Getting Healthy

One of my best friends from high school is literally traveling the world right now. Mike has been to Italy, Greece, Egypt, and is now on his way to India; I’m so impressed that he actually “did it.” Everyone talks about achieving their dreams, but how often do we actually get out there and make them happen? He sold his car, bought the ticket and hasn’t been back home for many months. It’s just amazing to me.

When he first left I would get a little sad reading about their (he went with another friend of mine, Abel) adventures, but now I can read them without wanting to purchase the next flight out of town. These days I’m not as antsy reading about how much excitement he’s having because I know that I’m just in a transition phase right now. Traveling is in my blood and I know I’ll be back with my passport in tow when the time is right.

In the mean time, I’m keeping my adventures close to home. In other words: I think I’m about to start fighting off yet another cold. I’ve literally been going nonstop for the past 17 days; I’ve been traveling, drinking, eating all the wrong foods, not sleeping, not drinking water, and so on and so on. My body is pretty mad at me right now and is screaming at me to start taking it easy again and bring it back to a healthy state.

With that said, I worked out this morning despite waking up with a sore throat (bleh) and a somewhat stuffy nose and I had a Lean Cuisine for lunch. The workout darn near killed me, but hopefully I can keep it up. And later today after I get home from work I’m going to take a nap and work on catching up on all that sleep I’ve missed.

Merry Christmas 2008

To all my friends and family:

Here's hoping I get to do this sometime this winter:




Cute!!!:



Please?



And Happy Hanukkah!


Seriously. Need. A. Drink.



Merry Christmas :)

Happy Belated Turkey Day

Last night I promised I'd post about Thanksgiving and my week in Georgia, so while my geeky boyfriend watches Star Trek, I'll get my type on.

I'm seriously shocked by how fast the time has flown by. I know it's cliche and all, but seriously; I can't believe that it's already 12:01 (est) on Saturday. I technically leave tomorrow and that makes me ridiculously sad.

Kenny and I spent the beginning of my time here shopping around and finding home decor to fill his house and make it a home. I think it's safe to say that he now has a workable and enjoyable kitchen. On another day we took a trip to Lowe's and picked out two shades of paint, one for the guest bedroom and the other for the guest bathroom. The next day we opened the cans and started covering the white walls with colorful paint.

Thanksgiving went off even better than expected. We woke up early on Thursday to start brining our turkey with a recipe Kenny found while watching the Food Network. The Good Eats Roast Turkey had to brine for 6 hours and then cook for another three(ish). While the bird was soaking up flavor, we cleaned the house and got to work on the other dishes we were providing: Kenny's homemade rolls (so. freaking. delicious! but I forgot to take a picture - just trust me about how good they are), my grandma's yummy green bean casserole (this is before it went in the oven, so just imagine the french onions all brown and crispy!):salad (manderan oranges, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions): mashed potatoes, gravy (from a recipe out of a magazine), and Sandra Lee's Sweet Biscuit Wreath that I made...all...on my own (with Kenny rooting me on from the sidelines):
We invited the Harr's over for dinner (they brought an addicting pumpkin butter, stuffing, sweet potatoes, chocolate meringue pie - yummy, a sister, a father-in-law, and two ridiculously cute kids) and they arrived just as we were taking the last parts of the meal out of the oven. Truth be told, the turkey took about an hour to cook longer than we expected, but by the time that bird came out of the oven we knew it was worth it.

Not only was this one of the juiciest turkeys I've ever seen, but instead of the flavor overpowering the meat it added to the richness of the turkey. Unfortunately, I made some gravy that I didn't think was that great and I poured it all over my meat. But on the bright side, there is plenty of meat leftover.




The whole meal was fantastic; I loved the company, the food, and even the cooking process and cleaning up after.

As surreal as it sounds, Kenny and I haven't fought or even argued this entire trip. Going back home is going to be hard. He'll be coming home for Christmas, but it's not the same. I'm planning on visiting again in February and I already can't wait. Tomorrow he and I are going to Callaway Gardens' Fantasy of Lights for our 2nd annual Thanksgiving weekend tradition (ha - we can now say it's an annual tradition!) and I can't wait.

Next up I'll have to post pictures of my new car...but that will come on a different day. Oh, and I hope you all like the new look of this blog. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough for me to notice and enjoy.