Food Update 3/4/15

I am keeping up. It is hard, but I am trying. I am also really proud of how well I am eating. I have noticed a little weight loss so I am trying to gain it back. Healthy is in people.

Here is lunch, cause we all know what I had for breakfast. Yep, you guessed it coffee.

Snack: Celery and Jif to go Natural peanut butter.

Lunch: Tomato, arugula, and mozzarella sandwich, and an Honest tea.

Half and Half is my favorite all time Honest tea. I could drink one everyday if they let me.I also drank the entire contents of my water bottle.

Dinner: Spaghetti, garlic bread and green beans. I am sorry I did not get a pretty picture of the plate. It looked very nice. Okay, onto the reason why there is a picture of a pot of water w/noodles, and one of spaghetti. Alright people confession #1, I don't eat a lot of meat. I stick to chicken breasts and turkey breast around the holiday's. I do eat pepperoni when I eat pizza. I don't have a moral reason for not eating meat. I just don't like the texture of most meats. It's as simple as that. So the spaghetti you see is what Averie, Brian, and Grammy ate, because it has ground turkey. 

This is what I ate. I added some salt/pepper, a bit of butter, and Parmesan. It was really good. This is a go to lunch for me too sometimes. 

I snacked on some black olives while I made dinner. 

I also indulged in a glass of wine. 

That was the day in food. I am getting better at this. It's just going to take a little bit of time. I do feel like these posts are a little raw, so I will work on making them entertaining and professional. Ha, we will see. See you tomorrow for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. 

Cleaning up the BLOG!

My signature is great right?! It took a minute to figure out how to make it work, but after a ton of Googling, by George I think I have it. I have some serious cleaning to do of this blog. After looking at some other blogs, I am noticing how messy mine looks. Time to clean house, or blog.

I have updated the About Me page, In My Bag, the A Wonderful Kind of Life page, and am trying to fix my profile on the right side of my blog, but somehow I am stuck. I linked to Google plus and now that seems to be a mess. The picture is so small. Suggestions? I would like a bigger profile picture.

I am not using my Nikon as much anymore my iPhone is my go to camera. It is easy to use and carry around. A big Nikon is just not convenient at the moment. I am finally at a point with Averie that I can throw a couple of diapers, wipes and some snacks into my purse. You heard that right my purse, not a diaper bag. I love being able to grab my purse and go. It's nice to not feel like a pack mule all the time. I rotate between two bags. I am partial to brown bags.

The Limited

GH Bass

Talk about being side tracked. I forgot what this post was even about. Let's get back on track here.

I plan on making a few more changes to the layout, and would love to get some feedback on things that I could do to make it look put together, and professional. I am by no means a professional blogger, but it would be nice to have something that I am proud of, and would want to write blog posts for. I need a mentor for sure. I think I have said that before. I am just not as familiar with how to make my blog successful. I also would love for people to be able to reach out to me and ask me questions too. I have a contact me page, but I am not the biggest fan about the way it looks. It is not very friendly. Hopefully someone reads my plea for help and is interested in helping. HELP!

Let's see what else did I change. I think that is it for now. I am off to Google how to add favorites. I just know asking someone would be so much easier then all this Googling. Until next time.

Food Update 3/3/15

Today was a delicious day. I stayed pretty healthy too.

Breakfast was coffee, did I mention I put coffee in my coffee. I needed coffee big time this morning, and every morning. This coffee wakes me up faster then any other I have tried.

I drank this throughout the day. Good for me right. Man I struggle to stay organized and healthy.

Lunch was at Foundations. I ordered the House salad and a side of Fries. I am learning that my tastes are too picky for these places. I just want a turkey sandwich. I am easy to please.

 

Dinner was rice pilaf, steamed artichokes, and seasoned chicken breasts. It was tasty. 

My Stove was busy last night, so busy that I thought I would take a break for it. So I opened this. Smart girl right. I thought so.

This is the rice that I made, my best friend turned me onto the brand. She recommended the couscous, which might I add was delicious. We tried this one last night and loved it. I didn't even need to add salt which is amazing for me. 

I have noticed more lately that I love to cook. I wish I could do it more often, and at a more pleasurable pace. When I get home from work I always feel rushed to cook and get dinner on the table. I would love to just enjoy the process. I even mentioned to Brian that a cooking class would be a ton of fun. Maybe someday. For now I will just do the best I can. *smiles*

To end the evening we made a run to Connie's, why is ghetto ice cream so much better. I don't know, I can't explain it but this place has the best soft serve ice cream cones in town, and it is in the heart of a not great neighborhood. That is why Brian is the only one out of the car, well that and it is a Drive-in. 

Side-note: Averie ate her cone and the end of mine. She loves ice cream.

Weekend Whirlwind

What a weekend. It was a long weekend for me. I had Friday off. I love having a three day weekend every other week. I love having one more full day with my little girl. It is the best. THE BEST!

Friday Averie and I went to this place called Climbaroo. It is the ultimate jungle gym for kiddo's. Look at this place! It's amazing and Averie just loves it. It's a great place for her to be social and work off all that energy she has. It is so much fun watching her interact with other kids.

After Climbaroo we headed home. I did a lot of cleaning this weekend. I usually clean all weekend long, but it is nice to start on Friday and take some time on Sunday to relax.

Saturday, Brian, Averie and I spent the day together running around. We buy Girl Scout cookies every year from a friend of ours, so we drove to pick up our cookie order from her. While we were in the neighborhood we also went to Carter's to buy Averie some clothes. She is swimming a lot during the week so a new bathing suit was in order. From there we headed home. On the way home we made one more little pit stop. LUNCH! Our favorite place Zia's Deli. I am in love with their Lucca sandwich. It is a sourdough roll with turkey, prosciutto, lettuce, tomato, and monterey jack cheese. It is so delicious.The picture below does not do it justice.

I want another one now that I am talking about it. One draw back of this place is that it is a little pricey, but you can not beat the quality of the food you are getting. It is totally worth the $7-$8 bucks. Brian gets the Toscana, it has salami, provolone, peppers and oil/vinegar. It is delicious too. That was pretty much Saturday. I think we made a trip to Walmart later in the evening, but that is not very exciting, just expensive.

Sunday, I stayed home and cleaned, and played with Averie. It was a good day over all. Short and sweet. Then Sunday evening happened.

Here is what happened......

Brian and I were sleeping soundly, when the doorbell rang. Brian immediately thought it was Grammy, assuming that it was around 7am. I got up to unlock the door and let her in. The problem with that is that it was not Grammy. It was a teenager coming to tell me that my garage door was open. I thanked him and closed the door and walked to the garage to close that door. I walked back to the bedroom with a very unsettled feeling. I looked at the clock and noticed it was 12:30am. That did it. I was not able to sleep a wink at this point. Something wasn't right. I thought it was so strange, but nice of him to tell me. What I didn't understand, was why was he walking around the neighborhood at this time of night. I eventually got back to sleep, but didn't sleep well. I slept maybe an hour in total. My alarm went off and I got up and started getting ready for work. Super tired and drained. Grammy walked in the door as I was about to leave, and mentioned that Brian's tires were all flat. What?! Sure enough we both walked outside and the tires were all flat. They slashed all four. I immediately thought I should check on my car. Sure enough, they cleaned out my  glove box, and console. I don't keep a lot in my car, so there was nothing taken that I couldn't replace. I decided to stay home so that I could help with the recovery of this situation. Police report, replacing tires, catching up on the sleep I missed. I knew I would not be able to sleep that night for fear that they would come back so I worked in a nap during the day. Much needed I might add. What an eventful Monday right. I still can't believe that all happened. Now it is Tuesday and Brian and I are looking for land. I think we are ready to move out of the suburbs. We don't think we will ever escape crime, but we would like to make our lives easier. Maybe moving to the country will help.

Alrighty I am signing off. Talk to you all tomorrow.

All about Averie

Let's talk about Averie. How was her 2014?

I have to mention this even though this happened in 2015. Averie is four years old now. Can't believe that I am a mother to a four year old. Look at her devouring her Ice Cream at her Ice Cream Parlor Party!



 Averie met Caleb and Lucas for the first time in 2014



She has grown very close to her stuffed teddy, "Bear Bear."



Averie was a 50's girl for Halloween. Cutest costume to date.



Averie loves spending time with Daddy drinking Jamba Juice. 



 Averie is now sleeping in a big girl bed. She likes to share it. *smiles*




Grammy is her best friend.



She is learning to ride a tricycle.



Averie loves watching ABC Mouse on the iPad.



Averie Loves Mommy.



Averie has had a couple debilitating colds. Which have magically stopped since Nessa went to college.



Averie had a great summer.



Averie explored the world.



Averie ate hundreds of blueberries.



Averie went to the Dentist.



Averie is Artistic.



I could go on for a very long time. I think this is a good place to halt the photo sharing. Averie was a very busy girl last year, and will be a busy girl this year too. She is always up for adventure and new experiences. I can not wait to see what this year holds for her. 

*Stitch Fix*

I love getting my Stitch  Fix in the mail. It makes bad day good, and good days better. This months was really good. I received a couple of things that I could not say no to. I feel so special with my personalized stylist note. 

Here is the first top that I kept. I only took pictures of the two tops that I kept. Sorry. 

This second one I was a on the edge about, but ended up liking it a lot and keeping it as well. 

I like the tunic style, and yes that is my lazy eye drifting in the picture. Me and Ms. Averie have the same little problem with our eyes. 

Tax Season & a New King Size Bed

Tax season came and went, but we do have a couple of memories. Our new King size Serta Memory Foam bed is one. Ever since we moved, I have been slowly transforming the rooms into what I want them to look like. This room is one step closer. It is expensive to decorate! Progress is going to be gradual but I will get there.

I bought both our bed and mattress on Overstock.com. I really love that website. The bedding I bought at Kohls. It is the Simply Vera Wang brand.  I was not 100% sure about the shimmer in the fabric, but it is growing on me. The throw is from Marshall's. I originally bought it for the guest bedroom, but have found myself stealing it every night. So here it stays. The wall behind the bed is actually a grey-blue color. It looks very blue in the pictures. We have a little more work in the master bedroom. I would like 2 new night stands, one new dresser, and a piece of artwork for over the bed.

I found this on Pinterest and am thinking very seriously about buying it. I think it would look great above my bed. Thoughts?

                     

I am pretty sold on this but would love some suggestions. I am kind of decorating challenged. I need my Best Friend in order to pick anything out. She has a real eye for this kind of stuff. I have not mentioned this, but I am really enjoying blogging again. It is very therapeutic.

Rooms in house left to decorate/complete.

Master bedroom, Averie's room(its done but un-organized), Living room, and both bathrooms. Wow that is the whole house. Guess I should get started. Geese.