Lust List: A Royal Baby, Homeland and Addicting Burgers

This Lust list has a bit of everything. Pop culture frenzy, a drama filled Showtime series and an addicting meatless burger you have to have.

At around half past 4 pm. local time, William and Kate welcomed the third heir to the British throne. For all those following #RoyalBabyWatch (sorry, had to) there were theories as to whether she was having a boy or girl. Of course I wished she was having a mini Kate, but alas, it was a boy. Frankly, I don't care what gender it is, I'm just stoked to see how Kate dresses the little bugger. :) 

 I'm not one of those people who tell you "OMG you have to watch this." But honestly, you need to watch Homeland. Season 3 is going to start September 29, so you have more than enough time to watch the first 2 seasons (there is only 12 episodes per season) On Demand on Comcast or via Netflix. Each episode leaves you with your mouth open, screaming at your TV, wanting more. Just when you think you know what is going on, it flips on it's head. You can't just watch one episode in one sitting. I dare you.

Everyone knows the best thing about going to Costco is all the free food stations. I have been eying Black Bean burger recipes on Pinterest for a while, so when Costco had these samples, I was thrilled. They were fantastic. For me, you can't even tell the burger is made without meat, because it's so flavorful and has the perfect amount of spice. I choose to eat mine protein style, with no bun, with chopped veggies on top (tomatoes, avocado, etc.) with sweet potato fries. 

What are you all lusting over right now? 

xoxo, Courtney

Prayers for Boston

My mom's Boston Marathon Jacket

Edited: 4/17/13
 
This was definitely not the post I was going to do today. But considering how close to home the events from today were, I couldn't not say something.

My mom ran the Boston Marathon Monday, her first time in the prestigious race. She had qualified before, but sickness and injury had enabled her from competing. So this was her year, and getting to say that "my mom is running in the Boston Marathon" made me so proud. She works hard, almost too hard when it comes to her fitness, and running is her release, her drug, per se. 

I wanted to go to Boston to watch her run for it's probably a once and a lifetime chance, but work issues made me stay at home. Plus, she would be able to reunite with her brother and sister, a mini reunion of sorts. 

So Monday morning came, and I sent my mom a good luck text and started my work day. I didn't hear myself about what happened, I found out when I looked at my phone and saw half a dozen text messages asking if my mom was okay. It took many phone calls (I think I counted over 40), and too many texts to count to put together the pieces of that morning. I first talked to my brother Dylan, who told me there were explosions at the finish line at the 4:09:00 finish time and that is roughly my mom's pace. 

When Dylan said this, I had a mini panic attack because I had yet to know the extent of the tragedy. I also was thinking about my aunt and uncle who should also be at the finish line to watch my mom come in. 

After a call to my uncle back in Arizona, he passed on the information to me that my aunt and uncle saw my mom around mile 20 and she motioned she wasn't feeling well and slowed her pace down. After that they got on the train to meet my mom at the finish. Luckily they were still on the train when the bombs went off. 

When they did, things got chaotic, cell phone towers jammed, and it took hours for her to find my aunt and uncle. She explained that she couldn't hear the explosions, but a hoard of runners came toward them looking concerned and yelling things at them. The thousands of remaining runners were rerouted, but the runners were still in a craze. My mom said she was so cold and in "pretty bad shape" when a spectator gave her her fur jacket. We have been hearing a lot about the selflessness of others on Monday, and my mom said spectators, EMT and Police were outstanding in responding to the events.

Now that I have had time to decompress, calm down, and relax, I am overwhelmed with emotions yet again. I am terribly shocked about what happened, and that my mom was there in all of the chaos. I am saddened by the loss of life, but glad that more were not taken (I hope this stays true as the days go on). I am so sad and upset that my mom had to go through something like this alone, confused, and on a day that is supposed to be so exciting and fun. But in the end, I am so angry and sad for my mom, who was so excited to finally complete one of her biggest goals and accomplishments, only to have it cut short by half a mile.  

Thoughts and Prayers...

I hate waking up to news so tragic as senseless death at the hands of terrible monsters. But what happened this morning in Newtown, CT was far more worse than I could have imagined. I feel like we are unfortunately getting so accustomed to seeing these acts of violence in the news so often it's becoming less shocking. It's been almost 15 years since the massacre at Columbine High School and I feel like only more acts similar to this have occurred, not less.

I can't bare to watch the news coverage about the story any more, because all I can think of is the young souls, the babies who were blindsided of their life, of becoming amazing individuals. It's an emotion of half immense sadness and extreme anger at the individual who committed this act. My greatest fear is losing the people I love, and imagining the pain these people are going through is heart breaking.

These selfish, inexcusable, senseless acts need to stop. And we as a country need to stop providing these monsters with the weapons for carrying out these acts. No regular Joe Schmo needs a semi automatic pistol. Period. If legislation can help save one life, it is worth changing. 

I am broken hearted over the acts from this morning, and pray for the families who were affected.