I know for sure that giving is so much better than receiving.
This year our office decided to skip giving little gifts to each other at the Christmas party and adopt a family in need. MultiCare has an employees helping employees program so we were assigned a single mom with two children and she just so happens to be a fellow employee.
I can't tell you how much fun Mark and I had shopping for the 14 year old boy who is a Steelers fan! We totally hooked him up!
She emailed us and thanked us for providing for her and her children. She was especially thankful that she didn't have to have the "no Christmas" talk with them this year.
I know that Christmas it is not about the gifts, but it is in part about reaching out and helping those around you, and I'm truly thankful I had the opportunity to make a small difference in someones life this holiday season.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
L.A.M.B.
I have had a long standing love affair with Gwen Stefani's music and style. In particular I love her L.A.M.B. handbags! I am one of those girls that would be happy with a new purse every week, and while I may admire the designer purses I won't spend the money on them. It just seems too frivolous to me even though L.A.M.B. bags tend to be much less than a lot of the designer lines out there.
Mark got me a L.A.M.B. handbag several years ago that is the perfect size for lipstick, cell phone and small wallet for going out with the girls, and I love it. The quality of the hardware fascinates me every time I use it. Many times I thought I would like to have a L.A.M.B. handbag that was big enough to use on a daily basis.
Well thanks to Dad sending me Christmas money I was finally able to order the bag I have had my eye on for over a year now, and I got an amazing deal on it. Sure it may be last season's design, but I don't care...it is THE ONE I wanted and I am so happy with it!
The back side of the purse has the M B so it spells LAMB. I love the red accents against the white and black, and while I'm not a huge fan of showing off labels or the brand name of what I'm wearing or carrying, I even like the L.A.M.B. tag that is attached to the front of it. It is pretty subtle compared to some other designer lines out there.
Mark got me a L.A.M.B. handbag several years ago that is the perfect size for lipstick, cell phone and small wallet for going out with the girls, and I love it. The quality of the hardware fascinates me every time I use it. Many times I thought I would like to have a L.A.M.B. handbag that was big enough to use on a daily basis.
Well thanks to Dad sending me Christmas money I was finally able to order the bag I have had my eye on for over a year now, and I got an amazing deal on it. Sure it may be last season's design, but I don't care...it is THE ONE I wanted and I am so happy with it!
The back side of the purse has the M B so it spells LAMB. I love the red accents against the white and black, and while I'm not a huge fan of showing off labels or the brand name of what I'm wearing or carrying, I even like the L.A.M.B. tag that is attached to the front of it. It is pretty subtle compared to some other designer lines out there.
The best part is that all my "essential" stuff fits perfect inside! I just want to carry it around with me all day, even while I'm home just walking around the house. I know I'm being a silly girl. :)
Thank you Dad!!!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Favorite Time of Year
This is my favorite time of year!!! Yes, I love the Holiday Season in general, but specifically I love it when all the gifts are purchased, everything is wrapped, and anything that needed shipping has been shipped. Now we get to sit back and relax with family, friends, and movies you only get to watch this time of year.
It is also a great football time of year. There is playoff buzz in the air for the NFL. Teams are either gearing up to secure their spot, or are admitting defeat and looking to the draft and next year. As if the NFL is not enough all the College Bowl Games have been set and starting this weekend it is one bowl game after another until January 10th...and I predict the Ducks will win it all on the 10th!
Yes, I do love this time of year!
It is also a great football time of year. There is playoff buzz in the air for the NFL. Teams are either gearing up to secure their spot, or are admitting defeat and looking to the draft and next year. As if the NFL is not enough all the College Bowl Games have been set and starting this weekend it is one bowl game after another until January 10th...and I predict the Ducks will win it all on the 10th!
Yes, I do love this time of year!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Recipe of the Week
This is a recipe I got from the Sunset Wine Club to go along with one of the bottles of wine they sent us. The wine and the steak were PERFECT together!
South American Flank Steak
2 oranges (8oz each)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups lightly packed cilantro, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup (half a 7 oz can) chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp each ground cumin and ground coriander
about 1/2 tsp salt
1 beef flank steak (about 1 1/2 lbs) rinsed and patted dry, fat trimmed
1. Squeeze juice from 1 orange and pour into a food processor or blender. Add garlic, cilantro, chiles and their sauce, oil, vinegar, cumin, coriander, and 1/2 tsp salt. Whirl until finely pureed.
2. Place steak in a 1 gal. resealable plastic bag. Pour cilantro-chipotle mixture over steak and seal bag. Chill at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
3. Prepare charcoal or gas grill for direct, medium-high heat (you can hold your hand 5 in. above cooking grate only 4 to 5 seconds); oil cooking grate well. Lift steak from marinade (discard marinade) and lay on cooking grate; close lid if using a gas grill. Cook steak, turning every 4 to 5 minutes, until browned on both sides and done to your liking in center of thickest part (cut to test), about 12 minutes total for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a rimmed board or a platter. Let rest 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Thinly slice meat across the grain. Also slice remaining orange. Serve steak with orange slices to squeeze over servings, and add salt to taste.
South American Flank Steak
2 oranges (8oz each)
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups lightly packed cilantro, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup (half a 7 oz can) chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp each ground cumin and ground coriander
about 1/2 tsp salt
1 beef flank steak (about 1 1/2 lbs) rinsed and patted dry, fat trimmed
1. Squeeze juice from 1 orange and pour into a food processor or blender. Add garlic, cilantro, chiles and their sauce, oil, vinegar, cumin, coriander, and 1/2 tsp salt. Whirl until finely pureed.
2. Place steak in a 1 gal. resealable plastic bag. Pour cilantro-chipotle mixture over steak and seal bag. Chill at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
3. Prepare charcoal or gas grill for direct, medium-high heat (you can hold your hand 5 in. above cooking grate only 4 to 5 seconds); oil cooking grate well. Lift steak from marinade (discard marinade) and lay on cooking grate; close lid if using a gas grill. Cook steak, turning every 4 to 5 minutes, until browned on both sides and done to your liking in center of thickest part (cut to test), about 12 minutes total for medium-rare. Transfer steak to a rimmed board or a platter. Let rest 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Thinly slice meat across the grain. Also slice remaining orange. Serve steak with orange slices to squeeze over servings, and add salt to taste.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Hawks Game
I have been waiting and waiting for the pics that go with this post, but I don’t have them yet, and I don’t like being almost a week behind. So I’m finally accepting the fact that this blog will never contain a ton of photos with the posts, or any at all for that matter.
Anyway, I did manage to have some fun last weekend after my self defense class. Mark and I had free tickets to the Hawks game, and ended up with two extra, so that Bob and Michelle could go with us!
A big Thank You to Val for the tickets! Because she did such an awesome job helping someone rehab from some injuries that opened the door for Dad to work on her son, who just so happens to be a lineman for the Carolina Panthers! So because of the connection and great work that Val did on his Mom Val and Dad ended up with 4 tickets. Two for them and two for Mark and I. But, because Dad couldn’t get the time off from work and Val didn’t want to drive the pass alone Mark and I ended up with all 4 tickets.
Even though we are not Hawk fans, and in fact were Panther fans for the day, we were still really excited to see an NFL game live! We were with about 125 Panther fans all there to see their friend/family member play, he grew up in Richland, so there were a lot of people from E WA there! We had so much fun chatting with his Mom, meeting his sisters and brother and seeing him make some key tackles during the game. Bob and Michelle were happy because the Hawks won, and Mark and I were happy because we got to see a game!
I have to say catching the Sounder is the ONLY way to go to sporting events in Seattle!! We got up there early enough to hit a bar and have some drinks/lunch, roam around the stadium, look around all the booths in the event center and still get drinks and food before the game started. And, after the game we walked to the station and hopped on the first train back to T town that came along. It was really nice to know we could all have beer/drinks and not worry about driving home right away!
It does make me with though that I lived in my teams town. While I have no desire to move to Pittsburgh I would love to be a home town fan for a season!
Thank you Val for doing such awesome work and scoring us tickets!!!
Anyway, I did manage to have some fun last weekend after my self defense class. Mark and I had free tickets to the Hawks game, and ended up with two extra, so that Bob and Michelle could go with us!
A big Thank You to Val for the tickets! Because she did such an awesome job helping someone rehab from some injuries that opened the door for Dad to work on her son, who just so happens to be a lineman for the Carolina Panthers! So because of the connection and great work that Val did on his Mom Val and Dad ended up with 4 tickets. Two for them and two for Mark and I. But, because Dad couldn’t get the time off from work and Val didn’t want to drive the pass alone Mark and I ended up with all 4 tickets.
Even though we are not Hawk fans, and in fact were Panther fans for the day, we were still really excited to see an NFL game live! We were with about 125 Panther fans all there to see their friend/family member play, he grew up in Richland, so there were a lot of people from E WA there! We had so much fun chatting with his Mom, meeting his sisters and brother and seeing him make some key tackles during the game. Bob and Michelle were happy because the Hawks won, and Mark and I were happy because we got to see a game!
I have to say catching the Sounder is the ONLY way to go to sporting events in Seattle!! We got up there early enough to hit a bar and have some drinks/lunch, roam around the stadium, look around all the booths in the event center and still get drinks and food before the game started. And, after the game we walked to the station and hopped on the first train back to T town that came along. It was really nice to know we could all have beer/drinks and not worry about driving home right away!
It does make me with though that I lived in my teams town. While I have no desire to move to Pittsburgh I would love to be a home town fan for a season!
Thank you Val for doing such awesome work and scoring us tickets!!!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Self Defense Class
I had an emotionally intense and physically draining weekend. I took an adrenal response based self defense class this weekend. I have always had the attitude of I won’t go down without a fight, but realize most attackers would be stronger than me and would probably do me more harm than I would them. Therefore I loved the idea of gaining the skills to go along with the attitude.
The whole idea behind adrenal based training is to scare and intimidate you to the point that your body does an adrenal dump giving you the focus, strength and determination to effectively fight for your life.
There are two reasons for this, one is that when you learn something new under that kind of stress it imprints into your memory deeper (both in the conscious and subconscious mind) and is easier to recall the next time your body does an adrenal dump, and second is that when you are faced with a life and death fight your conscious mind is too slow to make the decisions needed to save yourself so you need to rely on the subconscious mind.
I can’t go into a lot of detail, it is just too graphic for this blog and revealing too much would make it less effective for anyone who takes the class in the future, but I will say that the instructor made it very clear that we would be in distress all day. Once class started the doors were locked and we were not allowed to leave. Why lock the doors? Because they had “bad guys” that were so vile and allowed to say, and do whatever they needed to in order to convince you they were going to do every single nasty horrible thing possible to you. And it was relentless, the bad guys repeatedly were allowed to yell at us, whisper in our ears (that was the worst as they were the most graphic when they were able to be close and touching you), make fun of us if we cried, or let us know that if we were “too” strong they would break us. It was relentless mental and emotional battery all day.
We were taught a handful of basic, yet very effective, techniques to defend ourselves and had 5 fights/scenarios that were full on attacks/fights allowing us to use what we had learned. The goal is 4 seconds and the guy is on his back, because the average attack on the street last 4 seconds. If you can’t defend yourself in 4 seconds it is over for you. By the 3rd fight I was at the 4 second mark every time.
I learned that while the bad guys terrified me I was more angry than scared. I’m not a crier; I was the one who looked each attacker right in the eyes to let him know I was going to kill him. It made me a target, they repeatedly let me know they would break me, but they didn’t. I took a deep breath before each fight to focus and do what needed to be done, and it worked. The whole point of the training is that you may be a mess inside, but that won’t stop you from doing what needs to be done, the subconscious brain knows exactly what to do and the body follows…the beautiful thing about adrenaline!
It has taken a toll though; I have been exhausted, dealing with headaches and am really sensitive to certain language/jokes right now. I’m sure I will be back to normal in a few days. Even though I felt emotionally wrecked after the class I also felt such a sense of accomplishment and am really proud of what I accomplished. I feel strong and able to defend myself and my family if needed. The distress I went through was totally worth it for the pay off!
The whole idea behind adrenal based training is to scare and intimidate you to the point that your body does an adrenal dump giving you the focus, strength and determination to effectively fight for your life.
There are two reasons for this, one is that when you learn something new under that kind of stress it imprints into your memory deeper (both in the conscious and subconscious mind) and is easier to recall the next time your body does an adrenal dump, and second is that when you are faced with a life and death fight your conscious mind is too slow to make the decisions needed to save yourself so you need to rely on the subconscious mind.
I can’t go into a lot of detail, it is just too graphic for this blog and revealing too much would make it less effective for anyone who takes the class in the future, but I will say that the instructor made it very clear that we would be in distress all day. Once class started the doors were locked and we were not allowed to leave. Why lock the doors? Because they had “bad guys” that were so vile and allowed to say, and do whatever they needed to in order to convince you they were going to do every single nasty horrible thing possible to you. And it was relentless, the bad guys repeatedly were allowed to yell at us, whisper in our ears (that was the worst as they were the most graphic when they were able to be close and touching you), make fun of us if we cried, or let us know that if we were “too” strong they would break us. It was relentless mental and emotional battery all day.
We were taught a handful of basic, yet very effective, techniques to defend ourselves and had 5 fights/scenarios that were full on attacks/fights allowing us to use what we had learned. The goal is 4 seconds and the guy is on his back, because the average attack on the street last 4 seconds. If you can’t defend yourself in 4 seconds it is over for you. By the 3rd fight I was at the 4 second mark every time.
I learned that while the bad guys terrified me I was more angry than scared. I’m not a crier; I was the one who looked each attacker right in the eyes to let him know I was going to kill him. It made me a target, they repeatedly let me know they would break me, but they didn’t. I took a deep breath before each fight to focus and do what needed to be done, and it worked. The whole point of the training is that you may be a mess inside, but that won’t stop you from doing what needs to be done, the subconscious brain knows exactly what to do and the body follows…the beautiful thing about adrenaline!
It has taken a toll though; I have been exhausted, dealing with headaches and am really sensitive to certain language/jokes right now. I’m sure I will be back to normal in a few days. Even though I felt emotionally wrecked after the class I also felt such a sense of accomplishment and am really proud of what I accomplished. I feel strong and able to defend myself and my family if needed. The distress I went through was totally worth it for the pay off!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Dodgeball Playoffs
Playoffs were last night and we had a blast! It was single elimination format and our first game was against Wonderballs. A very streaky team full of people that we have come to know during the various sport seasons and we really enjoy playing them. We really enjoyed it last night as we pretty much annihilated them!
We are for sure a playoff team, we played our best dodgeball matches last year in playoffs and we did the same again this year. Even in the game we lost, we played some of our best dodgeball against a very good team.
We moved on to the semi-final match against New Directions. Oh what to say about ND? Well they are young, about 20 to 24 ish with the exception of Steve, who played softball with us, who is 31. Every single one of them is a recent serious athlete or currently playing college sports. They can throw, they catch anything that comes their way, and were a thorn in our side all season. Let's just say that being a team in our 30's some of the shenanigans of the 24 ish crowd did not always go over well and there were some very heated games between our two teams during the season.
It does not help that they are hands down the best team in the league. They only lost 2 or 3 games the whole season and beat us every time we played them, including last night. We started out on fire, and they were getting frustrated that we were playing them so well, but they pulled it together and ended up winning the game by 1 or 2 matches, I forget now.
They went on to the championship game and it was not even close they won it 6 to 3, and deservedly so. Even if they were punks at times it does not bother me to lose to a team that is clearly more athletic and talented, and see them win it all.
And, off the court I actually like everyone on the team, it is just frustrating to see so much young talent acting silly and goofing off and not taking it serious and still beat us when we are serious and playing our asses off. It is just so much easier for them and I think they take it for granted. But then when I was 24 ish I took a lot of things for granted as well and when they are playing sports in their 30's they are going to have to work harder as well.
Dodgie Style did win most Team Spirit which got us a $50 gift certificate to use at The Office, the sponsoring bar. We made good use of it with shots, snacks, beer and good times with friends!
Fun, times for sure! I can't wait for winter dodgeball to start in January. Until then I will enjoy being able to get back to Zumba on Wednesday nights!
We are for sure a playoff team, we played our best dodgeball matches last year in playoffs and we did the same again this year. Even in the game we lost, we played some of our best dodgeball against a very good team.
We moved on to the semi-final match against New Directions. Oh what to say about ND? Well they are young, about 20 to 24 ish with the exception of Steve, who played softball with us, who is 31. Every single one of them is a recent serious athlete or currently playing college sports. They can throw, they catch anything that comes their way, and were a thorn in our side all season. Let's just say that being a team in our 30's some of the shenanigans of the 24 ish crowd did not always go over well and there were some very heated games between our two teams during the season.
It does not help that they are hands down the best team in the league. They only lost 2 or 3 games the whole season and beat us every time we played them, including last night. We started out on fire, and they were getting frustrated that we were playing them so well, but they pulled it together and ended up winning the game by 1 or 2 matches, I forget now.
They went on to the championship game and it was not even close they won it 6 to 3, and deservedly so. Even if they were punks at times it does not bother me to lose to a team that is clearly more athletic and talented, and see them win it all.
And, off the court I actually like everyone on the team, it is just frustrating to see so much young talent acting silly and goofing off and not taking it serious and still beat us when we are serious and playing our asses off. It is just so much easier for them and I think they take it for granted. But then when I was 24 ish I took a lot of things for granted as well and when they are playing sports in their 30's they are going to have to work harder as well.
Dodgie Style did win most Team Spirit which got us a $50 gift certificate to use at The Office, the sponsoring bar. We made good use of it with shots, snacks, beer and good times with friends!
Fun, times for sure! I can't wait for winter dodgeball to start in January. Until then I will enjoy being able to get back to Zumba on Wednesday nights!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)