Just dance

What better way to spend Halloween?

Let me first tell you....I am super unskilled at dancing. I have NO rhythm at all I am not joking when I say that I can't clap.

So my friend brings just dance over and I cave. 1. Because I was curious 2. I knew I was in serious need of calorie burning an realllly didn't want to run. 3. Kicks and giggles

So in the game system it goes.....and while I felt like I spent a whole lotta time shaking the remote I was a lot of fun...mayyyyybe I need to upgrade our system to something cool that recognizes motion...and do this again....I would so lose!

Dinner out with relatives

Ok this sounds totally lame. I have some seriously great relatives. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, lots if fantastic ones in the bunch, and others I wish I knew better. Being an only child my cousins all around were probably the closest thing I have ever had to siblings. As much as I enjoy my relatives I don't see ANY if them as much as I would like. Honestly we are spread in multiple time zones and a lot of states, tragic. When we do get together it is usually a huge gathering with lots of food etc. on a major holiday.

Until this most recent adventure I had never planned an adventure and met my cousins somewhere for kicks and giggles. Because I do enjoy my relatives I was sure to let them know when I was north in their neck of the woods. I actually was hoping to spend more time with them, but life and stress got in the way. Even considering this we were still able to get together and grab a meal. It is tragic really that you forget how much fun you can have with family, and I don't know when I became the kind is adult that wants to hang out with relatives over so many other options, but I did. It helps that I have so many cousins, and that as we have grown up I can consider a large chunk of them friends, even if we aren't hanging out or talking on a regular basis.

So here's to you all, the ones I just saw and all the rest, the siblings I never had.

Girls weekend

So for those of you that don't know me, I am a bit of a homebody. I cut vacation short so I can be home for a day to relax. I love relaxing at home, being home, and even some household chores.

So leaving town or a vacation for me is a big deal, honestly there are times that I would just rather be home. It is so much more relaxing to scrub the house from top to bottom and then spend a weekend lounging around.

But as I have gotten older and friends have moved away that has changed. Would I still like to sit a home? Yes. But I also want to see my friends. Enter girls weekend, when you are 6 hours from friends what is a good solution? Meet in the middle. Face it where I live is boring to visit an I embrace that.

So myself and 2 friends met halfway and spent the weekend. It was an adventure, and had lots of not sitting around. I had never jus taken a weekend with the girls before but a new experience worth trying again.

Oscar Meyer

I saw the weenie mobile!!!

The freeway on ramp was closed on my way to lunch so I had to take a detour....look what I found!

Melting pot

A few years ago I heard about this place. As soon as I heard it existed and consisted of fondue I felt the need to go there. A year and a half ago I noticed one down the street from a hotel we were at up north....I was SP EXCITED words really cannot describe it. We didn't get a chance to go because of a variety of reasons but I never forgot that it wa there. And it looked amazing.

So this weekend for girls' weekend it was the ONLY thing that I cared about doing. (Other than am coffee) it HAD to happen. An it did!

So the prices were a little expensive, but for the fondue experience it was worth it. And we decided to go with a cheese option and a chocolate dessert option.

The cheesy wonder of amazingness was literally amazing. And the chocolate was as well! You are missing out on life! They bring you whatever dipping items we needed. It was perfection.

Earthquake

It doesn't happen very often....or in my case never. We had a light earthquake a couple weeks ago. It just happens that I was up late and awake. Felt my first earthquake and wondered why my bed was moving.

Chocolate covered cricket

I should have known it would come to something like this. In Sacramento the girls and I stopped at a candy shop. As soon as the guy behind the counter started passing out chocolate covered crickets I knew I was doomed. They made me. It was minty.

Exercise on vacation

The last couple weeks have been slightly stressful and with the half marathon a week away from my vacation point I knew I had to do something while I was gone. Add the trail into old town and it was too good relaxing and wonderful to pass up. Exercise should be added into every vacation.

Quinoa with cheese

So it has been everywhere. We all know that. Quinoa is the Pinterest love.

I cook a batch up every week or so in the rice cooker and then use it anywhere for random stuff through the week. It isn't that great plain but this week was crazy and I almost had it plain for breakfast once. Not so much.

There was a cheesy quinoa post on Facebook, but the link didn't work.

I decided to take some advice from a friend and another recipe and chance it to what I had on hand.

In the bottom of my pan I mixed:
1 egg
1 cup milk
A couple handfuls mixed cheese
I stirred it up with my quinoa and it looked plain so I started searching my pantry.

I found:
1 can corn (drained)
1 can dice tomatoes (drained)
I mixed it with a nice scoop of the dry salsa mix that I had on hand and then threw it on top.

I baked it about 30 min at 350.

I would like to add bell peppers and some black beans and mix it all together maybe come cilantro but not bad!

Running with head lamp

I have literally kicked it into gear since signing up for the half marathon last week. I ran 4 miles the day before and then ended up with a headache consistently for the next 5 days. That three me off but I decided today to run early in the morning with my Molly baby. I ended up walking a lot when headache came back. Tonight I needed to move an mostly headache free by this afternoon I decided to make up for it and did another two miles tonight. There have been multiple times the last couple weeks that I have sucked around something last second, and wished I had a head lamp. Thi time I went for it. My awesome husband had one so I made it significantly smaller and then took off. There were times I bounced and it collected sweat kinda funny and gross. But if I moved it over slightly I feel this would be effective, and because I want to keep the exercise in the shorter days this seems like a great way to go!

Half marathon sign up

I can't believe I did it. But for me, I have to admit that it takes making that step and deciding to do it an train for it for me to actually do the event. That and I really want a race bib that has my name on it and the race goodies...but I have officially signed up for the challenge in early November!

Tree house

I have never in my life been in a tee house.

Yes you read that right, so why, at 20 something would that be my goal? Well some of these things just sort of happen.

I had to drive down south to pick up some stuff for a work thing and my his and my husband is awesome an tagged along. We stopped on the way home at tiny little village area that has cool stuff. We decided to grab dinner and then toured around. Thy had the coolest treehouse I have ever seen! We are talking three stories very likely unsafe. Since we ran into our friend and one of my bosses who was also on the way back I can likely say that said tree house was likely not safe for three adults....but there were three stories...pretty amazing!

Somehow I did not get a photo....:(

So far so.....?

Ok so I am obviously lacking so far this year. I should have done like 280 new things by now? Hmmm

But that is not the important thing. Aside from the fact that there are many adventures to come, and about 30 i haven't even written about yet....this has been a great year.

Honestly? It took me until end of May or early June to really branch out and try something I thought I could do, and since then I have been challenging myself. I have made decisions that I can do those things I never thought I could attempt. I might struggle through them, I might fight myself on actually doing them, I might go crazy before hand, but the bottom line is that I CAN do it. It is a matter of trying and reaching out beyond the norms and things that once seemed impossible.

Thanks for the fun we have had this year, the new recipes, the new ideas, and to my friends and family for supporting me in the crazy ones. I am much stronger this year than I would
have though last year in the changes that I have attempted, and the new things that I have always wanted to
do and finally cut off my bucket list.