Sunday Groceries

Mr. C and I were almost inseparable from the beginning (after he finally pursued me enough for me to say yes that is!).  We met in college at the dorms and when I walked out the front door of my dorm, his window was directly to my right - meaning that he was very, very close.  This of course meant that games of taping on his window to drive him nuts and scare him, and then running back into the dorm were very fun (for my roommates and I anyhow).   With a few exceptions, we’ve seen each other almost every single day since we started dating.  You’d think I’d be sick of him by now but it looks like that’s no where in sight for awhile.

I had decided early on my freshmen year of college that I would be going back to NE for that first summer.  This was of course before I met Mr. C.  so my feelings and attitude about the summer soon changed once we started dating. I was going home to work and relax (opposites, I know) and it didn’t really seem logical to stay, except that the dramatic freshmen that I was just thought I wouldn’t be able to survive without Mr.C., especially since I had become accustomed to seeing him everyday.  The night before I left for NE, we stayed up all night talking with the idea of spending every last minute together.  The next day my mom, dad, and I piled into the car to drive back to NE.  I think I cried for at least the first few hours.  I’m not sure how they made it through the ride without throwing me out of the car.  Maybe it’s a parent thing.  For the remainder of the summer I missed Mr. C like crazy.  We talked numerous times a day, sometimes just sitting on the phone in silence because we had finally run out of things to say.  I managed to make a trip to AZ at least once for a visit; something my dad wasn’t too crazy about.   I remember feeling like that summer would never end.   Long distance is HARD. 

I can’t even imagine how military wives (or husbands) feel.  A weekend away from Mr. C feels like forever.  In the almost 3 years since we’ve been married, we’ve had 3 weekends apart, all happening over the past 6 months.  I have to say, although the weekends were for very good reasons, I’m not a fan of this being apart thing.  For one, I can’t sleep the same, even without Coconut by my side.  I love how excessively productive I am when I’m alone and being able to do whatever without worrying about someone else, but this feeling soon wears off and then I’m left with a hole, just missing him.  I may sound overly dramatic, which I am known to be sometimes, but it’s crazy to me how much I can miss him when it’s only a few days.  However, these days remind me once again how lucky I am to have met him and to have been smart enough to get him to stick around :)  This weekend I’ve had quite a few moments in which I thought of our normal, routine weekend activities that I’ve come to enjoy.  Dinner and a movie on Friday nights, procrastinating together to avoid whatever homework or productive thing we should be doing on Saturday, and grocery shopping on Sundays may all seem like boring, everyday things but they’re “us”, our everyday things, and I love them.

Although I’ve been missing Mr. C this weekend, I have been very grateful to have my amazing friend Topanga as my bodyguard.  Ok, so she wasn’t really my bodyguard but she was around to keep me company and make sure the monsters in the closet didn’t get me.  Oh, and she was on spider duty!  We spent most of the weekend cooking, eating, watching movies, and talking.  This Saturday was the most relaxing day I’ve had in awhile and it was great, even with missing Mr. C.  It’s amazing how people just pop into your life and at a certain point you can’t remember not knowing them.  I’ve never been the girl with packs of friends, but the ones I do have are very dear to me and I always know they’ve got my back..   I don’t really remember the period where we were just becoming friends but I am very thankful that it happened!

So, although I’ve had a wonderful weekend with a wonderful friend, I’m still counting down the hours until I get my husband back.  I have a feeling that I’ll appreciate next week’s Sunday grocery shopping even more than normal!  I can't wait....

Resolutionizing for 2011

I’ve never been one much for New Year’s resolutions.  It always seemed crazy to me that because of the date changing from the 31^st to the 1^st, everyone would dramatically adjust their lives (or say they were going to anyhow).  This year, however, I’m embracing resolutions.  I think it’s not so much that I’m changing dramatically in one day, but rather that I’ve wanted to make changes or have been working on them and now’s the perfect time to acknowledge them and actually make a plan.  After the craziness that is called December passed, I now find myself with more time (until classes start anyhow) and some motivation that needs to be used for something productive so, I figured why not resolutionize?  Don’t you love that word, resolutionize?  In case you aren’t aware, I just came up with that…kinda like revolutionize but not.  I know - that totally cleared it up.

I anticipate this year being one full of changes.   Big, scary, exciting changes.  Overall, 2010 had some great moments but it also had some crappy ones.  This year is going to have TONS of AMAZING moments.  That’s what I’ve decided anyhow and apparently I believe in the power of thinking positive!

My resolutions cover three main categories: Health, Myself, and Relationships. 

Let’s start with health.  I’ve always tried to eat healthy overall but I do tend to take lots of breaks such as when I go out of town, when we have visitors, when we go on road trips, when I get super busy, etc.  In case you haven’t caught on, that’s a lot of “off-time”!  Plus, it usually takes about a week or so to get back on track after those events.  This year I’m going to not only focus on eating better all the time, but I’m also focusing on health overall.  Watch out fitness/health section of my 101 in 1001 list – I’m gonna cross you all out this year!  I’m soooo ready for this!  So, to be specific, this getting healthy resolution consists of:

-Going to bed at a reasonable time.  I like to stay up late so this is a little challenging for me.  I have however found that it’s nice not being exhausted every morning!  Mr. C and I usually go to bed at the same time so this was a group decision and we ended up compromising somewhere around 10-11.  Not too early but not too late.

-Following the Weight Watchers plan.  They actually have a new plan which I LOVE!  I’m ok doing it on my own; I just need to hold myself accountable.  The new plan actually has been working a lot better for me.  I want to emphasize that this is not a diet because it’s not something temporary or drastic.  When I hear the word “diet” I think of some crazy plan which makes you starve yourself or cut out food groups, neither of which is healthy.  In following this plan, I will be cooking more, something I LOVE doing but haven’t always had the time for.  I bought a couple amazing and realistic cookbooks before Christmas and I’m super excited to break them out.  I’ve also committed Sunday afternoons to prepping for the week so weeknights to a little smoother.  Especially with class and extra activities, the weekdays are crazy enough that I could use some prep time!

-Working out more!   I HATE gyms and I don’t think I will ever join one again.  I have a wonderful elliptical machine I need to become a little more friendly with and the Wii has some great tools too (many of which I own!).   I actually LOVE taking walks in the evening too because Coconut gets all crazy when she knows she gets a walk and Mr. C and I get to talk about the little parts of our days so it works out perfectly!  The issue is usually finding the time to do these but I’m scheduling my work-outs on my pretty little calendar and starting out slow.

The second category is myself.  Woohoo, sounds like a fun one.  This part includes most of the things on my 101 list under the personal category.  This year I am going to make more time for myself!   Of course, the healthy lifestyle and cooking fits under this as well.  In general, I want to read more for fun, watch more movies, play more games, and finally finish our wedding and honeymoon scrapbooks!  It would be great to finish those scrapbooks before I have baby books to be working on (and no this is not my way of telling you anything…don’t hold your breath cuz you’ll be waiting awhile!).    So this category really means me being a little less efficient and a little more fun in my personal time!

Lastly - relationships.  I’m not planning on finding a new husband or anything like that.  I really don’t understand how people have the time and energy for that anyhow!  I have my hands full with the one husband I already have.  Plus, I really like having him around!  Anyhow, back to the topic at hand.  I guess with this one I just mean focusing on the important stuff more – more important stuff meaning people.  I don’t watch a ton of TV now but I’m cutting out even more because I really don’t have the time.  Usually I’d end up sleeping less to watch something I didn’t really need to watch!  I think this was my downfall the past few months because I’d sit on the couch and not get up for much longer than planned.  So, I’ve made the conscious decision to not watch much TV.  I still have my favorite things, like “How I Met Your Mother” and “Private Practice” that will remain on my TV radar, but there are quite a few getting cut.  Also falling into this category is spending more quality time with Mr. C.  Sometimes we’re great at this and other times not so much.  At the end of the semester last year I felt like we never really SAW each other but just glanced at each other in-between the madness lol.  In regards to friends, I am not currently the best at staying in touch and although I love talking to long distance friends, it’s hard to find the time to fit that in, especially when I want to have a non-distracted conversation.  Lastly, it’s very hard to fit time in for anything spiritual when that’s left last so obviously that priority needs to change!  This year I’m committing to staying in touch more with far-away friends, spending more time with the loved ones I have close, and building my relationship with God.  Sounds like I have a lot to do!

Let me end with saying that I think people who have kids think that my life is pretty boring and has minimal responsibilities so these resolutions should be no problem because I have TONS of free time.   I’ve encountered many situations where I’ve been told that I should have time for this or that because I don’t currently have children.  This is something that just makes my blood boil because I feel that everyone makes their own choices and their own priorities.  I feel that my life is quite the opposite of boring and minimal in the responsibility area.  I’m sure I have just as many commitments, just different ones.  I do my best at work and give 110%.  I’m involved in activities after work and on weekends.  I juggle four graduate level classes while pushing myself to give all I can.  I devote time to my husband and marriage.  I have a second job as a Lia Sophia advisor.  I maintain close relationships with some wonderful friends.  I care for my puppy like she’s a child.  I keep our house and finances in order.  I love my life, however it frustrates me to be discounted simply because I don't have kids and therefore cannot possibly understand the time constraints that requires.  I beg to differ.   I think that my resolutions will be challenging, time consuming, and very much worth it.  I'm hoping you'll all hold me accountable.  Good luck in your own resolutionizing!

Christmas Top Ten

For those who are close to me, you know that this Christmas had some rough spots; however I did have some wonderful times as well.  (For those of you not close to me, I LOVE that you're reading my blog anyhow!  YOU ROCK!)  Since I LOVE lists, I’ve compiled a top 10 list of my favorite things this Christmas vacation. 

I hope all of my readers had a safe and Merry Christmas, surrounded by loved ones and buckets of laughter!  No, make that barrels of laughter and fun.

I attempted to put these in some kind of order but it’s just too hard, so in not exactly any order, here are my top 10 favorite things from our Christmas in NE 2010.  I can tell you that my very favorite is #10 though!

1.  Relaxing!  Being able to sleep in until 8 or 9, spending some time reading or playing totally useless games on the IPOD (angry birds is crazy addicting so thanks to my friend for finding Mr.C and I more ways to waste time!), catching up on movies, cooking, and taking long lunches were things I haven’t had much time to do in the past few months so it was wonderful doing them!

2.   Playing oh so many games, especially CLUE!  I LOVE Clue and no one will ever play with me!  Somehow I suckered people into playing multiple times this trip though! When I was little I had to play games against myself because no one would play!  Now I’m addicted and poor Mr. C has to deal with my crazy desire to replay games like a million times before I could even consider getting sick of them.  We played Clue, sequence, yatzee, pitch, uno spin, uno flip, jenga max, go fish, and skipbo….I think I got them all!  It took FOREVER to convince my dad to play anything other than Pitch but once we got him hooked on Sequence, he’s addicted now!  He and I made a killer team.  Unfortunately that meant that Mr. C and my mom didn’t fare so well!  I should also mention that Mr. C and I played go fish on the plane once.  Just once because he apparently was embarrassed to be seen playing go fish as an adult with our super awesome Hawaiian go fish cards (apparently the cards just demonstrated further that we were REALLY way too into the game).

3.  Drinking my mom’s delicious hot cocoa.  Mmmmm.  She’s attempted to teach me how to make it but I just don’t think it’s the same.  Mine must be missing that motherly touch :)  My dad did make fun of me for piling a lot of marshmallows on but I think he was just jealous.

4.     Playing with Oscar, my parent’s newly rescued kitty which Mr. C and I seriously though about taking home with us.  I think we would have had to steal him though, because my parents are pretty attached!

5.     Shopping at Maurices with my mom!  I LOVE this store!  My mom laughs about me leaving the huge city of Phoenix only to go to the little town of Norfolk to do my shopping!  I LOVED shopping with my mom, but I also loved the incident that occurred when I went back to buy something I had forgotten the first time around.  As Mr. C and I walked in the store, Mr. C tripped or something and hit the huge sign in the front window, causing it to dramatically sway and then crash to the ground.  I seriously thought about climbing under a rack of clothes since the store was packed and everyone was staring at us.  I resisted that urge though and a wonderful woman hung that thing up quicker than I thought possible.

6.      Playing hide-and-seek with Mr. C and my nieces.  The three of us (my 2 youngest nieces and I) searched for at least 15 minutes for Mr. C one time.  All the while, he kept texting me that we were so close he could smell us.  He didn’t mean smell in a good way either.  Basically while we had no idea where to look, he just sent me insulting texts that were totally not true! He is a crazy good hider though.  I think he should have a degree in hide-and-seek because he’s just THAT good!

7.    Spending time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, three nieces, grandparents, best friend from high school, and so many other people I miss throughout the year!  And, as a bonus I got to spend more time than usual with Mr. C - something I never (well hardly ever!) get sick of doing.

8.         The surprise visit from my best friend when it was most needed.  Life changes and some things become priorities over others.  (You’re probably thinking “here we go again” and yes, I am about to ramble on for a bit).  When I moved to AZ over seven years ago, we talked daily, then weekly, and recently only about once a month or so.  It broke my heart but I knew there wasn’t much I could do.  Something must have smacked Max Emerald upside the head about then because this was about the time he got his crap together and surprisingly showed up on my door step!  We had a fun day together and were back to our normal BFF selves.  The next day the three of us went to lunch, then headed over to the super cute cupcakery (yeah, that’s not exactly fitting in with my new year’s resolutions so glad I fit it in before!) and then ran some errands which sounds boring but was just wonderful.  Eating cupcakes at a cupcakery made me feel like I was really on vacation!

9.    Waking up to snow covered trees that looked like they were meant for a fairytale.  I know no one else likes the snow but I would like to mention that we did scoop the snow while we were there and I still think it’s one of the most beautiful things in the world.  At one point, I felt like we were inside our little Christmas village when we went downtown and saw the pretty tree!

10.    Spending a holiday with my family.  I love Mr. C’s family and enjoy the time we spend together; however it’s impossible to not miss my family, especially around holidays.  With every other holiday spent in Arizona, I’m so thankful when we get to spend one a year with mine.  My mom always made Christmas a wonderful production and it’s by far my most favorite time of the year.  Christmas in NE isn’t just a day of celebration, but it feels like a week of celebration due to the cooking, shopping, and activities of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  It’s just different being there and I can’t seem to get entirely into the Christmas mood until I’m back home.  Because of Mr. C’s schedule, holidays off, and traveling, it’s usually the easiest time for us to go back and I’m so grateful when we have that opportunity.  Thanks to my in-laws for giving us up again AND for watching our precious Coconut!  And thanks to my parents for the wonderful accommodations and fun times!

Cookies!

Every year someone I know has kids who sell those frozen cookies to raise money and because I’m a sucker I always end up buying some.  I’ve begun to learn that those cookies are very dangerous.  The problem is that I LOVE cookie dough.  These frozen cookies come in perfect bite size pieces that are so easy to just eat without cooking.  In the beginning I start out baking a couple every now and then but eventually I always get back to eating a couple now and then…and let me tell you, that’s not the best for my appearance!  Well, my very favorite cookie dough is sugar cookie dough.  I actually think that’s my favorite food!  I’m not sure that cookie dough counts as a food but it should.  Every year around Christmas I always bake a ginormous load of cookies and send them to family and friends.  Unfortunately they haven’t seemed to make it to their destination in one piece.  Typically these family and friends get a box of pretty crumbs.  This Christmas season was crazy and I just didn’t have the time I usually do (although to be honest I never seem to have time for this!) plus I didn’t really want to pay a ridiculous amount of money to just send crumbs.  I did manage to fit in some baking with my mother-in-law though which was a lot of fun.  Mr. C and his brother (also Mr.C which is way too confusing) also helped out, mostly being the go-phers which we loved!   Oh, they also taste tested our wonderful baked items.  Since I had witnesses, I had to cut down on my sugar dough consumption this year which was both good and bad.

My grandma was quite the baker and apparently I take after her.  I’m one of those people that tends to have recipes where you “add a little of this, throw in a little of that”, etc.  I do a little less of this when baking though since flour can’t just be thrown in willy nilly.  I can’t believe I just used that phrase.  I’m not deleting though because that would mean I’d have to think of a replacement.  Anyhow, baking rocks and it’s really not  Christmas without it  Sometimes I don’t even know who I’m baking for but I do it anyhow.  It’s really not hard to find volunteers to eat the stuff.

I do tend to go a little crazy when baking.  Last year I bought this huge bowl to accommodate the huge batches I mix up.  I figure if I’m doing it, why not go all out?  I ended up making 4 batches of sugar cookies this year which seemed small (I always have at least 7 usually) but OH MY GOSH, that’s a lot to bake and decorate in one day.   Usually I bake ahead, freeze, and then decorate them all in one day right before I’m ready to send out.  That way is a little less overwhelming!  After baking all day we weren’t exactly in a decorating mood.  Towards the end we just slapped some frosting on.  Mr. C decorated every single cookie blue at a certain point.  In case you’re wondering why they were blue – well that’s the color that was in front of him at the time. 

In the end we got all of the cookies decorated and had a wonderful selection of wonderful treats for the Centner Christmas we hosted before leaving for NE.

After having fun baking in AZ with my other family, I also got to have fun baking (well, mostly decorating) in NE with my super fun nieces, my mom, and Mr. C.  My mom baked the gingerbread cookies and my nieces did most of the decorating.  This was quite effective because it caused me to avoid eating the cookies they did, at least the youngest one.   At one point I saw her drop sprinkles on the ground and then proceed to pick them up (with some dirt I presume since the floor wasn’t exactly the cleanest) and sprinkle them on the freshly frosted (and very sticky) cookie.  I do have to admit that my mom and I didn’t share this info with Mr. C as early as we should have.  He’s doing fine though.  Well….he does have a cold but I’m sure that’s totally unrelated!