Oh Hey Friday: Stalking and Swapping

Happy Friday!  So did anyone else feel really off this week?  Normally I love a short week and love how fast another weekend comes around but this week I was extremely sluggish. I had to drag myself out of bed and no outfits worked (and of course I hadn't planned the night before)... I'm telling ya, it was a rough one.  But Friday has arrived and that means wine is in my very near future!  Oh and it's supposed to be gorgeous outside both days so I should probably take advantage of that.

Seeing as I was a tad loopy this week I am freestyling today so get ready for a bunch of random.  

1 |  New Connections

We got some exciting news last week that resulted in me writing about my hubby's rare condition called LCHAD... if you're new to the party check out this post.  And then a couple days ago I got a message from a mom whose young son (and possibly her daughter) has LCHAD and she started a blog about it.  This is the first non-medical person I have connected with who knows what LCHAD is and I have this blog and the blogging community to thank for that.  Pretty cool.



 2 |  Currently Loving to Hate my iPhone

My phone keeps spazzing out and decides not to send or receive text messages, and kicks me out all my apps and offline  so basically my phone is just a phone.  As in all I could do on it was talk.  Like back in 1996.  My current contract is up in January and I am hoping to switch to the hubby's carrier and get some sort of family plan so if I don't have to drop $200 on another iPhone 4S I will be very happy.  I am turning into such a frequent visitor at the Genius Bar that I'm going to be a permanent guest on the VIP door list.  If only they actually served alcohol...




They do not look this happy when I'm there! (source)

3 |  New Front Door

We got a new front door.  This is exciting because we had the house's original single-pane door from like the 1930s and you could feel a frigid draft wafting in during cold weather. What's not exciting is the fact that the old door and all the garbage is still sitting on the front porch.  Oh and we don't have a doorknob... but we have a deadbolt.  The husband will be finishing it all up this weekend.  And then we just have to replace the roof, paint all the trim, powerwash the siding... #smallsteps.

 




4 |  Neighbourhood Stalking  

Yup, I did.  I totally spied on our neighbours.  But not in an exciting way.  K and I were walking the dogs and we saw that one of the neighbours is painting their house purple!! How awesome is that??  I was so excited, it's the perfect shade of dark purple, but the house is surrounded by hedges.  So I handed my leash to K and snuck up their walk to the front gate so I could get a better look take some photos.  K walked halfway down the block and pretended she didn't know me. I probably would have done the same thing.

I apologize for the horrible picture quality but this is my dream house colour.  My husband says no but we have a few years to discuss.

Stalking apparently runs in our family... Milo stalks our next door neighbour's dog for hours. He stares through a tiny crack in the fence and just watches her play.  Little creep.  I'll try and get a photo this weekend.

5 |  Button Swap

My blog grew up just a little bit this week.  I now have a sidebar section for blog friends and would love to swap buttons with other bloggers.  If this interests you please get in touch with me!  I plan to start tackling SEO this weekend so wish me luck...

What do you all have going on this weekend?

Linking up with Karli and Amy, and Leslie from A Blonde Ambition!

 

The Honeymoon is Over!

As I was cruising Pinterest last night (I am so addicted and it’s the first thing I do when hubby falls asleep!) I found a photo of Lauren Conrad and I. love. it.  She is a beautiful woman, wears gorgeous clothes that I know I never would and of course I watched her on Laguna Beach and The Hills and think she’s very classy and wish we could be friends.  But this picture?  I love it.  I love the outfit, the relaxed yet looks totally put-together look complete with brown boots (I love my brown boots, I feel sexy in my brown boots).  Normally I think she’s gorgeous but know I would never wear the same type of outfit but this one I would.  I don’t know why this picture speaks to me so much except I feel like it’s telling me that I need a change.



I love this outfit, the makeup, everything!!

Hubby and I have settled into a pretty good routine following the year of chaos joy of being engaged and planning a destination wedding (side note: most destination weddings come as a package and yes, you make some decisions but you have someone there who organizes all the details… I didn’t and did everything by phone and email!  Not that I didn't have help because I did!).  There are two major pitfalls of our routine: I eat whatever I want whenever I want and I don’t exercise enough at all.  It’s as if I got married and went PHEW, it’s over!  And sat on the couch with a bag of chips and a chocolate bar.

I have never been an avid exerciser but I understand the benefits of it and yes, I do actually feel better when I do it.  I did a ‘learn to run’ program a couple years ago with a friend and did really well although I realized I do not like running for long periods of time.  It’s just not fun to me.  Around that time I also tried Weight Watchers and did quite well on that but I never went to the meetings so didn’t really see the point in paying the monthly fee for someone to simply weigh me.  But I lost weight. And I had more energy.

Before the wedding I was going for 50-60 minute walks on my lunch break and really watching what I ate, counting calories.  Every once in a while I would do a Jillian Michaels video and of course I took Milo for walks with our friend and her dog, he loved this because he got walks AND he got to play.

Now the only time I do anything is when I take Milo out for a walk but those have gotten shorter and I’m doing them solo because they are not part of our newlywed routine.

And food… food is the devil.  I like it.  Actually I love it.  If it’s fried and covered in cheese then I will most likely devour it.  Croissants with butter and jam? Yes please!  Chocolate chip muffins?  Watch out!  I am horrible.  My only saving grace is the spinach and fruit smoothie I have every morning Monday through Friday.  But my jeans are getting a bit tight.

 

So basically, I need to get my shit together because this newlywed’s honeymoon is over!  Well not the newlywed and honeymoon parts exactly, just the extreme lack of exercise and not caring what I eat.

My plan so far:

• I downloaded an app called C25K (couch to 5km run program) and am starting it tonight… of course I read about this on Yoga Pants


• I am going to dig out my Weight Watchers calculator and start counting points again


• I am going to start bringing salads to work again and be active 3 lunches per week


• I am going to limit wine/alcohol to weekends only

Do you have any advice for me?  What helps you stay motivated?  And if you have any tried and true recipes for hearty/tasty meals and snacks please share!!

Sxxo.

Countdown!

I have been following a few blogs for a while now and although I can’t remember how I came it across it, I am now what one might call obsessed with I wore Yoga Pants.  Whitney is awesome and I am basically reliving my 20’s vicariously through her fun times.  And she’s witty!  And super cute.  If she reads this she is going to be so creeped out… but yeah, I kind of have a girl-crush.

Then reading IWYP led me to reading Two Thirds Hazel and BAM!  Another funny, cute, witty chick named Erin!  Of course Whitney and Erin are BFFs.  I am not much of a beer drinker but I would chug Miller Lite and shoot Fireball to party with them!  (Keep this in mind ladies!)

Anyhoozle, one of their posts this week was a type of countdown and because I have a crazy day today I thought it would be fun to do it too!

Here we go…

Five things I'll be doing over the next week:

1. Writing thank you notes after our wedding (I will likely be doing this over the next few weeks…)


2. Unpacking more of our wedding gifts… our guest room has been taken over!


3.  Making pancakes on our new griddle (I have only used one at the cabin and I’m hoping it brings a bit of cabin feel to the city :)


4. Wear a scarf because it’s rainy and chilly outside


5. Making a banana cream pie!! (never done it before)

Four items that I need to purchase:

1. Lululemon wunder under crop pants… I wore my BFF’s and they were SO comfortable!!


2. A tire pressure gauge… the never-ending highway construction/random paving patterns are wreaking havoc on my tires and I’m pretty sure I now have a slow leak in one.


3. A box of (cheap but tasty) wine… last weekend my sister and I drank 4 bottles of wine – pretty sure we didn’t even taste the last 2.


4. Work clothes… I have super casual clothes for home (not going to lie, pj pants are my favourite) and business clothes from when I worked downtown, but where I work now has no dress code and so I need the ‘in between’ clothes.

Three shows I can't wait to have come back into my life:

1. The Big Bang Theory


2. Revenge


3. Hart of Dixie

Two reasons I'm excited for fall:

1. Scarves… I love wearing cute scarves :)


2. Knee high boots!  I have my favourite boots ever in both black and cognac (my SIL hates it when I buy the same thing in different colours)

One thing that's currently bothering me:

I feel like I’m searching for what I am meant to do.  I like the company I work for and the people I work with, it’s a very relaxed environment and most people have been here for 10-25 years so there has to be something keeping them around right?  But I don’t jump out of bed in the morning excited to be going to work and I would really like to know what that feels like.  I was talking to hubby about this and he agrees, I’m happiest baking in the kitchen on a weekend or napping… I have no desire to work at a bakery (or wake up at 3am!?!?) but I will admit I googled “mattress testers”.  Turns out they do exist but I couldn’t find any vacancies in our area.  So I guess I’m still looking.

Do you love going to work every day?  How did you discover what you are meant to do, what your ‘passion’ is?  If you have any tips, please share!

Sxxo.