Green Goodness

So I have been on a health kick for a couple of weeks now. The first two weeks, I did amazing. I actually lost 5lbs following a strict weight watchers diet, not drinking sodas and not eating fast food.

The past couple of days I havent been doing quite as well. But, I have started drinking these very nutritious smoothies for breakfast because I realized that I am not getting enough essentials vitamins and minerals. They are super yummy.

Its 1/2 c. of fat free vanilla yogurt, 1/2 c. skim or 1% milk, 1/2 c strawberries, 1/2-1 whole banana, and 1 c. of fresh spinach. Just put all the ingredients in the blender and there ya have it!

Here is a picture of my green goodness before I mix in the spinach... it really looks pretty...

Post spinach... yes, I know it looks disgusting. But it tastes the exact same with or without the spinach.

Here is my smoothie in my new Tervis Tumbler--- which I love, by the way. Cute, huh? It was my graduation gift from the law review party on Saturday. Keeps drinks hot or cold and is perfect for my smoothie.

Lauren at http://lifelite10.blogspot.com/ encouraged me to add the spinach... She has named her smoothie the green monster.. check out her recipes on her blog. She uses 3-4 c. of Spinach and lots of other really healthy things. :) One of which is flax seed, which I am going to have to try very soon.

This baby has 300 calories, which yes is a lot.. that is why as soon as I run out of this gallon of milk I am going to by skim milk and eventually the even a lower calorie version of yogurt. Tiffany (my best friend + dietitian), correct me if I am wrong, but these are considered "good calories" right?

It has 7.7 g of Fiber, Potassium 1,341.9 mg and 12.8 g of Protein. These are its daily values of the following vitamins/minerals: Vitamin A 65.8 %, Vitamin B-12 19.5 %, Vitamin B-6 40.2 %, Vitamin C 182.7 %, Vitamin D 15.8 %, Vitamin E 7.7 %, Calcium 42.3 %, Copper 14.0 %, Foliate 33.3 %, Iron 16.2 %, Magnesium 27.5 %, Manganese 53.6 %, Niacin 10.1 %, Phosphorus 34.2 %, Riboflavin 41.6 %, Selenium 15.2 %, Thiamin 12.7% and Zinc 14.2 %.

I dont remember a whole lot from my nutrition class in college, but this sounds pretty nutrient rich to me. I have a hard time getting a lot of Iron in my diet -- I am anemic, so I am suppose to eat alot of Iron rich foods. I also have a hard time with calcium because I dont drink enough milk or eat enough dairy products.

Spinach is considered a super food in a lot of ways because it has so many benefits: (1) its high in lots of vitamins/minerals (2) its loaded with antioxidants which are thought to have cancer preventing effects, (3) its heart healthy, (4) good for your gastrointestinal health, (5) it has anti-inflammatory properties, (6) its thought to be good for your brain and memory (7)protects against eye disease and (8)its also an excellent source of iron.

Supper yummy... thought i'd share.. now enough procrastinating, back to my paper....

Catch up

I haven't blogged a lot lately about the things going on in my life. To be honest with you, I have actually taken time to really enjoy the past few weeks. Knowing an intense summer of bar prep is around the corner has really motivated me to take some time to (1) relax and (2) do the things I enjoy.

I started off the week by reading another Nicholas Sparks novel, The Lucky One. Once again, Nicholas did not let me down! Such a great book.... I am looking forward to catching up on all the ones I've missed while in law school.

Wednesday night was the awards night. It was in one of my favorite parts of town. Very nice. I won the Dean's Excellence Award- for reflecting positively upon the school. I was very honored to receive this award.

Here is a picture of me with my award at Alex's place.

Here is a picture of Alex making fun of me and my nerdy award....

After the awards ceremony I headed over to my friend Alex's condo to get ready to head out for our friend Lindsay's 24th Birthday. We went to Howl at the Moon- a dueling piano bar. This was my very first time at Howl at the Moon. It was soooo much fun. The pianist could play ANY song you could think of, from the Thong song (yes we requested it for laughs)... to sweet Carolina girl.. to the theme song of one tree hill.. We had a great time, but stayed out WAY to late. To be perfectly honest, I had never been out on a school night and now I know why. I didn't bring my camera so I have no pictures of our shenanigans. ;)

Thursday night I helped pack gift bags for the homeless as part of a missions weekend at my church. Such a great idea. They had crackers, vienna sausage, oatmeal cookies, toothbrushes, candy, deodorant, combs, bubble gums and other items.

Last night Brian and I went to a lovely dinner at the Sweezy House- its an adorable restaurant in an old farm home. The restaurant has delicious southern cuisine. I had Chicken Parmesan and Brian had some kind of amazing pork chops, with hashbrown casserole and steamed veggies.

Today, Brian headed to Asheville to go to his college roommate's wedding. I hate that I had to miss it, but I was in charge of our Law Review's End of the Year Party. The Party was at one of our Professor's homes. She lives on one of the local lakes. Her house was so beautiful. We were supposed to spend the afternoon playing on the jet ski's and boat. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. But, dont feel too sorry for us.. she had an arcade game, a pool table and a movie theater with 8 recliners and a tv that literally was probably 9 or 10 feet. Her home was gorgeous to say the least! .

I got to meet one of my friends from law review's wife who also blogs, Lauren. Her blog is very interesting and she always has great recipes... Lauren, if your reading this I bought spinach on the way home and I am going to try a smoothie in the morning. It wont be a "Green Monster," but we will see. I think everyone had a great time today. It was nice to get to hang out and not to have to work on our journal.Here are a few pictures from the day. Once again I forgot to take a picture of myself

How I met Mr. Right

This week's show us your life's topic is "how I met my spouse." I have to say that I love our love story.

The summer I turned 16 was one of the best summers of my life. I had the opportunity to go to a camp called World Changers in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had been to this camp before, but not in PR. I enjoyed doing mission working and construction projects; however, to be honest I was dreading working in the 100+ degree heat. Boy am I glad I went!

The first day of camp we met with our construction groups. I remember coming back to the barracks that night and announcing that there weren't any cute boys in my group. My mom, who was the nurse on the trip, quickly reminded me that boys were not why we came on a mission trip.

I really don't remember meeting Brian that first day. However, the second day I did notice him. I quickly realized that he and the other girl in our group from his church were the most "like me." We got to talking and realized that we lived only an hour apart and our youth leaders were actually related.

What really caught my attention about Brian was the way he interacted with the little girl who lived in the house we were working on. She was such a beautiful little girl and she loved to tease him. He was so playful with her. It was precious. The other thing that really caught my eye was how hard of a worker he was. He did not stop for breaks. I really pushed myself that week to keep up with him. Brian is still really good with kids (even though he swears he is not ready for one anytime soon) and is such a hard worker (borderline perfectionist, which of course I can relate to.

I remember telling my mom after the second or third day on site that I met the kind of guy I would want to marry. I remember her looking at me with bewilderment and asking why I would say something like that. I explained that he was so hardworking, funny and kind--- so different than the guys at my school his age. Looking back, its crazy to believe we had this conversation. I was a kid for crying out loud!

I teased him all week by calling him "COUNTRY" -- I had never heard someone talk so country in my life. This too hasn't changed about him. He is southern born and bred.

We really became good friends. In fact, we both had "relationships" back home and werent really on the prowl. hehe. When we returned from the work site, Brian and I would wait in line at the pay phone together to call our significant others. I really just saw him as a friend, although maybe I did have a little crush. Everyone teased us about "liking each other" --- I always defended myself by claiming we just had a lot in common.


I really wanted to say bye to him the morning we left camp. But, I couldn't find him. Apparently, his youth group had taken an earlier bus back to San Juan. I remember being really bummed that I didn't get to say bye. I will never forget that when we got to the airport that morning, I ran into him outside a gift shop. Apparently, they had some car trouble and were just arriving at the airport too. I remember being so glad that I got to tell him bye. I can still picture him turning around and walking down the terminal towards his flight. I remember tearing up a little and thinking I might not see him again-- I remember thinking-- Carol pull yourself together, you are being too emotional, you don't even like him and you have a boyfriend.


Brian and I began to talk on instant messenger through July and August. We were both still in relationships when September rolled around, but were "dumped" the weekend before Sept 11th, 2001. On Sept 11th 2001, Brian and I were talking on the Internet about the events that had unfolded in our country that day. I remember being especially worried because my brother was in the Navy and I had a cousin in the secret service. Brian called me that night for the first time and asked me to meet him at a football game that Friday. His high school was playing a school about 15 minutes from my house. I ended up meeting him at the game, and the rest is history....We officially started "dating" October 17th, 2001 and have been together ever since... Almost 9 years!

Paisley Giveaway

Paisley Personalized Gifts and Paperie is giving away this ADORABLE umbrella. Check it out at: http://paisleymonogram.com/blog/?p=175&cpage=1#comment-233

Dinner Theater

Yesterday was our youth group's annual dinner theater. The kids put on a show each year to raise money for their summer mission trip. This year they are headed to Chicago, Illinois to do construction work for needy families as part of a camp called World Changers.

Since we are currently without a youth minister, my husband and I as well as another couple having been working with our youth. This year much of dinner theater's planning was on our shoulders. It was a job, but it turned out great!

This is one of the drama's that they did yesterday. This is NOT our youth, but I found a version on youtube and wanted to share it because it is such a powerful message. No matter what we are struggling with in life, Jesus is there! You will have to turn off my music at the bottom of my blog, but believe me this is worth watching...

The song is "Everything," by Lifehouse....

Friday Fives

I decided to participate in Friday Five's over at Beth's Blog- Just me and my life. So today's topic is 5 thing you do not know about me.

(1) I am doing this to avoid writing a 25 page paper about preventing adoption disruption. (A paper my professor now wants me to get published in light of the recent adoption story about the little boy returned to Russia by his adoptive mother. stressful!)

(2) I got hit by a car going 40/mph once, while running across the street...

(3) In my next home, I want gas logs in my office and in my bedroom.

(4) I want to become an adjunct professor in addition to being a domestic attorney.

(5) One of my favorite things is getting snail mail! I just love peaking inside my mailbox to find something other than an ad or bill.

okay, so those were totally random.. back to my paper...

Show us your life: Teacher Gifts

I don't have kids, but I do have lots of friends who are teachers. Buying the perfect, thoughtful gift for someone is one of my FAVORITE things to do. Most teachers I know get tons of things I call "setties" - you know things that sit around and gather dust or end up in a yard sale pile.

Here are some of my favorite "non-traditional" teacher ideas:

(1) A gift certificate for a mani ($12-15) or a mani/medi ($40-65)

(2) Personalized Notecards. This is a great idea because you can personalize them to each teacher's style. These are some of my favorites from expressionary.com http://www.expressionery.com/line.aspx?lineid=243. Love them!

These generally run $31.00 but they almost always have a 40% off sale, which makes them around $19.00


3. Movie Tickets- everyone enjoys a nice movie and popcorn. Why not treat your child's teacher to a night on the town?


4. A gift in their honor to a non-profit organization. Some of my favorite are Samaritan's Purse and Compassion International. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/ Or, maybe you can find an organization that your child's teacher loves. For example, maybe a gift to the WWF (world wildlife fund) for your child's science teacher or a book donation to Books for Africa in honor of your child's librarian. http://www.booksforafrica.org/