Monday, February 21, 2011

Happy Birthday Mom!


Guess what? Today, February 21 is my mom's birthday! My mom always reads my blog so I thought I'd make today's blog all about her! Her name is Judy and she is an amazing mom! I love her so much! Here are some pictures to celebrate her birthday:


The littlest one is my mom. My Aunty Terry is on the right and my Aunty Arlene on the left.
My grandma, Aunty Arlene, Mom, and Jackson, her grandson and my nephew!
My sis Jenn, Mom, sis-in-law Chloe, lifelong friend Alicia, and me!
Me and my Mom on my wedding day!
My brother, Mom, and baby Jackson at 20 days old.
Gorgeous, laughing and being silly!
Mom, I hope you liked your birthday blog and I hope this next year brings you everything you dream of and deserve. Love you tons!!

xoxo,
T

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award

I have been totally MIA in the blogger/internet world! The other day, I went online and saw that my friend Jen @ The Baked Life blog gave me a Stylish Blogger Award! Yay!! I never win anything, ever!

So the award has two responsibilities, the first is to pass it along to someone else! I'd like to present this award to my friend Kyleigh of Don't Forget To Write! You must check out her blog, I always love her posts!

The other part of the award is to tell the blogging world 7 things about yourself, so here goes:

1. I have pretty much completely given up on eyeshadow. (more on this in a later post)

2. I am completely, shamelessly addicted to this season of the Bachelor.

3. I love starting projects but I have great difficulty finishing them.

4. I have been feeling very serious and introspective lately, hence the lack of fun posts in the
past few weeks.

5. I totally love cheap rose wine, especially while watching the Bachelor.

6. My relationships with my family, friends and husband will always be the most important thing in the world to me. I am completely socially driven.

7. I am determined to find a new career. I recently discovered paperwork from my dad's company from 1996, which means I have been doing office work for 15 years. I am done.


That's all for today!

xoxo,
T

Thursday, February 3, 2011

I'm not ashamed to say I'm excited about this


Sweet Valley High was one of my favourite series when I was growing up. I was such a book nerd! Okay, so that hasn't changed. At all. I was a little obsessed with reading growing up, now I have a more balanced life, with a husband, a great group of friends, and a great crazy family :-)

No matter how grown up I get, I love a good book. It's like a mini vacation from real life! I am so excited that Sweet Valley is coming back! Here's the synopsis from Chapters:

"Now with this striking new adult novel from author and creator Francine Pascal, millions of devoted fans can finally return to the idyllic Sweet Valley, home of the phenomenally successful book series and franchise. Iconic and beloved identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are back and all grown up, dealing with the complicated adult world of love, careers, betrayal, and sisterhood."

Here's the cover for Sweet Valley Confidential, due out March 29,2011:


I love how the Sweet Valley font is the same from the old books, so classic.
Okay, that's my dorky moment for the day. Please tell me someone else is excited about this?

xoxo,
T

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

One of my favourite things: Protein powder!

I'm sure I've told you guys before that I'm a HUGE fan of protein powder. It's the best thing I've ever come across, because I am not a huge chicken or beef fan. I will eat meat sometimes (mostly if someone else cooks it) but I'm just not into it. Obviously, protein is very important for many reasons, so I get my fill from eggs, beans and protein powder.

The most refreshing breakfast ever for me is a protein shake blended with frozen berries. It's so filling and wakes me up because it's nice and cold. I also make a few different protein shakes for dessert sometimes, because it's nice to have something sweet after dinner and it's a lot better than cookies. My husband always, always wants cookies so if I make him one of these he will stop asking for cookies. Usually. Also, I must say: For protein shakes, you cannot beat the convenience of a Magic Bullet. I bought one maybe six months ago and we use it constantly.


A few of my favourite shakes are: 

Matcha: Milk, Ice, vanilla protein powder, 1 tsp matcha green tea powder
Berry Shake: any kind of frozen berries, vanilla or chocolate protein powder, milk (no ice needed)
Pumpkin Pie: Ice, canned pumpkin, vanilla protein powder, 1 packet Splenda or Truvia
Coffee Shake: cold coffee, milk, vanilla or chocolate protein powder, ice (chocolate makes it more mocha) 
Cookies and Creme: Ice, milk, protein powder, 100 calorie packet of Oreo crisps. (This is a little higher in calories altogether but a delicious mostly clean treat.

My newest discovery is the Frozen Hot Chocolate Protein Shake!! I buy the Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate packets from the states, they have like 25 calories per packet. Mix some vanilla protein powder, ice, and milk. Soooo good! 

 *When I say milk, I use skim milk or Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk which only has 40 calories per cup. I also don't ever measure protein shakes, I sorta experiment each time to see what tastes better.

I posted the recipe for Jamie Eason's Chocolate Protein Bars before, and now I've discovered a new protein baked treat: Kristine Fretwel's Lemon Poppyseed High Protein Muffins.


Make sure you check out Kristine's blog, Busy But Healthy for tons of great healthy info and recipes! I'd love to know: what's your favourite thing to do with protein powder?

xoxo,
T