It's Dad's Day!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful day celebrating all the Dads out there...

I'd like to thank the academy...

Well, what an honor and a surprise! Kelsea at Overwhelmed by Grace recently nominated me for the Liebster Award! Kelsea is a stay at home mom from Tennessee and I think you'll love her lifestyle blog, so definitely stop by and say hi!

This award is for blogs who are under 200 followers and fairly new to the blogging community (so technically I don't qualify, since I started blogging in 2006, but whatev). I'll take it!

The ground rules

• Acknowledge the blog that nominated you in a post.
• Share 11 facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger created.
• Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you believe deserve some recognition.
• Post 11 questions for them to answer.
• Notify all the bloggers selected that they have been nominated.
• And finally, you can't nominate the blog who nominated you.

11 Facts About Me

• I love infomercials and I've ordered many, many things from TV. It's sort of a problem. 
• I have an unexplainable phobia of the telephone. This can also be a problem.
• Even though I know I shouldn't, I sleep in my makeup every single night.
• I am obsessed with disaster preparedness / the end of the world / Armageddon / the Zombie Apocalypse. Seriously, ask me how many emergency kits I have... they're everywhere.
• I love cilantro, I think it is cat nip for humans. But I hate bananas.
• I have heterochromia, which means my eyes are different colors. I was born with it.
• Try not to judge, but I am not an organ donor. I have weird human body issues, and the concept of my parts being inside someone else just really, really freaks me out.
• I did not meet my older sister until I was 22 years old, because my parents gave her up for adoption when they were in high school. Now she is one of my very best friends.
• I am completely tone deaf, like I don't even sing happy birthday out loud. Seriously, it's bad.
• My two food weaknesses are macaroni and cheese and McDonald's. My mouth just filled with saliva thinking about them.
• I dropped out of college spring quarter junior year and moved to Waikiki with a girlfriend. Eventually I came back and finished school. Yeah.

That's me! I'm kind of a nerd sometimes...

11 Questions For Me

• In which state were you born? The great state of Washington.
• What is your favorite book and why? There are so many, but one of my favorites is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Amazing themes, incredible depth of plot and characters... you'll have to check it out for yourself.
• If you could trade lives with one celebrity for a day who would you choose? Kate Middleton, in a heartbeat. Oh how I love the British Monarchy...
• One future goal. To have a family of our own that includes more than just the two of us and our ridiculous cat.
• What is your favorite restaurant? McDonald's Wasabi.
• Favorite vacation spot so far and why? I would have to say Italy, although it's really more of a travel place than a vacation destination. But I loved it there so, so much and I've been dying to go back ever since our trip there in 2010 when we got engaged. I absolutely loved the history, the food, the people, the shopping... there was nothing I didn't like.
• What is your most favorite hobby? Reading. I'm such a book nerd.
• What is the best thing you've cooked so far? Eyeyeye... I'm such a terrible cook. But my Cowboy Caviar is pretty good, although it doesn't technically require cooking.
• City or Country? A few years ago I wrote a sternly worded letter to the city of Seattle. And I stuck around for a while, but eventually we said goodbye and moved to the 'burbs. That being said, I still have equal appreciation for both.
• If you were given $1000 and had to spend it in the next thirty minutes, how would you spend it? I would buy this desk from Pottery Barn that I am dying to have for our den.
• What is one thing that you can't live without on a daily basis? My hubby is pretty great, and I definitely don't like to go more than a day without at least talking to him once, even when he's on shift.

Here I am again (sometimes I have a bit of an attitude)... But let's talk about you!

And the nominees are...
(I know some of y'all have actually been around for quite a while, but maybe you don't have that many followers, so I thought this might help give you a boost!)

Alabama to Oregon
Daily James

Diet Drama

JellyBones
Lovely Little Things
Olson's Travels

The Average Jess

The Bluest Skies are in Seattle

The Odell Yodel

Puddle of Grace

Where My Soul Belongs

11 Questions For YOU

• If you were a super hero what powers would you have?
• If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature what new animal would you create?
• What historical figure would you love to see in 21st century life?
• What phrase do you say the most?
• If you could steal one thing without consequence what would it be?
• What is your favorite thing about yourself (physical or otherwise?)
• If you could live anywhere, where would that be?
• If you were crowned ruler of the world, what's the first law you would make?
• What's the most unusual conversation you've ever had?
• What is the best present you've ever received?
• Would you rather go back in time and meet your ancestors, or travel into the future and meet your great grandchildren? 

Congratulations to all the nominees! I really enjoy each of your blogs and hope you play along. And if you haven't checked out these fabulous bloggers yet, I encourage you to take the time to read their posts, get to know them, and show some blogger love!

Advocare Cleanse: The First Few Days

Oh em gee, I'm freaking starving!

Just kidding... actually, my Advocare 10-Day Herbal Cleanse with Raven is going really well so far! I'm following more strict rules than some of the other girls, but I heard from a reliable source that I should use this particular plan for the best results (otherwise the program won't do much good).

On the first day I accidentally cheated by eating pineapple and grapes with my morning snack, and carrots with my lunch (none of which are on the approved foods list I'm using) but hey, it obviously could have been worse. I also cheated by doing cardio at the gym after work (you're not supposed to exercise on day one), but it was part of my knee physical therapy so I felt like it was okay.

Here's what I've been eating...

Day 1
(eat only fruits and vegetables for meals 2-5 on day 1 to boost the power of the cleanse)

Day 2
(main meals are lean proteins, low glycemic carbs & veggies, and snacks are fruits & healthy fats)

Day 3
(really not much different than Day 2)

And here's how I've been keeping track of things...  

Looks complicated, but it's really pretty simple.

What I've learned so far...

• The fiber drink is pretty thick, but not too terribly bad if I drink it down quickly with cold water. A blender bottle also mixes it super well, which helps a lot.
• A gallon is so, so much liquid to consume! I lost track of how many times I went pee that first day.
• I way, way over-estimated how hungry I would be. I made a huge salad with green apple slices on the side for lunch on the first day, and I ended up not even touching the apple because I was so full.
• I hate eating first thing in the morning. Having to force food down before I leave the house has been hands down the very worst part of the cleanse so far (normally I just drink a couple cups of coffee and then lunch is my first meal of the day).
• Never, ever stray too far from a bathroom. Big mistake. Huge.
• Bring hand lotion everywhere. Because I'm peeing eightybajillion times a day, that's also how many times I'm washing my hands... ew, I hate dry skin. 
• Use caution when drinking lemon water out of a water bottle... some splashed into my eye and it did not feel awesome.

Day two was kind of rough, I'm not gonna lie. I felt nauseous, exhausted, and mentally fuzzy all day. I choked down food only because it's important not to skip meals while on the cleanse. But I slept really well that night and woke up on day three feeling a thousand times better... awake, alert, and energized. My stomach seems flatter and I'm down five pounds so far (although I'm sure a lot of that is water weight). So maybe it's working?!

More updates to come!

A little multiplication goes a long way

Have I ever mentioned that I can't do math? Like I'm really terrible. Stew has been trying to teach me for years how to calculate a tip at a restaurant, but I mean honestly, why? There's an app for that.

We've been working on finishing up the downstairs living room, and I was super excited about the area rug I ordered a while back. I loved the look of the one in the model home, which I wrote down was 8x11... and apparently I thought that if I ordered a rug that was 11x15, it would be sorta the same size... Or maybe I just accidentally ordered the wrong rug... But I swear I remember being in the living room with a measuring tape, figuring it all out. Anyways...

An absolutely ginormous package arrived on our doorstep last week; it was so heavy I couldn't even get it through the front door by myself. It took both me and Stew to wrastle the rug out of the packaging and unfold it. It was huge, you guys. Like so, so big. It covered the entire living room floor and even extended beyond the couches and into the dining room. So not the look I was going for...

I have no idea why we're having so much trouble with the furnishings for this room. But it was immediately obvious that the rug had to go back... it just wasn't going to work. Note to self: 11x15 is not just "slightly larger" than 8x11, like I must have thought in my head.

Our new, much smaller area rug should be arriving this week (at least if I did the calculations correctly). Because we sure as heck don't want to cover up so much of those gorgeous hardwoods we paid so much extra for!

But now we are so close to getting this room done... I'll be sure to post some pictures of the final result!

Baby Love

I have so many gorgeous babes in my life and I don't see a single one of them often enough.

Cue girls trip.

My good friend Cailin and I road tripped down to Portland last weekend to visit my sister and her family. Cailin's daughter Charlie and my nieces, Sophia and Aubrey, had so much fun getting to know one another! And the big girls had a wonderful weekend of chick chat as well.

Look at those gorgeous little faces! And I got to play with them for two days straight!

Sophia and Charlie getting to know each other.

Little miss sticking out her tongue.

Morning photo shoot... it's hard to get a two-and-a-half-year-old and two one-year-olds to cooperate.

Aubrey's downward facing dog.

The little girls playing together... so cute!

A first for Charlie... she climbed up on the couch all by herself... Little monkey!

Loves for everyone. They seriously hugged like this all weekend, it was so precious!

This was Charlie's longest car trip thus far, and she did really, really well! Which was awesome, because it gave Cailin and I some much-needed time to catch up during the ride.

I absolutely love hanging out at my sister's house... it's always so low key and fun, and a great way to decompress after a busy week. Everyone had such a good time that we're going to get quarterly visits on the calendar!

Of course I came home with a major case of baby fever, which I'm not sure Stew necessarily appreciated... oops!

How was your weekend?

A New Challenge

Let's be honest... our health and wellness has pretty much gone in the toilet these past few months. Work has been crazy, we moved to another city, Stew has been taking tons of classes as part of his Officer Development Academy, and my knee still hurts. But I think we're finally settling back into regular life again.

Super duper exciting: I finally signed up for organic produce delivery, and our first box arrived last week! Having fresh fruits and veggies delivered right to our doorstep every Thursday is seriously going to change my life (and shopping habits).

AND, call me crazy, but I decided to join Raven and the gang to try out the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse. You know how I love jumping on band wagons... Remember when I was thinking about becoming a vegetarian? Yeah, that didn't happen (shocker). And I know I've tried weird cleanses before, but this one seems pretty legit and healthy. And I've convinced my friend Jessica to do it with me, so I'll have a buddy along for the ride.

Don't worry, this isn't one of those crazy, only-drink-lemonade-with-cayenne-pepper-and-honey-for-30-days (gut bomb) situations. Instead, it's basically taking a ton of supplements while eliminating sugar, caffeine, processed foods, and alcohol from my diet. So no biggie... that's really how we should be eating all the time, anyway.

Hello fruits, veggies, lean meats, fiber, & lotsandlots of water... I've missed you!

Stewart is going to make so much fun of me when he finds out what I've signed up for, but this is totally different than diet pills or a quick fix... it's basically a digestive system restart that will allow my body to process foods more efficiently in the future. Or at least that's the goal. Who knows, maybe it will even cure my IBS... We'll see!

I start tomorrow... wish me luck!

May Challenge Recap

Whew! 33 posts in 31 days... I can't believe it! It was challenging, to say the least. I just needed a week or so to decompress before I took a second to look back on this experience...

I first heard about the challenge while visiting Taking Notes... Coast to Coast (great blog, by the way... pop on over!) and I was immediately intrigued. I definitely stress about trying to keep this space interesting for a variety of readers while still maintaining my own voice and documenting memories for me and Stewart. And coming up with new, fresh, interesting topics can definitely be daunting. I had recently been doing a ton of book and event reviews, so the challenge was a nice opportunity to address some topics that forced me to dig a little bit deeper.

Some of the posts were fun and easy. Others were kind of embarrassing. I shared some advice, told some secrets, admitted a few faults, complained a little, and ranted (just once!) I re-lived some amazing memories and flashed back to the past. I shared some of the things that have hurt me, as well as others that bring me tons of happiness. I demonstrated some mediocre photography, and some less-than-perfect writing. I introduced you to some of my friends, and I met a bunch of new ones along the way. It was a busy month!

I linked up with Jenni every single day and got double the amount of unique pageviews we usually receive. A couple times we got up to 20 comments on a single post. And we also got quite a few new regular followers and I'm so happy to have them here at Life As Always. I'm so glad you thought we were interesting enough to stick around.

The challenge definitely forced me to focus and plan ahead... a lot of the posts were written very late at night, and some of them had to be scheduled in advance (because who blogs from Vegas, really?) But I loved all of the topics, and I hope you found our responses to them entertaining. I really enjoyed writing them and I hope that my creativity has been sparked permanently... but you definitely won't find us here every single day this summer.

Thanks for reading!

Bad Kitty

Years ago I wrote about my attention whore of a cat, and I just thought I would report that Jasmine is still up to her same old antics... bad kitty.

We actually did manage to get her a little bit under control at the condo, to the point where she knew that getting locked out of our bedroom each night was the norm and she wouldn't cry or scratch at the door. I find I sleep much better when I don't have a living fur ball draped around my neck all night.

But then came The Big Move. Following 20 terrified hours underneath the dryer, Jasmine finally came out to explore the new house, and I'm pretty sure she thinks she died and went to Kitty Paradise. 2,500 square feet is a big change for a small animal that has never gone outside before, and soon enough kitty was careening from one end of the house to another, as fast as her little paws could carry her.

Generally, I think that exceptions should be made in times of change and upheaval (remember the first time we all moved in together?) so for those first few nights in our new house we decided to let Jazzy sleep with us in our bedroom. This was a mistake.

Between our busy schedules and adjusting to the move, we were never able to establish any sort of pattern, and at this point our totally spoiled cat has completely taken over our home and bed. We try to lock her out, but she scratches at the door (new door... new paint... eeeek) and howls like she's in heat. For hours. Not kidding. But if we let her in the bedroom, she purrs and cuddles with us for a few minutes (cute), but then proceeds to jump over and under the bed like a one-kitty circus act. Sometimes she even crawls through the bed frame and up into the box spring, where she crawls and scratches around. Silly nocturnal creature.

I can't even remember the last time I got a good night's sleep. All night long, every night, it's the same: Lock her out, let her in, shove her off, throw her down, grab her throat, toss and turn, scream obscenities. Bad kitty!!

In addition, I've been having really terrible back pain ever since my knee injury. So not only is Jasmine keeping us awake all night, but I often wake up with excruciating back pain and can't get back to sleep for an hour or more (I did buy a gel foam mattress topper this week, which I hope will help with that). So needless to say, Stew and I are currently functioning in an extremely sleep deprived state, and I don't know how much longer we can take it.

I do love my kitty to the moon and back, but I hear it only takes like 72 hours without sleep for someone to go completely bat poop crazy, so if this goes on for much longer I'm not sure I can be held accountable for my actions. Jasmine, you just need to stop it, right meow!!

A Weekend Getaway & Happy Birthday Dad!

Well hello there, friends! I've missed you.

But after blogging every single day in May, I just needed a second there to take a break and re-group. And in the meantime, we took a little family trip over to Port Townsend to celebrate my dear old Dad's birthday. Here are a few highlights from the weekend...

I didn't do a super stellar job at taking pictures, but as I said, I needed a break from documenting stuff and I just wanted to enjoy the weekend.

Port Townsend is one of my very favorite places. Partly because it's an awesome, eclectic beach town, but mostly because it's filled with childhood memories for me. I love going there now, as an adult, to spend quality time with our family, especially my cousins who I don't see often enough. And the Pacific Northwest somehow decided to cooperate and give us semi-decent weather.

 

Yay, spring! I knew you would arrive eventually.

A Vivid Memory

Day 31, Friday: A vivid memory.

Oh my gosh, remember that one time when I blogged for an entire month straight?! That shiz was cray! I know y'all are probably anxious to get back to boring book reviews and mediocre kitchen adventures, but let's take a moment for one last challenge post, shall we? 

I remember wondering if Stewart was going to propose on our trip. But he checked all his bags... and I had our carry on... there was no place he could be hiding a little black box. When we arrived in London, days went by and nothing happened. How could he take me to Europe and not propose?! But I still held out hope.

My vivid memory is of a sunny day by the fountain outside Buckingham Palace. I was on a monarchy high after seeing the changing of the guards through the fence, and we were walking through the crowds exploring the grounds. We wandered in circles around the Victoria Memorial and eventually stopped to throw a few pence into the fountain. I distinctly remember making a heartfelt wish as I tossing in my coin, "Please, please let Stewart propose on this trip!"

It was such a beautiful, exciting, fun, wonderful day, and I remember in that moment being filled with the hope of a giddy school girl in love.

Silly Stewart... he sure did leave me hanging! I had basically given up hope when he finally dropped to one knee a few weeks later while we were hiking in Italy. So my wish came true after all.

Holy moly you guys, can you believe I got through the month?! This challenge was inspiring and overwhelming all at the same time. I hope you enjoyed at least some of the posts, and that you got to know me and Stewart just a little bit better. I'm sure I'll do a more thorough recap at some point, but right now I think I'll take a well-deserved break. 

Catch you in June!

My Two Cents

Day 30, Thursday: React to this term: Letting Go.

If a little girl lets go of her mother's hand and attempts to cross the street alone, she's likely to get run down by a truck.

People make a big deal about letting go... let go of grudges, hate, anger, resentment. Yes, forgiveness is good, but it's not always best to forget.

I've been really hurt quite a few times in my life. Get over it, move on, let it go... these are definitely pieces of advice I've received. But you know what? Maybe it's important that I recall those times when I was treated badly, in order to avoid those same circumstances in the future. To help me remember to stand up for myself, and not allow someone to take advantage of me or stab me in the back again.

I have definitely been accused of being too nice. I let things go, I don't speak up when something bothers me, I take the high road, I become a martyr. I wish I was a stronger person, someone who stood up for myself more and who could say, "You know what? NO. This is not okay, and I'm not going to just let it go." Because I deserve better.

On the flip side, if there's one thing I have learned about letting go, it's that unfortunately most friendships won't stand the test of time. Friendships often form because of temporary circumstances (you live in a dorm together, you’re in the same class), and friendly activities often center around the freedoms of young life (going out on a Wednesday night, suntanning in the middle of the day, road trips). But once you reach your late 20s, your circle will mostly likely dissipate as people begin careers, move or get married, and you’ll find out quickly which friendships are going to withstand the burdens of stress, distance, and time.

This is normal, and it's okay. I think it's better to have a few close friendships than a bustling, superficial social circle. And while it may seem more fun on the surface to party with a huge crew, I've learned that it's much more important to focus on building lasting relationships with a few true friends. And as the gaps widen between you and all those convenient, superficial, acquaintances... it's okay to let go. Don't hold on to a friendship that's not beneficial to your life anymore just because of superficial feelings of nostalgia. Go ahead and let go, and let those people fade into the past, making extra room for the friendships that truly matter.

But that's just my two cents!

Go ahead, sing along.

Day 29, Wednesday: Five songs or pieces of music that speak to you or bring back memories.

Our first dance at our wedding:

Stewart's favorite karaoke song:

My favorite karaoke song:

One of many amazing songs by my favorite band:

And let's just throw in an awesome classic:

 

 

Whew, that was an easy one! Just two days left of the challenge... I can see the finish line!

 



Memorial Day Weekend at Priest Lake

Day 28, Tuesday: Only pictures.

We headed over to the Alway Family Lakehouse last weekend to help prep the house and property for the summer... here are some photos from our trip.

Happy Memorial Day!