November Update

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts.... part of me has been trying to decide whether I should delete my blog all together (since I rarely update anymore, yet I still follow all the blogs on my sidebar and it's the easiest way to see which have been updated :) or go ahead and switch my blog over to a new site, since this blog is the only thing left associated with my old hotmail email address. (I can't for the life of me figure out how to add my google account...it won't let me, and when I try to comment on other blogs, it's a nuisance to log out of google/into this account, etc.) So anywho...that would explain why I'm rarely on here! Perhaps I'll make a new blog instead, keep up with it for 2 months, then slowly dissapear again :)

As for Ross & I, we are doing well! The house is slowly coming along. There is always a project to be done, but the list is never-ending so I try not to fret about it and just enjoy it. I'm finally hanging pictures to make our home feel more personalized and I'm also finishing up a painting for our dining room that I can't wait to share. I'm on the fence about it, I may need to go back and fix a few things, but I love the colors in it, so it'll have to work! I'm also back to my craigslist obsession and scoring a few great deals for random pieces of furniture that I feel we need (but don't feel the need to buy brand new!). I've recently scored 4 barstools (for our kitchen island) for $75! They were brand new in the packaging and she lived in Cranberry so it was a great find! She said the return shipping would've cost too much and they didn't quite match the color of her wood floors. Score! Ross & I can finally relax at our kitchen island while waiting for dinner to cook while sharing a glass wine :)

As for Ross, I feel awful about how stressed he's been for the past month. Since he's started his recruiting position at work, he's been working 14-hour days (sometimes more) plus weekends. And he's STILL behind. It's no wonder....the company used to have the 16 HR people recruit for their own sites, but now with the restructure, they have only Ross & his 1 coworker doing ALL the recruiting for all these sites. Something has to change soon. He's still job searching, but that in and of itself is a full-time job and he doesn't have much spare time to apply for jobs. I'm hoping for the best! He just can't catch a break. But he's hanging in there, even though he's close to being burnt out. Pray for him that he will hear back from either of the 2 jobs he's recently applied to!

As for myself, I've picked up a new hobby....Hot Yoga! O boy! I'm still dealing with daily back pain, and once Michelle asked me to join her for hot yoga last week, I thought 'Sure! Why not?!' I've tried almost everything else and am willing to keep trying until I finally find a cure for back. (And trust me....you CAN cure a bulging disc without surgery!) Sure, I know I can get around fine on a day-to-day basis, but that just isn't good enough for me. I'm determined to get back to 100%, and not live the rest of my life at only 80%, 90% on a good day. So hot yoga it is! I've gone twice this week, and so far I love it! I've also read a ton of research about how good yoga is for your lower back, so I can't wait to see if it makes a difference. From what I can tell, since my hamstrings are so tight (since I'm extremely inflexible), those muscles are apparently pulling on my lower back muscles, causing a lot of stress. So I figure if I can gain some flexibility (and strength) with yoga, surely it will help. And my chiropractor agrees :) The classes are a bit expensive but I tell myself that it has to be cheaper than surgery!! (er, maybe ....we do have awesome insurance and low deductibles, but that is beside the point! --Surgery is just not an option for me!).

Lastly, Ross & I have still been following our Fresh20 subscription. I'm really beginning to enjoy their menus and ideas for dinner, and I get so excited knowing that the dinners are healthy! Of course, some weeks I just can't fathom eating something on their menu, so I'll sub something instead, but for the most part, we've been following it to a 'T'. This week's menu includes a side of brussel sprouts (o boy...even Ross has never tried one! I'm nervous to say the least). But I promised myself to try everything before determining that I hate it. I've discovered a few new foods that I like that I wouldn't have dreamed of eating in the past :) And with this, Ross & I have slowly been making better food choices for ourselves overall so it's been a great change for us. Although he claims I'm 'forcing' him to eat healthy. (I came home with nutritous peanut butter yesterday and he cried...."what are you trying to do to me?!?!" HA!)

Anyway, that was a pretty long update...so I apologize. I'll figure out what to do with my blog soon, then maybe update more often :)

And that has me thinking.... I can't wait to get started on my Christmas letter! Too soon?!

Not My Choice of Meat...

Ross & I have really gotten off track of 'healthy eating' lately. We've never really been 'on track,' but I like to think that since I don't buy Chips Ahoy weekly, or eat fast food everyday, we must be ahead of most Americans :)

Which is why I was so excited to finally kick myself into gear by signing up for TheFresh20! My cousin so eagerly sang their praises time and time again about how easy it was to plan your weekly dinner menu when they do all the work for you! And since their weekly menus consist of only 20 ingredients (hence, the name) and healthy choices, it was a smart and budget friendly choice.

But it still took awhile to convince me to sign up. Ross & I are quite the pros when it comes to planning our dinners for the week! We've been doing it forever b/c I refuse to buy too much food that will eventually not get eaten. We were great at making up our grocery list for the week, and buying only what was on the list. Go Us! But then again, our meals were beginning to get repeditive and boring, and not extremely healthy (especially since we considered our side of corn our only choice of veggie...which in fact, is not a veggie at all!). So my reasons for signing up steered towards getting more creative dinner ideas, and healthy dinner ideas. And then one day I could possibly go back to planning my own weekly dinners again.

So last night was our first try at this. I had all my ingredients bought, and looked forward to our week of dinners. (I chose the 9/2 menu if anyone cares.) On the menu were burgers, salmon, veggie casserole, stuffed chicken....all things that sounded great!

Last night Ross & I made the burgers. Or should I say...TURKEY burgers. Ugh. Ok....maybe they won't be so bad. I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover! But apparently I don't read recipes well, b/c if I had noticed that I was to put shredded carrots in them...this dinner would've never happened! Who puts carrots in a burger?!?!?! Ew. But I forged ahead. Surely the provolone cheese and special dressing would make up for it? Or maybe not. After eating about 3/4's of my burger, I couldn't pretend to like it any longer, so Ross finished it for me! At least one of us didn't mind it! And here I sit now at work, eating a leftover turkey burger and it's still not growing on me. Something about the texture is throwing me off! And the carrots. They just don't belong in my burger!

So the first recipe we tried wasn't great. It was definitely healthy, but I just don't know about this. I choose red meat over turkey ANY day of the week. So here we go, with still a week's worth of recipes to try and hopefully some better luck than we had with the first recipe! After all, I guess I signed up for 3 months (at only $5/month it's quite a deal!) so I might as well give it a go for that long :) Wish us luck!