April

is a promise

that May

is bound to keep.

*H. Borland

In Honor of Earth Day...

Ok, so I know what you're thinking: "Danielle moved to Denver and is now a tree-hugging hippie due to too much time spent in Boulder." Haha! Not entirely true, but I have changed/opened my outlook on many things since moving here. Or maybe that's just part of growing up. Either way, I thought I would pay respect to our planet today, considering it is Earth Day after all. My family did not recycle growing up, and to be honest, ad campaigns weren't "in your face" about going green like they are now. Now its all we hear about. But back in the old days of the early 90's recycling wasn't a priority for many families. Ours was no different.

But now that I have my own house, I try my best to recycle as much as I can. And I have even abolished paper plates (in reality, I ran out and decided it may be better not to use them anymore). I can feel myself getting "crazier" as I try to come up with more green ways to live. We have changed almost every light bulb in the house, and I'm thinking about switching over to environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. I will admit one big guilty pleasure though: my aerosol hairspray. Not sure I will ever be able to give that up! ;) So now, for your reading pleasure, I have included a few facts about recycling. Part of the reason for the listing of these facts is the "teacher within" coming out in me; but the truth is they really are important.

Props to those of you that already recycle! If I could, I'd put a cheesy ol' smiley face sticker on your shirt! :) Job Well Done.

Every little bit helps, do your part!

Enjoy & Happy Earth Day!

Did you know...

• Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours

• If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year

• ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer

• Recycling just 1 ton of aluminum cans rather than throwing them away conserves more than the equivalent of 36 barrels of oil

** For more information about Going Green, click HERE.

*Source: http://www.resourcefulschools.org/facts.html

Life = Beautiful!

This is by far the most exciting time of year! And by this I mean the hope of Summer is just around the corner. Summer is my favorite season of all, and the warm days of Spring get my mind so ready for those smoldering hot days of Summer! If you ignore the fact that our weekend weather was terrible (a good ten inches of snowy, slushy, get your jeans wet and your hair ruined rain) you will see that Denver is known for its sunshiny days like today. Days where I wake up to sun coming through the slats of the shades, and looking forward to taking Sadie outside just to see how warm it is. Days when I think and think all day to decide what to make for dinner that we could eat outside on our cute little green umbrella-ed table. These are the best days. Especially if you consider my great morning which included a cardio class at the gym followed by lunch and shopping for hair products with a great friend at an exclusive place shop-able only by those who have a coveted cosmetologist license in the State of Colorado (or those with a friend who does). :)

So as I sit here, my chicken is broiling for some yummy chicken enchiladas for a "picnic" dinner outside with Jamie and Jordan tonight (and I would be mistaken if I forgot to add our adorable little dogs to the mix, who happen to be best friends and completely obsessed with each other). The weather is a wonderful 66* and our landscape lights hung on the fence ready for many a meal in the backyard. Life is beautiful!

I am making 2 new goals as of last week. Here they are:

1. Work out at LEAST 3 times a week

2. Come up with new ideas for dinner, so I can continue to enjoy cooking more and more (those of you who know me well probably realize that I'm not the biggest fan...Rachel Ray is trying to help me!

Feel free to bug me and ask me how these things are going...I need the accountability. But, so far so good.

I have uploaded some recent pictures of activities at the Rupp house...

Enjoy your week! I know I will :)