Saturday- we got alot of things done!

• Hubby finished cutting all of the bath tile- so now it’s ready to be glued down today!
• We went to Sherwin Williams and picked up our exterior paint for the outside of the house. We should be painting next weekend hopefully!
• I mowed the front & back lawn.
• Laundry
• Made coconut icecream for myself- Publix stopped selling my icecream!! But they do have new organic products all over the store, which is great!

I also had gotten a package from BioNaturae a while back that I finally got around to trying

I loved this juice- it was so sweet and refreshing. I used some to make a banana & pineapple smoothie- which was amazing!

And with the pasta noodles- I made some spaghetti and meatballs for lunch- hubby loved!

More about Bionaturae:

bionaturæ® (bee-oh-na-too-ray) roughly translates to mean “organic nature.” For the founders of the company it means this and far more. It means the celebration of Old World tradition, of authentic Italian food and of family.

More than fifteen years ago, a group of young Italians and an American enthusiastically created an organic selection of authentic Italian foods. bionaturæ® was born in 1994 and was quickly embraced by the American consumer as the premier brand of organic foods from Italy. We have remained a family-oriented, privately owned company, with a heartfelt devotion to quality and tradition.

The superior quality of our foods is made possible by the traditional small-scale production that is so unique to Italy. Each product is lovingly crafted by food artisans who utilize timeless methods of production handed down from multiple generations. Each product is made with passion, resulting in the highest quality and most genuine offering.

Appreciating family, preserving traditions and being passionate about food- these are the three fundamental elements that make life in Italy so special, almost magical. These three fundamentals are respected in the making of each bionaturæ® product. Experience a little Italian magic. Take time away from your hectic day to enjoy a relaxing time with family and friends - enjoy a true Italian meal prepared with our products and allow food to bring pleasure to your everyday life.

After working hard all day- we had dinner plans with the parents to go out for the hubby’s birthday since they hadn’t celebrated it yet.

We went to Tokyo Terrace again.

Hubby & his parents.

I of course had the Vegetable Roll Dinner- there was actually a second side plate as well.  I could not eat it all. Plus I had the variety chilled sake- which was about 6 shot glasses that I pretty much drank all on my own

We had so much fun- until I spilled ice cold water all over my dress! They cut me off from the Sake after that I just laughed about it and had a good night.

Sunday Plans:

• Church Service
• Pick up toilet for bathroom ?
• Lay tile.
• Me- paint 4 interior doors.
• Grill.
• Maybe have extra time to Tan/Read.

Okay, I’ve got to get in the shower now before I am late for church! Be back later

But before I get to that- on my last day of work at Taylor Insurance- my sister picked me up a Venti Soy Latte-which was so sweet! Wednesday was crazy- I had to get tetanus shot, tb shot, blood drawn AND I went to the dentist and had 2 cavities filled, mercury taken out on one tooth, teeth cleaned and xrays- it was a LONG day. I’m gonna miss working with my sister, but we will still hang out and go shopping of course!

And on to my new job- I got my new badge made this morning They even let me choose which picture that I liked better!

I am LOVING my new Job!!! Today was my first day and everyone was so nice- I already have a group of girlfriends who are getting together to meet at Starbucks in the morning! I am so blessed to have this job where I have a Starbucks just a walk away- we do have free coffee in the breakroom- but I’m a bit of a coffee snob I have to tell you guys, I was kind of on the fence at first on changing jobs, just because it’s so much extra work, but I’m so glad I pushed through and went ahead with the job offer.

My new Job Perks:

• Starbucks just a walk away
• Nice break areas.
• So many nice girls that I get to work with!
• The job is so much more laid back and less stressful
• I have my own private desk space to myself
• Free Healthworks Gym Membership for me and the hubby
• Medical/Dental/Vision benefits
• 401K/Retirement
• Free counseling
• Lots of room for promotion- Phoebe is a HUGE corporation!
• 4.5 weeks vacay up front along with sick leave, bereavement leave, etc.
• Learning Center- they also pay some towards furthering education- which I plan on doing.

I am sure there is more that I am not thinking of right now. I went to Uniforms by Julie after work today and ordered all of my uniforms/Scrubs for work- here is a sample of what I will be wearing tomorrow.

The outfits aren’t the most flattering- but hey, at least I don’t have to try to find something to wear every day -in my case, there is normally flying clothing involved So no more of that.

Also, our bath remodel is almost finished- the sheetrock is finished, kiltzed, painted, bathroom light put up, this weekend we should finish the tile and the closet and it will be done! We also need to get a plan together for the weekend on what projects we are doing next- painting the 4 new doors and putting up or painting the exterior of the house. Our goal is to have the house completed by December 29 before the year is out. I keep saying it’s going to be a good year!

New curved shower rod put up.

The sink we are putting in the bathroom.

Lights are up.

Mirror to go above the sink- we bought at Kirklands yesterday.

It’s been a long day so I am going to end on that note. Going to make some decaf. organic coffee right now and relax and watch Big Brother or Master Chef. Then going to bed early- I need some zzzz’s!! Be back this weekend!

This week is ending on a great note because I won the Iherb Giveaway over at Foodie Blogroll!!! If you’re not yet a member you should sign up asap- lots of giveaways and fun stuff going on over there It’s been quite the crazy week- lots of celebrations but also some sad goodbyes.

We had a private dinner for the hubby’s birthday

Vegan Nori Rolls

We shared the Birthday “cake”

I said goodbye to my boss- by the time I leave next Wednesday, he will just be getting back in town on Thursday. He was so sweet, he even paid me for the entire week even though I’m only working a partial week and he said if the hospital didn’t treat me right, that I would have a job there waiting for me. I’m gonna miss him.

After work today- the hubby and I went shopping..

The hubby got a couple of tees

And I bought myself these cute shoes- LOVE!

I got this Italian leather journal from TJ Maxx.

Groceries, curved shower rod kit for the new bathroom.

Oh and this cute watch from Target.

Oh yea, and last but definitely not least- I splurged and bought myself a container of this icecream

Which I plan on enjoying this weekend while I do some tanning. Oh yeah, and some work. The hubby and I will be painting and laying tile in our new bathroom- I’m so excited!! We also have plans to go to church on Sunday, do some house cleaning, relaxing. You guys have anything fun planned for the weekend?

Jacqueline at Everything Chick Food!! Please email me your address and I will forward it to Perfect Foods asap so they can send your bars!

Okay, so now that I have that out of the way, I can tell you about my weekend so far. Here is what I have been up to:

• I finished paying off the huge AMEX credit card bill for the hubby’s surgery he had done. So happy to not have to pay any more interest!!
• Mowed the front and back lawn with my manual reel mower- I was sooo tired!
• Cleared out our bedroom and put the bath tiles on the outside patio since we will be tiling the bath soon.
• Laundry
• Weeded Garden
• Made more Vegetable soup since I had so many tomatoes from the garden.
• Made Mushroom Risotto to bring to my sisters today.
• Dishes.
• Printed out lots of organic online coupons to use at the Coop today.
• Hubby and I painted part of the bath last night- his new Wagner spray painter wouldn’t work, so I had to roll paint some then he figured out that the reason it wouldn’t work was because the paint was too thick. He is going to kiltz and paint this morning- I am so excited to finally be at this point!

Cafe Gratitude sent me a yummy package the other day.

The Raw Vegan Cookies were my favorite for sure!

 Loved the Granola as well- perfect breakfast Hubby LOVED this granola- I was shocked- he never likes my healthy foods!

Apples*, sprouted almonds*, sprouted buckwheat*, coconut flakes*, raisins*, dates*, agave nectar*, vanilla bean*, cinnamon*, and Himalayan salt. CONTAINS: Tree Nuts. *indicates raw and organic.

 Ingredients: Cashew, macadamia nut, agave nectar, banana, almond flour, dates, lemon juice, vanilla, and Himalayan salt

 These cookies were AMAZING!!!

Ingredients: Cookie: Almond flour, macadamia nuts, cashews, agave nectar, cacao powder, vanilla, and Himalayan salt.

A little background on Cafe Gratitude:

You can try any of these products at their online store and they have a cafe in San Francisco and catering  as well. I definitely want to visit one day!

Okay, I am off to get ready- my sister’s Birthday Party is today and I don’t want to be late! Hope you guys are having a fabulous weekend!!

Tags: Cafe Gratitude Product Review, free samples

Tuesday, July 13- My sister, Liz called me at work and told me that my sister, Becky had to be brought in for an emergency c-section. She went for a routine checkup and they noticed that her blood pressure was high and after some more testing, realized that her Blood levels were low so they pretty much told her- “You’re having the baby right now”. At that point there was no choice because having it naturally would have put her at risk for serious complications. But everything worked out okay (thanks to alot of prayers) and Olivia Grace came into this world safe and sound and my sister is just fine thank goodness

I headed down to see her at the hospital- an hour drive seems like a million when you’re ready to get somewhere!

She was perfect- and the perfect weight, 7 pounds, 13 ounces- the same as the date she was born- how cool is that?

Omigosh, I love her already! I get to see her again this Sunday at my sister, Liz’s birthday party! I am going to be her favorite Aunt

First diaper change by Daddy- this one is going to be a Daddy’s girl for sure, I just know it

Cheese pizza- movies- Bounty Hunter and the Book of Eli= fun night

Be back later with an updated blog post this weekend. I have lots to do this weekend but I’m so excited to get to work organizing, cleaning, painting. We are supposed to be painting the bathroom this weekend- we went and picked up the paint and plastic covering yesterday. Tonight will be a movie and popcorn night. Be back this weekend!!

Okay guys, I have a great giveaway for ya! Perfect Foods has offered to give one of my readers a 12-count box of their bars! I have reviewed their Bars before here and believe me they are amazing and so healthy for you- I wish I could win this one

So here is what you need to do to enter:

1. Add Perfect Foods on Facebook
2. Follow Perfect Foods on Twitter

The Giveaway will run through Friday and I will then announce the lucky winner! Have fun!!

I can’t believe it- I got the JOB!! I got the call when I was out of town for Uncle Bobby’s funeral- I turned off my phone the entire weekend and when I turned it back on Saturday- I had 2 voicemails, both from the hospital. I called to them this morning and it’s all set up- my official start date is July 29th- I’m SO excited!! So many things have been going on lately and it was nice to have some good news. I am so ready to start my new job- I have to go in and have all of the initial drug testing, physical, all of those fun things before I can start

Here is what I’ve been up to last week.

I ordered the hubby some new running shoes last week and they finally came in- he loves them, I found them on dealnews.com and pretty much paid $30 for them including shipping- sweet!

My husband and his cousins- unfortunate that we had to meet under the sad circumstances, but it was nice to meet some of the ones I had never met before and hear stories about my husband when he was little- Still the same prangster for sure

After 1.5 days of a viewing (driving 3.5 hours there and 3.5 hours back the next day), the service, the burial and after the dinner at my inlaws home. JoEllen, my sister in law (in the picture above) and myself grabbed a bottle of Pinot Grigio and enjoyed the hot tub. After everyone left it was nice to relax a little and unwind.

Speaking of relaxing and unwinding..

FoodBuzz sent me a Buitoni Package to try out

Does that look amazing or what?! I loved that the entire meal only took about 7 minutes in total to prepare- perfect for when you just don’t feel like cooking The pasta was very fresh- very much comparable to eating out at a restaurant. This was perfect since we had been on the road all week and I just didn’t feel much like cooking a big meal.

FoodBuzz also sent me some of the Nature’s Pride Bread- I love that it is 100% natural and has zero HFCS. My hubby was excited about the buns so he could have hamburgers

Case and Point

Last week was a crazy busy week and it looks like this week will be the same- I have tons that I want to do before I start my new job. I am going to go through some more clothing to see what I don’t need from my closet. Now that I will be wearing scrubs 5x’s per week- I really don’t need any more of my dressy office clothes- I am mostly excited about all of the walking around I will be doing all day and also all of the amazing opportunities I will have working at the hospital! Anyway, I better go and get busy on my closet- I will be back this week with a giveaway- I was going to have it sooner, but I kind of got behind on everything. Hope you all are having a fabulous week!

Hey guys, sorry I’ve been MIA but we had an unexpected death in the family- my husband’s Uncle Bobby, who was like an Uncle to me. I still can’t believe he is really gone, we had lots of great memories of making homemade icecream together, shopping together, and he even made me some pretty jewelry that I made sure to wear to the viewing, service and burial- he was really such a fun Uncle to hang out with and he will be greatly missed.

Alot of other things have been going on as well- my Mom has been in California for 2 months with my Grandma, Momie-she is 95 years old and just wasn’t able to live on her own anymore because she has the onsets of dimentia and alzhemiers and she refused to leave California to come live in Georgia. So my Mom and Aunt had to put her in a nursing home- I know it has been hard on my Mom. I am going to see her this weekend to see how she is doing. On top of all of that, my sister will be having her baby this weekend- which is exciting but honestly I will be happy when everything calms down so we can sit back and relax some. 

Because of everything, I am quite a bit behind on my blogging- So here is what my July 4th weekend looked like.

Early in the afternoon, we biked down to the lake- it’s only like a 6-7 minute bike ride from where we live.

And fed the cute ducks Well actually, we biked down the first time and I saw the ducks walking towards us and they thought we had bread and I felt bad for not having any- so I convinced the hubby that we should bike back home to get the ducks some bread and the ducks were really appreciative

Hubby carrying the bread for the ducks.

We saw a rooster on the way to feed the ducks and gave him a piece of bread as well

We had dinner on our back patio- the hubby grilled steaks, asparagus and we also made baked potatoes. I had my raw vegan eggplant parm. and some grilled asparagus.

Later we hung out by the firepit.

I always say, we can always have fun no matter where we are- we had so much fun that night and we didn’t even leave town.

We did drive to Callaway Gardens to go and see the fireworks and have a picnic by the lake.

Hummus & crackers that Mom gave to me- wow is all I can say. This combo was amazing! I had to put the bag away so I wouldn’t keep eating

 And some Chickpea salad that my sister in law made for me- she is so thoughtful. The hubby had a turkey sandwich on onion bread & chips. We sat in front of the lake and watched the turtles.

It did rain a little but then it stopped in just enough time for us to see the fireworks over the lake.

They were much bigger and more spectacular in person - I really need a better camera- soon maybe.

I’ll be back later with another post to catch up and another giveaway soon!

You’ll have to wait until the end to see who the won the giveaway!  Or you could just skip ahead

Wow, it has been a long week and I am so happy about my 3 day weekend! We have been so busy already- here is what I have been up to:

• Raked & Mowed Lawn
• Hubby put some sod down on some areas that were bare.
• Cut hubby’s hair
• Gave Roscoe a bath
• Library
• Redbox Movies- Leap Year, Legion, The Crazies - big thumbs up for all of these! We also watched “When in Rome” definitely not my favorite movie- it was slightly corny, not well acted at all.
• Ordered hubby some new tennis shoes online- they should be in sometime next week.
• Picked up hangers from consignment shop to get clothes ready to bring in.
• Made Homemade tomato soup (fresh tomatoes out of my garden) for next week.
• Weeded Vegetable Garden.

Speaking of Vegetable Gardens- I have TONS of these little cherry toms that I have been eating like crazy in salads or just dipped in hummus

And these 2 mini watermelons from our garden- hopefully they are sweet!

At the Library on Friday- I finally found the book I’ve been wanting to read! Sophie Kinsella is my Favorite Author of all time- Love her books! I’ve already read a few pages and it’s fabulous! I love Chick Lit as well like Meg Cabot and I can read anything about Health, Herbal remedies- that does fascinate me. I hate books that are depressing or are murder mysteries or if it drones on and on about history- it’s just not me- I can’t pretend to like them. What kind of books do you guys like?

I organized my closet a little- still more work to do here.

And we went to dinner last night- to a newer restaurant that we had been wanting to try out.

Loved the Restaurant decor- that is old salvaged brick from the Flint River Brick Company- I love things with history

I ordered the Salad- of course It came with a tomato vinaigrette- this was the most amazing salad that I’ve had in a long time! I shared some with the hubby because I couldn’t eat it all.

The hubby had the Chef Special- Pacific Sea Bass with wilted spinach & artichokes- I had a bite and it was delicious!

It was nice to get away from the House Remodeling and have a nice dinner & chat

Here is the agenda for later today:

• Make Homemade icecream for the hubby.
• Grill.
• Do some tanning & reading.
• Maybe go biking.
• Make Eggplant Parmesan (Raw Vegan)
• Get Consignment clothes put on hangers and ready to drop off next week.

And the winner of the Gnu Bar Giveaway is…..Matt!!! Please email me your deets and I’ll have this shipped out asap- thanks everyone for playing. I have another giveaway coming up right behind this one- so be sure to come back to see what it is!!

Remember when I had that CSN Giveaway? Well, CSN has contacted me once again and this time I will be doing a product review! They have over 200 stores that offer anything from handbags to dining room tables . I could seriously shop online at CSN all day long I love how easy their website is to navigate around and let’s not forget the fabulous prices! Be sure to come back and check out what I choose to review from CSN Stores later on next week!