My 2016 Goal: Authenticity

Another New Year. Time to stop and reflect on the passing year. I'm a few days late, but that's never stopped me before. Just for reference, I want to put last year's goals out there, so here's that post. I'll just tell you right now, in terms of New Year's goals, 2015 was a dismal failure. Running 500 miles? Try 145. Learning to can? Nope. We had a woebegone summer in the garden, so there really wasn't anything to can anyway. Rebuilding my stockpile? Just didn't happen.

Am I going to sit here and think of the entire year of 2015 as a failure? Absolutely not. Good things happened in 2015 too. Oregon won the Rose Bowl and went to the National Championship. The hubby and I added a puppy to our family. We went to Oregon. We got a new computer and updated the master bedroom. Our niece and our nephew began having their first sleepovers at our house. I learned how to make pie crust. 2015 was filled with as many victories as losses.

My 2015 Goals

It's time to talk change. Self-improvement. Growth. You know, all that stuff that we humans loathe to do. I, myself, am a highly self-motivated person. When I set a goal, I work hard to get there. As such, I thought before I laid out my 2015 goals that we would see how I did on last year's goals.

My first goal was to run a 10k. Accomplished! I ran my first 10k in August. It was extremely hilly and my time wasn't the best, but I did it.

Me and the hubby at the Cincinnati Beer Run in May 2014.

Books I Read in 2014

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2015. Time to put 2014 in the rear view. One of my goals for 2014 was to read more. I didn't set a goal of a certain amount of books to read, mainly because I wasn't reading much in 2013 and anything would be an improvement. I thought I would simply see how I could do.

Lately: November 2014

Happy Sunday from two warm and cuddly Chihuahuas! This is truly how these guys like to enjoy the weekends. Curled up in their favorite spots. Happy as little furry clams :)

I thought I would squeeze in a little weekend post here. I've been overflowing with food ideas lately, and haven't been thinking much about the in-between. But I do have a life outside that wonderful kitchen of mine. I read books in between batches of cookies. Scatter bird seed while concoctions are chilling. Or roasting. Or cooling. I run to get my creative juices flowing. I kind of wish there was an invention to dictate what goes on in my brain while I'm running, because I write some of my best stuff as my feet pound the pavement. A new techie idea perhaps? C'mon, doesn't anyone from Apple read my blog? Hehe. 

Anyhoo, it's been a great weekend thus far. The hubby actually had a 3 day weekend of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We don't get these traditional weekends very often! We took full advantage last night by getting together with one of our couple friends. We watched the first half of the Oregon game (Go Ducks!) and sipped margaritas before heading out for Mexican food. There may have been a tad too much tequila last night, but eh, life is short. I'm currently hard at work on pie crust, my first batch yesterday having been a dud. Rest assured, by the time this pie is completed, I'll have lots of "don't's"! I made a new batch of dough that chilled overnight, so I'm soldiering forward today. Fingers crossed. 

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend so far. I've got a few pictures to share of what we've been up to lately-

Haloti curled up in the hubby's sweatshirt. If you leave clothing on the furniture, the Chihuahuas will find it. 

The affair continues. It's been going on for almost 4 years now. We are venturing into common-law marriage territory at this point. 

My beautiful new FoodSaver! It arrived last week and I am so thankful! I literally squealed with joy when the UPS guy left it at my house. Thank you Mom and Dad! There was no hesitation- Out went the old FoodSaver, and in its place went the new. Immediately after getting the new machine set up, I sat down to write my totally overdue big-box store grocery list. 

Ah, the fruits of my labor. I picked up loads of chicken, ciabatta rolls, and bacon in bulk to freeze at aforementioned big-box store. And what did I do as soon as I got home? Vacuumed-sealed it into 2-person portions. I cannot say it enough, I LOVE that machine. I cannot live without it. Love it. 

So, I've been using FoodSavers for 8 years now. I do have a common-law marriage with my FoodSaver! :)

I think this poor little dude flew into either the side of the house, or the living room window. I heard a soft thud, but not the hard thud that usually kills these kids. I went outside and looked on the ground, and didn't find anything. However, when I went to empty my compost buckets, I found him sitting on our large composters. And he didn't move. He did let me pick him up, though. I was having the hubby set up a nesting box on the front porch for him to recover in when he decided he'd rested enough, and he took off. 

I'm just glad he ended up being ok :)

The snow everyone was so worried about getting around our parts. Can you even see this dusting? Not especially. 

Contrary to popular belief, not everything I cook winds up on the blog. Sometimes the recipes are too awful. Sometimes, the recipes are too good, like this Garlic, Lemon, and Fresh Herb Stuffed Chicken.  This bird never made it onto the blog because the hubby and I devoured it. I mean, we really scarfed this one down. All before I took an after photograph. Oh well. A similar recipe may make it onto the blog someday. That is, if I can keep my hands off of it long enough. 

Cheese enchiladas that never made it on the blog. I'm still playing with my chile gravy recipe, and I don't get to play very often. The gravy on these ended up being too heavy, too thick, and too salty. The hubby is not the biggest enchilada lover, so I only get a shot at this one every couple of months. I hope I perfect this recipe in 2015, though. That will be one of my New Year's resolutions.

Asian Roasted Asparagus. What can I say? Also scarfed down without many pictures.

Broccoli and Chard Garlic Spaghetti. This recipe may still make it onto the blog, however I wasn't 100% satisfied with the pictures. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. It might take a repeat making with new pictures for me to publish it, though.

The hubby and I's favorite tequila we brought back from Mexico. I love this stuff! We broke it open last night for Oregon's last home game of the season. It must have been a good luck charm, because the Duck's pulled out the win! The hubby and I were happy campers. We were told by an employee at duty-free in the Cancun Airport that they only sell this tequila in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. He tried to talk us into buying a more expensive tequila that they only sell in Mexico, but we quickly informed him we didn't live anywhere near any big city and this was the bottle we wanted. I highly recommend trying this tequila if you ever see it anywhere. It makes the BEST margaritas.

Cue to the internet razing. Nickelback snuck a brand-new album out on Monday with absolutely no publicity. I had no idea they were even working on a new album. Some fan I am, right? Anyway, once I discovered their new album, I snapped it up. I've been listening to it on repeat. For days. Multiple times a day. I love running to this album. Most of the album has a really funky beat running though it and combined with Chad's voice, well, I've been tearing down miles. Well maybe not tearing them down, I did take a month off running. And lost a ton during that month. I really don't care that everyone hates Nickelback, I'm definitely not a person who follows the crowd anymore. That's one thing I love about getting older- the sheer inability to really care what other people think of your Nickelback addiction :) #iamunashamed

Here's my lazy morning. Finishing off one of my library books while loving my morning coffee. And pretty soon, I'll be rolling out my 2nd batch of pie crust dough. Oh man, oh man, I hope it's not crumbly!

I hope you all are having a lovely weekend! Ciao!

Roasted Fennel, Chickpea, and Tomato Soup

Fennel is such an interesting vegetable, and one I don't cook with very often. I think this is the second time I've ever bought fennel in the store. The first time I bought fennel had to have been over 5 years ago, and was in Portland. Even the cashier in Portland didn't know what fennel was, and had the hardest time tracking down the code to ring up the silly thing. She finally found the code under "anise". Ever since that day, I often think of fennel and anise interchangeably. So when I went to buy fennel for this soup, I knew I would help the cashier if the vegetable code was listed under anise. Because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the cashier would ask me what the fennel was. Folks around here aren't very familiar with vegetables, and they'll ask what I'm buying if it's outside the standard lettuce, tomato, and onion box. In my experience, they aren't familiar with bok choy, kale, fennel, leeks, radicchio,  kiwi, any kind of hot pepper, and one time, someone asked me what an eggplant was. Sure enough, when I arrived in front of the cashier, she looked down her glasses at me and asked what the heck the fennel was. I told her it was fennel, or maybe it might be under anise. She looked at me like I was crazy, and went off to look for fennel in her books. After a minute or two, she looked up at me and asked what the other name was again. She finally found the code under anise, and I was on my way home to make this soup!

Pick up some fennel today! What an amazingly fragrant veggie. Fennel has fronds at the top of it, and after cutting the fronts off,  I couldn't believe the strong licorice smell it had. This soup has you roast the fennel in the oven before adding it to the soup, and the house smelled amazing while the veggies were roasting. My only piece of advice when roasting the fennel is to make sure you cut it into fairly large chunks. Smaller pieces of fennel will brown far too much, and end up with a slightly bitter taste. Uniformity in your knife cuts is essential to this dish.

And garden fresh parsley? Yes, please!

As far as soup goes, this one is fairly easy. Most of the work is done in the oven, and the second half of the work is done in simmering the soup. Mostly hands off! I thoroughly enjoyed this meatless soup, and served it alongside toasted pita wedges. 

So, y'all know how much I've been raving about the hubby and I's semi-meatless existence. About it easy it's been. Sometimes, you hit a wall. I hit the wall this week. I was making the menu plan for this week. My typical process is to use the grocery store ad and Pinterest to come up with a menu of the week. I don't know what it was but every recipe I wanted to make was meat of some kind. Of course, then I started to get irritated and cranky that I'm not making what I want. I started thinking, "Oh, I should just pick up some turkey. Or some hamburger. Or those chicken legs!". I resisted the swan song, but man. I was feeling tapped out of meatless meal ideas, utterly uncreative.  Regarding meat, our freezer is down to chicken breast, some bacon, and a couple of steaks. I've used all the pork chops, all the ribs, all the shrimp, and all the other chicken parts (wings, legs, thighs, etc). It's going to be a challenge coming up with creative meals with such a limited assorted of ingredients.

Changing the subject, I get to hit up one of my favorite places today, the library! I have not been reading as much as I would have liked according to my New Years resolution. I told the hubby that I've been spending inordinate amounts of time outside amongst my plants, there just hasn't been time to be inside reading. I feel funny telling him I don't have enough time, especially when I don't hold a public job. But that's the truth. When the daily chores are done and it's late in the evening, I collapse in a ball on the couch and reading is the furthest thing from my mind. That needs to change! Maybe if I check out books so interesting today I'll be compelled to pick up them up everyday. Wishful thinking or overly optimistic? That remains to be seen :)

Ingredients (serves 5-6):

1 fennel bulb, thickly chopped

1 large onion, thickly chopped

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 (14.5 oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp garlic, minced

4 cups chicken broth

2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

3/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine fennel through 1/2 tsp black pepper. Toss to combine. Spread mixture in an even layer on cookie sheet. Roast in preheated oven for 15 minutes, stir. Roast for another 10 minutes. 

3. Add chickpeas to cookie sheet. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until fennel, onion, and chickpeas are starting to brown. Remove from oven, set aside.

4. In a large stockpot, melt butter. Add garlic. Saute 30 seconds, or until garlic starts to brown. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, vegetable mixture, salt, and pepper to pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer, and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

5. Remove from heat. Add parsley to pot, stir to combine. Serve soup immediately with bread or toasted pita wedges.

Printable Recipe

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also enjoy these:

Chickpea Minestrone

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup

Linked to: Treasure Box Tuesdays, Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday

Getting In Shape- Week 2

It's Week 2 of getting fit again!

I'm still on track with my New Year's resolutions. My goal last week was to work out 4 days, for 30 minutes, and I did just that. I took Sunday off from working out, and probably drank too much wine in the process, but what are you going to do? Monday I got back on track. The goal this week is to work out for at least 4 days, maybe 5, doing 30 minutes of cardio, along with ab work. I pushed it really hard on Monday and Tuesday, and I'm feeling really, really sore today. I decided to make today a recovery day, and am therefore trying to keep my calories low.

Another goal I want to accomplish this year is drinking more water. As a person who prefers wine to water very much, it's hard for me to make myself drink water. I whipped up a nice little detox drink, Lemon Lime Green Tea, to help me drink more of that H2O:

It's super yummy, and very low cal. Green tea and lemon are proven to be beneficial to speeding up the metabolism. Just what I need right now :) It was easy to make, and I made a big batch to store in the fridge. All you need is water, green tea bags, a couple of fresh lemons and limes, a sweetener of choice, and ice. Having it already made is key for me, because I always have the excuse that I don't feel like making it. To make it, I brought 32 oz of water to boil on the stove. I then removed it from the heat, and put 4 green tea bags in the pot. While I was letting the tea steep, I added the juice from 2 lemons and 2 limes to the pan, as well as 4 packets of Sweet-N-Low. I let the tea cool on the stove, and then poured into an ice-filled pitcher with sliced lemons and limes. Voila! A ready-made water and green tea vehicle, right in my fridge.

I was getting a little bored with my playlists, which is never good for my motivation. Can you see where this is going? Yep, new playlist.

Oh yes, new music always put pep in my step!

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy week :)

21 Days

Photo courtesy of http://photo.esolar.com

I must confess, I'm one of those people who loves making New Year's resolutions. I love the idea of making a fresh start and having a clean slate. January 1st is one of those days when I feel like I can do anything, while December 31st feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. I know many people hate making New Year's resolutions because they never keep them. I'm pretty good at keeping up my resolutions for a while. But you know what? "A while" is worth it. They say it only takes 21 days to make a habit. Well, bring on 21 days! Here's what I'm looking to accomplish in 2013:

1. Get Back In Shape- 

2012 was a tough year. The hubby and I didn't have our own home for 6 months. Whilst this is no excuse to have fallen off the wagon as bad as I did, it happened. I was doing fabulously until October, working out 4-5 days a week. Then I left to go to Oregon for a month, and I went into vacation mode. When I returned from Oregon, I was still in vacation mode, plus I was eating pretty bad food. At the beginning of December, the hubby and I moved into our house and pretty much all my free time was spent unpacking and organizing. No more excuses. Time to whip this flabby, 30-year old butt into shape :) My goal for Week 1 is 30 minutes of cardio, 4 times this week. 

2. Keep A Food Diary-

I kept a food diary for a couple of months last year, and it was an excellent way to hold myself accountable for what I was eating. Needless to say, I've gained a couple lb's from my lifestyle at the end of 2012, so I'm going to need to keep track of calories to get back where I was.

3. Finally Learn How-To Roast a Chicken-

Those damn birds. I'll get a victory in 2013, watch me!

4. Improve My Photography-

After reading the Pioneer Woman's series on photography, I'm bound and determined to learn how to use my digital camera and in turn, create better pictures for my blog. I'm also going to be spending some time with Photoshop, and figure out how to improve the food images that I use.

5. Save More Money-

Last year, I had $3300 in my couponing account before the hubby and I used that money as a down payment on our new appliances. What a difference having that down payment made! We'll have our appliances payed off in 10 months, rather than doubling that amount of time. My goal for the year is $3500, which I think is a do-able goal.

There's 2013 in a nutshell for year. All my goals make sense for my lifestyle and the way I live, so I don't think I will have a problem accomplishing any of them this year. Well, the chicken is the only thing that keeps besting me...

But I'll get it :)

Thursday Randoms

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Where has the week gone? Here's what's on my mind today:

1. Couponing

Thursday Goal

I have gotten in the bad habit of not cleaning out my coupon binder and cutting up my inserts on Sundays anymore. This is how people get disorganized and I have never been a disorganized person. I also got my monthly 'All You' in the mail yesterday so one of my goals today is to clean the expired coupons out of my binder, cut up my inserts, cut the coupons out of 'All You', and mark the recipes I want to make in the magazine. I really need to get back in the habit of doing this on Sundays when I get the inserts.

Another goal I made at the beginning of the year was to go through all my food magazines and tear out the recipes I want to try. I want to get a gigantic binder and laminate sheets and organize all my recipes and then recycle all the magazines. This is daunting as I have hundreds of magazines around the house but I do want to get around to it at some point.

2. New Year's Goal Breakdown

Why do you have to tempt me?

I am not proud of this one but... on Monday, I had Taco Bell. Ugh. The hubby and I were running around, far from home. We left early in the day and I had brought some light snacks but of course, I was hungry later in the day. We were miles from home and hours from dinner and we had to go to his mom's to help her with some paperwork. We were starving so we stopped to get food and I gave in to temptation. I had a chicken burrito. I did fall off the wagon, but it could have been worse. I felt pretty guilty, but I did go 2 months without fast food. My new goal is to see if I can go 3 months without fast food. I am trying to let the guilt go, there is nothing I can do but move on. There is no point in beating myself up over it now.

3. Gizmo

"I'm Not That Innocent"

Don't be fooled by that adorable face. True to his name, he is another creature after midnight (not that we feed him or get him wet!) He is ferociously territorial in bed at night. I am a tosser and a turner and inevitably, one of my limbs will approach him in the middle of the night. At this point, I get a Gremlin-like growl/bark and bite on said limb. Where does this behavior come from? And every night? No matter how much I scold him, he still does this! Granted, he doesn't have enough jaw strength to hurt me but geez! I was having an especially hard time sleeping last night and the Gremlin came out a couple of times.

4. Cabin Fever

I think I see some sun!

For the last couple of weeks, the weather has been bad. Very, very cold with some snow here and there. And now for the last week, the weather has been very "Oregon". Cloudy and rainy. Today though, is actually fairly nice. At least right now! As you can see, it is not raining and there is some sun. I am definitely going to take advantage of this and take the dogs for a 20 minute walk because I think they are sick of being stuck inside as much as I am.

And finally, I am whipping up a nice, big batch of Pasta e Fagioli today. Pasta e Fagioli is an Italian bean soup that is very tasty. It uses dried beans so it takes a couple of hours to make. I usually have to start it early in the afternoon to have it ready by dinner time. It makes a ton so I have lots for the freezer. Checking my inventory of the freezer however, I think next week will be time to use some of my freezer meals. Less work for me, which means next week will be also be a good time for some deep cleaning around the house :)

Lofty Aspirations

So how are my New Year's goals going? Extremely well! I can proudly report that I have not had fast food since December 26th, the day I got food poisoning. While I can't say I have had breakfast every day (a difficult habit for me to adopt), I can say that all my meals have been from home and relatively un-processed. Last Monday I picked up a store bought rotisserie chicken and it provided chicken for homemade chicken salad sandwiches  for lunch all week last week. I have been buying more fresh fruit and trying to snack on that, as well as string cheese, yogurt, nuts, and granola bars. I have made dinner every night since December 26th. Such an accomplishment for me!
As for my workouts, I am successfully mixing those up as well. I did 2 cardio workouts, 2 Pilates workouts and 1 Carmen Electra workout last week. I am not sure if it is mixing up workouts or the fact that I am trying to eat healthier but I swear my pants fit better and I feel less bloated. I haven't lost any weight but that was not my goal.
I have been researching eating healthier and I have come to my next switch in my diet. Coffee creamer. Google coffee creamer and see what comes up. Scary stuff. It's basically sweetened hydrogenated oil. Gross! I am working on my last bottle and then I am done. Switching to real cream in my coffee, calories be damned! I don't use that much anyway and with real cream, you really need just a smidge. I think the health benefits from not drinking hydrogenated oil more than make up for any calories.
Hopefully everyone out there is still doing well with their New Year's aspirations!

My Word of the Year: Healthy

I love the start of a new year. I am new to the club of keeping my New Year's resolutions, having resolved to get in shape last year and happily keeping it. This new year, I have so very many goals and I do believe I will accomplish them. Since I started my blog in May, I have since discovered the world of blogs. There are numerous blogs out there and with so many interesting ones, it would be impossible to read them all. I did read a post yesterday that inspired me, from the blog $5 dinners, about creating a theme for the year through one word. You can find the article here. My word of the year is "healthy" and I think it covers my goals accordingly. Some of my goals for 2012 include:

1. Vary my workouts- I got stuck in a routine last year. A routine I thoroughly enjoyed but I know my body is getting used to. I work out 5 times a week so this year I want to only do the norm workout twice a week, and then the other 3 times a week throw in Pilates, P90X, The Brazilian Butt Lift, and my Carmen Electra StripTease series. I got so caught up in cardio last year that I realized I am sorely lacking in the toning department.

2. Eat breakfast- This is huge for me, I can't tell you have many times I went straight from having coffee to working out. The thing is, I noticed a large difference in my energy every time I ate a little something before a workout and this is something I need to do every time. Rev my metabolism in the morning y'all! :)

3. Drastically reduce, if not completely eliminate, fast food- Also huge for me. I LOVE fast food. I have some sort of grease-lovin' gene in me, always have and probably always will (darn it). But this latest bout of food poisoning from a local fast food joint is the last straw for me. Fast food is junk, it is not real food, and I need to stop eating it, as well as feeding it to my husband. It is not realistic for me to say I will never eat it again, but I am going to try very hard to stay away.

4. To along with #3, eating healthier is another one of my goals. I want to eat more whole foods and less processed crap. More fruit and more veggies. The hubby and I already eat very little meat, usually just chicken and occasionally some red meat. With the hubby's new job comes more money to put towards better food. I am slightly raising my food budget so that I can afford to buy shrimp and fish every month, and so that I can buy more fresh fruit and veggies.

5. Go to as many doctors as possible this year- Haha, I can see some of you out there going "Huh?". Well, it has been a LONG year without health insurance and now we have it! I am aiming to get a physical, an annual, see a dermatologist, a dentist, an eye doctor, and find a new neurologist. Phew!

These are my health goals for 2012. What's funny is I have a handful of crafty goals, a handful of cooking goals, a handful of baking goals, and some financial goals (more on these goals later in the week). All I can say is 2012 is looking to be a better year than the hubby and I have seen in a long time! Happy New Year everyone!

Battle of the Bulge

My 2011 New Year's resolution was to get in shape. This resolution was different than my normal go-to resolution which was to lose weight. While resolving to lose weight is a valiant notion, year after year this goal got me nowhere. This year I decided it was time for a change. Instead of judging my progress on the scale, I would judge my progress by how my clothes fit. Instead of going on a "diet", I needed to change how I ate for life. As a fairly successful home cook I was used to healthy and fresh cooking. My problem was I had gotten to a place where my healthy choices were fewer and far between than my unhealthy "splurges" (more about cooking later, this post is about exercise, not cooking!) I just needed to get back on track. And instead of just expecting to lose weight by diet alone I would judge my progress with - surprise, surprise- exercise!

It is now June 1st and I feel I am well on my way to my New Year's resolution! When I started down this road in January, I was a size 10/12 and about 137 lbs. My physical activity level was... well, to be honest, zero. I started small, 20 minutes on the elliptical 4-5 days a week. After a couple of weeks, I was able to increase my cardio time to 30 minutes on the elliptical. Gradually, I added in 30 minutes of weight lifting 3-4 times a week and 45 minutes of Pilates 2-3 times a week. For a while, I did circuit training with 15 minutes of cardio followed by sets of crunches, squats, and lunges and then repeating the whole routine 3 times. My current routine is 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical, followed by about 30 minutes of strength training. My strength training consists of crunches, planks, lunges, squats, and some free weight lifting. I am following all this up with 30 more minutes of fat-burning cardio. My hard work is definitely paying off though!  I am down to 130 lbs and just bought a pair of shorts in a size 6!

This may seem like an extreme workout. Let me say that most (ok, 90%) people do not have the time for this! I will just say that I do have the time for it right now and I haven't felt this healthy since I was 18! I can successfully report fewer headaches and stomach aches as well. My healthiness is spreading to Jerame as well. Jerame and I have started a new Saturday morning tradition of running a mile across the street at the high school. As part of my quest to judge my fitness, I decided I wanted to see how fast I can run a mile in. A couple of Saturday's ago, Jerame and I woke up at 7 am and headed across the street. My first mile time was not what I hoped and also helped me realize that I still have a long way to go! Oddly enough, I found this to be an exciting challenge which I will conquer! My PR running the mile was my sophomore year  of high school. I finished in 7 minutes 26 seconds. I wanted my time to be comparable to this. It wasn't! My first mile time was 9 minutes 23 seconds. Ugh! My second mile time was 9 minutes 21 seconds. I have since come to terms with this, consoling myself with the thought that there are many more Saturday's to prove myself.

I must say that I am extremely proud of myself for sticking to my resolution. While I by no means consider myself a flaky person, I can probably count on one hand the number of resolutions I have stuck to. I am just glad that this is one of them. Here are my progress pictures!