Today

Labels: carlee, food

  ¶ 7:54 AM 0 Comments

  Yeah, okay. I was browsing Allrecipes.com for something to make for dinner tonight and also for my lunch bunch next week, which the theme is International food. Anywho, a list caught my eye called "Even Vegans Have Sweet Tooths." First thinking, "Even Vegans Get a Sweet Tooth" would be a better name haha, then reading the description:

"Delicious vegan desserts without scary ingredients like tofu or egg substitute."

Okay. I continue to scroll down to read the first recipe in which the list's author states:

"Just substitute vegetable shortening for butter."

Like vegetable shortening isn't scarier than tofu or egg substitute?

Yeah, okay.

Labels: food, vegetarian

  ¶ 5:51 AM 0 Comments

  School is back in Session I started up the fall semester. The day before class started I almost dropped my class. I looked through the lesson 1 notes, and read the teachers note that said: "Some steps are not shown. You should have mastered them in Accounting 2301. Finish the problem as you already know how, then answer the questions."

I suddenly doubted my comprehension of the first class, which actually, everything only came together in the very end, just in time for me to get a high enough grade on the final to bring my overall grade up to a b. What if that was a fluke? After a few minutes debating, Tony convinced me to stop second guessing myself. So I did.... well tried.

So, Accounting 2302, eh? I was also planning on taking Spanish 1 online as well, but that class filled up within 2 seconds of registration being open. Nice. I was really bummed, as it would set back my goal to finish by a year, since Span 1 is only offered online in fall, and Spanish 2 in the spring.

However!!! After talking to a CTC rep here in Sig, I found out that I could probably clep out of Spanish (once I brush up on it of course), OR I could take Italian at UMUC and have it transfer. He also informed me that the two classes I was going to have to wait til I got stateside to take (Busincess Calc, and a business computer class) are no longer required. All I need is one 4 s.h. credit computer class. Ummm... hello! Can you say Intro to Internet? or Intro to Word Processing? HAHAHAHA Awesome.

So I'm really excited as that means, if I clep out of foreign language, take an easy shmeezy computer class, all I have left after this semester is Eng. Lit and a science class (which will probably be astronomy). How awesome is that? I'm so close to finishing this Business Administration degree. Then I can start on my bachelors. I haven't decided what business major I want to go into for that, but I was leaning toward Accounting. We'll see.

I told a friend yesterday how close I was to finishing my associates, and she looked at me, and asked, "So what are you going to do with it?" I wanted to laugh (only because I thought she knew me better than that.) Honestly, I'm not doing anything with it for as long as I can. I want to be home with Carlee until..... (AND my wonderfully supporting husband completely agrees with me, and actually loves me being home) =D BUT I'm getting this 1.) because it's always something I wanted to accomplish whether or not I ever decide to majorly focus on a career and 2.) Just in case I ever do have to go get a job soon, my options will be improved greatly. 3.) Eventually, after Carlee gets old enough, I think I will find myself wanting a career (perhaps even my own business?) So, I'd rather get my schooling done now, instead of starting years later....

I already have a business concept brewing around in my head. So, after we get back to the states, once Carlee's in school, I am thinking of going to work in a related environment anyway. We'll see. I'm not saying anything yet though.... Maybe in a few years if I'm still blogging, I can look back at this post and tell you all about it.

Until then...
=P

Labels: college, future, me

  ¶ 2:51 AM 2 Comments

  OMG... I think she's got it!!!! Well... my little baby is potty trained!!!!! Do I consider myself lucky that it only took 1 freakin week? Hell yes! ONE WEEK!!!

The first 3 days were hell. Seriously..... HELL. Day 3 I almost put her back into diapers because it sucked that bad. On Day 4, she actually started giving me signs that she needed to go, so I was able to anticipate the accidents, and got her to go on the potty all day. Then Day 5, Monday, we had to go to base to run some errands. I took her potty in the car with us, and put a pull-up over her undies, JUST in case. I was in shock when the first time (at the college office) she said, "Mommy POTTY!!!" AHHH!!!! SHE told ME she had to go POTTY!!!! So of course I started frantically running to the bathroom with her in my arms... and we made it. =D Since then, she hasn't had a single accident! And you know what's REALLY REALLY surprising? She wakes me up at night, if she needs to go, or holds it until the morning. Now, I'm really not expecting THAT to last, although I'm really hoping that it does. Believe me, I am soooo THANKFUL for her being this easy to potty train. I talked to a friend on Day 3, (my worst day) who said she had to stay in her house for 3 weeks to train her oldest kid. 3 WEEKS!!! That's when I almost fainted, and almost decided to put her back in diapers lol. In case anyone's wondering, I didn't use pull-ups because she treated them like diapers.... Which was the reason the first 3 days were hell.... I think I actually feel comfortable enough now, to lay our carpet back out. haha. =D Then again, I might wait, juuuust in case.

And of course, I'm sure when Carlee's a teenager, all the family will tell her, your mom used to blog about everything you did.... even going potty! *Go ahead, please remember to do this. HAHAHAHAHAHA

gah, she's gonna hate us. LMAO

Labels: carlee

  ¶ 1:54 PM 1 Comments

  sigh..... I was just about to post how this morning was potty training hell, but that this afternoon and evening had a complete turn around with Carlee using the potty 3 or 4 times.... including once for #2!!! Just as I was about to log in and tell you all about it, she peed in my lap. How awesome!

Labels: carlee

  ¶ 12:22 PM 2 Comments

  yesterday was nice So I got all that done yesterday, and then even had some time to myself to craft. Wow. That was nice. I ended up getting two more cards made. I'm in love with these. They came out so much better than the last few that I made in a hurry for the card exchange. I have a few more I need to make, then I will post pictures when they reach their destinations. =)

I'm not sure how much I'm going to get done today, as Carlee is panicking everytime she feels like she has to go to the bathroom. I rush her to the potty and.... nothing happens. lol. I know she has the feeling, but the timing is still off. Wish us luck. :)

I'm getting back into my scrapbooking. I ordered a few things from a friend who sells Close to My Heart scrapbooking supplies, so I can't wait for that to come in. However, last night I realized all the pictures that I wanted to scrapbook for Carlee are in the external hard drive. Nice place for them, huh? So, in the next few days, I'll be uploading to snapfish and ordering copies. I should also back the new ones up on dvd as well while I'm at it. I should probably just back them all up, since I don't know what happen to the old pictures on dvd either...... hmm....

Labels: carlee, crafts, rambling

  ¶ 4:04 AM 0 Comments

  potty and food in one post??? wth.... =) Today, we started potty training Carlee....
(I've been dreading this for so long)
But today I finally decided it was time to seriously start.
After 2 accidents, she got the idea that she was no longer in comfortable diapers, and started sitting on the potty. It took her a while to actually relax enough to go, but she did it!!! Hopefully, she'll want to continue using the potty after today.
I'm hoping that this means it will be fairly easy.
**Crossing fingers!!**

Not only was I excited about getting Carlee to use the potty, I was uber excited about dinner too. It took all afternoon, and a lot of work, and quite a bit of time to do all the wrapping.... but it was worth it!!!

For dinner, we had vegan lumpia. I used a recipe a friend has given me a while back, and altered it a bit. I used the fake meat crumbles instead of beef, and left out the egg that it called for. Minced carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and soy sauce also went into the "meat" mixture. *Thank goodness for food processors!* I used water instead of egg whites to close the wrap and amazingly it worked! So why use egg? I don't get it. Anyway, they came out really good. Tony was in heaven. I even had 18 that were left over, so I froze them so I can cook them later.

To top it off we had vegan brownies that were so rich and delicious. I used a recipe out of The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. I just found out that she blogs too, Vive le Vegan, so of course I had to go leave her a comment. =) The brownies were really delicious. Tony said I had definitely found the way to his heart. haha.

It's days like today that I feel really accomplished.
=)

Labels: carlee, food, vegetarian

  ¶ 12:00 PM 0 Comments

  God Says... In the movie Evan Almighty, God says (something along these lines), "When you pray for patience, do I give you patience or do I give you more opportunities to be patient? When you pray for courage, do I simply give you more courage or do I give you more opportunities to be courageous?"

How awesome of a movie line is that? It really hit me, as I am usually praying for patience... What stay at home parent of a tantrum throwing, attitude giving two year old doesn't? hah. It really made me think of it in a completely different perspective. I love it when movies can accomplish that. This was a really good movie too. I think I enjoyed it more than any movie I've seen in a long time. It's one of those wholesome family movies, but it's not corny or anything and is pretty funny. Carlee even liked it a lot since it had so many animals. If you haven't seen it, I fully recommend it. :)

Anyway, we watched that movie on Sunday on a whim. Sunday actually turned out really fun. Our friend who lives out in Motta (a town a good 45 minutes from here) needed a ride to base. So, since I was bored and quite frankly tired of being in the house, and TIRED of feeling like I wasn't even in Italy!!! I volunteered us, and told Tony we should go pick him up. So we did. I got to see his Italian house. I'm so jealous. Sometimes I wish we could live out in town. It's amazing to hear the Italian conversations, to hear the kids playing, to see the landlord's own garden. I was hoping to grab lunch out in town, but instead we had to head to base right away, so we got to eat at Applebees. yay..... so exciting. lol. Seriously though it was a lot of fun.

I ordered the veggie pizza making sure to ask for no cheese, and instead got a pizza with artichoke dip as the sauce (and I know it had some kind of cream in it.) Obviously, going vegan is going to take a lot of practice for me, and will also require getting over my not wanting to bother anyone. "Does this have milk? what about egg? cheese?" x 409 ... lol... Tony had it easy, he ordered a creamy chicken penne pasta dish sans chicken. He and Carlee enjoyed that very much.

On a family update note: Tony put in his new leave chit. We should find out by the end of the week whether or not it gets approved. If it does, we'll be coming home for the month of October. So cross your fingers... again. Just to let ya'll know, if this doesn't go through, we're gonna have to wait til spring probably. November and December leave is already out of the question, and besides mac flying during that time is pretty impossible. So... hope for the best!
=)

Labels: movies, update, vegetarian, weekend

  ¶ 1:54 PM 1 Comments

  Going Vegetarian 2 The video in the last post does not have any disturbing animal footage. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. It's actually about global warming and the effect of factory farming on global warming... and how "environmentalist" politicians and Hollywood stars are still eating meat. I chose to post that one because it's what started my whole interest and my research. So, if you didn't watch it because of that, you should take a look, it's actually pretty interesting. Well, it was to me anyway. I wouldn't post shocking animal footage... yet anyway. Maybe someday I'll be a brave enough little vegetarian to use my own blog to show my own beliefs and such, but until then, if you're interested in finding out the truth of factory farming, go to GoVeg.com and watch the video called "Meet your Meat." I guarantee you it will open your eyes. Even if I did post it, sadly, I think only maybe one viewer would watch it, and it would probably be my mom. =) *Love ya Mom!*

Unfortunately, nobody wants to know where their food comes from, nobody wants to know what is involved in getting that meat to their plates, or how that meat is affecting their bodies. The same goes for so much of our processed food. Nobody cares what hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup is, or what it's doing to their bodies either. The shit these companies are putting into the nation's food is killing us.... slowly. But if you don't care enough to research it for yourself, you should do it for your kids. One of the facts I read that convinced me to go vegetarian was "heart disease starts in childhood." Because your life long eating habits is what creates heart diseases; they don't happen over night.

This really made me think. Do I really want to put food into Carlee's body that might eventually cause her a heart attack at age 38 if she eats it until then. Ummm... I don't even have to think about that for a nano second. The answer is NO! Oprah used to say on her show (it is one of my favorite quotes,) "You do as good as you know how, and when you know better, you do better." This has been one of my personal mottos since I first heard her say that a few years ago.

I have researched for the past two weeks. I've read: Raising Vegan Children in a NonVegan World, Vegan Freak, Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet, and am finally starting on reading through my first vegan cookbook: The Everyday Vegan: Recipes & Lessons for Living the Vegan Life.

Becoming Vegan is possibly my greatest asset as we begin this next health step. This book was so full of information, I couldn't put it down. It has everything you would need to know. What vitamins you need, how much you need, where you can get them, what diseases and cancers these vitamins prevent!!! Deficiencies to avoid with a little planning (mainly B12, but now vegetarian foods are fortified with it), and even about deficiencies meat-eaters get as well (without even knowing it!) It even has info on being vegan while pregnant or breastfeeding. There's info on how to eat vegan if you're very athletic or into bodybuilding. Best of all, there's info on nutrition of vegan toddlers! This is definitely staying in my personal library. So, yes I've done my research, and I now know WAY better, and we're going to be doing WAY better.

After only two weeks, I feel so much better! It's really amazing. I heard that it takes 6 months for all the chemicals and such from eating meat to fully leave your system. I can't wait to see how I feel after 6 months then, if I already feel this good. This is just after two weeks of eating vegan at home, and vegetarian at restaurants (which we've been to only 1 restaurant in the past 2 weeks lol.)

Another event fully convinced me I had made the right decision. My cholesterol results came back from a test I had done in July. Now, we ate very healthy. We never even considered eating hydrogenated oils, we ate 90% lean beef, chicken, skim milk, only whole grains, no HFCS, everything was as healthy as it could get (or so I thought.) When I read my results and the explanation from the doctor I was shocked. My cholesterol is a little high! WTH? only a little, but still! I ate the healthiest I knew how, healthier than ANYONE I know!!! and I still have higher than normal cholesterol?!? Are you freaking kidding me? Now, don't freak out family, it wasn't too high, actually it was just a few points too high. But still. Eating the way we were, I should have had the optimal cholesterol levels that they want you to have, and I didn't. Now, high cholesterol runs in my family. Had I known that animal products were the only source of cholesterol in our diet, I would have become vegetarian permanently a lot sooner. I wasn't too freaked out about the results, because we had already started eating vegetarian; I knew I was already going to be reversing this bad cholesterol I had accumulated. However, I couldn't help but wonder, what if I hadn't had that test done just then? What if I hadn't found out how bad meat is for you with its cholesterol and saturated fat? What if I hadn't researched vegetarianism at all? Where would I have been in 10 years? 20? 40? On cholesterol medicine? On the verge of a heart attack? No, I'm taking care of this now. I'm taking care of myself now and I'm taking care of my family now. End of story.

Labels: food, vegetarian

  ¶ 1:30 PM 0 Comments

  Going Vegetarian After seeing this video on a friend's myspace page...

I went to the website the guy talked about in the end: Go Veg and after reading all the articles, and watching the videos, we've decided to go vegetarian. Haven't quite decided if we're going to go vegan, or not since we love cheese... but we're definately going to try. I felt really naive after reading all the info, because I honestly thought that farms were still like Charlotte's Web type farms, just on a bigger scale. And they definately aren't, they're the extreme opposite. Anyway, I won't preach, I'm sure everyone is thinking, "Here she goes again with her nutty food obsessions..." lol, but I really feel that this is going to be healthier for my family and better for the animals.

Anyone else out there vegetarian? I've got a lot of research to start doing... the last time I went vegetarian I ended up anemic because I didn't know what I was doing. This time I'll do better.

Labels: food, vegetarian

  ¶ 12:19 PM 0 Comments

  Our Trip has been Delayed :(
Flight schedule is not working out with Tony's leave, so we're postponing the trip. We'll try again in October.  ¶ 12:15 PM 0 Comments

  Some paper crafting Since the flight this past weekend was cancelled, we have to try early this week. *crossing fingers* Today, we had thought about going to the beach, and that ended up not happening. I did get pretty much the whole day "off" as Tony took care of Carlee all day, and I even got to get some crafting done. I went upstairs and flipped through a whole stack of craft books. I had wanted to try a little bit of sewing, but talked myself out of it since I didn't want to try anything new when I'm already quite stressed, plus I didn't want to start a big project when we're (hopefully) leaving in a few days. So I flipped through a few more books, saw a picture of a decopaged bowl that held a candle, and knew I had the tissue paper to do it (what packrat doesn't have tissue paper?) and I had a plain glass decorative bowl that I meant to spruce up years ago. I ran and grabbed it, started cutting up my paper, and cut out some butterflies from some left over wrapping paper from Carlee's birthday (yes, I'm telling you, I save EVERYTHING.) haha. Anyway, here's how it turned out:

I'm quite pleased with it. :D It was a perfect holder for a candle.

Last week, I also got to make 2 sets of cards for a card swap. Again, I used some left over wrapping paper from Carlee's birthday party. I had fallen in love with the print (which was why I used it for her presents) and saved everything that was left over (stealing it back out of the wrapping paper trash pile after the party more than once LOL). Tony could not understand why I saved it until he saw my simple little cards:

I wish I had a scanner :( Oh well.... This one I love too. I used one of my favorite stamps and colored with color pencils (copying the design on the stamp.) I couldn't figure out what else to do with the background, because to me it looks a little plain with just the blue, but I didn't want it to take away from the girl either. Anywho... I only made one because it took forever to color. :D
So that's what I've been up to today. :D I also have a 2 carrot cakes cooling right now. One I'm taking to the MOMS Club lunch bunch tomorrow. I can't wait to taste it and see how it came out.

Oh, also amazingly, today was the first cloudy day so far this summer. It looked like it was almost going to rain. Almost. But didn't.

Labels: crafts, food

  ¶ 11:44 AM 3 Comments

  Acibonaccorsi Fireworks Show

Labels: Sicily

  ¶ 7:55 AM 3 Comments

  Drive to Base I got this idea from Loraloo over at Suburbia Las Vegas. Here are pictures of our drive to and from base. Three main things we see:

The Agriculture: Here, olive and orange trees
Crazy Driving: If you notice in the picture, there is an oncoming car in the opposite lane.
And umbrella girls that wait for business on the side of the highways in the heat.
The rest of the pictures you can see on snapfish HERE. They were actually taken in July. Enjoy!

Labels: Sicily

  ¶ 7:26 AM 2 Comments