Swinging from the Trees

A couple of weekends ago my office had an away-from-the-office team building event. I'm all for doing anything that does not involve sitting at my desk so I signed up. 20 other like-minded co-workers attended as well (out of 140) not knowing exactly what we were in for.

After we signed up we were given a list of activities to choose from at the camp/recreation area where it was being held. The three that sounded the most fun and won out were the low ropes course, the high ropes course, and paintball.  Clearly the most fun of all of the activities!

We started the day with the low ropes course which involved a series of ropes puzzles, like 12 people untangling 6 ropes with out letting go of their end, picking a tire attached to 4 ropes that were attached to trees with pulleys and setting it on the ground around a 4'x4' and then removing it with only 2 people looking at the tire, and balancing all 12 group members on a log suspended a foot off the ground while we sang a song (a very swift version of Row Row Row Your Boat was our choice).

Blindfolded selfies are great until you smack heads because, well, you're blindfolded.  

That afternoon we did a personality color test.  I learned that I am overwhelmingly RED, which means I am primarily driven by Humanistic Feeling, approach things from a relational standpoint, and I am people-driven.  Basically I like working with people, communicating, coaching, I'm optimistic, and apparently like to talk (shocker, I know).

It was funny listening to the personality descriptions and looking around the room to see who was what color, the majority were scarily accurate.  I had no idea how accurate mine was until I was headed back on Saturday morning and started worrying because I only had 6 waters in my cooler that I had with me. I spent a good bit of my drive trying to decide which store would be the quickest stop at 7:30AM so that I could buy another case of waters so I would have enough for everyone. Lucky for me I remembered that I had a case in my trunk already, leftover from another work event, and then I just laughed at myself.  Did anyone ask me to bring waters?  No.  Was anyone expecting me to bring waters?  No. But my wanting-to-make-sure-everyone-had-everything-they-would-possibly-need-plus-a-few-things-they-didn't-even-think-about RED personality did.  Go figure!

Water cooler in hand we set out early in the AM for a few rounds of paintball.  I had never played paintball so I asked Eric what to wear, he said long sleeves and pants, so I raided his camo closet and came up with the perfect outfit.

Can you still see me?!?

However, I was the only one who went all out and showed up in camo....I'm glad I didn't go buy face paint.  But my camo served me well and I was told that I was extremely difficult to spot, save for my game-issued black face mask. The only drawback to my get-up was it was one of the hottest humid days we'd had in a while and 5 minutes in I was sweating bullets (along with everyone else).

Paintball champs!

We played several games and following Eric's advice myself and another girl made it our goal to "take the hill" each game, leaving our teammates free to advance across the field.  It was hilarious!  Oh and everyone says paintballs hurt, and I am here to echo that sentiment.  I took home a couple of battle wounds, one that was triple the size of the paintball that hit me.  I considered a badge of honor.

After we were done shooting each other, we headed over to the high ropes course, i.e., rock wall, giant tree swing, and zip lines! In my 32 years I have never zip lined (unless you count the miniature one in my grandparents yard that I had to pick my feet up to be off the ground), so I was pretty pumped about it.

Walking across the bridge...hanging on to the rope for dear life!

They had it set up so the zip line was the reward for climbing a vertical pole and walking across a horizontal pole - all in a harness, don't worry - to get to the platform for the zip line. Normally I am freaked out about falling off of things that are high in the air (falling off of a bridge or the side of a building scares the mess out of me), but having a harness on made me oddly calm about the whole thing....thank goodness!

About to go!

Zip lining was an absolute blast! The line was really long and took a while to get to the other end, so it was a really fun ride!  The giant swing was interesting too.  Your harness was hooked to a rope and then you held another rope that people of the ground pulled, hoisting you to the side and higher in the air.  When you were high enough you let go of the rope and you swung back and forth between the trees.  It was crazy!

Getting ready to dismount! 

Our afternoon bonding included watching the Auburn football game because in the state of Alabama you can't get people to do much of anything if watching either Alabama or Auburn play on tv isn't and option.  I headed home after the Auburn game, but I know the Alabama game was watched that evening.

The consensus the following week at work was that the team building event was a smashing success.  Several folks who did not sign up this time around commented that they'd go to the next one and I am almost positive everyone who attended the first will attend the second.

Magic Cups

Happy Friday!!! And happy 4th of July Weekend! I've tried to be patriotic with my work attire all week, and I think I have successfully worn almost every red white and blue color combination outfit I own. #teamamerica

This week have been sooooo much less crazy than last week...thank goodness! I don't think I could have taken another week like that. And even though I didn't make it to the gym a single day, I stayed busy so I'll call it a win...I even cooked 3 out of 4 nights!

I'm sure by now you've heard of the ridiculously priced YETI Tumblers that everyone is obsessed with. The 30oz cups run $40 a pop, and while they are fantastic cups....it's just a cup. A couple of months ago I heard about Walmart's Ozark Trail version of them that are only $10, and people have been going nuts about them because in side-by-side comparisons, they do the same things the YETI cups do at 1/4 of the price. Needless to say every Walmart and Walmart.com was sold out of them for weeks. I figured that they might restock after Father's Day and last week they finally did! I was able to snag 3 of them for us.  I initially bought just 2, but Eric took both of them on his trip to the beach last weekend, and although I threatened to not let him back in the house if he didn't come home with both cups I went and bought one more as an insurance policy for myself.

via

I can honestly say I am impressed with the cups.  I take water everyday to work, but I drink it on the way there and leave it in my car (because I take my coffee cup inside with me and I don't have enough hands for 2 cups plus my keys and phone and purse and whatever else I'm hauling in that day). It stays in my car in the parking deck all day and is still full of ice when I leave.  My Tervis I used to use would be cold, but no ice left. And if I ran errands at lunchtime the water in my Tervis would be hot. The other day I went to lunch with some coworkers and my car sat in the parking lot of the restaurant in the hot (100+ degree) sun for over and hour. When I got back in I looked in my cup and the ice was STILL intact! And I had cold water for my drive home!..which came in handy because I got stuck in traffic because of a wreck on the interstate that had me sitting for 2 hours! I leave work at 3:30 and have a 45 minute commute anyway, but that night I didn't get home until after 6pm....I was not a happy camper.

And in case you're wondering....he DID bring both cups home so I let him back in the house =)

So yeah those cups are basically awesome and totally worth it.  Looking at the 100+ degree high temps we're supposed to have this weekend, I know our cups are going to come in quite handy.

I am also happy to report that the boys are all back to normal...well if you call having 3 pups normal then we're normal, I guess. Needless to say we did not come home to any messy surprises this week and everyone was able to eat normal food and no doggy meds!  Do we still have a ridiculously rambunctious puppy? Yes. Do we still have 2 sweet boys who are still just "tolerating" said puppy? Yes.  I can't blame them though; a 13 week puppy has more energy than you can imagine. I got him a rope/tire toy at Walmart the other day and we've spent at least 30 minutes a night playing tug with it. He will fetch it up, and bring it right back but then he just wants to tug and tug and tug. Hawk and Peanut don't mind it because they get to enjoy the break from him biting their ears/tails/etc.

Little brothers are the worst! 

I hope everyone has a happy and Safe 4th of July Weekend! Go eat some cake (or drink some beer..whatever floats your boat) and celebrate!

Breaking Records and Taking Names

Yes, believe it or not, yours truly is (unofficially until we get the official confirmation from Guinness) a World Record Holder. Well part of a large world record holding group: Most People on One Scale. It's real I promise. The link right now takes you to the old record holders, but I will update it when they redo the site. So how did this happen?

In Alabama we have a program called Scaleback Alabama where they encourage people to make a New Years Resolution to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks. The program started 10 years ago, and I actually worked as an intern with the program that puts on the program on one of the first years they did it. Back then it was just a state employee thing, but now it's a very successful statewide program. They give away cash prizes to select "losers" and "losing teams" that lose more than 10 lbs each.

So back to the record, a couple of weeks ago we got an email at work about a Guinness Book Record Breaking attempt, looking for volunteers to come out at 6:45AM to get on a giant scale to attempt to break the world record. I figured I get to work at 7AM normally so whats leaving the house 15 minutes earlier for a fun morning activity....plus we got a free long-sleeved t-shirt! I have learned over the years that people will do literally anything for a free t-shirt (myself included), so it was a no brainer. I mean, how many opportunities do you get to break a world record?!

The event wasn't too crazy. We got to the designated meeting area, signed in, and they bused us over to the scale. We used a freight scale at a steel plant, not far from the office. They corralled us on the scale, took some pictures, a few people talked (we were in the back and couldn't hear much...just waved our pompoms when the people in front did), and then it was over. We were bused back to our cars and headed to the office....all before 8:15AM.  What did YOU do with your morning? I can say I accomplished quite a lot. From what I've heard we ended up officially with 154 people, breaking the old record by 24 people. It's not a huge number, but it's more than the old record and that's all that counts!

I guess that's a pretty good start to my weekend! =) 

King Me

Our lives haven't been completely football consumed for the past few weeks, 75% consumed yes, but we've carved out a little bit of time for other things.

We had a little bit of excitement in the form of a new bed a few weeks ago, but it's taken us both a little time to adjust to it and we're both finally coming around.  I used to be able to go from sleeping in a hotel to the floor of a bus and then to my dorm bed in a couple of days and sleep like a baby all three places.  Now it takes me several nights to adjust to a new bed.  I think this means I'm getting old.  I never thought I'd miss our old sunk in mattress, but I guess it molded to us just right.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our new mattress, it's just taking me some time to get used to it.

We upgraded to a King sized bed last month, which is actually something we have been talking about for a while. I had been fighting it, but I caved in the middle of the awful late heat wave we had in Alabama last month.  Our bedroom has always been warmer than the rest of the house, even with 3 fans blowing on us.  It was an exceptionally warm evening and I was very tired but could not get cool enough to go to sleep.  To make matters worse, my sweet hubby who has recently taken to sleeping on his back with a pillow under each arm (I'm guessing so it feels like he is sleeping in his recliner) had one of his arm pillows right up against my back.  I'm not saying I would have been cool enough to fall asleep without the pillow in my back, but that night the pillow is what sent me over the edge.  In my sleepy state I remember trying to pull the pillow away from me several times and then getting quite upset when I realized that one of our extra fans (the one that usually points at me) was not in the doorway, which only made my internal temperature rise even more.  I finally found the fan in the bathroom (where I had moved it the day before), turned it on and drifted off to sleep, but not before deciding that we were indeed upgrading our bed.

We took the plunge a few weeks ago and come hell or high water we were going to sleep in it night we got it.  Long story short, after a comical trip to Montgomery to purchase the mattress and box springs (which only solidified the fact that Eric and I have no business whatsoever shopping together) we arrived home to set the bed up at 9:00pm.  Luckily I have a handy husband who has handy friends and they had the old bed broken down and removed from the house and the new bed set up in 45 minutes. I was impressed but really too sleepy to care.

Please excuse the state of the pillow, this is why Eric is not in charge of decorating the house.

The boys gave it their approval and nearly a month into it Eric and I are finally getting adjusted to it. 

Despite the larger bed, they still crowd my side. Thankfully they do not stay there all night.

My only problem with it now?  The fact that it takes twice as long to put the pillow cases on all 9 of the pillows than it does to put the sheets on the bed after I wash everything. Eric having a bad case of poison ivy this week has only made my disdain for washing and changing sheets even greater. I told him he's putting the sheets on tomorrow.

#pillowprobs

An Anniversary

via

7 years ago today a wide-eyed 22 year old, fresh out of undergrad started her first "big girl" job. It was a huge step for me.  I always assumed that I'd go straight from undergrad to grad school and get a job after that but that was not in the stars for me.  On a whim I decided to take the job and 7 years later I'm still here (well in the same building at least).  In 7 years I've run several different programs; I've written grants; I've become someone's supervisor; I've changed programs; I've lost programs; I've been challenged; I've learned to roll with the punches; I've learned to stand up for myself; I've realized that I would not be in the position I am in now if someone didn't think I could handle it; I've made some wonderful friends I would not have met otherwise; I've become passionate about issues I never thought much about; and most importantly I do feel like I am making a difference in peoples' lives which is what public health is all about.

An Evening on the Plains

...at Plainsman Park that is!

Last night we got to go see Eric's "little brother" play baseball.  He plays for the University of South Alabama and they had a game against Auburn last night.  We have not been able to see him play since he was in high school so we jumped at the chance.  What made this game even more special was that his BFF from high school plays for Auburn.  They grew up playing together; BFF was a pitcher and he was his catcher.  Last night was the first time they'd faced each other in a college game.  We had a pretty rowdy crew of family, friends, and former coaches that came out to support both of them and the game was lots of fun.  He was the lead-off batter and scored the only run through 5 1/2 innings, but Auburn got hot in the late innings, scored a few runs and ended up winning 6-1.

Aubie came by to say hello.

This happened, plus peanuts, plus popcorn, plus hot dogs...I am a sucker for ball park food!

Any night out with his guy is a fun one in my book!

The highlight of the game came in the top of the 8th inning.  Since BFF is a relief pitcher we weren't sure if he'd pitch.  I am not sure if the Auburn coaches knew the situation or who was in the crowd, but they called him up to pitch and little bro was on deck.  I can't imagine how anxious the two of them were because all of us were freaking out that not only were their teams playing each other, but they would actually get to face each other! It didn't last long because little bro hit the first pitch BFF threw right back at him.  BFF barely deflected it and the 3rd baseman ended up throwing him out at first (barely). It might have only been a few seconds worth of action but for about 50 people in the stands it was a VERY exciting few seconds.

The stare-down...

The Pitch!

My only complaint was that I didn't get to see Bruce Pearl (Auburn's recent men's basketball head coach hire) in person. I was really hoping I would get to see him in the flesh since I've heard he's been around campus lately.  I have already decided I am going to see a few games this year and I recruited a few friends to go with me since basketball is not Eric's favorite sport to go watch.  =)

32 Things that Make me Happy

The past few days have been nothing short of absolutely beautiful around here.  I think it's safe to say that spring has officially sprung and we have been taking advantage of every minute of it!  I feel like it's my duty to be outside after work enjoying every possible minute of it with the puppies, and Eric has gone fishing every day this week...I don't see him breaking that streak any time soon.

There's something about beautiful spring weather that puts a smile on my face, so this seemed appropriate....32 things that make me happy!

1. The weather lately...sunny, low 80's, no humidity...can it stay this way forever?!

2. Walks with the puppy dogs.

3. Flower beds that have been weeded.

4. Fresh clean sheets.

5. E-cards that hit the nail on the head.

6. This guy.

7.  These little monsters.

8. English muffin sandwiches.

9. Deals on Jane.com...I have an addiction to that site!

10. Goat cheese....especially on a pizza.

11. March Madness...despite my bracket being completely blown this year...thanks Michigan State.

12.  Spending time with family.

13. Cooking out with friends, especially while watching college football!

14. Making other people smile.

15. Waking up late and still getting out the door on time in the morning...it does happen (about every other week).

16. Tap dancing.

17. Teaching a new step to my dancers and watching their delight when they "get it"

18. Singing at the top of my lungs to the radio in my car.

19. A clean, pollen-free car.

20. Show tunes.

21. Finding a new project or recipe on pinterest, trying it, and having it come out perfectly.

22. Having no unread notifications on my messages/email/facebook/etc.

23. Exploring a new city.

24. Arni's Pizza and a Junior with Ranch on the side.

25. Driving by the houses I grew up in.  I am a total creeper when it comes to this.  I can't help it!

26. Beautiful scenery.

27. Fun walls...seriously you'd think a kid worked in my cubie.

28. Checking off an entire to-do list.

29. Peppermint Mocha Creamer in my coffee.

30. Saving more than I spend at the grocery store...it happens from time to time!

31. Telling old stories with friends you only see a couple of times a year.

32. Did I mention this guy? =)

Happy Thursday!

Burn the Candle, Find a Ring

I don't remember how old I was or who we received it from (most likely a Christmas or birthday gift), but I have memories as a child of receiving a treasure candle.  I remember being fascinated by it as we waited for the candle to burn down to reveal the "treasures" mostly charms and small tokens. We (I) got so excited every time another treasure would be freed from the wax. Since then I've kept my eye out for something similar, but have never come across one-although I admittedly never google searched for one.

While we were on our trip last week one of the girls mentioned something about a candle that you burned to reveal a ring from a website called JewelScent.com.  It immediately made me think of my childhood treasure candle and I was intrigued.  It wasn't quite the same as my treasure candle, it was better! Like a treasure candle for grown-ups!  As you burned your candle a packet of gold foil would appear in the wax, and inside the gold foil would be a ring...valued anywhere from $10 to $7,500. Sign me up. Next thing I knew all four of us girls were on our phones purchasing candles, strategizing the best way to obtain the $7,500 ring.  We decided the random size selector would probably be best, but I wasn't going to let it pick my candle fragrance.  I am picky when it comes to the way our house smells....fresh, clean scents are my favorites, while sugary scents make my head hurt, so I selected Sweet Gardenia.

My candle arrived Monday in the mail and I was like a little kid at Christmas.  I lit that sucker up immediately to see how far I could get, and to my surprise I could see gold foil by the end of the evening.  It was just a corner so I decided to leave it alone and see how far I could burn it down Tuesday.  When I got home from work last night I did the same thing, and by 8pm I had a clear view of the entire gold foil packet! It was a lot closer to the top than I had expected.

I snuffed it out, grabbed my tweezers and gently lifted the packet out.  I was momentarily sad because my package clearly contained a ring (if you get one of the most expensive ones, they put a voucher in the packet that you send off), but as I opened it up I was pleasantly surprised.  My ring contained a beautiful marquise cut amethyst which is my birthstone and the size 8 ring fit my fat-knuckled finger perfectly!

It couldn't have gotten any better than this! Now I am not sure what is real and what is not on it-nor do I really care, but it sure is pretty!  The candle has a 100 hour burn time, so we will get to enjoy it for quite a while. I am considering it my souvenir from Colorado since I was there when I bought it.  =)   I am thinking this is a perfect gift idea for birthdays/Christmas!

Happy Wednesday!

Valentine's Date (A Few Days Early)

Eric and I have never made a really big deal about Valentine's Day. Why?  Well mainly because of the timing...Valentine's Day is 3 weeks after his birthday and less than a week before mine, and 6 weeks after Christmas. We always make a point to have a special dinner together whether it be going out or cooking something at home.  This year when I realized that Valentine's Day is on a Friday night, I told him there was NO WAY we were going out.  #1 we have never had luck going out to dinner on a Friday night.  We have been spoiled by living in a small town where you can walk into any restaurant at any time and immediately get a table, so a 20 minutes wait?! No thank you.  We just drove 40 minutes to get to the restaurant, we' like to eat now before my hanger rears its ugly head. And #2 It's Valentine's Day so the restaurants will be EXTRA crowded.  Thanks, but I would prefer a nice dinner at home.

I told Eric earlier in the week that I would make his favorite Goat Cheese Pizza and we can stay in on Friday, which he seemed quite content with.  But then remembered that he still had not seen Lone Survivor.  He has wanted to go see the movie since he saw the first preview for it (quite some time ago).  Unfortunately it got to theaters right in the thick of basketball season when all of my weeknights, plus my Friday and Saturday nights were being spent in the gym.  Last weekend he mentioned going to see the movie on Sunday afternoon, but decided to go fishing instead (not surprising, but I has happy because it gave me an entire morning to seriously clean the house). He called me Monday at work and said he wanted to go see it this week, so we decided we'd do an early Valentine's dinner and a movie date on Wednesday.  A few weeks ago I was browsing restaurants for goat cheese pizzas (can you tell we're a bit obsessed?) and realized that one of the Italian Restaurants downtown had two different varieties.  Naturally that's where we went and had an absolutely delicious dinner, although he told me my pizza was better (smart man).  I just wish I could figure out how to get my crust crispy like theirs!

1. Spinach Artichoke Dip on flat bread?  Yes, please.
2. Our Frenzia Pizza from SaZa's: goat cheese, grape tomatoes, caramelized onions, and bacon...this picture does not do it justice, this piece of pizza was about 8 inches long!
3.  A couple of years ago I entered an instant win contest on People.com and part of the prize were to AMC Movie passes.  At the time our movie theater was owned by another company, but for some reason I saved them thinking someday  I would run into someone who had AMC Theaters in their area.  Lo and behold our theater was bought out by AMC about a year ago.  I took the passes with us just to see if they would honor them. I didn't think they would since I'd had them so long, but there was no expiration date on them.  To our delight (well my delight) they accepted them!  We had to pay a buck fifty per ticket for a processing fee or something like that, but I will take a $3 movie date over a $15 movie date any day!  My pack rat tendencies paid off for once!

After dinner we headed to the movie and nearly had the theater to ourselves.  It reminded me of when we we'd go catch the late movie during the week in college, but instead of the movie starting at 9:45 pm it started at 6:40 pm.  Seriously how did we do so much on so little sleep back then!?  The movie was fantastic!  Eric read the book so he knew the story line and I was amazed at how much he could recall (he read it 5 years ago when he was deployed).  It was a very intense movie, but Eric said the entire thing stuck to the real story. In case you haven't heard of the movie Lone Survivor, it's a true story of Marcus Luttrell and 3 other Navy Seals fighting for their lives after they were discovered in the mountains in Afghanistan by goat herders.  If you like war movies, go see it.  It's awesome.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday

How did Thursday get here so quickly?!  This week has flown by.  I just realized that my birthday is 2 weeks from today!  I mean I knew it was coming up but it's happening very very soon.  The busy-ness of life has me not quite thinking clearly.  That needs to be fixed because my birthday is a very important day to which attention should will be given. =)

We are definitely getting a real, legit winter down south this year. We had flurries this morning just a week after the Snowpocalypse. I am not going to lie, I love it!  I was born and bred a Mid-Westerner and to be honest southern winters usually leave me wanting more [cue eye rolls from all Northerners]. This year I've gotten to wear ALL of my sweaters multiple times and I got to see snow in my own backyard.  Not to mention I have had real reasons to make a bunch of delicious soups and chili. Last night's selection was Tortellini Soup.  So easy, so delicious.

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup from Plain Chicken
(one of my favorite recipe blogs!)

Speaking of delicious, Eric and I have a new found obsession with goat cheese.  How did we both go nearly 30 years without knowing about this delicacy?!  I am just glad we found out about it when we did.  I am pretty sure I have made at least 5 goat cheese pizzas since we discovered it about 6 weeks ago.  I did a little research this morning and found out one of our favorite pizza places has 2 pizzas with goat cheese one them.  I sent Eric a text about it and now we're trying to figure out the first free night we have to go try them.

When we get to go will all depend on my basketball schedule.  Tonight could potentially be our last basketball game of the season.  We got a bye in our tournament because we were the 3 seed in the Region (with 3 wins...ha), so if we are already in the second round.  If we can win tonight we're guaranteed 2 more games.  The team we are playing is good, but not that great.  A win is certainly doable. They just have to want it bad enough.  I have 4 seniors on the team this year and they have been with my since my first year when they were sophomores. They have been through so much with this program and I think it would be amazing if we could get a win for them.  We told them last night that tournament time meant the slates have been wiped clean and your record up to this point now means nothing.  The game is now win or go home.  I know I am not the most motivational speaker but I hope they take what we've told them to heart.

I hope we keep playing for a few more games, but I am excited to get back to daily walks with these knuckleheads.