2011: The year of the Bus

Hahaha I know I know, I'm a dork with the title, but I can't help but be overjoyed that I now have FREEDOM!!!! Well, sort of at least. :P I bought a bus pass yesterday so I can make my way around without bugging my sis every ten seconds to use the car! It was one hundred bucks, but it will pay for itself in no time. It's a "college pass" so I now have unlimited rides on the bus until May 31st!! Isn't that rad?!?! I mean trust me, I would love to have the freedom of having my own car, but right now that just isn't possible. So instead, I'm going to ride the bus as much as I can, to where ever I need to go.

So I started my adventure today after I got done at work. I took the bus from my house to uptown. I walked a couple blocks to a local coffee shop on Hennepin (Spyhouse: if ya haven't been there, make it a priority coffee shop to go to!). I worked on my Psychology homework for a couple hours at the "coffee bar" they have. I started to get a little side tracked, so I asked the lady working if there was a library near by.

Of course there was! haha I walked about 6 blocks south on Hennepin to the Walker Hennepin Co library. I stopped in at a computer store on the way to find out about getting iWork for my laptop. I was excited to hear I can buy it on itunes for 50 bucks cheaper! BOOYAH.

I studied at the library for a while and then went across the street for a quick sub. Now, I'm sitting at the sbux close by my house (I took the bus back over to my digs). Needless to say, I'm dorking out about the bus now. It's super convenient, I just have to search for routes and stuff online until I get the hang of it. I'm also really excited to become a lot more knowledgable on the Minneapolis area.

I'm looking forward to "forced down time" as Lisa calls it :P The stupid picture above is of me with my awesome bus pass :P (oh yeah those are my new specs too! I got them in the mail yesterday!)

Anyway, I'm done ranting about my exciting news. Until next time peeps.

So, I made my super secret squirrel recipe yesterday. It was a dud unfortunately. I got the recipe out of my sisters cookbook "clean food". Needless to say, when some people say that whole foods are gross and bland, this is one of the recipes they were talking about.

Black beans are tasty. There tasty in my chipotle burrito bowl, in salsa and several other things. However, no one should EVER make them into patties. There were several other things in the patties, but they just didn't have any flavor. I made a pineapple guacamole with the patties, and THAT was good, but even putting that on the patty did not help.

You live and you learn right? I've really enjoyed cooking at home. I'm starting to get the hang of how much spice or oil you need for cooking. I picked up my friend Katie from the airport and made dinner at her house with her husband and little bundle of joy Addi. Lemon Chicken, grilled asparagus, and seasoned red potatoes. They said it was amazing! I was fairly proud of myself cause I didn't find it too difficult to accomplish!

Anyway, I'm sitting at school in the Veterans lounge right now, putting of reading my textbooks. I should probably get to the learning. Until next time friends!

Operation "Whole Foods" in full swing!

Last week I spent some time thinking about ways to quicken my weight loss........I only came up with on task; however, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy one at that. Eating healthier. Isn't that the answer to many things whether it's weight loss, happiness, or health issues? People say it, but I feel like most people don't explain it or don't want to go through the trouble of research. Not to mention the trips to the grocery store that are much more difficult (and a lot more expensive unfortunately).

I've decided I'm going to change the nasty cycle.

Well, for two weeks at least :P I'm going to eat ONLY whole foods for the next 12 days. (I already started yesterday so I'm closing up on day two right now! No, seriously, I'm sitting at the table eating a clementine and pumpkin seeds as I write this.) It's not going to be easy to resist my normal caramel high rise at work along with the occasional banana chocolate chip muffin (which I must say are A-mazing). However, I know that I will be working for the good of my body in the long run. (oh running, how I miss you)

My lovely sister, Lisa, is a health nut and is helping me with what I can and cannot eat. She lent me one of her cookbooks "clean food" and I'm going to be making a couple meals from the book that call for all whole foods.

I'm really excited about this. Today I totally geeked out at the grocery store. I was almost on a first name basis with the lady stocking in the organic section as I asked her question after question about different products. :P Anyway, as I know you all love photos, I continued my geekyness when I got home and took some photos of my groceries:

All my lovely groceries for the next two weeks. And yes, I displayed my reusable bags proudly!

Beautiful!

veggies for my recipes I'm excited to try out!

THIS WEEKS FEATURED PRODUCTS

(ok, thats code for my favorite buys)

Steel cut oats! I have NEVER made actual oatmeal. I've always made instant!

And the only bread available in the store that was made from whole food.

Well, that the exciting new stuff in life right now.....I'm sure I'll be updating when I make my lovely whole food meal (it's super secret squirrel stuff right now) on Thursday! Until then!

Update Time!

Blogging may be few and far in between for this busy girl.....need I say more than this photo? :P

Just a quick update for now: Life RAWKS needless to say. I'm loving school, work, P90x, and what I'm learning in the Word.

School is great. My professors are awesome, and most of my classes are pretty interesting. The thing I'm looking forward to the most this semester is service learning. One of my professors requires 10 hours of volunteering for his course. I'm thinking about going to children's hospital in Minneapolis for my volunteering. The biggest reason I'm excited about this is I haven't really volunteered (outside of the PD and Church) since I was in high school. I'm looking forward to seeing what opportunities arise throughout it.

Work is good, although I'm glad to be working less now. It's nice to have the variety of school, work, and other activities in life.

I'm just finishing up my third week of P90X! I don't feel like I've been seeing a huge difference, but a lot of that has to do with my eating habits. I'm considering changing my diet around so that I can lose some more weight and continue on to my goal of becoming a brick house. :P Running is still on hold unfortunately until my physical therapy starts up. I'm hoping to start hitting the trails again within a month or two.

Last, but definitely not least, I just started to study the book of Ruth with my mom (if you know her, which all of you do, cause all of my followers are her children :P), so of course we're doing an in depth thirty day study. Because of school, were only doing the study three days a week and then meeting when we can. I've already been learning so much and trying to apply the book to my life. Ruth was very selfless (if you don't know this, go read Ruth it's only four chapters). With her model, I've been coming to notice that it something I need to work on big time. Everything isn't about me, and I need to be more aware of that sometimes. It's wonderful to see how the Lord worked in her favor because she submitted to His will for her life by being selfless. Awesome stuff.

Well, no promises on the next blog post. Until then, peace!

Sick + School = probably not good (GRAPHIC POST)

So today is my first day back at school, and last night I was awake throwing up amongst other things. (that was the graphic part.) Now, I'm sitting outside of my first classroom, just waiting for the magic to begin at noon. I have faith that the Lord is going to get me through three 75 minute classes. Anyway, I don't have much else to tell you all right now, cause I'm ill, tired, and have a headache.

Until next time everyone.