Farewell Friends!

I can't believe it's time to say goodbye. Here I've been so excited to revamp the blog and start fresh, but now that it's time to say goodbye to RunnerBabs, I'm quite sad! I cannot express how glad I am that I started this blog. It will forever serve as a wonderful resource for me to be able to look back and remember all of the good times I had.

And with that said, here you go...

http://babsbrown.blogspot.com/

The journey continues.

Examine Your Paperwork

Hello friends. I have made the executive decision to launch the new blog on December 1st. So until then, let us continue...

This weekend started with the geekiest of date nights for Andy and I. First we had dinner at Chipotle, and then we went to the Video Games Live concert. I have never been surrounded by more geeks in my life. Geeks or no geeks, however, there was a guitar hero competition, so we both did our best to win. Spoiler alert - we did not win.

The concert was an experience to say the least, and it was definitely different to sit with Andy in the audience rather than watch him on stage. It was kind of a nice change!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. I worked Job #2 as usual, Andy and I went to another concert (a few of his clarinet students were performing), we had Anna, Will, and Rose over (always fun), I bought a new book to read... nothing monumental, but all in all a good weekend.

The blog book prompt for today is to "examine your paperwork," meaning look back at old documents to see if anything interesting comes back to you. Now I don't have any of these, but Sheena saved all of the notes we ever wrote to each other in high school... remember that was before the age of text messaging. Whenever she digs one out and reads it to me, I die laughing. I'm so glad (and slightly mortified) that she saved them all!

Video Games Live

I just ate a lot of grapes and now I feel sick to my stomach. Ugh.

Anyway...

On Monday I went to the Strong National Museum of Play for a behind the scenes tour of their video games collection. I was amazed at how large their storage facility is.

Old Pinball Machines

Old Handheld Video Games

Archive of old board games

Thinking about breaking into the Barbie Closet

The best part of the whole trip though was seeing my boss playing an old arcade game.

This blew my mind

Tomorrow the orchestra is performing Video Games Live (hence the trip to the museum). Andy isn't playing so I guess it will actually be a date for us to go to a concert together, haha. Not much planned for this weekend, which I am not complaining about. Perhaps I'll put the final touches on the new blog and launch it on Monday!

Count Your Blessings

Well, this is what I woke up to this morning...

View out of my bedroom window

...and it's still coming down. Bah. I guess winter is on its way.

But! I shouldn't complain. According to the blog book, it's tempting to vent on a blog (yes, I would say that is quite true), so today's post inspiration is to count your blessings. Instead of all of the monumental things I'm grateful for (family, friends, health, blah blah) I am going to focus on this morning.

Here's what I was thankful for this morning:

1) When I woke up I had realized the covers had barely been disturbed. It was so easy to make the bed!

2) I was able to locate my snow brush quickly - I had stored it in the basement over the summer, and luckily remembered where I put it!

3) I opened a fresh jar of creamed honey. I love being the first person to put a knife into a fresh jar of peanut butter, honey, whatever.

4) I easily packed my lunch because I had made a salad the night before.

5) Since Andy is out of town, I was able to take his parking pass, so I'm getting free parking today!

Pretty good morning huh?

So, what's on the docket for the week ahead? It's a pretty normal week. Regular work schedule... a few extra meetings and a luncheon I really don't want to go to but oh well. And apparently we are in store for more snow. I also need to figure out what to make for our office Thanksgiving lunch. Any ideas??

Be A Sage

Happy Tuesday! My weekend was full of friends and food - two of my favorite things. I would have liked to have gotten more done in the way of chores (you know... laundry, grocery shopping, etc) but oh well. Not like it's the first time those things haven't been accomplished when I'd like.

The new blog is coming along. I should really just launch it already. And honestly it's not even that exciting! I suppose I should just pick a date and do it. Hmm....

Anyway, today's blog book post idea is to talk about good (or bad) advice you've received. I've probably received better advice, but I'll just list a few pieces that pop into my mind:

1) Fake it 'til you make it. I find this works best when I don't feel happy or smiley... once I act happy and smiley for a little bit I typically start to really feel that way.

My friend Lani - faking it for sure!

2) Beauty knows no pain. My mom always says this one, and it seems to come in handy when I'm getting my brows waxed or feet scrubbed... I just grin and bare it and know it will be worth it!

My mom made this sign for the marathon!

3) Don't stop to walk. Emily's advice to me before I ran the marathon. If I had stopped to walk towards the end, I NEVER would have started running again. Best advice for sure!

The guy on the left clearly didn't get that advice...

So there you go. I'm sure I've gotten bad advice, but I can't think of anything! I guess it's good that I don't use brain space to keep things like that stored away.

Exploit the Youth

Well, hello from the East Coast now. That's right, Andy and I are back to our regular routines (boo), but it sure was nice to get away for awhile (yay!). Sadly we won't be moving back to Seattle, but Andy did make it into the final 10 people which is amazing. I could not be more proud of him and how hard he worked. Hooray for Andy!

The new blog is coming along nicely... it will only be a little bit longer until I say goodbye to RunnerBabs and start the next phase of my blog life! But until then...

The blog book says that kids are hilarious and surprisingly insightful. True! At Job #1 I get piles of thank you letters from kids every year. Here are some of my favorites:

Into the loin pit!! Just what every prince dreads hearing...

That's nice.

I believe she meant "rapper." Otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd be out of a job if I had kids watch a raper perform....

There you have it! I obviously have these hanging on the wall of my office. Duh. Now I have to go and figure out what to do about the flat tire I got this morning. :-(

Give Us Something

Good morning! I'm writing to you today from a giant Starbucks in Seattle. Mmmmmm.... Seattle Starbucks....

My short trip home is already halfway over, but so far it's been great. Lots of shopping (woohoo!) and an entertaining trip to the casino on Halloween. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures but my phone was next to dead. Right now Andy is auditioning for the Seattle Symphony, so I'm not sure what else will be in store for us this trip, but regardless, it's just been nice to get away from responsibilities and relax. :-)

Now onto the prompt for the day. What are the best gifts I've ever received? Here are some of my most memorable gifts (in no particular order)...

1) My dog Cookie! One year I looked over the banister of the stairs and saw a little puppy face peeking out of a box. I don't have a picture of her handy, but she was a black and white lhasa apso/long-haired chihuahua and she was pretty cute.

2) A flying lesson! My parents bought me a flying lesson for one of my birthdays and it was soooo much fun. For those of you that do not know, I wanted to be a pilot/astronaut for many many years.

3) A trip to Vegas! My graduation present from Eastman was my first trip to Las Vegas. We got to stay at the Mandalay Bay (my favorite hotel based on all of the travel channel shows I had watched). Turns out I LOVE Las Vegas and have thankfully been back a few more times!!

Seriously though, this list could go on forever. I've gotten a lot of amazing gifts... my car, my engagement ring, my saxophones... basically everything I own. But as cheesy as this sounds, my best gift is my life. I have awesome parents, Andy Man, great friends, and I've had a zillion opportunities to do some really cool things. Lucky me. :-)

Fess Up

Hello from Washington! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Anna and Lisa!!!!!!!!

The next prompt from the blog book is to confess things I'm bad at. So without further ado...

I kill house plants. All of them.

I move slowly and am late to everything. All the time.

And if you were to ask Andy, he would say I am a very bad passenger.

But other than that, I am 100% perfect. ;-)

I'd write more but we are heading out the door to have dinner at Ikea, and then to the airport to pick up Andy Man! Woohoo! Hope you're having a good day!

Reign Supreme

Friends... I spent a LOT of energy working on my new blog yesterday, and all I can say is I'm really excited with what I've come up with so far! I'm not sure when I'll be ready to "launch" it, but I think it will be in the relatively near future. Yay!!!

But in the meantime, I will stick with my original plan, which means I will answer the first prompt suggestion from my new blog book.

"If you ruled the world, things would be better, at least in a few small ways." 

So... what would I change if I ruled the world?

1) People would be required to call people by their full name unless given permission to do so otherwise. Enough said.

BarbARA

2) Toilet seats would be put down after each use.

3) And keeping in line with the toilet.... it would be LAW that toilet paper be hung as such...

OVER!!!! not under.

And with those three simple changes, I think the world would be a much better place. :)

Time for a change

Hello readers - or those of you who are left. I'm sure you've noticed that I rarely update anymore. Probably because I don't really know what to write about... stick with the play-by-play of what I'm up to? Focus on one topic.... like when I first started the blog as a way to track my marathon training?

I've been unsatisfied with my blog for awhile. I feel silly that it's called RunnerBabs and yet I hardly run anymore, although I would really like to get back into it. I also read other blogs on occasion that have more of a structure to them, which I like. Other blogs also have more bells and whistles, and well... I like those too (but admittedly have no idea how to create them).

Anyway, last week Anna and I went to a giant "garage sale" put on by the ritzy school district's PTSA and out of nowhere, I saw this...

Blog Book

So for a whopping 25 cents, I bought it thinking it would be exactly the thing needed to reinvent my blog.

Nope.

Haha.

I'm still going to have to figure out what I want my blog to actually "be," but in the meantime, I will entertain you by answering the prompts the book suggests. Will I make it through all 100 before the new blog is born? I sure hope not! But hopefully it will provide some entertainment for both myself and you (who are left) in the meantime.

And with that said - if anyone has any suggestions for my new blog.... please send them my way!

Husband and Wife Date

The upcoming weekends are going to be horribly busy for both Andy and myself, so we decided to take full advantage of our last peaceful weekend for awhile. Here's what we did.

Friday - went out to dinner.

Saturday - saw The Maze Runner at our favorite movie theater (with the recliners). I had finished the book earlier that day... the movie didn't follow the book at all so that was a little disappointing.

Sunday - Husband and Wife date! The Wine and Culinary Center was having a "Harvest Festival" and I had signed us up for some cooking classes. We made a vegan roasted vegetable stew and some pork. Everything turned out really well and we had a lot of fun!

Grapes on the vine

Recipe and ingredients for the stew

Chef Andy

Time for pork!

Real chef monitoring Chef Andy

The finished product - delicious!

Needless to say our trip to the Culinary Center sparked our desire to cook more at home. Last night we made this really delicious recipe I found on Pinterest.

Sausage and Tortellini

It definitely wasn't the healthiest thing we've ever made, but it sure tasted good!! Sundays and Mondays are definitely my favorite days because we have time to make/eat dinner together. :-)

Looking ahead - this week I have my usual work schedule for Job #1 and #2. On Wednesday I get to go to a special anniversary party at Job #2 for people who have worked 5 years or more, so that is kind of cool. Andy's playing concerts on Thursday and Saturday night. And on Sunday I have to observe a youth orchestra rehearsal (barf). When will I find time to watch Parks and Rec?! ;-)

Candy Corn Pancakes

Yikes, I really let time go by without showing up here, didn't I. Sorry about that.

Life's been pretty busy - Job #1 is one month into the new season so things are all a buzz. Job #2 is still Job #2. And somehow I feel like I don't have much free time at all, probably because I don't really... but what free time I do have has been dedicated to watching Parks and Recreation. I love that show.

So instead of trying to catch you up on everything, I'll just share some pics from last night. My friend Alyssa's birthday is this weekend, so a few of my girl friends threw her a birthday brinner bash last night.

Birthday Girl Alyssa making pancakes!

Yeah.... 

Those pancakes are banana walnut. Mmmm

Alyssa brought her dog, Cooper!

It was really fun! Tomorrow is Friday... thank goodness. Andy and I have our first "husband and wife" date planned for Sunday. We are taking a cooking class at the Wine and Culinary Center, so we're really looking forward to that. I promise to update again sooner!!

PS - I just remembered the name of my blog is RunnerBabs.... probably should change that, but I did run a 5k over the weekend, so it's not an entirely a false title!

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have made it ONE YEAR without drinking Diet Coke. Do you know how amazing that is?!?!?

As a matter of fact, I haven't had any fake sugar (to my knowledge) for a year.

Do you know how many foods and drinks have fake sugar in them? A lot. I've had to read a lot of labels, and at the end of the day, it's meant I don't eat any reduced fat/diet/fat free foods anymore.

Today also marks one year (and one week) of not measuring or weighing any of food or calculating any calories.

I know it seems silly, but these are big changes for me, and I'm really proud that I made it the entire year. Also.... it was so hard (I STILL want a Diet Coke), there's no way I'm turning back now.

Good job Babs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm baaaaaaaack!

WOW! I abandoned the ol' blog for a REALLY long time, but cut me some slack.... I was pretty busy getting maaaaaaaarried.

Seriously. It took a ton of work, and I could not have done it without my parents help - they flew out two weeks before the big day and worked pretty much 24/7. It was all worth it though. Our wedding was about as perfect (in my opinion) as it could have been. As much as I'd like to share a thousand pictures with you now, I'm running short of time, so....

Instead I will simply address the two people who asked about the blog's status.

Mom - Tada!!!!!

Rebecca - YOUR BIRTHDAY WISH HAS COME TRUE!!!!!

* Today is Rebecca's 30th birthday and she asked for the return of the blog. *

So with that....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for more. :-)

Dear Baby Jesus...

Let's see how few words I can use to describe what's been going on.

This weekend I felt like...

...which led to...

And now I feel like...

:-(

So this is what's happening now...

Dear Baby Jesus. Help me find the strength to lose 20 pounds in 25 days...... 

(fyi that green juice is disgusting)

Back

I just got off the phone with Rebecca - we have phone dates from time to time, which I thoroughly enjoy. Out of no where she requested I bring the blog back to life. So, here we go. This one's for you, Rebecca!

Clearly shaming myself into eating well by posting pictures of my food was NOT a success - which I'm sure you gathered since it lasted a whole of one day and then I disappeared. Enough of that. Moving on.

This is how I've been feeling lately...

Blaaaaaaah

I've been feeling tired, blah, and like my facial features are hiding under a layer of fat (much like Mama June). That's like, the opposite of how I imagine a 'bride to be' should feel. She's supposed to feel like this....

Skinny and Ecstatic

Instead I am trapped between the two.

I just want to be skinny, I just want to be skinny... wait, frozen yogurt? CAN'T SAY NO.

I can't wait for my parents to get here. Having them with me is the only way I feel like I'll stop eating food. Needless to say, the food part's not going too well. However I am happy to say I am still exercising. So, that's good at least.

What else has been going on?

Job #1 - Our janitor died. Another woman "resigned" effective immediately. And the person in the office that I can't stand the most is moving into the office next to mine in two weeks. And getting a promotion. Joy.

Job #2 - Tonight is my second to last Thursday working there, so I'm looking forward to that ending soon. I am only resigning from Thursday nights, not Job #2 entirely. Don't get too excited.

Job #3 - Yes. Job #3. This is now what I'm calling my wedding because it's basically become a full time job now. I'm blown away by how many details are involved. My brain feels like a swirling mess of wedding thoughts. But things are coming together. We are finally set with musicians for the ceremony (thank you Lisa and Anna!). The cake stuff is all set. Chair/tent rental is done. And the RSVPs are coming in (although there are still a lot of delinquents out there... come on people, get those in the mail!).

Ok that's about all for now. Sorry Rebecca - I'm sure you were hoping this would be more entertaining/informative but.... well... ok, I will leave you with this video of me trying to do push-ups. Frankly, I think my form is not too shabby for a girl with an incredibly weak upper body, but Andy laughs every time I do them, so this is at least entertaining to him!

Food/Exercise Photo Journal - day 1

So here we go - below you will see what I ate and how I exercised on Wednesday, July 2nd (45 days until the wedding).

Full disclosure. Wednesday morning I weighed 160.0. My goal weight is 145.0 (although to be completely honest, anything under the 150's would be just fine). That means 15 pounds in 45 days. It's going to take a lot of focus, but I know it's possible as long as I try my hardest and don't give up. Let's get this journey started.

Here we go with my food/exercise photo journal - day 1.

Coffee w/almond milk!

Breakfast: Cantaloupe and Watermelon

Lunch: Salad and Banana

Exercise: 2 mile walk after lunch

Snack: dried fruit and almonds

Exercise: T25 - Rip't Circuit

Snack: Nectarine

Dinner: Tons o' veggies

Exercise: 20 minute walk

Chai tea w/almond milk before bed

There you have it! Day one! As I'm writing this the following day I can tell you I weighed the exact same today (160.0) and am honestly a little pissed! But whatever. Stay tuned - hopefully that number will go down soon.