Things

Yo!!!  Missed me?  I hope so

A few things I’ve noticed as of late.

1. Family Time > Blog Time

We traveled to Washington last weekend for my sister Paige’s graduation!

It was the first time my family has been together since January!

 

 

2. There’s a reason I don’t live in Washington

3. Fruit makes champagne that much better.

 

4. Mimosa brunches with friends are that much better with a beautiful view.

It seriously makes you feel like you’re on vacation.

 

5. Guys really like bacon.

 

6. Don’t go down to the beach with “under-the-influence” guys and expect to stay dry.  No matter your protests, they will pick you up and dump in in the ocean.

Even in brand new jeans and shirt, and with straightened hair.  They just don’t understand.

 

7. My 10 year old sister might just be the funniest person I know.  We had a fun photo shoot with her 2 life-size stuffed animals.

   

 

8. I love this one.  Love

 

 

9. It’s a smart thing to put your food pictures on your computer before you take your camera to events such as graduations or mimosa brunches.  Because when you run out of camera space, the food pics are the first to go And then you end up with no food pics from the past 2 weeks.  Seriously.

 

10. I MISSED YOU!!!

 

Tell me the highlight from your past 2 weeks.  Anything exciting!

Read Full Post »

Golden Trip

What’s up my dear readers?

Today I sent off my Florida State dietetic internship application.  One thing I can check off my list!

1. Complete and send off Florida State application.

2. Complete and send off my other 9 applications.

Yes, 9.  I realized that is beyond excessive and I should really really narrow it down.  But I’m having a hard time doing so.  Oy!

Last week might have been stressful and difficult, but Saturday afternoon I hit the road home!  My sister and brother were still home from school this weekend, and my family had plans to go to the Walt Disney museum in San Francisco.  While it wasn’t a huge deal to drive 3 1/2 hours for, I want to cherish all the family time I can get

The museum was interesting, but my family of course loved the Disneyland portion best.  We’re a huge Disneyland family.  The vacations are such a special memory.

From 2005

to 2008

to my first trip with friends only in 2009:

I love Disneyland!!!

Anyways, afterwards we drove a mile or so closer to the water and froze to death admired the view. 

Grant – don’t throw her in!!

 

 

 

Sure, my sister (who lives in Washington) and brother (who lives in Pennsylvania) gave me crap when I complained how cold it was.  But I was in a tank and hoodie – so used to 60/70 degree weather!!

We then went to pizza, and came home for cookies and pumpkin pie.  Please tell me why being at home seems to give me the excuse to eat everything in sight?  Because I’m not sure why.

This morning I had an orthotics appointment (praying this alteration will fix the problem and help my pain!), hit up the mall for returns, Target for necessities, and Panera for some caffeine and lunch.

I guess saying “To-Go” means “don’t cream cheese my bagel and let me do it myself.”  Disappointment.  I love bagels from bagel shops just because I love when they cream cheese it for you.  I swear it tastes different.

This happened.  But when I ran out of cream cheese, I didn’t finish the bagel.  It’s just not as good as pre-cream cheesed in the paper wrapping.  You know?

I also tried this bar on the drive up and thought I’d quickly tell you guys I liked it:

I’m not a big fan of cherry flavored things.  Okay that’s a lie – I love cherry candy and cherry sodas.  But cherry desserts/chocolates?  No thanks.  But this just tasted like a sweeter protein bar.  So good in my book.

Cookies & Cream is still my favorite.  And I don’t remember if I liked the Peanut Butter because I scarfed it down after my half-marathon.  But they are all tasty, and one of my favorite “protein bars” out there.

 

Sooooooo who’s watching the Bachelor this season? 

I’ve started to, but not sure if I’m super into it this year.  Especially because the past seasons I’d watch with my roommates and gossip/laugh about it.  Now I’m by myself…and it’s not as fun to make fun of it all alone. Hmmm.

Read Full Post »

Christmas Routine

As I’ve mentioned, Christmas is a time of traditions for my family.  First, we have a casual early dinner – usually pizza or takeout burritos.

Also our annual pre-church Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree!

Please note my adorable new shoes!!! (bad quality uber crop pictures ahead)  Also, dis-note my veiny feet.

 

Love love love.

Previous years’ Christmas Eve pics:

I think it’s really funny to see the difference between my sister Mackie in these 2 pics: (far left in top picture, standing next to me in the bottom picture)

 

So now that I’ve overwhelmed you with too many pictures….

Another tradition in our family is that we get a new pair of pajamas put on our bed every Christmas Eve.  So when we come home from church, we race to our rooms and all put on our new jammies.

Please please check out my awesome onesie I got this year:

(picture taken Christmas morning).  Man was I excited.

Then comes hot chocolate and putting out cookies for Santa! 

And we make sure our mini stockings are set by our bed – ready for Santa to fill them with candy!

 

Christmas Morning: we wake up bright and early at 6 am 8:30 (gone are the days of waking before dawn), and rush to the balcony we have at the top of the stairs.  From here, we can see the whole tree.  We were never allowed to head downstairs until our parents woke up (usually at 7:00 they would roll out of bed).  So we would hang out at the top of the stairs, eating our candy, and looking at our Santa presents, guessing which one for for whom.

View from the balcony.  Not this year, though.  Although we never have our stockings in the living room, they’re always in the family room.  Weird.

Hanging out at the top of the stairs a few years ago:

Once we settle around the tree and separate everyone’s gifts, we go around in a circle and take turns opening each present. 

  

Then we move into the family room for stockings!! (old picture)

 

Highlights from this Christmas:

1. Paige’s gift to me: My sister bought me a polar bear costume.  Designed for a 6-year old.

 

I couldn’t stop laughing.

Great.  So great.

2. Paige’s gift from Santa: You may have seen the mug my sister painted for me a while back. 

A copy of a painting we saw in Paris:

A painting that my sister fell in love with, and regrets that she didn’t buy.

Well I was randomly walking downtown one day, and saw a very similar replica in the window of a store.  After talking to my mom, we decided to purchase it for my sister, and have the (expensive) painting be from multiple people as a joint gift.

She was confused at first, but I think she liked it

3. Onesie photo shoot:

 

 

4. Family Time

 

 

My grandma said we were going to share this bottle of wine. 

My new baby cousin (well, cousin’s kid.  But still a cousin ):

  

 

5. Good food.  I might’ve had chocolate cake for dinner.  And dough balls, almond roca bars, and homemade caramel.  And then had a racing heart as I tried to sleep at 11:00.  Never felt that kind of sugar high ever.

 

I think this might be the most pictures ever in a post of mine.  Anyone still out there??  Hello????? 

Oh hey  

Anyways, I know it’s almost a week late, but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Read Full Post »

Ginger for Giants

4 days = not enough time

3 appointments: 1 orthotics.  1 dentist.  Then another dentist.

Why two dentist appointments you ask?  Well, I got my first cavity Waaahhhh.  I no longer can claim the best teeth in my family (and yes – we have a competition going). 

Funny story – I was almost done getting my cavity filled when the dentist pauses.

“I greatly apologize.  But I actually forgot one of the layers.  Oh, this is so embarrassing, but I’m going to have to re-drill a bit to put the layer in.”

So yes – my first cavity, and they had to drill into my tooth twice.  Awesome.

Oh well, funny story to tell the fam. 

Recap time?  I think yes.

 

Wednesday: the majority of the day was spent doing our annual gingerbread making extravaganza. 

All.  Day.  Event.

My 10-year old sister likes to give the muggin’ face.

I’m so glad I remembered I had my work apron in the car.  Saved my outfit!

Completely posed by the way.

I originally started out making a Haunted Halloween gingerbread house.  Which quickly turned into a Giants house Nothing better.

Yes, the walkway is a beard.  And yes, it says “Fear Me” on it (Fear the Beard for anyone who doesn’t know).

 

While I was at the dentist (yes, my dentist appointment happened to be at 1 pm directly in the middle of obscene candy eating gingerbread making), my sister molded a baseball player, coke bottle and giant mitt out of caramel!

 

The real coke bottle and mitt:

Next year’s plan?  Pink & orange house.  Or a polar bear’s castle.  Who knows.

Past years (to get an idea of the mess/table):

I loved last year’s village we made:

Complete with the evil clock-tower-climbing-gingerbread man

See last year’s gingerbread pictures here!!

And my Flashback Friday of gingerbread houses here.  Check them out!

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to come!  (I didn’t want to overwhelm you in one post ).

Does your family or friends do gingerbread houses?  Or what traditions do you have each holiday?

Read Full Post »

Merry [Belated] Christmas

Merry [belated] Christmas from my family to yours

Sorry I haven’t been around since Monday/Tuesday.  I have a precious small amount of time at home, and I spent it wisely (not that blog reading/posting isn’t time spent wisely.  But you know what I mean .  I hope.  If not – I’m sorry I offended you). 

Very wisely indeed.

I’m hitting the road back to school my-old-school-town-current-job-town in a couple hours, and will catch up with you all then!

Happy saddest day of the year December 26th and safe traveling to anyone it applies to!

Read Full Post »

Blurbs

I rrrrreally want to catch you up on the past few days of my life. But I just have so much mumbo jumbo to talk about, that I’m worried I’ll bore you.

Meh. Deal. But I am quite tired so I’ll split it up and make it quick.

Wednesday’s bad-quality oats in a jar.

Road-trip yumminess.

Road-trip nastiness.

Concert fun.

Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Justin Moore, Easton Corbin, Steel Magnolia…

Amaze.

Concert eats.

Ooozing cranberry sauce.

Morning eats.

Mommy knows I love fruit 🙂

Pumpkin pie yogurt at Yogurtland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pre-long run fuel.

Adorable cake made by sister.

Best peanut butter ever in the entire world infinity and beyond.

1/2 the jar gone in 1 day? Yes it’s possible.

10.25 miles in 1:36:33.

Not a great run. Hard.

Sign of being lazy? Or just color blind?

Post-run lunch.

Shredded BBQ chicken & whole wheat wrap.

Hungry 2 hours later.  More PB duh.

Pre-drive snack.

Favorite part.

Traffic + 10 mile run = must stop for food.

$5 dolla footlong (I really hope you sang it in that tone).

Veggies galore. But no guac apparently.

Still starving. No food in the car…except…..

It happens.

Roommates making gordita crunch quesadillas at 8:30. Me likey.

It’s pumpkin season!

Well that covered Wednesday-Friday.

I’ll catch you up on my whirlwind of a weekend tomorrow 😉

Read Full Post »

Mustache Face

Hi friends! I’m here, I’m here. I just had a crazy 48 hour trip home (including all the travel time). Plus now I’m headed to work until 2:30 and then my parents are driving down some furniture for my new place. I’ll post a full on recap post tonight, I swear!

Just one picture before I go. My sisters were playing around making mustache faces the other night with frosting. And this is what my sister does in response to: “Brooke, make a mustache face.”

I love my family.

Read Full Post »

Some Giant Fun

Note: I wrote this post last Friday but took off at the last minute for a cabin mini-vacay! Therefore, I’m just catching up on posting and blog reading – especially all about the HLS!!

Being unemployed definitely has it’s perks 😉

For example, I’ve gone to 3 Giants games in less than 2 weeks! I have to say AT&T park (the Giant’s stadium) hands down has the best stadium food. Okay, I might be biased…it has the normal hamburgers and hot dogs but also…

Bread bowls,
Carvary stand
Excellend Mexican stands,
Caribbean food,
Veggie burgers,
Veggie dogs,
Cheesesteaks,
Sushi,
Wine bars,
Ghiradelli hot fudge sundaes,
Portabello mushroom burgers,
Seafood stands….

You get the point 😉

I got excellend shredded chicken nachos a couple weeks ago:

A Cha-Cha bowl on Tuesday – rice, black beans, jerk chicken, pineapple salsa & BBQ sauce:

And a turkey burger on Thursday.

(Source)

Um Yum?

Best of all I got to go to the games with people I love and enjoy spending time with!

(Sorry for the dark and bad quality of that last one. I tried to lighten it up so you could see our beautiful faces :-/)

And yes – so I may wear the same hat and jersey to every game. Once upon a time I had a small obsession with JT Snow. I spent a small fortune on a Giants jersey because I wanted to be him for Halloween. That was one dang expensive Halloween costume, so you betcha I’ll be getting use out of it every chance I get.

Back in 2002…

Luckily my brother’s head-issue wasn’t permanent.

Duct tape because it was like an extra $30 to get his name engraved. Rip.

Yeah I’m ghetto like that.

Do you have a favorite sports team or is your family extremely into sporting games?

My dad will Tivo the games so he can watch them without commercial breaks. Plus he can rewind it 3 times during crazy calls and pause it so he can yell at the umps.

Now excuse me while I go catch up on the 130895739 HLS posts.  I can now imagine I was there eating Sandwich thins and running along Chicago’s waters!

Read Full Post »

August Birthdays

Unfortunately this side pain has not gone away. It definitely feels like a pulled oblique muscle, I just don’t know how on earth I pulled it randomly while running. Praying it goes away soon, but it hasn’t improved at all in a week. And I know it’s awful, but at the moment being in between school and jobs, I have no health insurance.

I know from past experience (ahem knee I’m talkin ’bout you) to REST asap. But I’m just so frustrated at this – I’m finally getting back into the groove of running and weights and this comes along!

Moving on to my busy weekend!

Friday we hit up our summer concert numero 4. Toby Keith and Trace Adkins!

One of my best friends from high school also went 😀 So fun!

I’m not sure what Toby’s hiding…

Saturday was my sister’s gymnastics meet where she did awesome. Love you Brookie!

And Sunday we headed to my grandparents’ house to celebrate my sister and grandma’s birthday.

Fun fact: My brother and grandma both have the same birthday. And my sister and other grandma share the same birthday. What lucky grandparents! 😉

(She looks weird in this pic?)

My cousin brought his new baby girl!

It was my first time meeting little Kylee 🙂

We all took turns holding her. Except my brother shied away!

My grandparents are goof balls. Love you Sissie & Papa!

(Partial) family portrait take 1.

Take 2!

Third times a charm!

Happy Birthday Brookie & Nana!

HA Grant – we gotcha!

Read Full Post »

Giant Snuggie

Again, thank you all for your honest opinions and thoughts on the job situation. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the weight loss clinic job that pays well at home. And I decided to take the job at the hospital back at school.

It was a very stressful decision. Stressful day. And I had anxiety for days straight about it. But the decision is made, and it’s too late to turn back now.

I wrote out a complete budget and I will literally be living off of pennies. I’ve always been tight with money and on a budget, but this will be much different! Let’s just say food-wise, things will be different on the blog. You may be seeing A LOT of boring pasta, PB&J (with no fancy nut butters!) and cheap cereal 😉

It’s crazy that I just packed up my entire life, filled up 4-5 carloads, and moved home a month ago. And now I have to do it all again to go back. Oh well! It happens. 😉

The other day I got to go see the Giants win (GO GIANTS!) with my youngest sister 🙂

That would be a Panda hat on her head in honor of the player “Panda.”

We walked to the game from BART along The Embarcadero. It was a gorgeous day!

Yes, she would be wrapped in a Giants snuggie.

That’s one Giant snuggie! 😉

We also enjoyed some delicious food. Think cotton candy. And I was going to get tacos. But when I saw the person in front of me get nachos, I saw visions of my future. And it included nachos.

I ate all the chicken (tons of it), pico de gallo, light on the cheese sauce, and probably about 7-10 chips. I gave the rest of the chips to my sister. We devoured that beast.

Running/Training news:

I think the reason my runs haven’t been feeling any easier may be due to the fact that I’m still not running much mileage per week. Sure I’ve been slightly increasing the length of my long runs, but I’ve only been doing 2-3 runs per week, about 12-17 mpw. For the time being, I’ve decided to try focusing on increasing the length of my shorter runs, and try possibly doing 4 runs per week.

Previously, my schedule looked similar to:

1 run – 3 miles
1 run – 3-5 miles
1 long run – the highest I got to was 10 miles

For now, I’m going to try:

1 run – 3ish miles
2 runs – 5-7 miles
1 run? – 2-4 miles (if my body feels up to it)

I have 11 weeks until my half marathon, so I feel ahead of schedule on my long runs (I was up to 10 miles a couple weeks ago). And want to work on building up my base for now!

Since it’s Sunday and all, I must ask the obligatory question – how was your weekend?

Read Full Post »