May

So wow it's May! I sure hope it warms up sometime soon so we can enjoy spring weather.  Sorry, but I am just tired of being cold and having to wear a jacket wherever I go.... I guess thats better than a coat, right? I know soon I'll be wishing it was cold, cause believe it or not, I like being cold much better than being hot. Being hot is just exhausting.

So I really don't know what to catch you all up on other than I have a job that I enjoy, working for a property managment company. Yay, for working for the accounting department, and starting work for the leasing department today. Now I get to put money in the system, as well as enter things that need to be paid. Yay, I see a flow! :-) And it's job that has tangible work, like I get a stack, and then I make it disappear. So it feels good when all the stacks are off my desk. I figured out something too, I don't like chaos. Everything on my desk has to have a reason for being there, either its waiting on something so I can complete it, or its in a stack to be filed. There are NO useless unknown stacks, I can't function well if there are.

So you may be wondering if I am still working on research, and the shocking answer is yes, but still very slowly. However, I now see progress and light at the end of the tunnel. IRB training is done, I have the most of the limiting ingredient to my project, and now I just have to prepare for a committee meeting. Boo. This is when it would have been nice to not have my computer crash a while ago and lose the powerpoint that I had already done. Now I get to make a new one. New and possibly improved. So that is my next task.

My little herb plants are still very very little, and it looks like parsley is going to be the only one that makes it. Maybe basil, but we will see, I may have luck in killing it yet!

I finished the sewing project for my friend, now I want to get back to working on the quilt that I started.

Time management has got to be the key, if I want to get the work done that I need to, and have time for fun things. 

Ok well thats all I can think of for now, as I have got to go get things done. My apartment needs attention as does a powerpoint.

Hello March!

So it's March already, wow time sure does fly! They say March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a Lamb, well it's still a lion.....2-3 inches of snow later.  And it is just warm enough to where the snow is starting to melt and fall off the trees in blobs, so that they hit right in the center of your part. It's fabulous. You go to class with snow matted hair, then you come out and get blobs dropped on you. What could be better than this Missouri weather? Nothing. Absolutely nothing...except 75 degree weather and the beach.

I am starting to work on my research, getting frustrated at roadblocks and the fact that no one seems to be able to help with a simple question. But oh well such is the life of a research grad student right? I think its just time to sit down with info I do have and come up with the formula on my own. Then it will be trial and error, that is part of the whole shebang correct?

Usually I work best and get the most done, when I have very little time to do the required work, so I am working on filling up my time with a job, and possible volunteer work. Yay! Getting paid will be wonderful.

So I enjoy couponing in my free time, hehe, and saturday I had a great trip to walmart. As a rule, I dislike wal-mart and stay far far away, but now they actually pay you money out of the cash register, when you have a coupon thats of greater value then the item that you purchase. So slowly but surely you can make money couponing. It's funny seeing a negative balance at the cash register!\

Ok so for a recipe that I tried, well I did not actually use a recipe on this one, I made it up, but it was tasty!
2 links raw pork italian sausage, cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 med. onion, in chunks
1 bell pepper (I used green), bite sized pieces
1/2 white wine
1/2-1 cup swiss cheese
Black Pepper
and garlic powder to taste

In a large skillet ( yes Cara, a SKILLET!) brown the sausage until no longer pink. Add the onions and cook till slightly tender, at which point add the wine and bell pepper, and boil for several min to cook off alcohol. season with black pepper and garlic powder, and add in enough swiss cheese to make a creamy sauce, it should look kind of like a light brown gravy haha. At this point, add in cooked pasta (I used whole wheat rotini) and toss to coat. Yumm! Enjoy!

Also, I tried an apple french toast bake. It was tasty, but not something I would truly write home about. So my next thing will be to force myself to actually use a recipe instead of creating my own. Will this work?? haha I will try.

So ok, what have I left off? I did exercise 1 day a while back, that counts I think. haha I am close to finishing a sewing project for a friend, and I am back to reading my books.

That's all for now!

Welll......

I will confess I have not made anymore progress since Friday on either this blog or my research. But I am determined to change that. 

My goals for a week from today are to have completed the beginning stages of IRB approval, which is required when using human subjects for a research project. Also, to contact a source to find a formula for my product. I am trying to make a commercial product with an added health benefit. Nothing earth shattering, but hopefully another option for the growing number of health conscious people.

We (I include myself in this) get so caught up in how much everything costs, that we sometimes sacrifice our health for cheaper food.  Wouldn't it be great, if the healthier food was, the cheaper it was? But it is the opposite I am afraid, because it is so easy to make, preserve and keep processed food, as well as cheap to produce.

So my next goal is to switch back to eating less processed food, and back to actually cooking. To do this, I will need to make portions that I can easily eat before it goes bad, not a 9x13 pan of lasagna. Haha. And I can no longer claim the fact that I am too busy to cook, because I am not. So along with this goal, I am going to try to make 1 new recipe every 2 weeks. I have 16 cookbooks, it's time to use them. This will be fun!

Another goal is to finish reading the 3 books that I have started. One is due at the library on Monday, so I better get busy on that one. :-)

So that is all for right now, but hopefully I will be able to update with progress within the week.

1 more thing, my friend suggested that when she and I move in together we begin a blog about all the things we do. I whole-heartedly agree. Prepare to be blown away. HAHA :-)

New Day...

Welcome to my blog. :-) I decided I needed some motivation, and was encouraged by a friend to start a blog. I will be keeping track of my research and goals and hopefully this will motivate me to stay on track. 

I will set up a time line for when I want things completed for my research so that I can stay on target to graduate in December.  Once I get going on my research, I would like to write at least 1-2 pages a week on my thesis. So hopefully working 10 or so hours a week on my project.

I would also, like to start working out, and need to come up with a plan for that as well.

But this is a good start, since my computer is dying and I have no where to plug it in. :-)