Lunch

I started packing my own lunch a few weeks ago. It feels a little 'old fashion' which I kind of like. By packing my own lunch I saved a few dollars and a ton of calories. And, of course, I pack my lunch in my trendy blue out-doors lunch box.

And there are always pistachios in my lunch box, which makes for a happy afternoon.

Alien Dog!

Yes, she's a little odd. But wonderful. And naughty. And I love her.

Weekend crochet project!

I started this on Friday. I really like it. Its a little too bulky but for a first try I'm pleased!

Pets (Pests?)

Ugh! This is one of those weeks where you wonder why the heck you ever got those stinking pets in the first place. Anny runs away, we can't find her till the next morning, both Anny and Harriet are shedding EVERYWHERE, Anny tipped over the entire garbage and dug it all out, and then to top it off yesterday Harriet dug up my basil, tomato, and pepper seeds AND decided to jump in my box of potted lettuce. SO MAD. There are now four deep depressions in my box of little seeded lettuce. I'm getting over it. Although Levi wasn't very sympathetic (he likes the cat for some reason).

But then there are mornings like this morning where Anny will be so sweet and just sit by my feet as I make coffee and look at me with those big brown eyes. Sigh, then I'm just not so mad anymore. Harriet on the other hand... I honestly don't think there is anything sweet about her. But Levi loves her, which is sweet. A boy and his...cat? Huh. :)

I'll post pictures of how my lettuces are doing soon!

Spring shopping

Spring always puts me in a shopping mode. Off with the old, on with the new. I'll give you a brief glimpse at what I've been looking at. :)

This just got on my shopping radar yesterday. How cute is it?? I could see a multicolored chalk grocery list up on our wall next to the fridge.

After spending more time than I would have liked peeling apples for dinner the other night I added this to my list. A kitchen is not complete without one. At least I firmly believe that, especially after spending many summer afternoons peeling apples with my grandma when I was younger.

This is a comfort item that I have been wanting for a while. A nice whistling tea kettle on the stove just says 'home' for some reason. And between hot cocoa, tea, instant oatmeal, and french press coffee it would get used plenty.

I've also gotten the itch to start sewing in the past month. I don't have time to start learning how to sew now with school and homework but this summer I think I'll get myself a few patterns and start sewing aprons. Aprons are fairly easy (from what I've read) and I really like cooking in aprons.

Ohhh! And last weekend I planted a box of lettuce! They have just started popping up. I'll take a picture and post it this weekend. And I have completed 4 crochet projects since I started learning in January. It's been so much fun! 

Spring Break has come to a close

Good-bye spring break. You were fun while you lasted. Now I must go to work, to class, to homework, to errands, to being busy. You were my last spring break. Good-bye, good-bye.

I'm mourning the end of spring break. But I'll be done with classes soon! Yay!

Cutting comments

Yesterday evening Levi told me that a man (we're not naming names) commented on his facebook status saying something about how he didn't feel like Levi should be serving our country with some of the things Levi 'bemoans' about on facebook. This man deleted the comment so it's not on Levi's status anymore, but I was a bit offended by this... To me it was a cutting comment. I'm proud of Levi for wanting to serve our country. There will probably be challenging things for us and him in the near future so a little support and encouragement would be nice, not rude comments. Also, I'm not sure how facebook statuses predict how you will serve your country...??

The man did delete the comment, but I'm still slightly offended. I guess it just goes to show that you should be careful with your words. Even the simplest sarcastic remark can be hurtful to someone. The world tends to tear people down enough, we don't have to add to that.

Spring Break! and stuff

I am LOVING spring break. I've been a cute house wife, made dinner, seen my parents, worked out with my wonderful husband in the mornings, cleaned the house, played with the dog, crocheted. It's been great. I've started working on some planting ideas recently and am pretty excited for spring! Which, by the way, seems to be on our doorsteps! I'm glad it's warming up here in the tundra. It's quite a relief. And spring fever is setting in!

I need to start my homework for next week soon but I just can't bring myself to do it... I will do it, probably today, but I'm losing motivation... I'm sure as soon as I get to school on Monday I'll be fine but right now it just seems overwhelming. But in May I'll be done done done! Then I'll take spanish classes and plant plants and learn new recipes and have fun. And probably get a job. :) I feel blessed to be graduating debt free. I couldn't imagine having to pay loans as soon as I got done this semester. A classmate mentioned she would be paying off her loans for the next 6 years... SIX YEARS?? My goodness.

 Levi's papers got processed this week for the Air Force! He is so excited. Looks like he just has to lose his last 3 pounds and then go up to Fargo for his physical and ASVAB. I've never seen him so excited to do something and so determined to do it. He even stopped eating pizza to lose his weight. WOW. I'm excited about it too. I think being somewhere new will be fun. As long as we don't end up in Minot or the Southwest. But! I will try to be content where ever we end up. Hopefully we will be stationed somewhere by Christmas.

Anny ate a Netflix DVD this week... Sometimes we wonder why we ever got a dog. I love her, I really do. But there are times that I'd like to give her to someone else. I think Harriet knocked a bunch of stuff off the counter and the DVD was in the stack of things. Anny also ate some mail and ripped the binding out of my favorite cookbook. Between the two I'm not sure who I was more irritated at.

So many things to do, so little time. I think that means I should start homework. :)

Pick-me-up Thursday

Things needed for a happy morning:

Applesauce
Dave Matthews
2011 mountain bike shopping guide to Specialized

Some days

Some days I feel a little irritated. For those of you who aren't in this position it may sound weird or petty. Now first off, understand I love my college, I love what I'm doing, and I enjoy going to work. It's has nothing to do with that. Although, sometimes I blame my frustration on those things.

I get frustrated driving in the opposite direction from Levi every morning. It's not that I'm clingy and have to be with him or near him all the time. It's that I can't go to the gym with him in the morning, I can't text him and catch lunch with him somedays, we can't spontaneously decide to go out for dinner at a fun restaurant in town after a long day at work.

I feel like our spontaneity is reduced down to what's for dinner that night (which has now been planned out the week before so we can't even count that), if we get dessert, or if we get to watch a movie or play a game that night.

Maybe that's just part of life. Maybe someday it'll be different. For now it's just irritating.

We made it to friday!

First of all I think we should all be congratulated for making to Friday. It was a loonngg week. Tonight on the agenda is some fun cooking and family time! We went grocery shopping last night. It's always interesting. Some dialogue from the trip:

"I forgot the lemon juice" A
"Ok, I'll wait here, you go get it" L

"Do you have to buy whole wheat flour?" L
"Thanks for letting me get whole wheat flour" A
"Well it's only because you forced me" L

You get the picture. I like grocery shopping but sometimes it can be a battle. Anyway, groceries got bought, I even got a meat tenderizer. Which I'm a little excited to use tonight. And I get to try a new recipe! Hope it turns out!!

The joy of counting calories

I love counting my calories. Not in a super obsessive way, more of a 'wow, look how I can change my diet' way. I've been counting calories for 3 days now. Not one day have I been over, or even close to being over. I was under my limit by almost 300 calories last night (and that's the closest I've come to hitting the limit). I even had Ben & Jerry's last night. So today I 'beefed' up my lunch a little and added pistachios and a cup of grapes. :)

This weekend Levi spotted these little applesauce packets in walmart and got me some to put in my lunch box (he knows how much I love my applesauce). Anyway, they're called gogo squeeze or something weird and awkward like that... and they are 110% delicious. I got the apple cinnamon ones, yum. Who would have know how delicious applesauce could be out of a squeezable packet? It makes me excited to make my own this summer! There is almost nothing better than hot homemade applesauce over ice cream.

On a side note. Gas prices?? Woah... Ridiculous! So we've decided to cut down on our trips to town and other odd places during the week a bit. So friday instead of going somewhere I'll be cooking chicken keivs (real ones, not the frozen type) and possibly a german apple cake.

9:24 a.m.

It's one of those mornings. Ugh. You have the best intentions and everything goes wrong. Oh well!

I have come to enjoy running. As long as I don't spend the day dreading my run it usually goes pretty well!  I also started using an online calorie counter to take a closer look at what I eat which is both interesting and disturbing. Just knowing that I have to record what I'm eating makes me make different eating decisions. For example, I really wanted a taco yesterday. But I didn't want to have to record that I ate a gross, high calorie taco for dinner. So I ate a veggie sandwich. We'll see how long that lasts but I'm liking it so far.

I've been getting excited about gardening and biking. Two enjoyable parts of spring and summer. Another great part of summer is all the fun clothes! I am loving title nine's recent catalog and patagonia's new patterns! Both places are ridiculously expensive but usually you can wait till it goes on sale or find it at the REI scratch and dent sale. I love that companies focus on cute clothes for active women, it makes shopping so much more enjoyable (I really don't enjoy clothes shopping so that's really saying something!).

Have a lovely week!