Nature Park

After spending the morning thoroughly cleaning my kitchen appliances, I showered and got dressed for the day. But Eric wanted to be lazy and I couldn't think of anything to do, so we sat around and watched TV for a couple hours. By late afternoon, Eric could tell I was bored and getting restless, so he suggested stopping by Jamba Juice for a drink (I opted for a blue raspberry Snoasis treat instead -- yum!) and then heading to the Nature Park. We grabbed some old bread from the pantry, so we could feed the ducks, and then we headed out. Here are a few pics of the excitement. :)

When we pulled up in my Jeep, the ducks tried to get as far away from us as they could...

But when they realized we had bread, they decided to come and say hi.

Eric telling the ducks "no more!", after we ran out of bread...

And here I am posing for a photo opp...

And last but not least, after we ran out of bread, this mother duck and her babies appeared.

It's official...

Well, it's official...Brad and Angelina have agreed to sell exclusive photos of their newest additions -- Knox and Vivienn -- to People Magazine here in the U.S., as well as London-based Hello! Magazine. They will reportedly receive $14 MILLION DOLLARS for said photos, which will debut in People on Monday (with an alleged sneak peak on their website Sunday night). I know some people find this controversial, believing that celebrities are exploiting or "pimping out" their kids. I personally am not the least bit bothered by this. In this case, "Brangelina" is donating all the money to charity, which is pretty darn respectable if you ask me. But honestly, I wouldn't care what they did with the money. The bottom line is that people are dying to see these pics, and it's inevitable that the paparazzi would be hunting these kids down if the Jolie-Pitts didn't release the pics like they're doing. I see nothing wrong with this.

My only question is this: How can I get Brad and Angelina to adopt me? I'm tired of being poor! :)

Satisfied...

Anyone who knows me probably knows that grocery shopping is one of my least favorite chores. I'm not really sure why I don't like it, but I don't. Maybe it goes back to my childhood and always being allowed to pick out a toy or treat...and now nobody gives me a treat, so the excitement is gone. :) Regardless of my logic or lack thereof, I see no way to get out grocery shopping, so I decided to tackle the task today. In an effort to try and be more frugal, I've recently started creating menus each week, which I can then easily convert to shopping lists. My journey always begins at WalMart (unfortunately it's not a Super WalMart, so the selection isn't very good) where I pick up canned goods, lemonade and a few other items. Then I head next door to Albertsons -- one of two grocery stores in town. The other store is always packed with college students, so I prefer to avoid that madness for my own sanity. Anyhow, I had already checked off half of my list at WalMart, so I really only needed produce, meat and milk. I gathered all the veggies on my list and proceded to the meat section. I intended on getting chicken breasts, pork chops, a little ground beef and a small beef roast, which I did get. But I was pretty darn excited to see that both pork chops and beef roasts were packaged with a bright orange buy one get one free sticker. So I ended up getting two packs of pork chops for about $8 and two nice roasts for about $13. I was so impressed with my bargain purchases that I had to take a pic to share with you. I don't know for sure, but I assume all Albertsons stores would have these. This is a win win for me, because not only did I get a good deal, but now I won't have to buy as much next trip.

This has actually been a pretty good day. Not only did my shopping trip turn out well, but I had received a call from my friend and old neighbor, Jenny, and she asked if I wanted to come visit with her at the park. I headed over there and hung out for about an hour or so before forcing myself to go shopping. I enjoyed catching up with her and seeing her adorable boys, as it had been a couple months...I could've stayed all day. Thanks for inviting me, Jenny!

One quick side note: My friend Stephanie (Eric's cousin's wife) is having some "female" surgery this afternoon, and I know she's scared about the procedure. I know she'll be fine, but if you could please say an extra prayer for her, I'd really appreciate it. She's a wonderful person, and I adore her! Hope you recover quick, Steph!

Bridesmaids: botox and boob jobs?

Okay, so I was just randomly surfing the web this morning, and I came across an article that both sickened and intrigued me. Apparently brides today are changing how they give bridesmaid gifts. Rather than giving traditional gifts to their besties, many are opting to give Botox injections -- and some even boob jobs! What???

According to this article on Yahoo's Shine http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/botox-bridal-showers-217096/, one Beverly Hills dermatologist offers "Bridal Beauty Buffets" to clients, and he boasts that business is up by about 40%. Another report by spafinder.com refers to these treatments as "bridal party tuneups", and it claims a 25% increase in such treatments.

Even though many of us see these "gifts" as a bit over-the-top (that's putting it mildly in my opinion), the startling fact is that women as young as 29 are getting these treatments! Hell, I'm 29, and I don't need Botox (maybe a little liposuction, but hey that's another story)!!! What is going on with people today? I realize that beautiful, airbrushed women are everywhere -- billboards, magazines, reality TV -- but hasn't this been the case for many years? What's changed? While I believe that plastic surgery is a personal choice, and I'm not against getting something done for yourself, I absolutely do not think such procedures are good bridal party gifts. I find it insulting, and I think I'd be first in line to kick the bride if she felt compelled to try and "improve me" through such treatments.

What are you thoughts?

Eric's family reunion

Every year, Eric's family has a four-day reunion here in Rexburg. Although we were living here last year, this is the first year we attended. We went over on Saturday and spent about 4 1/2 hours hanging out. There were a lot of people. If you're not LDS, you probably don't know that Mormons generally have large families. I don't know if anyone was able to take a head count, but I'd say there were easily a few hundred people there. They had all kinds of activities for the kids and some for the adults, as well as lots of food. We sat and visited with Eric's aunts and a handful of cousins that Eric barely knew, and I actually enjoyed getting to know them better. The event is held at the Westover Ranch just outside of town, and it's a pretty large venue. There's a lodge that houses old family photos and info, bathrooms with showers, a soda shop and more. Family members travel from all over to attend the reunion and camp out on the grounds each year. Family board members spend the year planning a schedule of events and menu for the upcoming reunion. Activities consist of flag ceremonies, crafts, face-painting, bingo, water rockets, campfire activities, baseball, jumping on trampolines and much more. I haven't been to a family reunion since middle school, but even still, I've never seen one to this degree. They put a lot of time and effort into this event, and I think it's really neat to see so many people show up. I took my camera to snap some pics, but I forgot about it until shortly before we were leaving. I did take this pic of Eric and his parents (Terrell & Kathryn) though.

Saturday was really hot here, and Eric and I were ready to go cool down by about 3:45. So we said good-bye and headed for home. We have a new weekend obsession that we were wanting to get home to -- sprinkler volleyball! We bought a "monster volleyball" set at Kmart a couple weeks ago, which we've been setting up in our front yard each weekend. But that wasn't helping us deal with the heat problem. It's been in the high 80s and low 90s for over a month (Trust me, I'm not complaining! I HATE winter weather, so I'll take the heat any day!), so we had to add the element of water to our new favorite activity. We bought a cheap little sprinkler at WalMart, and we set it up underneath our volleyball net. So now we're getting good exercise playing ball AND we're cooling down at the same time. It's awesome! We can play for hours. Here's a pic I snapped of Eric, and you should be able to see the net and sprinkler too. If you're looking for some fun exercise and a way to cool down, here's your solution. :)

Wipeout

Have you seen the crazy new show on ABC, titled Wipeout? If not, you need to! Since the show debuted in late June, Eric and I spend every Tuesday night sitting on the couch laughing our butts off for the entire hour it's on TV. The concept is basically this: Twenty-four contestants must compete for the best time on a zany and often messy obstacle course. The twelve contestants with the best time get to move on to the next round, which is basically more of the same -- only different obstacles. They continue to eliminate contestants based upon skill and timing. The show consists of many wacky obstacles...the sweeper, the big balls, the dizzy dummy, the dreadmill, the sucker punch and more. I'd like to explain what each obstacle is, but I don't think I could do them justice. So instead I'll direct you to ABC's website that talks about Wipeout and all its glory...

http://abc.go.com/primetime/wipeout/index?pn=index

Here you have the option of learning more about the show, seeing recaps, watching stunt sketches and actually watching past episodes online. If you're bored or having a bad day, I highly recommend checking this out on the web or on Tuesday night TV. I can't imagine anyone not being thoroughly entertained by this silly show!

If you decide to watch this or have already watched it, what's your favorite obstacle? Mine is definitely the 'big balls', as only a couple people can make it past them. It's quite hilarious watching people bounce off of them or just get slammed off the side into the water. This is what I call ENTERTAINMENT, people!

Dirty Secrets

Okay, let me preface this post by saying that I consider myself to be extremely open-minded. I'm someone who has no problem with same-sex couples. I am someone who doesn't believe that making condoms available in schools is actually telling kids to have sex. I'm someone who ordered Eric a Maxim magazine subscription the last couple years, even though it's full of beautiful half-naked women -- and I actually enjoy reading the mag each month myself! There isn't much out there that would surprise me, and I'm okay with that. I generally think that life is too short to worry about how other people choose to live their lives. I've had friends who are religious, friends who party, gay friends, arrogant friends, and friends who've been swingers or had threesomes. My point is that I try and keep an open-mind and appreciate differences. However, while flipping through the August edition of Maxim yesterday, I came across an article titled "Mr. Infidelity", and it really made me wonder about peoples' values nowadays...

I don't know if any of you have heard of ashleymadison.com or not, but the article states that "the six-year-old website is the biggest and most profitable infidelity site". Darren Morgenstern, the popular site's founder, coincidentally claims to be a happily married father of two who describes himself as "a businessman and nothing more". While this may be true, I can't help but wonder what kind of person starts a website that offers a venue for married folks to cheat on their spouses. I don't deny that if someone wants to cheat, they'll do it with or without the help of ashleymadison.com and other similar websites. But I can't understand why we need to develop new ways to entice married men and women to have affairs. According to Morgenstern, he read an article in 2001 that said, "Internet dating sites were the only content sector thriving after the dot-com bust". It went on to suggest that "as many as one third of the people on these dating sites were attached". Morgenstern consequently decided this was his opportunity to offer a service to these folks. He describes this venture by saying, "There was a hole in the marketplace that needed to be filled." Soon after, Morgenstern started doing his market research. His research involved meeting with people who were admittedly having an affair, had had an affair in the past or were planning on having one in the future. He asked his target audience whether the Internet service (versus phone or mail) was their preferred option, how much they'd be willing to pay for the service, what privacy concerns they had and what features they'd want to see. His market data then became his business plan, and he launched his new site in January of 2002. Morgenstern said, "The reality was that people who were going to cheat were going to cheat anyway, and people who weren't going to cheat were going to ignore Ashley Madison, just like they would any service". "But since people will cheat, it's a recession-proof business." The site boasts of more than 150,000 new visitors a day, which nearly leaves me speechless! How does the site make money, you ask? Well, after registering and creating a sexual profile, the site allows users to purchase "credits" that can be used to communicate with other members. 100 credits will cost you $49, while 500 credits will run $149. It'll cost you 5 credits to email another member, while it costs between $10 and $20 to have a chat session with someone. Keep in mind that this isn't your typical dating site. These folks are on ashleymadison.com for one purpose only -- to find a person or people with whom to cheat on their spouse.

I walked away from this article with mixed emotions. I honestly felt a little ill to my stomach that cheating on a spouse had become such a fad. What does that say about our society? I wanted to be mad at Mr. Morgenstern for creating this new cheating venue, but realistically he does have a point that people will cheat regardless. One thing I've never understood is why people continue to cheat on a spouse instead of ending the relationship with that person and acknowledging that they aren't meant to be in a committed relationship. Is that really so hard? I don't condone extra-marital affairs, but I do believe that genuinely good people can sometimes make a mistake. These are people who realize the nature of their mistake, feel horrible about what they did and take steps to ensure it never happens again. But then there's the other type of person who has cheated, is cheating and will continue to cheat -- because they don't value their spouse and the sanctity of their marriage. These are the people I envision registering on ashleymadison.com. For the record, my only policy is that you should be open and honest with your spouse and/or lover(s). If you're honest about what you're doing, and your partner is willing to accept it, fine. Otherwise, you're being extremely unfair to the person you vowed to love, honor and cherish. Put yourself in their shoes...How would you feel if your significant other was carrying on an affair? If it wouldn't bother you, then you shouldn't be married to begin with. If it does bother you, then take a long, hard look in the mirror.

What are your feelings about this issue/article? Do you see anything wrong with ashleymadison.com, or do you agree that it's simply providing a service to folks who would already be unfaithful?

The "blahs"

I want to apologize for not posting the last couple days, but believe it or not, I haven't had much to say. I guess I have a case of the "blahs". I promise to get something interesting posted this week, as my goal is to eventually post everyday. Cut me some slack, and check back in a couple days...

Frugality

Dictionary.com defines the word frugal as follows:

frugal: adjective
1. economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager.
2. entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a frugal meal.
[Origin: 1590–1600; < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">frūgālis economical, equiv. to frūg- (s. of frūx produce, fruit) + -ālis -al1] —Related forms
fru·gal·i·ty, fru·gal·ness, noun
fru·gal·ly, adverb
—Synonyms 1. thrifty, chary, provident, careful. See economical.

I chose this topic for a couple reasons. First off, regardless of your financial situation, who doesn't want to save a little money on their purchases? I don't care whether you have money burning a hole in your pocket or $12 in your checking account, it certainly wouldn't hurt to save even a few bucks here and there. Over the last six months, I've been blog-stalking strangers' blogs, and I've come across some good resources to aid my personal journey of frugality. Being unemployed and seeing prices skyrocket for just about everything lately made me realize that I should do as much to cut costs and save money as I can. The second reason I chose this topic is to share my knowledge and resources with family and friends who also need or want to save money. This is a topic that I will probably post on quite frequently, but I wanted to start by sharing a couple of my favorite frugal blogs. My favorite is Money Saving Mom, and you can access this blog by clicking here: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ My second favorite is Sisterly Savings, and it can be found here: http://www.sisterlysavings.net/ Both of these blogs share a ton of useful info regarding sales, freebies, coupon clipping and deal scenarios at various stores across the country. I read both of these every morning while I'm drinking my protein shake. Sometimes I email special deals to friends and family, but I thought it might be better to share my sources with you here on my blog. I've started using coupons a little more, as well as taking advantages of some freebie offers. I don't have a Rite Aid or CVS around me, and a lot of the deals they discuss on these blogs take place at one or both of these stores. If you have one of these stores close to you, you could honestly save a ton of money and get a lot of stuff for free. These blogs explain how in great detail. But even if you don't live close to a Rite Aid or CVS, there are plenty of other deals to be had. Other things you can do on your own would simply be to buy generic brands instead of name brands. I admit that I'm very much attached to some of my name brand products (Dove creamy oil body wash, Prescriptives pressed powder, and others), but I've learned to settle for cheaper brands on certain items -- especially at the grocery store. Although beware, because I've noticed that often times name brand products are on sale for a cheaper price than the generic items. Well, since this is just an intro to frugality, I guess I'll end here. There will definitely be more to follow, but in the meantime, can you think of ways to cut costs for you and your family? What items can you live without or substitute a cheaper product? What could you do with all the money you save by cutting costs...Start a savings account? Plan a much-needed vacation? Put a down payment on a home? I'd love to hear your ideas and comments.

From food rut to fabulous!

I don't know if you have the same problem, but it seems that dinners in my home consist of the same meals week after week after week. Well, I'm on a mission to change that. I want to break free from the food rut, which means adding new foods into the mix. Last week I was grocery shopping, and I was on the prowl for something different. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, but I was determined to find it regardless. As you already know, I don't eat dinner...I have a protein shake instead. But Eric still has to eat, and since he's not picky like me, I want to try some new options. Eric's theory is that a meal isn't a meal without MEAT. It doesn't really matter what kind of meat, but having meat is a necessity in this household. Since prices are sky high these days, I was also looking for bargains. I found myself in the beef section, and I came across some packaged meat labeled as london broil. I'm sure I'd heard the term before, but I'll be honest...I had no idea exactly what a london broil was or what to do with it. But it looked like a good piece of meat, and the price was right, so I decided to try it. I also ventured over to the pork section and nabbed myself a good deal on a pork loin. That was also foreign to me. I'd made pork chops many times before, and I make bacon (and eggs) for Eric every weekend, but otherwise I just didn't buy or cook pork. I then finished my shopping and headed for home. I got home and logged onto http://www.allrecipes.com/, which is a pretty good recipe website that I'd used many times before. I searched for recipes for the london broil and the pork loin, and within about 10 minutes I'd found the recipes I wanted to try. I was ready to rock and roll now! I finished putting the rest of my groceries away, and then I started gathering all the ingredients I'd need from the pantry and fridge. Since I didn't have my recipes picked out before shopping, I hoped I'd have what I needed -- or at least be able to improvise. And I did. I first made the marinade for the london broil. I admit that I changed the recipe slightly due to size and the fact that I didn't have any soy sauce...I substituted Worcestershire Sauce. Once the marinade was mixed, I poked a bunch of holes in my piece of meat and put it in the marinade. The directions said to let marinate for at least 8 hours, but I opted for 2 1/2 days. I grilled the london broil over a charcoal grill for a total of about 20 minutes, and then I served it with green beans and a salad. Can I just take a minute to pat myself on the back? Eric LOVED this meal. He went on and on about how good the flavor was and how juicy and tender the meat stayed. The best part was that he had leftovers to take for lunch a couple days. I feel bad that I didn't take a picture of my masterpiece (which coincidentally I made again last night), but I'll take one and post it next time. I would definitely recommend this recipe, even if you want to put your own spin on it.

Here's the recipe:

1 - 2lb london broil

3 cloves of garlic (I actually used a large tablespoon of minced garlic)

1/2 cup soy sauce (Again, I used Worcestershire sauce)

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 Tbsp ketchup

1 tsp. dried oregano

1 tsp. ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Poke holes in meat to allow it to better absorb the marinade. Marinate for at least 8 hours, but I would recommend 2-3 days. The directions say to grill 5-8 minutes per side and to not overcook. The first time it took about 20 minutes to cook (I flipped it every 5 minutes), but last night it took about 30 minutes. This will obviously depend on cooking temps and thickness of the meat, so you'll have to play around with the times.

The Herb Garlic and Bacon Pork Loin also turned out really good...Here's the link to the recipe if you're interested: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Herb-Garlic-and-Bacon-Pork-Loin/Detail.aspx I actually did take a couple pics of mine, which I'm posting for you to see. I thought it looked really nice, and Eric thought it tasted really yummy, so I'd say it was a success!