Bloomsday weekend is coming up!

I am so excited for the coming weekend and my favorite race of the year. I will be racing as a one legged gal, but oh well. Its all in the fun! There is something about the crazy crowds that just so appealing about Bloomsday. I also love the little fair the day before when we get our race packets and pa-rouse the trade show booths. This year I hope that they have the awesome scales where you can check your body fat. Maybe I will register in the "athletic" range. One can only hope! They didn't have that booth last year because of the economic downturn, but I hope its back!

Here are some photos of some previous Bloomsdays...

Bethany and I in 2008.

Matty and I after our race in 2009, wearing our new t-shirts!
This will be the fourth year running it! I looked for a photo from 2007 but it is nowhere to be found.

Beezley Burn

Matt & I had a lot of fun with Josh & Ellen this weekend in Ephrata. Matt & Josh competed in the Beezley Burn, which is a difficult mountain bike race that they do every year. I thought I would just quickly share a few pictures from the weekend...

It was a beautiful weekend and I'm really glad we went. I just have one more photo, which shows my raccoon eyes!

I am running!

Yes, I forced my dear husband to take a picture of me. How many pictures do I have of me on a run? None! Well this picture was taken this morning in Ephrata before I went on a little three mile jog. It was a gorgeous day. I love this day.
It is sunny and warm and the scenery here in this town is just beautiful. I love the way the canal reflects the bright blue of the sky. I love the way it is so quiet when I run. MOSTLY I love the way I wasn't in pain this morning on my jog. Three miles! Seems so short, but its the longest run since my injury. I am so happy today.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. :)

How my scrapbooking has changed

I got an idea from the "Ideas for Scrapbookers" blog. I took some photos of my REALLY old pages and it just shows a little how my style (and stash!) has changed.The first pages I made when I first started a scrapbook in 8th grade. An aunt gave me scrapbook products as a gift, and I also had my mom's punches and decorative scissors to work with. I made the whole scrapbook in less than a day, which was just the beginning of my "fast" scrapbooking.
Notice how there isn't any title and no captions, just lots of photos. The first page is the very beginning of my scrapbook and it doesn't even have my name on it! Oh well, I was 13 years old.

The next page is from 2006. I started scrapbooking a little right after we got married. All I had to work with were my engagement photos, and I didn't have very much time either. I only made a few pages. This page is really my first real scrapbook page ever! I used some stickers from the dollar store and Walmart. I really did love that mulberrry paper and loved the "tearing" look.The next two pages I made in 2007. I graduated from college and started to scrapbook EVERYTHING. I mostly just cut up my photos and added stickers from Jolee's that I got at Joann's. On the second page I really tried to be creative! I just loved that silver pen, used it for everything.

In 2008 I really started to try new techniques such as inking and stamping. I also discovered thickers! I started cutting up my papers more instead of using 12x12 pattern paper all in one piece. I did lots of stitching on my 2008 pages.
In 2009 I got a little lazy. I just had so many supplies, including a slice and cuttlebug. I had so much paper and embellishments as well! I had tons of fun scrapbooking, but got slightly lazy about using new techniques. Sad. :( This next page is one of my favorites from 2009. I discovered October Afternoon papers last year! I used them on this page for the first time! This year I have been doing less cutting of pictures and placing them very close together, usually in a grid-like pattern. I take so many photos and just cant stand to not use them all. In order to fit more photos on a page, I tend to squish them in pretty tightly! I think my style has gotten a lot of more simple in the last year, but I would still like to take more time to do more details.

Here is the website where I got this idea: ideasforscrapbookers.blogspot.com

Picnic! (and a silly discovery)

Hannah and Marcia and I went on a picnic at Magnuson Park. It was a beautiful day, albeit a little hazy. Warm enough not to wear a coat. Love that! We went on a little walk throughout the park and took lots of pictures, of course. It was nice to have Marcia around, since she takes pictures as well as me. Makes me not feel so crazy-paparazzi! Don't we just look strait out of an Anthropologie advertisement? (Just joking...Hannah and Marcia where joking about this today. We aren't stylish enough for Anthro, of course)
After our glorious little picnic I made my way to my FAVORITE store. Trader Joes! I already went shopping this week so I was just going to buy bread from the home meeting. It was nice to not have a shopping list, just peruse the aisles and see what there was to buy. There are always fun new things to see and of course the samples are amazing! They had two different kinds of cheeses today, yum! Anyway, today I used the restroom at TJ's for the first time and I was AMAZED at their AWESOME bathroom! It was painted as an underwater scene. So of course, I whipped out my camera...
Isn't it awesome? I hope its not gross to take photos in a bathroom. It was a pretty clean bathroom. Anyone else know this was there? Maybe I am the last to know. :)

Biker chick

Yep, that's me! I am a bike rider now. And even a bit of a bike commuter too, as I rode to and from work today. Yesterday I got quite discouraged because I tried to run and wasn't successful. My plan was to walk one mile, run one mile and walk one mile. But 1/2 way through the running mile my knee started throbbing, so I was back to walking! I am a little sick of gym work outs, so biking works great! It gets me outside, going fast but not in pain. Yay!

Matty was so sweet, he rode to work with me today and took my picture outside my work. Love that guy!



So my life is still not very interesting. Just trying to work out as much as possible, but sometimes taking time off to be lazy. :)

Wonderful weekend.

The last two days I have walked three miles each day. I am not in horrible pain!

Every time I go to Green lake I use those pull up bars! I have done several chin ups, and yesterday I even did a regular pull up!

Despite the fact that I worked in the morning, I had a really fun day! Lindsay and I walked together around Green lake, as I have already mentioned. We were joined by cute little Ziggy, her black & white French bulldog. The weather was gorgeous! Actually yesterday was the last day that we will work together on a Saturday, as she is soon to go back to school to be an Endodontist. :)

In the afternoon I was a good girl and did my leg exercises!

Charnelle and Tiffany were in town and we went downtown to Cheesecake factory! It was really fun. We scoured the calorie menu and found yummy salads which weren't so bad on calories. I got a delicious spicy chicken salad that was only 440 and it was HUGE! It was fun to be with the girls.



Matt and I went out later with Phil and Heather, for his birthday. The best part was that Phil had a rented BMW for the day and it was a convertable! First time in a convertable! I have a photo.

Beautiful day!

As I was going to the gym today I was enthralled by the strange weather. There were dark clouds on the entire horizon with a bright blue sky above. As I left the gym it was raining hard, but in the afternoon it was really pretty! I had to close the blinds at work to keep the bight sunshine out of my eyes. :)

Just thought I would highlight a few happy details.

I did two UNASSISTED chin ups today. At least half my body is working correctly. Very exciting. :)

I took a picture of a pretty flower today:



I had a fun coffee date at Zoka with Hannah. We played that game where you connect dots to make boxes on a napkin. Fun! But Hannah won.

Tomorrow I am going on a bike ride. :)

I had a nice day at work. Of course the bright sunlight streaming in didn't hurt!

My legs feel a little better today. Matt and I have sure been working hard getting them healed!

Matty made me dinner tonight! He made mozzarella stuffed chicken, a vegetable medley (delicious!) and Caesar salad. Thanks Matt!



Since I am injured I have been trying to stay positive!

Ice Whirlpool

I just thought I would post a photo of me being hard core! 25 minutes in an ice whirlpool (aka garbage can with fishtank pump) is very difficult! Just part of my wonderful physical therapy routine. I really want to be able to run Bloomsday.



The coat keeps me from freezing and Matt also makes me hot tea. Tonight I stood in the bucket while I watched "Castle." Funny show!

Shopping and YoSwirl!

Because this is a less than ideal Friday (due to a knee that I believe will never be the same again) I decided to got shopping with Hannah. Even Matt told me to go buy stuff! So I did. :) I got:

1) New bra from Victoria Secret. On sale and with a $10 gift card.
2) New t-shirt from American Eagle. Accidentally tried on some skinny pants and they looked HORRIBLE! Even with my less fat self, I just can't pull those off.
3) TWO new t-shirts from GAP. With a gift card.
4) Two fragrances and one bubble bath from Bath & body works. We just had to take advantage of the sale, Buy three, get three free. :)
5) YoSwirl! My favorite frozen yogurt that is tart like real yogurt and only 70 calories per half cup. Can't beat that!
6) Subway sandwich for lunch. We split a $5 foot long and kept it pretty low calorie.

Here is Hannah with our yogurts and shopping bags:


Yummy Yogurt! My favorite! Its only about 150 calories for the whole cup! The lady made ours extra big and extra pretty, so of course I took a photo.

Weekend update + funny observation

I just back from Costco and before I forget I must say that I saw a very funny thing there! I wish I had my camera. Actually I did have my camera, but was too embarrassed to whip it out. The woman behind me was purchasing three items: Wine, Sausage and a book, "The belly fat cure." Maybe its just my obsession with weight loss, but this cracked me up! I wanted to tell her, "The way to cure belly fat is to NOT buy three bottles of wine and a Costco sized package of full fat sausage!"

Okay, so now I have some real content. I had an awesome weekend with some of my favorite friends and beautiful wedding, and therefore have some photos to share...

Me and my grandparents. My grandma is not doing so well, so it was great to have a chance to spend time with them.


Getting nails done with all the girls! My manicure & pedicure are still in good shape after five days!


Hanging out at Joe & Renae's...have you ever seen more people in a small living room?


The beautiful bride and me in my new giraffe dress!


Fun weekend! Now I have a couple days off so I am committed to completing a few things: Laundry, house cleaning, knee healing, and finding photos for the front of my albums. Its going to be a blast. :)

(Anne-Marie tells me that I use too many exclamation points, so I am making an effort to using less of them!!!)