Ya know what? I do have some fun for today!

I just remembered the Thanksgiving pics I took out at my grandparents house. And since I know for a fact that one of my uncles does read this, (at least he told me he does, maybe he's trying to make me feel better about myself), I guess I'll let you take a little peak. Well first off is from the day after Thanksgiving. (Yeah, I forgot to take my camera out on the actual holiday, go figure.) My parents, brother, and a long time friend of Chad's, Billy, decided to go out to eat on that Friday. We went to this luxurious place (not really) in Warsaw, KY. The food is kinda boring, okay, it's awful for someone like me, but they make good drinks. Hey, it's Warsaw, what do you expect?!?! I just love this picture with little Ronnie and my brother Chad. In fact I love every picture that includes those two together. It's just so great because they don't get to see each other too often.

Then we come to Sunday. My dad side of the family traveled to my grandparents house to have a little get together for Thanksgiving. We all were outside checking out my parents new car, (oh yeah, they got a new car...), and the camera's started flashing. The first of our series includes the 4 generations of my immediate family. This picture is priceless. And I love how it is so candid (spell?). I sometimes hate those pictures that started out with someone saying "cheese!". So you are looking at my grandfather, my dad, my brother, and little Ronnie-Roo. Lastly, I'll include a picture of all of my dad's brothers and his sister, oh wait. Jeffery is missing because he lives in Florida now. Maybe I'll get a new one at Christmas if he comes up. You'll also see my grandparents in this picture. I love how everyone's personality kinda comes out in this picture. MaryJoe just looks like a sweet little angel if I ever saw one. It was chaos when these pictures were being taken. Everyone on my dad's side of the family can be quite loud and their voices just carry. It was a great time getting together with them all. I'm definitely looking forward to Christmas when I get to see them all again. Okay... well, I just tried to add that last picture and blogger is not cooperating. I guess I'll try to add it later.

Long time, no post...

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile, but some crazy stuff has been going on in my life right now. And if I had time to write a novel I might let you in with whats going on, but I don't. So forget about it. I will tell you that I have came across this mega cool website called Spark. Forget about paying anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 a week for a diet webpage. This place is freaking awesome. I was a member of the Biggest Loser Online, but that is now long gone because of Spark. It has everything the BLC or ediets has and more. And like I said before it is all free! Yeah! I'm so excited to start this journey, again (yeah, yeah).

I'd like to tell you that my life has been so exciting and fulfilling right now, but I can't. I have no new pictures, no new fun stories, no new nothing to share on blogger at the moment. Well I did get this awesome vintage coat from my friend Jennifer, (pictures will be comming soon, you gotta see this one). But that's about it.

Are You Like Me? Do You Dig The Vintage Look?

Well, a couple of weeks ago I traveled to Morrow, Ohio. My friend's parents live up there. They just happen to own an outstanding ebay company. Out of the 4450 feedbacks they have received, only 2 were negative! Can't beat that kind of customer service! They specialize in anything from vintage glasses, jewlery, clothing, and records to key blanks and transponder keys to tons of different styles of art. (Hey - it's ebay, what do you expect?) So if your looking for something new or old for a great Christmas gift check out their ebay store, SW Sales.
I helped them go through about 10 bags of vintage clothing straight from the 60's and 70's. It was great fun. My friend Jennifer just had to try on a couple of jewels... I think my favorite had to be the purple body suit with cordinating vest and tie. Priceless!

Thanksgiving's Treats!

So for the actual Thanksgiving dinner we went to my Aunt Cynthia's house. I was asked to bring something that I would eat (since I obviously wouldn't eat the turkey.) I decided on an eggplant casserole. Of course I didn't think of taking a picture at the time, but I wish I did because it turned out beautiful! Everyone that tried it loved it. Well, let me correct myself; my brother didn't like it. But he doesn't care for soy sauce, (that had to be the reason).

I also made a cranberry salsa. Now this is going to have to be a Thanksgiving tradition. This was awesome. I took some whole cranberry sauce, green onions, a regular onion, jalapenos, and chipotle peppers in abobe sauce and mixed it all together. I then poured it over a block of cream cheese. Yumm! The spice and sweetness of it all was to die for. Now I did take a pic of this, but it was from the next days leftovers. (Still just as yummy!)

I'm The Biggest Loser!

So, I've joined the biggest loser online yesterday. I'm pretty excited about it. I just made up a shopping list for Friday and WOW! This is going to be interesting. I'm going to be eating as much food as when I was pregnant. But this time it's going to be quite more health minded. I'm printing out my menus as we speak...

Today I was on the phone with one of my vendors and we were talking about Thanksgiving and I mentioned that I'm a vegetarian. The first think that she said was , "Wow, that's different. What do you eat besides vegetables?" So in honor of her question, (and because I'm really bored right now), Here's my basic shopping list of the week...

Breads / Grains

Kellogg's Ego Lowfat Nutri-Grain Waffles

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Whole Wheat English Muffins

Lowfat Granola

Cheerios

Bulk Brown Rice

Couscous

Quinoa (This one's new to me, I think it's a grain. I'm pretty excited.)

Produce

Baby Carrots

Salad Greens

Celery

2 Green Peppers

2 Red Peppers

2 Cucumbers

Onion

Salsa

Strawberries

3 Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Blueberries

2 Bananas

Apple

2 Grapefruits

Garlic

Cilantro

Lowfat Soy Milk

Firm Tofu

Dry / Canned Goods

Orange Juice

Apple Juice

Tomato Juice

Chickpeas

Black Beans

Red Kidney Beans

White Beans

Pinto Beans

Lentils

Raisins

Dry Roasted Peanuts

Raw Almonds

15 oz Can Tomato Sauce (Low Sodium)

Light Italian Dressing

Dairy

Yoplait Light Yogurt

- 1 Fruit

- 3 Strawberry

- 2 Vanilla

Nonfat Cottage Cheese

Reduced Fat Sour Cream

Lowfat Cream Cheese

Now I can cut and paste my list on an excel or word spreadsheet and have a handy-dandy check list. I'm super stoked. Sorry for putting you all through this boredom today...

Fancy Tia Wrap

For a quick snack or a light meal these fancy Tia Wraps can't be beat. This is a recipe that I got from Veg Web. It's a huge database of recipes from members of the site. You can join for free or you can just browse as a guest. It's great because these are recipes from the vegi's themselves. This site has been a great companion for my new lifestyle.

The wrap contains a whole wheat tortilla, peanut butter, raisins, shredded carrots and sunflower seeds. Yumm!!!

Hearty Black Bean Soup

After a long Halloween night Ronnie and I needed some good comfort food for dinner the next day. I made "Hearty Black Bean Soup". I got this recipe from The Pretty Darn Quick Vegetarian Cookbook by Donna Klien. This book is great when you do need something pretty darn quick. Let's face it, we all can't cook from scratch all the time. This whole cookbook provides vegetarian recipes that need absolutely NO PREP! Yeah, I know it sounds strange and even not possible to cook a vegetarian meal with no prep, but it really is! For instance, she calls for a lot of prewashed, precut fresh vegi's and fruits that most supermarkets carry now. Or you can opt for the frozen or canned variety. I wouldn't suggest eating like this everyday if your looking to live a healthier lifestyle, but it's great for when you are in a pinch! This black bean soup is so simple and quick to make. It calls for two can's of black beans, vegetable broth, a can of sliced, stewed tomatoes, and various herbs and spices. It is delicious for how simple it is. It's great for leftover's also. (As you see in this photo - I thought about taking a picture after we had finished our meal, so I decided to take a pic of the leftover's in the fancy plastic tub. My apologies for not making it pretty.)

Boo!

Yeah! Halloween is here! The night before the trick or treat's I had Ronnie try on his costume. He was in love. He didn't want to take it off! But after I did get it off him he was dripping with sweat! He only had it on for about 20 minutes (I didn't want to ruin it for the next day.) I was hoping for a cool night, otherwise, he was going to be hot! I should have gotten his haircut before the "big night" though... He kinda looked like a little girl with the curls hanging out of the hat.

The actually trick or treating was a blast. We traveled to the big city of Walton, Ky where my Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Ron live. They live in a nice suburb where there are plenty of houses giving out candy. My mom and dad met us there. (They never got to take us trick or treating; oh well; that's a long story, and maybe one day I'll go into it. ) My mom actually went out with us while my dad stayed behind with my aunt. We forgot to get him something to collect candy in, so he had to use a plastic shopping bag my aunt had. Oh well. He was still the cutest Halloweenie of them all! The night ended up being perfect. It rained all day and I was afraid that Halloween might be cancelled for my little one. The temperature was great for that big ole' thick costume he had on. I was a good mother too! I only let him have 4 pieces of candy that night, and I think he had maybe two the next day. I then brought the rest to work for everyone else to enjoy. Neither Ronnie or I need that kind of crap in the house!

Money makes the world go round...

Why are my tastes so darn expensive? I want a certain look for my home, and I've found some great ideas, but they are all way out of my budget. Being bored at work today I started to surf the web and came across a few interesting sites. First I found Velocity. A store with ultra-modern decor for your home in and out. Now I'm not too modern, I like the earthy side of things, but some of this stuff I can't resist. My first pick are these "plastic elements" that you connect together to make a type of screen. Love them! The red was definately my favorite. They also come in white, green, or black. One piece is 12.25" x 10" roughly. They can be purchased in packs of 6 for $30.00 or you can get a 50 pack for $200.00.

Next I came upon the Anthropologie web site. This site offers a wide variety of goods from clothing to furniture. I found quite a few of goodies on this site that I could easily blow my paycheck on. First are the hidden mushroom pillow and hidden owl pillow. They'll run you about $128.00 EACH. Yeah, that's right, each... But at the moment, funds are tight and maybe when I can spend some money on things like these, they'll be in the sale section. Anthropologie has a great sale all the time. Most of the stuff I clicked on was cut by an average of 60% or more.

Okay. I'm going back to making myself look busy. Till next time...

Broccoli, Carrot, & Tofu Stir Fry

Last night was nice and relaxing. Ronnie was staying with his dad. I got home and went through the mail in peace. Yay, the new Design Within Reach catalog came in. I can't afford a darn thing in there, but it's fun to browse. (So I guess it's not really "within reach", at least not for myself.) I then proceeded to make dinner. But what to do when you're cooking for one? STIR FRY! I found a recipe in my favorite vegetarian cookbook, "Student's Vegetarian Cookbook" by Carole Raymond. I cook out of this book more than any others. It's not at all just for students, it's great for any beginner vegetarian on a budget. I stir fried some broccoli, carrots, and tofu and at the end dumped (by mistake) some soy sauce on. I also cooked up some Uncle Ben's Instant Brown Rice. I then toped it all off with some slices of green onions. The recipe calls for cashews for a garnish also, but I didn't want the added fat. I was just about to dig in and I thought, 'Why not do what all the other food-bloggers do?'. So I took out my camera and snapped a picture of my dinner. (You like my Martha placemats? I do.) I then proceeded to eat. Mmmmmm... It was yummy. After the dishes were done I sat on the couch for a minute. What to do, what to do. I went for a walk. It was close to dark already, and getting cool outside, but it was a perfect evening. I'm glad I got up and moving. The TV was still there when I got home...

Just give him 30 seconds...

Good afternoon. How we all doin'? I'm pretty good. It's Friday again. It's also my grandparents 50th anniversary today. Congrats to them. Wow! 50 years, 7 kids, 11 grandkids and 1 great-grandkid later, here we are. (Geez, I hope I didn't forget anybody, then I'd be the bad guy.) Well, tomorrow we're having an "Open House" for them. I know what a open-house is, I just thought it usually had to do with the actually house. Not in this case though. It will be fun and I'm looking forward to it. I'm making my much loved spinach-artichoke dip for the occasion. I had a bit of a problem at the grocery store though. I guess everyone's still afraid of spinach. They had no fresh spinach, bagged or not... I had to opt for the frozen. We'll see how it goes.

Oh yeah, about my title. Well the pictures I plan on posting in this blog, (if everything goes okay, I seem to have trouble with that sometimes), are shots of my son sitting on my lap the other day. All 4 pictures were taken in about 30 seconds, probably less. I've posted them in the order they were taken. You'll see my point when you check out the pictures...

A Day Out with Thomas

So.... Two weeks ago my parents, Connie , Dave, Noah, and my son, Ronnie, made a trip to Lebanon for "A Day out with Thomas". It was actually great for the kids. I can't believe the number of people that were there. The first thing we did was ride the train. This is my son and I waiting in line showing our tickets off. The ride was great, (could have been longer then 20 minutes for $19.00 a ticket), but I'm not complaining too loud because Grammy and Grampy bought our tickets. Ronnie just sat on my dad's lap most off the ride with his head sticking out like a dog in a car. After the train ride we went to go see Thomas himself. It was pretty cool, they had a big "engine" that looked like the real thing. My parents made their way over to the refreshments while Ronnie and I waited in line for those big blow-up bouncy things. I don't know what they're called. After waiting about 15 minutes in line, my son decided it wasn't such a great idea after all. I was surprised that he allowed a stranger to put one of those temporary tattoos on him. Ahhh... like mother like son. I guess we'll be the two going to the parlor together to get inked. All in all a fun day was had. Something to do every year maybe. "Thomas is comming to town! We gotta go visit!" Yeah, until he's 8 or 9 or maybe even 5 and Thomas is soooo yesterday.

I am so smart. Not.

Woo-hoo! I can't believe I finally got it to work! Like I was trying to say before... Here's a picture of my adorable 2 year old son. This picture is actually from Saturday, we went to Chipotle for take-out. I started the veg life about a month ago. I guess I would be a lacto-ovo vegetarian. I have cut way down on my dairy consumption though. Cutting the meat out hasn't been a problem, the dairy is another issue. I've been a long time cheese lover. Maybe one day I'll cut it all out, we'll see where my life path takes me.
My son hasn't had a problem with it so far, though I'm not delegating what he eats when he's away from me. He always would pick out the meat most of the time anyway, (maybe a texture thing, I don't know). So I just loaded him up on the black beans instead of the chicken at Chipotle.
I made the transition mostly because of the health issues. I've been contemplating the change for awhile now and one day I just thought, I should just do it! I want to gain a better life style for myself. I want to lose weight and become more active.
Till next time...

Maybe it will work this time?

Okay, I have a minute... lets see if I figured this out...

Darn it. Is it me or is blogger "experiencing technical difficulties"? Why can't I get a picture to upload?

Oh well. Back to square one.

Welcome

Yes, this is my first post. woo-hoo. Where to start. Well about a month ago I started the vegetarian lifestyle. I was surfing the net for ideas, comments, help, on the whole new lifestyle and I came across some vegi blogs. I thought, what a great idea to archive my new lifestyle. So, here I am blogging. Not sure what to write my first time around. I'll figure it out. Don't worry kiddies...

Anyway, here is a picture of my son eating a vegi burrito I made the other day, (I promise these will get better).

Shoot. Nevermind. I'll figure that out too. Promise...