Ugh, my links are gone again. I don't think I have anything to link anyway, so I'm not going to worry about getting them back right now. Annoying though!
I have been super busy lately! Saturday I did a bunch of cleaning (as usual) and worked on my taxes. They'd be done if I had everything I needed -- still waiting on a couple of interest and dividend statements. Geoff came home at 4 and we made tacos for dinner... YUM. Tacos are one of my favorite foods. Then we just kind of puttered around the house, didn't do a whole lot. Oh! I did make chocolate chip cookies for Geoff though. :)
Sunday morning I was planning on going to the gym at 8, but Addy called and asked to go later. So I went to Westport at 10 - it was awesome! I am seriously loving that church. I also saw our old singles pastor, he asked about me and Geoff. It was cool to see him. I texted Geoff's parents to see if they wanted to come over for tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner (not just any tomato soup... you don't understand this tomato soup until you've had it, but it is AMAZING. I love it when Geoff cooks it!) Anyway, so they said yes, so I did even MORE cleaning to make sure the house was looking good. Then I hit the gym with Addy and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few more things. Geoff came home sick at around 1 (he felt okay, but since there was someone else there who could take care of the store, he felt like he should take advantage and try to get some rest so he didn't get any sicker). I sat and wrote down a bunch of recipes in my recipe book and then Geoff started cooking around 5. His parents came over at 6 - they were especially excited to be there since their kitchen is being redone so they're not getting to eat a whole lot of decent food lately! It was REALLY fun. Geoff showed his cruise pictures and we had a good night. This was the first time they've seen my house, which was odd (that they haven't seen it all this time) but it was really fun! I hope they come over more often - I told Geoff we should have them over in a couple of weeks because their kitchen still won't be done until later in February. YAY. After that Geoff and I watched Notting Hill. I love that movie.
Monday is my loooong gym day. I ran 15 minutes - which sounds totally lame but please note this is the furthest I've run since September 10th (I ran a 10K that day and then proceeded to "quit" running). I have decided I WILL run the Shamrock Run this year since I was in Spain last year and it's supposedly one of the best races in Portland! (yes, I found a link, and yes, I had to do it manually). I love races. They are just so fun! So anyway, 15 minutes is halfway to a 5K so it should be a piece of cake by March 10th! I did decide that I really do need new running shoes. Mine have 388 miles on them... which isn't a TON, but you are supposed to start checking for cracks around 350 miles and there is definitely some crackage. This weekend when I'm at The Way I will stop by Portland Running Company since it's right there. I'm SO excited for new shoes. Anyway, so 15 minutes this week, 20 minutes next week, 25 minutes after that, and then 30. That will put me at 30 minutes with 2 weeks to spare. Plus getting to 5K is really much more difficult mentally than it is physically. Anyway, so good run yesterday. But my feet definitely hurt. Then I biked for a while and went to Body Works. Lots of gym time makes me happy! I came home and showered and ate the leftover taco meet - I was REALLY looking forward to it, I was so glad Geoff didn't eat it! Then I watched The OC (it's surprisingly good lately, only 4 episodes left) and then 24, then went to bed.
Work has been incredibly hectic lately but I love it that way. Tonight I'm going to Costco with Geoff after work and then on to trivia downtown at Bridgeport. The category is Superbowl - hopefully Geoff will dominate in that arena. YAY! Can't wait.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Rise, let us be going
So for those of you who have been reading the last couple of weeks, you'll know that I've enjoyed meeting people at The Way, enjoyed the music, enjoyed the communion, but haven't really resonated with the teaching. The first week was like WOAH in your face and extremely forceful. It didn't really jive with me. Last week was pretty good, but it was a guest teacher so I didn't put a whole lot of stock into it. Last night ROCKED MY FACE OFF. When I got there, I met up with Katie and then saw several people from Quarterlife (the young adults ministry I used to go to but has since been dissolved). It was cool to catch up! The music was excellent and then John Mark started teaching - he was teaching about 5 steps of a revival. He did 2 last night and will do another 3 next week. The first two were PRAYER and PASSION. Everything he said about prayer was just so stinkin' awesome. He talked about Isaiah 30, where we see God as a SLOW God. We're used to living life 90 miles per hour and God isn't that way! (Side note: did you know that today we receive more information in ONE DAY than people in the 8th century did in their entire LIFETIME?) We want God to be so fast... and he's not. God as a slow God is a beautiful image and a great thing to be reminded of. When we're really praying IN JESUS' NAME (not just using it as a way to close our prayers)... and praying for things that are of Him... He will answer. And if He does not... it is because it's NOT TIME YET. Because this is a college-age and young adults ministry, he made fun of a lot of people... "But God, I'm 19 years old!!! Why am I not married yet?!?!?!" So true. :) We don't KNOW if having a new job, or graduating, or finding a boyfriend is In Jesus's Name... but we KNOW that peace is. We know that revival is. We know that love is. Those things we can pray for and know that God will be faithful to those. We're so silly and think it's about us... and it's about him. I could go on for a long time, he provided a lot of great images of God. It was beautiful. At the end - we prayed. Instead of him closing in prayer, we got into small groups and poured our hearts out. I prayed this beautiful prayer than I have no idea where it came from... but it was great. We had communion and sang some more, and that was the end. John Mark always says at the end "is church over? No - it's JUST GETTING STARTED". And it's true - people linger for a long time! I saw one of Geoff's brother's friends which was cool, more Quarterlife people, some of the new friends I had made... it was great. I was invited to go to The Cheesecake Factory with a few folks, but I wanted to go home and just be with God. I felt my relationship with him getting more quiet and more intimate and it was awesome. We had a really good time together last night. He's so stinkin' good. I'm absolutely blown away.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Thursday Morning
I hate blogging every day because I feel like my life is NOT that exciting and I certainly don't have anything profound to say every day. But, it's easier to keep in the habit this way and I think people are more likely to read blogs that are regularily updated!
Yesterday Geoff and I met at BW3s during lunch. He called me before lunch and was like "what should I do for lunch?" and I got the sense that he really wanted to get out, so I mentioned BW3s. Plus, we have a bunch of giftcards there from a promotion we did where you buy $25 of gift cards and get $5 free. After lunch, we went to Macy's and walked around for a while, mostly admiring kitchen stuff. For some reason we are both big fans of kitchen stuff. We looked at the Wusthof knives to think about what I should get to fill the last two slots on my knife block (besides the two steak knife slots). We decided the 8" carver and a cheese knife would be lovely additions to my collection. There are lots of cheese knifes that they have, so not really sure which one yet! He was looking at a decanter, and I mentioned that my grandparents have a whole beautiful set of decanters that I might be able to have. He said that would be GREAT!! So I emailed my mom and asked her if she might be able to get those for me (they are likely going to be moving out of their house very soon, so they will be getting rid of a lot of their things). I'm REALLY excited about this because I'm looking forward to having something of theirs in my house that I can display and remember them with, and this is the perfect item. I was happy that Geoff was excited about it too. I also showed him my mom's Christmas china and white china sets. Geoff really wants a KitchenAid mixer and an ice cream maker at some point, so we looked at those too. It's just fun to look at kitchen stuff!
After work, we were going to meet at the pool to swim... he wasn't there when I got there, so I just started my workout. I got madder and madder (and a little worried) as my workout went on and he wasn't there. I got home and he said that he wasn't able to find any of his swimsuits - he probably left them on the cruise! But what he had done was rearrange all of the cars to put his Bronco in the garage so we could clean it out and get it ready to sell! I was a little upset, because he hadn't even left me a voicemail or anything, but we got all of the junk out (and there was a lot!) and then took it to the car wash and vacuumed it all out and used special car Oxyclean (the garage is like a small auto supply store, that's what happens when Geoff manages an auto supply store...). It is pretty now. Not *quite* as pretty as the Tahoe, but close! :) I had to start TWO loads of laundry for all of the random clothes and towels and things Geoff had in that car. Eric has a friend who has expressed interest in buying it, so Geoff is going to follow up on that lead today. I'm going to go home for lunch and take pictures of it also so we can get an ad up on Craigslist. Hopefully it will sell quickly so we can take it out of the garage and put the Jeep and Tahoe back in there.
So after all of the Bronco fun, Geoff cooked burgers for us again - YUM. He wasn't very hungry, but I was starving! They were so good, as always. And I did the grilling again! He is trying to make a grill master out of me. So we enjoyed the burgers and he read an article while I folded some laundry. Then we installed the new Quicken 2007 that I got as part of my Turbo Tax deal on his computer (I already had Quicken 2006 so I wasn't desperate for an upgrade by any means). I showed him how to use it and he was super excited about it. He HATES budgeting but Quicken certainly makes it a little more fun! One of his memories of his dad (his dad passed away 7 years ago) is of him using Quicken - before there were fancy speakers on computers, so it just made that little computer *DING* when he updated transactions. So that was pretty fun to get that all set up for him. Trevor came home while we were working on it and could not figure out why we were having so much fun doing budget stuff. I think I'm rubbing off on Geoff. ;-)
Tonight I'm going to my BodyWorks class at the gym, then home for a shower and a quick dinner... then we're headed to the Portland Auto Show with his friend Peder. I'm looking forward to it! Before that we'll stop by his parent's house to see the current progress on their kitchen (if I haven't mentioned it, they're redoing it). Should be another good day!
Yesterday Geoff and I met at BW3s during lunch. He called me before lunch and was like "what should I do for lunch?" and I got the sense that he really wanted to get out, so I mentioned BW3s. Plus, we have a bunch of giftcards there from a promotion we did where you buy $25 of gift cards and get $5 free. After lunch, we went to Macy's and walked around for a while, mostly admiring kitchen stuff. For some reason we are both big fans of kitchen stuff. We looked at the Wusthof knives to think about what I should get to fill the last two slots on my knife block (besides the two steak knife slots). We decided the 8" carver and a cheese knife would be lovely additions to my collection. There are lots of cheese knifes that they have, so not really sure which one yet! He was looking at a decanter, and I mentioned that my grandparents have a whole beautiful set of decanters that I might be able to have. He said that would be GREAT!! So I emailed my mom and asked her if she might be able to get those for me (they are likely going to be moving out of their house very soon, so they will be getting rid of a lot of their things). I'm REALLY excited about this because I'm looking forward to having something of theirs in my house that I can display and remember them with, and this is the perfect item. I was happy that Geoff was excited about it too. I also showed him my mom's Christmas china and white china sets. Geoff really wants a KitchenAid mixer and an ice cream maker at some point, so we looked at those too. It's just fun to look at kitchen stuff!
After work, we were going to meet at the pool to swim... he wasn't there when I got there, so I just started my workout. I got madder and madder (and a little worried) as my workout went on and he wasn't there. I got home and he said that he wasn't able to find any of his swimsuits - he probably left them on the cruise! But what he had done was rearrange all of the cars to put his Bronco in the garage so we could clean it out and get it ready to sell! I was a little upset, because he hadn't even left me a voicemail or anything, but we got all of the junk out (and there was a lot!) and then took it to the car wash and vacuumed it all out and used special car Oxyclean (the garage is like a small auto supply store, that's what happens when Geoff manages an auto supply store...). It is pretty now. Not *quite* as pretty as the Tahoe, but close! :) I had to start TWO loads of laundry for all of the random clothes and towels and things Geoff had in that car. Eric has a friend who has expressed interest in buying it, so Geoff is going to follow up on that lead today. I'm going to go home for lunch and take pictures of it also so we can get an ad up on Craigslist. Hopefully it will sell quickly so we can take it out of the garage and put the Jeep and Tahoe back in there.
So after all of the Bronco fun, Geoff cooked burgers for us again - YUM. He wasn't very hungry, but I was starving! They were so good, as always. And I did the grilling again! He is trying to make a grill master out of me. So we enjoyed the burgers and he read an article while I folded some laundry. Then we installed the new Quicken 2007 that I got as part of my Turbo Tax deal on his computer (I already had Quicken 2006 so I wasn't desperate for an upgrade by any means). I showed him how to use it and he was super excited about it. He HATES budgeting but Quicken certainly makes it a little more fun! One of his memories of his dad (his dad passed away 7 years ago) is of him using Quicken - before there were fancy speakers on computers, so it just made that little computer *DING* when he updated transactions. So that was pretty fun to get that all set up for him. Trevor came home while we were working on it and could not figure out why we were having so much fun doing budget stuff. I think I'm rubbing off on Geoff. ;-)
Tonight I'm going to my BodyWorks class at the gym, then home for a shower and a quick dinner... then we're headed to the Portland Auto Show with his friend Peder. I'm looking forward to it! Before that we'll stop by his parent's house to see the current progress on their kitchen (if I haven't mentioned it, they're redoing it). Should be another good day!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Joy!
I did some playing, and both my Google Reader and Google Analytics came back to life! (Google Analytics was displaying incorrect data and Google Reader was displaying in all text). I refreshed my cookies again, but Google Reader was still messed up... I tried going to it through my Google Homepage but that didn't work, so then I just tried refreshing the screen... it FINALLY worked. Not sure exactly what happened, but okay. Then I tried Google Analytics and my data was flawless once again. Plus I have all of the features of Blogger back.
I also called the Providence business office to update my insurance information for this year. It's been a productive morning.
I also called the Providence business office to update my insurance information for this year. It's been a productive morning.
Odd
Well, as I suspected, clearing the cookies and history did in fact help me in terms of being able to bold, italicize, link, etc. in my blog. (I guessed that because I had a message at the bottom saying that I couldn't connect to blogger, which I knew wasn't true, so I figured somehow my page just got stuck). However, it entirely screwed up my Google Reader and Google Analytics accounts. Off to go try to fix those...
Lots to ponder...
First of all, blogger is annoying me, because I don't seem to have the thing that enables me to post links anymore. Instead, I actually have to write the HTML for the links, and that's annoying. I think I need to delete my history and cookies and see if that helps.
Second of all, this morning I was thinking about becoming complacent in things. It is really great to be proficient at something, but it is also somewhat scary because you don't have to focus on something and you could miss it. This reminds me of a safety video I've seen called Remember Charlie. Charlie talks about it was a task he'd done a million times, and those are EXACTLY what we need to be careful of - things we've done so many times they're routine, and so we're not thinking about them as much. Although what I was thinking about was just some data I send out every morning and not my personal safety, it's still important for me to be fully engaged and make sure I'm doing my best work, every time.
Third of all, today I'm struggling with not feeling guilty. I tend to feel guilty about things very easily, and today is no exception. Geoff is working really hard to do things to make our relationship better, and I'm feeling guilty about them. I shouldn't. They're positive things, good healthy things, but they're not always easy and I feel bad that he has to do them for us. I need to get over this. I do things I don't always want to do for our relationship, everyone does. It's part of the "you have to work at any relationship" thing.
Thank you for reading. I enjoy writing. It clears my head and makes me understand things better.
Monday was wonderful - I was at the gym from 4:15 - 6:45 and I had a great workout! My BodyWorks class was especially great... I felt PERFECTLY challenged. That's rare. It's usually a little too easy or a little too hard. After that, I went home, showered, made dinner, cleaned my room, and swept and "mopped" the floors (I kind of spot mop, it's odd). Then Geoff came home! He made some hamburger helper and I made his lunch for the next day and he made mine - isn't that silly? But it's easier to make someone else's. Then 24 was on -- YEAH!!!! Such a good show. It was amazing as always. And Geoff and I had so much fun just hanging out and talking and being together. It was another fabulous day.
Tuesday I was dragging... I did NOT want to go to the gym. Whenever I don't want to go, I do the bike first to sort of get myself in the mood. Works like a charm. After that I walked and ran for a while. I was feeling so great at the end of my run that I bumped up the time to run longer - that hasn't happened in a LONG time. Yeah to that! When I got home, I showered, ate dinner (I made chicken parm, YUM), and then talked to my mom for a while. After that I drove to Staples and got a fabulous deal on Turbo Tax, Quicken, and some Sharpies, - it will be $8 after all the rebates! I did their Easy Rebate system online and it is great! I got an email this morning saying that one of the rebates is already being processed! After that I went home and started doing my taxes until Geoff got home from work. He always thinks I'm "hiding" when I'm in my room instead of downstairs, but the guys were watching 24, which I had already seen and plus I wanted to do my taxes anyway. Then Geoff and I got into a difficult discussion - I was mad because I felt like things had been going just perfectly between us. Well, that and I was just REALLY ANGRY about what we were talking about. I was more emotional because I was tired, but the topic would have angered me no matter what. I just showed my emotions more because I was tired. At any rate... the positive is that it ended up being incredibly constructive. At the end, I asked him if he thought that last night had ruined any of the "perfect" two days before, and he said not at all. Our relationship has been incredibly positive lately, and we're both working hard at that, and it's going really well. I'm very pleased.
Today we're meeting at the gym after work to swim! I can't wait. Then we are going to clean out his Bronco so it can FINALLY be sold and I'm going to teach him how to use Quicken.
Second of all, this morning I was thinking about becoming complacent in things. It is really great to be proficient at something, but it is also somewhat scary because you don't have to focus on something and you could miss it. This reminds me of a safety video I've seen called Remember Charlie. Charlie talks about it was a task he'd done a million times, and those are EXACTLY what we need to be careful of - things we've done so many times they're routine, and so we're not thinking about them as much. Although what I was thinking about was just some data I send out every morning and not my personal safety, it's still important for me to be fully engaged and make sure I'm doing my best work, every time.
Third of all, today I'm struggling with not feeling guilty. I tend to feel guilty about things very easily, and today is no exception. Geoff is working really hard to do things to make our relationship better, and I'm feeling guilty about them. I shouldn't. They're positive things, good healthy things, but they're not always easy and I feel bad that he has to do them for us. I need to get over this. I do things I don't always want to do for our relationship, everyone does. It's part of the "you have to work at any relationship" thing.
Thank you for reading. I enjoy writing. It clears my head and makes me understand things better.
Monday was wonderful - I was at the gym from 4:15 - 6:45 and I had a great workout! My BodyWorks class was especially great... I felt PERFECTLY challenged. That's rare. It's usually a little too easy or a little too hard. After that, I went home, showered, made dinner, cleaned my room, and swept and "mopped" the floors (I kind of spot mop, it's odd). Then Geoff came home! He made some hamburger helper and I made his lunch for the next day and he made mine - isn't that silly? But it's easier to make someone else's. Then 24 was on -- YEAH!!!! Such a good show. It was amazing as always. And Geoff and I had so much fun just hanging out and talking and being together. It was another fabulous day.
Tuesday I was dragging... I did NOT want to go to the gym. Whenever I don't want to go, I do the bike first to sort of get myself in the mood. Works like a charm. After that I walked and ran for a while. I was feeling so great at the end of my run that I bumped up the time to run longer - that hasn't happened in a LONG time. Yeah to that! When I got home, I showered, ate dinner (I made chicken parm, YUM), and then talked to my mom for a while. After that I drove to Staples and got a fabulous deal on Turbo Tax, Quicken, and some Sharpies, - it will be $8 after all the rebates! I did their Easy Rebate system online and it is great! I got an email this morning saying that one of the rebates is already being processed! After that I went home and started doing my taxes until Geoff got home from work. He always thinks I'm "hiding" when I'm in my room instead of downstairs, but the guys were watching 24, which I had already seen and plus I wanted to do my taxes anyway. Then Geoff and I got into a difficult discussion - I was mad because I felt like things had been going just perfectly between us. Well, that and I was just REALLY ANGRY about what we were talking about. I was more emotional because I was tired, but the topic would have angered me no matter what. I just showed my emotions more because I was tired. At any rate... the positive is that it ended up being incredibly constructive. At the end, I asked him if he thought that last night had ruined any of the "perfect" two days before, and he said not at all. Our relationship has been incredibly positive lately, and we're both working hard at that, and it's going really well. I'm very pleased.
Today we're meeting at the gym after work to swim! I can't wait. Then we are going to clean out his Bronco so it can FINALLY be sold and I'm going to teach him how to use Quicken.
Monday, January 22, 2007
A Perfect Weekend
This weekend was amazing. After work Friday I headed to the gym... I was tired and didn't even want to move, but I biked for a while and then walked and ran. Notice I chose the biking first... I figured it was easier and might get me into the spirit of things a little bit. It worked. After that I napped for a bit and then went to Katie's. The Way was good... better than last week! The first week we went, we ran into this guy Andy that she knew from high school (well, really, going back to preschool!). We chatted with him and his friends Kai and Tim... there are in a Pharm D program at OHSU. Cool guys. So this week, they invited us to a party at their apartment afterwards with a bunch of the pharmacy students... so we went and it was a blast! Geoff was texting me from his cruise so I was that annoying girl at the party with her cell phone, but oh well... such is life. It was really fun. The guys are super sweet and all of their friends were great. It's always fun to meet new people too. YAY!
Saturday I slept in a little late and then did a whole bunch of cleaning and laundry and stuff. I love cleaning. I went to the gym in the afternoon and walked and swam... I usually don't do anything other than swim on swimming days, and I usually have only one swimming day a week, but I thought it'd be good to add another. I really adore being in the pool! So that was fun. Then I came home and showered and had dinner and waited IMPATIENTLY for Geoff. He got home around 9 and it was wonderful. We talked for a long time and he showed me pictures and it was great.
Sunday was the best day of the weekend! Geoff and I went to church with his parents and watched my coworkers son sing The Ten Commandments (sung to the tune of Ten Little Indians, although apparently that is no longer PC and you are not allowed to say that song title anymore). Super cute! After that we went to Mazatlan with his parents for lunch and then to Costco. After that we needed a few groceries NOT in bulk so we went to WinCo which didn’t have one of the things we needed) and then Fred Meyer. I was a little crabby by then and ready to get home! Yay home. At home we hung out and watched football for a while, and then we went to Albertsons because after all of that shopping we FORGOT something like idiots. When we finally got home for a real I cleaned out the freezer and the fridge (everyone was there so I could make sure no one wanted any of the stuff I was throwing away). Then Geoff cooked up a BIG pot of spaghetti for his lunches all week… I’m so proud! We also made hamburgers (he did the spices and the patties, I did the grilling) for dinner last night. I split up the rest of the hamburger meat and froze 3 bags of it and refrigerated 1. We then spent some time watching 24 (he had to catch up) and just hanging out. At the end of the day we talked about what a great day it had been.
The time away for us was good. I learned that there is NOTHING I CAN DO that will make him love me any less. I honestly didn’t really GET that before. But the bigger reason that it was such a great day is because I’m so much happier. He said he noticed it right before he left, when I started going to the gym and eating more healthfully. And he really noticed it when he got back (he also said I looked great). The other really awesome part is that not only does he support all of the things I am doing to be more happy… he’s doing them too! We had a loooong talk about money yesterday and it was really cool. Easily the best talk we’ve had about money and budgeting yet. That’s one of the reasons he made all of his lunches for the week, to save lots of money on fast food. The other is health – he weighed himself and was like “man, I need to start getting into better shape and eating better too”. I asked him why he is wanting to do the same things as I do, and he said “because I want to do anything I can do improve our relationship, and if I’m a better, happier, healthier, more financially secure man, I can be better for you and for us.” Awesome.
Here’s something that is sad. I use Google Reader to track all of the blogs I like to read regularly, and one of the feeds I subscribe to is the finance feed. Today, it came up and told me this (from the New York Times, and this blog): “According to the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, most college freshmen in 1970 said their primary goal was to develop a meaningful life philosophy. In 2005, by contrast, most freshmen said their primary goal was to be comfortably rich.” How sad is that? Just something to think about...
Saturday I slept in a little late and then did a whole bunch of cleaning and laundry and stuff. I love cleaning. I went to the gym in the afternoon and walked and swam... I usually don't do anything other than swim on swimming days, and I usually have only one swimming day a week, but I thought it'd be good to add another. I really adore being in the pool! So that was fun. Then I came home and showered and had dinner and waited IMPATIENTLY for Geoff. He got home around 9 and it was wonderful. We talked for a long time and he showed me pictures and it was great.
Sunday was the best day of the weekend! Geoff and I went to church with his parents and watched my coworkers son sing The Ten Commandments (sung to the tune of Ten Little Indians, although apparently that is no longer PC and you are not allowed to say that song title anymore). Super cute! After that we went to Mazatlan with his parents for lunch and then to Costco. After that we needed a few groceries NOT in bulk so we went to WinCo which didn’t have one of the things we needed) and then Fred Meyer. I was a little crabby by then and ready to get home! Yay home. At home we hung out and watched football for a while, and then we went to Albertsons because after all of that shopping we FORGOT something like idiots. When we finally got home for a real I cleaned out the freezer and the fridge (everyone was there so I could make sure no one wanted any of the stuff I was throwing away). Then Geoff cooked up a BIG pot of spaghetti for his lunches all week… I’m so proud! We also made hamburgers (he did the spices and the patties, I did the grilling) for dinner last night. I split up the rest of the hamburger meat and froze 3 bags of it and refrigerated 1. We then spent some time watching 24 (he had to catch up) and just hanging out. At the end of the day we talked about what a great day it had been.
The time away for us was good. I learned that there is NOTHING I CAN DO that will make him love me any less. I honestly didn’t really GET that before. But the bigger reason that it was such a great day is because I’m so much happier. He said he noticed it right before he left, when I started going to the gym and eating more healthfully. And he really noticed it when he got back (he also said I looked great). The other really awesome part is that not only does he support all of the things I am doing to be more happy… he’s doing them too! We had a loooong talk about money yesterday and it was really cool. Easily the best talk we’ve had about money and budgeting yet. That’s one of the reasons he made all of his lunches for the week, to save lots of money on fast food. The other is health – he weighed himself and was like “man, I need to start getting into better shape and eating better too”. I asked him why he is wanting to do the same things as I do, and he said “because I want to do anything I can do improve our relationship, and if I’m a better, happier, healthier, more financially secure man, I can be better for you and for us.” Awesome.
Here’s something that is sad. I use Google Reader to track all of the blogs I like to read regularly, and one of the feeds I subscribe to is the finance feed. Today, it came up and told me this (from the New York Times, and this blog): “According to the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, most college freshmen in 1970 said their primary goal was to develop a meaningful life philosophy. In 2005, by contrast, most freshmen said their primary goal was to be comfortably rich.” How sad is that? Just something to think about...
Friday, January 19, 2007
I'm still here :)
Don't worry! I haven't quit blogging, it's just that NOTHING has been going on this week! I'm okay with that though. Tuesday I drove home from work early because of all the SNOW, and stayed home the rest of the night. I wanted to go to my class at the gym because I'd missed it Monday, but that wasn't really an option and plus I doubt they had it anyway. I just worked from home and hung out. Wednesday I swam after work, then headed home and cooked up some dinner and read for a while.
Yesterday was fun... I met Addy at the gym after work and she went to my class with me. She thought that I had signed her up for boot camp - we had a substitute instructor who was BRUTAL! She was completely wearing me out. After that I met Julie (Geoff's mom) for dinner... I drove to her house to see the work they are doing on their kitchen and then we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had BANG-BANG CHICKEN AND SHRIMP: A Spicy Thai Dish with the Flavors of Curry, Peanut, Chile and Coconut. Sauteed with Vegetables and Served over Rice (I didn't have the rice, of course). And then I had some of my 6 carb cheesecake and took the rest to go. It was DELICIOUS. Definitely the best meal I've had in quite some time. I felt bad because I ordered broccoli on the side and I didn't eat any of it and didn't take it home. Ugh. I should not have ordered that. Dinner ended up being a 4 hour affair... we talked forever! We talk about Geoff a lot, but we also talked about Crohn's, traveling, who knows what else. We talked about how I can never stop thinking and she asked if that made it hard for me to sleep... I said YES!!! It takes me a long time to fall asleep, but then I'm usually okay when I do. She said her husband is the same way. When I dropped her off, she said good luck sleeping... I said I would be fine because it was so late and the drill instructor at the gym wore me out. But then I worked myself up on the way home and when I got home and tried to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking! I was tormenting myself (not intentionally!) but I couldn't sleep because of the thinking and I because of how exhausted I was I couldn't calm myself down. I HATE when that happens. It normally only takes me about 30 minutes to fall asleep, but last night it took 2 hours. And then everything is always fine in the morning. It is infuriating. I knew it'd be okay... and I finally turned on TV and watched about 10 minutes The Cosby Show of all things and that actually put some of my thoughts in perspective and then I could sleep. Odd. It was my favorite show when I was a kid... :)
Tonight Katie and I are giving The Way another shot and then going out for drinks or happy hour or something. I'm excited to see her! But I want to make it an early night so I can go home and go to bed before it gets so late that I get into that worked up stage again. Ick. Tomorrow Geoff comes home - I CANNOT WAIT.
Yesterday was fun... I met Addy at the gym after work and she went to my class with me. She thought that I had signed her up for boot camp - we had a substitute instructor who was BRUTAL! She was completely wearing me out. After that I met Julie (Geoff's mom) for dinner... I drove to her house to see the work they are doing on their kitchen and then we went to the Cheesecake Factory. I had BANG-BANG CHICKEN AND SHRIMP: A Spicy Thai Dish with the Flavors of Curry, Peanut, Chile and Coconut. Sauteed with Vegetables and Served over Rice (I didn't have the rice, of course). And then I had some of my 6 carb cheesecake and took the rest to go. It was DELICIOUS. Definitely the best meal I've had in quite some time. I felt bad because I ordered broccoli on the side and I didn't eat any of it and didn't take it home. Ugh. I should not have ordered that. Dinner ended up being a 4 hour affair... we talked forever! We talk about Geoff a lot, but we also talked about Crohn's, traveling, who knows what else. We talked about how I can never stop thinking and she asked if that made it hard for me to sleep... I said YES!!! It takes me a long time to fall asleep, but then I'm usually okay when I do. She said her husband is the same way. When I dropped her off, she said good luck sleeping... I said I would be fine because it was so late and the drill instructor at the gym wore me out. But then I worked myself up on the way home and when I got home and tried to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking! I was tormenting myself (not intentionally!) but I couldn't sleep because of the thinking and I because of how exhausted I was I couldn't calm myself down. I HATE when that happens. It normally only takes me about 30 minutes to fall asleep, but last night it took 2 hours. And then everything is always fine in the morning. It is infuriating. I knew it'd be okay... and I finally turned on TV and watched about 10 minutes The Cosby Show of all things and that actually put some of my thoughts in perspective and then I could sleep. Odd. It was my favorite show when I was a kid... :)
Tonight Katie and I are giving The Way another shot and then going out for drinks or happy hour or something. I'm excited to see her! But I want to make it an early night so I can go home and go to bed before it gets so late that I get into that worked up stage again. Ick. Tomorrow Geoff comes home - I CANNOT WAIT.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
A little more to say (or copy/paste)
So after I finished my blog, I read Matt Singley's blog, which covered both Beaverton school districts, and people from the Midwest. Too funny (and his point about the Midwest is probably true)!
From Matt's blog:
"Let me take a moment to publically criticize our public school leaders for the Beaverton School District: it took those morons (IMHO) until 8:35am to cancel school...a full hour after it was supposed to start. Practically every other distric closed, but no...the uber-geniuses at Beaverton School District stubbornly refused, and as a result many people were inconvenienced at best, endangered at worst. Beaverton, let me ask you...what is wrong with you? Idiots! (Again, in my humble opinion.) As I'm typing this I'm hearing a report on the local news that many kids that go to Beaverton Schools are STUCK at bus stops because their parents dropped them off and went to work. Beaverton School District leaders: you flippin' suck (again, in my opinion). If one of my kids was one of those that was stuck I would be freaking out on you, not just typing about it. Idiots! (In my opinion). Maureen Wheeler from Beaverton School District is on the phone on KPTV right now trying to spin this thing. Shut up! Just say you made a mistake and apoligize, quit trying to cover your tracks.
To you folks from the mid-West that are laughing at everybody right now because the whole city shuts down with just a few inches of snow...keep in mind that we live on hills and mountains! That's one of the major differences. It's harder to drive up a hill with 3" of snow than it is to drive on the flat roads with 5". Also, know that we (as a city and state) do practically nothing to help the roads other than throw out some de-icer and some gravel. "
From Matt's blog:
"Let me take a moment to publically criticize our public school leaders for the Beaverton School District: it took those morons (IMHO) until 8:35am to cancel school...a full hour after it was supposed to start. Practically every other distric closed, but no...the uber-geniuses at Beaverton School District stubbornly refused, and as a result many people were inconvenienced at best, endangered at worst. Beaverton, let me ask you...what is wrong with you? Idiots! (Again, in my humble opinion.) As I'm typing this I'm hearing a report on the local news that many kids that go to Beaverton Schools are STUCK at bus stops because their parents dropped them off and went to work. Beaverton School District leaders: you flippin' suck (again, in my opinion). If one of my kids was one of those that was stuck I would be freaking out on you, not just typing about it. Idiots! (In my opinion). Maureen Wheeler from Beaverton School District is on the phone on KPTV right now trying to spin this thing. Shut up! Just say you made a mistake and apoligize, quit trying to cover your tracks.
To you folks from the mid-West that are laughing at everybody right now because the whole city shuts down with just a few inches of snow...keep in mind that we live on hills and mountains! That's one of the major differences. It's harder to drive up a hill with 3" of snow than it is to drive on the flat roads with 5". Also, know that we (as a city and state) do practically nothing to help the roads other than throw out some de-icer and some gravel. "
Snow excitement!
Hello all! After work yesterday I went to the hospital for my Remicade. It went very well. There was a girl there in her mid-20's with her husband getting a treatment for MS. It always makes me sad when there are young people with MS - usually people don't get it until later in life. Apparently, whatever infusion she was geting gave her a bad taste in her mouth, so she kept sucking on Jolly Ranchers. She was in good spirits and said this was her 3rd incident with MS since she was diagnosed last January. She has another treatment today and one tomorrow. I feel blessed to have such a manageable disease and an infusion therapy that works VERY well for me.
After work I went home and made a quick dinner, then watched the 3rd and 4th hours of the 24 season premiere. SO GOOD!!!! I'm totally excited for this season now. The end of the 4th hour was VERY unexpected. I can't wait for next week!
This morning I woke up to SNOW!! It is quite the winter wonderland out there - I used to hate snow, but this is quite pretty, big chunky flakes. All of the schools are closed - including Beaverton which attempted to have school today but then cancelled it by 8:30 and is bussing everyone back home. A lot of people couldn't make it into work and even more people are leaving early. I possibly might leave early as well, not because I'm scared of snow, but because it's expected to turn to freezing rain / ice this afternoon. I'm not such a fan of that. I was planning on going to a class at the gym in Beaverton tonight at 7, but I called them and they said it just depends on if the instructors can make it in or not. I'll have to call again later today. I also planned on grilling chicken for dinner - I probably will still do that, you can grill in the snow. I must say, snow/ice really shuts down the whole city here... this would NEVER happen in Chicago. Insane. (It's maybe an inch or 2). Fun though!
After work I went home and made a quick dinner, then watched the 3rd and 4th hours of the 24 season premiere. SO GOOD!!!! I'm totally excited for this season now. The end of the 4th hour was VERY unexpected. I can't wait for next week!
This morning I woke up to SNOW!! It is quite the winter wonderland out there - I used to hate snow, but this is quite pretty, big chunky flakes. All of the schools are closed - including Beaverton which attempted to have school today but then cancelled it by 8:30 and is bussing everyone back home. A lot of people couldn't make it into work and even more people are leaving early. I possibly might leave early as well, not because I'm scared of snow, but because it's expected to turn to freezing rain / ice this afternoon. I'm not such a fan of that. I was planning on going to a class at the gym in Beaverton tonight at 7, but I called them and they said it just depends on if the instructors can make it in or not. I'll have to call again later today. I also planned on grilling chicken for dinner - I probably will still do that, you can grill in the snow. I must say, snow/ice really shuts down the whole city here... this would NEVER happen in Chicago. Insane. (It's maybe an inch or 2). Fun though!
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Weekend...
My weekend has been good! I went to The Way with Katie on Friday night. It was not what I expected. It was similar, but I'm not sure I really liked it as much as I thought I would. The crowd was definitely a little younger and the speaker didn't really resonate with me as much as I expected. I will give it a couple more tries. After that Katie and I went to Bugatti's (there is no good link for Bugatti's but at least that gives you the menu - I LOVE the New Yorker pizza) for some food and drinks. Then we chatted at her apartment for a bit and I went home.
Saturday I woke up early (I can't sleep past 8 anymore... 9 is a stretch) and hit the gym. Then I came back, showered, ate breakfast, and got back into bed. I watched some Sex and the City season 6 that I rented, ate lunch, and just relaxed for a while. Then I cleaned my room, cleaned Geoff's room, did some laundry, updated my Quicken, organized my desk, and ate dinner. After that I saw that Bridget Jones was on TV so I watched that and then went to bed. Boring day but at least it was somewhat productive.
Today I woke up and went to Westport again - I loved it even more than I did last time! It is SO good, today we went through Genesis 1-9 and I learned a lot. I love it when I learn stuff at church. Huge fan. On the way to church Vinnie texted me and told me he had a new convertible, so he brought it over after work - turns out, it's a S2000! Freaking sweet car, it was lots of fun! We went for a FAST ride. Yikes. He's definitely going to be getting a ticket. Then I watched the Beverly Hillbillies (which my cousins and I used to watch ALL THE TIME at my grandparents, I think it was the only movie they had. we persuaded them to buy it used at Blockbuster or something one time. ha!). Then I watched a Food Network special on Chicago - they tried to convince me that Lou Malnatis has the best Chicago pizza but I clearly know that Gios is better! Actually I recently looked into shipping Gios, and it costs about $60 - because of the overnight shipping. At Lou Malnatis, they'll ship you 4 for about $65. It might be worth doing sometime. Cheaper than a plane ticket! They also talked about Eli's and Oberweiss - two AWESOME places... oh yum. I miss Chicago! I just made dinner and finished up the rest of the OC from this week and now I'm waiting for 24 to start. YEAH 2 hours. Speaking of 24, Geoff was saying how he hoped that he could watch the Seahawks/Bears game and 24 today on the cruise - I was like are you kidding me? You're going to spend $1000 to watch 5 hours of TV one day and 2 the next? You could do that here for FREE! He said "but we're just at sea that day..." Yeah, on a boat with a casino, pool, night club, cigar room, who knows what else... I'm sure you can find something to do besides watching TV. :) Eric, Kyle, and I are going to watch it together. We are nice, so we will DVR it for Trevor and Geoff.
An update on the Shane Company report from the other night - I was just talking to an anonymous friend from Arizona, and he reported on the Shane Co commercials there. He believes they want everyone to think they are local because they always say "on Scottsdale Rd at Acoma, 1 block south of Bell Road" all in one breath. I whole-heartedly agreed - here they say "just off Highway 217 in Beaverton across the street from the Washington Square Mall". Then I mentioned that they always say "Open Monday - Friday 'til 8, Saturday and Sunday 'til 5, online at shaneco.com" - it was confirmed that they say the same thing in Arizona. Apparently, the only place the Shane Co ISN'T located is Chicago!! I feel I might have to move back just so I can listen to the radio in peace. In any case, for those of you that DO live near your friend in the diamond (pearl, sapphire, etc.) business, enjoy THIS little snippet. :)
Saturday I woke up early (I can't sleep past 8 anymore... 9 is a stretch) and hit the gym. Then I came back, showered, ate breakfast, and got back into bed. I watched some Sex and the City season 6 that I rented, ate lunch, and just relaxed for a while. Then I cleaned my room, cleaned Geoff's room, did some laundry, updated my Quicken, organized my desk, and ate dinner. After that I saw that Bridget Jones was on TV so I watched that and then went to bed. Boring day but at least it was somewhat productive.
Today I woke up and went to Westport again - I loved it even more than I did last time! It is SO good, today we went through Genesis 1-9 and I learned a lot. I love it when I learn stuff at church. Huge fan. On the way to church Vinnie texted me and told me he had a new convertible, so he brought it over after work - turns out, it's a S2000! Freaking sweet car, it was lots of fun! We went for a FAST ride. Yikes. He's definitely going to be getting a ticket. Then I watched the Beverly Hillbillies (which my cousins and I used to watch ALL THE TIME at my grandparents, I think it was the only movie they had. we persuaded them to buy it used at Blockbuster or something one time. ha!). Then I watched a Food Network special on Chicago - they tried to convince me that Lou Malnatis has the best Chicago pizza but I clearly know that Gios is better! Actually I recently looked into shipping Gios, and it costs about $60 - because of the overnight shipping. At Lou Malnatis, they'll ship you 4 for about $65. It might be worth doing sometime. Cheaper than a plane ticket! They also talked about Eli's and Oberweiss - two AWESOME places... oh yum. I miss Chicago! I just made dinner and finished up the rest of the OC from this week and now I'm waiting for 24 to start. YEAH 2 hours. Speaking of 24, Geoff was saying how he hoped that he could watch the Seahawks/Bears game and 24 today on the cruise - I was like are you kidding me? You're going to spend $1000 to watch 5 hours of TV one day and 2 the next? You could do that here for FREE! He said "but we're just at sea that day..." Yeah, on a boat with a casino, pool, night club, cigar room, who knows what else... I'm sure you can find something to do besides watching TV. :) Eric, Kyle, and I are going to watch it together. We are nice, so we will DVR it for Trevor and Geoff.
An update on the Shane Company report from the other night - I was just talking to an anonymous friend from Arizona, and he reported on the Shane Co commercials there. He believes they want everyone to think they are local because they always say "on Scottsdale Rd at Acoma, 1 block south of Bell Road" all in one breath. I whole-heartedly agreed - here they say "just off Highway 217 in Beaverton across the street from the Washington Square Mall". Then I mentioned that they always say "Open Monday - Friday 'til 8, Saturday and Sunday 'til 5, online at shaneco.com" - it was confirmed that they say the same thing in Arizona. Apparently, the only place the Shane Co ISN'T located is Chicago!! I feel I might have to move back just so I can listen to the radio in peace. In any case, for those of you that DO live near your friend in the diamond (pearl, sapphire, etc.) business, enjoy THIS little snippet. :)
Friday, January 12, 2007
Geoff is gone!
Well, he's gone for the week at least. He gets back next Saturday evening. I woke up at 4:30 today (couldn't sleep and had to get up at 5:15 anyway) and then drove him over to Trevor's parent's house so that they could leave for the airport. I finally found out where he is ACTUALLY going - to the Western Caribbean. Sounds fun, and I've wanted to go to Belize ever since 6th grade when we studied the Second Voyage of the Mimi. Maybe one day.
Yesterday after the gym I took a shower and then was COLD and TIRED. So I got in my bed all warm and cuddled up with my hat and oversaw the packing operation. IT WAS HILARIOUS! First Geoff has to evaluate suitcases. I have several, he has none (at least as far as rolling bags). So he looks through all of mine and asks a bunch of questions and stuff... finally, I convince him that my pink roller really is the best one and he should go with it. He does mention that at least he will be able to identify it very easily, which is a very good point. And no one is going to think it's HIS! Anyway, so he gets it out... and then goes into his room and starts grabbing clothes. He brings TEN pairs of socks and underwear for an 8 day vacation... I was like dude, you're not going camping... he said he always likes to be prepared. Then he brought 8 t-shirts, a pair of jeans, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of pants, a sweatshirt, and 3 swimsuits/board shorts. This is before his 3 pairs of shoes and his formal clothing. He said "Kelly... I don't think this is all going to fit!" I said, "you don't know the way I pack... it will fit, with ease". And so I helped it fit... we rolled it... and it did. I am the master packer. This was probably a lot more comical if you were there, but we were having fun. But Geoff is sloooow. Then he decided it was time to go through his wallet so he did that for a while. That took almost as long as picking a suitcase. I reminded him to bring a camera and let him take my videocamera as well. Then he got some sunscreen and his toiletries (which are VERY minimal!). At any rate, I think he finally has everything he needs. All of his stuff was all charged up and he's good to go. He's definitely never taken this many gadgets and stuff on a trip. It's cute. So then we watched Grey's Anatomy and then I went to bed early - I was tired! Tonight I'm hoping to NAP after work and then The Way with Katie. I can't wait!
Yesterday after the gym I took a shower and then was COLD and TIRED. So I got in my bed all warm and cuddled up with my hat and oversaw the packing operation. IT WAS HILARIOUS! First Geoff has to evaluate suitcases. I have several, he has none (at least as far as rolling bags). So he looks through all of mine and asks a bunch of questions and stuff... finally, I convince him that my pink roller really is the best one and he should go with it. He does mention that at least he will be able to identify it very easily, which is a very good point. And no one is going to think it's HIS! Anyway, so he gets it out... and then goes into his room and starts grabbing clothes. He brings TEN pairs of socks and underwear for an 8 day vacation... I was like dude, you're not going camping... he said he always likes to be prepared. Then he brought 8 t-shirts, a pair of jeans, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of pants, a sweatshirt, and 3 swimsuits/board shorts. This is before his 3 pairs of shoes and his formal clothing. He said "Kelly... I don't think this is all going to fit!" I said, "you don't know the way I pack... it will fit, with ease". And so I helped it fit... we rolled it... and it did. I am the master packer. This was probably a lot more comical if you were there, but we were having fun. But Geoff is sloooow. Then he decided it was time to go through his wallet so he did that for a while. That took almost as long as picking a suitcase. I reminded him to bring a camera and let him take my videocamera as well. Then he got some sunscreen and his toiletries (which are VERY minimal!). At any rate, I think he finally has everything he needs. All of his stuff was all charged up and he's good to go. He's definitely never taken this many gadgets and stuff on a trip. It's cute. So then we watched Grey's Anatomy and then I went to bed early - I was tired! Tonight I'm hoping to NAP after work and then The Way with Katie. I can't wait!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Getting out of a bad place
Over the past week, and again today, I realized that I lost discipline in several areas as I started falling in love with Geoff. There are 3 key areas:
- money
- God
- health
Now, I shall elaborate on each of these areas.
Money
I have never been a big spender. I have always been a saver. I have been blessed, for the most part, with plenty of money to do the things I wanted to do but also save plenty of money. Geoff is a spender. He also makes less money than I do. When we first started dating, he couldn't afford to take me out all the time, so I told him I could pay, it was not a big deal. Which was true at the time. But as time went on, several things have happened. One, we have made several large purchases that have been things Geoff has really wanted. Two (and this one more importantly), I started to move towards Geoff's spending habits a little bit and become more of a spender. I think it's hard to explain, but because I'm more of a saver, I don't really WANT as many things. He does. When I really WANT something, I (most of the time) buy it for myself. Well, I wanted to do this for him too. The problem is, he wants everything and I can differentiate because his wants are different than mine (I'm much more conservative with what I want). So I need to learn to not spend money because I think it will make Geoff happy. *I* make Geoff happy... not the things I buy him. Silly girl.
Solution: This one is easy enough, just concentrate on my spending and become disciplined enough to regularily use Quicken again (funny story on that, kinda stopped when I started dating Geoff, the last time I really scrubbed it was July when he was on vacation). Geoff is WAY on board and supportive of this one (I freaked out about it this morning and he's been amazing all day).
God
A couple of things on this one. One is that Geoff works on Sundays. When I first started dating him (we met at a young adults group at my church), I was going to Sunset VERY consistently - I never missed a weekend if I was in town. He went to a different church (St. Matthew), so I started going with him when he was able. The problem is, I STOPPED going to St. Matthew or Sunset when he wasn't with me. This isn't a problem for me in the sense of "I'm being a bad Christian because I'm not going to church" - it's a problem for me because I LOVE going to church. I love the music, I love the speakers, I love the community. I love it all. The second piece is the personal Quiet Times. This is my own lack of discipline (as all of it is), in not making that time each day. A lot of it has come from wanting to spend time with Geoff. It's also laziness!
Solution: There is great news on the church front - Geoff and I have agreed to find a church that works for both of us (as detailed in a post earlier this week) and I think Westport might be the one! I'll be attending this weekend again while he's out of town. I'm EXTRA excited because I really want to become engrossed in a church where I can volunteer and be part of the community. I feel in a place to do that more now because first of all, it's a smaller newer church, and second of all, I am more "established" in life somehow. The Quiet Time part - that's easy enough. I can do that easily, I just need to make it a priority. As a bonus, I'm going to a new young adults group (the one I used to go to got disbanded) called The Way with my friend Katie tomorrow night. I can't wait!! 500 people attend - TOTALLY my type of thing. Also... even though some of these God "things" fell by the wayside... my relationship with God has become stronger through Geoff. I appreciate Geoff for that every day - he is a wonderful example of God's love for me.
Health
Right before I went to Spain in March, I was at the lowest weight I'd been in 5 years (since I was diagnosed with Crohn's), exercising regularily, eating low-carb, and feeling GREAT. I loved it. Looking at my exercise graph over the weeks since I've been dating him, it's totally interesting - drops off in the beginning when I see him all the time, then rises again as I realize that's dumb... then I have a surgery and can't do much for a few weeks... then a half marathon to train for and then Hood to Coast. After Hood to Coast, pretty much nothing... I was so burned out for running. I planned to not run again until January (which is like a 4 month gap, yikes). I should have at least been swimming or biking during that time. The low-carb thing partially stopped because of Spain, but then when I started dating Geoff I didn't want to be restricted or disciplined. He (the former college football player) could eat whatever he wanted and it didn't matter. I wanted to catch up to him and eat what and where he ate - um, HELLO!! I weigh 100 pounds less than him (or I did...), I can't eat as much as he can. I've gained about 40 pounds since I started dating him.
Solution: Exercise more and eat less. Ha! In all seriousness, I have already been to the gym every day this week, and it's not hard for me. I love it and I feel SO much better already. I love being sore! My tentative plan is sorta running and body works class on Monday, Tuesday off, swimming Wednesday, short run and body works Thursday, running Friday, Satrday off, running Sunday. I'd like to get some biking in there too, I will either bike to the gym and/or work when it's nice or ride the stationary during my running times. Better cross training than I had last year (because this gym has a pool). My running distances will be shorter this year, so hopefully my time will be faster - I want to run 10 minute miles or better for Hood to Coast this year! I'm definitely looking forward to NOT doing those 8, 9, and 10 mile runs! As far as eating, I started eating low-carb yesterday. I adore it. What's interesting is everyone thinks it's such a great weight loss solution... when really you need lower calories, not some special diet to lose weight. The reasons I love it are (a) it's really good for Crohn's (there is a particular low-carb plan for Crohn's actually, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, although I do not use that) and it makes me feel great and (b) it does have the side benefit of restricting foods so that you DO eat less and lower calories - the real weight loss solution. :) So I am happy, feel wonderful today, and things are good. Healthy Kelly is happy Kelly.
Something important to note is that I don't at all BLAME Geoff for these things. It's all been MY fault, and some of it just happened to occur since I've been dating him, with no connection to him whatsoever. I just need to get my life back in order, the way it should be! :) And I felt a confession to all of you would be a good thing. I know this has been a long post and I thank you for sticking with it. I feel better having all of these crazy thoughts in my head DOCUMENTED. I like being on track and having things the way they should be, and I feel like I have now course corrected and am on the path to goodness again.
- money
- God
- health
Now, I shall elaborate on each of these areas.
Money
I have never been a big spender. I have always been a saver. I have been blessed, for the most part, with plenty of money to do the things I wanted to do but also save plenty of money. Geoff is a spender. He also makes less money than I do. When we first started dating, he couldn't afford to take me out all the time, so I told him I could pay, it was not a big deal. Which was true at the time. But as time went on, several things have happened. One, we have made several large purchases that have been things Geoff has really wanted. Two (and this one more importantly), I started to move towards Geoff's spending habits a little bit and become more of a spender. I think it's hard to explain, but because I'm more of a saver, I don't really WANT as many things. He does. When I really WANT something, I (most of the time) buy it for myself. Well, I wanted to do this for him too. The problem is, he wants everything and I can differentiate because his wants are different than mine (I'm much more conservative with what I want). So I need to learn to not spend money because I think it will make Geoff happy. *I* make Geoff happy... not the things I buy him. Silly girl.
Solution: This one is easy enough, just concentrate on my spending and become disciplined enough to regularily use Quicken again (funny story on that, kinda stopped when I started dating Geoff, the last time I really scrubbed it was July when he was on vacation). Geoff is WAY on board and supportive of this one (I freaked out about it this morning and he's been amazing all day).
God
A couple of things on this one. One is that Geoff works on Sundays. When I first started dating him (we met at a young adults group at my church), I was going to Sunset VERY consistently - I never missed a weekend if I was in town. He went to a different church (St. Matthew), so I started going with him when he was able. The problem is, I STOPPED going to St. Matthew or Sunset when he wasn't with me. This isn't a problem for me in the sense of "I'm being a bad Christian because I'm not going to church" - it's a problem for me because I LOVE going to church. I love the music, I love the speakers, I love the community. I love it all. The second piece is the personal Quiet Times. This is my own lack of discipline (as all of it is), in not making that time each day. A lot of it has come from wanting to spend time with Geoff. It's also laziness!
Solution: There is great news on the church front - Geoff and I have agreed to find a church that works for both of us (as detailed in a post earlier this week) and I think Westport might be the one! I'll be attending this weekend again while he's out of town. I'm EXTRA excited because I really want to become engrossed in a church where I can volunteer and be part of the community. I feel in a place to do that more now because first of all, it's a smaller newer church, and second of all, I am more "established" in life somehow. The Quiet Time part - that's easy enough. I can do that easily, I just need to make it a priority. As a bonus, I'm going to a new young adults group (the one I used to go to got disbanded) called The Way with my friend Katie tomorrow night. I can't wait!! 500 people attend - TOTALLY my type of thing. Also... even though some of these God "things" fell by the wayside... my relationship with God has become stronger through Geoff. I appreciate Geoff for that every day - he is a wonderful example of God's love for me.
Health
Right before I went to Spain in March, I was at the lowest weight I'd been in 5 years (since I was diagnosed with Crohn's), exercising regularily, eating low-carb, and feeling GREAT. I loved it. Looking at my exercise graph over the weeks since I've been dating him, it's totally interesting - drops off in the beginning when I see him all the time, then rises again as I realize that's dumb... then I have a surgery and can't do much for a few weeks... then a half marathon to train for and then Hood to Coast. After Hood to Coast, pretty much nothing... I was so burned out for running. I planned to not run again until January (which is like a 4 month gap, yikes). I should have at least been swimming or biking during that time. The low-carb thing partially stopped because of Spain, but then when I started dating Geoff I didn't want to be restricted or disciplined. He (the former college football player) could eat whatever he wanted and it didn't matter. I wanted to catch up to him and eat what and where he ate - um, HELLO!! I weigh 100 pounds less than him (or I did...), I can't eat as much as he can. I've gained about 40 pounds since I started dating him.
Solution: Exercise more and eat less. Ha! In all seriousness, I have already been to the gym every day this week, and it's not hard for me. I love it and I feel SO much better already. I love being sore! My tentative plan is sorta running and body works class on Monday, Tuesday off, swimming Wednesday, short run and body works Thursday, running Friday, Satrday off, running Sunday. I'd like to get some biking in there too, I will either bike to the gym and/or work when it's nice or ride the stationary during my running times. Better cross training than I had last year (because this gym has a pool). My running distances will be shorter this year, so hopefully my time will be faster - I want to run 10 minute miles or better for Hood to Coast this year! I'm definitely looking forward to NOT doing those 8, 9, and 10 mile runs! As far as eating, I started eating low-carb yesterday. I adore it. What's interesting is everyone thinks it's such a great weight loss solution... when really you need lower calories, not some special diet to lose weight. The reasons I love it are (a) it's really good for Crohn's (there is a particular low-carb plan for Crohn's actually, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, although I do not use that) and it makes me feel great and (b) it does have the side benefit of restricting foods so that you DO eat less and lower calories - the real weight loss solution. :) So I am happy, feel wonderful today, and things are good. Healthy Kelly is happy Kelly.
Something important to note is that I don't at all BLAME Geoff for these things. It's all been MY fault, and some of it just happened to occur since I've been dating him, with no connection to him whatsoever. I just need to get my life back in order, the way it should be! :) And I felt a confession to all of you would be a good thing. I know this has been a long post and I thank you for sticking with it. I feel better having all of these crazy thoughts in my head DOCUMENTED. I like being on track and having things the way they should be, and I feel like I have now course corrected and am on the path to goodness again.
Yay to my commenters!
Thanks peeps, for commenting.
About Shane Co: yeah, for a long time I thought they were local, and Tuesday night at trivia someone told me that they were NOT in fact local. They are BIG on commercials. Do the commercials in Arizona say "Now YOU have a friend in the diamond (pearl, sapphire) business"?? We did NOT have them in Chicago.
About Panera: YES, it's open! It has been open since December 20th. I've been like 8 times already. Delish! Those if you in Portland, go now.
So anyway, I swam last night and then met Geoff at my house and we headed to BW3s for some food before we hit the boat show. Yum, I was totally in the mood for wings. Then we went to the boat show, it was fun! I was REALLY tired last night for some reason, so I was dragging (and dragging Geoff down) a little bit, but it was still fun. Geoff's two favorite boat displays were Seaswirl (sport boats, not fishing boats!) and Waterway. His family goes to Canada every year to go houseboating for a week with Waterway. Their houseboats are amazing, and the water there is completely calm and still - he is a water skiing snob and refuses to ski anywhere else.
After that we went to Geoff's parents house so Geoff could say goodbye before he leaves on his cruise tomorrow (he's going with Trevor and his family). They are remodeling their kitchen so we got to see all of the work they've been doing - the kitchen is totally empty. I'm so excited to see what it's going to look like, the contractors start next week! Exciting. :)
And now, I work.
About Shane Co: yeah, for a long time I thought they were local, and Tuesday night at trivia someone told me that they were NOT in fact local. They are BIG on commercials. Do the commercials in Arizona say "Now YOU have a friend in the diamond (pearl, sapphire) business"?? We did NOT have them in Chicago.
About Panera: YES, it's open! It has been open since December 20th. I've been like 8 times already. Delish! Those if you in Portland, go now.
So anyway, I swam last night and then met Geoff at my house and we headed to BW3s for some food before we hit the boat show. Yum, I was totally in the mood for wings. Then we went to the boat show, it was fun! I was REALLY tired last night for some reason, so I was dragging (and dragging Geoff down) a little bit, but it was still fun. Geoff's two favorite boat displays were Seaswirl (sport boats, not fishing boats!) and Waterway. His family goes to Canada every year to go houseboating for a week with Waterway. Their houseboats are amazing, and the water there is completely calm and still - he is a water skiing snob and refuses to ski anywhere else.
After that we went to Geoff's parents house so Geoff could say goodbye before he leaves on his cruise tomorrow (he's going with Trevor and his family). They are remodeling their kitchen so we got to see all of the work they've been doing - the kitchen is totally empty. I'm so excited to see what it's going to look like, the contractors start next week! Exciting. :)
And now, I work.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Link Obsession - and lack of commenting!
You know what's sad? I have actually started getting excited about things that happen in my day that I can link to. For example, after the gym yesterday I came home and showered and then went to trivia at the Bridgeport Brewery downtown. It was fun... there were enough of us in my "friend circle" that were there that we had to split into 2 teams (max 6 on a team), so Kristie, Lee, and I ended up on a seperate team (team name: Jumping Ship... isn't that creative?). Then the quizmaster, Polly, announced that that somebody needed a team to play with and raise your hand if you needed a new team member. So we did because the more the merrier, and this dude named John came over and played with us. He seemed to want to cheat - he was yelling out the answers, and trying to trade answers with other teams, and busted out an atlas! We yelled at him and it was okay. He definitely knew a few things we wouldn't have otherwise known, so that was cool. He was definitely interesting!
On the way home, I was using my steering wheel radio controls to switch between my preset radio stations. I thought the button wasn't working because I kept hearing a commercial from the Shane Company. I then started pressing the buttons on the actual console, and sure enough, it was on 105.1, 100.3, and 104.1 all at the same time (and these are presets 2, 3, and 4 in my car!) WEIRD!!!
Ugh, I just had breakfast and I'm SO full! Speaking of food, remember all that food we bought from Costco last week? Well Sunday night I made Geoff a HUGE chicken salad to take to work Monday - and he forgot it (after I left him a big note and called to remind him). UGH!!! I wasn't so upset about that part... more upset that he sent a text message to me (intended for one of the guys) saying "don't remind me... I'm going to hear about it when I get home". Pay attention to who you send your texts to, honey! :) Anyway, he explained that it was kinda a joking thing between guys... I can actually believe that. So then yesterday, I send him THREE text messages before he leaves for work to remind him. He forgets again. Turns out his boss had also left his lunch at home, so they were talking about that... and then the boss found out that Geoff had left his lunch at home twice in a row. His boss was like "ya gotta do better than that!!" :) Very funny. Anyway, I just got a text message from Geoff saying "I remembered my lunch!" Good kid. :)
Geoff also just called to try to persuade me to go to the boat show with him tomorrow night. He was successful - it sounds really fun! He is trying to pursue me better (yay) and he said "we could make a date of it and go to dinner somewhere in Jantzen Beach, like BJ's. I love the date idea and I've never been to BJ's. The only problem is I have a class at the gym until 5:30 tomorrow night, so I told him tonight might be better because I am swimming and usually done by about 5. So we might go see his parents tomorrow night instead of tonight and go to the boat show tonight. Fun! I am so excited that he came up with a creative date idea all on his own.
And seriously people, I know at least a couple of you have been reading, and NO ONE COMMENTS! That is the whole reason to have a blog! All of these other people who's blogs I read have like 15 comments per post, and I feel sad. So comment away.
On the way home, I was using my steering wheel radio controls to switch between my preset radio stations. I thought the button wasn't working because I kept hearing a commercial from the Shane Company. I then started pressing the buttons on the actual console, and sure enough, it was on 105.1, 100.3, and 104.1 all at the same time (and these are presets 2, 3, and 4 in my car!) WEIRD!!!
Ugh, I just had breakfast and I'm SO full! Speaking of food, remember all that food we bought from Costco last week? Well Sunday night I made Geoff a HUGE chicken salad to take to work Monday - and he forgot it (after I left him a big note and called to remind him). UGH!!! I wasn't so upset about that part... more upset that he sent a text message to me (intended for one of the guys) saying "don't remind me... I'm going to hear about it when I get home". Pay attention to who you send your texts to, honey! :) Anyway, he explained that it was kinda a joking thing between guys... I can actually believe that. So then yesterday, I send him THREE text messages before he leaves for work to remind him. He forgets again. Turns out his boss had also left his lunch at home, so they were talking about that... and then the boss found out that Geoff had left his lunch at home twice in a row. His boss was like "ya gotta do better than that!!" :) Very funny. Anyway, I just got a text message from Geoff saying "I remembered my lunch!" Good kid. :)
Geoff also just called to try to persuade me to go to the boat show with him tomorrow night. He was successful - it sounds really fun! He is trying to pursue me better (yay) and he said "we could make a date of it and go to dinner somewhere in Jantzen Beach, like BJ's. I love the date idea and I've never been to BJ's. The only problem is I have a class at the gym until 5:30 tomorrow night, so I told him tonight might be better because I am swimming and usually done by about 5. So we might go see his parents tomorrow night instead of tonight and go to the boat show tonight. Fun! I am so excited that he came up with a creative date idea all on his own.
And seriously people, I know at least a couple of you have been reading, and NO ONE COMMENTS! That is the whole reason to have a blog! All of these other people who's blogs I read have like 15 comments per post, and I feel sad. So comment away.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Monday in review
I probably shouldn't blog right now, because I'm a little crabby and a LOT tired.
That said, you've been warned. Here we go! Work was work... nothing special or out of the ordinary there. Though I DID get to go to New Seasons with my friend Kristie - believe it or not, I've never been there in the whole time I've lived here, even after countless people raving about it! I had a sandwich and some chips - extremely delish!
After work I went to the gym to FINALLY start running again. I always said I would start running again in January, and I did (couldn't last week because I had a cold). Don't know why I picked January with all of the New Years Resolution people there - so crowded! Oh well. I walked 10 minutes, ran 5 for 40 minutes on the treadmill while watching the pregame show for the BCS Championship. I got to see Script Ohio for the last 5 minutes of my treadmill workout - DEFINITELY motivating! Woo hoo. Then I biked for about 20 minutes, then went to my Body Works class. I left the gym about 7 and came home and showed and chatted online with Em. :) Then Geoff came home and grilled me some steak and some veggies that I had cut up. I just got done eating (ugh, so late!). But soooo good. Geoff is extremely passive-aggressive which is really interesting sometimes... it is admittedly hard living with all of these guys. They do make a LOT of mess and don't clean unless specifically told to do so. To their credit, they definitely will do ANYTHING they are asked, they're just not proactive. I definitely get frustrated. I'm learning. I think that's all I should say on that topic for now. :)
Overall, it was a really great day. I feel REALLY good about my workout and getting back into it. I forgot what it feels like and how fun it is to be a runner! I always thought I wasn't a runner - now I know I definitely am. I can't wait for tomorrow!
Low point of the day: Ohio State's loss to Florida. Christine and I always say that "we like to keep it interesting in the Big 10" (pull out a victory after the half)... but it didn't quite happen tonight. It was a sad sad game to watch!
That said, you've been warned. Here we go! Work was work... nothing special or out of the ordinary there. Though I DID get to go to New Seasons with my friend Kristie - believe it or not, I've never been there in the whole time I've lived here, even after countless people raving about it! I had a sandwich and some chips - extremely delish!
After work I went to the gym to FINALLY start running again. I always said I would start running again in January, and I did (couldn't last week because I had a cold). Don't know why I picked January with all of the New Years Resolution people there - so crowded! Oh well. I walked 10 minutes, ran 5 for 40 minutes on the treadmill while watching the pregame show for the BCS Championship. I got to see Script Ohio for the last 5 minutes of my treadmill workout - DEFINITELY motivating! Woo hoo. Then I biked for about 20 minutes, then went to my Body Works class. I left the gym about 7 and came home and showed and chatted online with Em. :) Then Geoff came home and grilled me some steak and some veggies that I had cut up. I just got done eating (ugh, so late!). But soooo good. Geoff is extremely passive-aggressive which is really interesting sometimes... it is admittedly hard living with all of these guys. They do make a LOT of mess and don't clean unless specifically told to do so. To their credit, they definitely will do ANYTHING they are asked, they're just not proactive. I definitely get frustrated. I'm learning. I think that's all I should say on that topic for now. :)
Overall, it was a really great day. I feel REALLY good about my workout and getting back into it. I forgot what it feels like and how fun it is to be a runner! I always thought I wasn't a runner - now I know I definitely am. I can't wait for tomorrow!
Low point of the day: Ohio State's loss to Florida. Christine and I always say that "we like to keep it interesting in the Big 10" (pull out a victory after the half)... but it didn't quite happen tonight. It was a sad sad game to watch!
The end of Sunday
My dessert...
So after I finished blogging yesterday, I kinda napped/rested (I didn't really fall asleep) and Geoff watched the start of another football game. Kyle called around 3:15 and said he was ready, so we took the Tahoe and went over to his apartment. By the time we got there (Geoff took an insane route... it was involving the freeways which took us WAY out of the way...) the guys already had Kyle's car loaded up and we just had to put a couple of things in the Tahoe. We drove out to Multnomah and got Kyle all moved in - although I had to stay in the car because girls aren't allowed in the dorm - that's what happens when you go to a Bible college I guess! It only took the guys ONE LOAD each to get him all moved in. Insane. I will never forget moving out of Allison my sophomore year... we got everything fit into my mom's minivan but to this day I do not know how. Yikes. Anyway, after that Geoff and I went to dinner at Oba - it was happy hour which is the best!! Actually we tried to go to Portland City Grill for happy hour, but it was too crowded and we didn't feel like waiting. We'll go another time... Sundays are usually more crowded than other days (because it's happy hour all night). After that we went to Papa Haydn for dessert - yum. :) Geoff had Berry Cobbler and I had White Chocolate Mint Torte. So good! Then we went back home and I grilled up some chicken and made a salad for Geoff to take for lunch today and he hung out with the guys while I watched Sex and the City. The guys were up late watching some ape/gorilla/large animal of some sort show, so Kyle ended up sleeping on the sofabed downstairs. I was aware that he was going to be sleeping there, but forgot about it and flipped the kitchen light on and Kyle was right there. I was like YIKES! But he slept through the whole debacle... so then I fumbled around looking for my shoes in the dark, and managed to successfully get to work! 2 hours down, 6 to go... :)
So after I finished blogging yesterday, I kinda napped/rested (I didn't really fall asleep) and Geoff watched the start of another football game. Kyle called around 3:15 and said he was ready, so we took the Tahoe and went over to his apartment. By the time we got there (Geoff took an insane route... it was involving the freeways which took us WAY out of the way...) the guys already had Kyle's car loaded up and we just had to put a couple of things in the Tahoe. We drove out to Multnomah and got Kyle all moved in - although I had to stay in the car because girls aren't allowed in the dorm - that's what happens when you go to a Bible college I guess! It only took the guys ONE LOAD each to get him all moved in. Insane. I will never forget moving out of Allison my sophomore year... we got everything fit into my mom's minivan but to this day I do not know how. Yikes. Anyway, after that Geoff and I went to dinner at Oba - it was happy hour which is the best!! Actually we tried to go to Portland City Grill for happy hour, but it was too crowded and we didn't feel like waiting. We'll go another time... Sundays are usually more crowded than other days (because it's happy hour all night). After that we went to Papa Haydn for dessert - yum. :) Geoff had Berry Cobbler and I had White Chocolate Mint Torte. So good! Then we went back home and I grilled up some chicken and made a salad for Geoff to take for lunch today and he hung out with the guys while I watched Sex and the City. The guys were up late watching some ape/gorilla/large animal of some sort show, so Kyle ended up sleeping on the sofabed downstairs. I was aware that he was going to be sleeping there, but forgot about it and flipped the kitchen light on and Kyle was right there. I was like YIKES! But he slept through the whole debacle... so then I fumbled around looking for my shoes in the dark, and managed to successfully get to work! 2 hours down, 6 to go... :)
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Church!
First of all, yesterday was completely boring. I went to Tom's Pancake House for breakfast with Geoff, then watched Blast From the Past (I had a hankerin' to see that movie) and lots of Sex and the City. I got Geoff addicted! We watched the Cowboys/Seahawks game, and then went to Red Lobster. DULLSVILLE.
The other thing we are both trying to do and have been doing since yesterday is beat the Expert level of Minesweeper. Fun, of course! Neither of us have ever been able to beat it. I am a lot faster than him, it makes him very angry. But I like it!
This morning we went to a new church, called Westport. I loved it! I think Geoff was okay with it, but he doesn't really like modern worship styles as much as I do. But at least he liked it. Geoff was not okay with a church as big as Sunset (where I used to go), and I couldn't handle a church as traditional as St. Matthew (where he grew up) - so we are trying to find a place that works for both of us. This was the second week in this church's new building and it was cool to be a part of that!
Pros: awesome welcome when we got there (two people went out of their way to greet us, find out our names and how we found out of the church, etc... one was one of the pastors), excellent music that was very authentic, and a good messsage. The whole church felt very real.
Cons: lack of diversity (mostly ethnic diversity, although this is in general VERY hard to find in suburban Portland. there was a decent age range... mostly younger couples and families, but a fair amount of middle aged folk and a few older peeps as well), Geoff thought the message was a little long-winded.
I definitely thought it was a place that I'd like to get to know better. Today was the start of a 12 week series that I'm looking forward to. It was on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. I had never heard that term before and really enjoyed learning about it!
Another note, something I have been thinking about. In the past 6 or so years, I have taken to calling the music part of any Christian gathering "worship". It's kind of what these modern Christian peeps have done. It always bothered my mom, and now I'm coming around to her way of thinking - our whole lives are worship, not just music. People like Chris Tomlin call themselves lead worshippers, and music certianly IS worship... but I think we need to be careful not to begin thinking that music is the only way we worship God.
Anyway, great worship experience this morning, and then Geoff and I went to Red Robin. My stomach is hurting a little bit because my Remicade is coming up next week (it sometimes starts to act up a little bit the week or so before my Remicade). We are now watching the Jets and the Patriots (I think) on TV. Actually Geoff is watching them and playing Minesweeper while I am blogging. Now I'll probably go play Minesweeper... and then we are going to help Kyle move into his dorm room at Multnomah. After that... Geoff's making steaks for dinner, or we might go to dinner at Widmer (yum!). Should be a fun day!
Are the links getting to be too much? I think they might be helpful for non-Portlanders or people who don't know me as well to get to know my stuff. And it's not like you have to click them. But let me know what you think!
The other thing we are both trying to do and have been doing since yesterday is beat the Expert level of Minesweeper. Fun, of course! Neither of us have ever been able to beat it. I am a lot faster than him, it makes him very angry. But I like it!
This morning we went to a new church, called Westport. I loved it! I think Geoff was okay with it, but he doesn't really like modern worship styles as much as I do. But at least he liked it. Geoff was not okay with a church as big as Sunset (where I used to go), and I couldn't handle a church as traditional as St. Matthew (where he grew up) - so we are trying to find a place that works for both of us. This was the second week in this church's new building and it was cool to be a part of that!
Pros: awesome welcome when we got there (two people went out of their way to greet us, find out our names and how we found out of the church, etc... one was one of the pastors), excellent music that was very authentic, and a good messsage. The whole church felt very real.
Cons: lack of diversity (mostly ethnic diversity, although this is in general VERY hard to find in suburban Portland. there was a decent age range... mostly younger couples and families, but a fair amount of middle aged folk and a few older peeps as well), Geoff thought the message was a little long-winded.
I definitely thought it was a place that I'd like to get to know better. Today was the start of a 12 week series that I'm looking forward to. It was on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. I had never heard that term before and really enjoyed learning about it!
Another note, something I have been thinking about. In the past 6 or so years, I have taken to calling the music part of any Christian gathering "worship". It's kind of what these modern Christian peeps have done. It always bothered my mom, and now I'm coming around to her way of thinking - our whole lives are worship, not just music. People like Chris Tomlin call themselves lead worshippers, and music certianly IS worship... but I think we need to be careful not to begin thinking that music is the only way we worship God.
Anyway, great worship experience this morning, and then Geoff and I went to Red Robin. My stomach is hurting a little bit because my Remicade is coming up next week (it sometimes starts to act up a little bit the week or so before my Remicade). We are now watching the Jets and the Patriots (I think) on TV. Actually Geoff is watching them and playing Minesweeper while I am blogging. Now I'll probably go play Minesweeper... and then we are going to help Kyle move into his dorm room at Multnomah. After that... Geoff's making steaks for dinner, or we might go to dinner at Widmer (yum!). Should be a fun day!
Are the links getting to be too much? I think they might be helpful for non-Portlanders or people who don't know me as well to get to know my stuff. And it's not like you have to click them. But let me know what you think!
Friday, January 05, 2007
In the mood to blog...
Man, I am so excited to blog. I think that I like to post these links. I want to think of anything I've bought or received lately so that I can post it on here. If there's no picture, can't post it! Those are the rules. :) Oh, and the other rule is not posting something that everyone knows what it looks like. For example, I was about to post my Shout wipes that I bought from Target, and then realized that's lame and stupid. It has to be something unique (or that there are a lot of options for)!
For example:
- apothecary jars from The Container Store (one of my favorite places!). I got the small one for q-tips, and large one for cotton balls.
- a Longchamp bag from my sister (in black)
- a travel pillow (this was from my aunt and uncle, it was awesome on the flight home)
- a Trek 3700 bike (mine's purple though)
- a Calphalon Contemporary pot
- frozen French Onion Soup from Costco
- a new cell phone (okay, so this was about 6 months ago)
- Lenox Shimmering Angels (these were a gift from Geoff's grandmother and I love love love them!)
- a scarf from Gap
- Geoff got the Mr. Boston bartender's guide
- Geoff got a drill bit set
- Freakonomics (this month's book club book - it's amazing, read it if you haven't yet!)
- Towle 2006 musical bell (every year my grandmother gives me a special silver Christmas item. when I was first born it was Reed&Barton nativity bells. I have all 10 of those, from 1983 through 1987... then it was Reed&Barton "A Christmas Story" spoons. I have all 8 of these, from 1989 - 1996. Since then, it has been various things from year to year)
- an OXO wooden spoon (I love OXO and Geoff loves wooden spoons)
- Pottery Barn salt and pepper "cellars" (and teeny little spoons to go with them)
- James Avery (my favorite jeweler) ring (mine's silver though)
- Panasonic camcorder
- a new bookcase (on clearance!)
- Geoff and I both now have dial-a-drink shakers (I think this is his version, mine's only very slightly different)
It was fun writing this list. I was just sitting at my computer, looking around, trying desperately to think of more things I could post that people might want to see (or not). This list ended up being anything I could think of that I've bought in the past year or so (more in a couple of cases) that is still current enough I could find a link online! And I really did try to do only stuff I thought you would at least somewhat enjoy... for example, I used some restraint and didn't show my camera bag!
On the to do list for this weekend: taking pictures of some of these things (like my apothecary jars sitting on my counter) so you can see what it looks like! or maybe you don't care. But in that case, why are you reading my blog? :)
For example:
- apothecary jars from The Container Store (one of my favorite places!). I got the small one for q-tips, and large one for cotton balls.
- a Longchamp bag from my sister (in black)
- a travel pillow (this was from my aunt and uncle, it was awesome on the flight home)
- a Trek 3700 bike (mine's purple though)
- a Calphalon Contemporary pot
- frozen French Onion Soup from Costco
- a new cell phone (okay, so this was about 6 months ago)
- Lenox Shimmering Angels (these were a gift from Geoff's grandmother and I love love love them!)
- a scarf from Gap
- Geoff got the Mr. Boston bartender's guide
- Geoff got a drill bit set
- Freakonomics (this month's book club book - it's amazing, read it if you haven't yet!)
- Towle 2006 musical bell (every year my grandmother gives me a special silver Christmas item. when I was first born it was Reed&Barton nativity bells. I have all 10 of those, from 1983 through 1987... then it was Reed&Barton "A Christmas Story" spoons. I have all 8 of these, from 1989 - 1996. Since then, it has been various things from year to year)
- an OXO wooden spoon (I love OXO and Geoff loves wooden spoons)
- Pottery Barn salt and pepper "cellars" (and teeny little spoons to go with them)
- James Avery (my favorite jeweler) ring (mine's silver though)
- Panasonic camcorder
- a new bookcase (on clearance!)
- Geoff and I both now have dial-a-drink shakers (I think this is his version, mine's only very slightly different)
It was fun writing this list. I was just sitting at my computer, looking around, trying desperately to think of more things I could post that people might want to see (or not). This list ended up being anything I could think of that I've bought in the past year or so (more in a couple of cases) that is still current enough I could find a link online! And I really did try to do only stuff I thought you would at least somewhat enjoy... for example, I used some restraint and didn't show my camera bag!
On the to do list for this weekend: taking pictures of some of these things (like my apothecary jars sitting on my counter) so you can see what it looks like! or maybe you don't care. But in that case, why are you reading my blog? :)
Highlights of 2006
Oh, and now I'm going to steal from Carrie's idea to post the highlights of 2006, in no particular order! (except maybe slightly chronologically)
- Running my first 10K in February
- Running my first half marathon in June
- Running Hood to Coast in August
- Visiting my sister in Spain!
- Getting to go to Brussels and Chicago (if only for a few hours) on the way back
- Birthday parties in February
- Meeting and starting to date Geoff
- Visiting Christine and Abel in Iowa
- Going to Vegas with Katie, Carrie, and Stacey
- Going camping a lot
- My mom coming to visit in July
- Spending lots of time on Geoff's family's boat!
- Going wine tasting, lots, especially with Geoff and his mom for Memorial Day and Thanksgiving
- Buying a new Tahoe
- Getting to meet ALL of Geoff's family for his brother's graduation
- Dave Matthews at the Gorge for Labor Day
- Going to Dallas and Houston for Christmas!
The parents (my Aunt Julie and Uncle Arlen, my mom and dad, my Aunt List and Uncle Jeff).
Julie, my mom, and Jeff are all my grandparent's kids.
*
The cousins at my Aunt Lisa's house on Christmas!
Katelyn, Alex, Rebecca, Christine, Andrew, me, and Rebecca
- Running my first 10K in February
- Running my first half marathon in June
- Running Hood to Coast in August
- Visiting my sister in Spain!
- Getting to go to Brussels and Chicago (if only for a few hours) on the way back
- Birthday parties in February
- Meeting and starting to date Geoff
- Visiting Christine and Abel in Iowa
- Going to Vegas with Katie, Carrie, and Stacey
- Going camping a lot
- My mom coming to visit in July
- Spending lots of time on Geoff's family's boat!
- Going wine tasting, lots, especially with Geoff and his mom for Memorial Day and Thanksgiving
- Buying a new Tahoe
- Getting to meet ALL of Geoff's family for his brother's graduation
- Dave Matthews at the Gorge for Labor Day
- Going to Dallas and Houston for Christmas!
The parents (my Aunt Julie and Uncle Arlen, my mom and dad, my Aunt List and Uncle Jeff).Julie, my mom, and Jeff are all my grandparent's kids.
*
The cousins at my Aunt Lisa's house on Christmas!
Katelyn, Alex, Rebecca, Christine, Andrew, me, and Rebecca
Trying to use the new blogger
Huh. Not too sure what I think of the new blogger. It's all merged with Google and stuff. I am so bad at blogging, but I love reading other people's blogs. I guess when I am reading, I could also be writing up my own.
I had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year... the best I've had in many many years! My parents moved to Dallas so I got to go there and see their new house and stuff. PLUS on Christmas Day we drove down to Houston so I saw my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins - my mom's entire side of the family! It was the first time I've seen ALL of them in well over 6 years. None of us can remember exactly how long ago it really was. But 6 years ago I saw most of them when I was visiting in 2000 with Julius... but all of them, who knows? I loved my parents house and it was just a really good time.
I got some fabulous presents for Christmas this year too - a Wusthof Classic knife set (I collect Wusthof knives, now I finally have the block!) and a Timbuk2 "Bag in a Box" (giftcard) .
I already had 2 of the knives that came in the set, so happily (thank you Crate & Barrel!) I was able to go back and return those two and got a credit, which I then proceded to use to buy a set of 4 steak knives. AND I had a credit to Bed Bath and Beyond, so I got another knife there! I now have the following:
- (1) 3.5" Paring Knife
- (1) 4.5" Utility Knife
- (1) 5" Sausage Knife (this was my first Wusthof knife)
- (1) 10" Bread Knife
- (1) 7" Santoku Knife (this is probably my favorite one! - Very Rachael Ray-esque)
- (1) 6" Sandwich Knife
- (1) 7" Cook's Knife
- (1) Sharpening Steel
- (1) Kitchen Shears
- (1) Knife Block
- (1) Steak Knife Set (4 knives... I need 2 more to fill my block but Crate & Barrel doesn't sell the 6 piece set, so I will have to buy them individually)
Now, besides the 2 steak knives, I only need one more knife to fill my set! I think maybe the carver. There are so many great Wusthof knives. Sooo happy.
Because my very first Christmas tree went away (sad), I needed something to fill the place. So I got a new chair and ottoman on sale at Target! And I got a liquor cabinet... woo hoo! That was partially the guy's doing... that's right, I'm running a frat house - Geoff, Eric, and Trevor are all living in my house now. It's slightly chaotic, but it's fun and they are really good about being respectful and clean and helping me out with stuff!
Does anyone else think I'm having too much fun with these links? Marisa does it all the time and I love seeing what she has! Dang, I can't find the link to the wine cabinet thingy though.
Man I keep thinking of more stuff I could link, but I will try to restrain myself. It's fun stuff though. Expect to see more of it in the future. I got a video camera when Geoff and I camped out at Best Buy on Thanksgiving night (yes, we really did, it was a blast!). So I've been doing a lot of video taping. I want to do more camera picture taking though, so I can post them. Pictures always make things more interesting!
That's enough for today... I need to stop with the links!
I had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year... the best I've had in many many years! My parents moved to Dallas so I got to go there and see their new house and stuff. PLUS on Christmas Day we drove down to Houston so I saw my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins - my mom's entire side of the family! It was the first time I've seen ALL of them in well over 6 years. None of us can remember exactly how long ago it really was. But 6 years ago I saw most of them when I was visiting in 2000 with Julius... but all of them, who knows? I loved my parents house and it was just a really good time.
I got some fabulous presents for Christmas this year too - a Wusthof Classic knife set (I collect Wusthof knives, now I finally have the block!) and a Timbuk2 "Bag in a Box" (giftcard) .
I already had 2 of the knives that came in the set, so happily (thank you Crate & Barrel!) I was able to go back and return those two and got a credit, which I then proceded to use to buy a set of 4 steak knives. AND I had a credit to Bed Bath and Beyond, so I got another knife there! I now have the following:
- (1) 3.5" Paring Knife
- (1) 4.5" Utility Knife
- (1) 5" Sausage Knife (this was my first Wusthof knife)
- (1) 10" Bread Knife
- (1) 7" Santoku Knife (this is probably my favorite one! - Very Rachael Ray-esque)
- (1) 6" Sandwich Knife
- (1) 7" Cook's Knife
- (1) Sharpening Steel
- (1) Kitchen Shears
- (1) Knife Block
- (1) Steak Knife Set (4 knives... I need 2 more to fill my block but Crate & Barrel doesn't sell the 6 piece set, so I will have to buy them individually)
Now, besides the 2 steak knives, I only need one more knife to fill my set! I think maybe the carver. There are so many great Wusthof knives. Sooo happy.
Because my very first Christmas tree went away (sad), I needed something to fill the place. So I got a new chair and ottoman on sale at Target! And I got a liquor cabinet... woo hoo! That was partially the guy's doing... that's right, I'm running a frat house - Geoff, Eric, and Trevor are all living in my house now. It's slightly chaotic, but it's fun and they are really good about being respectful and clean and helping me out with stuff!
Does anyone else think I'm having too much fun with these links? Marisa does it all the time and I love seeing what she has! Dang, I can't find the link to the wine cabinet thingy though.
Man I keep thinking of more stuff I could link, but I will try to restrain myself. It's fun stuff though. Expect to see more of it in the future. I got a video camera when Geoff and I camped out at Best Buy on Thanksgiving night (yes, we really did, it was a blast!). So I've been doing a lot of video taping. I want to do more camera picture taking though, so I can post them. Pictures always make things more interesting!
That's enough for today... I need to stop with the links!
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