And Now She's Back, From Outer Space...(I think those are the lyrics, right?!?)

Holy bejeezus, it's been ages since I've written! Life's been cuckoo bananas the past couple of months. The new job, working on the upstairs, making my first foray into the world of scrapbooking, getting some new ink, being awesome in general. You know, the yoozj (I say this all the time as a shortened version of "usual." This is the closest I can come to spelling it phonetically. Damn you, abrevs, damn you!)

So, anywhooo...life's been good. Busy. I'm working on two weddings with my old job. I had been with these two couples from the beginning of their planning processes, and B&F let me stay on with them for these two events, to keep continuity, which was nice of them. I'm learning a lot about the hotel business in my new job. It's weird, you don't really consider how much jargon you use in any given field, until you are in a different field and have to learn all new jargon. My short term goal for this job is to move from being hourly to being a salaried employee within 6 months. I have 4 months left. I think it'll happen :-D

That says "Happy Mother's Day from,  the Kids"

My sisters and I put together a scrapbook for our mom for Mother's Day, which was my first attempt at scrapbooking. On the one hand, I liked being able to have a tangible project that I could show off. On the other hand, it's crazy expensive and super overwhelming. I walked into the scrapbooking store and almost had a damn heart attack. There were colors and books and patterns and big paper and little paper and weird tools and stickers and more paper and sparkles and a whole room full of women cutting paper and chattering at each other. I almost turned around and walked out the door. But, I sucked it up, had the saleswoman show me around. In the end, it turned out to be colorful and kinda mismatched, a little uneven, but completely heartfelt and perfect. We each contacted our friends to send us a little note or picture of a memory they had of our mom. It was amazing, all of the wonderful things that people had to say about her and how she impacted their lives. And I'm not gonna lie, I cried a little bit while I was making it. No shame in my game...

On a related note, Mom wants us all to get matching-ish tattoos that say I Hope You Dance. Mom and Jade got theirs on Monday and I got mine after work today. They are all in different locations on our bodies and in different fonts and they completely reflect our personalities! Mine is a beaut!

And finally, the upstairs...It has been a BEAST! But, we've redone the floors, painted the walls, put up a new ceiling, added a couple of circuits, and put in the surround sound. We still have to put up the trim on and paint the ceiling and that's it. (As soon as it's all done, I'll post pictures of the entire remodel. It's been quite a journey!) Then we get to move furniture up and relax for a few months until the next project! Just kidding. Our bathroom has just about shit the bed. The shower tiles are starting to fall off, which means, rather than building our patio this summer and enjoying the outside, we're going to be redoing the bathroom much sooner than anticipated. Ah well, the joys of home improvement...

Om Nom Nom: Flip Side

Hello my lovely friends! I've been all over the place recently. Got a new job (HUZZAH!), started a huge project on the house, got my ass in gear and have been doing some major gymming (my collarbones are making a comeback!), and I'm just enjoying life in general, especially this crazy awesome weather we've been having!

Tonight, the boy and I went to pick out paint for the upstairs. This is a chore. If you know me at all, you know I love bright colors. The rest of our house is pretty much a crayon box (paint colors courtesy of moi), and we can never agree on colors. For the upstairs, I wanted a pretty sage green, and the boy wanted a buttery yellow. After 2 store visits, a couple of paint samples, and another half hour at Lowe's today, we finally decided on a very light yellow. I gave in. But that's beside the point. What I want to talk about is what happened after the paint choosing. We went to Flip Side.

This is a new little gem at Easton. They have a great beer list and do mostly burgers, fries and shakes. I ordered the Black + Blue burger and fries and the boy got the Flipside Burger. When I bit into my burger, I was so pleased that it didn't instantly fall apart, because that's what burgers usually do when they get into my hands. Then I noticed the flavor of the burger was outstanding! As I ate it, I realized that the whole patty was encrusted with peppercorns, and it gave the burger a slight tingle in my mouth. Bleu cheese is always a winner, and there were some port braised onions that gave this bad boy another level of depth.

At first we decided that we were going to get some of the fancy fries (my vote was on the truffle fries with cheese), but in the end, we both ended up getting plain fries. Great choice. Hand cut, with a little salt and some herbage, perhaps parsley. It was just what a french fry is supposed to taste like. Simple yet delicious. Also, they have an amazing housemade barbeque sauce. Tangy, oniony, smokey. Just. Glorious.

By the time we were done, I was full enough that nothing on the dessert list struck my fancy. However, the milkshake list looks like everything want in my belly right now. And they give you liquor/beer options to add to them. I mean, ice cream + booze. Really? Hell. Yes.

The next time I go back, (and there will be a next time. There are far too many drink/burger/snacky options there for me not to!) I'm totes grabbing a seat on the patio, having a craft beer, picking a burger to fit my mood, which will probably be the Chili Pepper Burger, or maybe the Green Eggs + Ham Burger...oooh, or what about the Curry Lamb Burger?!? You get the idea. A boozy milkshake will also be invited to this party.

Happy hour? Yes please. And Flip Side seems like a great place to have it!

I Like to Put Things In My Mouth...I'm a Snacker. What of It?!?

This past weekend I went on a much needed road trip with some fabulous ladies to visit another fabulous lady in Wisconsin. I know what you're thinking..."Amber, why on earth would you drive to Wisconsin? In the middle of the winter? Silly girl!" Yes, well it did happen to be the one weekend it snowed this winter in Wisconsin, but that's beside the point. On this epic adventure, one person got a date under awkward-ish circumstances, one person got food poisoning (and puked in the car. Next to me. I don't want to talk about it anymore.), and I had some hellacious allergies which are just now clearing up. But for the car ride, I had a bag full of delicious road trip snackies. I had salty, sweet, healthy, not so healthy, a little something for everyone.

The reason I did this was because I am a chronic road trip grazer. I am all about chips, beef jerky, machine French Vanilla Cappuccino, pork rinds, giant chewy Sweet Tarts, Skor bars, all the greasy, crunchy, salty, candy shit that I don't usually eat at home. And I also knew that we would be eating and drinking. A lot. There was a brewery tour involved. Lots of beer. Everyone's diets/healthy eating habits went WAAAAAAY out the window with this weekend. So I decided to bring some things to try and head off putting such unhealthy things in my mouth. Here's what I rounded up:

Trader Joe's Roasted Seaweed Snacks

I am OBSESSED with these little snackums. They are salty and crunchy and one pack is 2 servings and only 60 calories total. I let my inner fat kid out when I get a pack of them. I devour them in my car, and then I get little seaweed flakes all over me and then pick them off of myself. I don't even care who sees and judges me. And don't even get me started on the wasabi flavored ones. If you've got a strong constitution and an affinity for spicy foods, give these little num-nums a try. Danny thinks they smell like ass (they do have a certain aroma about them), but I think they taste like heaven!

Trader Joe's All Fruit Bars Ends and Pieces

Sweet, chewy, fruity deliciousness. And because it's the irregularly shaped ends and pieces cut off the bigger sheets all mixed together, you never know what flavor you're going to get. It's like Christmas in your mouth with each bite!

Dried Apricots

Also purchased from Trader Joe's (noticing a pattern here?). I love the flavor and the texture of these little nuggets. Not too sweet, with a subtle tartness that just makes the tongue happy. You can grab them at most grocery stores, but surprisingly, they were significantly less expensive at TJ's.

Ginger People Ginger Chews

I have been eyeballing these guys for quite some time, and finally just bought them. Spicy and sweet. Extra chewy. Super gingery. All natural. 3 ingredients (cane sugar, ginger, tapioca starch). They melt gloriously into a cup of hot tea. Settles the tummy. What's not to love?

Roasted Unsalted Cashews

Cashews are another one of my usual roadtrip staples. But this time, I decided to go the unsalted route. What a difference! I could taste the nuts without that burny, raw feeling in your mouth that you get when you eat super salty nuts. And my fingers didn't get all bloated afterwards! Score! Also, way cheaper at TJ's.

Wonder Bars

These, friends, were my piece de resistance. The decidedly unhealthy portion of my sack of snacks, but sometimes, you just need a little guilty pleasure. I called them crack bars because when I was in grad school, I could literally eat an entire pan of them. Even now, I can eat far too many for my comfort level. They are just so dang addictive! I'm sure there are plenty of different variations on them, but here's my recipe:

1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs

1 stick butter, melted

1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups of chips (I used a mix of semi-sweet chocolate chips, Reese's peanut butter chips and Heath toffee pieces)

1 cup crushed nuts (I used the aforementioned unsalted cashews and pecans)

Shredded coconut (enough to cover the top, about 1 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into 13x9 inch pan. (You may want to hit the pan with some pan spray, like Baker's Joy, to help keep the edges from sticking. I didn't and lost some of the edges.)

3. Pour condensed milk on top, tilting pan to cover the crust.

4. Evenly cover with chips, nuts and coconut and bake for 20-25 minutes, until it begins to brown. 

5. Let cool completely, cut and eat them shits up. Then recruit some friends to eat them too, otherwise you'll make yourself sick. 

Sooooo, in general, I think I did pretty good with keeping fairly healthy roadtrip snackums in my belly during this trip. A bag of teriyaki beef jerky may or may not have snuck into my stash of healthy snacks during a gas station stop, but I only ate like 2 pieces and the vast majority was eaten by the boy after I got home. So I say the jerky doesn't count. Another perk of packing my own snacks instead of grazing gas station culinary delicacies along the route is that I spent far less money than if I bought snacky snacks at each stop. 

Also, Celine Dion and Alanis Morisette make great singing companions. Just thought I would throw that little tidbit out there for y'all.

Change is A Comin...

Change is a comin' in our home. This weekend, Danny and I began working on our upstairs. What is our upstairs like currently, you ask? Well let me just tell you. It is a big empty room that runs the length of the house. There is some tragic wood paneling, a strange pegboard ceiling, grody cork flooring, an awesome built-in desk with some fabulous 70's pattern laminate, an interesting half wall made of pegboard, a giant closet, some built in dressers and very little ventilation/air/heat. Needless to say this is a space that we don't ever use. (Ironically, when Danny first moved into the house, it was a trainwreck, and the only place that we could sleep was in the upstairs. Just imagine me and Danny, living in this one room with two cats (which I am allergic to, and I was mortal enemies with one of them) and sleeping on an air mattress that had a slow leak, so that we would wake up pretty much on the floor every morning.)

This room is going to be transformed into a home theater/office space, that can also be used as a guest bedroom. We took down the weird pegboard wall and ceiling, and began sanding the walls to get them ready to paint. We are going to eventually replace the lights, add a ceiling fan or two, replace the floor, put wainscotting in for the ceiling, add more electrical circuits and convert the dressers into bookcases. I'm excited to see how everything will end up, and I think it will be pretty awesome! We're totes inviting folks over to hang out when it's all finished!

The weird pegboard wall has already been taken down. 

Pull down those ceiling tiles, boy!

Change is a comin' in me. I'm not a skinny girl. I've never been a skinny girl. I've always been athletic, muscular and curvy, and I am A-OK with that. Honestly, I would much rather be shapely and womanly than bone thin. But over the past 6 or 7 months, I have just been a mess. I have fallen off the fitness wagon. I have fallen off and gotten tangled up and dragged along behind. The bane of my existence is shopping for pants...to the point where I have broken down crying in the store. *Ask the boy about that day. It was traumatizing for both of us.*

My goal is to get down to 150 pounds by my birthday. That's 31 pounds of Amber to go bye-bye. I want to be able to buy pants that don't look like I've poured them on (It doesn't matter what size I buy, pants just really aren't made for my body shape). I want to be able to get shorts this summer and not worry that I'm Cameltoe McGee or that my legs look like sausages about to burst out of the casing.

I miss my collarbones. I don't own a scale because I don't really care what my weight is. I'm far too muscular to worry about having small numbers on the scale. If I ever get down to 120 pounds, it's almost guaranteed that I've had a leg amputated somewhere along the way. My biggest indicator is how my clothes fit (clearly not well these days) and whether I can see my collarbones. I can't see them, and I don't know when they stopped being well-defined.

So, now it's out there in the universe and interwebs. I am not ashamed of where I am physically and sharing it, so that's what I'm going to do. If you don't care, that's fine. It just helps me to remain accountable to myself if I can show some progress, especially if it's out there for others to see, rather than just being recorded in my personal notebook.

Now, this blog is not about to become something focused on diet and exercise. That's not interesting to me. But I will share my stats, maybe weekly, and I'm going to try to do something fun and out of the ordinary at least once a month and I may talk about that. Hell, if you have anything that you are excited about in your healthy living, let me know. I'll try most things at least once! On that note, it may be time for me to register for the Warrior Dash! Who's ready to get dirty with me?!? Ru, I know you're in there like swimwear :)

Spicy, Chocolatey Goodness...(and I'm Not Talking About Me!)

So, I was going to start this post off by describing how I'm pretty sure that Mother Nature is exhibiting symptoms of Dissociative Personality Disorder. But then I got bored trying to make the metaphorical analysis, so here's the deal. It's cold and snowy this evening. Last week it was like 60 degrees. My nerves are all jangly because the weather is all over the place. And even though I HATE being cold, I would rather it just be damn winter than being a big spring-like tease. Which leads me to the main reason for this post.

After I got home from work and running several errands, I was fuh-reezing and all I wanted was a mug of something warm. Hot. Chocolate. Yussssss. Then I realized I didn't have any milk and I didn't want to go back out. So I improvised. I had some heavy whipping cream, and figured I would make it work. This is what I came up with: (Not gonna lie, I felt like this last sentence needed to have the "DINK DINK" sound that comes at the beginning of Law and Order: SVU. It felt more epic in my head)

This is enough to make one mega fatkid mug of hot chocolate, like I drank, or 2 normal sized mugs. Don't judge me. I was cold.

1/3 to 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (1/3 cup for one mega fatkid mug, 1/2 cup for 2 mugs)
1.5 oz of whatever hot chocolate powder you prefer (I'm partial to the World Market Gingerbread or S'Mores flavors)
Boiling water
Pinch of cayenne pepper, optional
Pinch of ground ginger, optional
Pinch of cinnamon, optional


With a hand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the whipping cream until it just begins to stiffen. I did it in the mug, you can do it in the mug or in a small bowl, and then separate it out into 2 mugs. Add the hot chocolate powder, cayenne pepper, ginger and cinnamon and continue beating until the cream is stiff. Don't go too long, or it'll get grainy!

Separate into two mugs, if you're going that route. Add enough boiling water to fill the mug(s). Stir to melt the whipped cream. Drink that shit up.

Let me tell you what your mouth is about to experience. The thickest, creamiest, deliciousest (yup, that just happened) hot chocolate of life. Because all the powder is mixed into the whipped cream, you don't get that sad clump of graininess at the bottom of the mug. It doesn't start out with a hearty mouthfeel and get all thin at the end. This drink is thick and creamy all the way to the end. If you're brave enough to add the spices, it gives your tummy an extra feeling of warmth, and makes you just want to curl up under a fuzzy blanket and never leave. It's a pretty damn good way to deal with the cold and if I had any talent whatsoever at building a fire, that would be the perfect way to relax on a cold evening :-) Next time I make this bad boy, I'm using dark chocolate. It's gonna get crazy...

The End of World War 3: Dog-Mageddon!

As you may know, I have had some serious issues with the dogs sleeping in the bed. If you were not aware of this, check it out. Dog-Mageddon was kind of a shitshow. One night a couple of months ago, I was sick, and the dogs were all over me in the bed and I couldn't sleep, so I got up and slept on the couch. That night, I think Danny realized I was at my breaking point and the next day he ordered an extra large memory foam dog bed. Let me just tell you about this dog mattress. It is almost as wide as our queen sized bed, and about 3 feet across. And then he decided that we needed to build a frame for it so that it was up off the floor. A frame that was the same height as the bed so that the dogs would feel like they are still on the bed with us.

Basic frame

Frame with center divider

Danny and Bozz breaking in the new bed. Look at Lola being a hussy and not using her bed!

So we built a dog bed. It is huge. But pretty awesome. It's got storage underneath (which we need soooo badly!), wheels for easy movement, and it's made out of solid wood. It is a sexy piece of woodwork. The interesting part is that Lola is the one who has been being an asshole and not sleeping on the dog bed at night. We were both so sure that Bozz would be resistant because he and the boy do some heavy duty spooning every night. But homeboy just gets right into his bed, nests up in his blankets and conks out. Lola, on the other hand, is still battling with me. But she'll get it. When she realizes that she can get a full night's sleep and not be kicked all night for laying on my feet, she'll move.

I mean, I guess your bed isn't good enough for you dogs...

The stain is the same color as the floor, so it matches!

Look at all that storage! And that good boy on his bed :-)

Oh, You Fency, Huh?

Well, we're almost halfway through January. Where, oh where has the time gone? Not much has been going on in Amber's World of Domesticating, because Amber is even more broke than before she had a job (oof, you know things are bad when I start referring to myself in 3rd person. I'm done with that now.)
Anyway, I don't think I ever told you about our fence! We started it Labor Day weekend, and it took us about 2 months to get to a place where we could actually let the dogs out in the back yard. It's still not completely done. I still have to stain about 1/4 of it and the garden fence, but I think we did a pretty damn good job!

First fence posts!

Some of the rails are up!

Other side of the yard, keeping out the Demon Bush!

Side fence...the gate wasn't done yet

Our neighbor has this demon thorny bush next to his driveway that we had to build the fence around. And I'm pretty sure that bush gave me more pricks than a college bar on a Saturday night! And because I'm smaller and Danny doesn't know how to use the paint sprayer, I got to climb around in the bush to stain that side of the fence. What. Fun. It was actually probably pretty entertaining to watch me in jeans, a hoody tied as tight around my face as I could get it and still breathe, a respirator, safety glasses and gloves, trying to protect myself from that pokey bastard and the toxic stain spray.

Demon Bush

Devil Thorns on the Demon Bush

Add a little stain...

 Here's the cool thing...we built this bad boy by ourselves, from scratch. None of that pre-fab panel shit. I can now take a glance at a piece of wood and be able to tell you if it's shit and warped, or if it will give you a lovely fence line. The security guards at the Menard's lumber yard know our car. I can contort my body to fit into 1/4 of the front seat of the Jeep, with bags of supplies in the footwell, and still hold on to 10 foot boards so they don't go through the front window.  I can carry and cut wood like a fuckin lumberjack. Table saw, you don't scare me. I have my own tool belt. In other words, Amber and Danny are fence building BOSSES!