food coma

Kyle's mom came to visit in July. When she comes, you better be rested. She is a go-getter! Kyle gets some of his energy from her! Friday night we went and saw Huey Lewis & the News at the Botanic Garden. I was not looking forward to the heat, but a shower came through and cooled it down a bit.

I asked a guy at the swag booth to take our picture. Then the guy said "I think I know you. Did you go to Skyview?" Yup, a guy in Kindergarten remembered me! My parents have a picture of him and I at Kindergarten graduation. Honestly, I didn't recognize him but I know I still have a baby face so I am not that surprised that he remembered me...I look the same!

We found a great place on the lawn and unpacked our picnic. We had a great time. Great music and great food. I wished Huey would've played longer because he did not get all of his songs in!

We got up the next morning and went to the farmers market. Then we picked up lunch at Frank's Deli. I took them to my new fancy downtown office for a tour and to eat our take-out.

The best club in town is at Frank's. It.Is.Amazing.



Action shot of Kyle enjoying his lunch.

We picked up some guacamole from Las Delicias. They are always at the farmers market. They truly have the best guac in town!

Next, we took a break at home then headed down to Tunica to to hit up the outlet malls. Time to eat again so we ended up at Como Steak house.

Como Steakhouse is the best steak in the South. It is about 45 minutes south of Memphis in Como, MS.

They grill their steaks on this open indoor grill. To the left of the grill is a freezer where you can see all the cuts of meat. 

Kyle got the 22 oz Ribeye. His mom got the fillet.

And I got the shish kabob....and my potato loaded! I had to get a dogie bag! Good stuff. I high recommend taking a trip there. They have other food besides steak. Do it! Your tummy will thank you!

To top off the weekend, my mother-in-law cooked a meal for us the next night.  Stewed squash, peas, onions and cucumbers soaked in vinegar, homemade corn bread (made in my Meme's iron skillet) covered with tomato gravy.

Now you see when my mother-in-laws comes to town, I need a week to recoop! A week to get over my food coma and rest from all the sight seeing. We covered 5 counties on Saturday alone. I want some of her energy! And I hope I have that much energy when I'm in my 50s! Can't wait until she comes back!

ckc: cardiac kids camp

I work with a great group of ladies.  They loaned me out for the week again so I could go work at Cardiac Kids Camp last month.  I went last year and had a blast.

Here is Dr. Goldberg's awesome drawing of the heart that he does every year. He is one of the heart surgeons at Le Bonheur.   

The saying goes "if all your friends jumped from a bridge would you?"  I sure would! I jumped out of this tree. Can you see the ladder at the bottom of the tree?  It is tiny compared to the tall 40 foot tree I climbed. Then look high....there is a platform that you sit on to get your harness changed and adjusted. The hippie guy that helped me at the top was my best friend. I clung to him like no other!

 

Then you jump. I thought the hardest part would be for me to climb the tree. Oh no. It was the jumping part. I told hippie guy to count to 3 or I'd never go. 1 2 3...

 These pictures don't even do it justice. After you free fall for about 5 seconds, you swing back and forth. It was the scariest thing I've done. The kids talked me into it. I was like "well, I'll go if we have time after all of you go." Then they all went. DARN! I had to go. But I did it! Peer pressure. 

I have tons of pics from camp but I can't post them due to HIPPA. Camp is a great time for cardiac kids to get together and share their fears and make friendships with others who have the same challenges. It is my favorite week of the summer and I am so glad I got to go back this year.  We did so many fun things. I loved making new friendships.  Jumping out of a tree was just a tiny part of the fun!

food for finance: budgets and beyond

(healthy) food for finance is a column where we talk about how fitness and finance correlate with each other. join us on our journey to be both physically and financially fit.

"He who fails to plan, plans to fail" -a proverb (and a quote from the Robbie McWilliam book for all my work friends!)

I had my 1st garage sale!!! I went to my friend Krista's house and had a grand time.

Here is just some of the trash treasures that I thought I could sell.

WOW we could fit 2 SUVs full of stuff. And I still had more I could've sold but it was last minute. So we dropped off our stuff then Kyle and I had a dinner date at Golden India.

Since the whole world knows that Kyle and I are in the middle of doing Dave Ramsey's plan, I feel the need to talk about our budget! A common question I get, "so can you go out to eat?"  or "Will Dave Ramsey let you eat?"  and you know where this is going.  Keep the jokes coming! 

All a budget is.....is you telling your money what to do. Rather than the opposite.  Just like I choose what kind of food I want to eat. I can choose to eat healthy food OR I can choose to eat unhealthy food.  If I pick eating unhealthy food all the time, my health would suffer. If I choose not to have a budget, my finances will suffer. So I choose to have a budget!!!

Oh the dreaded B word!!!!  I never had one until Kyle and I were married!  People think being on a budget is like tying yourself to your house and never leaving.  I've always been a frugal person to an extent.  My Aunt Connie says I get that from my Daddy Bob (my grandfather).  I like to buy things on sale, I HATE owing people money, and so on. When Kyle and I sat down and added up our monthly income and did the budget, I discovered something!!! We have more money than I thought....IF we stuck to our budget. Kyle used to eat out for lunch a lot. So if he and I both brought our lunch to work, we could save "X" amount. Brilliant! Then I started to car pool with a friend from work.  Wow, more money we are saving. Then we decided on a set amount for groceries. When it's gone, it's gone.  No more impulse buying for me on the Kroger mark down aisle! You know you've done it too.  This girl has to eat! Don't mess with my food! I might eat pretty healthy, but I do EAT! 

Basically, anything we spend goes on the budget. I, however, hate doing the budget. That is one reason Kyle and I are great for each other. He loves it! I just review it about every 2 weeks.  But it is an open conservation between the both of us, all the time. So when birthdays come, we have to tell each other how much we are spending or give each other a limit. Keeps us accountable so one of us doesn't commit financial infidelity (which is very common now-a-days.) 

We have an entertainment part of the budget. It is a budget MUST! We'd be crazy if we didn't have fun! To make it extend even further, we like to find "half off" things to do (or free).  That is how we ended up at Golden India.  My mom gave me a coupon book for Christmas with a lot restaurants, things to do, etc. Anyone that knows me, knows I would much rather eat at a hole in the wall place than a chain place.  So the coupon book my mom gave me was perfect!  They have mostly local eateries with usually "buy one get one free" coupons.

Now... back to Golden India. I had Indian food when I spent a summer in England and it was YUM! Then Kyle 1st had it at an Indian reception we went to for the Shah wedding. It was time for us to try it again! And for half off!

 Kyle asked for medium heat. We know how Indian food is. Medium to him equals spicy in Indian-land! He was sweating just eating the medium.

 I don't remember what I got but it was GOOD! I told the waiter I wanted mine "negative mild." In Angie language that means NOT A HINT OF SPICY!! There were 4 Indian guys that were sitting 2 tables behind us. They ordered "very spicy" and when they brought out the food, we all coughed! It was that strong. Even the smell from the steam got to Kyle and I. Then I hear one of the guys say "yeah, that might be too spicy for me." Even the Indian guy couldn't take the heat.  Affirmation that we made the right spice choice!



The next day was the garage sale. And it was in the July heat. I made a total of.............

....180-something dollars!!! This was all I had left! My trash was someone else's treasure! Success! You ask where my money went? To baby step 3 of course!

i like big butts

Kyle and 3 of his friends are starting up a BBQ team. Forth of July weekend was really "experimental weekend" and I was one of the taste testers! Their first competition is in October so there is a lot of cooking to be had!

There was also a lot of time to kill waiting on the food so the boys played washers.

Greg is a pro.

The set up.

 They are entering in the ribs contest. Don't they look great?

The rib huddle!

Each of the boys did different seasonings.

Here was the fun part. They had each of the ribs on separate plates with numbers on them. We did not know who cooked what. We scored the ribs and the sauces. I was in hog heaven. Pun intended!

Greg explaining the judging process!

It was intense...

...and a very hard job!

Kyle enjoying his hard work.

I really liked the BBQ team name "We like big butts" however, I think they are going with another name. It is still up in the air. Last weekend we did another trial run and they actually did smoke a butt. I ate way too much and had to lay down. I was in a BBQ induced coma. But I came out if it and even had dessert! Special thanks to Katie and Greg for hosting and to Katie for taking the pictures above!  I can't wait for more taste testings!

food for finance: half baby step 3

(healthy) food for finance is a column where we talk about how fitness and finance correlate with each other. join us on our journey to be both physically and financially fit.

We are half way there!  We are at the half marathon point of baby step 3. What does that mean? We have 3 months of expenses saved in case of an emergency. Our goal is to have savings for 6 months: the full marathon! This has been the hardest part for me thus far in our financial journey. We keep building up cash and it just sits there. It is lounging around in a sand chair looking at me at the beach bank saying "hey....spend ME....spend ME!" We really have to be disciplined to not go off and do just that. What if I lost my job? What if Kyle lost his job? What if one of us got sick and couldn't work? After our short term disability ended, our long term disability would kick in. Then we'd also have our 6 month emergency fund. I am feeling pretty prepared right now!

So I need to ask myself what constitutes as an emergency?
1. loss of job-YES (I covered that)
2. air conditioning goes out in my jeep-YES (true story)
3. Kyle gets elective lasik eye surgery-NO
4. emergency appendectomy-YES
5. icemaker goes out in my fridge and it is ugly anyway so I need to get another one-NO (true story, we have ice trays now)
6. compressor goes out in my fridge so we need a new one-YES
7. go on a cruise-NO (but we did to celebrate being DEBT FREE but the house-that was our prize for meeting one of our goals)
8. Kyle upgrading his seats at Mississippi State football games-NO
9. getting a patio for our backyard so our dogs will have shade-NO
10. getting a new roof because it is 20 years old and leaking water-YES

It is not that I have this huge urge to spend 3 months of our expendable income that we have saved. It is just that Baby step 2 was so easy for me. I loved seeing our statements when we'd pay a huge payment towards our debt. ( I know that sounds crazy-who loves to pay bills? But when you're pounding that bill hard with lots of money, it  is a whole new feeling) It was like losing weight. It'd get smaller and smaller and smaller until we were debt free excluding the house! It was a great feeling. A big weight was lifted. Now we have the opposite. I am seeing a number grow and grow and grow. And when we top our 6 months of expenses goal, we'll put that money in an account that we won't touch....only for emergencies. I guess it is just hard for me to fathom that something bad might happen to us. We could be doing so much more with that money....but we know life WILL happen and we want to have our armour on when it does.

So we're chugging along with the process. We've trained well and we're at a good, steady pace. I can't wait to look back on this post and re-live this feeling and know that we could do it. That we did make a good decision to become financially fit!  All the sacrifices will pay off in the long marathon run. One baby step at a time!

leah lack

My sister-in-law (Kyle's sister) has the cutest name now. I think it flows well....Leah Lack. She got married the last weekend in June.

The bridal party at the bridal brunch at Harveys. YUM!  

And here they are people.....Aunt Eloise and Mimi! The famous ladies of the south! 

Leah is all smiles at the rehearsal. That was only time it rained. Thank goodness because Leah got married outside at a place called the Burnt Oak Lodge. It was a perfect place for Leah and Josh's personality. 

We were both in the wedding and got to walk down the aisle again! TOGETHER! I told Kyle to look at me and say the vows to himself during the ceremony so we could renew them. HA! Just kidding! We did dance as we exited the aisle! I wish we had that on video. We were a hit!

 After rehearing our walk, we went to the rehearsal dinner at the Veranda, another fine place to eat!



 Wedding day! I was super excited Kyle and I were both in the wedding. I don't think it is to common that people are in their sister-in-law's wedding. Usually it is just the other way around. Since I'm an only child, this will probably be the only family wedding I'm in. Oh no, I'm getting sappy?! Actually, Kyle was so giddy when he found out I was in the wedding. It was so cute! I love him.

The beautiful bride staying cool. It was hot outside! 

Reception time. The band was great and we danced the night away. 

The twins-Brittany and Morgan. We wanted a picture on the jungle gym! 

Rolling on the river. 

I drove the get-away-car but this was not it. They rode in my mother-in-law's car so it was a clean escape. Come on now.....we had to do something. We found Leah's car at the hotel and did a little decorating so when the newlyweds got up the next morning, they'd have a fun surprise! 

More pictures to come...I don't even have one of the newlyweds! I'll get on that when the pictures come in!

cry me a spring river

At the beginning of June, I went on a canoe day trip with some of my friends. We went to spring river in Arkansas and I can say that it was a very memorable trip. Kyle didn't get to go. I think he was a little happy because that meant that he got to watch the regional baseball game that Mississippi State was in!

April and I on our way to the drop off point. We ended up being canoe partners.

Cindy's birthday is in January and she wanted to go canoeing for her celebration..so we did....5 months later!

Back to my canoe partner. I somehow ended up being the back canoer. Well, that did not go so well when April said "this is going to be a long 10 miles" in a not-so-happy tone. We proceeded to veer towards a tree. So I suggested we swap and it was the best decision for our friendship! We ended up being great partners!

Do you see this yacht? I mean 3 rafts roped together? There was a guy with a big speaker, mic, laptop, amp, and stage where he was being the river DJ. I liked it minus the unedited music. These people are regulars!


Lunch time!

The girls-Sarah, April, Shelly, Julia, Lisa, Steph, Cindy, and me. I would like to add that I was the only one who wore a life jacket. I was also made fun of!

This does not look like a comfy spot to eat!

So glad we swapped spots...if not, these smiles would've been frowns!


Our boys were some great rock-skippers! This was the last of our happy pictures....and happy times.

We got back in our canoes and headed onward. Then some clouds rolled in. I thought nothing of it. Then Shelly said it looked like it was getting bad. Then the clouds got darker. So we decided we'd pull over. But one of our friends tumped (that word is for Sarah) over so we pulled over on an island to wait on them. Once they got to the island the bottom fell out. We thought it'd pass after 20 minutes. It started hailing. We had no shelter. The lightning was so bad. The thunder was so loud. We were freezing. So we huddled with about 10 other strangers and sang songs to pass the time. Then 45 minutes passed with no relief. Across the river was a house and a gazebo where these people were playing music on a sound system. How could they party at a time like this? Finally after an hour I had enough! I huddled with some guys under their raft and called (glad April had her phone in a water proof bag) our canoe rental place, Many Islands. Ironically, we were trapped on an island! The line was busy! My idea was to have them come rescue us! No luck. The lightening was too bad to cross the river and the current was too strong to swim. When Ray looked worried, I knew we were in bad shape.

The boys had the bright idea to just go on...REALLY? It had been an hour and 15 minutes since the storm started. I was not comfortable leaving but I didn't want to be left alone on the island. So April and I got in our metal canoe in the lightening. It gets better. 2 girls who had an inter tube hopped in our canoe....our 2 man canoe. Oh why not! It wasn't raining as bad. Sure, you'll be safer in our metal canoe! So off we went. We were in the canoe for about 3 minutes when we saw dead man's curve. April and I were very proud of the fact we had not flipped. We saw the rapid, we thought we had it...then BAM! Our 2 extra people did us in. We think one of them broke their arm. It was horrible. I am surprised I only had 1 scratch. Who is making fun of my life jacket now? We finally got to land and it ended up being a canoe drop off point, but not ours. So the 2 girls got medical attention and left. April and I got back in our canoe and finally it started to clear up. The lightening was still going strong but it was getting further away.

Finally, 30 minutes down the river, we found our Many Islands drop off point. Thank the good Lord we were safe and the canoe ride was over!  It really did rain on our parade. I am not real sure I'll be canoeing in the near furture. I'm going to have to forget this horrible event before I get back out on the river!!