Life, In A Nutshell

Book Review: The Book Thief

2012-01-29T15:59:00.001-06:00

Surprise toward the end that made me so mad I almost didn't want to finish the book. So glad that I did, though.

I have to say that WW2 is one of my favorite periods in history. Ok, really, any period in history is my favorite, but for the same of this review, we will say that WW2 is.

I loved this book. At first I was convinced that I wouldn't - the writing style is one that I am not used to. After I got past that, it was a very good book. I do not want to give it away, so I won't say much. I will say that you should be prepared to be happy, sad, mad and even madder at any given time. To me, the recipe for the perfect book.

Book Review: Child of the Mist

2012-01-29T15:47:00.000-06:00

My first book review!

Let me start by saying that I was unaware that this was a Christian romance novel. Having never read a romance novel in my life, and not being a Christian, it never dawned on me that such a thing existed, but they do. It wasn't until I was about 20% in to it that I realized it. I am not one to not finish a book, so read it, rippling muscles and all. Not my cup of tea, but not a bad read, I suppose.

Challenge Accepted!

2012-01-29T15:39:00.001-06:00

I love to read. Always have. Since I got the Kindle for my birthday, I have been reading even more than before. I didn't think it was possibly, but apparently it is.

I am taking part in a few reading challenges this year. Care to join me?

I am especially looking forward to this one. Historical Fiction Challenge 2012 gives you five levels to choose from, and lasts all year. Any any kind of historical fiction is accepted and you just have to review the book on your blog when you are done with it. If you don't blog, don't worry. All you have to do is leave a comment with your thoughts on the book under the appropriate post. I am going for Severe Bookaholism: 20 books.

The other challenge is at Good Reads. I challenged myself to read 100 books this year, and am currently at 13.

Family Retro Movie Night - or, What to do with your DVD collection

2012-01-23T19:33:00.001-06:00

We don't own that many movies compared to some families. What we have are mostly DVD copies of the movies the boys wore the VCR tapes of out and movies that we liked enough to watch over and over.

I am on a spring cleaning/decluttering spree and one of the things I have been thinking about tackling is the movie drawer. I posted this picture on Facebook and asked my friends the following question: "How did you decided which DVDs to keep and which ones to let go of? I have a drawer full of DVDs and most of them haven't been watched in years. They don't really take up much room, but I feel like a lot of them could go to houses where they would be watched."

After a good bit of discussion, I have decided that I just can't part with any of them. Ok, there are a few that I could part with, but for the most part, this drawer represents our family.

So... to get some use out of them, I have decided that once a month we will have Family Retro Movie Night! Sometimes we will invite friends to watch with us, sometimes it will just be us. It is a mandatory night for our family, and I think it will be a lot of fun!

When I plan the first night, I will share the details.

Dining Room - Check

2012-01-22T21:44:00.001-06:00

The dining room is done. The school stuff is almost gone (still have some more to get rid of, but have no idea where to post it to try to sell), the furniture has been rearranged and the carpets have been cleaned.

To clean the carpet, I used an old trick that I have used before - hottest water that comes out of the tap, bleach and liquid fabric softener. The fabric softener takes care of any smell - we have two dogs, so I am sure there was a dog smell - the bleach takes care of any stains. There were a few rust stains from the bottom of a chair and it took them right out. Let me just say that if you decide to do this, test first. I can not guarantee that it will not bleach your carpet. I have very light beige, crappy cheap apartment carpet and it works great. I probably wouldn't do it if I had dark colored carpet. It looks better than it did when we moved in.

Tomorrow I am going to work on my walk-in bedroom closet. Right now, my concern is the holiday decorations that are stored in big totes in there. When we took the tree and decorations down, everything was just sort of tossed in to the totes and I do not want to have to deal with it at Christmas so I am taking care of it now.

Other than that, watching a few movies, finishing the book I am reading (if I don't finish it tonight) and then going out with a friend are on the agenda for tomorrow.

Spring Cleaning in January

2012-01-21T19:29:00.001-06:00

The weather has been amazing for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I was on my death bed for the first week of 70 degree weather, so I didn;t get to enjoy it. This last week I was only half way on my death bed, so I was at least able to get out of bed and sit by the window. :-/

Today, it was in the 70s, and I felt great, so I started spring cleaning. Yes, I know it is only January, but I started anyway. I got the Dining Room cleaned, organized and decluttered, posted some patio furniture on Craigslist, researched vacation spots, took my doggies for a walk and even found a home for Marilyn.

I am in the process of getting rid of most of our school stuff. Ethan is a Junior in (home) high school, and I still have books that we used when he was in 1st grade. I have tried to get rid of them before, but there were a few that I just couldn't part with. Not any more! They are out of here! Whatever I can't sell, I will donate to the library and whatever the library doesn't want will be given to nursing homes, used book stores or the Salvation Army. It now takes up 1/3 of a bookcase, down from two.

Tomorrow I clean the carpet in the Dining Room, and start cleaning/decluttering my bathroom and bedroom. Hopefully, by Monday I will have a big box ready to go to the Salvation Army.

Mom now quotes all the things

2012-01-01T16:42:00.001-06:00

Today, I made my first Rage Comic.

Something to think about

2011-12-18T14:25:00.005-06:00

"People will always say that you're going the wrong way when it's simply a way of your own." ~ Angelina Jolie

I read this quote on Pinterest and just had to share it with you.

My Birthday

2011-12-13T22:24:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday and I have to say it was a good one.

I woke up to a present and a made to order breakfast.

A gift? For me?

Me acting surprised about my birthday gift. That was ordered with my Amazon account and I keep getting emails about.

After I was done eating breakfast and messing around with my gift, we just sort of hung out at home. I loved it. Never changed out of my pajamas.

We watched two Christmas movies (Elf, a yearly tradition and The Santa Clause 2, a movie I hope to never have to sit through again) and rearranged the living room furniture. After the living room was how we want it - which by the way, I love. It seems so big now! - we decorated for Christmas.

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas!

I love our little tree. It is filled with ornaments that we have collected over the years and pulling them out each year we talk about the memories that come with them. Sure, I would love a giant tree covered in tinsel and blinking lights, but this tree suits us just fine. Besides, we are having a hard enough time keeping the dogs uninterested in this one.

This morning Daisy fell asleep under the tree. She is fascinated by the ornaments that are

hanging down and cautiously investigates each one, multiple times a day.

After the house was decorated we had a nice birthday dinner and some ice cream.

Probably the best birthday I can remember.

Happy Birthday Christian!

2011-12-11T21:31:00.001-06:00

Today is Christian's 20th birthday.

Ho-ly crap.

He decided that he wanted to spend a quiet day at home and that is exactly what he did. Dinner was souvlaki at his request. No one in town seems to have gluten free cake mix, so I bought him extra ice cream. I think he will survive.

Christmas Party

2011-12-07T10:21:00.001-06:00

Last night we got to go to Marty's work Christmas party. His last employer had a no parties, no birthdays,no condolences, no nothing policy so this is the first Christmas party he has had in almost 10 years. We had a great time!

It was a pot-luck and let me tell you - the food smelled amazing! I freaking love pot-lucks. Not sure why, but there is something about eating small amounts of a variety of foods cooked by other people that I love. Last night was one of those times where the Celiacs was a blessing and a curse. It stopped me from eating a lot of not good for me things - but it stopped me from eating a lot of not good for me things, if you know what I mean.

I have realized over the last few years just how much I love the Christmas season. I love the decorations, the presents, the food, the friends, the magic. I love it all. I want it all.

I think that next year we will have a Christmas party. Of course, it is going to depend on whether we move or not, because there is no way in hell we can have more than three people in this apartment. It is just too damn small.

In the mean time, I will enjoy the traditions we have. Every year we make hot cocoa for everyone, put the tree up, turn the lights off and just watch the tree twinkle. We watch the movie Elf at least 10 times. We make goodies for ourselves and to share with friends. When we lived up north we went sledding. Rest assured that there is plenty of hot cocoa and egg nog consumption - and now that we have the Keurig, the cups of hot cocoa will go through the roof.

Cars and their payments

2011-12-05T20:43:00.001-06:00

Yesterday,a good friend of ours came over to show us the new Explorer that she was given as a gift. Let me tell you, it was awesome. The thing was bigger than our first apartment. Leather interior, DVD player, phone through the speakers, OnStar... the list goes on and on. My Town and Country started to look pretty crappy. I wanted one, and I wanted one bad. I was ready to go to the dealership and pick mine out.

Then I realized something. I wanted a new car, but not the car payment that would have come with it. Suddenly my old, paid for Town and Country didn't seem so bad.

Even the pregnant neighborhood cat likes it!

What is better than a paid for but financed through a bank Town and Country? A paid for with cash, old, beat up Saturn. That's right! My $100 Saturn is still going strong. Sure, we had to put a $40 battery and $300 radiator in it, but you you think about what some people spend on car payments every month, $440 is still a bargain in my book.

Chai tea latte, Facebook, cleaning, laundry and a good book

2011-12-03T21:20:00.001-06:00

Today was a nice but exhausting day. I cleaned the house top to bottom. Not just any old cleaning, but the kind of cleaning that got me a "Wow!" when Marty came home. Between rooms, I managed to get some reading done and ordered a birthday present for a friend's son.

Cleaning is exhausting!

Marty has been coming home from work incredibly early this past week. Like 3-4pm early. I guess that is what is supposed to happen when you go in at 5am, not staying until 8-10pm like at his old job. I don't know if it will last but I am loving it while it is here! When he got home tonight we watched a movie, had dinner and he is currently watching some TV with Ethan.

So I started the detox/allergy/what the hell is making me feel like crap? diet and well, I feel like crap. Like hit by a truck crap. I have read that it is normal while your body is detoxing from things that make you sick, but the really strange thing is that today I had an almost overwhelming craving for sugar and potatoes. I don't know if that is normal (I suspect that it might be) but is is annoying as hell. I made it through today eating only things that I know are not going to make me sick. Every day I feel a little better, so that is good.

Why yes. Yes I am that cute.

Other than that, not much is going on around here. The weather has been gorgeous, so I think tomorrow I am going to try to spend as much time outside as I can. We will see if it happens.

The Year of Living in the Land of Contentment and Enough

2011-12-02T22:09:00.001-06:00

I have a not in real life friend - you know, one of those people you have never met in real life but have known online for years and years who knows more about you than some of your real life friends - who every year on her birthday picks one thing that she is going to work on for the year. My birthday is coming up so I am going to join her. This year is going to be the year of Living in the Land of Contentment and Enough. Or something silly like that.

With our recent bout of unemployment, I got scared. Sure, we were lucky and because of Marty's skill set and super awesomeness, it was a bout and not an occupation, but still. I have always tried to Living in the Land of Contentment and Enough, but sometimes it isn't easy. Sometimes the gimmes take hold and I want what everyone else has. That is how we ended up with our TV. We had a perfectly good TV (if by perfectly good I mean a crappy picture and small enough that you missed part of the picture) TV, but I decided that we had to be like everyone else and get a giant blah, blah, blah.

I have decided that in order to feel secure we need to bump our emergency fund up some more, so that will be a priority.

I have been thinking about what my thing will be for the year for a while now, but when I saw this blog post and this blog post - complete with snazzy title - I knew that I was on the right track.

If you would like to join me, pick something that you would like to spend the year working on in your life. It can be anything, big or small. Anything that you want to spend the year taking baby steps toward improving will work. Have fun deciding on something!

I am not rude, I swear!

2011-11-23T19:49:00.001-06:00

I JUST found out that I have comments. For some reason Blogger didn't email me like they used to. I haven't looked back to see how long ago I stopped replying to comments but I am going to set it to moderation so that from now on I will know y'all were talking to me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T19:11:00.001-06:00

Marty is finally home for good. He was gone for 8 weeks total, with a few days back home between stops in Birmingham and Nashville. The last eight weeks have been all training so today is his first day at his new job locally. We are celebrating with homemade (using Udi's gluten free pizza crusts - which by the way are freaking awesome, low points AND available at the Winn Dixie just down the street.) Ok, really we are having pizza because it is quick and easy and after all freaking day shopping - the day before Thanksgiving, thank you - I figured the last thing I would want to do is cook dinner.

Speaking of cooking and Thanksgiving - tomorrow we are headed to a friend's house for the festivities. She has gone out of her way to make this Thanksgiving completely gluten free. Homemade gf stuffing, homemade crustless pumpkin pie, plenty of fresh vegetables, etc. Is that not the coolest thing ever? I have said it before and I will say it again - no matter where I live, I have the coolest friends. Must be me. :-D

I am taking the two unhealthy foods and a salad. Root vegetable gratin (by the way, root vegetables blanching is one of the yuckiest smells ever but the smell of the gratin cooking more than makes up for it) and sweet potato casserole with pecan topping.

Of course when Marty was unemployed we cut way back on our spending. Still plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, but less meat and a lot more gluten free grains. That has led me to the realization that I am sensitive to a lot of them and am headed to the Doctor to do a supervised allergy detox diet. Basically, you eliminate everything that you think is causing problems for two weeks and then slowly add things back in to see which one(s) cause a reaction. The other unfortunately to eating all of the grains is that I gained weight. Since I can't for the life of me find my Weight Watchers weigh in book I am not sure how much total but I am pretty sure it is close to 20lbs. The good news is that my mom bought the 17 day diet book and she is going to follow it with me. We were planning to start as soon as she got the book but she decided to wait until after Thanksgiving. Not a problem for me because I have already eliminated most of the grains that hate me.

So that's about it as far as updates go. Hopefully it won't take me two months to update again.

An update of sorts

2011-10-05T15:57:00.001-05:00

Now that it is all over, I can tell you. Marty lost his job. He was gainfully re-employeed within 2 weeks - making the same money for less work. I have to keep telling myself it happened for a reason. I haven't figured out that reason yet, but I am sure it will come to me.

Part of what pissed me off so much is that we were no longer going to be moving to Shreveport. I fell in love with the city while we were there, and I really mourned the loss of someplace we have never lived. Crazy, I know. I am to the point in my life where I feel like we need to settle down, buy a house and just live our lives. I feel like we are transients, looking for the perfect place to live. I thought we had found that in Shreveport, but we will have to wait to find out. Maybe we will go to Shreveport, maybe somewhere else. The company he works for now has 600 locations, and after they hired him they said that they can pretty much send him wherever he wants to go - we just need to wait for an opening.

I want a house where I can plant a garden. Had we known that we would stay in this town, we would have found a house to rent. We resigned our lease to avoid paying the month to month rent ($200 more a month) and so we are here for another year. I am going to try to grow some things on our balcony, but there isn't much sunlight there so I don't know if it will work.

We are pretty busy around here. Marty is in Nashville for training and my mom is here visiting for two weeks. Christian is in school, Alex and Ethan are doing school at home, and my mom and I are running all over town. Good times!

In the mean time, I will leave you with a picture of the view we had while camping this past weekend.

And what we woke up to each morning.

2011-09-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

I wish I could be the kind of blogger that I want to be. Updating daily with interesting and/or relevant posts. That just isn't going to happen right now. (Not that it ever did...)

Right now, my life is in a tailspin. We are crazy busy, but with nothing to do. I wish I could go in to more detail, but right now I just can't. Suffice it to say that we could really use any and all prayers/good thoughts/awesome juju you can muster to send our way.

Hopefully I will be back to blogging soon.

Reaching Goal

2011-07-31T15:10:00.000-05:00

First I have to figure out what my goal weight is. I thought it would be 140, but now I don't know. For some reason, 140 seems so much further than it did when I weighed 262. Yes, 47 pounds to lose seems harder than 122 did. When I weighed 262 I took it 1 day at a time. Now, I am hyper focused on the big picture - the end number.

It is crazy and makes no sense to me, but maybe my 10 freaking month plateau/stall/whatever the hell it is has something to do with it?

Oops!

2011-07-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

So. Yeah. I feel like such a tool. Seriously. I had a plan and it was a good one. I was ready. It was going to happen and it was going to be awesome.

Today, I started operation "Kicking ass and taking names" (yeah... that's what I'll call it) ... and then I remembered that I hate hate hate eggs. With a passion. I will eat sunny side up eggs with lots of toast. There is no way I am going to eat all egg whites, no matter how I dress them up. I tried. Dear lord did I try. I sauteed onions, mushrooms, green peppers and spinach in olive oil and added those to my egg whites. The vegetables were delicious. The eggs? Not so much. By the time I was done with breakfast I had eaten all of the vegetables and maybe 1/3-1/2 of the eggs. Needless to say, I was starving by lunch time.

As I sat here counting down the seconds until I could eat again, it dawned on me. I have worked way too hard to overcome my unhealthy relationship with food. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I can't risk going back to my unhealthy thoughts about food. I used to not care. Not caring for me is bad, bad, 262 lb. news.

I also realized that it is way, way too low carb for me. The last time I low carbed, I lost big chunks of my hair. Not worth it to me.

So... what an I going to do? Keep on keeping on. I am going to incorporate more of the Mediterranean Diet in to my life, and incorporate more exercise. (Both things I have been striving for for a long, long time.) In fact, I have joined a challenge on Facebook that will get me moving. I have committed to walk/run/move 1,000 miles over the course of a year. For those of you who like me can't do the math in your head, that is almost 3 miles per day, 7 days a week. I can - and will - do it. I just need to figure out how.

Busy days

2011-07-24T14:23:00.002-05:00

Still not much exciting going on here. Marty is back from Nashville (where he got some GREAT news that I will share with you later), I am still a taxi, Christian is still in school, Alex and Ethan are chugging along with school at home, Daisy and Lulu are still ornery doggies. You know, business as usual.

Oh! One new thing: I am dumping Weight Watchers. Ok, not really, but I am mixing things up a bit. I am so damn tired of fighting with the same 10 pounds (since freaking September) and I need to do something different. Something that will get me out of the 180s. Something.

Here is a video I made explaining my new plan:

Basically, I am going to transition in to more of a Mediterranean Diet lifestyle. I am using a two week weight loss plan from the book The Mediterranean Prescription. I am going to do it two weeks at a time. After two weeks, if things are going well and it seems like something I can continue, I will do another two weeks, and so on and so on. So there's that.

This week is going to be just as busy as the rest of them, plus an overnighter in Birmingham.

In sad news, I got a message today that Daisy's mama died yesterday. :-( They think it has something to do with the heat. As you can imagine, they are heartbroken.

Ok, I hate to end the post on a sad note, so I will give you this:

Have a fantabulous weekend!

2011-07-15T16:34:00.002-05:00

Well hello there everyone! How the heck have you been? I am pretty fantabulous myself.

The weight loss is driving me nuts. I just don't know what is going on and what to do about it. I am rereading my Weight Watchers material to make sure I am doing it right (more a formality - I know I am doing it right), and reading up on some nutrition and other things that may help. I don't know if I have just lost all of the weight I am going to with Weight Watchers, lost all of the weight I am going to with any weight loss plan, or if there is something going on that is just making it not work for me. Whatever it is, I am NOT giving up. I have worked too hard and come too far to give up.

Christian is doing a great job at school. I really thought he would struggle with it because he has never been in a classroom setting, but he adjusted in no time.

Ethan and Marty are spending the weekend whitewater rafting in Tennessee. They get back Sunday night and on Tuesday Marty turns around and has to fly to Nashville for a 3 day meeting. The good news is that while he is gone, I have one less person to have to drop off or pick up from somewhere.

Ready for their adventure

Lately I have been exhausted. I feel like I am always on the go and barely get a chance to sit down. This weekend is my chance to do what I want to do. Christian and I are heading to Jackson to eat some gluten free Chinese food and gluten free pizza, stop at the farmer's market and a few other places, and just have fun. Alex has decided that he wants to stay home and have the giant TV to himself. Everyone is happy and everyone is relaxed. Just the way I like it!

I came home from dropping Marty and Ethan off and tried to take a nap. Apparently, Daisy and Lulu had other plans.

Summer check in

2011-07-03T23:05:00.000-05:00

When I was young, I always felt like July 4th meant that summer was almost over. I don't know why I felt that way because in Ohio school didn't let out until sometime around June 6th, so really summer was just getting started. I was a kid... what can I say?

Now that I am an adult, I like to use July 4th ad a time to sit down and think about how my summer is going. What do I need to do differently? What is working perfectly and doesn't need to change?

So far, this is a pretty damn good summer.

Christian is doing great with school. He passed his classes with flying colors, and in fact his history professor told him that he didn't need to take the final, because even if he got a 0 he would pass with an A. :-)

Christian's college schedule is fitting well in to our life, and honestly I think it may be partially responsible for how good this summer has been. We get up early, get our crap done and then have the rest of the day to do whatever we want to.

Alex and Ethan are plugging along well with school. They are doing a lighter load during the summer but starting this week I am going to add a few more things in. They will still be done by the time that most of their friends wake up. :-)

Marty has a lot going on with work. He has two out of town meetings (Nashville and Birmingham) two weeks in a row.

Marty and Ethan are going white water rafting for Ethan's birthday, and The I will be taking Alex and Christian to either Jackson or Birmingham for PF Chang's and just hanging out.

Tomorrow is the 4th and we are going to hang around at home for the day and then go to a friends to let off fireworks. If the pool isn't too crazy, we will have them over to swim in the afternoon.

Last year we celebrated July 4th by starting a walking routine in Germany. Woot. Not! It was very strange to not be with family, and not watch fireworks. Sure, we were having a great time, but you can't beat spending time with family and friends.

Cleaning and summer fun

2011-06-26T20:23:00.001-05:00

We bought a carpet scrubber earlier this month and boy do I love that thing. We spent a day of Marty's vacation scrub, scrub, scrubbing every room in the house. I never realized how dirty our carpets were until I started pouring out black sandy water. Yuck!

In other cleaning/decluttering news, I have a computer monitor, Lu's old crate and the giant computer cabinet waiting to go to a new home. We have a new home lined up and are just waiting to be able to deliver the goods. (The receiver's son just had surgery so we are waiting until he feels better.) I also plan to go through our old school books and sell whatever we don't need. I still have books from when we first started homeschooling, so there is a good bit we can get rid of...)

So our summer of home grown fun is going pretty well. Lots of swimming, lots of hanging out with friends and lots of having fun as a family.

We have a goal of saving $1000 by the end of the summer. We aren't going to go overboard with the belt tightening (it is already pretty tight!) but instead I want to show my boys that even the smallest change can make a big difference. Things like knocking the A/C up a few degrees, being super vigilant about wasting food, taking the dogs to the groomer every 6 weeks instead of 4 and combining errands, etc. We are pretty good about keeping an eye on things but I have found that every so often we need to check up on how we are doing. It is really easy to slip and not realize it. It helps that The Tightwad Gazette is on my summer reading list. (I try to reread it at least once a year.)

So... how is your summer going?

Soundtrack of summer

2011-06-16T18:15:00.011-05:00

I think everyone has one. A song that as soon as you hear it, it reminds you of summer. This is mine:

I have no idea why... maybe it is the video? But doesn't that just look like a kick ass way to spend a summer day?

Of course, spending a good chunk of my adult life living in Michigan, I can't leave out this one:

For the record, there is no better place to be for summer than northern Michigan.

Any others I should add to the list?

Summer Plans

2011-06-15T16:13:00.049-05:00

Summer has barely started and I am already OVER it. I am so damn bored. This time last year, Christian and I were exploring small, old villages in Germany, and getting ready to head to Switzerland. This year, we are doing nothing.

Marty is currently on vacation and we are staying home. Today is his birthday and the most exciting thing we have done is head to the Farmer's Market.

In all fairness, we decided to do nothing this summer. After a summer of four of us being gone and then a vacation turned trip home to Ohio for my Grandma's funeral in December, when it was time to discuss plans for the summer, we were ready for some time at home. Now of course, I want to be anywhere but home. If you are over the age of 10, there is just nothing to do in Meridian. Nothing. Ok, they can go to the movie or head to The Park (a sort of Chuck E. Cheese for teenagers, with laser tag, put-put golf, etc.) but how many times can they do that without 1) breaking the bank and 2) they are bored with it.

We had planned to go camping for Marty's birthday, but with the weather reaching 100 degrees, I put the kibosh on that.

Ok, enough complaining. What we do have planned for the summer is - lots of swimming, visiting with friends, planning movie/dinner theme nights for the family and friends (Puerco Pibil and Once Upon A Time In Mexico, anyone?), watching/helping Christian succeed in his first semester of College (so far, so good!), helping Alex find a job, school with Alex and Ethan (Yes, I am mean. The "but it's summer" excuse doesn't work around here. If it is too hot to go outside, you may as well grab a school book), supporting Ethan and a friend as they start a business (making skateboards. They already have potential buyers), making more Youtube videos, doing another "How low can you go" challenge to see how much money we can save by the end of summer, doing another freezer clean out challenge (trust me, it needs it), walking my doggies, catching up with my girlies now that they aren't so busy with school, catching up on some tv shows we never watched (Angel was last week, this week is Lost), walk with my walking club, cook up a storm (I recently picked up a few cook books that I am dying to delve in to), growing herbs on my balcony, losing 10-15 more pounds (personal goal *fingers crossed*), reading a few good books (hopefully poolside), taking 1 or 2 day trips (New Orleans and the coast, hopefully), rereading The Tightwad Gazette for inspiration/a kick in the butt, blogging more...

Ok, so maybe I have a full summer ahead of me. Now I just have to figure out how to make all of this happen and still keep my sanity.

What are your plans for the summer?

H2-uh-oh!

2011-05-22T20:09:00.000-05:00

I have made a commitment to exercise every day of June. Ok, I can do that. I also made a commitment to not drink any tea for the month. What the hell was I thinking??

Ok. I know what I was thinking. I was thinking that when I drank nothing but water all last summer in Germany, I felt amazing. I was walking every day, eating healthy and drinking nothing but water. My skin was amazing and I felt amazing. Why has it taken me so long to decide to do this? Oh well. The important thing is that I am doing it now, right?

My local Weight Watchers in a franchise so they did not organize a 5k for the Weight Watchers Walk-it Challenge, so I am going to do it myself. I was planning to do it today, but we ended up having a going away pool party for some friends. Some day this week, I WILL do a 5k.

Par-tay!

2011-05-21T09:42:00.001-05:00

Today we are headed to a graduation party for a friend of all of my boys. He is one of those kids we all hope our kids will know - has his act together (going to college in the fall -PreMed!) but isn't so obsessed that he doesn't make time to be a good friend.

Since he is going away to school in the fall, he and his brother (another friend who has it all together) are spending the summer with their dad in another town. Hopefully they aren't leaving for a few days because we are planning a final pool party/BBQ/video games all night surprise extravaganza for Tuesday night.

They are grilling burgers so I am going to eat at home and we will take a grilled burger and a small bag of chips for Alex.

In other super exciting news, Lulu graduated to her big girl collar yesterday! She loves it!

Look at the beautiful puppy!

Christian is signed up for classes that start May 31. (!!) Last week he went to the school to see if it was too late to take a class in the summer and he came out signed up for a full course load for the summer. Luckily, they fast track summer classes, so full time is 4 classes divided up in to 2 - 1 month long terms.

Nap Time!

That puts a damper on our plans for Marty's birthday, but we are ok with that. We had planned to go camping for the week but since Christian is in school Monday-Thursday, we will probably just take a long weekend to camp. I am really ok with that!

Monkey Love

Ok, I am off. I need to make some breakfast quiches so Marty can just grab one on his way to work. Have a great day, everyone!

Point Six

2011-05-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Last Monday was weigh in. I lost 3.4lbs, which put me .6 from my goal of 75lbs lost. So frustrating! I was sure I was not going to lose much, so I was ok with it taking another week or two. Once I got close, though, I was not so ok with it. I was so damn mad!

So now, I have .6lb to lose to hit my goal and get my washer. I hope, hope, hope that it happens this week. I'll keep you posted.

Loosing Weight on YouTube!

2011-05-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

I have started making YouTube videos related to my weight loss.

Shelves

2011-04-04T17:15:00.000-05:00

I love my shelves. Love, love, love them. They are ginormous, just in case you can't tell from the picture.

At the same flea market where we found our TV cabinet - Did I show you that? No? Ok... here it is

Anyway, at the same Flea Market that I found this at, I found 4 old (1930s) porch brackets for $8 a piece. Having priced shelf brackets for a few months, I knew that was a good price, so I grabbed them. I intended to buy wood to use as the shelf part, but it didn't just seem like it would look right, so I headed back to the flea market.

I mention to the guy behind the cash register - who I later found out was the owner - what I was looking for, and long story short, I walked out with five 8ft long pieces of old, old, old, chippy paint bead board paneling. For free. Score!

The brackets are termite damaged, so we decided to not use them as actual brackets and just for looks. We ended up screwing the bead board to the brackets, and then "hung" the shelves with L brackets. We made sure that the L brackets were either screwed in to a stud or we used an anchor.

I still have to paint the table/desk, but what do you think so far?

Life

2011-04-02T11:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have been absent again. I have had a sick kid, sick husband and sick dog. Now that things are hopefully back on track, I hope to get back to blogging semi-regularly.

My mom came to visit a few weeks ago. We had her fly in to Nashville so that we could spend a couple of days there when we took her back to catch her plane. Because of someone being sick, we decided to just buy her a ticket to fly home from Jackson. That ended up being a good decision, because not too much later, the brake line went out. Of course, while the brake line was being fixed, the technician discovered that the Rack & Pinion is going out. Another $615 soon, please. He said it can hold off for a bit, but not too long. Sigh...

Last Sunday we had an emergency trip to the vet for Daisy. Thankfully, she appears to be on the mend, but it was really bad there for a bit. We weren't sure if she was going to need surgery, or some other drastic scary thing.

So all in all, our Emergency Fund has taken a pretty big hit. It shouldn't take us too long to build it back up, but I really hate not having it. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing else happens, please!

The chest freezer desperately needs defrosted, so we are going to eat down as much as we can and try to shove the rest in to the freezer above the refrigerator and defrost it. Of course, no one noticed until we were putting away the stuff from grocery shopping, so it may take a week or so. It has made for some creative meals, though. The other day, we made what I called Frankenfreezer soup. We mixed lentil soup, kidney beans, vegetable soup, red beans and rice minus the rice and black bean, tomato and corn chili and Marty's Cheffy Voodoo magic and served it with quesadillas and a salad. It was so good that Ethan ate three bowls!

So that is not even close to everything that has been going on in my blogging absence, but it is a start. Oh!! We finally got the shelves built for over the desk! They look amazing! Way, way better than I thought they would. Christian really outdid himself. I will snap some pictures and get them posted soon.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Spring Cleaning and Decluttering

2011-03-05T11:22:00.028-06:00

My mom is coming to visit for her Spring Break, so I decided to use it as the perfect ~~excuse~~ opportunity to spring clean and declutter.

A few days ago I sat down and divided the house in to zones, with the plan to work on one zone a day and take a few days off. As I fill bags or boxes, they go either to the trash or to the back of the van to go to the thrift store.

1. Master bathroom/Master bedroom closet
2. Master bedroom
3. Hall bath/Hall closet
4. Van
5. Alex and Ethan closet
6. Alex and Ethan bedroom
7. Christian closet
8. Christian bedroom
9. Desk
10. Red cabinet/Black hutch
11. Living room
12. Dining room/school cabinet/book case
13. Balcony

So far, things are going really well. Marty is off tomorrow and is taking 4 days off next week, so I think I will rope him in to helping me. The great thing about dividing the apartment in to such small zones is that even with a deep cleaning, it shouldn't take more than an hour to finish. With the boys helping me, it took less than 15 minutes to finish my closet. Not too bad!

Food Waste Friday

2011-03-04T15:09:00.000-06:00

The only food waste here this week is one tangelo that was rock hard (and I don't know if I would consider it waste, because I zested it) and a small amount of snap beans that migrated to the back of the refrigerator.

One thing I wanted to share was one ~~big~~ huge step we took to help eliminate food waste.

Meet the Have/Need board.

Since starting the CSA/Co-op, we have a massive amount of fruits and vegetables each week, and I learned pretty quickly that if I didn't keep track of them, we would never get around to using all of them. Of course, I could have just taped a piece of paper onto the refrigerator, but then my need to be frugal was trumped by my need to be tidy. So... $6 later, we ended up with a white board that fits perfectly on the refrigerator, and has all but ended food waste in my house. This picture shows just the produce, but we also add any leftovers and things like the 1/2 container of ricotta that will be forgotten.

Since this picture was taken, we have also added a "Kitchen to-do" section, where I list things that need to be done. For example, today's kitchen to-do list is freeze the homemade chicken broth I made yesterday and cut and freeze the red/green peppers.

So... How did you do?

This post linked to Food Waste Friday at The Frugal Girl.

Bath Towels

2011-02-24T15:04:00.001-06:00

We have a two towel per person rule in this house. You get one bath towel, one smaller towel for hair or whatever and as many washcloths as you need, to get you through life. The way I look at it is that you are clean when you get out of the shower, so the towel should be relatively clean after drying off your clean body, right?

Knowing that you get one shot at a dry towel, you learn pretty quickly to hang them up - or risk streaking the family as you run to your room.

A few weeks ago I bought Marty and I giant bath sheets - yes, bath sheets - to replace our bath towels. These things are huge and we ran in to the problem of where the heck do we hang them?

In the master bathroom, we are sorely lacking in space. Hehe. Master bathroom. That sounds all fancy, doesn't it? Really, it is just a bathroom off of my bedroom. I love having one and have a strict "No Boys Allowed" rule. Ok... strict might be a stretch, but someone had better be dying if they want to use my bathroom. It is nothing fancy. Standard apartment bathroom, I would bet. Wooden vanity cabinet, ginormous mirror glued to the wall, white fixtures and super (not so) flattering vanity strip lights. But it is mine.

Anyway, yesterday I finally figured something out that really should not have taken me as long as it did, but I digress. I had Christian hang a few hooks I found on clearance at Jo Ann's. The hooks have been hanging out in the hall closet, waiting for me to figure out why I bought them, and finally yesterday they found their calling.

They are crooked, match nothing... and I love them.

Patio furniture on the cheap

2011-02-23T17:58:00.001-06:00

Walked in to the Salvation Army the other day, looking for a table or dresser or something that I could tear apart to use as shelves (more on that as the project unfolds) and instead walked out with these.

Six chairs with cushions and an umbrella base for $100. Not too bad, I think. There was a cheap plastic umbrella, but since I don't need it I donated it back.

Eventually, I will repaint them and either recover the cushions or find some at the end of the season sales, but until then I am perfectly happy sitting out there watching my doggies chase leaves and each other.

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food

2011-02-20T12:59:00.000-06:00

This is an old video, but worth watching again.

Lulu

2011-02-13T12:15:00.000-06:00

Sigh. I couldn't help myself. Her name is Lulu Belle and Daisy loves her to pieces. She is still working on figuring out limits because of Lulu's size, but so far she is a great big sister.

Lulu is 8 weeks old - she and Christian share a birthday! - and is the only puppy that survived from the litter of 6. The others didn't die from medical issues... let's just say that her mommy isn't a good mommy.

She will eat until her tummy bursts if you let her, and she loves to steal Daisy's food. She is so chubby that she waddles, and anytime we can;t find her we know to look where the food bowls are kept.

Menu Plan - Week of February 6

2011-02-07T09:46:00.008-06:00

I am so excited! Thursday we will pick up our first CSA box and we got a new wok! Wohoo!

I a lucky - my CSA/co-op tells us on Sunday what will be in the box, and allows us to customize it. We have decided to just take the shares as they come, and have some fun figuring out what to do with the things we get. Right now, they are pretty tame - broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, turnips, etc - but as the weather warms up, I am hoping to get some things we have never tried before. Until then, we will try new recipes for the fruits and vegetables we get.

All meals are served with various side dishes, including salad and fruit.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Blueberries
Cold Cereal

Lunch:
PB&J
Leftovers
Quesadillas

Dinner:
Some version of Crockpot Beans and Rice
Grilled Portobello Mushroom burger with goat cheese, Collard greens
Huevos rancheros, Mexican rice, refried beans
Chinese Take-Out Shrimp with Garlic, brown rice
Dinner out
Fake Arroz con Pollo and black beans
Mediterranean Tilapia, roasted vegetables

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Menu Plan - Week of January 30

2011-01-30T12:59:00.000-06:00

I am starting to get excited about our first CSA/Co-op delivery, and it isn't until the 10th! I am lucky that the Sunday before the delivery I can log in to the site and see what is in the next delivery, and can make changes. I plan to use the list to plan my meals. Until then I am stuck with regular old grocery store fruit and vegetables. That's ok... any vegetable is a good vegetable to me!

All meals are served with a salad loaded with vegetables and fruit as a dessert.
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Blueberries
Cold Cereal

Lunch:
PB&J
Leftovers
Quesadillas

Dinner:
Some version of Crockpot Beans and Rice
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Baked Penne with Broccoli and Three Cheeses
Fake Arroz con Pollo and black beans
Mediterranean Tilapia
Quiche
Super Bowl Party

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Menu Plan - Week of January 23

2011-01-25T09:22:00.013-06:00

The view from our cabin

Back from our long weekend in Gatlinburg. We had an awesome time! Last night when we got home, Marty threw together a pasta dish using all of the leftover cut vegetables we had at the cabin and some brown rice pasta. Yum! This is the rest of the plan for the week.

All dinners are served with fruit, salad and various side dishes.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with Blueberries
Cold Cereal

Lunch:
PB&J
Leftovers
Quesadillas

Dinner:
Pasta w/steamed vegetables
Some version of Crockpot Beans and Rice
Fake Arroz con Pollo and black beans
Crock Pot Turkey Tamale Pie
Pioneer Woman Beans and Cornbread
Thai-Garlic Chicken

I found a CSA!!!

2011-01-16T23:15:00.000-06:00

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my only real complaint about living in Mississippi is the lack of good, affordable, organic produce. I have been looking for a CSA since we got here and have had zero luck. That all changed this week.

A friend found a farm co-op/CSA in Alabama that delivers one hour from us! So far, five local families are going to participate and share the driving.

You can buy eggs with your share, and there is also an online store that you can buy bread, meat and even flowers to be delivered with your share. They have three plans to choose from, and even those are customizable every week.

I can't wait to pick up our first share!

Marty and I also went ahead and joined a co-op in Jackson, even though it is 1 1/2 hours from home. The membership is 1/2 price this month, and most of the things we buy are considered Member Staples and are sold at a discount, and if you spend $25 a month, you get 10% off. They also have member days where everything in the store is 10% off. Y'all know me... I will be stocking up on member days! We will make our $12.50 membership fee back in no time, I'm sure.

So far, our commitment to eating healthier, whole foods is coming along nicely.

Menu Plan | Using what's on hand

2011-01-16T23:00:00.000-06:00

Here is the plan for the this week. Some of the things on this week's plan are carried over from last week's plan, and one is a new recipe I can't wait to try.

All meals are served with a salad and fruit.

Breakfast
Oatmeal w/ blueberries
Corn or Rice Chex
Smoothies

Lunch
Lunch meat sandwiches (Hormel Natural Choice is GF)
Roasted chicken or turkey breast sandwiches
PB&J
Leftovers
Quesadillas

Dinner
Some version of Crockpot Beans and Rice
Fake Arroz con Pollo and black beans
Spanish Tortilla - I found a lean pork roast on clearance so I brought it home and roasted it to use in the tortilla.
Chicken Potpie Bowl
Pulled pork sandwiches on buns, cole slaw, cut vegetables
Hamburgers on Corn Thins, salad
Dinner out

Snacks
Fruit
Various Vegetables pre cut and waiting in the refrigerator
Smoothies
Popcorn

365 Days of Gratitude & Happiness

2011-01-15T16:48:00.000-06:00

Waaay back on Dec 22, I started participating in something called "365 Days of Gratitude & Happiness." Well, participating might be the wrong word. Basically, I came across an awesome idea and decided to do it as well.

Basically, each day I upload a picture of something that I am grateful for or has made me happy. I am having a blast doing it, and at the end of the 365 days I am going to print the pictures and have them bound as a book.

If I can figure out how to do it, I will try to find a widget to get the pictures to appear on my side bar. If not, I will at least put a link.

If anyone would like to join me (us), please send me a link so I can see yours!

365 Days of Gratitude & Happiness

Menu Plan | Back on Plan

2011-01-08T09:11:00.017-06:00

Achieving our debt free/Disney goal means cutting costs whenever possible. One of the easiest things I can economize on is food.

Here is the plan for the week, using what we have on hand. There is a good chance the plan will change, but I always like to have a plan.

All meals are served with a salad, fruit and various other sides that I am too lazy to mention.

Mediterranean Chicken in Foil Packets and Herbed Potato Salad

Breakfast
Oatmeal w/ blueberries
Corn or Rice Chex
Smoothies

Lunch
Tuna salad
PB&J
Leftovers
Quesadillas
Baked Potatoes with broccoli, homemade cheese sauce and bacon bits

Dinner
Some version of Crockpot Beans and Rice
Mediterranean Chicken in Foil Packets and Herbed Potato Salad
Fake Arroz con Pollo and black beans
Spanish Tortilla
Vegetable Soup
Crockpot Broccoli Beef

Snacks
Fruit
Various Vegetables pre cut and waiting in the refrigerator
Smoothies
Popcorn

Living has to come first

2011-01-07T20:38:00.001-06:00

Just in case you forgot how adorable Ethan and Daisy are

My book made it. I am so glad that I finally bought it. I really don't know why I didn't buy it sooner... it has been at the top of my list since before it was published.

One of the things I love about it is that I can complete The Cure without spending a penny. Of course, it will be easier if I spend, but to me The Cure is about learning what you need, what you love and what you want - and incorporating it in to your life. To paraphrase the book - If your home isn't healthy, nothing about your life is healthy. A healthy home does not have to cost anything.

I am also not going to stress over it. Living has to come first. I am not going to get so caught up in making the perfect life or prefect house or perfect anything else that isn't real that I forget to live my life. Life is now. I am living it.

The reason I mention the cost is that we are soooo close to being debt free we can taste it. We want to take a big vacation to Disney World to celebrate being debt free. Doing both this year will be a pretty big chunk of money. Is it doable? Absolutely. Is it going to hurt? Possibly. Are we going to do it? You bet your ass we are.

The Eight-Step Home Cure

2011-01-06T19:01:00.000-06:00

I am so excited! I finally bought a book that I have wanted to buy since it was first published - in 2006, I think - but never got around to it. I was the first person to borrow it from the library, read it cover to cover, fell in love with it - and then promptly forgot to order it.

Well, the book should be here tomorrow.

Can.Not.Wait.

One of the things I have been working on is a list of some of the projects (home and otherwise) I plan to *finally* tackle in 2011. Now, I think my first home project is going to be The Cure. As part of The Cure, I will work on each room/area, and make a list of any projects I wasn't able to get to. Once I have that list, I will prioritize the list and dive in.

Did I mention how excited I am?

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." --Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T11:20:00.002-06:00

Laverle

2010-12-23T19:15:00.000-06:00

This is my Grandma, Laverle. She died in November and I miss her terribly.

$12

2010-12-21T18:56:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, I am 2.2 lbs from having lost 75 lbs. Periodically, I have thought about going to Weight Watchers online only or even canceling my membership all together and going it alone. I mean, $48 a month is a good chunk of change and I am sure I could find another budget category to put it in.

I started Weight Watchers June 22, 2009, so it has taken me a bit of time to get to where I am. A month or so ago I was't able to make it to my regular meeting so I caught the next time available. The woman who sat next to me started at my starting weight, lost exactly what I had to to get to goal, and was currently living at my goal weight. She did it all in 8 months.

At first I was quite impressed. Who wouldn't be? 122 lbs in 8 months is nothing to sneeze at! But then I got mad. She did in 8 months what I have spent 1 1/2 years working on, and am only a little over 1/2 was there. I asked questions.

She shared with me a shopping list she made from her first three months worth of food journals. I got even more mad and added confusion to the mix. Her shopping list consisted of mostly junk food. Low point snack cakes, 100 calorie packs and baked potato chips. Plenty of Mc Donald's, Arby's and Burger King. The only fruits and vegetables on her list were potatoes, watermelon and greens.

I talked to my leader. She made it very clear to me that what this woman experienced is not typical, not healthy and is most definitely not what Weight Watchers recommends or encourages.

This is why I love Weight Watchers, and especially love my leader. This is why I will pay my $12 a week for the rest of my life, if that's what it takes.

I am a great dieter. I know how to lose weight. I have done it a million times. My problem is, I don't know how to do it long term. I don't know how to stick with the plan after the honeymoon period has passed or after I started feeling good again. I don't know how to pick myself up and get back on the wagon after something as normal as a vacation, birthday party or holiday. I certainly don't know how to maintain at my goal weight.

I don't have to do it alone. I have millions of dollars worth of research, some of the top scientists in the field, some of the most up to date research and best of all, some of the most compassionate "been there, done that" people available to me any time I need them. And that is worth so much more than $12 a week.

*I did not plan for this to end up sounding like a Weight Watchers commercial. If it does, I am sorry. My issue with spending money on myself is something Marty and I have been discussing for a while now, so it was what was on my mind tonight.

Food Rules

2010-12-20T22:23:00.001-06:00

One of the things I have decided to work on is our eating. Before I go any further, let me just say that we eat pretty darn healthy. We really do. I have lost 72.8 lbs. (Not that I am counting or anything...) That didn't happen by eating junk. But there is always room for improvement.

Enter Michael Pollan's Food Rules.

While we were in Germany, I bought the book. Read it cover to cover in one sitting - admittedly not hard to do - and read it again. I couldn't get enough. It all made sense and right then and there I decided that we needed to implement as many of the "rules" as we could.

The book is divided in to three sections - Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. One of the things Mr. Pollan suggests in the book is that you start small. Maybe pick one rule from each section and work on it until you master it and then start another. That is exactly what I am going to do.

Here are the rules I picked.

Eat Food: Rule #4 - Avoid food products that contain high fructose corn syrup.
This one should be easy, because we have pretty much been living this rule for a while. There are a few hold outs that I am going to work on finding replacements for.

Mostly Plants: Rule #25 - Eat your colors.
Again, we eat a pretty big selection of fruits and vegetables, but I am sure we can add more. Here are some links I am going to use for inspiration.

What color is your food?

Eat the rainbow. Colorful fruits and veggies list

Not Too Much: Rule #53 - Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds.
This is a big problem for us. I am a feeder. I feed people, almost to the point of being s food pusher. I make sure everyone has more than they need, and then make sure they have seconds. The way I see it, there are two issues - making too much food and putting it in front of everyone. I think what I am going to start doing is only making enough for the meal and Marty to have a serving for work the next day. Instead of serving it on my serving dishes, I will dish it up in the kitchen and package the extras immediately.

Tonight, I put both of these in to practice. No one asked for more food or complained that they are hungry. Not seeing a big plate full of food just sitting there waiting made them satisfied with what they had.

So what about you? Anything I can encourage you through?

Starting Fresh

2010-12-19T17:15:00.000-06:00

We are all still alive. Some of us in better shape than others, but we are all still here.

So many things have happened since I last blogged - Holy crap I can't believe that November 1st was the last time I blogged. I have made a commitment to try to blog daily from this point on. Not sure I will make it, but I am going to try.

What has happened in the last 1 1/2 months:
- My grandma died and we took an unplanned trip to Ohio for the funeral.
- We realized that traveling with a puppy is not nearly as fun as it might seem.
- Christian got a job.
- Lots of cleaning/organizing/decluttering/simplifying. It always amazes me that no matter how much I clean/organize/declutter/simplify, there is more to do.
- Ditched AT&T and went back to Comcast for just internet. Got a great deal, so it only costs us $10 more than AT&T would, and it is 10 megs vs. the 1.5 we were getting from AT&T. No cable, and we are ok with that.
- Finally gave in and got a smart phone. Marty needed to upgrade his phone (for work) and there was an awesome sale that gave me a free phone and unlimited talk/web/text for $35 a month. I got a Samsung Galaxy S, and I don't know how I lived without it for so long. Freaking love this phone.
- Joined WW online. Still attend meetings (I don't think I will ever not attend) but now I track everything on my phone. Much, much easier!
- I am 4 pounds from reaching 75 pounds lost!!! Booya! When we were in Germany, I reached the goal, but when I got back, my weight was pretty different than what it converted before I left. So either I gained 9 lbs on the flight, or the scales are different.
- Marty joined WW. He tried to do it at home but realized that he needs the accountability, too. He is doing amazing!
- My sweet, cuddly puppy has turned in to Satan dog. Ok, she is almost out of the Satan dog/I am a toddler and will test everything stage, but she was pretty ornery for a while. I can't wait until the teenager stage gets here. :-/
- Turned 38. Marty and my friend had a surprise birthday party for me. I was genuinely surprised and touched. It was my best birthday ever.
- I started taking medication for ADHD. I was diagnosed years ago, but never wanted to take the meds. After seeing the difference they made for someone I know, I decided to talk to my doctor and see what he thought. We decided to give it a one month trial and then reevaluate. So far, I can see that I am more focused and more motivated.
- I was without a laptop for 6 weeks. While in Ohio, the screen was broken so we had to take it in to have that repaired and have the mouse pad repaired, because the last time Geek Squad had it they messed it up. Long story short, after Geek Squad was done with it, we needed to order a recovery disk. There is way more to the story, but suffice it to say that I will never take anything to Geek Squad or make another purchase from Best Buy again.

And saving the best for last:
- Paid off my van and told Chase Bank to suck it!!!!!!!!! When I called to make the last payment, our loan advisor was so excited for us she cheered, too!

I try not to make new years resolutions, because frankly, I never follow through with them. A friend chooses one thing to work on each year, starting on her birthday. This year, she is working on hospitality. I really like this idea, and am going to try something like it, with my own spin, of course. More on that to come.

Bah... Oh nevermind!

2010-12-18T12:53:00.001-06:00

Two kids with the flu, one kid hiding because he knows it is just a matter of time before he is asked to help me and one puppy who doesn't understand why her boys aren't coming out of their rooms to play with her. That has been my life for the last few days.

I have so many things to talk about/share. I am hoping that I will get some time to string some thoughts together later today. I may just end up with so much time that I post multiple posts, so I will go ahead and apologize now.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Testng

2010-12-16T12:37:00.001-06:00

Testing my Blogger Droid App. I will blog very soon, I promise!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Menu Plan Monday | Week of November 1

2010-11-01T13:59:00.003-05:00

Back to menu planning. Having a new puppy in the house took all of my energy and even though I have made and followed menu plans, I just have not had the time to post them.

All meals are served with a salad and whatever type of fruit sounds good that day.

Monday: Burrito bowls
Tuesday: Fritatta - spinach, tomato and feta and sausage and cheese
Wednesday: Red beans and rice (From the freezer)
Thursday: Quesadillas and Mexican rice
Friday: Chicken pot pie without the pie
Saturday: Pioneer Woman pinto beans
Sunday: Easy Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Hey everyone!

2010-10-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

I don't normally do this, but this is for a good cause so I thought I would go ahead and post it.

On Nov 17th Marty is going to be "arrested" and needs to raise $3,200 bail to be let out. As tempting as it is to leave him there, it is for a good cause, so please consider donating. The money that is raised will be used to send special needs kids to summer camp free of charge.

Please consider donating, if you can. Every little bit helps!

Martin Schmidt - MDA's MOST WANTED CITIZEN!

Daisy

2010-10-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

We ended up being able to bring Daisy home a week early. (Don't worry. The vet signed off on it.)

This is what happens when puppies wake up thinking they are rested and ready to play, only to find out that they aren't.

Taking care of a puppy a big, around the clock job! Oh boy is she worth it, though.

Menu Plan Monday | Week of Oct 4

2010-10-04T03:47:00.003-05:00

Last weeks menu plan didn't go off quite as planned. Most of the things were eaten but rarely on the day planned. That's ok. Flexibility is one of the things I am trying to get better at and meal flexibility is a pretty painless place to start. This is the week that I have been summoned for jury duty so meals are quick and easy or things I can make ahead. I also need to get my behind back in gear as far as Weight Watchers goes. I have gained 8lbs since I got back from Germany and that is just not acceptable to me. I did not work so hard to lose 75 lbs just to slack off and gain it all back. I can assure you that all meals are either Simply Filling Foods compliant, or points will be counted for the ingredients/foods that aren't. Yeah... I'm taking my big girl pill.

All meals are served with a spring mix salad and whatever type of fruit sounds good that day.
Monday: Greek Penne
Tuesday: Coconut Chicken with pineapple strawberry salsa
Wednesday: Beans and Cornbread
Thursday: Clean out refrigerator for dinner
Friday Sweet & Sour Chicken
Saturday: Tacos, Mexican rice

Sunday: Buffalo Chicken w/ buttermilk feta sauce and Spicy Escarole
This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Wax on, Wax off

2010-10-03T21:22:00.000-05:00

My internet is out. AT&T seems to think that they sold me a bad modem and are overnighting me one. Unfortunately, it has been out since Wednesday and they only discovered why Saturday. At least we hope this will fix the problem. Until then, I am borrowing a siganl from one of my lovely neighbors.

I changed the look of the blog a bit. I am feeling very fallish so I thought leaves would be a good place to start. I also changed the "tagline" (I think that is what it is called?) I usually just throw a quote up there, but "Life isn't always glamorous. Sometimes its just about getting from point A to Point B with your wallet and good health intact." really speaks to me. I have been blogging here for 7 years and the blog has seen many incarnations, but this current one seems to fit the current season of our lives.

Things are changing. I don't always do well with change but these changes are good changes. Being away from family for three months really made us all realize what is important. The changes reflect that. There is a calm and peace in the house that we haven't had in a long time, if at all.

I don't get so mad if things aren't done perfectly the first time. Marty is spending less time at work, and is instead trusting that he has trained his staff to do their jobs well - and he lets them do them. (Of course, he still spends a lot of time there, but not nearly as much as before.) The boys enjoy spending time with each other. Their current fascination is a computer game that they are all playing separately, but spend hours talking to each other about, offering tips, strategizing, etc. Alex is actively asking for his school work and is completing it all perfectly.

I am trying to be less self deprecating. Tonight when I was picking the boys up from youth group, I ran in to a mom that I had not seen since March or so. She commented on my weight loss and while we were talking about it, she stumbled over a few words and then blurted out "You really are a beautiful woman!" Now normally, I would have made a joke about her needing glasses or a good nap, but this time I just said thank you.

Enough waxing philosophical. Ethan made dinner tonight and it is time to help set the table.

Life truly is awesome.

Fall

2010-10-01T20:29:00.002-05:00

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

~George Eliot

I love this time of year. I will be honest and say that I liked it more when we lived up north, but I guess you can't have it both ways.

One of the things I love about fall is the food. Hearty soups and stews, roasts, homemade bread all scream fall to me. Of course, when it is 90 degrees, the last thing you want is soup. Ah well...

I miss the crunching of leaves under your feet when you are trick or treating. Heck, I miss trick or treating. We live in the very back of a large apartment complex that is on a major highway. We don't get trick or treaters.

I miss driving down to Amish country to pick out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, get corn stalks from the Amish farmer and having donuts and cider. Fall always meant going to the all you can eat pancake and homemade sausage day at a small church in Amish country.

This year I decided that I am going to decorate for fall. When the boys were young we put out lots of scarecrows, brightly colored fall leaves and other decorations befitting a house full of kids. Now that they are older our decorations have matured as well.

Over the next few days I will try to get a few pictures up of some of the easy (trust me. I am lazy), cheap things I have done to make my house feel more fallish - while the air conditioning is still on and everyone is walking around in flip flops.

Food Waste Friday | No Power Edition

2010-10-01T18:47:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have power, but The Frugal Girl, who hosts Food Waste Friday doesn't, so No FWF. I am still posting, though.

What I did to minimize waste:
There wasn't much that was in danger of being wasted, but I did change a meal to include a bunch of broccoli. For the record, PF Chang's copycat Mongolian Beef with chicken instead of beef and a metric ton of broccoli thrown in is really good.

There are some leftover grilled vegetables that I am going to chop in the food processor and add to the spaghetti sauce that is in the crockpot right now.

Waste:
I was sick all week and on some pretty heavy duty pain/stoopid pills for a part of it, and the waste was all a result of that.
~ Ethan threw away some cut potatoes that were in the fridge because they "looked funny." There was nothing wrong with them, but I didn't catch him in time.
~ I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce and after it cooled a bit I put it in to a container to freeze. For some reason (stoopid pills, perhaps?) I left it on the counter.

That's it. Not too bad, but more than I wanted.

Daisy

2010-09-30T22:53:00.000-05:00

Let me introduce you to the newest member of our family.

This is Daisy.

She is the sweetest, most adorable, cuddly puppy ever.

She is just a tiny little squirt of a thing right now, but in 11 days she will be old enough to come home.

Until then, her puppy mama is taking good care of her. In the mean time, we are puppy proofing the house, learning all we can about puppies and trying to not go overboard on puppy toys.

Meatless Monday - Zucchini Pancakes

2010-09-27T07:56:00.000-05:00

When my mom came to visit she brought two huge zucchinis with her. I knew we would never use both so I gave the smaller one to a friend and have slowly been hacking away at the baseball bat sized one. The other night, I made these.

Zucchini Pancakes
1 lb zucchini
1 medium onion
2 1/2 t kosher salt, divided
2 eggs
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free flour (any flour would work here)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Shred zucchini and onion and put in a colander. Sprinkle 1 1/2 t salt over the mixture and stir well. Let sit over a bowl for 5-10 minutes. After the zucchini mixture has drained, wrap in a clean dishtowel and squeeze excess liquid. There will be a lot!

Put zucchini mixture in a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Drop by the heaping tablespoon onto preheated and sprayed griddle. Cook until golden brown and then flip. Once both sides are brown, remove to cookie sheet and finish in 350° oven.

Notes:
*If your zucchini is large and has large woody seeds, remove them before shredding.
* If you want crispier pancakes, cook in oil like you would a potato pancake.

The only complaint is that there weren't enough. I see a lot of zucchini pancakes in our future.

Menu Plan Monday | Week of Sept 27

2010-09-27T00:48:00.010-05:00

I needed a firm but gentle kick in the behind last week and I got it. I have been on my weight loss journey for 15 months now and while I have had great success, sometimes I feel like it will never end. (Just like how I feel about debt. Notice a pattern here? "I want it and I want it now!" seems to be my battle cry lately.)

A friend pointed out that I am making a lifestyle change, and it something I will do for the rest of my life. She is so right.

One of the things I have heard at Weight Watchers is "Don't do anything to lose weight that you are not willing to do for the rest of your life." (Without turning this n to a WW commercial...) That is one of the things I love about Weight Watchers. I can still eat real food and am learning such foreign concepts as portion control and eating till satisfaction. Who knew such things existed?

Ok. On to the plan.

All meals are served with a spring mix salad and whatever type of fruit sounds good that day.

Monday: Sirloin and Feta Cheese stuffed potatoes

Tuesday: Noodles & Chicken in Basil Mint Dressing

Wednesday: Paella

Thursday: Clean out refrigerator dinner and steak (If what is left will work as a soup or casserole, I will make one. If not, I will grill steak and we will have the leftovers as side dishes.)

Friday: Bruschetta Chicken Pasta with a balsamic reduction (I will make the sauce using the tomatoes I saved last week.)

Saturday: Sweet and Sour Shrimp Tacos

Sunday: Jamaican Black beans and rice

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Food Waste Friday - The beginning

2010-09-24T12:23:00.001-05:00

One of my bad habits is food waste. I do a lot of things to minimize what gets tossed, but some weeks it still seems like there is too much.

This week I stumbled across The Frugal Girl. One day while cleaning out her refrigerator she realized that embarrassment is a great motivator and starting posting pictures of her food waste each week. Brilliant!

Here goes, my first Food Waste Friday.

First, I will tell you what I didn't waste.

We had 1/2 a large container of cherry tomatoes that was too shriveled to be eaten raw but fine for cooking. I tossed them in a cast iron skillet coated (lightly) with olive oil along with lots of minced garlic, salt, fresh ground pepper and Penzey's Tuscan Sunset blend. I cooked them until about half of the tomatoes burst and they are currently waiting in the freezer to be a part of next week's menu.

(I promise you it is not as oily as it looks.)

1 orange - I zested it and squeezed the juice. They are waiting in the freezer to be added to a homemade citrus salad dressing next week.

On to the waste.

Earlier this week we made vegetable skewers for dinner and 1/2 of one of the yellow squash had a brown ring on the inside. Yuck.

Digging around in the chest freezer yesterday I found a bag of chicken breasts that we bought before we went to Germany. Marty worked his way through them, but we lost 3 to freezer burn. I looked online and found some recommendations about using freezer burnt meat, but Marty (a trained Chef) wouldn't let me try them so out they went.

Hopefully next week I will have nothing to report.

This post is linked to Food Waste Friday at The Frugal Girl.

Deathly Hallows Preview

2010-09-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

I love, love, love Harry Potter. In fact, I love Harry Potter so much more than my boys do, there is a good chance I will be seeing the movie alone. I don't care. I can't wait!

The Big Surprise

2010-09-23T10:19:00.004-05:00

I am pretty sure that Marty isn't reading my blog, so I will go ahead and post The Big Surprise.

Remember this?

While Marty is in Nashville for his conference, we are planning to turn it in to a nice office space for him. Often, he comes home from work and needs a place to spread out and get some numbers crunched. (Running a restaurant has very little to do with actually touching food.) He usually spreads out on the dining room table, but then as soon as it is time to eat, he has to pack it all up. I want to give him a place that he can spread out for the day and not have to worry about being in the way.

Of course, we live in an apartment, so there is only so much space to go around. Since I am going to eventually move to a laptop, I decided to repurpose the computer armoire in to a TV/video game center for the boys.

(Please don't mind the boyness of the picture. He can't help it.)

For the last few weeks I have been quietly gathering ideas. Here are some of my favorites.

Southern Hospitality

The Nesting Place

Unplggd

Along with gathering ideas, we have been quietly gathering supplies. I was surprised at some of the things we already had, and so far have only had to buy a $5 Goodwill lamp.

Have
* The table - family piece passed down to me. Will be painted white. Yes, I said painted.
* A letter holder thingy - Goodwill find forever ago. Will be painted white.
* Old mirror frames - One found in pieces in my grandma's garage, one passed down to me with a mirror in it. When Alex - through no fault of his own *rolls eyes* decided it didn't need the mirror, I saved the frame. I plan to fill it with either a chalkboard, white board or cork board. Haven't decided yet. If we can get the pieces back together, we will use that one. If not, the other one will work just as well.
* Basket - Trash picked from the big fancy house of a Doctor. I still haven't decided if it is retro or just old, or whether I will paint it or not.
* Stripy card holder thingy - A friend gave it to me years ago. It came from Hallmark and we use it. I might cover it with scrapbook paper that better matches the room, or I might not.
* Tchotchkes - Love me some tchotchkes, and I am sure I could shop the house and come up with plenty. I do plan to make a few trips to various thrift stores and TJ Maxx, just in case. You can never be too safe.

Need to buy
* Shelves
* Paint
* What will probably end up being a $25 shade for my $5 lamp. D:
* Cork, chalkboard paint or dry erase paint.
* A few magazine holders
* Need to take and updated picture of Marty and the boys together and get it printed for a frame that says "Dad"
* I am sure there are a million other small things I am forgetting. I will let you know.

Part of this project is to also paint the living room. We have 6 days to get it done. Luckily, we still have a month to quietly gather supplies.

Plan B

2010-09-22T17:23:00.003-05:00

Plan A:

Ethan sanded the insides of the armoire doors and I wiped them down and got them ready to paint. I ran inside to grab the brush and came back to this.

Plan B:

The result.

(Please don't mind the paint swatches on the wall or the crud on the floor. Do notice the absence of a cable box, though. The inside of the cabinet will be painted white as part of our next big painting extravaganza. More on that tomorrow.)

Fear of Change

2010-09-22T06:49:00.000-05:00

From Dave Ramsey:

Fear of Change

Change is painful. That’s why few people have the courage to seek it out. Most people won’t change until the pain of where they are exceeds the pain of change. When it comes to money, we can be like a toddler in a soiled diaper who says, “I know it smells bad, but it’s warm and it’s mine.” The sum total of your past financial decisions has brought you to this point. If you don’t like your current situation, then acknowledge you have changes to make and get started.

I spent my whole childhood wishing I was older. Now that I'm older, this crap sucks. But not really.

2010-09-21T17:41:00.001-05:00

Sometimes being the grown-up sucks. It involves making hard decisions while your inner child is screaming "I want it and I want it now!" Sometimes it means giving up something that you want, in favor of something that is better for you and your family.

At a street fair in Germany, I fell in love with Coke Bottle Top Basket. Through some strange twist of circumstances, I didn't buy it. The next day, on the way home from getting GF pizza, we were going to stop by the fair so I could pick one up. Halfway there, I got sick. I could have possibly made it to the fair and then back to the apartment before I was too sick, but that was one of those times that I had to make the grown up decision and head home without my basket. With my stomach issues, I get sick without warning and how could I potentially ask my kids to stop what they are doing and head home if I am unwilling to do the same?

A friend in real life recently had to sell a vehicle because their tenants stopped paying rent. Her family had made the commitment years ago to remain debt free, and keeping the vehicle would have required that they go in to debt to cover the money the tenants weren't paying. Was the decision easy? Knowing them, probably yes and no. No because giving up something you have and need because of the irresponsibility of others sucks. Yes, because they are willing to do whatever is best for their family. I am so proud of them.

Sometimes I feel like this debt free journey will never end, but then I have to remember that we took it slow. We kept cable through most of it. We all had cell phones. I joined Weight Watchers. We vacationed. Hell, we spent three months in Europe. If someone needed something, they got it. We didn't do without. We made a lot of adjustments, but we didn't do without.

We took it slow for what I am sure many will think is a stupid reason. Long story short, Marty and I both grew up poor, and often did without. We wanted to make sure that our boys had all of the things they needed and some of the things they wanted.

We are finally at a point where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it feels good. We are starting to talk about all of the things we will do with the money we are not paying to debt. The boys have decided that they are ready to get gazelle and get it over with. The cable is gone. We are using a much slower but much cheaper internet. The Sprint contract is gone and we are using a flat rate unlimited plan for me and pay as you go for the boys. We are considering a homemade/thrift Christmas, or as Christian suggested, a puppy Christmas.

Life is good. So very good.

Menu Plan Monday | Week of Sept 20

2010-09-20T10:12:00.001-05:00

When we lived in Michigan, a lot of times it was cheaper to not plan meals, because you never knew what would pop up on sale. In Mississippi, none of the grocery stores available to us have sales that can beat Sam's Club, so I am back to menu planning. At least until our "rice and beans, beans and rice" gazelle intensity is not needed. (Ok, technically, it isn't needed now but we are so close to being able to scream that we are debt free, we are doing whatever we have to to make it happen as fast as possible!)

By the way... it was the boys who suggested we get all gazelle. In fact, last night Alex said "We need to be 'rice and beans, beans and rice' until it is gone!" When the kids are so on board, you don't pass up the opportunity! How funny that our "rice and beans, beans and rice" lifestyle really kicks in to high gear on Monday, which around here is Red Beans and Rice day.

All meals served with salad and fruit.

Monday: Red beans and rice

Tuesday: Grilled sirloin, corn on the cob, salad

Wednesday: Brats, sauerkraut

Thursday: Clean out refrigerator dinner and grilled chicken (If what is left will work as a soup or casserole, I will make it in to a soup. If not, I will grill chicken breasts and we will have the leftovers as side dishes.)

Friday: Pasta w/ focaccia (Sauce is home made, waiting in the freezer and focaccia is a GF Chebe mix we picked up in New Orleans to try.)

Saturday: Date night - Marty and I will take a picnic to the park and either make something quick for the boys, or feed them any leftover leftovers.

Sunday: Greek chicken, brown rice and vegetable skewers

This post is linked to Menu Plan Mondays at Orgjunkie.

Drama. Always drama.

2010-09-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

You know that family who can never just do something without 12 things stepping in the way? Yeah. That family would be us. Things get done, but sometimes it seems like we have to take a few more steps than most people.

The SIM card/Activation bundles came faster that I expected, so I thought switching the boys to T-Mobile prepaid would be a snap. Turns out? T-Mobile forgot to include the activation codes, so it took a 30 minute phone call, and 3 activation codes to activate 2 phones.

AT&T started off on not such a great note with me, and I am waiting for improvement. The modem got here a day after they said it would, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but combined with them selling me a product that isn't even available to me, pissed me off. Long story short, I signed up for 6MB internet, and they gave me 1.5MB. When I called to find out why, I was told that 6MB isn't available to me, because I am too far from the little green boxes along the side of the road. The computer and the real live person I spoke with didn't catch it and allowed me to sign up. After being transfered to the department that would process my cancellation, we decided to try it for a month and see what happens. The free month of service they offered so I would have time to try it didn't hurt.

Today we tried a few tests (streaming Netflix through the xBox while 2 computers are using the internet, etc.) and everything seemed fine. They gave us until the middle of October to test it, but we have already decided to just go for it. Tomorrow morning we are taking the equipment back to Comcast.

We took Marty's laptop in last week to have some much needed warranty work done and of course my desktop decided to stop working. Alex was able to put together a very slow desktop for me to use until we can figure out what is wrong with the desktop, and decide if we want to put any money in to it or just wait until Spring and buy a new laptop.

Last week I busted up my shoulder pretty good. There was a day or two where I was just about worthless for anything other than sitting on the couch and popping Advil, but I am on the mend.

Friday we had our "Not Back to School" pool party. Had a great time seeing all the people I didn't get to see all summer! Yesterday we spent the whole day at a friend's house, so that the boys could help her husband build a swing set for their daughter.

Today is Marty's day off, so I am trying to get stuff done. Boring stuff like clean the refrigerator and laundry mixed with fun things like taking a walk with my honey and watching a movie with the boys.

There is a pretty good chance that we are getting a puppy. We borrowed a friend's 6 week old Shih Tzu and we all fell in love. We are still debating, and I have no idea when the breeder will have another litter, so it isn't going to happen until at least January. If I can get the pictures uploaded with this computer, I will post some.

Life is good!

Progress

2010-09-14T18:34:00.000-05:00

Operation Ditch Sprint and Comcast and Operation Chase Sucks (and needs to be out of our lives forever) are almost complete.

I ended up going with Straight Talk for my phone, because I liked the fact that I could just pick up a card if I am at Walmart - that and I am impatient and didn't want to have to wait for the other company to send me a phone. By the time I bought the phone and the first month's service, it was right around $155. So far, I really like the phone and haven't had problems with the service, but I only activated it this morning.

Yesterday I bought the SIM card activation kits for the boys phones ($6.99 each) so once those are here and activated we can add minutes with a card or online.

Yesterday I also ordered our AT&T service. The modem will be here and they will activate the service tomorrow. Once it is up and running I will take the Comcast equipment in and tell them what they can do with it.

On Saturday Marty and I drove to New Orleans and dumped a giant pile of cash on our car loan. That will be gone very, very soon.

Things are starting to take shape and I have to say, I like it!

Two problems, one solution

2010-09-09T22:12:00.003-05:00

We have had a big chess board kicking around for years. It was a Father's Day present 10 or so years ago. This thing is huge, and we have always had a problem finding a place for it.

As you may or may not have noticed, my black hutch is missing a drawer. I had originally planned to make a fake drawer front to cover the hole, but no one I know has a router (how it that possible??) and since I was not willing to spend the money to rent one, it wasn't going to happen. I decided to take the other drawer out and fill the holes with baskets, but you try finding short, large square baskets.

Today, an idea popped in to my head.

A prefect fit.

While the men of the family watched the game, I painted the inside with paint I had leftover from painting the outside. This is the best picture I could get at night, so tomorrow I will try to remember to take a better one.

Here is the better picture:

The decluttering and decorating continues...

2010-09-08T21:31:00.003-05:00

It has been a busy week around here. Sunday, we moved some boys rooms around and swapped rooms for one of them. Alex has had his own room since we moved here, and since Christian is now 18 (19 in December *snif*) and going to college, we decided to change that. We put Ethan in to Alex's room, which meant that we had to clean out Alex's closet or his desk drawers.

Let me just say that if you were to walk in to Alex's room, you would think he is the neatest, most organized teenager ever. Just don't open the closet. Six (!!) trash bags later, we were ready to move Ethan's stuff in. Thank Ikea for the loft beds we bought years ago, because without them, two people wouldn't fit in to these tiny rooms.

After we got their stuff in to the rooms, it became obvious that Ethan needs a shelf. After thinking about it for a day, I grabbed the wire cube thing that was holding fishing stuff on the patio and after a good scrub, it fits perfectly between the loft beds.

One of the ~~bribes~~ incentives that helped Alex give up his freedom is that they now get a TV and the xBox in their room. My MIL replaced her TV recently, and offered it to Christian, who does not want a TV in his room. It is currently in Alex and Ethan's room at my mom's house, but when they come home on Saturday (Woot!) it will be in our living room and our current TV will be going in to Alex and Ethan's room.I have been on the lookout for something to put it on, but haven't found anything. And then...

The other day, I tried to turn my desktop computer on and it decided that it had other plans. After a few attempts at fixing it, I made the decision to just put it away and we will deal with it later. I am planning to get a laptop in the spring-ish anyway, so if nothing else, I just want to be able to pull the pictures and files off of it. That leaves us with a big computer armoire that matches the TV armoire. After some measuring, shelf removal and reconfiguring, it is in their room waiting for Christian to stabilize it tomorrow. Once that is done, there will be plenty of room for the TV, xBox and all of the junk that goes with it. Tomorrow, I will go in and put all of their stuff away. Now we just have to pick some paint colors and a few other things for their room. I have no idea what we will do to make a room that will reflect the tastes of the camo loving, fishing, skateboarding and anything else outdoors guy with the dark colors, would do anything to avoid being outside so he can be on the computer guy. I will let you know when I figure it out.

Now... that leaves us with a problem that isn't really a problem. The surprise for someone I was talking about was put in to motion a bit earlierthan expected by moving the armoire out of the living room. See, Marty needs a work space for home. Some place that he can spread a bunch of papers out and not have to worry about cleaning them up every time we need to eat. Enter - the antique drop leaf table from under my bed.

This table has been in my family for ever. I really have no idea, but I know it is a long time. It has been stored under my bed since we moved here, because we just didn't have a place for it. Now, it sits where the armoire sat, and is the perfect place for the laptop and spreading out to get some work done - something you couldn't do with the armoire anyway.

1) Yes, my couch is ugly. I know. I did not choose the fabric.
2) The space is not done. The rest of the surprise will take care of that.
3) The crap under the table will disappear as part of the surprise.
4) I really need to spend some time learning how to take decent pictures.

We also managed to get the patio cleaned off today, in anticipation of our new to us patio table we will pick up tomorrow.

Step 1: Paint something and move a few things

2010-09-04T14:52:00.000-05:00

Step one of the big "making the house a home" plan is done. Yesterday, we moved a few pieces of big, heavy furniture and painted the TV armoire. The color was ~~stolen~~ borrowed straight from The Nester's armoire. I am not normally one to ~~steal~~ borrow directly from someone, but I absolutely love this color. In fact, I love it so much, I may just use it in the kitchen (more on that later.) Maybe some day I will learn to take better pictures, but until then, here it is:

The color is Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green 6213. I was going to use Sherwin Williams paint, but when I went to have it mixed they insisted that I needed to use oil based primer and paint, and that latex wouldn't work, blah, blah, blah. If there is one thing I can't stand it is people who tell me I can't do something - especially when I have already done it. I understand that it is their job to tell me the best way to do a project, but it is also their job to not argue with me and just sell me the paint I want. I have painted many a piece of furniture in my life and have never used oil based paint.

Anyway...

Now that the two hutches in my living room - yes, two hutches - have been swapped, it really changes the feel of the room. That right there would have been a big improvement, but we decided to paint the armoire and some swatches on the wall to try some colors out for a bit.

I have also started amassing things for our surprise that I wish I could tell you about but can't. I can"t wait to show you what we do!

Tomorrow, we are moving a few boys rooms around and getting them ready for Alex and Ethan to come home. If I had time (and didn't have a stupid bruised tail bone that I managed to reinjure) I would paint it and decorate a little, but for now cleaning and rearranging will have to do.

By the way... if you have never checked out The Nester, hop on over there and have a look. Anyone who preaches "It doesn"t have to be beautiful to be perfect" is good in my book!

I am a horrible blogger...

2010-09-01T18:47:00.002-05:00

I forgot to let everyone know that we made it home safely and with out incident. A first for us, I can assure you.

We got in late Friday night so we spent the night in Birmingham. On Saturday, after a quick trip to Whole Foods (to stock up on gluten free stuff we can't get here), Super Target and PF Chang's, we headed home.

I have been falling asleep on the couch between 8 and 9pm, and waking up as early as 4am. I can't wait until my clock resets itself.

I have spent the last few days grocery shopping, picking out paint colors (I wasn't kidding when I said we were tired of living like transients) and trying to get re-used to an American keyboard.

I also wasn't kidding about decluttering after we got home. Living with so little really makes you think about what you really need to be happy. I have a van full of stuff to go to the thrift store tomorrow.

Just wait until you see the paint colors we picked out! I big puffy heart love them. Tomorrow we are going to paint the TV cabinet that we sanded 100 years ago (give or take) and paint color swatches on the walls to make sure the color looks good in all lighting. Keep your fingers crossed that they do. I am so indecisive and it took for-stinking-ever to pick these colors, I do not want to start the process again. This apartment gets almost no natural light - we are in the back of the building, surrounded by trees, and the only light source for the living room, dining room and kitchen is a sliding glass door. Colors can be tricky.

We also have a surprise in the works that I am not sure I can tell you about, because the surprisee sometimes reads my blog. He goes away for a General Manager conference in October, so all of the magic will happen then. Until then, I might be able to show you bits and pieces as I slowly sneak them in to the house, but the big reveal will have to wait.

Ok, I am off to make dinner before I fall asleep. :o/

2 days, 18 hours, 45 minutes, 18 seconds

2010-08-24T05:14:00.002-05:00

Not that I am counting or anything. We leave for the airport at 6:30 am Friday, and will land in Birmingham at 11pm. Yes, that is 24 hours of no sleep. (Wake up Friday, 5:30 am CET /Thursday, 11:30pm CST - land Saturday 6am CET/ 11pm CST Friday.)

Yesterday we mailed a giant package home.

Books, Swiss Army knives, Swiss army blankets, tourist brochures, a street sign from Switzerland (It says School Street!), gifts for other people, etc. The most important thing in the box is the 15 packs of gummy bears. Precious cargo and all.

Saturday we went to a street fair in Gifhorn. I actually ate street fair food! Ok, it was corn on the cob that was boiled in water and brushed with organic butter, but I did it! I was freaked out the rest of the night and Sunday morning, but I didn't get sick. I am still very paranoid about eating food prepared by other people, but hopefully I will get over that a bit.

Speaking of eating food prepared by other people, on Sunday we all went to the pizza place in Braunschweig.

And yes, even though it is labeled gluten free on the menu, I still freak out a bit inside until the window of sickness passes.

Using up the last little bit of food has made for some interesting meals. Mostly stuff thrown together as a "one pot meal" and leftovers mixed with other stuff to make something completely different.

Today we are straightening up, washing laundry and starting to pack nonessentials. It is nice today so we were thinking of walking to the Autostadt one last time, but I am afraid that so much walking will hurt my tailbone. And by the way - how stinking long does it take a bruised tail bone to heal? Sheesh.

Decorating

2010-08-13T10:28:00.003-05:00

Marty and I have decided that we are going to decorate the apartment a little. Not overboard "You are renting and you spent how much?" decorating, but enough to make it feel like a home. A little paint, a few well chosen purchases and a whole lot of repurposing of things we already own and love.

For example -

This cabinet is coming apart. The top part will be hung on the bathroom wall and the bottom will be used in the dining room as a buffet. When we are tired of it like that, it will go back together as a hutch - no harm, no foul. I will be painting the inside of the cabinet, and might repaint the outside.

Another example-
I love these jars. I mean big, puffy red heart love them. However, I even bigger, puffy red heart love not spending $69 on a jar. Call me crazy. But... I have a solution. I have a bunch of French canning jars, in various sizes. (If you don't know what a French canning jar is, you can see them here.) The exact same? No. still awesome enough to make me happy? Yes.

I have been told that there is a really good flea market in Birmingham and I know there is one in Meridian. Our thrift stores kind of blow, but I have no problem driving to Birmingham or Jackson and thrifting all day.

I can't wait to get home and get started.

One thing I read today really drives the point of my ~~lack of~~ decorating style:

Being perfectly perfect doesn't mean your corners are straight and your ferns are fluffy. Being perfectly perfect means it makes you smile inside every time you look at it.

No sleep and I need your help!

2010-08-07T00:29:00.000-05:00

Woke up at 5 am to blue neon lights flashing in my window. There were 3-4 fire trucks and a handful of police cars out front. There was a car straddling the raised median divider thingy in the road. Not sure if it was a car accident or car fire, but now all that remains is some stuff that looks like kitty litter.

I of course can't go back to sleep, so that means I get to function on 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I have had almost no sleep all week, averaging 5 hours a night. Stress sucks, but I would rather not sleep than have more of my hair fall out. It just started growing over some of the bald spots. :|

I spent my Friday night on the Sam's Club website, comparing roll for roll prices of toilet paper. Tonight, I think I am going to compare sheet per sheet.

I am a party animal.

Right now I am making a list of cheap/free date night and family night ideas. any ideas you would like to toss my way? They would be much appreciated and I will post whatever I come up with.

Oops...

2010-08-06T08:35:00.000-05:00

Wow it has been a long time. Not much is going on... just hanging around the apartment, counting the days until we go home.

Don't get me wrong - We have had a great trip. It is just time to go home.

Tomorrow I am heading to weigh in, then the grocery store. Andre's sister, Nadine, is coming over for a movie day. We are ordering pizza for them, and I will probably make slouvaki for me. Man I love slouvaki.

If it isn't raining Saturday, we are going to the Autostadt for the laser/water show. we have been trying to go, but it has been raining off and on all week.

We are packing a big ol' box of goodies to send home. Hopefully we will get that sent soon. I would like for it to be home before we are, but who knows if that will happen. The box of candy I sent the boys took over a month to arrive.

That's about all for today, folks. :/

Woot!

2010-07-31T17:48:00.002-05:00

The week of stupid tax is over! Woot! Today Marty and I Skyped and did the budget and paid bills. super exciting stuff, I know. But, budgets are sexy, y'all!

Today we headed to Andre's little brother's birthday party. 21 doesn't mean the same thing here as it does in the US, but it is still a milestone, I think. Congrats to Kay!

His parents had a dinner for him. I of course took my own food, but boy did what they have look good. I also got to play around with his iPad. Pretty cool! I will never buy one, but it was cool to play with.

Tomorrow, I think we are heading to the Autostadt for some kind of laser and water show. Monday, we are going to Braunschweig and meeting Andre's sister for lunch. Gluten free pizza. Woot again!

Jillian Michaels is trying to kill me. I am sure of it. Well, at least she is trying to blow out my knee again. I made it through two day#s of 30 day Shred before my knee said no more. Of course, I left my knee brace at home, so there will be no more shredding for me until I get home. Other than two days of shredding, I was basically a sloth this week. Maybe that is why I only lost .2kg? I am ok with .2kg, though. I will take a tiny loss over a gain any day. as of right now I am 6 1/2 lbs lighter than when I got here, and that is awesome! Bones that I didn't know existed are suddenly showing themselves.

Here is a funny -
Today at the birthday party when I was playing around with the above mentioned iPad, I went to my flickr page to find all of the funny pictures of Andre to show his brother and sister. The first picture on my flickr page is one Andre took of 6'3" Christian squatting down to my 5'3" level, and when I saw the picture the first thing that popped in to my head was "Man, I look too skinny there." Riiight.

After looking at the picture for more than a split second, it is obvious that it is the (bad) angle, the (deep) collar of my shirt and the (strange) tan line all coming together in some making me think I am thinner than I am bad joke, but for a split second I really thought that. As you can see, it is just a bad picture overall, but not as bad as if I still weighed 262, I think. :)

Ok, so I got exactly 1 answer to my "Quick! You need to raise $1k in 1 month. How do you do it?" question. Hmmm... no more ideas? I got a bunch on a message board I posted the same challenge on, so tomorrow I will post them here. They were pretty good.

The reason I picked $1000 as my magic number is because that it what Dave Ramsey recommends as a baby emergency fund, and over and over you hear "But I can't save $1000!" on his show and on Dave Ramsey massage boards. I have decided that I am going to challenge myself to try to save $1000 in September. Well, I might pick a smaller number, because I will just be getting home August 27th, but I will be doing something. Anyone want to join me?

Whadaya doin? Me? Paying stupid tax.

2010-07-28T13:55:00.000-05:00

Soooo... whadaya doin? Me? Not so much.

We (ok, me) made a stupid mistake and over drafted our trip account. I didn't over spend - it truly was a stupid mistake of monumental proportions. But it cost me.

I don't bounce checks or debits or whatever, so I was shocked - shocked, I say - to find out that my bank charges $35 per overdraft. I was also shocked to find out that 1 small mistake s´could set off a shit storm of monumental proportions. Let's just say that paying overdraft fees ate our sightseeing budget for the week.

Sure, I could transfer money from our home account to cover my stupid tax, but what would that teach my son? It is ok if you screw up because there is more money somewhere? yeah... not the lesson I want him to learn.

So we sit. We are really stuck inside because all week there is anywhere from 50-70% chance of rain and getting stuck somewhere because of a freezing downpour is just something I would rather avoid.

Andre found a copy of Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred, so on days that we can't go for our walk, I have that. I might actually do it every day anyway, walk or not.

I have decided that if we are stuck inside all week, I am putting it to good use. I am researching some things that I will tell you more about later.

So... What about you?

Quick! You need to raise $1k in 1 month. How do you do it?

2010-07-26T10:43:00.000-05:00

No, I am not broke. I am just bored stiff and started thinking...

One of my favorite things that I have heard Dave Ramsey say got me thinking. The conversation went something like this:
Caller: "We have $XX in debt and it will take us years to pay it off! We can't do this and want to give up!"
Dave: "If I told you that your child had a horrible disease but if you gave me $XX in a year I could cure him, could you come up with the money?"
Caller: "Of course!"
Dave: "What if I said 6 months?"
Caller: "Of course!"
Dave: "3 months? 1 month?"
Caller: "Of course!"
Dave: "Then don't tell me you can't do it!"

So... I am not going to wish anything on kids, but I will ask this - If you HAD to make $1000 in 1 month, what would you do. Let's assume that it all has to be under the radar. What would you do? How would you do it?

Let's make it even more interesting and play by the season. Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.

Ready, set, go!

School, Part Deux

2010-07-25T04:01:00.000-05:00

Thanks for letting me vent yesterday. I feel so much better today. Part of the problem is that today is Ethan's birthday, so all day yesterday I was sad that I am missing it. I have never been away from my boys on their birthday and I don't like it. Of course I started thinking about how Ethan is 15 (!), Alex is 16 (!!) and Christian is 18 (!!!) and all of the "Are they ready?" "Did we do a good job?" "Will they be able to make it in the real world?" questions started swirling in my brain... Not a good thing.

I have a plan, and it is a good plan. It involves using programs/books that we already have - a bonus to buying multi-year things, I suppose. If the book/program is under their level, that is ok, because 1) I will use internet resources to make it their level and 2) if it is a little easy for them then we can ease back in to things and hopefully break our 3 week record.

I take that back. We are going to buy one program. after Christmas we are going to start the Dave Ramsey High School program, Foundations in Personal Finance. Trust me when I say that there are not two kids on this earth that need this program more than Alex and Ethan.

So now I am on the lookout for ideas about incentives. Do you use them in your homeschool? Should I use them in mine? What do you use? do they work? Sydney (my niece) came home from school every day with candy. Usually a few pieces of hard candy, or some smarties, or some other small candy, but on days when she had done something special (like return her reading folder signed by the person she read to, 10 days in a row) she got a bigger piece of candy. I don't want to use candy as an incentive, but there has to be something, right?

Anyway, that is where we are now. We have a plan and a mom that feels like we are running out of time. Only time will tell if this is a good or bad combination.

School

2010-07-24T10:16:00.000-05:00

I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about school today. I just don't know what to do.

On one hand, I am really drawn to the idea of unschooling but I have a gripping fear that I will raise functionally illiterate adults if I don't make them sit and "do school." On the other hand, "doing school" is not fun for any of us. I know life isn't supposed to be fun and blah, blah, blah, but by not fun I don't mean that the clowns and pony rides took the day off. I mean screaming, yelling, fighting, crying and cursing... and that is just the kids. It is just not us.

Back to the first hand. I know unschooling works. I have read about many kids who were unschooled right up to being successful adults. I personally know moms who have successfully unschooled successful adults. But...

This last year has been rough for us. I was still recovering from my surgery (More emotionally than physically. My hormones took a real beating and I was a mess more times than I care to remember.) and we unschooled. Christian usually just hung around the house, playing guitar or playing with his iPod. Ethan would either fish, play football with the neighbor kids, run around outside or hang out inside and watch tv. Alex spent the entire time on his computer, building and rebuilding message board, moderating the message board, learning more about codes so he could improve the message board, etc.

Truth be told, our whole school career has been hit or miss. I would plan, plan and plan some more, then when it came time to do it there was a huge fight and one of us (usually me) would end up crying. The longest that we have done school without having to take a week or more off to regroup is 3 weeks. I just did not want the kind of relationship with my children that having this daily battle would bring.

Now I am faced with the fear that I have wasted precious time and that they will never be ready for college, jobs, LIFE.

Here's the thing - my education was first rate crap. Grade A, top of the line shit. It wasn't the schools fault - although I would love to have a few words with more than one of the shit teachers I had. For every one good teacher, there were 2 or 3 really bad, shouldn't be allowed to teach types of teachers. I won't go in to why, but let's just say that I am not dumb and the schools at the time were not equipped to deal with let alone educate someone who does not fit their mold. I mean, for someone who could read at the age of 2, kindergarten seems more than a little boring, and the solution is not to paddle the 5 year old almost weekly because you are an idiot teacher. Yeah, I know. I told you... shit.

So we wanted better for our boys. Now I just wonder if that is what they got, or if it is the same kind of shit education I received, just wrapped up in a different package?

I wish there were some kind of crystal ball I could look in to and see that it all works out in the end but unfortunately, there isn't.

So where does this leave us? I don't know. I wish I did, but I don't. I just don't.

Berlin

2010-07-23T16:51:00.002-05:00

OMG! What do I say about Berlin? Well, it is everything I thought it would be, but hugely disappointing at the same time.

Right away, let me get the disappointing thing out of the way.

Checkpoint Charlie. Rick Steves said in his book that Checkpoint Charlie and the area around it has turned in to a sort of Cold War freak show. He could not have been more right. There are two actors dressed as guards who are more than willing to pose for a picture with you - for a price. I am diametrically opposed to posing in front of historic sites (just a pet peeve of mine) but I did snap a picture.

Of course I couldn't go without snapping a picture of the famous sign.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way... Berlin is an amazing city. The first thing we saw was the Sony Center, which is this really cool set of buildings with an outdoor but feels like indoor patio.

Right outside the Sony Center is Potsdamer Platz where they had sections of the wall on display.

From Potsdamer Platz we walked to Brandengerg Gate

On the way, we passed the American Embassy

Pass through Brandenburg Gate and you are on Unter den Linden. Unter den Linden is a famous street in Berlin that is lined with some pretty cool buildings (Many embassies, The Deutscher Bundestag, Dunkin Donuts...)

We went down Unter den Linden as far as Alexander Platz

But before we got there, we passed some of the most beautiful buildings. Ever. Seriously, look at all of the Berlin pictures. You won't believe it.

After Alexander Platz we headed back up Unter den Linden and passed even more amazing buildings.

Our next stop was The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Now we have already established that I have a huge dislike of people posing in front of historical sites, and I am just as opposed/offended by people sitting on a monument that is supposed to represent the lives of the millions of people who were murdered, but that is exactly what we saw. That and teenagers playing tag and hide and go seek between the slabs.

After the memorial, we headed to the Reichsstag. Turns out, the day that we went was the anniversary of Operation Valkyrie, and as a result they shut down 2 blocks around and including the Reichstag and swear in everyone who joined the Army this year - so no Reichstag for us.

That's ok. We headed back to Potsdamer Platz and then followed the path of the wall to the Topography of Terror.

They make it very easy to follow the path of the wall. The entire length is traced in cobble stones - sometimes even through buildings.

The Topography of Terror was - well, terrifying. It is a very detailed and sometimes graphic accounting of the rise and fall of the Nazi party. It was quite a lot to take in - even for someone like me who soaks in history - but we made it through to the end. Outside of the Topography of Terror is protected section of the Berlin Wall that was left standing...

...and the remaining parts of the basement of what were once the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS.

Talk about a "if these walls could talk" moment. *shudder*

After the Topography of Terror we headed to Checkpoint Charlie and then home. We were absolutely exhausted. In fact. we are all so exhausted that we are taking a full week off of doing anything other than sit around the apartment and read. But that is another blog post...

More Berlin pictures here.

Kassel

2010-07-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

Kassel is one of those places that we might not have ended up if it weren't for the recommendation of a friend.

My mom's neighbor/long time family friend was in Kassel in the late 60s when he was stationed in Germany during Vietnam. He said that he saw a church that had been bombed during the war that had not been rebuilt, but had been kept as it was a monument.

Andre found what he thought was the church online, so away we went.

When we got to the church we discovered that this wasn't the church, so we headed back to the car. Andre decided to stop in the shade and try to look it up on his phone - and happened to stop in front of a Christian book store. I suggested that we ask inside, and that turned out to be a great help!

Turns out that the church was less than a block away. It is a protected building and the shell is now being used as the patio of an Italian restaurant.

Andre said that he thought it was sad that the shell was being used to the restaurant, but I think it is kind of cool in a moving forward with the future while still remembering the past kind of way.

After the church we headed to a beautiful castle that Christian found online.

On the hill, 1 football field and 500 steps above the castle is a GIANT monument to Hercules, which we planned to walk to. Walking up the hill to the castle made us realize that we are all exhausted, so we drove instead. The monument was closed for renovations, but the view was still amazing.

More Kassel pictures here.

Nena Concert

2010-07-23T14:30:00.001-05:00

I got no good pictures at the concert and all of my videos have horrible sound quality. Figures!

The best part of the concert was when she yelled "Why aren't you moving? I am 50!"

The worst part was the two drunk guys who pushed their way to right next to us and then tried to pick a fight. That, or being ditched by the "friend" who came to stay with us and then ditched us to try to hook up with a girl. He also ditched us the rest of the weekend, just proving that sometimes the past is best left in the past. :/

More horrible pictures here.

Braunschweig

2010-07-23T14:21:00.001-05:00

On Monday we headed to Braunschweig to look around. We had to back to Wolfsburg early, so it wasn't a long look-see, but it was enough to see the most beautiful church I have ever seen... and in a country of beautiful churches, that is saying something.

The coolest thing is that on the side of two of the churches we saw were these neat little nooks

In the case of this church, it was turned in to an antique book store. It was only big enough for a table on each side and a chair in the back. Of course, it was closed when we were there, and when I tried to take a picture through the window, all I got was a reflection of the camera, but I hope to go back. Coolest.Thing.Ever.

More Braunschweig pictures here.

Super Quick Update

2010-07-17T17:22:00.002-05:00

Quick updates because I am exhausted!

1) Weigh in this week was awesome! I lost 1.1 kg, which brings my total weight loss to date to... drum roll please... 70 lbs!!! I guess this Weight Watchers thing really does work, huh? :)

2) Tonight, I did something that I have waited 25 years to do. I saw Nena in concert!! It was AWESOME and I am so glad that I was in Germany at the right time!

3) Tomorrow is a full day of Autostadt. Sacha is here from Switzerland and he wants to see it, so we are going to make sure he sees it all.

4)I just need to mention that I have an awesome kid. Ok, all three of them are pretty awesome, but right now I am talking about Christian. He rocks!

Good night, everyone!

I'm late, I'm late. For a very important update!

2010-07-15T04:03:00.001-05:00

Ok. It isn't that important, but here goes.

The weather here has been insane. From what I understand, the last time it was this hot was in 2004, I think. all stores have sold out of fans... this southerner was smart enough to get one the first hot day we had, so we are all set. On the close to 100° that fan doesn't do much good in the city of no breezes, so we have tried to go to places with A/C. That leaves one place in Wolfsburg - The Autostadt.

On Sunday I packed a healthy lunch for everyone and we headed to the Autostadt.

Valeria in the background with a healthy lunch - roasted turkey breast (real, not lunchmeat) with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers on crispbread (gf and 0 points for 2 pieces!), carrot sticks with homemade SFT hummus and an apple.

We spent a good bit of time there, looking at cars, watching movies and playing with ducks.

This little guy saw that we were eating and decided he wanted some. He cam so close I could have reached out and touched him.

The best part was the 1 hour boat ride down the canal. The woman giving the tour was our tour guide when we took the English language tour, so she came over and told us everything that she had just said. One of the towns we passed was home to a famous children's song composer, and she got the boat to sing on of his songs for us!

More Autostadt pictures here.

Monday, we went to Braunschweig, where I am almost ashamed to say I ate 1 3/4 gluten free pizzas. Before we found this place (it was our second visit) I hadn't had good pizza since going gluten free, so I am ok with it.

Hawaiian Style Pizza

Gyro Pizza

On Tuesday we went to Wolfsburg Castle, which is now an art museum.

The stables have been turned in to a museum of Wolfsburg and VW history, too.

The best part was either the toilet that is literally a box built over a hole in the ground

Or the 1950s hair salon that was actually used in a salon in Wolfsburg until 1999.

More Wolfsburg Castle pictures here.

On Wednesday we went to Uelzen, where they have a really cool train station designed by a famous artist. Hundertwasser Bahnhof and of course, a castle.

The castle was ok, but they had a special exhibit about how they handled the influx of people who moved to Uelzen after WW2. Apparently they had a solid infrastructure so it was a very popular destination. The coolest thing about the whole exhibit was seeing the care package that said "Donated By The People of The United states of America"

and seeing the 4 square meters that each adult was given to live in.

More Uelzen pictures here.

For some reason we are all really tired, so for today we are taking it easy. We are headed back to Braunschweig to drop Christian's iPod touch off to be repaired, cleaning up and getting ready for our guest that will be here tomorrow, and will take our nightly walk or bike ride.

Have a great day, everyone!

Bikes are awesome!

2010-07-13T10:04:00.000-05:00

Andre is picking up some bikes that he is borrowing for us, so I think our nightly walks will be replaced with nightly bike rides. I found this nifty tool that tells me that if I walk for 1 hour at a brisk pace, I will burn 337 calories vs. biking at 10-12 MPH (light, according to the tool), where I will burn 532 calories.

We will also bike to the grocery store and farmers market, I am sure.

I have mentioned before how bike friendly Europe is. Most sidewalks here in Wolfsburg have bike lanes, and there are bike racks everywhere, so you always have a place to park it.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp (kind of) and Crash Hot Potatoes

2010-07-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

Dinner tonight was yum. Super yum.

The plan was to make Cilantro Lime Shrimp, based on a recipe from Marci at the Weight Watchers board.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp
juice and zest of a lime
1 cup (big handful) of cilantro
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 TBLS olive oil
shrimp

Marinate for about 30 minutes and then either grill or saute.

Well. That was the plan. The only problem was, I was missing a few ingredients. The only place that I can find cilantro is the health food store, and they closed 12 minutes before we got there. Once we got home I realized that the cumin I thought I had was not cumin. What I did have was a bunch of flat leaf parsley and a Mexican spice blend we had picked up the other day. Problem solved!

I am sure it was not as good as the cilantro lime shrimp would have been, but it was good.

The next dish we made... Oh. My. God. So simple. So easy. So good.

Crash Hot Potatoes by Jill Dupleix, via Pioneer Woman.

Just so you don't think that all we eat is meat and potatoes, I wanted to let you know that we had some grapes, too.

By the way... weigh in was this morning. I lost 3 lbs. Apparently, walking all over the state of Lower Saxony is conducive to weight loss. Who knew?

Mediterranean Chicken in Foil Packets and Herbed Potato Salad

2010-07-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

Dinner tonight was so good I just had to pass it along.

Basically, I made Mediterranean Chicken in Foil Packets, based on this recipe from Gluten Free Goddess. I used frozen spinach because I couldn't find fresh, red pepper strips, diced tomato, chopped garlic, leftover fresh flat leaf parsley and dill from the potato salad recipe below and sliced onion. I did everything as described in the fish recipe, and baked.

As a side dish, I made Herbed Potato Salad, using this recipe.

When I went to buy the Dijon mustard, I found out that Dijon here and Dijon at home are two different things. Apparently, Dijon here is hot. I don't like hot, so I used something called delicatessen mustard instead. Either way, it was good. Really, really good. Next time I will use less oil and more chicken broth. That is just my personal preference, though.

Hildesheim

2010-07-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

Today it is hot as Hades (96F), so we took a day off from sightseeing - which is perfect because I can catch up on telling you about what is going on.

Yesterday we went to Hildeshime, which is another town in Lower Saxony. Believe it or not, I thought it was prettier than Celle, which is world famous for being pretty. lol

They have a ton of half timbered houses, a Jewish monument built where the foundation of the synagogue was before it was burned when Germany destroyed all synagogues (Reichskristallnacht), quite a few Churches (including one that is celebrating their 1000 year anniversary!) and a 1000 year old rose bush.

Here are some random pictures.

More Hildeshime pictures here.

The strangest thing is that one of the buildings we were at is closing in 2 days because they think there are some undetonated bombs on the grounds from WW2. They have to excavate and try to defuse them. Apparently, this happens regularly. :/ In fact, Andre said that the day he picked us up there was an explosion that killed 2 of the people trying to disarm one they found.

Celle

2010-07-08T14:39:00.000-05:00

Celle was a great city! Of course, we took the walking tour - I think of walking tours as the down and dirty best each city has to offer. Most of the time they are put together by the tourism board, and you can bet your ass they aren't going to send you past the boring, dilapidated sites.

So anyway, Celle. We started in the French Garden, where we saw the cutest. dog. ever. I swear to you, if I thought I could out run the owner, I would have snagged him and brought him home with me. His name is Sir Monty and dear lord was he adorable!

There were all sorts of great sites, but to me the most fascinating was the Synagogue. It turns out, it was the oldest synagogue in Lower Saxony. In he rooms that before the war were the school rooms, they have a museum. While we were there they were giving a tour to a school group, so we couldn't see everything, but the nice woman working at the book counter unlocked the "womans balcony" so that we could see have a peek.

Here is our view while eating lunch.

More Celle pictures here.

Gifhorn and the International Wind- and Watermill Museum

2010-07-07T16:21:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday we put the screens up (woohoo!) so we stayed close to home. We headed to Gifhorn - just a hop, skip and a jump away - to the Internationales Wind- und Wassermühlen-Museum (The International Wind- and Watermill Museum.)

I have to say, it was pretty damn cool! They have full size working replicas of some pretty cool windmills from around the world.

Lots and lots of models of other windmills that they would like to eventually build.

And some other just generally cool stuff.

The best part for me was the Russian Orthodox Church.

The inside was amazing.

After the museum we drove through the village Andre grew up in.

and then stopped in to see Andre's parents and then walked around the plaza in Gifhorn.

you can see more Gifhorn pictures here.

Nightly Walks

2010-07-05T03:24:00.000-05:00

In Mississippi we took walks every night, but haven't here in Germany. I could tell when we were sightseeing and it involved walking up a hill. Wanted.to.die. Right then and there we decided to get back in the habit.

We found a great route and have done it twice now. It feels great!

I put the route in to Bing and it says it is 3.4KM, which is 2.11266 miles.

More pictures from our walk route here.