2.25.2009

My new diet

Due to health reasons, which I will write about once I have thoroughly questioned my doctor, I have to be more careful about my diet and exercise. This is going to have to be a change for the duration of my life b/c what I have makes me more prone to diabetes and heart disease. I am already a vegetarian which helps, but I need to eat more heart healthy foods and I am trying to eat those low on the glycemic index.

To help me along in this pursuit, Dave & I have started menu planning for the week/month so we don't end up making bad meal choices. I have been going through my cookbooks and writing down recipes to try. I even found a Low Glycemic Index Vegetarian cookbook. There is a cookbook for EVERYTHING! This weekend we are going out to get a treadmill. We have been wanting one for awhile and now we have a good excuse.

The best though is my new iPod app called Lose It!. It tells me how many calories I can have in a day and tracks what I eat so I know where I am at. You can enter your exercise for the day and it tracks my weight for me. It really makes me think about what I am putting into my body. Is that handful of <insert food item here> really worth using up 150 of my daily caloric intake, which is currently set at 1,629 calories per day. It is a great tool! There is also a website that helps me figure out the calories in some recipes I have that do not give me the nutritional info. It is called Spark Recipes Recipe Tracker. I will keep you updated on my progress and my health. Sorry this was such a boring blog.

2.22.2009

Wedding Day Sharing

I stole this off another newlyweds blog. Thanks Christy for the Sunday morning filler!

Wedding Day...Share
This is a survey for all of you married folk.

1) When was your wedding day? September 6, 2008

2) What day of the week was it? Saturday

3) Did you get married in a church? Nope. We got married in the Gateway Garden at Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor, MI. My awesome sister got ordained through the Universal Life Church on-line. She did such an amazing job!

4) How many in your wedding party? We had 5 on each side and then us.

6) How many guests were invited to your wedding? We invited 220 and had about 120 show up.

7) How long did you wait to Tie The Knot after your proposal? We got engaged in April of 2007 and got married 17 months later. A long engagement meant less stress.

8) Who did you hire as your photographer & videographer? Our photographer was the amazingly talented Emily Smith of Smith Gallery Photography. She has us as customers for life. I want her to take pictures of my future children and family portraits and our dogs and us. Just beautiful! As for videographer, we did not have one and I did not miss not having one.

9) Did you have a DJ or a band? We hired 3 local high school students to play during the ceremony and a DJ for the reception. Tom Downey of Mike Staff Productions was our DJ and I really liked him. He was a big fan of my music style and played, mostly, everything I wanted. Apparently there was a country song at one point, but I really don't remember.

10) Did your father walk you down the aisle? Both of my parents walked me down the aisle. It was great to have the two most influential people in my life hold me up as I walked towards my future husband and my new married life.


11) What color were the bridesmaid dresses & groomsmen vests? My bridesmaids all wore Chocolate brown dresses of their choosing. The groomsmen wore chocolate brown pinstripe pants from Banana Republic, a white button down shirt and a green tie we got them from Dilliard's.


12) Who was your Maid Of Honor/Best Man? My best friend Becky was my MOH and Dave's brother Steve was his BM. I have too many wonderful biological sisters to choose from so I chose my non-biological sister!

14) What type of limo did you get? No limo. I drove to the wedding ceremony with Becky and to the reception with Steve, Tom and Dave in our Jeep.

15) Where did you go for your Bachelorette/Bachelor Party? My bachelorette party started at a Tiger's game in the afternoon then it was off to Ann Arbor. We had dinner at Shalimar, played billiards at the Monkey Bar and then went to Conor O'Neill's where Mary should not have drank that last beer. The men made Dave wear an Ohio State shirt and then went bar hopping in downtown Ann Arbor. I think they ate dinner at Grizzly Peak.

(all ready for the Tiger's game)

16) What type of wedding gown/tux did you two wear? I wore a Dress by Maggie Sottero. It was called the Jessica. Dave wore a tan suit that he got at Men's Warehouse.


17) How was the weather? Perfect! September in MI can go either way and on our wedding day it was beautiful! The sky was blue and the temperature was in the low to mid 70s. My Mom told me that it was a gift from my Grandpa who passed away in 1996. I like to think that it was too!

18) Where did you go on your Honeymoon? We didn't leave for our honeymoon until 10 days after the wedding and I am thankful that we gave ourselves that down time. We went to Ireland for a week and stayed at various B&B's throughout the southern half of the country. It was amazing and right up our alley! We are not really beach people. We like woods, green, culture, and history. Ireland did not disappoint.

(Kinsale, Co. Cork)

19) What was your favorite part of your wedding day? The whole day was perfect! I loved finally marrying Dave and seeing all my family and friends and not being stressed out. Everything was just as I wanted it to be.

20) How long have you been married? Just shy of 6 months.

21) Did you have a wedding planner? You betcha! I am a perfectionist and did not want to stress on my wedding day. Kathy Bishop of I Want a Fantastic Function was my day of coordinator and I wouldn't have has it any other way. She helped out in so many ways that I cannot even begin to tell you how much of a god send she was.

22) Who designed your invites? Me and Brides magazine. I bought a kit from Michael's and then added my own maps and RSVP cards. I was super happy with the results.

23) Who was your florist? I ordered my flowers from the Whole Foods I used to work at in Ann Arbor. Melissa was amazing! She designed the most gorgeous arrangements I have ever seen and she came $100 under budget.


24) Where did you find your dress? At d'Anelli's Bridal in Lakewood, CO. They had a great variety of dresses, but I was not really impressed with the staff. I am glad that my sister was with me or else I would not have chosen the absolutely gorgeous dress that I did.

2.21.2009

Video of the dogs

Dave was experimenting with our new hand held digital movie camera and caught our dogs at their finest!

Cutest Valentine ever!

This was a Valentine from one of the Kindergartners in my class. I think it is the most creative, neatest one I've ever seen!

2.17.2009

I like 3 day weekends.

This past weekend has been nice. I will admit that I am tired, but it was worth it. I started off Valentine's weekend at a conference in Denver then Dave and I went to dinner at our favorite CO brewery. On Sunday morning we packed up and were off to Keystone for the night. Every year my Aunt, Uncle and cousins rent a condo there and ski for the week. Well Dave & I cannot take a week off of work, but we both had Monday off so we went for the day. Dave skied on Sunday and Monday while I only braved the slopes on Monday. This was my first time skiing this season so we started off the bunny hill, but soon I was taking the green runs down the mountain. We had a great time, but it was nice to come home and sleep. Now we are up and ready for work. Such is life.

2.14.2009

Happy Valentine's Day


Valentine's morning here at the R. household. Dave it still waking up and I am off to a conference about Inclusion in the Classroom. More specifically I am attending a mastery session on Autism in the Public Schools. Later we are going to our new favorite brewpub and then tomorrow we are off to Keystone to stay at the Gateway Mountain Lodge and then meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins for some fun in the sun and snow! I love 3 day weekends!

2.12.2009

Are you one of the 48%?




This could save your life!








Consumer Reports just published the results of their Risk Survey in the March 2009 issue. According the article 48% of American homes do not have Carbon Monoxide Detectors. I have a feeling this number is on the low end especially since people really don't like to spend money on preventative items when there are so many instant gratification items to be bought.

I read the news on cnn.com about every other day. Lately, I have been noticing headlines in the U.S. News section about CO poisoning. Incidents of CO poisoning are higher during the winter months because we are all couped up in our houses running appliances and heaters 24/7. This is scary stuff. A colorless, odorless gas that can kill you in your sleep or make you loopy and not realize what is happening to you.

Dave & I did not have any CO detectors in our house and with all these stories I've been reading I had been thinking about getting some. Then, 2 days ago, my wonderful husband went to the store and bought 2 CO detectors that are now on the wall in our kitchen/living area and upstairs outside of our bedroom. I had not raised my concerns to Dave, but we must have been on the same wavelength. He is so great!

Anyway I encourage all of you, as people that I love and care about, to check your current CO detectors or go out get yourself some. They are not very expensive and they could save your life one day.

CARBON MONOXIDE Q & A

American Idol & Jim Cantiello

I am fairly certain that I have already declared my love for the two subjects in my title line. Today, however, I have even more reason. Jim Cantiello of MTV live blogs all of the American Idol episodes. Honestly this brings me as much enjoyment as actually watching the show. It gets even better though. Jim will pick out his favorite reader comments from his previous post and include it in his live blog. So this morning I was reading the 2 hour live blogging from last night and when I get down to 9:36 pm all my dreams came true. My comment was referenced!! Dave thought I won the lottery because I was so excited. My American Idol hero mentioned my comment in his blog. Granted there are only about 15 comments for him to choose from on any given day, but still. This made my day. Go me!

The infamous live blog!!

2.01.2009

U of M vs. OSU

So today was one of those regrettable days that you end up dressing like your spouse. It isn't really my fault that the only hat I own is a Michigan hockey cap. It also isn't my fault that day 2 of not showering with short hair means hat day. Pre-wedding I would have just thrown it back into a ponytail and called it a day. Anyway, this is why both Dave and I were wearing our MI hats while running errands. Other than that, however, we were dressed Colorado casual. Me - jeans, Columbia thermal, fleece vest, black Merrels. Dave - jeans, long sleeved tee, Irish wool sweater, men's light hikers.

We head to JPenny so I can check out the pillow sale and swing into the Sephora that's connected. After looking at ALL the clearance sections I finally decide that we are done. Dave is thrilled b/c his can't get a signal in the store rendering is iPhone/boredom reliever useless. So we get up to the register and the cashier holds out his "where in MI do you live" hand. Seriously? I though I had escaped the prison of the hand locater. Anyway, he reminded me that I was wearing a dead giveaway on my head as to where I was from. This isn't the crucial part of the story though. Wait for it.....

I happen to glance to my left while in line and notice an even worse case of dressing like my spouse. In this scenario the husband was the worst offender, but that doesn't excuse the hideousness. Male - red crocs (a crime in and of itself), grey sweatpants with red lettering, red sweatshirt with white lettering, and a white baseball cap with red lettering. Female - jeans (her one saving grace), grey sweatshirt with red lettering, other ugly colored crocs. Oh, and all the red & white lettering said Ohio State and OSU. So here we are, the U of M couple vs. the Ohio State couple. As far as fashion goes, we totally won. They might have had more visible team spirit, but seriously? Red Crocs?

We walked out of the store and I felt a little less matchy matchy with Dave. As we head to Costco I forget the OSU people and start my metal shopping list. We pull in to the parking lot and who is getting out of their car but the same couple. We did not see them in the store, but my stories ending makes me feel good. On our way out of Costco there is always a worker who checks your receipt at the door. Ours was an elderly gentleman who commented on our hats. He said that the University of Michigan provides an excellent education. I am willing to bet a thousand dollars that he said no such thing to the OSU couple.

Go Blue!!