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So I'm all moved into my new home!!  Just a few boxes left to unpack.  Oh man I love it here!  I thought at first that I would be really lonely living on my own, but it's really not that bad :-)  Today I started on my weight loss!  I had special K for breakfast, a grilled cheese for lunch, and then an awesome dinner!  Oven baked coconut chicken and rice.  I'll leave the recipe at the end of this!  I also took max on a good 30 minute walk around the new neighborhood.
Last night when I let max out, I stopped and noticed the stars.  Out here in the country they really are something else.  It was so beautiful!  After noticing that I came inside and had a fire in the fire place which was so nice and cozy.  I was extremely relaxed last night it wasn't even funny haha.  would have been even more nice if I would have some one to cuddle up with on the couch...but oh well.  Someday right?
I got my aquarium all set up today :-) I can't wait to get some fish for it but it needs to sit for a little to get the PH in balance.  I also got my movies unpacked and my dvd player working.  Let me tell you that's not an easy task because the connections on my tv are broke so you have to bend them just right to get it to work haha.  Well I guess I'm rambling on here.  I'll leave the recipe for ya!

Boneless, skinless Chicken (thighs or breast) strips
coconut
bread crumbs
egg white
milk
flour

Preheat oven to 400. 

Take egg white and whip up with some milk, about 1/2 T for one egg white.  Mix one part coconut and one part bread crumbs on a plate.  Take the chicken and dredge it in flour.  Then dip it in the egg mixture followed by the coconut mixture.  Put on a rack on a cookie sheet.  Bake the chicken for about 25 minutes or until done. 

I also made a dip for it that was interesting, but good haha.  I'll put it as well and you can attempt it

3 T of mayo (lowfat)
1 T of orange juice
1 t of pinaple juice
2 splashes of hot sauce
Whisk all together and enjoy haha :-)

(ok so doesn't look the best but trust me it tastes aweosme!!)

Take care everyone!

Windows 7 part II

So yeah I know I haven't written in a couple of days, but things have been crazy haha.  I finally got windows working on my computer but I had to completely wipe out my whole computer then reinstall everything.  The windows 7 that I got was for an upgrade and not full install.  Well this was a problem since I had never had windows on this computer.  So what I ended up doing is installing windows 7 upgrade, didn't have to put in the key, then put the disk in again and installed the upgrade.  So pretty much windows 7 upgraded it's self, then the key code worked!  haha! Take that windows 7!!  so good deal! I got that for $30, compared to the $200.
So the weight loss is on hiatus until I get moved, it's just so hard to loose weight when you live in a house where no one else is doing it and your food depends on them haha.  I did get some special K for breakfast though.  I usually don't eat breakfast, but I know I need to to get my metabolism going for the day.  So this is a good start to it all haha!
I am heading up to Fort Collins tomorrow for physical therapy and post op.  I'm also going to stop by my new place to take some measurements and drop of some stuff.  I'm still on a hunt for a couch or futon.  A futon would be ideal because then I would have somewhere for a guest to stay the night.
Well I guess I'm out for the night!  Have a good night everyone!

Michele

Windows 7

So microsoft has this big promotion out for students that you can get windows 7 pro for $29.99.  When I saw this I thought this was perfect! See I have a mac, which I love, but sometimes there are things that I need to run window for.  For instance my phone is windows based and if I want to sync my contacts I need windows to do so.  Also with sims3 you can create your own world, but need windows to do so, not mac.  So anyways, I jumped on this oportunity!  This was a download from the internet so I had to download it to my parents computer as an ISO then burn it to a DVD so I could bring it to my computer and use it.
Everything went great, and I started up bootcamp to install my new system.  I decided to give windows 15 GB of memory and leave my mac system with 32 GB.  I got going on the installation and everything went great untill I had to put in the product key. When I put it in it said that it was invalid.....This made me pretty angry. 
So I searched around on posts by people and came across one that said the download from the internet was infact the upgrade, not full edition, but had a fix for that.  I got to pass by the product key and get to windows with out it.  Now I had to upgrade my windows 7 onto it's self.  I know doesn't make much since but in theory my product key would now work. 
So I go to do this and it turns out that I didn't give my windows enough memory to do so....CRAP!  So I decided to get back into my mac operating system and delete windows all together and start again, this time giving it 20 GB.  Should work right?  Well I go back into boot camp and have it partition my space for windows and this stupid error message keeps popping up saying that it can't partition the disk and that I now need to restore my operating system...uggggg
So yeah that's the big pain of my night...Anyways, went and saw "Did you hear about the Morgans" which was a good funny movie.  Just a good hour and a half of laughing.  Ate at Red Lobster, and spent way too much on way too little of food.  Note to self, don't eat there again.  I"m still in search for a couch, and now looking for bedding.  Yay for moving.
Anyways tomorrow starts my day of really eating well so lets hope it goes well!!  Until next time

Michele

another day

Well here I am day 3 into the new year, still haven't started the whole dieting thing yet, but I am proud to say I was responsible with my food choices today.  I woke up to my mom making an egg and cheese scramble on a croissant...now I know that isn't the best thing in the world for ya, but there could be so much worse haha.  My dad and I went out and about today looking for a couch for me and some stuff to fix up the furniture I currently have.  There's nothing wrong with any of it, but we just want to make it look nicer, and prolong its life.  We also went around looking for an enclosure for my hard drive because my last one broke, and after looking for what seemed ever I found one online at micro center for only $25.00.  All the other places had them for like $50.00 and higher, which is ridiculous!!  We did not however manage to find a couch today, too expensive.  I don't need anything fancy, just something to sit on haha.
After we got home my whole family pitched in and worked together to un-decorate the house from Christmas and got everything back in order.  We went to On the boarder afterward where I had their grilled chicken with a honey-chipotle sauce.  It was served with lime cilantro rice, and this corn stuff. It was all really good, and pretty good for me as well haha.  Now I'm sorry, but one thing I cannot stand to do when dieting is switch to diet drinks.  I cannot stand the taste!!!!!! So I stick to my regular coke haha, or water.
Tonight I managed to slip on the stairs and take a good hit to my wrist.  If anything there is more feeling in my wrist now since my surgery on the 18th of December for carpal tunnel release surgery so it hurt really bad.  I also managed to scrape up the sites where it's healing where there is fresh skin growing in and it all tender.  So now I hurt from that, but hopefully it won't hold me back for long!  Well I'm out of here for the night, good night anyone that happens to be reading this, if any one....Have a great rest of your weekend!

Michele

1st day of the new year

What a great day to start off the new year, well, new decade with!!  So today I wasn't really good at the whole weight loss thing, I'm planning on getting that one going on Monday.  A weekend is just so hard to get a work out plan and diet going.  So today my family and I went up to Fort Collins to see a studio that a lady had available that is connected to her house, it's kind of like a guest quarters. We walked in and instantly fell in love!!  So everything has been worked out with her.  We put down the security deposit and this months rent so I officially have some place to live for this semester!  She was so kind to work out with us to do a 5 month lease, that was I can attempt to find an internship for the summer.  Hopefully the Denver Zoo. 
Anyways, the apartment has a wood fire place in it that I am really excited for haha.  I love the smell of a real fire.  Trish, my landlord, is going to let me help out with the barn work around there; I'm going to be feeding animals and cleaning out their stalls.  For this I get a reduced rate on my rent!  This is so perfect because I'm going to be getting some quality experience in with larger animals....something that I desperately need!  A lot of jobs that require a zoology major you also need experience with larger animals like horses and cows.  So now I'm getting experience there, and at my job at the research center! 
WOO life is finally coming together!  2010 is going to be a great year!  I just know it!  It has to be better than the past few years have been.  Things have just been so rough for my whole family.  We just all have to keep our heads held high and know that all of this will make us all stronger! 

Here's a toast to 2010! 
Michele

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!!  Ok so maybe it's a little before the New Year, but I figured I would start off this now!  I am going to blog my weight loss progress on here and just about everything else haha.  I hope you all enjoy reading it!  Ok, a little about me first.  I am a 22 year old college student at Colorado State University studying zoology and it seems like it will never end!! I have about a year and a half left!  I work at a research center in Fort Collins which isn't a bad job.  I am looking for a place to live on my own with just me and my dog, hopefully the one that I'm going to go look at tomorrow will work out for me!  On this blog I will post all the recipes that I use because cooking is one of my passions! I love it soooooo much! I hope you enjoy my blog and journey with me through my weight loss!  I hope if you are also out there trying to loose weight that we can travel through this journey together!!! Good night all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michele

Crazy day to wake up to!

Ok so for my first blog post I think it's a good day to do it!!  I woke up this morning to some commotion going on out side.  I peaked out my window to see what was going on and I see 3 police cars, 2 police suvs, and 2 crime scene vans.  I had no idea what was going on!! All I know is that I couldn't leave because they have my car blocked in.  So I got on my website, www.atthealternative.com ,  and worked on it some.  Then I checked outside again to find Fox news is now here and they are taping off the building next to me!  What is going on???  So I text my roommate who is down in Littleton, and she said that her brother told her that the Fort Collins Coloradan has a story on it.  Some woman was stabbed this morning at 6:00 am.  Oh, now I feel safe!  NOT!  I guess I should considering there are tons of police officers around, but still how scary is that!  Here's a link to the article http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20091208/UPDATES01/91208009/-1/NEWSFRONT2/Fort+Collins+police+investigating+fatal+stabbing+of+woman .

So yeah that's my morning haha. 
Anyways here's the photo of the day for everyone!  I'm sure I"ll be o later to post some recipies!!

Photo from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233485/DITTO-When-compete-neighbours-Christmas-lights-just-best-thing-.html