2013?!

Holy cow, that year disappeared quick! But I'm glad to be moving on to this year.... I think it'll be even better than 2012... We're looking at:

1. Ck's wedding!!! (So excited for this)
2. My first half-marathon (!/? I've just started training so we'll see how it goes)
3. Another reading challenge (I cannot believe I actually finished last year's challenge of 60 books. I'm aiming for at least another 60 this year as well. Gotta enjoy my reading time before work or kids come along and steal it from me. I'll write up a post reviewing some of my favorite books from the challenge soon!)
4. My 27th birthday (I know it's not a typical marker of anything, but it's the age my mom had me at so it's a little shocking to me)
5. A trip to Seattle!
6. Another Yosemite visit
7. A Virginia Beach trip
8. Another cross-country move? :)
9. And most importantly Downton Abbey Season 3

It'll be another big year for sure. I'm feeling really good about it.

I know last year I wrote about how much I hate resolutions but I thought I'd at least start this year off with some intentions. To make a habit of exercise (regardless of whatever happens with my weight). To work harder at homesteading - canning, making my own cleaning products, making bread, making yogurt, using less plastic and disposable goods, etc. To embrace life more - mentally and physically - with the aforementioned habit of exercising and with a more mindful, balanced and optimistic approach to life through meditation and yoga.

I have a ton of other thoughts, hopes and dreams for the year, but you all will just have to wait it out for those to be revealed along the way! All good things, I promise.

Now, to address this past holiday season that I have thoughtlessly ignored.

Christmas was wonderful. We drove out to Dad and Debbie's in Nevada, just outside of Lake Tahoe. Whatever desires we had to have some winter weather were more than sated. Our drive to them was postponed a day thanks to some scary sounding winter storms in the Sierras. Thank God we delayed a day because from the stories we heard later, it was a huge mess. We got to see the beautiful after shots.

A wall of fog we both believed was possibly stormy weather. But no, that would wait for us on the trip home...

First view of Lake Tahoe coming around the bend. The drop off to the right of us is pretty severe, but hey, that wall of compacted snow made it much less terrifying. 

All in all it was a great easy drive there. The most beautiful snow laden trees I've seen in my life. Unfortunately, I don't have many of my own pictures from our visit with D&D, the ones I did take were at night and didn't come out well at all. So I'll steal a couple of Debbie's to show you all! 

We had a good time hanging around the house, even made a steak tartare that Ed and I make every New Years Eve. For the big day we went over to these hot springs, just around the corner from their house. It was the most beautiful view and very hot pools, just like I like 'em. 104-107, that's my kind of range. They had steam rooms and saunas too, and these showers... oh man these shower stalls. Huge sunflower shower heads, pebbled floors and stone walls. So lovely. I'm a sucker for great showers.

Before going in:

 Hanging in the 'cool pool' - still probably 85+, I noted that I think that's about the temperature my former Arthritis students would've loved.

 The lovely tree in the living room. We opened presents here and watched A Christmas Story. I know, it's shocking, but none of us had ever seen it. We did it post hot springs so we may or may not have all caught a quick cat nap during the movie... but what we saw seemed good! 

After the hot springs trip we were driving home and ran across this guy hanging in the middle of the road:

Turns out it was this girl, Addie, and that she had made her great escape from her house only to jump in the nearest friendly strangers' car. Good think she had her collar on so we could track down her home. She was quiet and sweet and very confused. 

View from Addie's house... amazing. The cows down there were surprisingly loud, but the view was just incredible. All that cloudy dark stuff? That's the snow falling on the valley. It was falling up on the mountain as I was taking this picture as well. Good signs for the drive home right? Especially when it stated blanketing the Sierras to the point of them vanishing. All good signs. :-P

So we departed after a wonderful, very comfortable and perfectly wintry Christmas visit. 

Back into the mountains we go!

Oh hey remember that drop off and view of the lake and mountains from before?

None of that anymore! But hey that awesomely large compacted snow barrier is still standing and giving us comfort. Here's some perspective from the car.

We passed a ton of homes just completely covered and boxed in from all the snow.

All in all, it really wasn't bad. Just very tense and very slow. We thankfully did not have to put on chains but we saw tons and tons of those people who did. At 3000 or 4000ft on 50 there were cars backed up the wazoo all pulled over putting on chains. It was gross and miserable and that must have been an awful experience.

When we finally made it down out of the snow we immediately pulled over at the first In & Out burger to soothe our harried souls. Truly, there's little else as comforting. Apparently every other driver thought the same thing because it was the most packed In & Out we've ever been to. They went from order 40 to 100 and back to 1 again during the short time we were there for lunch. Back on the road, it was a really easy drive. We hit some homecoming traffic but honestly, without a sheer drop next to you and super slick roads, it was all a breeze.

We opened our presents at home and can I just say, I think I'm the big winner? This Christmas was one of my favorites. I won't list everything because that's silly and also I'm sure you'll hear about it all over time. I think you're officially a grown-up or something when your gifts are mostly cookware/home goods: A super sweet set of glass tupperwear (I know, I'm getting paranoid about plastic), coffee from Dublin Roasters, a dual shower head (funny, because I had just been raving about D&D's awesome guest shower head and the wonderful sunflower shower heads at the hot springs) and an amazing roaster from D&D. Ed made out like a bandit with bike gear and survival books. It was a pretty perfect holiday season I think. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get ready for the day with my incredible new shower. :)

"One step closer"

That weekend flew by toooo fast. I think for the rest of the month I'll probably follow the policy of skipping the prompts(clarification - skipping the prompts on the weekends). I spend so much time in front of the computer during the week that I need to set some boundaries for the weekends.

We had a big race this weekend, Summit Rock. Supposed to do a 10k, but with my knee all messed up from our move here in August well... we opted for the 5k. And thank GOD we did. It was... brutal. The inclines were ridiculous. How anyone ran up those mountain sides I'll never know. I came in 6th for my age group. I know, not exactly bragging rights but it's cool to have a number! Running down the hills was amazing. I always joke with Ed that running down a hill makes me feel like a character in a video game getting a power-up. These power-ups were huge. I felt like a real runner. Wind whipping my hair around, me bounding down the mountain side. In one supremely cheesy moment (I couldn't resist!), I turned to Ed (who was using his momentum to practice some Parkour on some nearby trees) and told him, "It's like Twilight! We're just like Edward and Bella in the woods!" Ed was less amused than I was about that.

A freezing, foggy morning in the south bay. There should have been mountains dead ahead of us, but looks like the fog had something to say about that.

Still a good turnout of some very cold runners.

Pretty little pond and fountain area behind the start line

Look, can you see that guy in the blue shirt? He's so far below us, and maybe only one and a half bends in the path ahead of us.

After coming home for a quick shower, I started in on finishing my cookie boxes. I think this was the largest batch ever. All the cookies came together surprisingly well. I never know what they look like when they get to people so here's hoping they make it in one piece. And still taste decent. Sometimes I wonder if I'm that friend that not only posts gross food pictures and adds obnoxious hashtags like yum/num/nummy/nom/tasty/delicious etc. but also is that friend who cooks or sends you food and is like YOU'RE WELCOME and the food turns out to be terrible. :-/ That being said, I hope those of you that receive a box know I put lots of love into my cookies and am just using them as a way to say thanks for being a great friend and I'm grateful you're in my life. Whether you eat the cookies or toss them or hashtag an Instagram pic of them, it matters little, as long as you get the thought behind them. :)

Baking all those cookies really got me in the spirit so we drove out and picked a tree from a lot this year. I really missed the experience of cutting down our own tree but... I do not miss the 4 months of poison oak covering my legs, back, stomach and arms, that followed that lovely excursion. I told Ed we'll definitely need to cut down our own trees in the coming years, but only when we're back on the east coast with the MUCH more manageable poison ivy. The tree is perfect. I'm still in love with the straw and red ornaments I bought last year. Reminds me of all my Christmases at Omi's and Mom's. To me, there is nothing lovelier than a simple tree with soft white lights, red ornaments and little European straw doodads. I can't wait to put a couple presents under the tree!

Sunday we decided to use up our Groupons and went bowling! I love bowling when I'm surrounded by people who suck. And technically we were surrounded by people who sucked.... they were just between the ages of 4-7 and had bumper edges up so they still knocked down pins. The rate at which I either toss the ball straight into the gutter or directly past any pins at all is pretty high, so it can be demoralizing hearing everyone else knocking things down.... even when they are doing so in a tutu. Just one beer later I felt a little better and was able to enjoy the games more. I even beat Ed! I'll take 1 out of 3. Heck, I even broke 100 on one of the games. Clearly, I'm a pro.

Ed was a big sweetie and surprised me after bowling, with a trip to the movies. And what did I finally get to see? Twilight! I told him he must have been feeling drawn to it more now after our vampire-speeds dash through the forest the day before. He firmly disagreed. :) I was pleasantly surprised with the movie, and I only laughed out loud (at it and not with it) twice. I think that's a new record. Although, can I just say, in that montage of the actors in the end credits? Why on earth did you put Taylor Lautner in there fully clothed? Huge waste of one last shirtless moment.

All in all, a great weekend. Now, back to trying to power thru the rest of my books for the year. Depressingly, I'm about 10 books from my 60 books in a year goal. I know 50 books is awesome, but... I want that 60! Augh. I have 4 books I'm working on right now I'm sure I'll finish in the next couple of days so... maybe I can pull it off???

"My hands are shakin' from carrying this torch"

Well I jumped on here prepared to write about the joys of the holidays and I realized I'd fallen terribly behind on all my chores. Not chores of the household sort, but more like, wedding chores and writing chores... planning and self-betterment chores! Oh how they pile up and become an insurmountable obstacle to functioning like an adult.

I dutifully made breakfast, got Ed out the door, had my green tea, played my brain scan games, and then went to check my email. Somewhere around the twentieth junky-email cleared, I remembered I still had to write the caterer back and respond to Zach and Clay (of thebittenword.com, who were very sweet and helpful in giving advice about my wedding venue) and give them details and specifics and get to the nitty gritty of planning and making decisions... But then suddenly, out of the blue, I realized... you know I've always wanted to read the dictionary and I should really do that right now. It's quite urgent, really... And also! I think there are three dishes in the sink that need washing, and I could scrub the tile in the bathroom and also learn how to fold a fitted sheet.... all very, very pressing matters....

Essentially, it comes down to this one thing. I am the worst at making decisions. The. worst. I much prefer to be the person that offers a vast and eclectic array of choices and then someone else, wiser and more decisive can come in and make a well informed choice based on my research. I always enjoyed researching papers for school.... actual execution of the assignment was not my strongest suit (see all of my grades, ever). I was the ridiculous student who did ALL of the reading, but maybe half of the assignments. Excellent example, for AP World History in high school, junior year, I failed the class. Literally, failed. But I received a 4 on the test for the college credit! This is not necessarily a trait for bragging about... more a point of frustration. I am so envious of those who can execute. Those who do not get caught up in the details and mindlessness of little things. The doers of the world. Ed appears to be this way. He'll get up and do what he says he will without hesitation or delay and I'll congratulate him on his initiative and then go take a nap. Maybe futzing is in my genes? I know my mother and my Omi are futzers...I wonder if my sister futzes... she's always been more on the doer side of life.... I digress.

Today I am determined to be a doer. I already ordered some beautiful Christmas ornaments:

And I'm determined to continue on, ticking off things one by one on my long list, preparing for the onslaught of holiday activities. So even though I've managed to completely avoid writing about the holidays (as I'd intended!) I have at least accomplished a blog post today. :) I'll leave you with a quick photo recap of our activities in the past two weeks:

Family trip to L.A. for early Thanksgiving!

More next time :)