Buying a Motorcycle?

So today for about half a second I considered buying a motorcycle.

Maybe it was less than half a second.

But I understood a little more about why people ride motorcyles, other than the danger and those people who ride without helments, and the ones who drive too fast and weave in and out of traffic...

Okay, so maybe I understood those people who buy convertibles.

Because yesterday I rode home with ALL my windows down, on the interstate, going 70 miles and hour, with my sunglasses on and my hair "whipping back and forth."

I put on a CD that I recently aquired as a favor from my friend Tam's wedding. I was in a kind of Garden State soundtrack meets Elizabethtown treck on the road meets The Killers (circa 2005) meets butterflies and happiness...

It's a peculiar mix of music, but I love it.

My fave tracks from the mix check em out:
Track 1 - The Ladder by Andrew Belle 
Track 4 - Daylight by Matt & Kim
Track 14 - Beautiful by Phil Wickham
Track 15 - Can't Help Falling in Love by Ingrid Michaelson (sorry for the super-unofficial video link ;)

I highly recommend trying it.  Today, feel free to roll ALL your windows down, put on some good music and mess up your hair.

...see a really great thing can happen when the air conditioning goes out in your car and it's 80 degrees outside ;)

End Result of Hair Whipping...

Wow my Muscles are Sore!

Apparently I use the same muscles to drive my Saturn as I do playing disc golf.

How did I come to this realization?  Well, Kyle, our friend Trevor and I went out disc golfing on Sunday afternoon.

They are professionals. They have lots of discs and even handy carrying cases.  Luckily, I am married to Kyle, so he shared two discs with me.  One was a driver and one was a putter.  Funny.

I'll tell you the truth. I've always been athletic.  People tell me all the time that I look athletic. I secretly think that's their way of saying I have a large frame and justifying the fact that my hair always looks like I just worked out.  But I'm okay with that.

But anyways I may be "athletic," but I don't have hand eye coordination.  Well, I was a catcher in softball because I got to wear protective gear and therefore, didn't flinch. But other than that… my mom would motion "Keep your eye on the ball" a million times and that didn't help me make contact with it.  That's just me.

You can imagine our trip disc golfing.  I got a hole-in-3 once, but Kyle won and my score was +43. That means I took 43 more throws than him to get through the same course.  He's good.

I loved disc golfing.  But apparently you use the same muscles to drive and to disc golf.  Because every time I shift gears I feel the pain ;)

#timetogetintoshapeforthespring

East Texans Run to Brookshires!

Okay, maybe that's a little dramamtic. But I don't think so.

So today was a great day!

When I got to work I found this:

Yes! It's true, yesterday I took my exam to become an official Registered Dietitian!! Praise Jesus (really)!

My hair feels great because of THIS.

And today on my way home I stopped at the local Brookshires and saw this!

If you're not from around here and maybe your Brookshire's always looks like that. Good for you. But ours usually looks like what got left on the truck after they made all the other deliveries.

My theory: Fresh (Brookshire's new Whole Food, Central Market-type store) just moved in to Tyler and I think that means we get fresher stuff delivered on the trucks to the rest of East Texas!! I asked the lady at the checkout if my theory was true and she said

"I think it's because many of our vegetables are seasonal. Now that more fruits and vegetables are in season we have a wider selection."

False. She doesn't know. Cinnamon sticks are not seasonal... and we've never had special tongs to pick up fresh cinnamon sticks before. And there's never been quite a selection of fruit!

So if you're in our town and your best excitement is the idea of an IHOP coming to town, maybe, someday (AKA Jill), then run to Brookshire's. But that's just a suggestion from your friendly, Registered Dietitian ;)

See, even a larger selection of sausage than before... can you tell I'm from the South?

Interesting Times before Study Mania

Wonderful weekend...

This week I'll be away studying my head of for my upcoming RD exam.  But in my absence I'll leave you with these... AKA a weeks worth of blog pictures :)

This is what my knee looked like after last week's carpet-burn fall. I'm glad to report that it's healing nicely. I'm sad to say I don't have time to tell the story right now. It's hilarious; and I'll post it someday. No doubt it'll happen again.

I was trying to figure out what shape the scab was in?? Any ideas?

THE planner came in. I started using it last night. I feel an indescribable relief not having to remember everything but being able to simply write it down.

I made Christmas cupcakes due to all the studying. They smelled like Birthday and looked like Christmas. And what more could you need to make you happy?

We got to use our new grill for the first time since we got it... oh about a year ago as a wedding present. 

MOST OF ALL: We went to Fresh! If you haven't heard, Fresh is a new Whole Food, Central Market type grocery store of the Brookshire's chain. This is actually the first one ever, and it opened this week! Here in small town or big town nearby, we don't have much variety in produce. But NOW we do! 

I'm not all about super expensive food just for the fact that it's expensive... but I am all about 15 different types of peppers or 20 kinds of apples to make life happier! 

Wish I had pictures of:

 - Wonderful dinner with friends!

 - Honestly the best (or first) Seafarers game I've ever played.

 - My first Taco Bueno experience.  It was quite comical.

More fun to come soon! My own review and pics of Fresh! and our findings from Big Trash Pickup: Texas Edition.

Remember it's still National Nutrition Month! Try adding color through fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to your meals this month for a healthier you!

Do you know what today is?

After a week of playing catch-up reviewing what was done days before, I didn't realize what day it was until I looked at the calendar.

I know, if you're in Louisiana it's Mardi Gras today. You are in the wonderful world of king cake and days off school and work and all the things that make Louisiana great. 

But actually that's not the celebration I was talking about. Today March 8, 2011 is the day Kyle and I have been married for 10 months! Ten! We were very impressed with ourselves. Tonight I cleared off the kitchen table (a long overdue task) and we had dinner at the table like real people. Not too fancy, just smoothies and hot sandwiches Mama Taylor style. But we loved it.

Over dinner I asked Kyle "What have you learned about marriage this far, like what advice would you give to a friend?" He responded that he'd tell them it's hard work, but worth every minute. And I agree. Sometimes I surprise myself with how I react, because I'm reacting just like that girl I always said I'd never become. But Kyle is patient with me, and then we end up all smiles by the end.

Marriage is good. If you haven't yet, you should try it some day. (Of course when God gives you that person to marry and all those requirements).

Happy 10 Months to us. I told Kyle that he is doing a good job. Because he is.

[Oh, sorry... it's also my wonderful Uncle Bill's birthday, who on my wedding day told Kyle that he better take care of me because my family like me :) ]

Nerdy Updates

So I've been overdue for an education update. Lame, maybe. But not really for all my fellow nerds.

I have not told you about the Thesis Proposal!

I had my proposal committee meeting last week all the way in Ruston, LA. And it was wonderful! I passed, they approved and the proposal is now headed off to the university for their approval. Next step: reformat the proposal to meet the hospital's standards so that I can submit it to them too to be approved!  And then after all that, I may be allowed to start my project. Funny how that works. But I wouldn't want someone to be doing research on me that wasn't thoroughly approved either!

That Upcoming Exam

So yes, I have yet to take my big exam due to oh, marriage, moving twice, summer camp, starting a new job, writing a thesis proposal... but it's about time. So I decide to schedule my test date and I look up the nearest testing centers. Remember that I love in East Texas, so I expected to at least have to go into any nearby city to take the test. Nope.

Apparently there are no testing centers in Shreveport, Baton Rouge, or Lake Charles. I can go to the ONE testing center in Dallas and fight the traffic. Or it seems small towns outside of bigger cities have testing centers like Bossier City to Shreveport or Addis? to Baton Rouge.  Spring Break for the testing center in Bossier City has put a kink in my testing. So I feel like I'm back a square one. Kyle recommended Beaumont. We'll see.

Never the less, I'm studying at night and could tell you more about water balance in the human body than you ever wanted to know. Just ask Kyle.

Spring Grad Class is Starting

So as you know, I'm working towards the Master's and that means I also have a few classes remaining; no nutrition classes left, but two different statistics classes...  We're on what they call the "quarter" system which means classes just started and I'm always a little worried when they do the math on the syllabus and it says the course will take 12 hours a week.  I did more math: that's over an hour and a half a day! But nevertheless, it will help me greatly in completing the statistics for my thesis.  Did I mention all of this nerdy stuff doesn't leave much time for a personal life :)

Not sure if I'm ready for life to look like this again. But honestly I'm not sure I ever stopped :)

March!!! National Nutrition Month® 2011

You should get very excited about the updates you'll be getting this month about "Eating Right with Color" as the American Dietetic Association sponsors yet another great National Nutrition Month®!

Really don't worry. It will be fun! I won't make you too nerdy... I don't think it's contagious like that.


Soon to Come: Major fall yesterday! Story and picture to come...

Plan Much?

So today I logged on to the world wide web to order my newest textbook for my newest grad class. I will mention, as a side note, I'm considering buying more locally rather than online, but I called the stores near, and no one had this book…

So I'm online and I find my very expensive book and go through the ordering process.  Then I think about it and realize that I could go ahead and order a planner while I was ordering something and only have to pay shipping once.

Sure, it's March, and you are wondering why I have not bought a planner. For someone with as much going on as I do, why no planner?

Well it turns out that last semester in Bible study I realized my list-making habit, and I tried to quit.  And I thought I did. I thought "oh look at me, less stressed "list"less, and oh so happy not to be nailed down to a planner."

Then I came back to reality. I've simply turned to post-it notes constantly at work, only to lose the post-it and to panic!

So after my teacher sent the first due date for my statistics class, I realized planner = necessary.  And honestly, I kind of wonder if that's why I've been so stressed lately… because I've been living without a planner, without a "schedule," and maybe, just maybe, I need one.  Maybe I was not born with a planner in hand… but maybe I was.

So I hopped online to find the planner of all planners… the ones my good friend Kate introduced me to a few years ago and I've fallen in love with.  In 2010 I went to the store too late and they were out and I had to buy a different one, and that was too hard!  So this year (late again) I call up the store and the guy on the phone tells me they don't have it.   Amazon has it for like $30, and that's way too much.

So I got to the company's website: Gallery Leather. Wow. These are great planners. They slip right into a purse or booksack or briefcase, they make me look professional but still classy, and they have one week on two pages without time of the day every line, I love it.  I buy the Gallery Leather Weekly Desk Planner in Freeport Mocha.  Don't be confused, by desk planner they don't mean as big as a desk, they just mean bigger than your pocket, or 8 ½ by 5 ½ inches to be exact.

I'm going on and on, I know. And they aren't even paying me to say this. But I cannot wait for it to arrive, and I cannot believe I only paid $11 for it.

:)

So even though it's March, if you haven't already: go buy a planner that you absolutely love, and try to be a little more organized than a post-it.

Little Window into the Lives of Us

So we've had a few exciting days...

I beat Kyle in Monopoly on the Nintendo. This is only the second time I've beat him in a game of any sort in the almost 4 years I've known him! (Last time it was dominoes in the fall of 2008 in Oklahoma City, OK.... it was that memorable).

We washed Kyle's truck in one of those "fancy" drive-thru car washes. I told Kyle that the money spent should come out of our entertainment fund.

We went to the movies on a real date. Nope, I didn't see this movie (but isn't that fun). And then we saw the King's Speech. Congrats to the King's Speech for winning all the awards that we were too tired to stay up and watch you win! 

So sure, our excitement may not be Times Square or anything, but it makes us happy and we feel blessed. 

Stay tuned for:

- Updates about that crazy Thesis Proposal, school, etc.

- Pics from our Weekend with the Taylors!

- And more crazy shenanigans, as always.

- AND the new blog header for the Month of March!!! National Nutrition Month!