a moment in my day.

day n i n e :

a moment in your day.

this week has been a doozy....second {last} week of finals. jack has his gen med final today. he was up all night. so, consequently, that means i was in a constant state of awareness all night, too. at 4:30am, i was making him a breakfast burrito & coffee.

thank goodness, i'm doing a cpe webinar from home today.

also, i'm having my first cup of coffee since january. dang you, seattle roots. i just couldn't stay away from you.

{not pictured: the kitties obsessing over me being home & actually sitting in one place. i can't believe i am getting paid for this cozy day. perks of being a professional.}

**update: final grade was just posted for gen med. just found out the all nighter was worth it!!! yay!

some advice.

day e i g h t :

of the may challenge

a piece of advice you have for others.

{photo by jack in long beach, washington...he went for a solo walk and came back with this.} 

i am pretty stubborn {aka: i always think i'm right...one of my downfalls}

...growing up, i didn't like to take advice from anyone. 

ok, i still rarely take advice. 

i was the type of person that knew i was right...until i messed up and learned for myself. 

ok, i'm still that person.

so rather than give advice, here are some lessons i've learned the hard way:

1. don't plan your wedding in a month.

2. pick your career based on a passion you have, not money.

and...a piece of advice i actually listened to:

3. be honest, no matter how hard it is. 

this applies in business and relationships/life in general. 

my grampa roy let me in on this little secret when i was in college. 

{dad's kitchen: my fav place to be. that's grampa roy on the right. back: gramma ilene, dad & di}

whenever i'm unsure what to do in a situation, i think to myself...well, what do i have to lose if i just speak my mind? the answer 99.9% of the time is nothing. of course, that is in context of "what is best for me." warning: person might end up being super peeved with you. but at least they won't take up any more of your energy!

honesty has a lot to do with maintaining my marriage & my job. it's worked so far!

eek.

day s e v e n 
of the may challenge:

the thing i'm most afraid of:

wasps.

when i was in fourth grade, my dad took my friend ying and i on a fabulous pacific northwest mountain hike. ying and i decided it would be a great idea to venture on the road less traveled and go off the trail. 

sometimes yellow jackets like to build their nests under the ground in soil pockets.

let's just say my little fourth grade foot stepped through the home of a yellow jacket family and we had a minor swarm situation. our hike ended a little early.

ying got stung right in the middle of her forehead. i got stung on the hand and leg. 

i found out that weekend that i am allergic to bees. my hand & leg swelled up to what felt like three times normal size and i ached and itched like nothing i've ever felt. i remember my skin was tight & shiny. my dad kept coating me in paste made with meat tenderizer & baking soda. i stayed like that for an entire week. 

{me in 4th grade. man, i loved this silk shirt & matching scrunchie}

now you'll understand why i screech like a cave bat if there is a bee or wasp within my general vicinity.

p.s. i didn't post yesterday. the topic was:
 "If you couldn't answer with your job, how would you answer the question, 'what do you do'?"

i feel like i've already answered that a thousand times, and i didn't want to bore you. 

for a refresher, look here!

my bloggy darling.

day f i v e :

the blogger i fancy is rachel marie. 

today is cheating...it's so easy for me. we are supposed to publically profess our admirations for another blogger. 

i grew up with rachel. she is my person. i am so so blessed to have a best friend that really knows me. by that, i mean that she knows where i come from. and why i am the way i am...not just because i've told her, but because she was there. 

she is beautiful. honest. a human gps. a fabulous wine chooser haha, a fun shopper, the best listener, a funny writer, an amazing fish mom, and even better pet parent to her little jack russel terrier, gabby.

she was the maid of honor at my wedding...and i'm pretty sure that without her, my wedding would have ended up having takeout chinese food, no ties, no color scheme, no favors, lots of tears, no processional, no music, no cake, and no sanity. yeah, hire her to plan your event {especially if you have NO idea what you are doing , and are planning the whole thing to take place in less than a month}.

on top of that, she is the smartest woman i know. so practical. yet with the perfect balance of a romantic. she has been with me since middle school, through high school, college, the cpa exam {we took it at the same time}, and when i moved to san diego, she has since always been just a phone call or airplane ride away. 

even though she was smart and got out of public accounting, she supports me though busy season every year...i am serious....like 6am pep talks via text. she is amazing. i talk to her every single day, either on gchat or by texting/phone. she is the person i talk to the most in the world besides my husband, even after all these years. i truly cherish our friendship. 

i'm sure i'm forgetting a ton of stuff. you see, she has always just been there...it's hard to express my gratitude for it all. so, rach...thank you for everything.

ok, so this profession of love has very little to do with blogging...sorry. but i DO get super excited when she posts something new on her bloggy...does that count?

love you, rach.

love.

d a y  f o u r :

favorite q u o t e :

for those of you who know me, you'll know i love love. i want everyone to be in love. i think everyone deserves love. i'm head over heels in love. i've felt my fair share of pain, but to me, that makes love all the sweeter. 

i love this quote in particular because the love i feel for and from my husband truly makes me feel like i could do anything. it makes me feel whole. it makes me feel like i could live forever. 

things that make me uncomfortable.

d a y  t h r e e :

...i have a crippling disability.

i cannot bear to hear, see, or think about animals that lack the minute possibility of being the most spoiled being in the world.

this precludes me from participating in the following:

watching discovery channel.

watching animal planet.

visiting the humane society without knowing i am taking someone home.

searching for youtube videos with the name of any animal in the subject line unless  specifically pre-approved for me {usually jack}.

life of pi? hated it.

where the red fern grows? i can't.

discovery channel's planet earth? lion hunting gives me indescribable anxiety.

the zoo? barely.

thinking about where my meat comes from? the grocery store, obviously.

it really is hard having this much love in my heart.

if you are anything like me, enjoy this pre-approved video:

educate you on something i know a lot about or i'm good at.

This was a hard one for me because, man, I’m just so good at sooo many things. Not.

But, I do feel like I’m really good at fitness & nutrition & knowing what bodies need. Actually, I wanted to be a nutritionist or a personal trainer in college…And then daddy brought me back to earth, saying I had to pay the bills, so I should choose something more practical. Enter tax accounting. Ugh. {it does pay the bills & then some, so thanks daddy!!} Food & exercise remained my...hobby? Is that the right word?

I was the typical teenage girl, so impressioned by people’s words like: Fat. Ugly. 

My brother jokingly called me a whale in middle school and things like that stuck with me through college. He was totally not being serious {and I love him verrryyyy much!!}, but I couldn’t let it go. I also had the pleasure of growing up around strikingly beautiful women in my family. Two words: Swedish blondes.

Three generations: Mom {center}. Grammenner {right}.

My aunt was a model in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. My great aunt was queen of the rose bowl parade. Seriously? How would I ever manage to fit in with these women???

As the tween brunette tomboy with a snaggle tooth & a unibrow {yes, unibrow}, more comfortable in my brother's hand-me-downs, I had a hard time feeling comfortable in my own skin. My brother finally broke it to me that I should probably shave my legs before going to middle school. No one told me I could just pluck my unibrow until church camp in 7th grade {thank you older beautiful teenage goddess}. I wasn't really good at that stuff.

Oh, and the braces as a high school junior & senior were super hot. Awkwarrrd.

Food used to scare me when I was a teenager because of my mysterious changing body, and then I learned to understand it. I laugh at all that other stuff now, but I know there are a lot of girls out there that probably went through the same thing. So, what am I good at?

Nutrition & Exercise.

What do they both revolve around?

The Calorie. A unit of energy equal to the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.

Get rid of all those stupid confusing fad diets. 

Paleo, Slimfast, Atkins, Low Fat, Southbeach, Caveman, No Sugar, blah blah blah. 

They are all rubbish and completely useless. Why? Because trust me, you will end up binging on an entire box of cheezits three weeks into it; and at a pound heavier than when you started, you'll wonder what the heck happened.

When I was in college, I invested my little internship paycheck in a personal trainer {check out my super embarassing success story}. Disclaimer: I was never fat, but I wasn't healthy either. Yeah, I jogged a couple of times a week. Sometimes.

At 5’5 and 135 lbs, & like 30% body fat, I was an averagely fatty skinny girl.

 Ok, so if you live or have lived in San Diego like I did, you will be extremely aware that the above representation of "acceptable" is not accurate...the average girl is pretty much at athlete status. 

Bathing suit season is. year. round. 

Sooo, I wanted to tone up and couldn't figure out how to do it myself. He taught me the magical science behind a calorie. Same formulas, whether you have 100 lbs to lose, or 5. Let me tell you, it blew my mind.

These magical formulas are really true: 

calories in {less} calories burned = calorie {deficit} or surplus.

3500 calories of surplus = gain one pound of fat.

3500 calories of deficit = lose one pound of fat.

One pound of muscle = burns 100 calories per day while at rest.

Our bodies are sculpted with = 80% diet, 10% workouts, 10% genetics.

I didn’t believe that these formulas applied to me and my weird body. So, he suggested I get the bodybugg and see for myself. Sure enough, if I sat on my booty all day on the couch watching real housewives of oc, my body required 1500 calories for basic organ function.

I told him, IMPOSSIBLE. If I eat a bagel, I gain five pounds!! He explained that I had destroyed my metabolism over the years. I had deprived it {I thought I should only be eating 1000-1200 calories/day} and put my body into starvation mode. So, everything I put into my body was being held on to for dear life. Sorry cute little body.

Epiphany: I actually do need 1500 calories to maintain my weight using the magic formula {This number is different for everyone}. More if I’m not a sedentary sloth.

To take it a step further, in the peak of my training with him, I used the following ratio in my diet:

40% protein 30% carbs 30% fat

I accompanied that ratio with the following gym routine:

two lift days & three cardio days & two rest days

I saw the fat literally melt off and lean muscle built in its place.At my peak, I think I got to 123 lbs and 20% body fat, with enough muscle to able to eat about 1900 calories a day to maintain my weight. {Another priceless nugget: body fat % is wayyy more important than BMI by the way. BMI is useless unless you are trying to figure out if you are obese or anorexic.} I kept a food journal using the nutrition information on my basic/favorite foods listed at www.calorieking.com. It was a game! Once you track your food for a few weeks, you'll be surprised that you eat pretty much the same things and you acquire a certain awareness and get the hang of just "knowing" what you are putting into your body. As a result, my awesome secret hidden talent is the ability to tell you the calories in pretty much any basic food.

Literally, I could go on for days about this little bundle of realization. I was so excited. Loved experimenting with food. Loved knowing what it felt like when I needed more protein. Or {gasp} fat. Loved incorporating exercise and having the ability to eat an entire California burrito {cheat days are KEY} and not gain an ounce.

OK, so I’m not the shining example of physical prime right now because of my new found wifey priorities with the hubster in school. I’m not running & weight training as much as I used to…and we def have more than our share chocolate chip cookie nights {sometimes the only ounce of happiness we see during midterms/finals week}. I’m a lil softer than I used to be, but that’s okay. I’m really happy. 

So, yes, I believe in a lifestyle diet: Eat Clean. Whole Food. Real food. 

Less sugar {glycemic index}. 

Less chemicals, less artificial ingredients, more good fat. 

...As much as you can. Don't be perfect. Have a cookie. 

Wake up! The lesson is over!

every day in may.

it's so easy to get lost in every day doings. 

here, there, quick, make the bus, work, pack lunches, go to bed, get up & do it again. 

one of the main reasons i started this blog was to step out of that craziness and appreciate the little things on our journey through this time of our lives. life could be over in a second. our heart can be shattered in one phone call.

i've been in quite a blogging rut lately. i never know what to write about...sometimes i worry that no one will want to read my self indulgent blabberings. then i read the post of one of the fabulous girls i follow {ryleeblake}. she reminded me that sometimes the most interesting posts are the real life pieces of life about who we are, why we are. 

she posted a link of pure blogging inspirational gold: blog every day in may

i thought the idea was so cute, so i'm going to do my best to participate. 

so, here we go...

day one >> story of my life in 250 words or less

Born in Portland, Oregon. Dad’s job moved us to Washington state before I was five. I still remember driving away and seeing my precious Gramma Ilene with tears in her eyes waving goodbye.

Grew up in Duvall, Washington. I am thankful for the beauty and simplicity of my childhood in the country. Snow days, sledding down hills with the entire neighborhood, summer nights, neighborhood street hockey, little league games, and popsicles in the backyard reading instyle magazine with mom & best friend ying in the sunshine.

Played fast pitch softball seven days a week for eleven years & made varsity as a freshman in high school. My dad was my coach and I am so grateful I got to spend every weekend with him during this impressionable time in my life. Softball & church kept me out of trouble. Too. Busy.

I found security in my little family of four, until my parents divorced after 20 years of marriage. I was 16. This was my first heartbreak.

Got a full ride to University of Washington for academics. Only attended one year before I HAD to move to sunny San Diego. Opted out of my full ride to pay for private school at USD. Oops, sorry Daddy. 

Although my amazing family helped with tuition, I am still paying off my student loans. I don’t regret this decision for a second. I met my husband next door at the beach & got my dream job. That’s a win, duh.

{magical backyard i grew up in. my dad turned it into this from a field of weeds. pictured with high school friends}

{at uw. only a freshman would run a 5k for a free jamba juice}

 {usd girl.} 

{daddy's girl for sure.}

{us before responsibility. college sweethearts}