I'm just a little behind...

As you're aware, I'm participating in the quilt-a-long. I'm too lazy to link it, so see my post from earlier if you want that link.

Anyways, today starts Week 3. Sewing. Actually making something that begins to resemble a quilt.

Me? I started Week 2 today. I ironed my fabrics (oops-- that's actually from Week 1) then cut the patterns into rectangles. I would have continued to cut the neutrals, but I had to stop because of my RA. Oh, and because mom has my neutral that she's going to mail to me. Ain't no thang.

I was quite pleased with my rectangles-- so much so, that I spent some time afterwards lining them all up nice and neat, all making up one big brick. But wait. What's that? Some fabric overhang? And some that are shorter? From rectangles that are supposed to be uniform in size? Oops. Good thing I had plenty of fabric and was able to go back and make four (yes, four) replacement rectangles from that piece of fabric.



Lesson learned today? Measure twice, cut once. Even better-- measure three times... and really think it through when you're cutting.

monday's update and new goals

I think i did pretty well on my goals this week, considering I listed five!

#1-- Tech Week *definitely* went off without a hitch. It was phenomenal. Techs and supervisors alike were complimenting the committee on how wonderful it was :-)

#2-- TWO recipes: The first one, orange chicken in the crock pot, sucked balls. It was the worst meal I think I've ever cooked. I couldn't even eat it. BUT, the second recipe? *sigh*... I can't wait to make it again. French onion soup, and it turned out so phenomenally. Luckily, it made a huge pot of it, so that there is leftovers and I can eat it this week at work.

#3-- Lunch veggies: I am pretty sure I had a salad once this week? Not enough. I need to do better at packing my lunch, and making it with healthy things like sliced peppers and carrots and celery. I'll work on that again.

#4-- Wii: No. I had a very RA'd week, so I didn't get on it but maybe once. I was exhausted and achey and didn't feel like boxing.

#5-- Praise journal: Yes! I wrote in it! I think, maybe, three times? Again, I said it didn't matter how many times. Funny (or not) thing is, when I'd write a praise, I'd see that attribute all day. For example, "God, you are Beautiful"-- then, all day I saw different ways where God's beauty was showing. It was pretty awesome.

*New Goals*

1. Wii it up. If I'm feeling better, I want to get on this.

2. Another new recipe. Duh.

3. Stay on track with the quilt-a-long.

**edit! Added goal!**
4. Per Leann's reminder, start this bible study. Since we're doing it together, I really hope we can both stay with it. It's a bit of work to keep up with things like this sometimes, but it also makes me feel good when I do. How's the quote go? Nothing worth having was ever easy, or something like that.

That's enough for this week. It's a pretty busy week with the quilt, so that's going to take up a fair amount of my time after work this week.

Most. Amazing. Soup. Ever.

I have this sort of ongoing goal to try a few new recipes every week. This week, you may have seen my horrible attempt at Orange Chicken. Absolutely inedible. Boo.

Well. It's all better this time. I made French Onion Soup for the first time ever and it was amazing. So good, it's worth sharing the recipe with you.

1. Slice 7-ish medium to large yellow or purple onions, and sautee in some olive oil. I bought a special slicer for it (a mandolin), where you run them along it and it slices them really thin. It went so fast! By the time Chris had peeled an onion, I was waiting to slice it. I love it.


Simmer the onions for quite a while. Serious. Like, maybe 40 minutes. 10 minutes into the cook time, add about a half teaspoon of sugar. It helps with the caramelization. Now, mine never actually caramelized, but they got plenty cooked and delicious. After they're cooked, add two cloves of minced garlic and sautee for another minute or so.

2. Add 8 cups beef stock (*not* broth!), 1/2 cup dry red wine, 1 bay leaf, some thyme, and some salt and pepper. Don't add too much salt.


3. Simmer it together for about 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle, then ladle into individual oven-proof bowls.

4. Top with a piece of french bread toast and some cheese. The original post called for gruyere cheese, but Walmart didn't have it (surprise!), so I got Havarti because I know it melts well. Broil for about 10 minutes.


5. Immediately after removing from the oven, top with some fresh parmesan cheese. My only change will be adding more cheese next time.

This one got rave reviews from my new roomie and from my boyfriend. Yay!

no post tonight.

i'm not writing a blog tonight.

i'm too exhausted from my extremely busy week at work and the flare-up of my RA.

so, i just stopped by to say hi...

... and to tell you i'm not blogging tonight.

i do hope to see you tomorrow.

What a day.

Sheesh.

I'm exhausted.

This week is Tech Week, which means there's tons of events going on to celebrate the people who do the "real" work at my job-- the technicians that are there early, there late, there in ice, and there in floods. So, this week we had all sorts of stuff to tell them how much we appreciate them. We held games, costume contests, peer awards, and today there was a pizza party and basketball tournament. It went phenomenally!


I'm including just a few pictures of the game. You don't know who they are in the pictures, but it shows how much fun it was.




I'm also tired because I didn't get much sleep last night. I usually head to bed around 9 or 9:30, but last night I went to bed at 11:15. ELEVEN FIFTEEN. In the PM. Woah. Now, why, you ask, was I up so late? Oh, just working with some Twitter friends and setting up a new blog. So, if you're interested in having yet another blog to read/follow, check it out.

http://fitbytwitter.blogspot.com/

We're just a bunch of people who know each other from Twitter, who decided to get together as a support group to be healthy. It's not a weight-loss group, it's not a diet blog, it's just a group of people providing support and accountability for each other. I'm definitely looking forward to how it will grow with us.

how to save a life...

...in under 30 minutes.

I'm not channeling The Fray here, just telling you how you can seriously save a person. A real, live person. Someone that will live, thanks to you.

[edit: I totally look like I'm wearing a necktie. I'm not. It's a scarf. I didn't realize this before I posted this picture]

Did you know...
- 1 pint of blood can save up to three people?
- every two seconds, someone in the US needs blood?
- the average adult has 10 pints of blood in their body?
- less than 38% of the US population is eligible to give blood?
Doesn't that last one hit you? Approximately 1 in 3 people can even donate at all. But everyone has the possibility of needing it. If you're lucky enough to be ABLE to donate, you should do it. Period.

I seriously thought I wasn't able to give blood. If you've never given, I'll even give you my reasons-- maybe it'll help you make a decision.
* I've got an adrenal disorder, a heart condition, and an autoimmune disease.
* I take 18 medications. Eighteen. EIGHTEEN! (and none of them are on the exclusion list!)
* I've visited China.

And look. After all that, I'm able to donate. You can bet that I'll be in line to donate every three months, when the bus comes to campus to get you to donate.

If you're unsure about whether you are allowed to donate or not, go give it a try. There are two places that you can be excluded, based on health history and current condition. Actually, I had to place a cold bottle on the back of my neck because my pulse was too high-- because of my heart condition-- but it got within the range and I was allowed to give. Yay!

Bonus: you totally get free cookies, juice, a t-shirt, entered in a raffle to win tons of gift certificates, and you get a gift card to a book store. So, it's kinda like they pay you. They PAY you to SAVE A LIFE.

Think about it.
seriously.

my new home organization binder

I *finally* started my Home Organization Binder!

and i heart it...

I basically copied the bones of it from this site, which I actually stole from Leann's recent blog. I'm only at the beginning of it, but as you open it, you'll see the following things:

a pencil case, with pen, pencil, dry erase marker, and sticky notes
a laminated copy of Proverbs 31:10-31
daily schedule with "definitions"-- see Samara Jane's blog again.

I've also got a section for cleaning, which includes:

natural cleaning products (lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda)
--> and where/how to use them!
an emergency quick clean guide
miscellaneous cleaning tips
-- removing the ring from a collar
-- removing blood from furniture/clothes
-- killing flies (use hairspray!)

I then have a section about organization, which has ideas for keeping closets organized, organizing jewelry boxes, organizing photographs, all taken from links on this site.

I plan on having a "kitchen" section, which will have info for kitchen tips, a place to keep favorite recipes, that sort of thing. Like I said, it's a work in progress.

Everything is kept in sheet protectors-- then I can use the dry erase marker to make notes on the pages, like marking when my chores are done, or adding ideas to the cleaning or organizing sections. I'm excited. I've always been the type of person who needs lists and stuff like this. Even at work, they order special notebooks for me that have graph paper because it helps me organize my lists :-)

Monday Goals (of course) and a New Recipe (?)

It's Monday... and that means it's time to list my goals for the week. Today, I've got all sorts of goals to list. All different ones that I either *know* or am pretty darn sure I can accomplish this week.

Goal #1: Tech Week goes off without a hitch. We'll see how that one goes. Earlier today, I couldn't even leave my office because of all the stuff there for preparations!



Goal #2: TWO new recipes this week. I only say that because I have one brand new recipe in the crock pot so I don't know how much that counts as my new recipe for the week.

Goal #3: Fresh veggies at lunches. Meaning, pack some carrots or sliced red peppers to have with my sandwich and cheese sticks.

Goal #4: Play on the Wii 4 times this week. Seriously. Because, although I don't have the Wii Fit (so it's not *really* exercise), it does get me up and moving instead of sitting on the couch.

Goal #5: Write in my praise journal. Not gonna list a number of entries, just that I want to write in it. Maybe early morning, maybe before bed-- just do it.

Wow, that's a lot of goals for one week. Well, I'm halfway done with one of them! Goal #2 (two new recipes)-- tonight I had Orange Chicken, and it was horrible. Trust me. I couldn't even finish my meal. The best part was the steamed broccoli and white rice. Bella liked it though! I think the problem is that I was using a crock pot that is a little too big. The chicken always gets dry in it-- it seems like the main things I can cook are going to be soups and something with beef. It bums me out, because I have a ton of recipes that have chicken in it. Boo.

In any case, I still count that as a goal halfway done. Plus, it meant I watched serving size, having half a plate of veggies, a quarter rice, and a quarter disgusting orange chicken.

It wasn't even worth a picture. Boo.

Chris and I had a lovely day yesterday. We started at IHOP, where Chris designed the Eiffel Creamer, and I enjoyed some delicious chocolate chip pancakes. Then we went to Fort Worth for the Stock Show and Rodeo. We didn't get into the rodeo, because they were all sold out for the day, but we did get to see quite a few animals.


By "quite a few animals", I really mean "quite a few cows, and a sprinkling of goats". We were trying to find the pigs, the horses, the sheep-- all the other animals, but just saw barn after barn of cows. This one was HUGE-- I wanted to lay on it because I'm pretty sure it was like a giant love sac. Actually, it was probably uncomfortable. For lunch, Chris had a cowboy burrito (like a mix of a Philly steak and a breakfast burrito) and I had a bread bowl with chili in it. It was AH-mazing.


Today, I feel pretty "UGH". Wish I could explain it. I did a little around the house-- straightened up my sewing desk and got my sewing machine all ready for the quilt-a-long that starts this week (squeel!), and straightened up the coffee table that was holding all things Wii. Put the remotes in the drawer of the TV stand, then lit these candles. What I love about lit candles is that it automatically makes a room feel cleaner, more homey. I've lit a midnight jasmine, an orange sherbet, and a vanilla medley. They all smell wonderful together.

Now, I'm about to sit down and read some of the book that I'm in, until I get so sleepy I can't open my eyes anymore. I might go put some clothes in the wash so that when I wake up they're ready for the dryer... then again, I might wait until tomorrow. I did start on my Home Organization Binder. I'm really looking forward to starting on this sort of a schedule-- I really think it'll make keeping the house clean so much easier. I'd had this sort of idea before, but hadn't had enough info (or desire!) to really follow through with it. Now I do, especially with a roomate coming in less than a week. I don't want her to think I'm a slob. I mean, I don't think that I come across as one, but I want to be as clean as I think I am, you know?

13 for Thursday

Today, I'd love to tell you 13 things about myself that you probably don't know, in no particular order.

1. I hardly noticed that the Dallas sun hasn't poked its head in nearly 4 days.

2. I'm terrified that I'm going to display a lame reaction when I finally get proposed to.

3. I hate being petty, but I bring up the silliest things and dwell on them. It bums me out.

4. I'm having a decent hair day today.

5. I'm 27 and I sleep with a teddy bear-- and wear bifocals. Sheesh.

6. I really love to cook with fresh ingredients.

7. I'm doing pretty well at keeping my New Year's resolutions so far :-)

8. I hate that I can never forget that I have RA.

9. I no longer bite my nails-- big deal!!

10. The 5 other people that share my office area call me "mom"-- I tell myself it's a term of endearment.

11. I'm running out of things to say about myself, and worried because there's still two blanks left...

12. I think that penguins are my favorite animal. I'm pretty sure.

13. I'm not superstitious, but if I'm walking and paying attention, I don't step on the cracks. You can thank me later, mom ;-)