We're a day delayed in our trip to California but for good reason ...I was sick :( I woke up 4 days ago with a huge headache and swollen cheeks. When I sat up in bed, I had lots of drainage and a cough. yuck! I'm pretty sure it's a sinus infection, and I've been taking sudafed for it, which seems to be helping. I'm just praying all of the symptoms go away soon, as the headaches seem to be the last thing holding on for dear life, and you really can't get much done when you have one of those.
I haven't lost a single pound this week, but lost 3 last week. I hate the ups and downs of trying to loose weight this time around. I'm convinced I need to get my thyroid checked out. Which leads me to the fact that I would get it checked out if I had medical insurance. We're between coverages right now, and haven't decided which new group to go with. Lets pray and hope neither one of us needs anything major in the form of medical in the next 30 days!
I still haven't seen a "real" summer. Oregon has the funkiest weather this year, and I just cannot wrap my brain around it. It will be beautiful and sunny outside and stay around 65 and then within minutes the whole sky will go dark gray and then it's 75 degrees. It makes NO sense. But I guess that's the Oregon weather rule of thumb. You go 10 minutes or 10 miles and the weather is different.
On our trip to California I'm really trying to squeeze in some "fun". We don't really have a budget to do any overnights or anything, but we can do a few day trips. I'm thinking about the water park, possibly an amusement park, or a picnic at the beach or even just heading over to San Francisco. Either way, with all the hard work that has already happened and the even harder work that's approaching, I think we need to treat ourselves to something fun...We'll chop it up to *encouragement* to keep moving forward.
I made a hair appointment with my favorite hair lady. I just got my hair done a few weeks ago with a salon that I found on Groupon.com and she messed it up! It wasn't a horrible mess up, but I went in for a root touch up and she ended up bleaching ALL of my hair. In fear of having my hair fall out, I've been deep conditioning it every night, putting a hair masque on once a week and not blow drying or straightening it as much. It seems to be in pretty good condition, for just having a ton of chemical put on it 3 short weeks ago, but alas it needs to be fixed!
That about sums up everything going on! I wont have very much internet access in California, so I'll probably just do a recap post when we get home sometime around the 6th of July!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
FROSTED BANANA BARS WITH MAPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Does that title sound amazing or what?
WARNING: These bars will involve drooling, constant snacking, happy husbands ( and dogs) an amazing aroma throughout the house, and an extra pound or two on the scale..just sayin'
My bananas have not been lasting more then 3 days 4 tops, which stinks! C likes to eat a huge bowl of cereal before he goes to bed at night( lucky bastard!) and he likes to put a banana in there. Since we only go grocery shopping once a week, I've been buying a bigger bunch of bananas then normal so we don't have to run to the store for 1 item.
I had 2 huge bananas sitting on my counter rotting away and I couldn't stand to throw them out. So out came my recipe book to find something to use these nanners in! Of course, the staple item for rotting nanners is banana bread. But C hates banana bread so that wasn't an option. ( I personally LOVE any sweet bread, but since I don't want to be the only one eating it, I never make it anymore. After I think about it some more, I guess C is doing me and my waist a favor.)
Anywho. I found a recipe for Frosted Banana Bars. While it's similar to bread, it's not quite the consistency, and of course is topped with cream cheese frosting. I decided to put my own spin on things and instead of regular cream cheese frosting, I added some maple to it!
These bars would be perfect for a fall day, and since the weather seems to feel that way currently, I decided to make them!
Recipe: Frosted Banana Bars
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 big ripe bananas ( or 3 small ones)
Directions:
preheat oven to 350, and grease an 11X15 pan
1) Melt the butter, then cream butter and sugar together
2) Add eggs one at a time, until batter is nice and creamy
3) Add sour cream
4) Add vanilla and pumpkin pie spice
5) Mix all dry ingredients together, then add to wet ingredients.
6) Add in ripe bananas
7) Place mixture into greased pan and cook for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool completely before you add frosting.
Frosting:
Ingredients
2- 8 oz pckgs cream cheese
1 cup powder sugar ( or more to desired sweetness)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup ( optional)
Directions
1) Soften cream cheese and melt butter, then cream together
2) Slowly add sugar to your desired sweetness/thickness
3) Add in maple syrup if you so desire
Enjoy!
WARNING: These bars will involve drooling, constant snacking, happy husbands ( and dogs) an amazing aroma throughout the house, and an extra pound or two on the scale..just sayin'
My bananas have not been lasting more then 3 days 4 tops, which stinks! C likes to eat a huge bowl of cereal before he goes to bed at night( lucky bastard!) and he likes to put a banana in there. Since we only go grocery shopping once a week, I've been buying a bigger bunch of bananas then normal so we don't have to run to the store for 1 item.
I had 2 huge bananas sitting on my counter rotting away and I couldn't stand to throw them out. So out came my recipe book to find something to use these nanners in! Of course, the staple item for rotting nanners is banana bread. But C hates banana bread so that wasn't an option. ( I personally LOVE any sweet bread, but since I don't want to be the only one eating it, I never make it anymore. After I think about it some more, I guess C is doing me and my waist a favor.)
Anywho. I found a recipe for Frosted Banana Bars. While it's similar to bread, it's not quite the consistency, and of course is topped with cream cheese frosting. I decided to put my own spin on things and instead of regular cream cheese frosting, I added some maple to it!
These bars would be perfect for a fall day, and since the weather seems to feel that way currently, I decided to make them!
Recipe: Frosted Banana Bars
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 big ripe bananas ( or 3 small ones)
Directions:
preheat oven to 350, and grease an 11X15 pan
1) Melt the butter, then cream butter and sugar together
2) Add eggs one at a time, until batter is nice and creamy
3) Add sour cream
4) Add vanilla and pumpkin pie spice
5) Mix all dry ingredients together, then add to wet ingredients.
6) Add in ripe bananas
7) Place mixture into greased pan and cook for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool completely before you add frosting.
Frosting:
Ingredients
2- 8 oz pckgs cream cheese
1 cup powder sugar ( or more to desired sweetness)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup ( optional)
Directions
1) Soften cream cheese and melt butter, then cream together
2) Slowly add sugar to your desired sweetness/thickness
3) Add in maple syrup if you so desire
Enjoy!
BLONDE MOMENTS
I was responding to one of Jens post about a blonde moment and it came to mind that I actually have quite a few!
Some are really silly and some are completely off the wall!
1) I was driving home from the store one day and pulled up next to our house. I turned off the ignition, grabbed my phone and was putting everything in my purse to head in. I realized I had left all the windows open so I grabbed my keys back out, turned back on the car and rolled up the windows. I grabbed my purse and got out of the car, shut the door and realized I just left the keys in the ignition. DOH, such a blonde moment! Luckily the door didn't lock!
2) One day C and I were outside at night and we saw a plane fly over head. The plane had red and blue blinking lights in which I said to C; I wonder what happened? He replies; What do you mean? I said, aren't those police planes flying with the blinking lights? He stared at me blankly and started laughing.
3) I was eating ice cream that was really cold, so I blew on it...
4) Just got out of the shower, was in a hurry to get dressed, grabbed my jeans threw those on, made it to the car where C was waiting for me, getting half way down the road and realizing oh shit, I forgot to put underwear on!
These are just a few of my moments, and i''m sure I have a lot more ,I just can't always remember them!
Wat are some of your "moments"?
Some are really silly and some are completely off the wall!
1) I was driving home from the store one day and pulled up next to our house. I turned off the ignition, grabbed my phone and was putting everything in my purse to head in. I realized I had left all the windows open so I grabbed my keys back out, turned back on the car and rolled up the windows. I grabbed my purse and got out of the car, shut the door and realized I just left the keys in the ignition. DOH, such a blonde moment! Luckily the door didn't lock!
2) One day C and I were outside at night and we saw a plane fly over head. The plane had red and blue blinking lights in which I said to C; I wonder what happened? He replies; What do you mean? I said, aren't those police planes flying with the blinking lights? He stared at me blankly and started laughing.
3) I was eating ice cream that was really cold, so I blew on it...
4) Just got out of the shower, was in a hurry to get dressed, grabbed my jeans threw those on, made it to the car where C was waiting for me, getting half way down the road and realizing oh shit, I forgot to put underwear on!
These are just a few of my moments, and i''m sure I have a lot more ,I just can't always remember them!
Wat are some of your "moments"?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
GREEN MACHINE
I don't consider myself to be a crunchy earth mama, but I do consider myself to be "aware". I always recycle as much as I possibly can, knowing what goes into our environment. I have one thought always circling my head, and that's "when I have kids, I want there world to look like..." So I take that into consideration. I don't want our kids to grow up with garbage in our lakes and water streams, nor do I want our kids to be exposed to toxic waste while playing in the dirt.
Every single thing we do here on earth has an impact, either good or bad. It takes just as much effort either way, so why not make it a good impact?
I'm not saying we should buy everything organic, wear garbage bags for shoes, and eat off of the floor, i'm just saying we do what we can, so you should too!
Here are a few ways we've gone green;
* We have switched all of our cleaning supplies to Method and Seventh Generation
* We recycle all paper, plastic and aluminum. I'm not sure if your state offers this, but in California and Oregon we got money back for our cans and bottles. So we keep them in big plastic bags and take them in every other month and usually get back $40.00! A pretty sweet deal to us. We keep that money in our fun account, for date nights, vacations, etc.
* We use reusable grocery bags. This was a pretty hard adjustment for us. Not because we didnt want to do it, but because we'd always forget to grab the bags. We still have that issue sometimes, but I'm always trying to remind myself that once I'm done with putting away groceries, I need to run the bags back down to the car. I also really like these because I only have 5 or 6 of them, so it makes us buy less stuff each grocery trip, and therefore we save money. I purchased my bags at WholepaycheckFoods and Trader Joes for about $3.00-$5.00 a bag. When I do have to use the plastic grocery bag, I save those and bring them back to the grocery store bag recycling container.
* We limit our showers to 10 minutes. I generally shower pretty fast anyway, but C tends to take longer showers. We've started making it a point to get in and get out, so we can conserve water. This also goes with laundry. I limit my loads per week, so we use towels 3 or 4 times, dish cloths, sprinklers ( as if we even needed those on with all of this rain!) Not only are we conserving water, we're saving money on our water bill!
* We switched our light bulbs to florescent some time ago and have never even thought twice about it. Home Depot had a sale several months ago where the light bulbs were literally 25 cents a piece so we stalked up and switched everything out. Sometimes it can be annoying having to wait a full 3 minutes before the light is at it's actual wattage but no biggie! Again, another money saver on our electricity bill!
* Speaking of electricity, During the winter we keep our thermostat at 70 and only run it at night, unless we're home and it's super cold. During the summer, we only have 2 window Ac units, so we only turn those on at night along with our ceiling fans. We also turn off any and all lights we're not using as well as unplug appliances when not in use ( toaster, blender, etc)
* We make Spencer his dog food. Well, sort of LOL. We used to buy him dry food and cans of wet food. Since his wet food was so costly and full of unneeded junk, and plus the hassle of having to recycle the can it just became a huge ordeal each day. He went to the vet 3 years ago for something ( I can't remember) and they told us he was about 10 lbs over weight. We asked how we could change his diet and they told us steamed brown rice with boiled chicken mixed into his dry food. We have been following that ever since. We make 6 cups of brown rice in our rice cooker once a week, along with green beans. Sometimes, if I have extra chicken i'll throw that in, otherwise I just use a bit of chicken broth. he gets a cup of that mixed into a 1.5 cups of dry dog food once a day. It's been a real life saver, and he managed to get 12lbs off and is healthy as ever! Plus, we're saving about $30.00 a month!
* We support our local farmers. We always try and buy things that are in season, and when there's a farmers market going on, I always try and buy some tasty items! We live in Oregon, where being eco friendly is the way of life, so we have a farmers market every single day. Unfortunately, that isn't always a good thing. I wish some of the farmers would sell weekly instead of everyday. You never know which day they put out their best produce, and unless you're there everyday, it's a gamble.
One of the main reasons we made changes was it reflected our pocket book. I don't know one single person that doesn't like to save money, and we're doing that just by making a few simple changes!
That about sums up what we're doing at the moment. It's not much, but again, I feel like every little but helps. When we have babies, I think this will change even further.
What do you do to stay green or help out our environment?
Every single thing we do here on earth has an impact, either good or bad. It takes just as much effort either way, so why not make it a good impact?
I'm not saying we should buy everything organic, wear garbage bags for shoes, and eat off of the floor, i'm just saying we do what we can, so you should too!
Here are a few ways we've gone green;
* We have switched all of our cleaning supplies to Method and Seventh Generation
* We recycle all paper, plastic and aluminum. I'm not sure if your state offers this, but in California and Oregon we got money back for our cans and bottles. So we keep them in big plastic bags and take them in every other month and usually get back $40.00! A pretty sweet deal to us. We keep that money in our fun account, for date nights, vacations, etc.
* We use reusable grocery bags. This was a pretty hard adjustment for us. Not because we didnt want to do it, but because we'd always forget to grab the bags. We still have that issue sometimes, but I'm always trying to remind myself that once I'm done with putting away groceries, I need to run the bags back down to the car. I also really like these because I only have 5 or 6 of them, so it makes us buy less stuff each grocery trip, and therefore we save money. I purchased my bags at Whole
* We limit our showers to 10 minutes. I generally shower pretty fast anyway, but C tends to take longer showers. We've started making it a point to get in and get out, so we can conserve water. This also goes with laundry. I limit my loads per week, so we use towels 3 or 4 times, dish cloths, sprinklers ( as if we even needed those on with all of this rain!) Not only are we conserving water, we're saving money on our water bill!
* We switched our light bulbs to florescent some time ago and have never even thought twice about it. Home Depot had a sale several months ago where the light bulbs were literally 25 cents a piece so we stalked up and switched everything out. Sometimes it can be annoying having to wait a full 3 minutes before the light is at it's actual wattage but no biggie! Again, another money saver on our electricity bill!
* Speaking of electricity, During the winter we keep our thermostat at 70 and only run it at night, unless we're home and it's super cold. During the summer, we only have 2 window Ac units, so we only turn those on at night along with our ceiling fans. We also turn off any and all lights we're not using as well as unplug appliances when not in use ( toaster, blender, etc)
* We make Spencer his dog food. Well, sort of LOL. We used to buy him dry food and cans of wet food. Since his wet food was so costly and full of unneeded junk, and plus the hassle of having to recycle the can it just became a huge ordeal each day. He went to the vet 3 years ago for something ( I can't remember) and they told us he was about 10 lbs over weight. We asked how we could change his diet and they told us steamed brown rice with boiled chicken mixed into his dry food. We have been following that ever since. We make 6 cups of brown rice in our rice cooker once a week, along with green beans. Sometimes, if I have extra chicken i'll throw that in, otherwise I just use a bit of chicken broth. he gets a cup of that mixed into a 1.5 cups of dry dog food once a day. It's been a real life saver, and he managed to get 12lbs off and is healthy as ever! Plus, we're saving about $30.00 a month!
* We support our local farmers. We always try and buy things that are in season, and when there's a farmers market going on, I always try and buy some tasty items! We live in Oregon, where being eco friendly is the way of life, so we have a farmers market every single day. Unfortunately, that isn't always a good thing. I wish some of the farmers would sell weekly instead of everyday. You never know which day they put out their best produce, and unless you're there everyday, it's a gamble.
One of the main reasons we made changes was it reflected our pocket book. I don't know one single person that doesn't like to save money, and we're doing that just by making a few simple changes!
That about sums up what we're doing at the moment. It's not much, but again, I feel like every little but helps. When we have babies, I think this will change even further.
What do you do to stay green or help out our environment?
Monday, June 7, 2010
8 DAYS
In 8 days I'll be California bound once again. Unfortunately this time it's not for vacation, but none the less it will be a nice change.
I can't believe our busy season has come yet again, and it seems like it was faster then ever. With everything I've been through in the last year, it's sort of all a blur. I've had this weird feeling in the back of my chest for the last few weeks, and I finally sat down with C to talk about it.
It's hard for me to go back to a place where so much went wrong. Our wedding was canceled, We lost our first child, I had a mental break down and nearly admitted myself into the hospital because of it all.
I know sometimes life takes it's turn, but for me, I just kept thinking, we're going back into a routine we've been in for the last 5 years. That same routine in which this year we should have been married, we should have expected our first child September 1st we should of been more then we are.
I have grown SO much over the last 6 months, and have really tried to change my life for the better. I'm trying to stay positive in life when sometimes it's all negative, I'm trying to be supportive of C and all of his dreams and ambitions, i'm trying to be a better daughter, a better fur mama and a better person in general.
I'm healthy now, I have a clear mind, I don't want out of my life, or out of my house.
For the first time, in a long time, I'm content. I like where I'm at. Do I want more? Yes. But in time I know I'll have all the things that should have been. And they will come when the time is right.
So this week i'm headed to my grams house to start work on her house, and to visit with my mom before we head to California for 2 weeks.
We also have some amazing weather coming our way and should be in the high 70s low 80s all this week. Huge change from where we've been. But i'm still looking forward to the real heat of summer when we're in CA.
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!
I can't believe our busy season has come yet again, and it seems like it was faster then ever. With everything I've been through in the last year, it's sort of all a blur. I've had this weird feeling in the back of my chest for the last few weeks, and I finally sat down with C to talk about it.
It's hard for me to go back to a place where so much went wrong. Our wedding was canceled, We lost our first child, I had a mental break down and nearly admitted myself into the hospital because of it all.
I know sometimes life takes it's turn, but for me, I just kept thinking, we're going back into a routine we've been in for the last 5 years. That same routine in which this year we should have been married, we should have expected our first child September 1st we should of been more then we are.
I have grown SO much over the last 6 months, and have really tried to change my life for the better. I'm trying to stay positive in life when sometimes it's all negative, I'm trying to be supportive of C and all of his dreams and ambitions, i'm trying to be a better daughter, a better fur mama and a better person in general.
I'm healthy now, I have a clear mind, I don't want out of my life, or out of my house.
For the first time, in a long time, I'm content. I like where I'm at. Do I want more? Yes. But in time I know I'll have all the things that should have been. And they will come when the time is right.
So this week i'm headed to my grams house to start work on her house, and to visit with my mom before we head to California for 2 weeks.
We also have some amazing weather coming our way and should be in the high 70s low 80s all this week. Huge change from where we've been. But i'm still looking forward to the real heat of summer when we're in CA.
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!
Friday, June 4, 2010
MAJOR FUNK ALERT
Want to know something? I'm sitting in sweat pants, Long sleeve shirt, sweater over that and thick socks with slippers.
I'm not sick, I'm not being lazy...So what's wrong with this picture?
Answer:
OREGON. That's what's wrong with this picture.
It's so freaking cold, and rainy and the hail, my lord the hail. It wont stop falling out of the sky . And i'm convinced I've forgotten what the sun feels like.
I know this is probably my fault, because you see; Last year in May it was ungodly hot. And we had just moved here away from the consistent 110 days of California sun, so I was looking for a change in weather. But within 2 months of being here it was hotter then California was. And to make matters worse, we don't have air conditioning, but we live in a 3 story house.
We bought 2 Ac units, and snuck into the swimming pool at a local apartment every day for a month.
So there you have it. Oregon weather can suck it because i'm tired of this crap! I wouldn't even mind coldish weather as long as the flooding rain stopped.
To try and change my mood, I decided C and I are having another date tonight. Instead of going out though, we're going to pick up a pizza and watch a movie and play a little wii.
And tomorrow i'm going to take my aggression out in boot camp. Which is sort of ironic because tomorrow is suppose to be the only non rain day in the next 5 days.
I hope everyone else is enjoyingWinter Summer
I'm not sick, I'm not being lazy...So what's wrong with this picture?
Answer:
OREGON. That's what's wrong with this picture.
It's so freaking cold, and rainy and the hail, my lord the hail. It wont stop falling out of the sky . And i'm convinced I've forgotten what the sun feels like.
I know this is probably my fault, because you see; Last year in May it was ungodly hot. And we had just moved here away from the consistent 110 days of California sun, so I was looking for a change in weather. But within 2 months of being here it was hotter then California was. And to make matters worse, we don't have air conditioning, but we live in a 3 story house.
We bought 2 Ac units, and snuck into the swimming pool at a local apartment every day for a month.
So there you have it. Oregon weather can suck it because i'm tired of this crap! I wouldn't even mind coldish weather as long as the flooding rain stopped.
To try and change my mood, I decided C and I are having another date tonight. Instead of going out though, we're going to pick up a pizza and watch a movie and play a little wii.
And tomorrow i'm going to take my aggression out in boot camp. Which is sort of ironic because tomorrow is suppose to be the only non rain day in the next 5 days.
I hope everyone else is enjoying
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