WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Eddie and I bought a townhouse in Ballard!!!

We searched forever and just found the perfect house. It is close to everything and is beautiful! It is right off 15th and 59th, only 3 blocks from Market. I can still walk to everything!

It's a 3 bedroom 3.25 bath house, built in 2008. It is a little crazy for us to have bought a house with our wedding only a couple months away, but you might as well do everything together, right???

We are so excited about it! I can't wait to have enough time to decorate!

Vancouver BC Vacation- Day 4

Today was our last day in Vancouver! Our train was leaving at 5:00 pm, so we still had a full day to hang out. So what did we do, shop shop and shop some more! Nothing wrong with that!!!

At the end of our trip, Eddie and I noticed just a few differences about Canada compared to the U.S:

1. Eddie could hear that they all have accents, I only noticed it once, and I am pretty sure he was Australian. So, I don't think that counts...

2. Everyone is really nice. Like painfully nice. Everyone wanted to be helpful and chit chat. I think Seattle is normally nice, but nothing compared to Vancouver!

3. There are no toilet seat covers! Barely any to be seen! And being the American girl I am, I of course lined the seat with toilet paper.

Otherwise, I didn't see much of a difference. All I know is that we had a great time! Couldn't have asked for a better vacation!

Vancouver BC Vacation- Day 3

This day we decided it was time to see what Stanley Park is all about! We walked there from our hotel and once we got there, we decided to rent bikes to ride around the park and to the aquarium! The aquarium has Belugas... And I LOVE Belugas, so I was excited! (See me excited with a mom and her baby behind me)

Another fun busy busy day walking around the city!

Vancouver BC Vacation- Day 2

Today I got up early and went on a run, then we got ready and walked all around the city. It was really pretty out, so we walked to a place called Granville Island. It is really cute there and could be compared to a more secluded Pike Street Market. 

We walked all around Granville Island and then realized we can take an Aqua Bus home. So, of course we did that. It is really a boat you can take to all parts of the city. It was very fun!

After the aqua bus, we went to Vancouver's version of the Space Needle. It had a great view of he city!

We then continued to run around the city, shopping and trying to get to every part. At night we went out to a great dinner and then went dancing!

Vancouver BC Vacation- Day 1

Eddie and I went to Vancouver BC for a fun vacation! We took the train up which was so fun!

We got there pretty early and had a whole day to hang out! We walked all around the city, did some fun shopping and hung out. All of this before the hockey game! We went to the Vancouver Canucks game! Eddie got us great tickets and it was fantastic! The Canucks played the LA Kings and won 1-0! 

Afterward we went out and had a great time! It was a fantastic first day of our vacation!

Hike!

Eddie and I went on a hike up Rattle Snake Ridge today! It was a great little hike. It is about an hour up and an hour down. The top of the hike had a beautiful view! Closer to the top there was still quite a bit of snow, so that created a lot of mud. It was an obstacle course for sure. 

It was a fantastic day to go on a hike! Loved it!

Lindsay's Birthday!

Saturday night we went out to celebrate Lindsay's Birthday!!!

We all had dinner and drinks at Paddy Coins in Bellevue. After that we went to the Parlor and watched a comedy show. Some guy named Carlos Oscar and he is very funny. We danced the rest of the night and had a GREAT time! 

Shelby's Birthday Party

Friday night we went out for Shelby's birthday party! She had the upstairs of Amber for the party and it was great! We had a great time! It was good to hang out with Shelby! Our lives are always so busy, it is hard to find an excuse to hangout. And this was a great excuse! 

2009 BIG CLIMB!

Eddie and I did the Big Climb again this year! This is the climb up 69 flights of the Columbia Tower stairs for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year again we are on the team Climbing for Caleb. Caleb at just 2 years old, was the honor patient for the whole event. Here is the web site for more information!

And here it is on the news!

The event was great, I was hoping for about 16 minutes, but I got 14.11 minutes! I am really excited. I kicked butt on my last years time (about 22 minutes). The funniest part is I feel I could have been faster, I was so afraid I needed to pace myself. I guess my fitness has gotten a lot better than last year! Just think of how fast I'll be next year!

It was great, Lindsay and Eric Dixon raced with us, along with a lot of Eddie's firefighter buddies. We had a great time! I can't wait for next year!

New Workout Blog!

I wanted to announce to everyone that I have officially created a new blog!

This one will be a lot more personal. It will be about my adventures in losing weight and getting fit. As many of you may know, I have made a real life change and have been working toward fitness for about a year and a half now. Since losing 45 pounds and about 4 jean sizes, I have made a real lifestyle change. I wanted to have a place to put all my information out there. Not just to let people know about what I have been doing, but hopefully to motivate someone, anyone. Maybe have you try a workout you haven't yet or maybe to come join me sometime! This will also be an outlet to continue to hold myself accountable. As I meet my goals, I want a place to show all the hard work and also motivate myself to continue to post each day.

The posts will include my daily work outs and a lot of information I have aquired over my fitness fantatic lifestyle. I am an obsessive health nut and a self proclaimed "wannabe personal trainer". I love the possiblity of giving hope to anyone out there that has ever thought that they would always be "heavy" or "chubby". I used to be the picture of this mentality, until I "woke up".

With that said, I hope you really enjoy this new blog. Please let me know your comments or suggestions.

How I got Fit!

Sounders FC Game!

Last night was the first Sounders FC game! This is the new pro soccer team in Seattle!

Eddie, his step-mom Barb, his sister Aine, and I all went to the game at Quest Field. I have never really been to a Pro Soccer game, so I had no idea what to expect! It was so cool! I am official addicted!

The best part is that we are really good! We played a supposibly good team, and serious dominated! We won the game 3-0!

I am really excited to continue going to the games! Soccer is a really fun to watch!

Caricature

My business unit had a luncheon and they had a caricature artist there. For free I got mine done. He asked you what your hobbies are and of course I said that I work out A LOT, but mostly run. But, I had a co-worker yell out that I'm getting married.

So, with that said, this is what I got.... I think it is hilarious! 

Fire Fighter Stair Climb

Last weekend Eddie and I volunteered at the Firefighter Stair Climb. They need to be on air the entire time and be in their bunker gear as they climb all 69 flights of the Columbia Tower. All for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Shoreline Fire Department started the climb, so Eddie was really involved in making the day a success. We met a lot of firefighters from around the United States and even New Zealand. Friday was a BBQ in Capital Hill to meet everyone involved and party. It was so fun!

Sunday was the race. I just showed up with Eddie in hopes to help out in some way. Eddie was busy the whole time coordinating the event (he even got a walkie talkie). I actually ended up in a really cool place! I was on floor 40. My role was to stand in the stairwell and ask each Fire Fighter if the needed a new bottle of air. If they did, I screamed out the department they are in and that department name would travel down a row of people (kind of like telephone) into a huge conference room. At that time the department being called would get themselves ready to change out their department's pack. A lot of the Fire Fighters are being timed and really want to do well, so it was important to make sure their department was ready for them when they came out of the stairwell. 

I did that for the entire day. It was a hard long day, but so fun!

 I was even on the news! 

Eddie and I are doing the citizen climb next weekend. I am super excited for that! I hope we do well!

Bridal Expo! And a little Guitar Hero....

The wedding craziness is in full swing!

Eddie and I went to the wedding expo at the Washington State Convention Center Saturday in hopes to get some ideas on what we want to do, eat, listen to, etc. All I can say was it was pretty overwhelming. We got a lot of great information though. We most importantly need to find a venue, like yesterday.

Look forward to a ton of blogs about my frustration, anxiety, and excitement about wedding planning. I promise not to disappoint!

After the wedding show we met up with Lindsay and Eric for dinner at Rock Bottom. We had a great time of course then afterward they came over to our place to play Guitar Hero World Tour. Eddie's mom got us the complete band set for Christmas, and it is F-U-N! 

Eddie played guitar, Lindsay played bass, Eric was on the drums and I was singer. Below is a picture of us rockin' out!

Winter Wonderland!

As most of you Seattle-ites already know, there has been some crazy weather lately! This weekend was ridicules! It barely stopped snowing!

Eddie and I decided to make the most of it! 

Today Eddie and I walked downtown, had lunch and finished our Christmas shopping. On the walk there and home it was hard to believe how much snow there was! At least 10 inches and I don't think I've seen that much snow in the downtown core before.

After we got home we went out on our roof deck and had a snowball fight. Those tiny (sorry, couldn't make them bigger) pictures are the before photos. I hate to say it but Eddie kicked my ass. I am not afraid to say that I am not the best snowball fighter, come on. Did anyone really think I was? The only thing I know I am is a sore loser.

Everyone stay warm!

WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!

Yes we're engaged and we are so excited!

Before:

After:

So here's the story....

Eddie a few weeks ago talked to me about going away for the weekend. I was a little hesitant because we've been wanting to save to buy a house, but of course I wanted a little getaway. So, we decided to go stay at his mom and step dad's place in Lake Chelan, which is always fun and relaxing.

I took Friday off and we headed over. Saturday it was 38 degrees out and Eddie really wanted to go mopeding. I am always up for an adventure, so I put on 4 layers of clothes and got ready.

We went down to his parent's property and got on the mopeds and started riding around. It was really fun at first, as it always is riding around on the mopeds, but once you got over 30 MPH you were FREEZING! My fingers were pretty much frozen to the handle bars.

I told Eddie that we had to stop and take a break or go back because I was pretty much an ice cube. So, Eddie and I went to one of our favorite parks called Willow Point. It is a small park that you walk down stairs to and it has a beautiful view of the lake, you can actually walk right into it from there. Each time we've been to Lake Chelan we've always stopped there and hung out.

Once we parked, Eddie told me that I should open the bottom compartment under the seat of the moped. So I opened it up and there was a present inside. I at first looked at him and actually I was kind of mad. We weren't supposed to get each other anything for Christmas. Eddie told me it was just something small and he just wanted to get me something while we were there. So we took the box and walked down the stairs to the park.

We sat on a bench right in front of the water, and I opened the box. There were a couple great ornaments and a fantastic scarf. As I was closing up the box, Eddie told me he had one more thing to give me. I wasn't paying much attention because I was boxing everything back up and he pulls out a little box!

All the sudden he gets on his knee and opens the box and I immediately start crying! He proposes and it was so great! It is weird when something so exciting happens to you. Eddie and I both seemed to have blacked out. After we finally started to come down from the happy moment, Eddie asked me if I said yes. I screamed, "Yes! Of Course!"

After we calmed down a bit we got back on our mopeds and went back to his parent's property. He had champagne in his moped compartment, so we drank champagne and called our families. It was such a fantastic experience. We both couldn't have been happier!

After the champagne was gone, we went back to his parent's place, got warm, and got cute. Then we went to the Tsillan winery which we always go to when were at Lake Chelan and went wine tasting. After that they served dinner so we stayed for that and had a great time.

We had a fantastic weekend. It was like a dream. Eddie made it perfect!

It also doesn't hurt that the ring is fantastic! If I went to pick it out myself I know I would not find a ring that would be more of a fit for me than that. He did great!

Getting rid of the clothes...

As most people know, about a year ago I have had quite a life "overhaul". 

I have been eating well and working out practically everyday. So far I've lost about 35 pounds and I have about 15-20 more to go. 

The weirdest part about this process is losing all my clothes. I was okay with having "saggy butt" for a little bit, but it got pretty ridicules looking. So, I decided to go through my closet. All I can say is I got rid of 3 full bags! It was crazy! Someone at the Goodwill will be wearing designer! 

And I finally bought myself some new jeans, and they were 2 sizes smaller than the last time I bought jeans! 

Seattle Aquarium Trip

Eddie and I decided to go to Aquarium today. Lots of fun!

We saw a lot of fish and starfish. They have a lot of seals and of course otters. Yes please! 

It is a great way to spend a Sunday!

Kathy Griffin!!!

On Friday, I went to watch comedian Kathy Griffin at the Paramount. 

My mom, Breanne, a family friend Michelle, her daughter Karly and I went together. We had some great pre-show dinner and beverage-ing then the show was hilarious! It really could have gone on for about 2 hours longer. 

We all had a great time. Nothing is better than Kathy Griffin and some dick jokes to make your night! 

Seahawks game!

Today we went to the Seahawks game against the Cardinals. It was super fun as always, even though we didn't win. But I don't want to talk about that part.