Mom Will be Proud

I must admit that for the majority of my 26 year life I have had one of the worst habits...I have been a nail biter. Yep, I would bite my nails down to the furthest point and my cuticles would look horrible! My mom used to tell me how awful it was but I just couldn't stop. I even tried the nasty tasting polish they make specifically to try to make people stop biting their nails...it didn't phase me!

You would think that when I got engaged this would have stopped so that I had nice nails when showing off my ring right? Nope. I just went back to the sorority rush mentality and if I needed to have nice nails I went for the acrylic pink and whites...which is what I did for the wedding as well. Though I will admit part of the reason for the fake nails for the wedding was to avoid the risk of breakage too!
While the pink and whites always look nice, they trash your real nails and also get costly to maintain! It was time that I grew up and stopped biting my nails....

I noticed that they started growing a lot after I started taking the colostrum which I mentioned in a previous post. So I made a conscious effort to make sure that I stopped biting them!

It's amazing how nice my hands look now with a fresh coat of polish and no longer stubby little nails! I am a big fan of the color blocking trend in manicures right now!!
It may have taken 26 years for this to happen but Mom will be proud I am sure!

1 more day til Friday

I don't know why but today I was exhausted! I rolled over hit the snooze and didn't get up until I heard the coffee pot beep this morning. Little Stitch didn't get a walk this morning so I'll have to try to take him out this evening if it's not too hot around 8:30 or 9pm.

I am looking forward to Friday and wrapping up the week to say the very least!
Why you might ask?

1. Because it's the last work week of July and truth be told I like when the month closes out.

2. Because Friday is the start to the weekend!

3. Because it marks the half way point for this summer semester which has been brutal!

4. Because Saturday we get to go to Cirque du Solei Dralion!

5. Because Sunday is Harry Potter's Birthday (if he was real) Barnes and Noble by our apartment is having a "birthday party" with ButterBeer and all! *Yes I told Rene we are stopping by if nothing else for the butterbeer, we'll have to compare it to the one at Wizarding World of Harry Potter*

6. Because Friday night Rene comes home from being out of town. *just to leave again next week but oh well*

7. Because I get to sleep in until 7am rather than 5am!

8. Because I am getting ready to start a new book and that's always exciting!

What are you looking forward to as we wrap up the work week?

What's your daily regime?

I'm talking about your daily vitamin intake! I am not one for putting a bunch of supplements into my body and I tend to steer clear of most medications (mainly because I break out in hives with most things with acetaminophen in them) but what you take in terms of daily vitamins and supplements are just as important as eating a well balanced breakfast and exercise.

What does mine consist of?I take 5 pills daily. A multivitamin, fish oil, 2 colostrum supplements and a Clarititn D (that's for allergies and prevents an outbreak of hives). During the winter I also take Vitamin D to help since I am not out in the sun as much.

But why take these? Rene and I eat a very balanced diet with lots of fruit and veggies and we typically stay with chicken and lean proteins so there isn't a large need for additional in our diets. However each provides great health benefits!

Multivitamin: This is important for everyone even if it's the only pill you take because it helps fill in the gaps from your diet that are not met for vitamins and minerals.
Fish Oil: Omega 3 Fatty Acids do amazing things for your health. And since we don't eat a ton of fish and really no salmon (full of omega 3) we supplement with a fish oil pill instead. Fish oil also has lots of other benefits such as eliminating joint pain, lowering cholesterol, and increased focus just to name a few!
Colostrum: This is one that most people don't know anything about. I actually started taking this after reading a homeopathic website which talked about suffering from chronic hives of an unknown cause--hello that's me!
So what is it?? Colostrum is the pre-milk fluid produced from the mother's mammary glands during the first 72 hours after birth. It provides life-supporting immune and growth factors that insure the health and vitality of the newborn...well as you get older and pass through puberty the amount of immune support decreases so taking a supplement helps build up your immune system first and foremost (which is why it helps with the hives).

There are a number of other things that this supplement has been used for to aid in treatment of: acid reflux, allergies, arthritis, digestive disorders (it improves the function of your GI system), high blood pressure and helps prevent diabetes. An all around great health decision!

So next time you are at the store think about swinging by the pharmacy and picking up at least a bottle of multivitamins if you don't ready you owe it to yourself!

Have a great day!

Time to knock something off the bucket list?

For the past 9 years I have been involved with Susan G. Komen.


Either through my sorority Zeta Tau Alpha or through the personal impact that breast cancer has had on family and friends I have been as involved as I could be with my schedule.

Each year of the past 9 I have participated in the Race for the Cure in one way or another and I plan to continue that for many more years to come!

When Rene and I were actually trying to figure out where we wanted to live while he was still in grad school Dallas was at the top of my list because the national headquarters for Komen is right here in Dallas and if I could leave my job today and work at the office I would. Oddly enough the office building that we moved to in May 2011 is right next to the building that the Komen office is in....so if I ever did get a job there the drive would be pretty simple!

Since I have yet to land that job however Rene and I like to stay involved still. Most recently this year we volunteered our time at a youth track event to pass out information about breast cancer and raise awareness, it's always amazing to see how many people recognize the pink ribbon which symbolizes breast cancer and how many people have been effected by it....

One of the things that I have kept saying that I want to do ever since we moved to Dallas was participate in the Dallas 3 Day. The 3 day is a 60 mile walk spread over 3 days that are done in a number of cities each year. I have been telling Rene the past 3 years "we need to do it!".

The first year that we were here and settled into the apartment and live was 2009, but the dates for the 3 day fell the weekend of November 6-8th...for those of you that remember we were in Florida for the wedding, so this was a no go. Somehow the walk in 2010 came and went and there were so many things going on we completely forgot. 2011's race is this November 4-6th so it hasn't happened yet but we clearly haven't trained to the point that my feet could take 15-22 miles of walking a day nor have we been able to raise the money to participate.

So today when the email hit my inbox noting that the 2012 3 Day in Dallas was starting to take registration I started to seriously consider participating. The dates for next year are Nov 2-4th....it gives us a full year to raise the almost $5000 (combined, $2300 each) to participate and get our minds and bodies ready to complete the walk.

Oh course as I am thinking of all of this and planning how to raise the donations Rene is in Arizona for work so no definite decisions will be made...but for some reason I feel like 2012 is our year to knock this item off my must do bucket list!!

Think I am crazy for wanting to walk 60 miles in 3 days and sleep in a tent each night as one of the must do things for my life?? Why wouldn't I want to?? I can give you plenty of reasons why I should and so should you....

Because you know someone who is fighting breast cancer.

Because you know someone who lost their fight.

Because you have a daughter, a mother, a sister.

Because its time to put an end to this disease.

Because everyone deserves a lifetime.

If you are interested in seeing if there is a Komen 3 Day near you check out the website and Register Today!

Hot Hot Hot....

It feels like there is no end in site for the super hot temps across the country, and the worst part about it is that Dallas typically has it's hottest temperatures in August not July.....Things are not looking good in terms of a cool down any time soon that's for sure.

This morning when Stitch and I took our little mile long lap around the apartment complex it was already over 80 degrees at 5:15am with no sun at all, so it can only get hotter from here.

The forecast for the next 5 days?It doesn't look any better. The only thing that I can hope for is that 30% change of rain today can try to bring my little plants back to life a bit. Though they have been saying we have a slight chance of rain for a while not and it seems to miss the DFW area completely!
I'll be sure to take the umbrella just in case today!

We'll it's off to work-have a great day!

Day number 24

That's right today is expected to be the 24th day of 100+ degrees here in Dallas....currently tied 5th for the most consecutive days at 100+ in Dallas history!


It's been a scorcher and it isn't expected to let up anytime soon. Which means higher electric bills, hair pulled up into lots of pony tails, and Stitch getting early morning walks here it's only between 85-90 degrees out.

It also means that I am starting to think that my little plants on the porch won't actually see anything more than a few blooms that turn into nothing. The past few days I have noticed little blooms on the tomato and squash plants however the heat has seemed to allow them to bloom and then the blooms just fall right off.

Not even the pepper plants seem to be doing too well this year because of the awful heat. I've had to make sure to water 2 times a day to keep them from wilting and dying. You can see a tiny bloom on the very bottom right squash from yesterday, but as of this morning it has fallen off. There's a little more hope for the tomato because it has a couple of little blooms so hopefully it'll turn into something....we will just have to wait and see.

Now it's off to work to start another week....can you believe that July is almost over?!

Sunday Breakfast

Sundays tend to be a bit of a more relaxed day of the week for Rene and I. As the weekend ends and it's time to get things ready for the next week it's nice to start the day with a nice morning walk with Stitch and end enjoy a delicious breakfast. This morning we made a quick and easy vegetable and egg dish that I made some changes to that I found in my Food Network Magazine.

"Eggs in a Squash Nest"

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 Zucchini Squash
1 Yellow Summer Squash
1/2 Large Onion (optional)
4 Cremini Mushroom (optional)
Thyme and Nutmeg

1. First use a grater to grade up the 2 squash and place in a bowl set aside, finley slice the onion and dice the mushrooms.2. Heat a pan that you can place in the oven and spray with Pam non-fat cooking spray

3. Add onions and allow to soften4. Add in the mushrooms and book approx 2-3 minutes

5. Add in the squash

6. Fold all ingredients together add thyme and nutmeg and allow to cook 5-7 minutes over a medium heat. (also turn on over to 350 degrees)

Once all of the vegetables are cooked place skillet into the over for about 5 minutes to help bake and remove excess moisture from the squash.

Remove skillet from the over and create small indentations and crack 4 eggs into the areas indented in the squash.

Place the skillet back into the oven from 5-9 minutes depending on how done you want the eggs.
And here's the finished product! Rene and I split this in half each having about a cup and a half of squash "nests" and 2 eggs each for around 200 calories and 11 grams of protein a great way to start the day!

Yonana!

A few weeks ago Rene and I were at Target when I remembered the YoNana frozen fruit/fro-yo maker that I had mentioned previously!
I decided to check it out and make the purchase!


So a few nights ago we had our first YoNana -- bananas and strawberries!


It was delish!! and the reviews that I read were completely right! Same consistency as soft serve and way healthier!

Today's the Day!

It all comes to an end! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2!

Rene and I watched Part 1 last night to refresh where we left off (though we didn't need to!). It is a bittersweet end to an era really for the Harry Potter Franchise. I will admit I was a bit late in the game in terms of the movies and books (didn't see a movie till college thanks to my roommate Jill for introducing me to the greatness of HP!) and then after watching the first 2 or 3 films I started from the beginning reading the books.

I even re-read the last 2 books before the movies came out just so I could compare. For those of you out there that haven't gotten into the books or movies I would highly suggest reading them, they are just wonderful!

I admit that I'm a dork and Rene and I loved going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter last December and drinking our butterbeers.

And yes I will more than likely cry watching the last one come to an end, but I am soooo excited for today! 9:45pm showing so we'll be leaving to get there around 7pm to make sure we're in line for a good seat!

And yes I am a 26 year old adult wearing my Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft shirt on casual Friday and I am completely fine with that!

Happy Harry Potter Day!!

&

Happy Friday of course too!

Big Events this Week

Ok we maybe not that big but I am still looking forward to the fact that Rene and I will have 2 date nights this week! July is a busy month for us actually in terms of little things to do that we have been looking forward to.

Classes started officially for me today but I still don't have my text book because the seller that I purchased it off of from Amazon apparently is awful and the book is lost somewhere! Not to worry Amazon refunded my money since I tried on numerous accounts to reach the seller. Now I just have to wait for another copy and in the meantime I'm using Rene's Barnes and Nobel account to access a 7 day trial of Nook Study. It's really a great option to save money by renting an online e-book for a text book, but the downfall is you have to read it on the computer rather than a Nook because of the images (or you can print the book) and it's about. But it’s working good until I get the actual text book.

Now for the fun things (school is not so fun), Tuesday we are going to see Britney Spears in concert! I am quite excited! Thanks to the Mavericks winning the NBA finals we got super cheap tickets too! $20.11!!! (Get it 2011 champs?). Then on Friday it’s Harry Potter! We’ve gotten our tickets purchased and will be seeing the Friday 9:45pm showing I am quite excited to say the very least!!

I’m holding out for this week to be wonderful!

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Certified

July started off as a pretty good month thus far! As of last Friday I am now officially certified by the National Association of Personnel Services as a Certified Temporary Staffing Specialist (CTS). Next step will be to start the certification process/studying to take the Physician Recruiter certification....that will have to wait though until after summer classes which start on Monday!

It's been a nice little break from the spring to summer classes I wish that I didn't have to start back to school I liked not having to stress over the reading and exams, but I only have a total of 5 more courses before I am finished with my MBA so HOPEFULLY all goes as planned and I will graduate in the Spring 2012 class.

Not much else going on in the lives of the Blanco's recently work, work, and more work....at least it's Friday right?

Past my book goal!

I just realized today that it's only half way through the year and I have already read 13 books (and I am currently reading #14 and #15)....I guess I'll up my goal this year to reading at least 24 books rather than the 12 I wanted to read last year!

Though I might have to take some pointers from my ZTA little sister who picks a reading list of 52!

So what have I read so far this year??



Any suggestions on what my next read should be??