Water

As I've noted recently, I've made a conscious effort to up my daily water consumption. Drastically. I make time even when I'm busy at work. It seems like alot of things in life are about making time because we are all so darn busy.

Let's talk about a few things I've noticed since.

1) My skin looks better- good
2) I feel better- good
3) My workouts do not dehydrate me (mostly because I'm not already dehydrated before I start...I know common sense)- good
4) I know I'm healthier and my body loves me for it and that makes me happy- good
5) I pee. Alot.- good/bad

Now, let's talk about number 5. I've literally peed 18 times today. Okay, maybe not, but certainly closer to 10 times. And it's just now hitting noon time. Lately, I feel like I'm getting paid to walk back and forth to the bathroom when I'm at work. And I think I've nearly wet my pants 3 times today. It's kinda ridiculous. Yet good because I feel thoroughly cleansed.

So then I started thinking about all the jobs that it's probably best that I never have if I keep this up: nursing, teaching, retail/cashier, pilot, bartender, skyscraper construction worker when it's almost done (a long way up and down to get to the port-a-jon on the ground), window washer, surgeon, judge in a murder trial or any trial where they are in the courtroom for hours on end, mailman, truck driver. And I'm sure there are more.

Now it's time to refill my water bottle.

Curls

So, I'm sure you've all heard of the make-curls-with-a-sock method. Far out, right? I think so. Easy. No heat. You know.

I haven't tried it yet, but will next. Here's the instructional in case you're interested though. It's my next endeavor. The still shot of this girl's video makes me look like a super creepy person, so please just click on "play" to see the tutorial. It'll make me feel better that you don't think I'm that person.

BUT...Katie and I tried the method below. It really really works. Katie's hair looked fantastic. So the cool thing about this method is that you can prep the day of and walk around for the day without looking silly with a sock in your hair like the first method. Or you can just sleep on it overnight and be ready for the next day. Even with Katie's hair down to her belly button (lots of hair), this method worked. She did hers overnight. I did mine yesterday, and put it up for just 2 hours and I had pretty curls. I mainly took it out early because my hair is too soft to stay, and it kept falling out (but I was also walking around and doing stuff to jostle the style, so maybe that's why). I'll either have to improvise or definitely use the hairspray for overnight. Anyhow, see for yourself. It's so great though. So easy, no heat damage, and barely takes any time at all! (Unfortunately, I did not even think to take a picture of hers or my hair.)

Rock on with the easy up-dos and curls.

I love my life with this man.

I told myself I wasn't going to post anything else today, but I just cannot help this one.

A text I got from Casey this morning:

"Hey baby, I love you! I love my wife! That's me yelling it from a mountaintop to tell everyone."

He's the best husband ever. He makes me laugh everyday. When I read this I smiled cause I can imagine him saying this. And my eyes sparkled. I absolutely love my life with this man.

Deck The Halls

In my world, the day after Thanksgiving is permission to decorate for Christmas. No Christmas music or wrapping or decorating or whatev before Thanksgiving though.

The day after Thanksgiving, I let myself notice the decorated street lights and neighborhood entrances, turn the radio to 102.9, and break out the cinnamon scented pine cones and Mistletoe Car Jar.

So of course the day after Thanksgiving, we also bought our wreath, put lights on the tree in the yard (yes, our one tree), decorated the house, made some Vanilla Nut holiday special blend Dunkin coffee, and I started wrapping presents.

We lit our Christmas candles, played some Tony Bennett and Mariah Carey Christmas music, and drank coffee from our adorable Christmas mugs. From Starbucks. Not a fan of Starbucks coffee, big fan of Starbucks paraphernalia. It's always so cute. Thinking of getting a little Starbucks cup Christmas ornament for our tree. Cause I do like their Skinny Vanilla Lattes. Yum. Just not their coffee blends (barf). Someone at the Starbucks plant needs to go back to coffee-bean-roasting-school.

Here's our wreath. Decorated by yours truly (and her assistant Katie):

Here are the cute mugs:

I told Casey it looked like the silhouette of him and the lab he wants one day. I thought that way it'd be cooler for him to drink out of it.

Here are all the presents: (!)

Sorry it was dark in the room when I took the picture.

We are waiting to get our little Christmas tree cause we want a real one and will be out of town for a week in early December. We don't want it to kick the bucket without water while we are gone. Unfortunately, we won't have our tree until December 14th. Then we will decorate with our 9 little ornaments. I cannot wait! It will be in that corner where the presents are. Yay.

And then we went to a Christmas party for Casey's guard unit on Saturday. I made red velvet cake balls and craisin-white chocolate chip oatmeal bars to take. I took a picture as I was baking, but then totally slacked on  the finished product along with the cake ball pictures. They were adorable. Many apologies. I'm so new at this! (any recipes can be provided at request)

                                                             
                                    

                            
                                    (pre-oven stage...they look way better after baking!)

P.S. The cake balls could not have been completed without Kate. Thank you.

Casey said we can't watch Christmas movies until halfway through December though. When we can, the following will be on our list:

Christmas Vacation
Elf
Home Alone
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
and I think that's it.

Get out the popcorn and Christmas mugs!

Family night!

On Sunday, we grilled out and invited my parents over to eat and watch a redbox (with a little football and financial talk thrown in). All we needed to add for family night was a game!

We made these awesome turkey burgers. Casey found the recipe a while ago from Men's Health, and we've made them at his parents house twice. Then last time, his dad meshed two turkey burger recipes to give the burgers more flavor (with added spices and herbs). And this is what we got!

 (Top Left: whole wheat buns, Bottom Left: Grilled red onions, Center: Turkey burgers with mozz and grilled pineapple, Far Right: Casey's turkey burger with mozz and grilled pineapple and jalepenos)

Here's the recipe:

Serves: 4
1 pound lean ground turkey, divided into 4 patties
chopped red onion (a little more than a smidge)
chopped cilantro (a little more than a smidge)
garlic powder (smidge)
onion powder (smidge)
black pepper (smidge)
seasoned salt (smidge)
4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
4 slices pineapple (fresh or canned works)
4 thick slices red onion
4 slices swiss or mozzarella cheese
4 whole wheat buns

Place ground turkey in bowl and mix with all spices (amounts as desired). Divide into 4 patties. Cook the turkey patties on high heat, 4 to 5 minutes per side (or until cooked through), basting with the teriyaki sauce as you go. While the burgers cook, grill the pineapple and onion until lightly charred. Toast buns over the grill or in the oven as desired. Put each burger on a bun and layer on onion, pineapple, and cheese; top with more sauce.
Please note: We used canned pineapple because of the season, but fresh tastes way better. Use fresh if you can! The cilantro adds a world of flavor; spring for it. And we used mozzarella cheese because I'm not a big fan of swiss. Buns are optional. Also, we made smaller burgers to make 5 rather than 4. It still works! 

We also made sweet potato fries and broccoli salad (fresh broccoli, red onion, sunflower seeds, golden raisins, etc). And Mom brought over an apple crisp that is mainly apples with oats on top and very, very little sugar added (only a matter of tablespoons in the entire recipe). So we got a fiber, quercetin boost from our apples (totally trying to justify it).

(It tastes way better than it looks there. haha.)

                           (Left: sweet potato fries- baked and Right: low-sugar apple crisp)

P.S. Kate picked out the Redbox movie earlier on Sunday. She was pretty excited about it because it had Bruce Willis in it (great actor), and we'd never heard of it. Jackpot. So once the meal was ready, we all went upstairs to eat and watch the movie. Casey put it in and got it ready, and then as the movie was starting, he comments, "You know this was made in 1993." We all started laughing. It was funny cause Kate thought the movie had just come out or something. Ha ha. But it was actually a good movie! Young Bruce Willis and SJP before her Sex and the City days.

Anyways, I love family nights. Always a good close to the weekend.

Generations

So, my grandpa found this picture of when my grandma was younger and made copies to send to all the grand kids. I love it.

And then there's my momma, who's freakin adorable. And beautiful to boot.

                                           (pictured here with my daddy)

And then there's me (and my sisters of course, but this blog is about me, right??) That was a joke. I mean it's true, but I wasn't trying to sound harsh. My sisters are beautiful. I wanted to find a really good picture of myself that my parents would be proud of.

                                  (I did NOT drink all that. It was for the camera.)


Anyhow, I love the picture my grandpa sent. I love all pictures. I love remembering the Groton seashore and my grandma. And I love my family. Photos are THE best.

Speaking of pictures...we get our wedding photo album back from Italy this month. STOKED!

Scarves galore.

I MAY have stolen this video from another blog. But, it's such an awesome video that it makes it okay. I'm going to memorize it.

If you love scarves like I do, then you will love this tutorial. Scout's honor.