Friday and I'm still thankful

Sometimes I have a really hard time keeping track of what day of the week it is, particularly when there is a holiday weekend or something to throw me off. This was obviously one of those weeks. So I'm just off a day with this post, I guess.

We celebrated one of my colleague's 40th anniversary with McKesson this week. It's mind-boggling - she's been with the company over than a decade longer than I've been alive. This woman is the most incredible person to work with, but also a good friend. It was so nice to be able to celebrate her with some of our colleagues and her family! This is her below, giving her speech :)

Yesterday morning on my way to work I took this picture outside of our house because I hadn't noticed the baby lambs in the little pasture next door. There are about 10 sheep there now, and some of them are these little cute things like below. They all bleat though, and worst of all: they cause a disturbing amount of people walking around the neighbourhood to stop, hang over the fence and yell loudly, "baaah! BAAAAAHH!". I've debated pulling out my airsoft gun to discourage the behaviour, as it's SUPER annoying to always hear that.

It's been a fun week, what with BBQs, game nights, work dinners, and date nights like last night, in which we noshed on homemade gazpacho and chicken while having a conference call with our financial advisors, went for a bike ride/run, and watched our favourite show before bed. Tonight's a girls' night, and tomorrow is either mountain biking or windsurfing, so the weekend looks promising ahead. Yay summertime!

1. I'm thankful for our a/c (have I said that before?). It makes sleeping so much more bearable.

2. I'm thankful for friends to relax and catch up with.

3. I'm thankful for my excellent co-workers and company. It does make a difference!

4. I'm thankful we have a BBQ. I can't imagine only cooking with an oven, indoors, during these hot days. Phew.

5. I'm thankful for fun potential plans with Nolan in July. Research currently underway - stay tuned :)

What are you thankful for?

Sunny-side up

I thought I had more pictures from the wedding we went to last weekend, but apparently of the many pictures that were taken...only 2 were actually on my phone. That could be a good thing, because I wore a dress that I'm pretty sure will turn out in pictures as either really not-flattering or slightly slutty. Either way, it's clear how classy I am.

Anyway, I'm trying to hunt down others, because these are not great. Like this mid-chomp shot across our table of some of our friends and colleagues.

This one actually is okay. Nolan's super good at selfies, so we took this one while waiting for dinner to come out :) I need lip colour, but Nolan looks perfect of course. 

This weekend was another jam-packed one. Here I thought we'd end up bored and whatnot due to our change of plans, but no. Friday was a workday, but I managed to catch a quick lunch with Nolan at a great Mediterranean place that I so wish I'd discovered 3 years ago. Bah! After work, we grabbed dinner at our favourite Vietnamese place. Saturday morning, we had more friends over for waffles (yay!), then drove like bats out of hell to Sacramento in memorial day traffic to make it to a couple house-viewings with our realtor. Finished the day with dinner in Sac with some friends, then a nice drive back. Sunday we woke up, opted to spend some relaxed time together at home instead of church, and then headed to Pulgas Ridge to run the trail there. It's my favourite trail run thus far, though I certainly can't do it all the time or my calves would implode from the effort. It's only 5.3 miles, but MAN the elevation change is brutal. You go up, up, up, then plunge down into the bottom of the gulch, then you climb agonizingly way up to the top of the ridge along a series of many, many switchbacks, before having another long set of downhill before the end. There are about zero flat stretches.

This was us at the top of the ridge. VERY happy to be done with the switchbacks.

Post-run pic. I always feel accomplished after this particular run, so I'm glad we captured it this time :)

What can I say? He's jacked and I'm one lucky woman ;)

After we did the run, Nolan had a lunch meeting and then chess with a friend, and I did some errands, read my book out in the sun, did a bit of weightlifting and stretching, then picked up Milo and headed to our friends' house (where Harley lives!) for a kitty play-date and dinner. Nolan had to work, so it was just the three of us. Milo was so anxious the whole time about me taking him in the car again, that he didn't take advantage of the playdate until the last hour or so. Lame!

Monday was an incredibly luxurious day. I woke up, did a long yoga session, went for a nice run, then did a bit more reading outside in the sun. So nice! Then Nolan woke up from his post-night shift recovery, we hung out a little bit, and then we went over to his colleague's house for a memorial day bbq before Nolan had to head back to work for another night shift. We're down to just 15 shifts left now (JUST 15!!!) standing between him and the end of residency. So crazy!

Thankful Thursday

Last weekend was packed. We put an offer on a house (but the counters were crazy so we stopped that pursuit), had dinner with my Dad, had some friends over for a waffle breakfast, went to a super-fun wedding of one of Nolan's colleagues and danced the night away, did some work, and then I went to a Thai "massage" Sunday afternoon. Really, it was more of "pulling on all my limbs and chanting buddhist exhortations while inhaling incense for an hour and a half" instead of a massage...but it was relaxing. I think I'm cancelling my second session (even though it's free), as I was hoping for more of an actual massage, but I will say that just laying there and letting my mind relax and even meditating on some of the general thoughts being chanted about happiness and bringing joy to others and learning to let things roll off of you was a good exercise for me. No matter what religion you are, there are some truly beautiful common threads like those that I think we can all learn and benefit from. This is partly why I like travelling, and really soaking in some of those nuggets of wisdom that we can glean from others with different belief systems and cultures.

This weekend is going to be super different than planned. We were going to head up to the ranch, look at homes, maybe go up to Tahoe for a day...and now we're sticking around our house, having waffles with more friends (who doesn't like healthy waffles with friends on a Saturday morning?), grilling with friends on Memorial Day, maybe mountain biking, maybe making a day trip to Sacramento to view homes if needed, maybe just lounging around...we'll see. I had a fun work dinner on Monday, then we hosted a big party at our house on Tuesday, and are going to another one tonight at someone else's...so it may be a chill weekend. I also have big plans to take Milo to my friend's house for a playdate with his little girlfriend, Harley. He's been acting out a bit recently and I think he just needs some friend time. But now I'm blogging about my cat. So...let's move on.

1. I'm thankful for the slightly cooler weather, even though it means I've actually been cold at times this week. The heatwave last week was too.hot. Oh yeah, and I'm thankful for our little A/C that helps make life more bearable during those hot times!
2. I'm thankful for the beautiful area we live in now for running! Every direction is interesting and pretty, and if we want trail runs, all we have to do is hop in the car for 5 minutes for our choice of preserves to run in.
3. I'm thankful for Milo, that turd.
4. I'm thankful for Nolan, and our times of growth and learning together - buying a home and transitioning out of residency are both big, stressful things, and I'm so glad that we can learn from them and grow through them together.
5. I'm thankful for a long weekend, in which I plan to maybe not open my work laptop at all! I love my work, but it's good to practice that balance and let yourself do nothing sometimes.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

This house hunting thing is a real trip. We're going on random trips to look at places, locations, changing all sorts of parameters, and learning about ourselves in the process. Whew. I'm excited to find our home but I won't be sad when this part is over :)

Last weekend was one of those random trips up on Saturday morning, supposedly just for a quick few hours and then back home again, but we ended making a lot of changes and even staying the night to look at more homes the next day. It was fun to get together with friends for dinner, see new neighbourhoods, and see my family a little bit on top of that.

Sunday morning, I decided to go for a nice run on the ranch while Nolan got some work done...but I hadn't brought anything for working out. So I threw together a sportsbra from high school, a shirt from my college freshman dorm, my mom's socks, the shoes I leave up there, and a pair of my brother's tiny running shorts...which ended up being just my size (almost). Win!

I took Captain with me for the run, and he kept up the whole way, but by the last few laps the poor guy was flagging. He stayed right here (below) until we left. Haha.

That's a little bit how I feel lately, what with the hot weather and all these upcoming changes. Just kind of pooped. Still: I shouldn't complain! Look how many great things I have going on!

1. I'm thankful for Nolan's residency coming to a close. It's been great being down here and meeting new people, but residency is just as tough as the stereotype says it is.
2. I'm thankful for free massages! I was going to use a groupon massage today that I bought awhile ago, and the masseuse had to cancel last minute - so he offered me an EXTRA free massage, and we booked both for within the next 3 weeks. w00t!
3. I'm thankful for the A/C unit in our little apartment. Yes, it is tiny. Yes, it is loud. Yes, it is huge and inconvenient. But YES it does make life more bearable when it gets super hot like it's been this week.
4. I'm thankful for our neighbour. She watches Milo and FDR when we're gone, she is super kind and thoughtful, and today she killed and disposed of a really nasty spider for me when I just couldn't.
5. I'm thankful for my food processor. Every.Single.Day.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

I realized recently that I've been too casual about thankfulness in my life. I say I'm thankful for a lot of things (and I am, really!), but I don't let that thankfulness manifest in my everyday life. For example: I say I'm thankful for our home and where we live, but I complain about the traffic or the single-paned windows that never seem to keep the heat in or out  (depending on what we need at the moment). Instead, if I'm truly grateful, I can look outside my window as I am now, and appreciate the lush green of the trees right outside, and the quiet of the breeze blowing and the birds singing. I can go for a walk through our beautiful neighbourhood and think, "this, this is a great place for us right now, and I'm thankful for it", even if it means I'll be stuck in Bay Area traffic this weekend at some point.

Is thankfulness really thankfulness, if you don't stop to consider what it means, and just say that you're thankful for it? If I said I was grateful for a roof over my head and a full belly, but just superficially consider it to be true and don't actually absorb what that means or feel how truly grateful I am for those things...am I really appreciating those blessings? I don't think so.

So this week, I'm keeping it simple, and saying and meaning these 5 things that I truly, sincerely, am profoundly thankful for each day. My goal is to really feel how grateful I am for these things, so that I don't let complacency rob me of the true joy I should and can feel at all of these blessings.

1. I'm thankful for my relationship with the God of the universe, and His relentless pursuit of my heart.
2. I'm thankful for my true media naranja, my husband. He is my world.
3. I'm thankful for our time in the Bay Area, even as it comes to a close. I have learned so much while living here, and have truly enjoyed so much of it.
4. I'm thankful for my job. I hope I don't take for granted just how lucky I am to have a job that I love.
5. I'm thankful for my families, and truly appreciate how blessed we are to have godly, loving families on both sides of our little sub-family :)

What are you thankful for?