News!

So.  To follow up  Caitlin's great post about engagement pictures, it just so conveniently was posted on my OWN engagement day!  That's right!  I am engaged!  So now the talk to wedding is springing, including, and not limited to, trying to figure out WHAT to do.  Themes have come about...Let me run them by you and see what you think:

1) Hobo Wedding

Think of many bonfires, roasting sticks, a soup line, cut-off mittens for gifts, and a dumpster to serve great foods such as spam, leftover doughnuts and what not.   Include the bride (me) and groom holding cardboard signs saying, "We'll get married for money,"  or "No money, newly weds, starving students.  Any help accepted."


2) Zombie Wedding

Well, we just witnessed the great pictures Caitlin posted, so just think along the lines of that.  Some guests will have the privilege to dress up as Zombies and the rest will be given "weapons" (perhaps nerf guns or pepper spray) and they will attack (okay, bad idea on the pepper spray) the zombies and shall be victorious.  We could serve "brains" (Jello mold?) and guts (more jello?) for the food.

3) Pirates vs. Ninjas

So my side of the family/guest shall be pirates and his side of the family/guests shall be the ninjas.  Then we shall fight to the death, er, win.  Dressing up will be essential and as well as cool accents for the pirates and great stylized moves for the ninjas.

4) Cowboys vs. Indians

Pretty much the same idea as Pirates vs. Ninjas, except with Cowboys and Indians.  Perhaps the food can be some Thanksgiving food as the cowboys and Indians come together in peace.  (I know, I know..it's the PILGRAMS not the Cowboys.  But still...)



Hmm...Well, I've got some good planning coming in here.  I'm sure we'll come up with something great.  But, to close this fabulous post, here is a picture of the happy couple:

Cute, right? This is just moments after being proposed to.  

Anywho, be looking for a wedding section for the planning on my pinterest soon. 

Zombies

Here are some awesome engagements pics that my friend posted on FB via Pinterest. She posted them for her fiance to look at for ideas for their pictures ;) Enjoy! (I laughed pretty hard when I saw these)

Source: mlkshk.com via Randee on Pinterest

Speaking of Zombies here is song by Stephanie Mabey titled: If I were a Zombie

Well enough about zombies. Cheerio! 

A Post on a Sandwich?

I got a sweet sisterly message from Erin today which said: "Dearest Caitlin. You have not updated the blog in a long while. Repent."


So here I am. Repenting. I don't even have much of an excuse why it has been so long other than my new church calling (Beehive Adviser!) and School. I wish I had an lengthy adventuresome story to tell you about how I was spending my time fighting dragons, flying to the moon, discovering a new species, etc. But alas such is the life of a college student. It is rewarding but it does not make a good story. 
So I decided to share part of my journal with you on eating a sandwich. No really, it is about a sandwich. Weird? Probably. I hope you enjoy it even though it sounds like it should be only a sentence (ex: I ate a sandwich today and it was good.)


The other day I had a fantastically amazing veggie sandwich with a homemade pesto yogurt sauce and a roasted red pepper as the 'meat' of the sandwich. I made a copycat version of the veggie sandwich from Paradise Bakery. As I ate the sandwich my heart was so full of gladness and I could feel the energy that came from the fresh vegetables and the sprouted wheat bread (Ezekiel Bread). I have never had that happen before with food. When I used to eat "comfort" food it would make me feel numb and pacified. This was totally the opposite effect. My soul was enlightened and lifted as I ate these nourishing things for my body.

I was a bit interested in why I was having a spiritual and uplifting experience while simply eating a sandwich. I read in the scriptures later on that day about the word of wisdom on LDS.org and I gained a greater understanding of why I was having this amazing experience from my meal.

In the Doctrine and Covenants 59: 17-19

17 Yea, and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;

 18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the a benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

 19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.

 What are the Doctrine and Covenants, Word of Wisdom, or the LDS church? Click on any of these links for more information, or ask me. I would love to talk to you about it :)

I felt that strength to my body and that my soul was literally enlivened. I feel incredibly  blessed with all of the food that God has put on this earth for us. The natural healing power that we can receive from eating right. I know that it is truly a gift from the Lord. 

French Tuesdays

Brilliance.  Sheer brilliance.  Can't get this out of my head.  Two of my favorites:  Jacques Cousteau!  And, Splish Splash!  Love.  PLUS it is in French.  Voila!  Enjoy.

Glitter Toes!

I came across this lovely website the other day, explaining on how to do your very own Glitter Toes!

I know, it seems rather intimidating.  Your very own glitter toes? Is it possible? I do not have the steadiest hand when it comes to painting my nails.  But I tried my hand on it.  It turned out fabulous.

I bought exactly what she suggested...I went to Sally's and punched the Gelous clear nail polish.  It was on sale for a bit less than 5 bucks.  Then I headed on over to Robert's and bought a pack of 5 different colors of glitter for a bit less than 5 bucks too.  (Thank you, 40% coupon, which, by the way, is ALWAYS available, everyday!).  The good news is, it hardly used any glitter.  It is definitely worth the money.  I mean, check it out:

I am sorry you have to look at my feet.  It's not pretty, I know.  But! I am ready to show off these babies (meaning my toenails...who'd want to see my feet anyways?) at the beach!  Bring it on!  (And yes, I am going to be at the beach verrry soon here!)

A few Saturdays ago, I went to CPK with Ryan for lunch.  As we were sitting there, a very flamboyant looking man entered, sporting a leopard pring shirt, black vest, crazy necklace, and a crazy mo-hawk.  I gawked and quickly nudged Ryan to get a good look at this piece of work.  Then we happily finished our pizza and forgot all about the leopard man.

Well, as I was scrolling through my usual dose of morning blogs the other day, guess what I came across while browsing cJane?

This:

I nearly gasped when I saw the same flamboyant outfit, crazy hair, leopard man with his arm around Cjane.  Turns out, crazy, flamboyant man is Tyler Glenn, the lead singer of the Neon Trees.  You may know their hit single "Animal", yes?  It was a good thing I wasn't drinking anything...It would have shot right out of my mouth, I was so shocked.

But there ya have it.  Crazy, no?

Do you ever just come across something and start laughing uncontrollably?  Even if it isn't immensely funny...you just can't help but to laugh until you cry?  I just did that.  I saw this and started laughing and laughing and laughing:

I am still laughing.  I can't stop.  I need help!

Hour Glass

 Here I am doing my homework on a Saturday. It is quite lovely though. I am enjoying the beautiful weather outside while studying my Nutrition reading assignment. There is a dainty butterfly fluttering around my porch. I am listening to one of my favorite songs: Hour Glass by Mindy Gledhill. It is very magical. Listen to it and imagine my little porch with me sitting in a while wicker chair learning loads of info and you may understand why I do not mind my weekend of school work. Have an oh so loverly day. Ps. I weighed myself yesterday and I have lost 10 pounds in the last month. YAY!

Update on Life

Hey Everyone!

Here are some quick updates on my life:

I have been trudging my way through my first week back at school (literally trudging, aka my sprained ankle). Actually, I am really excited about school starting! I love school! It has just been a little hard trying to get to my classes because of my leg. It is healing though and I will be looking forward to being able to walk normally again.

Part of my school expenses went towards purchasing a new laptop. I am super happy about this. I purchased a HP TrueVision HD Laptop. Even though it is not a Macbook (which I totally would love one day) it was well the money I spent on it. Which means....drum roll please...MORE BLOGGING!

I am still eating healthy and I love how I feel. I wish I can exercise more but with my leg I haven't been able to continue my normal workout routine. As soon as I can (Monday? Hopefully.) I will start it up again. Today was also supposed to be the day I would weigh myself but I want to use the same scale that I started weighing myself on so I will get the most accurate results. The problem is that the scale I use is at the rec center. I guess I will have to wait.

That is all I have time for now. TTFN.

OH wow...

So, it has been awhile since Caitlin has posted.  She is the one to blame.  She has no excuse.  She has not been locked up dying from illness.  She has all the free time in the world.

Just kidding.

I will take the blame too.  But while excuses are always acceptable (are you telling me they aren't??), I am going to blame the fact that I have not been feeling well whatsoever for the past few weeks.  Straight.  Fun,  right?  Which has equalled to no energy, an increase of apathy, and an extreme sense of fatigue.  But! I'm getting better! I'm not dead!

Caitlin has had some great excuses too.  She sprained her ankle pretty good.  It has been a great source of pain, that I am positive that her excuse for not blogging is due to that pain overtaking her brain and unable to think of anything else, let alone blog.

So there ya have it.  But, just you wait! I'm sure one of these days, we will get around to blogging more frequently once again.  Once we are all bright and chipper again! Bright days are ahead indeed!

Sick Also...

I feel sick too. Not like poor Erin, thankfully for me. Unlike Erin I am to blame for my "sickness". Sorry Erin you are not feeling well. I hope you have continued to rest and recover fast from your illness.  I ate some pizza and breadsticks today that Cameron brought home from Pizza Hut.

Remember that I am trying to eat healthy? Well, I have been SO good. I have eaten as well as I can and I have exercised at least 5 days a week.
Until today.
Grr.
I went on a bike ride with my younger sister today which was wonderful. Yay!
Why did I ruin my workout by eating junk food? 
I am not very happy with myself... It was definitely not worth the fifteen to twenty minutes of eating it.
My stomach is achy and sore.
My head hurts from the lack of nutrition and I feel tired and grumpy.
I am also having acid reflex which I do not have a problem with when I don't eat junk food.
If I am going to feel this awful after eating something it should have been way more worth it,
such as something involving CHOCOLATE. 

I needed to write this down to remind myself that I enjoy the way I feel when I eat right. I look forward to tomorrow where I can work on reversing the pizza I ate today.
Tomorrow is a New Day!!!
I am going to move forward and do better tomorrow.

Sick

Happy weekend! I hope your weekend plans are a LOT more exciting than mine.  My Friday night plans have been to lounge, rest, watch Arsenic and Old Lace, and eat.  Today was a sick day for me.  Last night, I knew I was in trouble when I started shaking uncontrollably from feeling "cold" when no one in the apartment felt cold at all.  Why, hello fever.  How great it is to meet you.  I slept all day long.

Now, I get rather antsy when I just sit at home and do nothing.  I start going crazy.  I start going through my to-do list (my real one, not my fake one) and start thinking of all the things I could accomplish throughout the day, since I am not at work.  (Dear Erin, there is a reason for that...YOU ARE SICK!)  You will be happy to know, however, that I only left my apartment once to run to the grocery store (a sick girl needs OJ ok?).  The rest of the day was spent in bed, or on my living room couch.  All day long.

It is now 12:58 a.m.  I am terrified to go to bed.  Why, you ask? I've been sleeping all day.  Why on earth would my body let me fully sleep through the night?  I'm afraid it will shout and prod, "You've been sleeping all day! Get up you lazy girl!"  I don't want to take that kind of torment.  So I am stalling sleep time.  (You can't get mad at me...Remember? I've been a good girl and slept/rested all day long!)

However, in my sick state, I managed to pick up an old Cary Grant classic, "Arsenic and Old Lace".  Please, oh please tell me you have seen it.  It is rather hilarious and it is definitely worth the watch.  Describing it just won't do it justice.  You just need to go watch it.  Now.  Right now.

Then, as I was fiddling around on Facebook (where all go when they have nothing left to do), and I found this YouTube video of Harry Potter, How it Should Have Ended.  I rather enjoyed it.  Especially the end where Dumbledore announces the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher.  It was my favorite part and I laughed, a lot.   Check it out:

I wish I could say that today was a success...I suppose in a sense it was.  I rested.  Which was exactly what I needed to do.  I just hope I'm not stuck inside all day tomorrow.  Here's to feeling better!  Perhaps I'll actually attempt to go to bed now.  Good night, folks!

Sugar Addiction Help

Two weeks ago I committed to changing my life to become healthy. I am so glad I did because I have seen wonderful changes with my whole well being. I have had an increase in energy, a better ability to deal with cravings (most of the time I don't even have cravings anymore, YAY!), clearer skin (this one is huge for me as I have struggled with severe acne most of my life), weight loss, and an increased ability to deal with stress. I can't wait to see more changes in my body, mind, and spirit as I continue on my journey.

I read an article today about recovering from sugar addiction with ease that I found very helpful and informative. I have been addicted to sugar pretty much all my life and it has done havoc to my body. I am so glad my sugar cravings are getting better and are becoming so few and far between I hardly notice them anymore. Click here to read. It is worth the time if this is something you struggle with too. 


Here is an excerpt from the article:

The Benefits of Breaking Your Sugar Addiction

Besides the obvious long term benefits of markedly lowering the risk of diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart attacks -- the major killers of modern life -- cutting sugar intake will help many other conditions. These include:

• Chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia
• Anxiety and depression
• Pain of many kinds
• Decreased immune function (a 12 ounce can of soda can drop immune function by 30% for three hours!)
• Chronic sinusitis
• Irritable bowel syndrome and spastic colon
• Autoimmune disease
• Cancer
• Metabolic syndrome with high cholesterol and hypertension
• Heart disease
• Hormonal problems
• Schizophrenia
• Candida and yeast infections
• ADHD

It also helps boosts metabolism so that people can finally lose weight as well!

Vacation Shoes

Well, along with Caitlin, I, too, need a new pair of shoes.  Actually, just about my whole shoe wardrobe needs replacing...but I am in special need of a pair of tennis shoes. 

Now, I am not a tennis shoe kind of girl.  I love my flats to pieces.  Literally.  In fact, last year, I was forced to throw away a beloved pair of flats, that were in shreds.  Did I still wear them? Until the dying day. 

But I am leaving on vacation here in a month and a half, and I made the mistake LAST vacation to wear these little beauties:

Horrible.  Absolutely horrific.  I refuse to make that mistake twice.  The picture does not show how flimsy these shoes are.  They are more like slippers.  Just imagine trekking San Fran in slippers.  Bad, bad, bad idea.

So I am on the hunt...For a good pair of vacation shoes.  Cute ones.  I mean, if tennis shoes CAN be cute.  I am kind of a fan of Tom's Cordones.  Simple, stylish, and not too over the top.  Here are a few that I am eyeballing at the moment:


Black Cordones

Wool Cordones

Or perhaps these ones....                                                                                                                             

http://www.toms.com/womens/cordones/english-herringbone-women-s-cordones

(photo coming soon!)

I just don't know.  The black ones are classic...But I love the gray.  Gray matches with so much, but then I am worried about the wool.  Recommendations? Suggestions? Your favorite vacation shoes? Help?

Best Friend Application

Some guys in my apartment complex came up with this {clever} resume with many valid points why they should be your best friend.  Check it out:

Hired, I dare say.