Weekend Plans

I wanted to just drop in quickly, we're getting ready to head down to Conley Bottom at Lake Cumberland for the weekend.  My parents have a houseboat there and this is the first time Jeff and I have gotten down there this year.  We're looking forward to a weekend of boating and relaxing and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate! 

I'm sorry that I haven't been terribly active on here but I haven't been taking many pictures lately and I feel like a slacker if there aren't any pictures on the post!   Have a great weekend!

Inspiration

Love, love, love Sharon Montrose's animal prints!

 I think I want them all!  Look at the baby porcupine!

She makes even the "not-so-cute"* animals look great.

*This does not reference otters, because otters are totally cute! 

Have a great weekend!

Shoot Me Now, Or Why I Hate Shopping for Jeans

I finally found a couple pairs of jeans today, and I only had to try on about 10 pairs this time.  This is probably the 4th time that I've went shopping for jeans in the last 6 months and only the first time that I've been successful.

I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say I'd rather be shot than go shopping for jeans.  Maybe just with a paintball gun.  Something painful, but not actually dangerous.  Ugh.

I always say that I go to try on jeans until I either find a pair or become homicidal.  There's a reason I only have 2 pairs of jeans that fit me.

Also, while I'm complaining, I've been working out 3-4 times a week (that's the good part!) for the last 5 weeks and not lost 1 pound!  Not one!!  While I can tell that my muscles are firming up, the problem areas are not improving, and again, no weight loss whatsoever.  It's so frustrating.  I'm glad that at least I am physically feeling better, with more energy, or I'd have no motivation at all to keep at it. 

I thought 2 months would be a reasonable amount of time to at least look semi-presentable in a swimsuit when we go to Honduras.  The goal was only 5 pounds, 10 tops and firming up.  Doesn't look like I'm going to make it.  How annoying.

Cat For Sale!

I'll cut you a great deal, even cover shipping!  She's got some lovely traits, such as:
-Playing in her dirty litter box!
-Not grooming herself!
-Biting people, repeatedly!
-Sleeping most of the day, well, until you are almost ready to go to bed, and then she's ready to play!
-Helping you while you're on the computer, by jumping on the keyboard.  She especially likes to turn on the Caps Lock key!
-Sharpening her claws on the cabinets!
-And many more!

Oh, I'm just joking, I'm not really going to sell (or even get rid of) Gil.  But doesn't she sound nice?  She's lucky she's cute, because she's about as rotten as they come. 

I know I haven't had a kitten in a long time, but man, I don't remember them being this crazy, and biting this much!  That's really what's making me the craziest.  She's a biter!  You should see my arms.  She'll just be laying in your lap in the chair and her ears go back and she attacks your arm. I'll grab her and drop her on the floor and she just keeps coming back over and over to bite you!  I just bought a spray bottle yesterday, to squirt her with when she does it, hopefully that will help.  Bad kitty...

A Redneck* Good Time

 *Disclaimer-I can describe this as redneck, as I am one.

The other night, Jeff and I were sitting on the couch, doing nothing, when he turns and asks me, "Hey, it's a nice night, why don't we take the 4-wheeler out to your grandparents?"  I tell him, "Only if I can take my camera, it's almost sunset." (sunset = great light)  So, we load 'er up, and head out.  We take it across the creek and I get off to start walking and take pictures, and he takes off to go fast.

I snap a couple of pictures in the amazing light.  He takes a couple of laps around the pasture, then comes back to trade places with me.  I take a quick cruise, and we both remember how much fun the 4-wheeler is.  It doesn't get out much anymore, so we tend to forget.  We've talked about selling it lately, but I think that will get pushed out again.

There's also a little sentimental value in the 4-wheeler.  4-wheeling is actually how Jeff and I started dating.  I ran into a friend from high school at another friend's baby shower and got invited to go hang out and ride 4-wheelers with her and her fiance and Jeff.  I wasn't doing anything else that evening and it sounded like fun, so off I went.  I ended up having a good time, and Jeff was fun to be around, but didn't think much about it.  Three weeks later, while I'm at work, I get a voice mail on my phone from Jeff, asking me out.  I was shocked!  Not in a bad way, but I hadn't given him my number, or gotten any kind of vibe from him that he was interested in me.  He had sought out my number himself and got up the nerve to ask me out.  So I got my nerve up to call him back and go out with him.  And nine years later, we're still together.

I'm a few days late, but the anniversary of that first date was August 3rd.  Happy Anniversary Jeff, I can't wait to have many more years of hillbilly fun with you!

Hooked on Exercise? Me?!

When my mom called me a couple of weekends ago and said, "Hey, I saw this infomercial last night, it was some exercise tapes, can't remember what it was called, but I think it started with a Z.  Anyway, it looked really fun!", I admit, I was skeptical.

A little backstory; my mom will occasionally see something random on tv or a magazine, call me up, describe it extremely loosely, (so there's a good chance I have no idea what she's talking about), and say let's go do it!  How about tomorrow?!  Usually I'm the one doing a little bit more research to figure out the details and the when's and where's.  And thus, I discovered Zumba.

When I first looked at the website, I'd heard of it before, knew it to be like an aerobic class with dancing and Latin/R&B type music.  Thought it looked kind of fun, but I'm not really a fitness class type person.  I mean, I'm pretty good at laughing at myself, but still a little nervous about looking really stupid in front of people.  I also was a little surprised that my mom wanted to do this, she's not usually one for putting herself out there, way more shy than me.  But, she was just so darn enthusiastic about it, so I looked up local classes and we went the following Tuesday.  And dang it if it didn't turn out to be really fun!  Our first class was an hour of just straight dancing, which was fun, but we went to a different class the following week, and did some toning with the dance, and man, were we sore the next day! (and the day after that for that matter)  Went for the third time yesterday, and she made us do walking lunges.  A lot of them.  I fully expect to be sore for another day or so, but still intend to go back again next week!  I think I'm hooked on exercising... how did that happen?

Inspiration

While I love to look at photography to be inspired, this is the first time I've linked to any artists.  Hmmm... maybe I'll start...
Anyway, Nick Brandt's work is stunning, just indescribably emotional and moving.

Seriously, go look, I'm speechless.

Writer's Block Again...

I've been picking at a couple of blog posts for the last several days and I just can't put together a cohesive post.  So here's a random list:

- I joined the gym again.  I've just been so tired lately, it's kind of the last thing I want to do, but I think that there's a good chance that it will make me feel better and give me some more energy.  Hopefully, it will lead to more motivation as well.
-I always forget how much I actually like running.  About a half hour after I finish running, I'm wanting to go again.
-I'm still trying to figure out what to do about selling my photos.  If Etsy is my best bet, or if I should set up an separate website like Mpix that will print and ship the pictures directly.
-Gil the cat is growing really fast.  She has probably doubled in size in the last 2 and a half weeks.  And she's mildly psychotic, I keep threatening to sell her to the circus if she doesn't stop being so crazy!  Any time I'm on the computer, reading, knitting, she has to "help".  Usually by jumping on the buttons or biting my needles or chewing on the end of the book.  That's when she's not biting me! 
-I know I've mentioned our next trip in passing, but we're heading to Roatan, Honduras, for the big 3-0 birthday in September!  I'm really excited to spend my birthday on the beach!  We'll be doing lots of diving, taking pictures, and relaxing.  We're staying at Anthony's Key Resort, and have some friends and family going, so it should be a really good time!

Nothing too exciting, but I'm trying to keep up on 2 or 3 posts a week!  Just gotta shake this writer's block!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This is the Zucchini Bread recipe that Jeff started asking for as soon as I told him I was planting zucchini this year!   After my giant zucchini (pic below) was shredded, along with a couple other smaller ones, I now have enough to make 14 loaves of it!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
1 Tbsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cloves
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/2 cup nuts (optional) (I never use them)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 large (4 x 9) loaf pans.  Beat eggs, oil and sugar together.  Add zucchini and vanilla.  In separate bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, spices and cocoa powder.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mix only until combined.  Add chocolate chips and nuts (if using).  Bake for one hour.

That's it!  It's easy and so good.  It has the spices of standard zucchini bread, with the little bit of cocoa powder and the chocolate chips, but not too chocolaty.  I understand that you can freeze the bread, but it goes pretty fast in my house, and the second loaf never makes it to the freezer.

Sorry, no pictures of the bread, but check out the size of this zucchini! (sorry for the blurriness)

Garden Post

We've been so fortunate again this year with our garden.  I admit that I don't have much to do with its success.  I have very little technical knowledge when it comes to gardening, yet we still manage to get a surplus of produce and enjoy ourselves.  The only real work we put into it is using the compost I build up over the year, pulling weeds (not often enough!) and harvesting.

This year, we expanded our garden by doubling its size and adding zucchini and cucumber to the mix.  We also have green beans, onions, red bell peppers, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes and Early Girl tomatoes, and sugar snap peas.  Earlier, we had leaf lettuce, spinach and broccoli, but that's passed now. 

Here is one of our first big harvests from July 5th:

We've since pulled off dozens of cherry tomatoes, a couple of regular sized tomatoes, another couple handfuls of green beans, several jalapenos, a few onions and a zucchini that probably weighs 5-6 pounds!

I've got another batch of Chocolate Zucchini Bread in the oven now, and several batches of shredded zucchini in the freezer with more still coming.  Green beans are our favorites and we've eaten a few and I've frozen four bags, moving right along with my 30 Before 30 #6!

We both just really enjoy digging in the garden, and getting to eat the stuff that comes out of it makes it even more worthwhile.