Four

I stole this blog post idea from Juliette. Blammo.
4 names people call you: 1. Val 2. Valmonkey 3. Baby toots (only Mike is allowed to say that one and we know it makes no sense) 4. Valerie (duh) 4 jobs you've had: 1. Customer service at Hallmark (an old woman threw something at me once, good times) 2. Flight attendant 3. Compliance Specialist at a major food chain (current) 4. Development/PR for a marine museum 4 movies you've watched more than once: 1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2. All the Harry Potters  3. All of the Lords of the Rings 4.  27 Dresses (nothing beats a good/bad romcom) 4 books you would recommend: 1. The Devil in White City 2. The Night Circus 3. All the Harry Potters (duh) 4. In Cold Blood 4 places you've lived: 1. Newark, NJ 2. Chico, CA 3. Lexington Park, MD 4. San Luis Obispo, CA 4 places you've been: 1. London (best honeymoon ever) 2. DC  3. Puerto Rico 4. New Orleans 4 places you'd rather be now: 1. London (my sister is there, that B) 2. Denver in the sun (it's night and rainy right now) 3. New Zealand (not because of LOTR's nerdiness, I swear...) 4. Chico (we miss that place!) 4 of your favorite foods: 1. Cheese 2. Veggie burgers 3. Cheesecake 4. My mom's spaghetti 4 tv shows you watch: 1. Law and Order SVU (currently binge watching for the first time and it's giving me the WORST dreams) 2. Nashville (I can't help it) 3. Game of Thrones 4. Veep 4 things you're looking forward to this year: 1. Getting better at Orange and losing weight 2. Our first Denver summer including tons of hikes and beers 3. My mom's upcoming visit 4. Lots of friends having lots of babies 4 things you're always saying: 1. Does my hair look dirty? 2. I'll get off the internet in a minute. 3. I'm so fat. 4. I want a cocktail.

Want It Wednesday

This Want It Wednesday is kiiind of depressing because I'm trying not to buy any clothes or shoes for the rest of May starting last week after I got some much needed workout gear. We want to take big trips and plan for our future so I probably shouldn't be buying as many things for myself as I do so I'm starting my goal small - one month!

But I can still want things on Wednesdays, so here we go!

These jeans from American Eagle. I've finally realized that high waisted works best for me (especially right now with my extra pudge cough cough) and these are comfy as crap.

This necklace set. I need more long necklaces to wear with my casual/simple outfits.

These sandals. Don't these look like the perfect commuting sandals? Cute, but still comfy.

This bowl for dinner or lunch every day. I mean, how delicious and good for you does this thing look?!

This manicure all day every day.

For my mom to come visit. Oh hey, she is in like 3 weeks!

To walk up this and not die. People RUN that. They RUN it. People are nuts.

To have a cable package that has AMC because hello, last season of Mad Men dammit.

This Sunday Currently

(I know the blogger who created this series doesn't do them anymore, but hey...it's Sunday, so why not)

Currently I am...


Reading: Nothing. Since my crazy commute has ended, I haven't been reading at all which is good because it means I spend most of my time doing fun stuff and not sitting on a train, but bad because I miss reading. I just got Before I Go To Sleep and am really looking forward to reading it so I need to get on that.

Writing: This blog post and that's it. I spend a lot less time on the internet now that I'm happily employed and live somewhere I love.

Listening: To Mike cooking this meal from Blue Apron and to Tuffy barking at the dude bros in the hot tub outside our window (don't get an apartment that faces the pool, don't do it).

Eating:  About to eat another tasty Blue Apron meal (we love Blue Apron) and then our favorite dessert in the warmer months: strawberries, fat free cool whip, and a tiny little angel food cake round. So good, so few calories.


Wishing/Hoping: For the weather not to be as rainy this week as the app says it's going to be, for our new hire who starts tomorrow to work out, for Mike and I to figure out whether we're going to have kids and where we are going to end up living when our lease is up (our lease is up in about a year, I'm psycho and like to plan).

Wearing: Black leggings and a grey long sleeved, off shoulder top from F21 - my go to lounge outfit.

Loving: Denver. My job. Our new lives. How sore my legs are right now. How good our dinner smells while Mike is cooking it. How tasty lunch was. Just, you know, everything right now.

Wanting:  To move into the neighborhood that we walked around today (we walked 7 miles today, my dogs are barking), to lose 10 pounds, to not ever have to buy a second car, to be wearing this tomorrow and to have the small chest to pull it off, to take a vacation here with Mike and the pups, and five more pairs of these pants that I bought on sale at Old Navy today.

Needing: To make time to read my new book, to do my nails and toenails, and to pick an outfit for tomorrow.

Feeling: Full from dinner (I took a break to eat while writing this blog), happy, and sleepy.

Clicking:  Facebook, Amazon to get Mom's day gifts, and Blue Apron to check out our upcoming menus.

And some other things...

We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary last week with tasty pizza, wine, salad, cupcakes, and Star Wars. Perfect!

Yesterday we went for a long walk around Golden, CO and had lunch and shopping downtown. It was gorgeous and just a dang great day.

Sweaty Betty Isn't Dead...y

If you thought that was the world's worst blog post title, you were right.

So a couple years ago, when we lived in California and had nothing else to do, we used to run for cardio. We got up to running 4 miles a night which was a huge feat for me and I didn't actually hate it which was an even huger feat. And I weighed ten pounds less than I do now so....

Once we moved to Maryland, we let running fall to the wayside because it was so g-damn cold, but I picked up weight training which was awesome and my shoulders and biceps look pretty good, thank you, but I also slowly put on a bunch of weight. Which sucks. And makes me feel bad for eating as much as I do because at least I was burning calories back then, right?

Since I first started working at my new job, one of my coworkers has been pushing me to go to Orange Theory with her which is her main form of working out and she absolutely loves it. It was hard to say no because I was feeling so shitty about my weight gain and she had lost like 25 pounds doing Orange and it is downstairs in my office building, so I didn't really have a good excuse not to go.

Now, you all know me...I hate working out. Hate it. Even when I "liked" running, I hated it and dreaded every run before I set off. I am hugely self conscious in the gym. I have had minor panic attacks in rooms that are too full of other people working out and have had to leave because I get anxiety so badly about looking stupid while working out. So I was really really nervous for my first day at Orange. I knew I was going to suck and everyone would notice.

And guess what?

It went great!

I swear to Pete, this is not an advertisement, it actually was pretty g-damn awesome. The best thing about Orange for me is that everyone is so focused on their own workout and there's no standing around time in between sets, that no one gives a crap and/or notices what you're doing. I'm the slowest one on the row machine this set? No one cares because they have all run back into the weight room and are trying not to barf doing burpees. Some chick apparently ate it doing box jumps the other day and I didn't even notice because I was panting in my own little corner.

You also have no time to look at and critique yourself in the mirror.

And the mirrors in front of the treadmills don't show your legs. Genius.

Anxiety gone.

And also, it's hard as crap and I still like it! No self-defeating mental commentary about how awful I'm doing. Can't do all out at 5% incline like the instructor told us to do? I'll do push pace at 5% and try my hardest and be happy about.

Seriously, who is this person?

I still get nervous before each class, because it's me, but once we start running, I get really focused and end up enjoying pushing myself and seeing how many calories I've burnt as the class goes on.

Also my boobs look really good in the mirror when I run. (Classy)

I've only gone three times so far (I do Mondays and Wednesdays each week) and I'm super hooked and can't wait to see how much fat I burn/weight I lose/body parts I tone as time goes on!

Here are my first three results which I'm sharing because I'm super proud and it's my blog so why not?

Go Orange!

A Weekend of Gluttony

Thursday, the 30th is our four year anniversary (what?!) so we decided to celebrate early by eating and drinking our faces off at BruFrou. Our celebrations pretty much always revolve around food and booze, it's our thing (fat kids).

And we had a blast.

And I didn't throw up.

So, yeah...score!

It was held at Wings Over the Rockies which I can't wait to go back to sober and not stuffed with food and also I really want to know why the theater is named after Harrison Ford?

Mike wasn't happy at all...

One day I'll photograph better...

A big group of Star Wars nerds petitioned to keep this replica fighter thingy in Denver and won and it's kind of awesome.

Just casually flying a jet...NBD.

Then Gizmo helped Mike recover from how full his stomach was and we spent the rest of the day laying on the couch watching tv and moaning.

Today, it was raining and we probably should have recovered from our binge day at BruFrou, but instead, we went to brunch at Lucille's where you have a crazy long wait, but they have an outdoor bar open that serves cocktails, coffee, and beignets and then I ate red beans, poached eggs, hollandaise, and cheesy grits for breakfast.

Did I need to have two of these? No I did not. Will I no longer be working out later today? Probably...

Worth the mess.

The moral of this blog is happy early anniversary to my man and also, this is why I'm fat.

Worth it!

Want it Wednesday...a day late

It feels like Friday, but apparently it's only Thursday which means yesterday was Wednesday.

So here's what I wanted...yesterday.

This dress and a fabulous summer party to wear it to.

To decorate my apartment walls like this.

This kitchen except that shelf would be covered in cookbooks. 

These sandals. I am in desperate need of sandals this year, all mine are falling apart.

This super comfy outfit to relax in.

This maxi dress and a trip to somewhere tropical where I can wear it.

Like, how about a trip here for instance?

To not be totally terrified that I'm joining Orange Theory on Monday.

Time to read more (get off the internet then, Val) books like this one that's on my list.

And a nap.

And 10 less pounds.

And a baby.

I ask for so little you guys...

Scenes From Our Hikes

By far our favorite Colorado tradition has been going on hikes every Saturday. There are so many amazing trails around here that we can't wait to try. So far, we've done the Chautauqua Trail in Boulder twice and the Beaver Brook Trail in Golden.  It's so beautiful all around you while you're hiking, that it makes even working out seem fun. Almost. Mike is never happier than when he's outside running around or crawling over a branch to cross a creek. It's cute and also terrifying because I am horrible at this crap. Haven't fallen into a creek yet though! (Famous last words) When we hiked Beaver Brook, we kept fining it odd that everyone passing us was going the opposite way. We figured we were just going a weird way since we are always lost on trails. We realized why everyone went the other way when the entire last hour of our hike was completely uphill and covered in snow. Whoops. We really need to learn to read trail maps.

We follow up each hike with a visit to a nearby brewery. Because, well, we earned it right?

I finally got a new camera cord, so here are some photos Mike has taken on our hikes.

Colorado, we love you!

The dude behind me was running. Running. Screw you, man.

And then we saw a pug so we of course took photos.

This so truly portrays Colorado. One half of the trail was covered in snow and the other was dry and warm. 

Creeks are stupid.