Sunday, February 15, 2015

a day of love

What did you do for Valentine's Day yesterday?  We had a pretty low key, typical Saturday...Mike worked.  I went to the gym & grocery shopped.  Mike and I don't really do presents anymore except for each other's birthday but when he came home at lunch, he tossed me an envelope and inside the envelope was a silicon wedding ring.  How romantic, huh?  :)

Back story - Mike bought a silicon wedding ring for himself a few months ago to wear to work.  He has a tungsten wedding band, which is incredibly durable but also heavy and probably a little dangerous to wear as a law enforcement officer so he got the silicon ring so it could be cut off easily, if necessary.  It's all the rage amongst his law enforcement friends.  I've been talking about getting myself one so I could wear it during activities like hiking, biking, rafting, & camping because I do not wear my wedding ring when I do stuff like that.  Hence the reason he got me the silicon ring.  It looks like this one except it's pink.  The heart is so cute.

While Mike was at work I made some chocolate covered strawberries.  I had never done it before and thought it would be super complicated but it was actually the easiest thing ever and they turned out great.  I just melted chocolate chips with a little grape seed oil(per other recipes, this is what makes them shiny) in the microwave in 20 second intervals until they were melted, washed & dried the strawberries, then dipped the strawberries in the chocolate, then put them in the fridge to harden.  They were very tasty!

I made shrimp enchiladas for dinner and we watched Hall Pass.  Have you seen that movie?  It cracks me up - there are definitely some laugh out loud moments.

Aside from the silicon wedding ring and the chocolate covered strawberries, it was a normal Saturday for us.

What did you do?  Was your day filled with love? ;)

Thursday, February 12, 2015

it's time for me to take a Facebook break

I just deactivated my Facebook account!  This obviously doesn't need an announcement to the world and most people won't even notice but as I got to thinking about the reasons I'm taking a break from Facebook, it seemed like it could be an 'interesting' blog post and maybe some of you can relate.

Why I like Facebook:
- Since I live far away from my family and close friends, it's a great way to connect me with those people instead of making a million phones calls each month. (but let's be honest, I would never make those phone calls each month...I can barely manage calling my Mom and Dad each month)
- For the most part, I really love seeing peoples updates, their travels, their kids, their life changes, etc.
- I follow a bunch of fitness groups and fitness people so I do enjoy seeing those updates and that fitness information.

Why I'm taking a Facebook(known as 'fb' from here out) break:
(for the record, I know I'm guilty of some of this also!)
- At this point, I've restricted my fb posts/pictures so much that probably about 90% of my "friends" cannot see anything I post.
- I've adjusted my "News Feed" so much that I don't see many of the updates from the "friends."  My feed is mostly close friends or fitness related.
- I hate all the political posts on fb.  I realize fb is a tool for political and social movement but frankly I go to fb for the fun and motivational stuff.  I'm not interested in hearing why you do or don't support gun control, etc. And honestly, it can sometimes make me change my opinion about you. (not that you care about my opinion but nonetheless.)
- On a similar note, I'm so sick of the judgmental and passive aggressive comments.  I'm not a parent but it must be maddening for parents because there are so many judgmental comments made about parenting styles.  Good grief, can't we lift each other up and support all ways of parenting instead of telling someone they are doing it wrong?  Fitness posts also get a lot of rude comments.  It's amazing how people hide behind their social media accounts.  Whatever happened to "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say it at all?"  Man, people can be darn right vicious on social media.
- I love seeing pictures of your vacation or your family pictures but if you post 150 pictures on your vacation, you have lost me.  Sorry - I'm not going to look through that many pictures.  I don't even spend that much time going through my own pictures.
- Unless we are truly "friends," I'm probably not going to accept your friend request.  I receive a lot of requests from co-workers and I generally do not accept them or I put you on my Restricted list so you cannot see anything I post.  Sorry but it's true!  Find me on LinkedIn if you want to connect.  
- We are in a world of over-sharing and I go through those phases occasionally too(I mean, I have a public blog for goodness sake) but I do get annoyed when people WAY over share.  Some things are just meant to be kept to yourself. (trust me, I've done this too!)
- I hate that I feel an obligation to check fb every day, multiple times per day.  
- Most of my fitness stuff can be found in blogs or on instagram(instagram is a lot easier to control what you see) so I really don't need fb for the fitness stuff.  (Yes, I plan to keep insta for now)
- I don't enjoy seeing "news" from family and friends via fb.  If it's important enough, then I can call, email, or text to let people know and vice versa.
- It irks me when I miss a post from a friend and that friend makes a comment like, "didn't you see that on fb?"  Ugh!  Are you relying on fb to share information with me?
- Hurt feelings have occurred by things that have been posted on fb.  I never want to hurt someone's feelings by something I do or don't post of fb.

Ultimately, fb is just not fun for me anymore so I think it's time to take a break.  I may come back to fb but I'm going to give it a break for now.  I never thought I could get rid of our DVR and we did that over a year ago(and shocker...I haven't really missed it) so I feel like I can manage living without fb. :)

Can you relate?  Are you pro-fb or anti-fb?  Or somewhere in between?

Thursday, January 8, 2015

beautiful new garden beds

Spring is just around the corner... :)
Mike was exploring various plans for new raised garden beds for our garden area back in October.  On Saturday in October, I woke up, he said he took the day off, he had found some garden bed plans online, and we were going to go to the gym and then Home Depot for supplies.  Ummm...ok, sounds good to me.  So off we went!  For the record, I love when Mike takes a day off on Saturday or Sunday!

As I picked up dog poo in the back yard(which is gross & takes forever) and cleaned out the plants from our garden this year, he was in the driveway making my garden beds.  I couldn't believe how fast they came together.  I did have to make two additional trips to Lowe's(Lowe's is closer than Home Depot) because Mike needed a few items, which you can probably imagine I was thrilled about.


Story time - I sort of hate going to Lowe's or Home Depot by myself...it causes me some anxiety because the stores are very overwhelming.  Luckily, Mike found the items he needed online so I could just go into the store, show the picture to someone, and they took me right to the location.  Also - in my experience, Home Depot has much better customer service than Lowe's.  Mike and I were in Home Depot for 5 minutes and we were asked by 5 different people if we needed help.  Also, there was an employee in practically every other aisle so it was easy to find assistance.  I had to hunt someone down in Lowe's and then he acted as though he was inconvenienced by me asking him to show me where two items were.  Nothing irritates me more than people in customer service who act annoyed by customers...that.is.your.job!  Quit being annoyed by your customers!

Here are the pictures of the garden beds - aren't they spectacular?  I wish we had a bigger yard so I could have more garden beds.  Next project will be to make a compost bin of some sort...hopefully!

Before

One done!

All done!  They are filled with dirt now in case you were wondering.


Saturday, January 3, 2015

lovely holidays

How were your holidays?

Ours were lovely and spent with my side of the family in NE.  We were able to see all my immediate family, a good portion of my extended family on my Dad's side, & some of our best friends.  We had a lot of fun, lots of laughs, enjoyed delicious food, & endured ridiculously cold temperatures.  ;)  It's always hard to say goodbye but it's very nice to be home again...although the temps have been cold in NM too.  I like our "rotation" for the holidays (Mike's family one year, my family the next year, then stay in Santa Fe the next year, repeat).  I hear so many stressful stories from friends about having a billion different Christmas celebrations to go to each year...it's so nice not to have to split our time between both of our families every year.

Although enjoyable, it's always slightly stressful and a little exhausting being in Nebraska.  I try so hard to fit as much in and see as many people as I can but that can wear on me and my health.  I ended up getting a cold a few days before we left but I'm hoping it's on the mend.  Something about sleeping in your own bed makes you start feeling better immediately! :)

My company gave us Jan. 1st and 2nd off so I'm in the middle of enjoying a nice long weekend!  I was in Nebraska for about 2 1/2 weeks so it's nice to finding a normal routine again.  I menu planned yesterday for the week and plan to do some more unpacking today.  I've been binge watching some Downton Abbey today too..a pretty mello day I guess.

Hope your holidays were full of love and fun!  Happy 2015!