Tractors and Skeletons

Today was the most beautiful day of 2011 and I was so excited to be able to enjoy the weather.  I started of my Saturday with a piece of whole wheat toast slathered with almond butter and flax seeds, an orange, and a glass of organic milk.  I had an apple for a snack later in the morning.

After breakfast, I hit up garage sales which was fairly uneventful- I was looking for one item in particular and couldn't find it.  After going to garage sales, I met some friends at the University of Missouri Veterinary School's Annual Open House where we took a tractor ride to a huge arena full of farm animals.  After looking at all the animals, I honestly cannot decide which is cuter an alpaca or a baby goat.  I used to think hands down- baby goats are the cutest, but lately these furry white guys have been growing on me. 

 In addition to the plethora of animals, there was a room of skeletons, a tour of the equine hospital, and a dog show.  The dog show was really crowded so I didn't snap a picture, but check out this white tail deer skeleton!

After the open house, we went to Shakespeare's Pizza for lunch. For those of you not familiar with Columbia, Shakespeare's is THE pizza place.  It really has the best pizza in town.  It's also the most expensive, but you get what you pay for: deliciousness!  I split a 12" vegetarian pizza with my friend Diana.  As you can tell, it's loaded with red onion, black olives, green pepper, and mushrooms.  I had two pieces at the restaurant and thought I was done eating.  Ha!  The pizza smell drove me crazy on my drive home so naturally I had one of my leftover pieces right when I walked in the door.  This is my ONE remaining piece.... I call it "Tomorrow's lunch."

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard with the dogs just reading and talking on the phone. It was a perfect Saturday in April!

Pizza Ravioli

I impressed myself tonight by making dinner totally from scratch!  I made Jenna's pizza rolls, or at least followed her recipe.  Jenna's look like miniature rolls stuffed perfectly with sauce and cheese; mine ended up looking more like pizza ravioli. 

First, I made the dough. This was my first experience making dough, and it was a huge success!  Then I made the sauce.  I didn't measure any of the ingredients and left out the anchovy paste, Parmesan, and onion powder.    The sauce was good, but I wish I would have had the 30 minutes to let it sit and soak up all the flavors!

After rolling out the dough and stuffing it with sauteed yellow pepper and mushrooms and itty bitty pieces of pepperoni, I put the ravioli-looking pizza rolls in the oven.  15 minutes later- viola!

The pizza rolls were good, but next time, I will make the dough thinner and add more cheese.  Isn't that always the answer- more cheese?

Well, it's Sunday night, so let's take a look at the 'ol spring break to-do list! 

CHORES
*vacuum, dust, clean the whole house
*change filter in heater
*clear plants from around the air conditioner (this was easy since there weren't any!)
*organize and thoroughly clean hall closet
*grade a pile of papers
*go through the dozens magazines beneath the coffee table.... pull out stuff I want, recycle the rest This took forever

*find a spot for the coffee table
*research school board candidates for the April 5 election
 *clean bird cages One of my students asked for the lovebirds to be brought to school, so I thoroughly cleaned their cage.  It looks great, and I can't wait for the kids to see the birds tomorrow!
*clean and organize the garage This was a huge job.  My advice is to never, ever do this buy yourself!  Have a spouse or a friend help!
*hose off patio furniture and cushions
*go to the dentist (haven't been in almost 2 years!) 
*find a spot for my new rug Sure did!!!
*iron clothes
*iron curtains and add more clips to the top of them/decide if I want to keep them Returned them to Lowes.

FUN STUFF
*send gift and card to a friend (maybe that friend is you?!)
*buy materials for and help Kyle build a clothesline
*plant a garden It's not planted, but the raised beds are ready!
*visit HaHa Tonka State Park and Bridal Cave in Camdenton, MO
*hit up the outlet mall at the Lake of the Ozarks
*workout daily 6 out of 9 ain't bad!
*use a Barnes and Noble Groupon No problem there!
*shoe shop for Buster Bought him some shoes, but I'm not impressed.

Over all, I had a very productive spring break, but more importantly, I feel refreshed and ready to be an awesome, effective teacher until June 3!

Shoes for the Whole Family

Remember how shoe shopping for Buster was on my to-do list?  It's crossed off because I went shopping on Monday and found these booties!  Aren't they slimming?  I'll do a whole review of this product once I've taken my lil' guy on a long walk.

Even more exciting than Buster's booties are my new kicks!  After reading a Young House Love post about Sherry getting Reebok EasyTone sneakers, I secretly started wanting these shoes.  So I online shopped a bit and realized they were out of my price range.  There was no way I could justify spending $70+ on shoes I didn't actually need.  This is the part of my story where Marshalls swoops in an saves the day!

Last night when Kyle and I were at Marshalls, I found a selection of three different EasyTones for $39 a pair! SCORE!  That's the price I always pay for sneaks, so I quickly grabbed up these in pink.  Aren't they beautiful?  I wore them around all last night at home and was even tempted to sleep in them.   I resisted the temptation, but put them on first thing this morning and enjoyed a 40 minute walk on the treadmill.  After the walk, I noticed my leg muscles twitching with gladness.  I think the EasyTones did their job!   

After working out, I came home and got ready for my day by grabbing a lunch/snack.  Pomegranate Chobani, apple, and whole grain orange-craisin muffin.  DELISH!

A few hours and handfuls of pretzels later,  I sat down to a tasty bowl of Wolfgang Puck Chicken and Wild Rice soup.

Then Kyle came home and we set off on chilly walk at the park where Buster wore his booties.  The park we went to is a rehabilitated wetland so there was a lot of wildlife to enjoy.  We saw about 6 muskrats.  They are much uglier than I thought and have tails that look like snakes, but besides the muskrats, the walk was nice! 

Post walk, we put a Dominoes coupon to work.  Here's a picture of half my meal which was four slices of pineapple pizza and organic milk.  Yes, I feel like the person who orders two big macs and a diet coke.  I can't help it, whether I like it or not, I'm American.

What's your best Marshall's find?

Food Friday

Check out the food I ate today. Looking back on it, I wonder if I've eaten enough calories... Hmmmmm... I don't like to count those. Not going to start now!

Breakfast was 1/2 cup Stonyfield strawberry yogurt with 1/2 cup vanilla almond granola paired with some local watermelon. Delicious and it kept me full throughout the morning!


Time for lunch! Of course, I brought my own lunch to school. I always do... it just varies in quality. Today was a good one- baby carrots with organic red pepper hummus, Missouri watermelon, and a vanilla chip granola bar from Cascadian Farm (my favorite granola bar!!!). Unfortunately, I didn't get to that apple. Maybe later for a snack!

I was so hungry for dinner, but I veered away from my habit of snacking. Instead, I buckled down and cooked! If you've ever looked for an affordable organic pizza, you'll know how hard they are to find. Our main grocery store doesn't even carry one, so we have to make a special trip to buy a Full Circle Organic Cheese Pizza. I love getting the plain cheese pizza for a few reasons. 1. It's the right price point. 2. It's a blank canvas. You can put anything and everything on it! Tonight's pizza had Applegate Farms pepperoni, local bacon, local red pepper, one of my dad's shiitake mushrooms, and (drum roll please) a tomato from our garden! Probably one of our best combinations to date. Go me. I won't bore you with all the veggies in the salad, but I have to point out the tomatoes. A student gave them to me this morning. She grew them in her garden. She's getting an A.