A Week in Photos: Week 8

Sunday 2/17: About two years ago when I was living in Portland I got used to going to New Season's market for lunch everyday. This is where I picked up the habit of testing out as many Kombucha drinks I could find. I have finally settled on the Grape Chai Synergy Kombucha being my absolute favorite. This summer, that's all I could drink, but with each costing about $3 a pop, I had to give the habit up. On my weekly Sunday grocery trip, I finally gave myself permission to get one again, and oh my god, it was a heavenly experience.

Monday 2/18: After giving up one addiction, alcohol, I found that I have replaced it with another, books. And my cat, but that wasn't the priority in this photo. I was showing a fellow book lover my piles of shame, aka the piles of books I have yet to read. This picture doesn't do the situation justice, there's a whole third stack with more unread books back behind those piles. My goal is to read 80 books in this calendar year, this will get me well over half that mark. As I have said before, there could be worse addictions...

Tuesday 2/19: Every morning, without a doubt, our cat Marley jumps into the bathroom sink. And it's always when I'm either mid-teethbrush or face-wash. Ryan, over the years, has allowed for him to become water snobs, only drinking out of the kitchen or bathroom sinks. I have decided that in the next place we live, we will need two sinks, one for humans and one for kittens.

Thursday 2/21: For a "throwback Thursday" photo this week, I dug one out from the dark days, aka my past drinking life. This was the summer of 2009 on a trip to Chelan to see Ryan. I think it's amazing how far we have come in the past four years. Both of us are sober now, living productive and fulfilling lives together. It only took us two false starts and seven years to get here, but I finally have the man of my dreams.

Friday 2/22: This is a large gummy bear. I have never seen such a thing before. I had to take a picture and obviously give a size comparison next to my Oregon house key. Why? Because Go Ducks!

Saturday 2/23: It's not often that Ryan ventures out of his office at work, but when he does, he can be seen doing this or sneaking food out of the back door of the kitchen.

A Week in Photos: Weeks 6 and 7

As of late, my weeks have been hectic and I have been exhausted! The treatment facility that I have been working at the last year has finally opened it's doors and Ryan and I have been working overtime to make sure our pieces of the pie are well taken care of. It's a wonderfully rewarding job, it just takes a lot of work! So the posts have been few and my free time has been short, but I'm finally feeling adjusted to the new schedule and hope to be back in the swing of things shortly! Without further adieu, here are the last few weeks in photos:

  

 Monday 2/4: As the intro said, adjusting to the new working hours (8:30am to whenever) has been a challenge. I have stopped drinking coffee because I don't like the way it makes me feel throughout the day, but of course I NEED something (anything) to energize me and get me through the day, thus, Redbull. I've been riding the bull now for a few weeks straight and I now can safely say it's just as bad as coffee for me. I crave it, it keeps me up through the night, so on and so forth, it's a vicious cycle. But until I can find a natural supplement that will keep me going and "on" through out the day, this is the lesser of the two evils.


Wednesday 2/6: Part of my job (I am a woman of many hats) is to run the girls art group once a week. When I was in treatment, it was a free-for-all lacking any real structure or creativity. My goal when I took on this challenge is to make things the girls would actually like, use and get a kick out of at a very low cost. Thus the tissue paper pom-poms. I've seen these everywhere and they make me think of Kate Spade, so I thought it would be a really fun to decorate their rooms with these gems. It was a very simple craft with a beautiful end result which the girls LOVED!


Thursday 2/7: We received a wonderful visit from Ryan's mom and brother for the week of 2/4-2/8. One of the most important things we had to do while they were here was make a trip down to Cannon Beach to visit the fabulous Sesame and Lillies. I had to have Ryan take a picture of me and my new J. Crew jacket. I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with this jacket. It was such an impulse buy but I am so excited about it, it's a wonderful spring addition.

Friday 2/8: On Friday evening I got some very sad news from my dad, our lovely kitty cat Bella had been hit by a car on the road in front of his house. I got this sweet little girl in college when a previous boyfriend was moving into his first house, only to find out he couldn't have cats. My dad volunteered to keep her, which then she became his cat. She was a wild little girl that we all loved very much, it was a very sad day for the Briggs family.

Saturday 2/9: As a way to show his condolences and to cheer me up, Ryan surprised me with these wonderful roses on Friday evening. They've looked beautiful on our mantle this last week, even if they're in a pitcher of water. We are not a flower vase kind of family apparently :)

Monday 2/11: On another craft day with the ladies, I decided we should do something special for Valentine's Day. Last year I decorated Ryan's room with heart garland, and I thought we could do a spin on that this year. With the help of Pinterest, I came up with this heart wreath which adorned all of their bedrooms leading up to Valentine's Day!

Thursday 2/14: The "big" Valentine's Day gift I got Ryan came about two weeks before the actual day, but I couldn't not give my Valentine something on the 14th. I saw this idea on The Confessions of a Product Junkie  blog and decided it was what any 25 year old man would want to get, a sugar overload candy bouquet! Yes, I'm still reaping the benefits of this!

Thursday 2/14: As a surprise for Valentine's Day, my love took me out to a wonderful indian dinner. We have a favorite spot in Astoria called Himani that we try to go to about once or twice a month. It was the first place that Ryan ever had indian food, and for me, it's probably some of the best I've had to date. We always have one (if not two) orders of Chicken Tikki Masala (NOM!!!)

Friday 2/15: Since a treatment center is considered a medical facility, every employee is required to be CPR/ First Aid certified. It was my first time ever sitting through a class like that, so imagine my surprise when our trainer whipped these little faces out. Naturally I reached for my phone and started snapping away, right in the middle of his discussion. For my next character flaw, I will be working on: tact.

Saturday 2/16: After spending the night housesitting our bosses house and watching HGTV all night, I thought it would only be fitting to check out our favorite home decor store in Astoria, Vintage Hardware. This store has amazing upcycled pieces with the most fabulous upholstery, like this owl/deer/giraffe scenario to the right. Swoon.

Saturday 2/16: With said work situation stated above, house work and cleaning throughout the week get put to the back burner. On Saturday, I needed to take an "Erin Day" to get our living situation back to something that was more manageable. Living with two lusciously furry kitties, things can go awry real quick. Fur builds up into something that resembles little tumbleweeds across our wood floors and that it not attractive or hygienic. In the process of de-furring our couch, Marley took the no cushion occasion to remind me that my job is never going to be done. Oh the joys of cat motherhood.

A Week in Photos: Weeks 4 and 5

As everyone knows, January is a time for making... and breaking resolutions. I can say that yes, I too am one of those people that have done both this year. I will have more on that in a post tomorrow, but there's one mantra I like to stick to: Progress not Perfection, right? Carrying on:

 Sunday 1/20: In an attempt to spend more quality time together, Ryan and I have been doing Sunday day dates. We decided, since it wasn't raining, to head down to Cannon Beach and visit Ecola State Park. It was a first for me in all the years I've been going to Cannon Beach. It was a beautiful setting on Indian Beach where this picture was taken.

Sunday 1/20: To depict how foggy it was, I had Ryan stand at the overlook of the Seal Rocks. It literally was a white wall with very limited visibility of the beach below.

Sunday 1/20: I told Ryan that this outing was literally the most "outdoorsy" either of us had been in the entirety of our relationship. I can't say either of us are really nature folk. We probably spent in total an hour at the state park, followed by two hours of watching the NFL Playoff Games at one of my favorite Cannon Beach haunts, the Warren House.

Monday 1/21: What a day. This was our opening day at KLEAN Treatment Center (which I partially blame for my lost resolutions). We went to work at 7:00 AM and didn't arrive back home until 8:30 PM. Since we are a "business casual" work environment, we had to bust out the iron. Peanut was the first to offer us any help, that wonderful girl.

 Thursday 1/24: A throwback Thursday picture, Marley and Ryan being sleepy heads. Whenever I get out of bed in the morning, boy cat is right there to take my warm place, if he's not already under the covers already that is.

 Friday 1/25: Because Ryan and I are now workaholics, we decided to hook up the printer we have at the house. The cats weren't as fond of this idea. Anything new (that makes funny noises) strikes an element of suspicion and fear into the cats behavior. Like they say, curiosity killed the cat.

Tuesday 1/29: I'm a Pinterest addict. I love arts and crafts. So naturally when Valentines Day rolls around, I take out all the stops. Last year I bought a heart punch and this year I was printing out paper crafts galore, thus the homemade envelope and the heart confetti. Now I just can't wait to send the homemade love!

 Tuesday 1/29: I have yet to meet a person who does not like a good mustache. Or at least a faux mustache. It's one of those things that everyone is loving right now and I have finally come around. I thought it would be an awesome arts and crafts activity to make mustaches, thus how I wound up with pink templates. They're so festive!

Wednesday 1/30: I will say, the clients LOVED this idea! Ryan managed to snag this sweet V for Vendetta 'stache off of one of our more creative clients. He currently has this hanging up in his office for all of those "business meetings" he hosts.

Friday 2/1: We've been having some really poopy weather lately. I mean it's January on the Oregon coast, what more can you expect? But the last few days have been gorgeous and we managed to catch this sunset on the way up to Ryan's dad's house for a Friday night fiesta!







Saturday 2/2: We had been planning for weeks to take our co-worker Vern on a Portland Ikea adventure. He'd never gone before, and I'll never pass up the opportunity to buy some cheap Swedish tchotchkes. This was the moments preceding Vern's life being changed forever.

A Week in Photos: Week 2

 Sunday 1/13: After what seems like months of rain, we finally have caught a break here on the coast. For the last week it's been wonderful having the sun back around! This is a shot from Beards Cove in Washington on our way to Ryan's dad's house for the unfortunate Seahawks game.

 Monday 1/14: Our handsome boy Marley has a strange issue regarding his whiskers. I'm not sure if they're extra long or if they bother him, but whenever he turns his head he makes a face very similar to this one.

 Tuesday 1/15: In the long wintery months in Astoria, it's rare to catch many trees or bushes that still have green, with the one exception of the ivy in our yard. Our mailbox happily sticks out of this friendly reminder that spring is not so far away.

 Wednesday 1/16: When I was living in Portland, I had to drive the Sunset Highway home every day in rush hour traffic, hating life. Cars backed up, horrible rain, near death experiences. Living in the small town of Astoria is often frustrating in it's own way, lack of cultural experiences, small town mentality and most major shopping being two hours away. But it's on days like these that the natural beauty on our drive home makes all of the little sacrifices worth it.

 Thursday 1/17: SE Portland is such a quirky place that I haven't had much time to explore. This picture was taken when Ryan and I went to catch up with his cousin JD after moving home from Las Vegas. This funky graffiti was on the side of a fence right outside JD's door.

 Friday 1/18: On Friday evening, Ryan and I drove up to Olympia for a celebration of my mother's birthday. We went to a childhood favorite, Dirty Dave's. Not much has changed here and that's just the way I like it. I remember this machine from when I was younger, I had every birthday from the age of 3 to 7 at this joint! It was wonderful going back- the pizza was as wonderful as I remember it!

Saturday 1/19: Saturday was officially my mom's birthday and it was a wonderful time staying at her house and having breakfast with her the next morning. She was off to the beach with one of her dear friends!

New Year, New Resolutions (Part 3 of 4)

PHYSICALLY

This portion of my new goals might be the section I've been most excited to write. Physically I've been in a slump for at least the last six months. I was doing really well with running this previous spring until my running buddy's knees gave out (Ryan). Any little excuse works to not exercise, I'll take. I'm tired of that though, I'm tired of being a couch potato and saying "I'll do it tomorrow". I've been reading The Berry a lot lately and been paying a lot of attention to their "Daily Motivation" section. It shows pictures of women getting fit, healthy food and exercise ideas. I have been envious long enough so it's time to bust my butt.

Exercise- I have tired many times before to get into a routine and failed a week in. One night I will come home too tired or will get distracted by other things and I'll let myself slide. I'll make excuses for myself to myself and I'll say "Hey, I'm still human". That may be true, but I haven't been comfortable with the thought of people seeing me in a swimsuit since high school. I'll suck in, cover up and basically avoid being seen in skimpy outfits in any way I can. This isn't right. I should love my body, imperfections and all. I could go on ad infinitum about the perils of being a modern day woman, but that's not what this post is about. Many people have said to me, "you have a great body, why do you need to work out?" Well, the simple truth is that though I might be most people's goal weight, I'm not comfortable with my lumps and bumps. I've had the same body forever, I can still fit into my high school clothes, but I've never had the satisfaction of working my ass off to achieve a certain result. And I've come to the realization that now is the time. Like right this second. I'm 26 and if I'm going to have the body of my dreams, I better start working because I'm not getting any younger.

That all being said, I've (again) started the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I've had this damn DVD for over 3 years now and I've never been able to stick to it before, but this time I'm dedicated. I'm on week two, last week having worked out 5 of the 7 days, this week so far I've worked out every day. Even after this short amount of time, I'm feeling myself get stronger. The push ups aren't so horrible and squats don't make me want to rip my legs off as much. My goal is to obviously finish the first stage in 30 days, the second medium stage in the next 30 days and finally the third hardest section to round off 90 days of working out. Every time I come home and I feel myself sinking into my normal routine of excusing myself from physical activity, a thought pops into the back of my mind. It's usually something along the lines of "The time you don't want to do something the most is the time that you most likely should". Usually I only use that line on myself when I'm internally talking myself out of going to an AA meeting, but the same can apply here. Also, I feel like when I least want to work out, I'll be browsing around the internet and here pops up Jillian Michael's face. That bitch is everywhere, haunting me, making me feel real guilty if I'm not in workout mode! I did make a rookie mistake by not taking "before pictures" so that I could show end results, but I'll go do that tonight. This is one of the things I use to keep myself motivated:

Eating Right- Everyone knows that getting fit is about 50% of what you do in the gym and 50% of what you eat, give or take. If you keep eating the same things you always have, I feel like you're probably going to look about the same regardless of how much work you think you're doing. That being said, I have eliminated pasta, a lot of breads and anything highly sugary/fatty from my diet. I'm sticking to oatmeal, fruits, veggies, greek or plain yogurt, chicken and a lot of spinach. I don't like to think of myself as being "on a diet", I am just thinking more about what I'm putting in my body (the vice I won't be giving up? My daily PB&J for lunch). It's also surprisingly saving us a lot of money. Not having to think about what you're making week to week is REALLY nice. Ryan is finally on my healthy bandwagon, so I don't have to worry about what he's going to eat and make a second meal different from mine, it's a relief. Along with all of this, I've been trying to be really conscious of my water intake. Two liters a day is my goal and so far so good. 

Sleeping- Ever since getting sober, I have had some strange sleeping patterns. I've heard it said around the recovery community that you should expect that for the first couple of years of sobriety. I'm a damn cranky girl if I don't get an adequate amount of zzz's. A goal that kind of came about unintentionally is to lay off the coffee. Every day, I guzzle down copious amounts of coffee, energy drinks, whatever in attempts to feel AWAKKKKKE. Well that awake feeling has been lasting well into my sleeping hours, so it was time for a change. Right around the first of the year I got really sick and a result of that cold is that I haven't had coffee since before the first of the year. I was sick through the time I would have the caffeine withdrawal headaches so it's been an easy transition. I also picked up some melatonin the last time I was at Costco for those nights where sleep evades me or I wake in the middle of the night. For me, the best way to stay active and healthy is to make sure I'm getting enough rest each night, about 7-8 hours. 

With all of these goals in mind, watching what I consume, resting enough and getting my heart pumping, I hope to be feeling more fit, energized and stronger by Spring. I'm sure I'll hit lulls along the way and I'm sure I'll come up with ways to overcome that. Until next time!! 

A Week in Photos: Week 1

Sunday 1/6: Ryan and I have been living in our little house for about 5 months now and ever since we moved in, the gas fireplace hasn't worked. Last week when we woke up and the temperature inside was equal to that of the outside, it was time to get into action. Now that we have a properly heated home, we are all so much happier, even the little kitties.

 Monday 1/7: Yes, I know, it was the worst National Championship game ever. Yes, I know, as an Oregon Duck fan or any BCS team for that matter, I should hate the consistently over ranked Notre Dame. And I did and mostly do, but I have a soft spot for a woman, Karen, I was in treatment with who was an alumni and faculty member, and who loved her Irish football. This hat was a memento from her before she went back to Indiana. Play like a champion today!

 Tuesday: During a work out one night, I looked over and saw Peanut resting her pretty little head on my Big Book. I couldn't help but snap a pic of this moment.

 Wednesday: A lava lamp is not at all my thing. Not my style of decor, not something I would ever ask for, or anything I would ever think to ask for. But for some reason, I did get this for Christmas and I have to say we really like it! The first thing Ryan does every night when we get home from work is turn this guy on and we both find ourselves staring off in space at it from time to time.

Friday: In my pursuit to live a healthier life, I have been adding more fruit and low fat foods to my diet. It's hard sometimes when I think I'm a carb addict. But baby steps, right? I am in love love LOVE with Greek God's yogurt (the vanilla honey blend), and I literally lick the bowl after every serving. I think I have to give it up though, nothing that good can actually be good for you, and I was right in that assumption. Now I'm on to Nancy's Plain, blech.

Saturday: Friday night we were supposed to drive up to Portland for a friends birthday party/poker event, but the roads have been pretty icy and even a little snowy so we took caution and canceled. Saturday we woke early checked the roads and headed out. We took our friends Amanda and James out to brunch at a wonderful place on SE Stark called The Country Cat. It was a wonderful time catching up with great food!

New Year, New Resolutions (Part 2 of 4)

EMOTIONALLY

It's taken me about a week to get back into writing about my resolutions because figuring out "emotional" goals is difficult. To be "emotionally happy" is neither timely nor measurable. So I guess what I'm going to create is a bullet point list of things that I need to be content and serene.

• I need to learn to let things go. Sometimes I feel that I obsess over what other people are doing that I deem as irregular or not up to my standards, and I get SO WORKED UP over things that have nothing to do with me. Ryan can tell you, it drives him crazy. Sometimes it's our friends or family members and even sometimes people I don't even know. At some point in my life (I'm not sure when) I internally set the "Erin bar of normalcy" that has really hurt how I view other people and their actions. Basically, if you aren't up to "the bar", you are cut from my life without a second thought. This is neither fair nor productive, I am well aware, but it's like once you've lived one way for so long, it's hard to make a change. I'm aware of this flaw in myself, and I really do want to work on it to eradicate this trait  once and for all. What I think would be helpful is that any time I feel that feeling that I want to say something cutting or judgmental about what someone else is doing or saying, I need to write it down, acknowledge the feeling, then let it go. I must work on coming to any situation with tolerance, love and understanding, because I don't know where people are always coming from and my "standards" mean nothing to them. As Ryan always tells me, people don't always think how you think and they aren't any worse off for that. 
• This brings up a second emotional need. Because I have such high standards for who I let in my life, I sometimes find myself being lonely. Don't get me wrong, I have friends and people I talk to regularly, but it seems most of them don't live in my area, especially any of my girlfriends. Going out and being social and meeting new people to me seems so taxing and time consuming that most nights I would rather stay in my bed and read. But there are times that I would really like friends to watch dumb chick movies with, go shopping with, etc, because Ryan can't do it all. I can't have him be my everything because I'd be setting him up for failure. I've learned over many relationships that I can't rely on my boyfriend to be the best friend, the girlfriend, the social network, my everything, because when they fail in one of those categories, they fail in all of them if that makes sense. So what I'm saying is that I need to get myself out there more. What I really want to do is throw my feelers out and see if any women that I either work with or some girls that are currently Ryan's friends would want to do a book club. It would combine reading and friendship nicely. I would like to get the ball rolling by this next month. I think that would help to fill some of the void and possibly lead to other shared interest activities. This all might sound so weird, I'm sure some readers are thinking "just go make friends, it's not that hard", but I feel like when you've been as isolating and self reliant as I have for so long, you forget those tools, and forget you even need them. As I'm getting older, I see you do. I want girls weekends, I want good friends, I just have to work harder than the next person to do it. 

 For now, those two issues are my emotional "hot buttons" that I want to see the most progress in. Hopefully with time, work and some minor changes, I will be able to consider my life more full and satisfying. Thanks for reading my personal rambles!

Have a wonderful day and go Hawks!!