The One with Catch-Up

I've been a lame blogger lately.  I'm not sure why.  But you can't force it, right?  Recently, I've been doing alot of tea drinking, Crazy Love reading, and gluten-free baking.  We had a pork roast and potatoes and carrots last night.  Tonight I made an extremely simple and very delicious and quite nutritious creamy vegetable soup--potatoes, carrots, onions, celery.  I've been loving the workout tapes I got from home.  I had a great time at home btw--lots of mom and dad time, and got to visit grams as well as Elizabeth & Owen.  And ate ice cream.  So about the workouts, I've been excited to have more variety in my daily routine.  You know, keep the muscles guessing.  And it's so true.  Just when I think a certain set of muscles is perfectly sculpted (ha!) I find a new exercise that kicks me in the toosh.   

Life's good.  Husband is wonderful.  God is great.  

The One with the Home Confusion

Mom and I decided Monday that I would be venturing "home" for a few days this week.  (I think I'll always refer to my parent's house as "home" even though I have my own now.)  I hadn't visited since Christmas and hadn't seen Dad since then either, so it was definitely necessary.  Oh, and mom wanted extra help with some spring cleaning because she's been whipped from all her working hours.  It's been nice.  Kevin dropped me off to my mom in Sandusky and we arrived at home just after dad had arrived from his 4 day Canadian ski trip.  He had no idea I was visiting; mom kept a good surprise.  He was definitely excited and super suprised to see me!  We joined the rest of the "ski trip" guys at the Crow's Next for AUCE (all you can eat) pasta which turned into a yummy grilled chicken salad for me. :)  

It's been a nice visit for sure.  I had a terrific run this morning; I definitely miss the suburban-ish roads for this type of activity.  I had a comfy bed (which was completely lonely without my favorite person beside me...wishing all the while that his snuggle-obsessed wife would give him just a little bit of breathing room).  I made chocolate chip cookies for mom & dad; they were stoked.  I've eaten a lot of jelly beans.  Mom and I ran a bunch of errands this afternoon, including closing my savings account (three cheers for money I had completely forgotten about), returning a wedding gift (10 months later...), and picking out a new food processor as "payment" for my help with de-dusting those sadly ignored areas of the home (oh come on...we all have them! I figure if I don't regularly interact with that object or surface then it doesn't deserve such loving attention.  But that's just me.)  Tomorrow I'm looking forward to visiting one of my favorite friends and her amazing little 3 month old boy.  :)

It's time for...oh, I don't know...something.

The One with the Scrapbook

In case you're really intrigued by all my talk about scrapbooking, I have posted the photos of the scrapbooked pages here.  Thanks, Sarah, for the suggestion. :)  Unfortunately the picture of the page is not nearly as special as the personal viewing especially since you can't read all the journaling I added, but it will give you a good idea for my finished (for now) product.  

The One with the Details

Seeing Michelle yesterday at her babyshower was wonderful.  We couldn't believe it had been 2 and 1/2 years since we were last together.  It really didn't seem like it had been more than a week!  She's just one of those friends, you know?  Anyways, she is a gorgeous pregnant lady and I'm so thrilled for her and Nic.  Two of her cousins that were in attendance were also pregnant--one ready to burst next month and yet if you didn't look directly at her stomach you wouldn't even know was pregnant!  I can only hope that I have such luck when my turns come.  (Ha!  Yeah, right.  In my dreams!)  

Kevin wanted to go out for dinner last night and I went along with his craving for Chinese.  Now normally I turn down this request because I always feel gross afterwards.  But I figured, "what the heck!" Oh and who knows how many of those foods have gluten in them (probably all of them!) but "Hey, I'm not officially diagnosed yet right?!"  :)  Yeah... So we had a great time out together!  However, within 10 minutes of finishing, I felt like I had drank two 2 liters of pop--you know that bloated/full feeling you get after drinking too much pop?  Yeah, that was me for the rest of last night.  Kevin has made me promise to force him to take me elsewhere even if he begs next time.  :)  It's pretty much a death trap for me.

As far as scrapbooking goes, I'm still loving it and wishing I were sitting in a pile of organized chaos right now!  (It's the only time I'm ok with disarray.  It's necessary to create the beautiful final product.)  I think I have about 3 more 2-page spreads to do and then I'll be DONE with ALL of my wedding photos!  How awesome is that?!  I'll probably soak in the glory of that completed project for a while before moving on to the other 4 packs of photos I have developed--4 years of college and more!  :)

The rest of my afternoon will consist of FRIENDS (what else?!) and maybe some scrapping and maybe some baking and maybe some basketball with Kevin before the teens arrive for youth group.

The One Where She Remembers

Sorry I haven't been around much.  It's most likely because I've been distracted with other wonderful blogs I've been discovering.  Oh!  And scrapbooking!  I would totally spend the entire day today scrapbooking if I could.  Unfortunately (or not so unfortunately...) I have a wonderful friend's baby shower to attend and then some grocery shopping to do.  It should be a fun day and I might even have time for some more scrapbooking this evening. :)  Yesterday I worked on it from 2pm until 10pm with about an hour break for dinner.  Kevin and I had popped Friends in and we had a blast "together"--laughing and joking and enjoying just being together.  I completely lost track of time and the next thing I knew it was 10pm...and I definintely would have guessed it to be about 8pm!  Crazy!  that doesn't happen to me much.  I guess I was completely engrossed in my scrapbooking and Friends and such. :)  

I have to stop at Target before I hit the road for the shower in Canton, so I've gotta run.  Just know that I haven't died.  

The One with the Cool Breeze, Tight Squeeze...(now you got the shiveries...)

Currently, I'm enjoying the sight of two little girls learning to bike ride in the church parking lot.  I LOVE warm weather.  My ideal temperature range is 60-70F.  Much higher and I'm not as thrilled.  Much lower and yeah...Anyways.

I just had a little scare.  I looked at the clock and it was 6:00.  I had missed Gilmore Girls!  Again!  Second night in a row!  shoot!  (It's not like I've seen them before or anything.)  But wait.  I had DVR-ed the show and not even realized it.  Woot.  Ok, so maybe I'm a little over dramatic.  But I'm ok with that.  I'll refer to it as "passion."  

Potatoes were on the menu for dinner.  I couldn't decide between sweet potatoes and the classic Idaho version.  So I went with both!  We split a sweet potato prepared baked french fry style and a small baked potato.  All was going well.  Until...I removed the baking pan that had held the fully cooked Idahos, filled it with the sweet potato fries and proceeded to use my bare hand to put the still-blazing-hot pan back in the oven.  This quickly failed and resulted in my dropping the pan and spilling the lightly oiled and seasoned fries all over the oven door and the floor.  yowzers.  I was not too happy.  But it ended well, so let's just forget about that.

I also whipped up a batch of granola bars and tried a new bread recipe--jalapeno cheddar cornmeal loaf--for Kevin.  Both are successes!

With the extended periods of daylight, Kevin & I have had lots of time to spend together out doors.  Last night we utilized the net-less basketball hoop in the church parking lot and shot some baskets for a bit.  (I'm very glad I can't publicly disgrace myself as I would if the hoop were in our driveway.)  And tonight we used our baseball gloves to play catch for 45 minutes or so.  We did this on Saturday too.  It's quite fun, actually.  Conversation is had, quality time is spent, and a little physical activity is never wasted. :)

Now to enjoy a relaxing evening with the windows open.

The One with the Bed Bugs

I could literally smell spring in the air today.

The WinterJam concert far exceeded my expectations.  What a sweet time that was. 

Glad I let my husband by me this sweatshirt.  It's so comfy and feels like it's been worn a million times.  

Meijer sold me 4 pounds of surprisingly delicious strawberries today for $4 instead of $11.54.  

I am oddly content with a gluten free diet. 

Tea has become my new best friend.

Kevin & I played catch yesterday.  It rocked.  Except when I totally failed at catching and let the bone in my forearm run interference.  ouch.  I cried like a 5 year old.  Because it hurt.  And because I wanted to keep playing.  And because I was being a 5 year old weenie about it.  You get the cyclical picture, right?

Chocolate has been on the forefront of my mind for pretty much way too long.  But I'm not mad at it.

When the youth group runs childcare for a special Sunday evening event and we get to watch Finding Nemo with the chilluns I am happy.  Also, I colored a really pretty picture.

My mouth is now falling open meaning I'm losing muscle control meaning I'm exhausted.

Goodnight.

The One with the Improvements

My husband is feeling better.  That makes me feel better.   When one of us is sick it's like we're both sick.  You know...the "two halves of the whole" thing. 

We have been thoroughly enjoying my birthday present as of late.  FRIENDS on DVD is super cool.  

The last few days have been filled with multiple mugs of hot tea.  Mostly because my hands are icicles.  But hey!  If our gas and electric bills go down, it's all worth it.  Tea is a good drink anyways.  It's like glorious tasting water.  (Which I also drink as if it were the source of life itself.)  I can hardly believe I used to dislike tea.  I'm glad I'm over that.

Tonight we're double dating.  We're pretty stoked about finding friends our age in the area. Three cheers for Pete's Garage and new friendships.

I had my GI appt. yesterday afternoon.  It went well I think.  He's not convinced it's Celiac and doesn't want to make that diagnosis too hastily because he knows it's a lifelong commitment to a more expensive and more complicated way of life.  It could be a gluten intolerance which isn't as severe.  I'm pretty convinced that I'll be staying away from the gluten forever because the improvements over the last 3 weeks have been phenomenal. Just ask my husband. ;D  In any case, I have an endoscopy scheduled for April 10th.  Then they will know for sure.  

Now I must finish up small group plans, start scrapbooking, watch Mamma Mia, and ....other stuff.

The One with the Peppers (Not of the Red Hot Chili Variety)

Here I sit in the office with Kevin & Mom, browsing my typical blogs, drinking coffee made by my husband, and watching Biggest Loser.  Mom and I had a nice relaxing conversation filled morning and hit the road around noon for a bit of shopping spree.  I love shopping with her better than almost anyone else because it's just most comfortable.  I don't feel like I'm holding her up or she's holding me up.  We look for the same deals, scour the same racks, give good advice.  On top of the 50-90% off sales, we received and additional 30% with mom's coupon.  I left with a glorious pair of pinstripe black slacks for $6.50 (down from ~$49), a sweater/blouse combo for $6.50, two long sleeved shirts for $2, and the comfy-est pair of Sketcher's shoes in the world for $13 (down from $60).  I also helped mom make a few terrific purchases for herself and the home.  

We hit a late light lunch at Johnny Rocket's--a great 50s style diner that I'd been wanting to visit.  On our drive home I remembered I wanted to show her Monroe's Crafts 2000--a craft store similar to a large JoAnn Fabrics or Michael's with a minimum of 40% most products.  We had a blast hitting every aisle in this enormous store and at least getting a glance at their endless products.  

Once all three of us were home again, I threw together a great dinner of stuffed green peppers that turned out fantastically.  Now for more relaxing...

The One with the Catchup

Yesterday I started feeling much better.  My nose was still dripping like a faucet and I added sneezing to my list of symptoms, but my body wasn't as weak and achy as it had been Thursday.  Because of that I was able to take a 45 minute walk (mixed a tiny bit of jogging) enjoying the warm weather and listening to some great worship music.  After that, I still felt energized and ended up cleaning out the front flower bed.  A rake would have been extremely helpful to clean up the 5 inch deep layer of debris and dead leaves.  However, I plowed through with my new hand trowel and gardening gloves.  It took a good 45 minutes of pulling and raking and piling and sweeping and bagging to stuff all the compost into 3 garbage bags.  It was invigorating to find beautiful green plant life pushing up through the earth despite the layers of leaves that had been covering the bulbs.  The flower bed doesn't look that fabulous right now, but it's a job I've been wanting to get done and I'm looking forward to planting my own flower seeds and tending to their growth this spring and summer.  

After showering I opened up most of our windows and really enjoyed airing out the house for the first time since November.  The 60 degree weather was a welcome change.  I then went to work doing some dusting and much needed redecorating in the living room.  I love how the simple changes bring such freshening and satisfaction.  

That afternoon I whipped up a batch of No Bake Cookies with this recipe.  They were amazingly simple and delicious!  Then I headed outside to enjoy what remained of the warm afternoon.  I made trip after trip after trip piling sticks and branches and twigs on the pile behind the garage.  I couldn't believe how many had fallen since the snow began.  I really appreciate the mowing that some of the church members do for us and I didn't want them to have to be the ones to pick up the debris.  I also enjoyed the excuse for a little extra activity and sun soaking (in short sleeves!)

Kevin arrived home around 6pm as I pulled roasted potatoes out of the oven and seasoned tilapia off the skillet.  As I went to hug him he handed me something--a fast food plastic wrapped spoon.  It was from Wendy's.  I was instantly curious and my wheels starting turning.  "A frosty? Did you buy me a Frosty?"  I exclaimed excitedly.  He stood there quietly and watched as I discovered the cup hidden in his hand under his coat.  His face quickly broke into a grin as I squealed (quite loudly) with sheer delight!  Yippee!!!  (You see I've been craving ice cream almost every day for quite some time now.  Thursday he blessed me by bringing home some Edy's from Meijer.  The only sad part was that it was Cookies and Cream...a gluten-laden choice.  Shoot!  So he brought the Frosty home to bless me again!!)  

Today we're off to Spring Arbor again.  We're meeting Britt & Nick for lunch and then heading to the SAFMC for Kaitlyn & Kevin's wedding and reception.  We're hoping to be able to catch most all of the "action" before having to drive to Milan in time for Chris's school production of Tom Sawyer.  *whew*  It should be a long but wonderful day!

The One with the Sinuses

being sick sucks.

The One that's All Better

First of all, you should check out my latest addition to the recipe blog:  Southwest Chicken/Chili.

I just got back from Cafe Classics --a great little coffee house/diner in "downtown" Monroe.  Not only was my peanut butter cup latte glorious, but the fellowship I had with an SAU friend, Amanda was even better!  I met her in choir my senior year and really only knew her for the first semester as she left choir after that.  She just recently posted on my facebook wall that she too lived in Monroe and, in fact, drives by my house every day on her way to the college down the road!  How cool is that!?  So we set up a coffee date for this afternoon and I'm so glad we did!  Though we didn't know each other very well at SAU, it was great to connect with a friend--a girl my age--someone who's super easy to talk to--and to know that she's a couple miles away!  *happy*  

Also, I think the laughter & conversation were good medicine for the way I was starting to feel this morning--achy stomach, achy head, sore throat, sore all over--all bad signs.  But at the moment, I'm doing pretty well.  I hope it doesn't come back with a vengeance. 

The One with the Day

today I...

...had an orange strawberry smoothie.

...made homemade tortillas and they turned out wonderfully.  (That is going to be a great substitute for crackers and bread when I need a carb base for toppings of various kinds.)

...fell in love with refried beans all over again (these were even fat free!).

...fit all of our laundry into one load.

...rearranged two of our cupboards that were mis-matched in their contents.

...turned the heat down 2 more degrees (Now it's at 63).

...finished reading book four--Breaking Dawn--of the Twilight series.  (I read these books as a means of connecting with many of my youth who seem to have been swept away by them.  The first 3 books were a little slow in developing for my taste, but they had enough intrigue to keep me reading.  I'm glad I did because BD wiped the floor with books 1-3.  So yeah, I read 2,560 pages in the last few weeks.  That's a pretty big deal for me.  I love to read, but that's alot of pages. :D) 

...stayed in super comfy clothes all day long (sweat pants. zip up hoodie.  And I would never inform you of the fact that they happen to be the same color.  Nope.  Because then I would be admitting that I look like some one in one of those matching sweatsuits from the 80s. And I don't.) 

...missed (and am missing) the peanut butter to my jelly (Translation for those of you who think I am just obsessed with peanut butter--which I most certainly am not [YEAH RIGHT!  It's not like I have a stockpile in a cupboard designated at "the peanut butter cupboard"]:  Kevin's Mondays mean he's gone from 7am-10pm and I miss him.)