Work It, Girl!

I'm pretty faithful when it comes to working out. When I put it off or go for a week or so without it I just feel gross - you can relate, right? I don't exercise 7 days a week and usually my workouts aren't anymore than 45 minutes long, but I TRY and that's what counts, right?

On my quest to be more healthy this year I discovered this little jewel:

Have you tried it?? It is awesome! It's got three different levels and is no more than 50 minutes (when you work up to Level 3), so it's easy to fit in to your day. I didn't really start watching The Biggest Loser until a couple seasons ago, but it's great and it's pretty darn inspiring. If they can do it, so can I!

This morning (after my 5:30 workout session! Yeah!) I watched some of the "Inspirational Stories" on the DVD and one of the girls that's in the workout was interviewed. She said it's more important to her to be "healthy" than to be "skinny" and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm always complaining about being "fat" or saying how I want to "be skinny" when really, that's not what matters. If I eat right, exercise, and try my hardest to be healthy that's what's important.

No more trying to be skinny! I want to be HEALTHY!

I'm going to try out the Yoga and Sculpt Biggest Loser DVDs soon. Has anyone tried them?

Merry, Merry!

This year, J and I decided not to buy Christmas presents for each other. There were other things we wanted to spend our money on and things we wanted to do in our house, so we decided to just skip the presents for each other.

I have to admit, the idea of not buying him anything kind of bummed me out, but I was going to stick the plan - and I did - HE didn't!

I came home a week or so before Christmas and J was busy in the office doing something that he wouldn't let me see. He had the door closed and told me to STAY OUT. When he reappeared he grabbed my purse in the kitchen and said, "Hey, your phone is ringing!" I pulled out my jacked up old phone, but it wasn't ringing. In the bottom of my purse there was a shiny blue light and I pulled out a lovely new iPhone! I screamed I was so excited!

It is the coolest. phone. ever. I'm sort of addicted now!

My Handyman is Very Handy

J and I have been wanting some new bookshelves for our living room a lot lately. We have a lot of "little things" and books, but not a lot of room to display them like I'd like. J decided now was the time to work on them, so he took on the challenge and I helped as much as I could. This was his first big woodworking project and I'm so proud of him and

how they turned out I can't stand it!

Here is Jeremy with the bottom half (almost) completed. These will eventually have doors, so I can store all sorts of goodies in there and if they aren't 100% neatly organized it won't matter!!

And here they are nearly finished. J added some really nice trim to make them look more "finished." I think they look awesome! We spend this weekend painting them "Promenade" which is just a shade of white. They look super great now, but sadly I don't have a picture to show you just yet. Stay tuned...

p.s. Please ignore the filth that is my living room. I didn't realize how messy and all-consuming projects like this can be!

Chicken Bruschetta

I'm always looking for new and easy recipes to make for dinner, so I thought I'd share one that I found and really like. I tweaked my recipe a little bit, but you can find the
original on Kraftfoods.com.

Chicken Bruschetta

1 - 1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
2 cans diced tomatoes (I use the Italian flavor kind with garlic and basil)
1 box Stove Top Stuffing Mix for chicken
1 c. mozzarella cheese (I use 2% to save calories)
2 cloves minced garlic (I used dried minced garlic and it's great!)
2 tsp. dried basil

Boil chicken and shred. Place in bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Top with cheese and basil. In a separate bowl combine tomatoes, stuffing mix, and garlic just until moistened. If it's a little dry, add about 1/4 c. water.

Top the chicken mixture with the tomatoes and stuffing. Bake covered at 350 for about 30 minutes - until heated through.

Enjoy!

Welcome 2009!

2009 has been great so far!

J and I rang in the new year with our friends Carrie and Daniel. Don't we look festive?! Carrie fixed my favorite homemade hummus and we had mini-burgers for dinner. All SO good and so much fun!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Baking

I forgot I had these pictures on my camera, so we're backing up about a month here. J and I kept two of our nephews early in December. It was fun and easy (since Brody slept from their arrival time of 7 p.m. on Friday until 9 or so on Saturday morning!:) If you know me, you know I love kiddies, so I was super-pumped to have them and had to bust out the cookie baking with them. Messy, hectic, but fun! We made chocolate chip cookies with pecans and they must've been good because they were almost ALL eaten by that evening!

Brody (5) scoops out his cookie dough...

Mason (2 1/2) plops the dough on the baking sheet...

I just remembered, it was the Saturday of the SEC Championship, hence, the Alabama jerseys. Aren't they cute (in spite of the ugly Crimson color - War Eagle!)

We have a pecan tree in our backyard. I never really thought much of it until I started seeing all these "Pecans for Sale" signs around town. I realized when I had to buy lots of pecans around Christmas just how expensive those suckers can be, so I decided to harvest my own! I now realize why they are so expensive - they are near impossible to get out of the shell and it is hard, time-consuming work! I got enough to fill a quart Ziploc bag, so I felt pretty good about that. They are in the freezer until I need them!