Yearly Archives: 2011

Summer Weight Loss

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One thing I love about summer is the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies. Another thing I love is that without the bitter cold of winter, summer is a great time to exercise outdoors and get plenty of sunshine. With these two factors in mind, it seems that this time of year makes it easier to lose weight although some people still use diet pills to aid them.

Of course, summer is a time when people eat a lot more ice cream, so that popular dessert or treat needs to be eaten in moderation which is easier said than done for some people. Even with ice cream taken into consideration, summer is usually a time when it’s easier for people to lose weight.

Menu Plan Monday 7/25/11

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Summer is passing by so fast…too fast! School will be starting before we know it, I’ll be going back to teaching, and our son will be leaving to go back to college. Now, for this week, I have a taste for fish so salmon is on the menu:

Monday: Easy Herbed Grilled Salmon, corn, baby French green beans

Tuesday: Leftover salmon, squash medley with onions

Wednesday: Italian Chicken Pasta with HEB Marinara Sauce (recommended by daughter, Christi), salad

Thursday:   Homemade chicken noodle soup loaded with lots of fresh veggies

Friday: Pizza, salad

Weddings in Springfield, MO, @ The Mansion

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Springfield, Missouri, is in such a pretty area of the country, and the Chapel at The Mansion at Elfindale in Missouri is a very romantic setting for a Springfield wedding. The Chapel sits next to the European style B&B on lovely wooded property.
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The center aisle is a favorite for many brides. The aisle can be beautifully decorated to provide an elegant path for the bridal party.
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The magnificent flooring at the altar is imported marble which adds to the beauty of the occasion.
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The special events coordinators at The Mansion take care of the fine details to ensure a memorable wedding that is personalized and beautiful!  Here are some of the things they offer:

  • Minister
  • Wedding music
  • Brass candelabra
  • Marble columns
  • Video recording of the wedding
  • Reception room
  • Cake and punch
  • Buffet dinner
  • Sit-down dinner
  • Special tree-lined archway drive as seen below.  The lights on the archway are lit in the evenings from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

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The Mansion offers 13 suites for night lodgings for the honeymooners or their guests. A favorite suite is the tower suite which has a romantic ambiance to it.  Rooms are available for bridal showers as well.  For more photos, go to Weddings @ The Mansion at Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri.
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For more information, call 1-800-443-0237 to speak with one of their special events coordinators.

Using Olive Oil in Cooking & Beauty Products

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We are avid users of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil to be exact.  We cook with it, drizzle it on popcorn, and enjoy all the health benefits associated with using it.  I use butter if a main dish or vegetable recipe calls for it, but I usually try to add in some olive oil to counteract the saturated fat in the butter.

Some recipes need the butter taste to make them taste good, but I’ve  found adding in olive oil doesn’t detract from the flavor in most cases.  Depending on the recipe, I have completely omitted the butter at times and replaced it with EVOO which turned out great.   I haven’t tried this very much in baking desserts and am still experimenting in this area.

Olive oil is used for more than just cooking and has been for thousands of years.  It is used in skin care products such as olivella which supposedly makes the products have anti aging effects.  It is claimed that Cleopatra used olive oil on her skin as well as many women throughout ancient history.  There are moisturizers, soaps, shampoos and all types of products available which use this age old secret of  olive oil benefits.

 

 

Friendly Friday 7-22-11

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Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Please note – as of this week we’ve started having Friendly Friday begin at 8pm Central Thursday nights. This will give you early-to-bed people time to enter too!
.Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just get the InLinkz code and copy it directly into your post. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your family-friendly link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!
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Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers! We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select a blog at random and will feature a link and a write-up for that blog in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight one of those each week. Say hello to the lucky one for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):.

 

 

 

Brandi at Frugal Farmhouse lives in a small town in Idaho and, in the past three years, has changed her goals in life. Instead of wanting a fast-paced life, she is on a journey to live a simple, quiet, eco-friendly, frugal life. From her delicious recipes (complete with yummy pictures) to her frugal tips that help readers save money to craft projects that may or may not work to her efforts to waste less food, you’ll find yourself inspired to want to join in on her admirable quest to live the good life for less.
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Now that you know about this wonderful blog, it’s time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can get the InLinkz code to share Friendly Friday on your blog!

All three hostesses appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – be sure to leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Don’t forget – Friendly Friday now begins at 8pm Central on Thursday nights!
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Tungsten Wedding Rings

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When I heard about black tungsten rings, I wasn’t exactly sure what they were. After doing some research, I found that tungsten carbide is three times stiffer than steel, and it’s denser than steel or titanium.  The dark silver color can be buffed to a shiny, mirror-like image and makes handsome jewelry.  It is popular for rings, particularly a man’s tungsten carbide wedding band.

One thing to make sure is that the tungsten is cobalt free.  Apparently, if tungsten is used with a cobalt binder, it can mix with the oils in human skin and cause an unpleasant reaction.  The oils cause the cobalt to leach from the jewelry. That doesn’t sound very appealing to me! So, it’s very important to make sure tungsten rings are cobalt free.

One special thing is that engravable tungsten rings can be laser etched for a personalized design.  This etching should last the life of a ring, so it’s important to make sure a lifetime guarantee comes with the ring.

Anyone buying tungsten jewelry should make sure of three things, that it is cobalt free, that there is a lifetime guarantee, and that it’s not generic tungsten which might not fit comfortably!. Something as special as a wedding ring should definitely be comfortable and last a lifetime!

*Note: I was compensated monetarily for this article. However, the views and opinions are my own.

 

Weight Loss and Hormone Replacement Therapy

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So many women have to deal with the problem of Weight loss. It seems like once we reach the age of twenty then our metabolism changes. Add to that having babies and dealing with the added weight gain of each pregnancy, it’s an ongoing problem for the majority of our lives.

In the past, whenever I would gain five pounds or so during the holiday season which started with Thanksgiving and ended with the New Year, I could usually manage to get the weight off by eating healthier and going for walks several times a week. However, when I turned fifty, that didn’t work at all. In fact, I gained ten pounds during the holiday season and couldn’t lose the weight afterwards. Even six months later I still hadn’t lost the weight. When I visited my doctor during the summer for something else, she had me take a special hormone test and then put me on a natural compounded hormone after she received the results of the test. After just a couple of months on the hormone, I lost ten pounds without really trying to lose weight. Simply eating healthy and light exercising worked once again.

Many women nowadays choose hormone replacement therapy to help with a lot of problems caused by hormone imbalance.  This imbalance affects weight loss, fibromyalgia, headaches, anxiety, depression, and other health issues, probably more than we realize.  I think especially when many women reach their 30’s, they can start having problems with their monthly cycle due to hormone imbalances.  I can look back now and realize that some of the problems I had in my late 30’s were caused by this imbalance.  Having balanced hormones definitely make a difference with me.

Note: I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog for Chattanooga weight loss and Chattanooga hormone replacement therapy,  and I was compensated monetarily. However, the views and opinions are my own.

Corporate Travel & Meetings in Springfield, Missouri

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The Mansion at Elfindale, which looks like a charming European castle, is nestled in the trees.  Just a couple of blocks away are your normal everyday shopping and residential areas.  However, when you enter the property for this B&B, you feel like you’re out in the country,  yet you’re just a few minutes away from the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, the “Grandaddy of all Outdoor Stores”.  

If you’re looking for a get-a-way from the hustle and bustle of the city for your corporate meeting or corporate travel, but yet you like some of the amenities a city has to offer, The Mansion is just for you! Fully restored and renovated a little over 20 years ago, The Mansion is like stepping back in time only with the modern conveniences of today such as an air conditioning system that leaves the air smelling fresh, never musty like I imagine a castle smelling!  Here are some of the amenities of this historic and captivating bed and breakfast:

  • Highspeed Wireless Internet in all the rooms
  • Breakfast included in the price (ask about breakfast)
  • Higher level of privacy
  • Relaxed environment which helps people to be more creative
  • Competitive rates
  • Comforts of home & comfortable and quiet sleeping environment
  • Great place to focus on the work at hand without distractions
  • Safe area with higher level of security
  • Close to area attractions which fosters team building

  Whatever your corporate needs, whether you need small group space or a meeting room for a larger group, The Mansion at Elfindale can provide accommodations that will inspire creativity and planning sessions for your business.

Menu Plan Monday 7/18/11

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Hope everyone had a great weekend!  It’s so great having our son home from college for the summer.  His girlfriend came for the day on Saturday.  I fixed a big dish of lasagna, a salad, and homemade garlic breadsticks.  We had strawberries and frozen yogurt for dessert plus his girlfriend brought me some Pepperidge Farm Milano Milk Chocolate cookies.  Yummy!  I hadn’t had any of those cookies in a long time and forgot how delicious they are.  The great thing about the lasagna is that we can have leftovers Monday night!  Yay for leftovers!!

Monday:  Leftover lasagna, salad, breadsticks

Tuesday:  Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole, black beans, guacamole

Wednesday:  Leftover enchiladas and black beans

Thursday: Chicken fajitas and all the “fixings”

Friday: Chicken Teriyaki

CMS, Search Engine, & Marketing Tools

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I have been blogging for a little over four years now and have learned so much in those years.  I have a good content management system right now, but who knows what I’ll need in five years.  I must admit it’s great having family members who are tech savvy because they have helped me a lot.  But it may not always be convenient time-wise for them to help me in the future, and so a great CMS is something I’m glad to have.

What would be nice to have would be a site search engine to enable me to help visitors to my site find what they’re looking for on their first visit.  I feel like so many older posts get buried and most people don’t realize they’re on the site.  Seems like it would be efficient to have a complete index of my most relevant posts.

I would really like to have online marketing tools that would integrate data from various sources such as the web, social media, and mobile interactions.  I have some info, but it would be so much more effective to have more extensive data and to have it all integrated.

*Note: I was compensated monetarily for this article. However, the views and opinions are my own.

Winner of NOVICA Giveaway

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Congratulations goes to “katfam” who won the $35 gift code to Novica, a company that sells handmade items by talented artisans all over the world using Fair Trade practices.  The True Random Number Generator was used as a fair way of determining the winner to this giveaway.

Katfam, let me know if you get the Wisteria Garland Amethyst Bracelet and if so, how you like it.

Flushing Hairspray Down the Toilet and other Plumbing Problems

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One of the things I hate is having a toilet overflow and having the plumbing problems that go along with it.  Through the years, we have had that happen on varying occasions.  In fact, most people have had that problem at some time or another.

A few years ago, a friend told me of an experience with their daughter who was two or three at the time.  The little girl came into the living room and told them, “Pss pss go swimming!”  They didn’t understand what she meant so she repeated it, and then they followed her into the restroom.  She went over to the toilet and pointed to it.  Much to their dismay, for some reason she decided that the hairspray needed to go swimming and that she could flush it down the toilet.  Well, you can guess the outcome of that story and how a plumber was needed to fix the plumbing in the “swimming pool.”

We have had overflows three or more times when company was visiting.  It involved things like one person trying to flush two or three paper towels at once, another child flushing a fourth of a box of Charmin Wipes down the toilet and stopping it up big time, and another person flushing too much toilet paper at once.  You don’t have much control when company is visiting except to hide the wipes!  Then it’s time to look through the list of plumbers and call one ASAP!

*Note: I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated monetarily. However, the views and opinions are my own.