, I can do a 10K so....hoping everyone is right!!

Tiff had these super cute t's made for us to all wear during the race....she is such a sweetie & so thoughtful :) After the race, I think we will have facials and then decide where we want to go for dinner/drinks....I really don't care where we go, just happy to be with my girls!



Anyway - glad this is a short work week for me, I am off Thursday to head to ATL! So, technically this is my Wednesday ;) We are getting a new AC unit today too as ours completely died...sucks for the owner of our rental house! Thank god it has been cooler than normal the past few weeks - we have had the windows open and ceiling fans going full blast and - it has actually been nice! I wish we could run the attic fan but....Bebe is terrified of the noise it makes.

Anyway - hope everyone has a great week!

Hop In The City Fest

Yesterday was such a beautiful day - we went to Hop In The City at the Schlafly Tap Room. Basically a beer fest where they had about 40 of their beers on tap. Was a total blast and we had lots of yummy beer :) From there we had a beer at the stable and then grabbed some Thai food and headed home to watch the Georgia game....my dawgs won :) yahooooo! Was an awesome game! Here are some pics from yesterday...






Now today is a lazy day....chilling on the couch and trying not to think about tomorrow being MONDAY :( boooooooooooo

Drum Roll Please.........

Today I ran FIVE MILES without stopping!!!!! Whaaaaa-f'ing-Hooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! This is the farthest I've ever run in my life so...I'm feeling very proud of myself :) It was a really great run too - No cramping, no nausea or exhaustion....just a good, clean run. I even felt like I could have kept going! Getting very excited about the 10K next weekend :-)

I'm definitely back on the workout wagon - so far this week - bootcamp Monday, running Tuesday & Wednesday, bootcamp Thursday, and 5 mile run today! Yahooo!! Had to make up for all the excess from the Sarasota trip!

Glad the weekend is here - tonight is low key, tomorrow we are checking out the Hop Fest at Schlafly Tap Room (have I mentioned we like drinking beer??) and then Sunday we are going to the SocD show with Christine and Spencer - Christine scored free tix so YEAH! I'm not actually a big fan of Social D but I love music, beer & hanging with C&S! Will be fun, fun, FUN!

In wedding news........ordered stamps for the invites......damn invitations cost $1.06 a piece to mail out....... $1.06 A PIECE!!! I almost fell-out at the post office when they told me that.....to all future brides out there, yes the square invitations are cool looking BUT, go with the normal sized ones if you are wanting to save money!! But, my stamps are rockin... I love them :) here is the one for the outside envelope and....here is the one for the RSVP envelope....LOVE THEM!

I wanted to post some pics so you can get the idea of the flowers picked for the wedding.....

Here is what my bouquet will look like - white calla lillies! One of my favorite flowers....and also very streamlined for my gown



Orchids.....love the color!



Orange Lillies......



more orchids....



Bamboo Arch for the beach...lovely :)



Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Cheers! I need a beer after those 5 miles ;)

Sarasota Trip - last one before the big day!

So much to blog about!! I'm not sure where to start!!

Trip to Sarasota was amazing - it went really well! I knew that our parents would hit it off and of course, they did! We had so much fun - there was lots of wine, love and laughter flowing :) I was excited to take my parents around to all the places I love in Sarasota - The Columbia, The Ringley Mansion, Mar Vista Pub, Mattison's, Kilwin's, Hemingway's, etc etc! My parents just loved JoAnne and Michael and Sarasota so - was a fab trip!!

And then all the wedding plans really fell into place - met with the cake guy, the florist, photographer & the couple that is marrying us - everything just clicked! I was very excited about the florist - I know I picked out beautiful flowers, center pieces, etc and she was much more affordable than I expected so YEAH that rocks :) More on that later.... here are pics of course... they are in no particular order and I'm way too lazy tonight to put them in chronological order so sorry!

This is the cake samples by our cake guy Ron - check out his website here - his cakes are amazing and I just cannot WAIT to taste our wedding cake! The samples were white wedding cake w/ rasberry filling, lemon chiffon with lemon buttercream icing, chocolate with peanut butter and chocolate icing, and finally marble cake with chocolate icing. Our cake will be three layers so - we went with lemon chiffon/lemon buttercream icing, white with raspberry filling and then the final layer marble with chocolate icing. I thought I would love the chocolate and peanut butter combo but - the others were SO GOOD!



Here I am signing the dotted line for the cake...



Chad and I at Mar Vista Pub - took my parents here for a drink by the water - excellent way to spend a Friday afternoon!



Beautiful YUMMY Macroons that JoAnne brought back from Paris - one was Salted Carmel - uhhhhh YUMMMM!!! It was all I could do to not shove my face in this box :)



More macroons and licorice from Paris - I think I ate all the black licorice - my fave :)



Group shot - Michael, JoAnne, D-lo, Chad and Moi - walking home from Mattison's after many glasses of wine!



Love this pic! Again at Mattison's....



Mom and I at JoAnne's - more vino please :)



Mojitos at The Columbia....and you know I made my Mom get the 1905 Salad! Delish!!



My parents - married for 54 years! xoxo



Key Lime Martinis toast for Chad and Michael - note Chad's guido pose in the back ;)



Cheers from me and D-lo!



Dad is lovin the Key Lime Martinis!



JoAnne and I - CHEERS!!! :)



OK, enough pics for now - I will blog more later about wedding details that we nailed down - i have pics of our cake, the flowers, beach set up, etc! More to come... as you can tell we ate and drank A LOT while we were there so - today is back on track! Chad and I stocked up on healthy stuff tonight at Sam's and - i did bootcamp last night and ran today. Going to try and bump up my mileage tomorrow to 5 miles....YIKES! I bought new shoes that Chad helped me pick out online and they were AWESOME today - I felt so much lighter and faster!! My 10K is NEXT WEEKEND!!! Holy shit that seems close! Very exciting times though as I will be meeting my sisters and my besties in ATL for my bachelorette weekend - so excited about that!! I better start chargine my camera now!

OK - i'm sleepy so - off to bed for me. OH, almost forgot....so happy that Luke picked Tulli! She was beautiful and so sincere - yahoo! :) ok, that was my reality show fix for the week :)

and we're off......

Quickie post today! I am about to finish this cup of coffee and scramble around the house - cleaning, folding laundry, packing, running to get a pedi, pick up toothpaste and doggie treats, get wedding invitations weighed so i know how much $ postage will cost......ok, yes, think that is it! All before 3 - cuz that is when we head to the airport for FLORIDA!!!! yeahoooooooooo!! Can't wait to see my parents, see JoAnne and be in Sarasota in general - lots of fun to be had this weekend - yeah! I tried to upload some cute pics from the other night out with Spencer and Kristine - but blogger is not letting me - curses, will keep trying!! Hope everyone has an awesome rest of their week - will try and blog from Florida :)

Happy Labor Day!

have not blogged in awhile :( had a couple days last week where i was just bummed and didn't really feel like doing much of anything but - nothing i want to go into on here so anyway - moving on...

This weekend has been nice - I am on vacation ALL THIS WEEK and very happy about that! Saturday was a yucky rainy day so - cleaned the house and ended up going out that night with Spencer & Christine - we checked out Joanie's Pizza in Soulard and wow, GOOD pizza :) Ready to go back again! Then yesterday - Chad smoked a pork shoulder and we had a little BBQ! Really good day - Spencer & Christine brought their doberman Zeta over - i was a little nervous as to how Honey would interact with her but - turns out they both hate cats and bonded over this :) I was very happy that it worked out so well and Honey made a doggie BFF - lol. Good times - I also made some of my Asian Slaw and damn.....it is calling my name already this morning! Can't wait to have some later. Gonna try and run today too but - i think i may have waited too late from a temperature perspective - we'll see.

We leave for Sarasota on Wed and I am excited! Will be awesome to see my parents & JoAnne and get all the wedding stuff finalized :) yahoo!! That's all I have for now - I gotta get better about taking pics - Hope everyone has an awesome holiday weekend!

for my pizza peeps....

I LOVE pizza - i could eat it everyday - and would if I could! Of course I would also weight about 500 lbs. Not good.

Thought this was an interesting read - tells ya the good slices and the bad....and boy there is some BAD on here!! I have actually had the lobster pizza from Red Lobster!! And it made me laugh to see it on here.... I remember years ago eating it, thinking it was healthy b/c it had lobster on it.....whaaattt??? Yeah, you justify that cheesy lobster hot mess anyway you can girly ;)

Interesting read none the less - I actually enjoy making our own thin crust pizza here at home. I just prefer thin crust and light toppings anyway....unless I'm PMS'ing and craving grease and cheese - which never happens - HA!

In other news.....ran my 4 miles today! Yahoooo!!! I rock :) And....24 more days until my 10K!!! yikes.... but my plan is to run 4 miles all this week - 4.5 the following and then 5 miles the following......and just hope for the damn best on race day! Everyone says if you can run 5 you can run 6 so....hoping they are right ;) Plus, my goal is to finish - not set any records so, I can always walk some of it but would prefer to RUN!

That's it for now - I am watching Chad do his P90X workout (Legs and Back) as I type away and.....feeling a wee bit guilty that I'm not doing it with him. I'm so very proud of him - he is doing awesome! Maybe I will do it later tonight - we'll see. Later!

CHEERS!!!

Check me outtt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in the River Front Times today for the Lot Festival! Whoot whoot!!!



The caption online said "Ashley Woods pours a beer"...Chad says I should have said Ashley DeVries :) not unitl 11/21/09!! Happy Monday Everyone!

sunday random thoughts....

another weekend gone :( i wish they would not go so fast.....booooo.

I am exhausted so will just blog the basics here -

1) Yesterday = FUNNN!! Chad and I volunteered to pour beer at The Lot Festival at Schlafly's Tap Room. This is a music fest in STL - all local bands, local beer & local food. We had a total blast pouring beers for 2 hours - then we hung out and listened to some good tunes and had some good eats! They had Chicago Dogs there and yuhhhhmmmmmmmyyyyy! Chicago Dog is basically a hot dog with lots of veggies on top, including peppers and a pickle spear!! Delish! I wish I had taken a pic! but, as it usually goes with me and food I'm excited about....I shove it in my face before I even think of taking a pic ;) It was a total blast and a great night - the photographer from RFT took a few pics of me pouring brews & he got my name so, we will see if my pic turns up in the RFT :) Here are some pics from yesterday....

my baby!

Cheers!!!

love this pic of Spencer!

2) I gotta get through this work week and then yahooooooooooo i get a whole week off for vacation! We are going to Sarasota and I cannot wait! My parents will be meeting us there and it will be a fantastic time! So excited :)

3) Dropped off the wedding invites to the calligrapher - I think this will be the best $100 I spend towards the wedding....I am really excited about it - I went with a silver ink for the inner black envelope and a gray for the outside envelope - the font style that she will hand write the addresses in is described as "whispy and curly"..... it was really neat-o! I cannot wait!!

4) Tomorrow, Chad and I are going to start being more protein intensive.... of course I will still have my carbs but, going to try and limit the carbs to after lunch so.....b'fast will be egg chicken and feta scrambles - lunch will be salads and then will have low carb snacks and a carb with dinner (rice? maybe?). Of course, I say "more" protein intensive because honestly - i need carbs. I get super bitchy if I DON'T have carbs :) And, I don't believe in eliminating them but - think it is good to try and cut some processed crap out. More on this later....

5) I am really going to try and save save save from now until the wedding - I can think of at least a dozen things that I would love to go out and buy RIGHT NOW (Jan Marini skin glycolic facial wash, cute cute CUTE hot tops at Express right now, cute workout pants i saw at Target, etc etc etc) HOWEVER......really need to be good over the next few months and try and save so......I am really trying to limit my spending. I think I may see if I can make $100 stretch as my only spending cash until next payday....we will see.

6) My girl Tiff sent out the evite for my bachelorette party in Sept - super cute! I am really looking forward to chilling out with my sisters & my friends - will be a blast!! 10K is just around the corner so, bumping up my mileage to 4 miles this week....wish me luck!!

6) I am dog tired...... i am going to go hop in bed and zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Night y'all!!

Loooong week....

this week was a busy and stressful one at work so, was not able to really blog much. Also, a very dear friend of mine was hospitalized - she was having problems breathing and turns out - blood clots on her lungs. She is in the hospital, on blood thinners and looks as if they caught it in time and she will be fine - thank god! She is such a sweetheart - it is scary when things like this happen. When I talked to her, the first thing she said is "quit smoking and get off the pill!!" - now, I quit smoking some time ago - used to smoke in college and then would smoke here and there socially but about a year ago, I just decided to quit forever - it's just nasty. So, i quit smoking and never looked back! Anyway....i digress....happy that my friend is on the mend and doing better!!

I was still able to get all my workouts in this week - running 3.5 miles now so RIGHT ON! Bumping up this week to 4..... wish me luck :)

This morning I had bootcamp, came home and made an egg white, turkey & feta omelet and then we took the girls for a walk around the hood.... now about to take a shower and we are headed out to Schlafly's Tap Room - they are having a Lot Festival there and Chad and I volunteered to pour beer form 2-4pm - should be a blast!!

Wanted to share really quick a new dessert I've been making for us - super good & chocolatey but....healthy of course :) I take a Vitatop Deep Chocolate Muffin Top, put sliced strawberries on top and a little bit of fat-free ready whip on top - YUM!!! I count this as 1 point :) SOOO GOOOOOOOD!! I but the vitatops when they are on sale and stock up - have 40 in the freezer right now!!



Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend - weather is AWESOME here!!! Enjoy it!

Yummy New Peanut Butter - Score!!

Happy Monday!! My back is feeling SOOO much better - back to my regular workouts today, starting with boot camp tonight! I love going to the chiro - she adjusted me today and the crack was SO LOUD and it just instantly feels better - love it! I am so proud of Chad, he is really keeping up with his P90X workouts and those are really hard. I am incorporating them here and there into my schedule when I can. But, I still am training for my 10K and also I love doing the boot camp and it is great exercise and fun so....will continue to do that.

Getting excited for the 10K - it is in Atlanta on September 26th - called The Big Peach Sizzler 10K! I was either going to pick a race here, in Pensacola or in Atlanta - but, we collectively decided the Atlanta one is more convenient for everyone - so Atlanta it is! Plus, we are going out that night with my ATL girls so - will be a BLAST! I found a plane ticket last night on the cheaps so, decided to book it.

We also have a trip to Sarasota coming up before that - I am on vacation the entire week of Labor Day - whoo hooooo!!! And we fly out that Wed to Sarasota - we will wrap up some final wedding plans and also my parents will meet Chad's Mom for the first time - i know it will be so much fun - looking forward to some relaxation and fun.

Wanted to share this awesome peanut butter I found called Peanut Butter & Co - White Chocolate Wonderful. Holy lord this stuff is AWESOME! It tastes so good - not too sweet, has no hydrogenated oils, and is all natural - only 7 ingredients! One tablespoon has 90 cals 7g fat .5 fib and 3g protein! So good - you have to try it.... I can't wait to try their other flavors too....they all sound awesome. Here are some pics of my breakfast - half a banana on a mini whole-wheat bagel with 1 tablespoon of the White Chocolate Wonderful......DELISH!!!







Hope everyone has an awesome week - weather is beautiful here and I'm already wishing for Friday!! ;)

WTF?!?

Yes people.... we wake up this morning and looky what was on our front sidewalk....



I ask you..........What the F????

It is cracking me up because we can't figure it out... did someone drop this off by mistake?? Oooopps...wrong house! Is this performance art?? Did they take the turn too fast and WHOOPS the commode and monitor roll off the truck??! Or is there a hidden meaning here.... someone is telling us we have shitty computer skills...or maybe my blog is shitty?? Or PC monitors from 1983 are crap?? LOL.... it's been cracking me up all morning - the bizzaro factor of it all and so, just had to share.... let me know if you can figure it out but this one really has me scratching my head and saying "What The F???"

Weekend so far......

So much to blog about! Let's see where to start - my back. My back was still bothering me - got pretty bad Thursday night so, i decided to go and see a chiro here that a friend recommended. I'm so glad I did - was a really great experience. She took x-rays of my spine, reviewed my symptoms with me and adjusted my back - she confirmed what I thought already - minor back strain that should resolve quickly. She gave me some exercises to do that helped to stretch out my lumbar spine and the back adjustment was AWESOME! I felt so relaxed all day and my back is getting better and better every day. Yahooo! I told her I would like to come in monthly for an adjustment and so, that will be the plan. What can I say, i love getting my back cracked :)

Chad left yesterday to go hunting/camping for the night with some guys from work - so last night I went to my friend's house for a Pure Romance party - these parties are always fun - it was a good time. We were going to go out afterwards but, by the time the party wrapped up it was almost 11 and - all the bars near us are pretty cheese so, we decided to call it a night.

Today - I worked a bit on the wedding - contacted the cake guy - I can't WAIT to have our cake sampling!! Some many awesome flavors & combinations to choose from and the cakes are beautiful!! YUMMM!!

I walked 3.5 miles today to get some exercise and just made an awesome salad for lunch - I used Bumblebee Albacore in the gold can (it's all white tuna and really good), sliced almonds, shredded carrots, julienned red bell pepper, a sprinkle of chopped cilantro and some low-fat toasted Asian sesame dressing - AWESOME! Here is a pic, sorry it's blurry.....



So now I'm sitting here watching Lifetime.....a show on 14 years olds with syphilis....yikes. I think it's time for me to get off this couch, get a shower, get dressed and head to downtown Belleville...shopping at Circa!! :)

bitch session here

if i have one more work issue come up today I'm going to seriously punch someone in the f'ing head! I've had it UP TO HERE with stupid bullshit! I try not to vent about work on here and I won't get specific but goddamn! It totally blows when you feel like you are taking not just 2 steps back but 200 steps backward due to a lack of technology!!!!!!! Combine that with a lack of communication and inability of people to think globally and jesus you have a ton of problems. When will people learn.....do what I say, when I say and things will magically flow :) OK - enough of that.

My back hurts still - pretty sure it is a strain. I am going to walk my normal running route tonight and skip Bootcamp - boooooo :*(
Also going to pick up some Aleve and some icy-hot patches.... hoping that I will be on the mend in a few days. Thinking of asking my frined Lisa about her chiro too..... we'll see, never been to one but maybe it's time to start.

Also found a recipe for some cinnamon browies in my Clean Eating magazine so....thinking I will make those tonight too. Will take picutures to break up the monotony that is my blog of late.....sorry to be in such a bitchy foul mood guys... it has to get better as tomorrow is Friday and Girls Night Out!! :) Just gotta make it til tomorrow afternoon and I'll be a new woman!

happy hump day..........ouchie my back

To sum up this week so far.... PMS, busy/stress at work, PMS, I pulled a muscle in my left lower back, oh and don't forget.........PMS. Booooooooooooooo.

I think I need to take a few days off from working out but - I really don't want to! I'm on a really good roll but....it seriously hurts. Of course, the PMS could be compounding the achy back so - maybe that's it. Hmmmmm. I think I will still do bootcamp tomorrow and just do the best I can and do everything at a lower level than normal. The pain is contained to one spot in my lower back and is not radiating down into my leg - and it feels AWESOME when I lay flat on the hard floor so - I know I just need a few days off to let it heal. No running til next week :*(

One good thing is my PMS this month is not that bad actually - no food cravings. Last month I wanted to eat peanut butter on everything - spoonfuls at a time so.... aren't you glad I share all this female madness with the world?? What can I say, I am an open book :)

Aside from all that bitching, I am so proud of Chad! He has been really working out and eating healthy. In fact tonight I made salmon & green beans for din and he ate everything.....of course, may have been because he was starving but still. We are both really trying to be healthier and drop the lb's so - yeah us!

I keep feeling like there is something I need to blog about....so I will probably remember in the middle of the night and blog tomorrow :) I'm off to shower and hop in bed....or gingerly try to place myself in a horizontal position on our fluffy bed with as little pain as possible to my lumbar region - ouchie!

Karaoke Alert!!

Seems like it was just Friday night and here it is Sunday! booo.... time flies when you're having fun I suppose :)

First let me say MY ASS HURTSSSS!!!!!!!! Chad and I did the P90X Legs & Back Workout Saturday and holy holy lord..... did a ton of squats and lunges and I am feeling it today! Chad and I have both said a million times today MY ASS HURTS!!! lol - but, no pain no gain right?? In fact - I ran 3 miles on Saturday and then did the P90X workout so - really feeling it big time. Today is relax day and tomorrow I will run 3.5 miles - whooo hoooooo!!!

Last night, we went out with Christine & Spencer - we wanted to take them to McGurk's cuz we LOVE it there - patio is so pretty! Chad and I split a burger - half the cals and fat :) Then we decided to find a karaoke bar so the guys could sing - to say I am tone def is an understatement so....no singing for me. But, Chad and Spencer did a few songs - Chad did some Sinatra & Beatles and Spencer did some Iron Maiden and Europe's The Final Countdown!!! ROCKIN GOOD TIMES!!! Here are a few pics.....

Me and My Baby!

Spencer & Christine - such a cute pic of them

It's The Final Countdown!!!

Tough Girls!!! Christine & Me

awww...so innocent!

Go Chad!!

CRUNKED!!

This pic above is just too damn funny - we were doing our Guido Fist Pump pose! I look so damn funny in this pick - demon eyes!!!

Obviously - we had an awesome night!! The first karaoke bar was a total DIVE bar with a lot of crazies in there.... but, lots of fun. Then we decided to hit another place - Johnny Gitto's in The Hill - they have really great karaoke on Sat nights - FUN!!

Lots of exciting stuff this week - tomorrow I meet up with my buddy Jeff for a couple beers as he is in town and then Friday is girls night out! Whoo hoo!! Alight - now we are previewing what our workout will be tomorrow and then shower for me and bed! Wishing everyone an awesome week! :-)

Healthy Foods We Should ALL Be Eating!

I thought this was a neat-o little article - just want to share with everyone. I am proud to report that i really do incorporate about 90% of these foods into my diet on a regular basis - guess I need to work on the flax seed and I've always preferred chicken breasts to chicken thighs.... anyway - interesting read and motivates me to EAT HEALTHY!! :)

Relaxing night at home tonight - made our Chicken Char Tacos.......AGAIN!! I know I know - but damn, just love those....and got my cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fat serving in there, thank you Mr Avocado! Now I am about to hit the rack and get some shut eye. Our plan is to work out tomorrow and Sunday - I want to take the girls to the dog park sometime this weekend and we are hanging out with Christine & Spencer tomorrow afternoon/evening - yahooo! Trying to savor this Friday night and make it last - love Fridays!!

P.S. - resolved my work stress with the best possible ending ever - yahoo! and also think i found a solution to my 34Ginormous problem ;) It is strapless, plunging & backless, in my size and on it's way so.....will report more on that once it gets here! Happy Weekend Y'all!!!

English Beat & Reel Big Fish show

Friday!!!!!!!!!!!! Payday!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure what is on the agenda for this weekend but - think it will be mainly CHILL & RELAX mode! I'm thinking another trip to the farmer's market for some peaches :) and maybe a massage for Chad and me tomorrow - we'll see.

Last night was a lot of fun - the English Beat were really great - put on an awesome show! They sang "Tenderness" which I was surprised b/c it is a General Public song and not an EB song but - same lead singer. Also of course did the Mirror in the Bathroom song too.... oh, the opening band before them - can't remember their name right now - they were goofy but fun. Did a cover of Billy Joel's Moving Out ska stylee and it was really good - guy had a good voice! Then Reel Big Fish came on - I have never seen them before and really don't listen to them much - but it was a great show - lots of energy and they were funny as hell. I love to go to shows and see people really engaged in the music and the moment - and it was definitely a good show for that! The crowd was awesome and really into it so - made for a good night.

OH and note to self (and Chad) ***do not put Ashley in charge of the camera - I goofed up AGAIN - camera charged check, camera in purse check, storage disc in camera---NEGATIVE! DER!!!**** so, sorry kiddos, no pics from last night :*(

So, not sure what is on the agenda this weekend, need to get my run in at some point and a workout or two - will post more later. Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Bra-less in St. Louis

Warning*** I am about to vent about a girly issue!!! OK so....I am so frustrated right now i could scream! Let me say, there are many many advantages to having big ta-tas but, trying to find the right bra for your wedding dress is NOT ONE OF THEM! I'm about to go nuts trying to find a halter plunge low-back bra in my size - which is 34Giantic! And here is the crazy thing - they make them....they are just sold out everywhere...........WTF??? or should I say WTG???

ok - calming down now....sipping tea....slow breaths.....ok. I know if worse comes to worse the alteration lady can just sew damn cups in there but DAMN!

I am just annoyed in general today - i have an issue at work that is driving me nuts - oh well, i guess I should just be happy to have work issues to drive me nuts - lots of people out of jobs these days.

In other news - been doing really well on eating healthy, easing up on the vino & brew and working out. In fact - I've worked out every day except today. Chad started doing p90X workouts and so, I've done a couple with him - they are fun. Except today was YogaX and.......I just could not get into it.....way too stressed out. Oh well - at least tomorrow is Friday....and we are going out tonight to see a show - English Beat is playing with Reel Big Fish - should be a fun time. Last time they were in town, our buddy Jerry was visiting and we missed the show! OK - hope everyone has a good night - hoping for a better mood next time I post.

More Wedding Stuff :-)

First of all - I ran my 3 miles yesterday...without stopping! yahooo! go me!!! AND...also did my first P90X workout with Chad last night too. We did the Chest & Back workout and WOW - pretty intense. It was fun working out together though. Oh and apparently my push-up form has been WRONG my whole life - who knew? I am pretty sore today but will work it out in bootcamp tonight.

Our "guest favors" came in for the wedding! I had them shipped to JoAnne's house (THANKS!!) and we will give these out as gifts to our wedding guests. I thought and thought forever on what to give as favors - I thought about iced sugar cookies with our monogram as I LOVE these and they are super cute. Also thought about individually wrapped chocolates from Kilwin's but....we wanted to give something that people would use after the fact and remember us by so... Viola - our wine glasses!



In case you can't read it - is says "Ashley & Chad" and then has the little filigree squiggly that matches our invites and "11-21-09" - I love how they turned out! I was nervous that the engraving would look funky but - looks awesome! Can't wait to toast from it! It kinda made me laugh a little ordering these - as it made me think of the Cameron Crowe movie Elizabethtown where the couple orders a million guest favors with "Chuck & Sharon - livin' and lovin' - 24-7" on everything....from robes, to t-shirts, to chocolates, to coozies to banners to EVERYTHING! We of course are not doing that but - made me snicker. Anyway....love love love these glasses!

And - since I am talking wedding....thought I would share our menu as well....YUM!

Hors d’oeuvres will be passed out directly after the wedding while we are finishing up pictures, there will also be imported/domestic cheese w/ fruit, crudités w/ dip
• Sesame chicken w/ Thai peanut Sauce (hot)
• Miniature crab cakes w/ mango Creole aioli (hot)
• Coconut dusted shrimp w/ pineapple sweet & sour (hot)
• Sliced beef tenderloin canapés on toasted crostini w/ horseradish cream (cold)
• Toasted sesame seared ahi tuna on cucumber rounds (cold)

Buffet Dinner includes:
Salads – all options below
• Crisp garden salad w/ assorted dressing
• Traditional Caesar salad w/ garlic croutons
• Roma tomatoes & mozzarella with creamy pesto on petite micro greens

Entrees – all options below
• Crab stuffed Florida snapper filet w/ lemon buerre blanc
• Chicken Marsala
• Seared peppercorn sirloin w/ Boursin cheese and brandies cream

Carving Station –**served with bakery rolls & butter
• Ham (we decided to go w/ Ham as we thought turkey would ruin everyone’s Thanksgiving early)

Sides -
• Vegetables of French green beans & baby carrots
• Parslied Red Bliss potatoes and herbed rice pilaf

**Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea will be served and open bar on wine, beer and mixed drinks. Oh and of course wedding cake - more on that later!!

Yeah - getting SO excited!!!!!!!!!! 101 days til the big day :-)

Gingersnap Peach Pie

So - the peaches I picked up from the Belleville Farmer's Market were unbelievably sweet and delicious! SOOOOO good! I made a Peach Gingersnap Pie yesterday - really great flavor but, honestly - would taste even better served warm over some vanilla ice cream :) Maybe I will pick up some frozen vanilla yogurt for tonight.

Peaches pre-pie....



And the finished product.....



The pie tasted much better than it looked - peaches were so so so good - in fact I am thinking of getting some more this weekend. Here is the recipe:

Gingersnap Peach Pie
POINTS® Value: 3
Servings: 8
Ingredients

2 pound(s) peach(es), yellow or white variety
1/3 cup(s) sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz gingersnap(s), about 18 cookies

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400ºF.


Cut peaches in half and remove pits. Cut each peach half into four slices. Combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and cornstarch in a medium bowl; set aside.


Melt butter in microwave or on stovetop. Crush gingersnaps into crumbs; place in a small bowl. Pour melted butter into crumbs and combine thoroughly.


Pat crumb mixture into bottom of a 9-inch ceramic or glass pie plate; make sure crumbs are evenly distributed.


Starting at edge of pie plate, arrange peach slices in concentric circles so that they cover entire surface of pie and form a petal-like pattern. To form center of flower, arrange several peach slices in a small circle. Pour any remaining liquid from peach mixture over top of pie so it is evenly distributed.


Bake pie in bottom 1/3 of oven for 20 minutes; reduce heat to 325ºF and bake for 40 minutes more.


Remove from oven and cool completely in pie plate on a wire rack (about 2 hours). Slice into 8 pieces just before serving. Yields 1 piece per serving.

Next time, I may mix it up and make it more in a cobbler style, fruit on bottom and the gingersnap mixture on top. The flavors though - delish!

I didn't get my run in this morning as it was storming outside - heavy rain, thunder and lightening. I'm going to try and get it in at some point today though. Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Trip to The Iron Barley

After bootcamp yesterday morning, I headed out to the Belleville Farmer's Market and picked up some beautiful Illinois produce - apples, peaches, strawberries, grapes, asparagus & green onions all for $20. Everything tastes delish! I bought the peaches for a specific purpose which I will blog about later - it's cooking in the over right now and smells sooooooooo gooooooooodd!!!! :-)

Anyway, after getting back from the farmer's market, Chad and I decide to head out for the day - we ended up at The Iron Barley. Now this is a restaurant/bar that we've seen on the FoodNetwork and we really wanted to check it out. Ho-lee-shit!! Was is EVER worth it! Not only was our dinner amazing but, the desert......OH, the desert! It was one of the best and most unique deserts I've ever had! So damn good!!

For dinner I had the open faced bbq beef brisket sandwich - the beef was very tender, super moist and had a very tangy scrumptious bbq sauce on top and was served on one slice of teaxas toast. Now, the best part to me though was the sides! On one side of the plate you have a tangy, vinegary slaw with a little bit of sweetness to it.......and then on the other side, you have a creamy potato salad. The perfect bite was a bite of bbq beef brisket with some slaw on top and a smidge of potato salad on top - YUM! I think i was lost in my own world for a little bit - making each bite perfect :)

Chad had the oak-roasted pork tenderloin served on barley (cooked in beef stock & veggies) - the flavor in the oak-roasted pork was out of this world! Not too smokey - just perfect!

OK - moving on the the BEST part of the meal - we decided to try their desert. Now, I really was not even in a desert kind of mood yesterday but, this desert was too unique to pass up. And, after working out six days this week - thought it would be okay to splurge :) We decided to go with the Peanut Butter Blaster Pie as it was the employee favorite and hey, I love me some peanut butter. The inside of the pie is liked whipped frozen peanut butter ice cream spiked with cumin & cayenne in a chocolate cookie crust, On top you have a dollop of Jack Daniels Jalapeno whipped cream, and on top of that a drizzle of chocolate chipotle sauce. This beautiful sweet spiciness is served in a pool of habenero infused strawberry sauce. Now, I know this may sound like an odd combo for some but - let me tell you, the sweet and the spicy and the hot and creaminess - OH MY LORD! All the flavors complimented each other and it was divine! Of course, I took pictures for everyone so you could see how beautiful it truly was....





wow wow wow!! You will have to taste for yourself to get the real deal but damn, let me tell you - it is GOOOD! If you're in the STL, take a trip to the south side and check out the Iron Barley - it's good stuff. Very interesting evniornment with phenomenal eats - especially the pie ;) Or...if you want to try and re-create this gooey yummy spicy PBJ yourself - check out the recipe HERE which was prininted by Sauce Magazine (creative loafing for foodies!). Cheers!

friday :)

So damn happy it's finally Friday! The beginning of this week sucked due to being busy/stressed at work but.... week has gotten better progressively! And, today's Friday so that is the best! Now just a few more hours and I can log off and kiss this week goodbye!

My run this morning was really awesome! Just a good run - which is funny because I was on a message board for running the other day and reading about these people having "good runs" and I was thinking....what the hell is that?? I read through the boards and there was a lot of good advice on how to improve your runs and make them "good" so.... this morning, I followed the advice and what do you know - GOOD RUN! Nothing major - I just ate half a banana instead of running on an empty stomach and also took my time instead of trying to push myself to a certain speed. Wow, what a difference - I was able to run my route without stopping and I have lots of energy today instead of feeling drained - yahoo!

I also was thinking of my sister Dawn Marie as I ran today - i felt her presence and I think she helped me to keep going and keep strong. Damn I miss her... last night I couldn't sleep so i let my mind wander. I kept thinking of times we had together and wishing I could relive them....or have more of them. I have a movie reel in my mind of memories with her - I wish I could share some of them but it's hard. Even the good ones make me cry now. Even still. I know one day I will get to see her again and we will have a good laugh and a good cry....or maybe both....at the same time...because that is what sisters do :)

Well - anyway - hope everyone has a good weekend - i plan on really enjoying mine - to the fullest :)

Dinner and 20 Questions....or 65 rather ;)

Chad is at his "satanic cult" meeting :) ha ha, not really but that is what we jokingly call it. He is a mason - although hmmmm, that may be a secret and maybe I should not put it on my blog? Oh well.......anyway! He is at his meeting and I should be out running errands but, feeling lazy and comfy on the couch here! Just me and the girls.

After my run this morning...been craving PASTA like crazy! So, decided to use up the Trader Joe's Vodka Tomato Sauce that we had left, added some Boca Crumbles and put that over whole wheat pasta - was really good and very filling! Definitely satisfied my pasta/carb craving. Also toasted some Ezekiel bread and then rubbed a crushed garlic clove all over it - was really good and my breath is rockin'! And of course, my fave veggie - asparagus. I swear, I could eat it everyday...oh wait, I do! Well for what it's worth here is the pic of my din - all this for 7 WWP! Yes...I'm back on my WW plan.....it's the only thing I can stick to consistently and NOT feel like I'm depriving myself. Blah Blah Blah - Here is my din....



Alright and since my butt is stuck on this couch - I'm stealing this from a friend's FB page and doing this survey :) Totally self indulgent so, you won't hurt my feelings if you don't read, lol.

65 Questions You've Probably Never Been Asked
Copy and paste into a note. Erase my answers and write yours.

1. First thing you wash in the shower?
Hair

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?
Black

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
wow i feel retarded answering this at 34....YES of course

4. Do you plan outfit's ?
oh hell yes....down to coordinating my eyeliner

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?
Full from dinner and looking forward to a big hug/kiss combo from Chad when he gets home :)


6. What’s the closest thing to you that's red?
errr - my fruit punch Crystal Light

7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having.
plead the fizith on this one

8. Did you meet anybody new today?
no, did not leave the house!

9. What are you craving right now?
No cravings at the moment, but i'm sure if this question came up again 10 questions down I would have something for ya!


10. Do you floss daily?
YES!

11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?
stinky


12. Are you emotional?
Yes, very

13. Have you ever counted to 1,000?
No

14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?
Lick and then bite the cone


15. Do you like your hair?
Ummm yes, although I'm ready to cut if off after the wedding - but not in that posh spice hair-do that everyone is rockin these days (that I totally rocked 6 years ago - LOL)! Tiff and I actually kept count of all the posh-spice hairdo's over her weekend - we stopped counting at 39! Total snots I know! Here is proof, this is me circa 2004...



One second thought - this is a pretty cute cut ;)

16. Do you like yourself?
Isn't it way obvious? I blog about myself everyDAY!

17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?
Sure, although I'd rather party with his twin daughters!

18. What are you listening to right now?
was listening to that annoying screechy voice of the lady on SYTYCD but - now I am jamming to MGMT Electric Feel - LURV that song....and also Paul Banks new solo CD :)

19. Are your parents strict?
I was the baby of six kids so, by the time I came along, it was smooth sailing

20. Would you go sky diving?
Yes, Chad and I have plans to do this - hopefully in 2010 post-wedding!


21. Do you like cottage cheese?
hell yes - Love it on baked beans - sounds nasty but TRY IT! I have my ex-husband's family to thank for that habit :)

22. Have you ever met a celebrity?
well - I've seen Pauly Shore multiple times - once in an elevator and once in the airport - and met lots of music/bands that are celebrities in my mind, lol. Probably the closest is Mark Kozelek.
23. Do you rent movies often?
I had a Netflix subscription for 2 years and rented 5 movies i think. So NO.

24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in?
ME! lol - well, my diamond from Chad is plenty sparkly :)

25. How many countries have you visited?
4 - i'm not much of a world traveler but - workin on that!

26. Have you made a prank phone call?
one word for you..... LAMBCHOP

27. Ever been on a train?
does Marta count?

28. Brown or white eggs?
Egg Whites

29. Do you have a cell-phone?
oh hell yes - I have a serious crackberry habit!

30. Do you use chap stick?
yup

31. Do you own a gun?
no but Chad has enough for our entire neighborhood, lol

32. Can you use chop sticks?
yes

33. Who are you going to be with tonight?
My Sweet Chad and the two most wonderful pups in the world - Honey & Bebe

34. Are you too forgiving?
maybe - i get over stuff pretty quickly and always try and see the good in people, even when they are shits.

35. Ever been in love?
yes

36. What are your best friend(s) doing tomorrow?
Probably "working"....which means hitting the gym, shopping & watching QAF reruns - LOL

7. Ever have cream puffs?
I think someone brought them to a work luncheon once?

38. Last time you cried?
this morning when I watched Laura Ling & Euna Lee get off their plane on TV - They started crying and I did too!

39. What was the last question you asked?
Are you ready? - to Chad


40. Favorite time of the year?
Fall - hands down!

41. Do you have any tattoos?
Not a single one but again, Chad has enough for our entire neighborhood....joking baby if you're reading this! I LOVE his tats :)


42. Are you sarcastic?
never

43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?
yes - superbad as in CRAP acting

44. Ever walked into a wall?
Oh hell yes - I am a klutz

45. Fave color?
Black

46. Have you ever been slapped by someone?
another pleading of the fizith

47. Is your hair curly?
Actually, as I've gotten older and let my hair grow out - it is crazy wavy if I let it dry naturally. Really weird b/c it was super straight for so long!

48. What was the last CD you bought?
Paul Banks er....I mean Julian Plenti's new solo CD

49. Do looks matter?
Well I know a lot of "ugly" pretty people and a lot of "pretty" ugly people, lol. I think your personality makes you hot or not - and I also think everyone has something about them that is attractive.

50. Could you ever forgive a cheater?
well that depends on the person, situation, circumstances. I am never black and white about anything - everything is gray territory for me!

51. Is your phone bill sky high?
Not really - around $70


52. Do you like your life right now?
I have never been happier - 30's have been so awesome!

53. Do you sleep with the TV on?
No.

54. Can you handle the truth?
Yes. It sucks sometimes though.

55. Do you have good vision?
Oh Jesus - can't believe this is on here....HELL NO! I am legally blind in my right eye and should have a lazy eye but for some reason I don't. I even wore a patch in Kindergarten as an attempt to correct it! I basically cannot see shit to the right of me so - if you are standing on my right side and think that I'm ignoring you....I'M NOT!


56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?
There has only been one person in my life that I have felt "hatred" towards - FP, my sister's ex! That's all I will say about that!

57. How often do you talk on the phone?
Many times a day - my sisters, Tiff, Chad, etc

58. The last person you held hands with?
Chad - We hold hands at night as we fall asleep........awwwww :)

59. What are you wearing?
I actually showered today! And got dressed! Wearing my new black cotton long Maxi dress - it looks fancy but is SO COMFY!

60. Do you like being "tagged" in these type of things?
yep I do - as long as it's spaced out!

61. Where was your profile picture taken?
The one on FB is me & Chad at the Sonic Youth show at the Arch and the one on my blog is me before going to the wine bar one night


62. Can you hula hoop?
I'm sure i can - have not done it in a long time


63. Do you have a job?
I have a rockin good job - great people that I work with, have a super cool boss, pay is not too shabby, I get to travel a few times a year and I get to work from home - ACES!

64. What was the most recent thing you bought?
A B-day card for D-lo - which I STILL have to mail!

65. Have you ever crawled through a window?
oh geez - YES - drunk and sober :)

Woke up Early this morning....

And ran 3 miles!! WHOOO-HOOOOOO! Anyone that knows me, knows that this is a big deal for me! I am not a morning person AT ALL....much less an morning exercise person. It was nice and the best part (just like Tiff said!) is that you get it out of the way and have the rest of your day to do whatever!

Also had a killer workout last night at bootcamp so, needless to say, I am a little zapped right now. But, it is all for a good purpose - improve my health and look good nekkid :)

I am so ready for Friday to get here - this week has been really BUSY at work - ready to have 2 days of nothing to do but chillax with Chad. Have a good rest of the week Y'all!!!

Happy Birthday D-lo!!

Happy Birthday to my Mom today :) She is 74 years young! Such a strong, beautiful, funny & amazing woman, and she is also an incredible mother - she has given me such stellar advice these past few years and has been very understanding & accepting of choices I have made. .... LOVE YOU D-LO!!!! H-A-P-P-Y!!!!

with my sweet great-nephews Nolan & Leyton!

HUGS!!!

Mom, Sister Stacy & Me at Hemingways!!

Tiff's Weekend Visit!

Great weekend! Tiff flew in Thursday for a visit and we had a total blast - lots of shopping, laughing, drinking & girl talk! Thursday night Chad and I made the Chicken Char Tacos for her - knew Tiff would love those cuz of the zippy guac that goes in them - DELISH! I swear, I could eat those once a week - and seems like we have lately!

On Friday - Tiff and I went to pick up my wedding dress - she was able to see me try it on for the first time so, it was awesome! We both cried a little :) I am ecstatic about it - i loved how my dress fit and it was very flattering on my figure - dresses are a nightmare for me as I am amply blessed in the ta-ta department ;) and this dress really fits well - yahoo! Of course, it was also a major motivator to get my ass back to eating healthy and working out! More on that later...

Anyway - after the wedding dress, we went to Houlihan's and had Bloody Mary's - YUM...

Bloody Mary's @ Houlihans

Saturday night we went to McGurk's and had drinks and dinner on the patio & headed to the Arch for the Lupe Fiasco show - so much fun! Also stuck around for the fireworks after the show and DAMN - they were beautiful!! Really some of the best fireworks I've ever seen - right over the Mississippi, under the Arch - perfect! Then we headed to Joey B's on the landing for a couple brews and then called it a night!

Lush Patio at McGurk's

Tiff, Chad & me @ Joey B's - i look like a sweaty hot mess here, yuck

Us at Geo's

Tiff flew home today and tomorrow I start training for the upcoming 10K we are doing this fall together - my sisters are going to do it with us as well so, will be really cool. Tiff mapped out a training run for me on www.mapmyrun.com website and also burned two killer CD's for me - one rock and one club - sweet!!

Alright - that's the all I got for ya right now - I am watching the Food Network right now - Next Food Network show - and they are about to announce the winner - my vote is for Geoffrey!! Shit...they just announced Melissa won - grrrrrrrrrrr!

Girls Night Out and..........Tiff comes today!

Last night was Girls Night Out - I was all set to stay home actually because my friend Julie cancelled and I really needed to straighten up the house for Tiff's visit. I made dinner for Chad and I and then decided what the heck - I'll go out anyway - so glad I did! Was a blast...here are some pics

Me & Raelyn

Me, Steph & Rae

My Guido Face lol

Steph, Kricki & me

Raeray!

And - today after work I'm headed to the airport to pick up Tiff! She flew in this weekend for a visit - so excited! Can't wait to see her - will be fun. I am still thinking what I want to do when she is here - i know tonight we are grilling the Char Grilled Tacos - YUM! And I want to take her to McGurk's at some point....should be fun - I will take lots of pics :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Website is DONE

Yeah! This took me forever to do.... but our website is up for the wedding :) It is REALLY hard to write about yourself without feeling like a retard so, the info is pretty basic....and maybe it still sounds retarded but - it gets wedding details out to our family & friends on our event, stuff to do in Sarasota, where we are registered, etc.... I will include our link on a small enclosure card in the invites so peeps can check it out - Here it is if you want to take a peek.

I can edit our site - I'm sure I will want to add stuff as I think about it...yep like hotel info. Just realized I left that out - damn! Of course the easiest part to write was the restaurants/bars we recommend!! I can write about food and drink ALL DAY but, i kept writing and rewriting stuff about how we met, etc and it just sounded super goofy so - you get the basics - and the clean version ;) lol

Had a busy great day at work today - had my review and it went really well :) Just wish every Monday was like this! OK - off to bed to snuggle up to Chad - best part of my day!

Incubus show & bootcamp kicked my arse

Boot camp really kicked my ass this morning! I am exhausted - we did bleacher runs and I am beat! Amazing what a week of eating like crap, not working out and drinking too much will do to you - I could really feel it today. I have got to look up ways to overcome PMS - It wrecked my week!! Gotta get back on track....story of my life it seems.

We went to the Incubus show Thursday night and it was awesome! The lead vocalist has an amazing voice - I love it. Really great show and it was a lot of fun. I have to admit I only started listening to them a couple years ago - I am a recovering music snob and had previously dismissed them - how predictable of a music snob, lol. BUT - I'm really glad that Chad introduced me to them because they are very talented and a great band. I will post a video later that we took at the show - camera died after this song, boooo! I had not charged it in forever...in fact I need to charge it NOW!

Interesting opening band too - The Duke Spirit. Totally lame name but, the female lead vocalist had a really interesting voice - reminded me of a mix between Bjork's voice and Grace Slick. Anyway...good times!

I have got to get back on track this week with my healthy eating - i just feel like crap when i eat like crap....SIGH. OK, that's all for today. Not sure what we're up to this weekend - today is rainy out so dog park is out :( and right now just recovering from my workout this morning! Cheers everyone and have a great rest of your weekend!

PMS & P90X!!!

blah...........this week has been pretty ugh for me - PMS like crazy and lots of work stress.....UGH! And, I have had zero willpower on top of that so, eating has been a wreck! I broke down Tuesday and went to Dairy Queen for a Tagalong Blizzard! It was really damn good though :) Tagalongs are my favorite girl scout cookie and it got the craving out of my system so, I'm glad I tried it. Plus, it's only out for a limited time sooooo....... let's see how else can I justify my Tagalong Blizzard??

And then - yesterday Chad and I both had stressful days at work so, we jointly decided we needed to hit the bar for some "bad day brews" - so, we went to McGurk's and had a couple black & tan's - or snakebites - i forget which - basically half Guinness and half cider. Really good for the soul but - not so good for the wedding dress/swim-up bar plan :) Oh, and neither are the Fish & Chips! But, again, damn good for the soul!

OH - ya know, it's funny - an old college friend of mine just completed 90 days of the P90X program and lost about 30lbs and posted his before/after pics on Facebook, and then another friend of mine just started the program! I suggested she start a blog so people can live vicariously through her and her experience - it's pretty cool! If you want to check it out it's here - Cynthia's P90X Journey I know she will stick with it and rock it out!

Thanks all I have for now - trying to get back on the healthy eating track today - we have the Incubus show tonight so, I'll take some pics and post those later - will be a great show and an awesome time :) Later Y'all - hope everyone has an awesome day!

Busy day...

I have a bad habit of procrastinating and then doing all the things i'm procrastinating about in a burst of energy, all at once. I wish I could be productive more consistently when it comes to cleaning the house, laundry, etc but - ah well, it is what it is.

So, today was one of those days where I do a lot of stuff I've been putting off all at once! Chad and I weeded all of our flower beds, cleaned the entire house and also did massive piles of laundry. Not fun stuff for a Sunday but - like I said, sometimes I get on a roll :) Anyway - I'm glad our house is in order again and everything is done. Tonight we are grilling out a nice fat steak which we will split, half a baked potato and a green salad with this awesome ginger dressing Chad picked up at the store. Super yum!

Really quick - here's a pic of the Blueberry Muffins I made yesterday - they are not homemade, I used the FiberOne Mix but, they turned out pretty damn good! I would make them again for sure -



And here is sleepy Honey..... my baby girl! She was peeking over at Chad :)



Alright, gonna drink a beer, relax and enjoy the last few hours of the weekend - they always go too damn fast :(

Sonic Youth Under the Arch

Last night was such a fun night - Sonic Youth played a free show under the Arch and we decided to check it out - WOW! So glad we did! We had great seats, the show was awesome and the weather was perfect! Not hot or humid at all....just perfect! We went with our friend Christine and just had a total blast! And yesss! I did take pics...

Sonic Youth...killer seats!

Me & Chad - under the Arch

Christine, the strawberry girl! Christine....banana split lady!

I always sing that Siouxsie song in my head when I'm with Christine :)

Me & my baby

New Kicks!!!!

Today is BEAUTIFUL here!! The sun is out, blue skies and the temp is perfect - mid to low 70's all weekend - PERFECT! I went out for a run at lunch today and the weather was just right - awesome.

Also - bought some new kicks today too! I'm long overdue for some new running shoes and Nordy's is having their Semi Annual Anniversary Sale - so, i found a new pair of Asics online that are perfect! Regularly $85, but were on sale for $57.00 - i had a Nordstom Note for an additional $20 off so, after tax/shipping/etc the grand total was $49.99!! Not bad, not bad! Here is a pic....

Aren't these too cute?

OK- gonna take the girls for a quick walk and then gotta come home and get ready - we are going to the Sonic Youth show at the Arch. Should be a good show and a fun time! Happy Friday to All :-)

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms and....a psychotic pic of moi

Oh damn - so happy tomorrow is Friday!! This week went pretty fast actually but I always welcome Friday with open arms and a big fat smile :-) Plus it's pay day so double WHOO-HOOO!

Let's see, the Balsamic Chicken w/ Mushrooms I made the other night was pretty damn good - I think I liked it more than Chad. But, I thought it was yummm - here is a pic...



I love mushrooms & balsamic vinegar so, go figure....that is prolly why I was diggin' on this dish....

Let's see - we went out with my work buddy Jeff last night - he was in town for training and I really wanted him to check out the International Tap House so - we went there for a couple brews, then I started running my mouth about how AWESOME the fish & chips are at McGurk's in Soulard (think I actually called them deep fried bites of heaven) so, of course we HAD to go there (patio was SO COOL!!) ....oh and on the way there, we stopped off at Schlafly's Bottleworks for a beer and oh hell, just remembered we had their divine beer bread too - comes with cheddar chive butter & bleu cream cheese better - YUM!!! So, when I think of all the beer, bites of deep fried heaven & the cheddar chive butter I inhaled yesterday, guess it was kind of an "off" day for me as far as staying on my Operation Look Hot In Wedding Dress/Look Hot at Swim-up Bar but, what the hell.... it was damn worth it & fun so, how can you call that wasted/empty calories??

Anyway - back on track today and headed off to bootcamp too. I need it!!

Oh and here is a pic of me and Bebe in my office - I had to submit these pics to my boss so he can make sure my home office is set up ergonomically and well - I just sent them off to him not really thinking - he wrote me back and said he really hoped for Chad's sake that I do not sleep with an ice pick under the bed b/c I looked totally psycho in the second pic.....LMAO! He is a funny guy....and right! I do look totally crazy here.............ah well!





Anyway - that's all I got for today - no plans set for the weekend yet either - not sure what we will get into! More on that tomorrow ;)

Snackies

Today's lunch was a yummy salad that I whipped up really quickly - took some lemon pepper tuna and put it over romaine, added some shredded broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage mix, sliced spanish olives, light zesty italian dressing & some Parmesan cheese - YUM! It was really good & filling - all this for 172 cals/5.6g fat/4 fibs/19 proteins!! Here is my pic -



Had a couple snacks today too - cocoa roasted almonds YUM and apple with peanut butter ***Note to self - try PB2 so i can eat WAY more peanut butter***. However, my NEW favorite snack which I also had today - a Van's All Natural 97% fat free waffle with fresh strawberries and honey drizzled over the top. Oh.....My......Lord! Totally awesome. The honey tasted amazing like a piping hot sopapilla.....YUM!!! See for yourself -



Now, I'm off to bootcamp - hoping it doesn't rain so I can burn off all these snackies I had today. Tonight I'm making Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms. First time on making that so, will post my review tomorrow - with pics of course ;)

Roller Derby - FUN TIMES :)

What a fun weekend - can't believe it's over already...booooo! We went to the roller derby with Christine and had a blast. Always so much fun - we met one of the derby girls MidWife Crisis and she was super cool and really sweet. She was talking to us about the league, practices, and was encouraging us to give it a try. I think Christine and I are going to hit the rink this week, throw on some skates and have some fun! I would LOVE to do the roller derby thing but, the drive is far and they practice A LOT! We'll see....i think everyone knows I've been pondering this off and on for a while now!! lol - is 34 too old to roller derby??

Here are some pics from the game - I meant to take more but, got distracted!

Me & Miss Christine...Cheers!

Me & Chad - he thinks we look weird in this one LOL

Fun time had by all...we hung out at the bar afterwards and watched the UFC fight and then headed home - Spencer came over once he got off work (poor guy is on mids) and we all had a few more drinks and they ended up crashing here. We woke up and Chad made everyone a big yummy breakfast - coffee, eggs, hash browns, bacon - YUM! He did an awesome job - thanks baby! The weather was pretty crappy today - stormy out - so, the rest of the day consisted of chilling on the couch and watching the One Hit Wonders from the 80's countdown on VH1 - good times :)

And tonight, Chad and I decided the Char Grilled Tacos were so damn good the other night, we wanted them again!

I am pretty exhausted so, going to sign off and get ready for bed - I'm really wanting to have a focused work week this week so, thinking positive productive thoughts :) Also, back to the grind of eating healthy and working out. I pretty much took last night and today "off" from logging food - sometimes you gotta give yourself a vacation :) Hope everyone has an awesome week! Cheers ;)

Mini Ham & Cheddar Souffles....not brains :)

Interesting night last night...we went to bed fairly early last night, for a Friday anyway. I woke up in the middle of the night, because I kept hearing helicopters over the house. Now, at the time, I thought it was like five or six separate helicopters taking off at different times - I was laying there thinking - oh no, something bad must have happened to have all these helicopters leaving the base at this time of night - don't ask, those are sleepy thoughts. Anyway - I officially wake up because it sounds like a helicopter is about to land on our roof! I try and wake up Chad, no dice. I look over and the girls are both asleep. So, I get up and peek out our back window - there are cop cars in the park behind our house flashing their lights and shining their spotlights like mad. I watch this for about a minute and then, all of a sudden, they speed off down the street and are gone. I get back in bed, lay there and fall back asleep - this morning I thought it was a dream but - when I turned my cell on this a.m., I had a text from Vicki last night telling me what was going on & to be careful. Apparently, these three idiots robbed the McDonald's near us and ran for it....good lord. They caught 2 of them and the 3rd is still missing but - sure he is long gone by then. Excitement never stops in big pimpin O'Fallon, let me tell ya.

ANYWAY - after bootcamp this morning, I whipped these up for breakfast for us - Baked Eggs with Ham & Cheddar. I spotted the recipe in my Women's Health magazine and thought it sounded good. Now - they tasted awesome - very light and fluffy BUT, they look pretty gross in these pics. In fact, Chad said these pics looked like brains, lol. But trust me, try these, they are like little mini-souffles! And....they don't look like brains in person, promise ;)

Here's the pic, recipe below.....



Mix 4 eggs, 1 tbsp flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 cup cottage cheese 2% red fat, and 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese 2% red fat. Take 4 large ramekins, spray the inside of each one with Pam (really good b/c i just did a bit and they eggs stuck a bit to the ramekin - ugh), put a tbsp of diced ham and a sprinkling of chives, evenly pour the egg/cheese mixture in each ramekin and mix each one up with a fork. Bake on 350 degrees for 18 mins, then turn the broiler on for about 1-2 mins to brown the tops. Viola - little mini souffles. This makes 4 servings and per serving: 160 cals, 9g fat, 0 fibs.

Alright, gotta jam and figure out what I'm wearing to the derby tonight! Later

yummy Char Chicken Tacos

Grilled out tonight - the mosquitoes are SO bad here - hard to enjoy the grilling process but, the food was delish! Chad found a recipe in his Men's Health magazine for Char Chicken Tacos....take a look see -

char chicken tacos

The chicken had a rub of olive oil, cumin & chili powder and then grilled along with onion slices and jalapenos. Also made an avocado dip to put on the tacos - mashed up avocado, juice of a lime, 2 garlic cloves minced, chopped cilantro, salt & pepper. Also put some black beans in there and they were amazing! Really tasty - the jalapenos we used were HOT! We were feeling the heat big time but - we will definitely be having these again soon :)

I also had a nice surprise in the mailbox today - a cute little card from Tiff thanking me for her b-day package - funny thing is that I gave her notepads with this same skull pattern on it and she got the matching notecards from another friend!! Her note made me smile - she is awesome :)



Today I decided to take a mental health day and use a day of vacation - it was nice. Hit they gym this morning for Body Attack - burned almost 600 calories! Great way to start the day - wish I could do that EVERY Friday. Also went to the salon and Viola, I am blondie again - no roots! Can't believe how long my hair has gotten - I wore it short forever...will try and dig up some old pics so you can see before and after - short vs. long!

Anyway - enjoy your weekend - will post more on ours later!

only boring people get bored...

I am feeling bored today...hate that feeling. Not sure what is up because I usually don't get bored....I can hear D-lo saying to me "Only boring people get bored Ash"....ahhh. Guess I am just ready for the weekend. One more day - yea.

But, I am still digging on nutrimirror. It rocks! Going to wait and weigh myself for a bit - don't want to get frustrated and I feel like overall I'm making healthier choices, decisions, etc so.... don't want to get frustrated and blow it.

Here is my sammy I had for lunch today - it was super crunchy yums. Love that damn ezekiel bread - had turkey and laughing cow swiss cheese on it - that's it! Grilled it up with some Herbs de Province on there and YUM...



You can also see my carrots and a bit of the Three Spice Hummus there - good stuff. Bebe was diggin on the crunch the carrots made - funny :)

Anyway - I'm off to bootcamp tonight and then coming home to make us din. Then tomorrow is work, clean house a bit and gettin my hair did - will take a pic of it looking purty - usually straight as a board once Natasha flat irons it. OK well - even my rambling is boring today so I'm out.

burn calories burn!

I blew the dust off my Polar HRM yesterday and wore it to boot camp...soooo glad I did! I was totally stoked cuz I burned 489 calories yesterday during my work out!!! WHOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Go me! :-)

I'm really diggin on the Nutrimirror - it's getting easier to track as I get more familiar with the site. And....apparently I eat a LOT of sodium! I'm not going to worry too much about that right now though... I guess i need to keep it at 2400 mg's or below but, right now it's MUCH higher than that. Hmmmph. One battle at a time.

Here is my yummy b'fast I had this morning... whole wheat waffles w/ strawberries and nana's - YUM! Funny too b/c I was talking to my sister Stacy today and she told me she is allergic to both strawberries and banana's...so guess she would not be liking my breakfast too much....



Speaking of allergic - Chad was back in the ER again today! He ran out of benedryl and took something else that did not jive with his system. He is all better now though....again, and is resting up on the couch. I went and bought all hypo-allergenic soap, detergent, dryer sheets, etc to start using today just in case but - now we are thinking he has Poison Oak? Anyway - he should be fine now.....hope hope!

I am about to head to the gym and then meet my girl Julie for drinks/dinner. We are going to Houlihan's as that is right down the street from us and...they have a pretty healthy menu too. Double bonus. Will post pics tomorrow....

total slacker here

Sorry I have not blogged in a bit - been busy! This weekend was great - well aside from the ER Friday night... but, the rest of the weekend was great - Chad made a full recovery from his allergic reaction and is fine. Still not sure what exactly caused his allergic reaction though. We did wings for the 4th and watched the fireworks via TV as the weather was kinda crappy and we thought traffic would suck. Next year we will plan to do something more fireworky/patriotic but....this year it was wings, beer and trivia. Fun times!

Sunday we went with our friends Kristine & Spencer to Blackthorn Pizza and then to The Stable for beer - it was their first time to both places - total fun!! I think we are going to hit the roller derby this weekend with them as well.

But today....after a weekend of excess - I am back on track and trying out a new food tracking site called NutriMirror. Thanks to Sweet Dee for the recommendation!! So far, so good....i get to eat way more calories than I was eating so - hey, that's good news! It seems to focus more on the quality of what you eat versus the quantity - although quantity is still as factor, duh. I am interested to see how it goes. Today I have been pretty full all day and still have 400 calories I can use....WHOO HOO!!! Will keep you posted on how this all plays out.

I'm off to bootcamp tonight and meeting up with my friend Julie tomorrow for a drink and girl talk - she is needing to chat. Anyway - hope everyone is having a decent week - need to get better about pics...did not take ONE over the weekend!!

Fun times in the ER..... and a slight rant on calories

Well - our holiday weekend started off exciting - sat in the ER for a few hours last night! Chad had an allergic reaction to something, we are not sure exactly what! But, after four hours of sitting in the ER waiting room, one huge ass shot of benedryl in his arm and a round of steroids later...he is doing much better! Poor baby...this happened about two years ago when he used my Strawberry Souffle Shower Gel.....which promptly made his face swell up like a souffle. Not sure what caused it this time....thinking something in the yard? Anyway - he is MUCH better this morning and I'm happy we went last night instead of waiting and it getting worse - we nipped it in the bud.

Couple of things though... there were some kids tweaked out on heroin in the ER last night... pretty scary. The one kid looked like he could blow away he was so thin, looked like an old man in a kids body - very sad. I will never understand what makes someone shoot up poison in their veins but, I know everyone has their own demons to dance with. Just makes me sad. The kids Mom was there and I am sure it was not her first rodeo with this kid. Sad...

Moving on.... I was STARVING as I sat there in the ER. We were actually on our way to dinner when we decided we better hit the ER instead as the swelling was getting worse by the minute. So.... confession time - I hit the vending machine while we waited....had a mini bag of Cheezit's (YUMMMM!!), mini bag of Sun Chips (meh..) and a mini bag of Cherry Twizzler Bites (another meh). The choices in the vending machine were actually pretty small and portion friendly so, all that was only about 8 points BUT...then we got a pizza on the way home which I promptly ate half of!! Thank God boot camp was all about the agility sets and cardio yesterday!!

But, as I sat there in the ER, I read an article in a magazine that talked about how many calories you should be consuming.... I tallied mine up and based on the amount of exercise I'm doing, I should be eating around 1700 - 1800 calories a day to lose weight and about 2000-2200 to maintain..... WTF?? I am currently eating around 1200 right now (uhhhh....with the exception of yesterday!) and wondering if this is why I have not seen the scale budge??? I am so confused :-( Any insight out there would be appreciated - I am not sure what calorie range I should be in. GRRRR....

Anyway - this weekend should be fun, not sure what we are getting into today but, thinking maybe Soulard?? We will see, that may be tomorrow. Hope everyone has an awesome 4th or....just an awesome weekend in general!!

Just a Few Random Things.....

1) I am addicted to Dijon Mustard...Grey Poupon specifically! Damn!! I am putting it on everything.... it has a slight hint of horseradish that makes my nose tingle and eyes water and I LOVE it!

2) I had TWO hot dogs, french fries and a brownie today and totally stayed on plan and did not dip into my activity points or my flex points....whoot whoot! OK - it was 98% fat free Hebrew National beef franks, whole wheat buns and Alexia waffle fries - all portioned out and covered in dijon ;) You really cannot tell the difference on these low fat dogs - they rock!

3) I hit the gym this evening and did some serious cardio for 30 mins on the elliptical at TOP SPEED while jammin' to some Santogold - whoo hoo! Burned about 350 calories :)

4) Damn I'm happy tomorrow is Thursday and Chad and I are both off Friday for the holiday weekend - 4th of July!! Will be an awesome weekend - thinking of hitting Soulard and perhaps Black Thorn with friends on Sunday - we will see!

5) Wedding invitations came today and I LURV them except.... the "r" in "pleasure" printed kinda weird on half of them :( I immediately called them and they are reprinting - no cost to me, no questions asked - yahoo!! It really wasn't that noticeable but.... want these to be perfect b/c they are SO COOL! Seeeee for yourself.... I blurred out a couple details - just to be safe :)





I love these because they are very simple but - unique. I love the Black/White theme and I love how they are square and fold up into a nice neat black square! Now time to pick out the stamps.....

20 questions.....give or take!

Work was stressful today so - I'm doing this for fun, to de-stress before my workout. Stealing this from my girl Krista who has a million stalkers and has to move her blog once a week!! Poor girl....this one's for you Krista!

The Rules:
1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention & add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people.

What is your current obsession? none actually at the moment...how boring!

What’s for dinner?
Pork tenderloin - grilled and marinated in soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, cilantro & parsley - YUM!

What’s the last thing you bought?
a bottle of capt'n morgan's at the liquor store for our bbq over the weekend!

What are you currently listening to?
Chad watching Glen Beck in the next room and Honeybear snoring...

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Antigua with Chad....swim up bar!!

Which language do you want to learn?
Francais! Nevermind that I've had 3 yrs in high school and 2 yrs in college and still can't speak a lick of it....

What do you love most about where you currently live?
We are close to St Louis which has a lot of fun restaurants/bars....but mostly I like it because it's different from where I used to live!

What is your favorite colour?
Black always!

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
do shoes count? Currently my steve madden flip flops with the fancy straps...
Describe your personal style?
definitely low key and casual now but - love to get dressed up

If you had $300 now, what would you spend it on?
put it in our wedding fund...

What are you going to do after this?
get ready for boot camp

Your favorite smell?
DKNY Delicious and any of the Philosophy shower gels....esp the Red Velvet Cake one! YUM

Do you collect anything?
again.....do shoes count??

What makes you follow a blog?
Inspiration and usually about food, weight loss, exercise, etc.....I have a few that I have stopped reading b/c the blogger was on my nerves but.... I still even check on those once in awhile!

Who do you admire?
All the awesome females in my life - you know who you are!! I am lucky to have so many!

What’s one thing you dream of doing?
being totally fit and doing a 10K or triathlon... or living somewhere exotic

What is your biggest regret?
I have none - life is about choices and things happen for a reason.

What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
Nap....do a cross word, read a book, surf Internet....all with Chad by my side on the couch :)

Do you have a tattoo?
No but, I love Chad's

What are your favorite books?
just getting back into reading but - usually like sad stories :(

Are you left handed, right handed, ambidextrous, or a little of both?
Right but sometimes both...

What's your biggest fear?
Failure

Who would you like to have coffee chat with (dead or alive)?
My sister Dawn Marie

What is your worst/best personality trait? My best is my ability to relate to just about anyone and make friends in a paper bag.... my worst is I can be moody and have very little patience.

Not tagging anyone in specific... but feel free to consider yourself tagged if you'd like!

Workouts & Wedding Dresses!!

YEAH for me....I met my workout goal this week of five workouts....whoo-hoo! :) I did three boot camps and two classes at Gold's. The class I took at Gold's yesterday was intense - Body Attack - which is basically high intensity aerobics for an hour....holy shit, it was HARD! But, felt great once I was done!

I also went shopping yesterday and found my wedding dress!! It is gorgeous and I am so excited!! I tried to save the pic of it from the website but can't do it so, if you want to check it out it's here. I got it on sale and i just LOVE it!! Also - got it in Ivory versus the White - that color is more flattering on my skin tone. Big incentive to continue the workouts....it shows some back so, gotta get sexy back going on! The lady that helped me was a bit insane....she kept bringing out strapless gowns although i told her several times I did not want strapless...then she brought out veils even though I told her over and over NO VEIL! I finally had to get snappy with her but - whatever, I found my dress! yahoooo!! I wanted to wait until Tiff's visit in July to get her opinion but... it takes 12-15 weeks to get the dress in so...I just went for it! Tiff can help me accessorize it since she is awesome with that. And let me just say....wedding dresses run RIDICULOUSLY small....and that's all I'm gonna say about that.

As far as the rest of the weekend - Chad and I are going to a wedding in STL tonight - should be a really great time. The wedding is at the Grand Basin in Forrest Park and the reception is at a really cool location - Windows On Washington. Will be an excellent party for sure! Tomorrow we may have a couple over to BBQ it up - we'll see. It is Chad's hair stylist & her husband. I met them last night for the first time and they are a really cool couple.

Anyway - hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and doing FUN stuff!! Cheers and I will take pics of the rest of our weekend to share. Later!

Peaches & Thai

I had the yummiest peach today for my pre-workout snack........take a look



I was in our grocery store last night, chit-chatting with Tiff on the phone and stopped in my tracks from the sweet aroma of these awesome peaches three aisles over! Had to get some and damn I'm glad I did - AMAZING!!!!

Bootcamp was awesome tonight - Vicki always keeps it interesting with different exercises and although it was hot as hell....there was a good breeze. Overall an awesome workout.

I came home, showered really quickly and then Chad and I headed up to a Thai restaurant that is right up the street...I know I've blogged about it before but - for all my local peeps that read this, you HAVE to go to Thip's Thai in O'Fallon. It is so so good! We ordered really healthy and went with the Summer rolls which is basically lettuce, thai basil, & carrots wrapped in rice paper served with a super spicy side sauce - YUM!!! These were so light and tasty - we had never had these before and I am so happy we tried them....delish. We also split the Thai Beef Salad which is always killer and tried the Garlic Pad Thai w/ Chicken.... lots of veggies & ginger with chicken in a broth based sauce. I was so proud of us for ordering lighter and different dishes versus going with our usual coconut/curry based dishes. We rock....we did still have our usual brews at the bar while we waited for our dinner but, we did light beers ;)

So, I'm sitting here typing and feeling totally content with a full belly and a happy heart :) I am off tomorrow....WHOO HOO! The plan is to get up - have coffee and a light b'fast - hit the gym for cardio, mail off my girl Tiff's b'day package (her b'day is Sat but I always send her gift late to stretch out her b'day magic as long as possible!!), then come home and get showered, do some wedding dress shopping, drop some clothes off at good will........holy shit I better make a "to do list" or I will never get all this done!!

Hope everyone has an AWESOME weekend!! Live it to the fullest!

holy hotness...

I was a little nervous about boot camp tonight....given it was smokin' hot outside. In fact, when I got in my car to head over to the park, my car said it was 106 degrees!! Now - this was slightly elevated given my car has black leather interior and was sitting in the sun all day! But, you get the idea - it has been super hot this week and combined with humidity....yikes.

But...I hydrated all day and there was a slight breeze out tonight - we also worked out in the shade so - it was a great work out! whoo-hoo! It really made me curious though if you burn more calories when working out in hot condition and GOOD NEWS! The answer is yes :) Interesting read - check this article out that explains....makes sense! Chad and I talked about this before I left and...he was right ;)

Anyway - came home from boot camp and made a really great salad - grilled chicken, feta, craisins, almonds & balsamic dressing.....YUM! Now it's shower time and off to bed.... night!

countdown to swim-up bar starts NOW!!!!!

nothing will set motivation in motion like booking your honeymoon in Antigua!!

When deciding where we wanted to go for our honeymoon - we had some common "must haves" on our lists... 1) beach 2) bar...preferably the swim-up variety 3) lay around and not do much of anything....translation here is NO STRESS! 4) some place neither of us have been 5) did i mention the swim-up bar?

Sooooooo.... based on the above we picked Antigua! It sounds very beautiful and romantic and there are several swim-up bars at the resort we're booking at so - YAHOOOOO! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! However, reality is starting so sink in that I will be wearing a bikini for 7 days straight and i want to look hot so... Operation Look Hot In Wedding Dress has now paired up with Operation Look Hot In Bikini At Swim-Up Bar!!

I am going to aim for working out 5 days a week (2-3 bootcamps a week and the rest running or classes at Gold's). I figure 5 workouts a week is doable for me...6 is a little daunting....so 5 it is. Wish me luck - I start tonight by hitting Gold's - should be fun.... at least I will keep telling myself this all day ;)

Oh and check out my fancy wedding countdown clock to the right..... time is ticking!!

Bootcamp at Big Daddy's

Last night, Chad and I went to a friend's retirement party - Carol. Somehow I did NOT get any pictures from there but - was so much fun! Carol served 20 years in the Air Force and now she is retiring to just chill! She had a blast and drank her 20 years worth of alcohol last night ;) Was a fun time had by all....

Chad and I then headed over to Big Daddy's in Belleville to meet up with my boot camp girls - total blast! Here are some shots of us....

Raelyn, Lisa & Vicki enjoying "The Recliner"... once you have one, you need to hit the lazy boy and sleep it off!



Here is a close up....eerily similar to the VooDoo drinks from last week :)



Here is a pic of me looking very sweaty and Chad looking very cute ;)



Group hug with Lisa and Vicki...



Lisa & Vicki...CHEERS!



Last one - cute pic of me & Miss Raeray!



Maybe our next bootcamp celebration we will plan for a night when we DON'T have boot camp the next morning.... we were all draggin a little bit this morning! Actually I felt pretty good and I didn't drink that much - shocking I know!

Today Chad and I are just chillaxing at home - about to throw some turkey burgers on the grill and not sure what else we will get into this weekend....hope everyone is having a good one!

back on the health kick.....

I feel like I am back on a healthy eating kick - which is awesome... makes me feel so much better. It is just much easier to do this at home versus when traveling.
Last night we grilled a pork tenderloin - I found the recipe out of a new cookbook I just bought and it was delicious. The recipe is very simple - Rosemary Garlic Pork Tenderloin - here is a pic....



It is very simple - for one 1 lb tenderloin I chopped up about 2 sprigs of rosemary fresh from my herb garden - sweet! and also about 5 cloves of garlic, added 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp sea salt and 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper and mixed that all up to form a rub/paste. I made about 4-5 slits in the tenderloin and put a tsp of the mixture in each slit then rubbed the remaining garlic-rosemary mixture over the top. Let that chill in the fridge for about 2 hours and we grilled it up....YUM! Really healthy too - 154 cals/5.6 fats/.3 fibs/23g protein per 3oz serving = 3 WWP! Really quick, easy and tasty.

Here is my breakfast this morning -



Tiff told me to check out the pure egg whites in the carton and damn was she right....I made an egg white omelet this morning with green onions and cheese and it was killer. I used 1/4 cup of egg whites and it was plenty.... paired that with my beloved Ezekiel bread and some strawberries...which were so good - very sweet! Best part of breakfast was the Dunkin Donuts coffee I picked up at Sam's yesterday. Chad and I had a field day there last night and bought some really great stuff...I heart Sam's!

Anyway - hope everyone is having a great week...I have boot camp tonight and then tomorrow Chad and I are going to a retirement party for one of his co-sergeants. Then I am meeting up with some boot camp girls for drinks afterward....rest of the weekend is chill/sleep time.... ahhhhhh :)

Smoked Chicken & Cheese Quesadillas

When Chad smoked that chicken the other night - obviously we had leftovers since it's just the two of us so - check out what I made on a whim for lunch....



Took me all of about 4 minutes to make - diced up some smoked chicken, chopped green onions (I eat these with EVERYTHING), 2% reduced fat Mexican shredded cheese - put that all into a flour tortilla - and cooked it up with some Pam. I figured this all out to be 5 WWP.

I ate each bite like this (below).... with this totally killer salsa I've discovered when I just don't have time to make my own.... it is called Wholly Salsa and is amazing...not sweet at all b/c I detest sweet salsa and, the ingredients are all natural - hence the "Wholly"....der



Healthy AND used up some leftovers...yes, I know I'm awesome :)

Oh No! We've Been Let Go!!

OK - finally have some time on my lunch to update here with pics... so here we go....

I was in ATL pretty much all last week as I had to say goodbye to some of my employees - long story short, we were aquired by another insurance company and due to location/acquisition issues - some employees were let go. There is no way around it - situation just sucks as these ladies are not only wonderful, talented and smart people but - also dear friends. The good news however is that.... almost all of them have back up plans - future job plans, going back to school plans, staying at home to be mom plans, etc so... I am very hopeful that everyone ends up in better places. Here are some pics from my trip...

Laura, Christina and I at Frontera's.... really miss this place!!



Us at the office.....




Here is the going away cake - it is called a Suzy-Q cake and yep you guessed it....tastes just like a big Suzy-Q!! DIVINE!!! The writing on the cake was Laura's idea and was perfect for the occasion....



We went over to the Arena Tavern for Happy Hour and really blew it out... good times had by all!






It was a very bittersweet trip for me as I am sad that things are changing but, very happy for everyone moving on to new and exciting times. I stayed through the weekend with my friend Mary and was able to hang out with so many of my best friends....was awesome...

I stayed with Tiff for the first two nights - here is a pic of us at our favorite watering hole - Taco Mac. Damn we've had a lot of fun at this place!! She just completed a triathalon and she is super buff - she looks amazing and I am so proud of her!! She is an inspiration....



Here is a pic of my girl Mary.... she is the bomb, in case ya didn't know.... I stayed with her Thursday - Sunday and we partied like rock stars! Mary is the funniest person I've ever known and you always feel like a million bucks when you are with her - nonstop laughter and good conversation! She is the best....check out our beer catalogue pic....



Here we are tearing up the dance floor.... don't ask what dance moves I was busting out....looks like the crunked sprinkler.....good times ;)



Saturday night we were able to hook up with my girls Christy, Mikele and Tracy....LOVE these girls so much! We all went to high school and college together and we have girls weekends whenever we can....they are my heart and I miss them dearly! We went to a really great place in downtown Lawrenceville called McCray's that had excellent rooftop seating...was a total blast!! We were drinking their VooDoo cocktail that has blackberry rum.....YUM!!!




It was a whirlwind trip and there were still lots of people that I wanted to see that I didn't get a chance too :( but, you can only do so much in 5 days!! I was exhausted when I got home yesterday....really missed Chad and the girls! Chad picked me up and had dinner waiting for me and a 12 pack of cold brew - we had a nice quiet night and dinner was fab. He smoked a chicken and the flavor was amazing! In fact I made a chicken quesadilla for lunch today using leftovers but...more on that later.

Anyway - had an awesome trip but happy to be home...Thanks to all my dear friends that were so hospitable - especaially Miss Mary! You rock girl....xoxo!!! Love Y'all!

ATL!!

I am exhausted but have had a great time here in ATL. Was a bittersweet trip as I had to say goodbye to some awesome people that I've worked with for the past nine years...but, everyone is moving on to exciting new opportunities and I know I will be in touch with those girls for a long time to come.

I have a ton of pics to post - I stayed through the weekend and got to see a lot of my best friends - not all of them but most of them. Lots of drinking, shopping and laughing had by all....good times. I have laughed so much over the past few days my abs are hurting! I really miss all of my friends and it was great seeing evreyone but I am homesick! Just can't wait to see Chad and the Girls. This should be my last trip for a while.... gotta jam as the flight is about to board. More later.

Oh and I think Tiff and I found a 10K to do with my sisters....more on that later!

Beer & Birthday Weekend!

Just seems as if I was excited the weekend was here...and now it's almost over :( Here's the recap... Friday night we went to The Wine Tap for a couple beers and flat bread pizza...YUM! Hard to believe that they've been open one year! It was completely packed out - also the belleville wine & jazz fest was going on - but still, completely packed! We could not find a seat on the patio or the bar but, ended up getting a great table in Cheryl's section. So happy that they've done so well - it really is a great place. I have to say, we are regulars there ;)

Saturday I got up and went to boot camp and then Chad and I headed to the STL Brew Fest - had a total blast! We had the 12-4pm pass and definitely drank our money's worth...sampling some really great local micro brews. Met some interesting people that love beer like us and...I got a nice big fat sunburn...boooo! Here are some pics from the brew fest.....

This is straight up HOPS brew that was under the home brewer's tent - the beer was awesome under this tent and everyone was so very friendly. Brewers rock! Chad was drooling over this hops overload....



Here is a shot of the fest and peeps there....



Chad and I....pre sunburn for me - ugh :(



We got home from the fest, had some Chinese food and crashed at about 7pm! We were both exhausted from drinkin in the sun... drank lots of water and hit the sack. I think we got about 11 hours of sleep last night!

Tomorrow is Chad's birthday - we celebrated it today for the most part. I gave him a nice smoker that he wanted....as you know we grill A LOT so, this is just another option...he did a beef brisket today and it was DELISH! You should see the amount of spices that go on here to create this yummy bark as it it smoked. So damn good....





Here are the girls....hoping for a little bite of brisket! Sorry girls...Honeybear is on a diet per doctor's orders! No scraps....



And for Chad's birthday I decided to make something healthy as we are trying to be good and drop some lb's before the wedding... since it's summer, decided to go with a Margarita Pie I found online.... it was pretty damn good! The crust is made with pretzels, light butter, little bit of limeade, & sugar. The filling has light vanilla ice cream, little bit of tequila & grand marnier, lime zest and frozen limeade - end result was really good and not too rich. Here are some pics and I'll post the recipe below as well in case you're interested....it's a good summer dessert





2 1/3 oz pretzel(s), miniature twists (about 2 cups)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp light butter, at room temperature
6 oz frozen limeade concentrate, slightly thawed
4 cup(s) light vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 oz tequila, about 3 tbsp
1/2 fl oz orange-flavored liqueur
1 tsp lime zest

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a food processor or blender, process pretzels into crumbs; add sugar and pulse until combined. Add butter and mix well. With machine running, add 2 tablespoons of limeade concentrate; process until well-mixed.


Spoon mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie plate. With back of a spoon, press mixture firmly into bottom and up sides of pan to form a pie shell. Bake until set, about 5 minutes; place in freezer for 10 minutes to cool.


Meanwhile, in a clean food processor or electric mixer, combine ice cream, remaining limeade concentrate, tequila and liqueur; process or mix until just blended. Spoon ice cream mixture into cooled pie shell and sprinkle with lime zest. Freeze for 2 hours before cutting into 8 pieces. Yields 1 slice per serving. 8 servings - 4 WW Pts :) Pretty damn sweet!

So, tomorrow is Chad's official birthday, he is off tomorrow while I will be working away in my office. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY! Love you! Alright - gotta go rub aloe on my burn :(

Good News!

I forgot to tell everyone that Honey's blood work came back from the vet yesterday...and GREAT NEWS!! She is cancer free! So - no more chemo for our pup...we will follow up with the vet again in 6 months and test again but.... so far so good! She does have this habit though of "fly biting"...snapping at flies every once in awhile that are not there. I mentioned this to the vet because I noticed that she stopped doing this during her chemo when she was on steroids. He said that this could be a symptom of canine epilepsy....and she has had one seizure about a year and a half ago. There is nothing definite and - really would not require treatment unless she started having regular seizures so...hopefully she will just stick to the "fly biting". I swear, if it is not one thing it's another! That Honeybear!!

Here is Miss Honey....



Oh - went to Old Navy yesterday and got a few things - I like getting summer stuff there because it's cheap and pretty basic. Let me just say.... good lord the fatness can creep up on you....before you even realize it! I was wearing 8's there a couple months ago and yesterday....the 10's were SNUG. Nice. So... I am back to tracking my points, etc. I also think my new birth control may be making me retain water but....I've been on it now for about 3 months so, hopefully my body will get used to it and get back to normal. REALLY need to be good and - with my trip to Atlanta next week, that will be hard. My favorite places to hit are of course based around food.... Mellow Mushroom for pizza, Taco Mac for wings/brews, Vortex for burgers... I think I'm going to just have to suck it up and be good next week.... damn - wish they would invent that magic supermodel skinny pill already.

Bootcamp tonight and I am looking forward to it. It really helps to work off the stress of work/wedding planning, etc.

Anyway - that's all for today. Really busy with work - all I have to say is THANK GOD tomorrow is Friday. I am so ready for the weekend!!

Portland & Donuts

Been super busy so, have not blogged in such a long time....sorry Brielle!!! :-)

OK so - trip to Portland....MAN! What an amazing town! I felt kinda guilty being there without Chad because damn...there is a LOT of good beer there. 33 Microbrew Pubs in the city of Portland!! We went to Full Sail Brew Pub, Deschutes Brewery & also a place called Henry's that was YUM. I ate lots of seafood while I was there and everything was delicious. Chad was a sweetie and loaded up his hand-held GPS with lots of good restaurants/bars we've seen on the Food Network or read about - he even mapped my hotel and the airport - what a sweetie! I fell in love with the GPS and will never take another trip without it! Here are some pics from Portland...

This is the outdoor patio at Henry's.... really a cool place! They have a crazy long beer selection and the bar inside has ice slabs on top like as a strip in the middle to keep your brew chilled perfectly - genius!



Taps at Full Sail..... great beer!



My hotel room :) I don't know why I always take a pic but...I do, lol



We also made it into VooDoo Donuts YESSSSS!!! Totally awesome donuts!! Check it out....



YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! I ate this one above and brought the rest home to Chad :) If you ever want to get attention in an airport - carry around a pink box of donuts. I had a million people stop me and ask what was in there, lol! Donuts make people happy!



Next trip to Portland I will bring Chad - I know he would love it. Just wish it wasn't so far away!

I took the day off today as I was feeling kinda crappy this morning but, starting to feel better so, think I will head out to Old Navy and get some shorts/skirts/capris...starting to get hot here already. AND Chad's birthday is Monday but we are going to celebrate this weekend so, need to pick up his birthday gift :) Will blog more later -

oh damn....

Well
....trip is off on a shakey start...forgot my passport that has my "work name" on it! Long story but I go by my former married name at work. When we were acquired by a larger company I didn't want to change my name & get lost in the shuffle or people say "Ashley Who?" so anyway....it is a hassle and I just forgoe at 4:30 am this morning! Will be nice when I have everything in my new name in November. Ok...bout to get some coffee and wait to board the plane...thankfully the ticket agent and security were nice and let me thru and hopefully the rest of the trip goes smoother!!

Happy Memorial Day Everyone.... off to Portland for me!

First of all, Happy Memorial Day to all the men & women that are active duty military - past and present. Your sacrifices and service is greatly appreciated. Hope everyone had a safe and happy one!

Our weekend has been nice and laid back - we finally made it to Hidden Lake Winery yesterday and had a great time. It was so nice, relaxing and beautiful. We will be back for sure....was a great time and the wine was pretty good too! There was a wedding going on while we were there so, it was nice to see that - made me excited about ours! I somehow did not get any pics though :( booooo!

Our day has been pretty lazy today - mainly chilling at the house. Made some breakfast, had some coffee, did the crossword together and wrestled on the couch - that is pretty much it! Oh wait, did get out and get a pedi - and it was pretty painful actually. She was not the most gentle person let's just say. Anyway - I have finally motivated myself to do some laundry and now I need to start packing - off to Portland, OR tomorrow morning for me! I am really excited - I've been to Seattle a few times but, never Portland so, really excited. The weather is supposed to be great and I will get to meet my new boss and coworkers. Should be a great time. I will be taking lots of pics while I'm there... have a list of places I want to hit that I've seen on the food network :) I'm going to try and bring Chad home some doughnuts from VooDoo Donuts and a pint glass or two from one of the brewpubs there.... totally stoked! Although, I know I will be homesick for Chad and the girls.

Alright....off to pack - have a great week everyone! Wish every Monday was like this one ;)

Cubans & 1905 Salad - our interpretation....

Work has been crazy busy this week so been kinda MIA - sorry! Really quick though - wanted to share our interpretation of the 1905 Salad and Cuban combo from The Columbia - which is my favorite restaurant in Sarasota - DELISH!!!!

First thing first - I marinated a pork tenderloin earlier this week in soy sauce, olive oil, fresh minced garlic, fresh minced ginger, pepper, handful each of fresh chopped cilantro and parsley (thanks to JoAnne for the recipe!) - just marinated this for a few hours and then threw it on the grill...........YUM!!! So damn good, the cilantro really makes it.

Anyway - we had leftovers so, decided to try our hand at recreating the Cubans & best salad in the world from The Columbia...... here is our version...





I must admit - i think our version was pretty damn awesome! The Cuban just rocked!

Now, for a reference point - here is a snapshot of the original 1905 Salad & Cuban combo from The Columbia....



Anyway....once again with work being stressful, hard to keep healthy but - trying! I am so damn happy it is a THREE DAY WEEKEND! A few more hours of work and then freedom...yeah! Although I will likely work a few hours this weekend, ah well. At least it will be from the laptop on the back patio. Also, I have to pack Monday for my biz trip to Portland, Oregon next week! WHOOT WHOOT! So excited! More on that later..... lunch is over & back to work for me!

Sarasota, continuted.... pics galore!!

Wedding plans are rolling along - Chad and i got a LOT done last night. It is amazing how easy it is to book and check out vendors, etc - thanks to the Internet and email! I booked the officiant who will marry us and coordinate the wedding (pretty easy since it is just Chad and I with no attendants), & booked the photographer! Now we just need to book the band, florist, order invites and oh yeah....find a dress :) That will probably end up being the most stressful part for me. We shall see - I will stay positive!

Here are a few more pics from our trip to Sarasota - these are when we went to a really nice Tiki Bar in Casey Key - reminded me a bit of Juana's Pagoda in Navarre but more tucked away and quiet.... very fun place!

Chad and me...


JoAnne & me....



Michael's pup Ali - so sweet! Reminded me of our Honey! We took her to the Tiki Bar with us.....



Me, JoAnne & her friend Marilyn - she lives in Chicago most of the time and she has hung out with us up there as well with Shefali - fun times!



Then we went back to Michael's and had a really great dinner - everything was awesome - especially the salmon!! JoAnne did it on the grill with olive oil, lemon, pepper, & lots of dill - was amazing!!!! YUM! Can't wait to make it at home soon! Here is a pic of the spread although most of it was covered up but wow - amazing dinner!



JoAnne & Marilyn in Michael's kitchen.... beautiful house!



Chad and I hit the wine festival that was at the Ringley Mansion before we hopped on our plane - GREAT wine & food - except I forgot to put sunscreen on so, got a tad bit RED....ugh, I never forget sunscreen so, kicking myself for that one.... but, wine fest was fun and the Ringley mansion is absolutely breathtaking!







I took a million pics of the inside of the Mansion - and the outside rose garden - here are a few....

Wedding Plans & Sarasota....

We are here in Sarasota - having a great time! It feels so nice to be back in warm weather :) It has rained a bit here and there but - clears up and has been beautiful. Best part of the trip - we have gotten a lot accomplished as far as our wedding - we have the place reserved and an official date - November 21st! Yahoooo!

Here are some pics of the location - very beautiful - it is at Lido Beach Resort....

this is the beach where the ceremony will be - water is beautiful and the sand is very white....




The reception will be on the Alcove by the pool - we wanted something nice but laid back and relaxed.... there is also a tiki bar right here to the right of the pool but, not in the pic...



oh wait - here is the Tiki Bar - not open for business during this pic....



ok now you really have to use your imagination here with the ping pong tables and all, lol but - this is where the reception will be - the Alcove - of course the tables will be gone - there will be a buffet, tables, flowers, candles, etc so.... it will be beautiful once it's all put together - and a nice view of the ocean/beach....


Here is a shot of one of the Koi ponds there -



Here is the sun patio area.... love this furniture



Anyway - you can get the idea - I am VERY excited :)

The trip is going by very fast - Friday night we were supposed to go to the Ringley Mansion for a wine tasting but, it was rained out....boo! We will hit the wine festival today before we fly home so, no worries. Friday night we had an awesome dinner with Michael and JoAnne at a place called Libby's - i had the salmon and it was almost exactly like the salmon I grilled at home last week with the mustard & horseradish topping and then grilled on cedar paper - YUMMM! It was a great restaurant with beautiful lights - I loved the chandeliers - very unique....and expensive, of course! ;) Here are some pics from Libby's.....

Chad & me....



Gorgeous chandeliers from Italy - I LOVE these!!



Chad and I went out to the Pier near Anna Maria Island and took a quick pic - Chad used to fish here with his Grandfather when he was little... another shot from there - time for me to get back on the DIET when we get home :-)



After we signed the deal booking our wedding date, Chad and I went over to Hemingway's and celebrated with some Mojitos on their balcony - it faces into and over St Armand's Circle so, you can people watch - great location - last pic of me for today :) - this is me at Hemingway's....



Will post more pics later and blog once we get home! Later Y'all!!

Grilling Night.....again!!

Chad and I grilled out tonight - Chad did an AWESOME job on his chicken and my salmon :) I was kinda nervous on how the salmon would turn out - my first time grilling on a cedar plank but - it turned out AMAZING!! Check it out....

yummy salads - Field Greens, craisins, almond slices, feta & balsamic dressing...





Here is Chad's chicken - he did leg quarters (leg & thigh) on the grill - I don't usually like dark meat and prefer breast meat but - this was good and look how perfect it looks!! My baby is so good on the grill ;)



Now - here is my salmon...I just cannot make the salmon look as good in pics as it tastes cuz let me tell you - this ROCKED! Chad took a bite and he even liked it - which he usually does not eat salmon so, I was impressed with myself :) I adapted the recipe from one of Bobby Flay's and it was super simple - I mixed about a tablespoon of whole grain mustard, about 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard, and a 1/2 tsp of horseradish and spread that over the salmon. Then I sprinkled about 1 tsp of brown sugar over the top - put the salmon on the cedar plank (sans skin) and grilled on medium high for about 15 mins - DELISH!!! I can't wait to make this again and play around with the recipe a bit.... here is the finished product -



Bootcamp was great tonight and I am tired - getting excited about our trip to Sarasota - we leave on Thursday - will start to get wedding plans finalized - yahoo!! That's all for now - hope everyone's Monday was great! Later!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Happy Mother's Day to all my Mommas...and all Mamma's out there :) Funny that this year - my Mom received food gifts from all her kiddos - I sent her some Christie's Cookies - which are amazing!! My sisters sent her See's chocolate (yu-hum!) and my brother sent her a cake. But, back to the pressie I sent her - Christie's Cookie Company hands down makes the best White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies I have EVER had - an attorney I used to work with would send them to us all the time at work and we would all be SO excited when we saw the tin but - equally devastated because we knew the caloric damage done once the tin was open but - some things are worth it ;) Anyway - D-lo has cookies, candies and cakes from all her kiddos so she can eat up and enjoy! Chad and I sent JoAnne a nice groupings of gourmet cheese from Williams-Sonoma - delish!! So, guess we were passing the food love on to our Mammas this year :)

This weekend has been very nice - lots of grilling out, yard work, chilling and a few brews.... and more of that today. We grilled kabobs Friday night on the grill....



We did chicken breast last night that were amazing - more of that today I think...will take pics. Threw some asparagus and corn on there as well - delish!

Here are some pics of my flowers I planted Saturday...







I also potted a beautiful Apricot Hibiscus plant but - will wait and take pics once it blooms - should be BEAUTIFUL. Apricot Hibiscus are my faveorite :)

Here is a little visitor I had this morning - such a friendly sweet kitty! Honeybear was going nuts inside while I talked to Miss Kitty and patted her head - such a sweetie!



Happy Mother's Day to all and hope everyone is having a beautiful & joyful day - xoxo!

Salmon on the Grill.....yumz

Well - the rest of this week has gone pretty smoothly **knocking on wood** and only one more night after tonight and Chad gets home - YEAH! :-)

Cinco de Mayo was yesterday - I went out for dinner with Julie & Rob - we went to a Mexican restaurant here that had freakin tents set up outside, band playing, beer stand, the whole works. It was pretty amusing to see all the crunked up people on a Tuesday night but hey - that's been me a time or two ;) Was a fun night but no pics, sorry.

Bellydancing was really great tonight - I completed my first cycle of Bellydancing I and now the second cycle starts next week - I am super excited! Lauren is the instructor and she is really such a cool chick - very good aura about her. She just makes you want to live life with more spontaneity, more openness, more freedom. I love the class - very inspiring.

I got home and grilled some salmon on the for real grill versus the GFG - no offense GFG but it's time for outdoor grilling! It was a new recipe I tried - Salmon with Dill Sauce - and was delish! Here are some pics - tasted WAY better than the pics indicate but - it's hard to make dill sauce look yummy in my kitchen lighting :-)



The salmon with the sauce was 238 cals/13 fat/23 protein. Not bad! And, the way I grilled it - just sprinkled fresh dill, pepper and a bit of lemon juice - wrapped it loosely in foil and put in on the grill on high for 12 mins - the way it cooked the skin stuck to the foil and the salmon fillet perfectly lifted out and onto my plate sans skin - yeah! I don't like the skin so - that was a neat-o little trick!

Anyway - getting sleepy and I want to read a bit - almost done with Beautiful Boy - will blog about it once I'm finished - excellent read. Later Taters!

Runaway Bebe

And so....here is how my lovely night went....I finally fall asleep around 10:45pm and drift off to lovely dreams of Philosophy shower gel when I am wakened a few hours later (1AM) to the sound of a loud high pitched "BEEP....BEEP.....BEEP". uuuhhhhhhhh.....WTF? After getting up in a sleepy daze and realize it is the smoke alarm (i think)...I screw around with disconnecting all of the smoke alarms, and in the process set off the house alarm when I disconnected them....I realize it is the low battery annoying ass indicator on the carbon-monoxide alarm (I didn't know we even had one of these but apparently the batteries are LOW). I think - can't this shit go off during the DAY versus 1 friggin AM in the morning??!!?!?! OK so, unplug that shit....beeping stops - YEAH! Except wait - something isn't quite right....

I look around and realize that the dogs are no longer in the house so, I figure they must be outside....I poke my head out the back patio door - look around in the pitch blackness and NOPE....no dogs. Upon further inspection - I see a nice little hole in the fence that is just big enough for them to squeeze through. Fuckity Fuck. I immediately panic - throw some jeans on, grab their leashes and head out into the sleepy dark neighborhood....yelling HONEY!! BEBE!!! Nothing.... I immediately panic and imagine the worst - I just can't believe this is happening when 1)Chad is out of town and 2)it is now 2AM in the frigging morning! I walk all over this damn neighborhood with no sign of the girls - stopping every few steps to yell their names and listen for the slightest hint of the familiar jingle of their tags/collars....nada. Panic now sets in.

I call Chad and wake him up - he calms me down b/c I am in tears at this point and he tells me to call the police - which I do. They tell me that there is an officer on duty in our hood and he will look for the girls on his down time tonight - ugh. I decide at this point to continue looking for the girls myself and drive around in the Passat, windows down, yelling the girls names - nothing. Head back home and call Chad to cry - again. Such a helpless feeling!

Now I know - at this point if you are not an animal person you are thinking WTF - big deal - they will come home by morning..go to bed! But, our dogs are like my children - I love them so much so, it would be like your kids running away in the middle of the night...scary! I'm on the phone with Chad and i hear the familiar jingle of a dog tags and there is Honeybear at the front door! YEAH!!! I get her inside put the leash on her and take her back out into the night - thinking she will lead me to Bebe. Now, I think she was trying to help me out here but, she was just as puzzled as I was where Bebe was. UGH - I am really getting worried now - thinking she is hit by a car or something horrible has happened.

I head back home and sit on the couch for a few and then notice a police car pull up outside the house so I go out and there is Officer Karl - he suggested that we ride in his car and shine the search lights around the hood to see if we can find her. This kind man drove me around for about an hour until he finally spots her!!! I jump out and get her on her leash and load her up into the backseat of the police car - UNDER ARREST!!! I then break down crying out of relief. I think Officer Karl just felt sorry for me but - happy we found her.

Anyway....here we sit, back at home - it's now 4:40AM and I'm wide awake....and hungry I might add. Bebe is fast asleep and here I sit...can't fall back asleep after all that adrenalin. I think I need to take a vacation day tomorrow though so I can catch up on my sleep - I know I will be exhausted.

God - PLEASE let the rest of this week go better than tonight did! Although I am thankful that my girls are home safe and sound....little hellions!!!

pouty me

So I took Chad to the airport this morning, we got up at 4ish so he could make his flight - it always makes me so sad to say goodbye to him - even if it is only for a few days. The house is SO empty without him and the girls are always mopey and sad....boo hoo hoooo. I miss hearing him sing in the kitchen or hearing him laugh at whatever or getting a hug and kiss when he gets home from work. I know this week will go by fast though so - will just trudge onward.

Keeping myself busy helps A LOT so, that's the plan. I am making a mental "to do list" in my head - I want to plant some flowers for our back patio and front porch - Orange Hibiscus I'm thinking for the back. I also really want to go through my closet and take a ton of stuff to Goodwill - there is so much in there that I just don't wear. And I need to organize our linen closet and bathroom cabinets. I'm a bit of a product whore so - I have a ton of just WHATEVER under both sides of our bathroom cabinets - poor Chad can't really put much under there. I'm like my Mom that way - I stock pile stuff that I like...for example, right now I have probably 5 bottles of Philosophy shower gel under there. And I would have MORE except I have been trying to restrain myself in that department. But damn....that stuff smells so delicious and gets so bubbly and lathery in the shower - it's my fave. Right now I am using Carmel Apple and I'm almost done with that bottle so - then I have the option of Green Apple, Rootbeer, Snickerdoodle, Oatmeal Cookie or Red Licorice. Hmmmm...notice these are all FOOD related! Big shock there! Seriously if you have not indulged in these, check them out here....the scents are amazing and the scent just lasts in the shower so, it's not like you walk around smelling like Rootbeer all day. Although that would not be a bad thing in my book.... they are DIVINE! And hey - sometimes life is about the small kickass indulgences like yummy shower gel.

So tonight after bootcamp - came home, took a quick shower, made a nice healthy dinner, watched the Tour of Love Reunion (word!! love that damn show!) and now blogging, reading a couple chapters of my book and bed. Exciting stuff. Night!

pork-a-licious patio :)

I have been MIA lately! Just so busy with work, life, etc...

First off - Chad and I have been grilling as of late and it makes me so happy because it makes it feel like summer is getting closer - slowly but surely! Here are some chops we grilled up last weekend....yummmmm



Yesterday was another day of grilling - or smoking actually - Chad threw a pork shoulder on the grill on low and smoked it for about 8 hours - it was SO DELISH - the "bark" is the crispy charred spice & mustard rub on the outside of the pork - and inside the meat was so tender and juicy - just amazing :) We had pulled pork sammies with it and put some vinegar style BBQ Sauce on there and WOW - out of this world good! Take a look-see....



I made a fabulous side dish out of the new WW cookbook - it was an Asian Slaw made with cabbage, carrots, red bell pepper, scallions and had a peanut soy vinaigrette - 1 1/4 cup for 2 points and it was so good....in fact I am snacking on some at this very moment as I blog :-) yummmmm



Have a TON of leftovers so, going to have to get creative on what to do with it...BBQ Burritos maybe?? I dunno, we will see. Chad is flying out tomorrow to GA and will be gone all week again - boooo. Anyway - will have plenty of time to think about what to make with all the leftover pork - healthy suggestions anyone???

OH - I almost forgot, we bought patio furniture this weekend as well! And damn, that stuff is not cheap - we have a pretty small little patio here in our rental house so, we really did not get the one that we want to have eventually but - we both liked this and it fits on our little patio - we have really enjoyed it so far and have been sitting outside with our laptops, chilling etc. Here it is....







In workout news - I ran 3 miles on Thursday on the treadmill! Go me! Have not ran that far in forever - I usually get tired or bored after 2 miles and stop but, I just had so much energy Thursday and pushed myself to do 3 miles! WHOOT WHOOT!!! I was talking to Tiff yesterday and I think we may kick around the idea of training for a 10K together and seeing if my sisters want to join us as well...we will see. Tiff has a triathlon next weekend and I am really hoping she does a fantastic job :) I know she will! OH - I also had boot camp yesterday morning and it was just me and Vicki so, I had my own personal trainer for an hour and let's just say I am feeling it today! Kicked my butt!! We did so much - jump-roped even! I have not done that in forever - it was great!

Alright, that's it for now - more this week..... later!

Mango-licious :-)

So, I bought a mango earlier this week - I don't know why because I didn't have a particular use in my mind for it. It just sounded good so, bought it and have been pondering on what to do with it... this morning i figured it out - MANGO SMOOTHIE!

Here is what I made for my mid-morning snack....

*1/2 cup chopped fresh mango
*1/2 cup quartered fresh strawberry
*6 oz fat free plain 0% greek yogurt
*splash of fresh lemon juice
*packet of splenda
*handful ice cubes

Puree the above in a blender and Viola - 3 point Mango-Strawberry Smoothie

Bootcamp & Mexican't Night....

Bootcamp tonight was AWESOME! We did a lot of fun stuff and it was a great workout. I really wish I had worn my HRM so I could know just how many cals I burned!! We ran steps, did tons of push up, incorporated weights, etc. One thing we did that was awesome - Front,Back,Go! It works like this... When Vicki would yell "FRONT" you do push ups, when she would yell "BACK" you do crunches, when she would yell "GO" you run in place and hike your knees up as far as you can while running. Now Vicki's yelling went something like this:

"FRONT.....................BACK..................GO.................. BACK...............GO............BACK...............FRONT..........." etc etc etc!

By the end we were all exhausted. AWESOME! Oh, we did this other thing called "Dead Bug" which is like a reverse plank. You lay on your back and put your arms up and legs up in the air...hence the "dead bug" name. Vicki would say "left arm, left leg" and you put you arm and leg out at 45 degree angle.....then she would say "right leg, left arm" etc etc, mixing it up. It was a killer core workout! I am really loving the boot camp - lots of fun and a great group of people - and it's fun working-out outside.

Anyway - it was so tough that I was craving a brew and Mexican't food afterwards so....decided to do it healthy style. I used whole wheat tortillas, bell peppers & onions sauteed in olive oil, 2% reduced fat cheese, salsa and plain non-fat greek yogurt in place of sour cream - DELICIOUS!!! I had two of these bad boys for a total of 9 points - very filling and satisfied my craving - go ME! :) And I even had that Mich Ultra as I cooked - whoot whoot! Here are some pics....






Anyway - Chad comes home tomorrow night and I am so excited....I just cannot WAIT to see him! I have really missed him this week and just can't wait to get my hands on him :-) Been cleaning and getting the house all nice so we can just chillax this weekend - later y'all!

Happy Anniversary to D-lo & BTW!!! :-)

Sending happy wishes out to my Mom & Dad today! It is their 54th anniversary!! My mom just called me to tell me all about their nice dinner - they went to this place called Jake's in Tyler TX - they took Chad and I there when they met Chad for the first time :) It is a great restaurant - great food and this amazing white chocolate raspberry bread pudding - which my parents had tonight! Yum! My dad bought her some really nice James Avery jewelry - so sweet, go Dad! Anyway, pretty amazing :)

so so so....today is Wednesday.....Chad comes home Friday - I am missing him so much! I am just ready to pick him up on Friday night and give him a big hug and kiss. He is my rock and always knows what to say to soothe me - I was telling him tonight on the phone about work stress and of course, he says "don't worry, it will work out, you'll get it" and he's right - it just feels so nice to hear him say it with empathy & confidence in his voice - makes me believe in myself, de-stress and know that yes, things will be okay in time, it will click.

Regarding WW and all that - back on track and going strong. I made a really great dinner tonight - Honey & Soy Broiled Salmon with asparagus and wild rice - YUM! Was going to take a pic except I was chatting with my friend Shefali, then talked to D-lo, then Chad so - salmon was gone by the time all that chatting was done. It was delish though. One thing about my salmon- I like it well done - pretty much the opposite of my steaks. Blah blah blah - anyway, if you dig on salmon, try the recipe above - it rocks and is super easy.

Belly dancing was awesome tonight - very relaxing. It is nice to not think about ANYTHING for an hour....other than my form, breathing, moving my hip this way, shoulder this way, abs this way.....very nice.

Anyway - I am rambling tonight b/c I'm tired - not sleeping well without my baby next to me. Hope everyone is having a nice Humpday :) Later!

Wake Up Call & Cucumber Salad

I'm a little sad tonight as Chad is packing for his trip to Langley AFB this week - boo hoo, I will miss him. Or - WE will miss him I should say - the girls already know something is up as the suitcase is out. That is their signal to get antsy and bust out the puppy-dog eyes. He will be home Friday so, not a long trip but makes me sad to think of him not being here - reminds me of his past deployment...and the one that likely looms ahead :( ANYWAY - the week will go by fast for me as I've got work, boot camp and belly dancing to keep me occupied.

Monday and Tues of this week - I will be driving into the office in STL for training - should be interesting. Sucks though b/c Honey and Bebe will be by themselves both days - poor puppies! I always feel guilty leaving them for so long but, i guess most dogs are home alone all day. And, I have a feeling they snooze pretty much all day anyway when I'm not home.

I had a major wake-up call today - I finally made it to a WW meeting today with my friend Julie. I weighed in and although I feel like I've been doing pretty good the past few weeks - especially with upping my exercise and making good (usually) choices regarding food - I still managed to have a pretty hefty GAIN at the scale today - now keep in mind, this is the first time i've weighed in since the end of JANUARY! So, I've made a decision to get back on plan (tracking on eTools, staying OP, etc) and really try and make an effort to lose 10 -15 lbs by Sept/Oct timeframe. I think that is realistic and a healthy range for me. I like how my body looks in the 140's so, that is what I'm aiming for. I know I can do it - just have to re-focus.

Really quick - I want to share this recipe - made this tonight and it's a great side-dish for summer. It's a Wolfgang Puck recipe for cucumber salad and I think I've blogged about it before but didn't post the recipe - try it, it is awesome & low in points:

Spago Cucumber Salad

2 cups thinly sliced Japanese cucumbers*
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

* English cucumbers may be substituted. The English cucumbers need to be peeled, cut lengthwise, seeded, and sliced into thin half moons.

In a large bowl, combine cucumbers and salt; mix well. Add sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil; mix well. Sprinkle with sesame seed and mix. Let marinate for 20 minutes before serving & I usually chill it in the fridge while it's marinating.

Recipe Makes 4 servings

Per Serving - 2.5 Fat Grams, 43.5 calories, .75 WW Points


Here are some pics from our dinner tonight - Chad made one of my favorites - Pork Chops with Garlic, Mushrooms and Red Wine Reduction - YUM!



Here are a couple pics of the cucumber salad - so damn good :)

yummy salad :)

Bootcamp was awesome last night! Great workout and it was really fun - nice to be outdoors and workout with a group - it is really motivating. In fact, I even worked out today at lunch - did my Jillian Michaels Shred DVD and I even wore my Polar HRM - burned 260 calories in about 25 mins! Not bad :)

So, I admit I've gotten into a bit of a "lunch rut" - eating the same old same - cup of soup with a ham & cheese sammy off the GFG - Viola...



As much as I love this lunch - very simple and low in cals/points, etc - i know I need to NOT eat the same thing everyday and try and spice things up. So...today - here is what I made....




I used lettuce leaves from our hydro-garden (tasted so yum - more of a spinach flavor than plain old lettuce), garbanzo beans, diced grilled chicken, beets (YUM!), fresh grated carrots, a tbsp of feta and 2 tbsp of balsamic & basil vinaigrette. Oh and I threw a handful of diced green onions b/c I can eat those on EVERYTHING. It was so delicious!! Had all this for - 340 cals/11g fat/28g protein/7 fibs/7WW pts! I am so proud of myself for throwing this healthy concoction together - go me!

I LOVE beets! My mom used to serve them all the time when i was a kid and damn, I just love them - very nostalgic food for me. I think I turned my nose up at them as a kid but - damn I love them now. Thanks D-lo!

So glad the weekend is here - it's really starting off great already - it's a beautiful day outside (SUNSHINE!!), work was low key today (enjoying those days while they last!), Tiff text me a pic of some HOT Simon Sebbag earrings that I had to buy & she is bringing them to me when she comes in May, already worked out today & have boot camp tomorrow morning....provided there is no rain. And - Chad and I can relax and have some fun together this weekend b/c we really don't have any plans - whoo hoo! Hope everyone has a great weekend as well :-)

scary spice!

LMAO! oh wow - i was messing around with my laptop today and accidentally snapped a picture of myself from my laptop webcam....this picture is too funny not to share...



Yes, this is what i look like about 80% of the time - no makeup, hair unbrushed and up in crazy lady ponytail, rockin the pj's! Working from home has it's pros and cons and well - being lazy on my appearance is a PLUS! Well.... plus for me, minus for Chad b/c this is what I look like when he gets home from work too :-)

Doing good on eating healthy still - yahoo! Even made it to the gym yesterday! Wahoo!!! Tonight is bellydancing YES! and then tomorrow is bootcamp - Aces! I probably will not be able to move by Sat night but, that's ok :) Later!

pizza & presents!

I LOVE pizza - seriously, I could eat it every day i think. Here is the pizza we made last night - Chicken, Roasted Garlic, Mozzarella & Pesto Pizza. We originally set out to make Prosciutto & Gorgonzola but we were limited b/c our local grocery was closed yesterday...anyway, here are some pics of our pie from last night - delish!





i found the recipe online from smittenkitchen (awesome foodie site!) and it is so easy -we've made it several times and it turns out perfect every time. I've made a couple adaptations but, here is the recipe -

Easy Pizza Crust

*3/4 cups Semolina Flour
*3/4 cups White Flour
*1 tsp salt
*1 tsp Simply Tasteful Garlic Garlic (basically dehydrated garlic)
*3/4 tsp active yeast
*1/2 cup room temperature water
*1 tbsp olive oil

Mix your dry ingredients (flour, salt, garlic, yeast) in a bowl, I use a whisk just to make sure it is all mixed up. Then add your water and olive oil to dry ingredients - mix to form a dough ball. I then take the dough ball out of the bowl, spray some Pam Olive Oil into the bowl and put dough back in. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1 - 2 hours. You are then ready to roll it out and cook (Chad does this part as I suck at this and he is much better). I put the oven on the highest temp and then separate the dough in half so they you have two small pizzas you can top with whatever you want. Because the crust is so thin - go light on toppings so it doesn't weigh down the crust. I usually bake it anywhere from 10 - 13 mins, just keep an eye on it. It is really not that bad for you either and much healthier than ordering deep dish from wherever.

I ran the recipe through a recipe calculator and made it into two servings - so, for the crust by itself for the serving size you see in the pic above it is 470 cals, 8g fat, 13.5 proteins and 4 fibers = 9 WW points! Now, you could also be much healthier on your toppings (hello veggies) and really have an awesome pizza for low points!

Anyway - work was stressful again today as I just hate not knowing what I'm doing but, i know it will pass in time as I get everything situated. On a happy note - I received an awesome surprise present in the mail today from JoAnne - it was a beautiful gift basket that had a super soft white robe, one of my favorite candles (same kind I buy at Circa!) and shower bath/lotion/bubble bath, etc. It was awesome! I can't wait to put that robe on!!! Thank You JoAnne!!! :-) My future MIL rocks!

OK - that's all for now - time to fix dinner - later y'all!

this is how we do Easter in our house...

Happy Easter! Chad made us pancakes this morning and they were so good! We also made the Snickerdoodle coffee from the Soulard Farmer's Market in the french press - heaven! Here are some pics...

Chad even made pancakes for the girls....




Now, I was going to make Chad a basket filled with goodies this year but, decided I would probably end up eating a majority of it so - we just going to enjoy the day relaxing instead.

Bootcamp yesterday was great - fun to be outdoors exercising with a group and it was a good workout - Vicki let us know she is going to step it up each workout so...should really help me to get in shape - it is an 8 week session and we meet at the park every Mon, Thurs and Saturday so - that in combination with my belly dancing - hopefully I can shed some lbs and get buff - i am sore today a little - especially from the lunges/squats. I'm sure I will be blogging more about the process as it unfolds... of course.

After bootcamp yesterday morning, i came home and Chad and I did some yard work - and last night we had dinner at Mattingly Brewery - i had the beef kabobs and Chad had the cheese tortellini - both were awesome - their beers were good too. Fun night!

That's all for now - hope everyone is having an awesome Easter - don't eat too much candy ;)

crushin on the greek yogs....

ok - i know i've already posted today and I think I have raved many times on here before about this stuff but...........DAAAAMMMNNNN!!! This stuff is the best tasting yogurt ever! Can you tell??



One benefit to working at home - I can throw manners and proper southern girl etiquette out the window and LICK the yumminess out of the container...I think i actually stuck my finger in container to get all the yums :) Honey and Bebe don't mind my lapse in table manners....or desk manners rather....

So my peeps - if you have NOT had this stuff - you must run out now and buy mass quantities of it - it has such an amazing taste - tart yogurt mixed with the sweet fruit dip stuff on the side - heaven!! The texture is super thick too - doesn't taste like low fat yog at all! And - 10g of protein so, it will tide me over til dinner tonight - LOVE IT!



Mad props to Miss Tiff for recommending greek yogurt to me! OK - that's all i gotta say - done ranting about greek yog for now ;)

rainy friday

so happy the weekend is here - although today is rainy -supposed to be nice the rest of the weekend :-) Chad and I have been working our butts off lately so, will be nice to have a couple days to just hang out with him & the girls....gonna do pancakes at some point, probably Sunday - yeah!

No much going on otherwise besides work and gathering ideas for the wedding....work in progress! I'm really looking forward to our trip to Sarasota in May so we can get things in motion....and also just being in Florida! I love Sarasota so, will be a fun visit as always.

I wanted to update everyone on my Belly Dancing class....i absolutely LOVE it! It is so much fun and the hour seems to fly by... reminds me of when I was little and in dance classes. There is so much technique to it - gotta focus on your "tuck", your breathing, your form.... i know i have a funny look on my face during class b/c i'm concentrating so hard on everything! I've been practicing at home although it is hard because Honey wants to dance with me :) It's an awesome workout for your core, as you can imagine. Can't wait until I get to a more advanced level....

Tomorrow morning I have my first boot camp session at 9am at Longacre Park - hopefully I can hang....

Not much else going on here - I need to take some pics this weekend so the old blog isn't so boring - here is a pic Chad took of me and the girls last weekend - love this one! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend - cheers!

ouch!

so i finally did the Jillian Michael's Shred DVD and let me say.....OUCH! It was a really great workout (like everyone says!) and seriously kicked my butt!! Her technique is combining short bursts of cardio, strength moves and ab work - with no rest between sets - well, unless you consider 2 seconds a rest... it was AWESOME! I did it Monday night - had that feeling towards the end (while I was huffing and puffing) that I was about to pass out or vomit so - workout was a success ;) I slept so good Monday night - I think my body was exhausted....

Now Tuesday morning, as soon as my eyes opened - i knew right away i was SORE! In fact - I took yesterday off from working out and here it is Wednesday....still sore!! Crazy! I am going to do the video again today and also have belly dancing tonight - can't wait. I LOVED my first class so, really looking forward to tonight's class.

On the eating front - been back to my old healthy ways - it is amazing how great my body feels when I eat right...and just how crappy I feel when I don't. My body seems to react instantly to food - either feeling great or yuck. I'm sure a lot of it is psychological.

I started reading my Fit From Within Book and want to hurry and finish that so I can get to Beautiful Boy - my sister Myk was reading it while she was here and it sounded really great - I tend to favor depressing books, just like my music :) I just can't stand all that Twilight, chick lit crap....sorry y'all! I know there is a cult following for the Twilight series and yes I know it is aimed to appeal to teens or tweens or whatever their called so I should not be so judgemental but - I just hated the first book. Ugh....give me some old fashioned Anne Rice if you're talking vampires....

Chad and I have been working our asses off this week - normal boring work stuff I won't get into here - i'm looking forward to this weekend. Think some yard work and planting some flowers will be on our agenda - hopefully weather will cooperate.

Anyway - off I go to Shred again....hopefully I won't be as sore tomorrow!! Later

new ear candy :-)

ok - guess i'm behind the curve here but - i just realized today that Sirius radio charges now to listen to music via laptop - even though we already pay for it for cars and the house - BOO! Oh well - so, I just listened to it at the house today - background music while I work :)

I listen to a lot of channels depending on my mood but today landed on XMU which is their kool kid station - i heard a lovely band and think I'm going to download them to my iPod - Asobi Seksu. It reminds me of Cocteau Twins, Lush, and some other good stuff - all rolled into one :-) Nice ear candy! Been listening to it all day and it's making me smile...

Doing really well being back on plan - ha, 8 hours in! I'm feeling better already though - and much more in control. Going to hit the gym later today so I won't be TOO bad this Saturday at bootcamp - no vomiting! My friend Vicki is doing a bootcamp on Saturdays so, figured I would just go for it. That, my belly dancing class and a few workouts a week thrown in should show some results in moving the scale in the right direction...

I have my salt lamp on my desk here in my office and it is helping me to feel calm and focus on work and not stress out - here is a pic from my blackberry, sorry for the fuzzy factor!



Ah - one other really great thing about XMU is that they throw in an Interpol song here and there - like right now.... oooo le sigh!

sisters :-)

wow wow wow - so much to blog about!! Here I go....

Had the best birthday ever this year! Hanging out with my sisters was a blast - as always. We just laugh so much and truly enjoy each other's company - I am so very thankful to have such a deep and strong relationship with both of them. After our beautiful sister Dawn Marie lost her battle with cancer, we became so very close - I know it is Dawn Marie that puts her arms around us to draw us closer, strengthen our bond and become the best of friends. It was a perfect weekend and I felt that Dawn was with us in spirit.....and spirits :-)






The weekend went by so fast! We did a lot of fun stuff - Thursday night we went to Schlafly's Tap Room and had a great dinner and some brews. Friday we went shopping all day at The Galleria in STL, had my birthday lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then went out that night to The Wine Tap in Belleville for pizza flatbreads and wine. Then Saturday we chilled out around the house - mainly due to hangovers - then we went to Llywelyn's Pub in Soulard for lunch. Also checked out the Soulard Farmers Market and scored some yummm Snickerdoodle flavored fresh ground coffee, found a really cool hip scarf for my belly dancing class for $20 - black with silver coins for bootie shaking noise :) then we headed over to the casino Lumiere for some poker and drinks - Chad won some money and we watched the basketball game THEN headed over to Black Thorn Pub for their famous deep dish pizza -- damn, no wonder I am exhausted today - was a busy weekend!

So, tomorrow is back to diet land - gotta get my ass looking good for a wedding dress by November so..... here I go... more on that this week...

Last thing - wanted to share this recipe - made this dip this weekend and it was fab....

Walnut Red Pepper Dip

2 cups shelled walnuts
1/2 tsp each ground cumin, sugar and salt
1 jar 12 oz roasted red peppers, drained
1 clove garlic minced (i used 2 cloves b/c Chad and I LURV garlic)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice

*put walnuts, cumin, sugar, & salt in food processor until walnuts are finely grained. Add peppers, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Whirl until smooth and then chill so the consistency is like that of hummus. Serve with pita chips.

Happy April Fools ;)

man - i have some serious PMS munchies going on - just can't stop eating the past few days! And it's not because i'm hungry...it's just mindless grazing and lots of BAD choices!! I won't even go into the peanut butter reese egg incident - Ugh...this too shall pass....hopefully sooner versus later!

My first belly dancing class is tonight!! I'm really hoping to NOT make an ass out of myself - hopefully it will be fun and send the message to my body to STOP EATING LIKE CRAP!! :-) I am going back to WW - i've been bad lately and have not been to a meeting in about 6 weeks or so - bad girl I know! Fresh start on Monday....

In happy news - my sisters will be here tomorrow night! yahoo!!! They are flying in for my birthday on Friday and I am so e