DATE NIGHT

EXCLAIMER: This posts lacks pictures, because, well....We were too lazy, too hungry and too wet to take any!


On Thursday night I had a big night at the gym. I finally was able to complete 60 minutes on the ellipitical  with a pretty decent incline. I burned over 500 calories, and boy was I pooped in the end.

On Friday afternoon I started getting a headache..I've been getting pinching headaches throughout the week, almost making it mini migraines. I took some Tylenol and decided a nap would do me good. I guess I needed it because I slept for 3 hours. By the time I was up, and alert it was 6:30 and I was starving.  C and I decided to head over to a new sushi joint that is voted number one in the northwest supposedly.  They don't have a website, which was sorta of disappointing  to me. I like to figure out what I'm going to have before I get there. part of this is because I'm picky and the other part is because I hate being asked 3 or 4 times by the server if I'm ready to order yet. Anyway we decided to chance it and head over. We had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a table, but the food was good! I got the basic California roll and tempura roll since I don't do raw fish.

We then decided to head home, change clothes ( into something comfy) grab some candy and head to the movies. We ended up seeing  Letters To Juliet which was pretty cute! C and I both liked the story line and while yes, it is chick flicky, he didn't mind. I recommend seeing it if you get the chance, or just renting it would be fine, too.

Overall it was a fun night and very much needed. We've both been stuck in the house together, and we sort of needed a break from it all!

SPRING SHOWERS

Is it STILL Spring? I mean, really? Because we haven't seen one day of sunshine in nearly 2 weeks. And I'm not just talking slightly cloudy skies, I'm talking black, hail falling, non stop raining skies.

I decided I was tired of being trapped in the house, so I opened all my windows and blinds ( even though it was chilly) and aired out the house as much as possible. I don't know how much good it did for our home, but it did help my soul a little.

In the meantime, I had planted a few flowers and herbs a few weeks ago.  I had them sitting on our porch, but with the massive rain fall they started flooding. So I brought my babies in! (It's the small things , people )



I have itty bitty sprouts after only 2 weeks and I'm so excited. I think I'm going to keep them on my window seal for another week, and hope this crummy weather will clear itself up ( or else me and the man upstairs will be having it out!)  We planted : Chives, cilantro, flat leaf parsley and basil and then a mixture of poppy's and garden flowers.

I have zero experience with gardening, and truth be told, there isn't much space around here to do any, but I've decided to start small, see how I do and go from there. Here's to hoping my red thumb turns green very soon!

In addition to gardening and doing a whole lot of nothing, because we're stuck inside, we've been trying to get everything cleaned up. In less then 3 weeks we'll be heading down to California for the first leg of our business year. We'll be gone nearly 3 weeks doing our 4th of July festival, hosting a garage sale, securing a building for our Halloween season and hopefully securing a house to live in for 3 months. I hate leaving our house, but in all honesty, it will be nice to enjoy summer weather and see our friends. Bringing in some extra money doesn't hurt either.

All the while cleaning isn't going great. You see, with the rain, and a dog who LOVEs being outside I keep running into this issue...



Did you get that? If not a closer look...


Muddy wet paws all over my freshly  mopped floors. I can't seem to win the battle!


I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Sparky and I are headed to a festival, and hopefully having a date night!

CHOCOLATE MALLOW PIE

I've been in a dessert kind of mood, which is pretty rare for me. Normally I'd prefer salty over sweet any day, but as of late, it's been the other way around. I can't seem to shut my sweet tooth up with yogurt pretzels or apple and peanut butter. So I began my quest for something sweet, something chocolate and something low fat.

Now if your husband is anything like my boy, he just about balked at the idea of a low fat dessert. Little does he know, we're making it anyway ;)






( Are you drooling yet?)

This was seriously SO good. it was really light, not too sweet,  and best of all, C loved it!

Chocolate Mallow Pie
Source: Recipezaar.com

• 1 9 inch pie shell, baked and cooled( We got a chocolate crust)
• 20 marshmallows, cut in half
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup  semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 ripe bananas ( We only needed two)
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen  whipped cream; thawed ( We used cool whip lite)

1. Place marshmallows and milk in a heavy sauce pan, cook over low heat until marshmallows melt.
2. Stir in chocolate until melted, remove from heat and cool.
3. Peel and slice bananas 1/4 inch thick, arrange over the baked crust.
4. Fold whipped topping into the cooled chocolate mixture. ( We added some mini marshmallows into the mix as well)
5. Spread evenly over bananas and chill 2 hours 

MEXICAN PIZZA

I had been craving mexican food, but as we all know it's not healthy. I knew I wanted something cheesy and went on my search for the perfect recipe.

I stopped over at Heather's blog and remembered seeing a Mexican pizza that sounded pretty good.

After looking at the ingredients needed we had everything and were ready to go!


Mexican Pizza

4 whole wheat tortillas
1/2 lb ground beef or turkey ( we used turkey)
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can of enchilada sauce
1 package of low fat cheese ( we used weight watchers low fat mexi mix cheese)
1 Can of low fat refried beans

Toppings ( Salsa, olives, green onion, sour cream..Whatever you choose!)

1) Brown the ground meat in a pan with a little onion, and season salt. Once it's finished cooking drain the fat.

2)Return back to medium low heat and add the package of taco seasoning according to the directions on the back.

3) Spray the tortilla shell with some pam and place under the broiler until light and crispy.

4) Top the shell with beans and taco meat, and then add the second shell on top. Cover the shell with enchilada sauce, top with cheese, olives, etc and place back under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese.


( Crappy cell phone picture, sorry!)

Enjoy!

Note: Our tortilla shells were low carb medium size. They ended up being a little too big and we could only eat half. I recommend going the smaller shell route.

NO PROGRESS...HMPH!

I guess you might be wondering why I haven't updated you on the weight loss. Well truth be told I haven't lost one single lb for 3 weeks. I'm getting so frustrated with it yet, It makes me work even harder.

This last week I seriously worked my tail off in the gym, proportioned all my food, made sure everything was healthy and still. The scale would not budge! The only thing I can think of is I'm gaining muscle weight, because in reality my stomach is starting to look a little more toned and my pants are a bit looser.

I've decided for the next two weeks I'm going to skip the scale. I'm going to continue working as hard as I can and eating right, and if in two weeks that scale hasn't moved down I'm going in for lipo! ( kidding! ) I'll probably talk to the nutritionist and a personal trainer.


So no picture for 2 weeks. Bare with me ;)

In other frustrating news. I made a hair appointment at a new salon, and had to wait a grueling 3 weeks. I forgot to write down the appointment but didn't fret because they said they would call to remind me. Well I knew it was coming up this week, so I gave them a call today to confirm which day. Turns out it was for TODAY and in 20 minutes. My drive to the salon was at least 30 minutes without traffic. So I let her know as much and asked why I never got a phone call. They said they think they left a message on Saturday but guess who never got it? So I ended up showing up about 25 minutes late and right as I got there she said she just took in a walk in and had an appointment in 2 hours so she had no time for me. I was not a happy camper. Unfortunately I have a gift certificate so I couldn't say or do much and refuse to never come back. So I opted for a "squeeze in" appointment tomorrow. if she doesn't do an amazing job, I'll be  contacting the salon owner.

It's raining. Surprise surprise. All over my facebook account I had friends ( mostly in the mid west/east coast) exclaiming how sunny and hot it is. Well I guess they get to start summer early because there is no sign of warm days ahead for at least the next 10 days. And the only thing that makes this better is that California is getting the same rainy weather, so it's not just an "Oregon" thing.


This last week we've tried a few new recipes. Since I can't do much else around here these days I'm going to get them posted on the blog!

WOW, I'M FINALLY HERE!

Okay, so I know I've been slacking. But almost a month of no blogs? Seriously? My time is going by SO fast. It's nearing towards the end of May which means starting in June my busy season starts. It means we'll actually have money coming in instead of going out. It means we can afford to live without having to watch every single penny ( although we always have a budget). You get the idea... We only make money 6 months out of the year, so it's always nice when that time of year rolls around again.

So what have I been up to?

Well I know I need to do a big recap of our vacation, but truth be told I haven't even gotten the pictures off my camera yet!

As soon as we got home we had to deal with Spencer. He somehow cut his paw open right before we left C's parents house. the poor guy wasn't happy and kept trying to lick it which resulted in loss of fur on his paw. It was a horrible situation. All is well now, and it's healing great!

Then we had various appointments with a new business opportunity we came into ( I can't disclose info on it right now, but soon enough!)

Of course there was mothers day. Again, I need to do a recap on this and get those darn pictures of out my camera!

Leading us to a very hot weekend in Oregon. I'm talking 90 degrees hot so C and I decided to go on a fast little boat ride!



We rode on  Willamette jet boats. It was a spur of the moment decision to go last Saturday but we just wanted to get out of the house. We actually ran into a little problem as we arrived. Apparently in order to reserve a seat you should call a few days in advance, which we didn't (obviously) so we had to wait until everybody who had reserved their space was seated to see if there was enough room for us. Luckily they had 2 seats left.


Once on the river, they took no time to get that boat going at speeds over 40. The breeze was nice, but within the first 5 minutes the boat slammed on it's brakes drenching every single person on the boat. It was really fun although the first taste of river water wasn't pleasant.


( and just a side note, I was more worried about my hair, as I had just took the time to dry and straighten it mere minutes before! ugh!)


The trip lasted a little over 2 hours. There were lots of e-brake stops and quite a few spin outs. it seemed like just when you were starting to dry off and get warm the guy would get us all wet again. Toward the end I was really starting to freeze and actually began getting pissy that he needed to stop doing that since the sun was going down and the weather was changing.

The scenery was amazing and only viewable by boat. We passed some huge mansions on the water that i didnt even know Oregon had! What's even more amazing was that in 1996 Oregon experienced the worst flood of it's life time and most of the homes




Can you imagine your 15 millon dollar home under water?  Or how about your grocery store?






It was amazing hearing about it, and still being able to see some of the damage that was never fixed. What was even more amazing is the addition to the river are river houses.






I don't know about you, but I don't think living in a state where water falling from the sky seems to be endless, all the while sleeping on a river that is known to flood. And these houses aren't cheap! I can only imagine their home insurance is through the roof!

Anyhow, the experience was awesome, and we'll absolutely be taking some out of town guests on it again this summer.






I'll try to be a better blogger here the next few days as I have a small break from work.