Gobble, Gobble, Shop, Shop

That's pretty much all we've been doing over this nice, long Thanksgiving weekend.  Eating and Shopping! And enjoying every minute :>

But not wanting to spend precious Black Friday/weekend shopping hours putting up a tree, I decided to do it last Sunday!  My husband and brother-in-law were intently watching the Broncos game so I hauled this baby home, took her out (yes it's a girl tree), fluffed all the branches (which took a while!) and decorated it!

I was very pleased!  This is a pre-lit 6.5 foot tree and I already had the ornaments and tree skirt.  I love having a tree up and just relaxing at night near it's soft glow :--)

Turkey Day '09!

My mom asked Ryan and I to make deviled eggs and green bean casserole (neither of which we'd ever made before, believe it or not.)  I also decided to make squash casserole and a vegan pumpkin pie!  We had a lot of fun cooking together on Wednesday night.  It couldn't have hurt too that we were deliriously happy to be off for 4 days straight!

Family at the table

The boys being anti-social ;>

My cousin's sweet daughter Lauren and I

Me and my sister Karoline

The kiddos feeding the ducks in my parent's neighborhood

It was a great day.  We spent the first half at my parents and then headed to Ryan's parents for the last part.  Double the food, double the fun...we got to watch the Broncos get a win on the Ivey's big screen too!  I am so thankful to have our familes so close to us.  It is a truly a blessing and we don't know what we'd do without them!

I did do some shopping on Black Friday.  But no I didn't get up at 3:00 am with the crazies!  I waited till about noon and had a nice morning that included pancakes with the hubster.  I ended up hitting Express, Charlotte Ruesse, and Target.  Target had some great deals!  I was supposed to be buying Christmas presents for others but of course found some steals for myself ;)  I got 1 shirt at Express and 3 sweaters at Target, all for about $50!  I was so excited!  I also bought some me some dvd pain :/

I've heard about Jillian's 30 Day Shred for forever now and I decided I wanted to try it. It's tough! I bought some 5lb. dumbbells and have already done 2 days of Level 1. It's 20 min of 3 circuits with a warm-up and cool-down and I am SORE from it. My chest, biceps, and calves...I'm so excited about it though and I'm going to start trying to do it before work each day. I've heard Level 3 is brutal!

Besides pancakes, I made a lazy morning breakfast of egg sandwiches for us one day.  "Nature's Own" english muffin, scrambled egg, shredded cheese, and a slice of deli ham.  Yum!  I really like these english muffins because they have 100 calories and 7 grams of FIBER!   You can't beat that.

Our mantle with stockings!

Dodger's stocking, awaiting a nail...

Dodger's doggie sweater from Old Navy!  Can't wait to put him in this ;>  It's an XXS.

His new toy bag from my mom

My handsome man enjoying some Sunday afternoon football.  I love you Ryan!

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! 

Meet Chloe

Isn't she pretty? :--)  I've been wanting a plant lately!  I used to have one... named Jason from a friend in college.  I think it was an ivy plant?  Hmmm... foreshadowing?  Anyways, I took care of Jason through living with my parents, my own aparment, and maybe one more move after that.  Eventually though he died. 

I've even heard that plants are healthy to have around!  But let me digress.  I headed out for a morning workout after eating some cereal and pb and jelly toast to start my day off.  It seems like lately on Saturdays (the perfect day to get a good workout in!) I schlep around the house, cleaning, or just doing nothing, and then never end up making it to the gym.  If I go first thing though, I have a sense of accomplishment right off the bat which usually motivates me to get more stuff done.  I had a good one too.  I love that my gym overlooks the water.  It's so calming and at night after work you can catch a great sunset.  My workout went like this:

- 10 minutes of elliptical

-25ish mintues of weights (back and shoulders)

- 5 minutes of treadmill- run/walk

I get so bored doing cardio!  I have no idea how I ran cross-country back in high school.  When I left the gym, I headed to Lowe's to pick out a plant.  Uh, pretty sure I looked quite idiotic walking around trying to find an "indoor" plant..."They're in the greenhouse."  "Oh sure, yeah.  And where is the greenhouse?"  :-->

I really didn't know one plant from the other so I decided  to pick one that appealed to me.  I got this one!  I also picked up this pretty pot to put my plant in.  I'm not sure if it will stay on the kitchen table but it seems like the best spot for now.  Or maybe my desk at work :)

I wanted to pick a name, ya know, since the only other plant I've had in my life had one.  I couldn't decide...Mabel? Claudia?..noo, I think she was our realtor.  Then it came to me: CHLOE!  Cute??  :)

I went to get groceries after that which included some Sabra roasted red pepper hummus.  Yummers.!  It's good with sliced zucchini. (See what's in the background??  I told you we eat bananas.)

PIZZA FOR LUNCH!  On Ezekiel bread, with shredded cheese, turkey pepperoni, and some garlic salt.

My new holiday candle!  Smells soooo good.  It's from Kohls and the layers are Spiced Cider Snap, Honey & Vanilla, and Pine Needles.  Ahhhhh.

I decided to get a Sunday newspaper...for LEISURE READING and for COUPONS!

Lunch is Ready!...with Pizza sauce for dipping ;>

Do you have plants in your house?  What kinds???  Happy Weekend!

Just Say No. To Nascar.

Howdy!  So this is a little late but better late than never right?  I had a busy but nice weekend- just me and the dog.  Ryan was at the races with his family.  They go support Nascar about twice a year but I'm just not a fan.  I tried!  I've been to one day race and one at night but it appeals to me in no way, shape, or form to watch cars fly around a track for 3+ hours.  In the heat.  Surrounded by rednecks interesting people. Who spill beer on your purse. (That happened to me the 1st time I went.)  So I let them do their thing while I relish my weekend alone to do whatever the heck I want! :--) 

Saturday morning Cheryl from work called me and told that Firewheel was having a European Farmer's Market and that I should join her in perusing the tables!  Fun!  I thought I might do some early Christmas shopping too so I picked up the house a bit, did some yoga, showered, made breakfast, and headed out.

Snacks for the day :> LOVE these Kettle chips I found!

We had a really good time.  The farmer's market had fruits and veggies, meats, lots of local honey, jewelry, olive oil, and other neat-o unique stuff.  I may or may not have gotten my BFF a very cool present there! ;)

I had to play catch up on Sunday and do my usual week-end chores.  I went grocery shopping armed with my list and then came home and did some cookin'!  When I buy groceries, I buy a lot of the same things every week but a lot of times I'll try to buy at least one new thing I've never had before.  This week:  ACORN SQUASH!  I had seen this at the Farmer's Market but this one's from Wally World :>  Pretty, no?

I cut this in half, scooped out the seeds, baked it in a pan with a little water-flat side down- for about 45 minutes, then scooped out the flesh....sooo, I had a taste with some Smart Balance.  It was pretty good!  A little stringy.  Today I work I heated some up to have with a salad but I just wansn't feelin it.  Maybe if I threw it in the magic bullet so it was less stringy?

I also made this "left-overs" soup which I had for dinner last night.  It was:

1. 
   
   chicken broth
   
   
   
2. 
   
   ground turkey
   
   
   
3. 
   
   bow tie pasta
   
   
   
4. 
   
   onions
   
   
   
5. 
   
   tomatoes that had seen better days
   
   
   
6. 
   
   sprinkle of cheese
   
   
   

While I cooked, I ate some of this Kashi pizza.  My mom had found these on sale at Target and got me 3.  One with mushrooms and two that were roasted vegetable.  These are just kind-of ok.  I like other frozen pizzas much better!

Mmmm dessert...peanut brittle!  Cheryl so kindly bought me some of this :>

Look at this GINORMOUS bag of frozen veggies I bought at WalMart!  Love it.  I used these to make Ryan's breakfast for the week.  It's a egg/turkey/veggie bake that is verrry tasty.  And easy!  I can't take the credit though.  The recipe is here: http://jcdfitness.com/2009/01/fitness-food-%E2%80%93-egg-bake/

Last but not least... Humor me here.  I like my dog.  Except he DID decide to take a BITE out of my Gap brown rubber flip flop tonight!  NOT happy about this.  Still, he was being cute for the camera on Sunday.

The Broncos are playing now and I've looked at a computer far too long today.  Have a great week my friends!  I'm off Wednesday and can't wait to get my "hair did." ;>

Canine Companion

Ah Sunday.  The Lord's day! A day to relax, rest, spend time with family, friends, or your dog ;>  Dodger loves to just chill with us on Sundays.  He's already taken several naps but of course is never too incoherent to snap his head up and trot over to whoever is eating a snack.  We really don't give him a lot of "people food" but every now and then he gets the last bite from Ryan's plate or the apple core he's about to toss out.

Dodger is our baby.  For now ;)  I've never been a dog person.  I just never liked going to people's houses to have their dog(s) jump on me or LICK me.  Eick.  I guess it was mostly bigger dogs that scared? me.  We had a couple of dogs growings up but they never lasted.  I guess cause the kids were always little and were either scared of them or they ended up chewing on the house. (the dogs) 

Ryan has had about 15 dogs in his life!  Snickers, Rocky, Pepper, Missy- these are among the few canines that took up residence with the Ivey's at one time or another.  I shouldn't have been surprised then when Ryan decided several months ago that he wanted a dog.  He NEEDED a dog.  We had one dog soon after we got married- a little black lab mix named Jada- but she kept chewing up the house...she didn't seem to be the best fit for us.  This time around (after much persuading on Ryan's part) we decided to look for a little dog.  One that wouldn't get very big.  Enter....

DODGER!

I love this little dog. (never thought I would say that about any animal!!)  He is seriously the cutest, sweetest, sneakiest, funniest, lovable little dog.  He's laying in my lap as we speak :--)  He weighed about 2.5 lbs the day we got him and he's now about up to 5 lbs.  We took a while to pick out a name but "Dodger" totally fits him because his favorite thing is to have someone chase him or try to get him.  He jumps and runs around and sprints behind the couch and has a ball.  He's actually really speedy!  So without further ado:  a photo gallery of Dodge  :>

I'll be back later this week with a post about our upcoming VACATION!  Wahoo!!  And...a comparison between 2 peanut butters: What Ryan eats and what I eat!

Have a great week!  Can you believe it's November!?

Curly hair. Flat cookies.

Sunday afternoon is my grocery shopping day. IF I don't get it done on Saturday, which I didn't.  I made my list and headed out to our neighborhood WalMart to avoid the crowds.  I stopped by Tom Thumb on the way back to pick up a few things I can only get there.  Even though at times I dread this weekly errand, nothing feels better than having a well stocked fridge and pantry! 

I decided I needed some non-food items too: face moisturizer for day/night, new eye shadow, and some Burt's Bee's lip balm!  I love this brand of Noah's Naturals face lotion.  It is all natural and feels great.  I've never used this eye shadow brand (Hard Candy) but I like how the lid kind-of magnetically snaps shut :>  The lip balm I got is pomegranite!  My lips have been chapped lately with the cooler weather.

Now---on to the food finds!

TEA!!! for nighttime consumption :)

MUESLI! This is an awesome mix of oats, wheat, rye, triticale, barley, almonds, dates, raisins, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, and raisins! Whoa!  So much cooler than "just oats."

M.o.n.d.a.y.  I started my day with a 20 min gentle hatha yoga flow.  Then I went for the curly look.  What do we think about this??

I had my muesli for b-fast at work! I nuked it in the microwave with rice milk and topped it with peanut butter and agave.

Ryan had to go to FL for business so it's been me and Dodge kickin it tonight.  He is sitting tightly curled up in my lap in the shape of a "c."  I've tried moving him twice for ease of blogging to no avail.  For dinner tonight I made some Annie's mac'n'cheese with some turkey sausage tossed in.  I thought about having a salad with this for good measure but my Chipotle lunch meets my have 1 salad a day goal.

I needed dessert.  I weighed my options.  And my ingredients.  Hmmm...Ah ha.!  I made THESE!  I love, love, love this mix.  Now, prepare yourself.  My cookies turned out flat.  Ugly.  Nothing to admire.  But the dough is downright scrumptious.  Don't even bake these, just eat this deliciousness right out of the magic bullet bowl. ;)

I don't know what happened.  My cookies didn't rise much or cook all the way.  Or something.  So I mushed them into ball shapes.  They still taste great!

You know you want some.  Heather. ;>

Bananas gone wild

We eat a lot of bananas at our house.  I always laugh at how disproportionate the amount of bananas I have in my shopping cart are to everything else I purchase.  I don't care though.  Bananas are awesome!  Almost as awesome as peanut butter, which they happen to pair up bea-u-tifully with!   Bananas boast some pretty sweet stats too:

• Great source of potassium
• Healthy does of FIBER
• Inexpensive, on-the-go choice for a natural sugar boost
• A roughly 100 calorie fruit that can actually improve your mood!
• Electrolyes in banans help maintain fluid levels

...and so much more!  I was amazed.  I always knew bananas or any fruit for that matter was a good choice, but bananas are quite impressive.  They can be eaten in so many ways!  Some of my fave's are a pb&banana sandwich, sliced banana cooked into oatmeal or in cereal, frozen chunks of banana whipped into a smoothie, OR banana bread!!!  I remember my mom baking this treat so many times but as I got older I kept searching for a healthier recipe.  I wanted it to taste good like my moms, but also have some nutritional benefits.  I searched http://www.grouprecipes.com/ because they have TONS of recipes and they're so easy to find.  I found this one and loved it!  Even Ryan liked it :> which is the true test of whether a "healthier" baked good passes the test.  The only thing I did wrong in making this was failing to mix the dry, then wet, then combine.  A salty piece of banana bread does NOT taste good.  But the rest of the loaf was fab!  I didn't snap a pic of the loaf.  My bad.  :/  You can also freeze it in pieces and just re-heat when you get a craving :)

On a side note, do you know who this is??? I didn't at first! It's Jillian, from The Biggest Loser. She looks different huh? She has a nice article inside where she challenges people to go beyond their self-imposed fitness limits and...GO ORGANIC!

What's on SALE???

Although I've never been a person who enjoys sleeping late, I do appreciate getting an extra hour or so on weekends.  There's not a lot of things that would pull me out of bed on a Saturday, at 6:15, but today there was one such thing.  GARAGE SALES!  I love a good garage sale don't you?  I used to go with my mom when I was younger and I remember having so much fun.  I also remember holding our own sales and Kyle and I spending the whole day before (yes, we were homeschooled :>) baking cake-mix cookies and stuffing them into ziplock baggies.  We would attempt to sell these and cokes (yes, I haven't always though soft drinks are evil)  I've found some really neat things before at garage sales and there's just something about waking up early and heading out to sort through a stranger's junk have a neighborhood adventure!

Anyhoo- this morning I headed out to a big neighborhood garage sale in a nice area around where I work.  The sale was actually out in a field kind-of and there were LOTS of people and LOTS of stuff.  Even in a sweatshirt, it was a bit chilly but I braved the cold and walked around in the wet, muddy grass. 

I was disappointed!  I guess garage sales just aren't what they used to be.  It just seemed like it was mostly junk. :(  There was a quite a bit of Christmas decor and the usual assortment of kids clothes and baby items.  In the end, I walked away with a super cute tweet jacket and a set of three glass candle holders with gold rims.  For $6 total!  So it wasn't ALL bad.  I stopped at a few more on the way home but nothing caught my eye. 

I suppose "garage-saling" is about the thrill of the chase ?  And for me, it's definitely about memories.  And hey, I got some exercise in!  Walking is a great form of exercise.  Anyone can do it.  It's FREE!  It requires no special equipment.  It's good for your heart and it's a great form of stress relief. 

The sales should have long wrapped up by now but see if you can find another way to squeeze in some walking this weekend.  Your body will thank you :)