You're Not Special

I recently came upon this high school commencement speech that I had to share.  This is the most well written speech and probably the most truthful speech a person could give to high school graduates.   I'm not sharing this because my reader base is high school students, but because this is something we can all relate to, identify with, and learn from.

Click here to watch the video if you like to watch and listen/hear the laughs.

Here is the speech.  Enjoy:

Dr. Wong, Dr. Keough, Mrs. Novogroski, Ms. Curran, members of the board of education, family and friends of the graduates, ladies and gentlemen of the Wellesley High School class of 2012, for the privilege of speaking to you this afternoon, I am honored and grateful.  Thank you.

            So here we are… commencement… life’s great forward-looking ceremony.  (And don’t say, “What about weddings?”  Weddings are one-sided and insufficiently effective.  Weddings are bride-centric pageantry.  Other than conceding to a list of unreasonable demands, the groom just stands there.  No stately, hey-everybody-look-at-me procession.  No being given away.  No identity-changing pronouncement.  And can you imagine a television show dedicated to watching guys try on tuxedos?  Their fathers sitting there misty-eyed with joy and disbelief, their brothers lurking in the corner muttering with envy.  Left to men, weddings would be, after limits-testing procrastination, spontaneous, almost inadvertent… during halftime… on the way to the refrigerator.  And then there’s the frequency of failure: statistics tell us half of you will get divorced.  A winning percentage like that’ll get you last place in the American League East.  The Baltimore Orioles do better than weddings.)

            But this ceremony… commencement… a commencement works every time.  From this day forward… truly… in sickness and in health, through financial fiascos, through midlife crises and passably attractive sales reps at trade shows in Cincinnati, through diminishing tolerance for annoyingness, through every difference, irreconcilable and otherwise, you will stay forever graduated from high school, you and your diploma as one, ‘til death do you part.

            No, commencement is life’s great ceremonial beginning, with its own attendant and highly appropriate symbolism.  Fitting, for example, for this auspicious rite of passage, is where we find ourselves this afternoon, the venue.  Normally, I avoid clichés like the plague, wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole, but here we are on a literal level playing field.  That matters.  That says something.  And your ceremonial costume… shapeless, uniform, one-size-fits-all.  Whether male or female, tall or short, scholar or slacker, spray-tanned prom queen or intergalactic X-Box assassin, each of you is dressed, you’ll notice, exactly the same.  And your diploma… but for your name, exactly the same.

            All of this is as it should be, because none of you is special.

            You are not special.  You are not exceptional.

            Contrary to what your u9 soccer trophy suggests, your glowing seventh grade report card, despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you… you’re nothing special. 

            Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped.  Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again.  You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored.  You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie.  Yes, you have.  And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs.  Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet.  Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman! And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building…

            But do not get the idea you’re anything special.  Because you’re not.

            The empirical evidence is everywhere, numbers even an English teacher can’t ignore.  Newton, Natick, Nee… I am allowed to say Needham, yes? …that has to be two thousand high school graduates right there, give or take, and that’s just the neighborhood Ns.  Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools.  That’s 37,000 valedictorians… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos… 340,000 swaggering jocks… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs.  But why limit ourselves to high school?  After all, you’re leaving it.  So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you.  Imagine standing somewhere over there on Washington Street on Marathon Monday and watching sixty-eight hundred yous go running by.  And consider for a moment the bigger picture: your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system, your solar system is not the center of its galaxy, your galaxy is not the center of the universe.  In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it.  Neither can Donald Trump… which someone should tell him… although that hair is quite a phenomenon.

            “But, Dave,” you cry, “Walt Whitman tells me I’m my own version of perfection!  Epictetus tells me I have the spark of Zeus!”  And I don’t disagree.  So that makes 6.8 billion examples of perfection, 6.8 billion sparks of Zeus.  You see, if everyone is special, then no one is.  If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.  In our unspoken but not so subtle Darwinian competition with one another–which springs, I think, from our fear of our own insignificance, a subset of our dread of mortality — we have of late, we Americans, to our detriment, come to love accolades more than genuine achievement.  We have come to see them as the point — and we’re happy to compromise standards, or ignore reality, if we suspect that’s the quickest way, or only way, to have something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on the social totem pole.  No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it…  Now it’s “So what does this get me?”  As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of Guatemalans.  It’s an epidemic — and in its way, not even dear old Wellesley High is immune… one of the best of the 37,000 nationwide, Wellesley High School… where good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C, and the midlevel curriculum is called Advanced College Placement.  And I hope you caught me when I said “one of the best.”  I said “one of the best” so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can bask in a little easy distinction, however vague and unverifiable, and count ourselves among the elite, whoever they might be, and enjoy a perceived leg up on the perceived competition.  But the phrase defies logic.  By definition there can be only one best.  You’re it or you’re not.

            If you’ve learned anything in your years here I hope it’s that education should be for, rather than material advantage, the exhilaration of learning.  You’ve learned, too, I hope, as Sophocles assured us, that wisdom is the chief element of happiness.  (Second is ice cream…  just an fyi)  I also hope you’ve learned enough to recognize how little you know… how little you know now… at the moment… for today is just the beginning.  It’s where you go from here that matters.

            As you commence, then, and before you scatter to the winds, I urge you to do whatever you do for no reason other than you love it and believe in its importance.  Don’t bother with work you don’t believe in any more than you would a spouse you’re not crazy about, lest you too find yourself on the wrong side of a Baltimore Orioles comparison.  Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction.  Be worthy of your advantages.  And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect.  Read as a nourishing staple of life.  Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it.  Dream big.  Work hard.  Think for yourself.  Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might.  And do so, please, with a sense of urgency, for every tick of the clock subtracts from fewer and fewer; and as surely as there are commencements there are cessations, and you’ll be in no condition to enjoy the ceremony attendant to that eventuality no matter how delightful the afternoon.

            The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement, not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer.  You’ll note the founding fathers took pains to secure your inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness–quite an active verb, “pursuit”–which leaves, I should think, little time for lying around watching parrots rollerskate on Youtube.  The first President Roosevelt, the old rough rider, advocated the strenuous life.  Mr. Thoreau wanted to drive life into a corner, to live deep and suck out all the marrow.  The poet Mary Oliver tells us to row, row into the swirl and roil.  Locally, someone… I forget who… from time to time encourages young scholars to carpe the heck out of the diem.  The point is the same: get busy, have at it.  Don’t wait for inspiration or passion to find you.  Get up, get out, explore, find it yourself, and grab hold with both hands.  (Now, before you dash off and get your YOLO tattoo, let me point out the illogic of that trendy little expression–because you can and should live not merely once, but every day of your life.  Rather than You Only Live Once, it should be You Live Only Once… but because YLOO doesn’t have the same ring, we shrug and decide it doesn’t matter.)

            None of this day-seizing, though, this YLOOing, should be interpreted as license for self-indulgence.  Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct.  It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things.  Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view.  Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.  Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly.  Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them.  And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself.  The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special.

            Because everyone is.

            Congratulations.  Good luck.  Make for yourselves, please, for your sake and for ours, extraordinary lives.

 Source from here at Fox News Nation.

3 Whole Years

We have officially spent 3 years in our home.  Three years seems like such a long time some days, but it seems like it should be 10 years other days.  We have done more to our house in three years than some people have to do in 20.  Some out of pure function, some of taste, and some of necessity.

The first thing we changed out the day we moved in were the appliances.  An immediate update we found to be necessary out of pure taste for us.  We were getting a bunch of things from Nebraska Furniture Mart, so why not add to it?  We found great deals on all and it was definitely worth it.

We got a new shed for the backyard.  Not much to say about that but it was a nice expansion to have for our mower and other tools that crowded our garage.

Around September/October 2010, insurance agents were going around the neighborhoods assessing hail damage and it was something we qualified for with our carrier.  We chose 123 Exteriors to do the job and we got a whole new roof, new siding, new trim, and new gutters.  A complete outside makeover.  I was never a huge fan of the outside color of our house cause it was a bit light for my taste, so it was the perfect opportunity to choose the color we liked the best since they didn't have that same color we had already in stock.  SHOOT.  Our entire block got new roofs.  And most of the houses got all new siding.  A lot of homes chose a different color for their siding too, so the whole block looks different than it did 2 years ago.  Pretty fun summer to watch all the transformations.

 While all the outside craziness was going on, we thought it would be fun to finish our basement.  We had about a week or so of overlap with the outside and inside guys at our house all day.  And I'm pretty sure nothing was stolen.  The outside was done and it took 6 weeks for R.D. Schuller Construction to finish the basement.  And they did an amazing job.  There was literally nothing there but the stairs so they had to start with a blank slate. They were rated Best of Omaha and we were very impressed with what they had to offer.  We would recommend them highly.

In the fall of 2011, we had a gas leak in our air conditioner which required immediate replacement of our air conditioning and heating unit.  We added on a heat pump and humidifier to the house along with it.  This was something we had not planned on and having only one salary at the time was pretty difficult for us but we made it through.  No pics of that excitement, sorry. Haha.

I also redid the bathroom along with many other tiny projects throughout the house (such as spray painting and knob upgrades, outside hardscaping, etc.) .

So, in a nutshell, lots of stuff going on in the hizz house.  We have another exciting thing being added to the kitchen (that Scott got me as a Mother's Day gift) that I can't wait to talk about when it gets installed.  How were we able to do all this financially and not be swimming in large amounts of debt?  Well, at the time we moved in, we both had jobs and pretty much my whole paycheck went into savings.  We rarely go anywhere and we buy maybe 1-2 things clothing wise every year.  Not kidding.  Fashion and clothes are something that means absolutely nothing to us so don't be surprised if you ever see me in a volleyball camp shirt from 1999 cause I do still own one and I do wear it.  Most of the clothes I own are from high school.  After baby, things didn't fit as well but I stay at home all day so t-shirts suffice enough.  Any other new clothing for us probably comes in the form as gifts at Christmas or birthdays.  Our splurges are going out to eat and once in a while buying a gadget here and there from Woot or if there is a good deal somewhere.  We have certain financial priorities that allowed us to pay for the new A/C and heating unit when the emergency struck us.

We have enjoyed all of the new improvements that our house undertook whether it have been out of qualification, fun upgrades, or emergency situations.  You never know how long you might be in your house, but you can sure have fun with it while you are there.

Titanic: 100 Years Later

I have always been a fan of history- some aspects of it more than others.  I love the history of Europe and of our country.  It is fascinating to see where we have come from and how it has affected our lives today.  One aspect of history in particular that I have had a fascination with since elementary school was of the Titanic.  We were doing a family history project at the time and it was then that I found out about our family's connection to the Titanic.

My Great-Grandmother on my mom's side, Helen Sjolander,  (maiden name) was born in Omaha, NE, but her parents were immigrants from Osby, Sweden.  When she was three years old, her family moved back to Osby until she was 17 years old, where she decided to return to Omaha to visit her birthplace.  She lived with her cousin and worked as a maid while she was here and her sweetheart from Sweden was going to follow her to America so that they could be married.  Her sweetheart never arrived to the United States though.  He went down with the Titanic on April 15, 1912.

Since then, our family has tried to figure out the name of this gentleman.  One thing they did know was that he was a third class passenger.  The man that my mom and her family believe him to be is a man by the name of Paul Edvin Andreasson.  He was from Sweden and was 20 years old at the time.  According to my research on him though, his destination was Chicago to see his brother.  How accurate that information was, I don't know and he might have also had a brother he was coming to see as well.  I was researching Titanic passengers from Osby, Sweden, and the only one that came up was a man by the name of Olaf Svensson (Svensen).  He was 24 years old, a farmer, and his destination was unknown.  My mom said it wouldn't be unusual back then for someone to have a boyfriend 7 years older.  When my mom asked her brother again though, he was pretty certain their Aunt Ruthie (Helen's daughter and my Grandma's sister) said his name was Paul Andreasson.  So, the mystery probably has been solved. 

I have a few books on the Titanic and have found Paul's name under Third Class Passengers boarding at Southampton, England on April 10, 1912.  His body was never recovered or identified like so many of the passengers.

Last Sunday, they had a 2- hour documentary on the history channel documenting their latest trip down to see the Titanic in 2010 and it was absolutely fascinating.  They now have 3D images as well as images of the entire mapped out wreck site.  It was something that has never been done before.  The ship was first discovered on the ocean floor in the summer of 1985 by Dr. Robert Ballard.  It's amazing that it took 73 years for someone to discover it and that we had the technology to see it.  It gives me chills when they show footage of them first discovering it, first seeing the boilers and other parts of the ship.  Goosebumps.  How absolutely amazing would that be.  It is haunting to see the remains of such a terrible tragedy, but incredibly fascinating that we are able to recover something from a point in time that was so historic and so long ago.

Here is a video of the footage from September 1985:

And video footage from their trip back in 2004:

My Great-Grandma ended up getting married later that year to my Great-Grandpa, Warner Almquist. My Great-Grandparents, Warner and Helen died in 1973 and 1975 respectively, well before I was even born.  I would have loved to talk to Helen about her life and her sweetheart to learn more about that time, but unfortunately I never had the opportunity.  It is so important to document stories of those who have gone before us.  It not only tells us a lot about them, but about us as a family.  I can't wait to go to Sweden one day to see family that still lives there on my Dad's side and to see where both sides of my family came from.  It's also pretty cool to live in the same city my Great-Grandma was born in and the same city her family lived in when they first came over to America.

I could go on and on about the Titanic and about things I've read, exhibits I've been to, movies and documentaries I've watched on it.  It is one of the things that will never get old with me.

The Accountant's Wife's Lament

Ok, lament might be a bit on the dramatic side, but just go with me here. It is tax season. Don't get me wrong, we feel blessed that Scott has a job that he loves and his job has allowed me to do what I love- stay at home with Nolan. That said, tax season is about as awesome as checking to see if your child has a poopy diaper, having them jerk, and finding your fingers covered in it. It's crap.

Scott gets up around 4:00 AM some days and doesn't get home until 10:00 PM at night. 7 days a week. Weekends don't exist in this house, it just keeps on going. Last week, he would have gone 4 full days in a row of not seeing Nolan awake if it not had been that the first of those four days we ventured down to the Old Market to have lunch with him. He has gone plenty of days since January without seeing him, just not that many in a row. Thankfully we have FaceTime that we do on those days before Nolan goes to bed. Yes, it is extremely exhausting and tolling on Scott especially when all he wants to do is be home with us.

But I did say this was the wife's lament right? This is the first tax season I am home all day and taking care of a baby. Even though I am with another human, I still don't have any adult conversations the entire day. I think my friends/family sometimes regret calling me halfway through the conversation because of how much I talk and don't want to get off the phone. I can and will talk for hours. It's lonely and I feel like a single parent the majority of the time. Props to all single parents- seriously do not know how you do it. If it weren't for Skype, FaceTime, family coming up on weekends, and a few occasional trips to Lincoln I have made, I probably would have drowned in a pool of melted chocolate and peanut butter (Reese's naturally). And Oreos. And Dr. Pepper. I haven't exactly been healthy during this time. That's about all I have been eating for the past week and my heart hurts a little bit. I wish I had self control. Scott hasn't been home, so I can't make dinner for us so I have just been snacking. Or having a Slim Fast at night. Hence, the lack of food posts. I could show you the trash can of empty candy wrappers and pop cans if you like though.

I'm going to need to start working out again as we have a VERY, like ridiculously exciting summer ahead of us. I think besides our wedding year and baby year, this has to be the 3rd most exciting summer of our lives. Weddings, babies, trip with a baby, and a trip with a wedding. There is a light at the end of the tunnel of course, and it will be soon. I can see it if I look very closely.

Desperate Housewife

So, my plan worked. I decided to wait 8-9 years to begin watching a show, and now I can watch the entire series in a matter of a couple months. No waiting for suspenseful season ending cliffhangers. No waiting weeks to see how something is gonna turn out. The next episode is at the touch of a button.

No, this really wasn't my plan. I used to make fun of my mom and sisters for watching AND enjoying Desperate Housewives. I never really watched it myself or really gave it a chance but I would see commercials and it looked ridiculous. Since staying at home, the TV has been my companion and no, I don't have it on all day. I turn it off in the afternoons to have some nice, quiet playtime.  Some of Nolan's first words don't need to be "blackmail" or "Cabs are heya!".  I would watch a particular show on Lifetime from 11-12 and right after is Desperate Housewives. I happened to catch the pilot episode and I was like, hmmm, this isn't so bad. The next day, I watched episode 2 and so on til I couldn't handle waiting a day between episodes. Yay for Netflix and their Instant Watch and I am already on Season 5.

It sounds ridiculous, but there have been some scenes I have felt very close to. I have only been staying at home for 9 months (hardly a desperate situation) but still a situation I can relate to.  I was a working lady for a solid 10 years with various jobs where I was good at what I did.  I made a difference somehow and would get promotions based off of what I accomplished.  My job now is to raise my son: to help him learn and to grow.  Every day I feel an immense amount of pressure to do a "perfect" job at it.  But, unfortunately, every day is unpredictable and every day can't be perfect.  Something I have had to come to realize.

This is a quote of an episode I watched today that I feel a lot of SAHM's can relate to.  If you want the context, you will need to watch Season 5, Episode 8. :)

Bree: "I wrote a cookbook, Sandra.  Meatloaf, pot pies, peach cobbler. Why are you trying to crucify me? 
Sandra: "Because, it's not a cookbook, Bree. It's a "look how great I am" book.  One designed to make every woman who reads it feel like a failure if she doesn't measure up.  What you are selling is a total sham."
Bree: "But it isn't Sandra, cause I don't think I'm great. I have fallen down more times than I can count, just like so many other housewives out there. We're all just barely holding on and we all think that we're alone. So maybe you're right, maybe it isn't a cook book: it's a lifeline from me to those other women because I want them to know there's always a chance to get SOMEthing right. Even if it's just a casserole."

So no, I don't have a boss now to tell me I'm doing a good job and to keep up the good work.  Scott tells me all the time I do a good job, but we all know it's not the same.  My boss is a 9-month old who poops, thinks its funny to blow food in my face, and occasionally gets the nickname Whinypants McGillicuddy.  He also smiles constantly, laughs hysterically, likes to roll the ball back and forth with me, and says "Mama".  He reaches up for me, gets excited to see me, and thinks anything I do is the funniest thing in the world.  Maybe I don't have someone telling me I am making a difference to the organization, but I know I'm making a difference for our family and that adorable little boy I get to take care of every single day.  And that smile is all I need.

25 Rules for Mothers with Sons

I came across this blog post on where else, Pinterest, and thought I would share.  Worth the read and something I hope to live up to!
Click here for the 25 Rules for Mothers with Sons.

Good Old Fashioned Comfort

Before you have children, traditions between a married couple sort of seem silly, don't they?  Maybe not, but it's easy to say they aren't as fun.  Since having Nolan, we have thought a lot more about traditions and how we would like to start some with him.

One tradition that my family always had was to open Christmas presents after a big Christmas dinner with immediate and extended family on Christmas Eve and we would open Christmas presents from "Santa" on Christmas morning.  TWO days of presents and always something to look forward to in the morning.  Except for the impending doom that Santa brings into the home in the middle of the night of course.  Oh the nightmares I had every Christmas Eve until we were told Santa wasn't real. Nights where I would share a bed with both my sisters as other family had the other rooms and having to hold my pee in as I was so scared to leave that room for fear I would come across Santa while he is breaking into our home... ANYWAY (deep breath).  Scott's family opened all Christmas presents on Christmas morning.    We both think each way is the best and what we will end up doing as Nolan gets older is still up for debate.  Why wouldn't we think that each of these traditions are normal though? It is what we grew up with, it's what happened every single year of our lives, and it was what we felt comfortable with.

Scott has mentioned that every Sunday his family would eat grilled cheese and mac n' cheese for lunch after church.  My family would always go out to eat after church.  Maybe this is something that we could compromise on.  After all, there are 52 Sundays every year.  Sometimes you just need that reminder of being young again with your family when life was easy.  Sometimes you just need some good old fashioned comfort.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I have a lot to be thankful for this year and one of the main things is currently sitting on my lap doing everything possible to keep my hands from typing.  And typing some things on his own: 'p;m ,00 (Nolan says hi).  We will be practicing his typing skills.

When one thinks of Thanksgiving, the first thing they think of is FOOD.  I know I do.  I was watching the Today Show yesterday and they stated that the average amount of caloric intake on Thanksgiving is 4500 calories. THAT is a lot of calories. But if you think about all the snacking you do up to the meal, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th trips you take during the meal and the slew of pies consumed afterwards, it makes sense.  I would say either plan to do about 3 hours of intense cardio tonight or just be more cognizant of what you are eating all day.  Maybe think of taking a little less of something you would have normally had.  Or just enjoy the day cause afterall, it is Thanksgiving.

While I am currently finished with my Nutrisystem as of yesterday, Scott still has some left so I have been eating some of his for him.  We were discussing last night how we didn't understand how someone could do this for more than two months as the food, especially the suppers taste worse over time. Scott had two entrees last night that he could only describe as tasting like cardboard and dirt.  MmmmMmmm.  Needless to say, we will be enjoying REAL good amazing Thanksgiving food today.

I will be making something for Thanksgiving today that I found on Pinterest and I hope it tastes as good as it looked in the picture!!  Can't wait to try her out!  I will be sure to share the results!

So, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We have been so blessed this year with the arrival of our little nugget and we are so thankful for all of the blessings He has given us and for everyone in our life.  A quote I love that always comes up on Facebook and Pinterest is: What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?  Happy Thanksgiving!

Comic found here.

Tip: Tomatoes!

I was watching The Chew today and they had a little tid bit on there about how canned tomatoes are actually healthier for you than raw tomatoes as they contain 2-8 times more lycopene, which helps to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease.  So, if you are making a tomatoey dish, make sure to not only use canned tomatoes, but drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top to help your body absorb that lycopene to its maximum potential.  Makes the dish nice and shiny too.

Tip can be found by clicking here.
Tomato photo courtesy of here.

Topic: Food, Inc.

So, if you couldn't tell by the juicy hamburger I talked about previously,  I don't like to eat meat that much.  Well, most of the time.   I'm just not a huge fan of it.  It has nothing to do with the animals, it just grosses me out, that's it.  Now, my sister Kim is a vegetarian.  What set her over the edge you say?  The movie: Food, Inc.  This was a movie she watched over Christmas time a year and a half ago and I saw images as she was watching it and decided I was never going to watch it myself as it looked icky. It showed them slaughtering animals and whatnot- didn't know the context of it.

Well, here we are at the present and I decide to watch the movie for myself.  (Instant watch on Netflix- seriously get Netflix if you don't have it. Well worth it. Watched the entire movie on my phone and it loaded as soon as I pushed play.)  I am glad to say that I did end up watching it on my phone as some of the images would have been horrible to see on a large TV.

The premise of the movie is basically to investigate where and how we get our food.  It discusses the growth hormones that are put into the animals and how they engineer these animals to grow faster, be bigger, and be better suited to what the consumers want (ex. large, white meat chicken breasts).  To be honest,  I really don't care about animals.  Go hunt all you want, just don't get any animal bits on my carpet.  I have seen a deer be completely skinned, but some of things I saw in this movie were completely disturbing.  Some big companies (ones that you might have in your fridge/freezer at this very moment) refused to be interviewed because they knew if people knew what their practices were, no one might eat their products again.

Some of the statistics in the movie were absolutely appalling and I learned some things that I never knew before about the industry.  The agenda of the movie is not to make a person never want meat again or bash farmers.  It is about the overall big picture of the industry: who exactly is running the show and what happens in the process. It may not turn you into a vegetarian or care more about animals, but it will definitely change the way you look at what is on your plate at dinner time and maybe think twice about what type of meat you are getting and where it is coming from.  I recommend you watch it and let me know what you think!

Topic: Garlic

One ingredient that Scott and I absolutely love and could put in every dish is garlic.  Not until recently did we start using fresh garlic and it has made all the difference.

Garlic is said to help with the immune system and decrease heart disease along with many other health benefits.  When you are picking out a piece of fresh garlic, you want to make sure that all of the cloves are very tight and you need to store it at room temperature, preferably in darkened area.  When you are ready to use the garlic, peel the cloves from the head- as many as you need.  There can be anywhere from 10-12 cloves in a good head of garlic.  I had purchased a garlic peeler (see photo) awhile back and it makes peeling the garlic clove that much easier.  You just place the clove inside and roll back and forth. Out will come a clean clove! If you don't have one of these, you can just smash the garlic clove with a knife and peel that way.

I can't believe it took us so long to use it and if you watch the Food Network, they use it in almost every single dish.  It makes everything taste better and it just gives it that much more flavor.  You might as well improve your health a little bit while eating it too!  Makes your breath smell awesome too.

Topic: Pizza

Let's just get the elephant out of the room and discuss how much pizza means to me. A LOT. The most pieces of pizza I have ever eaten in one setting is 8. And I was in 7th grade.  The most days in a row I have eaten pizza is 9 and that was for both lunch AND supper.  It's a pretty big deal.

Growing up in a small town, the only experience with pizza I had ever really had besides frozen, was Pizza Hut.  That said, it is by far my favorite chain restaurant for pizza and you will never see our garbage taken out on a Monday morning without at least one Pizza Hut box in there.  It's delicious.  And I always thought they made it the best in Holdrege until we moved here. Gretna's Pizza Hut is the bee's knee's! The cheese is always cooked perfectly and there is a lot of it. That is all you really need to know.

The one downfall to Pizza Hut though, is the variety.  You get your standard cheese, pepperoni, hamburger, and supreme but not many other variations besides that.  Fortunately, Scott and I have had a chance to experience many different pizza places in Omaha, New York, Chicago, etc. that have helped us see that there is more to life than the standard!  Sometimes we need to go outside the box and outside our comfort zones to try new things and new experiences.  So that is what I would like to do with our eating.

I might need to call Pizza Hut so they don't worry about us.

Let's Get a Pizza: The Lazy Family's Guide to Good Food

As I sit here eating my Chili Cheese Tots from Sonic and finish off my pint of Half-Baked Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, I see pizza boxes to my right ready to be taken out to the garbage from the night before.  Now the only reason we went to Sonic was because McDonald's was too far away. Another few minutes farther and that just wasn't going to cut it tonight.  I will have to get my two cheeseburger meal and Scott his Big Mac meal some other night. Probably tomorrow. 

 While this seemed to work back in college without us gaining any weight, this is not the case anymore. We now have an 8 week old, who at this pace will have to wheel us around and help us lift our fat rolls to go the bathroom by the time we are 30.  I would like to say that most of this is attributed to said 8 week old who doesn't give me any time to plan or make meals so it's just easier if Scott brings something home, but this was nothing short of our lifestyle before him. Something needs to change here and it's gonna happen now!  Scott and I absolutely love food, there is no doubt about that. We love to go out and try new restaurants but rarely like to try and make new things at home for ourselves. We resort to a lot of boxed meals which are easy, but stray away from that whole healthy thing.

While being at home these past two months, I have come to really REALLY appreciate the Food Network and come to the realization that we are selling ourselves short.  There are so many creative, delicious, and healthy foods out there that we have yet to try and I have been so inspired.

This blog is going to be about us making more of an effort to make easy, healthy, and affordable meals at home as well as to share our experiences at restaurants we go to or have gone to in the city in which we live.  (I have to be realistic here as we like to go out way too much for us to have a home cooked meal every night) I could have an entire blog about pizza, but that might get kinda old.  I will just have to throw it in occasionally. :)  I hope to inspire you with some recipes as well as give tips on where to go eat the next time you are in Omaha and other cities we might happen to go to.

There is something about a blog that holds you accountable for your actions.  Others are reading it and you feel so much pressure to write and make new posts that I thought this would be the best way for us to stay on track!  I think our little family will appreciate it in the long run and hopefully it will keep us from saying "let's get a pizza" a little bit less.  Just a little bit. ;)