Ironman, Family & Turkey!

We are back from our Arizona trip! We had a wonderful sunshiny time! Of course, I had to get sick with something the day before we left and was sick mostly the whole time we were gone, but it was still a great trip. The first few days in Arizona were spent checking in Colin's bike, watching him do a practice swim, buying Ironman gear and just mentally preparing for his race! Sunday was the big day and it went amazingly! He finished the swim 5 minutes slower than he was hoping at 1 hour 5 minutes, but then killed it on the bike with a time of 5 hours 37 minutes (more than 20 minutes faster than he was hoping to go)! We missed seeing him on his first bike loop since he was going so fast. We parked it for his run and saw him 3 times! He had a marathon time of 3 hours 47 minutes! only 12 minutes slower than his Seattle marathon time. Giving him an overall time of 10 hours 43 minutes! I couldn't be more proud of him!! No, I did not go sign up to do the Ironman but a smaller triathlon might be on the horizon for me sometime in the future :) I was a horrible photographer for this race, so we did buy a CD of the professional pictures taken. It was worth it!


Best Photo I snapped of Colin starting out on the run!

After the race we spent a night in Sedona with Colin's parents. It was beautiful! The weather was great (mid-seventies) and the scenery was amazing. We headed back to Mesa to spend Thanksgiving with Colin's grandparents and Aunt & Uncle. It was fun, lots of food and good old fashioned games!!



We got home Friday night and then spent Saturday wine tasting with my family. Then Sunday we had a second Thanksgiving dinner with my extended family. I've probably had enough food to last me the next few weeks!! It was a little challenging to get up for work this morning! My clock is definitely not on the 6:30am wake up time! This week I am looking forward to getting back to running a little more. Colin and I are doing the Jingle Bell run this Sunday, it's just a 5k but I haven't been able to get much running in with this dang cold. I've been utilizing the Nike+ and oh my goodness, I LOVE it! Yes, I work for Nike, but this is the best thing ever!

I also was able to squeeze in a little holiday decorating this weekend! Looking forward to getting a tree :) this is definitely the best time of year! I just love Christmas! Here are a few apartment pics of what I've got so far.



Planning to put our tree to the left of the fireplace, we'll probably venture out for one this weekend! (Those curtains are new and way, way too long. I'll be hemming this weekend, maybe sooner since they are driving me crazy!)

Only 1 more week until we leave for Arizona for Colin's Ironman!! This also means a vacation for a week and Thanksgiving! So I cannot wait. I think Colin & I are both ready for him to be done. Training for something this long takes up a TON of time! It will be nice to have a weekend where we aren't planning around 6 hour rides and 3 hour runs!!

Last week I was given a little promotion at work. I am now a Lead for our team! Which is awesome. I love my job!!! Everyday I love going to work! Like today for example, it barely even crossed my mind that it was Friday and a holiday where half the country didn't have to go to work. I lived for the weekend at my last job. This was my prayer when searching for a new job that I would be content where I was. God has blessed beyond belief!

This last weekend was filled with some fun fall festivities! Friday night we had a game night with some of our good friends- Sarah & Lance and Geraldine & Bryan (Sarah and I have been good friends since 1st grade!) It's always fun getting together with old friends :)

Saturday night Colin and I organized a group outing to the Sauvie Island corn maze, with our church group. It was so much fun!! We went through a few times and even got pretty lost.



Colin and I joined a winery! After visiting this winery with every guest that comes into town we finally decided we should just become members! It includes free wine tasting for us and 2 guests at any time (any takers ;)) and every few months we get a shipment of wine and the winery hosts a pick-up party. For this month we enjoyed a hay ride tour through the vines and tried the different wines along the way. When we got back to the tasting room we tried the wines that came in our shipment along with a food pairing. It was pretty fun! And it couldn't have been a more perfect fall day!

Leaves are a fallin

How did it get to be fall already?! This summer went by insanely fast. Probably because we were so incredibly busy! But secretly (even though I am a hot weather girl through & through) I'm kind of liking the rain, yep I said it.

My job at Nike has kept me occupied, I'm starting to feel like a workaholic. There have been a few late nights and weekends, but at least I love my job and love the company I work for (also, loving the overtime pay since I am currently paid hourly)! And I guess this is the time to do that since we don't have kids yet.

Our Financial Peace group has been awesome so far. We obviously love the teachings and have been following for a while, but it's so cool to see other young people get excited about it too! We have about 14 people in the group. Yep, all crammed into our apartment!! It's fun though.

Last weekend Colin and I took a glass blowing class. Thanks to my mother-in-law for the Groupon! It was fun! We made stemless wine glasses, mine turned out a little sad looking. I didn't get enough air when I blew into the glass so it turned out really small and super thick. Also, we had to sping the glass in the fire while the instructor added the color and I wasn't spinning fast/consistenly enough (my arm was getting so tired!) so the color ended up really globby. Colin's turned out perfect. He's the artist in the fam :)



We look like we're enjoying ourselves. that's a good sign!

Also, now that it's starting to rain, it's getting close to the end of gardening season. This was our first year doing a vegetable garden and I had no idea how much we would actually harvest! The other thing I learned is that we are not used to eating that many vegetables!!

One weeks worht of harvest!

Life is good :)

Things have felt pretty busy around our household, the summer has been filled with work, family visits, church events, and physical training (for Colin, not so much for me). We spent last weekend camping at Crater Lake with some good friends from church. It was awesome, the weather was great. I had never been, and that's kind of sad considering I was born and raised in Oregon!


Colin used his photography skills to take this awesome pic of the lake. The water was unbelievably blue!




Some exciting news, Colin found out last week that he is finally getting hired on full time/permanently with the City of Portland! Hooray! We are pretty excited about it! We were planning to be a one income family again for the third time in the 3 years that we've married! Sheesh! So we are pretty happy that we can continue with our financial goals of paying off our debt! This fall all the small groups at our church will be going through Financial Peace University (the Dave Ramsey class) and we are so excited to get to facilitate one of the groups! We love sharing about how much of an impact it has had on our lives with others and it will be a great motivator to keep us going!

We have some fun things coming up, November is Colin's Ironman in Arizona (pray for his training!) it is the weekend before Thanksgiving and Colin's grandparents live down there and his parents will be flying in for the event, so we will be staying a week and spending the holiday with family! I've never been to Arizona, definitely excited to mark that state off my list :)

I've also never been to Nevada and in December we are heading to Las Vegas with our friends, Andrew & Michelle, for Andrew's big 3-0 birthday. It will be quite the experience, but we are looking forward to it.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Life is good :)

The summer is off to a busy start! Our weekends have been filled with fun times with great friends! And our weekdays filled with hard work; it is so exhausting to learn a new job!! So far the job has been great, I feel like I am finally starting to get things and I am not having to ask so many questions. One thing I love about working for Nike are the opportunities to learn about athletes. Last week they had the first viewing of a documentary that was made about Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first woman to win Olympic gold for the marathon. She came out and spoke after the movie- she is amazing. She's in her mid-fifties and still runs 80 miles a week. They also had a few other runners who are hoping to make it to the Olympics come and speak as well, Kara Goucher, Dawn Harper and David Oliver. So cool! Definitely got me inspired to run. I am actually going to be running a half marathon with a friend in just a couple weeks (we'll see how it goes, considering I've had like 4 weeks to train). This last weekend Colin ran the Seattle Rock & Roll Marathon....it was his first marathon and he did awesome! He finished in 3 hours and 35 minutes!! It is a good start to his season because in November he will be doing a Full Ironman Triathlon! He was able to get a free entry through the Prostate Cancer Foundation by raising money for it. So go to the link below and donate! ;) It will be a crazy summer of running, swimming and biking in store.

Finished Product

from the frames pictured in my last post we decided to make mirrors out of most of them and then add pictures to a few. I think it turned out pretty good!

Feeling crafty :)

Today Colin and I spent the afternoon at the Rebuilding Center in P-town... It is pretty much awesome. If you've never been it's basically just a warehouse full of old doors, cabinets, desks, molding, etc... we went looking for a desk or small table to refinish and we came out with a handful of cool vintage moldings that we decided to make frames out of (and no desk). I'm thinking we will put mirrors in most of them and possibly B&W pics in a couple. I thought they turned out pretty cool, it's like homemade anthropologie for a way cheap! (the moldings were like $.25 each!!)

Changes !

So some major changes have been made! Oh my goodness, it happened very fast, but I am so INCREDIBLY EXCITED! I have given my notice at my current job and have accepted a position with NIKE! For those of you who may be unaware the Nike Corporate Headquarters in located in Beaverton, OR, about 2 miles down the road from our apartment. It is an amazing campus and from everyone I have talked to an awesome place to work.

I have to tell the story of how it happened. For the past few months I have felt like I wanted a change in my job. I didn't do much about it, until one weekend I got my butt in gear and fixed up my resume and decided to apply to a job I saw online at Nike. I have always wanted to work at Nike but submitting an online application felt like it was just going into a black hole. The next day I called my former boss that I worked for at the Career Development Center at Pacific, and I asked her if she had any contacts at Nike or if anyone was registered in the Alumni Network that I could meet with. She said she thought she did and would get back to me, but she also let let me know that on that Friday there was a job fair. Normally I have to work until 2:30 on Fridays, but I happened to have worked more during the week and I would be getting off at noon, and the job fair started at noon. I wasn't very enthusiastic about going, I would probably be the oldest person there since it was mostly for college seniors (and "recent" grads) and Nike was not on the exhibiting list. But I figured I would go and get some practice in. While there I was informed they would be having a Networking session where students could meet with other professionals and talk to them about what they did. I took a look at the list and there was one lady from Nike. When the networking session started she was busy talking with others, so I decided to just go home. I got in my car drove down the road and then I felt like I really needed to go back, I turned around and drove back (this is totally out of character for me, if I'm already going home, I'm going home!). I walked right to the networking session and no one was talking to her, I went over started talking to her, let her know I had applied for a position, told her what I was looking for, what I did in my current position etc. and we totally hit it off. She told me she was going to have a couple openings in her department soon, and based on my experience I would be a good fit. She gave me her direct phone number, the names and e-mails of 2 people that she told me to send my resume to and 2 weeks later I was called for an informal interview, later that day I was called for an official interview, had an interview and then got offered a job! I actually was offered a different position than the one I interviewed for but it sounds awesome. So I accepted. I have to say with how easily this all happened, I definitely felt God orchestrating the whole thing! I start my new job May 23rd. I will keep you lovely people posted on how it all goes :)

This month for book club we read "From a Name to a Number" an autobiography of a Holocaust survivor, Alter Weiner who lives right here in Hillsboro. My co-worker who hosts the book club picked the book because she personally knows Alter, and last Saturday he came and spoke to our group, we all invited friends and family to join our group for the night. The book was great. Alter is not a professional writer but he needed to tell his story so we would never forget the horrible things that the Jewish and other religious & ethnic groups suffered during World War 2.
Even without the book being edited and English not being Alter's native language it is pretty good. It gives you a true and authentic view of what happened during those times. I was brought to tears several times while reading the book. Alter is a great speaker. He is very funny and somehow has not ever taken things for granted in life, because of his experience in several different concentration camps in Germany. He makes no money off of the book- all proceeds are donated, and he spends his time speaking to churches, schools and communities about his experiences. I felt honored to meet him and hear his story. He mentioned that some young people he talks to have never even heard of the Holocaust and there are others that deny it ever happened. This seems absurd to me. I think it is important to continue to remember these events so we don't repeat it. I recommend the book to everyone. And if you have the opportunity to hear Alter or any other Holocaust survivor speak you should take it.

Spring!

Well, it has been spring for almost a month now but it definitely hasn't felt like it! It has been dark, gray and rainy! Today there was actually some sun! This year I am going to attempt a garden plot at our church's community garden. I am not doing it all by myself, my friend had a plot last year and was looking for someone to share it with this year. We spent the morning pulling weeds and preparing to plant! I am looking to forward to having fresh vegetables whenever I want. I think we planning on planting onions, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, strawberries, peas, zucchini, carrots....and I'm sure I'm leaving a few things out. I will keep you all updated on how it goes and any gardening tips would be much appreciated :)

Recipes!

So the last few weeks I have been on a "trying out new recipes" kick. First off I have given up coffee for lent. This is something that needed to happen. Spending almost $4 for a cup of fancy coffee practically every morning is no good. So I have replaced coffee with a morning smoothie that I found on the Cheapskate Cook blog I mentioned in my last post. See recipe below. It has spinach in it which may scare some people off, but you can't even taste!!!! The fruit flavors totally overpower the spinach. I think this is my new favorite way to get my vegetables in my diet.


Makes 1 big smoothie or 2 small smoothies

INGREDIENTS:

•1/2 C. water
•1/3 – 1/2 a small orange, peeled and sectioned OR a generous spoonful of frozen orange juice concentrate
•4-5 medium-sized strawberries (if frozen, make sure they’re sliced)
•3/4 of a banana, sliced into 1” chunks
•3-4 handfuls of fresh spinach
•Optional: You can throw in a few chopped baby carrots, slices of cucumber, almonds, and /or ground flax seed for added nutrition. Or even protein powder.

DIRECTIONS:

•Layer the ingredients in the blender in the order listed
•Blend together, beginning on a low setting, then increasing until it’s on high. Maintain a vortex in the middle of the mixture while blender is running. If there is no vortex, add more water as necessary
•Thanks to the marvelous blend of all these different colors, you will probably have to add 1-3 more handfuls of spinach/kale to get a strong green color. I usually add them while the blender is running and keep it running on high until I don’t see any more leaf fragments.
•Pour into a glass and enjoy!

The next thing I made the other night that was absolutely delish was the brownie recipe below. TO. DIE. FOR. Seriously. I found this recipe on the Dave Ramsey website (I know that is totally random). I have to admit that I usually don't attempt to bake brownies from scratch because they kind from a box usually turn out better for me, but these were great. I also didn't have all the ingredients for the fudge frosting, so I just added like a cup of chocolate chips to the batter and put the peanut butter on top. so good. ENJOY! :)


INGREDIENTS:

Brownies

1 cup of butter (2 sticks, no substitutions)
1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (18-ounce) jar peanut butter

Fudge Frosting

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup whole milk (no substitutions)
10 large marshmallows
1/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
1 (16-ounce) package powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:


Brownies

1.Melt 1 cup butter and 1/3 cup cocoa in a saucepan over low heat until butter melts, stirring constantly.
2.Remove from heat and cool slightly.
3.Combine sugar, flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
4.Slowly add chocolate mixture and beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended.
5.Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended. Do not overbeat.
6.Spread mixture into a greased 15 x 10 inch jellyroll pan.
7.Bake in 350-degree oven for 25–30 minutes. Every oven is different, so I recommend inserting a toothpick in the middle of the brownies and making sure it comes out clean. If not, cook one minute at a time until done. Don’t overcook.

Peanut Butter Topping

1.Spoon mounds of peanut butter across the top of the hot brownies. As peanut butter begins to soften and melt, gently spread evenly across the top of the hot brownies.
2.Let cool completely, and then chill for 30 minutes until peanut butter sets up firm.

Fudge Frosting

1.Cook 1 stick of butter, milk and marshmallows in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until marshmallows melt.
2.Remove pan from heat and gradually sift in 1/4 cup cocoa, beating with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy.
3.Sift powdered sugar and gradually stir into cocoa mixture with hand mixer until smooth.
4.Spread frosting over peanut butter; place back in fridge and chill at least another 20 minutes so fudge frosting will set.
5.If not serving immediately, cover with foil and keep in fridge.
6.To serve, trim off all of the edges of the brownies. Cut into small squares (these are very rich). Optional: Garnish each piece with 1/4 of a miniature peanut butter cup. Best served at room temperature

So I finished “Water for Elephants” and I have to say I REALLY enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out. I am also feeling more ready for the race this weekend! The website said they are at full capacity, 30,000 people will be running in this race. That sounds like craziness to me, but I’m sure it will be fun.

I wanted to share with you all a couple blogs I have been loving lately. The first one is the “Stuff Christians Like” blog written by Jon Acuff. If you are a Christian and haven’t read this, it is a must! He is such a witty writer and blogs about random funny things we as Christians would relate to. Below is a link to a couple of my favorite posts by him:

The Jesus Juke

Asking People to “scoot to the middle” in church

The other blog that I randomly happened upon was the “Cheepskate Cook.” This girl and her husband are on the Dave Ramsey plan with a $35 a week grocery budget but she is all about healthy whole food living. Usually eating healthy and saving money don’t go together, but she has all sorts of frugal tips on buying healthy foods, meal planning, recipes etc. I think I might become obsessed! Check it out for your self:

The Cheapskate Cook

Read, Run......Blog

So I have 2 goals for this week, to Read and to Run!!! I should be doing one of those 2 things right now, but I am blogging instead :)

I am going to furiously read "Water for Elephants" to try and finish it by Friday, that is when it's due back to the library. I checked online today to see if I could renew it and there are 50 holds on it!!!! Well, I can't say I am surprised the movie for it is coming out in April, so everyone is trying to read it first! I am really enjoying the book so hopefully I will get it done!

I need to run this week since the Shamrock run is coming up THIS Sunday! I have only ran outside a few times (the weather has been crappy, I know, I'm a wimp). I really should be running outside rain or shine considering what I will probably be facing Sunday morning (forecast shows a temp of around 40 and rain).

Ok, that's all for now, I'm headed to the gym since it's pouring out ;)

So we are settling nicely into our new place. I'm not sure why, but having more space is so much more relaxing!!! It's crazy how that works. Here are a few pictures. The place feels almost bare, because we have furniture for a place half the size!!

Dining Room/Kitchen

Living Room

Other side of the living room. Colin has been wanting to mount that TV on a wall forever!! lol. We just gotta figure out how to hide all those wires!

We have had a lot going on lately; Colin has been working back at the City of Portland for almost 2 months now, we're both working for my dad's business on the weekends/days off, we are still helping lead the young adults group at our church, and we are both trying to get back into running and training for up coming runs! Our first run of the year is in just 2 weeks, I finally made it outside for a run last week, it was the first time it wasn't pouring/freezing out! Yesterday I did a 5 mile run at the gym, which felt good since I am only doing the 5 mile course for the Shamrock!


I am still on my book club, so in my free time (which almost non-existant) I have been doing some reading. The last book we read was "Handle with Care" by Jodi Picoult. Good book. She's kind of writer you have to prepare yourself before you read her books, they will tear at your heart strings! Next we are readin "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. I've heard the name thrown arounda bunch, but have no idea what it's about! Hoping I have some time to finish it :)

Oh my goodness...I have probably started like 3 blog drafts over the last few weeks but haven't had time to complete/post them!

So right now I am sitting on the living room floor of our new apartment!! HOORAY! We have been wanting to find a place with a bit more space before our lease is up in March. So I have been checking online everyday for move-in specials and last Friday I saw a post on Craig's list for a 2 bed 2 bath at the apartment complex next to ours. I went right over there after work and got the tour and found out they were offering 1 month free rent, but it was a move in ready deal so we would have to apply and sign the lease that day. Well, I called Colin and even though he was at work and would not be able to see the apartment he told me if I liked it to do it! (That is not a typical Colin response, he very much likes to be involved in every decision). We are both very excited about it! The price is right, the space is double what we had, it is a top floor with vaulted ceilings and it has a fireplace! I will post pictures as soon as we get things set up, we are in the process of moving our stuff over, which is nice since we have both apartments for a little while. I am going crazy right now wanting to decorate this place!! Patience, I need patience :)

Starting the New Year off right

Colin and I have signed up for our first run of the year. We will be doing the Shamrock Run in downtown Portland. I am doing the 8k (5 miles) and Colin will be doing the 15k (which is about 10 miles). I thought about going for the 15k, but I think the 8 will be just right! I even did my first run of the season last night and made it 4 miles! That's pretty good for not really running since my 1/2 marathon.

So, I received some money for my birthday and Christmas and decided to do a little shopping for myself. But please, someone tell me why it is so hard to find things when you actually have the money!? I finally decided on a few things below.


New pair of jeans!! They are straight leg so I can wear them with my new boots!



Or the jeans would go well with my new pair of flats I ordered from my shoe club. I haven't ordered anything from them in a while so it was fun to have some money and be able to!


I still have a little money that I am hoping to put toward home decor. I would love to do something like the picture wall I found on marthastewart.com, pictured below. But I don't want to buy too much because we have decided to move when our lease is up. We would like a bigger place. I think 2 years in this tiny box is enough ;)

2011!

Happy New Year everyone! This year went by so fast and it was quite an uneventful year, compared to last year...but I can't say that's a bad thing. It was a low-key year. A few of the highlights of 2010 include: Cruise to Mexico, Disneyland Trip, Alaska Trip. (I have been searching our apartment for the camera cord to download the pictures from our trip, hopefully they will be coming soon!).

I took a look back at some of the things I wanted to accomplish in 2010 and I am proud to say that I did most all of them! I read more, got more involved in our church, cooked a little more and finished a half marathon!!! I love writing out goals, I have always been a goal setter. Here are a few for this year:

1) Continue to go where the Lord leads me, in work, church involvement, serving opportunities.

2) Serve more! This has been on my heart a lot in the past year. I want to do more for others and stop being so selfish! (I admit I can be completely and utterly selfish sometimes). Our church has so many opportunities and the Oregon Food Bank opened a new location right across the street from our apartments...so I have no excuse!!

3) The diet I was on for a while was short-lived, I think because I was trying to make too much of a drastic change, this year I want to make small changes (more veggies, less carbs!) for overall health1

4) Last year I completed a half-marathon, I haven't ran much since! So in 2011 I want to try and sign up for shorter runs every other month, starting in Feb or March! That way I keep on going! Maybe I will end the summer with another half marathon....or even a triathlon...we'll see :)

5) I want to start a side business coordinating weddings! I was the girl who had her wedding planned from a young age (I am a planner!), it's kind of sad that my wedding is done with...so I can still get my fix of weddings by planning for others! I got a book and I'm looking into certifications...and I need experience. If you know of any one getting hitched and they need some help send them my way!

Those are the major goals...for now. Wishing everyone out there a blessed and happy new year!!