Goals for 2013

1. Learn what it means to be truly satisfied with only Jesus.

2. Begin a new hobby.

3. Blog at least once a week.

4. Add a lil one to our family.

5. Spend dedicated time in prayer each and every day.

Food Diary- GO!

Goals: Gain 5-10 lbs, 18-19% body fat
Current Stats: 109 lbs., 15.8% body fat

Saturday, July 7
Breakfast: oatmeal and 1 cup coffee
Snack: a few tortilla chips and salsa
Lunch: 1/2 spinach wrap with turkey, avocado, and tomato
Snack: 1/2 protein bar
Dinner: pear walnut ravioli at enoteca roma, 2.5 pieces of bruschetta, bread and oil, and 1 scoop ice cream
Snack: 1 piece margheritta pizza

Sunday, July 8
Breakfast: egg, spinach, tomato cheese tortilla wrap
Snack: protein shake with banana, pb, and oatmeal mixed in (approx. 600 -700 cal.)
*1/2 piece banana bread at church
Lunch: Panera's turkey avacado blt sandwich and apple
Snack: a little homemade popcorn
Dinner:

March Madness

I have loved this weekend...it has looked like this:


Neal, me, our couch, great basketball games (especially butler!), naps, and good food mixed in there :) Ahhh...so nice. Can't believe Monday morning is ALMOST here.

Oh...and today I bought a new swimsuit and went to the rec fit and swam 1,000yards!! This is big time for me as before this 700 yards was my longest. I'm practically the female version of Michael Phelps. (minus the weed)


Yesterday I shared some of my fav new obsessions. Along with my interest in house "stuff" here are a few pictures of my favorite designs and styles.

OK, so I don't like this room necessarily, I just love the idea of the hanging pictures.

Cute, cozy, comfortable is what this says to me...although I may need a bit more color.
I really like the island!


Cute idea-picnic table style indoor dining...hmmm

This is my absolute favorite headboard. I'm thinking this will be one of my first projects when we have our own house.



I like the colors and the light fixture is really great!

I think I like white...but not sure if I like the idea of keeping white "white"

I love the color turquoise but don't think I want this crazy of a color in my living room or bedroom but love this idea for a bathroom!

It's a beautiful Saturday! Already completed today: hour bike ride, cleaned kitchen, made brats and mac n cheese for lunch (Neal and I's perfect springtime/march madness food), and watching b-ball. I love today! This is the first Saturday in A LONG time that I can remember Neal and I just being about to lounge around the house and I am so grateful. I'm planning to just enjoy the rest of the day hopefully watching some great basketball games and snuggling on the couch with my big cutie. (Neal)

I also said I would blog about some of my new favorite obsessions. So here they are:

1) House Design Blogs- I LOVE to read/get ideas/look at pictures and DREAM about what our future house may look like and how we would decorate it. Renting a house right now that is already furnished has us (or maybe just me) itching to put our own touch on things. SOMEDAY...ahhh. Some of my fav blogs include: Young House Love, House Tweaking , DesignSponge , and Decor8. I'm in the process of trying to discover my "style."

2) Oatmeal- I know...totally random but EVERYDAY for the last 3 or 4 months I have had either maple and brown sugar (with added PB) or strawberry oatmeal for breakfast. This discovery has led to lessening my OVERLY grumbly stomach I used to get at school between breakfast and lunch. Now I don't drool over the kids mid-morning snack. haha :)

3) Cooking and The Pioneer Woman- Ok so this isn't a new obsession but I love cooking more and more everyday. Baking or cooking...I love it all. I need to start posting more recipes. I just made snickerdoodle muffins this week and they were FABULOUS. I also just found a recipe for Yat's cheesy crawfish etoufee and I'm anxious to make that :)

4) Boots- I have ALWAYS hated winter clothing. I love summer... tanktop, jean shorts, and sandals, can't get much better than that. I've never felt like I even have a winter "style"- (haha...me saying I even have a style is hilarious to me), but anyways...this winter I discovered that with skinny pants and boots I can LOVE almost any outfit. I have these gray boots I would wear EVERDAY if I could.

I have also been looking for some great light brown/reddish boots, but spring is here and sandal weather is just around the corner so maybe next year.

Not even gonna try....

Once again, its been more than 6 months since I've blogged and my original thought was to give an update on our lives since. But, that thought it so overwhelming AND I want to just be able to blog about what's on my mind right now. So..let's just move on from the past and get to the NOW.

My time lately has been totally consumed by school, track, and training for a triathlon. I'm coaching track at GHS and its been great to see all my xc girls again, as well as meeting many new great girls. It does take alot of my time and I dont' get to spend as much time doing things i enjoy to do after school, but the relationships i have built definitely outweigh the downsides. PLUS I get in lots of running for my own workouts.

Traithlon training has also been a new adventure. In June I'll be competing in my first sprint triathlon, and if you know ANYTHING about me, I'll not be satisfied just to finish I want to DO REALLY WELL. So I've already started a 6 day plan. :) I'm not worried about the biking or the running but the swimming part scares the freakin daylights out of me. I can remember back in HS when we could swim in pe class and I continued to run into the lane lines or even into the people next to me.l This would then involve me coming up coughing, spitting and doggy paddling to the end of the pool. I've began swimming twice a week at Goshen College and at this point I can go about 125 yards without stopping (I normally swim about 700 yards total). I know I shouldn't be telling people this because its pretty bad, BUT I'm feeling good about it due to only being able to swim 50 yard without stopping before.

School= ISTEP is ova! (At least for a month). I'm enjoying getting back into the groove of things and getting away from test prep.

Last, but certainly not least....my favorite time of the day is the time I get to spend with THIS guy!

Tomorrow I'm already planning to blog about my new FAVORITE things...stay tuned. :)

This summer is FLYING by!

Updates:

1) Neal and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and can I just say its my new FAVORITE restaurant....too bad I won't be able to afford going there for another 5 million years! We had a great night and I love my husband more than I did on the day we got married...i am a lucky woman!

2) 2 wedding down, 2 more to go. Greg and Andrea Allison and Kayla and Darren Simms are now happily married.

3) I got to see some of my BEST friends from college this past weekend and I don't think i realized how much I missed them until I got to spend 2 fun days with them. This trip involved : the Cheesecake Factory (ohhh yum), laying out at the pool, McCallister's Deli, and a great wedding!

4) I'm really starting to get back into running. Not that I really ever got "out" of running, but running was just to stay in shape. Now I'm starting to train and have some personal goals set. I'm feeling good although I do seem to have more daily aches and pains than I did when I was in college ( I don't like getting old!). Here are my goals (to be attained by the summer of 2011):

5k- Run low 19's. I have currently only ran one race so far this summer and ran 20:44.

Half Marathon- 1:25. I ran 1:31 in the Indy Mini this past year....this goal MAY be a little steep.

My last goal is to at some point in my running career win prize money for running in a race. How sweet would that be!!

5) On the topic of goals Neal and I have been working on memorizing scripture lately. We are going to work on one verse a week. God's word is so powerful and we've just realized how little we really STUDY and Memorize scripture.

6) Molly's 22! Went to Indy to celebrate her b-day with my mom, dad, aunt and Kaiden. Everytime I go to Broadripple or basically anywhere in Indy I REALLY want to live there. Its hard not to wish I was there instead of in Goshen, but I need to remember to be thankful for where we are RIGHT now. But....Indy is a REALLY sweet city. We ended our day in Broadripple at the Flying Cupcake, a store devoted just to cupcakes...how sweet!

7) BIG recruiting month for Neal so he was gone for 10 days and just got back Wed. You think that I'd be used to him being gone by now because of the amount of time he has to be away because of his job but it never gets any easier. It's just not quite as fun without ski around! He'll be gone a few more times this month, but no more 10 days away so thats great!

8) XC has already started! I have big expectations for the season and I'll post more about that later.

9) I've really been into looking at blogs about decorating and DIY house design ideas. Now all I need is a HOUSE!

10) Things I'm looking forward to: hearing ANYTHING about the RD position, free day at the fair (steak tips!!), Cody coming to Goshen, picking blueberries with my momma ,and the next 25 days of blessed summer before school starts!!

I just wrote this whole LONG post and Neal says to me, "I don't even read your blog anymore because I didn't think you wrote in it anymore because its been like a year since your last post." So...I'm thinking I MAY be the only one reading this anymore. :)

My brother in law is a stud!

Exciting news that most people already know but definitely deserves to be noted on my blog : Cody Young was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles and is now officially a big leaguer! I'm so proud of him and his life story is a true testament to the healing power and saving grace of Jesus. I'm excited for him and what new things he will get to experience.

Cody will now be playing for the Bluefield Orioles in WV! I'm ready to plan a roadtrip!

I wanna be THE PIONEER WOMAN

If you haven't heard of or know of THE PIONEER WOMAN you need to. (Need...seriously). Go to her blog: thepioneerwoman.com and be amazed.

She makes me want to cook all day long! If anyone needs an early Christmas present for me...haha, I would love her cookbook.

I'm backkkkk!

Alright, I'm back....can't guarantee for how long, but I actually feel like blogging again. I watched the movie Julia and Julia about a few weeks ago and really related to what the girl in the movie said...."That she can't seem to stick with anything". I get interested and uninterested in things like flipping a light switch. ADD? I think so. :)

Lets update the last few months....

July: Got a new car!! Thankfully, Neal's jeep qualified for the cash for clunkers program and we were able to get a CUTE lil hyundai accent for a MUCH cheaper price. I'll post a picture here soon and then you will understand why Neal feels a little "feminine" when driving it around.

August: I started back to school in my second year teaching special education in Goshen and also the cc team started having meets. Found out that I LOVE being a cross country coach! OHHHh and Neal competed in the NATIONAL AMATEUR WING EATING CONTEST in Buffalo NY! We drove through the night to NY with our good friends Korey and Corrine and watched Neal stuff about 2 lbs of wings into his mouth in like 10 minutes. (Only to get disqualified, but we won't discuss that one!)

September: Basketball guys came back onto campus, which is always a good time to get to see the players from last season and meet the new freshmen. (I'll definitely post pictures of this as well :))

October: The XC team got 3rd in conference, which is great considering the 1st two teams ended up making it to state! Two of my girls got all conference and we also made it to regionals as a team.

November: Traveled with Liss and Adri up to Hanover Indiana to watch the basketball team play. Hiked alot and got lost, which was hilarious. Goshen came up with two

"exciting, come-from-behind," wins that weekend. We also beat IWU in our first conference game of the season...SO EXCITING

December: Christmas was celebrated at my parents on Christmas eve and Neal's parents on Christmas, and I got surprised by Neal with golf clubs ( I think he really would like for me to get into golf) and a NOOK!

January: It was cold and I watched LOTS of basketball...and thats about all I can remember, haha!

February: Went to see Sinbad in South Bend and he was AWESOME! Also a bit of a sad month because Goshen ended their basketball season at St. Francis in the tournament. Really wanted to go to Branson and will definitely miss E, Nate, and Shawn next year....I don't think anyone was ready for the season to be over!

March: Crazy month at school...I am REALLY blessed to be able to keep my job next year and still be full time at Chandler! I have grown to love my kids so much and am excited that I will be able to work with them to achieve their goals again next year :)

April: Went down to Indy for the final four festivities and had the priveledge to be a part of a lunch with speakers Gary and Barb Rosenburg. They had some encouraging, as well as, challenging things to say to coaches and their lives and our relationships together and with God. I'm also excited because my Aunt Tracy will be getting married this month!

Pictures to come, I need to go fix some homemade chicken and noodle soup for my sick husband.

Fair Food

Here are the pictures from the fair. I always have trouble uploading pictures after I've written my post.

and going................!
It's going..............
Sweet sirloin steak tips!