on finishing Whole30

And the culprit of the stench was...a head of rotten broccoli. 

^^ That totally caught your eye and made you overly excited to read more, right? Oh, it didn't? Weird.

You see, I used to have the worst eating habits. Super picky plus stubborn plus unwilling to try new things--that all equaled me. As a joke, one year I was given a head of broccoli as a present. Hardy har har har and all that, but I kind of forgot about the broccoli in the bag. Not too long afterwards our entire den started to smell terrible. Horrible. We couldn't figure out what in the world was creating such a horrible stank. Spoiler alert: it wasn't dog farts (or human farts), it was the old, nasty broccoli.

Promise this was many, many moons ago and not 24, 25, or 26-year old Emily.

Many moons ago Emily also lurved some peanut butter. 26-year old Emily still does. 

Fast forward to the present--I eat broccoli. I eat cauliflower mash. I eat sweet potatoes, peas, eggplant, and mushrooms. I eat fruit. I eat meats. I do not eat green beans. How I got to this place of eating such strange foods as eggplant (sorry, it's weird) is a story for another day. Today we are going to talk about...

Whole30

The pilates studio (where I now work!) (check it out! Pure Body Studio! Represent and all that) recently did a challenge called Pure30. It was 30 days of living, breathing, eating Whole30 in addition to working out at the pilates studio 5 days a week, and working out at home 1 day a week. Phew. Wore me out just typing that all out again. 

I did it! I actually factually completed the entire challenge. No dairy, no alcohol, no added sugars, no grains, no exercise excuses, and no fuss (okay...maybe I did fuss juuuuust a little somewhere around days 8-20ish...but then you realize you're eating delicious food and it's all good). It's taken me some time off of it to decide what my true feelings were/are, but today felt like a good day to finally word vom out all my Whole30 thinkings. Lucky. You. 

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of my real meals for the past thirty day...

Sidebar: Just some background, people rave about this program. R-a-v-e. The testimonials are pretty inspiring if you ever have hours to waste on medical and physical victories of Whole30-ers. They call these NSV or, for you noobs, non-scale victories (I literally Googled NSV when I started this program because what?). Things like clearer skin, better sleep, no bloat, healed injuries, vanishing allergies, no chronic pain, and better overall control of cravings just to name a few. 

Drumroll please...

...

I did not get any of that from this program.

Wanh wanh. 

I, Emily, am immune to Whole30. Do not tell me I cut out my wine and bread and cheese for 30 days for NOTHING?!

^^that's a joke, but literally what was going through my head some of the time. 

At first, this was all a pretty big bummer for me. Where was my angelic, baby butt's soft skin?! (I literally had a new zit every few days). Where was my lean, mean, bloat-be-gone-cuz-I-eat-clean stomach?! Why did I sometimes still really think chocolate just sounded like the bomb.com?!

However, now that I've had some time to let everything sink in (and let a glass of wine sink down my belly), I am finally able really to recognize and acknowledge the main thing I gained from these 30 days.

Whole30 was a vacation for my brain. 

Biggest and greatest, first and foremost, forever and always pro. I was afraid that denying myself foods would turn up a side of my brain that did not need to be around, but that did not happen. For years I have gone through extremely disordered eating. I have gone from not thinking twice about how I eat, to overanalyzing and big time controlling my eating, to losing way too much weight, to binge eating, to just in general not taking great care of my body. While I am much healthier now, it's something that never really goes away. There's always the voice in my head telling me I shouldn't have eaten that, or did you really not read the calories?!, and so-on and so-forth with the no good thoughts. Thirty straight days of knowing I was only putting in wholesome and good-for-you food in my body was huge. I could go to bed without extreme guilt. I could go out with friends without dreading all the bad choices I just knew I would make. It was literally a vacation for my disordered eating brain and I really enjoyed that vaca. 

I also am thoroughly enjoying my handful of chocolate and my glass of wine on this side of the challenge, so life is funny and chocolate is yummy. 

Other big pros:

Cooked more.

Tried so many delicious recipes.

Had more meals sitting together at the real table and not the coffee table.

Realized that cauliflower rice is delicious and zoodles are just as fun as they sound.

Practiced my true housewife skills and washed 1000 dishes a day (oh wait, pro or con?)

Discovered that the world does keep spinning even if you don't get an after-dinner dessert. Shocking.
Spiralized the cuh-rap out of some vegetables and realized how amazing it is. 

Felt stronger from good food, good fuel, and good workouts. 

All in all I am glad I finished it. So what that really means is I'm glad I did it in a group because without the support of the Pure30 community, I probably would have quit. And then been mad at myself for quitting. And then talked about that a lot and pondered about starting over again. And then Freddie would have left me so...yay for finishing! 

Special thanks to:

-Pure Body for creating the challenge.

-Pure30-ers for posting delicious recipes on the Facebook group for me to steal.

-Freddie for cooking and experimenting with all sorts of Whole30 recipes.

-and to Ryan and Rachel for bringing back all the delicious wine from Spain and letting me have some on Day 32. Hallelujah. 

I'd be happy to answer (or attempt to answer) any questions you have about Whole30, my experience, or why chocolate is made of crack! Ask away. The blog mic is yours. I'll try to do a post next week with resources and recipes that worked/helped me during the thirty days of rockstar status. 

purple things

I ate mashed cauliflower last night. <<Words I never thought I would say. Ever.

Correction: I ate mashed purple cauliflower last night, and I didn't hate it. I'd even go as far as to say I kinda liked it. A lot. Toeing the line of maybe loved it. 

That's the funny things about marriage, isn't it? (just go with me here...) You do all sorts of things you never thought you would do. All because you have this other person around shoving things in your face saying, Come on! Try it! Try it. I'm serious. Try it. I'm not kissing again you until you try it. Nope. How do you know you won't like it? Oh, you say you've had it before? When? Name the exact place. You can't because you've never had it. Eeeeeemmmmiiiiilllllyyyyy. 

^^word for word what goes down in our household on a daily basis. Especially with food. Especially with green food. I have this thing about green foods and it's all green beans' fault because gross.

As I sat there last night. eating this bright purple mash, I couldn't help but think of all the things I have tried (eating and doing) just to appease this person with whom I vowed to spend forever (side note: my vows said nothing about trying weird new things. I'm just nice like that).

• Dragonfruit (ew)
• Lychee (ew)
• Brussel Sprouts (okay then no thanks)
• Call Of Duty (Dear God, why?)
• Any and all card games (aside from Go Fish)
• Mango (Why are you not feeding me chocolate?)
• Long bike rides (bye bye, crotch and legs)
• Zoodles (um, yum! Game changer)
• Avocado (give me all the avocados you have)
• Scallops (also give me all the scallops you have)
• Soda water (this and wine are the only two things I really ever drink. #yesplz)
• Calling offices to make appointments (No, Emily. I am not calling for you) (ugh)
• Watching Dexter and Lost (two shows that made me love them and then destroyed me with their horrible endings) (Still not over it) (And never will be)
• Country music (I still kind of hate myself for knowing all the words for all the songs now)
• Pretty much anything good in life (<<Freddie's words when I asked for his blog input)

He's still working on lamb, golf, camping, coffee, and more bike riding (no, not really, only if it's glamping, double no, and ouch). 

I've successfully gotten Freddie to try...watching dance performances. Doing Pilates. And...that's probably about it. 

Wait! One time he listened to Justin Bieber's Baby with me. Go team!

Sigh. Time to go eat roasted sweet potatoes with a fried egg on top for breakfast and actually enjoy it all because of Freddie. 

currently: the let's talk about food edition

Happy August (fifth)! Part of me can't believe August is already here. By part of me I mean all of me. Well, except the part of me that is dying from summer heat. That part totally gets that August is here and can't wait for August and September and October to get here and go, too. Hey, apparently it stays hot forever in Texas. 

creating //

 Pilates classes. Sometimes my brain feels like it is going to explode with all of the movements we're learning/observing/practicing/teaching for training, but the good part about that is I don't even need my brain! I just need to be able to maintain a neutral pelvis throughout life and I'm good to go. 

Kidding, it would be good (for my body and for my life) to keep my brain. But anyways, creating new Pilates classes is (mostly) fun. 

wishlisting //

It's Houston Restaurant Weeks right now. Yeah, you read that correctly. WEEKS. Plural. In Charleston, we got ten days and under fifty restaurants for restaurant week. I thought that was heaven. My current heaven wishlist for the next few weeks only includes six restaurants, but that's because Freddie wouldn't let us choose all of Houston's participating two hundred something and made us pick our top five. So naturally I chose six. 

hoping //

If we're being completely honest here, I'm hoping this zit on my chin would disappear. Abracadabra, Mt. Vesuvius.  

eating //

If you follow me on Instagram or stalk me on Facebook you already know this, but Freds made some macaroons this week. He's been talking about how he wanted to try to make them. I've been trying to convince him that I've heard they're super hard and he shouldn't get too cocky. He's been pfsssssh-ing me. And then he made them, they taste delicious, and we've almost eaten all of them. I know I'm supposed to say that I, as the female, am always right, but that's super wrong. Freddie's right. Now hand me another macaroon. 

Poll: how does one spell the word macaroon? One 'o' or two?

watching // 

The Astronaut's Wives Club. Sometimes I think I get caught up in the stupidest shows, and...this is not one of them. I promise. It seems pretty accurate based off of my wiki stalking of the Project Mercury people. And if wikipedia isn't 100% correct then PIGS ARE FLYING.

Linking up, as always, with Anne and Jenna!

birthday probs

July 10 is an important day.

Because it is T-minus 5 days until the big day.

Meaning my birthday. 

But I'm sure you already had a countdown going. 

I've been doing this really fun thing lately. I promise, it's super fun. Just ask Freddie. Every time I see or think of a fun thing to do or a new place to eat I say, Hey! Let's do that/eat there/see that on my birthday! 

I didn't think much of it until earlier this week when Freddie was like blah blah blah ::Charlie Brown adult voice::, how can we do ten things all on your birthday?

Hmmm, that does sound like a dilemma. A pickle. A dilemma pickle. I don't like dilemmas or pickles.  I like birthday fun. I like delicious new food and fun new activities. I also like chocolate.

But not chocolate pickles.

Here are all the things I think should be done between the hours of 4pm-midnight on July 15:

-Eating at The Grove. Fancy. 

-Buying all the chocolate desserts from Central Market. Necessary. 

-Eating dessert at The Chocolate Bar. 

-Trying Whataburger since apparently it's better than In-N-Out. 

-Shopping the special Amazon Prime day because HOW COOL IS IT THAT IT'S ON MY BIRTHDAY?!

-Getting a free cocktail from Blues and BBQ night at our complex.

-Happy Hour at MKT Bar because pomegranate mimosas. Period. The End. Done. 

-Eating at the Italian place down the street of which I can never remember the name, but I can remember it sounds delicious. 

-Going to Ben and Jerry's to create my own Cored sundae. WHAT!

-Eating chorizo queso because we are in Texas, after all. Tex Mex is to Texans what birthday cake is to the other 49 states. 

Holy Cupcake, it all sounds so ridiculous and amazing written out. I guess ultimately the super fun thing that I want to do is gain 26 pounds to represent my 26 years of life.

Here's the pickle-y part though. Freddie and I can't make decisions so it'd be great if you could pick a number between 1-10 for me and that is what we will end up doing between the hours of 4pm-midnight on July 15. Life is hard. Woe is me.

Go!

Happy Friday!

emily eats

Guess what?

It's one month until my birthday! But, but, but...you good people already knew that, I'm sure. Yesterday afternoon I realized I hadn't even sent out my birthday list yet. That is some crazy shiz! Don't worry, I quickly sent it out and all is right in the world again. 

But that's not really what we're hear to talk about, obviously, because we have the whole month of July to talk about my birthday. Duh!

We're here to talk about this past weekend. This past weekend where we went to an Astros game and I wasn't sure which team to cheer for. Have you ever had a totally mind boggling experience where you didn't know what you were supposed to do? What was expected of you?! Talk about stress. That was me at the Astros game. Sweaty palms, fast pounding heart, left arm ready to chop (Hey, Braves), but I wasn't at Turner Field. I wasn't watching the Braves. I was watching the Astros and the Mariners.

WHO DO I CHEER FOR?!

Listen, all that up there is only half-ish true. Yes, we went to a game, Yes, it was super weird not knowing for whom to root, root, root. But no, I wasn't really worried about it and I definitely wasn't sweating about it because big sporting events usually sell...Dippin Dots.

Dippin Dots!

Dippin Freaking Dots!

The ice cream of the future. The ice cream that brings thousands to sporting events (because, believe me, it's not just the sport bringing fans there). The ice cream of which you are so particular not to drop or lose ANY little dot.

I would go to games every weekend if I knew I could live off of Dippin Dots. 

It's okay though, I just hope I live until the future day where Dipping Dots becomes the ice cream of the present. 

Now that I've given you the secret on how to survive game-day-omg-which-team-is-my-home-team stress I'll go ahead and keep talking about food. 

Pizza.

Pizza was another big part of our weekend. You see, post-Dippin Dots food has to be top notch. I mean the highest top notch. Once you eat Dippin Dots, you can't intake just any food. It has to be good. Really, really, good. 

Which is why we ended up at a hole-in-wall, BYOB, deeeeelicious pizza place. We also ended up ordering three giant pizzas for only seven people, but that's neither here nor there. 

Dippin Dots make the world go round and Luigi's pizza keeps you spinning with the world. <<why I don't come up with my own analogies.  

And that, my friends, was my menu from this past weekend. Now you don't have to stalk Instagram to see what I ate. You're welcome.

Over and out. 

adventures at publix

Okay, we all know by now that I live in Charleston and Darius Rucker lives in Charleston and we're kind of best friends.

But what you don't know is yesterday Freddie and I were like Hey, let's grocery shop at Publix this weekend. Because we used to live on the side of town where the cool Publix is, but then we moved and we don't go to Publix a lot so why not, right? Right.

We get there and we stop at the front because Freddie saw a bowl of udon soup and udon soup is kind of/sort of his big time obsession right now. There we were, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this bowl of udon when I glance up and make eye contact with a man passing by. 

...excuse me, not just any man, but Darius Rucker. Darius Freaking Rucker! Just strolling by the udon soup like it ain't no thang. I promptly squealed (half silently, half not-so silently) and hit Freddie's back about 55 times so that he would look up and get equally silently squeal-y. 

I mean, come on! Who expects to look up from udon soup and see Darius?! I do. Always. always, always from now on. You see, when we did live on that side of town (a.k.a. the side where we lived on the same road as Darius) we went to this particular Publix several times a week. We lived there for a year and a half which means a whole lotta Publix trips (you do the math), but no Darius sightings. I guess he missed us and just had to show up while we were back over on our old stomping grounds. 

Let's just say that Freddie and I were/are creepy and somehow managed to end up on almost every aisle as Darius. It's not my fault he was also in the produce section, pasta aisle, and cheese aisle. And the ice cream aisle and the... basically hashtag friends forever. 

Everyone that has lived here awhile always says annoying stuff like Ohhhh, laugh laugh, you think seeing Darius is a big deal? Please, you peasant. He's just a local. We see him everywhere. Well shoot, that's cool and all, but Freddie and I don't only see him, we grocery shop with him so we win. 

Boom baby!

Time to go check Darius' Instagram and see if he posted any stalker pics of us. The dude would not stop following us around...

currently: the let me eat all the nutella edition

Oh hello, internet. Hi, blog. Hey, blog post. Bonjour, link-up. Hola, Mom. Ciao, March. Long time no see. 

Let's play a game of catch up. Currently I'm...

dreaming

Living at the beach when it's not beachy weather outside is sooo lame. Woe is me, my life is hard, whine whine whine. I'm dreaming of beach weekends and finding sand everywhere. Okay, maybe I'm just dreaming of that first part. 

planning

Last weekend I finally finally fiiiiiinally started my Pilates certification (more on that later! don't pee your pants with anticipation and excitement!), and this Monday I started rehearsals for a show I'm in. I guess I would say I'm currently planning out every second of my day and how I can teach and choreograph and launder and self-practice/observe/teach/study Pilates and learn music and learn choreo and basically...it's a lot of planning. A lot of making flash cards while simultaneously humming along to my show's CD with back-up instrumentals courtesy of the washer and dryer. 

making

Last Tuesday we had a "snow" day meaning it was 33 degrees and rainy. I'll take whatever kind of "snow" day I can get. Somehow we all managed to survive and my friend, Kelsey, and I even managed to get crafty. Arrows are so in right now...according to my Pinterest feed. Hair flip.

baking

Does eating Nutella out of the jar count as "baking?" Because if so then I am currently the Queen of Baking. Moving on.

watching

I would be quite confused if anyone's answer to this month's watching question was anything other than House of Cards. Because obviously everyone who is anyone is speeding through Season 3. And girl crushing on Claire Underwood. And wanting to go to DC right now...and meet the real president, Frank Underwood, of course. 

What have you (and you, and you, and you, and you) been up to?

Linking up with Jenna and Anne.

smoothie king

Once upon a time I claimed Sperry's were the dumbest shoes ever. Then suddenly I had to have a pair. Had to. 

Once upon a time I claimed I would never get married outside. In a strapless dress. With my hair up. Then once upon a time I did get married outside. In a strapless dress. With my hair up.

Once upon a time I laughed at people making and drinking smoothies like they had just made an entirely new discovery. Then on this past Sunday I decided that I needed to be making and drinking at least one smoothie or else I would never be cool or healthy again. 

See a pattern? I eat my words a lot. Okay, I eat my words 90% of the time.

Speaking of eating, let's go back and talk about the non-eating task of smoothie making. 

There I was on Sunday, in the kitchen (as all women should be) and determined to make a mean smoothie. As I told Freddie my plan to add in water and spinach and such, he looked at me like I was nuts. 

He continued to look at me like I was nuts as my smoothie kind of turned into a sludge. I assured him I knew what I was doing and that it was totally supposed to look like that. I said a quick Please Dear Lord, help this smoothie not to taste like sludge prayer before I sipped it and lo and freaking behold, it didn't taste half bad.

Ha! Take that, Mr. Judgey Eyes Weiss. I was successful in the kitchen. No one can stop me now! I'll be a smoothie maker for the stars. My sludge will be famous worldwide. Everyone will be healthy and toned and lean all thanks to my smoothies that taste only not half bad. 

My mind continued to wander as Freddie shooed me out of his room the kitchen explaining that he was going to fix my mess. 

4 minutes and a lot of Ninja-ing later Freds turned the corner with a better looking, smelling, and tasting smoothie. It was delicious. Period. No further explanation needed. 

I did what any proud woman would do. I threw my smoothie creation down the drain and filled up my cup with his smoothie. 

Once upon a time I said I should marry a man who was good in the kitchen. And I did.

The End. 

a christmas must-eat

At 5:15 today I will wish my students a Merry Christmas, pass out some candy canes (gotta keep my place in line for favorite teacher of the year, wink), and chasse out the door. As soon as my pointed toe hits the sidewalk I will officially be on Christmas break.

Christmas break! Christmas break! 2 weeks! 2 weeks! I love kids, but 2 weeks! Christmas break!

Sidebar: I should totally write a song like that, right? I'm sure teachers everywhere would sing it with me. 

I've thought a lot about what I need to do during these 2 weeks. Finish wrapping presents, finish buying presents so that I can finish wrapping said presents, listen to lots of Christmas music, look at lots of Christmas lights, clean the guest room so my family can fit inside the room and not just stand in the hallway and look at it, and...

bake.

Christmas baking is almost as necessary a task as wrapping presents. How can one have Christmas without oodles and bagoodles of sweet treats?! You can't. Santa eats cookies for a reason. And that reason is that they are mandatory on Christmas, for some reason. Since I'm the one hosting Christmas this year (I italicize hosting because I'm sure I won't be doing any of the cooking on Christmas Day and I'm also sure Santa is still delivering all the gifts...), I figured I needed to have the kitchen counter stocked up with all the Christmas goodies so that the instant my family walks in the door they can feast their eyes and bellies on the treats. 

For a hot second let's pretend that I am actually useful and talented in the kitchen. Got your imaginations working? Good. Here is what Baker Extraordinaire Emily will be baking next week:

Double Chocolate Dipped, Peanut Butter Stuffed Pretzels

via

What a freaking mouthful to type...and a mouthful to eat, I assume. A mouthful of deliciousness to eat, that is. These pretzels literally encompass everything in life that I think is the best: which is mostly just chocolate and peanut butter. Then you add words like double and stuffed and I'm completely smitten.

Monkey Bread

via

I've already asked Freddie like a million times if we can have monkey bread for breakfast on Christmas morning. For 2 reasons: 1) yum and 2) it's a good alternative from eating cookies for breakfast. So much healthier and all that. 

These Easy And Delicious Things You See All Over Pinterest

via

You knew what I was talking about before even looking at the picture, didn't you? In my opinion, this kind of baking is the best kind of baking. No mixing or measuring or stirring or whipping or spreading or cutting necessary. Place, press, cook, and eat. Eat some more. Eat even more. The End. 

These last two items are items I am hoping that either my mother will bake in all her free time and bring with her or we will bake together here because these two items are always present at our Christmases and...I wouldn't want to screw them up by making them myself. 

Cheese straws

You get no pictures because it's a top secret family recipe. Shhhhhh. That I don't even know. Shhhhh. 

Spice Cookies

via my mom's Instagram 

These are the cookies that we left for Santa every year. These are the cookies we made for the neighbors every year. These are the cookies that substitute as all of my family's meals during the month of December. These are The Cookies. 

What are you baking for the Holidays?

Happy Friday!

Linking up with Amanda and Karli!

a dinner story

This Monday the stars aligned and pigs flew and hell froze over because I was done teaching at 3:45. Usually I'm starting my fourth or fifth class out of seven around that time, but this Monday decided it wanted to be more like a cool Friday so there I was, done early and definitely not complaining.

Being done early meant I got home before Freddie. Before! Not 1.5 hours after! The possibilities were endless! I could squeeze in a Desperate Housewives episode (or seven), or put on real non-spandex clothes (this possibility got me the most excited), or get seski and wait for him to walk in the door...buuuuut none of those ideas won because I, Emily the non-cooking housewife, decided that I was going to cook dinner for Freddie---for the fourth(ish) time since we were married 453 days ago.

Me

Cooking

Dinner

Us

Eating

Said

Dinner

Whoa

I got on Pinterest, pulled up 1 of my 297 food pins, and got to cooking. 1 hour and 1 Hey, Freddie! Just grab a beer and sit down (and please stay out of the kitchen so you don't tell me everything I'm doing wrong) later our sesame shrimp noodles dinner was served.

Be Our My Guest, Be My Guest they were actually pretty wonderful. This is the part of the story when pigs were flying. I mean, the more I think about it though the more I've decided it was so good because good 'ole Pioneer Woman had me add 3 tablespoons of sugar to the noodle sauce. 

#sugarreallydoesmakeeverythingbetter #evencavaties

Regardless, I was on a real housewifey high. Like Get at me, World! I can boil noodles and add sugar to soy sauce! What can you do?! 

Then came Tuesday. And Tuesday was not like a cool Friday, but it was most definitely a cool as in cold Tuesday because when I waltzed in the door around 7 the temperature outside was something close to the complete opposite of hot (so around 38 degrees). 

There was Freddie. Dinner ready and already washing the pans. This meant the only thing required of me was to sit on my sitter and lift my fork. After dinner I decided a hot chocolate would warm up my toesies.

That's when Freddie made me homemade whipped cream for my hot chocolate because Emily, it's really easy. Watch. 

And in the moment of standing there with a full belly on food I did not have to cook and waiting for my homemade whipped cream for my hot chocolate, I decided that I shouldn't mess with life too much because I am living THE life. I mean, if I hadn't married Freddie I would be living off of grocery store sushi, peanut butter sandwiches, and store bought whipped cream (which yes, are all still delicious things). 

Horrors.

I'll cook for you in another 5-6 months, Freddie. In the meantime, I'll take plenty of hand whipped cream, please and thank ya.

friday favorites

This week took an entire 5 weeks to end. Does that make sense in a not-dramatic-at-all kind of way? Holy Cud Chewing Cows, Friday, thanks for coming...finally. 

Now...let's get to the good stuff. The favorite stuff. The Friday favorite stuff. 

Favorite Recipe

Whatever Mellow Mushroom puts on/in their crust. For serious. We went there Wednesday night for their 40th birthday celebration and yum in my tum, that $2.50 (read: two fiddy) pizza was delicious. I kind of dislike myself for saying that when there's way better pizza places in Chawlston. But did I mention it was really good? And cheap? And it involved me not having to cook at all?

Favorite Timehop Picture

I always thought this app was so annoying. And then I downloaded it... and now I wake up, take out my retainer (nerd alert), and look at my timehop. 

No better way to wake up than this beauty. 7 years ago, thanks for not disowning us. 

Favorite Most Ridiculous Thing

So...I love Tone It Up and have been doing their workouts + running religiously since Februaryish/Marchish. Don't ask me what months those are. Anyways, home girl Katrina posted this picture with that caption.

Home girl Emily over here instantly turned into the crying laughing emoji because no. No one looks like that after running 5 miles. No one. They look like this:

Hashtag: selfie. Oh me gee. But really. You're welcome. 

Oh my goodness, I'm such a silly pants. That was what I looked like after 4 miles. That's why I never look glowingly beautiful after a run! Because I've never gotten up to 5 miles. Ahh, the great mystery of life has been solved. Moving on.

Favorite Thing That I Can Never Afford

This. sigh.

Favorite Future Thing

3 words: weekend anniversary celebrations.

We've got lots of small things planned. And some gifts. And some cake eating. And lots of other downtown restaurant eating. And I can't wait. 

This Friday of last year we were rehearsing for a wedding. No big deal. This Friday (read: today) we will be rehearsing our stomachs for an eating competition because of the amount of food that is going to be consumed. Or something like that.

Happy weekend!

california adventures: the last day edition

All good things must come to an end. Like summer camps (all of mine ended today), and cartons of ice cream (good thing I have a back-up in the freezer), and beach vacations (oh wait, that doesn't ever have to end for us), and California vacation recaps. I can't stop looking through all gazillion of the California pictures and reading through the blog recaps. Chyeah, I reread my own blogs. Hair flip. If my denial that this trip is over is this bad after only a month then I don't even want to be around me come 6 months time. Or a year. Or 5 years. 

Gotta get back to Cali!--said everyone ever, I'm sure. 

Our best week ever week ended in San Francisco. The city of...? NYC is the city that never sleeps. According to Google SF is the city that knows how and waits to die. So...okay. Moving on. 

I used Mara's handy dandy 36 hours in San Francisco blog and jam packed our day with everything. Everything! No rest for the weary and no free minutes for my family. 

Spoiler alert: We didn't get it all done. Freddie and I had one day and only got to jam pack in 40% of the fun while my family had 3 whole days there and got to hit up all the funnies. 

We started the 24 hours in San Fran tour with breakfast at The Buena Vista. 

That meant several glasses of the famous Irish coffee for Freddie and several plates of bacon and eggs for my father. 

Oh, and a pile of whipped cream for Ann. 

^^2 things: 1) this was the hill we rolled down walked down to get to breakfast and 2) Alcatraz. Right there. In your face. No big deal. 

We parked right by Lombard St. we figured Hey! Why not?! Such a touristy amateur thing to say, but...it was so cool to be on Lombard St.! And to be curving around it and to be squealing with glee about the fact we were curving around it! And to be taking pictures! I loved every minute of it. Which is good because it took quite a few minutes to get down.

Next up was The Walt Disney Family Museum. I don't really know how to even put into words the effect this museum had on me so I won't even try (I did kinda sorta try here). Just know that if you're ever in the area you have to go. Even if you're not humungous Disney fans. Just shut up and go.

Oh...and p.s.-this is the view from the museum. So...go.

We were there during the Mary Blair exhibit and it was fascinating. A woman, who in the 40's, 50's, and 60's (so taboo!), was a prominent artist and animator for Disney. Ever ridden It's a Small World? Her work. Ever seen the huge mosaic in the Contemporary? Her. Those among many other things. 

^^she did concept art for many movies including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan.

And on to the whirlwind walk through of every thing Walt Disney accomplished in his life. Hint: it's a lot. 

When we pulled up and saw the outside of the building we assumed we could get in and get out rather quickly. Three hours and one time cruncher Emily later we were reluctantly leaving. 

 Moral of the story? Plan for a 5 hour visit to this museum. At least ;)

Next up? The San Francisco Ferry Building for lunch and a view. It was a success on both accounts.

^^That top picture would be our view during lunch. A model in a sun hat. That middle picture would be my mom's reaction to anytime my dad calls her his soulmate. Obviously.

^^Family selfies: the theme of this trip.

We did a speedy tour of the Fisherman's Wharf area and Ghiradelli square. All ya need to know about those places are it smelled like fish and the chocolate was delish. 

Oh, and one more thing you need to know: it's cooooold. And people were playing in the cold ocean. Bless their hearts. Some people are just crazy. 

But wait! The day wasn't done yet! There were still more hours and minutes to be filled with all things San Francisco. So we headed to the Golden Gate Park to get amazing pictures with the Golden Gate Bridge.

...but the fog had a different idea.

...but we didn't care and still took a trillion of our gazillion trip pictures in this one location.

See?

9=one trillion

Finally it was time to head back to the hotel and whine/wine about having to leave on a jet plane the next morning. However, we couldn't leave SF without a stop to the Painted Ladies. <<<as my father was driving us and we were guiding him via Google Maps and we were getting a little lost, he finally emphatically asked why we were going to see a painted lady. Pretty sure he had a Moulin Rouge-esque night club in his mind. Actually I'm not pretty sure about anything that goes through his mind. Regardless, these are the Painted ladies.

Just houses.

Phew.

 ^^there's a Full House fanatic right there.

What. A. Trip.   

I can't wait to reread this entirely too long of a post in another week and get all teary. Sigh. California, you treated us so well. We'll be back.