My Recent Food Discoveries

TONIC WATER IS NOT THE SAME AS CLUB SODA
So I had always read/heard/knew that a healthy drink choice is club soda with vodka or gin
(well i mean, healthy for a alcoholic drink. ya know, as opposed to a margarita or a mudslide :)
~So I finally ordered one last week at dinner.

IT WAS SO GOOD! It tasted like Sprite and I was like oh my gosh, what have I been missing out on! No more Long Island Iced Tea for me!

Flashforward: I thought I was all cool and knew what I wanted. Walked up to the bartender, ordered my new drank and waltzed to my table.

Umm... he brought me my drink. I took a big gulp. I sprayed it all over the table. UMM. it tasted like warm water with ear piercing cleaner!

So we put two and two together. My first "club soda" drink was actually tonic water. This one? Club soda. :( And of course the tonic water is the higher calorie, higher sugar content of the two. ;) Club soda? Not that good.


CARAMEL GREEK YOGURTI used to detest Greek yogurt. TRY THIS! It literally has straight caramel on the bottom. anndd it's healthy :) lots of protein!


CAFFEINATED WAFFLES

these babies are taking over Bellingham by storm. Coffee stands are starting to sell them, and a vendor sells them up at the college. What do you think? Time for those Eggo's to move over?

and We are Ready for Christmas...

it was not the best week. And it ended by me running over to my eyebrow wax lady after work on Friday to get a quick brow wax. she did her thang, and then pushed her glasses up on her nose and said, "i think it time we start give you a lip wax? yes?"

what do you say to that? Umm...? okay? I guess?...

so. i felt kinda glum :) but then I was flipping through my camera and was couldn't help but smile at my week.

1.)

We got our Christmas tree! my Dad wanted to put it in the FRONT window, where it could be seen from the street. (I think it's just because you can see all the neighbor's trees from the street. he just wants to fit in ;) It just didn't work, so back to the living room it went, in it's nice little corner.

2.)

For some reason my dad REALLY was caught up on having a tree in the front room. He drug me into my grandma's back woods (handsaw and all) to "hunt" for the little tree he was envisioning. When he started trampling through the poison ivy, I decided to give up and take pictures. Needless to say, just big trees, no little Christmas trees ;)

3.)
Oh, but do not worry. Greg found what he was looking for. The Charlie Brown tree now resides in the front room ;) (for those of you who know my dearest mother, please imagine her excitement with this little thing.;) sarcasm

4.)
To celebrate our Christmas'y house, we had gramma spend the night and we had a mini Christmas party. Santa even came :) He brought me this candle that I had been oohing and ahhing over from Fairhaven. Pineapple Cilantro. Sounds gross, huh? SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS! It is the most amazing, best smelling thing ever :) (and really, we did have presents under the tree that we got to open ;)

5.)

I made these cupcakes for the "Christmas" party. Just put the batter into a few different bowls, and make different colors. Layer into cupcake tin. These pictures don't even do them justice. The insides are like perfectly organized mini-rainbows :) (eh. minor detail that grammy has celiac's and can't eat gluten. whoops )

I used to not really get why people took pictures. I always took them because I felt like I "should", like one day my kids would be mad at their momma for not having documentation of life in the 2010's. I felt like I wanted the best Facebook photo album, or the coolest instagram account or the most organized photo-albums.

Seriously? I was laughing out loud after looking at these pictures. and I forgot all about my impending lip wax; and that my friends, is worth taking pictures to me ;)

Ok, ladies. First the bragging. Drew is so sweet and thoughtful that when I went to pick him up Monday evening to go to a little birthday party, he had something hidden behind his back. He got in the car and said he had a surprise. Since this movie is like the funniest thing EVER, (come on people, flowing like lava????) I was so excited to see that he had gotten this DVD for me. (aww, how sweet. right?) oh ladies... he is not off the hook yet... ;)

He then proceeded to say, "yeah, i got you this because I figured when you get all stressed out planning your wedding, this will be a good laugh!"

He really said "your" wedding!!!!!! Like it was just mine!!! Umm... I AM MARRYING YOU! It is OUR wedding, you silly boy :)

So if I am getting stressed, you are going down with me ;) and that comment allows me to force you to watch Bridesmaid's as many times as my little heart desires over the next nine months, while I plan "my" wedding"

ohh.. if it's MY wedding,that mean you will wear the pink tie? Perfect. Glad we got that settled ;)

She was so annoyed and not having the best day. She took a 15 minute break and decided to clear her head and make a coffee run to Starbucks.

She got in the drive-through and there was only one car in front of her. She waited, she waited, she waited... Her cell phone was ringing, her oil light was blinking and she needed to get back to work. But nooo... There was a car with an Alabama license plate in front of her. Seriously. what could they be doing? They had been sitting there for at leaaaaast 5 minutes. Then she saw the lady's hand come out of the car to hand the cashier the money (finally!) but THEN she drops a bunch of change out of the window. Quarters and pennies and dimes flew everywhere. "JUST. WHAT. I. NEED," she thought. Don't people from Alabama know what dollar bills are?!?! Who pays for their coffee in change? A twelve year old?

She was about to honk her horn when the car finally gathered all their change, got their coffee and drove off.

She took a deep breath and drove up to the window to finally get her coffee. The cashier slid open the window, flashed her smile and said, "Here's your coffee! The lady in front of you bought it for you!"

heard this story at church a few weeks ago ;)

seriously. i dare you. try it for the rest of the week :)

GREAT Blood Pressure!

I guess when I was little, I would constantly be checking the gas gauge from my booster in the backseat to see how much gas the car had. I had a HUGE fear of running out of gas. My dad finally starting telling me that the temperature gauge was actually the gas gauge, so I always thought we were at least half full. :)

I also remember my dad and I rented a movie at the little mini-market one day and I got a grape pop and my dad got a strawberry pop. We got in the car to drive home and I was sooooooo excited to drink my pop. My dad opened his and took a few swigs as we cruised up Lakeway Drive. I remember by dad asking why I was digging my fingernails into my legs and tapping my feet up and down while I CLENCHED my pop. I told him that I couldn't believe he was "drinking and driving" and that I was so nervous because we were breaking the law. :) Apparently I thought the law pertained to soda pop too, not just booze :)

Needless to say, while my anxiety was easier to see as I got older, I must have always been a busy, anxious gal :)

With the help of my lovely medicine and my psychologist, I am finally learning to just caaalllllmmm down.

Want proof? Of course you are so interested in my life that you want proof :)

Yesterday I had my annual, yearly, whatever they are called, doctor's appointment.

Let me first say. Prettttyy sure everyone at that place knows me by name and probably dreads answering the phone when they see it's me calling ;)

-Once they called to let me know that I had missed my appointment (I had thought it was 12/21 but it was really 12/12) and I cried hysterically for an hour that they would never let me come back and they would "fire" me as a patient. I called like three separate times to apologize but each time they assured me it was okay ;)

-For a few years I would NOT drink tap water because I read that Bellingham tap water was fluorinated. I also had read that fluoride weakened my thyroid medicine and made it less effective. LESS EFFECTIVE THYROID MEDICINE = WEIGHT GAIN. So of course, the only logical thing was to not drink ANY water that wasn't bottles and free from fluoride. So when I talked to the lovely office girl at my dr. office, she politely directed me to the water district website where I so learned, in fact, my tap water is not fluoridated ;)

-I called them when my dentist informed me I did not have ANY wisdow teeth to make sure that was normal. The dental hygientist kept telling me to, "consider yourself lucky! No surgery or anything!" I wasn't quite so sure until I heard it from my Dr. :)

-Numerous times I have forced them to check my blood sugar levels (only to find they are just fine :)

-This office has dealt with my 20 pound weight swings from year to year, and when I told them I couldn't sleep unless I had ran at least 4 miles :)

So needless to saaaaaay, I am sure they were all pleased as punch to see my name on the schedule Saturday morning :)

I. HAD. NOTHING. TO. TALK. ABOUT! :) :)
It was by FAR the shortest appointment I had every had there :) We chatted and I was off :)

I even told her how weird I felt not bringing in my list of questions. :)

Today I am grateful for good health, doctors and Prozac:)
oh AND... I have OUTSTANDING blood pressure, in case you were wondering ;)

So I'm not really into that whole feng shui, energy, vibe thing (although my mom did make me take out my belly button piercing in highschool because she said it was "letting out all my chi" and making me tired. aka she heard someone say that chi (energy) travels through your belly button so she was pulling a fast one on me to make me take it out. it worked...:) but I was talking to a lady who told HER...

think of opening up your closet every morning.

think of all the things that your
eyes scan as you look for something to wear.

every single morning, you look past
that red cardigan, that orange sundress, that "beautiful" sweater from Aunt Maggie and even that $200 cashmere turtleneck from Nordstrom's that you love but for some reason never wear.

even just spending 3 seconds scanning through all that stuff, you are losing energy :)

That turquoise blazer that you just had to have but don't like the length? Yep, you are giving some of your precious energy to that silly jacket!

okay. yes. sounds weird. but I was thinking about it. Seriously how many days have I looked at that cream Henley shirt in the middle left of my closest. At LEAST once a day for probably about 4 years now. that is like 1,500 TIMES I have glanced at that. Geeeeez. Think of what I could have accomplished with all that brain power and energy that I just WASTED on something as simple as picking out a shirt.

just an interesting idea for ya to ponder today :). Anything in your closet you could part with? I'm still not sure I can part with the Henley though. What if I want it this winter???????? :)