A long journey!

The first part of our tour for work is a doozy. We start by flying to our home office in Atlanta. From there we drive to North Carolina to pick up our work truck and trailer for the year. 

That's where all the fun starts. Driving a F450 across the country hauling a heavy ass trailer is less than ideal at times, especially when weather is inclement and road conditions are poor.

So from NC we drive all the way to Daytona Beach for our first week of work. Daytona is always fun! Our company rents us a house right on the water and our whole crew is there. Imagine being the only girl in the house of 8 boys. It's a lot of fun and sharing the bathroom isn't bad believe it or not! The guys are so considerate. I am the first girl that they have ever hired to be on this particular tour so it's been a great  dynamic the past two years! 

From Daytona Beach we drive all the way across Southern USofA to Phoenix, AZ. It's 3 long days of being in the truck for 14 hours at a time- only stopping for fuel. Potty breaks are coordinated only with fuel stops. Good thing I have the bladder of a camel. This time across I-10 I was driving through TX and holy wind!! There was a constant head wind of 20 mph winds with gusts up to 50mph. It was interesting and my hands hurt by the time we switched drivers from holding on so tight. 

We finally made it to Phoenix and worked a long week but had a blast while there. Scottsdale is one of my favorite cities. So much shopping, great places to eat, gorgeous people, great weather this time of year. While I was fighting off a sun burn- friends and family back home were getting 20+ inches of snow. 

Now we are en route to Las Vegas. We spend an entire week here which is 4-5 days too long! Vegas is fun for a hot second but it can get exhausting. The city that never sleeps and I have a rough history. Last year I ended up in the hospital for being severely dehydrated. After 10 hours in the most disgusting waiting room in America I was given a full bag of fluids and a half of another bag. Clearly I didn't take the best care of myself while there. This year I will be taking it a lot easier and will be relaxing more. 

The drive is pretty uneventful but it makes you realize how vastly different the United States is from region to region. I think I'll take my four seasons and pretty landscape  in the Midwest over the mountainous desert. 

Vegas recap soon!! I'm sure ill have a ton of pictures to share! 

 

An attempt to be better!!

I know I haven't done even a mediocre job of keeping up with my blog but its my goal to do a much better job in 2013. I have had a lot of exciting things happen over the past few months and I can't wait to share all the fun with you guys. So stay tuned!! 

I hope to have daily posts,relatable   content, tutorials, funny stories of my daily happenings, and so much more. 

:)

A New Addiction..

Holy moly my life has been changed!! I dont know if I have been living under a rock, or this is due in part to where I live, but I had never had Smoothie King until this past week and WOW Im OBSESSED!

My smoothie of choice: Green Tea Tango---YUMMY!!
The Ingredients:

• Matcha Green Tea 
• Vanilla Frozen Yogurt 
• Vanilla Protein Blend Gladiator® 
• Protein Mix Turbinado 
• Choice of One Fruit (I chose pomegranate) 

What I love about their menu is the way its broken down into categories.

• Stay Healthy-Contains ingredients that assist in improving overall health 
• Trim Down-Low fat, under 400 calories. Some even further help promote weight loss. 
• Get Energy-Formulated to help give your body that extra boost of energy. 
• Shape Up-High calorie/high protein, geared toward weight gain/muscle building. 
• Snack Right-These smoothies are low fat and are a great snack. 
• Indulge- Their specialty smoothies 
• Kids Kups-Contain 100% of the RDA of vitamins and minerals for children.

Not only do they have awesome smoothies but they also provide supplements and other health boosting products and snacks. Literally. IN LOVE.

If I could go to Smoothie King for every meal, I really would. And I would take the weird looking wheat grass shots, just to make me myself feel that much more healthy. Go try it if you haven't. It will change your life.

A healthier me begins today!!

I have always considered myself to be in good health. In all honesty, I was confusing my hyper metabolism and ability to stay toned with little to no effort with healthiness. Lately I have noticed a huge change in my body. I feel fatigued, have headaches on a daily basis, my skin complexion has never been worse, my metabolism has slowed down drastically. Quite frankly I have been dragging ass. So long are the days where feeling 100% and looking like I worked out on a daily basis came easy.

So today I have decided to make a huge lifestyle change. I am going to take action and quit pretending that one day I'm going to wake up and it's all going to be like it used to be. It's not, especially if I don't do anything to make it happen. I have already started doing a few things to transition into this healthier me. I have cut down on 90% of my alcohol consumption. So long college years and my ability to party and process alcohol with no detrimental consequences (this day had to come eventually). Ive started to drink 60 oz of water a day. Staying hydrated obviously is crucial to the body and it's daily functions. I sleep more, atleast 7 hours a night. And I have started working on portion control. I have started becoming aware of when I overeat, so I am taking note of portion sizes and when to stop eating, not eating until I'm full.

What I need help on now is WHAT to eat. What foods and nutrients my body needs to naturally work on mu metabolism and energy. What I need for a well balanced diet.

I will be doing a lot of reading on health and nutrition and exercise and I'll be sharing things that I feel are helpful and beneficial. I'll also be sharing my process in hopes that inspires people out in bloggerland to take those first steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

I found this link on yahoo today about simple foods to add to your daily diet that help your body tremendously.

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/10-foods-away-10-years-152000618.html?fb_action_ids=10101010368290800&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210101010368290800%22%3A10150995561019109%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210101010368290800%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

A Part of Me

Is there something that you own that you carry with you everywhere you go? Something that literally has become a part of you?

Well mine is my turquoise ring. I wear it on my left hand on my ring finger. Never on a different finger or my other hand. When I take it off to shower I feel like something is missing. This ring has been through a lot with me, and got pretty beat up. So much so that the original turquoise stone started to chip and eventually broke. I was so devastated. There was no initial special meaning behind this ring, just something I bought myself because of the unique stone, but after 8 years on my finger I fell in love with it. So when the stone broke I was so bummed. I set it aside, too attached to throw it and the broken pieces away, and never thought I would get to wear it again.

Well I was wrong. My sneaky and ever so thoughtful cousin, Molly, snatched it up one day while she was at my house without me noticing. She found a western jewelry store that specialized in Native American pieces, especially those with turquoise. She picked out a new stone, equally if not more beautiful than the one that was originally in it and had it cleaned up. On Christmas Eve, at our MaMa's annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange, she surprised me with the ring! My first thought was where in the heck did she find a ring just like my old one!? Then it dawned on me that it was MY ring!! I was so in shock and elated!! I couldn't believe that she was aware of exactly how much that ring meant to me! She told me that although it was a small gesture, she wanted me to always think of her when I wore that ring. Now, not only is it my favorite ring, it signifies something more. Its the kindness and attentiveness that one person can show another, It's the bond between family members, and above all, it's the love she put into giving back a small part of me!


What's one thing you always have with you!?

San Diego

On our only FULL day off in California, Brandon and I decided to spend it in San Diego, CA, one of my favorite places to be. I have a few girlfriends that live there and my good pal, Kate, spent a good portion of her 20's there, and has some funny stories about time spent there, but most importantly-she knows all the best places to go since she lived there for several years! (Not only does Kate know all the best places to go in CA, because she is a California girl, but all over the country actually because of the years she has spent on the road! This girl knows the best places shop, sight-see, wine taste, and especially EAT!! Man-o-man she knows all the MUST GO restaurants in pretty much any city!!).

Brandon and I decided to spend our night downtown San Diego in the Gaslamp District. It was a week night, so I didn't know what to expect, or how busy it would be, but much to my surprise, by the time we actually got there, there was so much going on. The streets, restaurants, and bars were all packed with young professionals- mine and Brandon's kind of crowd! We decided it was a good idea to cab it from our hotel to the GLD so we just had the driver drop us off on the corner and we walked down the street looking into each bar and restaurant trying to decide which one we wanted to go to first. The first bar we went to, and where we spent most of our night, was a place called Henry's Pub. We are huge fans of places that have a tavern or pub atmosphere. They had really good drink specials and great live music! Brandon and I had a great time spending some time out, a welcomed change from what our evenings normally are after work!

via

The next morning we woke up and decided to head to Mission Beach for breakfast. I actually spent some time there last April with my girlfriend, Tamara, from the Burton Tour, who lives right next to the beach. She and I had a blast!! We sunned, rode bikes to the bars, played beach volleyball, and not to mention had a TON of head stand competitions in the sand. I won, well most of the time! :)

**Mine and Tamara's blissful beach time together***

So it was really nice to come back to a familiar place to spend some beach time with Brandon. Our plan was to grab breakfast at The Wavehouse and then lay out on the beach all day and enjoy the weather. Well when we woke up it was FREEZING!! It was wayyyy too cold to lay out on the beach even though there were crazies doing it anyway!! Even though it was way cooler than we expected, we still wanted to go to the beach for breakfast to to walk around and take fun pictures. The Wavehouse's breakfast is soooo good!! You get entirely way too much food (if there is such a thing?) but its so affordable it doesn't matter if you aren't able to finish it all! Brandon wasn't able to, but me being the garbage disposal of an eater that I am- I was able to throw back 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, homestyle potatoes, 2 pieces of bacon, and a side of french toast. I REALLY wish I had taken a picture of it. I was pretty impressed that I ate that much. But lets be honest, had we not already decided it was too cold to lay out, I would have never eaten all that before laying around in a swimsuit. Talk about being bloated!! Ew-gross.

After we ate, we spent about an hour walking around the beach in our long sleeves, trying to figure out how people were able to lay out in that weather, and just breathing in the ocean air. I am a Pisces so I am a natural lover of all things water, I just gravitate toward it! Being from Missouri, oceans and beaches aren't an everyday thing for me, so I literally could just sit and stare all day long. Brandon, however, lived in Hawaii for some time, so just sitting and staring at water really isn't his idea of fun.

By the time we left San Diego, and got back to our hotel in San Bernardino we were rested and ready for our short 3 days of work that week! The days flew by, and before we knew it, we were down in Texas with the week and a half off ahead of us! Brandon stayed down in TX with his sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece, and I flew home to Missouri to spend time with my family and to throw a bridal shower for my future sister!! Its been a great week home!!

Spring is in the Air

We drove like maniacs from Bristol, TN to California so we could get there a day early to enjoy some much needed time off. You would be surprised how much getting even one day off from the normal routine can rejuvenate your spirit. After we checked into our hotel we decided to take the hour drive up to gorgeous Big Bear Lake, to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. The drive up in itself was very scenic.

Just the week before, Big Bear had received the most snow it had gotten all season. A local man said just around 30"!! By the time we got there, a lot of it had melted away but there was just enough that the mountain and trees were snow capped. I have been to Big Bear City once before, just a few years ago when I was touring for Burton Snowboarding, but since we spent all of our time at the mountain resort demoing boards- I didn't get a chance to really check out the lake.

(Doing hoodrat thaangs with my hoodrat fraands on the Burton tour-first time at Big Bear)


So once we finally got there, we pulled off at a park that was right next to the lake. It had a small dock that you could walk out on, and that many people fished off of. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was 50 degrees out, and the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky. Not thinking, I wore an off the shoulder tee and sandals, and although I wasn't cold- I had to walk through snow and my toes were definitely numb by the end of the day! Brandon and I took the opportunity to take a TON, and by a TON, I mean over 100, pictures of the scenery, each other, and pictures together. Being the picture whore that I am, that did not phase me one bit but I could tell Brandon had had his fill.

(so studly)

Toes were FREEZING

We spent a good hour and a half there and by that time we were getting hungry and wanted to grab a bite to eat and get back down the mountain before it was dark. We stopped at a local restaurant called Captain's Anchorage where I tried my first buffalo burger! SOOO GOOD. With full bellies we decided to start heading down the mountain. Right when the sun started setting behind the mountains, Brandon pulled over and said we needed to take a few more pictures (and I thought he was sick of it by then). He has a pretty good eye for photography and he definitely picked the right time of evening with the perfect background to pull over! By that time of the day, we were kinda gross looking but we were having so much fun and didn't care how we looked!

having sooo much fun!

The day was full of quality time together, not having to rush to the next city or worry about work the next day. We definitely ceased the opportunity to take in the natural beauty that God has created in this world, and lets face it, it doesn't get much better than that! Spring is all about dormant things coming to life again, and this fun and gorgeous trip up to Big Bear is just what I needed to get out of the drab funk of winter, and to feel the optimism of what Spring has to offer this year!