Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Dear Girl Scout Cookie

Dear Girl Scout Cookie,
Every year I can always tell when it's Girl Scout Cookie time. I start seeing the famous boxes every where I look. And the instant I see the bright green box of Thin Mints or the purple box of Samoas, my mouth instantly starts to salivate. But I kind of figured this year would be different. I told myself I wouldn't buy any boxes and I would stick to my Weight Watchers plan.
I'm sure you weren't too surprised though when I was approached by one of my nieces who asked me if I would like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies. So, you see, I was really saying yes to her and not to you, poor Girl Scout Cookie.
Last Saturday I received my package of Girl Scout Cookies in the mail. I immediately put them in a drawer and said that I would only give them to my hubby. But, you knew better, didn't you, Girl Scout Cookie? You knew I would immediately open the boxes just to "taste" each individual one.
Now that I have ate half of my boxes I've received, I now have a new plan of action. I'm just going to hurry and eat you. Just so I can be done with you. So take that, Girl Scout Cookie!

Sincerely,
A member of GSC addicts anonymous


P.S. Can you tell me why three measly sugar free chocolate chip cookies are FOUR WW points? Is that legal?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Letter Game

Okay, here's a fun game you should play...
If you want to play, leave a comment on this post letting me know, and I'll assign you a letter. You post ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on. My private blogger friend Krissy assigned me the letter T.

1. Tea. I never used to be much of a tea drinker until recent years. And even then, it was SWEET tea! Yes, I am a southern girl! But, I think that's also what helped me start packin' on the pounds! So as of recently I've come to appreciate just plain 'ole regular tea. The fact that it's 0 WW points helps!

2. Tax Returns. The very first year I filed taxes I actually owed because I worked for a crazy lady who didn't hold out taxes. How was I supposed to know? And it killed me to have to write checks out of my almost non-existent checking account to go to who knows where!

3. The All American Rejects. I absolutely LOVE this Oklahoma born and bred alternative band! And who knew they would become so famous. At least once a month I kick myself because this is the conversation that Greg and I had a few years ago:
Greg: "What are we going to do tonight?"
Me: "Well, AAR is playing at the Bricktown Brewery. We could go to that."
Greg: "How much are tickets?"
Me: "Ten dollars a piece."
Greg: "Hmmm....I don't really feel like spending twenty dollars tonight. Do you
want to rent a movie instead?"
Me: "OK. Maybe we can go next time."
Ummmmm.....yeah right. Then they made it big. *kicking myself yet again*

4. Titanic. When I was little I was fascinated with the story about this huge ship. I had a book about it and I loved reading it. Then when the movie came out I was in hog heaven. I already was a Leo DiCaprio fan, but this particular movie also lead to my current love for Kate Winslet. I can literally watch it everyday and not get bored by the storyline.

5. Theatre. Put me in one and I'm a happy camper. I don't care if it's a movie theatre so I can watch a movie, or if it's an actual theatre where performances take place. I am a HUGE supporter of the performance arts!

6. Thursdays. Remember those goals I made for myself? Well, Thursday has become my "deep cleaning day". So I usually clean in the A.M. and then I don't feel so bad about watching TV/reading/playing online for the rest of the day! Plus, lately the hubs has had Friday's off, so it's the start of a long weekend!

7. Thermals. Yup, I'll admit it! I love to wear thermal underwear if I know it's going to be cold outside. I know. Sexy. But it beats being cold


8. Talbott Photography and Tina Lanae Photography. Both are friends of mine, so I'm just spreadin' the love!
!


9. Tiffany & Co. I'm currently trying to convince the hubby that my next designer purchase has to be this cute bracelet from Tiffany's! I know so many gals who wear the necklace, so I wanted to at least be a little different....

10. Tide detergent. Can you tell I'm having a hard time coming up with ten "T" items? Seriously though, this is the laundry detergent that my clothes have been washed with since I was little, and luckily it was the same detergent that Greg used and is not allergic too!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We're Elks!

Last night my hubby got initiated into B.P.O.E. aka The Elks! I'm pretty excited about this because The Elks have private club rooms in all of their lounges that are for members only. So it's a neat place to go and hang out and have a couple of drinks that aren't as expensive as they are at a bar. We mainly joined for that reason, along with the perk of cheap dinners at least once a week. And of course, since we travel, it will be neat to get to visit other Elks Lodges and meet new people. One thing that we have noticed is that most Elks Lodges have RV hook ups, so if we are ever traveling through we can set up camp at a lodge for the evening and just give that lodge a donation. Sounds like a great deal to me!

It wouldn't be right if I didn't also mention that The Elks has a long history of helping to make their communities a better place. For instance, I've learned that The Elks gives out almost as much money in scholarships as the federal government does each year. I thought that was pretty cool! They also do various events in the community, such as drug awareness, volunteering, etc. Needless to say, we're pretty proud to say that we belong to this great organization and look forward to spending time at various lodges throughout the next few years!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A Valentines Idea

For all of you married folk out there that may need a Valentines Day idea; here's a suggestion. Have a night in, order a pizza, share a bottle of wine, and watch the movie Fireproof.

Luckily I married a guy who loves movies as much as I do. Here in Lamar there is a one screen movie theatre and they only show two movies a week. It's one of the few things to do around here, so we pretty much watch anything that they are showing. One week way back when they were showing the movie Fireproof. We had never seen a trailer for the movie, but the poster that was displayed outside the theatre looked fairly interesting. Saturday night arrived and we decided that we might as well go to the movies, but since neither one of us knew anything about the movie I decided to watch a trailer for the movie online. But, as luck would have it, our internet connection kept disconnecting, so I only saw the first twenty seconds or so of the trailer. My impression was that the movie was about a firefighter who worked on a train wreck. I love "disaster" movies so I figured it would be pretty exciting to watch.

When we arrived to the theatre I was pretty surprised to see how many people were actually there. I figured they were up for an action type movie as well. The movie started and after about 10 minutes, Greg leaned over to me and asked, "Is this a B movie?" "I have no idea, but the acting is pretty horrible." was my reply.

Ha, ha! For those of you who don't know anything about Fireproof, it is actually a Christian movie that shows a marriage that is on the brink of divorce and the husbands attempts to reconcile his relationship with both his wife and God. Although both my husband and I thought the acting was horrible, the whole plot and moral of the story is absolutely fantastic. I think it's a must-see for any couple. As my husband said, "You'll laugh, you'll cry, it's just a pretty good movie."


Saturday, February 7, 2009

Where is my inner snowbunny?

I'm writing this from a hotel room in Salida while my husband is at Monarch happily snowboarding the day away. We arrived here on Wednesday evening, along with our friend Travis and his son Mason, who came up from Oklahoma. Greg has been bitten by the snowboarding bug....bad! And he is desperately trying to convince all of his Oklahoma wakeboarding buddies that they "have" to come to Colorado and try snowboarding. Today marks the seventh day that Greg has ever snowboarded, but he picked up on the sport so quickly that he is the one teaching Travis how to do it as well!

I, on the other hand, absolutely suck at both skiing and snowboarding. After two different ski lessons I decided this week to try snowboarding. Greg was going to teach me. For those of you who don't know my husband; he's not very patient. And I'm not a daredevil. At all. So I really wanted him to hold my hand the whole time I kept trying to master turning and stopping on the snowboard. Which isn't feasible. He finally said (after maybe thirty minutes) that the three of us (me, Greg and Travis) were going to take the lift to the top of the bunny slope and just practice going down. I freaked out and said NO! Which was the beginning of my hubby aggravation with me. I promised him I would continue walking a fourth of the way up and practicing by myself so he finally gave up and off they went up the lift. I did practice. But I just couldn't get the hang of it without Greg holding my hand. So after Greg came back to help me some more I told him I wasn't enjoying it and that I just don't know where my inner snowbunny has disappeared too. We both decided not to waste his time by trying to teach me when I wasn't having fun anyway. Needless to say I spent the rest of the day in the lounge, book in one hand, Starbucks cup in the other.

Yesterday the guys ventured off to the mountain again and I spent the day by myself. But, I had a great day! I took Shady for a walk downtown (which, if any of you reading ever visit Salida, CO, that is the cool thing to do. Everyone walks their dogs or rides their bikes with their dogs following behind.) and moseyed into a few art galleries, which is one of my favorite things to do. After I dropped Shady back off at the hotel, I went back downtown to a yummy cafe next to the Arkansas River and had a delicious salad! Then, off I went to Mt. Princeton to the Hot Springs! We had visited there this past summer, but at the time the river was so high that no one was able to use the natural river side hot springs. But now that's a different story! I was in absolute heaven soaking up the rays and watching a light snow fall as I relaxed in a natural hot springs with my head resting on a rock. That is, until a group of about seven gabbing women decided to take over the hot springs next to me. So off I went to the hot pools and did some light water aerobics and then spent some time in the sauna. It was fabulous! I left feeling so relaxed, refreshed, and my skin looked great! Another neat thing about this town is that none of the local women wear make-up. And they all have fabulous skin! I think it's because they must all go visit the hot springs and sauna's at least once a week! I made it back to the hotel in time to go with the guys for dinner at the boathouse cantina, which is one of our favorite pubs here in town!

Today is another day to myself while the guys hit the slopes for the last day. I have to check out of the hotel room in an hour and once I do I'm hitting a local vineyard and cafe so I'm looking forward to that! Afterwards I may take Shady for a walk somewhere or I may just head up to the lodge and read and relax there. Greg has had no mercy on Travis and forgets that some people get sore when it's their first time. Travis could barely make it out of bed this morning so I know he'll probably be hanging out in the lodge quite a bit today as well! Luckily for Greg, Mason took ski lessons his first day and has been going down the blue trails with Greg ever since. They basically leave Travis in the dust. So now not only is my husband wanting to live in Colorado permanently once we settle down, he also thinks we should adopt a 7 year old boy so he can have a snowboarding partner! I feel bad that it's not an activity that we can both enjoy together, but skiing and snowboarding are just such expensive sports to keep "trying" and not liking.

So, for now, I'm signing off from Salida!