The Double-Edged Sword That Is Spring

Who doesn't love Spring?  Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, love is in the air, and summer is just over the horizon.  Back when Myspace existed and everyone used to fill out those worthless, time-killing surveys and one of the questions was "What's your favorite season?"  my answer would always be Spring.  And I meant it.  I mean it.  Where I live Spring is basically a blink in the seasons.  We usually go from Winter to Summer, so I have learned to cherish Spring and all its glory.

But then...

Spring means allergies (thanks Zyrtec, Claritin - you suck).  It also means that the weather is often bi-polar (not to be confused with bi-winning) and you usually have to wear layers to keep you warm in the morning that you can then peel off after lunch when it's 65+ degrees outside.  And with those blooming flowers comes these:

and these:

And aside from the flying crazies, there are these:

I seriously just started sweating and experiencing elevated heart rates googling pictures of spiders/jumping spiders.  NIGHTMARE!!!  And....now I have a headache.  Damn you, adrenaline.

I have a really entertaining story about one of those bastard jumping spiders being in my car once.  It's not the same when it's not animated in person, but let's just summarize by saying I was more than willing to leave my car on the side of the freeway (since I made my BF at the time come out to me to help me find and kill it to no avail).  Not to mention I nearly wrecked my car by trying to get as far away from it as possible and it was right above/in front of my head/face while I was driving.  I seriously stuffed the place between the top of my car and the windshield with tissue, since this is where it emerged from on both sides of the car, wore gloves while I was driving around for the next few weeks, and then kept them handy in the car in case I needed to kill the thing with my bare hands.  Ugh.

And don't even get me started on the wasps. 

I lived in this awesome apartment complex about 5 years ago.  I had the greatest roommate situation, since she was a flight attendant and not home much, and then fun to hang with when she was home.  We had dual master suites and an awesome, big, covered patio.  Everything was picturesque when we moved in in October.  Then Spring came around and we found out that the place was infested with paper wasps due to the empty fields and lots that surrounded the complex. 

When I say infested, I shit you not, my friends.

I'm talking hundreds, if not thousands, flying through the air from sun up to sun down.  Since we lived on the second floor, I had to get to the stairs, up the stairs, unlock the door and get in the house.  By the time I locked the door behind me, I was shaking.  There were a few times I sat in my car for a good 30 minutes before I could work up the nerve to attempt getting out of my car.  I was paralyzed with fear.  The management had people come out and knock down the nests and spray, but there was no residual effect from the spray, so it had to be contact kill or nothing.  It sucked so bad.  I started leaving the house before the sun came up and doing what I could to avoid coming home before sunset.  I definitely had a few panic attacks during the Spring/Summer months there.

I'm sure it was quite comical to someone who happened to catch me trying to leave or enter my house.  I thought I would minimize my chances of getting bitten (because wasps don't sting like bees and die, they just bite repeatedly) by covering myself from head to toe.  100 degrees outside and I have pants and a hoodie on to get to/from my car.  So ridiculous.  Not to mention I would squeal or scream anytime I heard one of them buzz my ear or fly directly in front of my line of sight.

After we found out from management that they were in fact paper wasps, I read up on how to get rid of them or keep them at bay.  Supposedly they are very passive unless you attack their nests, which happened to line the eves of our building.  No big deal.  I also found out that they only respond to certain hormones as far as drawing them in or keeping them at bay, so any traps we used had to contain the right stuff for paper wasps.  We found that the wasp spray from Home Depot with the 40ft stream worked well and would not open the door unless we were armed with a can.  It also had some risidual effect so it kept them at bay for a few days at a time.  We couldn't use our awesome back patio for summer BBQs either because we would be swarmed.  So lame.

So, yeah.  About Spring...

It's basically the season of Breezy vs. Nature.  Breezy wins, my friends.  Breezy wins.

Sloppy Seconds

In a seemingly typical trip to the store on Friday evening, JB was telling me about this guy he knows who was a semi-pro or pro golfer or something and had made quite a bit of money doing so and had also played a lot of celebrity golf tournaments. Through these different events, he ended up becoming good friends with Justin Timberlake. Not "good friends", but actually good friends to the point where they talk at least once a week or so. Then this convo transpired:

Me: He know's Timberlake? You know, I have a 30th birthday this year, maybe he can come perform.

JB: Yeah, I wonder who he's bangin' right now? I'm sure she's hot.

Me: Or you can just ask for Jessica Biel's number.

JB: Yeah, I wouldn't mind taking Timberlake's sloppy seconds.

Me:  Word.

He's with me, ladies. He's all mine.

Stylish Blogger Alert!

To completely accept this award you have to do these four things...

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 10-15 blogs you feel deserve the award.

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

I received this award almost two weeks ago from Ramona over at Bubbi and Boo, copied and pasted it in a new post to get back to later, and then forgot to get to it.  FAIL!

First, let me say that I am honored to receive such an award.  Part of me feels like I earned it with my new layout and recent improvements to the blog, but the other part of me thinks that it might be because I actually know Ramona in real life.  :)  Anyway, onto my sharing:

1. I am terrified of bees, wasps, and mostly spiders (post coming soon!).
2. All I have ever wanted to do for my birthday is have a pool party.  My birthday is on Christmas Day.  Yes, it sucks.  No, I can't have a half birthday because my brother's birthday is June 24th. 
3. Sitting still is not something that comes easily to me.  I am always on the go.  The longest period of time that I am in one place is M-F from 8-5.
4. We have lived in our house for over a year and still have no backyard.  We probably won't be able to do this until next Spring...maybe.
5. When using my "Next" button on my browser toolbar to read through my blogs, I always get sad when the Google message pops up that there are no more new posts.  Every single time, I do the Snooki whine, "Meeeeeehhhhhh!"
6. I want to form a Bunco group, but fear is stopping me.  And lack of free time..but mostly fear.
7. I get really excited to see I have new followers, and even more excited when they are people I don't know.

That's all for sharing time!  Now I get to pick 10 lucky bloggers to receive this award as well!  In no particular order, they are:

1. Ashley from Oh Me!
2. Erica Marie from Young and Fabulous
3. Melissa from mrs.csunsweetie
4. Kaitlin from Life of a Busy Wife
5. Erin from Life of the Broke and Slightly Well Known
6. Steph from Montessori Free Fall
7. Regyna from The Shoe, The Owl, and The Monkey
8. Monica from The Painted Pisces
9. Mrs. Bear from Think Happy Thoughts
10. Jaimi from Jaimi Lynn Photography

Hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!  Go check these ladies out!

New Phone

I did something I never thought I would do.  I finally got rid of my iphone and switched to verizon.

AT&T doesn't get service at my house, so I had to do it for my sanity.  Not to mention I kind of need people to be able to get a hold of me for work purposes.  It's definitely going to take some getting used to, but I think I'm gonna like it. 

For instance, I'm using swype to write this entire post.  I just drag my fingers in the direction of the keys and it knows what I'm trying to say.  If it doesn't, or if there is more than one option, it will ask me to choose a word from a list.  It even puts the spaces in for me.  I can also do talk to text with pretty good accuracy.

I am still mourning the loss of my iphone, but I do enjoy being able to use my phone in its full capacity in the comfort of my own home.

We'll see how it goes.

Girls Night Out

I got a good posting streak going last week and then fell off.  WTH? 

Anyway, a local country radio station hosted a Girls Night Out concert last night with these three hotties:

 Jarod Nieman

 Lee Brice

Walker Hayes

The tickets were free, so I decided to grab a pair and take one of my bridesmaids for her birthday that was last Friday.  It was 98% women and it was a very intimate show.  We got there just before the show started so a lot of the seats were taken.  We walked up on the side of the seats closer to the stage to get a better look at the boys and my friend's coworker was there.  Apparently she had gotten to the show and waited in line for an hour before they opened the doors and ended up with seats in the 3rd row!!!  There were two open seats between her friends and another group of girls, so we were able to join them.  HOLLER!

Those boys are even hotter up close!!  All three of them were on stage the entire time with just their guitars, along with a few other guys that accompanied them on guitars and a keyboard throughout the show.  They were passing around a bottle of tequila and drinking beers on stage and joking around.  The guys sang some songs together as well as some of their songs individually.  I die!  I just love acoustic music and live shows.  It was pure heaven!

Another exciting part of my night was seeing one of the bloggers I follow, West Sac Honey.  I have never had this happen before, so sad to say, I didn't introduce myself to her because it felt really weird to me.  "Hi, you don't know me, but I stalk follow your blog!"  I felt kind of creepy doing that, so I didn't.  But now I kinda wish I did.  Oh well, I know she is from around here, so I may run into her again.

Have you run into one of your bloggers before?  How did you handle it?  What should I have done?

Invitations Are Here!!!

And this is the box they came in:




I die!

JB's good friend from high school designed and printed them for us! She is so amazing!

Nugget's mom has ridiculously amazing handwriting and is going to address them all for us. Can't wait to send them out!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement Pics

A while ago I posted a wedding recap with a link to our photog's blog to see a few of our engagement pics.  We got the disc with all of the images a couple of weeks later and I never got a chance to post them, so here are some of our faves.  Warning:  pic overload!

 

 

 

 

 

We were only shooting with our photog for a couple of hours and I remember being so tired at the end of the day.  Who knew modeling was such hard work?  It was great to have the opportunity to get more comfortable with our photographer before our big day.  I can't wait to see how our wedding pics turn out!

Did you make the right decision when choosing your wedding photographer?  Did you love your photos or regret your choice?

Adventures In Babysitting

When I was a young girl, I was obsessed with the book series, The Babysitters' Club.  I belonged to the book club and received 3 books a month (which I devoured in half that time), a newsletter, and some kind of toy or whatever.  I had my own "kid kit" and was ready and willing to babysit any kid, any time.  I never really did, though.  Maybe it was because we lived on a a block without many young kids or something.  Anyway, I digress.

Last night I babysat my 6 week old niece.  I have been over to visit weekly since she arrived and really enjoy spending with her the short time she is awake between eating and sleeping on my chest.  I figured it would be a piece of cake to change a couple of diapers, feed her a couple of bottles, and watch her sleep peacefully until my brother and SIL returned home.

It was, for the most part. 

My SIL fed her before they left and I burped her and held her for a bit and then put her in the new swing I brought over which Nugget's mom is letting them borrow.  She loved it and fell asleep in mere minutes.  She slept for over an hour before I had to change her and feed her.  I don't know what happened during that feeding, but she was FUSSY.  I got some good burps out of her, but she was still not a happy girl.

At the same time all this was going on, JB had arrived with dinner.  I was starving, but didn't want to make him take a fussy baby, so I didn't really ask.  She wasn't happy no matter what I did with her and my hunger was getting the best of me.  I finally had to ask JB to help me get my dinner together, but to my surprise, he asked me if I wanted him to take the baby (Awwwww!).  I finally got to eat and he was doing his best to keep her happy.  She had already spit up quite a but of what I had fed her, and when he took her, she ended up spitting up the rest on him.  Poor girl!

We were finally able to get her to calm down enough to put her back in the swing and keep her relaxed.  She slept for another 30 minutes or so before she woke up hungry again.  I can't say I blame her since she spit up most of her last feeding.  JB had already headed home (it was MY gig after all), so I changed her and gave her another bottle.  She did much better this time and ended up falling right to sleep on my chest.

Sigh.

It was overall an enjoyable experience and I plan to do it many more times in the coming weeks/months/years, but just the way I was feeling during the time that she was fussy and upset tells me that I am nowhere near ready to be having one of my own.  I'll just work on this whole Auntie thing for a while.

Here Comes the Sun...

Doo-do-do-doooooo!

Could it be?  Is this really happening?  Sunshine and mid-60s to mid-70s ALL.WEEK.LONG.

OMGEEEEEEEEEE!

Seriously, it has been raining in Nor Cal for two weeks straight. Gloomy, raining, winter storm watch, flood watch, 65 mph winds for two miserable weeks!  So.Over.It.

But this week we get sunshine and great temps and I am oh so happy!  Way too happy for a Monday.  And I get to babysit my niece tonight.  Best Monday ever!

Hope your Monday is as sunny as mine, figuratively or literally!

My First Guest Appearance!

Yesterday I had my first guest blog posted over at Tracy's Then I Got To Thinking.  She was looking for someone to blog about their favorite vacation spot, so if you know anything about me, you know this post is about VEGAS!!!

Pop on over and check it out!  Then come back and let me know what you think :)

NEW LAYOUT!!!

In case you haven't noticed I have made a few changes around here.  Finally getting the hang of this thing, I think.  Please feel free to take a look around.  I have added new pages at the top of the blog so you can learn a little more about me and JB and our story.  I have also posted some pics of our home under "Our Flowerbed".  I know, cute, right?  LOL! 

Enjoy!

BINGO!!

Last night was supposed to be ladies night, but a lot of the girls were busy and couldn't make it, so a couple of us went and brought our other halves with us.

We went to a bingo fundraiser at the elementary school for our friends' kids. The buy in was $10 for adults and I think only $5 for the kids. They held it in the school MP room and had a little snack bar and everything. They had some really great prizes for the whole family. The pic up there is from the third game in when JB got a bingo. Unfortunately a few other people got a bingo too. It worked out since the prize was for a family with kids and that's not really us. I think we are going to get movie passes or something instead. Our friends that we went with got a bingo on the final round and won a 4 pack of season passes for the six flags near us.

WINNING!

It was a fun and inexpensive way to spend a Friday night with friends.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wedding Wednesday: Bridesmaid Dress

Kristin over at Busy Bee is planning her November wedding and does a Wedding Wednesday post each week, so I thought I would try it out. Last week I posted about shopping for the dresses for my friend's October wedding. Today you get to see the dress I picked for my wedding :)

I don't know if there is a "typical" process for selecting bridesmaid dresses since I have never been married or planned a wedding before. In the weddings I have been in before, I was just told what dress I would be wearing and that was that. I went the same route with my own wedding because I had a vision and I knew what I wanted. My bridesmaids all have pretty similar body types, so I didn't have to worry about how different dresses would look on them. With our wedding colors being fuchsia and black, and me not wanting it to look like the fuchsia threw up all over everything, I decided to go with fuchsia accents instead of the other way around. This is the dress I picked for my lovely ladies:

We didn't really have the day of everyone showing up and trying different dresses until we could all agree on one. Luckily, no one had complaints about the one I chose, and if they did, they were smart enough to keep them to themselves. LOL! Totally kidding. We did all get together and they tried it on to make sure that they liked it and then got measured and put down their deposits to get the dresses ordered. Like a big jerk, I scheduled this the week before Christmas as if people don't have enough to pay for that time of year. I was fortunate that everyone was able to pay the deposit to get it ordered so I could check it off of my to-do list.

I am so excited that the dresses are scheduled to arrive in a few weeks! I need to see the sash color so I can match the ties for the groomsmen. My dress should be here soon as well! SO EXCITED!!!

I will also take this opportunity to point out my cute little wedding countdown widget on the right hand side of the page. :) That is obviously not me and JB in the pic, but I liked it better than the other options.

In other wedding related news, I also downloaded and filled out the paperwork for our wedding license the other day. This shit is getting real! LOL!

What's Your Secret?

A while ago I posted this blog regarding my get fit journey. At the same time, I posted this and other pics on my FB:





This pic is from June of 2009. I was in the best shape I have ever been in my entire life! For some reason, just today, two separate people have commented on these pics on FB even though I posted them well over a year and a half ago. One of them asked me the very question that is the title of this post. Other people I know have asked me the same thing. Especially those that want to start, or are already on, a journey of their own.

My answer is this:

There are no secrets, no magic pills, and no quick fixes on my agenda. The biggest secret is time and dedication. During that time I was working out for an hour a day about 4-6 days a week and eating lean meats/protein, fruits, veggies, and complex carbs (brown rice and whole grains). It took at least 3 months for me to see any sort of progress, but then I kind of noticed it all at once.

When I first started, I didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing. Some cardio machines here, weights there. I started going to the group classes at the gym because all I had to do was show up and they told me what to do. Then I signed up for a boot camp that met three mornings a week. Soon (read 3 months) I looked and felt the best I ever had. I remember when I put on jeans and a clingy top for the first time and didn't feel gross. It was the best feeling! A better feeling was knowing that I had earned it. All of my hard work had gotten me where I was.

As usual, life happens, and over the following months I started to be less diligent about making it to the gym and started indulging more in not so clean eating. Since I don't have a scale at home, I would use my numbers when I would go to the doctor for something, which was extremely inconsistent, but the number was slowly but surely increasing and all of the pants I had to have altered to fit my new size 6 frame a few months before, were starting to get snug again. I was in denial at first, and then I was just lazy. With my 45 minute commute each way, it's hard to get motivated to spend an hour after work at the gym when I just want to get home to JB. Before I knew it a year had passed and my 4-6 times a week at the gym had turned into 2 times a week at the most.

And then...I got engaged.

Shedding for the wedding is no joke. I was having a hard time getting motivated to get my ass back to the grind. We started planning last July and officially got engaged in October and still, by the end of December I had not gotten serious about getting back into shape for the big day.

Then it hit me...

One day I was driving home from work and had a little conversation with myself. I said,

"Self. Let's be real. You have 5 months until your wedding day and you are going to need all of that time to get where you want to be. You know how to do this. You've done it before and you can do it again. You have already cleaned up your eating and it helps that you are too broke to eat out, so now you gotta put in the sweat hours."

And I did. I started the next day and have been going strong since. I'm definitely not stopping until the wedding, but even then, once we get back from our honeymoon, I want to be able to keep it up this time. There is no reason not to, really. No matter what time I get home, JB will be there to spend time with.

So, sorry to disappoint you folks, but there are no secrets here. Get your ass out there and do the work it takes to get where you want to be. Make the right choices about what you are putting in your body (and the research to figure out what those are). Put in your fitness time by doing something you enjoy. Try new things. I find that groupon deals are the best way to find new fitness endeavors. And if you are reading this and saying to yourself, "Sure, easy for her to say, she's already thin." or "Yeah, says the girl who is getting ready to marry a trainer." It's BS. Excuses, excuses. I had to start from scratch and educate myself on what to eat and what to do and find my own way. YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

Remember, if you take a short cut to get rid of the weight, it will come back as quickly as it disappeared. You have to make the changes to sustain it for a lifetime.

Bridesmaid Dresses!

You probably thought I was going to blog about the bridesmaid dresses for MY wedding, but you are wrong (that will be next). I have mentioned before that one of my close friends is getting married in October and I am her MOH. This past weekend we went shopping for dresses for her wedding. I guess looking back on my own experience, I didn't give my girls much say in their attire for my wedding. It was pretty much, "Here's the dress, order it." Luckily my taste is not horrible and the dress looks good on everyone. So, anyway, back to the other wedding.

GF decided that her only preference was for us to have the same designer, similar length, and the same color dress. Since there are lots of different body types represented in her bridal party, she doesn't want everyone to be stuck wearing a style that maybe isn't their preference. Last Saturday we met up at the shop where she ordered her dress to try on some different styles and find one we liked. There were a couple that we were okay with, but nothing that we really LOVED. After shopping we grabbed drinks and discussed dates for her showers and bachelorette parties and decided we should try another shop the next day.

On Sunday we ended up going to the same shop I ordered all of my dresses from. When GF and I arrived, some of the girls were already there and had tons of dresses in the dressing room already. We all found something we like, except for the one bridesmaid who lives in England. She will have to go shopping on her own. Sad face.

Here are the picks so far, minus one because I couldn't figure out which one it was:

(above is the one I chose)

(Is it me or does this girl seem like she has a major stick up her ass?)

So after all of our searching and finally finding the ones we love, the store clerk informs us that since we are all ordering different dresses, there will be a $20 charge per dress because they will ship them separately. Apparently the folks at Bill Levkoff can't just make the dresses and the put them all in the same box, which is stupid. Although we get a 15% discount on the dresses, the $20 fee basically puts them back up to full price. Some of the girls have more expensive dresses than others and are not okay with this, so GF may just end up having us all get the same dress (the one I chose). Everyone tried it on and it looked great on all of us, plus the girls who want to can add straps. The verdict is still out and she needs to talk to the BM in England. Either way, I win. LOL! I'm so happy to have a dress that I can wear again!

Do you have any BM dress horror stories? Please share!

Pizza Party!

Okay, so maybe not a party exactly. Semantics. It was just me and JB and we decided to make pizza for dinner.

We got a Boboli wheat thin crust, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni, bell pepper and mushrooms.




For me, 4 cups of cheese is a bit excessive, but apparently not for JB. I like the cheese on bottom and top so it holds the ingredients on. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and then broil on high for a few to brown the cheese.




It was almost as good as Round Table, but I like the idea of knowing about all the ingredients. If only I had some salad bar ranch to go with. Mmmmmmm.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

NOM!

Found this old issue of Men's Health while cleaning up the office this morning. Dwight Howard is my boo. Chocolatey delicious.

Happy Saturday!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Go Cougars!

Sorry it's blurry. It was added by my bestie on FB and I think she took the pic with her phone and uploaded it. OMG, how young are we? And no, my uniform is not dirty, it must be her pic. I need to find my copy of this. Love it.

BFF

I am sitting here going through all of my old Myspace blogs while JB watches basketball. As I am reading through them, this transpires:

JB: Just think, back then you didn't even know how happy you were going to be someday.
Me: I KNOW! I do have some pretty awesome friends though.
JB: Who's your best friend?
Me: You are.
JB: *smiles* "We're BFF."

Damn skippy.

2011 aka The Year of $$$

Not only am I getting married this year, which also includes an expensive honeymoon, but this is the year that me and most of my friends turn 30. The big 3-0. One of the few birthdays other than 21 that requires a big celebration of sorts. Thanks society. Some of my friends are doing their own big things, some of my friends are doing nothing at all, and some will just have a dinner or house party to celebrate. At any rate, most of these celebrations will require funds.

On top of this, quite a few of my friends are having babies this year. Some are also getting married. Bridal showers, bachelorette parties, weddings, baby showers. All of these things require a level of spending.

Don't get me wrong, I am beyond excited for these milestones in all of our lives. I am also very blessed to have all of these people in my life to share in these joyous times. However, my budget is not excited for all of this excess spending.

Any thoughts on how to save money while still getting worthwhile gifts for my fabulous friends?

New Month, New Camp

I started a new camp last night and it's awesome! I have had my eye on this place for about a year, but their camps are normally way out of my price range. When I saw they were doing the March camp for just $99, I had to jump on it. Usually I can talk someone into trying it out with me so I don't have to show up alone, but this time I couldn't find anyone. I almost didn't sign up because I was nervous to do it by myself, but JB talked me into it and I am so glad he did!

Back in December I bought a Groupon for this place which got me a free 30 minute personal session and a free group class. Little did I know that when I went in for my personal session, I would actually meet/train with the owners. They were both awesome! Learning the basics with the guy who developed the program was pretty intense, but he was really nice and somewhat patient, LOL!

The camp requires a jump rope, hand wraps, and boxing gloves. Of course my wraps and gloves are pink, but I couldn't find a pink rope. Sad face. The class is 45 minutes long, which is just long enough to get in a great sweat, but not so long that you are looking at the clock wondering when it's going to end. We started with a few minutes of jumping rope to warm up. After that we put on our gloves and headed over to the heavy bags for some combos. The rest of the class consisted of some pushups, ab work, squats and lunges, and then we finished with some more rope. I don't know that the class has the same format every time, so more to come on that.

My back is sore today, but it's probably a combination of my workout from Saturday and my workout last night. The camp is M,W,Th at 5:30, which is really convenient since they are right down the street from my work. I am excited to have a camp that is heavy on the cardio, since the treadmill and other cardio machines just don't do it for me. I am going to try to fit in some strength training on my off days, either at the gym at work or with Jillian Michaels at home.

I'm tempted to post some before and after pics as well. What do you think?