December 31, 2010

New Year, New Me?

Since tonight is New Years Eve I thought I'd talk about resolutions and why I don't care for them...now don't get me wrong I make goals for myself all the time and I think it's important to do so, but resolutions are a whole different thing. For one thing, the resolutions people make for themselves tend to be way too big, they end up feeling daunting and overwhelming and then people find excuses of why not to do it. Like when people say they are going to workout 6 times a week this year...if you don't workout at all right now it usually works better (at least for me) to start with a goal to workout say twice a week and then when I have managed that goal for a few weeks move it up, until eventually you are working out 6 times a week! That's the difference, goals can be assessed and reevaluated, unlike resolutions. If you say you're going to read 10 books this year and then you hit your mark 6 months in do you stop reading? I hope not! But for me a resolution seems like an end point so I'd rather make a goal to read 10 books by the end of the year, then if I make my mark I can reevaluate my goal and make it 20...

...I guess my point is that people put way too much emphasis on the resolutions and expect themselves to change into this person they're not and then they get upset when they don't. Change happens over time! If you slowly make goals for yourself throughout the year you will see little changes along the way within yourself that will inspire you to keep moving forward until you see the big changes :)

So what are my current goals? Well for one, and probably whoever is reading this will appreciate this one, I am making a goal for myself to blog at least once every week...if I do it more than once, great! If I only do it once a week, great (at least for now). Another goal of mine is to keep up with my yoga/workout practice. I started a steady routine mid November and I have been working out an average of 3 times a week, but I have already been seeing a difference in my body, my stress levels, my strength, and flexibility. I plan on continuing and eventually making a goal to do more than what I have been. I am also working on cooking and reading more...no specific goals for those though, just a conscious effort to do them more often. And since I made hummus and read a few chapters of my new book yesterday I'd say I'm doing well! :P

How do you all feel about resolutions? And if you make them what are yours for 2011? If not, what are some goals you are working on?

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
~C. S. Lewis

Home is with You // New Years Eve 2011

December 29, 2010

Christmas fun...

Ok so since our move back to Wichita I've reverted back to my bad habit of not blogging...until now :) Since my last post Dave completed his Kickstarter campaign and raised the funds he needed to record his album (YAY!!!) I am so excited for him to finally be able to get in the studio and record the songs the way he wants them done...he will be recording the album at Brick House Studios here in Wichita. We have the studio booked for 2 straight weeks in January! But for now we are just enjoying the Christmas season...watching Christmas movies, making Christmas candy, decorating our new place...last year we didn't get to put up a Christmas tree since we were in the process of moving so this was our first year picking out/cutting down/decorating our own Christmas tree! It was actually my first time ever to go chop down a tree...we had so much fun :)

Home is with You // Chistmas

Home is with You // Chistmas

Every year for Christmas my Mom has gotten my brother and I a Christmas ornament for our own little trees we had in our rooms...now since I'm married (and my ornaments dominate the tree) I thought I'd start the tradition for Dave and get him an ornament. I found some musical note ornaments that I thought were perfect and I surprised him with them on the 3 year anniversary of the day we first met :)

Home is with You // Chistmas

Every year my Mom and I make Christmas candy, this year we spiced things up from our typical candies by adding some sprinkles and also making cake balls this year, they turned out delicious, if I do say so myself...

Home is with You // Chistmas

Home is with You // Chistmas

We had to celebrate Christmas a little differently this year since my step-sis is a nurse who works on the weekends and Christmas Eve/day fell on Friday and Saturday, we celebrated with her and her husband on Wed. night, instead of on Christmas Eve...it was also different this year because instead of going out to eat my parents decided to do a Christmas lights tour in a limo (my Mom has wanted to do this for a long time.) So we ordered some pizza and brought some wine and had a great time going around Wichita as a family...

Home is with You // Chistmas

Christmas Eve we had brunch at Good Egg with my parents (all 3 of them) and my brother, went to church, and opened gifts at my Grandparents house. Christmas morning we spent opening presents with my Dad, brother, cousin Jenny, and Grandma Gerry. We spent the rest of the day at my Dad's relaxing and later went to a movie and on the way home picked up some sushi for dinner...it was a wonderful Christmas spent with family and remembering the reason for it all...

Home is with You // Chistmas


Home is with You // Chistmas


Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! Love you all ~Mal

October 5, 2010

Just call me the cookie monster...

Hahaha, so for Dave's Kickstarter project (the link for those who missed it- http://kck.st/besQ64 ) he made a video and after recording all day he started to have a hard time getting out what he wanted to say...but the camera kept rolling and I was behind it making comments as we went along...we didn't mean for the things we caught to be funny but when we put them all together in one "blooper" video it turned out pretty hilarious! At least to us...check it out for yourself, but you have to wait 'til the end to understand the title of this post :) Hope you enjoy...


And here is the real Kickstarter video...


October 4, 2010

Vegetarian going on vegan...

As some of you know I stopped eating meat (except for seafood) as of April this year.  For me that was not a hard decision at all since I barely ate meat anyways and I always felt better when I didn't.  I have had times when I've only had meat when I ate out (if even then), but never gave it up all together until a few months ago...first I watched "Food, Inc." this movie is very informative about the food we are buying at the grocery stores, tells some scary facts we should know about the USDA and FDA (and how corrupt they both are), and explains the importance of buying organic and locally grown foods.  Now I like to consider myself pretty informed when it comes to food and the issues we face with food here in America, but I was so shocked by the things I learned by this video...not to mention the fact that some of the things that go on (like abuse of animals and use of antibiotics in our foods) that I did already know about were in this movie for me to see first hand.  I will warn you, most of it is pretty gruesome and disturbing (I cried, not gonna lie...), but I would recommend it to anyone.

The other thing that happened around April was I read "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone.  I love how this book presented the information in a way that was easy to understand with beautiful pictures throughout.  It talks about how eating animals is not only destroying our bodies, but also the planet.  The information stuck with me and as soon as I finished the book I gave up meat and never looked back...the book also has some great recipes in there that I can't wait to try!

The book also explains why it is important to go vegan and I'll admit I'm still working on that part.  Milk was something I already didn't use anymore; I have been drinking soy or almond milk for a few years now, but it can be challenging at first to make sure the products you’re buying don’t have milk in them. There are just so many! But once you know that gets easier. The other thing I am working on is my cheese intake…now I do find myself craving cheese every now and then and unfortunately we have been eating out a lot lately so that makes it VERY difficult to cut out cheese. When we are cooking at home we have started using veggie cheese (which tastes great!) or just simply buying things without cheese on them.

I have been very proud of Dave throughout this whole process…he was definitely an “I need meat at every meal” type of person when we met and he has done so well with this transition. At first he just didn’t eat meat at home since I obviously wasn’t, and then when we ate out he would get meat. But he started to realize that the less he ate meat the less he wanted it, or when he would eat it at a restaurant it would just make him sick. Now he still eats it every once in awhile, but only the good stuff (organic, free range, etc) and he has also been making a conscious effort not to eat as much cheese and such. Milk was also an easy switch for him and his fav little “snack” now is dark chocolate almond milk :)

I think the last step going vegan for me will be the seafood part…and this will be the hardest. While I don’t eat fish as much now, we have been putting scallops in our pasta or eating it out some (and of course sushi.) This article helped me understand some environmental issues on why we shouldn’t eat certain fish, since The Kind Diet didn’t go into that enough for me. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9139/healthfriendly_and_ecofriendly_choices.html?cat=5 We gave up shrimp after looking further into it and reading this article http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/Top-10-Reasons-Not-to-Eat-Shrimp.aspx ...they had me at “poop cocktail” haha.

Anyways…sorry for such a long one this time, but it is something I have become very passionate about. I never want to be “preachy” about it though, just informative and only when people are interested. Here are some pics of things we’ve been eating lately…

Jason's Deli has become our favorite restaurant~

 Home is with You // Vegetarian

Portobello Wrap at Jason's Deli (minus the cheese)...so yummy!


Home is with You // Vegetarian

Home is with You // Vegetarian

For the Veggie Wrap we just use a whole wheat tortilla and a bag of frozen vegetables...once the veggies are cooked we wrap it up and cook it on our George Foreman Grill :)

My favorite...avocado and vegan pepper jack cheese quesadilla w/ salsa

Home is with You // Vegetarian

Home is with You // Vegetarian

vegan pizza...the crust on this is to die for!

Home is with You // Vegetarian

pizza box...they have this at Target

 Home is with You // Vegetarian

October 2, 2010

Dave's Kickstarter Campaign

Hey everyone, as some of you know Dave has just launched a campaign on Kickstarter.com to raise money for his next album...we are very excited (and nervous!) about this!  This album is something that he has waited years to make and we're hoping and praying that Kickstarter proves to be the platform that can make this album happen.  So please please please share this with your friends and family and ask them to pass this along as well...because the more people that hear about it the better!  Here is the link...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/101911357/love-via-music-lets-make-the-dave-owens-album-toge-0

Home is with You // Kickstarter Campaign

Thank you guys for all your help, we really appreciate it...love you all, Mal

August 25, 2010

Punk Rock Princess ≫≫ Something Corporate live.

So on the 15th I got to see a band live in concert that I have been DYING to see since I was about 15...so in other words this experience was a decade in the making, which means I was pretty dang excited!  I fell in love with Something Corporate back in high school and they have been one of my top five bands ever since, unfortunately they never came to the city I was in and then in 2005 they stopped touring together.  Meanwhile the lead singer/piano player (the talent of the group- in my eyes) started up a band Jack's Mannequin and also was diagnosed with and fought Leukemia...and while I love Jack's Mannequin, it just wasn't the same.  But this summer they are back together and touring for the first time in 5 years, they didn't come to Knoxville so we got tickets to see them in Atlanta.

The venue was called The Masquerade and it was the perfect venue to see live music in because it was a smaller, more intimate venue.  We had to wait outside in line for awhile and I got this shot...

Something Corporate Live // Home is with You

Once we were inside we got really got spots with a perfect view of the piano :)  And we took a few pics while I anxiously awaited the start...
Something Corporate Live // Home is with You
SO excited about how close we were


Something Corporate Live // Home is with You

We entertained ourselves during the wait by listening and watching the couple next to us. Our guess is there were around 19...the guy was about 6'5" and his girlfriend was about 5'4" and when we got there she was clinging to his side, mind you there was no AC in there and everyone is shoulder to shoulder and the last thing you would want is someone hanging all over you.  The WHOLE time we waited for Something Corporate to come on she was whining about everything you could imagine in a high pitched voice..."I can't see" "it's hot in here" "can we get closer"...while tugging on his shirt to get his attention (since his tactic was to just look straight ahead and pretend not to hear haha.)  Then when she wouldn't get a response or the answer was no she would cross her arms and *humph*...it was hilarious.

I was just praying that she would stop once it started and thankfully she did, the show was better than I imagined (which says a lot) and they rocked the house!  Their use of lighting was amazing...

Something Corporate Live // Home is with You

Something Corporate Live // Home is with You
Singing on the piano

Something Corporate Live // Home is with You

Something Corporate Live // Home is with You
Andrew hanging from the rafters...you'll have to click on this one for the full size to see what I mean

By the time it was the encore everyone had shifted so much and people had moved to the back or left that we got an even better view of some of my favorites (I love all their songs, but the best of the best)...including Punk Rock Princess and Konstantine.  I put a link to a video of Konstantine live a few weeks ago, but Dave got this one on my iphone and it's great so I thought I'd share again, it's just the first half of the song...


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