And the Winner Is ....

I thought about putting this at the very end, buuuuuut decided the top would be more exciting. Thank you for all who entered!! I wish you could have all won, I really do! However, without further ado, randomly selected using Random.org, the lucky winner of the Livin' Life Giveaway is ..........

Emily, of the health nut!! (Just don't forget to e-mail me your address, Emily, and congrats! ; )
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Now onto regularly scheduled posting:

Yay for weekends!!!!

Any rhubarb fans out there? Growing up, my mom always had rhubarb in her garden and would make rhubarb just about anything; pie, jelly, bread, etc. (here was her garden about a month ago ... I'm sure it looks even better now)So since it's summertime and I'm not close enough to have her rhubarb and I haven't had any in a long time, I got this: I put them in my oats just to see if I'd like it and needless to say, they were found wanting. I knew it wouldn't be like right out of the garden but I was expecting a little more from them. Anyone have healthy ideas or recipes using rhubarb?? (because now I have a whole bag of frozen rhubarb that I don't know what to do with, ha).

Here's an idea of how much my lovely pooches are shedding .... in this picture you will find Adrian looking like she has mange. You may also note the floor around them looking dirty. Well, it's from all their hair that makes it necessary to sweep just about every day. (And as you can maybe tell, I didn't sweep yesterday, ha). And yesterday Adrian simply brushed up against my black work pants and my pants turned white. Erik brushed them not too long ago but they need it again!

Along with doing some cleaning, laundry, etc, and spending time with the hubby, here's my current magazine stack I'd like to catch up on. Mother Earth News, Oxygen, and Clean Eating (P.S. as you can prob tell by the Oxgyen and Clean Eating magazines, I'm a fan of Tosca ; )

As I came for lunch today, I found a package from Foodbuzz at my doorstep with this inside:
Thanks, Foodbuzz and Emeril! I'm especially excited to try out some of that mustard. More to come later ...

Have a great Friday night!

"Beauty is the final objective of God’s gracious work, and ashes seem to be His favorite medium. God is the creator of beauty and a connoisseur of all that is truly beautiful. God is an artist, His canvas is creation, and in our lives tears and ashes are often His oil and clay as He works relentlessly to make something beautiful."

--Brian Zahnd, "What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life" (aka the book that was in my giveaway;)

Ending giveaway, Favorite Laras, Back

Friday already? Yes! and Yay!!

I've you've missed it all week, hurry up and enter my giveaway that ends IN LESS THAN A DAY at 3:00 Central Time, Friday. I'll be announcing the winner later on Friday afternoon/evening.

Thanks for all the running tips. I suppose it's just not smart to take my cardio from only incline walking to 40 minutes of jogging/sprints (I should have thought that one through more, ha)! I'm happy that cardiovascularly I could do it, but my poor little knee ligaments just weren't ready for it. I didn't even see it coming ... they seem to be feeling a bit better and I'm hoping I can at least lightly walk in the morning.

I've recently decided I think my two favorite Lara flavors thus far are Lemon Bar and Key Lime Pie. (Though I still need to try all the flavors!) Whenever I want a quick snack or bar, I've been buying Laras lately because they're the cheapest bars at my local Hyvee .... way to be the cheapest, Lara, I appreciate it! ; ) Dinner last night was simple and quick. Ground turkey with frozen Asian stir-fry veggies and brown rice, assortment of seasonings, sesame seeds, and balsamic vinegar. As always I made a huge pot of rice because we eat brown rice like it's our job!

Today on my lifting schedule was back. I did:
-lat pull downs
-reverse lat pull downs
-seated lat rows
-lawn mowers (ha, I don't know what these are technically called but you get the idea).

I did four sets of each and the reps varied, but they were mostly long reps. Here's a little reverse grip lat pull down action on the Boflex. (I'm thankful for our Boflex). I consider back to be one of my easier lifting days, but I find I really have to concentrate on working my back and using just my back to complete the exercises so that I don't use my bis and arms, etc. I'm learning! I just know that the more I lift, the more I love it! (I had nothing better to do that take pictures of myself between sets :p)

Have a wonderful Friday, friends!!! : )

"The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
- Allan K. Chalmers -

Happy Thursday!

Quick Reminder: my Livin' Life Giveaway ends tomorrow!!!

So, I'm currently blogging instead of doing my usual morning cardio routine. Apparently I wasn't smart enough to realize that if you haven't ran much in your life (aka me), and then you all of a sudden do this jog/sprint workout also every other day for almost two weeks, your knees would start hurting. Any running tips here? How much do you run in a week?

I guess I was too eager. I love walking on incline but I saw that workout in Oxygen Magazine and thought, I want to do that! I didn't know how I'd be at it since as previously mentioned running hasn't been my forte. But I wanted to know I could run. And sure enough, I did it! And I loved it! But I loved it too much I guess because now I have to do nothing for a few days and let me knees recoup. Boo! So here's some eats from the past few nights:

Chicken breast over a bed of chick pea puree topped with sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Annnnnd I couldn't help but try some of this banana softserve going around the blog world lately. I simply peeled and chopped a few bananas, froze them, put them in the food processor, added a spoonful of pb aaand some cinnamon. Yum! And here's a slightly weird picture of me doing shoulder presses yesterday (if I can't do cardio, you better believe I'm going to for sure lift!) My shoulder workout went something like this, in case you are curious.(If I look like I'm kind of straining while smiling, I am ... ha. That was near the end of my shoulder presses and I was trying not to fade)

Well, hope you have a happy Thursday, all!!! : )

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
-Gandhi

Thoughts on Food, Inc

Only three more days to enter my Livin' Life Giveaway that includes two boxes of Nature's Path cereal, Oxygen magazine, bars, and more!!

Before I get to Food, Inc ... here is what I did with my huge zucchini and tomatoes:

Zucchini Lasagna! I used this recipe only ...
-I doubled it
-Instead of beef, I used lean ground turkey
-I nixed the flour
-I topped it with Parmesan cheese and some spinach

I used zucchini once to make raw lasagna, but hadn't ever made it cooked and with meat. We were very pleased with the results! Yum! My Food, Inc Thoughts

First off, if you haven't heard of the film, Food, Inc check out the link if you'd like to know what I"m talking about ; )

I found this to be an excellent film that was very informative and thought-provoking. Here are some random thoughts in no apparent order that I went away with ...

• It stinks that only a few companies own and control almost all of the food produced and they can get away with doing whatever they want at any cost
  
• It's very sad and very wrong that people (aka big food companies) are so greedy for money and willing to do anything just to be on top
• It's not right that you can buy Twinkies and/or a double cheeseburger for less money than fresh fruit
• I was saddened to see how many farmers have been completely wiped out of all their money and businesses destroyed while paying court costs fighting against ridiculous lawsuits

• After seeing many farmers showcased on the film, it really seemed to all come down to the fact that whatever, we, the consumer buys, the companies will produce. If we start demanding real, natural and whole foods, they will produce.

• Erik and I also watched Future of Food on Hulu (which had a lot of the same info in it as Food, Inc -- suggested by Andrea -- check it out!) and after watching both of these films, I most certainly detest the fact that GMOs (genetically modified foods) consist of most of the foods in supermarkets and are not required to be labeled as such.
  

• My take: I would absolutely LOVE to buy ONLY grass fed, organic meats, veggies, fruit, organic everything and for the most part we did for awhile it got really pricey, especially since it's not as readily available here in this part of MO as it might be in other locations. We pack our lunches every day for work, snack on fresh fruits and veggies, and cook dinner at home every night and all organic is just too expensive for us.

• I will definitely, however, continue to get organic foods as much as we can afford and as much is available in our not-exactly-known-for-being-a-really-health-conscious-and-fit town in which we live (KC is close, but not close enough for us to conveniently buy groceries from all the time)

All that being said ... what does one do in a situation like this?? I thought of some helpful tips in regards to this problem:

1. Buy the dirty dozen organic, but don't worry so much about the others; just be sure to wash all fruits and veggies well before use.
2. Become friends with frozen veggies. The fact of the matter is, while they may not be as exciting as fresh veggies, frozen may be more nutritious than the "fresh" because they "fresh" have typically traveled so far to get to your supermarket, while frozen veggies have most likely been flash frozen right when picked, causing the nutrients to be maintained
3. Find some farmers to be friends with and buy eggs and produce from them and/or shop at farmer's markets. **Are there any natural/organic farmers in Missouri around the KC area that want to be my friend??
4. Plant a garden. (I need to do this next year!)
5. Buy fruit and veggies in season; it's often cheaper and I find it a bit disturbing how they ripen many veggies for supermarkets that really aren't in season all year round that they've had to pick green and ripen themselves (aka, they're gassed with ethylene). Now I'm sure one could argue that this is not a "bad" thing or that it's not "harmful" for us, but I'd rather have my veggies ripen in their own time and naturally, thank you!

Anyone have tips to add to this list??

So just remember that what you buy really does make a difference and I agree with Food, Inc. that every time you go to the supermarket and purchase foods, you are voting for what kind of food you want to be produced and stocked on all those shelves. And to the best of my ability, I choose to vote for no GMO's, organic, natural, healthy, and whole foods!

If you haven't seen Food, Inc. I would certainly recommend it! And if anyone has any other food documentary suggestions for me to watch, please let me know ... I love watching them!

And to end ... a few quotes from my new favorite farmer Joel Salatin ...

"A farm regulated to production of raw commodities is not a farm at all. It is a temporary blip until the land is used up, the water polluted, the neighbors nauseated, and the air unbreathable. The farmhouse, the concrete, the machinery, and outbuildings become relics of a bygone vibrancy when another family farm moves to the city financial centers for relief."
- Joel Salatin (Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal)

"You as a food buyer have the distinct privilege of proactively participating in shaping the world your children will inherit"
-Joel Salatin (Holy Cows and Dog Heaven: The Food Buyers Guide to Farm Friendly Food)

I've missed blogging!!

Happy Beginning of the Work Week!

--Giveaway reminder: ends Friday at 3:00--

So thus far, I'm really enjoying my more frequent blogging again ... I've really missed it!! And it's inspiring me to want to cook more, ha. We've been having boring food lately, so hopefully that can change!

My week has thus far has been seemingly productive and good. But first some more of yesterday: After church we went over to my mother-in-laws and had salads filled with fresh fruits and veggies and sat outside on the warm deck looking at a pond and beautiful green grass. Ahhh! It was nice. (ha, until it go too hot and we started burning)

And here are the two loafs of banana walnut chocolate bread I baked yesterday. Same recipe as last week, as they were requested to be made again ; )

(note about high gi foods/processed foods like flour: you might think it's my husband who wants me to make this bread again, but in actually, he only took one little bite last week because he's a nice husband and I was saying how good it was and wanted him to try it. He really rarely eats anything like this, in this instance because of the flour; i.e. since flour is so broken down/processed, even though it is whole wheat, it has a fairly high gi and will digest fast, spiking your insulin and causing more of what you're eating to store as fat. And now because of him, I rarely eat any high gi foods myself. Ha, he's an extremely clean eater, but I think that's good for me! I think it's the bodybuilder in him shining through.) I followed Kath's recipe with some minor changes:
-instead of milk, I used almond milk
-instead of honey I used light agave nectar aaaand
-instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used half of a chopped up 74% cacao chocolate bar.
-and I added a handful of raisins
Yum! They sadly didn't raise as much as they should have, I think I used too much flour on accident. Buuut I was sure to try one and they still tasted good.

A group from my church planted a community garden in a field right by our church, so when leaving church yesterday, I picked up a huge zucchini from their surplus veggies and my MIL gave me some tomatoes while we were at her house. So tonight when thinking what to do for dinner, I thought hmmm, I'll use my zucchini and tomatoes! Any guesses on what I made??? You'll have to find out tomorrow because it's in the oven ; ) Though if you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know.

I'm lovin' the looks for this banana soft serve that everyone has been making lately and I put some bananas in the freezer tonight so I can make some tomorrow. (Andrea, of Off Her Cork advised me to make sure they are super frozen ... thanks for the advice!)

Well, that's about all for me tonight ... how was your Monday??

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing."
-Mother Teresa-

KC Juice, Food Inc, and Whole Foods

Okay, so you know I'm pretty much going to be reminding you of this all week, so here it is again .... don't forget to enter my giveaway before Friday at 3 p.m. Central Time and spread the word!! : ) (Here's what's up for grabs ... so hurry, go click on the link and enter!)
Aaaaanyways ... Hello!! I just love sitting down on a comfy couch with my laptop after cleaning the house, eating dinner, making a bunch of rice for the week, getting lunches ready for tomorrow, etc. Ahhh ... it feels good to have everything in order before another work week begins.
Erik and I had a wonderful weekend. This past week was pretty hectic with Erik's dad in and out of the hospital, us not really knowing what was going on, etc etc. Erik was especially worn out from it all, emotionally and physically. His week pretty much consisted of getting up at 4:45 or 4, going to work, going to the hospital or his dad's after work, coming home, eating dinner, then going to bed, repeat. Then he was scheduled to work this Saturday buuuuut our friend Delmar was nice enough to work for him. THANK YOU, DELMAR!!! There is a loaf of banana walnut chocolate bread in the oven for Delmar right now : ) Anyways, it was a MUCH needed break for Erik.

So, Saturday evening we had a date and went to KC. We were going to go to the Raw Bliss Fest, as I talked about in my previous post, buuuut we didn't have time. So instead, we went to KC Juice. I love that place! They even had wheat grass for sale (sorry I didn't get a better picture, but you can see it on the counter to the left). And like a dummy, I didn't think to get wheat grass in my smoothie until after I had ordered it. After KC Juice, we were off to see Food, Inc. Wow, that's pretty much a whole 'nother post in itself but it was extremely informative and a really good film! (More to come later). Then we went to Whole Foods to get some eats ... and what's better place to eat than Whole Foods especially after watching Food, Inc?? (But as Ashley posted out via Twitter, what better place is there to eat than Whole Foods anytime, not just after Food, Inc? Ha, good point, Ashley ; ) When eating at Whole Foods, I always literally want everything, so I tend to get a little bit of everything I do get and I tend to pile my plate pretty full ... hey, I don't get to eat there very often, who could blame a girl??

While inside of Whole Foods, there was an Amazing Grass spotting! Ha, I was pretty excited about that!! (excuse their mess ... they probably couldn't help it because everyone was busy wanting some Amazing Grass;) Then on the way home we snacked on some Dagoba organic dark chocolate.74% cacao with chilies and cacao nibs in it (the nibs were really small). It was pretty tasty. I'm a big fan of dark chocolate. I would have preferred regular 74% (or more) cacao, but Erik was really wanting those chilies. Ha, and since I'm such a good wife I obliged ; ) Anyways, that was our very refreshing Saturday (all thanks to Delmar working for Erik ... thanks again, again, Delmar! ; ) More to come about Food, Inc later as well as my Nature's Path products review.

So how was your weekend?? Can anyone else hardly believe there's only one more week of July left?? Crazy!

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
-Marth Washington-

Kansas City, Kansas City Here We Come (Maybe) ...

Happy Weekend : )

Before I say anything else .... don't forget to enter my giveaway!

So I've seen some of you with the new Lara flavors recently and the PB&J sounds especially wonderful!! Larabar, if you'd like me to try them, too ... I won't mind! (hint, hint :)

Just thought I'd stop in and say "HEY". Thus far our weekend has been pretty good. I woke up and jumped on the treadmill for 30 minutes. I took it kinda easy today and just walked on incline. Next up ... my favorite combo of oats. I then lounged around a bit and had some tea. (Though that isn't the actual tea I drank, you can use your imagination ... it's the only picture I had of tea and blogs are more interesting with pictures ; )

Next up, Erik and I worked out by doing chest today. I reached my person best thus far by benching 85lbs. for 2 reps. I was proud of myself ... I've come a long way when it used to be hard to even get a set of 12 with just the bar! ha.

Now Erik is over at his dad's helping him get some thing situated in his house and running some errands for him.

Depending on how long Erik is gone, we're tentatively planning on going to Food, Inc this evening as well as stopping by Raw Bliss Fest '09 on the way to KC. I'm not really sure what it is, other than I got a Facebook invite to it and it says it's a "conscious lifestyle celebration" and there's a list of vendors going to be there including Whole Foods. Now just from the name, the description, and the vendors, I'm pretty sure I'd love checking it out! But we'll see if we have time. If we go, you know I'll give a full report that includes pictures! ; ) If not, I'd settle for watching Future of Food on Hulu tonight. I love food documentaries!! My friend Andrea was tweeting with me last night about some she has watched.

And that's it for me ... I'll be back! ; ) Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years."
-Bertrand Russell-

Giveaway Time!!

Hey all!

I'm excited ... it's giveaway time! : ) But first, how was your week? Mine went by fast, but it was kinda hard. I'm glad it's Friday. Our evening will likely include a movie or TV and this (among other ingredients, of course) ... we haven't had penne or any pasta in quite some time so I'm kind of excited! ha. And I suppose I might as well just cut right to the chase and show you the goods. I meant to have a giveaway in commemoration of my 100th post, as seems customary for 100th posts, ha, buuuut I never got around to it! As you all know, I lost my blogging momentum for a couple months and I'm going to try to pick it back up again ; ) so I thought .... what better time for a giveaway that should have happened long ago?

Aaaaanyways, the nice folks at Nature's Path sent me some products last week to try out, which included three boxes of some of their newest cereal. So, I wanted to share two of those boxes with you all also and am including them in my giveaway (along with one of their Weil Goji Moji bars ... mmm!) And don't worry, I saved a box of the cereal for myself ; )

So .... here is the loot of my long overdue Livin' Life Giveaway! (I couldn't come up with a better name for that??) It includes:

• Two above mentioned Nature's Path cereals;Vanilla Almond Flax Plus Granola & Whole O's
• 1 Nature's Path Goji Moji Weil bar
• 1 Cocoa Mole Larabar
• 1 Pomegranate Mango Infusion Amazing Grass Amazing Meal
• The Summer Collector's Edition of Oxygen Magazine
• Brian Zahnd's recently released book, What To Do on the Worst Day of Your Life (I talk about that here, in case you missed that post)
• Aaaaand tons of random kinds of tea including, but not limited to Tazo Calm and Newman's Own black tea

And there you have it, folks! I'll keep this pretty simple, so you all know the drill!!

For one entry, leave a comment on this post telling me what you would most want out of this giveaway (or you don't even have to mention the giveaway, ha, you can pick; ) If you don't have a blog, you can just leave a comment under "anonymous" (as long as you tell me your name in the comment : )

And of course you can get one more entry for each of these: subscribe to my blog, follow me on Twitter, oooor link this giveaway to your blog. Just don't forget to let me know what you have done so I can be sure to get all your entries in.

My Livin' Life Giveaway will be open until next Friday (the 31st) at 3:30p.m. Central Time. Good luck ; )

"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved ... "
-George Sand-

Treadmill, TweetDeck, Impending Giveaway

Happy almost weekend! (it's close enough, right?)

Just thought I would stop in with some randomness from this week. First off, thank you for your prayers and thoughts for Erik's dad. They're pretty sure they know what is wrong and the good new is, so far they've said it's pretty treatable. Though there's been problems with the hospital and everyone in it acting like they don't care about what's going on (I won't even get into all of that because I would probably type a spiel about it that would last awhile ... needless to say it's been VERY frustrating). Anyways, thanks you and you can keep him in your prayers ; )

I finished of the bread I made this weekend (and gave some of it away so I wouldn't eat it all!)And I'm representing the FedEx pen my mom gave me ... ha, she's a FedEx courier.

I have a new favorite treadmill workout that I'm currently loving! Therefore, I'd like to share it with you ... try it and tell me what you think of it! I got it out of the summer collector's edition of Oxygen Magazine (one of my favorites). Here goes:

Interval Jog/Sprint Workout
Time in Minutes/Speed
0-5 at 3.0
5-10 at 5.0
10-11 at 5.5
11-13 at 4.5
13-14 at 6.0
14-16 at 4.5
16-17 at 7.0
17-19 at 4.5
19-20 at 7.0
20-22 at 4.5
22-23 at 8.0
23-25 at 4.5
25-30 at 5.5
30:00-30:30 at 8.0-9.0
30:30-31:00 / rest
31-25* at 8.0-9.0/rest
*Repeat minutes 30-31 4 more times
35-40 at 3.0

I've been alternating that and walking on incline every other morning for my cardio and I love it. Then around 4-5 days of the week I do strength training after work and I love that too! Ha, it's amazing to me that the more I workout the more I really do love it! Anyone know what I'm talking about here??

After lifting today (I did legs ... it's the hardest but it feels good to have done it), it was time to make dinner and pack lunches for tomorrow. We had turkey burgers, veggies, and white sweet potato chips (note to self: "chips" are much less annoying to chop than "fries"!) I had my burger sans bread due to plenty of carbs for the night in the sweet potatoes. As always, I made extra to make lunches out of. Lunch tomorrow will be the same thing as dinner all put together with the burger chopped up, minus sweet potato fries, plus brown rice with tomato sauce on top.

I've been really enjoying my tweeting lately, too, and via Angela's tweets I discovered TweetDeck shortly after her and must agree, it's very handy!! (Ha, lots of links there ... and one more ... don't forget to follow me ; ) Twitter is fun, if you don't have it yet you should consider getting it!

Also, I'd like to start blogging a little more frequently again because I feel like I have a little bit more free time then I have had lately and I'm planning on a giveaway very soon, so be looking for one! (I said I was going to have one long ago on my 100th post but never did :s, that's right when I started to get really busy, ha ... but this time I'm not lying! ; )

And last but not least, the quote for the end of the post as always. I read this on my iGoogle at work today and thought it was funny.

"Be careful about reading heath books. You might die of a misprint"
-Mark Twain-

**Has anyone ever heard of Raw Bliss Fest in Kansas City or ever gone to it before in the past? It's this Saturday and I would love to go but just don't think it's going to happen. Just curious.

Thank You For Your Prayers

Hope your weekend has been a little more bright and cheery than ours.

It's been one of those weekends that no one would have planned nor wanted to turn out the way it has buuuut, what can you do? Erik's dad was admitted into the hospital on Friday evening and is still currently there. We don't know for sure what's wrong yet so there's not much more to say about that but we're staying positive!! I'm so grateful, especially in times like these, that there is always hope in God. Anyways, if you could say a prayer for him, we would greatly appreciate it!

His dad is a pretty clean and healthy eater himself and hasn't been too keen about the hospital food yet (but then again, I guess who is??). Somehow a joke came up about how he wanted meatloaf when a nurse was asking him what he wanted and he jokingly told Erik that he'll have to get me to make some. So .... guess what I made tonight? Ha, we had turkey meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes (roasted red potatoes for him), cauliflower, and banana, walnut, and chocolate bread. After we ate dinner Erik packed up some food to bring to his dad. Here's my plate: Even though those don't look like sweet potatoes, they are! The grocery store only had white sweet potatoes so I got some and they were really good. The taste, to me, was similar to regular sweet potatoes but maybe not as sweet. I seasoned the mashed potatoes with garlic powder, pepper, sea salt, and Original Light Laughing Cow cheese. Yum!! Has anyone else ever tried light sweet potatoes?? The banana, walnut, chocolate bread was inspired by Kath's recipe. I thought it turned out pretty tasty, which is why I finished my dinner with a slice of it along with some almond milk. Switching over to fitness, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to buying fitness magazines. Ha, I'm sure I'd save us money if I just subscribed to the ones I really like but I seen to have a bad habit of seeing a new fitness magazine as I checkout at the store and throwing it in my cart. Today when picking up some stuff for dinner I grabbed a copy of Kansas City Fitness. I haven't ever gotten this one before but I noticed they had a restaurant stoplight on Eden Alley Cafe, which is where Erik and I ate dinner on Valentine's Day, so I figured I'd give this issue a try. There's a lot I don't like about fitness magazines (aka ads for supplements, bars, etc, that really aren't healthy or good for you at all), however certain articles and workouts really motivate and help me when working out so that is why I continue to purchase them.

That's about all I have to say for now. Don't forget to find me on Twitter if you haven't already ... I still need more friends to tweet with : )

And here's a sneak preview of a review I will be doing soon: Anyways ... thanks for the prayers for Erik's dad and hope the rest of your weekend and beginning of the new week goes well!

"Hope is passion for what is possible."
-- Soren Kierkegaard.

Tweeting, Swinging, Lots of Green

Hola, how goes it??

First off ... I'm now tweeting and I need some more people to follow, so find me here:)

Before I continue, my pictures seem to have an unintentional theme of green .... and I like that! ;)

Hopefully the weekend has treated you well. It's been a bit crazy for us, but I won't get into that at the moment. First off ... Erik and I before we went to see 17 Again at our $2.00 movie theater. (It plays slightly older movies a little before they come out on DVD but after they are first released into theaters. Not the mention the theater feels a bit dirty (aka sticky chair arms/doors), buuuuut it's only $2.00!) (please excuse Erik's slightly weird smile that he probably won't like the looks of ; )

In other news, I have consumed a lot of fruit this weekend. We got a huge honey dew melon at Sam's yesterday and then we stopped at my mother-in-law's house and she gave us some peaches, apricots and fuji apples ... yum!! Here is some of the honey dew I consumed with cottage cheese and some walnuts (aka delicious combo!) At some point on Saturday, Erik walked out the front door randomly with a mischievous look on his face so I went out a few minutes later to see what he was up to. Here is how I found him: Ha, there is a random swing hanging from the tree in our front yard (which also happens to be right next to a moderately high traffic street). We don't ever swing on it because it's kind of crooked and quite uncomfortable, plus I'm not sure if it's technically on our property line or our neighbors. None the less, it was quite funny to watch all the cars go by and stare at us which Erik was swinging away and I snapped pictures. That's one of the many reasons I love him ... things like that, haha.

And this morning we started out with a lazy couple of hours, got ready for church and then went to church. (I snapped a picture of our bulletin aka announcement brochure aka whatever you want to call it because I liked the very summery picture on front). And now, here I am at my computer. Erik had to run into work for a few hours to get things ready for a big luncheon he has to put on tomorrow and I'm trying to motivate myself to be productive! Before he left we watched TV for awhile (something we hardly ever do) and it has left me feeling sleepy. So ... I decided to drink a little something green ... ... or maybe a lot of something green, ha.

By the way, who all has seen Food, Inc so far? Erik and I allllmost went to see it today but it's about an hour drive to where it's actually playing and we really didn't have time.

Anyways ... I'm out! ; ) Don't forget to go find me tweeting!

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself"
-Albert Einstein-

Oats, Weights, and Beauty

It's the weekend! Hooray!

How was your Friday?? Mine was good. I woke up at 4 as I've done all week (Erik had to go into work at 5 all week so I got up with him). Upon waking up and dragging myself out of bed ... (4:00 on a Friday ... dragging yourself is necessary, ha!) I put on some workout clothes and hit the treadmill. I walked 40 minutes on incline at around 3.8. I like to walk at least 4.0 most of the time and try to push myself really hard but this morning, I wasn't feelin' it so I stuck with a steady 3.8 and still had a great workout in which I was sweating a ton! That always makes a workout feel good.

After changing and getting all ready for work, I had breakfast. I ate my new favorite oats combo. Heaping 1/3 cup dry old fashioned oats mixed with some cinnamon, frozen tart cherries from my mom's cherry tree, a small dollop of peanut butter, 2 packets of Truvia, and a splash of almond milk. YUM! The tartness of the warm cherries and peanut butter compliment the oats extremely well! (Separate from that I had 1 whole egg and two egg whites scrambled).

Work was pretty much normal, just work. It was Friday so we got to wear jeans and that's always nice. After work, the husband and I chilled for a little bit and I had a piece of toasted sprouted bread with pb and half a banana along with some tea to energize myself a bit before lifting. Tonight I worked my shoulders by doing:

-4 sets of 15 reps shoulder presses; 15 lb dumbbells for 2 and 20 lb dumbbells for two
-4 sets of front raises til failure; 2 with 10 lbs dumbbells and 2 with 5 lbs.
-4 sets lateral raises til failure; 5 lb dumbbells (side note: front raises and lateral raises are hard and they burn!! ha. at first i just wasn't feeling the burn but my trainer, the hubby, gave me some tips that of course made them harder since i was doing them a little wrong ... something that really helped was to keep my head down)
-4 sets of 15 reps shoulder shrugs holding shrug for 10-15 seconds every five reps; 15 lb dumbbells

And now I'm drinking my post workout shake in my Amazing Grass cup ... it makes lifting all worth it I tell you! haha. And a random picture for the road ... Erik thought it would be funny to put his shirt on Adrian (and it was!) Ha. She really didn't even care, but just walked around and played with Rocky like normal. And to end, a little tidbit on true beauty that I read last night:

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them."

-matthew 6:27-29; message bible-


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, FRIENDS!!! : )

Nebraska, Fresh Fruit and Veggies, Summer

Hello bloggie friends, "real life" friends and brother Delmar (ha;)!

Well, this weekend the hubby and I went to good ole southwest Nebraska to visit my family. After driving six hours through a torrential downpour, including ferocious looking green clouds with a little bit of hail, we made it! (Gotta love those KS/NE thunderstorms).

My mom is pretty much the best gardener I know and it was fun seeing her prosperous garden and all her beautiful flowers and cherry tree. We came home with a cooler that included four dozen farm fresh eggs, some freshly picked and pitted (thanks to my mom and her cherry tree) cherries, frozen sliced peaches, picked frozen blackberries, and frozen corn. (Did I mention that I love good old Nebraska-picked, cut-right-off-the-ear-of-corn-into-a-bag-and-put-in-the-freezer corn?? Because I do! It's way better than any corn you can buy at the store). Anyways ... here's some weekend-at-NE recap pictures. First off, my mom's garden full of wonderful veggies. Freshly picked beets, yellow zucchini squash, red potatoes, cucumbers, an onion, and kohlrabi. (Does anyone else love kohlrabi?? My mom and I were talking about how not many people seem to know what it is, but we love it!) On Saturday night, we had fresh veggies and meat cooked on the Traeger grill (I had salmon and it was tasty). My sissy and I played cards. There were a lot of animals around! First off, my parents cat and dog, Wilber and Harley. Then, my sister's dogs, Charlee and Norm and finally our dogs, Rocky and Adrian. It makes for an amusing time.

Rocky Adrian Big Norm, little Charlee and Harley in the back And finally Wilber (Thanks, Mom, for the pictures I stole from you off of Facebook ; )

The weekend went by fast and here were are in the middle of another week! But flying by or not ... isn't summer great?? ; )

(Note: my promised fitness/water post is still on it's way!) Hope you are are enjoying your summer and indulging in fresh fruit, veggies, and wonderful weather : )

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. --Martin Luther