Thankful Thursday

Last week, I didn't blog. At all. Not even in my head. I have all these great plans of just blogging every day about random things, and then I get home from work, cook dinner, clean up the house, sometimes do a little more work, prepare for the next day, then go to bed. Seriously - how terrible. I've been trying to get better at making space to relax and do nothing, and it's tough! I tested myself this morning - I left the house for work while the bed was unmade and there were dishes in the sink and a pair of jeans on the floor in the office. You laugh, but that was hard to walk out on; just knowing that there is chaos where I can make order easily.

Kind of like when I try to make myself not adjust my mat during yoga. It's hard to not focus on the crooked mat, but I think it's a good practice in overcoming my OCD type A-ness, right?

Anyway, so I made space last week, and decided not to blog and to relax instead with my dad and brother, who were in town for the night (Nate's home from China, yay!).

So I have this picture from probably a week and a half ago, from a Great Gatsby-themed party that we went to, but what I really wish I could share is the string of photobooth pictures that we took. It convinces me each time I look at it, that we're real winners. 

At least this picture turned out nice! I got me a hottie for a husband.

Speaking of winning, this was taken early in the morning, some day last week. This is how Nolan attempts to make himself think that it's bedtime after a night shift, even though the rest of the world is just waking up. Aviators, wine, robe, and posed selfie on your wife's phone? Check.

I know, the beard is out of control.

What is it about this time of year that makes everything go so slowly, until Christmas Eve, and then next thing you know it's January 2 and you're trekking back to the office? As much as I love my work, I love Christmas more. I can't stand the long wait until the holiday, and how the 2 days themselves just seem to disappear! Boo.

However...I'm still glad it's this time of year still, and that we haven't plunged into frigid, lonely January already. So with that:

1. I'm thankful for my parking spot at BART this morning! On Tuesday, there were no parking spots left...not a single solitary one. Knowing that by the time I either got to another BART station or got into downtown SF to park, neither would have spots open either, I decided to head to the only place that I MIGHT have some luck - our old neighbourhood. I won't relay all the terrible details of trying to park and then commute to and from the Sunset again (oh, the Muni!)...but it was terrible. So - thankful for parking.

2. I'm thankful for my favourite lunch spot! I love having a little treat to look forward to for lunch, and a delicious meal to fill my belly.

3. I'm thankful for the vacation coming up! Long strings of days with family and friends, and time off to just play and spend time with Nolan? I'll take it.

4. I'm thankful for my work. It's a consistently satisfying and (dare I say it) fun part of my weeks. Doesn't hurt that I'm part of a great team too. Except for whoever it was that made me take a very embarrassing and large white elephant gift home on the BART with me. I don't forgive you!

5. I'm thankful for Christmas music. It's my happy place. And it's good for anything! I listen to it while cooking, driving, working, even CrossFitting (bench-pressing to the Muppets' Christmas Carol? Check.). I love it year.round.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday (and a little cheer!)

This week, I made some delicious new (and healthy, if you ignore the glaze on the one below) treats. I made Nolan some doughnuts with my new doughnut pan, and added a little chocolate glaze to his, since it was a special treat. Also! I'm posting a recipe later this week for a delicious dinner idea. Stay tuned!

I was met with an onslaught of texts at lunch on Monday from a bunch of residency applicants that Nolan was interviewing. Apparently he decided he'd leverage his influence on them to brighten my day a little bit! Also: it was hilarious.

And, as usual in our household, Christmas came early! We couldn't wait to exchange gifts, so we opened ours to each other early. Nolan got me a gorgeous necklace that I had been wanting, with my initials on it. See??? Thank you, Nolan!

Highlight of my week so far? This video that my boss put together of us. Dancing on Xeroxes? Yeah, that's what we do every day.

Onto the good stuff!

1. I'm thankful for learning to rest. I was having a hard time physically this week, and learned that I had to force myself to rest and do absolutely nothing for a couple days. I had been doing long yoga sessions and running on rest days, and my body was trying to tell me to slow down. Amazing how a little rest can fix you!

2. I'm thankful for super interesting and engaging learning opportunities at work! Not only do I get to attend a really great conference in February that I'm excited about, but I'm in 2 days of workshops this week that are very insightful and challenging around Human Capital Financial Statements. Woo! And you thought HR was boring. *cue the sniggers*

3. I'm thankful for meeting my goal of being done with Christmas shopping early! So fun to have all the presents purchased and bought

4. I'm thankful for exciting new opportunities to adventure with Nolan coming up! Can't say much right now since nothing has been set in stone, but stay tuned for excitingness!

5. I'm thankful for the holidays, and all the concentrated family + friend time that goes with this season. I'm loving getting to visit with all of our favourite people (yay for bff visiting this weekend!), and I'm so looking forward to some time off to enjoy with family in just 2 short weeks!

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday - Thanksgiving Edition!

This week has been eventful. In mostly good ways. For example, we got to see a lot of old friends and spend time playing vicious games of Dominion with a few new ones. Our new roommate My dad spent another evening with us this week, which we always really enjoy. Oh and I got to experience strangers controlling my brain. No really. I am doing another round of that pain research study I did before, and this time they were sending magnetic pulses through my scalp and telling my thumb to move, among other things. So fascinating. See?

I always have to beg a little to get them to take a picture.

This morning, I woke up and ate a nice, slow breakfast and coffee, then stretched a bit before turning on the tv (seriously, I think we turn that thing on maybe once a year!) to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Because you know, it's Milo's favourite. Every single year he watches that parade - we've had other movies and stuff streaming from the tv screen, and he never watches them...so it truly is something about the parade itself. This year I took the picture of him glued to it when he didn't know I was watching.

By the time I got home from my workout, the cool balloons had already passed, and there were random people jump-roping on the stage. By that point he was only watching with one eye open and half-asleep. I don't blame him. Who cares about jump-ropers.

Throwback time! Let's see how energetic he was about watching the parade the last couple of years:

2012 - Charlie Brown is his favourite! Yes, I know he's just a cat.

...and a series of 4 pictures over 4 hours from 2011 (my favourite series of pictures ever!!!)

This morning I decided to run Pulgas Ridge against my better judgment. See, I know as well as the next person that the 2 biggest "traffic" days for walking and running are Thanksgiving Day, and New Year's Day. The former because people in 'Merca somehow trick themselves into believing that if they go for a very long walk that morning, they "earn" the right to stuff themselves silly with food later. Like I said...'Merca. The latter, of course, because everyone's starting their soon-to-be failed New Year's Resolutions. Do I sound cynical yet? Sorry.

Anyway. So I went to Pulgas Ridge, and the usually empty parking lot was overflowing. So I parked on the little street, strapped on my water belt, and started running. I swear, every person in San Mateo county was on that trail. It was herds. Droves, I tell you. Good news is that none of them braved the whole loop and left out the brutal climb in the middle - so I got to do that alone with nobody to watch me cry blood as I climbed those massive hills out of the canyon. Bad news is that when I finally was on my way back down the last mile, they had the nerve to all make comments as I passed about "must be easy running downhill!". Yeah. Must be. Turds.

We had our Thanksgiving with a few friends around noon this year, and so Nolan got to have his feast after all, though he has to work the next few nights. At least with his work schedule, we've somehow managed to still celebrate Thanksgiving grandly each year. And Milo's still gotten to watch his parade. So we all win. Onto what else is winning?

1. I'm thankful for growth. An area I've been surprised and pleased to see growth in myself in this year has been learning to like people. You laugh, but although I really like spending time with people I care about, I really didn't like strangers or "people", if you know what I mean. Now (with a lot of encouragement and pushing from Nolan), I'm finding myself chatting up strangers and meeting people everywhere and being downright (dare I say it?) agreeable? This was supposed to be a good reflection but now I realize I sound like the grinch. Sigh. Still thankful though.

2. I'm thankful for my undeservedly wonderful husband. How do I even put into words how much he means to me? I see reasons every.single.day why I am so incredibly blessed to have such a good man and such a fun, challenging and loving marriage and friendship to come home to for the rest of my life. Nolan, you are my sun and stars.

3. I'm thankful for our great families. Can't wait to see everyone at Christmas and enjoy good quality family time!

4. I'm thankful for our jobs that we both love and our future career plans! Also, I say this a lot but I'm super grateful for my boss! I love my job, but having a phenomenal person to lead, support and coach you makes such a huge difference.

5. I'm thankful for the holidays and the reminder to love on each other and appreciate the world and people around us, as well as the real reason for the season. So grateful that I get to celebrate that first time God gave us His most amazing gift, so many years ago.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

This week has been odd. I think I got confused working from home a few days and then going into the office in between - it's like my body was in this rhythm and now I have no idea what day of the week it is. Plus, next week is Thanksgiving, and those 2 random days off always throw me.

In other news, Nolan and I are practically caught up to the current season of The Walking Dead. I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't doing it. Who knew a zombie show could be so good?

This week I broke some fitness milestones: I set new PRs (personal records) in a couple lifts, and I ran over 8 miles without knee pain. Okay, that still isn't super far, but since I've been oh-so-gradually increasing the distance over the past 8 or so months so that my knees can take it slow and adjust, it's nice to be finally at that medium distance. Woo!

I discovered very bad recipes these past few weeks. Really bad. Like, getting me back on the dessert wagon bad . Did I mention I was off for awhile? Okay, so to back up - I decided to go officially, legit, Paleo a few weeks ago. I'm not saying I'm going to stay Paleo, but since the only real difference between my eating habits is that now I'm not eating greek yogurt (or any dairy) or oats, it was a super easy switch. We'll see how long I can go without those oats. Confession time: I also used to count calories. It was usually to make sure I was getting enough to support my workouts, but sometimes it got a little bit too calculated, and I didn't feel like that was healthy. So that's stopped too.

Anyway: desserts. So since switching over, I haven't really craved sweets as much. No idea why, but I'm not complaining - it was a bad habit!

Also: nobody make that recipe I linked because I'm making it for the holidays! kthanks.

So, other than delicious desserts my sweet tooth finally starting to ebb:

1. I'm thankful for the rain. It's been SO.DRY. here in California, and we desperately needed rain. Plus, there's nothing better than falling asleep to the sound of it! Also: my car stays cleaner.
2. I'm thankful for extra time with my dad! He's been staying with us in between work stints nearby, and it's so fun to have a little extra time to spend together. He's a good ole fellow.
3. I'm thankful for being halfway done with Christmas shopping. Are you jealous? You should be, because I'm planning on being done by December 1, and then just letting the excitement build to give the presents away without stressing about picking them out. I can spend December weekends away from holiday shopping crowds? Excellent.
4. I'm thankful for fun times with friends. We have an awesome weekend coming up, with Hunger Games, game nights, Stanford tailgating, dinners, you name it.
5. I'm thankful for relaxing on our first ever "Treat Yo Self" day this coming Sunday. I'll just pretend that I'm not spending 3 hours Sunday afternoon getting my palm burned to a crisp for another pain study, and call the rest of the day a Treat Yo Self day. I plan on...buying myself lunch? Hah - we'll see if I actually take advantage of the day or not so much. Nolan already tried to convince me that him making me give him a massage was him treating himself. I'm not sure what world he's living in.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful Thursday

Yesterday I went into the gym at lunch kind of dreading my WOD. It was this:

Muscle snatch 1-1-1-1-1

Power snatch 3-3-3-3-3

Snatch 5-5-5-5-5

Knowing how bad I am at snatches, I was nervous. So I planned to use the MaxRack (never a good idea for Olympic lifts), because it made me *feel* more stabilized. Especially those squat snatches at the end - yikes. So I went in, started warming up with the bar, and then started on the MaxRack. After maybe 2 minutes there, I saw one of the super-friendly trainers behind me, grinning, and poking the technique bar at me. That trainer took me to the mirrors and worked on correcting, stabilizing, and perfecting my snatch technique for an hour. Unscheduled and on his personal time. He was SO helpful, so encouraging, and by the end he had me try a much heavier weight than I thought I could handle, just to push me out of my comfort zone. I did end up having to throw the weight down (fail!), but it was liberating to even get it over my head. The snatch is such an incredibly technical lift, but so much fun when you really start to get the hang of it!

Today is a rest day, and thank goodness. Tomorrow involves a lot of OH squats and double-unders. I have big plans for wearing tall socks.

I finally remembered I actually took a picture of my paleo guac that I made last week, so if you care - that post has been updated with a pic.

But hey! Reason to celebrate: it's Thursday and HERE I AM. Yay for follow-through. Let's go:

1. I'm thankful for intentional kindness. That trainer yesterday seriously made my day, and I recognize that he gave up his time to do so. 

2. I'm thankful for tasty fall treats. Sweet potatoes with pesto, pumpkin waffles, bacon and coffee. What am I saying, I eat all those things year-round. I guess this was a roundabout way of saying that I'm thankful for food...again.

3. I'm thankful for playtime with friends! I've been lucky to get a lot of that lately, and it's rejuvenating.

4. I'm thankful for being halfway done with Christmas shopping. Yeah, you read that right. In fact, I'm more than halfway. But some stuff is still in the mail, so it doesn't count yet. Score for productivity!

5. I'm thankful for work-at-home days, like tomorrow. I get an extra hour or so of sleep, AND I get excellent, focused work time, AND I can eat whatever I want out of my fridge for lunch? Win.

What are you thankful for?

Thankful...day

Okay, I know. Obviously I missed Thursday again. What can I say? I have so much to be thankful for, so I need to prioritize sticking with the program, eh?

Speaking of things to prioritize: I finally got Nolan to send me the pictures we took from our photobooth at our Halloween party. Please don't ask where Nolan got the faux mustache, because I have no idea and that makes me nervous.

So dirty. 

Anyway: I've been cutting back on dairy lately due to the bad effects of over-consuming it a couple weeks ago. As a by-product of that, I've discovered new fixes for old, good recipes. For example: Nolan wanted game day food to enjoy with the Ducks game this week, and since we've got the drumsticks covered (story: Nolan made us buy 70ish drumsticks for the Halloween party that I strongly protested against because "we needed enough food". We had tons of food. Drumsticks never left the freezer. So we've been eating drumsticks every.single.night.since.), I had to come up with dips, appetizers, that kind of stuff. So I found an excellent recipe for spinach artichoke dip, and then ran with that idea and came up with an excellent guacamole recipe. Check it out!


Dairy-free Guacamole

1/2 cup cashews, roasted and salted

1 tbsp olive oil, with more as needed to thin

2 avocados

2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp sundried tomatoes, julienned

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp dried minced onion

Shake of salt to taste

Toss cashews in food processor with olive oil until creamy. Add avocados, and any additional olive oil as needed to thin to desired consistency. Throw in other ingredients and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve! We enjoyed this with clean sweet potato chips and sliced veggies. Oh and grilled drumsticks and that tasty spinach artichoke dip. Nom nom nom.

Until this coming Thursday, I'll just leave off by saying that I am SO THANKFUL for my incredible husband. Even though I wanted to kill him this morning for waking me up by blasting this song on his phone in my ear and laughing like a maniac...he's perfect and I'm incredibly lucky.

Candy Corn and Pedometers

Last week was our Halloween party for Nolan's colleagues. This year as last year, we also used it as an applicant social event...so we had a lot of planning and prepping to do in order to host 50+ people in our small place.

Party prep meant our mini-fridge got really cosy. That door just barely closed.

So many eggs! Deviled eggs are such a pain.

We also managed to cover every surface with cookies, cupcakes, and other snacks and goodies before we brought it all downstairs for devouring.

"Candy Corn" cookies (orange zest shortbread)

The party was awesome. It was crowded and noisy, and there were tiki torches, a photobooth, corn-hole and beer-pong and delicious treats. Somehow, I even managed to be in bed by 10 (I had to seriously tune out the music and laughter downstairs), and Nolan joined me around midnight. Not bad, since the last couple years involved hearing people still carrying on around 2am, and waking up to find people crashed on our living room floor. Whew.

Someone's been feeling pretty clever lately.

After I was done cleaning up the next day (hey, Nolan did ALL the setup, so it was only fair), I got this text from Nolan while I was out running errands. Apparently me throwing out the sweets that we never like to keep in the house was not welcome quite yet:

October 31 marked the end of Nolan and I's month-long step challenge. I won't bother saying who won, because the winner gets to choose dinner and a date of their choosing...so really, it's a win-win. So on Halloween, I wanted to remind Nolan that our challenge was ending. I got this text back:

Either I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have such a hilarious husband or I have a long road ahead of me :)