Living Blossoms

+ I love Publix not just for the deals they give me, but for their commitment to correct grammar and punctuation. They are the only grocery store I've ever seen that has a "Ten items or fewer" lane instead of "Ten items or less". I also love them for their restaurant, Crispers, who has a salad with fruit in it year-round (hear that, Panera?) and the best chowdah (slightly spicy crab & corn) I've ever had. *hugs Publix*

+ Anybody else in denial that we're already more than a week into 2010? Seriously. I feel like it should maybe be September 2009 right now.

+ We went to see my grandma at the hospital today. She officially has two good knees now! Woo-hoo! I can't WAIT for her to be totally recuperated, because she will be SO happy. She had horrible knees for a very long time. I expect to see her literally leaping for joy in a month or two.  ;o)  Tomorrow she moves to a rehab center. Pray for a quick recovery. I'm sure this one will be better because she already has a strong knee now.

+ Ange and I were planning to meet at the hospital way on the eastside and I was waiting for her to call me, so I killed time at The Thrift Store. There was one thing I really needed - a brown jacket, preferably long - and I found one! Its really nice, dark brown, double-breasted, slightly longer than mid-thigh, it has pockets, and it was only $6! Yay!  I'm wearing it already, without washing it, which probably grosses some people out, but when I said I needed it, I meant it. Hehe.

+ Yesterday got better when Isaac got home. He has that effect on me. =o) Plus, then we went across town for the mystery shop, which was great, as expected. When we returned home, I deleted at least 10GB of pictures off my camera's memory card. Normally I don't let it pile up like that, but I had barely deleted anything since the El Salvador trip in July. *sheepish grin*

+ Nala hasn't thrown up since before I wrote that entry yesterday, so I think she's feeling better. *cheers* We've had her for 3 months now, can you believe that? She's such a sweetie. I entered her in a contest, too. Go vote for her!

+ Well, it's official. Obama is now my president. It's a sad, sad day, no matter what the reporters who pee themselves whenever they speak his name tell you. I have already been praying for Obama, but I have decided to pray that that he lives up to his promises of change, and changes his own mind on all his policies. It can happen - look at Mitt Romney, who, years ago, was a liberal, and is now a staunch Republican. Obama has already talked of changing his timeline for withdrawal from Iraq so it's basically identical to Bush's. That's good. One thing down (assuming he sticks with that idea), a zillion to go. But God can change anyone. If He doesn't, it's okay. Just gives me cause for lots of sarcasm in the future.

+ I signed up for a Spanish class at the local community college. It starts tonight. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, eh? I had been waiting because Mom had said she wanted to take it too, but just told me yesterday that she decided she'd better not add anything else to her already overloaded schedule. So it'll be just me, attending my first college class in 5 years. (Holy cow. Has it really been that long?!) It's actually a non-credit class, which makes it only $95. I can deal with that! And it has a great schedule - 5:00-7:00pm on just Tuesday nights until March 17th. I'll get home just half an hour after Isaac does. So yay! I hope it's good. I hope we progress through the basics pretty quickly since I already know those. And I really hope I make a friend or two!

+ So, those skinny jeans it took me years to buy? The ones I vowed never to wear? I got them Thursday, so it's been 5 days... and I've worn them 3 of those 5 days. They are without a doubt the comfiest pair of jeans I own. It has nothing to do with being the skinny style, of course, but dang, they are awesomely comfy! I love when I can be comfy and stylish without even trying. Hehe. Next time I go back to the outlet I plan to buy another pair or two for use in the future.

+ Here are two random product endorsements for ya:
1) Benefiber Drink Mix. I thought it was going to be nasty, but I got some for free from CVS. Turns out they taste awesome - like really good Kool-Aid, or Tropicana Twister, or something - and they only have 15 calories, and 3g of fiber! They have gone in my regular rotation of Things that Make Water Taste Good - right next to my old standby, Propel.
2) Smart Balance Fat-Free Milk. The commercials claim it tastes like 2%, but of course it doesn't. Right? Wrong. My MIL got some when they were here in December and didn't finish it before they left. Our "real" milk expired, so all we had was the Smart Balance. To my surprise, it actually tastes like 2%! And it's fat-free and has all these Omega-3s and tons of other good stuff for you in it. I was seriously shocked to find out that it was good. Isaac has even used it to make Ovaltine, which means he approves. Anyway, supposedly right now you can just get it in the southeast, but be on the lookout for it at your grocery store, because it rocks, and Smart Balance often puts out $1 off coupons for it.
These two things are really helping me to stop drinking so many calories. I only have pop and juice a few times a week now, and I'm no longer drinking fatty milk.

+ Chloe just called me to tell me she went poop in the potty. LOL! Angela said she told her she could call anyone she wanted to, because Ange wants her to get praised like crazy so that using the toilet will be a regular occurrence. (Chloe is 2½, but has not shown any desire to be toilet-trained. That's unusual for a girl, isn't it?) When Chloe was finished talking to me, AJ grabbed the phone. I asked him if he went poop in the potty too, and he cracked up. Hehehe. I love my niece and nephews.

+ So far in January I've done 4 CVS transactions. I've spent only $1.41 total, and have already saved $137.65! That's a savings of almost 99%. You can tell I'm a lot better at this now than when I started. Hehe. It also helps that I have 70 ECBs to play with. The other day I got 3 hair gels, 2 3 oz. hand lotions, 5 Revlon lip glosses, and a pack of gum for 77¢. I gotta say, Revlon's Super Lustrous Lip Gloss is my favorite of any I've ever tried - and I've tried a LOT of lip gloss!

+ The best thing about making lasagna is having leftovers the next day. Yum.

+ Someone please tell me it's not actually less than two weeks until Thanksgiving. I like denial. Denial is happy. It's not that I don't love Thanksgiving - rather, I love it - it's just Thanksgiving comes right before Christmas, which comes right before the end of the year. In my mind, it can't possibly be later in 2008 than July. Seriously, now.

+ I loooooove my outfit today. Yep - loooooove. I'm wearing that cream silk wrap shirt with ruffles and a pair of dark jeans that I got from the thrift store the other day, and it is awesome.

+ DUDE. It's only 3:15 and Ken has already given me the sermon notes! I might be able to get out of here by 6:00!

+ According to SuperCook.com, I can make over 1,000 recipes with the ingredients in my kitchen. In case those of you who have cooked in my kitchen and found yourself appalled at the lack of ingredients (and small appliances) are wondering, I did not make that up. Of course, the basil and oregano are still the bottles abideinchrist bought me when she came to visit and couldn't believe I didn't own either one. Hehe. Unfortunately, SuperCook doesn't let you search for just healthy recipes. I'd really like for us to eat better, especially since we won't be rejoining the gym. I also need to figure out how to convince Isaac that a meal doesn't always have to include meat.

+ And according to this article, the worst hot coffee drink anywhere is Starbuck's hot White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha - otherwise known as my favorite coffee drink. Heh. A venti-sized glass has 660 calories, 22 g fat (14 g saturated), and 95 g sugar. I mean, I knew it was bad for me, but I didn't know it was that bad.  I certainly didn't think it would have twice the calories of a single with cheese from Steak 'n Shake!

+ I've started watching Buffy, the Vampire Slayer again. Such a funny show. I just finished season 1. I forgot that that person died so early in the series. That means we get Faith soon, right? I was also thinking, as I watched Buffy fighting the Master yesterday, how funny it is that my dad let us watch that show the first few seasons it was on (then I went to college), but dislikes Harry Potter. People are not often logical. But I love him anyway. And I'm glad he let us watch Buffy. Hehe.

+ So, I heard a big crash earlier. I went and looked in every room in the direction of the sound except the bathrooms, and found nothing. I just thought I was hearing things. Then just a minute ago I went to use the bathroom and found the cause: there's a leak somewhere which warped the bathroom wall so much that the hook holding up a big mirror came out, and the mirror crashed onto the floor.  O.o  There's broken glass everywhere, and a bubble of water in the wall. ¡No es bueno! That really stinks. (But at least I'm not crazy...)

E.T.A.: + So, today I made a Newsboys station on Pandora. The first song it played was "Breakfast", which I hadn't heard in who knows how long. Now I'm listening to Air1, and guess which song they're playing? Yep - "Breakfast". Weeeiiird.

+ Well, time to water the plants and finish the bulletin. Happy weekend!