Festival of Trees

Brrr!  It's gotten chilly here!

That hasn't kept me from bundling up in the mornings and hitting the gym before the crack of dawn.  Of course this leads to earlier and earlier bedtimes... I may or may not have gone to bed at 7 Sunday night.

In fact, just this morning I got up extra early for a grueling, sweaty spin class.  Truly, the hardest part is enduring that hard bike seat.

Speaking of workouts and December, have you visited Janeetha's blog contest Dedicated December??

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Let's all rally together and stay dedicated to our fitness this December!

Over a week ago, I went to see my friend's little girl perform with her ballet class at the Festival of Trees, organized by one of the local hospitals (I'm actually going to be doing a few clinical hours there!).

"The Festival of Trees has been a favorite holiday tradition for Treasure Valley residents for more than 25 years and has raised over $7 million to improve healthcare in our community."

Every year and there are tons of trees decked out to the nines all sponsored by business and school.  A lot of them are even available for sale.

Love the ski tree!

Wonderful winter white.

Traditional red and green.

Of course a Boise State Broncos tree!

Rustic tree. Love.

Another more traditional tree.  I like the cascading ribbon.

Pink tree!!  For breast cancer.

Last but not least...

A barbie tree!  When I was a girl, I loved barbies!  

I can't wait to be 80 when it's socially acceptable to collect them. ;)

I loved looking at all the different themes, as well as noting some ideas for my own tree!  I like to do something different with our tree each year.  It's fun to play around with different color combinations and just get creative!  

I always add a few new ornaments too.  And I always buy at least one bear ornament for J because he is my teddy bear!  <3

Teddy bear and polar bear.

How do you like to decorate your tree?

Happy Redneck Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving was one of the most fun I've had in a long time.

And it involved shotguns and clay pigeons.

A lot of talking smack.  That's how we roll.

Everyone was laughing and joking and trying to one up each other.

But above all, safety first.

Welcome to (eastern) Idaho.

Can you spy all the red shells?

J's uncle, J and J's cousin at the clay pigeon shooter.

J's bro (holding the shortgun), his nephew, and half of J. 

Me?  I'm more of a handgun girl, but I'd totally be up for learning to shoot clay pigeons.  J is an excellent shot and he says I'm not half bad. 

Serious business.

I'm a secret agent. ;)

After working up a good appetite being in the brisk, windy outdoors, it was time to feast. 

I always, always look forward to the stuffing the most.

There was ham.  With pineapple and amazing ham gravy.

J's cousin and J's dad.

You haven't lived until you've had J's mom's sweet ham gravy. 

There was also turkey.  

J's uncle.

After all, what is thanksgiving without turkey?

My plate: lots of stuffing, mashed potatoes with ham  gravy, ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, pineapple, broccoli salad, deviled egg, pumpkin roll, marshmallow salad, fresh veggies and a couple black olives.

J and I shared a dessert plate with pumpkin pie, apple pie, oreo pie, and pumpkin roll.  

Nothing like eating a Thanksgiving dinner and then sitting in the car for the 4 hour ride back home.  Oof. 

Unplugged

Hey, remember me?

The hubbs had some much needed time off of work and we just unplugged and spent quality time together.  Love that!

I planned a couple of fun dates including watching the BSU game at Buffalo Wild Wings, going to see Immortals and an intimate dinner at....

The Melting Pot!

The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant neither of us had never been to before.  At $70 and up per couple, it's a little pricey.  While the food was fine, the experience and the service was excellent.  We agreed we'd definitely return for another special night out.

We started off with the cheese fondue which was served with bread, green apples, and veggies for dipping.

Melty hot cheese

Dippin stuff

Mmm... cheesy.

The broccoli and the green apples were my favorite.

Next was our entree (we opted to skip the salad for the sake of getting too full).

Bubbling citrusy broth.

J ordered the French Quarter: "Fillet mignon, breast of chicken and tender shrimp all seasoned with Cajun spices and served with Andoullie sausages."  I loved the extra kick of the Cajun spices!

I ordered the Seafood Trio: "Tender shrimp, sesame-crusted sushi-grade ahi tuna and cedar plank salmon."  The salmon was by far my favorite.

We scarfed our entrees down and I completely forgot to take pictures.  Meat is meat, right?

Besides, the best course was definitely... DESSERT!

There were so many chocolate dessert fondues to choose from, but eventually we decided on the s'mores: "Milk chocolate with marshmallow cream flambeed and garnished with graham cracker crumbs."

We had so many fun treats to dip into the chocolate fondue: brownies, cheesecake, poundcake, rice krispies, coated marshmallows, strawberries and bananas.  I think I liked the brownies the best.  Double chocolate!

Since we were celebrating our 4th anniversary late, they made us this special plate for the occasion.

It was so fun to get all dressed up for a night on the town.  :)

Ever been to a fondue restaurant?

I never thought

I never thought I would become a morning workout person!  Somehow, over the past year, I have actually preferred getting up before dawn to hit the gym.  Not that it's easy-- most mornings I wake up and think "Crap, it's too early to move.  The sun isn't even up yet."  My success rate (sometimes I do go back to sleep) is often better when I'm meeting a friend, but I've still headed out on my own as well!  Crazy!

I never thought this semester would fly by so quickly!  Midterms for classes have come and gone and next week is midterm for CNA school.  Time flies when you're having... fun?

I never, ever, EVER thought I'd post oatmeal, much less OIAJ (oats in a jar).  I don't particularly care for nut butter so I rarely have empty jars of it laying around.  The other morning, after I'd eaten breakfast (probably eggs), I was still hungry and all of the sudden oats sounded really good. So I went with it.

Those black specks are raisins by the way.

The trick is always to watch the microwave extra closely the last 20 seconds to avoid overflow.

I never thought I'd go through 3 phones in less than 2 months.  First, I shattered my screen on my iPhone 3GS, so I upgraded to the iPhone 4, then the iPhone 4S came out within 30 days of me purchasing the iPhone 4 (AT&T customers take note!) so I was able to trade for that.  About a week ago, I noticed that there was something not quite right with the focus on my new phone because it would be blurry, especially up close.  I was taking a picture of hot food, and thought it was just steam.   

But the more pictures I took, I noticed more and more something was wrong. 

Examples:

Lunch: lentil soup

Apple and cheddar salad

See?  They're ok, but the clarity was really disappointing.  Of course I took to Google and discovered other people had similar problems.  So I made an appointment at the genius bar for the next day.  Turns out it was an issue with the autofocus caused by a hardware problem (my phone wasn't syncing with my iTunes anymore either) and they swapped it out for a brand new one that worked!  It's a tough life, I tell ya.

I never thought I'd become such a omelet connoisseur.  Omelets are kind of tricky, especially when it comes to flipping them and getting the insides cooked enough.

Broccoli, turkey and colby jack omelet topped with salsa.

And speaking of eggs, I never thought I'd find myself eating eggs with ketchup?  I used to think it was absolutely disgusting.  To my defense, it still isn't a daily habit though.

Ketchup?

Some other eats from last week:

Chicken burger, sauteed garlic spaghetti squash, more salad.

I got my bake on this week!

Pumpkin walnut butterscotch muffins.  You can really see my camera problems here. 

I never thought I'd find this in my bountiful basket.  I texted a picture to my mom (aka the one who knows everything) to see what she thought it was.  She ended up looking in one of her gardening/plant books.  It turns out it's fennel.  Ohhhhh.  It has an interesting licorice scent to it.  I've got a fennel roasting recipe I hope to try this week. 

Hello strange vegetable. 

I never thought I would find such a cute duvet!  I love our bed so much and this duvet adds yet another reason I never want to get out!  

Purchased from Pottery Barn.

Welcome to November

Boy, October was sort of a rough month.  Being busy tend to make me feel more productive (which I am) and have less time to procrastinate.  Really though, I'm not complaining.  I'm now past the hardest material in A&P and can breath a huge sigh of relief.  *SIGH*

I think fall might finally be descending upon southern Idaho.  I do love fall, even if that means winter follows.  I'm so sick of my summer clothes and it's still been a little warm for fall clothes (even though I wear them anyways).

The best two things about fall are soups:

Pumpkin cauliflower crockpot soup

Anything made in the crockpot really.  Like this honey soy chicken I discovered on Pinterest.

  I especially like that it wasn't overly sweet/saucy.

and boots:

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Perhaps oatmeal might show its head once or twice when I get tired of 4 egg white + 1 egg omelets:

Broccoli + feta and toped with salsa. 

Hunter has been up to his usual antics: making sure I clean the house regularly.

But at least he's a pro at balancing a treat on his nose.

I could learn a thing or two from him.

Novemeber Goals:

      School:

• continue working toward an A in A&P (got a 96% on my last test!)
• study a little each night/ practice skills learned in CNA class

      House:

• clean at least 15 min per day 
• don't let clean laundry stack up-- put it away!

      Health:

• balance weight day with cardio day (I've been slacking on cardio big time)
• aim for 4x per week
• eat at least 2 vegetable servings per meal
• eat more protein (this does not come naturally to me, one I have to focus on or it doesn't happen!)

Which brings me to this:  everyone knows at least one person who is so. damn. competitive. with. everyone.  It is so annoying to be around.  Stop it! 

(source)

Be the best you you can be!  Realize that you will never be anyone but yourself so appreciate the good traits you have!  Stop putting yourself down in front of others or when you are alone.  Lead by your confident example and stop following in someone else's shadow. 

Proud to be me!

p.s. currently looking for guest posters!  Email me at meg (dot) bailey (at) rocketmail (dot) com for info!

Unsolicited Advice

Thank you SO much for all the support in my starting CNA class.  I've definitely been pretty tight lipped about my long term goals in nursing since I'm not there yet and it is so competitive that it really freaks me out. 


Yay!  I'm so glad we can all suffer together from our less than clear complexions at times.  Hey, we're all human, right?  


I am in a better mood this week.  Things are still busy, but I feel like I'm keeping up better and enjoying the ride.  Could be because my gigantic lab test over muscles and bones is over with.  Whew!

CNA school is going swell, we practice taking blood pressure often because it is the trickiest skill to learn and I feel like I'm really getting the hang of it. I feel totally important in scrubs with a stethoscope around my neck (which really is the easiest way to hold it when hands are busy).

Scrubs are so darn comfy.

And would you look at what I did all by myself to my (never manicured) nails:

So flipping cute.  I can't get over these.

They are actually the stick-on nail colors.  I was really skeptical about them but could NOT pass up the polka dots.  You have to work a little quickly, but the plus is that there's no drying time!  I can't sit still long enough to let regular nail polish dry.  They make me look a lot more high maintenance that I really am.

And to top it all off, I finally got the curtain hung over the bathroom window.  This is on the side of the tub.  I realize you can't really see much of the curtain in this picture.  It's a transparent bronzy color.

Everyone likes a hot bath next to pretty things right?

Oh, and by the way, I've found the BEST thing to help with those cystic zits (hard, painful, don't come to a head) I was complaining about last week.  Here's your unsolicited advice from me:

Peter Thomas Roth AHA/BHA clearing gel.  

It's a little pricey, but you can ask for a free sample at Sephora and a little goes a long way and it LASTS.

October Goals


Sunday: rest
Monday: another 6:30 am workout: legs (Oh the burn!)
Tuesday: arms + abs
Wednesday: rest (I am now completely crippled)
Thursday: sick
Friday: sick
Saturday: sick




Arg, I keep getting the same cold for a couple of days, then it comes back again! What the heck?!?  I've noticed though that exercising regularly seems to help me get well faster from colds.  Win.

My track record has not been great for October.  But, it's been a super busy and stressful month so I'm not going to waste any time feeling guilty about it.

I also ate oatmeal twice this week.  I'm not much of an oatmeal person. So it's a sign that I was sick. ;)  No photo, I'm confident you all know what oatmeal looks like.

I also made a batch of tortellini soup just in time for my cold and it was definitely comforting between sniffles, sore throat and muffled hearing.

Yum.  

Lots of lunch salads lately.  No, this was not solely my lunch.  I can't remember what else I had.  Probably soup.

I like to toss my greens with the dressing before adding other stuff.

Some of the last zucchini (arg, that is a hard word to spell) and asparagus of the season.

Plus a salmon burger, LOVE those.

Now, if only I could get some more baking into my life.  I miss it.

It's nearly Halloween!  Are you dressing up this year?


What is a recipe I should bake asap?  Links please!

p.s. if you're viewing this in a reader, click over to see my recent tweaks to my blog design.


p.p.s.  I'm finally getting professional help!  For my blog that is.  Stay tuned.