Eating healthy ain't cheap!

 

 Most of you know I believe in eating healthy. I love fresh fruit and veggies, and I am a strong believer in trying to stay away from processed foods. I follow the "grocery store perimeter" method of eating well, but unfortunately... it isn't cheap! And, coupons aren't usually available for fruits and veggies or basic dairy. I came home from the grocery store and told Michelle, "I think it'd be cheaper if we were fat, Michelle!" I mean think about it, fat free foods... cost more, fresh veggies... cost more than canned, organic dairy... costs more, gym membership ($$$$). It all adds up fast.

  

 I promise this isn't a blog post about a recipe. I just wanted to show you these tasty muffins I made tonight for the crew at work. (They disappeared so quickly last week I thought I'd treat everyone this week too!) I'm also working on my food photo abilities. I thought this one was pretty good... can you guess the two main ingredients?

I ate mine rather quickly! :)

  

And I was a little sad I only allowed myself one. :(

  

I scarfed mine down while watching Undercover Boss on CBS. If you haven't watched it yet... you should (well, not next week, I don't really care about the CEO of Churchill Downs). The premise is CEO's or Presidents go under cover in their nationwide franchises to learn what it's like to be a peon in their company, and where the flaws are in their company. So far I've seen Hooters, White Castle, and 7Eleven. Everytime I spend the last 10 minutes holding back tears when the CEO reveals himself to the people he worked with and helps them get further with their life or gives them a much needed promotion or vacation. Of course they always pick folks with stories that pull at your heart-strings. Check it out after you watch my old playmate Caite Upton on Amazing Race... she's actually doing pretty well!! 

Spring... I can see you glimmering in the distance!

Spring is so close I can almost taste it! If only it would hurry up! This weekend is just a tease I'm sure, but it's lovely. It was about 60 today, and sunny. So comfortable I opened the windows. I really wanted to go hiking, but I need a hiking buddy!

I saw buds on trees on our trip to Charlotte, and I couldn't resist pointing them out, because I'm so excited to see things beginning to grow and perk up. The snow has put a damper on so much growth up here, that I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see flowers this year. I should've taken a picture, but I didn't think about it at the time. I was too busy photographing our venues.

Last Monday I made blueberry muffins to send some to Clay's family for the funeral, but then I found out how much it was going to cost to ship it overnight to his family and I could just imagine him saying, "Sarah, that's too much!," so I brought the whole batch in to work, instead of the few I planned to take in. It was a good thing that I brought the whole batch, half wouldn't have been enough! Apparently everyone loved them. One person who doesn't regularly give compliments emailed saying they were "Fantastic!" Maybe I'll try to bring in muffins once every couple weeks. :)

Ok, ok... the photo's not mine, but I know you guys say a blog post isn't complete without a photo, and these look almost identical to the ones I made. MMMM, mmm, good.....

Want the recipe? Check out Marcy Goldman's book at your local library (how I originally discovered the recipe), or email me.

All in a day's work!

Whew! What a long day! My boss, Jeremy, and I did a speedy site-visit to Charlotte to 1) check out a venue for another event we've been tasked with at Annual Meeting and 2) let me see the convention center and the ballroom where my events will be taking place.

Ok, get ready to laugh... it involved me, Sarah Young, waking up at 3:15 am, yes, 3:15. Clay laughed SO hard when he heard I had to get up that early and said he'd kill for a picture to document the moment. I took pics at 3:15, but my eyes were so puffy they looked awful, so y'all have to settle for the, almost completely ready time. So, don't say I can't wake up that early!!! I've got proof! This one's from the bberry, so forgive the quality.

The new venue we were scouting is the Back Court in Time Warner Cable Arena. It's really sports-bar-ry, which will make for a pretty cool reception. Jeremy and I will both just be glad when it's planned!

Charlotte was a cooler city than I remembered. I liked it a lot! However, it has this "Light Rail" thing that Jeremy and I spent the day making fun of. It goes all of 11 stops, and I swear it covers only about 2 miles. It makes the WMATA look like Godzilla compared to Jane. It's ridiculous, but you've got to commend Charlotte for trying. Check it out...

So we left at 5:45 am, and I arrived home at 6:40 pm, which is significantly earlier than what we were scheduled to (9:04 pm). We spent a whopping 1.25 hours in meetings. Yeah, crazy huh?

Highlights of the day:

• The longest line at security I've ever seen in an airport, ridiculous.
• I was butterfingers, and dropped at least 6 different things, fortunately nothing broke.
• I sported a hard hat, eyewear, and a bright orange mesh vest for our "hard hat tour" of the ballroom. It was picture worthy, but I was behind the camera in the professional sense today. I wanted the catering managers hard hat... it was bedazzled. AWESOME!

But folks, after this day, I'm ready to sleep.