My favorite superhero

Micah and I saw The Avengers movie when it first came out a few weeks ago. It was great! Micah’s always been a bit of superhero junkie. Apparently, he really felt inspired.

I know, I shouldn’t be revealing the true identify of a superhero. So, please keep this secret.

I was lucky enough to snag a picture with this masked avenger.

Our hero! Fighting crime…or handing out gum – both are very important to society.

So this was really for a work thing. They had asked Micah to dress up as Captain America, along with a number of other people who dressed up as other Avenger characters. I never quite saw the connection, but still – people loved it, even the little kids who happened to see him and wanted to their picture next to this superhero. Awwww.

Checking in…

Hi guys! It’s uh, been awhile. Let’s just say, it’s been a crazy few months and my blog had to go on the backburner. I’m going to try REALLY hard to not let it go unattended for so long in the future.

There’s been LOTS going on! My last post was over two months ago! Since then:

• We went to Vancouver, Canada for a weekend getaway – filled with yummy eats, shopping, sightseeing and just general lounging. It was great!
• We went to Mexico for our Gabe and Charissa’s wedding – post to come
• I was in Salt Lake City for 10 days for work – it’s a really fun city with great food, pretty impressive architecture, and friendly people
• We found a house we loved (that I never set foot in). And we didn’t get it. The sellers went with someone else.
• I was working like a freaking dog – I’m seriously not kidding. I worked EVERY single day, including Saturdays and Sundays for a month straight
• We started up flag football again – it’s been fun to get out there
• My car got broken into!
• AND finally…we BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! More to come on that for sure.

I’m not gonna lie. It hasn’t been an easy few months. Work has pretty much filled up all my time and energy – and that’s tough for me given that I was looking for more work/life balance when I left my old job. But I’m EXTREMELY lucky to have Micah – as he has been there to handle all the stuff I can’t…which has been a lot!!!

4 years from now…

I saw an interesting article about celebrating Leap Day by eating a meal you’d only have every four years. Unfortunately, I just read this article and Leap Day is nearly over…and I had your pretty generic run of the mill meals today. Nothing memorable.

I wish I had done something to mark this day…something I could reflect upon four years from now. Instead, I spent most of the day doing what I do most other days – working. But perhaps I can prognosticate about what I think our life will be the next time Leap Day rolls around.

Four years from now…

• Micah and I will have a house!
• We will still both be working for Nordstrom
• We will have travelled internationally (I’m thinking Europe)
• We will have another niece or nephew (not saying from who)
• We will still be active and in as good of shape as we are today
• We won’t be driving the same cars we are today
• We will have gone bungee-jumping, skydiving – or something similar

It’s really hard to do this. What would you predict for yourself four years from now?

Another challenge bites the dust

February…we started a little rough, but in the end – I persevered. So my 31 day challenge this month (which technically, doesn’t end for me until Friday), was to take my vitamins daily. Sure, not a big deal for some – but I’m awful about doing this. And given that, ahem, we aren’t getting any younger – it’s a good thing to make this sort of behavior a habit.

Yes, I missed a couple of days…but that was it. Multi-vitamin – check! Fish oil – check! B-12 – check!

I do plan on continuing this on and with the same consistency I had during my challenge.

March will be an interesting month given that:

• Micah and I are going to Vancouver this weekend
• Micah and I will be in Mexico for 5 days later in the month (for our friend’s wedding) YAY!!!
• And when we return, I’ll immediately head off to Utah for work for 9 nights/10 days.

So in lieu of quantity of days, I’m choosing to focus on intensity of the challenge. Plus, I gotta get in beach shape!

So for my March “31” day challenge – which will start after our Vancouver trip and end when we leave for Mexico, and restart when we return – is a hybrid of some of my past challenges:

• No sweets
• No meat (but fish and seafood ok)
• Workout 5 or more days a week (this I’ll continue without any stoppage)

Yes, it may sound a little screwy with my start/stop/start/stop. But in total it will be 23 days. AND…as I always say, “this is my challenge, my rules!!”

The deadly office corner

This is what lurks nearby my desk. On a long, stressful day (and usually one where I’ve had no time to eat lunch), I often find myself making a pit stop at one of the many deadly office corners.

Not sure why it’s Halloween everyday in our building…but guaranteed, if you are in need of some sugar, there’s a solution to that just a few steps and a corner away.

Trending with me

Sorry folks – it’s been a crazy few weeks. I haven’t had much time or energy to put towards blogging – as you have probably noticed. Quite sad really. I haven’t been reading. I haven’t been baking. I’ve barely been following what’s going on in the world. There’s taxes still left to do, a house that still needs a major cleaning, and a number of baby shower and birthday gifts to purchase. Ah…my to do list is insanely growing.

And quite honestly, since I’ve primarily been devoting my time to work (which I hope will change once I really figure out what I’m doing) – I haven’t had anything to blog about!

But here are some things currently trending with me:

1. Fage Greek Yogurt with fruit:

• Apparently it’s pronounced “fah-yeh”
• Plain Fage with no fruit – is bland and hardly palatable.
• Fage with fruit or honey – is awesome and delicious.
• It’s a great snack, filled with lots of protein and other good stuff that comes with Greek yogurt
• You can get a 12 pack from Costco with three different fruit flavors…and I love them all!

2. Muscle Milk Light – Vanilla Crème:

• This is a delicious high protein, low in calorie, lactose-free drink
• I’ve always been a drinker of the chocolate flavor, and was so excited to see a Vanilla option at Costco
• It’s a perfect on the go snack and helps when you have those sweet cravings
• Remember: Consume something with protein within 45 minutes of working out, otherwise you are cheating yourself of the full benefit of your workout

3. Dried blueberries:

• Apparently I have a Costco thing going on b/c you get these from Costco
• Dried blueberries are sooo delicious
• Mix them with some nuts and you have a great tasting trail mix
• I love to mix a handful in with my steel cut oatmeal in the morning…yum!

4. Ultimate Sandbag:

• As some of you may know, I’m an avid Bodyrocker (www.bodyrock.tv)
• I recently picked up this sandbag and incorporated it into my workouts
• It comes with durable bags that you fill with however much weight in sand you want
• It is a great way to up the challenge and intensity of workouts
• I love it so far! And yes…mine is pink, just like this one

So there you go. I hope you are inspired to try some of these out too!!

Double space no more

One of the many adjustments I’ve had to make with my new job is something that’s been really hard to do…no more double spacing after a period!! It’s an old-fashioned (literally as in when “we” were all using typewriters) concept and not necessary anymore now that we all have computers. But it’s a very hard behavior to break. I’ve been double-spacing it since my days in keyboarding class in junior high.

So now I’m going through a period of unlearning the double space. It’s been hard, but I’m making progress now. But it does show that even some of the strongest and most engrained behaviors can be changed. I mean, this is a mindless thing I’ve been doing for the majority of my life!

But if you can put some purposeful attention towards it – then you can recognize when you are doing it, and then take the steps right then and there to change it. For me, the “it” was double spacing. For you, the “it” might be something else.

Barely February

It’s just days into February and it’s already a big FAIL for my February challenges. I was intending to challenge myself to take my vitamins everyday. That is, my daily multivitamins (in gummy bear form), fish oil, and B12. I’m awful about remembering to take my fish oil and B12 – but oddly enough, always remember to take my gummy vitamins But I’ve already slipped two days now. Boooo. I’ll do my best to make it only those two days that I miss for the rest of the month. So far, not a great start.

And we’re back…sort of

Hi guys! It’s been awhile…a whole month to be exact. I didn’t post in January because well 1) I had NO time and 2) I opted that to be my 31 day challenge – I know, that’s kind of lame. But as I always say, it’s my 31 day challenge – feel free to do your own challenge with your own rules.

I’ll do my best to blog more…but it’s going to be tough – mainly because of my new job. With any new job, there’s a lot to navigate – the culture, the people, the vocabulary, the work, etc. etc. I’m really liking it, but it’s no piece of cake. And I am finding myself with little time and mental energy at the end of the day.

January was an action-packed, fun-filled month. Recaps to come. But to summarize – no less in limerick form:

We were in Hawaii for 9 wonderful days
we went to the beach and soaked up some rays.

We got to spend time with Brian, Tera and my nieces
It was so fun and I miss them to pieces!!!

We ate lots of good food, including shave ice
and nearly every meal we ate included two scoops of white rice.

For two nights, we stayed in a beautiful ocean-view suite
We didn’t have to pay a thing, what an awesome treat!

We saw Zoe and Russ get married in an amazing ceremony
And partied the night away with fun friends and family.

We came home to Seattle all covered in white snow
But not quite enough – off to work we had to go

But then more snow fell and we did not venture outside
We worked from home, snuggled, and stayed warm and dry.

Our friends hosted a murder mystery dinner, it was such a hit
We dressed in costumes, ate yummy food, and guessed whudunnit?

Micah’s birthday was filled with Japanese food and sake
We ate and drank and sang lots and lots and lots of karaoke!!!!

And the very next day, what does he want for his special birthday dinner?
Japanese food of course, that’s a no brainer.

The search continues for “our” house, but nothing so far
Oh, and last night…someone hit my car.

The month has flown by and I’m excited to see
What new things I can rhyme about for the month of February!

I’ll get around to posting pics, I promise!!

WePhones!

My last day of work at T-Mobile was this past Friday.  (YAYYYYY!!!) And…the first thing Micah and I did after we got off work was…switch to iPhones!  It made sense to be with T-Mobile when I was working there (given the fact that we got a fabulous employee discount).  But, since we’ll be paying for regular (i.e. ridiculously expensive) plans, we wanted to get phones we actually wanted. 

Micah used to have the original iPhone and I have an iPod touch – so we are already very used to the operating system and user interface.  Easy to use, WAY longer battery life, and an endless number of fun cases to accessorize your phone.

As a going away present, my awesome friend Kendra got us these adorable iPhone cases.  Love them!

You can pretty much find a case to fit ANY style and flavor out there.  Here are a few fun ones. 

Look how good that one looks!

 

Genius!!

 

The back looks just like an old school Nintendo controller.  Awesome!