Catch Up! (No, not ketchup)

I'm just going to blame my blog absence on a crazy, fun, busy summer and spend a few paragraphs catching you all up on the highlights. I guess I have some major memory recalling to do since I haven't written a post since June! I don't think anything earth-shattering happened during June, so I'll just skip ahead to July. My parents came to visit us from New York for a week and a half! It was their first time on the West Coast. More specifically, it was their first time west of Illinois! It was about time, right?! We really enjoyed having them here. They were our first house guests! We all took a mini vacation and stayed at a beach house on Harstine Island on Puget Sound. It was really relaxing, and so much fun. I've never seen so many tiny crabs in my life! They were under every rock we overturned! Otto got to come with us, and he was so good! Apparently the key to good doggy behavior is car rides and vacationing. I told Hubby that we just need to go on perpetual vacations. It would probably end up being cheaper than replacing all of the items our bored, naughty pup destroys. We also took a day to explore Olympic National Park and to see the Pacific. Gorgeous.

On the way home, we made a pit stop at Pike Place Market in Seattle. 

 I flew back to New York with my parents for my wonderful friend's wedding! Gina was a stunning bride. :) It was a quick trip, but I was so thankful for the chance to reconnect with several wonderful friends. The hardest thing about living in Spokane is not being able to see family and old friends very often.

Photo by the lovely and talented Beka Watts.
http://www.bekawatts.com 

 I was also able to spend some much needed quality auntie time with my adorable niece, Nicole. A few of her favorite 17-month-old activities were playing with "wanyah," reading her "Melmo" book, and playing her Mickey Mouse Club House game on the iPad. Yeah, she's cute and smart. :)

Oh, and while I was playing in New York, my hott Hubby was moving all of our stuff to our new house! The best part about the new house: two of our awesome friends live downstairs. It's a pretty ideal scenario, I'd say! :)

This past week, Hubby and I both celebrated our 24th birthdays! We went to one of our favorite restaurants, and I got a wonderful facial for my birthday! I threw Russ a surprise BBQ and got him a fire pit for the backyard for his birthday! It was a good week.

I'm getting ready to do the student thing again as I start my first grad class online through the University of New England on Wednesday. I'm actually looking forward to it!

How was your summer? Are you ready for a new school year?

Pictures in the Park

Hubby is teaching in the woods this week and being more hard core than Bear Grills, so it's just the dog and me. Due to crappy rainy weather, Otto and I spent yesterday lounging on the couch watching Sweeney Todd and several episodes of Friday Night Lights. FNL was a college favorite, and watching it has brought back great memories of times with awesome friends. (You know who you are). :)
Today was a 180 degree turn from yesterday's laziness. Thanks to motivation from the sunshine and moderate temperature, I took Otto for a walk to a nearby park after church. I took hubby's Canon Rebel along to take some pictures. A word of advice: don't attempt to take decent pictures while holding a leash that is attached to a hyper Weimaraner. Otto likes to keep my life frustrating interesting. The photos turned out less than professional, but it was still fun. After our walk, I mowed the lawn, did a 100 Workout, and took Otto for a run. To make the day even better, I had phone calls from my parents and father-in-law. I even got to FaceTime with my brother, sister-in-law, and silly niece, Nicole. She was happy to show off for me on her new slide and tell me all of the animal sounds she knows. She's only 16 months old. She's a little smarty pants. :) I feel good about today. A phone call from Hubby would be icing on the cake. How about 1 little bar of service, Verizon?!

Here's that 100 Workout, if you're interested:

100 jumping jacks

90 sit ups

80 squats

70 leg lifts

60 jumping jacks 

50 sit ups 

40 squats

30 leg lifts

20 jumping jacks

Run for 10 minutes

Weekends with Friends

Our Portland trip was a blast! We had such a great time celebrating Cassady's graduation with her family and friends. And, our gracious hosts, Lizzy and Ray, spent the day with us on Saturday touring the city. I would love to share tons of pictures with you, but unfortunately I'm a total failure at capturing great moments. I like to think that is because I'm too busy enjoying them! Thank goodness for iPhones and Instagram, or I would never take a picture of anything! Here are a few Instagram faves of the trip taken by Hubby and me. 

No trip to Portland is complete without a Voodoo Doughnut stop.

The weather was beautiful, and the drive home on Sunday was picturesque (until we hit the Washington border). I swear that the scenery became instantly boring the second we passed from Oregon into Washington.

The following weekend was just as awesome as the Portland trip weekend. Hubby rented an Air Force cabin a couple hours north of us so we could spend the weekend with our group of Spokane friends. One of these friends is moving back to California in a couple of weeks, :( so this trip was kind of a farewell party. The weekend was full of relaxing, eating a lot of non-paleo camp food (including s'mores, of course), hiking, shooting guns, and fellowshipping with friends. By the way, Otto was in Weimaraner heaven up there. I think he's still recovering from all of the running.

"Hey guys, look what I found!"
Otto's new favorite chew toy.

Goodbye Wisdom Teeth, Hello Ben & Jerry's

This post will probably seem redundant to any of you who follow me on Facebook or Instagram, but in the interest of telling the stories behind the pictures, I thought I would re-share them anyway. Plus, I need to do something with my lazy self. It's 11:45 am, and I'm still in my pj's, people! TMI, I know.

Did anyone else enjoy getting their Wisdom Teeth removed? Ok, maybe the surgery itself wasn't that special, but I was knocked out, so whatever. I was expecting all sorts of horrible things to happen. I presumed my face would swell up like a chipmunk and turn all colors of the rainbow. However, thus far I've been pleasantly surprised at the aftereffects of having four molars cut and yanked out of my jaw. My fingers are crossed that my earlier fears aren't waiting to show up just in time for our trip to Portland this weekend! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but yesterday I did three loads of laundry, took Otto for two walks, cooked and pureed carrots, and made dinner for friends of ours who just had a baby. Maybe the pain meds and lovely weather gave me an extra boost of motivation! All of the sugar might have something to do with it, too! Froyo and Bolthouse Farms smoothies have a lot of sugar, but if you can't indulge in something smooth and delicious when you've had teeth yanked out, when can you?!

Today, however, pup and I are pretty content to snuggle on the couch while reading and surfing the good ol' internet. Could the rain and 50s have anything to do with that? I have a nice long to do list waiting for me in the kitchen. It's mostly cleaning, and who wants to do that? We'll see if motivation finds me again. Miracles happen everyday, right?

Lizzy and Cass

Back to that Portland trip this weekend! Cassady, one of my bff's is graduating from college on Saturday! Hubby and I are driving down tomorrow afternoon and coming home on Sunday. My lovely friend, Lizzy and her hubby are kind enough to let us crash with them! I'm so excited to see my beautiful college friends. They're awesome people. Ironic fact: Cassady, Lizzy and I all met at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, NY where we were soccer teammates and instant friends. Now, we're all West Coasters living less than six hours from each other! God does cool things like that.

Spring Training

This week was absolutely beautiful! It only rained once, which is pretty incredible considering the cold/rainy weather we've been clouded with recently. Those sunny 60 degree days yielded large doses of motivation to get outside and exercise! My April Goals have also been highly motivational in the fitness and healthy eating categories. I'm happy to report that I crossfitted 3 times per week, and this week I met my 6 miles per week goal! I know that running 6 miles in a week doesn't sound like much. However, I work through all of the daylight hours on Monday and Tuesday, which exempts them from being possible running days.

Friday, on the other hand, is a glorious running day! I have Fridays off. Go ahead and be jealous of my 3-day weekends. ;) Yesterday morning
I tied my running shoes, clipped Otto's chewed up retractable leash to his collar, and ran a couple of miles around the South Hill. My running buddy did great, especially after running 3+ miles with Hubby on Thursday! This dog has an unlimited energy supply. In the afternoon, I had a really good Crossfit workout, too! Yesterday's WOD was "Lynne:" 5 rounds of max bench press reps followed by max pull ups. I did this workout several weeks ago with a 65 lb. bench press. This time, I did it with 75 lbs. for a total of 54 reps and 50 total pull ups! I'm so encouraged to see my strength improving. I could barely do 1 pull up when I started Crossfit. Holla!

This morning, Hubby and I took Otto for a run through Manito Park. My arms were ridiculously sore/tight from yesterday's WOD, but it was so much fun to run in the sunny

park as a little family. :) To top off our Spring Saturday, some of our wonderful friends stopped by this afternoon for our first BBQ! Isn't grilling out with friends and family one of the best parts of Spring and Summer? I'm a fan.

April Goals

I realize that this post should have happened on Sunday in order ensure a whole month of goal meeting, but I just made these goals this morning. And, inspired by my dear friend Beka at bekastays, I figured I should make them public for a little accountability. I can't break goals that all five of my readers know about! ;) I've written a few health related posts about Crossfit, Paleo, and Zone, which I truly believe are all wonderful tools to health and fitness. But I need to confess that I've been a big fat cheater. It's been a week since I've been to the Crossfit gym. (That streak ends today!) And, my bad snacking habits have taken me far beyond the boundaries of Paleo and Zone. I think part of my failure to really stick to these "diets" has stemmed from a lack of goal setting. That will no longer be an excuse because, oh man, do I ever have goals now! I created a list of workout goals and healthy eating goals along with a plan for following through.

Workout Goals:

• Xfit 2-3 times/week- Improve times and weights
• Run 6 miles/week (Bonus: Tire out the pup at the same time!)
• Ab exercises 6 days/week
• Tone legs and butt- At least 100 air squats and 50 mountain climbers on Xfit off days
• Lose 1 pant size- At least 1 inch from waist, hips, and thighs
• Fill in the gaps with Jillian- Level 3 of 30 Day Shred

Healthy Eating Goals:

• Stay in the Zone! 11 blocks/day
• Say "NO" to excess snacking
• 1 "cheat" meal/month (I'm thinking it will probably be Easter this month) ;)
• Try 1 new recipe/week
• No more than 1 cup of coffee per day-->Drink more tea!
• Drink at least 8 cups of water/day

Follow Through:

• Accountability! This post is part of my follow through plan, but sometimes I need a little extra accountability. Does anyone want to call or send me encouraging/motivational texts? Some days I could really use them! ;)
• Wear workout clothes and sneakers to work. Bang out some of those ab, leg and butt exercises while the kids are taking naps.
• Intrinsic Motivation/ Emotional connection to Goals- Remember that I'm doing this for my overall health and happiness.
• Don't let the weather get me down! I just have to accept that the weather in Spokane sucks 90% of the time. Rain ain't no thang!
• Be motivated. Be tough. Have fun!
• Don't quit.

Do you have any health or fitness goals? How about some advice? I'd love to hear them!

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Do you remember the show Kids Say the Darnedest Things with Bill Cosby? It was a family favorite when I was young. My brother and I weren't allowed to call the show by its full title, though. We called it "Kids Say" because darnedest was a "shortcut swear word." ;) Anyway, I'm here to tell you that kids do say the darnedest things. I am a nanny for three preschoolers. I should know. They entertain me daily with their funny words and phrases. I have to share a few of my favorites with you. So far only Hubby has had the pleasure of hearing me quote my little munchkins. The twins, a boy and girl, are 5. Their brother, H, just turned 4. The girl is a little brown haired beauty. She loves singing, dancing, and being the center of attention. To say she has a flair for the dramatic would be an understatement. ;) Her twin is a little smarty-pants. His math skills and piano playing are impressive! Plus, he's super organized. I've never seen a kid's room as immaculate as his! Then there is H. Oh, H. He's all boy. Basically, he loves anything loud, dirty, and rough.

Twin Girl has picked up the phrase "dang it" recently. The other day we were coloring a picture together and she accidentally used the wrong color. She said, "Oh dane it!" I guess you had to be there, but it was pretty cute. I haven't corrected her because I don't think I should teach her the correct form of her "shortcut swear." Twin Boy has the most adorable speech impediment. I work with him on correct pronunciation, but part of me hopes he'll keep speaking the way he does. Honestly, it's cute. L's are tricky for him, so words like girls and pills become gews and pews. H is constantly asking "what's this" questions or telling me something that he knows. "Guess what Befany..." I hear those three loud, high-pitched words a lot!

"Befany, we can't watch that movie. It's chouched." Translation: Bethany, we can't watch that movie because it has fingerprints and has been scratched. Thank you for your wisdom, H. He is a big fan of "up sleeve" shirts and shorts. You may know them as short sleeve shirts or T shirts. I'm pretty sure he would go out in a blizzard in shorts and "up sleeves" if I let him.

What funny words and phrases do the little people in your life throw at you?