I'm hot.....like a jalapeno!

This weekend we had another couple over for dinner, and we decided to make some jalapeno poppers! I had never made them before, but we had some at a cook out we went to this summer, so I figured they couldn't be that hard to make. We stopped at the Farmers Market and I picked out twenty fresh jalapenos. I was so excited to make my yummy little appetizers!

After I got home, I washed all of them before I started to cut them open and de-seed them. My friend Christina hadn't arrived yet, so I was cutting them up all by myself. At one point, I happened to remember that I had read somewhere that when one is cutting up peppers, one should wear rubber gloves. I rolled my eyes, thinking, "Wow, that person must have been a complete wimp! These don't burn my fingers at all!".

As I was cutting the jalapenos open, my friend Chrisitina arrived, and she began to stuff the peppers with cheddar cheese while I finished my de-seeding process. Once they were all stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon, I handed them over to Greg to put on the grill. After a few minutes, Greg, Corey, and Christina all came back inside. Apparently they had tasted one of them after it had been on the grill for a few minutes. And apparently they were pretty hot. Even Greg had tears in his eyes! They decided to cook them a little while longer, and I proceeded to get everything else ready.

Eventually, everything was prepared, so we all sat down to eat. And all three of them stared at me when I took my first bite of the jalapeno popper. "This isn't that hot." I said after my first bite. Everyone shrugged their shoulders and decided it was fine to dig in. Well, apparently I had a somewhat mild pepper. My next pepper, not so mild. I look around the table, and Greg, Christina, and myself are all red faced and teary eyed. I couldn't even eat the rest of my second jalapeno popper. Then I got the bright idea that maybe the cheese by itself would not be so hot. Wrong! My eyes teared up, yet again. To make matters worse, Christina didn't believe me when I said the cheese was spicy, so she took two big bites of just the cheese from one of her peppers. Let's just say I think next time she'll learn from my mistakes! By this time, everyone basically has sweat rolling down their faces. Except Corey....he's pretty much the man! (I sent the remaining sixteen or so poppers home with him.)

It gets better. Several hours later, I notice that my fingers are really starting to burn. Basically, they felt like they were on fire and I literally expected to look down at them and see them throbbing. I had no idea what to do, so I soaked them in a bowl of cold water and dawn dishwashing soap. That helped for a little bit. After that I decided to look online for some home remedies. The first thing I did was poured rubbing alcohol all over my hands. That helped. For about five minutes. After that, the burning intensified! My next plan was to soak them in vinegar. Again, it didn't help and to top it off, the trailer then smelt like rotten eggs. So then I decided to take a shower. Surely the hot water will help wash off the pepper oil on my hands. WRONG!!! Oh. My. God. Let's just say don't mix hot water with a burn. And to make matters worse my whole face began to burn while I was in the shower. I guess I touched my face on accident.

After the whole shower fiasco, my fingers were still throbbing like you wouldn't believe. The main piece of advice that I had read online was to wash my hands with baking soda and water. Of course, I had no baking soda. But, I was desperate! I drove to the only store still open; Wal-Mart! After I got back home, I proceeded to wash my hands multiple times with it. I even made a paste and left it on my hands for several minutes at a time. It did seem to help a little. After that, I just gave up. I went to bed with throbbing, burning hands. Yesterday, the pain was still there. It wasn't as bad, it came and went. Thankfully, today I haven't had any issues!

Let's just say that the next time I decide to cut any type of hot pepper, I'll wear rubber gloves!

Breast Feeding Reminder Bracelet

There you have it! I finally received my "O" bead in the mail from Alouette! Which meant that yesterday I was able to make my breast feeding reminder bracelet that I mentioned in an earlier post. I think it's super cute and can't wait to sell it to a nursing mother! Check out my shop if you or someone you know would like to order it: www.blingonastring.etsy.com

yoga time!

I was so ready for today to arrive! Why? Because my yoga class started today! I just got back about an hour ago and I already feel so relaxed. If you are reading this and have never practiced yoga, run, don't walk, to the nearest studio and give it a try. I did yoga one night a week the first few years of college, and then randomly ever since. However, today I purchased a six week session, so I'm super pumped! And the bonus is that the studio is this really old ranch house that has recently been revamped with cool paintings and photographs. I love the mixture of a rustic old house with totally modern eclectic art.

Because I knew that this was the kick off week for yoga I started on a weekly work out plan. Now, why I'm getting serious about shedding some unwanted pounds now that summer is over, is beyond me! But oh well! So, here's what I'm doing:
Monday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour
Tuesday: Yoga - 1 hour
Nia - 1 hour
Wednesday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour
Thursday: Nia - 1 hour
Friday: Cardio and light weights at the gym - 1 hour

It's really nothing compared to my cousin Heidi's triathlon training schedule, but I'm hoping it will work for me. And by posting it for the world to see, I'm hoping I'll stick with it!!! Hopefully with this new plan I can loose ten pounds this month. Is that a realistic goal? I have no idea, but I'm running with it.

On a side note: I mailed off my voter registration today! Yay! Although now I'm slightly panicked. It will take approximately 20 days to get my voter registration card in. Then, once I have that, I have to mail in a request for an absentee voter ballot. I really hope that I get everything in time so that all this research won't be done in vain. In the meantime, it's time to begin researching the candidates!

Snail Mail!

I absolutely love snail mail! Especially when it's a package or letter or card that I'm not expecting. Yesterday I walked to the office to see if my mom had mailed me my mail from home. And I did have mail, just not from my mom. It was a package from my Aunt in California. She had already sent me an anniversary card, as well as a birthday card the month before, so I was a little confused as to what it was. It was all I could do to not run back to our trailer from the office out of sheer anticipation to see what was in the bulky envelope. As soon as I opened it I was so surprised. She had sent me a brand new Danielle Steel hardback. And on it she taped a note saying that she too loves Danielle Steel. I was so shocked that she took time out of her busy schedule to buy me a book just because we both have a joint interest in the author. I also never knew that she liked to read so it's always neat when you find out a relative has a common interest with you. It kind of reminded me of those ancestor.com commercials that say, "find out who you get your love of dancing from".

So thanks, Aunt Jo! Not only for the snail mail, but also for a book I cannot wait to loose myself in!

100 Hearts!

YAY!!!! I now officially have 100 hearts on etsy! Things are looking up! OK, I'll explain: when people are browsing through the shops at www.etsy.com if they come across one that they want to add to their favorite shops, they give that shop a heart. And now that I've been online for seven months I have finally reached 100! Granted, I'm sure half of those hearts are from people whose stores I hearted, but who cares! Hopefully my hearts will keep growing! Hmmm....maybe the one hundredth heart was from someone who checked out my book thongs that I added yesterday!! Yup, I caved in and bought some beads with larger holes so I could make the book thongs I mentioned in a previous blog. Go check 'em out! www.blingonastring.etsy.com

I'm in a Treasury!

Yay! I'm in a treasury on etsy thanks to my great friend Tina (www.lanaephotography.etsy.com). I know a lot of you probably aren't familiar with www.etsy.com but that is the website that I sell my jewelry through. And treasuries are just the coolest things. Supposively there can only be around 330 treasuries at a time, so of course I've never been able to make one of my own. But apparantly there was a glitch in the system yesterday and there were over 700 treasuries created. Treasuries are items that someone picks and then, generally, they get lots of views! Which means it can draw more people to my website!!! Yay! As you can tell I'm pretty stoked! OH, and I'm the Misty necklace on the bottom right!

Weekend in Pueblo!

Greg and I are celebrating our 4 year anniversary tomorrow! To celebrate, we went to Pueblo for the weekend. We have gone to Colorado Springs several different times, and decided to stay in Pueblo for a change. And I am so glad that we did!

First off, we arrived there around noon so we ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday. Then we checked into our hotel. After which I was finally able to convince Greg that we needed to go to the Rosemount Museum. The museum is actually a 24,000 square foot mansion built in the 1890's. The tour was absolutely fantastic! Mainly because I have an obsession with older homes. The home is three stories tall and has ten Tiffany chandeliers which I thought was pretty cool.

After we left the museum we drove around downtown and discovered that Pueblo has a cool riverwalk complete with cute little boutiques and cafe's. I was dying to just walk around and scope things out, but that is just not my hubby's cup of tea. Instead we went to the movie theatre to see if any movies were about to play. The only one that was about to start was Death Race so that's what we watched. (Of course, the theatre didn't hold a candle to the Warren Theatre!) From there we went back to the hotel to change clothes before going to Red Lobster for dinner. The dinner was quite interesting. Greg is slowly beginning to acquire a taste for seafood, so it really surprised me when he said he wanted a couple crab legs. I love crab legs, so I ordered those and Greg went even further out on a limb and ordered a meal that had lobster tail, shrimp scampi, and grilled shrimp. I had never had lobster before, so it was pretty ironic that I didn't like it, and Greg really did.

We capped the night off by going to the hot tub at the hotel. We met another couple in the hotel and one thing led to another and somehow we found out that the guy surfed. Of course one of Greg's life long goals is to learn to surf. And, believe it or not, the guy (Sam) had his surf board with him at the hotel. He decided it was the perfect chance for Greg to have his first lesson. In the hotel pool. I of course was wondering how one could have a surfing lesson in a pool and when I voiced that concern Sam said that learning how to actually sit on the board was the first thing someone would have to learn. He also said it was pretty hard. Well, I thought that this sounded like it would be a Kodak Moment so I rushed off to our hotel room to grab my camera. By the time I got back (it couldn't have taken more than seven minutes), Greg was sitting on the surf board in the pool as if he was totally used to it. He said that he got on first try. I told him to proove it and he did. I completely missed out on being able to take loads of what I assumed would be hillarious pictures of Greg attempting to get on a surf board in a hotel pool. I was really proud of him for doing so well! Hopefully one day he will be able to put that first surfing lesson to actual use!

And that about sums up our early anniversary celebration! Below is a picture of the Rosemount Museum and one from our wedding day! Cheers!

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