64, and why it's important.

I will be doing a healthy challenge at work, as of May 8th, and I'm already trying to prepare! Last week, I shared w/ you my desire to eat more fruits. So far, so good! I'm loving the frozen bananas!!!

So, about this number 64...



As of yesterday, I have a goal of drinking the daily recommended 64 fluid oz of water! If you know me, then you have to know I hate water. It has no flavor, so why drink it? Well, I've heard all the benefits before, but honestly, I'm realizing more and more, that it is an important part of any diet plan. It's not that I replace my water w/ sodas, etc. instead. Basically I just don't drink much of anything! So, it's time to make a HUGE change, and go from sipping on a little water at work, to getting my 64 fl. oz in. Bathroom trips are WAY more frequent, obviously. But other than that, I'm glad I'm doing this. More importantly, I am trusting in God to help me stay committed to this! There is an AWESOME friend of mine at work, who is amazing at making sure she drinks her 64 fl. oz! So, I've also told her to bug me about it constantly, so she's keeping me accountable for my water intake! :) So, fruits last week, now I'm adding water! What's next?! Well, I have a few goals in mind. We'll see.

Bad vs. good

I am trying, key word "trying", to eat healthier. I don't think I eat too bad, in general, but when it comes to junk food like ice cream, cookies, chocolate, I splurge. I always make an excuse as to why I think I "need" those things. I definitely don't need those things. So lately, I've been trying to get away from eating the bad stuff. So when I have the desire for something yummy but not so good, I replace it with fruit. A while back, someone introduced me to frozen grapes. I thought it sounded gross, however, he said to simply try it. Throw a few in the freezer, and try it. So, I did. And guess what? I loved them!!!! I also enjoy fruit salad! I'll get a mixed variety of fruit, slice it up, and eat it all together! My favorites are bananas, grapes and strawberries, although recently I got some kiwi and added that!

Also, as of yesterday, I am now addicted to sliced frozen bananas!!! Someone said it was better than ice cream, and in all honestly, I think I agree!!! Slice up a banana, and throw it in the freezer. It really is amazing.

So, I encourage you, if you are like me, to go out and buy some fruit. And try to do different things with the fruit. I get bored easily. So I have to switch it up a bit. Have a fruit salad one day, frozen grapes the next, etc. And by all means, indulge! It's fruit! I don't think there's such a thing as too much fruit, however, there IS such a thing as too much junk food! :(

I've got a long ways to go before I'm as healthy as I'd like to be, and before I'm physically in the best shape that I'd like to be, but I want to get there! And I certainly can't get there by giving in to chocolate, ice cream, and cookie temptations!!!

Wordless Wednesday

September already?!?!

I can hardly believe that we are already in the month of September!!! Next thing you know, it will be Christmas!

Honestly, I like getting towards the end of the year. Why?!? Because of the great holidays, which means family time!!! Christopher and I are so very blessed to have such loving families. Even when we are 8 hours away, they still check up on us, make sure we're ok, etc. I'm also very thankful that these days, they have Skype, and other ways of being able to be with famliy...even if it's over the web cam. :) We also have xbox live, and my mom and I love to play boggle, connect four, and other games over xbox live! :) Even though we aren't in the same room, we are able to talk over a headset, and enjoy the games! :) It makes me feel like I'm home!

This semester, Christopher has been taking his very first Hebrew class. It's quite a struggle for him, but by the grace of God, he recently got an A on his first test!!!!!!!! We were so overjoyed!!!! I am so very proud of how hard he has been working this semester!!! And we are both grateful to God!

I've been taking a Seminary wives class this semester! "SBC" which is basically the history of Southern Baptist Convention. It's actually more interesting than I thought it would be! And I'm even more excited about Biblical Counseling!! That class will be next! Christopher took the same professor, and said it's the best class he's taken at the seminary so far!

What else is new?!

Lord willing, Little Boyd will be entering the world soon! Hopefully we will be able to go back home and meet the little guy when he arrives!!!

Christopher is still exercising just about every day and continues to get in better shape! I don't know if I mentioned he lost 25 pounds this year so far!!! He is in great health!!! He's been on a bike riding kick. Eventually, he wants a road bike! He'd like to get one now if we could, but unfortunately those things are expensive!!!! He loves riding to the seminary and back. 20 miles there and back! Yikes! Good for him, though! He loves it!!! Right now, he's using his $87 mountain bike on the roads! But he has made a few changes to it, so it rides better on the roads.

And in case you were wondering about our dog, he's still doing well. Haha.




And that's all folks. :)

Feel free to leave comments. :)

Banana Pudding squares-Our new favorite dessert!

This is the way it will work

-I will give you the recipe, and at the very bottom, I will give you my thoughts, and let you know if I did anything different.

Thank you Kraft recipes for this delicious dessert!





what you need
35 Reduced Fat NILLA Wafers, finely crushed (about 1-1/4 cups)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine, melted
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1/2 cup Powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Sugar Free Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
3 Bananas, sliced
2 pkg. (1 oz. each) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Pudding
3 cups cold fat-free milk
1/2 square BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, grated


1. Mix crumbs and margarine; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2 Beat Neufchatel and sugar in medium bowl with whisk until blended. Stir in 1-1/2 cups COOL WHIP; spread over crust. Top with bananas.

3 Beat pudding mixes and milk with whisk 2 min.; spread over bananas. Top with remaining COOL WHIP and chocolate. Refrigerate 3 hours.


My thoughts

Wow!!! Christopher and I both LOVED this recipe! It would be a great dessert to have if you are having company! There is plenty to go around, that's for sure!!!

There are only a few changes I made.

1. I used "light" butter. The less fat, the better!
2. I used mini chocolate morsels, simply because I didn't have a grater to do the chocolate. Other wise I definitely would have grated the chocolate. (P.S. if you do end up using mini morsels, I would recommend not using as much as I did ;) They definitely added flavor, but i think I added a little too much!)

All in all, this was a really good dessert! I like the way Kraft thinks! They give you alternatives to the fatty foods! I really do encourage that! When ever you are cooking or making a dessert, try to find alternatives to the fattening stuff. It always makes me feel less guilty when I eat it! ha! :)

If you try this dessert out, please let me know what you thought of it! I would love to get feedback! Just comment below! :)

Starting to feel like home...

Wow!

I am ashamed of myself for not being better about updating this blog! I don't have any excuses!

Where to begin...

We've officially been in good 'ol "Kentuckiana" for a year now! Time has really flown by! God has continued to provide for our needs!

So, back in July, guess what we got to do?!?!

We got to go home and visit everyone!!! We hadn't seen our friends/family since December (Christmas) so it was SO much fun to see everyone!!! And can I just say that my niece has grown soooo much! She's talking sooo much and walking everywhere! Back in December, she was barely walking. Oh! And my sister-in-law, Jennifer is having a baby!!!! I'm overjoyed to be an aunt again!!!! She's having a little "Boyd" hehe!! So now we'll have a niece AND a nephew!!! :)

Seminary classes are starting up again this fall. Actually, Christopher started back this past Tuesday! Although, he's been taking summer classes, so really he's constantly in school! :) But can we complain? He is already half way through with school! Whew! We are excited about the start to our second year here! :) We've been a part of a great church (We are members now, did I mention that in my last blog?) and we are getting to serve, and also to hear God speak through some great men at the church. We really love our small group too! I highly recommend it for churches. We do it every other Saturday, and we come together to pray, fellowship, and get into God's word.

I am continuing to love my job. I am ever so grateful to God for such an incredible, yet undeserved blessing.

Needless to say, we still love it here! :) It's starting to feel like "home."

I think that every once in a while I will be doing a "food" blog. :) Ever since I got married, I have thoroughly enjoyed cooking, trying new things, etc. :) Someone mentioned to me that I should start a blog! But since I already have a blog, I thought it would be cool to put up some of the recipes that I've made and share with you how they were, what i did different, etc. So, keep a look out for those! A lot of times I use Kraft recipes! It's a great site and I highly recommend it if you need some new dinner recipes! :)

Keeping it up to date!

So,

After visiting family in VA for Christmas, we came back home and got ready for the New Year! Our friends Mitch and Melissa came to visit us!!! We had an absolute blast!!!

We ate at an italian restaurant called "Rocky's." It's riverfront dining and it was absolutely beautiful to sit by the window and look at the city!


Here we are outside the restaurant!!!



Here we are bringing in the new year!!!! :)


All in all, it was a wonderful time and we were soooo thankful that they were able to come and visit us!! They are such awesome friends and we love them very much!!!

In January, I had Martin Luther King day off, and so did Jennifer and Boyd (Christopher's sister and brother-in-law) So they were able to come and visit!!!!


A few things we did:

Walked along the river



Checked out some ducks :)




Explored a watergate


And saw some interesting signs.
Apparently Jesus isn't allowed in Louisville...



We had an such an awesome time, and got to really explore where we live! They encouraged us to do more exploring, so we'll have more to show them next time they come visit! :)

So, that is all the excitement that's been going on since November! Whew! Now that I'm up to date on this thing, it seems like I should do ANOTHER update on what is going on right now! :) So, I will probably be blogging again very soon...keep a look out, friends! :)

Until next time,

The very proud wife of a seminarian!