For My Sister the Vegan

My sister called me up the other day to let me know she was a vegan....at least.... she was going to be for one week :)~.  She's been inspired by the book "Eat to Live" which was recommended to her (and millions of other viewers) by the Dr. Oz.  So, in honor of her one week life change I decided to try a  recipe that was posted by another blogger whom I follow.  This blogger makes lots of yummy stuff...some healthy and lots not.  Behold a healthy option that actually tastes pretty great...

Cauliflower French Fries 
1 head of cauliflower cut up into bite size pieces.
1/8-1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Bake on foil @ 400 for 1 hr.  Flip every 25mins or so.

Before baking

After

And I swear they taste just like french fries.  Enjoy....

Diet update

We are a little over a month into our weight loss regime and I have to admit I'm pretty happy with the progress so far.  There have been some successes and setbacks as with everything in life.

Successes
Even my work out pants are starting to get slightly too big!

Setbacks
Shoulder and knee injury flare ups.  Due to the increase in exercise (p90x & running) my existing conditions seem to have gotten far worse. BLAST!

I cannot even begin to put into words how frustrating it is to not be able to work out like I want to or do as I always have.  I fall into a sort of self pity during these times and then immediately feel guilty for pitying myself when I'm very fortunate for alot of things.  I then take these thoughts to the extreme and end up arguing with myself  like..."at least you have legs and can run even though it hurts or you've always been healthy so start be thankful for that."  I know, I'm a total nut!!   I like to think these thoughts help keep me somewhat humble about situations.  I'm very aware that my life is NOT the most important, tragic, frustrating, picture-perfect, annoying, petty...the list goes on.  If there is one thing I have learned from Facebook it is to NOT complain, vent, or have negative thoughts at all on Facebook.   Try having an extreme (but reality for some) thought first and I guarantee that you won't hit send on that mundane complaint of yours.

So the regime continues---calorie counting, P90 daily, and running when my knee allows.  Hoping to have some reinforcing scale results at the end of May to share.  Until then....

Best Wishes on all of your goals--- whatever they may be!

Great Gifts, Great Friends, & Great Times

Today's post is about a great gift that Clay and I received for our wedding.  It was personal, heartfelt, and genuinely special.  If you are like us (upper 20 somethings or early thirties) then you probably find yourself smack dab in the middle of wedding and/or baby season right about now.  Here is a great gift idea that is sure to WOW at any occasion.

My friend Kathie over at http://chadykathie.wordpress.com/ is the ultimate party planner.  It is in this girls genes to plan and execute some of the most beautiful and heartfelt parties.  I have been privy in helping her throw some of the cutest baby showers, birthday parties, welcome home pig roasts and charity events you have ever seen.  She even threw Clay and I's engagement party with the help of a few of our closest friends (reminder to self to blog those party pics).  In addition to awesome parties, she is a fantastic gift giver b/c she really puts her heart into everything she does.  For our wedding she made Clay and I a personalized Cookbook complete with recipes from friends and family, photos from some our favorite pastimes, and a huge basket of cooking goodies (i.e. spices, the cookbook stand pictured, etc) that complimented some of the recipes inside the book.  So, if you are looking for that perfect gift and have some time (b/c I'm sure this took her forever too) then this is definitely a winner!  Enjoy...

Cookbook stand from Williams Sonoma

This was a picture from Clay's 30th birthday party at Busch stadium.  It was such an awesome day!  Really felt the love- look at all those friends and family who came.  Thank you again guys!  XO

Might be giving away trade secrets with this one.  Special recipe from our all star grilling friend Jeremy B- Sorry Jeremy :)  Photo from Clay's bachelor party at Kentucky Lake.

Brother, sister, and I at an event from my brother's wedding.

Clay and his family.  Recipe by his mom- I think she had my cooking ability in mind with this one :).  Thank you Julie for the simplicity!  I love it! 

She knows us well and knew not to leave our babies out!!

A blast from the past.  Clay and his cousins.

More baseball fun.  This is Clay's sister and she's currently living in Florida working for the Cardinal's minor league team.  Happy Birthday/Easter Kristen!  Miss you!

And the woman behind all the magic.  My beautiful friend Kathie! 

And while we're on the topic of great gifts....I thought I'd also show you what Clay and I got our groomsmen for being part of our wedding.  I also stole this idea from Kathie (of course, she has all the good ideas) and the boys loved it!

Personalized Bobbleheads for each of them.

Lucas- Best Man & my cousin

Matt

Miller- his was so good it was freaky!

Ben- his likeness was awesome too!

Nic

And the gorgeous girls!  I just couldn't leave them out.  I got them each Vera Bradley bags to carry their wedding day junk in, personalized coffee mugs for the morning of, and a wedding day emergency basket (mini hairspray, Altoids, bobby pins, Ibprofen, etc).  

I don't seem to have any great photos of those gifts but here's what I could find.

 

Backyard project *update*

*Update*

Looky what I found this morning under a few inches of weeds and dirt.

Remember how I said I would show you my project for the summer.  Welp, this is it.  Say hello to our nothing but weeds backyard that has ooodles of potential.  The previous owners actually did this area pretty well, but unfortunately we've been so busy on the inside that this area got neglected and now it looks like this.  Here's the plan.

The entire yard is framed with pavers- I just have to find them under all the weeds :)
Behind those pavers it kind of looks like grass- nope weeds.  I plan to till it all up and....rock? grass?  not sure yet.

I started clearing out this rounded area here yesterday.  I de-weeded, but need to add rock and a few plants.  

This is a pond- somewhere under there.

Remove this mini fence and replace with a real one.

Close up of the pond

Back of the house

Got my work cut out for me, haven't I?  lol

Stay tuned....

When I win the Lottery...

If I had 540 million dollars......(cue song)

So, the lottery is huge right now and it's all anyone can talk about.  I even know a guy who started an online pool today where you could pay for tickets using Paypal---what the!?!?  Anyway, everyone who knows me knows that I have always been destine to win the lottery (or at least that is what I believe and tell everyone), so I thought I'd dedicate this post to my future (as in tomorrow) winnings.  If I had 540 million dollars I would....

Start here and follow summer around the world...

Next

Probably rest from my travels here

Or at Clay's Montana lodge

either way, we'll get there in a flash with 

And these guys will never be too far away...meet my

personal Stylist (R) Chef (C) & Trainer (R)

Guess I had better start packing ;)

*Update*  Here's the winning ticket wrapped around my lucky world ball!  

'May the odds be ever in our favor'

Landscaping our Wedding

Today I decided to lay the smack down on our front yard.  Last year, as a wedding gift to Clay and I, my mom landscaped our front yard while we were on our honeymoon.  For an entire week in 103 degree weather she slaved away at our untouched/weedy yard.  Her work deserved the mother of the year award for sure!  When we got home, everything was done except for a small section on the side which is what I (almost) completed today.  Now, I know absolutely nothing about landscaping, but my mother, on the other hand, could go semi pro.  I have personally always felt it was her calling in life.  Joanna (who commented on my blog yesterday) once said that she thought my moms yard was the prettiest in the whole neighborhood.  Thank you Joanna, I think it was Colleen who told me that, but it was once of the nicest things I've ever heard and your compliment has always stuck with me.  I know my mom was really happy when I told her too.
So anyway, here is my almost completed project.  This took me ALL day and moving rock is so incredibly hard.  I can't wait to show you the backyard that I *think* I'm going to tackle this summer.  Bahahahah

B/c everything I do I try to do with a budget in mind...the grasses are split from my grandma's house (free), bricks & pavers are relocated from our backyard.  The only thing I paid for was the rock and small tree.

In addition to our savings here, I wanted to share what we did to cut costs landscaping our wedding.  You read that right :).  Let me explain.  When we were planning our wedding last year I was trying to come up with ways to do it economically and pretty.  This meant your typical floral centerpieces were out b/c they cost a ton of money.  I just couldn't rationalize spending that much money on flowers that would just get thrown away the following day.  The other part of this thrifty dilemma was that we desperately needed to landscape our front yard which would mean more money.  Solution to our problem:   I used every plant that we were going to landscape with as a centerpiece at our wedding reception.

Now, like everything I do this was slightly complicated.  Our wedding was in July, so to make this work we had to do several things.

• 1. The first thing needed was to ensure the survival of the plants.  How were we going to keep the plants alive until July?  Answer:  we asked the owner of our favorite nursery for a huge favor - to hold our plants until a few days before the wedding- to our surprise, he said yes!  This was huge b/c there was NO WAY we were going to keep the plants looking good in the dead of summer without his help.  We picked all of the plants out in May and the nursery held them for us until July.  Amazing!
• 2.  How to make them pretty enough for centerpieces?  We chose to wrap the bases in burlap = economic, earthy, and pretty.  I love burlap!  We put a layer of wax paper under the burlap to keep them from leaking or dirt falling onto the reception tables.  Perfect!
• The table number holders are bamboo shoots which my florist provided for free b/c she had them leftover from another event (score) and the table numbers I made DIY style.  
• The plants needed to be small enough for tables, but with the yard in mind.  We ended up buying hostas, a variety of grasses, corabells, and a variety of small bushes.
• The BEST part--2 needs for the price of one and a daily reminder of our special day right outside of front door!

Here are a few pictures that helped inspire me for this centerpiece project.

Afterwards I had a little photoshoot with the babes.  I've been begging my husband for a family photoshoot while these beautiful trees are still in bloom, but so far that has not happened.  Maybe this weekend we'll get gussied up and I'll get my pictures.  Here's hoping!

I could only get him to stop playing with his frisbee long enough to take one picture and to be honest, I love it the most.  That's my boy...always happy and playing.