13 - 31 updated

1. Visit Anna and Jimmy in WI

2. Finish landscaping around back deck and walkway

3. Take a trip outside of NC
(Las Vegas trip booked)

4. Clean and organize upstairs closet
(Completed with the hubs help on 12/19/2010)

5. Run in five 5-Ks or races
Jingle Bell Run 5K - 12/4/2010 - Completed
Krispy Kreme Challenge (4 miles) - 2/5/2011

6. Make Bee's mac and cheese
(Completed 12/12/2010)

7. Run a 5K in less than 30-minutes

8. Clean out personal email inbox
(Completed 11/28/2010, went from 462 to 49 emails)

9. Go to a comedy club

10. Go camping

11. Read six books or one book every other month.
Fast Women - Read November 2010
Crazy for You - Read January 2011

Saving Sprite - Read January 2011

Hissy Fit - in progress

12. Make a new recipe once a month.
Chicken, Cashews and Broccoli - November 2010
Butterscotch Pumpkin Blondies - December 2010

Crock Pot Swiss Chicken - January 2011

13. Re-d0 Guest Bedroom

13 - 31

About halfway to my 30th birthday, I heard of people doing "Thirty Things to Do Before Turning 30." Now in my 31st year, I decided to do "Thirty-One Things Before Thirty-One," however, I couldn't exactly come with my thirty-one things. My solution... "Thirteen Things Before Thirty-One." Makes sense, right? One, Three (13)! Three, One (31)! And to some, it's actually Lucky Number 13.

Here's the list and what I've completed so far.

1. Visit Anna and Jimmy in WI

2. Finish landscaping around back deck and walkway

3. Take a trip outside of NC
(Las Vegas trip booked)

4. Clean and organize upstairs closet
(Completed with the hubs help on 12/19/2010)

5. Run in five 5-Ks or races
Jingle Bell Run 5K - 12/4/2010 - Completed
Krispy Kreme Challenge (4 miles) - 2/5/2011

6. Make Bee's mac and cheese
(Completed 12/12/2010)

7. Run a 5K in less than 30-minutes

8. Clean out personal email inbox
(Completed 11/28/2010, went from 462 to 49 emails)

9. Go to a comedy club

10. Go camping

11. Read six books or one book every other month.
Fast Women - Read November 2010
Crazy for You - in progress

12. Make a new recipe once a month.
Chicken, Cashews and Broccoli - November 2010
Butterscotch Pumpkin Blondies - December 2010

13. Re-d0 Guest Bedroom

December 21, 2010: Note to self... What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

So.....

I signed up for the Krispy Kreme Challenge. What is this you asked? Well, you run 2-miles from NC State's Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme in downtown Raleigh. Then you proceed to eat 1-dozen donuts and run the 2 miles back... all within 1-hour and without up-chucking.

Crazy - yes! However, I've made a slight modification. Instead of eating my donuts, I'm going to pass them along to the hubs who will be standing on the sidelines. Instead of tasting my donuts along Hillsborough Street (and probably again as I'm running back), I can enjoy them in my own home (or car if I'm hungry enough on the way home.)

December 17, 2010... Note to self: Run more! Eat less!

What have you missed?

1. The hubs came home.
2. Hubs and I had birthdays.
3. Took some vacations - Kentucky, Beach and Scotland

Guess who's back?

Guess who's back? Back again. Guess who's back? Tell a friend.

Note to self: Take 2.

Another Verdict!

So drinking more water starting in February was.... so-so. I did drink more water, but still not what I should be drinking.

Now to March: Pedometer time. I starting using my pedometer last week and averaged between 6,000 and 7,000 steps a day. The challenge is to walk 10,000 steps a day or 70,000 per week.

To be continued...

February 28, 2010: Note to self: Drink more water!

Bruno playing in the snow

SNOW

The Verdict!

I survived two weeks of no sugar. On the 15th day, I had a brownie, which wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be so perhaps the two-week detox worked.

On to February --> Drink more water.

January 28, 2010... Note to self: Keep looking for pedometers.

New Year's Resolutions

So instead of having one resolution that would have been put in place on January 1, 2010 that will probably last all of three-weeks, this year I decided to do monthly resolutions that will hopefully turn into lifestyle reality. Not sure what each month will be at this point, but so far so good.

For January, I decided to work out at least four times a week and eat less sugar (cookies, cake, brownies). A coworker, who is a fitness buff, suggested that I go through a two-week sugar detox. He had done this previously and it worked for him so why not. Today marks day 12, only two days to go.

For February, I'm going to drink more water. Currently, I don't drink nearly enough.

For March, I'm going to start taking at least 10,000 steps a day, but before that buy a pedometer.

April - December - to be determined.

Some of these will include more date nights, saving more, and taking vitamins.

January 16, 2010... Note to self: Research pedometers.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So this year with Keith being able to come home, I decided to put up the tree, with the help of mom and dad, and decorate Bruno in the process.



December 5, 2009... Note to self: Stay away from Walmart during the holidays.

Thanksgiving

Here are a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving this year.

Mom, Dad, Gene and Bee


Bee


Mom and Gene


Cooking with Jim, Mom, Dad and Bee

Bruno's Signature Look

One ear up, one ear down.


December 4, 2009... Note to self: Ask Santa for some coordination for Christmas.

A different take on meatballs

Florentine Meatballs
(adapted from Rachel Ray)


Here's what you'll need:
1 box frozen spinach
1 1/3 lb ground turkey
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parm cheese
3/4 cup bread crumbs (I used Panko)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Here's how to make:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Defrosted spinach and ring out water.
Place turkey in a bowl and make a well in the middle of it.
Add the spinach, garlic powder, egg, milk, bread crumbs, Parm cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well and form into 12 large balls.
Place on a non-stick cookie sheet & drizzle with virgin olive oil.
Cook for 20 min in the oven until cooked through.

I topped them off with a little marinara sauce. Next time, I'm going to try Italian breadcrumbs. These seemed to be missing something. The recipe did call for onion, but we all know my aversion to those.

November 15, 2009... Note to self: Eating three meatballs is one too many!

A Poem

Roses are red
That one flower below is blue
Keefy got me flowers
But, sorry, he got none for you! :)


November 12, 2009... Note to self: The pumpkin spice lattes from Dunkin Donuts are might tasty, but apparently they contain espresso.

P-U-M-P-K-I-N

What's one of the best things about Fall? PUMPKIN! Of course you could have pumpkin year-round, but it's just not the same. It has a different feel in the fall. Sort of like watermelon in the summer, strawberries in the spring or hot chocolate in the winter.


Pumpkin Bread

Here's what you'll need:
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup veg. oil
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3 1/2 cups self rising flour
2/3 cups water

Here's how to make:
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. After you're done mixing, make a hole/well and pour in the liquids. Mix. Grease and flour 3 loaf pans or one tub pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one-hour.

Enjoy! This is compliments of mom.

November 11, 2009... Note to self: when it's pouring rain and you're trying to make a smooth transaction into your vehicle with your arms full... be careful! You may hit your head on the door frame. Ouch!

November 3 at 2:30 p.m.

This is the date and time I'm working towards. On November 3, we have our last big event for the year and hopefully after that, I'll be better at updating the blog. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from when Anna and Jimmy came to NC.

This is my war face.

We had girl's night at mom and dad's.

Anna and Me. I've had a couple of people say that we look just a like in this picture. I don't see it.

October 20, 2009... Note to self: Turn on the heat before the house reaches 63 degrees. That's way to cold.

Do you see what I see?

As I was watering my tomatoes tonight, I found a new friend. Do you see him?


Meet Frank!


September 4, 2009... Note to self: When the doc said to drink more fluids, I don't think she meant wine.

Madison, WI

So I didn’t fly for the first 28 years of my life, but I’ve flown three times in the last year with the more recent being a short visit to Wisconsin to visit Anna and Jimmy. And two of those, I’ve been solo… Go Me!

I got up at 3:45 am (yes, you read that correctly). I was at the airport by 5:15 am and on the plane by 6:15 am. My “brave hat” was on, but not nearly as tight this time. And by 11-ish, I was in Wisconsin.

Although many people associate Wisconsin and cheese, this time I associated Wisconsin for the cherries. I had cherry ice cream, cherry soda, cherries (both tart and sweet), and was slightly tempted by a pork tenderloin with a cherry reduction for dinner one night. (Note: no cherry pepto was needed).

Here’s a short recap of the trip:

Walked around Madison

Hiked around Devil’s Lake

Visited a Zoo

Rode on a Duck

Ate cherries

August 27, 2009… Note to self: Going to Walmart is almost never a fun experience.

So what have I been up to...

Over the past several weeks....

I've been to the beach.


Worked.



Saw The Proposal.... too funny!


Saw Julie and Julia.... good, but have lingering questions.


August 16, 2009... Note to self: Step away from the chocolate!