i love food.
September 21, 2009, 9:53 am
Filed under: food, travel

and i love to eat.  and i love this “guy” because he loves it just as much as i do.

i don’t watch alot of cooking shows, but diners, drive-ins, and dives has become a close second to paula deen (formerly the only cooking show i could tolerate).  “triple d” isn’t really about cooking…it’s about eating.  and it’s about eating greasy, fatty, DELICIOUS food in large portions.  i don’t watch every episode, i don’t have it on my dvr list of things to record, but if i’m flipping channels and it’s on, i’ll stop every time.  it’s almost punishment to watch because it just makes ME want to take that huge drippy greasy bite that guy just ate, but i watch it anyway.

anyone else a fan?



what i ate today
August 16, 2009, 9:54 pm
Filed under: food

i usually try to stay off the computer on sundays, but i just had a photo session with some friends and couldn’t resist uploading them right away.  what that has to do with me being logged onto wordpress…i have no idea…

randomly, here’s a list of all the things i ate today:

  • leftover monkey bread (thanks, jenny!) and orange juice (before church)
  • bacon, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich and purple rain gatorade (after church)
  • approximately 1/2 cup of chocolate whip frosting from the fridge and a glass of water(1:45, when the girls went down for their naps)
  • some sunflower seeds with another glass of water(about 10 minutes later)
  • 2 fruit roll-ups with yet another glass of water (about 15 minutes later…just couldn’t seem to figure out what i wanted…a.k.a. the munchies)
  • pretzels sticks and a sprite (in the car on the way to the photo session)
  • a resee’s big cup (in the car on the way home from the grocery store after the photo session)
  • black beans, taco meat, cheese, salsa, and sour cream all reheated and mixed into a dip with multigrain tostitos and some water (9:00 pm!!  after i had all the groceries put away and the fridge cleaned out)

for the record, let me say that my kids did not eat everything i ate.  and they had a green vegetable at dinner.  also, i walked 2 miles pushing a double stroller (that counts for something, right?).

also, check this out.



the little things…
August 3, 2009, 9:33 pm
Filed under: food, harper, layne, tv & movies

some small things that made me happy today:

  • i entered 2 designs into this contest and they are on the site today.  GO VOTE!!!  i really want to win and i feel like i have a chance…the designs with the most votes right now are a huge deer and michael jackson.  the prize is $150…help harper go to preschool!!  please vote for either of the last two designs…they’re both mine:  “branches” and “peony sketch”.
  • chick-fil-a peach milkshake.  so good it is just WRONG.  why why why must their time be limited?!
  • after i cleaned up the mess at our table, i walked into the playground at chick-fil-a and couldn’t see layne anywhere.  i couldn’t see her because i was only looking on the ground.  guess those nuggets were little bits of battered courage, because she decided today was the day she could climb up all the stairs to get to the little “rooms” at the top.  she was SO proud (almost as proud of herself and i was of her).
  • talked to a client in tallahassee today.  we did a session like 2+ years ago and she decided out of the blue that they need another.  i’ve also had another girlfriend from the TLH want to schedule something, so i guess i’ll be heading that way sometime in the next few months.  thank goodness….hopefully this is the drought coming to a close.
  • took the girls to dubois lagoon after naptime since ryan was working late.  it was great….a little more crowded than i’d prefer, but not too bad.  love the beach that time of day, and then we got home just in time for baths and bed.  also, i got my favorite parking spot right in front of the shower.
  • dating in the dark: have y’all seen this show?  it is awesome.  ryan came into the room while i was watching and laughed at me.  he said i had a huge grin on my face.  ha!
  • sent in harper’s preschool registration!!  yay!  so excited (for her and for me).


full day
May 19, 2009, 9:31 pm
Filed under: food, harper, random

gonna do this one in reverse…

just showered.

ate 2 bowls of raisin bran, 4 bites of vanilla ice cream, and a reheated bowl of the mexican skillet i made for dinner but wasn’t around to eat. 

went to soccer evaluations, but only 6 of us showed up, and i was the only one “new” to the league (this is the 30+ league).  we played 3 v 3.  i was nervous at first…felt really out of my element, but it ended up being alot of fun.  i was encouraged because i never really felt tired…the gym is paying off!

fed and bathed the girls, cleaned house, folded clothes, vaccumed (how the heck to do you spell that?!). then i had the unpleasant experience of seeing the contents of a can of peas all over my kitchen floor. i’m such a clutz.

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a few phone conversations and some e-mail.

playground behind the library…avoided the homeless man sleeping on a picnic table and the huge looming black clouds.

library…put the old books/movies/CD’s in “the hole” and checked out new ones.

church play group. (enjoyed our conversation, charlene.)

breakfast at first watch.  told harper it was her reward for being SO great at the dentist.  she was pretty much layne’s nanny while i got my teeth cleaned.  i was so proud!  we all shared chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs. $9 including tip was worth it not to go home to eat breakfast before we headed out to the church.

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dentist.  i was told once again that i don’t floss enough (or ever!), that i need a $200 toothbrush, and a mouth guard thingy because apparently i clench/grind my teeth so much so that the back ones are worn down like they’re 80 years old.  harper was put in the chair for about 2 minutes after i had my teeth cleaned.  she was VERY excited and very cute about it.  when i asked her later if she’d been scared, she said no, but when they put the air-blower thing in her mouth, i could see her flinching a little bit.  still, she seemed genuinely diappointed when “dr. mark” was done.

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got the girls up around 7:15…pretty early for them.  out the door at 7:45.



i hear the sesame street theme song…
April 29, 2009, 2:56 pm
Filed under: family, food, photography, random

not really, but that song to me epitomizes happiness.

i have a great deal to get done in the next few days (including resizing and blogging about all of harper’s birthday party pictures, i know, i know), but for now i just wanted to do a short post about things that are making me happy lately.
img_0920-copywe met ryan at chick-fil-a for lunch.  there are 3 reasons why that makes me happy: 1) i love seeing ryan in the middle of a weekday, 2) there’s really nothing i’d rather have for lunch, 3) harper eats everything she’s offered when we’re there AND has a great time on the playground.  layne likes the fries until she almost chokes and we take them away.

 

 

 

img_0922-copy2next up, we got a new faucet for the kitchen sink.  it is making me excited to do dishes just so i can use it and stare at it up close.  our old one was really ugly AND it leaked all over the top of the sink for pretty much the entire 5 years we’ve lived here.  funny story: when i got home on saturday night and the guys had just put this thing in, i was very excited to find that it also came with a soap dispenser.  so, i decided to fill it up and try it out.  first, i filled it up with dish soap, not realizing what i was doing.  i emptied the container (which is stored screwed in underneath the sink), and then proceeded to pour the hand soap into the hole.  after i’d dumped the entire bottle of hand soap into the hole, i bent down to see how much more i needed to pour in to get it full.  it was then that i saw the container STILL ON THE COUNTER.  i’d poured all the soap into the empty cabinet below!

 

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this is the canvas that we got from the pay-it-forward photo session with my new friend rebekah hood (kallima photography).  she gave it to me on monday night after our SoFly meeting and i LOVE it!  i never knew i was a canvas kind of girl, but it is so impactful and classy looking.  we also got the rest of the images from her and are going to finally fill up the empty frames above the couch.  i would love to get our family photos done every few years and have a collection of these things to fill up a wall.

 

 

img_0926-copythis is a new gadget i got at bed bath & beyond.  i’ve only used it twice, but i can already tell it’s going to make this living-in-a-condo-with-two-kids life a little easier.  it’s called the OneGrip and it’s for carrying many grocery bags at once.  you just open the little slot with your thumb, slide the bags on, the latch closes, and you go…carrying many more bags than you could’ve without it…or at least carrying them without cutting off the circulation in your hand.  the first time i used it, i pulled several muscles in my back trying to prove JUST how much easier my life was going to be by only making one trip.  however, i learned my lesson from that and have accepted the fact that it may still take 2 trips, but those trips will be more pleasant.



discovery.
April 16, 2009, 9:02 pm
Filed under: confessions, food, the gym

(i know this post was supposed to contain pictures, but i haven’t found the camera yet since we got home…give me a few days.)

i’ve made several discoveries in recent days:

  • Expresso: i’ve only tried it once, but i see a great future ahead with this machine.  it’s a bike at the gym with virtual reality.  the handlebars move and it has a screen that makes it look like you’re riding your bike somewhere exotic (or just on a plain ol’ road).  it’s harder to peddle when you go up a hill.  you create a username and they keep track of all your stats and you can race your p.r.’s.  it’s very much like the running part of wii fit if you’ve ever seen that.  so fun!  i haven’t gotten sick of the gym yet, but when i do, i’m sure that’ll be one of things i lean on for motivation.
  • chick-fil-a sauce is amazingly good on pretty much everything that place sells.  i just figured out that it is fantastic on fries.  everytime i eat that sauce my mind races to think about what else i can dip in it.  i need to stockpile it at home and make a dinner with it.
  •  [warning: what you are about to read will cause shock and possibly despair.]  I’M THINK I’M ALLERGIC TO SONIC.  no, i am so not kidding.  seriously, would i joke about something like that?  here’s the story:  for about a year now, i’ve been getting really bad excema on my thumbs.  it is really painful and disgusting and, well, annoying.  i went to the dermatologist just after layne was born and she (the dermotologist, not laynie) told me that there was no way to tell where it came from and there is no cure.  i was very frustrated.  anyway,  the girls and i ate there about two weeks ago and i hadn’t been since new years’.  the excema popped up 2 days later after not having an outbreak in three months.  i don’t know when/where it hit me, but i all-of-a-sudden realized one day that sonic is the only factor that has changed in my life since i started getting this junk on my finger.  talk about being between a rock and a hard place!  i want so badly to know the cause of the problem, but i also want so badly to continue eating/drinking sonic!  i’m going on a 6-month sonic fast to see if that really is the source of the allergy.  pray for me.
  • today i discovered our george foreman grill on the porch.  it had been sitting there since the last time we grilled hamburgers.  TWO WEEKS AGO.  ew.

i guess while i’m discovering things i need to figure out how to get up and clean my house!  love you all.  night night.

ps.  i had a photo session tonight and one of the first things the mom said to me was that she liked my green nailpolish.  :)   haha



today as interpreted by google images
April 4, 2009, 8:26 pm
Filed under: family, food, lists

    

    



February 2, 2009, 9:07 pm
Filed under: food

+     =  DELICIOUS.



the beginning of the end
September 2, 2008, 2:10 am
Filed under: food

my pregnancy is finally coming to an end.  yes, the baby has been out of my body for about 7 weeks now, but my body hasn’t really realized it yet (not like my eating crap all the time is gonna slap my body across the face and say, “hey!  lose some weight!”).  tomorrow marks the first day of an all-out war on the last 10 pounds i have to lose.  the plan: no sweets or soda until my 30th birthday (nov. 8th) and some type of heart-pumping excercise 6 days a week.  i’ll let you know how it goes.  i honestlly do LOVE excercise, but my love for sweets and such is just as great.  that’s why i called it WAR.  luckily i have a few friends in the boat with me, so that should help.  not to mention the fact that i don’t fit into 97% of the clothes in my closet…talk about motivation.

if you don’t know me, you should know that the most dramatic part of this “commitment” will be my lack of attendance at sonic’s daily happy hour.  no, i don’t go every day, but i do go at least once a week and when i do, i go all out.  sadly, route 44 strawberry limeades are carbonated and are VERY sweet…



rewind.
June 4, 2008, 7:06 pm
Filed under: Friends, family, food, travel

i’ve really been slacking on posting pictures.  first, this past saturday night, some of our good friends had a “baby-q” for us (basically a uni-sex baby shower).  we had a great time.  danny, one of our gracious hosts, got a killer HUGE meal from california pizza kitchen (who knew they do catering?!).  the food was amazing.  we ended up not doing too much, but it was so nice.  basically, the girls just sat around and talked while the guys watched ultimate fighting.  who could ask for more?  :)   we didn’t take many pictures, but here are two of me and my good pal amy (the other host):

    

 

two weeks ago my friend kathleen and i took our kids to the zoo.  it was SO flippin’ hot and humid, but we were only there for about 2 1/2 hours, so it was fun.  sad to say that probably the most fun harper had was sitting on a STATUE of a turtle.  go figure.

    

     

i thought this was hilarious that she went and posed in front of the tiger.  because the petting zoo was dirty sand, and mommy we both had on flip-flops, mommy decided we would pet the goat through the fence.

they have a big play fountain at the zoo.  when we were there it was mostly populated with loud, “big” kids, but harper and jonas managed to fight for their own sprayer.

 

back up to the beginning of May and we took a trip up to New Smyrna.  ryan’s parents rented a condo for everyone for 5 days.  it was extremely relaxing (for me at least…harper’s the only grandchild), a great location, and we had great weather.  harper is definitely a florida water/beach girl (thank goodness!)…  (these pictures were taken by my sister-in-law…i pretty much forgot my camera existed that week)

    

the morning that we left for the beach, ryan went in to get harper out of her crib, and this is what he found(apparently the night before when we put her to bed, a pen had fallen out of ryan’s shirt pocket…i’m just glad it wasn’t a sharpie):