10 Day you Challenge Day Six: Six Places

I have been looking forward to this one! Since Daniel and I have been married we have taken some really cool vacations, and seen a lot of cool things.  There is nothing like a road trip driving on the highway at 3am is amazing for me.   This is a list of places I have been and places that I want to go.  That being said my goal is to see ALL of the United States, and as much as a possibly can.

1) NYC: What's not to love? The food is amazing, home to a few of my favorite places to eat like Serendipity 3, and Crumbs Bakery.  Daniel and I are nerds so there are amazing places to tour and site see.  People watching is unbelievable you see so much.  I love the city life, the late nights always something to do and see.  The price and cost was not something that I love, but totally worth it.    

Picture I took from our Vaca in 2010

2) St. Thomas, Virgin Islands: We had the chance to go to St Thomas on our most recent cruise and I decided that I could live there too.  It was beautiful!  I have never been one for being hot, or vacationing somewhere near the beach but I loved it.  There is something about seeing water that pretty that makes you want to stay there forever.  

Our Vacation Jan 2011

3) The Outer Banks: Daniel and I have had the opportunity to vacation here several times too.  I love NC and its coast.  You have your typical USA beach where you can sit in the sand and play in the water and then you have places that are so far out that you can pull off in the side of the road at night and look up and see thousands of stars.  It is a amazing place that if you are lucky you can see wild horses running on the beach.  Do the tourist thing and go to the site of the lost colony of Roanoke.  Tons of places to eat, and just a amazing place to relax!

4) Salem Mass: I know I know.. this one is kinda weird.  When Daniel and I were married we a) are fat, b) hated the beach 3) were fat, hated the beach and didn't like to sweat... so we went north.  We picked Boston, Mass and the surrounding area.  That ended up being Salem.  This little town has so much history, and its beautiful.  We fell in love with it. One of the reasons I might hold it close to my heart is because of our honeymoon.  Last year Daniel and I got the chance to go back and revisit and I fell in love with it all over again. 

5) Louisville, Kentucky: How can one not love the place that they live? Louisville is the perfect blend of small city meets large city.  There is enough to do to keep you busy and our city has done so much as far as improving its look.  There are many great places to eat, the parks downtown are amazing and there is usually some kind of event that is going on.  Bardstown Rd is a personal favorite of mine.  

6) Ireland: This is my wish! Of all the places in this world that I would love to go it would be Ireland.  I tell Daniel from time to time, that the ONLY thing that could make him more attractive would be for him to speak with a Irish accent.  I want to kiss the Blarney Stone!

10 Day you Challenge Day Five: Five Foods

I have been looking forward to this post, and dreading it all the same.  How cruel is this one that while on a self imposed food restriction aka diet I get to talk about my favorite foods.  So here I sit and type while craving all the things that I can't have!  On a good note I will add that I am down almost 34 pounds! between Daniel and I we are at 75 pounds lost! He weighs in again on Thursday he has a goal in mind and I know that he's going to reach it!  I feel like I have done nothing but gain weight this week, I am not looking forward to seeing the scale in the AM.  Here we go!

1) Tacos!! I love them. They are quick and easy to make and totally yummy! Last summer Daniel and I started having my brother Marc and his girlfriend Amanda over on Thursdays and that turned into us cooking dinner and spending the evening together.  This is now something that I look forward to weekly.   Taco's have been a feature of the night more then once.  One of my favorite restaurants is Tumbleweed, anytime I get to pick where I want to go that is in my top 2.  They have amazing taco's covered in queso! and YUM Taco Bell!

2) My Mother In Law Sharon's Fried Chicken, Corn bread stuffing, and Veggie Casserole.  Daniel's mom is one of the best cooks over the years I have eaten at her house 100's of times and it never gets old.  I could list numerous dishes that she makes that are amazing.  Her burritos are wonderful too!  Daniel wants me to add in her Chili is amazing too.  

3) BBQ bacon cheeseburger... this I have been dreaming about every night when I am getting ready for work.  This will be the first thing that I eat when my "core" diet ends one day very soon!  I might throw it up, but it will be well worth it.  Tonight is a hard night usually when Daniel gets his hair cut he usually brings home Five Guys burgers... tonight I feast on Brussels Sprouts, and a baked potato.  

4) Cupcakes I love them! When we were in NYC I fell in love with Crumbs a bakery I became addicted and even hauled 6 cupcakes via my car back from NYC.  Now that is how much I love them.  Here at home there is a good bakery called Gigi's its pretty good, gives me my fix when I need it.  I discovered a few months ago that you can go online and order cupcakes from crumbs.. I am hoping for my birthday this year I might get a surprise package in the mail that involves a  Cosmo cupcake from Crumbs or a Grasshopper one! (hint hint)

5) Last but not least Anti-pasta Salad from Buca Di Beppo I am a huge salad person I love them.  I discovered this salad in the last year and sometimes its all I think about!  Daniel and I usually get the small and it is enough for us to eat as our meal and take some home for later!     It seriously makes me happy! 

Now that I have discussed all these foods that I have gone without for the last 8 weeks and am craving them.. I am going to have to take my hungry self to bed!

Daniel's list gets to make it on here too, just because I am enjoying thinking and talking about food!

1) Chips Queso and fresh Salsa 

2) Mortons The Steakhouse involving Chicken Christopher, Wedge Salad, and Shrimp Alexander 

3)BBQ Bacon chicken pizza

4) Guacamole, Buffalo Blasts, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake from the Cheese Cake Factory.

5) Chili Burger and Frozen hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3

10 Day you Challenge Day Four: Four Books

Day Four: Books

This is another hard one for me, those who know me and know me well know how important books are to me.  I literally always have one on me, in my purse, or in hand.  I love the feel of a book in hand, the sound the pages make as you turn them, and NOTHING is better then the smell of a new book.  I could spend hours in the book store!  So lets get this list going!

The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks: Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author hands down.  I love his writing style and his stories have so much heart and depth.  This is not one of his most well known books but it holds a place in my heart.  The main female leads name is Denise, whats not to love?   This is a book about a man who is scared of nothing, a firefighter used to saving and assisting others, a man who picks women that he feels needs him to help them and then he leaves.  This is a book about his rescue from himself, and his past that have held him hostage.  It is typical Nicholas Sparks .. and I love it!! All his books are amazing!

Something Borrowed and Something Blue by Emily Giffin: I can not list one with out the other.  So yes those are TWO different books and they are amazing!  I purchased these at the DAV for like $1 each, thinking that I wouldn't like them but there was nothing else to buy. I started reading Something Borrowed and fell in love with it, I finished reading it in four hours! I had them both done in a day.  I laughed, I cried, I hated characters, I loved them.  When I thought that I couldn't dislike a character anymore then I already did I fell back in love with them.  I know that they are adapting these for film and they should be out sometime this summer I am really looking forward to seeing how they bring the girls to life! Amazing books I have read them at least 10 times each!  I find myself wondering who I like more .. Darcy or Rachel?

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins: This was yet another series I had no desire to read.  Daniel and I always look at books when we are out shopping, and I had picked up the first one several times and always put it back.  I am not a huge science fiction person.  One night I was working with my friend Angie and she was telling me about this amazing book that she had read.  That next day I decided I would give it a shot, and I bought it.   I was in LOVE by the second chapter and couldn't put it down.  That next day I went to the store and had purchased the other two and read them all in 2 days.  Great story, and I love the characters!! Written for a younger audience, but great storyline.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: I can remember as a child my parents sending us upstairs for a hour of quiet time, no radio, no TV, no noise! So I would read.  After quiet time was over lights went out, then popped on my night light with the shield removed that sat between my headboard so that I could read until all hours of the night.  Anne of Green Gables was one of the books that would take me to another time and place.  I love almost all her books in this series, I have a thing for books that are in a series.  I can't stand getting to a end of one book and wondering what happened after.  The more information I can get the more resolved I feel when I close the book for the last time.  Prince Edward Island is on my list of places that I want to see before I die! ... I guess one of these days I will have to make a bucket list of things that I want to do mixed with things that I have done! 

My Brother in Law the Mouth Piece of America

This is just a few days in the life of being married into the Henderson family...

Wednesday

So Wednesday was unusual to start with! Lets go ahead and add on all of this.  I get a text while I am sleeping Wednesday that my Brother in law is going to be on ABC World News that evening talking about the possible Government shutdown.  Here is how it all started! Then the car accident happens (see previous post) and we end up watching the interview in the ER.  ABC Interview here!

So we have a laugh because it was just the craziest thing to see J.T, Natalie and Tedi on TV.  Daniel and I leave the ER that night, and don't really think anything else about it getting caught up in more personal drama.  Later that night JT calls and tells us to turn on the TV that President Obama was giving a press conference and apparently had mentioned J.T by name several times.  I jumped online and look it up and sure enough there it was  Obama mentions JT click here!.  Daniel and I seriously sat and just laughed wondering did that really happen.  How strange was that? I know I listened to it 10 times just cracking up.  Daniel and I went to bed late that night talking to his brother a few times after that and went to sleep that night wondering where it was all going to lead if anywhere. 

Thursday

My phone alarms with a text message at 0650 saying that J.T would be on Good Morning America at 0700.  So Daniel and I jump up, well I jump up and  assisted Daniel up since the soreness from the car accident had started to kick in.  There J.T was on GMA, CRAZINESS!! GMA clip here!!.  That soon was followed by J.T being on a local radio show here in Louisville, him doing another phone interview with Laura Ingraham (interesting) Hear Interview here!.

MSNBC did a really nice Interview with photo's that I can't find it was by far my favorite!  Followed by two stories done by one of our local TV stations WHAS.  ONE OF THE WHAS Stories!

Daniel and I had a meeting that night for our weight loss program (we are down a total of 74 pounds!!) so on the way there we stopped by to see what all was going on and watched Tedi while ABC filmed another spot for Thursdays nightly news.  That was really interesting to see how it all happens, they pretty much brought a entire set to J.T and Nat's house to film the small clips that you saw on the news. Thursdays ABC Interview!

This photo is them setting up, and us getting ready to take Tedi outside!

It was a crazy 24 hours! Amazing, hilarious, eye opening as to how people judge things by only what they hear.  It really gave me a lot of respect for J.T more so then I did, he never wavered and didn't get lost in other issues.  His whole reason for speaking out and why he spoke out never changed no matter who or what attempted to steer him in other directions.

This is going to be one of the crazy stories when we get old that we can look back on and say "Remember when".