Three Things Tuesday

Three Things Tuesday

1. Umm... Are these new or where have I been????

2. www.skinnytaste.com

Even if you aren't into Weight Watchers, this is an awesome resource for healthy recipes!One of my favorite parts is when Gina takes a high-calorie, high-fat comfort food and makes it "skinny!" Baked macaroni and cheese, anyone?

3. The iphone/ipad app GYMBOSS

Ever been at the gym and you need to do a workout with weird intervals? Like a plank for 60 seconds, 10 seconds rest and then repeat? And how annnooyyiinnnggg it is to have to stare at the clock and try and find the second hand? Well, problem solved! You can program this handy little app to do whatever intervals you need, set it to beep or blink or whatever you want. 6-pack abs here we come :)

Spring

To celebrate the start of Spring, I bought MYSELF some flowers.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

~Audrey Hepburn

FACT OF THE DAY: Yes, pretty flowers brighten up our moods just by looking at them.

But did you know that when you smell flowers or any plant, you breath in a special form of oxygen that's easier for your lungs to absorb? And this really does relax you in a matter of seconds...

HAPPY SPRING! Go buy yourself some tulips; you deserve it. :)

Push-Ups!

I have a pretty cool trainer.

He was in S Club 7 (the awesome show when we were little?), was one of the apes in Planet of the Apes, AND my personal favorite, HE WAS IN THE JENNIFER LOPEZ MOVIE, GIGALI!!

Now he spends his days making me do crunches and hammer curls. UGH. And let me tell you, I am NOT an easy client. I am the biggest whiner ever.

My goal for my 25th birthday in June was to be able to do 25 push-ups. Considering I can ALMOST do ONE push-up, I figured this was a good goal. A little extreme? Naaahhh.

Last week, after my complaining about how hard push-ups are, and how I just don't think I was born with the muscles needed to do them, my trainer so nicely informed me that maybe my goal was a bit too much. A bit too "lofty" was the exact word he used.

He suggested I try FIVE push-ups by my birthday. pssshhhh.

Nothing like a little old fashioned motivation.

Kind of Married?

Today I had to ask hispanic women a lot of different interview questions in Spanish and then translate the answers.

One of the questions was simple enough. "Are you married?" I would ask, and get a funny look back. Some would shrug their shoulders and answer with "I guess I am, a little," or "No, not really." I thought that was an odd response. I thought being married was kinda either a yes or no question, like "are you pregnant?" No real in-between. After like five in a row of these answers I decided to do some research. Maybe marriage was different in the hispanic culture? Could it be a yes on Mondays, no on Tuesday type of thing?

No. I was wrong. Marriage is just as sacred in Mexico as it is here...

Come to find out, I was asking everyone if they were "tired", not "married"... :)

I know the difference between the two words, casada and cansada, but I guess my white girl tongue and accent made it a little difficult to tell them apart :)

I explained my mix-up to one of the young women who laughed and laughed and said "Married, tired. Same thing right?"

I had to laugh. Marriage is tiring. (Well, I am not married but in a relationship so I can have an opinion I decided, plus it's MY blog :)

Relationships ARE tiring. Good tiring though. They are a lot of hard work :) But so worth it.

So, following in Krislyn's style, I am going to start telling my story...

Green Velvet

I thought I was being sooo tricky. If Red Velvet is the new hot thang, why couldn't I make a cute little treat for St. Paddy's day and come up with... GREEN VELVET?

I used a normal, red velvet recipe, but instead of the red food coloring I thought I would just add green instead.

Things were going just fine and dandy until I got to the part where it said how much red food coloring went into this so called Red Velvet cake mix. AN ENTIRE JUG OF FOOD COLORING.

I reread it and reread it. and thought NO WAY! First of all, it just seemed gross and so artificial. Plus, I thought that had to be a mistake. A little food coloring goes a loonnnnggg way.

I figured it must have been wrong so I went on, just putting in a normal amount of food coloring. It was a lovely, DARK green. Velvety, if you will. So I thought to myself, BINGO. I am so smart. Who needs stupid old recipes anyways to tell you to put AN ENTIRE LITTLE JUG OF FOOD COLORING? I'll show them.

So I put my beautiful green velvet cupcakes in the oven.

And the timer went off...

They were BARELY GREEN AT ALL. :(

My "green velvet" cupcakes were light, seafoam green. :( Like pukey, moldy green.

Advice: follow the recipe.

and PS. that awesome Red Velvet cake from Costco? I'm not sure if I will be able to ever enjoy it again, because it probably does have a cup of food coloring... :)

So apparently I wasn't the only one who ever thought of green velvet, either.

What they are supposed to look like...

Notice the velvety, DARK, rich color...

My beauties?

And this makes them look WAY more green then they really were. They were so light you could even see the brown crispy burn marks!

FAIL! Oh well.

I guess I have to stick to my Yoplait Red Velvet Cake Yogurt...

WAITING LIST FOR NAIL POLISH?!?!?!

TUESDAY'S THREE THINGS

1.) I have satin pillowcases. I love them. Do not knock em 'til have tried them! They are that good :) So imagine my excitement when I discovered they make satin/silk PAJAMAS! Where have I been?!?! Anyways, I have been on the hunt for quite some time now. I mean, I always knew there were the nice expensive ones, but I wanted to snag a cheap pair first to test out the satin-y feeling. I am very particular. Well. taddaaaaa. My FIVE dolla find! (Ignore the disgusting color and very flattering stripes. It was the fabric I was going for, not the fashion :)

I sent a pic to my sister to show her. Her response?
"Why are you posing like that?"
I really have no idea. I felt like it was a fitting move to do in silk pajama pants.

2.) So Katy Perry is a musical genius?, and her OPI Shatter nail polish?! My life is forever changed. I spent about 3 hours calling around trying to find a bottle of this stuff. The best I could do? A two month long waiting list. This stuff is. that. cool. I happily put myself on this waiting list until... MY AWESOME internet savy sister FOUND ME SOME ONLINE AND ORDERED IT FOR ME AS A SURPRISE! You paint your nails a solid color, and then when it dries, you paint a solid black coat of this stuff over it. In about ten seconds, the black starts to "shatter" and you are left with this...

I did mine hot pink and then "shattered" them but didn't take a picture. Next time :)


3.) I am ANNOYED>>>>. I have spent the last YEAR working out hardcore, completely changing my eating habits and getting a new healthy lifestyle. I LOVE IT, love my new hot bod :), and my life is 54,564,567x better! So then, may I ask, why in the WORLD am I now (with summer just around the corner and Las Vegas even closer?) am I deciding NOW is a good time to start eating Oreo McFlurries? Or skipping that half marathon training run? I seriously think I have gained 5 pounds since Saturday :) UGH.

So I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from my Weight Watcher's leader: (now if that wasn't a nerdy sentence I don't know what is)

"You have come too far to let a cookie take you down." :)

Abraham

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home

and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritence.

He went without knowing where he was going.

Hebrews 11:8

The lake might seem long and scary to cross

but if you look closely, there is a path.

Take the first l e a p.

Even though we might have to kick like crazy,

He won't let us drown.

LOL, GR8, TTYL

So. This is my cute little cousin in the middle and her cute little friends.

Yesterday:

Cousin: "Hey Lindsay, you would be so proud!"

Me: "What'd you do?"

Cousin: "Last night I was skyping someone, video chatting with two people, facebook chatting with three people AND texting four people ALL AT THE SAME TIME."

I really was speechless. Talk about multi-tasking kids these days. What should I have said? It would have been a perfect time for some old lady words of wisdom about the value of real conversation, rocking chairs and iced tea, hand-written cards or even just a good ole fashioned email. But no.

I realized I had no room to talk. (hehe) When was the last time I met a friend just to chat? Or send a card in the mail? It was a nice reminder to me about how easy it is to get caught up in all of our gadgets and forget about what REALLY matters. Not the quantity of our friends or conversations or blogposts or facebook statuses, but the quality. :)

So. I am going to challeng myself this week. When I am about to send a text or an email or post Happy Birthday on someone's facebook wall, I am going to stop... Pick up the phone... and CALL! (and hey, even if you have to leave a voicemail, that's a start) <3

Love ya LJ! Thanks for letting me blog about you, even if you made my technological abilities seem super lame compared to yours :)

Good 'Ol Oprah

"Your existence is already a factor in world history- now, what sort of factor do you want it to be?

Maybe you know you are here to create worldwide prosperity, a beautiful family, or one really excellent bagel.

If your impressions are vague, keep asking this question. Eventually you'll glimpse clearer outlines of your destiny. Live by design, not accident." ~Oprah

I love this. Especially the bagel part. P.S. I don't think the Bagel Thins company has heard this quote yet. Those. Bagels. Taste. Like. Cardboard. :)