Seven Quick Takes (vol.15)

Time for seven more bits of random. Need more than seven? Head over to Conversion Diary to read more.

1.
The Google is buzzing with people wondering if Daniel and Rebecca are dating. Let’s go ahead and assume yes. The Google is also buzzing with people wondering if Bob and Amanda are dating. While they seem to be extremely close, I don’t think so. I think Bob probably isn’t interested in that particular gender. Do we agree on that? If you have another theory, I’d love to hear it.

2.
Remember when Nationwide dumped us? It was a case of the “it’s not you, it’s me” except that we knew that wasn’t true. It was us. Well we had a talk yesterday and came to terms with everything. They told us that it’s not that they don’t love us but their parents just won’t allow them see to us anymore. But they think we’re great and they want us to be happy. So they set us up on a few dates with some of their friends that they think are worthy. And they let us pick our new relationship. We made the transition last night. It went smooth. No tears, no drama.

3.
I finished Redeeming Love yesterday during lunch. Wow. Great great book. Great story, great message. It sucked me in and I didn’t want it to end… ever. Have you ever had a book like that? Now on to Wuthering Heights.

4.
I ordered my Christmas cards this week. We are trying to cut costs so I was wondering if I should send them this year. I have to though, I just love Christmas cards! I ordered a custom 4×6 design from Blogalicious Designs (<– that’s a link) and opened a new Shutterfly account to get 50 free prints. Then I ordered envelopes on Amazon since NOBODY sells envelopes for 4×6 photos. It turned out to be pretty cheap! I can’t wait to get the photos in, they are going to be so cute! (For the record, Snapfish is better than Shutterfly. They are cheaper and they have a much quicker turn around. If you want to open a Snapfish account, let me know so I can send you an invite. I think we both get free prints that way!)

5.
So I’m sitting here in my living room. It’s currently Thursday night and we just finished watching 30 Rock and CRACKED up. We changed the channel and as we started watching something on the travel channel about monorails, we heard a screaming. More like a high pitched gaggling gurgling screech. We muted the television and stared at each other. It kept going. I ran to the window, Stephen ran outside with a broom and a flashlight. He listened around and pointed the light in the direction of the noise. It stopped. It’s been about 20 minutes and it hasn’t come back. He obviously scared some squirrels or some other critters that were fighting. Or… uh… mating. We aren’t sure. Either way, we think we’ve pissed them off.

6.
All I want to do is make crock pot meals. I don’t want to go to work or hang out with anyone. I just want to make lots and lots of crock pot meals all day, every day. I’ve been inspired! I imagine that many of these are great freezable meals. You all know how much I love a good freezable meal! I may make large amounts in my crock pot the next couple weeks and freeze portions. Oh goodness, now I’m excited!! Stocked freezers tickle me pink!

7.
I don’t have a number 7. Whenever I need to fill space without feeling guilty about telling you nonsensical things, I show you pictures of babies or dogs. Today, babies. This is my cousin’s baby, Sophie. You’ve met her before. The first picture is just her being stinking cute with a bandana on her head. The second is the best baby Halloween costume in the entire world.

Have a good weekend!

Slow Cooking is Still Cooking

Just so y’all know, Stephen’s nose is looking excellent but now he’s got himself a big fat fever. I spent the evening wondering how in the world I’m ever going to have kids if I freak out about a 102 fever on a 25 year old man. In fact, this is on auto-post because I’ve spent most of the evening Googling his symptoms and am pretty concerned and I’m not sure what we’ll be doing in the morning. I don’t tell you this so you can be all, “Oh Chelsea, you’ll be a great mom.” No. I tell you this because this is my blog and I can be real with you.

One of the greatest parts of having a blog is that I get to tell you ridiculous things that happen to me and somehow they become less embarrassing. Usually you can relate. You often say, “That’s not so bad. One time I…” and somehow I don’t feel like quite an idiot. We work together, you and me. We complete each other.  

Another great thing about having a blog is that you read it and you often give me feedback. You’ve told me how to cut my hair, where to buy a dress, how to paint my wood paneling, what books to read. You guys are full of good info. So don’t let me down today. No pressure…

I’m back on my crock pot kick. The moods come and go. I find that I fall more in love with my crock pot when winter approaches. It’s cool outside (seriously, it’s in the 70’s today) and it’s dark when I get home from work. There is something so comforting about walking into a warm house that smells like a home cooked meal. Sometimes I feel like saying, “Splendid! The housekeeper must’ve left dinner in the oven for us. She’s such a peach!” And it’s a great feeling until I remember that I don’t have a housekeeper and I don’t say “peach” unless we’re talking about cobbler or Bellini’s. But it’s actually even better that the meal is from my crock pot because I still get credit for making a rocking dinner!

Last week Lauren told me about an easy peasy meal that she and her husband have. She throws a few chicken breasts into a crock pot, seasons them with Lawry’s, and then puts salsa on top. After a day of slow cooking you shred it up with two forks and make yourself some fantastic soft tacos.  I made these last week and they were awesome. Unfortunately I made them on a day when Stephen was still learning how to eat, so I had to make him a taco salad. He said it was good but I could tell he didn’t get the full effect. I decided I’d make them again this week.

Massive failure commenced in my kitchen.

You always hear about young brides who are learning to cook and ruin a ton of food. They either undercook things or they burn them. Or they add salt instead of sugar. Or use a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon. Up until a couple weeks ago, I couldn’t relate. I never make those mistakes. I know how to cook. But recently I’ve been burning food. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe I’m too comfortable in the kitchen so I’ve started experimenting more. I don’t know. But Monday night was the worst of the worst.

Monday morning I threw two seasoned chicken breasts in the crock. I put a bit of salsa on top and plugged it in. As I was doing this I thought, “I wonder if I should put 4 in there. They say you’re supposed to make sure your crock pot is mostly full. Hmmm… it may be fine. But I wonder if it makes a difference that I defrosted them. Last week I didn’t. It may cook faster. Oh well, I’ll give it a shot.”

I may never, ever give anything a shot ever again. We walked into the house on Monday evening and something didn’t smell right. My mouth didn’t water. I didn’t have the desire to scorch my tongue by eating straight from the crock pot.  I opened the lid. Stephen yelled, “NO WAY! Oh my gosh! Cool!” They were charred. They were shriveled up and hard as a rock. The salsa was burnt to the sides of the pot. It was terrible. Horrible. I was sad and embarrassed and royally pissed off.

I got in the kitchen and made us some breakfast tacos. I cursed the crock pot and went to Bible Study to whine about my misfortune and pray for the mental health of my crock pot. Then I came home and began the marinade for my brisket I was going to throw in the pot the next day.

Tuesday was a bit better. The brisket cooked an appropriate amount of time and smelled excellent. Stephen loved it but I was underwhelmed. I mean, I’m a Texas girl so I believe there is really no such thing as bad brisket unless it’s bone dry. That’s just illegal. But I know I can make a better brisket.

That’s where y’all come in. I need some recipes, brisket and other. Now I’m a firm believer that beggars can’t be choosers, but I’ve got some guidelines here. I’d like crock pot recipes. They need to be easy and TRUE crock pot recipes – None of that saute this, bake that, then let it heat in the crock. No, I need something I can throw together in the morning and leave for 9 hours. Also, I only want recipes that you’ve made. I don’t want to know recipe websites, I have plenty of those. Something that you have made and love. Got it? Post  it in the comments or on your blog or give us a link!

Help a girl out before she has a breakdown!

Loser 8.09: Twice! Dad Gummit!

It’s week 9 and there are 8 people left.

They met up with Ali and quickly learned that two people will be going home this week. There will be a red line and a yellow line. The person with the lowest percentage of weight loss will go below the red line and automatically be sent home – true Biggest Loser. The next two contestants with the lowest percentage will go below the yellow line and go into elimination room as usual.

They started with a pop challenge. Fifty tennis balls were velcroed to a sign thingy. They had to jump and grab a tennis ball, run it to their bucket, and go back and do it again. The winner got a one pound advantage. For some reason, Amanda and Liz couldn’t participate. Anyone know why? Allen won, Rebecca came in second and was not pleased.

“Whoa WHOA WHOA!! Hold on!” Bob and Jillian were quite dramatic about the red line. Jillian stressed her concern about Shay. She and Bob talked at length about who NEEDS to be there and blah blah. I’m not sure why that’s their concern. YES! Shay needs to be there more than anyone but Bob and Jillian need to focus on them all equally. They need to work them all out as if they are the number one clients. Am I right? I am right. I know.

What was up with Bob’s talk with Rudy? It seemed that Bob has a bit of PMS and blew up on him for no reason. “What are you going to do today????” Sheesh Bob. What’s going on? He’s just trying to walk to the gym.

Jillian spent a lot of time with Shay. We had to take a DVR pause so I could show my dad what plank was and why Shay was screaming about it. We held plank for about 15-20 seconds and he said, “So wait. How do you breathe while you’re doing this?” Exactly dad. That’s why they scream.

Bob spent some time with Danny talking things out. Danny is quite emotional. Yes he cries a lot, yes that annoys some people. It doesn’t annoy me. I think it’s okay. He’s going through a tough time. So y’all, lay off!

(I will now pause this blog for a message from 24 Hour Fitness. Cue motivational music and a look of concern on Jillian’s face.)

The contestants headed to the circus where they learned they were going to “jump through hoops.” They each had a hoop and they had to jump through each other’s hoops. Whenever they jumped through someone’s hoop 100 times, they were out. I HATE THESE CHALLENGES. In my mind, in all challenges you should win if you’ve been the best competitor… NOT if you’re the last man standing since all the true competitors have been ganged up on. These seriously make me angry. My anger was slightly relieved when Amanda tripped and fell on her face. Then things got heated. Rudy and Shay had made a quick “hoop alliance” and said they wouldn’t jump in each other’s hoops unless they were the last two standing. Turned out that Rudy lied about that. He ended up jumping in Shay’s while Danny was also still in. That didn’t really bother me. It’s a game. Whatever. What bothered me is that they were screaming at each other and it was pretty destructive.

“Daniel and I stole two spin bikes…” Awesome. The pinks and oranges decided to work out in Shay’s room when they were supposed to be sleeping. Kind of funny, but also not too smart since you need sleep. 

Lara Bar anyone?

The last chance workout took place at some trapeze place. It looked kind of fun… in a painful, you-want-me-to-do-what? way… but still fun. Then Jillian made them have a real last chance workout. Jillian, cover your girls. A low cut V-neck isn’t always flattering. Okay?

On to the weigh-in. Alison’s hair was super cute in the thick black headband, but this wasn’t my favorite dress. Black V-neck? I could do that! This week began the weigh-ins where the guys got to keep their shirts on. Normally during this time, the girls also got the form-fitting shirts. I wonder why they didn’t do that yet. Here’s the weight-loss:

Rudy (8) – He won immunity, why didn’t he add a bunch of water weight?
Shay (17) – SHEESH!!!!! She beat Kristen’s record and lost 100 pounds in 9 weeks! Kristen took 12 weeks. AMAZING!
Amanda (5) – Not good, but man she really looks good!
Rebecca (10) – Huge number for Rebecca! Fantastic!
Danny (17) – Out of control! These are huge numbers.
Was Bob’s hoodie actually a button up cardigan?? Please say no.
Allen (10) – Nothing to report.
Liz (12) – Wha??? 5.5% – highest percentage weight loss this week. Gross.
Daniel (5) – Below the red line.

Rebecca immediately started crying  and ran up and hugged Daniel which proves that all of you bagillions of people who come to R&R by googling “Are Rebecca and Daniel dating?” are right. Yes, they probably are. So for the second time, Daniel was told that he is not the biggest loser.

The two below the yellow line are Shay and Amanda. Jillian’s and Bob’s favorites. What a crappy week! Seems pretty easy to me. Keep Shay, Amanda is good to go. She’s skinny, she’s hot, she can LIVE if she goes home. Shay really can’t go home. Most people weigh less than Shay when they get to the ranch. So the contestants voted, and they thoroughly disappointed me. They voted Shay off. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL decision people. I think that’s cruel. As (former) overweight people, they should know how important it is for her to be there. Not for the game, but for her health and for her life. Disappointed.

And there goes the orange team.

Daniel’s homecoming was sweet. Did y’all see the really tall dude in the back? Sheesh! Looking at Daniel’s old pictures is shocking. He really looks great. We saw what they looked like today, he’s lost 215 pounds. We saw David from last season. He still doesn’t GET IT. It’s awful and it makes me sad and it makes me want to shake him. I hope Daniel can help him.

Shay went home and had a great reception. I was nervous that she wouldn’t.

My parents DVR cut off after Daniel and David talked so I didn’t get to see how Shay looks now or what’s happening next week. HELP ME!

Two weeks until the finals!!!!

(Tomorrow we are going to discuss crock pots, come prepared!)

Ten on Tuesday (5)

Welcome to Ten on Tuesday!! I’m pretty excited about this round of questions. I got some input from a few people and I think I ended up with a pretty good set!

1. What gift are you most proud of giving?
My friend Lyndsey once told me that when she was a teenager her mom kept a journal and every day she wrote something she loved about her. I plan to do this when I have teenagers since sometimes teenaged girls aren’t very lovable. But I took this idea and did this for Stephen when we were dating. I started in on Jan 1, about two and a half months after we started dating. At this point, I knew he was “the one” so it seemed like a great gift idea. I would not recommend doing this if you are dating someone and you aren’t quite sure if he is the one. I kept the journal for a year and gave it to him on Valentine’s Day. We love to read through it and laugh about the goofy things that I love about him. Everything from, “I love your smile” to “I love the way you eat a fried egg” to “I love the way you open the car door for my mom.”

2. What’s the best gift you ever received?
My engagement ring. It’s beautiful and sparkly. But most importantly, I love it because Stephen gave it to me with a promise. He told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. And if you ask me, that’s pretty special!

3. In honor of my husband: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
I’ve only broken one bone. I fell off of a trampoline and broke my arm. That’s not really that bad though. As far as pain goes, getting my wisdom teeth out was pretty awful. Do migraines count? I’ve had some migraines that have made me wish I were dead.

4. They say everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Who’s 15 minutes has gone on far too long? (The Gosselins are not acceptable answers, be more creative.)
So so so many people. I’ll try to narrow it down to one two three four/five. Lindsay Lohan. Joe Jackson. Octomom. Brangelina.

5. You have 20 minutes and $1000. What do you buy?
Probably a bike for Stephen- if he could decide in 20 minutes. If he couldn’t, I would probably cheat and buy a $1000 gift card to Amazon or Target. If Stephen couldn’t decide and I couldn’t cheat and I had to spend the money I would buy: a big soft rug for our living room (I’d Google it so I could find it quickly), a coat and a few cardigans and scarves from Old Navy, a Keurig (<- that’s a link, because I know you’ll ask), and maybe the Wii Fit. OR I’d just give it all to a maid service and have them clean my house once a month for a year.

6. Tell me three blogs that I need to read.
I’m not even going to mention Pioneer Woman because if you aren’t reading her by now, you must live under a blog rock and you cannot be helped. (By the way, her cookbook is now #1 on the NY Times.)

1. Big Mama - She’s the love of my blog life. I’m not being dramatic.
2. Young House Love - I LOVE this blog. One of you emailed me about this site when Stephen and I were about to paint our wood paneling. (Sorry, I forgot who it was. I still have the email but I’m too lazy to search for it!) They are this young couple who started a blog to document their kitchen remodel. It took off. They are INSANELY successful in Blogland.
3. We’ve got a tie here. There are a ton of 3rd placers and I couldn’t decide. So I settled on two.
a) Bake at 350- All around deliciousness. Those caramel brownies… I will make them.
b) This Heavenly Life - I don’t know her but I consider her a blog friend. She’s not blog famous. She’s just a great writer and she’s funny.

7. Would you rather go without pizza or ice cream for the rest of your life?
Ice cream. I need pizza in my life. Plus, there are so many other delicious desserts. I’d always choose a fudgy brownie or some cheesecake over ice cream anyways.

8. Would you rather go to a beach or a snowy mountain?
Beach beach beach. A million times, beach. I hate the cold weather. The only good thing about snowy mountains is sitting in a warm cabin by a fire, drinking hot chocolate while looking at them out the window. Take me to any beach and I’ll be happy. I’ve always known that I’m a beach lover but after spending so much time in Galveston the past few months, I’m realizing that it’s a deep love. Not just a love of sun and sand… but a love for the beach life-style, the wind, the sounds, the waves, the relaxation. Love it.

9. Are you a night owl or a morning person?
Night owl. Big time. I have a hard time waking up every single day. I’m at my best at 10:00 pm.

10. What word do you always misspell?
Embarrass. There really shouldn’t be two r’s in there.

(I found out that in order to make Mr. Linky show up in the post, I have to pay for an upgrade. That’s not going to happen just yet. I think it’s only $5. I may do it for next week or so. Until then, just click the icon and another window will pop up. Click around and visit the other TOTers.)

I Should Have Seen That Coming

There are some things you come to expect in life. Your senior year in high school, you expect to have a major case of Senioritis and long for the future days of college. During the months of October – January you can expect to put on a few pounds and have severe Starbucks cravings on a daily basis. When you go into Sam’s, you can expect to spend at least $60 even if you’re only stopping in for one item.

When you go into Hobby Lobby on November 6, you can expect it to look like a winter wonderland and have a deep desire to put your Christmas tree up and hang your stockings by the chimney with care. Deep, deep desire. I happened to stop in to Hobby Lobby on Friday after work. I did my best to avoid the Christmas section, which was difficult because that only left about 3% of the store to wander through. But I did allow myself to walk down the gift wrap aisle and I was this close to rolling around in the tissue paper, wrapping myself in thick, wire-edged ribbon, and hugging the beautiful rolls of wrapping paper. I have a thing for beautifully wrapped gifts. I don’t know where it came from but it’s something that I truly love. It’s one of the reasons that a goal on my 101 in 1001 is to have all of my Christmas shopping done by December 10th. It’s like the wrapped gifts to sit under my tree for a while.

But that’s not the point of today’s post. I have a point, albeit small. But a point still.

What do you expect when you go to a wedding? I’d say that it depends on your age and life stage.

As a little girl you can expect to look at the bride as if she were a princess. She’s wearing this big beautiful white dress. Her hair is flawless. Her face looks perfect. She’s smiling and glowing and she appears to be the happiest person in the world. She probably is, it’s her wedding day after all. But to a little girl, the bride is an idol.

As a preteen you can expect to envision yourself as the bride. Whatever crush you have at the time is the groom. You see yourself in that dress, standing in front of that church, surrounded by those people. You dream about how perfect your life will be. You’re filled with butterflies.

As a young woman in her late teens or early twenties you can expect a bit more. You can probably expect a small bit of jealousy. You can often expect some joyful tears. You can expect to take notice of every detail and add it to your mental “wedding day loves and hates” list. No flower, food, color, chair, or dress goes unnoticed. You can expect to dream about your wedding day with the man you are in love with, or possibly even a faceless groom. But you can definitely expect to desire a wedding.

I went to a wedding on Saturday. A dear friend of mine got married and it was a beautiful night. I won’t go into too much detail because not everyone wants their life’s details floating around on the internet and I’m not sure where the couple stands on this. I’m also not going to tell you the city, location, or other details because of this…

When you are married and attend weddings you can expect one of two things. First, you can expect to remember your own wedding, fall more in love with your husband, and relive the emotions you felt on your wedding day. OR, you could fall in love with the flower girl. (I’m not going to show you her face because she is someone’s child… and that someone may not want their precious girl on the internet!)

You could see an intoxicating little blonde girl with a tiny white dress and baby-fine curls. You could see her jumping up and down on the dance floor for hours. You could see her look at the bride as if she were seeing an angel. Her smile could make you melt and make you tell your husband over and over, “I want her. Let’s take her!”

When you are married and attend a wedding you can often expect to get severe baby fever. I totally didn’t see that one coming!

I guess I’d be in trouble if I didn’t post at least one photo of Stephen and I from the wedding. Well here’s one of him trying to smile.

Creepy? A little bit. His smile has gotten better. Practice makes perfect.

———–

Ten on Tuesday questions are loaded. Click the Ten on Tuesday link on the right sidebar to get them. Be sure to add the button to your blog and make sure it links back to Roots & Rings. I’ll add Mr. Linky again so we can all visit each other.

Seven Quick Takes (vol.14)

It has been a LONG week. I’m pretty excited about my weekend. I only have one thing on my planner and it doesn’t involve setting an alarm. There is nothing better than an alarmless Saturday morning!

As always, visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.

1.
Stephen’s parents bought him the Lego Star Wars game for the Wii. This is good for many reasons. He said, “This is so cool” about 7 times within the first 2 minutes of playing. He is forced to sit up while he plays, which means his face won’t swell. It keeps his mind off the pain. He always breathes through his mouth when he plays video games (don’t ask) and since he has to breath out of his mouth anyways, he doesn’t notice or complain about it.

2.
I’ve been having a lot of typos lately. Spell check doesn’t catch those. But you do. And, uh, thanks… I guess. I write posts every day so the odds that there are a few errors are pretty high. I suppose I could write less often and spend more time proofing my posts, but that just doesn’t seem reasonable. So you’re just going to have to deal. Deal?

3.
I forgot to get two important items at the grocery store on Sunday. In all fairness, I didn’t really forget them since they weren’t even on my list. I just never wrote them on the list. I thought I knew the recipes by memory so I wrote down what I thought I’d need. I was wrong. One was for the meal I planned to make Monday, one was for the meal I planned to make Thursday. This is really messing up my meal planning. Good thing my husband isn’t demanding any good food this week! (I just reread this and it’s so dumb. Why do I feel like you need to know this??)

4.
Tonight I saw an Old Navy commercial that said that all outerwear is 50% off this weekend and on Saturday scarves are $1. Holy moly! On an entirely unrelated note, my birthday is in 11 days. Also on an unrelated note, click here and here and here and here.

5.
So Stephen can’t smile right now, it hurts his face. Imagine you were sliced open underneath your nose and it was stitched back together. Now smile. Feel how it pulls that area?? Yeah so last night we watched The Office and he had to walk out of the living room 3 times because he laughed and it hurt his face. Then 30 Rock came on. He lasted about 2 minutes and started laughing. He yelled and went to our bedroom. During the next commercial break I went to our room to get some socks for my freezing toes and I found him curled up in bed watching Fox News.

6.
Also click here and here and here and here.

7.
I’ve got this stew in the crock pot. I can’t wait to get home and smell the deliciousness in my house! Although I’m a little nervous because I used a different wine. I usually use one called Cowtown Red from D’Vine Wine but we’re out. Hopefully it’s just as delicious.

Have a great weekend, y’all! Any fun plans?

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

We’re a human. Which means we are selfish. Which means that we pretty much think that people care about us a lot more than they actually do. I don’t mean that the people you think love you, don’t actually love you. No. What I mean is that nobody cares if you have a stain on your shirt or your hair looks a bit funny or you tripped on the carpet at work. People rarely even notice because 1) they are too concerned with themselves or 2) it really isn’t a big deal.

I don’t know that I can think of my “most embarrassing moment.” I get embarrassed fairly easily, but it’s not on a very deep level. But I recently had two experiences that left me with cheeks so blush that you could mistake me for Kate Gosselin. Unfortunately, nobody was around to share these moments with me. I’m not sure why, but sometimes it is easier to endure the embarrassment if someone is there to laugh with you.

I stayed at Lauren’s house on Saturday night. After a Sunday morning of kolaches and cinnamon rolls, I finally gathered my things to make the long trek home. She walked me out to my car. I looked down and saw an egg-shell. “Oh gosh. An egg.” My first thought was that it was from a nest. But .52 seconds later I realized that trees don’t grow on the street so there was obviously no nest above it and then .78 seconds later I remembered that the previous night was Halloween. I looked up, my car had been egged. Egged. And apparently nobody told Texas that it was November because it was probably in the 80’s on Sunday. So I had nice fried eggs sizzling down the sides of my beautiful Murano. It may have been appetizing if they’d left some bacon strips on the hood and I hadn’t already consumed 2500 calories for breakfast.

I cursed the pre-teen hoodlums that did this and got in my car and drove off. I needed to find a gas station with a car wash… stat. Problem is that not every gas station has a car wash, and there is really no way to know from a glance. So I’d exit the freeway, drive up to a gas station, drive around, and leave. Repeat repeat repeat. All the while being embarrassed that I had a Grand Slam on my car door. I wanted to put a sign on my window that said, “Stop staring or I’ll throw an egg at you.” Or maybe just a nice “Meals on Wheels” sign. But the truth is that I doubt many people noticed. And those who did, probably just laughed a bit and forgot about it two seconds later.

Last week I had an even more embarrassing incident. Only this time there was nobody to witness. Last Thursday after work I went to the bank because we get paid on Thursdays and we still don’t have direct deposit even though it’s 2009. I pulled up in the drive through and rolled down my window to grab the tube. I usually have to unbuckle my seatbelt in order to lean enough to reach it. However I was feeling particularly lazy that day and I didn’t want to be bothered with that. I leaned as much as I could and grabbed it with the tips of my fingers. They held the tube for long enough for me to get excited about my successful seatbelted reach, and then they let go. They dropped the tube. On the ground. Outside. In a drive through lane.

“Are you freaking kidding me???”

I cracked my door open and scooted myself out, trying desperately to not scratch my car door on the cement pole right next to me. I leaned down to look under my car. Thursday was a very windy day in Houston. Think Hurricane Ike – minus the high tide and rain and stinky refrigerators. The tube had rolled under my car to the end of the lane. I walked around my car, praying that the tellers wouldn’t look at the cameras and see me running around. I grabbed the tube and ran back. I sucked my cheesecake gut in as much as I could and slid back into my car. I was so embarrassed. I kept thinking that nobody would believe me. Nobody would think that somebody could actually lose the bank tube and make it roll around the parking lot. That would be as ridiculous as someone missing the basket at the toll booth. WHO WOULD EVER DO THAT?!!?

I believe I had every right to be embarrassed though. It was dumb. I looked like an idiot.

But my husband. He does not. He’s quite self-conscious about his face right now… as I assume most of us would be. He’s been hesitant to let anyone come to our house to see him with blood and stitches hanging out of his nose. The count is now up to 5. Me (no choice on that one!), my mom (who was forced to bring him liquid food while I was at work on Monday), Lucy (our chiropractor friend), and his parents (who birthed and raised him so they have the right to see his face any time they want). When Lucy came over on Tuesday night he put his hand over his nose. I told him that it would be ridiculous to cover his nose the entire time she was here. Plus he really doesn’t look that bad.

You guys have been so supportive and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your thoughts and (more specifically) your prayers. So I feel like I need to keep you in the loop. However, I won’t be posting any photos that make him uncomfortable. Monday… was bad. When I came home from work he looked bad. His face was swollen like he’d been stung by a swarm of bees. He had huge lumps in his thighs from where he hit the handlebars. He didn’t look good. He didn’t sound good. He didn’t feel good. But he has improved significantly since then. He REALLY doesn’t look very bad. Yes he has bloody stitches along his nose, but it’s not that gross. At least he has a nose! (By the way, incase I haven’t mentioned this, his nose was detached at the bottom. Hence the two rows of internal stitches and 8 external stitches.) Plus, he has a few days of facial hair and that really helps mask it.

Here are a few photos that have been seen and approved by Evel Knievel himself. That’s Lucy doing some kinesio tape treatment on him. (You can click on any of the photos to make them bigger.)

 

She put kinesio tape on his lumpy bruises. Something about it draining or something. None of us are really sure how it works, we just care that it does work.

She taped his nose too. Here he is, obeying doctor’s orders and keeping his neck iced.

If you remember the pictures from Monday, you can tell he looks pretty good! Hopefully we’ll get to see an ENT in a few days and see if his nose was put back on correctly. If you know him, you know that his healthy nose looks a lot different from what the photos show. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s still so swollen or if he really did change the shape of his nose. We shall see!

So yes, sometimes you feel like a nut… but sometimes you really shouldn’t.

Loser 8.08: Rudy Has Banana Hands

This week the contestants headed to Washington DC. They boarded a JetBlue plane and had tons of leg room and didn’t have to have seatbelt extenders. They met up with Alison in front of the Jefferson Memorial and, as usual, she looked so cute. Bob and Jillian showed up to greet them. They learned that this week they were going back to individuals. I like individuals… although it seems a bit early to be making the change. No?

Alison got her serious voice on and said that they were going to have (pause) a pop challenge. Gasp. OMG. “AAAH Wow!” says Tracey. Not really sure why that was shocking but Tracey is quite the drama-queen. The challenge is as follows: each contestant has to roam the streets of DC with giant stickers that say their name and have their color. They have to talk to strangers and because metaphors are the way of life on this show, they have to campaign for the strangers to join them at the Washington Monument for a workout. Whoever gets the most people, wins an advantage in the next challenge.

They scattered and started approaching people. Amanda found a huge group of girls that recognized her. They all wore her stickers. Later that same group ran into Daniel and recognized him from last season so they took off their Amanda stickers. Sad day for Amanda. Liz ended up having the most people show up. Bob and Jillian showed up and did a workout with them. Jillian wore a NY POLICE hat even though they were in DC. She’s such a weirdo. Some lady said “I can’t” so they made everyone keeping working out. Then Liz’s team went to Subway to try the Fresh Fit Menu. I’d like to know why every Subway in America has avocados except the ones I go to. What’s up with that?

The contestants went to talk to some senators. They told their stories and made their plea for better health education in elementary school. Yes, kids need to be more active. Yes, PE is important. But there is absolutely no way that these contestants ate large amounts of crappy food just because the public school system didn’t teach them not to. Right? Am I right? I’m right.

Also, have the Biggest Loser t-shirts always had the 24 Hour Fitness Logo written across the back? I think that’s a new thing.

The challenge this week was 4 parts. Each round only a few people would move on. Liz got to choose one option to sit out, except the last round.

Challenge One
Run a mile

• We saw flashbacks of Tracey (also dubbed “woman who crawled in the sand”) from the first week. It was not pretty. She cried just remembering it.
• Only the first 6 got to move on to the next round.
• It seemed to be a tough challenge but that’s okay because Miley sang them through it… in slow-mo.
• Winners: Rebecca, Daniel, Allen, Amanda, Rudy, Liz
• Why was it so hard for them to run a mile? This is their 8th week on campus. They work out for a living. I don’t think it should be that hard.

Challenge Two
Fill a tube with pennies

• They had to run down the stairs, grab a handful of pennies, run back up and put it in their tube. They had to fill it to a certain line.
• Liz sat this one out. There were spaces for three others.
• Rudy won because apparently he has banana hands… whatever that means.
• Did yall see how excited Ali got at the end? That was nuts!
• Winners: Rudy, Daniel, Rebecca, Liz

Challenge Three
Be a statue. Or something.

• They had to balance on this skinny ledge and hold a pilates ball above their head. The two people who held it up the longest, moved on.
• This one looked difficult and painful. It almost didn’t seem fair to the guys because they are so much bigger. Proportionally, the ledge is much smaller for them.
• Winners: Rudy and Rebecca

Challenge Four
Steps

• Simple. They each had a step in front of them. Whoever did 206 steps first, won. You know: up, up, down, down.
• 206 is the amount of contestants that have been on The Biggest Loser.
• Rebecca was awesome. Tracey said something really interesting and totally made sense… “She’s like a rabbit. Sch sch sch sch sch. She’s like typing on steps.”
• Rebecca won immunity.

Bob and Amanda went for a walk to talk about the importance of eating well and chewing Extra Sugar Free gum. Then everyone went to the White House and I was completely underwhelmed with that segment except for Alison’s yellow shirt dress.

Last chance workout. Usually the contestants don’t lose much weight on travel weeks. My theory is that constipation has something to do with it. We’ve talked about my honeymoon, right? And lookie there, that’s two days in a row that I’ve mentioned poop. My apologies. Last chance workout.  Jillian worked with Tracey. She admitted that she’s never liked her but she worked with her anyways and felt like she had a break through with her. I don’t think so.

Bob spent extra time with Amanda to talk things over and get her to accomplish some hard goals. SEE! Not everyone needs Jillian to have a break-through. Not everyone responds to her style. I know I wouldn’t. I’m a Bob lover.

The weigh-in was in front of the Lincoln Memorial. That was kind of cool. Alison’s dress was black and blah but her eyes looked amazing. Weight loss went a little something like this:

• Rebecca – 4 – But that didn’t matter because she had immunity.
• Shay – 9 – Finally!
• Tracey – 3 – Is it bad that I didn’t care??
• Daniel – 11 – FINALLY! Orange team finally showed up! “193 pounds ago I didn’t have a neck. My head just sat on my shoulders like a snowman.”
• Allen – 9
• Danny – 12 (Sorry, no comments for Allen and Danny. I was busy checking my friend Molly’s blog to find out the sex of her baby.)
• Rudy – 9 – A-freakin-mazing! He’s up to 110 in 8 weeks.
• Liz – 3 – Yeah, don’t care.
• Amanda – 7 – Wow! She’s got a waist now. She’s lookin good!

This leaves Liz and Tracey below the yellow line. My two least favorite – they should send them both hom. They voted Tracey off… FINALLY!!!!

She is looking pretty good. She went from 238-153. Her face is so skinny! Her family looks really normal… odd. Also, I saw her on Jay Leno. I didn’t watch completely because my friend Lucy was over doing some fun treatment on Stephen so I was preoccupied. But I don’t think she said anything ground-breaking.

I forgot to watch the “coming up” piece until it was almost over. There were a lot of tears from Shay and Rebecca. Should be fun!

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Update on my man: The swelling has gone down A LOT. He’s looking great. He’s feeling a bit better too. He’s got nausea meds so that his pain killers don’t make him sick. The bruises on his legs are pretty sore and his neck is hurting. He said his nose is actually starting to hurt – shocking that it took so long for it to start hurting. But it looks like he’s on the mend. He actually ate solids last night! Yay Stephen!!

Sorry about the typos and the incorrect #2 yesterday. I have no excuse. I just screwed up. Pick my punishment…

Ten on Tuesday (4)

Thanks for all of the prayers for Stephen. Please keep them coming. He’s in a lot of pain and it just breaks my heart. Many of you were curious about the pictures. Stephen was on a bachelor weekend trip with some guys, he made them take pictures. So he could see? So he could show his mom? Probably so his wife could blog about it… We are all infinitely grateful.

Here we go again! I loved reading your comments about toilet paper and Tom Cruise. And it’s always fun to know what everyone’s reading so I can get ideas. If you’re playing along, I’ve attempted to add Mr. Linky to the bottom. Be sure to add a link to that post. There were about 13ish of you that played along on your blogs last week, it’s easier to click around when the links are all in one place. So add and then visit each other. You won’t regret it- you guys are funny!

1. What animal should cease to exist? (Not including bugs. That’s too obvious.)
A lot of them. Possums, snakes, rats, ferrets. I’m not a fan of cats but since they bring so many people joy, I’ll take one for the team and keep them alive.

2. What was your favorite part of elementary school?
I loved most things about elementary school. I loved the desks, overhead projectors, cheesy bulletin boards, recess, silent reading time, lined paper. I loved when teachers had chalk holders so that their fingers wouldn’t get messy and they’d never accidentally scratch the chalkboard. I loved book reports and assemblies. I loved that I was never tired and I got home early enough that I could still play with my friends after school. Man, those were the days.

3. If scientists found a way to allow dogs to talk, do you think we should implement it? Or should we just keep them quiet?
I’m really torn on this. Sometimes I’d LOVE to hear what Rookie is thinking. But I’m afraid I’d be disappointed. I could learn that the only reason the stands in from of me and fusses is because she’s bored or she thinks is funny to watch me try to figure her out. I’m not sure I’d like to hear why she licks herself or what she really thinks about the television we choose to watch. Plus, if all dogs could talk, the world would be a lot louder.

4. How do you order your Starbucks?
I only go to Starbucks when I have a gift card or a really bad day. Otherwise, I just can’t spend the money on it. Plus, I think their actual coffee sucks. With that said, my drink order depends. This time of year I get a tall pumpkin spice latte extra hot. In the summer I get java chip frappachinos with peppermint. Around Christmas I get mocha with peppermint extra hot.

I suppose I should explain my extra hotness. It’s not that I like really hot drinks because I don’t. But I like my drink to last for a long time. I order it extra hot so that it can sit in my car with me and smell delicious and I can build up the anticipation. Once it’s drinkable I can savor it and love it! I just find that if I don’t get extra hot I drink it quickly and then it’s gone and I’m sad.

5. What’s worse? People who don’t know the difference between your and you’re OR people who don’t use smack their food?
Both are awful. AWFUL. I think I’m going to go with the smacking though. If there is an incorrect grammar user, I can just ignore their blog or facebook or emails. But it’s hard to ignore smackers. They are loud and disgusting and ALL OVER the place. You can’t easily delete, minimize, or close a stranger who is smacking near you. Or maybe you can, but I’m pretty sure it’s not legal.

6. What CD can you listen to over and over?
One of George Strait’s old greatest hits cds. Or Passion’s Hymns Ancient and Modern cd. Or Shane & Shane’s Upstairs cd.

7. What was the most surprising thing about college?
The schedule! I took naps regularly, even during the semesters that I worked. It was also shocking that it’s so hard. I found out that I’m not nearly as smart as I thought I was! Before college, I didn’t know what a B was but in college, I celebrated B’s.

I shocked myself in college. I’m not always very outgoing. I’ve gotten better about it because I’ve forced myself to be outgoing. But I am shocked that I forced myself to join a spirit group and a community group all by myself. Nobody at my side. Completely out of my comfort zone. I’m sure I had my fair share of migraines and nervous poops in preparation. (TMI??)

8. What’s the best deal you ever got? (Biggest sale item.)
I’ve probably gotten a few good deals in my time. I’m good at deals. Last week I got a pair of shoes for $3.50! That was awesome. When Stephen and I bought our house we went to Big Lots and found an area rug for our living room. It was originally like $150, marked on sale for $100. It rang up for $40. We were thrilled. I’m not a fan of the rug anymore because it’s kind of rough but it’ll do until we have crawling children. And also the table I mentioned yesterday. A brand new dining room table for $100.

9. Who is your role model? Why?
I have many for different reasons and this is not an exhaustive list. My mom because she’s a fantastic mother and did an amazing job running our household while keeping us close and making us all feel loved. My dad because he is SO smart. So so smart. My aunts who are both breast cancer survivors and some of the strongest women I’ve ever known. My Meme because she and my Papa are a beautiful picture of true love. Seriously, they can make you melt if you watch them dance. My grandma because she is so selfless. She loves everyone, serves, cares, she makes everyone feel important. There’s a woman at my church named Lisa. I’ve always loved her and respected her. But as I’ve grown, I realize how truly rare it is to meet someone so genuinely loving and I’m sure that everyone that’s had the pleasure of meeting her feels the same way. I cherish my relationship with her.

10. What movie would you like to see that is in theaters right now?
Nothing actually. I’ll want to see New Moon when it comes out. I’ll want to see that one with Sandra Bullock when they adopt that teenager. That looks amazing. I’m not much of a movie-goer so I don’t even know what else is coming out. And (true story) I had to go to Cinemark’s website to even see what’s out. If there is something good coming, let me know!

Hopefully this Mr. Linky works. Add your link to the list. Everyone else, click around and leave some comments! (Okay, he’s not working like he is supposed to. But if you click that little icon, it’ll take you to the list of participants. I’ll try to get it figured out for next week.)

Budget Shmudget

I had a fantastic weekend. Friday night was our blogger meetup. We went to Gravitas. They were really accommodating and we had a great area set aside just for us with a fabulous bartender. With that said, if I’m going to give it a TRUE review, I have to tell you that it was a bit pricey. They had this amazing drink made with strawberry and vanilla infused vodka. It was incredible! Although it was also $9 and that hurts me a bit.

Saturday I dropped Rookie off at her grandparents’ house because I love free child care and headed up to visit Lauren (from Texas). Stephen was out of town on a bachelor party camping trip so she invited me to spend Halloween with her and her family. God blessed us with a BEAUTIFUL day so we spent the entire afternoon and evening outside. I got to meet her family and eat her dad’s red beans and rice. By this point in our blog relationship, you should know that I don’t eat any sort of tubed meats. To clarify, it’s not that I absolutely will not eat it, it means that I don’t really enjoy it. However, these red beans and rice had sausage in it and they were shockingly delicious. The flavor of the beans was out of this world. I had a great time hanging out with them and think her mom must have really wanted me to like her because she let me sit in front of a campfire and make s’mores. It worked.

I stayed the night at Lauren’s on Saturday night. On Sunday we sat in the kitchen reading cookbooks and working on our weekly meal plans while her husband watched football with their dogs. I realized that it’s fun to do meal plans with someone else. You get to try new recipes and get new ideas. If you’ve never done it, do it. Find someone with a similar cooking style. Oh and also, with the same food budget.

This is huge. Lauren and I both keep our families on strict budgets. We buy sale items and do happy dances when we find bargains. If you can’t relate, then it will make no sense to you when I say that I get a high when I think about saving money.

Stephen and I are pretty anti-debt. Not entirely, but for the most part. We know that there are a few areas of life that often require debt. Houses, cars, and college. But beyond that, no debt. So when we need something, we have to budget. My mom recently bought us a beautiful dining room table that she found at a resale shop. It is brand new table but the furniture store took it to the resale shop because there weren’t any chairs. It was only $100 and it is gorgeous. So we need to buy 8 pub height chairs and those are not cheap. The going rate for chairs is about $129-$169 for a set of two. Do the math. We aren’t talking pocket change here. So we’re saving. We probably won’t be getting them until the new year since this is such an expensive time of year. And we are okay with that, as long as we plan for it.

Stephen also has a desire to bike. He’d like to get a road bike and take this up as a hobby. He’s been casually saying this for a couple years and he’s finally decided he’s serious. We talked about it and decided we’d start budgeting to get him a bike. I don’t even want to tell you the price of bikes because if I type it, it might make it real. Little by little we are setting money aside for this. So every penny matters.

I have a couple ideas for Stephen’s Christmas present. His birthday is in January so I have to buy two gifts each year. I really think we should start celebrating his birthday on his half birthday so we can spread it out a bit. But whatever, nobody asked me. I was flippng though an ad on Saturday and saw that one of the items I was thinking about was on sale. I figured now was as good a time as any to go get it. (Sorry I can’t tell you what it is, he reads this. Check back on December 26. I’m sure the anticipation is killing you.) Not only was this item on sale, but there was a mail-in rebate as well. So I went to the store on the way home from Lauren’s on Sunday. I found my item and didn’t see the rebate form next to it. I went to check out and asked the lady if the form would print out. She seemed very unclear about what I was talking about.

This annoys me. I tried to stay calm but it really bothers me when people have NO clue what they are talking about when it is their job to help. So I explain… “This ______ is regularly $___ but it’s on sale for $____ and there is an additional $___ mail-in rebate. I need the form for the mail-in rebate. Do you have any idea where I get that? They are normally located by the product but it wasn’t over there. Did it print out when you finished my transaction?” Crickets. Ugh. She stared at me and said, “I think it’s in the box.” Umm, no. I told her that’s not how rebates work and I was 99.9% sure the form was not in the box. “I think it is. With that paper that tells you that it will work for a certain amount of time.” Oh dear. “The warranty? No. The warranty comes in the box, the mail-in rebate does not. Can you please tell me who to talk to so I can get this figured out because I don’t want it without the form.” FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER after she’s checked out 3 other people and talked to 2 people on her walkie talkie (“This lady needs her warranty-” “No, rebate.” “–Oh, her rebate.”) she tells me to walk back over to the product to find the form and Evelyn who is supposed to be helping me. I walked back over there… still no form. And I assume there was no Evelyn, although I wouldn’t know because I have no clue who Evelyn even is. I made my way back to my lovely cashier and she asked me if I found Evelyn. “Well, I actually don’t know Evelyn so can you just return this. This is getting ridiculous. I’ll go to another store.” And then Evelyn showed up with my form.

It may be important to know that the rebate was for $10. I told you, every penny matters. I will do anything to save a few bucks. Our budget doesn’t have much wiggle room so I think it’s important to do what we can to protect our precious budget. However, you can be as careful as you want but sometimes things come up. Sometimes something comes around and smashes your budget… and your husband’s nose. (Please don’t look at these photos if you have an issue with blood.)

 

The guys were riding ATVs over the weekend and Stephen hit a branch or a bump or a crater and hit his nose on the handlebar. The ATV didn’t care about our budget. Neither did the doctors.

Luckily the helmet took most of the blow. They said that if he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, he would have smashed his face in. Apparently he tore a lot of tissue in there. He has 8 stitches outside and “a lot” inside. Say a little prayer for him today, he’s in quite a bit of pain.

 It may not be necessary to say this but we definitely won’t ever be fitting an ATV into our budget.

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If you are participating in Ten on Tuesday tomorrow, you can find the questions by clicking the “Ten on Tuesday” button on the right. Please don’t post them until tomorrow morning. I’m going to ATTEMPT a Mr. Linky so we can get all of your links in one spot so it’s easier for everyone to visit each other. Bear with me, I’m not good at this blogging thing.