Delish

the new family of birds moved into the real bird house...

the boys came home and immediately went fishing.. not a bad catch for an afternoon... 

fridays are breakfast days... the one day of the week i let bub go to the caf and charge his 'breakfast' of Poptarts, juice, superdonut and whatever else sugary goodness he can find... i walked down the hall with him this morning and he interlaced fingers with me :) how much longer will he do this? not long enough... (of course as soon as people came into view he dropped my hand like a hot coal but hey a few minutes of bliss...



spring is here with all the mossy smells, birds chirping, hot wind, and  gorgeous greenness. our walks are just heavenly.

Goals 2010 Progress:

Meals= i'm thinking i should probably just blog about all the food people bless me with instead of struggle to keep to clean eating... earlier this week a friend brought in a strawberry crepe the morning i had gripped to hubs when the scale cursed me again... he stood by as she handed me the plate waited patiently while we chatted then as soon as she left he said "that's why. people are constantly giving you food. it's everywhere seriously." and he's right. so today was carry in and two people came in yesterday to prepare me for their creations today.  a peanut butter crunch pie and a chocolate eclair pie. both were delish and i only took a sliver of each. then students came down with another piece of the eclair s. had left over. thanks s. can i help it they know how much i appreciate their goodness?

Exercise= we both hit our alarms off instead of snooze today and were lucky to make it to work. no smoothies. dry toast and splenda Kool aid. yum.

Need Some Advice?

my 11 yr old boy is giving dating advice to someone over the phone... "yeah i'd date her until you found something about her you don't like.... no... bc she's a psycho... so now j. has a girlfriend too?!?!... whose next... no she just threw a chicken nugget at me... " i don't think he knows i'm sitting over here- tee hee hee.

	Look inside >
Spring 2010

stumbled upon this online mag by Sweet Paul... lots of food shots and sweet things..

this site could cost me some pennies Haute Look

the honeysuckle smells magnificent lately on our evening walks... the side street is unbelievably scented... another family of birds has nested on the front porch this time actually using the birdhouse!

very stressful month at work... counting down the days till summer... big plans for all those days off. well i do have to work some days but i have big plans for those too. i love making a plan but the implementing well that's a different story.

i am anxiously awaiting my new lens... this is like withdraw seriously...

my two turkeys went out looking for turkeys again this evening...

Goals Progress 2010:

Plan= not too shabby

Exercise= 30 min on treadmill this morning, listened to This American Life (my favorite NPR pod), and then watched a few trailers

Meals= green smoothie, coke zero, veggie beef stew, gold star chili cheese dip (if we were to eat as a family i had no choice... ok i could have had a salad... got to get better at those healthy choices. i'm no good on the fly)

Reads= proctored a test so i rewarded myself with sitting down to read for about an hour... started A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for our staff book club... i forgot Time Traveler at home

Boys and Girl

just getting back from a soccer game... bub doesn't play but we went to see a girl...... friend in his class play. she came to his bball games this winter. interesting. we went to wendy's afterward and the two kids sat at a table and bub let me know i was to sit elsewhere with her parents.... now tell me what we are doing here? 5th grade? really... but her parents were very enjoyable so no harm done. we talked earlier today-
5th Grade Boy- ' u r never gonna believe what happened today?!?!?'
mom- 'what'
5thGB- ' h. got a girlfriend!'
mom- 'really, who?'
5thGB 'o. she's so annoying'
mom- 'so h. likes her though right'
5thGB 'i don't think so. i think he just wants a girlfriend'
mom- ' HA. what about you?'
5thGB 'nope. but it's not like i don't got choices.'
.... and then we find ourselves 45 min from home watching a sports game we are not even playing in and then eating segregated at the local wendy's? really? no connection?

loving the green smoothies in the morning and i'm pretty sure they can take the credit for reducing cravings during the day and upping my energy level. i really feel like i've evened out throughout the day instead of riding the roller coaster.

i have an official hair appointment saturday afternoon. i'm always a little nervous and it ends up being nothing drastic. prom is that evening so i hope all goes well... i'm trying a new stylist. a girl i know from high school. i hope she has some fresh ideas.

finished 21 Proms today while trying to quietly monitor some testing... not good.. the book that is... i just don't think i can hand sell this one. and these are authors i like. what happened here?

i really like these shots from RedVelvetArt once again i'm still struggling with taking outfit shots. right now i am waiting for my new lens to ship. killing me not to have it. my small nikon is crap.

Persistence

on our way back in this afternoon we looked down crossing the dam and saw these little persistent guys trying to swim upstream... the water is gushing across the barrier and so fish etc are being swept out of the lake and down into overflow... rocks block these guys from the stream and they can't make it back up to the lake so what's a family to do? catch and release baby! hubs ran home to grab the throw net and we shuttled many little fishes back to the lake...

this snake we left alone...he can crawl out the sides if he's that desperate...

of course hubs thought they'd make good bait for tonight's tourney but bubs wouldn't hear of it... these guys get a second chance... 

today during a meeting it came up that one of my closest colleagues and a good friend only has 3 years until retirement... i was so shocked i flushed and announced my own retirement if all these people were going to bail on me! of course i have ahem a few more years before i can do so but hey i had no idea she was so close to retiring... hubs and i have been here so long our friends are slowing leaving and the new guard is coming in... young pups... young pups i'm not so close to with a great history with or go sit in their office to shoot the breeze or who come in to talk me down off the ledge once in awhile... two of my closest mentors are retiring this year and really i don't know who will keep order and logic alive around here like these two... what now? how after all these years does it feel like i'm starting over? i guess i'll just have to learn a little persistence :)

my house smells like wet dog... and i love it... marina so wanted to help rescue the fish but i didn't want her to get all wet and slimey and then get in my truck so i took her down to the dock when we got home and threw the ball for awhile... she swam and swam and the ducks sat just out of reach and watched us... her tail wagged and she splashed until finally i had to come home to pay bills. blech... 

Goals 2010 Progress: 

Plan+ not so good Al, i did pay bills and clean off my desk... once again we are in the poor house :)

Quiet+ devotion this morning... about 4 hours of meetings today, brainstorming, grad planning etc. no time to be quiet

Exercise+ morning yoga, crunches and sit ups

Meals+ green smoothie, veggie beef stew, water, (really needed a pepsi when i heard the retirement news but did not give in.... until after work when bub stopped at Gold Star) pepsi, a few chippies and chili dip from hubs meal, leftover bbq chicken pizza (i'm not a GS fan), water

Reads+ i am so not impressed with 21 Proms and hope to start Time Travelers Wife soon

Sky High!

i am in love with these shoes! amazing how much taller they made me today... this is the H&M skirt from the montgomery goodwill boutique for $10. it's a sweater material and very flattering, although hard to figure out what to wear with it, did this work? i am so in need of a haircut... i don't have a steady stylist so i'm branching out tomorrow and calling a 'friend' on facebook to see what she can do at Wildflower Salon...

the male pheasant sat in the middle of the road this morning and refused to move... i actually had to drive around him!

watched Drop Dead Diva today since i missed it the whole first season... it's alright to watch while i'm working in the kitchen... Naomi Campbell was on Oprah today... so sad these high powered, famous people who are so lonely and lost out there surrounded by hundreds of people... watched The Good Wife pilot on my ipod while on the treadmill... that's a pretty good one too...

somehow i inadvertently gained a new friend at work... i am horrified that we sell iced coffees complete with whip cream for breakfast and i commented such to a few students... one took it to heart and we've started talking nutrition and now he confesses his frappes and boasts of his triumphs... i may have made a green smoothie convert...

2010 Goals Progress:

Plan+ exercised, devotion, eating plan, walked dog, dishes, laundry, put things back in place...

Quiet+ devotion this morning, lots of quiet working today since may is the busiest on both graduation and library fronts

Exercise+ 15min treadmill, 45 min dog walk

Reads+ Bible, still reading 21 Proms and i'm not won over yet, i did finish Julia Cameron's The Writing Diet and i really liked it, nothing really new here but good to hear and write through the process of eating clean

Meals+ Green smoothie, water, 2 pieces leftover pizza, yogurt, 2 cups veggie beef soup, sf arnold palmer

Spending+ none!

The View

this is the view from my studio door... what a dream...










the boys catch at yesterday's spring tourney... they came in 6th i think with 11.5lbs.


after services today we had our usual lunch at Larosa's and then went to replace my micro lens today and pete said he had none in stock... so i guess i purchase online bc i can not wait 3 more weeks to get it... makes me uncomfortable to buy my lens online but so be it... we've got to come up with some more eating choices for a sunday afternoon. Friday's, Chili's, Larosa's, BW3's, really we need to branch out- gonna make a list, any suggestions?

the boys went fishing in the pouring down rain and again i have to ask- who are these people?

i am loving my Ugg houseshoes my mom gave me for my birthday last month... and i picked up these liberty print silk pj bottoms at a thrift store last weekend...

my plants from yesterday's sale include cabbage, tomatoes, some herbs, squash- i need to pot these up tomorrow

Goals Progress 2010:
Meals: 1/2 granola bar, water, 1/2 a JoJo's salad and 1 piece cheese pizza, more water, my first Yagoot! yogurt and must say yummy- banana no toppings comes in at 120 calories, a few chippies, vanilla tea, green smoothie

Spending: picked up some lens filters, drug store items (bub is starting to hit pre-puberty so he needed introduced to the Clearasil aisle), cheap lunch and 2 small Yagoots were only $5. that's not too bad!

Thrifting and trading

i do love new beginnings... i'm so glad it is May 1st!

yesterday after work a friend and i went in search of a 50's shirtwaist dress a la June Cleaver at Valley Thrift on Rt. 4 and the Goodwill there... prom is next weekend and i like to dress the theme like a true nerd...the Valley Thrift on Reading is much, much better even price wise but i found a few things :) however online the Valley Thrift said it was open until 8 but they practically chased us out at 7pm. not good since we work for a living... in the boon docks and can't make it to "town" that early... but at goodwill i found a $2. Lilly Pulitzer skirt, and a target skirt i just saw in the store last week and thought i'd like it but didn't want to spring for it full price...

then we had to swing into Jungle Jim's bc it is the most awesome supermarket evva! my friend m is the family and consumer science teach at our school so we had a list and went in search of strange things that of course Jim had...

where else, i ask you, do you find a salsa bar to scoop out your favorite? M is on the other side deciding between the artichoke salsa and the habenero spiced salsa... and Jake from Life is Good was there to welcome us...

i ended up with a pineapple, strawberries (3 packs for $5.), several wrapped cheeses, candy dispensers for bub, artichoke salsa (i consumed during one sitting today- alone), some gifts (shh!), a huge bucket of spinach for our smoothies, tenderloin and once again my search for macaroons that look like these continues... coconut macaroons abound but not the cookie kind

 

we finally had dinner about 10:30 at Olive Garden and it was yummy... so nice to be able to share spinach and artichoke dip with someone who likes it... however how can i even complain about my man these days since he is not only slurping down a green smoothie every morning but he is the one making them!

hubs even got to work before six yesterday to whip up breakfast for bub's class to help fill their tummies for the state testing... of course i'm not sure chocolate gravy and biscuits is the most nutritious meal b4 test the kiddies requested it and so he obliged... apparently the teach mentioned they could have some breakfast friday what did they like and several of the boys in bub's class said bub's dad makes the best breakfast when they stay over... well ya can't argue there!

the boys did a little shopping themselves while i was out yesterday... our community has their yard sales today and the community gets a friday night preview... check out this stool bub's picked up... i have no idea what it is exactly but the details are cool and the writing didn't bring a hit on google... any ideas? i went out for a little while this afternoon but it was a pretty sad showing so not much... picked up a set of salt and pepper shakers for work, a pair of wedge heels, Clue- to use the board in a project, a measuring cup for work, some books...

The new Orla Kiely Lookbook is fabulous... and speaking of fabulous there's my hair, well not so fabulous... i really need an actual style not just cut... it's long and shapeless and my bangs don't cooperate... maybe this week i'll commit to an appointment...

 

did i mention my Nikon D50 micro lens broke...

i love her, may she rest in peace, i must replace her immediately...

how many more days will we be able to sit in the evening with the windows and the door open wide with marina standing watch on the back porch? my favorite weather- 70 and a little lower in the evening... no air conditioner or heater...i watched the first episode of Parenthood today and was pleasantly surprised, i got a little choked up- twice...

You've Got Mail was on again today that's got to be like 60 times this year i've watched or listened to parts of it... even hubs chirped in with upcoming scene quotes...

i love this dress by Loliposh on Etsy...

I'm down to 50 days until my 20 year high school reunion and i have only lost 8 lbs since Jan 1... not good... so i'm on hyperdrive... well ok the chips with the salsa not such a great dieting choice but they replaced dinner... so i'm back to blogging my meals and goals...

Goals Progress 2010:

Meals+ ham and turkey on rye with just a tad mayo and lots of spinach, side of strawberries, milk, Coke Vanilla Zero, bit of bub's chocolate (he handed it over said 'taste this' and i did wo thinking), few chips, lotsa salsa, water, oh and a bite of wild turkey marinated in italian dressing- my hubs 2nd cousin was more successful than he and bub at turkey hunting last week...

Spending+ not so bad, not too many deals out there except the $8. printer with extra ink and a pack of photo paper, figured the paper along would cost me $8. , some beginning veggie plants and herbs from the ladies club...

Quiet+ nice saturday morning alone while the boys fished a tourney then i garage saled with my parents for about an hour before going to the weigh in.. bub went with the 'rents to family gathering while hubs slept the rest of the evening and i caught up here!

Nails+ 50 days to start from scratch! again! man this is a problem area!

Plan+ i did about 3 hours of cleaning, laundry, organizing etc this morning to prepare for the busy week ahead...