Thanks for Giving!

Ok, so I guess Halloween was my last real post. What have I gotten into since then? Quite a bit actually in this little town of St. Mary's County !

Early in the month G&H Jewelers had a 'Jewelry Show' where certain reps and designers come in for a weekend gala. I got to play socialite for the night, wearing a silky black dress and prancing around wearing as many diamonds as a girl can fit on her body :) The one night I think I wore a total of of 45K of diamonds! The necklace was insane, I felt like royalty! I also got to wear a beautiful ring, with a blue diamond in the center, surrounded by pink diamonds, then surrounded again by a circle of white diamonds. Georgeous! Dollar wise, I was wearing about $200,000. Ahhhhh! I was wondering why the state troopers were hanging around me all night...

What a power couple! Hahaha j/k.

 I had so much fun feeling so fancy schmancy, shmoozing the customers,

modeling dripping in diamonds, and sipping my pink champagne! Ow!

The next week I soared over to the opposite end of the spectrum- I got my wisdom teeth out! So I turned into a whiney, lazy, puffy cheeked, sore, drooling, chipmunk! It has been a week since they were taken out now, and today is the first day of finally feeling semi-normal. I am so sick of soups and potatoes and yogurt and pudding! I can't tell you how bad I want a salad and sandwich!

One of the few things that cheered me up while lazy and mopey on pain meds was a delivery of flowers from my two favorite tooth fairies! Mommy and Daddy! Thanks, I love you!

The Saturday after the operation, Debbie from David's work had an oyster scald, and it was the first time I got dressed and put on make up (puffy cheeked and all) to go out. The beer went down smooth, I made pudding ('sand'- vanilla pudding mixed with coolwhip, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and toped with layers of crush Nilla wafers) for a dessert so I could partake, and I did manage to get down a couple oysters on crackers softened with buttah! Mmmm mmmm mmmm! That Sunday was football, and we went to Jeff's house to watch the game. I made myself soup while the boys had pit bbq. I sat in the sun on the deck during halftime while the boys ran around and played football. Jeff's girlfriend Mel came over later and we had fun listening to new music (a song with lil wayne and eminem- I must find out what it was) and being silly dancing around. It was a good end to the weekend.

Thanks to everyone for being so concerned and caring while my mouth hurt!

Ugg, I Want Boots!

Where have I gone?

Wowee I guess I've been busy because I've severely lacked on the blog updates. Either I am way too busy, or absolutely nothing interesting has happened for me to blog about ;)  I do have some updates including decorating for xmas, early xmas presents, operations, and some news about the living situation! Promise to fill you in with pictures soon!

Spooky times

Happy Halloween !

I vant to bite your neck! Muah hahahahaha!

So I haven't blogged in a while- just busy with homework and workwork. I have still not jumped aboard my own healthy lifestyle bandwagon officially, and restarted again this week. A mojor consideration- cutting back on alcohol intake! Somehow happy hour has stretched to include Wednesday friend dinner night, Thursday standard happy hour, Friday night parties, Saturday night parties, and Sunday night football! Entirely too much!

But hey its halloween! Check out all halloween pics on facebook!

I leave you with spooky spider pics from my mamas porch!

2 Great Weekends with the Baltimore Fam!

Sorry for not posting in a while, I have just been so busy having so much fun with my... parents !? Haha. Yes it is true.

Last weekend:
David and I drove up to Baltimore on Saturday to go to my good friends Ashley and Hugo's Bachelorette and Bachelor parties, and stay at my parents house for the night! David felt honored to be invited out with the guys for Hugo's bachelor party after only meeting the guys a few times now. He had a blast! Here are the guys before going out:

Don't they all look handsome?

Meanwhile I went out with Ashley (the bachelorette) and the girls. We had a big group of about 20 and took a limo into downtown Baltimore to PowerPlant Live to go bar hopping. We had an even bigger blast just dancing all night! Here are some pics:

Me, Ashley, and Hugo's sister before dinner.

Isn't Ashley a georgeous bachelorette?

In the limo:

Lisa and I toasting our chamagne

I wore a white beaded tank top (which was ruined by the end of the night but I won't say how!) with brown pants and brown and gold heels. All the girls complained of how bad their feet hurt the next day from dancing all night in heels! I could hardly walk!

David and I reunited at about 2:30 or 3 AM at my parents house and got to tell some stories about our night with my bro Travis and his girlfriend Chelsea who were still up.

The next day we ate scrumptious food and hung out with the parents while watching the Ravens game. The best cure for a hangover? Some sweet Leinenkugel beer and oranges!

And hangin out with our #1 Ravens fan, Mom Heck! David and I had a great relaxing Sunday seeing the family. It's always good to be home! Here is my bro and his gf:

This weekend:

The parents came down to good ol Southern Maryland to visit me and go to the Sotterly Wine Festival! We went last year too, and it was again an awesome time! There were about 20 different Maryland wineries there on this beautiful historic farmland, and we walked away hot and buzzy but happy with 2 cases of wine! The weather was gorgeous although a hot 80 degrees for fall.

Mom and Dad enjoying some fried oysters and fries halfway through the tasting. I had a refreshing vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet mix as my halftime treat :)

After the wine fest we went and checked them into the Bed & Breakfast they were staying the night at, down the street called the Victorian Candle. It is a big victorian style house (although newly built) on a beautiful peice of country land. Once checked in and freshened up, David met us out at a seafood restaurant on the water called Sandgates. I got to introduce my mom and dad to a local favorite I have grown to love... steamed oysters! You get to shuck open the oysters and put the little guy on a cracker and eat with chopped onions, old bay, and either vinegar or butter. That is the only way! My mom had doubts about it, but turned out to love them! We had 3 dozen oysters and a dozen steamed crabs! YUM! It was the best dinner ever, spending the evening laughing, stuffing ourselves, and enjoying the sunset and breeze over the water! After dinner we went back to our condo for dessert, an apple oat crisp. By this point we just couldn't stomach another bottle of wine (although we had picked one out especally for dessert at the fest) and ended up switching to beer. Twas a nice sweet ending to a great day!

I love you mom and dad, thanks for coming!

See you again next weekend for Ashley and Hugo's wedding day!

Happy Friday!

I just wanted to recommend two really great blogs to you all. First, they are the blogs (besides my sister-in-laws) that made me really want to start my own. These girls are are sweet and incredibly smart and I have really come to check in on them everyday as role models. I started reading them for nutritional tips and recipes, and motivation for running, but soon found out what ambitious and knowledgeable girls they are (just check out some of their most recent posts). Both Angela and Caitlin are young 20 something’s, college grads, just like me, who are pursuing their dreams. Props!

** Check out their blogs under my favs in the side bar: www.healthytippingoint.com and www.ohsheglows.com **

How inspiring! Caitlin is a freelance writer who just got offered a book deal for the concept of her website www.operationbeautiful.com – her dream come true! All for following her passions in her everyday life! And Angela is a psychology major with a passion for research and nutrition who quit her job to pursue her dream of operating a vegan bakery- Glo Bakery- which has been so successful! (BTW her bakery is opening up to US shipping next month! www.globakery.com)



Each of their blogs recently featured a post of ‘default thinking’ or what your thinking tends to focus towards repeatedly when you have downtime. I could relate with what Angela wrote when she talked about how her default thinking used to be negative self talk about eating or weight. I used to experience the same thing, especially in school, both in high school and even more so in college. Weirdly enough through all the calorie counting and checking the scale, I have noticed that the only time I truly lost weight was when I was so busy and preoccupied that I did not think about dieting at all (other than just making 'smart' food choices when I did have time to eat). The first time I truly lost weight- like I had tried for so many years before- was my last year in college when I was so so busy between an internship- staying late at the library to work on senior projects- taking an aerobics class for fun- and loving my night art class. I continued down this path when I went on my road trip the summer after college and was so busy traveling and sightseeing that I guess I was burning more than I was taking in without even thinking about it! This made me realize how much weight loss or maintaining your level of health is a truly lifestyle change and not just one goal. Since I have gotten my permanent job in an office, I find I have a lot more downtime and I find myself starting to default think back to food, counting calories, and tracking exercise all day long, like I am adding it all up towards a goal. This is good in a way, given that i have fallen off track and need to get back on, but I also need to remember to just focus on the simple positive choices in my lifestyle habits- which are what truly help me maintain the weight and fitness level that I desire.

On a silly side note, am I insane for every time I eat a chickpea I think in my head, 'oh I love you little chickpea'. Yea, I thought so.

Food for thought:

It’s mid week and I am feeling pretty good! I have healthy, delicious, and nutritious recipe’s to share as well as some little thing happening this week.

First a wonderful meal I made this week- Vegetarian Chili. Even the boys ate it- although I served it to them more like salsa, with cheddar melted on top and chips to dip in.

(sorry no pic)
Veggie Chili
1 large onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
2 jalapeño peppers, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 can corn, mostly drained
1 can chickpeas, mostly drained
1 can ‘chili beans’ with sauce
Add water as needed for right consistency
1 to 1.5 tblsp cumin
1 to 1.5 tblsp chili powder
Salt and papper to taste

First sauté the onion, green pepper, jalepeno peppers, and garlic for 5-6 minutes in a tiny bit of olive oil. Next add all the rest of ingredients and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer 10 mins or until everything is done and hot. Reduce or increase spices to taste. I started with 1 tblsp (eyeballed) of the cumin and chili powder, then had to add more.

This was so good! I did not miss the meat at all. There is virtually no fat except for the tiny bit of olive oil in the beginning, and is packed full of vitamins, fiber, and flavor. Be careful when you start adding the jalapeños to the pot- the boys were complaining that their eyes burned! Meanwhile I have been crying over the stove the whole time between the onion and jalapeños.

To start eating leaner, I had left over soup for lunch yesterday along with half a wrap and a pickle. Through the day I snacked on fruit, and had a little peanut butter and granola to power me through my afternoon cardio class Wednesday. Last Wednesday I did not eat anything for hours before the class and really felt worn and dizzy during the aerobics, so I was sure to fuel up this time. Even though I skipped my run on Monday and Tuesday, I was glad to go to the class yesterday. Now hopefully I can get in another couple runs before the week is over!

When I got home last night after class, Ben had already made dinner- an asian stir fry with ground turkey, veggies, and noodles. The veggies were lacking and everything looked really shiny (oily!) so even though it tasted good, I only ate one scoop, and then made myself a GREEN MONSTER smoothie after I showered.
**2 cups chopped kale, 1 banana, 1 tbsp PB, ¾ cup milk, ice and water, handful mixed berries, 3 pieces papaya**

Guess who else likes green monsters (as long as I add some Nesquik to them)? =)

This morning, still feeling good, I drank the rest of the smoothie I made last night (the whole blender was full, and made 4 servings). And then had my most favorite breakfast as of lately: vanilla greek yogurt, granola, and blueberries. Mmmm so creamy, so crunchy, so sweet, so juicy!

Another surprise I came home to last night was a huge purple Orchid from David’s mom. It was a housewarming present to me for moving in! How sweet! It is beautiful!

Plans for this afternoon is lunch with my work team at a restaurant on the water (bosses birthday) and then volleyball with friends after work followed by getting a Thirsty Thursday drink to rehydrate!

This weekend is my good friend Ashley’s bachelorette party! I can’t wait to tell all and post some pics! Hopefully the drinking won’t throw me off my lean and fit path too much!