odds and ends

Before we left for Oregon, I happened to burn myself on the oven while taking a zucchini lasagna (yum!) out, and since it was pretty bad, Nolan whipped out his fancy numbing lotion and clear sealing bandage and fixed me up. After 10 minutes it felt much better, and when I woke up I couldn't feel it at all! There are perks to having a doctor in the house :) 

Okay, and now for a few pictures from Oregon, though I'm really only posting a couple because they're all on facebook and there are just too many. This one is one of my favourites...cuddling with my nephew. He's so sweet and smells delicious and soft. I just want to pinch his little cheeks! Maybe I will...when he's older.

We also went for a walk through Stout Grove with Nolan's parents, who got married there! It's such a beautiful place, with the ancient redwoods towering over you what feels like miles in the sky. Gorgeous.

This Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary, and we had kind of an adventurous day. We woke up and ate a tasty breakfast and had lattes together, then decided we'd go to Great America since we didn't have tickets to Les Miserables like we'd been hoping. So we printed the tickets and parking pass, drove down there, and sat in the parking lot outside the gates, because Nolan wanted to make sure some guy he'd contacted about Les Mis tickets had a chance to call him back. Sure enough, the phone rings, he says the 8pm tickets are ours to pick up at 1:30 (it was 11am at the time), and to meet him at the theaters. So we killed some time by eating lunch at a MiniGolf place and playing arcade games.

 

After arcade games, we picked up the tickets (Hallelujah!), went home and changed, and headed up to SF to visit our old neighbourhood, meet a friend at our favourite old boba place, stop for a few bits of dim sum along the way, and walk to Santung for our favourite dry-fried chicken! It was amazing. AND we found out that the dessert place next door is owned by the same owners, and actually serves everything on Santung's menu (they share a kitchen, so it's easy). So instead of waiting outside in line for an hour, we had immediate seats and were immediately served our food in the little place next door. That's a secret we're going to preserve!

After dinner (and okay, some Tuttimelon), we drove the scenic route through the park by where we got engaged, and then went downtown for Les Mis. I'm not even going to attempt to describe how incredible it was, because there are no words. If you're in the Bay Area, go see it. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day celebrating 5 amazing years of marriage with my soulmate. We've certainly learned a lot these 5 years, and I can't wait to have the rest of our lives together! Who knew it would be so easy to fall deeper and deeper in love with the same man each day after years together? Biggest surprise: I still find his messiness endearing (don't tell him, though!). I can't help feeling like God's spoiled me by giving me Nolan.

Some nights, you just have to have dessert for dinner, you know? Last night I polished off the delicious lemon coconut tart I made (thanks for another great, healthy dessert option, Anna!) and watched the Tudors as I hemmed another pair of Nolan's pants. It was the best dinner ever.

Just because this is adorable, here's a video I took of Nolan doing his special move, "The Gazelle" with our nephew. Works like a charm - we tried it on another baby a few days ago with similar results!

Friday, but I'm thankful all the same

It's been a busy week, with driving to/from Oregon to visit family, getting back to work, and running errands to get our house in order (it was a disaster). So it is no surprise to me, at least, that I've been MIA this week from here. I also had grand plans to post a bunch of pictures, but I still haven't wrangled them all together yet - not that there are tons anyway. This will happen soon.

For now, until I have a bit more time and can get those pictures on here, I'm just going to say that I'm so very thankful that I have such a wonderful family, both blood and in-laws. It's a rare thing to have such close relationships with both sides, and I don't take it for granted.

It's Friday afternoon, it's gorgeous and hot outside, and the weekend is here - tomorrow is our 5 year wedding anniversary, and I'm so excited to celebrate with my amazing husband!

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday already again, and even though the minutes of each day this week have been draaaaggging by (they always do before vacation, don't they?), the days themselves have passed quickly. Which is kind of  a shame, because it means the days on vacation will pass quickly too. Sigh.

Ash has been here since Tuesday evening, and she's been commuting into the city with me by day and visiting art galleries, sitting in on classes at the Academy of Art, and meeting up with professors. Sounds like fun, eh? Last night we ate at Karakade with Nolan, Erin, and Susan, and calorie-splurged at froyo afterwards - I would eat Thai food EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE. Seriously. Also, you can tell that Nolan and I don't eat sugary stuff often, because when we got our froyo, everyone else filled their cups maybe half-full and put a few pieces of fruit on top...Nolan and I filled ours all the way up and put chocolatey goodness and nuts and peanut butter chips and stuff on ours. Hey, if you're going to splurge every once in awhile: go big or go home, y'all.

But now I'm tired thinking of all that food, so let's move onto healthier things:

1. I'm thankful for vacation coming up! And I mean this mini-one that starts this weekend, but also our fantastic one in September. Woohoo!
2. I'm thankful for information. I feel like I'm one of those ignorant people who just kind of cruises along believing something until someone tells me otherwise. It drives Nolan crazy. Google really is my best friend in these cases, and I learn something every day. For example: all my life I thought I couldn't equalize my ears (and therefore probably never scuba). We were reading up on scuba tips a few days ago (that's a hint about our fun vacation!), and I found out that there are other, better ways to do it. I tested it out, and voila! Cue an eyeroll from Nolan.
3. I'm thankful for flexibility at my job. For example: though I can't wear jeans to work, I don't have to wear a suit. I also can walk into the office in flip-flops (as long as I change into heels once I'm at my desk!), which significantly improves the quality of my commute. I remembered this yesterday when I wore 4-inch heels to work from home :( I also love that I don't have to be in at or stay until a certain time. And that I can work from home sometimes. The list goes on and on.
4. I'm thankful for how fun Nolan is. I could never, ever be married to or remotely happy with someone who didn't like to play and just be silly sometimes a lot.
5. I'm thankful for our weather. It seems to be really crappy almost everywhere else in the country right now, and where we live, is just perfect. Hot, but not miserably. Nice and cool in the mornings and evenings. I also appreciate wearing flip-flops year-round. It's the little things, you know?

What are you thankful for?

Brekkie, etc.

 It's no secret that I'm obsessed with breakfast. It's hands-down my favourite meal of the day. In fact, I was already planning tomorrow's breakfast while driving home from work today. What might be surprising, is that I don't vary up my breakfasts that much. They are almost always 1 of 4 options. I also have a small protein drink to go with them, so I build lean muscle after my morning workouts. It makes a difference.

Anyway, though I maintain a low-carb lifestyle for the most part, I definitely opt for plenty of carbs at breakfast, as long as they are a grain or seed and not something processed or empty of nutrition. It helps me rebuild my energy after working out, and it keeps me full until lunch (with just a small snack in between to keep my metabolism pumping!). Last week, I had this almost every day, with only a day of my go-to Kashi in between:

 

Fabulous, delicious chia seed. With blueberries, pecans, sweetener, dried cranberries, cinnamon and soymilk.

 This week, it's been this every single morning, including the weekends! I feel so luxurious when I have time to actually sit down and enjoy breakfast! Back to this week's trend:

My good friend, protein-packed quinoa! With blueberries, cinnamon, sweetener, skim milk, and pecans. Yum! 

Since I spent an hour browsing Pinterest this weekend (active lifestyle fail), I came up with several great new treats! This is most definitely not breakfast...but when shared with others and not consumed all in one sitting, it's a relatively "okay" treat that tastes amazingly wicked. Let me just say: if you like Reese's cups and PARTICULARLY Reese's peanut butter eggs for Easter, you will love this recipe:

 For only 6 ingredients and all of them natural and pretty healthy, it's pretty incredible that even my finely-tuned taste for Reese's was fooled.


And for something altogether different...

That is how Milo looked on Saturday morning, while waiting for Nolan to wake up. He wanted nothing to do with my blankets and breakfast and warm lap and cooing (all his favourite things). He just wanted his boy to wake up and play.


Looking forward to:
- visiting family this weekend (and meeting our nephew, SQUEEE!)
- ylehsa visiting this week!
- our 5th anniversary next weekend, and inevitably fun times together!
- going up to Placerville the next weekend :)

...and a fun new vacation that is in the works (soon, too!), but we haven't officially purchased tickets, so I can't say where it's to or I might jinx it!

Thankful Thursday

Yesterday was a holiday, and I woke up thinking of how productive I'd be, all the places I'd go and fun things I'd do...and then I got locked out of my house while putting in a load of laundry. Since we live in a duplex, we share a main entryway to the outside (for which there is a spare and we can always get in), and then up the stairs we have our own door. No spare for that one, but we never lock it, so no big deal. Except that Nolan worked the nightshift Tuesday night, so I locked it. And forgot to unlock it in the morning, so when I closed it behind me...locked. I could hear Milo crying from the inside while I fumbled with tiny tools to try and pick it. I even tried setting up a ladder outside our window outside, but I couldn't quite reach. I tried calling Nolan from our neighbour's phone, but he didn't pick up since he was at work until 1pm (this all happened around 8am). So...I was locked out, thankfully had already put up my hair and washed my face and changed into my workout clothes, and had only my starbucks card in my pocket, since that was my destination to walk to after putting in laundry. The only other resource I had was my bike, so I hopped on and rode 5 miles to Erin's house, hoping she was home. She was, and by the time I got there, Nolan was able to pick up his phone, and told me he was on his way back. Hallelujah! 5 miles later, I was back in, and my day resumed, though I definitely had to move some stuff around. That brings me to:

1. I'm thankful I wasn't locked out while still in my pajamas. That would have been...a sight to behold. They're definitely not meant to be worn in public like some pajamas.
2. I'm thankful for a bike! It's been a lifesaver now a few times! Plus, it's awesome.
3. I'm thankful for my cute nephew, who is getting cuter by the day! So glad he's healthy and thriving! Excited to meet him in just about a week!
4. I'm thankful for family! We had a really fun 4th of July with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins, and my other Aunt and cousins visiting from China!
5. I'm thankful for good books (again), because the BART has been having some major track issues...the other day, I waited over an hour for my train to come, and then it was really slow and kept stopping while on it. Boo. At least good books have been keeping me entertained and passing the time!

What are you thankful for?


ps - 3 weeks into P90X, and loving it still! I'm for sure seeing muscle definition happening already. I just had to adjust to a different kind of workout after Insanity :)

adventuring thus far

 Summer 2012 is shaping up to be pretty great so far. We had a mini-vacation (Nolan had a whole week and I only had 2 days on top of the weekend) and packed it full! Last Sunday we went hiking/camping in Big Basin with Nolan's colleagues and their significant others. The doctors stayed overnight and enjoyed the start of their week off while the spouses loaded into a car around 9:30 and drove the 2 hours home since we all had to work on Monday. Who goes camping on a Sunday night, anyway?! I won't go into details, but let's just say I had one too many hotdogs and had an empty stomach by the time I got home that night.

Nolan's fabulous colleagues on the camping trip

 After camping, Nolan spent a day and night in Tahoe with his colleagues, chasing buffets, gambling, generally enjoying life...and then he drove down to my parents', where I met him on Wednesday night. There were a lot of good times. Games, swimming, biking, sleeping, eating, sunbathing, hanging out...and we even got an update on Milo while he enjoyed his vacation at Harley's house.

playing ladderball and enjoying the heat!

Milo thoroughly enjoying being away from us and with Harley :)

Nolan and Nate at the sushi buffet!

Mountain biking!

Birthday princess, haha!

El Grullense...tasty.

New food processor! WINNING!

Vacation = best thing ever. Next one? Less than 2 weeks!