I spent the last week on the beach with these people.
It was AWESOME!
I had like a million times more fun than I even thought I would. And I thought I would have a lot of fun.
I will write about it soon...
but we took like 500 pictures + a ton of videos, so it might be awhile.
Plus, unfortunately, I have to go back to school tomorrow.....
back.to.reality. yuck.
I absolutely love this type of weather!!!! I'm not sure what the high actually was but it's 6:45 right now and it's still 75 out, so I'm guessing it was higher than that. And sunny. LOVE IT.
Today at school I had two exams - neither of which I could make myself study a lot for because the weather was pretty much like this yesterday as well. I just couldn't sit inside with my windows open, the breeze blowing through, the birds chirping, kids playing outside, and Tobey just wishing he could go outside and run.... and study. Was.not.happening.
So I got up early this morning to study and I think both tests went pretty well. And now I'm done until MARCH 30th!!! WOOHOO!!!!
After class I went to the gym then ran a couple errands and then when I got home I saw these beauties as I was pulling into the driveway:
They are soft leaf magnolias blooming on the tree at the end of our driveway. They just started blooming this week. I love them because I think they are beautiful - they are a beautiful splash of color after a long dreary, cold, & colorless winter. Spring is my favorite time of year. I love the weather because it's finally warm but not too hot, and things start coming back to life. I love the feeling spring gives... like it is a fresh start and just a happy time.
Not only is spring near, but so is SPRING BREAK! Today I started tackling the most dreaded part of any trip - packing! I might possibly be a little bit of an over-packer. Every time I go somewhere I almost feel the need to bring my entire wardrobe, because WHAT IF I NEED THE ONE SHIRT I END UP NOT BRINGING? I'm not necessarily that bad, but almost. I'd rather have more than I need than forget something.
Today I had a little helper:
However, he wasn't so much of a helper as much as he just laid in the middle of my clothes.
Then he came over to where I was sitting, climbed up my shoulders and up onto the window sill. It was the funniest thing!
I couldn't believe he did that! Silly dog! :)
3 days til the beach!!
Happy St.Patrick's Day!!!
I really am Irish. Scot-Irish at least. So that counts for something, right?
And since I belong to a sorority {Kappa Delta} whose colors are green and white, and my KD family is THE LUCKY FAMILY , I am afraid I'd be shot if I wasn't wearing green.
Tobey is wearing green, too! He got a St. Patrick's Day bandana last week when he got groomed, so you can't pinch him either!
Speaking of the turtles {who are getting HUGE!} they cost a lot in water:
My mom found this the other day and I thought it was hilarious! March, April, May, June, and July all reflect the amount of water used when my mom lived here by herself. August is when I moved home, so obviously the water usage went up some. But September.... that is when we finally filled up the turtles' 110 gallon aquarium! October went back to normal, but November was when we cleaned the tank out and therefore, had to fill it back up partially. Same for January and March. Silly turtles!
So... my mom took today and tomorrow off for a "mini-vacation" and by mini-vacation I mean just a few days to herself off work.
To her, this is a vacation.
I ended up getting today off too, so we thought perfect we can have all day to get stuff done!
We had made plans several weeks ago to go to Southeast's Easter Passion. We were going to begin the craft room renovation. Mom also wanted to check out the gym with me, and we were going to run a few more errands. We had all sorts of plans.
Well, we all know what happens when you make plans, right?
Your teeth fall out. At least this is what happened to my mom.
On Tuesday a piece of Mom's tooth fell off. It didn't hurt, but she decided she needed to get it fixed before it got worse/infected. So yesterday she went to the dentist. Last night she started having really bad pain. So bad in fact that even her incredibly high pain tolerance level wasn't a match for this level of pain. {Even though on a scale of 1 to 10 she gave it an 8, which means I probably would have given it a 27.}
She called the dentist on his cell phone to explain that she didn't think this was normal.
He agreed.
So, enter Mom's day off {today}. 7 AM, bright and early, she went to the dentist again, in hopes of "making her tooth happy" {the dentist's words.} According to him she could have a root canal, which he could not do, or have it extracted, which he also, for some reason, could not do... even though I have fond memories of him yanking out a few of my own teeth.
So by 9:00 we were off to doctor #2, an endodontist {not an endocrinologist} who does root canals. When we got there Mom explained that the dentist said she could have a root canal or an extraction, however, the nice little old lady at the front desk said they don't do extractions either... just root canals. She also explained that the root canal was going to cost $873 as opposed to $175 to have it pulled at the oral surgeon's office, further solidifying the fact that mom just wanted that wretched tooth taken out of there!
A few phone calls later we had yet another appointment with yet another doctor at 1:30 who was finally going to pull the tooth! And he did... and it only took 40 minutes!
Also, since when do you have to go to an oral surgeon to have teeth pulled? Last time I checked I went to the regular family dentist to have teeth pulled, and the last time I went to an oral surgeon he cut off part of my jaw. Seems like he'd have better things to do than pull teeth... I'm just saying.
PHEW!
No where in any of our plans did we plan on spending all day with 3 doctors and pulling teeth! I almost wanted to pull my hair out!
We did make it to the Easter pageant though! I was worried for awhile that we wouldn't... I will post a re-cap of that later!
Things I don't like about Monday:
All you need is chocolate graham crackers and fat free cool whip!
Trust me, the fat free cool whip is DELICIOUS! You won't even know it's fat free! I could eat that stuff by itself all day long {and sometimes I do}.
All you do is break the graham crackers in half, put cool whip in the middle, then freeze!
Also, I learned by experience, put a thick layer of cool whip in the middle {thicker than you'd think would be enough because it squishes down} otherwise it will taste mostly like graham crackers and the cool whip is the best part!
And enjoy your low-fat ice cream sandwiches!
*They are also really good with cinnamon graham crackers!!
Mountain Dew Cake
This is super easy! And it does NOT taste like Mt. Dew! You can use any type of diet soda, I've only used Mountain Dew, orange {which is really good - tastes like a dreamsicle!}, and I think maybe something else once? Anyway..I usually use Mt. Dew or Orange, but any type is fine!
All you need is a white cake mix & 12 oz of your favorite diet soda.
Mix the cake mix and 12oz of diet soda in a bowl. The diet soda replaces the eggs, milk, and oil.
Cook it for about 5 minutes less than it says. Let it cool then cover with fat free cool whip for icing {the last one we made, my mom wanted to put strawberry flavored cool whip on it which was good also, but I prefer the regular} and VIOLA!
Enjoy!!
I am pretty excited about it!
I've also decided that I'm not going to buy anymore jeans until I'm at least a size smaller... and if you know me, you know I love to buy jeans! So, we'll see how long this takes! I need to weigh myself now before I really get to working out again so I can track my progress. I'm not trying to get to a certain number on the scale, but last time I started working out a lot and losing weight I had no idea how much I lost because I didn't weigh myself when I started... yeah, I know that's a little dumb, but I wasn't trying to get to a certain number then either, but it would have been nice to know. So I need to do that.
Anyway... if anyone ever wants to visit with me, I can bring you as a guest for free for a week. I already added 3, but I think I can add 1 or 2 more, so just let me know.
Stay tuned... I have a couple of my favorite low-fat "recipes" coming up!
This weekend The Scrapbook Club {that's what we call ourselves because we're cool} was at it again! This time we made none other than St.Patrick's Day cards! I'm not sure when we'll ever actually scrapbook again because once one holiday is over, it seems we start working on cards for the next one!
Apparently at 3:00am Kim and I can't take good pictures. This one is kinda alright of me, and we took another that was good of Kim but I look even worse in it. So this one will have to do..
Our last edition of homemade holiday cards were for Valentine's Day and the total cost of each card came to only 75¢. Let's see how much these were... here's how much I spent:
So the grand total comes to about $6.58 or roughly 55¢ per card!!
Now that we are a little more experienced in the card-making business, we know a few tricks & can use things we already have... which equals cheaper cards! :)
Here's what else we used:
I think that's it! So far I've only made 3 cards... hopefully I can turn out a few more before St. Patrick's Day!!
Have you ever had one of those days where it seems like all the bad stuff in your life is magnified by like 500? And not just the bad stuff in your life currently, but the bad stuff from the past, which in turn makes you think about all the bad stuff that could and might happen in the future?
That's kind of like what today has been like. I'm not sure where it came from. These days are thankfully far less frequent for me than they used to be. A couple years ago I had them nearly every day. Now they only come around once in a blue moon. I know it really does no good to think like this, because worrying and doting on the negatives in life or the things you wish you'd done differently don't get you anywhere, and worrying about the future just paralyzes you from taking steps forward.
"Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34
But sometimes it's good - like today, it led to a wonderful talk with my mom, a few tears, and made me realize how far I've actually come despite all the "bad" stuff that has happened in the last 10 years. {Just to clarify, I'm not saying the last 10 years have been a decade of horrible stuff or anything, there have definitely been awesome things that have happened in that time... more good than bad even.... just that there have been some significant life-changing events that have not all been necessarily happy things.} And remembering what you've been through and seeing that you've made it to the other side is always a good feeling. I'm trying really hard to not just remember the tough times but to also be thankful for them. They're tough, but they've made me who I am, and I usually learn a thing or two from them as well. Only good things can come from here on out, right?
Either way, it's still not my favorite way to spend a day.... however, the cute little dog above helped as did this...
Oh my goodness this stuff is awesome!!! If you haven't had any, you should probably go to the store and get some right now! There are other flavors available but Tagalongs are my favorite Girl Scout cookies... followed closely by Thin Mints. We've already eaten almost half of the container and just got it yesterday... good thing I'm going to the gym tomorrow! :)
P.S. March already? Is it just me or is this year flying by!?
