Any Juicers Out There?

Over the past couple of weeks I have heard and read more and more about juicing.  Don't know what juicing is?  Well . . .

You use fresh fruits and vegetable and create juices from these.  Our bodies are able to absorbe the nutrients from juices faster than solid foods.  When juicing vegetables you rebuild, repair and heal parts of your body.  When you juice fruits it helps to clean and detox your system.  You will also ingest more vegetables and fruits than if you tried to eat that many servings in a day.  (Source)

I finally made the decision to bite the bullet and tomorrow I am going to Costco to buy one of these:


Do any of you juice?  Do you do it everyday?  Any good recipes?

Get Your Style Personalized by StyleMint

This is so cool!  I got this email today about StyleMint and the T-Shirt Revolution styled by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. 

You go to this site and answer the style questions.  They aren't just normal questions, they show you pictures of different outfits, accessories, stores, etc and you pick which one best suits you.  Based on your answers, they "style" you and give you tons of different options on things they think you will like. 

All you do is create an account (it isn't necessary to buy something to get your personalized style) and voila! there is a whole page of different styles picked out especially for you. 

I just thought it was coolest thing and kind of fun to take a look at my fashion choices compared to others they offered.

10 Day You Challenge

How am I supposed to choose just 2 songs?  There are so many fantastic songs and so many that have stayed with me throughout the years that it is nearly impossible so I guess I'll just go with 2 songs that I am loving right now.

2 Songs

Knee Deep-Zac Brown Band.  Of course, like with ALL songs, the radios have totally overplayed this song but everytime I hear it I get excited for our anniversary trip in October.

Honey Bee-Blake Shelton.  I love this song.  It is sweet and witty.  I love the line "You'll be my glass of wine, I'll be your shot of whiskey" because that is exactly how it is with Scott and me. 

Did you really think I would post about songs and not have a DMB song in here? Ha! I think not. How do I pick just one? I can't! Here are a couple: Crush and Some Devil

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

The baby pool became the "spaceship" today for Caleb and Gracie. 

Deals

Quiznos is celebrating their 30th anniversary.  You can sign up for the Quiznos newsletter and receive 4 coupons:

-Free Chip or Cookie and Regular Fountain Drink

- Free Sub with purchase

- $1 Off 1 Sub, $2 Off 2 Subs, $3 Off 3 Subs

- $2 Off a Regular or Large Sub

Coupons.com has released their coupons for the week.  Click HERE to print them out.

Beverages

$1.00 off 1 Minute Maid Juice Box 10-pk
$1.00 off ON ANY TWO TRUE CITRUS PRODUCTS

Books & Magazines
$1.00 off the September Issue of InStyle
$2.00 off People Specials: Kate's Style Secrets!

Entertainment
$20.00 off for 12 months includes $75 VISA Card

Foods
$0.40 off Yoplait Yogurt
$0.55 off on any Bagel-fuls (4ct)
$0.75 off 1 package of PHILADELPHIA Cooking Creme
$1.00 off 3 Kashi GOLEAN Bars
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$1.50 off any 2 boxes of Kashi TLC bars

Health Care
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Home Entertainment
$3.00 off Spy Kids, Spy Kids 2 or Spy Kids 3

Household
$0.40 off THREE (3) KLEENEX On-the-Go Tissue Pack
$1.00 off (1) package of Vanity Fair Hand Towels
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$0.75 off any Efferdent or Effergrip product
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$99.99 off with No-Line Bifocals only $34 more per
2 for $79.99 Kids' Eyeglasses at JCPenney Optical

Photography

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Professional Services
$100 Visa Gift Card for Joining ADT
$5.00 off Your $25.00 Order at Vistaprint

10 Day You Challenge

I'm not a big movie watcher, haven't had time for movies in years, but there are a couple that immediately come to mind.

3 Films

{1} Dirty Dancing-I think I can quote every, single line in this movie.  I remember cutting off some jeans and rolling them at the knees, wearing a white shirt tied at the waste, getting white Keds and dancing around my house.  Johnny and Baby are forever in my heart and I so wish they weren't going to re-make this movie. 

 

 

{2} Top Gun-What woman doesn't know exactly why I loved this movie?  Hello, volleyball scene followed by kissing scene.  Enough said.

 

 

{3} Titanic-I loved this movie so much that I saw it 8 times at the movie theater.  I longed for a love like Jack and Rose.  Even today when I see it, I end up bawling when the women are getting put on the boats to safety and Rose jumps back over onto the ship, runs down and finds Jack, and says,

"I couldn't do it.  I couldn't leave you.  You jump, I jump."

Now, I know what that feels like.  There is no way I would ever leave Scott in that situation.  He jumps, I jump.

 

Tasty Top Cake Pop

How cute are these cake toppers?  I am not a baker but Scott has made the birthday cakes for the kids for the past few years and I think these would be perfect.



Right now there is a Buy One, Get One Free deal.  The little lion and pig would be great for a baby shower and the witch is perfect for a Halloween party. 

These things are super cute and super easy!

10 Day You Challenge

Once again, today's topic is going to be a tough one for me.  I am supposed to discuss four books.  I have read literally thousands of books so I have no idea how I am going to pick out just four but I decided to pick the four books that immediately come to my mind.  Each of these books have either inspired me or stuck with me in some way through the years.

4 Books

{1} The Bible-While I have definitely not read the entire Bible cover to cover, I'm sure through the years I have either read or heard every single page of it.  No matter what "genre" of reading you prefer, you can find it in the Bible.  Words to live by, words to inspire, love songs, death and destruction.  It is all in the Bible and it has definitely been the one constant throughout my life.

{2} Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.  This book captured me from the very beginning and I could not put it down.  It is set in the 12th century and the story is about the building of a cathedral but it is about so much more than that.  While reading it, I kept comparing it to an epic movie such as Braveheart.  I could see all of the scenes unfold in my mind as if I were watching a movie instead of reading a book and I was actually sad when I finished it.

{3} Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels with Mariska Van Aalst.  This book has changed my life.  It has changed the way I look at food and it has made me very conscientious of the food I feed my family.  Since reading this book, I have lost at least 6lbs only from making the small change of eating as close to 100% organic that I can.  This book is full of shocking information about pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones and is full of recipes, as well.

{4} The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  This is the book that solidified the fact that I wanted to be an English teacher.  Of course, that dream eventually changed when I realized that I was not going to actually be able to teach Literature right out of the gate but I fell in love with the process of story writing, development of character, foil, and descriptive writing through reading this book.  This is another book in which I could imagine every scene unfolding as I read page after page.  I love this book as much today as I first did all of those years ago.



Festival of Nations

Today I took Kanin to the Festival of Nations here in St. Louis. 

I thought that Kanin would really enjoy this event because there were so many countries represented with their food, dances, music, and crafts.

When we first arrived there was a Jewish band playing a church song that I recognized from my church camp days-"Sanctuary".  It was really beautiful as the singer went back and forth between singing the lyrics in English and Hebrew.

There were tons and tons of food booths with all different cuisines:  Bosnian, Thai, Japanese, Bangladesh, Senegalese, Chinese, Cajun, German, Polish, Peruvian . . . I could go and on.  Everything we tasted was great and the portions were big enough that we shared it all.

The first booth that we came to was a German booth and Kanin was so happy. 

Next, we walked over to the main stage to watch some of the ethnic dancers. First up was South Africa:

We walked around for a bit and ran into this guy.  Kanin just had to have his picture taken with him.

There were Polynesian dancers.  We were pretty far away from the stage at this point.

There were a lot of crafts and local organizations that support diversity and multi-culturalism.  This little tent had a couple of really cool country puzzles and some dress up items.

As we walked along we came up on a Reggae band singing "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley.  This is one of our family songs so we stuck around and danced a bit.

When we left the Jamaica event, we came up on Scotland.  This one was really cool.  There was a demonstration where they were throwing a telephone pool.  It was really cool and really impressive.

 

There were these swords that Kanin got to hold.

 

Right after the poll throwing and swords, there were some monks (I think that is what they were).  Apparently, this was the leader of their group.

Finally we went back to the main stage to see a couple more dances.  First, there were Russian dancers.

The finale on the Main Stage was a Japanese, all-girl troupe from New York called Cobu.  (You can watch them HERE).

 

This was such a fun and informative event.  Kanin and I had a great time together.  I love that we both love these types of things.  He kept referring to our time together as Mommy-Son time and it was fantastic.

10 Day You Challenge

Here I am halfway done with the 10 Day You Challenge.  Today's topic is one of my favorite things . . . FOOD!

5 Foods

{1} Popcorn-As simple as it sounds, my #1 favorite food is popcorn.  I love popcorn so much that when I was in 5th grade I got a air popcorn for Christmas. 

{2} Mexican-I honestly think I could eat Mexican everyday for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.  Chips and salsa are my weakness and I usually fill up more on those than my entree.  I love Mexican rice and refried beans, enchiladas, empanadas, tacos, fajitas, salsa, guacamole . . .any Mexican is good to me.

{3} Pasta House Salad-For those of you who don't live in an area with a Pasta House, I'm sorry.  This salad is my all-time favorite and when I was in Basic Training, I would dream about it at night.  Many of the supermarkets here in St. Louis sell the dressing and there is a list of ingredients on the back so I make this salad at home all of the time.

{4} Boiled Potatoes and Cornbread-This is a classic Southern food and is definitely my all-time favorite.  My mom always makes each person in our family a birthday meal and everyone knows what mine will be year after year.  And, of course, it has to be traditional Southern cornbread and not sweet cornbread.

{5} Chili-Call it weird but sometimes I secretly dream of being in one of those chili cookoff competitions.  I love chili and I am willing to admit that I am somewhat of a chili snob.  I keep a list of the places that I have ordered their chili so I'll know if it was good enough to order again.

Trying to Get in "The Zone"

This afternoon on my crappy run I realized, once again, that I love the first couple of miles and I feel fantastic during those but almost exactly at the 2 mile mark I get to the point where I'm wondering how far it is until I get back home. 

Back in 2002, when I did consider myself a runner, I was running and training all of the time back  and I remember thinking how hard the first 3-4 miles were for me but from mile 4 until about mile 16 I felt great. 

Now, it seems like it is completely opposite.

These days when I run it feels like the first 2 miles are fantastic.  I actually think to myself, "If I feel this good, I could just keep running and running." But then, it happens . . . right around mile 2, I feel like I can't go on and the last mile or two are horrible.  And, I AM NOT a fast runner so I don't think that I am using on my energy on the first couple of miles. 

I know many of you are serious runners so you may not have experienced this.  For those of you like me . . .the wannabe serious runners LOL . . .have you experienced this?  What do you do? 

10 Day You Challenge

Today's topic in the 10 Day You Challenge is 6 Places.  I'm going to give a combination of places I want to go, places I've been, and places I love.



6 Places

{1} Germany

I want to go to Germany for so many reasons.  The culture, the people, the history, the beer!  I want to go see my German friends, I want to see a German soccer game, I want to soak up everything I can.

Source

Source



{2} Disney World

It's not secret that I love going to Disney World.  I have so much fun just watching the kids get wrapped up in the magic.  I really want to go to Disney World, though, without the kids for a weekend to golf and just hit Epcot with Hottie Scottie.

{3} Las Vegas

I jokingly call Las Vegas my second home.  Of course, my second home refers to the Strip and I'm ok with that!

{4} Grand Canyon

I've been to the Grand Canyon but Scott and the kids have not.  I really want to go with them some day.

{5} Brazil

Can you say 2014 World Cup?

{6} Napa Valley

Can you say wine?