Sunday, May 10, 2009

O Sweet Carbs, I miss you!

So like I said previously, I have told all my little carb friends to run away and leave me alone for a little while, like forever. They refuse to stay away and like to dance in front of my face about every five minutes. 

I even dream about carbs, Seriously. In my dreams they look like those talking m&m from the commercials. Except for that they are completely white and smiley. They are sad that they can't eat lunch with me anymore. I'm sad too. 

Anyway... now that you think I'm a total freak, I found a couple of solutions!

By the way, if you happen to be more knowledgeable about nutrition than I (which believe me, isn't hard) and it turns out that all of these supposedly low carb foods I've found are actually extremely bad for you, don't tell me. If you rain on my health parade, I might have to kill you.

1. Cashews!!!
Who knew I would fall so in love with cashews! I can only eat like 10 at a time, because they're high in fat, but they are amazing!

2. Gum!!
I daily praise the Lord for the little blessing of sugarfree chewing gum! It curbs craving and leaves my breath oh so sweet!

3. Pineapple!!
Holy cow! Is pineapple not the best fruit EVER!! I'm falling more and more in love with it every day!!

4. Whole Grain/Wheat/Nut bread
I can only have one slice every morning, but it is like eating an ice cream sundae to be able to add bread to my diet! Ok, not really an ice cream sundae, but I'm counting my blessings!!

5. Crystal Light
Since I am drinking 500 (no, I am not exaggerating) gallons of water a day, its nice to give it a little flavor once in a while. Crystal Light pink lemonade is to die for!

6. String Cheese
I love this stuff! Its good and its fun! Be warned however, the low fat stuff is no bueno!

7. South Beach Protein Bars
I have never been a big fan, but these aren't too bad! Especially not the peanut butter ones! 

8. Trader Joe's Stuffed Chicken Breast
This is the by far the best thing that I have gotten to eat on this diet. Poor Pec had it for dinner three times last week. Sorry babe! But it actually feels like I'm eating real food!

Ok. As I'm reading over this list I'm beginning to see how pathetic I am. But... my body is supposed to be a temple and right now its still a Chuck E Cheese or something along those lines! 

For now, the rest of you can keep my little friends company while you eat your...

 :(


                                                                                                                                                                                

Happy Mother's Day Darlene!!

I am also blessed to have a new mom this year! Darlene Johnson/Mom/soon-to-be Grandma (again not by us :)), is a great mother-in-law!

If you have read my precious husband's story of how we met, you know that his mom is to thank for introducing me to my wonderful husband. I will never be able to repay her for the gift of her son!

Darlene is more generous than anyone I have ever met. If she hears of a need somewhere she is the first person to try to meet that need. Phil, my father-in-law, is hopeless without her. She is a master in the area of submission. She works tirelessly to serve her family. 

I cannot wait to see her in the role of Grandma! She loves children and I am so excited for her to be the Grandma of our future children (key word: Future). 

Pecadillo loves to tell people how his mom has always supported him and his brothers no matter what hobby or craft they pursued. She is loved by all of those who know her. I am so honored to have her as my mother-in-law!

I love you Darlene/Mom!

Happy Mother's Day Oma!!

Helen Zimmer, otherwise known as... Oma, Mommy, Marm, Bess, Mom, Helen Annie, Mother, Mommy Dearest (she hates that one).... I mostly call her Oma. Don't ask where it comes from. I think it means Grandma in German. Don't worry, she isn't a Grandma yet. Come to think of it, I don't think she's German either. :)


My Oma is everything I wish I was. She is fun, beautiful, submissive, EXTREMELY GODLY, loving, caring, selfless, kind, hilarious, adventurous, hard working... the list goes on and on. 

I have never in my life met a woman who reads her Bible more than my mom. She loves the Lord with all her heart and that carries down to every other aspect. I talk to my mom every single morning. She always listens, provides counsel when appropriate, makes me laugh and makes me love God more. 

One of my favorite memories of my mom was my seventeenth birthday. My family was in a bit of a hard spot financially and I wasn't really expecting anything big. I came out to the kitchen to eat breakfast and my mom was crying by herself. She gave me a hug and kiss and told me happy birthday. I asked her why she was crying and she told me that she wished that she could have done more to celebrate my birthday. Then she handed me a gift.

To continue my story you need to know that my mom LOVES "Happy" Perfume from Clinique. It was her all time favorite perfume, but its pretty expensive. Someone had given it to her for Christmas and she was SO excited. I'm pretty sure she sprayed it on herself like 4 or 5 times a day. She loves it. My birthday is January 18th, so she had only had it for a few weeks. So....

I opened my gift and it was the half full bottle of perfume. On it she wrote, "I know its not much but I love you. Happy Birthday." We both cried together. I will never forget the selflessness of my sweet mom, giving me the best thing she had.

I am so blessed to call her my mom and my friend! 
I love you Oma!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Where I've Been...

Hello to the two of you who still check this blog! 

I'm sorry that its been FOREVER since I've written last. I promise that I won't allow this blog to resemble my sweet husband's, who only graces us with his blogging presence once a year.

I don't think I was ever more busy than I was in college. People would always tell me, "just wait, life just gets busier". That statement always made me want to punch them in the mouth, but maybe there was some truth to it after all. 

These are a few of the things that have been taking up all of my time for the last 3 or so weeks...

1. Choir tour- as you learned about in my last post. I spent a few days with my screaming, texting, crying, laughing beautiful junior high and high school kids. 

2. Teaching Piano- I recently added 500 piano students. Ok, its only 10, but it feels like 500. If you are reading this and have ever had me teach you or your children, I apologize.  I don't think that I'm a horrible teacher. I just am extremely inconsistent because my life is way to busy and irregular to be able to block out a half hour every single week. I do love teaching piano though!

3. Starving myself- Yes, I am being sarcastic, at least kinda. The newlywed life hasn't treated my metabolism too kindly to say the least. I may or may not have put on a few pounds or 10 or 20. I have started this good/horrible Lindora diet, that actually seems to be working! I am proud to say I have lost 2 pounds! Just kidding, I'm up to 16. The problem with this diet is that if I eat a piece of bread that 16 pounds runs straight back to me and attaches itself to my rear. This is really no excuse for not blogging but it has made life a bit less funny.

4. Moving- YEAAAAA!!! I am still in the excitement faze and not quite into the "I want to shoot myself" faze. I've packed a whopping 10 boxes so far and that was only J's DVDs. Escrow is looking good, I think. It is absurd to me how difficult the process has to be. Why can't we just trade some cows and chickens and be done with it!

5. Work/The Play!!- I just finished my SCCS Spring play, And Then There Were None. It went really well, I think. The students did an incredible job. It was a little stressful, ok A LOT stressful, but I'm once again, glad I did it. This whole last week and a half I was putting in 18 hour days. It was pretty intense. But no one died, and I only sent one kid to the ER. So I'm thinking it was pretty successful! I now have two weeks until the elementary spring play. It never ends.

I'm not 100% sure what my husband looks like anymore, but summer is just around the corner!! J was talking to me about possibly getting a summer job. If you know anyone who wants to pay me to sit at home, watch movies and dream about carbs give them my number!

Monday, April 20, 2009

I am SO OLD!!!

Sorry its been a while since I've written. I went out of town with my high school choir from SCCS for about four days. My good friend from college, Greg Clark is the choir director while I help out and accompany for the group.

Greg and I are still in our early 20's so as far as I'm concerned, it was a rather large feat that we successfully took 50 junior high and high school kids on a four day trip up North without anyone dying.

Although my sweet husband couldn't be there, it was really a great trip. We sang in a couple youth groups, retirement homes and church services. I really love these students, they are great kids! It seemed like I would just be along for the ride and help Greg out with whatever he needed and accompany the choir, but as it turned out I was in for a huge shock...

I AM A GROWN-UP. 

Who knew!!!?? Not only am I a grown up, I'm a grandma!! I thought I was still a kid, or at least a teenager, but instead, I'm an old, boring adult!

I received this shocking revelation about 3 minutes into the trip. Here are some of the things that helped me to realize that I had indeed grown up...

1. I cannot and will not drink 5 Monster energy drinks within an hour
2. I do not think that finding out who can scream the loudest is a fun activity
3. I do not think its a funny joke to take a friend's wallet for 24 hours, while a church and their entire staff spends their whole day looking for it.
4. I do not enjoy being hit in the head repeatedly with a frisbee while trying to sleep on the bus
5. I do not ask the elderly if they were one of the first pilgrims to land in Plymouth
6. I cannot stay up all night long talking about how hot Akon is.
7. I cannot spend hours upon hours upon hours discussing Twilight
8. I do not desire to see how many times I can be slapped in face before I've had enough
9. I can perform for an entire concert without having to text someone
10. I would not purchase food Panda Express on Friday, keep it on a hot bus for two days and then polish it off on Sunday. 

I think I can say that I'm thankful that I've grown up a little bit, but it still came as a bit of a surprise. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone who knew me as a preteen or a teenager. 

I should also clarify, that these were not all of the kids, and rotted kung pow chicken or not, I still adore every last one of them!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Women are like what?!!!

So to give you a little background to this story, my husband and I are currently house sitting for some good friends who are out of town on vacation. It is a pretty sweet gig because all we are doing is feeding their dog and cat. The fact that they have a dog is a huge bonus for Pec, since the chances of us getting a dog anytime soon (or ever) are not looking too good. The fact that we are watching their cat is a little less exciting for both of us, but we are willing to suffer for the sake of our mini vacation in this beautiful home.

Tonight we were sitting in the tv room, watching a movie when we started to hear the cat clawing at the furniture in the living room. My sweetheart kindly offered to get up and figure out what the cat was doing. When he came back he uttered these words...

"Cats are just like women".

Now if you know anything about me, you know that I HATE CATS. I don't get their purpose. All they do is come out of no where and scare the living daylights out of you, then look at you like you are an idiot who is just taking up space.

I tried to respond with a loving and gentle tone so I simply said...

"What did you just say?"

Pec- "Cats are just like women. They don't come when you call them, they only ever do what they want, and when you try to touch them they just look at you like you're crazy"

Me- "You have got to be kidding me!"

Pec-"Yeah. See, dogs are just like guys. You always know exactly what they want. They only need to do three things to be happy: eat, sleep and eat some more."

Even though I tried my hardest to be offended, all I could do was laugh at his logic.



Wednesday, April 1, 2009

ESCROW!!!!

We are in ESCROW!!! My husband told me that I should give an update about the house hunting. If you read this blog just to read about how dumb I am, this one probably won't contain many laughs (I just didn't want to waste your time)...

With all that said, I have to tell you how unbelievably kind the Lord has been to us!! We were starting to get a little discouraged. Over and over again we would look at something, start falling in love with it, then find out we couldn't get it.


It was like someone saying, 
"Here is an adorable puppy for you to keep"...
"Hold him, fall in love with him"... 
"Do you love him yet?"...."
"Ok, give him back"... 
"You can't have the puppy"... 
"Look, now the puppy is dead. Too bad"



Well, we had experienced several dead puppies until Monday. Our awesome, super hero, Mike Tagliere told me to meet him at a condo development. He showed me a condo that was pretty similar to the other ones we had seen. This condo was a bit over our budget, but we thought that if maybe Pec sold his kidneys and lungs, and I sold my heart we might be able to afford it.


It was a two level, the bottom level was all tile, and not pretty tile either. It looked like it could be a gigantic locker room. Or a massive slip-and-slide room, which to be honest, my husband would have loved. We walked up to the second level and one of the rooms looked like someone forgot where the bathroom was and the other room looked like they may have used it for a meat locker. I know it sounds horrible, but the fact that they had removed the cow carcasses for us was a massive bonus. Needless to say, I told Mike to make an offer. Yep, that's how desperate we were getting.

Well Mike and I were about to leave then he said, "there's one other one, its probably a total dive, but the price is incredible and we should take a look at it." I reluctantly agreed and we walked to this other condo. 

On our way, I imagined the cockroaches and termites that we were about to encounter. I imagined the numerous Nascar stickers that they used for wallpaper. Of course we would probably find one or two dead birds in the closets and the special "gifts" in all of the "toilets" (which we have learned, can at times be made up of a simple wooden box). The possibilities were endless. Mike informed me that this condo was currently occupied, which also brought to mind several images of Pectators


As we arrived at the front door, which was propped open, I heard a raspy voice say "don't let the cat out!" I looked down expecting to find a nasty cat trying to escape but I quickly realized that she was referring to a small ceramic cat that was holding the door open. I was trying to keep an open mind so I decided to let that one fly. 

We walked and at the top of the staircase that leads up to the condo there is a 60-65 year old, weathered and wrinkled woman named Kathleen. I hadn't even had the opportunity to say hello before she immediately began lifting her shirt up. I have to admit, even in our experience of meeting all of these very different, and somewhat special people, I was pretty shocked. 

As the shirt got a little higher and I was scrambling to protect Mike and I from who knows what, I began to understand that she was showing us her back brace, which was the reason for her not meeting us at the door.  As Mike and I sputtered out a breath of relief she barked out a few curses about getting old and having arthritis. She told us to take our time and Mike and I timidly made our way up the stairs. What met us there was.....

.... the most adorable and sweet little condo that I have ever seen!!! This eccentric yet unbelievably kind woman had poured her blood, sweat, tears and cigarettes in to this gorgeous little home. I fell instantly in love with every square foot of the place. It has two bedrooms and a precious little sun room/breakfast nook. The kitchen is large and she payed over 7k to install beautiful wood floors throughout the entire place. I truly love it!!

Mike suggested that I go downstairs and try to let her get to know me a little. I had such a great time talking to her and by the end of the conversation, I was as in love with her as I was the apartment. She is a criminal psychologist who used to be a teacher, so she has backgrounds in both our careers. She told us that she already had offers but she was going to decline them and told me exactly what to offer!! That's unheard of!

After Mike dragged me out of there, he and I went back to his office to write an offer. While we were there Kathleen called and told him, that once SHE ACCEPTS OUR OFFER (!!!!) she wants Pec and I to walk through the condo and choose whatever furniture we want!! 

Long story short, the next morning Pec and Mama Pec/Pyro looked at the condo and also fell in love with it! She accepted our offer within 24 hours and we are now in Escrow! The Lord is so kind to us and we truly could not be more excited!!