Mouth Breathing

Afternoon, all! I've been a tardy blogger lately! When I left work yesterday, I had to get gas before picking up the Pre-K enrollment paper work. I was seriously low. Shhhhh . . . don't tell The Lover.

By the time I got to the gas station, it said 4 miles to E. Scary. I have been super spoiled. The Lover used to fill up both of our cars but it's been so insane lately that I've had to do it myself. I got out and realized the tank was on the opposite side of the car. Wowza.

Pre-K enrollment night started at 500 PM. Each elementary school in the district gives out 40 packets. First come, first serve. I got to the school at 503 PM and was #37. Barely made it, but made it I did!

For dinner, I was craving breakfast so I made "binner."

Eggs, mushrooms, spinach and leftover potatoes (x 2.5 it was fantastic). And garlic toast on the side. Like my new plate? I hit up Target and majorly scored with their post-Easter sale! I <3 sales - especially if it's 50% (or more) off!

We had some storms going on last night and it helped me sleep so well. I love falling asleep to the sound of rain against the windows. It also made it very difficult to wake up this morning. I kept hitting snooze until 600 AM. I finally dragged my ass out of my bed and stumbled to the coffee pot. I love the person who invented the self-timer on the coffee pot! There is nothing like waking up to a hot pot of coffee.

Breakfast was divine! Pumpkin Overnight Oats -

• 1/2 cup dry oatmeal
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup rice milk
• cinnamon

Mix ingredients and store in fridge overnight. I topped my oats with a diced apple and 1/4 cup of Kashi Sunshine cereal. Later, I snacked on some yogurt and strawberries.

On the agenda was at least a 4 miler (5 - 6 if I could squeeze it in) but after 2, I called it quits. Sometimes, I'm just not there. Yesterday, I had a great run and felt like I could have kept going. Today, I just couldn't hack it. It has a lot to do with being on a treadmill for the 3rd day in a row. I prefer to run outside but when I'm congested and struggling with breathing, I keep it indoors. I keep telling Donna that I'm a mouth breather today haha.

Lunch was excellent!

I had a Boca burger on a sammie thin. I smeared the thin with a wedge of Laughing Cow and topped it off with some spinach. On the side, 3 HOOGE carrots and hummus for dipping. So. Full.

The Oklahoma Blood Institute keeps calling and asking for blood donations. When I donate blood, I'm tired and blah for a week or more. We have a blood drive at work coming up in May. Is it selfish for me to put it off until then so it won't affect my training and upcoming race? Normally, I would be all about donating.

Anyhoo, the race is in 17 days! GULP. If you haven't read about the OKC Memorial Marathon, check it out! It's the 10th anniversary of the marathon but 15 years since the bombing. We have people as far as Canada and New York participate because of what happened. I cannot describe the camaradarie and the emotion in the air during this event. It's just awesome!

Negative Peeps

Afternoon! Wow. This day is almost over. It's been balls to the wall, folks! Feels like I just got here. I'm going to rewind a bit . . .

For dinner, I was a tad stumped on what to make so I asked Big Boy what he wanted. He is very picky and basically loves pizza. So I decided we should do a "Make Your Own Pizza" night. There was sauce, cheese, red circles (aka, pepperoni), mushrooms, spinach and tofu to choose from. The base of the pizza was leftover naan that I had gotten from the Asian grocery store. They were in the freezer and didn't take long to thaw. (Yes, my counters are old school lol)

Big Boy in action . . . He loved it!

He made both The Lover's and his own. The Lover's has mushrooms on it.

I made mine with very little sauce, mushrooms, spinach, cheese and leftover BBQ tofu.

Dessert was Easter candy, of course! I also had some chocolate covered pretzels.

This morning started off great. Both boys were in great moods and although it was a hurried morning, it was smooth sailing. I had a Chocolate Cherry Bomb for brekkie.

• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 15 frozen sweet dark cherries
• 1T chocolate syrup
• 1 banana
• 1 cup rice milk
• ice, ice, ice!

My new favorite! I snacked on an apple and Easter egg before heading out for a 3 mile run. I basically kept it indoors today. The wind was ridiculous and my allergies were out of whack. I woke up with some nice and sexy crusty eyes.

We also had our relay marathon meeting. We have 3 teams this year! So pumped. What, what! Though I had that awful nightmare, I'm more excited than anything. Lunch was quick and easy. I was starving and took a bite before taking a pic. Oops!

Mmmmm . . . black bean and sweet potato burgers can never be wrong. For dessert, I had chocolate Oikos with strawberries. So sinful - in a good way!

I also had some pineapple that went down the hatch - no pic sorry!

So do you know anyone that is so freaking negative? I have a few in my life and it is so frustrating. I feel like they totally bring me down. Now, I'm not Ms. Happy Rainbows 24/7 (because that would be so annoying) but I am a generally happy person. I have bad days like everyone else but oh my goodness! The constant negativity just chaps my ass. (sorry for the super country saying) And it's not just negativity towards themselves but about EVERYTHING. Is there a point when all that negativity just ends up being self-fulfilling prophecy? Honestly, I could pick up my computer and throw it against the wall. It is THAT annoying to me. I tend to want to "pump" that person up but when do you say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH? When you feel that it's dragging you down as well?

Do you have Negative Peeps in your life? How do you deal? OK I must run! The Lover and I are off to get Big Boy enrolled in Pre-K. Sniff, sniff. They grow up so darn fast. It feels like I just gave birth to him and now he's 4!

Easter Traditions

Happy Good Friday! I wish I could say I have the day off work but I don't. That's ok though because I'm just jazzed it's Friday. I hope the day flies by! I'm so very ready for the Easter weekend. We're looking forward to dying Easter eggs with our boys (OUTSIDE) and hunting for eggs as well. It will be exciting now that Baby Boy is bigger and is walking.

First things first! We had a very loud and wild storm breeze through this morning. Power was briefly lost and thank goodness it came back on because I hate jacking with the circuit breakers. We are also out of fruit and vegetables - a serious grocery store trip is on the agenda for the weekend. I had no clue what to make for breakfast so I stared at the open fridge and cabinets for quite some time. Then inspiration struck! I've heard of baked oatmeal but I decided to put the Retta Spin on it.

Baked Pumpkin Cranberry Crunch Oatmeal was born!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• pumpkin pie spice
• cinnamon
• 2t brown sugar
• vanilla cranberry almond clusters

Pre-heat oven to 350 - 375 degrees. Prepare oatmeal according to package directions. Remove from heat. Add pumpkin puree, yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar, cinnamon & crushed almond clusters. Mix well. Lightly spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Mixture will seem too moist at first. Trust me, it will be awesome! I even sprinkled some dry oats on top for a little flair. Deeeelish! Next time, I think I will try just plain dried cranberries and chopped almonds. Another view:

I wish I had a lid for my casserole dish for better travel to work but I just used foil and a pot holder. It's taken me 2 hours to eat this while I've been working. It's a good size serving - probably 1.5?

Moving on (from the yummy that is in my tummy), I'm really looking forward to this Easter holiday! I mentioned earlier that the boys are older and will really enjoy coloring and hunting for eggs. FUN! I also look forward to making my annual Lamb Cake! It's not what you think. When we were kids, my mom had a cake pan in the shape of a lamb. She would bake the cake every Easter. After icing the cake, she would use shredded coconut for the "wool" and color the coconut for "grass".  Over the years, the cake pan was lost.

I told my mother-in-law about the tradition and she surprised me with a lamb cake pan of my very own! (Insert collective "awwwwww" here) I've made my version of the lamb cake for 4 or 5 - maybe 6? - years now. I love doing it even more now that we have children of our own. It's cheesy but that's how I roll.

This was last year's:

It's kind of creepy in the face but it's tasty! I still need to work on my decorating skills haha. I love family traditions!

Do you have Easter family traditions you'd like to share? We typically do separate dinners my side and The Lover's side but we're just doing one this weekend. My side is postponed until next weekend.

2 Legit 2 Quit

Hey, heyyyyyyyyy! Who remembers that song by MC Hammer? I am doing the Hammer dance as I type this. All I am missing are my Hammer pants. Yep, I totally had the Hammer pants! I heard "2 Legit" on the radio this morning and I was jamming. (Another "Ask Me" answer at the bottom of post!)

OK total tangent lol. Anyhoo, yesterday recap first. I got a wonderful 4 miler in and I'm not sure if it was because I was wearing my running skirt but I was really in the groove. I had fewer allergy-induced coughing breaks. It was a "dreadmill" run. Still windy in OK-Sizzle.

Lunch was a simple cuke and Laughing Cow Swiss sammich with grapes on the side.

 

I also snacked on some Oikos Honey yogurt.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I think my eats need some tweaking. I was ravenous yesterday! I just couldn't seem to get satisfied. So when that crazy ass hunger hit, I ended up going loco on my dinner.

Seriously, I had 3 servings and ended up getting beyond full. I was SO hungry. My quick stir fry contained:

• baby corn
• water chestnuts
• noodles
• green onions 
• fried tofu
• soy sauce

This morning, I woke up not feeling super hungry but I still prepared a filling brekkie to take to work. I'm going to experiment and see if I need more protein or what the dealio is.

I promise it's not just a big bowl of apples :0). My refreshing and cool breakfast contains:

• 1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt
• 1 diced apple
• 1/2 cup Kashi Sunshine cereal
• 1T coconut (of course!)
• 4 chopped almonds

Let's see if this holds me over well! OK on to the "Ask Me" question:

"How do you work out during the day without getting sweaty and disgusting?"

I DO get sweaty and disgusting! Since I work out/run on my lunch break, I usually just wear my hair in a pony and call it good. My secret weapon: Baby Wipes. Yep, it's a shower in a bag (basically). I also pack my deo and body spray. After a run, I'll wipe off all my make up except my eyes. If I have a meeting afterward, I'll touch up with some power but if not, I usually just go face-commando. Or should I say "skin commando?" As soon as I get home and get the boys settled, I take a shower and get so fresh and so clean-clean. Yes, it is kinda yucky that I don't get a complete shower after my run but eh. I do what I have to lol!

For you peeps that work out during the work (or school) day, what do you do? Or are you lucky and have showers at work? JEALOUS!!

Hump Day Happies

Goooooood morning! How are you this morning? I feel awesome - albeit congested  but it's getting better! First things first, recap to last night's dinneroo. Also, another "Ask Me" answer at the end!

For The Lover and the boys, I made pork chops with apricot and tomato chutney. (my measurements are guesses!)

Ingredients:

• 2 - 3 pork chops
• 1 can diced/crushed tomatoes
• apricot preserves
• red pepper flakes
• thyme
• S&P

I started by heating some oil (a bit less than 1T) in a skillet. Then sprinke S&P on the pork. Place chops in skillet to brown until you get a nice, brown crust.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To the skillet, add a can of crushed tomatoes. My favorite brand is Hunt's Fire Roasted w/ Garlic. :) For just two chops, I didn't use the whole can. I saved about 1/4 cup for part of my dinner.

Add apricot preserves, red pepper flakes and thyme to the skillet. Bring to medium heat (you need some boiling action but not too much). Stir mixture and scrape up bit of chop left in skillet. Reduce the mixture until it's a thick, chutney (or salsa-like) consistency. Top your chops with the chutney and bake for about 10 minutes.

It's always a hit at our house. For my dinneroo, I was craving breakfast! I made a simple baguette pizza topped with scrambled eggs, diced tomatoes and shredded cheddahhhh. I had both!

I am totally out of spinach. Boohoo. I didn't mind too much since I was stahving this morning. Luckily I had made Overnight Oats. I was SO ready to eat this beast when I got to work.

Overnight Oats were prepared with:

• 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 soy milk
• 1/2 cup dry oatmeal

Mix ingredients well and store in fridge overnight. The fun part is you can add anything your little heart desires to it! Mine were topped with 1T of shredded coconut, a sliced banana and a few hunks of almond cranberry vanilla clusters. Divine!!

On to the next question: "exactly how much weight do you think you've lost?"

I've lost between 40 - 50 pounds over the course of a 15 months-ish. Slow and steady, baby!

EEEEEK! I have a disgruntled employee coming to see me. Wish me luck! And a question for you: Do you get along with your neighbors? We have great neighbors. They are currently speculating on our sex life? Since we got bunk beds for the boys, they think we're trying for a girl now. That makes me laugh! And scares me a little bahahaha.

A For Effort & An "Ask Me" Answer

It is an absolutely gorgeous day today. I was so pumped to lace up my shoes and hit the road for a 4 miler. However, not even 1/4 mile later, I'm huffing and puffing. W.T.H. I'm sure I looked awesome bent over and hacking in front of the office lol. I pounded out 2 miles - with a few lung rattling coughing breaks thrown in there - and headed back. Hopefully the doctor will call me back soon. Benadryl, you are not cutting it for me! It still felt great getting out and getting my run on though!

Pre-run snack were grapes and come chocolate mint tea.

For lunchie, I'm having leftovers. But VERY delish leftovers.

• tomato & lentil cous cous
• steamed broccoli
• chickpeas

Throw them together in a bowl. Easy, peasy. For dessert, I'm having Oikos Chocolate flavored yogurt. Jealous? LOL.

My first question (I broke it down into 3 parts): "i want to know your AHA moment!" 

I addressed my "aha" moment a bit in this post. I always knew what I should or shouldn't be doing to lose weight/get healthy. But I never truly felt ready to tackle my unhealthy habits until after I had Baby Boy in 2008. It's actually a little funny because most people assumed my new love of running was because I was a few months shy of turning 30. Like, maybe it was a mini mid-life crisis? But no matter who tells you that you need to get your act together or how much you tell yourself, you have to be completely READY to tackle those bad habits and form good ones. I realized after years of struggling with weight and poor body image that you CANNOT overhaul everything in one day. Past Retta had to learn in baby steps to tackle one thing at a time.

I started slowly by keeping a food journal. I was breastfeeding Baby Boy so I didn't want to do anything crazy and drastic by slashing calories. I kept it around 2000 for the day. I'll be honest. When I started the journal, I didn't care about the quality of food as long as I stayed at our around 2000 calories for the day. When I look back on it now, I realize how crazy I was. Not for keeping the journal - because it worked for me - but becasue of the mentality I had about food. I was ingesting crap but felt ok about it because of calorie count. (I'm totally rolling my eyes at Past Retta right now). I could definitely tell my crap intake was affecting my workouts so I slowly started phasing Crap out and bringing more unprocessed, whole foods in. I noticed how much better I felt physically and my endurance got better as well.

Another big lesson I had to learn was to FORGIVE myself. Instead of totally beating myself up because I had Swiss Rolls (by the way, Past Retta was obsessed with those!) for dinner, I had to tell myself, "You'll do better with the next meal. It's ok and let's move on." You certainly wouldn't tell your best friend, "Wow, you are a fat pig!" so why the hell would you tell yourself that? Once I moved past that, I started working on the "well, I just messed this meal up, might as well mess up the rest of the day and start tomorrow." Why wait for tomorrow? Start NOW. :0) If I keep putting it off, I won't do it.

Overall, it's a slow and steady process with a few hiccups along the road. I still "mess up" but Past Retta no longer drags me down. Present Retta is at a healthy and happy place and still continues to learn. Now, when I look in the mirror and feel negativity about something - say, my stretch marks - I tell Present Retta, "You carried two babies in your body. They are healthy, smart and the loves of our lives." Or if I'm feeling a little down about my pace time, I have to remind myself that just a little over a year ago, I couldn't even run for 30 seconds!

What plans you have after the marathon?

To be announced at a later date! But I may have something interesting teehee.

"When we're getting a tattoo. :)"


Baby Sis, you make me laugh. Let's plan on when the breastfeeding days are over for both Big Sis and me. And after your wedding.
 
Seriously, I could not have gotten this far without the support of my family and friends. That includes my work family as well! Big smooches to all!!
 
Did you have an "AHA!" moment? What or who inspired/inspires you?

I'm BACK!

GOOD MORNING! I am back, holla! Did you miss me? I definitely needed this break to relax the noggin. I also took the opportunity to really focus on the family and workity work. I must confess that I also took a break from training. That was very much needed as well. So, what else have I been up to in the mean time?

A little of this: (Vampire Academy & Vampire Beach = Mediocre)

A touch of that: (New Moon is the second DVD)

I totally loved Angelina Jolie in Wanted. James McAvoy = HOT for me. I loved him in Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway. Love, love, love. New Moon was good but not awesome.  The books are much better. But I still geeked out like a teenage girl, not going to lie to ya. The Lover knew I had been wanting to see New Moon so he went and rented it for me. That's true love! I wonder if he put on a trench coat and dark sunglasses first haha.

There was also a lot of organizing and cleaning going on. We cleared out Big Boy's room and set up the bunk bed. Big Boy totally loves it and we're still working on Baby Boy's transition. I know it's not a great pic but I couldn't back up enough to get the whole bed in.

Baby Boy's room is now the playroom. It's a work in progress and it's scary. So out of control. I'm not really sure how they still have so many toys since we got rid of tons during the garage sale.

And of course, I had to tackle this never-ending beast!

I feel refreshed and ready to tackle the blog and training again. Unfortunately, my allergies are still out of control. I looked it up on-line and the tree pollen is really high. Damn you, trees! And of course, damn you Oklahoma wind for blowing it all around! So I'm relying on my inhaler and Benadryl for now. I'll have to get my booty in to see the doctor though. Bendadryl makes me so sleepy and I don't think the boss will appreciate seeing me slumped over my desk with drool running out of  my mouth (since I can't breath out of my nose). Bahahaha!

I was really craving a good, ol' Green Monster today.

My GM contained:

• 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
• 1T shredded coconut
• 1 banana
• 1.25 cups soymilk
• 2 handfuls of ice

I missed my GMs! However, I am not a fan of soymilk. Soymilk is pretty big in most Asian cultures but I have never really liked the taste of it. It just tastes funky to me. I bought it because that's what Wal-Mart had available. More than likely I won't buy it again. It feels weird saying I don't like soymilk but I love tofu and other soy products.

What's your favorite milk? I prefer rice and almond milk! Yummers! Have a faboosh Monday, ya'll!

Fist Bump

Gooooood morning to you! Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. I got slammed with work - it's our busy season. Then Baby Boy needed me once we got home. Poor dude. He's teething and it must be a doozy. He is not a happy camper. He's been waking up at night quite a bit and that is not like him at all.

Last night, The Lover and I were discussing the sleeping sitch. He and Big Boy have been sleeping in the living room and Baby Boy and I have been sleeping in our bedroom. Why? Well, we are waiting for our bunk beds to come in and are counting down the days to April 2nd! The sleeping situation is temporary and it sucks! Big Boy said he wanted to share his room so the boys will sleep in one room and Baby Boy's room will be the play room. Sounds like a great plan to us. :0) Before bed, we were saying how it felt like we are roomies right now so we did a fist bump before hitting the hay. We're dorks but it makes it fun.

Both boys were great this morning and I actually got to work earlier than usual. Shocking! For brekkie, I made Pumpkin Overnight Oats.

My oats contained:

• 1/2 cup dry oatmeal
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 pumpkin puree
• cinnamon
• pumpkin pie spice
• 2T soy milk
• diced apple

So satisfying! And for you pumpkin lovers, it's like having pumpkin pie for breakfast. I know I keep saying that but I'm a Pumpkin Addict.

I'm looking foward to my run today. My new shoes feel great! OK, must get crackalackin'. Have a wonderful day!

Do you and your lover have quirky things/jokes that you do? Feel free to share! I love having inside jokes with The Lover.

Boredom Snacking

Evening all! This has been a super relaxing and lazy day. What have I done today? A couple loads of laundry, play with the boys, eat, take a nap and eat some more. Yeah, it's been one of those days! I haven't even gotten out of my PJs!

My long list of eats for the day! After breakfast, I got a little snackie so I had a handful of these Pretzel Dips. Oh so good!

Lunch was a tasty Green Monster:

My GM contained:

• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 1 1/4 banana (part of my first banana was kind of funky)
• 1 1/4 cup soy milk
• 2 handfuls of ice

I missed GMs! After that I took a nice two hour nap with Baby Boy. I haven't taken a nap in a long time so that was super nice. I woke up to a present from The Lover. How sweet! He got a waffle maker. Guess what we're having for brekkie tomorrow? TEEHEE!

After waking up, I was feeling hungry again so I had some vegetarian eggrolls. These were about 3 inches long had 6. Three were 88 calories - not too bad. Instead of frying them, I popped the frozen eggrolls in the oven at 350 degrees until they were golden brown and turned them to brown the other side. They are just as crispy and a lot healthier.

Then I got snacky out of boredom. I totally recognized that I was eating because I was bored but did it anyway. The boys and I shared two bowls of Kashi Sunshine cereal.

I wasn't super hungry by the time dinner rolled around so I went simple with some polenta topped with black beans and spinach in veggie broth. Still very tasty!

Dessert:

I noticed my pants are getting a wee bit tight. I know that indulging every once in awhile is a good thing but I've let myself indulge too often. Plus, I have noticed the return of more processed foods has affected my training. Definitely time to get back on track, Retta!!

Have a wonderful night everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of my PJs tomorrow :0)!

Snow Day!

Morning! As Outkast says, I'm "feeling good, feeling great, how are you?" Even though the bottom has dropped out of the weather, I'm feeling cheery. Why? Maybe it's because of the three cups of coffee I consumed or maybe because it's been a productive morning!

Maybe because I also passed out early last night. I was pooped! After The Lover came home, we headed to the grocery store. It was INSANE. Okies were out in droves, stocking up for today's snow. Sometimes, I wonder if it's a conspiracy between the weather peeps and the grocery peeps. I swear, the meterologists really play up the weather, causing panic and people running to the store for supplies. If I had a beard, I would be stroking it with a very thoughtful expression on my face. Teehee.

For dinner, I made an apple and cheese sammie. I guess you can't really see the apple but it's in there. :0) On the side, I made some yucca fries with hummus for dipping.

I had never tried yucca fries before but they were delish. The do taste like a potato but different? If that makes any sense. It's a bit time consuming to make but worth it. First, I peeled the yucca of it's waxy, thick coating. The peel was giving me a work out! Then, dice into fry-like strips. Then, enter the time consuming part: Cover yucca with cold water and bring to a boil. Turn hit down and simmer yucca for 20 - 30 minutes or until tender. With a slotted spoon, transfer yucca to plate to cool. (Whew!) After cool, place yucca on a cookie sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray, cover with foil and roast in 350 degree oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil and roast for additional 7 minutes. I promise, it's worth it!

For dessert, I had some of these. Then I threw the package in the freezer to keep me from inhaling them. I seriously need a coconut intervention.

When I woke up this morning, I could definitely feel the chill in the air. Brrrr! I made brekkie for my boys and threw some laundry in the washer. They decided to help me sort laundry which totally did not help at all but it was fun. My brekkie was deeeeeelish!

I'm getting good at this omelet stuff! Not to toot my own horn or anything (BEEP, BEEP). My omelet contained:

• 2 eggies
• farmer cheese
• half an avacado
• 2 mushrooms
• a small handful of spinach (oh how I missed thee!)

Steamy, creamy and oh so dreamy. On the side, half an apple. My mission this weekend is to clean, clean, clean! Our house is a nightmare. Boo! The laundry monster has made it's ferocious return. We're all low on undies hahahahaha. The snow is coming down pretty hard. I thought the ground temps would be too warm for accumulation but it's coming down hard enough that it's not melting. The Sisters and I had planned on meeting for lunch but I'm not sure if it will be happening today. BOOHOO.

In Need of a Brew - Green or Otherwise

Dramarama! This day is kicking my butt and not in a good way. It's been an intense day, ya'll. I.N.T.E.N.S.E.  Bet you didn't know Asians said "ya'll." This one does!

After some deliberation, I decided I had way too much work to tackle so I decided to skip my run today. Boo! But one day won't kill me. My oatmeal carried me through my mid-morning snack (again!) but I was ready for lunch around 1230 PM.

I know it's not the greatest pic. I was in a harray! My lunchie-poo was delish though. I made a black bean and sweet potato burger this morning. Unfortunately, I think I cooked it too long because it was crumbling apart by the time lunch rolled around. Still good though! I had carrots and hummus on the side with a plum for dessert. I forgot my peeler today and could only stomach one carrot. I think it's a mental thing.

After more work shenanigans, I decided I needed a hot fudge sundae!

By the time I got around to eating it, it was a bit soup-like on the bottom but it didn't stop me from drinking it. No worries. :0)

Do you just want to be mad sometimes? At times, I get cranky and I want to be cranky but The Lover always makes me laugh and I'm thinking, "Well, hell. Guess I can't be mad anymore!"

Reasons I Love My Sisters

Mo'nin! How are you today? Doing well over here! Not going to lie though. I need some sun! It's been so dreary and overcast in Oklahoma City. I mean, come on! It's spring break! While getting ready, I watched the weather forecast and we have a 50% chance of snow on Saturday. Sucky! The temps are in the upper 50s all week and Friday will be 67. Wow! Just in time for the weekend, we'll have the snow and freezing temps. Oklahoma weather. You gotta love it. ;)

Last night's dinner was not all that great. I tried this new rice mix I found. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the box but it was a roasted garlic brown rice blend. So not impressed at all.

On the side, I had steamed broccoli & cauliflower with tofu. Luckily, that saved the whole dinner! To make the tofu and veggie mix, I simmered some frozen broc and cauliflower in vegetable broth. While that was simmering, I mixed three cubes - diced - of fried tofu (it was made with woodear mushrooms and rice vermicelli) in about 1T of hoisin sauce. You can find that at the Asian grocery store. When the veggies were just about finished, I added the tofu/hoisin sauce to the pot. A little S&P and bomb!

For dessert, I made an exciting discovery that I was dying to try!

I almost squealed when I saw the 4-pack of Oikos yogurt. I have been searching high and low and finally found it at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market close to Baby Sis' house. With my chocolate Oikos, I had 2 GS Somoas.

Oh. My. So good! You must try it!

The Lover took the boys to school this morning but I didn't get to sleep in. I'm really, really trying to streamline the morning routine and get to work without having a nervous breakdown every day :).

My brekkie was the bomb diggity!

This bowl of awesome contained:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup frozen blackberries (I swear they are in there!)
• 1 sliced banana
• 4 chopped almonds
• 1T chocolate chips

Mix, mix, mix it up and voila! Yummy in your tummy.

I was thinking about Big Sis and Baby Sis over the weekend and just feel super lucky that I have such a great relationship with them. Growing up you have the typical sibling stuff but we were still close. Big Sis is one year older than I and Baby Sis is 8 years younger. I used to change her diapers! She is getting married in May and maybe that is one of the reasons I feel so emotional. I know I'll be a mess during the ceremony. I know I was when Big Sis got married! So here are a few reasons I love my sisters:

• Big Sis always lends me books to read. Without her extensive library, my brain would not get a good workout
• Baby Sis gives me tons of clothes
• Big Sis sends me recipes she finds that she thinks I would like
• Baby Sis makes long runs very bearable
• Big Sis understands my obsession with Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor
• The three of us can tell one another ANYTHING

There is your daily cheese. Enjoy your Tuesday!

Are you close with your siblings? Feel free to spread some cheese!