Five on Friday v6

Today I'm linking up with Christina from Carolina Charm for "Five on Friday" 

Check out the link up below.

This week I've picked 5 "material" things I've really been loving lately. In no particular order...

[one] These Danskin workout tanks have been a favorite clothing item the last week or so. I've had a lot of time to spend studying at home as opposed to going into class so me and lounge wear have been besties. (let's be honest, we're besties all the time) But now that I have a growing belly I'm more particular about what I put on and these never disappoint. They're comfortable without being as sloppy as one of J's old t-shirts plus from Walmart, you can't beat the price.

[two] I posted a while ago about yummy breakfasts in green smoothies. Well first trimester and said-smoothies did not mesh well and just the thought of one had me gagging a few times. Now that my stomach has settled into fewer aversions, smoothies have been making a comeback! These aren't so green anymore but I'm working on adding the spinach back in. For now I'm happy that my fruit intake has gone up and these are such an easy way to accomplish that. Today's mix: 8oz strawberry greek yogurt, 1 banana, 2/3 c frozen raspberries, 1/2 c fresh blueberries and a splash of milk. 

[three] I'm definitely not a nail polish connoisseur but I do have my fair share of bottles stashed in the cabinet in the bathroom. I'm typically an Essie girl with a handful of OPI and cheap $1 bottles thrown in but usually can't allow myself to spend more than OPI-pricing on polish. However, I picked up two Butter shades a year or so ago during a sale and Tart with a Heart has been getting a lot of use lately. I've been sporting the oh-so-trendy ring finger with glitter look the last few weeks and this is my go-to glitter, hands down.

[four] Starbucks Frappy Hour is back starting yesterday and I will definitely be taking advantage of it when I can. I went through a stage where I didn't order fraps because I didn't think they had enough caffeine and I preferred "to spend money on the good stuff". Yikes! Well now that I've seriously cut back my coffee/caffeine addiction (the first step is admitting you have a problem, ha) these are sounding quite delicious. I'm usually a carmel kinda gal and I rarely stray from it but I would love to try something new. Anyone have a customized favorite they love? Any new ones I have to try?

[five] My mom and I have been doing dinners together this week since J has been out of town and we made this salad last night and it did not disappoint! I always love a good spinach base with lots of fresh, springy toppings. (not to mention my love for fruit and avocados over the last few weeks!) Plus the homemade dressing was the perfect addition, not too overwhelming but with enough flavor that complemented the whole thing. We grilled up some chicken breast on the side to give us some extra protein and were left stuffed and happy! I'll definitely be making this salad many times in the coming months.

Happy Friday and happy weekend, friends!

New Items to Etsy

There have been a few new additions to the Etsy shop today.

Care to take a look, do ya?

Just visit Like Sunday Morning to check them out.

And just because I'm feeling generous....

Here's a sneak peak!

Have a fabulous Friday!

The Christmas Spirit

via WeHeartIt

When I woke up this morning I had to run Christmas presents by J's house for his family to open before my family came over for the celebrations. On the way home I decided,

"you know what, I'm going to get my mom and I a Starbucks drink treat because well... it's Christmas"

I pull up to the drive-thru (which was at least 10 cars long and growing, surprising to me for the holiday but whatever) order two Grande, Nonfat, Extra Hot, Caramel Brulee Lattes (yum) and am prepared to pay $8+ for coffee that neither of us really needed and I didn't really have the money to spend on.

I get to the window, stick my arm out of the car with my credit card in hand and the barista-lady says to me...

"the person in front of you paid for your order. Merry Christmas"

Made. My. Day!

That is what the Christmas spirit is truly about. It never ceases to amaze me how something so little from a complete stranger can mean so much and how there will always be people out there with warmth, kindness and giving in their hearts. I hope everyone was able to be blessed with an amazing celebration today filled with great company, joy and a little rejuvenation.

PS- I will be MIA from blog land until after the New Year. Tomorrow is going to be spent packing and running last minute errands before J and I leave on our amazingly perfect trip to Hawaii that I'm jumping out of my skin in excitement for! Eeeee! I will be enjoying Mai Tais on the beach, sight-seeing and spending some much needed quality time with the man in my life. Please have a happy (and safe) New Years and I'll be back in 2011 with lots to post about some homemade gifts I made for the holiday season I couldn't share until now.

via WeHeartIt

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Tagged

It's about time that I got caught up on reading all the blogs that I've missed. I thought I had been doing at least a decent job.... then I realized only yesterday that I had been tagged by Nikki at The Fashionable Wife in a game of getting to know me almost two weeks ago!

Bad blogger friend, Jayme, bad!

So with that said here's how to play. Nikki asked everyone she tagged 8 different questions. To play, you respond to these 8 questions about yourself and then make 8 of your own questions. To pass it along you're supposed to tag 8 other bloggers and the game continues.

However, considering I'm a little pressed for time this morning (Ochem studying beckons) I'm just going to tag anyone and EVERYONE who wants to play! I'd love to read about all of your lives so let me know if you end up playing along.

____________________________________________

1. What is your favorite book?

Currently I am loving The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. I just finished the first book and can't wait for my mom to get here for Thanksgiving to let me borrow her copy of the second. But my all time favorite book has to be Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivet. It's about a young girl in a big family and is filled with love, romance, heartbreak and recipes!

2. How did you meet your significant other?

J and I met when we were both working at the same outdoor pools for the summers while I was still in high school. I started life-guarding there the summer after sophomore year and we knew each other my first summer at the pools. However, we didn't really get to know each other too well for the first couple years I worked there. It wasn't until the summer after my senior year that we really hit it off. I had been moved to a different facility and he happened to take a sub-shift there one day. One thing led to another, I happened to secretly put my phone number in his phone (total high school move I might add), he called, we went out and have been together ever since!

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I've been fortunate enough to do a bunch of traveling with my family to different islands (like Antigua) because we all love to scuba dive. However, and this is not to say that I don't love the beach and pina coladas and warm weather, I would absolutely love to go to Ireland and/or Italy. And a special note is that I want to go there (or anywhere) with J and J only. I love my family but I'd love to travel with him more.

4. What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?

I love being crafty and I love having something to work on that's fun. Whether it's knitting a blanket, putting pictures in frames, making embroidery-floss bracelets, using my new sewing machine (that hasn't gotten nearly enough use yet) or anything else, I'll sit and do it for hours. J's family has a tradition to make homemade gifts for Christmas and I can't wait to get started making mine. I've been doing a few fun things around our apartment that I'll be sharing soon.

5. If you didn't have to worry about money, what would be your dream job?

My dream job happens to be what I'm working on attaining. I want to be a Doctor. Specifically what kind of doctor I don't know yet but I'm sure I'll find my place once I manage to get into medical school. Now if only money really wasn't an issue and paying to send my AMCAS application and secondaries didn't leave my bank account with a sad face. Anyone care to lend me a few hundred dollars?

6. What is one thing that never fails to make you feel better after a long or hard day?

There are many things that belong in this category so I'll list a few.

- Coffee. At any time of day. And specifically, it makes my day 100 times better if I'm able to sit inside a Starbucks and enjoy the time without having to run here or study this or take care of that. But either way, give me a cup of Joe (like a Toffee Mocha) and I'll be happy.

- Clean sheets. I absolutely love getting into bed when it's brand new, folded nicely, and fresh as can be.

- Snuggling of any sort. Whether it's with J or with Ollie being able to shut my mind off for just a min and relax being with someone I love is such a blessing. My days lately have been so crazy and constantly thinking about something/stressing about something else/trying to do ten things at once, that I appreciate the down time I have even more.

7. What is your favorite thing to cook/bake? Or what is your best recipe?

I love to make anything dessert related. Whether it's cookies, or cakes, or pies etc etc I absolutely love it. Baking Christmas cookies is one of my favorite parts of the whole year as a matter of fact. This whole love may or may not have to do with my love for eating these items after they're done. ;-) To answer the second question, my favorite/best personal recipe has to be my Chili. I've changed the original recipe enough to be able to consider it my own and it always makes me happy to see J enjoy is so much.

8. What is your favorite thing in your closet? What is the one fashion thing you want the most?

I have a dress that I really enjoy wearing but find myself forgetting about it from time to time. It's super comfortable and casual, made of sweatshirt material, has pockets and a hood and looks good paired with my traditional navy Keds. I also adore my newest pair of American Eagle jeans, my tie-dye t-shirts, and my ArcTeryx jacket.

_____________________________________

Here are my questions for anyone else who wants to play.

1. Do you live in/near the town where you grew up? Why did you leave/what made you stay depending on your first answer?

2. Which chore around the house do you not mind doing and which do you absolutely hate?

3. What was the most recent movie you saw in the theaters?

4. Who in your family do you look most alike? Or do you not look like anyone?

5. Which would you choose/do you like more: cake or pie? Fruits or veggies? Coke or Pepsi?

6. What was your favorite part about high school?

7. What is one of your guilty pleasures?

8. If you could be any TV show character who would you be and why?

(These questions are fun enough I might have to make a post with my own answers)

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little more and I'm glad I got to play along. Thanks Nikki!

Rain, rain go AWAY

1. I need to learn to stop over cooking my oatmeal.... I'm not a fan of it being super gooey and that's how it keeps turning out.

2. Ollie acts like a big teenager when we wake up on Monday mornings. Yesterday he slept in until 10am (what a good sleeper) and then when 6 rolled around today he was not too happy. He refuses to not be laying down, he grunts and yawns and tries to go back to sleep. He's pretty much adorable.

3. I've finally finished some fall decorating in our apartment so keep an eye out if your interested in seeing what I've done. I'll be writing a post as soon as I can get some decent pictures.

4. We are out of milk which drives me crazy. I always want coffee and cereal in the mornings and the whole trying-not-to-spend-money thing when I can just make it myself is much harder when I'm struggling to wake up and need some caffeine. Why didn't I just go to the store yesterday when I had the time?

5. Does anyone have any suggestions of where else I should apply to medical school? I'm having a hard time increasing my number of schools because the ones I've already applied to are the ones I really love. I know I need to expand my list by at least 2 or 3 more schools, I'm just having a hard time deciding where. Where do you live? Do you like it? Is there a med school near by?

6. Its pouring here today and I am NOT A FAN! I despise the rain. Like seriously. There's no way to avoid getting wet. It takes twice (if not more) as long to get anywhere because people in Southern California freak out with a few drops and suddenly no one knows how to drive anymore. It makes taking Ollie out more difficult because he just wants to play and then comes in soaking. I absolutely hate having the bottom of my pants wet so I always wear shorts. Everywhere on campus is so much more crowded because everyone's crammed inside.

I'm done. I'm sorry. For all of you that enjoy the rain, I don't understand you but sometimes I wish I had your mindset so days like today wouldn't be so miserable for me. At least I get to wear my hot pink Crocs when it rains. (Don't judge me.)

Happy [rainy] Monday Everyone

Lists Sooth My Soul and Other Unrelated Things

My life has been pretty dang busy lately so that any down time I have is usually spent doing absolutely nothing so my brain can rest, catching up on my DVR shows or spending time with J and the pup. However, I thought it was about time that I checked back into blog-world (I am still reading everyone else's blogs even when I'm gone just FYI) and do a little update.

I've been obsessed/required for my sanity to keep everything in list form lately so that's how this will be too :-)

CONS

- I'm busy, if you haven't figured that out by now

- The vet was wrong about Ollie's flea situation. We followed exactly what she said, Benadryl and all, until Sunday night when we were playing on the floor and I found a live flea on him. This sparked a full body search, spraying with bug spray and finding at least half a dozen more fleas.

- Yesterday I had to Flea Fog our apartment. Talk about stressful! Maybe I was being over-paranoid about it but I was freaked out that something would spark a fire while it was going off so I unplugged everything in our whole apartment. That on top of disabling the smoke detectors, covering anything important, setting off two "bombs" and running, and spending 2+ hours out of the apartment with Ollie. I'm glad it's over.

- I'm making slooooow progress on the secondary application I'm currently working on! I would absolutely love to go to any possible school that will accept me but schools that aren't really high on my list have fallen to the back burner right now. And that needs to change. Today and tomorrow are dedicated to essay writing it is.

- It's only 7 weeks into the semester right now... I can't wait for it to be over already. Hopefully 9 weeks is enough time to get things under control.

- The weather in SD this fall, if you can even call it that, is really making me miss home this year for some reason. I truly miss seasons. This was the conversation at work this morning:

Ashley (age 4): I like fall time because you can jump in leaves.

Brendon (dad): What kind of leaves do you plan on jumping in? Palm tree leaves?

She's clearly influenced by a kids book about weather since leaf piles don't exist here like there are other places.

PROS

- I aced my first ochem test of the semester. I was worried that this class would be more difficult than the first semester but so far so good.

- J and I finally made it to the gym last night and I can happily say that I have a good-workout soreness going for me today. And it feels nice. I really hope I and/or we can make it back again soon.

- The "bombing" incident mentioned above did have it's perks. I got to spend time hanging out with the pup and taking him new places. He loves car rides so we went all over. On the list of course was Starbucks. I was beyond content sitting outside, drinking a mocha, reading my book, and looking at this below me. He likes the Bucks too.

- While at Target today I picked up the candy corn that I've been craving ever since it turned October. I bought the Autumn Mix because I love the pumpkin shaped ones plus the traditional ones. There may or may not have been a splurge for fall-colored peanut M&Ms too ;-)

- Last weekend we went on our first family hike. Granted we only went 2 miles, which amounts to maybe a quarter or a third up the mountain, but it was a great day! If it wasn't so warm here still we would have gone farther but our furry friend was roasting. He climbed like a pro and I was so proud of him.

- It's already 7 weeks into the semester right now. I can't believe were almost half way done. I hope these last 9 weeks go fast so Christmas time can come!

- One of the best times of my whole day, just ahead of when my head hits the pillow, are my morning snuggle sessions with my boy. He looooves our good belly rub and I just adore him.

- I've finally finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and absolutely loved it and can't wait to start the second book. Keep an eye out for a book review on my "I'm Reading What?" page if you want to hear more about it.

Happy Hump Day Everyone

Top 2 Tuesdays

Today I am too unmotivated/tired/have nothing interesting to say/have way too many other things that need to be written to write my own creative post. So instead, I thought I'd give you a quick update on things in my life and then play along with "Top Two Tuesdays"

1. Ollie isn't growing quite as fast as before but he's definitely turing into the best little dog. He's much darker than his original white puppy fur and his paws are large and awkward. He's learning his manners and is totally chill just hanging out with us in the evenings.

2. I spent the weekend getting stuff done around the apartment. I wish I could say that I got out and enjoyed the day

off yesterday but, sadly, I didn't. J took me to see Eat, Pray, Love on Saturday night so I was very happy about that. I really appreciate it when he does something specifically for me. I knew he wasn't stoked on seeing it but he did anyways and that's why I love him.

3. I have officially received four, yes FOUR, secondary applications for different medical schools that I have applied to. That means I've gotten replies from all but one school and to say that I'm excited is an understatement. I can't believe this is all happening so quickly and that I'm fortunate enough to get so many. Getting them finished and sent off is my top priority for the next few days. Now I know that it doesn't mean I'm actually in anywhere yet but hey, it's the next step in the process.

Top Two Favorite Things About Fall

1. Starbucks:

I love the variety of the Bucks all year but I specifically love it in the fall. Fall means Pumpkin Spice Lattes, cuddling up in a cozy chair with a good book and a grande hot drink, knowing that it's soon acceptable to order Peppermint Mochas with all their calories, and the best.... RED CUPS! It's so hard for me to walk by the two locations on campus, not to mention the three or four I drive by to get to campus, and not stop in for something that'll warm my heart. A good latte has a surprising effect to make classes fly by or help me pay attention when I just want to be somewhere else. Oh, red cups, where are you?

2. Thanksgiving: And not just because of the food. Okay, well the food is definitely up there on the list. I'm a sucker for a good stuffing, turkey with lots of black pepper and pie. But not pumpkin pie, no thanks to that. Give me a warm slice of apple pie with a little whipped cream on top, sigh.... my stomach is growling at the thought. But more importantly, I love Thanksgiving because we get to see our families. For me that means a good trip back to CO and a lovely, much needed, break from the semester. Plus Thanksgiving time means that Christmas is just around the corner and it's appropriate to put up the tree!

Hope you all are enjoying the changing seasons and the start of fall.

(even though it's technically still summer, oops)

Love like crazy

There have been a handful of eventful (or at least eventful for me) things that have happened in the past few days so I thought I'd share. I'll probably bore most of you because, well, who cares about these things other than me? But I digress....

* I went to Starbucks this morning for my usual order of a grande, iced, non-fat, caramel macchiato. I paid and was sitting in my car wishing they would hurry up because I didn't feel like using my air conditioning to cool the world when the barista hands me a venti-said-drink. Feeling in an honest mood or thinking that I would have bad karma for the rest of the day, I said "umm I only paid for a grande." She smiled at me, said thank you, told me if it was her she would have taken it & run and then proceeded to make me the grande I was supposed to have. Then, handed me both drinks and said I was honest enough to deserve both. So I sit here drinking a venti latte and smile knowing there's a grande for tomorrow morning sitting in the fridge waiting for me. Honesty is the best policy I guess.

*School is starting in 5 days and I have to admit that this is the first fall semester I'm not even a little bit excited for. Usually I'm such a nerd that I'm ready to be back in the swing of classes and a routine but this semester.... not at all. Maybe that's because I was so busy and so stressed in the spring or maybe it's because we may or may not have NO AC in any building on campus! I sweat just thinking about that possibility. A water main on campus burst a few days ago and they are racing to get it fixed so they can restart the air conditioning. It's been close to 100 degrees every day for at least a week and isn't supposed to be cooling down anytime soon. Some classrooms are hot even with the ac blasting. Let's hope they get it fixed, ASAP, but at least before Monday.

*My car has been the target for many birds in the last few weeks so I decided it was time to give it a wash. The whole time I was there, while getting out of my car, paying, washing and leaving, I was being starred down by an older man in trashy/dirty clothes, holding a 40 oz of beer, just standing next to his car. Can you say creepy? It was not even 11 am and he was drinking which is creepy in itself not to mention the fact that he was obviously staring at a college age girl in the parking lot. I got in and out of that car wash as quick as I could.

*My puppy is no longer looking like a puppy but is starting to be more of a big boy dog now. He's lost his sweet smelling puppy breath which is the worst part for me. He's also grown these long and lean legs and stands taller every day. We've had to start brushing him every day because his fluffy "lamb fur" has started to shed and he has a big dog coat underneath. My little boy is not so little anymore either, I weighed him yesterday and he weighs 30 lbs now! Where did my sweet puppy go and who is this dog that's taken his place?

*I am currently in love with the song "Love like Crazy" by Lee Brice. If you're a country fan (or even if you aren't) and haven't heard this song, you must go listen to it now. Maybe it's because I've been with the BF for so long or maybe it's because we've started planning our life and future together but the lyrics of this song touch a special place in my heart and I can't stop listening to this song.

Be a best friend, tell the truth,

And overuse I love you

Go to work, do your best,

Don't outsmart your common sense

Never let your prayin' knees get lazy

And love like crazy

Ahh Mondays

Today is Monday which means I will most likely do nothing productive today. The boyfriend always hassles me that I don't do much on any day but hey, I frankly don't care. School is starting sooner than I'd like and I'll be plenty busy then.

On today's list...

1. Dealt with some cranky, crabby, crying girls this morning at work. I never thought a four and two year old could have such a bad case of the Mondays. Proved me wrong. It took a good "breathe in, breath out" for me to not send the little one to school in her pajamas and pee-filled diaper. Hopefully tomorrow goes more smoothly. *Fingers crossed*

2. I've made some good progress on my newest read, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I've neglected my Nook for the past few days and I plan on doing some more reading this afternoon.

3. I want to watch this movie. We've had it rented from Blockbuster thru the mail for way too long and BF is clearly not interested in seeing it since he said, "oh I thought you watched that already" just last night. I think it looks good, I'll make sure to let you know if you must must must see it, or if you shouldn't bother.

4. Of course I'm playing along with Mingle Monday over at [Life of Meg] and I highly suggest anyone interested in finding new blogs to read and new followers for their own blog go check it out.

5. I may or may not give into my craving for a Carmel Frap from the good 'ol Bucks this afternoon. I have to say that I'm very proud of myself for not going through the super convenient, want to go every day, drive thru Starbucks up the street from our new apartment every morning. I haven't even been once! I know, I'm proud too. But, it's been a while and Fraps are always perfect for hot afternoon pick-me-ups.

6. If you remember from a while ago, I did a post about my newest, fav summer nail polish color and I think it's time for me to use it again. Ooo, I can paint my toes and watch a movie at the same time. Who says I can't check things off my To-Do list today!

7. And of course, I'll spend the majority of the day playing with, snuggling, feeding, loving, and watching this little guy. There's nothing quite like puppy love is there?

What are your Monday to-do's?

Currently [v1]

I am...

*confused.... as to why I had a dream last night where I was a nanny for the Duggar Family (yes that family on TLC that has 19 kids... or maybe it's 20 now?) And while I was there Amber (the partly-crazy, always-yelling teen from the MTV show Teen Mom) came by for some "advice on how to be a better mom" and how to convince her chubbs of a fiance to let her have four more kids. Weirdest dream I've had in a long time. Maybe it's a sign that I watch these shows too often?

*obsessed.... with this lotion recently. I have had this same bottle since senior year of high school and yes, I have a problem finishing beauty products. But I recently dug to the back of the cabinet under the sink and was pleasantly surprised and have been using it every day since. It's almost done too!

*wishing.... I owned a staple gun. Or someone I knew owned a staple gun. I got in an odd mood this afternoon and want to reupholster our chairs at our kitchen table. They're very plain and also very spotted. They could use a new finish but sadly, I'm not about to go buy a gun just for this.

*contemplating.... getting a new coffee cup, specifically one that isn't Christmas related. Yes, I love my annual Starbucks mugs that I've collected over the years but I sometimes feel silly using them in August. I have a few other mugs that aren't holiday-ish but they're too small (aka tall sized instead of grande.) I may have to check out the clearance supplies at the Bucks next time I'm there.

*delighted.... that I was able to find a pair of brown, strappy, 3-inch heals at Target last week for.... drum roll please..... $4.95! I know, I know, what an absolute steal! Originally they were $25 so needless to say, they were in my basket and out the door with no second thought. I've been needing a pair of brown heals for a while now but never wanted to spend the money for full priced shoes.

*sad.... that I spent more time than usual to get ready this morning (which included trying new things for my make-up and curling my hair) but had no where to go. Sure I took the pup out to potty and I stopped by Big Lots but I can bet the lady at the register didn't appreciate my curls. But hey, I had the time during the usual 10 am nap and wanted to be put together. At least I thought I looked good even if no one else noticed.

*in love.... like L. O. V. E. lurve with this little guy. He's been the perfect puppy lately. Finally starting to get the hang of housebreaking, loves to cuddle when he's not too hot, and is walking on a leash and up the stairs like a champ now. Did I mention he's already starting to lose his puppy size and shape and starting to look like a little dog already? Brought him home two weeks ago and he was 14 lbs. Today he was 23 lbs! Why must he grow so quickly?

*surprised.... that the lack of dishwasher in our new apartment hasn't been as big of a deal as I thought it would be. My feelings may or may not change once school starts and I have more to do every day so the dishes will have more opportunity to pile up but for now, no biggie. Do the dishes throughout the day and then once after dinner and we have a clean counter. However, I am partly retarded when it comes to the actual washing part and it never fails that I end up getting water either on my shirt, shorts, counter, floor or all of the above. You'd think I've never touched a sponge in my life.

on my caffein addiction

So I've been trying to cut back on the amount of caffein and more specifically coffee that I have lately because I think it's starting to have negative effects on me. For a long time, back when I didn't drink coffee as often, I always had to eat something with it. It's almost as if it would be too acidic on my stomach and too strong. I'd end up with a stomach ache and feeling really jittery. Neither of those things happen to me anymore which was my first sign that I was becoming too used to it.

Then I started getting headaches from not having coffee. I'd sleep in and know that I didn't need the coffee to wake me up. But I'd always end up with a headache. I knew they weren't just normal headaches either because I'd make myself drink more water thinking "oh maybe I'm just dehydrated" and I even resorted to taking a couple Tylenol (something I normally don't do) but the headaches would not go away. The only thing that would make these headaches go away was to either take a nap or drink coffee. I honestly felt like a crack addict some days. I was getting the headaches because my body was so used to the caffein and wasn't getting it anymore. And that's when I decided to stop drinking it as much.

But here's the biggest problem I have with my new change; I love coffee. For me, drinking coffee in the mornings is always more because I enjoy drinking it than because I needed it to wake myself up. I love making it myself instead of buying it from Starbucks because it's much more custom that way. I love the taste and the warmth and the smell. I love the idea of waking up every morning, sitting at the table, drinking coffee and eating a bowl of cereal. I love it because it's sort of like my little routine, my little daily tradition. And I think all of these reasons contribute to the fact that my body was becoming addicted to it. I wasn't just drinking it when I needed it to get through the morning but rather I was drinking it because I wanted to.

I told myself that I was only going to drink coffee on days I woke up to an alarm. Simple enough I think. On the days that I don't use my alarm it means I'm waking up when my body is ready to be awake and has gotten enough energy for the day. Now, just to clarify, I'm not going to set an alarm at 10:00 am just to say "I used my alarm today." This way the only effect I'll feel from the lack of daily caffein is tiredness and that is much more normal and healthy then my body being addicted.

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee.

~Flash Rosenberg