Adventures in Alaska...Part 2

Monday morning when we arrived at 4am, Laine met us at the Port.  It was so great seeing her!  We hadn't seen her since Christmas vacation.  And we were super stoked she pulled herself out of bed at 4am after spending the weekend at a Brewfest!

She took us to the hostel she works at and we all crashed for a few hours.  Possibly the best sleep ever!

We ran a few errands, and Laine showed us around her town a bit, then we headed off to West Glacier trail for a hefty hike.

It was a bit rainy, and cloudy, as seems to be the usual weather for Juneau, but the scenery makes up for that.  It was just beautiful to be surrounded by the most pristine mountains I have ever seen.

The beginning of the trail was pretty smooth and wide.  It definitely crossed my mind a few times that this trail would be a piece of cake if it stayed like this.

Then it started getting a little steeper, and the path turned from dirt and rock to simply rock in many areas. The rocks were a bit slick, but we all had great boots on so I just kept trucking along.  In fact, I felt great.  It was a powerful feeling to be huffing along in the beauty of that trail, taking it all in and just plain being active in nature. I'm sure that sounds corny, but it's probably the best way to describe how I felt.

And then, I probably got a little to confident in my hiking abilities.  I started keeping pace with the head of the pack (our group included 7 people and a dog).  And as I jumped up on a rock ledge to move to the next height, my right foot lost its footing, leaving my left foot to support my body as I fell off the rock ledge.  I landed on a branch filled bush, which made a shit load of snapping noises, and scared the crap out of those behind me.  I am pretty sure  no one with me heard my ankle pop (only the branches cracking), but I certainly did.

I knew right away that something was wrong, but still tried to stay cool and keep my composure till I knew for sure if something was wrong.  Chaz helped me get up, and as I started to put pressure on my left foot, a sharp pain shot up my leg on both sides.  That's when I lost my shit.  Straight up bawling!  I think I said something along the lines of I did something really bad.

And I did, but it could have been worse.  I will tell you though, it's not easy getting through a trail with only one leg.  Wanna know how I got back?!?!?  You'll have to check back later for the next part of the story!

I'm gonna try!

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267-269-14350-0,00.html

This is a good decision after a team treat run to DQ-(ugh, it got me again!)  I may not run every day but I am going to try and if nothing else, hopefully it will help me increase how often I run!

Two more sleeps until Chaz and I will be on our way to Seattle!  I am so excited!!!!!  The anticipation has been building for like at least three month now!  I can't believe it's here!  And I need a break like I need a salad!  Holy hellz ballz have the last three weeks been stressful.  And to top it off, Chaz's catalytic converter was stolen off of his truck Sunday night...while it was parked in our parking lot!  (straight up biatches!)  Cool, right?!  And $400 later that has proven to be a royal pain in the behind, but ya know what?  I don't care because I leave for Alaska in 2 days!  (THANK YOU GOD!)

Lovely love...

Tonight my husband planned our Valentine's Day celebration. It was simple, and sweet, and I had a grin on my face the entire night. I am in love with the most amazing man. I feel lucky everyday to have him as the man who stands beside me in all that I do. And I will stand by him, through the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. We are in this together and I honestly could not ask for a better person to share my life with. Our life has been full of adventure, full of laughs and joy, and most importantly, LOVE!

I will fill you in on our date tomorrow, but tonight I leave you with a picture of Faith enjoying one of Chaz's gifts! He got a year subscription to Backpacker magazine and she couldn't wait to enjoy it!

Put a ring on it...

It is a crisp, chilly fall day here in the MN. The sun is shinning bright and I can't wait for 5 o'clock. I am ready to start my weekend and relax a bit!

Tonight I am going to throw together a nice little dinner for my man and I. Today marks three years since he asked me to marry him and I love any reason to celebrate so bring on some festivity!

I couldn't ask to be married to a more amazing man. Aside from the fact that he does my laundry and keeps our belongings anally organized, he is the most tender, caring, and loving man I have ever met. He is such a sincere soul and puts me first in every sense of the word. Sure he can be stubborn, and of course he has a few annoying habits (don't we all), but those are so easily over looked when he wraps me in one of his warm embraces. I can easily say he is perfect, perfect for me that is!
Happy Anniversary love!

What am I thankful for today?

I am thankful to have family that I can travel and see the world with. When I was little, my family was always on the go, whether it be swim meets, hockey tournaments, trips to visit family. Some of our best family time was spent in a hotel room, just the 5 of us. And I continue to travel with my in-laws. 3 years ago when my husband purposed, we were on a cruise with most of his family, celebrating his grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. I am so blessed to have these opportunities that allow family to really spend quality time together!

Seeing red...

It's that time of year again! Starbucks has put out their holiday cups! I live the saying this year. Let's Merry! So cute. This certainly does nothing for curbing my expensive habits. The little red cups just draw me in all the much more.

And being yesterday was the first of November, meaning the start of the Thanksgiving holiday. I am going to follow the tradition of some other bloggers and share something I am thankful for everyday. Since I did not get on here yesterday, today you will get two!

1. I am thankful for my faith.

2. I am thankful I get to fall asleep next to my husband, who provides me so much comfort and strength.

Happy November!

This time of year...

I love this time of year! I do love summer, and I loathe the winter, but there is just something about the perfectness of fall. Crisp weather, pretty foliage. Many comforting and warm memories are associated with fall.

I also love Halloween! It is just one of those chill, fun Holidays that allows us to dress up all crazy, eat tons of sugar, and watch scary movies! It's kind of a nice initiation into long winter nights....sppppoooooooookkkkkkkyyyyyyyyy!

Last night Chaz's work hosted a Halloween party. The restaurant closed early, and they held the event in their storage building next door. It was decorated to the nine's with lights, cobwebs, and the occasional hanging corpse...I wish I would have snapped a photo but all I had was my phone...doesn't do to well in the dark light! In fact, most my pictures are on my phone and I need to change that...I know!

To take part in the festivities, we were asked to dress up. The man decided to pull a blast from the past and dress up as a Boy Scout. Insert*guy I fell in love with*here! I'm not gonna lie, there may have been a few trips to the Boy Scout's of America store by our house to pick up pants, a new hat, and a few patches he never purchased...he assures me that some day he wants to get back into Scout's as an adult leader so hopefully all this business gets put to good use...if not, this was a slightly expensive Halloween costume but damn he looks fine!
And then there's me. I spent the night in a fog mingling with the wall flowers! JUST KIDDING! I decided to go as world peace...or maybe just a peace sign. A bit of a fancy peace sign as I paired it with a pencil skirt, fishnets, and purple stiletto's...flare jeans may have been more fitting but you get what you get when I'm coming from work!
We danced the night away, talking with Chaz's coworkers, and listening to them sing karaoke. Dinner was catered by Brasa, a local restaurant, and treats from Chaz's company. There were also White castle Sliders...I may have had one or two of those little puppies! I also had the most amazing chocolate cake...it was like chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce...I don't really know what was in it but a whole lotta chocolate was involved!

Now off to see if I can pencil in some exercise time today to work of those sliders and chocolate cake!

A life lesson?

Yesterday my aunt got married...what a great time! It was a small country wedding, complete with fresh air, bugs, and a boat load of fun. I will write more on that later...I have some bomb cake recipes and some great tips! But I thought I might talk about my wonderful husband tonight.

While my husband is romantic, he is not a huge fan of dancing so I went into the event this weekend with the notion that I was not going to push it. That ended up being a great move on my part!

The dance floor was hopping with upbeat songs and I was enjoying some ridiculous dancing with my friends and family. The DJ decided to slow it down so I took a chair on the sidelines, ready to converse. I looked up shortly after taking a seat and saw my handsome man strolling towards me. My brain started fluttering with questions. Is he coming to talk? Did he need something? Does he actually want to dance? He reaches me, grabs my hand, and asks me to dance with a playful smile on his face....my heart started to flutter. And this didn't happen just once, but twice and when my aunt played our wedding song for us, we got in a third dance! It made for a lovely evening and some great memories.

It amazes me what a big impact little actions can have on a person. My husband made me feel amazing, like a princess, just by strolling me around the dance floor a few times.

Mushy Post Day 3

It's here! The day has arrived!

Happy 27th Birthday to my Love! And Happy Anniversary to boot!

We had a wonderful night with friends and family, and had a crap load of stroganoff and cake! It was deliciously wonderful to be surrounded by love, from both near and far, and the good food only enhanced it.

Everyday, the love for my husband grows, and after 9 and a 1/2 years, it's some pretty intense love, and I know it will only continue to grow. We don't even know the half of it.

I look forward to growing old with my husband. I look forward to the future. I look forward to starting a family...so many amazing things have happened, and so many amazing things to come!

Mushy Post Day 1

That title implies that there may be multiple Mushy posts and if you guessed that, well, then you are one smart cookie!

Next Monday we celebrate 2 years of marriage and I thought I would use this here blog to record some memories! That and Chaz shares his day of birth with our anniversary day so for the sake of not overshadowing that, I thought I could get some of my anniversary mushy overload taken care of right here and spare him most of the mush (and there is plenty to go around so never fear, he will be showered, I just think it's best I take it down a few notches so I am being proactive)!

So let's kick it off and what better way to kick off the merriment then sharing some pics of my ring!

This is the day Chaz decided to put a ring on it! November 4th, 2008! As I have mentioned before, this is a hard date to forget as it was election night, and not just any election night, but it was the night America elected their first black president...pretty cool, eh?!?

Prior to this night, I had no clue what the ring looked like. I also had no clue when it would happen. I may have had a small inkling that it was going to take place in the near future however.

About 6 months earlier, Chaz's parents were visiting, and they had all treked to Minneapolis for a lunch date. Chaz may have let it slip that they were looking at rings (how cool that his parents were involved-although that may be the reason it finally took place as my wonderful husband doesn't mind taking his sweet time on occasion!) so there fore I knew that in only a matter of months, I would get to start planning my wedding to the love of my life!

When Chaz let it slip that they were looking at rings, he also told me who was making it. I went home that evening, told my mom in a rather excited fashion that things were rolling, and we spent the evening studying the designs on the jewelers website. Everything is so unique and special that I couldn't even imagine what it would look like. And for that I am glad.

While I go the wild hair to searhc the website, I have always been the girl who did not want to know what her ring would look like, or when it would be coming. I wanted complete and utter surprise, and for the most part, that is what I got!

So on the night of November 4th, 2008, on a cruise ship with Chaz's family, Chaz purposed to me on the balcony, under the bright moon. It was a magical moment!

Good thing my mom had me get my nails done (wink wink)!

And boy am I glad that I had no say in what my ring would look like. I could have never dreamt up something so beautiful!

The ring is comprised of family jewelry, melted down, and reformed into this design...
To say I absolutely love it is an understatment. To me, it represents our history, our families history, on top of being unique, interesting, and just simply beautiful.

I would never say the ring makes the engagement, but in my case, it added so much to that special day. It was so intercate that I spent hours looking at it, and asking Chaz to tell me all the details that went into it.

I will need to ask him or his parents for the whole run down so we can keep it for future generations, but I do know that the diamond was Chaz's grandma's, the two small diamonds were his sisters, and his dad's first wedding band went into it (since it no longer fit him).

Talk about making a girl feel lucky!

iced coffee lovin and mac computers...

SO the last two days have been nothing but Weight Watchers and nothing but love for Weight Watchers. After getting off track for like two weeks, three weeks, ok, maybe two months or so, I have just been craving to dive in head first. It's just those late night snack attacks that catch me off guard. Well, I am here to vocalize that I want nothing more then to reduce those late night snack attacks. I don't mind small late night snack attacks but the attack where I eat something sweet, then switch to salty, and then need to switch back to sweet...that craps gotta stop.

Both today and yesterday I have been so busy at work that I have come home with over half my points still in tact, yet I just get hit with the munchies. Last night I used 10 weekly points...and tonight, at 8:15, I am into my weekly points by one...and for tonight, that is all it will be. I had dinner, my light ice cream with strawberries and chocolate syrup, and now I am done! Let's hope putting it out in the open will help it come true...I mean, I am fricken full so I can't even justify a snack attack!

And i have to share with you my morning coffee wonderfulness...that is what I am naming it! I have iced coffee that I keep in the fridge. I brew a very Strong pot of coffee (for 10 cups of coffee I use 3/4 cup of grounds). I put it in the fridge for the week, then in the morning, put it in a water bottle with ice cubes, 1 tbsp. International Delight Natural Sweet Cream Coffee Creamer and 1 tbsp Chocolate syrup for an amazing 2p+ coffee! And I fill my Camelbak so it is a big, perfectly sweet cup of wonderfulness! So GOOD, and SOOOO much cheaper then a daily coffee run! Having it in a water bottle also allows me to refrigerate some for later in the afternoon!

Other then that, life right now is homework, and surviving some ridic heat here in the MN! Chaz is a proud owner of a MAC computer however so that is something to celebrate! That and we celebrate 9 years and 3 months of being together today...so even though life is simple, it is so full of blessings!

life goes on...

I decided to do a little calculating on my own to ensure my points were spot on for the recipes I have been giving you! I found out that the lemon cookies I posted yesterday are actually 2P+, not 1p+…still a great value for a cookie, however, these were not my favorites! I would rather have the Banana Bread Cookies or the White Chocolate chip cookies which still came out to 2p+ when doing my own calculations! Yipee!

I played around in the kitchen tonight and made a variation of a recipe I found on http://www.danicasdaily.com. She has a Brown Sugar Banana Nut Bread but when checking the calculations, I was not coming up with the same points, so I played around and made my very own 5p+ Whole Wheat Banana Bread Muffins!

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light butter
2 large eggs
2tsp. vanilla extract
4 mashed bananas (ripe works best!)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350. Mix butter and sugar well, and then add whisked eggs. Add vanilla and mashed bananas. Mix the dry ingredients together and mix with wet ingredients.

Spray muffin pan with cooking spray, and divide mixture into 14 muffins. Bake for 30-35 minutes, inserting a toothpick to check if it is done! These are really thick, and moist, and hearty! The whole wheat flour makes them dense and adds a great nutty flavor!

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Other than my recent obsession with baking, life has been going as usual. We are heading towards Chaz's graduation, and are in the midst of putting a closet into our basement apartment. Chaz has done a lot of mudding, sanding, painting, and carpet laying! He is quit the pro! Of course he has not worked alone, but it makes me happy to know I married a handy man!

We have two relaxing weeks ahead of us, and then we get into the busy time of spring hockey. I have volunteered seasonally for MN Hockey and their select camps and those begin in two weeks! That consists of two weeks, going morning till night, with nothing but hockey on the mind! Chaz will get to experience it this year as he is probably going to be helping out!

I also will be heading to USA Hockey Camp this June! I was just accepted to be a Team Lead for my third year and this year I will be working with the 17 and 18 year old girls! Super excited! So other than that, working out, eating, baking, and enjoying my class free weeks! Only three left before class starts up again!

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correction: Muffins are 4p+ each!

Wedding...yep, still talking about it...

So my wedding day was perfect, as I am sure most brides feel about their day. Of course my bra was over stuffed, and the church was hot so my bangs curled, and we forgot to have someone tape the first dance. However, the few little mishaps that did take place seem so little compared to the day as a whole.

Today, as I was dealing with a "lack of coffee" headache, and feeling a bit run down, I thought back to how perfect my day was and how it seemed nothing could happen to change that feeling. I don't know if my body went into auto pilot and nothing would get me down or if my body was just in top notch form that day. There was no "lack of coffee" headache, although I am not sure if I even had my usual amount. I wasn't hungry, or tired. I had no headache or body ache. There was no stomachs ache, and hardly any facial blemishes! And, the whole night, not one pee break! That's right. Made a pit stop at 4pm, right before the wedding and had no urge to go until the night was over and I was getting ready for bed. How does that happen? How does everything fall into place?

When I was younger, maybe high school, early college age, I always worried about what aliment might plague me on my wedding day. I always seemed to get sick at the most opportune times, or have a stomach ache from getting nervous. I was sure that I would be dealing with one of these issues the day of my wedding, but I experienced none. I felt so relaxed, so clam, so ready to marry my baby. I was happy and content. I even watched TNT for a half an hour, all by myself in my basement, in my wedding dress, right after my bridesmaids left to go take pictures. It just seemed so surreal, the feeling of peace I had that day.

So no doubt, for me, my wedding day was the best. I don't think anything could ever top the feelings of that day. I feel so lucky and blessed and if I ever experience such a day of peace and excitement, I will be sure to let you know!