Why my car...?

Someone rummaged through my car last night and stole stuff! STRANGER DANGER!

I am so annoyed and totally creeped out! I feel violated. I am not mad that they took stuff. Obviously they needed it more than me so whatever. What I am upset about is someone was burglarizing my house 25 feet from my front door…which happens to be a glass panel door. Awesome…one right hook to the door and you are in. Good thing I have a bat and I have been working out. You should see these guns. I am stating this right now….if anyone comes in my house they are going to get a home run swing to the skull. Ya have it coming!

Speaking of working out last night was another brutal W.O.D (Workout Of the Day) at CrossFit.

Run 800m
50 35lb kettlebell swings You take a 35lb kettlebell and bend at the knees so it is between your legs. Swing it up as high as you can and let the momentum keep it going as it swings back between your legs and you swing it up again. Do 50 of these…and keep your heels on the ground!

50 12lb “Wall Ball” You have a 12 lb soft medicine ball that you squat with. On your way up you toss it up against the wall and then catch into full squat. 50 of these…let me just say that these are NOT fun!

Run 400m
50 35lb Kettlebell swings
50 12lb “Wall Ball”
Run 800m

I finished in 22:47. Then tried not to barf…..as did everyone else in the class with me!

I think I am a wee bit masochist. Normal people would not PAY for someone to tell me to do these workouts!

Stella 6-Pack

What I eat and the amount of exercise I get and how much sleep I get at night greatly affects my brain juices and whether the chemicals get from point A to point B normally. That’s what Bipolar is…your brain juices get lost on the way to Point B (depressed). Or all the juices go to point B at one time in a big stampede (Manic). The diet the Naturopath gave to me when I was first diagnosed, at least according to what I can and cannot eat, is pretty much a carbon copy of this Paleo-Zone diet. So this is a natural way I can help myself to maintain a healthy and steady mental state. And avoid a continuous increase in man-made chemical meds.

So I am part of a group of ladies at my gym that are part of ‘Stella 6-Pack’. The trainers at the gym last night wouldn’t let me leave until I joined. HAHA thanks guys! You have to follow the Paleo-Zone diet (Athlete Version so more protein!) and go to the workouts 3x a week. We took our Before pics last night (shirts off BAH!) and our Afters will be taken on April 1. After we take the pics then we are going to have a party (after our workout, that is!!)

This is going to be really hard for me the first 2 weeks…but after that I should be ok.

What I can eat:
* Meat, Poultry and Seafood. The trainers at the gym said to eat meat like it’s going out of style. I like it already!!
* Veggies and lots of them
* Fruit but not too much (a lot of fruit will spike your insulin amounts because of the carbs/sugar in it so you can’t eat too much of it.)
* Eggs
* Nuts and Avocados (no peanuts as it is a legume.)
* Oils from nuts and fruit, like olive oil

What I cannot eat:
* Grains (so no pasta, no bread, no oatmeal, no rice…no no no none of that. This makes me very sad! But it won’t be for forever. I just need to get off refined foods!)
* Sugar
* Dairy (for first 2 weeks only. I can then have it in small doses. See below+)

* Beans and Soy products
* Processed meats
* Vegetable oils
* No alcohol. Red wine…waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Basically I eat like a caveman. If I cannot pick it, forage for it, or kill it then I can’t eat it. (All this foraging and killing will be done via Whole Food of course….)

+ I can have dairy because studies show that primitive cultures (who ate this way) also ingested a lot of milk based on where they lived. Example is the Masaii African tribe. They basically live off of Goats Milk and meat and they have no obesity or heart issues…+

I get one thing to cheat on and I choose my morning drip coffee with one packet of raw sugar and some cream. I won’t give that up and they said that was ok.

The fact that I am going to be accountable for taking after pics is very motivating!!

So why am I doing this? Well 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” My mental health is very dependant on my diet and exercise. I am grateful that I am ABLE to push my body in the gym like I do. Not everyone I know can walk or run or jump. I am grateful that I am healthy enough to do so. God has also blessed me with living in a place where I have access to very good, very healthy food. Why would I choose to put junk in my body when I can eat awesome, fresh, un-processed food for cheap? I view this as another way to worship God. All that I have and all that I am mentally, physically, spiritually is from Him and for Him. So I need to take care of it as a way to thank Him.

I love the Chuck T's....

'nuff said....

Oh Nike...

She looks good as a model, right?!

Giddy with EXCITEMENT!!!!

I was told just a few minutes ago that I am being sent out to work onboard the ms Zaandam from 5/22 to 6/4. It will be 2 7 day roundtrip Seattle cruise to Alaska!

Ohhhhh I am so excited!!!!!! WOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

These are all pics I took on my last Alaska cruise!

Just bought my plane ticket to....

Grenada!

I will head down there 4/17 for 10 amazing days spent doing nothing but getting a tan and lying on the beach with my friends Shawn and Shauna.

I am pumped. Now...time to hit the gym like a crazy woman!!

New pics of the Chunka!

Sort of a creepy doll..... :)

She looks pretty dang pumped about all those presents!

I found a Romertopf....

I love to cook and I love kitchen supplies. So Saturday afternoon was a good day for me…lemme tell ya why.

I went to Goodwill to do a little shopping. I love thrift stores. It’s an excuse to be silent and to lose myself in piles of other people’s junk…which usually ends up being my treasure! While walking through the kitchen accessories aisle I see a terra cotta pot. It was unused and the stickers were still on it. I look at the top of the pot. It’s a Romertopf. I looked twice to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me! They weren’t. So I freaked! Romertopf are the top of the line for these terra cotta pots. I have wanted one for a very long time but they are super expensive. The one I found was a medium size. Will hold about 2-5 lbs of goodies inside. I checked the price tag. $5. FIVE BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me? Clearly someone at Goodwill has no idea what this was worth. So I put the Romertopf in a football hold and stiff-armed my way to the checkout before anyone figured out the gem I just found. WOOT! I looked it up online and the one I found is worth more than $50. Double WOOT!

So I seasoned it (baked it with salt water. Then some lard. Then it was good to go.) and then did a little happy dance around my kitchen. Yesterday after church I walked to Pike’s Place Market and picked up the goodies for dinner. I decide ‘Chicken and Roots” sounded good. I picked up 1 of each. An onion, carrot, rutabaga, parsnip, turnip and a chicken breast on the bone. Once I got home I soaked the pot in water for about 15 mins then threw it all in there with 6 cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs rosemary, chicken stock and pepper. Oh my goodness….can you say most delicious meal ever! I got my grub on for sure. And I had wonderful leftovers for lunch today!

I am so excited about my $5 purchase that I want to cook with the Romertopf every night this week.

1.1.09 WOD

When a workout is named after a Medal of Honor receiving Navy Seal one can assume it’s going to be hard.

LOL oh such an understatement.

So let me preface the story….

I do CrossFit. It’s hard to explain…here is how they briefly describe it:

“CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.”

So basically it is an in-your-face-kick-your-ass-until-you-hate-life type of workout. Not for the faint of heart….and too be honest, not really for people who don’t have much of an athletic background. I love it. I have just started (few months) but I can already see the definition in my arms returning (bat wings…sayonara!). It’s not for the faint of heart...wait, did I already mention that? If you don’t think you can (wo)man up to the challenge then you need to get the heck out of the gym.
The gym is set up so that everyone is there at a specific time of day (I usually go at 5:30 or 6:30pm). Everyone does the same workout…so there is an air of competition. For those of you who know me well…you can only imagine how much I love heading into something knowing that I can and will beat someone else’s time or reps. Suckas! Competition drives me…..probably in an unhealthy way at times. As long as I just keep the competitive edge in the gym I should be fine. Right…?
Anyways…so I walk in yesterday to the freezing gym. It’s always cold in there….like wicked cold. But it’s nice when you get done and are trying to not keel over and die and the cold air is the only thing keeping you from passing out (sounds fun, right!) It’s New Years Day and I decide “No way am I punking out of doing CF today….I need to start 2009 off right”. Then I look on the whiteboard to see the WOD. The Workout Of the Day. Two Words. “The Murph”. Hmmmmmm……ok? This could be good or this could be bad…and who the heck is “Murph”?

The “Murph” is a workout known by a previous name (of which I do not know) but was later renamed after Lt. Michael Murphy who was a Navy Seal killed in Afghanistan in 2005. Google him…it’s super interesting.
He was an avid CrossFitter (even the Navy Seals know what’s up!) and this workout was his favorite workout. He used to call it “Body Armor”.
Anyways…..so before I explain what the workout is….let me just say that this is the 1st time after reading what the WOD was, that I actually wanted to try and sneak out of the gym and go home to each some chips and salsa.

“The Murph”
1 mile run
100 Pull Ups
200 Pushups
300 Squats
1 Mile run
Completion cutoff is 45 mins

Now everyone starts with the 1 mile run (if you are new to CF you can do half of everything listed! I chose not to…) and then once you get back into the gym (you are running around the block a few times) then you just hit it hard. The reps can be done any way you want….you just need to bust out the prescribed amount. The best way is to do a set of 15 squats, 10 pushups, and 5 pull-ups. Barf. Repeat 20 times. Oh and if you thought life sucked then……now get up and run another mile. LOL it looks so ridiculous even when I type it out. 200 pushups! LOL!

Well Kids….I did it in about 40 mins. Some people beat my time….and of course I schooled some people on their time. But in the end…all you can do is laugh at how hard the WOD of the day was and express gratitude that you completed it and are still alive. Oh and the cold gym makes for some fun steam coming off of your head afterwards. We all looked like we had smoke coming off our hair!

And most importantly…..I can walk away with joy that I am physically able to push my body in this way. Lt. Murphy loved this workout and would still be busting it out at CrossFit today if it wasn’t for the ultimate sacrifice he made for our country in June 2005.

What are your 2009 resolutions...?

So here are mine....

1.) To be more generous. Whether that involves time or money…but I want to give more, serve more and share more with others….especially with those who have less than me.
2.) To be quiet. To take time out daily for silence and solitude. I can’t hear God when I don’t slow down and stop talking/doing/moving etc.
3.) To do the best I can to avoid “celebrity news” like reading those crappy gossip mags in the grocery aisle or checking People.com etc online. Who cares who is wearing what or dating who? It’s a waste of time and I think it is killing my brain cells.

Over and out.

Woah too much snow!

Seattle doesn't do well when the snow comes. It rarely snows here....at least not too the extent in which the entire city shuts down. I can handle the snow...I grew up in Montana and Woming so I know how to drive in it. But people from Seattle don't. They have no clue what they are doing and that is what makes a big snow storm dumping on Seattle so dangerous. I have seen people on mopeds and bicycles riding down icy streets covered 6 inches of slick snow. BRILLIANT!

I live on Queen Anne Hill. We are talking a serious hill here people. There is no safe way to get down or up when there is snow and ice on the roads. I live close to work so I have been forced to make the 40 min walk to and from each day. I actually don't mind it too much. The good thing about living on a big ol' hill is that they close the roads off because no one...not even a 4x4 with super chains can get up them. So when roads close.....they soon become sled runs. WOOT!

(BTW the gray abyss looming at the end of this road is the Puget Sound. The sky and the water were the same color of gray. Very strange!)

Youtube "Queen Anne Sledding" and you should find a whole lotta ridiculous videos.

My roommate Felicia and I needed to head to Trader Joes to pick up supplies to make Lentil Stew for our neighbors and I. We decided to make it a grocery run/sledding adventure.

Now I don't own a sled. Sleds don't work very well in the rain. And since rain is usually all we get one doesn't think to invest in a sled. So F and I finagled up sled ideas. The soft luggage topper for my car sort of worked. As did cardboard boxes. Luckily, the entire neighborhood was out sledding so we were able to borrow other people's sleds for an hour or so. My favorite was the boogie board. It was pretty dangerous and you had to be willing to bail at a moments notice because there was no way to steer.



(I had to bail!)

The best sled in terms of entertainment value was the resuable Trader Joes grocery bags we had brought along to carry our lentil stew ingredients home. LOL we laughed our A's off sledding down the hill with these.

The bags have these handy handles to help steer....well sort of!

We arrived home rosy cheeked, tired, cold, snowy, and delirious from laughing.

Oh and the Lentil Stew was DELICIOUS! But then again...everything tastes good after a few hours of sledding!

MOM JEANS!

First off….you need to find the SNL commercial titled “Mom Jeans” and watch it. Watch it numerous times….and then you will come to appreciate the phenomenon that is “Mom Jeans”.



Saturday night my friend Brad and his fiancée, Lindsay, were hosting an Ugly Sweater party at their house. Ahhh ‘tis the season for hideous knits! And because Seattle loves Ugly Sweater Parties around the holidays there seems to be a shortage of really really hideous sweaters.

I found a very 80’s sweatshirt that said “I Believe in Santa”…it was red…it was retro, but by no means was it hideous. I can't very well show up at an ungly sweater party wearing a gently worn 80's sweatshirt! So I decided to up the ante a bit. I mean if you are going to do it….do it BIG I say! What if I wear my sweatshirt with some awesome pants?! HMMM? I have a pair a sweet Mom Jeans….Calvin Klein Mom Jeans if you want to be snooty about it. I found them at Goodwill around Halloween for $5. They look like they were sown just for me (Thanks Calvin!). The tapered leg stops right at my ankle (Which is a miracle considering how long my legs are. Uber-washed worn jeans are never long enough for me. At least I have never found a pair at a thrift store before!). The waist of these jeans buttons above my natural waist. Let me explain how high that is. The waist line buttoned about 5 inches below my bra. We are easily talking about an 8 inch zipper here, folks!! GROSS! I have never felt so trapped by a pair of pants before. Don’t believe the lies that those Chic Jeans commercials tell you…..I did not, in any way, shape, or form, feel like a “natural woman”. I felt hideous. Yet somehow I strangely felt attractive (The upside down heart butt will do that to you!). But that lasted for only a moment. I think it was the moment where I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and shuddered!

So after I did the shimmy shimmy dance to wriggle into these hideous jeans I accentuated the sweater/jeans combo with a pair of gloriously chintzy gold clip-on earrings, gold braided belt, and a gold purse with a gold chain as the handle. I was the epitome of class (if we are talking early 80’s class!). I made sure my hair was nice and big…just to complete the look.

Those stupid pants kept me from eating more at the party. It’s hard to eat…or sit…when your pants button up near your diaphragm.

Revel in the glory of MOM JEANS!

P.S. So in January....a big group of friends and I are having a "White-Trash" themed party. This involves going to a Monster Truck Rally in Tacoma. I have a feeling that these jeans and maybe a stylishly cut Def Leppard t-shirt might be sported to said truck rally.

**NEW PICS ADDED**

New Midge Pics...

The Midget, Smidgen, Fatty Fat Fat, Fuss Face, Chubba Wubba and MIDGEMO.

These are just a few of the nicknames that belong to my baby niece, Addison.

I love all my Chitlins dearly! (BTW: Chitlins is code for nieces and nephew.) They are such blessings from God. And they serve as my training wheels for when I have my own kiddos.

Unfortunately...the Midge lives in Charlotte, NC...which is too far away if you ask me. I miss her dearly but when I do get to see her I cherish it all the more.

Here are a few new pics of her:

With Daddy after one of his games. I love the faces she makes!



Nice hair, kiddo!

This one is my favorite!

These are her Daddy's favorite jammies.

Rocking the Chucks.

Addy and her beautiful momma, Ashley

Ah Jeans Day. Would have been nice to know ya....

--Let me preface what I am about to tell you with this...

Occasionally our director, Page, will decide on a Thursday that Friday should be Jeans Day. Since we aren’t allowed to dress casual in my office it is a pretty big deal when we have jeans day. You long for it. Everything at work is jolly good when you are in jeans and sporting a cherry red pair of Chuck Taylor’s. At least it is for me! Usually Page’s announcement comes out at 4:30pm. Well about 1/3 of our department has already left by 4:30! I sit at my desk and I think about how AWESOME jeans day is and how pissed I would be if I came in and didn’t know it was jeans day because Page sent the email out after I left. Not cool! So I will pull up the office contact list and call everyone who has already left to tell them that “Tomorrow is jeans day! Party time!” It’s the least I could do….

End Preface--

Yesterday we had our weekly office meeting. Another department from our head office came over for a presentation. After the presentation my boss, Mike, and I needed to meet with them to discuss some onboard stuff. So we left the rest of the office to talk about their numbers and have the usual bitch-fest about how this is wrong and that is wrong and etc, etc. (Sorry….but can you tell that I loathe these meetings? They don’t even affect onboard sales. Mike and I go because we feel we should because we are in the same office but none of it applies to us. So when they start the bitch-fest I literally want to bang my head against a wall! They can be so ungrateful. **Ok so I just gotta rant for a bit. My job is difficult at times. I feel that I am underpaid. But I HAVE a job. My job is pretty secure. I can pay my bills and I have great medical insurance. The current state of the US is scary right now and people are losing their jobs. I am grateful for my job and I don’t want to spend any more time bitching about how things should be better and complaining about this and that. I am happy with what I have…shout out to the Big G!** Anyways…so Mike and I head to office and sit down with these people for our meeting. Tra-la-la…the rest of the day continues as a normal Thursday would.

Now fast forward to 8:31am this morning (I was late…had to make a coffee stop.) I walk in the office and there is a group of 4-5 coworkers congregating right near the door. I, wearing heels, look down on them and notice *GASP* ‘they are wearing jeans.’ What?! So I exclaim “Is it jeans Day?!” They look at me and one of them says “Yeah…we announced it in the meeting yesterday. You and Mike were there.” I pointed out that after the presentation Mike and I left for our meeting. Their eyes got wide. Oh the horror!! Fellow comrades left out of Jeans Day awesome-ness! Nooooooooooooo! They felt so bad….especially since they know that I am the one that calls everyone when the announcement is late. It made me laugh. I told them I didn’t really care because I am fairly comfortable today (even though I am wearing a skirt. I do have my high black boots on, though. And under said boots I am wearing my knee high pink socks with white stripes that are usually reserved for kickball. It’s my way of rebelling against ‘The Man’. “Ha! Business Attire…right-o. But if you only new what socks I am wearing! BWAHAHAAAAAA!” ) plus I am wearing a scarf and as long as I have one wrapped around my neck I feel all warm and snuggly and all is right with the world. BTW- This scarf obsession has taken over my life. LOL!

One of my coworkers stated “Well you look good. You will look better than anyone else today!” Hmph! So I told her (while doing the super ghetto “Ima bout to let you have it“ neck roll just to emphasize my point) “I always look better than everyone else!” *WINK*

Mike and I decided that on Monday….we will be wearing jeans.

MIDGEMO MIDGET MORRISON

Addison, or "Midgemo" as this Auntie calls her, is my adorable baby niece.

She lives in Charlotte so I never get to see her....but I do love sharing pictures of her cuteness!

Daddy, Momma and the Midge


Daddy and Midget

standing in the arena waiting for Daddy to come out....

LOL! Halloween....

REPRESENTING #35!!

NOUNS: Home (love it!), Argyle Sweater (Black, white and Red. Whatchu know about that?!), scarf (black and white checkered. Are you shocked I am wearing one today?) Fremont Bridge (it’s next to where I work), Vitamins (need to take mine), mousepad (it looks like a rug), sunshine (Huh? In Seattle in November? UNHEARD OF!!), rain (which will come later on after the Sun says buh-bye!), CrossFit (Hitting it hard in the gym again tonight) Cleaning supplies (cleaning up MH DT tonight!), Ronald McDonald House (putting hours in on Saturday.), lunch (about to go get some) and Moleskin Notebooks (The obsession of my life!)

VERBS: Typing (as usual), driving (to mi casa to pick up workout clothes and then to get lunch), sinning (UGH! It’s one of those days where you wake up with an ungrateful bad attitude. Working on that….), cleaning (later on tonight), serving (On Saturday….and thankful for the opportunity), reading (emails), eating (about to!), writing (MOLESKIN!!!), grateful (for GRACE!), and walking (to my car. BYE!)

Last weekend....

So this past weekend my 7 year old niece, Shae, came over to spend the weekend with Auntie.

I planned a kid’s day on Saturday which included a trip to the Seattle Children’s Museum and the Color Me Mine paint your own pottery place. I invited my co-workers son, Bryce, to come with us.

I met my sister halfway between Spokane and Seattle (Vantage, WA. And when I mean halfway…I mean it takes 2 hours 14 mins from her house to get there and 2 hours and 12 mins from my house to Vantage. Tight!) Friday afternoon.

Shae and I got to my house around dinner time and we decided that homemade macaroni and cheese was a perfect choice for dinner. Shae wanted to use my giant fork….

Some of you know that I love scarves. I wear one everyday. And Shae wanted to get in on the scarf action so she decided to wear one of my favorites. (I do believe Luz wore this same scarf of mine during her visit to the Emerald City as well!)
Aren’t we cute!



This is Bryce, Shae, and I hamming it up for the camera. We had a blast at the museum!

We pretended we were actors in a play…

Shae drove and Bryce rode the Seattle City Transit. Kids seem to think public transportation is so cool. If only they knew that most of the buses smell like pee.

AHOY!

Shae getting her paint on!


Later that Evening Shae and I went to see Madagascar 2 on IMAX. It was awesome!

I thank God for my nieces and nephew. They are such blessings. I love kids period. I will jump at the chance to have an excuse to spend an entire Saturday playing! :)