Angie Rambles

How is everyone doing? The warm weather is trying really hard to show it's face here in IL. We have had some nice days but I look forward to summer. Last night was our last spin class for a while since the gym is closing for two weeks. They have to work on the water system, paint, etc. It might be just what I need with the pinched nerve I have had for 3 weeks. You can read more about that over on my weight loss journal. I have been working on my name domain website and will hopefully have that up this weekend. It will basically just showcase our websites and my favorite business resources, blogs and stuff like that. I needed one main hub where everything could go. I was going to start a blog with it and use it for personal stuff and business but I'm still debating on that. Do you have your own name domain? If so, please feel free to share it! Thanks to the great ladies over at 5 Minutes for Mom , I am in Jamaica mode this morning. They have a great giveaway (for FIVE...

I can't believe it's almost Mother's Day. Still not sure what to send to my mom. Nothing like waiting until last minute. Last year I sent beautiful flowers and a balloon and she loved that. Any recommendations for this year? Oh and be sure to check out the 5 Minutes for Mom Mother's Day Giveaway 2009. Holy cow there are so many cool things they are giving away. I'm going to enter a few of them what about you?

WOW, can't believe it's been a month since I last posted here! I have been putting most of my blogging efforts into my weight loss journal (blog) so again you can keep up with me over there if you choose. I haven't had the chance to get my new personal blog up so I'll just keep checking in here until I can get that together. I'm so excited because next week my mom and dad are coming in to town to help celebrate my and Kev's birthday's. I'll be 37 next week, April Fool's Day. We are going to go to Bahama Breeze for dinner (I got a $10 coupon from them) and do a bit of shopping at our favorite tea shop, maybe grab a few things from Whole Foods and then get some yummy ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery (got another coupon, free b-day ice cream). I was laughing yesterday because I also just got a b-day coupon via email for Moe's, one of my favorite fast food restaurants. We might have to take a break from cleaning the house this weekend to go g...

I love this store! Bought the "Birthday Girl" Martini glass for my friend's martini birthday party and it was a big hit. I totally forgot to take a picture of my friend WITH the glass so if you just click on the link above, you can see it. Of course it was personalized with her name and date so it was just perfect. Jennifer, the owner was a great help and stayed in touch throughout the order process. Shipping was fast and the packaging perfect. Kev is already talking about future gifts we can get here. Learn more about Eye 4 Gifts here. Eye 4 Gifts has such a wide variety of glasses Wine Martini Margarita Champagne Here are some of my favorites: Basset Hound Wine glass The Palms Martini glass Parrot-ita Margarita glass Friendship on Fire Champagne glass Be sure to check out the personalized and custom order sections on Eye 4 Gifts to see what they have to offer. And I see Jennifer has some specials going on too. Happy Shopping!

How is your February going so far? Mine is good. Kev and I went to Bahama Breeze for our Valentine's Day dinner (but we went a few days before). Had to run errands so it was perfect timing so we would not have to brave the crowds. It was a pretty fabulous and healthy meal. We would've normally went to Red Lobster, our usual but I just wasn't feeling it this year. Did you happen to catch my new ride? You can see it here and while you're there friend me on Facebook . Having fun with it. And Kev got one too but in silver. The color and mileage was the only difference. We are looking forward to a nice day where we can get a twin picture of the 2 trucks ha ha. Oh and it's a Dodge Nitro in case you're wondering. Today it's snowing here in IL and we are staying home! Rented so many movies last night so we are going to just chill out and enjoy the day. Having a nice big bowl of oatmeal and getting work done while hubs sleeps. Be sure to stop by my weight...

Just wanted to check in and remind you to visit my weight loss journal (blog) to keep up to date with me. I am doing well and keeping busy. I am looking forward to getting my name domain blog/site up in the near future so I'll be sure to announce it so you can be sure to follow me there. Menu Plan Monday was also moved to that blog so drop on by and let me know what yummies you've been eating. I have found some cool giveaways that I would like to share so I'll be posting those along the way as well. My friend is having a martini birthday party tonight and I bought her the cutest martini glass. I'll do a review of the product soon so you can see. She's house sitting for this family and the house is huge. It has an indoor pool, hot tub and much more. She's there until March, lucky gal. LOL The first giveaway I would like to share is a blog design giveaway. You know I could use this for my name domain on WordPress that I haven't even published live yet bu...

My online friend Tammy of A Mom in Red High Heels has the coolest opportunity. She's in Beverly Hills at the L'Oreal Paris Gifting Suite at the Golden Globes. As the celebs go through the suite she will blog about the beauty and fashion trends she sees AND she'll let us know what kind of SWAG is going out the door. Ahhh wish I could be there with her but I don't know much about beauty or fashion (that is why I read her blog in the first place LOL). Hope you'll take a minute to check out her blog. Edited to add: Tammy has a cool L'Oreal SWAG giveaway posted on her blog. You should go and enter. I'm on my way there now.

I am now posting my Menu Plan Monday on my healthy weight loss journal (blog). I sure hope you'll come by and read there. I know I have not been posting a lot to this blog but I am going to ultimately have a blog on my name domain which will replace this one at some point so I'm looking forward to that. I'll be posting here off and on until I get that blog up and running. Just wanted to give you a quick update. Happy New Year!

It seems like forever since I did a Menu Plan Monday and this week we haven't even planned out a menu so it really doesn't even count. I'll most likely start doing my Menu Plan on my healthy weight loss journal (blog) but I'll post the link here so you can still see what's on our menu. This week we play it by ear: Monday-Chili Tuesday- BBQ Turkey sandwiches? Wednesday- Our 12th Anniversary, New Year's Eve is always at Beni Hana Thursday- Happy New Year Friday-? Have a great week! What yummies are on your menu?

Just sitting here at the computer enjoying some yummy tea. The Celestial Seasonings Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Holiday Tea is absolutely fantastic. So tasty my 24 year old stepson even likes it LOL. Here is the tea with two hilarious mugs my stepdaughter bought for hubs and myself. The mugs say, "Here human, human, human" and they came from the MGM Grand in Vegas. Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick check-in to let you know I'm still around. Getting back from Jamaica and going right into Christmas prep was tough and kept us busy. We arrived home on Dec. 18th, had to pick up our Basset Hound at the kennel on Friday, pick up my stepdaughter at the airport Saturday and then a family party on Sunday. Then two days to shop for gifts (yes, I procrastinated this year and had to do last minute shopping and we were out until 1 AM last Tuesday). Found out that my parent's would not be coming as planned due to bad weather. I was very sad about that and shed a few tears bu...

Oh this week is exciting! We'll be in Jamaica so we'll be eating REALLY well. Monday- I'm on my own, hubs has work holiday party. I'm thinking I'll eat a sweet potato with black beans and chicken breast strips. Tuesday- No plan yet but something quick because we have to pack and get everything else done we need to get done. Plus I'm heading out to a very late lunch with a friend. I'm thinking peanut butter and jelly for dinner. Not sure how hubs will feel about that HA HA. *edited to add hubs says we are ordering in tomorrow night (Tues.) so that solves it but what to order? I dunno yet. Probably something naughty like pizza LOL Wednesday on we'll be eating yummy food in J A M A I C A as long as the weather cooperates and lets us out of town. Please pray, no snow or ice! Have a great few weeks!

I'm taking a break from everything I have to get done before we leave for Jamaica. I'm also stressing that the weather is going to be an issue when we go to leave. Please keep good thoughts that the snow and ice they are calling for will stay away, at least until we fly out LOL! I have been busy cleaning, doing laundry, shopping and getting all the techy gadgets ready for the trip. Hubs bought me the new Sapphire Blue Acer Mini computer and I love it. Look at this beauty It's going to be perfect for our trip so we can offload pictures and I can check in with the house sitters. We also got the Christmas tree up and mostly decorated. I still have to put down the tree skirt and decorate the house. The theme for our tree from here on out is the BEACH so you'll see most of our ornaments will have to do with that. I have a few more to put up on the tree but here is what we have so far. The pics didn't turn out so good, sorry. When we get back from Jamaica, we pick...

Monday- Turkey Tacos Tuesday- Chicken, potato, veggie Wednesday- Turkey Chili Thursday- Spaghetti w/Hot Italian Turkey Sausage, biscuit bread Friday- Turkey burgers/hot dogs, baked beans Have a great week!

For those in the US how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was pretty nice. My stepson spent Wednesday night with us and all three of us went to spin class and to workout at the gym early Thanksgiving morning. It was nice. We cooked a ham, sweet potatoes, asparagus and acorn squash plus hubs made deviled eggs. We also had a pumpkin pie (for stepson) and a strawberry rhubarb (for hubby). I had a slice of each, yes I did LOL Definitely not as much as years past but that is OK with me. Christmas Eve and Christmas I presume will be much different since we'll have a lot more company. Excited about that because my stepdaughter and my parent's will come into town. Kev and I are getting ready to head to Jamaica and we cannot wait. It's going to be a much needed relaxing vacation. I won't be posting on this blog while I'm gone but will have a recap with pictures upon our return so be on the look out. Yesterday, my Twitter friend Robin asked for Christmas CD recommendations...

My friend Marie has a fun meme going on her blog. Won't you play along? I participated on my weight loss journal (blog) and wanted to spread the word. Let me know if you participate so I can read what you are most thankful for today.

It's a holiday week so meals are going to be pretty simple. Monday- Tuna & Soup Tuesday- Kashi Moroccan Curry (with chicken) Wednesday- Order in (my stepson is spending the night) Thursday- Happy Thanksgiving Friday- Leftovers or breakfast for dinner (with ham of course) Sat. & Sun.- As usual we play it by ear Make it a great week! Happy Thanksgiving.

Another crazy week! Have no clue really what we'll have as I'm trying to eat a lot of what is in the cupboards before going grocery shopping again. Not sure if it will work but here are some of the meal ideas we have so far. Just throwing possible ideas together of course LOL so no set menu plan this week *Tonight (Mon.), I know we'll have breakfast for dinner (waffles, bananas, etc.). *Turkey and salmon burgers with potato fries *The usual Thursday night spaghetti w/turkey sausage, homemade pasta sauce and biscuit bread *Turkey chili *Breakfast again (eggs, sausage, etc.) Hmmm guess that gets us through the week. Maybe we'll go grocery shopping this weekend or try to make it until we go shopping for Thanksgiving which by the way we are having my stepson over this year. Went to my parent's last year (and will totally miss that this year) but my stepson asked what we were planning because his mom is going out of town this year so we'll have him over to celeb...

This week is kinda crazy. Hubby has a procedure coming up on Wed. so food on Tues. and Wed. is up in the air. Here's what is on the menu as of right now. Monday- Turkey Brats, baked beans Tuesday- Omelets Wednesday- Tuna & Soup Thursday- Spaghetti, homemade sauce w/ground turkey, biscuit bread Friday- Turkey sloppy joes Have a great week!

My husband rocks for so many reasons. But this week, my hubby rocks because he is going to play chauffeur tonight for myself to get to the city of Chicago to meet some of my favorite food and weight loss/fitness bloggers. Hubby works all day and will come home tonight to just turn right around to drive down to the city which will take us over an hour. THEN on Sunday, a blogger friend of mine from out of town and I were going to take the train from the suburbs into the city until Kev had me check the schedule and train service doesn't eve start until 9 AM and we need to be down there by 9:30 AM so hubby will play chauffeur once again on Sunday morning. What a great guy! I know he doesn't really want to do this but he is anyway and THAT is why my hubby rocks. Why don't you join the blog meme fun?

It's Menu Plan Monday and Laura has a giveaway. All you have to do to enter is post your menu plan and link up on her blog. I imagine our week is going to be kind off because we won't have an oven to cook anything. Kev went to roast artichokes in the oven last night and the whole kitchen and living room was full of a terrible gas smell. He checked it out and the broiler worked but there was very little flame lighting the gas stove/oven. So needless to say, we now have to look for a new oven. UGH! Here's the tentative plan. Monday- Pasta w/leftover veggie pasta sauce, grilled artichokes and garlic bread (hmm looks like I need a protein in there, not sure what we'll do about that) Tuesday- BBQ Chicken, potato, veggie Wednesday- Tuna and Soup Thursday- Jamaican Jerk Chicken or Trader Joe's Chicken Sausages, potato, veggie (this day is up in the air) Friday- Dinner out Let's pray the microwave and grill don't go kaput this week too, knock on wood LOL Make i...