Pages

Gotta get movin'

Turns out I only run consistently when I'm working towards a goal/race. Today I signed up for another 5k and scoped out a 10k for good measure. I need to get moving again. It's so easy to avoid it if I don't have a reason to build up stamina and work on better times. Damn this running thing, it's completely sucked me in. I really, really like to be lazy and sit on the couch but I have noticed a significant decrease in my energy levels and my happiness. Direct correlation to lack of exercise? Probably. It makes me wonder, Richard Simmons seems like the happiest man on earth, how much does he work out? Or is he high? (Note: I just googled him because I wanted to be sure I had his name spelled correctly. The first image that popped up was him, naked, covered in veggies. I will never be able to erase that from my brain completely. That image should be illegal.)

So August 14th, Crawfish Crawl and possible September 12th, Pints to Pasta. Pints to Pasta is pretty great actually. Beer and spaghetti for running? Okay! Did I mention it's either downhill or completely flat? Hooray!

I've got my bodybugg back on, watching what I eat and really making an effort not to cheat. Damn that cheese danish that actually called my name last week. How do you say no to a cheese danish from Beaverton Bakery? It's like turning down a free vacation!

In addition to getting my feet back on the running path I decided it was time for me to branch out a bit, maybe get a hobby or seek out some new people to hang with/or see people I don't see enough of. My group of close girlfriends all have some pretty large life changes going on. Some are having babies, some are going back to school, and that means I see less of them. I don't have any huge new things to occupy me, and I've noticed that makes me a bit lonely, a bit grumpy, and a bit jealous. Lonely, grumpy, jealous does not a pretty Erin make.

My first step in solving this issue was deciding what to do with my time? What do I love? Books. So I'm starting a book club. A few old friends who I never see, and a few old coworkers who I adore are going to read some books, drink a few glasses of wine and chat. I think it sounds divine.

Good changes, good choices, good times!

Basically I've got my ass in gear and I'm not letting up on the gas. Going to get this whole body in shape. But I promise never to pose naked with food. Ever.

Say Cheese!

Have you ever looked at old family photos and had a really good laugh at the expense of your parents and their horrible hair cuts? Or maybe your Aunt Bea's (yes I really had an Aunt Bea) dress made entirely of doilies.

Or maybe you have a hidden gem like this one! I found this at Awkward Family Photos dot com which is full of things to giggle and snort at. They even have a book now, available at Amazon and a few other retailers. Pretty epic stuff.

Do you think they used a full can of AuqaNet to get their hair up that high? Maybe the family that teases together stays together? Based on it's parent's hair I can't even tell if that's a boy or girl! I'm leaning towards girl because there is more bang, but I can't be sure.

My mom had some pretty whacky things done to my hair in school but it never made me look like a Guns N' Roses groupie. The Poodle Perm of fifth grade was pretty bad though....

The real reason for this post though, is not to disparage those poor souls from the 80's who didn't know any better. The real reason is to share my own family photos!

Remember when I mentioned a few posts back that Scott and I had decided to have some photos taken? We (well maybe it was just me) were really excited about fun photos on a beach and looking all tan and youthful and basically just having a good time.

We were looking pretty adorable that morning if I do say so myself. I had a really cute green dress on. Scott was looking relaxed and beachy in khaki shorts and a white button down shirt. I even had good hair despite the crazy humidity. Bonus! We showed up at the beach and waited. Photographer was about 20 minutes late. Not a huge deal. We're on vacation and we're in Mexico. I'm not going to let it bother me.

Juan shows up, very apologetic, he'd had car trouble. No big deal, it's beautiful and we're ready. We start taking some photos, hand in hand, walking along the beach. This is perfect! Then he has us back up a little, to get more water. Okay, we're on a beach, that makes sense. Then I get hit with a wave that soaks half my dress...hmmm we've only been at this for 10-15 minutes and my dress is already drenched. Oh well, it's warm. It should dry some and this will be fine. Then he asks me to walk over some rocks. Great! These will be really cool shots! Then he asks me to wade into a pool of water about two to three feet deep. I'm only 5'3" tall. That's almost half of me. Hmmmm.

Apparently he thought this was a "Trash The Dress" session like my Sister in Law had scheduled to do later in the day. You see she had this awesome wedding dress to do that in as she'd been married the day before.

I think it's a fairly new trend in wedding photos, but it's a pretty awesome one. Brides roll around in sand and basically trash their dresses and get these amazing shots.

I wasn't in a wedding dress though. I was in a short little sun dress. So when a wave would hit me, it would flip my dress all the way up to my head. I think I put on a little lingerie show for the photographer.

Really, I think it comes down to a misunderstanding and my failure to verify exactly what I had in mind. I tried to go with the flow once it had started because what else can you do? Unfortunately it just didn't work for us. When it was all said and done I had sand so far into my ear that I had to use ear cleaning solution to get it out, Scott and were both exhausted and we felt a little beat up.

Still, even though I was a little apprehensive I tried to imagine what great shots we'd get out of it so I was okay with the whole ordeal.

Then I got the link to the photos.

For an hour of photo taking, for nearly $300 we got 20 retouched shots. I like one of them. I don't hate one other one. The 18 other photos are worthy of the website mentioned above. They will never see the light of day.

There are so many things wrong with some of them I can't list them all. Not everything was the photographers fault either. Like I look REALLY stiff in some of them. It's obvious I wasn't comfortable with what was going on. But my biggest pet peeve is that because we had to look directly into the sun, you never get to see Scott's eyes. Not once do his pretty blues show up. The sun was so bright, and we never changed directions so it was impossible for him to open his eyes. There are other things wrong too, but no point in dwelling. I guess we'll chalk this up to a learning experience, and maybe a sign that we shouldn't be doing family photos... Sometimes I need to pay more attention to the universe I guess. Maybe we'll try again someday. Dammit I wanted cute pictures for our house that aren't ten years old!

Here are the two I'm willing to share, and I cropped the first one. I'm hunched over in it, so unless I crop it it looks like my boobs are hanging down to my knees and my dress is all poofed out weird. Thank goodness for cropping tools! The second one is nice but my dress is wet and I think that looks a little weird. Plus I'm a little stiff. At least my tan and all that running made my legs look nice! Bright side right????


Warning - Large Containers Lead to Drinking Large Amounts of Liquid

White wine - good. Peach schnapps - good. Ginger ale - good. Fresh fruit marinated in white wine, peach schnapps and ginger ale - Mucho Goodo! Drinking sangria out of a giant jug - super fun! Waking up the next morning - painful beyond measure.

Uggg.I lost half of my day today because I had the worst hangover I can remember having in a very long time.

It all started because we were having a birthday party for Scott, his annual backyard bash. I made a batch of my peach sangria. Normally I'll get a little tipsy and then back off towards the end of the night precisely so I don't have a hang over. The trouble started here because Charity - bless her heart - showed up with GIANT jugs with straws. I think it was a 56 oz bottle. I'm not sure. It looks like this.

Let me say, that never once was it filled all the way up. So it's unlikely that I drank 56 oz of sangria. But sangria was put into it a few times, so there really is no way to know just how many ounces I did have. This is a bad thing. If you can't track how much you're drinking, and you don't eat too much, and you're have a great time on a nice warm evening you're going to lose track of just how tipsy you are. I was really, really, really, super really, tipsy. Fun! But I forgot to drink water and take ibuprofen. Not fun!

It was a good party though. I think everyone had a good time. We had a good turn out. The birthday boy had fun, and that's the most important part.

I am going to take a little break from sangria though...

Hello reality!

Back from a week in paradise (Mazatlan, Mexico) and settling back into reality. It's so easy to just hop on a plane, head to a tropical destination and forget that real life even exists...but then you come back with four extra pounds and a mound of laundry that is nearly as tall as you and well, reality is back.

We had a fantastic vacation. Scott's sister's wedding was beautiful, a perfect beach wedding. The kids were great, the pool was wonderful, the food was delectable. It really and truly was perfect.

I took today off so I could get the laundry done, go to the grocery store, pick the dog up from the kennel and just get our life put together again. It's amazing how "off" you get just being gone a week.

In addition to the daily tasks I'm getting caught up on I also decided to reevaluate my diet and exercise plan. I've got to get the last bit of weight off, I've got to win this bet. So back to the gym I go, with a resolve to mix it up, give it my all, and focus on things that will really work. It also means I've got to focus on our food. Time to eat better! Right now this doesn't sound so horrible. I ate cheese and fried food for a week so I'm looking forward to some healthy options.

I also spent the morning reviewing the Oregon Reproductive Medicine website. They are the other large fertility clinic here in Portland. We've always worked with OHSU but the last few times I had dealings with them I felt like I wasn't getting the answers and support that I needed. The process is scary and intimidating so I really want a place with some better communication and more support. I think I'm going to register us for one of the free seminars they give and then go to an prelim appointment. We're close, so close to being ready financially that I want to get things moving. Today I have the resolve to move heaven and earth to make it happen. Tomorrow that might change (because I fear failure and the process) so I'm going to take steps in my moments of bravery. If I don't make it happen, it's not going to happen at all. I might have to make that my new mantra.

I know that sometimes this is all repetitive, that we've been down this road before, that you might feel like you're reading Pete and Repete's blog, not Erin's. I certainly feel that way. I just hope that one of these times things work out a little different, or that we get a little further along in the process. If you can bear with me I promise to try and make it as interesting as possible, even when it's not about IVF. And those days when you can't take another post about my misery over babies, well you can go back and read the post about the speedo!