THE story....

So I know you all expect a bug engagement story, I mean he had 5 years to plan it :-)

Last night we were in Springdale, UT and it was like any other night...we did that really long hike and were just worn out. We had seen a Mexican place that looked good for dinner so went there, had some beer and went back to our hotel...the whole walk back Craig seemed really disengaged, like it wasn't hearing what I was saying...it was weird and I commented on it several times. Let me back up.....so I was really hoping that he would take the opportunity on this trip to propose but I don't think that I ever thought it would actually happen. Craig hates airports and hates security even more...I didnt think there was anyway he would bring a diamond ring through security!! We even had to step away from our bags during the process and I would have thought he would have been nervous about that....nope. I didnt notice a thing! I did always think that he would like to propose on a trip because it is our quality time and w eare usually in remote places but again with traveling with the ring, so then I had scenarios where he would ask without a ring but knew that wouldn't happen cause he would be so excited to show me :-)

So, anyway, we are relaxing and he asks if I want to take a walk by the river so I relunctantly say yes (we had already walked 10 miles that day and it was getting cold). We walked around for a while and I noticed he had his hand in his coat pocket...weird but he could be hiding the shape of the cigarettes pack since I had pointed that out earlier....then a while into it he stopped, pulled it out and said "I don't really know how I want to do this so I am just going to give it to you". To which I replied "are you serious??". Then I opened the box and was just speechless. I LOVED it...so pretty and I couldn't have iced it out better myself. I think that I don't remember any details (which is what every email back wanted) because I was so shocked...him just handing it to me is so Craig...so non traditional and nervous like but the whle bringing it on the trip was not. I literally was just shocked!!

Later he told me all these ideas that he had and how he had almost done it earlier in the day when we were in a ghost town but then a tour bus showed up and there were lots of other ideas too. In the end he just got nervous and just handed it to me but it was so "him" that I love it.

He went on to tell me all about it and his whole process he went through and the research and I was floored...this man spent hours in a jewelry sotore in town...mr. Non social!! He was so proud of all he had done and it was so sweet....he showed me the final three and he chose the best one.

The worst part is that we had 0 cell reception at our hotel...nothing but e wirelss we could get on our iPads and I couldn't find anyone's email cause I don't have my contacts...so if you didn't get an email you haven't emailed me lately :-). I couldn't wait to tell people so I did it in email instead of phone...it is the modern times, right??

So, I havent announced it on fb, craig said I couldn't until the trip was over....we will see. I am thinking that we might be doing it next spring...to much going on this fall and I hate winter!!

Happiness Project: April Recap

I am going to be proactive and post this before the end of the month this time.

This month was my month to work on my relationship. I am not sure that I really concentrated on it as much as I thought that I would. I found it hard to work on it in general. It seems like with us, I don't really feel like we have that many hot button issues (other than the smoking). I think that when I think of working on a relationship, I think about working on recurring issues. Those are the things that you either figure out or you don't. I didn't travel that much this month so I didn't really get to work on the goal of connecting better when I travel. That one will have to move to another month.

I also didn't do a great job of having "fun" dinners but we did eat out a lot in NYC so maybe that counts.

I did set up a checking account for us to use on trips and included in next month's goals will be to establish a travel budget :-)

I did let the teasing go a little more than normal but I think that I still need to work on that part.

I think that one of the most important things that I learned this month was about C and travel. Almost every time we go on vacation the first day is really rough. He seems to be in a bad mood from the time he wakes up until the time we get to our destination. Since a lot of our trips involve connections and 4 hr flights, this is not a fun part of the trip. In the past I thought that maybe it was something that I was doing (though I could never figure out what), but on our trip to NYC it hit me. He HATES airports. It has nothing to do with me at all. He just hates the whole process of going to the airport, going through security, listening to all the announcements on the plane, and dealing with stupid people around us. Security in Dayton is beyond ridiculous...no idea why but it is much more severe than any other airport I have ever been in and they regularly just make up new rules (even when I flew every week and would get the same person and didn't have to do whatever it is they claim you have to do at any other airport). I think that the whole thing just sets him off and he is like a child in that once he gets in a bad mood, there is nothing you can do to help it. He usually is snappy (NOT his normal laid back self) and he gets annoyed by little things that I do that normally don't bother him. Once I had this Ah Ha moment, I was able to easily ignore it. I get on edge sometimes, we all do. I am more of the type that will tell him so he knows not to push any buttons but he just isn't.

Sure enough, as soon as we landed in NYC he was back to his normal, joky, fun self. I am glad that I learned this as I think that it will make future trips a lot easier. I will just listen to my music and ignore him and his complaining until we get to our destination :-)

Birthday Weekend

Thanks for all the birthday wishes...and the phone calls and texts...you guys are awesome.

Friday we just went to Lowe's to get the accessories for our bathroom (they finished it!!)

Saturday I went to do a 5K with Ali in the am (that is our 3rd one in 4 weeks) and it was pretty chilly...I did ok in it but we think that the clock was messed up. They didn't have a clock at the start and we both had a minute less on our Nike+ at the end. Oh well, it was for a good cause and it was their first one so they will learn. After the race Ali and I went to the farmer's market here. It is in an old train depot maybe??, anyway, I love these pretzels that they have there...they are huge and they are delicious! We got come mochas and pretzels and then walked around tasting other yummy breads and cheeses. Then the rain came :-( Craig and I went on one more trip for our bathroom stuff and then I spent the rest of the night being sort of lazy.

Sunday was beautiful here!! When we went out to do our bike ride it was 74 degrees and a little over 2hrs later it was 85...that is pretty hot for April here. Don't worry it is back down to 60 today :-) I think that I have talked a bit about the clipless pedals that I have on my bike (sort of misleading since you clip them in but the name has to do with the lack of toe clips like in the old days). Anyway, you basically have a cycling shoe that you wear with a little medal thing on the bottom that clicks into the pedal on your bike and then you have to move your foot in a reverse clicking your heels together motion to get them back out...you can't just lift your foot up to take your foot off the pedal. That means that at every stop you have to remember to do that little foot action or you will be laying on the ground with your foot still attached to the pedal. I tried this last year without knowing what I was doing and I couldn't get my left foot out (got the right one out) and fell to the left hitting my knee really hard on the pavement. I don't know how many of you have skinned your knee since you were 10 but it HURTS and then it dries and cracks when you bend it and hurts in the shower and on top of all that I bruised it really bad. I was just not interested in having that all over again so I was too chicken to try it. On Friday I had practiced the motion to get my foot in and out of the pedal. Sunday I decided that I wanted to ride 32 miles for my 32nd birthday and that I was going to clip in my shoes. Luckily my fear subsided long enough for me to do it and I didn't fall at all! There were a couple close calls when crossing streets and a couple times where I had to stop suddenly that weren't fun but overall, I think that I did really well. When you are clipped in you are 20-30% more efficient then when you aren't. When we started our ride I couldn't believe how easy it was to pedal!! I am pretty excited now to get better on the bike.

After we biked we grilled out that night and then went and got custard...it was a nice relaxing birthday (with a hot 2hr bike ride in the middle).

Happiness Project - Month 3

This month my concentration is on mine and Craig's relationship. It will be our 5 year anniversary of our first date this month and it is also the month of both of our birthdays. I haven't come up with super concrete measurements for this month yet but here are a few.

1. Try to have one "fun" meal a week. We don't eat out a lot so maybe this would be a night where we would eat out or a night where I would make dinner and dessert and we would have wine with it all (something we like but just don't do a lot of).
2. Find a better way to connect while I am on the road. We barely talk because neither of us likes to talk on the phone. I want to come up with a topic each day that would help open up the lines of communication. Sometimes we just don't have anything to say about our days.
3. Establish a checking account that we use for trips and other fun stuff. I think that sometimes I hold back because I HATE having a huge credit card bill. I like to smooth things out throughout the year. I think that having an established account that we contribute to every month will help me not to get so uptight about money on vacation.
4. Let the teasing fly....Craig is a teaser and he is constantly repeating things that I say in a funny voice, trying to tickle me, or making fun of something I say. I often get frustrated with this because I think that he isn't taking me serious. Honestly, I am sure that is not what it means at all and I really should try to be more silly with him...what could it possibly hurt. Maybe I can just try to encourage at a time other than when I am trying to cook dinner (not a good time for tickling) or when I am trying to have a serious conversation.

I think that those things will be enough for now...maybe I will think of more as I go :-)

Running and Cold Weather

UGH...have I mentioned that I am SICK of winter??? The high today...45, and sadly that sounds warm to me. This is so ridiculous that I am considering asking you guys to move our girls weekend to March next year and going deep into Florida so I can escape this cold. Normally it is only Mid Dec -Mid March but not this year...Dec 1st was the first snowfall and it is still freezing.

I ran a 5k last Saturday where the starting temp was 24 degrees...that is WAY below freezing and honestly I couldn't feel my legs or thumbs for the first mile until my body warmed up. I was still moving forward so I assumed my legs were still running. I got my best time since I moved to Ohio and started keeping track. It was nice. I had to redeem myself from the week before. The week before my 5K didn't go well. I realize that Drena and maybe Carrie, might be the only people who find this funny but I will tell you anyway. Two weekends ago when I did my 5K I wasn't feeling 100%. My stomach was just "off" and it was going to be Day 1 of my "friend" visiting...not a good combo for a 5K. Let's just say that about 1.5 miles into it I had to ask the people along the route (through a neighborhood) if I could use their bathroom. Not my proudest moment but not much you can do...and that severely altered my time! Ali told me that I had to redeem myself and run another one with her last weekend so I am glad that I was able to beat my time.

Yesterday I ran almost 2miles and I had a good time for me so I think that I am starting to overcome my mental block on the running. I have completed two full runs without looking at my nike+ or stopping to walk...hopefully this will continue and not just be because it is cold and I can't feel my body.

In other news, Craig and I have decided to train for a Century ride...100miles on a bike. I think that I might be insane...of course we had planned on training by now but the weather has had other ideas :-(

I have been in town for 2 full weeks now and I think that I will be here next week too. It is so nice to be in town, spend time with C, exercise, and eat right :-) I love it. Unfortunately I know that it will change soon but I am still going to enjoy it while I can!!

Napa

Last weekend (almost two weekends ago now) Leslie, Terah, Morgan and I headed to Napa for a few days of some sun, wine, and friendship. We accomplished 2 out of the 3 (and a little of the 1st).

Us at the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to Napa from the airport. You would think that it would really simple to get someone to take a picture of us but it wasn't at all! This was our 4th or 5th attempt with different people and we were laughing so hard by the end that I am surprised that this picture even turned out at all. Good times.

After that we headed to Sausalito for some lunch...yummy! and some catching up. It had been about 10 years or so since we were all together. I can't even believe that was true but it is darn close! Sad. After that it was off to Napa where we checked into our awesome little house and spent the next several hours just catching up...it was so nice! Then it was time to walk around downtown Napa and get some Grub. We picked Tuscany as our restaurant of choice...again, yum!

The next day we headed toward some wineries...stopped at the Oakville Grocery on the way to get some sandwiches, cheese, bread, and cookies...all the essentials for a trip to Napa and some wine drinking. After the first winery we hit up a second one. I didn't take any pictures from the first one but the picture below is at the second winery and right before we (I) were pretty tipsy. After this visit we waited out the rain in the car with our lovely picnic lunch.


Last stop of that day was the bubbly :-) This place was really yummy! All of the sparkling wine/champagne was really good. So good in fact that we bought a bottle for dinner that night (with the plans of cooking a healthy plate of pasta to go with it).
We got back and got lazy though so we ended up just ordering pizza. Things were also not going so well for Morgan :-( Somehow Morgan ended up getting a little sickness while we were there. I think that at first we all just assumed that it was too much wine that day but it turned out to last much past just that night or that next day. I think it was several days before she was back to normal. It was so sad! This was her idea and a little send off to her singledom :-( We left her in bed the second day (after getting her gingerale, applesauce, saltines, and coke zero) and headed out for a tour of Napa on bikes...it was awesome! It was 16miles total and our booties were sore by the end but we really had a good time. I love incorporating a little activity on vacation.The trip was just one of the most awesome times I have had. Everyone was so happy to see each other and we just fell right back into our old times...Leslie performed routines from SNL for us, Terah and I shared a bed and chatted way into the wee hours of the night and it was just really fun to see everyone all grown up and married and kids and all that but still able to be our "college" selves. I really cherished the time I got to spend with Terah because she was one of my best friends in college, I was her maid of honor (9!!! years ago) and then we haven't gotten a chance to see each other as much since, at least not for that long of a time. When I think about it, we have definitely seen each other a good bit considering she has lived in about 5 different places and I have lived in 2, but it was still nice to pick up right where we left off. I also loved see Leslie and seeing that she can still make Morgan laugh harder that I have EVER seen her laugh! I think that I even snorted a few times. And, Morgan...she was my Atlanta going out buddy for so long and now neither of us lives there and even though we make a lot of effort to see each other, it is usually a quick dinner here or there or a lunch around Xmas time when we try to get the boys together.

I can't wait until next year!!

Happiness Project: March

Um, yeah. Well, since it is almost mid-March already and since I failed miserably at my Feb goals of getting organized, I am going to do a redo.

I have kept up with the Jan goals pretty well and even have kept up with my vitamins. I also did some of the cleaning and organizing that I said I would do in Feb but my email still has 2000 messages in the inbox. UGH. I think that Feb was the month that was the best example of how I have such good intentions in life and how my life is so much smoother when I am in town. Once I started traveling, it all got crazy. I was working crazy hours and just was drained. I really need to find a way to balance that out. It is the thing that is the hardest in my life. My eating was a little worse when traveling, it became harder to do p90x and I got off schedule, and I didn't have time to organize. All these are excuses but I just haven't found a way to not make excuses. When I work from 8:00 to 10:30pm including eating lunch at my desk and dinner at the hotel desk (room service), I am not sure when I will have time for much else.

My new boss asked me an interested question the other day when we were talking about my work and I casually mentioned that when I am out of town I work a lot. He asked if my deadlines were self imposed or whether they were real. I realized that it was some of both. Some of them are real deadlines and there is no getting around that. But some of them are just my work ethic. I want to be the person that responds to questions timely, I want to return emails without someone emailing me 3 times, I want to return phone calls and I want to get things done quickly. Maybe I need to step back. Maybe I need to realize that not everyone is putting this pressure on me and maybe I need to relax it up a bit. This is easy when I am home. As soon as Craig gets home, I am done so I can spend time with him. On the road it is a different story. The other night I was in Albany and at my hotel at 6:15. I worked out and then didn't know what to do with myself. Normally I would have booted up my computer and finished some of the work from the day but this time I made myself leave my computer in my bag. Instead I got out the iPad and looked at photography websites. Not quite as productive but a lot more relaxing. I sort of felt guilty for doing that but I am not sure why. I am hoping that it will start to go away and eventually I will learn a better balance. I think that it would reduce a lot of stress in my life.

I am going to continue to work on it through this month and maybe I will get a list of goals up in a few days and then I think that since next month is my relationship month, I will make a real effort in May to work on the work/life balance in my life.

I am off to Cali tomorrow with Morgan and Leslie...we are meeting Terah out there and all going to Napa for a few days. I am so excited (especially since we got a couple inches of snow last night). I am not taking my work computer and I think that it will be a nice little break!

We signed a contract yesterday to redo our bathroom. I took some before pictures and we spent 2 hrs in Lowe's last night picking everything out. They are going to start on Wed when I get back. I can't wait!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend, hopefully I will have lots of awesome photos to post when I get back.