Books, Pups, and Stilettos

The Watermelon Diet

That comic cracked me up. There are definitely days when I feel like that.

Anyway, this watermelon diet, don't worry I am NOT trying it. I just heard about it from a woman at work. Her friend is going to eat nothing but watermelon for several days. After 5 days she has already lost 12 pounds. Now, that may seem impressive, but it just makes me shudder because of all that I have learned recently about nourishing my body. It makes me sad and a little bit pissed off at America in general when I hear about these crazy fad diets. Our culture is so impatient and demanding. We want everything right this minute, no, we want it done yesterday.
Just this morning, I witnessed a lady experience some serious road rage in the McDonald's drive thru! She was yelling and honking because the car in front of her wasn't moving fast enough. Then she pulled out with tires squealing! It was ridiculous. Sorry you had to wait 2 more minutes for your Egg McMuffin. Yikes.

Back to the diet.

Weight loss is work. It takes self-control and discipline and self-motivation. You can't simply eat watermelon for weeks and have a healthy, long-term weight loss. The minute this woman starts eating like a normal human being again she is going to pack back on the pounds because she has messed up her metabolism. I am constantly having this argument with Nana too. She is forever trying to most recent diet she saw on Oprah or read in the National Enquirer (those are some doozies). She always tells me that I need to try them too and I always tell her no. I am going to eat a calorie-controlled, well-balanced diet and be more physically active. That is absolutely the ONLY healthy way to lose weight and keep it off. It is about a lifestyle change, not one week of watermelon.

Is it easy?
NO.

I have been working on being more healthy (I won't say to lose weight, because that isn't the ultimate goal) and have a more active lifestyle since February. So four months.
I have lost 8 pounds. I have shed 3.5 inches off of my waist and 1 inch off of my hips. I feel awesome about that. Yes, it is taking a really long time. And yes, I still have a long way to go. I don't eat great every day. I fall off the wagon all of the time. But, I get back on. I lace up my shoes and go for a run. I choose yogurt over ice cream. I keep working. I am liking the results and people are starting to notice. I have had so many co-workers ask me if I am losing weight in the last week. I like to be able to say yes and am now even more motivated to keep on working towards my goals.

Let's re-visit "Fat Ashlea" and meet "Just Chubby Ashlea"

Ah yes - fat girl with ice cream. Judge away. :) (Summer 2010)

And now - I have to confess - I am cheating a little in this pic. Shape-wear rocks my world. Kelly Osborne would be proud. Still, though, a considerable difference.

Definite progress. Maybe, by this time next year, I can shop for a bikini, instead of tummy-controlling one pieces! A girl can dream!! :)

Anniversary Weekend Getaway

*Disclaimer: This will be a photo-heavy post!

This year Brandon and I celebrated two years of wedded bliss. :) I feel like the last 2 years have absolutely flown by because we have been so busy. To celebrate this year, we spent a long weekend in Galena, IL, a cute little historical town. Here are some pictures of our weekend. (Sorry there aren't too many actual photos of me and Brandon - we both felt like it was too hot and looked too gross to have much photographic evidence. lol)

We stayed at Anne Wiggen's B & B:

We ate at Procento's Pizza and went on a carriage ride Friday night:

Yummy Hawaiian Pizza :)

I was a little under-whelmed with the carriage ride, but it was a fun way to end the day. Saturday we went on a tour of Linmar Gardens, strolled around downtown, went to a lovely dinner, and then a ghost tour. Here is a smattering of pictures:

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter gardens

This was hilarious. They are Civil War actors and were checking out the car show downtown.

This is Galena High School

We had to run up these stairs to make it to the garden tour on time. I nearly died. There are 193 steps - or so our inn-keepers told us.

Bumblebee from the car show :)


I regret not taking pictures of every course of this meal. It was a-maz-ing. I was too busy eating until I got to dessert to remember to take pics :)

Ghost Tour: (This was my favorite part of the whole weekend! So much fun! I think this is the best way to get a historical tour of a town. It was great!)

President Grant's House (Along with our tour guide)

Looking for ghosts wandering the cemetery looking for their graves :)

It was such a pretty cemetery

We had a great weekend. Brandon really enjoyed the country scenery of the drive and trying to maximize our gas mileage with our new car. I think that we both came back feeling relaxed and refreshed. Our pups though, came back plain tired from spending the weekend with Nana and Papa.

3-for-1 Book Reviews

Now, you all know I had high hopes of posting a fabulous review of Cutting for Stone BEFORE we left on our anniversary weekend getaway... yeah that happened. :) I have actually chewed through 2 more books and am working on a 3rd since I finished Cutting for Stone. I love summer for reading - all of my shows are in re-run mode so I am not wasting any time sitting in front of my computer... well except for right now... and have been enjoying the warmer weather and reading away. So, instead of one long review on Cutting for Stone, you are getting 3 mini reviews on my most recent reads!

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others

That synopsis will probably end up being longer than my review. I could review this in three words actually: GO READ IT.
I LOVED this book. The characters are phenomenal, multi-dimensional, and relate-able. I felt like I was truly reading the story of someone's extraordinary life. I did get a little lost in some of the medical terminology at times, but I felt free to scan over it and didn't feel like I missed out on any of the story. My emotions were on a roller coaster through this book and I love a story that can evoke intense feelings from me. It was wonderful - really - go read it.

A mysterious stranger with a magic touch descends upon the small town of Antioch and the town is slowly divided by his seemingly supernatural presence in director Robby Henson's adaptation of Frank Peretti's best-selling novel. Despite the fact that he may have the power to heal, the charismatic stranger nevertheless radiates a strange aura of menace and malevolence. Some believe him to be the one true messiah, and others dismiss him as a false prophet sent to seduce the souls of the weak. When the events in the stranger's remote revival tent take a turn for the sinister, it's up to a fallen ex-minister to re-connect with his faith and reveal the suspicious stranger for what he really is.

Ah - Frank Peretti. I love this man's Christian fiction. I feel like his stories, even though they all follow a similar formula, really challenge me in my faith in different ways. This book was creepy, scary, and uplifting. I really enjoyed it. And, there is a DVD, which I just moved to the top spot on my Netflix list. It's probably going to be awful, but I enjoy seeing how books translate to the screen and I am excited to watch it.

A terrorist bombing. A rogue experiment. A community vanished. Who will save them now? In a series that blends the urgent action of the Left Behind books with the alluring weirdness of the television show Lost, this first book opens with a terrorist bombing that combines with a rogue underground experiment to rip a clovershaped section of the working-class city of Barcester loose from the world. Cut off from any hope of help, police sergeant Jason Logan fights to keep order and track the terrorist mastermind. But after a second bomb explodes, effectively sealing the displacement of the vanished area, he knows the nightmare is just beginning. As the mist from the bomb slowly clears, those inside the vanished community find themselves surrounded by a majestic wilderness that is both primitive and primal as the vanished community battles for survival against enemies they've always known and forces they've never imagined.

*Grumble* This was another Christian fiction book I picked up with high hopes. I would not have touched it if I had realized it was the beginning of a series, not because I wouldn't read them all, but because they aren't out yet. This is definitely a jr. high reading level and I flew through it. I have waaaaaaaay more questions than answers and I feel like I have read the first 1/3 of what would be a great novel. There was absolutely no resolution at all and this book cannot be a stand-alone. I was really irritated when I finished this book, mostly because I want to finish the story. There is some mysterious mist, a terrorist plot, no one responding, their town may be in another dimension? I was so confused. Wouldn't recommend this baby to anyone until they are all out

Kitchen Reveal (FINALLY)

The wait is over (that is assuming you were waiting on the edge of your seats for me to finally post these darn pics)!

You may recall that my kitchen was red. Rich tones of red, accented with some blacks and tans. I loved it - at my other apartment and for about a year here. There was a pre-painted red wall all ready for us when we moved in, no effort required! It was awesome. :) But, as they say, all good things come to an end. I started looking at my red wall with disdain rather than adoration. I felt like my kitchen was turning into a cave. I needed some lightness! Something bright and happy and sunshiney!
Well, meet Mr. Sunshine Teapot:

This darn little teapot, short and stout, was the whole inspiration for the kitchen. I bought this teapot months ago before I even had an inkling that I would actually change the kitchen. Crazy, I know, but I thought I would just save him for a couple years until we have a house and I could create a fun, bright, cheery kitchen then. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Well, little by little, the kitchen has been transformed into that fun, bright, cheery kitchen I envisioned having in a house in a few years. :) I do have to credit Nana with much of the creative direction and Papa with most, if not all, of the actual hard labor. :) Enjoy:

Papa made that cabinet out of some vintage doors - Nana thought it up and Papa built it. They rock!

This shows the first arrangement/display in the cabinet. This was Nana's doing while we were out of town.

This little cabinet is on its 4th life: 1. Microwave stand for Helen and Smokie. 2. TV Stand for college apt. 3. Microwave Stand for first married apt. 4. Doggy cupboard

New Canister set from Target

Those are some up-close shots of Nana's cabinet display. I was not 100% digging it. I don't think the white dishes are quite worthy of display and was not loving the yellow tissue paper in the glassware. I think it is a great idea, but not quite the feeling I was going for. So I re-did it and am still not in love with it (its a little sparse now) but it is a work in progress.