Angie Rambles

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...

My hubby rocks-he's so creative and likes to have fun. Kev manages an Allergy/Asthma practice and everyone in his office dressed up as the 7 Dwarf's today. Here is his costume that he sewed this week. From a simple Disney picture, he was able to create the most adorable costume. He was Dopey, what a cutie. Can't wait until he gets home so all the neighborhood kids can see him. He shaved off his moustache AND goatee though, boo hoo Here's his office crew Last year he was Mr. Mucus, the big green guy from Mucinex and the year before he was a milk carton (everyone in the office was an item people are allergic to). Cute stuff. Would you like to join in on this fun meme? Visit Katy Lin's blog and play along A very Happy and Safe Halloween to all. edited to add a link to Kailani's post Halloween costume contest. Be sure to head over there to enter your pictures AND check out all the cute costumes already posted. Love them all!

It's Menu Plan Monday. Here's our plan for this week. What are your menu plans? Monday- Chicken Stir Fry w/veggies & brown rice Tuesday- Turkey Chili w/biscuits Wednesday- Pork Roast w/veggies Thursday- Spaghetti w/biscuit loaf Friday- Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Over the weekend Kev wants me to try to make pizza dough in my new Oster ExpressBake Breadmaker That will be interesting and fun. Do you have a breadmaker? If so, have you ever made pizza dough? I need to find a whole wheat dough recipe because the one in the guide is for white only. I could also do a mix, white/wheat flour.

Menu Plan Monday is here again. To be honest, we don't really have a menu plan for this week so I'm just putting down possible ideas and we'll take it from there. Monday- Turkey tacos (yummy dinner!) Tuesday- Keywest blend Chicken, potato, veggie Wednesday- Black Beans & Rice w/turkey sausage Thursday- Breakfast for dinner (don't have the makings for spaghetti unless I can get to the store) Friday- Turkey burgers/hot dogs Gosh, I am just throwing this all together and have no idea if that's what we'll have. Feel out of sorts today. What are you having for dinner this week?

My friend Aurelia has an awesome resource for work life balance and shows you ways to reduce stress. Her website has helped me gain perspective over the years and Aurelia herself has been a great life coach. I have met Aurelia in person and she's just a joy to be around. Here's a great article from her that you might enjoy. Stress Reduction Tips For The Entire Family Busy family lifestyles lead to stressed out families. Stressed out families can often lead to more problems and issues. Learning to deal with family stress before the stress becomes a huge problem is a good idea. If you already have problems, then learning to deal with the issues that are causing you stress is essential in helping you to overcome these difficulties. One of the largest contributors to stress is over commitment. Families are pulled in multiple directions by varying activities. The more children there are the more activities there are, the more refined the balancing act becomes. Think about the lis...

I have been looking forward to posting about Kev this week. Don't forget to go over to The Great Adventure so you can participate in "My Husband Rocks" Friday's too. My hubby, Kevin rocks because he's so thoughtful . As many of you know, I had hurt my knee enough to keep me from working out for over a week now and I had to go to the doc's to get a shot (oh yeah it hurt). So not fun. Anyway, Kev went to the gym for spin class alone last weekend and came home with these beautiful flowers afterwards. What a sweetheart! PS. He makes sure to ALWAYS include purple flowers, my favorite. Thanks honey for always making me feel so special .