Work out

So yesterday I started my workout outlined for me by the guy at the gym. I did 15 minutes on the elliptical, 5 minutes on the treadmill, and 5 minutes on the arc trainer. I'm supposed to do 30 minutes of cardio, but 25 was fiiiine for the first day. Then I worked on weight machines for my back and biceps. I'll write out the whole workout he outlined for me later. And yes, periodically I will post pictures, just not everyday.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Okay...so I am back and the picture a day thing is pretty much done with. BUT...I've gone back to the gym and have a whole workout to follow, so I am going to blog about that and my feelings on that, etc. So I am back to writing!

Starting again...P*AD* 1- Erin Go Braugh

Ok, so I have been convinced to start doing my Picture A Day thing. So I will. Yesterday was good ol St. Patrick's Day. I may not look it, with the red hair and all, but I'm Irish. My grandma's maiden name was Kennedy and NOW my last name is Murray. Hahahahahaha I'm so Irish. For years and years, every St. Patrick's Day my mom has cooked corn beef & cabbage. In the past few years I have discovered a liking to cabbage and I have always liked corn beef.I just knew I had to attempt my own corn beef & cabbage meal yesterday. The corn beef cooked all day in the crock pot and it was SO VERY GOOD! I was very impressed with myself. The cabbage was quite tasty too. My St. Patrick's Day was just like it used to be at home (except way better corn beef...hahahahahaha)

PictureMail

I finally got my new phone!! <*Kara*>

Oh No

Okay...so by I'm going to post tomorrow I meant I'll post as soon as I find my camera...oops.........

I'm Baaaack

Ok...I'm back. I've been back for a while, but I've been getting used to being back home from St. Louis. It was a wayyy fun time and I have a ton of pictures. I suck. I took one or more pictures a day while in St. Louis, but as soon as I got back home, I stopped. I'm a horrible quitter! Ack. Well, tomorrow, I'll update with fun pictures and updates on me and the husband! See y tomorrow.

clear up

I'm still taking pictures each day of my vacation/trip home, so my 365 days of pictures will not be interrupted.

I'm still snapping

I am still doing the picture a day blogging but will not post 2 weeks of pictures until I get back to New York - it will be much easier! But I will update the blog till I get back with the pictures

p*A*D*-Day 21-Vanilla Bean Goodness

This is the very rare vanilla bean scone from Starbucks. If I see it in their baked goods case, I must get them because supposedly they stopped making these early last year. Rarely, some do still have them in the case. These are so very delicious with a latte or coffee. I don't really need Starbucks since I have learned to make my own coffee very well, but I do still enjoy their lattes very much.

P*A*D*-Day 20-No preggo!

And so, I am not pregnant. This is good, but I'm a teeny bit sad. I do want kids and I don't want to be an old lady having babies, haha. No plus sign, so no baby. I'm just relieved. I'm leaving Friday for St. Louis!

p*A*D*-Day 19-Valentine's early

This was the early Valentine's day dinner I made for Kevin. The steak was a bit over cooked, but still pretty good. Almost everything at this dinner is from Angelfood. I hid his present in his chair and he was surprised when he went to sit down for dinner. He opened his Spongebob heart filled with gummy crabby patties and the stuffed dog I gave him. I told him it was for him to hug while I was gone when he missed me.



Then I made some yummy V-Day funfetti cupcakes which were so good. All in all it was a great Valentine's Day.

P*A*D*-Day 18-Romantical Dinner

Kevin was hiding from me so I took a picture of him hiding. I found it funny. Tonight I am making him a Valentine's Day dinner since I will be in St. Louis for Valentines Day. I even got him some cute lil gifts. He has no idea that it's for V-Day, so I hope he will be surprised. I even made some fun-fetti V-Day cupcakes. I also got Parker & Gabby some V-Day presents and My sizzle's soon to be born Emalynn some cute baby shower clothes. I wrapped them in the cutest cupcake wrapping paper I got from Gabby's school fundraiser. It is the BEST wrapping paper ever - and it is reversable so Parker's present has more manly stripes on it instead of cupcakes hahaha.

P*A*D*-Day 17-AngelFood is the ish

This is our freezer after AngelFood. AngelFood is a great great church run program. You do not have to be a church goer or whatever yourself to take advantage of this wonderful stuff.
Okay, they have restaurant grade food and the regular box is $30 and you honestly get a lot of food. Now, with each regular box you can purchase 1 special package for various prices. The meat you get is always good. The veggies and fruit you get is always good. The shelf-stable milk is usually an automatic throw-away. The breaded chicken is usually funny tasting unless you lightly fry it. That's usually the only bad stuff.
We got a regular box and a special meat box for $52 all together and got all this frozen meat. And a bunch of other food items for the pantry.

A REGULAR BOX:
Balanced nutrition and variety with enough food to feed a family of four for a week.

They have host site all over the country, so there is probably one by you! Take advantage of this great offer!

Click HERE for more information and host locations

And if you have ANY other questions, you can please ask me. My dad was doing this for about 5 months before I moved here to NYC and that's how I know about it.

P*A*D*-Day 16-Chicken Fajita Tortilla

I made the chicken fajita tortilla soup last night. It was so so so so so so so delicious. It was filling and full of flavor! And it was quite easy to make. Anyone looking for something different, make the recipe below! I accidentally bought crushed tomatoes instead of diced and it still turned out great. I always knew that even though I find Rachel Ray extremely annoying, her food would taste good. Looka at that picture, I even got the garnishes and everything. I'm so cool.

Here I cook again

I want to make this recipie sooo badly. It looks very yummy and 0 bad reviews out of 50!!

Chicken Fajita Tortilla Soup


Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 2 packages chicken tenders, 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
* 1 tablespoon coriander, a palm full
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, 5 to 6 sprigs
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
* 1 large bell pepper, quartered and thinly sliced
* 1 jalapeno, seeded and thinly sliced
* 1 (28-ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes
* 1 quart chicken stock
* 1 bag white corn tortilla chips
* 1 cup shredded pepper Jack or sharp white Cheddar
* 1 ripe avocado, diced
* 1 lime, juiced
* 4 scallions, chopped
* Handful fresh cilantro leaves or fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat a large skillet with extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, over medium-high heat. Add chicken, begin to brown 4 minutes, add coriander, thyme, salt and pepper, to taste, onions, bell pepper and jalapeno, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes and stock, heat through.

While the soup is working, lightly crush some tortilla chips and divide among 4 bowls. You need a couple of handfuls per bowl. Top the chips with a little cheese. Toss the avocado with lime juice. Top the chips with ladles of soup. Garnish soup with avocado, scallions and cilantro or parsley.


*****UPDATE*****
I'm going to get the ingredients I need to make the soup tonight! Yay! I am very excited. Pictures shall be posted.

P*A*D*-Day 15-clean sheets

I did ALL this laundry yesterday. It was ok to get it to the laundry mat but was extremely difficult getting it back home. I washed all my jeans and every sheet, blanket, and comforter that we own. So sleeping in soft clean sheets was wonderful. Kevin has this habit of eating in the bed. Eating EVERYTHING in the bed. I dislike it SO much cause he always seems to get crumbs and junk in the bed and leave the dirty dishes in our room for ME to clean up. It is very frustrating. I need some 2000 thread count sheets. That would be great . We also need a new bed frame, ours is busted badly. I step on the broken pieces of our bed all the time and that is not cool.

P*A*D*-Day 14- Baby shower for sizzle...and me?

This is the baby shower invite to my sizzle's baby shower. Isn't it so cute? Now, the reason this is so picture worthy is because I GET TO BE IN TOWN FOR THE SHOWER!!!! That's right, I leave the 30th for St. Louis and come back the 17th of February. Yes, yes, I know that's a long trip, but Kevin and I discussed it and we're both okay with that. I'm very very excited to see my sister, her pregnant belly, the kids, my mom & dad, my whole family really. I have the job of thinking up games for the baby shower and I think I've come up with 3 good ones. Now on to more pressing information...


This is my cup of coffee. I wasn't sure how else to show how crazy tired I have been recently. I sleep till about 11 or 12 when I would usually wake up at 8ish. I go to bed really early too. Kevin keeps asking if I fell okay, and I do. So now Kevin, my mother, and a few others are convinced that I am pregnant. I really don't think I am. Aren't you supposed to get like morning sickness or something? With how I usually am I have always had a feeling I would get the worst morning sickness. Kevin doesn't want me to take a pregnancy test till after the St. Louis trip so it is "looming" over my head the whole trip. I'm going to be going nuts with curiosity the entire trip. I just think he doesn't want it to be looming over HIS head the entire time I'm gone. Oh well, results of that will come soon enough I guess...

P*A*D*-Day 13- Messy table

This is my kitchen table. It used to be bare and clear and cleaned off. Now? It is a mess. Groceries go there, mail, sodas, just everything we can't find a place for. I originally took the picture to talk about going to the grocery store like two or three times a week instead of about once a week. But, as I looked at the picture, I noticed that table is a mess! Ugh. I need to clean that up. So I will leave you to go clear it off.

P*A*D*-Day 12- 100th Celebration

Today is my 100th post. My husband went to his mother's house and I told him how nice it would be if he brought me back a surprise. So, in celebration of my 100th post, he brought me home some yummy cake. Okay, in reality I know he has no idea it is my 100th post - but it sounds great. I am a huge fan of surprises. When someone goes somewhere, if they [they being my husband or my sizzle or my mom or dad] bring me back a surprise I am overjoyed. And by surprise I mean anything. Even if they found a rock that reminded them of me for a good reason, that would be awesome! I also greatly like surprising other people.
So, in conclusion, this is my 100th post, I like surprises, and we have a 44th president. Yay!

P*A*D*-Day 11- So bored

It has been WAY too cold to go anywhere here. And it has been too cold in this apartment to even get out from under the cover. So not much to take pictures of. But I did manage to make a delicious dinner. I made Mexican style mini meat-loaves. They were very very good. At least Kevin was impressed. I'm going to make Italian style mini meat-loves later this week. They were very easy and very yummy. I recommend this quick and delicious dish.

Take 1 lb. extra lean ground beef, 1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix and 1 cup water and mix & match your recipe from these options...

seasoning option
add-in choices
cheese possibilities


Italian Style
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
3/4 cup spaghetti sauce
3/4 cup shredded mozzerella

Mexican Style
2 tsp. chili powder
3/4 cup salsa
3/4 cup shredded mexican cheese

Greek Style
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
3/4 cup chopped roasted red peppers
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

American style
1 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 cup barbecue sauce
3/4 cup cheddar cheese

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and the seasoning until well blended. Press evenly into 12 medium muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray; make an indentation in center of each with back of spoon.

SPOON add-ins evenly into indentations in meatloaves.

BAKE 30 min. or until meatloaves are cooked through (160°F). Top evenly with cheese; continue baking 5 min. or until cheese is melted. Let stand 10 min. before serving.

Enjoy!

P*A*D*-Day 10- Pizza! Pizza!

Today's picture was supposed to be picking up our Angelfood order and it being very awesome, but because of weather, it didn't come when it was supposed to, so we have to wait till Saturday to get it. I will talk all about Angelfood when we get it.
Kevin & I were hungry and knew we were going by Little Ceasars so we decided to stop in and get some $5 pizzas and hot wings. It was so very very good. I love cheap cheese pizza!!

P*A*D*-Day 9- It's a noisy day in the neighborhood

This is the view outside my living room window and bedroom. We live right above the parking lot. This is extremely annoying. All day long, car alarms go off, people honk, people are yelling. The trash man comes here to this spot at like 7 in the morning and is SO loud. He always wakes Kevin & I up. And people who come to pick someone up just sit in the parking lot and honk. And honk, and honk, and honk...oh it drives me insane. I'm pretty positive that an alarm was going off when I took this picture [that's what made me think of taking one...]

What a Mank

Mank = Male Skank. This is so crazy:

DAVID LEE ROTH - Paternity Insurance
At the peak of his Van Halen days, Diamond Dave had a lot of ladies. So many, in fact, that Roth decided to shell out $10K a year on paternity insurance with Lloyds of London.

P*A*D*-Day 8- Heat heat, what about the heat?

I'm not sure if you all can see it, my husband had no idea what I was talking about, but on my ring finger, on the bottom of my middle finger and on the bottom of my thumb are bruises. I have no idea where they came from, but they hurt! It is difficult to open things like bottles and such. How did I get bruises on my fingers? Weird.
In other news, our heat is not working. Our heat! It is 10 degrees outside! It is kind of ridiculous. We called housing and they said they'd come check it out - but I would like them to fix it. Kevin and I have on pants and hoodies and socks and we are just bundled up. In fact, writing at the computer is freezing my bruised fingers.

P*A*D*-Day 7-Shannon!!

My friend Shannon came over last night - this is yesterday's picture. I went and got her from the train station and we stopped at the liquor store on the way home. I cooked dinner and she got the tequila. I had never done tequila shots, so i was excited. We started off with a couple shots, ate, did some shots during dinner and then we finished the whole bottle after that. I was a bit intoxicated. Hell, I was drunk. It was fun, at least I had fun I hope Shannon did. I made fajitas for dinner last night and they were DELICIOUS! I was proud of myself fo sho.

P*A*D*-Day 6 No babies just yet please, but if I was, I'd keep it!

A few weeks over due, I got my 3rd Depo shot. Depo is one of the few birth controls that I can take. I'm not 100% sure that I am not pregnant, but the lady said to check in 2 weeks and that the shot wouldn't hurt the baby if I happened to be pregnant. She kept insinuating that I wouldn't want to keep the baby and offered the morning after pill a few times. I was getting annoyed. No, lady! If I am preggo, me & my husband would love to keep the baby. I said that more than once. Oh, the picture. That's where I got the shot. There used to be a band aid on it, but I guess it fell off? It hurts more than any other shot I've had and the area is sore [really sore] for a few days. I got it on my left arm because when we sleep, my right arm constantly gets bumped by Kevin and it hurts.

We probably shouldn't have children...

This scares me alot...

P*A*D* Day 5 Kara Jean's travels

So today I had to run some errands. Well, I mostly just needed to get a new toothbrush and was drawn in by Baskin Robins across the street. And then Kevin wanted some OJ from the store. Kevin ALWAYS wants Orange Juice. I am shocked that he hasn't turned into an orange or at least smell like oranges 24/7. I went into Baskin Robin before I went to get the toothbrush. It was very very cold outside, but it is never too cold for ice cream!







Then I went to Walgreens. I enjoy going to Walgreens because we had them in St. Louis, so I have a better idea of the stuff they have. Being familiar with a neighborhood store makes things a bit more comfortable.

Why Wedding Rings Are Worn on the Fourth Finger

Why Wedding Rings Are Worn on the Fourth Finger



Why should the wedding ring be worn on the fourth finger?
There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

Thumb represents your Parents
Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
Middle finger represents your-Self
Fourth (Ring) finger represents your L ife Partner
& the Last (Little) finger represents your children

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back. Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip>

Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.

Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)... ., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)... ., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).

You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT....., because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!

Me? Chef? Why yes, I think I am.

Making this occurred to me in my dreams last night, so I had to make it tonight. It is chocolate pound cake on bottom with homemade whipped cream on that. Then some sweetened strawberries and then a slice of vanilla pound cake. Then on top of all that is homemade chocolate whipped cream. This was so wonderfully delicious! I a, also quite sure I gained 5 pounds just making it. Yum yum though. We had the pound cakes laying around cause they are 99 cents over at C-Town and the chocolate one is extra good with Fluff on it. Fluff is the best stuff ever made!

Kevin's dessert on the left toppled over. It was his because I didn't want the one that fell over. Hahaha

P*A*D*-Day 4 Movie Rules

We have a lot of movies. Kevin likes to call it his DVD collection. It is not that he watches all of these movies. A lot of times he just buys the movie just to have it in his collection. I added my 8 movies into his collection upon marriage, including the 1st 3 seasons of "Aquateen Hunger Force" - one of the funniest adult cartoons ever. Every few weeks we'll have a "Movie Week" where we will take turns each night where one of us will pick a movie and the other has to watch it without complaining or gripes. The only time we didn't finish a movie is the night I tried to make Kevin watch Saw. He does not like scary movies and got freaked the first 12 minutes into the movie. So I was nice and let him stop the movie.

My picks:
Snatch
Anchorman
Kung Fu Panda
Some Aquateen Hunger Force

His Picks:
Unforgiven
Bum Fights
Lucky Number Slevin
The Godfather
The Dark Knight


These weeks that we do this have been quite fun. It's my turn tonight, and I think I want to watch Horton Hears A Who...maybe. I'm not sure what will pick. I need to buy Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels for him to see.

Anyone have any good movie ideas?

P*A*D*-Day 3 Laundry Day.

We had no towels left. So today, I got to do laundry! Yay? When I do laundry I get very bored. I would just sit there and watch T.V., except it is usually on the Spanish channel and I don't speak Spanish. So, I've started bringing my GIANT book of sudoku my sis gave me last year. I like doing Sudoku and it makes the time by really fast. Most of the huge book is filled up. I really like playing Sudoku. Kevin went to his JiuJitsu class today and brought his outfit down to be washed and dried before his next class. The towels were drying and we started to get bored so we started thinking up games to play to pass the time & so Kevin wouldn't leave me all alone in the laundry mat.



First, we played the dollah dollah bill game. One person thinks of a number, 1-10 and the other person tries to guess what it is. If they guess wrong, the roles are switched. BUT, if they guess right, they are owed a dollar. It takes a certain amount of trust in the other person that they won't switch the number if you are right and I don't think anyone has paid up since me & my sizzle made the game up.
After that [Kevin quit when he was $3 ahead so he didn't wind up a loser] we played slaps, but Kevin slaps WAYY too hard! My hand looked like someone gave it a rasberry and it hurt. Then we went on to THUMB WRESTLING! And I won!! And, as you can see from the picture, Kevin LOOOSSSTT!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The Bagel Joke

In the mornings, I usually make Kevin a bagel for breakfast because I like him to eat breakfast and he's usually too busy to think of that stuff. And cause I love him the most. So this morning was no different! After I got done putting the butter & cream cheeses on the blueberry bagel, it just looked so very good. So, I took a bite. I walked back to the bedroom.
"Honey! I don't know what kind of people make these bagels, but this one has a huge bite taken out of it. That's so weird!" I exclaimed as I walked in. Kevin turned around and looked at me with this disgusted look on his face. I figured he would just know I took the bite. He thought I was serious. Even after he looked at the bagel. It was so funny. Why would I make and bring him a bagel with a bite taken out of it?? Very funny morning. Have any of you played silly jokes on your significant others or even anyone in your families?


**Side Note**I bought my plane ticket for my 2.3 week trip to STL. FUN!

P*A*D*-Day 2 Food, Glorious Food!

I'm not really sure what made me think of taking a picture of this, but today's picture(s) are of most of the food I've eaten today. Well, at least breakfast and lunch, cause then I left the house and went to Target.

So this is my breakfast. A chocolate chip muffin and coffee in my favorite coffee mug. Speaking of coffee, I have not made one bad pot of coffee since living here! I'm so proud of myself. I have started to make more and more coffee and drink it all. About 6 cups a day. I asked my mom if that was too much. She said it shouldn't be too bad. I drink it hot in the a.m. and then leave the leftovers to get cool and put it over ice and make my self an iced coffee. DELICIOUS! I don't need no stinking Starbucks!


This is the best coffee EVER!! My mom says that coffee in a bag almost always tastes batter than canned coffee. This stuff is oh so wonderful. It makes me want to go get some whole beans and grind them myself just to see what that tastes like. I just know that I will never be able to go back to canned crap again, I have been spoiled.




And then I made lunch for Kevin. We had some ground beef, so I decided to make him sloppy joes.I accidently put in too much brown sugar, so it kinda tasted like candied beef. Weird, but it still tasted pretty good. I took pictures of all the makings of my sloppy joes, but that's too much work to post all that junk, and it isn't that big of a deal. If you need a good sloppy joe recipe, let me know, I will share!

Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

A GREAT RECIPE...


1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about
what is going on in your life. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, 'My
purpose is to __________ today. I am thankful for______________'

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is
manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of
the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest
your energy in the positive present moment..

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone..

11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree
to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will
this matter?'

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. GOD heals everything - but you have to ask Him.

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will.
Stay in touch!!!

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: I
am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings. You'll
be smiling before you know it.

Change is good

I changed up the layout of my blog. Also changed the quotations, profile info & picture, and just did some random cleaning up. I think it looks pretty nice.

P*A*D*-Day 1! Fuzzy Pink Goodness

So today is the first day of my attempt to capture a picture a day of the boring life I live. I was supposed to get my new slippers yesterday, but they came after 7 while I was in the shower [BOO!] and they said they would have to try and deliver them again today. So I have been sitting around ALL day waiting for them to deliver my new slippers.

I told the guy that I was very excited about my delivery, could I take a picture real quick. It was too dark to see, but I am sure he rolled his eyes.

So I thanked him, ran inside and ripped open the box and put them on!!!Oh how I love them! And now my toes are warm & cute. Perfect. They are the Pink Samantha Scuff slippers from payless.com! On sale for $9.99 which makes them much more awesome.

We Shall See

Inspired by Introverted Wife and for lack of anything of substance to write about after the wedding, I'm going to start posting pictures. Hopefully one a day, at least that's what I will be shooting for. I'm just concerned because my day to day life is actually quite B-O-R-I-N-G! Well, we shall see!!!!!!