Links I Love

Happy Tuesday! Wednesday! It’s raining here and in case you forgot….I heart rain!

Look at what I’ve been pinning lately or sharing, or just find downright amusing lately:

These cute little candy corn trees.  You could make a cone out of cardboard, like a cereal box, and cover that with your yarn.  In case you haven’t priced styro foam trees lately, they are darn spendy!

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Soda.  Do you drink it?  I thought this was interesting.  I used to drink more soda than water.  Now, I’d rather have a brownie than a Cherry Pepsi. Soda isn’t a treat to me.  Brownies?  You bet your bottom dollar!

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Oh and this polka dot scarf?  I must find this!!

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And lastly this little pumpkin?  Do you decorate and or carve pumpkins? 

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I’m thinking of gold, glitter, and pumpkins this year along with a monogram.  Funny story.  The monogram toppers for wedding cakes?  I’m kicking myself we didn’t do this as a joke.  Our fancy monogram would have read s. S. a.  Put my name in the front?  Hilariousness for DAYYYSSSSS!  What am I thinking, YEAARRRSS as I’m still laughing at the thought.

The easiest hard decision I’ve ever had to make this week

I have a confession to make.  My last long run? Oh, umm, it was back in August on the 17th.  Fourteen miles…split between two days. It was rough.  The week before, I busted out 18 miles.  And by “busted” I mean, I ran on the treadmill.  Treadmill running is still legit but 18 miles on a treadmill is a WHOLE different world than on pavement or trails.  Ya know?   Then the week after the rough/split 14 miles, we went to San Francisco to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. After that, I kind of face planted into a mess of not wanting to get up in the morning to run, right as the teens started ramping up their daily doubles and the rest of the back to school events ensued.  And by events, I kind of just mean, back to school shopping and soaking up the rest of the summer in a kick backed manner.

Basically, I just painted you a messy picture of why I decided yesterday that I’m not going to run the Portland, Oregon marathon for my 4th year in a row.  (See I had to tell you I’ve already run it three times so you wouldn’t think I’m a slacker….but we all know the truth. Shhh….)

I’m ok with it.  I had been dreading it and already looking past it to future races.  I’d love to focus on some shorter races and stay in running shape for a half marathon being my longest distance.  I know there will be more full marathons, but for now, I’m really pleased with my decision. There have been some shorter races in the spring and summer that I would like to do and a trail running series that sounds fun, but I’ve either been too tired from marathon training or I didn’t want to risk getting injured. My hubs and I have already planned on running a local 5k here on October 5th and we’re going out for a test run next Sunday.  That’s progress!  We haven’t run together since October of last year.  Having a treadmill handy, I guess I kind of turned into an agoraphobic or one of these phobias:

Chionophobia

This is the fear of snow. Which if you're a winter sports fan sounds pretty unusual but it often centers around a fear of snow flakes, making it an awkward phobia to have in certain climates.

Gephyrophobia

Another awkward worry to have: the fear of crossing bridges. If you're unfortunate enough to suffer from this then your journeys could get a lot longer. Modern architecture helps prevent disasters like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed spectacularly in 1940, just a few months after it was first opened to the public.

Fear of cracks in the pavement

Another one I couldn't find an official name for. This is the phobia of stepping on cracks in the pavement and is normally coupled with the worry that the cracks will open up and maybe swallow you up or - in one of the more extreme examples I found - suck you into another dimension entirely.

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Oh and in other news?  Two of the peeps at my office have some sort of yucky cold/flu.

 

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Not that I want to get sick but it’s not like I’m on Outbreak Watch like I have been in past years.  Well, I did disinfect my phone this morning after a client used it, so never mind.

 

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Friday Favorites

 

1. Collages!  Most of my pics are snapped with my smartphone.  I’m lazy.  I’m not very sorry about that.  It’s not like the pictures I take with my point and shoot are that much better.  I haven’t felt the need to go fancy yet with an SLR.  I guess I’m fancy enough on my own. *snort  Back to my point, photo collages, in my little pea brain opinion, mask the poor quality of my pictures to a certain degree.  Now that I just pointed that out, well, shoot.

2. My new journal from Poppin.  I found this at Staples and I’m instantly in love.  It has kind of a leather feel. I added the tabs myself.  I’m a list maker.  I know.  I have issues. I went with white even though I was instantly drawn to the hot pink.  I figured it would be a nice background to all my other colorful office supplies I hoard use.  I followed them on Instagram and Pinterest and they sent me a $5 off coupon.  Time to go shopping?

3. CeCe my raccoon mug.  Or as I like to call her, Brown Cece.  My girls named my mug after naming their mugs Schmidt (the Squirrel mug) and Winston (the Hedgehog).  Ten brownie points if you can tell me which hit TV show we are obsessed with!

4. These husky faces.  OH MY GOODNESS!  I know this is old but every time I stumble upon it on my Pinterest board I seriously laugh out loud. And did you know that looking at cute animal pictures makes you smarter??!!

5. Bianca.  This little lady has been getting braver (she’s a rescue kitty that I’ve had for 7 years) and she usually hides under my bed and most definitely does not leave our bedroom “suite”.  She is very friendly with me and my hubs but she still skitters under the bed if I come in to the room too quickly and startle her.  Well, Miss Biancerdonkershmonker, as I call her for short, has been wondering downstairs lately.  The house has to be completely quiet with no kid or hub commotion.  She will wander down and usually find me on my ipad with a cup of coffee early on a Saturday morning.  Who knows how brave she’ll be in another 7 years?!

It’s Raining…AND I CAN WEAR BOOTS!

It finally feels like Fall!!  This morning, the weather was just what I ordered.  Time to break out the boots!  I’m nuts for Fall.  I just love it all!  (And nope, didn’t mean to make that rhyme.)  I even took a picture of the rain pouring down on the street.  I live in a place called the City of Sunshine.  I like rain.  I’m a moody type of gal.  Give me a candle, a pillow, a cup of tea and a movie marathon…wait…maybe I’m just lazy?  SOUP WEATHER TOO!  OK, I’m done.

Friday the 13th Friday Favorites

My first baby was born on the 13th day of February and ever since, the number 13 has been my favorite number.  I also like to take something with a bad rap and squeeze it hard enough until nothing but cuteness and sugar oozes out.  I really have no idea what that means but we’ll just go with it.

Things that I have been loving lately?  I thought I would share with ya!  And you should do the same.  We’ll be best friends if you happen to share my love of squirrels, bunnies, or hedgehogs.

1. This new “happy” mug.  (I have a different coffee mug that I like to pull out for each season and I’ve been adding to my collection a little bit at a time.)

2. My new kitchen towels.  They are so cute you just want to vomit, huh?!!

3. This gorgeous new color of shellac…that you’ll just have to trust me…it’s awesome.  It’s a grey/purple called Jet Set.  Perfect for Fall.

4. This cake in a mug.  SO TO DIE. FOR. Seriously!  Thank you Paleomg.

5. One thing that has perplexed me lately?  You’re stopped at a red light and the car in front of you has left one to two car lengths of space between them and the car in front of them.  Why?  I really need to be given a good reason as to why this happens. I’ve been noticing this a lot.  I’d understand if we were on a hill, or if there was snow and ice on the roads.  But dry pavement?  I don’t get it.

6. Playing croquet in the back yard.  I guess I will miss this when the weather turns but the directions do say to try Snow Croquet.

So there you have it!  I’m getting really jazzed about the cooler weather that is in our forecast.  Get me past Saturday which is supposed to be in the 90s and then I think the Fall sailing will be smooth.  I’m just about as desperate for Fall weather as everyone else is in the blogging sphere.  I’m not stupid though and know that once we take that dip, that the snow is not too far away. Just give me some dang soup weather already! 

What have I been doing since I last posted?

 

• Working my new job (We just moved into a beautifully new and decorated space)
• Wearing my taxi cab driver hat (Taking two freshman teens to volleyball and football practice.  Sometimes twice a day for both of them!)
• Cooking up a storm
• Kicking butt with my Whole30/Whole9/Paleo-ish diet

• Running (Some but not a lot.  It SHOULD be a LOT but I lost my motivation and my October marathon is going to murder me.)
• Traveling to exotic cities, like umm, San Francisco?   (That counts as exotic, right?)

• Celebrating 5 years of marriage!
• Playing croquet like an old person

• Crafting and sewing when I should be doing other stuff.
• And laundry.  I’ve been doing lots of laundry.  And dishes.
• Lots. Of. Dishes

I think I owe you a bigger explanation of my whole 30 day journey with Whole30 and how that all went down, but uh, I slacked in keeping track of what all I was eating.  I will share with you that I lost 14 pounds total…ayynnnnddd, I gained three pounds back with my trip to San Fran.  I actually did a 33 day stretch there of no dairy, sugar, legumes, grains nor alcohol and on Friday night on our drive to see the Golden Gate Bridge, I overdosed on frozen yogurt.  It was worth it!  Weight loss aside, I loved how I felt without sugar being in control of my life.  I went to bed with a flat stomach and woke up not looking like I was 6 months preggo.  My blood sugar levels felt the most stable they’ve been in over 20 years.  I went up to five hours between a meal once without feeling like I was close to slipping into a coma or kill anyone.  So am I going to keep this up?  You betcha!  It won’t be perfect and I will indulge when it’s worth it…but it’s got to be worth it.  I’m talking to you fro-yo.