Turkey Time

Right now I'm in Charlotte celebrating the second best holiday ever with my surrogate fam, the Sharps. My parents are in Oak Island for Thanksgiving, and since I am broke, I kind of have to choose between flying up there for Christmas or Thanksgiving, so I choose Christmas! Anyway, I'm so excited for the simple fact that I get to eat a ridiculous amount of food tomorrow, and not care. It's the simple things in life you know. But before I can do that, I have to submit myself to the neighborhood Turkey Trot 5K. I semi-fear for my life. I don't think I've run anywhere in at least 3 months. Now granted I have been doing ridiculous cardio workouts, so it's not like I've been sitting on my bum the entire time, but still. I'm scared.

I've been going through the blogs I read on a regular basis, and a lot of people are saying what they're thankful for. I decided to join in, but I feel I'll probably be unoriginal. I'm thankful for so many things and people in my life. My families, friends, the fact that I have a job and can  live on my own, etc. My fams (including the Sharps clan) and friends have been there for me more times than I can count, and never ask for anything in return. I'm so lucky to have the people I do in my life, and I hope never to take them for granted, cause they're the bomb. End of story. I'll leave you guys with some pictures of the people I'm thankful for, and I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Me and my parents at my high school graduation

Madre and Steve 

Me and Sharpie at WVU

Some of my fave Atl ladies

  My Cola girls at Nicole's graduation

My presh second cousin baby Cole (and padre in the background)

The surrogate fam in Mexico

Presh little Holden

Happy Birthday Holden!

My precious baby Holden is one year old. I cannot believe it. It was a year ago that my tiny little shih tzu was born, and a week from then that I got to meet him. When I went to pick out my new puppy, I'm not exactly sure what drew me to him out of the other five or six litter mates. I mean it's really a toss-up when you think about it. When puppies are that small you really have no idea how they're going to turn out. They don't even have personalities until weeks later. But Iiiii dunno, I knew he would be mine from the start.

After I picked him out I was sure I was going to name him Beau. And that was his name until about a week after he came home with me. I was watching the Today Show (per my morning ritual) the day after JD Salinger passed away, and they were talking about his most popular novel Catcher in the Rye. (If you know nothing about me, you should know I am a big reader.) The main character in the novel's name is Holden, and pretty much as soon as I heard it I knew that's what his name was going to change to. Opposite to the protagonist in the novel, my Holden is a lazy bum. I don't think people understand when I say that, because when he sees people he goes nutso and wants to be right on top of them. But when he's with me...couch potato for sure. For example, right now he's spread eagle on the kitchen floor.

Regardless, he is, for all intents and purposes, my little child and I love him as such. I could get really cheesy right now, but I'll refrain. Anywho, happy birthday to him! Too bad he's neutered and can't have any bday fun he's at the beach right now with madre, Steve, and their brood of dogs, haha justtt kidding because I'm sure he's running allll over the place (thanks mom)!

Product Review: Larabar

I was reading one of the many blogs I follow a couple of weeks ago, when I came across a post Brittney made about Larabar. I've been doing really intense workouts lately with Insanity and group classes, so I've been hungry allll the tiimmee. When I started Insanity I didn't really change the amount of food I was eating, so come 4:00 I would be starving in the office. Not to mention extremely fatigued and lacking the energy I needed to survive Shaun T. So when I saw Brittney mention these, and how they were great for a pre-workout boost, I thought they'd be the perfect solution! And boy was she right.

These bars are all natural, gluten free, and low in sugars. They also come in a multitude of flavors. I'm not gonna lie, not all of them are good, Cashew Cookie being one of them in my opinion. I have yet to try them all but some of my favorites are Pecan Pie, Banana Bread, and Lemon Bar. The majority of them are delish, but don't take my word for it, go try one yourself!

Cookie Goodness

So do you remember when I said I was making some no bake and M&M cookies for the Alabama game? Yea, I'm not surprised since I wrote that about a billion years ago. But hey, looky here...I estimated I would put this up around Christmas, and what do ya know I beat my goal! Ok, that's sad. I'm trying to do better so cut me some slack okay?

Anyway, I made both of these delicious recipes and took them to Columbia for my biffs to enjoy. And boy did they. But since I am suuuuch a terrible blogger, of course I forgot to take pictures and then by the time I thought about it, the baked good has already been devoured. What can you do? So for these two I'm going to send you here annnd here.

I got the No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookie recipe from Brown Eyed Baker, and they were everything I expected them to be. They were super easy to make and seewwww goooood. I may or may not have eaten about four of them as soon as they were firm enough to pick up. But that's beside the point. They may not make your house smell like one big cookie, but they'll impress whomever you give them to just the same.

As for the M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, I got them from Picky Palate. Hoooweee these were yummy. You know when you go to a cafe (in my case Corner Bakery, yum) and they have those big, soft, oh-so-bad-for-you-but-fantastic cookies? Well these are them. So trust me when I say you def want to try these. The only thing i could say about making these is I'm not sure I had chocolate chips, so even if you don't these are great with just the M&Ms. Mmmm, I kind of want to make some now. I will restrain myself, I will restrain myself.....phew ok I'm good.  

Back In Action

Hello my dears. I know it has been quite some time since I've written, and for that I am sorry. But I'm back! Full of recent goodies and events to unveil to you, so get excited. A ton has been going on in my life since the last time I posted. Unexpected events, both happy and heartbreakingly sad, have occurred, and due to those I've taken a little vacay from blogging. But I've decided it's time to rejoin the blogging world and get this thing back on track. So stay tuned, there's lots more to come!