Attitude

I've mentioned this quote before, but I feel I need it around as a constant reminder some days:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.” 

--Charles R. Swindoll

So lately, I've sucked at this.  Not sure why, but I have.  I've let the little things get to me and that's not how I want to be.  I know I've had extra things going on, and there are quite a few things outside of my direct control right now and that shouldn't be an excuse.  Here's my attempt at trying this again.  I'm going to work on this daily.  hourly.  by the minute?  Geez.  Sometimes it's a constant effort.  Sometimes it's really easy.  But regardless, I'm going to work harder at it.  It doesn't mean I won't fall for a moment and vent to John or my girlfriends, but it does mean that IF that happens, I'm going to have a much quicker rebound rate and not let stupid things that I can't control get me :)

Happy Friday Eve!  Oh yeah!  Soooo ready!

Catching up + Thankful Thursdays

This week has been rather hectic with work, so I haven't had time to write.  Now it's back to your regularly scheduled program.  

I did an expo at work this week which is what was keeping me so busy.  We only do one a year and this one is a huge deal in Orlando within the construction industry, so it takes a little time to prepare for.  Along with being in charge of marketing, I still have my other jobs to keep up with, so...I get consumed from time to time.  This is my favorite part of my job :)  If anyone is a Harry Potter fan, that is what our booth was themed around this year.  Every year, the expo has a theme.  This year it was in the movies.  Since we had a part in actually creating Hogwarts Castle in a theme park in Orlando, I thought having this movie as our theme would work quite nicely.  Here's a picture of our booth...and of our little costumes: 

We had Butterbeer and Quidditch that people could play for to win tickets to  the theme park.  It may not be like a work expo you've gone to.  In construction, there's lots of socializing, fun, and booze.  There seriously was a booth making pineapple martinis.  Anyway, I learned a lot about Harry Potter stuff in doing this.  I have never really gotten into it.  I did watch a few movies when we started working on the project, but still haven't finished them.  They are pretty good though and I will finish them so I can join a couple of my lady friends for the next movie :)

On to Thankful Thursdays:

Happy Thursday!

Mixing Up Mondays + Weekend Recap

I've put some pork tenderloin in the slow cooker and am attempting to make pulled pork sandwiches tonight.  My friend told me about this and it sounded so easy.  Plus, pork tenderloin is good for you, so I figured I'd give it a try! *I'm ignoring the thought of what the BBQ sauce does to it by the way :)*

Ingredients:
Pork Tenderloin (2lbs)
Can of root beer


Directions:
Put together in slow cooker and cook on low 8 hours.  Drain.  Mix in favorite BBQ sauce and serve.


It's cooking now!  I love coming home to the house smelling like delicious food!  Can't wait to try it!


Weekend Recap:
This weekend was nice and relaxing.  Friday we went over to John's parents and had dinner with them and his bro and sis-in-law.  

Saturday was spent doing some home improvement stuff + game day prep!  We went shopping and had Chick-fil-A for lunch (happy dance).  Then, that evening, our friends came over for the Florida/Kentucky game.  I must say, the Gators are looking better every week.  Next week is going to be our hardest game of the season...Alabama.  I'm prepping already!  


Sunday was our first group training day.  It was one of the girls first time running 5 miles and she did awesome!  Hopefully we can get the rest of the girls out there soon!  I love training in a group.  It makes the long runs more enjoyable.  Just talk away until the run is done :)  When I finished the run, John had cleaned everything else in the house that we didn't get to yesterday before everyone came over, hung mirrors for me that we bought a while ago, and mowed the grass!  He's awesome!  That made my day, especially since I've been extremely OCD lately.  We are slowly getting things ready for it to become our home!  We also worked on the MG.  My Grandad passed away almost 2 years ago and I inherited his 1950 MG.  He loved that car.  He took it to shows all over the place with the MG club.  It's a little British race car:  

It needs constant care, so we were tinkering with it at my house and then took it for a ride.  That's our "get away" car for the wedding...which was 6 months away yesterday!  Hurry March!!!


Have a Happy Monday!  

Engagement

I was going through pictures on my mom's camera yesterday because I borrowed it for a work thing, and I came across this picture from the morning we had gotten engaged.  I still haven't seen any of our pictures from that day, but I thought this captured the moment pretty well.  I haven't written about our engagement yet, or the proposal, so I thought I'd share!

I didn't sleep at all that night because I was so excited!  Every time I had my suspicions that the proposal was coming soon John ran, what he likes to call, "counter intelligence" and totally threw me off.  He even fell asleep for hours the night he proposed.  He had my girlfriends in his little "counter intelligence" too.  Apparently, he had been planning this for about a year I later found out from my future sis-in-law.  


He asked me right around midnight that started our anniversary.  We were walking on the beach, and I kept grabbing his hand, which kept him from being able to grab the ring from his pocket.  He finally said, "Christina, are those baby sea turtles over there?".  I went running up the beach, look for the baby turtles, as he got onto one knee.  He scooted up the beach after me for a while and then finally yelled, "Christina!".  I turned around to see him on one knee and he asked, me to marry him.  I responded, "are you serious?!" then "yes!".  After some kisses, one firework went off (the only one we saw that night).  


We were at the beach with my parents for the 4th of July (which is our anniversary) so my mom and I were up until 2 or 3 talking and I dozed off and on for a few hours until I couldn't stand it anymore.  Because it was after midnight, I hadn't gotten to call anyone and tell them, so around 7am I started with the phone calls to my grandparents, my aunt and a few friends.  Plus, lots of text messages since it was early on the weekend and a holiday to boot!  This picture was taken shortly after I woke John up, because his parents were coming over so we could all celebrate with donuts :)  It was a happy day!  Then that evening we went back home after all the fireworks and all of our friends were at the house.  We popped some champagne.  It really was perfect!

Five Question Friday!

1. If you could speak with a different accent, what would it be (i.e Australian, Scottish)?

I kind of like my lack of accent...although, if I go somewhere else in the US, I'm told I have an accent.  Ha!  Gotta love perception!  But I would choose none.

2. Can you fall asleep anywhere? (i.e floor, couch, deck)

Depending on how tired I am, yes.  I'm not quite as skilled at my love though...he falls asleep anywhere...all the time!  Seriously, all of our friends have pictures of him sleeping at almost every get together by the end of the night!

3. Do you use public restrooms? If so, do you sit on the toilet?

Yes.  But no, I never sit on the toilet...gross.

4. If you were stuck in an elevator for 24 hours, what celebrity would you most want to be stuck with?

Oh my goodness this is my worst nightmare.  I hate the thought of being stuck on an elevator...if the door doesn't open right away I start sweating and getting all nervous, it's ridiculous.  It would not be a time I would enjoy, so I'll just go with someone strong.  Seriously.  Pick anyone that could get me out.

5. Where did you & your significant other go on your 1st date?

Well, I'm not sure what to count.  John was home for the summer and had called and asked me to do something one evening, so we decided to see a movie.  Side note: We've known each other for probably 10 years or more at the time through church but didn't really hang out a lot, so it was a friend thing at the time I thought.  So anyway, we go see 'Click' with Adam Sandler and then walk around and talk.  Our conversation was mostly about how busy both of us were and how were didn't want to date anyone, blah blah blah.  (seriously, I laugh about it...why did we even have that conversation?! but we did!)  I think it was the truth for both of us too...he was finishing his last semester of college and I had just graduated started working and had a lot of friends getting married, so we were both just caught up in our own lives.  A few days later, we just couldn't stay apart and started dating haha.  I guess the day we count as when we started dating, we went to Chipotle for dinner.  So...one of those was our first date. :)

This is a picture from around when we first started dating.  I feel like we look so young here.  I guess it was over 4 years ago now.

See the difference 4 years makes?

Thankful Thursdays

Wedding Wednesday

Recap of the bakery we are going to use:
Their name is Simply Delicious and the name definitely describes the cake my mom brought us to sample!  They sent fillings and frostings to go with the cakes and I was a happy girl!  We tried their chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate mousse filling, banana nut with vanilla frosting, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and pina colada cake with pineapple filling.  I loved them all, except the pina colada cake.  We are going to have them cook us up the oreo and the almond cake they have and then I think we will be ready to choose!!  Yay for cake!


Today's about invitations.  John and I want a very clean and simple invitation.  Here's kind of what we are looking at:

We want to keep the classic wording too:

Mr. and Mrs. Jeffery _____

request the honour of your presence

at the marriage of their daughter

Christina Lou

and

John Joseph _____

on Saturday, the 26 of March

two thousand and eleven

at five o'clock

First Church of Christ

219 North Granby Road

Granby, Connecticut*

Do you put anything about the reception on the invitation?

One of my friends sent me her response card she used for her wedding, to hopefully help with our numbers and letting each invited guest how many were invited in their party, so I hope that helps.  We have cut our number from over 500 to 315 already but the number is important to keep down because of size restrictions.

Does anyone have any other advice for things I need to know about invitations??

*not actual location

GO GATORS!

The Gators played their first big SEC game yesterday and were victorious!  I wasn't sure how the game was going to go considering our team's still in a big learning curve, plus the Vols have a new coach (who looks pretty promising if you ask me...I actually do hope he'll do well) and it turned out to be a good game as always.  One of our best rivalries every year.  The game was exciting and even until probably 3/4 of the way through the 4th quarter, you really weren't sure how the game was going to go.

Way to go Gators!  Hopefully we continue to learn and play together as a team!

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm not feeling very thankful since I still don't feel good, but I know I should be thankful nonetheless!  My life is a good life and I'm just grouchy right now...so today needs captions.


I am thankful for:

My love, who had to work from 7:30 yesterday morning until 2 THIS morning and still called to check on me...and has to do it again tonight :( 

My love, future Bro & Sis-in-law (and for celebrations!)

My parents and that they have things they love to do together after 33 years of marriage!

Comfy beds...

Being able to order pizza from my phone in 3 steps...(yes, there's an app for that) and I did it last night and had pizza in 15 minutes!

Sleeping (and cute puppies)

Speaking of cute puppies...The Lil!

Having great girlfriends to be silly with...

The beach...what a wonderful creation!  

Good waves this weekend, hopefully I can kick this sickness and enjoy them!

Meeting with the photographers tonight...hopefully we will have one more thing checked off this wedding "to-do" list!

Wedding Wednesday + extras

So, I know last week I said I was going to write about invitations, but due to certain circumstances, I'm going to push that to next week and do the cake today.  This is the part John & I are oh so excited about!  We have been referred to a specific company for cakes by quite a few vendors in the area, so I figured we could check them out.  The owner is only there twice a week and my mom is going to be out scouting out florists and hotels for me Friday, so she graciously offered to stop by and gather some information cake for us.

We know what we want the cake to look like:

This shape...

With the design on the bottom layer...on a white cake in blue or silver...

We have not even thought about flavors though...and according to the girl on the phone I talked to, they do everything.  She mentioned Oreo cake, which definitely got my attention since I love Oreos!
My question to you ladies is:
What flavors should we ask to taste test? 
All recommendations would be wonderful!  I don't even know where to start, but I know I would like something fun and maybe a little different than the traditional yellow or chocolate cake!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Now onto the Jambalaya...
It was tasty.  A little too spicy though and I like spicy.  I guess the extra red pepper I added mixed with the hot Italian sausage added a little too much when simmering all day :)  I will be making it again...that's for sure!

John, his brother and roommate tried it and they all liked it...success!

I'm off to try and finish out the work day, with Alka-Seltzer in hand.  I've felt worse every day this week.  No gym & running is keeping my from sleeping well, so I'm losing the battle.  Hopefully tonight I'll catch up on sleep, kick whatever's buggin' me and feel great tomorrow!  Happy Hump Day!

Disney Classics

I can officially cross off one thing from my 101 in 1001!  I have been searching for and bidding on Disney movies on amazon and ebay and have managed to collect five Disney Classics!

Drum-roll Please!

Mixing Up Mondays

So, I've decided to write about recipes I have or am planning on trying on Mondays.  This week is Slow Cooker Jambalaya with Corn Muffins.  The food smelled so good as it was being prepared yesterday!  John helped me chop and cook up some sausage for it.  Then, last night, I was reminded I had dinner plans for Monday evening, so this meal will be enjoyed Tuesday instead.  Right now it's sitting in the crockpot in the fridge waiting for me.  It took about 20 minutes by the time everything was chopped, although I'm sure you could buy pre-sliced/chopped food from your grocery store to make it go a little faster. 

The Corn Muffins took about 5 minutes to prepare and they were yummy!  We split one yesterday just to taste test. 

*Pictures to come*

Jambalaya

What you need:

1 large onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped (I use outer stalks of celery hearts)
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups smoked sausage, chopped (fully cooked)
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper sauce
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (uncooked)
4 cups cooked rice

Directions:Put everything in the slow cooker, except the shrimp and rice.
Turn on low for 7-8 hours
Add shrimp in for 30 minutes or until pink
Serve over rice
Makes 8 servings

Corn Muffins
What you need:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit 

In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt. Mix in flour, cornmeal and baking powder; blend thoroughly. Stir in milk and corn. Pour or spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 muffins.

This dinner is also a good way to get your veggies in!

I will let you know how it turns out, after I actually get to eat it!