diet food

so good... that was dinner

SOUTH BEACH (diet) HERE WE COME!

So Eric and I are unhealthy, generally round... I'm WAY rounder than he is, and need to change a few things. We cleaned out our pantry of all the bad foods that are making us bigger, and went and replaced them with good foods that will make our health better. Day 1... kinda grumpy. Could have something to do with being up since 4am, who knows. :)

our fridge after we "de-badified" it

after a grocery shopping trip... tons and tons of veggies!

Not Goodbye, "See You Later"

Michelle and Todd left this morning. Going back to Oregon to help out mom and dad. The house is empty, and the cat is very confused as to where his bestest friend Todd went. They'll be missed.

Todd and Eric (waaayyy to early in the morning)

Checking in (one flight attentant, one security guard, and they move from checking in people to doing the boarding security detail. LOL small airports, gotta love em)

Michelle, Eric and Todd

Michelle, Eric and Me

Some assembly required

We bought a grill. Some assembly required. We put it together. We are still married... enough said.

box o' grill

um, yeah, that's exactly what it looked like

almost done (1 1/2 hours after starting, two bloody fingers, and multiple colorful words later)

yes dear, I'm happy we got a grill

Lawnmower Part 2

So there was this time about two weeks ago that I thought to myself that a push mower would be a wonderful thing for our lawn. Something to keep me in shape, and no gas/oil needed. It worked, not super great, but well enough to look like we mowed our lawn. Come the next time we took it out to mow, the wheel broke off. Sigh, so into a box, back to Amazon it goes.

Eric bought another mower. One that is power operated, but it still takes work, and it doesn't go by itself. So he put together my new lawn mower, and tomorrow, while he fishes, I will try this whole thing again.

hopefully this one works better, not throwing away the box for a whole two weeks though

rocket surgeon

yep, it works

on a completely side note, I have horrible luck with rings. The expensive ones that Eric gets me tend to have their stones fall out and get lost or the metal band breaks because I do too much stuff with them on. So, to combat that, I got a beautiful set of rings... fake, but beautiful. This way, when they get broken, lost, stolen, or anything else, they're Easily and Cheaply replaceable. :)

A decade ago, really

Soooo, I'm going back to school. I start April 12th, 10 days before my birthday. I am a bit nervous because I haven't been in a classroom environment since college. But, it will be yet another one of my adventures, as my dad says. I am excited and happy. To celebrate getting registered, I took myself to Starbucks and then to Walgreen's to get some school supplies. :) I love the feel of new college lined paper... and I can use it without guilt because, of course, I'm in college now. Yay!

my going to college to register look

it's official :)

New Lawn Mower (me!)

I wanted a lawn mower to take care of the front yard, but I didn't want to deal with the gas/oil/expense/noise. So, I looked online and found a little push mower, where I'm all the gas that I need. It came last night, Eric and I put it together and I tried it out this morning.

What a good little workout. It works great on grass that isn't too tall, it is like a pair of shears cutting the grass as you walk with it. I tell you what, I was ready for some iced-tea after just finishing the front yard. I'm pretty sure I'll finagle Eric into doing the backyard.

"green" lawnmower

just a little assembly required

rocket surgery apparently

all finished, how cute (both the mower and my husband)



Also, last night I had a slight bit o' insomnia, so while watching diners drive-ins and dives, I got the idea to make caramel pecan sticky buns for breakfast. Good thing I mowed the lawn right after, worked off about 1/8th of a pecan's worth of calories. :)

they were soooooooooooooo good (rated by the number of "o"s in so)



Bad Weather and Good Movies

So when we moved to Georgia, I thought to myself.... self (cus that's what I call myself) the weather here is going to be warm and wonderful. Cut to last night, not warm, windy, super super chilly, and all around schmegh.

To combat the schmeghness of the day, we decided to have family movie night. I had just gotten some of the classic Disney movies from Amazon. I made home made chewy warm chocolate chip cookies, we popped in a couple DVDs and had a wonderful cozy evening as a family. Thank you Mr Disney and Mrs Fields.

I love this movie, and that's all that really needs to be said

We watched Candleshoe, but not the Parent Trap

The cookies were a hit, butt ugly, but very tasty.

I got bored again

In my house, people know that if I get bored they are going to EAT. And I mean.... eat and eat and eat. I made dinner, but I also was seriously lacking some snacks. So, after googling (a word that is no longer allowed on some college campuses) snacks, I found this wonderful recipe for soft buttery pretzels. OHMYGOSHNESS, they are scrumdidilyumptious. Eric helped form one or two. I made just shy of two dozen, and as of right now, there are 5 left. I'm pretty sure that by bedtime they will all be gone.

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

4.5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

 

1/2 cup baking soda

4 cups hot water

1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

I let them rise a little after forming them, brushed them with melted butter and enjoyed. Wowzers. Super awesome.

please disregard the hair

formed, dipped and second rise

Eric helping form pretzels

Eric's "bug" pretzel

baked and glorious

soo delicious

how they SHOULD be eaten, with yellow mustard

People of Wal-Mart

I really wanted to get the best shot of this guy that I could, but it's hard to pretend to text while aiming a camera and trying not to throw up. Eric, Michelle, Todd and I went to Wal-Mart to get stuff for her new car. And, while buying Eric some new jeans, we found this gem of a man. I saw more crack than a house of ill repute in a seedy downtown area.

you can't see it as "well" as I saw it, but whoo boy, Eric's in the back ground "cracking" up

new(ish) car

Michelle got a car! Yay!