Wing-Eating Contest

Apparently, Seth is participating in a wing eating contest in a few weeks. The mere thought of that makes me gag--mostly just because wings aren't that good to me. They are so much work and so messy, and I just imagine lots of men covered in hot sauce to their ears and eating like pigs.

A restaurant near us has $.10 wings on Thursdays, so Seth and I went this week to check it out. He ordered 20 hot wings, and I ordered 10 bar-b-que wings.

He cleaned all of his to the bone, and ate some celery, and out-right said he could eat another 20 for sure. In that time, I ate 4.

Yes, 4.

And I was full, too. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be entering the wing-eating contest.

I'll leave it up to Seth to bring home the $500 prize. I'll supply the wet naps.

Weekend Ramblings

There isn't a whole lot that is new in Ran Land. It seems as though "daily life" has crept in--work, sleep, clean, eat...and then do it all over again. So this weekend, we wanted to have a date night that was a little different than the usual go out to eat, and rent a movie thing.

Friday night we made a nice dinner at home (steaks!) and then we went BOWLING! We haven't been bowling in a long time and the last time we did, we surprised ourselves. This time we surprised ourselves too, but not in a good way. I mean, a child could bowl a better score than I did. If I remember correctly, I bowled a 75 the first round. Seth had maybe in the 90s. What a joke. Bumper bowling didn't sound like such a bad idea at that point.

But we came back the second round to at least make it into the respectable range of the 100s. We had a lot of fun though!

Saturday Seth had to judge the history fair (fun, huh?!). Then we had a few hours before he had to be back at work again. Bentley and I had a laid back night at home.

Sunday we went to church, and then went out for lunch. It's no secret that I think going out to eat is a lot of fun, but there is something about going out Sunday after church that is even more fun! After lunch, we decided that we would try something new and take Bentley to the dog park near our house. Well, that was...interesting. Apparently, all of the dog owners and dogs that were there all met at the park and were all friends. So Bentley was totally the odd dog out. haha...it didn't take him long to get into the action though. He was chasing them all over the place! When some of the dogs started getting fiesty with him, we headed out.

Our camera batteries are dead so we don't really have any super new pictures of Bentley, but he's getting so big! He's almost 60 pounds. He gets his stitches out from surgery on Thursday so we'll get the official weigh in then! Hard to believe he was once this little:

Sausage Pasta

Fortunately for me, Seth gets home from work about an hour and a half before me on weekdays (except Fridays). So because of this, 9 times out of 10 he has dinner either finished or well under way by the time I get home. I do still try to do my part when I get home (if it isn't done) and on the weekends!

Tonight, he wouldn't be home until 8, so I decided to get a little creative with dinner and get away from the same old, same old. I tried a sausage pasta recipe I made up in my head and it turned out de.li.cious! Seth hasn't tried it yet, but I have a feeling if I like it, he definitely will.

It took about 20 minutes total, so it was super quick and easy. Consider it Danielle's Under 30 Minute Meals.

Ingredients:
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 green pepper (I hate green peppers but they were so good in here!), cut in chunks
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 lb sausage (not ground), cut into disks
2 t. garlic
salt
pepper
1 box whole wheat linguine pasta
Fresh basil
Parmesean cheese

Put 2 T. of EVOO into pan. Add peppers and onions. Salt and pepper. After about 5 minutes, add the disks of raw sausage and brown until done. Add the garlic and continue to sautee for just a few minutes. In the meantime, cook the pasta according to the box.

Once the pasta is done, drain it. Also drain any grease off of the sausage mixture. Pour pasta into the sausage mixture and sautee for a minute or 2 to be sure they are well combined and hot!

Then top with a little bit of fresh basil and parmesean cheese.

It made plenty for us to eat tonight with ample leftovers.

Voila! It's very good...give it a shot and let me know what you think!

We're Back!

I'm back! It's been a long time since I've really written anything, but it has been a stressful couple of days/weeks. My mind is still not ready to compile a post that is "all there," so a list of what's been going on seemed to be fitting. That's acceptable, right? :)

- As you know, my grandfather passed away on February 10. Without going into too many details, he is most certainly in a better place now and is happy reunited with my gramma and Jesus! His passing could not have been more peaceful, which was a blessing for the family gathered around him. We will miss him and his antics dearly! Thanks to everyone who sent e-mails, cards, flowers, etc. We greatly appreciated your prayers!

- I am overloaded at work. So much so that I have developed what I have described in the past as some freaky peripheral vision/flashes of light cocktail o' fun. Fortunately, I chatted quite in depth with my ophthamalogist on Friday, and he pretty much diagnosed me with optical migraines, which has said are classically presented exactly as I described. He said I can relax in knowing that the chances of it being a brain tumor is about .01% of 1%. To be 100% sure it is optical migraines and nothing else, I will be seeing him within the next few weeks to rule out any other options. It is not uncommon for these things to pop up when stressed, he says.

- Bentley was neutered on Wednesday, February 11. They told us to keep him calm, not to lick the stitches, and to keep him on a leash when possible. Apparently, they forget that Bentley is an 8 month old male boxer. Needless to say, you would never know that he had any type of surgical procedure. He is so hyper and rarin' and tearin' to go at all times. We stayed over at Michelle and Jason's last night, and he never stopped playing with their 2 boxers the entire weekend. The vet would totally yell at us right now.

- For Valentine's Day, Seth and I went to the Melting Pot with our good friends Mike and Sarah. We had so much fun and pulled out all the fondue stops since it has been declared the "special event restaurant" due to the prices. :) We had the classical cheese fondue course, lots of meat and veggies, and the milk chocolate dessert fondue. It was de-lic-ious. They then spent the night and we went for lunch the next day and Sarah and I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was a great movie and a great Valentine's weekend with the love of my life and great friends!

- I appear to be losing my mind. I got a text message from our pet sitter today that said "Hi. I stopped by, but Bentley and the crate were not there." Whoops. Guess I should have mentioned we wouldn't be home and we had Bentley with us. I'm sure pet sitters love to show up to houses and have it look like the dogs have been kidnapped.

Anyway, that's just a bit of what's up with us right now! I hope to be back to writing more consistently...what's new with you?

Blog Break

It may be a few days until I get a chance to write anything. My grandfather passed away last night, Bentley is being neutered today, and I'm swamped at work. Needless to say, I'm on an emotional rollercoaster.

Biggest Loser

That's it! I've had enough of the laxadasical eating and lack of exercise. In the fall of 2007, I went to the gym 4 times a week and saw carbs and starches as the exception, not the rule. Well, the stress of life has taken its toll and has been getting me a bit down in the dumps; today, two of my co-workers and I had enough of how lax we've all become with watching what we eat and how much we exercise.

We've devised our very own Biggest Loser, and it officially begins March 1. Of course, we are able to prepare leading up to that--get back into shape, begin to adjust eating habits, etc.--but the official "weigh ins" do not begin until March.

We will keep track of our weight ourselves and use the honor system, because you know how girls are. We don't like to share that information.

We're still figuring out the rules of how it will all work (should we go with percentage of body weight lost? total pounds lost?), but we are all throwing $20 into the pot. Winner gets the moo-lah. Final weigh in is around Memorial Day. We may even pull some more people into it to increase the winnings.

You can keep me accountable now. In total, I'd like to lose about 30 pounds. It sounds like a lot--and it is--so I'll have to start with small goals first. Like....lose 5 pounds. Then, when I get there, lose 5 more. I don't necessarily have a time frame set up yet, but I'm working on it.

So far since we've come up with the idea, I've gone to the gym, gone on two long walks with Bentley, done lunges around the house, and eaten healthier, balanced meals.

Let me know any secrets that have helped you lose weight!