a little help from friends

"What would you think if I sang out of tune,

Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,

And I'll try not to sing out of key.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends."

I'm not going to lie, I almost did not blog today because I am exhausted, irritated, and just plain stressed. However, I knew you would all give me a little bloggie love if I told you about my day.

First of all, I'm so glad you all liked my stuffed tomatoes from last night! I have one hanging out in my fridge to make an appearnace sometime tomorrow!

I think my problem with today started when I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. I got out of bed around 6 and decided to take my time with breakfast this morning.

whipped banana oats with oodles of toppings, monkey cup coffee, h20

i realized this breakfast would be perfect for the 4th of july!

cherries (red), coconut (white), and blueberries (blue) - of course topped with cinnamon and peanut butter

I left my house pretty early to go over to my parents where the dining room table is wedding central! Before I went, I got in a strength training session over at the gym. It was only 9:30 when my stomach started rumbling - I guess that's good and it must mean my muscles needed to be repaired! It also may have had something to do with the fact I ate breakfast at 6. I snacked on this bad boy:

delicious, but i'll take my cashew cookie bar over this one any day

I had no idea how intense the place card making would be. It took me probably three hours to do all of the following:

• print out
• tear apart
• put into table groups to make sure no one accidently got left out
• put into A-Z groups
• Alphabetize

My printer really didn't like these - I swear at a couple of points my printer literally SPIT them out at me. They FLEW out of the printer. It was kind of weird, but had me laughing nonetheless.

I also cut our favor cards as well. We are doing a donation instead of a traditional favor, so those will go in place of a menu card. At about noon, I picked up my mom and we went on some errands and to my favorite lunch place: Chipotle!

Chipotle is almost the only "fast food" place I can go to eat. I love the quality of the food, and I also love the morals of the company. Chipotle strives to use the best ingredients - I absolutely love it. You really can't see my burrito bol underneath that pile of lettuce - I always get extra!

Just so you're aware, however, I had black beans, fajita veggies, a plethara of salsas, guac, and lettuce

From here on out, I apologize for the fact that my picture taking was really lacking today. I had a really stressful afternoon. First, mommasita and I went to Costco to get sooo many lemons and clementines for my centerpieces. When I got home, I started to continue on my wedding duties when I got a call from the country club where we're getting married at and having our reception. I went in there yesterday to make our final payment and was sooo happy to finally have that past us. I got a call today from the accountant saying they made a mistake and forgot to charge us sales tax! I looked at the recepts, and sure enough.. they did.

Now, here's the thing: it was their mistake. Their mistake is costing us another $700. Something seems a little wrong with that. It would have been one thing if they were nice about it and didn't sound accusing (yes, she made it seem like I was TRYING to get away with not paying.. seriously?), but the woman was rude, very aggressive, and just not nice. She was not very sympathetic to the fact that that amount of money is a really big deal to a young couple who are paying for a wedding and just renovated a house. I was hysterical, FH was livid, but in the end... we have to pay if we want to get married. It is so frustrating.

After that whole debacle, I went to go pick up my wedding dress from the woman who steamed it. She is a friend of someone I know, and she did a great job putting my bustles on. However, when you walk into her house, you can definitely tell it is a house with smokers. The room she uses as her sewing room is totally smoke free, and the last time I dropped my dress off and picked it up, it was totally fine. Today, however, when I picked it up, it was hanging out in the living room. I took it home, unwrapped it as she instructed me, and my entire bedroom reeked of smoke. MY WEDDING DRESS SMELLS LIKE A BOWLING ALLEY. I am so unbelievably mad it is not even funny. Needless to say, hysterical again, I called mommasita. She assured me it would get better before Friday, but I am so angry about it. I even called the seamstress to tell her about it and she "just can't believe" it happened. Well, DUH lady! If you smoke in the house and leave my dress hanging in a smoke infested room, my dress is definitely going to smell like smoke.

At this point, I had given myself a stomachache from all the stress and was just done with the day. I had to meet FH, his brother, and sister in law for dinner though. His brother is marrying us and wanted to go over the final details of the ceremony. I am glad I went because I had a great time catching up with them. I didn't get a pic of my food, but I want you to picture a chopped salad with tomatoes, cukes, onions, olives, and mushrooms. There was also a homemade vinagrette on the salad. I wish I could have had something else, but we were at a pizza joint so there weren't very many options.

When I got home, FH put together the bed for our guest room and I put in a load of laundry. Guess what we found out!! Our washer is leaking. You've got to be kidding me. Looks like I will be doing laundry at Mommasita and Big Daddy Wayne's before the honeymoon.

I wnated to calm down so at about 9:30, I pulled oat (I meant to write OUT, but hey... Fruedian slip, right?) some blueberry muffin crunch cereal to make me feel better about my life.

Nice job muffin man, nice job. You did your job.

I know a lot of you are commenting about how calm I seem 3 days before my wedding, but I'm really not! I'm a crazy wreck.

In retrospect though, if the only bad thing that happens is my dress is a little smelly and I have to dish out more cash than I expected, so be it.

My bestie comes tomorrow (not the one who was featured on here before... I can have two okay?)!! I'm so pumped!

Question: Can you give me some words of encouragement for the days ahead? I would really appreciate it! I love reading everyone's comments. They keep me going for sure!

escape from reality

Have you ever gotten so busy with your work, family, friends, and adult responsibilities you forgot to take time out of your day just for YOU? If so, I highly encourage you to do that at least once this week. Whether it be for 5 minutes, an hour, or a whole day - get out there and do something just for yourself.

FH and I did just that today. We have been so swamped with wedding planning, house renovating, and moving that we really haven't had much down time with each other lately. The closest we get to spending time together most days is drilling a shower curtain rod into the bathroom (sad, I know!).


As part of my birthday present, I requested we do something "free" (and healthy as well!). We drove about an hour to visit Starved Rock State Park to go hiking!

We packed some lunches to eat in the car, and we were off!

gluten free bread from here, veggies galore (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, AVOCADO, and mustard

I had this sandwich with an apple and some raisins and almonds.

I may or may not have spilled some mustard on myself in the car - I am a very messy eater.

It was the perfect day - around 80 degrees and partly sunny skies.

happy to go hiking!

Starved Rock is actually a very historic place. Native Americans dwelled in this location for many years before it was settled by the Europeans. Fort St. Louis used to be on top of "The Rock" to try and get the Native Americans to stay in their villages. The structures within this state park are absolutely stunning - who would have thought Illinois could be this pretty?

reading the history

"will you consider it leaping if i push you off?" - FH (what a great lover - haha!)

at the top of Lover's Leap - no, he didn't push me :)

We had such a great time. It was just nice to spend time with each other without worrying about fixing something in the house or deciding upon something for the wedding. I want to go back again in October when the leaves are starting to change colors - I can't wait. It will be absolutely beautiful.

While hiking, I found something that reminded me of someone....Want to guess who?

Any ideas who?

KELSEY!!!

Since she is the "snacking squirrel", I found an acorn and brought it home for photography purposes!

When I got home I was ravenous, but really wanted roasted veggies, so I decided to wait it out. While I was waiting, I almost lost all control - I started snacking on chips and hummus. I had my fair share and then scolded myself for not being hungry for roasted veggies.

Bahahahah! Who are we kidding? I am always hungry for roasted veggies!

Roasted veggies are so easy peasy! All you have to do is slice up whatever veggies you want (I did sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper, zucchini, and green beans) into BIG chunks (so they don't get too charred), toss them with some EVOO and spices (black pepper, garlic, oregano, basil) and cook them in a baking pan on 450 degrees for 40 minutes.

Yum! I always make sure to mix my vegges every 10-15 minutes so they don't get burnt.

Along side the veggies, I ate a large spinach salad.

This is the kind of meal I dream of.. <3 <3 <3 <3

After dinner, i had the most intense craving for Blueberry Muffin Crunch Cereal. There was only one problem... I was all out of muffins!

I decided to quick whip up some of my blueberry oatmeal muffins and call it a night! This recipe is so simple and if you have all ingredients on hand, you can whip them up in about 20 minutes!

I call this snack: bridezlla diversion

blueberry muffin crunch cereal

Delicious!

I think I am going to go watch Father of the Bride - I am totally feeling "weddingy" tonight! Tomorrow is filled with running, wedding preparations (makeup and facial? yes please!!), and lots more wedding errands. 5 more days, I can't even believe it!

Question: What do you do just for you? Big or small, I don't care! I want to know!

backed up plumbing

You almost didn't start reading this post based on the title, didn't you? Don't worry - this is not going to be a tell all post, you'll see where it comes from in a bit.

The last time we chatted, I was feeling spunky. Now, I am feeling exhausted! I had a great strength traning session this morning, and it was followed by me almost burning down my parents' house.

pre burning the candles so they're easier to light on the wedding!

I had a post workout snack: a raw chocolate zucchini muffin from yesterday! I popped all of these bad boys in individually wrapped plastic, and then tossed them into the freezer until I am ready to devour them.

i am going to eat all of your friends

Lunch was something that was thrown together on a whim - I had leftover pasta from a couple of days ago and wanted to use it so it wouldn't go to waste. I mixed it with a bunch of veggies and chickpeas, and then popped in the microwaved. I topped it with EVOO, balsamic, garlic, and pepper.

love those summer veggies

There was much snackage this afternoon! It started off with this:

cashews, raisins, figs

It was followed by unpictured crackers and hummus, sunbutter (on a spoon - the best way to eat nut butter), almonds, more raisins, and an apple.

I ran around this afternoon after I was freed of the kiddos. I went to the mall, which is something I rarely do anymore. I find that Target usually is able to meet all of my needs and the mall is just a theory in my mind. I did have fun though - I got some gifts for our wedding party and did a little honeymoon shopping!

When I got home, I had one thing on my mind: tofu and sweet potatoes!!

Unfortunately, FH needed me at the house at 6:30 and it was already almost 6:00. He also wanted me to bring him dinner.

See you tomorrow tofu and sweet potatoes.

I instead whipped up something really quick and simple so I could make FH something to eat.

huge mexican inspired salad topped with avocado

with some rice and beans (yes they're under there!) on the side

I spent my evening over at my future home with FH doing fun things like mounting our new TV on the wall (yay!), putting covers on the outlets, and clogging up our plumbing... bad.

No, no one did anything nasty in the toilet. There is no reason why our plumbing should be backed up right now! But... it is. Our toilet actually pushed the water from in the toilet up through the shower drain. Ugggghhh sounds like a sewage problem. Of course, right when you think everything is in order, something happens. Ah, the joys of being a homeowner. :) I left the house with FH a little cranky and wanting to go home.

I got home and needed a snack! I had a repeat of last night, but kind of tweaked it! Instead of almonds, I put in walnuts. I added some chopped banana as well.

Blueberry Muffin Crunch Cereal

What a great way to end my eating for the daystart my snacking for the night.

Question: What kind of shopper are you? Do you like to do your shopping online, browse through all the stores, or go to one store and get OUT?

happy ttttttttuuuuesssdaaaayyyy!!!!!

I'm not sure why I'm in such a spunky mood today, but I am. Despite my horrible night of sleeping and the more than gloomy weather outside, I am just in such a GREEEEAAAT (tony the tiger anyone?) mood!

"t" for tuesday! :)

I had lots of snacks last night for a couple of reasons: 1) I had extra time on my hands (::gasp::) and had some sitting around time - which leads to eating!!!! :) 2) I ran 7 miles yesterday so I needed to fuel up even though I wasn't really hungry and 3) I just love food - no explanation needed.

One of these snacks included a homemade cereal concoction! I call it: Blueberry Muffin Crunch Cereal!

• one toasted blueberry muffin (think warm and gooey)
• handful of raisins
• couple of figs cut up
• blueberries
• almonds and/or other nuts of choice
• cinnamon
• loads of almond milk

THIS

WAS
DELICIOUS!!!

This morning I popped out of bed around 7 and was ready for some breakfast! It was a typical one but delicious nonetheless. I decided to add more toppings on it today to try and up the food intake (which I am always trying to do). I have been consciously eating more lately, but I lost weight. I think it's due to stress (hello wedding in 10 days and moving into new house in 4), but I think eating more will help.

Sometimes I just can't believe how much food I need to eat in order to sustain myself/maintain my weight because I eat so clean/healthy. You can eat so much! For example, on Sunday, my aunt and uncle came over for dinner and my aunt commented on my eating. She said, "my goodness you are like a vulture!!!" Yup!! Proud of it too! :)

Anyways, back to breakfast:

overnight oats topped with blueberries, raisins, chopped naner, coconut, cinnamon, and pb

you are so good to me

I SWEAR tomorrow and Friday (happy birthday to me!) will be different breakfasts. Kelsey and I have a virtual breakfast date on Friday, so expect to see the same food from us!

Have a great Tuesday lovies!