Money in our Envelopes

Since last spring, we've been using the envelope method to budget. It started when we were looking at buying a new (more expensive) house and realized how much we were truly spending going out to eat, on clothes, going on weekend trips, etc... and how little expenses like oil changes or a quick fix around the house seemed to throw our money-situation out of whack for a week or two. Just thinking to ourselves that we shouldn't spend quite as much or try to save a little more wasn't working - we needed something concrete. So we tried the envelope method and it's worked pretty well for us. We have 'fallen off the wagon' a couple times - especially since I've been pregnant and often need to eat NOW, not 5 minutes from now - and it has been an evolving system with our envelopes and the amounts changing.

Here's how it works: Every Friday when we get paid (we get paid on opposite weeks) we go to the bank and take out a set amount of money. That money gets split up into our envelopes. (We actually use a coupon sorter with 12 different sections. It's the perfect size and keeps everything in one place!!) The categories are: Aaron's clothes, Beer/Alcohol, Blakely's clothes, Car maintenance, Eating out, Games & Entertainment, Gifts, Household repair, Massages, Running, Vacation and Miscellaneous, which we use for an occasional trip to a coffee shop, a snack from a vending machine, or to cover an extra dollar or two from another envelope. Then, if we want to go see a movie, for example, we use the cash from our Games & Entertainment envelope. If there's no money left in the envelope, then we try to get a free movie from Redbox or hope for something good on TV!!

With my impending possible unemployment and a baby coming in a few months, I'm sure we'll be looking for even more ways to scale back our budget. With the envelopes, we should be able to cut back on the amounts being put in each week for a quick and easy way to instantly cut back on our output of money. I'm also reading up on (and trying to gain inspiration from) this blog. *

Anyone have any great budget/money saving ideas??

*Blogger seems to be messing up my link, so it's www.grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com if it's not working for you either.

"I grow babies!!"

I thought this deserved to be double posted:

We had people over on Sunday for a cookie exchange (yum!!) and were talking about Christmas trees - real vs. fake, who waters it, how long it stays up, etc... A friend was mentioning that she has a hard time remembering to water their tree, and I said that I never thought about it, but maybe I would mroe often if it was my job. It's Aaron's job though, so it just never even occurs to me. To that, my mom lovingly asked, "What do you do around here?!?" I quickly responded that, "I grow babies!!"

But I thought this was a good time to let you know, for those who aren't aware, that I have an amazing husband. I'll admit, he probably does more around the house than I do. He likes to cook, so he cooks most of our meals. He doesn't hate doing dishes by hand the way I do, so if there's a backlog of dishes, he does the extras. He's okay with folding laundry one basket at a time, whereas I prefer to have a mountain on the bed to fold all at once, so he usually ends up folding. The list goes on and on... That's not to say that I don't do anything, but I know I'm a very lucky girl when it comes to the housework department.

A Sometimes 'Grammar Snob'

I'm not declaring myself an expert on grammar. I'm sure I make plenty of mistakes. However, I have a few pet peeves that I feel like I'm seeing a lot more often. For example:

• "To" and "too" are two different words (oh, I'm funny!!).
  -to: toward a point, person, place, or thing, implied or understood
  -too: in addition; also; furthermore; to an excessive extent or degree
• "There," "Their," and "They're" are also different words.
  -there: in or at that place - opposed to 'here': She is there now.
  -their: a form of the possessive case of 'they' used as an attributive adjective, before a noun: their home
  -they're: a contraction of "they are"
• There's a whole list of others that I see mixed up almost as frequently.
  -It's and its
  -Are, hour and our
  -Fare and fair
  -accept and except
  -all right and alright
  -desert and dessert (when these were on a spelling list, my mom told me that you always want 2 desserts and there are 2 S's in dessert)
  -Your and you're
  -Then and than
• An absolute lack of punctuation and paragraph use.

The thing is, I see most of these in emails and on forum boards. So I assume that some of the errors occur, because people are in a hurry. Sadly, I think the vasy majority of them occur, because people really don't know the difference, when to use commas or start a new paragraph anymore. Hopefully we'll soon adjust to the use of new technologies and figure out how to use the little conveniences in life, such as spell check, but still learn the basics of the English language.

I'm Scrooge.

Aaron L-O-V-E-S Christmas. He loves the music and the decorations and he starts thinking of ideas for gifts in September. A few years ago, we wrapped all the presents in plain brown paper, and then used markers, glitter glue, googly eyes and more to personally decorate each package. My designs were fairly simple, while Aarons spend many, many, many hours on his packages. This year, Aaron was listening to streaming Christmas music on his computer as soon as it became available. A local radio station started playing Christmas music on November 14 at 4 pm and on our way home from work at 5, we were listening to it and have been ever since. He asked if we could start decorating a couple weeks ago. The first time we heard Chrismas music playing in a store, he made me stop and just listen.

So, in contrast to Aaron's gung-ho approach, I end up being a little bit of a Scrooge. I just think that we should wait until after Halloween at least to start listening to Christmas music. Since we have decorations for Halloween, and they don't really go with our Christmas decorations, I think we should wait until November to decorate as well. And even though Aaron comes up with fantastic gift ideas, sometimes they're just beyond our means.

This is our fifth Christmas together. I think we're finding out happy medium when it comes to this holiday (although I'm not sure how the dynamic will change when BabyMort's here next year). I've accepted that I'll spend 2+ months listening to Christmas music, but we won't spend hours wrapping presents this year. We put our decorations out on the 17th, but Aaron did most of the work and was okay with my less enthusiastic attitude.

For Christmas 2008, I think we've figured out our balance.

It's been a while...

I've been neglecting my postings on this blog, because I've been busy over on www.mamamort.wordpress.com. In addition, I've been busy sleeping, eating a dozen small meals a day to try to avoid nausea, and thanking my husband for being amazing and supportive. I'm thrilled to report that we're expecting BabyMort in early June, 2009!!

We told our families and close friends shortly after we found out, but there was still the superstitious side of me that wasn't quite ready to put it out on the World Wide Web. After we heard a strong heartbeat today, though, I felt confident in sharing our news with the world!!

To keep up with all things baby-related, head on over to www.mamamort.wordpress.com. I'll still plan on keeping this blog going for anything non-baby, although those topics might be few and far between for a while :-D

How do they know?!?

Max is a much harder chewer than our dogs, so we needed to invest in a few more hard to ruin toys. We were down in Ankeny today, so we stopped at PetSmart and got 3 new toys. As soon as we carried the bag into the house, all 3 dogs started freaking out. They someone knew that there was stuff in that bag for them. Now, we carry bags of groceries in and they could care less. And the bag was not see-through, so how did they know??

They're so crazy!!

I'm with ya!!

I wholeheartedly agree with Campbell Brown. I'm tired of seeing negative ads, filled with lies, one after another all night long. At the very least, stop wasting your money trying to make the other guy look bad, and tell me what you're going to do.* And really, even if the ads aren't negative, I'm surely not going to make my decision based on TV ads paid for my the candidates. Sadly, I realize that some people will though.

*This statement is more geared towards McCain. The Wisconsin Advertising Project found nearly 100% of McCain's ads to be negative during the week of September 28 - October 4. During the same period, only 34% of Obama's ads were negative. So, I'm supposed to vote for McCain just because Obama is "dangerous" according to your commercials?? Even though I have no idea what McCain'd do if elected?? That doesn't sit right with me...

Saturday Slang

w00t\ˈwüt\interjection, 1 slang: EXPRESSING JOY
"w00t! I won the contest!"
(spelled w-zero-zero-t)

Bathroom musings...

The bathroom at work made me laugh today. I always go into a specific stall (because I can be a little OCD sometimes...) and mid-way through the day, this black mark appeared on the toilet seat. It took me a while to figure out what it could be, but then it dawned on me. It was the scuff mark from someone's shoe!! They must have been one of the germ-o-phobes who uses their foot to flush the toilet.

Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with trying to avoid germs. But...my whole take on the foot flushing thing is that I'm about to wash my hands, so I'm probbaly safe for a few seconds.

Anyhow, thinking about this person flushing with their foot got me thinking about handwashing and how many people will:
a) not wash their hands after using the restroom.
b) use the "water rinse" method where they just run water over their hands for about 3 seconds and they're done.
c) use soap, but for all of about 2 seconds before they rinse and they're done.

None of these are effective hand washing methods!!! The Mayo Clinic provides these steps for proper hand washing:

• Wet your hands with warm, running water and apply liquid soap or use clean bar soap.
• Lather well.
• Rub your hands vigorously together for at least 15 to 20 seconds. *
• Scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.
• Rinse well.
• Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel.
• Use a towel to turn off the faucet. **

*15-20 seconds is longer than you might think. One suggestion I've heard is to sing "Happy Birthday" 2x while scrubbing.
** I would also suggest using that paper towel to open the door to the bathroom - just think about all the people that walked out without properly washing their hands, leaving their germs all over the door handle for you!!

American Society of Microbiology studies showed:

• 97% of females and 92% of males say they wash; of these only 75% females and 58% males washed.
• 50% of middle and high school students say they wash; of these 33% of females and only 8% of males used soap while washing hands.
• Minnesota Department of Health led three observational studies:
  2003 Back to 50’s Car Show Event—64% females washed and 30% males
  2003 State Fair—65% females washed and 39% males
  2004 State Fair—75% females washed and 51% males
  
  (Source: 2006 Minnesota Handwashing Tool Kit)

Hi-larious!!

Roarke was trying to tell jokes tonight, but didn't have great material, so I grabbed some laffy taffy. Justin used his flashlight phone while Becky and Roarke read the jokes (and ate the candy!!)
Then we ran out of laffy taffy jokes. So, I used my only joke that I can remember:
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Banana.
R: Banana who?
B: Knock-knock.
R: Who's there?
B: Orange.
R: Orange who?
B: Orange you glad I didn't say "banana" again?!?

Which Roarke followed up with:
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Orange.
B: Orange who?
R: Knock-knock.
B: Who's there?
R: Potato.
B: Potato who?
R: Potato you glad I didn't say orange again?!?

OMG!! I laughed so hard, I couldn't breathe!!

Crazy kid!!

Saturday Slang

props\'präps\ n sing or pl, 1 slang : DUE 1 2 slang : RESPECT 2 3 slang : ACKNOWLEDGMENT 3

Did you know this is the year of a presidential election??

I was sent this video by my cousin. I thought it had a good message, regardless of what you believe.

Sharing 101

Ever since Max moved in, Steve has been a little over protective of his toys. This is a common sight- Steve makes sure that he's actually touching a couple toys and has a bunch of others nearby. As soon as he hears one of the other dogs approaching his eyes fly open and he stares down the approaching dog. Then Max or Nick usually just goes for the toy furthest from Steve.

I think we need a lesson in sharing for the boys!

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3 Dogs+2 Humans=1 Big Adjustment

We are a 3-dog household these days. Aaron's sister, Dena, and her family have moved again for her husband's job. This time around, they couldn't find a place that would accept pets, so they asked if Max could live with us for a while. We said yes, thinking, "We already have 150 pounds of dog running around. What's another 50 pounds?!?" So far this week though, it's felt like a lot more than 'just another 50 pounds of dog.'

All 3 dogs have been a lot more energetic and on edge this week than normal - at least I know Nick and Steve have been. I think they each want to make sure that they don't end up the low dog on the totem pole. This is more so the case for Max, because our dogs have teamed up against him several times this week, but already we can see our dogs teaming up with Max when it's to their advantage.

In addition, I think each dog has needed their 'alone time' this week. There's been a lot of extra sniffing, posturing, etc... and sometimes the poor guys can't even scratch their ear without another dog taking the opportunity to sniff or pounce. On Monday night Aaron was watching football in the basement and I was watching a movie in the bedroom. Max followed me into the bedroom and immediately layed down on the dog bed. He didn't move until I left the room after my movie. Nick and Steve (and even Aaron) wandered in a few times during the movie to check things out, but Max barely lifted his head to acknowledge them. He seemed very much to be saying, "I'm just laying here, minding my own business, not being bothered by anyone, so let's keep it that way!!" This morning, Nick was never more than a foot away from me while I was getting ready for work - in the bedroom, bathroom and everywhere in between. Although annoying, I kinda thought it was cute. "Hey!! Don't forget about me. I'm the dog who loves to get petted!! I noticed you weren't petting any other dogs right now, so I thought I better stay close by in case you're in the mood to pet..."
This is the dogs on Sunday morning, barely more than 12 hours after meeting eachother. You can see that they're all drawn together by a common thread - raw bacon!!

Here are my '(not-so)mini-bios' of each dog:

• Steve (85 pounds, 5 years old, Husky-Chow-German Shepard mix). He shares a name with my stepdad, because as Aaron puts it, he had the dog before he had me, so Steve is commonly known as "Steve The Dog." Steve came to live with Aaron after the vet's office that his sister worked at rescued Steve and his brother at only 6 weeks old. He didn't know how to drink water from a bowl, only from licking puddles on the sidewalk. He likes to pretend that he's cool and he doesn't really care if he gets any attention or petting. However, if you get him by himself - when the others are outside or busy eating - he can't get enough. He always looks a little ragged, because he has so much hair that no matter how much we brush him or what season it is, he is shedding. He loves to play fetch and is a big fan of catching the ball mid-air. The poor guy has some hip problems, so he has a hard time getting up after a hard day of playing, but he loves taking medicine, so we give him some glucosamine in hopes that it won't get worse. He seems to be able to sense when one of us is feeling blue and acts accordingly to try to cheer us up. When he hears the laptop click shut at night or the TV turn off, he immediately heads for the door so he can go out one last time before bed.
• Nick (65 pounds, 3 years old, Lab-Vizsla mix). We got Nick from the Animal Rescue League when he was 12 weeks old. He was tiny and adorable and afraid of pretty much everything, especially when he didn't have any backup from Steve. Nick doesn't like tall guys and gets freaked out by loud noises and falling apples. He likes to be just like the big dog, Steve, which is our explanation for his curled tail. He didn't have one when we first got him, and neither labs nor vizslas do... Anytime someone walks by the back door, he thinks he needs to go outside and check things out. We commonly use the phrase, "Nick's about to burst!" because you'd think his bladder was about to burst by the way he jumps around by the door. If he could be outside getting pet all day long he would be in heaven. He tries really hard to be a good cuddler, but he's just too much of a spaz. He has an uncanny knack to find "armholes" - any space between the crook of your elbow and your body where he can stick his head in hopes of getting pet. For a long time, we didn't think Nick really knew how to play fetch. When we throw the ball with both dogs, he just chases after Steve and bites his back side. When Steve's not around though, he tears after the ball like no other!! His claim to fame is that he can give high fives.
• Max (50 pounds, 8 years old, Rotweiler-Poodle mix) Adam and Dena got Max as a puppy and I'm told they had to use leather gloves to handle him because he was a biter with very sharp teeth. I had only met him a couple times before he moved in with us, and both times he was with Ziggy, a Miniature Pinscher, who was totally in charge of Max!! He seems to be having a really good time playing with dogs closer to his size and really seems to like the toys our dogs ignore. He reminds me of a kangaroo, because he's very jumpy. He goes from having all 4 paws on the ground to all 4 paws on the furniture (that he's not allowed on!!) in about half a second. It's crazy!! He's still learning the rules of our house, but I think at this point he's just playing dumb, hoping we'll let him get away with it. He's either playing hard or sleeping hard, there doesn't seem to be an inbetween. I'm sure we'll have the pleasure of learning even more of Max's quirks as time goes on!!

Hoofing it.

One of the things Aaron and I were most excited about when moving to Ames was that we wouldn't have to drive everywhere. When we lived in Slater, we had to go to Ames or Ankeny to get/do pretty much everything, so walking or riding our bikes wasn't really an option. We had 2 motivations for wanting to drive everywhere - exercising more and polluting less.

I found this set of facts from http://www.idealbite.com/ pertaining to walking and thought it was interesting.

The Benefits

• Getting fit as a horse. Even at a slow pace, you'll burn around 100 calories per mile, and consistent exercise from walking reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
• Saving change for the races. Walking 1 mile each day instead of driving will save you about 15 cents on gas each day. That's almost $55 a year.
• Not horsing around with our air. Walking instead of driving 10 1-mile trips each week averts 500 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.
• Connecting with neigh-bors. It's easier to interact with other people when you're not stuck behind the wheel.

So how's the walking/bike riding going?? Well, we're making small strides. We walk to my mom's a lot - all .2 miles each way. We've also ridden our bikes to the farmer's market, the library and church a couple times. Only recently did I get a helmet, we both got flashing lights for the bikes and we got a basket to go on the front of one of the bikes. Since then, we've been able to safely take advantage of the bikes a little more.

I don't think we'll ever ride our bikes to work - I don't like what the helmet does to my hair - and it seems quite unlikely that we'll ride our bikes during the winter, but we're doing what we can while we can.

Best Slumber Party EVER!!

Although we would never wish Aaron's mom back in the hospital, we did find the silver lining of it all - more time with Emma!! Dena and Emma both stayed with us for a few nights, then we got a night with Emma all to ourselves for a "slumber party."

She took a bubble bath and then we all piled onto air mattresses on the floor of our family room. We ate popcorn, watched Hannah Montana and best of all...cuddled!! Aaron and I didn't get much sleep that night, (turns out 3 year olds move around alot while they're sleeping...who knew?!?) but I would still say it was fantastic.

For Seriously!?!

Aaron and I picked up about 130 gallons of apples from our backyard on Saturday morning. Aaron actually raked most of the apples into piles while I picked up the strays. Then we were able to just shove the apples into buckets from the pile - much easier than the previously used methods. However, there were also waaayy more apples than we've had to deal with before.
This is our 96 gallon trash can. The only thing other than apples in here is one bag of trash, so basically all apples.
We also had 2 overflowing 13 gallon trash cans, one 5 gallon bucket and three 2 gallon buckets.

So the garbage was picked up today, but not without a little resistance from the garbage-men. They left us a notice on the trash can, stating that there is a weight limit to what can be picked up. So apparently 90-ish gallons of apples weighs too much. Which begs the question, "What will we do with this week's apples??" We already have 37+ gallons of overflow from last week...

Anyone want a bucket full of bug-infested, partially eaten and bruised apples??

It made me smile...

"You're awesome!!"

Wiiiii!

Yay for friends who make us veggie pizza for dinner and let us play Wii. They even let us create our own Mii's tonight!

Luckily we can trade out with Rock Band and black bean enchiladas...
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I'm a Lovely Lady!!

I'm lucky enough to have a couple great friends (who have more great friends) who are all interested in eating healthier, while maintaining a budget for food and using a reasonable amount of time. In an effort to help each other out, they've started a new blog, "Lovely Ladies Dish on the Dish," which I'm now a contributor to. Take a look if you're interested in joining us in our quest to be healthier!!

The Battle Against HFCS, Part 2

I'll start with a summary of the information presented in my previous entry. Then I'll move on to my thoughts and frustrations.

• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a sweetener and preservative used in many processed foods, such as soda, baked goods and condiments, that is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to to fructose.
• The process was discovered in 1957 and the use of HFCS in many foods began in the late 1970's.
• There seems to be a link between the use of HFCS and the increase in obesity of Americans. In addition, it is thought to increase the chances of diabetes and heart disease. So far, very few studies have been able to determine if there is a causal relationship between HFCS and these health problems, if it is due to an increase in sugar consumption in general or if it's mere 'coincidence.'

After initially reading about the possible link between HFCS and obesity a few months ago, I looked at a few labels and discovered that the bread we were buying had HFCS as the 3rd or 4th ingredient. I decided that finding bread without HFCS would be an easy first step for eliminating it from my diet. We found a bread that we liked and were even lucky enough to find it at the Old Home bread store in town, where it's significantly cheaper. So that's where we were for a few months.

Then I looked at a few more labels. At that point, I really felt like I understood the phrase, "Ignorance is bliss." I didn't mind the jelly we were using, until I saw that the very first ingredient was HFCS, and then I had the get rid of it immediately. Aaron decided to stop drinking soda (Great!!) but can't stand drinking water all the time like I do, so we had gotten some frozen lemonade that he could make up on a whim. Then we look at the ingredient list and #1 is HFCS. At this point, I wasn't too surprised by what I was finding it in, I was more surprised to find it as the main ingredient and a little frustrated by trying to find (more expensive) alternatives.

The absolute disgust came in when I realized it was in our ketchup, a can of kidney beans and even my Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. At this point I felt a little lost. I mean, we don't really consume that much ketcup, so did it really matter?? And yeah, there's HFCS in the Wheat Thins, but it's the 7th ingredient, so how much damage could it really do??

At this point, I'm still not entirely sure what we'll do. We'll most likely try to find a brand of ketchup, kidney beans, etc... that doesn't have HFCS, but we'll probably use the rest of what we have first. I'm cheap by nature, and it just seems wasteful to throw it all out. Wheat thins, on the other hand, have thrown me for a loop. About 3 afternoons a week, I have a wedge of Light Laughing Cow cheese and 12 Reduced Fat Wheat Thins as an afternoon snack. It's my alternative to buying a bag of chips from the vending machine, because it's low calorie, the Wheat Thins are made with whole grain, and they don't have any PHO - another ingredient we're trying to avoid. So the thing I wonder about is, "How large of an effect will a small amount have?" Is HFCS similar to PHO - it's suggested that you can have a little PHO, about 2g a day, without a negative effect.

I probably won't have an answer until more research is done. I'm glad I was a Psych major who took several reserch methodology classes, so that I can wade through the research and make an attempt at deciphering between fact-based information and propaganda!! But to be completely honest, until I get a better answer, I'll probably keep eating my Wheat Thins and Laughing Cow Cheese...

The Battle Against HFCS

I'm going to try to present fact/research based information on High Fructose Corn Syrup in this post, followed by my personal feelings and frustrations in another post - although you can probably tell from the title how I feel about it, so this will probably come off biased.

For those who may not know what it is, "High-fructose corn syrup is a sweetener and preservative used in many processed foods. It is made by changing the sugar in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar." (1) "HFCS is a sweetener found in many foods and beverages, including non-diet soda pop, baked goods, and condiments. It is has become the sweetener of choice for many food manufacturers because it is considered more economical, sweeter and more easy to blend into beverages than table sugar." (2)

"High-fructose corn syrup is any of a group of corn syrups which have undergone enzymatic processing in order to increase their fructose content and are then mixed with pure corn syrup (100% glucose) to reach their final form. The typical types of HFCS are: HFCS 90 (used almost exclusively in the production of HFCS 55) which is approximately 90% fructose and 10% glucose; HFCS 55 (most commonly used in soft drinks) which is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose; and HFCS 42 (used in a variety of other foods, including baked goods) which is approximately 42% fructose and 58% glucose. Further, the fructose and glucose in HFCS are in the form of separate molecules; by contrast, the fructose and glucose that are contained in sucrose are joined together to form a single molecule (called a disaccharide). " (3)

Based on definition, it sounds harmless enough. However, "Some nutrition experts blame increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup for the growing obesity problem. One theory is that fructose is more readily converted to fat by your liver than is sucrose, increasing the levels of fat in your bloodstream. But this hasn't been proven." (1) In addition, "There is a correlation between the rise of obesity in the U.S. and the use of HFCS for sweetening beverages and foods. The controversy largely comes down to whether this is coincidence or a causal relationship. Some critics of HFCS do not claim that it is any worse than similar quantities of sucrose would be, but rather focus on its prominent role in the overconsumption of sugar; for example, encouraging overconsumption through its low cost." (3)

This graph shows US sweetener consumption, 1966-2004. It disputes the claim that overall sugar consumption alone is responsible for the rise in obesity and other health effects, suggesting that HFCS itself may be one of the biggest factors. "It is apparent from this graph that overall sweetener consumption, and in particular glucose-fructose mixtures, has increased since the introduction of HFCS. Thus, the amount of fructose consumed in the United States & Canada has increased since the early 1980s. This would be true whether the added sweetener was HFCS, table sugar, or any other glucose-fructose mixture. However, because HFCS has slightly more fructose than does table sugar, the proportion of fructose as a component of overall sweetener intake in the United States has also increased, which would not be true if the increase in overall intake was table sugar." (3)

Besides obesity, there are other health problems that are theorized to be linked to HFCS. "Some researchers have suggested that high-fructose corn syrup may contribute to an increased risk of diabetes... Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found 'astonishingly high' levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with "unbound" fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage, says Ho, a professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. By contrast, reactive carbonyls are not present in table sugar, whose fructose and glucose components are "bound" and chemically stable, the researcher notes.

Reactive carbonyls also are elevated in the blood of individuals with diabetes and linked to the complications of that disease. Based on the study data, Ho estimates that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes. "(2)

"Peter Havel of UC Davis presented a study at an Endocrine Society meeting last month in which he followed 33 overweight and obese adults as they dieted for 12 weeks. During the last 10 weeks, half of them got 25% of their calories from fructose, and half got 25% from glucose. Though both groups gained the same amount of weight -- 3.3 pounds -- those who had the fructose had an increase in the least-desirable fat (the kind that wraps around internal organs, causes a pot belly and is linked to higher risk of diabetes and heart disease) while the others did not." (4)

By contrast, "An expert panel, led by Richard Forshee, Ph.D. of the University of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy, concluded that 'the currently available evidence is insufficient to implicate HFCS per se as a causal factor in the overweight and obesity problem in the United States.' The panel’s report was published in the August 2007 issue of Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition" (5)

(1) Mayo Clinic
(2) Science Daily
(3) Wikipedia
(4) LA Times
(5) HFCSFacts.com

U Gotta Love It!

We've seen the biggest ram, boar, bull and piggy bank. We've eaten lots of food on a stick, some fried food and some that are both! We've listened to several bands and gotten some free stuff. It's been a good day. And we get to come back on Sunday!
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"Organic Veggies Not Healthier"

I saw this headline today and just had to read the article. It says,

"Buying organic vegetables might make you feel safer about avoiding chemicals and better for possibly helping the planet, but the food won't be any more healthful."

Avoiding the ingestion of chemicals (or hormones or antibiotics with meat and dairy) is my main motivation for getting anything organic. And 'helping the planet' would have to be my second objective. I have never once thought that organic veggies would have more nutrients than non-organic.

Is this a common theory that I wasn't aware of?

It's Fair Time!!

We're going to the fair all day on Thursday the 14th, as well as on Sunday the 17th, when my grandparents will be inducted into the 4H Hall of Fame. I'm pretty excited about it and have been reading about all the "going-ons" of the fair this year.

Today, I read an article that said the Iowa Heart Center had 8 suggestions for eating healthy at the fair. They were as follows:

1. Forego the huge turkey leg and instead grab a turkey tenderloin to save about 1,000 calories.
2. Try the pork chop on a stick instead of sausages or brats.
3. Have cotton candy rather than a funnel cake.
4. Choose kettle corn over nachos with cheese.
5. How about a banana on a stick rather than deep fried candy bar.
6. There's a pork loin sandwich to eat over a fried pork tenderloin.
7. Eat a crunchy caramel apple rather than a fried cheese curds.
8. Have roasted corn on the cob rather than a corn dog.

I've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies, less meat and less processed foods lately - specifically High Fructose Corn Syrup (but that's a whole 'nother entry.) However, I can't say that many of these suggestions sounded like good ideas to me. I could maybe handle #1, because I can go either way on the huge turkey legs. And #2 is fine with me, because we always hit up the Pork Chop on Stick stand anyways. But there's no way I'm skipping funnel cakes or the deep fried candy bars. Many other suggestions include substituting something grilled or roasted for something fried. The problem is, fried=tasty.

I'll just hope that eating poorly for a day won't be the end of the world for my lifelong health...

Finally, a room done!!

After only 6 weeks of living in our new house*, we have the kitchen completely unpacked!! Not only are the boxes unpacked, but we have "stuff" hanging on the walls in the dining room too. It's a good feeling, and hopefully the other rooms follow soon. We're "close, but not quite there" on most of the rest of the house.

Now that the boxes are all out of the dining room, it's just a big empty space, tempting you to hit your head on the lights. We have a plan for a table though. We're refinishing my mom's old table. We finished stripping it last weekend and we're staining it this weekend, so we should have a table before too long.
I'd like to thank Steve the dog for standing in for the dining room table for the sake of the pictures.

*Hopefully you can sense the sarcasm!! I think I would've gone crazy at week 7...

Hot and Crispy

Aaron and I had the pleasure of going boating with some friends yesterday. We spent about 7 hours on the water - from 11am-6pm - and had a great time. I applied sunscreen several times, but a) should have applied it again to my thighs- which were almost constantly exposed to the sun and b) should have applied it better!! I totally missed spots and you can see the wavy line between white, where I applied, and red, where I apparently missed.


The worst area is the tops of my thighs, where I'm guessing both 'a' and 'b' are at fault for the burn. It happens to be right where my hips bend and my pants scrunch up when I sit, so that's only making it worse. Today I've been left with trying to figure out how to deal with the sunburn.


The Skin Cancer Foundation, after berating you for getting a sunburn in the first place, offers these suggestions:
- Soak a washcloth in cold skim milk and apply to the affected area. "The coolness helps take out the initial fire, and the milk creates a protein film that helps ease the ensuing discomfort."
- Drink water, juice or sports drinks to rehydrate the body.
- Take a cool bath.
- Gently moisturize with a light moisturizer.
- Stay out of the sun until the burn fades.


Other sites also suggest:
- Soak a washcloth in vinegar and apply to the affected area.
- Wet tea bag and apply to the affected area. The tannins help soothe the burn.
- Take a bath in lukewarm water, adding 1 cup of baking soda to the water. It helps reduce the sting and swelling.


Most of these methods sound pretty messy though, so I might just stick with aloe.

I like it.

I like to blog, plain and simple. But sometimes I worry too much about what other people think. My blogging had pretty much slowed down to 1 or 2 entries a month, because I would overanalyze andthink, "Do people really care about 'x?' I won't write about that..."

But then I just decided that it's something I enjoy, and if someone doesn't want to read about it, they don't have to!! I'm certainly not forcing anyone to read it. For that matter, I don't know if anyone does read it, but it's a good outlet for me, so I'll keep blogging!!

Updates...

• We've added not only kale to our smoothies, but also wheat germ. They look a little gross - with little green bits - but they taste just like before. So our smoothie recipe for two is as follows:

-1 banana
-2 cups assorted frozen fruit (our mix has melon, strawberries, pineapple, peaches and mangoes)
-3/4 cup lowfat yogurt
-3/4 cup juice - we use Pomegranate Blueberry V8 Fusion or Cranberry Pomegranate
-3/4 cup water
-2 T wheat germ
-1 leaf of Kale - stem removed

• We also made bread and muffins, substituting 1/2 cup of wheat germ for flour. Both still tasted great, and were a little extra healthy!

• Our ice cream maker is here!! We made French Vanilla Cookies and Cream ice cream and it's super yummy!! I'm excited that we can have ice cream and know everything that's in it. It reminds me of the commercial for Breyer's (I think) where they talk about being able to pronounce all the ingredients.

• The unpacking of our house is moving very, very slowly. This is a picture of the living room. We don't have very much to go in the living room, so none of this really belongs there. We're making progress this week though.
  
• Our apples seem to be multiplying - as you'd expect. In a weeks time, 6 cubic feet of apples fell off the tree. It took Aaron and I about a half hour to pick all the apples out of the yard.
  
• And my favorite Laffy Taffy joke so far..."Why did the cow wear a bell around it's neck?" Check the comments for the answer :-)

Thanks Alton!

A good marriage is full of compromises. So, Aaron watches 'Dancing With the Stars' and 'Jon and Kate Plus Eight' with me sometimes and I watch Nascar or 'Good Eats' with him. I can't stand the host of 'Good Eats,' Alton Brown, but I do have to thank him for a little tip we employed tonight.

We made the "batter" for our homemade ice cream tonight so it can chill overnight. (The Kitchen Aid attachment arrived today and is spending the night in our freezer so we can make ice cream tomorrow night!!) The recipe we made - French Vanilla Cookies and Cream - calls for 8 egg yolks. Getting rid of 8 egg whites seemed like a waste, but we have no immediate need for them. That's where Alton comes in...
He suggests putting your egg whites in an ice cube tray and freezing them. Then, if you have a recipe that calls for just egg whites, you can pop them out, defrost and Voila! you're set!! We ended up with 10 "egg cubes" from 8 large eggs, but we figure it's pretty close. Now we just have to wait for a recipe that calls for egg whites...

I *heart* S'mores!!

Camping is great. There are lots of things I could talk about in regards to my enjoyment of camping...the chance to relax, 2-minute mysteries by the fire, the necessity of cuddling my husband to stay warm...but my favorite part is the S'mores!! I prefer to eat them with every meal while camping, and generally do. Camping with a 6-year old sort of made me think about that in a new light though.
Saturday morning there was a bit of a battle getting Roarke to eat breakfast, because he just wanted to eat S'mores. After all, they're tasty and his older sister was eating them, so why can't he fill up on S'mores instead of eating eggs, potatoes and sausage?? We finally convinced him. And I still had 2 S'mores at breakfast :-D

Trying this out from my phone...

We're camping. My dad brought this cool headlamp. And there are roaming goats at the campgrounds! More pictures to follow...

The kind of week I've had

I don't know why, but I've been in a funk this week - for lack of a better word. I wake up in the morning tired, even if I go to bed early the night before, I'm usually annoyed with someone at work within minutes of walking in and every day just seems to drag on. We've been really busy this week, so maybe I'm just suffering from a lack of downtime or "me" time, but whatever the reason, the "funk" remains.

So yesterday at lunch, I asked Aaron if we needed gas. The act of getting gas itself doesn't cheer me up, but getting candy at a gas station does. (I'll readily admit that when I'm in a bad mood, I eat junk food. I know it's not good for me, but I do it anyways.) Then my husband said he wanted to go to Sam's Club to get gas, because it's cheaper. I happily agreed, because they sell lots of candy there!! This is what I got to try to improve my mood:

The candy helped a little, and so did all the great jokes from the Laffy Taffy. Here's to hoping I get out of this funk soon!!

We did it!

We got a Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker Attachment!! We have been wanting one of these ever since we got our Kitchenaid Mixer for Christmas 1.5 years ago, we have a couple recipes that we've been saving for the day that we actually get one and we've even looked in a few stores, ready to buy one, only to find out they didn't carry it in store or were out. But today, my amazing husband discovered that Target offered Free Shipping, so it's on it's way!! It was good timing, because we had a 10% off that we could use online as well as a couple gift cards, so we felt pretty good about the purchase, and there's still plenty of summer left!!

Anyone have any great homemade ice cream recipes they'd like to share??

The Air I Breathe

Articles like this one drive me crazy! It says, "She said five of six products she tested emitted substances the Environmental Protection Agency says are not safe at any level. The researcher did not disclose which six products she tested."

Ok. So you're telling me that the air freshener, laundry detergent or fabric softener that I'm using is potentially hazardous, but you're not going to tell me which ones specifically?!? Instead, I'll just continue to be (possibly) exposed to hazardous products on a regular basis.

At least I'm not headed to Beijing for the Olympics.

Apples galore

We have an apple tree in our new backyard. It looks to be a great climbing tree, but it has its drawbacks as well.
I doubt that we'll get any full-grown apples off the tree, because they'll all fall off before then. Aaron cleaned up a bunch of them about a week ago, but they're all over the yard again. They also clog up our gutters in a hurry, which caused part of our basement to flood.
They're also very confusing for the dogs. The apples are similiar in size, shape and color compared to their tennis balls. Fetch has been a very confusing time recently.
The worst part is, Aaron doesn't think we'll be able to eat or make anything out of any apples if we do get any, because they'll be infested with bugs. *sigh* I guess we'll just have to wait and see and learn how to deal with the other inconveniences and challenges the tree causes in the meantime.

I'm a sheep*

We bought wheat germ tonight. We're going to start putting some in all of our baked goods, as well as sneaking a little into our smoothies in the AM. We've talked about doing this for a while, because of the following health benefits, but finally bought some tonight.

"Face it, wheat germ is a nutrition standout. It's one of the best sources of folic acid. That's good news, since it's recommended that all women of childbearing age get sufficient amounts of this nutrient to prevent neural-tube birth defects. Folic acid reduces a compound in your body called homocysteine. Lower levels of homocysteine have been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis bone fractures, and dementia.
Wheat germ also contains a phytonutrient called L-ergothioneine, which is a powerful antioxidant that is not destroyed by cooking. In addition, the fiber boost you get from wheat germ is phenomenal." (http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/natural-weight-loss-food-wheat-germ-ga.htm)

We're making Honey and Oat muffins this weekend, which use Whole Wheat Flour and Oatmeal and have no added sugar. We found the recipe a few months ago and were really pleased to find discover that the muffins freeze and re-heat really well, so we make a bit batch, freeze the majority of them, and can pull them out on a weekday morning when we're crunched for time. We're also trying out Ambre's Milk and Honey Bread recipe just because we heard it's yummy. We'll be adding wheat germ to both, so I'm anxious to see how they turn out.

Ambre has also recommended adding greens to smoothies to up the nutritional content even more. She, and others, claim that you can't taste the veggies in there if they're well blended, so we're giving it a shot. We bought kale tonight to add to our next batch of smoothies. Kale is also a great food to add to our diets, for the following reasons:

"Though greens in general are nutritious foods, kale stands a head above the rest. Not only is it one of your best sources of beta-carotene, one of the antioxidants believed by many nutrition experts to be a major player in the battle against cancer, heart disease, and certain age-related chronic diseases, it also provides other important nutrients. In addition to beta-carotene, kale posses other important carotenoids: lutein and zeaxathin. These carotenoids help keep UV rays from damaging the eyes and causing cataracts.

According to recent research results, kale is an incredible source of well-absorbed calcium, which is one of the many factors that may help prevent osteoporosis. It also provides decent amounts of vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B6, manganese, and potassium. The manganese in kale helps your body's own antioxidant defense system, superoxide dismutase, protecting you from damaging free radicals. Its folate and B6 team up to keep homocysteine levels down, which may help prevent heart disease, dementia, and osteoporosis bone fractures." (http://home.howstuffworks.com/kale3.htm)

I've recently (within the last couple years) entered into the world of actually liking vegetables. I ate them before out of courtesy to whoever prepared them, but definitely never liked eating them or craved them. That's changed a lot, but I'm still a little leary of trying new things with veggies...

*I think there's an old adage about whether you're a sheep - a follower, or a shepard - a leader. I totally feel like a sheep writing about what I'm doing to eat healthier, more organic, etc...but I'm sharing anyways!!

Have you ever...

...wondered what it would look like if Aaron and I had our pictures taken with our dogs by a professional photographer?? If you have, then today is your lucky day!! Just follow this link, enter your email address and name, and you can view pictures of just that!!

https://www.collages.net/ConsumerSite/GuestLogin.aspx?eventcode=357721

Somebody at work said, "I hope you two have kids soon, so you can stop having your pictures taken with your dogs." Silly co-worker. When we have kids, they'll just be added to the pictures with our dogs!!

TV Reviews

It's time to review the serious shows. Wipeou and MXC!!

Wipeout is described as follows:
"Human cannonballs! Human pinballs! Crashes, smashes and mud splashes! Twenty-four thrill-seekers will compete in the world's largest extreme obstacle course designed to provide the most spills, face plants and wipeouts ever seen on television, in Wipeout, a painfully funny new reality series."

MXC claims to be this:
"This critically-acclaimed comedic series is a combination of Fear Factor, Jackass and Iron Chef, with a touch of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Using the actual footage from one of the most popular primetime Japanese reality game shows, Takeshi's Castle, the new series is re-written to create an entirely new comedic storyline. The series is not dubbed and there is not a single trace of literal translation from the original show."

Wipeout is a new show that airs on ABC. It has it's moments and it can be funny, but it still doesn't compare to MXC which airs on Spike TV. I mean, really, you can't compete "Gee LaDouche" as the sideline reporter and commentary that has nothing to do with what happened in reality. I'll still watch Wipeout though, because it airs during primetime as opposed to 2AM.

I'm sure you'll all sleep better now knowing that I think of these 2 shows!! Any "copycat" shows you hae opinions on??

Brownie Goody Bars

They're amazing. Enough said. The recipe follows:

1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme Brownie Mix

Water, Vegetable Oil and Eggs called for by brownie mix

1 container vanilla frosting (we used Cream Cheese frosting)

3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

3 cups crisp rice cereal

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 bag (2 cups) chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350 and grease bottom of 9x13 pan.

2. Make brownies as directed and cool completely, at least 1 hour.

3. Frost brownies and sprinkle peanuts. Refrigerate while making the cereal mixture.

4. Melt chocolate and peanut butter together. Mix with cereal and spread over the top of frosted brownies. Cool completely before cutting and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

*Best made for a group of people, because otherwise you will eat the whole pan yourself :-D

Let me know what you think!!

Talk about changes!!

We finally got our house listed a couple weeks ago. We put the sign in the yard on a Sunday night and by Tuesday night, we had a great offer!! It happened a lot faster than we were expecting, but we're not complaining!! The home inspection was done tonight, which went well, so we should be good to go now (*knock on wood*)

Selling so quickly did sort of put us in a bit of a rushed position to find a new house. After looking at pretty much every house in our price range with 3+ bedrooms, we made an offer on one this week and it was accepted today!! From the picture, it doesn't look like it would be much bigger than our current house, but it has a great finished basement that adds a ton of space.

June 23rd is the "big day" that we close on both houses. I'm sure I'll be sharing more in the next few weeks!!

Finally, an answer!!

For 3 1/2 years I've been asking Aaron why in the world we have to keep so many freakin' empty coffee cans. They're stacked up 3 or 4 deep on several different shelves in the house. There are a few that have gotten "jobs" over the last few years. There are 2 labeled "Puppy Chow" that we wash out and reuse every time we make it. There are another couple that we use for painting. Other than that though, the other 10 or so just sit empty.

Today though, my huband gave me a big "I told you so" when he used a bunch of them to cover up the plants that are already in our garden.

Things I learned

Over the last week and a half we've been making the final push to get our house done so we can get it on the market. We're finishing up one last project and as long as smething doesn't go horribly wrong (which it has many times in the last few months) our house should be listed by this time next week. In this process, I've learned a lot of lessons, and not just about how to get a house ready to sell. More importantly, I think I've learned how we should be living all the time. For instance...

• We should steam clean our carpets every 6 months or so, not just as an alternative to replacing it before selling. I don't want to walk, sit, etc... on all the dirt we managed to pull out of our carpets.
• Our garage should be used for a car, not for all the crap we're too lazy to put away / throw away.
• Our office should also not be used for storage of random "stuff." Turns out, we have a pretty big office that can actually double as a guest room, but we didn't realize this until last week when we finally cleaned it out.
• Plants are nice to have around. I bet we can have them even when we're not just trying to "stage" our house.

My "new house resolution" is to live all the time like our house is on the market. If a total stranger (or someone I know for that matter) walked through my house on any given day, I don't want to be embarassed, and I definitely would have been even just a few weeks ago. Stay tuned to see all the great after pictures and find out when we finally list our house!!

A Difference of Opinion

This is what Aaron thinks "Picture-in-Picture" should be used for - two sports at one time...

I use our new PIP to watch Biggest Loser and Dancing with the Stars.

A New Method

Aaron and I like to get out of the building at lunchtime, so today we drove to Brookside park to soak in some of the sun. If you've ever been to Brookside, you might know that the road curves around the baseball fields. (We were parked along the side of the fields - for reference.) We saw a car approaching, but there's a short stretch where you can't see the car because of the trees. We were sort of car-watching, similar to people-watching, but different, so when the car didn't appear after the trees, we wondered what was going on, because there's nowhere to park in that area.

Then we saw the car slowly creeping forward. We had no idea what they could be doing, until about 30 seconds later when we saw 2 dogs trotting behind the car. She just kept idling along with the dogs walking behind her. She turned the corner, sped up and turned around, met back up with the dogs, who also turned around, and they went slowly back down the side. Then she stopped, got out and opened the back door, and the dogs climbed in.

It was apparently this woman's version of dog walking. Now, walking our boys isn't the most fun ever, because they are big and they pull and they get easily excited and run circles around us sometimes. My calves hurt for 4 days last week because of all the resistance from Nick pulling on his leash, but I would never "walk" them via a car. I guess "to each their own" though.

"How many people live at our house?!?"

Aaron asked that question several times over the weekend...

On Saturday, it was because we bought over 45 pounds of produce - fresh, frozen and canned. A lot of it came from Sam's Club where we bought frozen broccoli, mixed veggies, corn and fruit for about a dollar a pound as well as 5 pounds of apples, 3 pounds of bananas and 6 pounds of tomatoes. The rest came from Fareway in the form of potatoes and onions. You might be thinking, "What could two people possibly need 45 pounds of produce for?!?" We asked ourselves that same question, even knowing the answer, because we did feel a little crazy.

Well, on Sunday we "cooked for a day," so we can "eat for a month" - the title of the cookbook was something like that at least. By the time it was all said and done on Sunday, Aaron and I had produced, portioned off, and frozen enough food for the two of us for about 45 meals. (The recipes are intended for families, so when we realized just how many meals for two we'd made, Aaron started asking, "How many people live here??" again.) A lot of the recipes have similar ingredients - which made for easier grocery shopping - and there's even a few recipes that all use the same ground meat mixture, so you can prepare a whole bunch and easily put together a few dishes. The cookbook tells you the order to do things in as well, so you end up with something baking, while a soup is simmering and you're preparing something else, so it took us less than 4 hours, including cooling times. In case you're wondering, we made:

• Spaghettie Pie - 4 meals
• Sloppy Joes - 2 meals
• Poor Man's Casserole - 4-5 meals
• Broccoli Quiche - 4 meals
• Texas Style Chili - 5-6 meals
• Lentil and Rice Soup - 5-6 meals
• Mix and Match Chicken Soup - 5-6 meals
• Black Beans and Rice - 5 meals
• Chicken Curry - 4 meals
• Pasta w/ meat sauce - 4 meals

We won't be eating all 45 meals in a row, because we'd probably get tired of our choices pretty quickly, but they should be great options for when we're just too tired to cook or get home late after the gym.

Even after cooking 45 meals, we still have about 30 pounds of our purchased 45 pounds of produce. We've been trying to work more fruits and veggies into our diets, and we're to the point where we honestly go through about 12-15 pounds of produce a week, so we should be set for a few weeks at least. We're looking forward to having a garden again this summer so we can enjoy lots of fresh veggies (and fruit if Aaron gets his way). At least that way we won't have to buy 45 pounds at a time to be economical about it...

I should expect it, I am married to someone 13 years me senior!!

Sometimes I feel old, but after thinking about it, I'd rather refer to it as sensible.

• Aaron and I own, and use, a pill cutter. In general, I don't think young healthy couples own such a thing. And there's something about it that just makes me feel older. I think it's because I have memories of sittign at the kitchen table on a Saturday night with my grandma while she doled out the pills for the next week. However, we have one because I read that you should take half a vitamin, twice a day, because your body will be able to absorb the vitamins better that way.


• Several nights a week, we're in bed before 9pm. Our "normal" bedtime is 10pm, but lately we've been hitting the sack even earlier. I feel like we have a good reason though. We're in bed because we get up at 4:30am to go to the gym.


• Then there's the obvious "I'm 22 and don't go out and get wasted 4 nights a week." That one I'm pretty okay with.


• We have spent many a night recently vacuuming and steam cleaning our carpets - and were excited about it!! I'm embarrassed to say how disgusting our carpets were before, but the good news is, they're a lot less disgusting now!!

There's yellow corn and green corn and...

I am sort of a picky eater. I used to be a lot worse, but Aaron has encouraged me to try a lot of new things. I never thought I'd say that grilled salmon and asparagus is one of my favorite meals, but it is!!

Yesterday I tried a dried apricot (even dipped it in chocolate) which I wasn't a fan of. The key point is that I tried it though, because a couple years ago I wouldn't have even tried it. Then when I got home Aaron had made a chicken and vegetable soup. He apparently thought that I was only 3 years old and that I could be tricked into not noticing that there were peas in the soup. I don't like peas. I think they're gross and mushy, but I'm not so bad that I would pick them out of the soup, I just don't want a big pile of them with dinner. When I asked what all was in the soup, Aaron mocked my dislike for peas by telling me that there was "carrots, green beans, yellow corn, green corn, chicken..."

Another married first!!

So there are a lot of firsts in a marriage, or any relationship for that matter, and Aaron and I have had another first. For that matter, it wasn't just a first in our relationship, but for each of us individually. Now, it wasn't a major first, but it was a tasty first!! You might be thinking, "What the heck is she talking about?!?" Obviously, we made lasagna!! It was darn good lasagna too, and it's from http://www.eatingwell.com/, so it's not horrible for us. The recipe follows:

• 8 ounces (we used 9 noodles) lasagna noodles, whole wheat if you have them
• 1 pound spicy lean Italian turkey sausage
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (the recipe calls for 4 cups mushrooms, but I don't like them, so we added some onions for flavor and texture instead)
• 1 pound frozen spinach, thawed
• 28 ounces canned, crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (we used 1 1/2 T dried Basil)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound, part-skim ricotta cheese
• 8 ounces part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese (we probably used closer to 16 oz...I love cheese!!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9x13 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray. Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2. Cook noodles in boiling water until not quite al dente, about 2 minutes less than package directions. Drain, and rinse with cold water.
3. Cook sausage in a large, nonstick skillet. Add onions, cook until tender and drain grease. Squeeze spinach (we strained it first, then squeezed - or is it squoze??) to remove excess water, then stir into the pan and remove from heat.
4. Mix tomatoes with basil, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
5. Assemble lasagna: Spread 1/2 cup tomatoes in the prepared baking dish. Arrange a layer of noodles on top. Evenly dollop half the ricotta over the noodles, top with half the sausage and spinach mixture, 1/3 of the remaining tomatoes and one-third of the mozzarella. Continue with another layer of noodles, the remaining ricotta, sausage, half remaining tomatoes and half remaining mozzarella. Finish off with a final layer of noodles and remaining tomatoes.
6. Cover the lasagna with foil and bake bubbling - about 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on top. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted, but not browned. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

It takes a while to prepare, but lasagna always does. And it's totally worth the wait!!

I'm trying to shrink my feet.

I don't mean I'm actually trying to shrink my feet, like this:

I mean it in a more representative sense. I'm trying to shrink my carbon footprint. Unlike Al Gore, I don't have a couple million dollars to make my mansion more green. For that matter, I don't even have a mansion. However, we are trying to make some smaller changes that we hope will have a big impact over time.

• Since this fall, we've been trying to carpool to work as much as possible. It was a little difficult when I was working in Nevada, but we still tried to carpool 3 or 4 days a week, with me dropping Aaron off on my way. Now, carpooling is super easy!! We work the same hours at the same place, so we're able to carpool 99% of the time!!
• We have a programmable thermostat and keep the house fairly chilly in the winter and warm in the summer. (This one has as much to do with us being cheap as it does lowering energy use!!)
• We now have 3 canvas grocery bags, which fit about 3x as much as plastic grocery bags, so we rarely need to use plastic bags. We're still getting funny looks from people at a few stores, but we're used to that :-D
• I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to save paper at work. I've come up with several ways to reduce the amount of paper needed for certain projects by at least half.
• We've switched all of our lightbulbs at home over to compact fluorescent bulbs.

I know there's probably a lot more we could be doing, but this what we've managed to do so far. We're hoping to get a hybrid car someday in the future...a girl can dream at least!!