October in Review and November goals

Since I decided to document my October goals last month, I needed to follow through and tell you how I did!! I'm relatively satisfied with how my goals were incorporated into October but I still have things to work on that I will be striving for in November!

1. Do at at least 100 crunches a day.  I would say that during the first 3 weeks of October I did this about 4-5 days out of the week. As some of you know I started a new job in Mid October and we were doing quarter end close the last week of October and working out did not happen. AT. ALL. since I was working long and late hours!

2. Do at least 10 real push ups a day. Same answer as above, since when I did the crunches I followed them with pushups.

3. Eat better. Fail fail, double fail, super fail! I realized as October rounded to a close that I felt awful in regards to my eating habits in the past month. All the crud I was eating made me feel sluggish and tired! With the new job and getting all situated I for some reason started buying Healthy Choice meals. I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE WHY DID I START? Cause I was being lazy! Healthy choice meals have SO much salt in them AND they barely keep me full! And then there's the candy bowl, for some reason my new coworkers and I continually dominating that candy bowl which lead to afternoons of regret and then a repeat the following day. Thank goodness Halloween has come and gone, maybe that means the candy won't be coming in as quickly and tempting me to make terrible choices!

4. Get back into consistent running shape. womp womp. I have not been running consistently. There were a few days one week in october that I did a couple of outdoor runs when it was nice out but due to my poor food choices I have felt too tired to run even when I end up at the gym I opt for the elliptical due to my lack of energy. We did run a 5k with some friends though! And I did run with Carson for the first time since we moved to Columbus!

 

5. try at least ONE pinterest recipe and ONE pinterest craft in month of October. SUCCESS SUCCESS, I guess this is the only goal I truly succeeded with! For Michael's birthday I made him caramel apple cheesecake bars, huge success!! Michael's mom and grandmother enjoyed them and then Michael took them to work and everyone loved them too! yippee!! My Pinterest craft was a christmas decoration that I plan on hanging over our fireplace:

I think it turned out cute. I had originally wanted to make this saying "thankful" and have a thanksgiving decoration for the house since I am limited in that aspect, however, the craft store decided to go full blown Christmas on me in October so that's what I went with!

 And how am I doing on my October/November Activities that I listed last month? I think pretty darn well so far!

1. pumpkin patch - didn't happen and I'm not sure how this happened but I didn't carve a pumpkin either!!!
2. Circleville Pumpkin Festival - Went with Michael, Liz, Catherine, and Drew and had a blast eating pumpkin everything!

3. Bonfire - not yet but there's still time! The chilly weather definitely calls for a bonfire!!
4. Keeneland in Lexington - CHECK! A few of my friends had a little going away get together for my amazing high school friends Tim and Bailey, since they are moving to Texas. We decided to have this get-together at Keeneland and it was a blast! Pretty chilly but when you are with great, long-time friends it's worth it!

5. OSU tailgate  - Nope. Michael has worked every weekend that the team is in town, but now that he may have some weekends off coming up maybe we can participate in the OSU activities!
6. Hiking and seeing the gorgeous changing leaves - Not yet, but I'm hoping with Michael's availability that we can maybe do this soon!

***added to my list***
7. Football game - Michael, Michael's sister Andrea, brother-in-law Matt, and I went to the Bengals vs. Broncos game this past Sunday! We had so much fun! (footbal is definitely a fall activity!) 

8. Bake with pumpkin -- made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread!

November goals:

1. Create a meal plan for the month and cook more at home

2. plan my workouts at the begin of the week in order to fully commit to them

3. pack my lunches....healthier lunches!

4. work on my fall activities list   - do something new in Columbus!

5. Vote in a swing state! woah!

6. Read Les Miserables ...i've never read it!

Well there ya have it! Lets hope November is a good month and that I don't freeze to death!

October goals

Remember that one time I made a New years resolution to blog once a day for an entire year and I somehow made the time and had the energy to pull that off? Why is it so hard for me to continue to routinely do other things? Maybe I need this blog to publicly say my goals and/or resolutions and then I'm held more accountable to it?!

I think that may be the answer folks...

So in blogging fashion I am going to write down some of my October goals. Not something that I've been thinking about for a long time, actually i thought about it during the last 5 minutes of my elliptical workout in the hotel workout room but a few minutes ago. I guess since I was exercising these would be more like healthy living goals for the month of October, so here we go:

1. Do at at least 100 crunches a day. That's not hard and takes only a few minutes. September got out of hand with the amount of ice cream, vacations, and laziness that occurred. No one likes to be more squishy on the tummy area. 100 crunches a day... at least. I can do this!

2. Do at least 10 real push ups a day. ONLY 10?! UM HELLO, have you seen my arms ?! They are basically toothpicks, do toothpicks have definition? do they have mass? um no. 10 is a good number for this girl.

3. Eat better. No specifics but really it is not necessary to have a super sugary breakfast and a dessert with lunch and dinner every single day, Ashley, you are getting out of control!  I am THINKING about cutting down or totally removing Gluten. My aunt and cousin have done so and have seen great results, the Webb family has tummy and digestive issues and hey it couldn't hurt to try...so no this is not a bandwagon thing, its a Webb thing. A stomach ache every other day is no bueno.

4. Get back into consistent running shape. With changes in the season and to my schedule I'm hoping for a more consistent work schedule. Run 3 times a week, other workout 2.

5. OK OK, i'll throw a non-exercise one in there. Since October is UBER FALL MONTH AHHH pumpkins, candles, hoodies, etc. why not put that ever growing pinterest board to good use?! I pledge to try at least ONE pinterest recipe and ONE pinterest craft in month of October (so that may go against my healthy eating). WHO WANTS TO CRAFT OR EAT AT THE KASTENS?!

I think 5 is a reasonable number of goals, right?!

BUT ALSO there are some things I'd like to do in the months of October and November. AND I WANT YOU TO COME WITH ME TO DO THEM TOO!

1. pumpkin patch
2. Circleville Pumpkin Festival
3. Bonfire
4. Keeneland in Lexington
5. OSU tailgate
6. Hiking and seeing the gorgeous changing leaves

So with that I am done with my lists. Doesn't it feel nice to get a couple of good lists out of ya?!

So what are some of your October goals/resolutions?! Write em down and I"ll keep you responsible if you do the same for me! :)

What activities would you like to participate in with me or you think I should add to my list?!

Happy October to you all! :)

Work Adventures

So I say this like every time. But I am literally kind of in awe of how the blogging from 2011 to 2012 has changed. I can't believe that I went from blogging every single day for a year, even twice a day on some occasions to blogging like once a month. I really do enjoy blogging but life does get crazy, and lately the crazy has been in a pretty good way, so I can't complain, I guess living life is more important than blogging.

This week I got to travel for work. OH ...right...I'm an auditor, I "travel" a lot for work. But REALLLLLLY this week I actually traveled in a cool kind of way instead of driving to small town USA town in Ohio. This week I got to travel to CALIFORNIA. Yes traveling for work does entail working, but i was able to fit a couple of few things in and an even more amount of work in.

Since my husband has been working for about 100 days in a row without a break (ok ok, that might be a little exaggerated, he has worked like 16 days in a row without a day off) i decided that I could leave a little bit early to go on my work trip. So on Sunday morning I drove myself to the long-term parking at the Columbus airport and headed out west! Ok well first I made a stop in Chicago to change planes and then head on our to San Jose. Never once have I worked on a plane before but on this flight i ended up working for 2 1/2 hours which definitely helped to pass the time quickly. It's amazing how much work you can get done when you literally cannot move anywhere (aka being trapped in the window seat) and having no internet access or people to talk to (60 year old woman next to me fell asleep while reading for like half the flight).

Once I arrived in San Jose I wasn't quite to my destination. I had to drive to Paso Robles, CA! That was about 2 1/2-3 hours away. However my awesome friend Eric and Danielle from California had kinda mentioned things for me to do. But i was soooo hungry I just got on the 101 (the boring highway) to find food, it took me like 30 minutes to find one, ya know since you can't use you cell phones while driving. boo. I stopped at In n' out. I had never been there before and the burger was delish! The fries and milkshake I got were meh, slightly disappointing. PS I felt so cool eating by myself while everyone else was sitting with friends and family like a normal person would on a Saturday.


So since I had already messed up my sight seeing plans I called up Eric and Danielle again and told them where I was. I really only wanted to see the ocean for a little bit, I missed it. So they told me the best plan for my time was to head on down the 101 and drive about 40 minutes passed my final destination to Pismo Beach.

I was off! The drive was pretty boring. Flat areas with big brown hills in the distance and tons and tons of farms with fresh produce. OH and people in this part of California drive S-L-O-W! I felt like a speed demon at 80 mphs!

Once I arrive at Pismo beach I was so excited to go to the beach I grabbed my camera, purse and sweatshirt and headed to the beach. I had wanted to at least change into shorts or maybe my bathing suit but my excitement over took me and I could only focus on the beach!

Once I got to the beach I wasn't really sure what to do. What does one do when they are at the beach alone? I had definitely never been to the beach alone before. So I just started walking up the shore towards the gorgeous white rock wall (these walks were super chalky!). Since I still had my travel clothes on I had jean capris on and they definitely got soaked from walking in the water, plus I was holding all of this junk that I decided was necessary for me to carry. At one point I had dropped my sweatshirt and didn't even realize it for a few minutes and had to walk back and rescue it from the surf!

It really was peaceful being there on my own though. Especially with low cell phone battery, I had nothing to distract me and I enjoyed myself and took pictures.


After my walk I just plopped down on the beach and watched all the surfers that were magically coming out of the woodwork, it was around 5:30 or 6 at this point.


After realizing it would be getting dark soon and I wasn't sure where the hotel was I headed on back to Paso Robles.

Paso Robles is a super cute little city. It is a wine country city with vineyards surrounding on the country. It is basically precious.

Most days we worked until 6 and would go eat some seriously wonderful food. If you know auditing life, or at least mine, you would know that normally the food we have during audits is a chain food restaurant or mediocre mexican restaurant, as these are the only options. In Paso Robles the only options are places that menus mainly consist of steak and fresh fish. HEAVEN for someone that likes to eat like me!

After work on Wednesday, my coworkers decided they needed to do some work in the hotel so I took it upon myself to be brave and go to the Paso Wine Centre (which was recommended by my amazing friend Charlie!). They have over 48 wines to taste and it is a self serve style. I purchased a $10 sampling card and was able to taste 7 different wines while enjoying a large cheese plate with crackers and almonds. I had some great conversation with the lady that worked there for about half an hour, seeing that I was the only one in the Centre (it is not the towns busy time of the year). I ended up buying 2 bottles of wine; a red and a white and i hope i'm able to get them back to Ohio without breaking. OH I also happened to somehow lose my credit card in this process. Luckily no strange purchases!



Tonight we had another fancy dinner. Do you know that I had steak TWICE this week. Hanger steak monday and Filet Mignon tonight. I NEVER ORDER STEAK. not cause I don't want to spend the money or anything I just never crave it, but since I knew the quality would be exceptional I guess my body knew that I had to have it, and my body was soooo right both steak experiences were exceptional!

So many great local wines!

delicious and fancy sushi everywhere too!

So to sum it up my California work trip wasn't what I expected (for some reason i thought i'd be able to go to the beach every day and do super california-y things every day) but I was able to do a few things that I wanted to do so I'm pretty satisfied. AND HEY GUESS WHAT, Michael and I will be back in California at the end of the month to visit my sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and adorable nephew!

Now I need to pack so that I can make my very LONG trek back east. Flight leaves tomorrow at 7:40pm which means a super early arrival into Ohio at 5:50 AM....ick....hopefully some sleeping happens on the plane as I do have amazing plans to look forward to this weekend. WICKED in Louisville with Kara Saturday afternoon and then throwing a baby shower with my friend Liz for Catherine on Sunday!!

(the only downside to returning is that Michael will not be there!...sad face, we will go over a whole week without seeing each other and barely even talking considering by the time I'm done working Michael has normally fallen asleep).

WOAH long post! Hope you enjoyed! Chat with yall later, which most likely probably means in a month!

Columbus Life

I know you all are DYING to know what I have been up to in Columbus?! Yes, you are sitting on the edge of your chair patiently waiting to hear.


(ps this post has been sitting in my draft box for the past week, its hard uploading pictures, ok not hard, time consuming maybe?! OH i'm lazy?! riiiighhhhttt!) So when I say this past week, I actually mean 2 weeks ago!******

I'm really exciting. I cannot deny that. Anywhoooo all sarcasm aside. Life in Columbus has been pretty great, I can't complain and we have kept ourselves surprisingly busy.

Okay, okay. Michael has kept himself, UN-surprisingly busy. Why?! Cause basically all he does is work. For instance, I was out of town for work ALL week and then when I get home Michael continues to work, and then he works the whole weekend and doesn't get home until 8 or 9. His life is crazy and sleepless. That is definitely not for me, I would be a monster!

So since my hubby is working about 98% percent of his awake life I have had to figure out how to get by on my own as a fake single lady. Does that sound wrong, cause I don't mean it that way! So what have I been doing? And what do Michael and I have do when we have a chance to see each other? Here's what we've been doing lately:

1. I have been eating tons of ice cream! Is this a surprise?! No! This past week while I was out of town for work I convinced my coworker Azure-Dee to eat ice cream with me 2 of the 3 nights she was there. OH and that one night we didn't have ice cream?! I convinced her we needed to buy candy at Wal-mart, because dessert is necessary.

2. Trying to exercise. OK I have been a slight slacker compared to where I was before we moved. This past week while I was out of town I set my alarm every morning to wake up , of the 4 days out there I got up 0 and turned off my alarm and chose more sleep. I blame this on the olympics, since i HAD to watch ALL of primetime each night. I mean, it's addicting. However, I did workout 3 of the 4 evenings I was there, but you can't do a ton on crappy hotel equipment.

Yesterday, AKA Saturday, I woke up early and wanted to enjoy the fall temps and went on a run around our cute town. I had a hair appointment at 10 and thought a half hour run would be good. Well I got lost in all the neighborhood streets and was phoneless so my run turned into almost an hour long run. It was still wonderful though, just slightly stressful towards the end!

I did make it to my haircut though, post haircut pic!

Today I woke up and wanted to give my lovely bike some attention. I hit the Olentangy River Trail hard and biked ALL the way downtown on my own! I was proud of this accomplishment!! The ride back was tough since I felt the thing was uphill the whole way back (obviously it wasn't). But I ended up successfully riding a little over 20 miles with only 1 picture stop break!

Made it downtown!

Oh hello Christopher Columbus Ship and river!

Post bike ride, very proud of myself and my bike!

3. Watching Olympics - I know I mentioned this already but I LOVE them. They make me feel so patriotic and the little stories they do on the athletes make me tear up almost every time. I have enjoyed everything from the Women's gymnastic team to all the track events to swimming to basketball to sand volleyball to diving to I could go on forever. Seriously, people take these games for granted! And what better way to motivate an obese nation? I mean I'm not sure if i'm the only one but I definitely wish I was in the athletic shape that these competitors are in! Although I find it slightly confusing that our country dominated in medals but then we also dominate in the highest rates of obesity in the world. SAD.

**side note** --- thanks to the olympics I want to find an adult beginners tumbling/gymnastics class. i don't think they exist in Columbus, I mean I googled it. If anyone knows more than me please let me know!

4. Not cleaning my house -- again I blame the olympics. House cleaning is not fun, i just skip it :)

5. Opening up the windows in the house -- cause um this weather this weekend is phenomenal and who doesn't love a fresh breeze through their house? ***note*** AC has been off in our house for over a week now, and its refreshing!

6. Enjoying local attractions like Buckeye Lake! -- Last Sunday Michael and I headed out to Buckeye lake with 5 or Michael's coworkers to enjoy a day out on the lake on a Pontoon boat. This day ended with some very silly people but it was a great time! The weather was overcast but still warm so we were one of the few boats out on the lake! This trip definitely made me consider owning a boat in my near future.

7. Going to the beautiful Tackett wedding in Kentucky - Last Friday I checked outta work early and headed to Lexington to celebrate the marriage of Brittany and Tyler! Their wedding was super cute and very pinterest-y. And it was great getting to see soooo many friends. Michael couldn't make it to the wedding cause of work though and at our table I was the 11th wheel...how ridiculous was that? I also got to cuddle with Becca all night long since she let me crash in her bed that evening! :)

8. Date night with the Hubs - Michael actually had the weekend off last weekend (first day off in 19 days) and we had a little date night last Saturday. He was recommended a restaurant called Figlio's near the Scioto river. The food was excellent and fairly priced! I had a super delicious chicken and mushroom ravioli (this exceeded all mushroom ravioli I have ever had!) and Michael had a yummy pizza and of course we split dessert! We then went home and enjoyed some Breaking Bad (obsessed). I love spending time with the hubs!

9. Hanging out with friends - Last night Catherine, Drew, Liz, and Brian came over to our house for cocktails, boardgames, and a bonfire. Well the bonfire was  a fail, it rained alllll nigth. BUT I did make smores in the oven and we played taboo and scribblish and talked and laughed late into the night!AND Micheal made it home from work by like 8:30.  It was wonderful! I love these Columbus friends!

10. Friday night we went to a brewery restaurant downtown for 2 birthday celebrations for Michael's coworkers. I thoroughly enjoy all of Michael's coworkers, I think he got super lucky with them. They are all awesome so far! Sadly Michael had to work the next morning though so we had to leave around 10.

11. Dog Park - today i took the doggys to the dog park for the first time in Columbus. The dog park was Meh, I think it's new, but I'm glad to get the little stinkers out of the house.

On the way to the doggy playland!

playing and sniffing, sniffing and playing!

12. Trying to learn how to landscape --- I left monday and everything was all good in the yard. I returned Friday and 1 fir tree is totally brown (what the what..it rained during the week!), 1 was partially brown, an animal is obviously eating my zucchini but does not have the taste for tomatoes cause there are approximately 20 of these monsters growing, and there is something living under our shed. I called my dad multiple times about these issues since the man of this house wasn't around. I watered the crap out of the dying trees, fingers crossed. But the animal thing...uh...I just couldn't get the courage to look under the shed. The past 2 days Willis has been freaking out about it. Whining and digging at the shed. I just don't want a rabies infested animal to jump out and bite me in the face. WAH. Fake single wife life.

Sad dead trees :(

13. Plotting a way to get all the mosquitos out of our backyard. I hate these monsters and they eat me alive! I just want to be able to enjoy my hammock. Any suggestions?

14. Watching every HGTV show known to man. I record every one of them i see on the TV guide. I think I've said this before, but in the past year I have watch more HGTV than I have ever watched in my entire life. I really enjoy Property Brothers, Income Property, House Hunters (not international ), and Love it or List it. I can't get enough.


AND that's it for the 2 weeks following Moonfest...I'm hoping that since I am out of town for the week I can catch you up on some awesome things I did this past week! I definitely kept busy, loving all the new friends and activities in Columbus (don't worry Lexington, NKY, etc friends, I love you too! )

Moonfest

Well Moonfest has come and gone already and I've been meaning to write a little bit about it just for memories sake. But like everything else that isn't super necessary, it got pushed aside, hence my lack of blog post in exactly 1 month! Hopefully my memory will serve me well and I can recall that wonderful weekend 2 weeks ago!

First off, wanna know what Moonfest is? Moonfest is awesome, that's all you need to know. But really, Moonfest is a pretty awesome gathering/party thrown at my Uncle Guire and Aunt Pat's house/property in the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania. I say property because my Uncle, Aunt, and beautiful cousins (Anika and Melina) live on a bajillion acres of land, and I thought I had it made living on my quarter acre in the city (*wink wink*).  This massive amount of space includes multiple ponds, their house, a fully furnished cabin, a pavilion, a 9 hole golf course, a creek, a massive field used for the annual softball game, tons of trails through the woods, and other amazing amenities!

The party hosts - My fun loving Aunt Pat and Uncle Guire! (as pirates!)

Back to the party.. Now this isn't any type of ordinary party. This party is thrown on the full moon weekend in July, typically falling towards the end of the month. The party used to be thrown annually back in the day (this party has been occurring for many, many years, like before I was even a thought), but since everyone's lives have become hectic, kids are growing up, and traveling is expensive Moonfest now occurs every other year. Now the name "Moonfest" does not only relate to a festival thrown because of the full moon. It is also because mooning people is fun, and at moonfest you are guaranteed to catch site of a mooning, isn't it great to know super fun and silly people that enjoy mooning each other?! And there aren't just a few moonings, this isn't just a Webb-family affair, there are about 100 family friends and family (and dogs, we are doggy loving folks so at any time during moonfest there are probably about 5-10 large dogs running around) that come to this get together. People from ALL over the country show up from places like California, Kentucky (us), Ohio (us), Florida, Minnesota, Texas, etc.

A picture of half of the pavilion, just so you can get an idea of the size. 

So, each Moonfest has a theme, on Saturday night (our big dinner night), everyone dresses up for that theme. This year's theme was Pirates of the Moon. The themes are fun and a good way for people to get all silly and creative on each other. OH and another big note about the party, its camping! I LOVE camping, mainly because of moonfest. Everyone finds a piece of property to call their own and then sets up their outdoor home for the weekend. It's wonderful! Some people don't like camping due to the lack of plumbing..alas, this is no issue! My family built an outdoor shower at their house to accomodate the party and their are restroom facilities everywhere!

So what happens at this party besides mooning and dressing up as pirates?! Well, a good amount of the party goers arrive Friday at some point during the day, sets up their stuff, and then gets to helping prepare food, because honestly thats what Webbs do, we surround our get togethers around food! Friday we have a yummy dinner and stay up late having some drinks, or maybe a beer from the locally brewed keg and just enjoy seeing everyone that we haven't seen in a couple years or more (I missed the prior Moonfest due to being in a wedding). Saturday involves more eating, hanging out, maybe some drinking, eating some more, a softball game, and then our big dinner (chicken and grilled corn and a ton of sides and peanut butter pie for dessert!) and a late night of enjoying each other's company some more. Sunday is the day I always hate, knowing that the weekend is coming to a close. More delicious food is made, campsites are torn down and people say their tearful goodbyes, but you are always certain to get millions of hugs as you leave! Moonfest makes me feel good. It makes me feel happy.

All of the Webb cousins minus Ryan and Eric (who had departed prior to pic taking) and Whitney. 

This year's Moonfest was different for me since I was coming from Columbus (michael had to work, surprise, surprise!) and I was going to attempt to drive. LUCKILY Dustin and Christina were going to be driving from Northern Kentucky so on Thursday evening they made their way up to Columbus, through many thunderstorms I might add, to make our journey to PA! Once they arrived we loaded up the Prius, cause come on folks we are gonna save money where we can and not have to buy gas, and headed out on the road! Not leaving Columbus until 7pm, made for a 2 am late arrival but the drive honestly wasn't bad. I drove the first half and Christina drove the second. Dustin stayed up and chatted with me the first half while Christina rested from an early start to her day, but after her nap we were up the rest of the way, chatting, listening to good music, and enjoying each other's company.

When we arrived at my family's house obviously everyone was pased out, we found a place to lie down on the floor and did the same! Friday morning came really fast once everyone else in the house was rising pretty early. Dustin and I were both up by 8 and surprised to find that my Dad had already made it to PA. That morning I consumed a ridiculous amount of bacon. This isn't ordinary bacon. The bacon from my aunt and uncles town is fresh from the meat plant which is right next to their house. Something about this bacon is ridiculously heavenly, its crispy, yet melts in your mouth. Can I keep talking about the bacon?!

After breakfast Anika and I were recruited to drive to Elmira, NY to pick up some folks from the airport. Side note, Anika asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding that weekend while we were out there, so exciting!! We allowed extra time cause a tornado had swept through the town the night before. While we were out I commissioned Dustin and Christina to set up camp near the creek. While out we made a Walmart stop to buy a crap ton of milk, butter, toilet paper, and drink mixers. You know, the essentials. Since we were out for so long we had to stop for lunch. The town my cousin is from is tiny, itty bitty. So we had limited choices but they were delish! AND the restaurant had ice cream, I ordered the small birthday cake flavor which approximately a gallon's worth of ice cream and immediately went into a food coma. This girl cannot meter her ice cream intake, I think the communication from the stomach to the brain is broken when i eat ice cream.

Me and Anika hanging out

Anywho, we arrived back at Moonfest and got to see some more of  the people that had arrived. Hugs and more hugs ensued. While we were gone Ryan (my brother) had arrived too, I knew the weekend was about to get crazy!! A lot of fun was had that evening. I played it cool cause I didn't want to feel icky on the big day, Saturday. but lots of fun and talking was had,  I face planted onto my air mattress around 2am and slept soundly until about 8 am.

Breakfast Saturday morning was exceptional. French toast made on the massive outdoor grills, MORE bacon. AND super fresh delicious fruit! Drooling on computer just thinking about it. YUM!Not really sure what took place between breakfast and early afternoon. I think a bunch of lounging, chatting, and snacking occurred. But before I knew it, it was softball game time! One of my favorite moonfest events!

Got to finally chill with this little guy, my cousin Ian's son, Graham ! He's precious!

This is how our game works. Basically it's the old folks versus the youngins. And typically the old folks win. This year we split up those under 25 and those over 40 and then divided up the inbetweeners. The youngins took the field first and immediately got creamed by the old folks. yes they are all our parents but they are all pretty good at softball and smacking that ball way out into the outfield at fast speeds. Once the young folk batted it was pretty obvious that we were going to get killed. After a few innings a trade was made. Some older folks were sent to the young team and then myself and an 11 year old were traded to the oldies. I actually started performing once switched to this team and made a few outs and made it on base once. In the end the old folks won.

Softball spectators

The old guys team

the young folks (notice there are 4 women on our team *liz not pictured*, old men had none)

Cousin Eric beating a softball to death. 

Some pretty cool spectators (Ryan and Alycia!)

 After the game it was time to prepare for dinner festivities. Everyone started changing into their pirate apparel. everyone was slicking on dark black eyeliner and fake tattoos, It was amusing watching some of the men put on eyeliner. I will let the pictures do the talking about the evening.

Part of my piratey family!

This is the people getting creative part...you get it? Pirates...seaman?!

Sweet Mikaela

The original Webb girl cousins

awesome collage

Cousin Nora and her boyfriend Mitch!

      

Alycia (cousin's wife, so basically cousin) and me

That night was another late night, maybe 3 am and crashing face first in the dark onto my air mattress again. It was awesome getting to hang out with all my cousins and friends for such a long period of time, I just didn't want to go to bed! Morning came quickly though and I felt good still even with the lack of sleep. Another delicious breakfast was consumed and then came the denial. The denial of leaving Moonfest of course. I began acting like we didn't need to pack up our tent. People were slowly trickling out.  I should have chained myself to the pavilion and refused to leave. but after lunch at around 2 Dustin and Christina pulled me out of Moonvalley kicking and screaming. The whole 7+ hour trip home I was already reminiscing about the weekend. 

And there's my Moonfest 2012.

Yes, some of this means nothing to most of you. But this get together is very important to me and I wouldn't change a thing about it for all the money in the world . 

More Thursday Thoughts

So here' s some of what i randomly think about during the day, the little things that get me excited, or even stuff that's going on right now.

1. Lunch breaks in columbus are totally different than the ones i had in Lexington. I rarely bought lunch at work in Lexington, I am always in money saving mode so lunches there were spent at my desk checking all my social media, maybe writing a blog while everyone else enjoyed their more delicious meals. Well in Columbus a majority of people pack their lunches AND we eat together in a conference room. Grand idea. I love it. At least I get to step away from my desk for a bit!

2. I get rather excited about small things...like this bowl I found at walmart for like $1 something. perfect container for veggies and dip....well until said container tips upside down and the veggies and dips intermingle whilst the dip tries to drowned the veggies.

3.I have been knocking out my reading a book a month challenge in the past month. I read like 2 1/2 books in June and 1 in July, and am on my way to many more. What does a girl do when her husband is working constantly?! read outside on the hammock and get eaten by mosquitoes while her totally cute puppies gallivant around the yard!

4. Exercise has been my thing in the past week...quick flash back to that whole workout wednesday thing?:
Tuesday: 5 miles on treadmill in theater room at gym
Wednesday: Clean and cook  like a wild banshee for 4th of july party - sweat like crazy
Thursday: Elliptical 30 minutes, Bike 10 minutes, body rock workout 12 minutes
Friday: Pure Barre class with awesome groupon
Saturday: 11.5 mile bike ride in 93 degrees...hot!
Sunday: rest...lazy and loney..not a good combo to get you motivated to workout
Monday: Swim - not sure how many laps, swimming makes me feel so out of shape, its a nice challenge for me
Tuesday: WAXED my car...geez...this takes arm power!
Wednesday: Early morning run around the neighborhood, just winged it and avoided death hill. Just mapped it and apparently only ran under 3 miles (WOAH when did mapmyrun change so much?!)

5. I think this is the first time in my life that I am excited about garbage day tomorrow. We have had the same garbage sitting in our can for about 3 weeks. UM gross. and it has been so hot. therefore it is SO stinky. SO I want to get it away from our house ASAP. please someone text me and remind me to take it out tonight, it NEEDS to happen, we cannot forget, I think something has died in that nasty thing!

6. I listed my car on craigslist last night. And then I cried and then Michael thought I was weird. Emotional attachment to inanimate objects much?! I have had my lovely snow white since i was 16. I felt bad for her. I am an irrational crier, but don't hate! Anyone who would like to extend the life of my awesome 1998 white 2 door civic ex please let me know. I'd love for her to go to a good home.

7. Along with listing a car comes purchasing a car. Purchasing a car is terrifying. I just need to have something with 4 doors. plus I travel a ton so it needs great fuel efficiency. I have flipped and flopped about a million times on what i want. what i like. nothing will stand up to snow white! i love her so. We may finally have a winner though. It makes me wanna throw up, out of nervousness of purchasing a car, having a car payment, AHH i need to stop talking about it, i WILL have a heart attack!

8. My husbands work is making my husband a very tired man. I do not blame him, i understand the work and all. but geez. he's tired for the whole hour he's home. HOWEVER last night since i had dinner ready pronto we were able to chill out on the hammock, he made it out there before me, he had some studying to do so I snapped a photo through the blinds. I'm glad he got to see the sun a bit yesterday!

9. speaking of the hubs, I am so excited for the weekend! Michael gets Saturday and Sunday off! woot woot! i already have it planned, eek, he probably hates this idea. But I have been slightly bored and lonely and craving activity....do I sound like a dog?! I hope to go kayaking saturday (weather permitting, since you know my luck), maybe a movie or chill at the house after, then dinner with a giftcard we got from michael's parents for our anniverary. Then sunday church and hanging out at the pool allllll day (weather permitting again), pool days are easy on the body, i dont think it's that rough :)

10. Next week starts back a lot of my out of the office work. Luckily next week is not overnights but at least I will be busy during the week which normally means faster workdays!

11. I am obsessed with summer fruits, so vibrant and colorful!

12. There's nothing like spending your lunch break talking to yourself on your blog!

13. I am still so happy about free slurpees at 7/11 happening yesterday. And so glad Mrs. Catherine could join me. I enjoy free things, who doesn't? (pina colada on the top, wild cherry on the bottom)

14.  For some reason my phone has decided to selectively send pictures from my phone to my email. This is lame, since i want to add pictures to this blog and it is just doing its own thing. urgh. silly technology!

15. Breakfast for dinner is always a sure fire win for me. Blueberry pancakes with blueberries leftover from the 4th and turkey bacon, yum!

But really, I have been cooking a whole lot more this past week than I had in the past few months. Some of the stuff I've made? Well theres all the cookout food I made, turkey meatloaf, baked ziti (one of our new favs), grilled cheese and tomato soup (ok that's easy), and on the menu for tonight...chicken breasts marinated in this delicious sesame teriyaki sauce we got from trader joes!


16. Dogs sitting in gardening boxes are my favorite. Paparazzi from a far (ok now i'm just going through my phone photos, can you tell?) (Plus I HAD to have a dog pic!)

17. I am currently reading A.J. Jacobs, the Guinea Pig Diaries (he is hilarious by the way, read his book about living biblically for a year!) and one of his essays talks about how we have become such large multi-taskers and he tries to eliminate it from his life for some time.  I tried that today. This morning it worked semi-well. Afternoon comes and its all shot. Being a uni-tasker is hard!

Well that's it for now! Lunch break is over and I got to get back to work!



P.S. I think my blogging comes in pairs, its like once I post once I realize how much I enjoy it basically as my personal diary and memories tracker. Will this posting extend beyond 2 this week? we shall see!