Spring 2015 Goals

 There I was, just cruising through the year, ten days in, when my goal writing appetite kicked in. My sister-in-law, Cassie gave me the A Beautiful Mess planner and I love that they have pages for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter goals. I filled the Spring page in a matter of minutes and figured a page worth was good enough for now. I'm going to write them here because one of them is -gasp- to write more (I hate the word blog). No one saw that coming right?

So alright here's the line up in the order that my brain thought of them which might be insightful (?):

Run a 10K. 
Gab said a crazy sentence the other day. It was this: "We're going to work out when you get home".
So we took Castle on the hike that we take him on every day but here's a crazy concept, we put tennis shoes on and jogged and did lunges and other random exercises while we were there. We might have looked silly doing calf raises on a bench overlooking the city of St. George but we were exercising. So anyways, it felt really nice and I was sore for the first time in months.

Then last night (no i'm not done talking about this subject and no I don't know if each goal is going to get explained this much) we were watching Friends and it was the episode where they were all laying around in the living room after Thanksgiving dinner and everyone is moaning about how stuffed they are and then Joey said, "I need something sweet" and I was like that's me. And Gab's eyes got very wide as he nodded his head. So the moral of the story is: exercising felt good and I like to eat sweet things so I need to balance is out. I enjoy running once I get to the point of being able to run three miles comfortably. 10K it is. 

Organize and decorate the kitchen.
As Gab and I are about to go back into the category of starving students we cook at home pretty much every night of the week so I really want to make an effort to make my kitchen super functional. Bonus for making it look pretty because we hang out in there for a good chunk of the evening.


Compile a list of at least 30 recipes that Gab and I both love and can make easily. 
This obviously ties in with the last goal, but it can be so difficult to think of what to eat every night and Gab is zero help on this. In an effort to make things easier on myself I'm working on making a Pinterest board that is recipes we have tried, loved, and want to make over and over.


Learn QuickBooks. 
This is just something I'm interested in knowing for other future goals and to up my resume game.
DXATC has a class starting February 4th and I will be there!

Read. My list is the following: 
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso. This one is done but I am all about adding things to a list just to check them off. I devoured this book in a period of 24 hours.


Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham. This one is halfway done. I'm really enjoying it. I don't know much about Lena Dunham but my brother got this book for me for Christmas (along with #GIRLBOSS). I really wanted to love the show Girls but I just didn't. The sex was too much for me and to prove I'm not a total prude I'll tell you I watch Orange is the New Black.

Zero to one by Peter Thiel & Blake Masters. This one is  "notes on start ups and how to build the future" and it is very very good. It's the kind of book you want to sit down with with a highlighter and read parts out loud to someone who will listen. Not the kind of book to fall asleep to.

7 Day Start up by Dan Norris. Haven't even opened it yet, but I've heard good things and am dying to. Gab got it for me for Christmas along with Zero to One. He is a superb gift giver.

Put more effort into Airbnb.
Gab and I rent out our basement on Airbnb which is a vacation rental site. I want to make the basement a more exciting place to stay by making it look better and adding functional things like a door at the bottom of the stairs to separate the living spaces more.

Experiment with natural remedies for anxiety and chill out. 
Teas? Diet? Exercise? I know these things work but I need to find my own routine that will help me be my best self.

Make my blog look better in an effort to encourage me to spend more time writing. 
I love reading my old blogs. Therefore I know that I definitely won't regret spending more time and effort to document my wonderfully simple life.


Go "real camping", in other words spend two nights. 
Gab and I are always saying, "let's go camping" and never doing it and it's really starting to bug me. The goal is to go camping in Beaver for a weekend at this place that my family did a reunion at one year. It has a small pond with canoes, and horse shoe pits and what else do you really need?

Go to church for heavens sake, pun intended. 
We have a million excuses as to why we haven't been going to church consistently and most are valid but we need to prioritize this.

Overhaul my closet ruthlessly. Make that all closets. 
I just bought quite a few new pieces of clothing while I had my December discount at work so I'm ready to purge everything I don't love and wear often. Then there's the office closet that is chuck full of who even knows what. I honestly don't know what's in there and why we have so. much. stuff.

A Timely Thanksgiving Post

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place this year! It was great because I was forced to put something on the walls to make it look somewhat homey in here. We actually even painted the wall a different shade of blue! 

I even managed to make a pretty cute centerpiece. I bought the scented pine cones which I later learned Gab loathes so I had to spray them with febreze and hang them outside to try to get the scent gone. A labor of love, I tell ya. 

Gab's siblings and mom came down for most of the week and I was so so very very happy to have a house full of people. It was a mess! I love big messy houses full of people. The house looked "lived in" and it was truly the best. 

We managed to get everyone dressed in the midst of cooking on Thanksgiving and headed over to Snow Canyon Overlook for some family pictures. 

Notice Gab's hand grabbing me like I'm going to fall off that cliff. Ever so awkward in front of a camera, that boy. 

We've started this little tradition where we take pictures with Castle on our shoulders like this. He usually plays along pretty well but he was clearly terrified at being up there on this cliff side. Poor guy. 

The only thing left to do is the  obligatory list of things I'm thankful for. 

1. Our home that fits plenty of family for times like this. 

2. Castle. And our early morning walks on the mountain. He got lost for 40 minutes on the mountain the day before Thanksgiving and I about lost it. 

3. Technology so that I could Facetime with my fam for a few minutes on Thanksgiving. This is the second year in a row I haven't spent Thanksgiving with them which is super weird and is another clue to the fact that I'm "growing up" I guess. 

4. Game nights with Gab's side of the family. They're pretty epic. 

5. Having adorable little nephews running around. 

6. Gab. Because he is just my favorite person. 

7. And Gab's hair because come on, he has awesome hair. 

Head in the Clouds

A couple of months ago Castle and I have gave up leashed walks in lieu of making the mile drive to the old airport to do the temple quarry hike every day. It's a win win. He gets to run around the mountain hunting birds and getting all his crazy morning energy out and I don't have to get my arm ripped off.

The trail is also a lot prettier than our neighborhood streets. Especially on rainy, gorgeous days like this one when the clouds come down for a visit and you get to walk through them and admire the saturated blacks, greens and reds that are surrounding you.

December is looking quite lovely so far.

Random Story

This is a super random post with no pictures but I keep thinking about this moment that happened yesterday and giggling. So here I am! To write it down. I was up front at work cashiering when an old couple came through my line. They were buying Christmas decorations and lights. The old man was loading things up onto the counter and then just stood there kind of in the way while the lady was trying to pay. They fumbled around for a second before she said, "move!" in a rather bossy voice. Then the old man just said, "ok" in a rather jolly voice. And I just thought it was rather adorable. Why? Maybe I'm picturing Gab and I in 50 years. Maybe I just love old married people. They are a rarity and I bow down to them. That's all.

my tips for traveling with a dog

Apparently I think taking one trip with my dog qualifies me to write down tips for traveling with a dog. But in my defense we racked up over 40 hours in the car with a 4 month old puppy. And we did alright if I do say so myself.

We had Castle for 6 weeks when we took a trip to Washington State to visit family. We had no idea how our hyperactive dog was going to do being in a car for that long. It was a 16 hour drive to Coulee Dam Washington to see my family and then another 5 to Bremerton to see Gab's mom. By the time we got home we had clocked about 45 hours in the car. Luckily for us, besides the farting, Castle did great. Here's a few things we did to attempt to make the trip go smoothly.

1. Buy a new bone that they've never had before. The new taste will keep them busy for a few hours at least.
2. Buy a new toy. They will be excited to play with it in the car, during stops and wherever it is you're going.
3. Set up a designated sleeping area for them. We put his crate in the back with the seats down and he slept in there probably 50% of the time.
4. Take the time to play and run them around for ten to fifteen minutes at every stop. When we stopped Gab would gas up the car and get the snacks and I would try to find some grass so he could go to the bathroom and then I would run around and play with him to try to get his wiggles out. The investment is well worth it because even those ten minutes of play would tire him out to go to sleep for a while.
5. This might seem like a no brainer but make sure you get a hotel room that allows dogs. I had never had to think about that before and it almost slipped my mind so make sure you don't get charged extra.
6. Make sure they have their regular comforts with them. For example, the same food they usually eat  and enough of it so you don't have to buy them new food that will upset their stomach. We also brought his favorite toy and tried to keep his sleeping pattern the same.
7. Pack your sense of humor. Castle was farting so much in the car. We had to roll the windows down going 80 on the freeway like 20 times and we had to laugh or else we would have cried. He also slept on my lap a lot of the time because he could only be in his kennel so much before going completely crazy so I had to share my tiny portion of the car with a 20 pound dog. It was frustrating yet comical.
8. Make sure they still get their exercise even though you're on vacation! They need it!

How to pretend you're out of town for the day.

If I had it my way we'd be visiting a new city every weekend. But I don't have it my way. Yet. 

So sometimes you have to visit your own city. Here's how. 

Step one: Sleep in. Then when you finally wake up around noon and get ready, put on your hawaiian shirts. This ensures you get in the right mindset. Party mode, if you will. 

Step two: Have lunch at the Painted Pony outside on the deck. Order a vanilla italian cream soda with two straws. Take pictures, because that's what you do on vacation. 

Step Three: Take your dog to the dog park that's clear across town. He'll meet new dogs, you'll meet new dogs. It's all so new and so very exciting. 

Step three: Stay up late watching a movie and making out with your sexy blonde husband because he is sexy and blonde and you are on fake-one-day-vacation.

So this post is a fake. We did sleep in but that's not unusual and after we cleaned our house (so not vacation like) we got ready to go to lunch, and realized we were both wearing Hawaii type shirts. A mirror selfie ensued (Gab loves those). It is true that Painted Pony's deck totally feels like vacation but Gab is the one that ordered the drink and the waiter took it upon himself to bring two straws. Gab was upset he had to share.  When we went to take Castle out we decided that since it was Saturday we would drive clear across town to the other dog park for a change of scenery. But it's always true that Gab is a sexy blonde and how lucky am I that I get to look back on a day with him and realize it was kind of like taking a fake one day vacay. 

Labor Day 2014

Labor Day this year was chock full of...labor. Our darling (ha) little Castle man is a ball of energy and one morning after Castle pantsed me when my hands were full and then proceeded to bite my legs and sweatpants I texted Gab and said "we're building a fence this weekend". So we did folks, we did.

Well we got started on it at least. It's expensive stuff, but anything for Castle man. Just kidding, it's for my sanity.

I take him on a walk every morning but every morning when we get home, after he's eaten, he goes nuts and starts running in circles around the house as fast as he can and just barks and yeah... typing it out makes it seem really normal but it's quite the event in person.

Onward. First Gab mowed the lawn and Castle followed him around and barked and tried to be a tough guy around the big bad lawn mower.

Then we went to talk to the friendly peeps at Home Depot to get all our supplies. We tied Castle up so we could be productive and he was none too pleased.

Then Gab dug the holes for the posts. Castle helped. He guarded the dirt. 

At this point we had been in the hot sun all day and we were starving and itching to spend the Painted Pony gift card that our realtor gave us. And it's always nice to get a little dressed up after you've been sweaty and dirty all day long. So we went to Painted Pony and had a lovely meal. Gab pleasantly surprised me when he said, "let's get the mussels" for an appetizer. But then he took some convincing to try my tomato and mozzarella stacked salad. There's the picky guy I know and love.

It's a definite adjustment not having family around all the time. I'm so used to, and in love with, the craziness that comes standard with a family of nine. But quiet meals with my husband on days like today are pretty great too.