Two miles.

Well I did it...I ran on my lunch break today at work and it felt great! I went 2 miles running and 1 mile walking total. It's not a lot in the scheme of things but having been idol in the exercise area of my life for the past three months, I'm pretty happy with myself!

It actually felt surprisingly good and I wasn't in too bad of shape. Im so excited to be exercising and eating healthy food!

I started tonight off right...instead of having our Friday night pizza, I ate a whole wheat pita with a bit of mayo, lettuce and mediterranean lentil salad.

The lentil salad consists of lentils, fresh tomato, parsley, bulgur, carrots, red onions, lemon juice, sunflower oil, olive oil, vinegar, salt and all spice. Delicious!

Later tonight I'll have some snow peas (steamed) with some salt. I could eat those all day long!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years Eve!

Weekend.

Friday we went to my Dad's house. He and and my Stepmom just recently moved into their new house and we hadn't seen it yet. I was really excited to go over there and hang out with them and explore the new house. Oh, and also play with his dog, Hudson.

The house is really cute and cozy. It's an 80's house and has a lot of angles and rooms. It is cool! We stayed up really late talking and spending time together and headed home Saturday morning.

We've been doing a lot of just hanging out around the house yesterday and today. This morning I felt like making a good breakfast, so I headed to the kitchen. I don't have much of a selection right now for food... I am in dire need of groceries. So I made what I could, trying to be healthy.

I made whole wheat pancakes, served with low fat maple syrup.

I also made scrambled eggs with low fat shredded cheddar cheese and bacon. I had regular bacon left over from some appetizers I made a few days ago and cooked that... but I wish I had turkey bacon instead. I feel a little guilty about that. But all in all it was a good Sunday breakfast!

 

 

 

Now we are watching the Lions play lose. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

It's our last one in 2012!



Healthier Living.

Since I have decided to start riding again, I have also decided that I need to workout in addition to riding to get some strength and muscle tone back. Nick and I have tried running after work but I hate how late that makes our evenings so we've decided that we are going to try working out in our office gym during our lunch hour. There are showers to get cleaned up afterwards so I think that it is going to be successful for us. I'm actually pretty excited about it!

In addition to working out (running 3 days and weights 2 days) in the gym for 5 days a week, I am also going to make an effort to walk on my two 15 minute breaks and take the stairs instead of the elevator (I work on the 4th floor).

I read a lot of blogs about eating healthy and exercising/running and I find them to be very motivating. I really enjoy eating healthy meals with a lot of veggies. So for motivation and maybe to help others want to live a healthier lifestyle, I am going to be sharing our workouts and meals with you all.

This all starts on Monday! I am ready to get back into shape and have healthier eating habits. Of course, my main motivation for all of this is to be a better equestrian!

I'll keep you posted on how its all going!

Happy Holidays.

We celebrated Christmas with my family last night!

 

 

 

The only ones that couldn't make it were my cousin Kayla, my sister Chelsea and my nephew Elijah. Kayla had to work and Chelsea and Elijah are in San Diego for Christmas. They were missed but we still had a wonderful time.

We snacked on good food, had great conversation and had Christmas music in the background.

 

 

 

And when no one was looking... Victor was trying to get a taste of the food too.

 

 

After a while, the Christmas music got old and we switched it up. Nick and Uncle Donald got out the guitar and each played a few songs for us. I just love when they play!

 

 

It was such a lovely evening with our family. Though we wish we could see ALL of our loved ones during the holidays, we are very grateful that we have a lot of family here to celebrate with.

 

 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Equus caballus.

One of the loves of my life. I will give you a short background story of how my falling in love with horses began and what I am doing now.

I'm pretty sure I came out of the womb an equestrian. Ever since I can remember I wanted to pet, feed, ride, own, anything with a horse. I just adored them (still do) and all I wanted to do was learn how to ride. My parents had me wait until my 10th birthday to start taking riding lessons and they wanted to make sure I was going to stick with it before purchasing my own equipment. Little did they know it would be my entire life for 8 years.

When I was 13 years old they bought me a beautiful black throughbred mare named, Susa, though I changed her name to Susie. She was a spirited but kind girl. I loved her more than anything and was so happy that she was mine.

 

Our first competition together we won Grand Champion in our division.

We went from crossrails, her show name at the time was "Limited Edition", to 3 foot courses as "Best Kept Secret".

She was my girl and I think I was hers. I loved that horse to pieces. She taught me so much. We faught with eachother, learned with eachother and loved eachother. It's one of the closest relationships with an animal I think you can have because at the end of the day whether we were just practicing or in the competition arena, it was just me and her.

 

 

 

I sold Susie when I as 18 years old. I had to get a full time job and once I did that, I just didn't have the time that she needed to be spent with her. After selling Susie, I continued to ride other horses, mostly Beau, my trainer at the times horse.

But working full time and having a new relationship, I just fell away from riding all together. I now haven't ridden in 4 years! It is kind of unbelievable for me to think about. I never thought that horses wouldn't be a part of my life. So here I am... I have decided to start taking lessons again!! I don't know where it will take me or what will happen now that I'm going to be riding again but I do know that I am very excited about it! Nick is completely supportive of my hobby and I can't wait for him to come out and watch me do what I had done my entire life.

I have a feeling that from this point on horses are going to be a part of my life forever and that those 4 years of not riding were just a short stint that will hopefully not happen again. I feel lucky to have gotten into a sport that, no matter your age, you can continue to do it for as long as you want.

I'd love to get into competing again.. set some goals and see where it takes me. I've already mapped out the shows I would like to attend in 2013 and haven't even had my first lesson! But that's what I do... I know what I want and I go for it.

So, here I go!

8 Years Old.

My little brother, Dylan turned 8 years old this past Tuesday! I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Nick and I went to my mom's house after work to celebrate and we had a wonderful time (as I think Dylan did too)!!

We played pin the tail star on the donkey Superhero...

 

 

Apparently my mom and I are innapropriate without even trying...

 

 

And of course Nick won! He ALWAYS wins at everything!  :)







 

 

We had delicious homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Thank you Grandma! And of course Birthday Cake. Dylan opened his presents and we all enjoyed getting to hang out on a rare weekday occasion.

 

 



It was really nice to get to see family and spend time with my brother on his birthday.

 

And now I leave you with another picture of my adorable nephew, Elijah.

 

 

Ornament Decorating.

Our friend Steven and his daughter came over this Saturday to paint ornaments that they had made and also decorate some glass ornaments. So after heading to Red Robin for the most delicious burgers and sweet potato fries I've ever had, we headed to the craft store to pick up our materials.

I had found some inspiration searching through Google pictures for the glass ornaments and got pretty close to finding what I was picturing...feathers to put inside of them! We got our paint, brushes, glitter, pipe cleaners and feathers and headed home to get to work.

Lucky for me and Nick, Steven had previously made the ornaments at his house so we were able to go right into the fun part! Even Nick got into it for some time, which I really enjoyed! Here are our final products.

And while I had the camera out I thought I'd share some of our Christmas decorations... and Victor in his adorable sweater. He hates it!

What kind of ornaments have you or your children made during the holidays?

The Beginning.

I am very excited to be joining the blogging world! You're probably thinking "well it's about time" since blogging has been around since what?? 1998? I guess I should actually be getting into Vlogging at this point... oh well! I'd like to give you some insight into my life and what to expect in future posts. My husband and I met at our workplace in 2008. And Yes, we still work together, carpool together and have lunch together everyday. We kind of have a Jim and Pam thing going on (The Office).

We immediately began dating and never looked back. We moved in together in January 2009... please excuse the Christmas decor, it is the only decent picture of the apartment that I have.

We adopted our cat, Victor, in March 2009...

We bought a house in January 2011 (here's a picture of half of the house)...

We just got married on October 6, 2012...

And now for our next adventure... we are planning to move across the country to Michigan!!

I am looking forward to sharing our life with you and also getting the chance to look back on this blog years from now and remembering all the things we have done together. Thank you all for joining us on this journey!