TGIF

I've been lacking in my TGIF series lately and this morning it was clear to me what my TGIF was going to be about...drum roll please...Kent. Shocking, I know. The reason I am choosing Kent for my TGIF is because Monday was our 6 month anniversary of being a married couple.

In the beginning of our marriage, it was a little rocky, for like 4 days. We came off the bliss of our wedding and honeymoon and were dropped into the middle of a housing crisis and being unable to sell our home. We both had so wanted to sell our home and get a new place with a fresh start. As we realized this wasn't happening we both found ourselves annoyed and angry with the situation, and at times, one another. I was upset about the sheer volume of debt we now were going to have to pay off. Kent was disappointed that we weren't going to be able to move. In hind sight though we are both feeling so content with the fact our home is still our home. We have moved on to plan B and I think plan B is exactly the best move for us. We plan on moving this summer to a rental home and then rent out our top unit. We have recently had both of our units turned over and we have a new, fresh vibe in our triplex. I love it and welcome it!

Kent and I are a total team now. I love that I can walk around in my robe with out any makeup on or a bra...not a pretty picture. I love how comfortable we are with one another and how supportive we are. This is what everyone should wish for in a marriage, and I intend on keeping it that way! Thank you Kent for accepting me and loving me just the way I am...which is fabulous!

She's Got Bette Davis Eyes....

Not really the title for my post today, merely the song going through my head. I have more Lisa Davis eyes...I seriously crack myself up. Loose..do you remember dancing to this song in the good ol' days?

I'm in a really odd mood today. I'm feeling very anxious for some reason. It could possibly be because we didn't work out last night or the fact that I am sleeping so well. I was so tired and fell asleep from about 8:00-8:45pm on the sofa and then Kent tried to wake me up and I barked at him. A few minutes later I was awake and said I would go to the gym, but we didn't make it. We have to tonight, we need to keep up this momentum.

Today one of my co-workers said I was looking svelte. I wonder if she wants a day off?

Tonight we are showing a woman our upcoming vacant rental and she wants it. We are just crossing our fingers and practicing the secret (AKA wishing and praying) that it will work out. This will give us a little more freedom financially; little being the key word, but it will also allow us to not be woken up at 5am by a screaming baby. Those days will come soon for Kent and I; but at least it will be our own screaming baby.

I'm in the process of reading one of my Italy guidebooks and I am getting really excited about our trip. We are going no matter what, and it is a great feeling. Looking at the train schedules is like a foreign language to me. I called Rick Steve's place up (great guy on PBS with a store in Edmonds, WA) and the nice man on the phone told me to not waste my money by purchasing tickets in advance and just wing it. Hmm....when I was in Prague and took a train to Berlin we did this so called "winging it" and the only available cabins were the sick bays. I sat next to a woman for 4 hours who had been in Turkey for almost a month and had a barking cough. All I could think about was some crazy diseased air that I was breathing.

Everything else is going well. Kent and I are optimistic about our future, even if every time I turn on the news something else terrible is happening in the financial world etc. One foot at a time, we just have to move one foot at a time.

Lady Business...

Since I know that only my husband and life long friend read this I'm OK having a conversation about my lady business. Some say who-ha, va-jay-jay or the proper term vagina; I say lady business. My lady business has been messed up for a month now. I would like to contribute it to my aggressive 3 1/2 weeks of fitness, but my body has always been wacky, and now it is going to be wacky even on the pill. Apparently this low-dose may not be high enough to combat the super powers that behold my lady business. The only thing fabulous about today's doctor appointment was that I was 7 pounds lighter than when I was seen in October, and that was being weighed at 3:45pm, and everyone knows how much heavier you are in the evening (at least that is my excuse typically). Who knows why I'm having a weird cycle but the best answer was to just stop taking the pill and go au naturale. Hmmm...I'm cool with this because I know we will be extra careful not to get pregnant before our trip to Italy. I'm immediately wanting to do a WebMD search to see if 10 pounds is just going to fly off my body for lack of crazy hormones. I doubt any of this will happen, but a girl can dream. Oh and the doc took a blood sample to check my thyroid..please, like I haven't blamed my thyroid for the big thighs all my life. I could have saved myself that lab cost, but I'll go along with this game. If my thyroid is messed up, than pigs truly will fly. We did elect an African American President and Kent tried a shiitake mushroom the other day, so anything is possible.

Happy Birthday to Us....

When Kent and I went on our first date we discovered that we have the same birthday, January 24th. I love that I am 4 years younger, but what I love even more, is sharing our special day together. I am not good at being the center of attention or celebration so this is perfect for me; we can share the spotlight together. Our first birthday together we had a huge party. Our house was packed with over 60 people and it was crazy fun. I even hired a Neil Diamond impersonator as he also shares our birthday. It was a fabulous blast and reconfirmed we were on the path to spend many more birthdays together.

Our first birthday together. Try to ignore the crazy fur wrap I was sporting!

Our 2nd birthday celebration was low key as we went to Mexico for 6 days and had a blast. Sun, beach, books, beers, and tons of laughter. The most perfect idea of seeing some sunshine in late January will probably be on our list of to-do's for many years.

This was our 3rd celebration and it was great. We are saving our money for Italy so there was no pressure of having to throw a party or purchase gifts for one another. That morning we woke up and went to my trainer Chris's spin class. We went overboard and I felt sick for a few hours. We are still doing great on our fitness/diet plan and I was proud of us for getting up and pushing ourselves. We later went and had an amazing lunch in the Pike Place Market at a little French place. The meal was yummy, but really rich, so I felt a little sick for the rest of the day. It was worth it though and just another reminder by my body that I have a sensitive system! We later went and had a drink up on Capitol Hill and then on to a friends house for game night and dinner. The following day we had brunch with friends and then off to my parents house for dinner. I had such a fun week-end and I loved sharing it with my man!

Oh Happy Day....

Mr. and Mrs. Bush leaving the White House

I am sharing my joy with the millions of Americans who celebrated, cried and found a new sense of hope as President Obama was sworn in. I look forward tonight to watching my DVR as I missed out on his speech. From what I have heard though, and I am thrilled about, is that his speech was focused on the sheer fact that each and every one of us will need to toughen up and work as a dynamic group to put the pieces back together. I saw images of this smiling family on the web pages and I had sympathy for them as this is such a tough task. Regardless of who would have won this job, it wouldn't be easy for anyone. I am staying positive though and hope that somehow our country will no longer be embarrassed by their leader.

Some people will be surprised to know that I had some sympathies for George Bush this morning as well. His mistakes were large, but in trying times like 9/11, what would anyone of us have done. I will still disagree with the majority of his presidency, but we need to all be reminded that he is human. Unfortunately his mistakes will cost us for many, many years in terms of finance, predictability and a sense of community. From difficult times can come a sense of strength and I am ready to see this show of pride that Americans have faltered on for several years.

This past week-end I laid off another employee and I am continually reminded of our slumping economy. Doing the best I can each day has become a struggle as morale is down at work, and truthfully, everywhere. The news is depressing and puts me in a state of panic. My panic is more a sympathetic panic as I see so many people losing their jobs, their homes and their sense of security. I'm a sensitive bunny and that is just the way it is. I have always been and I always will. This sensitive bunny is ready to stop having so much anxiety and take the punches as they roll. Work is called work for a reason; it's not called play. This is my little pep talk I am going to have to give myself daily to get this office back where it needs to be.
Not only my office, but our world. I welcome the change!

We did it....

This week-end I set a goal for Kent and I and we conquered and achieved it. The goal will be bizarre to some, but Kent and I spent the entire week-end relaxing and not running ourselves wild. My promise to myself this year was to take better care of myself in all meanings of this term. We usually run ourselves busy during the week as we work, come home and cook, head to the gym and by time we shower etc it is 10pm and time to get ready to go to bed. We have been super successful over this past 2 weeks and have worked out 5x both weeks. On the week-ends we tend to power on as much as we can. Going places, chores, errands, fun times, family obligations and on and on. What we rarely allow ourselves is some time to do nothing. I bit the bullet and when Kent asked me what we had planned for this week-end I told him nothing!

Our week-end started off tough as I had to lay another person off on Friday afternoon and then I spent the rest of the day calming the staff down and finding was to motivate them through the day. By time I came home by neck and back were killing me as I tend to hold the majority of my stress in my shoulders. Kent massaged them for a minute and then we went to the gym. I was super pissy about this as I just did not want to go. We had promised each other that we were going on Friday night as we had missed Thursday. Once we were at the gym it took me a few minutes to find my groove, but I pushed myself pretty hard. We came home and I made dinner and then we watched Step Brothers which was exactly what I expected. I laughed a little, rolled my eyes and enjoyed seeing my husband crack up repeatedly. We woke up that next morning and went to a spin class my trainer Chris was teaching. 15 minutes into the workout I was toast. God I forget how hard spin classes are. It was a great workout but it literally wiped me out. We had lunch, watched TV, showered, started a new book and took a nap. Can it get any better? Yep...after a nap we went to the coffee shop and spent more time planning our trip to Italy. We stopped off at the grocery store and I made dinner and then we went to the bar Connor Byrne for a Dolly Parton tribute by 5 local bands. It was great. I only had a few beers at the bar, had fun with friends and went to bed at 2am and woke up at 10am! Woo Hoo! Had a lazy breakfast, cleaned the house, walked for an hour by the beach and stopped by to see our friends new little baby boy.

This was such a good week-end because there was so much down time and it was really positive. Even cleaning the house and running to the grocery store was positive. We both are making a serious effort to focus on long term goals (moving, health, children) and it feels really great. I also have been struggling with falling asleep and this week-end I just dozed right off. Hopefully this sleeping trend will continue into the next week! Here's to lazy days!

6 days and counting...

Kent and I are on track again and we have been to the gym 4x this week. The last day we went I really did not want to go. My legs were tired and I haven't been sleeping very well. Kent pretty much demanded, which is a great thing, and I'm glad we did go. I love how quiet our gym is in the evening. We do go later, around 8:30pm and it is perfect for me. I am comfortable doing any exercise, I have no intimidation factor about my size or abilities and we pretty much have the gym to ourselves. On Thursday night I went into trainer mode and I did a fabulous circuit. I went from the rowing machine, to the elliptical, to running for 5 minutes and then to running the stairs in the gym. My trainer use to have me running all over my previous gym at peak hours. People would be annoyed at me as I was literally running the real stairs to get to the different levels of the gym. Anyone who has ever really trained knows that the stair master is not equivalent to a running/walking a true flight of stairs. I felt great after we were finished and I am loving how we are feeling about ourselves again.

Kent and I have been focused in all areas of our life, like cooking healthy, living in a budget and laughing a ton. I honestly think the two of us have laughed more this week than we have in quite some time. It feels good to laugh and to be on the same page, the same team. We have overcome some crazy times over the past few weeks. With the snow drama, a sort of sad holiday, and now trying to get over this dismal economy and keep both of our jobs afloat it is probably good that we are getting in our fitness and taking care of ourselves. Here is a fun picture of us in the snow one night. We had tickets to the Color Purple and I was not going to miss that show. I have wanted to see it for years and it was fabulous!

Unfortunately you can not tell how much snow we had. Kent and I went to a performance in jeans, puffy jackets and tennis shoes because we didn't think we would even be able to get downtown. It was a little scary and dangerous, but the show was well worth it. So many people couldn't drive to the theatre that we ended up moving to the 5th row..and we had the whole row to ourselves.

The New Year is now upon us and I have been working very hard on being positive. Tonight we had dinner and discussed our future for the year and I think we are going to be fine. We are going to be better than fine because we have one another. More than likely we will move out of our home and rent another home. We will keep our triplex and continue to look forward to the money benefits down the road. Kent and I are actually fine with the idea of renting a house for a few years. This will allow us to get into a home and feel comfortable having a baby. We also won't feel the pressure this economy is having on us and feel trapped into accepting an offer on our home that is just not appropriate. Kent has worked so many years on restoring this house that it just does not feel right to me to sell it quickly and for something that is under its value. I know we are going to be ok because we have one another. Sure we would like to be able to buy a home and renovate it; this is what Kent does for a living. The more I think about it though we have many, many more years together to do this.

Kent and I took this picture on NY's Eve. I really like it because I do think it is a good representation of us...a little smiley, sometimes sparkly and always side by side.

Shhhh....It's a secret.

Last night Kent and I curled up on the sofa and I popped in a Netflix video. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it was the pop phenomenon known as The Secret. Most people were aware of this by Oprah and it was a national bestseller. The month of December was a little rocky for me personally so I went on a bit of a tangent and decided I needed to really shake my mood and mentality. I went to Netflix and moved The Secret to the top of our play list. When it arrived I was laughing about it, but I decided I was going to give it my best shot.

Right when the video started playing it became hokey. There was flashing lights and weird sound effects. A woman at the beach looking frazzled then she appears again to be waking out of a bad dream. I felt bad that Kent was sitting next to me. I chose this and here he was staying beside me to watch it.

In a nutshell though I actually enjoyed what the meaning was, probably because it really was not that secretive at all. The premise is to focus on your end goals of what you want...a new house, a new job, more money, better health etc. Going all the way to the end and seeing how you will feel at a job that you enjoy and thrive at. Don't think about the steps it takes to get that new job---the resume, schooling, interviewing etc. Focus on the end, what you really want, and it shall find you. I know that athletes have been doing this for years. They focus on going for the gold in the Olympics. They don't think about the hours and hours of training, they focus on that gold medal around their neck.

I am really concerned about my weight gain and I am going to give this a shot. I am going to see myself at the healthy weight I want. I am going to see myself having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy family. I don't care too much about money, finding a parking spot or material items. I really need to find that inner person in me who is capable of reaching a good point of health and hone in on that goal.

I don't know if the secret is for everyone. I personally believe that any postive thinking has to be a good thing. This morning at work we had a server problem and nothing was working. They called me in a panic as I was not in the office yet. I took a big breath, thought about everything quickly, and found a way to resolve it in a calm manner. They laughed in the lunchroom today when I told them I was practicing the secret because I usually get all wild over nothing. I know my husband will appreciate a little calmness in our world as well.

Uh oh....

So it is January 4th and my goals of not worrying have been a bit shattered, but will hopefully be glued back together. I have been so worried for the past several months about our triplex and the tenants being comfortable. In our middle unit there is a nice family...family meaning a baby. She is just about a year old and Kent and I, along with the rest of the building, feel as if we too have a child. When she is crying, we know, we she is happy and squealing with delight, we know, when she is learning to walk and tumbles, we know. This building unfortunately just is not made for children. It is a 1920's building that has been completely renovated, yet is housed with fir floors. The sound issue has always been something we are conscious of, yet have managed. When the neighbor sneezes, I bless him. Feels a little odd, but that is our situation.

Housing has been on our mind since July when we put the house up for sell. The triplex did not sell, and we are OK with that, but now we are working on ways to make it more comfortable and usable. The main problem we are faced with is the fact that we just do not want to live here anymore. We are weighing our options, but we are unsure of what our future holds. We are again a bit trapped due to the economy and mortgage lending crisis. Somehow I truly feel like we will figure out our situation and come up with a great plan this year. 2009 is going to be a year filled with planning for our future and housing is definitely on top.

My worries are a little high today as we handed over the key to our bottom unit to a new tenant. He is moving in tomorrow and we should know very quickly what his tolerance is going to be of the baby in the middle unit. Our past tenants could not handle it and after repeated attempts to solve the problem they left. We just spent $1,500 having carpets bound into rugs to help with the sound issue. I feel frustrated at the amount of time, energy and money I have spent regarding the middle unit. I am just putting my faith in the fact that the baby is getting older, they say they are moving out in the springtime and hoping that our new tenant sleeps like a bear in hibernation.

Kent is always our optimist and he reminds me constantly that it will all work out. I truly hope it does for every one's sake.

New Year...New You

This is the marketing genius (crap) I come up with yearly to promote a new service or product in the practice I manage. The New Year does bring out that inner part of us that just wants to fix all the crap we hate. It could be how messy your pantry is, your lack of abdominal muscles or your giant credit card bill that never seems to move down.

Kent and I went out on NY's eve and had a really low key night. We started with appetizers and wine at our home. We headed up to Capitol Hill and had one quick drink and then saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It was a harsh yet fabulous movie. After the film we went to our local Irish bar and had a few drinks and good conversation. It was filled with optimism and good goals that are totally obtainable. We laughed about some funny things that had happened and of course I was teary eyed thinking of our wedding and what was in store for us in 2009.
After midnight we stopped off at QFC and bought Nyquil. I love Nyquil, it is the only thing that lets me sleep in. In fact, we didn't wake up until 11:00am the next day. Glorious sleep, something that is quite hard for me to come by.

New Year's Day was spent being lazy and waking out of our Nyquil coma, shopping a bit and then having a yummy Japanese meal cooked by our friend Chris's mom Sumiko. She made Sukiyaki, it is a fabulous noodle soup with meat and veggies. We then played catch phrase, I cuddled with all of their dogs and we went home. So far 2009 has been filled with fabulous people, sleep and fun. Yes, I am only in the 2nd day of the year, but that still is a good sign. Plus I have enjoyed the optimism people have been expressing. I've had more people wish me a good NY than I did wish me a happy holiday. Thank goodness there is more spirit in the air then there was two weeks ago. My TGIF to start out 2009 is optimism and a belief in change.