Here I Am

I've thought about blogging every day since the last time I blogged (two weeks ago, but who's counting?) but never made it far enough to publish anything. It's not like I haven't had anything to say. It's been a busy two weeks!

I think when a lot of people disappear from their blog for a noticeable period of time, it's because they are sick or someone has died or some other terrible thing has happened. For me, I tend to disappear when the good times are rolling.

I'd like to be able to say that my main reason for blogging is to document my life or something smart like that.   Of course, that's a big reason for me to keep blogging. I want to remember the smaller things that happen in my life that I wouldn't remember without writing them down every day.

Honestly, I started a blog because I was lonely. We're living an hour away from our family and we spend more time at work than with each other. I don't have the time/money/energy to go out and meet people in real life. Blogging seemed like the perfect place to accomplish many goals at once, including the 'make some friends' goal.

The point is, when I disappear from here for two days, two weeks, two months (let's hope it never goes that far), don't worry! It's awesome to know that people notice my absence but you should be glad for me. I tend to blog less when I'm happy and well-adjusted and out living my life sans computer.

Enough with the thought provoking nonsense... What's been going on lately? Let's go over a few things.

I went on a day trip to the mountains.

you can buy these all on their own, if you know where to go

avocado chips

I helped throw a bridal shower for a cousin.

food

my chocolate PB thingies

more food

healthy food

not healthy food

tiny ickle cakes

And I spent lots of time with my mom (but didn't take any pictures).

:)

What's up with y'all?

April Foodie Penpals Reveal

This month, I tried a new (to me) swap called Foodie Penpals. It's hosted by The Lean Green Bean. You send/receive a box of food! You ship to one person and a different person sends to you. $15 limit and that's about it. Pretty cool!

Check out what I got from Kaitlin at California Endless Summer:

You've seen me mention this bag of quinoa several times lately. I'd never tried it before, eating it or cooking it, but I loved it!

I've been meaning to get some of this, as I ran out a while ago. Thanks for that. :)

I haven't tried this yet but visitors have and I hear it's tasty!

These were the first to disappear. They are SO good.

If you're into food (who isn't?), check out this awesome swap!

Avacodos & Failure

Not much to report from the weekend! Time with friends, lots of good food, lots of rain. Maybe it's time for a picture dump.

Avacodos, eh? Hmm.

Pastries & coffee!

My new breakfast - oatmeal, almond milk, blueberries, cinnamon, chia seeds. Tastes better than it looks.

Awesome breadsticks at a new pizza place in town.

Haha, those were definitely all pictures of food. Whoops. :)

On a related note, my Dietbet ends today and I didn't quite make it to my goal, perhaps in part because of all of this food! So I haven't lost the weight but I can tell that my clothes are starting to fit differently. I wore a shirt that I had hidden away in the closet for a long time because it wouldn't fit, but it does now. Also, I bought a dress yesterday that was two sizes smaller than what I usually wear. Most of that's probably because of the cut and style and all that but it still made me feel good to look at a smaller number on the tag.

I don't know if I'll do another Dietbet. That kind of pressure didn't seem to motivate me as much as I'd hoped it would. I'll go back to the simple ways I followed pre-Dietbet. Hope those winners enjoy having my money.

How's everyone doing lately? What motivates you best? What awesome food have you eaten lately? :)

Friday Y'all!

What up!

I'm here for confessing time. I've always got something to confess to you all.

First of all, I confess I've been a slack blogger lately not just here at The Carrie Gland but also in reading and talking with others. It's been a doozy of a week! Work has been busy and I've been spending all of my free time tutoring SIL. I'm literally busy from the time I get up to the time I go to sleep, and that sleeping time has been getting later and later as the week goes on. I'm pooped.

I'll also confess that I'm not feeling the whole watermarking thing this week so I'm just gonna throw some pictures at you sans PicMonkey and hope this turns into a worthy post. :)

I got a cute little pot w/ gardening tools and seeds the other day at work. I picked a pot with carrots and parsley, so we'll see how that goes. Can carrots be grown in a pot of some sort? I'm stuck in an apartment so I don't really have room for a garden. Also, I suck at keeping things alive. Especially plants.

The 23rd of April was Impossible Astronaut Day. I confess that I definitely joined in (I'm the first hand in the picture). If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should start watching Doctor Who ASAP. :) (And this just about sums it up.)

I confess I tried to survive off of a crockpot of veggies. I learned a lesson this week. Not all veggies go together in a tasty way. Ew. Let's never do this again.

I confess that this nail polish disappointed me this week. I got a bottle of Ruby Wing in my April Birchbox. It's supposed to change from one color to another when in the sunlight. It never really worked out for me. But it's not like I spend a drastic amount of time in sunlight, either. Maybe it would work if I held out a little longer. Oh, well! Cute color regardless.

I confess that before this week, I'd never had quinoa before and definitely never cooked it before. I was a little nervous because I can't hardly cook rice in an edible way. I figured quinoa would be harder. Turns out, it's just about the same and I actually really loved it. We took down this entire bag with various dinners this week (coconut chicken; beef stew). Yum!

I confess that my doctor is making me nervous about (and to) my stomach. You see, I tend to feel sickly in the stomach area quite frequently. Definitely more than normal. He's really not sure what's wrong with me but every time I visit he asks me if anyone in my family has had Chrone's Disease or ulcers or stomach/colon cancers. Those questions freak me out, thanks Doc. Why do I always pick doctors with the worst bedside manner? Anyway, he's sending me to some kinda specialist. Fun fun fun.

So now that I've unloaded the week's phone pictures and possibly overshared with you, I'm going to head on out of here. I wish you all a happy Friday and a great weekend!

NSVday

(Also, wrote this last week and forgot to publish. Whoops.)

I found myself a NSV just this morning! I was offered a free sausage biscuit at work but I turned it down and chowed down on these bad boys instead. I didn't miss the biscuit at all! (Thanks to Foodie Penpals and Kaitlin for these!)

While I've got the attention of you NSV people, I have questions that needs answers. Maybe you can help?

I like to log my walks with the MapMyWalk app so that I can see where I'm walking, for how long, how fast, and how many calories I've burned. The problem is, when I input the same walk into MyFitnessPal, I get a different total calorie burn. Which app should I trust? Should I trust neither?

I really want to get a fancy heartrate monitor / pedometer / thing that has a million functions. Would that be the most accurate way to track exercise?

What's your favorite tool?