oven fried chicken

Over a week on the healthy thing now.

Not starving.

Slightly proud.

That pretty much sums it up. This has been a relatively painless process so far, and I've lost 4 or 5 lbs (lol, just in case you wondered). A few nights ago Michael told me that my cooking didn't taste like diet food at all. I think that's a big key for successful healthy eating. That, and not throwing the towel in when you mess up. I actually plan to mess up on ocassion (popcorn on date night, chocolate cake with mom...). Oh, and the Xbox Kinect thing is working out splendidly. I don't have to put decent workout clothes on and go to some busy gym and fork out a ridiculous amount of money every month. It's perfect for an unsocial lazy person like me.

Anyway, I try to cook a yummy-yet-healthy meal most nights, and, for once, I actually wrote a recipe down as I created it. That never happens (lazy, remember?). Tonight's (very easy and fairly unoriginal) recipe is.....

Oven Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

Two 7 oz Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into strips

10 crumbled Whole Wheat Ritz crackers

1 Tablespoon Garlic Salt

Pinch of Parsley

Pinch of Rosemary

1 Egg

1 Table Worcestershire Sauce

1 teaspoon Lemon Juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix crumbled crackers, garlic salt, parsley, and rosemary in one bowl.

In another slightly larger bowl, combine egg, worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice.

Dump the chicken strips into the egg stuff and coat every piece.

After egg, coat each strip in cracker mixture and place on greased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and yummy-looking.

Eat.

(Two servings, about 315 calories per serving)

the journey begins

So, we've officially begun the health/fitness thing. AKA- I refuse to gain any more post-wedding padding and plan to get rid of any I have plus more. I don't expect you to particularly care, of course, but on ocassion I may post a recipe or something that turns out well (if nothing else then for my own benefit). The plan is to eat approximately 1200 calories per day-- Slimfast for breakfast (it's quick and easy), sandwich and little chip bag or whatever for lunch, and cook a healthy dinner-- walk/jog Delta 2 miles daily, and workout at least 5x a week. We shall see.

Michael and I bought ourselves an early Christmas present: the Kinect sensor for Xbox360 and a fitness program to go with it. It is surprisingly good so far! Whooped my tushie. Boy do I feel out of shape- a video game wore me out. It sure does beat going to a gym, though... and of course it's way cheaper in the long run.

The past two nights we've had salmon and Asianly broiled veggies, and chicken taco salad. I can't post recipes because I rarely use them (I don't like paper telling me what to do)... but I really need to start writing stuff down. I make awesome salmon, if I do say so myself.

Enough about that. In the past few weeks I've taken a mini trip to Branson with Mom and Memaw, done a lot of Christmas shopping and decorating, subbed a lot, and spent a week on the beach with my family (new Thanksgiving tradition). I would post pictures, but I haven't uploaded them from my camera yet and don't want to right now.

Michael is currently installing a new light/vent/heater thing in our bathroom (the result of buying a 1969 house... sometimes things stop working), so I should probably go help him. Or maybe just watch him. Or I might just go say hi and then leave and watch TV.

old-to-new stuff

I don't know what it is about old stuff that I like so much. Maybe it's the mystery of not knowing its history (I didn't rhyme that on purpose), or perhaps it's the romanticism of reformation, or it could be that old stuff is just more individualistic. I love finding things in junk stores that look hopeless and unwanted, then claiming them as my own and giving them somewhat of a brand new existence. That's my dramatic explanation of it.

Side note: I wish I had the same passion of doing that kind of thing for people (minus the "claiming them for my own" part, of course). Hmm, need to pray on that.

My most recent transmogrification (yeah, go look that one up) of near-decrepit furniture is the following dresser:

It actually looked much worse in person; it was pukey white, chipped up, and missing handles. Then I adopted it from the Veteran's Thrift Store. Here comes the extended edition chronicle...

Step 1: Removing old handles. Delta was a big help.

Step 2 & 3: Sanding and removing drawers

Step 4: Listening to Delta tell me that she didn't think it would work.

Step 5: Painting everything normal- not pukey- white. I used the leftover trim paint we had.

Step 6: Painting black edges and top

Step 7: Stenciling the drawers and side

Step 8: Installing new handles. Also, I can't figure out how to shrink this picture.

A few painting touch-ups and

VOILA!

I like the new version much better, if I do say so myself.

So does Delta.

October 16 was my half birthday.

Not that I have anything of great significance to say, but I feel I owe it to my loyal fans to write a deep, artistic, inspirational blog entry.

No not really- just kidding. That's ridiculous. I'm pretty sure Mom and Katie are the only ones that read this anyways. I talk to them just about every day, though, so they already know what I've done.

This past month has been nice because of the beautiful weather, but I'd be okay if it got a little colder. Michael and I and our child Delta took our first camping trip and packed enough food to last three months.

We take an occasional trip back to my parents because... *coughimissthemcough*. Really I do, though. We've always been a close family, so it's been hard living a couple hours away. It could be worse. At least it's only a movie-length trip away! Mom and Dad came down to see me yesterday, and today Mom and I went antiquing while Dad installed a new outdoor faucet. That man can do anything! I bought a beat-up dresser at a thrift store, and I'm going to give it some TLC and stick it in my cute guest bedroom. The guest bedroom is pretty much "Target meets junk store treasures", plus an amazing tea set that was Michael's grandmother's. Anyways, I'm sure I'll be guiding you through my thrillingly epic journey of fixing up an old dresser. Be very excited. Hey, I am.

And now, Kacie's new blog format that doesn't really matter and isn't incredibly important but does make her feel cooler and more organized. Also, it helps me keep on track.

Big News:

I beat mom at Words with Friends. She always gloats about how wonderful she is and how nobody ever beats her, but BAM! I beat her. Also, I am now fully certified to teach P-12 ESL and P-12 Music. Now if only I had a job...

Something Different in the House:

It's Fall, so duh! There's fall-ish stuff everywhere.

Regret:

Today I subbed for an elementary PE teacher, and thought maybe I should have been one. They get to play games all day!

Weird Dream:

I'm telling you, I've had so many weird ones lately. The other night we were watching a movie and I fell asleep on the couch (bad attention span, what can I say?), and I had this dream about some evil dude trying to kill my family and then a scary gecko had me tied up in a cage and I was choking on spider goop. Michael woke me up because I was flinching and making choking sounds. So there you have it, I'm messed up even in my subconscious. Why do I tell you this? I don't know.

Goal:

Getting a job I've applied for at an Adult Ed center. Pray for this, please.

The End.

yehmon

I have a huge pile of laundry staring at me and a slightly dirty house, but I'm doing my best to ignore it. When you're sick, you can do whatever you want- that's the rule. I hate being sick and I hate doctor's offices because of all the sick people. This time it's bronchitis, sinusitis, and an ear infection... one would be enough, but all at once is rather unpleasant. I've got to build up my teacher immunity. Meanwhile, I will watch Star Trek and eat lime Tostitos. Dr. Katie said I could still go to work. She knows everything. I'm pretty sure she said I couldn't do any cleaning or cooking or laundry kind of stuff, though.

Last week I left Michael here and ran off to Jamaica with my mom. Hard life, I know. We got to go for SUPER cheap because it was a travel agent thing. We toured different resorts and had stuff paid for and I got a free t-shirt but it was too big. The bad part was being away from Michael and finding out there was no phone or internet where we were. Poo.

One of my favorite things was watching Mom's face. They don't always wear all their clothes on the beaches, and the dances are perhaps less than tasteful.

This was our beach:

We did see some really pretty places, though. This is a Sandals island, where a party was hosted for us.

The highlight of my whole trip was meeting the Cookie Monster at the party. What an honor... I love cookies. My second favorite part was the dessert table.

Here's my favorite resort that we saw, "Rock House."

It had little ladders down into the water and you could snorkel in a cave... neat-o!

Love this bridge!

Anyway, I have to go now because I have a lot of stuff I need to do that I'm going to ignore and not feel guilty about.

labor day weekend

Michael and I made a short trip to Oklahoma City this weekend because... well, just because we could. Delta was not happy when she found out we were leaving her.

But, we left her at the grandparents with 4 human puppies to play with, so she was quite happy. We of course played the alphabet game on the way (you know, finding letters on signs and license plates and such). Michael cheats.

First stop was the Cheesecake Factory. Godiva chocolate cheesecake is life-changing. I- the dessertaholic- could not finish it in two separate settings. The menu was like 20-something pages long, with at least two pages dedicated to cheesecake. I would drive three hours just for that restaurant.

Next stop was the science museum. Michael got to ride a segway! Also, we went to the planetarium show and I fell asleep. I have a short attention span and it was dark and had reclining seats. What did I expect?

Bricktown was next on the list, starting with the Bricktown Candy Co. They had a ton of different flavors of Jones Soda. Michael's green apple one was awesome. I made the mistake of getting a sugar-free one, and it was not as awesome. Sugar-free stuff never is. I'm smiling in the picture, but that's because I hadn't opened it yet.

Bricktown was really pretty. I don't really think of Oklahoma City as being pretty (actually, the first thing that comes to my mind is bombs), but I was actually pleasantly surprised.

We've been married almost 4 months! :)

A friend recommended In the Raw, a sushi place in Bricktown, and it was AWESOME. We had the Baby Gecko (no, not actually made of gecko), and a shrimp thing (forgot the name). Both were wonderful.

The next we hopped on over to the OKC Zoo, which really puts the LR Zoo to shame. It was huge, and it had TWO BUTTERFLY GARDENS. Actually, one was a garden and one was a house. I was a happy girl. At one point, I heard a little kid go, "Oh my gosh Mommy, it's a butterfly!!!" I thought about just taking the kid, but I figured her mommy might notice. I hope my future kid is just like that some day. Of course I took a zillion pictures, but I'll just post a few.

And lastly from the zoo, here is proof that God has a sense of humor: the giraffe and the umm... weird looking hairy elf-pig thing.

The rest of the weekend was fun family stuff. Katie and Daniel came over Sunday night and the boys played some war game on the PS3 and shot stuff. Michael was very excited to have someone to play video games with, because I'm a video game dumbbell. Katie and spent time... talking and being sarcastic (in our true family form). I put purple starbursts in a martini glass on their nightstand so I would look like a good hostess. What they don't know is that I just don't like the purple ones.

Mom, Dad, and Memaw came up Monday morning and we all went to Sweet Bay for breakfast. It was nice to have all of my family here. Michael said he thought the house might explode from having so many B's in it. Mom and I went to Creekmore Park with our puppies and then had a family game of Wii bowling. This is why I hate video games: I lost to Mom, Dad, and 80 year old Memaw.

nature

Friday I took Delta to the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center. It's much neater than it sounds, actually. And yes, the dog has now become my child. We even watch TV together...

Anyway, I think this may be my new favorite place. For one thing, they have a butterfly garden, and any place that loves butterflies enough to dedicate a garden to them is pretty dandy in my book. They allow leashed dogs, have free canoeing and kayaking, and every day at 2:00 you can see a snake eat a mouse (which is really quite fascinating to watch). There are other things too, but those are definitely my highlights.

Gosh I love butterflies.

Ever since I moved into the "city," I've missed the privacy and peace of living out in the country. I have to make a conscious effort to make sure I'm decently dressed every time I let the dog out. I can't yell at the top of my lungs outside (not that I did that much before, but it's nice to have the option). I can't go outside my door and wander around for hours without seeing people (is there a word for being people-phobic?). I'm getting used to it, though. The nice thing about the nature center is that, since school is back in session, there's almost nobody there during the day... meaning, I can go walk on the trails with Delta and not see a soul or hear a car. It's lovely... and I usually don't even use words like "lovely."

Oh and another nice thing is that I can let my dog drink out of her own water bottle without anyone judging me on how ridiculous it is.

And now I leave you with this unedited picture.

Still think fairies aren't real???