2014

2014 was a blogging failure. BUT here we are at the end of it and I can start fresh with the New Year, so soon I will post a 2014 update, because a lot happened and then I AM going to keep up with fresh blogs at least once a week (or month). I would like this to be a place friends and family can keep up with what is going on, but first I have to commit to it! Here's to a fresh start.

Exercise

Exercise. These days its like a dirty word, to some a 4 letter word if you know what I mean. I have been seriously struggling for the last year to do something and now I am in a place I am not happy about and need/want to change. My friend Elizabeth has a blog called Chubby Madness, chubbymadness.wordpress.com, and she writes about how we need to learn to love ourselves and love our bodies for what they are, and not compare ourselves to unrealistic ideals we have learned from media. I agree completely with her that I shouldnt judge myself and my body based on others, but she also does encourage and see that being healthy and having a balance in your life is good as well. So, with Elizabeth in mind I have been re-evaluating my lifestyle and choices and I intend on making a change for the better.
Yesterday was day one, now I am extremely out of shape and need to get my muscle mass back and drop a few inches of fat here and there, all in all I need to loose about 10-15 lbs, but thinking like Elizabeth thats not a good way to put it in perspective. Instead I am going to make my goal sticking to working out and getting my stamina up, then when I have accomplished that I am going to re-eval where I am and see what I can change to get the results I want to see.
I did my yoga meltdown video with Jillian yesterday morning and it was so much harder than the last time I attempted it, which I was very sad about. But by the end of the video I did feel good I finished it and started working towards being healthier. Today I will have no time at all to exercise really so this morning I did 5 sun salutations before I got ready for work to stretch myself out, because yes, I am very sore in some spots from the workout. I plan on doing the video again tomorrow and then on Saturday. Friday after work I need to take Libby on a good brisk walk. Then on Saturday I will plan for next week. This is going to be a difficult month to start working in working out, ha that wasnt planned. Work is going to be crazy we are trying to get all this new software downloaded and train on it, plus go to a seminar in Sept, but as I think about it if I can manage to make it work and get started here in a difficult month I cant make excuses for why I cant stick with it in the future.
Oh lastly, one of my next goals is some 3 and 5 lb weights and a new video to work on muscle mass, esp in my arms, I dont want to be one of those flabby arms ladies, and a tummy video because for the first time in my life this year I have gotten a little more fat around my middle than I am comfortable with.

Untitled

I have been having an interesting couple of months.
My old car got totaled, my brother was rear ended in it and the guy had no insurance so Chad and I both lost money on that. I have yet to decide what exactly I am going to do with the car. It would be nice to get a little money out of it bc the engine is in perfect working order, just the back 1/3 is demolished. I am really quite frustrated and do not want to deal with it. The car is just sitting in the driveway at dads, doing nothing.
Work has been busy, busy we have been working pretty late everyday for a couple of weeks now. Last week we never got out before 730-745 everyday. It gets old always getting off so late. But I need the hours so I cant complain. This week the doctor has to go to FL again for more CEU hours. Yay for off on Friday, but I dont get paid for it. And we are open morning hours on Thursday but I have an obgyn appt that cant be moved for that morning, so that figures.
I have hit a roadblock with reading I have every intention of getting back to it, its just this lack of time to dedicate to it is difficult. I have a never ending circle of laundry and dishes going at home, plus taking care of the dog, work and dinner seems like all my time is always gone. When I relax with Chase he doesnt like it if I read bc I dont interact with him so I dont read in the evenings. I need to try to before bed more again. That was working for a little while.
I am very frustrated by money right now, ever since I got the truck I cant get back on track, part of that is because of the situation with the car completely being a lost cause. Part of it is just how paydays have fallen. I am praying I can get things back on track after this month, but we shall see.

GoT Reading Update

So, I am more than halfway through the first book of the Song of Fire and Ice collection, A Game of Thrones. Here are my thoughts on the book vs the show. First off, the book much much better obviously but also I can see how the producers and writers on the show have decided to make some of the scenes they use. There are a lot of scenes in the show that are a combination of two separate events in the book, typically the events are very closely related and they have combined the two and taken a little away to get what we see on the show. They are typically fairly in line with the storyline of the book but in general things are quite different. As I get further into the book things to seem to change more and more. The story is just so much more developed and detailed. There are so many things that make you think and change your opinion of the events you already know of. I cannot wait to get to the end of the book. The new girl who works with me now, Becky, is also reading them and she just finished the first book and said she could barely put it down at the end! Brans story line in the book is so much more detailed and interesting than what we got in the show. The whole trip to the Eyrie was condensed into one day on the show more or less and it was quite an event. Also Ser Rodrick was with Catelyn the whole trip, not back in Winterfell and there is a funny storyline about his whiskers. The way that things went down in Kings Landing with Eddard are quite different, not 100% but different. Anyhow, I really dont want to say too much because I do not want to give anything away. Oh, lastly though the amount of information we are denied about Dany's storyline in the show vs the book might be the worst, the Dothraki make much more sense to me now than in the show.

Update

Last night I saw the season finale of season 3 of GoT, everyone who watches knows the season finale wasnt much compared to the second to last episode "The Rains of Castamere" but better known as "The Red Wedding Episode". But it was an epic episode, and I am so excited. I am mostly excited bc I found out that they have split this season, this 3rd season was the first half of book 3 and season 4 will be then end of book 3 with possibly a little bit of the beginning of 4. So, yay for more detailed seasons of GoT! I am super sad that we wont get new episodes for 42 weeks. Thats some shit.
But I am reading the books now! Its official I started this morning. I have read the prologue and the first two chapters a Bran chapter and a Catelyn chapter. All three of these parts of the book have been in the show but they are so much more detailed and perfect on paper. The thing I like best is that I have a mental picture and a voice for almost every character. I agree making up your own is sometimes the most fun part of reading a new book, discovering characters but then when you see the movie or show you are disappointed bc they dont look and sound like youd expect. I like that its already set forth who everyone is and I can have Jon Snow in my head even more now.

JoJo and I decided we are going on an impromptu trip! Bob keeps going all over the damn place fishing and so I asked him when everyone was going to do something fun and he said ask your JoJo. So, I told JoJo Bob said we can go on a trip bc he keeps going fishing and I have a 4 day weekend next week so we threw together this little trip. We leave Thursday for Hilton Head Island and come back Sunday. Sunday we have to leave at like 715 AM so its really only 3 days but still. I dont have to take any time off and I get a free few days away plus just with JoJo and I can get some serious reading done!

life gets in the way

Things have been busy it seems. Honestly I couldnt even tell you what I have been doing that is keeping me so busy but it seems I rarely have any time to do whatever I want and I am constantly getting ready for the next thing I need to do. Here are a few highlights of the last couple weeks and what they have held.
Chase's brother (David) and his gf (Maci) are pregnant. Yeah, I suppose technically she is the pregnant one but they are in it together. I have many thoughts and feelings on this that I choose not to share in a public way. If you really want to know call me.
I got a new car, its not a car its an SUV. I got a 05 Tahoe Z71 4x4 its like champagne or sand colored. The color is dads favorite. It has less that 100K miles on it and we got it $5K under price, so YAY! But I am nervous about the payment. Luckily insurance is only like $30 more a month so that is exciting considering I had liability on the car and have full coverage on the Tahoe, but whatever. Chad is buying the car from me. He already gave me a $100 and $55 for the insurance for the month, when he gets back from his trip he is going to get his truck sold and give me the rest of the money then and we will get the title transferred at that point.
Work is crazy this month. This week we were off Monday for the Memorial Day holiday but I have to work Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday from 12-5 then we work full days Mon-Wed and the office will be closed Thurs-Fri but I will only be off Thursday, Friday I have to go to Lyndon Fest to work from 4-7 then Saturday work 12-7 same event, but I will be off Sunday. Then we have a normal work week followed by another week where we work all day Mon-Wed and are off Thursday Friday so 4 day weekend but we dont get paid for any of the days we dont work. That is part of why I am helping with all these events on the weekends. Also, bc we are going to be in St. Louis with Zach's dad James for the Cardinals Padres game. Its looking like that might be the only game we get to this summer. Chase may be going this weekend to St. Louis but I cant go bc of work.
I havent been reading much which is disappointing for me. I am a week behind on GoT which is sad. Havent got to see The Great Gatsby or Star Trek 2 yet. I am up for a raise in like 19 days so yay hope its a big one!

The Secret to Perfect Chicken Everytime!

Today I was thinking of how I could successfully make chicken to shred and flavor that wasnt over done and chewy. I have tried boiling chicken and tearing it, not ideal, I tried baking it off and tearing it, also blah didnt work out how I thought, then there is pan fry, messy messy messy and again timing to not overcook.... I figured somewhere out there in the great blogisphere (thats a word right?) must be someone who has this down. I got lucky and found a promising idea on the second blog I checked out. I tried it and damn if it doesnt work PERFECT! Ill likely never cook chicken another way, well except when making fried chicken because obviously theres only one way to do that right.

You can only cook 3 chicken breasts at a time this way.

2-3 Chicken breasts
salt and pepper
1 cup chicken broth
2-4 Tbsp olive oil
12 inch skillet OR saucepan WITH lid

Put the olive oil in the pan and heat it on medium heat until it ripples when you move the pan around
While the oil is heating salt and pepper both side of the chicken breasts
Once the oil is hot, put the chicken top side (the prettier side) into the oil and cover with lid cook for 5 minutes do not bother the chicken!
Once 5 minutes has elapsed, pour in 3/4 cup of the chicken broth and turn the chicken breasts over.
Cover again and cook for 7 minutes, then pour in the rest of the broth and cover and cook for 3 more minutes.
As soon as the 10 minutes is over remove the chicken and let it cook until you can shred, or chop it.
IF you want to flavor the shredded chicken this is what I do.

After removing the chicken from the pan to cool do no throw out brothy oil mixture, maybe pour a little out if it didnt reduce at all. But as you shred the chicken throw it back into that pan and then once all the chicken is shredded pour in taco or blackening seasoning and mix it all up and heat it for maybe 3 minutes let it cool and put it in tupperware until you need it or its ready to serve!