New fiance, new internship, new job and a new blog

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  This has been a very exciting December for me and it's not even over!  The last week of work December 13-19th was just packed full of fun.

Monday the 13th- Bruce met with my father to ask for my hand in marriage (well kinda he asked for his blessing).  And of course my daddy said yes cause everyone loves Bruce.  I was so excited but then had to play the serious waiting game because he had the ring, he asked my father so now all he really had to do was propose.

Tuesday the 14th- I met with my internship advisor at the Cafe College downtown. It's a P-20 initiative to get students from middle school, high school and adult learners through college and beyond.  It's a super cute building on a weird side of town, so it kinda sticks out and you can see it from the high way.  But the inside is nice and cute and bright and friendly.  I will be doing 150 hours there helping future students apply for college, fill out Financial Aid packets, pick colleges and plan.  It sounds exciting.

Tuesday night we had plans to hangout with some friends and karaoke.  We went out to dinner and karaoked at the place we met so I totally wanted him to propose there but alas he had other plans.

Tuesday was also the first day of #ringwatch

Wednesday the 15th- Was a regular day at work but it was frustrating cause I was waiting to hear back about a job for UTSA and Grades and my ring.  So these three very important things I was waiting for and it just felt like none of them were ever going to get here.  I was also trying to wrap up work stuff before the break.  I emailed the lady from UTSA about the job and she said she was still waiting to hear from HR, I checked the UTSA grade page like every hour and nothing, and then it was time to go to the Braniff Christmas Happy Hour.

And very luckily!

I totally wasn't expecting it to happen there but soooo glad it did!

After happy hour we went and Karaoked the night away at Legends Sports bar!

Thurday December 16th- Nothing too terribly exciting happened this day but I did get to show off my beautiful ring to all my work friends and then created a new blog to start sharing about that journey.  Tyler Getting Married

Friday the 17th- At about 9 AM I got a call from a UTSA number I was sooo excited and ran out of the office, only to have it be another interview for a different job I'd applied for at UTSA.  Back to the office to wait.  I kept checking for my grades and nada.  Around 10AM I got another UTSA call and was a little slower to run out of the office but this was the call I'd been waiting for!  UTSA was offering me the job as Program Coordinator in their University Center.  So excited!  And so totally scared!  First they wanted me to start right away but I couldn't cause I needed to give SAC 2 weeks.  I called my mom, Bruce and Deirdre to try to figure out how to negotiate some of the finer points like my cruise and school and salary.  Friday was only a half day at SAC so I was already running around like crazy to finish everything that needed to be finished but adding this to that day made it seem even more rushed.

At five o'clock I checked for my grades again at UTSA and still zip.

Then we added two Christmas parties to this list and the day just would not end!  First we went to the office Christmas party at Mr. Posadas' house and I was able to share with everyone my good but sad news.  I spent most of the afternoon crying and stressing about leaving SAC and how I was going to get everything done in two weeks when we got back.  After that party we went to my dad's where we knew absolutely no one!

By Saturday the 18th we were wiped out.  It felt like it'd just been a week of celebrating which is good when you're newly engaged.  But we were just drained.  Finally around noon on Saturday I was able to see my grades.  I passed yay! One more semester!  Bruce got off late Saturday night from work and so we decided to do some light Christmas shopping, dinner and call it a night.

Sunday the 20th- Another Christmas party and more Karaoke!  It was the ToneDeaf Christmas Party at Oak Hill Tavern and it was a blast.  We got to sing which always makes us happy and got to see a lot of the karaoke people we didn't see Wednesday night to share our engagement with.  

It was a busy busy week and if only this week had been calmer.  But last week was perfect cause I got everything I wanted my grades, my job and my wonderful fiance Bruce.  

Merry Christmas!

New Blog!

I'm getting married and I have a new blog to prove it! Check it out!

http://tylergettingmarried.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-15th-2010.html

The First Year with my nook

Yah if you don't know what a nook is that might sound not right...nook (mine is the first generation on the right).  January 31st 2010 I got my nook.  I was so excited I'd been wanting one since the previous November and finally got it for myself.  The reasoning behind me getting an electronic reader was that I am a weird book reader.  I usually have a book in my purse, a book in my car, a book in my desk, a book in the living room and a book by my bedside, Bruce can totally attest to this.  I am usually reading 6 or more books at once- I like to have a fiction option, non-fiction, bio, short stories or sci-fi to chose from at all times.  That's a lot of books to carry around so an e-reader just seemed like the logical choice.  I went with the Barnes and Noble one because B&N is my FAVE bookstore, and I really only buy books online when they're textbooks so the Kindle didn't really interest me.  But to each their own...

I raced home from La Cantera, opened my nook, turned it on and waited for the magic to happen!  Pride and Prejudice, Little Women and Dracula were already loaded onto the nook under the "Barnes and Noble Classics Series" heading.  Then there were a lot of free books you could chose from.

The books I read this year on my nook from Barnes and Noble were (in order):
Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea
Accidental Billionaires (book The Social Network was based off of)
A Little Bit Wicked (Kristen Chenoweth bio)
It Sucked and Then I Cried (dooce  book)
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
Eclipse (yes I own the hard backs, what's your point? needed to reread it before the movie)
Breaking Dawn (no good excuse really, I think I was bored in an airport)
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro- READ THIS)
Shit My Dad Says
The Toaster Broke So We're Getting Married (might have been a free book or maybe I just liked the title)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Hunger Games (READ these too! So good- thanks Taylor)
Catching Fire (I loved them so much I read then in August and again in October)
Mockingjay (They're that good!)
My Horizontal Life
I Love, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti

Wow looking back on the year it looks like I was really into bubble-gum books.  In my defense I didn't really want to read heavy stuff while on the cruise in Greece...The Chelsea Handler books were hilarious so I had to read all of them.  I did take some flack for downloading books I already owned, but my nook fits so much better in my purse than a 450 page hardback book and if I get tired of one book I can so easily switch to another!

Another great thing about the nook is you can download countless classics from Project Gutenberg its this huge archive of books in different digital formats.  I downloaded the entire James Joyce library for free!!! I haven't explored the Gutenberg press as much as I could but there are tons of great books in there for free that I hope to get next year.  My nook also has the internet and games and the ability to be an mp3 player but I really just use it for books and the occasional Sudoku game.

Now my nook didn't take the place of paperback books for me at all I still read real books.  In the Spring I was making my way through all of Alain de Botton's books, on Valentine's I always reread his "On Love".  Almost ever summer I reread an Orson Scott Card series, this year I reread both Ender series with the new edition Ender in Exile.  So my nook wont replace all the books on my shelves its just a nice portable library I can take wherever I go and one that can constantly grow.

The Broad-Way

My earliest memories of exposure to Broadway is dancing around the living room to the Cats soundtrack.  I would sing along and dance around the couch and coffee table in my pajamas- I don't really dance anymore but if Broadway is on I'm most likely singing to it.  The On Broadway station on Sirius XM is either the greatest thing or the worst thing ever invented.  I love it because I get to listen to Broadway whenever I'm in my car!  I hate it because it makes me miss it, I miss singing and dancing...

I guess it never really leaves you- I've always loved Broadway music because of the passion behind the music- it's all about the subtext regular music doesn't have it...or at least not to me.  Cats was probably the first show I saw in a theatre, followed by Chorusline, Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar.  JCS is still one of my favorite musicals ever but the other three I'll see if I can  but I don't really actively search them out.  I'd drive to Houston if there was a production of JCS that I really wanted to see.  Growing up my grandma used to buy season tickets to the Majestic and I always got to pick what shows I wanted to see.  I saw dozens of shows with her and thats what really sparked my love for the theatre.  I remember going to church with Mimi so we could go right afterwards to the Sunday matinee shows, I'd get all dressed up and sit at the edge of my seat for every note.

The first musical I was ever in was The Sound of Music and it will forever be on that list of faves because it's just so beautiful.  Is there a prettier countryside waltz than Edelweiss?  I remember on opening night my dad brought me the collectors edition VHS, apparently its one of his favorite musicals too.  In high school I was usually just ensemble which is totally fine with me because to me it was so less stressful and so much fun.  The musicals we did at NESA though were more of the popular shows or shows with lots of dancing, things people wanted to see to feel good, not really the serious shows that I now am obsessed with.  In school my friend Katie used to burn me CDs of shows she really loved and eventually I came to love them too.  She introduced me to Jason Robert Brown which lead me to the plethora of musicals that are just truly heartbreaking.

The classics fall into another category, they usually end happily but have their moments where they are tear jerkers- Funny Girl is probably my favorite movie musical and the song Funny Girls always makes me cry then My Man makes me bawl.  If I could find The Sound of Music on DVD I would buy it, but it is evading my grasp.  Meet Me In St. Louis is wonderful, makes me cry but ends on a happy note. I love Cabaret, my mom bought it for me on VHS when I was sick in high school and I could watch it over and over.

Just about two years ago I took Hail to see Wicked for her Optometry School Graduation gift.  I just sat there in the audience with her and Jenn just crying the whole time.  Pretty much from start to finish I cried, the words just get to me.  My fave song...

There are just some songs from shows that just get me every time, I can just hear the start of it and I'll start getting misty.  I love the happy cheery musicals that are just for fun like Mama Mia and Hairspray- too much fun and I love them and am in the mood for them sometimes.  But give me a musical that pulls at my heartstrings and I'll listen to it a hundred time over and over just to feel that pain.  Does that make me a musical masochist?  Next to Normal, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World just break my heart- 

For Good- Wicked
No One is Alone- Into the Woods
I'm Still Hurting- Last Five Years
Song of Forgetting- Next to Normal
Breathe- In the Heights
Funny Girl- Funny Girl
Kiss Today Goodbye- Chorusline
21 Guns- American Idiot
I'll Cover You (reprise)- Rent
The Winner Takes it All- Mama Mia
Something Good- Sound of Music

I find myself so often wondering if everyone else hears what I hear.  Why am I always the only one driving down the highway listening to Wicked and crying their eyes out?  Why doesn't everyone else leaving the theatre have mascara streaks down their cheeks?  Maybe they're just smarter than me and wear waterproof mascara.  I wonder who I'd be if I wasn't raised surrounded by music.

I have a problem with TV shows...

I don't really think it's a problem, my sister and Bruce might think it's a problem, but I think it's just another reason why spending money on cable is not necessary.  I own a lot of DVDs, I like movies, but I also own a ton of TV shows on DVDs because I can watch certain TV shows over an over.  When TV series end I get really sad because I am definitely one of those people that gets too emotionally involved with their TV shows.

My first major TV on DVD purchase was Ally McBeal, the show ended when I was in high school and I remember watched it over and over on syndication.  Then my junior year of college I found it online, it was close to $200 but I didn't care I needed those DVDs! When I got it I was ecstatic and watched them back to back over a period of a week.  I was kinda disappointed because they were burnt copies, and a couple of them had a few glitches.  It didn't bother me too much though because I was just happy that I had them.  Now the real DVDs are out and I really want to replace my crappy burned copies but I'll be patient for those and get them eventually I'm sure.

I have a couple of complete series- I have all the Sex and the City seasons, all the Gilmore Girls but I got those as they came out.  Every summer when they'd get released on DVD I'd buy them.  Sometimes when I think of all the money I spent on those seasons it does make my head spend a little bit but I get over it when I think of all the fabulous memories the shows bring up.  I remember watching the series finale of Sex and the City with my first college roommate.  I remember watching the 6th season of Gilmore Girls with my friends Liz and Rachel from choir at TLU.  So to me its another investment in my memories.

I have a lot of seasons that I've bought up to date- Weeds, Grey's Anatomy, True Blood, Glee...I am buying these as they come out.  Shows like Lost and Battle Star Galactica I'm working my way back from.  I have some of the seasons but not all of them- so I'm working on it.  The Black Donnellys was just a one season series so of course I have that and then I have a couple of TV movies that are too awesome not to own like The 10th Kingdom and the 1985 versions of Alice in Wonderland.

Last night however I was able to get an entire series for an unbelievably low price at CD Exchange- in fact it was a collectors edition of a series too.  Charmed. Yes THAT Charmed.  The one about the 3 sisters that are witches- with Alyssa Milano and Hollie Marie Combs and eventually Rose McGowan.  I loved that show.  I used to make Haley watch it with me when it was in syndication while my mom cooked dinner and rolled her eyes at us.  But it was so good! I got the entire series last night for like $86 there were 49 discs! So I got $10 off.  It came in this super awesome book case that has cool drawings of the demons they killed.  I was in nerd girl heaven.  Then I Bruce started looking at me like I was crazy and I had to buy him the first season of Batman the animated series as a hush bribe so he'd stop looking at me like I was the crazy girl who just bought the complete 8 season set of Charmed.

That show started when I was in middle school and didn't end till I was in college! It couldn't have been that bad...well maybe parts of it were but still I'm super excited about my purchase.  Looking back at it all spelled out it does look like I might have a small problem, but hey if it keeps me from having to pay for cable I'm all for it.  Why do I need cable when I own a million DVDs and have the internet?

Favorite Memories in my Red Ford Focus

I know I'm probably getting way too emotional about my little red car but I have had some great years in it.  I got my little red Ford Focus the Christmas of my Sophomore year at TLU after I was in a horrible accident in my little silver Ford Focus on Highway 90 outside of Seguin.  The car was totaled but it was the idiot in the F150s fault so I got to get a new car.  Everyone was convinced that the Focus was what saved my life since the paramedics didn't know how I got out of my car seeing how all the doors were pinned shut.  So another Focus it was!

5 1/2 years later the little red Focus has been in one major accident on 1604 on my way to my friend Carrie's wedding.  It was raining and some old lady pulled into my lane and smashed the front passenger side in.  A nice southern fireman came and asked if I needed any help or if I was injured, I stupidely told the truth and said no...and watched him drive away.  I blocked traffic for miles, my dad came and stood with the cops and laughed at me as I paced back and forth on 1604 in my beautiful blue dress and 4 1/2 inch heels on the phone with my insurance company trying to arrange for my rental car.  I had the whole situation totally under control, behind the tears.  About 20 minutes after the accident my sister and her boyfriend at the time (hubby now) passed us pulled over to check out the damage- they too were on the way to a wedding they joined the laughing cop and my father on the side of the road.

The car has been good- no major problems and it can be packed to the gills.  I could get my entire dorm room in that car in one load.  I've moved twice in it- same apartments though.  I drove though a tornado on the way to camp one summer- that car was a trooper! I bought my first set of tires for the car two Christmases ago.  I have changed countless flat tires in high heels while either on  my way to Cowboys or coming home from Cowboys for the car- I have since stopped going to Cowboys.  Then of course there was that time on Christmas Eve when someone backed into my car in the HEB parking lot then drove away.  Luckily at the time I was dating a nice boy who fixed cars and got that all taken care of for me.   Unfortunately the car is not as resilient when it comes to running into partitions on the side of 410, but seriously it came out of nowhere!  So there are a few scratches on the passenger side and one on the front bumper where my brother-in-laws car and mine became close friends one evening when a sleepy teenager fell asleep along a curve in the road.

Besides the few cosmetic improvements I've had done to the car I've also done some maintenance things, I've had the breaks replaced, an axel replaced and the alternator replaced just last week.  It's been a great car and I'm sad to let it go.  I'm planning on getting another Focus this weekend.  They're safe little cars and get great gas mileage.

Bye little red, I'll miss you!

"You're at the age where we should start looking into anti-aging procedures"

It's been a rough few months for my body.  First my facialist told me what sort of precautions I should be taking to prevent my age from showing on my face- I heard the work botox and wanted to cry, regained composure and told her I'd be happy to continue my chemical peels and see how the next ten years go before trying anything radical.  Then just this week my OBGYN told me that I was no longer at the age where I could avoid weight gain.  He politely told me that I would have to work out more each year than I had the year before just to maintain my current weight.  He then told me that my drugs were not causing me to gain weight I was just lazy and happy.  Everyone seems to be blaming then crazy thing called happiness for the extra pounds.  Then as if in cahoots with my facialist and OBGYN the gym I signed up for 3 months ago and have only attended maybe 4-5 times called to tell me its time to come in and get weighed and measured. Just shoot me now.

So I took a step back and really looked at myself in the mirror and saw that my body really has gained some new curves.  I decided to step on my Wii Fit for the first time oh in a few months too- since before we moved and it tells me I've gained 7.5 lbs- since April.  My BMI is 26.4 and it should be between 18 and 24.  Now this doesn't sound like too much but I'm at least 8 lbs overweight and I'm supposed to be between 98 lbs (in someone's dreams) and 132 (which is more than I'd liked).

I enjoy exercising I've never disliked it, I'm just too tired for it.  I love healthy, fresh good for you food, I just don't always feels like cooking.  But as Dr. Troy pointed out what I used to do is no longer working and so it's time to at least begin to change.  I always start with food because obviously that is my biggest problem.  I love to eat and I love to eat rich and creamy pastas, with custards for dessert.  Mmmm that flan I had for lunch was delicious!  So I need another food makeover which luckily Bruce is fine with since I'm the one doing the cooking...

So ten hour days at work are really not my thing and there are usually at least 2 hours of those ten hours where I'm just useless, so I search online for interesting articles or videos.  That's when I ran into a Good Eats episode called "Live and let Diet".  Apparently Alton Brown (please tell me you know who he is) gained  alot of weight during the last twoish years- 90 lbs to be exact and as a food host on the Food Network he didn't have the most time to exercise so he drastically changed his diet (eating habits).  His food plan sounds like something I could very easily do except for one part you'll see-

Things to eat daily:
Fruits
Whole Grains
Leafy Greens
Nuts
Carrots
Green Tea

This seems pretty easy cause I can combine a lot of those into smoothies like my green smoothie- fruits and leafy greens right there, and carrots with almond butter for a snack and then some brown rice and green tea.  DONE!

Things to eat 3 times a week:
Oily Fish
Yogurt
Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Avocado


I really like all these things, I just don't eat sweet potatoes and broccoli too much cause it's more effort but hey I'll put that effort into it and see what happens.  Avocados YUM! and yogurt and fish are good too.  DONE!


Things to have ONE time a week:
Red meat
pasta
desserts
alcohol


OMG what the hell? Who do you think I am? I can't possibly have only one alcoholic drink a week! That makes me sound like an alcoholic when really I'm just a normal member of my family- we don't do that.  And Pasta really? What about Wheat Pasta? I promise to just eat wheat pasta and how about we move that one up to category two- just three times a week!  Desserts fine, I can do just once a week and then I don't eat a lot of red meat to begin with so that will almost be a challenge to make me do it once a week.


The hardest will definitely be the once a week category- I have family dinner every week with booze and my hobby is karaoke which alcohol is a requirement for.  This is gonna be tough.  But I'm determined I'm just gonna keep looking at this picture to remind myself why I need to do this...

How is June almost over?

Hour 9 of a 10 hour workday

Gah! It's been a while. This summer is just speeding by and in a week from now I'll be packing for the cruise.  This whole year is just zipping by- except for the 10 hour work days, those are dragging, so you'd think I'd have more time to write, but really not.

What I've been doing-
1- Karaoke-ing (we seriously went 3 times one week it was a little excessive)
2- Unpacking (it takes a while!)
3- Sunbathing (not nearly as much as I would like)
4- 10 hour work days (the worst possible idea ever! not mine. by 5 o'clock though I'm useless)
5- Exercising (maybe only 3 times a week but that's better than 0 like I was before)

What I haven't been doing-
1- TNMCing (which is sad but I've just been busy)
2- Playing guitar enough (I miss it)
3- Spending time at home (I feel like we're always gone!)
4- Saving money (being always gone is expensive)
5- Studying for my GRE (I really need to do that)

Of course I've been spending a ton of time with Bruce is great, but we live together now (officially) so its not really that big of a surprise.  We had the one year anniversary of the night we met back on June 3rd and had a very nice date night.  We had our first little gathering at our new place back earlier in the month I made Summertime Beer and some of Bruce's friends and some of my friends came over to swim.  It was a lot of fun, till I started my first fight with Bruce.  But Bruce things one fight in 10 months is pretty good...

I've been spending a lot of time with mama and Haley.  Its summer so we're having our swim nights at mama's again.  Even though we haven't swam once yet cause of weather, but we have been going every Wednesday since the beginning of June and she always cooks and makes drinks.  It's a blast.

Next week Haley, Greg, mama and I leave for the cruise to Greece- we start in Italy, move on to Croatia and then several Greek Isles then end up back in Venice.  Should be fun.  It's my first vacation in 3 years.  I plan to come back browner than ever before with orange hair (the sun, it's inevitable).  When I get back there will only be one more week of summer for me cause after that Orientation will start and it just speeds back up from them.  But next Tuesday is my last day till Mid-July and I'm turning my work email OFF!  I think I'm most looking forward to that- no work for TWO WEEKS!

sigh

Moving Part II: Unpacking Sucks just as much as Packing Does

How come no one ever talks about unpacking sucking? Is it cause moving is actually so horrible that it dwarfs the horrible-ness of unpacking?  I hate unpacking.  My old kitchen was tiny, so why doesn’t my new bigger kitchen want to hold all my pots and pans?   Why do I have 23 blank books? (or what normal people would call journals) 23 is entirely too many.  About 7 of them are filled and others have writing on like 2-3 pages but I don’t know where to put them.  In  my old apartment they were on my bookshelf but since it’s now “our” bookshelf it seems less appropriate.  Needless to say it’s slow going unpacking everything.   While packing the old apartment I found boxes in my outdoor storage that I never unpacked from when I first moved in after college.  It was stuff I obviously didn’t care about so I got rid of most of it- if I hadn’t used it in 3 years it was probably unnecessary anyway.    

So back to Saturday night… 

After I walked into the filled new apartment and realized there was still a hell of a lot more to do before we could say we’ve actually “moved in” I walked through all the rooms of the apartment to assess the situation. 

Dining room: filled with boxes for the kitchen, dining room, living room and extra bar stools that need to find a home

Kitchen: filled with boxes and cleaning supplies

Living room: furniture arranged in a way that is can’t be sat on, flatscreen laying down on the love seat with paw prints on it (made mental note to kill the cat)

Guest bedroom: full of bags and suitcases of clothes! Everywhere clothes and more clothes and a side of clothes!

Bathrooms: every counter top covered and stuff in the sink.

Bedroom: vacant middle space with all the furniture to the extremities of the room and the mattresses leaning against the wall where I couldn’t possibly use them for the desired sleep

LOUD GROAN/SIGHing and moderate crying ensued. 

I cleared off space in the bathroom to find towels and soap and proceeded to take a nice long bath.  Found a cleanish extra large t-shirt threw on some shorts and went and got Taco Cabana.  When I got back to the apartment I found my laptop and cleared off a spot on the couch to sleep.  None of the unpacking was really necessary till the next day anyways.

Bruce came home around 1:30 and helped lay down the mattresses so we could sleep in our new bedroom.  Then on Sunday we ran some errands and began unpacking.  Bruce put together the bedroom set and I started to work on the Guest Bedroom.  That night it was so nice to sleep in our actual bed in our new home.

The rest of this week has been spent very slowly unpacking.  I’m slowly trying to unpack things, little by little.  Everyday after work I give myself a little goal and so far it’s gone pretty good.  The guest bedroom is all set up and that’s good cause we have our first guest this evening.  Bruce’s sister is coming down to pick him up to go to Houston. 

So that means I have the new apartment to myself this weekend.  I’m gonna get serious about unpacking the rest of the kitchen and fixing up the dining room.  I’m just ready to have everything in there settled.  

Does anyone actually like moving? Part I

Since we started dating Bruce has practically lived with me. No seriously, 9 months ago it started with just the weekends, then just Thursday through Sunday, then Wednesday through Monday and sometime in January he just stopped going home.  I recommended that he just “officially” move in and he thought it was too soon.  In February I told him I’d stop bugging him about it and the next moment he brought it up like it was his idea.  In mid-March we looked at apartments in my complex and found a floor plan we loved they told us we could move in May 1^st.  I spent most of March and the beginning of April stressing about packing and how I was gonna move this stuff.  Bruce told me to not stress we still had time before the move.  Then one day it was the middle of April and OMG the move was just two weeks away! 

I started things slowly, packing all my books into a HUGE box and then Bruce saying it would be too heavy and me unpacking them.  I tried to do all the laundry in the house; not knowing how long it would be till we could get a new washer to go with the dryer my dad was giving us.  I’d wake up in the morning to see that Bruce had packing amazing quantities of things while I slept.  He can get more done in the hours between midnight and sunrise than I get in any full day of trying to pack.  How did he fit 300 DVDs into two boxes that he was able to carry by himself?  How did he do that?

So the week before the move Bruce had Sunday off.  We rarely have days off together so I thought we’d go see a movie then come home and pack.  Bruce decided we should make a date out of it.  So we went to the Alamo Drafthouse and REALLY made a day out it.  We started around 2PM and ordered just a couple of beers then we sprung for the Growler, which is 2 liters of beer.  We had a beer before the movie, a Growler during the movie and then refilled it before we went home (don’t worry it’s legal because it can seal shut).  When we got home I headed in to start packing and Bruce tells me he’s invited his friends over to hang out real quick.  Real quick turned into all-night and 6 AM came too quickly Monday morning.  So NO packing was done Sunday and Monday night I was so tired that little packing happened then too.  Bruce luckily got to work and was a packing machine.  By Tuesday Night my tiny apartment was filled with boxes and suitcases full of all my stuff I’d accumulated over 3 years. 

Wednesday I got the keys and started making trips back and forth to the new apartment dropping things off.  Thursday Bruce spent the day moving stuff with his friend Mark.  Friday I was on my own again making small trips of stuff, trying to get all “packed” things to the  new place so Saturday we could do the furniture and get completely out of my old apartment. 

We started Saturday morning off around 10:30 AM with Bruce, my dad and my brother Michael in from Lubbock.  I was supposed to have one of my students there to help but he totally bailed and didn’t even call! But that’s okay the three guys I had are awesome and rocked. In about 2 hours they got the couches, the coffee table, the rest of my heavy packed stuff and pretty much everything except my bed and dresser out of my apartment and into the new place! I was impressed.  For the amount of stuff I had they were just plowing through!  Then my brother ended up having to go spend time with his family so it was just Bruce and I for a while.  My dad came back and did another quick run with us but eventually he left too, but took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill for us.  (Seriously a 40 gallon bag of clothes for Goodwill and two big bags of shoes and purses) Then we waited…

Bruce had to go to work around 4 and at 3:30 his friends to help us with the rest of the stuff arrived.  The stacked washer and dryer took forever for them to get down the three flights of stairs.  Once that was out of the way everything else was pretty simple.  Bruce’s friends Mark and Steph were so great and helpful and my friend Mike took my washer and dryer off my hands in exchange for his washer.  Bruce took off around 4:30 and Mark, Mike and Steph stayed to help till about a quarter to six.  At that time I had to go back to my old apartment to clean and turn in the keys. 

Walking back into my old apartment at 6 on Saturday made me feel totally defeated.  I’d lived in that place for 3 years, the carpets were filthy, to say the least, and I’d never washed my baseboards, and don’t get me started on the scrubbing the oven.  At 9PM I called Bruce almost in tears, the vacuum had stopped working and I had chemical burns on my right hand, I was done and couldn’t possibly spend anymore time cleaning that apartment.  He said “Don’t cry, baby, we’re in this together now, go home and I’ll get the last of the stuff after work”.  I took out some trash, locked the doors and turned in my keys.  I walked into the new apartment hoping to feel relieved but then I realized I had to UNPACK.

…to be continued.

Frustration and Food Porn

I can't write the blog post I want to write right now.  I've tried three times this week and it keeps getting out of control.  When I hit 7 paragraphs I realize no one is going to want to read it and that it's too far gone to even edit at this point.  So I will put my blog post about coincidences and how I feel about them on the shelf for another time till I can write concisely how I feel about coincidences.

So my boss has been bugging me to take more time off forever but I keep telling him that there isn't time! He then tells me I have plenty of time in the bank but then I remind him that there just isn't time because there's too much I have to do.  This argument happens most Mondays and Fridays and occasionally on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Apparently it was getting to be a problem.  So he told me to take next week off.  It's spring break we're off Thursday and Friday anyways and he told me to make a week out of it.  I argued but in the end gave in and turned in a leave slip for the whole week.

A whole week off?  What on Earth am I supposed to for 9 whole days (two Saturdays and Sundays plus a work week)? In three years I have never taken that much time off- I've probably taken 9 days total off in that time but never together.  I don't know what on Earth I'm going to do but I plan to enjoy it.

Which brings me to food porn!  I love food and I love to cook.  But unfortunately I don't have the time to do it as often as I'd like.  So I try to live vicariously through other people's stories about food, cooking and that amazing thing called "free time".  I think I spelled that right.

For a while I've been a fan of Happy Foody and a lot of my healthier eating habits come from that site.  My Green Smoothie recipes and all the fun stuff about Chia.  My new found love of Almond Milk comes from here and I'm dying to try this recipe.  Sarah, the blogger, writes so passionately about food and how eating is such a whole body experience for her and her family.  It's inspiring.  It makes me want to eat healthier and live greener.  It makes me want to dread my hair.  It makes me want to travel the country in a veggie oil powered RV and car! Until I read Smitten Kitchen...

Smitten Kitchen is food porn at it's best!  Oh the richness, the decadence and the impending heart attacks await!  It's Paula Dean meets New York City and I love it!  I have yet to make anything from her amazing blog but if I baked I'd bake chocolate whiskey and beer cupcakes or if I wanted to channel Martha (Stewart of course do you know another one?) I'd make Martha's Macaroni and Cheese.  I could go on forever.  But each recipe comes with a delightful story about her discovery of the recipe and then her execution.  She isn't perfect and sometimes her recipe fails and she shares that and the blogosphere collectively weeps for the failed caramelized brown butter rice krispie treats that had so much potential.

While I have long given up on the idea that I will ever get to be the amazing housewife/cooking machine that my mother was/is I still dream of finding time at least 3-4 or more realistically 1-2 times a week to cook something amazing and tasty (hopefully sometimes healthy) for my family some day.  Next week maybe I can pretend.  Maybe I'll try Martha's recipe because I'm pretty sure that could feed me all week long depending on how much Bruce eats while I'm sleeping.  The beer cupcakes are screaming to be made and eaten with my sister Haley in her awesome kitchen.  Then that almond milk recipe must be tried and perfected, because I'm tired of buying the way too think and un-drinkable-straight brand they sell at HEB.  I want something thinner.  So on my glorious 9 days of freedom I hope to try some of these recipes and feel that sense of calm that I see these women posses as they talk about food and enjoy the best part- eating as well.

Spring Cleaning and Shopping

Last week was an incredibly stressful and emotionally draining week.  Actually starting the previous Saturday.  I worked like 8 days straight and saw Bruce for like 5 hours that entire weekend.  The week didn't get better- work was sucking and after an extremely uncomfortable conversation with my boss I felt even worse.  The only cure was to shop.

So Tuesday night I went shopping and got a bunch of clothes then Wednesday night I went shopping and go a bunch of stuff and Friday before class I got a bunch of crafty things to make a wreath.  I went shopping between work and school and trying to have a life.  The small shopping trips I had did a lot of damage.  I came home with 5 bags Wednesday night and instead of looking appalled by my shopping loot for once Bruce just looked kind of sympathetic.  Shopping is obviously a more agreeable outlet for stress than drinking.

Once I got all my treasures home it was very obvious that there was no room for new things in my house at this time.  My kitchen didn't want to hold my new awesome Tea gadget, my closet did not want more dresses and my dining room definitely did not want to accommodate all the fake flowers and reef stuff I'd purchased to be crafty.  Cleaning would have to be done and soon.

The week was so busy that I didn't get to it until Sunday.  Sunday I spent the whole day cleaning and organizing.  I made piles, bagged old clothes and shoes and at the end of the day you couldn't tell a lot was done but I still felt a great sense of relief as I saw the bags ready to go to Goodwill.

The hardest part is definitely parting with clothes.  I come from a long line of hoarders and I can talk myself into keeping anything...anything.  I just know that one day my clunky-sequined-Doc Martin-combat-boots are going to come back into style- I know it!  Or the dress my mother made me in high school may one day fit again and the adorable retro style Mary Jane's that have a heel broken will one day be fixed!  Then there was my 2001 ISA National Honors Society T-shirt.  Sure it has paint on it, but one day I'm going to start exercising and I'm gonna need grungy shirts to wear.  Sigh. I got rid of 15 t-shirts and kept 9.

I've heard about making quilts and blankets from old shirts before.  My sister made a quilt out of her old optometry shirts and I  have had a bag of about 20 TLU shirts sitting by my door for a while for her to do the same with mine.  But t-shirts from high school covered in paint I will close my eyes and add them to the bags.

Then I decided to hit my purses.

But I love my purses.  Sure I only carry the same purse for about 3 months and then move on, but one day I may really want to have that yellow leather banana republic purse Robynne gave me in high school.  Sure I didn't take care of it and the leather kinda dried out but I'm sure someone can fix it.  So now I have a laundry basket full of purses overflowing to my floor and hopefully tonight I can go through and get rid of 10 of the 36.  I think that's a reasonable number.  

The point is I made the effort and I think I made great progress.  You can see the floor of my bedroom and the floor of my closets.  I really am giving a lot of stuff to Goodwill, only I hope they don't go through it in front of me cause I don't think I want to see the looks on their faces when they see that I donated a red and black corset that Haley gave me years ago that I never used.  

My Morning Cup

I can't remember the first time I tried coffee.  I remember always drinking the coffee creamers out of their little cups when we'd go to restaurants.  My earliest memories of coffee are all my dad's coffee cups.  I remember my dad having tons and tons of coffee cups, on the weekends I can remember him at the kitchen table in his robe with a coffee cup and the newspaper.  I also remember mom having her coffee too but it was normally taken standing in the kitchen.  I started drinking coffee sporadically when I was about 8 or 10 and then consistently when I was in high school.  Mmmmm Starbucks.  Then sometime during my last year in college I stopped drinking coffee and switched to tea.

8 or 10 years old? Okay I might have been a bit young but again it was really infrequent.  When I was around those ages I remember going out with Deirdre to Mama's Cafe and sitting at the bar counter drinking coffee and eating cheesecake.  We'd sit there for hours it seemed talking and drinking coffee.  Now lord knows what as an 8 or 10 year old we had to talk about but I do remember the tradition continuing through my middle school years so hopefully I contributed more to the conversation those times.  

In high school I was a musical theatre major at the North East School of the Arts and a student at the International School of the Americas.  Both of these schools were into coffee.  After school we'd go to Starbucks, before school we'd go to Starbucks, and when we skipped school we'd go to Starbucks.  Don't worry when we skipped school we'd usually run into the Principal of ISA and she'd remind us to bring our dance teacher a Starbucks when we went back.  Needless to say the rules for the Magnet School Kids were a little relaxed. Back when I was in high school anything Starbucks I loved- I loved the White Chocolate Mocha or the Java Chip Frappachino and non-coffee items like the very sadly retired Tazoberry and Cream, truly the most delicious whipped fruit cream thing ever! also the Chai Latte which Angela always said "it tastes like Christmas" and it really does.  We had tons of those reusable cups and were always going to Starbucks.

In college the nearest Starbucks was in San Marcos! 45 minutes away, or back in San Antonio 30-35 minutes away.  So my affair with Starbucks was on hold for a while.  They served Starbucks brand coffee in Lucky's but it was never the same.  My first year I had an illegal coffee pot and my roommate loved it when I made coffee cause she just liked the smell.  Over Christmas break I guess I forgot to take out the filter and we came by to the grossest unplanned science experiment ever and threw out the entire machine.  After that I decided I'd either buy my coffee on campus, use instant or switch to tea.

When I moved into the on campus apartments I had switched almost entirely to tea.  I was obsessed with making my own Chai, I loved cold chai with vanilla creamer and tons of ice!  It was delicious and since our campus was super warm 8 months of the year the perfect drink to take everywhere.  Sometime during my last year a Starbucks opened in New Braunfels, slightly closer but I no longer needed their sweet temptations.

So where does that leave me today.  In my apartment now I've never had a coffee maker, I just didn't need one, I'm cool with instant if I need it and tea is so much easier.  After all I have my awesome yellow Le Cruset tea pot that I love to use.

So 6 or so months ago Posadas and I were in North Star and went into Teavana.  A glorious tea shop with beautiful tea sets and the yummiest custom mixed teas to chose from.  Neither of us purchased anything that day but we both knew that one day we would.  In my quest to become ever healthier I've been looking for something to drink in the morning non-coffee and for when I don't want to go to the trouble of pulling out the blender for a Green Smoothie.  I make Chai Tea a lot but since I'm also moving to a no-milk lifestyle as well I learned that Chai Tea and Almond Milk are not my favorite combination and I don't like drinking Chai straight cause it makes me jittery.

I read yesterday about Yerba Mate a good coffee substitute tea that doesn't need much else to make it yummy.  So I went to Teavana last night hoping to get a cool tea gadget and a tea blend to call my own.  They gave me a White Chai Yerba Mate blend that was delicious without milk or sugar.  Can you say score? I got 1/2 a pound and a cool tea gadget that is a steeper/strainer all in one.  You add the tea leaves to the cup type think add hot water and let steep.  When you're ready to drink you take your mug and put the steeper/strainer on top of it and the deliciousness flows into your cup.  This morning I tried it myself and was pleasantly surprised it didn't suck and also that it woke me up.  I found it relaxing and comforting, all the things I need from my morning tea.

I still love Starbucks and go a couple times a month but it's no longer a religious habit.  My first year working at SAC after college I went every morning for about a year till I did the math and realized I spent approximately $260 a month on Starbucks.  So now if I can just spent like $20-30 a month on tea I think that is much better.

Chocolate Guacamole Does Not Sound Appetizing

Thanks Blake! No one wants to try my Chocolate Avocado Pudding anymore.  I just call it Chocolate Pudding now because everyone else is too disgusted when I say there's avocado in it, but I promise it's delicious.

A few weeks ago I was at Deirdre's (my birthmom) house getting my hair dyed.  This is usually a great time for us to catch up and talk and I actually get to see my siblings cause they don't tend to frequent the Thursday Night Music Club where I almost always get to see Deirdre.  My little sister is a 16 year old vegan and she has been for years now.  She used to be mostly vegetarian but now I'm pretty sure she's completely vegan.  At first I was appalled cause I love meat and I just never thought you could get all the great flavors without the savory-ness of meat.  But over the years I've warmed to the vegetarian lifestyle and a lot of the dishes.  I try to eat two vegetarian meals a day then try to only eat one meal with meat a day and I try to always have that one meat be chicken.

This year I've been trying lots of awesome healthier vegan, vegetarian and raw foods like my Green Smoothies which rock, vegan chili, Chia Seeds and just general healthier stuff. So far it's going great.  I've definitely lost some weight but I also feel a lot better.  I feel healthier and I have more energy.  Those Chia seeds and Green Smoothies really make me feel like I have more energy so yay.

So anyways my little sister came into the kitchen while my hair was setting in it's color and started adding some avocado to the blender.  To this Deirdre asked if she was making her chocolate pudding thing.  My sister Grace then went on to explain what it is.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding
1 Avocado
2-3 tablespoons Cocoa powder (depending how chocolate-y you want it)
Agave Nectar to taste
A splash of vanilla

Whipped together in a food processor

She then let me try some of the concoction and it was great! It tasted just like chocolate pudding and you couldn't even tell there was avocado in it. Grace told me that she suggested letting the mixture sit overnight to get more of the pudding texture out of it. I was super excited and put that little recipe in my head for later use.  We talked a little about chia seeds and my sis Grace is apparently a fan of the gel and then just adds stuff to it- I like to doctor it up from the start- see previous post on Chia :)

So weeks went by and I noticed some avocado in my fridge about to be too mushy and so I bought some agave nectar and cocoa and decided to try it.  After I gathered my ingredients I realized I didn't have a food processor.  I almost gave up and waited till I could buy one but then I just bit the bullet and started mashing with a fork.  Luckily the avocados were soft enough and mashing wasn't too bad, I added the rest of the ingredients and tested it.  It tasted great! It was a little thick but it had all the potential of an awesome chocolate pudding.  Because I had some in the fridge I added about a 1/4 a cup of vanilla almond milk and it got much smoother and even looked like pudding.

I put it in the fridge to set and started dreaming about eating it with bananas the next morning for breakfast.  A few hours later Bruce came home and I wanted to put him to the test.  I run up to him with a spoonful of pudding and said "honey I made homemade chocolate pudding wanna try it?" and shoved the spoon in his mouth.  He said it tasted great and then I told him what was in it.  He seemed surprised but not as disgusted as I was expecting.  So it passed the Bruce test yay!

The next day I took it to work with a banana and everyone in the office seemed more than disgusted by the idea.  I posted it on Facebook and again got a pretty grossed out reaction.  So for now it looks like there are only a few fans of the Chocolate Avocado Pudding...but it is really good.  You know you want to try it.

Chia Seed Pudding

Still on my healthy foodness. I killed my blender last week so I needed to replace my Green Smoothies with something else healthy for breakfast. Enter Chia Seeds! I've read a lot about these awesome little seeds and was skeptical to try them till I heard that my Vegan Sister Grace was cool with them.

So what are Chia Seeds. Chia seeds are just like the stuff you smear on terra-cotta pots to make Chia Pets only you eat them instead of letting them grow green fuzzy grass. Apparently the folks down in Mexico have known about these guys for a while and make their Chia Fresca with them. Here's what they look like raw and in my fave pudding (see video at the end)

So Chia Seeds are super jam packed of good for you stuff. They have more protein that any other food of it's type, tons of calcium and boron, potassium, more antioxidants than blueberries, iron and omenga 3s and 6s. So basically they're just all around good for you. And unlike Flaxseed they wont go back and you don't have to refrigerate them after opening them. For more info visit

Chia Seed Info

Chia seeds will absorb whatever liquid you soak them in. As they absorb liquid they form a thick gel around them. The ratio is something like 1:9 Chia:liquid. So you can make just plain Chia Gel and add stuff to it or you can make a gel out of the liquid of your choice. So last week I ate a lot of Chia for breakfast and snacks.  I read lots of recipes for it and chose the one that sounded like the best for breakfast.  Chia Seed Pudding!  As I try to drink less Cow's Milk I'm trying lots of milk alternatives.  I hate soy milk but almond milk and I get along just fine.  So I put 5 tablespoons of Chia seeds in a plastic container and added a cup of Vanilla Almond Milk, shook it up and let it set in the fridge overnight.  When I woke up I had a delicious almost tapioca pudding type breakfast and a video on it is below

Chia Pudding from Tyler Archer on Vimeo.

I hope you try Chia seeds and come to enjoy them as much as I do!

Sookie the Viking Kitty

This weekend Bruce and I got a cat! It is so exciting.  I have been wanting a kitty for a few months now but didn't think I was home enough to take care of one.  But since Bruce is around so much and he loves cats he said he'd help me.

Friday night I decided that I really wanted one and Bruce and I decided we'd get one on Saturday.  I told him to start picking names and I would chose from 3 girl names and 3 boy names.  He chose Boys: Kermit, Gizmo and Yoshi and for a Girl: Bella, Wednesday and Sookie.  I chose Kermit and Sookie.  So Saturday after I got off of work we went out in search of our cat.  We went to the Petsmart on 281 and Bitters and all the cats were older.  So then we tried the one on Dezavala and at first it didn't seem like they had too many.  There were only 4 out in the middle of the store and one was adopted already.  The one I played with first was cute but seemed a little sad and tired after being played with all day. 

Bruce and I were gonna give up and go home but then we went over the Petsmart's permanent adoption center and were looking at about 8 cats there.  We weren't really finding anything we liked until an adoption advocate walked in and asked us what we were looking for.  I told her I wanted a lap cat but that Bruce still wanted one that was kinda playful.  She asked if we cared if it was an older cat and I said this it didn't really matter to me but that I still wanted a somewhat younger cat.  So she said "Let me introduce you to Lisa (soon to be Sookie)." 

She knelt down and opened the cage of an enormous cat.  She started telling us all about her and about how she was probably a mix of Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest Cat and so she wasn't fat (at 17 lbs) she was just big boned.  She told us to get down with her on the ground and see how we liked her.  As soon as we started petting her she got her motor boat going and was so happy.  She purred and purred and after a few minutes she got out of her cage and crawled into Bruce's lap and just rubbed on him.  When the adoption lady came back she asked us what we thought and we unanimously knew that this was our cat.  

So Saturday night we get her home and she goes and hides behind my China cabinet.  She hid there for a few hours then migrated to behind my kitchen trash can.  She hid out most of the evening and when it was time for me to go to bed she was still hiding out in the kitchen.  For some reason throughout the night I kept waking up and at 4 AM I went to the living room where Bruce (the night owl) was still watching Lost episodes.  He told me that at 2 AM he went to take a shower but couldn't cause Sookie had claimed it.  He left her alone and told me if I went in there quietly she might still be in there.  So I go looking for her and she's not in the shower.  I go back to the dining room to look behind the china cabinet, no Sookie and then I look in the kitchen, no sookie.  So I go back to the bathroom and notice that the laundry hamper door is slightly open so I open the door...

...and there she is.  Piled high on top of my towels.  Somehow she opened the door, got inside and closed it again behind her.  I started laughing and just sat there for a while petting her and she seemed totally relaxed and happy.  

I went back to bed and in the morning she was in the same spot.  She hung out in my hamper for most of the night and came out once or twice to eat.  But around 7 o'clock last night she finally came out and laid with me on the couch.  We bonded watching the olympics and when I went to bed she was still out around the apartment playing with Bruce or begging to be scratched.  

She is nothing like I thought I wanted but now I know she's perfect for me.  She is so smart and sweet and I can't wait for her to get more comfortable so she wont feel the need to hide as much.

Cooking for Two

I love to cook. Growing up I used to watch my mom cook and she made dinner every night for us and we had a family meal (without Haley though cause she was usually at dance class). But I remember sitting on the countertops and watching her cook and just seeing how calm and serene she looked while doing it. The majority of the time my mother and I spent together growing up was in the kitchen. So maybe thats why I love to cook.

Before I started dating Bruce I probably cooked for myself once or twice a month. I just never really did it because I hated cleaning up the mess and cooking for one is just so boring and wasteful. So the first few meals I made Bruce were kinda meant to WOW him, I made things with lots of flavor, lots of flair and made sure the table was always really nice. In the first few months I made him Chicken Piccata, Green Enchiladas, a roasted whole chicken, countless breakfasts, Carrot Cake, Dump Cake and more.

I haven't been cooking as much this semester cause we've both been so busy. What I have been doing though is keeping lots of food in my fridge so there's at least always something to eat. I keep healthier food around and try to limit the amount we eat out. I am loving the healthier food, I find myself eating substantially less fast food and fried food and actually rarely even crave it anymore. I eat all three meals a day usually with a snack in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Things I like to always have on hand are: eggs, wheat bread, low-fat cheese, low-fat yogurt, milk, various nuts, stuff for sandwiches, apples, lettuce, spinach, cottage cheese, granola, wheat thins, cranberry juice, tomato juice, avocados, wheat pasta, trail mix, apple sauce, frozen fruit (for smoothies) and red potatoes. I know not all of this is healthy but a lot of it is much healthier than what I'm used to.

For me it isn't so much the losing weight, it's just about eating more balanced stuff. I used to live on Whataburger like 3 times a week now I can barely have one without feeling super super sick. Part of why I want to eat healthier is so that as a side-effect I'm also helping Bruce eat healthier. I know I can't control what he eats when he's not with me but I can make sure that when I cook, I'm cooking healthy balanced meals that are good for him too. He's diabetic and so these last few months I've been really reading up on it and trying to cook things that I know are good for him. Left to himself his diet usually consists of lots of fast food and about gallon of Diet Coke a day. Through my research I've found that there are certain vegetables and different things you can cook with that are great for diabetics and help work to keep his sugars down and kidneys working, so I always try to incorporate those into meals as well. He's definitely noticed my new found interest in getting healthy and I think its starting to have the effect I want and rubbing off on him. He's eating a little less, not drinking as much Diet Coke and most importantly smoking less.

So this week I've taken it a step further. On Sunday I made my birthmom's Vegan Chili which was about 4 cups of beans (red and black), bell peppers, onions, celery, carrots, chipotles, adobo sauce and seasonings. I cooked it all day and it turned out great! Bruce loved it, even though at first he was at first skeptical of the lack of meat. It was Super Bowl Sunday so I guess as a man it is the day to crave meat. But he loved it all the same. I made some spanish rice with it (which was not healthy) but luckily the chili is so filling that he didn't eat as much of the rice. Then for the rest of the week I've been making my Green Smoothies as seen below and they have been great. They are filling and I really feel the difference in my energy levels. When I have one in the morning it helps me stay awake and alert for the rest of the day.

So yesterday morning I was making my 4th Green Smoothie of the week and I ran out of Spinach! So I will definitely have to double my purchase or maybe just get a much bigger bag. But last night I was getting ready for bed and Bruce asked if I would make him a Green Smoothie and stick it in the fridge for him in the morning. I was so excited! I hadn't even thought to offer him one because it just didn't seem like the kinda thing he would normal go for but I was so thrilled that he wanted to try it. I told him I'd run out of Greens but that I'd happily make him a smoothie, I'd just have to figure out a way to put the lowest sugar fruits in it for him. So this morning I woke up and put a banana, 1/2 and orange, 1/2 an apple a small handful of blue berries and blackberries and then a good amount of carrot in the blender for him and whipped it up. I tasted it after to make sure it wasn't too sweet and it tasted fine. It didn't taste nearly as sweet as the ones I make for myself so I stuck it in the fridge for him. I am just so happy he asked, today I'm gonna look up online fruits and their sugar contents and try to buy some that I can put in the smoothie that will be good for him. I would hate to be giving him these delicious smoothies that are healthy for me to him and have them be unhealthy for him. I'm just so thrilled he is making a conscious effort to add some healthy-ness to his diet.

So it looks like my strategy is working. If I eat healthier he'll see it and want to do it himself! I know I wouldn't have started all this healthy stuff if he wasn't in my life. I want him to get healthy and the best way to do that is to get me healthy at the same time. For me the important thing is just adding lots more fruit and vegetables to my diet. I'm not taking away things, except for fast food, I'm just adding good stuff. I can't wait to keep exploring all theses great healthy food options. The best part is, that healthy food often has much more flavor than fatty-fried foods. They're also a lot of fun to cook. One day I hope I'll have little kids in the kitchen watching me cook healthy wonderful meals so they can grow up to do the same.

Green Smoothies Day 2

Green Smoothies Day Two from Tyler Archer on Vimeo.

So I'm slowly trying to add more healthy things to my diet- I'm not dieting per se I'm just adding healthy stuff to what I already eat. Right now its the Green Smoothies. One of my favorite blogs Happy Foody talks a lot about Green Smoothies and they have always been tempting but I just had never tried them. They seemed messy and like more work than they are so I just never went there. Well this weekend I was making Deirdre's Vegas Chili and decided to take the plunge and also try my first Green Smoothie. Happy Food has a very simple first recipe for them and I made my first one on Sunday. It was easy, it wasn't as messy as I thought and it tasted delicious.

The recipe is super easy:
1 Frozen Banana
1 whole peeled orange
handful of mixed frozen fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, lots of berries and pineapple)
Fresh pineapple
Lots of Spinach

One thing that Happy Foody says that I wanted to try was putting you smoothie is a fun cup cause you'll be more likely to finish it. Also using a big straw so you get more of the good stuff faster. I'm using my Vegas cup from Fremont Street and it works great.

The green smoothie is awesome and freaking people out while drinking the green goop is fun too!

Last Minute Resolutions

Now that January is almost over, hopefully everyone has their resolutions in order. Thanks to a friendly co-worker who sent this to me in an email- I think these are some great jumping off points for how to always live, but even better to start the year off right by doing them. Try to pick at least 2 from each category and make it a point to do those things all the time. I'd love to make some of them mandatory for my office...but since I can't I'll just share with as many people as possible. I'm bolding the things I need to work on or already somewhat do and italics are my thoughts.

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water I've been trying to do this one all school year actually and it's going pretty good. Rarely does a day go by where I don't drink at least one bottle of water and several glasses with meals
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar Doubtful that I'll ever be able to do this one, Lunch and Dinner are usually my best meals
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. I'm trying to do this one this semester- right now I'm in the just adding phase, I'm just adding these types of foods to what I already eat
4. Live with the 3 E’s – Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy. I think I've always kind of done this one and I try to pay special attention to this when I'm at the office
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games. I got a Wii :)
7. Read more books than you did in 2009. I would love to!
8. Sit in silence for at 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours I try to get 8 hours at least 4 nights a week and 6-7 hours the other 3 nights...but usually there's one night that I get like only 5
10. Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile. I'm trying to get Bruce to do this with me too sometimes- I suggested it like two weekends ago and we still haven't gotten to it...maybe this weekend...but I walk at least 30 minutes a day and probably usually more- plus I live on the 3rd floor of my apartment building so I move
    

Personality:

1. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is about. Will try...will try
2. Don’t have negative thoughts on things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. I suck at this! I get totally wrapped up in things I can't control so I'm totally gonna try to do this.
3. Don’t over do it. Keep/Know your limits.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip. This is one of my actual New Year's resolutions but I specified it to family gossip because my family is horrible about!
6. Dream more while you are awake.
7. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. Enough said.
8. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/Her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness. I'm on it.
9. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others. I did realize this last semester and I've been doing much better with this one.
10. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present. I'm trying!
11. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
12. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. I feel really lucky that I have some really great teachers too. I have tons of people trying to help me out with this one.
13. Smile and laugh more.
14. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. Bruce and I take turns winning and losing, but we haven't really had real arguments...

For me the Personality Ones are gonna be the hardest- I'm kinda judge-y, I do get envious and I argue a lot. But I do a lot of the positive stuff too, I just need to balance it out better with more positive happy stuff and a lot less of the judge-y stuff.

Society:

1. Call your family often.
2. Each day give something good to others.
3. Forgive everyone for everything. I'm pretty good at this one already.
4. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
5. Try to make at least three people smile each day. DONE
6. What other people think of you is none of your business. Oh-goodness. Yes it is.
7. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
   

Life:

1. Do the right thing!
2. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or loyal.
3. GOD heals everything.
4. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
5. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. This is important because chances are once you do you'll feel better after you're there.
6. The best is yet to come.
7. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
8. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.