Oh So Smoothie

It came, it came!  The scheduled arrival date wasn’t until Monday the 16th, but Friday the 13th was my lucky day after all! 

Oh, my beautiful smoothie book, you have finally arrived! 

Yes, I am speaking in exclamation points!  Lots of them! You see, I am very excited!!!

Okay, I see you get the point.  I figured that since I had a brand spanking new blender I should get a brand spanking new smoothie book to go with it.  And it is AWESOME! 500 Smoothies and Juices.  A compendium of 500 smoothies and juices (just in case you didn’t get that from the title.) 

Now, I don’t have a juicer, so I am going to have to play around with that part of the book a little bit because that is where all of the really healthy recipes are located.  However, the smoothies look oh, so divine. YUMMY! 

So many fruits in one little book.  I just want to make all of the recipes in one sitting.  However, I don’t think that I am quite that hungry, and I don’t know that I can get my hands on all of the exotic fruits this fascinating little book calls for. 

I also just joined Pinterest so that I can start collecting recipes for my blender.  Since my little book doesn’t have a whole lot of recipes made with vegetables or of the “green” variety, I decided I needed a place to keep all the extras that I find on the internet.  Yes, I am one of those crowd followers.  Facebook, blogging, Goodreads, and now Pinterest.  Whatever am I going to get myself into next? :)

Christmas

There are some things in this world that money can’t buy – like homemade caramels. We have an abundance of homemade caramels.  And believe me, I am enjoying every one of them.  All of the truffles and chocolates; money bought those.  I’m enjoying them too.  Whatever happened to me trying to give up sugar?  I don’t think anyone was listening when I set that resolution. 

Socks.  Those are good.  We have a plethora of socks.  (I just wanted to use that word.  But, yes, we did in fact receive a plethora.) 

Packages with ribbons and bows tied so prettily under the sweeping branches of our towering 3 foot Christmas tree. 

But much to my dismay, amongst all of this, a new blender was nowhere to be found.  I even entered into a drawing by Single Dad Laughing (http://www.danoah.com/) for a brand new Blendtec.  But, alas, I didn’t get that either.  My old blender smells like burning rubber any time I turn it on and it only works on pulse.  Not so great for making smoothies; or anything else for that matter. 

It was a sad day at the Griffard house, but I put on a brave face and carried on. 

Lo and behold, four score and some odd hours ago – or maybe that was 24 – my dear husband took me shopping (his favorite past-time as I am sure most men can attest to).  While we were about, he said, “Dearest, shall we go look at blenders?”  I replied, “Why yes, we shall.”  And thus, we did.

And this brings us to the happy part of this otherwise sad tale. While we were thus looking we espied a hiding Ninja.  While Ninja’s are generally difficult to see, Alex’s quick eyes caught a glimpse and we bought that Ninja.

After much searching, and much spending, and much unpacking, and washing, and blending, we had ourselves a concoction to behold;  so smooth and delicious that we vowed to buy a book and start freezing our own fruits and start eating healthier and maybe even stop eating so much sugar (once all the sugar on the counters is gone anyway).

Why didn’t we do this sooner?

Rules For Being a Good Blogger

1. Post more than once a month.

...Well, I failed that one. I guess I am going to have to get started. I have lots of stories and adventures and experiences saved up, but I am just too darn lazy to get out the laptop and actually write something! So here's a starter. Not much but it's something. My next post will be something interesting. Well, maybe. I'm not really promising anything because I don't want to get strung up, but let's just say, I'll post and leave it at that.

Fun Runs for a Cause

This summer has been filled with lots of excitement and busyness. One of the things that I have really gotten into is the fun runs. Fact is, I wish that I could have been involved in a whole lot more. There used to be a time that I was training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, a training program to get you in shape for a half or full marathon where you earn $1000 or more towards finding a cure for blood cancers. During that time, I was involved in a lot of races, and to tell you truth, I loved it! I loved the thrill of running (or actually jogging in my case) and being a part of something bigger than myself. Every single race that I have been a part of has raised money for something. Whether it was for a race to fight blood cancer or breast cancer, they are all the same. They are all fighting something. Trying to beat something. Doing their very best to bring out the best in people. To unite them for a common cause. And to get them out from behind their desks or off their couches and onto their feet to start getting a little exercise. 'Cause heaven knows, we could all use a little exercise! =)



In the beginning, I signed up for the Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure. I was so excited! I haven't been able to do that one for a few years. I am a huge advocate in the fight against breast cancer since it runs in my family and it is so prevalent. And then something terrible happened. I got sick. That put a damper on things. I had to call my friend the night before the race and cancel on her. I felt terrible!!! But, these things happen and she forgave me.


Later in the summer, I signed up for The Women's Fitness Celebration with my sister Emily as part of the team Barbie Gurlz. Yes, I had to swallow my pride for that one. I dearly love my sister, so I made the sacrifice and became a Barbie for one day only. The last time I participated in this race, I went with my mom and it was pouring rain and freezing! This time the sun was shining and it was actually quite nice and warm outside. What a beautiful day for a race. Emily brought accessories and we dressed up. It was so much fun! I love my sister! Here is a picture of us in all our glory.

Then in October, Alex and I signed up for the Light the Night Walk sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We walked in honor of our friend Jamie (who was part of our team) who is a survivor of Leukemia and is such an amazing person. (She's the friend I ditched for the Race For the Cure.) It was really rainy and cold, but such a great night; and what an honor to be able to be there with Jamie. Alex and I were also able to raise and donate a bunch of money to help fight blood cancer. Here's a picture of us at the race. (Sorry about all the toilets...)

Alex has a soft spot for blood cancer since he and Jamie went to college together. He even signed up for bone marrow donation because of her. And because of that was chosen, this past summer, to be a bone marrow donor to a woman with Lymphoma. We were sad that it did not go through (and I sure the lady with Lymphoma probably felt the same way), but it was such a neat experience just learning about the whole bone marrow donation process. It's something that I would encourage anyone who is able to become a part of. It's no small thing to save another person's life. What a miracle we've each been given. The gift of life.

How Many Steps Was That?

Wednesday was the 3rd and final night of our Shakespeare Festival season ticket plays. How many steps? 39 to be exact. The play was called The 39 Steps. It was an Alfred Hitchcock based play. Very funny little murder mystery.

I have really enjoyed the Shakespeare Festival. While this play wasn't my favorite (Taming of the Shrew was BY FAR the best) it was still an incredible experience. The season tickets were a Christmas present from Alex last year. I have to say, they were a pretty awesome gift! We'll have to see what the line-up is next year, but I'm hoping to go again. I sure do love the arts.

The Invention of the Scoot and Ride

Tuesday Alex and I decided to try our hands on another bike ride, just to see if it would go any better than the first. Well...and because we figured we should probably get some riding time in on them so we could get our money out of them.

We drove out to a different green belt. This time, one with paved walkways, perfect for riding bikes. Before we even got on our bikes we spotted a friend from work and stopped to chat, nearly running a fellow bike rider off the trail -- an omen of things to come.

Shortly thereafter, we got on our bikes and started down the trail. The ride was peaceful. The scenery was beautiful. The camera was back in the car. Some day, I promise, I will start taking pictures! The breeze blowing across our faces was nice and cool as it came across the river. It was the perfect evening for a bike ride.

Suddenly Alex said, "Kristy, pull over to the bench, my pedal feels funny."

Before we got the bench, his pedal fell off. Thus, the scoot and ride was born. I so wish I could have gotten pictures! People on foot were passing us as we made our way back to the car. Me pedaling as slowly as I could without falling over and Alex sitting on his bike pushing off the ground with his foot. It was as much as I could do to not fall over in fits of giggles.

We got the bike to his parents' house and his dad got the pedal put back on, and HOPEFULLY it stays put. NO MORE ADVENTURES ON THE BIKES!!! I want a peaceful ride next time. And I want to actually complete the bike ride.

Not So Computer Literate

All of this blogging has been SO exciting that I have been obsessed with it over the last 36 or so hours. Posting on Facebook, reading other blogs, looking for ideas, getting ideas from other people and making sure that my blog looks all pretty. I have even talked to friends to get some great ideas for my blog.

One of my friends introduced me to a great program called Picasa where I can upload all of my pictures, make them look pretty, and post them in my blog. I grew even more obsessed! Okay, seriously, I am embarrassed to even say it, but I was up until 3 in the morning playing with Picasa before I realized how tired I was. I NEVER stay up that early. I guess I can't say that anymore.

I woke up this morning, got back on Picasa and realized I had a whole bunch of duplicate pictures. Why? Well, because the program had pulled pictures from both my computer account and my husband's computer account and since we had the same pictures on both of our accounts, well, you get the idea. It had also pulled every video and picture file from off of the hard drive. I was wading in junk files that I didn't want or need. So, what did I do? I started deleting things. Well, what would you do? Slowly but surely, things started disappearing.

When Alex woke up, I showed him what I had been up to. I was so proud of myself until he pointed out something I overlooked. Wouldn't you know it, there was a "remove from Picasa" button, and a "delete" button. Which do you think I chose? And whose files do you think I deleted? Needless to say, not all of those files were recoverable. However, this picture was one of the ones that was. It took me a little while, but I decided it was going to be my theme. So, when you go and do something stupid, like delete all of your husband's picture and video files, just remember, you can be good at other things, like fixing bike tires instead. :)