stormy weekend

The weather was CRAP this weekend and I mean crap. We are talking windy advisories, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. So I mostly did a lot of nothing. There was studying for my Personal Training test, there was coffee, there was movie and wine night Friday. Which side note, saw the movie A Place Between The Pines with my boys Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. It was good, but it was weird. 

There was also Saturday night where we went out and celebrated both Brad's birthday and my college roommate's birthday! We went to a place in the Pearl District of Portland called Tilt. This may or may not be the place where they also serve this burger. So good. I might of had bacon tater tots? The blog may never know.

 

The weather was gross that night too, but we braved the rain and ate a lot to keep ourselves warm. Seemed liked good logic at the time. So yeah, other than that I have come to the conclusion I am old, because I stayed up far too late on Saturday and my body is still tired and mad at me Monday morning. I need a nap and it's not even 9am. 

Cheers! 

<3 BB 

Happy Birthday, Ceester!

My sister informed me that she only reads my blog when the entire post is dedicated to her, so hopefully this post will not anger my awesome Aunt Sue who shares the same birthday, especially since her's came first. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT SUE!!!! Excited for your party this weekend!

Anyway, back to my sister.  It's her birthday today.  She is the bebe of the family, but is turning 17, which makes me feel reallllllllly old.  Now as much as I love both of my brothers dearly, there is just something about a ceester-ceester bond.  (I am sure they would tell you the same thing when it came to being brothers? Probably not, but let's pretend for sake of argument.)  I am super fortunate to have a close family that enjoys spending time together and have also benefited from the fact that my little sister lives with my Grandparents (15 mins away from my apartment) during the school year, so I get to see her A LOT! ( Sorry sister, I'm not going anywhere, you're stuck with me)  I know my parents miss her tons, but I definitely enjoy the perks of her being in the big city with me.

Even though we are 7 years apart we are super close and I hope that I have been good role model for her or something equally as cheesy.... But no really, I love her and I hope she has a wonderful birthday!!!!! Although it wont be complete until she sees me this evening - ultimate birthday present = seeing this beautiful face >> 

We're so pritay

She may be 17, but she still dominates on the playground.

She obvs gets her good looks from me and not our parents. 

Lastly, I got you this birthday song:

Happy birthday, favorite only sister!

<3 Your favorite Ceester!

Tuesday Tunesday :: 9.11.12

First off, it's the brother bear's birthday today (and the mother's is tomorrow) so this obvs needs to happen:

Happy Birthday, Brannon and Mom :)



Next,

Stars Academy - Myles and Kolton :: I Won't Give Up (Cover)

Found this song online yesterday, you can thank me when it blows up all over the internet and you already knew about it. 



Passenger :: Let Her Go

I have had Passenger on the blog before, and then this song came on during my drive to work today. The lead singer of Passenger has such a great, unique voice.  It makes my heart swoon.



Van Morrison & Ray Charles :: Crazy Love

An oldie, but goodie that also came on during my drive to work.  If Van Morrison and Ray Charles doesn't make your heart melt, then you're doing it wrong.




Capital Cities :: Safe & Sound

This song will get you moving and if you're into remixes check out this one, it's catchy.


Lastly,

Dave Barnes :: Nothing Fancy

I love this song.  Just like the lyrics say, there is nothing fancy to the song, but that's what makes it beautiful.


Cheers to Tunesday!

<3 BB

Success(es)!

Slowly coming off my birthday high today.  The day after your birthday is kind of like the day after Christmas for a little kid.  I had built up cake day so much in my head and now that it's all gone - I am a little depressed today (insert boo face).

Overall though the birthday was a great success.  The cake mentioned here was delicious.  My bossman is pretty rad to begin with, but the fact that he loves Beaverton Bakery so much makes him even cooler.

After work, my sibs, a few friends of theirs, my cousin Kyler, Brad and I headed out to NE Alberta street for its monthly Last Thursday street fair.  We ran into my coworker Courtney, as well as my lovely friend Jessi.  Sadly, I didn't take many pics, but boy was there some awesome Portland People keep Portland Weird watching and nommable food carts!  Jessi did snap this one of me with her new camera though:

This is my I love food face!

 We had delicious corn on the cob with cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and queso fresco, as well as super yummy dumplings from Stumptown Dumplings.  After a few trips up and down the fair we called it a night and I was still in bed by 10:15 (my inner grandma was very excited by that). 

Now on to my second success.  However, to get to the success we must first visit the part of my day that was not so successful.  This girl had set her alarm for 5:01 am to go for a run, but when it went off it just wasn't in the cards for me.  My body was tired and I quickly reset my alarm (I blame it on the late bedtime mentioned above).  With that being said, I knew I had a busy afternoon and evening, but still really wanted to run off the amazing birthday cake, so I decided to attempt my first try at a lunch run during work. Here are a few things I learned:

could totally film a 90s jazzercise vid in here!

-It is hard to be discreet walking through an office building wearing workout clothes that have splashes of neon.  

-Don't run near food establishments such as Oswego Grill and Olive Garden if you have yet to eat lunch. Torture! 

-The office workout area has a foam roller and plenty of dumbbells, ab mats, and exercise balls.  SCORE

Should have stolen a ball from here for my desk!

-The office locker room has towels and a blow dryer DOUBLE SCORE! My gym bag just got lighter. 

-Dry Shampoo is your friend, if you're lazy and don't want to use said blow dryer.

-The area around my office actually has a great paved walking trail for a quick run

-Because of the break and endorphin boost - I now have energy to kick the rest of this workday's butt!

-When I came out of the locker room after my shower I might had a quick Criminal Minds panic attack, because the lights had been randomly turned off.  Which then lead me to daydream about Agents Morgan and Reid coming to rescue me... (Sidenote: Agent Reid is sneaky cute). 

-Lastly, how does one get their sock bun to not look like this (really struggled getting it to look decent this morning before work and made it even worse trying to fix it post run today):

This is not how it looks on the Fashion Blog Tutorials, crap!

So yeah, all in all my lunch workout was a success, 25 min run: check! Abbies: check! Shower: check!  I will definitely be doing it again.

Anyways, I am off to check out this year's Oregon Brewers Festival.  Brad got halfoff tokens!  I'll admit it: I'm kind of a beer snob. I don't drink very often, so when I do I like it to taste delicious! 

Cheers to Craft Beers! 

-BB 

It's The Final Countdown...

Cake Day is tomorrow!!!

And I can't wait to nom on this:

Beaverton Bakery Marble Cake

And play with my awesome sibs who came up to celebrate with me! 

Sib Number 1:  Little Ceester Brittany (Technically she is the youngest)

Sib Number 2:  Little Bruder Braden  (Don't let his height fool you, he will always be my little sib)

But until then I am going to enjoy my early birthday present to myself: takeout sushi,  Say Yes To The Dress on demand, and a good book before bed!

Cheers to Birthdays (I'm about to be so old)!

-BB

Babbles Takes On Seattle!

Happy Sunday!

Another weekend has come and gone far too quickly.  Luckily, it was another awesome one and it is now leading into my birthday week - so you won't see me complaining!

Friday afternoon I hit up I-5 North to visit one of my favorite people and old college roomies, Rachel, to celebrate her birthday.  That night we hung out with her brother and a ton of their friends at his awesome and HUGE house up on Capital Hill.  I only knew a few people, but quickly made friends, which is always a good time. -- Make new friends, but keep the old. one is silver and the other gold? (anybody?! We Sing Sillyville?!)

After a late Friday night we spent the rest of the weekend being super low key.  This grandma is not used to being awake at 2:30 in the AM unless it happens to be because I have to pee in the middle of the night.  Good news though: I was responsible and didn't do anything crazy, so I was able to get a run in the next morning.  I always forget how hilly the Queen Anne neighborhood is, but it lead to a nice set of hills in the middle of my run, which was super needed since I ate like a 7 year old all weekend.  After living with Rachel for a year I can always expect to eat like a child when I am with her.  Pizza, Sour Patch Kids, ice cream, and shapes mac and cheese were all on the list!   

 This pic was taken pre hills.  Post hills - I was not such a happy camper.

One of the highlights of my weekend was getting to play with the cutest puppy ever:

Everyone meet, Molly!

This might have also happened: 

Puppy kisses!

After our puppy play date we headed to Laurelhurst Beach Club for the afternoon. We were able to enjoy plenty of funshine and even had a chance to take kayaks out onto the lake.  I think it was Lake Union, but it might have been Lake Washington - I always get them confused.   Sadly, there are no photos of us on the kayaks. (I do not trust myself with electronics around water)  I did, however, snap a quick pic with the iphone when we got back on land :) 

Maybe someday I will be cool enough to have a membership at a Beach Club?

After a great weekend like the one I just had up in Seattle it's always hard to force myself to drive home and get ready for another week.  BUT I am quite excited for the one coming up since it is officially my birthday week.  As much as I loved celebrating Rachel's it's time to focus all your attention on me !!!! Kidding kind of.  Not sure what is all on the agenda yet, but I know my brother and sister will be up so I plan on getting some time in with them.  It bodes well for me that I actually like my family members. Makes things a lot less awkward during get-togethers ;)

Cheers to Birthday Week! 

-BB

It's Friday! Friday!

Gotta get down on Friday! Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend.  Partyin', Partyin' yeah!!!

Sorry I got a little carried away there, I think I blacked out? 

Who has two thumbs and is excited for the weekend.... THIS GIRL!  Why, might you ask, because I get to visit my old roomie from college in Seattle :) ahh-woohoo!   It's her birthday weekend so I am headed up to help celebrate her being alive for a quarter of a century.

In other good news:  Brooke finally went to the eye doctor and ordered new contacts, which means she will not have to be blind for at least another year!!!!  Thank you mama's insurance :)

You will quickly catch on that I like to give the thumbs up sign.

Last night Bradley and I had originally planned to get a workout in....BUT then decided to have a date night before I left for the weekend instead (much better idea if you ask me).  I did manage to get up before work and get a workout in though, so not all was lost....  The excitement all started last night when he brought me back new, free Hurley sunnies from work.

I make neon green look good.

We then headed to a new sushi joint out in the Beevs called Mio where I proceeded to eat my body weight in rolls.  Their Double Crunch was LEGITSKIS.  

 nom.nom.nom.

 After we nom'd on sushi we headed to our favorite fro-yo place U-U.  I went with the cookies and cream with a splash of original tart and then added my usual: Heath Bar and Oreo crumbles for a little extra crunch.  (If I were a Top Chef judge I would mention something about the contrasting textures, and the flavor profiles blah, blah, blah... but I'm not, so I'll just go with: it is yummy in my tummy!).  Probs could use that missed workout more than ever now.

We know, we know.  The sunnies look better on me.

We topped the night off by watching a few episodes of Breaking Bad.... which honestly might not have been the best choice after a full tummy, due to the fact there was a super icky scene with a dead body and blood.  Why did I think this would be a good show before bedtime?  I always get nightmares.... but that is neither here nor there, because now I am hooked. 

Annnnyhoooo.  Enjoy your weekend folks.  I am off to play in Seattle. 

Cheers to making it through another work week!

-BB