New Poll

Looks like most of you would like to have an invisible best friend over encounters with aliens.

My next poll is one Scott and I have been talking about lately. We're probably going to start to try to sell our home starting in April and we're wondering which would be better; to have a great home in an ok location or vice versa? Obviously to have both would be ideal but I doubt we can afford that so we'll probably have to sacrifice somewhere. At least we want to be prepared for whatever decision we have to make. So please vote, I'm eager to see what people think.

PB2

It pays to be assertive!! That's a Weight Watchers "Tool for Living" (being assertive). PB2 is powdered peanut butter. It's made of peanuts, sugar and salt. You can mix it with water to get spreadable peanut butter but it's best to be used in recipes (smoothies, cookies etc). It's WAY lower in calories than regular PB and tastes pretty good too. I'm loving this stuff.

Here's the "being assertive" part. PB2 is NOT easy to find. In fact (as far as I know), they don't carry it in any stores in Rochester, you can only get it online and you have to buy a case!! So if you don't have someone to share this stuff with you'd better find a place to store your new powdery goodness. I contacted HyVee (our local grocery store chain) and within weeks the South HyVee ordered it and it's on the shelves!! They even said they'd probably sample it in the spring! When I went to get it there was a sign and everything displaying the new product (in the health food section).

I have to say there's a certain satisfaction to knowing I had a hand in this. It certainly makes me appreciate the store even more. So it pays to be assertive...definitely never hurts to ask :)

For more information and recipes using PB2, go to http://www.bellplantation.com/

Happy Birthday Jay!

Happy Birthday to Jay, Scott's brother. Jay is exactly 1 month older than me...weird huh? He turned 27...there I announced it to the whole world. Or at least the 7 or so people that read this blog on a regular basis. Jay lives in central Illinois and owns his own roofing/siding company. He and his girlfriend Jennifer are mom and dad to our nephew Spence :) Hope you have a great day Jay...wish we could be there to celebrate with you.

Hopefully see you in a week!

Sneezing Panda

For those who haven't seen this video clip it's very short and hilarious. Watch it!

Happy Birthday Kristin!

Kristin is our first niece in the family and she turned 19 today :) She's going to college in St. Cloud, MN. We've really enjoyed getting to know Kristin over the last few years. My best memories with her include the trip to Chicago we took together with my sister and the nights she and Daniel spent at our house, usually around the holidays, where we would stay up late and eat lots of junk food. Kristin is one of the sweetest people you will meet and she's very easy to talk to. She's an aspiring beautician...she even cut my hair one Christmas in my kitchen and did a fabulous job.

Happy Birthday, Kristin, we love you!!!

Book Review: Into the Wild

So I recently finished Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This book was recommended to me by my sister. She loved the book and suggested that we read it, discuss it, then watch the movie together. I loved the idea!

The book is a true story about a single guy in his early 20's who decides to take on the wild in Alaska as a personal quest for inner strength and life. His goal is to rely on very little to survive and he wants to be as far away from human civilization as possible. He comes from a pretty normal family but he's incredibly stubborn and set in his ways. He also gets hung up on little things that seem to self-destruct him inside because he doesn't talk about them but just lets them stir and build within him. Some say he's completely crazy and depressed and has a death wish, some say his heart was in the right place, he just should've been more prepared (which in turn I guess makes him a little crazy anyway). I don't think he was completely crazy or had a death wish. I understand this thinking I think we all have it at some point in our life. We just want to get away, get back to a more simple way of living, provide for ourselves...etc. Think about the self-confidence you'd get through an experience like this. I mean every meal you'd feel proud of yourself. We definitely don't get that sense of pride by throwing a Lean Cuisine in the microwave. But I also know that we CAN try to live more simply while not being extreme about it like he was. So if anything, this book should motivate you to want to go on a personal quest and get out of your comfort zone a little while getting closer to nature. There's nothing wrong with this. In fact my sister now really wants to go to the Boundary Waters (northern MN) because of this book. Having been there a couple times, this is a great place to meet those needs.

Although I liked the book, I don't love how it was written. To me it was kind of all over the place and there was a lot of repeating and random people Chris met that I couldn't keep track of. I think it would've been better if maybe each chapter was about a different person in his life and if it went more chronological. All of a sudden in the middle of a book was a completely different story about the author. Although it was interesting it gave him credibility towards the story a little too late for me. I understand it's a hard book to write.

Here's a clip of the trailer for the movie Into the Wild:



Now I'm on to a completely different book...Conversations with the Fat Girl. This is more of a comical, realistic book for me. I relate to her thoughts and it's a fun read...not for everyone I know :)

No Roads or No Grass?

It was unanimous, turns out everyone would prefer a world with no roads.

New blog added to my list, check it out: Keeping up with the Jones