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!