The food we eat.

Food. I LOVE FOOD. But there are changes I am starting to make to the food that I eat. One of the them is the elimination of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Now this isn't easy because there is food out there like - oreo's - that I LOVE. But Trader Joe's has some great alternative with no hfcs. The Reverend and I started noticing that so much of what is at the grocery store has HFCS in it - especially condiments, cereal, and really most packaged food. For those of you interested in what it actually does to your diet, here is a great article! (Notice the part about most of our corn products are genetically modified - DONT GET ME STARTED HERE!! I feel like this issue is very scary. If you don't know anything about this, I encourage you to do some research because it will impact us and the next generations for sure!)

I really started reading up on this whole "organic" thing about 8 months ago when I choose to come off the hormone shots I was receiving for Endometriosis. I had been on some form of hormones for three years and it definitely took a toll on my body. Fed up with the emotional roller-coaster and tired of a body i didn't recognize - I decided to stop.

I met with a Naturalist who lead me to this book. I recommend it for every lady out there. It is SO helpful if you would like alternatives to western medicine.

Also, I love this book!! and I am a huge *closet* Jillian fan. My sister had this book and it became a must read for me. She is very detailed on what to keep in your diet and what to eliminate.

And if any of you are more interested here are some books I have enjoyed on nutrition: Food, Inc, Super Foods RX, In Defense of Food, and Optimal Health Revolution.

For those of you in the Redlands area and want information on Farmers Markets or organics - here are some links I recommend. Redlands Organics, Organic Produce Buying Club/ Co-Op, The Farm, and Local Harvest (go "home" and you can find things in your area if you are not in Redlands).

Words.

In my early childhood years one of the physicians running those hearing & eye test at my school informed my parents that I could potentially have a hearing problem. So, my parents, being the amazing people they are, took me to see a few hearing specialists. I remember having to do all these strange tests. In the end they paid the money to have the MD come back and say "She is FINE! She just hears what she wants to hear." This has been pretty consistent through adulthood as well. I suffer from "selective hearing" as my mom calls it. HAHA.

On top of the selective hearing - there is the "random comments" I can tend to throw out. There are times in my life when I say things. Afterward when realize how it sounded to the receiver, I am mortified and apologize profusely because "THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!!" It is a curse!! I am not sure whether my brain runs too fast for me to process or if I am just so scatter brained that this happens. It could also be that I, at times, can be a bad listener. I blame this on the fact that I am listening to the thoughts running through my head instead of actively listening to my company. This leave me with being "that girl" who interjects random ideas - well they aren't random. I just didn't help the listener get to the point that I am already at.

Here is the latest: My mom and I were in the living room and the TV was on. Wheel of Fortune was wrapping up and I noticed that each contestant was receiving money. So I mentioned my observation to my mom. This is how the conversation went.

Ruthie: Does each contestant win money?

Mom: Yeah. They make something around $1,000.00 just to go on the show.

Ruthie: Wow,..(pause)... you don't even need a personality to go on this show. (longer pause) Mom, You should go on this show!

Mom: So, you don't think I have a personality?

Ruthie (with confused look): No, that is not what I said.... OH!!!! NO!!!

Seriously! How do you recover this? My mom, at least, understands my *suffering* and so gives me much grace. I still think she should go on Wheel of Fortune.

The Cleaners.

I like to laugh and pretty much you could say that everyday there is something to smile or laugh about. My family will tell you this is because I am very much like Miss Congeniality and at one point I remember my mom telling me "that is why God made you so cute". Strange things happen to me - they just do. I'm blessed with this gift.

Here is the latest and I keep giggling over it. This past weekend The Reverend needed to take his shirts to the cleaners. Side note: I had taken them in previously to get cleaned while I was helping take care of my man down with the mono. Remember that I had given the mono to him; you see the sucking up taking place here. :) Well as he was sorting out the shirts on the counter he realized that all the shirts had the name "GALLO" written in them. (HAHAHAHAH I am laughing AGAIN!) Naturally, he asked the nice Vietnamese lady about it - to which he couldn't tell if she didn't understand why he would have these shirts with the wrong last name (did he steal them?) or if she just didn't understand him at all. But now, here he is with all his nice work shirts with my name in all of them. (BAHAHAHAH!!)

I had NO IDEA that they would write my name in his new shirts. I might have put it under his name then! It feels like I am sending him off to camp (you know, where the parents label every item of clothing). When I told him that, he said I was no longer allowed near any of his clothes. Poor guy!!! Seriously, what is he doing with me. He did offer to change his name instead of me having to do it, cause it does seem like the ink is pretty permanent.

Wedding Plans.

The Reverend and I registered on Friday at Bed Bath and Beyond and Macys. Let me first say, I had NO IDEA how long that takes. We spent a good 4 hours at Bed Bath and Beyond and then took a quick break and headed out to Macys. We are pretty much easy going when it comes to all this wedding stuff. I think the older you get the less you really care about this "perfect" wedding. Reality is - it is going to be 4 hours of our life and we'd rather use the money in other ways that are a little long lasting.

So, back to the registry marathon day (and other wedding choices). MAN-O-MAN are there SO MANY choices to be made, what color towels, what color flowers, what table linens, what kind of sheets, what color sheets, what type of dishes, which pans, which glasses,.. and the list goes on.. and on.. and on!!

Now those of you who know me, know that I am the outgoing personality with a little bit of a "get it done attitude" in there and The Reverend, well he is the complete opposite. Mr. Responsible with a lot of the "get it done attitude". It actually makes for a great balance in our relationship. When it comes to making choices though - both of us want to make sure that we have all the facts and make an educated choice. This whole "registry marathon day" felt like a lesson in making a choice and moving on. After four hours at Bed Bath and Beyond, I got in the car and start doubting whether or not that ONE item was really what I wanted. HAHAHA!! The Rev champed this out, encouraged me by saying we can always take it back IF we get it and in the end we didn't really change many of the choices we had made. I guess this is just the start of a lifetime of decisions that will need to be made.

Photo of the day: My sister and I at the beach for my Dad's Annual Beach & Bucket of Chicken Father's Day. Not sure why, but I LOVE this photo. It makes me laugh all the time.

MMMMM Food.

I have been blessed with women in my family who cook. My mom and grandmothers are AMAZING cooks. For a long time I thought this was a skill that had past me by. I am actually learning that it is years of experience and the ability to be teachable that made them so great!

So, mom recently had surgery on her Achilles tendon (because she tore it a year ago) and has been on recovery for about 2 months now. That means a lot, A LOT, of sitting around (something she is not so excited about). I will say, I have benefited from this because 1. she has been watching cooking shows non-stop and sharing the info with me, 2. I am getting married and NEED to know this now that I am going to be cooking more in my life and 3. I have been the one cooking dinners for a bit - meaning it's time to apply the skills.

In the process I have found that I have a love for food. Ok, now I knew this, but I didn't know I would enjoy actually making it. For many years I have loved baking, but within the last few months I have found that I love cooking. There are a few restrictions to this love seeing that it needs to have all of the following for me to really enjoy it, otherwise it feels like a chore and something I have to do. So here is my perfect cooking environment

1. A great recipe or something new I want to try. I have to cook off a recipe. I am not one of those people who can just "throw something together" and it is amazing. I wish I could, but I can't.
2. Learn a new technique or skill. This is the best part, because cooking is a learning experience.
3. All the ingredients or know how to substitute for missing ingredients.
4. The right tools. - this I have found extra interesting and there are some great list on what you need in a kitchen
5. Time to enjoy to process and not trying to meet a timeline. Lets face it, timelines create more stress.
6. Great music and a great beverage. This also adds to the "stress-free environment"
7. Family or friends present. Life is better with people to share things with. period.

So in the last few days here is the list of things that I have made:

Homemade Bread Pudding with a Whiskey Sauce (for my dad's birthday on saturday)

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon from The Art of French Cooking (It is easy and YUMMY!!!! was a big hit for my Grandmothers 90th birthday on sunday!)

Jacque's Pommes de Terre Mont d'Or (a mashed potato dish with Gruyere cheese - great for a day old mashed potatoes that you want to do something yummy with!)

Healthy Chicken Enchiladas (everything from scratch, except the tortillas, with lots of fresh veggies)

Buttermilk Cornbread (always good with a honey on top - especially local honey! Which for those of you interested, is good for building a resistance to allergies. Needs to be the honey from the same region you live in.)

Almond dipped in chocolate and Anise with chocolate chip Biscotti's. and the only photo I got was of the biscotti - here you go!

Clothes, Crafts, & Caillebotte.

So there are few things in life that really get my creative juices going, I am going to start sharing things that I find or remind me of beauty.

One is clothes, really cute vintage clothes. And now, I know that I don't dress like this, but at some point in my life I want to. Anthropologie is always a huge favorite of mine. I love EVERYTHING in that store. Recently I stumbled across Mod Cloth and well... they are awesome!! It took me a while to figure out their measurement system. I actually thought everything was made for "little people", but turns out they only measure one side of the garment to determine size. Once I got it and started looking around, well it was LOVE.

The other thing I stumbled upon as I was trying to figure out the whole wedding invitation design was The Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica. It looks amazing. So, one of these Saturdays I will be taking a trip out to see if it is actually good. Their website inspired me to start pulling out some of my sewing projects that have been sitting dormant for a while. One day. A dream of mine is to have a room in my home solely dedicated to sewing, glue, glitter, woodworking, buttons & ribbon, modge podge, and even a dark room in it. Of course this would be a room where anything creative goes....ahh to dream.

I leave you with one of my favorite paintings of Paris. I love Paris - it is one city in the world I could never get tired of visiting. and I love art. So there you go.
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877 Oil on canvas 212.2 x 276.2 cm
Gustave Caillebotte
French, 1848-1894



And of course for those of you really interested a little background:

Beginning in 1851, the government of Napoleon III transformed the old streets of Paris into a new system of grand boulevards. This painting abounds with evidence of the city’s rebuilding. Gustave Caillebotte selected a complex intersection near the Saint-Lazare train station for his subject, distorting the size of the buildings and the distance between them to create a wide-angle view that reflects the sweeping modernity of this capital city.

The artist’s family owned property in the busy neighborhood depicted here, which was populated by wealthy Parisians and workers of various sorts. In the foreground, a man and woman wearing fashionable clothes stroll down the sidewalk. Behind them stand the uniformly designed buildings that were added to Paris during the renovations overseen by French administrator Baron Haussmann.

The highly crafted surface, monumental size, geometric order, and elaborate perspective of Paris Street; Rainy Day (the artist used a gaslight to separate the foreground from the middle and distant views) are more academic than Impressionist in character. Caillebotte clearly intended these elements to underscore the power of painting to capture the momentary quality of everyday life. In this cropped composition, it is easy to imagine that in just a moment, everyone in the painting will have moved and nothing will be the same.

Cars & Money.

So, one of the things that Jason has mentioned he would like to change once we actually get married is my car. Now, I love this car. I have been the proud owner for almost 9 years. The best feature is that it's paid off. LOVE THAT! (For those of you interested, I FULLY subscribe to Dave Ramsey's idea on paying for cars you can check it out here.) Best of all my car is a convertible and, in so cal where it rains so little, makes for a great getting around town car. Especially when the air is so nice out. (for those of you who know the smell that comes with a convertible when it rains - that is my LEAST favorite part of this car)

Well, on Saturday, my little VW just decided to stop working as I crossed the intersection to our church. BUMMER. I was able to pull over to the side and call for help. While I was sitting there waiting for the tow-truck, I opened the glove compartment and it broke!!! HUGE Bummer. I think when one thing goes wrong on a car it just amplifies all the other little things. So there I am sitting and almost in tears because I feel like it is falling apart when I look down and notice a tear in my seat fabric. SERIOUSLY UGH, because not working wasn't enough. I used to think Jason was crazy for wanting to get rid of my little car, but I think I would have sold it to the first reasonable offer on Saturday. So, now I am patiently waiting to hear what is wrong, how much it will cost to fix and taking some time to "just look" at the cars available.