Category Archives: Life

The blog 2.0

12 Thursday Jan 2012

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My last post mentioned I’ve managed to haul my butt back on the workout/eat right wagon and I’ve managed to stay there since mid-November—and I’m enjoying it! I’ve also decided that while I’ll still be posting here now and then I want to start a healthy focused/weight loss blog to really document my progress and journey to reclaim my health.

So, I’ve started another blog, will you follow me there?

I won’t be posting photos of everything I cram down the hatch. I have no idea how people manage that every day but more power to ‘em; however, I will be talking about the positives/negatives of what I’m going through, my progress, workouts, health meals, plus also photography because I still enjoy that hobby very much.

While I will retain this blog and still post, I hope you’ll pop over to the new blog – My Size: Healthy – and if you follow me on Twitter I have changed my handle from @WrapdnHappiness to @MySizeHealthy.

I hope your New Year is going well so far and I hope to still see you around again!

Life as it’s been

13 Tuesday Dec 2011

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Well, hello there! November went by in a hurry. Christmas will be here in a week and a half and our Christmas tree still isn’t up. It won’t be going up either. Nor will Christmas cards make the rounds this year. I know, what the heck right? I’m not sure what it is but the time has just gone in a flash. Ever since the end of October it seems like our household has been busy busy. Me taking on a life at the gym and trying to eat healthier, which means planning more meals and eating at home than just popping by a drive-thru. My husband, well, he’s been working on the hallway (new flooring, trim, doors and painting) and he’s had several overtime weekend days or extended hours during the week. Yup, we’ve been busy!

I made it almost the whole year posting at least once a week for the WordPress Post a Week Challenge and I’ve since bombed. As I said mentioned above everything’s good, nothing horrible happened, to explain for my departure.

At the end of October I met with my nurse practitioner for an appointment and she lit the fire to join a gym. I was hesitant since my previous romps at a gym didn’t last long and locked into a contract for a year the money went down the drain; however, I found a gym and I love the place. ::cough:: I enjoy going! Unlike the few gyms I’ve joined in the past that felt like a warehouse full of equipment, smelling like B.O. and music pumping through the speakers loud enough that you cannot hear myself think. This new place for me is great. I call it the Whole Foods of gyms. I also purchased several sessions with a personal trainer to work on my knee clicking issue, which still hasn’t improved but is only annoying and doesn’t hurt thank goodness. Oh, I didn’t tell you about the knee thing–my left knee doesn’t track well and only if I go up stairs does it click. Or if I do a good, decent squat.

Before I go, I need to pat myself on the back about Thanksgiving. Friends, we had a feast, and it was pretty much a healthy one! Jon’s parents came, my mom and her husband, my brother and then Jon and I were all present. Everything was ready to go, as much that could be prepped ahead of time was done but the morning of the bird was a tad still frosty in the cavity so I had to give it a “water spa”…

turkey_water_bath

I wasn’t happy about setting the turkey in my sink because then I had to decontaminate the sink with bleach, but oh well. It didn’t take long and I was able to finally mix up some softened butter and a variety of herbs where I rubbed it under the skin and all over the top. I started out grossed by the neck and other little organ gifts to pull out, but after that I got to know my turkey. I even made it wave to Jon while I was basting it with butter! <– dork

turkey_in_an_oven

Look at that pretty turkey!

Call me silly, but I was excited to use my new All-Clad roaster I bought for a great deal through CHEFS Catalog. My husband said the pan weighed more than the 19lb bird. Which he’s probably right but oh well, I’ll have this roaster forever.

The Menu:

  • Butter herb roasted turkey
  • Garlic mashed potatoes with pan gravy
  • Roasted veggies: Brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, new potatoes and sweet potatoes
  • Sautéed green beans with shallots, garlic and slivered almonds
  • Homemade stuffing with apples and onion
  • Whole wheat rolls

Dessert:

  • Apple pie – Jon’s mom
  • Pumpkin pie – My mom
  • Cheesecake w/ gingersnap crust & macerated cherries for topping – Me

No, the dessert wasn’t low-calorie but I had only a small piece of my cheesecake that day because I.was.exhausted. I have a lot to improve with my cheesecake making skills, but that’s okay, as long as it’s edible I don’t care how it looks right now.

gourds

thanksgiving_table

Note Chester’s tail in the last photo there?

I went with a simple dining table and a centerpiece that didn’t cost a ton. Everyone had a great time and next year I need to plan for some leftover stuffing waffles.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and the holidays have been merry and bright for you as well! So tell me, what’s new? I’m behind with the blogworld.

*All photos taken with cell phone.

Get your corpse groove on!

31 Monday Oct 2011

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Michael Jackson’s Thriller. A classic. I remember at about the age of eight watching it over and over. I grew up listening to MJ’s music and I loved his dancing. I wanted to learn the moves, but because I had a small brother I could only play the movie while he took naps or he’d cry because it scared him. To this day I still remember the sequences and even busted a move in my car this morning when the radio station played the song to open their show.

If you’ve never seen the Thriller movie, enjoy! If you have, reminisce and bust a move!

Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween! No trick o’ treaters for our house tonight. Last year I had basically all big kids and some rude little snots who asked, “That’s it?!” when I gave them a handful of the good stuff in terms of Halloween candy. Rude much?

Thorns and Roses

25 Tuesday Oct 2011

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rose_bush

Small rose bush I photographed in Manitou Springs, Colorado

I didn’t do much last week. I didn’t take any of my photos for the 30 day photography challenge either. A few days I forgot and others I was just not interested and my camera stayed in the bag.

The week was a big ol’ mishmash of nothing special and somehow the days just went ::whoosh:: right on by! I did have an appointment with my nurse practitioner and that appointment led me to get an x-ray for my left knee, it clicks when I go up stairs, and I’m going in for a PT eval this coming Saturday. During that same appointment we discussed my dark cloud of health stuff and she basically determined I have PCOS. I don’t have many of the typical symptoms and we’ll address more about it in a month after I try to make some lifestyle changes. Oh boy, lifestyle changes, that word is like a broken record in my life.

The week didn’t take an upswing until Saturday when I spent five hours at my cheesecake class.

Oh boy, yum.

And I understand in the same post I mention health stuff and PCOS and then talk about making a cheesecake in a baking class. Don’t judge. The class was planned over a month ago and, well, I still wanted to take the class even though I don’t plan to make another cheesecake for quite some time.

Back to that cheesecake. I have to end this post on a positive note!

Regular cheesecake with lemon curd and raspberry jam on top. Hello, amazing! The type of amazing that makes a person mumble Oh.My.God. While the regular cheesecake was baking away we made a savory cheesecake you’d serve as an appetizer with a southwest kick to it–one word, delicious. And I’ll share the wealth with all of you in coming posts.

So that’s my past week. A few thorns with a rosy finish. I just need to learn how to nip the thorns in the butt. I let them grow way to big it seems lately.

How was your weekend?

Vacation Day 2: Over Red Mountain

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

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[To read part one of our vacation recap, click here.]

I didn’t plan to wake up early on the first day of our vacation. For some reason I woke up at 5:40. That is not rise ‘n shine time on my vacation timeline. I realized the sun would be up in the next 40 minutes or so and looked outside to see complete darkness and a gorgeous crescent moon. Remembering I had my tripod and a zoom lens I quickly got dressed in the dark. Jon, the sweet husband he is, groggily rolled out of bed to accompany me into the dark so I wasn’t alone…with his iTouch in tow.

Husband_with_iTouch

Thankfully we remembered to bring light coats for our trip since we’re up in the mountains early fall time. The temps were quite chilly and we could see our breaths. Note to self: Buy my husband a smaller coat. The one he owns is too big and swallows him!

With the tripod set up, thanks to the helpful light from the iTouch, I wondered how close I could get for a photo of the moon with my rented lens.

crescent_moon

ISO 3200 / 46mm / f29 / 4.0sec

Waiting for that second ::click:: seemed to take forever due to the low light. My husband even noticed the difference. I decided to rack it out to 200mm, the farthest my lens could reach, and see what I could get.

crescent_moon_2

moon

moon_up_close

I was so excited to capture photos of the moon at this stage that I was dancing in the middle of the dirt road by the lodge!

chipeta_sign_night

I loved the hammered copper signs flanking the parking lot entrances at the lodge. I ended up snagging a slight flare off the light fixture.

The sun was soon to rise and I confessed to my husband I was going to be out there for a good hour or so. His smile quickly turned to a grimace because he was freezing and had to walk around to stay warm. Oddly enough I was doing just fine and we’d been outside for an hour already!

just_before_sunrise

As the sun started to rise I started to get a little tired. After a long day traveling, going to bed late and then waking up so early I wished I were in bed under the covers. Until I saw the pink sky…

pink_sunrise_ridgway

Can you see the slight white mark? Closer towards the top in the purple area just past the pink. That would be the moon I previously photographed.

I sent Jon a text and told him he was missing a pink and purple sunrise. He wrote back and said his cheeks were frozen and the bed was too warm to leave!

It’s amazing how fast the sun moves during a sunrise or sunset. You never notice the movement otherwise but when you’re sitting there waiting, watching, and taking photos the sun seems to move much faster than you’d expect.

sunrise_ridgway

I was enjoying the solitude. The quiet. The sounds of birds waking and saying hello to one another. And the chilly morning air. Speaking of birds, a magpie kept coming around and a few times he creeped up on me and I had no idea he had landed so close by!

magpie_friend

I finally decided to call it a morning and headed back to our room. My yoga pants weren’t keeping me warm anymore and I wished I had some warmer ones!
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