Ski Patrol

 There's always the thought in the back of my head about that chair lift coming at me fast to swoop me up and rather than doing so, it knocks me down or I guess even knocks me out. Imagine the site of that. I also have this fear that somehow I'm going to end up falling off the chair. I'm not sure if I'm afraid the chair is going to randomly fall off the lift or that I happen to slide off, but either way I'm doing down. Neither of which would ever happen, I know, but nevertheless my mind thinks otherwise. Then there's the great thought at the top, right before I'm suppose to get off the lift, that I'm going to get stuck on it or just eat shit. At least the last thought could possibly happen. In fact, I'm sure it has happened when I tried to snowboard years ago. I've since decided skiing is more of my thing. I prefer to have each leg strapped in to a ski and not both onto one board. It's a control thing, I'm sure. Anyway, none of those things happened. Praise the Lord!

 However, what does happen is that I nearly pee myself at each of those thoughts. No joke. The bummer deal is that I have those thoughts way too often when I go skiing. By the end of the night I wasn't sure if it was real or not. In case you were wondering, it was a false alarm...maybe just a cold butt from a little snow that snuck its way down there. I imagine this sensation is what it's like for those who have had children, except unfortunately it tends to come true...the urge that is. If you're not following, go ask your mom what happens when a mother gets on a trampoline. Trust me, I've seen it happen.

 

Anyway, my dad treated my brother, Ty, and me to a night ski. Neither of the boys had ever skied and of course, they were quick to pick it up! I was super impressed how good they were by the end of the night. I'm pretty sure I heard "one more time" about 4 times before we had one last and final run. Best trip of the winter! We can thank my dad for pressuring those boys to get on skis...now all Ty wants to do is find a cheap pair of skis we can buy so we have our own!

To top it all off, we had to stop for food as I knew I'd die if I didn't have anything before we started skiing. Of all places we ended up at the Thriftway in Welches buying pulled pork from a guy selling it outside of the store. It didn't seem too sketchy, don't worry. Not only was that a good choice, but what I found was the jackpot in the store...Townshend's kombucha! You wouldn't believe that flavors they had. How I've never found these cute, delicious bottles around here I don't know but I plan on hunting them down. They're made locally which is awesome! If you ever come across them, pick one up and give it a try.

This is the spiced apple kava...bomb! Yes, I just said bomb.

Goodbye 2012, Hello 2013

 2012 is long gone! Most of it was spent wedding planning and crafting since about all but like 4 things were homemade for our wedding. We have been so blessed to have all our family and friends involved in many of the things we did. After everything that happened in the year, it's no wonder it went by so fast though! Take a minute to see a few things we did...

We joined CrossFit! This is one of the challenge workouts I was doing called "Jack." 

Our niece, Evelyn Marie, was born in March.

She wore "Aunt Dori's" homemade knit hat on her first day in the world!

We've since watched her crawl, stand on her own, sign the 

word "more," and give kisses to Uncle Ty!

I turned 26, had one drink, and that was the end of it!

This cute, loving couple celebrated 60 years of marriage!

Mom and Dad celebrated 35 years of marriage.

Then Mom and Dad celebrated 30 years!

And to top it off, these young grandparents celebrated 55 years!

Hey, what do ya know...we tied the knot finally in August!

We have a ways to go to catch up with the rest of them.

We honeymooned to Kauai and hiked 12 miles to this beautiful

waterfall and swimming hole below.

We moved into the yellow sub.

Went to San Diego for Ty's best bud's wedding.

Congrats Drew and Laurel!

One of my best friends, Meg, married her love, Ben!

We love you guys!

Ty turned 27. Old man in the house now.

We celebrated our first married Christmas together...of course we 

wouldn't celebrate it on our own I guess.

Some other things that occurred...

-I wrote an article that was published in my work's newspaper.

-I was asked to be the matron of honor in Kari's wedding and I can't

wait for all the 2013 bridal/wedding events that will go on!

-Ty started his new job as the 7th grade math teacher, head 8th grade boys

football coach, head girls basketball coach, and JV boys basketball coach

-We're getting closer on deciding where our next trips will be taking us.

Spring break may be to Colorado.

Majority of the summer may be spent in SE Asia.

Nothing is final yet as we are indecisive. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

Oh New Years Resolutions! The top ones always seem to revolve around dieting, working out, saving money, "being a better person"--whatever that means, "living life"--again, whatever that means, quit smoking--it's gross, you shouldn't need to just make it a new year's resolution to quit, even falling in love was in the top 10 this year (how can you even make that a resolution?!), and that list keeps going on and on with more garbage. I'm sure we'd all love to know the percentage of people that even last further than the first month, right? Although, credit is due to those who end up achieving their goals. Cheers to those resolutions!

As for us, we pondered what in the world we wanted to do...Ty was too busy trying to catch snowflakes in his mouth while we were out on a walk, but this is what I gathered from him:

He wants his resolution to be that he becomes the creepiest guy out there 

(this is what happens when I do the blogging):

Recently let loose.

Hide your kids, hide your wives...

So gross, I know. I'm so thankful he doesn't truly want to have chops or a
'stache like the above pictures. I got a great laugh out of each creepy guy
he became this morning though!

You caught me. That wasn't really Ty's resolution. Go figure, right. He did get a new cyclocross bike and decided his resolution is to be bike everyday to school when the boys basketball season is over. In fact, he is really excited about this bike...he and our landlord had a bike night over beers the
other night when Ty finally got the bike. It became some sort of event. Weird.

Ty gets this giddy smile when he tells people about it and
how he got a great steal. I just love it...his excitement that is.

Now for me, I have decided on two things, none of which are going to make
 me a better person or lose 20lbs. Although maybe I should make a resolution
to get to gain some lbs...Aubry and Pennie, pump me up and
get after me about doing more weights!

Ok, but really. My two resolutions:

-Stretch. Ya I know, really dumb. You were probably hoping for a big bang for a resolution and all I've got for you is stretching. Lame. But hear me out. I went for this awesome massage and by awesome I mean the most painful thing I've experienced which made me shed some tears. I'm pretty sure I left all my mascara on the head pad by the time I was done there. He told me my muscles are like glued in numerous places. Glued, stiff, locked up, poor stretching capabilities, etc. He had nothing good to say about my muscles. APPARENTLY that's not a good thing. All I was thinking was dude, I never stretch...EVER. And why would I want to when it hurts to bad. Well, it's time to make those life changes and STRETCH.

-So rather than setting these ginormous resolutions that I'll probably forget I set in a couple weeks (at least I'm reminded to stretch at the gym most days of the week), we decided why not set monthly resolutions! So it's a resolution in itself...the resolution is to have a resolution every month. This month is to live off of half of what we previously budgeted for our 'miscellaneous' category. If you want to hang with us it may entail hangouts at home, board games, walks, paleo dinners at our place, and window shopping. It may sound boring, but you never know how crazy those sorts of things can get. 

Alright, enough of this garbage. You all need to get on with your lives. 

Here's what I did today for a workout, which means you all
need to go do it now.

Seriously.

WOD 1

Run 1 mile

100 sit ups (I did mine weighted with a weanie 8lb ball)

100 supermans

Run 1 mile

WOD 2

25 squats, 5 push ups (hand release at the bottom)

20 squats, 10 push ups

15 squats, 15 push ups

10 squats, 20 push ups

5 squats, 25 push ups

Someone Remind Me It's Just A Tree

I realized I needed serious help when I was having difficulty finding a tree. I mean, really, who freaking cares what the tree really looks like. Apparently I had something so stuck in my head that it took me loops around the Christmas tree farm to pick this extra special tree that ended up not having any scent, being a bit too big for our tiny place (Ty cut off part of the bottom to make it smaller), and too much too it. I think my mind was set on something very minimal...kinda like a Charlie Brown guy, just taller and a few more branches. Poor Ty was on his knees about to cut down a couple until I quickly stopped him due to my indecisiveness. This is how it turned out:

Hay Rides!

What's awesome is that this isn't the tree we even got...just one of 

those first thoughts of mine that changed right before

he chopped!

We even took a picture by another one I thought was the one...

it wasn't!

Here it is!

Caseman had a great time helping Uncle Ty pick out a tree!

And the best for last...Ty just looks great. He was so

stoked he didn't even know what to do but this here.

Welcome Christmas...bring on the holiday!

Tis The Season!

Have you been wondering where the H we've been? Probably not. No big deal. We're back now. If you had any interest, we have been busy fools! Crossfit parties, hosting a craft night with 13 ladies from the gym at our house, family gatherings, doing crafts and Christmas carols at a women and children's homeless shelter, and finishing up our Christ-STAN-mas have made it seem as though hours were more like minutes and days were only hours. I had to go back to work way to quickly and soon enough Ty will be back in the classroom! Here's a little snipit 

of all those lovely activities:

Craft Night with the CrossFit ladies!

Homemade hot cocoa bar...pick your poison, salted caramel or peppermint!

Veggie tray thanks to Aubry! I made this yummy dip and all it is is pureed roasted red

 peppers and walnuts, dash of salt, and a bit of cumin. Throw in some 

olive oil until you get the consistency you want!

Part of the craft night spread! The buffet comes in handy for displaying food...

Add some cute Target napkins to spice up the plain white plates and you're set for any holiday!

Christmas brie...top your brie with some cranberry sauce and walnuts. 

Use a simple cracker for dipping (we used nut thins since we 

didn't want to make paleo crackers) and enjoy.

I modge podged glass ornaments and put paper on some...

 

Others were done by blowing up a balloon, wrapping very thin yarn 

or twine around it. Let them dry overnight and pray they work. They 

look much better from a distance, trust me!

Or cut up some pieces of paper and stuff them into an ornament.

Unfortunately when I went back to the craft store, the entire

company was out of them...also the reason I had to make

those other modge podge ones.

Ty wasn't actually at the craft party, but earlier in the week he made

the poster for the 12 days of Christmas song. This has been

a part of the Cosby tradition to sing the entire song

every year. Ty spent many hours working on

them, but we now have our own copy!

CrossFit-Ugly Sweater-Paleo-Bunco Party

                 

I had no sweater to wear, but Ty managed to find this sweet little outfit...a little girls dress, brand new 

gold pants, and a Xmas decoration made into a necklace. I must say he did well!

At the craft night, we made props for the photobooth and we

reused some of our wedding chalkboard frames for decor at the party.

Christ-STAN-mas

As Christmas approached, we had to cram two days of our chosen activities together while other days were taken on by the events we attended. I had to use "sleep" as one of our activities since we were desperate for some shut eye. It was well needed! Ty used a few days to give gifts which I may have already said in a previous post. Here is one of the gifts he gave us...

so perfect for us to add to our first tree!

Each little ornament guy had a different hat color. One for me and one for Ty!

Christmas
We decided this year that we were only to do stocking stuffers for each other. After a full year of wedding planning (and spending), getting the house more home-like, and such we thought we'd keep it simple this Christmas. I made Ty his favorite no bake cookies, topped it with a nice little note to Santa Stanley-Claus, and awaited Christmas morning for him to see it all. We woke up early and had cookies for breakfast, opened our gifts, and went back to sleep. Our plan was start the tradition of walking every Christmas morning, but the down pour put a damper on that one. So why not just go back to sleep? We took to all the rest of the Christmas festivities with our families...at the white elephant exchange Ty (for the second year in a row) stole his gift back. All it is is movie tickets and candy. Why he doesn't just go to a movie on his own, I don't know. For some reason he has to buy them as a gift, gift them, then steal them back. I on the other hand got some cute napkins with the chalkboard napkin rings along with a Papa Haydn's gift card. For all of those who don't know, Papa Haydn's was the first place I thought Ty was the creepiest person ever. Turns out he was just really in love from the get go...but still creepy, nonetheless! He swooned me over so apparently I'm married to a creepy guy. Now we can go celebrate at PH as a married couple!

Holy smokes...I may have gone a bit overboard there, but I was pumped I could finally post some pictures! Beware, there may be a flood of posts after this one!