Perfect

I finally did it!  I finally made the perfect over easy eggs!  (dippy eggs as they are called in my family b/c we dip our toast in the yolks!)  Here's the proof!

And it only took me 29 years to get it right!

Sup

In our world, my dahlia's finally bloomed...

 I reorganized our shower storage (sorry about the awful ipod pic)

(we have been watching our new Dragonball movies)

And Veronika of Veronika's Blushing started making videos! Check her out!  She is one of the first blogs I started following!

Super Stuffed Enchiladas

1 pkg chicken tenders, grilled and shredded
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 block cream cheese
5 6 inch tortillas
2 cups salsa
2 tsp garlic powder
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
2 cups mexican mix shredded cheese

Cook onions in butter.  Once tender add soup, cream cheese 3/4 cup salsa, garlic powder, and 3/4 cup cheese.  Stir and mix until heated through.  Load up your tortillas, roll and place seam side down in cooking sprayed 9x13 inc glass baking dish.  Pour remaining mix and salsa over rolled tortillas.  Top with rest of cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until heated through.  Eat!

Edit: Next time I plan on adding cilantro and diced green chilies for added kick.

Mini Haul

Ok, so I know I wasn't supposed to be off my spending hiatus until August 6th, but oh well.  I am so excited!  Ok so I've been out of the Target circuit for a while now b/c I live 30 minutes from the nearest one and we are trying to save money.  I went today (insert halelujah chorus here) and had a major find!  I may be totally late to the boat, but they sell No 7 Cosmetics!  I am so excited!  It's like I'll be going to Boots in England!  I bought a Mineral Lip Lipstick in Innocent and an eyeshadow trio in Heather.  They don't have a huge selection, but I'm happy with anything!  Squee!!  Anyway here's the lipstick:

I hope they expand their collection!  Can you imagine being able to get all that Boots makeup!
Other than the awesome No 7 find, I also got a liquid eyeliner and makeup setting mist from E.L.F.  I love ELF so much!  It's cheap and nice stuff.
I was also excited to pick up 3 Kind bars from the Starbucks, where I also treated myself to a Mocha Coconut iced coffee.  I know it's bad for me and expensive for coffee, but considering I get to Target once every 4ish months AND we don't have a Starbucks in town, I got some.

I got some storage stuff for the shower, so I hope to film a what's in my shower video soon.   Jon also treated himself while we were there to the Dragonball Complete Collection of movies.

It's pretty neat!  We're fans of DragonballZ and we own all the Dragonball manga, so I guess you could say we are fans.  Josh will like them too.  So yeah that was our Target trip!  Check out my Youtube channel  for a haul video!

House Projects

Harry Potter 3D

What happened today?  We saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 in 3D.  So good!  So sad that it's officially over.  *sigh*  Anywho, definitely the movie was awesome!  And yes, I cried.  A lot.  It was just so good!  I pink puffy heart Harry Potter!  I'm going to miss it!

Howdy

Um, yo.  So I've been gone a bit.  No excuses, just haven't taken the time to blog.  Ok maybe I'll use one or two excuses that will in turn update you on my whereabouts!  So I started swimming last week.  I'm really trying to do at least 30 minutes 5 days a week.  So far so good.  Except that now we are in a super heat wave and it's actually not safe to do physical activity outside during the day, so I'm going to have to figure out some early morning or late evening swims.  No biggsies, I shall prevail!

Oh and did you know that Borders is closing?  I'm seriously put out about this.  I love Borders!  Barnes and Noble is just not the same.  Sads.

Hopefully I will have some more interesting things to post about coming up.  The fair starts Sunday and I really want to go, so perhaps that.  It's just so darn hot!  Seriously, I think we're dangerously close to another ice age.  Just saying.  The world will correct itself.  Yikes, better come up with an ice age contingency plan!  Anywho, I'm going to stop randomly rambling and go.  If you desperately need more of me (and who doesn't, I say) check out my youtube.  I'm SarahNaeScoop.  And now that my shameless self promotion attained.  Laters!

Morning, Noon, and Nightish

 Morning: coffee, netflix, cooking magazines/recipes

Noon: cleaning out the hutch, making lunch, playing games

Nightish: summer in bloom, spaghetti for dinner, coats and games from our broken hall closet shelves

It's 7am and I am wide awake.  My 10 year high school reunion was last night but I punked out on it.  Jon still doesn't have his teeth, and I most definitely was not going to make him meet 30 new people with no chompers.  Plus we had Josh this weekend and I try not to miss out on time with him.  I am sad that I missed it though.  It was probably my last chance to see some of those people and it would have been nice to catch up.  Oh well, I hope everyone who was able to go had fun!

Instead of the reunion, we went swimming and the Zach joined us at home for some grilled chicken and gaming.  Jon got The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and they were tearing it up.  I actually passed out around 9:30pm.  Pathetic I know.  I was just super tired!  Anyway that's probably why I'm awake at 7am!

So this week I swam a total of 4 days.  2 for 45 minutes, 1 for 30 minutes, and 1 for 20 minutes.  I'm working out by swimming if you didn't know.  This is just the beginning people!  I am very determined to make it this time.  I've started working out and eating right before, but it never stuck.  I always found a reason to keep eating badly and sitting on my ass.  This time feels different and I think that's b/c it is.  I WANT to be healthy!  So the plan for now, for as long as the weather holds out for swimming, is to swim 5 days a week (Thursday's and Sunday's are my days off).  I also have downloaded an app on my ipod that tracks my exercise and calories.  So far I've had a good week!  I don't expect to be perfect.  I'm going to mess up sometimes, but that's ok.  I'm human!  Currently I'm in the "push through it" phase.  That part where you were going strong for a few days and then it starts getting harder and you REALLY want to quit.  But this time, I'm not going to quit.

500 and a playlist

Oops.  I missed the fact that my last post was my 500th!  That's a lot of me!  Anyway, it's Saturday and so far we've been pretty productive.  Laundry and dishes are completed (for now, they are never ending!) and now we are chilling for a bit letting our lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup settle.  In a bit, we are going to be swimming fools and after that, who knows.  It's Saturday after all.  We're just going to go where the wind takes us today.  Here is a  file room playlist from yesterday for you all.

Feist - Mushaboom
Mandy Moore - Everblue
Peter Gabriel - Book of Love
The Beatles - Good Night
Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk About
MoZella - Light Years Away
Angos & Julia Stone - Walk It Off
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Coer de pirate - Comme des enfants  (shout out to ARose186 for turning me on to this)
The Beatles - With a Little Help From My Friends
MoZella - Thank You

I'm Officially a Grown Up (aka OLD) Because

1. I'm waiting until after opening week to see the new Harry Potter movie b/c I don't want to deal with the teenagers.

2. I will be seeing this movie at a matinee to further avoid the teens.

3. My carpel tunnel is acting up

4. I absolutely CANNOT STAND Justin freakin' Bieber

5. Fashion from my high school days is coming back into vogue (hello again flare jeans!)

6. My bedtime is now 10:30pm

7.  I can't sleep in past 8am unless there are extenuating circumstances

8. I say things like extenuating circumstances

9.  I roll my eyes when someone says they only slept until 10am and hate getting up so "early"

10. I keep finding myself telling my parents "You were right!"

11. I reminisce about the "good old days"

12. I laugh when teenagers talk about when they were "young" (though in retrospect, people older than me probably laugh about me reminiscing about the good old days)

So there you have it.  Not only am I officially a grown up, I'm getting closer to middle aged with each passing second!  Please note that this post is all in fun.  I love my life and my 10:30 bedtime!  But I do promise not to become one of those people who forgets what it's like to be young and stupid.  Because no matter how old I get, I will always be a little young and stupid!

Do you want the bad news or the good news first?

The bad news is that the9er.com where my husband and I wrote some articles is to be no more.  Therefore, the good news is that my hubs is starting his own blog!  Woop!
You can find him at http://holddownreset.blogspot.com/  He's in the process of setting it up and then will transfer over the articles from the9er.  Stay tuned!

RIP Sherwood Schwartz

Makeup Faves

Just a list of my current favorite makeup products

Foundation - MAC Studio Fix Liquid
Eye shadow - Urban Decay Naked Palette
Concealer - Benefit Boi-ing and Benefit Erase Paste
Mascara - L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes
Blush - Benefit Posie Tint
Lip product - EOS Lip balm
Eye Primer - Urban Decay Primer Potion

July Birchbox

What's in my travel makeup bag

Batman Year One Review

In 1986, DC Comics decided their heroes needed a re-haul. One of the results of this re-haul was the graphic novel Batman Year One. Written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli with Richmond Lewis, the novel takes us back to the beginning. We find Bruce Wayne returning to Gotham and struggling to become the Batman. He has many false starts and mishaps, but in the end, he gets his groove on and kicks some major butt. Batman Year One also brings us a deeper side of Jim Gordon, just coming into Gotham as a lieutenant. We really see a darker side of Gordon in this novel and I have to say, I like it. Batman Year One accomplished its goal in spades by going back to the beginning and revisiting how these men became the heroes we know them as. The story becomes fresh and puts a new perspective on the story we all know and love.

Mass Effect Retribution Review

Mass Effect Retribution is the third and for now, final book in the Mass Effect series.  Once again, we find ourselves following Kahlee Sanders.  This time around, she is trying to save Paul Grayson. He has turned his life around, but has now become a tool of the Reapers, courtesy of Cerberus and one of their nasty experiments.  The book follows Kahlee and David Anderson on their journey to save Grayson from his impending doom.  We meet a lot of new characters in this book and they add to the plot without confusing it. Our old friend The Illusive Man is back and if you take nothing else from this book, it is that you do not mess with The Illusive Man!  This book really pulls you in at the very beginning.  It starts off strong and the action does not stop until the end.

MASS EFFECT REVELATION REVIEW

I got into Mass Effect by watching my husband play it. I loved the story and how in-depth and detailed the game was about the world they had created. I heard about the books and knew I had to read them too. In fact, they were written by a lead writer of the games, author Drew Karpyshyn. I loved the novels! They are very well written and they provide more insight into the characters and political climate from the games. Mass Effect Revelation goes back in time and allows us to witness first hand the mission in which Lieutenant David Anderson and Saren Arterius were on together that lead to their mutual enmity. I have to say that while my husband loved the story of Saren, I thought he was sadistic plain and simple. I didn’t care for Saren in Mass Effect, and after reading the book, I despise his character! We also meet Kahlee Sanders in this book. She is the daughter of famed soldier Admiral Jon Grissom and has to turn to him for help after years of ignoring his existence. This book starts with an attack on an Alliance base which is performing illegal AI research for the Alliance. Kahlee was a scientist on the base, l but had left the base, going AWOL a day before the attack. She has become a prime suspect in the attack, but while the story expands, we find that there is someone much bigger behind this coup. Throughout the book, we follow these three characters, Saren, Anderson, and Kahlee as they fight to clear Kahlee’s name and take down the enemy.

Mass Effect Ascension Review

The second book in the Mass Effect series is my own personal favorite.  In Mass Effect Ascension, Kahlee Sanders is once again our heroine.  She now works on the Ascension project helping to train and educate young human biotics.  We meet Gillian, one of Kahlee’s students.  She is autistic and therefore has trouble with her abilities, which are greater than any of the other students.  We find ourselves on a whirl wind trip around the galaxy when Gillian’s father, Paul Grayson decides to pull her out of the academy and Kahlee goes along.  Little does she know, Grayson is a Cerberus operative working for The Illusive Man and they have been doing experiments on Gillian!  I really liked the interpersonal relationships in this book, which I think is why it’s my favorite.  They really pump up the character’s and you get personally involved with them.  All in all, a great read!

Pink Willies & the Vet

We went to Pink Willies for the first time today!  It was pretty tasty!  We tried the Naked Dog, the Cousin Vinnie, and the Uncle Charlie.  All got two thumbs up!  For those not from Seymour, Pink Willies aka The Dog House is a hot dog restaurant here in town.  Anywho, we liked it.  Not somewhere we would go all the time, but good for the every once in a while eats.
After that we came home and chilled for a bit.  Then it was off to the vet with Topeka, our cat. See, when we left for vacation, he had a scab under his chin and another scabby area at the base of his tail.  Neither were large, and I figured he had probably scratched himself.  We come home 5 days later, and now he as scabby areas all along his spine and a bald/scabby spot under his chin.  Clearly something is up.  Google came up with several possibilities, so today we took him to the vet to see what is going on.  Turns out the Pekmaister has allergies!  The doc said it could be anything and typically a cortisone shot and antibiotics will take care of seasonal allergies, so that's what Topeka got!
We're home now doing laundry, playing Windwaker, and getting ready to start dinner.  David and Kate are coming over to hang out tonight, so good times should be ahead.  

Vacation Day 3&4 07/04/2011 and 07/05/2011

On the 4th, we headed to Way Dam for some fishing we stopped for a picnic lunch on Strawberry Island.  After a long day of fishing, we headed back to the cabin for dinner.  Later that night, some of the neighbors on the lake did a big fireworks show and we sat out on the deck to watch.  I ended up with 29 misquito bites from my knees down.  Ridiculous!  I even used bug spray!  On the 5th we got up and left for home at 6:30am.  We made it back to Seymour around 6pm.  A long day of traveling, but totally worth it!  We had such an awesome time in MI!

Vacation Day 2 07/03/2011

Today we went to Horse Race Rapids to go hiking. We then went to the restaurant in the old Alpha school.  We followed that up with a trip to Iron Mountain Iron Mine, where you get to tour an old iron mine!  After that it was back to the cabin for a night of fireworks!

Vacation Day 1 07/02/2011

We left Mom and Dad's at 3:20am and headed north!  We arrived at the cabins just before noon. We puttered  around the cabins and did some fishing, swimming, napping, and relaxing.