Trina's tips

If something strange is going to happen, it will happen to me. Sooooo, today the hubs and I go to a local park to take in the tour of the house, which is decorated for the holidays. We arrived to the park around 4, parking our car across the park, and went on the tour at 4:30. We finished the tour at 5:15 and knew that the park was closing so we swiftly walked across the park to make our way to our car. We knew that building we had walked through when we first got there would be locked but usually there is a gate on the side of that the building to go through. It too was locked. Now I am in a panic as we make our way to yet another locked gate that was about a 5 minute walk from the first one. I figure that we need to jump the fence which is about 6 feet tall. Hubs gives me a boost but I, just having had a shoulder surgery, don't feel too steady to jump on over it. I tore my shirt, sweater, and have several scratches on my hand, stomach and arm. He made his way over and then I real...

I have been natural for about a year and a half now and I have been learning how to best handle my hair. I have naturally curly hair but it is very thick. I started getting relaxers when I was 9 years old because my mom did not know how to handle it. In high school and college I would sometime wear my hair in a wash and go style, showcasing my curls and waves. Back then I did not know better and would put mousse in it. Now I have a few thing that help me style and maintain my hair better. Here are the products and tools that are helpful to me. 1. Trader Joes Spa Nourish Conditioner. It is only $2.99 but this is a great product. It is really moisturizing and helps when I detangle my hair in the shower. 2. My wet detangling comb.A good comb is a must! 3. Pantene medium thick leave in condtioner followed by coconut oil to seal the moisture in. 4. John Freda Dream Curls to define and provide a slight hold for my curls. 5. A satin pillow case helps to save my hair. 6. A hair catcher for the...

Okay, I love my natural hair most days. But lately with only one good arm to style it with, it often resembles this.... It is hard to put it into protective styles while sleeping, so most night I just put on my satin bonnet and throw caution to the wind. I have to say the one thing I am most looking forward to is being able to style my hair once my shoulder has regained a regular range of motion.

Currently I am out of work, recovering from a shoulder surgery. I had a list of things that I wanted to accomplish during this time. I pictured myself getting my house sparkly clean, finishing up my wedding planner certification, trying new recipes and getting some reading done, all in the first week. Then reality hit. First of all, ouch! If I push myself too hard I feel the pain. I have to move about the house kinda slow in order to get things done. I still have 3 more weeks in the sling and then physical therapy to complete. I also come to the realization (again!) that I oftentimes lack follow through with tasks that I have deemed to be important. I write myself to do lists that go sadly neglected when Ellen or Oprah comes on. So, I will continue to rest and heal, with periodic bursts of semi-productivity. Hopefully this will still bring an outcome of achieved goals.

I am so frustrated with myself lately. I am a horrible procrastinator. I let things pile up on me and then I frantically rush to get them back to a manageable level. Unlike a lot of people, I do not believe that putting things off until the last minute makes me work better. I just can't seem to get it together though. Let me explain something about my job. Every Tuesday morning we have a staff meeting. This is also the time that our weekly paperwork is due. Without fail, I wait until at least 9:00 pm on Monday night to begin leisurely working on this paperwork. I mostly watch reruns of stuff, look at blogs, play Sorority Life and Farmville, or any other combination of complete time wasting activities. Sometimes I go to sleep for a few hours between 4 and 6 a.m. and then I get back up and finish whatever I have left. I go to my meeting seeing spots before my eyes because I have not had enough sleep or ANY sleep. Today is one of those no sleep days. Here is my synopsis of the random ...

*waves* Hi ya'll! It has been a while since I have updated this lil bloggy. Ummmm, let's see what has been going in in my lil corner of the world. I had a lovely week in Las Vegas (all except for the minor detail about me dislocating my shoulder). I have been feeling a wee bit burnt out with my job, but I do realize it is just the nature of the whole business. I am working on wrapping up my wedding and event planner certification. I am also planning some baby showers to get event design and coordination under my belt (feel free to send referrals my way!) I am excited that it is beginning to feel like autumn and I foresee many positive changes and transitions on the horizon as we finish up 2010.

I really need to snap out of my unhealthy sleeping pattern. Sleep late, stay up late, repeat. Ughhhhh! I am watching reruns of "Sex and the City" on demand. This is my go to show for when I am bored. I wish I had the extra money to pay someone to organize my little condo. That or I wish I could be on one of those shows on HGTV where someone does it for you. I am sooooo excited for our upcoming vacation to Las Vegas! It has been over a year since we have been anywhere for more than a weekend. I plan to unplug from Facebook games and too much internet. I can't lie though, I will probably tweet just a little bit during this time :-)

So a while back I made a list of 35 things that I wanted to do in 1001 days. Here is my progress.... 1. Pay off a minimum of 75% of my credit card debt. (I am very aggressively paying down debt. I think I have increased my debt repayment each month by about 300%) 2. Loose and keep off 25 lbs. (I am doing Weight Watchers again and on my way to this goal, aiming for September,2010) 3. Sell my condo. (This goal is for later in the 1001 days) 4. Move into a 5 bedroom house. (Ditto above) 5. Participate in a marathon, as a walker. (I just did a 5k today! Woo hoo!) 6. Grow my relaxer out and cut off my hair. (My relaxer is all out and my hair is growing back from last years cut. I recently colored it auburn) 7. Visit DC and see all the cool historical sites that I never take the time to see when I go. (Maybe this summer?) 8. Maintain regular visits with my girls. (I think I am seeing everyone pretty regularly considering all of the distractions) 9. Become an ESL teacher. (I am thinking of re...

I wish my tub looked like this! I am feeling a lil sickly right now. Allergies are kicking my a$$ but it's not in a "sneezy & watery eye" kinda way. Instead it's in a "feel run down and having off and on stopped up nose" kinda way. When I don't feel well I tend to want to soak in a nice hot bath. It is a magic cure for lots of ailments such as allergies, headaches, tummy aches, and "my hubby is stressing me out" aches. However, it never fails that as soon as I pull back the shower curtain, I notice that the tub is not something I want to put my bare booty on. So I commence to scrubbing it down with my Green Work shower cleaner and tub brush. Then the problem becomes that I worry how well I have rinsed my eco friendly tub cleaner out because I don't want to put my bare booty on that either. Then 95% of the time, I just take a shower instead.

I love bread! This is the easiest biscuit recipe and I make them several times a month. They have a slightly sweet taste to them. Yummmmmy! Easy Biscuits SERVES 12 Ingredients * 2 cups flour * 3 teaspoons baking powder * 2 tablespoons sugar * 1 teaspoon salt * 1/3 cup oil * 2/3 cup milk Directions Mix dry ingredients. Put oil in measuring cup and add milk. Do not stir. Add to dry ingredients. Mix lightly to moisten ingredients and knead one or two times to form ball. Drop biscuits onto pan. (I use an ice cream scoop) Bake on an ungreased pan at 475F for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

As I sit here eating my cranberry walnut chicken salad sandwich on Oat Nut bread (thanks Hilary !)= and waffle fry potato chips, I felt the need to blog. Why? I don't even know. Some random thoughts. D gave Andy (the dog) some beer the other day and made him drunk. He kept us up half the night howling and whining. He was rolling around on his pillow and was all lost and confused when I let him out to pee. He also peed on my living room floor which is something he never does. I saw Wicked the other night. It was great. I am a big Wizard of Oz fan and it was cool to see the back story of the witches. I also saw Rent a few weeks ago. A friend of mine from High School was playing the part of Benny (Taye Diggs played him in the movie). I am drinking water out of a mug right now. D thinks that is weird that I like to do that. I am very proud of one of the young ladies that I counsel. I have seen her grow and change. We went to parent/teacher conferences last night and her grades and beh...

Hey ya'll. I need to get better about updating this thing more often. So, lets see what has been happening lately... Things are going well at my job *knock on wood*. I managed to survive layoffs and I am coming up on my one year anniversary there this month. I am using my slow cooker to help me with making dinner a little more easily. I got a good cookbook from the library from Sandra Lee with all slow cooker recipes. I am not doing so well with changing my eating habits. But I have started working with a personal trainer so I am slowly developing a work out routine that works for me. I guess that's about it for now. TTFN!

So.... I am 8 months into wifedom and the major thing that I don't like about it is having to answer one question every afternoon from my husband "What's for dinner?" I love to cook but not when I have been working all evening and I am tired. As a single woman, dinner could be a bowl of cereal, cream of wheat, or a kids meal from Chick-fil-A. Now I have a meat-loving hubby who expects something every night. I try to cook 3-4 times a week and then have leftovers or takeout the rest of the week. The funny thing is, when I cook I don't even eat it. It's like knowing what the meat looked like raw just turns me off from the food. Tonight I threw together some chicken stir fry and brown rice and I all I ate of it was some mini corn I picked out the wok.

Here we are 2 days into the new year and I am thinking about my goals for this year. No resolutions. No promises of a whole new me. Truthfully, the only difference between this year and last year is 3 days. The turning of the calendar does not magically make anyone a new person. I have my ongoing goals of self-improvement that I keep in mind. This year my major goal is simple yet difficult: Utilize my time better. I waste gobs of time playing Farmville and Sorority Life on Facebook. I am not a very disciplined person so I play even when I have a deadline looming over my head for work. I am also a person who loves to sleep, therefore I have a difficult time waking up before 11:00 am unless I have something specific to do in the morning. Since I don't work traditional hours in an office setting, this is more often the case than not. So basically, I need to set myself up on a schedule no matter what the day. I don't expect an overnight change but I think it's realistic to deve...