March Thankful Thursday

Wore this Gap dress and Ugg boots to the last JL meeting of February.

Thankful Things
2/27 The upside of being super tiered, it was so easy to fall asleep!
2/28 I got two of my research projects done and applied to a job. I felt really productive.
3/3 Watched Dredd with Hubs. It was a great movie.
1/5 ET and BB made us dinner at their new place in the city. Got to play Apple to Apples with them and JR.

The City Skyline at Night

3/6 Hung out with Aunt F in the city! She showed me around Dad's office with the hope that I can help out. Then I saw her office and then we went to E2's apartment.
3/7 Spent the afternoon with JS, AT, my mom, and JS' mom. Then our families had a lovely dinner at their apartment.
3/8 Steak n Shake garlic burger and a Heath Bar shake.
3/10 So blessed! I busted out of the aiport and got to the bus stop at 6:34. The bus came at 6:38. I didn't have to wait for the 7:35 bus like I thought I'd have to.
3/11 I love my family but it's so nice to be home and with Hubs again.
3/12 Got new insurance for my car and started to register it here in Maine.
3/13 Snowday! Hubs stayed home with me!

My OOTN for the JL Event

3/14 Went to the JL's big annual event tonight! I was so excited to go.
3/15 I listed so many things on eBay and three had bids by the end of the day. Money in the bank for the Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale in June!
3/16 So productive around the house today. I took care of so many chores and I am so happy the house is clean.

Everything I sold on eBay!

3/17 Two to three weeks until my next allergy shot!
3/19 I got my car back from the shop! It smells like nail polish inside but the big yellow scrape on the side of the car is gone!
3/20 We went to see my SIL's play. It was nice to be supportive and have something to do. (The play wasn't very good and there were other issues besides.)
3/21 My breaks got fixed so my car could pass inspection! I can't get pulled over because I have expired plates or lack an inspection sticker now!

My OOTN for Hubs' Birthday

3/22 We celebrated Hubs' Birthday with friends.
3/23 We celebrated Hubs' birthday with his parents. SIL made a great cake for him.
3/24 I mailed off a bunch of things I sold on eBay. So happy for the money and to clear out my closet.
3/25 I got to talk to my grandma on the phone. I was so glad to talk to her since I wasn't able to see her when I visited home.
3/26 I learned a lot a the JL meeting this evening.

New Year's Resolution Update

I've been so bad about exercising but I started playing Wii Fit again this week and I hope to keep up the good work playing it. I haven't been eating less sugar since I went home for a trip and then we had so many sweets for Hubs birthday extravaganzas. I have started using my Fitness Pal again to track calories and sugar again. When I went home I noticed my jeans were too tight so I measured my dimensions and my thighs were an inch thicker. I assume it's all fat so I am counting calories in addition to sugar. I'm flossing and using my clarisonic about 75% of the time I think, I'm not tracking it anymore. I am drinking more water than I used to but I'm not sure I'm getting 8 cups everyday, most days I do though. It used to be so easy for me to get 10 cups a day. I have no idea what happened to me. I'm still flu of envy sometimes and I am not sure if I've increased my happiness with my own life. I am going to need to replace my primer soon! I had been using Tarte's Clean Slate Primer. I really like it and I think it is my favorite beauty product hands down but I'd like to find something that costs less than $30 for an ounce. I've already scoped out Target to see what primer options they have. I'll need to renew my focus on being nicer to Hubs in April.

I've been hiding under a rock from my life lately. I need to get out there and do something with it. I've been afraid to sign up for CLE (continuing legal education) things because they cost money. But I need to sign up for CLEs to meet people and learn about things I didn't study in school. I've been dragging my feet about finding out how to hang out my own shingle. I am just so afraid of messing up or doing something embarrassing that I haven't done anything. I feel paralyzed with indecision. I feel like I can blame a good portion of this on family stress but I can't let what other people are doing stop me from doing what I need to do with my life. I've got to figure out how to break through this.

How was your month? How are you doing with your new years resolutions or other goals you may have?

Happy Birthday to Hubs!

I made this from scratch with cake flour! Except for the frosting because I think homed frosting is gross.
This cake was a true labor of love since I had to separate eggs and use the hand mixer for what seemed
like hours in order to cream the butter and beat the egg whites until they were stiff.

We are now the same age and I am no longer a cougar. His birthday was last week. On his actual birthday we went to Applebee's because he loves their pretzel breadsticks also because I hate doing the dishes (and also because my mom gave us a gift card). I also baked him brownies, dark chocolate brownies with unsweetened baking cocoa instead of the cheaper semi-sweet chocolate chips that I use when I bake brownies for his class.

This was legitimately the best thing I found for the lock of fur.
I looked at both Michaels and A C Moore.

We didn't do much on his actual birthday. He didn't want anything at all for his birthday but I did get him a gift. But, it was so low key I forgot to give him the gift I bought him--a nice glass to put the lock of his dog's fur in. (I was excited about getting my car back from the shop.)

I was orange and I lost badly.

On Saturday, we had friends over! I baked him a cake and we played Settlers of Catan and Game & Wario's multiplayer games.

Hubs brother decorated with a Pokémon Theme.
Hubs is now 27. BIL is 30. I am surrounded by oversized children.

We had dinner with his family on Sunday, with another wonderful cake decorate by his sister.

It's a Pokéball!
Note also Hubs' 3DS on the right with Pokémon Y inside. 

Panic at the Bank

I use Mint to track our spending and I am trying to use it to budget better. Tuesday morning I logged on to Mint and Hubs' checking account was overdrawn by over $1,000 because of a transfer to me?! I panicked and felt so sick because I had no idea what happened but I assume it was my fault. Eventually I figured it out.

I had gotten a $4,500 check from my dad while I was home to put towards paying off my student loans.^* I have savings accounts at CapitalOne360 (formerly ING Bank) which earns a high interest rate and one of those accounts is dedicated to paying my student loans via automatic withdraw. I couldn't put the money from my dad right into that account because they do not allow mobile deposit for checks over $3,000.

When I got home from my trip home, I deposited the large check in my checking account at my local bank. Then I transferred the money from what I thought was my checking account to my student loan savings account. I was wrong about which account I set up the transfer from though.

Somehow Hubs' checking account ended up as the only account linked to my online savings accounts. (He later told me his account got linked so he could add money to our house savings account. But I still can't remember why I unlinked my account.) I thought my checking account was the only linked account. I didn't notice that it was his because the website only displays the last four digits of the account numbers and Hubs and my checking accounts have the same four numbers in almost the same order, just the placement of the last two digits are different. For example: the numbers might be 4567 and 4576.

So I had my online bank transfer $4,5000 from his checking, which didn't have that much money in it, to my savings account. Keep in mind, I thought this money was going to come out of my account, which did have enough money to fund the transfer. Tuesday morning when I logged into Mint to categorize transactions for our budget I was greeted by these alerts:

MAR 18 The balance in Hub's Checking is at –$1,630.09.
MAR 17 Your $4,500.00 purchase from eHa has cleared Hub's Checking account.

As soon as I saw this I just felt so horrible! I know Hubs thinks I'm an irresponsible spendthrift sometimes since I love spending money on clothes and I was so afraid this would cement his opinion regarding my irresponsibility.

I thought I knew the login information for his online banking account. So I tried to log in as him so that I could transfer money from my checking to our joint checking and from the joint checking to him. It turns out that I didn't know his login info. So, I grabbed all three of our checkbooks and headed to the bank.

I was able to transfer money from my account to his. At least I hope I transferred it to his account since they couldn't tell me anything about his account since I'm not on it. (I totally understand why they'd do this but I was so stressed out from having realized that I messed up his account that I was still frustrated with the system.) They weren't even able to tell me what kind of fee he'd be charged for my mistake though they could tell me that usually they charge $35 for each transaction that overdraws the account.

Our closet bank branch is at the grocery store we go to so I got him some treats at the store. And, as soon as I got home I sent him an email at work so he'd know what had happened. I also wanted him to know so that he'd only use his credit card or cash to make purchases until I confirmed that the money ended up in his account.

I overdraw my account kind of often since I forget when I've schedule transactions and I keep my checking account pretty empty so that I am not tempted to spend. I've also confused my checking account with our joint account before (they don't have nearly identical account numbers though) so I've overdrawn an account because I confused the two. It's just so hard to look at the numbers and know what they mean and I'm in too much of a rush/too lazy to double check. I've also over drawn our joint account because my credit card is set to auto pay from it but I manually paid my credit card bill one month and it still withdrew my total balance for the month. Oops! Hubs, however, is so good and perfect with his money that he's never overdrawn his account and he never forgets bills. And I feel so bad that I've done this too him.

Plus, my inability to notice the difference between the two account numbers made me really question my ability to do well as an attorney. Being a lawyer is all about paying close attention to detail. How can I be a good lawyer when I can't tell the difference between those two account numbers or remember that we unlinked my account from my online savings and added his account instead? (I honestly don't remember unlinking my account.)

I was so shook up about after I got home that instead of making myself chicken curry for lunch (a greenish colored dish) I accidentally put leftover split pea soup on rice. I didn't notice it wasn't chicken curry until I started eating it.

Hubs came home and checked his checking account and his balance was much higher than he remembered it. My online bank "returned" the funds and I had transferred money into it too! I called my online bank and they said they wouldn't try to take money out his account again and I removed it as a linked account. He told me he was worried for a bit it wasn't a big deal. Today everything is almost back to normal except for the fact that Hubs got charged a $35 fee.  I plan on paying him back since I have some money from cleaning out my closet on eBay even though Hubs was all "don't worry."

Anyway. I clearly have trouble managing my finances. Hubs suggested that we just link our joint account to the online bank and have that be the only one linked. I think this is likely the best way to keep something like this from happening in the future. But I am still a little worried. Probably for no reason.

Any ideas for me? Has this ever happened to you? Please tell me I'm not alone in making stupid mistakes that end up costing $35+.



^*Like I said earlier this week, I'm spoiled. My parents wanted to pay for my graduate school and they paid for my undergrad. They both went to med school and they wanted well educated children but they didn't want their children to have tons of student loans. But I have two little sisters who would both be in college while I was in law school. My parents didn't fancy paying $150,000 to various educational institutions. I don't know if they even could have done so. So I took out loans to pay for law school with the understanding that they would help me if I had trouble paying them back which I have because I haven't been able to find a permanent job requiring a J.D.

Shameless Plug!

Hello Readers,

I'm going to the Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale this spring! So I'm cleaning out my closet so that I can afford to buy something when I go. I've got a lot, 26, items listed for sale on eBay right now and the auctions end on Saturday afternoon! If you like my OOTDs you may want to go over to my seller page and look at what I have. Most of the items are size 8 thru 10 medium to large. I've got some things by Lilly Pulitzer, Elizabeth McKay, Vineyard Vines, and Kayce Hughes (who is Lilly's niece and makes dresses kind of like Lilly's). Here's a link: http://www.ebay.com/usr/ilovjedi

Thank you,
eHa

A Trip Home: Part 2

As I was going to sleep on Thursday night/very early Friday morning I realized I had completely forgotten to blog! I had been planning on posting my packing post that day but I completely forgot! This was a first for my blog--the first time I completely forgot to have a post ready to go on a Tuesday or Thursday (I usually try to have my posts ready by or scheduled for noon in what ever time zone I am in and I've had some "late" posts in the past). So I apologize to my readers.

The flamingos in the snow.

Friday was exciting! My mom and I headed into the City after work and met my college friends and their mother/mother-in-law at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was warm! And by that I mean it was above freezing. The cold weather bears (like the polar bear) were inside when we arrived. You'd think the polar bear would love Chi-beria this time of year but apparently not. The flamingos were out for part of the day thought.

If you recall from my T-Give trip home, Hubs and I went to this same Zoo with the same college friends. So, I was kind of underwhelmed because I had seen the same animals a few months ago. I'm also not terribly excited by animals. But it was good to spend time with friends and we went some place I had never gone before--the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Prepare for so many pictures of plants!

My dad joined us for dinner at my friends' apartment. Their mother/mother-in-law is a wonderful cook, as is our male friend. They were in charge of dinner and it was delicious.

Saturday was a taxing. My dad owned my car.^* We were going to assign the title to me while I was home so that I would own the car and so that I could register it in Maine (my dad had forgotten to reregister the car in Illinois in 2012 and I didn't notice until I took the car in for repairs and the repair person looked at the registration). I had forgotten to record the exact milage on the car before I left it and I could not figure out how to transfer title from an Illinois resident to an out of state resident! So I was grumpy and snappy at my parents because they just wanted me to estimate the milage even thought the title assignment form required "exact milage." I gave up and let my dad take me to the currency exchange, the lady who works there is an expert on these things.

But before we did that we went to lunch at my mom's favorite hibachi restaurant, Kegon, on the way there my parents grilled me about my small business plans. They want to fund my law office. I just want to be a grown up who doesn't get hand outs and bail outs from Mom & Dad anymore. (I will totally still accept help paying off my student loans from them though since school seems like a fair thing to get help with.)

A photo of ice on the Lake to break up the text.

They also don't understand the practice of law so they suggested that I do several things that may or may not violate the rules of professional responsibility. For example, they were like "so what if you are disciplined by the board of overseers of the bar." So what? My name shows up as a disciplined attorney on their website which would likely show up if people googled my name. Would you want an attorney who was disciplined by the bar even if it was just for something kind of negligent instead of fraudulent?

I love them and I know they just want to help me but they can be so frustrating because I feel like they're ignoring what I am saying and then keep suggesting the same things that stress me out. I try to tell them clearly how I feel and how what they say makes me feel but it seems like they just keep saying the same things to me over and over again. Plus this trip was already stressful, see my previous post.

A Belated Wedding Present from my Friend who was
in Korea and couldn't make it my my wedding.

Saturday night I hung out with my high school friends. We hit Steak n Shake. I had the most delicious garlic cheese burger and their fries are delicious! I am sad there are none in Maine. We wandered around Target and then went to Menchies for froyo where wee played Uno with very dirty sticky looking Uno cards. I am so grateful to have such dependable friends. When I get together with them it's like we're in high school again, less the drama.

On Sunday, I had lunch with my high school friends at a Thai restaurant and afterwards we went to a local aquarium supply store where they had tons of fish! Including two in a small pond that would swim up to you and beg for food, hop out of the water a bit, and spit at you. I should have gotten pictures.

The Crème Brûlée!

Then I had dinner with my parents at a delightful little French restaurant in Etown, Bistro Bordeaux. My mom and I shared a cheese plate my dad doesn't eat cheese because he doesn't eat added salt and cheese is usually pretty salty. I had the Salade de Betterave, the Steak Pommes Frites Bistro Bordeaux, and the Crème Brulée du Jour. So good! I love beets! I love french fries (they severe them with mayonnaise and I ate them with a fork but no mayo)! The crème brûlée was delicious as well. So if you want to blow half of this month's food budget in one go, I'd recommend it. I hope that maybe my mom will take me there for their Sunday Brunch next time I'm home.

Monday, I was heading home. My mom and I went to Eggsperience for breakfast. I don't like it quite as much as Walker Bros. but they do eggs better which made my mom happy. After lunch we walked around the Glen because it was so warm. We hadn't changed our clocks for daylight savings time so we thought all the shops were closed. They were actually open so we could have looked for some new shoes in my favorite department store--Von Maur. We stopped at Jewel on the way home. I wanted to get some Krispy Kreme doughnuts to bring home with me as an "I'm sorry your dog died here are some doughnuts to help you forget" for Hubs and his family. There are no Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Maine and they are so good.

The mugs arrived yesterday and one was
impressed into service this morning.

My dad took me to the airport and we stopped at every Dunkin in between my house and O'Hare looking for a Chicago runs on Dunkin mug. I didn't find one. But my dad checked all the Dunkins in between O'Hare and his office and he found two on Touhy and sent them to me. (I love my parents but this is a great example of how they listen to me but don't: I said they had them on line but I didn't want to pay shipping so I said they should keep an eye out for one and leave it in my bedroom and I said Hubs didn't need one but I ended up with two delivered to my door.) I do in fact have the best parents!

My flight to Boston was uneventful but I was so fortunate! I needed to catch the bus from Logan to Maine. The bus comes pretty much every hour at 35 after the hour. We were scheduled to land at 6:35. We got in about ten minutes early. Our gate was close to the baggage claim. I busted out of the plane and the airport so fast! I got to the bus stop at 6:34 and the bus came at 6:38. I am so glad that I didn't have to wait for the 7:35 bus. It meant that I got home around 9:30, a pretty reasonable time, instead of 10:30.

That trip and the lead up to it was so incredibly exhausting! I am so happy to be back and I've almost caught up with reading other people's blogs and responding to comments on this one! I am also working on building up a reserve of draft posts so that I don't accidentally forget to blog again.



^*I'm a spoiled brat. My parents bought me a little VW Cabrio when I turned 16 so that I could drive my sisters to swim practice and take E2 to and from school with me in the mornings after I got a parking space as a senior. I took the car with me to college and E2 got a car. When I started law school my mom was so worried about me driving my tiny Cabrio on Maine highways in the snowy winter so my dad bought a AWD Ford Escape for me. I am grateful for their concern because the Escape is perfect for driving in the snow whereas the Cabrio couldn't drive up hills in the snow because it was so light it would just start sliding back down them.

A Trip Home

I hoped on the Bus tuesday morning to get to Logan to fly home! I wore my long down coat the whole way except for when I went thru security. I got great pictures of the ice on the lake. My mom got me at the airport. I got home and I chillaexed and finalized my plans with my friends. We waited forever for my dad to get home from work. And then we went to my favorite kitchy restaurant the Claim Company, the also have the best salad bar.

Ice on the Lake from the Air

My trip was going to be a challenging one. The past year has been so rough. My parents have been on and off again about getting a divorce and my dad has had his own separate apartment since last March. He bought his secretary a house. My dad is so incapable of having an affair but it looked like he was to my mom. My grandma has dementia and its keeps getting worse. My dad had tax trouble and the IRS threatened to seize the house to satisfy the tax debt, this issue has since been mostly resolved. Also my dad developed hand tremors and the brain scan suggests Parkinson's.

My mom has reacted to all this by drinking and E2, the med student, was concerned that she was either an alcoholic or about to become one. I noticed that I would talk to her and then she'd forget our whole entire conversation by the next day, presumably we talked while she was really drunk. E3 noticed some slurred words. So, when my mom asked if I'd come home for "spring break" I said yes so that E2 and I could talk with her about it. We decided on Wednesday evening.

It went better than expected. My mom knew she had a problem but thought it was a natural response to how miserable her past year has been (no argument there). She wants to sign a post-nup with my dad and knew that would be ready in the next couple of months so she said she'd start working on going back to drinking her normal amount after they signed that or after they decided that they couldn't sign that and go ahead with the divorce. So Mom knows we're worried about her and she has a plan to get better. We'll see how this goes.

I spent the evening, after the intervention, at ET's and BB's new apartment! ET is one of my oldest friends, her mom ran our girl scout troupe. JR also came! She had been teaching English in Korea forever and it's so wonderful to have her back. ET is a nutritionist so she and BB made us dinner and then we played Apples to Apples!

The Marina Towers' Parking Levels

Hubs family dog was put to sleep while I was away. She had stopped standing up on her own the weekend before I left. And on Tuesday she stopped eating. The vet came to their house on Wednesday to put her too sleep. I was so worried for Hubs.

On Thursday I woke up early and headed into the City with my dad. I do not miss the morning rush hour. I hung out in a hotel room while he attend a meeting at the hotel and then we went to his office. My Aunt F has been helping my dad get reorganized after his secretary left. My mom also thinks Aunt F is trying to set my dad up with a new girlfriend/wife but I think that's just alcohol induced paranoia so. My aunt showed me around the office and introduced me to the people there. They're all really nice the hope is that do some work remotely to help out since while my dad is brilliant he's an absent minded professor type.

Pulled Pork with Peppers, a Lovely Mango, Plantian, and Greens

I was so tired. I have trouble sleeping without Hubs especially when I am worried about him. So my aunt and I didn't do much while hanging out. We went to this wonderful Brazilian restaurant run by a woman form Brazil for lunch named Sinhá. She was wonderful she chatted with my Aunt and me and chided me for not eating my greens--I gave them a try at least. It was legit the best food I have ever had! I had pulled pork and it was so incredibly delicious and the presentation was wonderful!

Red Velvet Cheese Cake

During lunch my Aunt told me all kinds of interesting things about growing up and encouraged me to ask my dad more about his childhood. Then I got to see my Aunt's office and then since I was to tired to do anything we headed over to E2's apartment because she was back from "school." OMG E2's apartment is so messy!

They're open for Lunch now!

My aunt took us back to my dad's office and we went home, in rush hour traffic. I learned a little bit about my dad. I knew he was a trouble maker in high school but I learned that part of why he ended up going to college in the US instead of medical school in Nigeria is because he wanted to help some friends who were bad students so he let them copy his paper on an SAT like test. His results were thrown out so that changed his plans for a year, just long enough to think more about going to school in America.

My mom had got me gyros for dinner! Hard to find and incredibly delicious chicken gyros! I miss gyros so much while in Maine. I haven't been able to find real ones (sliced off a rotating spit) anywhere in Maine.

I'll continue detailing my adventures on Tuesday. I think I've shared enough text with you today. I got so behind on emails and everything when I was at my parents' house with their super slow internet!

-eHa

Packing

Yesterday I came back from visiting my parents! I'll post the details of my trip on Thursday. I thought I'd take today to write about my packing strategy. I'll start with this story...

Instagrammed while Driving to Boston

During my last semester of law school not yet Hubs and I went to Boston to visit with our college friends. I packed frantically for our weekend trip and when we got to my friend's apartment I realized I had contact lenses on my eyeballs but no case to put them in when it was time for bed and no contact lens solution to keep them from drying out overnight. I ended up buying over priced contact lens solution at a convenience store and using cups. I also realized I would have a problem later that summer. I was sitting for the Maine Bar Exam in Maine on Tuesday and Wednesday and then going down to Boston to sit for the Massachusetts Bar exam on Thursday. I was already stressed out thinking about the bar exam and I was so sure I'd forget something so I started making a packing check list with everything I need when I travel so I wouldn't ever forget anything I needed.

So the first thing I do when getting ready for a trip is to print out my packing list (this is a link to the list I used uploaded to google drive), check the average weather for the area, and write down any special things I need. Like for the bar exam, I needed so many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Gatorade Energy Chews. (Also, I needed not to lose my mind but that's not something you can pack.) For my trip home, I needed to remember to bring paperwork home for my dad to fill out.

The Planning Process

I look at the average weather, think about how long we'll be there, and I think about what I'll be doing on the trip. Knowing all this informs my deliberations upon what to pack. I usually don't start packing things until a few days before but I try to check to be sure that I have enough clean underwear to pack and to be sure that anything I really want to bring with me is clean earlier so that I have enough time to clean things. Hubs just throws everything in his suitcase the morning of. He is not known for wonderful outfits. 

As the time for the tip gets near I pull out everything and see how it goes together. I try to make sure all the colors go together so that I can remix my outfits on the go if need be and I try to stick to one color as my neutral color. I usually stick with #navyornothing but over Thanksgiving I went with black. Really thinking about what colors I'm packing helps me pack lighter and makes my travel wardrobe more wearable since I can mix and match what I've brought.

Folding Clothes

Usually, I just fold my clothes and put them in my suitcase. If I'm traveling far away I have Eagle Pack-It Garment Folders that help me fold my clothes nicely and save space supposedly.

My Travel Sized Toiletries

The night before and the morning of I start packing my toiletries as I use them for the last time. I empty out my purse of all my liquids and fill up my quart sized ziplock baggie. I keep a large gallon size bag full of travel sized toiletries and travel containers in my bathroom so that it's easy for me to find small containers to use in my travel size bag. I purchased a wonderful travel sized loose powder holder on eBay. I also love GoToobs for making my own travel sized containers of my favorite products. I try to refill them when I get home so that they're ready to go for my next trip.

Sometime You Have More then a Quart's Worth

The morning of, I double check my packing check list to be sure I've got everything and I squeeze it into my suitcase. I am a germaphobe and I think feet and shoes are the most discuqting thing in the world so I wrap those in plastic bags before putting those in my suitcase. (I feel so grossed out when I see pictures of other people packing and they have their dirty discussing shoes on their nice clothes in their bag! Ewwwwww!)

My Suitcase All Packed Up

My suitcase is carryon sized (22" long) but when I travel on smaller planes sometimes it needs to be checked at the gate so I try to make sure that there's nothing in my large suitcase that I would be afraid to check. I also like to make sure that everything is strapped down so that nothing falls out if my suitcase accidentally opens up.

My Law School Backpack and Favorite Travel Companion

I refer my back pack as a carry on for most traveling. It's  got a convent pocket for my laptop that makes it easy to take out when I go thru security. It's also easy so much more comfortable for me to have an even load on my shoulders when going thru the airport, especially if I have to make a connecting flight.

When I travel I try to wear my biggest clothes. So on my trip home to Chi-beria I wore my warmest coat and my Bean boots. Those would have taken up so much space in my suitcase so it made sense to wear them. I also always try to wear my easiest to take off shoes so I don't have to bother with suitcases when I'm in the security line. I also try to leave my bag of toiletries on top so that they're easy to get to too.

I Made Grandma's Cookies "Healthy"

I've been trying to make a breakfast cookie so that I have something low fat and low sugar to snack on when I get a craving for something sweet so I fiddled with my Grandma's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to make something I could eat everyday that wouldn't raise my HDL and blood glucose levels to dangerously high amounts. 

Ingredients

Heaping 1/2 c applesauce, unsweetened

1 1/4 c oatmeal (I use quick cook)

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla

1/4 to 1/2 c light brown sugar (I think 1/3 c is best for my taste buds' preferences)

3/4 c whole wheat flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda (in a box)

Scant 1/2 c (3 oz) Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Warm the apple sauce and mix with the oatmeal. Let sit for up to 10 min. to soften. Mix in sugar and liquid ingredients. Mix in flour, chocolate, and baking soda. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies. 

Instead of chips you can use nuts (pecans are my favorite). Use up to 1 c. nuts alone or 1/2 c chocolate chips and 1/2 c nuts. Feel free to try doubling the recipie, I halved it from my grandma's recipie while experimenting.

Hubs really loves these. I love them too. I'm so glad I gave this a try.