Today I Am...

Today I am...

Reading: a few books: Looking for Alaska (didn't realize it was sad and my heart is broken!), Dissolving Illusions, and A Feast for Crows. I've been reading A Feast for Crows for a long time, but I keep taking breaks for other books. I don't know why I can't just finish the Game of Throne series already. I'm on goodreads if you wanna be frannnds. My goal for the year is 30 books and I've already finished 10 (with two more almost done) so I have high hopes to complete my goal.

Sipping: on jasmine green tea. So much sweeter tasting than regular green tea, but without being actually sweet!

Anticipating: getting wood floors. We'll be fixing our foundation in the next year or two which may requiring raising the house a bit, so we're just doing laminate floors for now to not risk messing hardwood floors up. We're getting dark five inch planks and I'm wayyyyy excited. The carpet in the living room is just so gross! It won't match the laminate that's already in the rest of the house, but oh well. 

Listening: to audiobooks! I have a 20 minute drive to and from work, and I figured that would be a good way to pass the time. I am a visual learner so audiobooks are really difficult in the beginning, but once I'm able to get a grasp of what the book is about and the main characters, I'm good. Meaning the first hour of the book I'm just thinking, "This is so dumb. I don't understand any of this. WHO are they talking about? WHAT'S GOING ON??" But I keep persevering and I've been enjoying them. So far this year I've listened to The Messenger (ugh, as a Giver lover I had high hopes but this book was just terrible!), Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs (geared towards a generation 10 years older than me - not bad on audio but I would've stopped reading the book) and Rogue Lawyer (I love John Grisham, so it didn't disappoint). I'm about halfway through The Lost Gate and it is so enjoyable. I've also been listening to The Slow Home and The Minimalists podcasts. 

Baking: a lot, actually! I've made some tasty gluten free biscuits and gravy (following the recipe on the side of the Bob's Redmill 1:1 replacement flour mix) and cornbread muffins - I don't include the butter and bake it for 20 minutes in 12 greased muffin tins then eat with honey butter. We've made the bread in our cast iron many times until we tried muffins, and they're just easier to keep moist and store. We went out to breakfast the other morning for the first time ever in town, maybe? Not many gluten free options here. I got blue corn pancakes that were AMAZING, so I had to make some yellow corn pancakes using this recipe. Vince and I agreed that these were a delicious pancake being so light and fluffy, and by far my favorite pancake recipe now. To make it gluten free, I used the above-mentioned flour replacement.

Post theme found on Camp Patton and kept alive by SK Bell.

Full.

Life has been so invigorating and happy and challenging and tiring and full. There has been no time to sit down and write about my life because I've simply been living it. I wake up and go go go until I'm ready to lay my head on my pillow or relax with a book, and I've been enjoying it. That's how I want my life to be; full.

As you can imagine, after my miscarriage I was just...destroyed. I don't even have words to explain it. I allowed myself to sit with that for a few days and just feel it. But then I decided that instead of continuing to sit there I was going to fill my days with all the things that made me feel happy and alive and well. So I've been doing just that. I've been riding my bike, baking paleo brownies that are perfect, painting things 'Sunshine Yellow', reading books, driving fast with the windows down and my hair flying, applying for and starting a new job, playing in the rain, cuddling with my dog and husband, going to see one of my favorite bands, and tending to my garden that is producing so many strawberries I get a few to eat each day and still have some to share with the neighbors.

The thing I've been enjoying the most is exercising and feeling my body continue to get so strong. I'm physically seeing a huge difference in my body and it's such a fun thing to see new muscles pop up! It's also mentally clearing to get out and do something that requires some good concentration.

So with that, I'll leave you a ton of pictures and a promise to write again, but maybe not soon. I'm not sure. I'm busy living, folks.

I started to say that the weather has been really wet so there are tons of caterpillars, but then I remembered it's worms that show up in an abundance in response to rain. Either way, tons of caterpillars everywhere!

Paleo brownies that a friend posted on FB. SO GOOD! Better than any brownie I've ever had. Ever. After cutting them up I individually wrapped some up to keep in the freezer so I wouldn't eat them all in a couple days. Except I did because they are even better frozen since they don't freeze hard because of the coconut oil!

I bought a 1/4 cow! It'll go to the butcher the beginning of September and I'll have fresh grass-fed beef that was raised 7 miles from my house.

Everyone deserves a pair of pink shorts.

Yellow paint can #1.

I saw Streetlight Manifesto at Hard Rock Live in Vegas. I cried from pure happiness. I've now seen 4/5 of my favorite bands!

Strawberries for days.

Rain for days.

Date ride with Vince.

Books! That aren't on the Kindle! 22 so far this year.

We both loved the hideous carpet at the hotel in Vegas. 

Sedona.

Yellow paint can #2.

'Noatmeal' made from ground almonds, coconut flour, maple syrup, and an egg.

Sunday Farmer's Market. I'm too poor to buy anything more.

Diaper butt.

Painted the old sewing cabinet from my grandma. I was worried she'd hate it, but she loved it!

After the rain.

Bam.

Hallelujah. The semester is over! *30 second dance party** I'm pretty sure I'm getting away with another 4.0 semester, which will bring my overall GPA to about a 3.92. Damn you, two classes that I got a B in a couple years ago! There's one class where I'm teetering on the A/B border with my butt still in the A side, so we'll see. Regardless of what I got, I'm so happy the semester is over.

Today was one of the first days I've had off in almost 6 weeks between school, work, and babysitting, with the exception of Thanksgiving. SIX WEEKS. So far I've done more than I expected to. I ate plenty of sauerkraut and guacamole, finished sewing a blanket, drank pots of tea, finished Small Damages for a book club, made some paleo banana bread with dark chocolate chips and ate three of them, oh wait the fourth one just went down my hatch, and will soon be working on some fabric crowns and necklaces for my nieces Christmas present. I've also watched the first six episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. (Why did I have to watch all 272 episodes of Law & Order: SVU so quickly? Nothing compares to it, guys.)  And it's only 5:45. I feel like it should be 11:30.

I'm looking forward to lots of reading, a little bit of working, and an insane amount of crafting.

So with that, this short post is over. Hopefully I'll be back soon since I'll have massive amounts of time to fill.

*Like the Grey's Anatomy reference? I'm about to watch the new episode.

Zoinkers.

Things have been pretty good. Here are some reasons:

|| I most likely have a new awesome second job next semester! In addition to working at the place I work now selling' Pin the Penis on the Man' games, funny t-shirts, and 'Coffee Makes Me Poop' mugs, I will also be a Biology Lab Tech at my college. It still pays crap, but it'll be good experience and something fun to do.

|| I've been eating WAY too much good food.

What, how did that In-N-Out receipt get there?! And yes, that is a peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich on homemade grain free bread.
I've been thinking of having some kind of 'healthy food for dummies' thing here on the blog. There are SO many people who comment/text/message me saying that the food I cook is so healthy and they can never do it because they don't cook, when really it takes fifteen minutes and is super easy. Would you be interested? Over the past couple years I've really grown to love good and healthy food and could talk about it for lifetimes, so I want to share it with people! For shits and giggles, here is a poll. Also, if there is anything you specifically want to learn about/how to do, leave a comment or message me!

|| This link about assumptions that reminds me of an old post. That a weird garbage bag on the side of the road contains either the whole body of a child or assorted body parts of an adult.

|| I'm reading a book that Sara recommended, Diary of a Mad Mom-To-Be. It is SO funny. It's diary style (obviously) so it's a quick read. 

|| I'll only be taking 12 credits next semester. It seems like SUCH a small amount since I've been doing 16 or 17 credits the past couple semesters. I'll have so much more time even though I'll also be working two part time jobs! I'm only taking 12 credits because this will be my last semester at the community college and I'll have the maximum amount of credits I can have that will transfer to Northern Arizona University. Woohoo!

|| I've been crafting again with the aid of my trusty side-kick who messes things up. I'm making a cute little quilt, finishing the Christmas table runner (how the heck is Christmas already so close) and some Christmas presents. 

|| Listening to this song. It just makes me want to go on a road trip with friends I grew up with and sing on repeat, even though it's not a happy song. Because hello, we all know the words to this song.

|| Family pictures with my sister, her boy, and baby girl. My niece was refusing to take pictures and kept hiding her face or pointing at the camera and shouting, 'NO!' I was so worried I didn't get any good ones of her! Fortunately, I got plenty and my sister loved them.

|| Happiness, it's all around me. Friends are happy, family is happy, things are good. Real good.

GoodReads

At the beginning of the year, I made a goal on GoodReads that I would read 48 books.

Hold up, have you heard of GoodReads? It's a place where you can write/read book reviews, have lists of books you've read/want to read, etc. It's amazing. The thing I love the most was a little widget where you could set a goal for how many books you wanted to read in a year, and you would update it with the books you read as you go.

Ok, so back to where I was. I dedicated myself to 48 books, which is one every week and a half. I don't know what I was thinking, considering I'm in school full-time during spring and fall and also technically full time during the summer, in addition to working part time and having a husband and dog I like to see. I think at the end of last year I was reading a lot of YA books since I was still working at the library and could check them out everyday, but I've kind of moved past the YA books into adult books and I've realized they are the size difference of about 200 pages and the words are in a smaller print with bigger pages. That's a lot of extra reading.

I've constantly been behind this entire year, but am getting a little closer to catching up. I only have 14 books left to read before the end of the year! Ya, I know, that's still kind of a lot, about 2 books a week. I really don't like not completing a goal, so I totally plan on trying to do this, despite Vince's insistence over the past few days to put down my damn book/Kindle and talk to him.

I have a few books on my list that I am excited about, but I still need your help. Give me some titles that you really love that are a quick read! Not necessarily short, but good enough that you just fly through it. I don't like extreme sic-fi books or romance novels, but pretty much everything else.

To give you some variety of what I've read, in the past couple months I've read:
Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy*////Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two of the Fifty Shades Trilogy
The Procedure (Free download right now!)
What Alice Forgot
Not My Daughter

(To see the rest of what I've read this year, click here. You may have to add me as a friend, so if you want to I'm on there under Steffani Rideau!)

The next ones in my queue are:
1929 (Book One)
Gone Girl: A Novel (Thanks for the recommend, Sara!)

Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store: Unapologetic Admissions from a Non-Contender for Mother of the Year

So share your suggestions!

*I'm an Amazon Affiliate so I make money if you buy something from a link. If you don't like that, click here to go to the regular Amazon website!

168 Hours

A couple weeks ago I read the non-fiction book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam and it's changed my world unlike any other book has. The great thing is I will summarize it into basically one sentence so you don't have to read the whole thing: You have 168 hours a week to do whatever the hell you want to do if you make it a priority.

Laura took the time to look up all sorts of facts and figures about how we actually spend our time, and broke it down throughout the book, which was great. I love facts and statistics but in the end I could have stopped after the first chapter because I got what I needed. In the first bit of the book she used the example of playing with your kids. She explained that many parents say, "I don't have time, there's too much to do." To that, she called bullshit, straight up. She said it's either a priority or it's not. You either think it's important to spend time with them so you make it a priority, or you don't think it's important so you don't make it a priority. Simple. As. That. She stated that the average time a parent spends playing with their child is only 20 minutes. TWENTY MINUTES out of 24 hours. That's insane, considering the average person spend 2.8 hours watching TV!

Since I don't have kids, I replaced that thought with Roxanne. I probably spend about 20 minutes playing with her a day. Sure, I let her go outside and play, but I don't do much with her. So now I've made it a goal to go on more runs or walks with her. Because I'm making it a priority, I'm finding it easier to fit time in my day to be sure she gets play time with me.

Another thing I am making my priority is scholarships. I've been telling myself that I don't have time for them and that I might not get them anyways so it's a waste of time, but it's not. Even if I get a $1000 scholarship after spending 40 hours writing essays/filling out applications, I'm making $25 an hour! A lot of deadlines for scholarships are around March, so I plan on spending at least 5 hours a week (but hopefully more) researching/applying for scholarships until then.

I've found myself doing a LOT more with my days recently, and it's been great. I've always wanted to make tinctures/herbal remedies, but I've always said it's too long of a process. I came across this blog and decided I did have the time and that I was going to just start. So I did! I made my first mint tincture with mint from my garden that I'll use for stomach aches, the flu, colds, and toothaches, among other things. Next I'm going to make this cold/flu tincture as well as these cough drops so I'm ready for the sick season.

What kind of things do you say you don't have time for, but you really do? If you have time to watch even one single TV show in your day, you have time to do something!

Honeymoon Road Trip: Day 4

Even though Vince and I got married almost a year ago in September, we are just now taking our honeymoon. Between school full time and work full time, it just hasn't been able to happen until now! To celebrate, we are taking a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff up to Seattle, then slowly down the coast. I will post about each day, though not necessarily on that day! I feel like breaking it up will be the only way I'll actually post about the trip because it's a lot less daunting. Some pictures are taken with the iPhone and the other with my Canon Rebel T2i. To read previous days, click here.


Day 4 was a nice relaxing day and was my 21st birthday eve! We woke up early and ate a delicious breakfast made by the lady in charge of the house, Boba. I felt silly taking pictures because everything was so fancy, but take my word, it was beautiful! We started off with fresh local fruit and yogurt, and then Vince got a pastry filled with cheese, broccoli, ham, egg, and bell pepper while I ate an omelet with   eggs, ham, cheese, and a bell pepper sauce as well as some mango peach salsa. It was so delicious. I'm not usually a breakfast person but this made me want to be one.

After breakfast, Vince and I drove out to where our friend Charlie was camping. There was a large bike race going on that was part of the Oregon Enduro Series so there were a lot of people out there. Vince was supposed to race, but ended up not racing and just rode instead! He said it was great riding and would love to ride it all day long. 

While Vince was riding, I ended up dog-sitting Roger and we had a good time. We first walked down to the river to watch a kite-boarding competition but it was pushed back an hour because there was no wind. The wind was sure to come though because that's what Hood River is famous for!

I didn't want to wait however, so instead Roger and I ran up a 1,000 step staircase.

It was hella long and Roger was so over it! Our innkeeper told me about it and once I started up it I just wanted to keep going. It was nice because it was going up the hillside through neighborhoods, so I'd run maybe 50 steps, cross a street, and run up some more. They were very secluded and so so green! Parts of the steps are rough because they were really wide, so you had to take two small steps or do long lunges. I opted for the lunges and I definitely felt the workout!



Instead of running down them, mainly because it was hard to hold Roger's leash and do it, we ran down through the neighborhood. If you've never been to Hood River, let me tell you, it has hills. Lots of STEEP hills, like steeper than I've ever seen. I thought my feet were going to slip out from under me a few times running down! 

After running around we ended up at a grassy park where I read and Roger slept. 



I finally started the second hunger Games book, Breaking Fire, and wanted to just lay there all afternoon. While it wasn't all afternoon, it was a good two hours!


When the boys were done riding, we walked to a pizza joint, which ended up being crazy. 

I don't know how to read the maps on my phone so we walked in the wrong direction for over a mile, then had to back track, and then walk the original 1.5 miles there! The Chaco sandals I was wearing was caked in mud from the previous time I wore them so I ended up getting a huge blister from them so I walked barefoot most of the way. The pizza ended up being pretty good though so it was mostly worth it. Along the way we also so the Henry Weinhard's brewery which Vince was excited about.

Isn't it weird to see a picture of yourself from behind? I never get that viewpoint and I look weird.


When we were done eating, we parted ways with Charlie so we could all relax before heading out for my birthday at midnight. 


Vince and I ended up lazying around the 'house' for a while and then I took a bath. Vince's dad and stepmom had Boba get roses for our room which was so sweet of them, and I wanted to put them to good use so I put them in the bath! I've never done that before, but again, the bathtub is romanticized in my mind and rose pedals fit the bill. 


After almost falling asleep and second guessing whether we should go out or not for my birthday, we ended up heading downtown which was a couple blocks away. 

After many questions and google searches, we came upon the realization that there were only two places open past 11pm that we could go to: Trilliam and Jack's. Jack's was a karaoke bar/Chinese restaurant, so we ended up at Trilliam instead. It was a chill place that had quite a bit of people simply because it was the only 'cool' bar that was open and we were able to play some pinball, which was 'for amusement only'.

 

We were all surprised by the flash, apparently.


The bartender questioned what day it was at first and I had to tell him it was 12:04 and I was indeed 21! He just laughed and gave me my gluten free beer. After a gin and tonic and a jello shot, we headed back home to sleep and get ready for our drive the next day to Seattle!