The Traci Chronicles

TGIF!!

2012-01-27T13:30:00.000-06:00

WHOOP WHOOP!!! So excited it's Friday. No real reason, just glad that I have 2 days that don't require going to work. I forgot to do my Weigh In Wednesday post. I meant to do it yesterday but we were crazy busy at work. I lost 1 pound this week. I was only able to make it to Yoglates twice this week because of a work conflict. Yesterday was a tough class.

I've found a new love.

I've always been a "I don't eat Nese" person. You know Vietnamese, Chinese, Lebanese? I don't eat any of it. So, I've eaten hummus at my friends Cliff & Sheri's before & actually liked it. I've been looking for healthy snack options. There's only so many grapes a person can eat. I really like raw veggies, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers & carrots. YUM! BUT I like to dip them in something. Dip or salad dressing, something. All that stuff is so full of fat & calories & isn't the least bit good for you. Dean was going to Sam's after work yesterday so I emailed him & asked him to pick up some hummus. His response was "What kind?". Well, after a couple of emails & texts that went something like this - "the kind that's in a container that's about the size of the small Kool Whip container & the hummus is orangish colored", we determined that I wanted roasted bell pepper. They were out. Lucky for me because this classic stuff is AMAZING!!!!! I even put it on my wrap at lunch today instead of honey mustard salad dressing. For the same serving size (2 tbsp) the dressing is 130 calories & the hummus is 80. Plus the hummus has some healthy stuff in it. So, after some wikipediaing & googling with Wendy & Allison, we determined that hummus is Lebanese & not Greek so I do, in fact, eat Nese.

I'm currently sitting at my desk listening to my boss (who's great by the way) ~~argue~~ discuss politics. UGH!!! I'm not the least bit interested in anything affiliated with politics. Seriously, I get all info that I need from Facebook, Twitter & TMZ! Friday afternoons are a bit slow in the office so I'm going to read my book!

Toodles!

What happened??

2012-01-25T14:45:00.001-06:00

This morning when I was putting my contacts in I discovered this.

At first I thought it was just a crease or red mark but then after I got both contacts in & could actually see I discovered it's some sort of cut/scrape. I tried to cover it with makeup but as you can see that didn't work. Surprisingly, nobody at work has asked me about it. In person it's actually more noticeable than in the picture. It stings some too. Of course I guess that's what happens when something that's full of chemicals (makeup) enters an open wound. No, I haven't jumped on the Bare Minerals bandwagon. How did this happen you ask? I have no clue. I feel sure that if it was there last night when I took my contacts out I would've noticed. The only thing I can come up with is that I scratched/scraped/jabbed myself during the night. So weird.

I'm also noticing in this picture my under eye circles/dark spots. They're more noticeable than I thought. Don't ask what's up with my eyebrows either. I KNOW they're supposed to start over by the corner of my eye. Well, not by the corner of my eye but you're supposed to draw an imaginary line from the corner of your eye straight up & that's where they should start. Clearly, mine do not. I don't know how that happened either. I don't go crazy with the tweezers (although if you would've been cleaning out my house the last couple of weeks you'd think so because we have more tweezers than 2 people should ever need in a lifetime & I swear I've never bought a pair!). Years ago & I do mean years ago I had very thick eyebrows, I had them waxed a few times & that was that. They haven't been the same since. Again, weird. I guess this is random enough for one day.

Toodles!

A Project

2012-01-23T20:05:00.000-06:00

Our weekend was pretty low key. We went to La Carreta for dinner Friday night. It's one of my favorite places. I love their tortilla soup. Saturday I spent the afternoon with my parents. After Mass, Dean & I decided on Mexican again. I can remember a time not so long ago when I couldn't stand Mexican food, now I'm eating it 2 days in a row! We went to Casa Maria this time & I got Chalupas. I'd never had them & they were soooo good.

Sunday, I worked on a project. More organizing. We have a desk area that's in the hall right off of our kitchen. There are cabinets above the desk too. This is another area that isn't used for its intended purpose. We use it to put stuff. Purses, keys, newspaper that we recycle. UGH! I decided that this would be the perfect spot for a bar/butler's pantry/whatever you want to call it. I cleaned out the cabinets & cubby holes. This was some of the crap.

It didn't take long to get everything out. There were light bulbs, batteries, books & other assorted crap.

That's the modem & phone base. The hubs has informed me that the modem must stay where it is. I can work with that. I'll just stick something decorative in front of it. It just occurred to me that I can move the phone base. I would like some drawers for the cubby holes. They're the perfect size for bar accessories like wine bottle stoppers, swizzle sticks, etc. I have no idea how to go about making drawers. Anyone with any ideas?? I have a china cabinet in the dining room but we also have a ton of assorted glasses that aren't "the good stuff" that I wanted to put in here. I also have some nice Waterford crystal that was still in the boxes in the china cabinet because there wasn't any other place to put them. Now they have a home.

The cabinet on the right has my Christmas crystal & a few huggies & some plastic glasses. The cubby holes are also the perfect size for bottles. In the cubby on the far left is the gate opener & Dean's keys. That's their home for now. We'll work on that later. Can't make too many changes all at once. HA! Here's another shot. One day I'd like to make the cabinets glass front. Again, I'm not sure what's involved & usually when I think something sounds easy it's not.

Keep in mind that this was really hard to photograph because it's in the hall. I just realize that I didn't take a picture of the actual desk top. Oh well, it's just a plain painted desk. When we get slab granite in the kitchen (at some point in the future that I hope is sooner rather than later) I'll have a piece put on the desk too. The desk was also home to the newspapers we recycle until we bring them outside to the big bin. This will be their new home.

I had this basket so I put it in the LSU room, which is just down the hall from the desk area.

By doing this rearranging it gave me more room in my kitchen cabinets so I rearranged some in there too. Next up is the pantry. I'm hoping to get that done next weekend. I can't attempt these things during the week after work because stuff like this takes me FOREVER!

Toodles!

Mortified

2012-01-20T13:20:00.000-06:00

And tired. You may remember my post from one day this week when I talked about the annoying people at Yoglates. You know, the ones that annoy me?? Welllllll, Wednesday night I was on Facebook (it will get you in trouble) & Yoglates posted about how they were "going back to their roots with no cell phones & no talking". They've been doing this since the first of the year due to people thinking it's perfectly appropriate to text & have cell phones ringing during class. Several people commented on the greatness of it, blah, blah, blah. THEN I commented "it's a shame we can't stop people from leaving early". No biggie right? Just my opinion & the opinion of others because I've discussed it with several people. Not to mention the end is the best part because you're not working anymore, it's all good stretching & breathing, but anyway. Well, I'd forgotten all about it. When I got to Yoglates yesterday I thought maybe things were getting back to normal because there were only a couple other people there & I was able to get my back row spot. So the teacher , who I like very much, is walking across the room to turn on the heat (it was 70 degrees yesterday but you know this is hot Yoglates, ugh!) when she says to me "Traci, you don't like people leaving early huh?". I respond that I don't because it's distracting. She agrees & goes on to say how the end is an important part of the routine & how after working as hard as we do our bodies need a cool down, blah, blah, blah. That's when I notice that one of the girls in the studio is one of the ones that left early the day before. Oops. HOWEVER, she wasn't who I was talking about. I was talking about the 2 sorority girls that jammed themselves in between me & this other girl & then left in the middle of class. Back to yesterday & my big mouth, so I proceeded to get my hair all pinned up (you don't realize how much hair you have until you try to get it all off your face & neck) & I notice, much to my chagrin, that the girl that heard us had moved over by the door. OMG! I guess she heard us & knew she'd be leaving early. I was thinking at least she moved by the door because that wouldn't disturb anyone. End of story?? Of course not. I look up & she's about 2 feet away from me & she proceeds to start APOLOGIZING!! OMG OMG OMG!!! SOOOO FREAKIN' EMBARRASSED. She starts saying that she doesn't like when people leave early either but her little girl is at dance & she has to be there to pick her up. I assured her that I was talking about the 2 annoying sorority girls, even though it is annoying when people leave before & during the cool down. I did think enough to leave out the term "annoying sorority girls". The way my luck was going this girl was probably one. A Sorority girl not annoying. She was very nice. She agreed with me that they were rude & she couldn't believe how they just squeezed in & then left. So, what did I learn? Think before you post crap on Facebook & keep my trap shut. Ugh!

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

2012-01-19T09:49:00.003-06:00

So I realized that I skipped a weigh in last week. Easy to get out of the habit. I'm still at the 3 lbs gained from the holidays. Last week was my first week back into my Yoglates 3 times a week routine. I didn't have a good eating weekend. There was The Chimes Friday night, gumbo Saturday & Burgersmith Sunday. Today will be my 3rd day this week at Yoglates & it will also be 3 days in a row. It's not as tough as I was expecting. Last week I was incredibly sore. I missed the entire week before that. This week so far no soreness. I've also been wearing my handy dandy heart rate monitor.

It's great. It has the strap that goes around your chest so it's more accurate. I thought that it would bother me but it hasn't. Tuesday I burned 373 calories & yesterday 500. I knew yesterday would be more. It was a tough workout. Let me just say, I'm not a fan of plank runners or push press runners. I can't decide which I despise more. We started doing a lot of them last week. 4 sets of each, as many as you can do in 20 seconds with a 10 second break in between sets. It may not sound like much but you try it & see how you like it. This week it's 5 sets of each. Apparently, we're working our way up to 8 sets. Shoot me now.

I'm annoyed. Imagine that. All of these people with New Years resolutions to start working out, I'm ready for them to give up. It's cramping my style. Literally, cramping. Class is crammed full of people & there's no space to breathe. Not to mention when there are 75 people in a class the temp rises even more & it's hotter & more humid than usual. Yesterday, I couldn't get my usual back row spot because of all the people. THEN, people come to class late & squeeze in where there really isn't a spot. OK, fine, whatever. BUT, if you do that DO NOT LEAVE EARLY. I was really annoyed. Yes, sorority girls I'm talking to you! I know that exercising was my resolution last year but I started in Feb. after the initial rush was over & I didn't quit!!! YAY ME! Something else that annoyed me was the chick in full on Kim Kardashian makeup. She looked exactly the same after class as she did before class. How is that even possible??? I know I sweat like a man & most people don't BUT come on! Makeup was perfect & not a hair out of place & she was doing all the exercises. Some people are just too lucky. Happy Thursday!

I'm linking up to Liz's party.

Toodles!

You know what they say

2012-01-16T08:00:00.001-06:00

About the best laid plans. Remember I said we had nothing planned for the weekend? It was going to be cold, it had been a week & I just wanted to wrap up in a blanket & lay on the sofa & read? Yeh that didn't happen. The neighbors called & wanted us all to go to dinner so off to The Chimes we went. If that wasn't enough they decided they wanted yogurt. Really? It's 40 degrees outside. Oh well, never let it be said I don't go with the flow. I had a delicious cup of sugar free chocolate & cheesecake combo. They even had a sugar free mocha frap flavor which was surprisingly delicious. So, now I drink coffee & like coffee flavored yogurt. So weird!

Saturday morning I got up & ran a few errands. I had a birthday gift to buy for Dean's Godchild. My MIL & FIL gave me some money for Christmas so while I was out I bought this for my Pandora braclet.

I thought the little Bible was so cute. I bought my mom the same on for Christmas. My next stop was Hobby Lobby. There were several aisles of stuff that was 66% off. I found this cross.

It's black iron. I think I'm going to paint it brown. It was $4.50. Believe it or not there were still some Christmas items left. The only thing I was interested in were some burgundy silk poinsettias. I wanted some to put in my tree & these were 90% off. What's even better is that it was a bunch of poinsettias & I paid $1.00 for each bunch. I picked up a photo album & finished putting all the photos in so that's another item checked off the to do list. I found a cute coffee cup for $5.50 too. Then it was home for a late lunch & the Saints game. What is it with Louisiana football this week?? At least this was a better game but it ended the same.

Have I mentioned that I'm a coffee drinker now?? So weird. Lydia told me this would happen. The Keurig came with a box of different coffees & teas. I've tried several of the coffee. Some I liked, others not so much. Emeril's big bold? I'll pass. French roast? yes please.

Being that I'm a new coffee drinker I've never tried any of the flavored creams but I've seen several blog peeps talk about how good they are. This one is mocha. It's really good. That's my new mug. Cute huh? It's not exactly what I was looking for but it'll do for now.

Hope y'all had a great weekend.

Googles!

The LSU Room

2012-01-15T15:09:00.001-06:00

It's also an office of sorts. Not that we do any office work in it. We don't. I don't even sit in here to pay bills. Back when we moved into this house 6 years ago we had a desktop computer & this was its home. I've mentioned before that over the last several months this room had become a catch all room. Seriously, stuff everywhere. The before pics are here. Really, really bad. I worked on this room last weekend & it was basically finished but I had boxes to go to Goodwill & trash. I dropped all that stuff off yesterday. This is the view from the door.

I love the brick floor in this room. It's the only room in the house like this. The other side of the room is here.

The book shelf is full of pictures, shot glasses (I collect them) & other memorabilia. I have dirt from the pitcher's mound at Rosenblatt Stadium, home of the College World Series & I have dirt from Alex Box Stadium which is LSU's home baseball field. My dirt is from the old, original Alex Box that is no longer standing which makes me sad every time I think about it or drive by. I'll never get used to it not being there. Sigh. Enough of that. The big poster is of Rosenblatt Stadium from when we were playing there in 1998. The 5 posters to the left are posters from all of the National Championships. LSU has 6 but I haven't had the 6th poster framed yet. It's on the list, along with a couple of other pictures that I have. This shelf actually has books on it & more pictures & more LSU stuff. See a trend?? The picture below is of the desk area.

I ~~hate~~ am not a fan of this desk. The book shelf in the above pic matches. Dean bought this not long after we started dating when he bought his first computer. I'd thought about painting it but I've decided to not put a lot of work into it because I want something else. The desk may not look clean to y'all but this is it for the time being. I want some cute desk top organization things but I'm not buying anything until we get a new desk. Pens will be in coffee mugs for the time being. The desk doesn't look very big in this picture but it is. It's too big for what we need. I'd like something smaller but with drawers or cabinets or something. This desk has the pull out tray for the keyboard which is a waste & the printer cabinet that's next to it has 2 file drawers & a tiny little drawer. It would be nice if it were part of the desk but it's a separate piece. We'll see what I can find. I really wish we had IKEA here. This is a picture I bought Dean for our 1st or 2nd wedding anniversary. It's the old Alex Box Stadium.

Up until Saturday it wasn't framed. Pathetic, I know. Anywho, I went to Hobby Lobby Saturday & bought a frame for it. I love, love, love the frame. Of course they were half off so it was only $20. It's an 11x14.

So, I'm very excited to check something else off the 2012 to do list!! I'm linking to the party at Cottage & Vine.

Toodles!

Organizing

2012-01-13T10:50:00.000-06:00

I did my first little organizing project a couple of weeks ago. It's not much but it's something that needed to be done. Bathroom drawers! I didn't need to do all of them just my makeup drawer & hair/nail/misc. junk drawer. Naturally, I forgot to take before pics. Just imagine the average junk drawer with stuff stuffed in it. That was mine.

This is it now. I bought the silver mesh looking storage containers in the kitchen section at Bed, Bath & Beyond. They're not really mesh, they're metal or something. I had some little white baskets that I used but the holes were too big &stuff would creep through & make a bigger mess. The container that I have the nail polish & hair stuff in was recycled. I have no idea where it came from but it fits in the drawer perfectly. Next up is my makeup drawer. I had some baskets in this drawer but nothing was organized & half the time I had to dig to get to what I was looking for. I bought a silverware tray at Bed, Bath & Beyond. It's the same material as the containers in the other drawer. The divided compartments are great. I have all of my makeup brushes in one, mascaras & eyeliners in another, eye shadow together by color, etc. This is the makeup I use regularly. I also have one of those big things from Sephora that has shadows, lip glosses & all sorts of stuff. I have it in the cabinet under the sink because it's really too big to fit anywhere else.

In addition to the silverware tray, I have 2 other smaller containers that fit perfectly in the drawer & still leave room for my brush & combs. So far this is working out great. It's easy to find what I'm looking for & I have no problem putting it back where it belongs. I keep all of my hair products & lotions & things in the cabinet under my sink. I'd like to get some sort of shelving system for that area because there's so much wasted space. I need to look into that.

Another minor organizing thing that was on my list is to get my pictures in order. Mission accomplished! I was behind in ordering pictures & the ones I had ordered hadn't been put in albums. I worked on that this week & last & I'm almost finished. I filled up my last album so I need to pick another one up. It may not sound like much but I'm glad it's taken care of & now I'll stay on top of it.

In other news, it's Friday. THANK GOODNESS! It's been a week. We have no plans other than watching the Saints game tomorrow. Hopefully, the outcome will be better than that other game that was played this week. I just don't want to do anything but stay home. It's cold & I don't like cold. I just want to wrap up & lay on the sofa with my Nook! Anyone have any fun plans?

Toodles!

Thursday Randoms

2012-01-12T09:06:00.000-06:00

- I'm still annoyed with Les Miles. For those of you not interested in Sports, he's LSU's moronic football coach.

-I went to Yoglates twice so far this week & yesterday walking & sitting was a serious issue. That's what I get for skipping a week. So freakin' sore. I'm going back today.

-People annoy me. Yes, that's right, PEOPLE annoy me. If I post something on FB it's my opinion & it's MY FACEBOOK page. If you don't like it don't read it. Snotty people I work with who don't want to talk to me on a regular basis need not say "Oh I hear you're going on a cruise I want to hear about it because we're going on the same one in April". I don't want to talk to you! People who can't be away from their phone for an hour don't come to Yoglates. They tell you no talking & no phones for a reason. It's ANNOYING! (Disclaimer: None of these annoying people read my blog so don't think I'm speaking about any of you! HA!)

-I'm officially a coffee drinker. Last night I was craving something hot & was so excited when I found a de-caf coffee in the sample pack that came with my Keurig. I want an adorable coffee mug & haven't found one. Any suggestions?

-We got my oil changed & tires rotated Tuesday & it was only $43 at the dealership. I still can't figure out why it was so cheap.

-I'm excited that Real Housewives of OC & Bethenny are starting new seasons soon.

I'm sure you can't tell but I'm a little grumpy. HA! Cold weather does that to me. It's only in the 50's today & tonight it's going to get down to something ridiculous like the teens. UGH!

Toodles!

We lost!

2012-01-10T14:04:00.000-06:00

Actually, we got beat. We didn't show up to play. Our Coach is a moron. We did have a good time with our friends. We were 2 houses down. I had a great view of the game.

I could see this TV

I could see the projector in the sun room too. The picture really doesn't do it justice. It was HUGE! The game got ugly & I had to have more wine.

We had delicious food. Pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw & lots of dips!! Thankfully, I went to Yoglates yesterday before the party.

We had a grand total of 12 people in class as opposed to 50 on a normal Monday. I didn't go at all last week & I'm definitely regretting that today. Can you say SORE??? I'm going back this afternoon though. Dean & I took the day off because we knew we'd be up late last night. We went & had lunch today at Roberto's. We've been there several times & everything is good. It looks like a dump from the outside. The building was a general store & is very, very old. My friends mom recently ate there for the first time & told me their shrimp poboy was one of the best she'd ever had. I LOVE shrimp poboys. I've been thinking about it ever since she told me several weeks ago. Well, it didn't disappoint.

Instead of mayo it had tartar sauce & it was delicious. The bad thing is that they only serve poboys at lunch. I guess that's also a good thing because that means I won't be able to have one very often!

Toodles!

It's Here!!!!

2012-01-09T08:16:00.000-06:00

January 9, 2012

BCS National Championship Game

LSU vs. Alabama

AGAIN!!!!!

I'm not happy about the again part. LSU already beat Bama once this season. Think about it. If Alabama beats LSU one time they win the National Championship. LSU has to beat Alabama twice. It is what it is but I don't have to be happy about it.

We won't be at the game. We'll be with friends watching on TV. Why, you ask? Well, first there's the $350 FACE VALUE price tag for tickets. Not that I wouldn't like to be there but there are a lot of other things I'd rather do with $700. Like spend it on the cruise!! Second, we couldn't have gotten a ticket for $350 because the demand is crazy nuts. Our friend whose wife works in the LSU Athletic Dept has hooked us up before. Not this time, she was only allowed to buy 2 tickets. We have friends that are there & they paid $1800 per ticket to sit 12 rows above LSU's bench between the 40's in October before we knew LSU would be playing. Believe it or not, that was a deal for those seats. We were at the last National Championship game in New Orleans 4 years ago when LSU won. They also won it 4 years before that when it was in New Orleans. Bodes well huh?? LSU also beat Alabama for their 4th National Championship in Baseball in 1997. Yours truly was in the stands in Omaha for that one as well

So, to all my Alabama friends, Kerri that's you, sorry about this.......

ROLL TIDE ROLL.... AROUND THE BOWL & DOWN THE HOLE!!!!!!

Toodles & Geaux Tigers!!!!

The Weekend

2012-01-08T20:19:00.000-06:00

Boy was it a snooze fest! Not literally, that would've been better. I had zero naps. Of course I was the one that said not to invite me to do anything because I needed to do some cleaning & cleaning I did. Friday night I wanted fried fish so we ate at The Chimes. It was delish! They have really good spinach & artichoke dip that is served with fried bow tie pasta. SOOOOOO GOOD! Yesterday, I started the day bright & early in the LSU room. Basically, it's an office but we don't do any office work. When we moved in we had a desktop computer & this was where it was located. We have a laptop now. Over the last several months it's become the catch all room.

Full disclosure here, it was worse but I forgot to take pics when I started.

Some thoughts on this room - YES it's painted yellow - LSU yellow. There's not a lot of wall or shelf space that isn't filled with LSU stuff. I'm pretty sure this room will stay this way as long as we live in this house if for no other reason than the fact that we have no other place to put all of the stuff! It also wasn't cheap to have that stuff framed so it will continue to hang. I spent the majority of the day in this room. I have a couple of boxes to go to St Vincent de Paul or Goodwill & I have a HUGE garbage bag full of trash. The room isn't just LSU, I do have books on the book shelves. Speaking of books, I don't need anymore for awhile. Our printer is also in this room. I cleaned the closet out as well. It's home to the giant wreath that we hang on our gate at Christmas. The wreath is too big to go through the opening to put in the attic. It's not ideal but it works. I didn't take any after pics yet because the boxes to donate are still in there & the desk isn't organized.

We were planning to go to Mass Sat. & then come home & grill steaks while we watched the Saints game but after Church we realized the only thing we had to go with the steaks was green beans & I surely didn't want to go to Walmart so we went to Fat Cow for burgers & fries. It was really good!!

Today's project was one of the hall closets. I forgot to take before pictures. I can be so scatterbrained. This closet holds photo albums, extra picture frames, flashlights, candles - something else I don't need anymore of & assorted junk. I took everything out of it & added to the donate & trash piles. It looks like this now.

Yes, that's paint cans on the floor & they do have paint in them. They'll be moved outside later. I was tired. All the candles that were in the closet have been moved to a cabinet in one of the bathrooms. So aside from Mass & eating out a couple of times this was my weekend. Hope y'alls was better!

Toodles!

TGIF

2012-01-06T15:25:00.000-06:00

FINALLY!! I talked about how last Thursday was a bad day & I earned my money. Well, this week hasn't been a lot better. Considering it was only a 4 day work week, it's also been the longest week ever. Thankfully, in an hour the work week will be over. We don't have big plans. Actually, the only plans we have are to go to Mass tomorrow & then home to watch the Saints. I do plan to get busy with organizing the house. I may have to drink several cups of coffee to make myself stick with it but I'm determined. Don't anyone invite me to do anything this weekend!

If you've read awhile you'll know I'm part of "The Worst Book Club Ever". For those of you not familiar basically we're a book club that's not really a book club. We started out with a goal to read 50 books in a year. After the first year we decided to each set a goal. My goal for 2011 was 100. I finished with 106. We don't read the same books. Well, sometimes we do but not at the same time. We usually end up not even discussing books when we get together. Everyone brings books & we swap. Well, that's what we used to do but several of us have Nooks or Kindles now so there's not a lot of book swapping going on. It's just fun to get together. Anyway, I set my goal at 100 again. I'm curious to see how this will go since I'm reading the Bible too. So far so good with that. I've read everyday. It's much more interesting than I expected it to be but it still takes a lot of concentration which is why I like how it's divided up by days.

So far I've finished 2 books this year. The first being After The Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart. It was a decent book but it was depressing. It didn't have a happy ending either. It was just a blah book. Not necessarily the way to start a new year.

The second book was 1st To Die by James Patterson.

This is the first in the Women's Murder Club series. I really liked it but there were a couple of times I wished I wasn't reading while I was eating lunch. It also makes you wonder about the authors of these books. Seriously, how do they come up with this stuff? I would be very leery about marrying or dating a mystery writer. I plan to read the whole series but I can't read them back to back because then I start having nightmares & I wake Dean up during the night with my screams. He's not crazy about that. This one had a sad ending too. What's up with all the sadness?? I've decided my next book is going to be this.

SURELY, it won't be sad right??

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

2012-01-04T14:14:00.000-06:00

Except I haven't weighed. It's been about a week. I'd gotten down to my lowest point & then I gained 3 lbs. I knew that with Christmas leftovers & New Years Eve the possibility of a few more pounds was highly possible. I decided to just wait until I was back on track before I weigh again. It's looking like it will be next week. I've been doing so so on the eating. Truth be known I'm tired of junk. I didn't go completely crazy over the holidays but there were a lot of dips & people, dips are my weakness. There's also a shrimp poboy in my future (hopefully) & of course food for the National Championship game Monday night. Other than that there are no special occasions that I can think of until February when we get on the cruise ship. Which is a whole other reason to get back on track. Anywho, I made it to Yoglates twice last week. The routine was TOUGH which is why I didn't make it 3 times. I would've had to go 3 days in a row & I'm not to that point yet. Apparently, the teachers that make up the routines are on the HITT bandwagon. Have you heard of this High Intensity Interval Training?? Apparently, studies show that if you do sudden burst of exercise it burns more calories or something. I don't know the specifics. Suffice it to say it's rough! Due to Monday being a holiday, an appt with the eye doctor (I'm still blind) & a meeting a Church, Yoglates has been a no go so far this week. If never fails I have several things in a week & then weeks with nothing. So, I'm not sure if I'll go tomorrow or just wait until Monday & start fresh. We'll see.

Yesterday, I decided that it was time to test my hip. It doesn't bother me anymore except if I wear heels for an extended period of time. Off I went. I decided to do a 5 minute warm up walk & then just see how long I could run. Well, as soon as I took the first step running I could feel the hip. Again, it didn't hurt but I knew something had been going on. I ran for 4 minutes, walked another 5 & ran another 3. Not good but of course better than nothing & much better than when I started the whole running thing in August. I think I could've done more but I didn't want to take a chance & re-injure myself & I totally underestimated what 50 degrees feels like when you're running. It's cold! I needed my ears covered. That part was awful. I may try again over the weekend. We'll see.

So, I've been referring to my resolutions as my "to do list". To me it just sounds like it's things I have to do if it's on a to do list. A resolution? Not so much. Well, my friend Wendy says no to resolutions, only goals, which have become known as "Unresolutions". We've been referring to these almost daily which helps us all. It's always easier to do something when you have support from others with the same goals. So far, I haven't gotten much accomplished though. Mainly because I spent a good part of the weekend picking up my Christmas decorations. I realized that I do have a problem & I really need to NOT buy ANYTHING else pertaining to Christmas. Seriously. Well, I'll continue to buy ornaments when we go on vacations but that really needs to be it. Anyway, the only organization I've gotten done is my closet which wasn't bad to begin with & I went through all of my pictures & got prints ordered. It's a start right?

I decided that I wanted to read one of those read the Bible in year books. This is the one I bought, One Year Chronological Bible. So far, so good except I'm learning that when I was a kid in Sunday School, there was a lot of stuff left out! Everything wasn't so hunky dory as my teachers would've liked us to believe. I wanted a Catholic in a year Bible because the Catholic Bible has additional books & I'm Catholic now but they didn't have one for the Nook. Then I realized that I'll be lucky to read this one. I don't need anything additional.

Toodles!

My Favorite Gift

2012-01-02T14:00:00.000-06:00

I'm linking up with Daphne at Flip Flops & Pearls today. I did a post here about all the wonderful gifts I received this year. Along with the material stuff we were lucky enough to spend the day with family. We are very blessed.

It's hard to pick a fave but I was very excited to get this

I'd been wanting a Pandora bracelet for a long time & Dean bought me one this year! Something else that I wanted was this

It has turned into one of my favorite things! I wanted it but I didn't think it was going to be as great as it is. Seriously, this thing is AWESOME!!! It's soooo easy! Virtually mess free too unless you forget to get a mug.......

Toodles!

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T21:04:00.000-06:00

We've spent a lot of time eating lately. Friday night we ran a couple of errands so while we were out we stopped for dinner. I was in the mood for Italian but we weren't anywhere near either of our favorite Italian restaurants. We stopped at Italian Pie. We've never been there before but it was good. I ordered lasagna. There was a choice of salads & you either got bread sticks or garlic bread. I chose garlic bread. This is what I got.

The garlic bread was basically a small pizza. It was delicious but good grief, I don't want to know the calorie count! I'm thoroughly enjoying my Keurig. We went to Bed, Bath & Beyond so I could get some more K cups. I bought this one.

It's my fave!! It's sooooo good!!! Love, love, love! I also got green tea but I haven't tried it yet.

How did everyone spend New Years Eve & New Years? We stayed home & hosted our neighbors New Years Eve. The weather wasn't the greatest. It rained earlier in the day & it was hot. The weather in Baton Rouge is ridiculous. Dean cooked gumbo & everyone brought stuff. We had hot onion dip, spinach & artichoke dip, an anti pasta platter, a cheese ball, cream cheese & pepper jelly. I feel like I spend a lot of time blogging about food. The guys popped some fireworks. Here's me & Dean.

Not a great pic but at least it's something. I realized yesterday that we didn't even take a pic together at Christmas. I really need to remember to take the date off the pics too. On another note, those Christmas lights that you see behind us are purple & gold & they spell out Beat Bama on our neighbors front yard. Here's some of the crew.

Dave, Devin, Alexandra, Allie, Anna, Aaron, Jackie, Dennis, Cliff, Kitzia, Suzy, me & Dean. We were missing a few people.

We spent New Years Day playing Santa Claus to some of our Godchildren. We visited with friends & the kids opened their gifts. Everyone seemed to like their stuff. This is me & Lane. Dean & I are Lane's Godparents.

Lane gave us a gift card to Sammy's which is one of our favorite restaurants. Once we got home I started taking my Christmas decorations down. I normally leave everything up through the Epiphany but this year I'm ready to have it all put up & get things back to normal. I'm going to leave out my nativity until next weekend but everything else is coming down. I got a lot done tonight so hopefully it won't take all day tomorrow. I basically just have the trees left to take down & the stuff outside. I still can't believe Christmas has come & gone & it's 2012. I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday & are looking forward to the new year. Are y'all doing resolutions??

Toodles!

2011.....Where Have You Gone???

2011-12-30T13:26:00.001-06:00

Seriously?? I can't believe the end of the year is here. It's kind of disturbing. The faster the years go by the faster I get older. Anyway, I'm thrilled to death today is Friday. For the last two days I've really earned my paycheck. I'm basically the only person in my office. Aside from crazy busy, it's also crazy boring. I like to have people to talk to. I plan to slip out early today.

So I was just looking back at my blog post from this time last year. I was calling my resolutions a to do list. That worked out well for me. I read a lot more than last year, 106 books so far & counting, I lost 25 lbs. (I was really hoping to get those last 5 off before the end of the year but well, Christmas happened), I started exercising & I cut way way back on the Dr Pepper. I had a very successful year. This year I plan to get my house organized. That was on my to do list last year but I can't really say that it got done. I think all the exercise got in the way but I'm in a routine & ready to tackle the organization. I have a couple of projects I'd like to do around the house too.

What's on everyone's 2012 to do list??

Toodles!

After Christmas Shopping

2011-12-28T11:09:00.000-06:00

It's not often that I'm off the day after Christmas. Pretty much the only time I am is if Christmas falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So I got to go shopping yesterday! It was a really yucky day. It rained pretty much all day. I didn't let that stop me. Dean came with me & we left before 7:00. I found a lot of good deals. Macy's had stuff 60 & 75% off. I got these salad plates. I doubt I use them for salad but I'll use them for appetizers or something. They're bigger than the average salad plate. Macy's also had coupons in the paper. $10 off a $25 purchase so everything was even cheaper.

I got this Santa too. He matches my Christmas decor. He was 75% off at Penney's. He was $12.50!

This angel also came from Penney's. 75% off. She was $10. I had $10 off $25 coupons there too so she was less than $10 & Santa was less than $12.50.

This angel is from Macy's. She matches too. I don't know how these pics got out of order.

Santa & his sleigh is from Penney's too. I made several purchases at Penney's so I was able to use several coupons.

I've been wanting one of these watches for awhile. It has the strap that you wear for the heart rate monitor. Lydia has one & she really likes it. I was planning to buy it with my birthday money but I never got around to it so I got it Monday at Dick's.

I needed a new makeup bag to keep in my purse. Mine has a big rip in it. I had a $3.50 off $10 purchase coupon at Ulta. My eyelash curler broke Christmas Eve so I thought I could pick one of those up too. The makeup bag was $8.00.

I also needed some makeup brushes so I got these. They were $17.

The eyelash curler was like $6. Ulta was giving out $5 gift cards to the first 100 people. I got there at 8:30 & got one & I was able to use my other coupon too. I ended up paying $16 with tax for all 3 things. Everything I bought was on sale when she rang it up. I thought that was a great deal!

I bought this Santa at Macy's.

I really like all the white. I got this nativity at Macy's too. It's smaller than the other one I have & just different. You can never have too many nativities.

This is my favorite purchase of the day!

Isn't it so pretty? I love the frame. Here's a close up.

I got it at Hobby Lobby. I saw it well before Christmas but I wasn't buying any Christmas stuff. About 2 weeks before Christmas they still had plenty of them so I was hoping I could get a good after Christmas sale. It was 66% off. I paid $34! I think the frame itself is worth more than that. It's a big picture. My plan is to hang it above my fireplace during the Christmas season. I'm sure Dean isn't excited about the fact that he's going to have to take down the picture that is currently there & put this one up but I mentioned that when I bought it & he didn't say anything. I just think it's so pretty & it will be a wonderful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.

Toodles!!

More Christmas!

2011-12-27T13:58:00.000-06:00

Dean & I hosted Christmas at our house. Like I said before, we had a ridiculous amount of food. This is some of it. Lydia, Dean's mom, my mom & part of my uncle. I'm sure they'll all be thrilled when they see this. Yes, we eat on paper plates. Don't judge.

Logan enjoyed his food when he wasn't too busy to eat.

The kids were very excited about opening gifts.

Yes, that's my brother, Scott, grouped in with the kids. If you know him you know just how appropriate that is. My cousin Brooke was patiently waiting with them.

This appeared to be Logan's favorite gift. A Hummer with a bass boat & trailer. He has a thing for boats. More of the chaos.

I don't know why the earlier pictures are so dark. Logan was so serious while he was opening everything.

My daddy & my cousin's hubs, Scott. Yes, we have 2 Scott's, a Lydia & a Leslie. It gets confusing at times.

Logan spent a lot of time like this. That's Dean's mom in the background.

There was something like a 80% chance of rain Sunday. Thankfully, the weather people don't know what they're doing & we didn't get any rain after about 5:00 am. The older boys played football for awhile. This is my cousin Dylan.

And his brother Brendan.

I didn't do too well with the picture taking this year. At least I got some. For those wondering I never found Dean's gift that I lost. I'm hoping it's going to turn up when I least expect it. I did get him this.

It's a wine refrigerator & it's difficult to photograph because the door is a mirror but it doesn't look like a big regular mirror. It's very nice. Excuse my reflection. I couldn't figure out a way to take a picture of it without me in it. Anyway, I got it for Dean but he continues to point out that it's a together gift......That's what happens when you're hard to shop for. HA! For those feeling sorry for him that he didn't get his own gift, don't. I got him a very nice Saints "Sideline Shirt" & a set of Washers. It's a game that you play outside. I didn't know what it was until about 6 months ago.

Toodles!

Christmas!

2011-12-26T18:39:00.000-06:00

We had a great Christmas! We usually always go to the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve. It starts at 4:00, which means we had to be there at 3:00 to get a seat. After Mass we had "Christmas with the Cubans". Our friend Jackie that lives down the street is the Cuban. Technically, it's her parents. Jackie was born in the US. It was so fun & the food was delish. There was a lot of traditional food like a turkey & ham but there were also lots of Cuban dishes & this....

Yep people, that's a pig. Notice the tail. That kinda ooged me out. I didn't partake in any of the pig. I stuck to the Honeybaked Ham!! Pretty much all of our neighbor crew was there.

That's Cliff with the shot, me, Dennis, Kitzia, Alexandra, Devyn, Sheri, Amelia-Ann, Jackie, Allie & Dawn. Everyone else had left. That's usually how it works with us.

We had a house full on Christmas Day. My parents, brother & SIL & Logan, Dean's parents, my Uncle, my cousin & her family. Of course there was a ridiculous amount of food. Fried fish, roast, turkey, ham, mac & cheese, cornbread dressing, rice dressing, broccoli rice casserole, green bean/corn casserole, just to name a few. Don't even get me started on the desserts. Completely ridiculous!! Delicious, but ridiculous!

I was a very lucky girl this year. I received a ton of wonderful gifts! If you're not interested that's ok but I'm putting them all on the blog because I'd like to remember who gave me what later & it's my blog!! Dean gave me a Pandora bracelet. I've been wanting one for awhile. He got 2 clips & a fleur de lis charm for it.

He also got me this

I was very surprised! I'd mentioned that I'd like to have one & Lydia kept telling me I'd love it but I didn't think he would get it for me. He thinks my tea addiction is funny. A couple of weeks ago at my office Christmas party we played the White Elephant game. I got this.

BUT, someone stole it from me. I was really bummed because I loved the glass so much. Dean tracked one down & got it for me. For those non LSU people out there, one of the LSU trademarks is the eye of the tiger. He also got me 2 Nike Dri Fit hats. He didn't realize when he bought them that they were youth sizes. Sadly, my head isn't that small so we exchanged them this morning. I got these.

I wanted them for when I run. Lydia, Scott & Logan got me a black one for Christmas which is currently on my head which is why there's no pic. Since they got me one I got a visor & a hat when we exchanged the other 2. They also gave me a Scarf & a Vera Bradley sleeve for my Nook. I love the pattern!

My parents gave me a charm for my bracelet, a big B (you know, for Blanchard), a cute fleur de lis keychain & umbrella (which isn't pictured because it's on the patio drying out because I used it this am) & a purse organizer. I've been wanting one of those organizers for a long time & I never bought one.

Dean's parents gave me some money, which I think I'll buy a Pandora charm with, a robe that will be great for the summer or December when it's 75 degrees outside. That's another thing that I always say I need when I actually need it but I never think about buying. The also got me some super soft PJ's.

My cousins, who are my Godchildren, got us a bottle of wine, some dip mixes & a really cute platter.

My uncles gave us a Walmart/Sam's gift card. Y'all know as much as I hate Walmart, I LOVE Sam's!!! Another one of our Godchildren gave us a restaurant gift card which of course we love!

Dean & I are ridiculously blessed. We have a great family & awesome friends. I try to never take that for granted. I hope everyone had a wonderful day spent with the people you love!

Toodles!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T14:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my parents 40th Anniversary. Dean & I and my brother & sis-in-law & nephew Logan took them to dinner last night. We went to Parrain's & it was delish. I had fried fish & fried oysters which were really good. Logan enjoyed the onion rings & crawfish eggrolls.

Logan enjoys food & everytime the waiter would bring something to the table Logan got a big smile on his face & would watch every move the waiter made. It was funny.

After dinner Dean & I came home & watched The Grinch. This morning I had baking to do. I made monkey bread for breakfast. My mom made it when we were kids but this was the first time I'd made it. Surprisingly, it turned out good. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cans of biscuits

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1 stick of margarine

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cups chopped pecans (optional)

2 tsp water

Grease bundt pan & put pecans in the bottom of the pan.

Mix the cinnamon & sugar together.

Quarter the biscuits & in roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture

Layer the biscuits in the bundt pan

Melt margarine, brown sugar & water in small pot & boil for a minute.

Pour over biscuits

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes

This is what it looks like once you finish layer the biscuits.

The finished product.

I forgot to take one after putting the syrup on. It's really good!!

We're off to Mass & then to have a "Cuban Christmas" with out neighbors!

Toodles!

Ooey Gooey Bars

2011-12-22T20:19:00.000-06:00

I know, 2 posts in a day. What's wrong with me? When I got up from my nap this afternoon I decided to make fudge. My plan was to do all my baking Saturday because I wasn't going to have time before. I have several things I want to bake so that was very ambitious of me knowing that we'll be going to 4:00 Mass which means leaving home about 2:45 to get to Mass for 3:00 so we'll get a seat. With my unexpected time off today I figured it was a perfect time to get started. I'd gone to Walmart earlier today & got all the stuff I needed to make everything. Of course I didn't buy sugar & we didn't have enough for fudge. I refuse to go back to Walmart so I made Ooey Gooey Bars. Dean's cousin makes these & I LOVE them. They're sweet & rich & AMAZING!!! They're surprisingly easy to make too.

There are 2 parts to making them. First the crust. You'll need:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 lb. melted butter
1 egg
1 cup crushed nuts (I use pecans)
Combine those ingredients together. I just stirred it all together because there's not a lot of liquid & that always causes problems for me if I try to use a mixer. Once it's all mixed together it will be like a thick dough. Press it into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. This is what it will look like.

Next up is the top layer. You'll need:
1 lb. box confectioners sugar
2 eggs
1 8oz pkg. cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
Blend all of that together until smooth. Again I used a spoon to mix it together. I've been told that using a mixture on cream cheese isn't a good idea because it causes it to break down. Once it's all mixed together, pour it over the crust. It will look like this.

The spots are specks of pecans. I used the same bowl to mix everything. Bake at 350 for 30-35 mins. I only baked mine for 30 & they look pretty perfect. Here's the finished product.

Enjoy!

Toodles!

Thursday

2011-12-22T14:36:00.000-06:00

The last few weeks I've been able to say "today is my Friday.". Well, today is my Thursday. YUCK! Especially yuck because Dean gets off work at noon today & is off tomorrow & Monday. I HATE going to work when Dean's home. He works at a plant, they have a ton of holidays. I work at a newspaper, we have like 5. I've worked there 16 years so I do get 4 weeks of vacation so I can't complain too much.
I'm still not 100% & I'm pretty sure this has something to do with it.

Yes, it was 68 degrees at 6:40 AM on December 22!!! Supposedly, that's as warm as it will get today & it's going to rain. It was cold earlier in the week. It's ridiculous. Of course you'd think my sinuses would be use to it by now. I've lived in Baton Rouge for 38 years.

Side note, in the above picture, please note that the Margaritaville channel on Sirius is for Dean & Elvis is because I accidentally programmed it when I was setting the other channels & I never corrected it. I don't listen to either channel.
Update on Dean's gift. Still haven't found it. I even said prayers to St. Anthony last night after a friend suggested it. Luckily, it's not the only gift I have for him.

So, as I was typing the last sentence it was brought to my attention by a co-worker that I have 8 hours of vacation that I haven't taken. How did that happen?? I have no clue. The problem is it has to be taken by the end of the year & I can't take tomorrow or any day next week because another co-worker is off & one of us has to be there. That led to me leaving at 10:30. Tomorrow I'll go in late & leave a little early. What a mess. I'm taking full advantage of my almost all day off. I went to the mall. Normally, I would never do this 3 days before Christmas but I need boots & JC Penney's has them on sale. Off I went. I doubt anyone remembers but last year I looked everywhere for some tall black wedge heel boots that weren't Steve Madden & $135. Dean found a pair for $40 online at Old Navy. I ordered them & they were perfect! Well, apparently, only as perfect as $40 boots can be. The pleather is now peeling off. Oh well. I think I got my money's worth out of them. I found these today.

You can't tell in the picture but there's a fold over part that is lined with sweater material. They're very cute & seem to be comfy! I decided to go to Macy's too. I had a coupon. Macy's is hit or miss & mostly miss with me. Well, I scored this trip. I got this to wear with leggings & my boots. It was on sale for $17, regular $50.

This one was $50 & on sale for $25. It's long enough that it could be worn as a dress with tights or with leggings. Those things that look like spots on the screen are actually little rhinestone thingys.

The coupon I had was $15 off a $50 purchase. So I needed to find something else. I saw the slipper area so I went to check them out. I'd just thought to myself the other night that I need some winter slippers. They had so many different kinds that were so cute! I had a hard time deciding. I ended up with these.

They're Isotoner & soooo comfy!! They were $26, on sale for $13 so basically I got them free since I had the $15 coupon. Can't beat that!

I'm going to nap now!

Toodles!

PSA

2011-12-20T19:08:00.000-06:00

So today as I was perusing blogs I came across some very interesting info. Sarah at Life Sweet Life shared something that I knew nothing about. The correct way to use a bobby pin!

I may be the last person in the world to know this but apparently the wavy side is the side that goes up against your scalp. Who knew? Maybe everyone but me? So when I went to Yoglates today I tried putting my bobby pins in the correct way & they really do work better. They stay in place better. So there's your public service announcement for the day.

Speaking of Yoglates. Due to sickness & holiday stuff, I haven't been to class in about a week and a half. I was a little leery of going today because I still don't feel great but I thought maybe I could sweat the sickness out. HA! My goal was to not pass out. My head is stopped up so all the bending over tends to make me lightheaded, combine that with the 90 degree heat & things can get a little out of hand. I accomplished my goal! I only felt like I was going to pass out a couple of times so all was good. I plan to go back tomorrow. There will be lots of eating this weekend & I don't want to gain weight.

Toodles!

Monday Randoms

2011-12-19T20:25:00.001-06:00

I still don't feel good & that makes me grumpy.

I still can't find Dean's gift. I give up.

I'm completely out of wrapping paper. That's a good thing. I get to go back to matching paper next year.

I plan to spend Christmas Eve baking. I don't know what's gotten into me.

The last Christmas gift I was waiting for was delivered today.

I hate cold weather.

I'm really hoping for a nice day on Christmas. No rain & mild temps. I'll have several kids here that will need to run off some energy.

I'm attempting a casserole that I've never made before for Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed.

I need new boots.

I'm dying to know what Dean got me for Christmas.

It's 8:25 & I'm about to fall asleep typing this. #thanksbenadryl

Toodles!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-19T20:12:00.001-06:00

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Luke 2:10-11

Wishing you all a wonderful day with family and friends!!!

1 Week

2011-12-18T17:34:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it's one week until Christmas? This year has flown by for me but November & December have passed at an amazing pace. It's wild. Friday, Dean & I were off so we ran a couple of errands & then went out to lunch & to the movies. We saw New Years Eve. I hadn't heard good reviews but for me that usually means I'll like it & I did! It was very cute. Friday night we went to a Christmas party at our neighbors. I swear there's not much better than walking next door for a party. Especially, at this time of year when traffic is horrendous.

Saturday night was another party. This time it was with Dean's extended family in Bayou Pigeon. For those that don't know, Bayou Pigeon is a place & it's where Dean grew up. We ate! There's always plenty of good food & Dean's cousin made one my favorite dessert - ooey gooey bars! Santa even made an appearance!

Dean's cousin Cody loved Santa.

His sister Emma was not a fan. You could hear her squeals of distress from the back of the house! She came out & claimed her gift once Santa was out of sight!

Dean's other cousin Sam liked him too.

Although, she loved her M&M's more! I didn't get many good pics. I'm not thrilled with my camera. It seems like if the lighting isn't perfect the pictures are crap. Oh well.

Today was a true day of rest. We got up early & went to Mass & did our grocery shopping for the week & other than that I did nothing. I'm still not completely over whatever this is that ails me so I medicated myself & laid on the sofa reading & watching TV. It's back to work tomorrow & I actually have to work all 5 days this week. Definitely not excited about that.

Toodles!!

Sigh....

2011-12-15T08:51:00.000-06:00

Today is my Friday. Thank goodness. It's been a long week. I feel much better but steroids suck! Last night I slept 6 hours which was a huge improvement over the last couple of nights but I've had a headache since I started taking the roids. I took the last one yesterday so hopefully the side effects will be going away soon.

I'm on the supervisory committee at our credit union & last night was our Christmas dinner. It was at Louisiana Lagniappe which is AMAZING! I've been looking forward to this dinner. The soup of the day was Shrimp & Artichoke Bisque. I had that as my appetizer & it was sooooo good. One of the restaurants specialties is Fresh Fish en Papillote. It's a filet of fresh fish topped with lump crabmeat and shrimp stuffing, baked in parchment paper and finished with a light garlic beurre blanc. When I tell you this is one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten, I mean it. This is a special occasion type of place (at least for us) because that entree is $28! So, of course I have a story because stuff just seems to happen to me. The waiters bring out the entrees & start passing them out. I'm not exactly sure what happened because of course I was talking but the next thing I know a tray fell off the little stand & food hit the floor. It looked like it was only one plate. I joked that I was sure it was mine. Yeh, well, the joke was on me & DEAN. It was both of ours. Of course this entree takes the longest to cook so it would be about 15 mins. before we got our food but it was fine. The waiters were so nice & the manager came to the table which wasn't necessary. I'm not one of those people that throws a fit about that type of stuff. They brought me a second glass of wine & I was good! It was a fun night.

Just to keep everyone updated - Dean's gift is still MIA.

Toodles!

Christmas - Part Deux!

2011-12-14T08:49:00.000-06:00

I'll start off in the foyer.

Santa Claus is actually a tree topper but I decided I like him here better. The garland around the mirror lights up. This is a nativity scene I got in Guatemala when we stopped there on our cruise.

I had this cabinet built while we were in Disney World last year at this time. I have a few decorations on it. The china was my great grandmothers. The roses in the vase was my wedding bouquet.

The dining room table. It was hard to get a decent picture because the sun is actually out today!

I forgot about my reindeer yesterday. He's on the hearth. I bought him at Michael's in September! I saw them last year & didn't buy it & when I went back they were sold out so when I saw him this year I grabbed him!

For those wondering, I still haven't found Dean's gift......
Toodles!

Christmas

2011-12-13T13:45:00.001-06:00

I'm finally posting pics of my Christmas decor. Better late than never right? I'm warning you now, my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. This is my big tree in the living room.

There's no ribbon or mesh & that's because I completely forgot until I was midway through decorating it. I still like it. Here it is at night.

I know I'm partial but I really love my tree! Especially, at night all lit up. This is the 8th Christmas for this tree. It's 9 ft. & prelit. I know a lot of people complain about problems with their prelit. I LOVE mine. If a light goes out, they don't all go out & you just pop in a replacement. I did something this year that I never do.

I'm not using all of the same paper. I had several different rolls of paper & none were enough to do everything so I decided to suck it up & use all of it & then next year I can go back to matching. I've used up almost all of what I had. I've banned myself from buying any Christmas decor this year. At least before Christmas. I've succeeded for the most part. Here are two exceptions.

I LOVE big ornaments! I got the snowflake & the ornament below at Royal Standard.

Next up is the tree in my breakfast area. This tree is decorated with ornaments that we buy on vacation & I fill in with red, green & silver.

It's hard to get a good pic because it's in the corner. I put the nativity scene on the server in the breakfast area.

I think I'm going to put it on my mantle next year. I'd planned to do that this year & didn't remember until after I'd finished the mantle. I think I need to make notes when I think about this stuff! Part 2 coming up tomorrow.

I'm linking to Thrifty Decor Chick's Holiday Home party!

Toodles!

Coming to you live from....

2011-12-12T19:48:00.000-06:00

My sofa. If you check back tomorrow at this time I'm willing to bet I'm still here. That potential sinus infection I spoke of Friday looks like it's becoming a reality. I got some steroids today so I'm hoping this will be gone sooner rather than later. I've got lots of stuff going on this week, an eye doctor appt., a Christmas dinner, a Christmas party, a hair appt. & I must get my nails done sometime this week. No time to be sick.

Friday night was my office Christmas party. I managed to medicate myself enough to enjoy it. The party was at my boss' house which is AHHHMAZING!!!! Custom built, 7000 sq. ft. of pure amazing. Seriously, completely gorgeous!

Saturday, I was not feeling so great & all I did the entire day was wrap gifts. It took me the entire day and YES, Dean's gift is still missing. I'm beginning to think it's not in the house. Thankfully, if that's the case I'm not out a lot of money. It was one of his cheaper gifts!

Sunday we went to my parents & hung out with them & Logan. This is one of Logan's favorite past times.

He's playing boats. The blue comforter is his water & the quilt is his boat ramp. If you sit in the "water" he's quick to tell you to "move, that's the water". He loves this dog that our Godchild Lane gave him.

Logan's a dare devil. He also has a one track mind. Everything has something to do with a boat. At one point he was sitting sideways on the dog pretending like he was fishing & he started yelling "get the net!". Can you tell his mama & daddy spend a lot of time with him fishing at the camp? It was so funny!

Last night I went to Mass. That didn't work out so well. In the span of about 20 minutes I had 2 coughing fits. You know the kind that causes your eyes to water like crazy & make your nose run? All while sucking on cough drops to make sure it didn't happen. The ridiculous part of the whole thing is that I hadn't coughed at all before that. I finally gave up & came home. Hoping God gives me credit for making an effort! The more ridiculous part? I didn't cough again until I laid down to go to sleep. So annoying.

Toodles!

Aliens & Problems

2011-12-09T08:51:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking the two go hand in hand. You know I was never an exerciser. Now I am. I was never a runner, never wanted to be a runner, always said I would never be a runner. Now I am. Well, sorta. Not at the moment due to the hip. It's doing good but if I've been on my feet for a long time I start to limp & I don't even realize it so I haven't started running again yet. Not only was I not a runner, I started C25K in August when it's somewhere around 150 degrees in Louisiana with 1000% humidity. I always talked about people that exercised on vacation. I became one of those people. I never drank coffee & didn't know what a mocha, latte or any of that other stuff was. Now, I love a latte & even like mocha's a little. I pretty much gave up my Dr Pepper habit. I had one Wednesday for the first time in weeks. I decided awhile back that the only logical explanation for all of this is that aliens have invaded my body. Really, what else could explain it? Moving on to the problems. First off, Starbucks.

This is a postcard from Starbucks. In case you didn't know (I didn't for a long time) if you buy a gift card & put money on it you can register it online & if you use it to pay you gain stars & move to different levels. I don't know all the details but I know that it enables you to get a free drink of your choice for your birthday. They send this postcard in the mail. I never received mine. I emailed Starbucks & told them I didn't receive it & they said they'd mail me another one. I'm pretty sure most normal people wouldn't have emailed them for another card. All you SB drinkers out there know that they're not cheap & a free drink is like gold! I think they made it worse because they kept sending me emails saying "you're free drink is on the way" "you'll receive a postcard in the mail within 10 days" & then nothing! Yesterday, going home from work was awful. Traffic was horrendous so I was very excited when I got there & saw that my postcard had arrived!! So this morning I stopped & got my free Chai Tea Latte. You know what's even better? You can get any size you want. Venti please! The mixture of that with the Mucinex I'm taking (think I'm getting a sinus infection) isn't going to allow me to sleep until sometime next week probably.

My next problem? I can't find one of Dean's Christmas gifts. When I say I can't find it, I don't mean it's a hot gift item this Christmas & nobody has it. No, I mean I've already bought it & I hid it & I can't remember where I hid it. This is totally ridiculous because I didn't need to hide it that well because Dean isn't a snoop. I could tell him, "hey, I have a Christmas gift for you in that drawer over there" & he would never look. I hid it with his birthday gift. Or at least I thought I did. Apparently, when I got his birthday gift to wrap I hid the other gift somewhere else. Why? I have no clue. I've been looking for it for 2 weeks. I don't know where else to look. So, I think the aliens have taken over my brain......

Toodles!

I'm Done!

2011-12-07T20:06:00.000-06:00

I'm completely finished with our Christmas shopping!! Dean & I took off work today to finish up. We left a little before 8:00 & were home for noon. We were at Target early so I had one of these cups of greatness!!

Chai Tea Latte please! Before we went home we had lunch in the food court at the mall. I had Chick Fil A & even a Dr Pepper. I haven't had one in weeks. It was all delicious!!! I miss eating unhealthy crap!
Typically, when we Christmas shop we end up buying for ourselves too. There are so many good sales it's hard not to! For instance, I got this sweater at The Limited.

It was $70 but sweaters & accessories were 40% off! I plan to wear it with boots & leggings. I also got this ring.

It's stretchy & I love it!! Plus, that put me at $56 & I had a coupon for $15 off a $50 purchase. What a deal!! I really love this ring!!

I also downloaded this today.

Do y'all like Buble?? It's so great!! Love, love, love!! I think my fave is his version of Ave Maria. We also ended up with a football which is kind of random but believe it or not there have been times when we've needed one! I also did a Walmart run. I very rarely go there for obvious reasons. I managed to get in & out without my Christmas spirit being ruined. I don't feel quite as guilty for my junk eating today because I did make it to Yoglates.

In other exciting news, we are now a whole house DVR household! Woo hoo! I just thought the regular DVR was awesome in a box. This is going to be amazing! It's the little things right??

Toodles!!

That's the day we'll throw up.....

2011-12-05T09:03:00.000-06:00

I promise you that sentence was uttered at my house Saturday night! The SEC Championship game was Saturday afternoon & we had friends over to watch. After a shaky start LSU came back & beat Georgia. We're now 13-0 & going to the National Championship game to play Alabama. Annoying. I don't like Alabama. I don't like Nick Saban. Nobody asked my opinion though.

After the game we transitioned from a football party to a "Cruise Excursion Planning" party. That's where it got interesting. We were discussing which days would be where & we decided to do "Salsa & Salsa" in Cozumel. On this excursion they teach you to make 7 different salsa's & they teach you how to salsa dance. It's also open bar. While we discussed this our friend Matt announced "that's the day we'll throw up". It sounded like that was a goal of his. I personally believe the goal should be NOT to throw up but hey, whatever floats your boat. We're also going to zip line. I can't wait for that!

Yesterday, I met the girls for my friend Vicki's birthday lunch. HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI!!!! We had lunch at Coyote Blues which is a mexican joint. I'd never been there before & it was DELISH! They have this really yummy green sauce that they bring out with the chips & salsa. After lunch Allison & I went to this great store we have in town, The Royal Standard. I haven't been in awhile. They sell all sorts of gift items. I did not succeed in getting out of there without buying Christmas ornaments. I only bought 2. They were big jumbo ornaments & I love them. I don't plan on buying any other Christmas decorations! Really.

Toodles!

Happy Friday Y'all!

2011-12-02T10:45:00.000-06:00

I actually had to work 5 days this week & let me tell you, I don't like it one bit. Yeh, I'm grateful to have a job & all that but it doesn't mean I have to like being here. Thankfully, next week is only 4 days.

I can't get over that December is here. Time has flown. We're only 79 days away from our Mardi Gras cruise. I can't wait!!

So, y'all know about my love for Starbuck's. It started out with just iced green tea but then I discovered the greatness of the chai tea latte. Soooo good. I like the caramel brulee latte too but I prefer tea. My sis-in-law Lydia has a Bosch thingy that's like the Keurig & she loves it. She told me I need one but that I need a Keurig because they have more tea variety. I'm not sold just yet. I don't know if I'd use it enough to justify the price. Then I saw this one.

This is a mini Keurig & it's only $99. Then if you buy it at Bed, Bath & Beyond you can use the 20% off coupon. Not a bad deal at all. Then Wendy forwarded me this blog post. OMG, Starbuck's makes K cups now! Then I find out that Tazo tea does too!!! So, now I'm really wondering if this is something worth investing in. I'm going to wait until after Christmas to make a decision because who knows what Santa might bring.

Completely off track here but I just heard on the radio that today is Britney Spears (or Brit Brit as I refer to her), 30th birthday. 30? WOW! Yes, I'm one of those people that like her & felt sorry for her during that whole hoorah with the weird boyfriend/manager guy. So, Happy Birthday Brit Brit!!

Toodles!

I Won!

2011-12-01T11:35:00.000-06:00

Awhile back I entered a giveaway on Christine's blog & I won! It was a $50 credit toward anything of my choosing from the Novica website. I've banned myself from buying any Christmas decor this year so I decided to use my credit for something Christmasy. Apparently, everything on the website is hand made. There are lots of pretty ornaments. I received my package in the mail over the weekend. I LOVE getting packages! Look how pretty.

I love the ribbon! When I opened it this was inside.

I wasn't expecting such pretty packaging. These are the ornaments I chose.

It was a set of 6. The gold ones are on my big tree. The darker ones are a deep brown with hints of burgundy. I have them hanging on the doors of my china cabinet & they look really good with the wall color in the dining room. Thanks Christine!

Toodles!

Back on track....

2011-11-30T13:03:00.000-06:00

Somewhat. I gained a few pounds over the last few weeks since I wasn't able to exercise because of my hip. Last week I was seriously contemplating a visit to the Doctor. My neighbor/athletic trainer didn't think it was necessary unless I wanted a cortisone shot. Um, no. I don't take cortisone shots when I'm sick because they keep me awake for days & I don't do good without sleep. Not to mention, they HURT! Apparently, my hip heard this conversation because within days it was feeling MUCH better. I didn't go to Yoglates last week because I knew I'd be doing a lot of ladder climbing when I was decorating for Christmas & I thought the combination of it all may be too much. I climbed & climbed & all was well. I'm still icing it at night just to be safe but I'm about ready to stop because it's cold here & laying around with a frozen bottle on my leg isn't fun. To all my northern friends - YES, IT'S COLD!! The other day it didn't get out of the 40's all day! I went back to Yoglates Monday & was able to do everything without pain. I'm a little sore but I think that has more to do with no exercise for weeks than the hip. I'm going back today.

My house is all decorated for Christmas. I need to take pictures. I've done a ton of Christmas shopping online. More than I've ever done. I don't like to pay shipping but this year pretty much everything has been free shipping & if there was a charge it wasn't much. I still have a few things to pick up. I plan to get started wrapping this week & get my Christmas cards taken care of.

Of course, as with every year, when I'm Christmas shopping I end up picking up some things for me. I mean who can pass up the sales??? Yesterday, Reebok extended their Cyber Monday sale. Tons of stuff was on sale plus there was a code for 40% off your total order & there was free shipping. My kind of sale. I got a couple of pair of their running shorts that I love & some tanks. I think I'm about to order a yoga bag that I saw too but I can't find a coupon code for the shipping. We'll see. Do y'all shop for yourselves at Christmas?

One thing I've managed to refrain from this year is buying Christmas decor. I swore that this would be the year I didn't buy anything. I have so much stuff. I really don't need anything else. Over the weekend I made a wreath with supplies from previous years. The only thing I didn't have was a wreath hanger, I know it's not necessary but it's easy & a couple of little sticky up (don't y'all love my descriptions?) things for the top of the wreath. I also needed 2 new candles because for whatever reason candles on my dining room table melt without being lit & then the shape gets all wonky. I went to Hobby Lobby after work yesterday & got only the things I needed! That never happens! YAY ME!!

Toodles!

I DID NOT disable my blog!!

2011-11-28T11:04:00.000-06:00

I didn't blog the entire time I was off. I meant to but things were busy. Then lo & behold last night I was all ready & google tells me that my blog has been disabled. I emailed them & this morning had a response saying that everything had been corrected. Of course they gave no reason as to why this happened but I'm back up & running. Moving on.....I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did! It was so great having a 4 day weekend. Here's our long weekend in pictures.

Two turkey's in the oil less turkey fryer. They were sooo good!!

Italian Cream Cake from Sam's. Y'all! This was AMAZING!!!

My sis-in-law Beth brought these. Aren't they adorable?

Football!

Our niece Camille!

Logan, the future quarterback!

Tackling Dean

Tackling Drew. I think he's got that down. Maybe he'll play defense??

My brother was the biggest kid out there!

Yes, he's in the trunk. He just climbed right in.

Venti Chai Tea Latte!! YUM! Need my energy to decorate!

cbssports.com

LSU is 12-0!!! Geaux Honey Badger!!

Christmas decorating!!

This means I'm finished Christmas decorating! OPI's Vodka & Caviar

Toodles!!

Taco Cheesecake

2011-11-23T13:52:00.000-06:00

A lot of people wanted this recipe. I served it as an appetizer but it could actually be a main course & you could cook rice or something to go with it. I served it with chips but that's not even necessary.

Ingredients
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
1 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1 lb. ground meat
1 (1 1/4 oz.) envelope of taco seasoning mix, divided
2 tbsp water
2 (8oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened
2 lg eggs
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 (8 oz) container sour cream
2 tbsp all purpose flour
Toppings: shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, chopped green bell pepper. This is entirely up to you. I used salsa as my topping & didn't put lettuce. Next time I also plan to put guacamole.

STIR together crushed tortilla chips & butter; press into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.

BAKE at 325 for 10 mins. Cool on wire rack

COOK beef. Drain & pat dry with paper towels. Return beef to skillet. Reserve 1 teaspoon taco seasoning mix. Stir remaining taco seasoning & 2 tbsp water into beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, 5 mins. or until liquid evaporates.

BEAT cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; add eggs & reserved 1 teaspoon taco seasoning mix, beating until blended. Add cheddar cheese; beat until blended.

SPREAD cream cheese mixture evenly over crust & 1 inch up sides of pan. Spoon in beef mixture. Spread cream cheese mixture from around sides of pan over beef mixture, forming a 1 inch border. Combine sour cream & flour; spread over cheesecake.

BAKE at 325 for 25 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges; release sides. Serve warm with toppings.

It sounds pretty involved but it really isn't bad. Y'all know if I'm saying that it must be true!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Toodles!

Another Weekend Gone!

2011-11-21T14:26:00.000-06:00

Thank goodness for short weeks. Dean & I will be off Thursday & Friday so we'll have a nice long weekend to get all of my Christmas decorating done.

Saturday, we went to our neighbors to watch the LSU/Ole Miss game. I made a taco cheesecake for the first time. It was really good. I forgot to take a picture of it when I finished making it but here's part of it.

I guess everyone liked it. Yes I left it in the pan because this was my first attempt at cooking in a spring form pan & I was scared to open it for fear of the cheesecake falling into a million pieces.

The game was boring. LSU won 52-3. It was a real snooze fest. Friday we play Arkansas. That should be a good game but hopefully not too good.

Yesterday, I went & played with Logan for awhile. His mom & dad went to Mass & grocery shopping so that means Logan was in charge. He's not stupid & knows who the sucker is in our family.

I thought this was hilarious the way he had his leg crossed. He's eating a fudgesicle in his playroom. I told him he needed to sit at the table to eat it. His response while walking away from the table was "I not do it". Um ok, I guess. It was before lunch but he'd already had half of a peanut butter sandwich so I figured this was dessert. After this he went to the fridge & pulled out sausage. Well, I might be a sucker but this sucker wasn't going to feed him sausage after he'd had peanut butter & a fudgesicle. I'd already cleaned up after the dog threw up, I didn't need the kid throwing up too. Oh & when he pulled the sausage out? That knocked the mayo out of the fridge which landed just perfectly on the bottom shelf in the door of the fridge, which in turn knocked the entire shelf & it's contents to the floor. Thankfully, nothing broke. Logan looked at me like "what did you do that for?". Then he stepped over the bottle of wine that was laying in the floor & grabbed the milk & chocolate syrup & handed it to me.

I had just asked if he wanted to take a nap. I was tired.

He wanted to play with my phone & I told him he had to smile for a picture first. I took the pic & he took my phone & somehow managed to post something on someone's Facebook page. HA! We had a good time.

Sunday afternoon was Book Club. Joni hosted this time. In keeping with our reputation as "The worse book club ever" we basically had a Scentsy party. Joni just recently started selling it & I needed some new scents so out came the box & everyone ended up smelling & buying. I think Wendy's the only person that truly wants it to be a book club. The rest of us are fine with just hanging out & eating. Speaking of food. Vicki brought this AHHMAZING dip!! It has cheeses & all sorts of stuff & then a thin layer of raspberry something that looks like jelly over the top of it. She bought it at a local AG store in town. So, so, so good!

After we stuffed ourselves like it was our last meal we had to do a Starbucks run. After all it was the last day of buy one get one free with the holiday drinks. 4 of us went so it worked out perfectly. We all decided that the Caramel Brulee Latte is better than the Gingerbread Mocha. Well, I guess we didn't all decide because Allison & I have never had the gingerbread but anyway.

After Starbuck's I went by my cousins to bring birthday gifts. We visited for a bit & Brooke opened her gifts & then I finally made it home. I was & still am really tired!!! Like I said, thank goodness for short weeks.

Toodles!

Friday

2011-11-18T17:33:00.000-06:00

Dean & I were both off today so we did some shopping. Have y'all seen the Muppets OPI collection? It's so cute! There are colors like Rainbow Connection & Divine Swine. Some are all glittery & there's even a green color. I went to Ulta today & got this

Not the greatest pic but the colors are Animalistic & Gettin' Miss Piggy With It. Cute huh? Gettin' Miss Piggy is a very glittery red. They're both pretty colors. The silver glittery things are the toe separators. I bought this for my little cousin's birthday. I also got her a movie gift card to go with it because I know they're going to see the new Muppet movie.

During the holidays when we go to parties I always bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. I ordered these cute labels this week.

I ordered these from Bottle Your Brand. There are lots of different designs, not just Christmas & you can customize the message. It's hard to tell in the picture but the damask pattern is green. They can be used on anything & have an adhesive back. They're cheap too at only .99 each. I ordered them Tuesday I believe & they arrived today.

We also picked up a couple of Christmas gifts & had lunch at Pluckers.

In case you don't know, Starbuck's has a promotion going on. Buy a holiday drink & get one free. It's only Nov. 17-20 btwn. 2-5. Well, we were leaving the mall about 2:30 & were going to be driving right by Starbuck's. My friend Wendy is always nice enough to bring me something from SB when she stops before work so I returned the favor. Our office is just down the street from SB.

I had the Caramel Creme Brulee Latte. It was really good! I liked it a lot better than the Mocha I had the other day. Wendy had the Gingerbread Latte & she really liked it. I need to put SB gift cards on my Christmas list!!

Toodles!

Obsessed? Spoiled?

2011-11-17T10:16:00.000-06:00

That would be a resounding YES to both!!! My big obsession right now?

Y'all know all summer I was loving the Iced Green Tea Unsweetened. Well, I may love the Chai Tea Latte even more! The only problem is it isn't zero calories like green tea but thanks to my ignorance & a very nice, non judgemental Starbucks worker I figured out how to get one with not many calories. When I first ordered it I was clueless. I just knew I wanted hot tea. I asked if I could get it unsweetened. I was very scared to ask. How ridiculous is that? That Starbucks ordering is intimidating! Anyway, the girl said it's already "mixed up" but that they could make it with a tea bag instead so I said to do that & I add splenda, truvia or stevia. The only calories are from the milk. I get non fat. I had one this morning. It was 49 degrees. Yes, I got a Venti. I wanted a big one! In hindsight that may not have been the greatest idea. Caffeine doesn't usually have an effect on me but I'm a little jittery now! I feel like I could go run a bunch of miles. Well, if my hip wasn't still hurting that is.

I'm loving my planner too. If I would've had it a month earlier I wouldn't be in the ornament making predicament I'm in now but that's another story.

Dean had to go to Texas for a couple of days for work. We decided he would take my truck because it gets better gas mileage so more mileage money. Ha! Also, it's only a few months old whereas his truck is 7 years old. I drove his truck for 2 days & I came to the realization that I am so FREAKIN SPOILED!!! I do not like that truck. Not that it's not nice but it's not nearly as nice as my Explorer or as nice as my Expedition was. No Sirius radio, you actually have to use a key to start it, the steering is awful so it's very difficult to park. Nothing turns like a Ford! I'm VERY THANKFUL that I have my Explorer back today.

Has anyone tried these?

I didn't know they had such a thing as Candy Corn Hershey Kisses. We have a candy bowl at work & my co-worker got Halloween candy on sale. I tried one & was surprised at how good they were. I didn't think it really tasted like a candy corn, more like white chocolate. Really good but I'm not obsessed. I just needed a little something sweet the other day.

Today is my very best friend in the whole worlds birthday - DEAN!! He reads my blog. I love you & hope you have a wonderful day!!! Happy Birthday!!

Wow this post is all over the place. Must be the caffeine. When I said I was a little jittery, I mean A LOT jittery!!

Toodles!!

Brunch

2011-11-15T07:48:00.000-06:00

I have a close group of friends that all get together for dinner for each of our birthdays. We went out for mine a few weeks ago. Allison couldn't come with us because she was in a car wreck. Since she missed dinner she wanted to take me somewhere. We decided on brunch at Portobello's. That's where my birthday dinner was. I've been wanting to try their brunch & I knew Allison liked it too. I had a veggie omelet & little potatoes that tasted just like French fries

and a side of grits!

What's brunch without Bottomless Mimosa's?? We only had 2 but they were really good.

Everything was delicious! I'm craving it now after looking at these pictures.

Toodles!

The Weekend

2011-11-12T19:18:00.000-06:00

Dean & I had the day off Friday. We had a couple of errands to run so we got off to an early start. Our first stop?

I'm well aware of my addiction. I made a mistake. It was just an iced green tea addiction but then I tried a chai tea latte. Um, OMG, sooooo good!!!! The problem with it is it's not calorie free like the green tea. I get it with non fat milk but still. Definitely, something I'll need to keep in check. Thursday, I tried the white chocolate mocha. I liked it better than coffee but it still taste like coffee so I wasn't a big fan. No chance of an addiction there.

We ran our errands & I was able to pick up a couple more Christmas gifts. I went from having no gifts to having a lot of gifts in a matter of days. Dean's parents were in town so we met them at Sammy's for lunch. I had a chef salad that was really good. Then it was off to the grocery store to pick up the stuff we needed for our party. Our former neighbors who live in Indiana now are in town & we were having a small party so we could hang out & they could get good Louisiana food that they've been missing. Dean fried fish & shrimp & Cliff brought his chicken & sausage gumbo. Everything was so good.

I was planning to make a taco cheesecake & some cookies. I've never made the cheesecake or the cookies. Thankfully, Dean knows my limits (I apparently do not) & convinced me that making both was probably a little too ambitious of me. I decide on the cookies. 1 egg, butter, cream cheese, a yellow cake mix & sprinkles. How could I possibly screw that up? Yeh, this is me we're talking about. I'm not quite sure where I made my mistake but it took forever to get everything mixed together & I used about 4 spoons because the stuff get sticking in the mixing thingys & then it would get stuck on the spoon & I'd have to use another one to get it off & it just went on & on. I think I should've let the cream cheese soften up a little more & melt the butter. The recipe had adding the sprinkles as the last thing to do. That doesn't work. The sprinkles don't stay on the cookie. When is the proper time to put sprinkles on? Before you put them in the oven? This was the finished product.

I know they're not pretty but the good news is they were really good! I wonder if it might be better to roll the dough out with a rolling pin & use cookie cutters?? I might try that next time. Here are all the girls.

We've had so many good times with these girls. I can't believe how they're growing up.

Dean's brother & our nephew came to town for the LSU game. This morning we all just hung out watching Gameday. It was nice to visit with them. The rest of my Saturday was spent reading, watching football & napping. We went to Mass this evening & now we're watching LSU & Dean is grilling steaks.

Toodles! It's wine time!!

Thankful Thursday

2011-11-10T09:57:00.000-06:00

I'm skipping the weigh in post until my hip is better because I'm not able to exercise at all. I was planning to go to Yoglates but decided against it since I was told to do "light stretching". There's nothing light about Yoglates. My hip is getting better. I had no idea how bummed out I would get about not being able to exercise. Hopefully, all will be good soon.

Everyone on FB & all over blog land is doing the whole Thankful thing this month. I decided to join in but mine is going to be a little different. Of course I'm grateful for my family & friends, Church, job, etc. I guess that's not a given in all cases but in mine it is so this list is all the completely trivial things that I'm thankful for.

Vacation days so that I can work 4 day weeks. LOVE the 4 day week!! (yes this is one)
Twitter, Facebook & TMZ- I've said before that everything you need to know you can find out through one of those outlets.
I seem to be addicted to exercise - So happy that finally happened!
LSU beat Bama
ESPN - Yes, I'm a girl but it keeps me entertained
Erin Condren - LOVE LOVE LOVE my planner
The Internet - I got lots of Christmas shopping done this week & I never had to leave my chair
No sugar added Nestles Quik - LOVE chocolate milk!
Starbucks - Wish I had time this morning.
I was able to finish the 5K Saturday with a good time
My Nook
My iPhone

Told ya it was trivial. What are y'all thankful for?

Toodles!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!

2011-11-07T13:00:00.000-06:00

Saturday was an exciting day. Aside from the 5K it was what a lot of people were calling the "Best Game Ever". LSU vs. Alabama, #1 vs. #2. We went to our neighbors for a party. Dean made crab cakes & I bought a king cake with a football instead of a baby & cake squares & petit fors. Aren't they cute?

I love the little paw prints! I don't think we had enough food.

There were stuffed mushrooms, dips, turkey, pork loin, broccoli rice casserole, crab cakes, gumbo & 2 types of salad. Everything was really good!! The dessert table.

Then there was the game. WOW! It was a really great game. I think it definitely lived up to the hype. No scoring the first half, then it was tied 6-6 & went to overtime where LSU managed another field goal & won 9-6. I don't think anyone thought it was going to be that low scoring with no touchdowns scored. Cliff is always prepared & once the game was over he pulled out the champagne.

And we toasted.

So LSU stays #1 & all is right with the world!

Toodles!!!

31:45

2011-11-06T10:31:00.000-06:00

Anyone wondering about the title of this post??? Not only did I run my first 5K, I had a decent time. Way better than I hoped for.

Dean took this picture after I'd crossed the finish line. I was towards the back of the pack when we started & the finish line was also the starting line & the clock was at 57 seconds when I got there so to me my time was 31:45. Regardless, it doesn't matter. I had such a good time.The 5K was the first ever for St. Joseph Academy which is the only Catholic all girl high school in Baton Rouge. My friend Sheri is an Asst. Principal there & is who convinced me to run. It was fun running a route that I wasn't familiar with. Periodically throughout the route the St. Josephs cheerleaders were cheering us on, the city police had traffic stopped all along the route which was also great. The only downside is my hip injury that I dealt with last week is back with a vengeance! After talking to our friend that was the Atlanta Falcons trainer many years ago, I've been diagnosed with a deep hip flexor strain. Stretching & resting is the prescribed course of treatment. So I can go to Yoglates but no running. I didn't even ask how long I can't run. I really don't want to know. As happy as I am that I finished yesterday, I bummed that I can't run. The Reindeer Run is the beginning of December & I really want to run in it. We'll see I guess.

My brother Scott & sis in law Lydia also ran yesterday. They've both done 5K's before. Scott came in 2nd place overall. We'll never hear the end of it I promise you.

Scott's the tall one. Lydia had her best time too. It was such a pretty day. A little chilly but it was nice. Dean was in charge of keeping Logan occupied while we ran. They were at the finish line as we each crossed it. Here we are after the race.

No, that's not the peace sign, that's the #2 sign. NEVER. HEAR. THE. END. OF. IT. After the race there was tons of food & smoothies. I know I don't have anything to compare it to but I think it was a great race environment. Logan certainly enjoyed himself.

Yes, that's a donut he's eating & jambalaya in his lap. He'd take a bit of the donut & then a bite of the jambalaya. Then he threw in a couple of sips of my smoothie.GROSS! Apparently, while Dean was in control, he ate a little bit of a banana, a little bit of an orange & some goldfish! The kid loves to eat.

Toodles for now!!

FINALLY!!!

2011-11-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

Not only is it Friday but it's almost game day!! For those of you ~~living~~ ~~under~~ a ~~rock~~ not interested in college football tomorrow is the biggest game of the year. Some people are saying one of the biggest games ever but I don't know about all that. LSU vs. Alabama. Ranked #1 & #2 in the polls. LSU being #1! WHOOP WHOOP!! Aside from it being 1 vs 2 there are a lot of background stories. Bama's ~~dictator~~ coach, Nick Saban aka "Little Nicky" was LSU's coach. Some LSU peeps never got over him leaving. Then there are all the people that worship Little Nicky & loathe Miles (LSU's coach). It's been said, by people other than me, that Miles is a moron. It's been proven a few times too. Nobody would ever say such things about Little Nicky. He's been called a lot of things, mostly things that I can't say here but suffice it to say "jerk" is the nicest of them all. None of those things have been said about Miles. Both teams had a bye week last week so the hoopla has been going on for 2 weeks. It's pretty much all anyone is talking about around town. It's all over ESPN naturally, but it's also made it's way to the TMZ TV show & Regis & Kelly this morning. Even Lil Wayne is going to be there. Tickets are going for ridiculous prices. The game is in Alabama. We will be at our neighbors watching & eating crab cakes & gumbo. I bought this for the occasion.

Yep, it's a King Cake but no it's not Mardi Gras. These were specially made for the game & they have a little football inside instead of a baby. Too cute! Of course it's decorated in purple & gold. I'm contemplating football petit fors but I don't know if I'll be able to contain myself if I do that. I love those things!! We'll see!!

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday....on Thursday

2011-11-03T08:37:00.000-05:00

I'm late again. I was busy at work yesterday & then I went to Yoglates after work & when I got home I was tired. I gained a pound this week. It could be worse since it was my birthday weekend & Halloween. Hopefully, I'll be back on the losing bandwagon soon.

I've gone to Yoglates twice this week & I ran twice. Monday I did 3.1 miles & afterwards I had a sore leg. It hurt when I got up after sitting but once I walked around a little it felt ok. It got better everyday & I ran yesterday. I only ran 2 miles because it was starting to bother me. I'm not happy about this development AT ALL. My first 5K is Saturday. I've been working so hard for 12 weeks. This HAS to be better by Saturday. It seems better today. I'm just hoping to be able to finish Saturday. I'm not worried about my time now.

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on the Erin Condren bandwagon. Everyone in the blog world has been going crazy over her "life planners". I saw some tweets about Zulily having a $50 gift certificate for $25 so I bought one. No way was I paying full price for the planner. There was also a code for $10 off which paid for almost all of the shipping. I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted. They're all so cute. I've tried using the calendar on my iPhone & I just don't like it. I've always been a list maker so I think this will just work better for me. Judging by all the people buying these things I'm not alone. I was very excited Friday to get an email saying that my planner had shipped. I tracked it & it was to be delivered on Halloween. It wasn't. I didn't get it the next day either. The tracking info had suddenly not been updated after saying it was "out for delivery". Lovely. I called the USPS yesterday. What a joke. Have I ever mentioned my extreme dislike for the USPS?? I had to call an 800 number & explain the situation & the guy said he would then contact the post office where my mail comes from & they would contact me. Surprisingly, the guy called me within a couple of hours. After explaining the situation to him & giving him my address 4 different times & telling him no it's not an apt. he said he'd have to talk to the carrier & call me back. Yeh, you guessed it. Never heard another word from him. Luckily when I got home it was there.

I love it! It's bigger than I thought (and a little heavy) but it will fit in my purse. It's thick & has a heavy duty cover & tabs for each month. There's room inside to make notes or lists in addition to the monthly calendars. If I can't stay organized with this it's a lost cause!

There was also a pack of these cute labels included. What a fun surprise! I think these would be really cute on a bottle of wine or any gift. There is also some great stationery on her website. I'm waiting for another gift certificate promotion to get some of that!!

Toodles!

Trick or Treat

2011-11-01T09:25:00.000-05:00

How was everyone's Halloween? Ours was good. When I got home from work yesterday one of the local news channels was a couple of houses down in the cul de sac. We turned on the news & they were live talking about sex offenders. WHAT??? Do we have them in our neighborhood? Dean assured me that no we do not. Apparently, he checks the website regularly. Who knew?? The story was actually about all the precautions you should take with your kids trick or treating & how sex offenders aren't allowed to dress up, give out candy, etc.

We went to a neighbors for hot dogs, chili & all the fixings along with brownies & of course lots of candy. A couple of us just brought our candy to her house & we had an "assembly line of candy" as one kid called it.

Halloween always gets me thinking about what parents are teaching their kids. There are some really rude kids out there! Not to mention the inappropriate costumes. I mean should a 10 yr old really dress up as a homeless person & carry around a sign that says "Will work for candy or beer"?? Then there are the give ups. If you're 15 & want to trick or treat can you at least come up with a costume? Saying you're an "LSU fan" is NOT a costume. OH & to the mom that came up with her kid & had a bag & says "this is for the one in the stroller" & when you look at the street you see a kid that's less than a year old. Really mom??? You're not fooling anyone!!

Oh & I how could I forget the kids wearing the white trash bags with the words "White Trash" written on them?? Can you say give up?? These kids took it to another level. Dean was across the street & they started to walk up our driveway. No lights are on because I'm 2 houses down with our candy. Dean hollers that there's nobody home. The kids continue to the front door & one of them opens my front door! WTH kid?? Yes, I know it's my fault for leaving the door unlocked but we're in & out & Dean was across the street. Well, Dean yelled at him & off they went.

I know I sound like a Halloween scrooge which I'm really not. The majority of the kids were cute & polite & said thank you but the ones that weren't really made an impression.

Toodles!

My Birthday Weekend

2011-10-31T10:59:00.000-05:00

Saturday I turned the ripe old age of 38. I'm not really sure where the time has gone from the time I was about 23 to now. I left work a little early Thursday & went & had a massage. This was the first massage I've ever had. I've always been funny about strangers touching me. It was actually a delightful experience & one that I'd definitely do again.

I took the day off Friday as well but I still got up at 5 & went for a run. I had my nails done, did some shopping & had lunch with my parents at Brewbachers. It was a lovely day. Not real productive as far as shopping though. I did get a few things.

I got my purse at TJ Maxx. I NEVER find anything there & I only went in because I was going to Bed, Bath & Beyond next door. Only $25 & it's the softest leather.

I got a Bullet. With all the eating right I'm trying to do I decided that I needed this. I want to make smoothies because I don't eat enough fruit. I like a fruit shake/smoothie much better than actually eating fruit. I haven't made anything yet but everything's unpacked & ready to go!

Once Dean got home we went to dinner at La Carreta & then head over to our Church Fair. Lots of our friends were there so we visited & listened to the band. This particular band is made up of several of our parishioner's. One being a Cardiologist & another a Pediatrician. It's pretty funny to watch them bounce around & dance. At one point they sang Soul Man & our Priest joined them on stage & sang. It was hilarious!

Saturday I went for a 4 mile walk. We had a cold front come through Thursday so the weather's been great. A little cool early in the morning & after the sun goes down but really pretty during the day. After the walk I went shopping again. Ann Taylor Loft was having a 40% off everything sale. I scored there.

The tank was only like $2.50. It was on clearance. I also got a pair of skinny jeans to wear with my boots & flats. I picked up a green tea from Starbuck's (Thanks Vicki & Lane) & then headed home. We watched football & went to Mass. After Mass we walked around & visited at the fair again & then went to dinner at Marcello's. It was sooooo good. I had eggplant parmigiana & a salad. We even decided to have dessert & I'm so glad we did. We had strawberry cake with white chocolate icing. OMG DIVINE!!!

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I actually slept until 8:00 which rarely happens. I went through my closet & got rid of a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit anymore & straightened things up. Then it was to the sofa to read & nap. HA! I did go to Yoglates yesterday evening so I wasn't a complete bum. All in all it was a great birthday weekend.

Toodles!

Reason # 872

2011-10-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

Why I could never be an athlete: I don't like to be yelled at.

Where does this come from? Last night we went to watch our neighbor/friend play volleyball. She's a senior this year & it was Senior Night at her high school. They won in 3 straight games (much to my delight because I was hungry). The opposing teams coach seemed to be a bit of a witch. She just had that look about her. Then she started the pointing & yelling. That's when I said "That's another reason I couldn't be an athlete. When people yell at me it makes me more nervous & I'll just screw up more". I used to say "That's why I'm NOT an athlete" to which Dean once commented "Oh really? THAT'S the reason why??" Which is how it got changed to "another reason". I know this probably isn't a conversation that most of you have with your husbands but we have it fairly often. I guess because we watch a lot of sports it comes up often. I see something happen that I don't like & I'm all "that's why blah blah blah".

I suppose the main reason that I'm not an athlete is that I'm awful at sports. Watching the volleyball game last night reminded me of my years & years of P.E. classes in school. I told Dean how much I hated when we played volleyball in P.E. because it hurt my arms. That made me think about how there was nothing that I liked about P.E. I absolutely HATED every last second of it. I remember in 5th grade we had to play golf. That was awful. The grass probably hasn't filled in yet from where I butchered it trying to hit that stupid little ball. In 6th grade my friend & I saw our 5th grade P.E. teacher at the Worlds Fair in New Orleans & he introduced us to some of his students as "the 2 laziest people I've ever taught". Apparently, he confused total & complete lack of interest & skill to lazy.

Then there was softball. Good grief, another little ball. Not to mention I throw like a girl. I'm constantly reminded of that by my brother.

I even hated square dancing. Who wanted to dance with those nasty boys? Not me. YUCK! OH & then it was high school. We were going to learn CPR on a dummy. At the ripe old age of 14 I had absolutely ZERO interest in learning this skill. The thought of having to actually breathe into someone's mouth to save their life was, for lack of a better word, GROSS. I also remember being in lots of trouble for having an F in P.E. on my progress report because I wasn't doing CPR correctly so the dummy wasn't lighting up like it was supposed to when I saved it. Don't even get me started on the "dressing out". Those P.E. outfits were AWFUL!! Not to mention it was very hard to take that t-shirt on & off without messing up my very big hair. It was the early 90's people, the hair was big & it was PERMED!!! Don't laugh.

So you see, athlete I am not!

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

2011-10-26T09:22:00.000-05:00

I'm up .6. I swear these 2 lbs. that I keep bouncing back & forth between are going to be the death of me. I'm going to attempt to eat well this weekend. I'm still blaming that stupid turtle cake. UGH!

This week's workout schedule is pretty messed up just because of stuff going on. I ran 3.2 miles Monday morning. I couldn't leave work early Monday so no Yoglates until yesterday but Dean & I did go walking Monday evening. We walked 2.7 miles. This morning I ran another 3.2. I can't go to Yoglates today or tomorrow. I'm hoping to get an early class in Friday morning since I'm off. It will depend on the teacher. I know that's awful but there are a couple of teachers that I'm just not crazy about. I've tried their classes & didn't care for them. If I can't go to a class I may run again. My plan is to run a 2 mile fun run at my Church Saturday. I haven't ran 2 days in a row so I'm not sure about that plan. I was thinking it may be fine since Saturday is a shorter run. We'll see.

I have an oatmeal update. You may (or may not) remember that I had a bit of an oatmeal fiasco a couple of weeks ago. I bought the Great Value brand & it exploded all over the microwave & tasted funny. I've continued to eat it after experimenting with the cook time & there have been no more explosions. I've figured something else out. It's not the oatmeal that has a funny taste, it's the cinnamon I've been putting on it. Apparently, if you put the cinnamon on BEFORE you cook the oatmeal it gives it a cinnamon flavor without the weird taste. Who knew? Well, maybe everyone but me but I know now & I'm enjoying my oatmeal.

Toodles!

LSU vs. Auburn

2011-10-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

When I woke up Saturday morning my leg was better. Notice I say better, not good?? I was worried that there would be problems. I DID NOT want to this to screw up my day. We had great seats & our friend was bringing us in the locker room. I sucked it up & put on my tennis shoes. I don't wear tennis shoes just anywhere. Generally, they're for working out & maybe the occasional running around. Me leg felt amazingly better when I put those shoes on. Of course wearing them required that I change my whole outfit. Not that it was anything special to begin with but still.

On our way to LSU we stopped & did our civic duty & voted then it was off to tailgate. The more we walked the better my leg felt. I was so relieved!!

Dean & I have a friend that works in LSU's Athletic Dept. so we were going to get to go in the locker room. We had to be there early which was fine with us. LSU was wearing their Nike Pro Combat uniforms for this game. I'm not crazy about the white helmets but they did have these iridescent like tiger stripes on them that was cool. Of course that doesn't show up in the picture.

This is the door that the players run out of onto the field.

The "Win Bar". The players touch it as the run out.

I could barely touch it even with my freakishly long arms & big hands.

Dean & I & some random dude in the background.

The North End Zone. Wasn't it a beautiful day?

After the tour it was back to tailgating. We met up with our friend that we were sitting with & another of Dean's friends. We visited several other friends which meant a TON of walking. We ate fried fish, boudin balls, brisket & shrimp pasta. It was another 2:30 game. For those of you that don't know, LSU fans HATE day games. I for one, was very happy with the day game. I had time to tailgate, go to the game, get home & still be in bed for 10:00. HA! Anyway, there are no night SEC games in Tiger Stadium this season because we're so good. HAHA! Seriously, we're good so CBS wants to televise all of our games which means 2:30 kickoffs. There was the one 11:30 kickoff which the fans really, really, really hate. Our friend Kevin drives in from Orange, TX for all of the home games & he has AWESOME tickets. He has 4 seats & normally his family comes with him. Only his daughter Montana wanted to come so he invited us along. We were sitting between the 45 & 50 yard line, 19 rows up. I LOVED these seats!!

Montana & me. She's 7 & was so into the game.

The Golden Band from Tigerland pregame. Pregame is my most favorite part of the whole game experience.

The band always spells out LSU at the end of pregame.

All of the captains for the game. I have serious issues with 9 being a captain due to off the field issues but that's another post. 9, 12, 18 & 30 are current players. The second row of "players" are past players that were the guest captains for the week.

Kickoff!!

Jarrett Lee (our starting QB) on the phone talking to the booth. I loved being able to watch all the hoopla on the sidelines. Those little purple circles aren't part of a Twister game. It's for the special teams guys to stand on so they know there will BE enough people on the field.

This thing fascinated me. If you watch any games on tv you've seen it. It's a camera. I zoomed in close & I should've taken one not zoomed in because the cords are attached to the bottom of the upper deck & this camera zooms all over above the field. It's really amazing. It's worked by some sort of remote. Very interesting.

LSU won 45-10. It was a great game!

Needless to say I was tired yesterday. Aside from going to Mass & the grocery store I got absolutely nothing accomplished. Well, except for reading!! Oh & I put a pork loin in the crock pot & used a McCormick Crock Pot Pulled Pork seasoning pack. It was good. We'll be having leftovers tonight. There was also no exercising going on yesterday. This morning I ran for 38 minutes before work.

Toodles!

Friday

2011-10-23T20:23:00.001-05:00

Dean & I were off Friday. I love just working a 4 day week. I've got another one this week! We did some shopping. We made a Sam's run. I do love that place. I've said before that I find nice clothes there. I'm sure there are people that think I'm crazy but I don't care. I scored Friday. I got a pair of Nine West jeans that I LOVE. They fit great & they were $20. I got a pair of brown corduroy pants for $20 & I got a pair of Nicole Miller dark brown dress pants for $16. I think I'm going to go back & see what other colors they had in the cords & dress pants. I only bought the brown ones because I didn't know how they'd fit. I also got a couple of tops.

$17!!

Kenneth Cole - $18!!

After Sam's we made a stop at Shoe Station. The sole purpose of this stop was to return a wallet I bought awhile back. Well, I ended up with these.

This is not my fault in the least. Even though I had my receipt they wouldn't give me my money back on the wallet because it had been more than 30 days since I bought it but they'd give me store credit. So see I HAD to buy shoes. I had a coupon of course too. They're dark brown. I really did need some dark brown casual shoes.

Next up was Academy. After the dress debacle that was my run the other morning it was imperative that I get some cold weather running clothes. I keep hearing that the Under Armour pants are the things to get BUT they're $50 a pair. I can't bring myself to pay that. Partly because I want more than one pair so I don't have to do laundry so much & partly because I seriously doubt that I'm running when it's 30 degrees. Sooooo, I went with the Academy brand. They say they'll keep you warm, they fit me & they were $20. HA! I got 2 pair. They're just black tight like, dry fit pants. I also got a couple of long sleeve dry fit shirts.

The pink one is much brighter than it looks. I decided it would be good for my morning runs. There's a school bus that comes through that drives entirely too fast so I want to make sure I'm seen!!! I'm about to order some dry fit gloves online & I'll be all set for my cold weather runs.

We had lunch at The Bulldog. We've never been there but I bought a Groupon awhile back. We had burgers & fries. I really enjoyed the fries. They were waffle fries, I'm not usually a fan of those but they were coated in wing sauce, then covered with chili, cheese & jalapeno peppers!!

I went for a run Friday afternoon & it wasn't pretty. The weather was beautiful & it wasn't too hot but it just wasn't a good run. I managed to make it 30 mins. but I only ran about 2.7 miles. How weird that I'm saying "only 2.7 mi.". Anyway, I think part of the problem was that I was too full. I just felt weird. I took a nap when I got home. I fell asleep on the sofa watching Friends.(all time favorite show EVER!!). Apparently, I was sleeping in a really weird position because my neck was really hurting along with my left leg when I woke up. As the night progressed my wrist starting hurting too. It was the weirdest thing. I only slept for an hour. Boy if I could have that hour back!! My birthday is Saturday & my friends & I always have a birthday dinner for each other. Mine was Friday. It ended up just being me, Wendy & Vicki because Allison was in a wreck. She's ok but banged up. We ate at Portobello's. It's another local Italian restaurant. I had the Eggplant Roulades.

It's fried eggplant topped with crawfish, spinach & a bacon cream sauce. Portobello's has the best side salad in town I think.

It's big for a side salad & it has diced tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, purple onions, bacon bits, grated cheese & croutons. I had blue cheese vinaigrette dressing which was really good too. Vicki's little boy Lane, is our Godchild & he gave me a Starbucks gift card. Y'all know I was excited about that!! It was a nice dinner.

Then it was home to bed. I could barely put any weight on my leg & I couldn't really turn my head. It wasn't pretty. We were going to the LSU game Saturday & that entails A LOT of walking. When I went to bed I didn't know if I'd get to go. So that's all for now!

Toodles!

Aliens & Weigh In Wednesday

2011-10-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

I know it's Thursday. I weighed yesterday & had every intention of posting but I never got around to it. I gained 1.8 for the week. Not happy about that but not surprising after all the food that was consumed last weekend. Not to mention the fact that we came home with leftover turtle cake & Dean who's "not much on chocolate" is "pretty much done with it". NO WAY was I throwing this cake away. It was way to good & not cheap to do that. What's that mean?? Yeh, I ate a couple of slices over the course of the week. It's gone now.

Speaking of food, last night we had dinner at Monjuni's. It's a local Italian restaurant that I love. We had a Groupon. I had 1/4 of a veggie muffaletto. OMG it was soooo good. Fried eggplant, roasted red peppers, asparagus, olive mix. YUM!!! I had a little house salad with it which is just shredded lettuce with Italian dressing & olive mix.

Yesterday was a run day for me & it was going to be cold. I don't really have any cold weather running gear so I had to piece it together & let me tell you I looked ridiculous. Leggings that are too big with a pair of shorts over them to make sure they stayed up, a long sleeve tshirt with a jacket over that, a head band covering my ears & NOTHING matched. It wasn't pretty. Dean & I are both off tomorrow & we will be hitting up Academy to find me some appropriate clothing. I ran 38 minutes straight. This afternoon I go to Yoglates.

So, I've said before that aliens have taken over my body since I've started all the exercising & changing my eating habits. Well, yesterday morning I got up at 4:45 & Dean's comment was "What's the world coming to when you're getting up this early, in the cold to run? Surely, the world is ending soon". I'm choosing to go with the alien theory. Otherwise, it will mean I've been doing all this when I could've just been eating & being lazy because I really don't think God cares if I'm in shape or not.

Toodles!

Time to move on???

2011-10-18T19:31:00.000-05:00

I tried another crock pot recipe today & it was delicious!! My friend Katie sent me this one & the recipe was cleverly titled "Chicken". I actually remembered to take a picture.

Here's the recipe:

1 Pkg. Onion Soup Mix
1 1/2 Cup Milk
2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Cup White Rice
6 Chicken Breasts (I only used 4)
6 tbsp Butter ( I used less than 4, who needs all that butter??)
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper (I didn't use salt or pepper, I used some McCormick garlic herb seasoning)
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese (Walmart didn't have Parmesan so I used an Italian blend)

Put onion soup mix, milk, mushroom soup & rice in a bowl & mix it all together.
Grease crock pot
Put chicken in crock pot & butter it
Pour mixture over the top. Add salt, pepper or whatever seasoning you use, then cheese on top
Cook on low 8-10 hours

I made green beans to go with it & it was delicious if I do say so myself. Dean liked it too! I'm thinking since I actually made some changes to the recipe & it turned out good maybe it's time for me to move on to cooking in something other than a crock pot?? I probably won't but maybe I could.

Speaking of food. I've jumped on the Ground Flaxseed Meal bandwagon. All the healthy people blogs I read rave over this stuff. Apparently, it's super healthy & has all sorts of vitamins & stuff that you need. I added it to my chocolate milk. I couldn't really taste it except for some little grains which was no biggie. I think it will be great in oatmeal which is what I see a lot of people put it in. I got mine at Whole Foods & it was with the vitamins. That's the last place I would've looked. I never would've found it without help.

I went to Yoglates yesterday & today. Tomorrow will be my second run of the week. It should be interesting because a cold front came through today & it's going to be in the high 40's in the morning. Wish me luck!!

Toodles!

Weekend Diet =

2011-10-17T11:03:00.000-05:00

EPIC FAIL!!!! Cheeseburger, jalapeno cheese fries, swamp bucket, 7 layer dip, garlic bacon dip, margaritas, turtle cake, pizza, more turtle cake. Yes, that was my diet this weekend. Of course that means it was a really good weekend! That's kinda sad isn't it? That how good my weekend was is based on food. Oh well, it is what it is. Friday night Dean & I had dinner at the Chimes. Cheeseburger, cheese fries & a swamp bucket. Delicious as usual!

Saturday I got up & went for a run. I've completed C25K but I'm still not running 3.1 miles in 30 mins. I think it's going to take me awhile to build up to that but in the meantime I need to make sure I can run 3.1 since the 5K is in 3 weeks. My plan was to tack on 2 mins. & run for 32 straight. Well, I ended up running 35 mins. straight & ran exactly 3.1 miles. Woo Hoo!! So now I know I can do it. That's half the battle right?

LSU had another 2:30 game Saturday & we went to watch it with our friends Paul & Niki. That would be where the dips, margaritas & cake came into play. You can't watch football without snacking right? LSU won but the game was a little on the boring side. We played with the kiddos for awhile. This is Charli

She likes having her picture taken. This is her baby brother Owen.

He's sooo happy & chubby!! I love all those rolls.

Me & Charli. Poor thing, I didn't realize all my hair was in her face!

Sunday was the Susan G. Komen Bowl for the Cure event in our city. My office had a team & I was one of the bowlers. This is where the pizza came in. I'm a mediocre bowler at best. Seriously. I thought maybe I'd be better since I'm stronger from Yoglates. Yeh, not so much. My ball does roll faster but that just means it gets to the gutter quicker than before. I'm proud to say I broke 50 in each of the 3 games we bowled. Now that I think about it, that's not even mediocre is it?? It's been a really long time since I've bowled. I know I haven't since we got married so at least 8 years.

The shoes haven't gotten any better. There was a casualty as well.

Don't worry, it's fake so it doesn't hurt. It's just not pretty.

This morning I was up at 5:00 for my run. I felt much better than I did Saturday & it seemed like a much easier run but my time wasn't as good. I ran another 35 mins. but I didn't make 3.1 miles. This afternoon is Yoglates.

How was everyone's weekend?

Toodles!

Random Thursday

2011-10-13T08:35:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited to say that I screwed up. I actually lost 2 lbs. this week not 1. My scale stores the last weight you were & I weighed this morning (had lost a tad) & that's when I saw that yesterdays weight was a pound less. YAY! I guess I need to start writing it down so I don't screw up the post.

I had a few people ask about cooking an egg in the microwave. My friend Allison is the one that told me how to do this. I just take a regular bowl, like a cereal bowl & crack the egg in that & add hot sauce & seasoning & then beat it all together with a fork. Make sure you spray Pam or something in the bowl. Otherwise, you're going to have a big mess & half your egg will end up stuck to the bowl. Trust me when I tell you this. Then just put it in the microwave (I cover it with the little plate cover thingy for microwave use & cook it for a minute. I know all microwaves are different so you may need to cook a little longer or a little less. The egg taste like a scrambled egg but it kind of molds itself to the bowl so it's like a little egg patty & is perfect if you want to make a sandwich with it. I had one this morning on an english muffin. I should've taken a picture but I didn't think about it.

Yoglates was TOUGH yesterday. Wednesday = a new routine. This week is very arm intense. Lots of push ups & we have to use those stupid balls. Well, we don't have too but I did. The ball weighs 6 lbs. so it's definitely making it harder. Today is my last class for the week. Tomorrow will be my day off & I'll run Saturday morning.

Is anyone watching Two and a Half Men? We loved it when Charlie Sheen was on. I know he's a horrible person, blah blah blah BUT it was funny. Now, not so much. At least we don't think so. I've never been much of an Ashton Kutcher fan. Not sure why but something about him bugs me & that hasn't changed with him on the show.

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

2011-10-12T09:12:00.000-05:00

Weight:
I'm down 1 pound from my last Weigh In Wed. which was Weigh In Thurs. on Sept. 29th. Woo hoo!! I didn't do an "official" weight post last week but I did weigh a couple of times & I was up from the 29th so I'm very excited to be down now. Still haven't made it to my goal but I know I'll get there eventually!

Food:
I've told of my cooking fiasco's before. Some major, some pretty minor. Well, in the last 2 weeks I've had breakfast issues. My breakfast varies depending on how much time I have in the morning. When there's extra time I usually scramble an egg in the microwave & put it on a whole grain english muffin. REALLY good!! Anyway, I put hot sauce & cajun seasoning in my egg before I cook it. Well, for some reason when I put the hot sauce in a bunch came flying out. I don't understand how that happened but whatever. Then I start sprinkling in the cajun seasoning & it came out pretty fast & I was like what's going on & that's when I realized. It wasn't cajun seasoning. It was CHILI POWDER. Lovely. I tried to scoop some out but that wasn't very effective. I just cooked it. Far be it from me to waste an egg & start over. As it turns out the extra hot sauce pretty much cancelled out the chili powder.

My next "incident" was this week. My sis-in-law Lydia has introduced me to the greatness that is oatmeal. I really like it! She told me about a brand, Better Oats, that she really liked. They are super easy. Open the little pack, pour the contents in a bowl, then fill the pouch to the line with water, add it & stir. Cook for whatever (I think a minute & a half). It comes out perfect every time. I was out of oatmeal so when we were grocery shopping Sunday morning I was going to get more. Well, the Walmart Neighborhood Market that we shop at doesn't have this particular brand. I wasn't in the mood to go to Winn Dixie so I bought Great Value instant oatmeal. Yeh, won't make that mistake again. I did just what the directions said. They say to cook 1 1/2 -2 minutes. I put it on 1:45. I open the microwave & half of my oatmeal is all over the microwave. I guess it exploded & NO I didn't cover it. It said not to. That was the first question Dean asked. Then it wasn't even that good. Like I have any extra time in the morning for breakfast malfunctions. I'll be making a trip to Winn Dixie soon.

I'm not a big fruit eater. I like oranges, grapefruits (every now & then), strawberries & grapes. Of all of these fruits the only ones I buy regularly are grapes. Don't ask me why. I guess because they're easy to eat. I forgot to get some at the grocery store Sunday. I stopped at the store on the way home from work to pick some up. I stopped at Matherne's which is a great family owned store. I LOVE this store but I don't do regular shopping there because it's more expensive. I see the grapes, I buy the grapes. Yesterday, at lunch I'm having grapes for dessert & there's something crunchy inside the grape. WTH?? Yeh those would be seeds. I swear I looked at the container & it said seedless. When I got home I checked out the container & it says "red seeded grapes". Lovely. I don't know about you but I don't like crunching down on something that isn't supposed to be crunchy. GROSS! This got me thinking. Why on earth do they even sell grapes with seeds when there are grapes without them? I don't understand that at all. So, now I have $6 worth of crunchy grapes.

Exercise:
I've only been to Yoglates once this week. That was yesterday. I didn't go Sunday because one of the "crazy" teachers was teaching. HA! There are 2 teachers that are just a little to gung ho for me. Let's just say the one & only time I went to this chick's class I went home & threw up. Soooo, I didn't go Sunday. Monday, I had a meeting a Church so I couldn't go. I'll be there today & tomorrow though to get my 3 classes in for the week.

Today I completed C25K!! I'm completely amazed with myself. No, I'm not running 3.1 miles in 30 mins. like it says I'll be doing at the end of 9 wks. but I can run 30 minutes at a time. My pace varies. Today I was slower than I've been at 12:02/mile. For some reason when I run on Saturday's I'm faster. I've been right around 11:00/mile. My plan is to continue to run 3 times a week & work my way up to 3.1. I'm planning my next run for Saturday morning & I'm going to go 32 minutes. Right now my goal is to run a 5K. The time will come later. My first race is November 5th.

Toodles!

Randoms

2011-10-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

When we last "spoke" I said I was postponing Weigh In Wednesday. I meant for like a day but one thing led to another & here we are on Sunday night so I'm just skipping it & will be back on track Wednesday.

I did lots of working out last week. Yoglates Sunday, Monday & Wednesday; Running Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Saturday I started Week 9 of C25K. Week 9 is the last week!! I honestly didn't think I would ever make it this far. Saturday my pace was 11:05 per mile so in the 30 mins. I'm running about 2.7 mi. My first 5K is November 5th so I have time to improve.

Thursday evening we went downtown. The United Way chapter in our area has a jambalaya cook off every year. This is the second year it's been in the evening & this year there were bands too. My friends that work with me, Aaron & Stan, were cooking. We ate jambalaya & had drinks. There are lots of restaurants & bars downtown & several of them had specialty drinks they were giving out when you had a ticket for both food & drinks. Some of them were good, some not so much but it was a lot of fun.

Friday I took the day off. Dean had to work. Normally, we take off together or he's off without me because he gets a week more vacation than I do plus he has one Friday a month off. However, since he went to Alaska in August I now have more days left. I had such good intentions. I had a couple of returns to make, I needed some pants, the oil needed to be changed in my truck & my nails needed to be done. Well, one thing led to another & I forgot the stuff I needed to return. I ended up getting the oil changed & my truck washed, I found 1 lousy pair of pants. When you lose 25 pounds aren't you supposed to be able to walk in any store & find stuff??? Loft was having a good sale & I got some tops there & I managed to find a pair of jeans at Dillard's. Other than that my shopping day was a bust.

I did have a delicious lunch. I walked right past Chick Fil A, Raising Canes, Izzo's & VooDoo BBQ at the food court & went to Jimmy Johns. I don't know if they're just in the south but I love it. I had a turkey sandwich on wheat bread & it was DELISH!! I even had a Dr Pepper. I hadn't had one in 2 weeks & since I had such a lousy shopping trip I needed something to cheer me up.

Next stop was the nail salon. I should've known better. 2:30 on a Friday afternoon the day before a home LSU football game?? What was I thinking?? There were like 30 people ahead of me. Needless to say I didn't wait. I went home & took a little nap!

Friday night we went with our neighbors to our Church Fundraiser. It was a silent & live auction along with dinner. Those of you that know me in real life will get a kick out of this. I ATE NESE!!! For those of you that don't know me in real life, Nese is Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese & any other type of food ending in Nese. I don't eat Nese. Like ever. Well, the meal at Church was catered by Serops, a Lebanese joint in town. There was rice, chicken schwarma, pita's, hummus & those grape leaf stuffed things which Dean described as Lebanese boudin. The only thing I didn't care for were the grape leaves. The stuff inside was ok but it really wasn't my thing. The salad was really good. Before anyone gets carried away I'm not going out & eating Lebanese. I can make chicken & rice at home. This is just another example of how aliens must be invading my body - exercise, running, cooking & now eating nese.....

There was also a desert martini bar. There was something called the Liontini that I tried & it was DELISH!!! Chambord, pineapple juice & vanilla vodka. Really good!

Saturday, LSU played at 2:30. I went for my run Saturday morning & then high tailed it into the shower so I could be at the nail salon as close to 9:00 as possible so I wouldn't have to wait too long. There was no need to rush. Nobody was there the entire time I was. I guess everyone was going to the game. Once I got home from the nail salon we didn't leave the house. I took a little nap before the game came on & then we watched football the rest of the night. By bedtime I was pretty much done with football.

Today we went to Mass at 7:00 & then grocery shopping. The rest of my day was spent on the sofa. Another nap, I read, watched the Saints & read some more.

Speaking of reading, I read 2.5 books this weekend. The Pretty Little Liar series is really good! My friend Wendy told me about them. They're young adult but they're really good.

So basically that's my long weekend in a nutshell. Nothing exciting but at least I wasn't at work right??

Toodles!

Anniversary Dinner

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our 8th anniversary. We've been together for 13 1/2 years. I often refer to things as being B.D. or A.D. (Before Dean or After Dean). Ha! We had dinner at Flemings last night. This is our favorite steak restaurant. It's pricey so it's a once or twice a year treat. We've been to Sullivan's & Ruths Chris but we don't think there's any comparison. They bring this bread to the table with 2 spreads. One is garlic & something & the other is tomato basil. It's soooo good. They also have a new "skinny" martini, "The Stiletto". It's 99 calories & since it's breast cancer awareness month they're donating all of the proceeds to breast cancer research. That means you have to have at least one right? It's for a good cause!

Gin, lime, ginger & fresh blackberries (which you can't see but were delish!). I had the wedge salad. This is by far my favorite salad & every time I eat one (which isn't often) I ask why is it that a head of iceburg lettuce chopped in half is soooo good?? Dean says it's all about the temp. It's just so good & this one had big chunks of blue cheese which I absolutely love!!! YUM! Next up was my steak. Porcini rubbed filet, grilled asparagus spears & a Gorgonzola cream sauce. OMG!! Soooo good!!

I received an email saying that if we dined at Flemings during October we'd get a free piece of cake because October is my birthday month. Well, this wasn't just any chocolate cake.

Triple Chocolate Celebration Cake! There's nothing I can say about this cake that will do it justice. It wasn't just a piece of cake. It was more the size of like 4 or 5 pieces. We split it & we ate it ALL! Incidentally, Weigh In Wednesday has been postponed. I promise I forgot to weigh & it doesn't have anything to do with that cake. I mean it does, but I truly did forget to weigh this morning. At this point we were both stuffed! Then the waiter brought these since it was our anniversary.

Flemings Truffles. I remember we got these last year when we went & they're divine! He gave us each a box. I will be limiting myself to one a day. And YES I am going to Yoglates today!

Toodles!

It's October!

2011-10-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe isn't it? I love the month of October. My anniversary is tomorrow & my birthday is at the end of the month. Lots to look forward to.

Friday night we went to the wine tasting. There were 4 couples & we had such a good time. We also drank entirely too much wine. There were 7 wines featured. The 7th was DELISH, my absolute fave. Sadly, it was like $150 a bottle. Needless to say we didn't bring any of that home. The meal was delicious too. We had blue cheese stuffed mushrooms. SOOOOO good. Turkish lamb stew, which I was leery about, but was also really good. The main course was prime rib & olive oil baked potatoes with chocolate butter cake for dessert. The wines are always discounted at these dinners so we usually buy some of our faves. There's also an additional discount if you buy 6 or more. This is some of what we bought.

We ended up with 7 bottles. I just realized something. Anytime, I buy more of something than I need due to a discount Dean says I'm "spaving", spending to save. He makes fun of me for this BUT he did the same thing Friday night!!! HA!

So after the dinner we went to Marcello's. It's a small restaurant & bar that's really good. We just stopped in for a drink. I had a wedding cake martini & it was delish!! Good thing I had the recipe in my phone because the bartender didn't know how to make it.

YUM!!!

Suzy, Korie & me. It was really dark so it was hard to get a decent picture.

Saturday morning I woke up bright & early at 6:15 & couldn't go back to sleep. It was awful. I also had a headache. Imagine that. I went for a walk & then came home & did Bethenny Frankel's Body By Bethenny Yoga DVD. I borrowed it from my friend Wendy to see what it's like. I've never done just regular Yoga so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's very similar to the yoga portion of Yoglates. I liked it & it was more low key than what we do in class so that was nice on a off day but I probably wouldn't do this one again. I'd rather do something different from my regular routine.

I laid on the sofa the rest of the afternoon watching the LSU game. It was dullsville but they won. After the game we went next door for Amelia-Ann's 13th birthday party. I had my first "gourmet" cupcake. I never understood what the fuss was about but OMG I do now & I've been missing out. They were soooo good!!! I had wedding cake. DELISH!! Hopefully, it won't affect the scale too much this week. I just couldn't resist.

Yesterday, we went to 7:00 Mass & when we got home I ran. Week 8 Day 1 is 28 minutes straight. It was tough but I did it & I increased my time by over a minute. I don't know if that was a fluke or if I really am improving since the weather is cooler & less humid. I guess we'll see tomorrow when I do day 2. After my run I parked myself on the sofa again. I didn't sleep great again Saturday night & I was planning to go to Yoglates later so I took a little nap & read & watched the Saints. I brought Korie & Suzy to Yoglates with me. They'd never tried it & didn't know what to expect. Let's just say they have an all new respect for me & what I've been doing. I got a message from Korie this morning that just said "OWWWW". That pretty much sums it up!

Did y'all have a good weekend?

Toodles!

Wooo Hoooo It's Friday!!!!

2011-09-30T08:32:00.000-05:00

We have a pretty low key weekend planned. A wine tasting dinner tonight & Amelia-Ann's 13th birthday party next door tomorrow evening after the game. The rest of the time will be spent watching football & reading. Maybe even a nap! What's everyone else doing?

I went to Yoglates yesterday afternoon & finished off Week 7 of C25K this morning. It was HOT! I'm looking forward to the cooler temps we're supposed to have next week.

Yesterday, I made my second crock pot dinner. Chicken & Dumplings. I forgot to take pictures but it was delish! I don't know if they compare to real homemade chicken & dumplings. Probably not but I haven't had those so these were great.

Here's the recipe:

4-5 Chicken breasts
2 tbsp Melted butter
2 Cans cream of chicken soup
1 Can of water
1 12-oz Can of biscuits
Seasoning to taste. I used Cajun seasoning.

Cook everything together for 8-10 hrs.
Quarter the biscuits & put them in for the last 45 mins. & put on high.
Stir & enjoy!

I'm linking to Flip Flops & Pearls Recipe Swap

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

2011-09-29T08:16:00.000-05:00

UGH! I hate to even type these words. I gained 2.6 pounds. I knew I shouldn't have had that second piece of shower cake. I guess the fried food didn't help either. Sigh. Oh well, I've done well this week. Of course I generally do well during the week. The weekends are the problem. I'm going to try & do better this weekend. Although, we're going to a wine tasting tomorrow night. The meal appears to be fairly diet friendly. With the exception of dessert, chocolate Cabernet butter cake. I also plan to have nachos while watching the game Saturday. I've been craving them for a couple of weeks. I have multi grain tostitos so that's something. Other than those 2 meals, I WILL eat good.

Today will be my last Yoglates class for the week. 3 days in a row is tough but that's just the way it worked out this week. Tomorrow will be the last day of Week 7 for C25K. It's really hard to believe I only have 2 weeks left & I'll have made it through the entire program. I honestly didn't think I'd make it. I also registered for my first 5K this week. It's November 5th. There's no turning back now!

I have another meal cooking in the crock pot today. I'll post about it tomorrow. This one involves chicken.

Toodles!

"A Crock Pot Revolution!"

2011-09-28T06:57:00.000-05:00

That would be a direct quote from my friend Allison!! A couple of weeks ago I talked about how we went to Sam's & only bought food which is unusual for us. Well, I remembered that we didn't just buy food. We bought this.

It's 6 quarts & also came with a "little dipper" & a carrying case. All for $40. Can't beat that. This was around the time that I was seeing crock pot stuff all over Facebook & my friend Allison had cooked several things in hers & raved about how good & easy it wa. Being that I'm not a cook & need all the help/easy recipes I can get I decided to try it. Today was the day. My first crock pot venture was a roast. This is what it looked like before I turned it on this morning.

Not real appetizing but you get the idea. This is the finished product at 6:00 when I got home from Yoglates.

It's really hard to take a picture of meat. Anyway, it turned out DELICIOUS!!! I made rice to go with it. That in itself is no small feat. Yes, I used a rice cooker but I've been known to screw that up. Not this time though! I made an entire meal & it was good!!! Roast, rice & gravy & green beans. They greatest part about this is that it took hardly any time at all! The roast was so tender it was falling apart. It would be great to make a BBQ beef sandwich with.

Here's the recipe:

2-3 lb. Roast
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (the dry mix)
1 packet Italian dressing mix (the dry mix)
1 packet Brown Gravy mix
1 cup of water

Place the roast in the crock pot
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl then pour it over the roast
Pour water around the roast. Do not pour over the roast.
Cook on low 8-10 hrs.

I cooked mine for 10 hrs. & then it switched to warm for an hour.

Toodles!

Weekend Wrap Up

2011-09-27T09:06:00.000-05:00

Friday night was our usual out to dinner night. We went to a local BBQ place called Couyon's. I had a really good pulled pork sandwich. I love that they gave me a pile of dill pickles with my sandwich. I don't know what it is about BBQ but I HAVE to have dill pickles with it. YUM!! We walked next door after dinner & had frozen yogurt at Swirl.

Saturday I was up fairly early & pulled weeds while Dean cut the grass. It wasn't too ridiculously hot so that made it a lot better. I ended up taking a nap & just hanging out for most of the day. We went to Mass & then came home for the LSU game. Several of the neighbors came over to eat & watch the game. Anyone know what this is?

If you guessed frog you win!!! Notice I said frog, not frog legs. I thought you only ate the legs. I learned differently Saturday night. I've tasted frog legs before & I tasted again Sat. night. They really do taste like chicken but they're actually better I think. I didn't eat more because it actually looks like a headless frog. I couldn't really get past that. Dean also fried shrimp so that's what I ate. One of our neighbors, Dave, whose wife was out of town brought this.

He made it & it was DELISH!!! It was cheeses, artichokes, mushrooms & salami. Those olives you see are stuffed with Feta cheese. YUM!!!

The Tigers won so it made for a fun night. Next up is Kentucky at 11:20 am Saturday. For those non LSU peeps, LSU fans DO NOT like day games & especially not 11:20 ones. The game is in BR. We live about 3 miles from LSU so suffice it to say we'll be at home Saturday. Traffic is a nightmare & the road that our subdivision is on is a major thoroughfare to & from LSU. After the game contra flow is in effect so it's easier to just stay home. I'm already planning nachos for lunch while we watch the game. I've been craving them for a week & it's perfect football watching food.

Sunday I was going to a cousin in law's baby shower. I was going with my mom so I got to go hang out with Logan for a little while. He has a sinus infection.

Poor little pitiful thing. That didn't last long though. He was in a good mood & we played with trucks, he showed me how to work the DVD player & how he can tumble. Which led to him wanting me to tumble. Luckily, I distracted him.

Cheese!

Logan now doesn't want anyone to leave once they get there. When I told him I had to go he kept telling me "no, take shoes off". He knows if you don't have shoes on you can't go outside. It was pitiful.

The shower was very nice. Baby Landry got all sorts of adorable stuff. She's going to be a really well dressed little girl. I love shower food & It didn't disappoint. There were pinwheels (love!), finger sandwiches (why is it finger sandwiches taste better than regular sandwiches?), dips & this

Isn't that the most amazing cake ever??? What's even better is it came from Ambrosia Bakery. All my B.R. peeps know that they make the most amazing cakes! Again, this did not disappoint. It was so good I had 2 pieces & they were both loaded with icing. YUM! My cousin tried to send me home with cake but I refrained. I took one piece for Dean & that was it.

On a related note, Weigh In Wednesday will be moved to Thursday this week due in part to the shower cake & (I'm scared to weigh) & part because I have something else to post about tomorrow.

Yesterday morning I started Week 7 of C25K. I really can't believe I've been doing it that long. It doesn't seem like it. As of Friday, every run is at least 25 mins. straight. It went well Monday. Today I go to Yogalates for the first time this week.

Toodles!

Cheers to the Freakin' Weekend!

2011-09-23T12:58:00.000-05:00

I love that song & I heard it on my way to work this morning & haven't been able to get it out of my head. Normally, if I even think of the Zac Brown Band song Chicken Fried, it sticks in my head & everything else leaves but that hasn't even worked today. Oh well. Lots of randoms today.

This morning was the big 25 minute run to complete week 6 of C25K. I did it. No stitch either. I felt one possibly coming on so I concentrated on my breathing & that seemed to keep it at bay. YAY!!!
Dean is off today & I really hate to have to go to work when he's off. So it was even more impressive that at 4:45 when I woke up I got up.
I went to Target at lunch to buy a baby gift for a shower I'm going to Sunday. I got some cute stuff. I'm not like the rest of the free world that has this love affair with Target. I'm just not impressed & I don't see what all the hoorah is about. I don't love Walmart either. In fact, I really despise it but the prices are cheaper than Target & it's closer to my house. I only went to Target because it's easier to get to from my office.
I'm trying to decide where I want to go for dinner. You know it's Friday & that means out to eat.
Made it to Yoglates 4 times this week. I'm sore. In a good way. I'm not sure if it's from the extra class or the increased running.

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday!

2011-09-21T15:36:00.000-05:00

I said last week that I think I've hit a plateau. Well, I'm happy to say I've lost 2 pounds this week. YAY! Although, I'm not getting overly excited. I feel like I've gained & lost this 2 pounds for awhile now. Let's see if I can keep it off & lose a little more in the upcoming week. I've already gone to Yogalates twice this week & I'll be leaving shortly for class. I plan to go tomorrow too. I ran Monday & this morning. The weather was better today than Monday. Not nearly as much humidity or it was cooler or something. I did get a "side stitch" today. I had to do (2) 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk in between. The stitch hit me about 7 minutes into the first run. I made it through but was worried I wouldn't be able to finish the second run. I used the 3 minute walk for some deep breathing which I keep hearing is good & was able to complete the last 10 minutes without a problem. My next run is Friday morning & it's a 25 min run with no walking. Wish me luck. If anyone has any tips on the whole stitch thing I'd love to hear them. From everything I've read it's all about your diaphragm & breathing. I read something about not landing on the same foot every time. I have no idea how you go about fixing that & I'm not about to try. That's waaaayyyy too much thinking for me. I'm lucky I can breathe.

Not much of a post but I have to note this stuff or I won't stay motivated. Not to mention there's nothing else going on this week.

Toodles!

A Rest Day!

2011-09-20T11:35:00.000-05:00

Dean pointed out that I did 2 Yogalates classes & a run in a span of 24 hours. I need a rest day! Which is what today is. No morning run, no afternoon class. I'm just going straight home after work & I'm VERY happy! As good as I feel after I workout it's still nice to do nothing sometimes.

In my last post I mentioned that we had house guests this weekend. Our friend Katie, who lives in Houston, came to town for a friends shower. We were excited to see her but we were even more excited to get to meet her baby Quinn! She's 4 months old & just too cute.

This was Quinn's reaction when "Hey Fighting Tigers" was on the radio. She looks pretty happy! Katie is an LSU alum but Quinn's daddy is a Notre Dame alum & he'd called after they actually won a football game & sang the alma mater to her. This was the result of that phone call.

Isn't she so cute? She loves sucking on her fingers & thumb. It's really adorable. Quinn still sleeps a lot so that left a lot of time for visiting with Katie. Dean grilled steaks & we sat around drinking wine & catching up. Sunday morning when Dean & I got back from Mass we watched Quinn while Katie went. She slept the whole time so that was easy. She's very happy when she wakes up.

Here's Dean & Quinn. She has her daddy's skin which if you can't tell is the typical fair Irish type!

Between the lighting & the iPhone the pics aren't very good but my phone was always handy. Dean cooked crab cakes for lunch & OMG they were sooooo good!!!! Like, just as good if not better, than any restaurant. Katie & Quinn left Sunday afternoon to visit in New Orleans. We were sad to see them go but were very happy we got to spend some time with them.

Toodles!

2011-09-18T20:08:00.000-05:00

Well that 3 day weekend flew by. I've said it before, sometimes I don't like being busy on the weekends because they go by too fast. Of course I don't want to hang out doing nothing either. I need to start a countdown to retirement.

Friday morning I wasn't dizzy anymore. YAY!! I went out to do my last run for week 5 of C25K. This was the 20 min. run. That would be 20 mins. with no walking in between. I was scared. I did it!!! It wasn't that bad either. I was so proud of myself.

We did a Sam's run Friday morning. This time we actually only bought food. That rarely happens. The weather was gorgeous! We went to Red Zeppelin which is a local pizza place & had lunch outside on their patio. We decided that we wanted Mexican for dinner so we went to La Carreta. Love, love, love!!! We ate on their patio also. There are very few days in Louisiana that are perfect weather days to eat outside. I wanted to take full advantage.

Saturday we were up early to go to my brother & sis-in-law's camp. It's about an hour & a half from our house. We went boat riding.

Logan loves the boat! He was so cute. When we are on the pier & he hears a boat coming he stops whatever he's doing & just listens & then he sees it & says "there's da boat", it goes behind the trees & he looks at us with his little arms out & says "where'd it go?" & then it comes out from behind the trees & he says "there it is!" Soooo freakin' cute!!!

While Logan loves the boat, I on the other hand, haven't been a fan. The boat scares me. Of course I haven't actually been in a boat in like 30 years probably. Well, Logan wants to ride so of course I'm going too.

My first boat ride as an adult. It wasn't bad at all. I'd do it again. We went to Gros Marina. They have a little store, a little bar, they cook & sell food & sometimes have bands. The specialty is Lulu's Cherry Bomb Daiquiri. It's soooo good!!!! Very fruity. Funny how I like all of these fruity drinks but I don't like fruit. Weird.

I think it's really pretty out in the bayous & lakes.

This is the marina. I thought it was cute how they have little parking spaces for the boats. They also have electrical outlets in case you need to charge the battery.

There's even a gas pump for the boats. Logan was enjoying his Blow Pop!

A "No Wake Zone". Logan doesn't care for those because that means we're going slow. Logan's not a fan of slow, nor does he do anything slow. When he was tired of waiting he got right next to his daddy & reached over & pressed the button for the gas. That kid is HILARIOUS!!

Had to include this one just because he's so cute!!! We went back to the camp & Scott fried fish for lunch & we hung out awhile. Then it was home to our house guests. That's a future post. Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Toodles!

My winnings!

2011-09-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Dean & I each won a quarter on our football boards at work for the LSU game. $50 each!! Wooo hooo!! Dean's won before but I never have. Very exciting stuff. Being that I've lost this weight all of my winter clothes are too big. I went to the outlet mall Sunday. I didn't find a ton of stuff but I got a few things.

With all the recent working out I have a fondness for workout clothes. They have some really cute stuff out there. This is a dry fit jacket type thing. I'm sure it will come in handy for runs on cool days. It was marked down plus another 40% off. I bought it at the Reebok store, which I've come to love in the last few months, much to the chagrin of the 12 yr old that was telling his mom "I don't like Reebok, I like Nike". Spoiled brat. HA!

More cold weather gear. I got this one at the Gap. It's LSU gold (bright yellow for non LSU fans). Not dry fit but too cute not to get. Also on sale. While at the Gap I also got 2 pair of dress pants. They were 50% off so they were only $22/each. They only had my size in black & grey. I would've loved a couple more pair at that price.

Another Reebok purchase. The pictures of all this stuff isn't great. This shirt is LSU purple. It was on sale for like $7. Can't pass that up. It's dry fit too.

Then it was off to Ann Taylor. Everything in the store was 40% off. This sweater vest thingy is a burgundy/wine color. I thought it would look cute with a long sleeve shirt underneath with leggings or jeans. I got it for like $15.

This cardigan also came from Ann Taylor. It's bright pink. I can always use a cardigan. It's always cold in my office.

Then I got these beauties!! LOOOVVVVEEE them!! This was a Shoe Station purchase using a $25% coupon. I don't shop at Shoe Station without a coupon. When Dean saw the shoe box he rolled his eyes but these were a need based purchase. I PROMISE! The casual brown shoes that I have are old & wearing out. I thought these were the perfect replacement. On a related note, I bought a new wallet at Shoe Station too. I was transferring everything into it only to discover that it's too small so I'm bringing it back. BUT, while I was moving things around I found something I'd lost. A $100 Walmart gift card. I shouldn't say I found it because technically it wasn't lost. I KNEW I put it in my wallet but then I couldn't find it. It had slipped all the way down in the credit card slot. Needless to say I was very excited to find it.

Today we had our benefits fair at work. There are all sorts of door prizes & I managed to win (2) $25 Visa gift cards!! Apparently, it's my lucky week. I need to buy a lottery ticket.

Today is our Friday. LSU is playing tonight at Mississippi State so we decided to take off tomorrow. We knew we'd be up late to watch the game. LSU is winning at the moment 16-6. Tomorrow's plan includes a run that I didn't do today due to this stupid dizziness, a trip to Sam's & who knows what else. I did go to Yogalates today. I don't know if all that hanging my head upside down got the fluid in my ears moving around or my steroids just happened to start working between 4:30-5:30 but I felt good all through class & much less dizzy afterwards.

Random enough post??

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

2011-09-14T13:21:00.000-05:00

I'm up .6 this week. It's not much but not a loss which is a bummer but that's ok. I think I'm at a bit of a plateau. Yesterday, I was up a little before 5:00 am & got my run in. I'm on week 5 of C25K & this is the first week that the run changes 3 times in a week. Day 1 was 5 min. runs & yesterday was (2) 8 minute runs. I was really scared about those but I did them without much of a problem. YAY me! Next up? Run for 20 mins. without walking. EEK! I'm scared. Thankfully, I got up yesterday & got day 2 in because this morning when I got of bed I was soooo dizzy. I was feeling fine but suspected there was something going on with my ears. I generally have ear issues first & then it turns into sinus. I was able to get a Dr's appt. & sure enough fluid in both ears. I'll be stopping at the pharmacy on my way home from work to pick up yet another round of steroids, nasal spray & something for the dizziness. Oh joy. The only good thing I can say about this is my Dr. said the meds for the dizziness will make me sleepy so take them at night. Good thing because the steroids keep me awake. Anyway, I don't think there's any way I could've ran this morning.

The ENT's office called with the results of my CT scan. Everything is fine. They didn't see anything to be concerned about. I was thankful for that. It would really suck to know that I've been dieting, losing weight & exercising only to find out something's wrong with me.

I also went to Yogalates yesterday. After this week I'm going to try to not run & go to class on the same day. I could tell my legs were tired when we started class. I have to do both tomorrow but that's just how my schedule worked out this week.

Tonight we have dinner with the neighbors for one of the guys' birthdays. We're going to a new place in town, Fat Cow. They have "gourmet burgers" & other stuff. I keep hearing about the greatness of the "duck fat fries". Not a very appealing name but I was assured they are truly greatness. We will see.

I went shopping Sunday. I was planning to do a post on what I bought but I didn't get around to taking all the pictures yet. This is the only one I've taken.

It's a thingy to put my phone in that goes on my arm. I've been wanting one & I found this one at the Nike Outlet for $12. I was very excited!

Toodles!

Monday.....

2011-09-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

Not a fan of Monday's. Luckily, today has gone by pretty fast. I had my CT scan Friday & it was fine. There was trouble with the IV. My veins roll but it wasn't awful. The weirdest thing was when they put the contrast in the IV. They lady doing the test warned me that I'd feel warm all over & I would feel like I was wetting my pants. HUH??? Well folks, that's EXACTLY what it felt like. Wendy, you didn't tell me about that part!!! Anyway, the feeling subsided after a few minutes & everything was fine.

After the test I stopped & got my nails done. Dean fried fish & some of our fresh shrimp for dinner. I made a poboy. It was soooo good!

Saturday morning I went to walk the lakes. We had a big crew going. It was me, Allison, Andrea, Jennifer & Sally. It was a gorgeous day & the humidity was still low so it was a really nice walk. I had to do my first Hob Lob run in awhile & on the way home I stopped at Starbuck's. It's practically next door to Hob Lob! I went home & pulled weeds. I definitely think I got my exercise Saturday.

Saturday evening we went to Mass & afterwards out to dinner. Our neighbor Amelia-Ann went with us. Her parents were going to the LSU game & she didn't want to go. We ate at Sammy's & it was soooo good. Poor Amelia-Ann had been playing in a soccer tournament all day so she was exhausted. It wasn't long after we got home that she fell asleep.

She doesn't look very comfy to me but she was sleeping hard. It reminded me of me. I've been known to sleep in odd positions too.

Dean & I are each on football boards at our offices. I never win. Dean has won a couple of times. Saturday was our lucky night. Dean won the 1st quarter & I won the 2nd quarter. That's $100 people!! I was so excited. Sunday, I spent it but that's another post.

Sunday morning Dean got up early to go to his parents so he could go out with his dad to check is crab traps. They caught 18 dozen. He brought me some home just the way I like it....already peeled! I love crab meat in salads. I did day 1 of week 5 of C25K Sunday morning too. Then it was off shopping. Like I said, another post.

Toodles!

It's Friday!

2011-09-09T13:45:00.002-05:00

So excited for the weekend. We don't have plans but the weather is supposed to be beautiful & I'm just happy not to have to be at work. I'm leaving in a little bit for my scan & the fasting is killing me. No food isn't an issue but having nothing to drink is really, really hard! I keep reaching for my cup.

Yesterday, Dean's parents went to Dulac, LA to get us all some fresh shrimp to freeze. They go every year & load up. We get an ice chest full which is 40 lbs. Shrimp is my favorite! Dean's parents deheaded them for us so all we had to do was put them in containers for the freezer. We were almost finished when I remembered to take pictures.

Here's a close up. The shrimp are big.

We put them in these plastic quart containers & fill them with water.

See how big?

Funny story. Dean is from a place called Bayou Pigeon which is a few miles down the road from Bayou Sorrel. If anyone watches "Swamp People", you've heard of Sorrel. Jr. & Willie live there. We pass Jr's doublewide going to Dean's parents. Troy Landry doesn't live far either. People say Dean has an accent. I don't hear it. I guess because I live with him. When we were in Dallas, Dean was talking to someone he knew & someone that was with them said "You sound like Swamp People". I thought this was HILARIOUS!!! Everytime I think about it I laugh.

BTW, I did get up at 5:00 for a run. It was in the 50's & actually a little chilly!

Have a good weekend!

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

2011-09-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

I didn't have time to blog yesterday. I gained a pound this week. No surprise there. We ate & drank in Dallas. There was BBQ & lots of Mexican food. I even indulged in a 3 Musketeers on the way home. There aren't a lot of healthy snacks at the convenience store in the middle of nowhere. (They didn't even sell lottery tickets). I do get credit because all they had was a 2 pack of full size bars & I only ate 1. Yay me! Small victories people.

I've done well with my exercising this week. Tuesday & Wednesday I went to Yogalates & I'm going again this afternoon. Yesterday morning I got up at 5:00 when Dean got up & I went for my run. It was Day 2 of Week 4 of C25K. We've been having great weather this week. It's been in the 50's in the mornings. It was so great to run & not feel like I was suffocating because of the temp & humidity. This week is alternating 3 & 5 minute runs. 5 minutes is hard. 3 minutes was hard last week so I'm hoping by tomorrow 5 will be easier. I'm planning to do another 5 am run in the morning. Next week each day is different & the week ends with a 20 min. run. I'm nervous just thinking about it.

Between the exercise & the weight loss I seem to have much more energy than I did before. I was out the door a little after 6:30 this morning & was able to run by the grocery store & pick up some things before going to work.

I'm having my CT scan Friday afternoon. I'm not thrilled about this because they put an IV in so that they can put some contrast something or other in. I've said before, not a fan of needles when veins are involved. Another issue with the scan is that because of this contrast stuff I have to fast for 3 hours prior to the test. They said it can make me sick if I've eaten. I can handle the no food. A lot of the time I don't eat an afternoon snack. The test is at 2:30 so I'll just have to eat an early lunch. The problem comes in with the no drink part. That's going to be awful. I ALWAYS have a drink. These days it's water most of the time. I'm going to have to hide my cup so I don't accidentally fix a drink. I'm already planning to reward myself with a Sonic Dr. Pepper after the test. Which, incidentally, brings me to another issue. There's an ugly rumor going around that Sonic is doing away with their styrofoam cups. NOT GOOD SONIC!!! Apparently, in the Baton Rouge area they've already started this. At one location you can request a styrofoam cup but I don't know if that's forever or just until they run out of cups. I'll find out more Friday & report back.

I just had a wonderful surprise! Wendy brought me a green tea from Starbucks. She's working a later schedule today so she stopped on her way in. THANKS WENDY!!! You read my mind!! The only thing that would make this stuff better is a styrofoam cup.

That's all for now, not much happening this week.

Toodles!

LSU vs. OREGON

2011-09-05T20:33:00.001-05:00

Tigers won! That always makes the trip even better! We had such a great time. The only thing that would've made it better is if the temp would've been about 10 degrees cooler. Tailgating in 102 degrees isn't the most fun! We stayed at the Omni Fort Worth. It was really nice. The team was staying there too. After we checked in I went to Starbucks & got my first green tea of the weekend. Then Dean & I hung out in the lobby. Y'all! The people watching was so great! For example, there was this

and the back

That says Ware 11 on her butt. Her son is Spencer Ware who plays for LSU. I wonder if he knows she wears this.

Friday night we had dinner with Cliff & Sheri's nephews & wife. We ate at a Mexican restaurant. It was so good. Afterwards, we had tickets to the Lizard Lounge. Travis Matte & Bag of Donuts which are both Louisiana bands were playing there for the Tiger Block Party. We saw tons of people we knew. Again, 107 degrees at 8:00 pm is a bit much but we had fun. We didn't get to bed until 1:30 am.

Saturday morning Dean, Cliff & Sheri rode out to a saddle store to pick up some stuff for Cliff & Sheri's daughter Amelia-Ann. I stayed at the hotel to get dressed & do more people watching. With a Starbucks iced green tea of course. Once the crew got back we went to lunch. The area we were in had several restaurants so we walked a couple of blocks & found a burger joint & it was sooooo good! Then it was back to the hotel to hang out. We saw so many people we knew. It was fun to visit with everyone.

We left the hotel around 3:00 to go the stadium so we could tailgate. Please remember it was 102 degrees & we'd been walking around & it was windy so I don't look my best in these pictures.

Me & my friend Liz.

Dean & I.

Alex, Nick (Cliff's nephews), Cliff, Sheri, me & Dean

Cliff, Dean, Alex & Stan with their beer.

Dean, me & Suraj. We met Suraj when he was a student work in the LSU Athletic Dept. He used to tailgate with us. After he graduated he moved to Dallas. We haven't seen him in years. Dean just happen to notice that he was sitting on the row behind us. I was so happy to see him. That would be a $16 margarita in my hand. "Jerry's World" is AWESOME but cheap it isn't!

This is the big screen. It's absolutely amazing. It's HUGE & the clearest screen I've ever seen. Seriously amazing.

This is the "Golden Band from Tigerland" aka LSU's awesome band. This was pregame. When the band plays the first few notes of pregame it gives you chills.

During the game I ate some of the best nachos I've EVER had. Seriously. I'm not talking about plain old stadium nachos. These things had all sorts of stuff on them. I was so busy consuming that plastic container of greatness that it didn't occur to me to take a picture. What's even more amazing than how good they were was the fact that they were only $9. Cheaper than the popcorn. Still can't figure that out.

After the game it was back to the hotel. We were hungry & the restaurant in the hotel had a nice taco bar set up which was also delicious. I can't believe I haven't turned into a tortilla chip I ate so many of them this weekend.

Yesterday, we had a fairly easy trip home. There was a slight detour due to wildfires crossing the interstate. We had friends that were ahead of us so they gave us the heads up & we detoured before we got there.

Today was a day of rest & laundry. We seem to be all caught up. I say it was a day of rest but I did do Day 1 of Week 4 of C25K. 3 & 5 min. runs alternated. It was tough but I did it. Yay me!

I hope everyone had as awesome a holiday weekend as we did.

Toodles!

2011-09-02T13:48:00.001-05:00

We're less than 2 hours from Dallas! I'm ready to be there but the drive hasn't been bad at all. Our friends Cliff & Sheri are riding with us.

We stopped at a great BBQ place for lunch. Normally, I would've taken pics but I was so hungry I completely forgot. I had a chopped beef sandwich that I had to eat with a knife & fork.

I'm happy to be on the road because I'm getting some rest. I discovered Wed. night that I needed a pair of khaki shorts. I only had 2 pair of shorts that fit & one pair wouldn't work with the shoes I'm wearing. I have to wear those shoes because of the tops I'm wearing. Normally, on days that I go to Yogalates I only take a 30 min. lunch so I can leave early. Well, Thurs was Yogalates so that meant I went to work early & took my hour lunch & went to the mall. Thankfully, my boss doesn't care what we do.

My first stop was Loft. No shorts. Next up Ann Taylor. Ding ding ding, we have a winner!! Not only did they have shorts, they had khaki shorts & they were on the clearance rack 50% off! Check that off the list.

After Yogalates, I rushed home to take a quick shower so I could get to the nail place before they closed. I was in desperate need of a pedi. I got there in plenty of time only to have 6 people in front of me. That wasn't going to work. I still had to pack. Off I went to a new place. The lady did a good job. I've never had them massage my legs like this woman did but there was a downside, it wasn't relaxing. They were all talking to each other in their language & they were really loud! Oh well, this was a pedi emergency. My toes look great painted Dutch Tulips!

The only thing left to do was pack & finish week 3 of C25K. Packing was done last night & believe it or not I was up at 4:45 this morning & I got my run in!

Toodles from somewhere on I80!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:On the road!

Weigh In Wednesday

2011-08-31T10:19:00.000-05:00

Down 2 pounds this week. YAY!!! Of course this weekend we go to Dallas for the weekend for the LSU game so that's subject to change next week. I'm going to try hard to stay on track while we're gone. Only 5 pounds to my goal.

This week I've done a Yogalates class & days 1 & 2 of C25K. Today & tomorrow I go to Yogalates & Friday morning I'll do day 3 of C25K. We're leaving around 7:00 so I'll be getting up at 5:00 to run. I swear there's just more & more evidence that aliens are invading my body. I mean seriously, I DO NOT get up early to exercise but it's the only way I can fit everything in. I just don't think I'm in good enough shape to do Yogalates & then run an hour later. One day, but not yet.

Friday, we were at Sam's & I found these

Little single servings of cheese. I got the Colby Jack but they also had Pepper Jack. 60 calories & it's so good!! Perfect for when I need a little something to snack on. They come in a big bag.

I had to go back to the ENT yesterday because of this stupid swollen lymph node. After a round of steroids & 14 days of antibiotics it's still there. I had blood work. Oh joy. I HATE BLOOD WORK. I'm not a freak about needles but I don't have good veins so there are always problems. Yesterday wasn't too bad & they just called & my blood looks good. So, now I have to have a CT scan. They have to get approval from my insurance company so at the earliest it will be sometime next week. The ENT doesn't think it's anything but she wants to be safe.

I got this cute shirt for the game Saturday.

I got the purple one. Now to figure out shoes. I'd like a new pair but there isn't time. Sigh... I should've planned better.

Toodles!

Ready for the weekend.

2011-08-29T09:07:00.000-05:00

Yeh, I'm well aware that it's Monday & I just had a long weekend but next weekend is a 4 day weekend. We're going to Dallas for the LSU/Oregon game & I'm ready to go. We're staying at the team hotel & I discovered this weekend that there's a Starbucks inside the hotel!! I'm very excited that I can have green tea whenever I want!

Speaking of green tea. I really wanted one this morning but I didn't have time. When I got to work I realized that I forgot my tortilla that I use to make a wrap for lunch. I guess I'll be having Subway. I hate when I do stuff like that.

Friday, Dean & I were both off. I'd finished Week 2 of the C25K on Wednesday but I decided to do another day Friday morning. I wasn't sure if I was ready for the 3 minute runs that come with Week 3. Afterwards, we ran errands & had lunch at Roly Poly. I love that place. They have about a million different types of wraps & every one I've tried is delicious!

Friday night we went to our neighbors for pizza & wine. They all wanted to hear about Dean's Alaska trip. We always have such a good time when we get together. Yes, I ate too much pizza. I LOVE PIZZA!! Then there was this......

I know this is an awful picture but you get the idea. It's Key Lime Strawberry cake with coconut all around the sides. It was DIVINE!!! I got this little treat at Sam's.

Saturday morning Dean & I went to the Zoo & watched Logan while Lydia ran the 5K they hosted. Logan was being shy when they got there.

Logan is so funny. He tells all the animals hey & bye. When he saw the runners go by he joined them. That kid is fast! He picked up the cups that the runners threw on the ground at the water stop & put them in the recycle bins. Thankfully, about that time we made it to the playground & he played & played. He had his little 9 year old friend, Maddie, with him & it was a day of monkey see, monkey do.

After the zoo we spent the day in our pool. Logan wore himself out.

He was about to fall asleep standing up.

Dean grilled some of the salmon he caught in Alaska Sat. night & some of our neighbors came over & ate. It was really good.

Yesterday, after Mass we went to Louie's for breakfast. Louie's is a local hole in the wall type place that's basically on LSU's campus. I had a veggie omelet with salsa & it was soooo good!!!

Last night I went with a couple of friends that live in our subdivision & we did day 1 of week 3 of C25K. I was soooo excited when I finished because I was able to do the 3 minute runs. Cindy even talked us into doing an extra 3 minutes & I did it. This was the first run that I didn't have any shin pain. Maybe I'm getting used to it.

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday

2011-08-25T08:49:00.001-05:00

I gained 1.6 this week. UGH!!! I can't say I'm surprised after "Dean's in Alaska so I'm hanging out with all my friends & every event involves food" Weekend. Seriously, last weekend was pretty much nothing but food. Wendy's bday dinner, my mom's bday lunch, pizza at the draft party, dinner out when Dean came home Sunday night. I'm now about 7 lbs. from my goal. I'll get there.

This week I've gone to Yogalates twice & I completed week 2 of C25K. I'm going to Yogalates today & I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll do day 3 of week 2 of C25K again just to make sure I'm ready for week 3 which involves running for 3 mins. straight. I know it doesn't sound like a long time but it is when you're just beginning.

Has anyone read or watched this series?

Wendy read them & told me how good they were. I've only read the first one but I loved it! I finally figured out how to check out books from the library on my Nook so I have the 2nd one waiting for me when I finish the book I'm currently reading. I've never watched the show but I know a couple of people that do & they love it. What's everyone reading? I'm always looking for new books & authors.

Toodles!

Marriage

2011-08-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

has made me stupid. I've been saying this for years but it's never been more evident than this week. I've managed to be late for just about every thing I've had to do except work. I've set the alarm clock numerous times only to have it not go off. Yesterday, I set my cell phone alarm because I KNEW I couldn't screw that up. Guess what? Yeh, it didn't go off either. I've set the house alarm off. You name it, I've done it. Completely ridiculous! Thankfully, Dean will be home today. Who knows what time seeing as how his flight was delayed 3 hours. They didn't leave Anchorage until 2:00 am central time. He's going to be so exhausted.

Friday night we had so much fun at Wendy's birthday dinner. We got Wendy a NKOTB t-shirt. We knew she'd love it & we got a great reaction.
Saturday morning me, Allison & her sis Andrea did our walk/C25K run at the lakes. I started Week 2 which means 90 second runs. It's definitely more difficult but at the same time it feels amazing when you're finished.

Next up was home to get dressed for the movie. My mom & I went & saw The Help. It was so good but of course I liked the book much better. I thought the movie was a little choppy, if that makes any sense. The movie was over 2 hours so of course they couldn't included everything but it just didn't seem as seamless as I expected but still really good. After the movie we went to Borders. The discounts have increased & I was surprised that I was able to find more books. Everything was 40-50% off.

We had a late lunch at Brewbachers which was delicious as usual. Last night was our Fantasy Football Draft. I was able to get a nap in beforehand. That would be when the cell phone alarm didn't go off & it caused me to be late but thankfully, I wasn't the last one to arrive. Wendy wasn't able to make it to the draft so the fate of No Thugs was entirely in my hands. I was nervous but I think it worked out pretty well. Time will tell.

Toodles!!

TGIF!!!!

2011-08-19T09:24:00.000-05:00

I slept last night & it's Friday!! Happy Day!!! As I told y'all yesterday I had a running date with my friend Cindy last night at 7:00 to do C25K. Well, at 6:45 it started STORMING! Lightening, thunder, wind, the whole bit. So much for the run. At about 7:30 it stopped so we decided to go. I'm so glad we did. It was cooler & there was a breeze. It was much, much easier than the previous 2 days I'd done it. I was a little worried about running with Cindy because she just did a triathlon but she confessed that she hates the running & isn't good at it. Since I'm just starting out it worked out well. We were even able to talk while we ran so the time flew by. Week 2 starts tomorrow!

Last weekend at Ulta I picked up a new "everyday" conditioner.

I've used it all week & I love it. I can definitely tell a difference in my hair. If anyone needs a new conditioner I highly recommend this one. I'd read something about it on a blog (don't remember which one) & when I saw it at Ulta I decided to try it.

I'm so ready for the weekend. Dean comes home!! Not until Sunday but still. This afternoon I have an appointment with a new Hair Stylist. Am I the only person that feels extremely guilty about switching? I've been going to the same girl for like 11 or 12 yrs. I've known her since I was a kid. The problem is location. It takes me 45 mins. to get to the Salon from work & I have to leave work early to get there because she doesn't work late. I don't want to use vacation time to get my hair cut. I'm just tired. I want something closer.

Tonight we have Wendy's birthday dinner. All the girls are getting together & going to ACME Oyster House. I'm looking forward to that. It's always so much fun to get together with those girls. It's a weekend full of birthday celebrations. Tomorrow, it's to the movies & lunch with my mom. Her birthday was yesterday. Tomorrow night is our Fantasy Football Draft. The weekend is going to fly by but at least that means Dean will be home sooner rather than later!

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

Weigh In Thursday!

2011-08-18T08:14:00.000-05:00

Down .4 this week. No real surprise considering my social calendar last weekend but a loss is a loss. Yesterday, when I got to Yogalates these things were all over the floor.

It's a kettle ball apparently. It weighs 6 lbs. We've never used equipment so I didn't know where we were going with this. I soon found out.....push ups.Then we did some twist thingy's with them. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

I've completed the first 2 days of week 1 of C25K. I have a date with my friend Cindy tonight to do day 3 which completes the first week. Monday, I did it at 5:00 & it was HOT! The heat index was still over 100. We're going later tonight & hopefully it won't be as hot. If anyone is planning to start this make sure you stretch A LOT before & after. Several people gave me that advice & it's worked well in keeping me from being really sore & getting shin splints.

Some of you may remember that I went to the Dr. for a swollen lymph node. He'd told me if it didn't shrink in a week to call him. Well, I waited 2 weeks & it's still swollen. He referred me to an ENT. I went Monday. She put me on an antibiotic for 2 weeks & a week of steroids. I have to see her again in 2 weeks & if it hasn't gotten smaller or softer she'll "stick a needle in it". Ugh! I don't like needles. Especially, when they're stuck in my neck. Anyway, I haven't been able to sleep since Dean left. I wake up a lot during the night. Well, combine that with the steroids & it's awful. I normally don't have this problem with the oral steroids but I can't think of any other reason that I wasn't sleepy until 10:30 last night when my normal bedtime is 9:30 at the latest & I was wide awake from 2-4:15. Needless to say I'm not feeling real perky this morning. I was moving slowly so there was no time for a Starbuck's run either. So annoying.

Toodles!

Alaska!

2011-08-17T10:06:00.000-05:00

If you're here on a regular basis you know that Dean is in Alaska this week on a fishing trip. Being alone has been interesting to say the least. Also exhausting because I'm not sleeping well. They arrived in Alaska Saturday night & spent all day Sunday sightseeing.

These are pictures that Dean took on their day trip to Seward, AK which is about 2.5 hours from Anchorage. These are all from his iPhone that he texted me. He's taken lots of pics with our camera but I'll have to wait until he gets home to post those.

I'm just amazed at how pretty it is! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. Right now there's about 17 hours of daylight in Alaska with a high around 55-60 degrees but it's also the rainy season. They've had showers everyday but nothing too bad. The only complaint they've had so far is that since it's so cool the hotel they stayed at the first 2 nights in Anchorage doesn't have the A/C on & the room is stuffy. They fixed that after the first night. This is what Dean calls "Alaska A/C".

Monday morning they had to fly on one of those sea planes to get to the fishing lodge where they'll be staying the remainder of the week. This is Dean on the plane. All the passengers get to wear headphones & ask the pilot questions as they fly. I, personally think the pilot needs to be concentrating on the flight & landing but that's just me.

There's no cell service at the lodge but they do have WiFi. It's a little sketchy but we've been able to use Facetime on our iPhones every night which is really cool.

I'm linking up to Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer.

Toodles!

Busy Busy!

2011-08-15T09:37:00.000-05:00

I made it through the first weekend alone! Dean left bright & early Sat. morning for Alaska. Allison & I headed to the lakes to do our 4 mile walk & day 1 of C25K. I'm so excited that I was able to do it. I know I'm just beginning but I did it & it wasn't too hard. I do wish I could do something about the way I look when I finish. I get soooo red in the face. It's awful. If anyone knows of a sweat proof makeup please let me know! Once we were done we needed a refreshing drink. You guessed it, ice green tea please! Then it was back to my house. I was hosting "the worst book club ever". I made pasta salad & everyone else brought stuff. We had a sandwich tray from Subway, fruit, leftover wedding cake & chips. Not great for the diet but it was fun. We ate & hung out in the pool.

After book club, Vicki & I were going out to dinner & to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. We went to La Caretta & then to the theater. Our plan was to see the 7:15 feature. Yeh, well, we couldn't even get in the parking lot so we decided to go down the street for the 7:40 feature. EPIC FAIL. The line was a mile long & it was very close to 7:40. We weren't too worried because you know they show 20 mins. of previews. It's FINALLY our turn. SOLD OUT. Seriously? How hard is it to make an announcement as to which movies are sold out or mark it on the sign. Who knows how much time we would've saved. We tried to get tickets to The Help. Also, sold out. So annoying. We went to Starbucks. This is becoming a serious problem I think. At this point it was 3 days in a row & twice in one day. We went to Borders & picked up a couple of books. We also went to Ulta. I've heard a lot about the Macadamia Hair Mask & I wanted to try it. They were sold out of the big container so I got a sample size.

I also bought this conditioner.

I've heard some people talk about how much they like it. I'll try both & decide which one I like the best.

Sunday, Allison & I were supposed to walk the lakes again but Allison had a late night Sat. so we didn't. I'd set my clock to make sure I didn't oversleep before I knew we weren't walking. I woke up & the clock said 8:15. We were meeting at 8:00. I jumped out of bed & grabbed my phone so I could let her know what was going on. That's when I saw her text & noticed that it was 4:15 AM. Apparently, I did something wrong!! HA! Needless to say it was difficult to get back to sleep.

Since we didn't get to see the movie Saturday night we decided to try again Sunday. Allison met Vicki & I & we were able to get tickets & being that there is a Starbuck's right there I got a green tea to bring in the movie.

It was really good. I liked it a lot. It was funnier than I was expecting.

Today, I'm exhausted. I didn't sleep good at all last night. I don't know if it's nerves from being home alone or my subconscious thinking about screwing up the alarm clock & being late for work or what. I was awake a zillion times last night so that leads to waking up with a headache. Today is day 2 of C25K. I expect to be in bed EARLY tonight. Surely, as exhausted as I am, combined with the run I'll be able to sleep.

Toodles!