Wednesday, March 31, 2010

mini freak out!

aaah i just found out the PA school application opens in exaclty 2 weeks. doesnt really change my goals for filling it out much but it still is stressful to think the time is here!!!!

Spring Seattle Trip (March 17-21st)

so i want to start off this blog with a little nutshelling......basically.....brent and I love Seattle, Brent and I want to live in Seattle, or at least close by, and Brent and I like this rhyme ive got going about Seattle. :) anywho, onto the picture story

so we left sunny warm Austin St. Patty's Day headed for the Emerald City. We had just enough green on not to get pinch but i feel if you are going to be in city thats coined phrase exudes GREEN...you should be fine. Hillary, Blake, and Rusty picked us up from the airport and brought us back to Blakes awesome dowtown loft. Not for long, however, b/c in Texas time it was well into dinner time and we were famished! We walked a couple of blocks up to this great sushi place and slowly consumed tons of tastiness for well over 3 hours......dont be too alarmed...we paced ourselves and had breaks!



Day #2 we woke up to the fresh cool mountain air and hum of the highway. for now 2 days we have been able to see Rainier clearly some 100+ miles in the distance. We started out at this AMAZING organic, home-grown place called portage bay for brunch. some of the boys had potatoes and omletes and whatnot but Rusty and I hit it big with the French Toast and toppings bar! can you saw IN-CREDIBLE! and of all the random stuff to compliment, the blueberries were to die for. :) After sufficiently warming our selves and stomachs up for the day we headed over to the infamous Freemont Troll. This guy originally was constructed as a time capsule...yes that is a real VW bug under there....but now its just a local hot spot for fun. Then we were off to Kite Hill and Steamworks (think paintball and paddle boat scenes in 10 things i hate about you) Kite hill has a fantastic view of the entire downtown skyline while looking over lake union. When Brent and I visited in the summer we actually canoed out in that Lake but of course we didnt take our cameras on that expedition so now you have a better idea of the scenery for that trip :)


while out on the "hill" we also saw some of the docked ships from The Deadliest Catch and the Sleepless in Seattle house....speaking of sleepless in Seattle, after touring the lake union area we went back to Pikes Market for lunch at Lowells...now lowells is not where they ate in the movie but it was right next door..see the connection.....and we walked down the sidewalk as i had brent tell me i had a cute butt ;)

among other adventures of the day we also went out to the peir thats literally a block from blakes house, to just soak in Seattle.....from the peir (and blakes rooftop really) you can see the cityscape, the water, the mountains, mt rainier, the needle, and the shipping yard. we all love to people watch so it was a bonanza of opportunity.


we also found a human statue...super convincing....we was tanted by an angry high man though...unsure what the grudge was there...maybe he used to work that starbucks or something



day 2 started out bright and early with another clear beautiful day and donuts.....65, sunny, no work, and donuts....thats what i call a little slice of heaven
we took our buddy domo out for some adventures today so you may see him sneak in from time to time. First stop...Top Pot donuts. This place was very electic and antique-chic. not really sure if thats a term but it had a nice mix of old, new, and cool. then we wandered the city for a few hours just doing whatever. while we were doing a little shopping we we able to watch these happy people pass out flowers....turns out these cheerful volunteers were passing out free dafodils to celebrate the first day of spring....it was great way to ring in the season





aand with josephs recommendation we checked out another seattle "hot spot"....the GUM wall. this thing was incredibly disgusting but oddly cool at the same time....of course being in the health field all i can think of is years and years worth of contact germs that have slowly been washed onto the sidewalks and walls we are touching....blah. This thing stretched a good two buildings and even had artwork placed within...kinda like freebirds does with foil...



the next day we ventured to an older section of town for the Seattle Underground Tour. Old Seattle was built in the 1800s but a huge fire completely burned down the entire city. when they started rebuilding, while constructing retaining walls and sidewalks, etc over time they managed to create an underground area. (its a lot clearer on the tour but im giving you the abridge version for all our sakes) back in the day these underground tunnels were used for shopping and various black market acitivties. it was really cool to see all of whats left down there and to think of the huge buildings above you that you'd never guessed had all this history in its basement


we ended friday night stuffing our faces (like we did in August) at the Crab Pot....the pictures do not do the mound of fresh steamed seafood justice....it was a ton of food and a ton of good! saturday we visited Blakes work and got a tour of the studio and ended the night with a hopping party at the loft.




so thats the trip in somewhat of a summary.....I leave you with a fun shot of the sunset on Rainier. man i love this area!


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

new diet!

so starting right after basically pigging out at girls weekend i started my new diet/lifestyle renovation....

so to nutshell-it for the folks at home......i have these vitamin shakes 4 times a day, have a smart one, and nom on veggies daily while quenching my thirst with only water and working out ALL the DANG TIME!

so starting out ive made so tenative goals for myself.
#1 lose 10 lbs and workout 7 consecutive days
  incentive- spa pedicure
#2 get into a healthy bmi range and maintain over 1 week
  incentive- new nice jeans... or new toms...havent decided
#3 get into the middle of the healthy bmi range
  incentive- full body massage or facial
#4 maintain the range with no more than 10 lb change for 6 months
  incentive- mini trip of my choice

so here is goes......thats what i started on March 8th, lets get ready to get smaller

Girls weekend

starting off march in style we had a good ole fashioned girls weekend in the Big-D

started off Friday night stuffing out face at the Stone Horse and an improptu photo session in jennifers super cute bedroom


After sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning we made our way to the Chocolate Angel for an amazing, perfectly girly lunch. i had the gourmet grilled cheese and sides personally but i was totally diggin on lara's strawberry and petzel salad.


of course the chocolate angel sounds like an appropriate place to quench our desert fix however we had other plans in mind........


mmmmm society bakery.....delish

we were sufficently stuffed and ready for our next adventure.......the North Texas Irish Festival....... out at the State fair ground this amazing shmorgisborg of plad, bagpipes, and sheppards pie was quite a sight! we were able to savor all the irish dress and unique "flavor" as well as watch traditional irish dancing and pose with a sweaty buff guy!


then we finsihed the night off with The Ugly truth accompanied with wine and biscuits!

thanks girls for the AMAZING WEEKEND!!!

SNOW DAY

 a couple of days after the party we finally got the snow we'd been hoping for! it actually stuck for a few hours and there were still animated snowmen along the drive to work the next morning. i really enjoyed the creativity of the college stationers-there we snow families, beer drinkers, sunglass-toting tanners, assortments of animals, and even a gnome...wish i couldve gotten a pic of that one in particular.



a quick catch up on the last few weeks.......

starting waaaaaay back in february! For Brent and Erin's birthday we had a CaLow-palooza at Grace and Erins apt. This shindig was complete with lots of drinks, lots of tasty snack foods, plenty of jello and skittle shots, taboo, pinatas, and of course fun conversations in general....heres some snapshots of how the whole thing went down....