Welcome!

This little blog started on our wedding website, which kept family and friends up to date on the planning and details. Of course this is where we will provide all of the recaps of the wedding and everything after. We look forward to keeping family and friends up to date on our lives here in Texas and all of the adventures we share as newlyweds!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

No "Poo"

No it's not what you're thinking....I have taken the "No Shampoo Challenge". I was reading an article the other day about shampoo and hair health, and yes I know that you aren't "supposed" to wash you're hair every day...but I always feel like my hair looks horrible if I don't wash it.




This past weekend I gave it a try, I washed my hair on Thursday night and then didn't again until Sunday....and my hair was really soft! So I figured I would give it a try for the week this week...why not?!




Keep in mind that you can "wash" your hair with conditioner or with just water....so that helps out with the sweatyness from working out.




So I washed my hair Sunday night, curled it Monday morning and it was super soft! Then re-curled it on Tuesday and it just held a nice wave and looked pretty good I was surprised....Wednesday I went slicked back into a bun because the roots were looking a little greasy but I got tons of compliments on my hair being up (which I never do at work!)....this morning when I woke up I had left the bun in overnight so I had lots of volume and waves it looked beachie and great...I did have to add a little dry shampoo just to take away from the super greasy look at the roots and pulled my hair half up....I think that tonight I will break down and wash it though and then just not wash again until Sunday....7 days would just be far too long to go without!




I could easily switch to the 2 days a week shampoo "schedule" unless of course I want that nice blown out look for a special occasion, what about you? How often do you wash your hair??



Monday, April 25, 2011

Newest Downloaded to the Kindle

Well after a couple of people weighed in on the book that I should read next, The Hunger Games won out.




Though I am taking Mom's suggestion of Gone with the Wind as well.



I started both this weekend and while most times I am completely fine with reading 2 books at one time. I actually prefer it most times, but this is proving to be a bit harder than most.



I can only say that it's because of the writing styles. I mean you take a book written in 1936 about the south in the midst of slavery and the civil war and compare it to one written in 2009 about a society gone bad, plus boy meets girl, and survival yes they are quite different!


I think it's fun though to read two books so completely different not only in the story line but the way in which the books are written. These 2 should keep me busy for a while to say the least!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

I'll be spending my Easter working on a term paper all day so not much to post...I promise to post yesterday's yummy breakfast recipe later though!

Also, a quick money saving find for you! iTunes is offering a special this weekend with select new albums for only $6.99 so go take a look and buy yourself a little Easter gift of music!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Saturday

I've been enjoying a relaxing Saturday with my two favorite boys Rene and Stitch today.

It started out with a wonderful breakfast of mascarpone stuffed (baked) french toast with mixed berries YUM! -- I'll post the recipe soon!

Following by a quick cleaning of the apartment and some pool time (though the sun didn't really cooperate with us).

It was nice to just relax and read though. I finished up the two books I was reading while we were laying out.

"Water for Elephants"

I give it 3 stars, a good book but nothing AMAZING....and after the movie reviews I think I'll wait for it to come out on demand to watch. And the second

"The Secret Life of Damien Spinelli"I'll give it 4.5 stars just because it was fun! This was my guilty pleasure book. A compilation of "cases" from the PI Spinelli from General Hospital, it was fun and a nice easy read.

Now it's time for a quick shower and to run some errands.

Happy Saturday!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Time to Go Green!

Happy Earth Day!


Be sure to head over to Starbucks with a refillable mug to get yourself a FREE drip coffee or tea in honor of Earth Day!


Also you can take 5 plastic grocery bags to the Disney Store today to get a Free reusable bag -- you know where Rene and I will be going tonight before we head to the grocery store tonight!


Free Coffee to start the morning and it's Friday....could things get better?

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

White Sangria - Delish!

The white sangria that I made this weekend for our work picnic turned out great! Rene and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share the recipe with you.


In a large pitcher combine the following:

1 Sliced Lime

1 Sliced Lemon

1 Pint Raspberries

2 Sliced Granny Smith Apples


3 Tbls. Sugar (or Agave)

3 Tbls. Green Apple Liquor

1 Bottle of Pino Grigio


Allow the mixture to sit for several hours (we made ours the night before).


Service topped with a little bit of club soda and a few pieces of fruit.


Enjoy!

Friday, April 15, 2011

TGIF!

It's Friday!!! Can you tell that I am happy about that? It's not that this week has been any busier than others but the weather is supposed to be great and I am ready for a bit of relaxation. This week through Sunday the 17th is Spa Week…I seem to almost always wait until the last minute to see about booking my money saving $50 spa treatment and this year I was able to snag a "Stress Melter Treatment" at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa. Saturday morning bright and early I at 8am for a massage, hot oil moisturizing treatment and a body wrap! Yes that sounds like a relaxation package if I've ever heard of one! Then we have a little work picnic for my office followed by a casino night for Deloitte…it'll be a busy Saturday that’s for sure.


I am planning to try a recipe for a white sangria to take along to the picnic so if it's well received by the office I'll be sure to post it up here next week.


Sunday should be a more relaxing with some pool time and then a marketing test (the worst part of this weekend)…all in all though I am counting down the hours till 5pm today!

Happy Friday!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Water, Hot vs. Cold

I've heard a lot of debate over the year looking at cold water vs. hot/warm water. And it became discussion in the office earlier this week as to which is "better". I don't mind drinking warm water (unless it's summer in Texas and 100+ degrees) so I started to look a little further into the subject of which really is "better" for you, or does it make a difference at all? One site that I found Healthy Drinking Water Blog mentioned a lot of benefits of drinking hot water: Purification

Some believe that drinking hot water is much like going to a sauna. It purifies the body. How?

* As you are drinking hot water, your body temperature rises slightly.

* To maintain its average 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, your body begins to perspire. Perspiration is its method of cooling itself.

* Perspiration induced by drinking hot water flushes toxins from your body, helping to purify your bloodstream.

They suggested that in order to get the "purifying" effects to drink hot water once or twice a week.


Nasal Cavity Clearance

*The warm water actually makes you feel less congested! I found this to be true as I was drinking lots and lots of tea a few weeks ago when I was sick! Who knew?!



Now for the Cold Water--there isn't a whole lot that backs up the "idea" that cold water burns more calories...but there is the notion that the body has to burn around 7 calories to bring the body temperature back up to 98.6.


I think that the purification benefits sound better to me than the couple of calories, what are your thoughts on the hot vs. cold debate?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Feeling the Pain Today (in my legs)

Wow is all that I can say today...I think that this is the first time since I started sitting on my exercise/yoga ball that I am regretting it. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy the way that my back feels compared to sitting in the normal office chair and it does give me a lot more room in my cubical....but my legs are killing me! Killing me in a good way of course since that's what a legs exercise is supposed to do for you but nonetheless it's still a bit hard to stand up in heels from the ball over and over :( You may remember when I got really excited after finding out that our OnDemand also offered Exercise TV one of my fave finds, well I decided that after my little plan to try to run failed that I needed to start focusing on not only the cardio aspects of my work out but work some circuit training in there with some toning exercises too. Last night was a core and lower body work out and it was killer! A little under an hour worth of work in the comfort of my living room with a series called 10lb Slimdown. I was able to go online and pull up a fitness plan for 30 days. I am not necessarily looking for a 10 pound weight loss since it seems like I can't lose anything after I lost around 20 pounds after we moved from Virginia but I could for certain tone up. We'll have to see what happens. Today's workout includes the "total body sculpt" I have a feeling that tomorrow I am going to be much more sore all over....but as Rene says "No pain, no gain".

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Angry Dinner

Tonight we had a delicious dinner compliments of Rene! On one of the episodes of "Best Thing I Ever Ate" on the FoodNetwork we saw an episode about bacon. Rene was quite excited about the angry mussels that were shown with bacon and jalapenos.

We decided to make our own version of angry mussels tonight.

Ingredients:
about 6 pieces of bacon (cut into 1/2 inch sections)
1 link of chorizo *this was Rene's addition to the original ingredient*
2 Tablespoons of minced garlic
1 cup of water
1-1 1/2 cups of white wine
1 Jalapeno
3 Serrano Peppers
2lbs fresh mussels

Directions:
Add the bacon, chorizo and garlic to a pan and allow to cook down
Then add the wine and water and allow to reduce to about 2/3 of the original volume
Add in the peppers cook 2-3 minutes
Toss in the cleaned mussels and cover
Cooke between 2-4 minutes until all mussels have opened and then add to a large bowl for serving.
Serve with a crusty bread

It was amazing!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Caviar Taste


Allow me to introduce one of my newest blogs that I follow. The blogger is a college friend and sorority sister that now lives in NYC (recently became a Mrs) and loves fashion and shopping....but also loves a good deal!


INTRODUCING...



Be sure to follow her to keep up with the latest and greatest deals that she finds!

Money Savers!

I love finding a deal...sometimes too much and it leads me to purchase things well...just because the sale/discount is so good! (Case in point my Tory Burch Boots). But I know that everyone loves a good buy so I wanted to share a few of my faves in terms of "Private Sale Websites" Enjoy and Happy Spending!


HauteLook on sale today for example French Connection! Rue La La today's designers include Lilly Pulitzer Ideeli lots of good finds!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Suntan update...

Well I can say that at least my arm and my collarbone area are both a bit toned down thanks to the gel that I bought yesterday....however the right side of my face is still very pink, so I'll have to grab some green powder tonight at Target to tone things down before work tomorrow.

I would highly suggest the gel that I mentioned yesterday though from Korres it makes it a whole lot more comfortable if you get a little red in the sun!!

Also dinner last night was quit delish! Though I must admit that I had a chocolate milkshake before dinner which sort of filled me up. But the Mahi was perfectly cooked on the grill and the black quinoa was a little more crunchy than normal quinoa but delicious nonetheless. I cooked it in a little chicken broth and fresh garlic to give it a little more flavor and it will be great to add some veggies to for a quick lunch later this week at work!

Now it's time to go grab a sandwich from PotBelly's (with my free gift card thanks to a survey they sent me) for a late lunch. Dinner tonight? Asian Chicken Salad Yum!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Reading Update


Well I finally finished off the 3rd book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy--though I must say that books 1 and 2 I couldn't put down but the third and final...well it just seemed to wrap everything up too quickly :(

Of course I won't spoil anything but it just was to "clean" in terms of how everything ended up. I was waiting for some big *shocking moment* but it didn't come. I guess it's better that way though since Larsson passed away 2004....maybe not-- I came across an interesting piece of info that I wasn't aware of, mainly because I was too main stream and didn't know much about the books other than they were best sellers.

Apparently Larsson's life long partner has been working on the 4th book "It is also told that the fourth script would mainly focus on Lisbet Salander, and how her personality changes when she starts to deal with her conflicts from the past. Her tattoos are explained and you are told that each and everyone represent a person who has hurt her throughout her life, both mentally and physically"...I guess I'll just have to wait and see!


Next up on the list....Water for Elephants...
...and to finish reading the last Harry Potter book (hopefully tonight!)

SPF is supposed to not make you burn right?

Well as mentioned in a previous post I was uber excited to hang out by the pool a bit and get rid on my whiteness and start getting a bit of a tan...well today was my day! The weather was great and after a quick jog and re-signing our lease Rene and I headed out to the pool for a bit before he went to private golf lesson that I bought him for Valentine's Day.

Rene left around 12:30 and I stayed out by the pool reading accounting homework for another hour or so...what I didn't know was that I was turning into a lobster!

I don't remember that last time that I got a sun burn, typically I get a little red but it never hurts and then it's brown overnight....not today I'm afraid.

And the strange part is that since I made the promise to Rene that I would stop using the tanning bed (last year) I even started using actual sunscreen vs. the "dark tanning oil" or "tanning accelerator" that I typically use. I went to Target and got Banana Boat Dark Tanning Spay Oil SPF 4
Ok yes, I know that SPF 4 isn't really and SPF but this is a big step for the girl who all through high school and college pretty much tanned 4-6 days a week in a fake baker!

Fear not, I also typically wear at least an SPF 15 on my face daily. Though I forgot to re-apply after my jog which at least explains why my face is the color of a tomato!

I am all red in random places (across my collar bone, my top of my right arm and spots around my hips) but only on the front where I actually put on the tanning oil and re-applied every time I turned over...on my back where I didn't even spray anything at all and I got at least an hour of sun on my back is white as ever! I am at a loss for words as to what happened and why in the world I am red but hopefully it won't last too long.

To help combat my sunburn I knew that Clinique and Clarins both had after sun lotions so over to the mall we went. I found out however 2 things that were news to me. #1 Clarins was not in stock at Sephora or Dillards and #2 apparently the Clinique brand has lots of nasty chemicals....

So I am trying something new recommended to me as "so much better" than any of the others at Sephora....Korres Yoghurt Cooling Gel

The brand uses age old Greek remedies to create beauty products and everything is all natural. The guy at the store slathered some on my arm and it made a huge difference in the soreness and cooled the radiating heat. I was sold and purchased one right away! I'll be sure to let you know how it works out!

Now time to go help make sure Rene doesn't ruin dinner for tonight...Mahi Mahi and black quinoa yum!

Friday, April 1, 2011

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Not today in Dallas at least! The sun is shining and it is the perfect way to bring in April!


I am looking forward to the weekend and hopefully a Saturday spent by the pool to get a tan...pasty white skin needs to go away!


Happy Friday!


Hope no one plays any ticks on you today for April Fools!