Simply Nuts and oh so smooth!

Hey, is that a catchy title for this post or what? Yeah, that pretty much describes me! ha ha ha...maybe the nuts part anyways! There are several things I eat pretty much every day that I feel I just have to have in order to stay healthy and fill my appetite. Some of those things are V8 juice (one serve), a handful of raw almonds, at least a tablespoon of flax seeds, a serve of yogurt, a glass of juice, a smoothie...get the idea? Well, I just added one more thing to that list. Chely's nutty snack...I would like to take credit for this idea but I'm afraid kudo's go to the Mexi's for this one. I used to buy these in SoCal and they were oh so yummy and felt like I was never going to have them again until I discovered I can make them myself! So here's what goes in them...Libby, you might enjoy these as part of your daily diet. 3/4 c. honey

1 c. sugar (I know...yikes! but...)

2 Tbsp water

Boil to 150 (hard crack stage)

Then add a mixture of 3 cups of nuts and seeds. I put almonds, pepitas, sesame seeds and flax in mine.Pour out onto parchment paper and with a greased spatula, spread out. Cut while still warm so it's easier! Cool completely and then wrap in saran wrap. Place in an airtight container and enjoy!

Ok, the other thing is my smoothies...Today I made a super yum one. I usually put plain yogurt in my smoothies cuz it is better taste wise and plus, no sugar! I always add 2 different fruits, usually one of them frozen and pure fruit juice along with a tbsp or so of flax seeds. But today since I didn't have any yogurt, I used coconut cream instead. Here's what I did...

1 small banana 2 big pieces of pineapple flax 1/3 c. coconutcream (approx) brekky juice (carrot combo is what its called. I don't like the flavour on its own but it was yum in the smoothie.) Ice cubes Vanilla

Anyways, enjoy people, and if you have any yummy healthy ideas including smoothie ideas, please share with me! I better run cuz I'm wasting too much time on this stupid computer this afternoon!

Friends come to town!

I love it when my friends come to visit me! It is so fun to show them our world over here. We just had our second visit from Canadian friends. This time it was my friend Andrei. We have been friends for 13 years and it has been 7 since I've seen him! His visit was short but sweet and it was so comfortable, just like we didn't miss a beat. He is really super funny and we were laughing constantly. We took him to Noosa which was beautiful and where I got a sunburn on my chest...we also skipped out of church! Bad bad...that's something I never do but felt like I could do it this once. We also went to the beach here and watched the waves which were quite high still from the storm. But it was beautiful and sunny the whole time. We also snuck in a movie last night. We saw Next with Nicholas Cage and it was really good. I was sad to see him go this morning but it was fun while it lasted. He is a teacher in Vancouver and is really good with the kids too. We miss you Andrei! Come visit again!

Crappy

Well, it is so rainy here they are saying they haven't had a storm like this since the late 1800's. There are trees down everywhere and you know when in movies you see the rain coming down in sheets? Yah...same thing here. The swimming pool outside the office was overflowing today it has been raining so much. So I went to work today in the Coolum office which they want me to work at every Thursday now. 2 words - Borrr-ing! So I ended up on Facebook and emailing people for about 3 hours. All the while my headlights were on. I was in the Landcruiser. That's not good. Pouring wind and rain...dark...tired...hungry...not a good combo. Luckily I have a cool guy who could come to the rescue. So he did. And to make a long story short, we got the car started (after about 25 min) and drove the 20 min home in torrential rains and wind. Scary...I was praying and I had Mesa praying that we'd get home safe cause it felt like we'd blow right off the road! Actually, into the oncoming traffic was more like it. Very difficult to see too. Ok, that's all I have to say.

Happy Birthday to You!

Blaze just had his 9th B-Day a few days ago. He got spoiled by getting to go to the laser tag joint and have 6 mates come along with him. After the laser tag we went to the beach near our house and the boys had all brought their skateboards and they played at the skatey park while we bbq'd hamburgers and snags. Do you guys all remember what those are? If not, go back to somewhere around the 25th January post and read on. Well, anyways, we had the bbq and cake and pressies and Blaze got totally lucky with 2 $20 bills. I said I'm gonna start inviting his friends to my birthday party! I made a funky cake. It was orange on the inside with green icing...monster green to be precise and then I let Mesa and her friend Shonoa decorate it with smarties. Then in definetly looked like a monster cake after that! They had fun though and it actally helped me out! take a boo...

The monster cake. Yummy!

Mesa and Shonoa...Siamese Twins...

Hurricane Dean...the tail end

The weather here has been so bad since last night. It's kinda nice to have days like this though because I think it helps you appreciate the nice days. It's supposed to be like this till Friday though. Well, today after I finish on this blog I will be going over to my friend Amber's house and we will watch either Sweet Home Alabama or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. And drink a cup of postum. Yummm...I have done 2 spin classes this week. Killer man...if there are any of you who haven't done them before and want a killer good workout, do a spin class. The first one I did was the first one in about a year and I pushed too hard in the first 10 min and felt like puking but I was a trooper and pushed my way through till the end and didn't give up. Although I did back off for sure. My heart rate stayed at a shocking 170-180 on the average the whole class. Yikes! 153 is 80% for me! I was most definetly maxed out. Well, take a look at these photos. The ocean is usually so friendly looking but today it is very angry. If you look closely in the top photo, you can see a little black mark. That is wat I call a die hard surfer. The waves were pretty good yesterday afternoon and the weather was still gorgeous. It was hard to believe it was gonna get like this...and can I believe Rick went to work in this today? I tried to get him to stay home but he said "It's not my nature". ha ha ha ha ha. Crazy guy!

Bad to the Bone

Need I say more? This is what came home to me one day when my visiting teachers were over...I was thinking, 'I hope you aren't scaring them!' I love this "bad boy" I'm married to!

He's a little bit too sweet to scare me though.

Some people may think I'm crazy but...

Anybody who really knows me, knows how I LOVE to find a good bargain and that I'm always on the lookout! I also love to build up my food storage and I'm finding that very difficult here in the land of Oz because for one, everything in the stores are smallish quantities and also the prices are quite a bit higher than what I'm used to paying. So well, as you know, I work at a popcorn shop and so I thought, 'what better place to find a good bargain on some popcorn kernels?' Yep, I was right. What you see above is yes...a fifteen kg bag of unpopped corn. And how much was it you ask? Would you believe it if I told you it was $10? Well believe it sista! 10 bucks...At the grocery store I have been paying 5 times that price. Well, no longer. And you may be wondering what the HECK are you gonna do with all that popcorn?? Well, when you're married to one of these...
You may not wonder any further. We all know the Miller men and their love for the fluffy crunchy white stuff. And I'm not talking about snow either! I'll never forget one time I was sleeping at Steve n'Lynne's and I woke at about midnight or later to the smell of popcorn and Stevo was sittin' there in front of the T.V with his bowl of popcorn. Too funny! As I'm typing this, I'm kinda chuckling to myself and Rick says, 'somebody talking to you?' ha ha ha. Well, I love popcorn too and so do my kids. Every single Sunday I can remember as a kid, my mom had this tradition of making popcorn for us while we watched Walt Disney and The Muppet Show and of course...Fraggle Rock! Oh, the memories!

I Love Lucy

I came home with this the other day...I saw it at the op shop (aussie for 2nd hand store) and couldn't resist. So after paying $10 I walked away with it. I was stoked! I have wanted one of these for a long time. Rick was like, what the heck is that?! He says its exactly something Lucy would bring home. Somethin crazy like that. Well, it helps me create beauty-ful hairstyles! This is what the girls had to go through to get their beauty-ful curls on picture day. See post below...

Man this is annoying! I am trying to make these pics all look nice and centered and its NOT WORKING!!! aaaahhhhh! Whatever!

Picture Day

Well, school picture time again! And for once I really went all out for the girls and curled their hair. I just love having little girls so I can do this kind of stuff! I was really happy with the way it turned out! What do you think?

Mesa is so crazy with her faces

Mesa just can't stop being the ham...

Blaze has this thing about not showing his teeth when he smiles:(

The girls on the other hand have no probs:)

Busy as a beaver

Holy cow! I have been sooo busy this week! I haven't even had a chance to check anybody's blogs let alone add new posts to mine! But I am going to make that one of my priorities this week. So stay tuned!I've got lots to say! I worked 6 days this week. I work the next two days too. But today's sunday so I should have a bit of time today to work on my blog. Cheers!