Blog of Shannon

Random Thoughts

2012-01-15T20:23:00.004-05:00

Thoughts that have run through my head today:

I cannot wait to go to the Middle East. That's right, I'm going to TURKEY in March!

To say that I'm excited would be an understatement. I'm ECSTATIC! I've been reading voraciously about Turkey for the past couple of weeks, and I can tell you that it is an interesting, beautiful and mysterious country. I could go on and on about it, but I'm sure you're not that interested in my Turkish ramblings. ;) Why am I going? THE FOOD!!!! Ok, not really, but I am excited--very, very excited--about the food and the tea (tea is very important in Turkish culture). It's actually part of a short term study abroad program through UNF. I need 3 electives for my MBA, and I chose this class (it's a finance focus) to fulfill one of those requirements. After the "elective" I took last semester that consumed every second of my life and kept me from blogging or really doing anything I so desired, I think this class will be a nice break. I've always, always wanted to do a study abroad program, but for various reasons it never worked out. Better late than never though, right? If you look at the map up top you'll see Ankara near the center of Turkey. That's the capital and as far east as we'll be venturing (I think). We're staying mainly in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir (near EPHESUS which we are visiting!!!). I personally wouldn't mind going farther east--even to the Iranian, Iraqi, or Syrian borders, but I guess UNF doesn't find that to be too safe. Blah. Let's live a little. I mean, we're already going to be over there, why not pop in, say hi, and have some diplomatic talks?

Disclaimer:
Every person I've told about Turkey has given me the same "uhhh..." shocked expression. I'm fully aware that Turkey is an Islamic nation. And I hope that you're fully aware that I am a Christian. My professor has told us to be prepared to answer questions about our religion and political leanings as these topics are common dialogue in Turkey--much, much more so than here in the US. Personally, those are two of my favorite subjects. I'd also like to point out that I'm not in the least bit concerned about going to an Islamic nation. To be quite frank, the kindest person I know is a devout Muslim. I'm excited about seeing some places where early Christianity had its roots. And, if/when I have the chance to discuss my religious beliefs with anyone, even better!

Ok, Turkey hasn't been the only subject of my thoughts today.

I want to be a venture capitalist when I grow up. This has to do with the other class I'm taking right now. I've had to watch corporate finance lectures all afternoon. Of course, this requires money which I don't have. Which brings me to my next thought: I wonder if I could find a venture capitalist to fund me in becoming a venture capitalist? I don't think things work like that, but where there's a will, there's a way!

Next thought: I think I'm becoming a crazy cat lady. And I don't even like cats. That is, I didn't like cats until Thad brought a kitten home on Christmas Day. He rescued it from his dad's farm (it was running across one of the pastures at night). I was quite mad when I woke up the day after Christmas to a long drawn out note that basically said, "there's a nice kitty in the laundry room...be careful...she has a testy side."

This was what I found when I went into the laundry room.

Thad told me he wanted to keep her at the house for a few weeks until she was old enough to be on her own, then he was going to take her back out to the farm to live in the barn and catch mice. Well...I've kinda gotten attached to her/him (still not sure)... I mean it's just so sweet and affectionate...

Ugh. Did I mention that I don't like cats? Or animals in general? I guess this is what I get for marrying an animal lover.

'Cause it's totally normal to sit around holding chickens.

Funny story about this picture: he was showing his nephews a trick on how to put chickens to sleep (it's their chicken) by putting the chicken's head under its wing. He put the head under the chicken's wing and it went limp and flipped it's head backward. Thad thought he had killed the chicken right in front of his nephews on Christmas Day. Thankfully, he gave it a little shake and it woke back up. There was a slight moment of panic, though.

Next random thought...

I really wonder who Heidi (baby girl #3 for my best friend) will look like since Charlotte (on Jared's shoulders) looks just like Brittany and Naomi looks just like Jared.

This isn't the most recent picture of them (the girls have gotten so much bigger!), but it's the only one I could steal off Brittany's Facebook of all 4 of them.

Speaking of Facebook, I really don't like Facebook. <--that was my next random thought. I see it as a necessary evil. It's not really that necessary, but it really is the easiest way to stay in touch with my family & friends. It's not really evil, either, I just don't understand why people post such personal things on a public site. ...yeah, I know I post a lot on this blog, but this a personal (imperative word) blog. Not Facebook.

Next random thought: if I ever expatriate, where do I want to go?

I didn't title this post 'Random Thoughts' for nothing. My mind really is all over the place. This actually stems from a conversation I had last night with my hubs. Our verdict? Well, if I told you, I'd have to kill you.

And I leave you with my current random thought: what do I want for dinner?

A kitchen sink salad that would only ever appear appetizing to me?

A burnt grilled cheese since I am incapable of making a normal grilled cheese?

Polenta & veggies since it takes all of 5 minutes to make?

hmmm....I'm thinking a sweet potato + veggie baked beans + goat cheese combo.

Toodaloo! Been nice talking to you!

House Tour

2011-10-02T16:45:00.007-04:00

So after almost two months to the day of living in our new abode, I've decided to finally give you a tour of my house. I gave one whenever we first moved in, so click on over here to check out the 'before' pictures. Without further adieu,

Living room:

Sitting area:

Dining room:

The only thing I haven't gotten for the house yet is a centerpiece for my dining room table. I've looked, but I'm waiting for something to jump out at me. I have to ~feel~ whatever I'm going to look at every single day!

Kitchen:

Breakfast nook:

I don't have a table & chairs in here yet, but I'm really wanting to get a Saarinen table for a retro/modern (whichever you prefer) look.

Master bedroom:

Master bathroom (and the only reason I'm showing you this is because I love my cheap shower curtain):

Guest bedroom:

My office (and where I'm currently writing this post):

Yes, those are Barbies. I really was serious that I have a {growing} collection of them.

Through that door is Thad's office and bathroom, but we're not going to venture in there because he's a boy and boys are messy.

Bathroom/laundry room:

My favorite part about this house:

The views.

Our house is nestled in between trees when viewing it from the lake:

So there you go! Hope you enjoyed it. :) Come on over anytime!

Secrets of Shannon, Round 3

2011-09-24T01:19:00.008-04:00

Secrets? What is this about? Take a look at the other rounds:

So I'm at my grandparents house and I figured it'd be fun to do another round of my secrets. Why now? Well, read on, my friend.

1. When I was younger (as in 5-6) and spent the night with my grandparents, I had a reoccurring dream that at night their house was surrounded by ninjas in white ninja uniforms. I would peak out the window at them, and one of them would walk toward me, so I'd run back inside. Admittedly, this dream has haunted me my whole life, and still haunts me to this day...at 25--which is probably why it's 1:00am and I'm blogging. You just never know with ninjas....

2. When I get bored in class, or if I want to make sure my hair looks acceptable at 6:30pm, I take pictures of myself...

And who am I kidding, I do it at work too...

I like to pretend that I'm 'above' taking the proverbial Myspace picture of myself, but I'm just your typical self absorbed girl. Ok, I'm not really self absorbed, I just get bored really easily and have to result to taking pictures of myself and then deleting them so no one looks at the pictures on my phone and sees 253 pics of my mug.

If ever I post a mirror pic, we'll know it's gone too far.

3. I secretly want to throw caution to the wind, quit my MBA and be a truck driver.

I mean, honestly, what better way to get paid to travel? I could even bring Thadpole along and we could tag team as we drove. Granted, we'd probably kill each other before we exited Florida, but a girl can dream!

4. I'm not really scared of anything (unless I'm at my grandparents house, then I have a slight ninja paranoia--see #1), but I freak the hay out whenever any sharp object is pointing at my face. This is mainly referring to knives, scissors and pens or pencils. I don't know why, but I get this dreaded feeling like the pointed object in question will go through my eyeball. I am wigging out just typing this. It's so bad that I've even had to leave an aisle in a store (think office supply aisle) because all of the hooks that the items hang on start to freak me out. I just feel like the whole shelving unit is going to fall over and all of the hooks are going to stab me in the eye. Nevermind the fact that the weight of the shelves would probably injure me. Just as long as those pointy hooks don't poke my eyes out, I'm golden. And don't get me started on eye surgeries. Whenever someone talks about any kind of eye surgery, I plug my ears or else I'll get really antsy and my blood pressure raises. One of my "best" friends, Kristina, knows this about me, and will point pens or pencils at my face whenever I annoy her. She knows I'll cover my face, look away and stop talking immediately--that is if I don't scream at her for having such a cold hearted soul.

5. When I was younger...

Ok, timeout. I think I like to include all these "when I was younger..." stories because they remind of Chunk's confession to the Fratellis on The Goonies:

Best. movie. of. all. time. My childhood wouldn't have been as fun without this movie. For what it's worth, my baby brother does a mean truffle shuffle.

And one of my best friends can impersonate Sloth better than anyone I know.

Oh my stars, I'm dying over here! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie!

What was I blogging out?

Who am I?

I'm a Goonie. Just take Andy's name out and replace it with Shannon:

Ok, I'll put all this Goonie talk to death. But, Goonies never say die!

Seriously, where was I?

Ah yes, secrets of little Shannon. So when I was like 4 (maybe 5 or 6...could be the same time as the whole ninja debacle), I used to see commercials for Carnation milk. I don't really remember that much about the commercials other than the 1-800 phone number that would come on the screen so you could call and order some milk to quench your thirst. As a 4 year old potential customer of Carnation, I would sneak into my parents room, call the 800 number and attempt to order some milk. I remember the sales reps replies to my purchase orders quite cleary. They told me to speak with my parents and have them call to place an order. Since speaking to my parents would thwart my plan of ordering the milk on my own, I decided to mail a letter to Carnation. However, this proved unsuccessful as well when the post man wouldn't take my notebook paper envelope with a hand drawn stamp. Oh, well...

Come to think of it, after all these years I've never tried Carnation. I'll put that on my to do list and blog about it. It is a food product, afterall.

I bet Paloma hangs at Chiappinis.

2011-09-16T14:56:00.009-04:00

Melrose has a little mom & pop bakery that sells sweet treats and loaves of bread. There isn't a huge selection, but everything appears to be freshly made. I think the owners have changed hands once or twice which has caused it to close shop and open back up a few times. I stopped by recently on the hunt for hamburger buns, but they didn't have any. They (they being the husband & wife owners) told me that they don't keep buns stocked since demand isn't high enough for them, but if I wanted to call ahead of time, they would gladly bake some for me. I didn't end up calling them since the buns were only for Thad's lunches, and he has an affinity for potato rolls. However, I did think it was a nice gesture, so I made a mental note to stop by the next time I needed a regular loaf of bread. On Wednesday I stopped in--a little hesitant about what my choices would be--and ended up purchasing a loaf of stone ground wheat with flax seed. I was giddy that they had such a healthy-ful option, but even giddier that it was only $2 since it was on the 'day old' shelf. Local, healthy, cheap = winner, winner chicken dinner.

This is about 1/2 the loaf.

The verdict? I say it needs some salt and Thad says it needs honey. I think he'd put honey on everything given the opportunity. It smells heavenly and the texture is just a touch hard--but it was from the day old shelf. Thad has told me repeatedly that I need to make bread at home and how his mom used to make bread that was "sooo good". I've heard it's pretty easy, I'm just kinda scared of yeast which is why I haven't made any yet. I've never used yeast before (I'm not much of a baker), so it intimidates me a bit. Maybe Janelle can give me some pointers on homemade bread making.

And for those of you from Melrose or are familiar with it, please look at this site which reviews the bakery. I was looking for a picture of the front of the bakery to put on the blog and happened across those reviews. Please look specifically at review #2 where the old owner of the bakery (who I hear is my neighbor) and some woman named Paloma get into a bit of an argument since Paloma ordered a wedding cake the day before the wedding, then proceeded to call and change the colors on the cake 4 times. Good ol' Melrose... I can't be sure and I don't plan on finding out, but I'd be willing to bet 5 loaves of bread that Paloma frequents Chiappinis.

Anywho, I've toasted the bread the past couple of mornings for breakfast...

Topped with peanut butter and bananas, naturally. Peanut butter toast takes me back to the days of my youth when I would scarf some down before running out the door on the way to school.

Thaddeus, the dogs, and myself have had a guest the past couple of days: Aunt Sue! We haven't seen Aunt Sue since Uncle Dave's funeral a few months ago. It's been so great seeing her. She's such a special person. Not to mention a great cook. She made dinner for us on Wednesday and it was definitely a meal with Shannon written all over it. I believe she said it was a recipe she got from Gourmet or Food and Wine. It featured slices of eggplant topped with pesto, onion, tomato and more pesto. Right up my alley. So much so that I've had it for lunch the past two days.

Not the most picturesque of meals, but delicious nonetheless. Why do I feel like I'm always saying that? I also had two hard boiled eggs on the side. One reason I love this blog is that I can look up my own directions when I need to, which is exactly what I did when I went to make the hardboiled eggs.

With that, I'm off to wrap up the work day. Hope you have a great weekend. I'm taking a mini trip to Orlando tomorrow with my mom and grandma to visit this place (no, not Disney)!

The Bane of My Existence

2011-09-11T17:10:00.001-04:00

Oh, haaaaaaaay!

2011-09-08T10:17:00.011-04:00

HI! I know, I know, I've gone and done it again. I've dropped off the face of the world wide web. My sincerest apologies. My mind, as of late, has been consumed with one thing, and one thing only: linear programming.

That's a picture I snapped of one of the many, many models & equations I've been reading lately. Surprisingly, I half way understand it. As any of my c/o '04 classmates can attest, I am horrible at math. For who knows what reason, I took "honors" math in high school and was always the dumbest one in class. Call me what you want, but I'm just math stupid. I have horrible memories of different math teachers putting every numerical test grade in the class on the board next to 'A, B, & C' and who do you think was always the lone C? This girl right here. And sometimes that was a D (teachers, please don't do that. It doesn't help the slow kid's self esteem). I think the only reason I never got an F was because the teachers took pity on me and realized that even though all the lights were on as I voraciously took notes in class, come test time, no one was home in my head. It wasn't for a lack of trying on my part. Oh, no. Just ask my mom how badly I tried to understand math. It's just something--as logical as it may be--that doesn't make sense in my brain. HOWEVER, it's something that I have found that I do need, afterall. Curse all those times I said, "I'll never use this." True story, at work the other day, I was looking at a formula in Excel that someone had used to compute distance for different latitude & longitude coordinates, and the equation used SINE AND COSINE! WHO in the world would have thought TRIGONOMETRY would come back to haunt me later on in life? I digress.

What I do like about math in grad school is that it's actually math I'll use. Sure that model up there is a bit extreme, but the story behind the model is something that is very much a question for businesses (how much of a certain product to produce with limited resources in order to minimize costs or maximize profit) and MBA students should have to understand how to do it, even if a computer program can give you the answer...

Anyway, for breakfast this morning, I had this:

2 eggs cooked in coconut oil, salsa, avocado and a pluot.

Another thing about school, is that my Tuesdays and Thursdays have gotten even longer than they were during the summer. I don't get out of class until around 8:45pm (that's 15 minutes before my bed time!), so I don't make it home until around 10:15pm. Waaaaahh! Even though this semester is filled with math and late nights, I am still really enjoying it (ask me this in 5 weeks & I'll probably eat my words) and I thoroughly like UNF and all my buds there.

For lunch I plan on having this:

Homemade lentil soup. The recipe came from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. It's actually called "Sniffle" Lentil Soup because the author, Dreena Burton, made it for her daughter one night when she had a cold. True story: I ate this for lunch on Tuesday and ended up getting the sniffles Tuesday night! WHAT GIVES, DREENA?? hehe. I actually think it was from only getting 5 hours of sleep on Monday night (6+ cups of coffee whilst studying does not a good night sleep make) and going full force through school and work on Tuesday. Anywho, the soup is delicious and filling and ugly. This I know. As I was making this, Thad asked me what it was and if it had come out of the backside of his dog, Trixie. My reply was "lentil soup," to which he retorted, "Are you planning on selling your birthright?" If you understand that reference, let's be friends.

And so now I leave you with this picture I snapped last night as I sat on my couch and watched the sun set over the lake.

I will be doing a house tour soon (just for you, Anna!). I actually made a video tour that I intended to put up, but Thaddeus thought it wasn't the best thing to put a tour of our house on the internets. Can't be having burglars up in here, stealing my Barbie collection, one of Thad's 103 Stephen King books that he's never read, or eating any of my weird food, like this lemon drop melon I found the other day:

Very tasty, might I add.

à bientôt!

Wallpaper = gnarly

2011-08-15T13:31:00.003-04:00

I started my week off with a smoothie for breakfast:

4 Tbsp hemp protein powder (= 1 serving)
1 tsp maca
1 tsp chia seeds
1 cup almond milk
Handful of blueberries
Raspberries
Spinach

You can see my kitchen wallpaper behind my tervis tumbler, but let me give you a closer look at this retro style pattern I have the pleasure of viewing when I'm in my kitchen:

Tubular, no? I definitely feel a little like Rainbow Brite whenever I'm in the kitchen.

True story: my nickname was Rainbow Brite during softball my freshman year of highschool because I accidently wore brightly colored underwear underneath my white softball pants for one of our games. So, I was deemed Rainbow Brite. Lesson learned.

I also have wallpaper in different areas throughout the rest of the house. I really didn't like it at first, but now, it's growing on me. I actually don't even really notice it anymore.

Vanity area in the master suite.

Master bathroom

Living room--I actually really like this wallpaper. It reminds me of bamboo, and is slightly bumpy when you run your hand over it. It's a pale green if you can't tell by the picture.

Guest bathroom--primary colors!! I love primary colors! I wouldn't have chosen it, but it's growing on me. It's just so dang cheery.

Thad's bathroom (guest bedroom bath). I'd have to say this is my least favorite, but I never see it since it's in the far corner of the house.

One word for the wallpaper: gnarly.

My lunch was just a salad:

Turkey salad with all the fixins' topped with salsa.

Back to completing the intern's project for him!

Lucinda's Bloodshot One Eye

2011-08-12T09:03:00.003-04:00

As I was paging through Everyday Food the other day, I saw a breakfast recipe that struck my fancy.

Lucinda's Bloodshot One Eye appeared to be a different take on eggs in a basket. I immediately earmarked the recipe. I was able to make it a few mornings ago and although it didn't turn out exactly like the picture (do recipes ever?), it was extremely tasty.

Instead of a bloodshot eye, I made a T...for uh, Tisdale. Duh! Ok, so I didn't cut the strips of roasted red pepper thin enough to make a pretty pin wheel, but A for effort. I think what really made this delicious was the butter on the bread and the drippy egg yolk (I know Anna is cringing at the thought of a runny egg yolk :)). I will definitely be making this again.

Speaking of things I'll be making again, Kelly has recently been posting lots of yummy sounding recipes. The other day I read one she had posted for sweet & sour chicken and I knew I had to try it. I followed her ingredient list and directions to the T except that I halved the recipe since I only had two chicken breasts.

From start to finish, I think this recipe took 15 minutes, and it was wicious, very wicious. I served it along side some leftover roasted veggies, but next time I make it, I will be serving it over brown rice so the rice can soak up the sauce.

The best part about this meal was experiencing it again the next day for lunch.

It was a party in my mouth all over again!

--

I'm pretty much all settled in from the move. Is it crazy that I feel more moved into this house than I did my Lake City house that I lived in for 3 years? I still had things in boxes at our Lake City house that I never knew what to do with, but meant too much to me to throw out. Our office in the LC house was our catchall room for things that had sentimental value, or didn't have a place to be stored elsewhere. I never liked showing people that room because it was disorganized and a little chaotic. I also never really like going in there myself for those reasons. My goal with this new house was to get rid of any and all cardboard boxes, and find a place for everything--even if that meant moving an item from a cardboard box box into a plastic tote to be stored in a closet. Since I have built ins in my office in the new house, I've been able to display some of those things that were in boxes from my old house. I'll post pictures soon. I'm going shopping with my Mama tomorrow to get a few other things I still need.

Since I've unpacked all of my boxes (!!!) and I'm not in school right now (!!!) and I live close to work again (!!!), I've been able to do some yoga in the afternoons in addition to running in my new neighborhood. I've run in Keystone which was fun since I haven't run there since about 2007, and last night I ran on the Rails to Trails path that was put in town during my time in Lake City. I love new running routes, especially in my hometown. I feel goofy sometimes because I'll be running down the road and start grinning from ear to ear at the thought of being back home. I'm sure people who drive by me think I've lost my gourd.

Amidst some of the shopping for my house, I also picked up a running skirt.

It's so comfy, but more importantly it's CUTE! I've read mixed reviews about running skirts, but this one is long enough to not be uncomfortable while running. I absolutely love it. And for you runners who may be reading the blog, I got it from TJ Maxx for $12. Nice. It's Saucony (like my running shoes which don't exactly get a ringing endorsement from me, but the skirt does!).

--

I need to get my Friday started. I haven't been able to blog all week because I've had an intern with me. We've been working on a huge project that we'll hopefully wrap up today. Normally I'd spend two weeks on a project of this magnitude, and we've had all of about 4 days total to work on it. Hope it turns out ok!

Happy Friday, pals :)

Let me tell you a thing or nine about curtains.

2011-08-08T14:45:00.006-04:00

Last night we had some issues with our AC unit. We thought it was going kaput, but after discussing the situation with the AC man this morning, Thad thinks that it may just be low on freon. The house stays pretty cool, so we turned the AC off last night. Regardless, it was a bit on the warm side when I got up this morning, so I was not in the mood for warm oatmeal.

3/4 cup Uncle Sam's cereal
1/2 cup kefir
2 small tart plums

---

I got a lot of my house put together this weekend. I don't have any more boxes in my living room, kitchen, dining room, office or bedroom. AND my closet is color coordinated again (that took forever) which means I won't have a mild panic attack anymore when I'm standing in my closet and looking for a blue shirt to wear with my brown pants. I will post 'after' pictures soon. I also ordered curtains which have been my #1 must have for the house. You see, there are lots of windows in this house which makes me very happy. I love ambient light. My LC house was very dark from wood paneling and had small windows. The new house has windows galore which I don't plan to cover up at all since they give sweet views of the lake. However, there are two windows on either side of the front door (which faces the road, not the lake) that need to be covered. Anyone can see in--and straight through--our house at night. Kinda creepy. Anyway, there is a traverse rod for curtains above the windows at the new house. Here's a picture:

Multiply this x 2.

See the long white rod and the draw string to the right? I have become very, very, very educated in the realm of curtains over the past three weeks. Traverse rod curtains go on a track and you pull a drawstring to open/close the curtains. Pretty nifty. I've been researching and reading about them since we decided to rent this house. It took me forever to figure out the term 'traverse rod'. I kept googling 'drawstring curtains'. Just a note, that won't give you the results you're looking for...no matter how many times you google it. Reminds me of this Eistein quote "insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." That was me for a solid week. I could not figure it out for the life of me what to call those dang curtains. So I just kept googling the same description, thinking that Google would read my mind and understand what I was thinking. Do you ever do that? Please tell me you do that...

Once I finally learned the correct term for the types of curtains I was hunting for, it was time for the fun stuff: fabric! I knew I wanted the print of the curtains to be something bold, something dramatic, and something to base the rest of the decor off of. That is, until I couldn't find traverse rod curtains ANYWHERE on the internets. You see, pull string curtains just aren't "in" anymore. It's either rod pocket, tab tops or grommets. Traverse rods were popular back in the 70s. I even consulted with the ultimate source of all things crafty, my grandma, and she advised me to buy them. She told she could make them, but she hadn't made this style before (traverse rod curtains have to be pinch pleat style--I'm sure that means nothing to you if you don't know much about curtains). And yes, I could have taken that rod down and put a regular decorative rod up, however, I kinda like the drawstring function (read: Once I get the curtains up, I'll probably just stand in my house and pull the string to open & close them for hours on end).

Since I couldn't find curtains that I needed, in a size or fabric that I liked (or any fabric for that matter), I turned to Etsy. This is what I wanted (in A, L or O):

I'm currently obsessed with chevron (the name of this print). Like really, really obsessed. Like I want to plaster it everywhere in my house. I wasn't crazy about it when I first saw it, but the more I thought about it, the more I envisioned living in a zig zag world. So, I emailed a seller on etsy to get a quote for 4 custon made panels. "I don't mind spending a little more if necessary. Curtains look expensive no matter where I look, and I can't even find any that are the style I need," I thought to myself as I politely requested the price to have curtains made. That was until I read her response. Her quote? $650. Um, no. Thad was actually very sweet about it and told me that he knew how badly I wanted chevron curtains, and how that's all I've been talking about lately, and how my birthday is coming up, so he didn't mind if I got them--that was, of course, after a very long pause on the phone and a definite change in the tone of his voice (kinda like when your mom says, "it's up to you" but in a very disapproving tone). But, my ~~cheap~~ frugal genes would not allow me to make that purchase. Maybe if it wasn't a rental. Maybe if we were going to live there forever. Maybe if inflation had made $650 worth $100 (the way the US is headed, I'm sure that will be the case soon enough!). As much as I loved the thought of chevron curtains, I have decided to incorporate chevron in other ways in my house. And I have LOTS of ideas. I. love. chevron (not the gas company).

Ultimately, I went by good ol' JCPenney on Friday where I talked to a very helpful girl named Dizzy at the curtain counter, and ordered pinch pleat traverse rod panels in english toffee (that's the name of the color). Just to give you an idea, the JCPenney curtain catalog had well over 70 pages, and there were only 2 options for the kind of curtains that I need. I told you they aren't in anymore. Naturally, they're on backorder (story of my life--I refuse to pay for expensive ones, and the cheaper ones--although, still NOT cheap--are on BO), but hopefully whenever they come in, I will love them and put a picture up here for you. If not, well, I'll send them back and chose a different color until I can feel the look of the whole room. We had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night, and I kept explaining to everyone that I needed to ~feel~ the room. They probably thought I was smoking rocks or something with all my comments about feeling decorations in a room.

Wow, I just ranted about curtains for far too long. Can you tell what I've been up to lately? I'd say if that's my biggest rant, then life is going just fine. :)

Pinto beans with avocado, olives, tomato-on-the-vine and salsa & veg-et-a-bles with jalapeno hummus was my lunch.

I'm off to drink some coffff-fay!

Wanna see my hizzy?

2011-08-02T15:51:00.002-04:00

Good afternoon! Let me begin by showing you the shirt I'm wearing today. My grandma made it.

I'm in loooove with it. But, I love all the clothes she makes me. This shirt is just so girly and romantic, but I can pair it with black pants and shoes and be all business like.

Before snapping that picture (ok, like 12 pictures because I'm not really good at taking mirror pics. Ethan always says I make a duck face whenever I look in the mirror so I was trying to avoid that at all costs.), I had the exact bowl of oatmeal that I had yesterday.

1/3 cup old fashioned oats, almond milk, water
1 banana (half cooked with the oats, half sliced on top)
1 tsp chia seeds (I think I forgot this in yesterday's post, but I always have chia seeds in my oatmeal. I like the texture they give my oats.)
Dash of sea salt, vanilla & cinnamon
Handful of almonds ground in my Magic Bullet (that decided to pop off the MB mid-spin and fly all over the counter).

Last night (after I unpacked a bunch of things), Thad and I finished watching the X-Files. After a year of watching a few epsidodes a week (sometimes a few in a day), we successfully completed the entire show. We don't watch much TV, and constantly friends and family are asking me if I've seen some new show that's on. My answer is always no. However, the next time someone asks me if I've ever seen one of the most popular shows from the late 90s & early 00s, I can scream 'YES!' with exaltation. Just give me a few years and maybe I'll watch whatever is popular right now. I'm a little behind the times when it comes to TV (unless its RHWOanywhere or House Hunters--preferrably House Hunters International). Back to X-Files, I was pretty against watching it whenever Thad first suggested it. I'm not really into sci-fi. Thad had watched the entire series while we dated (I did not partake) and really wanted me to watch it with him. After I finally got tired of his pestering me to watch it, I relented and watched a few episodes. Well, they hooked me. It wasn't Lost, but Lost was based somewhat on the X-Files. If you have all kinds of free time on your hands, or you're like me and only watch TV every once in a while and you watch an entire series all at one time, then I suggest the X-Files! Scully & Mulder make me want to believe in aliens and government conspiracies! Yeah, not really, but it's a cool show.

My lunch:

Spinach
Avocado
Grape tomatoes
Cauliflower
Orange bell pepper
Cucumber
Gherkins
Garlic Gold nuggets
Turkey
Homemade thousand island dressing

I whipped up my homemade dressing last night using:

1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup canola mayonnaise (I typically avoid canola, but didn't have any other options)
1/3 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons sweet dill relish

I dumped all the ingredients into a cup and mixed it up in my Magic Bullet. It was good. It's definitely not bottled thousand island, but considering I controlled the ingredients, I'll take it.

--

Here are some pictures of my house from Saturday night. For what it's worth, my kitchen is now put together and my closet is organized (not color coordinated yet, and homegirl keeps her closet color coordinated), but everything else is still in the process of coming together and finding a place or space to call home.

Kitchen.

Living room.

My office.

Thad's office.

Guest bedroom.

Bathroom.

(jaykay, jaykay, really though, do I need to tell you that this is a closet?)

Hopefully I'll remember to post after pictures, too. You probably don't remember, but I posted before pictures of my Lake City house and never posted afters. Oops.

And I'm off to class! Tonight is my last class for this semester and I have my final (non cumulative) exam! Any and all thoughts, prayers and good juju sent my way are accepted and appreciated.

Moving Day #3

2011-08-01T15:36:00.011-04:00

So, we are all moved in. Praise the LORD. On Saturday, my Mama and Daddy came over to Lake City to help us pack up, and load up my mom's SUV so we had an extra vehicle to cram our things in to. The determining factor on if we were going to move or not was if Thad and I could get our dresser out of our bedroom and onto the trailer.

That dresser weighs approximately 5.7 tons and is the most awkward thing you ever could fit through a door frame. I have a horrible memory and if it weren't for the fact that I take pictures of my food, I'd never remember what I ate for breakfast. However, I can vividly remember the night two and a half years ago that we bought that dresser from Circle K and moved it into our bedroom. Let's just say that I knew that if our marriage could make it through that, we would make it through anything. So as you can tell, we were not looking forward to moving it again. We both pepped ourselves up, ate our spinach and pulled out our Popeye Guns.

And what do you know, it came out easy as pie! Thad had a smart way of moving it (I have no clue about physics and weight distribution and what not--just tell me where to lift and when), and we lifted it out with relative ease. As soon as we got that on the trailer, it was on. I went into to tazmanian devil mode and started throwing everything into bags and boxes so we could complete the move in one trip.

About 3/4 of the way through doing this, I had to resign myself to the fact that not everything was going to fit in our 3 vehicles and 1 trailer. So, we left Lake City, drove the 60 miles to Melrose, chowed down on some Johnny's, unloaded everything, and drove back to Lake City at 9pm on Saturday night. We had to get Thad's children (his dogs), our food and most importantly, all of my clothes. We filled my mom's SUV with nothing but my clothes. It was a little crazy. When we left Lake City again around 11:00pm-ish, we drove back to Melrose and unloaded one more time. Even though we took two trips on Saturday, we still left some things (like my alarm clock and iPhone charger...that was a fun realization at 9:30pm last night), but for the most part got all of the essentials (like my 15 pairs of jeans, 30 dresses and 2,589 shirts/blouses). I can't say thank you enough to my mom and dad. They are troopers and are just plumb amazing. I had one breakdown during the whole process because Thad *accidently* dropped our headboard on one of the lamps that was my Nana's. I inherited two pairs of lamps whenever my Nana passed away, and Thad has successfuly broken one of each of them. I was a livid, hysterial, blubbering mess. However, my mother and father were there to calm me down and help me realize that it was an accident and these things can be replaced. Truth be told, I should have boxed the lamps up first and not left it for when the bed was being moved.

Anyway, despite not going to bed until around 2am on Saturday night, I couldn't sleep a wink. My adrenaline was pumping, I was [excitedly] consumed with all of the things I wanted to set up and organize, and I didn't know all the sounds that this new house makes. I was also to the point of exhaustion where I couldn't sleep. Ever experienced that? I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed early Sunday morning and was ready to get to work unpacking. I took pictures in order to blog the progress, but I'll have to post them next time as they are on my camera and I can't currently access them. I did steal away for a little bit and run to Publix and Walmart---wait a second, I live in Melrose now. I didn't "run to Publix real quick" because Publix isn't at my back door anymore. I spent the afternoon going to Publix & Walmart in Middleburg to pick up food and cleaning supplies. I've been strategizing about how I'm going to go to these stores now that I can't just 'run' to them whenever I need to. Anywho, before I left Melrose, I decided to get gas. As I was about to start pumping gas I heard someone yell, 'hey girl!' and it turned out to be someone I graduated with. I'm not used to running into people while pumping gas (or doing anything, really) since I knew all of 10 people in Lake City! It feels good to be back home. :)

---

Did I mention that I get to sleep 30 minutes later in the morning since my new commute is HALF of what it used to be?! I'm going to love this. Before my commute, I made my first bowl of oats in the new place:

1/3 cup old fashioned oats, almond milk, water
1 banana (half cooked in, half sliced on top)
Dash of sea salt, vanilla extract & cinnamon
Handful of almonds ground in my Magic Bullet
Raw honey

Lunch is a pretty random combination because I threw it together this morning. I was way too tired to think about lunch last night.

Left bowl: leftover roasted sweet potato and brussel sprouts (from last night's dinner), grape tomatoes, scoop of roasted garlic hummus
Right bowl: cup o' pinto beans, olives, 1/4 of an avocado, salsa verde

After work, I'm heading to Bed, Bath & Beyond. I think my love of home decor and design is surpassing my love of food!

Moving Day #2

2011-07-30T11:56:00.001-04:00

I normally love Saturday mornings because I get to relax in the quietness of the morning, enjoy some pancakes and watch TV. I don't get to do any of those things any other day of the week. However, this morning is a bit different. Thad is still snoozing because he doesn't wake up until noon on the weekends (I don't understand how he can sleep that late--I'm up by 9 at the latest) which is typical, and I did enjoy some coconut pancakes, but our TV situation is a bit different than normal.

We moved our entertainment center and flat screen TV yesterday, so this is what I made do with this morning. I brought the nightstand you see out of our guest bedroom in order to put the TV on it, but I wasn't strong enough to lift the TV, so it remained on the ground. Also, in case you can't tell, that would be Spike TV on, complete with a show about tires...I think. Something funky has been going on with our cable for the past couple of weeks (we aren't getting lots of channels), but since we're moving, I didn't think it worth the time & effort to call and get it fixed. Aside from the TV, the rest of my house looks odd, as well. My dining room table is gone, my utility room supplies are moved, and all my decorations are down. It's STRANGE. I think I mentioned that I've only really moved twice that I can recall. One time to Lake City when I didn't have any matching furniture, decorations, or really anything besides my bedroom suite from my parents house and a bunch of odds and ends that my family gave me. The other time that I moved was into the house my parents built at the end of my senior year of high school. I was in my car accident around that time, so I didn't pack up my room in our old house--my grandpa and aunt did that for me--or unpack much into our new house because I was popping wheelies in my wheelchair and unable to do much of anything. Needless to say, this whole moving process is quite interesting, and kinda fun in a strange, tiring, exhaustive sort of way!

I left off yesterday by saying that I was driving Thad's big truck and open trailer full of our furniture to our new place since he had to drive his R1.

That's right, people, I drove that truck 60+ miles. Let's just observe how far that is on a map.

I'm quite proud of myself. Ok, not really, it wasn't that hard. Plus, Thad was in front of me the whole time and wouldn't let me drive faster than 50 mph.

I wanted to zoom past him so many times, but then I looked in the rear view mirror and saw all of my treasures--some of which were jumping around like Mexican jumping beans and could very well fly off at any second. So, I decided I would just continue to be "that person" you get stuck behind whenever you really need to be somewhere.

Anyway, we got a lot moved yesterday and are hoping to maybe, possibly finish up our big stuff today so that we can stay there tonight. Our original plan was to be moved in by tomorrow (Sunday), but hopefully with us moving yesterday, we can finish up today. We'll see. As for now, I need to tackle this:

Multiply that by two because that's only one side of my closet. And I still feel at times that I don't have anything to wear...

I leave you with the view from my new living room that I snapped yesterday in between unloading and unpacking:

It's hard to tell from the iPhone picture, but where the glare is--just past the trees--the sun was setting on the lake. It was beautiful!

Making Moves

2011-07-29T14:34:00.001-04:00

I know I've disappeared recently, but life has gotten in the way of blogging! Rude. Thad and I are making the big move to Melrose this weekend, so we've been boxing things up, notifying lots of people/places, and just preparing for it. Our house looks like this right now:

And that's just two pictures that I snapped this morning. If you have ever moved before, I'm sure you know that there are many, many more boxes! When I was first thinking about packing up, I figured it would be a cinch since I didn't think I had that much stuff. Boy howdy was I wrong. I keep finding things I had forgot about!

Amidst all the moving, working, and schooling, Thad's amazing, wonderful Uncle David passed away last Friday. It was expected as Uncle Dave had been suffering from lung cancer that had progressed into brain cancer, but losing someone--especially someone as beloved as Uncle Dave--is never easy. We attended his funeral in Orlando on Wednesday and were able to be with all of the Tisdale family which was fun. It was a Catholic funeral and would you believe that is the first time I've ever experienced any type of Catholic service? I've been in Catholic churches before, just never for any kind of service. It was gorgeous, and pretty interesting to see all of the ceremonies and rituals. Anyway, Uncle Dave will be greatly missed. Him and Aunt Sue are two my favorite people in the world to talk to because they have done so much. He worked at the Pentagon, lived in Germany for several years, traveled all over the world and was extremely pensive and intelligent.

Before packing up a myriad of boxes this morning, I ate these:

Coconut pancakes made with 2 tablespoons of coconut flour, 2 tablespoons of coconut milk, 1 egg and a ton of water to thin them out, plus a banana, homemade almond butter and pure maple syrup.

I took off work today in order to get a lot of things done for the move. We didn't sell our house yet (everyone keeps asking me that). We'll probably end up renting it, so if you know of someone who wants to rent a house in Lake City, you just let me know. ;)

After I went to the post office this morning which was a complete waste of time per usual (I waited in a horribly long line for 5 minutes and didn't move anywhere, so I just left and paid $1 to change my address online--my time is more valuable than that!!), I ran a few more errands and am now about to drive Thad's huge truck with the trailer we're using to transport our furniture. Did you catch that? I am about to drive the truck and trailer. Please pray that I don't die, or more importantly, that our stuff doesn't fall off the open trailer. Thad has to drive his sports bike down to the house which means I get to drive the ~~boat~~ truck. Beware.

Oh, and here's meh lunch on fine china:

Turkey, spinach, dijon mustard, avocado on sprouted grain bread, plus some unpictured cucumber slices and tahini (eat it so you don't have to move it has been my motto as of late).

Peace OUT, Lake City!

Let there be oatmeal!

2011-07-22T14:48:00.005-04:00

HI, friends! A happy Friday to you!

This picture is not an accurate representation of how I look today. I'm actually sporting 4 eyes.

I wore my spectacles because I'm a bit tiiiiired, and I need my vision as good as possible because I'm going to the cinema tonight! Woo, woo!

So, that was fun. But, the paleo experiment is dunzo. I gleaned some good insight on my body's reaction to different macronutrients which was a great result to the experiment. However, let there be oatmeal. I don't have a gluten intolerance and, on the more philosophical side of things, I don't think Jesus would have called Himself the "Bread of Life" if we weren't supposed to eat grains. Caaapeeesh? With that said, my breakfast this morning was:

3/4 cup Uncle Sam's cereal
1/2 cup whole fat kefir
1 ripe, juicy, succulent mango

As I was driving to work this morning--in my sleepy haze--I looked up and saw this:

You can't tell from this picture, but the back of the truck says "MOLTEN SULFUR". What the who-ha-hay is molten sulfur doing traveling down I75 at 7 in the morning on a Friday? Or any day and time for that matter? Seriously though, what if that joker gets in a car accident, will molten sulfur spill onto the roads and melt down to the center of the earth (that'd make a good blog post!)? Will it make everything it touches wreak of rotten eggs? I don't know where it was going, or what the purpose of this substance was, but I quickly scooted into the fast lane and sped on around. I have a date with one of my best buds tonight and can't be smelling like a garbage truck.

--

This was me lunch.

Spinach
Yellow bell pepper
Cucumber
Cauliflower
Grape tomatoes
Broccoli slaw
Olives
Avocado
Turkey
Honey mustard

--

I need you to do me a favor. You need to visit the following blogs:

My Lucy, or K-Ford as you may know her better. -- My homegirl has been through more in her life than most should at 25 (Kristina, you're old.). She could use some encouragement, so please stop by and just say hi and send a prayer to the big guy upstairs for her.
Kendall -- I know lots and lots and lots of people with babies, but Kendall's baby, Pax, is the first baby that has caused me to genuinely YEARN to have a bebe (don't worry that's not happening any time soon). I even show Thaddeus pictures of Pax and he agrees that he's absolutey adorable! Kendall posts pictures and cute stories about Pax, and from what I read today she's tackling the word of sewing. I think things are about to get a whole lot cuter on A Hint On Things To Come---who knew that was possible?!
Jamie -- Jamie Baby is an old (as in a long time, not physically old...well, she's Kristina's age so I guess they're both old ;)), dear friend of mine. Truthfully, I don't know how I would have made it through freshman year of college without her. But we'll save that for another time. She started her blog recently, and I don't believe I've linked to it yet, so check. it. out. She's really in to healthy eating so if you're reading my blog (not that we're all healthy eating here on Blog of Shannon), you'll probably find her's interesting, too.
Connie -- Another old friend! Holla! Connie just started her blog, too, and I'm sure it's going to be phe-nom. We worked together years ago, and she knows her makeup. Seriously, if I was going to have one person in this world do my eye makeup (and I'm really, really particular about eye makeup), it would be her. She's getting married in December, too, so go give her some advice/feedback or just read it to get your own advice/feedback that I'm sure she'll give out!

--

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend:

1. Date night tonight with one of my bestestestestest friends, THIS GUY! <--there's another blog for you to peruse. Isn't his header amazing?

2. Starting the big move into our new place on Lake Santa Fe! Excitement is not an adequate description of Thadpole or my's feelings. We don't officially move in until August 1, but we've been given the green light to begin moving our things over. Cha-ching. Only one more week of Lake City living!

A fun trip.

2011-07-18T14:53:00.007-04:00

So did I mention that I was going on a week long vacation? I didn't? My apologies. To be quite honest, leading up to my vacay, I hadn't thought too much about it. My mind was preoccupied with work and school, and I wasn't responsible for planning any of the trip so I wasn't caught up in any of the particulars. I was just along for the ride! The purpose of the vacation was actually to help my brother and sister-in-law move to Louisville, Kentucky, so Ethan can attend the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It was a fun, whirlwind trip. My parents, Ethan, Anna and I drove most of the way last Monday. I had the pleasure of driving Anna's car while she rode with Ethan to keep him company. It was fun blaring Yellowcard and driving through the winding mountains of Tennessee.

What better way to keep yourself occupied then snapping pictures of yourself? And can we just marvel at how big my lips look here?? I have such little lips normally! Too bad I can't remember what pose I was trying whenever I snapped this (probably a mid snap in between focusing on driving 60mph down a 6% grade and checking my rear view mirror to make sure I hadn't lost Ethan)...

I didn't snap pictures of all my meals, but I did include those of interest. My first meal of the day was Crackel Barrel. Go figure.

After this we pretty much drove, drove, drove, until we were sick of the road, and pulled off for the night in Bowling Green, KY, which is about an hour shy of Looavul (that's how the locals pronounce it). The next day we made our way to Ethan & Anna's new abode and unpacked. In 117 degree weather. It was hot.

Very hot. Did I mention that their apartment is on the second floor? It's absolutely lovely, so be sure to check out Anna's blog for forthcoming pictures! After we finished moving all of their furniture in (with the help of the ever so gracious downstairs neighbor who is also going to Seminary--neat how the Lord works!), we needed food. Ethan, Anna and my mom wanted Chik-fil-a. As they were giving us directions to Chik-fil-a, my ears immediately perked up when Ethan mentioned 'by Whole Foods.' This made me veddy happy. I think you know where this is going. I hit up the hot bar for lunch!

Immediately when I got done eating, my stomach was killing me. As in, cramps and pains that I haven't experienced in quite some time. I attribute that to the beans and grains I ate which I have been avoiding since starting the paleo experiment. My parents and I left Ethan and Anna and went back to the Legacy Center which is Southern's conference/hotel center. It's the bomb.com. Anywho, as I was discussing my stomach pains with my padre, he told me that I need to balance my food out and stop going to the extremes in regards to how I eat. Smart guy, my old man.

Anywhoozle, Southern is hands down the prettiest campus I have ever been on. It's located right in the heart of the historic district of Louisville, so think rows and rows of beautiful big houses that modern day houses are modeled after. The campus itself is exquisite as well.

A lot of the buildings actually remind me somewhat of UF, and the surrounding neighborhoods. Except that the old historic homes that surround UF are much smaller, and part of the student ghetto, therefore in horrible condition.

The same day that we moved Ethan & Anna in, my parents and I decided to say goodbye since we planned to leave early Wednesday morning. E&A had a new place to move into, and a new chapter to start, so we all thought it best to go ahead and part ways. I'm not gonna lie, it was hard. Not only are they my baby brother and baby sister, but they are two of my very best friends. I am so, so, so thrilled for them to start this new adventure, but I am a little bit (ok, a lotta bit) sad for the Darty clan, my family and myself. However, thanks to Skype and other technologies we'll be in each other's presence. :) Anyway, enough of that, back to Louisville.

After we said goodbye, my parents and I headed out to find something for dinner. We ended up at a Cuban restaurant (the only thing that was open around 9pm on a Tuesday). I wanted to keep it on the light side, so I ordered a cuban salad and ceviche.

Pretty tasty considering Cuban isn't my preferred choice of cuisine! After dinner, my parents and I were still in a bit of a dull, sad puppy daze, so we did the only rational thing we could do at a time like that.

We went to the Pie Kitchen Deli. Then, I died.

This my friends, besides being an out of focus dark picture, is a Reeses cupcake. Go ahead, drool a little. I won't judge. It tasted like...like...well, words just can't describe this epitome of perfection. I ate it slow and savored every last morsel...of the top. I didn't want the actual cupcake...just the top where all the good stuff was. ;)

Despite eating late Tuesday night, we were hungry again Wednesday morning. I think I've vetted my love of breakfast on the blog multiple times. I get that from my parents. They are true breakfast lovers. I got on Yelp (love that site) and did some research for the best local breakfast spot in town, and came up with Wild Eggs. Let me just say that Wild Eggs did not disappoint.

I had the farmer's market skillet which came with tons of veggies and skillet potatoes topped with Monterey jack cheese located underneath two eggs (sunny side up for me) and a poppy seed muffin. Oh, this muffin. It was so flaky, so butter, so tasty. They also had good coffee which was another major plus. I will be back, Wild Eggs, mark my words.

After we left Louisville, my parents and I started the touristy part of our vacay. We went to Lincoln's birth place and then to an underground river (very cool). We then made our way down to Franklin, TN, to visit a plantation that my mom had read a book about. Franklin is absolutely beautiful! It's reminds me of Savannah or Charleston, but with a more country feel (versus Southern...yes, there is a difference). I consulted with Yelp again, and determined that we needed to eat at Puckett's Grocery for dinner. Thank you, Yelp, thank you. Seriously, if you are traveling in the near future, download the Yelp app on your phone, or scope out Yelp online before you venture off. It will provide you with restaurants and attractions that really give you a feel for the town you're in versus sticking with a chain restaurant or store by the interstate.

Back to Puckett's Grocery, it was an actual grocery store that has, over time, been converted to a restaurant.

With a stage! This bluegrass band took the stage about halfway into our meal and did an awesome job! It was good times.

For my meal, I chose the grilled chicken breast with a moonshine bourbon glaze (to. die. for.) with the vegetable of the day which was mashed sweet potatoes which made my day, steamed veggies and a corn cake. I must have been looking kinda skinny to the cook because he gave me a bonus side of squash casserole. Talk about it being my lucky day.

Seriously though, the best thing on that plate was the glaze. It was so, so good. My mom got salmon with that glaze on the side and we both agreed that we could drink it straight from the cup it was that good. However, we abstained. Instead, we went on the hunt for dessert. As we were perusing downtown Franklin, we stumbled upon Sweet Cece's. Sweet, indeed.

I got Heath bar yogurt (funny story: as my mom and I were looking at the available flavors I asked her what a Heath bar tasted like because I didn't know. She didn't either but we both ended up getting that flavor. Consider it Shannon & Mama approved.) with chocolate and peanut butter chips, two hunks of Reese's (they're my fav), and a cherry for good measure. I figured the cherry would count as my serving of fruit for the day. My parents and I enjoyed our yogurt sitting on a bench outside the store. It was quite pleasant--both the yogurt and the company. :)

The next morning, I did some shopping at a little furniture & design boutique...

I look a little freaked out in this picture because I was. I got to the counter to pay and couldn't find my wallet. Luckily my mom was with me and paid (thanks, Mama!) while I ran out to the car to search frantically for my wallet. Thankfully, I found it underneath the passenger seat (and I paid my mom back!). I don't ever lose anything, so it was mildly traumatic for those few minutes that I thought I had lost my wallet.

Also that day, we ventured to the Carnton Plantation.

My mom had read Widow of the South some time ago (I actually bought it for her for Christmas) and she loved the story which is based on Carnton. My mom is a sucker for the Civil War. I think most people have a war that they like to learn and read about. For my mom, it's the War of Northern Aggression. ;) This plantation actually has a really cool story that I could go on and on about, but I encourage you to read about it if you are a history buff. I plan on borrowing the book from my mom someday--hopefully before I finish my MBA.

After leaving the plantation, we made our way deep into the hills of Tennessee. I'm not kidding you when I say deep into the hills. Like, where family trees look like fence posts. Our destination was this place:

Ok, so not exactly, but this is where we ate lunch. I declared it the most podunk restaurant I have ever eaten at. This would be the Iron Skillet in Lynchburg, Tennessee (population of 12.5). I ordered a salad since I wasn't in the mood for something overly greasy. I knew full and well that a salad at a wittle restaurant like this would simply mean some iceberg lettuce, an out of season tomato, and some meat. I was pretty on point with my assumptions, but to my surprise (and delight), the chicken on this salad was pretty darn tasty. I didn't take a picture because I was too busy shooing flies away from my plate, but I'd eat there again--that is only if my mom and dad were my dates.

The real reason we were in the backwoods of Tennessee was not to eat at the Iron Skillet, but to visit the Jack Daniel's distillery. I couldn't help but find it ironic that we dropped my brother off at Seminary, only to visit a distillery a day later. Don't worry though, we don't actually drink the stuff, my dad had visited when he was a kid and remembered how quaint the town was, and he wanted to see it again. Not to mention that a tour of the distillery is free. It was an awesome tour, too. It's a pretty modest operation for the world's best selling whiskey--and that would be sipping whiskey, not drinking it as fast as you can and being an idiot whiskey. Did you know that the distillery is actually located in a dry county which means they can't sell alcohol? Funny, huh? The reasoning dates back to Prohibition and the fact that the county is too small and doesn't have enough voters to overturn the no alcohol laws. Crazy! I will admit that I did buy something from Jack Daniel's: coffee. I know, I'm a wild one.

After leaving the distillery (completely sober although smelling the whiskey smell that permeates the air in Lynchburg), we made our way to Georgia, stayed the night and spent the next day shopping at an outlet mall, then we drove home in the rain.

Overall a fun, fun trip. I absolutely love my family more than I could ever express. I'm so proud of Ethan & Anna and am happy that they are currently stationed in such a fun yuppie town like Louisville! I can't wait to visit again, and have already looked up some more restaurants and other fun activities to do when I visit again. I also had a blast soaking up time with my parents. With Ethan out of the picture, I can be the favorite child again (just kidding...kinda)!

It's been a week.

2011-07-07T22:03:00.005-04:00

Hey. It's been a busy coupla days around here. I don't know how many cups of coffee I've consumed this past week, but it'd probably shock you. As I downed two cups of my grandma's Keurig coffees at her house on Monday, she looked at me and asked, "do you normally drink this much coffee in the afternoons...?" And even though I've drank my weight in coffee, I can still barely keep my eyes open!

On Sunday, Thad and I went ventured down to Orlando with my father-in-law and brother-in-law to visit my uncle-in-law. It was a great time. If I had to choose two people to sit at their feet and listen to them talk all day, it would be Thad's Aunt Sue and Uncle Dave. They've done everything from snow skiing in Europe, to riding trains through the national parks out west, to living in Germany, to working at the NSA, etc., etc. You name it, they've probably done something close to it. I also enjoyed spending time with the Tisdale men. They possess two of the most attractive qualities a person can be blessed with: intelligence and wit. They're just as funny as they are smart--a deadly combination!

On Monday, July 4th, I met my family for lunch and shopping. Thad had to work. ~~Watermelon~~ Watermen don't take holidays off. People gotta have their water!

Ethan, Anna and I all got the same salad from Chili's:

July 4th is my grandpa's birthday (cool day for a birthday, huh?) so we visited with my grandparents for a bit before venturing out for frozen yogurt. We went to YoBe in Fleming Island. This was my first experience with froyo even though shops have really gained popularity over the past year and popped up all over the place.

In case you are inexperienced with froyo, it's set up self serve style. You choose which flavor you like, then put whatever toppings your heart (or stomach) desires on top. You also pay by the ounce. We were lucky enough to hit up happy hour and get half off our bowls!

Anna suggested the green apple flavor, so that's what I got. I topped it with cookie dough, Reeses and white chocolate chips. It vas vondervul.

I think he liked his, too.

I had planned to go to my brother-and-sister-in-law's for fireworks that night, but since we live an hour away and I had to work on Tuesday, I made like a responsible adult and went home to do laundry. Almost exciting as fireworks. Almost. What IS exciting is that as of August 1, we won't be an hour away from all our family and friends anymore because WE'RE MOVING! We're renting a house on Lake Santa Fe that is less than a mile from where Thad grew up. To say we're excited is an understatement. More pictures and adventures to come as I venture into decorating the new place. I've been stalking design blogs like crazy for the past couple of weeks (thanks Carrie & Brittany!). The house is definitely a bit dated (think 70s), but in great condition. I'm thinking a modern/retro decor. It's gonna be good. Trust me.

Anywho, Tuesday was a 14+ work and school day, and on Wednesday I had the opportunity to take a field trip to Ocala for work. It was a cool experience. That night I went to Keystone to hear baby brother preach at Trinity Baptist. Anna and he are leaving for Louisville next week, so last night was his farewell from Trinity. He's been the intern there for the past year and a half. He did a really good job, and as corny as it may sound, my heart swells with pride whenever I see him in his element. I can't wait to see what the next few years hold for Ethan and Anna.

I had a funeral to attend this morning, so I stayed with my parents in Belmore last night so I wouldn't have to drive back to Lake City (this won't be an issue much longer!!). After the sad, but beautiful funeral, my grandparents, mom, Ethan, Thad and I went to Blue Water Bay in Melrose for lunch. If it would have been our first time at BWB, I don't think any of my family would have gone back. It took us an hour to get our lunch, and the service left much to be desired. It was a bit ridiculous considering how many good things I always hear about Blue Water Bay (which Thad does not allow me to refer to as 'The Bay' since true Melrose-ians know that 'the Bay' refers to Lake Santa Fe's bay, not the restaurant). Once our food was finally delivered, sent back, and the food we actually ordered brought out to us, it was very tasty.

I got the lunch special which was blackened mahi tacos with sauteed veggies.

Even though I had a test in class tonight that I hadn't studied for at all, I decided to take a nap after lunch at my parents house instead of getting my notes out. It was raining and everyone else was napping, so how could I not partake as well?? Admittedly, I'm getting a bit burnt out, but I think it's just the culmination of the different emotions of this week and all the driving that's taking it's toll on me. And the fact that Thad had all his friends over to our new house to go swimming while I was sitting in class in Jacksonville, then driving back to Lake City. Sometimes being an overachiever has it's draw backs, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I'm blessed to be able to have the opportunities I do. And in the end it will be worth it.

Go go gadget wings

2011-07-02T12:36:00.003-04:00

Last night I didn't want to make dinner. Like, at all. I told this to Thad, and he suggested Taco Bell. I said no. Then he mentioned Burger King. I said no. Then he said Steak 'n Shake. Hmm, I can deal with that. Finally I took the reins and offered up McAllister's. Thad had never been before, but I assured him he would like it. So to McAllister's we went. I got exactly what I was craving:

1/2 veggie spud with no cheese
Cup of fire roasted corn soup

Thad got a Reuben, and gave McAllister's his approval. After we finished, we decided to venture into Publix so we could pick up one item: hamburger buns for Thad. Now, let it be known that Tisdale doesn't go grocery shopping with me, and like most men, hates shopping with every fiber of his being. I was actually semi dreading going into Publix because I knew he would complain the whole time even though we were simply planning on getting him buns for his sandwiches. However, last night he had a grand ol' time walking around Publix and picking things out. I know most people read my blog simply for snipits of what Thad eats. As a matter of fact, a conversation point for most people we see in real life ask Thad if he eats the strange things I cook. Now let me just say a few things about this:

1. I don't think my food is strange, thankyouverymuch. ;)

2. Thad has only ever eaten 3 things (that I can remember) that I have featured on the blog: kale chips, quinoa and beef bacon. Let it be noted that he liked all 3 of those.

3. I make Thad whatever he wants.

As I said, we went into Publix for one item only, but after Thad had his fun wondering around, we walked out with all of this:

Bagels
Hamburger buns
No sugar added orange sherbert (which we realized when we got home that it has Splenda in it...no bueno)
Irish Spring soap (uh, that's not food)
Cream cheese
Men's Greenwise Multivitamin
Coffee (he's decided to become a coffee drinker and wanted his own coffee because mine isn't strong enough for him even though I grind my own beans and can adjust the strength...?)
Pecan pie
Key lime pie
Burritos

Healthy, no? ;) Please also note that he is pretty darn skinny and claims that ice cream makes him lose weight. Oh to be Thad Tisdale. He also bought those huge mugs you see in the picture earlier in the day from Walmart, and he wanted to include them. No, he doesn't drink beer in them even though they are beer mugs. He has a few of them already, and fills them up with Gatorade, water, and sometimes milk.

---

So, I ran 4 miles at the park this morning and I am 95% certain that I saw a bobcat run across the trail about 100 feet in front of me.

(I didn't take this picture).

I saw something bigger than a fox, but smaller than the above picture dart across the trail and it freaked me out. I almost thought about turning around since I had just started running, but I put my big girl panties on and slinked by. I started up my run again, and kept checking over my shoulder because I was 100% certain that it had morphed into a huge lion and was coming after me. I didn't know what exactly I was going to do if I saw it chasing after me since the trail I run on is a dike with water on either side. Go go gadget wings and fly away? I finally passed someone else on the trail who was walking in the direction toward where I saw the bobcat and decided he would be a sufficient meal in place of me so I could relax and just finish the run. I've now seen snakes, alligators, raccoons, rabbits, turtles, all kinds of birds and a bobcat at the park.

I'm off to enjoy my Saturday. I had plans for Orlando today (not Disney), but that changed so I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do on this beautiful day. Happy 4th of July weekend!

Crankshaft Position Sensor

2011-06-30T15:59:00.003-04:00

HEY! Long time, no talk! Sorry about that. I haven't been particularly busy, but sufficiently busy enough with work, school and life to keep me from blogging. No bueno! I actually didn't do much this past weekend and could have blogged, but I was feeling a bit under the weather. Nothing major, but I did sleep pretty much the whole day on Sunday which is highly unlike me. I made some juice Sunday afternoon for a little pick me up:

I started feeling better by Monday, but my car decided it wasn't feeling well and left me stranded in Gainesville when I got off work. I made it to Publix on 13th, and then to the middle of 39th. But that's when things went downhill. I got in the turn lane for 441 when my engine cut off and I became that person in the middle of traffic with their hazard lights on. That was fun. Thank the Lord I was able to strategically make it into a CVS parking lot (think lots of prayer, cutting my car off, then back on, and pressing the gas pedal as hard as possible in an attempt to coast into the parking lot--which was uphill, mind you. Daddy, pretend you didn't read that.) and call Thad. He was my knight in shining armor as he came to the rescue, fixed my car, drove it home while I drove his truck and took me out to Moe's since I was too stressed to think about cooking the steak I had planned. AND I didn't get lectured since the car problem wasn't really my fault! He's a swell guy. I took the day off on Tuesday to take it in to the mechanic and thankfully it was just a crankshaft position sensor. Did you know your car had a crankshaft? Or a position sensor? Because I didn't. Anyway, it was {only} $168 to get it fixed which is chump change compared to most car problems.

ON TO THE FOOD!

Breakfasts of late:

2 eggs, 2 pluots, homemade almond butter

Shannon cereal: 3/4 cup kefir, 1 tsp chia seeds, pluot, blueberries, pecans

The oh-so-typical lunch:

Vegetables, roasted chicken and mustard & tahini

Dinners:

Veg-it-ables and meat (this was some of a whole roasted chicken that I...roasted.)

And that's about it. I ran 4 miles at the park yesterday. I decided to go to the park since I only have about a month left to take advantage of its trails. ;)

As for now, I'm zooming off to class. But first, I'm stopping at Volta to get some fuel (aka coffee which is how I'm making it through days of waking up at 5am and not getting home until 9pm) before making the almost 2 hour trek. I've never had Volta before so I'm slightly excited.

I'll be back tomorrow. PROMISE.

Running Late

2011-06-23T13:16:00.010-04:00

6:23am--It's light out. Oh, how I love Saturdays. Wait....it's not Saturday!?!?!?!?! It's THURSDAY! 6:23am?! I need to leave in 7 minutes to get to work on time!!!!

6:24am--Let the dogs outside. Turn on coffee pot. Run to bathroom.

6:25am--What do I do?? What do I do?!?!?! This is the only the 8th time in my life I've ever slept through my alarm!! What am I supposed to do?!

6:26am--I didn't grind the coffee beans first! I'm brewing nothing but hot water. I can't get through my day on hot water. Run to kitchen. Turn off coffee pot. Grind beans. Turn on coffee pot.

6:27am--Let dogs inside.

6:28am--I need breakfast. I'll make some eggs. Put pan on burner.

6:29am--AM I DELUSIONAL?! I have to be at work in an hour and it takes 55 minutes to get there! I don't have time for a 4 course meal! I'll just stop at Publix and get breakfast. But, what am I going to get?

6:30am--I really ought to be more concerned about my appearance than my stomach at a time like this.

6:31am--Throw on some makeup and realize this is going to take entirely too long. I need to get on the road. Grab my makeup bag, throw it all in.

6:33am--Look at my hair. It looks like a rats nest. Hey, remember when Riley used to call Mandy "Ratty" in 7th grade because of her curly hair? Man, I miss those days. I really liked those two. I wonder what they're up to these days. I know Riley moved away, and I think Man--

6:34am--YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO TAKE A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE!

6:35am--Grab straightener, throw in makeup bag.

6:37am--Ahhh, coffee. I can think now.

6:39am--In true Shannon fashion, try on two different outfits even though I should have left the house 9 minutes ago. Gotta make sure I'm feeling my 'fit.

6:40am--These shoes? Look in mirror. No. How about these shoes? mmm, not feeling it. I think I'll just wear the first pair. WHO CARES, JUST PICK A PAIR OF SHOES AND GO!

6:41am--What am I going to eat for breakfast????? AHA! I'll make what I had yesterday since it's portable!

6:42am--Throw breakfast together and run out the door.

6:45am--Mix it all up. It'll be easier to eat that way.

7:15am--Attempt to put on makeup while driving. Think about how I don't want to get in an accident and how my mother would scream bloody murder at me for not paying attention to the road. Decide I'll just wait until I get to work. If I scare someone when I'm walking to my office, so be it.

7:42am--Arrive at work and run up stairs while simaltaneously praying that no one is in yet.

7:43am--Take a big gulp and attempt to open the door to the office. It's locked. PRAISE THE LORD! No one is in yet!

7:44am--Say thank you prayer #433 for my own work bathroom.

7:45am--Get primped, primed and polished in a hot minute. I have a meeting at 9:30 and still need to finish some things up.

8:00am--I don't look half bad for having to get ready at work!

8:05am-12:00pm--Work, work, work.

12:00pm--Lunch time.

12:26pm--Realize I forgot to take a picture of my lunch before I started eating it... Oh well, people who read my blog are used to crappy pictures.

Broccoli, green bell pepper, cucumber and grape tomoatoes with tahini
Chicken sliders (x 3..I had already eaten 2)
Ketchup + mustard

12:30pm--I really hope the second half of my day goes smoother than the first.

Lazy eye or crazy eyes?

2011-06-21T14:39:00.000-04:00

And continuing on with the same exact breakfast I've had the past several days...weeks...months?

Eggs cooked in a little coconut oil, some 'lope and homemade almond butter.

So, I went for a 4 mile run yesterday when I got off work. Here's proof:

It felt great to get out there and run again. I'm a little sore today, but not as sore as I figured I would be. I ran it quicker than I should have (always happens with fresh legs). My left ham/quad/thigh region is somewhat tight, but if that's all the soreness I'm going to get then that's fine by me! I made sure to stretch really well once I got done, and I'm probably going to stretch again in a few minutes since I've been sitting all the day long at work.

When I got back to my house from my jaunt, I stood in front of an AC vent for a good 5 minutes. After I finally pulled myself away, Thad looked at me and asked if I had splashed water on my face because of how sweaty I still was. No, Tisdale, it was hawt outside. You would know if you went running with me.

And because I think it's funny to post horrendous pictures of myself on the internets, here's another sweaty picture:

I look like:

a. I just had a seizure.

b. I have a lazy eye.

c. My face has manifested into a catatonic stupor.

Just to prove that I do not have a lazy eye, here I am right this very second:

Ok, that looks like I have crazy eyes. I'm kind of channeling my inner Ramona:

Real Housewives of NYC, anyone??

I think you get my point. I don't have a lazy eye or crazy eyes. At least I don't think I do. If I do, don't tell me. Ignorance is bliss.

Organic roast beef
Horseradish mustard (the bomb.com)
Veggies: roasted eggplant on top of broccoli, cucumber slices and grape tomatoes with some tahini

Peace out.

It was good times.

2011-06-20T13:30:00.006-04:00

I had a busy weekend, but thankfully it was full of fun things with fun people. Before everything started on Saturday, I had some coconut flour pancakes and a nectarine:

I haven't really mastered the whole technique of keeping the pancake batter in circular form when using coconut flour. It's different than regular flour. Anyway, that was probably the healthiest thing I ate all day. Fine by me!

Our first stop of the day was for a joint birthday party for our nephew, Nate, and niece, Alli.

I, of course, had to have the obilagory cake and ice cream...

I'm still dealing with the after effects of eating sugar (read: CYSTIC ZITS!). Ugh, I love and hate sugar so much.

After we partied it down with the Tisdales, we went to my baby brother's graduation party. He's graduating with his bachelors and moving on up in the world to pursue his master's in theology. It would have made sense for me to get a picture with my brother at his party, but I'm not really in the making sense business. So, the only picture I took was with Dave.

My dad had cooked beef brisket for the occasion, but Thad had made plans for us to take his dad out to dinner for Father's Day. My grandma also made some macaroni and cheese for the event. I have a strict rule that whenever my grandma makes her mac & cheese, I eat some, no questions asked.

This picture is a bit rough, but trust me when I say that it is divine. You'll never want Kraft mac & cheese again after tasting my grandma's. It's what heaven tastes like.

After we bid adieu to everyone at Ethan's partay, we went to Laredo with Thad's dad.

That would be a chicken chalupa salad minus the chalupa shell. It was good. Veddy good.

On Sunday, I went to church with my grandparents and mom at Beulah Baptist. My great grandpa pastored Beulah many years ago, so it holds a special place in my grandpa's heart. It's actually pretty special to my entire family due to its location and all the families that attend church there. You know how it goes with Southern families.

After church, my mom and I headed back to her house to heat up leftover brisket from Ethan's party to take to Gold Head for a Father's Day picnic. As the brisket was heating up, I suddenly heard my mom yell that the oven was on fire....a grease fire! I grabbed a cup of water, and she screamed, "You can't throw water on a grease fire!" So, I stood paralyzed for a second as she yelled, "Sugar! Flour! Dirrrrrrrrrrrt! Call Daddy! The house is going to burn down!" (repeat x 53) I ran outside in a frenzy and grabbed......bark. I know, I know. Wood on a fire? Real smart, Crowder. As soon as I ran inside and was about to pitch the bark into the flames my mom screamed, "That's WOOD! You can't throw that on a fire!" She then proceeded to shake her hands and continue to scream "Flour! Call Daddy! The house! The house is going to burn down!' Had everything been on mute and I couldn't hear what she was saying (or seen the terrified look on her face), I would have thought that she was doing the hokey pokey with as much dancing as she was doing. I screamed back, "YOU call Daddy!" and ran back outside to find some dirt. I looked around in a panic and eyed a big flower pot full of dirt (later I found out it was a rose bush she had planted), and brought that back inside. As the fire was getting worse in the stove, I looked down at the pot and paused for a split second. I then grabbed two handfuls of dirt and threw it in, praying it would work.... It did! I continued to throw more and more dirt onto the flames until they went out completely. It was one of the scariest. moments. of. my. life. My hands shook violently for at least 10 minutes after it happened. And that is the story of how I saved my parents house from burning down. Even though I was the hero for the day, my family proceeded not to thank me and fan me with palm fronds while feeding me grapes for the rest of the afternoon, no, they just made fun of me for grabbing wood to throw on a fire with the intention of putting it out. A FOR EFFORT!

Once we finally made out to Gold Head with the meat a little on the smoky side, we had lunch:

Beef brisket with cucumber & tomato salad. And also an unpictured piece of cake that my grandma made. Always gotta have the cake.

In addition to being a fireman for the day, I schooled my family and beat everyone in a round of golf.

Actually, I don't know who won, but I can guarantee you that it was not me. Regardless, it was good times!

---

Gotta get back to work now. I'm so tired today and I don't really know why. I just know I'm not as snarky as I usually am at lunch time. It may have to do with the fact that I gave myself a concussion this morning when I ran into a wall in my bedroom whilst getting ready for work. I don't turn lights on in the morning so I won't wake up Sleeping Beauty as he sleeps. I have my path down pat, but I guess this morning I got a little too excited, turned a little too early, and ran smack dab in the wall. Spilled coffee everywhere. I don't recommend starting your day like that. Happy Monday!

Happy Daddy's Day!

2011-06-19T21:26:00.001-04:00

If you were to ask me who I was most like in this world, it would be this man:

Daddy, you're supposed to smile when I'm talking about you.

That's better!

I walk just like him, and sit just like him too apparently...

He has the best sense of humor and makes me laugh constantly...

He takes care of my Mama...

He's quiet and very thoughtful...

He loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength...

Really, he does. Just ignore their mean looks.

Speaking of mean looks, I look just like him...

And he was my first love...

He has my heart, and always will.

---

There is another I am terribly in love with...

My Pa.

I once heard someone say that my grandpa was the only person they knew who had never had a bad word spoken about him. I often think about that in regards to how I live my life.

I also love my grandpa for his green thumb...

I don't think I even need to talk about his gardening abilities. I've mentioned his veggies on my blog plenty of times. :)

I think what I love most about my grandpa is how much he loves my grandma...

I don't know any two people who are more in love with each other than these two.

---

There's also one more man I adore who I don't have enough pictures with...

My father-in-law

I love talking to this man. He always has thought provoking, intelligent things to say...

And he constantly makes me think of things in different ways...

Don't they look exactly alike?

He also has one mean sense of humor which is where I know Thad gets his from (and is his best trait).

I love you , Daddy, Pa, and Mr. Rick.

Happy Father's Day!

I feel like I have an arrow in my head.

2011-06-16T13:11:00.001-04:00

HI! I hope it's wet and rainy wherever you are and not smokey and hot like it is here. Lake City actually hasn't had any smoke in the air from all the wildfires that are waging across north Florida, unlike Gainesville, Jacksonville and everywhere in between. I did get a big whiff of smoke filled air whenever I let the dogs out this morning, but no visible smoke. Maybe my eyes have just adjusted to the smoke now and it just blends in with the landscape, who knows.

2 free range eggs cooked in coconut oil
Peach
Homemade almond butter

---

So, today I decided to play dress up and wear a head band to work. Please see exhibit A:

I like head bands, I really do. I think they add a little flava flav to my otherwise simple 'fits. However, I currently feel like someone has shot me through the head with a bow and arrow. Please see exhibit B:

Yes, that is a fake gun...because that's what it feels like!

I'm not even half way through this 14+ hour day of mine (I have school tonight) and my head hurts. Taking it off is simply not an option because my hair is a little funky right now. Waaaaaaah! Why can't these things be as comfortable as soft head bands?! Am the only one who has trouble wearing them? Am I doing something wrong? Is my head irregularly shaped??

---

Ma lunch:

Smoked salmon & avocado
Vegetables & tahini

Wanna see my dinner from last night? No? Well, then skip this.

I actually went to Keystone last night to look a potential rental house. It was adorable, but there were other people interested, and we weren't prepared to make a decision quickly enough since our house is (and probably will be for a while) on the market. Needless to say, I wanted a quick dinner since I drove all over the place yesterday.

Steak
Zucchini & asparagus cooked in a little buttah with sea salt and garlic powder

The veg-it-ables were so, so good. Butter and vegetables go together like peanut butter and jelly. Seriously. If you don't like vegetables, just invite me over and we'll cook some up. I promise we'll find at least one you like!

Ever wonder what it's like to ride a bike?

2011-06-14T13:03:00.006-04:00

Whenever Thad and I were dating, he talked about wanting a sports bike all the time. Something you should understand about my husband is that he doesn't spend money. Like ever. Like, all the debits in our bank account are from yours truly. This isn't to say I spend frivously, because I don't. Thad just doesn't spend money on himself. I mean, have you seen his clothes? Half of them have holes in them (it's from his job working around chlorine). Getting a bike was a huge dream of Thad's. Before we were even engaged, we agreed that once we got married (assuming we would...) and bought a house, then our next big purchase would be an R1 for Thad. So, that's exactly what we did. I think almost every wife I know is totally appalled at their husband owning a motorcycle or sports bike. Not me--or my sister in law, Becky, either. I guess that tells you that the Tisdale men have good taste in women! Or something like that...? Anywho, Thad loves his R1. And I love the fact that his school boy dream came true with that bike. I don't ride on it too often with him. It's quite uncomfortable on the little (and I do mean little) backseat, and tends to make my bum hip pretty darn sore due to the strange position I have to sit in. With that said, last Friday we decided to take her out for a ride.

I also took a video in case you've never ridden a bike and wondered what it was like. We were going really slow (which is the only reason I wasn't holding on for dear life) down a road that was closed due to construction. It's dark, but it gets a little brighter when I turn on my iPhone's camera light. The light startles Thad and you can hear the bike slow down immediately. Kinda humorous!

--

And in other news, this is just for my family members who think I'm slightly deranged (they aren't completely wrong) : I'm wearing deodorant again! For a long time I've wanted to switch to an aluminum free deodorant. I did some research online, and have been using coconut oil and baking soda as a deo for my BO for a few weeks, but the baking soda is making my skin disintegrate. Ok, so that's a bit dramatic, but it really is irritating my skin beyond what even stubborn ol' me can stand. I've tried mixing the ratios around with less baking soda and more coconut oil, but to no avail. Well, it works as a deodorant (I don't really have BO. Honestly, I have only ever smelled myself like 3 times in my life. That could be the most lady like statement I've ever put on my blog.), just not as a moisturizer or antiperspirant (which is what the aluminum does in regular deodrants). It probably doesn't help that I tried this during the hottest days of the year thus far. This was more of an experiment for February. As you might expect, my family (read: Ethan) made fun of me for this (I've also changed my shampoo, conditioner and face wash products but I'll blog about those whenever I've done it for a full month). So, I just wanted to end this post with a few pictures to prove to my family that I am not a hippy. It's too bad Ethan is at fat camp this week and won't get to see these pictures for a few days (if ever since I don't think he reads my blog...no love for his older, wiser, better-looking-than-him sister, none at all).

I work in a professional environment and can't be going into work looking like a grease ball hippy with dreadlocks.

Spkeaing of dreadlocks, I imagine my hair is pretty darn close to the texture of dreads. This whole natural shampoo (or 'no poo') is quite...interesting...

I am not a hippy.

I am the rainmaker.

2011-06-12T23:02:00.000-04:00

Breakfast:

Coconut flour pancakes made with:

1 egg
2 Tablespoons of coconut flour
2 Tablespoons coconut milk
1 tsp ground flax
Dash of vanilla extract & cinnamon
Water to thin

w/ homemade almond butter, maple syrup & cantaloupe

Y'all this salad I made for lunch was a-maze. It was so good that I've given it it's own name: BLT and then some salad. ...ok, so the name could use a little work, but still, it was good.

BLT:

Beef bacon
Lettuce (arugula & purple cabbage)
Tomato...

And then some with a bunch of veggies & homemade guacamole. For the guac, I put 2 avocados in my Magic Bullet with lime juice, red pepper flakes, S & P, then let it whirl.

After lunch I decided to venture out to my secret spot and pick more blackberries. However, whenever I got out there I noticed that all of the plants were extremely dry.

I proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes searching for blackberries that didn't look dried out, while also thinking about how badly we needed rain and how I couldn't remember the last time it had rained and how there is smoke everywhere in the air in north Florida right now from various different fires and I just wish it would rain soon. Well, as I made my way down the blackberry trail, I looked up and saw this:

I DIDN'T WANT IT TO RAIN RIGHT AT THAT SECOND! And so goes the story of my life. I was at least 3 miles away from home, and was determined to get enough blackberries to make Thad some cobbler. So, I picked and picked and picked as the rain (and some gnarly thunder & lightening) got closer and closer and closer. It finally started pouring whenever I was in the middle of a blackberry thicket. I turned around to run to the path and all of the dang thorns in the bushes attached to my legs. It was a bit painful. I ran about a mile and a half in an attempt to outrun the rain, and it felt good. The running bug has been gnawing at me.

Last week, Kelly posted a list of some of her go-to dinner recipes. As I was reading over them, I saw her link for "gentlemen joes" or sloppy joes. :) Thad loves sloppy joes, so I decided to make those for dinner using some grass fed ground beef. Kelly had linked to this recipe which is from the Pioneer Woman, so I knew it was going to be good!

On the side I spiralized 1/2 a sweet potato in order to make curly sweet potato fries and zucchini slices. They were delish. I hadn't used my spiralizer in ages for some reason. I'm glad I busted it out tonight.

Why are people creeping on my husband?

2011-06-10T13:49:00.002-04:00

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Blogger, and have said I was going to move this blog to Wordpress for months, there is one feature I really like. It's the Stats tab.

It has all kinds of neat statistics about your blog. If you have a blog on Blogger, I'm sure you're familiar with it. It tells you where people are coming from...

This was for the past month. Guten Tag German friends! Halla Norwegian folk! Zdravo Slovenian residents! I really wonder how different countries happen across my little corner of the interweb. I think I know how the UK peeps are getting here...

These are the top posts of all time here on Blog of Shannon.

The Royal Wedding -- one of my all time favorite posts that I've written. And to think I was sick as a dog whenever I wrote it.
Eggplant Curry -- I think this post ended up on a recipe site or search engine somehow, somewhere.
Relaxed -- This post annoys me to NO end. It has absolutely no content except for food pictures, yet somehow I get spam comments on it at least 3 or 4 times a week which I always delete. I need to just delete the whole post. I guess it's in some spam generator somethingorother and that's why I always get comments that want to enlarge my genitals, sell me free typing software or the comment is in another language (preferrably Arabic).
Chickens have earlobes?! -- who knew something so stupid would lead so many people to my online diary?? I mean come on, now! This post will be #1 in a few months with the amount of people who end up here after googling 'chicken earlobes'.
Breaking the Bad News -- I don't know why this one is among the top posts...

Although the countries and top posts are interesting, my favorite feature of the Stats page is the keyword searches. Basically, it tells me what people googled in order to be directed to my blog. My all time favorite search term was 'shining peep-toes bling grey'. Don't ask me what that means, but I think it's hilarious. There is, however, one term people search for in order to come here that bothers me. Let us observe the all time most searched keywords here at Blog of Shannon:

24 people ended up here because they were creeping on my husband. WHAT THE HECK?! Why are people internet stalking Thad?! It weirds me out. His name is higher on the list than my name. I know that there are various different keywords for 'shannon faye blog', but I know people just don't know the URL to my blog, so they google it. Heck, I do that sometimes because I can't remember my blog address. However, I would assume that most people who are googling 'thaddeus tisdale' don't know that his wife has a blog, and instead are creeping on him. It's just a little eerie.. I think we're all guilty of googling people, but 24 times?! I didn't realize my hubs was so popular... SO if you ended up here because you are nosey and want to know what Sir Thaddeus Warren Tisdale the Great is up to, well then he's swell and doing just fine. Thank you for your concern. You can move right along now. Weirdo.

--

Salad du jour:

Organic ground turkey & grass fed beef with all kinds of veggies topped with spicy mustard and guacamole....on top of my work notes. Yum.

Rainbow Coins

2011-06-09T14:52:00.007-04:00

So my breakfasts have looked a lot like this lately:

Eggs, fruit and pecan or almond butter that I whip up real quick like in my Magic Bullet each morning. I have swapped out the eggs for beef bacon a few times. In my Paleo/Primal research I noticed that fruit isn't eaten a whole lot. But, I've decided I don't care. I love the stuff, and it provides all kinds of micronutrients. I know some people can't handle the sugar in fruit, but thank the Lawd Almighty, I'm not one of them. The only reason I can gather that fruit is eaten in very limited amounts on Paleo is because Paleolithic humans didn't have access to various types of fruits. Well, Paleolitihic humans didn't have access to eyeliner, air conditioner and Americanos with an extra shot of espresso either and I'm not giving those up. Plus, cantalouies (that is cantaloupes in case you don't know what a cantalouie is) are coming into season! Holllllleeeerrrrr!

Continuing on with repetitive food, my lunches have looked like this over and over again:

A kitchen sink salad. Actually, this would be more representative:

Tahini and mustard with a side of turkey and vegetables. Delicioso....and I don't have to think about what I'm doing when I make my lunch. I just grab every vegetable I can find in my refrigerator, throw in a little spinach, some meat and dump some mustard & tahini on top. And voila!

---

I've been wanting to source some local meat for a while now. I've talked to Thad about it repeatedly, and just haven't taken the jump to contacting some local farms. Thad has even talked about raising a cow at his dad's farm so we have complete control over what it eats, but seeing as how we (currently) live 60 miles away from said farm, that's not an option. Eatwild.com is a great source for finding local grass-fed meat sources. I've been on it many times and some day soon I'm actually going to buy some meat from one of the local farms found on that site. Until I get my act together and do it, I'll continue to buy meat from Publix's Greenwise section. With the Greenwise section at my local Publix, there isn't much choice when it comes to cut of meat. It's pretty much always ribeyes, ground round and the occasional London broil or chuck roast. Whenever I saw this sitting in the 2'x2' section of freezer, I snapped it up:

Beef back ribs! It was quite a nice coincidence because I had just read a recipe for beef back ribs. However, this specific recipe said to cook them at 225 for 4 hours. I didn't have 4 hours to cook them, so I did some googling and figured out that I could cook them at 300 for 2 hours. I know, Daddy, low and slow is better. So, that's what I did. First I sprinkled on a dry rub of 1/2 tsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, chili powder, sea salt, & black pepper. Then I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil, put a roasting pan on top, put the ribs on, put aluminum foil over the top and let it cook. I flipped them an hour into the baking.

I was pretty leery when I went to eat them because I thought they might have been a bit tough since I cooked them at a higher temperature for a quicker amount of time. No such problem! They didn't 'fall off the bone' but they weren't tough at all. A little tug with my teeth, and the meat came right off.

I can pretend like I was all dainty and only took miniscule bites of each, then declared I was full, but let's be real. I'm a southern girl, and we like our ribs. I also had some of my grandpa's homegrown squash with some cauliflower on the side. I sauteed them in a bit of butter and paprika. You know how summer squash can be totally tasteless? Not my Pa's squash. If his corn is manna from the heavens, then his squash are coins in the pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Seriously, after this meal I never wanted to eat again. And then 10 minutes later I had some Ghiradelli 100% baking chocolate. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

It's PURPLE!

2011-06-06T14:47:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I posted that video of me using the blower on my face. Oh well, that junk was funny! We met with our realtor yesterday and everything went swimmingly. We listed it at a price that we *pray* will move it, but we're not idiots. We know what the market is like. There is also a house in our neighborhood that is for sale, and comparable to ours--although ours is bigger and prettier! Who knows what will happen, but we know that it's in the Lord's hands.

Eeeeeeeats:

Grass fed beef bacon
Organic peach w/ homemade almond butter

That was breakfast this morning.

---

The other day I was at Ward's since I can't seem to go three days without stopping by there (it doesn't help that it's on my way home). I have a love/hate relationship with that store. I love lots of their weirdo products, but I don't like how many people are always there invading my personal space. I really don't like people that much. Especially when they're banging into me with their buggies, or whenever I can smell their BO. Ward's definitely attracks some questionable folk. I guess it's because of their cheap prices and the same weirdo products that I'm shopping for. Anywho, I got really excited when I saw this:

Yes, I know this looks like a turd a la Ethan. It's actually a purple sweet potato! Purple sweet potatoes are native to Okinawa, Japan (been there!). I've read about them in various recipes and even looked for them from time to time in different stores. I honestly passed right by the display of these pots, and it wasn't until I heard some woman yell, "You ever tried dese purple sweet potatoes befo?" that I realized I had almost passed them by. Needless to say, I did what I don't like other people to do to me at Ward's, and bumped her out of the way with my basket in order to grab one. I nicely said excuse me so that made it ok.

In order to cook it, I cut it up into disks like I normally do with sweet potatoes:

Puuuurrrrrrple

Then I roasted them in the oven (400 convection roast, so 375 regular bake) with some Brussels sprouts, sea salt and cumin for about 20 minutes. I sprinkled some goat cheese over top and served them alongside a cod filet.

It tasted just like a regular sweet potato except it was sweeter! Me like. Also, I used this recipe for the cod. It's my go-to recipe for white fish.

See ya later.

This will blow your mind...or face.

2011-06-04T23:06:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I had lots of cleaning to do today. I cleaned my entire house from top to bottom, and then moved outside. Thad was using the leaf blower to blow...leaves. Imagine that! Anyway, we decided to have a little fun...

Then I decided to take my turn. Now before you watch this, please know that I look haggard. I spent all day cleaning and rearranging my house. I had also spent the hour prior to this trimming my hedges:

I wish I had a before picture because the hedges were huge. My arms feel like noodles right now from battling those darn bushes.

Good lord, I look awful. See how much I like you to post horrendous videos of myself on the internets?

I refuse to capitalize realtor.

2011-06-04T13:48:00.009-04:00

Hullo, hullo.

Hope your weekend is off to a swell start. When I woke up this morning, the sky was cloudy, but now the sun is out. Honestly, I love cloudy overcast mornings. I am glad to see the sun poking through though. I'm hoping to pick more blackberries later on this afternoon. As I mentioned, I made Thad blackberry cobbler. He ate it all up, and I made him more last night which successfully depleted my blackberry stores. He announced the other day that he wants blackberry cobbler for the rest of his life. The recipe I used was from my very first cookbook, The Lady & Sons Just Desserts by the one and only Paula Deen. My grandma gave it to me for Christmas in 2006. Know how I remember that? Because my grandma always writes in the books she gives me.

She's amazing, I know. And isn't her handwriting the prettiest you ever did see?

The recipe I used was actually called blackberry crisp. I'm not sure of the difference between a crisp and a cobbler. I do know that this recipe was amazing, quick and easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Yes, there is some missing. No, Thad hadn't had any yet. Yes, I am guilty as charged of performing quality control. I modified Mz. Paula's recipe since she's a little heavy handed with the sugar.

Filling:

4 cups blackberries
1/2 cup sugar (originally 1 cup)
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and pour into pan (or Corningware as evidenced above).

Top:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar (originally 1 cup)
1/4 cup butter, room temperature -- I microwaved mine to make it room temp.

Mix flour and sugar together. Cut butter in with a fork and knife (or pastry cutter is you have all that fancy baking equipment). Pour over filling. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Not exactly Paleo. I don't exactly care.

Some other eats as of late:

Grass fed ground beef, sauteed peppers & onions, and salsa over cauliflower 'rice'

'Cereal' composed of pecans, almonds, and blackberries in coconut milk

Coconut flour pancakes with homemade almond butter. The jury is still out on if I liked the flavor of these or not.

Homemade jerky. No, I didn't eat all of this.

---

I'd better get off the computer now. I have to make my house spick-and-span because we have a bona fide realtor coming tomorrow! We've decided to actually list our house with an agent. It's actually the same realtor who sold us our house a little less than 3 years ago. Speaking of that, I think today marks the 3 year anniversary that Thad asked me to marry him!! Awwww. Anywho, it's kinda funny that we've asked this realtor to sell our house because we had an interesting relationship with her back then. As we went through the process of buying this house, we found out that it's in a flood zone. Why? I don't know. We've never had any standing water on our property, and I've only ever seen some in the very back of my neighborhood. Anyway, I have a cousin who owns an insurance business in Clay County, so I called him up back whenever we were about to purchase the house and asked for advice. He told me to run away unless it was a super good deal (flood insurance isn't exactly cheap). We used this tidbit of wisdom to tell the realtor, sorry but we ain't buying the house unless the sellers agreed to lower the price by $10,000. Thad and I were pretty sure that we were going to be back at square one with looking for a house because who in their right mind would lower their asking price by a total of $20,000 (we had already offered $10,000 below what the had listed at). And even though I had fallen in love with this house since the moment I stepped in, Thad and I agreed that this was for the best. However, even though the owners were pretty insulted, they were more desperate to sell since the house they were building was almost complete. Well as I'm sure you know, the owners relented and we ended up purchasing this house. There was a catch, and that was that the realtor agreed to take a sharp drop in commission in order to sell us the house at the right price. So, it should be interesting tomorrow to say the least!

Now that we're getting serious about selling it, I'm not quite sure what to expect. Admittedly, we've really drug our feet over the past couple months in regards to selling the house because we weren't sure what we wanted to do. Sell it? Rent it? And as far as moving back to Keystone, we couldn't make up our mind either. We've been pretty jaded by my work situation, so we aren't jumping at the bit to buy a new house. Who knows if I'll stay in my current job for longer than 2 years? And if I don't, then where will we move? Lots of unknowns. With that said, I think we may rent a house back in Keystone/Melrose. I won't say that definitively since a good deal may come up on the real estate market, but right now at this moment on Saturday, June 4, at 1:37pm, that's the direction we're leaning. We've been looking at rentals online (and homes for sale) but, we (read: me) are really picky. ;)

Ok, gotta get off the computer and CLEAN.

*As for as the title of this post, Blogger is giving me the red squiggly line under every 'realtor' in this post and telling me to capitalize it. Well, no. It's not a proper noun in my ~~book~~ blog.

Why I haven't been running.

2011-06-01T14:46:00.004-04:00

I had a good breakfast this morning. I'm finding that it's much easier to be creative and have variety in my meal selections if I prepare food ahead of time. I know that's not a novel concept...

One egg cooked in coconut oil crêpe style
Ground turkey (leftovers)
Diced tomoatoes (leftovers--I cooked this a few nights ago with some dried oregano, basil, and parsley)

I haven't talked about running or any kind of workout lately. Truth is, I haven't been doing any. When I started my new job (January), I was waking up at 4:40am each morning to jazzercise* since I had a new long commute. I don't get home til 6:00ish, and well, it was just taking too much out of me. You see, my husband is a night owl. Due to my early morning schedule, I was ready to pass out at 7:30pm each night so we weren't really spending much time together since he doesn't get home until after me most days. I know some people wake up at 4am, work out, work, pick up the kids, make dinner, make lunches, and get to bed at 11pm and do it all over again the next day. If you are one of those people, I salute you. That lifestyle doesn't interest me at all. Needless to say, getting up early (or should I say during the night because let's face it, the 4 o'clock hour is late night, not early morning) was causing me too much anxiety. Life is too short and full of too many external sorces of stress to perpetuate my own anxieties. So, I stopped. Cold turkey. I haven't gained any weight because of it. I walk on my lunch break (30-40 minutes) and when I get home I do some kind of activity (walk more or strength training stuff). On the weekends I go hiking at the park, and do some sprints. I'm also the kind of person who always has to be moving (read: ADD) therefore I'm always performing NEAT activities (can we please talk about how a PubMed article mentions 'fidgeting' as a life activity?! I feel vindicated that it is recognized as such since it makes up a big part of my every day movement!). Admittedly, I was also burnt out on running almost every morning. I still love to run, but there's a season for everything under the sun, and right now I'm focused more on quality time with my husband, work, school and avoiding narcolepsy.

So there you have it.

*I have never jazzercised in my life. I'm using the term facetiously. But if you do, then invite me over because I need to mark that off my bucket list.

And now you get my lunch.

Yes, I know it looks a little like cat food. As Whitney would say, get off me!

Salmon + mustard + dill relish + celery = salmon salad
Mixed greens
Baby carrots
Grape tomatoes
Orange bell pepper
Pepitas
Broccoli
Cucumber
Sauerkraut
Doused in EVOO

There's hummus among us.

2011-05-31T14:56:00.008-04:00

One of my biggest hurdles in eating paleo (besides pancakes) is the whole no legumes thing. I haven't done a whole lot of research into the science behind legumes, but I think that they are a supposed gut irritant (I accidently typed guy irritant at first which may be true as well, due to legumes producing gas and what not...you understand. Oh, you don't? Well I guess they just have that affect on me then. Beans, beans, they're good for your heart...). Maybe? A girl can only handle so much research at one time. Some legumes are ok (green beans, sugar snaps, snow peas) because they are in pods and contain more fiber than starch. Anyway, prior to eating in this fashion I ate hummus by the tub full. A single serving of hummus was the entire container in my ~~book~~ blog. However, hummus is made primarily of chickpeas, and chickpeas are, you guessed it, a legume. No big deal I told myself because afterall, the other main component of chickpeas was tahini and that's fair game! So, I've been dousing my vegetables in tahini as is evidenced here, here, and um, here. I love tahini, but I knew there had to be more creative uses for it besides just drizzling on my vegs. Enter: paleo hummus.

I scoured the internets in search of paleo hummus and found two versions. I decided to follow the instructions to the T for the first go round. I figured if it turned out well, then I could alter it to my liking as I saw fit. If it didn't turn out, well, then I could try the other version.

Luckily, we had success! I used this recipe which called for:

2 peeled zucchini
3/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 garlic cloves
2.5 teaspoons sea salt
Heaping 1/2 T cumin

I put all those ingredients in my Magic Bullet and let 'er rip. It turned out very creamy hummus, and I couldn't even tell that the chickpeas were missing. I do plan on altering this recipe on subsequent creations. I think I'll dial down the lemon juice and salt, while adding a bit of water. I also intend on swapping out the zucchini for various vegetables (like sun dried tomatoes since that's my favorite hummus flava).

This is how I've been using the paleo hummus over the past couple of days--more as a dressing than a dipper. Also of note, tahini is widely available. I picked mine up at Walmart in the little Mediterranean/Jewish section next to the matzo mix. Mazel tov!

Bump on the Log

2011-05-30T19:16:00.005-04:00

I've decided I want to quit my job, quit school and be a stay at home wife, aka a bump on the log since I have no kids and no real reason to stay at home all day. My reason for this is due to the relaxing Memorial Day I have experienced. I've actually gotten a lot of stuff done. I've been able to check off several things on my to do list: lots of cooking, school work and a little house work type stuff. I've also spent a lot of time on my computer in addition to watching all of the military related Waltons episodes that are playing on the Inspiration channel. Confession: I bawled my eyes out during the episode that Mary Ellen finds out that Curt was killed at Pearl Harbor. Gets me every time. Even though today has been ~~lazy~~ uneventful, Saturday was quite busy. I had to attend a funeral of a dear cousin. You know how it goes with Southern families, it doesn't matter how many times removed or how distant a cousin may be as far as lineage goes, you probably have a relationship with that person. This specific cousin, who was more like a distant Uncle, was my third cousin (I think). Anyway, the world lost a little bit of its shine with his death. It was expected, but no death is ever welcome. I did get to see a side of my family that I usually only see around Christmas and I realized how good looking they all are. Seriously. This cousin was one brother out of seven (yes, 7 boys and there was one girl) and every single one of them is good looking.

This picture clearly has nothing to do with seven brothers, but it's me and my Aunt Kim! We've been told many times that we look alike. Considering Kim and my mom could pass as twins, this isn't a surprise.

After the funeral, I went back to my parents house and went swimming for a little while. Well, I floated on a raft and read my Economics book. My parents also grilled out.

A few weeks ago on one of my trips to the park, I noticed lots of blackberry bushes. I made a mental note to come back with some bags and go a pickin'. Yesterday I ventured out with a couple of bags and walked back to the part of the trail in which I found the bushes.

Both sides of this trail are lined with blackberry bushes. They are everywhere. If you pay me $5, I will take you there. I spent 3 HOURS out there picking and picking and picking. I didn't think to bring a water bottle with me, and got extremely parched. Had I not, I probably would have spent even more time out there. It made me feel like I was Laura in Little House on the Prairie.

I was a bit disheartened whenever I decided to finally head back to my house because I felt like I didn't have that much to show for all my hard work. Well, besides a blue hand with all kinds of scratches from thorns. Note to self: wear gloves when blackberry picking since the bushes are thorny. I think I still have several thorns in my fingers as I type this.

But, when I got back home and rinsed them off, I realized I had 2 quarts of wild blackberries!

I picked these for myself and my sister-in-law, however the mister has requested blackberry cobbler. He doesn't request things too often, so I'm about to make him some. He says his mom used to make him blackberry cobbler with wild blackberries they picked at his family's farm. I'm not quite sure that I can rival his mom's cobbler, but I did consult with Paula and came up with a good looking recipe. It won't take all of these blackberries, and there's probably close to 2 miles worth of bushes that I haven't even touched so I'll be making more trips out to my secret spot.

Primal eating is still going strong. I haven't had grains since I committed to eating this way, and I haven't missed them in the slightest. That's a pretty strong statement coming from someone who ate oatmeal, sprouted grain bread and some sort of whole grain just about every single day. I think it's due to all the reading I've done on grains. I won't go into all of that, but suffice it to say I'm doing fine without them. Truthfully, the only grain based meal that I was a bit bummed about was pancakes. For as long as I can remember (including when I lived at home with my parents), Saturday morning has been reserved for Saturday morning pancakes. However, with a few quick Google searches, I found some paleo/primal pancake recipes. I love you, Google. Today wasn't Saturday, and this didn't really taste like pancakes, but it works!

Combine one mashed banana, one egg and one tablespoon nut butter (I made some pecan butter in my Magic Bullet) and plop on the griddle.

Top with pure maple syrup and a few pecans. Not bad at all for a grain-free pancake.

I've made some other primal recipes that I plan on blogging about in the coming days. I'm off to talk with Thad about our housing issue. Do we sell or rent our house out? Do we buy or rent a house back in Keystone/Melrose? Decisions, decisions!

Mucho bien.

2011-05-26T13:22:00.001-04:00

Hi-yo! I had another meeting today to present some stuff I've been working on for over a month now. It went really well. A lot better than last time. This is probably due to the fact that there was only one person to present to, and not 5 (one of whom was a very defensive physician). Don't get me wrong, I still have some improving to do. Ok, a lot of improving, but I know what I need to focus on. I tend to be really hard on myself because I expect a lot out of myself. I don't believe one should ever get comfortable in any job because there is always room for improvement. And when people get comfortable they tend to get sloppy.

I cannot tell a lie. This was actually my breakfast yesterday. But it was too good not to put on my blog.

2 scrambled eggs
Salsa
Avocado
Banana that I needed to eat before it got too ripe for me to eat (which is very ripe because I love domestic abuse bananas)

---

I do believe this is the first chance I've had to breathe at work for over a week now. The project that wouldn't die reared it's ugly head again yesterday, but I think I'm in the clear now. I hope and I pray that it is gone forever. It was really high level stuff and it made me a mental wreck.

School has also been interesting. Very interesting. As in, my professor is a wack job and bat crazy interesting. He gave us a pop quiz on Tuesday because we "weren't respecting him." It was the third class. I mean, hello? Some people were talking while he started mumbling in the beginning of class, and all of a sudden it was pop quiz time. It was pretty story book in that the quiz wasn't on anything we've covered (seeing as how we've only met 3 times). One girl (whom I've had other classes with and is very inquisitive) ended up asking him where the material was listed in the syllabus, the prof told us we should have read all of the 'Suggested Reading' within the past week, and she ended up packing her bags and walking out of class. I kinda wanted to clap and give her a standing ovation. Well done, sister friend, well done. I might have done the same if I wasn't on a pretty strict schedule and really need to take this class if I want to gradEuate on time. So instead, I glared at him throughout the entire class. I think I have a pretty mean glare when I want to unleash it. He even looked right at me at one point and said, "some people are just stoically glaring at me. I guess I'm a bad person." He read my mind! I actually agree with a lot of what he was saying (his classes are basically just his political diabtribes. What that has to do with Economics in Business Decisions I've yet to figure out), however his delivery is just demeaning and rude. I think he thinks we graduate students are idiots. There again 80% of us have full time jobs, thus we don't have time to sit around reading news sites all day long to stay abreast on all the details of current happenings in the US economy. I'm hoping it gets better and that he's just being quirky. He follows the Austrian Economics school of thought, and I do, too. He has the potential to be an awesome professor. However, it may be a case of failed potential.

---

LUNCH

Leftovers!

Ribeye
Okra, zucchini & Brussels sprouts roasted in garam masala

On my way to work I realized I forgot a knife. I tried using a plastic knife that I had at work:

No dice.

Luckily I rummaged around in the drawers in our work kitchen and found a real one.

PTL because I was about to resort to eating with my hands. And I have to keep it classy up in hurr.

Random: Do you see how I wear my class (UF) ring on my index finger and not on my right ring finger like the rest of society? It's because that's where my mom wears hers. I always thought that's where you were supposed to wear it. I know it doesn't really matter, but I thought I'd clarify. People have actually asked me why I wear it where I do before. Clearly, these people have no life. And cleary I don't either if I'm talking about it on my blog.

Making it snappy.

2011-05-24T14:39:00.003-04:00

Hi. Real quick post since I'm being a good worker bee and finishing up a project for a meeting I have on Thursday. And because I have to jettison out of work in an hour and a half to head to Jacksonburg for class.

Brekas (yes):

2 poached eggs
1/2 sweet potato
Strawberries (just go with it...)
1 tbsp coconut oil

Odd combination? Yes, but it worked. And it was delicious. Compared to some of the combination of foods that I've eaten (and pictured!) on this blog, this ain't nothin'.

LUNCH:

Turkey + avocado
Green bell pepper + cauliflower + grape tomatoes with tahini

All my lunches look the same right now. I'll work on variety. I've been doing lots of research on this whole Paleo/Primal/Weston Price way of eating. I've got ideas. Tasty ones.

Speaking of tasty ideas, last night for dinner I roasted a ~~turkey~~ chicken. Thad was quite surpised by my "fancy meal" for a Monday.

Truth be told, it was so easy. Anyone who has ever roasted a whole chicken can testify to that. All I did was rub it down with EVOO, sprinkle some sea salt and pepper on it and pick a few sprigs of rosemary from my herb garden and proceed to stick some in the cavity and on top. I cooked it in a cast iron skillet that I had prewarmed in the oven at 450 (yes, Daddy, I know, lower temps are better....but I was kinda short on time ~~and patience~~.) I let it cook for about 50 minutes, and then let it rest for 15 minutes. And voila:

Moist chicken.

Ok,bye.

Blasty Blast

2011-05-23T14:16:00.006-04:00

Last August or so I emailed Brittany to see if she wanted to do a scavenger hunt 5k that Disney World was putting on in May 2011. She quickly agreed. It looked really fun, and that meant we'd get to go to Didney Woowd! Well, fast forward to April. I got online to register us for the run, but it was sold out. I was so bummed that I hadn't done it sooner, but I never would have imagined it would have sold out. Well, we decided not to let that little fact deter us from taking a weekend trip to the happiest place on Earth (you know because it's not like we went over a month ago or anything). We asked our other best buds, Kristina (who never updates her blog) and Carrie (who never updates her twitter) if they wanted to come as well. Of course they said yes, so early Saturday morning we headed down to stay at the Swan & Dolphin. It was an awesome weekend of laughing, talking, laughing, walking, dancing, laughing, laying by the pool, laughing, and well, laughing. That's why these girls are my best friends. We never stop laughing (most of the time at my expense) whenever we're together.

Bongo's (Gloria Estefan's restaurant)

Where we spent our entire afternoon. Sidenote: my lips are the only part of my body that is sunburnt...?

Yes, she is ironing in pearls and her bathing suit. We keep it classy.

Our view from the 11th floor. The little shadows on the horizon are the castle at the Magic Kingdom, and the Contemporary Resort.

Bluezoo I wish I would have gotten a picture of our meal. Carrie and I split a dish that was a braised beef short rib, scallops and cauliflower puree. The amount of food wasn't bigger than the palm of your hand (the more expensive the restaurant, the smaller the portions), but it tasted like baby unicorn tears. That is to say it was good. We obviously had sauvignon blanc to accompany it. I prefer red wine (merlot, cab sav) if I'm going to drink it, but this was still tasty to the palette. Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about when discussing wine? Because I don't.

Our feet hurt so bad when we go done shaking our groove thang that we proceeded to take off our shoes and walk back to our hotel (it was less than 0.25 of a mile). Anyone in my family knows that I'm a huge germaphobe and won't even stand barefoot in a dressing room. This is how bad my feet hurt. Thank you, cheap Forever 21 shoes (mine were navy).

And the obligatory stop at CrackEL Barrel. They just kept bringing us more and more food, I kid you not. Quite the difference from Bluezoo!

As always, it was a blasty blast and I'm already planning our next trip!

Die, project, die!

2011-05-20T16:01:00.001-04:00

WOW, this has been a week. I think my coworkers and I are *finally* done with the project that will never die. Each day a new part of the massive project with a new immediate deadline has sprung up. It's been tense and stressful in here to say the least. I think and pray and hope that we are finally done.

Breakfast:

Chia pudding! This recipe comes from my pretty-darn-close-to-being-vegan days. I know I've talked about chia seeds before. Chia seeds come from the same plant as a Chia pet. I know, I know, sounds strange. But they are actually chock full of healthy stuff. Not only do they contain minerals like phosphorus, manganese, calcium, potassium and sodium, they also contain a good amount of healthy fat, fiber, and a good amount of protein for a seed. They don't have much taste so to speak, but they do take a fun texture when added to liquid. For this chia pudding, I added ~3/4 cup almond milk to ~1/3 cup chia seeds and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I also added 1 tsp dark cacao powder and some vanilla extract. It turned out pretty bland tasting, but I suspect a little honey or some of my vanilla stevia drops I use in my coffee would take it up a notch. Regardless, I sprinkled some coconut on top and it was an enjoyable breakfast.

Lunch:

Salsa chicken
Organic sauerkraut + broccoli + cucumber

I can't believe I forgot about sauerkraut! It's been in the bottom of my fridge, so I guess it was out of sight, out of mind. Sauerkraut is really healthy for you as well due to the probiotics from the fermentation process. But who cares about that, sauerkraut is good! I bet my parents and grandma are shaking their collective heads right now over me saying I like fermented cabbage. What can I say? Tastes change. I like cabbage in any form. True story.

Ok, my mind is mush right now so I'm gonna go walk up and down the stairs at work. I do that from time to time when I need to get away from the computer. This week has been stressful, but I've learned a lot. Gotta look at the bright side of things!

Under Pressure David Bowie Style

2011-05-18T21:51:00.002-04:00

Confession: That is one of my favorite songs eva.

Today was the highest pressure day I've experienced in my new job. I mentioned yesterday that I was working on a large project. This project consisted of two PowerPoint presentations with about 30 slides each. It was full of all kinds of data. My coworkers and I were told that it would be due next week. No big deal. However, right after I posted yesterday, we got a phone call from our boss's boss that he needed the project today at noon. Commence panic mode. After initially being frozen in place for a few minutes from the shock of the news, we quickly got to work. I had to leave at 4pm yesterday in order to get to class, but I'm pretty sure my coworkers worked on it until around 6pm last night. Thankfully we were able to get an extension to tomorrow, but I worked on the assignment from the minute I walked in today until the minute I walked out (around 5:30pm). One of my coworkers was even in tears at one point, and I totally empathized. I actually like working under pressure, but it makes for crazy days!

This was my breakfast. Yes, it was a salad.

2 poached eggs
1/2 sweet potato (I find conflicting information if sweet potatoes are paleo/primal or not, but I'm going to lean with yes, they are...mainly because I'm biased and like them)
Grape tomato
Spinach
EVOO

This was a great breakfast believe it or not. It was a hot salad due to the egg and sweet pot. I will definitely be having it again.

So class went well last night. The drive from Gainesville to Jacksonville wasn't horrendous. I may sing a different tune in a few weeks, but I actually enjoyed it yesterday. The way I go is new scenery for me. The actual class itself, Economics of Business Decisions, was interesting. We watched a movie for one hour and 30 minutes of the one hour and 40 minute class. I was all geeked out on it since I love economics/economic theory/economic policy (I studied a lot of econ stuff in political science at UF), but I don't think my classmates felt the same. :)

Organic turkey (there is more there than appears from the picture) + avocado
Broccoli + cauliflower + cucumber drenched in tahini

For dinner, I let my crack pot do the work. I simply placed 4 chicken breasts in it with some chicken broth and a bunch of salsa and let her rip for about 9 hours. What it turned out was nice salsa chicken breasts.

Salsa chicken (I added some salsa after I snapped the picture)
Roasted cabbage
Roasted Brussels sprouts

I turned the pot back on low whenever I got home so it would warm up some. My crack pot automatically switches to the warm mode when the timer goes off, but I've found that it doesn't keep as smoking hot as I like. Anyway, I guess that may have dried it some, or I should have only cooked it for 8 hours. Regardless, they turned out good.

Goodnight!

Wheel of Fortune, we're running out of time!

2011-05-17T13:02:00.003-04:00

I start class tonight. Waaaaaaah! I think my coworkers want to throw a funeral for me because every one I have told has expressed deep concern. I told one lady this morning, and then 5 minutes later she came into my office and said, "Wait, isn't UNF in Jacksonville??" Why yes, yes it is. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do. When ch-ch-ch-changes come your way and shake up your 5 year plan, you just have to roll with the punches. C'est la vie.

Since I didn't post yesterday (I really had nothing of value to blog about & I'm working on a mega huge project for the CEO), I'll show yesterday's breakfast and lunch. You're welcome.

Yesterday:

Crazy looking eggs (cooked in a little coconut oil) because someone wasn't paying attention when she was cooking them
Banana + strawberries + almond butter

Today:

Turkey bacon (we don't really do pork in the Tisdale household which is why it's not of the oinking variety)
Shredded carrot + pineapple + cashew butter salad (don't knock it til you try it)

You're going to have to bare with me in regards to breakfast. Since I'm attempting to eat more Paleo/primal, and due to the fact that I've eaten oatmeal for the past 2 years for breakfast, it's going to take some time for me to come up with creative enough breakfasts to blog about. Paleo doesn't do a lot of fruit either which is another hurdle to creativity. However, I love a challenge, especially when food is involved. It just might take me a few days/weeks to add variation. Despite the theme of this blog, I don't think about food all the time. :) If you have any ideas for Paleo breakfasts (I'm looking at you, Janelle), please let me know!!!

Lunch:

Yesterday:

Mixed greens
Grape tomatoes
Cucumbers
Cauliflower
Avocado
Sunflower seeds
Olives
Gherkins
Chicken
EVOO
Unpicture handful (well, I have little hands so like 2 Shannon-handfuls) of pecans

True story: I had this same exact salad on Sunday, but I wasn't as satisfied when I finished it. I think it's because I didn't use tahini as dressing. Tahini (which is sesame seeds ground to the consistency of peanut butter) is mainly fat. Homegirl likes her fat. EVOO is fat, too, but I use a spray bottle of EVOO at work that I keep stashed in my desk and I just don't think I used enough.

Today:

Smoked salmon + avocado
Tomato + yellow bell pepper + goat cheese

Yeah, I know goat cheese isn't Paleo, but please remember (if you have any idea what I'm talking about) that I'm doing a Weston Price/Paleo combo. I think Dr. Price would be fine with my full fat goat cheese. Also, goat cheese doesn't have the same type of protein (lactose) that cow cheese does, so it's easier to digest. Even people who are lactose intolerant can handle goat cheese.

Note to self: don't store pink salmon in an orange colored bowl when taking a picture. The salmon won't show up.

This picture was suppose to prove that I did have a lot of salmon in the bowl, but it didn't help at all. #fail

---

In case you missed it, the world is ending Saturday at 6:00pm.

Here's an article to read if you have no clue what I'm talking about. I suppose this means I need to do all the things I've ever wanted to do before I die. I don't know if Wheel of Fortune will allow me to be a contestant on their show before Saturday, but I might as well email them and ask, right? When I talked to Thad this morning about the impending doomsday, he was just glad that he took Trixie to the groomer's today so she'll look nice for when her time is up.

Amazeballs

2011-05-15T21:10:00.002-04:00

Between constant texts from my Mom & Dad who went to Georgia, and tweets from Brittany who is in NYC, I feel like I've traveled all over the place this weekend. In reality, I've barely left my house in Lake City. I did go to church this morning, and before going I had this for breakfast:

Mango (I finally read directions on how to cut them up and it's not that hard afterall!)
Pecans
Turkey bacon

As I said, I haven't done much this weekend which is fine by me. I found out at the church that I go to in Lake City has a Facebook page. So high tech.

My lunch:

Mixed greens
Shredded chicken (it's underneath the veggies)
Cucumber
Carrot
Grape tomatoes
Olives
Cucumber
Baby pickles
Tahini

This salad kept me full all afternoon. I attribute that to the tahini/chicken combo.

Thad's lunch since I know my grandma gets a kick out of seeing his food:

Turkey sandwich with mayonnaise and a slice of organic American cheese, a granola bar, and a Monster. He also had some chips on his plate, but he ate them while I was making my salad. Not the picture of health, but it works for him. :)

After lunch, I decided to head over to the park. The park I always go to is only a mile from my house. Well, the entrance is a mile from my house. The park actually edges my neighbors (across the street) backyards. I normally drive to the park since there isn't a sidewalk between my house and the entrance, and the road we live off of is pretty busy so I'd really rather just take my car versus getting run over. I'm no fun, I know. However, today I decided to walk. I didn't want to go traipsing through my neighbors yards to get to the park, so I walked on the main road to the gate closest to my house which is only about 0.25 mile away.

No Unauthorized Entry

I authorized myself since I practically own the place, and hopped right over the gate. Once in the park, I walked/jogged/danced around for about an hour and a half.

Isn't the green water trippy?

I like having dance parties in the park because I'm the only one who's ever out on the trails. That means whenever I'm bustin' a move to Pandora, I don't have to worry about anyone watching. I do, however, have to worry about these critters:

No lie, as I was breaking it down, I started to put my foot down and for some reason I looked down and saw this thing. You see, I was flailing about in the midst of a dance move and not paying attention to anything around me, so to look down just as I was about to step on Lucifer is nothing short of a miracle. Anyway, I don't think this guy was poisonous, but I hate snakes.

---

For dinner, I made Slow-Cooker Spanish Meatballs from Everyday Food. The only change I made besides halving the recipe, was to use ground flax in place of the breadcrumbs. It turned out really tasty, so tasty in fact that I have deemed them amazeballs. I also made Salt 'n' Vinegar Roasted Potatoes from EF. It's kinda funny that I wrote about Paleo yesterday, and eat potatoes today. I don't think potatoes are considered primal. Poor potatoes, they get such a bad rap in every diet/eating theory/etc. but they really do have some good vitamins & protein. With that said, I don't really eat potatoes that often because I prefer their sweeter counterpart, and Thad prefers instant potato flakes... However, Thad's favorite chip is Kettle brand's Salt & Vinegar. Whenever I saw this recipe in Everyday Food, I knew I had to make it. They turned out really good, too!

Thad's dinner:

Bye!

Science Experiment

2011-05-14T13:30:00.003-04:00

I'm glad Blogger has decided to stop being cranky and is allowing me to post today. In case you missed it, Blogger went down on Thursday due to something that happened during routine maintenance, so all blogs were converted back to how they appeared a few days ago. That meant that all the recent posts were gone. However, they did still appear in my Google Reader. If you read this blog, we know each other and you have your own blog, you should know that I follow it via my Reader. I know you can 'Follow' people through Blogger, but I read all my blogs in Google Reader because I read a lot of non-Blogger blogs (WordPress, self hosted, etc.). I don't even know how to follow people on Blogger. I'm seriously technologically challenged. Just as long as I have access to Gmail, Twitter and The Sartorialist, I'm good to go.

Anyway, this morning's breakfast was different than my normal grain-based first meal of the day:

2 eggs fried in 1/2 tsp organic extra virgin coconut oil (Coconut oil is super healthy. Yes, it's high in saturated fat, but saturated fat is good for you. I've spent many hours reading information about this.)
4 strawberries
1 kiwi (with the skin removed, Mrs. Stephanie Van Zant :))
Freshly ground almond butter

Full disclosure here: you are probably going to see a shift in my meals. For the past year and a half, I've been eating a plant & grain based diet. In the past couple of months (since I've been blogging again), I've been including more meat. I've had issues with fatigue for as long as I can remember, and I'm tired of it (pun intended). It cannot be normal to be tired all. the. dang. time. especially when I'm not exercising as much as I used too (I haven't really talked about that on the blog, but I'll post on it soon). I've been doing some research and listening to some podcasts, and I've decided to up my protein and fat intake. I get a pretty good amount of fat as it is (avocado, eggs, nut butters), but my macronutrient ratios are still tipped to the carbohydrate side of things. Even though I eat mainly non-processed, complex carbs, I still think I may be eating too many. I've read about the Paleo or primal way of eating for a very long time, but due to its emphasis on meat, I've shied away from it. However, recently I've been intrigued by it. I don't do diets, and their associated dogma. The Paleo community appears to be very dogmatic to me, and I'm not all about that. I read an article this morning about Paleo 2.0 and I liked how the author stated that eating in this way should be an approach or methodology, not a set of rules.

Anyway, Paleo doesn't do beans or diary, and um, I like those things. I've read some of the reasonings behind why paleolithic man didn't eat them, but we aren't living in paleolithic times. I do think we live in a genetically modified, overly processed, chemical laden world in terms of the food we eat, which is a far cry from the food that the Good Lord intended for us to feed our temples (1 Cor. 3:16-17). However, until I do more research, I don't plan on cutting those out. Maybe lessening the beans in favor of meat, but I still plan on consuming my daily 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee and eating greek yogurt and/or kefir. I guess what I plan on doing is more of a Paleo/Weston Price combination because I also plan on including grains, just to a lesser extent. I cannot recommend enough that if you are the least bit interested in nutrition, you check out Nourishing Traditions which is based on Dr. Price's findings. It blew my mind in the way I thought of food.

In sum, I'm going to cut down some on my grains and see if I have more energy. What has really spurred me on in all this is the thought of my 15+ hour Tuesdays & Thursdays starting this coming week. I start class again, and I don't want to be starting class at 6pm with my head spinning and fatigue setting in. I'm not saying grains are the culprit, but I'm willing to see if perhaps cutting down on those, and upping my protein would have a good affect. It's a science experiment! Carbs definitely increase insulin production, and I've always been very sensitive when it comes to insulin & blood sugar. I even thought I was diabetic at one point in time and had to do that God-awful 5 hour glucose test. I thought I was going to pass out when doing it due to my blood sugar dropping so low.

Wow, I've typed a lot about all of this. Sorry. I just wanted to give reasoning behind my shift in meals. And because I've spent the last 4 hours reading all kinds of articles and blogs on Paleo. I'm just beginning my real foray into this and as with everything I do, it's just my take on things and not following any one thought/theory/diet/etc. I always want to be real here on the blog. I'm still going to be eating whole foods like always, and not that much is going to change really other than breakfast and just more meat in general. Regardless, if it fails (for me), you'll know. If it works (for me), you'll know.

MOVING ON.

After I got off work yesterday, I went warehouse shopping at Sam's.

My cart.

I haven't been to Sam's in ages. When I go to Sam's, I stock up. Doesn't everyone?

Strawberries
Goat cheese
Green bell peppers
Granola bars (Thad's--he prefers my homemade bars, but keeps these on hand, too)
Tampons (ha!)
Bubba burgers (Thad)
Almonds
Frozen veggie mix
Pecans
Brussels sprouts
Carrots
More bell peppers
Cucumbers
Canned Alaskan salmon
Kiwis
Dried blueberries
Pink lady apples
Smoked salmon
Wild caught Cod
Organic spinach
Gherkins
Grape tomatoes

And while I do believe in buying as organic as possible, I obviously didn't in this trip other than the spinach. Sam's doesn't offer many organic products, and I refuse to be dogmatic and dichotomous in the way I shop. This actually goes against my grain because I'm very much an all or nothing, feast or famine type-A personality, but I have to remind myself constantly that life is too short to get caught up in the details. If you try most of the time to buy organic, and occasionally don't, I don't think you're going to die. :) Eat some genetically modified veggies? Possibly. Die? No.

After I went to Sam's, I stopped at Publix and bought the entire Greenwise freezer section of meat. But, let's face it, meat isn't pretty to look at so I didn't take a picture. That, and when I got home Thad insisted I quickly put everything up and watch Dumb & Dumber with him. We've been married for 2.5 years and he's pestered me about watching that movie since the beginning. I finally relented last night. Well, for half of the movie. An hour into it, and my eyes were bleeding so I begged him if we could finish it today. Not really my type of movie.

I really should go clean my house now and stop avoiding it like the plague.

I got pulled, again.

2011-05-12T12:41:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that my day has gone much better than yesterday. I started the same exact way as yesterday by having another bowl of oatmeal:

I kinda wanted an egg & kamut this morning, but since I made eggs for lunch, I decided to stick with oatmeal. That's typically how I choose my breakfast. I think about what I'm going to eat later in the day, and try to pick something different from it. So, if I'm eating yogurt with lunch, then I won't eat it at breakfast (most days). Variety is the spice of life.

Like I said, my day is going good. However, I thought it had taken a turn for the worse whenever I saw this with its lights on in my rear view mirror as I made my way to work this morning:

In the past whenever I've been pulled over, I've known full and well what I was getting pulled for. This morning, though, I was aghast. Whenever I get on the interstate, I set my cruise control the same exact speed every morning (around 77-78) and shimmy on down to Gainesville. I pass state troopers every.single.day. and have never been flashed at or pulled over. Typically, I'm getting passed by other cars, including massive semis. I've gotten my fair share of speeding tickets in this lifetime, and I'd rather not get anymore, thanks. So, whenever I was pulled over this morning and the super trooper approached me, I had to keep from going all bat crazy on him because I was not speeding. He was very nice and asked me the typical questions which I know by heart now. I asked him what I was doing and he told me that he clocked me at 82. This was going down a hill, and I have noticed that my cruise control will speed up some going down a hill (inertia, hello!). I explained to the occifer that I had my cruise control on, and he walked back to his car. I couldn't find my dern insurance card because I just switched insurances so that was another strike against me. Oh, and he checked my car tint and it's too dark. So, let's see.

1. "Speeding" pppppsssshhhh!

2. Tint is too dark

3. No insurance card

So, when he came back to my window, I was ready for him to hand me a bill that would cost my next 12 paychecks since this is the story of my life. HOWEVER, he only gave me a $10 ticket for not having my insurance card. PRAISE BABY JESUS! He said I would just need to print it out, take it to the courthouse and pay $10. This never happens. Me not getting a ticket that is. I definitely will be putting my cruise control even lower, so if you're driving on 75 and see someone putting along, don't curse at that person. Because it's me. I have to say that he was the nicest occifer I've ever encountered. Once he gave me the wittle ticket he asked if that made my day better. I looked at am with a deadpan look on my face and told him that I had a terrible day yesterday and didn't need another today. He laughed and told me to drive safe. "You too!" was my response. #fail

Anyway, I'm convinced that the FBI has put out an APB for a gray Altima and that every time any occifer sees my car, they must instantly pull me over. Story. of. my. life. I think what's most frustrating about this go 'round was that it was my cruise control which coasted to above the speed limit, not my ~~lead~~ foot.

Hard boiled eggs
Black cherry greek yogurt
Almonds (morning snack)
Cauliflower + olives + grape tomato + sweet peppers + carrot salad with miso vinaigrette (such a hard word to spell) and poppy seeds because I'm taking a drug test at work today and am hoping it will come back that I'm doing opium

I used this dressing:

I'm honestly not a fan of it. I can't taste the ginger at all, and the constinency is definitely not that of a vinaigrette. It's creamy. It was too expensive to throw out, so I'll suffer through it. However, I will not be buying it again.

After work I'm meeting an old friend for dinner. We haven't seen each other in..........years? Should be fun!

Don't beat yourself up too much.

2011-05-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

Hi. I hope you had a better Wednesday than I did. It started out good with this bowl of oatmeal:

1/3 cup oatmeal, almond milk, water
1 tsp chia seeds
Dash sea salt & cinnamon
Banana
Almond butter

But then I got to work. My boss and I had a meeting scheduled with another department to present a project I've been working on. I was under the assumption that I was going to be attending in order to answer any questions, but not presenting all of it. I don't know why I assumed that, but I did. About an hour before the meeting was to start, I realized that I would be presenting all of the data and observations that I had made. Not only that, I was then informed that several other people in addition to two of the lead physicians for this department would be in attendance. Oh, and one of those MDs happens to be on the board of directors for the entire organization. No big deal.

I normally am pretty good at speaking in public. I am a pro at pulling things out of my rear end when it comes to being put on the spot (I'm awesome at interviewing for jobs--seriously), but today was not one of those days. I stumbled over my words as I presented, went blank a few times and just overall did not a do a very professional job. I did get to sit in a big leather chair as I presented, but that was the only thing good about the whole meeting. Thankfully, my boss saved me and swooped in to take over when he could tell that I was struggling. I really had no clue as to the format of these types of meetings, so I'm chalking my horrible performance up to not being prepared. Normally when I'm speaking to a group, I go over my speaking points several times until I have them ingrained in my mind. However, I didn't have time to do that with this presentation, and I also wasn't prepared for questions. And, boy howdy, were there questions. I also have some insecurity issues. I really trip myself up when I realize I'm (by far) the youngest person in the room. Instead of being 'proud' of this fact, I often find my pulse quickening and my mind blurring. I become my own worst enemy and start criticizing myself from an outsider's perspective for no good reason. I suppose it's better to be that way than overly proud and overly confident. I tend to feel like I have to prove myself simply because I do look young which can translate into inexperience. I know I don't have the same amount of experience as someone 15 years my senior, but I have accumulated a good amount of knowledge in the past 5 years of working in healthcare. I'm trying to convince myself it's ok to be young in this environment, can you tell?

Oh, well. You live and you learn. I haven't beat myself up too much over this. I think my mind is blocking it out like it was a traumatic event. My boss and co-worker told me in an endearing way that I had done a good job, but let's get real, I think it was just sympathy. Anyway, I'll dwell on all the things I could have and should have done differently for the rest of today (which is like 10 minutes because I'm going to bed as soon as I press publish on this post), and then I'll move on tomorrow. No since in wasting time thinking about things I can't change.

As soon as I got back to my office, I left again to go on a walk and call my Voice of Reason. He calms me down when I'm stressed out, always makes me feel good about myself and puts things into perspective for me because he knows whenever I'm stressed, I just can't think straight. I love you, Thad Tisdale.

Once I walked off my stress, I had lunch!

Homemade pinto beans
Avocado
Olives
Sweet peppers
Grape tomatoes
Spinach
Fresh fire roasted black bean & corn salsa from Publix
Mango Chobani

Once I got home, I went on another walk to clear my mind once and for all. Walking is my absolute favorite form of exercise. I find that when I run, I sometimes have a hard time thinking deeply since I'm concerned with my pace, breathing, terrain, and how much longer I have to go. Walking is much more relaxing and it allows me to really delve into some deep thoughts, or to not think at all and just put one foot in front of the other as I stroll along.

Since I'm posting at night, I'll also post my dinner.

Ezekiel sprouted grain bread
Organic swiss cheese
Wolfgang Puck tomato soup
Dollop of greek yogurt

Tonight would be the one night I have canned soup whenever I post my dinner on the blog! I made an awesome fresh rosemary, tomato, goat cheese and egg scramble last night, and roasted chicken the night before. Don't believe me? Well, here's proof.

Please note that the dark stuff on top of the chicken is rosemary. It was tucked underneath the skin. Please also note that the chicken is bone-in which is why it looks so gargantuan. Whenever I told Thad that I was making chicken for dinner on Monday night, he whined per usual that he doesn't like chicken. Please note that he ate all of his chicken and told me how good it was. I used this recipe from Cooking Light. And one last note, the rosemary I used in both the eggs and with the chicken is from my herb garden that I planted well over a year and a half ago. I haven't done much to take care of it, ok, I haven't done anything to take care of it, but it is blooming like crazy right now. Have any recipes that use rosemary? Send 'em my way.

I read a book...for pleasure!

2011-05-10T13:15:00.002-04:00

The very first meal I ever posted on my blog was a yogurt parfait that I ate for breakfast on August 18, 2009. That's the day after my birthday. Thad and I had gone to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse the night before. That has nothing to do with this post.

In that original post, I stated that I'm a creature of habit and ate the same thing for breakfast every. single. day. I don't eat the same thing every morning anymore, but really only rotate between 4-5 different selections. Anyway, I've been craving those yogurt parfaits for breakfast again. I had one this morning, yesterday morning, and Saturday morning. Maybe it's the warm weather that has me craving them?

Despite looking like it's covered in granola, there is some yogurt under there...

See?

Fage plain greek yogurt
Banana
Plain Granola
Raw honey

---

I finished this book last night:

It was a fictional novel based on Laura Bush's life. The author has never met the former First Lady, so it is very loosely based on her childhood, marriage and role in the White House. Some of the details and story lines were quite interesting, but honestly, I don't understand why it was on the New York Times Bestseller list. It was very anticlimatic, and I had a hard time really getting into it. I had read on some other blogs that it was a really good read, and that the last couple of pages were shocking. Um, no. The book was separated into 4 sections (or maybe 3...), and I struggled to get through the last section where Alice Blackwell (Laura Bush's character) is finally in the White House. I think this was because there wasn't much dialogue--just thoughts, thoughts and more thoughts and by the time you get to this point in the book, you can pretty much infer what her thoughts and feelings are on political fame, war in the Middle East and abortion--which are all counter to her husband's. I prefer conversation style reading and writing if you can't tell from this blog.

It gets a 2.5/5 stars.

Even though it wasn't that great, I'm still happy that I was able to read for pleasure. Class starts again next week, and I'm not sure if I'll have time for that luxury for a while.

---

I think I just ate my lunch in record time. Normally I take 12 years to eat, but not today!

PINWHEELS!

Ezekiel sprouted grain wrap (obviously not the most pliable for pinwheels)
Queso Fresco Laughing Cow cheese
Spicy southwestern mustard
Organic turkey
Organic spinach
Roasted red peppers

Carrots + hummus + string cheese

And, finally, I leave you with a picture of my palm that the camera decided to snap after I photographed my lunch.

Beautiful.

I made abstract art without realizing it.

Weekends like these...

2011-05-09T13:42:00.008-04:00

...make me wish we lived back home.

Backing on up to Friday night, I had a baby shower to attend in Keystone. Amber is my sister-in law's sister, my best friend's sister-in-law, and my other best friend's sister. Confused yet? I've found that when I talk about Amber, I refer to her as my sister-in-law. It's just easier that way. Brittany actually made this diagram some time ago, and it may help explain the relations:

Amber is expecting her first baby girl, Katie Joy (is that not the most precious name ever?), and on Friday night I was able to be amongst her family to shower her with baby gifts!

It was a very sweet and fun time to catch up with the Darty & Rollins clans. Neat fact: as close as I am to the Darty's & Rollins' (Anna is my SIL and I graduated with Gavin and we remain close friends) I've known Amber the longest. I remember a youth group ski trip many years ago where she told me and a few other close friends about her and Chad's relationship (this was prior to them getting married). I'm pretty sure we were all in tears over how sweet the story was, and I have always looked up to and admired her for the godly woman that she is. I can't wait to meet Miss Katie Joy!

On Saturday, Thad and I had a birthday party to attend for my neice, Lilli. You have to understand, Lil is my homegirl. We've been BFFs since I met her back in 2005 when I was just Thad's new girlfriend. Now she's growing up, and I can hardly stand it.

Lilli chaufeered me on the go-cart.

All of Thad's family was at the birthday party, so it was great catching up with everyone. Thad's brother and sister-in-law live on Lake Swan, so everyone had plenty of room to roam and run.

Thad wasn't in the mood to swim so I decided not to go either. We just sat on a picnic table and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was honestly the most time we've spent together in over a month due to our different schedules. Seeing as how I start up my summer class next week, I'm glad we got to spend this time just relaxing.

Another thing about going to my brother&sister-in-law's? There's always good food!

Despite looking like a cheese & jalapeno sandwich, I can assure you that there was chicken, tomato, lettuce, pickle and mustard underneath!

After I made my plate, I sat down on the couch next to Thad. Now, you have to understand, Thad's brother has 6 kids and his sister has 5 kids. That's 11 kids. It was also Lilli's birthday party so her cousins and other family & friends were there, too. In total, counting adults, there was probably close to 25 people running all over the place. As I started to take a bite of my sandwich, I looked directly across from me and saw this:

Eat food or play with my baby neice? That's a no brainer.

I just want to reach through the screen and HUG her! I love my Alli!!!! She is a DOLL. There was all kinds of noise and people moving every whichaway, and she was as complacent as ever. I guess you have to be that way when you have 4 older brothers!

She's 100% girl and loves jewelry.

Lilli & Alli

And proof that I have the coolest father-in-law around:

That's my FIL jumping on the trampoline with the kids. What kid wouldn't love for their grandpa to jump on the trampoline with them?!

After Thad pried me away from Alli, we drove back to Lake City only to wake up on Sunday and head back to Clay County to spend time with my family for Mother's Day. My great-grandma, Mama Doris, lives in Penney Farms, so we met her and the rest of my clan to eat lunch at the oh-so-exclusive dining room.

She is without a doubt one of the most beautiful women I know. Not to mention she's more stylish than me. Forget fashion blogs, I am just going to start copying her outfits.

Salmon, salad, vegetables, bread, spice cake

We had a great time discussing skinny dipping vs. chunk dunking (thank you, Ethan). For Mother's Day, we gave my grandma a Kindle! I'm excited to see how she likes it because if it gets her seal of approval, then I might make the jump and get an eReader, too. My grandma is one of the most tech-savvy people I know. The first computer I ever played on? It was hers. The first computer screen I ever froze and crashed? It was hers. The first person I knew to have a blue iMac? It was hers. My first time getting on a teen AOL chat room? It was on her computer & screen name. She's seriously high tech.

It was a great weekend overall. I love both sides of my family and there is honestly nothing I would rather do then spend time with them. And as much as I'd like to live back home so Thad and I wouldn't have to drive and spend our future children's inheritance on gas, I do like getting to spend time with my husband by riding with him wherever we go. Especially when 95% of our conversations go like this:

*Listening to a British science podcast and one of the speakers says the word 'fungi'--pronouced like fungus (without the -us and with an -ee)*

Thad: You're fungi.

Me: You're a fun gi.

Thad: You're gi.