Happy New Year and an Update

Dear blogging community,

I have been absent from writing my blog for quite some time, 174 days to be exact.  Since then I have had some good times and some bad times, but for now, lets focus on the good:

My husband Kevin and I celebrated our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary.

I went on a weekend trip to Montana see my sister-in-law, Katie, for a girls weekend while my brother was out of town.  We had a great time going floating down the river, soaking in hot springs, enjoying a few bars in Bozemans quaint downtown, and watching roller derby. (I think the unintentional photo-bomb in the picture below is pretty funny.)

Kevin and I took a trip with some wonderful friends to Leavenworth, WA for Oktoberfest.

I moved from being a temporary employee to a full time permanent employee at my company (with killer benefits!)

My offer letter!

Kevin started student teaching for his Masters in Secondary Education and will be fully done with his masters program in two weeks. 

Cheers to that!

We found out that my oldest brothers wife is expecting twin boys in April/May, and my mom and I threw her a High Tea Baby Shower while they were in town for Christmas.  I made her two knitted foxes like this one.

Really!  What DOES the fox say?!

We moved from our tiny (seriously, tiny) one bedroom, dark, half basement apartment into a lovely third floor, two bedroom apartment with tons of windows, a laundry room (room! not laundry closet! room!), a large pantry, plenty of kitchen storage, a real-sized fridge, room for my yarn storage, and nearly twice the square footage of our previous place.  Did I mention that it comes with an indoor lap pool and hot-tub, all for only $15 more than we were paying at our last place?  Needless to say, I am much more relaxed and happy in our new place.

Kevin and I traveled to his hometown of Sequim, WA to have Thanksgiving with his family.  I successfully avoided cutting any of my digits like two years ago.

I finally made a homemade Christmas wreath that I can use for years to come.  I got all of the supplies from Michaels while all of their Christmas decor was 50%-60% off.  I put together the wreath myself and it cost about $18 (compared to the pre-made ones that go for $30+).

My biggest Christmas present this year was a surprise from Kevin for a Western Caribbean Cruise for our belated Honeymoon in May.  We are so excited to have something so fun to look forward to... 136 days cant go by fast enough!

Lastly, I had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with Kevin, and our friends and family.  We are so excited for the upcoming year to welcome two nephews, to go on a Honeymoon, and to go to Oktoberfest again.  We are also grateful for the friendships we have made this year.

Bring it on 2014!  This year is going to be great!

Please note that I hope to get back into a blogging routine of one or two posts a week.  I havent had too much time to seriously cook or make up recipes over the last few months, but Im beginning to be inspired again!  Thank you all for your patience in waiting for me to return.

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Update from Amy

My goodness, how the time has flown!  It has been nearly two months since Ive checked in, and a lot has happened since.  I had mentioned a little while back that we had goals of saving for and buying a house, well... that day has come and gone.  We started looking for houses in late February with the help of Kevins dad who is a realtor in a town two hours away.  After looking for several weeks, trying unsuccessfully to put offers in on four different houses, we found the house and had our offer accepted the next day!

We are currently in escrow and getting ready to close before the end of the month.  In the meantime, Ive been slowly boxing up our apartment (Kevin thinks Im crazy because he prefers to pack the day before in absolute chaos.  On our last move we had to pack and move in two days, so Im determined to have my long, organized, well boxed up move this time!).  We have also been traveling to and from Spokane (my hometown where we moved from 8 months ago) for friends birthdays and most recently a bridal shower.

During the last few weeks, we have also been going through having a family member of Kevins have heart issues and a quadruple bypass surgery.  Because of this, I was finally able to have Kevin watch Forks Over Knives, which I have long felt would be the most efficient and convincing way to get him to change up his bad eating habits.  We watched it together alone, and then later that week with his family member before their surgery.  The combination of seeing a loved one go through these issues and considering the documentary, Kevin made bigger changes than Ive ever seen him make towards his health.

He is now eating plant-based with mostly fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains along with hitting the gym and being more active.  He has told me that he doesnt plan to completely cut out anything from his diet, but will have his favorites (burgers, pizza, sandwiches) rarely.  For him, I think it is the idea that he can have those things if he chooses that will keep him going.  I couldnt be happier.

During our visit to Spokane this last weekend, we enjoyed a long hike to the top of a small mountain with my parents, and kept to eating plant-based.  My nutritarian mom was thrilled to have Kevin eat her meals while we were visiting.  She made sure to include extra broccoli in the chickpea teriyaki we had for my broccoli-loving husband.  She also made her delicious waffles before we headed home on Sunday (recipe here).

Isnt my puppy just adorable!?  I miss her and my parents a lot!

Near the end of our visit, on Sunday, Kevin visited with our friends, Dannielle and Ian, who are getting married in two months, while I fit in time to see another dear friend.  Kevin talked to them about his changes and his family member that was going through surgery.  Once Kevin left they too watched Forks Over Knives and sent us the following pictures of their fridge, saying that they are going to give it a shot!  Kevin and Ian now have a challenge going on to weigh in each week up until their wedding in June.  If one of them quits the progress, the other will get to pick their 3rd round draft pick in Fantasy Football.  (For those who dont play.... it would be really bad to have a kicker or defense picked for you so early.)  Its fun to see their motivation!

Dannielle and Ians fridge after clearing out the bad.

Dannielle and Ians garbage with all the no-nos.
(I bet that salsa was old, because it is fine in my book and they got more of it in the picture below.)

Their fridge after stocking up from shopping.  Look at all those colors and all the green on the bottom shelf!!!

Here is their full countertop of delicious produce!

Rather than be competitive, I think Dannielle and I will take a more encouraging route by sending snapchats of our meals to each other.  Just like everyone, they have their own challenges of making changes and sticking to them, including very busy work and social lives.  Im so excited to see them start this and am looking forward to cheering them on through their progress.  More than anything, I am dancing around with happiness that I might not be the only lone nutritarian in my age group of friends!

The next few weeks will be just as busy as the last two months have been in preparing for moving to our first house.  Im hoping once the move settles down (and I have my own space for an office/craft room), I will be able to post more and share some recipes Ive been loving lately.


Health and Happiness,

Amy

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Full Circle 2 and Update

I apologize for being a bit absent lately.  Now that the weather is better and the sun is shining for more hours in the day (Yay!), my weekends and evenings after work have been taken up by more social outings, rather than our usual staying in and reading/watching movies.

This weekend Kevin and I went to a local bike-swap and were able to pick up some inexpensive used bikes.  Mine is a girly mountain bike with a basket on the front that we got for $45, and Kevins is a much more manly mountain bike that came in at $50.  Since we have moved to a larger place closer to our local biking trail, we thought it was high time we started riding regularly.

My pink bike in the front and Kevins bike in back.  Our backdrop is an old school map that Kevin picked up from a school that was closing.  Educational and decorative, no? ;)

While out getting bikes, we stopped in at Big 5 so I could pick up some new workout shoes.  My last pair (embarrassingly) are over 5 years old... so it was definitely time for a new pair.  I found these bright lovelies on sale for $39.99, and they comfortably fit my weird wide feet.

On Sunday, while Kevin was at work, I spent a few hours on our deck soaking up the sun and reading my spare-time book: The Vegetarians Bible, by Inga-Britta Sundqvist

The view from our deck.

Earlier last week I also picked up my second Full Circle organic produce basket.  This time it came with romaine lettuce, cucumbers, kale mix, spinach, lemons, oranges, swiss chard, and golden potatoes.  I think my favorite item of this bunch was either the golden potatoes or kale mix.  For the golden potatoes, I made a potato skillet with swiss chard for breakfast over the weekend, much like this recipe.  With the kale and some spinach I made one of my favorite salads: Chef AJs Hail to the Kale Salad with her reduced fat dressing recipe.

I hope everyone has a great rest of their week!

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