Day Twenty

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

I would love to go to Italy:

Vatican

Verona

Coliseum

Vittoriano

Trevi Fountain

Venice

amazing.

I actually have a friend living in Italy right now, I should just pack a bag and get on a plane, but I'm not that carefree to just pick up and go. I'd also like to go with Paul, or Sister. Someday though I will go, to all these places.

More adventures in the battle of the bulge

In my latest venture for fitness, I have made some realizations:

• I have an unhealthy relationship with food
• I eat when I am bored, and lately I've been bored A LOT
• I like to exercise but It's too cold to go outside and I get bored with my videos.
• I live a long 15ish mile drive to the gym
• I have a deep love for fast food burgers, but I have this under control and only indulge every few weeks, but this is a constant battle.
• Even if I were given a free membership I probably wouldn't go enough to loose weight.
• I like to cook and I am good at cooking healthy, it's portions that is my problem

So Paul and I have done a lot of talking, and I've been throwing around ideas, Weight Watchers, treadmills, ellipticals, gym memberships. Yesterday we decided on a treadmill and wen't to sears and I found one that was almost 45% off. So in 10 days I will be in my living room, in front of my own TV watching what I want and listening to my own music, running on my own treadmill.

Oh! and I got a kettle bell!

I've already played with it a few times and it's interesting, at first it doesn't feel like I'm working out at all, then all of the sudden after 15 or so reps I feel it. I like when I feel like I am accomplishing something.

Day Nineteen

Day 19 - A picture and a letter

Dear Winter,

I know when Paul and I discussed where we wanted to go for Recruiting duty I said I wanted mountains and seasons, I sort of missed you winter. But this is bananas. Negative one? Way too cold for winter, unless you are spending winter in the arctic circle. (I should mention a few weeks ago when it was negative fifteen.. That was just stupid, and mean.) I like you winter, I really do, but I don't know how much more of this I can take before I start to hibernate. Your bitter cold takes all my energy, I don't want to go outside because it's so damn cold. I don't even want to look outside, because my beautiful mountain landscape just looks painfully cold. Winter I am over you, It's time you go away now.

It's not you, it's me.

No wait, it is you.

Always,

Alana

Day Eighteen

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity

I know I am not the only one who is very insecure about my whole self. But I am working on it.

Fill in the blank Friday!

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab: The dogs and the cat. If they are already out I would grab my laptop and 2 hard drives.

2. A smell I really like is: Thanksgiving dinner cooking.

3. Something you might not know about me is that: I am an insomniac and without intervention I would not sleep at night.

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are: Google Reader, FOTF, Facebook, TMZ, Failblog and all the associated.

5. This weekend I will be: Going to a job interview tomorrow afternoon, and if it doesn't snow I am going to try to talk P into taking me to the lake in the mountains.

6. Nothing makes me happier than: snuggles with my fuzzy critters.

7. A bad habit I have is: I pick at my cuticles and my fingertips always hurt.

Day Seventeen

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

I saw something the other day that was amazingly breathtaking, I wanted to get a picture of it for todays post, but I havn't made it back to where I saw it. Maybe this weekend (cliffhanger!!!)

Moving to Montana from Japan in November has made a massive impact on my life. Talk about culture shock. Japan to Montana? crazy. Things are remarkably different here. I had gotten use to the simplicity of Japan. Living next to a best friend, Eating sushi several times a week, feeling safe. The biggest change has been the feeling of safety. Not that I think Montana is full of crazy thugs that want to rob me a steal my car, but my anxiety has gotten the best of me and I worry much more here than I did in Japan.

Culture shock is a good word for it. It's crazy to think that leaving from a country that I did not grow up in, and spent less than three years in and I came home to America and I had culture shock but I think I did. I really miss Japan, every day, but living in Montana has been an exciting adventure already, and I am sure it will continue to be until we leave.

Day Sixteen

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

Martha Stewart

Seriously, she can do anything, she cooks, cleans, entertains, she is superwoman!

I wish I could do half the things she can do. I'd like to have her cleaning and crafting abilities.

AMAZING PASTA!

AMAZING PASTA!

and apparently it's healthy!!!!

(unless you eat 2 servings like I did.....)

Adapted from this recipe here

(Not much left by the time I thought of taking a picture)

• 1/3 box of farfalle pasta
• 1/3 cup of crumbled feta cheese (I used fetta with herbs added)
• 1 big handfull of arugula
• 2 big handfulls of spinach
• cherry tomatos halved
• drizzle of olive oil
• kosher salt & pepper to taste

• Cook pasta as directed, do not discard water!
• while pasta is cooking wash your arugula, spinach and tomatoes.
• Take two colanders in one put the feta in the bottom and top with arugula and spinach, in the other colander add your halved tomatoes.
• drain a small amount of the water from the pasta over the salad colander
• drain the remaining water over the tomatoes (this will slightly blanch them)
• quickly add all to one bowl, drizzle with about 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
• generously add salt and pepper.
• stir and enjoy.

Noro Knitting

I totally am in love with the Noro Striped Scarf

Flickr shows some amazing scarves.

I love it, I really, really love it.

Hair

I want to change my hair again. I like changing my hair, it's fun.

Right now it's too short to do a bob, like i've been thinking.

I've always loved Victoria Beckham's hair. She was my inspiration the first time I cut it short.

link

I totally love Selma Blair's hair, and I am sort of thinking I want to do a more blunt bang.

I just love short hair.

link

link

link

link

Day Fifteen

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

I've done it before but I would LOVE to do it again.

Skydiving is an amazing experience.

Montana Landscape

When I thought of Montana, I thought of mountains, lots and lots of mountains. While there are quite a few mountains, there is a lot more to the landscape than just mountains. I took these pictures today on our drive home from Great Falls, which is about 80 miles north of the house. Great Falls is where the Air Force base is, as well as more shopping (old navy, Barnes & Noble) and better food (Fudruckers, On The Border and Sonic). Today our trip was for Old Navy because I am in desperate need of jeans due to PSC weight gain :( and we wanted to go to the commissary, and On The Border.

(click for larger image)

Day Thirteen & Fourteen

I missed a day sorry:

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Currently I luv Ke$ha

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

Paul Pants (and my fur kids)

also my parents and sis.

Something else I love

I love our bedroom. It's so fancy.

(the pillows on the bed are hard to see because they are in dark burgundy cases, I still need to get the shams that match the bedspread.)

Day Twelve

Day 12 - A picture of something you love
I love my fur babies:

Fill in the blank Friday

1. My favorite quote is... "A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."- Josh Billings

2. A bad habit I have is.... I am a super dooper procrastinator. I am also pretty damn lazy

3. The first time I felt like a "grown up" was... ... still waiting for this one.

4. Weekends are... pretty much the only time I see my husband

5. When I was a child I wished my name was... something that was easier to pronounce. I wen't through most of 7th grade being called lana (lah-nuh) because people just cannot pronounce Uh-La(as in land)-Uh.

6. I wish... I could rewind to May and have Paul's request to stay in Oki be approved and the orders for RD vanish.

7. A secret I have is... if I told you it wouldn't be a secret!

Three Posts in one day!

I'm really proud of my accomplishments today, And I feel the need to talk about it.

The first half of my day was wasted waiting for the United movers to come and pick up the empty boxes from the last delivery, finally they showed up and I was able to start my day... at 2pm. I pulled myself together, put on a cute outfit and took off with a 10 resume's and 2 applications to drop off.

So Pretty:

My stops:

• Petco
• Fish & Wildlife
• Century 21
• Northwestern Propane
• some Civil Engineering building
• Chicago Title
• Blue Cross & Blue Shield
• Helena IR (the local newspaper)
• Hastings (movie, book and cd store)
• Office Depot

I just drove down the road and stopped at places that looked like a business that would have more than one admin person, or places that I was familiar with (i.e. realestate)

Tomorrow there are a few more places I want to track down and put my name out there. I also have apps for Sally Beauty and Joanne Fabric I need to turn in, neither of which are hiring but I want to put them out anyway.

It was actually a lot of fun, I enjoyed walking around and just talking to people. I am looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, I think I will double my goal and leave with 20 resumes, maybe.

Hastings was the only place that really talked to me about hours and such, they are looking for someone that will work weekends, and the cool thing about that is it would free up my week to try to get a volunteer job with the parks service or somewhere else.

I found a really cool volunteer opportunity to feed orphaned baby bears, which would be awesome. But I think it's a Yellowstone, which is many many hours away and I can't drive 3 hrs a day to feed bears for 5 hours and drive home.

But most Park Service entry level jobs are volunteer, the people who sit at the ranger stations, and enterances to parks and give you info and tell your kids how to not start forrest fires? most of them are just volunteers. You gotta start at the bottom, for free. But I think I can use those volunteer hours as college credits towards my EM degree.

Sriracha Breakfast!

Just about every day M-F my breakfast looks like this:

Two eggs, rice and a shit ton of Sriracha (rooster) sauce. I freggin love it. A friend in Okinawa mentioned it on facebook one day many months ago and I've become addicted to it. It's real easy.

• two eggs
• one serving of rice
• sriracha to taste (I use way more than pictured)

Monday I usually pull out the rice cooker and make enough rice for the week. Then I divide them into single servings, It'll microwave once and still be good, if you microwave it twice (like microwave leftovers that you microwaved the day before) it'll turn into glue and be nasty.

Then each day I fry up two (or one) eggs and toss it on top, cover in sriracha and mixup.

Today I was surprised with one of my two eggs being a twin. You can see that one egg is a double yolk. Pretty cool huh? Mom says that's good luck. Today was a good day so I suppose she was right.

Day Eleven

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

Dishes, I loathe doing dishes.

Day Ten

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the craziest things with

The hardest part about this post was choosing a picture. Hands down, craziest things have been done with this girl. She was there for much debauchery and bananas craziness.

I miss you C and we'll have crazy times again someday.

Turkey and Zucchini Green Chili

( I have several recipes waiting in the wings, I've just been too busy to type them up, I'll try to do a few this week because they are super good)

This is an adaptation from the recipe posted at Closet Cooking.

Ingredients:
enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of your pan
1 onion (diced)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon cumin (toasted and ground)
1/2 pound turkey (or chicken) fully cooked and shredded *(see below)
1 48 oz box of low sodium chicken stock
2 cups salsa verde** (see below)
1 can white kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
2 teaspoon oregano
2 jalapeno peppers (or to taste, diced)
1 teaspoon of each salt and pepper
1 large (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 small can of sweet corn
1 handful cilantro (chopped)

* I used leftover turkey from a whole turkey I had cooked, I am not sure of the exact amount, but it was enough after shredded to fill about 1 and 1/2 regular sized cereal bowls.

**See Salsa Verde Recipe Here @ Closet Cooking - When I made the recipe it only produced about 1 1/2 cups of salsa verde so you may want to double it and enjoy the leftover with chips. You can also use canned salsa verde.

Directions:

• heat oil in a thick pan (I used a thick 12 inch frying pan, but I think a thick soup pot would have been easier)
• add onion and saute over medium heat for about 10 min
• add garlic and continue cooking for another minute or two, add more oil if needed
• add turkey, cumin, chicken stock, salsa, beans, oregano, jalapeno, salt and pepper
• bring to a simmer and allow to simmer covered for 15-20 min, you may add more stock if you want a more soupy chili
• add zucchini and corn and cook for 10 more minutes
• add cilantro and your chili is done!
• serve with sour creme if you like.

my recipe produces a more soupy chili, you may want to slightly reduce initial stock amount in the beginning and add more if needed.

I'm so excited!

My mom and I were on the phone tonight, while I was trying to make my dinner. And we were discussing how we often change our recipes to our liking, or we even make our own up. Mom suggested that we create our own cookbook, and pass around a digital copy between us; Mom, me and sister (mom decided to include gramma's prime rib). I am so excited, I get to be in charge and put it together! Woo! I decided to put sister in charge of baked goods when I called her and she informed me that while making dinner she had set off the fire alarm 4 times.

Day Nine

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

I don't like today. I am a loaner and when I have a problem I shut people out. It's really not the best decision, but it's just how I work. I don't like receiving help from people, I like to do things and accomplish things on my own. about 9 years ago I went through some not so good times, I made lots of stupid decisions in a very short time. Instead of asking for help when things started to get out of control I just shut down and shut people out. I lost several friendships, possibly some were for the better, and I came out of the dark on my own. I don't really like to talk about it because I don't like the picture it paints of me.

Besides my selfishness and inability to ask for help, I would say my mom has always been there. I think she has helped me through lots of shitty stuff, emotionally and financially, which is more than I deserved many times.

Day Eight

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Every time I see Mr. Bubble I get the giggles.

While my dad was visiting me in Okinawa on his first day he went to take a shower. He asked which bottle of the extensive bottle collection in my shower was the shampoo. My mom said it was the pink one. We found out the next day that my dad had grabbed this pink bottle. He obviously can't see very well without his glasses.