Lots going on!

James and I have lots on our plates right now! We are trying to get the house clutter free and painted and pretty before the end of the summer. Lots of work to do but it will be so worth it in the end.

I am going for my follow up PAP test tomorrow following my LEEP procedure from January. I am realllllllly hoping that it comes back negative as I do not want to go through all of that again. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Weekend off!

I finally had a weekend off! I needed a weekend off to get away from work, from my house, from everything. The weather wasn't 100% cooperative, but I take what I can get!I went to the lake on Friday night with my Dad. About 15 minutes from the lake house Dutch decided that he was going to sit on my lap in the front seat of the van. The whole ride up he was fidgety, trying to sit as close to the window on the driver's side that he could. Finally I figured it out! My parents had purchased replacement screen sliders for the doors. They were in the van, up against the door and when they rattle the sound like... GATES! So, we let Dutch stay up front with me because he was clearly scared. Then he got to get an ice cream cone from McDonald's. He felt better after that, it was a good distraction.Saturday morning we went for a hike. It was supposed to be a geocaching trip, but with only luck of finding 1 out of the 4 I had downloaded, it was more of an exploratory hike. We went to the other side of the lake and went on the Ellis R. Hatch trail in the wildlife management area. This has been here for quite a while, close to the lake, and we have never even known about it.This area contains a pond - well, a stream. It used to be a pond but the man made earthen dam had a leak in 2004 so now it is reduced to a stream. It was pretty neat to see what a pond looks like drained - where the stumps are, big rocks, the contours of the bottom of the pond. Very neat!

This was the first part of the pond system that we saw first. Still had quite a bit of water in it.

My dad and Dutch decided to go explore the middle of the big pond. Dutch needed a drink!

A view from the corner of the "pond".

A view of the "pond" from the end. It looks like it was a pretty good sized pond!

Dutch became very tired and collapsed in the mud. This scared me because he has never done this before. It wasn't hot out and the walk to this point was not that far...

If you have a fear of spiders, stop reading here!

I found this spider by accident! I was taking a picture of this pretty flower. I looked back as I started to walk away and noticed that the yellow pollen area of the flower had moved. Hmmmm... I had never seen a goldenrod crab spider before! It is also called a goldenrod flower spider. I think that this yellow one is a female. When James and I went back on Sunday this spider had the flower petal closed at the end, perhaps hiding her egg ball.

This is the picture from Sunday. Notice that she is eating and that the petal is closed up with a small piece of web showing.
I scared her and she put her lunch down. These spiders do not attack humans and are not harmful to humans. These spiders do not spin webs to catch food, they pretend to be part of the flower and attract insects with their markings. Then, when the pray is close enough, the goldenrod crab spider pounces on the insect.


The goldenrod crab spider is not always yellow. The yellow color is a pigment produced by the spider if they feel that the color best suits the flower they are using as a house. Apparently the spider can also be white or whiteish. It takes only a few days for the spider to turn from yellow to white, but up to 2 weeks for it to turn from white to yellow. It takes time to produce that yellow pigment! Well, I became curious when James and I were walking from the yellow spider to the next geocache and I thought I would peek at a white flower along the way. Guess what! A white goldenrod crab spider! I knew that if there was one spider there had to be more!
What you lookin' at?

So Proud

James and I have been together for over a year and a half now. It seems as time is just flying by. I guess that is what happens when you have fun! James and I do not get to spend a lot of time together when we are at home due to our work schedules, but we do try to make the best of it when we have time off together. We are already planning our summer activities - painting, yard sale, sailing, family visits, and just enjoying each other.

One of our goals for the next 6 months is to be more physically fit. So, we each purchased some new running shoes! And... yes, we actually went running. We have only been once together, but I have gone on my own and James has been taking Dutch for more walks. We have plans to go running every Sunday, rain or shine. We are both 30 now, so there is no turning back on our health and well being. Plus, we will be in St. John in 6 months so we need to get our butt in gear!

I am very proud of James for making the changes he has been making to better our lives together. Someday we will hopefully have kids and we need to be healthy enough to support them financially, emotionally and physically.

James, you are my best friend and the love of my life. I truly appreciate you and look forward to all of the time we spend together.

Free Money for Your School

Did you know that you can link your Stop & Shop card to your school? I was just surfing their site looking for deals when I stumbled upon the program.

To learn more about this program and to register your card to your local school, click here!

If your school is not registered, make sure to contact your principal to make sure the school gets registered for the 2010-2011 school year.

No problem, mon.

We are back from Jamaica! Yep, we were in Jamaica this last week. The annual manager's trip for James' company took us to the Iberostar Grand Resort in Rose Hall. You know, the normal 5 star all inclusive resort. Nice rooms, pool with swim up bar, incredible beach area with spectacular ocean views, and 150 men enjoying themselves at the pool swim up bar.

The view from the lunch buffet area on day one.

First beverage of the trip, one of the few. This was not a drinking vacation for me. In fact we had some drinks on the beach that were non alcoholic because we didn't say "with rum". Who knew you needed to tell the waitress that you wanted rum in your pina colada? So, we learned the next day that you need to say "with rum" when ordering fruity mixed drinks that are supposed to have rum in them.

The same drink. At this point I realized that I should have gotten some food first.


Pumpkin avacado salad! I discovered that there was quite a bit of pumpkin that was used in the food. I love pumpkin so I will have to find recipes for these dishes online! I could go for some pumpkin avacado salad any day!


This is one of the great scenes that I captured as the sun was setting one evening. There is a sunken ship in the slight distance. Not sure if it was there because there was an accident or if it was for tourists to gawk over.


James enjoying some beach time.


Getting ready to leave for the airport. We had some time to kill so we went to the beach for one last "ahhhhh" moment.

We had a great time. No sunburns to speak of and I only slightly injured myself getting off of the tour bus. We did go to Dunn's River Falls on a "half day" trip. We left at 9 and got back at 3... I guess that is considered a half day. The falls were beautiful! Not as tall as I had pictures, but just gorgeous! There will be video to come on that excursion soon.

Dancing Chicken

Here it is! Fresh off the flip cam! Happy 30th birthday, James!




Thanks to James' assistant Kevin and sales guy Brian for helping me coordinate this! The guy on the ladder in the back of the store and who comes up behind James recording the event is his boss. Perhaps this will be shown at the meeting in Jamaica!

$10k is underway!

Week one of my plan to save $10k in 365 days is almost done and things are not going so well. My car is approaching 100k miles and things are starting to happen to it. My driver's side view mirror glass fell off on the highway on Wednesday night! I had to order the part, pretty cheap. $26 for the whole glass/turning mechanism unit. Unfortunately Honda charges an hour of labor to install it. I highly doubt it takes an hour to do this. Charge for hour of labor? $95!!! So I stopped by AutoZone on the way home yesterday to purchase a $7 cut-to-fit stick on mirror. All I needed was the glass anyway. So, we will see if I can successfully install this stick on mirror and save $100.

Dutch also needed some new stuff that was not in my budget. He has been choking on his food because he is eating way too fast. $34 on slow eating bowls and accessories.

Oh, and gas prices are going up.

This is going to be quite the challenge. Follow my $10k blog by clicking here!

Samosas!

James and I went to visit my friend Jen and her baby up at CHaD the other week. We went out for Indian food because apparently there is a great Indian place up there that came highly recommended by the nurses of Indian heritage.

I am not sure if it was the way Indian was supposed to taste or maybe I am just used to the great Indian food down here in Manchester, but I was not impressed at all. I think that the chicken came from a package of precut strips! We did have a very yummy appetizer called Samosas. They are crispy dough pockets filled with potato and vegetable filling. There were a few dipping sauces that we had to go along with the samosas. My favorite was the onion chutney.

So, tonight we had the Turkish beans that I made in my previous post as well as some Samosas with red onion chutney!

Potato, peas, and curry all cooking in the wok.

Rolled out dough

Stuffed and ready to be cooked

cooking...

All done and ready to eat!

They came out pretty good. Not the same fluffy dough that we had at the place up in Lebanon.

Barbunyali Plaki

Today is my first day off of the week! I decided that I needed to cook today so that we have some food for the week. So, what is on today's menu you ask? Barbunyali Plaki! I had recently purchased 11 bags of dry beans. This recipe called for Pinto beans, which of course I had a bag of in the cabinet. I have never had Pinto beans before so I thought I would try this different recipe.According to vegweb.com, this is a "traditional Hellenic recipe with origins to the Armies of Alexander" and also has been enjoyed in Turkish cuisine. It finished cooking and although it is supposed to be served chilled, I enjoyed it warm with a splash of fresh lemon juice. It was pretty good. The recipe does not call for salt of pepper so the lemon really made the dish. It was very flavorful especially since the recipe called for 8-10 cloves of garlic! Not overly flavored, but a smooth flavor.
Click the link above to try this recipe! Here are the few stages of cooking.

8 cloves of garlic, 1 diced carrot, and 1 large onion cooking in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook until tender.

Added the 4 diced tomatoes, freshly cooked Pinto beans, and water to cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.

The finished (warm) product spritzed with lemon.

I am going to be $10k richer!

So... if you haven't heard yet, I am on a mission to save $10,000 in 365 days! Starting April 1 I am going to be adhering to a strict budget to squirrel away $10k. I have planned out a budget, which I hope will be pretty realistic. As the budget goes right now I am going to be able to save just over $8500. My plan is to really pinch my pennies and scrape a few hundred more into the savings. Oh, and sell of some junk I have cluttering my house. And... maybe... just maybe... sell off my hot wheels collection. I know. This all sounds just crazy. But, I am going to do it! I even have a different blog in hopes that the fad catches on. It is in the beginning stages, but I hope to have savings info, cool links to savings sites... you know - the how to for those with no clue. Just like me!

Check it out at http://10kin365.blogspot.com! Wish me luck!

Millet is for the birds...

... and humans! Millet is an ancient grain. It is pretty bland, but done right it can be pretty good. I took a look at a recipe on the back of the millet bag and found that there was a recipe for a millet and corn dish with a sprinkling of gomaiso -which I made myself.

To the millet and whole kernel corn mixture (post cooking) I added a can of black beans, a handful of chopped cilantro, and a bit of gomaiso. I then stuffed the mixture into peppers, roasted it, and sprinkled the resulting dish with a bit more gomaiso and cheese. Yummy! Just needed a bit more heat (spice). James liked it enough to eat millet again with more seasoning.

I forgot to take pictures after the baking process. So you will just have to use your imagination!

Risotto, attempt #1

Tonight I decided to make risotto for dinner. Never made it before. I have never ate it before either! So this was going to be quite the adventure!

The before picture. Arborio Rice and the instrument of torture - the spoon.

Mid way through the cooking process.

Done!

Yes, I realize that this was probably not the healthiest dish to eat, but we made it together and it tasted good. Well, kind of good. The rice could have been cooked just a few more minutes and a bit more liquid. We adjusted the recipe to cut down on the amount of finished product and didn't have enough vegetable stock to get it done. We thought it would pass, but we just needed about 1 more cup for perfection.

Polished it off with fresh grated parm and a bit of butter and voila! C'est fini! Yes, I know there was 1/4 cup of cheese and 1 table spoon of butter in this, but I ate it. I had pizza and cake today at a bday party so I figured that eating some just about "expired" (there was mold on the other end) cheese and 1/3 table spoon of butter wouldn't kill the day.

James liked it. He even said that I should put some broccoli in it next time! YAY!

Grapefruit... My new best friend.

I used to hate grapefruit. I guess every kid hates grapefruit. When I was little I had to smother it with sugar and could only eat a few pieces before passing it on to my dad. Today is much a different story!

I LOVE grapefruit! Even better, I eat it the way it is most flavorful - sugar free! Alton Brown did have grapefruit on his show the other day. He put a thin layer of sugar on the grapefruit, torched it, then sprinkled sea salt on the top. I bet it is good, but not for me. I am really trying to eat food as close to its natural state as I can.

I have found that I can find grapefruit, large grapefruit, for a $1 each at one of my local grocery stores. Due to their size, I eat half of a grapefruit for breakfast - $.50 for breakfast! Yes, half a grapefruit is not a huge breakfast, but you don't need to eat a huge breakfast. I might have a healthy mid morning snack to follow my grapefruit but nothing dramatic (like half of a bagel that I posted the other day).

Cheap and healthy - a perfect match!

Lifestyle changes...

... I forgot to mention that I read a book titled Skinny Bitch on my trip. After reading this book I have decided to cut out as much animal products from my diet as I can. So far I have been pretty successful!

I have been doing research and there are many good reasons to not eat animal products - meat, dairy, eggs, etc. Not only do animal farms hurt the environment, make our drugs less effective, and tolerate inhumane treatment of animals, but our bodies are not designed to eat that much animal products.

It has been just over a month and I sleep much better, think more clearly, expel waste much more easily... and I have even lost about 15 pounds!

I try to eat fresh fruit every morning for breakfast to help keep things moving... but when I am super hungry or for a great mid morning snack (or lunch or dinner) I really enjoy whole wheat (egg free) bagels with hummus and tomato slices! It is filling, tasty, and pretty healthy!


I can't say that I have been 100% animal product free. I had calamari while in PA a few weeks back and I also had some salmon last night. Oh, and I did have some chicken tikka masala. I have learned that Dunkin Donuts does not have soy milk - therefore I have had some milk in a few coffees.

I am committed to trying new recipes and discovering new foods. So far I have done very well. I am proud of myself for my accomplishments thus far. Hopefully I will be keeping up with my challenge and it won't be a challenge any more, it will be normal!

The best vacation EVER!

So far. I am sure we have many great vacations coming our way, including our annual Town Fair Tire trip coming in May. Jamaica here we come!

But, this is about our trip to St. John, USVI. This was my 30fest. And what a 30fest it was! We left NH in cold, wet weather very early in the morning and arrived in paradise in the afternoon. It was totally amazing to see the clouds slowly disappear and have beautiful islands magically pop up from the deep blue water.

I have yet to edit the videos that we took with our Flip camera. But, I know most of you have been waiting to see some video. Once I figure out how to get the video from the Flip program on my computer to connect with bloggert I will let you know!

Wow. I'm 30.

I am 30. At first I thought this was going to be a scary thing, but it has actually been a great event for me!

On my birthday I had the pleasure of inviting my friends and family to join me at the Toys for Tots facility for some volunteer time. We sorted toys and then bagged the toys for distribution. It is so rewarding to help others.

On a "grown up" note I have been able to look back at some major events of my life with a new pair of eyes. I believe that everything happens for a reason and without those major events I would not be in the happy place that I am in today!

I am looking forward to my next 30 years. This is going to be a great decade with lots of joy in store.

Playing Catch-up!

I am sitting in bed trying to sleep, very unsuccessfully. I am transitioning to a few days of overnights at work and the first day is always the worst. Operating on 3 hours of sleep in the past 31 hours has not made for a good day. So, what's a girl to do when she can't sleep? Update her very past due blog! It appears that I have not updated since the beginning of August. Ouch. Here is what has happened since then:

1. We got a new fridge!
2. We went on our first camping vacation! Visiting my VA family.
2a. Took Tomas to Busch Gardens.
2b. Went to the Wright Bros. museum in Kitty Hawk, NC.
2c. Took a stop on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for a geocache and saw some Naval power.
3. Went to a Nascar race.
4. Attended the Walk for Autism.
5. Went Trick or Treating.

Virginia Vacation Summer '09

James and I decided to do something fun and new for both of us while still enjoying our vacation and being eco-conscious. We went camping! Yes, camping in VA at the end of August is very warm and humid. We stayed at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. It is located on the north east side of the city - not far from where you get on and off the Ches. Bay Bridge. This camping trip was so much fun!

Our awesome camp site before we set anything up.

Putting the finishing touches on our home away from home.

Nothing beats breakfast on a campfire!

Tomas and Irina meeting Cookie Monster at the Sesame Street lunch at Busch Gardens.

James and I at the landing spot of the first flight!

We ate at this awesome BBQ place! Funny sign too.

Inbound aircraft carrier, outbound sub. This was so cool.
We did a cache on the way home. I believe it was a park in VA on route 13 north of the Ches. Bay Bridge. These are old ships that are stripped down and used as breakers- there had to be at least 10 ships. This was an amazing park!

Nascar race

Our friend Megan got some free tickets to the Nascar race at NHIS for Sept 20th. So, we took her up on her offer to go to the race. I don't think any of us were super excited to go, but at least we can say that we went... and that we didn't pay for it.

NHIS... this is a big facility.

I would like you all to notice the shirtless man. It wasn't crazy hot so I gues it must be a hick thing.

Walk Now for Autism

October 4th was our 3rd go around at the Autism Walk. We did great! We beat our team goal and I met my personal goal! It was a great weather day and the team worked well together. Can't wait for next year!

My mom and I during the walk.

Halloween '09

Another fun year! It was Anne's first Halloween so we went to the Blodgetts' again. I am just going to show you the picture. I don't think it needs explanation. My mom made Dutch's costume!

I know that this was a long post. I guess I should try to keep up with it on a more frequent basis!

Long time no write...

Sorry. I have been very busy and very unmotivated. Yep, we have done lots of things since my last posting and have lots of things planned over the next few months. But, as of right now I am not motivated to put pictures up, etc. Maybe tomorrow.

Castle in the Clouds

James and I were off on Saturday night and all day Sunday so we headed north to the lake house with his cake. We hung out with the family - my siblings and their significant others, my cousin, and my mom. We had dinner of assorted exotic meats courtesy of Meghan and Bryan Mc. We had elk, wild boar bacon, and some other items but I can't remember what. Elk tasted like very tender beef but I was not a fan of the boar bacon.

James and I decided that we would head north to visit Lucknow aka Castle in the Clouds. I love that place. It is gorgeous, has a pond, and 45 miles of hiking trails. Not to mention the beautiful waterfalls on the property. If I ever won the lottery I would buy a property like that. This location is also on my list of places I would like to get married. So beautiful, out in nature... it is so me.

We did get one geocache in while we were up there. A pretty easy find. That is two caches this weekend! I am getting back into the swing of things.

James and I at the "pebble".

The Falls of Song

James and I enjoying the view.