Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Feel Good Animal Videos...Thanks YouTube

This adorable flying squirrel is from CUTE OVERLOAD. Love that website, always makes me SMILE!!


This hamster has no idea what to do with its dog bone that is as big as itself.



Look at this feisty fellow! Ninja Hamster.



Love these Simon's cat videos!


And a little music for my ears!



Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Feeling Like Some Quotes

Here is my heartfelt attempt at positivity today!


Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. - Rabindranath Tagore

Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit. - Bern Williams

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
- Confucius

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. - John F. Kennedy

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable comb
ination. -Nelson Mandela

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. - William Shakespeare


Monday, April 25, 2011

The Newbees

Clay repopulated our hive yesterday with a new set of bees. Our last hive got overrun by wax moths last year and we lost the colony. My job this morning after getting home from work was to remove the screen box they came in and place the feeder on top. They had already made themselves at home in their new hive although there were some stragglers left in the screen box.

They were all in a tizzy, especially once I opened the bag of sugar water and poured it into the feeder. I am just tickled pink that I didn't get stung. I had all my gear on of course but I remembered a very important step...I placed hair rubber bands around the ankles of my jeans to avoid a repeat of the up-the-pants stinging that happened last year. = )

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Scrabble and Mushrooms

Killer and I discussed our strategy while playing mom in scrabble this evening. Enjoyed a glass of lemonade while getting some fresh air and participating in some healthy competition.

For dinner we had awesome veggie portabella pizzas.

Art and Enchilada Kind of Day

Made Sweet Potato and Pinto Enchiladas per HTP's recipe. I must admit that i was very skeptical after mixing everything up and it looked like baby food. The only addition I made was some cumin and fenugreek to spice it up a little. After I pulled these puppies out of the oven I was a convert. The smell was amazing and they got two thumbs up from both me and mom (the taste tester). I did sprinkle a little cheddar on top after baking and they were perfect. Served them up with a side of quinoa with black beans and topped with corn, cucumber, tomato, onion, and cilantro. YUMMY!!!

I hung my new piece of art done by my best friend, Allyson. I love a peacock. Sorry for the glare, I was letting the sun come all in my window which is right beside the picture. I caught the crafty bug myself and started a new collage. I will post my old collage later with *hopefully* a pic of my new finished collage.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Recipe

After I stepped outside to this beautiful day I decided that I needed to make some fresh LEMONADE. Plus the momster is coming to visit today and Clay has a job interview - great day for lemonade huh? So while in the freshy fresh mood I was cutting up some fresh pineapple and realized that I had some cilantro in the fridge too, after adding a few more items I ended up with this super easy fantastically light tasting salad. This would be even better with a little onion, but I think I will add it right when I am about to eat it.

1/2 fresh cored pineapple diced small

2 long celery stalk diced small

1 rinsed can chick peas

fresh cilantro to taste


Wow! Can you believe it was that easy to make? We couldn't either...we were SHOCKED!!

More fun photos from mine and Ally's crazy cheeseburger yelling weekend.

More Weekend Shenanigans

Check out the awesome glasses at one of the antique shops. Totally guilty of trying random things on. So is the best friend, at least it wasn't just me. Could you resist these glasses?

Love this OOOPs, out of focus pic of us!

Ok, that's what we really look like. Still laughing about the previous pic. Absolutely perfect weekend. Storms Friday night. Ominous clouds alternating with gorgeous blue skies and blustery weather Saturday and PERFECTLY perfect weather Sunday for a little sun absorption.

Yeah, not exactly pin-up material, but that is what we were going for. Ha Ha

Awesome truck and perfect roadside photo prop!

Monday, April 18, 2011

What Was I Doing This Weekend?

Early Saturday morning walk with the doggies.

Stopped for a quick photo op with this awesome painted fish wall.

Met the best friend for a girl's weekend.

Went perusing antique and art shops.

Gotta love a great free photo prop.

This giraffe was getting some serious love.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Sister's Art Show

Me and the little sis. She had her art showing in a student gallery at her college. Her photo won first place in the 2-D category. So proud!!

She and the mom figure checking out her photo, which was actually taken from the bottom of mom's closet.

Sorry about the glare. Her photo that won..."A child's view"- a favorite hiding place for us growing up.

Sarah's painting which I loved! The lighting on her painting wasn't the best it glared on the acrylic paint.

Funny picture of mom and Sarah's boyfriend, Drew. (I was playing around with my camera)


Mom and Sarah talking at the same time. We use lots of hand gestures in our family.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Back to ATL

On the road again.

Here's my little killa hanging out with me on the drive. Chico prefers the back seat but killer will cry for the whole trip if she is banished to the back.

New running shoes!!

As you can tell I am very HAPPY about my new shoes!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Back to Working Out

Been hitting the gym the past 2 days. Wednesday I improved my treadmill 5K time again...down to 40:15 and what was most exciting about this was that I jogged/ran for 35 of those minutes straight. What an awesome feeling! I also did BICEPS and TRICEPS. Today was workout with Joey (my trainer) we worked LEGS followed up by 45 on elliptical at 7-9 resistance. Felt great through. I had some new tunes that helped me through my workouts.





Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Early Morning Recipe Experimentation

A little hungry this morning and wanting something warm and sweet. Mixed about 1/4 cup whole wheat pancake mix, 1/8 cup uncooked quinoa, 1 banana, 1 egg, a dash of vanilla and butter extracts, 1 tbsp each of poppy seeds and chia seeds, juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon (think I will use a whole lemon next time since they weren't as lemony as I would have liked) mix all items and mashed banana then cooked the whole whole thing like a giant pancake. Yay for happy tummy!

Earlier tonight I tried Moringstar Farm's buffalo Chik-n bites which were surprisingly good but did need a little extra sauce in my opinion. Paired that with some carrots (which I also dipped in the buffalo sauce) and some olive oil lemon feta hummus chips.




These things are soooo good!!!
Found this recipe for pumpkin quinoa granola online this morning, I think I will be making this on my next day off. It looks so delicious!

After 5 days off exercising thanks to a cold I decided to ease back into it today with an AB workout and 30 minutes on the elliptical. Looking forward to some good workouts later this week! We had a nice rain tonight, it stormed for maybe an hour total, I know all my plants will be happy today.

Storms, Salad, and Shrimp

Thanks to my best friend, Allyson, I got out of my refried bean rut tonight. I had been eating refried beans for 5-6 days. Her suggestion...shrimp. I never think about making shrimp but they are so tasty and like fish it is a meat that I really don't mind cooking. I also made a delicious salad with roma tomatoes, cucumber, black olives, chick peas, onion, olive oil, lemon juice, fresh basil, and salt and cracked pepper. Been sick with a cold all weekend and it was nice to start the week feeling better and with some good eats.

We are going to have storms tonight and I am excited to be off work so that I can enjoy them. Thinking about storms today I remembered a great one that we watched roll in on Florida's gulf coast a few years ago. The only thing better than a storm at home is a beach storm!