Home grown!

I love getting fresh vegetables in the summertime and would love to eventually have a huge garden to grow my own, so I'll always have them on hand.  Unfortunately, we are renting and do not think the owners would appreciate us tilling up the sod in the yard.  It is a rarity that we even have grass in our yard, most people in Beaufort do not.   We did, however, dig up a small spot big enough for three tomato plants.  We would both probably eat a sliced up vine ripened tomato with Every.Single.Meal. if available.  I'm hoping our three measly plants make it through this heat.  Until ours are ready, I will continue driving to the various vegetable stands to find the best ones.

We also planted a banana pepper plant in a pot which is already producing, as well as the basil in one of those little herb planters I picked up on a whim at Dollar General.  There was actually supposed to be five different types of herbs growing in it, but the basil is the only thing growing, and boy is it growing!  I've been wanting to do something with the banana peppers and basil we have so today I made chicken salad with them, which is pretty good if I do say so myself.

I shredded two organic (they were on sale) boiled chicken breasts and added a chopped banana pepper, part of a chopped green pepper (from a vegetable stand while searching for good tomatoes), two chopped basil leaves and salt & pepper.  Sounds healthy huh?  Ok it was until I added about a 1/2 cup of mayo.  Oh well, I'm just proud to use my home grown vegetables!

Next try will be my own pasta sauce...

Worlds worst infomercial...

So here I am, wide awake at 3am and the worst infomercial I have seen to date is on the tv. "Free Miracle Spring Water". Can you believe all you have to do is just call and they send you this Miracle Spring Water and then God will start sending you checks to help you erase your debt? This should not be allowed on tv. So now I ponder, do I wake up my husband who is in a deep sleep because the remote is somewhere under him? Ahh I cannot stand to listen to the jokers hoot and holler any longer... Sleep please come asap!

Oh wait, it just ended, now on to the latest erectile disfunction infomercial. It's sad to say, but this is already much better.

Get me outta here.........

I don't know if the fact that I will be starting my new job on Monday got me restless or that my husband got to play in a golf tournament for work on Friday, but I needed to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.  Fortunately for him, my husband was both attentive and reactive to my case of cabin fever, he got me out of here.  We both enjoy eating and drinking so that is what we did all weekend.  Friday we ventured to a new (to us, well kind of) "establishment".  We've ate at the restaurant side of this place a few times and loved it, so why not check out the bar???  As we pulled in the parking lot there was a big sign that read "Karoake at 7" and low and behold it was 6:59.  Neither one of us were blessed with a singing voice and don't really care to listen to those individuals that didn't get the memo that they weren't either, so we almost didn't go in, but I'm glad we did.  Almost everyone sang country (which we love) and they were all pretty decent, including an eleven year old girl that got up there and sang the heck out of "At Last".  She needs to YouTube that so Ellen can discover her talent.  We also happened to start a conversation with a guy that asked where we moved here from and when we said Illinois he said, "I'm familiar with Quincy."  What are the chances?  Well, I have been known to make connections with people anywhere I go.  For instance, I ran into someone from Quincy in the Cancun airport and while traveling from Florida on a spring break during college, I bumped into the WIU tennis team, there's been several others but these stand out.  Anyhoo, the man was familiar with Quincy because his friend is from there and I just happen to know his friend's son.  Crazy.  So Friday was pretty fun!

Saturday, we set out to use some of that tax return money on some very much needed groceries, but as luck will have it, the funds have not been deposited on said date that Turbo Tax confirmed.  So we decided to get a bite to eat and do some window shopping.  This town is not big on chains, so there are a plethora of locally owned eateries, which is awesome!  I had yet to try a little sandwich shop that every time I pass it, there are tons of cars there, so that was the winner.  There certainly isn't anything elaborate about this little shop, but their sandwiches sure are scrumptious!  I had a turkey club with Jalapeno bacon, which hit the nail on the head for this homemade french bread with  three different cheeses melted into it and a nice stack of sliced turkey bite of goodness.  After lunch we headed to Bay Street to enjoy a nice walk by the river (no dolphins this visit) and I convinced the hubby to go into "3" stores, I didn't want to push my luck.  You never know what you are going to find in these local little shops, but this was our top find of the day.

A Redneck Wine Glass!!!!!!

Tomorrow, it's back to the working world for this lady.

Ya Snooze, Ya Lose,

Sleep that is. 

For some reason as long as I can remember, I wake up anytime between 3:00-4:00 a.m. and usually can't fall back to sleep for an hour or two and then I really don't want to wake up a few hours later.  My husband on the other hand, spent ten years in the Army and can fall asleep anywhere at anytime.  I am pretty envious of this ability he has, ESPECIALLY when he falls right back to sleep after hitting the snooze button, ALL SEVEN times.  Is it necessary to set an alarm two hours before you get up, just so you know that you have two more hours to sleep?  I really haven't been able to gripe about it this passed year, as I have had no reason to wake up early or anywhere to be.  Now that I will be reentering the workforce, we are going to have some sort of compromise.  Let's face it, I'm now 30 years old and need to actually show up to work early/on time EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

After a year long of moves and unemployment...

....I finally got the call this morning!

Ok, so I didn't get the call from Donald Trump and I may not be making a million dollars a year, but this is the perfect job for me.  Any of you who know me well, know that I have a great passion for our military members and their family, and I will now be working hand in hand with them.  I've accepted a position on Parris Island working as a resident services coordinator for Tri-Command Housing.  Parris Island is one of the two bootcamp training bases for the United States Marine Corps located here in Beaufort, SC. 

Over the last three weeks, three different interviews and prayers from many, I am very relieved!  Heck, Chris and I even got up and went to 10:00am mass on Sunday (and yes the church is still standing).  I probably will not actually start the position for a few weeks, due to background checks, drug testing, etc.  I am very excited to embark on this new journey and get back into the working world.

However, these two critters are a lot less excited

This bird they were fighting over in the picture has been gone since before we left Hawaii.  This past year, I've taken the place of that bird.

TP and Anniversaries

As I awoke this morning and stumbled into the bathroom, I noticed the toilet paper holder on the wall bearing a little cardboard cylinder with traces of toilet paper stuck to it and a brand new full roll sitting on the the bathroom counter.  I then began to ponder what is so hard about replacing the roll on the holder when you are already sitting there doing nothing with your hands anyways, or at least I wouldn't think you would be.

My husband and I are approaching our first anniversary on Sunday and I thought to myself  "maybe, just maybe I could get him to replace the toilet paper roll after a year."  Who am I kidding?  We have lived together for over 3 years and it is yet to happen.  I also thought about the fact that if I did get him to start doing this, it would probably just piss me off because he would put it under instead of over and that would be another whole 3 years of nagging. 

This brings me back to probably the best advice I have gotten or could ever give to a newly married couple, PICK YOUR BATTLES!

So against the 1st Anniversary gift tradition, I will forgo the paper.

Lazy Dayz

In the months of being unemployed, I have become pretty lazy.  Every once in awhile I get an itch to do something to challenge my mind, so in between checking job websites and watching all the DVR'd shows that my husband doesn't like, I've been reading.  Anyone who knows me really well knows that I am not a big reader and when I do, it's not at a very fast pace.  The only books in my adult life that I've read from cover to cover are biographies, recently finishing Chelsea Handler's series of brilliant humor.  Since Chelsea hasn't come out with a new book in several months, I trusted Amazon's suggestions according to the books I have ordered in the past.  My most recent find is a very witty and humorous chick out of Chicago named Jen Lancaster.  I'm about to finish my second read of hers talking about the struggles she has with weight loss, but I can not seem to get the first one I read, "My Fair Lazy", out of my head.  I see myself falling into the same lazy traps as she did after she was laid off from her job.  I now feel as though I know the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, D.C., OC and New York on a first name basis, as well as the whole Kardashian family.  I can also almost name all of the Duggar children from 19 Kids and Counting (I swore I would NEVER watch that show).  Someone find me a job fast.

Do the...Potty Dance

For the second time this morning, I've seen that commercial and I will admit it is catchy, but certainly not reality.  I may be somewhat clueless about babies, toddlers and kids in general, but I am well aware when a toddler runs up to you and says they have to "potty", you better hall ass to the john, not have them do the "potty dance".  Having two dogs, I know you don't mess around at the first sign that you even think they might have to go, you get them outside fast, quick and in a hurry. Not that I'm comparing children and dogs, but you get the gist.
Now I understand that Huggies, Pampers or whatever brand is trying to advertise those fancy little pull-ups they have, but come on.  When did pull-ups come about anyways? Do they prolong potty training?  I guess I'll figure this out when I have children of my own, until then I will continue to think the commercial is an oxymoron.

For Hire...

We have now been living in Beaufort, SC for a little over three months and I am still having a hard time with the job search.  I'm just wondering why it seems so hard to find a decent job everytime we move.  I have been submitting applications to jobs that I'm probably either over or under qualified for, where is the medium?  Where are all these jobs?  I know that there has to be more out there.  I'm hopeful something will come along, as it did take me over six months to find something in Hawaii and it ended up being a great job that I loved.  Maybe that's it, someone up above is just waiting for the "right" one to come along. (Fingers crossed it does not take six months)

What a blahgy day!

It's raining outside and the temperature is dropping in Beaufort, SC. A blah 43 degrees, I guess that is better than what my dear midwestern family and friends are enduring.  20 + inches of snow and ice and school cancelled since Tuesday, now that's some weather.  I sure am glad we got out of there before that came along.  Whew. 

TGIF!

Who let the dogs out??

Feeling neglectful to my dog children, I decided to take them along for my walk/run today.  Not only do they need some exercise because they literally lay on the couch all day long, but I thought it would be a good chance to chisel down their Elvira looking nails, since it is nearly impossible to trim them.  BAD IDEA.  I had to have looked like Miss Weezer from Steel Magnolias going down the street.  I'm sure the neighbors were reaching for their phones to call Cesar Milan for me.  Bo yanks one arm way ahead of me while Belle just drags along on the other side (btw running is NOT her thing).  And of course right before we were to begin our first run interval, Bo drops a deuce.  So at this point I have two dog leashes pulling in different directions, a bag full of doody, another empty bag hanging from my hand and my Iphone, which I'm using to time my walk/run. Talk about a hot mess. I also discovered that my "run" is still a brisk walk for Bo, FML.

Needless to say, from now on I need to take them on a walk before I do my walk/run.

Who says New Year Resolutions have to start in January?

Sooo....I wasn't quite ready to start my "be healthier" resolution on January 1st.  For one thing, we went down to Florida for New Year's Eve and were traveling back to South Carolina with some serious hangovers, so stopping at McDonald's and ordering ten different things off the menu was a MUST.  Also, between friends visiting, football Sundays and it being cold outside, I simply was not ready.

I didn't really want to follow any of the popular "fad" diets, mostly because I did not want to spend the money to join, buy their food, commit to meetings, etc.  So I have to decided to do this a little like I follow (or do not follow) a recipe.  Luckily I have a lot of time on my hands so I've been gathering information all over the internet and in magazines and kind of putting together my own regimen.

Here are a few of the resources I am using:
-MyFitnessPal -I have this App on my Iphone. I input everything I eat and my exercises for the day to track calories in and calories out.  My target number of calories is 1200.
-All You- I was introduced to this magazine by a friend that has made a healthier lifestyle over the last year and lost quite a bit of weight.  I started buying this magazine for all the coupons and money saving tips, but I have found their Health & Fitness section to be very informative and useful.
-Anita's Tried and True Recipes- I found this website years ago and have tried several of the lowfat/ low calorie recipes from it and they are actually pretty good.
-Spark People- I also have this App on my Iphone and suprisingly I often look at the Vegetarian and Vegan recipes (my husband is unaware of this), not because I EVER have plans to become a Vegetarian or Vegan but eliminating meat from a few meals a week can not only cut on cost but also calories.

As for exercise I am doing a "Train for a 5K" workout plan that trains every other day.  I thought since I have not ran in awhile and just taking off and running sucks my will to live, I need to take this gradual approach.  For example, week one I do three repititions of walking five minutes and running two minutes on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  Although it seems rather easy this week, I think this is a more attainable route.  On the days I don't run I am doing strength exercises at home.

I'm only on day 3 of this plan so we will see how this goes.  I think seeing that pool in our backyard is going to be quite a bit of motivation, I don't really want to blind the new neighbors come summertime!

Next step will be stocking up on healthier foods and snacks.....