Fun Stuff

I have been kind of blogger-slacker lately. Honestly I have been waiting to blog for after I upload the photos from Colin's last race. But my camera is at home and I usually only have time to blog during lunch while I'm at work. So expect pictures in the near future :)
I have started to seriously train for an upcoming run...yes, I was inspired after Colin ran his 20.3 mile trail run in just over 3 hours!! We decided to do a run in Eugene, there is a 20k, which Colin will be running and a 10k which I will be running! I was super motivated to go run the other day, but it was raining so I decided to do a treadmill run at the gym and I made it a whopping 2 miles....not so good. Last night I ran over 4 miles at the gym and this Friday I am hoping to run outside with a friend and make it 5 miles...we will see :)
I have been indulging in a few guilty pleasures lately...first off, I have finished Twilight and I am 2 chapters away from finishing New Moon. I am really excited to get to the next book because I have not seen the movie, I saw both of the first movies before reading the books, but honestly I wouldn't say it ruined the books, it just gave more details!! Which is fun! Colin thinks I am insane for getting so into these books! haha. I can't tell him that he has to read them to understand because I am sure he won't like them like I do. I think I will read the third book and then take a break to read my next book club book, which is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" it looks so good. It is written from the family dog's perspective and I think they are making a movie out of it, which explains why there was such a huge waiting list at the library....I may just have to buy it.
The second indulgence....I signed for a shoe club. Yes, that is right!! I will be getting a new pair of shoes every month. Well, I ordered my first pair and if I like them and there is no hassel I will continue with it. It's cool though because you fill out a survey of styles that you like and then every month they will send you 5 shoes to choose from based on your survey and you can always opt out of the month if you don't like any of the shoes (or you can tell them if you are looking for something specific that month) or if you don't want to spend the money...it is $40 per pair with free shipping. These are the shoes I picked for April they will be nice to wear to work. I am hoping to at least get a couple of each style, heels, sandals, flats, boots etc.!


And Colin thinks it's cool too. He has gotten some fun toys as well, including an aero helmet for his triathlons, I will post a picture of that soon too!

I thought I would update you all on things....not that there is a whole lot to update on...haha. My life stays pretty much the same, but I just change up how or what I am doing. I guess... does this make any sense at all!?!? Anyway, I have pictures below of our apartment, and projects that I have started working on. I just recently purchased something called "e-mealz" this is a subscription where they send you a weekly dinner menu and grocery list, each week uses the groceries for multiple meals. So far it has been great, well I have only made one of the meals, I was going to make one last night but Colin surprised me by bringing home pizza and bread sticks...I do love pizza, but I was excited about starting this plan. Also, I took the list and did the grocery shopping and it only cost a grand total of $30 for an entire week of meals! I shopped at Winco though, so that made it really cheap. But at that cost I can substitute in some really great gourmet ingredients from Whole Foods or Trader Joes :). Or stick with cheap to really cut down our budget and pay off our debt!! The funny thing is that my mom has been telling me about this meal planner that she has been making for me (since I got married), and since planning out meals and grocery shopping efficiently is the hardest thing for me I decided just to buy the "e-mealz" subscription since I wasn't sure if I would really ever get the planner from my mom, but of course this last weekend she finally gave it to me. Isn't that how life works! So I am going to use a combination of both...I will update you on how it is working for us!

So just last night I jumped on the band wagon and began reading "Twilight" and I couldn't put it down! haha. Colin was getting a little frustrated that I was so consumed in the book, but he had the NCAA finals to keep him busy. I am actually trying to read it as fast as I can because I have a book I need to read for my book group in a week and a half! The book for the group is call "The Widow Clicquot: The story of a campaign empire and the women who ran it" I think it is based on a true story and it's not a huge read so I should be able to get it done.

This weekend we will be taking another weekend trip! We are going to Central Oregon for a race Colin is doing, a 19 mile trail run!! Talk about crazy! The race is in Sisters but we will be staying with Colin's aunt Kim in Prineville. Colin's friend Joe and his girlfriend Morgan will be running it as well. And I will be cheering them on! No 19 mile run for me, that is basically as hard as a marathon!! I have been extremely lazy lately. It has been very hard to drag myself to the gym. I have a lot of things going on so when I don't have something going on all I want to do is have a nice night at home where I can cook a good meal and read!! Hopefully when the weather gets nice I will get inspired to run more outside.


Here is my little herb garden that I attempted. I ended up buying a variety pack of herb seeds, BIG mistake. Things started sprouted up all over and I had NO idea what anything was....so I got rid of it and I'm going to start it again with only one type of herb per pot!!!!



My dad was nice enough to build me this cubby/shelf that I was hoping to mount on the wall, but it is too big. So it is resting on the counter for now.



We have tried to find creative ways to use these vases from our wedding...
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This is our entry table that could use a little work, Colin's stereo is on it and it doesn't even work...it's ugly! One of my future decorating projects!

All things Idaho!

This last weekend Colin, our good friend Becka and I made the trip out to Boise Idaho for our college friend's (Clint) wedding. I love going to weddings! And especially when I can turn it into an excuse to hang out and see some of your best friends!! One of my best friends from college lives in Caldwell Idaho with her husband, we only get to see them about once a year, but they are so much fun to hang out with and they love to give you a true "country" experience!! Here are some fun pictures that capture the events of the weekend.



Colin and I at Clint's wedding. and yes, his beard is getting just a little out of control!


The day after the wedding we went out to a place called Leslie Gultch to fish. Here are the girls, Michelle, me and Becka!


With Michelle and Andrew our wonderful Hosts!


Hey look, I caught a fish!! If you can't tell from the picture I was pretty excited :)

One thing we didn't catch on camera were the wild mustangs that we drove around to find. They have a refuge for them and it was so cool to see! Wish we could have gotten close to take some pics!

That is all for now from this adventure. There will be many more to come. We are planning a bunch of fun trips. In a couple weeks we will be driving down to the Bend area for a 19 miles trial run that Colin is doing. We are possibly going up to Sitka at the end of May. And we will be headed up to Seattle at the begining of June for a triathlon. Looking forward to some spring/summer fun and good weather!

Forward Motion

I am titling this blog after one of my fave songs right now. I usually will have a favorite song and listen to it on repeat constantly until it starts to drive me crazy. haha! I should end that crazy cycle. Anyway, I am going to try and post it on here for you to enjoy as well. It's got kind of a cool rock vibe, which isn't always my favorite, but I love it! (Ok, I can't figure out how to post a video or a link to a video...help!!)


I have many things in the coming months that I am looking forward to, that will help me move in a "forward motion" (I had to tie it all in ;)). First off, Colin and I going up to Seattle this weekend to visit some friends. Colin's friend that he grew up with in Sitka, Brian and his wife Elisa live up there. Colin and Brian are both into triathlons, so it will be good for Colin to have a training buddy for the weekend, and it will just be nice to get away!

In 2 weeks we will be making the drive out to Boise for our friend Clint's wedding and we'll be staying with my friend Michelle. I am super excited for the wedding and to spend some time with Michelle and her husband Andrew. Ever since she transfered from Pacific after our freshman year we have made it a point to visit each other every year. Usually it is a spring break trip, since she and her husband are both teachers, this is going to be very quick trip only for a weekend, but it is better than nothing!

Then we have 2 weddings in June, my cousin is getting married (very excited for them!!) and then I am in a wedding for one of my good friends that I worked with at the pool through high school. Weddings are always fun! I love celebrating love :)

Then in July our good friends Brian and Ashlee, from college will be down visiting from Alaska! We haven't seen them since our wedding and they have since had 2 beautiful twin boys!

So lots of fun with good friends!

Project Update!

So in some of my earlier posts I posted pictures of all my ambitious ideas I wanted to do in our small apartment. I have actually only completed a couple of them and that is the little grocery list clip board & I printed out the freezer labels. Probably the easiest ones from the list. haha. I continually add projects to this list, but I haven't been able to accomplish many of them because we have decided not to give ourselves allowance until we get the car paid off. Hopefully it will only take 2 more months! Then maybe I can negotiate "back pay" with Colin. haha. Just kidding, that would kind of defeat the purpose of giving it up in the first place. So the projects will just keep adding up I guess. Here are a few more fun ideas from Design Sponge and Martha!


I want to sew throw pillows! And apparently prints with birds on them are totally in right now :)


Homemade air/drawer freshener


I think this is so neat! It's a jewelery holder made out of wood and painted white. So girly!!


These are three small benches painted and put together to create shelving. I think it looks very Pottery Barn-ish. Probably not something I can do in our current apartment, but someday!


This would be an easy thing to do and free up some space on our coat racks!

Ok, I think that is all for now!! Hopefully in a couple months I will be able to take pictures of some of these projects completed!!

Spring Fever

It is the first day of March and we have been spoiled with good weather lately, it's giving me spring fever. Since we have gotten back from our vacation we are really trying to buckle down and start paying off our debt. We are so close to having our car paid off and we are getting so anxious to cross it off the list! Since it is Lent we decided to give up eating out (a big money saver) and I have decided to give up coffee (another big money saver!). Coffee is such a hard thing for me to give up (and I'm not just talking a straight up cup of black coffee, no I like the fancy stuff). We have done great so far! It is actually amazing to me that a couple weeks can go by without spending anything! Yes, that is right, spending absolutely nothing! I didn't even think that was possible.

I've also decided to really start running again. We found out last week that our church didn't get any teams for Hood-to-Coast this year, which is a total bummer, I was so looking forward to it. So I need something else to train for and I think it is going to be a half marathon! The most I've ran in a race was a 12k when I was studying abroad in Spain, I think that's about 7.5 miles...? So 13 miles will be a huge challenge. To start off I am going to do a running streak and see how long I can keep it up. That means running everyday, even if it's just 1 mile.

I feel like I'm making some positive changes in my everyday life, getting fit physically and financially, but I also want to grow more spiritually. One thing that has been on my heart lately is serving others, and just take opportunities that come my way without even thinking twice. It doesn't have to be a huge thing like going on a missions trip, but just everyday ways that I can serve or bless others. The church that Colin and I go to has so many opportunities to serve, it is amazing. They had a cold weather shelter, have a clothes closet and so many other things. My prayer is that I will not hold myself back by thinking that they won't need my help or letting "my life" get in the way. Our lives shouldn't just be about what we are doing for ourselves; our jobs, our families, our money etc, but for others. After all, Jesus said loving others as yourself is one of the most important commandments.

Back to Reality...

We just got home from a wonderful week of cruising on the Mexican Riviera! I feel renewed, relaxed, refreshed and BLESSED!! I had no idea what to expect because I have never been on a cruise, I'd never even seen a cruise ship besides on TV, so I really didn't know that they were so gigantic!!! I wasn't sure if I would enjoy spending most of my vacation at sea on a big boat with lots of people. But you know what? I had a BLAST! The food was amazing I am surprised I didn't gain 10 pounds!!! Every night we had a wonderful sit-down dinner, with bread, an appetizer, an entree and dessert! I tried lobster tail, duck and escargot for the first time and I actually liked it!!! The days started out with a morning workout (most days anyway) and time by the pool. Port days were spent on the beach. First stop was Cabo....we enjoyed Cabo! We had to walk a ways from where we were dropped off to the beach, but then we found a restaurant on the beach with lawn chairs and we parked there for most the day enjoying fresh guacamole, chips & pina coladas. Yum!


This is the life. I ventured into the water a couple times, but it was much colder than I had hoped.


The second port was in Mazatlan, we spent a little time shopping around negotiating to get good deals on souvenirs...we didn't find the beaches all that nice, so we decided to taxi it back to the ship. By taxi I mean golf cart (!) and we got quite the tour, the driver took us all over to see cliff hangers and an old light house.


We hopped back on the ship in time for lunch and soaked up some sun poolside.


Our third stop was Puerto Vallarta. We decided to do an excursion this day, so we took a catamaran out to a beach that can only be reached by boat. The boat stopped for snorkeling but it was POURING down rain, so we decided not to snorkel.



Once we reached the beach, we walked down to the end and decided to spend the day at a beach front restaurant. We had our regular meal of chips, guacamole and pina coladas and enjoyed the sun. Colin and I decided to get massages. Talk about relaxing! The rain stopped while we were on the beach so we were able to soak up some rays for a few hours.





We were the only ones at this restaurant, when I asked to use the restroom they directed me to go to the back building, as I walked about a quarter mile to the bathroom I saw what looked like the ruins of an old resort, an old pool, a broken down water slide! Cabanas! We chatted with the workers and they said the resort had been deserted and they were fixing it up!!! It is going to be absolutely amazing when it's finished, I want to look it up and stay there.

Evenings were spent on the ship going to singing/dancing shows, ice skating shows, etc. So much fun! This is definitely not the vacation if you just want to be in one spot, without many people and relax on the beach 24/7, But it is a great vacation with friends and if you want good food, lots to do and want to see different places!!