Oh coffee...

Who would've ever thought? Who would've imagine that one day Kelly Ross would be a coffee lover?! NOT ME!

It scares me how much I love coffee... I think I went a little crazy at first. Once I discovered I liked it (VERY doctored up!) I drank it every morning AND before I went to bed?! It was like a dessert to me.. I know, weird.

Oh and don't worry mom... I have caught myself "sipping" my coffee like you do!!!!! "sip sip sip sip sip.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" AH!!!!!!!! LOL, this only really scares me b/c I would get onto my mom about it ALL THE TIME when I was little and now I'm doing it! :) Oh well!!

I've realized that when I drink coffee I DON'T want to chew gum after or brush my teeth (and yes folks I brush my teeth BEFORE my cup of joe in the morning), I actually LIKE having the taste of coffee in my mouth afterwards... I apologize for all of the people that have to deal with me in the morning!

I also realized I'm probably going to have to start using Crest white strips soon... I mean I literally SWISH the coffee around my mouth each sip and it COATS my teeth... EEECK! This can't be right!

Anyways I just wanted to share my new enjoyment in life with everyone :) I hope you enjoy your coffee a little bit more next time! And don't worry it's actually GOOD for you to have a cup a day! 1 cup people... not 10. (T.J.!) Just try not to SPILL it down your shirt on the way to work (like I did) or then the next day accidentally pour it inside of your shirt on the way to work (don't ask me how that happened b/c I'm still not quite sure...)

I'm still in the search for the perfect travel coffee mug though... I don't like the metal ones b/c I feel like I can actually "taste" the metal :( ew.

Our dinner

So my good friend Suzy inspired me- make a 2 week meal plan, grocery shop for it all at once and TA-DA! No annoying little grocery shopping trips that someone go from a $5 milk stop to a $45 grocery stop.

SOOOO I did it :) Um it wasn't fun spending almost $200 at the grocery store at one time but hey we will only need to make "quick trips" for milk, bread & eggs and in this house that is at LEAST once a week if not more b/c I am married to someone named T.J. Ross that eats about 1/2 a dozen eggs, 1/2 a loaf of bread, and drinks 1/2 a carton of milk in less then 2 days!

We are really buying almost ALL fruit, veggies & diary organic now. We really feel so much better about this and truly FEEL better doing it. It's disgusting how many chemicals are in/on your non-organic veggies. I think it's funny how my organic bell pepper is not very pretty, lumpy, etc. and the non-organic is 2 times bigger, brighter and so "perfect" looking- oh it's so deceiving!!! BTW not to go on a tangent or anything :) but bell peppers is one of the top 5 veggies that you DEFINITELY want to buy organic (as in bananas that really don't matter as much...)

SOOOO the point of this blog is to show you the wonderful ORGANIC meal I made tonight. Even the pasta was 100% whole wheat organic :) Now don't worry I didn't take this picture- I took it off the Pioneer Woman website but mine was almost identical!

Don't be intimidated... if I can make it.. you can too! There was a lot of cutting but really you don't have to do any "cooking" and so it wasn't bad at all. This recipe also makes SOOO MUCH so we will definitely have leftovers for days.

Please make it :) you will not be disappointed- afterall its the Pioneer Women's FAAVVVORITE SALLLAD EVVVVER! Oh and for the men out there- T.J. LOVED it! :)

HERE IS THE RECIPE

Miss me?

I haven't been in the "blogging world" in a couple of weeks- sorry guys! With starting a new job I realized pretty fast that my lazy computer days were over! I'm JUST NOW downloading pictures from NYC and usually I download pictures the day after a trip! I'm realizing that the laundry piles are getting higher, the floors a little dirtier and the furniture a little dustier with this new job! I decided that a question/answer blog will be a good way for me to let you know what is going on in the Ross household!

What is your new job?

I currently work at an optometrist office, I do all the front desk type stuff- I promise it's a lot harder than it sounds!

When does T.J. leave for the summer and how will you hold up?

Well if you didn't know already T.J.'s "job" here will be taking him to the Catskill mountains this summer. He'll be working on his project every day there- this is where he'll get all his "data" to work on the rest of the year when he's back at home with me. He'll be working with brown trout all day long! T.J. leaves sometime the end of May... he'll be gone for about 3 months and I don't even want to think about it still b/c it will be beyond hard for me!!!! I'm such a baby when I have to be by myself for one night! I'm sure I'll go see him at LEAST every other weekend... it is a 4 hour drive though and that is FAR! :( Sooo.. I'll hold up but I'm not gonna be happy about it! I'm sure I'll crash at our friends Jim and Suzy's house a couple times and I'll have people over all the time so I won't be so lonely! Wanna come vacation here for the summer? :) Plenty of room in our house!

What are some dates you or T.J. will be back in OKC?

T.J. will be home for a wedding one of the last weeks in April and I'll be home for about a week or so the beginning of June :) YAY!

Is Boy back?

Boy the kitty isn't back yet... we think something maybe "got him" outside.. and no I haven't fully dealt with this yet!

What are you doing for Easter?

You mean what DID we do for Easter? :) We had a GREAT time with friends! Our great friends Jim and Suzy decided to do a "couples weekend" of Easter festivities! There are a lot of couples our age out here that are all away from family as well so we started events Friday night all the way to late Sunday night! A couple things we did... s'mores, playing guitar around the campfire, greasy hole in the wall diner for breakfast, geo-caching (look it up if you don't know what it is! So fun!), picnicking, game night, Good Friday service, early Easter breakfast service at church and then to end it we did a huge pot luck with all our favorite "Easter food" then dyed eggs and hung out till about 9:30pm Sunday night- it was a busy weekend but definitely one of my favorite and not to mention the weather was AMAZING- I even got a little pink from the sun!!!

How is T.J.'s school coming along?

He's going hard! T.J. is by far the hardest worker and most dedicated person- trust me, he HATES working in an "office" and that's basically what he has to do every day... so even though he'll miss me this summer I know he's SO READY to do the FIELD WORK of this project. He never ceases to amaze me how much he can do for this project.

Are ya'll still eating well/working out?

We are! :) We are trying to do better about working out consistently but considering the weather is starting to get NICE we are out with the dogs a lot and soaking in some vitamin D! I've lost about 8-10 lbs since Jan. and have stayed at this weight for a couple weeks now and feel great! We just weren't watching what we were eating AT ALL before this year and with the changes we've made we feel so great! Loving this fresh organic food out here! Oh but trust me we still "cheat" too- or what fun would that be?! It's all about balance!!

Alright that's it for now.... love you all and miss you so much!!!!!!!!!

Off to get ready for a cook out tonight!

NY pictures!

Here are some pictures of when we went to NYC with Heather and Brock a couple of weeks ago, more are on my facebook page! :)
Holy M&Ms!!! Don't worry $12.99 a lb!!!! T.J. learned this the hard way as he thought his scale was in ounces and not lbs :)
Playing darts! :)
Live with Regis and Kelly!
Ground Zero
Famous little restaurant called "Serendipity"! So great!
How cool is this? Featured in the church across from ground zero.
Empire State Building
Best friends!
Just an awesome little cupcake place- oh don't worry only about 500+ calories a cupcake! :)
me and Heather in time square :)

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN- I miss them so much already.

Not Me! Monday

I wasn't running out the door to my new job when I spotted Ace patiently waiting to be pet by the door... I didn't put all my things down to pet him and coo at him for a couple minutes before leaving. I then couldn't have noticed that I split chocolate creamer on my cream sweater after putting Ace down.. I DEFINITELY did not SMELL the brown spot to make sure it was my creamer to then realize Ace had accidentally "dripped" poop down me while I was holding him. :) I didn't have to run around trying to find a WHOLE different outfit.. and the poop definitely didn't leak through to my skin. Ew. Sick.

I didn't wake up the other morning to realize I was sleeping on the bare mattress... this COULDN'T be because my husbands rips all the blankets off me to cocoon himself in them every night now could it? Come on T.J. taking the mattress sheet too is just low! :)

My car DIDN'T decide to just stop working... it wouldn't be sitting at my work right now for 5 days straight...

On that note my laptop couldn't have decided a better time to not turn on! :) Yay! That means no more skyping! (Sarcastic of course!)

Oh and I definitely have been shaving my legs every day when I take a shower! There is no way that I haven't shaved my legs in over 2 weeks to hear my husband say, "Won't you just shave them for me?" :) hehehehe okay okay, I will!

I didn't leave my lunch with my husband so we could eat lunch together to have him text me 20 minutes after I dropped him off at school telling me he had lab and I was on my own... so when I got my lunch somewhere else and grabbed a yogurt, apple and a cheese stick I DEFINITELY didn't forget to grab a spoon too.. and no... I DIDN'T "drink" my yogurt. And NO I didn't have to lean my car seat back all the way to "drink" a non-drinkable yogurt ;)

Most importantly my husband DID NOOOOT wake me up 15 minutes before church on Easter morning thinking this was enough time for me to shower and get "Easter ready"- also he wasn't showered and fully dressed himself... really?!

How is your Monday? :)

NYC

Back to reality!

Heather and Brock are gone :( we just got back from taking them to the airport just a little bit ago. I already miss them so much! We had SO MUCH FUN together. We spent our first 3 days in NYC and then drove back to Ithaca to show them our little town!

I thought initially Heather and Brock were going to want to stay in NYC LONGER then we did but they were just ready to leave that busy city as soon as we were! NYC is SO BUSY and fast and EXPENSIVE!!! We had a great time EATING and eating some more! We went to a comedy show one night that was pretty good, shopped, ate lots of food, went to ground zero, took lots of cab rides, saw the empire state building, went to a taping of Live with Regis and Kelly- and a lot more!

Our hotel was really nice! It was called The President Hotel in Times Square it had a lot of fun "president" decor and was modern and cool. We shared an awesome suite with Heather and Brock- fun times! We were LITERALLY right in Times Square so we had constant noise and people everywhere but it was fun (for just 2 nights!) we couldn't have stayed there any longer I don't think! Don't worry I "let loose" of my "eating habits" and gained like 3-4 lbs JUST in NYC! :) Back to my eating good again though!

We got back to Ithaca Friday evening and just sat down on the couch- watched 3 days of American Idol and bought a pizza :) it was great except I WAS SO SAD that my favorite singer, Alex Lambert was kicked off :( I don't even want to watch the show anymore- they should call it "popularity idol" b/c its obviously not about keeping the people with good voices anymore.

We showed Heather and Brock where T.J. works in Cornell, did a little shopping downtown, took them to a couple of our favorite restaurants, rented a couple movies, saw Shutter Island (SO GOOD- not scary!), and just HUNG OUT and had a great time with amazing friends. T.J. took Brock out to the woods a couple times with the dogs too and hopefully I can get some of the pictures Brock took b/c he got some AWESOME shots.

Troy got here to Ithaca on Sunday and he'll be here till Saturday- brother bonding time :) It makes it a little easier having him here even though Brock and Heather left b/c we aren't completely alone!

Say a little prayer for me tomorrow! I start my "new job" at the optometrist!

Ace face

I was awakened this morning by T.J. telling me Ace was hurt... THE LAST THING I WANT TO HEAR IN THE MORNING! :( But hey it did POP me right out of bed... maybe T.J. should start telling me horrible startling things every morning to get me up really fast! :) (okay KIDDING!)

Long story short Ace is fine! BUT he was very bloody! I'm not sure WHAT he got in a fight with last night but whatever it was I think punctured his little head in a couple places by his ear and it wouldn't quit bleeding until we cleaned it up. We put him in his cat crate for the morning just so he could rest and not irritate the wounds and start bleeding all over our house. This reminds me I need to go wipe down the bathroom a little more extensively b/c he was shaking blood EVERYWHERE.

P.S. Does the smell of blood not make you want to gag? That copper/metal smell was making my stomach turn this morning! Ew!!!!

Needless to say I'm thanking God that he is okay- we love our pets so much! I'm sure most of you know that Troop and Jade escaped for a day when the weather was horrible and after 5-6 hours of pure torture and me breaking down they finally made their way back home soaking wet and a little beat up- they had WAY too much fun running around all day. I think everyone was worried for our sanity if the dogs didn't make it back home- but they did! :) Love those guys.Thank you Lord for giving us sweet pets to love on and make our lives more enjoyable!!!!

and I love Boy our kitty too even though I didn't upload a picture of him ;)