A Week In Photos

This last week has been a little chaotic.  Andrew has been gone more than he has been home, which is pretty typical this time of year for UPS.  Be friendly to your UPS drivers everyone, they are busting butt to get your packages to you on time.  Andrew has been out on car with the drivers these last couple of weeks to help get things delivered.  Twelve to fifteen hour days have been the norm for drivers these past couple of weeks.  I think everyone is feeling the Christmas crunch.  Is it just me, or is Christmas coming way earlier this year?  The whole Thanksgiving being a week later totally threw me for a loop this year.  As a result of the craziness in this house, the post today is going to be a week in photos...

 Saturday was cooking baking day with the in-laws!  Most of the cookies that came back to our house are now gone.  So much for my diet. 

 All our stockings are hung and waiting for Santa to fill them.

 Dining room table.  First year I get to decorate with Christmas dishes!

 This past Friday, Maya had a play date with her friend Daisy.  We love it when Daisy comes to visit! 

 Maya, the neighborhood watch dog.  Really, I think she was just waiting for Andrew to come home.

 Our living room Christmas tree with the family ornaments. 7ft of Christmas joy!

The Christmas tree in the dining room- red, silver and gold. 

Recipe Wednesday- Easy Sweet Potato Recipe

One of the things I always bring to Thanksgiving with Andrew's family is sweet potatoes.  Andrew doesn't like sweet potatoes, so I don't really eat them all that often.  The last couple of years I have done the sweet potatoes in the crock pot, but I decided to mix things up a bit this year.  I found a recipe on Pinterest that I wanted to try, and was hoping it turned out edible since Thanksgiving was the first time I would be making it.

This is the recipe I went off of, but I made a few changes to it...



The first thing I changed was the yams... I do NOT use canned yams.  I use fresh whatever, whenever I can.  I have never had canned yams, nor do I ever plan to.  Wow, that was a strong statement.  Clearly, I feel very strongly about fresh sweet potatoes.  Since I wasn't using canned yams, I had to pre-cook them.  If you have made mashed potatoes, it is the same idea.  I think I used 4 normal sized sweet potatoes/yams, peeled them, cut them in thirds and then placed them in boiling water for about twenty minutes.  Just like potatoes, you know they are done when a fork goes through easily.  don't let them go too long because you are also baking them for fifteen minutes and you don't want sweet potato mush.

With the amount of sweet potatoes I used, I think I would probably double the liquid recipe for the next time around.  Also, when it is time to put the marshmallows on top, I just covered the top with mini marshmallows and stuck it back in the oven to brown the marshmallows a bit.  In the midst of everything else I was making for Thanksgiving, these weren't that much more work and they were quite tasty for Thanksgiving dinner! 

Boys And Their Toys

All in all, we scored some pretty good deals on Black Friday.  My Black Friday actually started a little earlier than I thought it would.  After dinner, I hit up Michaels with my Mother-in-Law and scored some awesome deals.  I'm in the process of switching our dining room decorations to Christmas decor and needed some decorations to go with my color scheme of red, gold and silver.  Most of the stuff for the dining room came from Michaels, and I think I got a heck of a deal on it all.  I probably saved 50-60% overall on everything.  I was able to score Christmas ribbon for 70% off and some wreaths for around the house at $1 per wreath.  I also picked up several boxes of ornaments to decorate the tree in the dining room. 

Next up on our trip was Target.  Yes, we were standing in line before it opened.  We stood in line for about 30 minutes before getting into the store, but it really wasn't terrible.  Hats off to Target for conducting a very organized Black Friday.  Luckily, the items we were picking up weren't exactly hot ticket items.  The main reason I was at Target was to grab some great deals on DVD's and CD's.  I walked around Target for a while after getting what we went in for while trying to talk myself out of purchasing a Dyson vacuum cleaner, and a Keurig coffeemaker. The Keurig was on sale for $99 with a offer of a giftcard at Target.  Man did I want that coffeemaker bad, but I don't need it.  One might argue I didn't NEED anything I went out and got on Black Friday.  I have a perfectly fine coffeemaker at home which will last me many years, so I convinced myself I didn't need a second coffeemaker.  In total, I was at Target three times in a 24 hour period.  We were there once for Black Friday, once to do grocery shopping at 6:00 AM, and once to pick up a few other quick groceries.  Every time I was in the store, I forced myself to walk out without the Keurig. 

Next up on our list was Younkers where we scored a deal on some pants for Andrew for work.  We got three pairs of pants for the price of one!  Younkers was a whole new set of temptation for me.  I again had to talk myself out of the Keurig and also out of the Starbucks Verismo system.  I made it out of the store safely without any purchases of my own.  We walked the mall for a while trying to decide if we were going to stay up for round two of Black Friday shopping at Lowes, or go home and catch a few hours of sleep first.  While we were walking around, I was wondering where on earth the parents of all the teenage kids at the mall were.  Did these kids parents seriously just drop them off? 

After the mall, we opted to go home and grab some shut eye before heading to Lowes.  We set the alarm for 3:30 AM and passed out.  3:30 came a little to soon for me, but I made some coffee and sucked it up.  Lowes was our major spot to hit.  We were in the Lowes parking lot by 4:15 for the 5:00 AM opening.  Luckily, people hadn't totally lost their minds and were staying in their cars.  It wasn't until about 15 minutes before they opened that we went out to wait in line.  Major kudos to our Lowes for their customer service on Black Friday.  We were greeted outside the store with Dunkin Donuts, hot chocolate, and a propane heater.  I liked our Lowes (it is five minutes from our house, so it is ours) before, but they just scored major points in my book!  When the doors opened, we beelined it straight to our destination: Table Saws!!

Andrew is now the proud owner of a Kobalt table saw.  Funny story with this saw; there was only one in the store because they didn't get their shipment in.  So, Andrew got the one and only saw they had.  We scored it for $179, which was $100 off regular price.  We walked around the store for a while so Andrew could talk himself out of purchasing more tools.  I had to again talk myself out of a Dyson vacuum cleaner as well as a new fridge and a new washer and dryer.

I would say we had a pretty successful Black Friday and managed to not get too carried away with our purchases.  Anyone have any super good deals they scored?  I love to hear about good deals!

 Our garage is quickly filling up with tools! 

A Black Friday Rant

I'm going to put a disclaimer/warning out right now.  If you have been linking articles to facebook this week about how terrible it is stores are opening on Thanksgiving, you might not want to read this.  If you are boycotting shopping on Black Friday because you think it is taking away from Thanksgiving and time with family, do not proceed with this article, please. 

I would like to point out this isn't the first Thanksgiving people wont be with their families.  Have you ever gone to the movies on Thanksgiving after dinner is over?  Who works at the theater?  It certainly isn't robots.  No one has complained about this before.  Have you ever had to go to the hospital on Thanksgiving?  I'm pretty sure the doctors and nurses are at the hospital and didn't get the day off.  Ever been pulled over on Thanksgiving?  If not, good, but you know the police are out on the streets.  Don't you hope the firefighters are also working on Thanksgiving?  I know I sure hope they are working.  I remember a Thanksgiving when I was really thankful there was 24 hour emergency plumbing service.  The people in these industries know when they enter them that holidays are part of the gig.  I may grumble when Andrew works late nights during the holiday season, and I may be annoyed when he comes home late on Christmas Eve because he had to make sure people got their packages, but I also know that is part of his job.   

If you don't want to go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, that is fine.  No one said you have to go out and shop.  However, there are people that want to shop.  There are people that spend the day with their family and will go out at night to shop.  Andrew and I will be out shopping at 8:00 PM on Black Friday. Yes, we will spend the day with family eating, drinking, and watching football.  We will have the All American Thanksgiving.  After Thanksgiving dinner is done, we will head out to brave the cold and shop. 

Santa's Workshop

Last weekend Andrew busted out some power tools and worked on a Christmas gift.  This was the first time he got to use his router since he got it (he has had the router since before I was around).  I would love to tell you about the project, but that would ruin the surprise.  This project is based on something I saw at a craft show recently.  I wanted to make something similar, and I really wanted to be able to say it was something made with love.  Andrew's part of the project is done and now I have to finish up with painting.  I can't wait to give this as a gift this year!

Recipe Wednesday- A Yummy Fall Treat

Now that there is snow on the way and I have had to bust out my winter coat, I'm feeling very into the fall and winter flavors.  You know it has reached almost holiday time/cold weather time, when I order the first peppermint mocha of the year at Starbucks.  I had my first one today, and it was delicious.  No, it was not low carb, and no I really don't care.  It was was delicious in all its carby goodness.

Keeping with the total lack of concern for carb counting today, I thought I would share with you a fall treat I made last weekend when our neighbors came over for dinner.  Our dessert wasn't quite in line with our Mexican feast we had, but it was good nonetheless.

A New Week Better Than The Last Week

Last week was a bit crazy in the Wood household.  I shouldn't even say the whole week was crazy, it was really just the last three or four days of last week.  Thursday morning, I was darn near out the door when we had a bit of a situation with Maya.  Every morning when I go downstairs for breakfast, Maya comes to hang out with me and eventually ventures outside for her morning potty break.  Thursday morning, I went to pick her up so I could coax her outside like I have had to do since it turned cold, and she yelped.  I thought maybe I startled her and didn't think much of it.  She went outside and came back in like usual and I went back upstairs to finish getting ready.  Maya hung out downstairs, which is pretty normal for her.  I heard her whining from upstairs and thought she was acting odd.  I figured someone was walking in the green space next to our house, but she would normally bark at anyone walking by.  I went to the top of the stairs to see her sitting on the bottom step looking up. 

When I went down to pick her up and see what the deal was, she started yelping and nipping at my hand to get free.  That is when I knew something was wrong.  For a dog parent, there is no worse sound than your dog yelping in pain.  Andrew was instantly out of bed.  We were able to coax her with treats and got her to walk around a bit so we could determine what was wrong.  We narrowed it down to something with her right hind leg.  Luckily this was right before 8:00 AM, which is when our vet opens.  We were able to get an 8:30 AM appointment with our vet.  Maya stood stiff as a board when she was on the exam table and didn't make a peep, which made it a bit difficult to determine the source of the problem.  The vet was able to determine that she had swelling, but wasn't able to determine much else since Maya wasn't being very cooperative.  They sent us home with some Tramadol and Meloxicam and told us to keep an eye on her.  Within a day she was running around like normal.  We have no idea what she did, but we are glad she is feeling better!

Thursday while we were both home with Maya, we noticed toward the late afternoon, an odor similar to burning hair or rubber.  We tried to sniff out the source, but came up empty handed.  We stood down by the furnace expecting a strong smell from there, but we didn't smell anything out of the ordinary.  The strange thing was the smell was only in one part of the house.  We thought maybe something was in the ducts, but didn't know for sure.  We shut the heater off and called the company we have do our annual maintenance.  They put us on their emergency list and came to check things out Friday afternoon.  We learned that the blower motor had gone out in the furnace and would need to be replaced, which would run us between $450 and $500.  I was less than thrilled with that diagnosis, but happy when I discovered that our home warranty would cover all but the deductible.  Getting someone under our home warranty to come out and fix it was another story.  The first company they dispatched to come fix the issue never called to come out.  After some coaxing, they agreed to pay the emergency fee and have someone out first thing on Saturday morning.  We weren't thrilled about sleeping another night in our cold house.  The temperature in the house had gone down to 62.  We got creative and put a small space heater from my office in our bedroom and closed all of the doors to keep the heat in.  That kept us warm through the night, and they were out by 8:00 AM on Saturday morning to fix the furnace.  We are now back to being warm and happy. 

A New Adventure In Sewing

Since it is getting colder outside, I'm turning my attention from projects in the yard to inside projects that will carry me through the winter.  I will be slowly planning our spring yard projects over the winter, but I need something else to keep me busy.  Work is keeping my mind pretty busy trying to remember all the things I have learned in my new role.  I also recently joined my mom in a Bible study over the book of Daniel, so that has been occupying some of my time as well.  Of course, there is my other favorite past time of spending hours on Pinterest.  With Black Friday around the corner, I have also been spending a fair amount of time surfing for leaked Black Friday ads.  The last couple of days they have been released left and right, which I'm pretty excited about!

My main project for this winter is going to be sewing.  My Grandmothers sewing machine was delivered to our house, thanks to my wonderful parents, about a month ago.  It has been sitting in the basement making crazy eyes at me for the last month.  Every time I went downstairs to do laundry or to work, I felt like it was talking to me and asking me when I was actually going to plug it in.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet and plug it in.  I was also happy to find, although this shouldn't surprise me, the original instruction manual for the sewing machine in one of the drawers along with a box containing several feet to go with the machine.  I have clung to that manual the last couple of weeks to guide me through threading the needle and learning different kinds of stitches.  I haven't had to change out the bobbin yet, but the time is coming and I am terrified.  Currently, I'm trying to teach myself how to do a blind hem so I can fix some hems that have come undone on a couple of my pairs of dress pants. 

This sewing machine has been around the block a couple of times.  I found the original sales receipt with the instruction manual.  My grandmother purchased the sewing machine in 1965, and it is still running strong today!  I can promise you that machine has a long history of getting projects done: clothes, quilts, home decorations, American Girl clothes, Barbie clothes, and my personal fond memory of fixing my favorite baby blanket.  I'm proud to have this very important piece of my Grandmother in my house. 

 A piece of history right there!

 No pedal on this machine, this bad boy is operated with your knee using that lever you see.

 You can see I have already made a trip to the store for some supplies!

Like I said, right now I'm sticking to the simple projects.  I'm trying to come up with some good holiday ideas to make with the sewing machine.  The obvious choice is stockings, but I think that is a little too big for me to tackle right now.  Eventually, I would love to have an embroidery machine, and then I could make stockings until the cows come home.  For now, I will try to make my Grandma proud with her machine.  I would love to get to a point where I could quilt.  There is something about it that really appeals to me.  My shorter term goal is to get to a point where I would be able to create the quilt for our son our daughter's crib when the time comes.  We will see where this winter project takes me, and I will keep you posted along the journey.  For any experienced sewers out there, let me know if you have any tips or tricks!

Recipe Wednesday- Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken

In a never ending quest to find low carb foods for dinner that don't taste like cardboard, I came across this recipe on Pinterest that looked promising.  The recipe did not disappointment and packed a delicious flavor punch.  I put this recipe off to the weekend, however, because I kept forgetting to do the marinade.  I'm guessing I could have easily done this in the morning before going to work and put it in the fridge so it was ready to cook when I got home.  This was delicious served with a side salad and vegetables.

A Low Carb Update

Earlier this week, I posted a slight rant about the cost of different flours used in low carb baking recipes.  Bound and determined to find a healthy way to make pancakes rather than just giving up, I checked the baking aisle at another local grocery store this week.  I was thrilled when I found a 16 oz bag of Bob's Red Mill Low-Carb Baking Mix.  The baking mix can be used cup for cup just like you would use regular flour, and it cost $5.50 rather than $13.00 for a bag, which is what I would have paid for almond flour.  I haven't actually made pancakes yet with the baking mix, but there is a recipe right on the bag for pancakes that I am going to try.

There are a couple of other products I have been able to switch out to cut back on normal carb intake.  I started using almond milk in my cereal in the morning.  It is a little more expensive than normal milk, but I really don't notice a difference when I have it with cereal.  We still keep a 1/2 gallon of milk on hand each week because sometimes there is just nothing better than a good glass of milk.  The brand of almond milk I have been using the last couple of weeks is Blue Diamond Almond Breeze, which costs a little less than the Silk brand.  Be sure to get the unsweetened almond milk which comes in either vanilla or original.  If you don't get the unsweetened, you really aren't saving on carbs much.  Each serving has less than 1 gram of carbs, which in my book is nothing.  Anything that has less than 1 gram of carbs gets counted as zero for me.  The regular almond milk has about 8 grams of carbs per serving versus 1% milk, which has 12 grams of carbs per serving.  If given the choice between regular almond milk and cows milk, I would pick cows milk hands down each time.  It is cheaper, better tasting to drink by the glass, and only four more carbs per serving than almond milk.  So remember, unsweetened almond milk = no carbs in Natalie's book.  I should mention that I have also used the unsweetened almond milk in several recipes, including soups, that call for milk and find it to work great as a substitute.

My other go-to food on my low carb adventure has been Kellogs Special K Protein Cereal.  When I first saw it, I was pretty convinced it was likely going to taste like cardboard, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It has a light cinnamon taste to it, and actually tastes really good.  Are there times when all I want is a big bowl of Lucky Charms?  Yes, but I'm trying to stick to my plan.  You might wonder how I am counting this as a good low carb breakfast option when I tell you it has 19 grams of carbs.  It does have 3 grams of fiber, so you can subtract that from the total carb count for 16 grams of net carbs.  Using the almond milk mentioned above adds nothing to the total carb count for breakfast.  In addition, the cereal has 10 grams of protein, and we all know protein is a good thing!  I like to compare cereals when I'm at the store, so here are a few I have compared: Lucky Charms have 22 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.  Multi-Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios have 23 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grabs of protein.  You might be asking, what about something healthy?  Ok, let's look at Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes Cereal, which has 41 grams of carbs, 6 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein.  Even taking out the fiber, there are still 35 grams of net carbs in the cereal.  I would also like to mention there are also 170 calories in a serving versus the 110 in the Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios, 110 calories in Lucky Charms, and 120 calories in Kellogs Special K Protein Cereal.

Some of you might be asking, "why not just make an egg for breakfast, those are really healthy?"  There are a couple of reasons for not making eggs in the morning.  The first reason is, I don't like eggs all that much unless they are loaded with cheese and normally coated in ketchup.  The other reason being I simply don't have time for eggs in the morning.  I am generally running late in the morning, and the last thing I want to do is cook.

So, there are a few of my go to items for my ongoing low carb diet.  My one other go to item is cheese, of any kind.  I thank the food gods that cheese is low carb.  If I had to go without my taters, bread and pasta and add no cheese on top of that, heads would roll. I'm finding a pretty good rule of thumb for my low carb adventure is if it is diabetic friendly, it is also probably low carb friendly.          

Recipe Wednesday- Cauliflower Casserole

Today, I'm sharing with you a total carb friendly meal that is also cheesy and delicious.  My intention in making this recipe was to add cubed ham.  However, I didn't remember the ham until I was pulling the casserole out of the oven; not the best time.  This recipe is easy to make and a great quick option for a weeknight dinner. In total, I think this meal also cost us less than $5.00 to make even will all the shredded cheese.  We used frozen cauliflower for this recipe also and used 2 16 oz bags which cost us about $.64 for both; coupons are awesome!

Fancy Meeting You Here

I know I haven't been around in a while.  I haven't had much to post about, and didn't want to bore you all to tears.  My solution was to not post for a while.  Life has been pretty much normal around here, but I can't complain.  I finished training at work last week, and man have things gotten crazy again.  I had a nice break from work insanity there for a couple of weeks and tried to enjoy every minute of it.  I'm out of training now, and thrown back in with wolves.  OK, that might be slightly exaggerated, but I did tell my manager today that I felt like they drove me out to the middle of the ocean on a boat and then dumped me off with no life jacket.  Not exactly the best feeling in the world, but also not the first time I have felt like that in my job.  I know things will get better, I just hate being at the bottom of the totem pole again.  In my job there is only so much they can do to prepare you and the rest of it you have to learn on the job.  

Things around the house have been pretty quiet the last couple of weeks.  We are gearing up for trick or treat night in the new house, which I'm pretty excited about.  We have a lot of kids in the neighborhood, so I think it could be a busy night for us.  Luckily, Andrew was able to get the night off work so he can help wrangle the dogs/hand out candy.  Buddy has his Trick Or Treat shirt as his costume, but so far I have lost the battle on Maya having a Halloween costume.  Maybe next year she can dress up. 

This past weekend, we celebrated my Mom's birthday.  Andrew and I worked on Saturday to build another bench like the one on our front porch.  Both our Mom's loved them so much, they each requested one this year for their birthday.  I told Andrew I feel like we should go into business on this deal, but I don't know what we would do when we ran out of wood from the fence.  I have a couple of other projects in the works for this winter with the remaining wood panels.  Andrew inherited a new miter saw a couple weekends ago, so that made the construction of this bench a lot faster.  He is now dreaming of his workshop he wants in the garage and the projects he will complete.  Major projects on the list are bookcases for the library, and a wrap around storage closet for the basement.  When our basement was finished, there wasn't a lot of room left for storage, but we have plans to fix that.  Luckily, we have several options to work with. 

You may be wondering how the weight loss and diet are going.  Slowly is the best answer I have for you at the moment.  I am finding that my sweet tooth is killing me.  Brownies, cookies, cake, bars, you name it and I want it.  I have talked myself out of going to our local cupcake store more times than I can count.  Enter a slight rant on this topic.  Several times I have thought how ridiculous it was that I had to give up sweets to drop even one pound.  So, I went on the hunt for low carb dessert options; I knew they had to exist.  Of course I found many delicious looking things on Pinterest, but when I looked up the recipes I was annoyed.  When I went to the store, I was even more annoyed.  This past weekend, I had a recipe on our grocery list for low carb pancakes.  We love breakfast food, so I thought why not try and make it healthy.  The recipe called for almond flour.  I wasn't prepared for the $11.00 price tag when we got to the store for such a small bag of flour.  That wasn't my first experience with outrageous prices.  Another recipe this week called for coconut flour, there was no way I was spending $7.00 for a bag of that either.  The sugar substitutes these low carb recipes call for also kill me.  No, I'm not going to spend $15.00 for a bag of sugar when I can buy a regular bag of sugar for $3.00.  I'm also convinced it is going to come out twenty years from now that all these sugar substitutes are known to cause cancer.  I guess for now, I'm stuck with the peanut butter cookies I posted a recipe for a couple of weeks ago.  Don't get me wrong, those things are delicious, but I do like to mix it up now and then.  If anyone has any dessert recipes they would like to share that doesn't involve crazy expensive bags of flour or likely cancer causing sugar, please feel free to pass them along.

Luckily, while I battle my food addictions, I have found a new workout buddy at work, which makes heading down to workout after a long day a lot more enjoyable.  I'm more accountable about working out when there is someone else counting on me.  I have been able to maintain four workouts per week for the past three weeks.  I hope to keep that up, and going into the holidays I am going to need all the time on the elliptical I can get.  

Recipe Wednesday - Cauliflower Soup

With the temperatures dropping, I thought it was only fitting to share this recipe today.  I have made this a couple of times over the last few weeks, and we both find it to be a great dinner option.  The soup is pretty easy to make, which also makes it a good recipe.  Let's face it, when I get home from work the last thing I want to do is spend two hours in the kitchen working on dinner.  If Andrew is home when dinner is being made, he helps do the chopping on this recipe which makes it go a lot quicker.

One warning on this recipe, and the blog this recipe came from warns about this too, cauliflower is a real mess to chop, so make sure you use a large cutting board and a food chopper if you have one. 

Happy Anniversary, Maya!

I'm a day late on this, but as of yesterday, Maya has been with us for one year.  We celebrated by clipping her nails and brushing her teeth.  I'm sure she enjoyed her celebration, not!  She has been through a lot with us in the last year.  She has been house trained, we are working on leash training and walking on a leash without pulling, and she has lived with us in two different houses.  She has escaped our yard several times, but always returned home.  We have had to fetch her out of the woods next to our house and taught her how to play nice with other dogs, which we are still working on.  More often than not, she likes to bark at dogs twice her size and when they come running after her she runs between my legs for protection.  She is a huge snuggle bug and LOVE to hide under the covers at night.  She has been a great addition to the family and a wonderful companion for Buddy.   

Here is Maya's fist year with us in photos.

Recipe Wednesday- Low Carb Stuffed Chicken

Sorry for the total lack in posting lately, but there hasn't been anything too exciting going on with us.  In good news, both dogs had a visit to the vet this past weekend; Buddy was there for support.  Maya was at the vet to get her shots updated, which she was not thrilled about.  The vet thought Maya looked great and is in great health.  Saturday was the moment of truth for Buddy; we wanted to find out if he had lost weight or not.  We decided before going to the vet if he had gained weight, we were going to have them run his blood work again and check his thyroid.  We were beyond thrilled when he stepped on the scale and had lost 2 pounds!!  He is now within three pounds of what he weighed when we got him.  He does seem to have a little more energy the last week or so and doesn't act like an almost 10 year old beagle.  Maya does a good job of keeping him young, and we hope to have him as part of our family for many years to come.

In other news, I started training at work for my new role this week.  I am still in the same department and actually have the same manager, but I am changing which product I handle.   Rather than doing our Short Term Disability claims, I will now be handling our Long Term Disability claims.  There are about two and a half weeks worth of training to complete and then an eighteen month learning curve.  The learning curve for Short Term Disability is about 6-7 months for comparison.  There are a lot more pieces to the puzzle in Long Term Disability including; Social Security Disability, workers' compensation, life insurance, etc.  We have the claims for a longer time period, but that also means we have more time to make decisions.  I hope this means it wont be so burn and churn like it is on Short Term Disability.  So far, I'm enjoying training.  I love having something new to think about each day!

Other than a trip to the vet and training at work, things have been pretty normal around here.  I have been keeping up with my workouts with at least three per week.  I had a bit of a set back week a couple of weeks ago when there were a lot of sweets in our house from our housewarming party.  Now that those are out of the house, I have been trying to stay on track.  We continue to experiment with new low carb dinner options, and have found several new ones that we like.  Last night, we had a pretty delicious meal; prosciutto wrapped stuffed chicken breasts.

I will point out that I altered this a little bit from the recipe.  Neither of us are a fan of goat cheese, but Andrew loves Feta, so I swapped the two out.  I also didn't have any sun dried tomatoes, but I did have sun dried tomato pesto, so I used that to stuff the chicken as well as in the sauce.  The sauce makes this dish amazing, and we will definitely be having this again!  While you are on checking out this recipe, the blog it came from has several other amazing low carb dinner options to check out.  

Fall Fashion Frustration

Do you ever look at your wardrobe and think to yourself, I'm sick of this whole thing. I think that every season, and every season I add a few things to my wardrobe to try and improve my selection. The last couple seasons, and especially when we moved, I tried to get rid of things I know I haven't worn in a season. I think if anyone looked at my wardrobe, they would probably think all I ever wear are sweatpants and tank tops.  Those seem to be the predominant features in my closet.

I see these women on pinterest or at work who seem to be effortlessly styled, and I wonder what kinds of things they have in their closets. I think perhaps the main issue is that I just don't seem to know how to put outfits together. My go to style in the winter is dress pants and a sweater. In the summer I either wear a maxi dress or capris and a t shirt depending on if we are talking about work or weekend wear. During the spring and fall, for work I'm again in dress pants a t shirt or some kind of shell and either a light sweater or a jacket.  I find this to be all very predictable.

Sometimes, I wish I could break out of the boring and go for something with some pizzaz. I have been on the hunt for the perfect pair of riding style boots for several years now.  Here is the problem; I have huge calves, at least in boot land. Even the ones for large calves don't always fit. I find it rather frustrating considering my shoe size itself is actually very normal. If anyone has any recommendations, please pass them along. Two other things I have been after are leopard print flats, and a leopard print scarf. Oh, there is my other fashion thing; I'm in love with scarves. The shoes have to be flats because I have pretty much decided that my feet like to protest anything that might be a heel. I don't enjoy walking around in pain all day. The other part of that is that I own very few pairs of pants that wouldn't be insanely short if I didn't wear flats with them. Now, I have come across several pairs I like, but never seem ready to bite the bullet and buy a pair. The same issue also goes for the scarf; I never just buy instead I'm content to continue carrying on about wanting one.

So, there you have my fall fashion struggle. Any tips, thoughts, ideas, photos, etc are welcome!

Two Dogs, Two Houses, and Two Years Later...

Sorry for the total lack of posting last week.  Andrew was on vacation last week, so we were on the run quite a bit.  Last Tuesday, the 24th, we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We had a pretty low key day, but it was wonderful.  We took the dogs for a walk, ate the wedding cake we ordered from the same bakery that did our wedding cake, worked on a new project for the house, and Andrew fixed dinner. 

Andrew made us some amazing Parmesan chicken for dinner, which was followed by cake.  It was some pretty delicious cake, as always.  Brings back lots of good memories of our wedding day.  It is hard to believe in two years we have done so much and things have changed a ton.  We have two wonderful dogs now that bring us joy daily, and a new house we enjoy calling home. 

I decided to celebrate our anniversary, we should build something!  We kept all the panels from the fence we tore down when the chain link fence went up.  They have been stacked in the garage waiting for a project.  I decided to make a bench for the front porch; I felt like it was a little naked and needed some dressing up. 

I found an idea for a project on Etsy and showed Andrew to see if he thought we could do it.  We decided to give it a try, and I'm thrilled with the results.  I can't wait to decorate it for all the seasons! 

 

 This is the start of our bench, above.

  

Here is the bench on the front porch with some fall decorations.  Check out the awesome monogram pumpkin one of my friends made for us as a housewarming gift.  I LOVE it!  

We had our official house warming party this weekend, and enjoyed spending the day with some amazing family and friends.  We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.  Buddy and Maya even broke out their party outfits! 

OK, this picture of Buddy might be after a long day, but how cute is he in his Packers sweater? 

Here are a couple of shots from the party.  Yes, these are only of the food.  We had several soups, breads and fall desserts!  

I made soda bread, honey beer bread, and spice bread.  For dessert, I made pumpkin bars and apple cake.  The pumpkin bars are something I always remember my mom making when I was younger.  Just as I remembered, they were delicious.  The apple cake was also delicious, and would be amazing warmed up and served with vanilla ice cream.  Seeing as we are on a low carb diet though, that probably isn't the best option right now.  I'm afraid to weigh myself after stuffing my face with bread and cake pretty much all week.  We did have a few healthy meals in there though.  I suppose I need to develop some self restraint before the holidays roll around.  Now that you are caught up to speed on the last week, I will try to stick with a regular posting schedule this week, not that there really is a schedule.  

A Vet Visit

Having Buddy or Maya sick is like having a child sick in this house. Whenever one of them is doing something out of the ordinary  them, I'm immediately online trying to figure out what is going on. Lately, Buddy has been doing what we like to refer to as the poop scoot more and more. We recently switched him from a senior pet food to half senior food and half light food. We noticed he was putting on some extra weight, so we wanted to get that off if we could. We weren't sure if the change in diet had something to do with this issue.

We went to the vet on Wednesday this last week to see if we could get some answers about what was going on with Buddy; I'm glad we went because it was a very informational trip.  Luckily, Buddy's anal scent glands were fine. That was the first thing that came to mind when we were trying to figure out what was going on. They also tested to see if he had any parasites or anything; they called Friday and said that text came back showing nothing.  That leaves us thinking perhaps he just is having a skin allergy and things are a little itchy. We hope when allergy season is done, the problem will resolve.

We also had the vet check out Buddy's eyes while we were there. I have especially noticed with Maya around that his eyes don't seem as crisp as they used to be.  Many times he won't know we are around until he hears us. It isn't to the point that he is running into things, but we still wanted to get it checked out.   Turns out Buddy has nuclear sclerosis, which the vet explained basically means he needs glasses. As dogs age, their eye sight deteriorates much like people. Since they don't make doggy glasses, which they should because they would be adorable, it is just something we have to be aware of.

The vet also talked to us about Buddy's weight gain. Turns out, his blood tests that we had done last February came back right on the border of needing thyroid medication.  We also found out that we have been feeding him about twice as much as he should be having. We flowed the directions on the bag, so we aren't intentionally  feeding him too much. We have to restrict his diet for the next couple of months and then go in and have his blood work drawn again if he doesn't drop weight. So, there is a potential for Buddy to be starting thyroid medication as he rounds the corner to his 10th birthday. Whatever keeps him healthy as long as possible.

Recipe Wednesday On Thursday

Once again, I thank my lucky stars for Pinterest while on this low carb diet.  Lately, I have been missing sweets like crazy.  I think my body knows it is getting to be that time of year when sweets are all around.  Before I get into the recipe for the week though, I will share the promised after photos with you for the tree.

So, there you have the photos of the tree and the bushes we planted.  As you can see, this is going to be our fire pit seating area.  Once the bushes get bigger, we should have some nice privacy.

My recipe for the week from Pinterest is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Sound good, don't they?  The best part of these is that they only have four ingredients and you don't have to go out and buy anything special.  That is the one gripe I have about low carb cooking/baking is that I could currently have about 20 different types of flour in the house if I followed every single recipe.



The four ingredients are:
1 C. Peanut Butter
1 Egg
3/4 C. Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
Sprinkle of chocolate chips

mix all together and drop onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for around 8 to 10 minutes. 

We Will Watch It Grow

I think I mentioned before that we were planning to plant a tree in the back yard that would eventually provide shade to the deck.  Since it finally cooled off enough to be outside and not feel like dying from the heat, we decided this was the weekend to plant a tree! 

We picked out an Silver Linden tree.  We initially picked out a different type of Linden tree, but then we were told that it is highly attractive to the Japanese Beetles.  We didn't want to deal with keeping them at bay each year, so we went with a variety that they seem to leave alone. 

It took a Bobcat to get the tree into the truck, and we thought we could get it to the backyard with no problem.  I'm not sure what we were thinking, but the tree made it to the back yard.  I'm sure our neighbors were entertained by us this weekend.   

Here is the tree in the driveway.  We were able to bring it down out of the truck and then roll it to the backyard.  Andrew used a metal hook to grab on to the metal stakes in the root ball and pull it while I hung on to the trunk of the tree.  We managed to get it back to the hole we dug. 

 

Maya inspecting the dirt pile.  This is right before the tree went in. 

 

The pile of dirt we dug out from the hole

 

Andrew working on the hole.

 

A better look at the tree. 

 

 

Alright, I just realized I forgot to take a true after picture, so I will try and get a picture tomorrow night for you.  The tree looks so good in its new home, and I can't wait to watch it grow. 

 

We also worked on planting our privacy hedge for our fire pit area this weekend.  I didn't get a photo of the final planted bushes, so I will get that tomorrow as well.  We ended up planting eight Viburnum bushes.  We planted four Northern Burgundy Arrowwood Viburnum, and four Blue Muffin Arrowwood Viburnum. 

 

I will be sure to post the final product tomorrow!   

A Diet Update

We have been on the low carb plan now for a couple of weeks, so I thought it was time to post an update on how things are going.  I was at the doctor yesterday, so I actually have an official weight loss number.  The last time I was at the doctor was mid June, and since then I am down 10 lbs.  I have to say, I was pretty excited when they told me that, and my doctor was really happy for me because she knows how much I have struggled. 

While I was at the doctor, I asked her to go back through my records for the last couple of years and tell me where my weight has been.  I think I can safely say since Andrew and I's wedding two years ago, I have put on between 40-50 lbs.  I can tell you it is much more enjoyable to put the weight on than it is to take it off.  But, I'm sure you all know that!

I would say a bulk of my weight loss has come in the last month, and about five of the pounds that I have lost have been in the last couple of weeks.  At the beginning and end of each week I do a weigh in.  Each week since starting the low carb plan, I have lost 2.5 lbs.  They say to lose weight and do it in a healthy way, you should drop about 2 to 3 lbs. per week, so I am right on track. 

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that I stick to my low carb diet all the time.  During week one, we attended a wedding reception with a meal of delicious BBQ.  I enjoyed a small helping of cheesy potatoes (clearly not on a low carb diet), and some lemon wedding cake.  That same night I also enjoyed a small twist cone from our favorite ice cream shop before it closed for the season.  During week two, I had a pop one day for lunch and had a chimichanga while I was out for lunch with the girls at work.  I did leave some of the extra part of the tortilla on the plate, but I normally would have eaten that right up.  Occasionally at night, I will enjoy a scoop or two of chocolate frozen yogurt.  As Andrew told me early on in this diet, if you don't have things once in a while that you really enjoy, you aren't going to stick to the diet very long. 

It hasn't always been easy, but I have to say I feel better overall so far.  I don't feel as bloated when I am done with meals.  The first week or so I had a lot less energy while my body adjusted to the changes, and I felt like I was hungry all the time.  But, I feel like I have made some adjustments and my body is getting used to its new fuel.  I'm glad I finally have a plan that seems to be working.  I will be sure to keep you guys posted on the progress!  

A Low Carb Snack

In an effort to keep with the recipe Wednesday's, and to stick with my low carb diet, I'm posting about a yummy treat I made tonight.



I wasn't sure about these when I first saw the ingredient list, but they are actually quite yummy!  It is a little like eating oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough, and let me tell you how much I love cookie dough.

These call for:

1/4 Cup oat flour (we found this in the health food section at out local grocery store)
1 1/4 Cup oats (I used the one minute kind)
1/4 tsp of salt, which I just realized I left out and they taste just fine
1/2 Cup of peanut butter
1/4 Cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/3 Cup of sugar free maple syrup
2 tsp of vanilla
1/4 Cup of chocolate chips (I used mini chocolate chips because that is what I had on hand)

Mix the peanut butter, applesauce, maple syrup and vanilla together until they are blended together.  Add in the oat flour, oats, salt, and chocolate chips.  Stir everything together.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  The recipe I use says to roll the dough into a ball, but that was making a mess, so I used a spoon to drop them onto the cookie sheet and it worked out just fine.

I hope you enjoy this low carb, yummy treat! 

It Is Football Time In This House

We were on the run most of the weekend, so I didn't get around to my weekend project until yesterday.  In support of the amazing Green Bay Packers, I wanted to make a wreath for our front door.  Fall is football season in this house.  I can't wait to park my rear in front of the TV on Sunday afternoon! 

I started with a wire wreath frame, three different fabrics, and a spool of ribbon.  I bought some Packers print fabric, plain green fabric, plain gold fabric, and football print ribbon.  In hindsight, I would have purchased more of the ribbon.  I wanted football fabric, but the only football fabric they had was bright blue, which wasn't going to work for me.  I bought a yard and a half of each and could have easily been fine with a yard and maybe even 3/4 of a yard of each fabric.  I laid everything out and cut the fabric into strips seven inches long by one inch wide.  I cut the Packers fabric eight inches long to try and get more of the pattern to show.  The ribbon was already 1" wide, so I just cut it into seven inch long strips.  For my first set of strips, I just cut one width of the fabric because I didn't want a ton of strips leftover.   To finish the wreath, I ended up using three strips from the fabric for each one.

In this photo, you can see everything laid out.  To cut these strips, I highly recommend using a mat (you can see mine at the top of the photo) and a rotary cutter.  My mat had one inch increments on it, which makes it super easy to cut the strips out.

Once you have all your strips cut, you start tying them on the frame.  Be sure to double knot each piece so it doesn't come undone.

Materials for the project:
Fabric/Ribbon- if you are using two colors, I would reccommend getting 1 1/2 yards of both colors.  if you are getting three or four colors, you would be fine with 3/4 yard to one yard of each color.
18" wire wreath frame
Cutting Mat
Rotary Cutter 

Here is the finished product

When you get closer to the wreath, you can see the Packers ribbon a little better.  I love how it turned out and hope this brings the Packers some luck this week on their opening game because it might be a tough one.  Go PACK! 

A New Plan

I think I have mentioned a couple of times this year that I have been trying to get the weight off that has slowly crept on.  A while ago, I posted about my frustrations in the weight not coming off like I thought it should, so I was going to increase my workouts.  Since June, I have really tried to get 3-4 workouts in per week at the gym, and do something physical on the weekend.  I have only missed a couple of weeks here and there, but I have always managed to get at least a couple of gym workouts in each week.  Even with the extra workouts, I wasn't seeing the weight come off.  In two months, I lost only two pounds.  I was frustrated and at my wits end.  I went to my doctor and asked her to test my thyroid; no such luck.  My thyroid was fine, so on to a new plan. 

I made up my mind that the only thing left to change was my diet.  I don't think I have ever been a terrible eater.  Even as a kid, I loved fruits and veggies.  We have been watching our sodium intake for several years now, and I always try and keep food on the healthier side.  My solution; cut the carbs.  I can't tell you how many times I have scoffed at low carb diets.  I love carbs, and always thought there was no way I could ever cut them.  As much as pasta, bread, sweets, and potatoes are friends to my stomach, they are not friends to my rear, thighs, or midsection.  We are currently rounding out week one of the low carb diet.  Andrew is also participating with me. 

As with any diet, grocery shopping this week took some planning.  We always go to the store with a grocery list, but I normally turned to a lot of stand by recipes.  From what I have read on low carb diets, I tried to make sure we were eating meats at every meal as well as veggies.  I'm also trying to tell myself you don't have to have a starch to complete a meal.  Dinners this week consisted of pork chops, chicken, and omelets.  Shopping for lunch was rather frustrating.  Normally, I eat a Lean Cuisine meal for lunch when I don't go out for lunch.  Standing in the freezer section at the grocery store looking at labels, I figured out I needed to have a plan B.  Each meal I looked at had at least 30 grams of carbs.  My solution; tuna.  Tuna with a little mayo and a little pickle relish and no bun to make it a sandwich.  I also picked up some Babybel cheese to throw in my lunch.  I'm a huge cheese fan, so I'm glad I was able to keep something I liked.   Towards the middle of the week, I discovered that I needed to have something on hand at my desk that was an ok snack food, so I turned to sunflower seeds, which are very low in carbs.

My other rough spot came on Monday when it was time for my afternoon coffee run.  In the mornings, I bring my coffee from home.   I make black coffee with a little bit of creamer, and no, carb freaks, I'm not giving up my creamer.  At this point, my potatoes, sweets, pasta and bread have been taken away, I refuse to touch my morning coffee.  My afternoon coffee, on the other hand, is another story.  Normally, I would order a Mocha or something equally high in carbs and calories.  Monday, I tried a soy latte with sugar free syrup; disgusting is the only thing I have to say for that.  The rest of the week I opted for black coffee with a little bit of 1/2 and 1/2 in it.  It isn't the Mocha I really want, but it gives me the boost I need in the afternoon.

Now, I'm a quick results kind of person.  When I have been waiting for two months to see any kind of weight loss, I have about run out of what little patients I had to begin with.  I'm happy to report that one week in on my low carb diet, and I have lost 2 1/2 lbs.  I can't express just how excited I am about this.  Heading in to week two of the low carb diet, I will attempt to look for some new recipes for dinner, so I don't get burned out too quickly.  I will be sure to keep you guys posted on the progress.     

 

A Pinteresting Experiment

Now that we are in the new house, I am going to try and tackle my growing Pinterest boards.  I have accumulated a lot of pins over the last couple of months while I was on a project hiatus, but I'm excited to dig back in.

First up: towel refresh.  I don't know about your towels, but ours had a little bit of a smell to them.  I'm going to call it a boy smell.  Don't worry, Andrew knows I think boys make smelly towels.  I don't know what it is, but it is a problem.  Have no fear; Pinterest to the rescue!  Not only did this take the smell out of our towels, it made them so soft.  I'm telling you, these towels smelled so good when they came out of the dryer I wanted to put them in a pile on the floor and lay in them.  Ok, that might be a little extreme, but it is really nice to step out of the shower in the morning and have a clean smelling towel.  It is the simple things in life sometimes that I find pleasure in.

So, here is the pin.  I did this on a Wednesday when I was working from home so I could stay on top of the cycles.  Just another note, if you don't have a gigantic jug of vinegar in your home that is specifically for cleaning, you should probably get one.  I can't tell you the number of uses I have found for it. 






So, there you have the Pinterest project for this week.  Like I said, super easy and well worth the time. I'm going to try and get back into tackling my pins, so I hope to have more projects up here soon.  I'm working on some fall decoration ideas at the moment.

Finally, A Fence

It is true you don't know how much you take something for granted until it is gone.  Our previous home had a six foot privacy fence when we moved in.  Other than putting bricks in a couple of spots where boards were loose, we were able to turn Buddy loose on his own in the yard for hours.  When Maya joined our home, it was hard to get her to come in from outside.  She spent her first four months of life outside, so I think she feels at home outside.  Don't let her love of the outdoors fool you though, she will certainly make her home on any pillow she can find inside.

It took a month, but our fence is finally up at the new house; halleluiah!  I lost track of the number of times I had to run after Maya when she caught the scent of a squirrel and took off.  Our second weekend in this house, we had to coax the dogs out of the woods by shaking the treat container.  Buddy will run for treats, Maya just comes to see what Buddy is doing.  After we learned there was a fox in the woods, I grew increasingly concerned about the dogs getting loose in the woods.

It's nice to be able to have neighbor dogs walk by and not have to go running after Buddy and Maya.  Just last Saturday, I was standing out in my pajamas because they woke me up at 8:30 AM to go outside, and I had to chase both dogs to the front yard because they saw a dog and its owner running on the sidewalk.  That will teach me to go out in my pajamas.  Yes, before you judge, I was still sleeping at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning; these are the things I enjoy before the years of kids waking us up at 6:00 AM on a weekend.

So, here you have the new fence.

 

Now that we have a clear outline for the yard, we look forward to pondering landscaping projects over the winter.  I think the one thing we are going to do this fall is plant a tree.  We want something that will eventually create some shade for the deck.  Perhaps we will plant the tree for our anniversary!  

Recipe Wednesday - Healthy Version

It wasn't until the last month or so that I started cooking with kale.  I have read about it and how great it is, I have heard people talking about how good it is for you, but I never actually wanted to try it.  I have to be honest, the first time I saw kale in the store when I got it for a recipe, I thought, "this is going to be disgusting."  I'm still not 100% sold on it.  Don't ask me to take a big bite of kale and look at you with a smile on my face, obviously after I chew the kale.  If I'm going to have it, it better be chopped to the point that it is almost unrecognizable.  Call me picky, but that is the way it is.

My recipe this week, which we both really enjoyed, involves kale chopped to the point of almost nonrecognition.





This recipe was definitely easy, but did take some forethought.  I started the rice as soon as I got home since it has to cook for a little bit, and then went on about my normal routine of feeding the dogs, etc.  By the time I got back to the kitchen, the rice was almost done and everything else is easy!
This has lasted us through a couple of meals and it still good warmed up.   

In house news, we got our fence put up this week!!!!!!!!!!  There aren't enough exclamation marks to tell you how excited we are about this.  I know Buddy and Maya love it too.  They can finally run around the yard without us calling to them to come back all the time.  When neighbor dogs walk by, I don't have to worry about going on a 100 yard dash after Maya.  There are some other house updates too, but I will save those for another post. 

Office Makeover

A day late, but as promised, here is the office makeover from this week.  Excuse the mess in the after photos, I'm still not done with the putting back together phase.  I have one more shelf I would like to hang before I am "done". 

Here is the office before we moved in:

And, here is the office now:

I used Valspar City Storm.  I was going to do each wall a different color, but thought better of that idea once I remembered that I was going to be hanging my travel photos on the wall.  With the colors in the photos, I didn't want to give my eyes too much color to focus on.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I'm excited to get some things up on the walls that I haven't had up since I left for college.

I'll try to post some better pictures once I have the place cleaned up a little bit.   

Kitchen Update

Last weekend, I decided to tackle the wall where my coffee station is sitting.  Since we moved in, I thought it would be great to paint that wall red to match the accent wall in the living room.  We have about two dozen paint cans around the house, so I was able to locate the brand and color of paint that was used in the living room.  I was glad we didn't have to try and match reds, because it was going to be a difficult task.  The paint in the basement was from 2005, so I bought another can.  I opted to go for a half gallon, which worked out fine because we had just enough with a little left for touch ups.  The color is Bay Red from Sherwin Williams.  I love Sherwin Williams paint, but it is a little rich for my blood.  Luckily, the guy working the day I bought the paint was feeling generous and gave me a discount. 

Here is the wall before:

Here is the wall now!

I took this right after I finished painting, so there were still a few tools around.  The shelf I actually made based on another shelf I purchased at a craft show last year.  I used a cabinet door that I purchased last year to use as a stocking hanger (you may remember this project).  

We had a shelf that was actually Andrew's from when he was a kid and the brackets to go with it that were the perfect size to fit on the cabinet door.  I gave the shelf and the brackets a coat of Kilz primer first and then gave it a couple coats of semi glossy black paint.  I like to use Rust-Oleum paint for these projects, I think it holds up really well and always has nice coverage.  Once the paint was dry, I attached d rings to the back of the cabinet door to hang it on the wall and attached the brackets to the cabinet door.  The shelf on top is just sitting on top of the brackets.  The shelf I purchased at the craft show had the top shelf screwed in to the brackets for extra support.

We are both really happy with the way the wall turned out, but decided now that wall kind of makes the rest of the kitchen look a little naked.  We aren't as sure on the rest of the kitchen as we were on that wall, so I think we will hold off on doing anything for now.

Andrew was away on business a couple days this week, which meant project time for me.  I like to keep myself busy while he is gone.  I finally started to tackle my office, so my next post will be the office makeover!  

Recipe Wednesday

Today is another recipe Wednesday. This is a recipe that I have only made once, but we have done several modifications on this recipe and enjoyed each of them. Neither of us are normally pork chop people, but they are quite tasty on the grill. Lately, we have fixed them with grilled corn; yummy!

Recipe Wednesday... It's Back!

I'm going to try and bring back recipe Wednesday.  I always feel like we are a little more creative with our foods in the summer, so I will try and post some good summer recipes for the next couple of weeks.

This week, I wanted to make something light and easy.  It doesn't get much easier than this salad I threw together a couple of nights ago.  I will throw a disclaimer out there though.  This salad is not good leftover.  So, either make it when you are planning on more than two eating, or knock the portions back a little bit.



As you can also see, this is a pretty healthy option for dinner, which we are trying to find right now.  When we moved, things kind of fell apart with my workout schedule for a couple of weeks, and it was bad.  But, I'm back on track now sticking to four workouts per week in the gym and then trying to do something active on the weekends.  Since we are watching our budget for fast food and eating out, our diet should be a little easier on the waist line now as well. 

Weekend Recap and a Dillema

I have a dilemma.  I spent most of this past weekend thinking about what color I want to paint my office.  Right now, it is a little darker than what I would call taupe.  There is nothing wrong with the color it is, but it appears to only have one coat of paint and clearly could have used two.  White is showing through in several spots.

 

My dilemma started on Friday when I decided I was going to hang up some of the artwork I wanted in my office.  I went to Lowes to buy a laser level to make the project easier.  While I was at Lowes, I was looking at paint colors.  I stood there looking at the paint colors for what felt like an hour, and felt totally overwhelmed with the options.  Do I want my office to be pink, which is my favorite color, or would that just be too childish?  What about green, sage green, blue, teal, yellow, plum; so many options that I just felt a rush of panic and left the store with only my laser level.  I went home and took to Pinterest to see if I could find some inspiration there.  I saw some cute offices in a green apple color.  But, would I get sick of that after a while?  I loved the color I painted my last office space when I painted it, but after a couple of months I was kind of over it.   I don’t want that to happen. 

 

I don’t know if I want my office space to be bright and cheery since it is in the basement or something that is going to be warm in cozy.  Does it need to coordinate with the basement living room which is going to be GREEN AND GOLD!!  Yes, we are going to have a Green Bay Packers basement, and it is going to awesome.  Then we get back to the issue of what I want to put on the walls. I have so many travel photos that I would love to display, but I don’t want it to look like a hodge podge of stuff.   Last night I had a thought of putting my travel photos up in the main hallway wall, but Andrew didn’t seem too keen on that, so I had to rethink that plan. 

 

Update: I went to Lowes after work tonight to look at paint colors.  I think I have a couple picked out, but I'm debating on the third.  One of the walls I want to paint a plum color, and the main color is going to be a light mocha brown.  What I'm still debating is the third wall.  I don't know if I want to have one accent wall with the plum color, or two accent walls.  If I do a second accent wall, I'm also having a hard time picking between a sage green and a brighter green.  So many choices!  

 

I tell myself I don’t have to decide on the paint color now, I can wait a while and live in it before I decide.  My problem with that is I don’t want to hang all this stuff up on the walls and then have to take it down to paint.  I would rather paint and then put stuff on the walls so I don’t have to rehang things.  Such a dilemma. 

 

While I was trying to decide what to do about my office this weekend, I did manage to get some other things done around the house.  I got the garage a little more organized than what it was.  I put some shelves up and got some of our lawn chemicals out of boxes and up on the shelves.  Andrew mowed the yard this weekend even though it is rather dry with the minimal rain we have had.  Some spots in the yard were growing and it looked a little strange.  

 

My highlight of the weekend was grilled corn on the cob and bratwursts on Saturday night.  We have been trying to cut back on our eating out since moving; we went a little crazy during the move with the fast food and eating out.  Saturday night we didn’t want to get too fancy, so the grill was our go to.  The meal was fabulous; I love the tastes of summer in the Midwest! 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!