Homemade Whole-wheat pizzas!

So. I spent what seemed like all day making this homemade pizza because I have heard that pizza can actually be a healthy meal if made right (fyi: I heard this off Biggest Loser. This isn't just a gimmick so I can eat pizza, haha!). Truly, it didn't come out that great. It looked good. It smelled good. Something in the crust was just lacking. Crusts are the hardest to get right. I used a recipe that I found online. It can be found here. I am wondering if maybe the reason it tastes different is because I always use olive oil. Do all pizzerias make their pizzas with olive oil? It seems like the proper way to make a pizza but I wonder if it would make a difference in the overall product.

Well anyway. Since Holly is in Ohio with Matt and Jacqueline and Olive for the week the only people at home who are eating bread are Adam, Dad and myself so we're stuck eating all this pizza. Who knew eating pizza could be such a chore? I am planning to make curry tomorrow. Hopefully that will be better!

7(ish) Layer Salad

The recipe for this salad came from my sister's Mother-in-law who is an amazing cook. We had this salad at her house over Memorial day and I haven't gotten it out of my head.I put myself on a rather strict diet. Not entirely sure how long I'll make myself be this strict but I'm hoping to break some bad eating habits and create some new good ones. The diet I am putting myself on is basically just meat (fish and eggs and cheese included), veggies and perhaps 1 half cup of no-sugar-added apple sauce or a glass of skim milk every day. I hope to keep it up for the whole week and perhaps start adding in It's boring. I hate it. I miss junk food. But I'm going to do it anyway and I made this salad today to have something yummy to bring to work with me. I think there are more than 7 layers in this salad. I practically have a whole produce section in here.

So this diet has been a little rough these past couple of days. For starters I wasn't feeling well anyway...being a girl can be kinda tough sometimes..like once a month. So as I said last week I was really emotional and I'll be honest, I'm an emotional eater. I think I get an endorphin release from sugar. So since I've still been feeling kind of emotional not allowing myself to have comfort foods has been tough. But it's good too. I really need to break those kinds of habits now. That's one of the reasons I want to study nutrition in the first place. I want to learn strategies on how to eat healthily while leading a busy life. Cause I don't think my life is about to get any less hectic in the coming months and I'm certain it's going to be very stressful.

I don't really believe in dieting. I believe in finding a lifestyle that is healthy and doable. The only reason I'm doing this is because I do want to lose weight and I want to try and regulate my hormones a little bit before I leave for school. I'm ready to get off my emotional roller coaster. I think the ultimate goal though is to create a healthy, manageable way of eating and living. I am a firm believer that exercise is a huge part of being healthy.

When I was younger (and much thinner) I did ballet for 3 years. They were probably 3 of my favorite years. I was crazy about dancing. I can't really describe how it made me feel except to say that it was like my drug. I think I must have been creating beta endorphins like nuts because dancing made me so happy. There is just something about moving to gorgeous music that makes you feel absolutely wonderful. And it was so fun dancing with other girls who loved dancing too because it made me feel a camaraderie with them. It was like I got to be a part of it all. And being part of something beautiful made me feel beautiful. I needed to go to dance class once a week. If I didn't I would get really sad and depressed and bored. It sounds dramatic, it sounds silly, but dance was my first true love. An obsession actually. And when I started college I couldn't keep both up. I knew I had to let go of dancing. I had started my first job (which I loved) and was busy taking 5 classes at college and had made new friends and was enjoying myself. I missed it though.

I still miss it. I want it back. I don't know if I ever can get it back. But I know that I need to find other things to keep me busy and entertained besides food. I'd love to find some sort of a dance class to be involved in. Who knows? 20 isn't that old. Maybe I could find some sort of class for adults. WVU does offer ballroom dancing and swing dancing classes...maybe next semester I'll sign up for one or the other. That would be so fun.

Anyway. The whole point of this post was to say that I made a gorgeous salad and I'm going to try hard to be healthy and to use the next couple of years at college to cultivate good habits and get out of my comfort zone. And I'm going to try hard to be excited about it!

PS: I DID tell Dr. H that Monday that I came in the I had started a diet and that I wasn't feeling well so I needed her support and she groaned and said, "here, take this Advil...premedicate." I had to laugh. I didn't take it because I ended up feeling pretty good the whole day. Sweet!

Happy Birthday~

Last Thurday Becca turned 24! We celebrated by having a little party at Jacqueline's house. We had ham and pineapple pizza and these yummy cupcakes. It was nice to have a little celebration. For me there was even more reason to celebrate. I am officially finished with Blue Ridge CTC! I graduate in a couple of days and while I'm not walking in the graduation ceremony (much to my advisors irritation) I will have a diploma shortly and that makes me very happy. :)


We made sure there were 24 candles. Becca blew them out as quickly as she could since we didn't have them on a plate and Jacqueline wasn't cool with us potentially setting her tablecloth on fire. I wouldn't have enjoyed that much either. I have a fear of fire.

I made this little tea wallet for as a gift for Becca. It holds up to 6 teabags and it fits into a purse easily. It is made of linen and a fabric I have had for awhile that I really like, but don't know what to use for. I only have about 1/2 a yard of it so I can't make anything very big out of it.
After our little pizza party I went grocery shopping with Becca. She hosted a game night on Saturday and was shopping for party food and I got to go along and help. We went back to her house and hung out for awhile. Very relaxing.

The day ended with me trying out the rife machine for 30 seconds (more on that to come) and going back to Jacqueline's house where Holly and I said hi to the guys who came for Bible study and then chose to head home early. We got home around 7:30 and ended up watching The Office finale. Are Pam and Jim going to have a baby? Plus, who else thought Dwight was funnier than he has been in a loooong time? It was a good episode.

That was Thursday. I love having days off. :)

Happy Easter

A day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Who gave his life as a ransom for ours. What a precious gift!

John 15:13 (New International Version)

¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

We celebrated over at the Frey's house. It was nice to see them again as well as the Curtis family. I can't believe how much their kids have grown.

I did some baking for the occasion. I tried the Strawberry Sugar Bread recipe from My Messy Thrilling Life's blog. It was good. It tasted a little like a zucchini bread. I would make it again.

I got this idea from the same blog. Rice krispy treats on popsicle sticks made infinitely better by dipping in melted semi-sweet and white chocolate and pareils.
They were rather awkward to transport. They were drippy and sticky so I stuck them in the freezer hoping to harden the marshmellow and chocolate enough so they wouldn't fall apart or make a huge mess. It was fun, but I wouldn't recommend making everything the morning of whatever occasion you are taking them too. I cut it very close to making us late because they were more labor intensive than I thought they would be.

I hope everyone else had a happy Easter.

Dinner and Bible study at Matt and Jacqueline's house~

Tuesday nights are probably my favorite night of the week! Why you may ask? Well, Tuesday nights are Bible study nights and I get to go hang out at Matt and Jacqueline's house with the folks who are part of the Bible study. It's very encouraging to meet up with fellow believers during the week and it really gives me something to look forward to. I would take pictures of the Bible study members, but I think they're probably a little shy about having their pictures snapped just so I can blog about it.

Instead I shall show you the 'loverly' dinner made by Matt and Jacqueline. They are generous enough to host the Bible study in their home and they feed us dinner too.Here is their Olive Garden inspired soup with a name I can't even pronounce much less spell. It's like zakkapakkawatchamacallitinilini soup. It was made by scratch and very good.

And you can't forget dessert!

I wish all of you could come to our Bible studies. It's great to fellowship with the folks who come out each week to study the Bible together and it's always neat to get different people's input on the passages of scripture we read. Sometimes one person will notice something that another may not so that is one really cool part of studying the Bible with a group.

cooking up a storm...

You don't believe me? You should have seen the stack of dishes that had to be done!
Chicken Casserole and Ice Cream Cake for Jacqueline's 22 birthday!

Mom made me get in the picture. I still don't understand why unless it was to make Jacqueline agree to be in the picture. :P

A chance to use my Pampered Chef stuff.

Did I ever write about the Pampered Chef party I went to? Well, I ordered some stuff to decorate cakes and dishes with. And some spices but that has nothing to do with this post.

Anyway, on Sunday we had company coming over so we baked a cake and I was told I could frost it. But I didn't want to frost it. I wanted to stencil it with powdered sugar and my new cake decorating stencils and put little dots on it with my cake decorating squeegy-tubes.

See? Voila. Ignore my chin. I told Holly not to get my face in this picture and here I am double-chinning it. :( Focus instead on the stencils and frosting-filled squeegy tube.
So we (or I, I was kind of hogging the stuff) started to stencil the cake with the powdered sugar. You just put the stencil on the cake and sift powdered sugar over it. Simple. Right?
Wrong. I guess. I don't have a sifter. I tried using a fork to shake the sugar over it and that didn't work. I tried taking the cap to a salt shaker and filling it with sugar and shaking it and that was better, but I'd already got globs of sugar on the cake. So we had to try something else. Something like the frosting-filled squeegy-tube.
See, not too pretty. And putting little dots around the edge wasn't cutting it. It wasn't enough to take away from the mess in the middle of the cake.
So we had to just frost the whole thing. But I still got to use both the stencils and the squeegy-tube (Holly actually got to use it to put the dots on the cake. I let her do something other than take pictures. :D) and the salt-shaker cap sifter to decorate it. And it came out lopsided. Better luck next time. :) Next time when I have a sifter! It was fun anyway. And it still ended up edible. :) Not a bad situation I think.

I never did cut out pieces for the projects I want to make. Maybe this coming weekend I'll work on some projects. I am very sad about the earthquake in China today. How sad! I can't imagine what the families out there are going through! And how about all the tornadoes that have been going on out west? I hate storms and natural disasters. When it comes to those, there isn't an adventurous bone in my body. I'm a total wimp. Thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of those events.

What is it about baking that is almost therapeutic?

(The Hershey kisses melted. Oops! I didn't realize that you don't bake them with them on.
I've never made these before so it was a reverse on the traditional peanut butter cookie with a Hershey kiss in the middle.)









Perhaps it's the sugar rush that follows the baking?

Traction and Tuesday Trifle...or chocolate cake, strawberry, whipped cream thingy...

One Tuesday on my way to Bible study from the chiropractor I called my sister to see if she needed anything at the store for Bible study while I was up that way. She said no, but her dessert was ruined. But she had another plan for it. So in the end I went to her house to see if I could help set up and she taught me how to make this dessert. She kind of came up with it herself. She was trying to make truffles with chocolate cake and melted chocolate and something didn't go according to plan. This is what you do:

• First of all you choose a cake mix. I used a dark chocolate cake mix from Pillsbury. I think. If I was really ambitious the night I made it I would have made a cake from scratch. I'm sure it would have been better. But I made the cake on Monday night to take to work the next day so I wasn't feeling very ambitious. Maybe next time.
• Melt chocolate chips to spread over the cake you just made. I chose Ghiradelli milk chocolate since I used a dark chocolate cake.
  

• I just melted it in the microwave and used a knife to spread it over the cake like frosting.
  

• Then I cut the cake into squares and put it in the freezer for half an hour.
  

• 
• Crumble the chilled/frozen cake into a bowl so there is a layer on the bottom. (Ignore that first bullet. I don't know how to get rid of it without deleting my picture.)
  

• Then layer it with whipped cream and strawberries.
  

And you can decorate the top of it with the strawberry pieces.
Then take it to work with you so you don't eat the whole thing yourself. My sister made enough to make 2 layers of cake and whipped cream and strawberries. I kept half of it out that night for my family to make into their own desserts. One thing we found out was that if you are going to make this the night before then don't assemble the layers until the next day. Or even better, wait until you are about to serve it. The whipped cream doesn't hold up very well. I brought the rest of the can with me to the office so they could add to it if they wanted to.

So I finally feel like I did something somewhat creative. :) So glad Jacqueline made that lucky mistake. As Matt said, "instead of a mess it became a....bless(ing). " We all try our hand at rhyming sometimes, right? :)

On Tuesday the chiropractor started me on my treatments for my neck. They put it in traction which was very uncomfortable and I tensed my neck up and ended up hurting my neck muscles. It hurt all night. I was dreading going back today. So when they started me back in traction again today I asked them if that was normal to be really sore afterwards and they said no and I shouldn't be tensing up my neck. They helped me find ways to be more comfortable and relax and it helped SO much. I feel fine now. Maybe this treatment won't be so bad.

I can't wait to work on some projects. Soon hopefully. Somehow I feel like this summer I may be able to get stuff done.

I found out this week that my doctor is also leaving the practice. I am sad that she is leaving, but also excited for her. I hope this move will be a very positive experience for her. I've really enjoyed working with her.

Once again, things are always changing. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Detached mostly. I feel like since I'm leaving eventually it doesn't affect me quite as much. Though if we get another doctor soon I will most likely be working with them until I move. Unless they let me go. I don't know. I really am not very concerned about the situation though. I believe that God has the whole thing under control. He has it all under control.

It's Wednesday! Tomorrow is Thursday. Payday! And my last day of work before the weekend. Yay!
Until later~

The task of art today is to bring chaos into order. --Theodor Adorno

I'm not very good at that kind of art. :P

Sometimes life just seems like one chaotic whirl. One chaotic whirl that has me caught unprepared and helpless. Sometimes I don't want to deal with it. I want to just go back to sleep and not face the day, which, of course, would be totally impractical. I'm struggling with that lately, and I'm trying to not to let those feelings get the best of me. They're just feelings after all.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

That's what I need to think about. Not what's currently causing stress in my life. Life is constantly dealing with stress. Last night I was stressed out so I came home and checked email and some of the blogs I read and came across this over at My Messy Thrilling Life's blog. Of course I had to try it. I know it's awful to make cookies because you're stressed, but I really didn't eat much of it (honest!) I just wanted to do something kinda creative and this is
what I did.
I think it came out really good! Then again, it's a chocolate chip cookie so of course I thought it was good. I would have taken a picture of it in the skillet, but my siblings and I got into it before I thought to get my camera. My brother ate 3 big pieces before bed and another this morning. Then he said he got a stomach ache. No wonder. I couldn't do that. I should bring one to work sometime. I think everyone would like it.
This is just a really huge piece that was left over and I got a picture of it before someone ate it.

This morning I went with my sister up to town to go to the bank and grocery store. We had a nice time. It's cold out. It was so beautiful outside on Tuesday and now it's cold and gray out. I can't wait until spring is here to stay! While I was at the store I picked up these Daisies. My lilies died. I do like having flowers around the house. It makes the house seem nicer. We had
someone come look at the house yesterday. This is the third time the house has shown since the middle of December. Not too good since the last house we sold was only on the market a few weeks before it sold. It scared me though. It's starting to sink in that we are really trying to move. I know it will be a good thing, it's just the longer I wait I start to lose my nerve.
One of the ladies at work was telling me that at the wellness center gym she goes to they have yoga classes there on Monday nights and Friday mornings which is perfect for me. I'm seriously thinking of joining over there and taking classes. It's cheaper to have a membership there (I get a discount for working for a doctor, even though my doctor is a dentist) and just take yoga than it is to find a yoga class. Plus they offer all kinds of stuff like tai chi (sounds dorky, but I've always wanted to try it!), a pool, sauna, machines, and they are open earlier an stay open later than my gym does. So I'm about to head out and close out my current gym membership. I wasn't going to switch gyms since we're moving, but I still don't know how long we'll be here and I want to do this. Plus the chiropractor said it would be good for me. The lady at work who was telling me this has a membership there and said she would take the class with me if I sign up so I think I'm going to do it. I'm hoping it will be a good thing!

Tonight we're going to my sister's house to watch Bleak House. I saw bits and pieces of it a few years ago on Masterpiece Theatre and liked it so I'm excited to go see it. It's going to be me and my sisters and mom and a few other ladies we're friends with and a couple jars of Nutella. Sweet. :)

Welcome Springtime!

Now what says love more than a chocolate heart nest full of chocolate eggs? Ha ha. Now, in all seriousness, it was fun getting together with friends over break and putting together these chocolate nests with eggs (I got the idea from some of these wonderful blogs I read all the time) but the way people celebrate Easter is even worse than the way we celebrate Christmas. It's not about the resurrection of Jesus Christ after he had been crucified and died three days earlier. It's about bunnies and eggs and baskets...and I bought into it too. I got my family members chocolate bunnies.


Today we went over to my sister's house for church. My family is part of a home church. We meet with my sister and her husband and another family. Occasionally another family from the church we all used to go to will come too, but only so often. I really like it. I'm part of the other Bible study on Tuesdays too, but this one is more like family. Anyway, today we listened to a message by John MacArthur on the resurrection and it was really good. He covered a verse that I hadn't remembered:
John 20:21
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

What a commission! We are ambassadors! Do we live like we are representing the risen Lord? The only begotten Son of God? I don't. Not as much as I should. Honestly, it isn't always the first thing on my mind. But I want it to be.

Reading from the four gospels, it is amazing to see the different reactions from people in the Bible towards the resurrection. No one understood (even though Jesus explained several times that he must be sacrificed and raised again on the third day) that Jesus had to die. Even those who lived with him for 3.5 years and were taught by him all that time didn't understand what would take place.

Luke 24:45-47
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He (Jesus) told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

I think the most beautiful "Easter" celebration I ever saw and participated in was a Sedar (sp?) meal that was put on at my old church. A group of people from a Messianic Jewish church came and explained the Jewish way of celebrating the Passover and how it illustrates the way Jesus came a died for us. They even did Jewish dances and got a bunch of people to get up and do it with them, which was really fun. I love dancing. :) It was just a very interactive and focused way to celebrate the holiday. I'm not Jewish, but I would love to participate in another Sedar meal celebration if I had the opportunity. Especially with people who acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten, risen Son of God. It really was neat.

(My sister, me my friend Courteney)

So in answer to my question, what says love more than a chocolate heart nest filled with eggs? How about a God that loved us so much that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Some food for thought. But to finish up my day, it was nice. Quiet, but nice. Especially since my week was rather crazy. I'm not sure what was wrong with me this week, but I was being really...dumb? Yeah, that's it. On Thursday we had a surprise baby shower for a lady at work and I was sent out to pick up some balloons at a local florists. I got them and brought them safely back to the office, but locked them and my gift for the shower in the car with my keys and my dad had to come with the extra key so I could get in. I was so flustered that when I went out to meet him at the car he had already unlocked it and had my keys in his hand. He handed me the keys and I unlocked the car door and began to look for my keys before I realized he had actually already handed them to me.
And after that I kept confusing my words and forgetting what I was doing and messing up on things I haven't messed up on for a long time. I told my parents on Friday that my sister and her husband were planning to go to the Palm Friday service at church (I meant Good Friday, but confused it with Palm Sunday).
The funniest thing though is that on Friday night I stayed up late with my younger sister, Holly and we were watching a movie and around 12 pm a police officer rang the doorbell (scared me to death...I thought maybe some weirdo was creeping around outside or something). He said he was looking for a 223. Keep in mind that my mind was not working well and I thought he meant some sort of police code. I was like, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't know of a 223." He was actually looking for an address. We live out in the country and not everyone has road signs and numbers on their houses. They get knocked down and no one replaces them. Not a good system. I guess he saw our light on and figured we were awake so he stopped to ask us. After he left Holly explained to me that he was looking for an address and not speaking in code. She's so smart. And funny. She told me, "A man in blue is a friend to you!" What would I do without her? I should have let her handle it, but she's 6 years younger than me and my parents were asleep, so I figured I should get the door. I'm usually not this out of it. I really hope I do better this week. My mom told me to take more fish oil.

I better go to bed. Back to work tomorrow.

Sewing/Baking...Sewing for Baking!

I found the macro setting on my camera! So I took a picture of the flowers I grabbed out of the vase at work when I was leaving to go home this Valentine's day. I looked at my boss as I was "stealing" them and said, "Thank you for the beautiful flowers, Dr. B.!" He just rolled his eyes and said, "well someone should enjoy them, they'll just get thrown out this weekend." He really has a funny, dry sense of humor. I know that that quote wasn't very funny, but he's always cracking a joke and I think they're usually funny. Usually. :)

I realize these aren't the best, but I was so excited to find that macro setting!

I blogged about a skirt I was making which I was unhappy with because the zipper kept puckering and I said I was going to take the zipper out and try it again. Well I did and it came out even worse than before. So I am putting it aside for now (maybe forever, lol) and I decided to work on something else. Awhile back, my friend Christina gave us a bag of fabric that she didn't want and I grabbed some stuff out of it before passing it on again. I used some of it for picture backdrops for my puppy pictures and I also found this fabric with coffee cups and coffee pots and croissants on it and I thought the color was...well kinda ugly. It's not my favorite shade of blue...green...mint? Anyway, I did think that it was "kitchen appropriate" so I saved it and thought I'd make an apron out of it. So instead of doing the skirt again I went ahead and made this little half apron.

Modeled by my mom. :)

It was really easy and only took maybe an hour to an hour and a half to make.

This is how I spent the rest of my evening. On Friday I made a trip to Walmart and stopped at the mall to see my friend, Becca. It was great to see her and visit for a bit. I'd had a kinda rough week and seeing her and chatting was just the thing to perk me up. :) Thank God for friends. :) We talked a little bit about natural ways to boost your immune system (there is a nasty cold/flu thing that's going around town) and other health related topics which was fun. We are both interested in naturopathy and homeopathy, alternative medicines etc. We went over to Sears where she found a coat she liked, (on sale no less!) and I stopped at Waldenbooks to look for a new magazine and I came out with it and a cookbook. Only it wasn't a healthy cookbook, it was the 'Chocolate and Coffee Bible' book. I found this recipe for chocolate puffs in it. I kinda tweaked the recipe and made it a little different. It came out okay. It was fun to make anyway. :)

My family seemed to approve of them.

So that was my "crafty" weekend. It was actually more crafting than I'd done in awhile. I think baking/cooking is a type of craft so I'm counting that and the skirt that went wrong as part of my crafting endeavors. Maybe someday I will fix that skirt and put a picture of it up here.

Oh, and here is the magazine that I got. It had some interesting ideas in it, but I think I like Sew Simple better. I would give it 2 of 5 stars. If I was a critic. :)