Fondant Is Gross

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.

----

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?

Thankful (a little late)

2011-11-26T08:08:00.001-05:00

I am thankful for a lot this year, my mom still being here, and the rest of my family and my still semi-new in-law family.

For my amazing friends who I love so much. (Who I get to see a few of today!!)

For this wonderful tiny house that got us out of a bad place, in more than one way. And we have wonderful landlords who have been so great. Including leaving a bottle of bubbly in the fridge with a note welcoming us home on the day we moved in.

I am thankful for Weight Watchers. Yes, Weight Watchers. I have learned so much by going to those meetings. And there is something oddly comforting to going to meetings with people who are fighting the same demons that I am. And, with everything that I have learned since March 2010, I have lost 36.2 lbs. Today's Weigh-in not withstanding. I love to stare at the chart of my weight loss. It's so pretty! And I love the diagonal line going doooooooooown to the right! :D

I am thankful for the place I am in my life right now. I have a job, I have a wonderful family, friends and the best, most supportive husband in the world. I have a smart, adorable but needy dog. I have a house that I was able to decorate for Christmas yesterday! I have my health and food on the table.

And it's still looking up, even with Student Loans coming due!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Jensens and Tesla!

Changes I would make to Google Calendar if I were a Developer

2011-11-17T20:28:00.001-05:00

I love Google and their products. I think I’ve made that pretty clear. When they first started rolling out changes to their products, I was unsure about the new format of a lot of things. I had finally spent some time getting all of the services I use the most set up just the way I liked it.

But, trying to be less rigid, I switched early so that if I absolutely hated it, I could go back until they made me switch. Lo and behold, once I got used to it, I really liked it. The look is cleaner, more modern and I could keep my background image in Gmail.

Now for calendar. I have always loved Calendar, it’s a fantastic tool that my neurotic organizational side really loves on. Different colors for each calendar I have control over, plus different colors for each calendar that is shared with me? Um, yes please! Sharing with my nearest and dearest without having to make copies of my calendar and then call them with changes? Certainly! Smart Re-scheduler and the Free or Busy tool so I can find a time that works with everyone when I initially create an event; or have to re-schedule due to an unexpected conflict? AWESOME! I need to call my mom, but she’s in a meeting. Calendar tells me! Trying to find a weekend to go visit the parents or in-laws? Boom, done. I could go on like this for hours. I need help. Right, well, changes to the new calendar format.

Calendar as is, as of 18 November 2011

Based on my own desires out of Google Calendar and what I have read on forums about the recent changes, here are my suggestions. And please, feel free to chime in in the comments! If it’s a great suggestion, I’ll add it to the list!

1. Space

The number one thing I saw on forums (so Google Developers saw it too) was that a lot of people thought there was a lot of wasted space. I don’t use my calendar for work, so I didn’t really notice how much extra space there was that could really make the calendar area bigger with less intrusion from wasted white space until I looked hard at the layout after reading those comments.

So first, I suggest that you make the search box, when not actively typing in it, smaller width wise so it is only as wide as the ‘Search Calendar’ text and make the “search” button smaller. I like the symmetry of the button, but I don’t think it needs to be such wide symmetry. Maybe even bump the search button right up to the search bar.

With those changes, then you can move the ‘Day, Week….Print, Refresh’ bar up next to the search bar on the right side. Then move the ‘Today’ button, the Left and Right Arrow Buttons and the Viewing Date up between the smaller search box and the ‘Day, Week…Print, Refresh’ buttons.

Boom, more height space.

And finally to add more space add a collapsible button to the left side of the calendar so you can hide, ‘My Calendars’, ‘Other Calendars’ and the Full Month Calendar and have more width space.

Bam. So easy!

If you don’t want to have the ‘Create’ button disappear when the right side is collapsed, then just move it up next to the ‘Calendar’ text/button! This also could be moved up to be in line with the ‘search bar’ and the other buttons. I personally don’t use the create button very often, if ever, but I am sure that as little as I use it, there is someone out there who uses it all the time and I wouldn’t want to take that away from them!

And, finally I have a serious desire to see this last part implemented.

So, Google developer, if you’re reading this, first, Hi! Then second, PLEASE(!!!!) implement this change! I use several Labs features in calendar and I hate (yes, hate) having those automatically go on the right side. I would much rather have the option, either by drag and drop or otherwise, to have everything on one side and arrange it to my pleasing. Please don’t make my flair hide because I don’t want to have my calendar shrunk so I don’t have to have a teeny tiny calendar to be able to see those options!

With spacing changes, pre-left side collapse

2. Colors

So many people are pissed about the color change to the pastels that we have access to now, than the darker colors from before. I get that, I do. Except, I have so many calendars that I follow, my own (I have 4 of my own that are currently active and at one point this summer I had 6), several friends, my parents, my husband, the Red Wings, the Tigers, Holidays (Christian and Irish) and a few others. I feel restricted by how few colors there are. I want everyone’s calendars to have a distinct color and a different one for each of my own. There was also one gentleman in the forums who color codes each event in his individual calendar based on how much commitment he had to go to it. Red for not required, Yellow for need to go, but details aren’t finalized and green for all set, need to go and details are finalized. Smart.

My solution is very simple. At least to me, I don’t know about a programming point of view. But my solution is this: instead of only select colors of a certain palette (pastel, primary, secondary, etc) give us a color wheel. All of the colors, ever. Like in Paint or Photoshop or Blogger.

3. Making ‘Today’ more obvious.

I’m fine with ‘Today’ being grey in calendar, I usually use Calendar on my phone anyway so it pops right up to the most current day. But other people aren’t happy with it. So I suggest leaving the gray, but adding a border of a darker or brighter color, like black or yellow and thickening the border around ‘Today’.

Those are my changes and I’m sticking to ‘em.

All changes (except the color wheel, because obviously, I can't do that with Paint and the extra emphasis on the 'today' because I didn't do it, that's why.)

If you have any other suggestions, drop them in the comments!

My First Time....

2011-11-15T22:10:00.000-05:00

The lights were bright

I asked him to turn them off

He did.

It hurt.

He comforted me

I was nauseous

He held my hand

I didn't know what was happening.

I was light-headed

I slept

He got me a cold cloth and Excedrin.

I slept more.

I had a migraine.

Why? What did you think I was talking about?

So Pumped

2011-11-15T18:00:00.000-05:00

I am a Lions fan and have been for my whole life. I'm a Detroit sports girl through and through. The Wings are my flagship, but I root for all the teams in the D, even though basketball isn't my favorite sport. The last several years as a Lions fan have been damn depressing, but I would just shake my head and follow them anyway. Watching the Lions game on Thanksgiving is a family tradition.

But there is a freaking awesome commercial starring Drew Brees and the NO Saints that is on TV right now and I love it.

The look on Mario's face at the end is hilarious, and the chant pumps you up, even if you have nothing to be pumped up for. Enjoy!

Transcript below!

Brees: 1;
Chorus: 2
Brees: Win;
Chorus: For You
Brees: 3;
Chorus: 4
Brees: Win;
Chorus: Some More
Brees: 5;
Chorus: 6
Brees: Win;
Chorus: For Kicks
Brees: 7;
Chorus: 8
Brees: Win;
Chorus: It’s Great
Brees: 9;
Chorus: 10
Brees: Win;
Chorus: Again
All: Again, Again, Again, Again!

AGAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!!!!!!

Etiquette Tips for the Theatre Audience

2011-11-14T18:00:00.000-05:00

On Sunday Adam and I went to see West Side Story at the Wharton Center. I wanted to see it live because I hate the movie, but I love Stephen Sondheim and I wanted to reconcile my two halves. I like it way better live. Way better. As in, don't even bother with the movie.

But that is not the point of this post. The point is that I have been to enough live theatre shows, and been in enough shows that I know what is the biggest pain in the ass about live audiences.

First, when they say turn off your phone, Do it. There is absolutely NOTHING that pisses me off more than when a phone goes off, especially at a pivotal moment in the show.

Example 1: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (based on a novel of the same name which was also the basis for the Dangerous Liaisons movie and Cruel Intentions) at Central Michigan University, spring of the 2009-2010 season. *Spoiler Alert Ahead* The end of the show when the Vicomte dies, a phone starts to ring three seats away from me.

Example 2: Today during West Side Story. *Spoiler Alert Ahead* Maria and Tony are saying good night at the end of their version of the balcony scene (synonymous with the one in Romeo and Juliet, which the musical is based on) and a phone goes off.

Example 3: Dead Man's Cell Phone for which I ran lights last season at Central. From the light booth, you can see everything. I mean everything. Including the people who have their phones out and are texting during the show. And from the Grand Tier in Great Cobb Hall, I can see you on the floor. And you can sure as hell bet that the crew in the booth behind me can see you too. The light from your phone is distracting and it's rude.

Second, do NOT talk when the actors are talking. Or singing. Or anything is happening on stage, whether you think it is important or not.

Example 1: Everyman, the show I was in last season at Central. We were in Theatre on the Side, and there were, I think, only 100 seats for every show and we sold out every one. Very close quarters and we were all up in the audience's grill. Which means we can see you very well. And we wonder why you aren't paying attention. Also, WE CAN HEAR YOU.

Example 2: I went to see Les Mis with my friend Shannon and her sister and brother-in-law last March. The woman in front of us would NOT sit still. She kept wriggling around and talking to her neighbor. GAH.

If you have to say something, get your mouth so close to the person's ear your lips are almost touching their ear lobe and then whisper so quietly that no one but them can hear you. You shouldn't even be able to see you.

Third, get there on time and don't leave the seating area unless there is a real emergency. Pee before you get to your seat, or run to the bathroom the second the first act is over. If you think you're going to be late, run to your door. RUN, FORREST, RUN!

Example 1: Les Mis. They were still seating people 10-15 minutes into the show, non-stop. Not even waiting for applause after songs to rush a whole bunch of people in. And the same after intermission! Ridiculous!

Example 2: Everyman. 100 seat theatre people, that is completely dark. We can see it when the door opens. And it is really freaking loud when you close it.

Fourth, and for the moment, last, souvenir line etiquette. Do not cut in line. It is not hard to figure out where the line is. There are a ton of people milling around and very few standing still in the big area where the cart is. Follow the line of non-moving people until you get to the end, it is not cool to cut in line when there are people who have been waiting for 10 minutes already. Don't do it.

Well, I hope that this helps any and all theatre goers, and feel free to pass this on to anyone who does not do these things appropriately.

What irks you about inconsiderate theatre goers? Leave it in the comments!

FF - Favorite Blogs I Follow

2011-11-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

1. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie

I've been waiting to write this until she started blogging again, which she has recently, yay!!. I believe I found her blog through the 2010 Bloggies and it was the most hilarious one that I found. I spent an entire weekend reading through her archives because she was so funny. Had I been drinking milk during any of them, it would have come out through my nose. Even her most recent post is funny, even though she is talking about her struggle with depression. Which is not funny, and I felt so bad for laughing at her post, but she is so funny and I love to read her blog!

2. Marriage Confessions by Katie and Chris

Watching their little family grow has been wonderful. Katie shares their ups and downs in such a personable way, I look forward to each and every post. Even the ones that talk about child rearing that are irrelevant to me right now. She has so much love and happiness in her life and her kids are so adorable! Gracie totally looks like her mama, smiley and pretty lady!

3. Living Like the Kings by Kat

There is no favoritism being showed here, Peanut is so freaking adorable, I can't wait to see what she'll do next! I just want to pinch her cheeks and make gurgling baby noises at her!

4. The Ex-Pat Bride by Sarah

She doesn't post often, at least since I have started following her, but I love her blog. We have, I think, a lot in common. Sarah and Mr. Darcy just returned from their pre-wedding honeymoon, which they won! I can't wait to hear how it went! Oh, and she's moving to England. ENGLAND. This chick is jealous.

5. Fat Cyclist by Elden

He inspires me to be a better person with every post and giveaway that he does to help raise money to fight cancer. His first wife died from cancer several years ago and I am not sorry to admit, I cried like a baby when I read that. He is a funny, poignant wonderful blogger. And his guest bloggers are funny and tell great stories (that's right Paul, I'm looking at you). And his wife The Hammer is pretty cool. And the IT Guy, the twins and The Swimmer kick some butt too. And he has a book coming out and you can pre-order it on PayPal. Go read him. Like, now.

What are your fav blogs to read?

Our pretty baby

2011-11-08T19:15:00.001-05:00

So I posted yesterday about a whole bunch of changes that have been happening in our lives. Today we get to see more of one of those changes, our dog Tesla.

She's a boxer mix.

Who's about a year and a half old.

She's so smart, we worked on 'stay' tonight, and she stayed for a full minute! Of course I didn't want to push it, so I called her over after that. She's so good!

She's funny. And super sweet.

Just love on her and all these pictures!!

Baby girl! :D

Whoa! Crazy Train!

2011-11-07T21:42:00.000-05:00

Quick updates!

I have been so super busy that blogging kind of fell to the wayside! I have been made full time at work, temporarily, but with how busy I've been I am hoping that they will keep me at full time past the end of this month.

We also moved into a house. Renting, but we are living in a house and we LOVE it. Pictures are coming!

Aaaaaaand for the biggest news: We got a dog! She's a beautiful boxer mix who's about a year and a half old. She had her first vet appointment tonight and she is a healthy girl! Her name is Tesla Katherine, named for the wife of Nikola Tesla who invented the Tesla Coil. We start obedience classes on Saturday. Many pictures and adventures with her to come!

How've you been?

The Things You Learn About Yourself

2011-10-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Adam has been traveling these last few weeks to a conference for school, so I have essentially living by myself.

It sucks. A lot. I miss him so much. But! He's on his way home :D I pick him up tomorrow and I can. not. wait. !!!

But that is not what I wanted to write about, although it does factor in.

First, I find it much too easy to slide into unhealthy food choices when I am by myself. Way too easy. And I'm not going to lie, I slid down the slippery slope of bad-for-you food. And I felt awful. Not because of the guilt, although I am sure that was part of it, but I just felt sick to my stomach for days after I ate that crap. Nauseous, yucky, uncomfortable. Blech. Cooking healthy for one is definitely harder, but so worth it. I never, EVER want to feel that way again. If I indulge a little, like once in a blue moon, I don't think it will be like that. I did have a few days pass after I had an indulgence and I felt fine. It was when I indulged two, no I think it was three, days in a row for a meal each day, that I felt the worst for the next several days.

Blech. Blech. Blech.

But I also made another discovery over the last few months, and have an easy way to remedy the problem.

I like exercise and being active. I enjoy playing sports and it's really fun to play team sports with friends. I have many fond memories from my childhood of playing touch football on Saturdays with my family and neighbors. And we (my Dad, brothers and now my hubby) still sometimes head to the local ballpark complex thing in my hometown to hit the ball around and play catch. Invariably someone will pull a muscle or something. But it's a lot of fun. Family is super important to me and helping them stay healthy and be around as long as possible is a very big thing for me.

So, anyway, my biggest motivator it seems, is having some sort of 'event' breathing down my neck.

Which means I spent today looking up 5Ks in Michigan for me to run through out the winter. (I don't do winter biking. I am crazy, but not that crazy.) I found one a month to run all the way through to the Capital City River Run event next year. The first one up is the Turkeyman Trot on Thanksgiving morning.

You read that correctly. I am hosting my first Thanksgiving this year, and I am running a 5K the morning of. Yes sir/m'am.

Even though my work outs have been erratic since I started working, I want to have that extra push to keep it up. Training for a 5K only takes 30 minutes, 3 days a week. Am I tired when I get home from work? Yes. I have been averaging 10,000 steps per day on days that I work, I'm on my feet, going from my desk to the copier, back to my desk, to the supply room and back, I'm everywhere baby!

But I know that I need to make my workouts more regular. I have to. The weight won't continue to come off if I don't get back on the regular exercise horse.

And stay away from the Pizza Rolls.

Just In Case You Don't Check....

2011-10-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

I know I was slacking the last few weeks of weigh ins, not entering them on the page, and I promise it's not because I didn't want you to know, I've just been so busy!

Ok! So, I celebrated my 16th weigh-in early, because I am not sure if I will be at full time next week or not. If I am, I won't be able to go to my normal meeting and I wanted to celebrate with all of the awesome people there! It also means I needed to get a new weight record. And I have to decide what to do with the old one. For now, it will live next to the new one in my pocket guide! I am right on to celebrate my 16 weeks, if I hadn't missed that meeting while we were on vacation :(.

I am four pounds away from my 10% goal! For those of you who aren't a part of Weight Watchers, when I hit my 10%, I get a key ring to put my Stay and Succeed charm (above) on and my 5K charm from this summer.

It's kind of lame that they don't try and get the chain ring to you first. I'm trying so hard to not lose these by keeping them in the back pocket of my pocket guide, but I'm still afraid I'm going to lose them! (Especially since we are moving)

I also re-measured myself tonight for the first time since the beginning of July. Wow! I have lost an inch to an inch and a half EVERYWHERE! Lost an inch around my thighs, waist, hips and bust and an inch and a half around my upper arms. I need to remember to take these more often, it's super awesome. I know it won't always be that dramatic, if I do it once a month instead of once every three, but wow!

I am not paid by Weight Watchers at all, in fact, I pay them for the monthly pass. But I do not regret it at all. Even if I didn't receive neat (non-food!) rewards for my weight loss progress, the support there is wonderful. The Facebook page is a great place to go if you have questions, your meeting leader is a wealth of information - as are the receptionists. All employees at Weight Watchers have lost weight on Weight Watchers and are at their goal. They live the plan every day, just like us.

I am really sad that soon I am not going to be able to attend my regular Thursday meeting. The people are so wonderful and my meeting leader, Amy, is fantastic. This is part of the reason why I celebrated 16 weeks early. On the upside, Amy does do a meeting on Thursdays during lunch in my building at work, which, if they switch to the monthly pass, I will be more than happy to switch to! Otherwise, I will probably be attending Saturday mornings.

If you found this post, doing research on Weight Watchers, do it. I have had wonderful success and learned so much about my eating habits. If you're looking for fast loss, like 50 pounds in a month, don't go into Weight Watchers expecting that - you'll only be disappointed. The program only tells you to expect between .5-2lbs lost per week. Sometimes it's less, sometimes more. But, if it's slow to come off, the more likely it is to stay off. It's a lifestyle change. You have to want to make that change.

And it is so worth it!

Guest Post at The Ex-Pat Bride

2011-10-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

Oops! I thought I had this set to automatically go up yesterday, but I was wrong!

Well, yesterday I was featured on The Ex-Pat Bride's site as a guest blogger, go check it out!

Today is the first time I will have done a guest post for another blogger!

Sarah at the Ex-Pat Bride is on her honeymoon, so I wrote about Adam's and my honeymoon at the Castle in the Country.

Michigan v. Michigan State

2011-10-14T21:39:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the rivalry game of the season for these two schools, but both universities were able to put aside their differences tonight to raise money for Mott Children's Hospital at the 'Go Blue, Go Green, Go Kids!' Tailgate at the Lexus of Lansing tonight.

It was a pure fluke that I was able to attend. A co-worker won them in a raffle that was to raise money for Michigan Harvest, a food pantry. He couldn't go so he gave them to another co-worker who asked me to go with her.

It was a snazzy affair so I classily represented the Spartans in one of my favorite work outfits. There were a lot of well known people there, but the real heroes were the kids who were there thanks to the top rate work of the pediatric doctors who work at Mott. One of whom I met, and it was an honor to meet them.

Sparty was there to lend his 'voice' to the cause

As was Former Governor Engler and his wife.

Tom Izzo

and Lloyd Carr.

I know I'm a State Fan, but I was honored to meet such a legendary coach, even though he coached Michigan. :) He was very nice and even said to tell my Dad hi.

I am so glad I had the opportunity to attend such a great event. I hope I never need the services of Mott, but I know it's there if I do.

Oh, and Go Green!

Yes, I will be at the game tomorrow, and tailgating.

In conjunction with this, I will be hosting my first giveaway!! If you are the first one to find me tomorrow at the tailgating or the game, I will give you your choice of apple jam, apple pie filling or applesauce. (Sorry Courtney, you and your hubby don't count for this one!) I won't have it with me, but I will get it to you afterwards.

So, you find me first tomorrow, you win jam, applesauce or pie filling, all made from scratch with Michigan apples! YUM!

Just a Little Preview...

2011-10-13T20:12:00.001-04:00

...of Canning Adventures to Come!!

Tonight I made Apple Jam. And, oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, YUM!

Whew!

2011-10-12T21:32:00.001-04:00

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

A lot of things have happened in the last couple weeks! And I mean A LOT!

We had some dark days leading up to this events of the last 2 weeks or so. With my unemployment taking too long to end and my student loans coming due soon, we were hemorrhaging money despite trying so hard to spend absolutely nothing more than we needed. We just were not in a good place.

But then things started to change.

I signed up with a temp agency and they found me a placement in about three days. It's a part time job, which is fine for now. I won't tell you what I'm doing or where, but I will tell you I absolutely love it. I mean really love it. This alone has saved us our sanity. And our wallets. And there is a good chance I could end up there full time and permanently.

We are also moving! Part of our problems were that we were living in a place that was just way too expensive. We hadn't been too happy here anyway. Bad experiences from the start. So we were able to negotiate out of our lease and find a house. We are moving in a few weeks.

I also have been reading a book that has changed my life. It's wonderful and I will write more about it after I finish it, but if the suspense is killing you, it's called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Read it, you will thank me. I guarantee it.

I also have started canning, which is an adventure I look forward to sharing with you. I am bound to screw something up eventually that will give a great story! I will share the recipes I try and like, and tell you which ones I think you should avoid! I have already canned some apple pie filling. Next up apple jelly, apple butter and applesauce. Can you tell I have a lot of apples? I also want to branch out and do some other things, but to do vegetables, you need a pressure canner and right now I am stuck in what I can do with water bath canning right now. Until I can either buy my own PC or borrow my mom's.

I also had the weirdest interview ever yesterday and that definitely deserves its own post.

Alright. I have to get up very early to go to work, and even though I don't work every day, I'm trying to stay on the same schedule. And I'm tired.

How've you been?

Friday Five: My favorite baked goods

2011-09-30T10:02:00.000-04:00

1. White Chocolate Chip Cookies
YUM. White chocolate is my crack. It is so yummy, I swear I could eat it forever. Which is why I don't make them that often because I will eat them all. In one night. And that's after eating the chips themselves while I make the cookies.
2. Snickerdoodles!!
They're easy, fun and delicious. And how can you not like something with cinnamon in it? That's called snickerdoodle! I mean come on, it's a great word! And I just made them today. Celebrating getting an interview for next week!
3. Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
It's so much better when you make it from scratch. And it's great fun to grate the carrots.
4. White Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Frosting.
See number one.
5. Breadsticks
I don't know if these technically count as a baked good, but I count them, so they are. And they are delicious. So, YUM.