Fondant Is Gross

So long, for now.

2015-12-07T12:53:00.002-05:00

A lot has happened since I first started blogging here at Fondant is Gross. I've moved several times, a couple of break-ins, changed careers, and so much more.

As I've grown and changed, I've found the limitations of the title I chose four years ago. So, to that end, I've decided to stop blogging here at Fondant is Gross.

I need to take a step back, think about what I want to focus on, and come up with a name that can be more diverse as I grow and change, because I don't intend to stop doing either of those things! This is good bye only to Fondant is Gross, not to blogging or writing in general. I have some ideas to move forward, but what I don't have is time to really flesh that out.

You'll know when I come back, especially if you follow me at @redwingsdiva87. I will still be tweeting there, even though I'm not writing actively on a personal blog. And, of course, I will tweet the new blog when I figure it out.

Thank you to those of you who have been with me over the last four years. It's been one helluva ride.

From the Slot: On Johan Franzen

2015-10-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

Look, we all have those things that we are passionate about doing, whether it's good for us or not.

I have a friend who's running through an injury because she has a goal to run a 15K this year.

I've been guilty of it myself, running through knee injuries, playing softball through arm issues, but there is one place everyone should draw the line, and that's head injuries.

Second Impact Syndrome is a real, and very serious condition that could at worst, end your life, and at best, turn you into a vegetable.

Franzen had been out since January of 2015 with a serious concussion. Not his first, and actually the latest in a long line of concussions for him. He gave an interview where he said that he spent two months being unable to pick up his kids.

But somehow, a week after he tells Brad Galli he sometimes still has to sleep for 4 hours after a hard workout, he's approved to come back and play?

Franzen said he had to go home from four-hour workouts and sleep the rest of the day. I asked him the last time he had to. "Last week."
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) September 2, 2015

Fans seem a hell of a lot more worried about this than the team, especially given that he was cleared and has played in the first few games of the 2015-16 season.

Sure seems like maybe people are getting rushed back.
— DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey96) October 15, 2015

I really hope Johan Franzen retires. Hockey is not worth taking the risk.
— Red Wings Memes (@RedWingsMemes) October 15, 2015

OF COURSE HE IS. HE SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN PLAYING IN THE FIRST PLACE. https://t.co/eXiHVuK3nt
— Jenny (@redwingsdiva87) October 15, 2015

Mr. Franzen, The hockey world will miss its Mule. But please - for the love of your children - say goodbye. Sincerely, Those Who Also Care
— The Production Line (@TPLhockey) October 15, 2015

Franzen is out indefinitely after his concussion problems have returned. It's not worth it Johan. Your life long health is most important.
— Red Wing Diehards™ (@RedWingDiehards) October 15, 2015

Farewell, Franzen... I think it's time to call it in.
— Ky.L. Stine (@KyleWIIM) October 15, 2015

We know there are a lot of things to take into consideration, but shouldn't your health be number one? Being able to play with your kids? Spend time with your wife?

In my personal opinion, it is irresponsible, and probably reckless endangerment or neglect, for the Wings Organization and/or the League to let him continue to play.

If the Wings want to be known as an organization who takes care of their players, then step up to the plate. Eat the cap hit, or put him on LTIR, just make sure he stays alive. Like many fans, we don't want another Jiri Fischer situation that turns out so much worse, because this is most definitely going to end that way if Franzen keeps playing.

Be happy with the career you had, it's not worth your life to keep trying to come back.

From the Slot: The Day Dino Ciccarelli Broke My Heart

2015-08-23T15:31:00.000-04:00

When I was six or seven, my younger brother started to play hockey. It's the first time I remember being aware that the Red Wings existed. It's '93, '94, and Dino Ciccarelli had been with the Wings for a year or two. He was my favorite player. Being that age, and not really knowing hockey, I don't really know why he was my favorite. But he was. When my Mom ironed on numbers onto my t-ball jersey, I chose 22. Can you guess why?

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Kocur Foundation Softball Tournament, and Ciccarelli was on the guest list. I was very excited, and, being oblivious (plus my age when he was playing), I didn't know that he had a reputation for being a dick, and other parts of his off ice dealings.

So, I went to the tournament hoping to get many players' autographs, and among them, I wanted Ciccarelli's because he was my first favorite player. Before I learned better and Yzerman reigned supreme until his retirement.

A majority of the day, I spent with friends, the boyfriend, and their kids. We gathered around the fence of the celebrity dug out, and waiting behind the bleachers for the players going back and forth from the VIP area, and the dugout.

It felt... weird.

I was under the impression that in addition to supporting a great cause that part of the day was fan interaction, and it just felt like that wasn't what the players felt like that's what they signed up for. When most of the players and other celebrities were interacting with the fans, they were smiling and nice. But, for most of the games, they all stayed on the field because they didn't want to have to listen to people saying their names over and over again. And really, I can't blame them for wanting to just hang out, but if part of the event is touted as fan/player/celebrity interaction, then they hopefully understand the crowd of people around the dugout. Or maybe have designated signing times like McCarty and Ted Lindsey did.

One person, although he did sign things, and I eventually got an autograph, seemed like he didn't want to be there. I don't think I need to tell you who it was.

You see, even though he was there to play softball for a good cause, and (supposedly) for the fan interaction - I was there to meet someone I had idolized as a kid. That's a big expectation for me to carry in when meeting a fellow human.

Not that there is ever a reason to be a jerk to someone, but I feel like we place an unrealistic burden on athletes. Look at all the times that the athletes we idolize have let us down in just the last year or two. Currently, the hockey world is being rocked by rape allegations against Patrick Kane. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Sam Ukwuachu, Slava Voynov, Semyon Varlamov, Michael Vick, Aaron Hernandez, all of these athletes have been convicted or accused of doing horrible things. And that's just hockey and gridiron football.

When these humans screw up, or aren't what we idealize even in small ways, we get upset. Which is why I left the tournament yesterday feeling uneasy and unsettled by my interactions with Mr. Ciccarelli. I (subconsciously) expected this hockey player from my youth to be the man I saw on TV, not to be a human that has faults, thoughts, and feelings of his own. To an extent, I'm responsible for my own disappointment yesterday.

To that same extent, we are responsible for some of our disappointment in these athletes when they don't live up to our expectations. Not that that excuses the behavior of the humans we place on pedestals when they assault someone, or murder them, but we need to remember that the teams we watch, the people we look to, cheer for, are humans. They make mistakes like we do, and we need to remember that.

I think we'd all be a little less shocked when athletes and celebrities aren't what we expect or do bad things if we just manage to remember that they are human and maybe put a little less of our expectations on their shoulders.

From the Slot: Undrafted Players and the Hockey Hall of Fame

2015-01-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

A question has been nagging at me: who is the first un-drafted National Hockey League player in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

Well, the fast answer is the entire 1945 class of inductees.

But let's pretend we want to delve a little deeper and set a few parameters.

In 1963, the The National Hockey League Amateur Draft was the first entry draft to the NHL. Previous to that, players were found and signed by teams on their own. Only North American players were drafted in the original conception of the draft, and even when European players began to defect to North America, they were ineligible for the draft and usually initially played for the team that helped them leave their home countries.

Peter Stastny. Photo Credit here.

The draft continued in the original fashion until 1979, when the NHL absorbed the World Hockey Association, and the rules changed so that any North American player from 18-20 years old and any European player of any age can be drafted in the newly termed NHL Entry Draft.

With players of all nationalities eligible for the draft, Tomas Jonsson (Sweden) became the first drafted European player as the 4th pick in the second round (29th overall).

The following year, Peter Stastny defected from Czechoslovakia with his brother Anton after winning the European Cup in Innsbruck, Austria. Having never been drafted, but played in the NHL with the now (sadly) defunct Quebec Nordiques, the New Jersey Devils, and the St. Louis Blues, he becomes eligible to become the first un-drafted player to be inducted to the HHOF, and indeed, he did so. In 1998, three years after retiring in a Blues kit, Peter the Great was inducted into the HOF with Roy Conacher, Michel Goulet, and Athol Murray becoming the first un-drafted player in the HHOF by this definition.

Some of you might cry foul and say that Björe Salming was the first un-drafted player inducted. But, given that he wasn't eligible to be drafted before his rookie year in the NHL (six years before the draft rules changed), he was disqualified to be the first un-drafted inductee in the context of my question. It's only fair that the first be after everyone is eligible for the draft, and given that European players weren't eligible in 1973 to be drafted, well, you get my point.

Regardless of whom you feel is the rightful first un-drafted NHL Hockey Hall of Famer, there is quite the illustrious list of un-drafted NHL players in the HHOF. Eddie Belfour, Dino Ciccarelli, Joe Mullen, Adam Oates, the list goes on.

Only goes to show you that not being drafted isn't the end of the world.

Sources here, here, and here.

A Mission to Civilize, er, I mean Decorate

2015-01-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

After I finished the master and moved back in, I wanted to finish up decorating the rest of the house. There was a wall in the dining room, two walls in the living room, and some spaces smaller spaces in both rooms as well as the bathroom I wanted to finish.

The easiest was the dining room. Found this great painting at Meijer that coordinated well with the curtains.

Plus, I already had some pictures from my trip to Ireland framed, just not hung. Well, now they're up on the wall, under the photo I purchased at 500px of a waterfall at Yellowstone.

The living room was up next. Previously, there was a wall of wedding photos, and a smattering of photos on another wall. Some of those photos were Adam's, so I packed them up for him to have.

This is a big wall though, and it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do there.

First step, though, was moving my running photos to one wall.

Then, after much pondering, I saw some crayon art, and then I thought, "Perfect! I can totally do that!"

And I did. But now that that was decided, what was it going to be of? I settled on tributes to my biggest fandoms. Doctor Who, Harry Potter, M*A*S*H, and the Detroit Red Wings.

You'll notice that the M*A*S*H canvas is not crayon art. Good job! Cause it's not. It's pastels. It was too intricate to melt wax all over the place. It was my first time working with those as well, and I think it turned out rather nice.

Plus, it takes up the entire wall, done!

Up next in the living room, I printed up some photos and dropped them into three photo collage frames. That wasn't a hard decision, I knew I wanted more photos of my family and friends where they had been previously. Just in different frames and sizes.

Lastly, over the bay window I got a new display to replace the one that went with Adam. Plus, the red flower matches the dragonfly curtain!

Last tiny space to decorate, the people we bought the house from had left nails in the wall in the big bathroom. After being empty for two years, I decided to fill them.

As luck would have it, I passed an end cap at Meijer that had these two cute ceramics on clearance. I was sold!

I've been so pleased with how everything has turned out. I walk into my bedroom and smile because it's SO pretty.

I sit in my chair to watch TV, I look up, I see the art I worked so hard on.

I walk through and see all these touches I've added, and it just makes me so happy. I've got a big, goofy grin on my face all the time up in here!

P.S. If you don't catch my reference in the title, go check out Newsroom. First season is awesome.

Remodeling the Master Bedroom - IT'S SO PRETTY!

2015-01-14T07:33:00.000-05:00

Before I moved back into the master bedroom, I wanted to change it up and really make it my own.

Plus, there was a giant hole from Tesla in the wall. She went charging down the hall about two years ago, lost control, and slammed her behind into the wall, leaving this hole.

There was also a crack that needed to be fixed.

And, honestly, all that sponging was a PAIN, so I didn't want to have to do it again, although it would have been quicker, most likely, than repainting the entire room.

Anyway...

Before:

After:

I went with a Royal Peacock Blue from Behr, and Citron Lovely Lattice Curtains over the windows. My paternal grandparents had given me a rocking chair, and I had an old TV stand type thing that matched.

Since I got rid of the bed frame, and moved the bed, there was enough space for both next to the bed.

It gave me some room to play with some more decorations, and here is the finished product.

Wide views:

And some close ups of my favorite parts:

IT'S SO PRETTY!

A DIY Sunday or, Hell Yeah, I'm a Badass!

2015-01-11T22:36:00.000-05:00

I've been on a kick of home decoration and home improvement since about mid-December 2014.

But I'm going to start with my accomplishments from this weekend, because today's work is what makes me feel extra, super fricken awesome.

Yesterday, I decided to take out the shower door in the master bathroom and put in a curtain. The door hasn't closed properly in a long time, and attempted hacks to make it stay shut had failed. I took out all the screws, but I could NOT get one of the screws out, even with things jammed under the door to attempt to give me proper leverage. I figured, well, I'll just put some of the screws back in and wait until I can get someone to hold the door for me. But, lo and behold, the door stayed shut!

I never use the shower in there, but it was irritating to try and open the door to the bathroom at 3 am and have it slam into the shower door that's hanging open. So, BAM problem solved. The magnet on the door realigned with the magnet on the frame and it stays shut. Excellent.

That was it for yesterday's DIY home improvement, but this morning I woke up and after lazing in bed for a couple hours (be jealous) I kicked into action and headed out to Home Depot. Today is the day that I would change a shower head for the first time, put in a shower caddy, and replace the garbage disposal (also for the first time).

First up, the shower caddy. Super easy, but pro-tip: read the directions all the way. I didn't read all the directions, and was super pissed when the pole kept slipping off the spring. Had I put the little caps on both ends of the smaller pole before sliding into the pole with the spring in it the first time, it would have worked the first time. Figured that out fairly quickly, fortunately, but much cursing.

Next: the shower head. (dun dun dun!) The old shower head came off super easy, didn't have to use the pipe wrench at this point, just used my hand - awesome! I put the plumber's tape on the threads to help prevent leaks, and was ready to go.

I followed the directions to get the shower head on - again - easy. Turned on the faucet, pull the shower trap, aaaaaand.... nothing. Nothing would come out of the shower head, at all. Turned it off, turned it on again, off, on, off, on, off. Nothing. Whaaaaaaat?! I take off the shower head, but leave the pivot joint on. Try again. Nothing. The mystery deepens!

I took the pivot joint off. Turned the shower on again, still nothing. Called my dad to ask him if he had any ideas. He had me check for leaks behind the pipes, feel to see if there was any air coming out of the shower arm when I had the shower on, and a couple other things. Nothing.

It turned out to be something super small.

See this?

Welp. That was from the old shower head and it needed to go. Yanked that bad motor scooter out of the shower arm, and VICTORY! Water came out of the shower arm, so I could put the shower head back on and revel in my glorious success. And I totally did NOT put the pivot joint back on before the washer, then have to take it off to put it on right. Ok, maybe I did. But then I got it on and it works perfectly, I love it! First thing I did with it was to clean the shower, but my shower tonight was spectacular. Brilliant!

I took a break on the home improvement to do an art project I'll post about later before tackling the garbage disposal.

After that break I *almost* didn't get off my tush and take care of the disposal, but I started looking at it, and it didn't seem that bad.

Hoo boy. It really wasn't that bad, but it took a lot of time to figure out. First up, the old disposal had a threading that stuck out about an inch, inch and a half or so, to meet up with the drain pipe.

Crap. So, I had to make another trip to Home Depot to get a replacement pipe. While I was there, I also needed to get some wire cutters/strippers to do the electronics. I was so focused on the pipe, I forgot to get the wire cutters. At least I remembered halfway across the parking lot, instead of after I got home!

A quick saw job, a little snip snip with the kitchen scissors, hooking up the power cord, trading the battery between the light and the drill, and I had successfully installed my garbage disposal. It works! I feel so accomplished!

Now I sit here, sipping my wine, watching How I Met Your Mother, and writing this up, I feel exhausted in the best way.

I'm such a bad ass.

From the Slot: Wings 6 - Sabres 3

2014-12-24T00:12:00.000-05:00

Wings finally pull their heads out of their asses, and snap their 6 game losing streak to a surprisingly hot, yet terrible Sabres team. I think it's safe to say now that they aren't trying to tank the season to get McDavid.

Kindl spontaneously combusts twice to allow the first two Buffalo goals. The second occurring on a Red Wings power play, in his first shift after being benched for sucking. Only reason he saw ice at all is because Kronwall got waxed, and now is said to have an "upper body injury." The third goal happened, and I wasn't happy about it.

Weiss scores on the PP for DET's first goal, then gets hurt on a legal, but lethal, check from that one guy. DeKeyser nets one in the second to keep the Wings in it until the third where Datsyuk makes me incredibly happy with a beauty of a pass to Z for the first goal in the third. Which kicks off a streak of four unanswered goals where Franzen scores on his birthday (in more ways than one) and Tatar gets two for the frosting on the cake.

Merry Christmas, the Wings stopped sucking in the third, let's see what happens when they come back from break.

Jesus, this team is killing me.

Worst Thing I Could Do

2014-12-04T08:12:00.000-05:00

"I could flirt with all the guys"

A recent road trip found me listening to the Grease soundtrack on I-69. It's been awhile since I listened to it, and despite being immersed in nostalgia, I found myself thinking, "Wow, there are some terrible messages in these lyrics!" Go back and listen if you haven't in a while. Wow.

Even with that thought in my head, I found myself identifying with a character I hadn't before. Rizzo.

"Smile at them and bat my eyes"

Not because she's mean to the ingénue of the story, not because she thinks she's pregnant, but because of some of the lyrics in her big number, "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" She is the only character in the whole musical that actually gives advice to apply to real life. Because, seriously? Saran wrap instead of condoms? No. Just, no.

I cherry pick a little bit when I think about this, but a few things resonate with me.

"I could stay home, every night."

Fuck that.

Sure, sometimes, staying at home is fun, and necessary to recharge, but I'm a single twenty something and the last thing I want to do is not go anywhere or not see anyone. It would drive me nuts!

If I want to go to a Wings game, or a show that's in town and no one can go with me, I'm going alone. You get to spend some time doing something you enjoy, with the most amazing person you know -- yourself!

I don't want to miss out on amazing life experiences because I didn't want to go alone, and neither should you.

Life is meant to be lived, and I plan to live the hell out of mine.

"Take cold showers every day"

Have you ever taken a cold shower? They suck. And they don't help.

This part is going to be sticky, so please bear with me. (Dad, you might want to stop reading here.)

Sex is the best part about being an adult. It makes up for a lot of the really shitty parts of being an adult. I make no secret of the fact that I enjoy it. With the right person, in the right situation, it is an amazing experience. It's fun, messy, and exhilarating.

I tried the whole waiting for marriage thing, and it wasn't for me. To each their own, and mine turns out to not be one person forever and ever. Since I'm fairly recently single, this is a tough one for me to adjust to.

I think this is where my personal philosophy is strongest. To each their own, as long as you are safe, not hurting anyone else, and are happy, live your life how you want to.

"... Throw my life away... That's the worst thing I could do"

I do the worst of my cherry picking of the lyrics on this one.

These lines are how I want to define my life. I don't want to live my life with regrets. I know that some parts of society will judge me for the choices I make, but, really, who cares what they think?

I know my limits, I am starting to learn what will make me happy. As a friend of mine says, "Can't stop, won't stop." Because I can't stop living life out of fear, and I won't stop living life and learning what makes me happy. I plan to find my boundaries and push them until I find the lines I know I can't cross.

I was not expecting to have all these revelations listening to a soundtrack from my childhood, but I'm glad I did. It's incredibly freeing to fully embrace who you are and want to be in the future, society be damned.

Because I Don't Shy Away from Tough Topics

2014-11-06T17:46:00.001-05:00

As a woman in tech, I see news every day from woman after woman who has been verbally or physically harassed or assaulted at her job, conferences, walking down the street. I have many things I do to cope with that, and escape, but my favorite escape is watching sports. Hockey (Red Wings), Football (Lions), and Baseball (Tigers), in that order.

I love the Red Wings with my whole heart and soul, and the community that I have surrounded myself with on the internet related to hockey and the Red Wings is amazing. I have been especially fortunate in the last few months to find some really incredible people on Twitter, and some of those interactions have led to exchanged emails and other forms of contact outside of the world of Twitter.

You see, the group of people I follow on Twitter in my hockey list give me all the warm fuzzies. They're funny, poignant, and honest. I always have Twitter open when the Wings are playing, because I love watching the list explode with celebrations, thoughts, opinions, aptly timed photoshop jobs, and gripings about the Wings and the NHL scrolling across my screen. A friend of mine said it perfectly, "It's like watching a game with your best friends, every time." He's right, that's exactly what it feels like.

Despite this, it doesn't insulate me from stories like this, this, or this. And it's stories like these that feel like a punch to the gut, like I tweeted earlier.

Thinking on it, it makes me feel like I'm the biggest idiot in the world. Because sexism is everywhere. Though I try with hockey, I can't escape it. Especially because I'm a woman. I am immediately identified as a target simply because I have two X chromosomes. Even before the events that I linked to above came to light, I knew that sexism in sports was there, I knew. But just how bad it really is didn't hit me until today. It shouldn't have been a shock, because I've argued with men over the rules of hockey when they're wrong, and they don't believe me, because I have boobs. We look it up, and shocker! I'm right, but am I given credit for that? No.

I've had a cousin who doesn't watch hockey at all, asks me if I know who Patrick Kane is while I'm watching the Blackhawks play the Wings.

I've answered questions at the rink, and gotten looks of stunned disbelief that the chick in heeled boots knows what's going on.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I actually hesitated at the thought of writing this post, because I am afraid of the backlash. Terrified, actually. But am I any better than the author of the Jian Ghomeshi article if I don't speak up?

I also frequently will write up a tweet or forum post, or whatever, and pause before clicking send/publish/submit. Because a) I don't want to make an idiot of myself and b) if this is shared by someone to the wrong person, am I in danger?

The fact that I have to think about part b in 2014 is depressing. Everywhere should be safe. I should be able to rant about how terrible the reffing has been this season without wondering if I'm going to be told that I don't know what I'm talking about, no matter how right I am. I should be able to profess my undying love for Pavel Datsyuk and his incredible talent on the ice without wondering if I will be taken less seriously if I do.

That's not the reality that we live in. The reality is that I can shout back, all women can shout back, but shouting back can make it worse. Every morning we wake up, shake off the dust of yesterday's awfulness and hope that more allies come out to support us, that more people will realize how wrong they are in their misogynistic views. We tell ourselves it's going to get worse before it gets better, and at the moment, the outlook is feeling pretty dim.

Better days need to be coming, because right now, the weight of the world is on our shoulders, and we can bend.

Please don't make us snap.

What Not to Say: A Collection

2014-11-01T22:57:00.000-04:00

There are certain times in someone's life where some serious shit is going down.

This is one of those for me. A few months ago, Adam and I decided to part ways. No details will be shared here, because it is not my way to air dirty laundry in public, but know it is amicable, and know that eventually, we will be ok.

Because of this major life event that is happening, I've had a lot of conversations with various people, and all of whom have had very different reactions. Dumbfounded, shocked, and stunned seem to be the most common. Apologetic, angry, depressed, are also common. One very special person in my life thought I was joking, I reassured her I was not, then she joined the flabbergasted camp.

Everyone has their guesses as to why, but really it's no one's business. Coming through this has shown me that, even though divorce is much more common these days, many don't know how to speak to the person going through this, especially if it is amicable and no one has done anything wrong to make the other person leave. This seems to be the biggest stumbling block for people.

Based on my experiences, here is a collection of things not to immediately assume or say to someone who is getting divorced. All of these things have actually been asked of me.

1. Asking if one of them is gay.

Amicable does not immediately mean that one of them is gay. If one of them is, kudos to them! But if the person you are asking is, and isn't ready to come out yet, you've just put them on the spot. You're asking them to trust you with a part of their identity that they may not be ready to share with you yet, if they ever do. And, given that you're asking them this giant question when they are already going through one of the hardest things they've ever had to, doesn't inspire much confidence in them to share that with you.

2. Affairs

As with many of the items listed here, it is totally possible that this is why a couple might be splitting up. But, again, it's none of your business if this is the case. If the person you are talking to is the one who has been cheated on, you're asking them to share something that is most likely humiliating to them. And, if you're talking to the person who had the affair, it's still probably not something they are going to share with you. Chances are that they already feel bad enough about it, and don't want to make it worse for the person they cheated on the next time that other person sees you.

3. Is it about kids?

Not everyone in this world wants to procreate, and that's ok. If it is about kids, that's about as sensitive a subject as you can get. What if they can't have kids? What if they lost a child and didn't share that information with you, but now, how do they explain it to you? They shouldn't have to. Now you've drudged up horrible memories for this person while they are already in a sensitive place. I know that's not what people are intending when asking this question, but you need to be cognizant of that before you ask if it's about kids.

4. I'm sorry.

You might want to apologize to them. That's a pretty normal reaction. Please keep it to yourself until you can discern whether or not that's something they actually want to hear. If it's the right choice, even if it's hard, and it sucks, somehow, you saying sorry may make the person feel like you're invalidating their choice, like in some way it was the wrong thing for them to do, even if it's not. The better thing to say here is to ask, "Should I say, 'I'm sorry'?" Then, if the answer is yes, feel free to say I'm sorry as much as you want.

5. Advice

Unless they explicitly ask you for advice, hold your tongue. No. Keep it in your brain. You may think you know, but you do not. You may think you're helping, but you are not. It is not your marriage, you are not in it, your advice is not wanted unless it is asked for. Period. End of story.

6. Asking for more notice

This choice sucks. This decision sucks. When you ask to have been given a sign or notice that something was wrong, you are making the situation about you. It is not about you. It is about the person grieving in front of you, asking for support. You may have wanted more notice, but it's too late for that now.

7. If the person says that they don't want to talk about it, don't.

If you feel the need to talk about it, ask the person's permission to talk to someone you trust about it, or go see a therapist. Respect their wishes. They are going through the roughest part of the storm, not you. You need to be there for them to have a shoulder to cry on, and for you to give your support to. If you don't think you can be supportive, tell them (nicely) that you don't support their decision and that they need to talk to someone else. It's kind of a dick move to say that to someone, but I would rather have someone say that to me than ask me eighty billion questions, trying to get me to talk about something I really don't feel like talking about.

8. Is there any chance of fixing it?

No. No. No. If there was, they wouldn't be telling you that they are getting divorced. Even if they end up fixing it, you asking won't make them think, "Oh, wow! You're so right! I can totally fix this!"

9. The right decision isn't the easy decision.

This decision sucks, even if it's a mutual choice to end the marriage, or if one spouse understands why the other spouse is leaving. It is a horrible thing to go through and amicable doesn't mean easy.

What someone who tells you this news is looking for is support, love, and understanding.

They're looking for someone who will ask, "What do you need from me?" or "How can I help you?"

That's what someone in this position needs.

"I'm here for you, whatever you need."

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

2014-11-01T15:35:00.001-04:00

Photo used under Creative Commons from Silver*Rose

We are coming up to my favorite time of year!

The holidays, the gorgeous snow, the happiness and joy of the changing of the seasons.

I love this time of year. LOVE IT. I have a snowflake necklace, earrings, decorations. The chill in the air, sweaters, sweater dresses, snow angels, snowmen, and, most importantly, hockey.

Aaaaaaaand then last winter happened. Last winter in Michigan was absolutely horrendous. It has completely killed my love of snow. Which really sucks. Because as you can tell from the above, I frickin' loved this time of year.

I was really hoping that the despair and spite I was feeling towards winter in March would dissipate by November. Well, it's the first of November, and I am still thinking "UGH, Snow."

I am hoping that a mild winter is coming our way, so that maybe by the time fall 2015 rolls around, I will be more excited for snow. I miss being excited for this time of year.* :(

I am hoping that I am not alone.

*This doesn't apply to hockey. I am still ridiculously thrilled that the season has started. And, oh my god, did you see last night's Wings game?! WHAT.

Future Finished Basement Decor

2014-09-06T19:26:00.000-04:00

Some facts to start us off.

I am a huge Detroit Red Wings fan.
I have a giant basement that I am working on turning into "The Wings Zone"
I have been in love with Datsyuk since I was 14. Not really relevant, but important all the same.

So, keeping those in mind. Here is my basement. Please ignore the mess, big storms here last night and I was trying to corral the dogs while we waited out the storms.

That's a lot of blank wall to fill, and it took some time to come up with the perfect idea. The winning choice? A team photo from every single Stanley Cup win the Wings have ever had, as well as a pennant from every one as well.

Which is a FABULOUS idea. (In case you were wondering) The only problem is that the merchandising really wasn't there for the first seven Cups the Wings took home. I could get into a whole debate about over-merchandising, but no.

I started my search for the pennants last year, and I gave up, well, today. But I was able to procure pennants for 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008 when I started searching last summer. If pennants exist for the first seven, and you have one you're willing to part with, let me know. Please. I promise money and cookies of your choice.

So, after one last search this morning on the Ebay machine, I fully decided to put my mad crafty skillz to work. I've never been a whiz at Photoshop or Illustrator, but I thought I would try getting my ideas down digitally this time, before rushing off to buy felt to make these bad boys.

For those keeping track, the pennants I need to design and create are 1936, 1937, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955. I want these to be as authentic as possible, so I hit up SportsLogos.net to get the varying logos as they've gone through since becoming the Detroit Red Wings in 1932. (Not familiar with their history? Check out a brief written history here)

Since I didn't have to redraw their logos, all I had to worry about was the font. I went with American Typewriter (I'm using CS4, which is also why there is white behind each pennant, my copy doesn't let me save as a PNG). It gives it a nice classic feel, but won't be an exact match to the font or fonts that the Wings may or may not have been using then. (This avoids heated discussions with people who have a greater opinion on this than I do :) )

For the first two (1936, 1937) I decided to use the logo that (according to Sports Logos) was only used in 1932-1934. I chose to do this for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to, they're mine and I'm going to have to look at them when I'm making them and hanging out in my basement. Second, variety. I wanted to have as much of the Wings history represented in my epic basement.

I only used the logo that the Wings used 1934-1948 once, for their 1943 Stanley Cup win. I'm not a big fan of this particular version, but, traditionalist here. Plus, desire for variety and complete representation, I included it.

With the 1950 pennant, you might have noticed that I went from a black binding to white. If you look at the pennants I bought, you'll see that there are three with black binding and one with red. Given that I have a solid red background for all of these, having a red binding seemed silly, but I wanted to keep the trend of three black, one in a different color. So, white it is.

In 1948 the Wings adopted their current logo and haven't changed since, with the exception of special cases like Winter Classics, etc. So the rest of the logos will be the same, but varying sizes.

I tried to make each one a little different, but wanted to keep it simple, since I will be cutting these out and sewing them down. I really like how they all came together and each have some spunk and individuality from each other.

I feel like I had a very productive day, getting these designed. Next step, getting enough felt and getting these put together. I am under no impression that I might not change or twiddle with something as I am making them. Because I frequently twiddle with anything and everything when I'm working on a project. Let's just hope that I don't screw it up when I do!

But, I mentioned earlier that this won't be complete without the team photos from every Stanley Cup team. Well, here is where the Ebay machine didn't fail me! I managed to find an 8x10 of every. single. Wings. Cup. team. YES!

I'll post as I make the pennants, as well as the final products as I finish them. Then, of course, the hanging of all the awesome on my basement wall. Which will be awhile, mold and water problems... woo!

Huge thanks to SportsLogos.net for having what I needed to make digital design much easier, and to Clark at DetroitHockey.net for his input on the designs, validating that what I thought looked good didn't, in actuality, suck.

I am going to go insane.

2013-10-28T09:59:00.000-04:00

This latest knee problem is making it impossible to run and do anything physical. Even taking stairs hurts.

Not being able to be active is driving me insane.

That's the thing about getting in an active groove, you get addicted.

And now I'm losing my mind not being able to be active.

I miss yoga. And running.

AND EVERYTHING!

ugh.

Fitness!

2013-10-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

Hello, friends!

A group that I'm a part of on Facebook that posted and asked what we do at home for fitness. Then I shared SO much, I thought, "Wow! I should make this into a blogpost!"

So I did, with some reformatting for the site!

Free things I do for fitness:

1. I run with a friend in the park.

2. We take our dog to the dog park.

3. I also do 25 of the following all in a row. Some of these I don't know the name so I make it up. Holla in the comments if you want me to clarify.

sit ups
crunches
reverse crunches
elbow to knee crunches (both sides)
side crunches-both sides
lay on your back with your feet in the air

do straight up toe touches
cross your feet do cross toe touches
switch your feet and do more toe touches
push ups.

There are also a couple apps I recommend a couple apps (I have an Android) that are good:

Running:
1. C25K - This app is really good for getting you started. It pushes you just enough that you're like, whaaaaat? I can't do that, but then you do it, and you're like, yaaaaay! The link is to the free version, but I think the pro version is worth it.

2. Zombie 5K Training - Just a twist to the normal 5K running app. Fun! There was a cost to the app, but I can't remember, I got it on sale after the new year...

3. Runner Academy - It's a podcast for runners of all types, and it's really inspiring. There's also a metronome to help you stay on your cadence. Full disclosure: the host is a friend of mine.

4. RunKeeper - This can be used for other exercise tracking as well, but obviously, by the name, their main focus is running. It pairs well with the Polar Heart Rate Monitors. One of the best investments I made was the HR monitor.

5. Polar Wear Link Bluetooth Transmitter Set (Medium/XX-Large)
Targeted Fitness Apps:
1. Daily Workouts (free) - these are all targeted to specific parts of the body. It's timed and they fit in tight schedules pretty well.

Abs
Arms
Butt
Cardio
Legs

2. Pocket Yoga - three different length workouts for three different settings (dessert, beach and mountain)

3. Headspace - it's a meditation app that I use. It's really a great way to help focus yourself. I recommend doing it sitting up though... I have a tendency to fall asleep.

Tracking/Rewards

1. MyFitnessPal - I've used several different free tracking apps, but this one is my favorite that is free. What they offer is fabulous for the fact that it is FREE.

2. EveryMove - this app is GREAT. You enter your activity and earn points toward rewards. Right now I am earning points toward a donation to Make-A-Wish. You can also earn toward jewelry, fitness equipment, gym memberships and other gift cards. It's pretty amazing!

Well, that's what I got, I hope it helps you out!

---*UPDATE*---

I can't believe that I forgot the #1 thing that I always have with me, no matter what I am doing, fitness or otherwise! My RoadID.

Sometimes bad things happen. And if or when they do, you are going to want to have ID on you, but it's not always easy to carry carded identification. RoadID fixes that problem for you. From their website:

As you can see, it's something personal for the company, and I fully believe in their mission and the ideals that they uphold. If I lived in Kentucky, I would totally apply to work for them. I just ordered a slim band to replace my sport, with some sweet badges to go along with it. I'll post a picture when it arrives this week!

This is not a sponsored post.

Awesome Sauce Tinkering

2013-03-30T11:22:00.003-04:00

The things you discover when you noodle!

I have two gmail accounts and I have recently been using the second one a little bit more, such that, I have need to actually monitor it a little closer. For silly reasons, like people generally finding it rude if you ignore their emails and fail to respond for a month. (Shocking, I know!)

Although Google does have an "add an account" capability, that allows you to run two Google accounts in the same browser, there are some hiccups when it comes to using other Google services. I don't use the other services very often on this secondary email, so I wanted another solution that would do what I really want Google to do. What I want Google to do, is for a user to be able to use the multiple inbox feature to have multiple gmail inboxes in one screen, not just divide your inbox by labels, filters or what have you.

So. My solution.

First, I went into the settings[1] of the second email (example@gmail.com) and set up mail forwarding to the first email[2] (me@gmail.com). I also set up the forward to automatically mark forwarded email as read[3].

After following the steps to verify that I own both accounts, I set up a filter in me@gmail.com with the "to" parameter as the address of the example@gmail.com. This filter automatically labels all forwarded email and archives it as soon as it hit my inbox.

Make sure you select to apply the filter to however many matching conversations have already been forwarded from example@gmail.com, or you're not going to do an easy search based on the label/filter later.

Here is where the magic happens. Enter settings, labs, and enable multiple inboxes on me@gmail.com. You should look through some of the other really cool stuff the labs team has done. Like, ridiculous amounts. I'll wait. Ok, now, make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom and click save.

Then, go back into settings at the "Multiple Inboxes" tab and delete the automatic fields that are there and enter label:example in Panel 0. I want the second inbox to be below my me@gmail.com inbox, so I select that option and click save.

Then more magic happens. Click on "Accounts and Import." Then under "Send mail as" I added example@gmail.com, and verified (again) that I owned the accounts I was trying to send mail as. After that is verified, then a fancy little thing shows up.

You can reply from the email that the message was sent to. So, for instance, I get an email to example@gmail.com, and I get it at the me@gmail.com address through the system I just set up. I can click reply while still in the me@gmail account, and it will send the email as though I am signed in as example@gmail. Without signing into the other account. Ever. Brilliant. And, if you click compose, in the "from" field, it automatically enabled a drop down that allows you to choose which email address you want to send the email from.

There are still some issues to work out, for example, handling the email that is sitting in example@gmail.com, marked as read. I suppose it will have to be a learning process where I add filters for incoming mail as I get it, so gmail can delete it if it's X, or archive it if it's Y, but once that is all settled, it's going to be a nice little operation.

Another issue is that the only way for me to no longer see the messages in the second inbox for example@gmail.com that I have read is to delete the label that was assigned to them upon landing in my inbox, or delete the email itself, which I may not want to do.

Google does all kinds of awesome stuff, so hopefully they will come up with a solution for the issue. Or just make this work-around redundant by enabling what I just did with two clicks and a verification in multiple inboxes!

---

Speaking of awesome, have you checked out Google Keep yet? It's like Evernote and Google Tasks had a baby.

---

More awesome is the program that I used to create these screenshots, Snagit.

Full disclosure, Adam works at TechSmith, and Snagit was used for the creation of these lovely screen shots. The heinous editing is all mine, however, and I was not compensated in anyway for this post by Google or TechSmith for the use of Snagit or the plugging of their stuff. I just think it's awesome.

Whoa! Who's That Chick?!

2012-09-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

Whew! It's been a bit of a whirlwind since I posted that I wouldn't be blogging for awhile.

After the break-in it was rather jarring and hard to calm down and be excited about anything. But it was really easy to be upset about a lot of things. So here is a re-cap of the good and the bad things that happened since I last blogged.

After the break-in we were scrambling around to protect our identities because one of the laptops that was stolen had our recently completed taxes on them, as well as some other documents that were useable for stealing identities. We also had to clean up the mess they left behind, then the mess the police made trying to help catch the guy.

Adam had recently decided to leave working on his PhD full time and find a job. He was on an interview when the bastards broke in in February. A month later he was offered all three jobs that he interviewed for, and he accepted the place he was most excited about. I'm very happy to report that he loves his job and he can't imagine being anywhere else. He can't believe that he's been there 6 months already.

In March I was selected to interview at a non-profit. At the end of March they offered me the job and I accepted. It is a great job, a new position, and I love it. It's a very small office but we are doing good work. I've been there for 5 months and I can't believe it either! We're doing a lot of exciting things and hopefully there will be room for even more expansion soon!

Around the same time however, we learned some bad news. My Dad had been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer sucks. They caught it very early and he's going to be fine. At his last check he was cancer free. So, he's been cancer free for close to four months now.

Once Adam accepted the offer for his job, we started looking for a house. We found one, made an offer, then another, the second offer was accepted and after many issues with our loan officer being incompetent, we closed on a single story ranch house with a full basement in a suburb of Lansing on Adam's birthday. It is a fantastic house and we love living here. How we moved in was very complicated, because we had planned to stay out our lease at our rental house on Lansing's east side.

And then it was burglarized again.

The second burglary happened the Monday after Adam's birthday, which also was the Monday after we closed on the house. We didn't spend another night in the house. We stayed with some friends in East Lansing for two weeks, and moved out the Saturday after the second break-in, and into a storage unit and into the sun room of our new house. The former owners were kind enough to let us move a bunch of our stuff into the sun room while they were still living here. After two weeks with our friends, we decided we didn't want to impose on our friends for too long, because we weren't sure when we'd be able to get into the new house. So we moved into a dog friendly hotel near our new house for two weeks.

Thanks to my father-in-law, we had installed a security camera system after the first break-in and were able to give the footage to the police which aided them in catching the kid who broke in. I can't say anything else because the court case is still in progress.

It was a very stressful time in our lives and we are glad to be past it.

We've been living here for four months and I think it's starting to sink in that we get to be here, that this place is ours (and the credit union's) and we just can't believe it. We are close to being done with furnishing the house, and there are curtains and shelves up and as many candles as I can get in!

Unfortunately, during this time, I also learned that a childhood friend was losing her second battle with cancer. This has been incredibly hard on her, her family and friends and I am kind of in shock. You don't expect to lose friends when you're 25. I hope that she beats this thing every day, but I cry a lot about it too, when I'm not in numb shock. Cancer really sucks.

That pretty much sums up the highs and lows of the last 6-ish months. I am hoping to get back on a regular schedule of blogging, but it won't be 5 days a week. I also have to fix how this blog looks in Chrome on Mac, because it looks funky.

Hug your loved ones, and tell them you care.

Here's a cute picture of Tesla.

A Break for Awhile

2012-02-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

I know that I haven't been posting a lot lately, and no where near as much as when I first started Fondant is Gross. Life has been kind of crazy for me and I haven't quite managed to find a balance yet.

I also need to have some time to re-think about what I write about and what I put on the internet in general.

Three weeks ago today, our rental house was broken into. Many things were taken, but we were relatively lucky. No one was hurt, and Tesla is fine even though she was loose in the house when it happened. We also have several family things going on and it's just time for something to give. I am tired of feeling guilty for not updating this more, so, I am taking a break from blogging until I can get my head on straight.

I will still update my weight stats when I can and I hope to be back soon doing full posts.

Take care of yourselves and we'll talk soon.

Jenny

Pinterest, where have you been all my life?

2012-01-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

I recently decided to find out what Pinterest is all about and asked a friend for an invite.

Huge mistake, I am now addicted. ADDICTED I TELL YOU. It's such a wonderful way to keep ideas in a fun way. I don't know about you, but I bookmark stuff in my browser and pretty much forget about it. Like, immediately. But not only do I go through and pin neat stuff, but I go back and do them. And, it spurs my own creativity! I love it!

For example, I have seen a number of re-purposed canvas shoe organizers. One that was used to hold cleaning supplies and one that someone used to grow an herb garden! Both of those ideas are so smart and made me start thinking.

My house is 400 square feet. This is not a joke. So space is prime real estate. We have kind of been collecting an amalgamation of sorts on top of the spice racks. Which are on top of the microwave. Which is on top of the fridge.

This is after I cleaned everything up. I did not want to unclean it up for a before and after picture, sorry. (Say hi to Adam who's finishing submitting a paper, "Hi Adam!")

After seeing genius re-purposing of shoe organizers, I had a brilliant idea of my own! We have three doors in our kitchen. One to the back deck, one to the basement and one to the bathroom. The back of the door to the basement was just sitting there, a blank canvas, waiting to be useful.

So.......

(How do you like the quilt batting shoved into the crack on the right? Keeps it much warmer upstairs!)

Ta-da!

I took anything that was in a random place in the kitchen and put it in here.

All of my Weight Watchers snacks, coffee filters, our asinine amount of tea, equally asinine amount of popcorn and many other things are all neatly labeled and in their spots. I felt so accomplished! Usually, for some reason, I leave my organizational COD at work but I brought it home and I don't want to stop! As full time work still eludes me, I can only do it a little at a time. Also, the basement is not a finished basement. And it's winter. In Michigan. So it's cold and I don't go down there for long periods at the moment. But, I will get there, and you will know it when I do!

The floppy pieces of paper are only temporary. I tried making my own adhesive plastic cases to stick on each pocket, but the contact paper wasn't sticky enough. So tomorrow I am headed to Jo-Ann's coupons in hand (50% off, woo!) to get some thin plastic that I am going to be sewing on so that it's as easy to change the label on the pocket as it is the contents.

I leave you with more pictures of my DIY, of which I am so proud!

A liiiittle closer

Oatmeal!

See? Asinine amounts of popcorn. And my lunch bag.

Temporary labels fastened with paper clips.

Aaaaand what I came back to find after taking pictures. Stinker.

If you would like to join me in my addiction, shoot me an email through the contact me link in the side bar.

Love and hugs!

P.S. To all of the traffic coming from sopastrike.com, welcome, and I hope we continue to be successful in shelving SOPA and PIPA. Poke around and I hope you find something to keep bringing you back.

Think before you rate

2012-01-05T14:03:00.001-05:00

There are so many places to rate things in today's world. You rate apps on your smart phone, products on Amazon and store websites, music in iTunes, Amazon MP3 and what have you.

I think it's great to have so many places for consumer reviews about things so that if there is truly something awful about a product, others should be saved the same problems and pains that the reviewer had.

However, there are several things you should keep in mind when you are rating things.

1. Never, never, never, NEVER give something a low rating because the app or product does what it describes but not what you wanted. That is lame and low. And stupid. If it's an app, then e-mail the developer and say, "Hey, I think this app is cool, but it would be cooler if it would do _______." Most developers I know like getting the feedback and just want to be able to give the customer what they want. But giving them a 1 star rating out of 5 because it does what it says, but not what you want it to, is lame and it skews the overall rating which might lead to someone who might benefit from that app or product to not buy it because of the overall rating. Which leads me to number 2.

2. Don't buy something based on the overall ratings. Read the reviews. Especially the bad ones to see if the low star rating was actually something that deserved a low rating or if the rater is being stupid and not following rule #1.

3. If you truly have an issue with a product or app, don't just give it a low rating and not say why. That's the chicken's way out. And, you know those little buttons that say "Send Feedback" or "Give Feedback" or "Holla at me bro!" They really mean it. So send them feedback! I have sent feedback to many developers, including Astrid and Google - and they fixed the problem! It's not shocking, they want their customers to be happy!

4. Just use some common sense. Some of these "big developers" are just individual programmers trying to make a product for people to love and use, and maybe supplement their income while in school or working a low or non-paid internship. If you wouldn't say it to their face, don't say it in type. Which is a good rule to live by in any case.

Now get out there an leave thoughtful reviews that help everyone!

Happy New Year! 2012 Edition

2012-01-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

I guess I'll follow suit and write about the New Year today....

I am so glad to kick 2011 out the door. There were some wonderful highs, but mostly the year was a turbulent ride of lows. In the last few days of 2011, various memories of the year were flashing through my head, and to say good bye to 2011, I want to share a few with you.

My Dad, next to my Mom's hospital bed, holding her hand, just looking at her, watching, make sure she would get everything that she needed.

My Mom, standing up at my graduation when they asked all the parents of the graduates to stand! I love you, Mom!

Finally finishing college and earning my second degree!

Many, many memories of my wonderful trip to Ireland. My first flight, the gorgeous landscape in Doolin and the busy streets of Dublin. What a wonderful trip, and I look forward to doing more travel in Europe in the future!

Moving into Spartan Village (bad)

Moving out of SV and into our house (good!)

A friend of mine being diagnosed with cancer for the second time.

My maternal grandpa having some health issues.

My paternal grandpa being diagnosed with cancer for the third time.

Running in my first official 5K!

Adam passing out on me after crashing his bike.

Riding my first 100 mile ride (century)!

Courtney got married!

Making my 10% weight loss (again)!

Being unemployed

Finding a temp job that I love!

And adopting the mostest adorablest dog, evar!

-----

Now that that's done, things I hope to happen in 2012!

I am within range that if I stick to it, I will be at my goal weight sometime in 2012. Probably not by my birthday, but close. I am so excited. Even though many people think 135 lbs is too low for me, it is smack dab in the middle of my healthy range for my height. I plan to try to get to 135 lbs, and if I can't maintain that, then I will be more than happy to gain a bit to stick around in the 140s. Unfortunately, I will probably be able to gain that easier than Adam is able to put on the weight he needs to put on...

And job stuff. That I can't talk about yet.

No hospital visits needed for anyone! (Except birthin' babies, that's ok. And no, I'm NOT pregnant)

Some monetary goals that Adam and I have.

Also, Lions should win the Superbowl!

Just have fun.

2012, let's have some healthy, good, old-fashioned fun!

http://departments.bloomu.edu/solve/img%5CKidsFun.jpg

"Every day is full of opportunities, how will you make a difference today?" -DB

Merry Christmahannukwanzaa! And a Happy New Year!

2011-12-27T20:40:00.001-05:00

I hope you are taking a minute to appreciate those you love around you.

Happy Holidays from the Jensens: Adam, Jenny and Tesla!

Tips and Tricks - How I Got Here

2011-12-02T20:04:00.000-05:00

*Author’s Note: This is really long, but well worth the time to read!*
------
To stay motivated this week in my persistent campaign to finally get to my 10%, I have been reading success stories on weightwatchers.com. It has really motivated me to keep on keepin’ on. It’s so wonderful to read just a small number of success stories and know there are so many more that they can’t possibly share them all! I can’t wait to be one of the success stories someday soon, whether I finally write my whole journey here to you lovely people, or if I get to be on their website!

Although I am about half way through my journey to goal, I want to share some tricks and tips I have found immensely helpful along the way. If I gain or stall in my weight loss, I usually haven’t been following what I know works for me.

1) My Husband, Adam.

I wanted to put him first, because I want you all to know how supportive he is. I didn’t want you to get bored reading this before I could tell you how wonderful he’s been this whole time.

I was very nervous about going to a meeting. I knew it was time for a change, but I had a weird sense of trepidation, and a little disappointment in myself for not being able to drop the weight by myself. I asked Adam to go with me, and with him being so ridiculously skinny with his cheetah metabolism, he didn’t want to actually go into the meeting and sat in the car. Such a wonderful man. He ended up sitting in the car for I think an hour and a half in the middle of March. Weight Watchers was doing a ‘try a meeting free!’ promotion at the time so I went to the meeting, the new member orientation and then looked around the meeting area for awhile, then I went out and talked to him about all of the pricing options and what would be the best option for us financially. Then I went back inside for a little longer to finish the paperwork and what not.

He stayed the whole time.

The moment that exactly how supportive he is hit me when we were talking about groceries this week, we have a ton of leftover turkey (which is what happens when you have a 17 lb bird to feed 7 people) and he asked the simple question of: “Are there any Weight Watchers recipes that we could try to put the turkey in?”

Honestly, I stared at him for a second before I answered him. I am so glad that I have him as my partner for life. I am so spectacularly lucky to have him. Thank you for your never-ending love and support, babe.

2) Several Food-related Tips

-Snacking

Responsible snacking between meals is so important! You may want to try and just eat 3 square meals a day, but sometimes that just isn’t enough. Obviously, if you just ate and you are reaching for the snack box, that’s not quite what I’m talking about. If you’re hungry and it’s been more than an hour since you ate til you’re satisfied and it’s still going to be an hour or more until your next meal, eat a small snack. If you wait until the next meal and you sit down to eat ravenous, you are more likely to over eat.

You have a couple options of what to do when that mid-afternoon grumble hits your belly. One is fruits and veggies. All fruits and most veggies (check before you bite it!) are 0 Points Plus. They leave you fuller longer, so work them into your meals more, and then if when mid-afternoon hunger strikes, eat a fruit or veggie! Like Michael Pollen says, “If you’re not hungry enough to eat an apple, you’re not hungry.”

But what if you don’t have any fruits or veggies handy? I keep 3 PP bags of pretzels EVERYWHERE. They are on top of my fridge, in my desk drawer at work, in my purse – everywhere. I also keep a couple of other low point options available as well. I currently am in love with the Weight Watchers Multigrain Ranch Crisps. Those things are delicious! Which leads to another choice: sometimes if you’re thirsty you think you’re hungry. So drink water first. If drinking water doesn’t solve it, I eat half a bag of the pretzels or crisps and then wait to see how I feel. If I need to, I will eat the rest of the bag, but I wait and survey my body’s signals before I do that.

Also, to avoid the morning munchies, I take my breakfast to work with me. I work in a very busy office and only being able to grab a bite between phone calls helps slow me down and I am full til lunch!

-Gum

If all else fails, chew gum. It keeps your mouth busy, and as my Mom always said, “It tricks your stomach into thinking that you’re eating!”

-Savor the Flavor

Sometimes the rich food is worth it. As I have posted (here and here) about how much I love the holiday season, I can’t not indulge in a little eggnog, but even the low fat stuff is still high points. So I have these really tiny glasses I use for high point stuff like ice cream and eggnog. When I have that tiny glass of eggnog it’s a little more plan friendly and then when I take a sip I really let it roll over my tongue, I really luxuriate in the richness of the flavor and the texture on my tongue. Don’t let it sit there too long, because warm eggnog isn’t as good as ice cold!

Love the full fat salad dressings like Cesar and Ranch? Yeah, me too. One of my favorite tips that I have picked up is when you order the dressing on the side, don’t dip the salad pieces in, you’ll still get more than the serving size. Just dip the fork. Then stab the lettuce and let the yumminess roll in. It wasn’t until I learned this that I really understood why you order dressing on the side. I mean, I would order it on the side and then pour it on myself. Still way too much!

-Track it!

I make my lunch the night before, so I don’t have quite as rushed of a morning since I get up early and work out. Since I already know what I am having, I sit down and enter it the night before. I also go through phases where I have the same thing for breakfast every day for awhile. Usually seasonal, for example in the winter I usually have oatmeal with cut up fruit (current fruit: peaches. Yum.) And in the summer I have a berry-yogurt parfait. Sometimes that gets boring and I have cereal instead. Anyway, so I try and track the night before what I am having for breakfast and lunch. And if Adam and I are on top of things, I usually know what I’m going to have for dinner the next day too, so I track basically my entire day the night before! It’s great because I know exactly how many points I have to spend on snacks the next day if I get the belly grumbles.

-Find out what’s worth it to you

I love the Subway Club, it’s 6 points without any dressing or cheese. But to me it’s worth the extra points to have mayo and pepperjack cheese. And I still get almost all of the veggies put on there. (Olives and the really, really hot peppers are a no-no!)

I also love Jimmy John’s. But that stuff is expensive point-wise! So I usually have them cut the number 5 in half, go light on the mayo and have half for lunch and half for dinner or vice versa.

I have a terrible sweet tooth, so to me, some of the sweet stuff is totally worth it, I just portion it out. Example: pumpkin pie. I cut it up into super tiny pieces to make it fewer points per slice. And only have one slice instead of two or three!

-Try New Recipes

My current meeting leader says, “It’s not worth it to waste points on bad food.”

You are not going to like everything you try and that’s ok. Sometimes that happens. But don’t eat something mediocre just because it’s there.

At the same time, however, just because you don’t like one Weight Watchers recipe, doesn’t mean that they all suck. Keep trying them! You don’t have to favorite every single recipe you try. This whole process is trial and error!

-Post weigh in Twilight Zone

One of the leaders that Weight Watchers featured on their site talked about this Twilight Zone after weigh in some of her members had before they “thought” their points reset.

This had never occurred to me. To avoid this, I weigh in on the day my points reset. I don’t eat breakfast before I weigh in on Saturday and I reset my points on Saturday, so the breakfast I eat at the meeting is the first thing that gets entered in the new week. Boom, no ‘Twilight Zone’.

3) Everyone’s different than everyone else, and who they were 4, 8 or 12 years ago

Everyone is different, you can’t hear that enough. I am lucky enough to carry my weight very well, and when I tell people how much I weighed when I joined Weight Watchers, or even now, they can’t believe it. “You don’t look like you need to lose weight!” “No way you weigh that much!” Well, my BMI says I’m obese, I’m not happy with how I feel and yes, I do. The four different scales I stepped on before joining Weight Watchers all were within 1-2 lbs of each other. It doesn’t help me get healthy when people say things like that. I find them highly unsupportive.

Not everyone processes food the same way either. My husband and I are the perfect example of that. He can eat whatever he wants and not gain a pound (though he wants to) but I have to watch what I eat, especially carbs. Which sucks, because I love carbs. I would eat a different kind of pasta and garlic bread every night of the week if I could still be a healthy weight!

You are a different person now than you were last year, 4 years ago or 10 years ago. I changed enough from when I was 18 and able kick 50 lbs to the curb by myself to when I was 22 trying to lose and only gaining doing the same thing I did when I was 18. If you can’t do it by yourself, IT’S OKAY. I can’t, I need the support and accountability that a weekly weigh in and meeting give me. I couldn’t do it on my own, and online didn’t work for me, so every week I go to my meeting, I weigh in and I stay and absorb what they have to offer. I’m paying for it, so why shouldn’t I?

4) Weigh-ins

Same time, same day, every week. Your weight flucuates quite a bit, so you want to be able to get an accurate weigh-in every week.

Wear the same clothes every week if possible. A pair of jeans can weigh up to 3 lbs!

5) I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it! I like to: MOVE IT!

You don’t have to go to the gym. Sure sometimes, that’s fun to do, or that’s what it will take, but not
always. Walk more. Walk in place during the commercials of your favorite T.V. show. Watching a movie? Get up and march in place for 10 minutes, then sit for 20. And for those 20 minutes? Sit on a stability ball that you need to control with your awesome muscles to stay upright.

Get a pedometer. I like my Weight Watchers one because it counts steps, miles, Intense and All Day Activity Points, has a stop watch, date and time. But the activity tracker in e-tools also has a spot where you can put in how many steps you took that day and it will give you the number of activity points you earned.

Find an activity that you love, and step it up a notch. Take a class at a gym, get some home work out DVDs, whatever works for you. Just get out and move it!

What about you? Do you have any handy tips or tricks for being on Weight Watchers, or doing any weight loss program whatsoever?

***This is not paid for by Weight Watchers, the entirety of this post is made up of my own opinions and experiences with Weight Watchers. For more information about Weight Watchers, visit weightwatchers.com or visit a meeting place near you.***

I'm Dreaming of a Whiiiiite Christmas!

2011-11-29T21:53:00.001-05:00

Tuesday I started writing about why I love the holiday season, so if you missed Part 1, you can read it here.

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I know they’re all kind of mixed together, the traditions and reasons why I love the holiday season, but bear with me, I tend to write as though I am having a conversation with myself. I am not crazy, promise. I don’t talk out loud to different selves while I write.

Anyway, another tradition I love is all of the Christmas specials. A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Clause is Coming to Town. I love them so much, that one year, I bought a couple of boxed sets that had those in them! With the exception of How the Grinch Stole Christmas which I bought separately, they were all in there. A Charlie Brown Christmas was actually in a boxed set with It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. So now the holiday movie tradition is to watch the Great Pumpkin on Halloween, CB Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving night. Of course, after hosting my first Thanksgiving this year, I almost slept through the whole thing.

While I was in school, Christmas break was a wonderful time to chill out, not deal with school and hang out with family. I loved that. Now that I am growed up, this will be the first Christmas that I don’t have 2-4 weeks off around the holidays. (I have 5 days this year, but I am perfectly ok with it, because it’s more than many others in the work force have and I am just glad to have a job at this point.) Those 4 weeks were mighty handy for our first 2 Christmases as a married couple. We spent a week at each family’s house, changing at noon-ish on Christmas Day. It worked out perfect.

We exchanged gifts just the two of us before we left to go family visiting in front of our tiny tree, and then we alternate whose house we are at on Christmas morning. For example, the first year we were married on Christmas we spent the week preceding Christmas, and Christmas morning with my parents and brothers. Then after a quick trip out to the grandparents’ house to see them and my Uncle and his family, we would head to the next town over to see his parents, sister and grandparents for the afternoon and the next week. It was really nice to be able to unwind and see everyone for a longer period of time than the 48-72 hours we would have otherwise on weekends home where we were trying to jam both families into a weekend, which is really hard when you’re as close to your family as we both are to ours.

It makes the holidays difficult, not being with our families as much as we would like this year. Both my sister-in-law and the older of my younger brothers now work in retail and the restaurant industry, respectively, so the time off they get is varied, and super hard to coordinate so that when my sister-in-law is at my in-laws so are we, and when my brother is at my parents so are we. Often they have the same time off as each other and we get them each for only 24 hours of the 48 they have off.

In spite of that little hitch of growing up, I still love getting to spend the holidays with family. We (Adam, Tesla and I) are all a family now, and so we are creating our own holiday memories too, which I hold equally as dearly!

When we hung lights outside on Friday, we tied Tesla up outside so she could wander around while we worked on our house.

I can't find the picture I took at night to go with it, so here is one that is pretty anyway! It turned out pretty good.

And we trimmed the tree...

All lit up!

See the pretty silver and white stocking? That one's mine :D

And hung a few light strands and garlands around the house.

Kitchen

Living room/TV stand

When we were living in Mount Pleasant, the apartment was oddly shaped so there were vast blank spaces. Well, around Christmas, I would have none of that. So I strung lights around the ceiling of the entire apartment. Hallway, office, living room, kitchen and dining room all had lights and silver garland strung up where ceiling met wall. On the entertainment center we don’t have any more, we strung a garland of fake greens twined with lights across the top. Fortunately, we were able to still use the same garland, but it’s a little bit modified to fit the smaller stand.

Basically, living in a smaller space has caused us to have a few strands of leftover lights, and A LOT of leftover silver garland. I could have strung them around the house along the ceiling, but it felt like overkill. I wanted it to be tasteful, but obvious, that we heart Christmas.

So, if you have any suggestions for what I can use the leftover lights and garland for, let me know!!

Happy Holiday decorating!

It's Beginning to Look (and sound!) a lot Like Christmas!

2011-11-29T21:47:00.001-05:00

I don’t know if y’all have heard the forecast for the Lansing area tonight and tomorrow and for several days after, but we are in for some storms!

I love snow. It’s pretty and fluffy and makes all of the trees that have lost their leaves beautiful again. And it means Christmas is coming! (*EDIT* We now have about 4")

I enjoy the Christmas season so much. I have wonderful fond memories of the Holiday season from my childhood and I have more that I have made since I moved out of my parents’ house.

Everyone is always just so happy and cheerful during the Holiday season. All smiles and glitter! I know that many people feel pressured to be happy around the holidays, but I do not. I am just so damn happy around the holidays! I am almost giddy with joy. I always hope that I infect as many people with my smiles and laughter around this time as I can, without being pushy. Sure, I have my ups and downs during the weeks around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but on the whole, I bounce back pretty easily because it’s Christmas.

There are many reasons I love this season, some of them new, some of them old, and some of them are now just awesome memories of a wonderful season.

One tradition growing up was that the house did not get decorated for Christmas in anyway until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Ever. And I loved that. I still love that. Now that I have a household of my own, I still wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate. Of course, I decorate on Friday instead of Saturday, because I am not patient in any sense of the word, but I wait. I also wait until after Thanksgiving to start listening to Christmas music. I tried listening to Christmas music early one year and it just felt weird. Waiting heightens the anticipation and excitement. The joy, the wonder! I think that goes for not just the music, but the decorations as well. So, for my Black Friday shopping I braved the crowds on Amazon to download 100 Christmas songs for $5. It was pretty harrowing – whew!

Another tradition/fond memory that I have from my childhood that I love to look back on, is the annual indoor hide and seek game. Every year, whatever leftover decorations from decorating the tree we had, lights, garland, etc., us kids would get to put in our rooms to bring a little Christmas cheer to our rooms too. After we hung all the decorations and put our snow globes out, we would wait for darkness to fall. Then, after dinner, my brothers and I would play Christmas Light Hide and Seek. Basically, it’s hide and seek in our house, upstairs, with the door to the upstairs closed and only the strands of lights in our rooms to see by. And the night light in the bathroom, but that doesn’t count.

We had so much fun playing that game. It was a great time for all. Sometimes we would play more than once a year, if we had friends over or something. With only the three of us, it wasn’t too much of a challenge and with extra people it got a little more complicated. I remember one time I hid in the bathtub, which isn’t a fantastic hiding spot, but I took a white sheet with me and stretched it out taught so that it would just look like the bottom of the tub if you didn’t look too closely. It worked. I loved it!

Another time, when my youngest brother was three or four, he hid between the sink and the bathtub in the shower curtains and we couldn’t find him for a half hour! We even went downstairs to check if he had hidden down there, even though it was an unwritten rule that downstairs was off-limits. (The stairs were fair game, but not a very good hiding spot!) Little stinker. And one of the times that I remember having a friend of Matthew’s over, he folded himself up and tucked himself under the table by the phone!

Good times, good times…..

When I was growing up we would always go to the decoration Sunday at the church I grew up in. When I was younger, I would hang with the kids while we did Christmas-y crafts in the Fellowship Hall and the adults would decorate the sanctuary and the annex. As I got into middle and high school I would kind of split my time between the two. I really enjoyed both activities, and fortunately, I kind of got to have my cake and eat it too. [Side note: I’ve never really understood where that phrase comes from. I obviously know what it means and how to use it, but it’s still weird.]

I also love going to Christmas Eve Services. The place is packed to the rafters and everyone is excited to see you, especially if you’re home from college for the holiday! And when the lights in the sanctuary are turned off and all you see are candles held aloft with the glow of the Advent candles and the Christmas tree behind the organ, it’s just magical while we sing ‘Silent Night’ a capella as a congregation.

Another tradition that has been modified since Adam and I have gotten married is watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” after the Christmas Eve Service. I got it on DVD so it’s pretty portable and last year Adam and I watched it on my laptop, I think. We were at his parents’ last year for Christmas morning.

Wow, I just looked over this post and it is massively long! Hm. I guess I will wrap it up and continue tomorrow with more!

What are some of your favorite pre-Christmas traditions? Why do you love (or hate) the holiday season?