Craves.

I'm sooooooo getting this.

Being Well

For real Sarah Palin.  I mean...are you really enticing people to revolt.  ::shakingmyhead::

I try not to make political statements on my blog, but I cannot resist saying this one thing.  If the haves in this country cared more about the have nots, the United States of America would be a much better place. And I don't mean just saying "I care." or throwing a dollar a homeless person's way.  There is no positve way to say that Im dissappointed and disgusted by the behavior of my fellow countrymen...where is your dignity and couth.

Two of many golden nuggets of wisdom The Dalai Lama has dropped in our laps apply to the political climate in our country right now:

To meet the challenge of the century, human beings will have to step up into universal responsibility.


If u have a sense of caring 4 others, u'll manifest strength in spite of all ur problems and difficulties.


That is all.    ::stepsoffsoapbox::

I don't have much to say.  I have been eating extremely well!

Must have veggies ONLY in my homemade marinara.  No sugar in this batch of goodness...I put it on top of some whole wheat pasta.

I have been on a corn kick this week.  I made a salad with romaine, corn, strawberries and tomatoes.  Weird combo huh?  Well it was FAB with the balsamic dressing I made.  Do you have any idea how well strawberries and balsamic vinegar go together!   Get a clue.  

I discovered something so wonderful today...I had to share it.  I stumbled across the idea while stalking vegan blogs. They have been giving me ideas on food prep for this fruit and veggie thingy I'm doing.  

So I chopped up some apples, and sauteed them in coconut oil.  I use this stuff for EVERYTHING.  I use it on my skin, hair and I cook with it.  It's fantastic!

Then I sprinkled them with cinnamon.  After they were cooked to my liking, I added some whole grain brown rice to the pan.  I mixed it all up and added some apple sauce.  Natural.  No sugar is going into my body unless it comes straight from fruit.  

It was so fast and easy.  Tomorrow, I am doing the same thing but I am using a banana and some strawberries.  Its like a rice porridge but not really. 

I will leave you with this:

One of my students gave it to me this afternoon.  And another kid/hater/future tea party member yells out, "Its a weed!"   Well I was so grateful for the thought, I hugged the giver and wore it in my hair!  I'm sharing it with you all!  Your gifts may be weeds to others...but go ahead and give them anyway.  

A Positive times a Negative is a Negative

Yes. I survived,  Barely.  Spring Break is over, thank God.  I was so happy to pull up to Hermitage Elementary I almost locked my keys in the car.

Soooo...tonight I made Collard Greens with NO meat.  Yes people.  I did and they were fabulous.  I also had oven roasted potatoes. Word on the street is that I have only eaten fruit, vegetables and brown rice for the past seven days.  Word on the street is that I am feeling really good.  I feel light and wonderful.  I am in a much better mood.  Im not hungry all the time, or thinking about what I am going to eat.  An apple is fine.  Some strawberries.  My own homemade salad dressing...or the sugar free balsamic vinnie one I found (and have been carrying in my purse) are super flavorful.  The veggie stir fry and veggie fried brown rice...was divine.  I am having sooooo much fun with this whole thing!

I was talking to my younger sister today and she said that she is going to go ten days without saying anything negative to or about anyone.  I am jumping on the bandwagon.  Starting tomorrow, only positive things will spring forth from my lips.  I'm not going to tell my husband, I'm just going to show him something different.  He will think my body has been taken over by aliens.

I'm just really trying to work on myself.  I want to be the best Erica possible, and this will help me realize that I don't always have to say something sarcastic or crap on someones parade.  Even if it is funny.  It willl help me to empower someone else with a kind word, rather than throwing negative gunk into the world.

Do any of you think you could go ten days without saying anything negative?

Too Cool for School

I didn't wear green today.  I wore my dumb uniform.  I hate it.    However I realized the kids were gonna pinch me when they started arriving this morning.  So I threw together a green necklace made of plastic beads.  I was careful NOT to make a pattern but to just throw the beads on in a haphazard manner.  Funky Chic...I say.

It's still Spring Break and all of our sites are dumped into one school.  So we have 60-70 kids at one site.  Then we have 2 directors and 2 site assistants working so that we can be in ratio (adult:child).  So yesterday was very zoo like...today was much better.  Except the kids kept saying, "you got served" and "you got burned".  I was like, "nobody even says that any more, its soooo played out".  But they don't care because they are kids and they think they are cool.  Too cool for school.

I want to be too cool for school.  All of my friends in blog land are too cool for school...you ladies rock.  Also into the category of "rocking" Im going to place Lucie Lu a plus sized online retailer that fellow blogger BBM highlighted on a recent blog! They have some cute things.  I have so many options this Spring and Summer, more than I did last year.  My cute factor is going to be off of the chart this year!  Oooooooow!

So here are some pieces that I am feeling!

I could wear this scarf every day...if I didn't have to wear this ugly YMCA t-shirt.  Actually Im going to rock this with my uniform.  Why not?!

You cannot go wrong with jeans and these two numbers!

I love love love skirts in the spring and summer.  My husband prefers skirts to dresses as they accentuate my shape better...I dress them up with a tank and lots of neck ornaments or dress them down with a graphic tee and sandals.

I would love to wear this dress to my brother's wedding!  I'm the wedding coordinator and this dress looks super comfortable!  I would belt it with a gold thin cute little ditty.  It's $62.00 and I probably wont be able to afford to buy it and our plane tickets...but a girl can dream!

I love this collection. 

That's all for now! Signing off...Too Cool For School!  

The Break

It's finally here!  Spring Break!  Oh how I longed for it to get here!  Oh how I longed for this day to come!  But alas...I am working during Spring Break.  Fun Company is open when school is closed and parents have to work.  Oh joy.

So this morning I picked myself up by the collar and rolled into Tulip Grove Elementary at 6:30 in the morning.  By 8:30 seventy children from the ages of 5 to 10, were running around the cafeteria.  Let me just say...the average person could not have done it and stayed sane.

Oh but my saving grace was the awareness that I would be leaving by noon.  Yes,  Noon.  Normally I get scheduled to work from 12:30 pm until 6:00 or whenever the late parent arrives (I have been there as late as 6:35).   Nothing the kids did seemed to phase me...for a change.  Normally I am exhausted by the time the last child leaves on "all day's" and I go home and fall in the bed.  Not today! I went grocery shopping and even managed to cook my hubby a nice steak dinner with green beans!

Go me!

So tomorrow is another day, that will be full of many challenges.  But it is ok...all of the struggles I will over come will occur before noon so I am at peace right now!

I will be coming home to Maryland on April 30th, we must do a bloggers get together when I get home!  Let's work it out ladies!

Its in the Eye

I never get to see Oprah because I work until six in the evening...but I had been wanting to see Jessica Simpson on Oprah because I think that she is fabulous.  Its just weird that I like her and Beyonce unconditionally.  Even though they disappoint me sometimes.  I wont get on my soapbox about them, they are human and are imperfect like the rest of us!

Anyways, I wanted to see this interview and I thought it was worth a share.  Just a reaffirmation that BEAUTY is whatever I say it is as it pertains to me!  Its whats is on the inside...its who I am.  Kanye said it best...."the prettiest people do the ugliest things, on the road to riches and diamond rings..."  Well doesn't that just make you ugly.  I'd say...yes.



I think about how my self esteem is all wrapped up in me losing weight instead of me just trying to be healthy and live a long active life.  I think about how I have tricked myself into not really seeing my reflection in the mirror...in my mind I am still a size 14 not a size 20.  I just need to accept who I am now, embrace me.  I think about the real come to Jesus battle that getting healthy has become and Im grateful that I have another day to try again.  My mother's blood pressure was so high it caused her brain to rupture over five years ago.  She is fine now but will never be the same physically and will be on dialysis until she can get on the list for kidneys.  I don't want to die prematurely later because I don't want to do the work now.  Thats ridiculous.

With that said...this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  And thats kind of sad.  I should be saying that climbing Mount Everest (never done) or learning Advanced Calculus (struggled but done) is the hardest thing I have ever had to do!  But losing weight...???

I say loving yourself, is taking care of yourself.  Mind.  Body. Spirit.  There is beauty in TRUTH...where ever it may be found.  Being true to yourself...and being authentic...that is where it's at.  And if that is where it's at...it means that they were right.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.



**EDIT** Here is Jessica's new show on VH1 called "The Price of Beauty"....LOVE IT!

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

A Little of This

So...I am still on my journey...you know...the journey to begin to get healthy.  My husband has jumped on the bandwagon with me.  Sad to say...I really need his support.  I was having a hard time doing it on my own.  He is only doing it to win a competition at work...and I decided I had better get in on the healthy eating and exercise too so we can do it together.  I have been eating much cleaner for a few weeks now.  Eating healthier snacks and NOT baking.  Not because I can not find healthy things to bake...but because I have no self restraint.  I know my limits.  

So Jen @ Prior Fat Girl did the cutest post with her having a healthy snack.  Well I had some Clementine's Tuesday for snack and thought about her post.  I took some pictures with my healthy snack...it was fun.  Some of them were really lame...like the one where I'm holding up the peace sign.  I deleted those.  My pics arent as witty and fun as hers.  The point is...we are making good choices and not going over board with the things that arent the best choice.  Visit Jen's blog!  She is doing it big!

My husband built this for his mom. We are doing one for my parents probably mid summer.  I love the red and black case!

Lastly.  Spring.  Its coming.  I need some new clothes.

 

I would wear this every day.

I'd wear this skirt with a baby tee and flat gold sandals or a color thats not in the skirt.  

Id also add iridescent sequins to the skirt to give it some more POP.

This dress is from Jessica London.  I love it...especially the material.  I would probably belt this....I wouldn't wear these boots either.  Nashville is a sauna in the Summer.  We are experiencing spring now...but it wont last long.  We really only have three and a half seasons here!

I have never shopped at Jen's Fashion Plus but I would love both of these dresses.  Her graphic tee's are only 13 bucks!

I'm all about dresses in the summer since I don't  really wear shorts.

  I would def wear the red one with a cardigan and turquoise blue flats.  You all should go over and check her out...she has some cute dresses.  

Im sorry this post was super lengthy.  I had a lot to share today!  Two fingers and a kiss!

Beach Cruiser

Sooo....we are moving to Hermitage!  I am really excited because  I will be within walking distance from the school I call myself working at.  I rarely work...I play a lot (basketball and dodge ball), do a bunch of arts and crafts, and play games like connect four.  I digress.  My husband made a suggestion the other night that I get a bike!  So I sent him an email of the the bike I wanted to get.

Are they the cutest things you have ever seen???!  I want one of them.  I don't know whether to go for the mint green and brown or the pink and black.  What do you think?

Yeah well my husband comes back and says that he thinks I should get a mountain bike.  ::confusedlook::  Of course my response was something along the lines of a mountain bike not being as cute as a bike of the cruiser variety.

Needless to say, Im not feeling it.  But Q made his point by saying that the area we will be moving has a few hills and I will need the more than a single speed to get to the YMCA to work out OR to Target if I want to get out and he has the car (we only have one and we bond in it lol).  

I'm still torn.  Maybe the hills won't be too bad with my single gear bike.   Who here rides bikes and can help me with this!!!!????  Talk to me!!!!

Cough Sniff Sniff Blow

I am so sorry I have been gone for so long!  I have been feeling like crapola...physically, emotionally, even my spirits have been down.  The pollen has attacked me already, and my eyes have been crying a river.

But I look cute doing so.  

This is me the Friday before last, before I got hit with the evil strand of something that has been going around Nashville.  I am loving being natural.  I love my hair...I'm still working on accepting all aspects of it.  Like I love it like this...but this takes some twisting and twirling and drying.  I'm not yet at peace with my fro...or anything of a wash and go variety.  My husband has been begging me to rock it and I think I will debut it for him next week. 

April 5th will be our second wedding anniversary!  I have been shopping for dresses...and I need to work my look around this afro that he is dying to see!  We will be going to Valentino's for sure and staying at Loew's...hopefully.  I'm kind of thinking I want to stay at a cute boutique hotel.  Any suggestions fellow Nashvillians!!!!!!????  

I was tagged to do something and I wrote out what  I was gonna blog.  I'm going to do it next week.  I also missed the wardrobe challenge...because I was busy dragging my butt to work and back home to bed.  I'm sorry...I promise I will be a part of the next one! You will see me get super creative with the black pants and ymca t-shirt I am required to wear to work everyday!  

As you can see in these pics...I decided to wear what  I wanted this particular Friday.  

Have a great week everyone!  I promise at least 4 blog entries this week...to make up for the week I was M.I.A.  May the cute be with you!