Impromptu Tourism

I live near some pretty nice tourist attractions (*cough*Smoky Mountains*cough*), and not too far from some touristy cities like Chattanooga and Nashville. I always mean to stop and be a tourist in my own backyard, but I just never do. Until this past weekend.

I had to meet my niece in Chattanooga (it's about halfway between her house and ours) on Saturday, and when we were about to leave Greg told me he'd never been to Lookout Mountain. What? Inconceivable! Since it was only 15 minutes from our current location, we decided to go and play tourist for the day at Rock City.

If you've ever taken a road trip through the South, you've probably seen the trademark barns directing you to See Rock City. It's a self-guided tour along the edge of Lookout Mountain. Probably the biggest draw is the Lover's Leap view where you can see 7 States (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia). It's definitely more of a tourist attraction than a strenuous hike, which was good since neither of us were really dressed for much but a car ride!

There's all sorts of rock formations and little additions along the path.

Mushroom Rock

I have no idea what this is. A human size bird cage?

An eagle statue just for Greg!

The 7 States

 I love the view, but I wish they had like a window with the outline of the states or something so you knew exactly what you were looking at. I should put that in the suggestion box. ;-)

 

That's a pretty nice delfie right there...

You can tell I was not planning on this adventure! Wrong clothes!

 You can't tell, but I was trying really hard not to laugh in this picture. A lady saw me taking the picture above it and asked if I wanted her to take a picture of the two of us, so I said sure. About the time she clicked the picture she said "since I'm doing this would you mind taking one of us?" meaning her and her husband. I just laughed and said sure.  Really, she could have just asked if I'd take their picture.

Not only handsome, but incredibly strong!

 This was called Tortoise Shell Rock, but G and I agreed that it looks more like a polar bear head. Or maybe we're both a little weird.

 It rained most of the way down there (and part of the hike!) but the clouds looked awesome. That fuzzy spot near the middle right was actually rain coming down in the valley.

 I'm not sure why there's a Fairyland Caverns on the way out, but it's fun to look at.

 I had to take this one for my fellow pumpkin-lover, Amy! Not bad digs, really!

Overall we had a pretty good time taking a break to be tourists!

30 at 30

In honor of my 30^th birthday, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and come up with a list of 30 things to do before May 7 of next year! Off we go!

1.       See more live music. I might have stolen this one from Greg. It was part of his new year's resolution, but I like the idea. There are so many opportunities to see some good music that I really should join him in this effort.
2.       Explore my area. There are so many cool things to do within a day's drive of my house and I rarely do any of them!
3.       Try new foods! I am definitely not one to shy away from trying foods that are different. Hello, one of my favorite desserts is the chocolate habanero deliciousness known as the Azteca Gelato from Coolato Gelato. That being said, when I go out to restaurants I tend to order the similar things everywhere I go.
4.       Establish a regular game night. We used to be so good at this! Amy and I would hang out and play Clue or Wii games, Greg and I would go over to friends' houses for Settlers of Catan... I would like to set up at least a quarterly game night. Soon!
5.       Relax. I would never call myself high strung, but I will admit that sometimes I get a little overwhelmed. Even if I know things are out of my control and there's nothing I can do, I still get stressed out. I just need to caaalm dooown.
6.       Get a new job. Ok, this one's cheating because I start my new job tomorrow! The job interview I mentioned before went really well and I go in to fill out paperwork tomorrow morning. My first full day will be May 16!
7.       Re-establish my quiet time. This will help me do #5. I used to have a regularly scheduled time alone with God and it was great! These days I feel like I'm just blowing through my bible reading and I wait so late to pray that I end up falling asleep before I'm done. God made time to make the universe, I think I can make time to be with Him!
8.       Get crafty! Obviously I love my crafts, but they have fallen to the wayside lately. I need to get back at my creative outlets!
9.       Do more things Greg wants to do. I have the most wonderful guy ever, but I will admit that we do what I want to do a lot of the time. We do what he wants to do when it's also something I want to do. Eek! I need to be more open to doing things that he's interested in. *cough*DragonCon*cough*
10.   Try new restaurants. Similar yet different from #3, I need to branch out in my eating habits. When I go out to eat, I probably eat at the same few places over and over. I practically have some of their menus memorized. Which is a shame because Knoxville has a lot of fun places that I've been interested in but never tried. How sad.
11.   Reorganize and downsize. I have too much crap.
12.   Get back into a regular exercise routine. Yeah, yeah, I know. I've been down this path before. But I also know I feel better when I workout. Hopefully not working in a gym will help me be more inclined to visit it.
13.   Get a tan. Hee hee hee, ok so if you've seen my pictures you know I basically have a year-round tan [shout out to the mixed kids!]. But if I have a better tan, that means I actually spent some time outside this summer!
14.   Have more “little” dates with G. Greg and I have had some big, fancy dates like a casino party at Club LeConte and dinner at Brazeiros, but I have just as much fun (if not more) doing silly little things with him. We need more of that.
15.   Read more! I have gone through a drought of reading and it saddens me. Books are like free vacations! What am I waiting for?
16.   Go somewhere I’ve never been. I did this in February, and now it's bugging me that I need to do it again. And again. And again. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as going to the Bahamas, but just to visit a place I've never been and see something new. It can be tied in with #2 and #10. :-)
17.   Be joyful. Back in January, I asked my small group to pick a word or theme for the year. My word was joy. I feel I do great with it some days and absolutely terrible other days. I can do better.
18.   More random acts of kindness. I've done this a few times, but I need to get more mindful about my randomness.
19.   Clean regularly. This kind of goes with #11. Once I pare down, hopefully it will be easier to keep stuff clean.
20.   Do something with my hair. I'm in a mode where all I do is wear my hair in a bun, which is usually a signal that I need a haircut. And then I just wear it in a ponytail or a braid. I need to get more adventurous.
21.   Say thank you more. I have been blessed with some really great people in my life. I need to let them know I appreciate them.
22.   Take a trip with G. We haven't gone on a trip together since August 2012. That needs to be remedied.  
23.   Fix my fridge. I bought a beautiful new fridge, but when they installed it we realized there was a tiny pinhole in the tube to our house tubing. It's a simple fix, I just need to go to Home Depot to get the part.
24.   Swim. As in laps. I used to be on a swim team when I was in middle school and I've always loved to swim. Plus it's such a great all over workout.
25.   Go to the chiropractor. I went for a free consultation a few weeks ago and we discovered I have a twist in my back causing a lean in my neck and pain in my shoulders. There's also a line where a curve should be in the back of my neck. My new health insurance will cover chiropractic visits, so there's nothing really stopping me.
26.   Try a new activity. I'm noticing a theme here. I want to do new things.
27.   Cook from my Pinterest boards. Like every person with a Pinterest account, I have all these delicious looking recipes I've done nothing but look at. I need to try a few!
28.   Meal plan. My life runs more smoothly when I do this, but I get so wrapped up in nonsense I forget to do it. Or I get distracted.
29.   Update my wardrobe. For all the clothes I have, I don't have a lot to wear. Once I do #11, I'll need to purchase some better pieces. But not too many! 
30.   Blog more! If you look at my post history, I think this one speaks for itself.

Some will definitely be easier than others, but I’m looking forward to trying it!

Spirit Week

I'm going to totally pretend that you've only missed this week. That being said, this is still going to be a long post. Deal with it...

This week has been... interesting! In a mostly good way! Tomorrow is the Group Fitness Launch at work (where the instructors start using new releases of the MOSSA Group classes), so we've been having a Spirit Week at work to gear up for it. Starting Tuesday we had Earth Day, Sports Day, Crazy Hat Day, and Super Hero Day. Tomorrow for the actual launch will be Beach Party Day. What most of us heard was that we go almost a whole week where we didn't have to wear our uniforms. Chicka-chicka-ka-score! ;-)

The interesting part of my week really started on Monday. I knew the next day was Earth Day, and I was allowed to wear anything with an Earth Day/Recycling theme to it. I shot Amy a message to see if she had anything I could borrow since I had nothing appropriate, and she found a tshirt of her husband's that would be perfect. When she asked him if I could borrow it He said I could, but only if I applied for a position that had just become available at his company. I think we all know that I've been looking for other employment for a while now, so I was intrigued. After a brief conversation with Amy, I polished up my resume and go it to the HR person. When I saw Amy at small group that night, she said her husband came home saying he thought they wanted to interview me on Thursday. Sure enough, when small group was over I had a voice mail asking if I was available for an interview on Thursday at 10am. Ahhh!

Tuesday and Wednesday were kind of a blur. I scrambled to get my shift partially covered for Thursday (I was supposed to work 11am-6pm), and I finished getting the rest of Greg's birthday gifts together. Oh yeah, not only did I have an interview on Thursday, but the love of my life turned 37! Tuesday and Wednesday involved a lot of shopping and praying. Mostly, I was praying that I would keep calm and just present myself well. I didn't want to get too excited, mostly because I've applied for several jobs and had a few interviews and then crickets. So I kept praying for God to move as He saw fit in the situation and to remind me that He has perfect timing.

Thursday was a full day, which was great! I didn't have time to dwell on anything because the day was so packed. I had the interview, worked 1-6, then immediately when to the restaurant to meet everyone for Greg's birthday dinner. I think the interview went really well. The HR person had told me it would be less than an hour, and I was there for about an hour and a half. It was really friendly interview, and I think I presented myself as well as I possibly could. Amy said her husband sent her a message saying it must be going well because I was still there, and that was only about halfway through my time there. :-) They said they hoped to make a final decision on Monday, and I should hear one way or the other sometime on Tuesday. After that, I ended up meeting Amy at the store because I had to get new shoes. I might have forgotten my tennis shoes and socks in my hurry to not be late... I needed new shoes anyway! We wandered around a chatted for about an hour until it was time for me to head to work. My shift went by pretty fast, probably because it was abbreviated. ;-) At 6 I flew out the door and up to Market Square for dinner. Greg decided he wanted to visit The Stock & Barrel this year. I ended up ordering a Bison Burger and Duck Confit Fries. Ohmigosh, it was so good! I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it, but I inhaled it! If you're in the area, I highly recommend it! After dinner we wandered around the square for a bit, then all headed our separate ways.

Today was pretty good, too. It started off a little rough, but it's nothing that needs too much attention. Amy is at a women's retreat this weekend, Greg is at a concert, and Mom went off with her small group, so I'm at home with Tony tonight. He's in his room, so I've been left to my own devices. Well, a girl can only draft her resignation letter so many times before it becomes boring, so I decided to make something. We have a private Facebook page for our small group. I noticed that now you can add a cover picture to group pages (it used to just cycle through the profile pictures of the group members), so I went to PicMonkey and made this:

Ephesians 3:20 has sort of unofficially become our group's theme verse almost as soon as we started meeting together. Plus I wanted to remind myself that as much as I may want this job, God is capable of doing so much more than I can even comprehend. Again, His plan and timing are perfect. There's no point in worrying about it.

It looks like Anthony and I will have a pretty busy weekend. His small group is volunteering tomorrow morning so I need to get up early to get him up and out the door. Then he has a "date" tomorrow evening with his girlfriend. Whew, I don't know if I'm ready for all that! I better rest up!

Two-Ingredient Turkey Burgers

With my renewed effort to pay attention to my eating habits, I've been on the lookout for healthier recipes. So when one of my co-workers went to visit a nutritionist the other day, I may or may not have stolen her food list. :-D One of the recipes that really caught my eye was the turkey burgers, and even better, it was only 2 ingredients!

How easy is that?? And they were delicious! I think the concept would work with any vinaigrette style dressing. My only critique is that they kind of wanted to fall apart in the pan. I will probably add an egg white as a binder the next time I cook them. There will definitely be an next time. ;-)

I am also trying to come up with different workouts I can do at home. We've already established that I don't want to work out at work these days, so I turned to Pinterest. Oh my, what a wealth of ideas! First, I found a list of Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere. Then I found a list of Free Workout Videos and a list of the Top 30 YouTube Channels for Free Workout Videos. I'm very excited about it! I need to go back to Pinterest and see if I can find an exercise/workout tracker I like, then make a plan for the next few weeks. Failing to plan is planning to fail, right?

Now I need to get off here and work on creating a Personal Growth Binder for a new girl in my small group. I hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

What a Month!

Oof! February was one roller coaster of a month! I went from the highs of going on vacation to the lows of... well, a lot of stuff, and a lot of craziness in between! And today was a day to beat them all. I can't even pinpoint what exactly went wrong today. It was a lot of little things that just had me feeling in a low mood, but I had plans for tonight that I was really excited about until the day started pecking at that, too.

I was supposed to be going to a worship CD recording at one of our church campuses. Originally it was going to be an outing for our small group. One by one people started backing out until it was just going to be me and Amy. Not that I have a problem with that. Amy and I have had an adventure or two on our own and it's high time we through some Jesus adventures in there, too. Until she got a last minute notice that she needed to drive her stepson halfway across the state this evening. If you're unaware, Tennessee is kind of a long state. Needless to say, she was out. At that point I was almost ready to throw in the towel and decide not to go, but I had invited a girl who was interested in joining our small group and she seemed really excited about going. Plus I had already asked Greg about going and he has really been wanting to go see more live music. Okay, okay, we're going!

Oh em gee oh es aytch (OMGOSH), I am so glad I didn't talk myself out of going! I had a fabulous time singing my heart out and worshiping with a few hundred other believers. It. Was. Awesome. I sang, I cried, I danced, I prayed... I feel refreshed! The feeling of being with so many other believers singing and praising together was just amazing. I can't wait til the CD is ready for purchase. I couldn't even tell you my favorite song we sang because I loved them all. Although, they did a mix of one with Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and I was quite excited. And the girl interested in joining our small group got to see what is probably the closest rendition of the "real" me that anyone has seen in a long time. God bless her if she decides to come to group!

Anyway, since I didn't even try to record any of tonight's concert, I will leave you with a song that all ways makes me happy. They play this on Air1 on Monday afternoons, saying that it's impossible to be mad and listen to this song. Well, I don't know if it's impossible, but it does always make me dance... and I don't typically like this type of music! Have a great day!

Take 2

Yesterday I downloaded the Blogger app to my phone I wrote a long lovely post about some personal struggles and my future goals. When I had just finished typing and was proof reading before posting my phone rang. And of course the app didn't have auto-save, so I lost the whole post. I was so bummed! And now I don't even remember exactly what I said. So, I'll just fill you in on what's going on. 

Yesterday I had sort of a mini-meltdown... Ok, if you ask G, not so mini. I got home from a stressful day at work and when I went to change out of my uniform I realized that I only have one pair of jeans that fit. I'm sorry, what? I don't really have many "regular" clothes anyway, so realizing that I only have one pair of non-workout pants was kind of devastating. And realizing that they don't fit because I gained weight was doubly devastating. That's the problem when your daily attire consists of yoga pants. Its easy not to notice your expanding waist. 

I will take full responsibility for my weight gain. I mean, who else could I blame? My eating habits have been absolutely terrible lately and I have not tracked my food regularly since sometime last summer. And over the past few months I have become more and more miserable at work... and since I work at my gym, I couldn't stomach the thought of going when I didn't have to be there. Needless to say that hasn't helped my waistline. 

Last night I decided that today would be Day 1 of calorie counting (again). And I weighed myself for the first time in months. I wasn't too happy with myself, weighing in at 223.8. I had gotten down to 201! It hurt my heart. But I did it before and I can do it again. At least I caught myself before I got back up to 250! Today I just focused on counting everything I ate. I want to start meal planning and making sure that I am eating enough of the right kinds of foods (lean proteins, fruits/veggies, etc.), but that will have to wait until I get my next paycheck and can buy the appropriate stuff. Today was just about the accountability of tracking everything that went into my mouth. It was a bit annoying having to stop to record everything I ate, but I knew if I didn't do it I wouldn't remember at the end of the day. I didn't do too bad. As a matter of fact I stayed well under "budget," even though hormones* were making me feel slightly hollow.

As for working out... I'm working on it. I'm trying to get G to take up an activity with me. He already works out 4-5 days a week and plays in a tennis league. He's caught between being open to the idea and figuring out when the heck would we fit it in. He is friends with the couple that owns one of the local dance studios, Dance Tonight, so I thought I might try to get him to start there. They have newcomer classes on Friday nights and a dance party afterward to show off/practice the moves you just learned. I think even if we can do that once a month it will help me and benefit us a couple (after 5 years of the same dates, we need to freshen things up a bit). Win-win! And it might spur me on to try other activities I hadn't considered before. I just need to so something! 

Anyway, right now what I need to do is sleep! That's important to a healthy diet, too, right??

*That would explain the not-so-mini-meltdown...

Stressed Fractured Heart

That may seem melodramatic, but it's not I tell you! Seriously though,  I just spent 20 minutes writing  a blog update on my phone... then G called and it all disappeared. It didn't help that my post was kind of a venting about my current stress level, and then disappeared like so much vapor.

Oh well,  I can write it again. Just not tonight.