Time is Not on My Side

I have been busy! And not blogging as much as I would like. I have been working a lot and having a little fun.  Here is a quick update.

My 30 in 30: Whoa! Two and half months in and I have made a small dent in my long term goals, but not as much in the tangible. 

Food: I have done a pretty good job at sticking to purchasing only foods with less than five ingredients. I did find a new vegan protein powder I like that is made from less than five. So that was a success. However, I bough flour tortillas. I have no idea why. I haven't purchased flour tortillas in like three years. I guess a moment of weakness.

Exercise: Let's just say eek! I'm running a 5K tomorrow. TOMORROW. And I have not even thought about training. Well, no, that is a lie. I thought about it, but then decided to sleep instead. As for yoga and barre: double eek. 

Others, I am still not washing my hair often (I should really write a post to explain that), avoiding shredded cheese, using lots of sunscreen and actively looking for a dresser. So I'm working on it.

Like I said, I work. A ton. I am teaching two classes which makes my life consist of grading and prepping. But I have had a few moments of fun, so here is a bit of the fun that I have been up to since my last update.

 

I went back home for the annual Chilhowee Fair. It was a fun filled weekend hanging with my niece & nephew and a bunch of old friends.

 

 

You know those Buzzfeed articles, '19 Signs You Grew Up in {Insert City}?' Well, I think if there was one on Chilhowee the first line would be: 

'You get a bit of a rush when you hear, 'Step back and toss your egg.'

 

'And get mad when the announcer does not say those exact words.' 

I got sick one weekend. After about 60 hours of being cooped up in my house, I decided I needed to paint my door. I'm not sure if I love the color. It's okay from the inside view, but it looks uninviting from the street (not that I want to invite strangers into my home). Sorry for the bad pics.

 

 

I went back to STL for Alissa's 30th Birthday Surprise Celebration. We had a super fun weekend and saw Chicago: The Musical at the Fox. And guess who was in it? Paige Davis from Trading Spaces. Remember that show? She was Roxie Hart and was in-cred-i-ble. I could hardly believe it. Also - Peterman from Seinfield was Billy Flynn, which was also cool. But I really was stoked on my favorite TLC host.

 

I went home another weekend for a wedding. 

 

Although I have been driving a ton on the weekends, which I hate, I haven't been quite as annoyed because I get to hear Mitch Holthus announcing the Chiefs' games on my drives back to Springfield. And. We. Are. Winning. I can not tell you how many times I have jumped on my couch this season, and we are only four games in. 

Everywhere You Look

After living the good life in Napa, we had a transition day to travel through Sonoma, down the coast and into San Francisco. 

Artesa Vineyards. If you go, I highly suggesting grabbing a glass of vino and sitting on the patio to enjoy this view.

We grabbed lunch at The Girl and the Fig (delish), and made our way over to Petaluma. It's pretty difficult for me to get wine-d out, but not everyone has an affection for fermented grapes like me, so we moved on to beer. 

Well, This Doesn't Succulent

So last year, I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan. Okay, that's not really the whole truth. I hopped walked off a plane at LAX SFO with a dream deep chest cold and a cardigan scarf. See why it's more fun to bend the truth sometimes?
No but really, last year, I went to San Fran and Wine Country with my friend Adrienne and absolutely fell in love. So, when the Chilhowee gang was trying to plan a little getaway and NWCA was brought up, I gave it two giant thumbs up.
We were all arriving on Wednesday at different times, so made plans to set off to Napa early Thursday morning.

Walking to the plane in Branson

Happy Dad's Day Ronnie!

Everyone always questions me when I call my parents by their firsts names. I don't know when it started but here are my thoughts on why:

• When I was little my dad called his dad Raymond, so I just thought when you became an adult, you called your parents by their first name.
• My mom's name is Brenda Kay, and 'Hey, Brenda Kay!' had a nice little rhyme to it.
• When you say Mom or Dad either 20 parents turn and look at you or no parents turn to look at you, so using their given name was more efficient.
• All my friends call my dad Ronnie, or Captain Ron... so it just stuck. 

Whatever the name... Happy Father's Day to one heck of a dad who probably gives the best advice out there. If you've never had a talkin' to from Ronnie, you just ain't livin' right. Love you Dad.

Did We Just Become Best Friends?

In the summer of 1981, four babies were born within a month of each other in a town of about 300 people. Their parents must have thought thought it was pretty great to raise babies together because less than two years later, all four had younger siblings born within three months of each other. One of those sweet babies was me. I was literally born into built-in friendships.

Follow the doodles for relations.