Brittany! Where have you been?!

Again, let me apologize and completely blame my absence on my husband. It's not his fault at all, but it's nice to blame someone. Where in the world have I been? Well, all over Washington state, to be honest. Let's start from the beginning

St. James's Cathedral on a beautiful Seattle day

In my last post I mentioned that my husband had a job. He actually ended up with a contract to do the job for a short time and they decided not to renew his contract. Obviously this was really sad because it meant that we were looking at a longer stay with my in-laws. As hard as it was on me it was even harder on my husband, but I'll refrain from discussing that on here. Due to the hardships we've had and the difficulty my husband has had at finding a job, my husband has decided to go to a local college and get his Associate's in Nursing. He's really excited to be heading back to school in the Fall and, honestly, it's hard to hide my excitement too. It will be really nice to see him happy and fulfilled.

Hurricane Ridge (Alt. 5242 ft)

But to make him feel better about the whole job thing (who wouldn't be bummed out), I planned a weekend trip in one of his favorite places: Olympic National Forest. A cabin, which was right next to the line with the forest, was rented from a very sweet and lovely couple. On Friday we drove out to the cabin, checked-in and relaxed. A full evening of food, reading, talking and relaxing was already starting to completely relax me. Saturday the three of us, Sasha (our puppy), my husband and myself set ouf for the hour or so drive to Port Angeles. My husband really wanted to show me Hurricane Ridge so we went into the forest and drove up the windy mountain road to the top of Hurricane Ridge. And it was gorgeous. Once you got past the huge snow pack around us. It was an amazing place to be, though. Sasha, of course, didn't really care for it. Although she did eat some snow. After that we decided to get back to sea level so we drove from the mountains to the ocean.

Cutest little swimmer ever! 

Port Angeles, if you get a chance to go, is a really cute town. If we'd had the capabilities (aka not have a dog) and the time to explore the city more would be amazing, but we had fun with the places we could go. Which just happened to be the beach with a dog that loves to swim. She. Loved. It. My husband would throw the sticks in the water, she'd go after it and bring it back. She was having the greatest time of her life. Playing in the water, splashing around, enjoying the sunshine. All in all, Port Angeles was wonderful. We had a lot of fun, but Sasha had so much more. After we were done playing, we drove back to the cabin for another evening of sublime relaxation and preparing for the next day's drive back to the Seattle area. The weekend was amazingly relaxing and it was extremely difficult to come back to the house and head to work on Monday. But by Wednesday we'd had a bit of a surprise. Sasha had somehow managed to get a tick. Thankfully it was just one and we got it out, but it scared us a little (pssh. A lot.). Poor Sasha had to have a bath an then get this stuff she didn't really care for on her back. And my amazing husband cleaned the bedroom to make sure that no one was going to get a tick if they were in the room. Thankfully, we haven't seen another tick and the one that she did have was extremely tiny. 

Oh hai there Juno, you little cutie!

So this last weekend, after a full week of work after a relaxing weekend, we did something very not relaxing. We got another dog. We drove almost three hours from Seattle to Wenatchee with Sasha in the car, picked up Juno, our new puppy, and then drove back to Seattle with both dogs. I was so happy to be back at our house on Saturday. Sunday, though, was spent with her meeting our families, getting to know Sasha, building a crate, rearranging our room entirely and settling into having a new member of our family. Last night was the first night of crate training and little Juno was not a fan. She had to get up twice and cried for awhile after she was first put in the crate. She will get better at it, though. I believe in her. 

Last post I mentioned that my husband and I are starting a business. That's still true. We had to hold off, though, because the computer that had everything business related on it nearly died. And right now the hardrive in that computer is barely limping along. My husband and I are picking out a new computer for me once payday comes along. Once we have the new computer I will be able to finish working on the website and get it up (finally). 

It's been a tough month, but I know that anything is possible when you have family that loves you. 

Baby steps

So, last Sunday I posted regarding my weight loss plan. Honestly, so far, I've been pretty terrible at it. The first day I tried pretty much surviving on as little as possible and then broke and started scarfing everything I could...including a Caramel Brulle Latte. And that latte was so not a skinny one. So first day, I failed in an epic fashion. Second day, armed with some delicious and nutritious snacks, my day was so much better than the one prior. Wednesday came around, same deal. I ate even less, snacked some, and felt amazing. So, I guess the first step for myself was to eat better. Exercising comes after the eating better part. Now, my desire for refined sugars and starchy foods is super limited. (I actually just want to snack on a handful of almonds and dried cranberries. Yum!) We currently have two bags of Hershey's kisses and I've only had five over the past four days. There just isn't a desire for me to eat them! In addition to losing my sweet tooth, my energy has gone up immensely. Today, my husband and I are going to a local park and walking five miles to our favorite doggy park at Marymoor and then the five miles back. Our puppy is going to be so tired, but I'm trying to find reasons to get us out and about because we both feel like we need to "get rid of" the weight.
On the bright side, my ability to keep up and manage the exercise part this next week may not be as bad as the week prior. After all, I have more energy!

Four Day Weekend!

The world is right with a coffee...

Today I managed to duck out of the office a little early. This was due to my desire to begin my four day weekend as well as the fact that I was running out of things to do...and things that my mind could handle. In the middle of the day a terrible migraine popped up and almost took me out. But after a ton of water, some queso and carrots, and Advil, my migraine was disappearing and I was a functioning member of society. Well. For the most part.
So I ducked out, in my rain boots, that were purchased yesterday due to total soakage while walking around Seattle the past few days, grabbed my signature drink (Grande Skinny Caramel Macchiato) and waited for the 252 to show up. The picture pretty much sums up my wait. Relaxing because the four day weekend I have been dreaming of has arrived.
In college, four day weekends were pretty normal. There was always some holiday the school was close for. In the real world, though, those days are few and far between. So four whole days...is like magic. My weekend is already planned! Aside from Thanksgiving my plans consist of lounging around in pajamas, eating at our local breakfast place, playing video games, and spending quality time with my husband that I see so rarely, or so it seems.
I know that this is also a time to be thankful. And believe me, I am thankful. I'm about as thankful as I can be....for the four day weekend.

Recovery and Restarting

"Where thou art, that is home" - Emily Dickinson

It has been a busy time for our little family. My friend's baby shower was beautiful. In the next few days I'll upload the pictures that we took and post them on here for all to see the decorations that came out just as beautiful as a field of lavendar swaying in the breeze. Okay, maybe not that gorgeous. But pretty damn close.

Our life, as I mentioned, has been pretty busy. Last weekend we had the family baby shower in Olympia. The drive wasn't too bad to Olympia, the food at Vick's Pizza was scrumptious (I always love pizza), the family members that I met were very sweet, but taking my husband to the city of his Alma Mater is always worth it. He always has this wistful...aura, which is a new age word I'm not fond of using, around him. Though, much like Ellensburg for myself, he has out grown the town and both the town and the man have moved on to bigger things to worry about. But I still love our occassional trips to that city as we do have some family there.

As mentioned earlier the baby shower that I was planning was wonderful. I didn't make cupcakes, thank goodness. I was running out of time on just about everything. Planning a baby shower and working and living a sane life do not go together. It reminded me of that joke diagram for college where you can only choose two options of three with the three options being good grades, social life and getting plenty of sleep. Thankfully, the end has been found and we are past the insanity that was baby shower planning.

This coming weekend has baby birthing classes, which exhaust me just to think about!

Today, though, I have been suffering from a bit of a cold and stomach ache (too much stress!). And have been in recovery mode. This week is also the beginning of what I hope to be a much needed self improvement start. My intention is to work out in the morning, eat healthy and wholesome foods, and overall take care of myself in the long run. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. Thankfully this bug is mostly gone it feels like. Now I'm going to take time to relax and hang with my husband.

Ahhh, recovery...

Oh, how I love coffee...

This week has been one for the books. At work I've been catching up on things that have been pushed back due to me being, well, ill. (Truth be told, I actually set up this blog when I was sick. There is only so much work from home that can be done!) In addition to my, well, pretty busy work this week I also happened to have a company meeting that was on a boat on Tuesday. That I might have drank at. And then might have had to deal with some family issues. To top it off, Thursday was my hubby's big interview. We should hear back from the company next week. Fingers crossed! In addition to all this hectic insanity, I finally received word this week that I do not have cancer. Which is beyond a relief. Like I said, a crazy week. But my favorite part of any week is the weekend. Or what I want to call, my recovery days.

Time for a nap!

For me, the weekend is vital for my survival. But this weekend arrived just in time, it feels like. Today consisted of laying around in bed and waiting for the desire to get out of bed. It didn't arrive until about 11:00 when James, my husband, and I finally rolled out of bed. We headed to one of my favorite restaurants, Torreros, and contemplated the day. On recovery days it is vital to do exactly what one wants and nothing more. So we stopped by Best Buy, which I haven't been in for at least three years, wandering around and then went home. Then it was nap time. Glorious, wonderful nap time.

I think heaven looks like this.

I don't know if it's just me, but naps are something that I love to do. I don't think my husband loves them as much as I do, but during weekends, I love curling up in bed and just drifting off to sleep. When I wake up, I feel amazing. Probably due to the fourteen plus hours I've slept in the last 24. But I just love naps.

After we eat dinner with our family, I think I may even give my self a spa evening. According to my husband, it's a time where I lock myself in the bathroom and come out smelling pretty...I can live with that.

The most important thing I've learned from these weekends, though, is that taking time to relax and really just take a moment out for yourself is so important for your sanity. Or what sanity you may have left.