Scary Stuff!

Last night I went to a friend's house for an Arbonne spa party.  I had never really heard of it, but I found out that is an organic line of skincare, beauty, hair care, and even some other random items like energizing tea and men's shave gel.   I think that everyone was convinced they needed to go home and throw out every beauty product that they owned because of the scary information the sales consultants gave us.  I have a whole new-found appreciation for organic skin care products.  I have not gone through what I own yet, but holy cow.  Let me paint this picture for you...

Think about how you are driving down the road and see an animal--a big deer or raccoon, if you will--and you think how nasty it is and you drive on.  Well, the next day when you drive down that same road, the carcass is no longer there.  Where did it go?  Let me tell you.  To a Rendering Plant.

A rendering plant is a processing operation where dead animals are recycled into products from human food to biodiesel. The remains and waste from slaughterhouses are the primary contributors to these facilities. Heads, hooves, bones, blood, offal (internal organs) and anything else that cannot be used ends up at a rendering plant.
Carcasses of dead animals from livestock and confinement operations are the secondary contributors. A rendering plant will also take dead horses, llamas and other farm and zoo animals. Remains of dogs and cats, roadkill (deer, skunks, rats and raccoons) end up there as well. Veterinary clinics and animal shelters also rely on rendering plants for their euthanized animals. They also accept throwback or rejected meat from supermarkets.

Yeah, disgusting.  What's even scarier?  When the rendering plant cooks up all of the animal parts and rejected, spoiled meat, the mixture separates into solids on the bottom and greasy liquid on top.  Then, the rendering plants sell that mixture for a variety of things--including taking that greasy top layer of liquid and selling it to beauty product companies to use as filler in make up, shampoo, lotion, etc.  And then we put that onto our faces and bodies every single day.  Sick to your stomach yet? 

For all of you with little kids, Arbonne also has baby care products and I made myself a mental note to definitely remember them for the future when we have little kiddos because of this scary article about cancer-causing elements found in Johnson & Johnson baby products!  Most people think J&J is the go-to baby brand, when in fact many hospitals no longer use it because it's not considered safe.  J&J products have also been found to cause conditions like eczema in little babies. 

Overall, what was my take on it?  Well, I'm always a bit hesitant with any of these at-home, sales consultant party type of things.  They are usually always fun and you get good information, but then the catalogs come out and depending upon the sales consultant, the high-pressure sales tactics start.  Thankfully, last night the sales girls were really nice and were not laying on the guilt trip trying to make you buy more and more so that the host can get free stuff.  Or nagging everyone else to book parties, because that's the worst.   Although, with the information they shared about rendering plants, who wouldn't be pulling out the checkbook for this stuff?  I did end up buying while crying over how much money I was spending a few items--one for myself a couple as gifts.  


You now have permission to run to your bathroom cabinet and check every product label you own!

Get Fit!

Yep!  Pretty much sums it up.

I am on day 3 tonight, and my muscles already feel ripped apart.  Love that burn!

Also, I wanted to share a free website that you can go to that helps you track your meals.  This is awesome!

You go to www.Livestrong.com and click on "My Plate".  You can make a free profile and it is crazy how much information that they have loaded into it.  You type in whatever you have eaten--down to the brand and portion size.  They have many fast food chains and family restaurants pre-loaded so you can build your exact sandwich from Subway or type in exactly what you got from Chili's.  They even have vitamins so I can add in my Women's One-a-day multivitamin and my Fish Oil pills that I have to take from my LASIK surgery.  What I like about it is that not only does it tell you what your calorie intake should be for your age, height, and weight, but it also calculates all of the carbs, fats, calories, sodium, etc. of that food.  That way, people who usually count calories can see if they are actually eating an unhealthy diet since it's high in sodium or cholesterol.  It was surprising to me because by tracking the last three days, I have actually been significantly under my recommended calorie intake, but one day I was almost 20% over my daily value for sodium.  Just gives you things to think about.  AND if it could get even more fantastic, they even have exercise workouts that you can add in with the time that you did them so that you see the calories that you should have burned with that workout.  They have everything from running to golfing to trimming bushes with garden shears.  Yes, seriously.  They don't have all names of specific workout programs, like Insanity, but I enter it in as "boot camp" since it's an intense cardio/strength training workout.

And, for those of you Iphone users, there's an app that you can put on your phone.  I haven't checked to see if they have the app on Android.


Have a good night!

Getting Organized

I've been on a little bit of a kick to get more organized lately.  I have to admit that I am definitely a creative mind so while everything in my home has its place, sometimes I am the only one who understands that junk box organization. So, seriously organizing has been my focus...I don't really know why.  Maybe that happens after you're finally settled into a house with your husband/wife?  When you first move in together it's a merging of "his" and "hers" elements and making compromises.  But over time as you're married, you get "ours" stuff.  And slowly but surely, you purge the old items, or box them up for the attic and a rainy day.

What are my plans?

1.  The previously mentioned & newly decorated bookshelves in our living room...the new photos should be arriving at the end of the week so that they can be placed in frames and I can post pictures on here!  Even though they are photo-less...just the new layout seems so much more purposeful and less like random bookshelves of stuff.

2.  I'm finally getting around to the giftwrap organizer in the closet of the 4th bedroom, lovingly referred to as the Man Cave.  I am seriously excited for when this is finished.  Tutorial to come, using this pantry organizer:

Grayline Back of Door Storage System from Amazon
They also sell this at Target, but it's $9 cheaper, plus free shipping on Amazon! Gotta love a deal.
 

3.  Organizing the rest of the above mentioned closet.  It was seriously a pile of random things ranging from bed linens to giftwrap to massage chair boxes to luggage to folding chairs...Get the picture?  Well, I completely cleaned out that closet yesterday and was extremely surprised to realize that there is not really that much in there, it was just all piled on top of each other and really mis-using the space.  After throwing out some of the boxes and random items, I placed the good items back in there.  All except for the linens, because I need some shelving for those. 

4.  Getting rid of old clothes that I no longer wear.  While many of us are less toned than we were in our high school days, some of us have stayed about the same clothing size.  Yay for us!  However, the downside of that is you somehow end up with this closet full of clothes you've acquired over the past 10 years and at some point you have to start eliminating pieces from your wardrobe.  Also, like many sorority girls, we end up with collections of semi-formal and formal dresses that we honestly won't wear half of ever again.  Unless maybe you marry rich.  But for most of us, finding a charity to donate to sounds like a better idea.  I never just throw away clothes.  There's always somebody else out there who could use it. 

5.  Finally get around to our backsplash.  This isn't necessarily organizing, but I will be able to finally feel like our kitchen is complete.  I'm trying to narrow down ideas and products.  Also, painting one of the kitchen walls and hanging a valence over the sink window if I feel really ambitious.



That's all for now.  Starting back with Day 1 of Insanity tonight, the Fit Test [essentially, maxing out on 8 different exercises].

World Market Love

Well, my hubs was busy working out of town this weekend so it provided me with lots of free time for catching up with friends and catching up with laundry!  I made a day trip to Columbia to see my parents and one of my best friends, Eden.  While visiting with my parents we had lunch at Panera, possibly the best place in the world for a good soup/sandwich combo, and then went to World Market.  I feel like World Market can be hit or miss, and I wasn't finding tons of wonderful things however I did find this little gem...

Turkish Peach Jar Candle from World Market

Smells soooo good.  I love fruity scents and this one has a little bit of spice to it, too.  I wanted something to switch up from all of the Evergreen and Apple smells I've been using all Christmas season.  

Also, I was super excited to find these to use for grilling out on the boat...

World Grill Appetizer Skewers from World Market. 
For some reason, these are not on their website.  I purchased them from the location in
Sandhills, NE Columbia.

These are the perfect size to get all six skewers to fit on the grill, and can still hold a nice amount of food.  Plus, they are a fun, curly shape :)


Have a good night, bloggers!  Back to real 5-day work weeks tomorrow.  Also, starting back with Day 1 of Insanity tomorrow...I can already feel the burn!


 

Photo Ordeal.

Well...it has not been fun the past two days trying to order some items from Shutterfly.  It all started because I had a coupon code for a free 8"x8" custom photo book from Shutterfly because my parents bought something from Best Buy and they were doing a promotion that you would get this coupon.  Well, my parents did not have a need for the photo book so they gave it to me.  I've held on to it for months, saying that I would make the photo book when I had more time.  I was really looking forward to it because after our wedding, I made a custom photo book of all of our wedding photos and it turned out very well!

So, fast forward to last night around 10pm, I wasn't tired and I was catching up on some DVRed shows, so I decided to make the book.  I spend over two hours on the Shutterfly website, making my custom photo book of all of our honeymoon pictures, and then uploading other photos to use for the redecorated shelves in our living room.   So of course, what happens when I click the little "place order" button?  All these messages pop up saying that it couldn't save my pictures and I couldn't order until the pictures were saved...blah, blah, blah...After about 5 minutes of frustration, I just decided to close out of it, shut down my laptop, head to bed and say a prayer for the best.  When I revisited the site this evening, no photo book to be found.  So, I patiently re-made the book and placed the order.  What was different this time?  Last night, I used Shutterfly's "Import from Facebook" option and imported about half of the photos.  For whatever reason, that function must not be working properly and it doesn't fully import the photo information so it won't let you process the order.  Tonight, I went on Facebook and saved all of the photos I wanted to a file on my computer, then uploaded from my computer documents.  There were no issues with that and everything was good to go!  I just had to pay about $8 shipping, which I thought was pretty good.

I decided that the price of the prints & shipping for the photos I was going to get for the living room was a little excessive, so I went to the Snapfish website (since I need some larger scale prints) and ordered those through them instead.  They are doing a promotion right now for large scale [5x7 and 8x10] that if you use the code BIGPRINTS you get half off!

I also decided that I'm going to do a mixture of photos and artwork instead of just photos like I had originally planned.  I think it will be a good way to incorporate my new chalkboard too.  Yes, I decided to join that craze.  I thought it would be cute to have little messages that I could change for whatever season, occasion, etc, was going on.  We already had a small photo easel that is perfect size to hold the chalkboard :)


Have a wonderful first weekend of 2013!

2013!

 

 

 

Ohh, the year ahead...Can I just say that I am very much one of those dorks that gets way too  excited about new office supplies--i.e. my new desk calendar.  I just love getting a brand new calendar/agenda and writing in all of the important dates--anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, showers, due dates, vacations, etc.  I guess it's because I get to see so much of what is to look forward to that year.  What else do I love about office supplies?  When I find them on a bargain, and thanks to the lovely Target Dollar Spot, I've found just that.  How can you beat a mini monthly desk calendar, already printed and professionally bound for $1.00?  You can't!

 

However, if you're not planning a trip to Target anytime soon [yeah, right] and you want a different option, this one is extremely cute, colorful, and you get to print it for free :)  2013 Printable Calendar from The Tomkat Studio.

 

 

So, last New Year's we were looking forward to our 1st wedding anniversary and our vacation to Las Vegas.  This year?  I'm sad to say that not much is already planned!  Usually I have things like vacations planned pretty far in advance, but I've been considering checking out some Groupon Getaways and Living Social Escapes, which you can't purchase that far in advance.  It's our 2nd anniversary, so I'm thinking it will be less of a splurge but still a nice, relaxing vacation.  Somewhere beachy and tropical seems appealing.  Minimum of 4 days, because I want to get there and enjoy  my time, not feel rushed.   

 

One thing much in our future for this year is plenty of pontoon time!  Now that the holidays are over I am so ready for warm weather and sun tans!

 

What else? Babies and weddings!  Jake's cousin is due in the next couple of weeks with her second little boy.  They are so close and grew up together so she's more of his big sister and we're like Uncle Jake & Aunt Stacey :)  One of my best friends is also due with her second, a little girl coming in March!  I can't wait to spoil them both rotten.  As previously mentioned, we also have four weddings on the books this year, which are always great times to get together and celebrate important moments with friends!

 

I've never been one for new year's resolutions, but now that I've been cleared for workouts after my Lasik surgery, and Thanksgiving and Christmas meals have passed, there will be Insanity and a bigger focus on healthy meals.  I don't diet, mainly because I really enjoy healthy food so I don't see it as a chore, which dieting always sounds like.  If I've eaten a healthy breakfast and lunch, why can't I have my bowl of slow churned chocolate fudge brownie ice cream after dinner? 

 

I'm also looking forward to the unexpected!  This past year, the opportunity for my Lasik surgery was such an unexpected blessing.  I'm 2 months post-op and my eyesight has never been better!  Even with contacts, I would find myself having to squint sometimes because the astigmatism in my right eye would make my contact shift around. 

 

Cheers to a new and exciting year!

 

 

 

 

 

 





 



I've learned I need to take more photos...

It has become so clear to me that I really suck at remembering to take photos.  I get so caught up in the fun time that we're having that I always forget to whip out the camera or my phone.  So, unfortunately you don't get to see any cute pics of the holidays, but we have had such a great time!  So, where to begin...

I guess the first of our festivities started with April & Jeremy's annual tacky Christmas sweater party.  It was so much fun again, just like last year!  Although this year ended up staying a little bit more sane than last year which was nice, and we took the party to the bar instead of staying at their house the whole time, which I know must have worked out a bazillion times better for them!  Entertaining at home is so much fun but there's always that one person who has to break something sometimes the cleanup can be excruciating.

Following that came my company's Christmas Dinner which was at Del Frisco's in Charlotte.  Jake and I had never been there before and the food was amazing!  I got the crab cakes and Jake got one of the steak specials.  They also have the BEST calamari I've ever tasted.  It's seriously like heaven in your mouth.  Instead of serving it with marinara sauce like most places I've been, albeit they were Italian restaurants, Del Frisco's serves theirs covered in an Asian glaze, similar to what comes on Orange Chicken or General Tso's.  YUM.  I also had my first ever Celebrity sighting.  After narrowly missing Vince Vaughn and Kevin James on the elevator in Chicago and not seeing a single celebrity in Las Vegas for a week, who knew that I'd see my first celeb sighting in good ol' Charlotte.  Who?  Ric Flair.  Don't recognize the name?  He's this guy...

From the great world of WWE.  I recognized him but never knew his name because my family was never big into wrestling.  He still pretty much looks the same.  He's no Vince Vaughn, but it was pretty cool to be standing less than a foot away from him at the bar in Del Frisco's.

After that comes our Christmas visit to see my Grandpop and some others from my Dad's side of the family down in Mount Pleasant.  We don't get down there a lot so it was nice to see them, and my Aunt Kerri was home visiting from India.  We watched the new Bourne movie, which I really enjoyed, then exchanged gifts and had a nice traditional holiday meal--ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, wine, etc.

On Christmas Eve, we just slept in and relaxed, then went to church and dinner with Jake's mom, sister, and brother.  His stepdad was sick with a stomach virus the whole week so he didn't get to participate in anything :(  We went to their church in Lake Wylie, and I always enjoy getting to see different churches, especially when they are all beautifully decorated at Christmas.  It was a neat candlelight service but visiting other churches always makes Jake and I really realize how much we love our church, Allison Creek Presbyterian.  It's technically in York I guess but it's only about 10 minutes down the road from us since we're out here on the edge of Rock Hill.  Churches are so personal and everyone has different tastes, but we really love the community within our church and especially the delivery of the sermons.  I don't like feeling like I'm getting yelled at by the preacher if they have a harsh, excited delivery.  And I don't like being bored to tears by someone who is monotone.  We feel like our Pastor has the perfect balance and neither one of us ever gets bored or zones out during the sermon so we always feel like we really get something out of what he shares.  

On Christmas day we had Jake's side of the family and my friend Karen over for a brunch of waffles, fruit, casseroles, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, etc.  TONS of food.  We exchanged gifts and just got to hang out for a while having some good conversation.  Then, we got to relax for a little bit and clean up before my side of the family arrived for Christmas dinner.  We had glazed ham with pineapple, seasoned green beans, steamed corn, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and then desserts.  It was a good thing that we only ate two meals all day because holy cow was it a lot of food.  I did the ham and the mac & cheese both in crock pots, which was nice and easy for me so that I could sit and enjoy socializing instead of cooking in the kitchen all day.  It worked out extremely well for the ham, and the mac & cheese was good but I think I would use a different recipe next time.  I found one recipe that uses evaporated milk, which I thought I had but it turned out that I had sweetened condensed milk, both are from Eagle Brand and I didn't pay attention to the label.  So, last minute I had to switch to a  different recipe that only used 2% milk and I think it would have been nicer and creamier with the other recipe.  For dessert, I made a cherry crumb pie and some "brooksters" which are a combo of chocolate chip cookies & brownies.  The cherry crumb pie tasted really good, but good Lord did it make a mess in my oven.  I would highly suggest that if you attempt one of these pies, put a cookie sheet on the rack underneath your pie because that nice filling will just bubble out over the edge and create a huge puddle of burnt mess in your oven.  Thank God our oven is self-cleaning, but that makes such a smoky mess that I haven't done it yet.  I did cook dinner in the oven two nights ago and some of the cherry mess burnt off but that is a headache that I'll be dealing with for a couple more weeks I expect...However, the brooksters, or as I always mix up and call them, "Brewsters," are like the best combination in the world.  Here is the super easy recipe:

"Brewsters"

--Prepare chocolate chip cookie mix from scratch as directed on bag of chocolate chips.

--Prepare brownies as directed on box of brownie mix.

Put paper liners in cupcake trays and fill 1/3-1/2 of the way with brownie batter.  Top with one scoop in each of the cookie batter.  

Bake as directed following the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.  You may need to add 5-10 minutes to the time since brownies take longer to cook.  You will know they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

Easy and seriously delish!  These were definitely a crowd pleaser.  

..And what have we been doing since Christmas?  Well, I enjoyed the after Christmas sales and picked up some adorable wrapping paper for next year (so prepared, I know!) and decided to re-decorate our bookshelves in the living room.  I got tons of new frames and decorations from Hobby Lobby, TJMaxx, and Ross.  I cleaned off the bookshelves and have figured out the new frame placement, but now I just need to get the correct size and orientation of photos printed.  So, pictures of that to come!  We also celebrated New Years/Jake's 25th Birthday!  He has not been feeling too hot following the celebration but we did it up right at the Longbranch last night!  He is also very excited about his birthday gift, a new propane grill for on our boat!  With all of the time we are going to be spending out there now that we have the boat, I figured we would get tired of pb&j's or turkey sandwiches REAL quick.  Now we can do burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, kabobs, you name it!  Now, if only this weather would get back into the 70's..........

Have a great day back at work tomorrow!

<3 Stacey