Gentlemen

Despite the "times" we're living in today. Women's rights. Independence. Education. Power. I still really like a gentleman. Whether feminists like it or not, there are still a few "gender roles" that I can appreciate. I hope one day I raise my future son (if I am blessed to have one) to be a gentleman. I admire any guy who opens doors, considers a girls safety in all conditions, speaks politetly. A true gentleman doesn't just do this for his girlfriend (and not just on the first date!). He does it for all girls, mothers, grandmothers, even friends. I wish there were more guys who truly act like gentlemen. However, I really don't think it's all of their fault. I'm sure most guys have had an experience where a woman criticized a man for being a gentleman because they saw it as inequality. I even struggle with this sometimes. Something recent in my mind was last week when we went floating I was carrying the ice chest, Danielle's boyfriend, Chris just took it from my hands. At first I wanted to say "No I've got it" as to not burden him, but I am glad that I realized that he was just being polite and wouldn't walk beside a woman carrying something heavy while nothing was in his hands.
Women need to learn to say "thank you" when a guy acts like a gentleman. I'm all about being independent, but some women take this too far. I really don't think in most cases a guy is trying to say "you're not capable of doing this," I think they're really just saying "Let me do this for you". I love that women are really enjoying more equal rights, but there's something very romantic and Godly about a man who looks out for a women, no matter their relationship. If anything, it's a great way for a guy to make a good first impression. A gentleman is A-Okay in my book. So guys: Pick it up! Girls: Say thank you!

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Saving lives, 3 people at a time...

I've always thought donating blood was a really good cause that I try to participate in at least once a year (however, they're not very friendly to people who leave the country so sometimes that's difficult). I'm leaving for Costa Rica in a few weeks, so I decided I better donate one more time before I go.
I brought my book but I was too anxious to read it. Good try though.

It makes me crazy when people say they can't donate blood. You big weenie! No one thinks giving blood is therapeutic (except maybe for their soul) but it's the right thing to do. Unless you vomit. Then you really do have an issue. For me, giving blood is right up there with voting . It's just something you're supposed to do every year or two. I take that back. I LOVE to vote. Last year I wore red, white, and blue on election day.
Furthermore I've decided to skip the work out and indulge in a Pepsi as my reward for donating (see, there's more ups than just saving lives!).

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Summer Food Fun!

Is there really a better time of year for food than summer? Is there really a better time of year than summer period? I have definitely been frequenting the produce stands and farmer's markets. Coming home from Duncan I went through Rush Springs, the Watermelon capitol and picked up, of course, a watermelon, zucchini, and squash. I had all of those things for lunch, which was delicious. AND I cooked some Quinoa which is supposed to be amazing for you. I would copy and paste a link about it, but I have no idea how to copy and paste on blogger.

The farmer's market that I go to the most is on Tuesdays downtown from 10:30-2:00. It doesn't have a huge selection, but it has traditional vegetables and a really nice flower assortment.

Some of these flowers are a week old (still doing pretty good! Especially the sun flower!), the others I got today. I pay $3 each time and she makes me a little assortment and I put them in a vase that I already have. I love it! I really enjoy having something alive in my office because I don't have any windows. And besides, what girl doesn't love flowers?
There's a really good produce stand on HWY 51 & Utica that seems to have everything, and their prices aren't too bad! It's a great time of year to eat fresh, healthy, and try new things!

One of these days I'm going to get up in time to go to the Farmer's market on Cherry street. They close at 11:00 a.m. so we'll see how that goes.

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Domestic Me

I don't know what got into me, but this morning when I got up I was determined to help around the house. First I washed all of the dishes (even the pots and pans that everyone likes to avoid). Then I cleaned my room and did all of my laundry. I even did some of the family's laundry. Then it got worse. I decided to mow the back yard. I can't believe I am admitting that I can do this. Now Matt knows!  Despite this capability, I've already decided that I have nothing against hiring a kid to do the lawn if Matt is ever out of town.                                                                     

So there is our nicely mowed back yard. It turns out that I mowed over some of my mom's planted wild flowers (They looked like weeds!). If you plant them are they really wild? I gave her my most sincere apologies even though it was kind of funny. I wish I had a picture of her face when she realized what I had done. Whoops.

Since I was already hot and sweaty, I thought, What the hey? Lets go ahead and mow the big part of the yard. Do you realize how many levers you have to adjust to get a lawn mower going? I tried to figure out how to get the weed eater going, but one of them didn't work and neither of them were working for me. And yes, those are boots I am wearing. They're safer than sandals and conveniently the most comfortable shoes that I own.

I made Guacomole a realized that I should be composting my food scraps and I could also compost the yard clippings so then decided to make a compost pile behind out fence. I am not sure how happy my dad is going to be about this when he gets home from his trip, but it's for a good cause. This is me shoveling some manure into the pile I made. Just incase you were wondering, that's a hay loader in the back ground.

Check out my sweet water boots!

To end the day I made home made hamburgers (dad's recipe) and used a grill by myself for the first time. Mom and Joe loved them! I even drank fresh squeezed lemonade and played the guitar a little. I hope that I was able to help my family. We've been extremely busy and good family members help eachother out. Or atleast they should. Tomorrow we're going to the river and that should be great fun! Hope you enjoyed my day as much as I did!

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Working Out

For a solid year now I think I would put myself into the category of a person to "works out". When they doctor asks, do you exercise? Why yes, yes I do. Sometimes more often than others, but it's still there. First off, let me tell you that I do not believe the key to losing weight is working out. Eating well is the key. Working out might make you stronger, shave some inches, and give you more energy, but if you want the scale to change, you gotta eat what's good for you. Secondly, I'm completely against fad dieting. It will screw your metabolism to pieces!!! Yes, it works in the short term, and that's an amazing feeling of accomplishment, but eventually you're going to want bread/sugar/dairy/calories again and then you're on a downward spiral. I can attest to the fact that working out and eating well is a sloooooooooooow process and it can be discouraging. I'm also a human who doesn't always eat the best things (especially on the weekends). But that's really not the point of this post. I want to share with you some observations I have made while entering into this new "work out" world that I had been so blind to in the past.

1st- If you don't know what you're doing, the weight lifting section of the gym is terrifying. There could be some guy on the machine equally as confused as you are, but the difference is that he's on it and therefore a genius.
2nd- "Running" isn't really running. This was a true "ah ha!" moment when I figured this one out. I started "running" around Boomer lake and I would get worn out so fast. The problem is that I thought running meant sprinting. Turns out, anything above a brisk walk falls into the category of a "run" so it's just a matter of picking your foot farther off the ground. My distance tripled the first time I gave this a try. Sprinting is for track meets. Furthermore, in a 5K run, some people don't even run, they walk and that's perfectly acceptable!! I had been dreading a 5K for years!
3rd- In a gym it is apparently customary to ask someone how their work out was. The appropriate response was "Great!" not "Look at me, I'm covered in sweat, it sucked". Whoops.
4th- People seem to always inquire about your work out which I think is a step away from asking someone how much they weigh. "What did you do?" "How long did you go?" "What's your best time?" Uh... um... What?
5th- P90X is for people who don't like themselves very much


Some other things that I have noticed:

If you have the ability to update your facebook status while in the middle of a work out, you're not working that hard
Now matter what the calorie counter says on the machine, the elliptical aint got NOTHIN on running. I know it's better for your knees and I even do it sometimes (I never thought I'd see the day where I would have a sports injury, but sure enough my knee is tore up) but running is so much harder than the elliptical. Elliptical=weenies (ha ha I can say what I want it's my blog!).
Finally, wearing jeans to work on Friday is all good and fun until you have to put those same jeans back on after working out and your sweaty.

Have a good weekend!

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Amazon.com

Amazon.com is by far my favorite website. It's just great. I never purchase my textbooks from university book stores because it infuriates me how much they overcharge students. They think it's a business, I think it's unethical. I also sell my books back to Amazon.com and always get a better rate than the book stores offer me. However, sometimes the book doesn't sell, but there's an alternative! You can "trade in" your books to amazon.com and it's so easy and perfect for a frequent amazon shopper. You just look up the book, they tell you the trade in price, you print off a shipping label (they pay for the shipping) and when they get it, Amazon credits your account with a gift card. I've already sold two books this way and I am going to look through my books at home and see what I can send in. On one book I got over $55 and on another I only got $3.75 but I hated the book (it wasn't a normal text, more like a novel) and so it's $3.75 more than I would get with it sitting on my shelf never to be read again. Furthermore, it's Recycling!
Actually, the order goes Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This is really just reusing, but it's BETTER than recycling! I lovvvvvvvvvvve reading used books (a great place to get current used books is Hastings and you don't have to pay shipping). Used books are being reused (duh) AND they're cheaper. It's really win/win.
Just wanted to let you in on my lastest save money trick incase you didn't already know.

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Oh What a Wonderful Life

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. I took my own advice and spent some time on the way home meditating on fallen soldiers, specifically my grandpa. I got a little choked up, said a long prayer, and missed him dearly. However, I already gave you my schpeel, so I am going to talk about the fun parts of the weekend.

I went to Duncan right after work on Friday. Matt is moving to Midland for his job (his real big boy job!). I am extremely proud of him and happy for him, but the selfish side of me is very very sad to have him move about 8+ hours away. For the past year (he also lived in Midland last summer for his internship and he lived in Stillwater while I lived in Tulsa this school year) we have only spent time together during the weekends and school breaks. It's kind of difficult to maintain a healthy relationship when our time is so packed with so much stuff to do. We're always running around when we're together and the phone just isn't the same as talking in person. We do a pretty good job for the most part, but I have to admit that my idea of the perfect date with Matt is cooking dinner at home, hanging out on the couch watching a movie or playing a board game in sweat pants. We're so blessed to have such busy wonderful lives, but it's the simple things too. I just like to hang out with him. He's my best friend.
Last summer we discovered Skype which is a pretty cool program. It's a good way to "hang out" with out having a phone up to your ear. Sometimes we wouldn't even be talking to eachother, but it was nice to know that the other person was just there and available. There's a little window to our relationship. I try not to get too personal on here but oh well.

Back to the weekend! Friday night I met Matt and his parents at Giuseppe's which is the BEST Italian food I think I have ever eaten. I always get the same dish, seafood lasagna, but it's delicious! Saturday we went to antique shops looking for our plates (no luck!). I did get a cool "tube bra" that is like a small circular piece of material that you wear under shirts to minimize cleavage (substitute for a cami). Mine is Orange so I could pair it up with some cute black stuff, maybe with a low back for game days. I can't believe I am admitting it, but I am kind of looking forward to football season. Speaking of football, I FINALLY finished the Blind Side while in Duncan. It was a good book, but I was kind of ready for it to be over. It was more the story of the Blind Side position (left tackle) rather than just the story of Michael Oher like the movie. I also found a new book, really cheap, which is the beginning of the House of Night series "Marked". Last summer my sorority sister, Elle, recommended it to me. It's a new vampire (vampyre?) series based out of.........Tulsa! How cool! It's neat because I know of all the places they mention, except for the House of Night, haven't found that one yet, but they say it's in midtown, ha ha.

We spent a lot of time in the pool which was great because my skin was getting shades of white that I have never seen before. The Cherokees may not give me a dime, but they gave me good skin and I'd like to take advantage of that. We ate GREAT food at home all weekend, mostly grilled. My dietitian probably wont be that proud, but she says to eat a lot of protein and I was definitely a major carnivore this weekend. Sunday night Matt and I went on a mini-date and saw the Prince of Persia. It was really good! It was just a nice movie with good effects, a fun story, and it didn't have any themes that weren't family appropriate.
I had to say goodbye to Matt yesterday, but he's flying me down there in a few weeks, so that wont be sooo bad. In the mean time I am just going to spend a lot of time with friends and my family and enjoy the great fellowship that I do have around here.

As soon as I got home I threw on my favorite cocktail dress, did my hair and headed to Danielle's house. When we lived together in the trailer our first year in college, we would stay up late watching Sex and the City until like 3 a.m. Spending time with her living in the crappy (but awesome) house were some of the best memories that I have. I say Matt's my best friend because Danielle isn't just my best friend, she's my sister. I have no idea what I would do with out her. We had so much fun last night. We went to Cheddars and got complimented on our attire. We had cocktails and talked like old times. We even got some free drinks! Then we went to see Sex & the City 2 (not family friendly). It was pretty good. I think we would have thought it was good no matter what, we're dedicated fans.

I even took some great pictures of Serenity with my new camera (see facebook). She's getting so big and she has the best personality! I just love her to death and I am so happy to watch her grown up. This was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. I think this is going to be a great summer!

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