The "R" Word

It's time for me to confess a guilty pleasure book that I purchased this weekend. I unashamedly love Guilana Rancic, the E News Host, and her husband Bill who won The Apprentice a few years ago. Did  I watch their wedding special on E News, you bet. Do I watch their show Guilanna and Bill on the Style Network, um...duh. I'm not sure why I like them so much to be honest. I think it might be that they seem more grounded and normal than most people living in the Hollywood limelight (that's the right word right, limelight? if not, you know what I mean). They just seem to be so in love with one another it's really cute to watch. When I found out that they co-wrote a book called I Do, Now What?,  I told myself that it would be really dumb to spend money on it. Then yesterday rolls around and I'm right by Borders...yep, I did it. I spent $25 dollars that shouldn't been spent on the book, hence the term guilty pleasure.

I in no way bought this book to try and get some new and wonderful marriage advice because if I was, I would look for a more Christ-centered book. This book was just for a fun read and to see what their marriage looks like. It is definitely a fun read but I didn't hear anything I've never heard before. The one thing I liked is that they both strongly emphasized was not getting stuck in a RUT, the "r" word. The longer a couple is married the more the companionship and comfort grows, hence the reason it is so incredibly easy for couples to get stuck in a rut without even knowing it.

You could find so many different definitions and types of ruts of course. I'm generally speaking about going to the same restaurants, eating the usual items, watching the same television shows at the same time, running the same paths, making the same dinners...you get the point. While I definitely do not think it is wrong to do any of these things, after awhile (whether you realize it or not), your daily routine turns very  blah and you can subconsciously become discontent. In the book they mention a friend who had recently gone to Mexico and was telling them how exciting and fun the trip was. When the friend asked them what they had been up to, they almost felt embarassed to tell them the same list of things they had done that day that they do every other day. Their point was that if you don't feel good thinking or telling someone about hanging out at home when they ask what you're doing tonight, it's probably because you are tired of being stuck in the routine.

Ways to get out of the rut and can be as big as taking a spontanous vacation or little weekend getaway (if your bank account allows of course), or as small as going to a new restaurant, running on a different path, cooking together something new for dinner, taking your spouse on a surprise date, etc. Reading this in their book makes me want to try and encorporate some more little changes into our daily routine, which unfortunately doesn't mean that we can go take a trip back to New York though (stupid airplane and hotel expenses). :)

I hope this was an interesting little tid bit that anyone out there reading this might take away and personalize. Maybe make something for dinner that you have never tried before? Maybe go for a walk after dinner instead of immediately watching your favorite tv show together. It's the little changes that count. :)

Hair Advice

I need this hair color:



and this hair cut:


Does everyone approve? I'd love to have that blonde hair but if I dyed it I'd be in the hair salon every 4 weeks paying for touch ups. :( Plus, everytime I get my hair cut the hairdresser tells me that I should go red.

1/21/11

Mark and I are officially addicted to the show House. I purchased some of the older seasons years ago before we even met and one night we started watching them and got hooked. The internet the we were "borrowing" from our upstairs neighbor was gone because they moved out (the nerve...). Here's the bad part though: I'm sure there are people out there who can relate to the feeling of getting hooked on a television show and have it suddenly snatched away from them. :( Needless to say, we decided to be proper citizens and pay for the internet. I hope your happy A T &T. Enjoy our money. Now we have House back and can enjoy our down time together. It's dumb I know, but for some reason there are just those certain shows that hook you in with their characters and storylines. Is there anyone else out there like us or are we just weird? I mean, Pamela and I went through a Friends phase and I can still proudly quote many episodes...."could I be wearing any more clothes? maybe I should do some lunges." haha

I decided to try something that I, in my little culinary world, have never tried. Something so difficult that many people have most likely never tried before...cooking black eyed peas. Ok ok, most people have done this plenty of times and it's not difficult by any means, but I had never cooked them before. The whole process of "soaking the beans in cold water" is still ridiculous and weird to me. I might've accidentally let them soak for two days, but don't tell anyone :). Anyways I had soaked them and wanted to do something special with them because plain ol black eyed peas are boring. (By the way, does anyone else remember the restaurant called "Black Eyed Peas" that used to be on Stage Rd. and Kirby Whitten?) I looked online and picked out a recipe for black eyed pea croquettes, which is basically like a black eyed pea patty. It looked interesting enough and pretty simple so I gave it a try. They turned out pretty good, but needed a little more seasoning in my opinion. We put some Enchilada sauce on top and it made them really tasty.

I've been thinking lately about things that people like to put off doing. I sadly admit that I can be a huge procrastinator. In school I did papers and studied the night before, but it worked for me. If I ever did things in advance it would for some reason turn out really badly. Here's a list of things  I like to put off currently:

1. laundry
2. returning texts, emails, phone calls (it's more that I forget than put off)
3. dishes
4. organizing  the closet
5. cleaning out the refrigerator
6. eat less sweets
7. working out
8. reading more
9. finding new recipes
10. sitting still when I'm at home

Please share your lists of things you procrastinate with too. :)

In my dreams

If I could pick anywhere to be right now, I think it would have to be this place (as long as there were mosquito repellant candles). Can you not imagine having a dinner party out there for hours into the night? *sigh* The only thing that could make it more perfect would be if I was wearing these shoes too.

Staying put for now

We had a scare with our apartment this past week. :/ On Friday we got a notice stating that if we didn't re-sign our lease by 3pm on Monday then we would be charged month-to-month. I went to the leasing office on Saturday and the girl who handles lease renewals doesn't work on Saturdays. Strike one. Then I call the number listed on the notice and she doesn't answer. Strike two. Then I email her using the email address that was on the notice and it was sent back as a delivery failure because it wasn't a valid email address. Strike three. At that point, I'm getting really upset because I know that if we are going to be charged month to month, we would have to move out because it would charge us over $1000.00 a month. I had to take a personal day from work on Monday, our very pretty snow day, and take care of everything. Ugh...such an ordeal. I now know that you need to renew a lease WAY before your original move in date.

Mark and I have decided that we will be moving out of our apartment complex next January after our year long lease is up. We are thinking of renting a little house in the east Memphis/midtown area. We definitely have no intentions of buying a house, but we are really excited about renting one soon. We'll start looking around for a rental house in the fall, so if anyone has any suggestions or anything please let us know!

So is anyone out there ready for spring and summer yet? I must say that I am not at all. It's been such a mild winter that I feel slightly cheated out of the cold weather fun. I'd be lying, though, if I said that I wasn't looking forward to growing my herbs on our balcony again. Plus we have a grill this year so it'll be fun to use that to grill some veggies. :)

I just despise hot weather. I hate walking around for 2 minutes and have a sweat broken out on my forehead. It just feels really gross to me. I remember back when I was a little kid my mom would always make Kool-Aid and we would sit and watch the Price is Right all summer. Then of course we would go to my grandparents, swim, eat popsicles and popcorn, and watch Nick at Nite in their bedroom until our parents made us go home. Those were the good ol days. :)

Healthier Lifestyle

I wanted to start this off by saying that I am not a big fan of New Years resolutios at all. I actually stared this new approach to eating before the New Years b/c (for me at least) I feel like I will be more consistent with it if I don't start it on New Years. Weird I know.

From time to time I like to read different people's diets and how they work. Normally I might take a few things here and there from a few diets that I think are applicable to real life, but I never follow one specifically because I think that is a sad and restricting way to live life. I did come across a book written from some reality house wife (who I honestly know nothing about) named Bethenny Frankel. Her book is basically about eating balanced meals, slowing down when you eat so you don't eat as much, and eating foods in their natural state. Although there are some things I don't agree with in her book, I do love her approach to thinking of your diet as a bank account.

After reading this book, I began thinking about how balanced Mark and I's meals really were...and it turns out that they were not at all. They were mostly carbs. haha A few days ago I decided to try eating a more balanced diet (like diary and protein in the morning instead of just carbs) and also tried incorporating more natural foods (veggies, fruit, humus, etc.) and I have to say that Mark and I have felt so much better. I also started taking my multi vitamin again (oops), B-12, fish oil, and vitamin B. Now I in no way view this as any sort of diet. Mark and I don't think it's healthy to restrict yourself too much because it just makes us, well ME mostly, really miserable. We're trying to throw out as much processed food as possible and really trying to re-evaulate the way that we approach food.

With being a vegetarian and I am ashamedly very aware that I do not get enough protein. I have been researching other ways to get it and have been eating more yogurt, milk, eggs, beans, and humus. It's just amazing how after changing your diet for a few days can make you feel so much more energized and lighter. Will we eat pizza ever again? oh yes. :) And I will still enjoy a cupcake or cookie every now and then, but I must say that after eating food that's more healthy it makes me second guess if I want to put sugar in my body AS MUCH as I was (b/c I still will :)). Anyways, that is my rant. My next agenda is to tackle tofu--it really freaks me out. I did have tofu sausage last night and it just had that meaty consistency which I hate. If anyone has any other healthy tips or ideas comment below!