ONE!!!!

Saturday
October 22, 2011

So, this was my dilemma: Is the day I'm counting down to supposed to be one or zero? I chose ONE but it feels unfinished. But on the other hand, there is no such thing as a zero day, right? I don't know. Anyways...

Wedding day!

It was beautiful and fun, low stress and high winds. It rained on and off, but then again it was on Puget Sound in October. No biggie!

We woke up early and met at the reception site to help set up. It was held at a historic building in downtown Bellingham, "the Leopold" in the ballroom. Lots of moving tables, chairs, ironing cloth napkins and tableclothes... good thing there was lots of help! Local friends as well as extended family worked very hard to get things juuuuuuust right. I'm not sure Bellingham knew what hit it when so many Hay/Labrus rolled into town. Bubba nearly bowled Ben over when he first got to the site. That's an entrance!

The bridesmaids and bride all had appointments for hair at the mall followed by getting dressed at Allyssa's and then pictures with the rest of the bridal party and some family. (I can't wait to see how the professional pics turned out!) The location for the pictures was inside an old building in Fairhaven, three stories of stairs wrapping around the inside, leading up from a courtyard with a fountain.

Then we got to the hall, hung out in the back and the wedding started on time. In fact we were ready at least 30 minutes before the appointed time and ended up killing time, re-applying lipgloss, snacking on granola bars, taking girly pictures and counting down the time. The flower girl and her brother the ring bearer kept us entertained too. At one point he gave us his best Mr. Miyagi impression, "Wax on, Wax off!"

Saje & Flower Girl (Allyssa's Cousin)

Bridal Party

(below) Me and the beautiful Mother of the Groom

After the wedding there was a receiving line and I got to see so many wonderful friends and beloved family who traveled many hours to attend. We made our way to the reception at last and in our absence it had transformed from merely a fine looking room to a splendid scene of elegance. Candles and goblets and crystals and two large chandeliers adorned the room and lent much to the sophisticated taste level of the entire reception.

After dinner there was dancing...

...and cake.

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the cake toppers on the side cakes were Cinderella & Prince Charming and Belle & the Beast. Not to be outdone by the decorations were the cake flavors: Chocolate, Coconut, Lemon and Bananas Foster! Yum!

Zane and I had so much fun dancing to a few old songs and many of the current dance tunes. Even Dad and Mom got out on the floor to one of the first songs, "Play that funky music, white boy!" I nearly died! One of my favorite memories of the whole weekend. We also got to catch up at the reception with Dani and Jay, Toni and Bob and Delia and Duston.

The night ended, as all things do. But the memories of it will be cherished for many years. And even if those memories fade, the same will never be said of the love we have for Ben and Allyssa.

Four and More for Jonelle

Wednesday

October 19, 2011

In Bellingham, hanging out with family and getting ready for the wedding on the 22nd.

My dress looks good, don't need to hem it.

When I left Chicago there were a lot of trees already changing colors, but in WA they are juuuuuuust starting to change. It's like double fall for me. Jonelle would be jealous!

Speaking of Jonelle, here are some more shots for her that I took in Chicago before I came over.

Eleven

October 12, 2011

Wednesday

Today I flew to Seattle. First time flying by myself since I was 15. Less nervous than I thought I’d be. But we DID just fly in September for the Hindi assembly AND I’m flying out of the airport I know the best into the airport I probably know second best. The one and only other time I flew by myself is when I was 15, and my uncle and aunt delivered me to the terminal and my mom met me on the other end at the baggage claim, so I didn’t really DO anything on my own.

I look up from typing this on the plane and see michael scott as a blond woodsman, daryl as count dracula, todd packer as a nun. OMB I just looked up and saw Timothy Oliphant! I MUST find and watch this episode ASAP!!!!!

For Jonelle

Twenty

October 3, 2011

Monday

Move=Done!

It was all a blur and many eventful things happened. I don't have the energy to type out the whole story, so bullet points it is!

• battery kept dying, bought a new one but guy said, "get your old one tested first, just in case it's not the problem." Battery testing guy said, "your battery is fine." Returned battery.
• battery kept on dying, went to other place and got it tested. "your battery is bad." Bought battery again. Car is fine. Egged first battery testing guy's house.*
• gotta be out of apt by 30th. Zane flies to Baltimore on 28th.
• driver side window stops working, stuck down on 28th.
• took car full of stuff to new apartment, realized new apt keys are at old apartment
• later that day met a sister at old apartment to get something I was giving to her, realized old apartment keys are at new apartment, along with purse and phone.

*slight egg-zaggeration

Miles ran: 1, but if moving counts as exercise, call me Jillian Michaels!

Twenty-seven

September 26th, 2011

Monday

Meeting day. Studying. Sort of.

Since the new place is still getting worked on a little before the 1st (cleaning, new light switches, new vanity in the master bath) we are sleeping at the empty old place on an air mattress. That makes it really hard to study for meeting: no desk, no kitchen table, no couches. So I am at starbucks! I tried to study at home for a bit at the breakfast counter, but I was getting stir-crazy. I love the mood at starbucks, it's busy but quiet. They are playing old jazzy music and there are a few other people sitting around reading things, not talking. I love it. I got a soy chai tea. (I KNOW chai means tea, but I think it can also be used to describe the specific way the tea drink is prepared. So there.)

(3:25) uh ok, school just got out. It got busy in this starbucks. Little girls in pleated plaid skirts and knee socks make a lot of noise! But they're cute and they have moms with them, so it's not as bad as teenagers, right?

Cleaned out the freezer! Yay! So much freezer-burned fruits and vegetables! Boo!

Miles ran: 1

Twenty-eight

September 25, 2011

Sunday

Usually Sunday is a long-run day. But Zane and I were down in Romeoville for our S.A.D. sooooooo, that didn't happen. At all.

Great time. I'm super tired.

This week on Sajethegirl: finishing moving, more running, cooking, more gushing over pretty people.

Miles ran: still only 1, but not for long

Twenty-nine

September 24, 2011

Saturday

8:30- Eeek! It's move day. Woke up with a stuffy nose and itchy eyes. It's allergies but it's also from all the dust from packing. The dust wasn't even that noticeable yesterday, not like zane and I kept becoming pigpen from peanuts. But it was enough to make me miserable today. We stayed up so late packing, but it was good becau

After some scrambling to get a truck that we could use in the morning, we are on our way! I set up the kitchen with the coffee maker and cups and a kettle for tea (even though as I am typing this at 8:40am I realize that we packed all the tea.) I also have a lunch planned but we'll see how that goes. Tacos.

Picked up the truck and had it at the house by 10:00 and Danny and Zane started loading it. They both decided on their own to wear their red coca-cola tees! Hilarious.

It is now 12:00 and pretty much our old apartment is empty. I think I drastically over estimated how much help we would need and how long it was going to take. (Seriously, we asked like 15 people but it was so last minute that most had previous obligations. Good thing too, huh?)

Zane and Dan are running some errands (ace hardware, dropping off clothes to the donation box, etc.) and I'm getting lunch ready. To go on the tacos I made Sarah's delicious salsa. It not only tastes as good as Sarah looks but it's as easy to make as she is easy to look at!

7:45pm- so tired. everything got moved over. Amanda came over to help and so did Rick a little later. Everything went smoothly and we need to sleep!

Tacos again for din-din with beautiful Sarah's salsa!

Don't worry, Zane took 'before' pictures on Amanda's camera. I don't know where mine got put with the packing going on. Some random box maybe.

Miles Ran: 1

Thirty

September 23 2011

Friday

We finally found a great apartment a few days ago, and today Zane and I were able to move a few things into the storage locker that came with it. The locker is huge! I would like to put up some shelves or a bookcase/wire shelving unit like this. We could probably fit three no problem, with room left over.

Aaah! It's much later in the day, evening, night, and I had forgotten to finish this post!

Packing packing packing. We are not doing the entire move in one day, but we ARE doing the main part of it all at once. So couches, bookcases, dressers, bed and as many boxes of stuff we can live without for a few days. Cleaning lady doesn't come until Monday so we are gonna stay at the old place for Sat and Sun nights at least. When we move all that stuff tomorrow we will just pile it in the middle of the rooms and not unpack anything. That way the cleaning lady can work and our landlord will be changing some light switch faceplates and other cosmetic things before we move in, so we won't be in his way either.

Shout out to my friend Cici who is a sickie-poo. Get Well!

Current audio book: Persuasion by Jane Austen

My New Favorite Meal

This is my new favorite dish. I was making a quick dinner for me one night and just kept throwing in things that sounded good. Zane tried it and loved it too and a new favorite was born.

Here are my notes on how to make it.

Boil pasta. Angel hair works great with this. I have used both rice spaghetti and regular fettuccine pasta as well.

Heat up butter and oil in a pan, add a few minced cloves of garlic and saute for a min or two. (It should be bubbly when you swirl the pan and smell delicious!) Add julienned red bell pepper and sliced zucchini. (How to cut zucchini: cut it so you see the circles and then cut in half. ;) Cook till red pepper is not crunchy any more but for goodness sakes, don't overcook the veggies. It's better to undercook with this dish than to overcook.

When pasta is ready and drained, I usually turn the burner off and put the pasta back in the pot, dumping the veggies in with it, a handful of roughly chopped fresh spinach and sprinkling crumbled feta cheese in too. Mix well and EAT! (The spinach cooks when it gets folded in with the hot pasta and veggies) One time I added julienned fresh basil leaves with the spinach too, and it was great.

Every time I've made this, so far 5 times, it doesn't seem like it's going to be very good but don't freak out and add something else, really, it's going to be FINE!

I have no idea how this tastes the next day because we always eat it all and never have leftovers.

Vatch Your Step

We were recently in Toronto and made our way over to Niagara Falls! Zane had never seen the falls before and THAT is unacceptable. We took the elevator down to see behind the falls. It was so loud and you really feel the power of all that water. Zane's favorite part was at the top, looking out at the water juuuuuuuust before it goes over the edge. It's so much calmer and I couldn't help thinking, "Water, you have NO IDEA what is about to happen to you!"

Tia Jess

Me and Jess

This is from two weekends ago when we went up to Eau Claire, WI for my cousin Jess's wedding (Not the one in the picture with me, her sister-in-law.) We had an amazing time seeing family and celebrating such a happy day.
I'm going to put more pictures up on thezandme later but I just downloaded my pics from the weekend and this was such a good shot that I had to share it!

Addicted to Watermelon

I'm hooked. Last week I pretty much devoured an entire 14lb seedless watermelon by myself.

I'm onto #2 today!

My first variety was a normal one. This one is a sugarbaby and I like it better than the last. It's not gonna last long. I've already eaten about 1/3.

Don't judge.

What's YOUR favorite fruit? Leave it in the comments!

I've not been avoiding this, really

I really am not avoiding doing this, it's just been so busy for us and I'm sorry, but more things are important to me than working out. Like sleeping a reasonable amount of time, service, studying and FWN and making sure my fam has clean clothes to wear and clean dishes to eat off of.

So I'm counting this as a fail. But I'm not sad. I'll think of something else to do!

0 days to go!

Rest of life to live!

Day 23

Day 23. Tuesday.

Work got pushed to Thursday. I took Zane to work at 4:30 am and then fell back asleep until later. We went out to breakfast together (it feels like so long ago because it was a very busy day.) I had a vegetarian omelet. I went to the laundromat and target *see bleach blog* and then took groceries from Jewel over to Zane's work where we made turkey and avocado sandwiches and watched a Chicago Code episode. I am four episodes behind Zane and I'm trying to catch up. After he got off we went to the gym and I got to see the beginning of the Biggest Loser. Walked for 35 minutes on the stairs and then we came home and vegged out a bit. Poor Zane was pooped, at least I got to take a nap from 5 to 7. But I'm tired too so I'm going to bed!

17 days to go! It's so close!

Day 22

Day 22

Monday

Yes, I know I've missed almost an entire week. I feel it. Not that I haven't worked out, but last week was so busy and it culminated in an extremely busy weekend and I just couldn't find time to log each and everything I ate each day, and all my workouts.

So instead of trying to catch up on the days I missed (which would be soooo boring anyways because I can't remember half of it) I'm just gonna start with today!

Meeting day. I woke up and had a blueberry bagel with cream cheese *thanks Zane!* and Dunkin Donuts coffee. I then worked out using a vid I found on Netflix. It was a full body tone up by SELF magazine. It was called 'bikini body' or something like that. I didn't do it all but I did some of it. I then had a fudgesicle and lots of water. Dinner was scrambled eggs and salsa with some dabs of cream cheese mixed in for creaminess. I also sauteed up some escarole (first time!) and it turned out pretty good. Garlicky with some pepper and lemon. Yum. I saved most of it for later.

Photo above is of some delicious chocolates that Dane and Brandi gave us when they stayed with us last weekend. They were yummy and very polite. Each one said Merci to me before I ate it!

18 days to go!

Days 13, 14, 15, 16

Heehee. Whoops.

Day 13
Saturday. We showed our friends from NY our Chicago Stuffed Pizza. It was delicious and fun with friends.

Day 14
Sunday. In the city, yummy Indian food and Tamales. YUM.

Day 15
Monday. Meeting day. Smoothie for breakfast. Busy.

Day 16
Tuesday. Work day. Pizza, indian food, greek salad, workout, ice cream. You can see how I felt about working out at 9:30 pm.

I feel bad that I didn't work out for four days. But it was CO visit. And we had company. So there.

24 Days to go!

Days 11 and 12

So busy and tired.
Day 11
This day was spent at home working on the house because we had friends staying over this weekend. I don't remember anything. Oh, I made pasta sauce with mushrooms and ground turkey and crushed tomatoes and it was good.
Day 12
Bagel for breakfast, work on the house more, grapes, soy mocha, Des Plaines, pasta, strawberries, decaf coffee, sandies cookies. Friends made it in ok. More on that on zandme later. Very very busy.

28 Days to go!

Days 9 and 10

Day 9... let's see if I remember. Breakfast of a smoothie. Lunch of Indian food (fresh Aardvo -which is actually called Handvo- and olive oil, and spicy potato sabzi.) No time to eat dinner before meeting, only a string cheese and you know what that means . . . Taco Bell after the meeting! YAY! NOT! Oh well. Also, I didn't got to the gym yesterday.

Day 10

Service all day today. No breakfast-no time. Lunch at Pita House. (just remembered I left my doggie bag in the car. I'm so sad) Had a salad and part of a falafel sandwich. Three kinds of Indian sweet at Rama-bhen's, including my favorite: Kaju-pista! (cashew-pistachio sweet) Satish-bhai had just got back from India on Sunday and he brought the sweets with him, so they were very fresh. Then a tall iced decaf soy raspberry latte after service, and then two leftover tacos after the gym and a mango.

I wimped out at the gym today but I used my new purple bottle. Does that count? I climbed up the Sky Tower at least, but I couldn't do all my intervals. Only three 1:20 intervals on a "2" and three on a "10" in between them and then I finished out the rest of the 20 minutes on a "3". It actually took me 22 minutes but I did all 64 stories. Now, how am I going to get down from this thing?

30 Days to go!

Day 8

Day 8

It's an early night for me tonight. We don't have to go anywhere tonight because it's CO week. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Zane and I got up late so we had an early lunch on our way to drop him off at work. We were on our way to Jimmy John's but passed Serino's Deli on our way and in honor of Paula we went there instead. It was really different inside since I'd been there last. I think I went with Paula right after it had opened 3 or more years ago, so it makes sense that there'd be a lot different. Like there were chairs and tables and pictures on the walls! It was pretty bare last time. I had a veggie sub and baked bbq chips and Zane had a slice of sausage pizza.

We ate fish and pasta for dinner and then went to the gym again. Both of us did intervals on the stairs for 20 minutes. Usually I will do 1:20 at a "2" and then 1:20 at an "8" and repeat it 6 times but today I did my fast interval at a "10" and I was proud of myself. I don't know what the "10" means but it's harder than an "8" at least.

There was once this Biggest Loser episode I saw where the contestants had to climb the stairs up the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, the Sky Tower in Auckland, NZ . It was 1027 steps. It was a challenge for them and it has since become a challenge for me to try "climb the Sky Tower" everytime I am on the stairs at the gym. One floor is 16 steps on the stairmaster I use (I counted) and that is 64 floors. It takes me about 20 minutes, like today I did that many exactly by the time I was done with my intervals. Just thought I'd share, it's kinda neat. It makes my workouts fun when I imagine I am actually in New Zealand climbing up the Sky Tower.

After my workout I bought a Luna bar in the gym cafe and a bottle of water and now, folks, I'm going to bed (semi) early!

32 Days to go!

Day 7

Day 7

One week into it! What? Who would-a thought? By the way, I am still so sore from Zane's workout on day 5. It's mostly my abs, since I hadn't worked on them in forever. Zane says that the first time is the worst and that after my next ab workout it won't hurt very much... at least not if I do it soon and don't wait forever.

Had a smoothie for breakfast and used up the last of my frozen mango. (BUT that's ok because we bought a carton of 12 mangoes from a vendor on Kedzie! So I just cut up half of them and stuck them in the freezer for more smoothie fun.) Had a bagel from a bhen we met near Devon and then part of Zane's sandwich and a cookie after service. Before dinner had a string cheese and grapes, and a frozen fudge bar.

Went to the gym and worked on my biceps and triceps. Hopefully I won't be very sore because 1) this is the second time I've worked them out since I started, 2) I stretched afterwards and 3) I did hot/cold/hot/cold on them in the shower right afterwards. Zane learned that trick in a fitness magazine and it works! What ever muscles you work out, in the shower afterwards you put the water on them as cold as you can stand for 30 seconds, then as hot as you can stand 2 minutes. Repeat. Do it like 4 or 5 times. What happens is when it's cold your blood vessels contract, but when it's hot they expand and flush out the stuff in your muscles that makes you sore. (Lactic acid?) I also ran on the treadmill for a while. It was weird, I actually felt like a brisk run! I did intervals of 2 min running and 1:30 walking for 20 minutes total.

After the gym I ate an orange at home. :)

33 Days to go!

Day 6

Day 6

I think I'm getting sick. I woke up with a really sore throat and as the day went on, I had a progressively heavier head. I drank a lot of water to try to stave it off and I am not going to the gym late today like I did yesterday. I am going to bed early so I can make it out tomorrow.
That does not mean I didn't have any physical exertion today though. While in the city this morning, Amanda and I did a fair amount of walking. It's not that much, but I had a BIG workout yesterday and I'm trying not to get sick, so I'm making an executive decision to not push it.
This morning I made eggs with a bit of feta cheese in them and drank a small starbucks frappaccino in a bottle on the way to service. Although I had packed a lunch, Amanda and I found ourselves away from a microwave at lunchtime so I had a tuna sandwich with hot peppers on it. It wasn't a normal tuna-salad sandwich. It was hunks of tuna from a can on the bread with some Italian dressing and chopped olives and artichokes mixed into it too. Quite delish. We ate Indian food at the Varghese's after meeting. It was really good. Papadum, dosa, samosa, chicken curry and rice and a couple other things. I wish I had taken pictures but the links will have to do. It wouldn't have mattered because they all would have been blurry from us eating it all up. Ha ha. But really, it was so good. And then to top it off we had mango ice-cream!

Sorry no real pictures today.

34 days to go!

Day 5

Day 5
Major Workout Day #1! Zane kicked my rear! I did ok with eating today, Indian food for lunch before heading out to DP. Amanda made a great salad with cranberries and almonds and balsamic vinegarette and maybe some other things that made it amazing. Cindi had cut up papaya too. After coming home we used a coupon for a new-ish place by our house called Dr. Dogs and then we studied our WTs and went to the gym. Like I said: rear-kicking workout. Abs and legs on the machines for 35 minutes and stairmaster doing intervals for another 20 minutes and then stretching. I am so tired! But happy. I gotta admit, before we left I was a big whiney baby. "I do-on't wa-nuh go-oh to th-uh gy-ym!" But afterwards I was glad Zane made me stick to my word. That Zane, always with the good advice.

35 Days to go!

Day 4

Day 4

Concert Day! (See thezandme.blogspot.com)

Well, today was weird. I did a lot of snacking. I had a smoothie for breakfast (mango and strawberry.) I did some dancing and grooving in the kitchen while I did dishes and put them away. That was one part of my workout. We had talapia and Indian food for lunch. During family worship we had coffee and then afterwards I made pumpkin spice cookies and we had milk n' cookies! I had an orange and grapes and a string cheese and a few more cookies later in the afternoon.

We went to the concert in the evening which was a blast and I will write all about it on my other blog. That was the other part of my workout.

36 Days to go!

Day 3

Day 3. Service Day. Ate a left over pancake from yesterday with peanut butter and blackberry jam and had cut up a grapefruit to go with it. Then I made some Indian food and chapati for lunch, which we ate just before heading out in service. Afterwards we came home and had more Indian food. We picked up some new decaf coffee from Starbucks and I had a nice cup of coffee with a ice-cream fudge bar before heading to the gym. I swam and sat in the hot tub and steam room.

37 days to go!

Day 2

Day 2

Today was work day. I made pancakes for us and they were good. At work Nilimabhen had made

dal dhokli and papadum for lunch! One of my favorites. Who am I kidding, all of her cooking is my favorite. (ok, not the bitter melon.) And, so there was not a repeat of last night, I went grocery shopping! YAY! We had some bean/salsa and chips before going to the gym and then I had some after too. Then I finished up with an ice-cream bar. It even says 'healthy' on the box.

At the gym I worked out on the stairmaster for 25 minutes. I made it 6 intervals of 1:20 slow steps and 1:20 fast steps. Then I just slow stepped for the rest while watching Christina Aguilera on 'The Voice' which is interesting but I don't get the entire concept. Probably because I didn't stay for the whole show.

38 days to go!

Day 1

Day 1

I started it off with a good day! Mango smoothie and an egg w/veggies for breakfast, chili and chips for lunch . . . and chicken nuggets for supper after meeting. Ok, well first day went as well as could be expected. I need to go grocery shopping! And it's hard to feel like cooking after meeting. We just grabbed it on the way home.

But I worked out around 4pm for 20 minutes. I have a small set of 5lb barbells that I used to work on my arms. I did overhead presses, bicep curls, tricep pushes and lateral raises that I would hold out for a minute and it burned! I also did wall sits and squats and ab crunches. I'm pretty proud of myself. Er, except for the nuggets.

39 days to go

weight: x

40 days and 40 nights

My last challenge ended January 1st, 2011. I went all of 2010 without wearing pants, only skirts and dresses. I want a new challenge.
In 40 days my cousin Jessica is getting married! Zane and I will be at her wedding in Wisconsin. I am going to be in a pretty dress. I will do my hair nicely. We will see all our family and take many pictures and be in many pictures.
I do not want to be at the weight I am in those pictures. I also do not want to be huffing and puffing on the dance floor.
I challenge myself to work out everyday for the next 40 days.
The rules:

1. Break a sweat at least once every day.

2. Have an elevated heart rate for at least 20 minutes everyday.

3. Do a workout (of Zane's choosing) at the gym every 5 days. It must last 1 hour at least.

The goals:

1. Not miss one day of working out.

2. Lose some weight.

3. Have a great time at the wedding and not be worried about how I look.