12 Years!

Yesterday, I celebrated 12 years of marriage to my wonderful husband, Jeff.

Over the years, we haven't ever really given each other gifts to celebrate our anniversary. However, Jeff gave me a couple little traditional gifts for our 10-year, so last year we decided that each year for the next decade for our marriage, we would choose a traditional gift together. Year 11 is steel, and we bought a wine corkscrew.

The traditional gift for a 12 year anniversary is Silk. Since we are on a tight budget right now, and didn't want to buy actual gifts that we may or may not ever use like a silk scarf (for me) or a silk tie (for Jeff), I found a restaurant called Silk Road Asian Bistro.

Ultimate Coffee Date - December 2016

Happy December! Since it's the first Saturday of the month, it's time for the Ultimate Coffee Date with Coco & Deborah. It's always fun to catch up with all of you on what's been going over a nice hot cup of joe (or tea, in my case this morning).

The last Ultimate Coffee Date seems both like it was a long time ago and that it was just last week. Anyone else feel this way about November? Just me?

How much to do you LOVE my new December mug?
Not much snow here in Vegas, but I still love it SNOW MUCH. hehehe

Week in Review 11/27

Hope you all survived Thanksgiving and are getting in the holiday spirit!

I started the #RWRunStreak on Thanksgiving as well as a new Nike+ training program. To help hold myself accountable, I thought it would be a good idea to do a Week in Review post each Sunday.

I'm mostly focused on running right now, but this frog doing yoga was just too cute!

Anniversary Weekend Recap

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you might know that Sunday was my 10-year wedding anniversary! Wow! It's crazy that it's already been 10 years.

Since we are trying to save money to buy a house, we didn't want to get too extravagant for this milestone anniversary.

Jeff did surprise me with a couple small gifts. Apparently the gift for 10 years is either tin or aluminum (depending on who you ask), so he got me this fun pencil set.

I've been missing NYC lately and kind of wishing we were still living there, so this pencil set was super thoughtful!

He also got me this little Space Case.

And wrote this sweet note on a little scroll.

I'm not sure what I'll use the case for yet, but I love it!

We got all dolled up and went to Envy Steakhouse. We live about 1 1/2 blocks from this restaurant, and it always smells so good when I run past it, so we thought we'd give it a try!

Jeff made the reservation for 8pm, and even though I started getting ready around 1:30pm, we were a little late. All my primping took a little longer than anticipated. Or maybe it was all the YouTube tutorials I watched for tips on my nails and makeup. lol.

My apologies for the creepy photo-bombing dog.

Since we were running late, we didn't really have a chance to take many pictures, but I was in love with my outfit and makeup and nails. It took awhile, but everything really came together and I felt like a million bucks.

When Jeff made the reservation, he mentioned we were celebrating our anniversary, and WOW! Everyone at Envy really made it extra special. I think that everyone stopped by to wish us a Happy Anniversary and thanked us for celebrating with them.

And told us to save room for dessert. :)

We started off with a glass of Chianti (for me) and some whisky (for Jeff). We were feeling adventurous and thought it would be fun to try something new. The Chianti was good, but nothing spectacular. Of course, I'm only starting to enjoy red wine. Jeff still isn't a huge fan of whisky. I couldn't even bring myself to try it. The smell was too strong for me.

Then came out the bread. It was delicious! I think there was 4 different varieties of dinner rolls. I ate two and Jeff at two.

We ordered the Heirloom Tomato Caprese starter. Such a great choice!

For our entree, we split the Tomahawk. It's a 40-oz ribeye steak served with grilled asparagus. We also ordered a side of garlic mashed potatoes.

We spent the entire meal recounting all the fun adventures we've had in the past 10 years.

Vacations to Chicago, NYC, San Francisco, USVI St Thomas, Costa Rica.
Living in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, Oregon, back to Minneapolis/St Paul.
How we ended up in Las Vegas more than two years ago.
Lots of random stories; many that I'd totally forgotten about.

The food and the conversation were perfect way to celebrate our anniversary.

And then they brought out dessert and a card from the manager - including a card for a complimentary glass of wine on our next visit.

It was an incredible night! Definitely a great way to celebrate and honor 10 wonderful years of happiness.

If you're ever in Vegas and celebrating a special occasion, I would definitely recommend Envy Steakhouse!
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December - You're going to be a great month!

Happy December, everyone!

Here are a few reasons why I'm excited for December.

#1. Today I'm starting a 21-Day ‘Re’-Bootcamp program with Tamara over at Fitknitchick.

After spending the past few months focusing on running and marathon training, I definitely need a reset. I want to get back on track with better eating and exercising more than just those running muscles.

Today's task is to Find Your Exercise Why to focus on during the 3 week program. She gave us a list of benefits of exercise to help us choose our why. I'm choosing to focus on how exercise will (hopefully) reduce my desire for sweet and fatty foods. Let's just say we've gotten off track with our eating a while ago, and I need some motivation to get back on track.

It's too late to join in this challenge with Tamara, but if any of you are already registered, let me know! I'd love to follow your journey on this!

#2 Running is not completely going on pause. It's just not going to be the main focus. :) Today is also the start of the holiday #RunChatHunt - 12 Days of finding fun things on your run and posting them on Twitter! Click the link to see the list of things to find!

I'm also attempting the holiday #RWRunStreak - 36 Days of Awesome! This started on Thanksgiving and goes until New Years. At least 1 mile a day.

Anyone else doing either of these challenges?

#3. And probably the best one. Dec 21st is my 10th anniversary!

12.21.2004

It's crazy to think that I've been married for almost 10 years! We don't have anything too crazy planned to celebrate, because we are also trying to save for a house. Probably just a nice dinner and a show. We live in Vegas after all. :) It doesn't really matter what we do, as long we we're together. Cheesy, I know!

What fun plans do you have for December?

Before I go... Don't miss out on these Cyber Monday specials!

• 20% off at Cocogo. Plus an additional 10% with code: ENJOYINGTHECOURSE (Yes, I do believe the code needs to be in all caps)
• 30% off any plan at Diet-to-Go
• Runtastic Running Set for only $84.99

Plus the girls at Sweat Pink Partnered with some amazing companies to offer you the best CyberMonday deals like:

• 15% off at prAna. Code: pranastillsweatspink
• 40% off Pro Compression. Code: pink2
• 10% off Flip Belt. Code: sweat10
• 3-month Bulu Box subscription for $10. Code: SWEATPINK

I'm off to squeeze in a short run before work! Make it a great Monday!!

Ultimate Coffee Date

Good morning! So, yeah, I'm a week late to the party, but I still have a few things I wanted to share and didn't want to wait all the way until July!

Plus, who doesn't like a little coffee date with your closest blogging friends anytime of the month.

Hiking Bristlecone Loop

Sunday morning, Jeff and I got up bright and early. Well, early for us on a weekend. :) We met some friends and headed to Mt Charleston for a morning of hiking.

Gorgeous morning for a hike!

We parked in the Lower Bristlecone Loop parking lot and started our hike from there. In total there were 8 humans and 5 dogs in our little hiking party.

The Sallie-girl came along with us, and she had a total blast walking along the trail with us without her leash. She played a little with the other dogs, but she was so good staying near us and not running off to explore places and things that she shouldn't.

I'd forgotten to charge my watch, so I left it at home. I wasn't planning on running, so I wasn't too concerned about time or distance. I'm guessing we did about 5.5-6 miles, and it took us roughly 3 hours. If I'm remembering correctly.

More on how Sallie, Jeff, and I survived the hike in a bit, but first, let's talk about the actual trail.

Bristlecone Loop is pretty easy to find. From Las Vegas, you travel north on US-95 for a few miles outside of the city. From there you'll take Lee Canyon Rd. It's a left-hand turn, and I'm pretty sure that it's well-marked. Don't take Kyle Canyon Road. That's the first Mt Charleston sign you'll see, but you'll end up on the wrong side of the mountain.

We weren't really paying attention to the odometer, so I'm not sure how many miles you drive once you're on Lee Canyon road, but you'll pass a few campsites and at least one other trailhead, Sawmill. There's a good sign for the Bristlecone Lower Loop parking lot.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day + Friday = AWESOME

Well, except that I am getting sick. Sucking on a cough drop right now to soothe my scratchy throat. :-( Booo.

We don't really have any plans tonight. Just gonna make dinner and have a nice low key evening. Maybe watch a movie. We're all kinds of crazy, I know.

Three Things Thursday 2/6

This week seems to really be flying by! I can hardly believe it's already Thursday. Yay!! Almost Friday. :-)

I've got a few exciting things to share!

1. I ran the first race for this round of #5bythe5th virtual race series and GOT A PR! I waited until the 5th to run it because I had a tempo run on schedule for the 5th and thought that would be perfect! Turns out it was! It was only in the 40s, so I wore my new Crazy Compression sleeves and a LS shirt. I was still cold, but I think that made me run a bit faster. I was listening to one of my favorite Rock My Run mixes - Grrl Power. I tried to use the music to push me faster instead of just singing along. Whenever I was tempted to sing, I thought, If you can sing, you can run faster. So instead of singing, I'd run faster.

Here are the numbers:

Total Time	27:04
Avg Pace	8:49 min/mile
Mile 1	8:38 min
Mile 2	8:45 min
Mile 3	8:41 min
3.1	:59 min

I was pleasantly surprised - not only with the PR, but with actually pushing myself to run a tempo run. This is probably one of the few races I feel like I actually raced. With a goal of getting a sub-25:00 5k, I need to keep up with the tempo runs (and other speed work), but I feel like I'm heading in the right direction.

2. Don't forget that tomorrow is National Wear Red Day! Katie at From Ice Cream to Marathon and I are co-hosting a little linky party to celebrate - Wear Red Selfies. Be sure and stop back by tomorrow to share your selfie and why you're wearing red. For more information on heart disease and National Wear Red Day, visit goredforwomen.org.

Feel free to snag this little button for your post.

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If you're not a blogger and still want to link up with us, you can still link up. I'll tell you how in tomorrow's post.

3. Jeff and I have some exciting plans for this weekend! I posted a teaser pic on Instagram last night. Can you guess what we'll be doing? Hint: I has nothing to do with the bikes in the background of the picture.

What's exciting you today?
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Monday Listicles - The Weekend

This week's Monday Listicles theme is things to do on the weekend. Our weekends are generally pretty mellow, so here's a list of some regular things we do and some things I wish we'd do more. So, in no particular order...

10 Things to Do during the Weekend

1. Stay up way too late
We don't do this every weekend, but this past weekend we were up until 3am Sat morning. Just talking about random things

2. Sleep in way too late
When Sallie is feeling generous. She likes her breakfast at a very early hour and isn't too keen on pushing that back. But sometimes I convince her to sleep a bit later.

3. Be a tourist in our own town
Of course we live in a pretty great town to do this. This weekend we went to the Stratosphere.

4. Go for a run
I try to get out for a run at least once every weekend.

5. Make a fun breakfast
Pancakes, french toast, omelettes. Not all at the same time.

6. Go for a bike ride or for a hike
We don't do this nearly as often as I'd like, but one of these weekends we'll do it!

7. ROAD TRIP!
Again, we have yet to do this since moving to Vegas, but sometime this year, I hope we take a few short road trips. LA, San Diego, Phoenix, Grand Canyon are a few of the places I'd love to go.

8. Relax and do nothing
This is how most of my weekends actually go. Or I get caught up on stuff around the house, like cleaning, organizing or doing laundry.

9. Marathon - movies or TV
Now, this is something that we'll frequently do - but we haven't for awhile.

10. NAP
Which includes lots of Sallie snuggle time. Some of my favorite moments are snuggling with her.

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Linking up with Stasha. Head on over there to see how everyone else spends their weekends and to see what next week's theme is.

Birthday Weekend Recap

If you follow me on Instagram, you've likely already seen glimpses into my birthday weekend, and like I mentioned yesterday, it was one of my best birthdays ever!

As we were walking to dinner last night, I was telling Jeff about how much I enjoyed everything about my birthday this year. I described it as low key with lots of activity.

Friday

I was greeted at work with balloons and cupcakes. Yum! I wore my sexy yellow shoes and got a ton of compliments on them. A co-worker brought me a delicious latte from Starbucks. My department went to Yogurtland for lunch. I definitely felt a bit spoiled.

The evening was spent lounging and watching TV. We ate a nice pasta dinner and went to bed early for a Friday night.

Saturday

Jeff and I woke up early to head to the Sprinkler Sprint. We left shortly after 6am to run/bike to the race. We met up with my friend, Crosby, but only ran the first 0.7 miles with him before Jeff had to walk. You can read more about the race here.

On the way home from the race, Jeff hit a curb the wrong way with his bike and fell. He caught himself with his palm, and the handlebar hit his leg, but he was otherwise ok. We separated paths at that point, so we could get home faster to ice his palm.

I got home, stretched, made us some eggs, and watched TV. Jeff had stayed up way too late and only got  a few hours of sleep before the race, so he laid down for a nap. I followed an hour or so later.

We hit the pool for a bit after our naps, and then I started getting ready to go out for my birthday. I needed to shave and wanted to give myself a mani/pedi, so I gave myself plenty of time to get ready and not feel rushed.

We were meeting some friends downtown at the newly re-opened Gold Spike. I'd been there back in July and thought it would be a great place to hang out on my birthday. They have all these giant games, like Jenga, Beer Pong, and Connect 4. The only thing I absolutely wanted to do was play Connect 4.

After the Gold Spike, we met some friends over at El Cortez, where we randomly met up with other friends who just happened to be there. I almost made my karaoke debut, but the karaoke bar closed before they got to my song. Probably for the best.

But maybe next time...

After the karaoke bar closed around 2am, we walked around and hit a couple other bars before heading home around 3:30am.

Now you know why I wanted to have my long run out of the way on Saturday. :)

Sunday

I still didn't sleep in all that late on Sunday. I woke up shortly before 9, and thought if I hurried out of bed, I could probably make it to Lululemon for Sunday morning yoga.

I didn't.

But I did get in a 2 mile recovery run around 10am.

Jeff was still sleeping (he didn't go to bed until around 8am), so I headed to the mall for my birthday treat from Red Mango.

And then hit Bath and Body Works for a free bottle of lotion. It wasn't for my birthday per se, but it was pretty perfect timing. :)  Then it was time for Walmart for some groceries.

After shopping, we hit the pool and hot tub and got into a very lengthy conversation with one of the old men at the pool on the quality of movies today. It was interesting to say the least.

We walked to RedBox because I'd received a coupon code for a free movie, but our card wasn't working. Instead, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner, and watched the Netflix movie that was in our mailbox waiting for us.

Monday

I took Monday off from work to extend my birthday weekend. I only slept in until around 8am, and then made a delicious breakfast and worked on my Marathon Monday post.

We had somehow managed to really trash our apartment the previous few days, so I straightened up the whole apartment - including the closet that had become quite the hodgepodge mess. It felt good and very satisfying.

Some of our neighbors were playing really loud music very early Monday morning - keeping Jeff awake, so he pretty much slept until after 2pm. We hit the pool when he woke up and chatted with the old men for a bit until I felt like the afternoon was getting away from us.

I still wanted to cash in on my free pizza from Grimaldi's to end my birthday weekend. We got all ready and then walked to the Palazzo. We went there last year for my birthday, too, but we'd taken a different route. We were surprised at how easy it was to find. We hope to start going there more frequently than the once a year for my birthday. Hey, I should probably sign Jeff up, so we can get free pizza on his birthday, too!!

We tried 3 different cheesecakes for dessert. While they were delicious, they really threw me over the edge. I couldn't eat even one more bite!

We brought home about 1/2 the pizza, so guess what I'll be eating for lunch today?

On the walk home, we stopped by the waterfalls outside the Wynn.

And Jeff had to take a little break, too. :)

Oh, and I can't forget the gifts I received.

The cookbook totally cracked me up! The chocolates were delicious, and the card was super cute.

Now, it's back to reality and back to work, but this is definitely going down as one of my most favorite birthdays ever! We crammed a lot of stuff in during the weekend, but it was all so fun with hardly any time crunches, so I was able to soak it all in and just ENJOY!

Do you take a day off from work for your birthday?
What's your favorite way to celebrate?
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And now for NASCAR

I know, I know. I promised you this post on Tuesday. Well, I didn't feel well Tuesday morning, so I opted to sleep in a bit and then I decided to go for a run after work. The sun was shining; it was in the 70s, and I still had about an hour or so before sunset. I simply couldn't resist getting out there for a run.

NASCAR was super fun, but getting there was not.

As we were leaving the CeeLo show, I remember checking the time on my phone. 1:51am. By the time we finished unlocking our biking and getting all set to go, it was after 3:00am.  No, we're not that slow, Daylight Savings Time started, and our phones automatically sprang ahead. :)

By the time we biked home and got everything situated, I ended up going to sleep around 4:00am. Unfortunately, Jeff didn't get to sleep until after 7:00am. It was definitely going to be a LONG day.

Earlier in the week, my brother randomly messaged me on Facebook saying he was in town for some training and wanted to know if I wanted to get together. So, I naturally invited him to come to NASCAR with us. Had I looked up the time of the race, I probably wouldn't have. Nor would I have gone through the trouble of snagging an extra ticket for him. I'd gotten free tickets from work. I love my job!

If we didn't have plans to meet my brother, we probably would have skipped going.

We ended up leaving about 20 minutes later than we'd wanted. It probably would've been fine except traffic was BAD!

At the first sign of delay, I texted my brother to say we were about to get stuck in traffic. I kept sending him little updates, but the data gods weren't with us and our messages to each other weren't being sent/received. So frustrating!!

We finally met up shortly after noon (when the race was supposed to start), so we missed the driver introductions. Since none of us are true NASCAR fans, the driver intros really would've been nice to hear.

After finding our seats, we started picking out our favorite cars by the colors. :) They were still doing warm-up laps, so we didn't really miss anything.

It was super loud and super exciting! Even though we didn't really know who any of the drivers were (except Danica Patrick, of course). It was fun to watch the cars make their laps, but it was also fun to watch the board with the rankings. :D

After about 50 laps, we left the stands in search of something to drink. I was super thirsty! As we were walking around everything smelled so good! The more we walked, the hungrier I got.

My brother and I settled on roasted corn on the cob.

I was really surprised at how much it filled me up. Well, I may or may not have eaten more than half of Jeff's fries as well. He'd ordered a basket of chicken fingers and fries.

Our quest for food took about 75 or so laps before we got back to our seats. We finished our food, analyzed the rankings of the cars, and then made the decision to leave early to try and beat the traffic on the way home. A caution flag came out around lap 190, and we decided that would be a good time to head out.

We were so lucky we left when we did! There was an accident just before the race ended, which affected the race traffic by hours. So happy we weren't stuck in that!

Have you ever been to a NASCAR race?
How do you feel about leaving an event early in order to avoid traffic?
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I LOVE..

It's finally Valentine's Day!! Not that we're really doing anything special to celebrate. I think I'll finally make the nice pasta dinner that I've been threatening to make all week, and maybe we'll take a soak in the hot tub, if it's nice enough outside.

I've only got a few minutes before I have to dash off to work, but I wanted to share three things I'm really in love with right now.

1. My Family

It's a little weird to think that right now my immediate family consists of me, my husband and our dog. I'm 35yo, so I don't think I can really count my parents and siblings as immediate anymore. I still love them, of course. I always will. But the love I have for Jeff and Sallie (yes, I know she's a dog), is kind of a different kind of love. Jeff and Sallie bring me lots of smiles every day. I love talking to them. And playing together. We have a pretty great time together. And I certainly wouldn't change that for anything!

2. My Life

My job is going really well. Our apartment is wonderful. I've been running and working out pretty consistently. I'm enjoying being a #FitFluential ambassador. You already know why I'm loving my bike, too. More days than not I find myself smiling for no apparent reason and just being filled with all kinds of love and positive energy.

3. My Bed

This may sound weird, but I really am in love with my bed.

DynastyMattress New Cool Breeze 12-Inch Gel Memory Foam Mattress-King Size.


We've only been married for 8 years, and this is the 5th mattress we've purchased. 5th time's the charm, right? It's a firm mattress, true, but it just envelopes me in a supportive way that is difficult to describe but absolutely perfect!

I'm not sure I've ever loved something more. Certainly no other mattress has compared to this. I could seriously go on and on and on, but I've got to get to work. If you're in the market for a new mattress, I'd recommend this. Hands down. Best part is that it's less than $700. For a mattress? Yep.

We've had it for almost two month's now, so I feel like this love is real and here to stay. :-)

What are you loving today?
Any big plans to celebrate Valentine's Day
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A Memory a Year

Today's theme, 10 ORNAMENTS ON YOUR TREE AND STORIES BEHIND THEM for Monday Listicles came to us from Kelly. Well, we don't have a tree or any ornaments since we don't really celebrate Christmas, BUT this last Friday was our 8-year wedding anniversary, so here are some favorite memories from our marriage - one from each year.

10 MEMORIES OR STORIES OF US 

1. We started dating in the beginning of Oct 2004. He invited me over to help him make Hamburger Helper. LOL. Decided things were moving too fast by the beginning of Nov, so we broke up. Our break-up lasted maybe three days before we decided to get engaged rather than break-up. :-) We were married six weeks later.


2. In 2005, we moved to Brooklyn, NY, but first we went for a short vacation to check it out. We were there for five days, I think, and ended up in Battery Park nearly every. single. day. Here's a conversation from one trip on the subway:
   
   

   Jeff: Check out this sign! It's written in seven different languages.
   Me: Wow! How cool!! Love the diversity of NYC.
   ***
   Me: Um, sweetie? Did you actually read the sign.
   Jeff: Nope. Why?
   Me: Well, it says that in order to get off at Battery Park, we need to be in one of the first three cars. Do you think we are?
   Jeff: No idea.
   
   

   So, we proceeded to walk through as many cars as we could, trying to get to the front of the train. We ended up getting off the train at the stop just after/before Battery Park, because we, in fact, were not in one of the first three cars. Oops!


3. In 2006 we moved from Brooklyn, NY to Dayton, OR just outside of Portland. A few weeks after moving, we made a trip back to MN for a visit. Via Amtrak. The trip out was 36 hours of hell. Ok, it wasn't really that bad, but it certainly wasn't all that comfortable. We upgraded to a suite for the return trip, and it was MUCH better. :) I actually got some sleep. ;-) Jeff, of course, loved every minute of the train trip.


4. 2007 brought us back to MN, and we moved into our first studio apartment. Now, when we first got married and were looking for an apartment, I was adament against living in a studio. What if we argued and I needed my own space. Just a few years later, I knew that our marriage would be able to survive living in a small space together. :-) Plus, it was a super nice studio. Barely a couple years old and the layout was just perfect. It even had a w/d in the unit. Yay! We really loved the location, too.


5. We moved twice in 2008 both in the Twin Cities, but the best thing to happen that year was adopting our cutie-patootie, Sallie Sue! We were staying with my parents between apartments, and they wanted to adopt another dog, so we went with them to the Animal Humane Society. Jeff immediately fell in love with Sallie, but I was unsure. We took her outside to play in the little dog run, and she promptly poo'ed. Right behind Jeff's foot. Which he then promptly stepped in. The smell was horrid!  I was pretty much done at that point. She was so expensive and her poo made me gag. Seemed like a lot of extra work. But somehow Jeff convinced me that we should adopt her. I'm thankful for this decision every single day. I really can't imagine my life without her cuteness in it.
   
   
   
   
   


6. In the summer of 2009, we took a massively long road trip 4600 miles to a nephews's graduation in WA. Instead of driving straight there, we went through SD, WY, UT, NV, CA to get to Yosemite, OR, and finally WA. We took the straight way back home. ;-) We got to see so much of the country, and it was so fun!


7. We wanted to do something special for our five year anniversary, and we had the whole month of January off from school, so we booked a trip to Water Island in Jan 2010. It's the smallest of the US Virgin Islands, just off St Thomas. We were there for a week, and we fell in love with ocean and the hot weather.
   
   
   
   
   


8. We wanted to make a January vacations our thing, so in Jan 2011, we headed to Costa Rica. We spent a few days at a volcano and then a week at the beach. We rented a car and drove across the country, which was an adventure in and of itself. Oh, the roads in Costa Rica! :)
   
   
   
   
   


9. After living nearly 2 years without a car, in May of 2012, we bought Liberty and headed off for our next adventure. Our destination was Belize, but as you probably know, we fell in love with Vegas and now call it home.
   
   
   
   
   


10. We have lots of great plans for adventure in 2013, but the main memory we hope to create in the next year is to do our first ocean dive together. We'd love to go somewhere exotic, like Belize, but that may take a little more saving, so we might settle for San Diego or Mexico. Stay tuned. =)

Thanks for tripping down memory lane with me today! If you're celebrating Christmas, may it be the merriest and brightest for you.
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Random Conversations with my Husband that You Don't Care About

Two random conversations from last night.

Him: Why are you still biking to work?
Me: Because it's healthier and saves gas money.
Him: But it's dark outside.
Me: Only at night.
Him: But you do bike home at night.

(yes, I did bike in today.)

Me: How many times a day do you pee?
Him: I don't know. Probably twice.
Me: Damn. Sometimes I have to pee twice an hour.
Me: You need to drink more water.

(maybe I need to drink less water...)

What randomly odd conversations have you had lately?
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World Wide Rebel Song

Remember the other day when I mentioned free music from Google?

I thought I'd share one of the songs I downloaded recently.

While I've heard of Rage Against the Machine, I can't say I'm really familiar with their music. Am I missing out on something I shouldn't be? The intro to this song really made me smile, and the message is inspiring.

World Wide Rebel Songs by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman

You should at least take a little listen to the intro. Why not download the free track as well? From the comments, this isn't really like the sound of RATM, so don't go into expecting that. :-)

******
In other news, my husband started a blog that he'll be using to post some of his short stories. He shared it on Google+ as public, but not on Facebook. Weird. Since he shared it somewhere publicly, I figure I'm good in promoting it, right?

He just has one story up so far. I read it this morning after my 10-mile run. It was really good.

If you've got a few minutes, It's longer than a typical blog post, but I think you'll find it a quick, engaging read. why not head over and give it a read. I'd love to hear what you think. I'm sure he would, too. If you enjoy it, feel free to share it on FB, Twitter, or G+
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What Good Are Husbands?

I haven't done a Monday Listicles is FOREVER! Yeah, yeah. I haven't done a post in FOREVER! I need to be a better blogger. I want to be a better blog. This is a good place to start, right?

Stasha well, her husband over at Northwest Mommy gave us a fun topic this week.

10 THINGS HUSBANDS SHOULD DO

(in no particular order)

1.   Husbands should be supportive and encouraging.
2.   Husbands should drive on long trips. Or anytime, really. I hate driving.
3.   Husbands should be selfless and loving (i.e. put my needs before his).
4.   Husbands should take out the trash and recycling.
5.   Husbands should be willing to try something crazy in the ... kitchen
6.   Husbands should listen patiently, even when the story isn't particularly amusing.
7.   Husbands should understand all his wife's moods.
8.   Husbands should laugh.
9.   Husbands should not be afraid to dance.
10. Husbands should love their wife with their everything.

Source: sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net via Wendy on Pinterest

Perhaps a little inappropriate, but also pretty funny.

L-O-V-E Love

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Growing up, it was always one of my favorite holidays.

I'll always remember my freshman year in college. My mom had died the previous year. I was away from home. When Valentine's Day came around, I was completely homesick for my mom who I couldn't call and wouldn't be seeing very soon. It was so difficult for me. BUT I ended up getting a care-package and my friends were really supportive.

Well, that was kind of a crappy way to start a post on love.



Today's topic for Monday Listicles is LOVE. Freestyling is encouraged.

Five Reasons Why I'm Still in Love.

1. He is supportive. He encouraged me to go back to school, and now I'm student teaching and really enjoying it.

2. He has such big dreams and can convey them in such a way that I always end up loving the ideas, too. Latest big dream? One day own a catamaran and offer educational summer camps (scuba, history, etc) and / or luxury vacations.

3. We have had a lot of adventures together. Living in Brooklyn. Moving cross-country 3 times in the first 3 years of marriage. Scuba diving. Traveling.

4. Sometimes, he still looks at me in a way that makes me melt.

5. He loves it when I put my arm through his when we're walking outside. Sometimes he even insists that I do this. I think maybe it's so I don't walk so slow and end up walking behind him.

Bonus. He always carries the heavier stuff - bags, scuba equipment, etc.

That's all I have time for this morning. I need to get ready for school. :-) Today should be relatively easy, but tomorrow I'm teaching a lesson the geography of Japan and how it has affected its culture and a lesson the Russian Revolutions of 1917. No, I'm not 100% ready or confident on either lesson. Wish me luck!

I wanted to end this post with a video of my favorite song about love, but I can't find it on YouTube. Here are the lyrics instead. Maybe later tonight I'll have time to search a little more. The lyrics are pretty awesome, in my opinion.

Reasons Why  by Merril Bainbridge.

I finally found the reasons why
Everything I feel inside
Feelings that I cannot hide
Tell me that it's you

Got me acting kinda strange
Like I'm on a different plane
I never thought I could explain
But I know that it's love

I finally found the reason why
Rainbow colors fill the air
People always stop and stare
Whenever I'm with you

Suddenly the flowers bloom
Whistling a happy tune
I never thought I'd understand
But now I know it's love

'Cause when you smile
And look at me, then suddenly
I know why the birds
Keep singing every place I go

I finally found the reason why
Everything is upside down
My feet don't even touch the ground
But now I know that it's love

'Cause when you smile
And look at me, then suddenly
I know why the birds
Keep singing every place I go

I finally found the reason why
Everything is upside down
My feet don't even touch the ground
But now I know that it's love

This is love, I know that it's love
This is love, it's love, this is love, it's love