Hair Today... Gone Tomorrow

18 inches for my sister... 14 inches for a friend of mine... 11 inches for me (22 if you put the braids end-to-end!)...

It took about a year and a half and at some point when Nick and I didn't have the money for me to get regular haircuts I decided it would be really fun to grow my hair out for the purpose of donating it. As time went on I decided that I really loved having my hair long and I became really attached to it. At the end of last year I made the commitment to stick with my original goal and go through with cutting my hair and donating it to Locks of Love.
With Lindsay's support and making the day a fun adventure, I spent 4 hours in Jodi's chair today at the Celsius Salon - being cut, colored and styled.

Lindsay and I treated ourselves to lunch at Kafe Neo when it was all said and done. While I'm a little traumatized by the drastic length change, I know it was for a great cause and my hair will grow back!

What a Wonderful World...

The last couple of weeks I've been reminded of Louis Armstrong's lovely song, "What a Wonderful World"...

Watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics and hearing the inspiring stories.

Soup, homemade soup (borscht with Greek yogurt)...

Seeing new, spring growth on my rose bushes, trees and my daffodils coming up. Spring is in the air - I hope!

Planting little seeds, that will become starts, that will grow into way too much produce for all of us to eat...

The smell of fresh potting soil and getting my hands dirty planting garden starts.

Eating a late Valentine's breakfast with my hubby and a belated dinner.

Reminders from when Nick and I got married of promises we've made to each other.

Lots of bike rides!! 16.6 miles on Saturday with Tim and Lindsay and 27 miles on Sunday with Nick. Perfect weather and so much fun!

Beautiful rainbows after all the rain we've had.

It's a wonderful world we live in and I'm so blessed for every day I get!

Super Bowl Weekend

It was inspiring; how could you not cheer for a team that has never been there and came back from the brink of destruction? I have not been into football for a few years, just watching on the periphery, but the Super Bowl this year was awesome!

The geeks all converge to *watch*

the Super Bowl

We ate one of Nick's and my favorite meals - sandwiches. Not just any sandwiches, these are sandwiches that have been creating memories since our dating days. Veggie turkey meat, mind-blowing cheeses, organic tomatoes, crisp lettuce, cucumbers, hummus, savory avocados all smothered between two pieces of fluffy ciabata bread. Are you drooling yet? All finished off with homemade, soft-serve ice cream from our favorite little coffee/ice cream shop - my favorite flavor is honey lavendar. Yummy!

Our weekend also included a gorgeous, 23.6 mile bike ride with Tim and Lindsay and lunch at the Chipotle Mexican Grill. My favorite item there is the veggie burrito with lots of pico de gallo and guacamole.

Great food, great weather, great friends = FANTASTIC weekend!

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Flowers for my birthday - thanks Simmons' Family!!

My new on-counter composter. Find this adorable little can at Bed, Bath & Beyond!

A storage map for my state quarters - I only need 4 more!

A new gardening book

Yoga goodies

Gardening Galore...

It's been awhile since I've posted something and I've been storing up a lot of stuff to share. So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!...

After all the research, reading and such I have decided to try my hand at gardening again; this time with my lovely friend, Lindsay's help! Already people have heard we are putting in a garden and are volunteering to help take produce off our hands when we have too much of it - which I'm sure we will!

We are using the squarefoot gardening method - http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ It's going to look so pretty with manicured boxes, gravel aisles, flowers, herbs and lots of veggies. Nick has decided to put in a trench to help with our horrible drainage issue. I'm moving bricks around and hopefully the rain will hold out so we can start rototilling. Lindsay and I are going to put together our little start containers the second week in February and our exercise room will become a greenhouse. By the last week of April, first part of May we will be ready to plant! We are planting: corn, tomatoes, beans, edamame, chickpeas, broccoli, potatoes, carrots, lots of lettuce greans, herbs, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, onions and lots of flowers too.

This last weekend, Tim & Lindsay were the bomb and helped us out with digging Nick's trench and then filling it back in. The trench was about 12 feet long and two feet wide, we put a corrugated/perforated tube in the bottom, covered it with rocks, gravel and sand, then filled the trench back in. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures, but good fun was had by all. Rototilling was finished and the huge chunks of grass were raked up. Lindsay and I picked out two beautiful new rosebushes - Tropicana, which is a rose that my great-grandmother had


and Enchanted Evening.


Here's some photographic progress to show how we're coming along:

Stay tuned for the final product photos!

It's in the food...

After much reading, researching and discussion Nick and I are on the road to being healthier in 2010. I have become a number one fan of Michael Pollan and have read several of his books and watched a couple of his documentaries. It's scary stuff, but vital knowledge to have! Food Inc., Botany of Desire, Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Food Rules have all become a part of our plan to eat healthier. It felt so good to walk out of Central Market on Sunday knowing that what we had in our reusable grocery bags was organic, whole food and mainly local.

I went out and turned over my compost on Sunday and it looks wonderful! We are so excited to start a garden this spring and use the square foot gardening method. Lindsay and I are in the throws of picking out what we want to plant, materials needed, layout, etc. If you have limited space or have a large space and want to spend less work on your garden check out www.squarefootgardening.com. It's pretty amazing!

We're also planning on returning to the Redmond Farmer's Market the minute it starts on May 2nd. This summer I want to can my own tomato sauce and applesauce; freeze corn, carrots, squash; and dry numerous herbs, fruit and veggies.

Nick and I enjoyed the fruits of our labors (not really labor considering it was just a matter of picking things off the shelves and out of bins, but a bit more labor then usual!) with a dinner consisting of: mixed greens salad, homemade salad dressing, and spinach fettucini with a fantastic aged parmesean cheese sauce. I don't know if it was just the company or the fact that the food was local and organic, but I swear the food tasted better. *If you're interested in recipes, just drop me an e-mail*

Nick and I are pretty excited about this journey we've started and it feels good to be giving back to the environment, to know where our food is coming from, how it was grown and there's more appreciation for our food with the effort we're putting into it. We'll keep you posted on how it's going and pictures will be coming as we start putting things together!

New Year...

A new year, new commitments, new ideas, new possibilities, new opportunites, new challenges...

Nick and I finished off the year with much laughter, a bit of craziness and lots of fun. Now, it is 4 days into the new year, the petrified tree has been removed, the lights put away, leftovers thrown out and with my new HUGE (thanks Mama!) calendar hanging on the wall already filling up I decided to sit down and do a bit of blogging to update things for the new year. Ahhh, nothing like a new set of resolutions, projects and such to start the year off right! I decided that the 365 project was a bit out of my league - for this year at least; however, I thought I could stick with the "one word". Thought I'd share a few of our 2010 commitments...

• I've picked my "one word" for the year: Luxuriate - to enjoy oneself without stint; revel; to grow fully or abundantly; thrive.
  
• Nick's "one word" is: Driven - to strive vigorously toward a goal or objective; to work, play, or try wholeheartedly and with determination.
  
• I'm going to continue to stick with my calorie counting and working out.
  
• Still trying to decide if I'll commit to marathoning (at least halves) this year.
  
• We're both sticking with cycling and comprising on backpacking (i.e. backpack trip followed with something a little less rustic).
  
• Nick has commited to reading one book a month for the year and I'm going to try and keep up with him on that.
  
• I'm commited to putting my three scrapbooks together; well at least moving them from their 3 piles into actual books.

Here's to the new year and sticking with the things we've set for ourselves! What commitments have you made for yourself?