So I decided to dance to the Sun Gods after ANOTHER cold and rainy track meet on Saturday. I know I live in Portland. I know I have grown up in Oregon all my life. I know I am supposed to embrace the rain and I do, most of the time - but I am just tired of it now. I am ready for funshine and warmer weather and not having to pack my rain jacket whenever I leave the house.
Good news is the Sun Gods listened to me and they are saying it will be a lovely 73 degrees at some point today. Granted it will probably rain tomorrow. But. Whatever - I am living it up today and even wore a skirt. Sorry not sorry to those I blind with my white legs today.
In other news, I turned down cookies not once, but twice this weekend. Give me a gold star, damnit. This whole cutting out processed sugar and the icky carbies has not been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Granted I am cheating a tiny bit and still having green fruit smoothies in the morning, but eh, playas gone play.
Here is the only photo I took all weekend - post rain and mud at the track meet. Hashtag over it.
Let's not be Sun Shy any more, Portland. Kthanks, Bye.
So let's talk about how yesterday was 70 degrees and sunny in Portland. It was the most beautiful thing in my life. Now today it is POURING rain and not supposed to stop the rest of the week. Here are a few things that are helping me through this raining day.
//First let's talk about the greatest mug I ever did see. I participated in a mug swap that my favorite girlie Kailyn Marie hosted. I was paired up with Shannon over at Imperfectly Perfect Grace and she picked out the most perfect mug. It has triangles, it's from society6, it has my favorite colors, AND it is HUGE (twss). It makes my morning coffee taste better - science.
//Second, when I got my hair cut last week, I also picked up some new leave-in conditioner. Holy moly, my hair smells so good this morning. The brand is called Number 4 and I just love it.
//Lastly, I have a new playlist for you guys today. I feel like it has a very rainy day vibe - even if it is spring and we should be thinking about sunshine. It's Portland, spring = rain. Hope you enjoy the tunes as much as I do.
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.
I had missed your rain....for like a day and now I am over it. I am not ready for grey and wet to last until next June. Where is my favorite fall weather at?!!!!? I want to pick apples and be outside with crunchy leaves, not the soggy wet ones that I keep slipping on.
With that being said I decided to dedicate today's playlist to rain. So here are some of my favorite songs about rain. They literally all have the word rain in the title. You're welcome.
These weekends are just flying by and I don't like it. Let me clarify: I like my weekends, I don't like how fast they leave me.
Friday after worked Brad and I attempted the CrossFit Open 13.5 workout:
It was hard, but I got more reps finished than Brad did so there's that :) Granted, his weight for the thrusters was more, but no one needs to know that.
The most annoying part of the workout was the fact that my lungs wanted to explode we do not belong to a Crossfit Box (aka gym) and so we have to make do with what is available at our local LA Fitness. We ended up having to wait like 15 mins after our warm up for the squat rack / pull-up bar which was really annoying. Almost annoying enough to want to bag the workout... almost. Nevertheless, we got it done and I finished with a total of 75 reps or 2 full rounds of the 15 thrusters and 15 pull-ups and then another 15 thrusters before the 4 mins was up. Let me tell ya, my body was sore on Saturday.
Speaking of Saturday, it was spent at Willamette's track, where it rained pretty much all day. I'm talking downpour, didn't stop, sideways at times, annoying rain. I was there from 9am till almost 7pm and it definitely poured for over half of that time. I looked like I had just gotten out of the shower by the end of the meet. Needless to say by the time I got back to Portland a hot bath and bed were calling my name. Brad had gone to the Timbers game with a friend since I couldn't go and he might have found me sitting up in bed, asleep, with the light on, iPad in hand when he got home. Long hair, don't care.
Don't I look so official with my clip board?! Image from here.
My tiredness crept into Sunday, because I woke up at 7:30 wandered out to the couch where Brad was playing FIFA and fell back asleep until 9. It was awesome, until I woke up hungry and we had no food. After a quick trip to the grocery store we made a breakfast hash. It was glorious.
Can I just say that my sweet potato / yam concoctions are really starting to hit their stride:
{what you need:}
::1 diced yam
::6 pieces of turkey bacon
::1 avocado
::4 over-easy eggs
::1/2 a green pepper
::1/4 of a red onion
::dash of cinnamon
::dash of garlic powder
::Red pepper flakes
::Black pepper
::finish it off with tapatio hot sauce.
{what you do}
::Chop up all the veggies and turkey bacon
::Sprinkle with cinnamon, garlic powder, and the red and black pep
::Cook until the yams are soft and the bacon is sizzlin'
::In a separate pan, fry the eggs until they are over-easy (keep those yokes nice and runny)
::Throw the fried eggs on top and break the yokes so all the goodness oozes into the hash.
::Then nom away :)
After a lazy morning, I finally pretended to get my life together and cleaned the apartment, which had been neglected for the past few days. Speaking of cleaning, does anyone know what makes the Mr. Clean - Magic Erasers so magical?! Do they have cocaine in them or something?! These things don't stop. They are awesome.
While cleaning, I came to the conclusion that Brad and I have a Nike problem. This photo only represents a portion of our shoe collection. We need to find a better storage option instead of right in right of the door or get a place with a second bedroom to just store our shoes.... hmm, decisions, decisions.
Speaking of running shoes, after we cleaned Brad and I met up with my sister for a circuit workout on the track, but I'll share the details of that one later in the week (I know you can't wait!)....
So yeah, that was more or less my weekend.... how was yours?!
And I am not talking about this kind of Couples Retreat:
Ok, so actually it wasn't a couples retreat at all. More just a group of friends that happened to head to the beach in pairs for the weekend. I promised I would have photos of our weekend at Cape Meares and here they are!
The small group included me and Bradley, my brother and his girlfriend Rachael, and our friends Tyler and Justine.
We stayed at Tyler's parents' beach house and it was wonderful. The house does not have wifi or cable, which I really enjoyed. Instead we got our Jenga on, read, played cards, and just had plain ol', good conversation. And laughing, there was a lot of laughing.
That has to be record height, no?!
We even shot a music video for the next up and coming Boy Band: Beach Boyz 4eva. Might have made that part up.
We got to enjoy experience pretty much every type of weather from fog, wind, rain, sun, and even hail throughout the weekend. So, basically, your typical Oregon day. We tried to sneak in walks when it was calm, but definitely got stuck in a downpour during one of our outings.
There were multiple logs along the bank that had random paintings on them like the one above.
This weather def made me realize Hunters are in my future.
A hint of sun after rain is always my favorite.
It was awesome to see what the community has done along the beach from building forts like this to community fire pits (where we tried to make one, but it was raining and it ended up being an epic fail, because all the logs were soaked, but that's neither here, nor there.).
The BB4Eva in all their glory.
It was a tad windy and cold, but we braved the beach anyway.
The house in the middle is the one we stayed at and and I loved it...but I am hoping the one next to it goes on the market soon so Bradley can buy it for me ;) I wish.
Does anyone else get a bit stir crazy by the end of January, only to realize we have at least 4 more months of rain to get through in Oregon before the weather decides to be nice? I mean I get it - it's winter, it's cold, it's rainy, there is a lot of great college basketball on Saturdays, and I love me some NFL on Sunday, but at a certain point I get tired of being inside. I am like a child that way. You can only entertain me indoors for so long. Plus, I get extra tired of using it's grey and rainy out as an excuse to lay on the couch all winter day.
This past Sunday I asked Brad if he wanted to get out of the apartment even though it was raining and luckily he was game. (It did help that only the Pro Bowldoes anyone eve watch that? was on and his Indiana Hoosiers had already won earlier that morning.) We wanted to try a new trail so I headed to Google and found that Cooper Mountain Nature Park is only a few miles away.
Now, technically this isn't hardcore hiking or anything, but it was definitely a nice change of pace from a treadmill or busy street roads. It offers 3.5 miles worth of graveled trails and overlooks the Tualatin River Valley. Tough Mudder Training, anyone?! We are signed up to run our second mudder in June, who wants to join our team?!
Oh hey, Cooper Mountain. Nice to meet you.
Initial view of the TRV.
Don't ask...
Pre hike stretch, which was needed because our pace was as fast as you could walk without turning into a run.
Look guys, Nature!
Rain, we're not afraid of you.
Brad and I were curious to know how the tree lost its bark, but not quite curious enough to Google it. Do any of you nature enthusiasts know why?!
It bodes well for me that grey is one of my favorite colors.
Team Selfie. #telfie? Okay, I will stop talking now...
This playground was perfect for Tough Mudder training. Obstacles on obstacles on obstacles.
Beast mode.
There might have been an older couple giving Brad and I funny looks as we were on the playground, but whatever....We are definitely planning on returning to get a few runs and other training in, maybe even bring Jessi and Dan the Man with us, since they are also signed up to run the Mudder! #hoorah!
Anyway, if you are looking for a change of pace or want to get some Mudder training in, Cooper Mountain may just be the place for you.
.jpg)
.JPG)
