Playing with the weird settings that my phone has... (Droid X)

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Baby Love! That's what I always saaaay!

I always say "baby love" and that's all over this song! funny! :)

Precious.

Some may not know...? but one of my sisters has special needs... so this hits close to home. This little guy is so precious. I cried my eyes out... of course. ha!

can't go back to sleep

Ryan just left for work, and I can't go back to sleep so I've decided oh well, I'll just stay awake... going to do some homework here in a little bit... :)

From the looks of outside, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day! Yay.

The picture below is of Julie yesterday, we biked to the beach :) it was fun! I love my Julie! :) She's such an awesome friend. Yum, and after the beach, I rinsed off and went to Flaming Amy's with Ryan, I get the "Big Ol' Bowl" with black beans, rice, onions, jalapenos, red/green peppers... so delish!

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I love my phones camera haha!

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five fingers 1st time on the beach

last night I went for a run on the beach for the 1st time in my "five fingers" :) got a lot of weird looks but ohhhhh well hehehe :)

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Bikini

Kini girl!!!! She's stickin' out her tongue hehehe

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yummy breakfasssst :)

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I'm a quack

hahaha :) so these are 3 of the 4738446738346 ducks that come to our dock to be fed. So spoiled ;)

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Really wish I was at the lake house again this weekend.

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Picture of my new friends. (yes, shoes)

I don't want to take these shoes off I love them so much! :) I love love love them! Happy Early Birthday to myself! :)

Ryan told me last night that he doesn't know how I do the 'vegan' thing... and this is typical of what people say... but honestly I don't even have to think about it anymore... it's a complete different mindset that I have now. And I care enough about it, that it isn't a loss in my eyes... :)

CLICK THIS TO SEE A SITE FOR A GIRL LIVIN LIFE RIGHT...

another too

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."

You would think that Fruit by the Foot would have gelatin because it is goey, but instead it gets its texture from pear concentrate and locust bean gum. I used to eat them like crazy when I was a kid, so now I am really excited that I can enjoy them again.

P.S. Wanna know favorite part about finding seemingly non-vegan foods? It's when I eat them in front of my omnivorous friends (and especially friends who are considering going vegan/vegetarian) and they say, "Hey, those are vegan? I guess you really don't just eat lettuce and carrot sticks!" This happens to me with Oreos a lot, people assume the cream is from milk (they're actually made from vegetable fat).

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Kisses from baby Cameron

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Jackson giving his brother a hug :)

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Rice Crispy Treats

Rice Crispy Treats with Emme & Cole

Emme was a little excited

Cole wanted a picture too :)

haha I didn't eat the rice crispy treats, but they do have Vegan ones at Tidal Creek, been meaning to get them to try sometime, even though I'm not much of a sweets person... :)

Champ

Champ belongs to the Bishop's but I love him like he were my own. The Bishop's I have worked for, going on 5 years now... they have 4 kids. On Thursday, after the first 2 kiddos got off the bus, they hopped on their bikes and I threw on my sneaks and put Champ's leash on him and we went for an adventure around the neighborhood. Boy have I missed these kids over the summer. They traveled a lot over the summer, and since their mom owns Carolina Gymnastics Academy, they did their summer program. Champ loves to go on a run though :) he's the best boyfriend ever. XOXOXO love ya Champers!

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my new transportation to school woohoo :)

Well I've always LOVED bike riding and I was wanting a new bike, so I asked my mom for a bike for my early birthday present instead of buying me a parking pass for UNCW. It'll be exercise and more green :) and it'll be FUN :)

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love this.

Saw this in Dick's Sporting Goods and it made my heart smile :)

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Troll Bridge

This is a picture from... Wednesday morning. Annie, Caroline, and I went on a walk/run/ride... there's this beautiful trail in the back of their neighborhood and it has all these different paths and "bridges" and they call one the "TROLL BRIDGE" haha they love it... so cute.

Check out all the crabs that were under the troll bridge though! SO neat!

Random picture I took of a tree we passed on the trail. Isn't it pretty?

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shloshed.

Just got home from work. Absolutely pooped, I have to admit. It's 11:26pm... way past my bed time hehe... even though it's a Friday night, haha :)

I lifted weights this morning while I watched Jersey Shore from last night, haha I know... it's trash, but I can't help it. My arms feel sore, so I can definitely tell the difference in my new ones. I doubled the weight I was doing :) hehe!

So I'm obsessed with bike riding even more than I used to be... I road like 18 miles today, road to UNCW student rec center and worked out there, and did the 'awesome abs' class that was a total joke compared to my P90x: "AB RIPPER X" that I do regularly... haha... but it was still nice to do something different. :)

Cameron (one of the identical twins; kids I babysit, he's 23 months old) has a new favorite word... "COOOOOOOOOL" hahaha he says it in the cutest way and over and over. I can't figure out where he picked that word up though because his mother and I never use it haha but maybe he heard it once and decided to try it out and he likes the sound of it? haha... who knows. But it is SO stinkin' cute :)

do good

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you; Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating others could destroy overnight; Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give your best anyway.

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take the punches

what is it you said to the kid? The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very rough, mean place... and no matter how tough you think you are, it'll always bring you to your knees and keep you there, permanently... if you let it. You or nobody ain't never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit... it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward. If you know what you're worth, go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit. - Rocky

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faith

When we were little, life worked perfectly. No matter what happene everything turned out alright in th end. Scraped knees, canceled play dates, dropped ice cream cones-- w would cry for a short time, but by t end of the day, everything would b perfect. And now as we've grown older, we've lost the faith as we stumble through each day, crying and lost dreams. It seems like life a perfection have turned their backs us, but really its just that we've gro up. As children we didn't pay attention to such details about our daily lives, but now we are more aware, and little details seem to be amplifying our pain. But just remember that when we were faith in perfection because we cou look past faults. So don't lose your faith. Learn to know that each day pass, each heartache will be mende and everything will be perfect in th end. Just keep your faith.

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lover dover

I took Cameron and Jackson to my Grammy's today to visit her. She loves all my kiddos. :) I loved this picture of Jackson hehe! Splashin' his little heart out! :)

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Dinner last night: Vegan & Gluten Free Pizza

UM, can we say delicious?!?! I made two of these... and my mom, stepdad(huge meat eater), and I dove into these things HEAD FIRST! It was delicious. It had spinach, LOTS of onions, zucchini, grape tomatoes, red & green bell peppers, hmmm and I think that's it...? But it was AMAZING... I also was informed of some AMAZING news last night...

MELLOW MUSHROOM NOW HAS GLUTEN FREE PIZZA

and they also have SOY CHEESE... which I'm totally happy without the cheese, as long as you load on the veggies! :)

Random Gabbin'

A lot of people have been asking lately what I do about eating out and just random questions about what I eat....

I eat out hardly ever... it saves money and it is a LOT less fattening.

When I DO eat out, which is slim to none... I usually get like steamed veggies... and I ask them if they can cook them with NOTHING, no butter/oil, and no seasoning... I was in Southport, NC last week and went to a seafood restaurant...

I can't think of the name... but I asked for steamed veggies, and PLAIN... NOTHING on them... well, they didn't listen to my request... because whenever I was served my food, they were SO salty I about hacked right there. I took that first bite, and then sat down my fork and when the waiter came back around, I informed him that they were by no means PLAIN, but it was okay, and he insisted that he have them do it again (ya, you better) okay, so the next time they came back out... they were WHAT I ASKED FOR ;o) haha...

If you are doing just VEGAN and not VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE there are usually tons of options... even if they don't have a side of veggies on the menu, or a side of baked potato on the menu, look at the menu and see what comes with the other entrees, and ask for them... I assure you that they will say yes.

::LUNCH::

Alot of places have wraps and pitas, which is the best way to go for a VEGAN. Most places also have like at the least ONE option for a vegetarian... If they have like shrimp pitas or chicken pitas, etc you could always ask for them to steam veggies and put it on a pita, and then ask for a salad dressing(make sure you're careful with the dressings, I honestly don't use salad dressings because they are SO full of sodium)...

The thing that I am most particular about in all of my eating is the SODIUM content in all of the food. I have to admit that I honestly rarely ever look at the fat/calories/carbs... if it's vegan and gluten free, you're pretty much in good territory already, but then if you go to the grocery store and for instance, this is what I've been most shocked about... ok, so you go to the grocery store... lets say like... hm, Harris Teeter... well let's see... there are probably 7-8 different brands of black beans... but they're all the same right?! So you go for the cheapest one? Yeah, no... check out the sodium content. UGH... makes you wanna vomit in your mouth. Most have like 200+ mg of sodium per 1/2 cup... yeah, that my friend is NOT acceptable. Even the ones that say "low sodium" are rediculous... NEWSFLASH: THIS IS AMERICA... we salt EVERYTHING... so low sodium isn't always the best option... I don't know if they have a Fresh Market, wherever you live but if they do... that is where I get my black beans. The store brand of black beans is what I get... they are $0.99 a can... and I usually buy like 15 cans when I'm there because I literally eat black beans like crazy. Hellooooooo... PROTEIN! Oh yeah, and did I mention that they are 10mg of sodium per 1/2 cup?! Yeah... that's what I call fabulous. :)

When you tell someone that you are VEGAN, the first thing that pops into their head is, okay well maybe the 2nd because the 1st thing they think it HIPPIE...(by the way, I am by no means a hippie, but go ahead, label me that if you please) but yeah, anyways the 2nd thing that they think about is "Like OMG where do you get like your... like protein?!?!" ugh um, you can get your protein from plenty of places that doesn't involve KILLING and MURDERING an animal... dummies.

To those of you wondering where VEGANS get their PROTEIN...

Okay, so this is like one of my staple meals... and I also use Tofutti sour cream, it tastes funny whenever you just stick your finger in it and lick it (haha) but whenever its consumed WITH something, it's DELISH... :)

Tucker and Corona :-)

Cameron and Jackson's dog on the left, Tucker... and Corona!

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Gluten free cereal, light vanilla soy milk, and coffee :-)

yummmies.

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I wouldn't recommend.

Found at Fresh Market, thought I'd just try something.

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I love grocery shoppingggg

:)

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Peep this.

Check this out, ASAP :)

^Click on that and it will direct you to a website :o)

I love my Mulligan girls :)

These girls give me so much joy! They love to be outside and actually DO stuff. They'd much rather play outside/swim/bike ride etc... opposed to sitting on their "bottoms" hehe inside... and I LOVE it.

The other day their pool was being cleaned so we didn't go swimming, so we decided to do the "Little Mermaid slip n slide" and you KNOW that I was alllllll about it... not only because it was a SLIP N SLIDE... but because it was LITTLE MERMAID. <3