Where's Malcom Wednesday

Well the pic I wanted to use is taking too long to go from my phone to my email, so we'll have to go with option 2....

Needless to say I this wasn't my FAVORITE place ever to find him.

Oh look, he thinks he's shredder!

Get it?

Shredder.

TMNT?

Nevermind.

Totally Random

So, I ran across this link...I apologize in advance.  It's a movie my little brother made last year for a school project.  You know the kind.  I don't know why I find it so funny.  But there are some parts that make me giggle.  Maybe it's because it's my own brother...

in a wig

...or maybe because they didn't bother moving any of the clutter that was in the background...or maybe because we had a group of boys who made the same kinds of videos when I was in school and it reminds me of that...I don't know.

It's a major award! I won it!

Today is a day of winnings!  And it wasn't even a leg lamp!

Today we had a Student Affairs Professionals "Retreat" and I won a $50 gift card to La Caille.  Which I understand will barely pay for a slice of bread, but hey.  And THEN....I'm just so excited... I found a blog -Allora Handmade.  Jessica makes the most adorable rosette accessories.  Well she was doing a giveaway and I entered and I totally won!  You HAVE to check out her site!  Here is a pick from her site of my winnings!  I'm seriously stoked!  I'm going to put her button on my blog and you have to go check her out.  Okay, I'm going to say it one more time.

Check out her site.  and no she ask me to try to persuade you all over there.  I did it on my own free will.

Have you checked it out yet? 

NO?

GO!

Bedroom Makeover Wish List

So I want to redo the bedroom.  Remy got his 2 years of gray paint.  -Now it's time to give it a fresh look I think.  (and I have nothing against gray, it's so hot right now and there are some shades I really LOVE, but for me, right now in this room, I'm over it.)  I'm mainly over the gray in our room because 3 of the 4 walls actually are purple-ish tinted and it's driving me crazy.  I try to forget about it, but some days I'm more successful at that than others.

This will be the color on the walls:

Pale Smoke by Benjamin Moore

This is the crown molding that will be installed as well:

 Nice huh?

I'm THINKING a white duvet so it will go with anything, but something with a little texture like this one:

Now I'm still not sure what color to use for the accent.  I have black furniture and I'm not going to be getting anything new or refinishing what I have....perhaps some inspiration:

Source

Source

Source

Source

Whatddya think?

Where's Malcom Wednesday -The Cat in a Hat

So today's post isn't really about where he is physically, although trust me, he's been in some funny places.  The other day I was at Target and I saw this little cat hat.  I normally wouldn't care, but I could just imagine how funny the cats would look wearing this.  So I bought one -knowing full well it would be a complete waste of my $5, but I couldn't resist for some strange reason.  So here you go.

We got Malcom to keep it on the other morning as he was lounging so he didn't really mind all that much.  Although you can see that Remy had to hold him down so he wouldn't run off.

This post will also feature Little Grey who I thought actually wouldn't mind wearing the hat because she didn't mind the collars we would put on her.  I was wrong.  She was pissed.  And it was hilarious.  At least to me.  She flattened her ears and just glared at me until I clicked the picture and then ran off.  It took a few times of me chasing her around trying to make her keep it on long enough so take a picture.  I think she finally figured out what I was trying to do and just humored me, which made it even funnier.  Again, at least to me.

Merry Christmas!

Mmmmm....Pie....

So I don't think I've mentioned this here, but in August I got a new job. I had been working at the University of Utah Human Resources as an HR Rep.  And I really did like my job, but the time had come to move up and out.  So right before I left for China this summer (which I also don't think I've mentioned here) I sort of applied for a job on a whim.  Long story short I ended up getting it.  YAY!  Which I feel like I owe to all the people in HR who gave their recommendation of me to the hiring department.  So as of August 2nd I'm the new Staffing Coordinator at the Housing & Residential Education department at the U.  For those of you who may not know, they run the student dorms. 

Right before I started the department had put together brand new committees which would be headed by members of the Leadership Team (which I'm part of).  So I'm the chair of the Training & Morale committee (which I'm SOOO glad that's the one I got!).  Anyhow, for November we had a Tastiest Pie contest the week of Thanksgiving.  It was DELICIOUS!  And I got lots of great feedback, which made me feel good.  We had really good entries too...some were so fancy like the raspberry ribbon with homemade crust and someone who made a s'mores type pie with homemade marshmellow on top....HELLO!  We had a panel of judges with score cards and they tasted and rated each pie on things like presentation, crust, taste, level of difficulty, etc.  It was actually hilarious to watch them because they had their little plates and glasses of water and it was dead silent in the room they were sitting.  They took their jobs very seriously.  :)   Then we let people vote on their favorites and awarded a crowd favorite.

You want to know the hardest part of the whole thing was picking the prizes.  Seriously, I have a love/hate relationship with that.  All I wanted was a sliver pie scoop.  Is that so hard?  Apparently yes is the answer to that question.  I'll spare you the details on how many freaking stores Remy and I went to looking for one.  In the end I had to concede to a black handled one which I blinged out with some awesome stick on rhinestones.

Here's the pics...you KNOW you wish you could have been there!

P.S.  My pie is the ugly one right on the end here, with the whip cream swirl thingy.  Yeah, it got the least amount of points on appearance.  :)  But was a crowd favorite!

Do you have any other great office party/morale/fun/cheap things to do?  I'd love to hear some ideas!  We did a coloring contest for Halloween which was a huge hit thanks to my SIL Kim for the idea!  Then we had a potluck in December and we want to do a chilli cook off around the Super Bowl.

Where's Malcom Wednesday

This is a new feature to the blog (I say that as though I even have old features, HA!), it's called "Where's Malcom Wednesday." So we have this cat, Malcom, and he's crazy. He loves to be in things or on things or under things. Trust me, he's just weird. Bring a box home, he jumps right in. Plastic bag fall to the floor while your unloading groceries? He's in it. Which is where he is today....

Strangers Aren't ALWAYS Scary

BEFORE:

So this story is a little old, but a good one.

We have this GIANT mirror in our bathroom. You know the kind, the big huge unframed ones. The kind that had those hollywood lights above them. Yeah, THAT kind. Yuck. I decided it need to be framed so I headed on down to my local Home Depot. As I was mulling over the moulding (that's kinda fun to say), debating on which one to get, this nice little old lady says "If you need any help, my husband is really good at this sort of thing." I explain what my project is and at this point I'm just deciding what size of moulding to get, but thanks! Well her husband comes over and offers his advice. I explain my project and say, I'm good, but thanks for the help.

Well I pick what I wanted and then he asks me what type of saw I was going to use to make the cuts. Rather emberassed I show him the box I had been carrying around with one of those cheap hack saws with a guid to cut angles, because we have no tools at my house.

He starts telling me that my little saw will work, but it might not make a nice smooth edge, etc., etc. And that "I have a really nice power saw all set up in my garage and it would go so fast and make a really nice smooth cut." I didn't know where he was going with this, so I just said "Oh yeah? That would be nice." Then he asks me if I want to come over to his house so he can cut it for me!


"Uh," I hesitated...(I mean wouldn't you? Some random old man at the HD offering to cut your frame for you?) "Oh thanks, but I think this will work okay."

"You sure? It will really be so fast, and I already have everything set up because we're putting up crown moulding in our house."


Well, the point of the story is that I finally gave in! I did. He said the lived nearby so I could just follow them to their house. So this sweet little old lady helped me carry my boards to the front and load them in my car. As we were walking to the register she said, "well why don't I just ride with you?" The response in my head...."Uh sure little old lady, like THAT won't be awkward!" The response that came out of my mouth..."That works, if that will be easier." !!!!


Well, we got to their house and the guy cut my boards and I went on my way. They were so sweet and in the end I was grateful I went with them! I would probably have ruined it and it would have taken me all day just to make 4 cuts. Thanks to them I was able to paint and put it up the next day. Here are the before and after pics. Sorry they aren't good, I took them from my phone.

AFTER:

The bathroom looks even better now because it's all decorated and whatnot. This is the pic I took before I actually glued the boards on. Remy was out all day and I didn't want him to freak out if he didn't like it. But he LOVED it! YAY! :)

Subway Art

So I've decided to start creating digital subway art for download on my etsy shop. The images are created by me for your enjoyment! After you purchase and download the images you can print them off and frame them (try checking out your local thrift store for some frames for an easy and inexpensive gift!) or even have them printed on a canvas for a unique decor item in your home. Maybe modge podge it onto a a piece of wood to create a plaque.

I am happy to create custom orders if you would like to personalize your art for your home, a shower gift, Christmas presents, etc. Just let me know and I'll put something together for you to review.

The options I have available will be growing, so check back often!

Okay, see ya!

So I just have to tell you this funny story real quick. Tonight Remy and I went on a date to the place we first had dinner together. It's this little Chinese restaurant called the Dragon Diner on the corner of the 13th e. and 3900 s. if you're ever interested...

So we pull in to the parking lot and go to get out of the car. Well sometimes I forget to let him open my door for me so I'll open the door and then close it and make him come open it anyway. :) So that's what happened tonight....only he didn't realize I wasn't following him. I sat there, he walked toward the restaurant, even locked the car doors. I just kept sitting there. It felt like it took him forever to figure out I was missing! But it was pretty funny. And in his defense, he did hear me open and close the door so he thought I got out. He finally noticed because he was holding his hand out for me to hold and I never grabbed it. Anyhow, it was funny. Thank you, goodnight!

Drama at the Front Door!

I hate bugs. No, I mean I HATE them. As in despise. Or even better, loathe. They are just nasty. I might even say useless, but I'm trying to give the benefit of the doubt to the food chain. Don't worry, there's a point to this.

Backstory: We have had this disgusting praying mantis living on this star I have on our front door for the last I-don't-even-know-how-long. Remy will move it and it just comes back. Gross. So last night I get home from watching Jersey Shore with my homies I've actually only seen 3 episodes all the way through so all the over-tanned nasty looking girls still all look the same to me and I have no idea what's really going on, but I like my friends, and it really is pretty entertaining... and Remy was out with his peeps. So I walk up to to the front door and there is one of those giant mosquito eating things I don't even know if they really do eat mosquitos or not, but you know what I'm talking about, you know, the ones that look like GIANT mosquitos that have HUMONGUS legs? Yeah, well that was flying all around the door. Great. I'm trapped. If I open the door then it will fly in, but I can't just stand out here all night willing it to go away. Oh GREAT, there's the nasty mantis too! YIKES. I can't handle TWO bugs!

So I do what any grossed out woman would do in my situation...call the husband. But he hadn't even left his friends' yet. Great. Now what? Well the giant bug had stopped moving near the bottom of the door so I figured I could pick up the door mat and throw it at him. Well, he moved to the top of the door once I took a step towards him. So I thought I'd at least put the key in the door and have it ready so if he moved I could make a quick getaway. So that's what I do. And guess what, the nasty bug flew away! Quick! I said to myself, now's my only chance!

So I hurry and open the door and go to slam it to of course prevent the giant bug from flying in -when my freaking cat who had heard me gingling the keys at the front door and was waiting for me to open the door so he could bolt out decides to make a run for it. So the door squooshes him right in his middle which knocks the metal star off the door which knocks the praying mantis into my house!! AAAHH! So now I have an even bigger dilema. The mantis is right by the door and I could easily use the mat to flick him outside, except for that I can't open the door because what if the big scary bug is out there and flies right in? I have no way of knowing! Oh the humanity! So I turn off the porch light hoping he'll go away. But then gross myself out of thinking of flicking the mantis and then I still don't want to take the chance of the giant bug being out there. So I do the next best thing...I thought. I introduced him to the cats.

Don't judge me.

It wouldn't have been bad, but I forgot they like to play with moving things. So I'm hiding in my room and go out to check on what's going on and there they are, batting around this mantis in the middle of my livingroom. Nice. So I barricade myself in the bedroom and warn Remy what events have transpired and wait for him to save me from the evil mantis and crossing my fingers it wouldn't get away and hide somewhere in the house and blend in with the carpet. Lucky for me I was saved! (can't say the same for the mantis though...sorry ol' boy. I once thought your kind was cool, but that's before I new better.

On another note:

Here are a few pics of our trip to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend....and yes, the picture of the blizzard...that really happened.

The Fab 4

We've nicknamed ourselves the Fab 4, because that's what we are. And we just thought you should know.

ROAD TRIP!

So last Labor Day we went here:





This Labor Day we are going here:
Confused? Well don't be, it's the same place! (oh man I think I'm funny). Yep, we planned yet another spur of the moment weekend trip to Yellowstone! I'm pretty excited. Remy had the itch to go somehwere and when he gets the itch we're likely to go. Oh yeah and did I mention we're staying in the park? How could we find rooms IN Yellowstone National Park on a super busy holiday weekend you ask? Our mad skills. Oh, and I forgot to mention we are staying IN the coveted Lake Hotel with a lake view! It's our mad skills, that's all there is to it. We're way excited. However we're attempting to save up for a bigger trip next summer and need all the funds we can get, but we couldn't wait that long to get out of town. Now a lake view hotel room at the Lake Hotel isn't really the best way to keep your costs down, but hey.
Tonight we're going to meet up with friends to roast our bag of GIANT marshmellows that I've been saving ALL SUMMER! We figure this is our last chance so we better do it! It's going to be so much fun. I really like doing that kind of stuff.
Then next weekend I have every intention of going to Peach Days and then to the State Fair like we always do with Remy's fam.
Then the weekend after THAT we're going to St. George! Sheesh! Hey, we're going suck as much out of this summer as possible! What are your Labor Day plans?

Fun, Fun, Fun

Hi, I'm not sure if you'll remember me. I'm Meggan and I am the one who fails at blogging. Ring a bell?

Well I just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here! I got back from China last Friday (holy cow it's already been a week?!) My jet lag just barely went away! I was there for 12 days at it was awesome. I'll have to post some pics, but not now. I'm at work where I have no pictures. It was really cool though. My little bro Erik goes to this charter high school and one of the teachers set up this trip through an educational tour company. So there were 11 people in our little group and then we combined with groups from other states and we had 42 people total. As much as I love teenagers...which I don't, I'd much rather talk to a 2 year old...12 days got a little long. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if Remy could have been there too. But seriously, the trip was awesome. We climbed the great wall, saw the terra cotta soliders (which I accidentally keep referring to as the terra cotta pots), went to the Forbidden City, Ti'annemen Square (which I'm pretty sure I spelled wrong), went to Hong Kong, took a cable car ride up the side of a mountain to see a giant bronze Buddah, and the grand finale was going to Disneyland Hong Kong!

Well, Remy and I are on the phone planning and insane weekend road trip so I gotta go!

Day 16ish & My New Love

So today is weigh in day. Meh. Last week was really bad for me. I was sick, yadda, yadda and basically I gained back a pound or two, but then lost those. So the point is today I'm at the same weight I was at last week's weigh in. Which I guess is the second best scenario.

But, what I really wanted to tell you was about my new love. Greek yogurt. With honey and fruit. OMG it's so good! I was really apprehensive about trying it. I didn't know a thing about it and I just figured it would taste weird. Well my friends, it doesn't taste weird and I think you should all do yourself a favor and go out and try some. And don't be afraid of the honey. I read that in Greece they actually eat yogurt, honey and nuts as dessert. THAT'S how good it is!

So what is the difference you ask? Well, it's thicker. I was reading online and I guess the milk goes through an extra straining process to take out water and whey which makes it thicker. It doesn't have that yogurt-y bite to it either. So far I've tried 3 brands. I'll get you the names, but the only one I can remember off the top of my head is Brown Cow. Delish. I've had strawberry, blueberry, vanilla and honey. Honey and strawberry are my favorite. Vanilla wasn't all that good, just tasted a little plain. But the honey, oh the honey. It just added that little bit of sweetness that was perfect. And because it's thicker I think that's what makes it okay. You know how regular yogurt is a bit runny? Yeah, not this.

Be careful because it does have a lot more calories. You can get the 0% fat which is what I have and the honey flavor had about 120 calories I think. The other flavors had more. But I feel so good eating it. The ingredients were milk, honey and a few live cultures. That's it. No artificial sweeteners, stuff I can't pronounce. Just that good natural goodness. :) Oh and did I mention it has about 15 grams of protien? No joke. So with this Game On diet regular yogurt counts as a carb. But this Greek stuff, it counts as a protein!

Another thing I wanted to say is to make friends with your local health foods store. Don't be afraid of it. Don't assume it's over priced. And don't think you have to be a hippy or go backpacking and/or live in a tent to fit in there. Trust me. I thought all of those things. I have this store by my house called Sunflower Market and it is awesome! They have some really great deals on produce and stuff. You don't have to buy everything there, I mean yeah, a lot of it is really expensive. But they have tons of bulk stuff and again, good deals on produce. While you're at your local health food place, make friends with the agave nectar (I mentioned it in a previous post). It's like honey, but not quite as sweet. That's the best way I can describe it. And it's all natural so it's good for you as far as sugar goes :) They have big tubs of it that you can dispense out into little containers. Really, you should go try it. Put it on your oatmeal, or bread, or your Greek yogurt. :) Remy even likes it. So if he likes it then you'll like it.

So here's our mornig snack for this week:

Greek yogurt (I think the cups are about 4 oz) -protien

Strawberries -carb

Blackberries -carb

Carrots (I bought little individually packaged bags. Hey, for us it's worth the convenience) -serving of veggies

Celery sticks with peanut butter -serving of veggies & healthy fat

Try the Greek yogurt and tell me what you think!

Still Plugging Along

So last week was a bust. I was way sick (still) with a sinus infection that my husband so lovingly passed on to me. So I had multiple days where I could have used a day off...oh well this is a start of a new week! And yesterday I rocked it (minus the water drinking).

I found this function on my Wii Fit Plus last night where you can run, but switch the TV off the game so you can actually watch a TV show, but the game keeps going. It's pretty cool, although running in place can be kinda awkward. Last night it was getting late and I NEEDED to get in my 20 mins so I found this running game, it let me choose 20 mins (perfect!) and then I watched the end of the Jazz game as I jogged in place in my living room! It was awesome! I think I might do this more often. The game said I went almost 2.5 miles in 20 mins....yeah right. I think 1 mile is a little more realistic, but whatever.

In other news...my last China payment is going through today and that means it's all paid for! YAY! Well, except for my Visa ($200) and the knock off purse I promised Tara I'd get her :) So we leave in less than 50 days and I cannot wait! It'll be weird being away from Remy that long, but I'm sure the Great Wall of China will keep me company. :)

Day 10 I Believe

Sorry I'm a bit behind, I've been sick and busy at work so I haven't had the time. Holy cow I just can't stop talking about this Game On business. I will say that my weekend sucked as far as eating goes. My sister Amy had a dance competition on Saturday so I spent the day there and didn't plan ahead enough to bring all the food I would need for the day so I only got points for 2 meals. But this taught me that I really need to plan ahead for weekends or else I'll just lose it. Plus it's harder to drink my water because I sleep in and that's the time where during the week I'm at work and have already guzzled down a liter of water. So it's hard to make up that time....at least for me.

So far so good, I beat Amanda this week (which I still don't see how that's possible). She actually beat me with a perfect score all week -which I didn't get, but the difference was I met my weight goal this week and she didn't. She was close, but you get 20% of your total points added to your score if you meet your goal. I'm down about 4 pounds from last Monday!

I've had a few Facebook friends post about wanting to lose weight on their status. And I'm telling them about Game On! So if you are one of those people, please read my blog! And read my friend Courtney's blog too! I promise, it only feels like a diet to people who don't eat healthy. Because really, it's not a diet in the way that we may think of diets. You aren't cutting out carbs, or eating only lettuce and water, or whatever. You eat everything you need, protien, carbs, veggies, healthy fats...but you eat them in good portions. You can even have milk and cheese for crying out loud. A lot of diets I've seen make you cut that out. The trick is to plan it out. I really think if you have a friend at work that you should join forces and do it together. Because if you work a 9-5 type job, you'll be eating 4 times at work! My friend and I split the meals. One week I'll bring the breakfast and morning snack and she'll bring the lunch and afternoon snack. Then the next week we switch. It works out so well and it's not so overwhelming.

A big suggestion too is keep the following in your house at all times, this way if you need a meal quick, you have it and it takes no prep time:

-Apples (or some other fruit of your choice, these don't take any peeling, etc.)
-String cheese
-Can of nuts
-Carrot sticks
-Celery sticks
-Cucumbers
-Peanut butter
-Those whole wheat Oroweat buns
-Eggs
-Turkey bacon

Okay so some of those take prep time. But peanut butter counts as a healthy fat, and you can have as much celery as you want so scoop out about a thumb size of PB and like 50 celery sticks and munch away. I've learned it doesn't take that much PB per celery stick to keep me happy. But these are things you can mix and match to create the perfect meal that follows all the rules and you don't even have to think about it.

Here's what we're having for our breakfast this week (I swear it sounds scarier than it is):

-1/2 cup oats
-egg whites (just buy the big bottle of them)
-sliced almonds
-agave nectar
-1/2 banana

Just prepare the oats the way you normally would in the microwave with water, but add probably about a 1/4 cup egg whites before you nuke it. I know, I know, it sounds nasty, but I'm telling you, you can't even taste it and can barely even see it. Add a few almonds, slice up the banana and drizzle a spoonful or so of the nectar. It really is good. The eggs make it thicken a little more so you may want to add a little extra water. Or use a little less oats and have a little milk since they both count as carbs.

Yum!

Days 3, 4 & 5

IT'S WORKING! Amanda and I have been following the rules and getting our points and eating like healthy eating machnies and as of this morning I've already lost 3 pounds! Every single day my weight has dropped which I did not expect. Literally the first 3 days I was so full of water and food I figured there was no way I could lose anything. My prediction was that cutting out the sugar alone would make me drop the first few pounds pretty easily. You know how some people say they quit drinking soda and they lose like 90 pounds? Yeah, I'm hopin that's me with sugar. But the beautiful thing is, is that I can still have it! I always save my 100 calories per day of something sweet for after dinner. And I really don't crave it during the day which surprised me.

Another thing that is strange to me...I thought for the first few days or so I would be hungry all the time and then as my body adjusted I would be fine. Well it turns out I was so full the first few days I didn't think I could get myself to eat dinner! But now, and Amanda is having the same experience, I'm actually getting hungry between meals and snacks. Which is also weird because I've been drinking my water faster.

The bottom line is...so far so good! And it really isn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. It can be a little difficult to get creative with meals, but Amanda is already a pro and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Here's what we've been eating for our morning snack:

1 apple
1 piece of those individually wrapped tilamook cheeses (yum!)
About 10 almonds

Let's hope I can keep this up!

Day 2

Well, I know right NOW it's technically day 3, but I didn't get a chance to post yesterday.

Day 2 went pretty well. At work on Tuesdays and Thursdays they have someone come and we do Yogilates (a combo of yoga and pilates) for just under an hour. Meals went great...well, except for dinner. I ended up with all my points, but it was a struggle. Just believe me when I tell you that straight up olive oil with salt and pepper does not make a good salad dressing. I saved my 100 calories for our niece Alissa's first birthday party. And Remy just shared a few bites of his pie and ice cream with me.

The water...the water yesterday was also torture for some reason. So this is how I have my 3 liters divided: I figure if I can get at least 1 liter down before lunch and 1 before I leave work, that leaves one to be had at home. Day 1 I barely finished my first liter as I walked into the break room for lunch. Liter 2 I think I finished on my way home from work, and liter 3 I managed okay only because I was exercising.
Day 2 I had my first liter down an hour before lunch, my second liter I think I finished right before I left work, maybe on my my way home. But the last liter, oh that last liter...water torture. I forgot to bring it with me to Alissa's party and it took me until right before I went to bed at 10:30 to finally suck down the rest of it. I told Remy I think I'm going to develop an aversion to water.

BUT...

Today is day 3 and I would like to declare to you all that I finished my first liter of water at 10:33 this morning! That's 2 1/2 hours before I go to lunch! Whoop!

I think I'll start sharing a few of the things we eat for our meals, in case any of you out there are interested in Game On and can't figure out what to eat. Today, I shall share our yummy breakfast. It's super quick, easy and YUMMY!

It shall be called The Breakfast Sandwich. (clever I know)

Here's what you need:
Oroweat Whole Wheat Sandwhich Thins (100 calories)
1 Large Egg (~72 calories)
1 Piece Turkey Bacon (~35 calories)
Alfalfa Sprouts (you can have as much as you want!)

That's it! Just toast the bread (they're thin so it's important to not over toast or you'll be eating crackers), put the egg on a small round saucer or in a round container of some sort, sprinkle with pepper and cook for about a minute or so. Heat up the bacon for about 30 seconds then put it all together and add as many sprouts as you want!

Here's how it breaks down. The bread of course is your serving of carbs, the egg and bacon are sharing the portion of protein, the egg yolk is the healthy fat and the sprouts are a bonus (you can have as many green veggies with each meal as you want, but you must eat at least 2 portions of veggies with at least 2 meals per day).

Now, this game isn't necessarily about counting calories. I'm learning that if you follow the portion size of each item then you should be getting , but if you aren't losing then they recommend you should start. Amanda and are counting just so we know what we're eating. So I included the calorie count as well.


And I would like to say that I'm already down one pound from Monday! Here's to a great day 3!

Game On!

So, last week I stumbled upon one of my old roommate's blogs called Follow My Fad Diet (you can read it here). It's actually pretty entertaining. I'm not sure if she's keeping it up because she just had busy life stuff come up...but anyhow...the point was that she was going to try a fad "diet" once a month for the whole year. She came across this one called the Game on Diet (check out the website here). Basically it turns being healthy into a game. You get on teams and earn points every day by eating healthy meals, drinking water, getting enough sleep, stuff like that. The best part is that you get to eat 100 calories a day of whatever you want (minus soda) and once a week you can have one meal where you eat whatever you want and one full day off where you don't have to follow any of the rules!

So today is Day 1. My friend and co-worker Amanda and are playing against each other, but sort of together too. We've been sharing meals at work so we're going to keep that up, but then at home after work and on weekends, it's up to ourselves to do everything we need!

The hardest thing for me is that you have to drink 3 liters of water per day! Holy crap I feel like I'm drowning and I've already been to the bathroom 9 times today I'm not even kidding. This is probably one of the most beneficial habits for me because I barely drink one glass a day. I know, I know WAY bad! Remy is always kindly getting on me about that. But I did it! It wasn't easy and I just guzzled the rest down a little while ago so I'm sure I'll have to get up in the night!

I'm also going to be playing on a team with Remy against my family. They haven't started yet because they just ordered the book.

I did awesome today! We had our 5 healthy meals, I drank my water, did my minimum of 20 mins exercise (I did an hour on the Wii Fit!), and now I have to work on my 2 good habits which is also part of the game. Amanda also had a perfect day so we got our full 100 points for the day! Yay! I think we're going to do really well, the tricky thing for me seriously is going to be the water. It's only day 1 and I feel like I'm drowining!

Wish me luck!

Nothin' Much

First of all I would just like to say that I'm SOOO happy that today is the last day Remy and I have to work opposite schedules. He's switched to the night shift just for a few weeks and it's been TORTURE! Basically he starts work one hour before I get off so I literally do not see him from Monday - Friday night.

This crappy schedule is magnified by the fact that my car is STILL out of commission. I will say that the guy who is working on my car is SO nice. He's been really good about keeping me up to date on what's going on (which is literally nothing). The warranty company wanted to come inspect it, blah, blah, blah so basically it's taken a full week for the warranty people to decide whether or not they wanted to come inspect the car, finally come inspect it, and now we're still waiting for them to give the dealership the green light to even start working on the car. A week! And the dealership can't even work on the car yet. Whatever.

P.S. Supernanny is on right now and I just think she is the coolest person ever.

And if you're wondering what that picture of Remy is...well when we got home from the honeymoon the tray under the washing machine was filled with water. So he put on my cute flower rubber gloves to sop it all up. He wouldn't put on an apron though. Huh. :)

Little Zoe

So Remy has a cousin Jamie and her husband who have two adorable little boys and they decided to adopt a little girl from Rwanda. Check out her blog here. They left about a week ago to pick her up and they are still there getting all the travel documents together. I'm telling you, I'm convinced I need a little child from Rwanda! But really their story is inspiring and little Zoe has no idea what a better life she will have in America. I can't wait to meet her!

Yummy Yum Yum

So one of my new favorite websites is The Pioneer Woman. If you've never been there, go. Now. Trust me, you'll be so much happier with yourself if you do. Read her confessions, they're hilarious. Look through her recipes, they'll make your mouth water. Consider the fact she lives on a ranch, writes cookbooks, keeps up on her blog, does photography, and home schools her children, and you'll be disgusted. In a jealous green monster, thou shalt not covet, but you can't help yourself sort of way.

Well I ran across this recipe on Saturday night and really wanted to make it. There is a secret ingredient you'll never believe! They're called Apple Dumplings and they are so simple you'll be thankful I gave you the recipe. Click here to get the recipe. While you're there, check out the rest of the site and get hooked. And yes I took those (un)amazing photos myself with my little digital camera.

Seriously though, try the recipe. I made them while Remy's friends were over playing games and they all had seconds. Serve them hot with a little ice cream and boy oh boy you'll be in dessert heaven.

You're welcome.

What a Week!

TGIF is all I have to say right now. Seriously.

Here's a quick run down of the crap that's gone on: ice dispenser on fridge broke, dishwasher lost all power, a diamond fell out of my ring, the furnace had a crack and had to be replaced, we replaced the A/C too, my car died, and then I discovered we have no hot water. Now here are the details...

So about a month ago our dishwasher died. Just died. Oh and BTW Remy just bought it a year ago. Then literally a few days later the ice dispenser on the fridge gave up the ghost as well. This isn't such a big deal, but still. It's a year old. So the race against the calendar was on to make sure we could get the repairs covered under warranty. Because the one year mark was mighty close if not passed. I'll spare you the details but in the end it took some detective work on Lowe's part to find us a receipt and then look up the delivery date. Eventually they found everything we needed and the repair was covered!

Wednesday Remy had the dishwasher guy come and also some guy to inspect the furnace. Just because it's old and it probably needed some TLC. Well next thing I know Remy calls me to tell me the furnance had to be shut off because it had a crack and we have to buy a new one. Awesome. Then we ended up buying a new A/C too because it's old and would probably die soon too. -Oh sure, let me just go pick that $5,000 off my money tree real quick. Oops, my money tree isn't blooming yet, let me try my butt . -Dang. Nothing there either.

And the story continues...yesterday I was driving with my friend Amanda to her house and was headed up the hill by the capitol. I was stopped at a stop light, and my engine just died. Died. On a hill. If Amanda wouldn't have been there I would have just lost it. She kept me calm and I'm so thankful for her! Then two guys from work saw us and pulled over and drove me back to Remy's office and took Amanda home. That was SOOO nice of them. So as of right now I have no idea what's wrong with it.

Oh wait, there's more. I finally get home at just crash to watch my shows. :) I went to wash my face and get ready for bed so I turn on the hot water faucet. Nothing but cold. So I went to the kitchen and turned on that faucet to confirm -let it run for a while, nothing. That was it. I just wept like a baby. I'm sure when they shut of the gas to replace the furnace the pilot light just went out and they didn't light it again. But we didn't notice the next morning because when we showered we just used what warm water was left. But still. I thought we were done after the furnace, cuz don't they say it comes in threes? Well, we've passed three so if you could just leave us alone now that would be super.

Bob the Builder

So here's our post of our first IKEA-build-it-yourself-but-be-prepared-because-there-are-so-many-pieces-that-all-look-the-same-but-our-directions-don't-have-words-because-we-want-to-make-it-easier-by-not-having-to-translate-them-into-5,000-languages-so-you're-just-going-to-have-to-deal-and-did-I-mention-this-will-take-at-least-3-hours-project.

This is the before: we had two hand-me-down end tables pushed together to put our old TV on. It worked, but it wasn't too attractive and as you can see we had to leave the DVD's out everywhere.

Don't worry, there were two boxes of parts!

After: Doesn't it look so neat and tidy!

Night Out

I want to preface this story with a little background information: Remy and I are not night owls. And we've always teased ourselves that we were getting old because we'd go out to dinner on a Friday night and then be ready for bed by 8. It's sad really.

So a couple Friday nights ago we went out to dinner and really didn't want to go home right after with nothing to do.


So we did a little bowling (and if I recall I won the second game!):























And played a few mean games of air hockey (which I only won 1 out of 3 games). Let me just say, air hockey is the cheapest date ever! Only 50 cents per game...and it's so fun!

Going New

So, I decided to start a new blog now that I'm married and all that jazz I guess. It sort of seems silly, but not. Whether you think it's silly or not you should check out the new blog: http://remyandmeggan.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

Oh Poo

So I'd just like to say that it's really gross when you walk into the bathroom at work and you smell the strong scent of air freshener (you thought I was going to say something else didn't you!) The reason it's gross is pretty self explanatory. It's also really gross to sit on a warm toilet seat. It's especially gross when you have to sit on a warm toilet seat AND smell the strong scent of freshly sprayed air freshener. WTMI? Sorry, but it just had to be said.

Awe!

Yesterday we were at the store and I saw this adorable collar with a red bow on it that I wanted to get for Little Grey. But we got a collar for Malcom once and he acted like his tail was on fire! Seriously. They all come with bells on them and we even took the bell off and he still wouldn’t calm down. He kept trying to get his mouth on it and he would even get his bottom teeth stuck on it so his jaw was open probably farther than it should go. Anyway the point is I had to convince Remy to invest in the $3 collar because it had an adorable bow , and I won.

When we get home I put it on her and she didn’t even notice! When she’d move and the bell would ring she’d kinda look around but just kept doing her thing. The picture isn’t all that great, I took it from my phone and animals are not the easiest things to photograph. And her long fur is covering half of it, but you get the idea. She looks so cute! We want to leave the bell on her so we don’t accidentally lock her in anymore closets for hours at a time (whoops), but it's actually getting on my nerves now so I may try to take it off. I'm just thrilled she didn't go berserk trying to get it off!

Gotta Start Out New

So I decided to start a new blog. Why? I don't know, mostly because I was tired of th other one. Plus, who doesn't like new things?

So far the married life is great. Who doesn't love spending time with their best friend? We've been spending most of our time moving and cleaning and organizing, which isn't all that fun, but doing it together makes it not so bad.

Remy had purchased a condo last year (almost a year ago exactly) and we both put in a lot of hours fixing it up....he did more than me, but hey, it's his house right? ;) Well since getting married I've filled that little place to the brim. I'm actually surprised at our ability to find places for almost everything. It's always that last random bit of stuff that never has a home. Which means I should probably just throw it away...

This past weekend I started feeling a little sick, which is a bummer on a long weekend. But it was pretty adorable because as soon as I say I don't feel well Remy asks if I want him to run to the store and get Sprite or ice cream. I just love him!

As one of our wedding gifts Remy's parents bought us a flat screen T.V. So we FINALLY bought a T.V. stand to put it in...I took pics of the building process...we got it at IKEA and this is one of their nice hefty pieces so it was quite a project! I'll post those soon!

Forgot to mention the pictures are courtesy of Cherie Hogan http://www.cheriehoganphotography.com/

New Stuff

So for our (one of many) wedding gifts from Remy's parents, they got us a flat screen TV! I know right! We don't have any room for it yet (the house is full of my crap everywhere from moving), plus the only thing we had to put it on was 2 old end tables stuck together and we were afraid it might get knocked over by one of the kitties...namely Malcom. Plus we needed storage and the whole thing. Anyhow so we set off on an adventure to find a good entertainment center/TV stand/something that could hold all our consoles and ideally some DVDs. I'll have to take pictures of the before and after...right now the DVDs are in these open storage racks which really drive me nuts. If there's one thing that drives me nuts, it's looking at DVDs if I don't have to. Plus the whole living room is lined with DVD storage at this point and it just looks bad. Anyhow...

So we stop at RC Willey where we felt a little out of our -we have no money and need something really cheap-league, but we found a few things that had some potential. **On a side note, have you ever been to RC Willey? That place creeps me out. They have so many sales people just looming around and when you ask one for help, they don't leave you...ever. EVER. Salesman Steve who we found in electronics sat at a table like 10 feet away from us and just sat. And waited. And watched. And waited. What? Like we're going to try to hide it in our coats? And then I feel all bad (and thoroughly creeped out) when we leave because Steve just sat there and waited forever for nothing. Creepy.**

Then we ventured off to IKEA. I wasn't expecting much from them, I'll be honest. I LOVE IKEA, don't get me wrong, but a lot of their stuff LOOKS cheap. And I know we couldn't afford much, but I just don't always want to have cheap looking stuff! So we spent over an hour looking at stuff. Trying to be creative with different shelving options we saw, using baskets and drawers, mouting stuff to walls, the whole thing. Then we found their collection of a whole bunch of stuff that you can mix and match. HOLY CRAP! We then spent forever tinkering around with different doors, and drawers, and tall shelves, and short shelves, and as we turn around to leave, we walk straight into it! Remy points and says, "why didn't we see this before?" And there in front of us, THE one. It has everything we wanted, yet was so simple it somehow didn't seem possible. It has doors that enclose the TV but that fold and lay flat to the sides so they don't stick out into the room, a small shelf to fit the XBOX and two big drawers underneath that can hold ALL of our DVDs and controllers, a place to put the Wii, and nothing obstructing the cords to the Xbox. And best of all, it was $300 off!! The only drawback is that it's white. But we think we can probably paint it and do you know what? It really won't look that bad. I mean, white goes with everything. So the goal this weekend is to get the livingroom put together so it actually has a place to go. Right now, be barely had room to fit the boxes it came in.

Just Married

So I feel like that now I'm married it's finally socially acceptable for me to really have a blog. Yeah I had one before, and yeah I wouldn't have changed anything about it had I been married when I started it, but I feel like starting a blog when you're married is more acceptable and for some reason people will be more inclined to read it...I don't know, call me weird, but that's what it seems like.

The wedding went well, no big snags to mess things up. Still stressful and a lot going on, but it turned out great. Jan was AMAZING at organizing and executing the whole thing. The reception was beautiful, I really loved it and from what I hear people had a good time.

Honeymoon in Disneyland was fantastic...of course. It was so much fun to be there for New Year's Eve. The place was totally packed, I've never seen it that busy, and believe you me I've been there when it's been pretty busy. It rained the first day we were there, if you can even call it rain. It was more like a mist, but it was constant and all day so by the end we were pretty wet. Day 2 was absolutely perfect, sunny, warm and not a cloud in the sky. We really did not want to come home.

Last night we opened all our presents. You know, now that I think of it, we didn't really even get a weird, crazy, useless, or completely ugly gift that we can laugh about and tell our kids about. I guess the popularity of gift cards sort of reduces the chances of getting something like that. The people who are crappy at giving gifts are probably the ones who end up getting the gift cards. We got some pretty good stuff I'd say. For some reason we got lots of Scentsy warmers and diffusers. Do we really smell that bad?

Cherie was amazing and did the photography. What a sport, she was with me pretty much the whole entire day! I cannot wait to see the shots she took. Check out her blog for a sneak peak olivejuicestill.blogspot.com

I'll post some pics once I get a chance, and if I can get my computer to work, I want to post a video of the New Year countdown from Mainstreet, it was so fun!