Thursday morning randoms

My life is a bit chaotic of late, so its hard to find time to sit down and write a well thought-out blog post. I have lots to say, and not a lot of time to say it.... so here goes nothing. __________________________________________________________

I was at the gymbo last night, trotting away on the hamster wheel, watching the news. The footage of Yannick Scherrer's return home came on, and I was completely moved. Source
Yannick Scherrer was the 155th Canadian to be killed in Afghanistan since the mission began in 2002.

The footage on the news sent chills up my spine.

Next thing I knew, there were tears running down my face. I actually started to bawl while I was on the treadmill. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of people that paid their respects, waving their Canadian flags from overpasses on the Highway of Heroes.

The woman beside just looked at me with tears in her eyes, smiled, and simply said: "I know"

For the non-Canadians out there, I encourage you to go take a peak at the website Thank A Soldier, which explains the Highway of Heroes. It really is pretty incredible. ________________________________________________________

Next time I decide to sell my house, please remind me not to do it in the spring when all 3 of my furry beasts are in their shedding prime. ________________________________________________________

I made a pretty delicious supper last night. Goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts with a honey mustard balsamic glaze, maple roasted brussels and steamed sweet potatoes. I simply stuffed the chicken with herbed goat cheese, and intended to top it with honey mustard. When I noticed the honey mustard was on it's last legs, a decided to mix it with a little balsamic vinegar to make a glaze. Baked at 425 for 25 mins and it came out perfectly.
__________________________________________________________

It feels realllllllly good to be back on track. __________________________________________________________

Not so on track, the currently addiction I'm forming to the muffins in our cafeteria. I don't even like muffins that much.

Eff you muffins.

Ipod Roulette

I was driving home from the gym the other day, listening to a mix that my dear friend Krissie B sent me. Peter Gabriel's song "Book of Love" came on, and for some reason it made me remember a post she wrote about wedding rings.

Some call my memory creepy, I call it efficient.

When I was searching for Peter Gabriel posts on her blog, I stumbled upon a post she called "Ipod Roulette" which I thought was kind of fun.

I consider Krissie to be my musical soulmate if you will. We have very similar tastes, so I thought I would give you the first 10 songs on shuffle and let's see what happens. Ready, set, GO!

#1) Why Georgia - John Mayer
I don't admit this to many people, but I love John Mayer. I think he's sexy, and talented. I absolutely loved his "Room for Squares" album. When I got my first car, I used to drive around with this album on repeat, belting out the lyrics. Personal favorite song on that album: My Stupid Mouth.

#2) Waiting for the End - Linkin Park
Not sure how this got on my Ipod. I think it was part of a Top 40 torrent I downloaded.

#3) Why's it Feel So Long - Keith Urban
I went to the University of Guelph, which is known for its agricultural programs, therefore it attracts a lot of "cowboys". I think that's when my true love for country music began. I always tell people that not only did I get a degree at the UofG, but I learned how to two-step!

#4) Teenage Dream - Glee Cast
I actually hate the show and have only watched about 11 minutes of one episode, but love the music!

#5) Please Me Like you Wanted - Ben Harper
I didn't add Ben Haper to my "Sexy Voice Cake" but I think he should be added. When I listen to his music, it makes me want to take off my clothes.

#6) Share the Land - The Guess Who
I blame genetics for this one. My Dad, is THE biggest Guess Who fan ever. EVER. Most kids learn how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb as their first song on the piano. I learned "These Eyes". True story. Confession: I secretly LOVE them too. Burton Cummings can play the piano like its no one's business.

#7) You Don't Know My Name - Alicia Keys
I remember seeing Alicia Keys on Oprah YEARS ago before she made it big. That's when I absolutely fell in love with her.

#8) Still Rock and Roll to Me - Billy Joel
I've always loved Billy Joel. I remember listening to "Uptown Girl" over and over again on a record every time I visited my Uncle Joey.

#9) Forever - Chris Brown
He's a douche. But I like his music. Is that bad?

#10) I Could Have Danced All Night - My Fair Lady Soundtrack Confession: I love all things musical. When I was in highschool, I was a band geek and played in the pit band (either flute or piano) for all the productions. As a result of spending HOURS at rehearsal I got to know every. single. word to every. single. song. If memory serves me correct, I believe the lovely Cathy made her theatrical debut by providing the spot light?

Do you have any musical guilty pleasures to confess?

Buy Me

Confession: In addition to my infatuation with X-Weighted and The Last 10 lbs Bootcamp, I am also addicted to real estate shows.

Property Virgins, House Hunters, whatever Jeff Lewis’ show is called, Sell This House, and the ever-so-cheesy Buy Me.

I have taken a lot of time in getting our house ready for the market (again) and can’t be happier with the end result.

…don’t mind the produce on the counter, and the pot of broccoli steaming on the stove! Not there during viewings.

What do you think: Would you Buy Me?

Shameless plug: Go check out my debut post over at Ottawa Dog Blog. I'm going to be doing Etsy-inspired posts. So very excited. What better combination than blogging, dogs AND Etsy!??

I kinda rock sometimes.

I kinda rocked today.

I drank a ton of water.

I had a healthy lunch.

I went to spin class.

And made a delicious supper also.

Yah, I like Becel. Sorry!

It was also a great day for mail. No bills!

I got a letter to tell me that Samuel is due for his annual. Who is Aimee? That’s A-M-Y thank you!

A sweet and totally unexpected package from my mortgage broker. BROWNIES! Yum. She’s doing all the work, yet she sends ME some chocolate! Incredible.

 

…speaking of chocolate. Hello Tommy.

 

Laura at Harper Collins Canada was nice enough to send me a copy of Tommy Europe’s new book. While he’s not quite at the Paul-Plakas-infatuation level in my books, I still drool of his amazing body watch all of his shows religiously. I can’t wait to peruse his book. I mean, look at his body…. it’s ridiculous. The man KNOWS what he’s talking about. Now, if only we could convince him to stop by Ottawa on his book tour. *hint hint!*

Speaking of hot bodies, I shall leave you with my confession of the day.

Confession: Sometimes, like tonight, the only reason I go to spin class is to look at hard bodies in spandex…. you know what I’m talking about! ;)

Getting my #@$& together

I need to get my shit together. I feel like every few months I get back on track, everything is going great and then I get derailed.

Good news: the house hunting is over (yay!) and the house is on the market (aka - my house looks like a museum)

Bad news: A week of no gym and poor eats has me feeling like complete ass. I decided to bite the bullet and get back on track.

Look what WW had to say when I logged in:
Back on track today. No excuses!

Healthy eats + gym time = Happy Amy.

Enough said.

The Chop: One year later

It's almost been an entire year since I chopped off my hair.

I actually really liked it, especially for the casual/cute look. It was easy just to throw in some product, give it a shake and take off.

That being said, I'm more of a long hair kinda girl. Slowly but surely, I'm getting back there again.

I got it done last night, a little darker and some length taken off to bring it a little more bob'ish. Its been driving me nuts, as the shortest layer is winging out as opposed to laying flat like good little hair.

My amazing stylist Pat has done a great job at fixing a hack job I got when I was living in Toronto, and creating layers and such to make the growing out process a little more tolerable. I loff his face.

PS: Offer has been submitted on potential dream home. Me = excited!

PPS: I have not been to the gym since last Saturday as a result of house hunting and craziness at work. This MUST come to an end. Like, seriously.

Turkey, sweet tater, and black bean enchiladas

Confession: Despite being a huge fan of Mexican cuisine, I have never had an enchilada until last night.

I've been drooling over Jaime's enchilada photos for a while now, and decided to attempt to recreate something similar.

It was pretty much fool proof too! I simply browned some ground turkey, added a cubed sweet potato, a can of black beans, some grated old and a can of hot enchilada sauce that I procured on my trip to Vermont.

I then stuffed the mixture in the whole wheat tortillas, rolled and placed seam side down in the pan.

Topped it with a can of Green Chile Enchilada sauce, and some more old cheddar and baked at 400 for 20 mins.
The end result was pretty amazing; topped with a sliced avocado and a salad on the side.

Can't wait for the leftovers!

On tap for tonight: Spin class, weeeee! This house hunting business is cutting into my workout time!

Wordless Wednesday

Jersey eats babies for breakfast.

Cake balls and other dirt

You know when you're angry sometimes they say you should sleep on it before reacting? Well last night I was angry and I woke up angry again today.

More on that later.

First I'll enlighten you with some delicious treats that I made over the weekend; totally from my pantry!

Cake Balls!


Balls... hehe

I used the recipe over at Bakerella and had amazing results.

Onto the dirt. Those of you who have been reading for a while know that I take my baseball pretty seriously.
You also know that I moved away last summer for work.

Baseball season is just around the corner, and I found out I wasn't being asked back to play on my team.

It's very hard to find a team to play on in Ottawa, so last night I rejoined Facebook to pimp out my baseball skills - social networking at its best!

I wrote something like "I rejoined Facebook to pimp my mad baseball skills. I got kicked off my team"

Confession: I knew it would get a rise out of some of the players on my team, and that it did. I promptly removed all the comments from my wall and composed a level headed message explaining my feelings.

Apparently I got kicked off because I didn't attend any social gatherings when I returned from my "work assignment", therefore they assumed I wasn't interested.(Yep, she put it in quotations. My biggest pet peeve ever. My work assignment actually happened you dumbass... but I digress) Note: I also played a few games when I came back.

There's a lot of other issues that I'm leaving out, but I'm friggin' mad.

My blood pressure was pretty much through the roof. And still is 24 hours later. But I've chosen to take the high road, not reply to her ridiculous message, move on, and find another team.

Side note: A lot can happen in the world on 10 month Facebook hiatus. People got engaged, got married, people got divorced, people had babies... and I had no idea!

Side note #2: I don't think I missed Facebook.

The Jeans

Hi friends.

My weekend was spent de-cluttering, getting the house ready to go back on the market. Eeek!

I’m quite pleased with the results, especially since its part of my Lenten resolution.

If you remember, here’s what the closet under the stairs looked like before.

And here’s what it looks like now:

If you were a prospective buyer would you open it up and say “Wow, what a huge closet! I could envision all of my junk it there, but clearly the owner of this house is sooooo neat and tidy!”??

I found this old picture circa 2004. My Dad and I on Thanksgiving. Excuse the poor quality, I took a picture of a picture.

Nice apron Dad!

Anyways, I was slightly depressed when I saw how little I was.

Ironically, I was detoxing my closet (managed to get rid of 2 bags of clothes for donation!) and stumbled upon those very jeans.

I tried them up, and while I can get them done up.. the muffin top is ridiculous. I’ll spare you the pictures of that. It’s NOT pretty.

I’ve never hidden the fact that I’ve gained weight on the blog. But this was a bit of a reality check.

What I find odd, is WHERE I’ve gained the weight back. For the most part it’s in my thighs, a little bit in my arms, but the rest is ALL in my stomach.

I actually still have that green top. I tried it on, and it still pretty much fits, except for the noticeable tightness over my stomach.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get back into those jeans. Looking back, I was really not a healthy person. I was totally and completely infatuated with losing weight. After I finished university I moved back home with my parents to small-town Ontario. None of my friends were around, so I would spend hours at the gym. During the day I would eat pretty much just salad and chicken. I had no entertainment, so I made what I thought was “healthy living” a priority.

I guess despite being a littler porkier, I am healthier now.

The scale is on it’s way back down, so who knows… maybe I will get back into those jeans someday?

Question: Do you have a piece of clothing you’re hanging on to?

Jersey the cat?

Remember Babe the pig who was raised by dogs and learned to heard sheep?

Source

I think Jersey is has been observing a little too much of this….

 

….and is becoming a product of her environment.

Evidence:

 

Do you know any other 60 lb dogs that sleep curled up in a teeny tiny ball?

Note: that bone has replaced Lambchops.

Lambchops lost his life in a tragic accident involving my cousin’s husky. No murder charges were laid, as it may have slightly been the fault of all fur-parents involved being too intoxicated to notice what their fur-children were up to.

The sexy-voice cake

Confession: I have a mad crush on Lee Dewyze.

Source

I mean how could you not? Look at him, he’s adorable. And makes me weak in the knees with with raspy voice.

He made an appearance on Idol the other night, and I was super excited.

Proof:

Sexiest voice ever? Maybe not. I changed my mind.

 

Which prompted a very deep philosophical twitter conversation about other sexy-man voices.

Voices such as,

 

David Gray,

Ray Lamontagne,

and Eddie Vedder.

I still think Dave Matthews takes the cake. But Garth is a close second for sure!

Who takes your sexy-voice cake?

MFTP - Fail

How life changes, eh?

Back in my UofG days, St. Patrick's Day consisted of skipping all classes, lining up at Molly Bloom's at 11am, drinking your face off, and consequently skipping all classes the next day to nurse your horrific hangover.

Last night I went to spin class, watched Idol and was in bed by 10:00. I'm such a party animal.

MTFP was a complete fail last night. I had visions of creating a delicious pumpkiny/red lentil/coconut curry soup.

It was disgusting. Note: beef broth was the addition that killed it. I was out of chicken.

Back up plan was a green smoothie in a Keith's mug! I'm 3/4 Irish afterall.

And a bowl of Corn bran.

This eating out of the pantry business is actually harder than it seems. I actually let out a solid "Woo hoo" this morning when I discovered one last Chobani hiding in the back of my fridge.

Dare I say, the lack of produce is causing a bit of a depression? I know this challenge is self imposed, but it's teaching me a lesson. Lesson being that I don't need to grocery shoping 37 times a week.

To add injury to insult, I'm hosting a bit of a dinner party tomorrow night. I plan on sticking to the challenge, which may impact my dinner guests. I plan on getting created, and I told them to bring salad so at least there will be some produce!

Have a great Friday!