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!

Blogger Hello

Hi All! Long time no see. I've been super lazy this entire summer, so I took a much needed blogger break. Especially from the house blog. Typical me started up the house blog with all the motivation in the world, and quickly got distracted by more enticing things. Those who know me well also know of my short attention span....

What was I talking about?!

Ah...anyways.... Ross & I have been busy this summer, catching up and having fun with family and friends. And when we do finally have free time, we get about 5 minutes of work done on the house :/ But here's the latest with us:

1. Ross' job is an unending drama that I could drag on and on about, but here's an extremely short version: Ross is getting laid off from his HR Generalist position (as of 8/26) at NHS since they are 'restructuring' (aka downsizing) their HR dept. So instead of claiming unemployment come September, he applied for a Recruiting position at NHS (a step down the ladder, but a raise in salary since they eliminated so many positions) and succeeded in getting that job.
So all in all, he can work that position while he continues his unending job hunt. Unless he actually enjoys the recruiting position, then he can just continue working that job. But he's done recruiting in the past, and feels so-so about it. He really loved the HR Generalist position, so I hate to see him give up his job search when I know there has to be something better out there. And I don't think too highly of NHS any longer b/c of the numerous ways in which they screwed their HR employees over. ANY company has to treat their employees better than what NHS has showed us.

2. My job is still so-so. Nothing new. Moving on....

3. We are slowly making progress on the house. Mainly only when we have a free weekend, which are few and far between. It's been a busy summer. Ross has been working on the yard (i.e. tearing out weeds and bushes...aka, making it look way worse before it will look better....say, next summer?!). I've been working on the 2nd bedroom. It originally had parquet flooring, that we wanted to rip out first before installing carpet. So I ripped it all out in 2-3 hours (and saved it for a possible re-use?!), and we're ready for carpet to be installed next week. Once that's in, I want to paint the room, fix some of the wall where paint is peeling, and decorate it a little. I want it to be a spare bedroom (not that I really expect guests any time soon!), but we'll bring in Ross' old bed that is currently living in Stephen & Betsy's spare bedroom. I have big plans for this room since I have no inspiration/ideas for our own master bedroom which is desperately lacking in organization and decorations.

4. Lastly, I've deciced Ross and I have WAY too much clutter (aka, the 2nd bedroom was ALL storage), so I'm cleaning house and making a pile for Goodwill. NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING will go back into the 2nd bedroom unless I've used it in the past year. Our entire house is extremely lacking in organization, so I'm slowly making progress on that!

5. Lastly, Ross & I are eagerly looking forward to camping on Labor Day weekend with friends! This is only our 2nd outing for camping this season, so we're looking forward to it. And also our week vaca in Virginia Beach with my family in September, another much needed break! So still a few things to look forward to, and before you know it, summer will be over....

So that's all we've been up to. I hope everyone's summers are going/went well. I guess I'll see you back in about, oh, 3 months, when I decide to update again :)

Happy Birthday to ME!

So here I am at work, trying to 'fly under the radar' and avoid telling any of my coworkers that today is my birthday. Call me lame, but I didn't want any of them to feel bad about not getting me a bday cake, since I normally get a cake for everyone around here on their birthday. Just one of my lovely admin duties around here :)

Well, the hubs is all too sweet and completely gives me away....

Thanks hun for sending me flowers at work. Now my cubicle smells like flowers :) And they sure are purtey to look at!

I apologize for the awful photo quality. You can thank my 3-year old cell phone :) That's right, it's quite ancient and I refuse to upgrade it because new technology scares the 'beejezus' outta me. More on that on a different day....

Anyway, I just wanted to say how thankful I am to have such a sweet and thoughtful husband to celebrate my birthday with :) And once again, he's out-done himself, and left me scrambling for ideas for his birthday!! ha!

And he's also managed to turn my entire Finance Department against me since they now know it's my birthday, and NO, we are not having cake today. Apparently I should just bring in my own cake, because even though I told them that I kept it a secret because I did NOT want cake, they simply replied...."But WE want cake!"

O dear. haha

So Happy 25th Birthday to me!

Here's to hoping the next quarter-of-a-century is just as memorable :)

Two More Days...

...until camping! :) :) :)

I'm so excited!! I got together all of our camping stuff last night, preparing for our 3-day weekend down at OhioPyle. And look at the forecast:

Even though Friday isn't ideal, you really can't ask for better weather than that :) I'll just hope that it rains all day Friday and then stops when we leave after work for camping. I still have so much to do tonight to get ready for camping ....pack clothes, bake (which I haven't done in MONTHS and am ecstatic to bake in my new kitchen!!), switch cars since my mom is lettting us take her SUV for more space, and pick up Ross' cornhole set from his parents house where it's been stored for quite some time (which we can finally store in our own house now!). I can't wait to see all of my friends. I think we're all guilty of having hectic schedules and not seeing eachother enough, especially Ross & I since we've been so unavailable working on the house night & day. But that phase is finally over and I'm ready to catch up with my fantastic friends.

Let the festivities begin!

Home Sweet Home

We're finally moved in and we love it!! I'm ecstatic and still in shock that Ross & I are homeowners! Even though we've been working on the house for the past 5 months, it didn't feel like our house until we finally moved in. And it still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I feel like for the first time in 4 years (since I moved out of my parents house), Ross & I can finally kick back, relax and settle down. No more worrying about where our next home will be be once our lease is up. What a joy!

The rest of this week is full of relaxation :) I have a few things to do to get ready for camping, which I'm eagerly awaiting! Ross & I don't get cable & internet until Wednesday, which I feel should be making me be productive, but instead, I'm fully enjoying having a piano in our house instead. It's been great to catch up on all the music I used to be able to play :) And Ross isn't annoyed yet...haha. Other than that, I've been touching up paint here & there, slowly unpacking boxes, and mostly 'putzing' around the house trying to feel productive.

Until then, I'll try to take some updated photos and share them with everyone :)

Oh Life...

I never been so stressed and exhausted in my entire life. I'm literally worn down and can't even think straight anymore. My mind is officially 'ka-put' (I'm even making up my own words now! well, actually, that's nothing new at all...). The house really took a toll on me, but I'm looking forward to move-in day tomorrow and KNOW that I'll finally be refreshed, knowing that we're finally living in our home. And renovations can come-and-go as they please, rather than facing anymore deadlines! And anyone telling us what should be done, when, and if.

Now that we've got our house in a 'livable' condition, I could care less about updating much right now. I just need some time to relax and unwind. Which is perfect that we're going camping Memorial Day Weekend with a great group of friends. It's just what the doctor ordered and I can't wait!

Besides the house bringing me down lately, life just seems to be going against us. Ross has been having some tough times at work, and it kills me to know that there's nothing I can do. Yet here I am, relaxing and blogging at work (oops!) at my comfy job. I'm grateful for my job and enjoy it, but I just wish Ross could for ONCE say the same thing. ONCE, I'd like to see him get a break in the job world. For as knowledgable as he is in his field, and as hard as he works, I'm shocked by how difficult his career journey has been so far. And it just doesn't ever seem to give him a break.

I keep saying things will look up, and God's just waiting for the right time. But when?

Even I have a hard time believing myself anymore.

I know, we're not the only one who has things going imperfectly in life. We all have our own sets of problems. And we all do our best to deal with them. So I, by no means, am trying to say our life is worse than anyone elses. Just that our life isn't perfect either.

I know we have SO MUCH to be thankful for, but every now and then you just need an outlet to complain about life.

And while I'm sitting here in my melancholy mood, I get an unexpected text from my mother-in-law that reads:

"Did Ross tell you I have a smelly dead mouse under our kitchen island?"

HAHA....thanks Rose...it's just what I needed to snap me out of my mood! ha

And no, he did not tell me. Hopefully we can solve that problem soon! ewww....

25 Days to go!

Hmm....why is my countdown to moving in going up?? Oh, that's right. Because Ross & I have been working our B-U-T-T-S off on the house and STILL can't get everything done on our to-do list in order to get the house move-in ready in 2 short weeks. We've been mentally and physically exhausted for weeks now. So pushing back the move-in date is just what we needed.

Of course, Ross has been saying all along that May 7th was too soon, but I'm stubborn and it took me awhile to realize he was right :/ (why does that happen so often?...isn't the girl always supposed to be right in relationships?!) So I finally agreed that May 21st was looking more appealing, and my back agrees :) (On to other updates, my back is slowly progressively healing, but I feel I could've been 100% weeks ago if I wasn't working so hard on the house. It's a lose-lose situation.) So anyway, we'll still be moved in before camping, which was my ultimate goal, but nothing like taking it down to the last minute since we'll be camping Memorial Day weekend with a group of friends. Of course, it's also motivating me to get my back in top-notch shape so I can go white-water rafting with friends that weekend *eye roll please* My physical therapist already suggests I can't go...but we'll see. It's too soon for me to decide that I need to completely miss out :( And here's where my stubborn-is comes into play again! I know my PT is probably right, but I don't want to face facts just yet.

Lastly..Happy Easter to everyone :) Yesterday was a great day spent with family. Lots of great food, and good times. Sorry this post is not more Easter related...I have too many other things going on in my mind!

But soon it'll all be over. Perhaps not soon enough....