Mother Nature is my Main B

It's actually thundering and lightening outside right now, you guys. I heard one, little, sorry boom of thunder at work a week or two ago, and saw lightening once through the blinds during nap time but this is my first full on storm of the year. This is so exciting. Cleanse my mind, body and soul, Mother Nature, cleanse me. Gosh, it feels good. Just to look out my living room window and see pouring rain. What makes it better is the fact that it's still light out, a nice glow, if you ask me. Let's be real, the sun is shining! As summer is right around the corner, the days are getting longer and it's light until after 8PM. This is the best, the realization that our days are getting longer, warmer. There is nothing like light, and sunshine and a good downpour all at once. This is something I will miss dearly when we move back to the Midwest, the sunshowers. The weathermen actually talk about them. They exist. You got it, it's when the sun is shining bright but it's raining. It's the absolute best. 

It makes me think of a time I had a terrible day at work and then drove home and on my way, was blessed with the most amazing sunshower and then the clouds parted and the rain went away and the sun fully came out just in time to go down. It was beautiful. 

Of course, I Instagramed, think  I didn't? 

The caption was, "Proof that there are greater things than today's frustration." 

Oh man, does Mother Nature feel me. She knows my moods. She knows that this evening's rainfall is all too appropriate after the day I had, the week I had, I should say. The weather is my emotion's, twin, I'm telling you. Between my challenging class of one and a half year olds and my last couple weeks spent at Goddard, my eyes have been leaking lately, lets just say. I've felt frustration and a sense of happy and both are making me more emotional than a pregnant woman. I'm the biggest baby you'll ever meet, I swear to you.

 

What I need is a good downpour to cleanse my mind. And a vacation. I can cross one off the list tonight and the other come, early Sunday morning. Conveniently, today was my last day of work for 9 days and Joel and I are anxiously awaiting a road trip. We dreamed up this plan a couple months ago. Dreamed up, is that right? How do you say that? It's like hanged. Anyways, we developed this master plan and I am so excited we are following through. We are heading towards Utah and doing some camping in Moab. We knew we would never make this trip, after we move back to Wisconsin. Being six hours from Moab is far more manageable than like what, 18 hours? I've always wanted to visit those beautiful arches, stand underneath them. You can bet there will be some pictures taken. After Moab, it's back into Colorado to Telluride, down to Mesa Verde, the Four Corners, back up into Durango and Salida to visit one of my Mom's best friends from high school. We had an amazing last camping trip during the Fall last year, not too far from where we live and thinking about it makes me even more excited to do this road trip. We will be seeing a handful of great places we have not yet seen since we've lived in Colorado. What a wonderful way to start our last month in this beautiful state.

I suppose I can share a couple pictures from my Birthday weekend, last weekend. One of my best friends was in town. She had never been to Colorado, was truly running out of time, us being so close to our move and what better weekend than the one in between our Birthdays. There was nothing like having her here, basking in the sunshine in my backyard and drinking my morning coffee with her. Sharing some drinks, Birthday cards and gifts, laughs, cake, and just being in her presence, gosh, it was lovely.

 

Bridesmaid Material | pc: Joel Kachel

She bought me Drew Barrymore's book for my Birthday. I love cute and/or hilarious coffee table books like it. It's a book of pictures she's taken over the years, hearts in random objects, places. Hearts. Perfect. We all know how much I love love. 

Always wearing those leggings. 

And then look at what I found on my beer glass later that night. 

That's not just my very talented boyfriend playing music in the background, it's a heart puddle of beer placed so perfectly on my glass. Is this real life? 

 

When deciding what I wanted written on our Birthday cake, I took all three of us into account. With Tier having just turned twenty six, me twenty seven, and Joel twenty eight, we needed something fitting for all of us. This is what I went with: 

 

Sparkler candles that didn't really sparkler at all, but we didn't fret. 

 

We visited a couple friends in Denver that had just taken in five foster kittens. Five kittens. At once. Have you ever played with five kittens at the same time? It's happiness, at least, in my world.

 

 

I got no group pictures because the little buggers were speedy things and I was just thoroughly enjoying the moment. Picture this guy, plus four more. Skipping around. Biting each other's ears, wrestling. Greatness. How our friend will give them up, is beyond me. Good luck, Lia.

 

Joel's Mom was also in town for work and was able to stick around for a Joel Kachel show and our Birthday festivities. 

 

Mother In Law Material

Well, that's just not the best cell phone picture ever taken.

 

It was a short, sweet visit from a couple ladies I adore and I loved every minute of it, even though I wish they could have stuck around longer, have seen more, gone exploring. 

 

It's okay, there will be exploring done this week, lots of it. 

Road trip To-Do list, here I come! 

 

Moab road trip: 2 days 

Lana Del Rey at Red Rocks: 11 days 

(Another) best friend comes to town: 12 days 

Move back to the Midwest: 30 days 

 

 

 

In a perfect world, Easter candy would be healthy.

I had a normal Saturday planned yesterday. Wake up, drink my coffee, catch up in the blog world, shower at some point, run some errands, stop at Barnes and Noble and make my way to Whole Foods. Well, I Skyped with my Mom at about 10AM and then 7PM rolled around and I still hadn't put a bra on or taken my sweat pants off. I got as far as catching up in the blog world and blogging myself. I figured at that point that I should probably do something with myself.

I decided to work out. 

I realized, I hadn't done laundry and that my only pair of yoga pants that were clean, were purple. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't work out in purple yoga pants and a shirt that's a different color than white or black. I just can't look foolish. Even if I'm working out in the comfort of my own home. I honestly don't think there's anything that gives me more motivation to work out, than new work out clothes. I haven't always been this way. In fact, years ago, I owned this soccer T-shirt of mine from high school, that said 'Gestalt' on the back. "An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of it's parts." First thing in our season, my soccer team had decided that that would be our motivating word for the year. Anyways, I wore the shirt to practice and worked out in it so often, you know exactly what happened. The armpits became holy and I ended up bringing scissors into the picture and making it a cutoff. I don't know why, but I loved working out in that shirt. Probably because it showed off my arms and my torso, somewhat, but each time I did, even years later, Joel would laugh and tell me I looked like a lesbian. Well, I know a handful of great lesbians, so I just wore the shirt more often. Joel could laugh all he wanted. 

I'm a Taurus. I'm stubborn. I figure, in this life, if I own something that gets the job done, why spend money on something new? This rings true with my tennis shoes. The Nikes I own, I've had since probably 2005 and when I bought them, they were great workout motivation. I can't say the same for today. "You can link up your ipod while you run and track how many miles you've gone, calories you've burned," said, the salesman. Well, at the time, I didn't own an ipod, I was seriously the only one. But I still bought them and felt great motivation in just wanting to wear them, not necessarily work out in them, and I did eventually buy and ipod too.

Over this last Christmas, my Mom brought a book for me to read. I've always been thin but that doesn't necessarily mean I've been healthy. Thank you, Dad, for the high metabolism, because if my body looked the way it eats, yikes! The book she brought me, is called, "Keto-Adapted" by Maria Emmerich. Have you heard of it? If you have any interest in becoming healthy, I say, "healthy" instead of "healthier" because it's an 'all or nothing' commitment. Honestly, I would have to seriously dedicate myself and try with everything in me to eat entirely the way she does. I love dairy, cheese in general, and carbs! I am a carb girl! And cupcakes, I love me some cupcakes. Maria believes in absolutely no gluten or dairy, no sugar and a diet that is low-carb, low-protein and high fat based. Yes, high fat, the good fat though. The book is super interesting. It pretty much tells you that everything we've been taught about the foods we eat, is inaccurate and that's why people have so many internal health issues. Even things like autism and asthma, joint pain, sleep deprivation, head aches, you name it, it's all effected by the food we put into out body and it makes total sense. A prime example of this is the fact that I give my cats only all natural dry food and yesterday, I let them lick the extra tuna out of a bowl of mine. Well, Olive is now throwing up next to me and I was lucky enough to step in a pile with my bare foot after hopping out of bed this morning. This is how the day greeted me, you guys.

Everyday, I think to myself that I could be healthier. Eat better, work out, go on bike rides, walks, but it's so hard for me, probably because I don't look out of shape to myself. And after a day of work, chasing two year olds, I want to just sit when I get home, sometimes in complete silence. And, well, because I convince myself that chasing two year olds, running around outside with them, well, that's physical activity, right? Gosh, I don't have a clue how you Moms have any sort of work out routine, finishing a work day, working out and being a Mother. Power to you! Hopefully, some day, I can relate. 

As for today, I'm going to be present. Joel is in Alaska on tour and scheduled it not having a clue that Easter was this weekend and not at the end of April. Interesting that Easter is based on a lunar calender. Now, that I think of it, the first year we moved out here, Easter was on his Birthday, March 31st. So, today, I'll be alongside the people who have become my family here in Colorado, the people I am most thankful for here, the people that are most similar to my own family in terms of acceptance and loving in a non-judgmental way. You better bet that I'll be pushing them together for, probably the last family picture I'll be able to take of them. I'm taking in all these final moments of our life here in Colorado. 

Now, Happy Easter from 2010. 

Go be present today.