around the www

This student artwork is so impressive.  Also, fitting for the Centennial Celebration of Winston-Salem.

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You can now send money via Gmail? Cool.

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It's been a while since I shopped at GAP but Mir says that you can get 40% off sale prices right now.  I'm gonna take a look.

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Now that the weather's warming up I'm looking forward to trying this recipe and this one too.

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25 free instant mood boosters - because somedays you just need 'em!

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For all you you trying to survive the last few weeks of school: there's this. 

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I love this look.  And the blog is pretty helpful too!  Check it out.

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Stay tuned because I've got a little Chick-fil-a giveaway coming up in a couple of weeks.

now that it's Wednesday I'll finally tell you about my weekend

It was such a nice weekend.  We went to the Centennial Celebration for Winston-Salem on Saturday.  First we watched the parade and then went to the Party in the Plaza for a bit.

 

 

We bought a bottle of the Hundred Foot beer specially made at Foothills, the local brewery.  Good keepsake.

We saw this funny license plate in the parking lot.  I said, "Look Jules! I'm a Jonathan Tucker fan!" and she replied, "Why not a Julianna fan?"

We also grocery shopped and cleaned on Saturday, plus I got to run with my training group Saturday morning.  I had a health and wellness screening after the run and I found out that my BMI is down to 25 which puts me back into a normal weight category instead of overweight.  My cholesterol was incredibly good (110) and blood pressure great having come from a run (129/75).  I was thrilled with the results and motivated to get even better numbers in six months.

I also got to cook some yummy things which made me really happy.  I tried out Gina's recipe for BBQ Zucchini Chips and I made a clean Nutella Banana Bread recipe that I found on pinterest.  Both turned out excellent.  You can tell I snatched a bunch of zucchini chips after they came out of the oven.

Sunday we had church and then a Mother's Day lunch at our house.  Jonathan grilled burgers and I tried out a recipe for black bean turkey burgers that I found on Foodnetwork.com.  Topped with corn salsa and sliced avocado it was wonderful!  Here was my Mother's Day lunch:

We played ball in the yard a bit, watched Julianna's "bow and arrow show" and took a few pictures.

I got to go run with a friend Sunday afternoon which was all I really wanted for Mother's Day.  It couldn't have suited me better.

I hope you all had equally amazing weekends!  Make the rest of this week a good one!

nature box

I'm so frustrated because I had this post all typed out and there was one picture that I wanted to edit out some of the clutter in my house that was showing up in the background and then I came back to insert that one dumb picture and accidentally deleted the entire post.  GAH!!!!  Anyway, here goes try number two!  I'm only re-doing this whole thing because I love Nature Box so much.

My second NatureBox was delivered sometime early last week.  You can read about my first one here.

It was a very long day at work and for whatever reason we got home around 7:40 and I went straight to putting the kids to bed.  Jonathan came home in the middle of that and as soon as I had the chance to change into PJs and flop on the couch, I saw down and tore into my package.  This is the picture that Jonathan snapped and subsequently the one that I wanted to edit before I posted it.  See all that junk in the background? Yeah. Please ignore that.

This time I tried customizing my box and I picked the following items to be delivered:

• Firecrackers
• Blueberry Nom Noms
• Barbacoa Peas
• Southern BBQ Sunflower Kernels
• Wild Berry Bunch

Guacamole Bites were also included in my box as a Bonus snack but I didn't pick them.  NatureBox folks were just kind like that.

So I got two of each snack and loved all of them but the Firecrackers which didn't have much flavor to me.  Here's what they all look like.

the Bluerberry Noms Noms were my favorite this time, really soft and fresh like a blueberry clif bar

Barbacoa Peas, crunchy and flavored and not like something I've ever had before

BBQ Sunflower Kernels, will be great on salads

Wild Berry Bunch, LOVE, will use in salads, homemade granola bars, and eat by the handful

Guacamole Bites taste a little like Chili Cheese Fritos, nice size and good crunch

 

Twelve good sized snacks that are yummy and good for you is not bad for twenty bucks!

You can sign up too and save $5 by using code "HEALTHY" for a discount off your first NatureBox! If you sign up, I'll receive a referral credit too so please consider using this link: http://fbuy.me/bvaz

NatureBox also donates a meal to Feeding America for every box they ship so you help others a little bit too when you place your order.

I'd love to know about it if you decide to place an order.  I'm going to stick with it for at least another month so I'll keep updating when I get my boxes.

It was a nice idea...

I think I'd like to make this a regular series here on A is for beautiful.  I'd love to know about your nice ideas as well.

• It was a nice idea to get up early and get my run in before work this morning but sleeping in sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to buy chicken, kale, salad greens, squash, sweet potatoes, and quinoa at the grocery store this week but since I haven't had time to cook getting take-out sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to go to the library last week and check out two new books to start and twenty new ones to read to the kids, but since we haven't had time with the kids lately snuggling on the couch and talking for a few minutes before bath and bed sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to plan on a lazy weekend at home this past weekend, but with all of the events going on in our town Saturday and Sunday going to local celebrations sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to try to lose my last 15 pounds quickly so that I could meet my goal by summer, but losing the weight slowly and making sure I'm letting my good habits stick sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to think I could clear out my feed reader by the end of the weekend, but just marking all remaining posts "as read" and spending time with my family on Mother's Day sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to think I'd go back and watch all of this season's Survivor episodes online and get myself caught up, but watching Breaking Bad on Netflix with Jonathan each weekend sounded better.
• It was a nice idea to try to do Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 for thirty straight days, but one or two times a week sounded better.

Please play along! Leave a comment and tell me what was a nice idea you had lately that didn't pan out?

top of the list: he doesn't mind grocery shopping with kids

a few of the many reasons I love my husband

• he still fixes coffee for me every morning
• he cuts my toenails
• he's learned to love running partly because he knows I love it
• he willingly visits my grandmother
• he serves in the nursery at church sometimes when I can't do it
• he picks on my mom the same way he picks on me sometimes
• he offers to take the kids to school or pick them up on days when I'm late
• he listens to my dad
• he likes chocolate
• he takes care of the car issues
• he randomly bought me a subscription to Runner's World after he saw one of my tweets
• he takes care of annoying insurance problems
• he reads good books and recommends them to me
• he has learned to eat pimento cheese with me
• he goes to the kids' school things
• he doesn't make committments without asking me first
• he puts up with my mood swings

running totals for april

I tried to run every day in April and then that one stinkin' nap made me sorta forget the last few days.  I still think I did pretty good though.  Here was my mileage for April: 73.4.  Certainly not what I was hoping for, but decent I guess for a month where I wasn't training for anything in particular.

I ended up running every day except for April 24, 26, 28 and 29.  Kinda tanked there at the end when I got that dumb cold.

In retrospect, I probably won't try something like that again because it really hurt my legs more than I thought it would.  I actually think it would have been easier on my body some days to just do an eight mile run on day and then take a few days off as opposed to running two miles four days in a row.

It also made me start picking up my speed more since I was running shorter distances and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it did make me feel like I HAD to go faster each time which sort of sucked the joy out of it.

Finally, it got my body accustomed to running one or two miles instead of my usual three or four mile mid-week runs.  No, thank you.  I want to get back to doing three or four miles several times a week and then six or seven on a Saturday.

Plus, I kinda want to prove the Family Circus kids wrong.

source

cookie butter madness and other random tales from my brain

random blips from ym brain today

• Wiping out the Vacation Fund - We booked our Disney trip and we're keeping it a secret from the kids.  I'm very excited but goodness gracious Disney can take a huge chunk out of your wallet so quickly!
• Cookie Butter Madness - We went to Trader Joe's the other night (and I don't know why I find this hilarious but I do) but they were out of cookie butter and so was I so this made me sad.  I have been known to love the stuff so when we saw cases of the crunchy variety we finally asked an employee where the regular was.  They said there is a shortage and the store only gets one case per day.  Then she told Jonathan that the case doesn't even make it to the shelf.  She told him he could order some or request a few jars for them to hold.  When we were checking out I was laughing so hard about the fact that there were too many women in there and not enough cookie butter.  The cashier was saying that even the President likes it.  It was a good chuckle to think about

• Date Night - We had a babysitter Saturday night and had no plans.  Usually that bothers me but for some reason it worked really well this time.  We ate at the District Bar and Grill and went to Trader Joe's (see above).  I had pineapple glazed salmon, mushroom risotto, and green beans... which.... mmmmmm... We browsed the bookstore for a while and then we had dessert and coffee at Midtown Cafe and Dessertery.

• Enchiladas - I made the best enchiladas the other night. Actually, I've never met an enchilada that I didn't like, but these were really good.  I cooked three frozen chicken breasts with some chopped onions in the crockpot while I was at work.  When I came home I shredded the chicken and mixed in black beans and frozen corn.  Then I added salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, chopped green onion, and some cumin.  I rolled it up in tortillas and covered it with jarred enchilada sauce and cooked it for 30 minutes with more cheese sprinkled on top.  It was just YUM.
• The Land Fund - Jonathan has always dreamed of owning land.  I'm not sure why because it's never been one of my dreams but I wanted to help start making that dream a reality so for his birthday I asked friends and family to donate a dollar or two to start up a "land fund."  We've now officially made the deposit and are hoping to add to it over the next decade or so.  Perhaps God will see fit to bless our big dreams and big plans.  Thank you to Pastor Jonathan for giving us the inspirational message months ago.

• Social Dieting - I did a DietBet challenge last month and lost 10 pounds.  You only have to lose 4% of your body weight to win and for that challenge the bet was $35 with a pot over $38,000.  I decided to keep the momentum going and start another challenge for this month.  You have 4 weeks to lose 4% of your body weight whoever does it splits the port.  It's open to anyone.  It's a good way to keep the motivation going and the scale moving in the right direction.  If you're interested come on over to DietBet and join my challenge.  It doesn't start until the 5th and it's only $25 buy in, lose 4%, winners split the pot.
• SciWorks for Free - Our local library just partnered with SciWorks and it's offering a family pass to the science museum for library cardholders for free this summer.  I am thrilled!  We used to have a membership to SciWorks but it has since expired so the kids and I will love being able to go again this summer.  Why do people hate the library?  It's seriously one of my most favorite things.
• As It Turns Out, I Do Like To Get Flowers - Jonathan came home one night last week and as he got out of the car I glanced through the garage door and saw him getting a leafy green thing out and heading inside.  I didn't know what it was but my heart picked up a bit because I thought he'd bought me flowers.  I've always said that flowers never matter to me.  I mean they're nice, but I'd rather the money be spent on other things.  Anyway, when he finally came inside and didn't have any flowers in his hand that was exactly when my broken heart remembered that he was supposed to be picking up a blueberry bush from my aunt that day.  It turns out that I like receiving flowers more than I thought.

I want to know:
-Where will you go for your next vacation?
-Do you visit your local library? Book recommendations anyone?
-Have you ever had Trader Joe's cookie butter? What's your favorite way to eat it?
-Do you like getting flowers?