Happy Memorial Day from me to you!!Now go eat some cake!

Ah Eric

Can you read that? My favorite line is-" You make me go into full bloom."
Corny? I think not. This would be Eric's version of a love letter. And even though this may embarrass him in the tiniest way, I want you to know--this is one of the things that made me fall desperately in love with my husband.

This is another "love letter."

I found these while cleaning out my boxes. Needless to say, I am NOT getting rid of these.

Collecting things

I used to collect cards.

I had tons of them.
A couple days ago while I was going through my boxes in storage, I cam across one of my boxes FULL of cards. Some from my 13th birthday, 16th, graduation, random occasions.
This is just one of the piles that I am throwing away.
And this pile below-I just can't bear to toss them. There are some from my little sister that are so funny and cute! When I read this the other day I laughed and laughed...And then there are other ones from people that I am not as close to anymore. It makes me sad to read them but in a good way...if that makes sense.

I am just glad for the memories they brought back.

Eating alone

Are you one of those people who can eat alone?
Whether it be at a restaurant, fast food joint, home or on the go?

I am sitting here by myself at Panera Bread, trying to get caught up on some blogging and internety things. It's not like I don't have internet at home but see Eric is camping this weekend with Greg and I just don't feel like sitting at home alone blogging.

I really don't like spending nights by myself. I love my husband and my ABSOLUTE favorite part of the day is when we get to snuggle up in bed together and talk. (Tmi?)

It's going to be a lonely night for me but I am trying to fill it as much as I can. I am eating a HUGE salad here at Panera, then when I'm done I am going to jump over to Meijer and maybe pick out a movie from the 'ol Red Box. Then homeword bound for a late night (9pm ha) run. Afterwards I have plans to paint my nails and watch a movie. Hopefully a chickflick that Eric has no interest in seeing.

He will be gone until tomorrow night to, but I am headed to Holland after work tomorrow. I can only entertain myself so much!! =o)

I am getting a few weird stares but...totally worth it to have some human contact. bahaha. I sound like I have been locked up in a prison for decades and am just now getting out and interacting with people.

Time to focus on consuming this salad...

Two months

I was lying in bad last night and all of a sudden it hit me.
We are moving in two months.
No if's, and's or but's-we are moving!
I almost started to cry because as excited as I am, I will really miss my family. I know, I know just a plane ride away but how often will they be able to take that plane ride?
I am so used to them being 30 minutes away that I'm kind of scared that now they will be 1000+ miles away. Over 24 hours!

I can't get over the fact that in just over two months we will be packing everything we own into a tiny car and moving out to Portland. With or without job's there.
Oh boy...

Moving

I am in the process of cleaning out our apartment.

Yes I know we have two months left but I would really like to have almost everything gone by the end of June so in July all we have to focus on is getting things settled for when we get to Portland, cleaning the apartment and Eric can focus on finishing the last few things of his school.

The move will be stressful enough by July and we don't need the extra pressure of trying to figure out what to keep, what to sell and what to throw away.

With that being said, as I begin this LONG process of eliminating things, I am realizing we have WAY to much stuff. How are we ever going to fit our belongings in the back of the VW? The trunk is so small.

I think this is a really good way to evaluate what is important to you and what can you live without. The thought that is constantly running through my head is, "Do we really need this?"

And most of the time, the answer is "NO!"

Garmin love!

This one below gives more of an idea about how big it is! =o)

OH man I love this thing. I have only really used it once so far but I am really enjoying know stats on pace, miles run(biked), time, calorie count, heart rate...etc.

Here is last nights info:

3.22 miles
33:22 minutes (including cool down)
Avg Pace- 10:21 ( I didn't turn it off during cool down so this isn't quite correct)
Avg Speed-5.8 mph
Max speed-8.3 mph
Calories- 343
Avg heart rate-176 bpm

Mile 1-9:03
Mile 2-9:14
Mile 3-7.57 (haha, trying to finish strong!)

As you can see, I'm not a very fast runner but it's going to be awesome to be able to track my exact speed per every mile and then try to top myself next time!

=o) I LOVE this watch!!!

Two things Tuesday

1. Bikers that don't abide by the traffic laws.
I don't know what it is, but something really irritates me about biker's who think they don't need to follow the same road rules as drivers. Whether it be biking the opposite way as traffic, not stopping at a red light, or weaving in and out around cars-it really annoys me. I think if your going to be operating a moving vehicle on the road, you should follow the law. In that same note, cars that speed by bikers, honk at them because they are in "their" lane, or are simply rude as all get out need to learn a thing or two about sharing. Just because your car is so big that it requires an ENTIRE lane(+) doesn't mean you have the right to hog the road. Get a smaller car or just deal. Biker's have as much right to be there as you do.

2. Shower gel that doesn't get you soapy.
This one is kind of weird, but I really hate shower gel that barely makes any bubbles. Or makes a few but by the time you start to wash yourself clean, the bubbles are gone! Why should I have to put 1/2 a cup of gel onto my scrubby device to only be able to clean 1/4 of my body! And the good stuff isn't cheap so it should last you longer than that!

I'll be back later with a post about my new Garmin!!!

Birthday photo pics.

Bistro Bella Vida.

My loot from Eric. =o)

Greg got himself a bike!

He loves it. Can't you tell?

I ate WAY to much food.

I had a really great birthday! And I don't really have any pictures to prove it.
The day started out with me sleeping in-awesome!! Letting Jillian Michaels kick my butt, then I picked up panera and brought it to Eric's work so I could have someone to eat lunch with. haha. I'm pathetic I know.
After lunch I went and worked on the garden for a couple hours. I succeeded in giving myself a nice lil burn on my back and a REALLY sore backside from doing squats for 2+hours.
Then I picked Eric up from work and we headed to the Co-op to get our monthly food order. SO busy because we went right when it started at 6 and there were tons of people there but it was nice to see that it's doing so well.
After that we hurried over to the Newton's to stash our food and change for dinner. Eric had made plans at Bistro Bella Vida! We went there two years ago for my birthday and it was good....but I had ordered something I wouldn't usually order so I think that put my off. This time I got food I knew I would like and it was AMAZING. SO good!
I didn't take pictures of what we ate because that's not how I roll.
But you will have to trust me that it was good. We had an appetizer, entrees, drinks, and a desert. ( this is just the beginning of the food consumption)
That's not all folks! After dinner we went to The Greenwell for drinks and second desert. haha.

Then we finally came home. And could barely make it up the stairs because we were SO full. Totally worth it though.

So that was Wednesday.
On Thursday (still with me?) my mom came into town and she took me to the Real Food Cafe for breakfast-which if you have been there, you would know how much food you get! I was still pretty full from the night before so I only ate about 1/3 of my food.
Then not much happened all afternoon, no lunch. Couldn't even think about it.

I met Greg and Eric downtown because Greg was going to look for a bike at our favorite bike shop, Commute. He found one (pics later) and then we were off to dinner with Eric's parents.
Back to the Greenwell because, well it's such good food and a great atmosphere.
Another FULL big meal. Came back home and was asleep within...20 minutes. haha. Eating must really take it out of me.

Now I have to work, no time for a run which is what I really want to do to burn off these past two days. Birthday's are great aren't they?!

Two things Tuesday

I meant to get this out yesterday but I havn't been feeling the best and I had to work in Holland so time just got away from me.

I saw this done on a couple of blogs that I read but they usually do three things Thursday...so I thought, since I am so unique (haha) I would do two things Tuesday. Was is it exactly? Well it's going to be two things that I love, or two things that I hate, or one thing I love and one thing I hate. Let's get started shall we?

1. I saw this in the store yesterday and it made me remember how much I hate these things.

I just dont get it. Is it because your child has the tendency to wander away? Well have you ever thought about keeping a better eye on your kids? Or even better still-how about teaching them to say close to you? Or cant you be bothered because your looking at some consumable item that you can't possibly live without and you cant look at that and watch your kid at the same time? Is it completely neccessary to leash them up like a dog? Ugh!
And the second thing...

2. I hate that Eric has to work on my birthday. I know that's selfish and I shouldn't expect him to drop everything and stay home with me, but birthday's kinda suck if you have to spend them alone. At least I don't have to work on my birthday-although then at least it would help the day move along a little faster. I am looking forward to a nice dinner tonight, and maybe going out for drink afterwards? =o)

I hope your humpday is a good one!

Scenes from Friday

Because my computer is stupid...these are in reverse order.

Purple feet..

As you can see. We celebrated Brianna's birthday late Friday night. Earlier in the day, she and Emily had gotten beautiful tattoo's. Now that I think about it though, I dont have a photo of Emily's finished one. Sorry Em!
Eric and I were also baking up a storm because we had to make two cakes for the Birthday celebration with my extended family on Saturday. Yikes!

Saturday's photo's will be coming tomorrow. To much to do today-no time to sit and post them all!! =o)
Have a good day!

Locked out

We only have one key to our cop car.

We have locked ourselves out of that car three times so far.
This last time was on Thursday night while we were out running errands.
Thankfully we were at Hobby Lobby-so after we get out to the car and realized what we (ahem Eric ahem :o) had done, we ran back into Hobby Lobby and bought some dowels and tape.
Thankfully the back window was down just enough to be able to stick the dowels in and press the unlock button. haha
Boy I bet we looked funny.
Success!!

(btw, every time we lock ourselves out, we swear we are going straight to the store to get a key made-we have yet to do that.)

May 14th

It is my sister's birthday.
We have had some of the very best times together.
I love you kid.

Do you ever get something in the mail that excites you to your core?
I got this in the mail today and I could hardly wait to get inside and read it. I did make myself wait until I had done some of the cleaning that I needed to do. See-I was good! But why am I sitting here blogging? I am going to go read it!

Part's of my weekend in pictures.

As you can see we spend saturday at the River Bank Run and then went to see How to Train Your Dragon in 3-D!! It was awesome.

Sunday of course was Mother's day but did I think to take any photos of that? Of course not.
We had a great lunch with the in-laws and then drove to Holland from small group and a quick sit down with my folks. It was a nice weekend but it really seemed like it went way to fast.
This weekend is going to be even faster. You'll see what I mean. =)

Recap

Last Thursday Eric, James and I went for a bike ride.

We rode from the Newton's house to downtown and then off to Kent Trails? Or I'm not really sure what they are called but they were beautiful. Such thick lucious trees, green everywhere!
The only downside was there were a TON of mosquitoes (is the how you spell that?). EW!
Ended up being about a 14 mile trip. No biggie but I had a good time.

Semi-Sappy Alert

So the other day, I opened a bottle of this delicious vegan drink that I love to consume-and the cap said this:=o) It was just the little lift that I needed to get my butt out of the chair and go for a run.

I am keeping this cap on my fridge for a little daily pick me up.

The Garden Project

We started out with a bare plot of grass.
Eric and James tilled the life out of it. (no pictures of that. Sorry!)
Then we divided it up amongst the people that were wanting a plot.

Then we planted half of our garden!
We have beans, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers...the list goes on and on.

The other half is going to be a flower garden for me. I'm so excited to see what we can grow this year! I'll keep you updated for sure.