one more reason to love weight watchers

I've got to give a little shoutout to Weight Watchers. They've been a pivotal part of my weight loss. My whole relationship with WW has been online. The accountability and availability has been just what I needed.

I recently reached my "goal weight" with WW. I thought I would kick my relationship with WW to the curb, along with all my fat clothes. But alas, WW has once again won me over.

They have a new feature what I call Pantry Raiding. WW calls is Use What's In The Fridge. There's a spot where you can enter into up to three different ingredients and it comes up with a huge variety of recipes and menus options. It includes not only WW created recipes, but also recipes that other folks have submitted too.

Last night I had an artichoke and tomato topped pasta. It was wonderful. And vegan. And diet friendly. And most importantly: free. All the items were in my kitchen already.

You really can't beat a new recipe that's yummy and free now can you?!

on to new york city and italy

My friend LindseyLee (hereafter known as LeeLee) is on a little tour of Italy with her hubs Joe right now. They are going everywhere. While I sit in an office....typing invoices and dealing with cranky home builders. Its almost the same as dealing with cranky Italians, except there's no wine, pasta or sexy shoes here. To keep me from sliding into full-fledged envy, I gave LeeLee some money to buy me something cool from Italy. I cannot wait to see what my little fashionista friend brought back for me!

My sister Lauren and her husband Jon are going to New York in two weeks. Jon is turning 30 this year and they are celebrating with a trip up to NYC. When I first heard that Lauren was heading up to NYC I got so excited. Lauren is a fantastic shopper/gift giver. She finds the most unique stuff that always leaves me wondering how I didn't own such a cool accessory/jewelry/article of clothing and if I'm cool enough to pull off said accessory/jewelry/clothing. And she always seems to find the coolest stuff in NYC. She's been several times in the last few years and its like Christmas when she comes home.

So by giving these girls some cash its basically like I'm going to Italy and NYC except I don't have to deal with paying, cranky waiters, shady airport folk....I just get to enjoy the cool souvenirs!

willpower or no willpower?

Josh and I just got our federal taxes back....and promptly invested them. Actually, we just put them in a CD at our bank.



The interest isn't that great, since we're only investing for a short amount of time. But our main motivation wasn't necessarily to earn money, but to keep ourselves from spending that money.



So tell me friends......does this mean we have willpower since we didn't tap into any of our tax refund? Or, does it mean we don't have any willpower since we had to invest it so we wouldn't spend it?

overlooked

Let me present my overlooked, and clearly overused, toothbrush and que-tip holders.

Wow. That's some serious nasty right there. Josh and I got these for our wedding. Its only been five years....but I guess they just don't make fake silver toothbrush holders like they used to. What a shame.

I am super-cheap (did I mention that I only spent $0.15 on Josh for Valentine's Day?) So I guess its needless to say that replacing a toothbrush holder wasn't exactly high on my list of "man-i-really-want-that-and-have-already-circled-that-item-in-the-catalogue-the-last-5-issues-and-am-almost-willing-to-part-with-this-money-that-i-worked-so-hard-for."

But then I walked in Anthropologie on Saturday. And they were having a sale. And I accidently bought these. And now brushing my teeth is a joy. (Can someone forward this to Dr. Wilson?)

Ok, so there's a little dried toothpaste all over everything, but hey, that's not the point. Aren't these lovely? I love the designs!

valentine's day on the cheap

Josh and I don't have a ton of love for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure if its because we spent so many v-days without each other or if we're refusing to buy into the whole corporate-ness of the holiday.....but whatever the reason, the past nine years (what?!?) we've had pretty chill Valentine's Days. The love is big, but the gifts and hoopla are usually pretty minimal.



This year I decided to get all crafty and make a gift for Josh. I found a great quote that seemed to sum us up, downloaded a free typewriter-ish font and found a used piece of paper at my office. I bought a 4"x5" frame at Salvation Army for $0.15. The final product:

Josh and I do have one tradition for Valentine's Day. Chinese Food. I'm not sure how it happened, but while I was at Clemson we celebrated Valentine's Day eating Chinese food in my living room, out of the carton while sitting on the floor. I'm not sure why we didn't eat at the kitchen table (I can hear my Grandmother yelling at me now) but the tradition has stuck.

Nine years later I'm still loving Josh. And Chinese food. And being cheap.
I guess somethings really are forever.

cheap-o

Yesterday Josh took me out to lunch. We got 6" subs at Subway, no side items.

As we were finishing lunch, Josh said, "Can I interest you in a free cookie from Harris Teeter?"



Yes; my husband just asked me if I wanted to sneak next door to the grocery store and steal 'free' cookies from the kiddie display.

Ahhhh, a man after my own heart!

something witty about colorado

I'm alive, promise.

I've just been super busy.

But I'm back.

Two weekends ago a went with a bunch of our Young Life family to Great Wolf Lodge for a leader/committee weekend. The worship was great, the teaching so good and the time with friends was amazing. How could I not get enough of these girls?!?!?

After a whirlwind day of unpacking, re-packing and panicking over flights Josh and I left to spend the week out at Young Life's Trail West. We spent several days at a marriage retreat and then a few days vacationing with our friends Ryan and Sharon. Again, the teaching was great and the time with friends was amazing (and much needed!)

Sometimes it seems like the heavy and hard stuff comes in large doses, so I'm going to soak up these past two weeks of teaching and fellowship with friends. God is good and so was the past few days.