Weekend Cooking

The dredded Monday rears it's ugly head again! Booooooo for Mondays!

I am especially sad this Monday because with the coming of Monday means the leaving of my Mommy! We had a great weekend together and neither of us wanted Monday morning to come!

On Saturday we went all around town picking out tiles, fabrics, ideas for our new bathroom! Tom and I decided to renovate our bathroom, so I'll update on that later when we have more progress to report.
Saturday night was Mexican for dinner with Tom, and Sunday we had our Sunday morning pancakes made by a one Mr. Tom Withers. Here are our favorite toppings...blueberries, strawberries, and chocolate chips!
Here is Tom....deep in thought over the quest for the Perfect Pancake. He is a very serious pancake-cooker and only makes one at a time. Such a perfectionist. :)

He made one of each kind for me and mom, then made one grandaddy pancake for himself with everything in it:
So proud...I love this picture!
All dressed up with full bellies, ready for church. Me and my beautiful mom!

Sunday night was our turn to cook. I had gotten my mom a wonderful Pasta Cookbook in order to get her in the mood for a big trip to Italy she is taking with my aunt later in the month.

So we picked a recipe and made it for dinner on Sunday night. I am not going to give yall this recipe because it's soooooo bad for you! ha! But we couldn't resist...we were on 'vacation' after all and wanted to behave like true Italians.

Helen, slavin' over the stove:
Gotta love a messy kitchen!
A post-nap, make-up-less Laura working on the sauce:
The finished product...a plate full of creamy/sausage-y/carby goodness. Sooooooo rich and filling but worth all the calories for some quality time in the kitchen my mama!
It was a great weekend of cooking and relaxing, now back to our regularly scheduled program of workouts and eating right!

Have a great week, everyone!

Random-Bo-Bandom

So I have lots of fun random things to talk about today.

First of all...the important stuff...workouts.

Last night Reebs and I went on our 3 mile doggie walk. We walked a mile, ran a mile, walked a mile. With a stop in the middle to demonstrate Reba's tricks for the kids at the park.

She was very popular.

I had hoped to get in an arm workout afterwards, but got carried away getting ready for my weekend! We have an engagement party to go to tonight, so I was trying to get everything done on Wednesday night.

Getting ready for what, you ask!?!?!?!

My mommy is coming to visit!!!

I give you the beautiful, famous, Helen Frazier:This picture makes me laugh...why so close?

I love it when my mom comes to visit because she is so easy-going and we love to just catch up, go for walks, shop, eat, drink wine, etc. I want her to move here!

And for those of you who are wondering, no, my mother did not give birth to me at the age of 12....she is 60. years. old(sorry Mom but I had to tell)!!

She is a freak of nature she looks so young, yes? I am bankin' on those stellar genes!

So if anyone knows of a rich-handsome-dog-loving-single-man-willing-to-relocate-to-Tunica, please let me know. Mmmmmkaythanks.

Christmas 2009 with my mom's (older...yes that's right...she's a genetic jackpot, too) sister Lynda...my beautiful Auntie!

So anyway, instead of an arm workout, I vacuumed, dusted, made beds, made dinner, etc.

This morning. LET ME JUST TELL YOU ABOUT THIS MORNING!!!

It was 68 degrees when I set out on my run this morning! OMG it felt incredible and it was sooooo nice not to have to run under a blanket of humidity!

3.5-4 mile run: about 35 minutes

Calorie Shred Workout: about 30 minutes

Please note there is a slight change in the Calorie Shred workout...I added 10 Burpees for extra sweatiness!

I did the whole thing outside and it was glorious.

Afterwards, I decided to try something new for breakfast.

I have been reading Katie's blog, and she (along with many healthy living/eating bloggers) eats lots of homemade smoothies in the mornings. They look so yummy and beautiful, I just had to try one. (Click HERE for Katie's most recent breakfast concoction.)

I am not a full-out healthy eating blogger (no DUH, Laura). I have noticed many people fill their smoothies with protein powder, chia-flax-vitamin seed thingys...I'm just not there yet. So I used what I had on hand that was as close to Katie's smoothies as possible.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup 1% milk
• handful of spinach (just trust me, here)
• 1 packet of sugar free hot cocoa mix

Last night I hulled my strawberries and put them in the freezer with the banana-lama-ding-dong.

Here is the fruit pre-freezer...yes I am aware there is a dead dog on my kitchen floor. Presh baby.

Aaaaaaand after a night in the freezer. Mmmmmmm....

Put it all in the blender, mix 'er up, and pour in your favorite cup:

This smoothie was a weird doo-doo brownish color but it was sooooooo good and filling! Katie's smoothies are way prettier than mine but it's the taste that counts, right?

With this recipe I was able to fill up this cup about one and half times. Sooooo good and I promise you cannot taste the spinach at all. It is purely for nutritional value and weird color.

Here's Reba, annoyed I have woken her up from her beauty rest at such an early hour.

Okay so one more bit of randomness and then I'm done for the day.

Remember my foster fur-daughter, Dolly Parton?
And remember the day that I took her to the transportation company to go to her new home?

Well, ever since then I have been watching Last Chance Highway on the Animal Planet, looking for the episode where I dropped Dolly off.

And it was on, on Saturday night! We had DVR'd the episode and just got around to watching it last night. I scoured the internet for a clip of the episode to post, but I couldn't find one.

The name of the episode was "Death Row Puppies" if anyone out there is better at internet-scouring then me and would like to find it for me.

Anyway, towards the end of the show they had a clip of me at the drop-off location sitting down with Dolly saying, "It's okay, good girl, it's okay." And sweet Dolly licking my face.

They showed me lifting up my sunglasses to wipe the tears away while Dolly watched and wagged her tail.

All the while the main character of the show did a voiceover talking about how foster families do get attached to their dogs, and that drop-off day is emotional for many people.

Awwwwwww...it was nice to 'see' Dolly again, and to remember that we saved a little canine life! It did make me cry a little, though. :)

Midnight Intruder!

Hey Gang!

Well, I had a great day yesterday on *my anniversary* and thanks everyone for the sweet comments and texts with well wishes to Tom and I!

So I am going to stray from the healthy-living/weight-watching/working-out subjects of the blog and tell a funny story about our weekend. I left it off of the post yesterday because the post was long enough as it was.

I just had to share because this story is too funny not to.

So Friday afternoon Tom spent the day in meetings with...let's call it...The Big Corn Company (to protect the innocent here). After said meetings, The Big Corn Company treated everyone to happy hour in the lobby bar, and dinner and drinks at the Redbirds game.

Around the 7th inning, Tom and I were ready to call it a day. It was like 9:30pm. Our bedtime. So we went back to the hotel, watched the news, and went to bed. Within minutes we were both snoozing comfortably in our big cushy Peabody bed.

Next thing I know I am being awakened by some noises coming from outside our door. I glaced at the clock....3:45am.

I shrugged it off as 'hotel noise' and tried to go back to sleep. But the noise continued, this time louder and it sounded like it was literally AT our door. It sounded like someone was trying to get in the room.

At first I wasn't scared because I knew the door was locked and there was no way another guest could get in.

Then it sounded like water was running outside the door. I thought there might have been an air conditioning leak or something? Remember, it's 3:45 and I'm not exactly thinking clearly.

So I get out of bed clad only in my matching Victoria's Secret pajamas (okay, so I was naked...we're married, it was our anniversary...don't judge) to investigate. Upon getting out of bed I could see under the crack at the bottom of the door...sure enough water (or something) was POURING onto the ground.

So I tentativly look out the peep hole, expecting to see...well, nothing.

Taking a sharp breath in and clasping my hands over my mouth suddenly, surprised at what I saw outside our door!

There was a guy...wearing only boxer shorts...trying to get in our room.

So I jolt back over to the bed and shake Tom awake.

"Honey! Honey! Someone is trying to get in our room and he's either spilling his drink or peeing on the door."

Unfortunately, ladies, it turned out the be the latter. Sigh.

So Tom gets out of bed and stumbles over to the door in his PJ's (okay, who are we kidding...he was naked, too) to confirm that I'm not dreaming, and we do in fact have an 'inturder' on our hands.

He goes to the phone and calls the front desk. The conversation goes like this:

Operator: "Good Morning Mr. and Ms. Withers, how may I assist you today?" she's soooooo chipper for this hour.

Tom: "Uh.....yes ma'am....uh, there's someone trying to get into our room. He's at the door trying to get in."

Operator: "Oh my, we'll have security sent right up. I apologize."

Tom: "And ma'am?"

Operator: "Yes, Mr. Withers?"

Tom: "uh....well, I, uh.....I think he's takin' a leak on our door."

Operator: "Wha-wha-wha-what? You say he did WHAT?" At this point she has gone from all-business to all-shock.

Tom (in a very clear, over-enunciating voice): "I BELIEVE HE IS URINATING ON OUR DOOR."

Operator: "Oh LAWD!!!! We sendin' someone up now, hun. Oh, lawdy."

Bwahahhahahah!

Seconds later security is at the door, we can hear them talking to the guy and Tom is watching through the peep hole. At this point I am in the bed, clutching the covers up under my chin.

Tom turns to me and says in a loud whisper: "I know that guy! He was in The Big Corn Company meeting yesterday!"

We overhear the security officers ask The Intruder his name and he mumbles..."something something....EUBANKS." Tom takes mental note of this name in order to find out who the guy was and plans to call our Big Corn Company sales rep (also a good friend of ours) later in the morning.

So security gets 'Eubanks' safely into his room (obviously his room was the one NEXT to ours) and promises to send housekeeping by with a shampoo vacuum to take care of the....ahem...puddle outside our door. Ew.

Tom and I laugh about it for about 15 minutes and finally go back to sleep.

When we were on our way to breakfast in the morning, Tom called our Big Corn Company sales rep and told him the story. When he gets to the part about who the guy was....here comes the punch line:

Tom: "I think I recognized him from the meeting. Eubanks was his name?"

Sales Rep: "Oh. My. God. No way."

Tom: "Yeah, do you know him?"

Sales Rep: "He's our INTERN. Well, was our intern."

Bwahahahahah!

So that was how we kicked off our anniversary weekend. Too funny....we have been laughing about it since. I guess Eubanks the Intern had a wild night on the town, came back to the hotel and passed out. Woke up, and opened the door to his hotel room...thinking it was the bathroom??? Therefore, locking himself out. He was drunk, disoriented, and had to use the restroom and....well, the rest is history.


Last night when I got home I was greeted by these cuties:
Tom and I had a strict 'no-gift' policy for this anniversary, so my Mom sent us flowers! She loves us.

Although we didn't do gifts, we DID do cards. Tom's card to me:

All together now: 'Awwwwwwww.'

And he wrote some good mushy gushy stuff on the card, too. I was very proud of him for this card. :) Whatta guy.

We ended our anniversary celebration with a super-sophisticated meal of frozen lasagna, bag salad, and garlic bread while watching Bachelor Pad (the tackiest show in the history of the universe). Ha!
Hope you're having a great Tuesday, everyone!

My Guy

Good Morning everyone!

Contrary to the usual, I am actually in a good mood on this Monday morning. I think it was because I had a great, restful weekend, a good workout this morning, and today is our anniversary!!!

The big 0-2! ha ha.....

(For the full story on how we met/dated/got married click HERE)

In the summer of 2006 my friend Myra invited me to a 'Sip-n-Slide' party at her house (yes it is as fun as it sounds). To my delight her Super-Hunky Brother was there frying catfish for the whole group.
You can clearly see by this picture why he fell in love with me so easily. I was having such a good hair day and all.....

A few months later I made the trip with Myra to Tunica for a song writers night she was putting on and guess who was there....
....the Hunky Brother from that fun summer day.

After that weekend, he made a trip to Nashville....
....I made a trip to Tunica
And six months later....
...all those weekend trips and long talks on the phone were going to come to an end!!!! The Hunky Brother was MINE! :)

After a party-hardy wedding, The Big Move to Tunica, a dreamy honeymoon...two years later here we are, celebrating two wonderful years together!
Being married has come so easily to us....Tom is a wonderful provider, protector,

and a leader in our home. He is just a good MAN! He is the whole package...the type of person I always imagined I would marry.

I am so thankful for him, and for our life together. The past two years have been so much fun, I can't wait to see what God has in store for us, and for our family as we grow together.

To celebrate our anniversary, we were in Memphis all weekend and stayed at the Peabody!!!The lovely lobby

Love these little guys....this one was snoozing while standing on one leg in the lobby fountain. Crazy Quacker.

On Saturday morning we got up and went to this RIDICULOUS place for breakfast called Brother Junipers. It was awesome, and I had an omlette the size of a basketball.Fortified after a big breakfast, we spent the day shopping and met up with one of Tom's old fraternity brothers for lunch (well, it was more of a snack for us....we were still so full from Omlette City!).

Saturday night we got all fancied up for our anniversary dinner. Here I am waiting for Tom to finish getting ready."Gah what's taking you so long?" Such a prima donna.

Have a drink at the lobby bar before heading to dinner:

Okay yall are gonna kill me because I didn't take any pictures at our big anniversary dinner. But I will tell you it was A. MAZE. ING.

Seriously the best steak/shrimp/potatoes/wine...all of it....I have ever put in my mouth. No counting points for this dinner! We were there to celebrate.

Tom had made the reservation and gotten us a tiny private dining room for two. It was lovely and romantic. :)

After dinner we headed downtown to have a drink with one of my friends who was celebrating her 25th birthday with a masquerade-style party. Here we are with Shannon and Melody:

Crazy girls...love them.

Us wild and crazy kids were back at the hotel, in bed, and watching Larry King Live by 11pm. What a night! Ha!

Yesterday was a day-o-napping on the couch and doing laundry. Very restful and perfect.

After such a relaxing Sunday I got up this morning for a great workout:

4 mile outdoor run: about 45 minutes

Legs on Fire Workout: about 25 mintues

Then, before work I went by Tom's office to surprise him with a breakfast sandwich and a happy anniversary card. What a good wifey I am!

Enjoy your Monday everyone! In celebration of my anniversary, please give your husband or boyfriend or dog an extra kiss today. :)

Workin' for the Weekend...

Good Morning Blogosphere.

It's Friday, loves, which means I'm in a good mood.

Last night was an *awesome,* sweat-fest at the gym.

The gym was Sweat City. I was the Mayor. ha!

It felt great, here's what I did:

• 2 mile treadmill run: 20 minutes
• 20 minutes on ArcTrainer
• 20 minutes on StairMaster
• Calorie Shred Workout (sans abs-I was exhausted!): 15 minutes

I have been loving the StairMaster lately because it tells you howmany 'stairs' and 'floors' you've climed. Last night that 20 minutes got me up 68 flights of stairs!

I think that in real life it would take way longer to go up 68 flights of stairs but whatev.

Then this morning Bex and I did a fiver outside:

• 5 mile outdoor run: about an hour

This was a slow, sweaty, humid run. It reminded me a lot of this run, about a year ago (and the subject of my very first blog post!).

Because I stupidly did a hard-core workout last night, the run was really hard this morning. I find that when I workout after work one day, and then get up early and workout before work the next, I always wind up feeling fatigued.

So this morning's run was a mental battle because physically I was NOT feeling good. Every time I wanted to take a walk break I thought,

"Bex is running alongside me and she is pregnant. Get over yourself."

"Oh look, there's Mr. Neil out for his morning walk. He is 92 years old."

No excuses for this non-pregnant-27-year-old-spring-chick.

Then I began to just run because my legs worked, and ran to glorify God. To make Him proud. That's what got me through that last mile and a half. So there you have it: five torturous miles, no walk breaks.

Anyway, I am so *fired up* about this weekend because I have a lot of fun things planned in Memphis with this Hunk-A-Burnin' Love:

Get it...Memphis...Hunka Burnin' Love...it's an Elvis song...hee hee.

This afternoon I am meeting Tom at one of my FAVORITE hotels in the world, the Peabody in Memphis! He is there for a corn meeting today, and the company is treating everyone and their wives to a night at the hotel and a Memphis Redbirds game!
I have not posted many pictures lately so this is whatcha get for now.

Then on Saturday we are going to bop around down town....eat somewhere good....have a ouple beers and just do whatever we want to do! Saturday night we've extend our stay to go out to a fancy-schmancy steak dinner at Folk's Folly. What's the big occasion, you ask?

Well, on Monday August 23rd we will celebrate two perfectly-conflict-free (um, not exactly) years of marriage!! Although all relationships have their ups and downs, being married is way easier than I thought it would be. But I'll talk more about that next week when I report on the weekend with a mushy-gushy love post about my awesome hubbs.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Smile...it's FRIDAY!

Workouts Lately

Hey bloggarinas....Happy HUMP day. Half way to the weekend...whew!

I have taken a few days off of blogging because I simply have nothing to blog about! So I'll just go over a few workouts lately and I do have a bit of fun news....

Monday night I had planned a swim. However the weather was actually *nice* out so I decided an outdoor workout was well-deserved after staring at a computer screen in a windowless office all day. Reba and I set out for a quick walk:

3 mile doggie walk: about 50 minutes

Cocktail Dress Arms Workout: about 20 minutes

The weather was so pleasant and breezy. I loved our outdoor walk, but Reba was a big 'ole baby about half way through and was tired and lolly-gagging around. Goofer.

Tuesday morning I SHOULD have gotten up to go to the gym but I just hit that snooze button one too many times. Instead, I went in the evening again. Tom and I had planned to go to the 'Meet the Team' fund raiser at the local private school (and Tom's alma mater) at 6pm. So I ran to the gym after work to get in a quick date with the treadmill.

2.5 mile treadmill run: 25 minutes

A few minutes is better than no minutes. See, I am really bad about working out in the mornings. I always love it when I'm done but just getting out from under the covers is soooooo hard for me. If I know I have Bex waiting on me, I'll get up. But if not, I might as well just plan on an evening workout.

Lately Bex has not been working out in the mornings with me because she's been feeling a little under the weather...very tired....a little nausious, maybe....all signs point to....

Bex is PREGNANT!

Whooooooty-Whooooooot!!!!!!

I am so excited for Bex and her family because I knew they had been trying for Baby Bex #2, so this is a welcomed addition to their family!

She is only about 8 weeks along, but I got permission to tell the blog world. All this being said, Bex will just run and workout with me until she feels uncomfortable doing so. Maybe in the coming weeks I'll find room for a few posts about working out while pregnant, and eating right while pregnant. Even though I'm not pregnant I can learn a lot from my friend Bexarita for when I (God willing) DO decide to grace the world with a my beautiful offspring.

So anyway, Bex has been super-tired lately thus making it hard for her to peel herself out of bed for a outdoor run with moi.

*However* she is starting to feel back to her old self because she came over this morning to join me on an easy, outdoor 4-miler. We had high hopes for the weather, but it was still like almost 80 degrees when we got started.

4 mile run: about 45 minutes (didn't wear my Garmin)

Cocktail Dress Arms Workout: about 20 minutes

It was still a nice morning, and it was great to be back in the company of my running buddy!

Hope yall have a great Wednesday...I'm off to stuff my face with luchie before 4 more hours of computer-staring. :)

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Suga, Suga...

Hey bloggies...Happy Saturday to you!

So thrilled the work week is over and I have basically *nothing* to do this weekend! Love it when that happens.

Yesterday morning I went to the gym for a great workout:

Arc Trainer: 20 minutes

Bike: 20 minutes

Calorie Shred Workout: approx. 30 minutes

I was tired and sore by the end of it, and it was a great way to start my Friday! Afterwards, I bopped by Tom's office to surprise him with breakfast since I had eaten his last granola bar before my workout. I think he appreciated the little surpise visit. :)

Last night we went to the Sugarland Concert!!!!!!!!!!!!

My company was sponsoring it, and as part of my job duties I just HAD to be there. It was really fun, and a great concert. I heart Jennifer Nettles. She is just so stinkin' cute.

I lover pretty much all of Sugarland's songs. They put on a great show, but there was one little thing....she kept on calling us "Memphis." As in, "Let me hear you, MEMPHIS!" "Sing it with me MEMPHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSS!!!" And making lots of Elvis references.

I mean, I love Elvis as much as the next gal, but the only problem was the concert was not in Memphis. It was not even in Tennessee.

Granted, the concert venue (an amphitheatre...talk about a hot summer night!) is about four miles South of the Tennessee line in MISSISSIPPI. In Southaven, Mississippi.

So I can understand that she might have gotten a little mixed up but still.....

Sugarland has a song called, "Down in Mississippi and Up to No Good." One might think this would be a concert where that song would get a good response from the crowd. Hmph.

Other than that, it was great. Here are some pics of Tom and I sweating our faces off.

Another thing I wanted to share with you guys...

Remember on Monday when I said I was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay in a funk and didn't feel motivated at all?

Throughout the day, I found myself being really *angry* and annoyed and frustrated....most of this stemming from things having to do with my job. Well, for reasons I won't go into, I cannot quit my job or anything drastic like that at this point in my life.

So, because I was feeling upset about things that were beyond my control (aka...other people's actions), I decided to change something I COULD control....aka MY ATTITUDE.

I think I mentioned that one way I was going to do that, in regards to a dredded swim workout, was to 'fake it 'til you feel it.' Which worked. But in regards to my job, faking it wasn't really cutting it.

So.

I was watching Kathie Lee and Hoda the other morning....love those two. They are too funny. Some think they're annoying but I like them.

And Hoda said something that stuck with me. She said that whenever she is down in the dumps or frustrated she spends a few days journaling in the morning. She writes down three things she's thankful for every day and reflects on those things when she starts to feel upset and down throughout her day.

So I have been trying it, in order to lift my deflated spirits while on the job. Even if it's something as simple as, 'my vacuum cleaner,' 'air conditioning,' 'the egg white sandwich I had for breakfast.'

I find that when things are going *exactly* my way it puts things in perspective to count my blessings instead of my shortcomings.

Try it...I hope this starts your weekend off on the right foot!

Hugs....

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Cravings

Happy Hump Day, Blog World!

Last night I had a great workout while chatting with my friend Emily who works at the gym. We had a great time catching up while I did:

Treadmill Sprint Intervals: 35 minutes

Legs on Fire Workout: approx. 25-30 minutes

Emily is a trainer at our local gym, and even SHE thought that my Legs on Fire workout was LEGIT. She was jealous of me that I could do it because she has bad knees.

After my workout I was craving one of these:

Have you ever craved beer after a good workout? I have heard of runners craving beer, but never really experienced it until last night. Tom's favorite beer...a Stella...was calling my name from the depths of the fridge.

Tom had his monthly fire meeting last night, so I was on my own for dinner. You'll never guess what I was craving to EAT for dinner.....that's right....yall know me so well.....something involving tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and my basil love.

Last night it was a carbo-loaded whole-wheat pasta! Yes, I do realize this is the THIRD tomato-mozz-basil recipe this week. And it's only Wednesday. But it's the last one, I promise. And it's a goody.

Of course last night, Reba helped. She is a little down-in-the-dumps because her boyfriend went home yesterday, but more on that later.

I threw together my pasta, mozz and goat cheese, and some jarred marinara sauce (hey....don't judge on the Kroger brand. We're low-maintenance, and low-budget around here).

M+B=LOVE 4EVA

and...um....I need to confess that I bought a POUND of hunky mozz about a week ago and it is now gone. I have eaten it all. By myself.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, cook your pasta and heat up some sauce.
When pasta is done, drain it and pour it into an oven-safe dish or bowl. Toss with sauce. I added some fresh basil at this point.
Top with Hunky Mozz and Crumbled Goat. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Top with Basil Love.
Seriously? Seriously.
Tom was missing out because this was way better than some whonky steak at the fire house.

I ate half, and will have the other half for lunch today. Noon can't get here soon enough!

Last night I could *totally* feel the effects of my Monday swim. My shoulders and triceps were a little sore, and so were my gluts. I love feeling a little sore (like, sore in a good way) because that means CHANGE IS TAKING PLACE.

This morning was another great gym workout. It's just been too darn hot around here to do anything outside. So I did:

5 mile treadmill run: 50 minutes

Cocktail Dress Arms: approx. 30 minutes

Both of which felt *amazing.*

I wanted to mention that at this point, I do three circuits of the arm exercises in Cocktail Dress Arms, then do two circuits of the abs. If you need to do more or less, just alter it to your fitness level.

Well that's all for now, girls. I hope your Wednesday is going great. We're half way to the weekend!

Hugs....