HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SPARKY

Happy 34th birthday Sparky. I love you so much, and wish you only happiness for the following years to come.



Unfortunately we don't get to celebrate birthdays the way I'd like to, but I always try and do a little something to make it known that today is his day.



( Don't be fooled by the man in drag, that is in fact, Mr. Wonderful....lol)



Every year we have 3 major things come up during our Halloween season. C's birthday,  my birthday and our anniversary. We always push the celebration back to November, when we can finally relax, and really enjoy our time. I think this year, we're finally taking leave from our business to head down to Southern California for a weekend, and see another haunted house and have a fancy dinner. We're going to sort of wing it, on a slow week for us, but once our plans are in motion i'll be sure to post about it!

NEW LOOK, NEW PLAN

If you haven't noticed already, I gave my blog a "fall" make over. I've been playing with a few ideas for a couple weeks now, and knew I wanted to incorporate fall, but I wasn't quite ready to go all orange, red and black. So I went on a different spectrum and made it "Shabby Fall"

I may tweak a few things here and there, but it'll be nice to look at for the next 4 months, and then I'll swing into Christmas gear...( holly crap, Christmas? really? It's coming so soon!)


Also, some big and exciting news.

I think C and I have finally agreed on when we'd like to start the process of getting married....(again) We're very seriously toying with the idea of New Years Eve, and inviting all of our close friends and family to Portland to ring in the new year and to celebrate our transition into a new, better, year. We both I agreed not to stress over any details while we're working on our Halloween season, but once things calm down in the first week or two, we're going to set something in stone.

We have decided to either throw the party on New Years or elope some place tropical and have a reception sometime next year.

Again, we're not doing anything huge, because of all the money we lost last year, I'm just looking forward to finally making our commitments and start focusing on building our family.


I wont have internet or computer access for the next few days as we make our transition into California, but once we get everything up and going I'll be sure to post about our trip!

THE HAPPY POST

I think my very heart filled, sad blogging days are passing by. I'm starting to look forward to our trip down south now, in anticipation of our business opening.

We scored some amazing marketing deals this year, which was all thanks to yours truly. I love when I can come up with a idea that nobody thinks we can get to happen, and then you know what? I talk, and talk and talk and make it happen. Once we get opened I can share what those deals are, but for now, I have to stay mum about it, because we do have competition, and they could possibly see my FB page, which has a link to this blog. And I'm smart like that to watch my back :)

In addition to making deals, we've also secured all of our hired help. That was a big stress weighing in on me, since I don't have a lot of time to interview. There is still one variable, with someones schedule, but I think we'll get it worked out.


We finally got the phone call yesterday about our apartment of choice. It's in a really good area, and close to our location, plus they take dogs up to 100 lbs which was a huge deal for us!

They dont have a lot of availability, and they're a little higher on the price scale, but in our opinion it's worth it.
We got a 1 bed 1 bath which is def a change for us, since we have over 2000 sq ft in our current house, but we'll make it work.

I'm on the hunt in our house for what we can bring and what has to stay. For instance, instead of buying a bed down there, and spending money we don't have right now, we're taking our guest bedroom bed. We're also taking a few pieces o furniture I've redone, like a TV stand, night stand and a coffee table. 

We still need to find a couch, because there is no way in hell I'm moving our beast down 1 flight of very narrow stairs and up another flight of stairs into our apartment. It sort of grosses me out that I'm going to buy a used couch, but I have a carpet and upholstery shampoo machine, so I'll be able to get it clean, and then just buy a washable couch cover.

We bought plastic dishes at Target, so that's one less thing I need to take out of my kitchen. However, I love to bake in the fall, and I especially love having 150 cast members to bake for, so I'll be taking all of my baking utensils. Plus whatever every day stuff we'll need.


Everything is going smooth, C and I are both on board, both helping each other out, both accomplishing our to do list, and we're doing it together. That's a big step from last year, a HUGE one.


All is right in our world right now, and I can't ask for more then that.

2 WEEKS...

In 2 weeks we'll begin our journey back down to California for another Halloween season. I will be packing up all of the bare essentials and leaving the rest behind. My bed will not have anyone to lay on it for 3 whole months. The TV we had to save for 6 months, will not have any use. The fridge and freezer will be emptied, the cable turned off. The potted herbs that are growing so well will be carted down to a new state, where the heat will more then likely kill them.

The windows will be shut and locked, and when we return, they will not be opened since it will be nearly winter time. The water will come out slightly brown because it hasn't been ran for some time. The house will lack any warmth, any love, and any of us.

Spencer wont get to run with his best friend Oscar ( the neighbor dog) My favorite little girl will be bigger, and taller and have to get used to me again . There will be houses actually built in the field Spencer used to run so freely in.

I will miss our gym, that we frequent 3 days a week plus a boot camp. I wont have boot camp.

I will be spending more money on groceries, house payments, and sales tax. Gas will be more expensive. Our AC bill will be through the roof because Sacramento summers last until October and usually hover around 98 degrees on a cool day.

I wont have my own computer, just C's work computer. I wont have my own office, bathroom or 3 stories. I wont be able to watch all my favorite shows since we wont have cable, and chances are I wont have time for hulu.com. Cooking and baking will slowly die down, since my kitchen will be small and I wont have the energy after a 14 hour work day and lots of heavy lifting.

Having a business posts challenges and lots of changes. Carlos is reading a book; Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And in that book he says " you can't be afraid of change or you will fail. Failure is essential in business, everyone must fail in order to succeed"

So to me he says, be afraid of change, let yourself fail. It's okay. It will only help you in the long run, it will only help you grow and become more successful.

But what he doesn't know is; I'm not afraid of my business, I'm afraid of my life. I'm afraid of what was suppose to be. I'm afraid of our old cast asking too many questions that will inevitability break me down. I'm afraid people will think differently of me, and not see me as the person in charge. They will see my weakness, and take advantage of me. Or worse yet, they will feel sorry for me.

So please, during my journey down to another year of Halloween madness, say a prayer for me. Send me your kind words, encouragement, and support. I will need every last ounce of it.

 There are positives to every situation, and I'm trying so hard to see them all.


I am grateful, I am loved, I have support and that's all that matter in the end.

SUMMMER TIME BLOGGING BLUES

This always happens. As soon as I get busy, the sun starts shinning, I can't sit down in my chair long enough to get one single blog post written, let alone the 10 I have planned. This is going to be a loooong fall season of trying to plan blogging world with real life world.

Truth be told, I sort of loose interest. I generally take lots of photos of stuff we're doing but sometimes it feels forced because I have to get the perfect picture for my blog, and that in and of itself can be frustrating. I obviously have a big ol' professional camera, that takes really good photos; and those are the ones I like to post. But lately, it's been A) Way too hot to have that thing around my neck and B) Subject-able conditions ie; wet, dust, dirt etc. So to make a long story short. I have only been using my cell phone and my crappy small digital camera which doesn't take the best photos. I'm going to through my picture Nazi self to the side and post the darn photos anyway! ;)


I know I have quite a few posts to recap about California, and I will; but first more up to date stuff.


This weekend we topped out at 96 on Friday, 103 on Saturday and 98 on Sunday. To say it's been hot, would be a pure understatement. I think Oregon finally got on the summer band wagon and came in at full force.

Sparky and I knew it was going to be hot this weekend, so we made plans to spend our days on a new lake we found.
After quite a bit of research and trying to find the best pet friendly swimming spots, I came up with our local lake located just 20 minutes away.

C and I decided we needed a cool raft, so we trekked to 4 different stores looking for one, and finally purchased one we thought would be big enough for us  and the dog.



 After getting the thing air filled, we realized with the 2 of us, the dog and a cooler there was NO way we would all fit. So much for what the box said. 4 person raft and up to 900lbs.

Spencer had to stay home, boo :(

Once we finally got to the lake, all was well in my world again. I just couldn't wait to jump in and get cooled off!



The water, was surprisingly pretty warm. Oregon hasn't had that many hot days this summer, so I thought for sure I'd be screaming bloody murder my first dunk in..

Once we got everything off the truck, we were making our way down to the water front. There was quite a few people, so I thought nothing of what seemed to be dry mud. I was so, so wrong. I took 3 steps in and was completely stuck. I'm pretty sure I said a few swear words, and i'm also pretty sure I gave C the snottiest look I could come up with all the while yelling at him to get me out. poor guy.

Not a good start, that's for sure...


We finally made in the water, muddy feet and all. I took off my water shoes, got everything situated in the raft and sat down, only to realize we had no room. Even without the dog, having a bag with our towels, a very small cooler and the two of us, it was really cramped. I didn't want to keep on bitching and complaining, so I shut my mouth and let C push us out.

Once we got a little ways, we got adjusted and made the most of it. I knew we wouldn't last long, but at least we could try out our raft.



I could only sit in the raft one way...and it was with my legs out and my head on C's chest.



( certainly not a flattering picture, but it was the best we could do! )

I laid like that for about 5 minutes before I started getting extremely nauseous. With the heat, my head down and the waves it wasn't a good mixture for this motion sickness dizzy girl. I hopped out and spent the next 3 hours guiding the raft, since that was a lot faster then rowing the non rowable boat anyway. (Crappy Oars)

Around 4:30 all the boats starting coming towards us to dock, and we got bombarded by boat fuel. That was the last of it for me. I knew if I didn't get out of the water I was going to puke. So home we went.


All in all it was a fabulous weekend. Unfortunatly, the raft had a short life span with us, as we'll be returning it tomorrow since it was completey misrepresented.


C is on the look out for a bigger one, so we can give it a try again next weekend!

A TRIP IN REVIEW.. Day 1-3

Unfortunately there isn't much to "review" this was a business only trip and I knew that going into it. So let's start there....


We left Oregon on June 24th a Thursday, which generally is a bit early for us on the normal scheme of things. We decided a few months prior to have a garage sale, to get rid of stuff we've accumulated in the last 4 years. I didn't get any pictures because, well it's a garage sale. LOL ..nothing too exciting! We pretty much sold out and made over $600 which was a huge bonus! I highly recommend doing one..not only does it empty your garage but to add that chunk of change to your savings account? Heck yes.

I have a few tips:

1) LOTS of signs. it took us over 2 hours to post them, but we used about 40 signs total. We made our signs years ago using paint, and have kept them nice and neat in a box..people always complement us on signage.

2) Start planning early. Carlos and I are both a bit OCD about keeping things neat and organized, and that was the basis of how we ran our sale. We had "sections"..electronics, house hold, office, etc. People loved that they didn't have to look through everything. They could go to the section they were interested in and find what they were looking for.

3) Hang your clothes. I hate going to a garage sale where they have all their clothes thrown in a box or on a lawn. We hang all of them on a clothes rack so they look nice and neat.

4) Price everything before. This is HUGE. You already have your hands full, the last thing you want to do is track down your husband, mother in law or father in law to find a price on something. So have everybody pre price there stuff before hand.

5) Last but not least; Make deals! if someone is buying one thing, I generally would leave the price as is. But if someone had their hands full of stuff? I always made them deals so they wouldn't put anything back!


We only had our sale on Saturday because everything sold so quickly. on Sunday we spent our one and only day off at the local pool, and then we had dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. I was so stoked to be in the SUN and lounging as much as possible. Good thing I did, because the week to follow wasn't so kick back and relax.

TIDBITS

We're a day delayed in our trip to California but for good reason ...I was sick :(  I woke up 4 days ago with a huge headache and swollen cheeks. When I sat up in bed, I had lots of drainage and a cough. yuck! I'm pretty sure it's a sinus infection, and I've been taking sudafed for it, which seems to be helping. I'm just praying all of the symptoms go away soon, as the headaches seem to be the last thing holding on for dear life, and you really can't get much done when you have one of those.

 I haven't lost a single pound this week, but lost 3 last week. I hate the ups and downs of trying to loose weight this time around. I'm convinced I need to get my thyroid checked out. Which leads me to the fact that I would get it checked out if I had medical insurance.  We're between coverages right now, and haven't decided which new group to go with. Lets pray and hope neither one of us needs anything major in the form of medical in the next 30 days!

I still haven't seen a "real" summer. Oregon has the funkiest weather this year, and I just cannot wrap my brain around it.  It will be beautiful and sunny outside and stay around 65 and then within minutes the whole sky will go dark gray and then it's 75 degrees. It makes NO sense. But I guess that's the Oregon weather rule of thumb. You go 10 minutes or 10 miles and the weather is different.


On our trip to California I'm really trying to squeeze in some "fun". We don't really have a budget to do any overnights or anything, but we can do a few day trips. I'm thinking about the water park, possibly an amusement park, or a picnic at the beach or even just heading over to San Francisco. Either way, with all the hard work that has already happened and the even harder work that's approaching, I think we need to treat ourselves to something fun...We'll chop it up to *encouragement* to keep moving forward.


I made a hair appointment with my favorite hair lady. I just got my hair done a few weeks ago with a salon that I found on Groupon.com and she messed it up! It wasn't a horrible mess up, but I went in for a root touch up and she ended up bleaching ALL of my hair. In fear of having my hair fall out, I've been deep conditioning it every night, putting a hair masque on once a week and not blow drying or straightening it as much. It seems to be in pretty good condition, for just having a ton of chemical put on it 3 short weeks ago, but alas it needs to be fixed!


That about sums up everything going on! I wont have very much internet access in California, so I'll probably just do a recap post when we get home sometime around the 6th of July!

FROSTED BANANA BARS WITH MAPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Does that title sound amazing or what?

 WARNING: These bars will involve drooling, constant snacking, happy husbands ( and dogs) an amazing aroma throughout the house, and an extra pound or two on the scale..just sayin'



My bananas have not been lasting more then 3 days 4  tops, which stinks! C likes to eat a huge bowl of cereal before he goes to bed at night( lucky bastard!) and he likes to put a banana in there. Since we only go grocery shopping once a week, I've been buying a bigger bunch of bananas then normal so we don't have to run to the store for 1 item.

I had 2 huge bananas sitting on my counter rotting away and I couldn't stand to throw them out. So out came my recipe book to find something to use these nanners in! Of course, the staple item for rotting nanners is banana bread. But C hates banana bread so that wasn't an option. ( I personally LOVE any sweet bread, but since I don't want to be the only one eating it, I never make it anymore. After I think about it some more, I guess C is doing me and my waist a favor.)

Anywho. I found a recipe for Frosted Banana Bars. While it's similar to bread, it's not quite the consistency, and of course is topped with cream cheese frosting. I decided to put my own spin on things and instead of regular cream cheese frosting, I added some maple to it!

These bars would be perfect for a fall day, and since the weather seems to feel that way currently, I decided to make them!








Recipe: Frosted Banana Bars


Ingredients


1 cup  sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 big ripe bananas ( or 3 small ones)

Directions:
preheat oven to 350, and grease an 11X15 pan

1) Melt the butter, then cream butter and sugar together
2) Add eggs one at a time, until batter is nice and creamy
3)  Add sour cream
4) Add vanilla and pumpkin pie spice
5) Mix all dry ingredients together, then add to wet ingredients.
6) Add in ripe bananas
 7) Place mixture into greased pan and cook for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool  completely before you add frosting.


Frosting:

Ingredients

2- 8 oz pckgs cream cheese
1 cup powder sugar ( or more to desired sweetness)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup ( optional)

Directions

1) Soften cream cheese and melt butter, then cream together
2) Slowly add sugar to your desired sweetness/thickness
3) Add in maple syrup if you so desire


Enjoy!

BLONDE MOMENTS

 I was responding to one of Jens post about a blonde moment and it came to mind that I actually have quite a few!

Some are really silly and some are completely off the wall!
1) I was driving home from the store one day and pulled up next to our house. I turned off the ignition, grabbed my phone and was putting everything in my purse to head in. I realized I had left all the windows open so I grabbed my keys back out, turned back on the car and rolled up the windows. I grabbed my purse and got out of the car, shut the door and realized I just left the keys in the ignition. DOH, such a blonde moment! Luckily the door didn't lock!
2) One day C and I were outside at night and we saw a plane fly over head. The plane had red and blue blinking lights in which I said to C; I wonder what happened? He replies; What do you mean? I said, aren't those police planes flying with the blinking lights?  He stared at me blankly and started laughing.

3) I was eating ice cream that was really cold, so I blew on it...

4) Just got out of the shower, was in a hurry to get dressed, grabbed my jeans threw those on, made it to the car where C was waiting for me, getting half way down the road and realizing oh shit, I forgot to put underwear on!


These are just a few of my moments, and i''m sure I have a lot more ,I just can't always remember them!

Wat are some of your "moments"?

GREEN MACHINE

I don't consider myself to be a crunchy earth mama, but I do consider myself to be "aware". I always recycle as much as I possibly can, knowing what goes into our environment. I have one thought always circling my head, and that's "when I have kids, I want there world to look like..." So I take that into consideration. I don't want our kids to grow up with garbage in our lakes and water streams, nor do I want our kids to be exposed to toxic waste while playing in the dirt.

Every single thing we do here on earth has an impact, either good or bad. It takes just as much effort either way, so why not make it a good impact?

I'm not saying we should buy everything organic, wear garbage bags for shoes, and eat off of the floor, i'm just saying we do what we can, so you should too!


Here are a few ways we've gone green;



* We have switched all of our cleaning supplies to Method and Seventh Generation



* We recycle all paper, plastic and aluminum. I'm not sure if your state offers this, but in California and Oregon we got money back for our cans and bottles. So we keep them in big plastic bags and take them in every other month and usually get back $40.00! A pretty sweet deal to us. We keep that money in our fun account, for date nights, vacations, etc.

* We use reusable grocery bags. This was a pretty hard adjustment for us. Not because we didnt want to do it, but because we'd always forget to grab the bags. We still have that issue sometimes, but I'm always trying to remind myself that once I'm done with putting away groceries, I need to run the bags back down to the car. I also really like these because I only have 5 or 6 of them, so it makes us buy less stuff each grocery trip, and therefore we save money. I purchased my bags at Whole paycheckFoods  and Trader Joes for about $3.00-$5.00 a bag. When I do have to use the plastic grocery bag, I save those and bring them back to the grocery store bag recycling container.


* We limit our showers to 10 minutes. I generally shower pretty fast anyway, but C tends to take longer showers. We've started making it a point to get in and get out, so we can conserve water. This also goes with laundry. I limit my loads per week, so we use towels 3 or 4 times, dish cloths, sprinklers ( as if we even needed those on with all of this rain!) Not only are we conserving water, we're saving money on our water bill!

* We switched our light bulbs to florescent some time ago and have never even thought twice about it. Home Depot had a sale several months ago where the light bulbs were literally 25 cents a piece so we stalked  up and switched everything out. Sometimes it can be annoying having to wait a full 3 minutes before the light is at it's actual wattage but no biggie! Again, another money saver on our electricity bill!

* Speaking of electricity, During the winter we keep our thermostat at 70 and only run it at night, unless we're home and it's super cold. During the summer, we only have 2 window Ac units, so we only turn those on at night along with our ceiling fans. We also turn off any and all lights we're not using as well as unplug appliances when not in use ( toaster, blender, etc)

* We make Spencer his dog food. Well, sort of LOL. We used to buy him dry food and cans of wet food. Since his wet food was so costly and full of unneeded junk, and plus the hassle of having to recycle the can it just became a huge ordeal each day. He went to the vet 3 years ago for something ( I can't remember) and they told us he was about 10 lbs over weight. We asked how we could change his diet and they told us steamed brown rice with boiled chicken mixed into his dry food.  We have been following that ever since. We make 6 cups of brown rice in our rice cooker once a week, along with green beans. Sometimes, if I have extra chicken i'll throw that in, otherwise I just use a bit of chicken broth. he gets a cup of that mixed into a 1.5 cups of dry dog food once a day. It's been a real life saver, and he managed to get 12lbs off and is healthy as ever! Plus, we're saving about $30.00 a month!

*  We support our local farmers. We always try and buy things that are in season, and when there's a farmers market going on, I always try and buy some tasty items! We live in Oregon, where being eco friendly is the way of life, so we have a farmers market every single day. Unfortunately, that isn't always a good thing. I wish some of the farmers would sell weekly instead of everyday. You never know which day they put out their best produce, and unless you're there everyday, it's a gamble.

One of the main reasons we made changes was it reflected our pocket book. I don't know one single person that doesn't like to save money, and we're doing that just by making a few simple changes!


That about sums up what we're doing at the moment. It's not much, but again, I feel like every little but helps. When we have babies, I think this will change even further.

What do you do to stay green or help out our environment?

8 DAYS

In 8 days I'll be California bound once again. Unfortunately this time it's not for vacation, but none the less it will be a nice change.

I can't believe our busy season has come yet again, and it seems like it was faster then ever. With everything I've been through in the last year, it's sort of all a blur. I've had this weird feeling in the back of my chest for the last few weeks, and I finally sat down with C to talk about it.


It's hard for me to go back to a place where so much went wrong. Our wedding was canceled, We lost our first child, I had a mental break down and nearly admitted myself into the hospital because of it all.

I know sometimes life takes it's turn, but for me, I just kept thinking, we're going back into a routine we've been in for the last 5 years. That same routine in which this year we should have been married, we should have expected our first child September 1st we should of been more then we are.


I have grown SO much over the last 6 months, and have really tried to change my life for the better. I'm trying to stay positive in life when sometimes it's all negative, I'm trying to be supportive of C and all of his dreams and ambitions, i'm trying to be a better daughter, a better fur mama and a better person in general.

I'm healthy now, I have a clear mind, I don't want out of my life, or out of my house.

For the first time, in a long time, I'm content. I like where I'm at. Do I want more? Yes. But in time I know I'll have all the things that should have been. And they will come when the time is right.



So this week i'm headed to my grams house to start work on her house, and to visit with my mom before we head to California for 2 weeks.

We also have some amazing weather coming our way and should be in the high 70s low 80s all this week. Huge change from where we've been. But i'm still looking forward to the real heat of summer when we're in CA.


I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

MAJOR FUNK ALERT

Want to know something? I'm sitting in sweat pants, Long sleeve shirt, sweater over that and thick socks with slippers.

I'm not sick, I'm not being lazy...So what's wrong with this picture?

Answer:

OREGON. That's what's wrong with this picture.

It's so freaking cold, and rainy and the hail, my lord the hail. It wont stop falling out of the sky . And i'm convinced I've forgotten what the sun feels like.

I know this is probably my fault, because you see; Last year in May it was ungodly hot. And we had just moved here away from the consistent 110 days of California sun, so I was looking for a change in weather. But within 2 months of being here it was hotter then California was. And to make matters worse, we don't have air conditioning, but we live in a 3 story house.

We bought 2 Ac units, and snuck into the swimming pool at a local apartment every day for a month.


So there you have it. Oregon weather can suck it because i'm tired of this crap! I wouldn't even mind coldish weather as long as the flooding rain stopped.


To try and change my mood, I decided C and I are having another date tonight. Instead of going out though, we're going to pick up a pizza and watch a movie and play a little wii.

And tomorrow i'm going to take my aggression out in boot camp. Which is sort of ironic because tomorrow is suppose to be the only non rain day in the next 5 days.


I hope everyone else is enjoying Winter Summer

DATE NIGHT

EXCLAIMER: This posts lacks pictures, because, well....We were too lazy, too hungry and too wet to take any!


On Thursday night I had a big night at the gym. I finally was able to complete 60 minutes on the ellipitical  with a pretty decent incline. I burned over 500 calories, and boy was I pooped in the end.

On Friday afternoon I started getting a headache..I've been getting pinching headaches throughout the week, almost making it mini migraines. I took some Tylenol and decided a nap would do me good. I guess I needed it because I slept for 3 hours. By the time I was up, and alert it was 6:30 and I was starving.  C and I decided to head over to a new sushi joint that is voted number one in the northwest supposedly.  They don't have a website, which was sorta of disappointing  to me. I like to figure out what I'm going to have before I get there. part of this is because I'm picky and the other part is because I hate being asked 3 or 4 times by the server if I'm ready to order yet. Anyway we decided to chance it and head over. We had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a table, but the food was good! I got the basic California roll and tempura roll since I don't do raw fish.

We then decided to head home, change clothes ( into something comfy) grab some candy and head to the movies. We ended up seeing  Letters To Juliet which was pretty cute! C and I both liked the story line and while yes, it is chick flicky, he didn't mind. I recommend seeing it if you get the chance, or just renting it would be fine, too.

Overall it was a fun night and very much needed. We've both been stuck in the house together, and we sort of needed a break from it all!

SPRING SHOWERS

Is it STILL Spring? I mean, really? Because we haven't seen one day of sunshine in nearly 2 weeks. And I'm not just talking slightly cloudy skies, I'm talking black, hail falling, non stop raining skies.

I decided I was tired of being trapped in the house, so I opened all my windows and blinds ( even though it was chilly) and aired out the house as much as possible. I don't know how much good it did for our home, but it did help my soul a little.

In the meantime, I had planted a few flowers and herbs a few weeks ago.  I had them sitting on our porch, but with the massive rain fall they started flooding. So I brought my babies in! (It's the small things , people )



I have itty bitty sprouts after only 2 weeks and I'm so excited. I think I'm going to keep them on my window seal for another week, and hope this crummy weather will clear itself up ( or else me and the man upstairs will be having it out!)  We planted : Chives, cilantro, flat leaf parsley and basil and then a mixture of poppy's and garden flowers.

I have zero experience with gardening, and truth be told, there isn't much space around here to do any, but I've decided to start small, see how I do and go from there. Here's to hoping my red thumb turns green very soon!

In addition to gardening and doing a whole lot of nothing, because we're stuck inside, we've been trying to get everything cleaned up. In less then 3 weeks we'll be heading down to California for the first leg of our business year. We'll be gone nearly 3 weeks doing our 4th of July festival, hosting a garage sale, securing a building for our Halloween season and hopefully securing a house to live in for 3 months. I hate leaving our house, but in all honesty, it will be nice to enjoy summer weather and see our friends. Bringing in some extra money doesn't hurt either.

All the while cleaning isn't going great. You see, with the rain, and a dog who LOVEs being outside I keep running into this issue...



Did you get that? If not a closer look...


Muddy wet paws all over my freshly  mopped floors. I can't seem to win the battle!


I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. Sparky and I are headed to a festival, and hopefully having a date night!

CHOCOLATE MALLOW PIE

I've been in a dessert kind of mood, which is pretty rare for me. Normally I'd prefer salty over sweet any day, but as of late, it's been the other way around. I can't seem to shut my sweet tooth up with yogurt pretzels or apple and peanut butter. So I began my quest for something sweet, something chocolate and something low fat.

Now if your husband is anything like my boy, he just about balked at the idea of a low fat dessert. Little does he know, we're making it anyway ;)






( Are you drooling yet?)

This was seriously SO good. it was really light, not too sweet,  and best of all, C loved it!

Chocolate Mallow Pie
Source: Recipezaar.com

• 1 9 inch pie shell, baked and cooled( We got a chocolate crust)
• 20 marshmallows, cut in half
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup  semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 ripe bananas ( We only needed two)
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen  whipped cream; thawed ( We used cool whip lite)

1. Place marshmallows and milk in a heavy sauce pan, cook over low heat until marshmallows melt.
2. Stir in chocolate until melted, remove from heat and cool.
3. Peel and slice bananas 1/4 inch thick, arrange over the baked crust.
4. Fold whipped topping into the cooled chocolate mixture. ( We added some mini marshmallows into the mix as well)
5. Spread evenly over bananas and chill 2 hours 

MEXICAN PIZZA

I had been craving mexican food, but as we all know it's not healthy. I knew I wanted something cheesy and went on my search for the perfect recipe.

I stopped over at Heather's blog and remembered seeing a Mexican pizza that sounded pretty good.

After looking at the ingredients needed we had everything and were ready to go!


Mexican Pizza

4 whole wheat tortillas
1/2 lb ground beef or turkey ( we used turkey)
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can of enchilada sauce
1 package of low fat cheese ( we used weight watchers low fat mexi mix cheese)
1 Can of low fat refried beans

Toppings ( Salsa, olives, green onion, sour cream..Whatever you choose!)

1) Brown the ground meat in a pan with a little onion, and season salt. Once it's finished cooking drain the fat.

2)Return back to medium low heat and add the package of taco seasoning according to the directions on the back.

3) Spray the tortilla shell with some pam and place under the broiler until light and crispy.

4) Top the shell with beans and taco meat, and then add the second shell on top. Cover the shell with enchilada sauce, top with cheese, olives, etc and place back under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese.


( Crappy cell phone picture, sorry!)

Enjoy!

Note: Our tortilla shells were low carb medium size. They ended up being a little too big and we could only eat half. I recommend going the smaller shell route.

NO PROGRESS...HMPH!

I guess you might be wondering why I haven't updated you on the weight loss. Well truth be told I haven't lost one single lb for 3 weeks. I'm getting so frustrated with it yet, It makes me work even harder.

This last week I seriously worked my tail off in the gym, proportioned all my food, made sure everything was healthy and still. The scale would not budge! The only thing I can think of is I'm gaining muscle weight, because in reality my stomach is starting to look a little more toned and my pants are a bit looser.

I've decided for the next two weeks I'm going to skip the scale. I'm going to continue working as hard as I can and eating right, and if in two weeks that scale hasn't moved down I'm going in for lipo! ( kidding! ) I'll probably talk to the nutritionist and a personal trainer.


So no picture for 2 weeks. Bare with me ;)

In other frustrating news. I made a hair appointment at a new salon, and had to wait a grueling 3 weeks. I forgot to write down the appointment but didn't fret because they said they would call to remind me. Well I knew it was coming up this week, so I gave them a call today to confirm which day. Turns out it was for TODAY and in 20 minutes. My drive to the salon was at least 30 minutes without traffic. So I let her know as much and asked why I never got a phone call. They said they think they left a message on Saturday but guess who never got it? So I ended up showing up about 25 minutes late and right as I got there she said she just took in a walk in and had an appointment in 2 hours so she had no time for me. I was not a happy camper. Unfortunately I have a gift certificate so I couldn't say or do much and refuse to never come back. So I opted for a "squeeze in" appointment tomorrow. if she doesn't do an amazing job, I'll be  contacting the salon owner.

It's raining. Surprise surprise. All over my facebook account I had friends ( mostly in the mid west/east coast) exclaiming how sunny and hot it is. Well I guess they get to start summer early because there is no sign of warm days ahead for at least the next 10 days. And the only thing that makes this better is that California is getting the same rainy weather, so it's not just an "Oregon" thing.


This last week we've tried a few new recipes. Since I can't do much else around here these days I'm going to get them posted on the blog!

WOW, I'M FINALLY HERE!

Okay, so I know I've been slacking. But almost a month of no blogs? Seriously? My time is going by SO fast. It's nearing towards the end of May which means starting in June my busy season starts. It means we'll actually have money coming in instead of going out. It means we can afford to live without having to watch every single penny ( although we always have a budget). You get the idea... We only make money 6 months out of the year, so it's always nice when that time of year rolls around again.

So what have I been up to?

Well I know I need to do a big recap of our vacation, but truth be told I haven't even gotten the pictures off my camera yet!

As soon as we got home we had to deal with Spencer. He somehow cut his paw open right before we left C's parents house. the poor guy wasn't happy and kept trying to lick it which resulted in loss of fur on his paw. It was a horrible situation. All is well now, and it's healing great!

Then we had various appointments with a new business opportunity we came into ( I can't disclose info on it right now, but soon enough!)

Of course there was mothers day. Again, I need to do a recap on this and get those darn pictures of out my camera!

Leading us to a very hot weekend in Oregon. I'm talking 90 degrees hot so C and I decided to go on a fast little boat ride!



We rode on  Willamette jet boats. It was a spur of the moment decision to go last Saturday but we just wanted to get out of the house. We actually ran into a little problem as we arrived. Apparently in order to reserve a seat you should call a few days in advance, which we didn't (obviously) so we had to wait until everybody who had reserved their space was seated to see if there was enough room for us. Luckily they had 2 seats left.


Once on the river, they took no time to get that boat going at speeds over 40. The breeze was nice, but within the first 5 minutes the boat slammed on it's brakes drenching every single person on the boat. It was really fun although the first taste of river water wasn't pleasant.


( and just a side note, I was more worried about my hair, as I had just took the time to dry and straighten it mere minutes before! ugh!)


The trip lasted a little over 2 hours. There were lots of e-brake stops and quite a few spin outs. it seemed like just when you were starting to dry off and get warm the guy would get us all wet again. Toward the end I was really starting to freeze and actually began getting pissy that he needed to stop doing that since the sun was going down and the weather was changing.

The scenery was amazing and only viewable by boat. We passed some huge mansions on the water that i didnt even know Oregon had! What's even more amazing was that in 1996 Oregon experienced the worst flood of it's life time and most of the homes




Can you imagine your 15 millon dollar home under water?  Or how about your grocery store?






It was amazing hearing about it, and still being able to see some of the damage that was never fixed. What was even more amazing is the addition to the river are river houses.






I don't know about you, but I don't think living in a state where water falling from the sky seems to be endless, all the while sleeping on a river that is known to flood. And these houses aren't cheap! I can only imagine their home insurance is through the roof!

Anyhow, the experience was awesome, and we'll absolutely be taking some out of town guests on it again this summer.






I'll try to be a better blogger here the next few days as I have a small break from work.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

We're more then likely on the road driving to California!

We decided to leave at 6:00am so we could get use of all the day light. We're headed to the Napa valley to visit C's family for the weekend and then heading out early Monday morning to Disneyland.

We're taking a few friends with us and I seriously can not wait!

We'll be in Disney for 4 days and then saying good bye to our friends and heading to San Diego to spend some much needed one on one time for the weekend. We're staying at a resort where we are renting snorkel gear, and jet skis! I've never done either one, so I'm hoping the weather is warm!

Expect lots and lots of pictures when I return!


Have a fabulous week!!

TULIP FESTIVAL

We had an amazing weekend! The weather was nice, we had no plans other then enjoying each others company. It was perfect

We had a bbq on Friday night with grilled steaks, baked potatoes and artichokes. And we just lounged around watching movies.


On Saturday both C and I went to the boot camp class, and then headed home and did a few things around the house. I ended up getting a nail in my tire so we took the car in to the shop to get it fixed. We had a 2 hour wait so we trekked the 2 mile round trip up to Barnes and Nobles where we sat and read magazines and books.

On Sunday we got up to almost 80 degree weather and decided to head out to the annual tulip festival!

The place was packed! But the flowers were beautiful!

Unfortunately, I didn't buy any to take home since we're leaving and I want to be able to enjoy them their entire life span, but next year!  So instead I just took a lot of pictures!

I'll just give you a few of my favorite ones...




 40 acres of fresh planted tulips. It's breath taking.





I have NO clue how they get the colors to be so vibrant. Tulips are in every single yard where we live, I guess it's because we get so many cloudy and rain filled days, tulips just love us!






Hello little lady bug! I wish I had a good macro lens....I know what I'm asking Santa to get me next year! ;)

And last but not least, and probably my favorite of all, just based purely on simplicity...




I LOVE white tulips. They are so romantic and whimsical. When I own a beach cottage I will have these babies in every room, all spring long!


I hope you all had a great weekend, too!

BIGGEST LOSER WEEK 2

I'm completely behind on my posts this week. We've been running around like crazy trying to get everything done before we leave for vacation on Friday.

I have a few posts scheduled this week to pop up, so while you're reading, just know..No, I didn't type them that morning, and no, I most likely will not blogging while enjoying my vacation! ;)

Moving on.

One thing I want to discuss before doing my weigh in.

I've been on every fad diet known to man kind. I've tried every single absurd way to loose weight and without a doubt, none of them worked!

I was a fairly skinny kid, and then chuncked up ( you like that? ;)) right around 11 or 12. My brother started teasing me that I had a pot belly and it sort of started my self consciousness. 

I struggled with weight from then on. I finally had got most of it off, and was happy with my body right around 16. I kept it off for about 3 years and then started dating C and packed on more weight topping out at my heaviest.  ( Thanks late night fast food runs and zero exercise!) After two years of yo yo dieting I got off more then 40 lbs in about 3 months. I kept that off for 4 years. We had some stress in our business, and with stress comes over eating for me, so I gained all 40 lbs back plus 10 more.

Last year C and I had gone through so many ups and downs and I lost about 28 lbs in 1 month. I had stopped eating, wasnt sleeping. I was completely a mess. It wasn't healthy the way I got it off, but lucky for me in the long run, C and I are back to being happy and I've kept off 25 of those lbs.


So that's my life story, ( or pretty close to it!) Jk..


Weigh In: 163.5
-5.5 lbs



(I decided to do the pics in my sports bra, embarrassing or not, I think it really shows my flaws and improvements)

I'm really happy with my weight loss for the week. While I don't expect to do that every week it was a nice jump start.

Here is the catch; I actually ate and lost weight. I ate a lot! Everything pretty healthy of course, but still...

I started the 5 factor diet and 6 days of exercise.  While again, I don't feel like the 5 factor diet is a diet, per say, I agree that it does take work and moderation.

The whole science behind 5 factor is that you eat 5 small meals a day, so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. This was big for me, because I ate 2 meals a day and that was it. So I thought by adding more food, and more meals to my day I would surely gain weight. But I didn't. I lost weight, and you will, too.

There are 5 certain ingredients you have to add into every single meal

1) Lean Protein
2) Complex Carbs
3) Fiber
4) Fat
5) Sugar Free Fluids

It's really easy! And i'll try and post some of the recipes I use when I get back from vacation. I like that you can still eat out at restaurants. I also like that you get one cheat day a week.

So far I've had no issues of finding good goods that follow his program.

Take today for instance:

I woke up at 10:00am and started off with 2 fiber gummies ( I always take them!) 1 breakfast sandwich
( whole grain english muffin, egg white and turkey sausage with a slice of low fat chedder cheese) cut up apple and a bottle of water

 12:00 For snack I had string cheese, and carrot sticks with 1 tbl peanut butter and water

2:30 Lunch I had 1 slice of whole grain bread, egg salad (2 egg whites, 1 tbl non fat mayo, salt and pepper) cut into 4s. I had 1/2 cup of sliced strawberries diet pepsi

6:30 Dinner Spaghetti squash with meat sauce  ( ground turkey, onions, tomato sauce and various seasoning)  ceasar salad  & water with a splash of lemonade for flavor.

10:00 Snack 8 Quaker rice crisps, ( apple cinnamon) water

I seriously feel like I eat all day long. I was never really hungry, or never really full. The trick to eating meals like this is setting a time schedule of when you need to eat so you don't skip a meal and binge later.


I kicked it up several notches in the gym as well. I did another boot camp class, followed by swimming, and then every single day I've gone to the gym and have done 1 hour of cardio, plus swimming.

I feel like I'm able to breathe when running now, and have migrated to the weight section so I can start playing around with those!


Sheesh! long post this time around!  Good for you if you made it through all my babble.


I wont be doing a post next week, but as soon as I'm home I'll get right on it!

SPREADSHEET

OKAY.... Who wants to build this lady a household bills spreadsheet?


I know someone out there LOVES to do these things, and I need you to come forward and offer me your services....for free....! ..;)

I was going over my monthly bills today and making online payments and have come to the realization, that while I love having my bills paid, I wish I was a little more organized. I have envelopes, and bill statements strewn across my desk and this needs to be dealt with. I was able to opt for paperless billing on 4 accounts, but I still have a few that don't have that option. Unfortunately, C usually grabs the bill, throws it on his desk, and when it comes time for me to sit down and do our budget and get things paid, he looses track, or he puts them on my desk without me knowing and then I loose track.

What is your system? Who does the budget in your family?


Our situation is a little different because we have a business, so not only do I factor in our household budget, I have to factor in the business budget as well.

I don't use quick books or any of those programs, but I own quick books, so I wonder if I should start there?

I'm also thinking some sort of awesome excel ( which I suck at by the way) spreadsheet would do me some good of keeping track.




Update:

The paypal issue is not resolved. It looks like I will be talking with our lawyer about our options come Monday morning. I did speak with someone on the phone today and he said there is another account that was closed, that is linked to this account. But he couldn't give me any other information. We did have an account several years ago ( probably 5 years ago) that we closed because we weren't using it but why would that make a difference? I hate hate hate paypal. We did find another company to go through Paymate.com but unfortunately it's not as well known as paypal, and people have been conditioned to go with what they know. I wish they knew paypal has several lawsuits every month because they screw people. I also wish they knew your info: ( name, address, credit card # bank #) is sent overseas so you're more at risk of identity theft, and last I wish people knew paypal isn't FDIC insured. Which means, they can screw people and have no real recourse for doing so.

It's a horrible feeling knowing because a company is big, and because they have money ( that they obviously steal) they have free reigns. That's not right.


Moving on!

This weekend is the first weekend in the last few weeks that we don't have any one thing planned. Since we're leaving next weekend for vacation, I'm hoping I can get all the cleaning done, my office organized and maybe a trip to my favorite festival.

Have a great weekend!

EBAY VS PAYPAL

I am currently beyond PISSED.

We have used ebay for years.We own a Halloween shop that is online based and we do several online sales, in which we use ebay. We're also pickers. We find things of value that nobody wants, fix them, clean them up and sell on ebay. it's sort of a hobby for us and what we do in our off season from our Halloween business.

Last year, we added online ticket sales to our haunted house, and ended up using paypal to accept the money. Turns out it was a great ideas and our sales drove up 15% just by adding online sales. At the end of the season we had several thousand dollars in our paypal account and we got the dreaded email that our account was shut down for fraudulent activity. We couldn't access any of our money, we could no longer accept any money and nobody. Not one single person could tell us why.

We finally got an email stating that in 180 days we would receive a check in the mail. That's 6 freaking months, that this company would collect interest, that we wouldn't see a dime of our sales money.

What could we do though? We waited it out, and on the 180th day we received an email asking where we wanted our check mailed.

Needless to say we didn't plan to use them any longer.

We started accumulating quite a bit of stuff to sell on Ebay and knew we were gonna have to deal with paypal in some way shape or form.

We ended opening up a new account with no problems, and figured since we wouldn't have any high end sales, it shouldn't be a big deal. We listed around 25 items, and low and behold, our last item we listed went to $655.00 We had no idea it would go that high since we only paid $25.00 for it, but we weren't complaining! ;) We didn't take any of the other funds out of the account yet, as we were waiting for this payment to clear, but within 15 minutes of receiving the payment, we get the email again. Our account is shut down for "High Risk" and we need to contact customer service. So we did...And we got the same run around.

They wouldn't tell us WHY our account was shut down, and just said we would have to wait 180 days for a check in the mail, and that this kind of thing unfortunately happens all the time.

Happens ALL the time? Umm. Why are people still using Paypal then? Are you only allowed to use it if you're buying or selling things under $100.00? because both times our account got shut down was when the sale went over $500.00. And if there was a problem, or if they needed to check out facts, they could of emailed or called. It's not like they don't own ebay, they can view the auction, the tracking number, and contact the buyer to insure they were getting their item.

But no. They are the worst business I've ever come to deal with. There is zero reasoning for shutting our account down, I firmly believe they do this when there is a certain dollar amount so they can collect interest.

Not this time though. I will be calling them tomorrow, speaking with a supervisor. They will either re-open my account, or get me the money within 2 weeks, otherwise It's stealing. I will be calling the police to file a report, the better business bureau and then contacting our lawyer, along with starting a class auction suit against this company.

It's not about the $ amount that they have of ours, it's about their business practice. I can't even imagine the people who have reviews in the 1000s as a top ebay seller. What do they do? How do they fight with this company and still have an ebay account?

I'm disgusted and pissed. That's all I can say.

101 THINGS IN 1001 DAYS

In my old blog I had started this project and got pretty far into it. But since I'm on a new life path, I figured I'd give it a go again, and try a few new goals out. I've always set goals for myself, and am usually hard on myself when I can't reach them. But for the most part I normally do as long as I have them written down.

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.
The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.




For Me, Myself And I
1. Buy a pair of good jeans with the perfect fit no matter the cost
2. Get A Massage
3. Get 3 pedicures (0/3)
4. Have all my coats dry cleaned
5. Get my passport reinstated
6. Read the manual on my camera completely
7. Take 3 just for fun craft classes (0/3)
8. Find 5 pictures I've taken and hang them in good frames
9. Get a facial
10.Grow out my hair for an entire year
11. Finish 5 books (0/5)


Traveling Needs

12. Visit 3 new cities I've never been to (0/3)
13. Visit 1 new country (0/1)
14. Book 1 beach vacation (0/1)
15. Go camping with my family
16. Buy new boots( for me) and a new snowboard (for C) (0/2)
17.Go snowboarding
18.Book 2 weekend getaways


For Our Home

19. Wash all of the rugs and then hang them to dry
20. Wash all the windows inside and out
21. Add window treatments to all windows
22. Have the carpet shampooed
23. Buy new glassware
24. Paint the table
25. Re fabric the kitchen chairs

For My Health

26. Loose 25 lbs (0/25)
27. Work out 3 times a week
28. Visit the DR for a checkup
29. Get an eye exam
30. Have the final 2 wisdom teeth removed
31. Complete couch to 5k
32. Run a 5k
33. Buy a bike for C and I
34. Go to bed before 2am for an entire week (0/7)


In The Kitchen

35. Try 2 new recipes a month  (0/66)
36. Buy all organic meat for 1 month
37. Eat a vegetarian meal once a week
38. Teach C how to cook 5 different things (0/5)
39. Buy all fruits and veggies from farmers market for 1 week
40. Go out to breakfast


For The Holidays

41. Visit a pumpkin patch and buy pumpkins
42. Decorate our house for Halloween and Christmas
44. Host Thanksgiving for both mine and C's family in our house
45. Design and make Christmas Cards
46. Volunteer To help serve dinner for people in need


For The Future

47. Get Pregnant
48. Buy 20 acres and start building our dream home
49. Visit our friends in Germany
50. Get a puppy
51. Expand our business
52. Create a financial plan with C
53. Buy a new car (for me)
54. Pay off C's truck

My Creative Side

55. Work as a second shooter at 3 weddings
56. Launch my photography website
57. Learn to knit
58. Knit a blankit
59. Buy a sewing machine
60. Start sewing costumes for our business
61. Refinish 5 pieces of old furniture
62. Host a cookie swap
63.Grow an herb garden

Love Is Key

64. Have a date night twice a month
65. Get a couples massage at a spa
66. Make C his favorite meal just because
67. Plan a picnic with C
68. Take the time to write C a handwritten love letter
69. Spend an entire day with C just watching movies in our PJs
70. Get Married (finally!)

The Dog Has Needs

71. Brush the dog twice a week for a month (0/8)
72. Give the dog a bath once a week for a month (0/4)
73. Buy the dog a new pet bed
74. Register the dog to our new home
75. Have the dogs teeth cleaned
76. Buy the dog heart guard
77. Buy the dog a new toy just because


Lets Party!

78. Host a themed costume party
79. Invite 2 new people outside of our friends
80. Host a summer swim party
81. Attend 2 gatherings
82. Go Dancing!
83. Try Karaoke

We Are Family!

84. Take all 4 nieces and nephews for a weekend
85. Take my grandma to lunch
86. Get a pedicure with my mom
87. Send a birthday card to every member of my immediate family for 1 year 
88. Take a family photo
89. Start building a family tree
90. Take C's parents out to lunch
91. Take a picture of both sets of parents and us together
92. Send a birthday card to every person in our immediate family for a year


Everything Else...

93. Create my functional office
94. Go through all my clothes and donate what I don't use
95. Create a great space in the spare bedroom for our guests
96. Buy a blender
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.


As you can see, some of my ideas are completely frivolous, and some are things I've wanted to do for a long time. I've also left 5 blank lines, because let's face it, my life changes every single day, let alone almost 3 years. I want to keep a few ideas open so I can add or change a few things.

If you haven't started this program, I strongly urge you to try it. It's really fun to sit down and think of all the things you want to do, it's even more fun when you can check things off that list!

I will add a link to the top of my blog so if you want to check in on my progress, feel free to do so. I will also, try and blog about every single thing I get checked off.

OREGON STATE BEAVERS

 In my last post, I mentioned I never watch sports. I've never been to a professional game, ever. Neither had C, so when I logged onto groupon.com one day and found 2 Baseball game tickets for sale I jumped on it!

We apparently have one of the nicest baseball parks and what a perfect day to go on! It has been raining non stop the last several weeks and Friday night just happened to be clear. it was chilly, (45 degrees!) don't get me wrong but it was nice to just be outside, enjoying something I never thought we'd enjoy.


The Beavers ( our home team) happened to be playing Sacramento ( our second home team!) We of course rooted for the Beavers, since we didn't want to get kicked out of the state! And can I just say, I've never been so much into something, where every single move they made I was on the edge of my seat. every time they messed up, I loudly, let them know what I thought about it. HA! I'm pretty sure C was wondering where this girl came from, because never in his life has he seen me get that competitive.




We actually got fairly good seats, which buying discounted online tickets I thought for sure they'd stick us in the nose bleeds. There weren't a ton of people, since it's opening weekend, so we really had our choice of where ever we wanted.


(cell phone picture!)

We left the game about 30 minutes early as we started to freeze, and the Beavers were loosing. They lost 10-5

It was a good game, and we'll definitely be buying more tickets to see a few more games!

Biggest Loser!

I've never been on to watch sports, I always found better things to do and just could never fathom spending my precious time sitting down watching them.

Throughout my childhood and high school I was fairly athletic. I ran cross country, was a cheerleader, was on the swim team and played soccer. every season, I had something going on, which I loved. My senior year I started taking more time for myself, since I knew I'd be leaving my family soon  for college and just wanted to get in as much home time in as possible.

I guess that was a mistake on my part, because once I took 2 months off, I never turned back. I could never get the courage or motivation to start running again, or play soccer. Therefore i fell completely out of shape.

Now, 8 years later I struggle with exercise. I can't run a mile, I can't do a push up and lunges just about kill me.

I've always made half ass attempts at going to the gym. I'd get into a good "routine" for about 2 weeks then fall off the wagon. I'd gain 5lbs, freak out and start all over. It's been a never ending cycle for the last 2 years.

I've finally had enough, people. I will run a 5k this year, I will also do 25 push ups. I want to be fit, I want to love my body and I want to fit into 8 pairs of jeans sitting my drawer that don't fit.

Today, I started my first day of boot-camp workouts. I belong to 24 hour fitness and they now have a program called the biggest loser boot-camp. I was a little skeptical at first, as I've never even seen the show before ( I know!)  but it sounded like all in all it would be a good starting point for me.

I've also been researching a personal trainer. And I'm going off on a tangent here, but do you know how freaking expensive these guys are? HOLY COW! I know I'm a tight ass when it comes to money but $80.00 a workout with a minimum of 3 times a week. That's $960.00 a month, not including your gym membership on top of that. I guess being fit certainly comes at a price.


For now my plan is to eat 5 or 6 mini meals a day, do boot camp work outs 3 times a week, cardio ( starting couch to 5k again) 3 times a week and 1 day of rest or just swimming.

I've set a goal to loose 25lbs by July 1st. It's going to be hard and take major determination, but I'm bound to make this happen.

I'm going to add a link so you can view my progress, and all of you newbie runners, I'd love to hear about your progress!  Surely I'm not the only one who goes through this, right?

I'm also going to check in once a week, take a picture of myself, weight myself, and appreciate the progress I'll get to see via pictures.


If anyone else would like to join, I'd love to follow you along, too! Let's shoot for every Saturday.




Starting point:
Saturday 4.10.10
Weight: 168lbs


( I know the picture is a bit dark, I'll work on that!)  Also, my mirror is disgusting. That will be getting cleaned asap as well!

WEEKEND RECAP

 



The week I had was exactly like The week I had before. It has seriously not stopped raining for 12 days straight. And i'm talking massive down pours, hail storms and feet upon feet of snow in our mountains.

We had a really mild winter, with very few freezing days and only 2 days of actual snow in Portland. But I think it's making up for it in Spring....I know I'm doing quite a bit of complaining about the weather, and normally I LOVE rain, but I have stuff to do people, and when my tulips are dying because I can't get them planted, or when I can't vacuum the massive amounts of hair out of my car because i'll get drenched I become an unhappy camper.

And to tip the cow, Mm nieces and nephews are in town, over at my moms, 3 hours away and over 1 mountain that just so happened to get almost 10 feet of snow during the week. I was hoping to spend Easter with them, have a little family get together since we can never seem to have everybody in the same place at the same time. But nooooo...Mother nature can suck it!


Okay, okay on a happy note..

I made C an Easter basket. I usually do every year, and this year being no different. I got him a few of his favorite goodies and the new Super Mario wii game. He was pretty stoked!

While browsing our local thrift shop, I also came across a first edition Stuart Little book. I snatched that baby up for $ 2.00 and got home, looked it up, and found out it's worth almost $1000. They have quite a few for sale right now, so I'm going to hold out for a few years and see if the value will increase more. But still, talk about a great find!

Since it's been crummy weather I've been doing quite a bit of cooking. You'll be getting lots of recipes and pictures this week! I hope you'll give them all a try, because every single thing I made turned out awesome!


Only 3 weeks until we leave for Sunny Southern California. We'll be spending 3 days at Disneyland and 2 days a little more south ( I can't mention the second location yet, because it's a surprise for C!)


I hope everyone had a great weekend and very happy Easter!

RAIN, RAIN

I had BIG plans this weekend. I was looking forward to C cleaning out our garage so I could find a few things. I was looking forward to painting and reupholstering a chair I bought. I was also looking forward to planting my purple tulips I bought at lowes more then 3 weeks ago.

But did I get to do ANY of those things? nope. And you know why? RAIN.

I live in the land of rain, where it rains 75% of the year. But you think for one single weekend that I have allocated to staying home and getting stuff done it would give me a break? I mean, the weather forecast said it was going to be partly cloudy. But never did they say it was going to rain. I've been jipped I tell you, absolutely jipped.

So instead, I went on a date with my best boy. We had big plans of cheesecake factory, but after being told we had at least an 80 minutes wait ( holy shiznet!!) we were too hungry to deal with that. So we headed out the door, and guess what? I found $20.00 bucks laying on the ground in the parking lot. SCORE!

We decided to head to Sushi. Then we headed to borders and read all my favorite magazines, and decided it was time for a movie.
We saw She's Out Of My League. We both thought it was comical and cute. Certainly following in the steps of Nepolian Dynamite, but a bit better.

On Saturday we went to home depot to have some paint made, so we can start painting my grandma house.
( more on the later!)  We made a few visits to some of our favorite store, before heading to the grocery store to pick up dinner stuff.

On Sunday we cleaned. Just like we do almost every Sunday. now I'm enjoying my fabulous clean house, my freshly bathed dog, and I'm getting ready to deep condition my hair and paint my nails.

So while my weekend didn't go as planned, we still made the most of it, and had some fun :)


I hope everyone had a great weekend!

AND THE WINNER GOES TO..

ME!! for being the worst blogger the last 2 weeks. But I've had good reason right? Right, okay moving on...



C and I have been busy doing a whole lot of nothing!

This week we finally splurged and bought our selves a new gas grill for the patio. At our last house, our grill was built in, and next to the pool, so we never actually owned one. When we moved into our town house, we figured we would be traveling most of the summer anyway, so it was useless.After going an entire spring and summer season with no BBQ, was horrible. So we splurged. And we've already grilled fillet mignon which was freaking amazing!. 

Remember the golf cart we bought? We got it home and had used it for a few days but it kept dying. We tried everything to get it to work, but alas we found out the batteries which were only 2 years old hadn't been taken care of so we had to buy new ones. At $750.00 for all 6 I wasn't looking forward to it. I'm pretty sure C got some evil looks in there. But the smart guy he is, sold our used batteries on craigslist for $200 bucks. Which meant these batteries were $200 cheaper. While still expensive, at least they weren't as expensive.

Have you ever heard of Groupon.com? It's my new love. I seriously have scored some awesome deals. There is a Chicago style hot dog shop in downtown Portland I've been wanting to try. I logged onto to groupon and what do ya know? Hot dog shop offering $8 worth of food for $4 bucks. I bought two of those!

My second purchase was for a hair salon. I've been lucky enough to be in California every 6-8 weeks so I could stick with my lady. Since my hair is getting longer, it needs to be maintained a bit more, so I knew I needed to find someone here. I really love the bumble and bumble product, although expensive, I can totally justify the price after I blow dry my hair and feel how soft and healthy it is. Anyhow, a bumble and bumble salon offered $110 worth of service for $55. You can't beat that!

If you haven't been to the site check it out. I know they offer it in quite a few cities.


Yesterday this family had an off day. :( Spencer woke up with a swollen, puffy, red eye with gunk coming out of it. I had a mini heart attack as my pirate dog looked at me and it just made me sad. We made him a vet appointment, and then proceeded to look on google. We found that if we cleaned out his eye with distilled water, and wiped down the goopies every few hours with a warm towel we could possible fix the problem. So we gave it a ago. And watched it over night. This morning he is doing much better! The swelling is gone, the redness is gone, and just a little bit of wetness.

In the meantime, C woke up with a horrible migraine that kept him in bed all day. I felt so bad that I couldnt do anything for him, so I just made sure the room was cool and dark and that there was little noise. He finally felt better around 8pm.

I on the other hand woke up with the worst stomach pain. About 6 months ago I've starting taking out dairy. I was getting stomach aches after drinking milk and associated it with dairy. After switching to soy, limiting cheese, sour cream, etc I've been much better. Less bloat, less gas, all around happy. But the night before we decided to get some pizza. I hadn't had any in a few months and was craving it.  I paid the price though. I couldnt even button my pants or put pressure on my stomach because it hurt so bad.  :(  i'm sad to see the pizza go.

I'm going to try making it at home next week and try it with less cheese and see how that does. I can still eat some cheese just not as much as I would like.


That's pretty much what's going on around here. No big plans for the weekend. I have a chair I'm going to paint and reupholster. I'll try and get some pictures taken in the next day or two.

Have a great weekend!

UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES

I wasn't sure I'd ever share this on my blog, or with anybody that wasn't close to us, but I feel it's such a touchy subject and so many people have gone through what I have that it's worth it to open up about it.


Please, I'm not looking for sympathy nor am I looking for advice on how to get through it. Everyday is a struggle, but everyday gets a little better. Time will heal all, and I firmly believe that.



On January 6th 2010 C and I found out we were expecting our first child.

I need to stop right there and do some explaining before I go on, so hopefully this will make sense.There will be some graphic detail in here so if you're not a fan and don't want to hear about sex, babies, blood and guts then don't read any further.

I always knew it would be hard for me to get pregnant. I have had abnormal periods since I first started, and was told at age 16 I had a mild case of Endometriosis. Of course when you're 16 you don't think anything about it, but let me just tell you. Those 7 days ( sometimes 10 days) when you can't get out of bed because it feels like your uterus is being ripped in two, you can't help but not think about it.

When I met C I told him from the very beginning I wasn't sure I could have kids, and might possibly need fertility treatment at the very least. We obviously had many talks about it and were both comfortable with the situation and agreed to talk to a fertility specialist when the time was right.

I have been with C for 8 1/2 years and we have never used any kind of birth control. We have never even charted and obviously nothing happened. I was used to it, sometimes I had those bad months where I hated my body, because any sane women would at least want to know they had a chance at having kids, but my body? wasn't gonna give.

Fast forward to October. C and I went through a pretty rough time in our relationship. I guess it happens to the best of us and when you work together, live together and never have anytime to yourself it's bound to happen. We just were loosing track of who we were and what we wanted which set us back. WAY back. We even canceled our wedding 5 days before it happened because we were absolutely miserable. I knew I loved him with my whole heart and he was my best friend, but I started building up resentment, and hatred because he stopped doing the little things, and started taking what he had for granted. That's not to say I didn't do the same. I stopped putting effort into my appearance and started holding all communication in. I finally reached a breaking point sometime in October.

I don't need to go into all the details of what happened, but we ran our business together and that was about it. We weren't talking to one another, let alone loving one another. I think after weeks of non stop fighting, we both finally got our heads on straight and sat down to figure things out. Obviously we're back together, and doing well, but it took a lot of time, a lot of tears and a lot of love to get us to where we are now.

After a 3 month hiatus, we had a "moment" in there where we decided we were okay enough to be physical.


We went on a mini vacation in January, and while I was blow drying my hair one morning, I got really dizzy and nauseous. My gut instinct was telling me there was NO way I could be pregnant, but my period was almost two months late. Once we got home 2 days later I ran to the drug store and bought a test. 

The test came back positive. I told C and made him drive me back to the drug store so I could buy a digital test. I wanted and needed to see that "pregnant" ticker to pop up, in order to really believe it. And of course, within 2 minutes it popped up pregnant. loud and clear!

I was excited and scared. I had no idea how this happened ( well obviously I knew) but it was a freaking miracle!

That night I went to bed, and just couldn't wrap my brain around what was happening. I felt like it was all just so unreal and that I was in a horrible nightmare and the baby goddess was about to laugh in my face.

I guess what they say is true, when you have a gut instinct about something, chances are it's right.

The next morning I woke up with spotting. Quite a bit of spotting. Of course I panicked and called the Dr to make an appointment.

They got me in within 2 hours, made me fill out way too much paperwork and took me back to take a look. We got our first ultra sound and was told everything looked perfect. We were 6 weeks 1 day and due September 1st 2010.

I left feeling so relieved, but still a little jaded about what was going on.

The second day we got home the spotting didnt stop, but the DR said it was normal for first time pregnancies, especially for people with ovarian cysts.

I let my body takes it course, but on the 3rd day I was having a full blown period, the worst one I've ever experienced in my life. I couldn't move, or breathe. Heating pads, ibuprofen or caffeine weren't working. After dealing with this for 2 hours, It got worse. SO worse. I was having full on contractions 2-3 minutes apart and I couldn't help but scream and cry through each one of them. I had C locating the nearest hospital to take me to while I tried my hardest to breathe through them. I knew something was going terribly wrong, but I couldn't focus on anything but just getting through them. It took me something like 35 minutes to put pants on and get in the car. I'm pretty I scared some drivers, as I had my head hanging out with window so I wouldn't puke, and was screaming through each contraction. By the time we made it to the hospital I was in so much pain, and was shaking so bad I couldn't walk. I had C run in and check me in and grab a wheel chair. before he even made it to the car I had found the courage and the last of my energy to run to the bathroom, where I thought I was going to puke, but instead, I ended up passing 4 golf ball size clots through my nether regions. I did this twice within a 30 minute window both times relieving the contraction and the pain. After the second time around I felt like a new women. I had no more pain ( other then sore abs and a sore throat from screaming) and told C we could go home. yeah right was he gonna allow that! We stayed 8 hours in the ER only to have the DR tell us everything looked good, I was still pregnant and that I just had a threatened miscarriage.

Talk about confusing!

2 days later I was sent to an obgyn specialist for an evaluation to see what had just happened. After some blood work was drawn I was called into the office with the news I had already known. We had indeed just miscarried our first baby. And we had indeed just went through a very intense labor, which apparently just is as painful as regular labor.

I was both horrified and relieved at the same time. Horrified for obvious reasons and relieved because that was the most awful pain I have ever been through.

I was able to pass everything on my own which is a god send. Most women have to go through a D & C
Which is a longer healing process.

So now that I'm 2 months past, I'm doing okay. I still have some hormone issues, but overall I'm in good spirits and good health.

it was all a really quick week during the whole process. We literally had 5 days of finding out we were pregnant to finding out we miscarried. There was no time to process, or get used to anything, which I think was almost better. We didnt tell anyone we were pregnant, but instead broke the news to close family that we had miscarried.

I know this was a huge wall of text and a lot of graphic details. But I think it will give other people going through the same thing a chance to know their not alone. And hopefully a look at a few symptoms that were eye opening for me to see a DR.

And just for future reference, if you have any questions about what I went through or if you'd like to share your story with me, feel free to drop me an email or a comment.

WHAT A WEEK!

Okay, so I know I've been MIA the last week but it was to your benefit that I was. You see, The night C left was the night my hormones decided to act out and I became the moodiest, unpleasant, and flat out bitchiest person around.

It's not as if I wanted to be that person, but I was stuck in our house, alone (well, with the pup) for 7 days. I couldnt sleep, I couldn't eat, I was crying, I was mad, I was just not good with life. There is an explanation for all of this, but really, I can't go into details right now.

Moving on, C is home and all is well in my world. I lost 11 lbs in 7 days (go me?!) and I'm finally sleeping again.

Today was amazing. The weather topped out at 75 degrees, and we got up early and spent every minute we could outside.

In Portland they are pretty well known for a "Saturday Market". They have it every single Saturday and I guess they added Sundays too. Basically, it's crafts, food, games and live music. Much like a festival. We had never been so decided to check it out. Can I just say; I've never seen so many hippies in my life. Portland is pretty know for their weird folk ( not kidding!) and certainly have a huge hippy following. But when it's the norm to just casually ask if I have a joint, or feel out of place because I don't have dreads or birkenstocks on, I'm immediately questioning our decision to go.



None the less, we had fun people watching, and enjoying the sunshine. Will we go again? Probably not unless we decide to smoke the green stuff or buy into blown glass.( which kind of go hand in hand, LOL!)



You see the brick building that says VooDoo Doughnuts? This is Portland's claim to fame. This place seriously has a line of 25 people (if not more) at all times. They have the famous bacon maple donut. We tried it last yearwhen we first moved here and found it to be too sweet and not our style but apparently all the stoner's   locals love them.


There was seriously SO many people there. It was hard to walk side by side and most of time I was holding on to C's back pocket for life so we wouldn't loose one another.


And just because I think he's cute....




And notice his black jacket? I seriously have NO idea why he had that on. He is the one that likes to sleep with the window open and the fan on in 30 plus degree weather, but yet he was sporting a jacket in 75 degrees. I digress....



So overall we had a great Saturday. Tomorrow we'll be spending some time at home, cleaning, doing some laundry, hanging out and hoping the rain stays away ( although word is, we'll be back to showers. booo!)