Tilt.

I feel like I'm all over the place right now...mentally... like a ball in a pinball machine. Ya know, they get launched and bounced around, smacked into bumpers, might hit a bonus area, then ricochet around a little more before going into the gutter just to get shot out and start the process all over again. 

Earlier this month, Eric had been doing his paperwork in order for us to get orders to our next base since we're due to leave around this time next year. I absolutely love living in Europe! We were hoping to pop over to one of the larger bases in Germany considering we really don't have an interest in going back to the States right now. About a week ago, Eric came home to inform me that we won't be moving in 2012. In fact, we'll be moving in 2013. Apparently there was some sort of goof-up in his paperwork, so instead of us being here for three years, we'll be here for four. There was a part of me that was upset and relieved, if that makes any sense. It sounds funny, but I enjoy moving .I like seeing new places...I'm not one to stay put for very long. When I was living in California, I moved up and down the coast line a few times till I met Eric, then we ended up moving to Europe. Living in Belgium has been a wonderful experience of culture, travel opportunities and anything else you can think of, but, I'm ready to move again..even if it happened to just be over the border to Germany. Now that we're here for two more years, I guess it gives me the chance to travel some more in addition to my family popping over and checking out Europe for an additional year.

Like I mentioned a few posts ago, I've gotten to the point where I've wanted to purge stuff from my life. So far, I've managed to get rid of several things that weren't being used, a bunch of purses, video games and whatever else I can find that needs a new home. It makes me feel SO much better to lighten the load in the house of various things! I'm still working on my office, which seems to have morphed into some sort of monster. Everyone decided that was going to be the junk room, so there seems to be an endless amount of crap in there that I have to sift through, recycle, throw away, file, organize..you name it, it's gotta be done. I'm just having a hard time finding extra motivation to do it! I managed to plug away at it a little bit this afternoon, so I guess that's a start, right? We still need to work on the garage...and that's gonna take some time to disassemble and destroy :(

Since I've changed my eating habits, I've been feeling SO much better! Between cutting out a lot of salts and sugars, limiting my caloric intake and stopped snacking about two hours before bed. At this rate, I've lost about seven pounds since the start of the year. Whether or not it's water weight, I dunno, but I feel better. I've been taking my dogs on walks more frequently, but the weather has been rather temperamental lately...and weenies dogs DO NOT like rain! At least my efforts are starting to pay off, even if it's just a little bit at a time. 

Random post, I know. 'Tis my life!

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La Fée Verte

About two weeks ago while I was out with a friend, we stopped into a local alcohol shop (it's like a warehouse) so she could look for a particular type of cherry beer for her husband. While we were looking around, she called me over because she found something rather interesting. She found Absente. I think we were both in awe considering it's normally an illegal drink back in the States, but after doing a little bit of research, I found out that the FDA lifted the ban in 2007. Heh. 

So, while Eric and I were out and about, we went back to the alcohol shop to look for a particular goblet he was looking for, found it, and I ended up showing him the Absente. He was just as stunned as I originally was cause we've only HEARD of it, but never seen it. Given, it's similar to Absinthe, which is the MUCH stronger version (think in terms of 150 proof), but the one we picked up is 110 proof (55% alcohol). 

I love how they used Van Gogh for the packaging considering he was said to be a frequent drinker of the spirit. Actually, it must've been pretty interesting to see him during his time considering he was bi-polar, had seizures quite frequently since the Absinthe set him off, in addition to all the other health problems the man had! So, I guess I can't really blame him for drinking the stuff so much.. it took him to a happy place. 

With the bottle, you also get an Absinthe spoon which is REALLY cool! You actually use the spoon when you're making your shot. 

Here's a description of how you make your drink:

The Absinthe Ritual

All true absinthes are bitter to some degree (due to the presence of absinthin, extracted from the wormwood) and are therefore usually served with the addition of sugar. This not only counters the bitterness, but in well made absinthes seems also to subtly improve the herbal flavour-profile of the drink.

The classic French absinthe ritual involves placing a sugar cube on a flat perforated spoon, which rests on the rim of the glass containing a measure or “dose” of absinthe. Iced water is then very slowly dripped on to the sugar cube, which gradually dissolves and drips, along with the water, into the absinthe, causing the green liquor to louche (“loosh”) into an opaque opalescent white as the essential oils precipitate out of the alcoholic solution. Usually three to four parts water are added to one part of 68% absinthe. Historically, true absintheurs used to take great care in adding the water, letting it fall drop by single drop onto the sugar cube, and then watching each individual drip cut a milky swathe through the peridot-green absinthe below. Seeing the drink gradually change color was part of its ritualistic attraction.

Last but not least, there's the infamous Green Fairy.

If you've watched Moulin Rouge,  you remember the scene where the bohemians are drinking this stuff and start seeing a little green fairy (played by Kylie Minogue).

The Green Fairy is the English translation of La Fee Verte, the affectionate French nickname given to the celebrated absinthe drink in the nineteenth century. The nickname stuck, and over a century later, “absinthe” and “Green Fairy” continue to be used interchangeably by devotees of the potent green alcohol. Mind you, absinthe earned other nicknames, too: poets and artists were inspired by the “Green Muse”; Aleister Crowley, the British occultist, worshipped the “Green Goddess”. But no other nickname stuck as well as the original, and many drinkers of absinthe refer to the green liquor simply as La Fee – the Fairy.

But Green Fairy isn’t just another name for absinthe: she is a metaphorical concept of artistic enlightenment and exploration, of poetic inspiration, of a freer state of mind, of new ideas, of a changing social order. To the ignorant drunk, absinthe will forever remain but potent alcohol, perhaps with a bit of thujone “high” thrown in. To the original bohemians of 1890s Paris, the Fairy was a welcomed symbol of transformation. She was the trusted guide en-route to artistic innovativation; she was the symbol of thirst (for life) to Arthur Rimbaud, the first “punk poet”: it was the Fairy who guided him — and his fellow poet and partner Paul Verlaine — on their quest to escape the conventional reality of their time into the sanctuary of the surreal.

Thanks to Wikipedia, here's some additional information about Absinthe.

At this point, I'm undecided whether I want to pour myself a shot and see how this stuff tastes...or just keep the bottle because in all honesty, it's pretty cool looking. I went surfing online and found a bitchin' Absinthe spoon, but I'm not willing to pay what the guy wants for it (£165)...given, it looks like a Woodworm branch (which is an ingredient of Absinthe), but I think I'll just settle for the spoon that's included with the bottle :)

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French Toasty Nom Nom

 Alrighty, when we were living in California, I was rather spoiled when it came to sourdough bread. I absolutely LOVE San Luis Sourdough. Love it. It's the best bread to use for sandwiches, and especially French Toast. When we moved away, I was VERY....VERY sad that our commissary here doesn't have it. I mean, come on, they have Wonder Bread and Home Pride..both are "meh" worthy types of bread. Believe me, I've been tempted to have some shipped over here, but I don't think it'd be good by the time it arrived :(

If you haven't had it, trust me, you're missing out on a great thing. 

So, onto the recipe!

Ingredients

• 5 cups bread cubes
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup white sugar, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly butter an 8x8 inch baking pan.  

Line bottom of pan with bread cubes. 

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla. 

Pour egg mixture over bread. Dot with margarine; let stand for 10 minutes.Combine remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle over the top. 

Bake in preheated oven about 45 to 50 minutes, until top is golden.

Top with what ever syrup you like :) I stick to boysenberry with a slight sprinkling of powdered sugar!

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Creepers

Alrighty...as I've been noticing that my traffic ticker on my blog keeps going up, I gotta wonder....

WHO ARE YOU!?!

Who is reading my blog? Come on now! I'm seeing dots pop up all over the world on the map and yet I RARELY ever get comments (except for the few here and there from friends)! Seriously, some feedback would be greatly appreciated in addition to putting some names / faces to those who (apparently) are repeat readers!

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Look at you, you lil' entrepreneur.

Pampered Chef has treated me very well over the past (almost) two years and I've managed to donate a little over $4k to breast cancer and pancreatic research from my commissions. Not bad, hunh? I gotta admit, since I've been selling for them, my kitchen has become very "pimped" in terms of cooking tools, cookbooks and cookware. I think I own close to 90% of their current catalog, but I'm sure that will change since they're releasing a new catalog in March (yay!). 

Where I currently live, there are SO many home businesses, mainly because it's very hard for spouses to get a job on base. Given, I had one of those jobs, but I let it go because it wasn't worth the headaches it was giving me. Over the last few weeks, I've been debating on taking on a second home business since I like staying busy. Thing is, the big hitters are already taken. From what I can think of off hand, there's a Consultant for Pampered Chef (me), Scentsy, Close To My Heart, Stampin' Up, Usborne Books, Mary Kay, Avon, Watkins, in addition to home baked goodies and such. A good variety of businesses to choose from, but I don't want to "double up" on a company that someone has already invested in. Personally, I know I would be a little annoyed if someone started selling Pampered Chef here despite the fact that I've managed a pretty good client base, but still, there isn't room for two of the same. There just isn't.

So, after doing my fair bit of research, talking to Eric as well as my father, I decided the second company would be Tastefully Simple.

They're a gourmet food company that handles spices, sauces, drink mixes and other various things that you can use when you're entertaining people. I figured it would go perfectly with Pampered Chef since it relates to the kitchen, putting together meals for friends & family and enjoying what you create for others to enjoy. I mean, I LOVE working in the kitchen. I love coming up with different recipes and seeing how I can hone my "skills" since I don't want to be one of those wives that relies on microwave meals or fast food. Given, 95% of the meals we have are home made, but I like coming up with new stuff :) Not only is my husband completely supportive of this addition, I'm sure he'll greatly benefit from it since he loves Pampered Chef (he was a loyal customer before I started selling it) and he loves whenever I cook new things. So what better than to work with a company that enhances food? :)

So yes, I'll be selling for them now. I had to figure out how to deal with shipping since they don't ship to APO's (they totally need to change that!). My Dad is willing to forward my starter kit to me as well as orders I do for parties as long as I send him goodies, hahahaa. Go figure, right? I love my Dad :)

I'm excited! Hopefully this runs as smoothly as Pampered Chef. If not, at least I tried, right?

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Revamping Things

Since the beginning of the New Year, I've been working around the house..downsizing a lot of our junk and figuring out what we should keep verses what can get tossed. 

In the midst of doing all of that, I've been taking a serious look at all the junk food we have in the house and made a decision to toss all of it. I mean, ALL of it. No, this isn't a New Years resolution or anything. I just feel like I need to purge all the crap from my life whether it's environmental, nutritional, emotional..whatever. A lot of crap is getting removed from my life. Eric being the amazing husband that he is... he's completely supportive 110% :)  I think it was a real eye opener when he saw how different our fridge looked after I cleared it out, lol. Now there's only fresh veggies, no microwave meals, especially no microwaveable or oven ready junk food meals. I went through our pantry this morning which was quite daunting, ugh! Give, there's still stuff in there for treats once in a while when I want to bake something, but for the most part, there's a lot of health snacks or stuff that's very low in salt/ sodium/ carbs.

In addition to being conscious about the junk I'm putting in my body, I've been trying to get back into the swing of things with the gym. This time last year, I was busting my ass everyday which made me burn out. Not only did I burn out, but it seemed like I was getting negativity from people when I was posting about my stats (distance, time in the gym, etc). It was a little discouraging, not gonna lie. This time around, I'm going at my leisure and focusing on my cardio by spending about a half hour to forty five minutes on the treadmill. When I'm home, I'll use my Kinect system with "Your Shape Fitness Evolution" to do strength training and yoga. Once my dogs new walking halters show up, I'll be going on daily walks with them since I know Cole is needing to slim down a little bit.  Plus, it helps Izzy file her nails down since she's a drama queen when it comes to allowing us to snip them.

I'm not stepping on the scale. I'm not obsessing over my weight. I know I'm a chubster and I'm OK with that.. I just want to better myself and feel better. I need to find my happy place and get centered.

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Welcome to 2011

Gosssshhh... 2011. Where has the time gone? Time has flown by so much, it's crazy.

So at this point, we have almost a year left in Belgium. It doesn't even feel like we've been here for two years already! I absolutely LOVE living here! Seriously, I love it. If we could stay in Europe and live here for the rest of our lives, I'd totally do it. Sadly, Eric has another five and a half years left with the Air Force before we can settle down for good. I'm hoping we'll end up at another overseas base after here, preferably over in Germany! Oh man, if we can do that, I'll be a happy camper! We should be finding out around June whether or not it's a possibility for us.. so here's to crossing our fingers! 

In other news, since we have a year left, I'm in this mode to get rid of junk. I don't like clutter, but our house isn't exactly spacious and our garage still looks like the day we moved in. Boxes are everywhere! We're horrible little procrastinators when it comes to that kinda stuff. Hopefully I can blow through it before the springtime hits because, don't laugh, I'm afraid of working in there with all types of spiders. The spiders in Belgium are HUGE! They seriously freak me out! Right now, it's too cold for them (yay!) so the sooner I can hammer out the garage, the less spider filled boxes I have to deal with. Well, not me. Eric has to deal with them. The second I see a spider, I ninja vanish. 

We went through some of our stuff the other day and decided to sell off our Wii, it's accessories and games since it doesn't get much attention anymore. Rather than sit and collect dust, it found its way to a loving, new home. Yay! Now I'm considering going through my "Purse Tomb", as Eric calls it. I have tons and tons of purses... Coach, Dooney and Burke, Kathy Van Zeeland, Jessica Simpson..the list goes on and on. I'm to the point where I don't want to hold onto these anymore, so hopefully I can find a new home for them.

I guess the whole point of this post is "PURGE! PURGE! PURGE!", hahahaaa

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