"You Really Should Get on Every Day for Results..."

I know, I know - it's been a little while since my last post. 

Here's the thing - it's kind of like my Wii Fit. When I turn on the Wii Fit, even if it's only been two or three DAYS since I last gone on, it yells at me and tells me I need to get on every day.

Last time I stepped on, it literally squealed at me and asked me if I'd been eating too much at night, eating too many sweets, or watching too much TV instead of exercising.

That was two weeks ago. I've been avoiding it (him? her?) ever since, and the longer I go, the more scared I am to get back on!

That's kind of what happened here. I mean...hopefully you guys aren't going to make me choose if I was snacking too much or eating too many sweets to post. But if I did have to make some excuses about what I've been doing the last week instead of blogging, these are the buttons I'd push:

- Research. Sigh...the bane of my existence. I'm trying to get a proposal ready by March 2nd in order to present at a conference in November. Considering I'm just now figuring out the results of my data, I have been working my butt off to try to be ready by the deadline.

-Work. Work has exploded lately, and somehow I've let my boundaries get pushed aside enough to be working more than the 20 hours per week I get paid for. I've got 5 therapy clients, 5 assessment clients, and 2 presentations for teachers, Speech-Language pathologists, and parents, that I'm working on and supposed to be presenting in the next few weeks. Um, yes, I took on slightly too much at one time.

-Lost and Top Chef. You know me! We have made Wednesday nights our official TV night around here. We have our friends Sean and Faith come over, and we all watch our two favorite shows. 

-School. We're getting into the semester full swing, and as much as I'd love to hope it would get better soon, I have two major exams coming up in the next two weeks. Yuck!

-Friends. This is a good one! We've been spending a lot of time with friends lately, whether it's going to dinner with friends from our Fellowship Family, or playing Catchphrase with the whole group. Yesterday, we went to Tehuacana Creek with friends and enjoyed a bottle of wine out on the back porch for a Valentine's Day afternoon treat. It's been great, and we feel like we've really been getting to know people on a much deeper level recently.

Now I'm off to the clinic for another assessment... when we test kids for ADHD, if they're already on medicine, we ask them to take them off it for one session while we test all the ADHD domains. Today's the day for my little kid I'm working with right now, and consequently, I think we'll both be in for an interesting afternoon!

Priceline Guide (Tips for Getting the Best Room at the Best Price)

Do you use Priceline to book all your hotel rooms? If not, you are wasting your money! Dan and I have used Priceline to book every hotel room we've stayed in for the past year or two. We've stayed in a suite in San Antonio for $45 a night, a Hyatt Place in downtown Austin for $50 a night, and a 4 star hotel in Dallas for $55 a night. Priceline is so easy and cheap - if you use it correctly. So here is a guide to using Priceline for your hotel rooms - you will have no excuse to waste your money after you read this! :)

1. Go to Priceline and find the "Name Your Own Price" section. Type in the city you're interested in, then click on "Bid Now." Right now, you're not actually bidding on anything. You just want to see the different zones for that city to decide where exactly you want to stay. The bigger the city, the more zones it is divided into. So for example, Dallas has 17 zones! By looking at the map, you can figure out which of these zones you would be okay staying in. Jot these down on a piece of paper.

2. Next, go to Bidding for Travel. This place is the key to Priceline bidding! It's a website where people let you know what offers they bid on Priceline, whether it was accepted or not, and what hotel they ended up in. This is your key to knowing how much to bid and what hotel you are going to get. 

Click on the city and state you are interested in. 

The top post on the page for your city and state will say "Hotels List for ____." (I'm currently looking at Hotels List for Dallas, Texas). Click on this. This shows you what hotels are offered by Priceline in each zone for each star level. This is what is so helpful! For example, most places we've stayed at, I've only bid on three or four star hotels. But when we went to San Antonio, I saw a 2.5 star hotel in a good zone was definitely nice enough for what we wanted. So you can easily see all the choices that Priceline will give you. I usually go to the hotel's websites to check them out if I'm not familiar with them.

3. Once you've gotten an idea about what zones and star level (i.e. 2, 2.5, 3, or 4 star hotels) you want to pick, it's time to look through the message boards. Look and see what prices have been accepted for the zone/stars you're interested in, and what hotels people have been getting recently. Usually, there are 3 or 4 hotels for each star level, but it seems like Priceline usually gives them out in clusters or alternates between two. You can usually get a very good idea of what hotel you'd get if you bid on a specific zone at a specific star level, and even better you can get a great idea of how much to bid!

4. Once you have your zones, star level, and bid figured out, go back to Priceline! Bid and see what happens. You do have to enter your credit card information to bid, but nothing gets charged unless your bid is accepted. If it gets accepted, great! If not, you either need to expand your zone search or raise your bid.

Here is the thing - normally, Priceline will only let you bid once per day. But if you follow these instructions, you can bid many more times in a row. I can't explain it nearly as well as the Bidding for Travel FAQ, so if this is something you're interested in, click here and scroll down to Question 9. (The FAQ also answers lots of other questions you might have, so I recommend checking it out anyway even if you don't need to re-bid the same day.)

5. Once you got your bid accepted, Priceline will immediately tell you what hotel you're staying at and give you the confirmation sheet. I definitely recommend printing out the confirmation sheet and bringing it with you to the hotel, just in case you have any problems. But you're done! You now have a hotel!

Don't get discouraged if your offer doesn't get accepted right away. It seems like some hotels release some rooms to Priceline way in advance, and then they release even more much closer to the date. I have bid the exact same price on a room and been rejected one week and then accepted a week later. 

Please ask me if you have any questions! But I promise, this is so simple and you will end up getting hotel rooms so much cheaper than the retail price. Good luck!

Books I Like

Wow, that's about the most boring title ever, isn't it? I need some help to figure out a better one - somebody creative, please come to my rescue!

I read a lot. I have, ever since I was little. I remember coming home from the library in elementary school with stacks of books in my arms. I'd immediately get to work reading them that night, and would usually finish an entire stack of 10-15 books before they were due two weeks later.

Of course, those consisted mainly of Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley Twins books. My taste has matured somewhat since then, but there is still nothing better for me than putting on some sweats, heating up a mug of hot chocolate, and curling up with a good book.

I would like to spotlight some of the books I've read here on the blog. I'm thinking maybe once a week, or once every other week, since I'm no longer reading 10 books in one week like I did when I was little! We'll see what people's interest level is...so let me know!

The first book I want to spotlight is The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver.

I started this a couple months ago, and read the entire thing in a few days. It's a story about a family who goes to Congo as missionaries, and the resulting story of each of the parents and four daughters. Each family member takes turns telling the story through different chapters.

What I like about this book:

- A very interesting and engaging plot, with real characters

- Gave me a lot to think about in terms of my faith, what it looks like to others, and how to best reach others

- Taught me more about Congo and the people over there, as well as the political climate over there during the twentieth century

What I didn't like:

- It got a little confusing switching around between family member's perspectives, and it also takes jumps in time that can be a little disorienting for the reader.

That's it! I loved it! I would encourage everyone to check it out.

Mr. and Mrs. Dan and Kristi Fogle, One Year Later

Well, one year, one month and two days later...I'm a little late posting these pictures. Regardless, I wanted to share a few snapshots of our anniversary dinner at the Melting Pot. We ordered a four course fondue meal complete with a cheese course, salad, several types of meat and veggies, and a chocolate dessert fondue. Because of the way it's served in courses and you have to cook each bite before you eat it, it's a perfect place to go if you want to spend the entire evening enjoying each other's company along with good food.

Here we are at our cozy little booth. We may have slightly red teeth...
...from the Paso a Paso wine we were drinking! So yummy. Thanks to our resident wine expert who picked that one out:

Here was our first course - you can sort of see the fruit, veggies, and breads that we dipped in the cheese fondue. I should have gotten pictures of the rest of the dishes but after this first one I pretty much forgot about the camera.

It's crazy to think that a year ago on that same day we were getting married! Every couple hours throughout the entire day we would look at the clock and talk about what we were doing a year ago. I also went through all the wedding pictures again, which brought back a ton of great memories. But I definitely have to admit that it was nice to be able to sleep in, go to lunch with my dad and grandparents, and get dressed a half hour before we left - very different from last December 30th!

We've been asked a lot about what we've learned this past year...here are a few things:

1. We both feel like getting married to each other was the best decision we've ever made. (Whew!)

2. Dan is really clean. Kristi is somewhat clean.

3. Dan is really obsessive about being clean. This makes Kristi seem very messy and dirty to him.

4. After a month or two, these kinds of issues didn't come up so often anymore. The initial adjustment to living together was somewhat intense, but after a little while we've adjusted our habits to accomodate each other. For example, Dan now does most of the cleaning and Kristi makes up for it by doing all the grocery shopping and cooking.

5. Time goes really fast! Even though in some ways we feel like we've been married forever, it's so hard to believe it's really already been 13 months since our wedding.

Bittersweet Success

Earlier today, I had my final play therapy session with a child I've been working with for about eight months. She came in as a stubborn, obstinate child who refused to do anything for anyone, and threw screaming fits all the time. Today, she left as a smiling, happy normal young child who is no longer a behavior problem at school.

I'm experiencing such mixed feelings right now. I'm feeling happiness that she improved so much. I'm also feeling relief about that! I feel sad that I'm no longer going to see her once a week. I feel nervous - what if the change doesn't stick? But overall, I feel mostly hopeful because I think she is really going to do so much better out in the real world now that she has a handle on her emotions.

Sigh...it's still difficult to end though...I guess this is why psychologists have one of the highest burnout rates! We get too involved with our clients!

More Recipes

Dan and I decided to join a CSA that just started up in Waco, called Waco City Farm. We get tons of produce that was grown locally and organically every single week! We are even splitting our subscription (is that the right word?) with a friend because the amount of veggies we get is way more than we could eat in a week. (That has the added bonus of bringing the cost down to under $10 a week, which is ridiculously cheap for what we get.)

If you've never heard of CSAs, I recommend you check them out. There's usually at least a few in every city, and there are so many benefits - organic food (usually), supporting your community, eating in-season, reducing your carbon foot print, etc etc etc...not to mention it usually tastes delicious!

We got our first basket last week and it included mostly greens, since it's January and all. We got kale, swiss chard, bok choi, mustard greens, spinach, and turnips...as well as a few more things that I can't think of right now.

All these new things forced me to frantically search through my cookbooks and online recipe sources to try and find meals that incorporated them. I was looking for things that would use mostly ingredients I already had, were somewhat easy to make, and hopefully both Dan and I would like. So far, I've found a couple, which I'll share below, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the mustard greens and turnips. Any suggestions?

Sweet Pepper Pasta Toss with Kale
This was our dinner one night, and then Dan's lunch and snack the next day. We both loved it, although I made a few changes. The dish is vegetarian as written, but I added in a pound of sweet Italian sausage to make it more meatatarian. I also drizzled quite a bit of olive oil over it at the end to give it some more flavor. Oh and finally, I used green peppers due to the fact that they were ONE FOURTH the price of red and orange peppers.

Tuna Salad with Swiss Chard
Obviously, Dan got nowhere near this one, but I liked it enough that I wanted to include it on here. I've been eating this for lunch the last few days and honestly I've been looking forward to lunchtime every morning because of it. As long as you like tuna, make this!

I also have two more recipes that in no way relate to my CSA, but are still yummy:

Indian Tandoori Chicken
Spicy. Healthy. Unique. And goes oh so well with my favorite Naan bread. We made this last week when we had friends over for dinner, and I kid you not that when I saw them recently, Faith said "I'm still dreaming about that Indian food you made last week!"

Classic Spanish Sangria
I'm posting this recipe because it was a special request from my friend Kelly. I usually make this in the summer, but after Kelly reminded me of it, I decided I want to make it soon. Maybe when I drink it, I'll remember our warm days in Spain, sitting outside in the plaza for hours, just watching everyone go by... This recipe is about the closest I could find to the sangria we drank in Salamanca. When I make it, I pretty much follow this except I also add club soda right before I serve it - maybe a cup or so. Some people use Sprite or 7Up, which would also work. I also add a lot more fruit - it's my favorite part! Oh and you might want to cut down on the rum a bit - traditional Spaniards like it rather potent.

Seriously, let me know if you have any other ideas for my CSA food! We have a new batch coming this Thursday so I need to get going!

Congratulations Mr. President! (and free Starbucks)

What a day...what a day!

I watched a lot of the coverage today...while working out, in between classes, before dinner, etc. I have no words to describe how amazing it was to be able to witness that, and I can't imagine what it was like to be there in person. I'm so proud of America today!

If you missed it, check out the new White House website and a video of President Obama's speech here (Thanks to my friend Matt for putting up the links!)

Let's be honest, it can be a little scary to be optimistic. We don't want to be disappointed or look silly if things don't go the way we expect. But are those really the worst things that could happen? No...the worst thing that could happen is the president has some great ideas and works to implement them, but we are all full of skepticism and cynicism, so we don't do our part. I think we should all begin this new presidential term with a good dose of healthy optimism and a commitment to work toward positive change for our world.

So are you in? If so, make your way to Starbucks! Starbucks is offering a FREE tall cup of coffee tomorrow through January 25th for anyone who pledges to volunteer five hours of their time to help their community. Talk about a win-win situation.

Congratulations, Mr. President. :)