life lately

In my last post, I said we've been busy. I guess life is pretty much always busy, but that's a good thing.Here's a recap through pictures. Two very exciting things to note: Paul came to visit and we celebrated Becca's graduation. I have never seen anyone work so hard for so long. Congrats Becca!

 

christmas came early

Hold onto you hats for this one folks, we're without words, squirming in our seats excited.

More like ec-sta-tic (adj): very happy; blissful. 

We got a new camera! A Nikon 5100 whoooo hooooooo!

What blows our socks off even more is that it was a gift. Did you get that? Bought FOR us?! We are so grateful and never expected it. Thank you Paul!

For those of you who know my picture taking skills, know I can't close one eye and look like this when taking pictures....

On a more serious note...JD and I often marvel at the blessings we've received since getting married. From him getting his first job that moved us down here, then me getting my job which was 1 month after moving here and 1 full month after school started, to JD getting his current job, to somehow getting selected to rent our current condo when 2 other couples were against us....and the list goes on and on. We're confident God was a part of everyone.

We're amazed that God chooses to bless us. We strive to live lives that honor the Lord but fall short every. single. day. We're sinners and need God's grace and forgiveness daily. I should be spending more time in the word, pray more authentically, share my faith more, but my selfishness wins. Sometimes it's a sermon at church or something in life that makes us reanalyze our priorities. Sort of like a wake-up call. Am I doing all I can to honor him? This time it was camera. This generous gift forced me to see yet again another one of God's blessings. He does so much for us and I need to be more purposeful with my time, energy, and actions.

We can't wait to take the plunge into the world of DSLR cameras. Keep your eyes peeled for better photos on the blog. All the pics on this post are with the old camera. We've been gone the last 5 out of 7 weekends hence little action on the blog. I got a nice long post I'm working on with all our adventures. Stay tuned.

newseum, video games, and bean brownies

Quite the title, right?

We've been so busy lately the blog has been left untouched. This has been our first weekend at home in the last month. It was nice to sleep in, get caught up on everything, and finally, the house is clean.

After Easter weekend, when I was in New Jersey and JD was in Boston, we spent the weekend in DC fine dining and visiting with JD's dad. Besides endless eating, we toured the Newseum. It's a newer museum in DC and is very neat.  I'm beginning to like museums more and more in my old age. It is huge (6 floors) and after spending a few hours there, we still didn't see everything. Here's my favorite picture of the day on the outside balcony:

On Sunday we stopped at the Smithsonian to tour the The Art of Video Games exhibit.

  

In other news, today I submitted my final assignment for my current class and now have off for the month of May. Yipeeee! Ironically, this week I begin a tutoring program working with the Chinese community. I'm excited for this new opportunity and will continue to go where God leads me.

Migraine wise, the month of April has been the best month in a long time. 3 migraines with symptoms much less severe than normal. Not sure if it's the gluten free diet or new vitamin, but I'm going to continue with both. So thankful for some relief and normalcy.

Last item of business today...gluten free brownies made with beans and spinach. Quite the combination but actually good. Happy Baking!

good friends and more food

I've got some friends and food to share with you today. But first, Easter and spring break were great. Relaxing, productive, low-key, and just what I needed. I did venture to Northern New Jersey to see Ashley & Amanda who were home from North Carolina. For those who don't know, I've been friends with these girls since they were 2 and I was 4. I spent pretty much every waking moment with these two for the first 12 or so years of my life. We have so many memories from sleepovers to bowling and bike rides.

Amanda is getting married in 2 months and her shower was last weekend. It was so fun to see them and meet their leading men. We always have a great time, and I wished we lived closer.

 Now onto the food...

I've got two recipes to share, both gluten free and goooooood. and healthy too.

Recipe 1: Lentil-Walnut Burgers from Martha Stewart herself

Recipe 2: Quinoa Mac N' Cheese with a side of broccoli
This mac n' cheese is so light and a great alternative for a gluten free diet. JD even loved it.
Have you ever tried sauteing broccoli with garlic and oil olive? You should. It gives it a char-grilled taste and it's quite good.

With summer right around the corner hopefully 'll have a project to share sometime soon. 44 days left of school!

birthday recap

I had a great birthday, fabulous actually. My parents came down to Virginia and we all got together at Tommy and Katie's house. Yea, we celebrated another year that's gone by, but really I was most excited to spend the day all together. My family means the world to me, and I'm glad we live semi-close to see each other often. Katie prepared a delicious lunch and we spent the rainy afternoon doing what we do best: eating, catching up, playing with the kiddos, talking business, and previewing Tommy's new business website (when it's launched, I'll fill you in)!


This birthday was also special because I got my first power tool. Thanks, dad! It's out in our storage unit, but I'm now a proud owner of a laser miter saw. I will finally be able to cut my own wood for my DIY projects.

On my actual birthday my students sang to me and were begging to know my age. I told them earlier in the year I was in my 20's but they were determined to know the actual age. I gave each table one guess and told them if someone guessed it, I'd tell them. Two tables guessed 27, another 26, and another 28 so now they know. I had to laugh when one kid yelled out, "Hey, that's how old my mom is!"

I celebrated with the Douglas' from afar. They flooded the mailbox with cards and birthday money :)

A cropped version of this picture is in the collage above, but it's too cute not to show you the full size. These kids adore their uncle JD.

Hoping I keep this blog up and running, it will be nice to look back and see what life was like when I was 27. I had dark hair, I was in my 2nd year of grad school, 4th year of teaching, 4th year of living in Maryland, childless, renting, attending McLean Bible Church, & loving the Lord and my husband.

update on migraines and gf diet

It's been two weeks since going gluten free. I started this gf adventure during that time of the month, where I'm guaranteed a migraine or two. So ironically, within my first two weeks on the new diet, I had three migraines. I know it takes at least 1-3 months for the new diet to have an effect, but it was still frustrating to say the least.

But, how am I doing? Great actually. I have cheated once and I really haven't craved anything I'm not allowed. I was put through multiple tests (a student brought in fresh baked pastries, cookies/brownies at a church function, then cupcakes at church the following morning).

The only time it stung a bit was when we went out to eat this weekend. The burgers, sandwiches, and crab cakes all looked very good. Surprising, both restaurants we went to on Friday and Saturday offered gluten free menus. I found great choices at both places (Bonefish and Gordon Biersch).

A friend from work brought me a gluten free cookie mix and they are delicious.

All my family got together to celebrate my birthday (more on that in an upcoming post) and Katie was so kind to get me two gf oh-my-goodness-so-good cupcakes.

Even though I had two cupcakes and cookies, going gf has actually made me eat a lot healthier. More fruits, veggies, salads etc. Katie made this salad for lunch yesterday (goat cheese, strawberries, candied pecans with oil and vinegar) and it was so good I bought everything at the store today and had it for lunch again.

Another friend from work recommended a natural vitamin that helps decrease migraines and migraine symptoms, so now I'm popping those two.

Thanks to everyone to has reached out to help me with advice and suggestions for either the gf transition or migraine control.

preparing for week 1 of gluten free diet

If you didn't see it in my last post, I'm embarking on a gluten free diet in attempt to decrease my migraines. I had this thought for a while and finally decided to go for it [the last 2 migraines were too much to bare].

Here's what I did to prepare...

• reached out to my friends who already live this lifestyle and got lots of helpful tips, websites, blogs, and all around advice
• searched the internet for hours learning what foods contain gluten and what foods are safe
• read blog post after blog post for "getting started..."
• came up with a week of meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) that are all gluten free
• tried to subdue the wow-this-is-very-overwhelming feeling
• oh yea and treated myself to an early birthday present at The Chessecake Factory 

I haven't had a piece of cheesecake from here in years, since college actually, so about 5-6 years ago. I really debated but JD's encouragement was all I needed. I enjoyed this over three days and now it's gone. I am truly not going to cheat and therefore will not have any "real" cookies or cake for my birthday coming up.

After reading some online advice, it suggested not to substitute a gluten free flour in anything or eat gluten free pasta right away. Don't try to "replace" gluten and give you body a clean two weeks to adjust. Then, begin to try the gluten free versions of pasta, cookies, bread, etc.

I wasn't exactly sure where to begin. I wish someone could have said..."Cook these meals the first week," but couldn't find that anywhere. So, here's what I came up with.

Main Meals [we always cook 3 and eat leftovers]

• Turkey Meatloaf with a Brown Sugar Glaze
• Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas 
• Mediterranean Baked Chicken

Sides

• broccoli
• aspargus
• salads

 Breakfast

• Honey Chex Cereal/Almond Milk [not much change here]

Lunch

• Amy's gluten free burittos
• fruit
• rasins
• yogurt

Snacks

• fruit
• caramel corn rice cakes
• almond nut thins
• chocolate 

By no means in this going to turn in to a "gluten free" blog [I barely know what I'm doing], but this is what my week one looks like.

*We just finished the brown sugar turkey meatloaf and it was delicious...gluten free or not, you need to try this one.

Wish me luck!

gettin' healthy

We are generally pretty healthy eaters. We could probably eat more veggies and less sweets but overall we strive to maintain a healthy diet. But now we're trying to work out more and rid the house of dessert.

Last week I stumbled upon the blog Skinny Taste and we've made three meals this week from this blog and we love it!

First up...Potato Soup 
It takes just like a loaded potato but is secretly made with a whole head of cauliflower.

JD continued to browse the website and couldn't resist making this Banana Cream Pie

Finally, we made a Broccoli Chicken and Noodle Casserole

Sorry, no photo. This was very good with great flavor.

In other news, next week begins my gluten free diet. After doing some research, I've read that a lot of migraine patients get relief (to some degree) when eliminating gluten. 2011 has been a bad year for my migraines. sick. sick. sick. knocked out sick.

So....I'm up for something, anything that can help. I'll let you know how it goes. Both the adjustment part (no bread, no pasta, etc) and the effect it has on my migraines. I had to plan at least one pasta dish before the new diet.